"Reno, if I let you take me on this tour, will you stop bothering me?"

The other cadet stared at him. "But you're not even doing anything, yo! You're just sitting there doing absolutely nothing while you could be trying to relearn the Shinra building or something." Cloud had noticed the red head had the habit of gesturing enthusiastically, something he had apparently grown out of before. In the future. Whatever.

"Fine, I'll go, but you have to stop bothering me," he sighed. In all honesty, the impromptu tour would probably do him good. His previous explorations had been cut short, and he really didn't know what floors he would need to know.

The future Turk grinned wickedly. "I make no promises, yo." Then he grabbed Cloud's arm, ignoring it when the smaller cadet tensed under his grip.

Being dragged through an amused crowd of teenagers by a scrawny red head, Cloud decided, was not something he wanted to experience twice. If only his younger self wasn't so weak…. "Reno, let me go. Now."

"But Clouuudy, I don't wanna let you go!"

Cloud glared at him. "Reno, if you're not off of me in the next five seconds I will completely ignore you for the rest of the year."

The red head stared up at him dolefully. "You wouldn't do that, yo. That would be cruel and you're going to be the most honorable, chivalrous, nice SOLDIER ever. Being mean goes against your code, yo."

Cloud just looked at him. "One," he growled, "and even if I do somehow end up beating Angeal in the honor department, I'm not a SOLDIER now and I wouldn't have a 'code' even if I was. And even if for some reason I did have a code it wouldn't apply to you."

"But Clouuudy!"

"Don't call me Cloudy."

"But it fits you so nice, yo. Your head's all fluffy and stuff."

"Three."

"Whaat? You skipped Two!"

"Four."

"Alright, yo, I'll be good," he professed, dropping Cloud's arm and backing against the wall.

More than a few moments of silence passed before Cloud sighed and looked back up at the other cadet. "There was going to be a tour?"

Reno brightened. "Right, yo! Down that way's the classrooms, like History of Shinra and Materia Theory and crap like that. That stuff's in the morning, yo, prob'ly so we're not sleeping in class or somethin', not that it makes much difference." The red head set off down the hallway in the other direction, not even bothering to check if he was following. "This hallway's all cadet rooms, even the ones from different areas, like the pilots and whatnot." Reno stopped to look at him severely before continuing, "Yo, you want to stay away from the science and Turk people if you wanna make it to SOLDIER. If you're too good or too smart and stuff they'll pluck ya' right out of the program."

Is that what happened to you, Reno? Cloud wondered, Did you really want to be in the military? Somehow he couldn't see the boy as SOLDIER. It wasn't so much his build that was the problem, though that didn't help, as much as his attitude. Soldiers need to be disciplined if nothing else, and even Zack listens to a superior officer with respect.

"Moving on, yo," Reno chirped, oblivious to Cloud's wonderings. "If you go to the end of the hall and hang a left, there's a stairwell. But if you go right, like we are now, yo, there's the cadet gyms and shooting range. The physical combat courses in the gym, and right now we're just learning hand-to-hand. In the long range one we're taking apart and cleaning different guns and stuff." They stopped in front of double doors. "This is the main gym, it's open anytime." Reno stopped for a moment and looked at Cloud again, almost curiously. "If you want, yo, we could go in and see what you remember."

"So…" Zack started after finishing what was on his plate. Cloud's mom really was a good cook, as he had found out soon after the confrontation. "What was that all about, on the way here?"

Skye sat down across from him. "Not much, really. Just that ever since he became mayor Tifa's dad's been a controlling bigot. He's so arrogant, I'm almost surprised his head can still fit through the door."

Zack chuckled at the picture. Mr. Lockhart did seem a mean, but he felt like there was something more there. "But that's not all is it? I mean, I think there was something about converting me in there?"

Mrs. Strife sighed. "He is a bit more… modern than I am, I guess. I've stayed with the old faith, because even if I don't quite believe it myself, I still love it. He basically says anyone who thinks different from him is wrong. That would've been bad enough on it's own, but on top of that Cloud's dad practiced the Wutaian beliefs."

The dark haired SOLDIER blinked at that. Cloud? Wutaian? What? "Um, so that makes Cloud part Wutaian too? I really can't see it."

Skye smiled. "His dad Wutaian, he just practiced they're religion. He grew up in Wutai, his parents having moved there for one reason or another. He felt that the people of Wutai were much more accepting of differences, as long as you weren't hostile. It really is a pity, the war."

She opposed the war! Did that mean she was against Shinra? But then why would she let her son work for them? "Yeah, the war. Well, um, I should probably get going. By the way, did your son ever learn to pick locks?"

She looked startled, almost insulted. "My Cloud is no thief! Why would I teach him something like that?"

Zack shifted uncomfortably. "No, I, uh, didn't think you would. It's just that, ah, never mind. Bye!" He rushed out the door, happy to be out of that conversation. He honestly liked Cloud's mom, but she didn't like Shinra, and he worked for Shinra, and he probably just offended her. He really needed to work on his diplomacy.

