Chapter 25

Cloud Strife's eyes snapped open and adjusted almost immediately to the darkness surrounding him. Finding himself in a small tent he rolled off of his back and out from under the heavy blanket that'd been draped over him as he slept, rising up onto one knee and being greeted by a wave of pain from his midsection. His still damaged ribs made themselves nastily apparent but the warrior made it a point to ignore them, reaching around blindly for his sword. Unable to find it he swore quietly and exited the tent; the flicker of firelight caught his eye and he froze.

He could see the silhouette of a man thrown into dark contrast by the flames. Suddenly the voice spoke.

"So, did they have anything to say?" Another silhouette came into view beside him: the outline of an enormous dog-shape. Cloud watched in silence as the outline blurred, shifted, and settled into the silhouette of another man instead.

"Wolves say little and even less of it is relevant to anyone who's not a wolf. I did hear, however, that there's quite a disturbance at the Wake."

"Really."

"Yes. Something about half a wall of stone crumbling, and a large movement of the black things."

"The orcs, you mean."

"Precisely. It also seems as though one of the Weapons left there recently as well," the man who'd been a wolf's voice paused. "At least I think it was a Weapon. Wolves don't comprehend the big dealings of the Dark too well."

"Regardless, hearing that the Wake's shaken up is good news, even if the wolves are a bit behind. Kieci must've given the wizard a run for his money," the first man said. "I'm assuming that means she freed the captives as well."

"I should hope so. The Industry's been having fits since Tari got herself caught. I'm still amazed that they put her in charge and not someone from the SFU..." He stopped suddenly and turned his head in Cloud's direction, poised as though listening. "I believe one of our guests has finally woken up." Cloud leapt lightly back into deeper shadows, pressing himself flat against a thick tree.

"Which one is it?" the first man questioned. The second rose from his seat and moved further away from Cloud, out of his range of sight. Cloud was ready to fight but the tall man's voice drowned the idea.

"The girl, the elf and the one in green are still here," he called.

"-so it has to be the blonde." The first man stood up and Cloud distinctly saw the firelight glint off of a blade at his side. "Cloud, wasn't it?"

"Who are you two, and where am I?"

"We're members of the Technician Army. My name is Alex Ross; my comrade is Robert Sikorski." The Commander was making his way into the trees; Cloud shifted his position, keeping what he thought was a fair amount of distance between himself and Alex. "We're uh, friends of the Dragon," he shook his head. "I get so tired of using that as a crutch. Look," Cloud rounded a tree trunk and found himself face to face with the dark eyed Commander. He took a sharp lunge back away from the man's drawn sword, wincing as he set himself in fighting stance despite the fact that he was unarmed. A hand came to rest on his shoulder.

"We're not your enemies," Robert assured him; Cloud jerked away again.

"And I will prove it to you." Alex stood, holding his sword by the blade in one gloved hand. He held it towards an unsettled Cloud, pommel first. The ex-Soldier took it, rolling it once absently before taking it in a two-handed grip. Robert moved over to Alex's side, and the three of them stood regarding each other for a long moment.

"Where are the others?" Cloud questioned. The two men gave each other a quick side-glance before heading back towards the fire lit clearing. Robert motioned to two small tents, one slightly larger than the other, exactly like the one Cloud had woken up in. He noticed several other larger tents scattered around the area. Never once dropping his guard, he peered quickly into each pergola and found, just as the men had said, his three sleeping comrades. "What happened to Aerith? And to Legolas? Both of them were fine before..." he trailed off. Where had he been for the past...he realized that he didn't even know how long he'd been out.

"You were under a Sleep spell," Robert commented, correctly reading Cloud's disorientation. "Aerith's concoction, I would assume. She and the elf are resting, as you were; they were merely...overstressed. It seems the Dragon was right in saying she pushed you all too far too fast."

"Yeah..." Cloud shook his head, trying to clear out the jumbled mass of confusion that was his thoughts. "That's all believable enough, but what in the Hell are the four of us doing in your camp? It seems too convenient to be trustworthy."

"True," Alex agreed. "It was luck on both sides. Our army was nearly wiped off the map in a large-scale battle over a week ago. The twenty-odd of us that remained were traveling through the forest and were ambushed by the wyverns that survived the battle. My men were not much for combat by then, seeing as how they were still exhausted from the previous skirmish. Aerith and Legolas happened to be nearby, and helped us to destroy what was left of the monsters that pursued us. The two of them merely overstepped their limits in the process. As to your third friend, though...he has not moved or woken since we picked up your camp and moved on, and that's getting close to being four days ago now."

"Four days?" Cloud was shocked. Surely he hadn't been asleep...? "Where are we heading?" It seemed to him to be a more pressing question than trying to figure out what he had missed.

"To the Dragon's safe house, as she likes to call it. It's another day's ride nearer to the coast that lies on the other side of these mountains," Robert explained. "There is a break in the mountain chain several miles wide that allows trade access to the coast. There's a large port called Pennyston there. The Dragon's hideout is on this side of the break, and sits right where the forest, meadow and mountain passes meet. Convenient location for our purposes."

"That's where we're off to, and we're supposed to keep your group with us," Alex went on. "That's direct from Kieci, as we spoke to her as soon as we knew we'd collected your whole party. She's got the whole Special Forces Unit on high alert now, what with the Weapons being active. She's trying to get us all to regroup; safety in numbers, I suppose."

"So you take orders from the Dragon?" Cloud wanted to know. Alex chuckled.

"Not hardly. Perhaps I made that come across the wrong way: our correspondence with Kieci is nothing more than advice between friends. When she talks we listen, and vice-versa. End of story."

"I see." He walked over and held the sword he was carrying back to its owner. "You'll be wanting this back."

"So, I take it you trust us now?" Robert questioned. Cloud turned his back and made his way back to his small tent.

"No, but I do believe your words, and I'm tired. It's not worth the effort to question the methods of either of you, at this point." And with that, he disappeared into his pergola. Robert turned to Alex; the Commander stood, arms folded across his broad chest. A small, satisfied smile twitched at the corners of his mouth. The head Intelligence officer, his best friend, shared the same look.

"He didn't even try to attack us, and you gave him your sword." Robert commented. "That went well."

Fun stuff! lol. intense argument soon, please R&R!

-K-

...is ANYone reading this?