Cloud and Vincent were sat at the back of a classroom, pretending to be interested in the lesson. It was about different status aliments that monsters could give you and how to cure them. It was trying to teach your grandmother to suck eggs, Cloud and Vincent knew every possible way to prevent or heal every possible status aliment on Planet, and it wasn't any different from here, Gaia as the planet was called. They had been put in this class because there were no classes for the 'rookies' they were pretending to be, as so few new people had joined lately, but these lessons were so unbelievably easy to them. The instructor had once been a SeeD, but she had stayed on at Garden to teach those wanting to become one. Vincent didn't remember her name, but she was tall and very bulky under the clothes she wore, he guessed it was more likely to be muscle than fat judging on how she moved. Her hair was thin and pulled back from her face into a tight brown ponytail, her eyes seemed to be piggy and small, Vincent didn't like her.
Cloud was idly doodling of a piece of paper; not really paying attention to what he was drawing, while Vincent watched him. Cloud was drawing a door over and over again, sometimes the door was closed and other times it was open. Vincent looked at Cloud's face, he was staring at the instructor with a blank expression, Vincent wondered if he even knew that he was drawing at all.
A sudden shrill noise broke through the classroom making the entire class jump. Cloud woke abruptly from his day dreaming, the pen ran over the desk, making a long black line across it, as he looked around the room trying to figure out what the noise was, it was a kind of loud ringing and sounded somewhat familiar.
"The PHS" Vincent hissed at him having recognised the sound at once
Cloud looked confused for a moment, who had his number? Then he realised that it could only be Sephiroth, no one else could possibly know his number.
"What's that noise? Who has their mobile phone on? I want it now! Mobiles are not allowed in class, you should know that by now." The instructor started ranting at the class.
Cloud stood up and raced from the room not wanted anyone to hear him speaking to his boss and master, as the instructor shouted, "STOP!". Vincent did some hasty thinking and decided to follow Cloud to find out why Sephiroth was calling. He exited the classroom, and saw a door swinging shut, down the corridor and to his left. He quietly stalked up to it knowing that Cloud would be able to hear normal footsteps due to his enhanced hearing. He put his ear to the door and waited, listening to the conversation, while hoping that the instructor wasn't planning on following them into the hallway. Luckily for him the door wasn't thick and his hearing was good, making it so that he could hear just about what said on both sides of the phone call.
"Boss? Is that you?"
"Cloud?"
"Yes, boss."
"Good. This is your master speaking. How have you gone on so far?"
"It's going okay, they've accepted me and the traitor, Vincent, into Garden. I believe that they think that we're just harmless little boys."
"Excellent, how is your mission going?"
"Well, its not going too well at the moment, we've been kept in Garden to train. Though I have befriended some of the SeeDs and the Garden Commander, his name is Squall and I believe that I could take him out. But the only problem would be getting him alone, and a lot of people care for him so they'd be really mad if anything happened to him."
"…and what's your point?" Sephiroth sounded sarcastically angry
"I just think that I should wait and take him out last, to…"
"Valentine!" Vincent shot back from the door and looked around, "What the hell do you think you're doing? Running out of class like that! Where's Cloud?" The large instructor had somehow managed to walk up to Vincent without him noticing, 'I should've been paying attention to both the classroom and to Cloud, not just to Cloud.' He mentally kicked himself.
"Fine then, if you're not going to talk come with me." She said taking his silence for an answer.
The woman grabbed Vincent's shoulder and physically dragged him back to the classroom where everyone was sat and watching with wide-eyed wonder and fascination. Vincent cursed himself of his weak 16 year old body. She let go of him upon reaching the desk at the front of the room. Vincent drew himself to his full height, which wasn't much seeing as he was very short for his 'age', and stared back at the women coldly.
"You're going to tell the class why you decided to run off and leave us."
Vincent stayed silent, he was not here to explain himself to her, but this only seemed to aggravate the instructor more. He turned away from her and looked at the class, they all seemed to be holding their breath in anticipation.
