War of the Hearts

Title: War of the Hearts

Author: Dragonchild

Beta: Tieo

Warning: strong language, violence, character death, and more.

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy 7 or any of it's characters. All of that belongs to it's owners Square-Enix.


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One thing anyone learns very quickly in the military is that rank is probably the most important thing to memorize. That way you know how to pick your fights wisely. For instance, if oh say you are a private, a private first class picks a fight with you, and you defend yourself. You are the one responsible for the fight, after all you are the lower rank. Cloud knew this but he fell for the bait every time. He was also no stranger to Captain William’s office. The captain blamed it on Cloud’s stubborn attitude. Cloud disagreed; he knew his stubborn frame of mind was probably the only thing that had kept him with the Shinra power company.

Never the less, that did not change the fact that he had been caught fighting in the hallways with another trainee. This was far from a rare occurrence; after all, he was one of the favorite targets of the older recruits in the SOLDIER program. He would not back down from a challenge and he had many bruises to prove it both from basic training and from the hallway fights.

He was seated on a standard Shinra issued chair, the kind that could be found in many of the offices around the Shinra building. Sitting in front of Captain William’s desk, watching him flip through Cloud’s file: a file that held all of his past achievements (few), fights (many), and punishments (repetitive). Finally, with an exhausted sigh the captain turned his attention to Cloud.

“Private Strife, do you realize this is your third time in here this week?”

Cloud tired his best to look the Captain in the eye. “Yes sir.”

“And you realize that we really can’t stand for this kind of attitude.”

“Yes sir.” Cloud was still firmly looking into the other’s eyes. “But sir, I was merely-” The Captain cut him off by raising his hand, fingertips to the ceiling, palm out. Cloud’s eyes slipped down to his own hands clasped in his lap. Every time he would try to explain the situation, but every time he was stopped. It did not matter; he was on the bottom of the totem pole of military hierarchy.

“Now, I’ve already spoken to my superior about this situation. He’s already gone and made you an appointment.” The Captain explained as he put away Cloud’s file.

“An appointment?” He did not like the sound of this.

“Yes, with the General; he will be sure to give you a punishment that will keep you out of trouble.”

He felt his heart drop into his stomach. “General Sephiroth, sir?”

“Yes.” The Captain gave Cloud a stern look. “You will be at his office at oh-nine hundred tomorrow morning, and you will not be late. Got that, Strife?”

“Yes sir.” Cloud left the office with a weight in his stomach. He had seen the General a few times from a distance and that was unnerving enough, and tomorrow he would have to face him dead on. Tonight would not be a restful night.

True enough he was flighty and distracted through all of his afternoon classes, which continued into the evening. As he sat not really reading his Materia handbook, ignoring his roommate and being ignored in return his mind wandered over the meeting with the Capitan earlier today. Why would they be so extreme as to send Cloud to see the General himself? He was a legend all over the planet, someone so important surely he had more important things to be doing rather then spend time with some sort of tomfoolery case like Cloud. If Cloud had been in higher management, he would have just told the Capitan to make him scrape gum off the bottom of the cafeteria tables. By far one of the worst jobs Cloud had ever been given as a punishment. He absently chewed on the end of his pencil eyes still pretending to read the words in front of him as he wondered if General Sephiroth would be angry about the intrusion into his time. Surely he was to busy of a man to be dealing with someone like Cloud. He was not sure just how long he had been mulling over his thoughts about the General when he pulled back into reality by the sudden dimming of the lights. It was the magical hour at night known as 'lights out'. Luckily for the recruits it was taken into account that they might want to stay up later to study their work so light instead of being cut out completely was instead brought to a lower level. Usually though this was when Cloud would give into his exhaustion and he would just turn off his light and drift off to sleep. As such, his light was flicked off with a twist of his wrist and he rolled over turning his back to his roommates light, but sleep did not come so easily this night. He was awake when the other light in the room was extinguished, once engulfed in the dark completely he lost track of time and as a result had no clue when it was that he finally fell asleep.

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Cloud found himself sitting outside of the General’s office, still groggy from the night before. Meeting General Sephiroth had been a dream of his, a dream of many in fact. However, he had always hoped that it would be in a better situation. Still there was nothing he could do about it now, not showing up would be worse. He had shown up early by a few minutes, and now it was nearly a quarter past and he was still waiting. He knew that the General was a busy man; he knew to remain patient and to wait. He was also happier sitting on the cold plastic Shinra issued chairs (again) in the hallway then in the office facing the famous Sephiroth.

He was inspecting a ding in the polished metal wall across from him trying not to wonder how it got there, and failing. He was on his third scenario when he heard the door to his right open up. Out came a violet uniformed SOLDIER, he saluted the General who stood in the doorway. Cloud froze, even standing there casually he was intimidating. After sending of the SOLDIER, he turned his attention to Cloud. He could feel his stomach knot up as soon as Sephiroths’ eyes focused on him.

The great General Sephiroth lifted up a clipboard and glanced at it quickly. “You must be Private Strife, correct?”

Immediately Cloud was on his feet greeting the General with the standard chest salute. Cloud found that he was not able to keep Sephiroths gaze and instead stared directly at his chin. He could feel the others eyes pass over him, inspecting him. Finally, at length he spoke and Cloud was allowed to relax out of his salute. “It says here you’ve been in several fights with other recruits.”

“Yes sir.” Cloud answered.

The General shook his head in disgust. Cloud feared the worst. “Come inside.” Cloud did not say anything, instead silently he followed the General and sat in the chair across from the only desk in the room. The General shook his head again as he sat down as well. “I don’t see why officers can’t deal with these situations on their own.” He paused and looked at Cloud, obviously seeing the boys’ distress. “Not to worry, I will speak with Captain Williams on this matter. I have enough things to deal with let alone punish trouble makers.”

Cloud nodded his head in agreement, still not able to find his voice. He watched the General move about his desk, watched as he flipped through meticulously organized papers, watched as he pulled one out and scribbled a few notes in the margin.

“Since it is up to me now to allocate you a punishment, I’ll be giving you this assignment.” He grabbed another sheet from the top of a different stack on one corner of his desk and handed it to Cloud. Cloud looked it over quickly. “Usually we would hire out one of the recruits for something like this, but you will do it without any reward.”

Cloud looked the paper over. “The Turks sir?”

The General nodded. “You will be assisting a SOLDIER who himself is assisting a select group of Turks. While it is a job under President Shinra himself, do not expect to meet him or to be doing anything exciting. Remember this is a punishment. I can assure you, working with the Turks is hardly anything to celebrate.”

Cloud nodded his understanding, he did not really care what Sephiroth said working with the Turks sounded a lot better then scrubbing toilets. “If the Turks are that bad, is he being punished as well sir?” He took a chance asking a question like this it was out of line.

“Who is that you’re referring to?”

“The, uh SOLDIER sir.”

“No.” The General seemed amused. “Duties such as these are the responsibilities of first class SOLDIERS.”

Cloud had thought that the General was pulling his leg at first, but then with one glance he realized the General would never joke. “I’ll be working under a first class SOLDIER sir?”

“Yes, and I would appreciate it if you don’t keep him waiting tomorrow morning.”

“Yes sir.”

Soon enough Cloud was back out in the hallway and for the first time actually looking forward to his punishment the next day.

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Author Notes: Thanks everyone for reading, now don't forget to leave a review and let me know what you think.