Chapter 7

Something was always on Tseng's mind; the well being of a Turk on a mission and the successful completion of it, what others were doing, they weren't assigned to Missions; especially Reno. Curious to wondering thoughts would start to wonder about possible new threats against the President that would, per usual, be called into his office or dropped on his desk; to threats against the President's son. Lately, as his fingers played against the top of his desk; they were drumming out a soft tune that he had remembered from this childhood in the jungle like country of Wutai. There was a feeling that was nagging at him. He couldn't place what it was. If he hadn't known any better, he would've said it was his conscious telling him to pursue what the General had told him no more then a few days ago. After Tseng had left Cloud's bunk a few days prior regarding his absence, on the behest of his friends; Tseng had confronted the General regarding his "approach" towards the young blond Cadet, Cloud Strife. Sephiroth, as usual and like the man he was, brushed the incident off as nothing; claiming Cloud was the one that was out of his mind. Stating that the boy was nothing short of yet another little fan boy of his that once they had drank in the power of the man being around them; they seemed to not know what truly happened.

Putting it bluntly, the General out right stated that, the boy had his thoughts jumbled about what the General had meant about his actions when simply talking with the boy. Tseng's thoughts were nagging to the point that if they were to take a shape; he could've sworn it looked like the young Princess of Wutai, a kind of Ninja in training, Yuffie Kisaragi. As annoying as she had seemed in Wutai; having her in his thoughts now, was just as annoying and she was letting up while waving a kind of wooden form of a shuriken above her head, while threatening harm against Tseng. Especially if he didn't get, pardon her language for such a young lady, 'off his ass and do something about it,' he was going to find splinters in not such a nice place. He attempted to drown out the sound of the angry conscious Ninja in his head by drumming out an old folk song that his Mother had taught him for when he was annoyed. But she kept persisting and thank Gaia for there being no camera's in his office.

Because the Security Officer that would have to been watching his office would have to had report that the Head Turk had all about lost it as Tseng slammed his hand down on his desk.

"FINE! I'M GOING! I'M GOING TO GO FIND OUT THE TRUTH! YOU HAPPY NOW, YOU ANNOYING LITTLE NINJA PEST?!" Tseng waited for his conscious to catch up with his rage as he could sense was the inner self of him at the moment that had taken on the fury of a jungle tiger being petted and coaxed down by the Conscious Ninja, "…Heh. If this job doesn't kill me, just the utter stress from you is going to…"

With a soft giggle and hug around the scruff of the man's inner self, the conscious faded away as Tseng's footsteps took him towards the Security Office, This better work or I'm going to have some apologizing to do to a seven foot tall silver haired Demi-God with a sword as long as him…and a report to make about a possible suicidal Cadet...

~XXX~

"Going out somewhere, Mr. Tseng?" the young woman; that was as it seemed, Tseng's Secretary spoke up as she saw him walking out of his office.

Tseng simply nodded to her, "Yes, I'm going down to the Security Office to check on a report I've received recently about some possible surveillance of some possible curfew breaking Cadets."

With a nod of her head she went back to her work, but her voice stopped Tseng momentarily as she handed him a report that had just recently crossed her desk, "This came for you just now from the Teachers; its an evaluation about a particular Cadet in the classes…I know you don't handle Student Evaluations from the Teachers, but they said that it was at best that you read the report so as to figure out a course of action for the young man."

"Who is the student?" Tseng started to flip through the file, but as the Secretary prepared to answer; his face took a horrifying look upon itself as he saw who it was.

"C Class Cadet, Cloud Strife. It seems that he hasn't been himself lately; not paying attention in class, slight paranoia, nearly attacked a fellow Cadet with full force during Sword Practices a day or so ago; screaming something about that he wasn't going to let someone hurt him…"

It seemed that the General's actions against Cloud had left the boy scatterbrained and paranoid that it was going to happen again; not a combination that was qualities to look for in future SOLDIERS or Turks. Something had to be done. As he read on, he found that Cloud as of late, had been fumbling in his practice battles; cowering at the mere sight of anyone getting too close to him to the level of the boy would start shrieking like a banshee, crying out for the fellow Cadet to not touch him.

He was becoming an issue for the Teachers.

