ch10 sephiroth has all the force of a great typhoon…

Sephiroth waited. He knew the type of man Heidegger was; if the Chairman had even the slightest suspicion that Sephiroth had some kind of weakness to exploit, the man wouldn't wait for anything. Sephiroth nearly expected to find the Turks waiting for him when he got home, trap after trap set in place. And they would all be fools to think they could challenge his power.

But nothing happened.

It was unnerving almost, how everything went on as it did before. No hidden assassin. No sudden physical. Even at the Board of Directors' meeting, Heidegger had not made a single indication that he had something planned, not even a gloat or an ominous warning. It was almost as if the man just simply did not know what happened in the training room.

And that was an even more perplexing possibility.

Heidegger, Sephiroth knew how to deal with. But Cloud? It seemed that Sephiroth just couldn't get a clear picture of the boy's agenda. Each new piece of information only pointed in a different direction; one day, the boy was pathetic and bullied. The next day, he was ambitious and power-hungry. Yet none of the personas the boy gave ever seemed genuine.

So what could possibly be the reason the boy didn't add the training room incident in his report? He couldn't simply have forgotten; the boy was getting paid to watch over Sephiroth and make sure he didn't end up like another certain First. Which meant that, for some reason, the boy purposefully omitted the incident. But with what motivations?

His desk suddenly vibrated, and Sephiroth withdrew from his thoughts, his attention turning to the cell phone on his desk. On the display screen was the word, PUPPY, in bold, black letters. Sephiroth snorted; he had been wondering when Zack would end up calling.

"Aren't you on vacation?" Sephiroth asked when he picked up the phone.

"Please please please get me out of here," came the pleading voice from the other end. "I'm so bored. It's so dull. I miss my girl. I miss my missions. Hell, I even miss you." Zack paused. "Well. Only sometimes."

"I'm flattered," Sephiroth replied. "Unfortunately, it's company policy that we can't overwork our employees, and given the severity of your recent missions…"

"Oh, don't give me that. You haven't done any missions recently either, right? You know how exactly how I'm feeling."

It was true, but Sephiroth didn't voice his agreement outloud. "It's just two more weeks, Zack. Most people wouldn't complain about being forced to go to the beach."

"Yeah yeah…" the teenager grumbled. "Anyway. Hey, SOLDIER exams are tomorrow, right? The fifteenth, right? You excited?"

He only hoped Zack wasn't this careless with missions details. "Zack, the SOLDIER exams were on the fifth."

There is a short, horrifed pause from the other end. "… What. No. Wait. Fifth? That's like… two weeks ago!" Sephiroth resisted the urge to compliment the boy on his fine calendar skills. "Hey, can you check if a certain cadet passed?"

Sephiroth turned to his computer and pulled up the employee database. "Name?"

"Cloud Strife."

Sepiroth paused in his typing. Zack knew Cloud? And was close enough with the boy to check up on him? That was certainly curious. "It appears that he failed."

He could hear Zack sigh. "Oh man, I bet he's devastated. I wish I could be there to cheer him up."

"You could just call him," Sephiroth suggested.

"Yeah, but Cloud doesn't have a cell phone," Zack said regretfully. "I guess it'll have to wait till I get back. You sure you can't magically pull up a very, very, important mission that requires my expertise? Preferably in Midgar?"

"No," Sephiroth said flatly. Otherwise I would be on that mission and away from this desk. "How do you even know this cadet?"

"Oh Cloud? Met on a couple missions back. He was the only one who could keep up with me," Zack noted with pride. Sephiroth perked up and stored the little tidbit of information. "Well, when it came to travelling through the environment, that is…"

"And you just… kept in touch with him since then?"

"Hey, you don't need to make it sound like it's weird to have a cadet as a friend," Zack protested. "Cloud's a cool kid. A little quiet, but really cool. I'll introduce you one day."

As Zack chatted a little more, Sephiroth found he couldn't really get anything more from Zack about Cloud. When he finally hung up, Sephiroth couldn't help but feel a little frustrated. Even a guy as friendly as Zack couldn't get anything from Cloud but 'a little quiet, but really cool'? If even Zack couldn't decode Cloud, then where could Sephiroth even start to figure the boy out?

