Okay-don't flame me Cloud fans! Or else fear my body guard- Vincent Valentine!

Chapter Twenty-Two

The first thing Sephiroth did was find a way out of the underground tunnel. Once he was out, he followed the train tracks to the nearest place that it stopped. Satisfied, he shut his eyes for a moment, calling Cloud to him. He knew that Kadaj and Yazoo would follow.

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Reno and Elena were speaking with Tseng, telling him everything that had happened. "Seifer is out looking for Cloud and his friends. Rufus is trying to now speak with General Caraway about trying to capture Cloud using his soldiers. If what you say is true, then Cloud will be much harder to get." Tseng explained, looking from Reno to Elena.

Reno nodded and then spoke, "Tseng, Elena wants to tell you something very important." He looked over at Elena, grinning. He should have done this a long time ago!

Elena suddenly seemed very nervous as Tseng turned his gaze on her. She opened her mouth several times to speak, but nothing came out. Reno nudged her with his elbow, trying to get her to hurry up. Elena sighed and took a deep breath, "Tseng, will you go out with me?" she finally gasped out.

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Cloud had reached Sephiroth in no time at all. As soon as he reached Sephiroth, the most unexpected thing happened. Sephiroth went up to Cloud, cracking his knuckles. All at once Cloud felt the air rush out of his lungs and pain sear through his chest and stomach as Sephiroth punched him. He dropped to his knees, clutching his stomach, his eyes shut tight in pain. As Cloud tried to breath, Sephiroth paced in front of his kneeling form, speaking, "Strife, my little puppet, you were supposed to kill Zack. Why didn't you kill him-any of them for that matter?"

Cloud looked up at Sephiroth, his Mako green eyes burning as he snarled, "Because I will not be controlled by you!"

Sephiroth glared down at Cloud, kicking him in the stomach. "You do realize that you will always be my puppet, Cloud. I will control you when I wish and you can't fight it, not even when you face your friends."

Sephiroth glared with utmost hate and rage at Cloud as he waited for a reply. Cloud, who had regained his breath, growled, "You're not going to use me to hurt my friends, Sephiroth! I'm not ever going to be one of your damned SOLDIERs that you can order around, you damned demon!"

Cloud really needed to learn to keep his mouth shut as Sephiroth kicked him in the face with the tip of his boot. "I will do as I please, Strife. And yes, you are my SOLDIER now, you lied to everyone, well now I think it's time we twist that lie into truth." Sephiroth smirked, "And the first thing you need to learn in discipline."

Cloud glared at Sephiroth, his eyes full of fire as the blood poured down his face. "Sephiroth, shut the-" Cloud didn't finish as Sephiroth kicked him in the gut.

"Disciplinary class lesson number one: Listen to me and keep your mouth shut." Sephiroth growled, glaring down at the kneeling Cloud.

Cloud could taste the bitterness of his own blood in his mouth as he looked up at Sephiroth again, and he knew there was going to be a bruise from where he had been kicked. Everything was growing a little fuzzy around Cloud from the blood loss and pain in his body as he glared at Sephiroth. He would not give into Sephiroth!

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Tseng stared at Elena, unsure how to answer her. This had been so…unexpected! The room was spinning before his eyes. Tseng really needed some beer…

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'Cloud', Tifa sighed in her mind as they boarded another train that led to Esthar. 'Where are you?' Vincent and Zack had both told her not to go looking for Cloud because she wouldn't find him. But she missed him so much and he was always running away from her. 'Not this time though…I'll find you this time Cloud…' she told herself in her mind. Tifa had every right to decide if she wanted to look for Cloud or not! She had decided to go look for him right now!

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Cloud hated disciplinary classes! Sephiroth was harsh and evil! Poor Cloud still hadn't passed Lesson one!. He didn't want to listen to Sephiroth-much less keep his mouth shut! Kadaj and Yazoo were just watching and Cloud swore he heard Kadaj mutter, "I hope we don't end up like Big Brother!"

