The Fifth Act, Chapter 15
Title: The Fifth Act
Rating: T for violence.
Summary: FFVII Time-travel. Gen. Cloud has an accident with a Time Materia.
Author's Note: This chapter has a little bit of everything.
Previous Chapter
__________________
The Fifth Act
Chapter 15
__________________
“It’s been a week since Strife joined ShinRa Incorporated,” Tseng began. “Thank you all for making time today for this personnel review.”
A snort from Genesis’s direction informed everybody of the Commander’s opinion of that particular turn of phrase. Tseng remained professional, leafing through his binder, observing each member of the room carefully. Sephiroth tapped the side of his arm, the only sign of his impatience. Angeal folded his arms.
Lazard broke the silence. “Where should we begin?”
To the Turk’s surprise, Sephiroth was the first to speak up. “I ran into him-” Tseng knew that was a lie, he’d reviewed the Training Room security feed. “-and he didn’t try to kill me on sight.”
“Of course not,” Lazard replied. “He signed a contract to that effect.”
“I’m surprised he agreed to it,” Genesis mused, as though speaking to himself.
Angeal shrugged. "Tseng was right. He must have changed his mind." The stocky First looked troubled by something, though. Tseng made a mental note to follow that up later.
As for Sephiroth, his expression indicated that he didn’t think Strife had changed his mind at all. After witnessing the footage of their encounter in the Training Room, Tseng found himself inclined to agree. He was holding himself in, a taut string ready to snap at the slightest pluck. Which made it all the more confusing that he had agreed to work for ShinRa. He had to have known that such an action would directly contravene his desires. What was he playing at?
It was Tseng’s job to find out.
“That matter aside, upon signing him up I have discovered he has an aversion to scientists and doctors,” Tseng stated. “He claims he suffered mako poisoning, and that may be true, but his reluctance suggests he may have been experimented upon in the past.” Genesis glared at the table. Understandable. The Turks had an unofficial awareness of Project G. “Unverified, but in the meantime it’s a small detail we can add to his psychological profile. Has anyone come across anything suspicious?”
Angeal shifted in his seat, looking indecisive. When everyone turned their attention to him, he sighed, and admitted, “I had a look through his PHS contact list. It was… disturbing.”
“Disturbing?” Tseng asked.
“Here, I wrote down all the names I could remember.” Angeal pushed a notebook across the table to him. The Turk picked it up and scanned it, eyebrows raised. This was interesting.
“Go on, then,” Genesis prompted, curiosity obviously piqued.
“Tifa, Barrett, Cid, Vincent, Yuffie, Shelke, Reeve…” His voice trailed off dubiously.
“Reeve? As in Tuesti? Head of Urban Development?” Sephiroth asked.
“Yuffie is of interest, as well,” Tseng murmured. “These are only first names, so it may be coincidence, but Lord Godo has a daughter named Yuffie.” A contact made in Wutai? The Princess was just a child, though. She wouldn’t be of any use in a conspiracy.
“You’re missing the most important part,” Angeal interrupted. “You’re on there, Tseng.”
“As are two other Turks,” he agreed. His own name didn’t bother him - he’d left contact information with Strife when he’d hired him - but the presence of Reno and Rude on the list could not be so easily explained away. “And also a ‘ShinRa’, but without seeing the number itself, I can’t be sure if that applies to an individual or the company. Were these all the names, Angeal?”
“Not even half,” he admitted with a grimace. “I couldn’t look too long without him getting suspicious.”
“I’m surprised you even thought to do something so underhanded,” Genesis remarked.
Angeal shrugged. “It was kind of by accident. I wasn’t familiar with the phone, and when I saw the first couple of names, well…” He gestured at the notebook. “Maybe it doesn’t mean anything. Used to run a delivery service apparently. They could just be clients.”
“A delivery service?” Lazard sounded mildly impressed, and Tseng recalled the Director’s admiration for entrepreneurs. It appeared that his reservations about Strife had been stripped away in the past week. Impressive, considering he’d originally been the strongest opponent to his recruitment.
The Turk filed the mention of a delivery service away in the back of his mind to investigate - though such one-man operations were notoriously difficult to track. “I’ll have to take a closer look at his PHS at some point.” He slipped the list of names into his pocket. “On to other matters. Angeal, you’ve been accompanying him on his missions, correct? What other impressions do you have to share?”
The bulky First folded his arms. "I say promote him to Second Class."
"So soon?"
"You already know he's on the same level as a First - you wouldn't have gone to so much effort to hire him otherwise."
"Superior fighting skills do not alone a Second make. There are a number of talented Thirds who haven't been promoted simply because they are prone to causing collateral damage, or because they lack discipline," Lazard pointed out.
"Strife's not that reckless. You've spoken to him, Lazard. I've only tagged along on half of his missions, but he completes them in record time with zero fuss. He cleared out over three dozen Death Gazes from a bunker in a matter of minutes, and he looked bored by it. Stop wasting his time on grunt work."
Lazard spent a moment considering that, then relented. "A compromise. I move him on to Second-Class missions, and if he's still keeping up after a week of those, I'll promote him."
Tseng nodded his agreement. Strife’s position in the company meant little to the Turks - they were only interested in keeping him on the payroll and solving his mysteries. The President only cared that he was loyal and wouldn’t harm ShinRa. So far, Strife had been a model SOLDIER. The matter of the contacts in his phone alarmed him, but he’d learnt that conspiracy did not necessarily lurk in every corner of the company. Sometimes, there really were ordinary explanations.
