The next time Cloud saw Zack, he was striding across the open ground in between the main Shinra building and the military, talking with great animation to...Sephiroth.

Cloud stumbled, his partner having given him a good whack when his attention wavered. "Oi, pay attention, Strife!" he scowled.

"Right," Cloud replied absently, returning to the drill. He continued to watch the two SOLDIERs traverse the distance to the military headquarters, trying to figure out what they were discussing. It couldn't be good, if it got Zack that animated and Sephiroth that involved.

Cloud wasn't sure what he was supposed to be feeling as he watched the still-sane Sephiroth walking away from him, but he was pretty sure that the burning in his gut wasn't just from the sewer waste they tried to pass off as food in the canteen. Am I still that angry at him? the blond wondered, eyes narrowing on that silver-haired figure in the distance. Yes, I suppose I am.

"STRIFE!" his drill sergeant bellowed, and Cloud blinked and looked around. His partner was on the ground moaning in pain, and Cloud frowned.

"Sir!" he said, snapping to attention a little belatedly. After ten years of following no one's orders but his own, he was a little rusty on the idea of authority figures.

"What the fuck are you doing, cadet?" the sergeant demanded, looming over him. Cloud didn't bat an eye; this man didn't intimidate him in any way.

"Sir?" he asked. He really had no idea what the fuck was going on. The other cadets were staring at him, too, and that made him scowl internally. Had he done something weird?

"Are you playing stupid, Strife?" Sergeant Something-or-Other shouted, getting right up in his face. Cloud couldn't help but feel a little scornful. No wonder the guy was stuck teaching cadets, if this was the best he could do.

"No, sir," he replied.

"So you deny breaking the drill and taking down your opponent in a highly unprofessional manner?" Some spittle flew from the man's mouth as he spoke, and Cloud kept his lip from curling in disgust. But he couldn't help but feel a little astonished. He had done that without realizing it? That was not good.

"No, sir," Cloud replied again, hoping that he had successfully kept the disgust from his voice and not even sure if he was denying culpability or accepting it.

The sergeant swelled up like a bullfrog. "Are you disrespecting me, cadet!" he bellowed, and several of the other boys flinched.

Cloud kept his eyes and face completely deadpan. "No, sir," he said, his scorn for the man rising. He wasn't afraid of this man, and he could tell by the looks on some of the cadets' faces that they were realizing that.

By the rapidly purpling face of the sergeant (whose name he still couldn't remember) he realized it too. "Drop and give me fifty, Strife!"

"Yes, sir!" Cloud replied, dropping without preamble to the ground and beginning to pump. The rest of the cadets soon resumed the drill, but something had changed, and Cloud was unaware of how much.


Yay! It's even longer this time! And the next one WILL be even longer...DX I promise!