Life as a SOLDIER

Disclaimer: I can sing.

A/N: So can I! What do you know? Before we begin the next chapter, let's explore an idea…

Cloud with geostigma in this fanfic? Hmm… Now that's an idea… but that would be a close resemblance to the movie…I'll have to think about that one. You tell me what you think. If Cloud should get geostigma in this fanfic, then tell me if that'll be a good idea or not. I'll try to fit it in somehow if you like.

Anyway, let's begin! Read on! Beware, this chapter will start to get kinda dark from here on in. So will the rest of the fanfic.

Chapter Thirteen: A Grave Error
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Cloud blinked awake. "…owie…" he moaned, rubbing his head. "My head… it aches…. Terribly…" he sat up, his head in is hands. "I felt fine yesterday…"

"It's called a hangover," said Zack. "It's what happens when you pass out from drinking too much."

"…oh yeah…" said Cloud slowly, falling back onto the pillow. "My head hurts really bad…"

"That does happen," said Zack. "Just hold the bridge of your nose, it should go away."

Cloud sighed, doing as Zack said. "Where's Sephiroth and Tifa?"

"They're uh… Well, Tifa's been awake for a while, but Sephiroth…"

A loud snort sounded from the other bed, and Cloud turned his head to see Sephiroth sleeping there with his mouth wide opened, snoring loudly. His hair was a mess, and a beer bottle was half hanging from his hand, which was slumped over the bed. "So even Sephy can drink too much," said Cloud, sitting up on the bed.

"Well, yeah, all SOLDIERs have at least a few flaws… I guess Sephiroth's flaw is a drinking problem. I didn't know that," said Zack musingly.

"Merde! Shut up!" yowled Sephiroth, lifting his head to glare at Zack and Cloud.

"Eep! We'll leave!" said Cloud and Zack, both of them hurrying out of the room. Tifa was downstairs, sadly cleaning the rest of the wineglasses and beer mugs.

"Sigh… I wanted this to be a sober bar…" she said to herself.

"Morning, Tifa," said Cloud.

"Oh, hello, Cloud," said Tifa, looking up at him. "How you feeling?"

"My head aches really bad, but I'll be fine," said Cloud, rubbing his head. "I think I drank more the I could handle last night…"

"I guess you did," said Tifa wearily, and she flopped her head onto the bar. "I spent the whole night tossing drunks out of the bar and cleaning up messes and breaking up fights…"

"Oh, I'm sorry, Tifa! I should have been there for you!" said Cloud worryingly. "I didn't mean to get drunk like that!"

Zack was checking his e-mail, and blinked in surprise at an e-mail he received. "Oh, you two go on and talk about it, I'll be outside," he said, closing the laptop and hurrying out of the bar.

"Zack, where are you going?" called Cloud, but Zack didn't look back or answer. "Sigh… I wish he'd tell me what he does when he does that," sighed Cloud. "He does that sometimes."

"Well, he did have those two other friends," said Tifa. "Maybe they needed him for something."

"Probably…"

With Zack…

Zack reached an abandoned part of town, and pulled out his phone. "Sachoo said he found out something important… I wonder what it is…?"

RING RING

"Oh. Sachoo called," he said a little unnecessarily. "Yes, sachoo, I'm listening."

"Good, Zack, that's what I want to hear. Now, why didn't you test the BERSERK program on Cloud yet? I wanted it tested often."

"Uh… Sephiroth said he wanted it to be a fair fight, to see Cloud's real strength. But I planned on testing it soon!"

"You had better. I have a whole team of researchers who want to see the full length of the BERSERK program. And we can't see it's true potential if you don't test it!"

Zack didn't answer right away. "…well…"

"Well what? What's the matter?"

"Can't we just… use someone else?" asked Zack tentatively.

"Use someone else? Zack, I think you're forgetting what Cloud is. Haven't you figured it out yet? I'd have though a father would care deeply enough for a son to see if anything's wrong with him."

Zack bit his lip. "You know how I view Cloud…? How did you know?"

"You just told me," said sachoo, and Zack could tell by the tone of his voice that he was smirking. "But your task in this research is nearly over…"

"What…What do you mean, sachoo?" asked Zack.

"I mean, Zack, that I have more useful people researching this… People who are coming up with the programs to test this strength with…"

"Sachoo--"

"Don't try to stop the research, Zack. I know how much your own life means to you rather then someone else's. You stood up against Sephiroth, but can you stand against the forces that made you?"

