EXAMS ARE COMING!

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'… There is something coming…'

Cloud looked up and saw that he again was right. That night when he agreed to join him was one of the nights that Cloud didn't really have enough sleep. He kept wondering whether he would attack him on his sleep or even worse, steal his buster sword. He certainly looked poor, his figure was very thin and to his opinion, in desperate need of a few feeding.

"I don't see… Oh… right…"

Cloud paused while he looked at his companion, his cloak blowing in the wind. He stifled a shudder while he focused instead at the monsters that were charging towards him, a couple of Flapbeats was charging straight from the desert.

"… Must be another bunch of mutated Flapbeats…"

Cloud muttered to himself and he noticed that Wrath raised his eyebrows in response to the comment. Shrugging, he grabbed the Buster Sword and held it at the ready.

'…What's wrong?'

"Nothing… let's go…"

It's weird… FlapBeats ought to only be around the sands near Golden Saucer… why here?

Ignoring the signs, Cloud swung straight for the FlapBeat's neck and was gratified to see it being cut clean off. Looking over his shoulder, he saw Wrath having the same success as a Flapbeat lay at his feet, a gash separating its midsection.

"Behind you!"

Cloud, seeing the attack being charged warned Wrath and grimaced as a twister started forming behind him. The Flapbeats were forming together to generate a tower of wind that threatened to sweep the 2 of them out, if it hits.

'I'm on it.'

Springing to action, Cloud grabbed the buster sword by the hilt and threw it at Wrath, he knew that he will catch it, but what will he do with it? To Cloud's surprise, he didn't draw his weapon, only waited till the Sword was almost upon him.

'… Brace yourself…'

His eye narrowing, he kicked the Sword at the hilt and watched as the Sword, changing it's path sliced towards the Flapbeats.

"Whoa…"

Barely having time to marvel at the sight, he watched as the Flapbeats were cut down 1 by 1 by the rotating sword, even more amazing was that the sword did a U-Turn and returned back to Cloud like a Boomerang.

"Thanks!"

Grabbing the rotating sword, he whipped it masterfully into a FlapBeat that miraculously survived the onslaught. The Flapbeat flew back a little nervously as it seemed to eye the sword and the man welding it. Advancing 1 step at a time, Cloud grinned a little as he saw that the Flapbeat was seemingly shrinking as he moved forward.

'Demi?'

Wrath's comment shook Cloud out of his daze and he shrugged

"Possibly… but I didn't use it…"

'Did your jem cause it?'

Wrath inquired as he pointed to the slot in the Buster Sword that held the black gem. The 2 of them had recently required that gem in the Gongaga Reactor…

-FlashBack-

"Wait a minute Wrath… I want to check the reactor for a while."

'… alright…'

Surprised that he even agreed to it, Cloud scuffed his shoe and watched as the dirt flew up and turned into a slight mist.

"Did you get a jem slot in your weapon Wrath?"

'Yes…'

Nodding the cloaked man drew his weapon and pointed to 2 slots in his weapon. Apparently he had not found any jems, as there was not 1 allotted there. Come to think of it, Cloud didn't have 1 as well.

Jems were a recent discovery as when Mako was crystallized into Materia, the magic properties was gained from the nature of it's mako pool. If the pool was not of any elemental, for example a pure pool mako. The Mako would convalesce to form a gem, each gem's properties were unknown, but it was clear that when added to a weapon. It would have additional effects to it in addition, each weapon will transform into different forms due to the capabilities of the weapon and it's compatibility of it's welder. It was rumored that each weapon had it's own respective gem allocation and that when matched will transform into it's ultimate form.

"I was thinking… maybe I'll find 1 there… I got this Jem slot too see what the fuss was about…"

Wrath nodded, not saying anything and he simply shrugged off all attempts to get him to talk.

Geez… he should meet Vincent…

Coming to terms with the swordman was hard enough, to find out that he was typically a loner was about the end of what Cloud can tolerate. He had expected him to provide more clues to where Tifa was and that he will assist him in his search. Not to have him just follow him or to go off on his own for… goodness knows what.

