A/N: This is me, having pity on my readers and deciding to post this chapter earlier than intended. =D I hope you enjoy this one! And after this there will only be 3 chapters plus the epilogue! Are you excited? Because I sure am! Oh yeah and in case anyone reads the new 'chapter summaries' that I write in the summary each time, it's true that there is some INTENSE foreshadowing in this chapter. You may try and guess what it is if you'd like but I won't be telling you and you will simply have to figure it out ALL BY YOURSELF. Mwahahahahahahahahahaha!

Also, the secret that I mentioned at the beginning of the last chapter is at the bottom of this chapter BUT READ THE CHAPTER FIRST! DON'T JUST SCROLL DOWN!

...okay now start reading.

A week later Kayli was sitting in a ShinRa helicopter beside Cloud, while Jensen was sitting beside Jinx behind them. There were three other Infantrymen who sat in front and Kayli didn't know them, but she didn't mind as they were keeping to themselves a lot. Zack was sitting up the front with the pilot.

Glancing back at Jensen and Jinx, Kayli couldn't help but grin. Jensen was wearing an eye patch that Jinx had given to him while they were preparing for the mission. It was black and had a pirate symbol drawn onto it in white. How Jinx had convinced Jensen to wear it she had no idea, but she was glad he had. It was brilliant!

As the helicopter flew them to their destination, Kayli thought back over the last few days she'd spent at ShinRa. All the Infantrymen instructors had been given a list of who was going on the mission and therefore worked those selected seven harder than all the others just to prepare them for leaving. Kayli thought it was a good idea, especially since she'd been wanting to practice her sword skills a lot more and had been given the chance against Brawn in her last lesson with him.

She'd visited Rex again since he was still bed-ridden and was worried to find that he didn't look too good. She thought it was a good idea from Davis to stay behind and keep Rex company since the boy obviously needed it.

A groan interrupted her thoughts and she glanced across to see Cloud dropping his head between his knees. Cringing, she remembered Cloud telling her a while ago that he didn't like heights. Poor thing. It looked like he had a bit of motion sickness too.

The rest of the helicopter ride was fairly boring as Cloud kept his head between his knees and no one else spoke to Kayli. The three in front of her spoke quietly to themselves but listening in to the conversation proved to be boring since they were just talking about training. Jensen and Jinx couldn't amuse her either since every time she turned back to look at them Jinx raised his eyebrows at her and wouldn't stop until she turned back in her seat again.

Therefore, when they finally arrived at their destination Kayli couldn't be happier. The doors opened and she was just standing up to get out when Cloud leapt up and bolted, pushing people out of the way in his rush. Kayli quickly followed after him – less destructively – and found him on his hands and knees, retching onto the grass.

Looking away, Kayli patiently waited for him to finish and fought off her own feeling of queasiness. Once he stood up and wiped his mouth, she turned back to him.

"You okay?" she asked, frowning as she saw just how pale he was.

"I'll-" he breathed slowly. "I'll be fine."

"Whoa, Spiky," Zack said, walking over. "You don't like flying?"

"Not really, no," Cloud admitted sadly, staring at his feet in embarrassment. Kayli didn't blame him for being embarrassed either, since everyone was watching him. If it was her in his place, she'd definitely feel the same way.

"Alright," Zack said, his gaze lingering on Cloud a bit longer just to make sure the blond wasn't about to collapse or anything, before he turned to the other Infantrymen and addressed them all. "We've got two days to complete this mission which is plenty of time. I suggest that today we do a scout-around just to see where all the monsters are and what the best plan of attack will be. Then, depending on how difficult it is and how long it takes to complete, you can all have the rest of the mission time off to do anything you like."

"Yes! I'm gonna see my Ma!" Jinx exclaimed.

Zack laughed and shook his head before yelling at them to all fall in and follow him, running off into the town. Kayli glanced across at Cloud, shrugged, and followed.

It didn't take long for them to get instructions from some of the people in the town who eagerly pointed them in the direction of the monsters. It seemed the monsters were quite a bad problem and the town residents would be very glad to see them go.

