The Beginning is the End...

Beta’d by CaseyAnn’sPrecious!

AN: *bows* Thank you all for the reviews!
To those still reading this, please enjoy!

Ratings, Disclaimer, and iWarnings! are still the same.

Flat on the Floor
(By: Nickleback)
Chapter 2

Angeal and Sephiroth watched as Zack practically sprinted down the hall to tell his friends the news. He’d just been informed by Angeal that he was recommended to take the SOLDIER 1st test and that Sephiroth was second to give his signature. The SOLDIER 2nd was dumbfounded for a whole instant before he whopped with joy.

"I spoke to Genesis on the phone this morning," Angeal said as he munched on a dumbapple. They were constantly being brought in by Genesis' mother ever since the fruit came into season.

"I had a pleasant conversation with him too," Sephiroth replied as he went though the SOLDIERs' progress reports.

"He mentioned a foot soldier," Angeal said and watched from the corner of his eye. Genesis had told him not to say his name, but the Lieutenant was never good at subtlety anyways. That and he didn’t want to be called out if Sephiroth decided to ask why he was talking about the soldier when he didn’t see any potential either. Of course, Angeal had no qualms about saving his own back when it came to the bickering of his two friends. In fact, he believed that he might have developed a sixth sense concerning the General and Commander’s quarrels. And honor had nothing to do with it, if you get caught in the middle of one of their repetitive arguments: run!

"Hm, does he think he’s found one that has potential?"

He nodded. "I believe the kid's name was Cloud Strife."

"Strife?" Sephiroth tried to hide the growl that came along with the name, but it didn't go unnoticed. The dark aura was clearly seeping out from him.

"The recruit was mentioned." Angeal’s argument sensors were tingling, and he got up from his spot on the couch and headed toward the door before he caused a dispute. "I'm going to pick up some more dumbapples, want anything?"

The General’s face turned into a small frown as he gave a mumbled ‘no thanks’ and went back to focusing on the paper in front of him, clearly intending to ignore whatever else might be said. Angeal went out and pondered his friend's strange, or stranger than normal, behavior.

*0~0*0~0*0~0*

Earlier that day…

Genesis and Angeal were discussing the Wutai mission and when the deployed were expected to return to Junon; it was a while before the other slipped out his deeper thoughts.

"Sephiroth thinks that the blond has potential?" Angeal asked.

"Possibly,” Genesis grumbled over the line, “but jailbait seemed like a weakling when I saw him. If the kid pushes himself too hard too soon then he might shatter his self-confidence. He already looks like a pushover.”

He silently agreed with what Genesis was saying. At that age the kid should have more muscle mass and height than that. Then there was the confidence issue, the boy seemed to hold himself poorly at the promotions. "So your question is: What does Sephiroth see?" There was a moment's pause to think. "I could ask him for you,” he offered.

"Just don't bring me up in the conversation,” Genesis yawned out. “I need to get some rest before tomorrow. I'll try to get a call in the morning. G'night.”

"Good morning," he cheerfully replied and let out a chuckle as the redhead gave out an annoyed “shut up” before the connection was cut.

*0~0*0~0*0~0*

Angeal walked into the SOLDIER cafeteria. SOLDIERs were gathered around the crates eating the apples put out for them by Genesis and himself. The broad man was thinking and almost missed the chorus of 'Good evening, Sir!' that greeted him. He took an apple out from the crate and bantered with the other SOLDIERs for a bit before heading out, his thoughts still flowing along the same path.

'It's almost as if… it were personal.' He thought as he bit into the juicy fruit.

--

~He could be using him. ~

'If that boy is thinking he's going to get a free ride into SOLDIER because he's friends with Zack, then he'd better think again.' Sephiroth angrily flipped through his papers. He had to start over because he was having trouble concentrating on what he was reading, but in his mind he was putting it all together.

