*Disclaimer, blah blah blah. You know, I feel really stupid for missing the usual update time. Ack.*

Chapter Twenty - Training

Aerith looked down at her list. "Maybe we should get a few more of those instant meal packets."

"I think the clerk is going to get suspicious enough when we come to the counter with 20 pounds of jerky. You'd think we were trying to feed an entire army." Tifa stopped the cart at the end of the aisle, anyway.

Aerith giggled. "Not an entire army, just three SOLDIERs. Well, technically, Cloud isn't, but it's easier to think of him that way."

"Yeah." Tifa nodded even though she kept her face pointed at the ground. "I... I can't even imagine what he must have gone through. Him and Zack. I want to make ShinRa pay for what they did, but I'm not sure how anymore."

"I think Kunsel has the right idea. That we should wait and see if an opportunity presents itself. Hopefully, something that involves as few innocent bystanders as possible."

Tifa had very little time to think about the implications of that last sentence as Aerith was already dragging her to the checkout talking about how they'd have to make a second trip and maybe talk Barret into helping them carry some things.

The scene when they returned to the inn was almost funny. Barret sat on one of the beds talking into his handset. Probably Marlene from his tone. Zack and Kunsel sat on the other side of the room, teaching the fine points of weapon maintenance to Cloud who looked every inch the attentive student. Red wandered back and forth sniffing everything.

It looked so normal somehow.

Someone's PHS went off. Kunsel's, apparently. He flipped it open and started cursing enough to get even Barret's attention.

"Cloud, you did kill Sephiroth, right?"

Cloud jerked his head back. "Uh, yeah. I, I think I did." He looked to Zack for confirmation, and perhaps an explanation for how Kunsel knew about that.

Zack nodded. "Sephiroth is definitely dead. Why?"

"Because there's a rumor going around ShinRa that Sephiroth killed the President."

Every eye in the room focused in on the screen of Kunsel's PHS. Six of the eyes in horror, four in simple surprise, one in surprise mixed with almost detached curiosity.

"But he's dead," Cloud said, his voice very quiet.

"What all ya actin' so scared for. It's jes' a rumor, right?" Barret's voice betrayed a bit of nervousness, however.

"There was one time I thought I'd killed someone and he turned out to be alive," Zack said.

The silence that followed was stifling. Red finally cleared his throat and thus the atmosphere.

"How does this knowledge affect our movements?"

Zack slumped back onto the floor, his arms behind his head. "If Sephiroth really is still alive we should probably go after him."

Cloud nodded.

"You can't be serious!" Kunsel closed his handset with a snap. "You barely survived your last encounter with him and you want to go chasing after him?"

"Yes," Zack and Cloud said.

Kunsel groaned.

"You think Sephiroth's a threat to the planet?" Barret said.

Zack stared at the ceiling. "I don't know about the planet, but he's definitely got issues with humanity. Yeah. He's definitely a more immediate threat than ShinRa."

"A'right! Now we've got a goal all we gotta do is fig're where he went."

"Oh!" Aerith covered her mouth with her hands. "Tifa! Do you remember that man in the square when we were going to the grocery? The one who seemed to want to talk our ears off. He said something about a man in a black cloak heading east over the plains."

Tifa nodded. "I remember that. I don't know that I'd describe Sephiroth's clothing as a 'cloak,' but it's the only lead we have."

*7*7*

So they headed east. For the most part the local wildlife avoided them. The few encounters they had were with old sweeper mechs that lacked the animal instinct to avoid anything as unnaturally powerful as a SOLDIER, never mind three of them.

Zack questioned what the old mechs were doing out in the middle of nowhere to begin with. Kunsel explained that after the mess with Genesis some of the stolen weapons were never recovered. Even now Zack was still doing clean up for ShinRa. The thought wasn't particularly pleasant, but at least those machines wouldn't be threatening unarmed civilians now.

Plus, a couple of the mechs provided Barret with parts he could use to upgrade his gun-arm. That could come in quite handy once they started running into monsters that didn't mind going toe to toe with SOLDIERs.

*7*7*

Sephiroth was alive. If the planet kept popping out surprises like this, Tseng was going to corner the market in Wutanese green tea.

Of course, the news didn't end there. Somehow Sephiroth got into the ShinRa building undetected, stole the rest of Jenova's body, and proceeded to kill everyone on the 67th floor up to the 70th. Including the President, as if in answer to Tseng's guilty wish that the neurotic beach ball up and die already.

