Chapter II – (Reality of Cloud)

Neophyte Paladin

-

Zack's apologetic expression was focused solely on me. Slowly, he turned to face the others of the SOLDIER faction, having grown a grin on his face.

I knew that stupid grin.

That meant trouble for everyone. Wait a second, he wouldn't…

"Then it's alright if we tag along, right?"

He would.

"Um, Zack?" I took a step forward, wanting to get his attention. "I don't think that's such a good idea…"

"Oh, nonsense Cloud." He waved me off without even looking at me. So much for being the voice of reason between us.

"You should listen to him, Zack," Angeal agreed with me, obviously understanding what a normal human and an above normal situation could mean. He always considered others' position. That's kind of what I liked about him the most. "You're not taking things seriously—and you have to fit him and his skills into the equation."

"I know that—"

"Then you should know understand the difference what it means to be a leader and someone who's just dragging subordinates to their demise." That time, the comment came from Sephiroth himself. It was so unkind sounding. He was staring at Zack, and then his eyes flickered to me. If I knew anything, I knew not to let his daunting aura get to me too much, but that never helped. Even if he meant well, he was still fearsome.

I looked elsewhere in timidity. If this was what it was going to be like, then I no longer had a desire to go with them.

Uncomfortable silence followed. As I gained some composure, my focus flew to Zack's back and I could only imagine what his expression must have looked like at that moment.

The next thing I heard was a discomforted sigh from Angeal as he rubbed the back of his neck roughly. It was his usual deep thinking posture.

"Well… I guess there's no harm in taking them along—" Genesis shot Angeal a look of disbelief, shocked at his betrayal. "Just this once."

I could see the redheaded commander mouth 'you traitor' to Angeal, who just patted his companion on the shoulder lightly, glanced at Sephiroth, who turned away abruptly, and then the headed into the darkened, already opened entrance of the Shinra building. There appeared to be no life within the eerily dark lobby. Hesitation was inevitable.

Actually, now that I remember, this has happened numerous times; I would arrive with Zack, the three first class' would be in the middle of something, Zack would join them, and I would be left behind. Never have they ever allowed me in with them.

It was probably a trap.

I was also a little more than worried to go with them now. If they didn't want me along, I didn't mind… so much. Last time, when they all expressed in their own way to not wanting me to go in with them, I respected that and left quietly. It wasn't like I could do anything about it.

The next day, Genesis approached me with his usual, elegant yet condescending attitude, his ego flooding out of his ears. He was always so talkative with me, though most of it was mockery. Genesis had a fondness for teasing me at any chance he could get. It was during that conversation that I, still considerably less derisive than the way he spoke to me, called him out on it. My voice with him was borderline unspoken wrath, or civil cynicism.

His expression with my tirade: priceless.

I think he got the point that I was less than happy, since he left soon after. Even I, the alleged 'shy, nice guy' in most people's discernment had his limits when it came to enduring some actions. Normally, I didn't mind if he made comments or jokes, just not when my disgust with him was filled to the brink.

Zack, who probably got the warning from Genesis, was the next to come and talk to me, though he always seemed on guard during that short-lived exchange. With good reason, I guessed. I just used my 'sir tactic' on him and he retreated.

Afterward, I just avoided them, an ignored Sephiroth's expectant stare, probably silently wanting me to address him like I used to while I passed him the next morning, but not before giving him my obligatory salute. If I didn't do that, he'd have a reason to call me out for not 'respecting my superior'. That was the last thing I wanted.

About a week after they'd passively turned me away and had gone into the training session without me, I pretended like it didn't bother me; I may have purposely avoided all contact with SOLDIER for a while out of suppressed vexation.

However, I did notice that I had absurdly quick clearance for time off after having mentioned my request it to a co-worker. The three-day conformation period turn into merely three hours.

Naturally, I forgave them, since they were willing to go to such extents to make sure I had time to myself.

My attention was soon on Sephiroth, who didn't look in my or Zack's direction, but instead, turned to Genesis. The poetic First Class simply shrugged, apparently having accepted the turn of events, and turned to follow his friend into the unnaturally calm lobby.

Then, his eyes were back on me. I found it hard to look away as his glowing-green gaze drifted up and down my being. Finally, Sephiroth said loud enough for me to hear, "You have Cure Materia with you, am I correct?" I nodded. "If it starts getting too hectic for you, let someone know." I nodded again. Was this even seriously happening?

"Hurry up, you two!" Angeal called to Zack and I both, and I found myself forgetting Sephiroth and running to catch up with Zack who was sprinting off without me. Zack's running pace slowed down as he passed Sephiroth and he stopped to face him, a look of curiosity in his eyes. I, too, slowed to do the same, concentration drifting between both men as I stood behind the apprentice first class.

Of course, me not saying anything probably made it all the more awkward.

Sephiroth, in turn, stared back at Zack with no sort of comment. Obviously, he had no plans of speaking to anyone unless addressed first. Was he always that difficult? Or was he just in a bad mood today?

Maybe I spoiled his fun too.

