A/N: Hey! Hope everyone enjoys an early chapter. Thanks for all the great feedback. In the last chapter there was some confusion about what happened with Denzel so I hope this helps to clear that up. This chapter is a bit longer than the last, and aGaian self beta'ed so let me know if there is anything I need to fix. :)
Chapter 2
Time trickled and flowed, Cloud felt himself being carried away on a rip tide and then finally settling in the soft comfort of home. Around him memories and dreams flickered until one in particular arose.
Tifa was running along side him, desperately sliding down the crater and into its depths. Cloud already knew what was waiting for them at the bottom. WRO scientists had wanted to research the planet and had gone to the Crater of all places to do so. Only problem was they had taken Denzel with them for protection.
As they ran the earth beneath them shook, sending huge chucks of rock down into the abyss. Where was Denzel...
There! Cloud saw Denzel above them standing precariously on a ledge trying to help a young woman climb to safety. Beneath them Mako swirled and glowed ominously. Tifa shouted out, and then suddenly the ledge that Denzel had been on collapsed.
There was no time to think. Cloud jumped, catching Denzel and grabbing onto a slim branch. It creaked as it struggled to hold their weight. Cloud glanced around trying to find a way that they both could make it make to solid ground. The branch creaked aGaian.
Cloud looked down at Denzel who was struggling aGaianst him. The young teen had realized the same thing as him. Only one of them was getting back.
"You don't die here kid."
Cloud fell.
Cloud shuddered as he swam through phantom pain and confusion. Then with a gasp he woke.
Around him was darkness. Cloud struggled out of the fabric covering him and fell onto a hard surface. Once he was free of the material he spread his hands out in search of anything. Then, there! Just as Cloud felt something, but it shifted and fell away. The thump and crack of glass marked its end location.
"Oh for Gaiaa's sake, who the hell is making so much noise?" A foreign voice spoke up groggily. A light only a few feet away turned on.
"Cloud?! Crap man, are you drunk or something? Some of us are trying to sleep." The dimly lit blonde man glared at him harshly. Glancing around Cloud took in the dorm room that he found himself in.
"Um... sorry." Cloud looked down to the object that he had knocked over from the night stand. It had been the lamp for his bed.
"Just shut your trap and go back to bed. We have a mission briefing in the morning." Another voice groaned from a man still curled in bed trying to sleep. Cloud winced, there were more than a few grumbles of agreement.
The man who had first grumbled rolled his eyes before turning his light off, leaving Cloud back in the darkness. Cloud remained standing where he was. He could remember the layout of the room from the brief look he had of it, but didn't bother to move.
It had been years since Cloud hadn't been able to see in even the darkest of caves let alone rooms. And yet... there was only a very slim strip of light that lit the bottom of the door to the dorm. Everything else was just... dark. It was a strange thing to get struck by even as other things that Cloud did NOT want to think about fought to get his attention. Then in a rushing crush, the confusion and fear he felt hit him and he let himself sag down onto the bed behind him. No, his bed. He had been pushed back by the planet to a time, to a world, he had no desire to be in.
In the moment before the planet pushed him back, he had tried to communicate with it that if he had to go back not to push him back so far. He didn't know how much the planet had listened considering he was most likely a infantryman aGaian. Some part of him knew that the planet was simply trying to help. That was what he had felt when it had tried to show him its plan at least. Yet, most of him cried out at the wrong that had been done to him. It was selfish and he knew it, but didn't he deserve that?
Cloud let his unseeing eyes close and flopped down onto the bed. There would be no going back from what had been done, that much he was certain of. In all the images and thoughts that the planet had given him it had tried to convey what it was doing. The time travel had been what what confused both Aeris and himself for so long. Time even in it's simplest form was not something that a human or even a Cetra could easily understand.
'We are just too linear I guess.' Cloud thought to himself.
The soft sounds of snores and shuffling sheets that had gone unnoticed before, gradually increased until Cloud was sure everyone in the dorm was asleep. He felt vulnerable in the darkness. If he had more of his memories he would at least know what to do prepare himself. As it was he had only a vague idea of what had happened before Sephiroth had destroyed his home. He tried to remember, but memories that didn't belong to him came to him instead. Zack... Zack was still alive here. Cloud took a deep breath, he could do this, his friends were depending on him, whether they knew it or not.
Bright lights turning on woke Cloud before the loud alarm ringing through out the room had a chance to. All around him, groans of other soldiers sounded as they too were woken by the automatic alarm. Cloud waited a moment before getting up and opening up what he hoped was his locker.
