An Ancient Poem Recited by the Waterside
.:A Bit of Relief:.
"What rank are you?" Cloud asked Zack as they stopped to watch the sunset. Zack took a moment to answer, his mind was wandering and his was a little buzzed, "Second Class... I am being taught by First Class SOLDIER Angeal..." Cloud made an 'o' from his lips as he slowly nodded his head, "Where are you from?" Zack looked at Cloud, not as irritated as he thought he'd be when a rookie started asking him questions, "Gongaga... You?"
Cloud looked to the sky as if hoping his mother was watching the same sun set; he knew his mother loved to watch the sun set and rise, "Nibelheim..." he felt Zack's hand skim across his left should to his right before he was pulled into a hug, "Don't look so sad!"
Cloud woke, his blanket hugging him almost as tight as Zack did about fourteen days ago. Like usual, Cloud rose from bed, observed the clock, and went to rise his roommates. "Dante... It's six, get up..." Their alarm clock was set for six thirty, but preferred to get up at six, so didn't mind when Cloud pestered them.
Dante was on the bottom bunk on the opposite wall from Cloud's bed. He turned next to Joel.
After eating breakfast with his house, they all headed off to their appointed traing ground where they formed up and awaited for their Commander whom showed up no less than two minutes later.
Commander Mohan watched proudly as his platoon did their morning routine of twenty laps before falling back into their spots. "Troops! You are well on your way to becoming a great asset to the Shinra Army." he scanned the soldiers, not seeing a single one move, "I am proud of you! Shinra is proud of you!" as he spoke he paced before his platoon, arms folded in the small of his back. Mohan stepped back into his place at the head of his troops, "For your hard work during the past two weeks... You will have a week of vacation... I expect you to use your time wisely... Just because you will be on vacation does not mean you can fool around and break rules! If you do you will be sorely punished..." one more look, "dismissed!"
Three days of solitude thus far... Seventeen without Zack... Twentyfour without Daniel... Cloud had taken the opportunity to venture the base more. He neared the house of Smogger Platoon and noticed that their bodies and practice weapons were in bad shape. The weapons looked like they were about to break and the recruits looked like they were about to die from one too many wounds.
Later, Cloud found himself watching walking with the sunset as headed back for home. He shivered, not from the cold, rather the sky. Cloud never really took a liking to the natural sky. The skies of Nibelheim were almost always filled with dark mako-infused clouds.
"Hey!" Cloud tensed before spinning on his heel to answer the person who called after him, "Yes?" A rather tall man wearing a dark blue suit with raven black hair slicked back into a ponytail and a black chakra upon his forehead approached the blond, "You're Cloud?" he nodded, "Ah, good! Here, It's from Zack. You should watch it sometime." he waited for a response before leaving, "Zack?" Cloud looked up at the man, "Why would he send me something?" the other shrugged, "I don't know, maybe you should see what he has to say in that." he nodded his head toward the small device in the boy's hand, "I also suggest you to keep that away from your house mates..."
Since it was their vacation, no one in the house was using the training room; instead they were all horsing around upstairs and outside. So Cloud took the man's advice and hid the device until he could sneak into the training room to figure out whatever it was that Zack had sent him.
"'Watch it' he said... How? Oh!" Cloud stumbled upon a button, pressing it and shocking himself as the device turned on. It was a movie of Zack fooling around with the camera.
Zack's voice could be heard as the camera bounced around (he must be walking). "Hey, Chocobo! Sorry I haven't been around... I forgot to tell you about a mission I'm on... Then again I don't think the higher ups would want a lowly soldier as yourself to be knowing what kind of shit they have me doing..." Red filled the screen, and then cliffs, "This is Cosmo Canyon... Ever been here, Spike? Doubt it... I hear joining the army was a big step for you..."
The camera stopped and whooshed around until Zack's face was on, "I hope you made the right decision in trying to get into SOLDIER... I have to warn you though, most recruits end up as those idiot guards you see around the base or anywhere in Midgar... If you traveled, I'm sure you'd see them in other places like Kalm." next to appear on the screen was one of the locals of the town, "This is a local, Cloud! These guys are so in tune with the earth that Shinra is wanting to know some of their secrets! Funny huh? Shinra is quietly admitting that they don't know everything, but I know they do... They just want these kind folk to do the work for them!" Zack chuckled as the local rolled his eyes and walked away laughing.
The screen went black for a moment before fizzing back in on another screen. Zack was alone in a room of the Cosmo Inn and had placed the camera in a spot where the viewer could see him as he sat on the edge of the bed, "Shinra is wanting to capture a creature that lives here. Shinra's top professor, Hojo, has requested this animal for his research. I do not want to doubt him, but I feel weird... Almost like it's wrong for me to be doing this." Zack shook his head, the whole time staring at the ground, "But I have to do this..." he sighed heavily, not hearing the sound of the door opening and then closing, "This town will hate us very soon..."
"Zack, what are you doing?" another man had entered the room and occupied the bed behind Zack, "You sending a video to that boy you're constantly talking about?" Zack jumped up from his bed, spinning around to face the other, "Angeal, you talk as if I'm sending my boyfriend a letter!" the other, Angeal, laughed, "Isn't he your lover? You talk about him enough..." Zack shrugged, "Nah, we're just friends... Besides, I just met him! I'm not going to jump in his pants that quickly... FUCK! The camera is still on!" next thing you see is Zack glomping the camera and shutting it off.
"Well, Cloud... I should be back soon, so I'll see you later..." The movie ended with Zack blowing the camera a kiss, Angeal with his arms crossed in the background, Sephiroth walking to stand next to Angeal and then a date: 23.4
The projection shut off automatically as the film ended, "Twenty third of June... that was a week ago..." Cloud sighed, scratching the back of his neck, "Lesse, Cosmo Canyon was... Okay, Nibelheim, Cosmo Canyon, Gold Saucer, Costa del Sol..." he pictured the world map in his head, pointing at the invisible cities before his eyes, "Ocean..." he dragged his finger across the air a short distance, "Junon... Then down to that one town just outside of Mythril Mines... Through the mines to that Chocobo Farm and then straight up to Midgar since that Kalm town is over there a little bit..." he frowned, "He should be back here by now..."
Another fourteen days since the 'gift' from Zack. Fourteenth of July at 0900 during the morning twenty-lap run of Bandersnatch Platoon did that same man from before show up. As Cloud ran, he watched as the suited man and his commander spoke, the well-dressed man pointing out onto the field. He over heard some of the cadets behind him freak out over seeing the man, "Dude! That's Tseng of the Turks!" another one gasped, "No way! What's he doing out here?!"
As the soldiers finished their laps, the formed up like usual, only this time they were real stiff (wanting to impress the all mighty Turk). Commander Mohan gave his troops the instructions of going to the training field, "Dismissed!" he yelled. Cloud stayed, he noticed the look Tseng gave him, it told him not to move.
Other cadets noticed that Cloud was staying behind and when they saw Tseng approach him, their tempers flew, "What makes him so special? Is it the bitch factor about him?"
Both Cloud and Tseng ignored the bitch comment and bade the Commander goodbye as he followed the rest of the Platoon out onto the field. "What is it?" Cloud was nervous around this man, "Is it about Zack?" Tseng nodded, "Follow me..." without waiting for the boy's response, he walked off toward the main Shinra building, Cloud only a few feet behind.