Ugh. This chapter is a little bit shorter (like a page or so) from the usual (usual being around ten pages). Please excuse me, it just seemed like an appropriate place to cut it off. And you'll get it a day earlier! Yay!
NOTE: Zack ranting is hard to write DX He's not normally the ranting sort of person, I don't think.
-
Bursting into Angeal's office, Zack didn't even notice that there were other people present before he went to lean across his mentor's solid wood desk to stare imploringly into dark grey, almost black, eyes.
"Tell me you can do something about Cloud's sword instructor. Because if you can't, I will, and I think my way will be a lot more bloody than yours."
If Zack hadn't been staring straight into his eyes, if he hadn't seen the absolute conviction that the young SOLDIER would do exactly as he had just implied, Angeal would have thought it a joke. Zack had never relished in bloodshed. He also had never avoided a fight, but then there was a huge difference between not backing down and going out looking for it.
"And why should I do something about Cloud's instructor?" Cloud... Cloud.. the cadet Zack had spoken of this morning? The one who... Angeal cast a surreptitious look at the monitor. What were the chances?
"Because Cloud's instructor is a douche! Cloud completed the mission, but does he get any praise? Noooo, he gets a slap across the cheek for not doing it the exact way he's been told and then he's accused of sleeping is way into the class and Cloud almost attacked him, thank the Planet he didn't actually do anything, but that wasn't even because he was mad about the slander on him, but whatever. It doesn't matter. What matters is that Mårdh's been slandering Cloud ever since he started that class and I know instructors gotta be tough, but there's a limit for decency, yanno? There's a limit."
Zack stood up, running fingers through his hair, then noticed the general and the commander there for the first time. He coloured slightly before shooting a distracted apology in the officers' general direction, obviously still very much upset.
"Zack." At least he knew exactly the kind of voice to commandeer Zack's attention when he was upset. "This Cloud, what's his last name?"
"Strife, why'd you wanna know?"
Instead of answering, Angeal focused on the general and commander. Indeed, there was a limit, maybe not in ShinRa policy, but very much among these people. And luckily for Cloud, these people were in charge.
"Zack Fair," the general interrupted, before Zack could ask again. "How much do you know about the confrontation between Cadet Strife and Sergeant Mårdh?"
"A fair bit. As much as I could get outta Cloud before he clamped up."
"Can you report what you've learned?" Ah, good call Walker, Angeal silently applauded. Making Zack report instead of explain would make it much easier to sort through it. A report had to be logical, chronological and contain no personal feelings.
Zack bit his lip, then nodded and got into his 'report' stance; feet placed evenly on the floor at shoulder width, hands clasped behind his back and gaze directed slightly upwards. "Cadet Strife and his class, I don't know the class code, had been commanded by their instructor, Sergeant Mårdh, to meet outside of simulation room 28-b. Each cadet would take part in a fifteen minute simulation containing chuse tanks. The mission was to eliminate all the monsters, preferably within a time limit. The cadets had been promised that the simulation would only end with all targets eliminated or if they themselves were unable to continue." He hesitated, then added "Unconscious. The timetable had a cadet Fuertos or something up first, according to cadet Strife the best in the class. Cadet Strife was second.
"According to cadet Strife, he succeeded in finishing the mission within the time limit, however it was not to Sergeant Mårdh's satisfaction. I am not sure where this dissatisfaction lies. As cadet Strife came out from the room, he received a slap on his left cheek. Sergeant Mårdh then proceeded to accuse..." He took a deep breath. Staying distanced to report was all well and good, but every time he thought about what Mårdh had said, or rather what he had pieced together that Mårdh had said, it made him want to tear something apart.
"I am not exactly sure of the wording, however, from what I could piece together, it would seem that Sergeant Mårdh accused cadet Strife of... of doing "favours" in return for getting into the advanced class. He also accused cadet Strife of doing the same favours for a SOLDIER he befriended recently, implying that said SOLDIER was a paedophile.
"Apparently, this made cadet Strife snap and he raised the sword he was still holding against Sergeant Mårdh. Sergeant Mårdh reminded cadet Strife that should he attack, he would be discharged. Cadet Strife dropped his weapon and left, against the order of Sergeant Mårdh, however I am convinced that it was for the better."
