Disclaimer: I do not own FF VII or any of the characters from it. However, I did create the character of John.

Wow, I can't believe how many reviews the last chapter got. Thanks a lot guys! Hope you enjoy this one!

Testing Fate

Chapter XXXVI

That night AVALANCHE sat around the fire quietly after their meal with tension in the air. Cait Sith had gone to sleep in his tent and seemed to have shut off.

"I like the new guy, he seems really nice," said John, "I think it's kinda weird how he doesn't need food, but it'll be really great to have extra firepower on our side if we have to go up against Sephiroth or the Shinra again soon."

John's mention of the Shinra only seemed to tighten the atmosphere.

This is ridiculous, thought Barret.

"So John, we didn't really get to talking much today…" he began calmly.

"I know I'm sorry," said John, "It's really good to see you guys again."

"You gave us quite a scare on that ship," said Tifa.

"Did I?" asked John faux-dumbfounded, "I'm sorry if you were worried Tifa. I'm alright now."

Worried? I had to knock you out to keep us safe!

Knowing where they wanted to steer the conversation, John tried to take the reins.

"How have you guys been? I really wish I could have seen Costa del Sol with you guys. I've heard it's a really great place."

"Indeed," said Red, "Tell us John. Why couldn't you do that?"

"Oh you know, I couldn't be here unfortunately. I had to go somewhere. It was really urgent."

"And where could that be?" asked Barret.

"Oh, just a place around," answered John a bit nervously, "Nothing really worthwhile."

"Actually, I insist that-"

"You know, I'm feeling really tired guys," said John very quickly as he got up, "I had to get up really early today so Dio could take me to the buggy. I think I'll turn in early, so I can be ready if we have to fight tomorrow."

Barret was about to stand up in frustration visible to everyone when Cloud spoke up.

"Alright John, go to bed," he said coldly.

"But-" began Barret.

"Barret it's alright," continued Cloud, "John needs his rest, he is right."

John nodded at Cloud in thanks, who refused to give eye contact, before silently walking off to their tent with his shoulders low.

"Cloud, what were you thinking?" hissed Barret in anger.

"Not tonight Barret," sighed Cloud, "Please."

What should I do? Damn you John!

After some silence, Cloud turned to the person next to him, the one who had said nothing all night.

"Hey, are you alright?" he whispered to Aeris, "You're usually chatting to everyone."

"Yeah, just thinking…" she murmured.

I couldn't say a word. He came back, like he said he would, I should be happy! But I can't shake the feeling that things are bad…and I don't know what to do about it…

Slowly, the members of AVALANCHE went off to bed, until it was just Cloud and Aeris left.

"Thanks," she said.

"For what?"

She looked at him and smiled.

"For checking up on me."

"You're welcome."

After a bit, Cloud spoke again.

"So do you want to be the one to catch John up on the specifics of what's happened since he left or should I?"

Aeris gave a light chuckle with a hint of sadness.

"I'll do it. I haven't said anything to him today, I feel bad."

"…"

"I mean, I wanted to talk to him, I really did, but…"

"It's ok," said Cloud, "I understand."

"I think I'll be off to bed now," said Aeris as she got up, "One night of little sleep when you're on the road is one thing. I don't really want another one…"

"Yeah, you're right," said Cloud as he put the fire out, "Good night Aeris."

"Good night Cloud," she said as she went into hers and Tifa's tent.

Looking up at the stars one last time, Cloud went to his and John's tent and got in. He looked at John's form sternly before speaking.

"I know you're awake, so don't pretend."

John slowly raised his body to meet Cloud's glowing icy gaze.

"Cloud, I-"

"No," said Cloud simply as he changed and got ready, "You want to talk. You talk with the whole group."

John tried to protest before he realized it wouldn't be the best idea as Cloud continued.

"All of us risk our lives every day and when one of us just ups and leaves without saying anything and then tries to waltz back in like nothing happened…well it's a bit insulting. Good night John."

