The Beginning is the End...

Beta’d by CaseyAnn’sPrecious

AN: *bows* Thank you all for taking the time to read this. I wanted to put it up tomorrow, but I'm not sure if I'll be home... Please enjoy, and Happy Thanksgiving!

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

Everything You Know is Wrong
(By: Weird Al)
Chapter 7

What Hollander first noticed as he woke up was that he couldn’t see clearly, everything was blurry, and sounds were muffled to his ears. A light was soon cast directly into his pupil, and the pain done to his retina caused him to flinch.

“He’s coming around, Professor Hojo,” a female nurse said as she turned back around to face him. He recognized her; it was nurse Slarky.

“Good, good.”

Hollander sat up on the hospital table he was laying on. He brought a hand up to his head as case of a dizzy spell overwhelmed him. “What happened?” he asked.

“What do you remember?” Hojo asked as he took the nurse’s tiny flashlight and also checked his eyes. Hollander recapped what he could.

Last night… he’d clocked out and was headed home, but then he turned back when he remembered that he’d forgotten to turn the lights off in the lab. Then he’d noticed that the black light was still on in a room further down in the hallway, so he’d gone to turn those off too. Then, afterwards… nothing.

“You collapsed,” Hojo informed him, “and I found you. I brought you into the closest room so you could rest. I figured the combined stress from work and a slight dehydration took its toll on you. Be sure to get plenty of water.”

“Of course. Thank you, Professor Hojo,” Hollander still felt partially dazed and lightheaded, and he was surprised that Hojo seemed kind. The man wasn’t known for his accommodating personality.

Hollander swung his body around and got off of the table. As soon as his weight was supported by his legs a shock of pain went up his spine and he made a noise of complaint. He must have hit something when he fell. Hojo ordered the nurse to continue with her work, and Hollander left the room without a second thought to as to why he was on Hojo’s research table.

--

Cloud was excited. At least a part of him was anyways, or maybe both parts. On one hand he was achieving his dream of becoming a SOLDIER, and on the other hand he was actually becoming a SOLDIER instead of just thinking he was.

He and the other five were sitting in front of the audience as Rhapsodos introduced them as the newest members of SOLDIER.

Everyone, with exception of the company heads, was excited about the promotions. It was unheard of that so few people passed a test ranked for Third Class. So the one made by Commander Rhapsodos must have picked out the best of the best! Yet, behind closed doors, no one had heard the scolding that the man got from the VP about the test being too hard. The President was hopping for at least fifty more enhanced SOLDIERs to go off into battle with the Wutai.

The reporters were allowed into the vicinity to give the public knowledge on all who had passed, and they were having a field day.

Cloud was roaming the crowd with his eyes for a certain dark, spiky-haired individual, but couldn’t find him. ‘He must still be taking his test.’ He thought, but gave the crowd another scan just in case. Ever since he came back there wasn’t a chance to talk to Zack; it was kind of a letdown.

“So without further ado,” Rhapsodos said, “I give you: Josh Bowsie, Dorian Dwite, Markus Gray, Ted Hertini, Isaac Pang, and Cloud Strife.”

And the celebrations were done.

--

The Thirds were ordered to go back to their barracks and move their things to their new rooms. They just ignored the yelling media that wanted to talk to them; the questions couldn’t be heard anyways.

But that didn’t matter because in his head he had a plan.

Now that he was in SOLDIER he was one step closer to completing his goal. It was a simple step by step process really. Get mako enhanced, become as strong as he was before, stop everything from happening, and bring down the Shinra Electric Company; save the world: The End.

Cloud was greeted by the sight of his old roommates when he walked into the room. They had gotten a hold of some type of game board and were using it for entertainment. They hadn’t begun talking to him and, of course, he didn’t want to talk to two of those three anyways. He’d almost drowned because of them.

“Congrats,” one of them said after a while, “on passing the SOLDIER test.” It was said lightly, but didn’t sound like it held any sincerity to it.

