Everything I Do
by Stupid Aquarius

Author's note: …Like woah. Am I an ass or what? My sincere apologies. I think this long breakhad something to dowith the sudden bizarre storm of Z/C soldier-trainee fics. Anyway it's up now, so y'all can shut-up with the 'finally! She updated!'crap : )

This note wasn't meant for rambling about that however. I thought I'd take a small moment to personally thank those who reviewed! That was very generous of your part. I hope you'll be satisfied with what I managed to produce (unfortunately it's still a good dose of introduction) for this chapter.

And for those of you who are reading my Gold Saucer fic, keep in mind that I'm writing! I hope to have the next chapter sometime this May. So look out for that! It's much more interesting not to mention originalthan this anyway!

CHAPTER I
The Leprous

---

Thick...gray...dull... those were Cloud's first words of Midgar's overall impression, the minute he set foot off the train.

The ride had been long, and during the entire time, he was feeling rather nauseous. Though the nausea was not only the result of him being in a train (Cloud gets car sick, a discovery new to him) - it was also due to the air in the train- what he had to breathe in, inorder to stay conscious during the ride

Listless scents were blended into the air, turning it more into a toxic odour than the scent-less air the passengers were supposed to inhale. Perfumes, colognes, the people laughing-slash-talking, sweat particles…like mentioned the list just went on and on and on. It was such a dreadful stench with too many atoms combined, Cloud couldn't even decipher the origins to most of the odours.

Not that Cloud was even trying to. He was too busy clenching his stomach harder and harder by the second, --- at any moment given, he could've sworn he'd leap out of the vehicle. Never had he been so eager to get out of a vehicle. He couldn't wait to get out of the train and get a hold of the world's daily air. Maybe it was because he wasn't used to being crammed in tiny spaces.

But now that he was out, anticipation had switched to relief, but then that relief had flipped to a sudden uncalled wake up call.

He wasn't in the mountains anymore, he realized. Where life was green, the air was fresh and the sun was beaming its heavenly rays on the people's shiny happy faces.

This was Midgar. A city. Where life looked grey, the air even more toxifying than that of the train, and there was no sun to shine its heavenly rays…nor was there anybody with shiny happy face.

Nature life was a definite contrast.

"And now young cadets, I shall lead you boys to your training grounds. From there, there'd be another discourse and then registration and then, finally, you'll be assigned to your dormitories. Got that?"

No, Cloud wasn't really registering that. He found himself being stricken by Midgar's impression: the place was desultory. It looked…empty, albeit the busy people pushing and shoving past each other. The place evoked a sordid feel, unpleasant to Cloud. Unwelcoming. It was inexplicable.

Midgar's appearance was opposite to its content; it looked abandoned, deserted, lost. But yet it held the most opportunities for any sort of job in search of, the wildest parties ever to be created and of course, the richest of people - and all this attracted thousands from around the Planet. So it was to no doubt that the population was an extreme mass, and that the city was most definitely not abandoned, deserted, lost. But still…he couldn't help but feel troubled by this sensation.

Midgar appeared to have it's own shower of rain, too; the remaining dew covered the pavements and every concrete object exposed, like a thin plastic foil of sheen on top of the town, reflecting the tragic color of the gloomy sky.

"So if you would please all queue up in a line, then pass through here one by one..."

Oh, Cloud exclaimed, finally drawing his attention back to the instructor. We're already at the building and it seems they're handing more documents. He frowned. Huzzah, more reading. Like the first dose wasn't enough.

Cloud was about to drown himself into some sort of mental, self-to-self talk - when something caught the corner of his eye.

At a distance, he saw two people walking away from back; a guy and a girl. Where the girl was dressed in pink from head to toe and appeared well endowed, that was not what caught his attention.

It was the guy, or rather, what the guy was in possession of - he had a sword strapped onto his back - a sword he had never seen before. Never even imagined. Never even dreamed of.

The weapon was frightfully wide, and even more unsettlingly long. Heavens, that man could probably cut anything with a weapon of that size. ,.

Is he...in the Shin-Ra army? Cloud pondered, eyes still fixated upon his object of interest. According to him, it wouldn't be logical for a normal citizen to waltz around the city with a weapon of that size - unless of course, the city was filled with psychopathic hooligans.And with such an enviouslyperfect body built like that... He...he has to be in the army.

