Okay, sorry this took so long, hopefully you can see why beyond the craziness that is my life. To sum things up; I'm a socially phobic, obsessive complusive, manic depressive with paranoid tendencies. Hence the inspiration for the way I write Cloud. So if he comes out a bit funny that's why.
Thanks to all of my reviewers, especially Kurai Ame who again gave me the gentle poke I need to get my butt into gear and get writing. My muse kind of abandoned me for a while. I think it was off helping Kanye write interruption speeches again. Sorry about that last time Taylor Swift, it slipped its leash! Anyways, massive wordcount abounds. Enjoy.
Word Count; 10,500 (Alright go me! I rock! I knew one day I would make it longer)
Warnings; Word Count XD, Gore, Violence. I'd say it's work safe.
Disclaimer; I don't own final fantasy VII, based upon the time I don't own any sleep either. FML
Rewind
Chapter 12
Down With The Sickness
In the aftermath of the Kalm firebombing incident things in Shinra began to change. It wasn't a widely known fact, but the order for the town to be bombed was given by none other than Veld himself. It was something that Cloud just couldn't understand having seen his own town aflame and its people dying.
Veld knew the people of Kalm. He had grown up there. Not that many people were aware of that fact; a Turk had to leave his past behind when he joined Shinra. It was dangerous not only to them but to those that knew them if their past were to open for all to know. Even those like Veld who predominantly worked a desk job joining his employees on the field but once in a blue moon.
And yet with little to no misgivings over the issue he decreed that the town would be burnt to the ground. He was a Turk through and through. Given the information that the leak inside of the Shinra Corporation was based out of Kalm he ordered the entire place firebombed and decimated. Every last inch of the village was razed to the ground as if it had never been.
Not to the level that Banora had been in his previous life, where you had to really search for the former site of the town, but merely erased.
Of course the destruction hadn't been without losses on both sides. The civilian's had died in large numbers, only a few had managed to escape the destruction. On the side of Shinra, Veld himself had managed to get into trouble. During the destruction Veld's arm had become damaged and in the end the Turk had lost the appendage altogether.
And it wasn't even the knowledge of this damage which shook Cloud the most, it was the fact that the Turk's own family had been in the town. They'd been sleeping peacefully in their beds as he made the plan and set the bomb that decimated everything. They'd been content and happy in the knowledge that although they might never see the man, the one they called husband and father was out there somewhere striving to keep them safe.
It was the sheer and utter betrayal on that level that left Cloud in a numb state of shock. He may have abandoned his friends and family, but he could never understand the reasoning behind hurting them so completely. He barely remembered all these events, they weren't something that he was that interested in at the time, but he remembered thinking then that he could never do something so horrible to those he loved.
In many ways Cloud would have made a better Turk than a SOLDIER. He was slim in build, not overtly muscled in the way Angeal or some of the other SOLDIER's were. His tactics were mostly comprised of stealth and surprise when it came to missions rather than mere brute strength. Even here he was more inclined to use the element of underestimation rather than strength for fear that he might use too much on someone undeserving.
"Cloud?" Zack asked as he regarded the blond who out of the blue had gone silent and introspective.
The pair had been meeting since the party a few months earlier for Cloud's birthday. At first the blue eyed boy had been hesitant to hang out with his former friend. He'd been worried that by starting the friendship again he might cause some kind of mental breakdown. In fact the younger of the two had gone out of his way to avoid the other in order to keep his mentality intact.
However that tactic had only lasted for so long.
Zack zoned back in to notice Cloud staring at him across the table with a small smirk on his lips, a single brow raised in amusement.
"So you shook me out of my day dream only to begin one of your own Zack?" Cloud teased before laughing softly.
"Yeah, I guess I did," Zack agreed with a sheepish look on his face as he raised a hand to his head and scratched at the back of it messing his haphazard black spikes up even more.
"So what were you thinking about?" Cloud asked placing an elbow on the table and leaning his chin on it as he focused on the sable haired fighter.
"Actually I was thinking about how hard you made it to get to know you," Zack answered with a grin of his own as he answered the question and teased his companion at the same time.
"Hmmm," Cloud replied thinking about it.
"You were stubborn," Zack said with a grin.
"You were stubborn," Cloud countered with a grin of his own.
~ 0 ~
Attempt One – Two weeks after Cloud's birthday.
The library was silent and peaceful as Cloud regarded the page on his computer screen with rapt concentration. He'd entered the building under the guise of completing some homework. He even had the boring essay next to the computer as proof if someone were to come by and attempt to bother him. It was half finished already; a simple report on the battle formations used in the Wutai War thus far and the logic behind them.
Of course some of the information could be found in the newspapers that Shinra published for the public. More could be found in the reports available to SOLDIER's and cadets. Clearance level and the available information depended on your standing among the hierarchy of the Shinra Corporation. Those that were first class SOLDIER's naturally had infinitely more information than cadets like Cloud for example.
Not that he needed any extra information on the battle formations used in combat during the Wutai War. He remembered more than enough of those between his infantry days and the memories that Zack left him with. And of course that wasn't even with the mention of practical experience from hunting Sephiroth, and ambushing monsters on their trip around the world.
With knowledge like that he had an unfair, but none the less appreciated, advantage over those in his class who were also trying to complete the report. Many of Cloud's fellow class mates were in the library as well researching the uses behind specific battle strategies to go with the information they had already been given on the war.
No, he didn't need the help of some stupid computer information to get his essay finished for tomorrow. That was just the cover story. The truth was that the blond was looking into some of the Shinra Corporation's files to see what they were up to at that moment. It paid off to keep an eye on the company and its activity.