Sephiroth, Cloud didn't know, had heard Kadaj or not. He didn't really pay attention to anything Sephiroth was saying except when "General" Sephiroth brought up the words "Kama Kazi".

"When-if you ever-pass your disciplinary classes, we will move onto hand-coordination classes for hand-to-hand combat; solitary confinement classes; and my favorite, Kamikaze class." "General" (ex) Sephiroth explained.

"What?" Cloud yelled in shock from where he was now sitting in his own blood. "I am not going to become a Kamikaze unit!"

Sephiroth merely glared at Cloud as he grabbed him by the arm and yanked him up. "Stand up, Strife. We will continue your training when we reached the Island Closest to Hell."

Cloud's eyes widened by just the name of the place and he wailed, "No! I have a better idea! Let's just go to the Island Closest to Heaven instead!"

"Quiet Strife!" Sephiroth snapped, kicking Cloud into the dirt. "Otherwise we can continue your classes here."

Cloud didn't respond as he picked himself up, whipping the fresh blood away from his face. This was going to be the longest day of his life…

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Laguna sighed, shaking his head, "Kiros! How could you lose my machine gun!" Usually Laguna joked around and was in a cheerful mood, but he had let Kiros borrow his machine gun and Kiros had ended up losing it.

"Oh…well…um…you see-it goes like this: Ellone told me to see Dr. Odine, and well…um…I think Dr. Odine took it and gave it to a Moomba." Kiros replied, looking at Laguna sheepishly.

"He what! Kiros! A Moomba doesn't know how to use a machine gun!" Laguna panicked.

"Dr. Odine says that he wants to teach the Moomba how, like you taught them how to speak!"

Laguna sighed-he had taught the Moombas one word and that was 'Laguna'. He ran out the, door, going to find the Moomba that had his machine gun.

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Vincent was the first to noticed Tifa's absence. "Tifa is missing," he stated, glancing at everyone as they turned to look at him, and then they too, noticed that Tifa was indeed gone.

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Seifer, Raijin, and Fuujin were walking along the outskirts of Galbadia, watching four people heading towards the ocean. Three of the four had silver hair, but the last one who was covered in blood, had spiky blonde hair. Could this be Cloud Strife and his friends?

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Squall looked around for Tifa, but he never did find her. He had long since guessed that she, despite Zack and Vincent's words, had gone looking for Cloud. Because they were on their way to Esthar, they could not leave the speeding train. And thought Tifa was not there, they still looked for her. Squall sat down, leaning back and closing his eyes after a while. He was so tired!

He heard Zack swear as he and the others return. "Why did she go looking for Cloud? She's going to get herself killed!" Squall opened his eyes and saw that Zack had left Aeris's side and was now speaking to Vincent. He looked angry-he had a right to be angry!

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Tifa listened to everything the ex-General had said to Cloud. She learned that they would be leaving very soon. When they started towards the ocean, Tifa followed at a distance. She longed to help Cloud, to stop Sephiroth from crushing Cloud's resistance and spirit, but she could not do it alone-it would be suicide if she did.

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Sephiroth knew that Tifa was following them, but he did not stop her. He could make good use of her when the time came. There was a large boat waiting for them at the ocean. They climbed aboard, Sephiroth dragging Cloud without using any effort.

Sephiroth went over to the front of the boat where there were chairs set out and sat down. Kadaj and Yazoo also sat down, but Cloud only stood there, glaring at the ocean. "I'm going to go clean up," he told Sephiroth and left, heading into the wash room.

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Laguna found the Moomba jumping up and down at the old train station that had been reopened-but barley ever used. To his great displeasure, the Moomba was firing the machine gun like man. "Stop shooting Moomba!" he pleaded, trying to get close.

At the sound of his voice, the Moomba turned to look at him and began jumping up and down, dropping the machine gun, yelling, "Laguna! Laguna!" and then it jumped on top of him, knocking him down.