“Thanks,” Cloud murmured and finished stuffing his clothes into the bag. It seemed to break whatever nervousness that was there that made the other two unable to speak.

“Do you know General Sephiroth?!”

“What was it like inside his home?”

“What are you talking about?” Cloud asked as he was bombarded with questions.

The tallest boy in the room stood up and asked his question first, apparently forgetting the incident that had happened only days ago. “Do you know Sephiroth?”

“No, kinda… in a way,” Cloud answered. It was the truth. He had the pleasurable misfortune of meeting the General before and after the insanity struck, but now he didn’t really want to be known as acquaintances with the man. The three gave him strange looks, and one of the others gave a ‘pfft’ while the other added with a ‘definitely’. Cloud was puzzled, but he also didn’t really care about their thought process. He was out of here as soon as his bags were packed.

“You were in his house, right?” the other asked. “What’s it like inside?”

“I don’t know…” Cloud paused to remember what he saw when he’d woken up there, the absolute simplicity of it. “Normal, I guess.”

“HA! So it’s true then!” the smaller one declared. Cloud made a face when he realized that he, himself, was the smallest in the room…

“What’s true?” he asked. When was he going to have his growth spurt? He forgot.

“Pfft, you can’t mean you don’t know. It’s been all over the news for days!” The small TV was turned on just in time for the video to start, and sure enough it was actually still in the reports. It seemed to be shot from far away by an amateur camera man. You couldn’t tell what it was shooting, but there was movement in the building. Upon zooming in, the camera caught a blurred vision of a long, silver-haired man… the General, crouched and leaning down to a blond-haired boy that was down on the floor. The camera came into focus, and you could see lips coming together…

Pressing down…

Connected…

“What the hell?” flew out of his mouth before his thoughts could even catch up and the video was quickly disrupted by the appearance of a SOLDIER. The person that stopped it didn’t have any idea of what was recorded, and so the camera man got away with keeping the juicy story.

The remote was thrown angrily onto the small couch. “So are you and the General really… you know?!”

Because in the video it looked like he was just laying there.

“What?” came his brilliant reply.

Because, really, it was all just a camera effect… because nothing of that sort could have really happened, right?

“He’s asking: Are you really gay and sleeping with the General?” the question was spat out.

Because when Cloud saw his own mouth against the General’s his brain decided that it was the perfect time to stop working so it could cope with what it had just witnessed.

Because in the background the TV was still on, and the news reporter was talking as if she were the cat that had gotten the cream.

Because she was saying things like ‘the General has finally taken a lover, and it appears to be a small blond male!’ and laughed ‘Watch out for your future military boys, ladies and gentlemen!’

Because his brain would start working again at any moment now; he was sure of it.

“Oh, fess up. You’re a fag, aren’t you?! That’s why you were getting free lessons from that other SOLDIER. Everyone’s already figured it out!”

Because at that moment red filled his vision, and Cloud’s brain clicked on as he gave a dangerous warning tone. “What are you implying?”

--

Ted and Dorian were hanging out as newly proclaimed SOLDIER 3rds. Their roommates congratulated them both on the promotions. It was only the blond kid, which surprised a lot of people, and Ted who had just gotten to foot soldier not too long ago. It appeared that hard work really did pay off.

During their walk they decided to go to the new SOLDIER 3rd rooms with their entire group. So they picked up the three others and were now headed to pick up Cloud. Hopefully the kid hadn’t already packed and gone.

By the time they got to Cloud’s hallway they saw heads poking out from the doorways and heard the sounds of what seemed to be a scuffle. Jealous people turning physical after someone else’s promotion wasn’t unheard of and assuming this was about Cloud, Ted and Dorian dropped their bags and quickly ran towards the disturbance.