It made even more sense to check up on the company now that things were getting heated. The Wutai War was serious; the loss of life high and yet glossed over by the Shinra run media machine. That would have been enough on its own without the added turbulence of the company taking out its own property. The Kalm destruction upped the ante and made sure that Cloud was paying attention and not taking his task lightly.
He'd taken the liberty of hacking into the system and reading some of the reports on the Kalm incident. He'd discovered more than a few things that they'd kept quiet, things that hadn't surfaced last time.
For instance the population of the town that had been able to escape the incident had been taken to one of Hojo's secret labs and laid out for experimentation. As far as the madman scientist and the company were concerned it was a free and easy method of obtaining specimens. The town had been destroyed and promptly covered up by calling the annihilation a Wutai attack. The townspeople were largely considered dead.
It wasn't going to be a big deal if those who did manage to make it out of the town weren't able to get anywhere. They were free for all's in the eyes of the company. Who knew what they were even really going to be used for. Even the file that Cloud had managed to hack into didn't really say. It held the generic Hojo bullshit that generally went around in nonsensical circles not really giving away any information other than the intent to use experimental procedures.
"Whatcha doing?" asked a voice out of the blue causing Cloud to jump as he looked up over the computer screen to see the black haired SOLDIER standing there.
As casually as he could Cloud used the remote withdraw he'd made to cease his hacking and leave no traces while shifting his screen to the work on the Wutai War. When that was done, and he appeared the casual student once more he looked up at the man who had interrupted him contemplatively. The silence was heavy as the sable haired man waited for a reply.
Reluctantly Cloud answered the question, "I'm doing an essay for my Battle Tactics and Strategy class about the battle formations in the Wutai War."
The blond didn't really want to encourage the other man by replying to him. He felt like if he went ahead with the friendship he might break. He loved his former friend, but he wasn't sure his mind could take the burden of seeing Zack every day. He would go out of his way to save him, he would do anything for the man who had died to save him.
He just wasn't sure he could take the strain mentally of seeing the SOLDIER all the time and trying to keep in the here and now. He'd had more than a few issues with that whilst working with Vincent, and they didn't have the same kind of history together that Cloud and Zack had. It was almost like asking for trouble. Or to put it another way, it was almost like asking for madness.
"So Cloud, from what I hear you've been here a while," Zack asked leaning on the monitor of the computer, "And you've missed dinner so why don't we go for a walk and grab something in town?"
Cloud looked up at Zack, his eyes wide as he watched the blood drip down the sable haired SOLDIER's forehead. His lips were grinning in their usual goofy smile, but the blood was starting to slip into his open mouth. Oxygen was filtering through his lungs a little faster than normal making the blond haired man's head swim a little.
A wavering blink and the image was gone, replaced with a concerned friend leaning closer.
Cloud gave a shaky smile and shook his head, "Maybe another time."
"Oh-kay," Zack said slowly and uncertainly drawing the word out into its syllables as he stared at the blond. He couldn't help but wonder what about a dinner invitation from him had made the other man go into panic mode.
"I'm sorry I've got to go," Cloud said with a crooked smile, jumping to his feet and hurrying away.
He needed to breathe. He just needed to breathe.
~ 0 ~
Attempt Two – Five Weeks After Cloud's Birthday
The air was starting to bite, the coldness of the autumn air starting to set in. It was early for that frigid bite yet, being only the beginning of September but then winters had always set in faster and more erratically here in Midgar where nature had been flouted. Where the natural atmosphere had been drained by the city and its Mako reactors. Scarves were starting to pop up around the necks of the residents in a bid to keep exposed skin out of the open air.
Cloud was no exception to that trend. Even having lived in Nibelhiem of this lifetime he still hadn't been able to forgo the want of a soft winter scarf. It wrapped his neck and shoulders firmly and when the wind blew hard was often drawn up to his nose. One such occasion where he'd firmly nestled himself into the cloth was today.
It was only fitting then that when Cloud turned the corner of loveless avenue, heading towards the fountain that Cloud bumped into none other than Zack Fair. His blue eyes opened wide as their bodies met, a comical look when that was all the sable SOLDIER could see. As they stepped back and away from each other Zack grasped Cloud's shoulders and stared at him in fixed concentration.
"Cloud?" Zack asked staring into wide blue eyes.
Cloud was unable to respond, his body frozen for a moment in shock.
"Is that you?" Zack continued after a moment of silence.
Embarrassed the blond merely nodded in reply, grateful that the scarf he was wearing so high covered his flushed face. It was just his luck to walk right into the person he had been actively avoiding for the past few weeks. At least he felt decidedly more put together this time than he had the last time they'd met in the library.
"I'm sorry for bumping into you like that. I guess it must be fate huh?" Zack asked with a grin, his head tilting as he spoke, looking at the obscuring scarf for a moment before lifting his hand and pulling it down to reveal the entirety of the blonds face.
The sudden shock of cold air against his skin made Cloud screw up his face. He'd been warm and more than a little content up until that point, and yet he still felt quite comfortable. It was strange that the mere presence of his former friend for that moment in time made him tune out everything else. Until the moment was over.
And then he stopped to think again. Blue eyes roved the SOLDIER's body up and down as they took in the windswept look the man was sporting. He was supposed to have been avoiding this man. He'd decided that for the sake of his sanity he couldn't be around Zack this time. Only he wasn't feeling as lost and confused looking at the man now as he was the last time he'd seen him.