"Amazing," Jinx shook his head as they walked towards the place the monsters had last been seen. "That such a bad case of monsters can come in such a short amount of time. It feels like just yesterday that I left for ShinRa!"

Getting closer, Zack gestured for everyone to quieten down and did a quick look around the area for himself before using hand signals to tell two of the infantrymen who Kayli didn't know to look around in an opposite direction. The whole process made Kayli tense up and she found herself listening to her heart beat and looking around at her surroundings anxiously as if a monster was about to jump out at her from anywhere.

Using some more hand signals, Zack told the rest of them to follow quietly behind him and set off through the trees. He had his sword in his hand as he walked and was listening intently to every sound he could hear.

All the infantrymen also had swords since Lazard had told them in the meeting that they would be using this mission to practice their sword skills against real enemies. If another mission came up and they got to go, they would be allowed to use a gun if that was their preferred weapon of choice.

Kayli was glad she was using a sword, though. Apart from the fact that it seemed much more like a SOLDIER weapon to her, it also felt much better in her hands than a gun and helped to reassure her.

A crack sounded to her left and Kayli quickly turned to look, her eyes wide in fright as they darted around. Cloud pulled up beside her and also looked around before gesturing with his head for her to follow him. She did, but kept looking behind. Zack was pretty far up ahead now with the other infantrymen, although Kayli thought it was highly likely the monsters might already know they were there and try to attack from the back.

Nothing happened for another three minutes as they walked, but then there was a loud snarl from up ahead and Kayli looked up just in time to see a monster leap out at the group, its paws swinging in the air and aiming for Jensen and Jinx who were closest. Kayli involuntarily let out a scream before she started running forward. Everything seemed to be going in slow motion as she saw Jensen stumble sideways and then get shoved to the ground by Jinx.

A loud clash sounded as Jinx's sword slammed against the monsters teeth, making it slide backwards a few feet now that it had landed on the ground. As soon as that happened, Jinx turned and grabbed Jensen in order to try and pull him away.

"Jinx!" Kayli screamed out, watching the monster lunge once again. They weren't going to make it.

But just when she thought the worst was going to happen, Jensen swung around in his friends grip with his sword out in front of him and then stood facing the monster. Zack yelled out something – he too was running towards the scene – but before anyone could do anything Jensen had thrust forwards with his arm and the monster half landed on the sword, letting out a squeal of pain and catching the side of Jensen's arm with a claw.

Another monster suddenly appeared from the opposite direction, bearing its teeth and leaping towards some of the other infantrymen. They all raised their swords in defensive but it was Zack who leapt in front of them and quickly stabbed the beast.

"Man," Zack said as he pulled his sword out again. "This is heaps fun!"

The battle continued that way. Occasionally some of the infantrymen would get a chance to wound or kill, but when the situation turned bad Zack would jump in and finish it off just like he was meant to as the overseer of the mission.

Once Zack was positive all the monsters had been dealt with, he instructed them to head back to check into the inn they would be staying at. It was afternoon now so they'd have a bit of time to wander around before having to go to bed and Jinx was already rattling on to Jensen about his Ma's cooking.

Jensen listened to his friend talking, mumbling responses and nodding in all the right places. His arm was okay as it was practically just a graze, but as Zack had said to him before they started heading back he had to have something put on it when they reached the inn. No one else had been injured.

They were all tired as they walked in the doors and up to their room. Kayli was amazed as she sat down on her designated bed that the mission was over so quickly. Once she was a SOLDIER it would probably take her even less time to do things like that.

What was she going to do for the rest of the afternoon and all of tomorrow? It was obvious what Jinx was going to do since he still hadn't stopped talking about his Ma, but Kayli had no real interest in this town. It was a new place, though, so perhaps she would simply take someone with her to explore the area.

Sighing and flopping back on her bed, she thought to herself, I'll do that tomorrow.

Zack had pulled out the first aid kit for Jensen and was quickly applying stuff to the boys arm so that it didn't get infected. It was too minor a wound for materia to be used.

