Ok this is the last bit of mass posting I'm going to do before I go back to my whole once every few weeks thing cause I've caught up to all my writing and need time to write the next few chapters. Also, yes, this is four pages long.

Disclaimer: I don't own FFVII nor its characters. I also don't own the ideas taken from Love Monster.

The last few hours weren't as bad as Cloud thought it was going to be. Obviously there had been a few whispers, but he guessed that it wasn't so bad because everyone had been more confused as to why he had walked into the room with Belias when the rat obviously had a dislike for him. As soon as the other cadet had left though, the whispers got louder and it would die down as soon as a SOLDIER or a Turk came in to pick up the next cadet for their test. Every so often either Sephiroth, Genesis, Angeal or Zack would walk in to pick up a new cadet, but Cloud mostly kept his view plastered to the screen in front of them despite the fact that he knew that everyone was looking at him to see if he would interact with any of them.

There had been a few times where a cadet had done particularly bad while using materia and Genesis would walk in, catch his eye and give him a look that clearly said, 'I expect you to do better than that,' and Cloud planned not to disappoint, but other than that he would ignore any attempt that Zack would make to get his attention.

"Cloud Strife." He almost jumped at the call of his name and turned to the front door to see a young blonde haired Turk standing there waiting for him. He quickly scrambled out of his chair and rushed over to the man who did a quick once over of him before smirking and turning to make his way out of the room and Cloud quickly followed. They walked down the hallway in relative silence.

"You nervous?"

Cloud almost jumped at the sudden question.

"I'm pretty sure that all the cadets are nervous. After all, it's our futures on the line."

The Turk laughed a little at that. "You know, there are better jobs than just working for Shinra." Before Cloud could question the Turk, there was the sound of rushing footsteps and he was almost bowled over by an over excited Zack.

"Cloudy!" If it had been physically possible Cloud could imagine that Zack would have been howling his name at that moment.

"Lieutenant Fair." Cloud stopped when Zack gave him a look. "…Zack. What are you doing here? I thought that you were all meant to be in the observation box."

"I told Sephy I needed to go to the toilet and he had to let me go because the President was in the room and I told him that if he didn't let me go I'd pee on the floor like a dog."

The Turk laughed while Cloud just shook his head, not surprised in the least. Zack seemed to only just realise that the other man was there with them. "Hey, I know you. You're Cissnei's partner."

"Nunchaku." The Turk corrected him. "And if by Cissnei you mean Shuriken, then yes, I am her partner. I've also been in the same room as you for the past three hours since the test started." The Turk replied with a smile firmly planted on his face.

Zack stared at the Turk for a moment as if he was trying to recall seeing the Turk in the room before he seemed to just give up and shrugged his shoulders. "Anyway. I can take Cloud to the test rooms."

The Turk didn't even budge. "Tseng's strict orders were to make sure that Cloud got to the test rooms with as little stress as possible. That included not filling him with anxiety, which he specifically meant not allowing him to walk with you." The Turk replied and Cloud laughed a little at that.

"What?" Zack whined. "How would I make Cloud stressed?"

"I believe Tseng said that Genesis told him that you were a bundle of nervousness at Cloud's theory test so they figured it would be best if you didn't make him more stressed than he already is. Also, I see a red jacket walking down the hallway so I'm guessing that the other Generals were thinking the same thing that Tseng was."

Zack turned in the direction that he had come from and surely enough Genesis was walking down the hallway towards them.

"I thought it was weird that you wanted to go to the toilet just before Cloud's test started. It seems that we were right in thinking that you wouldn't just be going to the bathroom." The general said as he grabbed Zack's collar before the wolf could attempt to run away.

"But Gen! I wanted to take Cloudy to the test area. Why does some Turk that he doesn't even know get to take him?"

"Because someone that he doesn't know wouldn't make him more nervous. Also Tseng said he'd send his friendliest Turk with him."

"Why didn't he send Cissnei? That Turk smiles too much. It's weird and creepy. How do we know that he isn't going to do something funny to Cloud?" Zack said, folding his arms despite the fact that he was still being dragged down the hallway.

"Because she's one of your friends and she isn't always the nicest of people. Also that's a Turk, they pride themselves in their jobs."

They finally got back to the observation room and Genesis practically tossed Zack into Sephiroth's arms. The President, all of the Turks and all the First class SOLDIER's were present along with Hojo and a few other higher ups were also there. Rufus had taken refuge from Scarlet beside Tseng while the rest of them were spread out in the room.

"As we expected, he was with Cloud." Zack pouted as Sephiroth dumped him in his seat beside Angeal.

"My poor Cloudy. Going into the training rooms all alone and with no words of encouragement from his mentor."

"Your student is awfully late." Rufus pointed out. "Did you stop him for that whole time that you were in the hallway?" He questioned.

"They were standing right in the middle of the hallway, chatting." Genesis said.

There was the sound of the training room doors opening and Cloud walk through the entrance below them, making his way to the middle of the room.

"Cadet Strife." Sephiroth was the one to take the mic for the training room to speak. Cloud looked up at the room at the sound of his name and Nunchaku seemed to have chosen that moment to re-enter the room. Nodding to his boss and fellow Turks as he took his seat beside Cissnei.