'The boy must have become friends with Zack because Zack was being mentored by a Lieutenant. He must have thought he’d get noticed by superior officers by association, and probably got special training from one of them. Then that's how he got into SOLDIER; someone that's close to Zack recommended him because he probably asked Zack to ask one of the higher-ups to do so, and probably by Zack himself… when he reaches First Class. Damn that scheming little...' The General went to gather another file of paperwork as each new thought became more irritating than the last.

Green eyes glanced out the window and he saw the object that was plaguing his thoughts. The blond was yet again with the SOLDIER 2nd and they were headed to the barracks.

'I need to stop this charade now.' He dropped the military papers onto the desk and walked out of the office.

*0~0*0~0*0~0*

Zack was waiting outside Cloud's room when he spotted the General in the empty hallway. "Heya!" he gave Sephiroth a friendly wave. The silver-haired man returned with a kind smile and stopped in front of the blonds’ door.

"Genesis will be back to see you take the SOLDIER exam."

Zack's grin grew wider. "That's great! I was hoping the Wutai problem would end before I started the tests. I'm sure there's nothing better for an aspiring Second Class SOLDIER to have than the three top SOLDIERs in the world to be watching him like a hawk at every little thing he does… noting every mistake in their little black books. That kind of pressure sure does wonders!" The raven-haired boy said with layered sarcasm and a thumbs-up to accompany the cheesy smile.

Sephiroth frowned. "Zack, we're SOLDIER 1st Class. You should give us more credit." Zack faltered in his smile at his superior’s dry tone, the man continued. "We don't have little black books. We SOLDIER 1sts have excellent memory."

At that, Zack's tension melted away and he laughed out loud.

"Before I go I'd like to speak with you as a concerned friend," Sephiroth spoke and Zack looked up in curiosity. "I would like to express my concern with the amount of time you've been spending with that young foot soldier." A single dark eyebrow rose in non-understanding, so he had to continue with his explanation. "I think that you should put more time into your training instead of using it to entertain a cadet. I only mention this because your tests are coming up."

"Oh!" Zack finally understood what the other was hinting at. "No worries, I use my time with Cloud as a sort of warm-up session. Then, when we're done, I go to Angeal for practice spars, or I just train by myself." He innocently finished with a smile.

Damn. Sephiroth tried not to show the disappointment on his face. "Very well."

Inside the room they were standing next to came a thunk accompanied by what sounded like a prepubescent voice yelling 'found them!' Footsteps could be heard running to the door.

"I'll take my leave. Good luck with the exams, Zack." He recognized that voice and smirked. 'If I time this just right…'

"Thank you, I'll try my best!" Zack replied cheerfully.

The door opened and a mop of blond hair came rushing out. At the same time the General had his foot out in front of him as an act of moving ahead. Blue eyes looked up in surprise as feet kept moving forward, and then…

"General Sephiro-ah!" and the boy went face first into the floor.

"Cloud!" Zack rushed to help his friend. The General gave a polite 'excuse me' and said another farewell to the other SOLDIER. Zack was in slight shocked confusion and stared at the retreating General. The smaller blond looked mortified that he'd just literally tumbled over ‘The General’ and appeared as if he wanted to crawl into a hole and hide. Dumbfounded, Zack wondered what had just happened because it couldn’t have been what it looked like, but... 'Did he just trip him?!'

*0~0*0~0*0~0*

Later that night the General got another call from the labs. Professor Hojo had stated that they were ready to give him his bimonthly shot tonight. When he tried to reason with the man that he'd already gotten one this week, the other returned with a different reasoning; they needed to get back to a certain schedule and it was too vital change it. So he went to the science department, got his injection of the same dark green mako that he'd gotten last time, and left without a word.

Too tired to get out of his clothes, he collapsed onto the bed and slept through the ringing of the phone.

--

It was one of the few sunny days of June. There were water puddles scattered around the area from the downpour last night, but the air was fresh, the birds were singing, and a perfect breeze lazily glided through the atmosphere. It was a beautiful day to be out in the world and not inside a stuffy old building doing simulation training. So Zack and Angeal were out in the military fields while working on hand-to-hand combat.