"So we've got the rest of the time off, right?" Jinx asked just to make sure for the seventh time. Zack sighed and shook his head with a light chuckle, finishing up with Jensen and standing to look at the boy with green hair. It was still strange to see the boy without a Mohawk.

"Yes! And you can go see your Ma whenever you want. You can even sleep in your own bed tonight if you feel like it!" Zack told him. "Just as long as you're back by tomorrow afternoon I don't care what you do."

"Great! Jensen, d'you wanna come meet my Ma?" Jinx asked eagerly.

Jensen looked up and was about to gently decline when Zack got in first and shook his head firmly.

"Look at him!" Zack ordered. "He's so tired he's practically asleep already. And I know that wound was almost nothing but I've got orders to look out for him more than any of you other guys because of his impairment. You can go visit your Ma, but Jensen's not going with you."

"Aww, that sucks!" Jinx pouted. "Now how is he going to know if I was telling the truth about her cooking?"

"Look," Zack said. "If you want to wait for tomorrow I might let him go with you. But if you wanna go tonight you'll be by yourself."

Jinx truly did think it over. He was silent for quite a long time as he tried to decide what was best to do before finally sighing and squatting down to Jensen's level.

"I'll see you when I get back. Might save you some food if you want, too." He flashed a grin.

"Alright," Jensen shrugged. "I was gonna say no anyway. I'm really tired."

"Get some sleep then."

Jinx stood and glanced around at the other infantrymen before walking over to Cloud and clearing his throat awkwardly to get his attention.

"Hey," he began. "Do you wanna come with me to my house? I wanna see my Ma."

Cloud shrugged and nodded, dumping his helmet on his bed.

"See you later," Cloud said, nudging Kayli's dead form before following Jinx towards the door. Just before they left, Jinx called back to Zack that they were going and Zack nodded, giving them the okay.

Leaving the inn, Jinx quickly began talking about his home life all over again now that he had a new audience.

"Ma cooks the best food you'll ever taste," Jinx began. "She always works so hard on each meal and that's what makes it so good. You know what I mean? It's only when people put lots of hard effort into things that the results turn out good. That's what she always used to tell me and it's why I always work so hard in my training! The harder I work, the better I'll get and the likelier it is I'll become a Turk!"

"Have you always wanted to be a Turk?" Cloud asked curiously.

"What? Yeah, of course!" Jinx nodded happily. "Reno inspired me, you know. He's so cool, don't you think? Of course, not so cool when he decided to... ahem. But my house is awesome too! It's got this awesome..."

Cloud tuned him out as they walked, honestly not that interested by what the other boy had to say. He felt a bit bad since he imagined if he was bringing a friend to his own house in Nibelheim he'd want to tell them all about it as well, but right now his heart just wasn't in it. The fact that he might not ever be a SOLDIER wouldn't leave his mind alone.

Before coming on the mission he'd gone to see Hojo once, but the scientist hadn't done much except check all his vitals and tell him to work harder in his next training session. How was that supposed to help him?

To be honest, though, that had been a big part of why he was trying so hard on this mission. He wanted to do well so that he could improve his chances at becoming a SOLDIER, no matter how slim those chances were.

Coming out of his thoughts, Cloud looked up to see Jinx pointing and rattling off about the guy who lived in the house they were passing.

"He always used to give me toys at Christmas until I turned ten." Jinx explained before moving onto the person across the street and telling a funny story about them. Cloud found himself smiling at the story of the poor lady's cat getting stuck on the roof and was soon laughing with Jinx at how silly neighbourhood residents could be.

As they got closer to Jinx's house, the stories got longer and funnier. Apparently Jinx had known a lot about the people he had lived near. Cloud thought he was going to bust a lung when Jinx told him about the man who lived next door. One year he'd taken a big fall off a ladder while trying to fix his shed and hadn't been able to think straight for ages. He'd gotten so confused one night about where he lived that he'd ended up on Jinx's couch and Jinx's mum had had to call one of her other friends to get him out.