Zack came out of his thoughts to realize he was on the edge of town. He needed to find a dragon, right? So would it be better to wait for it to come find something to eat near the town, or go after it? Skye had said it eats goats, but not only did he not know how often a dragon needed to eat, he also had no clue where the goats were. Into the mountains it was.

An hour later Zack was starting to regret his decision. Sure this might end up being faster, but he had had no clue just how exhausting hiking through snowy mountains was.

"How am I supposed to find a dragon like this?" he shouted, plowing through a snow bank. Suddenly the snow gave out beneath him and he started falling. His hands scrabbled at the ice he had been standing on, but it was no use and he slipped past. As his fingers slid below the surface his thoughts were, 'Angeal's going to have something to say about this.'

He landed shortly after with a sickening crack. Sharp shards of something stabbed into his back and the bleeding cuts stung when they came into contact with a thick liquid of some sort. "Why does this always happen to me?" Zack groaned. After a minute or two he opened hiss eyes to find that the shards were about a quarter inch thick and mostly blue with red specks. The goo was mostly clear, but some yellow puddle on the ground too. Actually, it looked kind of like― Oh. Oh no.

He leapt to his feet just as a roar shook the cavern. He spun around desperately, trying to catch sight of the monster that was doubtless going to attack him. "Come on, come on," he mumbled searching the dim cave with Mako-eyes.

Then his enhanced ears caught a slight beating sound. Like wings. He looked up to see a blue, scaly surface filling the hole he fell through. Zack ran backwards, drawing his sword. A resounding crash filled his ears and the blue dragon burst through the ceiling. He raised his broadsword to deflect any ice chunks that were falling towards him, trying in vain to keep an eye on the monster at the same time. He caught a flash of blue through the falling debris to his left and whirled around.

Zack jumped backwards as the dragon took a swipe at him, only to lunge forwards as it recovered, hoping to land a counterattack. He scored a hint on its left shoulder, but it wasn't very deep and he was startled at how tough the scaly skin was. He danced backwards again, narrowly evading getting clawed open. Another glimpse of blue was all the warning he got before he was in the air again, this time thrown by one of the dragon's heavy wings. His right side hit the wall and he slumped to the ground, temporarily out of it. The SOLDIER soon regained his senses and tried to move away as the blue-skinned beast thundered towards him. He tried to scramble on all fours, but soon found his right arm couldn't bear his weight. He did a quick roll to the left before scurrying towards his abandoned sword. He grabbed his blade with his only usable hand before turning swiftly and holding his sword braced against the ground. The diving dragon tried to pull up and away, but it was already too close and speared itself on Zack's reinforced steel. The dragon collapsed, knocking the SOLDIER back to the ground and draping him under one of its ridiculously heavy wings.

He groaned, crawling slowly out from beneath the dragon. He stretched his broken arm out along the ground, trying to at least mostly straighten it before it healed the wrong way. After he was mostly sure it was lined up he felt for his bracer, concentrating on one of the green orbs inside. He felt a warmth ghosting over his back and arm, healing the cuts and making his broken arm stable.

Once the Materia stopped he sat up, being careful not to upset his arm. He reached into a pocket with his left arm and pulled out his PHS. Dialing was a bit awkward with only one hand, but he managed and held the phone up to his ear. On the second ring a tired-sounding voice answered, "Hello?"

Zack twitched. Oops, he thought sheepishly, time difference, right. "Hey, Angeal? Could you send a ride to pick me up? Have them bring a long rope or something with them too, alright? Tell them to look for a big hole in the mountains."

There was an extended silence on the other side. "Right, I'll send someone over. Rope, big hole, right. It'll be awhile." A click signaled he had hung up.

Zack set down the phone, sighing. Right now he could really use some of Skye's cooking. Or a bed. Yeah, a bed sounded nice right about now. He lied back down and started to count the number of scuff marks on his boots. Then he counted the number of rocks between him and the wall. He was actually about to fall asleep too, before something cold and wet landed on his face. He looked up through the hole the dragon had made to see storm clouds gathering. Wonderful, he thought, it's snowing. He scooted over to the dragon and wriggled under its wing again. "It's better than nothing," he mumbled, before trying to fall asleep again. The snow had woken him up though, and it seemed like he wasn't even tired anymore, so he started to count the number of scales he could see.

After around an hour and a half he growled in frustration and pulled out his PHS again. He dialed a different number this time, and it was answered on the fourth ring.

"Go away, yo," the Turk mumbled, exhaustion dripping from his voice.

"No! Wait!" Zack shouted, thinking his friend was about to hang up. "Reno, I need help."

"What?" the red head snapped, obviously annoyed Zack had disturbed his sleep.

"I'm bored."

A pause. "'Night, yo,"

"Stop!"

A click, then silence.

"I hate you."

Dreams of the Morrow, Chapter five: Small explanations. Updated May 28, 2011. 2,100 words.

Thanks to a polite review I will be using Aerith instead of Aeris, because anyone who reviews has more power over my story than my brother, who doesn't really care one way or the other. When Zack gets back and meets Cloud again there will be a tiny hint about the phone thing, but it'll be really tiny.

On a side note, Super Fast Update! Not even a week. Just warning you, It most likely won't become regular. But if you want to be hopeful, summer's coming, so you never know!