Chapter 17: Training
Cloud and Vincent left the Ragnarok in the plains near the entrance to Balamb Garden, and headed up the stairs, as the female SeeD landed the aircraft in a safer position behind the military school.
"What are we going to do now, Cloud?" Vincent asked the blonde in a level voice as he watched some younger cadets studying him fearfully. The word 'vampire' was muttered in that direction a few times too before his red eyes froze them like Jumpings caught in a headlight.
Cloud opened his mouth to answer when another voice made itself known.
"Hey! It's about time you two got back! What took you so long?"
Cloud inwardly sighed, he'd almost forgotten about Zell, he turned and put on an obviously fake smile and stood with one hand on his hip and one leg in front of the other. "Yes?" He asked, in a voice meaning 'go away'.
"There was a problem with the Ragnarok, we had to wait until we could get it." Vincent answered seeing that Cloud was in a stubborn mood today.
"Really? What problem?"
Vincent shrugged.
"Well at least you got some stuff to wear." Zell said as he looked at Cloud in a simple pair of baggy jeans and a black vest top, Vincent wore black pants, and grey polo neck top and a long black coat. Each still wore their own boots and gloves; Cloud still has that bandage and weird bracelet thing on his arms though. Zell had no idea how grateful Vincent was to be covered up again, scars on his arms from Sephiroth were now covered up and a new scarlet bandage tied around his head was made him feel like himself again.
"What happened to your arm?!?!?" Zell yelled as Vincent's shrug made the golden limb catch the light and his eye, "Did they amputate it in Esthar? I thought it was broken!"
Vincent glanced down at his left arm; the razor sharp claw quite clearly on show to everyone, while everything above the wrist was covered due to his long, black coat. "No, they did not amputate it there" He said coldly, "Ask Instructor Trepe, she knows."
"Oh well, it's a good job you're back, we need to start your training today, so get something to eat and meet me in the Training Centre in forty minutes okay?"
'Zell seemed to have got over the shock quick', Vincent thought, 'Maybe he is used to seeing people with serious injuries, thus things like replacement limbs do not affect him as it would others'.
Neither Cloud nor Vincent made a response to Zell's question, but Zell took it as though they had agreed.
"Right, see you in a while then." Zell waved and started to leave "Oh! And make sure you have your weapons and some magic stocked up in case we find a T-Rexaur." The martial artist added as an after thought, before he turned again and jogged away to the east wing of Garden.
"Talking of weapons," Said Cloud casually, "where did you get that rifle from I saw you with the other day?"
"Which rifle?" Vincent asked
"Don't play games with me Valentine, I saw it and you know I did." Cloud growled
Vincent looked at Cloud warily, "Irvine gave it to me once he found out that I used rifles and shotguns." He admitted as he carefully took Heaven's Peace out from under his coat and passed it over for Cloud to inspect, inwardly disgusted on how easily he gave up, but Cloud was no longer one to be messed with.
Cloud had used a standard Shin-Ra rifle when he was in SOLDIER, so knew quite a bit about them, although this design was new to him. Cloud was kind of familiar with it though, because it looked and handled like the Winchester, it had no materia slots but the attack power was quite high, however, it was nowhere near as powerful as the Death Penalty. Cloud handed the weapon back over to Vincent, who blinked back in response; he hadn't expected it back so quickly or easily.
"It poses me little threat." Cloud explained as he studied a strong looking SeeD swirling a long Bamboo staff for any threats as they walked past him.
'Cloud obviously does not know about the different rounds they have here, I could change his status easily with some of these and really do some damage. Well if Cloud didn't have a ribbon equipped that is.'
"The only way that could harm me was if you shot me point blank in the head while I was asleep."
Vincent raised his eyebrow at the strange explanation; did Cloud want him to shoot him in the head or something? Trying to figure Cloud out was more complicated than attempting to breed a Gold chocobo.
Together, they made their way to the cafeteria as Zell had suggested. A few people from their form class greeted them, but not wanting to talk to the children they were ignored, the two 'brothers' carried on walking until they reached the large cafeteria. It was still an hour or so before lunch so there was no queue, much to Vincent's relief, he didn't like people and so didn't want to spend 10 or 20 minutes standing so close to so many. They quickly choose a meal and sat down, their high metabolisms making them get a much larger meal than was necessary for people their 'age'.
Talking in a low voice so only Cloud could hear, Vincent asked his nagging question, "Did you do it? Did you kill Esthar's president?"
Cloud nodded in response, and answered in an equally subdued voice, "Yeah I did…I think. Someone was about to enter the room so I had to go before I could check to make sure he was really dead. Unless they had some seriously powerful cure magic, or a handy Cetra nearby, I don't think he would have survived."
Vincent raised an eyebrow, he was stunned, the cold-hearted Cloud hadn't simply killed the intruders, but ran? Maybe the real Cloud buried deep in his subconscious was starting to emerge, or else Vincent was simply seeing what he wanted to see rather than the truth; that the real Cloud was dead or had never existed in the first place. One possibility was as good as the other. As Vincent pondered over this new piece of information his nose picked up a familiar scent coming their way, it was Quistis.