In fact other than a strange sense of blurring around the edges when they were together he wasn't feeling too bad at all. He glanced up at the bright blue eyes of his friend and smiled a little, the edges of his lips turning up. The black haired soldier grinned back, surprised to see the blond smiling the way he was. It was certainly a first other than the party where they had met.
Not that Zack had been stalking the blond when he had the chance in an attempt to start the friendship he felt should have been formed since the night of Cloud's birthday. Not at all, he'd merely started…actively devoting time to catching the blond so they could reconcile. Yes that was it. After all they'd hit it off so well when they'd first met. They'd had a connection that somewhere undefinable must have gone awry.
Or, at least that was the only explanation for the sudden turnaround in their relationship. Although the black haired man couldn't fathom exactly what might have changed between the party and the very next week when they met again.
"Yeah, I guess it must be fate," Cloud agreed with a nod and a smile, "Or you're stalking me."
"Uh, yeah fate," Zack agreed again with a sheepish smile wondering how Cloud knew what he had been thinking only moments earlier.
"I'm sorry…about the last time we saw each other," Cloud said with a blush; thinking about the way he had run out the last time they had spoken made him feel embarrassed. He couldn't help but fear that the other man thought him an idiot.
"It's fine I'm sure you were just-"
"No, that's alright let me finish. I didn't mean to be so weird. It wasn't anything that you did, it was just…I wasn't feeling very well and then I guess I got a bit stressed over that paper I was writing," Cloud replied unable to face the idea of someone he looked at as a friend viewing him as a fool.
"Well, I'm glad. Do you want to go and-" Zack was suddenly cut off again.
"I'm sorry, I can't," Cloud replied shaking his head. He was just starting to bridge the gap between the past Zack and the present Zack. He just wasn't ready for more than short bursts of contact yet. He had yet to wrap his mind around it. Closing his eyes he could almost hear the sable haired man calling his battle cry and the slew of bullets that cut him down.
"But I didn't even say when or where," Zack said a pout beginning to form on his lips.
Cloud gave a wry grin and shook his head, "I know. I'm sorry. It's not you, it's me. I just need to work through something and then we can do something. Okay? I'm sorry."
"Wow, we aren't even in a relationship and I managed to get the 'it's not you it's me' talk. But –" Zack broke off and shook his head and grinned as he thought about it. He was determined that no matter what it took he would be friends with the blond. It just felt right.
"Fine, but you owe me." Zack said watching as Cloud nodded and hurried away.
They would be friends yet. Not that his promise would stop him from stalk- er, actively pursuing the friendship of Cloud Strife.
~ 0 ~
Attempt three – Nine Weeks After Cloud's Birthday
"Stand to attention!" Evan Black, the commanding officer barked as he regarded his cadets.
Several rows of cadets suddenly snapped to attention. They stood stiff and alert; ready for the next instruction. Up until that point they hadn't seen much action in their training, it had mostly been in-facility exercises and theory based work. But as they stood and waited to leave with baited breath they knew that things were about to change.
The orders had been given the day before that at 0600 hours the cadets were to be packed and ready for survival training. They'd been at the institute for about eight months already. It was no surprise to anyone that the time had finally come for them to be exiting the city. It was just a wonder that they hadn't done it earlier. Although the delay sort of made sense with the Wutai War going on; there just wasn't the needed amount of force to organise these sorts of trips.
The cadets had no idea where they were going, or even what they would be doing once they got to their destination. They'd all been told what essentials to pack at the end of the day the previous day, and most of them had promptly done it without question. Some had spent more time pondering the meaning than doing the work but overall they were all curious and more than eager to get going.
"Today we are taking you into the area surrounding Midgar. You'll have a SOLDIER to each team. You'll make your camp overnight; you will get to the destination indicated on your map and then return to Midgar. Those that make it back before the week is out will pass the survival course. Those that do not, will have the option of repeating the year, or returning to wherever you came from." Evan Black said with a stern tone and a firm face.
It was already Wednesday, that meant that they were going on a trip that could take five days. Where were they going? Costa Del Sol. Cloud grimaced for a moment before following his team into their van. The vehicle was loaded down with people and items and then they were set, motoring along the highway until they left the city.
When the vehicles had made their way out of Midgar, and instead were on the planes around the city they were given the go ahead as a SOLDIER approached each group. Cloud couldn't help but groan at the way fate worked as a familiar black spiky head made its way over to the group.
Of course they weren't going to give the cadets anyone who was actually a high class SOLDIER for these activities. And if they were going to be picking low ranking SOLDIER's to do the job then why not allow him to end up with the one person in all of SOLDIER whom he had been avoiding other than Sephiroth (for obvious reasons).
"Cloud! Who'd have thought you'd be in my group?" Zack said with a grin, knowing full well that he had specifically signed up for that group when he'd agreed to do the exercise. After all when they were stuck together in the wilderness there was no way that the blond could ignore him.
"Yeah, of all the groups you could have gotten, huh?" Cloud replied with a wry voice leaving the sable soldier to wonder if he knew somehow that Zack had manipulated the situation.
Not that Cloud was really all that irritated about it or anything. Not really; yeah it was a shock to see Zack on such a serious mission but really he should have expected as much. He knew that the SOLDIER had been getting more and more anxious to rekindle their friendship, and in that respect it was no surprise at all that this had been a last resort as such. Zack always had been a little bit stubborn when it came to getting the things that he wanted.