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Tseng felt tongue tied as he tried to answer Elena. He wanted to say 'Give me a minute', but, alas, the words would not come. He could feel Elena and Reno's eyes on him. Elena was blushing from her question, but the bright hopefulness in her eyes were slowly dying away as the seconds ticked by. He blinked, his mind fuzzy. "Um…huh…" was all he could say.

The sane side of him was telling him that it wasn't aloud to date your employees, but Tseng, apparently, wasn't listening to that side of him as he finally responded, "Yes, um…Elena, I will…"

Elena suddenly squealed in delight and wrapped her arms around his neck. As quick as it ha happened, Elena jerked away, her face turning a deep shade of red. "Sorry, Tse-sir."

"What is going on? Elena, what's wrong?" Rufus's voice came from the doorway.

Elena seemed to blush even more at the sight of Rufus and his question and then turned to look at him, stuttering, "N-Nothing,"

Rufus looked at her, his eyes narrowed, "Don't you dare lie to me Elena. Tseng, why does Elena look like this?"

Tseng-for once in his life-did not answer Rufus. Rufus growled and actually asked Reno what was going on. Elena and Tseng groaned.

"Elena just asked Tseng to sleep with her and-" Elena turned a deep shade of red and punched Reno in the face, bloodying his nose and busting his lip open. "Shut up!" she screamed.

"You what?" Rufus yelled, staring at the two.

"No! She didn't! She asked me to go out with her and I said yes!" Tseng replied hurriedly, panic dripping in his voice.

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Squall sighed as he continued to listen to Zack and Vincent. "Do you think that she'll find him?" Zack asked.

Vincent shrugged, "Probably, but it won't do her any good. Cloud is with Kadaj and Yazoo and most likely Sephiroth."

Squall closed his eyes again, resting his head on the leather seat. He just wanted to finish his two SeeD missions, and kill Sephiroth…

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Cloud washed the blood off of his face, wondering if his nose was broken. He reached up and pinched it. It hurt to do that, but no, it wasn't broken. At least it had stopped bleeding…Cloud looked down at his shirt and sighed. It was soaked with dry blood that stuck to his skin. Maybe he should wash it too…He took it off and when he did, he noticed the red ribbon on his arm. Cloud frowned, wishing he could return to his friends, but he couldn't, he was with Sephiroth now…Below the red ribbon, Cloud noticed that his arm had a patch of black sores going up it. Cloud had forgotten about his Geostigma. It hadn't bothered him ever since he came here.

Cloud went back to wash the blood off his shirt, watching the once clear what turn an ugly crimson. He let it drain out for a minute and then went back to trying to get all of the blood out of it.

Unknown to Cloud, someone was watching him from the doorway with wide eyes.

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Tifa stared at Cloud as he took off his shirt, rinsing it with water. Her mouth was open slightly and she found herself not breathing, drool dripping off her chin. She took a small breath, unable to stop staring at Cloud as he subconsciously rubbed the spot where his Geostigma was.

Suddenly Cloud turned around just as Tifa ducked down and hid herself from him. She was blushing and found that no matter what, she could not face Cloud like that.

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Cloud blinked. He could have sworn he saw someone at the door. He walked over to it and looked out. Nothing. He turned his head and saw a very familiar figure hunched up against the wall, sitting down and trying to look a small as possible. "Tifa?" Cloud asked in surprise.

Tifa looked up at Cloud and he noticed that she was blushing. When she spoke, her voice was cracked with embarrassment, "Y-Yes?"

Why was she looking at him like that? Cloud looked down at himself and remembered that he had no shirt on. 'Oh…' he told himself mentally. Cloud bent down and placed one of his hands on Tifa's shoulder, whispering, "What are you doing here, Teef?"

