A SOLDIER's Weapon

By Oniko

Chapter 8

… … …

After Cloud regained control of this temper, Sephiroth settled back onto his heels and waited. Cloud offered no explanations, simply motioned for him to continue the forms as if nothing had happened. Cloud corrected his stance and his arm position repeatedly as he worked through the first form. Cloud called a halt after a few moments.

"I thought you'd pick up on this quicker," Cloud said. "Seems like you have to learn the hard way. Give me Ashura."

With a lead in like that, Sephiroth was almost certain that he wasn't going to like where the lesson was heading, but he didn't want Cloud to stop teaching him either. And, he wanted to break this habit. Now that he was aware of how dangerous it could be he refused to let it get the better of him. Sephiroth unstrapped Ashura and reluctantly passed Cloud the sheathed blade. Cloud took it and laid it on the ground behind him near the Fusion Sword.

"Your goal is to reach Ashura and arm yourself," Cloud said. "Now, fighting stance."

As soon as Sephiroth dropped into ready Cloud attacked. It was all Sephiroth could do to hold him at bay, and he was constantly pressing Sephiroth's right side, the side Sephiroth had turned slightly away from him. The arm he kept pulling back. When Sephiroth wasn't able to bring his arm up in time to block he took a light hit on the hip and side. Not hard, but enough that he knew he had gotten hit. He was probably going to need a cure when they were finished.

Cloud was relentless, not giving Sephiroth a chance to rally or respond, only fend off attacks. After what could have been a minute, maybe two, but felt like an eternity. Cloud eased up, slowed and settled into a steady pattern. High, low, high, mid, low, repeat. It gave Sephiroth room to think, and not just react. Sephiroth also notice that his arm was pulled up in a defensive position, but whenever it dropped, Cloud would break the pattern to strike.

Sephiroth needed to get to his sword. He needed to turn the pattern against Cloud. Sephiroth blocked the low and ducked the high, throwing a quick hard blow to Cloud's solar plexus. But Cloud wasn't there. He had danced back out of range, and nodded approvingly. He still wasn't far enough away for Sephiroth to reach Ashura.

Sephiroth pressed his attack, trying to push Cloud back and away. Even so Cloud managed to maintain control of the flow of the fight, keep himself between Sephiroth and the swords, and Sephiroth found himself circling around and somehow farther away from the swords then when he had started. He bit back a frustrated snarl and focused on Cloud. If he could figure out how Cloud was controlling the fight he might be able to do the same.

He pressed the attack again, and watched how Cloud shifted and turned, leading him around in broad circles while on the defensive. If Sephiroth couldn't push Cloud away from the swords maybe Sephiroth could do the same and lead him away.

Sephiroth eased back on the attack. Cloud didn't take up the attack immediately, so Sephiroth deliberately dropped his right hand back without following through with a rear-hand punch. That was all it took, Cloud stuck out at him. Even expecting the blow Sephiroth was barely able to get his hand back up in time to block it. He carefully stepped back and to the side, trying to lead Cloud away from the swords.

And succeeding, if Cloud figured out what he was doing was unclear but he followed just as Sephiroth had followed him previously. But now that Sephiroth was controlling the flow of the fight he was uncertain where he wanted to go with it.

He considered the layout of the area they were fighting in. The thick canopy prevented much of the undergrowth that he was more familiar with in sims of forested areas. However, it wasn't completely clear either. Tree trunks rose like thick column from the ground to towering heights at irregular intervals. A rough plan formed in Sephiroth's mind. He began leading Cloud away from the swords, through the trees.

After circling part-way around a particularly large tree, Sephiroth could see the glint of steel out of the corner of his eye. The Fusion Sword marked where Ashura lay as well. He dropped his rear-had deliberately again, this time catching Cloud's arm when he lunged forward to strike. Sephiroth kicked Cloud's legs out from under him, but instead of bearing down on him to pin him to the ground like the move was designed, Sephiroth dropped Cloud's arm and made a break for the swords. The purpose of the exercise, he had to keep in mind, was not to defeat Cloud but to arm himself.

Sephiroth knew that they were fairly evenly matched on strength and speed, so given a head start he should be able to reach the swords first. How much of a head start would determine whether Sephiroth would have the time to arm himself before Cloud caught up to him.