With a grin Zack produced the mission plan and the map, handing it over to Cloud. The blond glanced over the instructions and sighed. They certainly hadn't made it easy for the recruits to complete this mission. Not only were they to survive the wilderness on their first trip out of the facility but they were to retrieve items from battle as well. No doubt many of the cadets had never even seen the monsters they were going to be facing outside of a text book or a simulator.
They had been instructed to make their way out of Midgar and 'obtain nine ethers and return to the facility by no later than 12pm Sunday evening, and no sooner than 12pm Friday evening'. After all it was meant to be both a survival challenge as well as a test of practical battle skills.
The SOLDIER's weren't allowed to interfere with the process unless it appeared that their charges were in a life or death situation. After all, Shinra was about money and profit margins. The last thing they needed was a law suit on their hands saying that the supervisors merely stood back and watched as the cadets were bludgeoned to death by the monsters they were learning to fight. Especially whilst they were on a camping trip. That would have sounded really bad.
So as the blond turned his gaze towards his team he sighed. He hadn't exactly been given the best lot out there. It was obvious that he was going to have to take charge at least slightly in order to get things done. He wouldn't be one of those people that had to retake the whole year over again because they missed the whole assignment due to poor planning. It was a little unfair, but he knew that a fair number of the cadets would struggle to get the amount of inventory required in the amount of time given.
Between figuring out where to go and actually obtaining the artefacts that the Shinra Corporation required time would be slim for most. And no doubt that was what they were aiming for. He'd never even made it to this stage in his previous life so he had no idea what other tasks might be given. He'd almost immediately been forced into the infantry with the combination of his build and the sensitivity he'd had to Mako. Luckily that was a thing of the past. Along with his motion sickness thank god.
It was a fair assessment in one way though, and that was the test of logic and thought process. It was a good way to see who would think to try and buy the substance, an expensive feat at an average of 1,500 Gil a piece, and who would immediately figure out the fastest and easiest way to obtain the substance. In that way they were already set for this project. It couldn't be said that all of the running around they did after Sephiroth was for naught. Most certainly and relevantly for this project it had taught him what monsters would get their hands on what, how strong they were and the best tactics for beating them.
Even more importantly thanks to that seemingly never ending trip around the planet he knew exactly where to get their first three ethers. He grinned and relayed the first level of the plan to the other team members who nodded and gave their input whilst Zack remained the impartial and silent SOLDIER he was required to be for this task. And no doubt based on the personality and what Cloud knew of the sable haired man it was killing him. HE couldn't help but snigger to himself a little at the idea drawing baffled looks from the team as they began their tramp across the plains of Midgar towards Kalm.
The long grass was itchy and irritating, and the soft rustling sound combined with the heavy footfalls of their boots quickly grew irritating. At least when he'd been forced to travel with AVALANCHE he'd actually semi-liked them at the time. Over the course of their adventures they'd grown on each other and though they were in close quarters and privacy was almost non-existent it hadn't mattered all that much because they became used to each other.
But this. This was pure torture. After several hours of walking they were nearly there, and thank god. Cloud's fellow cadets were inclined towards inane conversation about who they liked, what General Sephiroth was like and what his interests were (The blond was nearly ticked off enough to tell them the truth about future Sephiroth's interests; blood, pain, misery and the destruction of the world. Nearly, but not quite), and general early teen prattling.
Zack wasn't helping on the least. He'd been quiet at first; nothing short of a miracle for the peppy SOLDIER. Then clearly he'd grown bored and resorted to humming some of the biggest hits on the radio quite loudly and off key. He'd given that up rather quickly when Cloud had turned to him with the most murderous glare he could conjure and simply stared. The message had been signed, sealed and delivered with a death immanent guarantee if the man continued. So he'd stopped, only to continue his attempt at entertain with what was probably the stupidest game in creation-
"I Spy with my little eye, something beginning with K," Zack said gleefully, sure they'd never guess this, probably fiftieth 'spy'. He'd given just about every object he could now and this was probably the last thing he'd be able to say until they came across something new for him to offer.
"Kalm?" Adam asked with a sigh as he regarded the town looming ahead of them. He couldn't wait to be at the place. Cloud had suggested it as their first port of call only a few hours earlier, but to all of the five cadets in the team the journey had the feel of a lifetime. None of them aside from the blond were used to such journeys. At first it had been a novelty. Now it was merely a pain in the ass.
"Yes! How did you-" Zack was suddenly cut off by Cloud speaking.
"A Kalm Fang" Cloud said his eyes on the way ahead.
"Ah, Cloud, Adam here already guessed it right. You don't need to keep guessing," Zack replied with a confused look on his face as he looked at the blond.
Cloud laughed and shook his head as he lifted his sword and readied for attack, "No Zack. There's a Kalm Fang on its way over here."
Caught up for a moment in the fun of the game Zack hadn't comprehended the fact that there were enemies around here. Sure he'd known, and he'd been certain that he would catch wind of those enemies way before any of his troop were in danger but he was a bit too distracted. He'd been more focused on trying to loosen the blond up and make friends with him. After all he wasn't allowed to really do anything to help them anyway. Not unless things disintegrated into a life or death situation, and it certainly wasn't at that level with one measly Kalm Fang.
Of course with monsters like Kalm Fang they were never on their own before the troop knew it they were surrounded by the monsters. Not that that fact bothered the blond who merely regarded it as a chance to try and steal a few ethers from the monsters. The other members of the team were frozen with surprise for a moment before they put up their weapons and made their own clumsy attempts at fighting.
