Life as a SOLDIER

Disclaimer: Can I tomato the poster too? -tomatoes poster of Rufus-

A/N: …Please do. -throws a tomato half-heartedly at a poster of Rufus- Well, carrying on…

Chapter Thirty-Five: Under the Wing of Sephiroth
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Cloud waited outside the door, twiddling his hands anxiously. I hope Sephy can prove my innocence… I know he can… He paced around Sephiroth's room, where Sephiroth had asked him to wait. I'll be training under Sephy now… Does that mean I can't train with Zack anymore…? I hope not… What kind of things will Sephy teach me? Maybe he'll make me as grand as him…

Flash: "It's okay, Cloud. You can stay at my house. You'll be all right there," said Tifa, holding out her hand to a soaking-wet Cloud…

Cloud winced. "That was a long time ago…" he said to himself, rubbing his left arm. "Come on, you've been good for a while now…" He sighed and wandered the recliner, sitting down wearily on it. Then he spotted Masamune on the table. "…? Sephy left it there…? Did he forget it?"

Masamune sparkled on the table most mysteriously.

"…it's a really long blade… I wonder it it's true that only Sephy can wield it…?" Cloud stood up and cautiously approached the long katana. "…It wouldn't hurt to hold it for a couple of seconds…" Cloud slowly reached for the hilt of Masamune…

"Cloud!" yelled Sephiroth, opening the door.

"Awa!" yelled Cloud in surprise, backing away from Masamune. "Oh, hi Sephy!" he said a little guiltily. "How--how did it go?"

Sephiroth narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "What were you doing?"

"No-Nothing!"

"Hmm…Well, I just wanted to tell you that you're innocent."

"And Rufus?"

"Like I said earlier, it wouldn't matter if he was found guilty or not."

"What!" cried Cloud in disbelief. "But he murdered the shachoo! It's shachoo's blood on his hands!"

Sephiroth shrugged. "Rufus is now the shachoo. You can't convict the shachoo about anything."

"…that's not fair…"

"As long as Rufus said he didn't do it, we have to believe that." Sephiroth snorted. "The Turks all believe it."

"They do?"

"Yeah, it seemed that way…"

Flashback…about one hour and seventeen minutes ago…

Tseng slammed the table with both hands so he could be face to face with Rufus. "Mr. Rufus Shinra, do you own a handgun!" he demanded loudly.

"No, sir!" said Rufus loudly.

"There, see?" Tseng said to Sephiroth.

"But I do own a mini shotgun," said Rufus, pulling out his mini shotgun. "You couldn't kill anyone with a handgun. See, with this shotgun-" Rufus held it up "-you could…well…do many things with it! Heck, you could even chuck someone's mother off of a building and shoot her!"

Everyone stared at Rufus. "…"

"What?" asked Rufus.

Sephiroth cleared his throat loudly. "If you don't mind, I'd like to speak for Cloud."

"Sure, go ahead," said Tseng.

End Flashback…

"Would Rufus chuck someone's mother off of a building?" asked Cloud curiously.

"He murdered his own father. I doubt there's anything he wouldn't do. If it's for power, then you can count on him doing it."

"Oh…"

"Well, enough of that," said Sephiroth. "You're name has been cleared. Now we can get back to business."

"I suppose we can… But can I ask you a question first?" asked Cloud.

"You want to know why I want to train you?" guessed Sephiroth.

"Well, yes…"

"You didn't believe my reason? I told you, I want to see if Zack's ravings about something special about you is true. Is that really so hard to believe?"

"No, I believe you… it's just that I never thought that I'd be training under you… You being the best SOLDIER here and all…"

"I'll teach you many new things, true enough," said Sephiroth, picking Masamune up and heading for the balcony. "But you can't go train amongst the other SOLDIERs now. Not even Zack."

"I thought so," said Cloud sadly. "But it seems I have no choice now… You've bought my freedom by clearing my name. The least I can do is train under you, as you requested."

Sephiroth looked back at Cloud curiously. "Are you always so dramatic like that?"

"Eh?"

"The way you phrased it… 'You've bought my freedom'? Where'd you learn to talk like that?"

"Is something wrong with that?" asked Cloud. "I'm not always so…"

"Hmm… If you say so." Sephiroth turned back to the balcony, looking up at the night sky. "You remember what I said, don't you? About how you can't escape death?"

Cloud looked down, and muttered, "Yes, I remember that…"

"…Keep an eye on yourself while you train under me," said Sephiroth. "I won't be giving you an easy time, believe me. I know the best methods for building up your strength and pain-resisting. I can teach you sleep-deprivation, ignore hunger and thirst, adapt to your surroundings…"

"That sounds like a lot," commented Cloud.

"It is a lot," agreed Sephiroth. "And we start bright and early tomorrow. So I suggest you head back to your room and get a good nights sleep. I'll be waiting in the dueling room at 6:00 AM."

"6:00 AM!" repeated Cloud in shock. "Oh, no! I wish you'd tell me sooner! I'd better get some sleep!" without waiting a response, Cloud hightailed it out of there to get some sleep.

Sephiroth watched Cloud run back to his room from the balcony. Maybe there is something unusual about you…after all…

With Cloud…

Cloud closed his door and flopped wearily onto the bed. "Oh, man, what a day… I'd have never expected… When Zack comes back, I'll be sure to tell him about this…"

Flash: "Think about it, all right?" asked Tifa as she stood in her doorway. "You don't have to leave…"

Cloud closed his eyes, resting a hand on his left arm. "…I guess you have your off and on days too," he said to the stigma. "I do wish you'd leave me alone, though…" he rolled onto his side, and fell asleep.

