Sorry it's been so long but here's the next chaper.

Chapter 6 - Training Begins

Phoenix woke up in the morning after having a strange dream about a wraith trying to eat one of her old college tormentors whilst she was introducing her new boyfriend Sephiroth who actually had red hair. She woke up as her tormentor was saying that she couldn't ever get a boyfriend like hers who was also called Sephiroth but had Clouds spiky hair. She was saying Phoenix's name repetitively then said,

"Wake up Phoenix!" but now she had a mans voice and when Phoenix opened her eyes to look at her she saw Sephiroth standing beside the bed. After pulling a number of contorted confused faces Phoenix said,

"Sephiroth?" she enquired very groggily, "What time is it?"

"7 am, now get up and ready, we start your new training regime at 8!" At that he left the room. Phoenix hated mornings, she wasn't the type to lay in late but she liked to wake up naturally on her own. She attempted to go back to sleep, I could say it was a accident she thought but that idea failed when she heard a mental warning from Sephiroth, she knew that he was 'watching' which was really creepy . It wasn't fair, he shouldn't be able to hear her thoughts, it was wrong they were her thoughts, thoughts were supposed to be private not on Sephiroth's mental radio. Phoenix dragged herself out of bed and got cleaned up, very paranoid about Sephiroth 'watching', then ready and proceeded to walk downstairs pretty much like a zombie. Sephiroth was in the living room waiting.

"Now get something to eat," he said. She wasn't really hungry, she didn't normally have breakfast.

"No it's alright I'm not hungry, I don't…" and she was cut short, it seemed that if Sephiroth didn't like or agree with what she was saying he never let her finish,

"I wasn't asking, I was telling, now get something to eat, you'll need the energy." he told her. She found herself just looking at him and in her still half asleep state she dared to argue,

"Oh and what if I don't are you going to force feed me?" Phoenix asked but soon regretted when he said,

"If I have too!" and she could see him doing it too, though she wasn't exactly sure how but she caved, she was too tired yet to actually put it to the test and went and looked through the cupboards. And what exactly am I supposed to eat? she wondered, there still wasn't anything in the cupboards nothing edible anyway.

"Sephiroth what exactly am I supposed to eat?" she asked. He was standing in the doorway watching in mild amusement whilst he leaned up against the doorpost. He stood up straight and came over,

"Here's where you get food," he said. He walked over to what looked like some kind of device in the wall, it kind of looked like it was maybe some kind of coffee dispenser only larger and without any nozzle. It had a panel on the wall beside it and an open sort of cube shaped hole in the wall. He said,

"Computer coffee, black, strong." and as she watched there was a small swirl of light and a strange quiet whirring sound then suddenly there was a cup of coffee in the hole in the wall. It had appeared cup, coffee, saucer and all out of thin air. Phoenix looked in amazement, mouth open, it was like something out of a sci-fi movie.

"It's an invention of Shinra's," Sephiroth told her and he took the cup of coffee leaving the saucer, which promptly disappeared into a whirl of light. "It can do food as well, whatever you can think of within reason, now eat, but don't ask for anything that had a brand name from your world, it won't know what it is unless I programme it." Phoenix looked at the machine dubiously as Sephiroth walked away with his cup of coffee. Well it couldn't hurt to try right she thought just no brand names, hmmm no diet coke then, shame.

"Ermmmm, com-pu-ter o-range juice," she stated as clearly as possible, she sounded as if she was talking to someone foreign who might not understand her language and at that she paused, weird that they actually spoke English here, she thought. She watched as a glass of orange juice appeared in the device and taking it took a sip. It tasted like orange juice. It was amazing does this mean that there's no washing up. She brightened at the thought and had the brief image of Sephiroth in an apron with washing up gloves on doing the washing up but quickly wiped it from her mind, she turned to Sephiroth,

"What do you call this language that we are speaking?" she asked. "I mean on my world…" that sounded wrong, "…it's called English but obviously here England doesn't exist so it can't be English can it?" Sephiroth looked up at her, it was rather a random question,

"It's the new language of the ancients," he told her.