"Tell us now." She said threateningly, her eyes narrowing at him
Vincent rolled his eyes, like he was really scared of her, he had felt the wrath of Sephiroth, and an overweight (although muscled) woman wasn't going to frighten him any time soon. A couple of kids on the front desks saw his eye movement and started to giggle, but quickly muffled it as her eyes darted towards them.
"If that's the way you want it fine. Tell us about the 'phone, or get out of this class and don't come back."
Vincent shrugged and left the room, he heard a wave of gasping from the cadets as he walked out, they had heard this threat from her a thousand times before, but no one had ever had the nerve to actually walk out on her, each cadet had given up at this point, if they hadn't before, and had done whatever she wanted. Vincent kept a smooth face as he left the room, trying not to grin like a madman, he could practically hear the frustration and anger in her. He quickly decided to go and find Irvine to see if he had a sniper rifle he could practice with, while behind him the nameless instructor shouted for him to get back to class.
Cloud peered out of the room, no one was there, he quickly stepped out and walked down the corridor, the PHS safely away in his pocket. The boss's threats about having to start the mission soon playing on his mind, how was he supposed to do anything while he was stuck here? He heard some one opening a door to his right and stopped, jumping back so that it wouldn't hit him as it opened, a familiar looking young woman came out, she had black hair with light brown highlights and carried a strange looking crossbow type weapon in her hand.
Rinoa noticed the new boy, Cloud Valentine, standing behind the classroom door, and quickly shut it behind her to keep him from seeing inside, only SeeD and the instructors knew about the SeeD common room and she didn't want the secret to be let out to the cadets. Especially someone who had yet to prove their loyalty to Garden, and who was currently scowling openly at her.
"I'm sorry, did I hit you?" She said insincerely
"No" Cloud walked around her and turned down the bridge that connected the upstairs classrooms to the elevator.
Rinoa decided to see what Cloud was up to, lessons hadn't finished yet and she was curious as to why he was wondering about, 'I wonder if he's skipping classes? But I can hardly talk, I used to do it all the time when my supposed father hired all those people to give me private tuition at Deling City.'
"So Cloud, are you feeling any better? You were a mess last time I saw you."
Cloud stopped and looked at her distrustfully "Do I know you?"
"I'm Rinoa, I more or less healed up your ribs by myself"
"Oh yeah, I remember you. You're Squall's girlfriend, right?" Cloud started walking again, watching her out of the corner of his eye, while Rinoa followed him. She nodded in response to his question and waited for the 'oh so familiar' question of "So how did you defeat Ultimecia?" but the question never came. They reached the lift, Cloud pressed the button to call for it, they waited for it in silence until Rinoa noticed something .
"Hey, didn't you wear those clothes when you arrived here?"
Cloud looked down at his old SOLDIER uniform that Zack had given him so long ago.
"Yes"
"I don't think I've seen you wear any other clothes than that."
Cloud stayed silent as the elevator pinged its arrival while the doors smoothly opened, he hesitated a moment before they both got in.
"Do you actually have any other clothes? Not that I'm prying or anything, but its mine and Quistis's job to make sure that all the students here are okay and have everything they need."
"…No, no I don't have any other clothes." Cloud sounded agitated
"Didn't you think to bring any?"
Cloud shrugged, and quickly pressed the button for the ground floor, 'That's not an answer, and whys he fidgeting like that?' Rinoa thought as she saw Cloud eying the glass elevator warily behind his sunglasses, and kept looking around him for some reason, his hands twitched unconsciously too until he quickly folded his arms across his chest.
"Are you doing anything after lunch?"
"No…why?"
This guy was as hard to get to talk as Squall it seemed, "We're going to buy you some new clothes." She said bluntly as the elevator's doors opened onto the ground floor, and they stepped out, Cloud first.
"I don't have any money." Cloud lied not liking the way this conversation was going.