"For the better?" Angeal inquired.
"Yes, sir. When I found cadet Strife around noon, he was in the process of decimating a sand bag. That was roughly three hours after the incident."
"I see." Then, indeed, it probably had been for the best. If Cloud had been able to annihilate a room full of monsters, low-level as they may be, in less than four minutes, it was doubtful that an instructor would fair much better.
"Who was the SOLDIER Mårdh slandered? The one Strife befriended?"
The mood in the office changed abruptly as the three others looked at the commander in bafflement. Angeal's lips twitched slightly.
"Me," Zack answered.
"Oh." Walker eyed the teen, then snorted. The kid was probably not even legal himself, when Zack had said a SOLDIER had been accused of paedophilia, he had thought it was one of the older SOLDIERs. Like Angeal and Sephiroth's generation.
"Well, it's not that Cloud's not a good-looking kid, but I just don't swing that way, yanno? Too scrawny, no curves." He waggled an eyebrow.
"Thank you, Zack. Please do not elaborate." Angeal could have sworn that he certainly hadn't been as preoccupied with the fairer sex when he had been a teen. "So Strife did not actually attack?"
"No."
"Hmm... that speaks well for him."
"So... are you gonna tell Mårdh off or something? I mean... you can't just let him get away with this."
"Indeed," Angeal agreed. "Sephiroth, what do you suggest?"
"It would be in SOLDIER's best interest to keep Strife. Mårdh can be replaced easily, but can you replace a cadet of that calibre? That's doubtful. However... if we give him special treatment, it could fire back on us if he comes to expect it. I suggest you discipline him for threatening a superior officer and either remove Mårdh or Strife from the class. Clearly they do not function well together."
"No. No, I think that's abundantly clear. Walker?" He asked, ignoring Zack's mumbled 'of that caliber?' They could show the video to Zack later.
"I'm not much comfortable letting him stay. The instructors are encouraged to pressure the cadets, true, but we don't want someone to snap completely. The situation with Strife could have been a disaster."
They all shifted uncomfortably. Angeal thought back to his own teenage years. He had been obsessed with honour, Zack would probably argue that he still was but that was beside the point, he had been a lot more volatile about protecting it back then, not understanding that other people really couldn't take your honour from you, but you could let them if you didn't watch your step. Thinking about how he would have reacted to Mårdh's accusations was not pleasant.
He shot a glance at at the silver haired man sitting across from him. Sephiroth would have cut the man down then and there or he would have had the man discharged depending on the mood he had woken up in.
Zack spoke up suddenly unexpectedly. "Cloud won't expect special treatment."
That drew everyone's attention back to the present. "He won't? How can you be sure?"
"Because I offered to help him with his homework and with sword fighting, 'cause he said he was having trouble, and he rejected it. Said he wanted to do it on his own. More likely than not, he'll be offended you're even discussing this."
"You offered to help him?"
"Oh, don't look at me like that, Angeal, it's not like I was gonna do it for him, just help a bit, yanno, offering pointers and stuff. Anyway, he rejected the offer right away."
"This Cloud Strife seems more and more promising," Sephiroth commented absently. "How did you get to know him, Fair?"
"I was bor... er, off duty and just taking a walk last Thursday when I heard a commotion. Three of the other cadets had found Cloud in a training room. They offended him, Cloud replied in kind and then they attacked. Spiky was holding them off until I got there, but, uh, I distracted him when I got into the room and, what's his face, uh, Carman, whacked him over the back of the head. Cloud lost consciousness. I stopped any further retaliation, got Spike to the infirmary and reported to Commander Walker.
"When I returned to the infirmary, Cloud was, uh, Ann, I mean Dr. Bowen asked if I could watch over him for a few hours, since Cloud wasn't, uh, comfortable in the infirmary and he needed rest because he had a concussion."
Clearly, Zack hadn't told them everything, the sheer number of 'uh's made that clear, but the boy wasn't prone to withholding information that could be important, so Angeal refrained from pressuring him. Not that he wasn't curious.