"Your mission today is to defeat a Behemoth. Do you have any questions before we release it into the room?"

"Is it from the labs?" Cloud questioned and Sephiroth chuckled.

"Hopefully not."

"Isn't that a bit too much for a mere halfling?" Hojo questioned from his side of the room.

Sephiroth momentarily turned off the mic and turned his attention to the scientist. "I'm obligated to set tests at a level suitable for the programme. Strife is in the mentoring programme. Not the normal cadet one."

"It's almost like you want your Lieutenant's student to fail." Hojo said with a small snicker.

"Let's just go on with this test." The President said, looking impatient and Sephiroth turned the mic back on.

"You have as long as you want cadet. The sound feed from the training room will be on the whole time so if you want to give up you only need to say the word. Good luck." With that Sephiroth turned off the mic and pressed the button to allow the Behemoth into the room and the training room changed into a desert setting.

Cloud's reaction was immediate. As soon as he heard the beep go off to signal the start of the test he summoned Shiva and had her build an ice wall around where he knew the monster entry area was. He mentally cursed Genesis for all that training they had done without materia. He had honestly thought that they were going to send a hoard of Dorky Faces at him or something along those lines so he had stocked up on Echo Screen's. Now, he had to think about whether or not he could ask for his money back at the drug store.

There was the sound of something ramming against the ice and Cloud had to force himself to focus on the situation at hand instead of how to get his money back for twenty vials of Echo Screen. Cloud already knew at this point that there was no way that he was going to be able to beat this Behemoth in a physical battle. A few moments of thinking later Cloud noticed a light on the other side of the wall and with another attack from the Behemoth, the ice cracked a little. He was quick to order Shiva to reinforce the wall.

This Behemoth was a lot smarter than he thought. The easiest option would probably to hitch a ride on Bahamut and shoot a mega flare at it. It wasn't flashy but he knew that the Behemoth wouldn't be able to survive that. He already knew that summoning Knights of the Round was out of the question. There was no way that they'd all fit in this training room no matter how big the technology made the room seem.

He concentrated on his Bahamut materia and the summon landed before him a few moments later. He mentally ordered Shiva to keep the ice wall up and the Behemoth caged in as he climbed onto the dragon's back. "Can I ask questions?" Cloud questioned out loud.

"You just did cadet, but I'll allow you to ask another one." Cloud could clearly hear the amusement in Sephiroth's tone.

"Exactly how high up is this training room? It's bigger than the usual ones."

"It's double the height of training room one."

"And if I fired a mega flare in here?"

There was a chuckle from over the mic. "If it can handle the other General's and I sparring with each other, then I'm sure it can handle a little mega flare."

Cloud scoffed. "You heard what he said Bahamut. Don't squish me on the ceiling and we'll show them what a little mega flare looks like." Cloud called back Shiva just as they took off towards the digitally enhanced sky, above the ice prison that Shiva had made around the Behemoth. The monster stared up at them and started glowing.

"He's going to try to cast flare on us." Cloud observed. "Charge mega flare and I'll keep him off you. Not that it would hurt you if it hit anyway." The fire spell was sent in their direction and Cloud blocked it with a well-timed ice three. He had to hold onto the dragon beneath him tightly with one hand as it reared up to get ready to launch its mega flare. While Bahamut powered up Cloud used his free hand to launch ice spell after ice spell at the Behemoth. He was somewhat grateful at this point that Genesis had relented on the limiter. He would have never been able to do this when he had been supplying the thing with huge amounts of magic.

He felt the dragon shift from beneath him and he stopped his rain of ice attacks just as Bahamut released his own attack. Cloud smirked a little too smugly when he noticed that the observation box shook a little at the force of the mega flare hitting the ground. After the attack was over the room was covered in debris both fake and partially real from the blast. Cloud could see that some parts of the room had switched back to the normal metal and the speakers turned on again.

"Well done cadet…"

"Holy crap chickabo!"

"You didn't have to blow up the training room just because Sephy said that you mega flare was little. We all know that Bahamut could probably blow up this box if you tried hard enough."

Cloud couldn't help but laugh at Reno and Zack's voices being picked up by the microphone.

"Lieutenant Fair, my name is Sephiroth and cadet, as soon as the smoke clears you can leave the training rooms."

"Yes sir."

As if on cue there was a loud roar that sounded from below Cloud and the cadet looked surprised as the dust suddenly cleared and a very much unscathed Behemoth came in view. It glowed as it readied yet another flare spell.

Neither Cloud nor Bahamut had the time to react as the spell hit Bahamut square in the face and the summon started falling to the ground, slowly disappearing in a stream of mako with Cloud still on top of it.

"What the hell?"

Cloud was quick to snap out of his stupor and summoned Phoenix before he got anywhere near the ground and the Phoenix was quick to catch him and fly him well out of the Behemoth's reach. "There is no way that thing could have survived that. How the hell is it still standing without a scratch on it?" The speakers turned on again and Cloud could hear a whole lot of yelling.