'Cloud… look at that.'

Cloud gave a startled cry that made Wrath raised his eyebrows in reply, giving a small cough Cloud tried to be as dignified as possible and he turned his gaze to where Wrath was pointing.

"Oh… Lookie here… a gem."

Kicking the reactor door wide open, Cloud carefully grabbed the Jem and pulled it out of the reactor, trying not to contaminate the mako as he did so.

Yuffie's gonna flip when I show her this…

Cloud gave a grin when he placed the Jem to face the sun, the jem was transparent and the sunlight hurt. Wincing a little, Cloud tilted the jem and had a close look at it; it was not totally clear, there was a slight dark tint to it and in the middle was a black orb.

"Hmm… who should get it?"

'Flip for it?'

Cloud turned and saw what he assumed was a slight smile on Wrath's face as he held out a coin in his palm.

"Wait… let me see the coin…"

He turned it over and saw that there was indeed a Leviathan and Odin side, proving that it wasn't a trick coin.

"Alright… Call it."

'Heads.'

"Fine… Tails for me"

Cloud gave a slight grin to Wrath as he flipped the coin to the air, the coin gave a graceful arc before Cloud reached for it and grabbed it in mid- air.

'Hey!'

"Hmm… So now… should I turn it or open now?"

'Flip it.'

"Are you sure?"

'Flip it.'

"Fine."

Cloud opened his palms to see Odin, Tails.

"It's mine!"

Grinning he placed the jem into his slot and shrugged at Wrath, who had something akin to a slight jealous look on his face.

"Hey… you told me to flip didn't you? You could have won!"

'…Fine.'

Wrath, not wanting to argue with him turned and walked away from the general, not looking at Cloud.

"Hehe… gotcha…"

Clouds grinned as he flipped the real coin into his pocket and quickly flick the trick coin into the bushes.

didn't saw that coming did you?

-End-

Cloud gave a grin when he remembered what happened and he had to stifle another chuckle as Wrath gave him a bewildered look.

'Is something the matter?'

"Nope.. nothing at all…"

Grinning, Cloud quickly dispatched the FlapBeat and examined the jem in his sword. It seemed as thou it would inflict status problems to it's opponents. But it surely wasn't the end of the story, the Buster Sword had actually change it's shape and it felt lighter when it's equipped with the jem.

'Let's go then…'

Wrath picked up his bag again and strode off, waiting for Cloud as he turned his gaze to the sight of the golden saucer in front of him.

Soon… I promise you…

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'How do we get past this?'

Wrath asked irritated as Cloud gazed from the other side of the bank to their side of the bank, he knew Cloud had obviously not planned to cross the large mouth of the river and he sighed.

… I KNEW It…

Cloud on the other hand nervously scratched his head; he did not plan for this that's true. But it was no use getting frustrated over this right?

"Erm… anyway of getting us cross?"

'I don't see anyway that doesn't involve us getting wet…'

Cloud winced as he sense the sarcasm in his voice, it was kinda surprising to have him suddenly add words to the conversation but it was still obvious that he was a little bit upset at his leader.

I'm not a good leader… am I?

Grunting, Wrath positioned himself to overlook the river and he sat down at the spot, letting the cool wind blow back his hair as he waited for Cloud to come up with an idea. Assuming it's this century…

"…Hmm…"

Cloud was lying to himself, he didn't have anyway to get out of this fix cept to go to make a raft of something, but that didn't stop him from trying to get away past here.

"Eh Wrath… Got a Manipulate Materia with you?"

Looking back, he saw him detaching one of his materia and flinging it to him.

"Great! Thanks…"

Attaching the Materia to one of his slots, he focused his will on the orb and force it to flow to a monster at the other side of the bank, a Harpy.

'… You found a way?'

Gritting his teeth, Cloud managed to reply back without breaking his attention to the harpy.

"Yep Got it…"

'Are you sure?'

"Yep… I'm definitely sure… Now quit bothering me!"