It could hurt the young and promising Cadet's chances for SOLDIER, if he had such plans. He was also becoming a liability issue for the Company; it was growing in close to when squads of Cadets that showed potential, would be getting the opportunity to be sent out on a small Mission alongside two SOLDIER escorts. Something had to give or change before then; he had to get Cloud the chance to take on the challenge because from what he had seen, even from the odd choice in friends he had, the boy had potential to go far. Letting that be destroyed because the General couldn't keep it in his pants was something he wasn't going to allow or allow it to be the reason a promising Cadet didn't fulfill his dream.

"Felicity, hold all my calls and other meetings for the rest of the day," Tseng remarked as he closed the file and placed it back on her desk before starting the walk to the Security Office.

"Not a problem, sir, will you still be going to ShinRa Mansion tonight on the behest of the President?"

He had nearly let the dinner date slip past his mind as he ran a hand down his face, "I'm still going tonight…I won't be long."

~XXX~

Sephiroth, at any other time, was a patient man; it was as if he was a man born with the soul of animal that waited in the shadows to pounce at the right moment and could just as easily get away with anything and everything. Lately, that patience had begun to grow thin. Urges for the young Cadet he had nearly had days prior were growing and growing, but they were soon being overshadowed by the cryptic and annoying text messages from Genesis. The man had all but destroyed his own phone of the days when he read the message that was later sent with a Photo by the man. Genesis was a handsome and beautiful man, but it seemed his morals were less then lacking at the moment from the proof the picture had shown. General Sephiroth was growing impatient as it showed as he drilled his nails against his own desk; his mind was still going over the messages Genesis had recently sent. They were almost taunting in their manner, taunting him in a way to come out and chase him down so that he could just run his sword through Genesis; while Genesis had other ideas for the sword. He could hardly look at his phone after that text message conversation, but now and again, the man would leave him messages with text, taunting him into the throes of anger.

His anger had been something to fear, even after the poor 3rd Class SOLDIER Grunt who found him self facing down the General's blade before the man had walked away. Sephiroth was become volatile and hostile towards others; Angeal had made sure to keep Zack at a distance the day he had seen the man leering Angeal up and down while having a small glint of lust in his eyes for the young Pup. Angeal had known that for time, Sephiroth had questioned taking on "training" the Puppy, but the way the man would word it and speak it out; he could have sworn in that time, he had heard a purr come from the man's lips. It frightened him, even to the point that he had made good on a promise to train with the silver haired General; it had been only then that he learned why the man was riled. Even to the point that Angeal couldn't look the man in the face without dredging up the memory of the General pinning him against the wall of the Training Room they had taken to training in that day while that man had ravished lips and before he could slip into his mouth. Angeal had played him off, at least that's what he had shown to Sephiroth; thank the Gods Zack had called him at just the right time regarding that he hadn't seen Cloud as jumpy as he seen him just a short few moments before he had called Angeal.

Everyone was catching on to the General; someone had rattled his cage and that was never a pleasant thing with Sephiroth.

~XXX~

"So, what is it that you want to check out, sir?" the head man of the Security room looked at Tseng with a look that seemed to say, 'You want to what?'

Tseng sighed to himself as he tapped at the monitor that was set up in Sephiroth's office, "I want the Security tapes from last week when the General was conducting the Post Meetings with the Cadets that had been pulled into the Materia Exam last week and don't tell me you don't have them," his gazed leered on the side of pissed off and annoyed, "Everyone knows that the General's office is monitored any time someone goes into the office with him."

The man turned back as he started to thumb through the videos till he came upon it, "Well, let's watch it then…" as the man prepared to pop it into the playback player; he turned back to Tseng, "Any particular reason sir?"

"Just let me watch it…it doesn't concern you, just something that was brought to my attention that the President asked me to look into; he thinks that the General has become a little too friendly with one of the Cadets…" Tseng's words drawled out as he watched the video play upon the moment that Cloud had been brought into the General's office; everything seemed fine up until the sight of the General crawling up into the Cadet's lap caught the man's attention, "…You sick little son of a…"

Thankfully, the Security officer had returned to his job and wasn't enhanced to hear the grumbling words coming from Tseng's lips or the sound of the man's teeth grinding together, even the growl that slowly worked its way through Tseng's throat, "You sick son of a…you lied right to my face…"

"…Thank you for letting me view this; would you mind if I took this with me to show to the President?"