He sighed and leaned back in his chair. What was he doing. This was a sixteen-year old boy. If Sephiroth could handle Shinra executives, he could handle a cadet, no matter what happened. No need to overthink it.

Still…

ch 11 cloud finds a girl worth fighting for

"Cloud? You've seemed a little tense, lately."

Of course, Aerith always seemed to notice, and she seemed to have no qualms about pointing it out. She never tip-toed around him, not the way other people would when they noticed his moods. And somehow, because it was Aerith, Cloud never seemed to mind her inquisitive concern.

"I just… have a feeling something bad is about to happen," he answered. As soon as the words came out, he couldn't but help but feel a little lame at how the words sounded, but it was the best way he could word it. The looming shadow that had been hanging over him the past few weeks had finally latched onto him, claws digging into his shoulder with a vengeance. He didn't forget—or rather, couldn't forget—what was going to happen. And now, the time has passed by so quickly. Now, there was only a week left until Nibelheim.

Aerith didn't mind his gloom, and took it in her own cheerful stride. "How bad?"

But he didn't even know how to answer that. His eyes flicker to her hair band, searching for the pearly shine of the White Materia, wondering, praying that she would never have to use it. If that was the only thing that he could prevent, the one thing he could stop from happening, it would be putting her in that position of danger. "I don't know," he finally said.

"Well…" Aerith searched around until she saw his messenger bag and reached for it. "Let's make a back-up plan."

He gave her a perplexed look. "What?"

She was already opening it and shuffling through the papers. "Come on, Cloud. I see you writing all those to-do lists and outlines of whatever you're planning. This should be right up your alley." She fishes out some scrap paper and a pencil. "But it'll be better. Because this time, I'm helping."

"Okay…" Still a little lost, he came closer as she began to write on it in large, loopy letters: THE BACK-UP PLAN (TO SAVE THE WORLD WITH).

"So, first, what are our goals?" Aerith looked at him.

"Well…" He began to feel himself warm up to her enthusiasm. "Fill the city the flowers, right?"

She gave him a particularly bright smile and began to write quickly. "Right! Our number one priority! So how do we go about accomplishing it? Tools? Connections? And of course, obstacles?"

"Reeve would be useful."

"Right."

"And you."

"Of course. And Shalua!" Aerith's paper was quickly evolving into a web as she started to list it everything. "Obstacles?"

"Money. And land."

"Right, the Mako. Which brings us to priority number two!" With a flourish, she drew a large area and started writing in the big, block letters for the second label. "Overthrow… Shinra."

"Or, make them use their powers for good."

Aerith gives him a stern look. "Cloud, we're being realistic here."

"Yes, ma'am."

She gives a satisfied nod, though Cloud can see she's fighting a smile off. "So how do two little civilians like us overthrow Shinra?"

"Well, their power comes from their monopoly on electricity, so if we found another source of energy…" This was always the sticking point with Cloud: no matter how he planned, he never really knew how he could find something to replace Mako. Even in his own future, there hadn't been anything substantial .

But to his surprise, Aerith brightened. "Oh! I can do that!" she said, and wrote her name down under the heading.

"You can?" Cloud repeated, a little shocked.

"Well, not exactly, but I've been thinking about it. Instead of trying to find a replacement for Mako…maybe there's a less harmful way to harness it? Like Materia—they take time and their difficult to wield, but their energy is renewable and doesn't require extra drain from the planet." She looked at time for his opinion. "Or at least, would be able to tide over a possible switch to different energy sources. Because we can't just drop Mako immediately—we don't have anything to replace all the technology with."

Her idea definitely did seem…simple. And a reasonable step to take. "And you can do this?" Cloud asked.

"Well, you know, I understand the Planet better because I'm a— " She paused quickly. "I've been working with Shalua. Now, let's move on. We have our goals: now, what shall be our back-up plan if any of these fail?" She looked at him. "You got anything?"

Cloud noticed her slip-up and her quick change of topic but didn't comment. Of course she wouldn't tell him she was a Cetra—she had known for less than a month.

"I've got nothing."

They thought for a little while longer, when after a few minutes, Aerith turned to Cloud. "I know! You can seduce and marry a rich person like they do in those romance books! And then we can use that money for funding!"

Cloud gave her an incredulous look. "Me?"

"Well, I have a boyfriend. Take one for the team, Cloud."

