Once More, With Feeling... – Chapter 8: Genius
Summary: Cloud is just getting way too much attention these days…
Author: Illusor Meaneld
Rated T: for Descriptive violence and injuries, No Adult Situations, No Cussing.
Disclaimer: I did not create, and do not own the characters from Final Fantasy 7, They are owned by Square-Enix, and I am simply borrowing them for my own (and hopefully your) enjoyment.
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Angeal was sitting patiently in Sephiroth's office, exchanging polite chit-chat about nothing in particular while sipping his cold drink. The raven-haired SOLDIER let his eyes wander the familiar room, with its subtle artistry. The polished mahogany desk, so dark and rich a color it was almost black. The soft blue-grey carpets, Seph's wooden coat-stand and matching sword stand at opposite ends of the room. The indigo trim painted along the lower edge of the off-white walls, the subtle leaves twirling within the band of color, the dark blue rose into the curtains that framed the window, thick and made of real fabric, they hung in majestic folds. The chairs were also comfortable, made of real wood and properly cushioned, dark to match the desk. Angeal knew Sephiroth had decorated the room himself. The rest of Shinra was sickly green and eye burning white, with bright yellow lights everywhere. The General had refused to even use his own office if he couldn't stylize it. To Angeal, it was one of the most comfortable rooms in all of Shinra. Sephiroth never did anything by halves.
As Angeal sipped his drink, they continued their discussions, about the weather, how Zack Fair's training was commencing, recent missions and possible future ones. Everything but the real subject they planned to discuss. Sephiroth had once or twice tried to gently guide the discussion to his intended subject, but Angeal was just as clever and steered their topics elsewhere. The only evidence of Sephiroth's impatience was a single finger, slowly tapping the top of his desk. Angeal watched the gloved index finger in its steady motion, and realized that Sephiroth actually WAS impatient! The idle chatter was eating him alive. The black-haired swordsman chuckled, to which Sephiroth frowned,
"I didn't realize the Cadet meant so much to you?" Angeal raised his eyebrow in amusement, … Sephiroth snorted, but continued tapping one finger as he watched his Second-in-command. "You have a terribly poker face," Angeal continued smoothly,
"You're the only person who ever beats me at poker." Sephiroth curtly replied,
"Point," Angeal allowed, he took a deliberate sip of his drink, letting the ice-cubes clink in the glass. He lowered his hand, watched Sephiroth watch him, and slowly raised the cup to his mouth once more.
"All right!" Sephiroth snarled, clenching his hand into a fist, "Tell me about the Cadet! What did you learn?" Angeal smiled, hiding it with one raised fist.
"Well,…" He started slowly, eyeing his hands, when Sephiroth glowered the SOLDIER decided he'd teased him long enough. "He's a small boy, I'm not quite sure what you find so interesting about him, his skills are rather below average. But he doesn't seem to want to get along with the other boys at all, which is a little odd." Sephiroth went back to tapping, though this time Angeal knew he was just thinking.
"You were exaggerating about his skills right? When you said 'below average'?" Sephiroth eyed him thoughtfully,
"Not really," Angeal quickly supplied, "He's really just below average, probably last in the class but nothing really significant."Sephiroth's frown deepened Angeal's own curiosity piqued,
"That can't be right." The General muttered almost to himself, "When I saw him, his physical skills were ABYSMAL, absolutely terrible."
Now Angeal paused to think, "They were just below average" he said with a shake of his head.
"What did you mean about his behavior being odd?" Sephiroth interrupted, changing the subject.
Angeal paused, thinking about how to explain it, "He acted like the other boys bored him."
"Bored?"
"Amused a little too, … it was … like an adult, watching a puppy, … sure it's cute and innocent, but they've seen it all before. … that was it Seph, he acted like he'd seen it all before, it wasn't anything new."
"That doesn't make any sense." Sephiroth growled, pinching his nose between two fingers. Angeal glanced sharply at his superior, Sephiroth was still mulling over the information in his head, but Angeal found he wasn't willing to leave it at that.
"What exactly did the boy do to catch your attention?" he was suddenly wishing he'd paid closer attention during Zack's class.
