(A/N) Okay! Next one! I figured the shower scene would be more fitting in Zack's point of view. And yes, Cloud is honestly worried about someone else coming through the window. It only takes one horrific experience to condition fear of it after all. But, by far, I'm obsessing about how my friend's favorite so far in this story is Kadaj. Mostly I feel dumb… I shoulda seen that one coming! She loves creepers!

For the sake of not sounding too cliché I'm going to say that this was not a dream and that this was totally believable despite feeling the opposite. I mean, Cloud had just asked me to be in the same room with him while he was showering. I knew he hadn't meant for it to mean anything. It was merely a precaution that he'd surprisingly come up with himself. Based on my observations of his behavior in these kinds of situations, this was something I'd never expected. That was why I hadn't been able to put it together when he'd said it so quickly. It was so unlike him. Not that I was going to argue! This was a very progressive move he'd made.

"Wait out there for a minute though," I heard him say as he fidgeted.

"Wait out here?" I repeated, "Why?"

"Just wait until I'm in the shower… Please?"

Oh now that just wasn't fair. The begging and the big eyes! If he were just a little older, he'd be playing dirty and wanting me to do the opposite. Sadly, as he was now, that wasn't the case. He honestly didn't want me to see him, even though I'd seen it all before. But he didn't know that either. Man, this was fun but it was also annoying at times. I could hardly do anything. And holding myself back was proving to be a greater challenge than I'd expected.

Either way, I stood outside the closed door until I heard the water running. The others were still elsewhere, good thing too. I'd hate to see how they'd react. None of them looked like they'd flip but… you think you know someone and that's when the trouble starts. I thought I knew Sephiroth and look what happened with that. But that was a bit of a worse case scenario. How many times are friends going to go batshit crazy and kill everyone? That thought seemed reassuring, that is until I remembered that there were two others who shall remain nameless that did something along those lines.

"Wow…" I sighed. "My life was as heartbreaking as it was short…" Seriously, when I thought back on it, not only did it not take long but it didn't seem real. It felt like a tragic movie or something. And I put my parents through all of that mess. Now I was back, you'd figure I'd go see them. But… that felt like it'd be too cruel. They'd probably made peace with what happened and for me to come back? Only to leave again? I couldn't do it.

Trying to shut out those thoughts, I went into the washroom and looked for a place to sit down. It occurred to me that I was probably ripe myself but it could wait. If I could, I would've just insisted we shower together. Ah well. Being a gentleman was a full time job.

That being said, I probably should've done a better job of not looking. But that was also harder than one would think. My eyes would constantly stray to the shower. I could only see his silhouette; it still didn't help with my current problem, it was just something that made me feel better about it. I couldn't see him. Just a shadow. And yet the silhouette was triggering some things that could spell trouble. It didn't take much effort to fill it in with his body since, as I said, I had seen him before. He was so thin; his waist was even more so, giving him a slight curve. If it weren't for his completely flat chest, he could've been mistaken for a girl. In fact, drunks frequently did. And though he certainly was very nice to look at, that wasn't why I was so attracted to him. Unlike a certain ex-friend/General, I knew Cloud. Since I'd taken the time to be his friend first I'd gained a respect and adoration for everything about him.

I suppose I could pride myself on that later because now all I could think about was his physical appearance. He was right in front of me after all! Well… not exactly. There was a curtain in between us. A thin curtain! I couldn't help it. There was a lot to credit him for. I knew he hated his small stature but he was well proportioned for his size. His legs weren't too short, his arms weren't too long, but he never seemed to notice these things. He only ever focused on how myself and all the other men he knew towered over him. It wouldn't help if I told him, I know, but that was part of what made him so cute.

"Zack," Cloud called when the water stopped.

"Huh?"

"Can you wait outside again?"

I thought briefly and then shook my head, "Nope."

"What? But I'm-"

"Relax," I threw him a towel, "I'll stare out the window or something and make sure no one comes through it."

"Zaaack!"

"No time to argue," I shrugged. Unexpectedly, after an exasperated sigh, he came out holding the towel up to his chest. He almost didn't look like himself. His wet hair was flattened down with nary a golden spike protruding.

"Well turn around!" He shouted, a red band running across his nose.

