Hello everyone again! It is time for the next chapter in this story! I can't believe it has gotten up to chapter 23 already! Hope you all have been enjoying this so far! Now let's get too it!

Ch.23

In the days that passed into the next week, Cloud had focused on doing just as Zack had said and strived to be better. After that night, the two of them had not been able to spend much time together after that as Zack was busy once again. Sometimes, Cloud would begin to get himself down about it, but then he would stop and think about the message his brother had spoken to him. It gave him encouragement when he thought of it, just like the letters Zack would send when he was far away those few years ago.

However the process wasn't that easy. Cloud still found himself occasionally moping in the same ways as before; however, he had not gotten to a point of breaking down either. So slowly he was making some progress.

Cloud was on his way to the SOLDIER floor for a possible mission briefing about which he was called. It had been the first one he had been on in about a week, so he was glad to finally be able to do something. "I wonder what will be the job today," he spoke aloud as the elevator rang with a familiar ding to which he had grown accustomed.

He stepped out and started walking down the hallway and around the corner. Just then a voice from behind him caught his attention.

"Hey! Err, Cloud, hey."

The blond-haired teen stopped and pivoted his body around to see where the voice had come from. The source of the voice was a familiar one that he had not heard in quite some time. "Oh, hey. It's, umm...Marcus right?"

"Haha, yeah that's me. It's been a little while since I've seen you. What's going on today?"

Cloud hesitated for a moment, as he was not used to casual conversation with just anyone. He knew that he had to try though. "Oh, uh, nothing much. I'm a… going to get briefed on my next mission right now…" he trailed off as he fell more silent again.

Marcus seemed to be satisfied with that, or at least Cloud thought that he would have been if he was able to see his facial reaction under the metal helmet. "Wow, really? I was heading that way too. I wonder if we might be on the same mission then. We can go together then," he said as he walked towards Cloud and motioned for him to follow next to him.

Cloud quietly obliged and started to walk towards the SOLDIER room where they would be briefed. It did not take too long for the two of them to arrive there, but there seemed to be nobody else there at the time. It appeared as though they had arrived early.

"Well I guess we just have to wait now until anyone else gets here. At least for someone to give us our orders," Marcus remarked as he decided to take a seat on one of the benches in the room.

"Yeah… I guess so," Cloud muttered out, but he didn't move from the spot he stood. While he knew he was trying to be more friendly with others, he still had his personal space. Sitting down next to someone he barely knew was a little too much out of his comfort zone.

"So, it's been a little while hasn't it? A lot has gone on since we last saw one another," Marcus replied with a laugh.

"There's been some things at least… not a whole lot," Cloud commented, still not entirely sure how long he could last making a conversation.

"I mean mainly for your brother Zack. He is getting mentored by one of the most popular 1st class guys! One of the top three 1sts to be specific, Angeal, with the amazing and impressive buster sword," Marcus exclaimed, starting to slightly rambling about the subject.

"Ah that… Yeah that was a pretty big thing to happen."

"Aren't you jealous though? Marcus asked. "With your brother getting to be trained by a awesome 1st class?"

Cloud shifted slightly, his eyes glancing away from Marcus. Even though he was working on getting better, there was still those slight moments that got to him. But slowly he breathed in and managed to look back at Marcus, ready to give his answer. "A bit. I mean…" he exhaled slowly. "Okay yeah… I am really jealous."

He didn't know why, but he never could properly explain his jealousy to Zack. Probably because he didn't want to let Zack know that he was very jealous that he was getting to do such cool things. But just talking to Marcus about it, somehow it felt easier. Maybe making a friend wouldn't be so hard after all.

"Oh I bet! But have you ever gotten to meet him? Angeal I mean. I know Zack goes on a lot of missions with him, but I just wonder if there was every a day that you got to say hi to him or something," Marcus asked, happy that Cloud was talking a small bit more than before.

Cloud sighed and shook his head. "No… sadly not. Don't know why he would wanna meet just a random 3rd anyways."

"But you aren't random Cloud, you're Zack's younger brother! Surely that must count as something. Just… ah! If I was Zack's younger brother I would totally ask him to see if I could met Angeal, or even get a autograph or something."

Now that Cloud was more invested in the conversation, he started to pick up on how excited Marcus sounded. Deciding to keep the conversation going, Cloud decided to ask a certain question. "Why are you so curious? Are you… a fan of Angeal? Like apart of his fan club?"

Marcus smiled as he put his arms behind his head. "You got that right. Out of all the most popular 1st class that actually have fan clubs, Angeal is the coolest in my opinion."

