Another two pages. If I can motivate myself to edit I'll post another one at some point in the next few hours.
Astrid Claire- That image is now forever engraved into my head. Now if only I could draw…
Disclaimer: I don't own FFVII nor its characters. I also don't own the ideas taken from Love Monster.
Today was the day. The day that Cloud would finally meet his maker and Zack had not been helping at all. "Do you know what will happen if you caste haste on yourself when you already have slow cast on you?" Zack questioned.
"Not only does the slow status effect disappear, but your movements are also sped up for as long as the spell is active." Cloud replied easily.
"I don't know the answer for that, but I'm guessing you're right. It sounds reasonable…"
"Puppy, calm down. Your nerves aren't helping anyone and they're probably helping Cloud even less." Genesis pointed out. The wolf seemed to settle down a little at that, but Genesis knew that the calm wouldn't last very long. "You'll be fine for the written test Cloud." Genesis reassured him. "Zack only scraped by and his magic theory wasn't even a passing mark. We all know that you're smarter than him, so as long as you dot your I's and cross your T's then you'll be fine. Just don't pass out and remember to write your name on top of all of your papers. You're going to be in that room all day with Luxiere watching all of you, so no one can do anything to you during the test."
Cloud nodded his head at Genesis' words. That was a lot better than having to listen to Zack's ramblings.
"Wait. Luxiere is going to watch Cloud for his test?" Zack questioned with a somewhat panicked tone. Genesis gave Zack an odd look.
"Luxiere was Cloud's original trainer. Why wouldn't he be watching the tests?" Genesis questioned.
"Lazard took my tests… And what if he picks on Cloud?" Zack questioned.
"If I recall correctly our instructor was in the hospital at the time because you had landed on him after jumping off a train, as you have a tendency to do, while General Hewley was taking you out on a trip with us. Also it's a written test. How am I going to pick on your student during a test where no one's meant to be talking? It's also nice to know that you have so much confidence in me."
Zack jumped a little at the sound of Luxiere's voice coming from behind him. "Don't scare me like that! Can't you see that I'm worrying about my little Cloudykins here?" Zack questioned and the other three made faces of disgust.
"Don't call me that." Cloud said. "You sound like my mother."
"Hey, if your mother can call you that then so can I." Zack protested and Genesis proceeded to whack the wolf over the head.
"Don't call him that again. It's disgusting." Zack just pouted at that. "Luxiere… Cloud. Isn't it about time to go into the test room?" Genesis questioned in an attempt to change the topic. Luxiere glanced at the time on his PHS before nodding his head.
"Come on cadet. Let's go before Zack decides that he should be in the testing room as well."
"Actually, that's a good idea."
Before Zack could take a single step towards the testing rooms, Genesis grabbed him by the collar. "You are not going into the testing rooms."
Zack pouted again at the crow's order.
"Your presence would probably bring Cloud's score down rather than up."
Cloud mouthed a small thank you to the other crow and Genesis nodded his head, allowing the other two to make their way to the test rooms without Zack following them.
"How are you feeling about your test?" Luxiere questioned as they walked.
"As confident as I could possibly get considering the situation… And that's not very much. General Hewley and General Sephiroth called me last night and threw a whole lot of random questions at me. I remember that one of their questions was what happens when you use a fire spell on a chocobo."
Luxiere chuckled. "And what was your answer?"
"I don't think 'roast chocobo' was the answer that they were looking for. General Hewley didn't sound very impressed and said that I had been hanging around Lieutenant Fair too much, but I could hear General Sephiroth laughing in the background."
Luxiere let off a laugh of his own. "It's hard to imagine the General laughing at something like that, but I can imagine General Hewley's disappointed look. We used to see it on his face all the time around Zack."
It was Cloud's turn to laugh. "He still does it to Lieutenant Fair, but only when he's done something particularly strange."
Luxiere laughed again at that. They both entered into the testing rooms only to find that Tseng was sitting at the front of the rooms and the students that had arrived early were looking thoroughly scared out of their wits.
"Turk leader Tseng. I didn't hear anything about you coming to oversee the written tests today." Luxiere said with a surprised tone in his voice.
"The general brought up some concerns over some unrest among your group of cadets so the president requested some more security during the tests. All the other Turks were busy, so the only other option was for me to come."
Cloud knew better than to question the Turk in front of the other cadets, but resolved to question him after the test was over. For now he was just going to pretend that the fox wasn't there.
"Right…" By the tone in his voice it seemed that Luxiere was a bit suspicious as well, but the SOLDIER didn't bother to voice his concerns. Cloud also took that as his cue to move to his seat. Not surprisingly his cadet number was placed on the desk closest to Tseng.
A few minutes of waiting later and the room was full of almost thirty cadets that had been training under Luxiere. Cloud did his best to ignore the curious looks he was getting as well as the intense stare he was getting from Johnny. He knew that he should have expected the cat to be there, but with all the excitement going on he guessed it had slipped his mind.
"Cadets!"
Cloud almost immediately snapped back to attention.
"You have three hours to complete this test. If you need a toilet break, either go now or go in your seat during the test. If you leave this room after this test starts you're not coming back in here." No one moved at Luxiere's order. "You can start now then. If I hear so much as a peep from either of you then that's an automatic fail. Good luck for the next three hours."
Cloud turned his attention to the paper on his desk and quickly wrote his name on the front before turning it to the first page. 'In detail, state what would happen if you were to hit a chocobo during battle.'
Well, at least now Cloud knew why Angeal had been asking him such random questions.