"Ah, right!" I turned to look out the window, almost hoping something interesting was happening out there. None such luck. Nothing would've topped what was going on behind me anyhow. While I was thinking about it, it was really bothering that me Kadaj hadn't shown up to bother us yet. It was making me sweat. If he wasn't here, then where was he? Where were any of the remnants? Had I actually gotten it right? Was coming here a smart move? I hoped that were true; that Sephiroth was too busy searching Nibelheim or Gongaga. I would've, based on my behavior back then. Running from the Shinra army and I go home? How dumb was that? Cloud and I were lucky that Cissnei was the one who found us.

Ah Cissnei… I hoped she was doing alright. She deserved to have a better life than this. After helping me through so much, if it weren't for her I didn't know what would've become of me. If she hadn't inspired me to keep on believing in dreams after Angeal left, would I have turned out like Genesis? That was the biggest question. I knew that if any other Turk had found us while we were on the run we'd probably be back at the lab. Perhaps Cloud and I would've been some sort of monsters by now… Or… Since Cloud had grown up to save the world from Sephiroth twice, we'd all be dead.

"Zack…? Are you spacing again?"

"What's that now?" I asked, turning around. Cloud had gotten dressed quicker than I thought he would. Jeans, a blue long-sleeved shirt, and a lighter blue short-sleeved hoodie over it. I stared at him and he stared back, this went on for several minutes until one of his spikes sprung up. "Hey Cloud…" I'd been meaning to ask but it'd somehow never come up. "How does your hair work?"

"What?"

"Your hair. Why is it like that?"

"Umm… I got it from my mother I guess," He shrugged. "She told me her hair was always blonde but not quite as bright as this. It happened while she was pregnant with me actually, she was on a walk and one of the mako vents in the ground kinda blew like a geyser right in her face. Afterward, she got sick for about a week, when she recovered her hair was a vibrant blonde and spiked up like mine. And I was just born with it. That's the way she tells it anyway."

Huh… So that's why I never detected any sort of product in it. A few more of his spikes sprang back up before we left the bathroom. It appeared Yuffie still had the rest wandering around throughout the house, or perhaps they were busy planning something for Cloud. From what I heard there wasn't much left of this party to plan, it only needed to be put together. I wasn't sure who was handling what but I'd insisted on being the one to take him out and keep him distracted while they set it up. Oh yes, tomorrow was going to be a big day. A very big day indeed. I almost wanted to skip the rest of today just to get to it faster but there wasn't much left to do. My biggest concern was sleeping arrangements. Would Cloud be up to sharing a room? It seemed to be the better choice given his other options.

"Should we go find which room we want?" I asked. I only wanted him to think about it and see if he actually wanted to bunk with me. If not he'd probably end up stuck in a sleep over with Tifa and Yuffie. And, unless I was mistaken, he really didn't want that. Who would? Well I suppose there were a few people that would want that. But I wasn't one of them and Cloud had been feeling smothered by her so… I was feeling pretty confident that he would pick me.

"I don't know. I actually really want to get out but that seems like it'd be a stupid move…"

Well yeah. Going out in the open would at the very least give Sephiroth an opportunity to figure out where we were.

"I mean, there's a war going on out there."

Oh… That was what he was talking about. There wasn't actually any war anymore. But I guess there might still be some old hostiles. Not many though. It might be interesting to see if I could find any. One wouldn't have to look far to find someone bearing a grudge against Shinra but that didn't mean they were as violent about it as they used to be.

"If you want to go out that's fine. What can they do when you've got a SOLDIER operative with you?"

"Don't you think that's kinda… asking for trouble?"

"Nah, it's fine." I just didn't want to go too far and make any sort of commotion. There was no war, but there was still the main problem. I'd have to be on my guard for any youth with silver hair. "Just don't run off and get separated from me or anything."

"I wasn't really planning to." He frowned. "I didn't do all of that stuff on purpose."

"Want to bring your bird?"

"No, Yuffie can keep him for now."

That was good because I didn't really want him to bring it in the first place. Just had to ask in case. Orion was a hand full. Who knew, the chocobo might've been the one to run off and get us separated. It was really good that we weren't bringing it.

As soon as we were back outside the people went right back to staring as they passed. I did my best to ignore it and focus on Cloud. "Why the sudden urge to come out here?"

"Needed a break I guess." He sighed. "I just want to try and forget all of this mess if only for a moment."

"It won't make it go away."

"I know!" Cloud shouted, "But I wish it would. I don't understand any of it! I didn't do anything! Why does this guy want to kill me so badly when I didn't even do anything?" His eyes were teary; this could've become the exact kind of commotion I had feared.

