Uh... Views expressed by bullies are not shared by me.

NOTE: Okay, some concerns people have: Yes, Cloud will regain his memories. No, I will no tell you when or how :D Won't be too long now though. I'm running out of things I had Planned to Happen Beforehand.

This is mainly friendfic between Zack and Cloud. There will be some romance between Zack and Aeris and Cloud and Tifa, but Zack and Cloud are in focus. And there's a plot involved. Uuuuh!

Also, I made a mistake in my last chapter :( Folded steel is easier to break than not-folded steel, cause not-folded steel will bend while folded steel is harder and therefore more brittle (and easier to make really, really sharp). Tch.


Ducking a volley of bullets from the Wutaians' cursed weaponry, the spear guns, Mårdh swore violently. The entire concept of a riffle and a pole arm fixed together was ridiculous, but effective. And they needed the huge weaponry to fight SOLDIERs.

The feeling of warm liquid splattering over his hands and neck warned him that the person behind him hadn't ducked in time and with no scream or even a curse, it was safe to presume he would never get up again. No matter, it wasn't like he had liked the whiny bitch anyway.

As long as he himself survived, that was good enough. If he survived, he could exact revenge on that little pipsqueak of a no-name cadet. Who could have guessed that the SOLDIER he had whored himself to had had contacts so close to the general?

But he would survive this. There was a reason why he had been appointed instructor of the best class, after all.

- - -

Angeal was watching Zack inhale his dinner, a small smile playing at his lips as he himself took another bite of broccoli.

"Man, Angeal, you cook the best dinner! Thanks for inviting me."

"You're welcome, if you stop scarfing it down like that."

"Oh, sorry. Guess I did work up an appetite after all." He slowed down, but only marginally.

"So, what do you think? Of the class."

The younger SOLDIER paused, considering. And this time he actually finished chewing before speaking. There were a lot of things that he 'thought'. "The class is... acceptable considering they've only been working for a month, but if they're the ones with the most prominent physical scores... they should have been better. They've only been taught a handful of possible hits and parries compared to what they need to know, it's like they've been held back."

"Yes, and on top of that, non of them, except Carman and Fuentes, tried to do something different while they fought. They haven't been taught sword fighting, only sword moves."

"Carman only did it to get back at me. And it was hardly creative or thought out. Just trying to club me."

"Indeed."

"Fuentes got talent, though, nice agility and if cultivated, he could learn to think on his feet. Gotta teach him not to think too deeply though, he almost forgot where he was, trying to outwit me." He sniggered.

"What about Strife?"

"Now that was interesting."

"Don't exaggerate."

"I think I was around 65% there, speedwise, before he pulled that limit break, but it's hard to calculate when you're in the midst of battle. I didn't raise the strength much though."

"He was creative too."

"Almost got me with that swipe at my legs. Who the hell dives under a hit to the mid-region anyways?"

"Small people?" Angeal's humorous retort earned a snort. "He was skilled too. Used a number of different hits and combinations."

"Yeah. Didn't react too well to my own combinations though. It's like he's got all the skill but none of the experience. Learned fast though, like... almost like it was a reminder."

"A reminder?"

"You know, like he had forgotten and was being reminded. He didn't make the same mistake twice, that's some awfully fast learning."

"It doesn't say anything about any previous experience in his file though. He's told you anything?"

"What, me? No way, we haven't even known each other for a week, not like we're sharing life stories, yanno?"

"Guess not. You should ask him though. We might even get his teacher to come over..."

"What if he's self-taught?"

"Self-taught?"

"Yeah, or just really talented?"

"Zack. You were talented, Strife is... definitely taught. Even if he was self-taught, he would have had to fight against someone else to learn the level he's at right now."

"You think so? But he said he was really bad with a sword. He thought he was gonna be unconscious by the end of his simulation last Sunday."

"That's true, you did mention something like that. …hm, being taught previously would explain it, though."

"Explain what?"

"Why Mårdh's instructions so thoroughly destroyed Strife's equilibrium, and if Strife was intending to follow Mårdh's instructions, there's plenty of reason why he'd think he wouldn't complete the mission."

"Then why didn't he?"

"Didn't what?"

"Follow Mårdh's instructions? If he was prepared to sacrifice his well-being to follow Mårdh's instructions, and I find that really crazy by the way, why did he hide? And why did he come out of hiding only to discard every single one of Mårdh's instructions?"

"That, I would very much like to know."

- - -

Writing yet another extracurricular history assignment (and wasn't early tribe legends just way interesting), Cloud tried to find any logic in what had happened the last few days.

So.