"Don't worry, Garden still has enough money to buy essential items to people who need them. I'm sure no one will mind, especially since I know the SeeD in charge of finance. Xu'll give me the money no problem, we can go to Esthar, its really grown in the last few years and has even more shops! Just find Vincent and meet me outside after lunch then, bye!" She walked away leaving a very stunned looking Cloud behind, 'This'll give me a great chance to get to know that the heck the Valentines are up to, as well as giving them something decent to wear for once instead of those stupid looking rags. Maybe I should see if Rinoa and Selphie want to come too…'
'What the hell just happened? New Clothes? I like these', Cloud looked at his black dragon hide gloves and boots, and then at the rest of his clothes, he'd worn the same clothes for years and no one had complained before, 'Then again everyone else in AVALANCHE wore the same clothes over and over again too.' Thinking about it, Cloud realised that he had only had two sets of clothes in the last 6 years or so of his life, first his SOLDIER third class uniform, that he wore day in and day out when in that cursed test tube in the Shin-ra mansion, and then this one of Zack's (ignoring the fact that he had later owned an expensive purple silk dress in Midgar, as Yuffie had 'borrowed' it at the Gold Saucer, and Cloud had never seen it again much to his relief).
Vincent was sat outside, practising with the rifle that Irvine had given him, it wasn't nearly as good as the now destroyed Death Penalty was, but it would do. It reminded him of his old Winchester shotgun that he had bought from Mideel, of course this hadn't any materia slots in it and Vincent still hadn't figured out how people could use magic without any materia, it was something he would have to puzzle out another day. The Winchester look-a-like was actually called Heaven's Peace, 'An ironic name for a weapon', it was a smoothed and polished dark wood, he didn't recognise the type though, it was also incredibly streamlined but could only hold two rounds at a time. So a lot of loading would be required when it was in use.
He fingered the rounds that Irvine had given him, he had always used normal, every day, Shin-ra military style rounds, but here there were many different types, this one was armour piercing, that one was fast ammo and the black one was called dark ammo. He briefly wondered how many types there were before lying back down on the grass and staring at the clouds drifting by…clouds…he wondered what Cloud had been ordered to do and hoped that it wasn't too ruthless and callous, Vincent couldn't cope with anymore remorse.
He rolled onto his stomach and took aim at three cans that he had lined up earlier, they were about 200 meters away. He breathed in and out slowly and then held his breath with his lungs empty of oxygen, he fired Heaven's Peace twice and hit two cans square in the middle, both fell over. He loaded the weapon again, but only put in one round as he took aim, he concentrated on his breathing 'in…out…in…out…and hold it…' he fired again, the round shot through the middle of the 'O' in 'Cola', well at least his aim was still as good as it was before Sephiroth decided to play with that stupid Time materia.
"Wow!!! Dude, that amazing!!!" Vincent looked behind him and saw Zell stood there, he ran over to the can, "Wow!! How the hell did you hit that?!?!! That's one of the coolest things I've ever seen!"
Vincent rolled onto his back and sat up, looking at Zell over his shoulder, "Have you never seen someone shoot a coke can before?" Zell came running back, holding the can in his hand.
"But, Dude, you hit the centre of the 'O'!"
"Must have been a fluke." He lied
"Oh, I almost forgot, Rinoa and some of the girls are taking you and Cloud out to buy clothes in Esther, you have to wait out here for them to come after lunch. They say that you smell." Zell took a step forward as if wanting to see if Vincent actually did smell
"I do not require any new clothes." He said, starting to get up off the floor
"Vinny," Vincent froze at the name, halfway off the grass; only people from AVALANCHE had ever called him that before, "as your SeeD trainer I'm commanding you to go, Garden is paying for it, Xu makes sure that money is kept aside for poor students to get things that they need." The blonde martial arts SeeD said seriously, as Vincent unfroze and stood up, still holding Heaven's Peace in his right hand.
'Poor?' The money Cloud made breeding and racing Chocobos had been split equally among AVALANCHE, making sure each one of them had enough money to live on comfortably for years, and Vincent still had the bank account with his Turk earnings in there, interest over the years had increased it dramatically, he was anything but poor. But he hated this short-sleeved white shirt, showing people the scars that Sephiroth had inflicted on him, he was already sick of the sympathy looks people were giving him…cuts, scars, a 'broken arm' and red eyes made him look as though he was regularly beaten and had been for a while.