"In thirty minutes, you killed enough to equal at minimum a medium-to-large sized city," Zack stated inquisitively, gesturing around the area at the bloodshed. No doubt, with the number of enemies that kept spawning, it might have been enough to be a well-populated metropolis. "How do you feel about that?"

He continued to stare at Zack for a moment, but there was a hint of consideration in his eyes. It seemed as if he was actually thinking about his question. "It's good to know that my skills have not diminished."

Zack only grinned, seemingly have expected that answer as he shook his head. He then punched me lightly in the arm as a means of telling me 'let's go'.

-

Oh god, or goddess, what did I get myself into?

Every which way I looked—gunfire, shuriken, other projectiles of some sort. A body, a few bodies, a mountain of bodies. Blood, no life, death in general. Now I see what they excluded me out of; it could have been for my mental welfare.

So this is what it meant to be a First Class in SOLDIER? No. This is what it meant to be beyond First Class: a Super Soldier. They handled everything with ease and then some. And because they kept everything so simple, I had no trouble disposing of stragglers that they might have conveniently left behind for me.

Soon enough we, or they, had cleared the way to the Twenty-Seventh floor of Shin-Ra Headquarters, though I was dog-tired from just getting up the stairs. The mission objection was to clear out the floor and then proceed to the next. The catch was that if you didn't clear out the entire floor within a certain time limit, the enemy count would reset.

You could not advance if everything was not dead. Good thing though that once the floor was cleared out entirely, nothing new spawned.

To put it simply: enter floor, kill everything on it, head back to stairwell, go up flight to the next floor, enter floor, once again kill everything…

It just seemed like an annihilation mission to me.

No matter how you looked at it, this would be a long, trying journey. The Headquarters had Seventy floors in total, though obviously those were just words to someone of First Class status. At the moment, since the building wasn't finished, there were only about sixty floors, more or less. However, for this exercise, only fifty floors would be used. Meaning, the final boss was on the fiftieth floor. Not as reassuring as it sounds…

Genesis, who was really letting off steam now, was upfront, burning everything that moved while Sephiroth followed second, taking on anything that was immune to Genesis' magic assault. Angeal was next, but he only seemed to be a filter of sorts, weeding out the too powerful so Zack could fight the enemies more suitable or were weakened enough for him to take on fairly. Whatever survived the battering of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse was left for me in the rear, though by that time I could just tap what ever it was lightly and it would die.

I wondered if they were doing this on purpose…

This was oddly familiar as well. Hadn't we already fought these types…? Déjà vu.

Somewhere along the line, Zack started to enjoy the senseless killing, which completely defeated his now semi-pacifistic nature. He was truly transitioning to fit the role of his new position.

By the time we made it to the Thirtieth floor, things seemed to calm down a little, if only for a moment. But then I remembered the other setting in the program: every tenth floor a powerful enemy, or boss, would appear and that would be the only enemy on the floor, which made it easy in some ways.

SOLDIER members were masochists.

So the moment we entered onto the thirtieth floor, just like two times before, Zack and I were ordered back into the stairwell where things were 'safe' because we weren't 'ready'.

As expected, Zack argued but still did what he as told in the end.

I plopped down on the steps, glad for the resting period even though I really hadn't done anything. I removed my rifle and set it on the floor behind me and took out the medical pack I always kept with me, going through the supplies I brought. Zack ended up sitting himself on the bottom step, leaning his back against the railing and turning his face to look at me. He propped his sword up against the wall in the corner.

Since I obviously had nothing better, Zack decided he would talk to me while the three were away murdering a creature somewhere on the on the Thirtieth level. It had only been a few seconds since they left but it seemed like forever when you were waiting.

"So, uh," he began, purposefully looking in all directions but at me, "You got a girlfriend or something?"

"Uh…" That was my intelligent response.

"I'm gonna take that as a 'no'."

"Well, I sorta do," I blurted out without really thinking about my reply thoroughly. Tifa really was somewhat of a wonder to me… It was always 'does she or doesn't she' when it came to her liking me in the same way that I liked her. "I don't know really, but maybe I do."

"I see. She's cute right?" There was that stupid grin again, but I couldn't really focus on that.

I imagined Tifa with an equally dumb smile on my face. "Yeah. She's pretty."

We sat there for a moment in silence and Zack just fiddled and fidgeted until he impatiently muttered, "Well?"

"Well what?" I thought I had missed something.

He pointed to himself innocently. "Aren't you gonna ask me if I have a girlfriend?"

"So that's what you wanted me to do…"

"Don't say it that way, but yeah, I do have one." I couldn't help but find some amusement in his tone. He sounded so proud, as if he never expected to ever have a girlfriend. "You wanna see a picture of her?" Before I could reject him his phone was out and he was mashing buttons, seconds later, a picture of a brunette, green-eyed young woman was shoved into my face. She was smiling and on the screen in an extreme close up shot whist pinned on the ground, as if Zack had assaulted her to get that picture. "She's quite cute too, isn't she?"

"That's the flower girl from the slums." At least, I was positive it was her. On one or two occasions I might have passed her on the street while on patrol. It wasn't often that one saw flowers in the slums of Midgar, let alone Midgar itself so it was easy to remember someone associated with them.

