Cloud

I heard glass shatter. I wasn't really sure from where, and it sounded kind of muffled or distant. Then, a minute later, I felt cold, and I got a sensation like I was falling. My eyes flicked open and I grabbed the bedsheets under my hand. I was in my bed in the Nibelheim inn. My wrist brushed against the pages of a journal on the nightstand. I wondered what kind of dream I was having, but it was gone. I sat up, stretching, and pushed myself off the bed. For some reason, I expected something to be broken, damaged in someway. I wasn't really sure what I was thinking. Maybe I'd had some strange thought that the town would be attacked while I was in bed. Maybe that was what I'd dreamed about. I walked up to the window by the stairs and looked out at the town. Zack was out there by the well, and he looked lonely. There wasn't even a kid playing nearby. Then, he looked up at me and smiled, waving, so I waved back.

As I walked down the stairs to go meet Zack, I felt bad for him. It was the sixth day that we had been at Nibelheim, and we'd been done with our mission for days. He and the other two infantrymen must have been pretty bored. Sephiroth had some nerve keeping us all there waiting for him for those days, without even a word. I guess he thought he had the right though, and he probably did. He could take down the entire town single-handed if he wanted to, so there was no harm in letting him read a few books if it would spare us some trouble. When I stepped out, Zack approached me with a grin.

"Rise and shine!" he said, putting a hand on my shoulder. "You're a late sleeper on your own accord, huh?"

"I guess." I shrugged and put my hands on my hips. "What have you been doing?"

"Not much." He shrugged back, taking his hand off my shoulder. "Our driver was getting impatient this morning. He figured out that our mission's been over for a while." Our driver, he said. I thought about how funny it was that me and Zack had gotten so close as an infantryman and a first class SOLDIER, and yet neither of us even knew the name of one of the two infantrymen stationed with us.

"Dallert's not complaining?" I asked, testing his knowledge on that name, and he shook his head.

"Nah... he seems to be taking this whole thing as a vacation," he said after a moment, turning and walking a few steps. "I caught him poking around at the shop earlier."

"I don't blame him," I said, glancing over to the shop by the inn. Something seemed strange about it. Maybe the sign had been broken or something? "Not much else to do here."

"Hey, Cloud?" he said after a pause.

"Huh?" I turned to look at him, and he was staring off toward the entrance of town. There was a long pause before he spoke again. I almost decided to respond again.

"If you think you're up to it..." he started, but paused again. Then he turned around with a big grin on his face. "I'd like to spar with you."

"...Spar?" I repeated, having a hard time accepting the word. Zack wanted to battle with me?

"If you think you're up to it," he said in a cocky voice, raising his chin. "You are going to be in SOLDIER, right?"

"Sure, but I'm not yet." I scratched the back of my neck, just under my helmet. "I'm not even sure how I'll take the mako infusions..."

"Well, I'll hold back of course." He shrugged and then cocked his head at me. "Unless you're busy?" I thought about that. I figured this would just be another step in doing the things I was worried to do. I did need the training if I wanted to make it into SOLDIER.

"No, I'll fight you." I nodded, and he laughed.

"Man, 'fight' makes it sound so brutal." He turned away from me and gestured toward the entrance to town. "There's a safe place we can go out there."

Minutes later, Zack had guided me out to a patch of land by the water, just outside of town. When he stopped walking, he spun on his heal to face me, grin still on his face. He seemed to be in a pretty good mood. I guessed he was bored.

"You make the first move," he said, drawing his blade. "And tell me if it becomes too much at any point." I drew my sword as well, I guessed. I had a sword, right? I didn't really look at it. It just felt right. Then I stared at him for a long moment. Even though he looked calm and relaxed, there wasn't a single angle I could see that it made sense to try and approach him from. He was a SOLDIER, so he was trained to be ready for anything. How was I supposed to make the first move against that? He wasn't going to do anything until I did, however, so I just ran at him.

