Chapter one:

He was going to kill her.

He was going to scream bloody murder, then CAUSE a bloody murder, then make it look like it was an accident!

He was going to break every breakable object in the room.

Cloud glared at the mirror.

At this moment, if you couldn't tell, he was furious with a certain blue phoenix.

The memory was still fresh in his mind.

~Flashback~

Zalu grinned happily at Magnorak's human form. He was tall, handsome, maybe in his mid-twenties, his blonde hair defied gravity, and his deep blue eyes you could get drunk on.

"Your highness," Zalu started, but her king glared at her, "Er, sorry, I mean Cloud." Cloud smiled and nodded at her for her to continue. "No offense, but you are hot!" Zalu drooled happily over the site. Cloud and Kiva exchanged a glance and shrugged. Cloud may be a great genius and brilliant leader, but a woman was one subject he could never get.

"Thank you, Zalutria, I think," Cloud blinked a few times in confusion, but shook it off.

"Why do you always call me Zalutria? Call me Zalu!" Zalu whined, hating being called her full name. Every now and again, Cloud would call her by her preferred nickname, but most of the time he called her Zalutria.

"It's your name! I'm just used to it as you wanted to be called it when we were children," Cloud said simply. He, Kiva, and Zalu had been friends since childhood. Zeek came into the picture when they joined the army.

"Yes, well, shouldn't we be focusing on the problem at hand?" Zeek stated monotonously, motioning at Cloud's human self. Cloud looked down at himself in confusion. Not even he knew what this problem could be. He knew he had to get more poor looking clothes seeing as these were quite fancy. He actually rarely wore fancy clothes, not liking to look better then anyone, but he was just with friends then and these were just so comfy.

Cloud's three friends sighed. "Your age," Kiva replied simply, smirking slightly at Cloud's ignorance.

Cloud smacked his forehead. Of course! He was supposed to be a teen boy, not an adult.

"I am WAAAAAAAAY ahead of you!" Zalu exclaimed happily, holding up what looked like a medallion. Everyone looked at her confusedly. Zalu smiled even bigger, happy that she got to explain some more.

"As we all know, Cloud could easily turn into a teen at anytime, but since it is not his true human form and is more of a spell then anything, it has a time limit!" Zalu began, twirling the golden trinket on her finger.

"No, duh!" Kiva sighed only to have Zalu punch the back of his head. A typical day in the life of the phoenix twins…

"As I was saying!" Zalu spoke loudly and with authority. Cloud wasn't really surprised. She had wanted to become the first Queen of this nation. She had trained herself to speak loudly and clearly to all people and to show no fear. She was unfortunately disapproved of the Grand Council when she requested she become the next Leader of the nation. "They were a bunch of old sexists!" She had stated when she came storming back into the army barracks two days later. Actually, Cloud never asked to be the king. He was just so promising, is what they told him. And he nearly said no to their proposal, feeling he might hurt his female friend.

But, Zalu told him to not let this chance slip by. She was happy that her friend was to be the king, and to show his gratitude to the blue phoenix, he appointed her his advisor, a very high position.

"This medallion, when worn, will allow you to stay in teen form for DAYS! You can also turn into your half demon form and adult form while wearing this, but not full demon form!" Cloud nodded at the explanation. The magical object was to keep him in some human form, if only half, so it would probably not allow him to turn full demon, seeing as there was no human in that form at all.

"I cannot wait to see what he looks like!" Zalu suddenly squealed loudly, sending the three boys present to fall out of their seats in surprise.

"Not so loud! We don't want anyone to hear!" Zeek warned the female angrily, a rare emotion being shown.

Zalu turned to her friends and bowed apologetically. "Sorry guys," she murmured, but her apology was short lived as she was soon jumping off the walls with excitement. She was much too excited of what Cloud looked like as a teen, the three boys decided.

"So, do you have any pics of your human form as a teen? Maybe that will calm crazy bird over here down!" Kiva questioned his king, motioning towards his sister who was now glaring at him with her hands on her hips.

"I am not crazy! Take that back!" Zalu exclaimed and leapt at her brother. The two siblings wrestled on the floor, yelling and screaming at each other. Zeek and Cloud exchanged a quick look before splitting the two warriors apart.

"ENOUGH!" Cloud's voice thundered across the room, actually making a few vases and shelves quake. Zalu and Kiva went stiff with fear and didn't dare look at their king's face. Instead they bowed their heads and said their sorry's.

"And to answer your question, Kiva," both Zalu and Kiva's heads snapped up to look at the blonde, "no, I don't have any photos. I didn't know how to turn into a human when I was that young." The two siblings sighed sadly. They had both really wanted to see him. Zalu looked at the medallion still in her grip. Oh yeah, they still could.

