Chapter 1
Cloud sat waiting on the train in Midger. He so desperately
wanted to be in SOLDIER. To be a highly skilled soldier must be fantastic.
He eagerly awaited the train's arrival to the training camp. All
the motion of the train made Cloud motion sic. Collapsing his head
into his hands as he sat down in a seat, he wished to be at the destination
point soon. He glanced around to the people who were
also on the train. Some were just regular people using the train to go
to the better super market or pick up their kids from day care,or whatever.
There were other people in the train who were going to the training campus
well. They were scattered in small groups that chatted loudly amongst
each other. One was bragging about he was going to be the best, while
the others doubted him. Cloud just kept staring at his feet.
The train rounded a turn, the wheels slightly screeching.
The door opened from the other train car, and some people from SOLDIER
came through. There were four of them, and they stood tall as one
spoke to the passengers in the car. Basically,to make matters short,all
people not associated with joining the training camp were told get out
of this train car and move to another. No one questioned their authority,
especially since they all were armed and had guns. All the bragging
boys stopped,and stared at the officers.
The first officer spoke. " You have come here to be trained
in being a member of SOLDIER. You will be split into four groups and be
assigned to a leader. This will be done alphabetically,and when we call
your name, get into a group that we have assigned to you."
With that,they started shouting out names. Cloud listened
till his name was called and was assigned to group four. There were
about six people assigned to a group, and Cloud rose to join his group.
They all sat down eager to arrive and start to train. Cloud
looked around and noticed the others were similar to him. All just out
of school,or at least that age group, rather young and naive, and basically
wanted to get out of their life before. The red haired guy was the
first out of all of them to speak. " Hello, my name is Zack,"he stated,
all he looked around expecting the rest to do so. A brown haired kid with
a mohawk said his name was Eli, another was Travis, the macho one's name
was Mark, and the bully gave an evil stare and mumbled out Karl,
which was followed by a string of obscenities.
A tall man approached the fourth group. He was dressed in black,
and had long silver hair. He didn't look too happy to be stuck with
the new recruits. He came up, and said " I am sephiroth,your instructor."
Zack was about to do the whole name thing again, but the instructor just
gave him a look and said "I don;t really care to hear about this right
now. Fill out these forms then hand them back to me when you are finished."
He then left and sat alone on a seat.
All of them started to fill out the form. Cloud glanced
down at it,and stared to read what information that was there. The
questions were the obvious ones,like your name, where you are from, and
typical no brainer questions that were easily filled out. The only
one that made anyone think was why do you want to join SOLDIER. This
one was a thinker, and Cloud pondered this one a bit. Why did he
want to join? It was hi chance to get out of the town,but he did
not wish to leave it that bad to have to join something. He tapped
the eraser end of the pencil in hopes that it would make him think better.
It didn't,but he did manage to write down that he wanted to be the best
SOLDIER ever because some one he admired was like that. He scribbled other
reasons to to fill up the space to make it look better. HE finished,
looked it over briefly, and got up to hand it in. He nervously walked
over to sephiroth. He hoped his nervousness didn't show, for he did
not want to look like a wuss in front of his hero. HE was there,
and the silver haired man made no recognition of him.
" Um.. excuse me.." Cloud piped out. sephiroth looked up.
" I am done." he said as he handed over the papers.
" Finished rather quickly, are you sure you answered them all?"
He said as he took the papers without even looking up.
" Y-Yeah..." Cloud answered as he looked down. " ..."
" Be gone then."
Cloud turned around and headed back to where he was sitting.
He looked at other people as he passed. They were still at work on their
papers. He wished he took more time on them,or at least till people started
to hand them in. He took his seat and put his head by his knees again
to try to avoid motion sickness.
About 15 to 20 minutes passed, and the last people were handing
in their papers. The train was slowing down and soon came to a stop.
All were told to exit and stay with your assigned group. A mad stampede
happened as all rushed for the exits. Pushing and shoving still happened,
but everyone made it out a live. Cloud made it out with only a few
minor cuts. He took a few moments to find his group. They were
all talking at once in a loud circle. Cloud joined them but was silent.
