Chapter 13: A Brief Mental Reprieve

"Now we can continue on our way up these stairs," Angeal said as he saw the other three approached him, the ladder firmly in Cloud and Adeus's hands while Zack was being cautious and making sure that nothing managed to follow them in. "We wasted too much time in trying to find a ladder."

"At least we now know that those zombies are practically everywhere," Zack stated as he joined the rest of the group. "Heck, they could be on every other floor in this place, for all we know; just waiting for us to let our guard down for even just a moment before they attack us."

"I still can't believe that that bunch from earlier just suddenly appeared at the doorway," Cloud replied with a shudder as he handed the front portion of the ladder to the older SOLDIER. "It was as though they were trying to wait for us to go into the locker room before trying to sneak-attack us."

"They were pretty quiet the whole time," Adeus noticed as he thought back to the attack. "It seems like they're able to move pretty stealthily. Now that I think about it, the same thing happened to you, me, and Zack while we were in the elevator leading us to Director Lazard's office. We didn't even hear those two zombies coming until they just suddenly appeared right in the doorway."

"All the more reason for all of us to be careful then," the older SOLDIER said as he began to set up the ladder so that they would be able to climb up to the next floor and continue on with their mission. "If we allow even just one moment for our minds to lapse, then that's all it'll take for us to be surrounded and possibly overwhelmed by those things. Make sure to keep your guards up at all times, you three. I'm sure that you all already knew that by now, though," he added humorously in an attempt to lighten the mood around him.

It seemed to work well; the entire mood around the group seemed to lighten up a bit for a little while with that little tension-breaker. The air was not as tense as it had been since they climbed back down the stairs just to search for a ladder. It was a bit more relaxed; enough so that it was able to entice a small smile to grace themselves onto the cadets' lips, yet not so much that they were so relaxed and allowed themselves to not be aware of their surroundings.

Zack, though, was an exception to the effects of the tension-breaker. His generally happy and positive attitude and boundless energy basically allowed him to smile under any circumstance, regardless if the occasion called for it or not. It was with this very attitude that he was sporting a big and somewhat childish half-grin, making it look more cockier than it was meant to be.

"Are we ready to go yet?" Zack asked in a childish tone that easily matched his smile and at the same time, reflected his impatience and restlessness.

"Ever the restless pup, even in the eyes of danger itself, aren't you Zack?" Angeal sighed as he made the last adjustments to the ladder before stepping back a few paces to get a better look at it. "Anyway, I'm done setting the darn thing up. Luckily for us, it looks like its just tall enough to reach the next set of stairs. I'll go on ahead and make sure that nothing…surprising is waiting for us up there."

"Yeah, you go do that," the young SOLDIER replied with a grin. "I'll send the two cadets up after you once you reach the top. I'm sure it doesn't take more than a second with you to make sure everything's okay up there."

"Uh, don't you think that you're exaggerating just a little bit?" Cloud asked with a skeptical, yet amused, look on his face as the older man carefully climbed up to the higher set of stairs and disappeared from their view.

"Absolutely not, Cloud. I know Angeal better than the two of you combined together. If he's going first just to access the situation, then it'll be safe for us to go the second he gets there."

"You sure have a lot of confidence in him, don't you Zack?" Adeus asked with a smirk. "Are you sure you're not saying that just because he's your favorite mentor or something like that?"

"Someone needs to make himself acquainted with his public SOLDIER record when they have the chance after all this hectic business is over," Zack countered in a playful tone as he wagged his finger at the long haired cadet in the same playful manner, causing said cadet to pout a bit at the action. "Anyway, why don't one of you go on and make your way up the ladder now? I'm sure that he's done making sure that everything's safe up there."

"And why are you asking us to climb this darn thing up to the next floor first?" the blond asked with a raised eyebrow as Adeus stepped in front of the ladder. "Why aren't you going up there yourself before us?"

"Because I need to make sure that nothing is trying to get to you guys down here," Zack answered bluntly. "I mean, I am the only other SOLDIER down here who could possibly take care of any unexpected visits from the monsters roaming around in here. Unless you're volunteering to take over the short thirty second watch for me, then I'll be more than happy to take you up on that offer."

"Uh, th-that's not what I was trying to say!" the teen replied quickly as he watched the long haired cadet climb up to the next floor. "You…can just go ahead and do that part. I'll be more than happy to climb up first."

"That's what I thought you'd be saying," the young SOLDIER said in a knowing voice as he lightly scratched his nose.

"I figured you were going to answer like that, Zack," Adeus answered with a small sigh as he began to climb up to the next floor. "If I get swamped by monsters the moment I reach the top of this thing, though, I'm coming back down to personally kill you, alright?"

"Jeez, there's no need to go threatening me over something that I have no control over of, Adeus. Besides, you know that if there were any zombies up there, Angeal would've already shouted down at us about it. He would have then taken care of the problem before having you climb up to the next floor. Anyway, you just make sure that you don't lose your footing and end up falling off that ladder towards your doom. A fall from that height can easily result in a snapped neck, especially if you go hitting the ground head-first."

"Wow, that just makes me feel a whole lot better, you know?" the long haired cadet sarcastically replied just as he reached the top and managed to situate himself safely onto the next floor. "Well, everything looks fine up here. A few dented spots and gashes in the metal here and there, but nothing so terribly damaged that it would be impossible for us to go any further. Anyway, I just saw Angeal go on ahead up the stairs. I'm guessing he's going to see if the path is safe and nothing is going to stop us like this big gap here did earlier."