If only Heidegger had been on one of those floors. No, he couldn't allow himself any more of those thoughts. He didn't believe anyone could actually read his mind, but it was dangerous to allow treason to settle there. It could be habit forming.

To direct his thoughts away from the danger zone he almost fell into and back to the task at hand, Tseng pulled out the files he'd collected before starting on the long car ride across the plains. Turks didn't get motion sickness.

Besides the loss of personnel from Sephiroth's attack (just how had he gotten into the building, anyway?) a SOLDIER second class was missing. Kunsel, born and raised in Midgar, son of a low level but highly dedicated Turk, now 'retired.' Tseng suspected it was Kunsel who helped Zack and his friends get in. He certainly helped get them out. A couple of the surviving grunts mentioned three SOLDIERs in the group that broke out shortly before Sephiroth's arrival and there was security footage of three SOLDIERs in the stairwell.

Tseng frowned at the sheet of paper listing the time frame for each event. He didn't believe Zack or Cloud were in league with Sephiroth, they both had too many reasons to hate the man, but the times for both events very nearly overlapped. Had they somehow known Sephiroth was coming and broke out so as not to confront the ex-SOLDIER who'd nearly killed them? It seemed rather unlike Zack, but perhaps since he had non-combatants to worry about...

Too many conjectures, too many possibilities, and far too many unanswered questions.

Reno whistled his amazement in the seat directly behind Tseng. He was watching security footage of the fights inside and outside the ShinRa building. "Hey, Boss, you're sure this kid was just a grunt?"

Tseng nodded curtly.

"What is it?" Elena, one of their trainees, sat next to Reno, trying to look at the portable video display. Tseng didn't want to bring her along, but they were short staffed and the girl was observant even if a little too talkative. "You mean the weird SOLDIER?"

Tseng stiffened. "What do you mean?"

Reno had to stifle a chuckle at Elena's blush.

"Well, sir, there are a number of things. First of all, he seems to be a bit short, unless he's young enough to still be growing. Secondly, the way he moves seems a bit detached."

"Hey, you're right," Reno said, replaying one of the fight scenes in the stairwell. "Kinda like he's sleep walking or something."

Tseng frowned. One more item in Cloud's file to mark 'strange.' "What about his limit break?"

"His what?" Reno said. "Hang on, I haven't gotten to that part." A moment of fast forwarding and a few curses later Reno spoke again. "His limit break glows."

Elena watched, too. "Hey, back it up. Stop it right there. See, there's something wrong with his eyes."

"Give it to me." Tseng reached back and took the set that Reno handed to him. Elena was right. Cloud's jump brought him close enough to the security camera to pick up details of his face. In this case he specifically focused on the eyes and what Elena saw in them. A thin fog of mako extended from the iris through his pupils.

So he hadn't fully recovered from the mako addiction, but he still managed to function almost normally. Just what was he?

Far, far too many questions. Every time it seemed they might find some answers, it just brought up more questions. Tseng handed the set back. "Review the rest of the footage and commit their fighting styles to memory. We may end up confronting them in the future."

*7*7*

Cloud wasn't the only one getting stronger. Little more than a day out of Kalm they started running into actual monsters. Nothing terribly strong or hard to beat, but annoying and rather aggressive nonetheless. The levrikons, birds with long legs and over-sized clawed paws, were certainly good practice for Tifa. Even Aerith managed to get a few whacks in with her staff.

Zack itched to join the fighting more often, but then it'd be over before anyone else got a chance and then they wouldn't improve. It wasn't bragging (okay, maybe it was a little), Zack was a SOLDIER first class. That meant he was a lot faster and stronger than anyone else in their little band, even after four years of inactivity.

Not that those four years hadn't had an effect. He'd been pretty weak for a while after the escape. Still, he managed to regain most of his strength by the time he fought Genesis for the last time. Now he was trying to get the rest back without jeopardizing everyone else's training.

Near the end of the third day a possible method appeared on the horizon, though he didn't know it yet.

Still, the sight of the quaint farm made Zack's near permanent smile widen. "I thought this area looked familiar. It's Choco Bill's place. I was out here hunting monsters years ago. Wonder if the old guy remembers me."

"It's possible to forget?" Kunsel joked.

As they entered the farm proper they passed close to a paddock full of chocobos. One stood near the fence and reached its head out to Cloud.

"Wark?"

Zack chuckled. "Looks like you've made a friend."