"Hmmmm right ok," it was a weird answer, but it sounded like enquiring further might get her into a history lesson and so she looked back at the machine in the wall thinking about what to choose to eat. "Com-pu-ter Shred-dies with milk and su-gar," she stated in that same tone of voice as before,

"Request not understood," Phoenix jumped as a woman's voice came out of nowhere but realised that it must be the device, amazing, and that obviously Shreddies was a brand name. She would have to think about this,

"Sephiroth, what breakfast cereals are there here?" she asked. Sephiroth sighed, maybe she would be a little late starting her training he thought. Sephiroth proceeded to name off a few and explain in terms she understood what they were, having seen into her mind he could tell her what cereals most resembled that of ones she knew, and she soon realised that they weren't that big on cereals here. Eventually she picked one after she saw a vision of irritation cross Sephiroth's face. Phoenix wasn't too keen on the resulting cereals but ate them…mostly…and put her not quite empty bowl back and watched avidly as it dematerialised. Sephiroth's response was instantaneous,

"Follow me," he said, "We'll get started on your training immediately," Phoenix was not looking forward to this at all but she followed albeit reluctantly, pretty much just humouring him at the moment. Sephiroth walked down to the room in the basement, (not that it looked anything like a basement if you factored in the gym, swimming pool and other rooms down there), where she had found him training the day before. She went in, the room was the size of a seriously large sports hall and had black shiny walls with lined grids along every surface, other than that the room was completely empty. Sephiroth walked to the middle of the room and Phoenix followed.

"Sephiroth before we start can I ask a few questions?" she asked, she wanted to know about what Tifa had said.

"No," he said simply, "You will have to wait until after training we're already late to start," She somehow felt like she had been told off but if he didn't want to talk then she couldn't exactly make him, so she would just have to wait, for now anyway. "Alright Phoenix we'll be starting simple building up your stamina, speed, balance and strength and I'll be teaching you the basics of martial arts and use of weapons," she stared at Sephiroth. Start Simple, that doesn't sound simple. Why in the world did he want to teach me this stuff? And how was all that basic? she wondered, but more came "We'll also start with the basics of magic and I'll be teaching you to fly," At this she seemed to pay more attention.

"Sorry did you just say magic? And Fly?" she asked amazed but sceptical.

"Yes but more about that later, I'll also teach you about mental abilities and anything else that comes up along the way!" Sephiroth stated, "So we'll begin with basic martial arts."

"But you said magic, are you serious, is that even real?" Phoenix asked thinking that after what she's seen recently magic seemed to be more reasonable than once it would have,

"Yes I said magic but you aren't ready for that yet," he responded, "Now…"

"Why not, that might actually be interesting, and flying? You mean like you did?" she interrupted, Sephiroth was not particularly amused with her but answered anyway,

"Yes fly but you'll have to be a lot stronger before we do that the way I did, now no more questions!" Phoenix seemed to feel that it would not be a good idea to continue the subject, but she was dying to know more. Truth be told Phoenix had always wanted to be good at martial arts too, she had tried karate when she was younger but found that she didn't have the patience and besides what could she really learn in one lesson a week and so she had given it up. She did however remember the basics so when Sephiroth told her to get in a fighting stance she got into the one that was the basic stance of karate. Sephiroth inspected her stance and made a few adjustments, Ok I guess it's not karate I'm learning she thought when her stance no longer resembled what it did a few moments ago. Mostly she wanted to know more about magic, and flying, but she doubted he would do the training before he decided too,

"That will be your basic stance so make sure you remember it and don't let it slip," Sephiroth sounded like a very strict teacher and he was. Over the next three hours he showed her how to hit, kick, dodge, move, take a hit, fall and anything in between and every time her stance slipped she ended up on the floor. He moved from one thing to the next before she had any hope of getting right what she was doing. She had no idea what he was expecting her to be able to do, she could only assume that he was more or less doing an introduction and Sephiroth delighted in making her lose her balance the whole way through. She ached everywhere, she was sure that she must be bruised all over from taking hits and falls. She was tired and more than ready to call it quits, why should she have to put up with this? It was then that she had her break for dinner finally, she wasn't hungry, she was too tired to be hungry but she got an hour, a whole blissful hour, to recover. But alas her break was over all to soon for her liking and she followed Sephiroth back to the training room with great trepidation. She was seriously lacking any kind of motivation to continue.