He had quite unexpectedly survived that Sunday's practise. Not only had he survived, he had completed the mission in... very little time. He wasn't sure how long had been left when he finally emerged from his hiding spot, but there had been more than twenty monsters in the room. Meaning he had at least done it in less than five minutes. And more importantly, he had done it by doing not what Mårh had told him to, but just what felt natural.

And thinking of Mårdh... the hateful instructor had apparently been sent to the Wutai front. Why? Because he could serve better there than here, Angeal Hewley had said. Did that mean he had skills that would serve in Wutai or that he was somehow discredited as an instructor? And how the hell had that happened anyway? Had Zack told someone that Sunday? No, even if Zack had told someone, there's no way they would send an instructor away just for offending a cadet, the very notion seemed ludicrous.

Everyone else had known before Angeal stepped into the room. Gossip had probably started the previous day when he had been in the kitchen and he had totally missed it. No wonder his class mates had been so shifty, they must have known Mårdh was gone and wondered.

And apparently their new teacher was a SOLDIER First and Zack was assisting. No, temporary teacher. And Zack was probably only assisting because he was Angeal's protégé and he would have nothing else to do while Angeal was occupied.

He had no doubt about Angeal's words that he would be working them to the bone. He was still feeling lethargic after the brief fight with Zack and then kitchen duty on top, despite the fact that he had done nothing else the entire day except look at the other cadets' fights. Maybe doing a limit break will do that? He didn't want to know what he would be put through now.

He swallowed reflexively. He had pulled a limit break. On Zack. The magnitude of that incident was still trying to sink into his mind. Thank whatever deity had been watching over them that Zack had moved away, because Cloud had known instinctively that he would have broken through any guard done with a practise sword. Possibly even a real sword.

Then again, it was the first rule they had learned in the tactics class; if someone breaks their limit, you get away from them. Limit breaks were tricky, it literally meant that you went beyond your body's limits and you could never tell exactly how far beyond the limits a Breaker would go. They had been told that some limit breaks could even get the better of a fully armed SOLDIER.

Zack had clearly, luckily, known that.

That didn't change the fact that he had done something extremely dangerous. He had just been getting frustrated because no matter what he did, Zack was just that little bit faster, even as he had been getting more used to the weight and movement of his sword and his own speed had increased, Zack had been going faster to avoid a hit and when he felt that he just couldn't go any faster, that... feeling had entered. There was no telling where it had come from, suddenly it was just there. A feeling of... promise. And he had reached for that promise and moved through sheer instinct.

At least now he knew what it was, that promise, and could avoid it if it was uncalled for.

It still begged the question of how he had gotten a limit break. General belief was that you got those when you had been in mortal danger. Limit Breaks were an instinctual reaction to the perception of a threat you couldn't beat, or so they had been taught. Then again, since they were so closely bonded with emotions they were also notoriously difficult to study, so maybe there really were ways to get it that didn't involve danger. The situation with Zack had hardly been dangerous. Angeal was right, Zack had excellent control.

Heaving a sigh, he closed his book. It was way past curfew, much too late to be thinking about this, and the only reason he had been allowed to stay in the library was because he was so familiar with it by now. Even the old guy who had hated him was warming up. Now he just had to return to his bunk without being discovered and he could sleep. Piece of cake.

- - -

He really should have known that everything wouldn't be so easy. Of course his fight with Zack was the new gossip topic of choice and general consensus seemed to be that Zack and he had either planned the entire fight beforehand or that Zack had been giving him lessons in secret.

Clouds silence on the whole affair wasn't helping as people seemed to take it as an unwilling confirmation rather than a plea for privacy.

Zack's comment about his scores hadn't gone entirely unnoticed either and with some surprise, Cloud found that people actually minded that. He hadn't realised that due to his silence, people still thought that he was half-heartedly limping after everyone else in his academic classes and more importantly, he hadn't realised that people would resent him for doing well in, well, everything now.

"They're like carrion birds, just waiting for you to drop you guard." The lightly accented baritone almost made Cloud jump. Fuentes had slid into the seat next to him. "I shall sit here, if you don't mind?" Cloud just shook his head and continued eating. He had always found Fuentes accent particularly strange, the way he made every e sound high and short and rolled on his r was foreign in a way the typical Midgar accent, with its round vowels and tendency to squeeze words together, just wasn't. Or maybe he just got used to the Midgar accent because half of everyone used it around here.

They ate in silence.

"Are you always this... quiet, or is the hostile atmosphere affecting you?"

"What?"

"I was wondering if you usually don't speak with our dinner companions or if you're feeling stressed from all the unwanted attention?"