I took him in my arms and guided him down by the water. It was out of the way but still close enough to be considered public. If anything happened, people would hear it and it would hopefully reach the others. Just in case we ran into more trouble than I could handle on my own. I couldn't help but wonder how much help Cloud would be in such a situation. With the help of the latent abilities he'd displayed earlier. Impressive skills with a bit of rust is what it looked like. Almost as though the other him was trying to break through. Or perhaps it was merely muscle memory. I suspected he could help if there was any sort of trouble not having to do with Sephiroth. Weird. Until my stupidity had done this to him, he'd been the go-to guy when it came to him.

Now, my actions had put him in danger. It didn't matter that Sephiroth had said he wasn't going to kill him. That didn't mean he wasn't going to hurt him. And I wasn't so sure that was any better. Not to say that I wanted him to kill him rather than keep him alive and torture him. I mean, Sephiroth torturing Cloud wasn't what I wanted to happen either. But at least that made it possible for me to save him. You couldn't really rescue a body. Well… I guess I could. But only to give him a proper burial…

Of course, a burial is never really necessary. Cloud would probably disintegrate into those little light particle thingies. DAH! What was I thinking? Cloud wasn't going to die and he wasn't going to be hurt by that psychopath either! What kind of person was I to be thinking about that at a time like this? Cloud was upset and I was spacing about his doom as though it were inevitable! Well it wasn't.

I looked down and was relieved to find that I hadn't let him go. I was also pleased to see that he wasn't trying to get away. He was leaning into my embrace. He felt so frail in my arms. And it was all my fault. He'd been strong; he'd moved on, he was living his life! And now he was in this mess all because I was reminiscing about his youth.

"Cloud?" I asked. He didn't look up; he kept his face hidden in my chest. And by the way his shoulders would shudder every now and again, I had to guess that he was crying. Well that was terrible. He was trying to relax and I made him cry! Not good. That was the opposite of good! I had to do something to make him feel better. But what? Push him in the creek? No! That would only make things worse! Stupid!

"Cloud, it's not your fault," I said as I recalled why he was upset, "This man is insane. There's no real reason as to why he's doing this."

"That makes no sense." He hiccupped.

"I know."

"Why is he so fixated on me? Shouldn't he have given up by now?"

"No. It's not like that. His unstable mind has created wrongdoings on your part and he's lashing out because of it. He's obsessed and it's all that's driving him." And Cloud had no idea how much truth there was in that lie. Sephiroth may not have made up the things that Cloud had done but his sick obsession really was the only thing that was keeping him going. I had to admit, it was a very powerful obsession. He'd been resurrected many times because of it. Though this time was probably the first instance where Cloud was his sole focus. It was scary to see what the desire for revenge did to a person. And what was even scarier was knowing how easily people were consumed by it.

"So…" Cloud started, "What are we gonna do? If anything?"

"I'm not sure. I've been wracking my brain daily but nothing feels like it will work." I sighed, "But I figure it'll come to me. When it counts."

He finally moved away so I could see his face. There were slight tear stains which, I had to guess, meant I hadn't upset him too badly. "I don't know if that makes me feel any better…" He said with an expression that wasn't very clear.

"I'm sorry. Devising plans isn't my strong point," I scratched the back of my head. I'd never really had to on missions. I was more the muscle of the operation than the strategist. I'd come up with a plan of escape once and look how well that had turned out… Well… It helped Cloud escape. Looking back, the strategic genius was always Sephiroth. Dah! I needed help! I needed Angeal! What did he mean last time anyhow? The clouds have scattered…? Clouds have scattered… Clouds…

"Where do you go?" Cloud asked.

"Huh?" Dang! I was almost onto something. Oh well, "Nothing. Just thinking." Why was I thinking while Cloud was with me? It was causing unnecessary silence and making things awkward.

"What were you thinking about?"

"I barely even remember." The only thing I knew is that I was close to some sort of conclusion. I think.

"Why are those people staring?" He said as his eyes glanced past me.

I frowned without bothering to check. There could've been any number of reasons. It could've been me, him, the two of us together. Perhaps it was because he had been crying. It didn't matter. It was best to ignore it and not talk to anybody. "They may not be used to seeing people like us." I answered and followed it up with, "City folk." Didn't want to make him think they were staring because we were together or anything. Even though it was a lie, these people had seen plenty of tourists. Not to mention Cloud and I weren't even city folk. His facial expression said exactly that. "Well then maybe it's your hair." I said ruffling the spikes. Throughout this whole conversation they had continued to dry and spring up without the weight of the water, how many people's hair did that?

