Daniels stood at the door as Cloud shifted his legs over the side of his hospital bed. Zack and Tifa were at his side within seconds to help him to his feet.

"Wait." The three looked towards Daniels. "Let's see what happens when he tries to stand on his own."

Tifa looked nervously at Cloud before moving. As his friends backed away to give him some space, he carefully wiggled his feet back and forth. They responded flawlessly, without any of the sluggishness of when he first awoke from his mako coma. He carefully pushed himself off the mattress and shifted his weight onto his feet. Aside from a brief moment of vertigo from having been laying down for so long, there were no shakes in his legs. They felt fine as he rose to his full height. Relief spread through him as he turned to see his friends mirroring that relief on their own faces.

Cloud looked down at his feet as he carefully took a step. Then another. Aside from his arm, he felt fine, through and through. It was a bit disconcerting.

Daniels seemed to have expected as much. "Here are some shoes and socks," he said. He handed Cloud a pair of plain white socks and athletic shoes. "Put them on, and we'll be off."

Once Cloud had finished lacing the shoes, Daniels immediately began to walk down the hall. The teens and Nanaki trotted after him. As they reached the end of the locked down wing of the hospital, Barret looked up from where he was leaning on the wall. Cloud slowed his pace. The welded gun gleamed in the fluorescent lighting of the hospital. The large man made him wary.

The blonde started when Tifa suddenly waved from beside him. Barret's cross visage changed into a grin as he returned the gesture with a single wave of his own remaining hand. Tifa looked back at Cloud and noticed his reserved demeanor immediately. She gave a small laugh.

"Oh that's right. We never did introduce you to Barret!" She reached for his hand and hesitated, looking at Cloud for permission with faintly nervous red eyes. He stared back. Why the hesitation? Her touch had been part of what woke him up to start with. It had been fine then, hadn't it? As he watched her, she seemed to have the same thought and gently took his hand to walk him up to Barret. The large man gave her a smile as Cloud slipped behind his 'confident' persona.

"Hey there, Tifa. This that conked out friend o' yours?" he rumbled.

"Yep!" Tifa said with a smile. "Cloud, this is Barret Wallace. Barret, Cloud Strife."

Cloud held out his right hand, straightening up. He hesitated when he looked at Barret's gun, and after a moment of awkward silence, he switched hands. Barret just chuckled.

"You'll have ta forgive me," he said apologetically. "Hard ta give a proper hand shake wit' dis." He waved his gun arm and then held out his left hand to give Cloud's a firm shake. Cloud looked him straight in the eye as he went to return the strong squeeze, but frowned when his hand just trembled. Barret seemed to notice as they retracted their hands. "Still got some kinks ta work out, huh, kid?"

Cloud looked down at his hand. "Looks like it…" he muttered, frown deepening. So much for feeling fine, he thought. It looked like his body was fooling him.

Barret turned away from the group, pulling a key card from his pocket and flashing it before a sensor by the door. The steel slid into the wall with a hiss and a figure in a crisp suit with slicked black hair stepped forward. Cloud didn't recognize the man, but judging from Zack and Tifa's reactions, they certainly did. He walked up to the blonde with shoes that tapped loudly against the tile, hurting Cloud's overly sensitized ears, but not nearly as much as the nurse's heels had. He was a good six or more inches taller than the teen as he looked down.

"My name is Tseng. I'm in charge of the Turks who have been working as your bodyguards." His voice was low. Calm. Collected. "It's my duty to escort you and your friends to where you will participate in your exercise therapy."

"It isn't here in the hospital?" Cloud asked.

"No. Because of your mako poisoning, you are… a special case. The equipment and services you will be using are in another building entirely." Tseng snapped his fingers and several other Turks appeared to surround the group. "Follow me."

They made their way outside to find a vehicle identical to the one that had brought Zack, Tifa, and Nanaki to the hospital. Without any type of baggage in the back, the rearmost seat was open to be used. The three teens squeezed into it. Nanaki stretched out between the two middle seats, much as he had before on their way from the airport. Barret managed to squeeze his hulking frame into one of the middle seats next to Daniels who was already seated himself. Tseng took the passenger's seat, and the large van was off to its destination.