"That can't be our only back-up option."

"But you agree that it's a possibility?" Before he can protest, she wrote it down in the middle and circled it several times. "There! What next?"

ch 12 Sephiroth is as swift as a coursing river…

Despite his headaches becoming worse and more frequent, Sephiroth still refused to say a word to Hojo. Instead, he took up a particularly delightful habit of munching on chocolate to combat the headaches, which oddly enough, remained to be an effective remedy. Yet the other man seemed to notice something was off and had taken to giving more tests, more suspicious looking cocktails. Sephiroth had asked what exactly was wrong with him, but the scientists waved it off, scuttling off with his own odd mutterings.

But instead of worrying about that, Sephiroth started watching Cloud more closely. Though to be honest, there hadn't been much to watch; the boy was conscientous in whatever work he was given, never surfed the internet, never made personal calls. He either worked, or read.

It wasn't until the middle of the week when something finally happened.

"Cloud! So this is where your office is."

Sephiroth stopped in his work and looked up. He knew that voice. He couldn't exactly recall exactly who it belonged to, but it was someone important… someone who could potentially be dangerous…

"Reno…?" came Cloud's confused reply, from the other side of the wall. An image of the red-haired, brash Turk flashed in Sephiroth's mind in recognition. So it was that Turk.

But how did Cloud know him? It couldn't be Cloud really was conspiring with Heidegger … could it?

Sephiroth pulled up his camera of the other room and watched the scene. Reno was leaning against the door casually, while Cloud… he looked a bit different. His eyes somehow looked a bit wider, and his expression suddenly looked a little…timid? Was he seeing things right?

"You work at Shinra?" Cloud asked.

"Didn't I tell you? I'm part of… security. Yeah." Reno's vague answer puzzled Sephiroth for a bit before it clicked. Of course Tseng would plant someone to pose as Cloud's friend, all the while monitoring him. And of course, it would be Reno, out of all people. Reno sauntered over and seated himself on Cloud's desk. "So. About the other night. … You alright?"

Sephiroth watched in rapt attention, having never quite seen Cloud show any emotion, much less, fear. Yet here the boy was, biting his lip in hesitation as he crossed his arms alsmot as if… As if he really was the timid boy that Sephiroth had thought him to be at first.

It's an act, Sephiroth suddenly realized. It's all an act and the Turk is falling for it completely. Which meant… Cloud knew he was being monitored. The boy certainly was turning out to be shrewder than he seemed.

So, at the very least, the teenager certainly wasn't working for Heidegger.

"Yeah. I'm fine," Cloud mumbled, his head down as if ashamed. "You were right. It was… nothing. Guess I just got a little nervous."

Reno only grinned. "Don't worry about it! Everyone gets freaked out in the slums." The older boy turned serious. "But hey, don't ever hesitate to call if you think you see something suspicious. I mean, people exaggerate the danger of the slums, but sometimes, the things they say are true. You can't really ever be too careful, amirite?"

Cloud nodded. "… Thanks, Reno."

"No problem! You and Little Miss Flower Girl are under my protection!" Reno gave a wide, confident grin. "Anyway, gotta get back... I'll see you around, Cloud!"

As soon as the Turk stepped out of the room, Cloud's persona melted off him and the stone-face secretary was back. Sephiroth couldn't help but marvel at the boy's skill. He hadn't overdone it, and only used little details to cement the performance, crossing his arms, hunching a little bit. And it made all the difference.

Sephiroth suddenly flashed to the training room incident, Cloud looking down, saying he felt unconfident around the other cadets, didn't feel comfortable training in the same room. It had been the same expression, the forlorn and insecure tone of the voice… The boy had been playing him, trying to throw him off.

But throw him off what? Why would Cloud want people to view him as weak and bullied? If it was him… Sephiroth linked his hands, trying to imagine himself in the situation. If it was him… he'd only play that role to get people to overlook him. Ignore him. Underestimate him.

Sephiroth turned his chair, facing the door with a thoughtful look. Cloud Strife was turning out to be the quite the puzzle. Who could have known that when he randomnly hired the boy that day that it could have turned out like this?

Still, the mystery intrigued him somewhat.

So when Cloud clocked out for the day, Sephiroth made his decision and waited for a few minutes.

Then he got up, cleaned up his desk, and followed.