John looked to the side for a few moments before sighing through his nose and turning in.

"Good night Cloud."

John was awoken with a sharp punch to his shoulder. He jolted up to see Cloud, fully dressed in his SOLDIER uniform.

"Get up!" he ordered.

"What's going on? Are we getting attacked?" asked John, confused about what was happening.

"It's time to train. It would be a shame if all our work had gone away while you were off to wherever. It's time to start again. Be outside in five minutes, no excuses."

With that Cloud stepped outside, leaving John scrambling to get dressed and come outside with his weapons.

"Leave the staff. We're working on that sword today."

Rushing further, John ran up to stand across from Cloud with his sword.

"Ready?" asked Cloud calmly.

"I think so…"

"Well," said Cloud before erupting into a yell, "You better be!"

With that Cloud rushed at John and delivered a simple, but strong slash that made John feel pain in his arms when he blocked. Cloud's SOLDIER strength was shown in every blow he gave as John's energy deteriorated.

"Hey, you wanna lighten it up a bit Cloud?"

"I'm afraid the enemy won't to that if you ask them John," said Cloud as he delivered an upward slash that made John's hands go up as he blocked it, leaving his torso open.

Cloud gave a strong, fast kick into John's stomach, sending him flat on his back to the ground.

John tried to rise only to find the Force Stealer on his neck.

"You can't talk yourself out every situation, and if this is the best defense you can mount, you can forget about walking out alive, never mind victorious from a battle with Sephiroth or Jenova."

Both John and Cloud breathed heavily before Cloud took his sword off of John's neck.

"At least you remembered to never let go of your weapon, so there may be hope for you yet."

"Get up," he continued as he got back to his original position.

Just as John got up he saw Cloud fire a lightning bolt at him, which he barely managed to dodge.

"I didn't know we were using magic!" yelled John.

"You think the enemy cares about that? If they've got materia on them, they won't hesitate to use it against you!" answered Cloud as he rushed again.

It didn't take long for Cloud and John's training session to wake everyone from AVALANCHE up.

"What's going on?" mumbled Aeris as she looked out.

She could only sigh in disappointment at what she saw.

"What is it?" asked Tifa as the sunlight hit her eyes.

"Well, there's a chance that we'll never find anything more about John, because Cloud is going to tire him out to death."

"I guess that's the cue to start breakfast then," said Tifa, "It's my turn this morning."

"I'll help you out, it's not like I'm going back to sleep."

By the time they were done, the rest of the team was up and ready, also awoken by Cloud and John.

"Hey, breakfast is ready guys," said Aeris loudly, hoping that it would get through to them.

When they seemed unfazed, she sighed.

"Can I have theirs if they don't come?" asked Yuffie.

Instead of answering her, Aeris walked closer to Cloud and John and took a deep breath.

"HEY! IF YOU PLAN ON KILLING EACH OTHER, COULD YOU AT LEAST HAVE THE DECENCY TO TELL US IN ADVANCE TO NOT WASTE FOOD!"

That was enough to stop them as they breathed heavily.

"Sorry 'bout that," said Cloud simply before walking to the others.

John stood leaning on his staff, out of breath and near collapse. He sat down for a few minutes to catch his breath.

That was…really rough…

Aeris approached him and looked into his eyes, seeing worry and frustration, but most of all fatigue.

"So much for you being rested up," she said as she extended her hand and cast a White Wind spell.

"Thankfully," she continued and her hand stayed outstretched, "I'm just feeling dandy today, so you should be a bit better now."

John silently looked back into her emerald eyes for a few seconds before taking her hand and getting up.

"Thanks Aeris."

As he started to walk back, she ran up to him again and spoke in a quieter voice.

"Hey look, I'm sorry if I'm coming off a bit cold."

"Like Cloud?" smiled John.

"Hehe, I guess you could say that," giggled Aeris, "I really missed you. We all did. It's just…a bit hard to show for some."

Some? More like everyone… thought John sadly to himself.