Zack and Tifa watched the pedestrians on the street like they had before. Also like before, the pedestrians stopped walking to stare when the van passed them. More than one person seemed to squint as if trying to see into the van. The intensity of their scrutiny made the friends nervous and grateful for the tinted windows. Their interest had caught Zack's attention, Tifa noticed, when he sat back and took on a look of contemplation.

Cloud was also looking out the window, trying to distract himself from the motion of the van. It was his usual simple coping strategy, yet it seemed to be working… well. Much better than it normally did. He just couldn't shake off the strange feeling he had. He felt fine, almost good, yet he knew he was still in rough shape. As the van made a turn into an area guarded by tall chain link fence with coiled wire at the top after ten minutes of driving, he still hadn't felt the tell-tale signs of motion sickness. Though odd, it was a sweet unexpected relief.

The van tipped down as the road slid below the great ShinRa Tower into an underground tunnel. The Nibelheim teens gaped at the depth the van was speeding down to. Lights along the tunnel wall flashed past them at a steady rhythm for a good five minutes before the van stopped in front of a large round steel door with a diameter of over twenty feet. Several ShinRa troopers stood as guards, their rifles held at attention in front of their chests. A trooper captain stepped forward, his red scarf standing out starkly against his pale skin and dark helmet visor.

"State your business," he shouted to the van. Tseng stepped out of the passenger seat and walked toward the captain.

"Tseng, of the Turks," he announced himself.

"Ah, Tseng," growled the captain. "What brings you down here?"

Tseng didn't answer, instead reaching into his suit and pulling out a folded piece of paper. He handed it to the captain who unfolded the document and read through it. After a minute he nodded to Tseng and turned back to the steel gate, waving his hand. With a great rumbling from the walls, the door slowly began to shift. While the door was opening, the captain handed the document back to Tseng. "You can head on through."

"Thank you," Tseng replied as he stepped back into the van. The captain ordered the other troopers to move aside, and the van rolled past. Inside the door was a small parking garage with a set of glass double doors. The van came to a stop and all the passengers filed out. They resumed their formation with the teens and Nanaki surrounded by Turks, who appeared to work at the facility, and Barret bringing up the rear.

As they walked through the double doors, Barret gave a nearly inaudible huff from behind the teens. Cloud glanced back from the corner of his eye but didn't comment. Tifa also noticed the small sound, so she looked back at Barret. She slowed her pace until she was walking next to the large man.

"What is it?" she asked quietly, glancing to make sure the Turks had not heard her. It was hard to tell when their eyes were covered by dark shades.

Barret grunted. "Damn ShinRa. Up ta no good." His thick eyebrows bunched over dark brown eyes.

Tifa's own delicate brows also lowered. "What do you mean?"

"This undaground place. All them steel doors. They spellin' nuttin' but trouble." Barret's large calloused hand rested on his gun arm. "ShinRa themselves ain't nuttin' but trouble, what with all o' them secrets."

"What are they going to do, Barret?"

Barret remained silent as they passed through a second set of doors into a lobby-like area. Finally he quietly muttered under his breath, "Forget it. Forget I said anythin'."

The group was led by Daniels to a type of control room with an observation window making up an entire wall. Behind the glass was a large octagonal room with glass and steel flooring, currently empty. The group spread out in the control room. The door they had just entered from opened again, and in stepped Dr. Hojo. A smile spread across his oily face as he found Cloud among the people in the room. The unwholesome feeling the man exuded churned Cloud's stomach.

"Ah, finally ready for therapy, are we?" Dr. Hojo motioned with a finger. "Come here and let me get a look at you before we begin."

Cloud nervously stepped forward and Daniels gave him instructions as the doctor watched. Raise your arms. Swing them. Turn your head as far as you can in both directions. Take a deep breath and hold it. As Cloud did as he was told, he sent glances to Zack and Tifa. Tifa gave him encouraging smiles, and Zack would give him a nod. It didn't seem like anything was suspicious enough for Zack to feel uneasy, even if his and Tifa's dislike of the doctor was still obvious to Cloud. If anything, the small actions Daniels was having Cloud do were irritatingly simple.

