Cloud dropped heavily onto his bed, the back of his hand resting against his forehead as he stared up at the ceiling. Yesterday had been a long day, and not just because of the mission. The flight back to the base had been miserable—one of the medics staring at him with a mix of disgust and loathing, the other completely ignoring him as if he didn't exist. Not that he wasn't used to it, but at least others usually managed to not be so blatantly obvious with their distaste.

Not wanting to think about them anymore, he turned his attention to the surprisingly growing presence in his life these days—his new Handler. She'd saved his life the other day—as much as he didn't want to admit it—and as a result, forced him to re-evaluate his thoughts of her. On top of that, she'd even respected his wishes to not be bothered during the mission so he could focus on the battle. All of his previous Handlers would have ignored him, continuing to provide useless and trivial information that only served to distract him.

And yet, for some reason, the day was almost over and she hadn't contacted him.

Normally, he would have been thrilled to not have to deal with a voice in his ear for an entire day, but he found himself wishing that she would have called today—just so he could thank her, of course.

"Hello?"

He bolted upright, his hand falling to his side as he scrambled to gather his thoughts. With how late it had gotten he hadn't expected her to call him. "Hey."

"Sorry, did I wake you again?"

"No, no, not at all. Actually, I—" Cloud hesitated. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to tell her he'd been lying before. Screw it, if anything, it would help ease his guilty conscience at the very least. "I wasn't really asleep last time, sorry."

"Oh." There was an uncomfortably long pause, one that caused him to feel even more like an asshole, but before he could break it, the Handler spoke up first. "Why did you tell me? You could have easily let me just continue to think that."

At this point, he almost wished he had. "It . . . didn't feel right. Not after what you did for me."

"And what did I do for you?"

Cloud swore he could hear the smile in her voice. She was going to make him say it, wasn't she? "You saved my life," he mumbled, feeling his cheeks heat up.

"Still think I'm useless?" Despite being a stinging rebuke, it wasn't said with any malice, and he was relieved she didn't seem to be too upset with him.

"You've proven you're not, but how did you know the a—the enemy soldiers were behind me?" He almost slipped, but thankfully managed to catch himself at the last moment. It wouldn't be a good idea to acknowledge that, not when anyone could be eavesdropping on the line.

"It was weird," she said, confusion evident in her voice. "They showed up on the monitor for a brief moment before vanishing right after. I had to take control of one of the satellites to pull up a live view and confirm their location."

Cloud's eyes widened. He was impressed she'd gone to such lengths—in fact, he hadn't even known that was something they could do in the first place. "Wait, you saw me then?" It didn't matter, but it was the first thought that jumped into his mind.

The sound of her laughter caught him off guard, the noise light and musical and calming, like nothing he'd ever heard before. "I guess you could say that. It was more like you were a blurry, pixilated mess. I think you have blond hair, but that's all I could really tell."

A part of him was relieved she hadn't gotten a better look. Not because he was embarrassed about the way he looked, but because it almost felt like an invasion of his privacy—being spied on by a camera thousands of miles above in the sky. At the same time, he couldn't help but wonder what she might look like.

"I kept watching on the monitor after killing our connection, you know? What took so long? It seemed like the medics went back out for something."

He swallowed. Telling the truth was out of the question, it would only put her in danger and Cloud didn't want anyone else getting caught up in his mess. Which meant coming up with a believable lie—tinged with as much truth as possible—so she wouldn't continue to press the issue.

"They went back out to check on the fallen enemies since I mentioned I never would have noticed them without your warning. Something about checking them for some type of new technology."

"Did they find anything?"

"If they did, they sure didn't tell me about it."

She made a soft humming noise and Cloud feared she wasn't going to let it go. "So what's your deal? Why do you hate Handlers so much?"

Barely managing to contain his sigh of relief, he contemplated how best to answer that. Her tone wasn't accusatory, merely curious, and he assumed she was wondering why he'd exploded at her the other day. Once again, he wasn't able to fully explain the situation, but at least this time he could talk about some of it.

"You don't even treat us like humans, just sacrificial pawns to fight your war for you and then discard. For instance, no Handler has ever asked a SOLDIER what their name is, yourself included."

"Now wait a minute, we're specifically instructed not to ask for names to protect your identities! I was told they're classified secrets."

Cloud's mouth dropped open in shock. Was she telling the truth? "Protect us? From what? Wutai?"

"I'm . . . not sure, honestly. Now that you mention it, it does seem a little strange."

"In a way, it makes sense, though," he muttered. "Shinra views us as nothing more than a resource, they wouldn't want their Handlers growing attached to the SOLDIERs they're assigned to. Far easier to treat us as less than human."