All he could think of is what a fool he must have looked like.
sephiroth then joined them and basically told them all to shut
up. " You are assigned the section 5 of the living quarters. Go and
get your stuff set away. Training starts at 8:00 am tomorrow morning. Do
not be late." He then started up to the quarters, but when into his own
private room. The rest of his group and all the others headed up
to get settled in.
The room had 3 sets of bunk beds, and six rather small closets.
Whey all agreed on drawing straws on who would be stuck on the top bunk.
Zack, Eli, and Travis won the bottom bunks, while Mark, Karl and Cloud
got stuck on the top bunks. Closets were already assigned to them.
" Man,I am surprised they didn't label which bed was ours,"Eli
said as he started to put his clothes in he closet.
" They really zipped us on closet space too, " complained Mark.
" Well, we will be wearing uniforms for the most of the time,
so I didn't pack to many clothes. See,All my stuff fits right."
Zack said as he showed off his closet.
" Who cares about yer freakin' closet" Karl said back, tying
to shove his duffel bag in.
Cloud simply put his stuff in that would fit, and kept the rest
in his bag. He didn't feel like fighting with the closet to try to
get everything in. He then climbed upon his bed and lied down. "
Ouch" Cloud yelped as he rubbed his head. " These beds are like rocks!"
"Get used to it." sephiroth said as he barged in the room.
"Don't you know how ta knock? Karl said who was in the process
of changing.
Seth just gave him a glare that said 'I don't have to'.
"Here are your uniforms. You will be expected to be in them for training
and any other meeting. You are only allowed to be out of them in
the evenings when you are not in training or on guard. If you are
caught not in uniform,you will be expelled immediately" People glanced
around nervously at each other. " Here is an agenda, along with the
map of the station. Follow it wisely. Supper is in thirty minutes."
With all that said, he left the room.
" Geez, we got captin' kill for an instructor,"Eli said as he
made a face at the door.
"He doesn't seem that bad, " Cloud said. All the others
just stared at him giving him a mad look.
Chapter 2--The Next Day-- ~~Training Begins~~
They were at the training arena so early that they had to light
up the space with the feild lights. This was too early for some of
the soldiers in training that they appeared to be falling asleep.
Zack was happy as ever,but Eli was grumpy and tried to sleep as he stood
their waiting for their Leader to come.
They waited there for nearly a half an hour.Many of them were
complaining,shouting out stuff like' If we have to be here EXACTLY one
time, then why isn't he?' All were getting restless,handsome sat
down,or went back to sleep. Not Cloud.He was thinking about how great it
was to have the great sephiroth as his teacher to be in SOLDIER.
He imagined all the talented swordmanship he would achieve, and all the
skills. As he glanced around, he only wished his teammates would realize
how lucky they were.
" Why are ya so happy fer kid?" Karl asked, since he could not
sleep.
"HUH?Oh, i am just excited to begin training, that's all" he
said.
" Yeah, if he even shows!" Eli said as he mocked their leader.
" I am sure he will show," Zack
said, who was clearly the optimistic one. He had remained standing
waiting patiently just as Cloud was.
"Yeah," Travis said, "Just as soon as he pulls himself away from
his mirror." All followed in with a burst of laughter as they mocked
Seph, except for Cloud and Zack. They were so busy laughing that
they didn't notice the tall man approach.Zack and Cloud did,but they saw
him put his finger to his lips to keep quiet. All that was
heard was a very slight bring as he withdrew his sword. faster then
the eye can see, he swished it down an cut the ponytail of Travis. The
look on his face was priceless. The laughter instantaneously stopped,
and his Cheshire cat grin slacked, his eyes shot open in surprise, and
he remained completely still. He knew instantaneous who it was.
His cheeks reddened as he blushed at his mocking actions. He feared
for his life,and prayed that it would be spared.
"Get up,"the silvered-haired man said. Travis got up, carefully
not to get cut by his sword. "Patience is one skill a fighter must
have. Its a quality that shows strength and determination that one
must learn to control. Needles to say, you failed today's lesson.
Now,since you seem so eager to start a fight, I'll give you one,"
sephiroth said, as he drew his sword away and walked into the battle area.
He turned back and said to his challenger" Get your weapon. Choose a sword
from the equipment shed and enter when you are ready." He descended
into the arena.
