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Chapter 4

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Cloud was quite surprised to be outside under a blue sky once more. Even if it was computer generated. The weight of the weapon in his hand was even more puzzling. Had ShinRa gone mad when he wasn't paying attention? Giving him a weapon was insane enough... but giving him back his own weapon?

Although, perhaps this was more of a Turk operation and being kept on the DL? Still seemed more like a mako-dream than reality. He pinched himself a few times just to be sure. "Nope... still awake." He muttered.

"Are you prepared?" Sephiroth asked.

Cloud shrugged and lifted his sword and gave it an experimental swing. It was certainly no First Tsurugi but he had modified it to at least not break on him if he blocked Masamune. Cloud ran his hand along the blade and it began to glow faintly purple. He settled into a guard position. "Ready when you are."

The two waited, staring at each other. At the same instant they burst into movement and came together in a shower of sparks. Cloud smirked and Sephiroth's eyebrow twitched upwards. The two leapt away from each other, then raced around the simulated field. Cloud jumped high, tucking his knees up to his belly in order to dodge the deadly point of Masamune as he bore down on Sephiroth. Sephiroth dodged to the side of Cloud's blade and punched with his free hand. Cloud kicked off the other's fist and did a spinning back flip out of Sephiroth's considerable range before running off to the left.

The General gave chase and Cloud had to run sideways in order to fend off the slashes coming at him from behind. Sephiroth disappeared and instinct (and possibly habit) had Cloud blocking over his head just in time to stop the downward slash. Cloud pushed Sephiroth off of him and the other arced gracefully away through the air. But Cloud wasn't done. He leapt after the General and they crashed into each other furiously, trading blows before they had to separate in order to land.

The two paused, assessing each other.

Cloud could feel his mouth stretched into a large grin. Who had he been kidding? There was no way that he was going to be able to keep away from fighting. He just loved it too damn much. A vacation might just be camping out in this holographic training room for as long as he could- destroying fake enemies through all sorts of terrain. It was almost realistic enough to be satisfying. Now if he could spar with Sephiroth the whole time... that would be even better. No need to talk, or think about all the crap that came with the man. Just fighting. They were almost perfectly matched at the moment. Sephiroth was a bit more skilled than his body currently was, but Cloud was more experienced battling his counterpart.

With a cry somewhere between bloodlust and joy, Cloud pounced again.

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In the observation room there was a stunned silence.

"'When the war of the beasts brings about the world's end/ The goddess descends from the sky/ Wings of light and dark spread afar/ She guides us ...'" Genesis began quoting, only to be interrupted by Angeal's annoyed cuff and comment.

"You can't just start reciting the whole damn thing." Angeal shook his head. "Quoting it in context is one thing. But I draw the line."

Genesis patted his hair back in place and winced slightly. "Well what the hell am I supposed to say to that?" He waved a hand at the fight currently happening below them. "He made Sephiroth use his off hand." The redhead pouted, crossing his arms over his chest. The jealousy was palpable.

"How did the Turks bring this guy in?" Zack asked in disbelief. "Sephiroth can beat him, though, right?"

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Sephiroth wasn't totally confident that he could defeat this stranger. At the first locking of blades he had expected to overpower the other and be done. The shock when he was matched in strength had almost made him take a step back. And then somehow a sword was in his face and his desperate fist was being used as a launching board. It was the most baffling spar he had ever participated in.

He was having the time of his life.

No one could really make him constantly think like this. Not even two or more on one could provide near as good a challenge.

Sephiroth's musings earned him a nick to the face as he barely managed to avoid being slashed. His eyes widened in surprise and he leapt back. The other did not follow, content to flick the blood off his blade while Sephiroth sized him up again.

"You want to see a neat trick?" The blond asked, his shit eating grin firmly in place.

Sephiroth shifted suspiciously.

"Well, too bad if you don't." The blond sniffed. He lifted his softly glowing blade upright and placed his left hand flat against the blade.

Sephiroth stiffened, waiting for the spell. There was a brief flash and then a tickling sensation on Sephiroth's cheek. He brought his fingers up to the wound suspiciously... and there was nothing there.

The blond swept the sword in a flourish. "Tada! The Full Cure Blade! A bit of a mouthful, admittedly, and somewhat self-defeating as an effect. But great for upgrading a crappy blade so that it won't break when faced with one of the more powerful weapons."

"That is what you were doing with the materia at the mako factory?" Sephiroth clarified.

"Yup. It takes a while to get the timing down. Usually I use a restore materia, but I had the full cure on me, so..." The blond shrugged. "Plus it goes with my non-violence policy that I'm testing out for right now."

"Non-violence?" Sephiroth said dubiously.

"Well, non-killing anyway." The blond shrugged again. "You can take the swordsman out of the fight, but you can't take the fight out of the swordsman. Apparently." He sheathed his weapon, much to Sephiroth's chagrin.

"Why did you put away your weapon?" He asked curiously.

"Well, it was fun, but you weren't going to honor your end of the bargain anyway, and I'm sort of already answering your questions. So it seems rather pointless to continue." He sighed. Then suddenly perked up as a thought hit him. "Do you want to spar with some random weapons?" He asked, bouncing on his toes sort of like Zack did when he was particularly excited. "We could use bully sticks and maces and... and... whips or something?"

"Whips?" Sephiroth asked incredulously, feeling both of his eyebrows shoot upwards.

"Well... it could be fun." The man grumbled. "No sense of adventure." He muttered.

Only Sephiroth's extremely enhanced hearing picked it up. The General decided to ignore the comment as he had absolutely no idea how to respond.

Sephiroth instinctively stabbed with his sword when he sensed the other approach, but was deftly evaded. The General jumped in surprise when an arm landed on his shoulder and moved to throw the body attached to it over his hip, but the other shifted with him and avoided the throw. Sephiroth felt fear shoot through his chest... or at least he thought it was fear. It felt decidedly different and actually a bit pleasant. He looked over at the blond's arm slung over his shoulder in confusion, his face coldly blank. His hip felt rather tingly where it pressed against the other's.

"You'll be happy to note that I have decided to throw caution to the wind and go along with you guys. Just on one condition."

"What condition?" Sephiroth said flatly. His emotions were swirling confusedly and he had no idea what they were doing so he suppressed the hell out of them in order to continue to function.

The man smirked. "I'll think of one." He bumped his body against Sephiroth's companionably, though Sephiroth only moved minutely. The man then disengaged, slapped Sephiroth on his pauldron and walked off.

Sephiroth shrugged his shoulder to resettle his armor and wandered after the stranger. He didn't realize he still had his sword out until he could not fully walk through the door without the point of Masamune running into the opposite wall. He stared at his betraying blade in consternation before backing out of the hallway to sheath his weapon.