"I'll be there." Maybe he could get a decent outfit…
"Good, I was gonna start training you and Cloud today, but I guess you need stuff to wear, I can hardly have you two walking around naked when your clothes are in the wash, so we'll just start tomorrow, or whenever, seeing as you're probably gonna be sleeping over there tonight…. Can I keep this can?"
1300 hours, outside:
Cloud had arrived by the front gates, he saw Vincent leaning against a wall at one side of the entrance, his eyes were closed, but Cloud bet that he was listening intently to the conversation between Quistis and Rinoa.
"…have to give the message to President Laguna, Squall said that its important…" Quistis was arguing
Cloud moved over to Vincent, who opened his eyes and looked over to see who it was. "What's going on?" Cloud asked quietly
"Commander Squall gave a message for President Laguna of Esther to Quistis, but the Presidential Palace is pretty far from where the shops are, so Rinoa and Selphie don't want to deliver it as soon as we get there, they want to do so tomorrow morning if at all."
"Selphie?" Cloud looked around but there was only the four of them there, "Where is she?"
"She went to pick up something called the Ragnarok, she said that she will be back soon."
"Ragnarok? But I thought she used Shinobous, not swords?" Cloud said thinking of one of his favourite old swords, the Ragnarok
Vincent shrugged, "They told me that the Ragnarok is impressive so to watch out for it."
"So you closed your eyes?"
Vincent shrugged again and once more closed his eyes while still leaning against the wall, Cloud narrowed his eyes at him behind the sunglasses. He walked to the other side of the entrance and sat down on the floor, once he had taken off the Ultima Weapon to make it more comfortable.
Five minutes later Quistis and Rinoa agreed on what to do about the message; they were going to deliver it as soon as they got there (much to Rinoa's disappointment), but in return they would each get some new clothes (which Rinoa was very happy about) out of the money that Xu had given them to spend.
A sudden roaring noise made Cloud jump up, grab Ultima Weapon from the ground and get into his fighting stance. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Vincent in fighting stance too, but was holding a rifle; he'd ask Vincent about that later, Vincent wasn't supposed to have weapons. He looked around, but saw no monsters, 'What the heck is going on?' Rinoa and Quistis had stopped talking and where looking up at the sky, Cloud's jaw dropped, and his blade nearly did too, all thoughts of Vincent's new weapon wiped from his mind. Above them was a huge ship, almost as impressive as the Highwind, trying to land. It was a deep red colour and had the same jagged-yet-smooth appearance that his old sword used to have, the thing was huge, with two massive engines at the rear. Cid would have killed to have a go flying this thing.
The Ragnarok landed safely nearby, and Selphie came running out.
"Hey guys!" she shouted, waving at them as she skidded to a halt, "So, what do you think?" She said to Cloud and Vincent
"It is impressive." Vincent answered
"It is impressive." Selphie mimicked, making her voice deep and monotone, "Is that all you can say? Cloud?"
"Are we going to be flying in it?"
"Yep"
"Wow…"
Selphie rolled her eyes, "Come on guys, lets go before the shops close!"
"Huh? Are you and Rinoa coming along as well?"
"Duh!! Of course we are! Do you really think we'd have passed up going on a shopping spree?" She turned to the two SeeDs, "Well?"
"We're going to give Laguna the message first, and then she shop! Quistis is going to give us some money to buy ourselves some stuff." Rinoa said
"Woohoo!" She danced, "Well lets get going!"
They all piled on board the Ragnarok, and stood on the bridge, as Selphie seemed to press random buttons and pulled random levels. The ship shuddered and slowly rose off the ground.
Cloud looked out of a window, as Selphie shouted, "Here we go!!" The ground fell away quickly as she pulled another level, and then turned into a blur as the ship sped away to its destination, the flight was smooth and only lasted a couple of hours, even Yuffie would have found it hard to complain.
Cloud fingered the hilt of his sword over his shoulder, 'So this Laguna is the President of Esther then? It seems as though the mission truly starts today.'