"Uh, yeah." Cloud kept his hands out of reach as the large bird nuzzled his chest. More chocobos started gathering at the fence.

"Aw. I think they like you, Cloud," Aerith said.

Barret snorted. "Prob'ly think he's one of them."

Tifa giggled. Cloud just looked pathetic. One hand scratched the first chocobo behind its crest as the other chocobos continued to nuzzle him. His face spoke volumes. Help me, please?

Kunsel shook his head. "Why don't you just take a step backward?"

Cloud blinked. Apparently, the obvious solution hadn't occurred to him. Kunsel realized at that moment that, physically 21 or not, Cloud was still the shy, confused teenager Zack had told him about years ago.

The only word that came to mind to describe the situation was 'ouch.'

They finally managed to extract Cloud and walked the rest of the way to the farm house. As it turned out, Choco Bill remembered Zack fondly and invited everyone to stay for supper. It gave them all a much needed rest and a chance to ask the family about the black-cloaked man they were following.

"Black cloak, black cloak," Bill said, leaning back in his chair. "Say, Marge, didn't Rita's boy say something about a stranger heading toward the swamps a day or so ago?"

His wife nodded. "I do hope the young man changed his mind in time. Otherwise he's probably food for the Midgar Zolom by now."

"The what?" Aerith said.

Choco Bill blinked, disbelief covered his features. "The Midgar Zolom? It's a serpent-like creature over 30 feet long! It picks up on footsteps that enter the marshes and then, BAM!" he slapped one fist into the other. "It attacks!"

Zack had heard about that monster. "So, any way of getting across the swamp without running into this over-sized snake?"

"Only way is to ride over with a chocobo, since they're fast enough to evade the zolom. You can buy a few here if you like."

Bill's grandson, Billy, shook his head. "All the chocobo's we got right now belong to someone else. We can't sell any."

"Oh, is that so. I'd forgotten that." Bill turned to Zack. "Sorry 'bout that. You could try catching some wild ones, instead. We've got chocobo lure materia and greens in our shop."

"That's fine," Zack said. "How much?"

"Two thousand gil for the materia."

"Two thousand?" Barret's bellow threatened to knock loose the rafters of the old farm house. Tifa tried to calm him down as he continued. "Ain't that kinda steep?"

"It's the standard price for specialty materia like this," Billy said. "If you old folks don't like that-"

"Billy!" Marge said. "You should be more polite."

Billy muttered an apology before the adults went back to discussing what to do about transportation. Kunsel pointed out that they didn't have 2,000 gil and that was just for the materia. The greens they'd need to distract the chocobos would add considerably to the final cost.

A few alternatives were brought up, most of them about as practical as staking Cloud out in a field and seeing what turned up. Barret came up with that one.

"Hey," Zack finally said. "We need that materia and the greens, so instead of paying in gil, how about I stay here and work off the debt."

Bill frowned as he considered the idea. "Do you have any experience with farm work?"

Zack grinned. "I'm a country boy, just watch me."

*7*7*

He thought it had to be one of the best ideas he'd come up with. Everyone else could train by fighting monsters while trying to catch chocobos and he could get his strength back working for Bill.

Still, the work was rather repetitive. Muck out stables, bring in fresh straw, do minor repairs, things like that. He had to have a little fun with the routine. Like when Bill had to replace a tire on the truck and instead of going to get a jack like Bill told him to he just lifted that end. Poor Bill nearly had a heart attack.

Zack did all the work they told him to do and then some. The first day he didn't even sleep, just worked straight through the night. He was that thankful to finally burn off some excess energy.

It took two days to collect the necessary number of chocobos. By then Zack had started to run out of things to do outside the normal chores. Aerith found him in the garage wondering if he should try bench pressing the old pickup.

Zack turned when he heard Aerith's footsteps behind him. "Aerith, you're back." He set his fists on his waist and puffed up his chest. "Did you and the others get the chocobos okay?"

"Yes." Aerith giggled, both at the silliness of Zack's display and at how very good he looked. "Choco Bill said that he'd give us some saddles and harnesses since you've done so much extra work for him."

"Great. You know, I've never actually ridden a chocobo. This should be fun."

I always wondered why the group wanted to go through the swamp before being told that a guy in a black cloak had passed through there. So I shifted things around a little. As for Bill knowing Zack, there are a lot of missions in Crisis Core that use the chocobo ranch as a map. I figure that Zack being Zack, he'd make friends with the locals.