"So... To get this discussion back on track, what exactly are we gonna do about Sergeant Mårdh?"
"Fire him." Sephiroth's answer was prompt and not the least bit unexpected.
"But we can't just fire him. Everyone's gonna hear that he had a tussle with a cadet and we can't let the entire army think that we showed a cadet special treatment."
"Well, we're not."
"What do you mean?"
"Strife will get disciplined for threatening an instructor. We'll make sure it's harsh enough that no one thinks we're favouring him, however since Sergeant Mårdh was so kind as to tape his own incompetence in teaching, he'll be sent back to the front. They'll start up again tomorrow anyway."
"General, is that really a good idea? You know the survival rates of non-SOLDIERs."
"Yes, I do." There was a decidedly self-satisfied gleam in the man's eyes. "We'll spread the word of how atrocious he was as an instructor, of course."
"So," Angeal ventured. "If we're sending him to the front lines tomorrow, who's going to teach the class?"
- - -
Clenching and unclenching his fists, Cloud waited at the back of the training room that next Tuesday morning. His hands were cramped, feeling weak and useless after having peeled who knew how many potatoes the previous day. He suddenly had an entirely new sense of respect for the kitchen staff, who were feeding five hundred cadets every day, if you included those from earlier recruitments. And he had a month of this to look forward to? Sighing, he tried loosening his overly tense shoulders.
For some reason, the rest of the cadets seemed restless. Antsy. Like this wasn't just any other horrible lesson in sword-fighting. Cloud sighed again. A month worth of detention serving kitchen duty wouldn't be enough for Sergeant Mårdh. This was going to be hell.
And Zack was preoccupied now that Angeal was back from mission. They hadn't talked since Sunday at all, Cloud hadn't even seen him. Hopefully that wasn't a sign of how it was going to be forever. Surely Zack would come talk with him. Now Martin was gone and Patrick had drifted away... and in either case, he felt a lot more comfortable with Zack than he ever had with the two others, despite the fact that he had known them longer.
Maybe it was that Zack just made everything seem brighter?
Rolling his eyes at his own ridiculous thought process, Cloud turned his attention back to the other cadets. Their restlessness seemed to be peaking as the time for Mårdh to enter neared. Had the whole fiasco that Sunday really made such an impression on them? Or were they just looking forward to Mårdh's inevitable humiliating comments?
The depressing line of thoughts were abruptly interrupted when a tall, muscular man with black swept hair and the uniform of a SOLDIER First Class entered, closely followed by... Zack?!
More used than not to military conduit they filed into a line, standing at attention. Zack grinned, looking like he might poke someone for standing so stiffly, and made the entire class shift nervously.
As though the entrance of a First Class and a Second Class for their sword lesson wasn't nerve-racking enough.
"You might have heard it already, but your previous instructor has been sent to the Wutai front as it came to the attention of his superiors, that he would be able to serve ShinRa Corporation better there. I'm Angeal Hewley, this is my protégé Zack Fair, if you didn't recognise our uniforms, we're both SOLDIERs." The man sent the nervous cadets a reassuring smile but none of them seemed to even notice it. Heaving a sigh, he continued with the formalities. "I'll be teaching your class until an appropriate teacher can be found." He paused. Carman's whisper about how lucky they were to get a real SOLDIER to teach them, how they would be learning real combat now, was barely heard by those next to him. In the military you learned to speak low enough that the instructor didn't hear you unless you liked doing push-ups.
However, Irwin Carman wasn't used to dealing with mako enhanced instructors. Angeal bore down on him immediately.
"You think you're lucky to have SOLDIER instructors?" Not waiting for a reply, the First continued. "SOLDIERs have a tendency to forget exactly how much the mako enhancements does. That means they either think that everyone else is weak as a baby or they think everyone's as strong as they are. The first kind tend to die. The second... Even if you know that mako enhancements make you stronger, faster, more enduring than normal people, the enhancements done on you make that strength, speed, and endurance so much a part of you it's hard to imagine people without it.