“Unless anyone else has something to add, we’ll keep this short and adjourn here. I know you all have busy schedules. If anything else of concern comes up, please contact me immediately.”
Lazard left first - no doubt anxious to tackle his not-inconsiderable pile of paperwork before the board meeting that afternoon. Angeal and Genesis headed out into the brightly lit hallway, a heavy silence between them.
“And General Sephiroth,” Tseng’s voice echoed through the meeting room, just before the silver-haired man reached the doorway. “In the future, the company would prefer it if you were not to provoke Strife. He’s doing his best to hold up his end of the contract, but we’d like to avoid testing him on it.”
Sephiroth paused, and the Turk braced himself for a retort, but the SOLDIER just inclined his head slightly in acknowledgement, and disappeared from the room in a swish of black leather.
Tseng let out a breath, and hoped the General would take his warning to heart. Strife presented a mystery that you naturally wanted to pick at, but he wished he would leave it to the Turks. Investigations like these had to be done with finesse - otherwise they had a tendency to explode in your face. And in the case of someone like Strife, possibly take out half the company in the process.
He didn’t get paid nearly enough for this.
………………………..
Cloud grew suspicious at the lack of fallout from his altercation with Sephiroth, but as the days passed and nothing happened, slowly began to relax. As much as he could relax when surrounded by the ghosts of the past, anyway.
“See? I told you it wouldn’t be a problem. Neither Zack or I reported it, and why would the General?” Kunsel assured him, tossing him a drink from the vending machine. Cloud caught it and cracked it open, sipping the fizzy soda slowly.
Kunsel seemed to have adopted him as a mentor of sorts, which made for an interesting experience. Cloud hadn’t really trained anybody before, and he didn’t think he was very good at it, but the Second kept turning up and cajoling him into practice sessions - first materia, and after witnessing his brief skirmish with Sephiroth, swords as well.
Seeking a change in subject, Cloud noted, “You never seem to go on any missions.” He wrapped his hands around the chilled can, frowning at the condensation soaking into his fingertips. Maybe he ought to swap out the uniform gloves for his usual black ones.
“Only about every third day,” Kunsel agreed. “And I usually get local ones, too. The Director put me onto organising exams and supervising cadet classes.” He shrugged.
That explained why the Second always seemed to be around in the afternoons. “You don’t mind?” The work would be easy, but it also meant his chances of becoming a First Class were distant at best.
As if reading his mind, he replied, “Not everyone can become a First Class, you know. It’s only for the best of the best.”
Cloud didn’t really agree with that. He spent a moment gathering his thoughts, then murmured, “I think you have what it takes. You’re good with materia.” And he fought intelligently, which set him apart from the majority of the Second and Third Class SOLDIERs.
Kunsel grinned. “Hearing you say that gets my hopes up. I’m going to keep working at it. Think you’ll still be willing to help me out when you’re in Second Class?”
“You say it like it’s a given.”
The Second chugged the last of his drink, and pegged it towards the bin across the way. It crumpled on impact and rattled into the trash along with a collection of similarly crushed cans. “Zack and I have a bet running. He says you’ll be promoted by the end of the week - I gave you two.”
“Isn’t that a little soon to get promoted to Second Class?” Cloud wondered. He’d only been a Third for a little less than two weeks.
"Normally, I’d say yes. But no one will resent you for it," Kunsel assured him. "Word's gotten around that you're good. Everyone knows you're doing missions off the Second Class roster already."
Cloud frowned. "Everyone?"
Kunsel jerked his head in Zack's direction. The bouncy black-haired SOLDIER was waving his arms in the air enthusiastically as he talked to a fellow Second - Luxiere, probably, but the helmet made it hard to tell for sure. Cloud didn’t have a very good memory for names and faces. “Oh. Right.”
They settled into comfortable silence while Cloud lingered over his drink. He didn’t have any missions for the rest of the day, and Hojo hadn’t set up shop in the Training Room when he checked earlier, so there wasn’t any rush to go anywhere. Hanging out with Kunsel passed the time easily. Aside from a couple of hazy recollections in Zack’s memories, Cloud never knew him before, so their interactions were blissfully free of emotional baggage.
Zack eventually noticed them and bounded over. “Cloud! Kunsel! What are you guys doing here?”
“Just finished another materia session. Check it out.” Kunsel held aloft his Ice materia, now mastered. Cloud made a mental note to find him a new one to start on - a natural one, this time. He could remember a place in the slums that sold them, though it did poor business because most people didn’t know the difference between manufactured and naturally formed materia.
“What? You guys were training without me?” Zack affected a look of mock hurt.
“Zack!” A familiar voice echoed down the hall. Angeal. “If you’ve got time for chit-chat, you’ve got time for training!”
Zack winced as his mentor joined them. “I was going to go training! We were just going to have a spar, right guys?” His expression seemed a little desperate.
“Hey, you’ve already got a mentor Zack, quit hogging mine,” Kunsel jibed.
“Strife, are you stealing my student?” Angeal asked in good humour.
“No sir,” he replied quickly. “You should go to your training, Zack.”
“But Clooooooud!” Zack whined, drawing the word out. “You have no idea! Angeal’s evil!”
“Wait - you’re Cloud?” Angeal interrupted.
Taken aback, Cloud just nodded.
“It’s his first name,” Kunsel offered.
Angeal shook his head in wonder. “He’s been nattering on about some guy called Cloud for weeks. I didn’t realise it was you.”
Rightly so - he’d been avoiding using his full name, on the very slim chance somebody stumbled across his ‘nephew’ in Nibelheim and thought something odd. The story he’d used on Bradley wouldn’t hold up under inspection. No helping it, though, not when he’d given Zack his first name without thought.