"He noticed me." Angeal's eyebrow raised followed by the corners of his mouth, Sephiroth rolled his eyes, "He seemed unusually aware of my presence Angeal, … like he had fighters instincts."
Now it was Angeal's turn to frown, "You don't suppose he's had prior training do you Seph?"
"Like I said, he was absolutely abysmal in class!" The General returned, "If you don't believe me, look at his scores!" With mild frustration the silver-haired SOLDIER grabbed the stack of papers he'd collected on Cloud Strife and spread them out on the front of the desk. Angeal stepped forward and studied the information.
"By the Planet!" Angeal half-choked, staring in astonishment at the information before him, "He really WAS abysmal!" He read a little more, rearranging the pages as he went. "Dang but he's a fast learner."
"What?" Sephiroth snapped in confusion
"Just look at the big picture Seph!" Angeal arranged the test results so they were in order, "Look at his Boot-Camp records, when he joined he was so bad, he should have been in a wheel-chair! But despite being a near-cripple, in six weeks he's improved so much he's barely trailing behind his classmates." Sephiroth gawked, "If his academic scores are improving anything like these, he'll be in SOLDIER in no time." The General glanced up sharply, and a strange look crossed his features. He reached for another small stack of papers and spread them out above the ones Angeal had.
"They're better." Sephiroth muttered stiffly, the Raven-haired SOLDIER cursed,
"That's just impossible! His scores are off the charts!" he gaped at the information before him, paling a little, "Seph… you can't learn this stuff that fast!"
"Do you think he cheated?" Sephiroth raised one silver brow slowly,
"No," Angeal frowned in thought, "… It's like… I dunno, I'd almost say it's like he knows it all already."
"How the H-" Angeal raised a forestalling hand to Sephiroth's protest,
"No, wait, think about this for a moment, Lets say the boy, Cloud, … that he studied all the stuff he would need to know before he got here…" Sephiroth nodded slowly, "Lets say he read a lot of books, soaked in the knowledge,"
"That would make him,…"
"A Genius," Angeal finished, "So say between the ages of 5 and 10 he studies everything he needs to know, … how fast would you say he could pass those classes?"
Sephiroth looked down at the charts with new understanding in his eyes, "As fast as the tests could come up."
"Exactly! Now since he studied books,… what would his weakest subjects be?"
"Physical."
"… So it's like he knows it all… 'In Theory', but has to put all his book learning to practice!"
"He could be the best SOLDIER we've ever gotten." Sephiroth muttered, a little shaken, "I had expected him to make 1st… be a great Lieutenant…"
"I dunno Seph, he might surpass even you!" Angeal meant it as a joke, but found he couldn't smile.
"…" Sephiroth silently studied the papers, without really seeing them, "I'm not sure I like that idea." He returned soberly.
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Cloud, was not having a good day, … Two weeks ago when he'd finally realized he was being teased, he had thought it wouldn't matter. In retrospect, he should have thought about it more carefully, despite his life-time of experience, Cloud couldn't recall being teased much, oh he was sure it had happened, but Cloud's memory was rather fuzzy on the details of his childhood, and that part hadn't been important enough to dredge up. It had gone from snide comments, and undeserved titles sarcastically given, to being shoved roughly in the halls between classes, having drinks dumped on his food so as to ruin it. His underclothing had been stolen and placed deliberately in public places. Almost every night his sheets were soiled with a different substance (one of which had glowed), subsequently, every night Cloud had to take his linins to the laundry and painstakingly clean them. He'd taken to locking up all his bedding and clothing in his locker. And carrying all his personal affects (shampoo and combs) everywhere he went in a small bag.
It had started with Logan, the boy really seemed to have developed a specific dislike of Cloud, and Logan's two burly friends Wyatt and Fisk. They only picked on Cloud when there were no adults around. Cloud tried his best to ignore them, never responding to their antics, never retaliating, which would make things worse, but it didn't seem like the boys needed any motivation to step things up. By now the others had noticed his improvements, that he was getting better, he could keep up with the others for the most part. He had originally thought that even being teased didn't matter,… after all, he had already tested out of "Practical Physiology", "Military Strategy", "Tactics and Manuevers", and "Advanced Biology"… Now he was saddled with "Advanced Chemistry" and "Martial Arts Theory". He'd long since surpassed most of the academic classes he shared with his Squad, … which irritated Logan and the others, but Cloud had thought it would make it harder for them to mess with him.