"I'm not the only one here with spiky hair," He pouted.

"Yes, but mine's not springing up as though it's alive." I began to lead him further down in an attempt to get out of sight. Luckily, no one was feeling ambitious enough to follow. Good thing too, there was no reason for them to be bothering Cloud. He had enough to worry about.

"Stupid hair…" I heard Cloud mutter.

"Would you prefer to be bald?"

"If it makes me less noticeable then… maybe." That wasn't something I'd wanted to hear. It was very selfish of me but I definitely preferred him with hair. And I'd grown so used to the spikes, I didn't know what I would do if they were gone. Cloud would look funny if not downright weird without the spikes. "Don't you think they make me a little too noticeable?"

"What do you mean?"

"It makes me really easy to find. Shouldn't we do something about that?"

"Like what?" I wasn't so sure the presence of mako was going to allow any sort of change to it. If his hair was going to defy gravity then it was going to defy gravity.

"We could dye it a different color?" He shrugged.

All I could do was shake my head. I'd heard some stories from the thirds who tried things like that. The dye would just burn off. Strange stuff, mako. "We could go back to the shops and look into it. At the very least, we could try a wig or something."

"You think?" He looked hopeful. And I wasn't about to dash it.

On the way back I offered him my hand; he took it without hesitation. The grin was impossible to hold in but I did my best to keep it under control. I was well aware that I could be an idiot sometimes and look in a way that reflected it. I just couldn't help it. I was happy.

The town didn't have as many shops as I'd thought. At one time it may have but it looked like most of them were closed. There was still a fair number despite that but a lot of them were for travelers who would need supplies so they didn't have much when it came to novelty. That is, until we found a shop that was stocked with weaponry. I asked the owner and, fortunately, he did have things for disguises. Good thing too, we were about to give up.

We got a simple, short, brown wig that parted to the side. It took some work to get all the spikes to disappear but once it was on it looked alright. His eyebrows were still light but the bangs of the wig covered them, more or less, so it was fine for now. Coloring eyebrows was something that none present could do. Much too close to the eye to allow any screw-ups. So we went back to the house and found the others waiting.

"Finally!" Yuffie rolled her eyes, "What were you doing?"

"None of your business, crybaby." I answered with a smirk.

"Don't start you two," Said Tifa, coming between us. She looked around and stopped upon seeing the small boy next to me. "Why is Cloud a brunette?"

I was going to answer but Cloud spoke up first, "I thought the spikes were too obvious."

"So we found him a wig," I added. It was great that Cloud had answered her himself but he was still being too timid around her.

"Oh great!" She smiled, "We had a similar idea!"

"You what?" Cloud and I both asked.

"We went and got disguises for everyone." Yuffie folded her arms across her chest. "You can't just hide Cloud. They'd still figure it out. A boy his age hanging out with us, they'd know. So we all need to change our appearance."

"Makes sense," I shrugged, "Although I doubt Loz would figure it out."

"You're probably right, but he's not our only concern."

"He's a concern?"

"Anyway!" Tifa interrupted. "Just take this and meet back here." She said as she shoved a bag at me.

"What about Cloud?"

"Don't worry. He'll be here when you get back."

I gave them a look of suspicion but left anyway. He'd better be there when I got back; I was sick of their crap. Besides, if Sephiroth showed up what were they going to do? I couldn't face him alone but I could probably hold him off longer than they could. Though that was only an assumption. I'd given it my best before and he'd beaten me. Too bad he wasn't sane; I wanted to ask him if he really had fought me seriously back then. Oh well.

Once I got upstairs I busied myself with changing. As I looked over the articles of clothing, they started to look very familiar. Very déjà vu. And it only got worse when I put them on. Then it all started to come together. As I got toward the bottom of the bag I found armor and a helmet. I don't know who did it, whether it was Yuffie or Tifa, but they'd gotten me a Wutain soldier's uniform. Neat! I doubted I was supposed to put on the helmet and everything but I did anyway. It was very funny that the uniform covered their mouths. It was like they thought the Shinra army was going to trace their identity and kill their family.

