Hey guys! New chapter for you. Sorry about the wait of epic proportions, things have been happening. Half tempted to call this chapter 'trouble in paradise'.

I hope you've all had a great Christmas with awesome presents :D Have a happy FVII New Year, too.

Cloud was told that evening that under no certain conditions was a cadet meant to leave their bag in the holding area for three days and if he didn't go pick it up tomorrow it would be out with the trash.

He meant to pick it up after dinner, really he did, but after enduring an impromptu work out with the drill seargent -"involuntary suspension is no excuse to get out of my class, cadet," – and then a power play over soup with Mitch, all he felt like doing was sleeping for eternity. He excused himself early, stumbled out of the mess hall and to his room, and literally fell into a coma on his thin, lumpy mattress. It was a miracle he avoided certain death passing the Hulk's table.

Oh, and that he reawakened from his coma just in time for breakfast.

Or a little too just in time for breakfast if the soft darkness in the room was anything to go by (the dorms had no windows, which made everything feel like constant day).

Shit, Cloud realized. He hadn't picked up his bags from the holding bay.

Cloud moseyed to the reception desk without a shirt on, thinking in a panic if they'd thrown his bag in the big bins he might have to go dumpster diving.

The evil lady was back at the reception desk. El sigh.

"What do you want and how do you want it?" she was saying into her phone in a simpering tone of voice.

Wait, Cloud thought with sudden glee, he didn't have to approach her. They'd said on the first day their bags were all out around Head Office. This was awesome. There weren't any bins around Head Office.

He arrived there as the door opened, and a disgruntled-looking Shinra employee shouldered his bag.

"I'll be taking that," Cloud said a little pompously, as he made past.

The dude stared. "Well it's about time. Right on the minute. Jeez, how long does it take you to pick one friggin bag up?" He threw it across.

Cloud made a protesting sound. "I'll have you know I've been very busy with my schedule." Which consisted of sleeping, bludging, and going to Zack's house he silently added.

"Well that's lovely, princess. Unfortunately Mario's needed in another castle." He went back inside with a sneer and slam of the door.

Cloud didn't let it get to him. I actually did it, he thought to himself merrily. I put it off to the last second and got away with it. And that was what procrastination was all about.

Considerably less panicked Cloud re entered his dorm, plunking his bag down next to the bed. That was when he heard a strange curse coming from down the hallway. He checked the beds—no, it wasn't awake time yet. What was going on down there?

Feeling like every stupid lead character in every horror play ever made, Cloud crept down the hallway towards where the sound was coming from. The floorboards didn't creak because there were no floorboards but the linoleum stuck to his feet like it was afraid for him.

The racket became louder as he approached.

"Hello…?" Cloud called, pressing forward the closed doorway. Darkness, he couldn't see anything. Cloud groped for a light switch, heart hammering in his chest, waiting for something to spring into the open and—

Light. Cloud blinked as his eyes adjusted to the sight, world swimming out of greys and blues.

"Shears?" he wondered. "What are you doing in here?"

The large boy was hulked over wires, fuses and scrap metal, sitting in front of the toilet.

"Nothing," the boy said hurriedly. "Just tryna fix my clock. It broke, you know. Last night."

"Bullshit," Cloud replied. "We weren't allowed to bring clocks."

There was an awkward pause, where Shears looked ready to continue the bluff.

"Are you going to tell?" he asked, standing up over his stuff. Cloud noticed his hands were shaking.

"Depends what you tell me," Cloud replied cryptically.

Shears met his eyes. "I'm serious," he said. "If you tell, I will bash you."

"Do that and I'll turn you in for sure," Cloud threatened. "You think my suspension is just for show?"

Shears shook a hand through his hair, agitated. "Fine. But I'm warning you, if you don't have ears for this shit you aren't gonna like the consequences. I'm not going to cater to condescension because you're not tough enough to handle it."

Cloud snorted, at that. "Just tell me your deal already," he said genially.

"I'm making a bomb," Shears revealed. When that failed to stir and or shock the blonde, he plodded on. "I was put here to get revenge for a personal attack made on a friend of mine. This is the closest way to get to them."

Cloud slowly nodded. "And you're going to set it off today, right?"

"Yeah," Shears said. "This is the anniversary of… never mind."

"No, tell me," Cloud coaxed.

"What are your thoughts on Shinra?" Shears hazarded.

Cloud grinned. "Well he's not my favourite person in the world… Oh shit. Oh no way. You're going to blow up the president."

Shears grabbed him by the collar. "You don't tell anyone. No one knows. Or this bomb goes off right here right now."