The two men blocked, threw punches, dodged kicks, and tried to take the other down. It was a fast-paced dance of deadly skill, and focused as much on brute strength as it did agility and instinct. Angeal, of course, went somewhat easy on the lower mako enhanced Second. They trained for about an hour before he told his student to take a breather and grab a drink.

"Ah, this is nice!" Zack said as the breeze picked up and cooled them off.

"A man of simple pleasures," he commented while silently enjoyed it too. He had found great potential in Zack when he ran into the boy almost a year ago. There had been a lot of hazing done to soldiers in those days, and it had all been decided on whose name was drawn out from ‘the box’. Everyone knew of the initiations that the SOLDIER 2nds used to do. The tradition of pranking the unenhanced men went all the way back from when he’d joined the military. It had only been fun and games in his time, but the company had to put it to an end when a couple SOLDIERs accidentally went too far.

A foot soldier had been carried to the simulation room by a couple of SOLDIER 2nds after passing out from exhaustion on his bunker. The boy had woken up in what appeared to be the middle of a war-field and was scared shitless when a bunch of armed Wutai started attacking, unaware that it was a program.

Angeal had decided to train early that day and caught the SOLDIERs inside the room. They said that they figured out how to start the program, but they didn’t know how to bring the boy out of the simulation. He’d quickly put an end to it and shut it down. The young man freaked out when he saw bits of his surroundings break apart and, being able to feel a foreign device strapped to his head, brought his hands up as he realized he’d been wearing a helmet. When the boy took the machine off he gaped at the empty area in wonder.

The SOLDIERs had been disciplined for misusage of the machinery and the other was told to head back to his barracks. He’d begun to delete the information, but then found something incredible. The mission was set for a Third Class SOLDIER’s ability. It was failed, understandably, but what had amazed him was one of the tabs in ‘primary info’. The soldiers weren’t skilled enough to go against so many Third Class opponents, but that soldier had dodged all the attacks with the Realism set to 100%. If he hadn’t been there to pull the kid out then the chances were that the boy could have died, and Shinra would have unknowingly lost a skilled warrior.

He quickly found out the name of the soldier, and Zack Fair happily accepted his offer of mentorship.

The two sat in silence while the sun warmed their skin, and the Lieutenant noticed a short blond kid walking to the indoor pool and remembered him from the promotions. “Is that your friend?”

"Yeah, that's Cloud,” Zack said as he relaxed on the grass. “I've been teaching him how to swim."

"He doesn't know how?" Angeal was bewildered. Of course he understood that not everyone would know how to swim, but he was used to living in areas where you needed to know how. It was almost like an unwritten rule in the schools; you know how to swim, or you learn the hard way.

"Nope, Cloud’s from Nibelheim. He said that the only water they have is the river that comes from the mountains. When the water's warm there's too much of an undercurrent to safely swim. The only time it slows is during winter, but then it gets below freezing."

In their spot they watched through the windows as the blond got into the water and tried to float. It was somewhat amusing to watch as he'd lean back to relax, but at certain intervals his body would tense and he'd be forced to stand again.

"Hey, Angeal?" Zack interrupted their watch as he curiously looked up at his mentor.

"Hm?"

"Do you know if Sephiroth has ever tripped someone before?"

He rose an eyebrow at the odd question. "No, why?"

"Well," Zack scratched the back of his head, "he came up to me while I was waiting outside Cloud’s room. Just as Cloud was coming out, Sephiroth moved forward, and he tripped him! It just… it seemed on purpose."

Zack looked back over to his mentor.

"Let's finish this for today," Angeal said and got up to head to the apartments while Zack followed closely behind as he tried to keep a one-sided conversation.

--

"No," Sephiroth declined the proposition of the man in front of him. His response should have ended the conversation right then and there.

"Yes," the older blond countered.

"I'm not teaching a class."