His fingers were just curling around Ashura's hilt when Cloud crashed into him, sending them both tumbling to the ground. By the time everything righted itself Sephiroth found himself pinned down on his back with Cloud holding him down. The band securing his braid was a hard knot in the small of his back. It also pulled his head back uncomfortably exposing his throat to Cloud.

"Do you yield?" Cloud asked softly. Maybe it was the low voice or the vulnerable position, but whatever the cause the result was heat pooling low in his stomach. Sephiroth knew that if he didn't get Cloud off of him soon both of them were going to get an uncomfortable reminder of what exactly Cloud was pressing against.

"No." But he wasn't just going to give up either. He kicked one leg up and managed to hook his foot around Cloud's throat, pulling him back and off of Sephiroth. After a solid follow-up kick to Cloud's stomach Sephiroth scrambled to his feet.

Before he could get his bearings again Cloud had him back on the ground, face down this time, pressing into the soft loam. Sephiroth struggled against Cloud, but all of his blood was rushing to his now raging erection, pausing long enough to bring a bright flush to his cheeks, made it difficult to focus on what he should be doing. Or remembering why he wanted to push Cloud off.

"Do you yield?" Cloud asked again, his voice soft and low, hot breath ghosting against Sephiroth's ear. Sephiroth couldn't help the soft groan that escaped, at the sudden need twisting inside of him. Cloud loosened his grip and pulled away.

"No!" Sephiroth snarled. He struggled to get his hands under him, to push against Cloud's weight, pushing aside the errant thought that he just didn't want Cloud to let go. Cloud's grip tightened and Sephiroth was slammed hard against the ground.

"Alright," Cloud agreed, sounding more amused than anything.

Sephiroth struggled, but there was no way to force the leverage he needed to push Cloud off like the last time. Sephiroth tried to relax, focus on the situation and his available options.

"You can't get out of this, you know," Cloud said casually, relaxed like he could keep Sephiroth pinned in place all day if he needed to. He probably could.

"Doesn't it defeat the purpose of the lesson?" Sephiroth asked between pants. His breath came in fast short bursts that caused the silver fringe of his hair that had fallen into his face to dance in front of his eyes.

"Not at all," Cloud said. "The goal is not necessarily the lesson."

"What was the lesson then?" Sephiroth asked, shifting slightly under Cloud's weight.

"You tell me."

Sephiroth considered their discussion before the fight, considered the general nature of most of Cloud's lessons. The purpose was rarely as straight forward as a simple weapons or sparring session. Most of them focused on- "You wanted me to think, analyze your pattern and form a response to reach my goal while fighting."

That was something that was easier said than done. Most fights rarely lasted longer than a few moments and depended on reactions and muscle memory to respond to the immediate threat. Someone who was able to analyze, plan, and respond on the fly would make a very dangerous opponent.

"Very good," Cloud said. "And what can you tell my about your current situation."

Sephiroth scowled and didn't want to admit it, but Cloud was right. He wasn't getting up unless Cloud let him up. He tapped out, his hand tapping Cloud lightly on the leg twice, the only bit of him Sephiroth could reach. "I yield."

Cloud stood up and held out a hand to help Sephiroth to his feet. Fortunately, his hormones had finally subsided enough that he was able to stand and brush himself off without any embarrassment. Cloud handed him Ashura, the swords were a few paces away.

"I'm surprise all our crashing around hasn't attracted any monsters," Sephiroth noted.

Cloud showed Sephiroth his armband that had several independent Materia, active and glowing with a soft purple light. They ranged in color from a pale lavender quartz to a rich dark aubergine. Cloud pointed at one of the darker ones. "Enemy Away. It's not foolproof but it wards off most things."

Sephiroth felt his eyebrows rise up. He had heard of Enemy Lure, but this sounded infinitely more useful. He was surprised that it wasn't marketed more heavily to civilians as a protective measure. But then the choices that ShinRa made as a business did not always make logical sense.

"We should get back." Cloud said. The green twilight under the canopy was fading to darkness. Neither he nor Cloud had any difficulty seeing, but it was getting late and they probably already missed dinner.

Once back in Mideel the setting sun still lit the western skies. They found Rufus, Nanaki and a group of other children from both the mines and town playing an incomprehensible game that seemed to involve ushering a leather ball made from scrap cloth from one end of the street to the other under the Veld's watchful eye.