"Ok so this session is going to be a little different you may wish to lie down," Sephiroth told her, lie down that was a bit weird she thought but she did as she was told. He indicated an area of the floor furthest away from the door, which was situated half way down the length of the wall. She laid down. "Alright your training ends today when you reach the door," he stated, she found that odd, there was obviously going to be a catch and she was right, "Computer, 8 G's," Sephiroth smirked at her. Suddenly the pressure on her was immense, she was pinned down by the air itself as if it was a ton of water on top of her and even breathing was difficult, she couldn't move. She tried to talk but it was quite an effort to make her lungs heave the air out so she tried 'thinking' in his direction,

"Sephiroth what have you done I can't move," Phoenix said, Sephiroth, who of course was still standing as though it was nothing replied,

"I've increased the gravity in the room to 8 G's, your training is to get to the door. Eventually you will be able to do all your training in this gravity easily," Easily, she thought stunned, she could not see that happening. She knew that RAF pilots were trained to withstand up to 10 G's but that was passing out point and he expected her to do a full work out and train in 8 G's, she couldn't believe it, her own ribs felt like they were made of lead,

"I can't do that," Phoenix thought to him

"You will, or you will be there for the rest of the day," he stated matter of factly and so he stood and waited for her to do the training but there was no chance. Was lying down for the rest of the day really that bad? she thought to herself. It was difficult to breath but at least she could breath, but if she pushed herself then breathing would be a lot harder.

"Sephiroth it's not possible, my body can't handle that kind of stress I'll have a heart attack," she said to him,

"Phoenix," he answered, "Your body is capable of putting up with greater stress now because of the changes that you went through and I wouldn't be telling you to do it unless that were so, now do it!" But Phoenix still wasn't inclined to do so, this is ridiculous, why should I have to do this training anyway? she wondered. She had no motivation to do as Sephiroth told her to, she could lie here for as long as necessary, especially when a possible heart attack was the alternative.

Sephiroth watched as she just laid there, he could tell from her mind that she had resigned herself to just staying there. He had expected it, from what he knew about her he knew that if she didn't want to do something she usually didn't have much motivation to do it unless it was necessary, but in the case of training he knew she had no motivation and in her mind no reason to do it. Sephiroth though, had his reasons for wanting her to be trained up, to be as strong and skilled as a SOLDIER 1st class and it wasn't just to defend herself against thugs, but he wasn't going to tell her his reasons. So that meant that he had to give her motivation that would work for her and for that he had several options, he just had to use what he knew about her against her, use what she wanted most, or didn't want at a particular moment, and he had just the thing that he knew that would motivate her, and he would enjoy the torment. He walked over to her and stood where her head was laid.

"Are you going to do the training? Or do I have to give you some motivation?" he asked, the look on his face almost dared her to say 'no' to training and that's exactly what she did, he wasn't going to scare her this time she thought.

"No I'm not it's ridiculous," Phoenix thought to him, but she didn't like the look on his face, he was definitely up to something.

"Then that means I will have to provide you with the motivation to DO the training then won't I," he stated. She wondered what he could possible offer her to make her want to do it, she couldn't go home and that was all she pretty much wanted, well…that and to not do training but obviously he wasn't going to offer that. "So here's the offer…" and he smirked at her as he said it, Sephiroth was anticipating her response to his 'offer'. "…either you find the strength to get to that door sometime soon or…" and he slowly leaned down so that he was, from her point of view, looking at her from upside down right over her face, he leaned down onto one knee and lent closer and closer till he was about one foot above her,

"Sephiroth…what are you doing?" she asked nervously,

"Do the training Phoenix," he said in a low, quiet bone chilling voice that was almost a growl, "…Or…I…will…kiss…you!"

Ba-dum,

Her heart almost pounded it's way out of her chest despite the gravity along with her eyes out of her head. Phoenix's face assumed the standard beetroot colour in record time and she took several moments to realise that she wasn't breathing.

"So what will it be hmmm," he asked in that same low voice, she just laid there in shock, she couldn't believe he had just said that. She knew that it was rather pathetic but she had never actually been kissed before, not by someone who wasn't family anyway, not like…that. And she had come to think that since it had been this long she might as well save it for someone special, corny…most definitely, she knew it but why not? And now Sephiroth was leaning over her threatening to kiss her if she didn't try to move in a ridiculous 8 G's. This was not how she had imagined it to go, she had imagined something romantic with someone she had grown to care deeply about, maybe a warm night with stars, or a sunset, just something nice not a psycho who was threatening her. Though if nothing else her heart was pounding.

"Is that your answer then?" he asked, Sephiroth slowly started to lean down towards her, his face slowly getting closer, panic panic panic! Mental scream, No, no, no, no, no, no,

"No, no, no ok, ok, ok I'll do it," she shouted to Sephiroth out loud and mentally in a panicked mental frenzy, she felt tired from just from talking out loud. Sephiroth smirked, she knew that she had given him exactly what he wanted as he got up and walked back over to where he had been standing. She laid there for a while forcing herself to calm down it was ok he hadn't done anything she thought.

"Are you going to do it or do I have to come back over there?" Sephiroth asked, Nooooo panic.