"It's okay," said John, "Don't worry."

"Hey, how about Cloud drives today and you sit in the back with me and I'll catch you up on what we've seen."

"I'd like that very much."

Later that day, as AVALANCHE was taking a break, Aeris walked up to Cloud, who was further off from the others, staring into the distance.

"Hey."

"Hey," he replied, "Sorry for waking you up this morning."

"It's alright," she said, "Somehow I have a feeling it won't be the last time."

"You'd be right," said Cloud after a pause, "He's gotten rusty. Whatever he was doing with Rufus wherever, I highly doubt he has fighting to get back to us."

"Cloud…don't be so tough," she said rather uncomfortably, "Nearly killing him isn't going to make things better."

"It makes me feel a bit better," said Cloud smugly.

Wow, I just sounded like an ass.

"Does it?" asked Aeris.

"Yeah, I vent my frustration…and prepare him for when he goes up against Sephiroth. Which will happen, whether I want it to or not."

"I see," said Aeris as she turned around and stared to walk, "I think I understand."

"Hey," said Cloud as she was walking,

"Hm?"

"You wanna take care of your training in the evening?" he asked.

"Yeah sure," she said with a nod and smile.

"Why are we doing this at night again?" asked Scarlet, referring to her and the Turks travelling in the darkness of the night by helicopter to Gongaga.

"Reeve says that they'll be in Gongaga tomorrow," said Tseng, "If we land there, it'll be a good spot to start following them."

"I want to see how they've improved their fighting skills," said Reno, "I also wanna get that guy back for my hand."

"Reno…" mumbled Tseng.

"I agree with him," said Rude, "We will likely have to fight these guys at some point anyway. So we should use this opportunity to gauge their abilities."

"Alright now we're talking!" exclaimed Reno, "Time for a good old-fashion ass-kicking!"

"While you two will be acting like brats," said Scarlet, "Tseng and I will checkout the remnants of the reactor there."

"That's your weapon? Reactor scraps?" laughed Reno, "Someone seems to be holding onto their job by its strings."

"You fool!" exclaimed Scarlet, "It's not the structure, it's the remnants of the mako that was focused in the reactor."

The previous evening and the following morning had set the pattern for AVALANCHE for the next few days, with John always going to bed right after dinner to avoid confrontation and with Cloud waking him up at seemingly brutal hours the next morning. This particular one though, was going to take a different turn as a sight approached them.

"Hey, I think I see something!" exclaimed John, "I think it's a reactor.

Cloud looked up to see their destination. A reactor rising out of the middle of a forest.

"That's Gongaga alright. I've never seen it in person before, but there's a reactor there and it's located in the middle of a forest. This fits the bill."

"You want me to try to drive this into the forest?" asked John.

"No, I'd like to avoid that now. If there's a reactor, then there might be Shinra. I'd rather try and not make too much noise on our way in."

"Guess it's on foot from here then," said Tifa.

"We should make sure we're ready for a fight," said Cloud, "There could be Shinra soldiers here."

John decided to use his Mythril Saber instead of his staff for the upcoming battle, so he moved his Ice material to his Mythril Armlet and transferred the remaining ones to the sword.

"Hey, Reeve says they're getting closer," said Tseng.

"Finally," said Reno, "Payback time!"

"Can you try to not cause too much of a ruckus?" asked Tseng.

"We won't fight where there are civilians. Is that good enough?" replied Reno sarcastically.

"Are we even sure they're coming here?" asked Elena, "What if Reeve's information was wrong?"

"In that case," said Tseng, "Why don't you sneak around the entrance and try to confirm that. If you find them, do not initiate combat, Reno and Rude can handle themselves. Just report back to me."

AVALANCHE was navigating through the forest when they heard talking in front of them.

"Shh…let's stop," whispered Cloud as they slowly walked a bit further and listened in.

It's the Turks! exclaimed Cloud in his mind, Why are they here?

"What are you so embarrassed about?" asked Reno slyly, "come on, tell me who you like."