Cloud ignored him. "How the hell are you going to get past the security? I can't believe a cadet would try this. You must be insane! Or really full of yourself. Or suicidal."

"Call me what you want," Shears said. "I'm still going to do it. And it's Shinra the company, not the president. Idiot. How dumb do I look to you?"

His acquaintance opened his mouth to answer.

"Rhetorical," Shears interrupted. "Anyway, that's the deal. I've got three hours to blow up headquarters in sector Zero. Are you in, or are you out?"

Cloud considered. His mother would really hate him for it. But she wasn't here now. Zack would probably kill him for the idea alone… But Shinra. Horrible, terrible, Shinra.

"In."

Shears smiled up at him in that half-relieved half-paranoid way. "Welcome aboard. And collect that wire switchboard stuff, we're leaving in exactly now."

Cloud had never considered himself a terrorist. In fact, he considered himself very pro-peace until now, what with his super reluctance to join the army (although it could be argued that feeling stemmed from a self-preservation instinct). But he considered the prospect of Shinra's HQ destruction excitedly right now, even as worry settled in the pit of his stomach.

"So," he small talked as they maneuverer the large backpack onto the train. "How big will it be? I mean the whole thing or just part? It—it won't kill anyone will it?"

"No one who won't deserve it," Shears replied, and at Cloud's alarmed look, replied: "chill. No one's going to die. It'll only screw up this one floor. Most people won't be in at four in the mourning anyway. Just the soldiers, the secretaries, and the pigs working overtime."

A pregnant woman looked very affronted when Cloud didn't give her his seat. Shears watched her pass through the hissing carriage door and lowered his voice a notch. "You don't have to do this, you know. You can still back out."

"No, I want to."

Shears gave him a searching look and Cloud's phone unexpectedly went off.

Rise and shine, angelhead, Zack's text read. Cloud tried to cover it but Shears snatched it out of his hands.

"Zack Fair, huh?" Shears pressed a few buttons and the phone switched to silent. "I can tell you're so anti-Shinra, befriending all the upcoming soldiers."

"Upcoming?" Cloud repeated dubiously. That was the second person who'd said Zack was good. "And hey, he befriended me. I just wanted to see if the soldiers were all as bad as they seem."

Shears snorted. "That'd be right." He threw the phone back.

"I'm serious. I think they're disgusting people. I don't know why they follow the orders they do, you can't just not get how evil Shinra is with all the schemes they make. Did you know Shinra senior gave himself an executive bonus of two million last year? And they built a second reactor over people's homes when they didn't move in Rocket Town?"

Shears didn't look convinced. "Yeah, of course they're bloody unfair. But I wouldn't risk my life like this if that was all I thought. Everyone's unfair. Our combat teacher's unfair. Why are you doing this, Cloud?"

Cloud bit his lip. He hadn't told anyone this. "My father was shot, for leading the protest against the reactor they were setting up beside our town. I mean he was cheating on my ma anyway, but I guess I never really got over the thought. It was a peaceful protest. And they just bloody…" He curled his fists.

"Yeah, me too," Shears said. Cloud looked over at him in surprise.

"I mean he wasn't protesting or anything," Shears corrected. "My dad loved Shinra, even though it made our lives living shit. He'd always come back from work all cheerful and stuff. But we were making nothing and the only way for us to pay the bills was for him to join the Soldier program. He got fucking mauled by a fucking Acrophies in Carral Valley. And they got orders to go, and just left him. They fucking left him to die. That's why I hate them. That's why I'm going to see Shinra dead."

"Oh," Cloud said mildly. "I'm sorry." He'd misjudged Shears. How could someone so quiet and amiable have such a dark side to him?

"Forget it."

The train clanked as they went over a particularly rough piece of track. "So what's the plan?" Cloud asked.

"Well I was going to sneak in from underground and bomb the elevator shaft," Shears said. "But now I have a better idea."

Cloud entered the headquarters lobby under the watchful eye of three separate cameras. He stalled around a framed painting, bought some chips from a vending machine and grinned and waved when Zack came down to meet him. "Ready for our training session?"

The cadet nodded and gestured to the chips with an energy drink. Zack snorted, and Cloud allowed himself a smile. He suspected nothing.

"I've got to say Cloudy-boy," Zack said as they made their way towards the lift, "I'm impressed you managed to take my wake up greeting so well. Not many do."

Cloud snorted. "I can see why. Also, you're impressed with your bloody self, not me."

"Damn, you caught me," Zack said. There wasn't a line for the lift, but it took a short while for the elevator to reach their floor. Cloud, who had been standing there waiting, started when the doors finally opened. He feigned realization quickly. "Sorry," he said to the doorman, removing his cap. "I borrowed this off your friend Johnny. Said he wanted it back. Could you return it to him please?"