Zack sighed to himself. "I…guess not," he said finally. "I'll test BERSERK today…"

"You have your orders, Zack. I want you to give the BERSERK program another test run, and send the results to me. Fail to follow these orders, and suffer a fate much worse then death…"

The sachoo hung up, leaving Zack to stand there shocked for a few seconds. "Sachoo… he's serious…! He doesn't care what happens to Cloud, as long as he finds out that this program works…If this program, they way Cloud tried to fight it last time… it might ruin his state of mind…it might drive Cloud insane…" Zack clenched his fist unconsciously as he looked back at the bar. "I'd better go warn him. Sachoo never said I couldn't warn him about it…"

Zack hurried back to the bar, and was surprised to hear shouting voices. "…! Cloud? Tifa?" He ran to the bar, and the shouting became clearer.

"…you can't blame me for that!"

"I can and will!"

Zack looked in the bar and saw Cloud and Tifa glaring daggers at each other. "If you feel that way, then just say it!" shouted Cloud. "I dare you!"

"Then I will!" shouted Tifa back. "Sometimes I just wish you'd go to Shinra and NEVER come back!"

"Maybe I will then, if Queen Tifa wishes it!"

"Then go with my blessing!" retorted Tifa, and she turned heel furiously and stomped upstairs.

"Come on, Zack!" said Cloud venomously, storming away from the bar. "God!" he shouted, throwing his hands in the air. "I can't STAND her sometimes!"

"Uh… May I ask what happened?" asked Zack.

"It's…her," hissed Cloud, glaring at the bar. "She thinks so highly of herself!"

"Does she now?" asked Zack as the two of them walked to the church.

"The way she talks, you'd think she was some kind of club girl. A club girl!" he seethed angrily.

"Uhm… What exactly happened in there? When I left, you two were very peaceful and kind and caring to each other, and I come back, and you two are about ready to tear each other's throats out…"

Cloud glared at Zack. "This is all your fault!" he hissed. "You had to make sure I had all the drinks so Tifa had an excuse to make me look like the bad one! Well, I won't blame myself, when it was you and Tifa. It was ALL of you!"

"I'm sorry," said Zack. "Why don't we talk to Aeris about this?"

"What can Aeris do to help?" asked Cloud huffily as he sat down on one of the church benches.

"I can try to calm you down and see the situation clearly," answered a much calmer and quieter voice. Aeris had appeared, leaning against the pillar, watching Cloud and Zack. "Why are we so angry this morning?" she asked.

"It's Tifa's fault," said Cloud loudly.

"He and his friend, Tifa, had some kind of argument when I came back to the bar," explained Zack in undertone to Aeris. "And he seems to think it's Tifa's fault…"

"Who's fault is it?" asked Aeris, sitting next to Cloud.

"Tifa's fault," said Cloud stubbornly again. "Are you going to defend her too?"

"That depends," said Aeris. "Can you tell me what she did to make you so angry?"

"She thinks I don't care about her or the bar. But it wasn't my fault I drank so much! It was his!" hissed Cloud, pointing at Zack. "I wanted to help her, I did. But she has the audacity to suggest that I'm too lazy and think only for myself. Selfish, she called me!"

"Do you care about her bar?" asked Aeris. "For the sake of the argument?"

"Of course I do! I just don't want to go there again! She can handle her problems on her own, I have my own life! She always thought she could just control my life whenever she wanted!"

"Tifa doesn't sound like a control freak," said Aeris reasonably. "She just wanted the help of a friend. Even I would want help if I had to run a bar by myself."

The worst of Cloud's fury had calmed down, even though his eyes still burned with anger. "She could hire a staff, she's rich enough to."

"Maybe she can't trust a staff."

"She had no problems around people back in Nibelheim! She was always surrounded by guys! She was friend with them."

"City guys are much different from village guys," Aeris pointed out wisely. "Maybe the village guys never tried to hit on her or anything, unlike these ruffian city guys. I know, I've seen the way they act sometimes."

"….you're--you're right," sighed Cloud, the anger beginning to wear off. "I forgot about that…"

"Now that you've calmed down, do you want to go see Tifa? We could go together if you like."

"No… no, I should go alone," said Cloud, standing up. "It might make her feel better if I apologized to her personally, just her and me."

"Okay, if you say so," said Aeris with a smile. "Zack, you were pretty silent."

"Huh?" asked Zack, coming out of her reverie. He had been deep in thought when Aeris was talking to Cloud, and was now brought back to reality. "Oh, sorry, I was deep in thought."

"Were you?" asked Aeris. "About what?"

"…uh, I'll tell you later," said Zack, watching Cloud walk away from the church to go to Tifa.

"If you want, Zack," said Aeris, looking at all of her flowers. "Maybe you should go with him," she said. "Just in case."

Zack nodded. "You're right. I'll see you later, Aeris!" he turned to follow Cloud's trail to the bar.

With Cloud…

Cloud was about to enter the bar when a voice called, "Cloud! Wait a minute!"

He stopped and looked back to see Sephiroth running towards him. "Sephy?" he asked. "What is it?"

"Don't call me Sephy," said Sephiroth. "We have to fight. Right now."

"Right now?" repeated Cloud surprised.

"Yes, now!" said Sephiroth.