Rude shuffled his feet uncomfortably before answering.

"…Tifa."

"Really?" asked Reno in surprise, "But poor Elena…"

"No, Elena likes Tseng."

"But Tseng's really got it for that Ancient…"

What are they talking about? thought Cloud as he looked over at Aeris to see her shaking her head.

They heard a rustling behind them as a figure tripped out of the bushes onto her face.

"Ugh! Can't believe I tripped on a branch. Some Turk I am!"

As the woman raised her head, her eyes met Cloud's.

This isn't going to be pretty… thought Cloud.

Elena was quick to jump onto her feet and rush to where Reno and Rude were standing.

"Tbey're here! They're really here!" she yelled.

"It's time then," said Reno as he held his weapon, "Calm down Elena and go an d inform Tseng."

"R-right," she said before running off in the direction of the reactor.

Once she was out of the way, Reno and Rude approached AVALANCHE.

"Rude, don't go easy on them, even though they're girls.

Rude nodded as Aeris scowled.

"You're going to make up for what you did in Sector 7," said Reno as he extended his rod to point at John.

"Gimme a break…" said John as he held up his sword, trying to act smug.

This made Reno very angry.

"Time for payback!"

Reno shot a blast at John that he managed to dodge, only to be kicked in the stomach. He was quick to jump up as Reno continued the offensive, attempting to hit John with his weapon but being narrowly blocked each time.

Whoa! Good thing Cloud has been on my ass…

As John was blocking Reno's attacks, Aeris extended her staff and launched a bolt attack, hitting him from the side and sending him to the ground. Reno was quick to get back up to see Red rushing at him, ready to pounce.

Don't think so furry!

Reno extended his new weapon and launched a blast from the tip, hitting Red square in the face and sending him flying back.

"Red! Hold on!" yelled John as he rushed over and cast a cure spell on him.

Meanwhile, Tifa had launched an attack on Rude, who blocked every one of the punches and kicks. She tried to deliver a roundhouse kick, but found herself immobile as Rude grabbed her leg and tripped her. He was about to punch her as she lay down but Cait Sith jumped in and landed a punch of his own on Rude, who flipped back afterwards.

Reeve's toy packs quite a punch.

"How do you like that huh?" yelled the cat as Tifa got back up.

I think Reeve might be getting a bit cocky. Well, if he wants to make his act better…

With that, Rude powered up a Grand Spark attack and punched ground. The energy shook the ground as it moved towards Cait Sith.

"Look out!" yelled Cloud.

But it was too late; the attack reached Cait Sith's feet and exploded, sending him and Tifa to their backs. During this, Barret rushed towards Reno and got ready to fire.

Time to put this guy out of commission for good… he thought as he pointed his gun-arm at Reno.

Heh heh, how dumb do you think I am?

Reno was quick to jump and fire off a blast from his rod that hit Barret's gun arm directly and short circuited it.

"Dammit!" yelled Barret as his nerve endings burned.

Reno used this opportunity to jump up and kick Barret in the chest, while firing off blasts at Cloud to keep him at bay from helping.

"Barret!" yelled Yuffie as she threw her shrunken at Reno.

"I don't think so," said Reno as he charged an Electro pod attack and forcefully swung his rod, knocking Yuffie's weapon away, before charging at her and delivering another electric attack to her body and kicking her back.

Aeris extended her arm towards Rude and launched a Laser attack from her Enemy Skill Materia. Unfortunately for her, Rude powered another Grand Spark attack, but this time instead of sending it through the ground, he sent it through the air and hit her attack head on, cancelling it out in a blast.

No way…he blocked that?

Aeris didn't have time to plan another attack as Rude quickly emerged dashing from the smoke and landed a punch straight in her stomach, making her lose her breath and move to the ground as she slumped over in pain. As she struggled to make a sound and slowly lost consciousness, Rude knelt down and whispered in her ear.

"I do apologize for that, but after all, war is war."