Well… I guess I wouldn't put it past some of them…

I came back down to find who I assumed was Cloud. He was wearing the brunette wig, as before, but it looked like Tifa or somebody had colored his eyebrows. His clothing was very simple; grey shirt and loose black pants. The top had long sleeves with black cuffs and was held together with knot fasteners, the pants had grey cuffs and his shoes were black. He looked very neutral. He definitely wouldn't be noticed now. The only thing that told me it was Cloud was that he still had those beautiful blue eyes.

"I hardly recognized you," He looked like a completely different boy. A cute boy, but not as cute as Cloud usually looked.

"Me? What about you?" Cloud asked. "Why do you have half your face covered?"

"It covers up the scar," I shrugged. And that was really important. Not many people had an 'X' shaped scar on their jaw line. "I don't have a wig or anything though and… what did they do to your eyebrows?"

"It's just make up."

"Oh. So it's just going to…"

"Wash out, yeah."

"Very good disguise nonetheless." I said, giving the thumbs up. It made me curious as to what the others were dressed as buuut… the feeling was passing. Seeing Cloud made me forget a lot of things. The new look was certainly doing its job. I would miss the spikes, it was a necessary sacrifice but I couldn't ruffle his soft hair anymore. I found myself thanking whoever that my impulses had driven me to do so just before. I'd have to cherish that while doing my best to remember. Still, I didn't promise Tifa that Cloud would still be there when she got back. "Have you seen upstairs yet?"

"Oh… uh…" He averted his eyes and started to fumble with his sleeve, "No."

"What's wrong? You're acting all nervous."

"I dunno, I just- no, no reason, it's nothing."

I furrowed my eyebrows, "Okay…" What was he thinking? As far as I knew I wasn't going to try anything, I also knew that I'd lost track of myself before. But c'mon! I was alone with him in the bathroom! If I were going to do anything, wouldn't I have done it in there? Or was it something else? Well, he wasn't going to tell me. Not now anyway. So I offered my hand again, this time I had to wait briefly before he took it; but he looked like he'd been thinking so I had to guess he was distracted rather than hesitant.

His mood hadn't improved much even after several minutes of silence. The only thing that broke it was when we ran into another Wutai soldier. Cloud hid behind me while I tried to decide what to do. My first thought was to attack but, thinking logically about the situation, I waited. Good thing I did.

The soldier put up their hands and removed their helmet. A mess of raven hair fell to rest on their shoulders and showed me it was Vincent. So I wasn't the only one stuck under a helmet. Well… that made sense. "Where's Cid?"

"I don't know."

"So, what's with the sudden disguise plan? Just an excuse for the girls to go shopping?"

"Basically."

"Do you think this'll work?" Not to say that it was a waste of time but something was nagging me.

"I don't see why it wouldn't." Vincent answered, obviously not feeling what I was feeling. "But we need to come up with a more permanent solution than this. We all can't stay like this forever."

"So true. Any ideas?"

Even though I knew what I had to do. I just had no idea how I was supposed to go about changing Cloud back. There wasn't anything that could reverse this. If I hadn't been expelled I could've fixed it. Just think back to Cloud as he was supposed to be and spill it again. But no, they couldn't make this easy. Besides, I still wasn't so sure if I wanted to fix it. As he was, he hadn't been through hell and back.

I quickly forced that subject back with the nagging feeling and paid attention to Vincent. He didn't appear to know what to do. Every other time someone had just gone and taken care of Sephiroth. This time was different. Their tank was a child. And one that they wanted to protect.

Now that I thought about it, they were lucky. Sephiroth could've easily forced them to face him by holding the planet hostage. Like any other time, if he were threatening the lives of everyone else, we wouldn't be able to hide like this. Was he slipping? Or did he get some sort of sick thrill from the hunt? I'd like to hope his intelligence had degraded but it was more than likely the latter. Which meant it was a bad idea to let my guard down. Just because the remnants weren't around didn't mean he'd given up.

"I've got an idea," We all heard Cid from behind. He was also in a uniform but it was orange instead of green. "How 'bout we stop running. Find his hideout and use the ship to blast it!"

"And how do we find him without risking a counter attack?" I asked.

"Counter attack from who? Demon-child, dimwit, and she-male?"

"Could be. But they might not be his only pawns. We simply don't know enough to launch a preemptive strike. I say we're fine lying low for now."

No need to be reckless after all. Perhaps I was appearing too cautious but I just didn't want to make any of the classic mistakes. And the approach Cid was suggesting usually ended with casualties. At the very least it's taking Cloud too close to danger. I wasn't about to play fast and loose with anyone's life. This all only reminded me that I needed help. Why couldn't Angeal have been sent back with me?