“That reminds me, we’ve got a long distance mission tomorrow - helicopter’s leaving at 0800 hours. Check your mail for the details.” Angeal informed him. Cloud nodded to show he understood, and Angeal cuffed Zack lightly across the back of his head as he tried to sneak away. “Come on, idiot, you’re not getting off that easy.”
Cloud watched them go, a little confused. “Did Zack do something wrong?” He thought Zack liked training. He certainly bugged the two of them enough about it.
Kunsel chuckled. “Nah. He always tries to wriggle out of practice. If it weren’t for Angeal, his training would be nothing but squats.”
……………….
Genesis, Angeal and Sephiroth had a long-standing tradition that at the end of the week, providing nobody was away on a mission, they would gather in Sephiroth’s office as twilight fell, and indulge in some social drinks. The alcohol did very little, of course - mako burned it away with the same efficiency it reserved for most poisons - but it served as a chance to catch up. Lately, its purpose had shifted mostly to discussing the unusual new SOLDIER in their midst.
“I found out something interesting today,” Angeal began. It must have been good, as he took his time pouring a drink, drawing out the suspense.
It worked. Sephiroth found himself leaning forward in his seat, and Genesis went to no effort to disguise his interest. “Oh?”
“His full name. Cloud Strife.”
There was a pause as the words sunk in, then Genesis snorted. "Cloud? His name is Cloud?"
"Cloud Strife," Sephiroth mused, testing the words on his tongue. "I wonder why he went to such effort to hide his first name."
“I already checked the personnel databases - there’s no match for ‘Cloud’ either, so it’s not that.” Angeal shrugged. “I passed it along to Tseng, but he probably already knows, since apparently almost everyone else in SOLDIER calls him Cloud thanks to Zack.”
“Infinite in mystery is the gift of the goddess.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t enjoy mysteries like you two seem to.”
Sephiroth didn’t enjoy mysteries at all, actually - which was why he was so determined to unravel Cloud’s. Yes, the name suited him, he decided. Cloud Strife. Like an uncontrollable tempest, a force of destruction which you couldn’t predict and if you tried to grab it, would just slip through your fingers.
“I’m surprised you still feel that way. You’ve been shadowing him for two weeks now,” the General commented, and found himself annoyed. He hadn’t seen that spiky blond head of hair since the aborted skirmish in the training room. After waiting so long for his rival’s arrival, only to be told that they couldn’t fight - a great disappointment.
"Maybe I’ve been working with him for the past two weeks, but it hardly makes a difference. He's just as bad at expressing himself as you are," Angeal dismissed. "Doesn't talk unless prompted, and smiles even less."
"He seems to get along fine with your student," Sephiroth observed, ignoring the slight. "The Second Class - Zack Fair."
Angeal chuckled. "That's different. Zack could talk the scales off a dragon."
Genesis sniggered. "Is the great General Sephiroth feeling jealous?”
Sephiroth frowned, and refused to answer. Sometimes Genesis hit a little too close to the mark, and he’d do anything to avoid letting his old friend know that.
Was it so wrong, though? The three were friends, but sometimes Sephiroth felt as though he had nothing else. Angeal had that Second he’d adopted, and Genesis had Loveless. What did Sephiroth have?
He thought he’d finally found it in the enigmatic blond. No - he knew he found it. Something about Cloud called to him, awakened some instinct. He wanted to fight him, wanted to tug at his strings - he wanted a rival.
Only apparently his rival didn’t want to play ball.
In a rare moment of empathy, Sephiroth realised this must be what Genesis felt like all the time.
“What did you think about Tseng’s theories?” Angeal asked. His tone was conversational, but forced. Something must have bothered him about it.
“The experiment one?” Sephiroth asked. “…It’s plausible. We considered it from the beginning. There are people out there desperate to discover the secret of SOLDIER. Desperate enough to experiment on humans.”
“Does it change anything?” Genesis asked.
“I guess it doesn’t matter,” Angeal admitted. “If the experience put him off doctors altogether, he’s not likely to be holding onto any dangerous loyalties.”
“Then you’re not curious?” Genesis probed, kicking his heels back and lounging in his chair, edge of his maroon coat brushing the ground.
“Of course I’m curious, but if it’s not relevant and he doesn’t want to talk about it, I’m not going to press it.” Angeal poured himself another drink. “No matter how interesting it is.”
“So boring,” Genesis scoffed, rolling the stem of a wine glass between his fingers. “And yet you’ve got the best mission at the moment.”
“It’s not all that exciting. I haven’t had to lift a finger. And I still haven’t seen what’s so remarkable about his sword.”
“He must not have had a reason to use it yet,” Sephiroth mused. Come to think of it, the dual swords only came into play later in the fight. He took another sip of wine and relished the warm burn in the back of his throat
“Challenge him to a duel, Angeal,” Genesis suggested. “Then you’ll see.”
He shook his head with a wry smile. “I think you two have that covered well enough already, thanks.”
Sephiroth allowed himself a brief chuckle, and poured himself another drink. Pleasant though the taste might be, sometimes he wished the alcohol would have more of an effect.
“Are you alright, Sephiroth?” Genesis asked suddenly. “You look tired.”
The question caught Sephiroth off guard - not because it wasn’t true, but because such concern and observation from Genesis was something he still wasn’t used to. He’d been worrying over Angeal like a mother chocobo for the past few weeks. A very cranky mother chocobo that would peck your eyes out if you didn't adhere to its unpredictable self-care regime. The General hoped this wasn’t a sign of the habit being extended to him, too. “I haven’t been sleeping well. It’s nothing to worry about.”