"You are," Lazard, the executive manager of the SOLDIER department, said as he shoved folders into the General’s chest. "Orders from higher up in the food chain." Sephiroth's reflexes made him catch the offending papers instead of letting them fall to the ground.

"I'm busy,” he tried to explain.

"General," the Director rounded on him, "at this moment you are the only man qualified for this job who is not busy."

"I am not qualified to become a teacher."

"You are only subbing for a short time while the educator is sick."

"There must be someone else to-"

Lazard sighed and cut him off. He’d already been expecting the refusal and was prepared for whatever the General might throw out. "They’re out doing missions.”

“What about the substitutes that Shinra has paid to live here?" he growled out.

"Already subbing other classes," Lazard turned back around, headed for the elevator, and motioned for him to follow. "It appears that one of the staff members had caught a cold, and instead of taking the day off to recuperate they chose to keep working with the chances of having others catch it."

"Shinra gives them enough sick days, do they not?"

"Yes, but we have a statement from one of the other professors that the reason for this incident was because he was saving his days for when he was feeling better." Lazard pressed the button to head to the first floor. "It's a simple job; four classes a day, Monday through Friday, for a week at the most." The doors to the elevator opened and they both stepped out. "The curriculum is in the files, as are the lists of all the kids who are in each class. Just do what you remember your teachers doing when you were here."

Sephiroth looked up from the papers he was reading to give the Director a blank 'are you serious?' look.

"Oh, right,” Lazard was silent for a moment as he seemed to remember the General’s military history. “Just call out their names on the list. If they're not in class make a note of it next to their names. After roll-call just follow what's written on there."

The General continued to follow the man down the hall and around the corner until they stopped at a training room. He could tell that the students were already inside by the amount of noise they were making. "This is you. Good luck."

They both nodded farewell to each other as the Director departed. Green eyes scanned through the folders to see how many kids were in the first class and counted twenty-seven. He caught onto a particular name near the bottom.

Strife, Cloud.

With an exasperated sigh, Sephiroth opened up the door and walked through. As soon as he came in, the room went immediately still and he could hear the whispers of 'The General!', 'that's General Sephiroth!', and 'is the General subbing this class? Lucky!'

But he didn’t mind the whispering. Not when his eyes locked with ocean blue, and all the blood drained from the kid's face.

He tried to remain stoic on the outside, but internally he was pleased by the reaction he got from his onetime enemy. 'Maybe teaching for a while won't be so bad.'

--

Zack was in the gymnasium already doing his stretches by the time Cloud got in there. He looked back and was about to say ‘hi’ when the other’s appearance grabbed his attention, and instead he said the first other thing that came to his mind.

"Wow, what happened to you?" He noticed how stiff Cloud was moving as the blond walked over and carefully sat down. “Looks like you got hit by a truck."

The blond groaned when he finally got into a comfortable position on the floor. "Not only hit by, but thrown over, dropped under, twisted, turned upside-down, ran over, and slammed," the blond rubbed his calf where a bruise was surely forming and glared, "and it wasn't a truck, it was more like a tank." Cloud made another noise of complaint when his movements pressed against a sore spot and continued to grumble more about the 'really big tank'.

"Wha?" Zack got back up and came closer. At the look of concern on his face, Cloud gave a sigh and did a quick recap of what happened a few hours ago.

*0~0*0~0*0~0*

He was daydreaming to pass the time as the other people in the gym continued to exclude him and chatted amongst themselves. Every minute they got a bit louder as one group tried to talk over another. Soon, the individual conversations turned into a group discussion on whether they should leave or stay till the class period ended. In the SOLDIER ranks it was acceptable to leave if the trainer was over half an hour late, but they were unsure if it applied here.

They suddenly grew quiet and 'shh'ed each other as they lined up against one of the mats in the room. They had just gotten into place as the door opened, and the man that he had the unfortunate luck to trip over the day before walked into the room. Excited whispered went down the line because of who had just entered their classroom.

"Good morning, class. Your teacher isn't able to attend, and I will be his replacement for a short period,” the General stated.