He couldn't avert his eyes. He couldn't wheel his attention back to the instructor. Wide irises were still fixated upon that corps of a god - and he was only looking at his backside, for heavens sake. He felt...he felt...he felt what, exactly? An emotion, faintly familiar to him, crept its way within heart. He remembered, vaguely...feeling something like this when he looked upon his posters, his articles, his resources regarding his all time idol Sephiroth. But that feeling was classified as awe, admiration, maybe even worship. Was it the same for what he couldn't tear his eyes from? Was it awe? Admiration? He wasn't sure, and in the end, he didn't care. Because he found himself thinking of something else:

He wanted a sword like that.

He wanted to return home with a sword like that.

He wanted to be looked upon with a sword like that.

...Maybe even stroll around the city, or Nibelheim, with a girl of his own...

...Looking like that.

In the end, Cloud called the now pounding emotion excitement; excited for what the training would be like, what he'd receive from it, how he'd go about and if they got to choose their own weapon of a kind. What would they be like? When could they start choosing? How about would he manage with the training? These were questions Cloud was impatient to get answered.

"Ayo blondy! You're the last of the lot, now hurry up!"

Cloud, completely drowned in his world, barely even noticed the queue of cadets before him go by at a rapid pace. Giving the sword one last, long, good look, he turned and jogged over to the person who was assigned to introduce them to SOLDIER.

The man was looking over Cloud in a rather unimpressed manner. After some time, he eventually mumbled, "Get in."

Cloud nodded, then entered the building.

---

"Zack."

Today was an uneventful day. Other than his little outing with his girlfriend, everything was flowing on schedule and apparently no missions were assigned for him. He sighed at this.

"Zack."

Fewer and fewer dilemmas were being summoned, as of late. This bothered him to a great extent. Because it meant that the superiors of Shin-Ra Inc. charged him, and expected him - a SOLDIER, a fighting machine, a bloodthirsty warrior, a slayer - to do paperwork. Paperwork. Gods, didn't the men of Shin-Ra lack a lot of logic, he thought. Of all the things in the world, he was shoved thoughtlessly with the one duty he loathed with an unhealthy passion. He growled at this.

"Zachary Lionel!"

The calling finally crashed into his thoughts, shattering his threads of futile brooding over how dull his day was. Well would you look at that...is thee world's most renowned deify pawning at me, he mused, unconsciously sweeping the shattered pieces of his previous topic in some corner of his mind. Whether he'd pick up on the brooding again, was not defined. There were high possibilities that he would, seeing as how he had nothing else to do. Worth remote interest, anyway.

Sephiroth, otherwise baptized the God, was standing in front of his desk...waiting...and waiting. ...And still waiting.

Sephiroth was a man where respect came by its own. The people stooped down a dog's status to worship the baptized God. But this was only done out of fear; fear of what the God would unleash as a wrath if anyone had dared to disobey his orders, or dared to not meet his will. With a man in possession of too much power, it was better to be 'over-vigilant'. Theoretically, this was very wise of them.

...but if this one man, under the name Zack, had any sort of moral wisdom, and instead followed the sheepish way the rest of the world behaved, then he was notorious for nothing. Indeed, this man had a reputation for being able to stand against anything that didn't meet his own will. Even against the world's worshiped God.

The man was thick. Thicker than any concrete substance known to existence.

So being the notorious man he was, Zack audaciously gave Sephiroth nothing more than his exasperated mood; eyelids restraining not to fall anymore than half way and his mouth placed in a brim, thin line. And just to show to what point this man was not giving a rat's ass about what he was doing, he had his legs (which were in heavy mountain boots) probed thoughtlessly onto his desk, precisely where his now mud tainted and twisted sheets laid. Zack was bored. And he wanted his superior to see it.

It was Lucifer against God.

"The report of your last mission," from where Sephiroth stood, his face remained intact and was devoid of any emotional expression. Apparently Zack's boredom seemed to hold no effect on him; either he was immune to this daily routine or he either didn't give for Zack's mental condition. "...I have not seen it."

A roll of the bored eyes. "Take a guess, 'Roth. You know I ain't done it yet." Zack drawled, bored and uninterested. As he heaved a tired sigh, he flopped his legs off the desk, only to playfully spin on his chair from side to side. He was a five-year-old in a well-endowed sixteen year-old physique.

"Then when exactly do you intend to get it done?"

"Mmm..." Zack made as if he was giving the said question a thought. "...Whenever I feel like it." he finished with a light shrug of his shoulders, before folding his arms behind his head.

Yes, the man – or rather, the boy - was oh so very thick.

