MAKING THE CUT

"It's unbearable... to think Mother would want Sephiroth more than..." ~ Kadaj

Cloud peered down into the training room, then quickly skittered away.

No way.

Why did these things happen to him and only him?

Sucking in a deep breath, the cadet leaned forward again. Down below, Genesis Rhapsodos sliced off a few slimy tentacles from a bizarre-looking green monster that was all teeth and eyeballs. The monster roared, seeming more angry than hurt, and continued to advance on the commander, who leaped nimbly out of the range. Flames engulfed his closed fist and he flung his arm out, sending a glowing ball of light flying at the monster.

It was like watching a dance, Cloud realized. A lethal dance that involved sharp objects and death, but a dance nonetheless. Genesis was incredibly graceful, feet barely seeming to touch the ground as he dodged and attacked in rapid succession. The monster was a little more cumbersome, but its boneless tentacles still moved with a certain amount of fluidity as well.

The blond bit his bottom lip. He probably shouldn't be here, he knew, but was it even safe to go back outside yet? Jadak and his brothers could still be looking for him. No, it was best that he waited a little longer. Besides, he wasn't hurting anything, right? Sitting down on one of the chairs, Cloud settled himself in to watch.

Every once and a while, Genesis would pause a distance away from the monster and cast something on himself that made a giant runic figure appear on the floor beneath him. Cloud crinkled his brow, trying to recall what he'd read about materia in the book Yuza had taken. There were Cures, he knew, but what Genesis had done didn't look like a Cure. It looked more like some sort of protect spell.

The monster finally managed to slither far enough to trap the SOLDIER in a corner. Its wiggling tentacles blocked out either side and poison gas threatened to spill out of its giant mouth should he attempt to leap over it. Cloud leaned forward a little more, waiting with baited breath to see what the commander would do.

Genesis clenched his fist to his chest, and much to the cadet's utter shock, actually rose up off the floor. Electricity crackled around the redhead as his fist began to glow and three bright orbs surrounded by runes similar to those Cloud had seen earlier appeared before him. He made a sharp releasing motion with his hand and the three orbs collided together, then split apart again as giant fireballs. They exploded into the monster, sending it reeling backwards. It collapsed onto its back, tentacles twitching and foul breath leaking out of its mouth. It gave one last roar, then went still.

Cloud blinked, mouth agape.

That was so cool.

That night Cloud lay awake, listening to the sound of the other boys in his room snoring. It had been a long day; trying to avoid Jadak and Yuza—Zol hadn't been there—in combat class, his first lesson with Zack, stumbling upon Genesis in the training room. His body was tired, but his mind was restless. There were only seventeen days until his test. Seventeen days for him to shape up or ship out.

If he passed, it was only because of the time he'd spent with Genesis. Two weeks ago, he wouldn't have even known he was doing his pushups wrong. But even so, he was barely mediocre compared to some of the other cadets in his class. It was no contest between himself and Jadak—Jadak was the better SOLDIER candidate, no questions asked.

Sitting up as quietly as possible, Cloud reached under his bed. He groped blindly under his fingers closed around the spine of his notebook. Grabbing the flashlight he kept on his nightstand, the blond retreated beneath the covers, clicked on the light and flipped his notebook open.

Ever since he was little, he'd had a fascination with weaponry; swords in particular. He hadn't started drawing them until a few years ago, but it had quickly become his favorite hobby. Sketches of Sephiroth's famous sword, Masamune and other swords he'd seen around ShinRa filled the pages, as well as some of his own invented weapons. It was the one thing he was good at. Not that he's shown anyone at ShinRa. If the other cadets found out he liked drawing, they'd probably make fun of him and wreck his notebook.

Cloud turned to his most recent drawing, one of Genesis' sword. He'd started it after seeing it up close, working off of memory. After seeing it again today, the cadet had a new, fresh picture of it in his head. He erased part of the hilt—he'd made the wing-like designs a little too long.

With a sigh, the blond adjusted the flashlight. He still couldn't believe Crimson had turned out to be one of the top Firsts in the company. Even if it ended badly, he was still probably the only cadet in the history of ShinRa to have personally trained with a SOLDIER First. For the first time, Cloud found himself almost wishing he hadn't found out about the bet. If Genesis really was that determined, he was positive he would've passed the test.

Then maybe he wouldn't be here, wondering how the heck he was going to pass it on his own.

There's always Zack, Cloud thought to himself, shading in part of the red blade.