The Security Officer merely shrugged, "Keep it, we keep copies of the videos should one of you guys need the hard copy for whatever particular reason."

How naïve the man had to be to not know what Tseng was planning on doing with the information, but was showing this to the President in his best interest? Would the man even take his word that Sephiroth had crossed the line with a Cadet and should be reprimanded? There would be no end to the words that would ramble out of that man's mouth when he heard from his prize Turk that the General should be punished for getting a little too close with a Cadet. What harm was there in it? That's what he knew the man would say even if he hadn't shown the man the tape or hadn't confronted the President with the condemning evidence. Sephiroth was the prize toy of ShinRa. He could do no wrong in their eyes.

Or so it was thought.

An alarm started to ring through out the building of a possible attack in the Quad and that the General was involved in on the struggle that was going on with the attack; what was this place coming to?

~XXX~

"Hey, Spiky, what you doing out here in the Quad by yourself?" Zack sat down on one side of Cloud as he ran a ruffling hand through Cloud's spikes; any other time, the youth would've brushed it off and told Zack to stop but right now, he just needed that comfort, "…You okay there buddy?"

Cloud was silent as if holding back a scream of wanting to spill out why he was clammed up, but as he looked up towards Zack, Reno took to joining them on Cloud's other side, "What's up, kid? Missed you a lot recently…what's got you all spooked that anytime someone comes near you, you run off like a like a rabbit facing down a hungry wolf?"

"…The General…he…he tried to…"Cloud could hardly get the words out and they were incapable of getting out of his mouth as he felt a hand grab him around the throat as he was pulled from his sulking spot in the Quad by the leather gloved hand of the General, "NO! NO! LET ME GO!"

"CLOUD!" Zack and Reno simultaneously screamed out as a panic was thrown into the Quad as the two men charged at the General who was doing all he could to break the youth; an alarm was sounded as Zack fought tooth and nail to pry the General's enhanced from the youth's breaking throat.

Reno swore to himself as he realized he had left his newly acquired weapon, the EMR, at his desk, "Damn it!"

~XXX~

Moments before the General's break of human decency and self image, the man had been walking along the nearby cat walk towards his office; bumping into a hazy eyed Tseng. Luck was on Tseng's side as the General never once questioned the odd sound that came from under the man's jacket; if the man had at all suspected anything, all that he knew was the truth to help the worried mind of Cloud's mind would have been destroyed in that instant. Things were only destined to join down a different path that no one could've seen coming; Genesis was up to it again and this time, his message was almost as if he was taunting to take away the General's play thing. The man's message was more or less a sick game to make the great General break down and become Genesis little play thing.

There was only one solution in the General's mind…

…Break his supposed play thing before Genesis could break his play thing, or even at best, steal the play thing from the General.

No one was going to have him…

No one…

Only him…

But he had lost all sense ability once his eyes cast themselves upon the raven haired SOLDIER and fiery red headed Turk comforting his play thing; they had to be taken out before he could take out his play thing.

No one saw the General coming…Not even Cloud.

~XXX~

Tseng was hoping that the alarm blaring was simply a false alarm or prank by Cadets that had nothing better to do when they could've been studying for either exams or doing homework, but what he saw when he came upon the Quad. It would haunt his dreams that night if he was ever going to sleep that night; Cloud was slowly turning a shade of blue, as blue as his Cadet Uniform while Zack and Reno were doing everything short of sinking their teeth into the General's form. Other Cadets who had been in the nearby areas, hearing the sound of the alarm had clamored to cheer on the fight, but when they saw it was the General, attempting to kill one of their own. There were no sounds of egging on cat calls; there were screeches of pure horror while some of the older Cadets egged the General on. They seemed to believe it was only a test to see if the Cadet make it out of a similar experience should they find themselves faced with such a challenge; Zack and Reno, in the back of their minds were killing those Cadets a thousand other ways and that way in their heads as they fought to pry Cloud away. All Tseng could do was watch on in utter horror as the Cadet's eyes seemed to roll back in his head as Sephiroth's grip tightened and tightened upon the boy's throat, but something seemed to stop the onslaught.