"Cadet, get out of there!" Sephiroth voice suddenly sounded over the rest of the noise, but before Cloud could even look at the door, the Behemoth had placed itself in front of it.

"I don't think that that's an option anymore General." Cloud pointed out.

"Cloud, try to stay out of its way. Sephiroth and Gen are going down there." Zack's voice came over on the speakers. "What do you mean the door's not opening? Use your sword Seph!" It seemed that Zack was also on the phone with the silver haired crow. At this point the Behemoth was readying another flare to fire at Cloud.

"Zack, you know I only just realised this now, but I thought that Behemoths only had enough MP to cast flare four times. How is this thing still using magic?" Cloud questioned.

"Because it's not a normal Behemoth. Now stop talking and get out of its way!"

Cloud almost immediately fired an ice spell at the Behemoth just as it fired the flare spell at him. The white crow could already feel his magic draining and it was starting to take its toll on him. "Zack. I don't think I can wait for them to get the door open." Cloud pointed out. "I might need to kill this thing… If you have any ideas?"

"You should be able to hit it with a physical attack." A voice he recognised as Tseng came over the speakers. "If it managed to survive Bahamut's attack, it might just be resistant to magic." Cloud mentally cursed. It figured that the one thing he knew he wouldn't be able to do without severely injuring himself would be the one thing he needed to do to end this test.

"Phoenix, I'm going to do something unreasonable." He said as he released his small crane wings. "I need you to drop me over that Behemoth." He started channelling magic into his arms so that he would have the strength to both lift his sword and keep his hold on it. "And if I live through this I might need a heal."

As soon as Phoenix was directly above the Behemoth Cloud jumped off the bird with his wings spread out as far as they could go to lessen his fall. The Behemoth roared in anger at the sight of Cloud coming towards it and Cloud raised his sword in a position to impale the monster. There was a sickening crunch as his sword went through muscle and bone. The cadet had to close his eyes to avoid having blood get into them. He kept his magic flowing through his arms and legs until he felt the monster stop moving.

Once it had stopped he opened his eyes to see that it was indeed dead and he had impaled it through its mouth. He fought the urge to be sick as he released his sword and stumbled back. Stopping the magic supply to his arms and legs he could feel the fatigue catch up to his limbs and he collapsed to the ground.

Phoenix landed beside him and caught him before his head could follow the rest of his body. "You can't heal me unless I'm knocked out can you?" He questioned and the summon shook its head, giving an apologetic trill. "You know your abilities suck?" He questioned and he got a light nip on his ear in response.

There was the sound of the door opening and Cloud found himself with an arm full of red hair. "Chickabo! Are you ok? Are you hurt anywhere? I'm going to make sure the idiot that did this to you is dead by the end of this week."

"I'm out of MP. My every muscle hurts and I'm pretty sure that I won't be able to pull my sword out of that Behemoth any time soon." Cloud replied.

"We already have that covered cadet." Sephiroth said as he pulled Cloud's sword out of the Behemoth's mouth easily. Cloud looked over to see that both he and Genesis were in the room. "I apologise for the time it took. I didn't bring Masamune with me and my Lieutenant was pressing every other button that wasn't the door release button.

"I pressed it the first time Seph. It didn't work so I tried all the other ones instead." Zack's voice came over the speakers again.

"Zack's incompetent button pressing aside. Do you think that you'll be able to walk to the infirmary on your own?" Sephiroth questioned.

"You don't think that anyone would mind if I just rode Phoenix over there would you?" Cloud questioned and he got another nip on the ear which he took as 'I'm not a taxi.'

"Give me his sword Sephiroth." Genesis ordered. Holding his hand out for the weapon. A moment later Cloud could feel relief rushing through his body as his muscles stopped aching and he stopped feeing like he was a paperweight. "You can walk now right?" Genesis questioned. Offering his hand to the white crow.

"If I had enough MP I could have done that myself." Cloud grumbled, but accepted the hand in front of him nonetheless, allowing Reno to roll off him in the process.

"I'll get Zack to take your sword back to your rooms. For now, go and get checked in the infirmary." Genesis ordered.

"I'll walk with you." Reno added on, looking up at the observation box. "Is that ok with you Mr leader of the Turks?"

"Do what you want Reno." Tseng's voice stated over the speakers. Reno grinned and grabbed Cloud by the arm and started practically dragging him out of the room while everyone else watched.

Sephiroth turned to the observation box once the two had left. "We'll double check that the doors are working before we continue on with the tests. We also need to check on the rest of the monsters we're using to make sure we don't have any more that have been… 'accidentally' switched out with lab ones." Sephiroth obviously didn't believe that this whole incident had been an accident, but as usual he couldn't point fingers if he didn't have proof.

"You have one hour General. I do not have all the time in the world to watch cadets fight." The President said over the microphone.

"And yet he still has all the time in the world to do gown to honeybees." Genesis said quietly enough so that it wouldn't be picked up by any of the microphones in the area.

Sephiroth smiled a little at that, but didn't reply to the other general. "Tseng, if you could get some of the Turks to check on the door and Zack, if you would like to come with me to the holding bay. We can cast fires on all the monsters down there and see which ones come out unsinged."