"I see you found him," Veld said as they approached, not taking his eyes off of the smiling blond boy in the middle of the small pack of children.

Cloud made a non-committal grunt. He ambled to a stop next to Veld to watch the children, and, having nothing better to do, Sephiroth followed suit. "So, what's the verdict?"

"The doctors want him to stick around for a few more days," Veld said. "Make sure he doesn't relapse."

"Do we have a few more days?"

"It's cutting it a little close," Veld said. "The president wants his son back, and Hojo is chomping at the bit to get his hands on the boy."

"Hmm," Cloud said watching the children. They ceased playing their game and instead Rufus, Camille and Nanaki stood in the center of the group, it was difficult to isolate their voices and decipher what they were arguing about amidst the din of the other children shouting.

Rufus turned and pushed his way through the crowd. Veld stepped away from the wall he had been leaning against and stood straight as the boy broke free from the kids and ran to him. Rufus' face was red and blotchy, blinking back tears that beaded on thick eyelashes but didn't fall.

"Rufus, what's wrong?" Veld asked.

"They said that ShinRa is killing the planet," Rufus cried. "They said that my dad was sucking the life out of the planet with the reactors and he was killing us all!"

Sephiroth couldn't help the sharp intake of air at the boy's outburst. They should have realized that with Cosmo Canyon elements in town Anti-ShinRa sentiment would be running high. Add to that the fact that the Mythril Mine Co-op was well known as a ShinRa company and what happened to the children had already made quick rounds through the local gossip network. The fact that it was ShinRa SOLDIER and ShinRa troops who rescued them was conspicuously absent from the rumors.

"He wouldn't do that, would he?" There was slight doubting tremor in that question, a boy questioning the omnipotence of a father who always seemed larger than life. Sephiroth could relate, and he didn't envy Veld the job of figuring out what to tell the boy.

"Did they say that your father was killing the planet?" Cloud asked. "Or that the reactors were?"

Rufus jumped and stared at Cloud in surprise. He glanced up into the Cloud's glowing Mako eyes and ducked a little more towards the other side of Veld. "Um… there's a difference?"

Shinra and ShinRa were virtually synonymous in most people's minds, so trying to make the distinction seemed odd. Sephiroth couldn't see why Cloud would do so, but Veld looked to Cloud with his head cocked to the side, clearly willing to let Cloud take the lead and see where he was going with it.

"It's not an unreasonable fear considering some of the beliefs people have that Mako is the blood of the Planet," Cloud said. Rufus's mouth pursed into an unhappy pout. "But even if it is true, there are more people behind the reactors then just your father. I'm sure that he wouldn't try to maliciously kill the planet and everyone on it."

The short speech seemed to have drained Cloud of his quota of words for the day so he leaned back against the building and crossed his arms, clearly finished. Sephiroth frowned as he considered Cloud's words. The stress Cloud placed on 'maliciously' implied that Shinra would be more than happy to kill the planet given other scenarios. A quick glance and Veld's frown told Sephiroth that he wasn't the only one to catch the odd inflection.

Veld, however, turned to Rufus with a nod. "ShinRa has special divisions of people who work very hard to make sure the reactors are safe, because we understand your new friends' concerns, and we want to do what's best for everyone, okay?"

Rufus frowned as he thought over the new information. Eventually he relented with a hesitant nod. "Okay."

"Great now why don't you go play…" Veld glanced up. The crowd of children had mostly dispersed, being called home by parents or shuffled back into the clinic for their evening dose of Mako and dinner. "Fetch with Nanaki."

Rufus glanced between Veld and Nanaki, and scowled. "Fine, but I get to throw this time."

"You'll have to work that out with Nanaki," Veld said. Nanaki's ears perked forward and his tail quivered, but he remained seated in the middle of the road waiting for them to finish talking. Rufus waved at him and together they ran off to look for a suitable stick, arguing over who got the privilege of throwing.

After they were out of earshot, but not far enough to lose sight of, Veld turned to Cloud. "Care to explain."

Cloud shrugged. "Didn't want him to alienate his new fiends."

He's got few enough as it is, went unsaid.

Veld sighed. "He's only going to be here a few more days."

Cloud didn't say anything, merely looked at Veld who sighed and nodded as if conceding a point.

"I know kids can be cruel," Veld said. "But the boy is too young to understand the complexities of the world and Anti-ShinRa ideologies."

