Well, Exams are finally finished, and I for one am super glad to say that I don't need to worry about that for another 4 or so months :) 6 hours and 20 minutes in an exam room really does tend to leave one exhausted, especially with only a half hour break to try and recuperate. Oh well, I hope to have a slightly less erratic update schedule from now on :) no more of these crazy long gaps.

And while I can, I would really like to thank everyone who has reviewed and stuck with this story so far, and those who have recently found it as well. The support I get from all of you is amazing and I really can't thank you enough! When I first started this story I never thought it would be received so well. So once more, thank you all SOOOO much! XD

Panic.

That was the first emotion to course through Cloud's body upon awakening. The all to familiar feeling of being bound making coherent thought rather difficult. Cloud had to fight to keep his fear from brining up unpleasant memories; fight to see the differences in the room around from the labs in the past; fight to keep his mind and body in control until he knew his situation.

Slowly, ever so Gaia-damn slowly, Cloud forced the consuming panic to the back of his mind and locked it behind a sturdy wall. Focusing on his breathing and ignoring how beads of sweat rolled down his face and neck, Cloud waited for his breathing to slow and his heart to cease trying to jump from his chest.

Once Cloud was able to think clearly he took note of his surroundings; the familiar fluorescent lights and bland white-wash walls informed the blond of yet another visit to the infirmary. Only, he doubted this time he would be able to leave when or how he liked. Not if he wasn't careful.

At the moment his situation was negligible at best, his cover completely blown at worst, either way, finding the correct words to get out of this mess would not be easy. Cloud could only hope that his affiliation with Zack and Angeal would be enough to curb some suspicion. After all both SOLDIERs were respected and if they were to vouch for him, then their words would be taken into consideration.

Or at least he hoped they would.

With a small sigh, Cloud decided that he would love one of Zack's annoyingly happy smiles at the moment. He hadn't even realised just how reliant he had become when it came to the raven-haired man and his never ending happy-go-lucky attitude.

Looking around the room once more, Cloud decided that he was indeed alone; something that he would take as being good luck for now. Testing the strength of his bonds, Cloud was happy to hear the slight creak in the leather that generally meant strain. That was good; he could break them if need be.

Although there was no visible cameras in the room, Cloud was almost completely sure that there would be someone watching him. After the incident at the party, the blond was almost certain that they would question him thoroughly, and that they wouldn't let him out of their sights for the time being.

Shifting his head to the side, and trying to ignore the way dried blood pulled at the skin of his face as he did so, Cloud looked out the small window in the room in an attempt to gauge an approximate time. It was still night, but a slight lightening down lower suggested that dawn was only a few hours away. So he had been out for a while then.

It concerned Cloud to no end just how easily Razor had been able to get to him last night, and just how quickly he had been able to endanger everything that Cloud had worked to achieve within Shinra. Right now his position was so precarious that it made the blond dizzy just thinking about it.

Just then the door opened and in walked Zack and Angeal, something that had Cloud sighing with relief. For the briefest of moments Cloud had feared Turks were coming to interrogate him. He wouldn't put it past many of them, and they weren't known for their gentleness.

The moment Zack's eyes had landed on him and saw he was awake a brilliant, million-watt, smile had taken over the raven-haired man's features.

"Spike!" Zack was by his side in a flash, somehow managing to look both happy and concerned at the same time.

Only Zack could pull that off.

"Hey Zack." Cloud greeted, internally wincing at just how raw and rough his voice was.

"How are you feeling Spike?" Zack asked, keeping his voice light and up-beat despite the concern in vibrant mako eyes.

"I'll be fine." Cloud replied honestly, "Even more so when I can get out of these." Here he pulled at his binds lightly, trying to keep a lid on just how much they affected him.

"Sorry Cloud, but until Shinra himself clears you no one can do anything." Angeal said, speaking for the first time since entering the room. The First Class SOLDIER saw Cloud's body tense at the prospect of an indeterminate time period in lock down. As much as he wanted to help the blond, going against Shinra's orders would only make it more difficult to prove Cloud's innocence.

Cloud gave a tight nod as he had to battle down another surge of rising panic. He knew it was irrational, but after so much pain being inflicted upon him in the past while being held in such a similar position he truly could not help it.

The feel of a warm hand on his own brought Cloud's mind back to the present time.

"Relax Spike. We're not going to hurt you." Zack's voice was soft and reassuring, but Cloud could detect the undercurrent of worry and possibly hurt at the possible thought that Cloud didn't trust them fully.

"I know you wouldn't." Cloud replied, gripping Zack's hand firmly. "It is others that I don't trust."

"Either way, we don't have much time." Angeal said, internally counting down the minutes that they really did not have. "How are you going to handle this Cloud?"