Zack stood back and watched impartially merely keeping an eye on the situation and keeping out of the way of the monsters. If it came down to it then he was ready, but for the time being he would watch the cadets and check out their technique. That was after all half the reason they were out there. When there was a quiet moment he would stop to write it all down.
Cloud rushed forward to take on the first monster he saw. The monsters weren't particularly strong and he avoided the spiky creatures first attack, a body blow, with ease. Swiftly and gracefully Cloud whirled out of the way and around the back of the monster. In the blink of an eye he'd drawn his blade harshly down the spine of the creature and cleaved it damn near in half from mid back to rump.
With a quick glance to make sure the monster wasn't going to get up and move again Cloud moved onto the next assailant. Blue eyes were bright in concentration as he danced around the body of a slightly more agile Kalm Fang. A quick glance up at his fellow team members told him they were doing passably well against their own opponent.
The problem with only having faced simulations and friendly combat inside the Shinra Facility was that the cadets weren't quite entirely ready for a real life combat situation. Of course nothing could have been done about that in the first place other than throwing them into combat with the real thing.
The difference between a simulation, and a real monster was almost subtle, but at the same time noticeable enough to put one of slightly at first. In a simulation all of the effort was in placing your strikes and executing them correctly. It was concentration and willpower. And whilst yes that was in its own way important in real life there was a key difference here that the cadets were trying to account for.
Nothing they'd faced so far had prepared them for the reality of cleaving through meat and bone. They'd known the importance of striking the right angle in battle to get the best blow but the clumsiness of real life meant that when Adam struck a weird angle rather than the perfect hit he'd been going for he met more bone than he'd anticipated.
The cadets strength wasn't quite enough to go through bone at the angle he'd attempted and the sword momentarily became embedded in the deep wound he'd created ensconced into the bone. Blood poured free messily out of the open wound causing the young man's stomach to turn a little.
Except he didn't have time to stop and ponder the ethics of slaughtering something that was attacking him in such a haphazard and clearly painful way. With a grunt and a heavy swallow he pulled his sword free and pilled it back striking out again and this time catching the monster in the throat as his teammate caught it in the belly successfully felling it.
Cloud focused on his own opponent again as a fang attack successfully caught him across the leg and made him bleed. Gritting his teeth against the sudden onset of pain Cloud ignored the wound knowing that by the time he'd finished this monster off there wouldn't even be a scratch. He slashed out with a sharp movement and then reversed the angle of the sword bringing it back down upon the neck of the beast effectively beheading it in his zealousness.
Turning with his sword at the ready Cloud prepared to face the next monster only to find his teammates finishing off the last one as he watched. He scanned their movements fixatedly as they co-operatively took the last Kalm Fang down together. For all that he got shitty with them he couldn't help but notice that they did make a good team together.
They all turned to look at each other before turning to Cloud and looking at him. He seemed the most knowledgeable and therefore the most likely rallying point.
"What do we do now?" Derek asked on behalf of the other members.
A crooked smile curled across Cloud's face as he looked at the felled opponents, "We see if we found any ethers."
"Look where?" Dave replied confounded. He certainly didn't see how the creatures they'd fought might be hiding any items.
"The stomach of course; they eat whatever they find, and if they find a nice human snack who just happens to have items on them then they eat that too. When you cut them open you find the weirdest things, of course if you find their nests, or dens or whatever then there's a chance there's something there too," Cloud said the grin still on his face at the look on the other cadets faces, "Didn't anyone else read about that in class, or actually do it at home, or even hear about it?"
There was a resounding silence as Cloud looked at Zack and shook his head to stop the SOLDIER from saying yes. He meant his fellow cadets. Of course someone who did this for a career would have done so already. He didn't need a verbal confirmation to know that.
"No? Really?" Cloud asked both surprised and not surprised that none of them had known. He'd known at first glance that he'd found himself in the type of group to just do something rather than take the time to think about it. It wasn't that they were slow or stupid, at least not overly, but rather that they were merely the brute force type of fighter. So naturally given his history as a resourceful fighter it made sense he be thrown in with them. Otherwise the whole lot mightn't get anywhere.
"I'll show you how to do it, and then you can have a go, okay?" Cloud said before making his way to one of the Kalm Fang and slitting its stomach open and allowing its contents to spill free before rooting a hand around inside to make sure everything was out. When he was sure he had everything he could the blond gathered his findings; he'd made several and luckily enough they'd even gained and ether.
"One ether down, eight to go," Cloud said turning around to look at some of the other cadets, two of whom looked distinctly green having watched Cloud plunge his hand into the innards of a dead monster in search of treasure, realising they too would have to do so.
Cloud sent an amused look to Zack who grinned back. The first time you had to do so was always the worst. Do it enough and it just became another thing you did. Of course if he'd known what they were going to be doing out here he might have packed gloves so he could wash those clean rather than his hand. He'd meant to bring them too, but even people like him made silly mistakes such as leaving tiny things at home on their beds ready and waiting to be packed. Even resurrected from the dead by the will of the lifestream he was still human.
The other cadets set about disembowelling their kills and searching for treasure. Only one other ether was found, the rest of the creatures merely containing money or potions. It was odd what some of these monsters managed to come across and consume. It was odder still that some of the things they ate didn't make them sick. Even monsters couldn't digest everything.
"We should make camp here for the night. It's getting late, and the bodies will deter any other enemies for now. I need to go to Kalm and get the ethers I mentioned. I can't get them with everyone else tramping around with me though. It's kind of suspicious and it would make the other teams realise what we were up to," Cloud said surveying the distance between Kalm and their soon to be camp site. He could see other cadets in the distance all milling about at different paces, heading different places.