"He's Shinra," Cloud said with another half shrug. "He'll have to learn eventually."

"He doesn't need to learn here, where he can identify with the potential terrorists," Veld said.

"And yet, you let him play with Nanaki," Cloud pointed out.

Veld scowled at Cloud. "I don't think I could stop him. Those two and that girl, Camille, have been attached to each other since Rufus woke up."

"If you were really worried about it, you could pack him up and let Hojo handle the observation," Cloud pointed out.

"I could, but," Veld hesitated. "His caretakers have said that this was the happiest that they've seen him in years."

"Hn," Cloud grunted softly.

"He doesn't even get on with other employee's kids," Veld went on. "The day-care workers are afraid of his father and, by extension, of him, and the kids pick up on it. Until just now it hadn't seemed like the kids here cared or even knew who he was."

There was a high pitched yowl from nearby. Sephiroth jumped and reflexively reached for Ashura. Veld just let out a sigh. "Excuse me. I need to go check on our two little darlings, before they kill each other."

As Veld hurried away Sephiroth turned to see Cloud with a satisfied smirk on his face. It startled Sephiroth at first, but his mind started working through the possibilities. This was important. He didn't know why but this interaction with Rufus was important to Cloud and his purpose. If only Sephiroth could figure out why.

Cloud caught Sephiroth watching, and his face was wiped clean of all expression. Cloud pushed off from the wall. "C'mon, I've got a small unit tactics manual I'd like you to review."

… … …

Once they returned from Mideel, Rufus was whisked away by his father. Hojo never got a chance to lay a finger on the boy as he seemed fine. Sephiroth also hadn't forgotten his self assigned task of raiding the Science Department's records. The information was completely unassailable with numerous firewalls and passwords that were beyond Sephiroth skill at hacking through the system. However, he also knew that Hojo was exceedingly lazy and saved his passwords on the computer in his office. Sephiroth already had all the necessary keycards to get to Hojo's office without question, Hojo preferred to have Sephiroth come up to his lab rather than going down to the SOLDIER floor or Deepground, so it was theoretically a simple matter of breaking in to the professor's office when he was out. Catching him out of the office however, was another matter entirely.

Fortunately, it was only a few days after returning from Mideel before Sephiroth had an opportunity, though his impatience made it feel like forever. Hojo was testing some new construct in the training rooms on the SOLDIER floor, probably because those were the only ones that could take the abuse. The few assistants that were still on the floor were busy and distracted, and used enough to his presence that they barely noticed his passing.

Once inside Sephiroth found the office a familiar array of stacked reports and journals littering every available surface. Thick books and cases of data disks were crammed into the bookshelves lining two of the four walls, the third looked out onto the open floor of the Science Department through a one way mirror and the fourth contained the door and a battered leather couch pushed up against the wall.

Sephiroth seated himself at the desk and turned on the computer. Clicking quickly through the password requests he brought up the main menu for the department's records. An array of nearly every letter in the alphabet greeted him and Sephiroth carefully considered where to start. He remembered Dr Weber explaining that ShinRa currently preferred to name their projects after the first letter of the subject. So with a shrug, and no better ideas, Sephiroth clicked on 'C'.

Project C opened up with a list of video recordings the newest posted first dated June 10. Sephiroth couldn't remember if that was before or after Cloud started at ShinRa. The oldest, Sephiroth scrolled down, started five years ago. That was a long time to be in Hojo's clutches. Sephiroth wasn't entirely familiar with all of Hojo's various projects and knew that the man tended to flit from one to another as the interest took him, pawning them off onto various lab assistants the rest of the time.

He clicked on one of the video recordings randomly. What met him was not Cloud but an unknown woman on the screen, one with a small child with her. Sephiroth recognized the holding cell they were in as one of the ones on this same floor, just down the corridor from where he was standing. The woman sat on the stripped bed and played a hand clapping game with the child, a little girl. They went still and the woman looked up at the door, the little girl looked frightened. She might have cried but there was no sound.

A pair of orderlies entered. Sephiroth could see Hojo standing in the hallway just beyond the doorway. Sephiroth couldn't help but tense as the orderlies approached the two prisoners, subjects, even though the events had happened years ago and there was nothing he could do now for either of them. The woman was separated roughly from the little girl, who hid under the bed. Sephiroth could sympathize with her, her small sanctuary all too flimsy and easily ripped away. The orderlies did not flip up the bed to retrieve the girl, but left with the mother in tow. The recording ended.