"Good, then it's your turn to get up there, Cloud. Make sure you hurry up so I can quickly climb up after you."

"Don't rush me, Zack," Cloud sighed as he set his arms along the metal sides and began to climb up. "Wasn't it you who said that we should be careful not to fall off so we don't end up breaking our necks?"

"Oh, you'll be okay. I've seen you take such a beating during sparring training and you never complain about it. I'm surprised that you haven't suffered a broken bone yet from all those hits you've taken. You really are something special as a cadet, you know that?"

"Uh, thanks I guess," the blond answered as he was just about to reach the top. "You know that it's kind of hard to tell whether or not you're trying to compliment us sometimes. It's like you sometimes sound all serious and stuff, then you suddenly go into complimentary mode. It's actually kind of weird, to be honest."

"And yet you're still my very best friend!" Zack replied in an overly happy tone. "Just admit it; even if you were able to change me around, you wouldn't want me any other way than this. I know I wouldn't."

"Whatever, you self-centered jerk," the cadet answered back in a playful tone as he secured his footing on the solid metal ground. "Anyway, it's your turn now to risk breaking your neck just to get up here."

"Coming right up!" the young SOLDIER stated enthusiastically as he quickly placed his sword securely onto his back and began to climb up the ladder himself. Despite the warnings he gave to his cadets, he climbed up the darn thing quicker than they did. Apparently, he only said it to patronize the two of them and both he and the two of them knew this.

In less than five seconds, he had managed to climb up and set his feet firmly onto the new set of stairs. With a triumphant childish smile, he lifted both of his hands in the air in a victory pose. Cloud, who was waiting right next to Adeus, who took to leaning against an unbroken part of the metal wall, simply stared at their mentor with a look of indifference.

"He's as childish as the first day we met him," the long haired cadet sighed as he straightened himself off of the wall.

"Heh, you can say that again," the blond agreed as he began to walk up the new set of stairs that had some damage done to it; just as Adeus had described to them just a couple of minutes ago. "Then again, that very attitude is the one thing that makes him who he is. It's how he acts that makes me feel like I've known him for more than the few months we've been training together."

"That's exactly the same way I feel about the guy," the other cadet replied as he followed Cloud up the stairs with a smile planted on his face. "That and how he really reminds me of a cute little puppy."

"Oh, I forgot all about that," the blond said with a big smile now donning his face. "Do you really think that he'd make a cute puppy?"

"Uh, you guys know that I'm still here, right?" Zack called out to the ascending forms of his two cadets in slight annoyance with a pout of the same caliber plastered on his face. "I can hear every word you were saying about me."

"Oh, really?" Cloud simply said without looking back or stopping. "I thought you already left or were just not paying attention to us. My bad."

"You didn't have to add sarcasm to it, Cloud," the young SOLDIER added with a small inaudible growl as he proceeded to catch up with the group.

"Aw, but I wanted to. It makes it a lot more fun to mess around with you now that you have your guard down."

"Hey, why didn't I think of doing that earlier?" Adeus half exclaimed in realization, the subtlest hint of sarcasm barely noticeable mixed into his tone. "Thanks for teaching me how to get under his skin. Now I know how to pay him back for all those times he's gotten under mine."

"Hey, you know that torturing a member of SOLDIER is prohibited, right?" Zack shot back at the pair in a mock-hurt tone.

"We know," the blond answered as he stopped for a moment near the 66th floor door, which looked terribly beat up and did not seem like it was going to open any time soon. "But we're not trying to torture you. We're just trying to find ways to drive you nuts like you do to us."

Being who he was, Zack opened his mouth to come up with a comeback remark. However, he was cut off by a deep familiar voice coming from further up the stairs.

"I would suggest that you three hurry up and get up here," Angeal called from the side of the stairs. "As much as I enjoy seeing you three play around, now's not the time for it. Don't forget that we still have a mission to do here. You can continue with this after we've finished with this mission."

"Oh, alright," the younger SOLDIER shouted back up at the older man. "You don't have to go sounding all fatherly-like on us, Angeal. We're not little kids that need to be told what to do, you know?"

"Really? I didn't notice," the man answered back with a small chuckle at the slightly shocked facial response he was given by the three teens. "By the way you were bickering, I thought that you were all no older than twelve."

"Anyway, please hurry up and get up here," he continued on as he suddenly changed his demeanor. "The sooner we find Professor Hojo and get him to safety, the sooner we'll be able to rest easy tonight."

"Okay, we'll be right up!" Cloud responded as the trio saw the older SOLDIER's head disappear from their view. "Wow, I did not expect him to say something like that."

"Me neither," Adeus agreed as they started to climb up the stairs again. "I didn't think that he would have actually crack a joke on us."

"Heh, that was just one of his rare moments," Zack explained as he gave off a small smile. "He's not really the type to joke around a lot. Consider yourselves lucky that you two were able to see that side of him. Chances are that you'll never get to see something like that again."

"We'll keep that in mind, Zack," the blond replied as they were at the halfway mark between the 66th and 67th floor where Angeal was patiently waiting for them.

Hello everybody. Hope you enjoy this new chapter. It's a small change of pace from the story. I just felt that it was time to have a relaxing chapter instead of another stress-filled one. The poor guys need to have a break, even though it is really only for a few short minutes before they jump into the action again. Anyway, I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter and liked the childish side that I attempted to bring out in all the characters. Please review and thanks again for reading!