The doorman looked a bit put out, but nodded. Shears had said they were happy to have an excuse to leave post.

Cloud entered the elevator with Zack and imagined the look on the front man's face when he realized he'd been given a hat he hadn't thought removed.

They went up with the elevator and Zack's countenance visibly improved.

"Going training going training oh yeah, bring it." He mimed a boxer's stance and began jumping up and down.

Cloud laughed, his breath releasing in a pool of nerves. "How can you move while we're rising like this?" He himself was clinging to the handrail. Steady, he told himself, calm down.

"Oh, I forgot this is new to you." Zack grinned. "Need a helping hand, mama's boy?"

"Oi!" Cloud protested, kicking him.

"Oww. Don't do that. You're so mean to me, Cloudy. And come on, you were like, running a whole marathon to post one letter."

"Don't call me Cloudy." The silence became awkward. Cloud glanced back to the floor number, ten off his target, and started. "How much farther is it?"

"Lots." Zack threw an amused smirk. "Are we there yet, he asks."

Cloud bit his lip. "Zack. Seriously."

"What?"

"I like really need to pee. Too much Gatorade."

"Can't you wait?"

"There wasn't a bathroom in the lobby."

Zack cursed, and hit the emergency stop button. Floor 39. Two past. Yeah, he could manage.

"One thing," said Cloud. "I'll need your keycard."

Zack squirmed. "We're not supposed to just pass them around you know."

"Please?" Cloud begged. "I'll be really quick."

"Yeah, yeah. Let's just get through here first."

They had halted to a stop, after all. Cloud watched in mild awe as Zack wrenched open the elevator doors using his super strength.

And smirked as a panic-stricken looking Shinra officer barged into them.

"Whoa whoa whoa," said Zack. "What's the hurry?"

The man didn't reply in his haste to be away, and Zack, with a frown, stuck his head into a far adjacent doorway.

"Hey, you got directions towards the bathroom-"

"I'm very sorry, Soldier, but I have no time for your ministrations right now," a woman in a pencil skirt and an important jacket interrupted. "I'm afraid there's been a minor technical issue…"

More workers pushed through the doorway, and Cloud caught sight of a man talking very quickly on a phone.

"A minor technical issue?" One of the workers parroted. "There's a frigging reactor leak spilling raw mako into the streets! Because of us! You call that minor?"

The woman began to argue, and Zack attempted to calm them back down for more details. Cloud excused himself quietly, and walked down the clear corridor for the lift. Secreted in the small space between the lift and the wall, and attached to the lift was the wire board. Stretching, Cloud unstrapped the bomb and tucked it beneath his shirt.

Quickly and quietly, thought Cloud, quick and quiet. He repeted the mantra through his head as he skittered down the corridor.

Meeting room. Draft room. Head office—perfect. Cloud shut the door behind him and pulled the blinds closed. Cursing at the sight of a security camera, he grabbed a marker, uncapped it and drew over the lens. Shit, no ink. He couldn't smash it, there was an alarm. What did he do?

There was an alarm for fucking everything, Cloud decided, as a siren went off in the block, screeching into his ears. Oh shit. Had they caught him? He was so dead. He was so fucking dead.

No time to waste.

Cloud planted the bomb on the table, connected the wires, turned on the phone, flipped the switch. A countdown of three minutes until automatic detonation signaled. The cadet held his breath, turned out of the room and locked the door to override with Zack's key card.

A shadow loomed over him. "What are you doing?" Zack said.

Cloud flinched back, began to shake, opened his mouth. What did he say? Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck.

"I was looking for the bathroom but I couldn't find it anywhere so I went into the office and peed in the pot plant but the manager called and left a message that she'll be late by half an hour when he gets there and he's probably going to arrive soon and I think we should go."

"What?" Zack said.

"I said let's go!" Cloud shouted.

He'd have to tell Shears to wipe the cameras because there was no way he was getting to the survailence floor after this Zack wasn't supposed to follow after him he was supposed to get involved in company affairs and let him go to the goddamn bathroom by his goddamn self.

The lift didn't arrive. "C'mon, c'mon," pleaded Cloud.

"Are you alright?" Zack asked, taking his arm. His eyebrows were furrowed with concern and his eyes were confused.

Green eyes, mako eyes, Shinra eyes.

"Fine," Cloud whispered.

"You can talk to me you know—"

"I know."

"Talk to me."

"I," said Cloud. "I can't. Not now."

Zack drew back, his face blank. "Fine," he answered, and took his card back.

"Zack—"

"Fine," Zack repeated.

The lift arrived, and they descended floors silently.