"Get away from her!" yelled Cloud as he charged a Blade Beam attack and launched it at Rude.

Rude extended his arm and launched a Fire spell at Cloud's attack, but it was not enough to fully dissipate it and he was hit square in the chest. Cloud rushed forward and tried to deliver a fatal stab, but Rude managed to jump away.

"Hang on Aeris," said Cloud as he knelt and poured a Phoenix Down into her mouth, the bitter taste bringing her back to consciousness.

John in the meantime was firing Ice particles at Reno, who kept shooting them down.

"I can't keep this up forever Cloud!" he yelled.

We've got to end this… thought Cloud, before he remembered the materia that he had found earlier.

He reached into his pocket a pulled out the red sphere.

"Cloud is that-" began Aeris.

"Just stand back Aeris," he said.

Let's try this thing out…

With that, Cloud raised his new summon material into the air and concentrated. It started to emanated electric energy and launched a massive blast into the ground, leaving a blinding light.

What the…? thought Reno as he blocked his eyes while John rushed away.

As the light died down, everyone looked to see an old man in white robes with a very large beard on the field. Ramuh raised his staff, which was giving off sparks and pointed it at Reno and Rude.

Uh oh!

"Reno, get out of the way!" yelled Rude as he jumped.

Reno followed his lead as they jumped into the woods and retreated as Ramuh launched lighting bolts at where they had been standing just a moment ago before disappearing in another flash of light. The team stood silent where they were before moving towards each other.

How did they know where we were? Thought Cloud as he spoke the words.

"There's no way they've been following us that close," said Tifa, "We would have seen them."

"Never underestimate the Shinra," said Aeris, "They always manage to be sneakier than you expect."

"But still…how did they know we were heading to Gongaga? And today of all days?"

"Perhaps they have a feed…" said Red.

"You mean a spy?" exclaimed Yuffie.

"I don't want to think about that," said Tifa

Cloud nodded in agreement.

"I trust everyone."

"No!" yelled Barret to everyone's surprise, pointing at John.

"I find it a little too coincidental that this guy runs off with Rufus, comes back and then it seems that Shinra knows where we were going."

John's expression suddenly turned into one of shock.

"Y-you knew?"

This can't happen, not now…

"Of course we knew! What do ya think? You're invisible or something? People saw you! And all we had to do was ask!"

"Barret, what are you saying?" asked Tifa.

"I'm saying that if there's a spy, it's probably this guy!"

"Barret-" began John.

"What? Are you going to try to talk your way out of admitting what you've done again? Well I won't have it!"

"John…" said Red calmly, "You make it very difficult to defend you. Especially the more that we know."

"The more you know…what?" asked John with a frightened tone in his voice.

"Cloud told us about what's been happening to you John. With your voices and the headaches," said Tifa with a tinge of guilt, "There was no way of hiding it anymore. We saw it on the ship. We were worried about you."

"That's isn't even what I'm talking about Tifa," said Barret, "I'm more concerned with what you saw and what that chocobo jockey told you about Kalm."

They know about Kalm as well?

"There's something very suspicious about riding off in the middle of the night with a shovel," said Red.

"For all we know, he could have been riding back to Midgar to see Rufus to give a report," added Barret.

Throughout all this, Cloud and Aeris were staying silent, neither really knowing how to handle the situation. Both of them had waited for some sort of confrontation with John about the truth, but neither of them wanted it to be this aggressive or intrusive. Which made it all the more difficult for Cloud when John looked to him for support.

"I told you John," he said simply, "If you have something to say, say it to all of us."

"I-" started John before cutting himself off, not knowing how to proceed.

He could feel the eyes around him, all waiting for an answer.

No no no! This can't happen like this. It's too soon, I don't even know what to tell them!

"…I need to go for a walk, by myself."

With that, John turned around and walked off into the woods, his heart pounding in his chest, knowing that when he returned, he would have to reveal a part of him to them.

John… thought Aeris, Don't walk away, please…