“Insomnia?” Angeal asked.
“Just dreams,” he replied curtly, not wanting to discuss it further. If he were being entirely honest, he would have called them nightmares.
“Ripples form on the water's surface
The wandering soul knows no rest.”
“Loveless, Act I. Thank you for trying to put me to sleep anyway.”
The usual lecture on literary appreciation did not come. Instead, Genesis merely waved a lazy hand. “I wouldn’t like tiredness to be your excuse when you lose, next time we spar.”
“Your concern is overwhelming.”
It made him think, though. Perhaps he’d been approaching things from the wrong angle. His rivalry with Genesis - or rather, Genesis’s rivalry with him - had been born out of their longstanding friendship. Perhaps he needed to befriend Cloud before he could be a rival. At the very least, he wasn’t willing to just stay away as Tseng had suggested.
How to befriend a man who clearly hated him, however, remained a mystery. Such issues had not been covered anywhere in Hojo’s training.
Sephiroth grimaced, swishing the wine in his glass to cover the expression.
The first step, he supposed, would be getting through a conversation without Cloud trying to kill him.
…………………………
Zack loved his life. He was dating the girl of his dreams, had great friends, and was going to be promoted to First Class any day now. How could he not be, when he was receiving personal instruction from two of the most badass SOLDIERs in the program?
“You’re an idiot,” Kunsel told him. “And stop trying to steal other people’s mentors.”
“I saw him first,” Zack declared.
“How’s that? I met him at his exam.”
Zack grinned, enjoying having the upper hand on his buddy for once. “Promise you won’t tell?”
“Stop being so dramatic and just spill already.”
“I met him in the slums, when he first came to Midgar.”
“When you were visiting your girlfriend?”
“Yeah!”
“So?” Kunsel retorted. “He hadn’t even joined SOLDIER yet.”
“But get this! I was trying to get him to sign up, you know, since he was sleeping on the streets and stuff and didn’t have a job, so I got him to come along with me on that monster cleanup mission, right? He did great, it was just like fighting alongside you or any of the other SOLDIERs. But then a grand horn turned up.”
If Kunsel were surprised, his helmet prevented anyone from knowing it. “Wow.”
“Yeah. Caught me completely off-balance. If Cloud wasn’t there, I would have been gored.”
“So he saved your ass, huh?”
“You bet! You should have seen it. He stopped a grand horn, with just the flat of his blade!”
“That’s not really surprising,” Kunsel remarked.
“You’re kidding! That would be tough even for a First Class!”
“But isn’t Cloud the guy who fought Sephiroth to a draw in Wutai?”
Zack’s eyes bugged out comically. “What?”
Kunsel shook his head fondly. “How can you not know about it? It’s been all the gossip in SOLDIER for months. You were there when Sephiroth came looking for him last week.”
“But that could have been anything!” Thinking about it, though, it suddenly made a lot of sense. Far out. Maybe his assumption about Cloud being some unlucky country bumpkin hadn’t been so accurate after all. Although he’d implied he’d lost all of his friends, hadn’t he? Maybe ShinRa stuffed up somewhere, on some mission Sephiroth had been on. Hard to imagine the General stuffing up a mission, but then, the ShinRa public relations machine could cover up anything. Poor guy. He’d have to try and drag the story out of him later.
“Whatever, man. Have you finished your training with Angeal for the day?”
“Yeah.” His arms throbbed at the reminder, apparently excited by the attention. Stupid arms.
“You want to go hit the Goblin Bar? They’ve got cheap drinks tonight.”
“Hey, I’m spoken for now. I can’t go cruising for pretty girls with you anymore,” Zack reminded him, then felt bad at rubbing his good fortune in Kunsel’s face, so amended, “I’ll come for the drinks, though. Hey, let’s invite Cloud!”
“Weren’t you listening before? He’s got a mission tomorrow morning.”
Zack paused, scratching his head. “Oh, right. Guess we’d better let him rest then. He always looks so tired, you know?”
“Probably because of your endless nagging.”
“Hey! You’re the one who keeps hitting him up for training!”
“Which you tag along on, even though you complain about Angeal’s training.”
“You’ve never been through one of Angeal’s sessions, okay? It’s fine when it’s just sims, but once we start the drills…” Zack groaned.
Kunsel grinned and punched him in the shoulder. “I’ve heard it all before. Admit it, you’re a training maniac.”
“Gotta be, if I’m going to make First.” He pointed an accusing finger at his fellow SOLDIER. “Don’t roll your eyes! I’m serious.”
“I’m wearing a helmet, Zack.”
“I can tell.”
Kunsel seemed amused. “Sure you can. Come on, let’s get going.”
“Sure, sure, I’m coming.” His thoughts strayed back to the mysterious blond, however. He knew straight away that Cloud was something else, but… “Did he really fight the General to a draw?”
“You saw them in the Training Room, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, but that was pretty short.” It looked like it was getting serious before they stepped in, though. Cloud had a sort of wild look to his eyes. And he’d cast that Wall on them too. Like he was afraid they’d get hurt.
“Who knows how it would have gone if they kept going,” Kunsel said with a shrug. “If it bugs you so much, ask him yourself.” Kunsel, at least, appeared to believe the rumour. Which meant it probably was true.
Too many mysteries. Aeris’s ‘Mr Nobody’ just kept turning up more surprises. “Man, what kind of guy is Cloud, anyway? Too unreal.”