The next morning…

It was 7:00 AM. And Cloud was still asleep.

Sephiroth paced the dueling hall irritably. "What is he doing?" he asked. "He should be here by now…" With an irritated sigh, Sephiroth stalked out of the dueling hall upstairs to Cloud's room. He knocked on the door once and called, "Cloud! Aren't you gonna wake up?"

No answer inside.

"Don't make me come in there," said Sephiroth warningly.

"No, let me sleep…" groaned Cloud from inside.

"…" Sephiroth opened the door to Cloud's room and strode over to his bed. "Cloud!" he said loudly.

Cloud blinked and looked up. "Awa!" he yowled in surprise, falling off of the bed. He stood up and dusted his outfit off. "Se-Sephy! What are you doing here in my room!"

"Do you realize that you are now one hour and 2 minutes late for my training?" asked Sephiroth. "I told you that we'll start bright and early."

"…sorry…I forgot…"

"Next time, you'll do well to make sure you get to training on time," said Sephiroth. "Come on, let's go."

"Should I bring my swords?" asked Cloud.

"Nah, not today. Today's lesson will not require swords."

"…if you say so," said Cloud, following Sephiroth. He looked back at the hallway to where Zack's room was. We can't train together anymore… That's so sad…

Sephiroth hoped don the last two steps and headed for the cafeteria. "Will you keep up, please?" he asked, glancing back at Cloud.

"I'm sorry, I'm coming!" said Cloud, hurrying down the stairs. "But why are we going to the cafeteria. You want breakfast or something?"

"No, here's where we're going to hold our first lesson. In this kitchen. Come on," he added, leading Cloud into the cafeteria kitchen. "Let me see your hand," he said suddenly, stopping in front of a flooded sink.

"…? Sure," said Cloud uncertainly, holding out his left hand.

Sephiroth took Cloud's hand, took the glove off, picked up a kitchen knife, and made a deep slit on his palm.

"Ah!" cried Cloud in surprise. "What was that for!"

"It's the first lesson," reminded Sephiroth. "I told you that I'd teach you many new things. Resisting pain is th first lesson. As per the training, was all these dishes."

"With a slit hand?" asked Cloud dubiously. "Is that healthy?"

"Of course it is," said Sephiroth. "What YOU should be worrying about is yourself. I put some bleach lemon in that water."

"Whaa! But--But that'll hurt!" protested Cloud.

"It'll toughen you up," said Sephiroth. "You have to learn to ignore pain, otherwise you'll end up losing in battle because you were feeling the pain rather then ignoring it."

"But--"

"No more buts," said Sephiroth curtly, turning to leave. "I'll be back in about two hours. I expect you to be done by then."

"I don't get breakfast?" asked Cloud sadly.

"I thought we could try two lessons in one. You learn to ignore pain, hunger, and thirst this lesson. Get to work."

"But look at all these dishes!" exclaimed Cloud, but Sephiroth was already leaving the room. He sighed dejectedly, looking at the mass pile of dirty dishes. "Owie, my hand…" he said, just now realizing the throbbing pain in his left hand. "Well… it can't hurt that much…"

He picked up the closest plate, grabbed the sponge, and cautiously stuck the plate into the water. As guessed, it stung pretty bad.

"Ah!" yelped Cloud quickly pulling away from the sink. "Ow… Exactly how much bleach lemon did he use…! That hurt…!" Cloud sighed resignedly, and went back to washing, trying hard to ignore the pain that came with washing the dishes.

Meanwhile, over with Rufus…

"There are so many new things I can do now…" said Rufus to himself, sitting at his desk in his office. "Especially this new program… If we can somehow harness the power of the Lifestream in this program… I can do it. I know exactly how to do it…"

He was writing down a new program. It was only halfway through development, but it would be a massive, terrible program, one that would take the Lifestream's power and give it to a SOLDIER. It had more deadly effects then the BERSERK, and it would force the SOLDIER to use all power he has at maximum rate. Hence the name of the program, MAXIMUM.

"After I finish this program, every single SOLDIER will be ultimately powerful… Nothing can stop them… I'll show the world just exactly what Shinra Company can do…" With an evil smirk to himself, Rufus got back to work on his program.

With Zack…

"…oh, so they did find out before that…" said Zack to himself, checking his e-mail. "…The old shachoo wasn't exactly the kind-hearted leader, but even I would rather have him then Rufus as shachoo… Rufus makes shachoo look like a kind, gentle being…"

To: zack(underscore)wolf(underscore)lover(at-symbol)yahoo(dot)com

From: shinra(underscore)electric(underscore)company(at-symbol)shinra(dot)company(dot)com

Tseng ran a sweep on all the SOLDIER's programming, on Rufus's orders apparently. And guess what he discovered. Cloud Strife with an illegal program. You know that wings aren't allowed for SOLDIERs. It doesn't matter if Cloud is Sephiroth's clone. Sephiroth has…special privileges, as you well know.

You're the lead programmer here at Shinra, so I'll let you deal with the program. Get rid of it, and make sure nothing else…funny, happens. Our research gets father and farther everyday, and nothing will stop it.

Shachoo no Shinra Company

Zack narrowed his eyes slightly. "I wonder why Cloud wasn't at Nibelheim when Tifa and I got there…? What did Sephiroth do or say? I'll find out later on today when I can see Cloud…"
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Well, here we go… the End of Season 1! YES!
Muses: Yes!
Well, see you in season two of "Life as a SOLDIER"!
Mario: Wow, we're like a TV show… or an anime!
Yes, we are! See you in a bit!