That was not what Sephiroth had been expecting. He opened one of the project's reports and scanned thought the summary. Project C was a study of the Cetra. The subject, who was nameless in the report, was one of the last humans to exhibit the full range of the Cetra's abilities. There was also mention of a half-blood girl, but only to explain why she was unsuitable for Hojo's purposes even though as a child she would be more malleable then the grown woman. There was a lengthy sidebar lamenting how unfortunate the woman hadn't been able to have a full-blooded child.

Sephiroth had some half-formed plan of getting the woman, or at least the girl, out if either of them were still in any condition. Sephiroth's mind skirted around the realization that doing so would be taken by the company as a form of anti-ShinRa terrorism, but he had just helped to keep a couple dozen children from Hojo's clutches. Surely this wasn't any worse, he tried to rationalize to the loyalty conditioned into his subconscious.

He opened the most recent video file to get an idea of their current condition. The child was a little older. She must have been just a baby when her and her mother were captured as she couldn't have been any older than five or six. The woman was brushing the girl's long hair. It was difficult to discern its actual color on the grainy black and white security film, but it fell in thick waves to the small of the girl's back. No one came in, the door didn't open, but the two were just gone in a blink after a couple of minutes of play.

Sephiroth blinked in surprise. He replayed the clip. Looking closely he could see the repetitive motions of the brush, up and down, up and down, the exact same motions over and over again. Someone had put the security camera on a loop to cover up the two's escape. Sephiroth knew that Cloud was behind it. The timing was right, Cloud would have just recently arrived at ShinRa from the future. The evidence was weak, but he had a bone deep certainty that Cloud smuggled the Cetra woman and her daughter out of the ShinRa building.

His PHS's alarm beeped at him, startling Sephiroth out of his contemplation of the computer screen. He checked it and found that Hojo, or at least his PHS, had wandered into Sephiroth's scan range and set off the alarm. Sephiroth quickly silenced his PHS, erased all record of his digging around on Hojo's computer, and closed down the computer. He slipped out the door and down the access stairs before Hojo got off the elevator. As Sephiroth exited the stairwell on the SOLDIER floor he paused at the sound of voices.

"Swords, guns, bikes, or cars; it's all about sex," a raucous voice declared. The nearby rec area had a few Second Class SOLDIERs lounging around on battered sofas. It was from here that the loud announcement had come. "If a man is going to be spending that much time stroking something that ain't himself then it's sure as shit is not going to be another guy."

The other SOLDIERs laughed.

"What about chocobos?" one of the guys from the edge of the group called out.

"Oh, well that's birds," he said. "Everyone knows it takes a real man to handle a bull chocobo."

The man leaned forward into the audience, gearing up to deliver what Sephiroth suspected was prepared material. Sephiroth's PHS went off again, an incoming call this time. He hurried away instead of lingering and listening in morbid fascination to the Second's dissertation. When he saw who was calling and winced, but some calls you just couldn't avoid.

"General Heidegger," Sephiroth greeted the man as he answered the phone.

"I don't have time for this shit," the other man growled into the phone, clearly aggravated over something. "Find that blond bastard and tell him to do his job."

Sephiroth was momentarily taken aback by the odd demand. What blond did the general think that Sephiroth could find for him? "Cloud?"

"Cloud? Yes, Cloud!" Heidegger shouted, Sephiroth could hear crashing in the background and hoped that whatever the man had hit had been inanimate. But with Heidegger it wasn't likely, he's been known say that it wasn't as satisfying if someone wasn't in pain. "You find him, tell him to do the damn mission, and you stick with him until it gets done. And maybe we can see about getting you bumped up to First Class."

The phone went dead before Sephiroth could ask why Heidegger didn't just assign the mission to someone else, but he knew why Heidegger didn't reassign the mission. Because he told Cloud to do it and Cloud turned him down, so now he was going to make Cloud do it just because he could.

Sephiroth wished Heidegger had called someone else though. While Cloud's mentoring was informal and not registered with ShinRa, it wasn't exactly a closely kept secret. However, if Heidegger, one of the most oblivious people in the combat divisions, had noticed, then it wouldn't be long before Hojo learned of it as well.