"Lucky you got a SOLDIER to teach you? I'm gonna work you harder than you've ever been worked your entire life." And with that reassuring remark, he ruffled Carman's hair and turned back to address them all again.
"I've spoken with your other instructors and I've arranged for you to stay here so I can test you one by one. Since I don't know how long it's going to take for each of you, I just slotted the entire day. You'll be let off for lunch, of course, I'll warn you in time to warm up before you're on. Questions?"
A boy with dark hair, not quite black, and eyes that hinted at Wutai origins raised his hand.
"Yes?"
"How will you test us?"
"I'm glad you asked." Zack started grinning and even Angeal's smile twitched, as though he was fighting not to mirror his protégé's wolfish expression. "You'll each fight Zack until I'm satisfied I've seen the extent of your abilities."
"How..." Another cadet this time, too shocked to remember to raise his hand. "How are we supposed to survive that?"
"Don't be silly, I'm not just gonna give him a sword and turn him lose like some rabid dog. Zack has better control than most of the rest of SOLDIER, contrary to what he himself claims, and I know his strength intimately, since I taught him."
"Oh, stop it, Angeal. Your flattery is making me blush and in front of the cadets too! It's so embarrassing."
"As though you'd be embarrassed by something as small as that. Go get yourself a training sword. You're warmed up, right?"
"Yup."
The slight banter between the two SOLDIERs made the class relax, but only minutely. They were supposed to fight a SOLDIER?!
- - -
It would have been dull, if it hadn't been because half the cadets had thought that when Angeal had admonished Zack to only go at 30%, it meant they be able to over-power him. Clearly, none of them had taken technique or experience into consideration and Zack easily defended from any blows until he got a nod from Angeal and attacked, keeping it slow enough that they could deflect, but fast enough to pressure.
Irwin had by far been the funniest, thinking to try and make up for the humiliation of their very first meeting. Luckily for everyone involved, especially Irwin himself, Zack had stayed professional although his expression had closed off and gone unusually cold.
Cloud, of course, was to be the last one up.
As Radburn found himself with the dull tip of a wooden sword against his throat, Cloud made his way to the pile of dented, enforced wooden sticks and hesitated. Mårdh had demanded that he use the small one that even after a month still felt weird and light. Its steel counterpart had been usable that Sunday, but he had clearly felt a... longing for a longer, heavier blade.
He made his choice.
Zack was rolling his shoulders when he came over. The SOLDIER was sweating heavily after the day's exercise, but he didn't seem to be breathing heavy, nor did he seem tired. Fixing Cloud with his clear, blue eyes he grinned.
"Angeal, am I still running on thirty?"
There was a pause as Angeal considered for a short time. "Make it fifty."
"Yessir!"
The enthusiastic exclamation wasn't needed to get the attention of the rest of the class. Even if they hadn't already been watching the fights, Angeal's quiet, authoritative voice was the kind that automatically garnered attention. Everyone had heard that Cloud was fighting the SOLDIER at a higher level.
The cadet swallowed and got into a defensive stance. Like he needed the additional pressure.
"Ready?" They nodded, saluted and in a flash Zack was there, not allowing the until then usual exchange of letting the cadet strike first. Without thinking, Cloud sunk deeper into his stance and parried. He could feel the shock of the blow run up his arms and somehow, from somewhere, a smile broke out. This was good.
The weight of the practise sword in his arms, the weight in his hands... It strained his wrists more than the smaller one, it was more unwieldy, and yet... it was how it should be.
Zack attacked again and he ducked under the blow, retaliating with a swipe from below, barely blocked by the SOLDIER although once again the collision sent a shock through his hands and up his arms.
Ignoring the slight loss of feeling at the impact, Cloud drew his blade back, thrusting forward with a hit against Zack's elbow. It was parried again, and this time Zack retaliated with a blow to the smaller boy's midsection. Cloud parried, barely having time to puzzle over how light that blow had been before he had to parry another on. A feint, then.
When next Zack attacked, Cloud avoided the swipe, turning around and almost hitting Zack in the back although the Second Class made an awkward guard over his shoulder.