"Now wouldn't that be in an awfully long time." Sephiroth rolled his eyes. "It's already two weeks overdue."

The constant squeak of Zack's wheeling chair came to a halt, as he stopped his playful choreography. "What the fuck. I'm a SOLDIER First Class. I shouldn't be having my blood-pulsing ass stuck in a godforsaken desk." He eyed it. Face torn between disgust and loathe. God, did he hate it. "With paperwork. Couldn't I just tell them what happened? Jeez."

Nothing had changed from Sephiroth's expression. He still stood there, blinking long lashes slowly, unfazed. Eventually he gave in, retreating to his own seat without a sole note from his lips. As far he was concerned, Zack would have to deal with whatever consequences Heidegger had planned for him. "Heidegger will not be all too thrilled to hear this."

From Zack's way, a mocking snort followed suite. "Well what could he do? That inhuman lump of fat can barely even keep up with my walking pace." His chair, in desperate need of oil, began piercing eardrums again as it squeaked to every motion Zack winded the chair.

"From what I've heard, he's having new ideas for you."

Like mentioned before, Zack made a mule seem awfully cooperative and willing. Still unable to accept the reality of the situation, he only laughed at the General's statement, sending it right back at his face. "Whatever it is, I'll deal with it later." He raked a hand through his hair. "Imma go eat now. Food's calling for me!"

And with that, Zack waltzed out the door.

Well... Sephiroth mused to himself. Doesn't this boy have nerve.

With a small but amused smile, Sephiroth dismissed all thoughts and continued with his own accumulating work.

---

"David, it's nice to be sharing a room with the three of us together."

Green eyes met hazel ones, implanted with a gleaming look of excitement. "Yeah it is, ain't it?" David smirked, a movement that went all too well on his ochre-colored skin and light chestnut hair - only now, the said strands were gelled into countless messy spikes. "Who would've thought we'd all end up in the same dorm room? It's all fate I tell you!" David turned to share his content smile with a third person present in the room. "Ain't that right, Xavier?"

Xavier, in response, cracked up a short laugh. "It sure is!" His head was tossed back by just an angle as he laughed again, his long, dark shoulder-length hair toppling over in motion. When he brought his head back up, his amber eyes went to meet those hazel ones of the first speaker, Anthony. "Just the three of us and no one else! It's cool to be able to release our dream together."

"But weren't there supposed to be four to a room?" Anthony gave a small quirk of his eyebrow, as he questioned this.

"Who gives about the fourth person!" answered David, with a swat of his hand over his friend's back. "So long as we're together on this, I don't see why anything else should matter!"

The trio grouped into a hug. They embraced each other, filling the air with their laughter, contentment, amusement - a typical amicable scene, picturing a group of long-term friends expressing and sharing forms of joviality amongst each other, no one else but each other. The air was beyond the definition of joyous, and for a moment, it seemed like nothing could break this inseparable bound of friendship. But that was until-

-the metal handle of the aged paint-chipped door creaked open.

The intruder pushed the door open in a slow motion, dragging a screech caused by the metal hinges as he struggled to let himself in. David, Anthony and Xavier stared. At the door. Their heads were quick to shoot glances at each other again, reading the same line glinting from the reflection their souls: their eyes. No...it couldn't...

Their smiles had dropped. The joy had dropped. The mood had dropped. The air was tense. Why, everything all of a sudden felt so painfully heavy...

It wasn't that they were scarred - no, they were very far from scarred. It must have been the hope they cherished not before long ago, of them being together, the three of them together, alone. No one else. And that hope, that sole hope, must have left them - evaded, transferred, escaped - and left them in a tangled mess of confusion. Of wonder. Of anxiety.

Of deception.

Eventually, the rusty metal hinges grinding against metal came to a fading halt, as the intruder stood to pause by the doorframe, revealing his identity to those present in the room.

The intruder was Cloud Strife.

Nothing happened for a long moment. Cloud stood there, belongings in hand, while David, Anthony and Xavier stayed rooted at their own spot gazing back at the blonde. The silence was so powerful that the frequent chirps and laughs of other cadets could be heard through the open door.

Not a single note broke from Cloud's mouth as he helped himself to the single free bed at the very corner of the room, where no belongings were discarded thoughtlessly on to the tattered bunk. He let himself fall on the mattress as the ancient springs shrieked to life in response.

"Jee, I had no idea Shin-Ra accepted ten-year-old kids into the army as well."