"Trying to f-find you…" Tifa responded, her voice still shaking. Tifa looked away again, the red on her face brightening

Cloud sighed. There was no way he was going to let Sephiroth find Tifa. He looked around but there was no place to hide Tifa except in the wash room. It would have to do. "Get up Tifa, you don't need to be seen here-especially with me."

Tifa did as she was told. Cloud led her into the washroom and shut the door. "Cloud…why did you let Sephiroth do that to you?" Tifa asked after a few seconds. She had never heard the beginning of the conversation, only the end, but it had been enough.

Cloud looked at Tifa, a frown on his face. He replied, his tone grave, "I had no choice, I didn't go to Sephiroth on my own Tifa. He had the upper hand on me in the first place. I couldn't fight him on the ground…"

Tifa blinked, nodding, looking down at her feet. Suddenly she felt Cloud's hands on her shoulders. Tifa looked up at Cloud.

Cloud looked at Tifa, his Mako green eyes flashing their normal blue hue for a second. "Tifa, I want you to hide yourself. Do not leave this boat when it stops when we get to that island. Don't follow me, I don't want you to get hurt because of me. I have to go-but Tifa, I will come back, but when I do, I might not be the Cloud Strife you see now."

"But Cloud I-" Tifa was cut off as Cloud moved close to Tifa and captured her lips with his in a passionate kiss. It didn't last long though because the door was flung open and there stood poor little Kadaj, holding an ice cream.

Kadaj was staring at Cloud with wide eyes, and he dropped his ice cream when he saw Tifa and Cloud kissing-and Cloud was without a shirt. Cloud glared at Kadaj menacingly, "If you tell Sephiroth, Kadaj, I'll rip out your lung and through you off a cliff!" he threatened.

Kadaj continued to just stand there and stare at Cloud and Tifa, his eye twitching. Suddenly, he screamed in a loud, girly tone, "It burns! My eyes! It burns! Help me! I'm blind!" and ran away…

"And I thought teenagers his age would like that…" Tifa mused, staring at the shut door.

Cloud didn't respond as he moved away from Tifa and went to the sink. He grabbed his shirt and rung it out and then put it on. He gave Tifa a hug, whispering in her ear, "Good-bye Tifa…and whatever you've seen or heard…please, don't tell the others. Barret… know that he'll take back the position as leader of AVALANCHE, let him…but Tifa…" Cloud's voice was grave and full of horrible sadness as he drew away from Tifa. Tifa feared what he was going to say next. "I won't last long if Sephiroth keeps this up…you must know that. Zack-tell Zack and Aeris. Both of them are the only ones who needs to know, especially Zack."

Cloud nodded when he finished and then he left Tifa without even looking at her. When he had shut the door on Tifa, he felt horrible. He knew without a doubt that he was going to lose this fight. He headed down the hallway and went back to the front of the deck. He was met by a very angry Sephiroth.

"Strife, Kadaj here, tells me that you were making out with Tifa, is that true?' Sephiroth growled, his Mako green eyes boring into Cloud's. A little ways away, Cloud noticed that Kadaj was wrapped around a pole, looking green and throwing up into the ocean.

"No! Tifa isn't even here!" Cloud lied at once, his fury masking the worry within himself.

"Is that so?" Sephiroth flexed his fingers, curling them into a fist. Cloud hadn't expected what was coming. Sephiroth punched him full-force in the face. His head was slung to the side so hard that it gave him whiplash. A large, angry black and blue mark appeared on his face as Cloud turned to look at Sephiroth, blood pouring from his mouth. His cheekbone had been cracked and the inside of his mouth had been ripped open. He was very surprised he hadn't lost any teeth from that.

Cloud could barley stand the pain in his face as his eyes began to water, "Sephiroth you-" Cloud couldn't finish as Sephiroth held up one hand and growled, "Kneel before me, Strife." Before Cloud knew what was happening, he felt a forced pushing down on him that made him fall to the ground on his knees, the air being stolen from his body.

"Disciplinary lesson number 2" Never lie to me."