The only two girls in the class giggled by his side, but they were barely noticed as green eyes pierced into him. Only when the glowing irises broke connection to glance at the others did he remember to breathe.

"The curriculum for today states a continuation from last week. You've already had the basic explanation of hand-to-hand combat and this week your instructor wants you to apply it." The harsh gaze came back to focus on him.

"After roll call I will pair you up with another that I believe would match your abilities. As I'm just meeting you now, your partners will most likely be changed as we continue." The man lifted up a pen and held it up to the papers, and they were called and put into pairs, as promised.

"Uh, Sir?" he stepped forward uncertainly and looked down, unable to meet the General in the eyes. "I don't have a partner."

"Strife, you're with me." Shocked, he was roughly pulled from his spot and out to the middle of the mat. It seemed as if his worst fears had come into form as everyone watched while he stood in front of the class. "As there are an uneven number of you," the General explained, "Strife will be shown as an example."

"Spread your legs," the General ordered and he did as was told, "further." He spread them further. "That's good. Now, when someone comes to grab you from behind-" the rest of the class’ explanation went on. As his superior's voice drifted smoothly across the room, he tried hard to pay attention and not to be too tense while the General practically manhandled him. The man put a hand on his back until he was forced to go forward and put a hand on his waist to make him squat down further. Overbalancing, he instinctively pulled his legs back in, but the General forced a boot between and roughly kicked them apart. He was feeling that the lesson almost seemed placed there by some cruel force to terrorize him and make him seem incompetent, and it was embarrassing to have this happen right in front of everyone… like he wasn’t ashamed enough already.

"Now I'll show you one of the ways to defend yourself against the frontal choke hold," the General continued.

"Wait what?" He was like a mannequin as Sephiroth took his hands and put them on leather clad shoulders. Before he could even respond, the man in front of him brought an arm up between his own and wrapped it around his neck. With his chest on the Sephiroth’s back, the General easily lifted him up and brought him down hard. The next thing he knew was that all the air that had been inside his lungs was forced out when he’d landed, and he coughed from the sting.

The General used him as a prop throughout the rest of the class. He was thrown to the ground multiple times, had the man's knee dug into his back, and had his arms twisted repeatedly as a 'demonstration' on how to counter possible opening moves. Near the end he was sweaty, breathless, and collapsed on the ground from the pounding he took. The others who were on their way out the door kept looking back at him and fuckin giggled about how pathetic he looked.

*0~0*0~0*0~0*

Zack’s mouth was wide open at the end of the story.

"… and that's why I look like this."

"Damn…" They decided not to do any of the workouts today, but the stretches were continued in well appreciated silence.

This day sucked.

--

Hollander was at his desk rubbing tired eyes. It had been a strenuous day trying to create new combinations of mako and studying the effects with living organisms under the microscope. One experiment had come close to success; though, it too had failed like the rest when the organism mutated under the mako effects. Deciding to continue with his work tomorrow, he began to gather his things together. It was a long day indeed

"Professor Hollander."

He jerked back in his chair and looked toward the doorway as Hojo rudely stepped into his office.

"Professor Hojo, you surprised me," Hollander took a breath to collect himself. He couldn’t say he liked the man… in fact, the Hojo was despicable, and their relationship was terrible. To everyone else it seemed like a small rivalry between the two scientists, but in reality both were trying to get the other fired from the company. Shinra wanted new brilliant ideas in order to stay ahead of the curve, and the company heads didn’t care how the experiments were formed or tested as long as they got it done. The rumor in the Research department concerning Hojo didn’t help Hollander’s opinion toward his coworker either. It seemed to be common knowledge among the senior staff that Hojo’s ideas were stolen from a missing (presumably dead) professor.

"Of course, I should have knocked,” Hojo faked the politeness in his voice. He freely walked around inside the office and took the time to stop and gaze at the bookshelf. “I wouldn't want to startle you with your condition." When nothing looked worthy enough to be of interest he went to the filing cabinets to run his fingers across and observe the names.