"GET HIM OUT OF THERE!" Tseng screamed across the Quad as the Cadets began to scatter back to where they had come running from as Sephiroth seemed to drop the Cadet to the floor, "SEPHIROTH! STOP!"

Sephiroth seemed to only stop at the order, not because he had dropped the Cadet as he glanced over his shoulder towards the man as he watched Zack and Reno attempting to stir the half conscious blond, "…Be wary of how close you come to such people Tseng...You are of a particular breed; purebred shouldn't breed or intermix with the mongrels…Remember that."
~XXX~
"You really should return to your office, sir, the President has been called regarding Sephiroth's actions and he has told us that action shall be taken against the General for his actions today," the Infirmary Nurse tried to maneuver Tseng from the Infirmary and from Cloud's bed side, but the man's stare seemed to send a chill through her spine, "I assure you sir, I will call you should anything change with the young man."

Reno and Zack stood at the ready to pin the Turk should the man make any attempts to attack the woman; Tseng had all but nearly attacked the General for his smart remarks as he departed. He knew full well what the man meant; it had taken a firm hand to the man's shoulder by Reno to calm the man down and then just as much persuasion to follow them to the Infirmary. Cloud hadn't stirred since being brought to the Infirmary; Tseng was an utter loss as he felt there was nothing else he could do at the moment.

As his hand brushed past his coat for a second, he remembered the tape, "…To think I have the proof I need to get Sephiroth in trouble and I couldn't even see it coming that he was coming for you…" Tseng grunted to himself as he placed the tape down beside Cloud's bedside; Zack and Reno had taken to leaving the man with Cloud.

Reno had been ordered by Tseng to return to his work while Zack was ordered to report to Angeal, there had to be someone else he could bug besides Tseng and the unconscious blond at the moment. Neither man had wanted to leave their friend's side, but Tseng's gaze at Cloud seemed to say otherwise as they waved their silent goodbye to their friend. Once alone, Tseng leaned forward as he brushed fingers against the blonde's forehead, sighing at the sight; such a young and youthful young man and yet, he was troubled so deeply. His fingers began to trace down Cloud's face till they were about the youth's neck.

With a jolt, Cloud awoke, nearly screaming, "Calm down, Cadet…calm down…it's alright…it's alrig---" Tseng felt cut off as he felt Cloud's arms wrap around his neck; softly sobbing against the man's jacket, "Cadet?"

"…I thought he was going to kill me before I had the chance to say what I've wanted to say to you for so long…"Cloud's voice was muffled by his face being buried in against Tseng's shirt and jacket as well as his sobs, "…I've had the strangest dreams since our first meeting and I've realized now…"

Tseng pulled Cloud away from his chest as he looked into the soft blue eyes, pooling with tears; he wasn't prepared for what the blond was going to say next, but with a swift kick in the backside from the conscious Ninja in his head, "…Shhh, its okay…I'm here now…"

Cloud was scared but yet confused as he looked into Tseng's face, "Y-You…You aren't…upset…"

"Its hard to be upset at someone when I've got a kind of little Ninja in my head threatening to beat me up if I'm not nice to you and hear you out…"for the first time, Tseng, actually seemed to chuckle as he just gathered Cloud into his arms, cuddling him in a sense, "…You aren't the only whose had strange dreams since then…and I guess, the only way to know that they meaning anything is to…"

"Is to what?" Cloud softly blushed as he waited for Tseng to answer, but all he received was the one thing he had dreamt of in the strange and awkward dreams; Tseng actually kissed him.

Cloud felt he should've pushed it away after the General had attempted the same thing, but Tseng's kiss felt warm, inviting, real…There was no denying it now even as Cloud, slowly, wrapped his arms around Tseng's neck. Deepening the kiss by only a fraction of it all, but Tseng seemed to relax into it till they parted; a blush was shared between them both as the man pecked the youth's lips once again before they began to lightly chuckle between the two of them. Tseng opted to stay with Cloud as long as he wished for the man to stay and as far as Cloud could see it; it didn't matter how long Tseng stayed, they were finally pass blushing at one another in passing. This was real for once; all of those dreams were finally being realized and answered. All that mattered now was…how to face down the General and assuring that he didn't attempt to break him once again.