Upon opening the door they witnessed Cloud moving off of a guy on the ground. The blond quickly turned to deliver a solid punch to another’s face while the tallest of the bunch arm locked him from behind and threw him to the floor. Cloud’s body twisted around before the kick could reach his ribs and swiped the guy’s legs out from under him. He then hopped back up and dove for the last standing while the other two grabbed at his feet to impair his movements.

It all happened so fast that Ted only got in a single curse before he ran in to pull them apart. Ted had restrained the blonds’ limb movements, but it appeared that it wasn’t enough since Cloud got one last attack off in the form of a good solid head-butt and smirked at the sound of a broken nose accompanied by a cry.

“Get off of me!” Cloud demanded, “I can fight them! I don’t need you to shield me!”

“We know you can fight!” Ted exclaimed. “And I’m not protecting you; I’m protecting them!” but the blond looked horrible. His face was beat up and hints of bruising were already forming. He had a split lip, a bit of blood rolling down both arms from scratches, and torn and stretched clothing to complete the look. The others… they might not have looked as beat up as Cloud, but still looked pretty bad for a three against one match as they sat there nursing their own wounds.

Ted had noticed Cloud in the cadet ranks when he’d first joined Shinra and as a foot soldier, but he’d never seen him fight like that. There was so much ferocity and quick, fluid movements. He now believed that the small boy throwing down the hidden SOLDIER wasn’t just a fluke.

“These your bags?” Dorian asked.

“Yeah,” the blond replied and was released from the hold.

“You done packing?”

“Yeah.” One word answers always did suit a situation like this best.

The other Thirds stayed silent as they picked up their bags and let the observers to watch as they all headed to the new rooms together; though, they took a side trip to the bathroom to get Cloud fixed up.

--

The General paced around in his living room. He was pondering on whether or not to meet with the new SOLDIERs. On one hand it was tradition for Angeal, Genesis, and him to go down and oversee the event. Newly promoted Thirds were given the option to choose their preferred weapon and then were sent to the science lab to introduce mako to their systems. One the other hand, Cloud was in the new batch of SOLDIERs, and he was sure that the blond had cheated somehow.

Ever since Angeal’s talk with him, Sephiroth noticed how strangely he’d been behaving and blamed it on stress. He also made a self promise to keep his composure. Seeing Cloud had always given him annoyance and he didn’t want the blonds’ presence causing anymore irritation than necessary.

But Sephiroth knew that if he didn’t show, then Genesis and Angeal would come up to drag him down. He looked back at the clock… it was time, and he left with a defeated sigh. No use in prolonging the inevitable.

--

All of the SOLDIERs got a good look at the six coming into the building. Usually new Thirds would be excited about moving into a less crowded area, but it appeared that whatever happened between leaving the ceremony and coming here made them lose their enthusiasm, and the smallest one looked like he’d gotten beat up.

“HEY!” the newcomers turned toward the voice, it was the SOLDIER from the test. He gave a half-assed jog to reach them and noticed the blond. “Holy crap, what happened to you?!”

“Nothing.”

“Cloud got into a fight with his roommates,” Dorian answered. The boy’s face flushed and looked down.

“Cloud,” the SOLDIER said and put a comforting hand on his shoulder, “if you’re getting beat up then you need to tell an officer!” The boy murmured something and his face turned a shade darker. “Huh?”

“I said I started the fight,” Cloud mumbled a little louder. “I threw the first punch.”

“Uhh…” the SOLDIER was at a loss of what to say and looked around awkwardly. “Let’s pretend I didn’t hear that!” because if he did hear it then he’d have to report it. “Anyways, we’ve never really been introduced. I’m Dallas, SOLDIER Third Class for three years.”

“Three?” Cloud felt a sense of dread. If he had to wait three years or longer to get to SOLDIER 2nd then things would already be ruined!

“Ahh, yeah. I was good enough for SOLDIER, but it appeared that I have a low tolerance to mako. So I’m stuck at this level of enhancements. That’s why I was asked to sneak into the test… because I’m so gosh-darn good lookin’.” He joked, but the rest of it was true, his dark eyes barely held any presence of mako. “There’re a few other people stuck in Third and Second because of what their bodies can and can’t take. That’s why there’re so few SOLDIER 1sts around. Not that many people have a high tolerance to the green stuff.”