Hojo, though irksome, was an eccentric man. He had a certain air that seemed like he had to be kept on constant watch or something could happen… and it wouldn’t be good. Hollander quickly snapped back into focus as Hojo began to peer into a folder that he had no business looking in. "Can I help you with something?"

"Are you sure that I am the one that needs help?" Hojo smugly questioned while eyeing him.

"I don’t understand what you’re implying."

"Of course you wouldn't," the other haughtily replied. "You wouldn't know if one of your patients was dying even if you had all the equipment Shinra had to offer! You have no idea what it's capable of…"

"Professor-"

"I've been hearing good things about Lt. Hewley and Commander Rhapsodos," Hojo interrupted as he pulled out a file of interest. "It would be a shame if one of Shinra's assets was unable to work anymore... an absolute shame."

Hollander’s chest puffed up when Hojo had implied he was incompetent as a doctor."If the Lieutenant or Commander had any health problems I would know about it. I may not do all the tests you do, but most of what you do isn't needed for health purposes," he coldly replied.

"What a shame, what a shame," Hojo rambled on as if the words hadn’t reached him, "but I do believe we can help each other. Doctors study other doctors' works, you see."

The seed of doubt had been planted and the thought of losing the Lieutenant or the Commander, his only successful experiments that rivaled Hojo’s best, had struck a nerve. If they were to die because he might be missing some critical information then he could lose his job. Yet, Hollander couldn't help but wonder what Shinra’s declared top scientist was thinking. It took merely a few words, he cracked. "I'm listening."

He should have looked closer at the ominous grin his colleague was sporting.

--

It was just another day in the cycle of Zack Fair’s life. The young man was sitting on a chair located outside of the room while waiting for his mentor to finish discussing personal matters with Professor Hollander. He didn't mind waiting. The hallway was silent except for the occasional doctor that came out of their personal office to go on lunch break. No one glanced twice; they were all used to seeing Angeal’s student hanging around.

The door on his right opened, and the broad man came out.

"Hey, what's new?"

"Nothing in particular, Hollander was just giving me a notice that he was going to add a few more tests next month," Angeal replied as the two walked through the building and out the doors.

Once they got outside there was tall, built man lazily jogging up to meet them. "Hey, Zack, Sir!" The man gave a sloppy salute to the Lieutenant, knowing the impolite action would be looked over because they weren’t on a mission.

"Hi, Trent!" Zack called back, and Angeal returned with a nod.

"I heard you'll be taking the 1st Class tests soon. Grats!" Trent smiled and gave Zack a clap on the back.

"Thanks, but you do know what this really means, right?" Trent looked on in confusion. "It just means I'll be that much closer to kicking your ass!"

"Ha! Even if there was some luck that you do pass, there would be no chance in hell of that happening!" Trent lifted up his shirt sleeve and flexed to show off his muscles. "See this? All sweat and hard work, baby!"

Zack barked out a laugh. "So, you'll be coming to supervise the tests again, right?"

"Nope, this time I'll be off on a mission with some others."

"Where will you be?" Angeal asked.

"Around Mt. Nibel. There have been reports of large creatures showing up again. We're going to push them back before they start attacking the towns... town." Trent corrected, remembering there was only one in that general area. "Such a backwater place."

"Nibelheim?" Zack curiously asked.

"Yeah, how'd you guess?"

"Buddy of mine is from there."

"Hm, well there have been other occurrences over there and other SOLDIERs have been reported MIA," Trent said seriously and crossed his arms.

"What class?"

"Mostly 2nd Class when it started. They changed it to 1st Class only since we have a higher success rate. Though, even once in a while one of us Firsts goes missing too."

"Be careful," Angeal warned.

"I will and don't worry! It's not my first time fighting them,” the man said as he gave a brilliant smile to his junior and sent another careless salute to his superior. He gave a fond smile at the retreating back and looked toward his pupil. "We should get in as much practice as we can before it begins to downpour."