Travis was sweating from being so nervous. All looked at
him with sympathy. They were all happy that he was the one that ended
up getting caught. He slowly walked over tothe equipment shed and looked
over the selection of swords he had to choose from. There were many
variations to pick from, but he chose one that was similar to the one he
used to have. It was a broad sword that was medium in length.
He then walked into the field and dreaded his upcoming battle.
Pressure built up as he walked over to his starting point and
stood across from his skilled challenger. He looked into the eyes
of his opponent and was struck with fear. sephiroth stood there,
glaring at him with his glowing eyes, sword drawn and ready.
Travis could just barely gulp and get in his ready position. When
both were ready, the game began as the signal went off. Travis wanted
to prove that even if he was frightened with the soldier's previous actions
that he was capable of winning this battle. He took the opportunity
to make the first attack. He ran towards his opponent, brought up
his sword,and sliced it down toward the shoulder. Within seconds
of impact, sephiroth returned his actions by successfully blocking Travis'
attack. The strength behind the older soldier's swing made Travis
sun a llitle and loss control.
"Come at me again,"
Different variations of this happened again. Travis soon
just kept going at him in his attempts to win. sephiroth never stabbed
at him,he just defensively blocked his opponents swings. The audience
pondered why he didn't. Cloud knew if sephiroth let loose his power
with his sword Travis would not be in anymore. Instead, sephiroth
studied the pattern and the style that his opponent fought with.
The new recruit's skill with the sword was sloppy. Twenty minutes
went by. Travis was in still only because the teacher was letting
him stay in. Finally, Seph decided he had enough,and was going to
end this. With a few quick swings of his sword, Travis's sword went
flying and he was lying on the ground with his face staring at the point
of the winner's sword.
sephiroth walked out of the arena and toward his students.
Travis got up, and grabbed his sword, and headed back too. "By following
the path Travis did, the path of acting first before thinking, is like
choosing to fight blind. You will enter with only what you know,and
leave the same way . You will never learn by doing so. Over time,and
my training, you will learn to be patient, and how to use it." Sephiroth
put back in his sword and looked over at Travis, who was very upset that
he lost. Seph said to himself,this boy has a lot to learn.
"Man,how do you know?" Travis asked scornfully.
"Do you know who I am?" Seph asked. Travis did know, but
chose not to say anything. He just gave off an evil look and looked down
at his feet. "I have fought in many battles. I know how you
feel with wanting to be so gung-ho. But one of the most vulnerable
thing about a new fighter is the fact that they do not know anything about
their opponent. Nor do they attempt to try..."
" What? We suppos'd ta ask them about themselves?" Karl interupted.
"No." Seph said slightly agitated. "If you let me finish, you
will find out? No more interruptions, by anyone, no matter what."
All agreed. "Good. For those of you who do know who I am, you
knew I could have taken him but sooner than I did. Why didn't I?
Because I was studying him. Getting to know his technique of sword
skill. Through patience, I learned what he knew, and I was able to
make a very accurate attack on him. That is what I want you to learn
today, or at least work on. Pair of into groups of two. Grab
a sword, and practice this with each other. I will be watching you
from here."
With the lecture ending, the students stretched, walked over
to the weapons, and then then out in the field. Two by Two, people
were starting to match up. Mark and Karl were a group, Zack and Cloud
were one, and Eli was stuck with Travis. All were practicing, making
swings that were in between sucky and decent.
Cloud stood ready waiting. Zack made the first swing.
He was swift and had good strength. Blondy blocked him tho, and gave
him one back. Many trials and errors were made, but both were open
to learning something knew. About and hour passed, and all
were getting tired. Many had put up good fights, taking the opportunity
to learn new skills through each other. Seph walked into the arena
and told them all to stop. " Enough. You all did ok for your
first battle practice. Now it is time to move on. Follow me."
He lead them into a building that was just over the hill.
Once everybody was inside, He gave them their orders. " I want this place
to be clean by lunchtime. You have three hours." He then walked
but the door.
" Geez, what does this have to do with wanting to be in SOLDIER?"
Mark said as he kicked at some scrap metal.
