What is this? A 3 page chapter? Yes… I believe it is.
Edit: I fixed all the spelling mistakes. Remind me not to edit while sleepy.
Disclaimer: I don't own FFVII nor its characters. I also don't own the ideas taken from Love Monster.
It had been a long time since Cloud had seen all the generals and lieutenant together. They'd pop in and out of the complex every so often and search him out to train him if they had the time. Zack and Genesis were the only two that Cloud saw the most. Probably because Zack was meant to be his mentor and Genesis had a habit of just up and leaving work whenever he felt like it.
"You know Gen, I'm starting to think that you never seem to have any work considering that whenever I'm looking for Cloud, he's always with you." Zack pointed out when he found the two together in the training rooms, trying to see how much materia Cloud could hold without passing out.
"Paper work and Wutai can wait." Genesis said, making a waving motion at Zack in an attempt to signal for the puppy to drop the topic. "Besides, Angeal and Sephiroth said that they didn't need me."
"Are you sure that you didn't just ask them and they just said 'if you want to go back to Midgar that badly, then just go.'" Zack questioned.
Genesis just shrugged his shoulders. "I got the answer that I was looking for, didn't I?"
Zack just sighed. "You know, for someone that didn't like Cloud from the beginning, you sure are attached."
"Sephiroth and Angeal are more attached to their work than I am and you don't know enough about magical theory to teach Cloud." Genesis stated as a matter of fact.
"You know Cloud needs to work on his physical strength more than his magical. Why don't you just take off his limiter and just leave it at that?" Zack questioned.
"How do you think I managed to get him equipped with so much materia in the first place?" Genesis questioned as he stepped out of the way so that Zack could see how much materia Cloud had equipped on him. Zack could see five summon materia and some kind of support materia glittering in the slots.
"What is that?" Zack questioned.
"HP plus. It takes of the strain of carrying so many summon materia. It also means that he's got a bigger magic boost if I take off his limiter and then no one will be surprised by the amount of pretty lights he's bound to give off." Genesis said, looking proud of his work.
"That doesn't change the fact that Cloud isn't good with hand to hand." Zack pointed out and Cloud seemed to perk up at that.
"Can I show him?" He questioned, looking at Genesis pleadingly.
Zack couldn't help but to think that he looked like a child eager to show his parents a new trick that he had learnt, and Genesis, the ever doting parent, nodded his head.
"Knock him out… Literally." The red headed general said with a slight grin on his face and the next thing Zack knew, there was a sharp pain in his stomach and he was on the ground, clutching place where Cloud had punched him while Genesis was standing over him with a large grin on his face.
"The hell did you teach him?" Zack questioned with the pain evident in his voice. The last time he had been in that much pain was when he was being careless and sparring with Angeal while he was still training.
Genesis laughed. "A magic boost. Basically it involves channelling a whole lot of magic to specific parts of your limbs to enhance them. Fortunately Cloud has enough magic control to be able to channel where to send it and enough understanding to know how to manoeuvre himself with it. The only problem is that he hasn't got all the calculations down perfectly yet." Genesis said with a proud tone in his voice.
"I'd say he had enough control to almost knock me unconscious though." Zack pointed out.
Cloud grinned somewhat sheepishly. "Yesterday, I ran into a wall." He stated. "Genesis had to fix the dent I made before anyone could come in to ask questions."
Zack looked thoroughly impressed at that. "This isn't like the of those shows where if he uses it too much he'll die or something like that. Kind of like a final resort?" Zack questioned and the other two monsters gave him an odd look.
"You watch far too many TV shows." Genesis pointed out before he lifted up Cloud's hand to show the wolf. It was an angry red colour that seemed to have travelled all the way up his arm. "He won't die from the impact if he's careful about how much power he uses, but he'll surely break a few bones if he isn't careful." A soft glow emitted from the materia in Genesis' own bangle as he healed Cloud's arm. "We're probably going to have to get you a light weapon that you can equip materia to so that you can heal yourself on the field… Or at least while you're doing the test."
"How much materia can that blade in your room hold?" Zack questioned.
"The little blades don't have materia slots, but the main blade has two. I don't think it was really made for a magic user." Cloud said thoughtfully.
"How good are you with a blade at the moment?" Genesis questioned.
"If it's light I can handle it. The main blade of First Tsurugi is still a bit heavy for me to move around naturally, but I can still move around with it if that's what you're wondering."
Genesis seemed to think over this for a little while. "What if it just stays strapped to your back? Do you think you'll be able to move around with it there? You don't have to have the weapon in your hands to use it after all. You'll only need to touch it. Having a weapon on you and not having to use it will probably look good in the president's eyes anyway."
"I could try." Cloud said unsurely.
Genesis then turned his attention to Zack. "Puppy, do you mind heading over to your rooms and fetching Cloud's blade and a healing materia? We need to test something out."
Slightly caught up in the moment, Zack immediately said yes and started making his way back to the elevator. As soon as he was out of hearing range Cloud called Genesis' name.
"Yes?" Genesis answered back.
"Did you just order Zack to fetch my blade like he was a dog?"
Genesis just grinned.
When Reno walked into Tseng's office he was surprised to see that Rude was already there waiting for him. His partner had disappeared that morning without a word. At least now he knew where he had gone.