"You're welcome to it Cloud, I don't know about these guys but I'm dead tired. We can't all be mountain boys who do this every day for fun you know! I'm from Junon. A little swimming is the most consistent exercise we get out there," Derek said with a sigh as he dumped his pack on the ground.
"I agree with him, I'm exhausted. That last fight has me ready to keel over and die. I thought I was fit until you made us walk all the way from Midgar to Kalm with only a handful of breaks. I don't know how you do it Strife!" Adam added with a huff as he collapsed onto the ground.
Cloud laughed in reply. He knew they were right. They'd crossed a lot of distance in a short amount of time thanks to the swift pace they were going at. Only a handful of other teams had made it out ahead of them. He wanted this task over and done with. He wanted, needed, to finish this mission and make it into SOLDIER. It was just perfect that this was something that he could do so well.
"I'll be back soon okay? Don't forget that we're going to need someone on watch all night; so, when you're done with making camp you need to decide who gets what hours. The last person to go on watch should eat and then go to sleep. We don't want to get attacked while we sleep," Cloud said with a nod before setting off towards Kalm.
By the time Cloud had reached the town it was near eight at night, and more than twelve hours since they'd stood packed and in line waiting for orders. It was dark, but the light from the buildings was just at the right level that that the small town was well enough lit that even without his mako enhanced vision the blond would have been satisfactorily able to see the world around him.
From his first visit to Kalm with AVALANCHE Cloud was lucky enough to remember all the places that he'd visited to gather equipment. He was even luckier that most of the buildings that Cloud had been to in his previous life had been created now. In true Shinra fashion, after decimating the town they'd played dumb and rushed it back up again offering help to those who wanted to move there now. He was fortunate that his memory of the town included the places where he'd been privileged enough to come across a few ethers. He had no doubt that as with last time their owners wouldn't even notice their loss. Most of these people were miners who had come across the substance in caves or assorted treasure chests. They didn't need or know what to do with the ethers. They'd no doubt had them long before the town had even been rebuilt or destroyed in the first place.
The first place Cloud visited was the Inn. When the innkeepers back was turned he managed to sneak past the man and make it upstairs to where the beds were. In a moment of nostalgia he remembered the way the room was when he'd told his fake tale about what had happened. When he had believed that he was Zack rather than the unnamed infantryman of his story.
At the realisation that everything had been a lie his head had fabricated in a form of experimentation induced transfer and post-traumatic stress disorder he'd felt both betrayed and embarrassed that Tifa had left him to pour all that detail out when she knew otherwise. Almost mortified even. As he glanced around the room that looked exactly the same then as it did now his cheeks flushed with embarrassed colour again.
Shaking his head to rid the visions of the past Cloud moved over to the cabinet to the left of the stairs and rifled through it for a bit. He remembered it being there. He was sure it was there. Unless the person who placed the item there hadn't put it there yet. And then after checking the cabinet a grand total of five times he was finally able to figure out where it was. Perhaps he was going blind? No, that idea was immediately dismissed. He was genetically enhanced. There was no way he was going blind. He was probably just too caught up in his past.
Cloud grinned as he put the megalixir into his pack and snuck back out of the inn again before the man at the counter noticed. More than one group would soon be trying to check into the inn for the night. Before their team was told by the SOLDIER babysitting them that bunking in the inn wasn't allowed since it wasn't part of a relevant survival technique. At least not in the way Shinra wanted. Still, that didn't mean someone wouldn't try.
The house to the right of the inn was empty; the door was unlocked as most of these houses were. Most of the people living there were quite poor and there wasn't much to steal, so what was the point in locking it. Cloud had chosen his time wisely. There would be a special on at the pub about now and most of the people living in town would be there. It was an odd sort of social event.
He needed to get this done as quickly as possible so the blond let himself in and made his way to the door under the stairs and found the item he was looking for. Tucked at the back of the shelf and looking significantly less dusty than the previous time he'd retrieved it Cloud found one of the ethers he was looking for. He was grateful it was there, but curious as to whether this streak was going to hold up. When they'd found the items previously it had been obvious they'd been there a while and wouldn't be missed. However would they be there this early?
As it turned out at the next house over from his memory streak of luck was over and one of the ethers he was looking for hadn't been put there yet, in fact the whole house wasn't even completed yet but merely foundation work. He did however find a nice restore materia in the foundation work. He wondered if anyone found it last time, or if they merely built a house over it without knowing. It was only a level 1 materia, so it would only do a simple cure, but with enough work he knew he could work it all the way up to cure 3. It wouldn't directly help him finish this mission, but in the long run it was even better than finding an ether in that cupboard.
With a flourish of success Cloud pocketed the materia and moved on from the house. He really didn't have the time to dawdle. He had work to do, and no doubt his teammates would be wondering where he was soon. That was if they hadn't merely collapsed in an exhausted pile and forgone his idea of running a watch completely. If they hadn't listened then he was trusting Zack to take care of them.
In exploring the next house Cloud found the gun Peacekeeper. It would make a suitable gift for Vincent when he was next able to get a hold of the elusive Turk. In the next and final house Cloud found the last ether under the stairs in a cupboard neatly tucked away. Ethers were such expensive items that they weren't something you'd just use all willy nilly, especially if they just looked pretty and you didn't really know what they were.