" Looks like this place hasn't been cleaned fer years," Karl
added in. No one knew where to start. The place was so
big,and so much junk was laying around. They decided to break of
into different sections and start cleaning there. Two groups of three
were made and they started on different sides of the building. Dust
went everywhere as rags were moved over the surface to clean then up.
Meanwhile, Seph wondered around outside. He
hated training the new recruits. Some of the previous ones were so
stubborn and angry. Shinra always managed to place him in it tho.
He guessed it was his superior mastery of SOLDIER. He sat down
at what he called his thinking log. It was his favorite place to
go when he wanted to be alone, and to think. He rested back on a
tree and closed his eyes. His mind wandered to his usual questions.
He wondered about his childhood. He couldn't bring much up, just
a few bits and pieces.
Walking into a big room, the young boy gazed up at all
the big machinery. They were so enormous to him. Many
people with white lab jackets on were hustling about their jobs like a
bunch of bee's tending the hive. A few bumped into him, but mostly
just ignored him as if he wasn't even there. He managed to find the
man he was after , and he gave a slight tug on his lab jacket. He
turned around and looked at the silver-headed boy.
"when can I see my mommy?"
" Not today, " said Hojo in a nonconforming voice. " She is very
busy today, ok?"
"k" the boy said as he turned around to leave. Except that
he was not ok. He wanted to see his mother, but this man never
let him. He went to turn around, but he was awaken by a voice.
"Excuse me," a girl said. She had a worried voice in her
speech. " I am lost, I wondered away, and I have no clue where I
am." She just stared waiting for him to reply. Seph shrugged.
" What do you want me to do about it?"
The girl was shocked at his reaction. "Well, can you at least
point me in the right direction to get me back home?"
sephiroth sighed as he asked " Where do you live?" She
told him where the town was. "How did you manage to get all the way
out here?"
"I was shopping in the square this morning, and I got separated
from my mom. I love nature, so I walked about around here, but I
got terribly lost."
Lost from her mother, Seph thought, how tragic. Well,
he would be nice and at least try to get her back to her mom unlike Hojo
never did for him. He stood up, stretched out and
started beckoning the girl to follow. He led her down a path that
went through the woods. They were so quiet that he wondered if he
lost her. Taking a glance back, he noted that she was still there.
He couldn't help but notice how the slight wind made her long brown hair
flow so pretty. She glanced up and caught him staring at her.
He saw that it made her uncomfortable, so he looked away.
" What's your name?" she asked him sweetly.
" sephiroth."
She waited for him to ask for hers, but she realized by the silence
that he wasn't. Mine is Aires, if you were wondering..." She said
back to him. Silence followed. "What were you doing out here?"
Mindless chit-chat. He was never a big talker. But he didn't
want to sound rude so he spoke up. "I work at the SOLDIER recruit."
" You didn't seem hard at work to me..."
"I was on a break," sephiroth replied interrupting her.
" Oh," was the only thing she replied, feeling slightly hurt
at the hostility the older man replied in. sephiroth realized he
was to harsh sounding, so he tried again.
" I assigned a job to my unit, and I just have to wait for them
to finish. I just wanted to go some where to relax."
"Yeah, it i beautiful out here," Aires replied.
They walked for abut 20 minutes and they came to the market place.
People were scattered all around, shopping like crazy. Wives dragged their
husbands around to do all the bag caring. " Where did you loose your
mom at?" Seph questioned the girl.
The last time I remember..."
"Aires!!" some woman shouted. They both located her.
She was waving her hands like she was chasing off a swarm of bees.
"I'll be right there!" the girl shouted back. " Thank you for helping
me"
" No problem," he replied. She handed him a flower that
she must have picked on the way back.
"See ya later!" she shouted back as she waved. Seph sensed
something unique about this girl, but he couldn't quiet figure it out and
he caught;himself waving back. He watched her go until she reached her
mother. Turning around to head back,he thought to himself what a
pretty girl Aires was. He soon swept that from his mind since he
had training to do.
He arrived back just in time to go see how his cadets were doing.
They were about halfway done. When the troop saw that he had entered
and they were not done yet, some rushed in fear, and others just stopped
and stared. " Good enough for now. It is twelve noon now, you
have until 2 for lunch. You have to report tothe main hall to hear
Rufus' speech."