"One more thing before you put on the necklace!" Zalu said, handing Cloud his new device.

Cloud arched a delicate eyebrow at the woman and glanced at the golden medallion a few times. "Well?" he asked after a few seconds of waiting.

"Well," Zalu pulled out her clipboard that she always had with her, "by my calculations, every night there is a half moon you will have to turn into your half demon form so that the medallion can recharge." Cloud stared at her for a while, a blank expression on his face.

After a few seconds he finally replied with a, "You're kidding, right?" Zalu shook her head, making what Cloud heard true. Shit, this was bad.

"It may be a bit difficult to hide, but since it is during the night and you should have your own room when you are a cadet, it should be a lot easier then if you had to go full demon." Cloud looked over at Zalu with a look that seemed to be a mix of anger, annoyance, and displeasure.

"And, what if I am on an over night mission when there is a half moon?" Cloud glared the woman down, his eyes like icicles. This was probably the worst thing to happen for the mission. It was the down-bringer, as Kiva called. The part of the mission that didn't go as you planned.

Zalu stammered over words for a few seconds, flipping through the papers on her clipboard just to have something to do while she thought. Her face was nearly glowing red with embarrassment at her mistake.

"You'd have to turn back no matter what kind of medallion you use," Zeek helped the blue phoenix out. "Besides, if you know you'll be out on a mission over night on the night of the half moon, then just turn to your half demon form the night before the mission. That way it will just charge up then instead."

Cloud looked over at Zeek for a second, wondering if that plan might work, but the idea was sent flying into the trash when Zalu spoke again.

"I am sorry, but it can only recharge on the night of the half-moon." Cloud sighed in defeat. He would just have to find a way to get around this dilemma. He finally nodded and slipped the medallion over his head.

The change was obvious to the king. He could feel his body changing as soon as the golden necklace was around his neck. He shut his eyes as the transformation took place as it hurt his eyes slightly from the light that suddenly surrounded him.

He heard bones creak, felt muscles adjust, and could tell he was shrinking.

When he finally felt everything end, he opened his eyes slowly. He had a moment of whip lash as he realized he was now a bit shorter then the two other men in the room and just barely taller then the woman. He looked down at himself and saw he now wore what looked like a fighting suit. Baggy, camouflage pants with pockets all over the legs. Combat boots were snuggly put over his smaller feet and the bottoms of his jeans were tucked into the boots. His shirt was a long sleeved black turtleneck and a green vest was slung over that, unzipped, and sleeveless.

Cloud looked at the clothes for a second then turned to his friends, who were, of course, staring at him. "When did I get new clothes?" their king questioned them. He noticed, with great exasperation, that his voice was much higher then it used to be and seemed very much younger. 'Figures,' the king thought.

Zeek and Kiva shrugged, so they all turned to the person in the room that seemed to know everything.

Zalu just stood there, staring at the fourteen-year-old Cloud. Kiva waved his hand in her face, but she only twitched in response. Cloud cleared his throat, hoping she would answer. She did this time, but with a reaction no one expected.

"OH MY GOSH!!! YOU ARE SO CUTE!!!" she squealed, sending Kiva onto his butt in surprise as she rammed through and tackled her poor king.

"HOLY SHIT!!!" Cloud screamed as he hit the ground with the blue haired woman squeezing his neck. "GET OFF!!!!" he shoved the female off him with more force then he had wanted. But, she was off him now, and he didn't care how powerful he had shoved her.

Zalu shook her head to clear it and looked around the room as if she didn't know where she was. She looked over at her king, who was glaring at her.

"Did I hug you?" realization hit the blue phoenix, and her answer from the blonde teen was a curt nod.

"More like tackled actually," Zeek muttered blankly. Zalu's face burned red with a blush and she looked down at the ground so her bangs covered her eyes. The three men believed she mumbled a quick "sorry", but she was too quiet to tell.

Cloud sighed at the craziness of his colleagues and just turned towards the bathroom door. He muttered something along the lines of "I gotta see this for myself", but was rudely interrupted when Zalu and Kiva swiftly grabbed both his arms.

"We do not have time for that!" Zalu contradicted her king's actions as she and her brother dragged Cloud towards the window.

"You need to go now!" Kiva followed up his sister's statement. He banged open the large windows of the blonde demon king's office. "You'll have to go this way, to have less of a chance of being spotted!" the red head explained cheerfully. Too cheerfully, if you asked Cloud.