Daniels finally stopped giving instructions to Cloud and stepped back. Dr. Hojo motioned again to Cloud.

"Follow me," he rasped and led Cloud to a door that led to the octagonal room. Tifa and Zack stepped forward to follow but were stopped by Barret, who looked none too happy to be doing so. Cloud tried to look back over his shoulder but was given a sharp push towards the door by the doctor. "Your friends will have to wait in here. But don't worry, they'll be doing their own activities while you're busy," Dr. Hojo hissed.

They stepped onto the room's glass and steel flooring. Immediately, the air around them seemed to flicker and pulse for a few seconds and equipment appeared. A type of treadmill. A rack with weights and different ranged combat weapons. And, to Cloud's surprise and disbelief, a glass pool with water flowing along its length at an even pace.

What is this? Cloud wondered. How are they doing this? Even if his memory was still fuzzy, he didn't remember ever seeing technology anything like what he had just seen. It was… disturbing.

Dr. Hojo walked over to the treadmill. When he saw that Cloud had not followed, the man's brow lowered into an ugly frown. "Well? What are you waiting for? Get over here. Quickly!" Cloud trotted over to the treadmill where the doctor waited. The doctor huffed and pointed to the treadmill. "Stand on the track." Cloud stepped up. "Now, we'll see how long you last."

"Wait, what?" What did he just say?

"You heard me. How do we know what your limits are until we reach them?" The doctor walked up to the machine, his finger hovering over a button. "Ready yourself. Go."

Before Cloud had time to prepare himself, the treadmill track began to move and he stumbled. He reached out and grabbed the treadmill handlebar to steady himself. The second he had his balance back, his hand was rapped and Dr. Hojo angrily rasped, "You will not be using this from now on."

Cloud glared as soon as the doctor turned his back and felt tempted to throw him a rude gesture. Instead he looked around. How had they made this equipment appear? Was it kept somewhere else and… Cloud raked his mind for the word. Teleported? He had never heard of it outside of old science fiction books Zack had laughed at and pointed out to him in the outdated library at Nibelheim. He looked over his shoulder at the observation window. From this side, it was tinted so that he could barely see through it. From what he could tell it looked like Zack and Tifa were gone.

What kind of activities could ShinRa be forcing them to do? he wondered as his breath picked up from his forced run.

Tifa shifted in her seat next to Zack. Nanaki sat on the floor on her other side, tall enough that his head cleared the table top. Across a large table from them sat Daniels. Several sheets of paper sat spread in front of him. The medic leaned back and clicked the pen in his hand a couple of times before looking at the teens.

"I've been ordered to find activities for the two of you." He paused. When there was no reaction, he continued, "I have here a list of instructors who could teach you a new and… productive past time." He sat forward and pushed a sheet across the table to Zack. The teen picked it up and began to scan through it as Tifa looked over his shoulder. She frowned as she looked at the selection on the list.

Magic Instruction/Materia Use, Status Item Training, Hand-to-Hand Combat, Weapon Training… Tifa read down the list in disbelief. What on Gaia?

Daniels spoke up from across the table. "These are the only selections we have here. This is a specialized facility for training soldiers, so these activities reflect that."

Zack looked up from the list. "Why do we even have to do these? Why can't we just watch Cloud?" Tifa looked up as well. He certainly had a point, not to mention he had voiced her own thoughts.

"Some of the technology he will be using is classified in nature and can't be made known to a large portion of the public. The doctor also wishes to keep unpreoccupied people out of his path," stated Daniels bluntly. "He has a belief that all things must have a purpose. It irks him when people or objects sit around without performing some type of job."

"So he wants us to take lessons or whatever to indulge a complex?"

"I suppose you could say that."

"Do we have a say in it?"

"No."