"Uh... I didn't know I was supposed to be talking."

"I see." Adulio mulled that over a bit. He had come over, trying to wheedle information out of the younger boy, but obviously the blonde wasn't prone to simply spill just for a chance to boast. If he was, there would have been no reason to come over in the first place. "Are you seeing your SOLDIER friend, Zack Fair, tonight?"

"Zack? Uh, I dunno."

"You don't know?"

"No."

"But aren't the two of you... acquainted?"

"So? Why'd you wanna know in the first place?"

"Well..." He couldn't very well say that if any secret training was happening, he wanted a part in it. It would sound dishonest. "I was wondering if you would like to study together?"

That almost made Cloud choke on his water. "S-study?!"

"Yes?"He had never seen such a shocked expression on his dorm mate before, it was rather funny. "I assume that if Fair spoke the truth about your scores, you will not hamper me and it would be less tedious studying with a partner."

Cloud thought back to when he had been studying with Martin and Patrick and had to agree. "I have kitchen duty until half eight though. You wouldn't wanna wait that long to do your homework."

"Ah, yes, I had forgotten about that, but we share biology tomorrow and I can wait to do that, at least."

Cloud shook his head in detached wonder or maybeexasperation, it wasn't quite clear, maybe both, probably both, as he took is tray to the dish trolley before going around back to report for his detention.

- - -

It had been surprising that Adulio had asked to study together. It was even more surprising that when Cloud entered the library to do his homework, and this time hopefully finish before curfew, Adulio was sitting at his usual table. Waiting. For him.

Adulio was one of the few people, who had held himself far out of any social cliques, despite people trying to befriend him. He had always been friendly but distant, almost professional in the way he dealt with the other cadets, always polite, never quite patronizing, yet always seeming authoritative. Even Irwin, who went out of his way to seem like the alpha male in their dorm, seemed to have a grudging respect for the tanned Latino.

That might be because Adulio was among the oldest of the cadets, even counting the older years. He just had that "don't mess with me" vibe a sleeping griffin might have. In comparison, Cloud thought his own vibe more resembled that of a starved and ruffled kalm fang. A small one.

Vibes didn't change the fact that he had homework to do though.

He sat down, placing his papers and writing utensils softly on the table. "I'm surprised you waited."

"I said I would, didn't I?"

"Yeah." Finding his notes on the rat he had dissected that Saturday he began writing, comparing his notes to the ones in the book, making foregone conclusions and writing theory that he really hadn't needed a scalpel and a dead animal to know.

"You really are not much of a talker," Adulio commented, not knowing if he should be offended at the blonde's indifference.

"Martin said much the same. What do we have to talk about anyway? We've never spoken except to point out each other's faults when we sparred."

"That isn't quite true."

"It isn't?"

"You asked me once if I had finished Tsung's Theory of Swords."

Cloud raised an eyebrow in doubtful inquiry. "Does that even count?"

"Why shouldn't it?"

Cloud shrugged, conceding the point, and returned to his report.

"Did your rat seem unusual to you?" Why was it that Cloud was so difficult to get to talk? Didn't the kid know basic social behaviour at all?

"Unusual?"

"Some of the other cadets insisted their rat was mutated."

This earned a snort of amusement. "Probably just wanted attention."

"I suppose." The taller boy eyed the smaller, who was back at his report, oblivious to the world for all the reaction he showed as another pair of cadets went into a rather heated discussion about the merits of double-edged swords versus single-edged until they were shushed by the librarian on duty. There had been nothing but cold derision in that last comment. "So, you don't wish for attention?"

"Why would I?"

"Why wouldn't you?"

"Because the only kind of attention I seem to attract is the negative sort." He brushed a finger along his left cheek, outlining the slight bruise lingering there.

Adulio lifted an eyebrow. Was the blonde blind, deaf and stupid? "Are you telling me that you don't wish for Zack Fairs attention? Lieutenant Hewley seemed to like you well enough as well, as does most of the rest of our teachers, except for Oernstrup. I don't know about the teacher you have in your other optional subject, but regardless of that, you are not only attracting negative attention."

The raven didn't much indulge in such gestures, but the blonde's surprised blinking made him seriously consider facepalming. He really was blind, deaf and stupid. Well, Adulio corrected himself eyeing the half done report Cloud had been working on, blind, deaf and stupid when it came to people at least.

He was about to make a comment on this, when the reason he was here in the first place suddenly plopped down in a chair across from him.

"Man!" He exclaimed as though a Second Class SOLDIER turning up in the cadet library was perfectly normal. "You guys are totally out of luck, Angeal's gonna kill you."