"Well, I've never thought of you as anything less than anyone else. I know it's a bit late, but . . . what is your name? Mine's Aerith."

Hesitating, Cloud took a deep breath. He knew it was silly, given how he'd just complained that no one had ever asked this exact question, but it was so strange to finally hear it.

"I'm Cloud. It's . . . nice to meet you, Aerith."

"Same! Maybe someday we'll be able to meet for real."

That would never happen, but there was no need to bring that up and it was always nice to dream. "Maybe."

"So, if your names aren't confidential, then why did you and your friend use fake ones the other day?"

He laughed. "Zack and I, that's his name by the way, like messing around with each other. But the real reason is that if our Handlers couldn't be bothered to learn more about us, then we didn't want to give them anything personal. Maybe it's silly but"—he shrugged—"it's just how we decided to deal with it. Most other SOLDIERs don't bother talking to each other so it's not something they have to worry about."

"I guess that makes sense, despite being a little depressing. Do you mind if I ask another question?"

"Depends on what it is, but sure, go ahead."

"When we first spoke it seemed like I touched a sore spot when I mentioned your training. If you're willing to talk about it, I'd be really interested in learning more about what you went through to become a SOLDIER."

Cloud fervently shook his head, even though he knew she wouldn't be able to see it. That was absolutely out of the question, there was no way he could talk about his past with her, not like this. "Nope, no way, sorry. Unlike our names, that actually is confidential, and I'm not about to talk about that over a Shinra-controlled line. If you want to find out more, you'll have to dig around yourself."

"Fine, maybe I'll do just that!"

He hesitated, surprised at the concern he felt welling up inside him at her words. Why should he care if she decided to take a risk like that? And yet . . . he did. "Listen, it's safer to leave that stone unturned. Nothing good will come from poking your nose into Shinra's dirty laundry."

"Aww, is the big, strong SOLDIER all worried about his poor Handler? That's cute. But I can take care of myself, Cloud."

Sighing in resignation, he rumbled his temples. "Just . . . be careful then, okay? Don't do anything that's going to get you in trouble."

"I—Uhh, wait . . . what?" The confusion in her voice was so painfully obvious he wished he could have seen her face. "You're being nice? Why do you care what happens to me?"

"Hey, I can be nice!" He cleared his throat. "Look, I might have been a bit hasty in my initial assessment of you. Turns out you're probably the best Handler I've ever had so, uh, sorry for everything I said before, you didn't deserve it."

Cloud braced himself for the "I told you so!" or maybe a "See!" said smugly, but instead there was a long, drawn-out silence, to the point where he had to double-check if they were still connected. They were. "Hello, you there? Everything okay?"

There was a loud sniff from the other end before she finally spoke up. "Yes, sorry, I am. You took me by surprise, I wasn't expecting that at all. Thank you, apology accepted."

Hearing how emotional his apology had made Aerith only served to make Cloud feel even worse for the way he'd treated her earlier. He wished he could go back and undo it, but that obviously wasn't an option. Instead, he vowed to do better moving forward.

"Before I let you go for the night, I am curious about one last thing."

"Oh? What?"

"That book you mentioned the other day to Zack, can you tell me about it? I just finished the one I was reading so I'm looking for something new to start."

He blinked, surprised she remembered that part of their conversation. "Sure. It's a fantasy story where a group of unlikely heroes end up trying to stop a villain from blowing up the Planet. It's surprisingly good."

"Wait, with Meteor?!"

His mouth dropped open. "Yeah, how did you know?"

"That's the book I just finished! Where are you at?"

Wincing, Cloud hesitated to respond. He was reluctant to tell the truth, given how embarrassing it was, but ultimately decided he might as well. "I stopped after the part where the heroine sacrifices her life to save the world and . . . it hit me surprisingly hard so I haven't been able to pick it back up since." He braced himself for the inevitable teasing.

"Oh my gosh, I know exactly what you mean! That part devastated me. Especially how it happened out of the blue with no warning and right in front of the man she was in love with. I couldn't believe the author could be so cruel. I cried my eyes out for like an hour afterward."

"I can't imagine having to go through something like that."

"Right? It would be horrible."

Cloud cleared his throat. He'd expected her to judge him but was pleasantly surprised they seemed to be on the same wavelength. "Anyways, sorry, it looks like I won't be able to help you out in that regard."

"Don't worry about it, I'm more excited to know you're reading it too. Once you finish it you have to let me know so we can talk about the ending."

"Now you sound like Zack," he said, laughing.