Cloud breathed out his relief. He had a higher tolerance so it wouldn’t take years.

“Anyways,” Dallas continued, “follow me. I’ll show you to your rooms and take you to the meeting spot.”

Their rooms were only slightly bigger compared to the ones in the barracks, but they were more special because they were only shared with one other person. After they set their bags on their respective beds the six followed Dallas out.

--

“That one would be great for the broad sword,” Angeal commented as the tallest boy got up and went forward to pick, but sure enough the miniature version of Masamune was chosen. The redhead brought a hand up to hide a smirk.

‘This is a stupid tradition,’ Sephiroth thought as they hid behind the bleachers. It had started seven years ago when fame was first thrown in his direction, and Genesis had mentioned something about how there was going to be an increase of SOLDIERs that would want to fight like him. He doubted it at first, but as his fame grew so did the number of SOLDIERs that picked the katana.

The recruiting advertisement in the Shinra posters was to be blamed. It said “Once you become a SOLDIER you get to pick your own choice of weapon” and had a picture of him with Masamune. They couldn’t deny the SOLDIERs their freedom of choice, but they could nudge them in a better direction.

Another of the boys got up and the katana was selected again.

Sephiroth drowned out the commentaries in favor of watching the blond. Was it still just the annoying brat, or was he right the first time in sensing that old hatred from within? The kid had been a fan, he was certain of it, and would surely pick the katana like the others had if so, but if he didn’t…

“He’d probably work best with the rapier or katana,” Genesis observed as it was Cloud’s turn to pick.

Angeal hummed a bit and studied the kid’s structure. “A short sword would actually be best for his type, being small can be an advantage if you’re quick.”

“Buster sword.”

His friends gave him odd looks... he didn’t mean to say that out loud.

--

It didn’t surprise Cloud when the others chose the katana. As far as he could remember he’d also wanted to wield the sword and get acknowledgement from the General, but not this time. He went forward and selected the broadsword. It was a good foot or two shorter than the buster and at least fifty pounds lighter too. He was glad for that, it still seemed heavy to him.

“You sure you want that one?” Dallas smiled at him.

“Yeah,” he answered.

They were soon escorted to the hospital’s lab wing and were told to wait in the room.

“Hello,” a lady came in, “I’m nurse Slarky. I’ll be giving you a few doses of mako and observe the effects you may have.”

She called Josh up, and the tallest of their group went up to the chair and sat down.

“Strap these on, please,” she kindly asked as she held up restraints attached to the bed.

“Is it going to hurt?!”

“Oh, no,” she waved off, “…at least I hope not. There might be a slight stinging feeling, but other than that some people can go into a short seizure. It happens on some occasions, but this is just to ensure you don’t accidently harm yourself if you go into one.”

He gave her his arms and she tied him up.

“Ok, now this might sting a bit so don’t move!” she smiled sweetly as she stuck the needle in and slowly injected the brilliant glowing mako.

“OWowowow!” Josh yelped and tried to stay still as she slowly pulled the needle out.

“There. Now just stay still for a moment.” The boy sitting in the chair took on a slickly color to his face and he groaned aloud. They all watched and waited for a moment. “All better now?” the nurse asked as the boy started to open his eyes again.

“Yeah,” he responded, “I feel pretty good actually.”

The nurse released him and called up the others one at a time. Dorian and Mark had the same reaction as Josh, but then Ted reacted like something else entirely.

“How do you feel?” the nurse asked as she unstrapped him. Ted just rose up his arm and stared at it intently as he moved it side to side. “Mr. Hertini?”

Ted started giggling as a huge smile was plastered on his face. The nurse got her flashlight out and checked his eyes. “Mr. Bowsie, Dwite, can you two escort Mr. Hertini back to his room when you go?” They nodded and lifted Ted up.