"Why?" Cloud asked, continuing his report as though this was perfectly normal.

"Because I'm tired after working with him, and if I'm tired with all my ridiculous enhancements and stuff, you're just doomed. I swear, the guy gets off on making people keel over." He leaned forward, resting his head on the table. "Guy's good though, gotta hand him that." A fake snoring sound began emanating from the melodramatic teen.

"Stop that Zack, you're in a library."

"Aww, but I'm tired."

"Then go to bed."

"Can't."

"And why's that?"

Zack lifted his head. "I couldn't speak with you yesterday, 'cause I was training since I apparently wasted the entire day on you guys, but Angeal wants to know who taught you sword-fighting before you came to Midgar. There's nothing in your file. We wanna know."

The other cadet, who had apparently been forgotten when the SOLDIER arrived, tried to stay as unobtrusive as he could. At least that answered one question; Zack hadn't taught Cloud.

"Uh... I haven't been taught by anyone..."

Zack yawned, barely getting his hand up to hide it before he flashed tonsils to the room. "Then who've you been fighting with?"

"No one?" The little cadet seemed slightly unsure of the situation, biting his lip and stubbornly focusing on his report. "I never even touched a sword before. Unless it was before I was five." That was a joke, Adulio thought, judging by the tone, although he wasn't included, obviously.

"No, I don't suppose you'd have mastered that level of technique at that age," Zack responded, giving Cloud a reassuring smile. "Ha. And Angeal refused to believe you were just talented. I knew you were something special, Chocobo."

The pencil over Cloud's report paused. "Chocobo?"

"Yes? No one ever called you that before? Anyway!" And that was probably a smart move by Zack, distracting the spiky-haired boy before he could decide to be offended. "Hi! Adulio, wasn't it? Good to see Spike's got friends."

"Uh." He wanted to say that he had never really talked with Cloud before that day, but Zack didnt wait.

"You got talent too although you think too much, gotta learn to just react, yanno? But no worries, Angeal will teach that. Probably beat it into you if nothing else."

"Thank you. I suppose."

"No worries, no worries," he continued in sing-song falcetto, picking a pencil and starting to twirl it around his fingers. "Angeal can teach you anything about anything."

Adulio turned to Cloud. "Is he always acting like this?"

"Mmh, not usually this bad. Normally he actually makes sense. Just ignore him."

Half an hour later they finally convinced the SOLDIER it was past his bedtime.

"I still have trouble believing he's actually a Second Class," Aduio admitted, looking at the door they had almost forced Zack to leave through.

"Why? SOLDIERs are people too, just... overly strong and can hear your heart beat."

"I suppose. However when you read of them, they're always described as... dignified."

"'Cause you only get to read about SOLDIERs like General Sephiroth. I think I once saw an article about Angeal and one about another SOLDIER First. G-something."

"Genesis Rhapsodos the other Lieutenant General."

"Yes, him." Cloud closed his biology book and put it away, drawing up two helicopter spec sheets.

"You're done with your biology homework already?"

"Hm? Yeah we were only supposed to write five pages, right?"

"But even so... we've been here for barely an hour."

Cloud shrugged and began mapping the specs. "I gotta learn these by heart, and there are a lot of components in a helicopter. I also wanna see if I can guess why the Belle-99 specs are so different from the standard rotor craft. And tonight I would like to actually go to bed at curfew, if Irwin will let any, at least."

"I... see." No, he didn't. Not really. The whole idea seemed ridiculously ambitious. None of their teachers so far had expected them to think for themselves, just drilled knowledge into their heads and expecting them to remember it. Adulio had always supposed the 'why's came later.

- - -

Zack was juggling with two swords the day after, as he followed Angeal into the training room. He had already filled the First in on what he had learned, or rather not learned, the evening before and now he just couldn't wait to tell Cloud some really good news! He twirled the smaller of the two weapons around a wrist, then threw it in the air, only to catch the other, his normal SOLDIER standard sword and do a few twirls with that.

Juggling swords were difficult when they were different sizes. And the cadets were looking at him in sheer awe, which was a great boost for his ego. Now, if only he could borrow the Buster Sword off of Angeal, then he could really give them a show.

