Final Fantasy VII- Shinra's SOLDIER.
Chapter 1.
The train screeched to a deafening halt. Cloud felt his insides turn upside down as he was flung forwards. Sighing he and picked up all the fallen bags. He slid the door of the compartment open, nearly bumping into another man in his fatigue but managed to clumsily stop himself before doing so. He walked out onto the platform. Still feeling a bit queasy from being thrown around on the train but was happy to be on solid ground. Cloud carefully placed his luggage down and stared at his new home. He was sure that it was the middle of the day and checked his watch to confirm it but darkness still seemed to cover the entire city; although he knew to expect this it was still a massive shock. Artificial lighting had taken the place of sunlight and the air looked as if it was heavy with smog. He took a deep breath but started coughing uncontrollably the second the polluted air entered his body.
"This is gonna take a while to get used to." Still choking as he picked up his things. Cloud pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket; on it was crude directions drawn in pencil to the Shinra Headquarters. He glanced up from the paper and gazed around and immediately saw the Headquarters in the distance. It was huge in comparison to every other building around. He scrunched up the piece of paper and stuffed it back in his pocket. "No wonder the man on the phone sounded surprised when I wanted directions to the Headquarters, it's so blatantly obvious where it is!" He decided to get a taxi to get there, as it was quite a long walk. He strolled to the side of the road with his bags and placed them beside his feet. He started limply waving at passing taxis but none would stop for him.
"You need to be a bit more aggressive if you wanna get their attention."
Cloud spun around and saw the young man he nearly knocked over on the train standing behind him. He seemed to be about the same age as Cloud maybe a year or two older and looked quite similar to him in many ways. The young man had spiked hair; although it was black and they both were about the same build. The young man was also carrying luggage with him.
"Like this!" he moved forwards and flagged down the first taxi that came into view. He then outstretched his hand to Cloud. "The name's Zack!" He seemed quite friendly so Cloud took his hand.
"I'm Cloud, thanks for the help, it's the first time that I've ever come to Midgar!"
"Oh don't worry about it…. So you gonna try and become a member of SOLDIER too then?" Zack motioned to the bags beside Cloud.
"Ya, that's the plan hopefully!" He smiled, picked up his bags and turned to Zack. "So you wanna share this taxi? We're obviously going to the same place!"
"Sure, it'd save us a few gil anyway!" They both clambered into the back of the taxi. "Shinra headquarters, please." Said Zack.
Cloud looked around the taxi. It was very shabby and apart from its lack of colour or decorations it was very badly kept. The seat in front of him had a huge gash racing down it. The yellow sponge was leaking out and spilled over the sides. It looked in serious need of repair. An odd stain was splattered on the roof, it looked kind of like blood and the driver had made an apparent attempt to clean it off but to no avail. Cloud took his eyes away from it, trying not to think about how it got there. Zack didn't seem to be fazed by it.
The journey was very silent. It wasn't awkward though; both Cloud and Zack were deep in contemplation about what was going to happen when they reached their destination. Cloud couldn't believe how fast it was all happening, one minute he's home in Niblehiem with Tifa and the next he's in a taxi with a man he hardly knew and was going to try and join SOLDIER! He could barley think straight at this point. Cloud took a deep breath and stared at his feet "Why are you doing this, why?" He had lost count of how many times he had asked himself this question but the answer was so obvious every time, Tifa. She was the reason he was doing this. He promised to protect her, and the only way he could do that was by becoming strong, becoming strong like Sephiroth.
Cloud sat back up, he felt more confident now, and thinking of Tifa always filled him with a sense of empowerment. He looked over at Zack. He was looking fine, in fact Cloud felt as if Zack had done this before because he looked so calm, "Perhaps he failed to become a member of SOLDIER the first time round and was trying again?" Obviously he had his own reasons for wanting to come back or maybe this was his first time and he was just a very confident person. Cloud felt he shouldn't pry and that he would find out sooner or later.
The car stopped with a quick jolt. Cloud could feel that he hadn't fully recovered from the previous journey as he felt the same sickness he had felt when the train had stopped. He staggered out of the car and nearly slammed the door in Zack's face; he was in a total trance. He stared upwards at the huge building that loomed down upon them. It looked like a huge, grey monster and it crushed what little confidence either of them had left in them. Zack paid the driver and stood up beside Cloud, he also staring at the gigantic building. It was the biggest construction he had ever seen inside a city. He remembered the time when he thought the Shinra mansion back home was big.
"And it begins!" a slight smile shot across Zack's face. They gathered up their belongings and started to walk through the huge glass doors, which opened out in front of them.
LetMeLive- so this is chapter 1 of my fic on Cloud's training to try and become a member of SOLDIER. I hope you liked it so please review it (even if you didn't like it!) I'm also writing the continuation of Lost Memories at the moment so I'll probably update both this one and Lost Memories at the same time! Thanx!