"Oh," Jinx said suddenly, stopping and staring across the road. They were standing out the front of his own home and Cloud wondered what could be so interesting about the people across the road that had gotten Jinx to stop right outside his familiar place of warmth. "Cloud, there's a kid about my age who lives in that house and he's terrifying."

"Really?" Cloud asked, glancing over at the house. Looking at one of the windows, he saw the curtain move slightly and squinted. He could make out a face at the bottom corner but couldn't tell if it was a girl or a boy. Almost instantly, though, it vanished.

"Yeah," Jinx nodded, turning to face his house again. "Kid got into an accident with a tractor when he was younger and now you can't even see his face properly, he's scarred so bad. Ma thinks that's a lie, though. She doesn't want me near him and quite frankly, I'm fine with that!"

Stepping forward, Jinx grinned and knocked hard on the door.

Cloud glanced back at the house across the road again and frowned to see the face was back in the window. Now that he thought about it, he did think it looked like scars which were obscuring his view of the face.

He turned back to Jinx's door when it opened and was surprised to see the woman standing there also had green hair. Had he been mistaken in thinking Jinx dyed it or did this woman dye her hair as well?

"Ma!" Jinx exclaimed.

"Jay!" she squealed, scooping him up into a hug and squeezing him tightly. Letting him go to get a better look at her son, she suddenly screamed and covered her mouth with one hand, eyes widening. "What happened to your beautiful hair?"

"It wasn't my fault! It was Reno!" Jinx said sadly, sagging in front of his mother and staring at the ground.

"Why would he do something like that?" she asked in disbelief.

"He's never liked me for some reason, Ma!" Jinx pouted. "I don't know why but he thinks I'm annoying. He said this would teach me for being so annoying..."

"Did you do anything to him to deserve this?" his mother asked firmly, tilting his head up so that she could look him right in the eyes. He shifted uncomfortably and shrugged.

"I don't think so."

"Meaning yes you did," she tutted. "When will you learn? That man is not someone to be messed with!"

"I thought he'd be happy that I wanted to be so much like him. You know, I thought he'd go around boasting to people that he had a fan! But he never did. He just told me to leave him alone and told everyone I was stupid." Jinx's bottom lip began to tremble and he was pulled into another hug as his mother sighed.

"I'm sure it'll blow over. Besides, at least you can grow your hair out again so it's not too bad. Would you have preferred it if he broke one of your bones?"

Jinx looked down again and muttered something under his breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

The raised eyebrows showed that Jinx's mother didn't believe him but she shrugged it off, deciding to let it go and simply enjoy having her son back home for the moment. "So this is your uniform? You look so grown up in it!"

"I know, don't I?" Jinx said cheekily before glancing over at Cloud and stepping back slightly so his mother could see him too. "Ma, this is Cloud! He's one of my friends."

Mrs Inks turned to Cloud with a warm smile and hugged him before he could object. Thankfully he was used to it having grown up in a country town where everybody was really affectionate with each other.

"Come on inside!" she said excitedly, pushing them through. "You do have time, don't you? I'd love it if you could stay for dinner."

"Yeah!" Jinx nodded. "I can even sleep here tonight if you want me to!"

"That would be great!" Mrs Inks said, moving over to the kitchen where she began to dig out everything she would need in order to cook a meal large enough for three people. "Would you stay for dinner, Cloud? I'm sure I'll be able to make something you like."

Cloud smiled and nodded. "I'd love to."

"Wonderful!" she said happily, pulling out different ingredients from her cupboards and then picking out two of her recipe books. She flicked through the pages at an incredible speed that Cloud was left dizzy and had to turn away because it was so fast and he couldn't keep up with it.

"So, has anything changed while I've been gone?" Jinx asked.

"Not really," his mother replied with a small shrug. "I'm not sure if you'd noticed but the people across the road are still there. I wonder if they'll move if I blow up their letterbox."

"Ma, not in front of the guest!" Jinx said jokingly, grinning at Cloud's wide-eyed expression at what Jinx's mother had just suggested she might do. Cloud didn't think he'd ever met anyone quite like either Jinx or his mother.