"Aren't there only three 1st class that have fan clubs?" Cloud asked, wanting to be more clear on the subject.

"True, but still. Genesis is cool with that coat he wears, but anytime anyone sees him he always ends up finding someway to read from that favorite book of his. Some of the others that have been around him more say it can get a bit annoying after some time. And then there is Sephiroth," Marcus started to say, but he ended up trailing off.

Cloud felt the smallest chill at the mention of the name. He knew full well who that man was; the best of all SOLDIERS. But also the most cold and mysterious. Cloud had yet to actually see him in person, but there was some vague and faint feeling he couldn't shake off.

"What about him?" Cloud finally asked.

"I don't really know what to think of him. He is always so distant from everyone and is rather intimidating. Like all the time apparently. I wouldn't wanna be stuck in an elevator with him, that's for sure."

Cloud wasn't really sure what to make of that comment as he lowered his head. He had never met Sephiroth before, but he knew of the stories. He remembered all the way back to when he first heard about him in Gongaga from Zack, who heard the SOLDIERs mention him. He then thought about hearing his name even now. No matter when, the name seemed to resonate with Cloud as it made him feel a certain way.

"It's so strange...sometimes I feel as though the name is so familiar to me. But I know that's not true. I don't even know the man. This doesn't really make sense. Maybe I'm just anxious because of hearing the stories? I just don't know…"

"Cloud…" a faint voice said. "Cloud, hey Cloud." The voice continued to grow louder. "Cloud!"

The blond-haired boy suddenly jolted his head back up to find the source of the voice. "Yeah, who, what?" he asked as his eyes finally landed on Marcus. "Oh, it's you."

"Well yeah it's me, I'm still here. What's going on? You all right? You kinda just spaced out there from the looks of it."

"Yeah, I was just… thinking about some things is all." He almost didn't want to say anything to the man, but he felt that he could trust Marcus for the most part. "It's just… Sephiroth. Hearing his name, I just… tense up. I'm not sure why though. It's… weird."

"Hmm," Marcus hummed as he placed his hand up to his mouth. "Maybe you're just nervous. Or anxious. I mean, even I get like that sometimes. Like I said, he seems like a very intimidating person anyways. I'm sure he's a good guy… but still…"

"Yeah," Cloud uttered quietly. "I know what you mean. Thanks."

Cloud felt a bit more composed now after having talked with Marcus some. He felt more and more that he could trust that man, even though he had been quite skeptical at first. Maybe he really could make a friend.

"Oh for what? You mean just talking or something? Yeah don't mention it. You're pretty cool Cloud. Just like your brother. Maybe we can hang out more," Marcus remarked with a seemingly upbeat tone. Though, he quieted down as his head turned. "Well I guess we are done for now. Looks like the other people seem to be here. That's a 2nd class uniform for sure."

The other SOLDIERs moved into the room as Cloud and Marcus stood up to meet them. Soon after, they were finally able to begin the briefing for their mission, which it seemed as though Marcus and Cloud would get to be on together. Cloud was relieved that he was going to have someone that he felt that he could trust with him. After a few minutes of discussing, all of the SOLDIERs moved out, ready to partake in their mission for that day. They soon reached the loading point as they all boarded the helicopter and departed into the clear, blue morning.

"Well that wasn't too bad was it? They talked like it was gonna be some mission of grandeur, but all we did was guard some rich guy," Marcus said as he and Cloud were heading down the elevator to the SOLDIER area.

"Yeah that's true, but it's still our duty as SOLDIER to do it. I guess at least it wasn't too bad though," Cloud replied swiftly to his newfound friend.

The entire troop had arrived back to Shinra headquarters about 30 minutes ago. The mission had been a rousing success, though most of the 3rd class SOLDIERs only were on guard duty the entire time, while the couple of 2nds did most of the work. Of course, everyone understood that seeing as how that was the chain of command.

However, with not much to do, things had been quite boring while out. Fortunately, Marcus and Cloud somehow ended up assigned to the same post at the same time, which gave them plenty of time to converse more. Now, Cloud was happy as he seemed to have made his first friend, save for Zack.

The two of them continued on their walk and then Marcus had a thought. "Hey, since there wasn't much to do today, you wanna go to the gym? It'd be nice to have a training buddy there at least for once."

Cloud stopped in his tracks and just stood there with his head bowed in thought of what he had just heard. He had not had anyone to really train with in quite some time actually, since Zack was always so busy now. He did miss those times that he shared with his brother.

Conflict arose within Cloud as he tried to figure out if he wanted to do that. Train with someone else? But what if Zack was able to be free and then he was busy? He tossed those options back and forth in his mind, as he stood there. But finally after a few minutes of debating amongst himself, he finally decided.