Next chapter
Rating: T for violence.
Summary: FFVII Time-travel. Gen. Cloud has an accident with a Time Materia.
Author's Note: This chapter has a little bit of everything.
Previous Chapter
__________________
The Fifth Act
Chapter 15
__________________
“It’s been a week since Strife joined ShinRa Incorporated,” Tseng began. “Thank you all for making time today for this personnel review.”
A snort from Genesis’s direction informed everybody of the Commander’s opinion of that particular turn of phrase. Tseng remained professional, leafing through his binder, observing each member of the room carefully. Sephiroth tapped the side of his arm, the only sign of his impatience. Angeal folded his arms.
Lazard broke the silence. “Where should we begin?”
To the Turk’s surprise, Sephiroth was the first to speak up. “I ran into him-” Tseng knew that was a lie, he’d reviewed the Training Room security feed. “-and he didn’t try to kill me on sight.”
“Of course not,” Lazard replied. “He signed a contract to that effect.”
“I’m surprised he agreed to it,” Genesis mused, as though speaking to himself.
Angeal shrugged. "Tseng was right. He must have changed his mind." The stocky First looked troubled by something, though. Tseng made a mental note to follow that up later.
As for Sephiroth, his expression indicated that he didn’t think Strife had changed his mind at all. After witnessing the footage of their encounter in the Training Room, Tseng found himself inclined to agree. He was holding himself in, a taut string ready to snap at the slightest pluck. Which made it all the more confusing that he had agreed to work for ShinRa. He had to have known that such an action would directly contravene his desires. What was he playing at?
It was Tseng’s job to find out.
“That matter aside, upon signing him up I have discovered he has an aversion to scientists and doctors,” Tseng stated. “He claims he suffered mako poisoning, and that may be true, but his reluctance suggests he may have been experimented upon in the past.” Genesis glared at the table. Understandable. The Turks had an unofficial awareness of Project G. “Unverified, but in the meantime it’s a small detail we can add to his psychological profile. Has anyone come across anything suspicious?”
Angeal shifted in his seat, looking indecisive. When everyone turned their attention to him, he sighed, and admitted, “I had a look through his PHS contact list. It was… disturbing.”
“Disturbing?” Tseng asked.
“Here, I wrote down all the names I could remember.” Angeal pushed a notebook across the table to him. The Turk picked it up and scanned it, eyebrows raised. This was interesting.
“Go on, then,” Genesis prompted, curiosity obviously piqued.
“Tifa, Barrett, Cid, Vincent, Yuffie, Shelke, Reeve…” His voice trailed off dubiously.
“Reeve? As in Tuesti? Head of Urban Development?” Sephiroth asked.
“Yuffie is of interest, as well,” Tseng murmured. “These are only first names, so it may be coincidence, but Lord Godo has a daughter named Yuffie.” A contact made in Wutai? The Princess was just a child, though. She wouldn’t be of any use in a conspiracy.
“You’re missing the most important part,” Angeal interrupted. “You’re on there, Tseng.”
“As are two other Turks,” he agreed. His own name didn’t bother him - he’d left contact information with Strife when he’d hired him - but the presence of Reno and Rude on the list could not be so easily explained away. “And also a ‘ShinRa’, but without seeing the number itself, I can’t be sure if that applies to an individual or the company. Were these all the names, Angeal?”
“Not even half,” he admitted with a grimace. “I couldn’t look too long without him getting suspicious.”
“I’m surprised you even thought to do something so underhanded,” Genesis remarked.
Angeal shrugged. “It was kind of by accident. I wasn’t familiar with the phone, and when I saw the first couple of names, well…” He gestured at the notebook. “Maybe it doesn’t mean anything. Used to run a delivery service apparently. They could just be clients.”
“A delivery service?” Lazard sounded mildly impressed, and Tseng recalled the Director’s admiration for entrepreneurs. It appeared that his reservations about Strife had been stripped away in the past week. Impressive, considering he’d originally been the strongest opponent to his recruitment.
The Turk filed the mention of a delivery service away in the back of his mind to investigate - though such one-man operations were notoriously difficult to track. “I’ll have to take a closer look at his PHS at some point.” He slipped the list of names into his pocket. “On to other matters. Angeal, you’ve been accompanying him on his missions, correct? What other impressions do you have to share?”
The bulky First folded his arms. "I say promote him to Second Class."
"So soon?"
"You already know he's on the same level as a First - you wouldn't have gone to so much effort to hire him otherwise."
"Superior fighting skills do not alone a Second make. There are a number of talented Thirds who haven't been promoted simply because they are prone to causing collateral damage, or because they lack discipline," Lazard pointed out.
"Strife's not that reckless. You've spoken to him, Lazard. I've only tagged along on half of his missions, but he completes them in record time with zero fuss. He cleared out over three dozen Death Gazes from a bunker in a matter of minutes, and he looked bored by it. Stop wasting his time on grunt work."
Lazard spent a moment considering that, then relented. "A compromise. I move him on to Second-Class missions, and if he's still keeping up after a week of those, I'll promote him."
Tseng nodded his agreement. Strife’s position in the company meant little to the Turks - they were only interested in keeping him on the payroll and solving his mysteries. The President only cared that he was loyal and wouldn’t harm ShinRa. So far, Strife had been a model SOLDIER. The matter of the contacts in his phone alarmed him, but he’d learnt that conspiracy did not necessarily lurk in every corner of the company. Sometimes, there really were ordinary explanations.