Cloud snapped at Wrath when he felt the Harpy's Mind try to resist against his control, each jerk from the harpy brought some kind of pain on his mind and he winced with it. But as Cloud focused more power into to the Harpy's mind, he could feel it's mind being overwhelmed by his consciousness. Pretty soon Cloud could move it's wings according to his own whim. Grinning, Cloud ordered the Harpy to fly over to his side.

"Our Ride's here."

'That thing?'

Wrath skeptically moved towards the harpy and drew his Blade to attempt a poke on it.

"Don't touch it! I just manipulated it, if you hit it, it will wake up!"

'…I see… I was never good at that Materia…'

Cloud was inclined to laugh but he stopped himself as Wrath looked a little crestfallen at his comment.

"You'll master it, I bet you need more help with it."

'Maybe… Order it to use Aqualung… I need it for Enemy Skill…'

"Can you take it?"

'Trust me…'

Wrath nodded and waited as Cloud grinned and gave a quick order to it

'Aqualung!'

A blue mist formed around Wrath as Cloud called the Harpy you use it's E.Skill, the mist forming into a big droplet's of water that slammed right into him, causing major damage if that wasn't enough they combined soon after and created a tidal wave that knocked him off his feet.

"You alright?"

Cloud looked in concerned as his comrade got to his feet, a bit unsteadily but on his feet. Brushing dust away from his cloak he shrugged and drank a potion.

'I'll live…'

"You better… C'mon."

Getting on top of the Harpy, Cloud tucked the Buster Sword back into it's sheathe and waited for Wrath to climb on as well. Satisfied that he had hung on tightly, Cloud mentally ordered the Harpy to take off and fly towards the other side.

'What in the world…'

Hearing Wrath curse behind him, he turned to see him batting away a barrage of insects that apparently had came from the harpy itself.

"Oh my god… Sorry bout that…"

Wincing he cautiously brought out the Buster Sword and poked at the offending bugs, careful not to poke or stab the harpy.

"Don't hit it!"

Wrath didn't reply but he deflected each of the Insects attempt to suck his blood, seemingly playing a game of tag. He first swatted away one particular bug that seemed bigger than the rest. Cloud followed suit and slammed the Sword into it's midsection.

'Behind you Cloud.'

Heeding the warning, Cloud turned to see another bug, this time a gigantic Flea advance on him.

"What in the WORLD!"

'Don't…'

Wrath tried to warn Cloud but as he was too freaked out by the appearance of that bug, he swung mightily and in a stroke of bad luck, it grazed the wing tip of a Harpy. WHICH just happened to wake it up, by the way… Cloud missed the flea too.

'hit it…'

Wrath dryly finished as he grabbed tightly to the Harpy's wing, Cloud was right beside him grabbing to the body instead. He could tell that the blonde swordsman was internally hitting himself on the head for his mistake.

'It's alright… let's just kill it…'

"Guess you're right… Sorry bout that…"

Somehow Cloud could get 1 hand free and he scratched his head again, it was something of a habit for him now. This time Luck was with them and they hopped off the Harpy as it landed quite causally on the other side of the bank instead of shaking them off into the river, it turned and hissed at the 2 men; it's Snake Tail and 2 heads baring it's fangs threatening.

"It's mine… Don't try to hide your injury Wrath… You're a fire elemental type of person and Auqalung took a lot out of you… Just leave it to me."

Cloud ordered as he blocked one of the Harpy's strike and shook the Buster Sword vigorously, trying to get the Snake's fangs off his sword.

'Do not worry bout me…'

"No."

Cloud this time was serious and it shocked Wrath that he could only look at him blankly and back off.

"You can't handle it now… take another potion and have a go later… Look at you… you're limping and you're resting your Blade arm to 1 side instead of making it balanced."

Wrath looked down and he had to admit he was right, feeling a little crestfallen he downed another potion and watched dejectedly as Cloud Square off against the Harpy.

"Now… Let's get it on…"

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Sorrie..

SO Long! For an update…

SORRIE!

EXAMS ARE HERE! AHAHHH

GAWD!