Zeek was the next to talk as he walked over to Cloud when the two twins had finally released him. "We've already filed out your entry to SOLDIER and informed the demon warriors in Nibelheim of your arrival and of their new mission," the black haired man explained, his voice holding his ever-present monotone.

A medium sized stack of papers was suddenly shoved into the blonde's hands with a few folders at the top. Cloud looked at the pile with distaste then back up at Zeek. "Just hand those into the receptionist when you get to the ShinRa building! They'll give you a few pages to fill out then tell you were to go next!" Zeek's icicle blue eyes never left Cloud's deep blue ones.

"That's easy enough," Cloud grumbled sarcastically, but sighed in defeat. No stepping out of it now!

"Do not forget your persona!" Zalu chirped, happy that she knew of a new word. Cloud just nodded at her and let one of his rare smiles glow across his face.

"Hey, I'm the king! I got this!" Cloud replied calmly as his smile slowly slipped. He turned towards the open window and swiftly leaped out of the building.

Wind whispered past his ears, and Cloud imagined the air was wishing him good luck. And he wanted to stay like that. Free falling forever. But, the feeling was gone instantly as the roofs of buildings grew closer.

The blonde closed his eyes and three sets of pure white wings with golden primary feathers erupted from his back. The king felt himself be pulled upward as he pumped his wings against the air and flew towards the forest in the distance to where he would teleport to his mission's world.

~End Flashback~

And so, here Cloud was, finally in his new room, staring at the mirror hanging on the wall. This was his first look at his teen self and he wasn't happy.

This was not the face of a king. It looked far too young and inexperienced. His cheeks still held a small amount of baby fat, his muscles were small, and his eyes were round and gleamed with ignorance.

Cloud sighed in defeat. "At least it fits my persona," he mumbled angrily, still glaring at the mirror. At least when he wanted to, his eyes could look a lot more mature and deadly. But it didn't fit with the face. "This sucks," was the best way to wrap it up in the blonde's mind.

No turning back now. If only he had seen what he looked like before he left. He could of made some quick adjustments. Though, he didn't really know what those adjustments would be, but he would of thought something out!

Cloud flopped onto the hard and stiff bed he had and stared at the ceiling. It was nice, and good news, that cadets got single rooms all to themselves. He could hide his little secret a bit better. There was even a small bathroom just connected to the side of the small room. That way he could bathe his six wings and nine tails if he pleased without anyone ever knowing about them.

Really, the only thing bad about the room was its quality. The bed was stiff and lumpy. The one window was very small and very dirty. The bathroom was covered in mold. The room was covered in dust. And Cloud was pretty sure, with his heightened hearing, her heard mice in the walls.

But, Cloud could clean all the dirty places. He had slept on much worse then a bad bed. And the mice could make a nice snack one day.

This would be fine!

Or so he thought.

"I just have to work all this out one step at a time," Cloud said to himself. He had started talking to himself as soon as he walked into the room. Though he normally had a good amount of work to do (piles of paper work, training new recruits, training warriors, and much more) he normally had Zeek, Zalu, or Kiva with him to talk to. His life wasn't really quiet, to say the least, unless it had to be or he was in a quiet mood.

Cloud looked over at the bedside table that looked like it was about to fall to pieces at any moment. He had placed a photo album there that looked surprisingly like a small storybook. Cloud lifted up the album and opened it to a random page. He looked at the first picture he found.

It showed him in his half demon form, his six wings pulled into his body so only his nine, golden tails, long fox ears, fangs, and slitted blue eyes showed. He was on a beach, and he seemed like he was in his teen ages. Zalu was standing next to him, her arm around his shoulder, and blue wings wrapped against her back. Next to her was her brother Kiva, making bunny ears on his sister, and his red wings spread out happily and his red-feathered tail fanned out. They were all smiling happily at the camera, all in swimsuits.

That was when Cloud was still a trainee and he and the phoenix twins had just joined to become warriors. They had been given a vacation and had gone to the beach for fun in the sun. They hadn't even met Zeek yet.

Cloud looked at the smaller picture that was taped to the one that he was at the beach.

It was of Zeek in full human form, a book in his grasp. He was glaring at the camera over the top of his reading glasses and shoving his hand in the camera's way. But, his attempt to get away didn't work.

Cloud sighed and put the photo book into the drawer that was connected to the small table. "I miss em all ready," he mumbled and stood up. He went over to the small bathroom and brushed his teeth. He slipped on some baggy, black pants and a soft navy T-shirt.

He left the bathroom and laid onto his new bed. The bed squeaked in protest, but finally allowed silence.

"This is going to be a long mission," Cloud grumbled as he slipped into dream land.