A/N: Welcome to chapter 25 of Fractured Love!

Did you all see the first chapter of my new story Salvation for the Broken Children? I haven't gotten much response on it, so I really hope some of you guys and girls will check it out! Don't let the fact that Cloud isn't the main character scare you off. He'll be in the story at some point, and he'll have an important role, just not the main role…in a sense at least… Look at me being all cryptic about it ;).

Anyway, back to this story. I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. There's even two things in here that are very familiar to me, since they happen to me all the time. Hope they're recognisable to you guys and girls as well :).

Without any further ado, I'll let you get to reading. Remember, I do not own FF7 or any of its characters, Zack and Cloud rock, and Sephiroth is the best antagonist ever created.

Enjoy!

0o0o0

Chapter 25

"All right ladies, welcome to barrack C!" The commanding officer shouted at the cadets with a bit of a mocking tone of voice.

They had all reached their barrack on the 48th floor a few minutes earlier. That time had been spent with finding their bunks and making introductions. Most of the boys were chatting with each other in a relaxed manner, looking up in surprise when the man had suddenly waltzed inside.

The same was true for Zack and Kunsel. The two had been talking to some of their neighbouring bunkmates when the CO announced his presence. And like the others they looked at him in curiosity.

The man, wearing a Third Class uniform and a standard issue sword on his back looked around the room to assess his crew. If his scowl was any indication, he wasn't pleased with what he saw.

"You there!" He yelled at the nearest cadet, who visibly flinched for being called out, "State your name."

"G-Greg T-Taurin, sir." He stammered nervously.

"Identification number?"

"Uh..it's uhm…165…no…1675…3078."

"What is act 2, section 1, paragraph c of the SMC?"

The poor guy blinked in confusion at the question, "S…SMC?"

The CO growled at the response, "Check your instruction booklet on page 6, paragraph 8."

Sweating, Taurin scrambled to find his booklet. He didn't really know where he'd put it, and couldn't think thanks to his nerves. The CO just stood there impatiently with his scowl only growing deeper. After a few moments Taurin finally managed to find his copy and fumbled to find the correct page.

Once he finally had, he read out loud, "Shinra Military Code act 2, section 1, paragraph c: All Shinra military personnel must at all times stand at attention when in the presence of a superior officer until told to be at ease."

The CO looked around the room then, seeing the lack of movement after this information, "So what are you fucking sissies waiting for?!" He said with a booming voice.

That caused everybody to scramble to stand up and took up what they thought to be the proper position. To say that there was a bit of variation was an understatement. It caused the CO to look unimpressed still when he slowly walked past them.

"I believe the director was very clear with his words gentlemen." He started to lecture, "When he said that training begins now he wasn't fucking kidding. Next time I come into this room I expect everyone to drop what they're doing and stand at attention immediately." He stopped at one of the other cadets, looking him up and down, "You've got something to hide cadet?"

"No." The boy said with confusion.

"That's 'no, sir' to you!" He yelled in the boy's face, "Now I will ask you again, "Do you have something to hide cadet?"

"No, sir." The boy replied with a bit more certainty this time.

"Then why are you fucking keeping your hand behind your back?"

"Sir, I…uh…just thought-"

"You're not here because we want you to think cadet." The CO interrupted, before turning his attention back to the entire group, "There are rules and regulations for everything. Whenever you stand at attention you keep your free hand at your side at all times."

The previous boy quickly recovered his stance, receiving at least a bit of an approving nod from the man.

"Feet together!" He said to the cadet opposite of the former one, "Stand up straight!" He said to another.

He continued walking along the line, barking corrections wherever necessary. By the time he reached Zack and Kunsel, both were saluting properly, leaving them both safe from some more yelling.

Once everyone was standing as they were supposed to, the CO turned his attention back to the group again, "If any of you have any lingering illusions that this is going to be easy, you might as well pack up and quit now. This is serious ladies. You're all here to become a part of the most elite fighters in the entire world. If that is what you want, then you'd better be willing to give it all you've got and more."

He paused and allowed his gaze to look at each of the twenty-six cadets before continuing, "Whenever I ask you for your name, you will give it promptly. When I ask you for your ID-number, you'll give it without hesitation. When I ask you something specific, you'd better be able to provide me with the right answer or you'll have to face the consequences."