Cloud looked at the tall first and was glad for the question, even if he could not answer it just yet. He knew that he needed to keep his mind on the current issues, and Angeal was a strong guiding hand in that moment.

"Honestly? I have no idea..." Cloud responded. "There is no way that I can tell them the truth, but if I lie outright then something is bound to backfire. I'm going to have to mix the two together."

"How are you suppose to do that?" Zack asked.

"Again; I have no idea." Cloud sighed, "If I tell them to much, then more questions will arise that will put everything in danger. If I say to little, then they won't believe me."

"That is a very risky plan." Angeal commented, "However, we will both do what we can to back you up."

Zack nodded his approval.

"Besides, it might just be in your favour that you were unable to fight back tonight." Angeal said, his mind going over everything at a million miles an hour, "It will support the idea that you were merely the victim of something unexpected."

"That's it!" Zack jumped up and down, his eyes lighting up. "Under official record Razor was listed as defecting without reason when he disappeared from Shinra at the beginning of the holidays right? So you just say that he was your bunk mate, and that you two fought before he left. That could be both the reason why he knows you and would attack you. After all, you beat all his training scores."

Both Cloud and Angeal were left staring at the raven-haired man as though they had just seen a second head appear on Zack's shoulders. But as the two men thought about what Zack had said, they realised that with some work, the story could very well work.

"Well it is certainly more than we had a minute ago." Cloud commented, "That's great thinking Zack."

"Great thinking indeed Puppy." Angeal agreed with a nod. Zack's resulting smile seemed to physically light up the whole room.

"Now," Angeal began, instantly bringing the atmosphere back to serious levels, "It's about time that I reported you waking up."

XxXxX

"And you're saying that you had not seen this Razor since the fight you two had at the beginning of the holidays? Until last night?"

It felt odd to be talking to none other than Tsung. Well, interrogated really, but was there really a difference when it came to the future head of the Turks.

"That is correct." Cloud confirmed.

He had spent the better part of the day in the small interrogation room; just another bland little box of a room with nothing more than a table and a few uncomfortable chairs, with the occasional glass of water brought in.

The moment Angeal had reported Cloud being awake, a few Turks had come to collect him, thankfully releasing Cloud from his restraints. From there he had been brought straight to this room where he had met the President and to his surprise Tsung and several other Turks.

Since then it had been non-stop questioning and periods of deliberation where the Turks and Shinra tried to determine exactly what Cloud's place in the whole incident had been.

"What happened during this previous fight?" The president asked; his nasally voice grating of Cloud's ears.

"Razor was talking about some form of power that he had apparently found; something to do with shadows or something, and he was trying to convince me to leave Shinra with him. I said no. He tried to be forceful, but I beat him. After that he disappeared, and I hadn't seen him again until tonight." Cloud said, having long since come up with a solid cover story where Razor was concerned. In a way it did indeed touch on the truth; only it was down-played in some regards and exaggerated in others.

"And you didn't think to report this to anyone?" Tsung asked.

"I reported to General Hewley Sir." Cloud answered easily, "I was invited to accompany him and Zack Fair on a trip to Costa, so I reported when I met up with them." Yet again a form of the truth.

Tsung watched the blond with an emotionless expression. There was something about the blond that left the Turk uneasy. Perhaps it was the way that the young man was able to completely hide emotions even from him, or the way that there wasn't even the slightest hint of fear or being uncomfortable about him. It was rare to find those who would be so relaxed, or at least appear so relaxed, during such an intense questioning. And yet, this newly instated Third Class seemed confident of himself and his story and was completely unfazed about being in the room with the head of Shinra itself and several elite Turks.

It just seemed odd to the Wutaian man.

So far though, everything that this Cloud Strife had reported had checked out. There had indeed been a cadet under the first name of Razor, and he was indeed now filed under desertion, and to Tsung at least it seemed that the two had been rather competitive in their training, and a rejection like Cloud described could very well lead to angry retaliations.

But there was still something that was off about everything. Tsung just couldn't figure out what.

"This power that he told you about... Would you say that it sounds like the power he was using during the attack?" Tsung asked. He decided he would believe the blond for now, but he would be keeping a close eye on him as well.

"I'm not sure. I suppose it could be." Cloud responded. "It's difficult to really decide on exactly what happened during the attack."

There was a moment of silence as everyone thought over what had been discussed. Finally the president stood up, his impressive frame having to work to lift off of the small chair.

"You are free to go. However precautionary measures must be taken after the attack. Tsung, you will assign one of your Turks to accompany Mr Strife at all times. He will also be assigned to be trained directly under Hewley as well." With that the large man left, leaving the fine details to be sorted out by Tsung.