A final stop to the supply shop netted the blond some food and supplies such as ammunition for peacekeeper. He might as well use it for now. He'd also picked up a few extra materia. They weren't cheap, but the money he found inside the Kalm Fang as well as a little of his own money meant that he was more than prepared for this mission now that he knew the details. With haste he made his way back to the camp.
The blond was more than a little surprised when he arrived at the camp to discover that they'd listened to him after all, and that after appointing a watch schedule they'd all gone to sleep except the first person on duty. Well, him and Zack at any rate. With his SOLDIER enhancements he wasn't as tired as the rest of the team were. That and sheer willpower had kept him awake.
"Cloud, you're back!" Zack greeted with soft excitement as Cloud sank down in place at the glowing fire.
Cloud glanced at Zack and stared at the SOLDIER for a moment or two. Turning his gaze to Brian the cadet on watch he grinned and shook his head. "Brian, you can go to sleep, I'm not tired after putting all that adrenaline into my system, I'll take watch for now."
They hadn't been sure when the blond would return to the camp and so they'd left him off the watch list completely rather than try and work him in without proper knowledge. It wouldn't hurt to get some sleep, and with the looks the SOLDIER and the blond were giving each other it was clear that they wanted to chat anyway. Better one person up awake and keeping watch than two, other than the SOLDIER of course who they had no control over.
"Yeah, thanks man. I'll see you in the morning. Don't stay up too long okay? You need some sleep too," Brian said with a nod before heading to bed.
Cloud looked steadfastly at the fire, keeping his attention on that rather than the man sitting next to him. It was easier that way. If he could distract himself from the past then he wouldn't see it. He could hold a full conversation with no horrible flash backs. At least it had mostly worked so far.
"You wanted to talk?" Cloud said softly so as not to wake the no doubt dead asleep cadets only a short distance away.
"Yeah, I wanted to know…if you plan on being friends with me? I know that we get along, we have fun with each other; or at least we did at your birthday party but every time I've seen you since then things have been weird. You've run away," Zack said softly in return. The addition of 'but you can't run away now went unsaid' but heard anyway.
Cloud grinned ruefully, "Yeah, we did have fun. As much as we could when I'm being so stupid. I'm sorry Zack, I really am. I just. I can't even really explain it to you so that you can understand. My head is so…I'm not good with words. I'm not good at saying how I feel or what I'm thinking. It always drove Tifa and the kids nuts."
"Tifa and the kids?" Zack asked with a confused voice.
Cloud daren't look up in case his voice gave him away as he mentally kicked himself, "Tifa and the other kids back home. They never really understood me, but Tifa. She- I don't know, other than my mom she was the one who was the best at dealing with me. She just kind of…got me. At least on the surface at any rate."
Although Zack didn't realise it Cloud was again speaking about a time somewhere in the future, a time that was yet to happen and all going well never would. He merely noticed how forlorn his friend was and figured that maybe he was lonely. That maybe all Cloud had been running from was exactly what he was offering.
"So maybe we shouldn't go for a friendship? Maybe we should skip all that and just be best friends. Just skip all that scary getting to know each other and working past the pretences stuff. Past all the worry, and stress and regret and be what we could be. I think we could be good friends, and I think we should be friends. So why not just forgive each other for the flaws and say that we'll be there for each other. No matter how many words we use or how we say it. Whatever happens you have to hold onto your dreams! If you want to be a hero you have to hold onto your dreams," Zack said with a smile, parodying words he'd said in a time long past.
Cloud looked away, "I don't want to be a hero."
Silence took hold as Zack got the message that Cloud wasn't in the mood to talk. The blond stayed on watch for several more hours until the sun was starting to turn the sky a purple in preparation for the day. With only an hour or so until they had to get up he turned in and passed out. When he awoke later nothing more was said on the subject to the blond. For the time being it was dropped.
The time passed and they made their way past Kalm and out towards the Chocobo Ranch. The other cadets had been apprehensive about heading out this way considering the amount of time they had left but when Cloud had assured them they wouldn't be returning on foot then they had agreed to the trip. Just before lunchtime Saturday the cadets found themselves at the Chocobo Ranch with a day and a half to go. They'd managed to gather all of their ethers the night before luckily enough and the trip home was the final leg of the challenge.
At first the other cadets had worried about being able to pay for Chocobo at the farm. It could be notoriously expensive to hire/buy even one of the enormous birds. However the confidence Cloud had shown when they'd broached the subject quickly quelled their nerves some. At least until Cloud stepped up to the birds in the pen and began 'warking' to them like one of their long lost cousins. At any rate the image was at least mildly comical.
"Wark!" Cloud cried in hello as he greeted the birds in the pen remembering doing much the same thing, ignoring the looks he was getting now much as he had then as the Chocobo started to dance.
The shining yellow birds waddled and danced for a moment as they warked back before a materia rolled Cloud's way. He picked it up and turned to look at his fellow cadets faces as they stared at the formerly dancing birds in confused awe. It never got old.
"I'll be back in a moment," Cloud said with a grin as he made his way into the stables to find a much younger rancher inside.
The blond managed to haggle the price of the Chocobo Lure materia down from 2000 this time to a mere 1,800. He'd had the 2000 but if he paid that then he wouldn't have been able to afford the greens he'd need to attract the birds. Fighting all those monsters on the way there certainly helped them pay off things such as this. It worked just as well here as it had at home as a child.
When that was done and he'd paid for the curiel greens the made their way to the spot where Cloud found he caught Chocobo the easiest. It was simple really. He merely looked where the grass was longest, searched for their tracks in the ground and then left the greens and activated the lure. When that was done and the birds came in he assigned the birds to a cadet and they made their way home in style, if not in complete comfort for some who were unused to riding the swift birds.