"But, I was gonna go see Tifa again. I need to apologize about an argument this morning," said Cloud.

"Tifa can wait," said Sephiroth. "Come on!" without awaiting anymore protests, Sephiroth whirled around and stalked off. "Cloud, come on!" he repeated.

"But I…" started Cloud, then sighed and followed Sephiroth.

On the way, Sephiroth and Cloud met with Zack. "Zack, you're coming with us!" said Sephiroth before Zack could say anything. "We're going to have a fight right here right now, and I want you to use the BERSERK on Cloud."

Cloud gasped, and looked at Zack. "What? You two are going to fight right now?" asked Zack. "Can't it wait until we get back to Shinra gain?"

"No, Zack, now!" said Sephiroth pulling out Masamune. "Do the BERSERK now! Cloud, draw you're weapon!"

"…ok-okay," said Zack, pulling his laptop out. "I was ordered to anyway…"

"…I understand," said Cloud, pulling out his own sword.

Zack looked up at Cloud in astonishment. "Cloud?"

Cloud didn't meet Zack's gaze; instead he stared at the floor. "Just…just do it. Get it over and done with…"

Zack sat down in a spot that was ways away from the battle as Cloud and Sephiroth began to fight. "Cloud, I hope you'll be alright…" said Zack, not paying attention to what he was typing. He had no idea that he misspelled "berserk" on the program screen.

Back with the battle…

Sephiroth certainly had gotten better, Cloud could tell, but Cloud had already combined the eight swords together, and was defending quickly. Both jumped away from each other, and stood still for a few seconds, awaiting the other to make the first move. Suddenly, Cloud let out a strangled yell, as if he were stabbed by something. He fell to the ground, holding himself up with one arm. He gritted his teeth to stop from screaming again, but it was a hard effort.

"…what are you doing?" asked Sephiroth narrowing his eyes. Whatever's happening to him is clearly causing his great anguish… Is Cloud trying to fight the BERSERK again, or is it something else? thought Sephiroth as he stood on edge in case Cloud mad any sudden movements.

"No!" shouted Cloud suddenly. "no, no, no…!" he pounded the ground with one fist, which was shaking in pain. "No, go away..!"

Zack looked horrified. What's going on! The BERSERK shouldn't be doing this! Is it something else? he frantically searched all of Cloud's program, searching for errors or the like. I never typed this! Where's the mistake…!

Cloud glared up at Sephiroth, a slightly-manic green glaze in the blue depths. "You…! You're casing this!" he yelled suddenly, picking his sword and charging at Sephiroth.

"…!" went Sephiroth, quickly defending. "What's wrong with you?" demanded Sephiroth. "BERSERK shouldn't be doing this!"

"Make it stop!" yelled Cloud. "You make it stop right now!" his attacks were completely in a new style; it was crazy, unpredictable.

"I'll make it stop all right!" snarled Sephiroth back, attacking Cloud viciously.

Near the back of the battle arena. Zack was still searching for the problem. "I don't' get it," he muttered to himself. "I've never seen this problem before… Where did I go wrong?" He gasped, realizing the problem right away. "Oh….! How could I have misspelled 'berserk'! Now I've done it…! Every other line or two, an 'error' is there! I forgot, if you confuse the program, it'll cause errors…!" He looked up at the battle. Cloud, hang in there, I'll fix this problem…!

Both Cloud and Sephiroth were attacking furiously, but for the first time in his living memory, Sephiroth was beginning to get exhausted. He's insane! thought Sephiroth. This isn't the BERSERK program at all…. This must be an error! There's no other explanation! Sephiroth swiftly dodged a blow from Cloud and whammed him away.

"You'll take away everything!" yelled Cloud, quickly recovering on his feet. "Everything! I won't let you!" He charged at Sephiroth again, attacking with insane determination. And then, after parrying Sephiroth's attack, he whammed Sephiroth's hand with the flat end of his sword, flinging Masamune a few feet away. Sephiroth let out a gasp of surprise, just as Cloud jumped back from Sephiroth and dived at him, and stabbed Sephiroth right through the chest.

Zack stopped in his typing when he heard that sound. That sound…! It was a sound Zack thought he would never hear: It was the sound of Sephiroth letting out a sharp scream of surprise and pain. Never before has anyone stabbed him, much less an insane BERERK-ed SOLDIER. This has to stop! decided Zack with cold fear and fury as Cloud kicked Sephiroth off of his sword. He made it all stop; he selected Cloud's programming, all of it, and hit the delete button.

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Let's leave it there for now. I'll continue this soon, all right! Did I over do it a bit? I think so too, but… Oh, well, I think it looks great. Oh, and don't worry, the WHOLE fanfic after this won't be dark, there'll be some funny parts and some serious parts. I'm trying to find a balance of both. I hope you won't be disappointed. See you in a bit!