Zack snorted and leaned back into his chairs, arms crossed. "Typical ShinRa."

Tifa just picked at the fabric of her shirt sleeve. Okay, so they were going to have to train. They could probably learn something useful. She eyed the list again.

Hand-to-hand combat looks interesting, she thought to herself. More than once she had worried at the possibility of fighting with the Turks. It was already apparent that the many employees of ShinRa had no worries about manhandling the Nibelheim teens if given orders to move them from place to place. Well, with an exception of Barret. Her eyes drifted down the list. But so does Magic Instruction/Materia Use…

"…do you choose?" Tifa looked up as she was interrupted from her thoughts. Daniels looked at her expectantly. "Which do you choose?" he repeated. "You can change if the activity isn't something you can do."

Tifa thought for a moment. "Magic Instruction/Materia Use," she answered. It sounded very unique. Zack chose Weapon Training, and the Turks assigned to the teens and beast took them back into the hall before taking them to a small steel walled gymnasium. The bright fluorescent lights glared down at the group as they stopped by a wall. They quietly waited for a couple of minutes before two people entered the room. One was a tall, elegant woman who wore a lab coat over a lavender blouse with white ruffles and a dark grey, knee-length skirt. Her long chestnut hair was pulled into a ponytail away from her high, pointed bangs. Beside her walked a man in baggy military pants and a thick turtleneck accompanied by pauldrons and a helmet reminiscent of ancient knights. Suspenders held up a thick leather belt with an odd insignia. A massive sword hung from his back.

The man stepped forward. "Which of you chose Weapon Training?" His eyes glowed out of the shadow of his visor. It was intimidating.

Zack stepped forward as well. "I did." The man held out his hand to the teen and Zack shook it.

"I see. What's your name?"

"Zack Fair."

"Fair, hm?" Lips visible under the helmet visor faintly quirked. "You can call me Kunsel. I'll be your instructor. Right this way." He walked away and Zack began to follow before faltering and looking back at Tifa and Nanaki.

"Wait, Nanaki. Where are you going?"

"I've decided to observe Tifa for now," the beast rumbled. He held up a large paw. "As I am sure you've noticed, I am incapable of handling weapons designed for humans. Magic is definitely within my grasp."

"Oh. Right. Well, I'll see you guys later!" Zack waved and ran to catch up with Kunsel.

For what felt like the hundredth time that hour, Tifa straightened her hands out in front of her and concentrated. The faint tingling in her gut reminiscent of fire began to flare again, but as she mentally reached for it, the flame seemed to elude her grasp yet again. She let out a long breath as she lowered her arms, frustration gnawing at her. She looked back to her instructor.

The woman had introduced herself as Lucrecia, and she seemed nice enough. Her trade was another story in Tifa's opinion. The girl rubbed her fingers along the smooth surface of the crystal orb held in a slot on the brass bangle circling her wrist. The green material glinted in the light of the training room. Tifa's untouched target dummy grinned at her from its flopped position on the stand across the room. Lucrecia's had appeared much the same, but was currently a pile of ash around the foot of the metal dummy stand. The woman saw the girl's expression and just gave a soft laugh.

"Try again, Tifa. Think of your mind as being a… well, almost a breeze, but more like a vacuum. Don't think of reaching for the sensation, think of it being sucked from your core to your palm by a force which just so happens to be your will. When it reaches your palms it will naturally expel itself. Make sense?"

"I… think so?" Tifa mumbled. She glanced at Nanaki for help, but the beast merely yawned from where he lay curled by the door, his ocher eye watching her every move. His flaming tail flicked, reminding Tifa of the ever elusive Fire spell she was trying to cast.

"Just try it again."

Tifa concentrated again, her hands held forward in a pushing motion. Concentrating on what Lucrecia had said, she tried to imagine vacuuming the sensation. To her delight, she felt the flame in her gut flare to life and it made a sudden surge towards her palms. As it passed through her chest on its way to her arms, she stopped breathing briefly as it enveloped her lungs and heart. The sensation gathered in her hands for a split second, tingling all the way to her finger tips before a sudden column of fire erupted from her hands to shoot across the practice room in a quick burst. The heat and light had Tifa squinting. As the fire left her palms, it almost felt as if it was being pulled from inside the flesh of her palms. As quickly as it had appeared, it vanished.