"You don't have to stay here," Cloud sighed. I'd almost forgotten he was there. "If this is too much trouble for you all, you can go home."

"What?"

"I just don't understand why you all are putting your lives on hold for me. Before this, I'd never met most of you. And I can't fight, can't plan, can't do anything. It doesn't make sense to me. I don't want to die but I'm not worth it."

What was he saying? None of us were feeling obligated. Was it our current conversation that put him in a slump?

"When did I say I wanted out?" Cid asked. "I never said anything like that."

"It just feels like-"

"Stop that!" Cid cut him off, "If anyone wanted to leave they would've. So quit sellin' yourself short. We're your friends so now you're stuck with us. We like you, kid. Deal with it."

Wow… I had no idea Cid could be anything but a grumpy old man. But I didn't get a chance to comment on it before Vincent stepped past the two of us and took Cid downstairs. They appeared to be brainstorming on how to deal with Sephiroth. Good. Let them deal with the headache for a while.

Speaking of headaches… I hadn't seen or heard the bird in a while. How was the little chocobo supposed to recognize anyone when we were all wearing disguises? Smell? And for that matter, why did I care? Orion didn't like me. Doy.

"Zack, I really feel like you all should stop trying so hard."

"Didn't Cid tell you to knock that off?" Geez, it was looking more and more like he was in a mood. And not the good kind either. "This is what we decided to do. They're your friends and they care about you. You know I do. So what's wrong?"

"I just have this bad feeling. Like something's wrong."

"Huh?"

"None of you have it too? It's like this is all a waste of time… Like it's not going to do any good."

"That's just the fear talking." I said after a short time. "It'll be okay, I pr-"

"Don't' promise me!"

"Cloud…" I didn't know what to do. He was tearing up again and he didn't want me to help him feel better. I felt awful but all I could do was stand there and stare.

"Don't promise me because… If something goes wrong… I don't want you to be a liar!"

Oh no. I had to say something. But what do you say to that? There was no time to think! He was crying! Meanwhile I continued to stand there like an idiot. What to do? What to do? Hadn't we already gone through this today? Ah man, that didn't matter. I'd tried to distract him and now he was back to feeling gloomy. I placed my hand on his shoulder and walked down the hall. The last thing I needed was Tifa coming up and taking him away.

I went down to the end of the hall, toward the room where I'd donned my disguise, and locked the door. Cloud was still a little shaken but, "Are you okay?"

"I'm sorry, I'm such a girl." He rubbed his eyes, "I tried not to."

"Hey, not all girls cry. Just try accusing Tifa of that and see what happens."

"You know what I mean." He sighed, "I hate myself."

"What were you thinking about that made you so upset anyway?"

"I don't know. It was just everything. I really tried to ignore it but I couldn't stop." Great, so he'd internally tormented himself until he'd cried. There were some things about Cloud that were hard to put up with but one had to respect that he didn't complain. Just kept it in until it all piles on top of another matter, like a concern for others. That would explain what had appeared to be an overreaction on his part. Though Cid did frequently come across as annoyed by the whole thing. But that was just his default it seemed.

"You've got to stop doing that to yourself."

"What do you mean?" He asked, tilting his head to one side.

"I mean that you should learn how to de-stress little by little. Rather than letting it all come crashing down on you."

"How do you do that?"

"I'm not sure," I answered, "You could try any number of things. And if one doesn't seem to work then try another. Although… I don't recommend complaining about every little thing."

He still looked lost. But there wasn't much more I could say. I could give him some ideas, for sure, with no guarantee that any of them would work. This was one of those things that differed from person to person. I did know one thing that used to work well but I'd already told myself that wasn't an option. Many times. It was well known that working things out with any sort of physical activity did wonders for stress. Perhaps taking him out to do more training would work as well as sex. Even though it wouldn't be nearly as fun.

~Another Genesis P.O.V.~

I had been expecting to be executed. Apparently they either didn't have the time or Rufus had another plan. I couldn't be certain. So I was caged like a bird and more or less left to my own devices. A sharp twinge reminded me that they hadn't healed the damage that Kadaj had done.

Perhaps they thought that keeping my tarsal bones in such a poor state would keep me out of trouble. They might be right. I'd had worse injuries before, yes, but when it came to means of escape anything wrong with a leg or a foot was trouble. I couldn't stand on my left. So most of my time was spent sitting or lying down. If I had to stand, for any reason, I had to keep my left foot suspended. It was always such a difficult endeavor and usually ended in failure accompanied by pain.