He took his own copy of the booklet from his pocket, which was clearly worn by having read a lot of times, and waved it slightly, "This booklet will be your lifeline during this programme. You can be assured that I'll be testing you on its contents on a regular basis, so you'd better fucking start studying it right now. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir." Came the weak reply from the group.

The CO scowled again, "What was that?"

"Yes sir!" Came the more satisfactory reply.

"Good." He said while tucking his own booklet away again, "Now I will be expecting you ladies in the C gym at exactly twelve hundred hours. There will be consequences for those who are late. Dismissed." And without another word he left the room.

It took a minute before the cadets dared to breathe again and relinquish their stance. The mood had also significantly dropped. Most were mumbling under their breaths about what a prick their CO was, but took his words to heart and took out their booklets to start studying anyway. No one was looking forward to being singled out like Taurin and the other guy were.

The same was true for Zack and Kunsel, though the former couldn't help but comment, "He didn't even introduce himself."

"Larry Shuryou. SOLDIER Third Class. Has been the CO of cadet barrack C for two years." Kunsel replied without looking up.

Zack fell silent for a moment while his blinked wide eyed at his new friend, "How do you know all that?" He asked eventually in bewilderment.

Kunsel shrugged and didn't even look up from his booklet, "You can find out a lot if you'll know where to listen."

"And where have you been listening?"

Kunsel actually sighed at that point and looked up, a slightly annoyed look on his face, "Actually, it was saying so on the monitor when I looked up our barrack and bunk information."

"Oh…" Zack trailed off dejectedly, sinking down next to Kunsel on the lower bunk, "Guess I just missed that."

"I think most of these guys missed that. I'm just very observant. Plus, I've been studying whatever I could find out about Shinra and its people when I decided to join up about a year ago."

That made Zack feel a little bit better. At least it seemed like he hadn't come off as a complete idiot, "So I guess you already know a lot then." He commented, glancing at the booklet Kunsel was still studying, "Anything of use on that?"

"A bit." Kunsel confirmed, "Some of this information is pretty public, so it was easy to find. There's still quite a bit in here that I don't know though, or don't know the specifics of. So if you don't mind, I'd like to study before I get chewed out by Shuryou."

"Right. That's probably a good idea anyway." Zack agreed, grabbing his own booklet before he started to study it in more detail.

0o0o0

Back at the bar, Tifa was once again confused. After Cloud had first locked himself inside his room for a few hours, he was now running through the building like headless chicken. He was running up and down, opening whatever door he could find in search of something. And it wasn't hard to figure out what he was looking for.

"Zack, where are you?" He kept mumbling to himself.

He had made a full search of the building about three times already, and he still gave no intention of letting up.

And all Tifa could do was stand by and watch. She had tried talking to the blonde in an attempt to prompt him into remembering that Zack had gone to enter the SOLDIER programme. Bur for some reason Cloud had blatantly refused the explanation. Zack wouldn't just go away. He had promised time and time again that he was never going to leave him. He was probably just in another room somewhere and had forgotten to tell him where that was.

That was the only logical explanation for Cloud. But even after having checked all the rooms he still wasn't satisfied. Perhaps he just hadn't looked properly into each individual room. He might have just overlooked Zack because he was just out of sight for a short while. He was somewhere. Cloud just had to look properly instead of taking only a brief look and move on.

At least, that was what his mind was telling him. Even after he had taken more time to check out each and every room and had concluded that neither held his best friend, he was still convinced that he hadn't looked hard enough and just needed to try again.

Tifa watched with concern. What more behaviour could she start expecting from Cloud now that Zack was really away? The only relief to her was that he wasn't panicking or hurting himself. Hopefully he would finally be convinced that Zack really wasn't here eventually. And hopefully he wouldn't freak out over that discovery.

0o0o0

It was within the hour that twelve o'clock rolled around. Everyone from barrack C made sure to be there on time. Those who tried to loosen up the situation were quickly shot down by others. No one wanted to look bad anymore after their CO made his entrance. So by the time Shuryou entered the room, they were all standing in what was supposed to be a proper formation and saluting.