That was uncalled for. It wasn't even necessary. The sole thing Cloud did was the prudent act of not saying a word and moving away from the others. Afar from them. In the shadows of them. And they, on the contrary, had put it upon themselves to strike on him nonetheless, as if he'd done something to merit their antic comment.

He hadn't done anything, had he?

But this was also just in general; the receptionists of SOLDIER had given Cloud the same replica; not line-by-line, but in the same 'you're small, what are you doing here?' context. Why the people of the world just couldn't refrain their own judgments to themselves, Cloud hadn't the slightest.

From his hung head, blue eyes now glowering stormy gray rolled themselves upwards - tentatively - slowly - to the stranger, which happened to be David. He kept his look fixed, piercing right into his eyes.

That struck him. That comment struck his dormant ego. He should have expected that. He should have been waiting for that. He didn't really think his troubles from Nibelheim were over, did he? Or that the profanity of all human beings he encountered were over as of when he entered Shin-Ra, did he?

Or was it that complication simply liked to follow him? It seemed trouble and complication were very fond of him.

But damnit, why did everyone have to judge what they saw?

"This 'kid' you're referring to," Cloud started, slowly. Softly. Deeply. A hint of menace. "...has more potential than you can fathom."

He didn't recall saying that. Hell, he didn't even recall thinking over that. Whether the statement was true, he, honestly speaking, wasn't exactly certain for himself. His ego was working in a totally different degree and direction, with a mind of its own. Before he normally knew it, his other half (his ego) had blurted some menace without some proper thought of consideration.

You are exceptional in your own ways, and you are going to prove it to everyone, albeit all what they think. He promised himself he was going to climb the ladder up to SOLDIER, by all means. With the awareness that the ladder was long - oh so very long. But it was a ladder he was willing to climb - that he had to climb - no matter the circumstances, no matter all what would happen and especially, no matter what the people thought of him. He would climb and walk all over everyone. He promised himself that. It had to happen, it had to. After everything he had gone through, didn't he deserve any remorse of self-satisfaction...?

Of course, his 'roommates' didn't take him all too seriously. The second Cloud had concluded his sentence, hysterical fits of laughter were thrown mockingly - carelessly - thoughtlessly - at him. Something he was all too used to experiencing. But the agony of revenge and hate never ceased to boil up inside.

David, at the while wiping off a trickle of tear, collected himself to counter. "More potential than we can fathom, huh? Well, that's for us to see at the Training Courses, don't you think?"

The only expression Cloud found himself sharing with the others was a menacing glare. At least, he tried to make it look menacing. "Never judge a book by its cover." He stuck with saying.

"We'll see if that lame-ass proverb still proves itself right. I just hope for your sake it does." he grinned.

Then the trio regrouped themselves, moving to the opposite side of the room from Cloud. Away from Cloud. Afar from Cloud. The curiosity and deception had long ago faded from the trio; it didn't matter to them anymore. So long as they were complete, the fourth member didn't create the slightest bit of concern. They were already a group. They were already a squad.

What did they care for a one-metre-fifty blonde boy, who thought himself a prodigy?

But what did this matter to him? To Cloud? According to his reaction, - a roll of his shoulders and a flop on the bed to lay sprawled out - he didn't really care. In fact, he didn't so much of give a damn. He didn't need any friends. He didn't need anybody to make it into SOLDIER. He was independent - he lived a life without friends, so solitude was something he'd much rather be in. Alone, Cloud would make it to the top, and meet his well-endowed prize - Respect.

Just like the General.

Just like the Legendary Sephiroth.

No, he told himself. I don't need any friends. I never have had any to begin with. Before he wanted some, but now he didn't need them. He wasn't going to need them. Because when I make it into SOLDIER, the attention and respect alone would ample enough to satisfy my needs.

Content albeit his bad start with his roommates, Cloud managed to drift into a peaceful slumber, before dawn called his way in for the start of his journey.

---

tbc...

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There! How was that?Not asleep, I hope. I must note I am very not pleased with this chapter in the least bit. I wasn't supposed to submit this, since I thought it was too melodramatic. I was to instead re-write the entire dorm scene. In the end I thought I'd fix that up with the later chapters to come.

I do believe I'm portraying Cloud in a rather complicated way, (the reason for the production of this fic) and I hope you managed to catch my drift...it's kinda hard...wth did I put myself into..?

I'll try and have the next chapter up a lot sooner. :) Thanks for reading!