Memories- Dianes' Story
Memories
This story has been made in the loving memory of "Shits" my goldfish who died 4 years ago.
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Name: Diane Mizuno
Age: 20
Bloodtype: unknown
Position in Animoon: Lead Scout
Side Job: turk
Origin: Life Stream
Relatives: Li Mizuno |
It was late at night, or early in the morning. An empty coffee cup sat on her desk with a
bright Sakura blossom painted on it. Sakura was her favorite type of flower, though she loved all flowers,especially red ones.
Diane began chewing on the cap of her pen, and tapping the desk with her finger nail.
She was recovering from a spill she had taken during the annual Cosmo Canyon chocobo race. Her arm pulled in it's sling as she wrote. She felt tired and irritated, as she looked down at the papers she
was supposed to be filing. 'This is dumb', she thought, 'treating me like a secretary, I'm a TURK
for crying out loud.
"...therefore the Shin-ra Company denies any and all knowledge of..." trailing off, she
began to doze off. Hitting her head on the desk with an abrubt thump, she sat bolt upright,"75 times the square root of an iscoslease rectangle is equal to the circumfrence of the rings around uranus, sir!"
She sat in silence for a moment. 'What the hell?' She used her good arm to rub the bump forming on
her head, and sat back in her chair. Her tiny clock blinked on the corner of the desk, 3:30 AM. She
had been a turk for one full day.
"This shit makes no damn sense, but it does make the time go by." She ran her hands
through her Mako green hair, and tried to make her eyes focus, everything stayed blurry. She was tired, she shuffled the mass of papers into a neat stack, and stumbled into her bunk.
Diane woke the next morning, missing the soft warm sun light shining down on her face and the
early morning sounds of her hometown. The chocobos cutting up in their stalls, crazy Captain Cid, screaming at Shera for his "damn" tea, she even missed the rusty creaking of the rocket swaying in the
wind.
But she was in the Shin-ra company dormitories located in the very heart of Midgar. She
shivered, it was very cold, even for early in the morning. There was no sunlight to greet an early riser, and absolutely no Chocobos allowed in the building.
She strained to see the clock on her desk, and was able to make out that the time, 7:04 AM.
She couldn't afford to be late today. She had buissiness to take care of, but before she could even get out of bed, her cell phone rang.
"Heellooooo? D-diane Mizuno speaking...." she said sleepily.
"Ohayo gozaimasu!!" called a voice that Diane guessed was her brother, Li. Diane pulled her
ear away from the phone as he bellowed into the reciever,"Wakey Wakey, rise and shakey,Imoto!"
"Speak english, Li" Diane grumbled.
"Well, today is the day you get out of that sling, and into work. But i realy called for this
,it's so much more important. I need you to fax me some some...." Li thought for a minute, he didnt have a good memory. "That stuff, what was it again? Oh yeah... Tea."
"Huh?" Diane blinked. He needed tea? He wanted her to shop? She wasn't headed for the
Slums today grocery shopping wasn't something she had to do. She sighed she couldn't tell her brother no, "Yeah, I'll see what I can do. And pleeease, pleeeease, No more prank calls. You were
lucky President Rufus wrote those 100 or so pizzas off as an some sort of Avalanche scheme."
"There were 105," and he hung up the phone.
She clicked off her phone and yawned. Then she looked down, she had fallen asleep in her
Uniform. "Aww man."
Diane gently pulled her arm out of its' sling, and after making sure it was alright, quickly
changed into a new outfit. She glanced into a mirror and noticed her hair. The triple buns studding each side of her head, trailing into long pigtails made her feel girly. She pulled the ties out and worked a brush through her lengthy tresses, pulling them into a long pony tail, making herself look
more professional. She cinched up her tie and went to grab her weapon.
Leaning against the far wall of the tiny dorm was her two handed cleaver the 'Holy Buster',but
today she ignored it and pulled a small hand gun from her desk drawer, tucking it snugly into it's holster. Checking the materia in her gun, Diane walked out of her room, and into the common
area that was shared by fellow Turks, and members of SOLDIER. It was empty now, so Diane
headed for the elevators.
She stepped into the elevator, pressing one of the buttons, and began downward. She stared
out the glass window of the elevator, watching the people of Midgar scurry between the levels like little ants. There was no trace of the slums on the upper plates of Midgar, everything was kept shiny
and clean. She felt a pang of homesickness as she watched, the beautiful sunsets of Rocket Town
seemed so far away.
The Elevator stoped, and let some of the ants in, Diane ignored them. She was a Turk, the
defintion of cool as it was. Being the "newbie" would put even more pressure on her to keep that trademark cool going.
Someone sneezed behind her, and a low and quiet "excuse me." from behind her. She turned
around and saw another person dressed like her, a bald guy with dark sunglasses.
"Hey, your the new Turk, arent you?"
The person smiled a bit unsteadily. Diane couldn't see his eyes behind his glasses, but she
got the distinct impression that if she could, they would be glazed over.
"Uh.. yeah.. Hi. Diane Mizuno," she held out her hand for a to shake, but the other Turk
ignored it. He just nodded his head, and Diane pulled her hand back, wondering if she had done something wrong.
"Just call me Rude." He grunted, Diane nodded her head in an imitation of the other Turks'
behavior.
The elevator came to a stop, they both got off,and headed in toward the presidents'
office. Diane had no idea why she was to report to President Rufus, she noticed that another Turk, a girl about her age was walking toward them.
"So, this the new fish?," the girl said when she got within earshot. The girl had short
blonde hair,and large brown eyes.