The CO didn't speak at first as he took his time inspecting his troops. He slowly walked past the line of saluting cadets, examining each individually. It was impossible to see whether he looked approving or not. For one his features gave no indication of his mood, and second the cadets were supposed to stare off to the far wall, making it difficult to get a proper look.

Eventually the man stopped in front of Kunsel. If the latter was nervous, at least he had the control not to show it, "State your name cadet."

"Kunsel Shiru, sir." He replied firmly.

"Identification number."

"05732808, sir."

"What are the regulations for a proper line-up?"

"Sir, all cadets stand at attention in a single file, ordered by alphabetical order according to their surname, sir."

"Correct." He actually allowed a hint of approval to lace through his voice. He then stood back a bit and regarded the group in its entirety, "You've got thirty seconds to correct yourselves."

Everybody started scrambling again. They had just taken up random positions, feeling glad that they even knew that they had to line-up in a single file. The problem was that the cadets hardly knew each other, so it was difficult to judge where their own position was. Luckily some of them stayed relatively cool, and managed to use their name plates to get everyone to the correct position.

Zack immediately saluted again once he was in the correct place, remembering from earlier that they hadn't been ordered at ease yet. The others all quickly followed his example, and just over thirty seconds later they had finally properly lined up.

"You might think me childish gentlemen." Shuryou started lecturing again, "You might think that it shouldn't matter in what order you're lined up as long as you are. However, being in SOLDIER, or even the militia for that matter, requires discipline. You will find that teaching discipline starts with the smallest, most insignificant things."

He paused to allow his words to sink in. He also took the opportunity to briefly regard the face of every cadet in front of him. There were some he felt that weren't taking him seriously. Though the room was quiet he could almost hear their grumbling thoughts. He would have to keep an eye on those and not allow them any slack, starting right now.

"Now thanks to you being unprepared back in the barracks I hadn't even been able to introduce myself. I am officer Shuryou and I will act as commanding officer of barrack C during your training. I promise you that you'll grow to hate me during the next three months, but I don't give a shit. For the last two years that I have been in charge of barrack C, statistics have shown that this is the division most successful SOLDIER applicants come from, at the cost of having fewer cadets remain at the end. So to summarize, if you want to get into SOLDIER, your chances are good with me as long as you can keep up."

He was bragging. Of that Zack had no doubt as he listened to the man without slacking his pose, since they still weren't given the clear to stand at ease. On the other hand there was no reason for the man to lie about this. He spoke his words with obvious pride about his accomplishment. That also made Zack feel slightly happy. Though there was probably some sort of reason barrack C performed better than the rest, and he was most likely going to hate it, he felt that he had the best chance of success here.

"Now what we're going to do now is one of the reasons why my men perform better." Shuryou continued, "The other barracks are now mostly focussed on getting settled in, and won't start any real training until tomorrow. But not you. No, you are going to start right now." He stood to the side and pointed at the door, "You are going to run out of this room, down the hallway and to the staircase. Once there you will use the stairs to go all the way down to the ground floor. After that, you will take the same stairs back and all the way up to the top on the 59th floor. Turn around one last time and come back to this floor and this room. Here your will stand at attention at your proper place and wait until everybody is finished." He looked around, smirking slightly at the worried look on all of the cadets' faces, "And don't think you can skip or slack at any point. There are drill sergeants stationed to keep an eye on you. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir!" the cadets replied firmly, though there was a heavy note of reluctance and worry to it.

Shuryou nodded then, "Then what are you ladies waiting for? Move out!"

Once again the cadets scrambled to do as they were told. There were a lot of groans coming from them. Zack couldn't blame anyone. He also wasn't looking forward to this. Though he loved getting some good exercise, the thought of having to go down and climb fifty-nine floors wasn't very appealing. All he could do was doing the best he could. He would need to conserve his energy if he was going to make it.

During the exercise Zack and Kunsel stayed close together. They didn't speak or coordinate their moves for the sake of preserving energy. Most of their fellow cadets were ahead of them, taking advantage of the fact that going down was going to be a lot easier than going up. While that was true, they were likewise burning energy that they would need in going back up. Zack instinctively knew this, and Kunsel seemed to catch right on.