He was still smiling as I got close, and I swung my sword down at him from above. With a simple move of his arm, he blocked the attack and pushed me back a few feet. Then he moved to me and swung the blunt side of his sword. I didn't know how I would've blocked that even if I'd had the chance to move in time. His sword was huge. So I took the hit and fell to the ground on my side. I heard him touch his sword down on the ground, and I picked mine back up from next to me.

"Always try to turn those rough landings into a roll," he said, waiting for me to stand. "If you can manage to roll to your feet, that's excellent. Otherwise, you've at least dodged a potential attack." I nodded and ran at him again. This time, I figured he'd block my attack, so I hit continuously against his blade to try and break his guard. No such luck, however, and he knocked me back away from him with a push of his sword. I stumbled and fell backward, but managed to roll to the side upon landing. When I got back onto my feet, he nodded in acknowledgment and ran forward. I guarded his next attack, but the impact still pushed me backwards. Going in for another attack, I expected that my sword would clash with his again, and as it did, I took one hand off of the hilt in an attempt to punch him past his guard. Zack pulled a hand free in time to catch my fist, and still had enough strength in his other hand to put pressure against my sword. I watched it fly out of my grip and across the ground before turning my focus back to Zack.

"Still going easy?" I asked between breathes. He released my fist and we both lowered our arms.

"Well, I wasn't about to get hit in the face." He laughed and reached around in his pocket. "There is a form of attacking without your sword that people can't catch," he said, lifting a bluish-green stone from his pocket and holding it in the air with two fingers. "At least I don't think anyone can catch it."

"Is that... a materia?" I asked, tilting my head. Being an infantryman, I hadn't seen too many of them. Zack nodded and stepped closer to me.

"Yeah, and I'm gonna teach you how to use it." He held up my hand and gave me the hilt of his Buster Sword. "Your sword doesn't have any materia slots, so you'll have to use mine." He placed the materia into a small hole on his sword and stepped back.

"I don't think I can wield this..." I said, feeling the weight of his sword even as it rested on the ground.

"You don't need to use the sword," he explained, putting his hands on his hips. "It's magic, so it kind of floats through you. Just point your hand at the water and activate it."

"Just... activate it?" I asked, only feeling more confused.

"It's really easy, but kind of hard to explain." He shrugged. "Sort of like you're pulling a trigger." I looked at the water ahead of me and raised my hand up to aim at it. Like a trigger, huh? It sounded too easy, but it turned out that it was. I felt myself grip the hilt of the sword hard, and an energy flowed up through my body, down my arm, and out through the palm of my hand and my fingertips. Suddenly, a big ball of energy zipped toward the water and an ice cluster formed on the surface. The freezing spread along the water for a few feet in every direction. Then there was a cracking sound and the ice burst into sharp crystals. It was a very impressive sight, and I could understand why Shinra valued it so much. Materia had to be a major advantage when it came to warfare.

"Great job! You got it." Zack clapped a few times and then stretched his arms. "Now I'm tired." He walked over to the edge of the water and dropped down on his back, sighing as he laid there. "It's such a nice day," he said, and then remained quiet for a while. I looked up at the sky too, and then set the Buster down by a rock.

"Thanks for teaching me," I said, and he didn't respond.

"I wish I could show this sky to..." He paused and I started to walk over to him.

"Zack, we have to go soon." I wasn't really sure why we had to go, but I felt like there was a reason. "Something the matter?"

"Eh, just guy stuff." He didn't even look at me as he answered, then he kicked his legs and somehow managed to end up standing on his feet. "Let's go!" I turned around to face the town, and an infantryman was running our way. I figured it was one of the ones we'd brought with us, but I didn't really recognize him.

"The professor's test samples are escaping!" he said in an unfamiliar voice. Then, my vision went black for a moment, and the next thing I knew, I was on the ground and someone was dragging me.

Everything went blurry after that...