"Uh?" Zack looked up at the perfectly clear blue sky and again at his mentor.

"I've lived here longer than you. Trust me." He went on ahead.

"I do!" He almost paused from the unconditional belief in the voice. It usually took years for a SOLDIER of any rank to give their superior officer as much trust as Zack had given him within the few months they’d been together. The sudden surge of pride was pushed aside as he led them to their usual combat area.

--

'Worst. Week. Ever.' Cloud thought as he walked into the room to grab his swim trunks. His ass, back, knees, and everything else attached to him was still sore from being abused. He had noticed that, when not paying rapt attention, the General would try to trip him up! It made him remember their first encounter. He’d been embarrassed down there on the floor, but now the feeling was worn off and replaced by anger as the realization that the action might have been purposely done. That man was a douche and, considering the googly-eyed looks his peers were throwing at his ex-role-model, he was the only one who noticed this. Yes, you heard him right. EX-role-model… with a big fat X in a three dimensional cube accompanied by a shadow.

Back in his hometown, he remembered staying up late at night and waiting for more news about the youngest member in Shinra being promoted to Lieutenant and, not long after, General. He’d even volunteered for the paper route just so he could be the first one to see what the news said on the battles the man was fighting. The General’s brilliant mind and physical strength were second to none.

Now, though, the truth was out; the General was a bastard. A bastard-coated bastard with bastard filling, and what was worse than that? When said bastard seemed to target you out of everyone else and humiliate you in front of them.

As Cloud opened the door to his shared room he could hear the sound of laughter swiftly die out, and his three other roommates all stopped in whatever they were talking about to stare in his direction. Suddenly tense, he crossed the room and tried to ignore the three pairs of eyes on him. He went to his cheaply made dresser that had a 'property of Shinra' sticker on the side of it and opened up the middle drawer. He grabbed the shorts Zack had bought him and quickly went back out the door.

--

Sephiroth was practically floating down the hallway and into the elevators. This week was a very good week, and it wasn't even over yet. It seemed like he’d finally gotten a taste of what normal fun was like in the form of slamming a certain blonds’ body onto the ground numerous, painful times. He’d gotten all the classroom paperwork done, including the two mission reports that had been put on hold, and any known Wutai havoc had been dealt with. He even had a decent conversation with the new boss of the Turks. As it turned out, the leader Tseng had morals somewhat similar to his own. Though, the fact that the other man had morals was a step up from the late Turk leader, who had been killed while out on a classified mission that only the Goddess and President knew about.

At one time, in the other past, Zack had been promoted to 1st Class and Sephiroth had no doubts that the talented Second would be again. Even if the blond had a ‘mishap’ and couldn’t continue on at Shinra, Zack would still be there. He recalled that Angeal’s subordinate had grown at a remarkably fast rate, held his own in duels, and even then had room to grow.

When he exited the building, Sephiroth spotted two boys leaving the indoor pool and silly laughter followed while the two bolted in the direction of the soldier barracks. He frowned upon the childish display and went to see if there was any damage done to the poolroom. If there was, he’d make sure they were banned from Shinra. Such acts weren’t even meant for children.

The sun’s glare upon the tinted windows made it impossible to see inside from his current location, but a lone cloud slowly crept across the sky and the rays that were covering up the windows dissipated to reveal the pool’s waters rocking back and forth as if someone had jumped in only seconds ago. Then he realized that someone might still in there as a sudden formation of bubbles broke the surface, and he sprinted towards the pool’s entrance.

Sephiroth threw open the door and scanned for anything unusual underneath. Upon actually finding a sunken body, he quickly stumbled out of his coat and shoes and did a sloppy dive into the water.

To be continued…

AN: I think the only reason why I had Sephiroth subbing in for combat was because, even though he’s brilliant, I don’t believe he’s properly qualified to teach an actual class like Math, Science, or English. Jenova’s influence or not, he might… kill something. Damn annoying kids.

Have any questions? I might have matching answers!

Please Review! (Criticism accepted as long as it’s constructive…)