It took a while before they saw the first drill sergeant, though they had already heard him yelling at the cadets ahead of them. Though they tried to make everybody go faster, Zack and Kunsel did their best to ignore them. This was not about speed after all. It was about making it to the end in the first place.

It was probably about halfway down that they started to catch up with the first of their fellow cadets. The guy had been a bit over enthusiastic in going down and missed a step. He hadn't fallen too badly, but had slightly sprained his ankle. But other than him there were now also those who started noticing how much energy going down took as well. They had gone off in a hurry, but were now already out of air.

The two boys were breathing hard, but were feeling okay once they finally reached the ground floor. They were surprised to see their CO standing there. He must have taken the elevator so he could check whether all of them would go all the way down if the check board he was carrying was any indication. He still had time to chew some cadets out for slowing down. So even though a small break would have been nice, Zack and Kunsel simply turned around and started the climb back up.

The climb was brutal to say the least. It was far worse than going down despite having been careful. With every floor the boys climbed they felt their legs becoming heavier and their breath becoming more laboured. They slowed down a bit, but tried to keep a steady rhythm in which they were moving. They knew that keeping that up would be easier in the end than allowing themselves to slack.

At the start Zack had tried to count on what floor they were, but he found himself losing count after the tenth floor or so. He was suddenly doubting whether he had already counted ten floors or whether the tenth floor was coming up. His mind just couldn't remember, and before he could find an answer he had already climbed another floor. Or was it two?

The only indication that they were making progress were the drill sergeants that were still along the way. However, nobody knew exactly which floors they were stationed at, or how many there actually were, so it was still hard to judge how much more there was to come.

Zack had been so focused on just climbing those stairs that he hardly cared. He didn't even really hear the drill sergeants whenever he moved rights past one of them. As such he also didn't even notice that Kunsel had started to lag behind until he was already a whole floor above him. He dared to briefly look behind him to see his newfound friend struggling to continue. Though he would much rather stop and collapse himself, he still found the energy to encourage him.

"Come on…Kunsel…you can…do it." He called out between breaths.

He regretted instantly to have spoken up. Even those few words seemed to sap his remaining energy even more and had him struggling to breathe properly for a moment.

Kunsel looked up, pulling himself heavily along the rails, but keeping up some movement at least, "Go on Zack…I'll be…right…behind you."

One part of Zack wanted to stop and give Kunsel the time to catch up so they could continue the climb together. Another part of him didn't want to stop because he felt like he wouldn't be able to move again if he would. He was torn up over it as he steadily climbed up to the next floor. He knew that stopping now would not be beneficial to him. He needed to continue. For Tifa, Cloud, but mostly for himself. He wanted to join SOLDIER and become a hero. If he stopped now, he might as well go home right now. This was as much a test of wills as it was a physical one. Zack understood that right at that moment, so he chose the latter option. He continued to climb, looking back every now and then to see Kunsel fall back behind even more, but continue moving on.

He was about three floors ahead of his bunk mate before when he finally reached the top of the staircase at the 59th floor. There was a drill sergeant with a clipboard waiting for him there.

"You're at the top Fair. Only twelve floors down now. Just let gravity take you." He informed the cadet with a smirk.

Zack didn't have the energy to wonder about why the man had smirked. He simply managed something that looked like a nod and turned around to go back down. He had only taken one step before he instantly understood the man's mirth. His legs were burning, heavy and shaking. Still, he had felt relatively in control while moving up. Now that he was going down however, it felt like he had no control of his legs whatsoever. He couldn't stop, for the leg he was supporting his weight on simple refused to hold his weight as he bent it to step down. His movements were shaky and shocky, and all he could do was pray for his body to automatically bring him down safely. Each new staircase was scary though, and he felt like he was going to collapse and fall.

He passed Kunsel on the way down. They briefly looked each other in the eye, seeing their obvious exhaustion. There was also something else though; a fierce determination to finish this exercise. They briefly nodded to each other before continuing on their way. Both held on to the railing to keep their movement in the right direction.

'Don't think, just go.' Zack thought to himself.