"Um...I guess that we could try that if you want," Cloud said after first hesitating. "It's worth a shot."

Marcus grinned at him. "Good good. Well, how about we get started with something then," he spoke as the two then continued marching towards the gym and entered into it.

Cloud had not been in there since the last time that he had seen Marcus there, as he usually did not frequent the gym without Zack. He looked around after walking in, his eyes darting to find something good to do. However, he soon had an idea to get himself warmed up as he strode to a center area of the room with not much else around him. Then, he began doing squats repeatedly.

Marcus looked at him curiously. "So, what's the deal with doing squats all of a sudden Cloud?"

Without stopping or altering his pattern, Cloud was able to respond through breaths. "Well...Zack taught me...how to do these...so now I do them...before doing anything else."

Marcus eyed him curiously after hearing what he had just said. Part of him wanted to try the squats to see if they would help. After mulling it over, he decided to just give it a go as he moved next to Cloud and started repeating the same motions as his new blond-haired friend. Cloud chuckled mildly and the two of them kept up with their exercise.

About ten minutes passed of them performing those repetitions until Marcus finally stopped. "Well I think that's enough of a warm up for me. I have to say that I do feel a bit more loose after that," he admitted while shaking his legs out.

Cloud then halted his work as well. "Yeah, see I told you that it would help… So, uh, what should we try now? It's not like I come in here all that often. Most of my training has been manual things."

"Well I can tell you my routine if you want to follow me in it," Marcus began. "So usually start with cardio by doing the treadmill. Then after getting done with that, the next best thing is the bench press. And finally, I finish it off with jogging just to shake things off. Wanna try?"

"Uh, sure thing. We can do that. Let's go then," Cloud responded, ready to see what would happen now as the two of them started to move towards the area to begin their training.

Cloud had just exited the Shinra Headquarters after cleaning himself up some. The workout had been quite long, but he had enjoyed having someone to hang out with for a little while. He and Marcus had finished up earlier and the two of them parted ways as Cloud decided to head home, while his friend stayed behind at the workplace.

Just as Cloud made it out of the doors he heard a familiar voice calling. "Hey Cloud! Wait up."

As Cloud looked behind him, he saw his brother walking briskly towards him with a hand waving in the air. "Oh, Zack! I didn't expect you to be here. This is a nice surprise."

"Well I mean, do you see how late it is? I should be asking you that question. You usually head home earlier. So, whatcha been here for?" Zack asked curiously as he threw his arm around Cloud's neck as the two walked side by side from there on.

"Oh yeah… it is kinda late. Well, I guess you could say I made a friend today. Or, re-met someone I already knew? A guy I had seen before, we ended up talking some today and were on the same mission. We even trained afterwards. We kinda got to know each other some. It… was nice to have someone there," Cloud said as he cracked a small smile as he faced forward.

Zack saw the smile creep onto his brother's face, and it spread over to his own as he grinned as well. "Really? That's great Cloud! See?! I told you you could do it." Zack was proud that his brother seemed to be making some progress, and had apparently made a friend. He sincerely hoped that Cloud would continue to improve as time went on, but things seemed to be on the right track now.

"Yeah you really did. Thanks for the help Zack. It's still… a bit weird stepping out of my comfort zone. I mean, I still like being around you a lot. But i'm doing my best to learn," Cloud responded, his words taking Zack from his deep thoughts and back to focus on his brother beside him.

"You'll get there buddy. Just remember this: Embrace your dreams," Zack replied.

"Huh? What's that mean? Cloud wondered.

"Well, it's something Angeal just started saying to me. And it makes sense. It means what it says. That's all I know," Zack scratched his head as he hoped Cloud would be satisfied with that half-baked response.

"Well okay then! I'll try to remember that...embrace my dreams...why does sound, so familiar…" Cloud asked as he drifted off into his own thoughts as his head lowered slightly.

Zack noticed his dip. "Hey did you say something?"

"Huh, who me? No no. I was just...thinking out loud. Sorry about that," Cloud responded, trying to brush off the feeling he just had. He then tried to change things up. "Uh, anyways. Hey wanna hang out for a while just the two of us? It's been a while since the last time. I mean, since we're here together."

Zack chuckled as he wrapped his arm tighter around his brother's neck. "Well now, I was about to ask you the same question," he replied as the brothers continued on their way home, or wherever else they felt like going that evening now that they were together again.

Cloud has made a friend now! Yay for him and progress! But what could happen next? Hmmm tune in next time to find out!

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