He was shocked and horrified however when he saw what was posted up inside. There staring him in the face was a magazine cover of Sephiroth in all his glory. He simultaneously wanted to rip it down, or close the locker as fast as he could before anyone could see. Oh Gaiaa, yeah this was his locker alright. Vague memories of hero worshiping Sephiroth made him want to disappear.
"Hey Strife! Get ready, you're going to run ten laps before breakfast cause of that incident last night." A dark haired man shouted at him from a few beds down. Cloud jerked his head to look at the man in bemusement. He had been one of the first soldiers out of bed.
Someone knocked Cloud on the back of the head. "You heard the Captain twerp, get going." It was the blonde man from that night.
"Erm, right." Cloud grimaced as he opened up his locker aGaian and ripped down the picture without looking. He quickly grabbed a clean uniform and shucked it on along with the other men surrounding him.
Taking his cue from everyone else he started to shuffle out of the room and down the hall when the man known as "Captain" stopped him with a hand on the elbow. "You're in a daze today Strife. The field is that way. I doubt you're going to going to make it to breakfast today either, so if I see you working hard I might bring you something. Got it?"
"Yes, sir." Cloud remembered that much from the military anyway. With that he turned away from what he was guessing was his squad and headed the way that his Captain had pointed. Luckily it was a fairly straight shoot with the hallway turning just once before he saw the dim light of Midgar during the day.
Once he was outside it was fairly easy to spot the field and track he was supposed to be on. The track was fair sized, and normally Cloud wouldn't break a sweat running around it 10 or even a 100 times, but as it was... Cloud knew to get started right away and set his helmet down near the starting line. Well, it would be good for him to know his endurance levels anyway.
Unfortunately, Cloud soon realized that he really didn't have much. Or at least not to his standards. The first lap had gone fine and Cloud had actually been feeling pretty good. He soon realized that was because he was much more of a sprinter than marathoner. He expended most of his energy by the fifth lap and struggled to keep going. Still he forced himself to continue. Sometimes a little pain was a good thing.
By the time the squad, and in particular, the 'Captain' got out of the building, Cloud was on his last lap and barely pulling enough breath into his lungs to keep his vision from blacking out. Finally, he made it back to the starting line, stopped running and began walking instead. He knew better than to drop to the ground after a run like that, no matter how much he wanted to.
The noise of quick steps running towards him from behind made Cloud want to reach for a non-existent sword despite his lethargy."Strife" The captain's voice came as the man caught up with Cloud and began running almost in place. "It look's like you have been going for a while. What lap are you on?"
Cloud had to work to get enough breath to answer. "I've done ten, sir." Another breath, "I am just cooling down now." Breath. "Sir."
The captain made a impressed noise, "That I can believe just from the sight of your face Strife." The man laughed and patted Cloud on the back causing him to stumble forward." Cloud inwardly cried at the lack of strength in his new body.
"Well when your done I grabbed you an energy bar that you can chow down on. I am going to start the squad on warm-ups soon. I am pretty sure you have already had yours, but when you feel ready go ahead and join us." The captain held out the bar to Cloud who weakly took it and kept walking as the Captain finally sped past.
Cloud walked over to the far side of the field and did some stretches before finally sitting down and eating the energy bar. It was nasty, but Cloud had had far worse.
Everything was screwed up, but Cloud would make the best of it. Somehow.
Eventually, Cloud joined the rest of the squad in their "warm-up" and then in the workout afterwards. An hour later, the exhausted group of soliders made their way to the showers where a distinct lack of privacy and wandering eyes almost made Cloud want to skip it. Common sense and smell won out, and Cloud rushed through the process, making it out in what he considered record time. Considering some of the creeps in his squad though, he highly doubted it actually was.
Once the squad of ten men were showered and dressed they made their way to what Cloud assumed was the briefing room. There was water available that went ignored and coffee that the majority of the men lined up for. Cloud didn't bother and sat down on one of the chairs lining the room. To his surprise, he was offered a cup by a man whose face he vaguely recognized but couldn't put a name to. It was better than anyone else in the squad at least.
"Thanks." Cloud took a sip and then tried to hide a wince.
The sandy haired man laughed, "Yeah, it's pretty bad, but you take what you can get right?" The man paused. "So what do you think Harrison was talking about last night?"
Cloud stared at him blankly. "Er... I have no idea."
"Yeah, me either." The man sat down on a chair next to Cloud. "It's been bugging the crap out of me. I mean, what mission could we possibly be pulled from the rest of the squad for? I was hoping you would maybe know since you have done it before, you know." The man's squinty eyes turned to him as he tried to figure out the mystery.