"Hey guys! Mind if I sit with you?" She asked, while sitting down on one side of the table between the two teens.
"Well actually, yes, yes we do mind." Said Cloud coldly
"Oh Cloud, stop being so silly."
Vincent could hear Cloud drawing a deep breath as he tried to calm himself, he hated to be patronized, and the instructor's behaviour wasn't helping Cloud's recent unpredictable temper. Vincent stayed quiet, when you didn't know what to say, you shut up.
"So what is it like back in Nibelhiem?" She enquired with a smile after a few minutes of silent eating.
"Excuse me???" Vincent gasped as Cloud choked on a piece of sausage he had been eating, how did she know about that?? That dammed, evil, sin-filled replica town was Planet, not Gaia!
"You know, the Isle of Nibelheim, where you said you both came from."
"Of course." Vincent said, calm once more, now that he knew what she was on about, but not sure why. Cloud finally managed to swallow the sausage only a little red in the face.
"So what's it like?"
"It was…erm…cold, not many people." Cloud explained half-heartedly, not really knowing what to say, he fiddled with his sunglasses as he spoke.
"Where about is it? I've never heard of the island."
Cloud and Vincent glanced at each other, "I do not know." Said Vincent finally, "We wandered a long time before finding Garden."
"Really? For how long?"
"What is this? The Turk acceptance interview??" Muttered Vincent
"The what?"
"Erm…nothing" Vincent said, mentally kicking himself .
"What are the Turks?" Quistis frowned having never heard of them before.
"…"
"So what was it like living in Nibelheim?" Quistis changed quickly back to the original subject, as though wanting to catch them off guard.
'Hell, quite simply, it was hell. I wanted Hojo to end it everyday, but sin made me carry on through the pain and suffering as a penance for letting Lucrecia and her baby go to their doom.' Vincent mentally answered, not willing to say it out loud, especially to this blonde instructor. 'I wonder what all this is about.' He subconsciously rubbed his golden limb as he thought of the man who had given it to him.
"Vincent, don't we have to meet Zell at the Training Centre now?" Cloud asked causally as he started up get up from the table.
"Yeah, lets go." Vincent followed Cloud out of the cafeteria, leaving the empty plates behind. Silently thanking Cloud for interrupting the conversation, whether on purpose or not.
Quistis watched the two cadets leave the cafeteria as Rinoa walked over and sat down next to her.
"So?" the Sorceress asked
"I agree, they're hiding something"
Training Centre entrance, 1300 hours:
"Okay, time to get started, I know you haven't been here long, but I'm guessing your both very good at your weapons from watching the way you handle and carry them." Zell had fallen into instructor mode, it was easy, he just had to pretend he was Quistis…minus the dress and whip. He pulled out a cola can from his pocket and placed in on the ground; the can had a hole through the 'O'. "Irvine says that only someone who was incredibly lucky or incredibly good could shoot this." He looked pointedly at Vincent who had shot the can himself only the day before, but it seemed more like weeks. "So we're gonna skip all the boring, 'how do you hold a sword?' crap, and get right into the good stuff! We're gonna kick some ass, fight monsters and see how good you are." Zell thrust a fist into the air and lead Cloud and Vincent deeper into the training centre. Zell rambled on about some monster called a T-Rexaur that Cloud remembered him mention earlier, he was saying that they had to Junction or cast sleep on it, but Cloud hated putting status changes on monsters, it made it too easy for someone with his skills, so that wasn't likely to happen. If anything, he needed a handicap, for the monsters to stand a chance.
After a minute or so of walking Cloud's and Vincent's ears picked up a faint rustling to their right from behind a bush. Together they abandoned Zell and stalked towards it, wanting the first strike, not noticing Zell's puzzled face as he wondered what they were doing, not having an enhanced body like Cloud or Vincent. Having done similar things together many times in the past, they both knew what to do. Cloud moved around to the right of the bush, while Vincent stayed on the left, weapons drawn or cocked ready. After a mental count of three Cloud quickly sliced the bush in half whilst Vincent let off rounds into it. A loud screech was given off, but was quickly cut off from a deep thrust of the Ultima Weapon. A thud was heard and a large pool of blood quickly grew out from under the bush.
Cloud reached into the shrubbery and pulled out a couple of tentacles, "Well that's one less Grat to worry about." He joked as the tentacles dissolved from his hands as the rest of the monster did hidden in the leaves. "Lets see if we can find any more."
Zell stared at them both, his mouth hanging open, "How did you do that?" He stuttered, as Cloud placed the sword back onto his top, and Vincent reloaded Heaven's Peace. "How did you know it was there? You two work really well together, its like you can read each others minds or summert!"
Vincent glanced at Zell, the attack hadn't exactly been complicated, stand by a bush and shoot or stab, how more simple could it be? The monster had not even known they were there. Just as Vincent was about to point this out a loud roar echoed around them, its source dead ahead.