Oh, Zack…

He meant well, the blond knew that, but there was a reason Genesis was a First and Zack was still a Second. Aside from that, his body type was drastically different from Zack's. While the SOLDIER was tall, broad-shouldered and could probably crush all the bones in someone's hand if he shook it too hard, Cloud was short and skinny. Genesis had once told him he'd tear his body to pieces if he attempted the bulldozer tactic most SOLDIERs used. And Zack bulldozed with the best of them.

Pursing his lips, Cloud set his pencil down to think.

He recalled the way he'd seen Genesis fight earlier, like a dancer, combining defense into his offense. If only there were some way…

The cadet sucked in a sharp breath.

SOLDIERs probably had blocks of time they were allotted the use of training rooms. If that was true, that meant Genesis would most likely be back there tomorrow at the same time. Cloud was out of his classes by then, so theoretically, he could sneak in again to watch.

It was a long shot, but it would be worth it if it worked.

Day 12

Cloud was practically running down the hallway after combat class. He found Zack waiting for him near the Mess and hastily apologized to the Second, telling him he had to finish a paper for class and wouldn't be able to eat lunch with him. After that, he'd rushed off to the ShinRa computer lab and tucked himself in the far corner of the room.

He'd lied to Zack, again, but he needed this time alone to do his own research.

Pulling up the Moogle search engine, Cloud typed in 'defensive materia' and clicked on the first link that came up. The website presented him with a list, so he started with the first entry, Barrier.

Evidently, barriers came in different levels too. Barrier protected against physical damage, MBarrier against magic, and Wall protected against both. Much to his delight, video demonstrations of the materia were available, but none of them looked anything like what Genesis had used yesterday.

"Hello, Brother."

Cloud gasped, nearly jumping out of his seat as he twisted around in his chair to see Yuza looming over his shoulder. A quick glance around revealed neither Jadak nor Zol were in sight, but he didn't know whether to be relieved or even more scared.

"Mind if I join you?" Yuza asked, tilting his head to one side.

"Uh, um, n-no," Cloud stammered.

The willowy cadet flopped himself down in the chair beside him, leaning back and throwing one ankle over his knee. It was a surprisingly casual pose for him, considering his normally ramrod posture.

Heart beating out of control, Cloud stared, speechless. Yuza had just sat down next to him. What was he supposed to do now? Ignore him? "Um, what…" His voice died when the other cadet's sharp green eyes flashed over to him. "What are you, um, doing here?"

Yuza dropped his chin a little and strands of hair fell into his face, shadowing his expression. "Zol is out of class for a few days and Jadak is somewhere practicing," he replied, although not really answering the question.

"So you… came here?"

Shrugging a shoulder, he turned his head to look at Cloud fully. "What are you doing here?"

"I-I, er…" Cloud glanced between the other cadet and his computer screen. "Research?"

Yuza leaned over to examine his 'research' more closely. "Brother is still playing SOLDIER, hm?" he teased, giving Cloud one of his vicious, barely-there smirks. He sat back in his chair again. "Or is Jadak right, and you're playing with a SOLDIER?"

Panicked, he wracked his brain for a suitable answer.

"But that's none of my business," Yuza sighed, catching sight of his reflection in the black computer monitor in front of him and frowning.

"Is… um…" Cloud wrung his hands in his lap nervously, not even sure if he should ask. "Is Jadak mad at you? About something?"

The older boy hesitated a moment. "When things start to slip out of Jadak's control, he gets upset," he said, emotionless as ever. "If I were you, I'd worry more about your skin than mine."

Great, Cloud inwardly rolled his eyes. As if training wasn't bad enough, he was still going to have to dodge Jadak in the midst of it all.

"Your shooting has gotten better," Yuza commented, almost offhandedly.

Blinking, Cloud glanced at him in surprise. Was that a compliment? "Th-thank you?"

"But you're still not very good," the older boy continued. "So here's a piece of friendly advice, Brother. Whatever you're planning on doing, stay away from Jadak. Because if he thinks you have an unfair advantage, he'll make sure you fail that test. No matter who helped you."

And with that Yuza, stood up from his seat.

"See you around, Brother."

Cloud let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. He didn't know Jadak well, but he knew enough to know Yuza was right. There was no room for error— otherwise he'd be going back to Nibelheim a lot sooner than he thought. But he couldn't help the nagging feeling that he might already be too late.

RegenesisX