“Unless anyone else has something to add, we’ll keep this short and adjourn here. I know you all have busy schedules. If anything else of concern comes up, please contact me immediately.”
Lazard left first - no doubt anxious to tackle his not-inconsiderable pile of paperwork before the board meeting that afternoon. Angeal and Genesis headed out into the brightly lit hallway, a heavy silence between them.
“And General Sephiroth,” Tseng’s voice echoed through the meeting room, just before the silver-haired man reached the doorway. “In the future, the company would prefer it if you were not to provoke Strife. He’s doing his best to hold up his end of the contract, but we’d like to avoid testing him on it.”
Sephiroth paused, and the Turk braced himself for a retort, but the SOLDIER just inclined his head slightly in acknowledgement, and disappeared from the room in a swish of black leather.
Tseng let out a breath, and hoped the General would take his warning to heart. Strife presented a mystery that you naturally wanted to pick at, but he wished he would leave it to the Turks. Investigations like these had to be done with finesse - otherwise they had a tendency to explode in your face. And in the case of someone like Strife, possibly take out half the company in the process.
He didn’t get paid nearly enough for this.
………………………..
Cloud grew suspicious at the lack of fallout from his altercation with Sephiroth, but as the days passed and nothing happened, slowly began to relax. As much as he could relax when surrounded by the ghosts of the past, anyway.
“See? I told you it wouldn’t be a problem. Neither Zack or I reported it, and why would the General?” Kunsel assured him, tossing him a drink from the vending machine. Cloud caught it and cracked it open, sipping the fizzy soda slowly.
Kunsel seemed to have adopted him as a mentor of sorts, which made for an interesting experience. Cloud hadn’t really trained anybody before, and he didn’t think he was very good at it, but the Second kept turning up and cajoling him into practice sessions - first materia, and after witnessing his brief skirmish with Sephiroth, swords as well.
Seeking a change in subject, Cloud noted, “You never seem to go on any missions.” He wrapped his hands around the chilled can, frowning at the condensation soaking into his fingertips. Maybe he ought to swap out the uniform gloves for his usual black ones.
“Only about every third day,” Kunsel agreed. “And I usually get local ones, too. The Director put me onto organising exams and supervising cadet classes.” He shrugged.
That explained why the Second always seemed to be around in the afternoons. “You don’t mind?” The work would be easy, but it also meant his chances of becoming a First Class were distant at best.
As if reading his mind, he replied, “Not everyone can become a First Class, you know. It’s only for the best of the best.”
Cloud didn’t really agree with that. He spent a moment gathering his thoughts, then murmured, “I think you have what it takes. You’re good with materia.” And he fought intelligently, which set him apart from the majority of the Second and Third Class SOLDIERs.
Kunsel grinned. “Hearing you say that gets my hopes up. I’m going to keep working at it. Think you’ll still be willing to help me out when you’re in Second Class?”
“You say it like it’s a given.”
The Second chugged the last of his drink, and pegged it towards the bin across the way. It crumpled on impact and rattled into the trash along with a collection of similarly crushed cans. “Zack and I have a bet running. He says you’ll be promoted by the end of the week - I gave you two.”
“Isn’t that a little soon to get promoted to Second Class?” Cloud wondered. He’d only been a Third for a little less than two weeks.
"Normally, I’d say yes. But no one will resent you for it," Kunsel assured him. "Word's gotten around that you're good. Everyone knows you're doing missions off the Second Class roster already."
Cloud frowned. "Everyone?"
Kunsel jerked his head in Zack's direction. The bouncy black-haired SOLDIER was waving his arms in the air enthusiastically as he talked to a fellow Second - Luxiere, probably, but the helmet made it hard to tell for sure. Cloud didn’t have a very good memory for names and faces. “Oh. Right.”
They settled into comfortable silence while Cloud lingered over his drink. He didn’t have any missions for the rest of the day, and Hojo hadn’t set up shop in the Training Room when he checked earlier, so there wasn’t any rush to go anywhere. Hanging out with Kunsel passed the time easily. Aside from a couple of hazy recollections in Zack’s memories, Cloud never knew him before, so their interactions were blissfully free of emotional baggage.
Zack eventually noticed them and bounded over. “Cloud! Kunsel! What are you guys doing here?”
“Just finished another materia session. Check it out.” Kunsel held aloft his Ice materia, now mastered. Cloud made a mental note to find him a new one to start on - a natural one, this time. He could remember a place in the slums that sold them, though it did poor business because most people didn’t know the difference between manufactured and naturally formed materia.
“What? You guys were training without me?” Zack affected a look of mock hurt.
“Zack!” A familiar voice echoed down the hall. Angeal. “If you’ve got time for chit-chat, you’ve got time for training!”
Zack winced as his mentor joined them. “I was going to go training! We were just going to have a spar, right guys?” His expression seemed a little desperate.
“Hey, you’ve already got a mentor Zack, quit hogging mine,” Kunsel jibed.
“Strife, are you stealing my student?” Angeal asked in good humour.
“No sir,” he replied quickly. “You should go to your training, Zack.”
“But Clooooooud!” Zack whined, drawing the word out. “You have no idea! Angeal’s evil!”
“Wait - you’re Cloud?” Angeal interrupted.
Taken aback, Cloud just nodded.
“It’s his first name,” Kunsel offered.
Angeal shook his head in wonder. “He’s been nattering on about some guy called Cloud for weeks. I didn’t realise it was you.”
Rightly so - he’d been avoiding using his full name, on the very slim chance somebody stumbled across his ‘nephew’ in Nibelheim and thought something odd. The story he’d used on Bradley wouldn’t hold up under inspection. No helping it, though, not when he’d given Zack his first name without thought.