The noise of a muffled yawn came over the line and Cloud found himself following suit. "Alright, it's getting late," Aerith said. "We both need our rest for the mission tomorrow so we should call it a night."

He almost protested, wanting to listen to her voice for just a bit longer, but his eyes were starting to droop as well and he knew she was right. "Alright, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Sleep well, partner."

"Partner?"

"We're not?"

Cloud chuckled. "No, you're right, I guess we are."

"Don't you forget it, mister!"

With that, the connection went silent and he was surprised to realize his lips were curved upwards in a smile. Aerith was nothing like any of his past Handlers, and he was extremely thankful to have earned her forgiveness and gotten to know her a bit better. Strangely enough, he was looking forward to tomorrow—for the first time in a very long time—when they'd next have a chance to talk some more.

Deciding to read for a while before going to sleep, Cloud grabbed the book they'd been talking about and settled into his pillow. He had a new reason to finish it now.

Aerith had fallen asleep happier than she'd been in a long time after making up and chatting with Cloud. Cloud. It was an immense relief to know his name, she'd hated calling him "SOLDIER" but had gone with it since it was what she'd been told. She knew he was right, that Shrina had done it for the exact reasons he'd listed, and it sickened her that she'd been a part of it.

Cloud had warned her against digging any deeper into what was going on, but that was completely out of the question after what she'd learned. There was no way Aerith was going to idly sit back and participate in a massive coverup like this, not when there was clearly something unusual going on. Whatever it took, she was going to get to the bottom of it, one way or another.

She and Cloud had another mission later this afternoon, but there was still plenty of time for her to do some investigation before then. The only question was where to start. Remembering what Tifa had said at breakfast the other day, Aerith decided it was as good an option as any, especially since they'd already made plans to meet up again. Who knew, maybe her friend had managed to learn something while she'd been working at her bar.

Finishing the final touches of her uniform, Aerith left her room and made her way towards the cafeteria. As with most weekday mornings, the hallways were largely empty this early in the day—most people didn't wake up for another hour at least, but Aerith enjoyed the peace and quiet the earlier hours provided. Which was why she was so surprised to hear two people having a loud conversation heading her way.

Her breath caught in her throat, her heart suddenly pounding. Those were the voices she'd heard over the CommLink yesterday, the medics who'd helped Cloud. Not wanting them to see her, she slipped through the nearest door—relieved to find the room empty. Leaving the door open a crack so she could still hear them, Aerith wondered what in the name of the Planet she was doing. Even if they had seen her, there was no way they'd be able to recognize her, and what did she expect to learn from doing this?

". . . don't understand why we didn't just finish it right there. It would have been so easy."

"Brilliant, absolutely brilliant, I can't believe I didn't think of that. Who cares that the battle was over. You do remember why we were even there in the first place, right? Anyways, the entire point is that it seems like an accident, otherwise people start asking questions, dipshit. This job pays far too well, I'm to going to risk losing it."

Whatever the other medic said in response was lost as the two of them turned the corner and went out of earshot, leaving Aerith frozen in shock. Leaning her back against the door, she slid down until she was sitting on the floor. What the hell had that been?! Replaying the conversation in her head over and over, she couldn't come up with any explanation other than one: They'd wanted to kill Cloud. But why? It didn't make any sense.

SOLDIERs were all that stood between Midgar and Wutai—heroes putting their lives on the line to defend their city. Without them, it would fall to enemy forces within a month. One idea that immediately jumped to mind was that the medics were actually Wutai soldiers who'd somehow managed to infiltrate Shinra. Aerith quickly discarded that theory. Shinra was incredibly careful with their background checks, not to mention what the one medic had said at the very end didn't line up with that.

And why did it have to look like an accident? A Wutai soldier wouldn't hesitate to eliminate the top rank SOLDIER—Cloud had to be nearly as famous with the enemy as he was here, after the number of battles he'd fought in. That, combined with the fact Shinra didn't want Handlers learning the names of their SOLDIERs, was enough to convince Aerith she was on the right track—something unsavory really was going on.

Getting back to her feet, she took a deep breath before sliding the door open and making her way back towards the cafeteria. Aerith desperately hoped Tifa might have learned something that would help begin to unravel this mystery.

Woohoo! Aerith and Cloud get some time to have more of a real conversation and finally exchange names! I hope this lived up to your expectations and you're happy that they're on better terms now. A few small details around SOLDIER are starting to come to the surface, and you might be able to pick up on a few things Cloud's not saying. I'm sure there's still a lot of questions, but we're going to be learning a lot more about his past next week.

Next Chapter: Soldier