"Nooo I'm doing it just gimmi a minute," she thought to him getting worked up again. Ok so she had to do something. She tried to lift her arm but it didn't want to move, this is going to be so hard she thought and she was definitely right. She started out by taking a small eternity to turn over then slowly but surely she dragged herself inch by inch towards the door, she felt so pathetic and no doubt looked it but her arms didn't want to move, her legs didn't want to move and nor did any other body part and of course the more she moved the more she needed to breathe from the exertion and the harder that was too. Her lungs and heart felt like they were at their limit, the whole thing was so strenuous but she was taking the easiest route along the floor, she doubted she could stand up no matter how hard she tried, but that wasn't enough for Sephiroth, it had taken Phoenix about ½ an hour to get half way when he said,

"That's enough of that, the only way you will continue is if you actually start trying to get up." Get up? No! he can't be serious, she thought, that would be impossible. she looked up to where he was standing and she could see that he was deadly serious, would he really kiss me as punishment? she couldn't stop the brief image crossing her mind as she though of him actually doing it. A shiver ran through her spine and if her face wasn't already red from the effort of training it would have been then, she could not let that happen. She wondered again if he would actually do it but although she didn't really know Sephiroth that well she thought she knew him well enoughto assume he would not have a problem doing it, but then she remembered something he had said 'I haven't had time for any relationships'. He had said it when she had first asked him for some cloths other than his, so that meant that he hadn't been with a woman either, a flicker of hope. would he really just do it? she thought. She looked up and she could see Sephiroth rolling his eyes, he could obviously 'hear' her train of thought. But all this brought her to the conclusion that maybe he wouldn't take out his punishment on her.

"Phoenix," Sephiroth said in as close to a sickly sweet voice as his voice could allow, "You'll find that that's not quite what I told you. I told you that I hadn't been in a relationship before, not that I had never been with a woman before, but then that wouldn't be any of your business now would it?" crud she thought hope squashed. She thought that she had had something going there but no. She did however learn something about Sephiroth, he was just another typical perverted man! She supposed that if he was the best of the best a lot of women who had no better ethics would have flocked to him and Sephiroth being a man would most likely have been quite happy to take his jollies out. She was happily in that train of thought when she felt the warning bells ringing in her head, Sephiroth was looking down on her again and she could swear that the gravity just got ten times heavier just from his eyes pinning you down.

"SO, you think I'm your average typical perverted man do you!" Sephiroth's voice got slow and menacing, it was icy cold, "Well then that should mean that I won't have any problems going through with my THREAT now should it!" Phoenix found herself swallowing,

"No th…that's not what I meant, I just…I just…"

"You just WHAT? Phoenix,"

"I'm sure that you wouldn't, you've got too much honour I'm sure, unlike me,"

"Oh so you think I wouldn't go through with my threat,"

"No, yes I mean yes you would, you would, you just wouldn't do anything too much because of your honour right…right,"

"Right," Sephiroth finished, "now get on with it." This was horrible she thought, she was worked up again, she was certain that he did it on purpose. Sephiroth continued to glare down at her,

"Alright already I'm doing it just stop glaring at me it adds an extra 10 G's," she pleaded. Sephiroth looked quite pleased with himself and looked away but he didn't move away from her this time. After taking a minute she got on with her task of getting to the door, this time making more of an attempt to get up. Her Head alone felt like a bowling ball and each of her limbs like they were laden with lead but she proceeded under Sephiroth's threat.

Eventually she got there, and since she hadn't been able to drag herself it had gotten a lot harder on the second half. Sephiroth had told her that she would only be able to make process if she was on no less that hands and knees, so she had had to crawl but the shear effort of getting to her knees in 8 G's made the rest of the way to the door seem like 100 miles away. Her whole body was aching no end when she got out the door, her lungs were burning along with her heart and throat, and her knees, hands and elbows all felt like they were in pieces and her head swam from the exertion. The relief she felt going back into normal gravity was immense and she collapsed on the spot, in the hallway, with no intentions of moving any further for at least half an hour. Sephiroth came out, the door closing behind him,

"When your ready come find me in the living room" he said. What, no well done? She thought

"Oh and well done," he said. If her head hadn't already been on the floor she would have just hit her head off of it on purpose. He so only said that because he heard me she thought. That whole experience had been horrific but she figured that wouldn't be the only time she had to do it. She was right of course she just didn't know it yet. She must have spent another hour getting to the door and now she laid on the floor outside for at least half an hour before getting up and going to find Sephiroth for whatever other torture he was going to put her through.