The situation looked hopeless. They hadn't even provided me with anything to set the bones. So, as it was healing naturally, there was no way to ensure that it was healing properly. This meant that I'd be crippled if not killed before then. And if I managed to escape I'd have to break the bone again in hopes that there was no permanent damage. I'd thought of trying to fly out but the area where they'd confined me made that action difficult if not impossible; given the lack of windows and such. There was also the matter of space. My cell wasn't large enough to fit myself as well as my wing. I got the feeling that I tried to spread it to its full span it'd break. And I really didn't need something else broken.

From what Rufus had told me, this place was more or less designed to hold someone like myself. Although, what with the lack of SOLDIER operatives they'd had no means of testing it. So there may have been a way out that I wasn't seeing.

I would have blasted the wall and been done with it if not for Kadaj. The power needed to take down the thick wall before me required a firm stance if one didn't want to be hit too badly by the recoil. That little-! I wasn't sure what I was going to do to Kadaj if I got out. My revenge wasn't as important as the task Angeal had set for me. And though I'd intended on getting straight back to it, well now that seemed like it wasn't going to happen. All I could do was hope that they weren't in trouble.

I looked toward the door just as Tseng was coming in. Hmph. Something about him ticked me off. Always had. Perhaps it was because he was such a well trained lap dog. Always did what he was told, never spoke out of turn, geez. What a life.

"What are you doing, Genesis?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why did you come here? Are you trying to kill the president?"

"If I said 'no' would you believe me? I doubt it. You've already convinced yourselves that I'm working with Sephiroth," I rolled my eyes.

"Well, considering your past, I'm sure you can see why we would think that."

"Fair enough," I sighed, "It's easy to see why you wouldn't be too quick to trust me. You especially. I did set you on fire after all." And I didn't regret it.

"That's right, you did," Tseng frowned. "But that's not the only thing you did that could be considered… well, evil."

"It wasn't evil. It just wasn't in the company's best interest." These people were so obsessed with image and reputation that they'd killed everyone who'd slipped out of line.

"Genesis, you started a war and killed innocent people."

"And not long after who did the same?" I asked. "I didn't do anything that Shinra hadn't already. When it comes to guilt and 'evil' deeds we're one in the same. And I'm sure you've even done some things you're not proud of."

"That's still not answering my question."

"I already answered your idiotic question. I could care less about Rufus."

"Then why are you here?"

"Because I was looking fro something."

"What was it? Cloud's location?"

"No, I already know where he is. I'm not helping Sephiroth. I'm working against him."

"And why would you work against your old friend?" Tseng asked, folding his arms and leaning back against the wall.

"Oh gee, I don't know. Maybe because he's insane?" I answered sarcastically, "He's targeting a helpless child. Why would I support that? Is Cloud really that important? I don't think so." Honestly, one had to wonder why Sephiroth cared so much.

"Well, I can't say for sure why the president wants to help. But I assume Sephiroth didn't much like having his own pawn turn on him and take him down."

"Pawn? What do you mean by that?"

"You really don't know?" Tseng furrowed his eyebrows.

"I'm guessing not, since I'm asking."

"You know that Cloud was implanted with Sephiroth's cells, right?" I nodded. "Well, in the events preceding the fall of meteor, it was a bit of a nasty surprise to find that because of that the two had a connection. Turned out Sephiroth could actually control him and-"

"You have to let me out of here," I said as I tried to stand, forgetting that that was a bad idea.

"What? Why?"

"Because of what you just said! If Sephiroth has that kind of power then they're in danger!"

"I don't think he can control Cloud anymore…" Tseng answered, confused.

"That doesn't matter! Even if the active connection is lost it's still there! And using it he can find Cloud wherever he is!"

(A/N) Oh gods! Sorry this took so long. And sorry it's so short… Even with the extra… But it was otherwise a pretty uneventful chapter and there's no reason for those to be too lengthy, is there? No, I'd say not. Hopefully I didn't lose too many people in the time spent waiting for this. I still feel really bad that it's a boring chapter. And after all that time. But it's leading right up to something! There's also another issue that occurred to me about a month ago but I can't really talk about it until I get to it. It'll probably become obvious what it is in the next few chapters though. Sorry again. I hate my short attention span!