“That reminds me, we’ve got a long distance mission tomorrow - helicopter’s leaving at 0800 hours. Check your mail for the details.” Angeal informed him. Cloud nodded to show he understood, and Angeal cuffed Zack lightly across the back of his head as he tried to sneak away. “Come on, idiot, you’re not getting off that easy.”
Cloud watched them go, a little confused. “Did Zack do something wrong?” He thought Zack liked training. He certainly bugged the two of them enough about it.
Kunsel chuckled. “Nah. He always tries to wriggle out of practice. If it weren’t for Angeal, his training would be nothing but squats.”
……………….
Genesis, Angeal and Sephiroth had a long-standing tradition that at the end of the week, providing nobody was away on a mission, they would gather in Sephiroth’s office as twilight fell, and indulge in some social drinks. The alcohol did very little, of course - mako burned it away with the same efficiency it reserved for most poisons - but it served as a chance to catch up. Lately, its purpose had shifted mostly to discussing the unusual new SOLDIER in their midst.
“I found out something interesting today,” Angeal began. It must have been good, as he took his time pouring a drink, drawing out the suspense.
It worked. Sephiroth found himself leaning forward in his seat, and Genesis went to no effort to disguise his interest. “Oh?”
“His full name. Cloud Strife.”
There was a pause as the words sunk in, then Genesis snorted. "Cloud? His name is Cloud?"
"Cloud Strife," Sephiroth mused, testing the words on his tongue. "I wonder why he went to such effort to hide his first name."
“I already checked the personnel databases - there’s no match for ‘Cloud’ either, so it’s not that.” Angeal shrugged. “I passed it along to Tseng, but he probably already knows, since apparently almost everyone else in SOLDIER calls him Cloud thanks to Zack.”
“Infinite in mystery is the gift of the goddess.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t enjoy mysteries like you two seem to.”
Sephiroth didn’t enjoy mysteries at all, actually - which was why he was so determined to unravel Cloud’s. Yes, the name suited him, he decided. Cloud Strife. Like an uncontrollable tempest, a force of destruction which you couldn’t predict and if you tried to grab it, would just slip through your fingers.
“I’m surprised you still feel that way. You’ve been shadowing him for two weeks now,” the General commented, and found himself annoyed. He hadn’t seen that spiky blond head of hair since the aborted skirmish in the training room. After waiting so long for his rival’s arrival, only to be told that they couldn’t fight - a great disappointment.
"Maybe I’ve been working with him for the past two weeks, but it hardly makes a difference. He's just as bad at expressing himself as you are," Angeal dismissed. "Doesn't talk unless prompted, and smiles even less."
"He seems to get along fine with your student," Sephiroth observed, ignoring the slight. "The Second Class - Zack Fair."
Angeal chuckled. "That's different. Zack could talk the scales off a dragon."
Genesis sniggered. "Is the great General Sephiroth feeling jealous?”
Sephiroth frowned, and refused to answer. Sometimes Genesis hit a little too close to the mark, and he’d do anything to avoid letting his old friend know that.
Was it so wrong, though? The three were friends, but sometimes Sephiroth felt as though he had nothing else. Angeal had that Second he’d adopted, and Genesis had Loveless. What did Sephiroth have?
He thought he’d finally found it in the enigmatic blond. No - he knew he found it. Something about Cloud called to him, awakened some instinct. He wanted to fight him, wanted to tug at his strings - he wanted a rival.
Only apparently his rival didn’t want to play ball.
In a rare moment of empathy, Sephiroth realised this must be what Genesis felt like all the time.
“What did you think about Tseng’s theories?” Angeal asked. His tone was conversational, but forced. Something must have bothered him about it.
“The experiment one?” Sephiroth asked. “…It’s plausible. We considered it from the beginning. There are people out there desperate to discover the secret of SOLDIER. Desperate enough to experiment on humans.”
“Does it change anything?” Genesis asked.
“I guess it doesn’t matter,” Angeal admitted. “If the experience put him off doctors altogether, he’s not likely to be holding onto any dangerous loyalties.”
“Then you’re not curious?” Genesis probed, kicking his heels back and lounging in his chair, edge of his maroon coat brushing the ground.
“Of course I’m curious, but if it’s not relevant and he doesn’t want to talk about it, I’m not going to press it.” Angeal poured himself another drink. “No matter how interesting it is.”
“So boring,” Genesis scoffed, rolling the stem of a wine glass between his fingers. “And yet you’ve got the best mission at the moment.”
“It’s not all that exciting. I haven’t had to lift a finger. And I still haven’t seen what’s so remarkable about his sword.”
“He must not have had a reason to use it yet,” Sephiroth mused. Come to think of it, the dual swords only came into play later in the fight. He took another sip of wine and relished the warm burn in the back of his throat
“Challenge him to a duel, Angeal,” Genesis suggested. “Then you’ll see.”
He shook his head with a wry smile. “I think you two have that covered well enough already, thanks.”
Sephiroth allowed himself a brief chuckle, and poured himself another drink. Pleasant though the taste might be, sometimes he wished the alcohol would have more of an effect.
“Are you alright, Sephiroth?” Genesis asked suddenly. “You look tired.”
The question caught Sephiroth off guard - not because it wasn’t true, but because such concern and observation from Genesis was something he still wasn’t used to. He’d been worrying over Angeal like a mother chocobo for the past few weeks. A very cranky mother chocobo that would peck your eyes out if you didn't adhere to its unpredictable self-care regime. The General hoped this wasn’t a sign of the habit being extended to him, too. “I haven’t been sleeping well. It’s nothing to worry about.”