"I thought that you had gotten eaten by wolves cause you left before I even woke up." The weasel pointed out.
"He had other things to do." It was only then that he realised that Tseng was in the office with him and the red haired Turk frowned at the sight of him.
"You know I'm still kind of annoyed at you for trying to recruit Cloud into the Turks right?" He questioned as he seated himself in one of the guest chairs.
"I'm aware of that, but we'll talk about that later." Tseng said as he gestured for Rude to take a seat beside Reno and he did so. "Your next mission that I'm sending you on does have something to do with your little friend though."
That got Reno's attention. "If we're doing anything to hurt Cloud, then you have another thing coming at you." Reno pointed out.
Tseng frowned at that. "While it's admirable that you show such loyalty to your friend, you do need to remember that your job is more important, granted I would never send a Turk on a mission that would cause a conflict of interest. Now, if I could speak without any more interruptions." Tseng gave Reno a pointed look and the younger Turk settled back down in his seat while Rude just remained silent.
Reno could see a hint of a grin on the other Turk's face though.
"As you already know Reno, Cloud is applying to join SOLDIER." Tseng reached into his desk and dropped a file onto the table. Cloud's picture was attached to the front with a paperclip.
Reno was the first to pick it up and shuffle through it. "You don't want us to sabotage his SOLDIER exam or something do you? Because you'd have more than just me after your hide if that's the case."
Tseng shook his head. "Do you really think that lowly of me?" He questioned.
"This is coming from a fox that switched around my bookings on the Vice President's whim and the same guy that wants Cloud to join the Turks because he thinks that he'd be useful."
"You may be correct on that aspect, I'll give you that Reno, but you should know by now that Cloud failing would be detrimental to my own plans. Cloud would never be able to work for the Turks if Sephiroth had any say on the matter and quite frankly, he does."
"So you're not going to try to sabotage his chances of getting into SOLDIER?" Reno questioned.
"As much as I would like your friend to join the Turks permanently, I do not have a death wish Reno." Tseng pointed out. "Zack is one thing, but I don't even think Sephiroth would be able to stop an enraged Genesis if he was to find out."
Reno lent back in his chair. "So, what do you want us to do with the chocobo?"
"The opposite of what you thought. Sephiroth made it clear that he was not going to let Cloud join the Turks, but we can utilise his skills only when he's in SOLDIER and as long as we can assure them that it's safe. It also means that we can pull him out of missions if we deem our task more important as long as we go through Genesis first, seeing as how Cloud is apparently going to be a part of his platoon."
"Doesn't that mean that we'll never be able to get our hands on him?" Reno questioned. "Genesis could just say that Cloud is needed more on his side and we wouldn't be able to make an argument out of it. He was one of the main people to be against this whole thing wasn't he?"
"As long as they're not sending him to Wutai, there shouldn't be any mission more important than any of the ones that we'll be sending him on. We will leave no room for Genesis to argue with us. Now, onto your actual mission. Cloud's SOLDIER examination is at the end of this year."
"Yeah, I can't believe that they're putting it so close to the winter holidays. I thought that the president lived off holidays." Reno grinned when Rude sniggered at his comment.
"The president has no choice this time." Tseng didn't even bother to correct Reno. His statement was mostly true in any case. "With the war in Wutai happening, he couldn't afford to push the examinations back any further. Especially if negotiations fall through, we're going to need as many SOLDIERs as we can provide."
"I thought that we were done with all the negotiations." Reno cut Tseng off again. "All we need to do is sign all the papers and it's all done right?"
"That also means that the president will have to go to Wutai. Just because Godo has given up, does not mean that his people have too. Not to mention his daughter is still missing. We tried tracking her PHS at one point, but she seems to be constantly jumping from one continent to another."
"Why don't you just put a tracker on Zack?" Reno questioned. "I heard that she only appears when he specifically goes on a hunting mission. She waits for him to kill all the monsters and then steals the treasure straight from him."
"That would be easy if Zack wasn't the type that just randomly went out hunting without telling anyone." Tseng pointed out. Holding a hand to his head as if he could already feel a headache coming on. "Now, if we could get back to your mission without any more interruptions." Tseng pressed on and Reno took that as his cue to shut his mouth. "I need you both to keep an eye on Cloud. You can tell him what you're doing. It's not like it's a stealth mission. Give him some help or teach him whatever you think he needs to learn to get him into SOLDIER."
Reno blinked at him. Was Tseng's mission really going to be that simple?
"What's the catch?" Rude finally spoke up instead of just sitting there.
Tseng grinned. "I heard that the generals were going to rig the test so that it would be more magic based. Cloud will be vital for some of the missions that I had previously held back on due to the amount of magic skill that had been necessary, so I want you both to make sure that the General's aren't caught. If the president catches wind of the tests being rigged then he's not going to allow Cloud into SOLDIER, either that or he'll insist that they change the test to a much harder course." Tseng stated.
"You know with Cloud's abilities with materia, I'm sure that he'd be able to handle any monster that they throw at him." Reno said thoughtfully. "I mean, he did help Fair get rid of that behemoth a while ago. What's the worst thing that they could throw at him after a behemoth?"
"It won't be helpful if something successfully casts silence on him." Tseng pointed out.
"Oh… Good point." Reno laughed a little sheepishly at that.