With this in mind Zack finally reached the right floor. The drill sergeant waiting there ushered him through the door and onto the floor. The raven-haired young man took a few deep breaths then and couldn't help but smile a bit. He had done it. It didn't matter that he was walking shakily like he had drunk a few too many beers. The fact that he had completed the task was enough to make him proud of himself.

Keeping that in mind he literally stumbled back into C gym. Three cadets had finished the exercise before him, and were already standing at their assigned spot at attention. It was clear from their stances though that they would much rather collapse right there and then. For Zack there was nothing else to do but join them.

As he stood there he started to wonder what had been worse. The first descend, the long ascend, the second descend or this. His legs felt like someone had tried some heavy weights to it. They were shaking and begging to be rested. Zack felt like he wouldn't be able to move right then and there even if he wanted to.

Kunsel came in about ten minutes later. The two boys shot each other a small smile before the other cadet took up his own place. They had both made it at least. During the next half an hour ten more cadets came in, being in the same shape as all the others. A few minutes later the eleventh one came in with their CO trailing right behind him. He was also breathing slightly heavily and small beads of sweat were on his forehead. Later that last cadet would tell his barrack mates that the man had climbed the staircase just like they had when the last cadet had made it down.

But this left ten cadets unaccounted for. It appeared that they had not made it to the end of the exercise. They either just hadn't been able to complete it due to running out of energy, or had tripped along the way and injured themselves. Luckily those who were injured hadn't suffered any serious injuries other than a sprained ankle and some bumps and scrapes. At the end of the day though, five of those ten had already quit the programme. Five down, so only twenty-one were left.

That was the reality of barrack C, Shuryou would explain to them at the end of that exercise. He claimed it was fairer that way since the weak ones could stop while they had hardly even begun and not waste their time on misguided dreams. Only the strongest would remain; those who might have what it took to join SOLDIER.

And, at least for now, Zack was one of those. Though the exercise had left him truly, utterly and completely exhausted, he had made it. As long as he would be able to take on these challenges he would make it. He had to, for he was going to join SOLDIER and become a hero. That was his goal, his promise, and this time he wasn't going to let it go so easily.

0o0o0

That evening Tifa was working in the bar alone. Cloud had gone off to bed early. He had snapped out of his frantic search for Zack eventually, and had been inconsolable ever since. If you didn't know any better, it seemed like the blonde was grieving for a departed loved one, which was true in a sense. Though Zack certainly wasn't dead, he wasn't here as well. He might as well have been for all Cloud cared.

Though not panicking - not like he used to anyway – he hadn't been able to stop crying. He had again locked himself up in his room and was lying curled up on the bed with Zack's pillow clutched near him.

"Zack. Please come back. I need you. I don't want to be alone anymore." He said with a small broken voice between sobs.

They went unheard of course. Though Tifa would have been willing to keep the bar closed for the night to be with him, there was nothing she could really do anyway. Cloud wasn't allowing her in at the moment, and he wasn't hurting himself. She periodically made her way upstairs to check on him to confirm just that. Vincent, who was there that night, had offered to keep an eye on the bar while she did that. He had also told her that it was probably good for the blonde to be alone for now. It wasn't bad for him to grieve like that, and it seemed a healthier reaction than Cloud being all confused. The separation was going to be hard on him for a while yet. All she could do was be there for him when he let her, and keep her distance when he didn't.

If anything running the bar helped distracting her from the issue a bit. Tomorrow was another day. Cloud would have another therapy session then, so hopefully that would help him deal with it a bit better. For now, this was all she could do.

0o0o0

A/N: Right, so the two things I mentioned at the starting author's notes were the following: The first was when Cloud was trying to search for Zack, and kept going back thinking he hadn't looked properly. I get that sometimes when I'm positive I've left something at a certain place, but just cannot find it. I also tend to overlook things I'm searching for XD.

The other one is when Zack is trying to count the floors. I like knitting at times, and it often happens that I just lose count, even when I'm doing it out loud. I'm like 'Did I already say twelve, or did I only think twelve?' It's really annoying at times, because I'm a perfectionist, and hate it when I'm one stitch off XD.

But that's enough about me. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. This one was centred around mostly Zack still, but the next one will switch back to Cloud.

Until next time! Leave a review on your way out please!