"Oho. So you've seen her?" He shoved the phone back into his pants' pocket quickly, acting rather childish. Showed me her picture, I knew her, so now I must have seemed like some sort of potential stalker or something. "She must be doing well to be so famous."

"Must be doing well," I repeated, questioning his choice of words. "You sound like you haven't seen her for some time."

"I haven't. I've been so busy lately…"

Well now I felt just plain bad—if I didn't feel terrible before for ruining the fun by tagging along. "If you wanted to go visit her you should have said so. I would have been fine if you'd canceled with me."

"Nah, that's okay. I promised so I had to. Besides, just because I said I haven't seen her in a while doesn't mean I haven't talked to her." He gestured towards the phone in his pocket.

That didn't seem to matter, but I just let it go.

The sound of metal clashing against the concrete rang out from below as something probably fell off the door. I guessed it was a doorknob from an unfortunate encounter earlier, where Zack had run into a door and nearly taken it with him when he tried to escape something that kept attacking him relentlessly.

Suddenly, out of curiosity, I leaned to look between the bars of the railing, staring down into the abyss of flights that we had traveled up in the last half-hour or so. I unconsciously opened my mouth to ask Zack the time, but when something came to my attention, I found myself losing that thought.

I'm not sure how or why, but looking at the scenery below, it didn't seem like we were only Thirty stories up. It appeared we were much higher than that. There didn't even seem to be a base in this bottomless pit of a stairwell. As far as I could see, the stairs ended at the twentieth floor and descended into darkness.

"Zack?" He looked at me as I addressed him, attentive as always as I pointed downwards to the chasm. "Look below. Doesn't it seem weird? I can't see the bottom but maybe you can?"

He shook his head at my supposed request and stuck his head between the rails, staring down the in the same fashion as I did only to squint and peer harder as seconds passed. As expected, he couldn't either. "I'm sure it's just some sort of effect. But that's funny…it shouldn't matter what it is. We should still be able to see it nonetheless."

"Maybe there's an error." I mean, it could happen right? Nothing is perfect.

"Thinking about that won't get us anywhere. We'll just ask the others when they get back. So anyways…" I could tell he was definitely trying to change the subject by the way he trailed off. "Could you, uh, cast Cure on me?" He eyed the supply pack on my lap expectantly.

I didn't see anything wrong with him. "The reason is…? I don't actually have a lot of energy left to do it."

"I wouldn't ask you to do it 'just because'." He glared at me, a moderate glare nevertheless, but he did. "My arm's been bothering me for a while now and my leg is a little…sore. I think I may have overdone it a little…"

Fine time to mention that now.

"Alright. Hold on." I went back through the pack, searching for a potion instead. I didn't have a lot of MP to begin with, or ethers, those elusive, expensive little things. In the end, I ended up casting Cure anyways.

Zack smiled and thanked me like always.

Next thing I knew, the door behind me flew open and slammed against the wall; I jumped to my feet, both startled and to be respectful to the elites, but mostly because that loud noise terrified me.

He laughed at me, Genesis, and he wasn't trying to hide it either as he continued onward, motioning for us to follow as he ascended the stairs to the next level. I knew Genesis just loved to pick on me. Honestly, I never really saw him rag on anyone as much as he did in my case.

"You're pretty funny, you know that Cloud?" He declared between chuckles. "Even if you're not trying to be…"

On my way past the doorway, ignoring Genesis, I peered inside to see what sort of battlefield was left behind before the door closed on its own.

"Hey, Genesis," Zack called to him and the redhead's laughter died down at last, but he still wore an entertained expression. "You see anything at the bottom of the building?"

Hesitating for a moment, as if not quite understanding, he took a quick look over the rail and I watched as his appearance changed. He grimaced and sighed, abruptly spinning on his heels and descending back to door and disappearing again.

I looked at Zack, confused.

Zack looked at me with the same perplexed expression.

We didn't understand what was going on. Was that not an acceptable thing?

Moments later, the door opened again but with a lot less force. This time it was Sephiroth. Angeal stepped past him and ascended the stairs. "Zack. You're with me," was all the raven-haired leader said.

"Cadet." Was Sephiroth directing that statement at me? And he didn't seem sinister?

"Yes, Sir!" I snapped to attention, saluting him instantly, feeling as Zack brushed past me, but not without giving me a good luck sign. 'Good Luck'? Really? Like that would help me. Nonetheless, I smiled back as a means of wishing him the same.

My eyes flew back to Sephiroth who in turn stared me down wordlessly just as he did before. Something about him seemed hesitant. "You're with me. Don't fall behind."

Author's Note (Cloud of Nine): Well it's "Seven of Nine" really, you know, from Star Trek. Such a catchy name.

Anyways, yeah, I know my Cloud is a little pushover, but compared to the situation, wouldn't he be normally? I don't know. I liked his way of thinking out of all the characters, at least in my portrayal.

He's such a pessimist, well, in the way I made him. He doesn't say much.

-Vincentre of Misrepresentation