He was wrong.
The older Squads, with whom Cloud was now sharing classes, took sides with the aggravated Sekhmet boys, and made Cloud's class time a living torment, his class work was rendered useless as often as not in Chemistry, and once he'd actually had acidic substances tipped on his hands, which had made sword work agonizingly painful for several days. He was tripped often, when he left his seat for any reason, and it was rarely the same boy twice in a row who did these things.
Cloud vented his frustrations into his midnight training sessions, and began to split his practice between catching up on sword-work and re-teaching himself some of the dirtier hand-to-hand combat techniques he'd learned from Yuffie and Rude. He wasn't going to use them on the teenagers, they were just boys, childish and immature, but it made him feel a little better to imagine it. He had forgotten how it really felt to be smaller and weaker than everyone. Even though he'd never been very tall in his own world, he was strong, and he was so sure of himself people treated him like he was.
To give his Squad-mates due credit, not all of them were picking on him, … Gavin was still as talkative as always, and a good many of the other boys were neutral, not picking either side, but Cloud couldn't really relate to his 'peers', nor they him. There was just too much of an age gap. You couldn't be over a hundred and expect 15 year old kids to want to be your friend. They were in that rebellious stage, they'd grow out of it Cloud knew, but now HE had to live through it. … He wished he could ground them all and be done with it. It was not pleasant.
Today, they had started doing weapons practice in pairs, despite Cloud's hopes Gavin hadn't managed to partner with him, … no he'd gotten Cyril Lenysen, a 16 year old with blonde hair so pale it was almost white. "platinum blonde" and brown eyes that were contrasted amazingly with it. The boy would surely be a real ladies man when he got older, now if only his looks had a personality to match. Cyril was the truly vindictive sort, downright mean, whenever his pearly teeth gleamed and his eyes slitted with a smile, it only meant bad things for everyone else. Cyril had joined Logan's "anti-Cloud" campaign just a few days ago, … Cloud already hated him. Cyril had somehow wheedled into being Cloud's sparring partner, unfortunately, the boy turned out to be a natural with the sword… Cloud struggled to keep up, he managed to stave off the worst blows based on his own knowledge, but Cyril was older and stronger, and succeeded in leaving several deep welts.
After Weapons Training class, Fisk had actually shoved Cloud so roughly that he had staggered forward, and crashed into an opening door. He'd made it to class with a bloody nose and a nasty bruise on the left side of his cheek where he'd struck the door handle. Of course all the teacher heard was that Cloud "tripped" … tattling was also a sure-fire method to increase the antagonism. Sitting in Biology he rubbed the colorful purpling marks on his face. His other hand was firmly pressed on his notes, lest someone try to take them. Cloud was at a loss to figure a way to halt the unwanted activities. He sighed heavily, there wasn't any way to make himself grow faster, … perhaps he should have asked Shelke about formulas for that before he'd left. At least he'd be able to test out of Chemistry in a week. Cloud was REALLY looking forward to putting some distance between himself and all the dangerous chemicals. He needed to get better faster, before one of these boys accidentally crippled him.
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As Tseng passed through the hallway once again late at night, he paused, as he found himself doing often, and glanced in on the training room he'd found the blond cadet in, from the room above. Sure enough the boy was there once more, Tseng couldn't be certain, but he thought the youth might be coming here every night. Pausing to watch for a moment the Turk analyzed what he saw, the child had a very fluid grace to his movements most of the time, every now and again tripping over some part of the stance, as if he were over-reaching himself a bit. Tseng wondered which of the SOLDIER Prep. instructors was letting the boy in, he'd checked the databases after the third time he'd spotted the boy training himself, and there had been no break-in. But here the boy was, like clock-work. Tseng was just about to turn and leave, having paused in his work long enough, when he saw the boy set down his sword and start some martial-arts moves. Tseng froze, watching intently, yes he hadn't seen wrong. It was Wutaian ninjitsu, just the basic hand-to-hand moves, but Shinra never taught those. Swiftly Tseng whirled to leave. This was no longer a curiosity, but an investigation…
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