They were both grinning now, circling. When was the last time anything had felt this good? Never, he decided. He had never felt this good. Avoiding, attacking, parrying. Ducking under a blow to his midriff (had he really just done that?!) Cloud rolled over his shoulder and came up with swipe at Zack's legs. The stumble was brief and righted immediately, barely even an opening, but it was satisfying nonetheless.
There wasn't a sound in the room, aside from the rhythmic clash of wood and tap of limber feet. It was as though everyone had stopped breathing to watch the display. And it was a display. Where Zack clearly stood his ground, secure in his own power, Cloud was all over the place, trying to find an opening or create one. He had been hit once on his upper arm and once on his hip, but the mistakes he had made to acquire those bruises had been corrected immediately and not repeated.
Not quite as speechless, though still silent, Angeal was plotting down notes. The kid was creative and immensely fast, ducking under a blow to the stomach... that was extremely risky, but coming out of the roll with a swipe that made Zack stumble! If it hadn't been someone with a SOLDIER's reflexes, that move could have easily swiped the legs away under the opponent. If the boy didn't cut his enemy's legs right off.
After another couple of seconds, Angeal noticed something else. They were speeding up.
"Zack, slow down."
"Huh?"
"Slow. Down."
"Heh. You think I'm the one setting the tempo here? I'm just following Spiky, and sorry, but I'd rather not get hit over the head just to stay at fifty."
"I see." That was a very logical and reasonable explanation, he figured, although it begged the question of how fast the cadet really was. Focusing again on the blonde, Angeal was just in time to notice a blue light flickering over the boy before he jumped into the air. "Zack. Out of the way!"
But the cry was needless as Zack had noticed the glow as well and prudently retreated just in time to avoid the downward slash. "Shit," he gasped out, looking at three gashes, hardly over a foot long but still there, in the hard wood floor, pointing like an arrow at the place where Cloud's wooden sword had broken. "Fuck, kid, a limit break's a little overkill for a training session, don't you think?"
"A limit break?" And he sounded if possible even more shocked than the two SOLDIERs felt right then, standing with the broken piece of wood and metal and staring at the deep gashes in the floor. "But... you don't get limit breaks until you've been in real battles?"
Taking pity, Zack walked over and put his arm around the shoulders of his confused friend. "Not normally no. Guess you're special, huh? That's some limit break though, were you upset that you couldn't win over me? Never would've taken you for a sore loser, but I guess you gotta have something to make you less perfect."
"Less perfect? What do you mean?"
"Well, you're doing great in all your subjects, aren't you? I got a look at your scores, since I'm assisting Angeal and yeah, your scores were bad in sword class until today, but I think we just proved that as a fluke. I still can't believe you pulled a limit break on me, though. If I hadn't moved aside, that would've hurt."
"I'm sorry."
"Naw, don't worry about it, I know to get away when someone breaks their limit."
While his apprentice calmed down the cadet, Angeal examined the gashes in the floor and the remains of the training sword. While the steel reinforcements were hardly folded, making it rather too soft for a real sword, breaking the sword clean through was an impressive feat. And making gashes in the floor with a dull edge... that was no less impressive. True, they were so rough around the edges, it looked more like someone had tried to bash them in rather than cut them, but still...
He couldn't let the Strife kid practise with the rest of his class mates. Obviously, breaking his limit had been just as surprising for the petite blonde as it had for everyone else, but even the possibility that it might not be entirely controllable... He sighed. What to do with Strife? And he had to warn Zack that if his friend ever broke his limit again with a real sword in hand, he had to get much, much further out of the way.
"Class dismissed."
–
Okay. I admit it. The whole test was just to make Zack and Cloud fight XD The limit break just... sorta happened. I feel like I'm losing control of my own story :( First Martin and now this. The limit break is Braver, described as it's shown in Advent Children, although in AC the gashes were like... three meters long XD
Final Fantasy wikia is a godsend. Seriously.
For my reviewer HazzaTL3: Thank you for your reviews, but you have private messaging turned off, I can't reply or answer your questions! *pouts* Although I suppose this chapter did answer.
Reviews are as welcome as ever (I got so many for my last chapter, I'm totally floored!)