The teen slowly opened her eyes to look across the room at her dummy. Its right arm had been burnt off, while the right side was covered in the resulting soot. A large grin crossing her face, Tifa looked back at Lucrecia. The woman smiled. "Good work. That was exactly right. Although…" She looked at the dummy. "… I'd say that aim will be another important factor we have to work on."

Now that she had gotten the hang of casting magic with the aid of materia, Tifa excitedly followed Lucrecia to the collection of materia on the side of the room. Over the next hour they worked on other elemental attack spells, which Tifa proved to be quite adept in. As they moved to status spells, Tifa began to struggle again, but she was able to cast Sleep and Bio without too much trouble.

"Okay, then, that's enough of those for now," said Lucrecia as she clapped her hands together. "We can come back to those tomorrow. As for what's next…" The woman reached out and grabbed another green materia from the collection shelf and tossed it to Tifa. The girl nearly dropped the Bio materia she was removing from her bangle as she scrambled to catch the new orb thrown to her. As it landed in her hand without hitting the ground, she gave a sigh of relief and handed the Poison materia to Lucrecia before placing the new orb in the bangle slot.

As she focused, a warm feeling spread in her gut, different from the Fire spell. It tickled and tingled. It reminded her of growing plants and, for some reason, the color green.

"What's this?"

Lucrecia smiled. "A Restore materia containing one of the most important spells you can learn. Cure. You'll probably never use an elemental or status inducing spell on the… streets, but Cure can be used in so many different situations, from minor scrapes to third degree burns to surgical incursions. There are three levels of Cure depending on the situation you wish to use it in. However…" She picked up another Cure materia and held it up to the light. The green orb glowed faintly, leaving a beam of green light to dance on her face. "Cure can only do so much. The more severe the injury, the less qualified a focused Cure is."

"Is there a spell higher than Cure?"

"Yes. It's called, well, Life. It's a very rare spell since its materia – which we call Revive – has only been found in nature and only a handful of times at that. ShinRa has never successfully manufactured a Life materia in its seventy five years of materia synthesis production."

Tifa soaked in the knowledge. It was fascinating. "Does ShinRa currently have a Life materia?"

Lucrecia gave a good natured sigh. "So many questions… Yes, I believe so. However, it's contained in the Research Department, so we won't be able to use it, unfortunately." The woman gazed over the materia in her hand from behind her pointed bangs. "What I would give to be able to cast it a few times though…" Lucrecia tossed the materia up in the air and caught it again as she began walking towards a potted plant in the corner of the room, her heels tapping on the concrete. "Let's see how you can handle a Cure, shall we?"

Zack flowed into the pose again, muscles shaking as he tried to keep his movements as smooth as possible despite the many previous repetitions. A bead of sweat trickled down his brow as he glanced to where Kunsel watched him. The man nodded to him.

"Good! You can release the pose for now. Let's take a break."

Zack lowered the dense wooden practice sword, sighing in relief and then slight discomfort as his arms ached from the hours of strange new activity. The lesson had started off with Kunsel teaching him the anatomy of a sword, the first and most basic weapon he would be taught to use for the time being. Once that had been over with, the two had moved into basic stances and poses to strengthen the teen's muscles as well as lead to more advanced combat maneuvers.

Zack sat down on a metal bench, letting the wooden sword lean on the metal seat next to him. Kunsel handed him a water bottle and he gave a grateful thanks as he took a much needed drink from it. He looked around the room. Despite having initially felt like he was being treated as extra baggage, he was really enjoying the lesson. In the past he would often look at the massive sword his father had left behind and wish he knew how to properly wield it. It felt like he was getting that chance.

He glanced at the wooden sword again. He couldn't help but feel suspicious though. Why only offer us militaristic things to learn? It just isn't sitting right.