"Yeah, we needed a fourth, after Tseng and all.." Rude muttered. Diane could bearly what he
said, but his tone pissed her off.
She had been promoted to Turk because of her excellent work in the Shin-ra armed,
forces. She wasn't just a replacement! Ignoring the whispers of colleages, she headed up the stairs to President Rufus Shin-ras' Office.
There was another Turk there already. He had short spiky red hair, held down by a pair
of goggles on his forehead, his skin was pale with a light smattering of freckels. He was rather gangly looking.
"Hey Reno, aren't you going to say Hi to our newest member?"
Rude threw his arm around Dianes' shoulders and dragged her across the floor to where
the redhead was standing. Diane felt her face redden, as the other turk smiled at her.
"Isn't it a little early for that?" he said, brushing his bangs back.
Diane opened her mouth to respond, before she realized he wasn't talking to her
"I woke up early," Rude said, letting go of Diane.
"Get serious you two," It was the blonde from the elevator, she was scowling at them.
Turning to Diane she said,"I'm Elena, Nice to meet you." She smiled, Diane had never seen such a smile, it was so cold and profesional.
Diane returned the smile and introduced herself,"My name is Diane Mizuno."
Sitting across the humongous office, sat the new president, seemingly engrossed in a phone
conversation. Diane had never been this close to Rufus Shinra, and was amazed at how young he sounded.
His dirty blonde hair was slicked back stylishly, and the saphire tie tack brought out
the blue in his eyes. He seemed preoccupied as he set down the reciever.
"Rumor has it that AVALANCHE is in the Nieblehiem Mountain Range."
The Turks quickly made their way over to the President's desk. Diane wasn't used
to such abruptness, and had to scurry to keep up.
"I want you to go after them," He said as they came up to the desk.
"With all due respect, sir, should we really travel all that way on just a rumor?" Elena asked
"You will travel to Nieblhiem, those are your orders," Rufus sounded cross at Elena's
insubordination,"You have a four field trained agents, and should have no trouble flushing out the rebels."
Elena looked down at her feet while Rufus continued,"You leave tomorrow, good luck."
"Elena, that's usally what we say about you!"
Diane snickered, at Rude's comment. Personally she agreed with Elena. Only one day to
prepare for an important mission! She would be up till the buttcrack of dawn, again, because of Shinra.
The four turks headed for the elevators, other Shinra employees giving them plenty of space.
"Back to hunting the elusive Cloud Strife," Reno walked into the elevator and jammed on the button,"I remember the last time we went up against his crew."
"Yeah, but we were weak," Rude adjusted his sunglasses,"That's one big ass
sword."
Diane leaned against the glass wall of the elevator, and boy, does it hurt
"Thats a pretty big sword you've got, but mine's bigger."
Diane gritted her teeth and held her HolyBuster in a defensive position. The blue gaurd
uniform was hot in the sticky weather, her hair was plastered to her head under the helmet she wore. The heads-up display begin compling information about her foe. Warrants for his arrest
were many, charges of kidnapping, terrorism, overdue library books.
"Cloud..." Diane whispered...
"What did you say?" Reno said, turning from the window towards Diane.
"Cloud Strife, I've fought him too," Diane said quietly.
Their swords crashed together, the force of the collision almost throwing Diane to her
knees. Inside her helmet she gritted her teeth and stared into the calm face of her enemy.
His hard blue eyes were burning holes into her, they're icy brightness made his skin
seem pale in contrast. Hard blonde spikes of hair, framed an almost delicate face. The battered SOLDIER uniform he wore, was patched in many places and the colors had faded
into dreary shades of gray.
Cloud began to lift up his blade, using the leverage to kick her in the stomach. Diane
fell to the ground, still clutching her HolyBuster. As she struggled to get to her feet, she heard the familiar whine of materia being powered up.
She felt the thunder crash vibrate the grate floor, as the bolt magic lanced her body. Her
screams echoed through her helmet, making her ears ring, and her head throb.
"Leave him Cloud!" it was Barret, he had dispatched her partner, and was already
making his way to the next level,"We only have a few minutes till this thing blows!"
A pair of feet moved in front of her face, hands tucked something into her uniform front
, then a voice said,"Get out of here." A foot landed in the small of her back, and shoved her off of the platform.
It was only a short distance to the ground, Diane and her partner, Max, had been
asigned to guard the third landing from the base of the pillar. As she fell, she could hear Barret bitching at Tifa. She landed with a bone crushing thump, whatever that Tifa-woman had put in
her armor was crushed when she landed on it. Thin shards of glass dug into her chest, as
gooey liquid oozed into the wounds.
Diane was enveloped in a warm tingley feeling, while pretty green sparkles danced
around her body. She could feel the potion forcing her body to heal. She sat up suddenly as the plate overhead began to creak. Mako energy dripped from the ceiling, Diane got to her feet
and started running.
"So, you we're almost killed and then saved by AVALANCHE?" Rude stopped making faces
at Elena.
Diane nodded slowly, she felt sick just thinking about that day. When the plate came down her
parents had been crushed under the debris. She had found her older brother burned and bloody, trying to dig them out with his bare hands. Liquid mako was gushing from the ruptured pipes,
spraying her and her brother with the bright chemical. The main pipeline burst then, sweeping them
away in a flood of green. She remembered screaming as the Mako burned her skin.
"After that I took some time off. I went back to Rocket Town with my brother."
No one spoke. With a soft chime the elevator doors opened, and the turks filed out silently,
each heading toward their quarters to get prepared for tomorrow.
Written by Diane Mizuno, Edited by Ichiban Saiyan