"Here we go! A T-Rexaur!! About time too." Grinned Zell as he sprinted on ahead, disappearing around a vegetation-covered bend in the path.
Vincent glanced at Cloud who shrugged his shoulders back at him, and then headed out of sight too. Vincent sighed and followed, his jet black hair and coat streaming out behind him as he ran.
Vincent's crimson eyes widened, as he saw the famed T-Rexaur around the corner.
"Damn, a dinosaur!" Cloud gasped as he eyed up the monster, "This is gunna be fun!" He then grinned. Cloud drew the Ultima Weapon and quickly got into his fighting stance, he stood with Zell on his left and Vincent on his right, all three faced the huge monster ready for a fight.
Vincent stuck first, two rounds going into the kneecaps of the monster, the T-Rexaur howled in pain and lunged for Cloud as Vincent reloaded the two-shot weapon. Cloud easily dodged the huge teeth, his evasion higher then the monster's agility and sliced it's jaw with the sword as he rolled away, causing blood to splatter over himself and Zell who were now both on one side of the creature, and Vincent was on the other. It was surrounded.
"Good one Cloud!" Zell yelled as he consternated on his stocked magic and cast Blizzaga on the T-Rexaur, not wanting to get closer to the monster to use his fists in case it attacked him. The monster howled in pain as its body was covered in ice for a moment before the ice shattered into tiny crystals onto the floor.
The T-Rexaur lashed out angrily with its tail, throwing Zell about 20 metres due to its speed and strength, but Cloud, with his own enhanced strength jumped over the tail while leaving the sword dangling down below him. The T-Rexaur cut off its own tail as it swept the limb under Cloud and through the blade of his weapon.
Zell decided this was a good time to check its stats and so cast Scan on the T-Rexaur, in his mind's eye a list of facts came up about the creature, which he shouted out to the others. "It a level 67 monster; Ice, Sleep and Blind are the most effective and Poison the least. It has high HP; over 20,000 points left, but that's less than half of the original." Zell blinked a few times as though coming out of a trance as the magic wore off.
The monster, knowing its defeat if it stayed started to back off, but mercy was no longer in Cloud's vocabulary and he followed its retreat as Vincent shot at it's hard-skinned back. The T-Rexaur stumbled with the rounds lodged in it back, but carried on. Vincent was prepared to stop and let it run from the battle, but from Cloud's and Zell's faces they weren't, so the sniper carried on fighting too. Vincent kept back slightly, and made sure he wasn't even almost hit, his limit break was nearly full and he didn't think that the SeeDs would appreciate a demon terrorising Garden. There was no telling what it might do, once transformed, Vincent had no control over his body.
Cloud thought for a second, if it was vulnerable to Ice, he could either cast Ice3 or summon Shiva, he still had the summon materia, in fact he had most of the summons in his room, having been the nominated materia and items keeper in AVALANCHE he kept everything until someone needed it. But before he had a chance to cast it, he felt himself slowing fading and going 'in-between'- the place where Summoners went when they called a Summon from its materia. It was cold and dark here, floating in nothingness, the battle they had just left showning in front of them as though on a large TV screen. Cloud frowned, he hadn't cast anything and Vincent didn't have any materia other than Restore… which left Zell. He tuned to see Zell floating in the nothingness next to him, a grin on his face as he watched the 'screen' in front of them.
The 'screen' showed the watchers a tall block of blue ice, inside it was the blue haired summon, Shiva. Cloud felt his jaw drop, only he had Shiva materia, Cid had had the one born when Cloud's had been mastered, so where had Zell got Shiva from? Shiva's eyes opened and locked onto the T-Rexaur, the ice shattered from her as she prepared her magic. With a wave of her hand and a snap of her fingers the monster was covered with ice, which then splintered into thousands of pieces. Shiva then faded away, but not before she looked directly at the teen who were watching from 'in-between', she seemed to give them a sad smile as she went back to where she came from. 'That was odd,' Cloud thought, 'She's never done that before'.
Cloud, Vincent and Zell came back into the physical realm of Gaia just in time to see the T-Rexaur keel over and die, within a few seconds the monster started to fade away, 'Maybe the bodies go 'in-between'' Cloud thought as it slowly disappeared, the tail and the blood splattered around the Centre, and on the fighters, vanishing too.
"Wasn't that so cool?" Zell shouted pounding the air above him with his fist as he danced in a victory circle.
"Zell, there is blood on your face." Vincent stated as he replaced the ammo in Heaven's Peace, while indicating where Zell had banged his head, when the T-Rexaur's tail had knocked him over, with a nod of his head.
"Is there?" Zell put a hand on his tattoo, "Ahhhhhhhh! I'm bleeding to death!" He yelled
Esthar, Dr Odine's Laboratory:
"Dr Odine, here are the blood samples from the failed assassination of President Loire that Squall Leonhart sent you." An aide said while putting a sealed glass container of very dark blue on one of the lab tables.
"Very good Zuzan, zis will be interestzing, who zhot ze President?" The man chuckled to himself as he peered in the dark container. "Look at zis, ze blood glowz in ze dark."