As it was the Turk felt a great urge to sigh once the president was gone. He really did not need even more of his subordinates assigned to such trivial tasks when they had a war raging on.

"Well Mr Strife. You are free to leave for now. I would suggest going to your room and cleaning up and then resting. I will assign someone to you and send them over within the hour. I will also send a message to General Hewley, although I doubt there will be an issue there considering your closeness to Fair."

With that Tsung stood up and left, his Turks following him out.

Cloud took a second to simply breath. It had been a long few hours and the blond was more than ready to clean up and rest. But first, he needed to find Vincent, Zack and Angeal and warn them of the issue of having a Turk shadow for a while. It would make communication with Vincent increasingly difficult, and it would certainly make things difficult in the way of dealing with Hojo and keeping the Darkness off his back.

Cloud decided that the next time he saw Razor, he was going to slice the bastard in half for all the trouble he had caused him.

Standing up, Cloud gladly left the room and made his way to his own newly assigned room. Once there he quickly cleaned up and then sent a message to Zack to meet him as soon as possible.

XxXxX

Zack had been waiting for a message from Cloud as it was, so the moment he received the message he was over at Cloud's. His first reaction was to hug the now clean blond and congratulate him on successfully avoiding a dire situation.

The happy moment had been ruined as soon as Cloud relayed the 'conditions' of his freedom, and the raven-haired man knew that having a Turk constantly around Cloud would make things increasingly difficult. The only up-side being that Cloud was going to be assigned to Angeal for training purposes.

"I'll need you to try and find a way to keep tabs on Hojo for me." Cloud said, running a hand through his hair and trying to push back a developing headache. Things were going to get a while lot harder.

"No problem Spike." Zack replied instantly, "Look, you just worry about keeping Shinra's suspicions away from you. 'Geal and I can worry about the rest for now, ok?"

Cloud just nodded.

There was now many more issues running through his mind, but right now there was nothing he could do but wait and see who would be tailing him.

Cloud looked up at the soft sound of the window opening and was relieved to see Vincent climbing through; he was beginning to worry that he wouldn't have the chance to talk to the gunman, but as usual Vincent pulled through before things got to out of control as always.

"Vincent." Cloud greeted. Getting a nod in return.

Vincent wouldn't admit it out loud, but he was extremely relieved to see Cloud out of custody. However it was clear to see that there were still many issues to deal with as the tension within the blond's body was clearly obvious to the gunman.

"Repercussions?" Vincent asked.

"Yeah, I'll have a Turk shadowing me for a while." Cloud explained, not bothering to go into detail. He knew Vincent wouldn't need the small bits of information. As it was, Vincent's entire demeanour darkened with the information. He was clearly not happy.

"What do you plan to do?" The gunman asked.

"Nothing. For now." Cloud replied. "Vince, I'm going to need you to lay low for now. Shinra is on guard and things could go wrong."

Vincent nodded, he understood that the blond was trying to tell him that he didn't want him caught.

"I plan on going to investigate the reach of the Darkness anyway." Vincent said. He had been thinking about it for a while now, but he didn't want to leave Cloud just yet while he was still new to this time period. Now seemed like a good time.

"That's good." Cloud nodded his agreement. If there was anyone that could find out anything about the Darkness it would be Vincent. "If you need to contact me, go through Zack or Angeal."

With a final nod, Vincent took his leave. The sooner he was away from Shinra controlled areas the better. He just had to hope that Cloud's new friends would be able to withstand the types of trouble that he blond often tended to encounter.

Back in Cloud's room, silence had fallen over the two remaining men. Neither was entirely sure what to do. Cloud wanted to sleep if possible; it had been a long day, and the troubled rest he had had after the attack was hardly suitable to sustain him. Zack just wanted to guard the blond. It was probably pointless when Cloud would be able to protect himself more than well enough, but it was a drive that Zack didn't want to, and could not, ignore.

He cared too much for that.

When a knock at the door rang through the quiet room, Cloud knew that it was time for him to face the next hurdle in his plans. He just had to hope that his hurdle wasn't to high to jump.

Moving to the door, Cloud didn't bother procrastinating before opening the door. However the moment he did, he couldn't really stop himself from just staring in something close to shock.

He had definitely not expected this at all.

"Reno?"...

Well I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter; I know it's a bit slow at the moment, but it is essential for setting up future chapters. I once again apologise for such a gap between chapters, but I have had some major computer issues. And that includes a Trojan virus somewhere in my flashplayer settings that I just can't seem to be rid of. So I'm not sure when my computer will be fixed, but while it is still at least partially working I shall continue typing :)

I look forwards to hearing all your thoughts soon!