"Attention." The First's calm voice ruined any such ideas though. "I've evaluated your skills at the sword, and found your main weaknesses. First of all, Mårdh seems to have held you all back quite a bit. Intentionally or not, it's unacceptable. Aside from that. Carman, don't let your emotions ruin your judgement, you need a clear head to defeat an opponent, especially one with superior skills. Faulkner, you gotta work on your foot work, Fuentes, don't think too deeply or you'll forget the enemy in front of you, Hyde, you need to use more tactics, Ivanov, you have trouble..." Cloud wasn't the only one trying to conceal surprise as Angeal picked the entire class apart one by one. "...Strife, try and predict instead of just reacting when a strike comes, oh, and follow Fair. Surrey, you should..."

Zack made a gesture with his head, motioning for Cloud that they were leaving immediately. Cloud bit his lip, wondering what was going on as he followed the Second Class out and into another, slightly smaller, training room stripped of any furniture or equipment that may have been there.

Smirking, Zack threw the smaller of the swords at Cloud, who caught it easily. "We're gonna fight, the two of us," Zack explained. "Real swords, no armour. If you pull a limit break again, the scratches in the floor probably won't be just a foot long. I hope you can control yourself."

Cloud swallowed.

"I'll go as fast as I need to defeat you, although I won't put more strength or weight behind it than I did Tuesday. Ready?" The cadet nodded stiffly and Zack couldn't hold back a smirk. "Don't suppose I need to warn you, but scratches and a fair number of bruises are to be expected from this kind of training." And with that they began.

It was entirely different from that Tuesday, Cloud quickly found. Even if Zack was still controlling himself and only just using a little more speed than Cloud was, he had suddenly decided to use his feet. Footwork, Cloud concluded, was a bitch. Zack had been good while standing his ground, moving around made it all but impossible to hit him.

Cloud found himself defeated within the first five minutes.

"Not bad for someone with no mako. Again."

He earned a slice across his forearm that bled a thin trail down to his wrist before the blood coagulated. And was defeated again. With a new tactic, Cloud noted and tilted his head. Zack smirked.

He spent the rest of the class getting his ass kicked, earning another gash across his shoulder and one across his thigh, and bruises all over when Zack decided to smack him with the flat side of his sword. And every time he was defeated, Zack decided on a new tactic.

At least he didn't aim for the head.

He could barely even hold the handgun, much less aim at a target four hundred feet away once it came time for firearms practise. The recoil only made it worse. So typical that they had been handed a bigger, more far-reaching gun the week when he would be beaten to death by a stupid Second Class.

"Are you alright, Cloud?" Adulio asked, coming up after class. "Your aim was unusually bad."

Instead of a verbal answer, Cloud just sent him a baleful glare. Zack and he had come into class at the very end. They had seen his arms. Or what was left of them.

The Latino raised an eyebrow. "What were you and Zack doing?"

"Well... I was getting beaten on and Zack was doing the beating disguised as sparring."

"You were fighting? Truly?" He sounded more amazed and just a bit jealous than concerned.

"Adulio. If you wanna switch places, I won't mind. Seriously. Zack's bad enough when he's standing still, when he starts using his feet, he's impossible."

"I can only imagine," Adulio sighed wistfully, earning himself another glare.

"So, Wonderboy's unhappy with the special treatment?" Irwin interrupted from behind. Cloud just rolled his eyes and continued into the mess. Shooting an exasperated glare over his shoulder, Adulio followed.

Unperturbed, or maybe just stubborn, the loud boy sat down across from the other two.

"Come on, how long've you been spreading your legs for Zack, to learn anything?" Cloud remained stubbornly close-mouthed, refusing to rise to the petty insult.

Adulio, however, didn't have any such reservations. "Don't be ridiculous, Carman. In fact, Zack was wondering as well."

"Zack? Wondering... what?" The idiot seemed unable to comprehend the sentence.

"How it came to be that Cloud became so talented. He seemed to think Cloud might have had some training before he came to ShinRa."

"That's bull. You know how bad Cloud was with a sword until Zack turned up. The SOLDIERs lying."

"If Zack lied, then it would have have been easier for him to simply not bring up the subject. Besides, he was asking Cloud where he learned on behalf of Angeal Hewley. I see no reason for him to lie about something like that to his own mentor."

"Uh... Cloud's still doing favors for'im! Or Mårdh wouldn' of been sent to Wutai!"

The sound of gritting teeth could heard even above the din made by the rest of the cadets, and the two semi-quarreling teens cast a look at the topic of their discussion, sitting all but forgotten next to them. "Zack would never accept something like that! Don't insult him!"

He got up and stalked over to drop the remains of his lunch into a waste bin before walking out on stiff legs.


Yay for fake helicopter names XD

Oh, and you guys should look up Masamune on wikipedia. There's a very interesting legend I might reference later. And when I say might I mean most probably will.

Reviews makes me happeh! ^_^