The monitors nearby bleeped as Cloud was unhooked from them. He relaxed into the chair where he sat and tipped his head back. He was exhausted. After the treadmill had started earlier, he had only been able to run for ten minutes before he had been forced to come to a wheezing stop. His weeks of inactivity combined with the mako had worn him out much more quickly than he would have expected. He rolled his head over and looked back at Daniels. The medic was discussing the results with the doctor in the corner.

The doctor pushed his glasses up his oily nose and glared at Cloud from across the room. "Pitiful. He'll need a lot of work. Daniels, see to it he is strengthened adequately in the next few days."

"Yes, sir."

The old doctor's shoes tapped on the tile as he left the room. Cloud relished the chance to relax for the first time in several hours. His limbs ached. The ache in his head was worse than before and was now accompanied by a high pitched buzzing.

A small breeze fluttered his unruly hair as Daniels walked past. The medic looked back. "I have to submit these tests before we continue. It'll be a little while, so you can rest." He disappeared out the door, and Cloud watched him walk away through the windows along the wall between the room and hallway. The metal reclining chair he was stretched out on felt surprisingly comfortable in his state. He frowned as his headache spiked for a brief second.

Maybe a nap will help it go away, he thought hazily as he closed his eyes.

He opened his eyes after what had felt like only three minutes and was surprised to see curious green eyes above him, studying him. He jerked upright and scooted back a bit. A delicate hand covered a smiling mouth and a faint giggle met his ears.

"It's alright," said the girl before him, brushing her chestnut hair behind her ears. "I was passing by and I've never seen you before. What's your name?"

"Ugh…" Cloud pressed his palm against his forehead. The nap had barely helped his headache. He glanced at the clock. It had only been fifteen minutes. At least the buzz was gone. "Cloud…"

"Cloud?"

"Yeah…"

"Really?"

"Yes…"

The girl smiled. "That's a very interesting name. It's nice to meet you, Cloud. My name is –"

"Ahem."

The two looked up to see Daniels standing at the door, his arms crossed. He stared down the girl. "You know you're not supposed to be in here."

The girl looked down. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I was just curious."

Daniels rubbed a hand across his face and sighed. Apparently this was a common occurrence, Cloud noticed.

"Get going now and I won't say anything to Hojo."

The girl nodded. "Okay. Thanks, Danny." She looked over to Cloud. "It was nice to meet you," she mumbled before hurrying out of the room, her long braid swaying behind her, the ribbon holding it up fluttering.

Daniels didn't keep Cloud in the room for more than a few more minutes before they were heading down the hallway to a mess hall. Upon entering, Cloud scanned the tables and spotted Tifa and Zack just starting to dig into their sandwich lunches. Daniels released him to go get food and he hurried to grab a sandwich from the kitchen window. He slid into the seat next to Tifa, receiving a warm welcome from his friends. He looked over and noticed Nanaki stretched out on the ground, grooming his fur. An empty sandwich wrapper lay on the floor by his paws.

As Cloud took a bite of his own sandwich while Zack excitedly launched into a description of the training he had been doing with an instructor named Kunsel, the blonde looked over towards the door. Green eyes met his briefly before the girl slid out of view from where she had been peeking through the doorway at the Nibelheim teenagers.

Who is she? he wondered.

A/N: Who could she be? Hmm...

I've started college and, my goodness, so much fun yet so much work! I've been too uninspired or tired to finish this chapter up until the past week, but here it is. Double majoring is hard. I'm gonna be taking 17.5 hours next semester, and my academic adviser says that even with summer classes I won't be finished on time if I stay on the current path. Oh well. Scholarships help fight student debt, so I'm not too bad off... I hope. Why is education so damn expensive?!

Review Responses:

Irish-Brigid: I think they already know he speaks. We'll see what happens. o.o

JukedSolid: Oh thank you. I try really hard to get the friendship dynamics just right. So glad that it was noticeable to my readers!

Guest: It's back again! Thanks for the review.

J Luc Pitard: Here's some more! You'll see the training change in the next chapter, so stay tuned!