"So what about you?" Mrs Inks asked then as she put some ingredients into a bowl and began mixing them up. "Have you changed other than your hair? Gotten any smarter, taller maybe?"

"Very funny." Jinx rolled his eyes. "I'm still the same old me, Ma."

"That doesn't make for a very good story. Is there anything you can tell me?"

"I've been to Wutai!" he said suddenly, his eyes wide in excitement as he watched his mother for a reaction. There was a second where she kept doing things normally before suddenly she dropped everything and spun around.

"Wutai? You did? Really?"

"Yes!" Jinx nodded. "And I survived!"

"I'm so proud of you!"

Cloud watched awkwardly as the two green-haired people hugged again and then separated, beaming at each other.

"I fought so well in Wutai," Jinx went on. "One of my other friends Davis and I were back-to-back for most of it. That worked really well! I'm so proud of our efforts."

"So am I!" Mrs Inks said. "Cloud, did you go too?"

"No, Ma'am," Cloud shook his head shyly. "I took the SOLDIER test instead."

For a moment Mrs Inks grinned wider, but then as she glanced over his uniform her expression saddened and she moved over to put a hand on his shoulder comfortingly.

"Don't worry about it," she told him. "You just work hard in all your training sessions and then try again another time. Okay?"

Cloud smiled at her and nodded, feeling as though that was something his own mother would say to him in the same situation. It was nice being around a motherly figure again after so long in ShinRa, a place overrun by guys holding in their emotions.

Mrs Inks went back to her preparations then and Jinx waved Cloud over, heading off through the house towards his room. When they got there, Jinx pulled out a photo album and sat on the edge of his bed, gesturing for Cloud to sit beside him.

Cloud felt a bit awkward acting as Jinx's best friend since he was sure Jinx had only invited him to come because Jensen wasn't able to, but he didn't want to say anything in case things became even more awkward than they already were.

"Ma bought me a camera when I was six," Jinx explained as he opened up the first page where there was a photo showing the bottom half of a younger Jinx's grinning face. "I was pretty bad at first."

Cloud smiled, not wanting to say anything to that in case he offended the boy.

The next page showed a picture of Jinx's mother standing beside a man Cloud assumed was Jinx's father. They were smiling and had their arms around each other happily. Cloud thought the photo was beautiful. He wished his own father had been around for his mother when he was growing up. How was she doing now, on her own?

Jinx flicked through a few pages before stopping on a picture of him on his eighth birthday. It had the occasion scrawled at the top of the page and Cloud couldn't help but chuckle at the miniature Mohawk visible on the eight-year-old's head.

"You ready for the next one?" Jinx asked suddenly, his tone of voice dark and making Cloud look up. Jinx was grinning evilly and even his eyes had an evil glint in them.

"Um, I'm not sure now." Cloud said cautiously, raising an eyebrow.

Jinx laughed and turned the page.

It was Reno. He stood in the picture with a Jinx that still looked only eight and although his facial expression showed boredom he had an arm loosely around the boys shoulders.

"See? I did know him! Proof! Everyone's got to believe me when I show them this!" Jinx roared, jumping off the bed and doing a little dance of happiness, holding the photo album up high in the air.

"Jinx, stop it!" Cloud laughed. "What is so important about that?"

"No one believes me when I tell them I know Reno even before moving to Midgar!" Jinx said, calming down enough to reply.

"So? Don't you think it'll annoy Reno even more if you start showing photos of him around ShinRa?" Cloud asked, unable to hide his smile. The ludicrousness of that idea amused him for some reason.

"Who cares? Don't tell anyone but... annoying him is my life goal! After I realised he'd never think I was cool I decided I could settle for just annoying him until one of us dies." Jinx grinned.

"That's so evil." Cloud laughed.

"I know!"

A/N: Hello! It's me again! Have you read the chapter? No? Go read it! Yes? Read on!

So the secret about this story that I've been keeping from you... is incredibly exciting! At least, I'm excited about it!

Okay, okay, I'll stop blabbing on and just tell you.

...

There will be a sequel.