Cloud's eyebrows rose up on their own accord. Had this happened a lot when he was a infantryman? He tried to scratch at his scrambled memory. The only time he could guess at was Modeoheim where he had first met Zack. But for all he knew that could be this mission.
"Sorry that I can't help." Cloud replied.
The other man huffed and folded his arms. "I got to say Cloud, you would probably have more friends if you would just say more than three words at a time." The man glanced over at him to see how his insult was taken.
Cloud wasn't quite sure how to reply. He didn't exactly want to alienate the guy that he was most likely about to go on a mission with. "Ah..."
"Oh, don't bother." The man rolled his eyes, and Cloud couldn't help but glare at him a bit. So what if he didn't ramble about everything under the sun. He had plenty of friends... or well did. That thought seemed to crush him down and the two of them sat in silence for a moment.
"Strife, Luskia, get over here. Everyone else, you're on headquarters patrols for the next two weeks." There was a series of groans. The large man snorted, "Oh shut up and be grateful, Beaker will let you know the details." The 'captain' from before slid out from behind the booming voice and called for attention.
Cloud and Luskiaa stood up and made their way over to the commanding officer. "Harrison, sir, at your service." Luskia saluted Harrison and Cloud quickly followed.
"Hmm..." Harrison didn't seem impressed and turned to Cloud. "Strife, this will be right up your alley I think. You two might have caught a lucky break. Follow me." Cloud and Luskia looked at each other in bemusement before following Harrison out of the room and down the hall to a smaller room that worked as an office.
"Alright boys, go ahead and have a seat."
They quickly settled in, "Sir, what did you mean it might be a lucky break? Are we going on a mission with a SOLIDER?" Luskia paused for a breath. "Sir."
Harrison grunted and picked up a folder. "Pipe down Luskiaa, If you want any more of these missions knowing when to speak is key. Strife here knows that well." Cloud tried not to wince.
"Let's go ahead and get started then. You two were chosen for your expertise in cold weather environments for a highly classified SOLIDER operation. Strife you have gone on these missions occasionally when the need arises, so I expect you to help Luskia get accustomed to these types of missions."
Harrison opened up the mission folder. "Now, you'll be sent to Nibelheim" He glanced up at Cloud to share a smirk which Cloud didn't return. "Even if your're familiar with the area I expect total professionalism from both of you." He glanced between the two infantrymen. "Make sure I hear a good report from the two SOLIDERS going with you."
Cloud was inwardly reeling. Nibelheim. A mission to Nibelheim already?! It was too soon, what could he possibly do?
Cloud pulled himself back to the conversation at hand. Luskia was wondering at the need for two SOLIDERS on a mission when even one was worth a 100 men and Harrison was sharply rebuking him for questioning commanding officers.
"Sir, if you don't mind me asking, what is our mission directive?" Cloud spoke up trying to turn the conversation back on track.
Harrison grunted, "Of course, your mission is to act as support for the SOLIDERS as they deal with the monsters that have caused a disruption at the Nibel Mako Reactor. Basically, run any errands they need and make sure the locals don't bother them. That is most likely what you will spend most your time doing since Sephiroth is the leading SOLIDER with Zack Fair as support.
If Cloud had still clung on to any hope of it being a different mission it was gone now. It felt like all the air was sucked out of the room. Luckily for him Harrison seemed to expect that sort of reaction from both him and Luskia. "Well, boys that's about it. You'll be meeting the SOLDIERS on Lv. 49. at 1500 today. And just remember..." He glanced between the two of them. "Professional." He was clearly thinking that he was sending a pair of fanboys to do a man's work.
After going over a few more details, he ushered the two infantrymen out of his office. Once the door closed Luskia practically exploded with excitement. "Oh Gaia! Can you believe this! I got to write home about this! Can you imagine that I was picked not only for a mission with SOLIDER but with Sephiroth!" The last part Luskia tried to whisper but still came out louder than he normally spoke.
"I am pretty sure that Harrison wouldn't be happy with you if he found out you did that."
"Oh yeah..." Some of the energy seemed to leak out of Luskia. "Still man, this is amazing. My first mission with SOLIDER and it's with the general himself. I'm telling you, Cloud, I am in line to be recommended for the SOLIDER program. Just you see."
Cloud winced but nodded along. He desperately need a plan. Fast.
"Ah so, what do you suppose we should do until 1500?"
Cloud went wide-eyed, "Ah, there wasn't that much time to get ready last time so I am not really sure."
"Hmm, makes sense. Well, I guess I will go to the gym for a bit and then relax. Get into the groove you know? So sweet that we get out of patrol. Man, this is the life!" He slapped Cloud of the shoulder and strode down the hallway. Cloud waited a moment before following after. He needed to gather some supplies.