The other boy’s reaction to the mako was the same as the first three only a little worse… he threw up, but he felt better after.

“Mr. Strife,” she called and gestured for him to sit in the chair.

Cloud got strapped in and got the same stinging effect that the other boys had. ‘Ah, that really does hurt,’ he thought while the nurse pulled the needle out. It made him feel a little weird and his head was a little foggy.

“How are you feeling?” the nurse asked him.

“Swell,” he replied as she unstrapped him and then looked at him strangely. She grabbed the flashlight from her shirt pocket and shone it in his eyes.

“Will you other two please escort Mr. Strife to his room also?” she chuckled.

Cloud felt pretty good, so he didn’t need anyone to help him up. “I’m fine,” he said politely and smiled at the kind nurse as he stood on his own two feet.

See? He could do this!

--

A few minutes later and they were out of the room while Cloud and Ted were supported. Ted never seemed to stop giggling as he whipped his head around to try and see everything, and Cloud didn’t stop talking.

“I love you, man,” the blond chuckled to the person on his right, and then joked to the one on his left. His speech had really taken on a slurred tone right after he’d almost fallen on his face in the room, and as they were heading out of the building the small SOLDIER had confessed his love to every person they had come across… and one plant.

“You guys do know what we need to do sometime, right?” Dorian said as he looked at the happy, mako drunk Cloud. They started laughing because their line of thought was the same. Someday soon the six of them would have to sneak out to go to a pub and get the blond smashed. Cloud was now talking about his mom. He loved his mom too.

They came to a halt as the three elites appeared from around the corner, and both groups paused to stare at each other.

“Sirs!” Josh broke the moment, “I swear this isn’t what it looks like.”

“We know, mako testing,” their Commander replied and eyed the group. “Only two?”

“Yes, Sir,” Dorian said. “Do you know why they’re like this?”

“Mako tolerant people can accept small doses in their bloodstream when first introduced,” the General coolly replied. “Those that don’t have tolerance will reject it. You four won’t be given as much mako in the future as these two.” He gestured toward Cloud and Ted.

“What does that mean?”

“It means,” Hewley said, “that if you’re intolerant your body will try to reject it. Most of the time people will get nausea.” One of the boys looked down at this. “The sickness varies from person to person. The SOLDIER that was with you was debilitated for two days.”

“If you’re mako tolerant then you’ll have a reaction like these two. It’ll be easily accepted into your body. First time introductions really mess up the head,” Rhapsodos finished with a smirk.

While they were talking, Cloud succeeded in his attempts to stand on his own two feet and brushed off the two that were holding him up. They watched as he marched right up to their three superiors.

“And you!” Cloud slurred as he swayed right in front of the General, “are a bastard!”

He felt as if he was just about to fall over, but Sephiroth reached out an arm to help keep him steady. At first Cloud was going to demand why the man acted the way he did, but his train of thought changed so quickly from the action and a new brilliant idea came to him. And who was he to deny what his brain told him to do? So he quickly reached up to pull the man down a little further and kissed the first part he could reach… it was payback for when he was unconscious, asshole.

In his mako daze, he hung onto the General’s clothes to keep from collapsing and realized the pleasant scent in the air was coming from faint traces of the other’s aftershave. Of course the General would have to smell good too. Cloud made a sound that resembled a snort and then started a giggling fit from it, and the two that had released him was now dragging him away from the immobile General.

“Sorry, Sirs!” they both chorused while Cloud continued to laugh out loud. They were supposed to be watching the blond, so it was their fault that it had happened. Deciding to run to avoid punishment, the four moved significantly faster as they tugged the two out by the arms and left the three elites behind before the men could figure out what had just occurred.

To be continued…

AN: I chose the song cause it’s so dumb, and seemed to fit in with Hollander and Cloud in some weird way. XD

Have any questions? I might have matching answers!

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