“Insomnia?” Angeal asked.
“Just dreams,” he replied curtly, not wanting to discuss it further. If he were being entirely honest, he would have called them nightmares.
“Ripples form on the water's surface
The wandering soul knows no rest.”
“Loveless, Act I. Thank you for trying to put me to sleep anyway.”
The usual lecture on literary appreciation did not come. Instead, Genesis merely waved a lazy hand. “I wouldn’t like tiredness to be your excuse when you lose, next time we spar.”
“Your concern is overwhelming.”
It made him think, though. Perhaps he’d been approaching things from the wrong angle. His rivalry with Genesis - or rather, Genesis’s rivalry with him - had been born out of their longstanding friendship. Perhaps he needed to befriend Cloud before he could be a rival. At the very least, he wasn’t willing to just stay away as Tseng had suggested.
How to befriend a man who clearly hated him, however, remained a mystery. Such issues had not been covered anywhere in Hojo’s training.
Sephiroth grimaced, swishing the wine in his glass to cover the expression.
The first step, he supposed, would be getting through a conversation without Cloud trying to kill him.
…………………………
Zack loved his life. He was dating the girl of his dreams, had great friends, and was going to be promoted to First Class any day now. How could he not be, when he was receiving personal instruction from two of the most badass SOLDIERs in the program?
“You’re an idiot,” Kunsel told him. “And stop trying to steal other people’s mentors.”
“I saw him first,” Zack declared.
“How’s that? I met him at his exam.”
Zack grinned, enjoying having the upper hand on his buddy for once. “Promise you won’t tell?”
“Stop being so dramatic and just spill already.”
“I met him in the slums, when he first came to Midgar.”
“When you were visiting your girlfriend?”
“Yeah!”
“So?” Kunsel retorted. “He hadn’t even joined SOLDIER yet.”
“But get this! I was trying to get him to sign up, you know, since he was sleeping on the streets and stuff and didn’t have a job, so I got him to come along with me on that monster cleanup mission, right? He did great, it was just like fighting alongside you or any of the other SOLDIERs. But then a grand horn turned up.”
If Kunsel were surprised, his helmet prevented anyone from knowing it. “Wow.”
“Yeah. Caught me completely off-balance. If Cloud wasn’t there, I would have been gored.”
“So he saved your ass, huh?”
“You bet! You should have seen it. He stopped a grand horn, with just the flat of his blade!”
“That’s not really surprising,” Kunsel remarked.
“You’re kidding! That would be tough even for a First Class!”
“But isn’t Cloud the guy who fought Sephiroth to a draw in Wutai?”
Zack’s eyes bugged out comically. “What?”
Kunsel shook his head fondly. “How can you not know about it? It’s been all the gossip in SOLDIER for months. You were there when Sephiroth came looking for him last week.”
“But that could have been anything!” Thinking about it, though, it suddenly made a lot of sense. Far out. Maybe his assumption about Cloud being some unlucky country bumpkin hadn’t been so accurate after all. Although he’d implied he’d lost all of his friends, hadn’t he? Maybe ShinRa stuffed up somewhere, on some mission Sephiroth had been on. Hard to imagine the General stuffing up a mission, but then, the ShinRa public relations machine could cover up anything. Poor guy. He’d have to try and drag the story out of him later.
“Whatever, man. Have you finished your training with Angeal for the day?”
“Yeah.” His arms throbbed at the reminder, apparently excited by the attention. Stupid arms.
“You want to go hit the Goblin Bar? They’ve got cheap drinks tonight.”
“Hey, I’m spoken for now. I can’t go cruising for pretty girls with you anymore,” Zack reminded him, then felt bad at rubbing his good fortune in Kunsel’s face, so amended, “I’ll come for the drinks, though. Hey, let’s invite Cloud!”
“Weren’t you listening before? He’s got a mission tomorrow morning.”
Zack paused, scratching his head. “Oh, right. Guess we’d better let him rest then. He always looks so tired, you know?”
“Probably because of your endless nagging.”
“Hey! You’re the one who keeps hitting him up for training!”
“Which you tag along on, even though you complain about Angeal’s training.”
“You’ve never been through one of Angeal’s sessions, okay? It’s fine when it’s just sims, but once we start the drills…” Zack groaned.
Kunsel grinned and punched him in the shoulder. “I’ve heard it all before. Admit it, you’re a training maniac.”
“Gotta be, if I’m going to make First.” He pointed an accusing finger at his fellow SOLDIER. “Don’t roll your eyes! I’m serious.”
“I’m wearing a helmet, Zack.”
“I can tell.”
Kunsel seemed amused. “Sure you can. Come on, let’s get going.”
“Sure, sure, I’m coming.” His thoughts strayed back to the mysterious blond, however. He knew straight away that Cloud was something else, but… “Did he really fight the General to a draw?”
“You saw them in the Training Room, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, but that was pretty short.” It looked like it was getting serious before they stepped in, though. Cloud had a sort of wild look to his eyes. And he’d cast that Wall on them too. Like he was afraid they’d get hurt.
“Who knows how it would have gone if they kept going,” Kunsel said with a shrug. “If it bugs you so much, ask him yourself.” Kunsel, at least, appeared to believe the rumour. Which meant it probably was true.
Too many mysteries. Aeris’s ‘Mr Nobody’ just kept turning up more surprises. “Man, what kind of guy is Cloud, anyway? Too unreal.”
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