A sigh of relief came from all the trainees. Lunch at last!
They threw down the rags and headed to the mess hall. The lines were
average, and it took them ten minutes to get their food and sit down.
They started to shovel the food in, but when they actually tasted it, the
slowed down.
" Yuck!! This is worse than high school food!" Eli said
as he put down his silverware and washed the food down with his soda.
" They sure zipped us on food too," Mark said as he forced the
whatever the food was supposed to be down.
"So what did you guys think of training today?" Zack asked.
"eh....it was ok," replied Karl. " the first day always
sucks. You have to get the routine down to get used to it." Travis
just grumbled in between his chewing.
" I learned a lot today," stated Cloud. "We are so lucky
to have him as an instructor."
" Yeah, sure.." said Travis bitterly. " Real lucky. These other
guys don't even look worn out."
" Ach! Yer just bitter 'cause you got beaten'. Not so good are
ya, hot shot!" Karl teased as he chewed with his mouth open.
Cloud yawned. " Man, I am so tired.
" Gettin' up at the butt crack of dawn will do that to ya," Mark
said as he yawned too."
" Don't yawn," Zack said. "its contagious." He then let
out a yawn after trying to hold it back .
" I think I am gonna go outside to nap, maybe" Cloud said as
he started to get up. " If I am not there for the meeting, some one
come get me?"
" Sure," said Eli. " If we remember."
Cloud left and went outside. Most of the other people were
heading to all sorts of places for their two hour break. Some decided
to play some games like dodge ball, or soccer, but Cloud was to worn out
to do that. He picked a shaded tree to lay underneath. Zack
soon joined him.
" Do you think Travis is going to make it?"
"Huh?" Cloud replied, opening his eyes to see who it was.
" Travis doesn't seem to be taking this training well.
Do you think he will get into SOLDIER?"
" Oh, I dunno." Cloud said as he sat up. " Man, I would
have loved to have the chance to practice against sephiroth like he did."
" Yeah, it would be a great learning experience. Though I would
not like to have it under the conditions he had. He had it rough.
But did you see his face?"
" Yeah," Cloud replied. " That was so funny! I wish I had
a camera.
" I wonder what he does during the break." Zack said.
" Who, Travis?" questioned Cloud. " He is over there pegging
people with balls."
" No," Zack said. " Seph. He had three hours. He
seems so moody. But he didn't yell when we didn't get the room cleaned."
" He couldn't have possibly expected us to get it all done.
It was too big, it would have been impossible."
" Look," Zack said as he pointed. "There he is now." Cloud looked
and saw him walking out of his quarters. " I am gonna go talk to
him."
" You'll probably piss him off," Cloud said.
" So, then he will challenge me to a fight..." Zack said as he
got up and started to walk towards him. Cloud just sat there watching.
About halfway they met. All Cloud could make out were hand
gestures. He couldn't hear anything for he was too far away.
"So do you have any idea what this lecture Rufus is gonna give
us?" Zack questioned.
"No."
" Are you forced to go?"
"Yes."
Slightly erked at his one worded answers, Zack scratched his
head.
"What?"
"Huh?" Zack said back kinda dumbly.
" You look as if you want to say something."
Zack looked down and kicked the dirt slightly. " Yeah..."
Zack kinda whined that last part out.
"..." Seph waited for his SOLDIER in training to speak out.
" Well.." Zack mumbled. " I would like to have a battle with
you. If you don't mind"
"Why?"
Thinking of a smart way to answer, Zack said " So I could learn
something from you."
Impressed with his straightforwardness, he decided to take on
the challenge. " Let me get my sword. Meet me in the arena
right away." He headed back to his quarters, and Zack ran back to Cloud.
Arriving out of breath, Zack managed to speak. " I am gonna duel
with him."
"No way!" Cloud said back as he stood up.
" Yes way! He is gonna go get his sword, and meet me in the battle
grounds. You want to come watch?"
" Sure!" Cloud said as he wished he was fighting. Both boys ran
off to the arena.
Chapter 3
Both boys arrived slightly out of breath. Zack grabbed
his favorite sword and went into the arena. Sepheroth soonly joined
them.