"What're you gonna do when we get to Midgar?" Zack asked causing Cloud's blue eyes to widen in alarm once more as he again replayed the past. He'd certainly chosen the best time for it as the passed by the spot of his death. Cloud shuddered at the realisation. Life sucked.
"So Cloud. What are you gonna do?" Zack asked again.
In a stroke of fate Cloud was unable to reply out of shock much the way he'd been unable to reply when he was last asked that question by the black haired man, "U…uuuhhhhh…"
""Just kidding... I won't leave you hanging like that," Zack said with a grin, "We're friends right? Best friends?"
The subject that Cloud had been avoiding for most of the trip and then some finally came up, and again the way it was asked left him breathless in the face of the parallels it posed. He shook his head to clear it a little.
"We're not?" Zack asked with a put upon pout as they cancelled the lure and made their way back into Midgar late on Saturday evening, "That's mean. And here I was going to ask you if you wanted to grab a something to eat together when this was done."
"No, yeah, I mean…I don't know Zack. Can we just not label it for now?" Cloud asked with a grimace.
There was silence as they made their way into the city. Then when it seemed as though Zack might never answer he finally did, "Yeah, we can do that."
Cloud grinned for a moment. For all that Zack was an excitable puppy most of the time, he was a great friend, and for all the things that really mattered he was someone that you wanted on your side. There was no one else like Zack Fair he mused.
They entered the Shinra building as a team and handed over their treasure, and Zack surrendered the paperwork he'd been working on since they started. When that was done each member was interviewed privately about their experiences and their techniques. It was a relief to stumble out of the room at two in the morning, just shy of three hours after he'd made it into the city and just fall into bed. He forgot all about Zack's offer and the things that were on his mind and passed out.
He'd passed. He was in. A SOLDIER.
~ 0 ~
Present time – Eleven Weeks After Clouds Birthday
"I think we'll just have to agree that we are both stubborn," Zack conceded with a grin, "but you know, you still owe me dinner."
"Hmmm, I believe you're right," Cloud replied attempting to sound thoughtful rather than smug and amused.
It was late October; things were okay in his life for now. He was on track, on mission, and for the most part mentally stable. Who knew how long things would stay that way, it was better to revel in it and embrace it such as it was. It was a fact that in his life things never stayed simple. They invariably became complicated.
There hadn't been that many people passing the test into SOLDIER that year, it seemed that most of the cadets had grown complacent during the test with the idea that with the Wutai War going on they wouldn't need to try too hard to get anything done. They'd somehow largely gotten the idea that they'd be accepted even if they were having trouble scraping by. Except that Sephiroth was running the show and there was no way he was going to allow that. The other half that hadn't passed the cut hadn't been able to get the required amount of ethers, or hadn't come back in on time. Or even worse, some had been a combination of the two. The tests for SOLDIER were hard for a reason. They only wanted the best.
It wasn't until later that Cloud found out that even the debriefing where he'd been asked about the events of the test had been a test in and of itself as well. Zack had informed him later that he'd done really well on that. He'd remembered all the details of the mission he'd been on, and answered all of the questions he'd been given very succinctly. He'd showed through his answers and his work that he had exemplary leadership skills, battle tactics, combat skill and drive. It made him question what exactly Zack had written about him. It hadn't even occurred to him until now because he'd been so focused on the fact that he was in. But they were friends and he knew that he'd done well, so it couldn't have been bad. He hadn't even thought to look it up.
"Zack?"
"Hmmm?" The sable SOLDIER replied.
"What did you write about me in your report for that mission?" Cloud asked curiously.
"Fabulous, a godsend, could catch a Chocobo with merely a sweet word!" Zack laughed in answer.
"Never mind, I give up, I don't want to know, it isn't important. I passed and that's all that matters," Cloud said with an exasperated sigh. Zack really was terrible sometimes, he was like a giant child when he wanted to be.
He was still snooping around files on the Shinra Mainframe covertly in the hopes of finding something that would allow him to oust Hojo from his spot as head of the Science department. Veld had returned to work after getting his body fixed, and no one seemed any the wiser to really went on in Kalm thanks to his cover story. He still wasn't sure how Shinra had managed to put together a town like that after it caused a destruction on such a level, but Nibelhiem in his timeline seemed only to support the idea that Shinra was the master of rebuilds and cover stories. It was sick. It was more than sick, but he refused to let it get to him. At least not right now.
He still hadn't had the chance to see Vincent, or to give the Turk the gun he'd found, but that wasn't any surprise considering he'd been out on assignment since not long after he got back from his exam. On the upside he hadn't seen too much of Reno again either. Of course knowing the redhead that just meant that he was going to pop up out of the blue one day with some obnoxious idea that would get them into trouble. But Cloud wouldn't have it any other way.
"Pizza?" Zack asked suddenly out of the blue breaking Cloud's daydreaming.
"Pardon?"
"For that dinner you owe me, I figured there's no better time than the present," Zack said with a grin.
"You have no idea," Cloud laughed knowing Zack would ignore him.
"So Pizza?" Zack repleated.
"Sound great," Cloud replied, "Everything but the Chocobo Pizza?"
"Sounds perfect."
That's it, you must love me forever, and never notice any mistakes. It's 5.20 am. I've been writing since 7pm. I hate the world, and my stupid muse that enjoys pounding me into submission by threatening my sleep. Please R&R nicely. And don't hate me. It's the longest chapter I've ever written!