Cloud grows up as poor trash in a forgotten village in the mountains. She grows up hearing people mutter about her bastard birth behind her back, being bullied and groped by the boys in town, being told to stay quiet and just take it.

She is five when she first sees a picture of Sephiroth. He is tall and imposing, silver hair flowing down his back to math the silver steel gleaming in his hand; he doesn't look like he would let anyone bully him.

She thinks he is a girl. He is tall, yes, but slender, with long, thick hair, delicate features, and eyes that glow with the strength of a SOLDIER. She thinks he is a girl, and when she looks at him, she thinks that someday she wants to be just as strong; no, someday she will be just as strong. That picture proves that girls can be fighters; that they aren't condemned to stay in a dead end village as good little housewives who just take it.

She discovers quickly enough that he is male, but by that time it makes no difference. He is still what she wants to be when she grows up.

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Tifa is the one to befriend her, if you can call it that, despite being daughter of the mayor, beautiful, and, if village gossip is correct, a very promising martial arts student. Cloud knows the gossip is correct because she used to watch from the shadows and try to imitate Tifa's movements. Tifa saw her, and subtly adjusted her body, slowing her movements down so that Cloud had a better view.

This is the extent of their acquaintance; while Tifa looks like she might like to speak with her at times, Cloud knows what the village refers to her as: white trash who will end up just like her mother. They pass by each other silently.

The only time they do speak is right before Cloud leaves. She's going to Midgar, determined to become a SOLDIER. Tifa catches her at the well and wishes her luck, something like envy burning in her eyes. Cloud understands; Tifa may be the village sweetheart and extremely good at martial arts, but she is the mayor's daughter and she will never leave this place; whatever her dreams are, they will die unspoken.

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Cloud is not stupid. She knows very well what happens to women who try to become SOLDIERs. They either end up in the Turks or burn out; if they're lucky, they wind up in the regular army. Cloud doesn't plan to be that kind of lucky.

She's scrawny and underdeveloped, a product of a poor diet and hard life, and with her hair chopped off, she can pass easily as a pretty boy. If she really were a boy, she would look too young; as a girl masquerading as a boy, she looks like a child playing dress up. The recruiters let her in without a second glance.

The army can always use more cannon fodder.

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She's weak, much weaker than all the other boys. She works twice as hard, and fails twice as miserably. The training itself hard and tiring, and sometimes she feels like giving up. What's even more difficult is the strain that comes from pretending to be a boy, having to find ways to never change in front of the others, use the showers when they're empty, and simply be extra careful in a bunker full of men. Luckily it's well known what happens to pretty boys in the army, so she doesn't have to look far for an explanation of her modesty.

There were 5 girls in her recruitment class. After 3 months only one remains and it's clear to everyone that she is destined to be a Turk.

Cloud takes a knife to her rapidly growing hair and wakes up an hour earlier every day to do more strengthening exercises.

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She meets Zack on her second day of training. She's lost and looking for her class when he stumbles upon her, quite literally. He thinks that she's the son of someone visiting Shinra, or a street urchin who conned his way in, and doesn't believe her when she tells him that she's a SOLDIER recruit. Cloud knows what she looks like and can't blame him for his disbelief, but that doesn't stop her anger. Truthfully, she wants to kick him in the shin, but she is not quite that stupid, so she settles for glaring into his eyes – and notices that they glow.

Zack likes her spirit and somehow, when she's not looking, becomes her best friend. She knows that, for him, part of it is pity, and that he doesn't actually believe that she can make SOLDIER (too small, too weak, too delicate), but it's not like it bothers her, not when he takes time to give her one-on-one instruction.

Besides, it's nice to have a friend.

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Seven months into the program and people discover her gender. They don't kick her out (they can't), but she starts getting these understanding looks; looks that say 'no wonder she was so weak, no wonder she failed at everything'. It drives her crazy because, while she never was the strongest, by this point she is far from the weakest. Her goal is not mediocrity, but she's not one to sneer at her own improvement either.

The problem is that her teachers no longer take time to even yell. While they used to cast her disgusted looks before assigning her 100 more pushups, now it's just pitying glances and a suggestion to rest awhile.

She'll never become a SOLDIER like this.

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The Nibelheim mission is offered out of pity. Everyone knows that she's about to wash out, and Zack wants to give her at least one chance to see what a mission is like.

Cloud's fine with that. She's going to use this opportunity to show them all exactly what a female can do in SOLDIER. After this mission, everything will fall into place.