General It's Strife

[Moon]

“Cadet C. Strife?” The messenger asked the young teenager that stood somewhat at a lost as the teenager blinked several times at the post card he had been given by the man. “Hey, kid, you alright?”

“My mom is getting married...” Cloud's voice trembled from more then puberty, the fourteen year old felt his knees go weak as he scanned the opening lines once again. All at once, admiration for a hero turned into something prickly and dare he even consider the emotion, hatred. “My mom is getting married to... him.”

Cloud's eyes jumped to the poster of his hero, the people's hero, and nearly growled.

The messenger swallowed as he stepped a foot away from the young trooper, his hands fumbling with his clip board as he held it out. “I'd really like you to sign this, Cadet Strife?”

Somewhere in his head, Cloud heard the request and responded with the appropriate signature before turning on his booted feet. Stalking towards the receptionist that manned the phone systems and appointments, Cloud jerked off his helmet and starred hard at the woman before she acknowledged his presence.

“What'cha need, Spikes?”

Cloud ignored the nickname his hair often got him and responded with a frosty request. “I want to speak with the General, as soon as possible.”

Strained voices jerked the Cadet's head upwards as three men slipped out of the elevator and started towards the office lobby when Cloud's blue eyes locked on the General.

Sephiroth paused when he noticed the very stillness of the SOLDIER Cadet as he and his friends paused. The blonde spikes around the boy's head earned a small smirk as the boy narrowed his eyes at him and tightened his fist around the post card.

“It seems my future step-brother has received word of my father's impending marriage to his mother.” he murmured to his friends. Both Angeal and Genesis blanched at the man's rather calm statement. Sephiroth waved a hand towards Cloud, indicating the blond trooper to join them as he halted.

Cloud's steps were measured, containing the tight reins of his temper within a measure of self control that earned the man's smirk. Even without mako, Strife was definitely one to watch. Genesis likewise watched the child that approached them with the same appraising look as his two friends. The three of them waited until the boy was within reach when Sephiroth reached out and jerked the child closer to their little circle.

Cloud glared up at the tall man as he waited for something... anything to explain just what the hell was happening.

“Is there something I can do for you Cadet?” Sephiroth asked, ignoring the burning glare that starred up at him.

Cloud's mind raced as he struggled to come up with some kind of request, accusation, anything that could help him explain his ire to the man. “I...”

“Eloquent.” Genesis mused. “Has the little cadet realized he is facing a First Class Soldier?”

Angeal crossed his arms, waiting to see just what the tiny little blond would do. Not everybody would have realized what was happening when Strife glanced away before rolling his arm and freeing himself from Sephiroth's grip.

The General was a cold, cruel man when he was displeased and he often toyed with others as if they were mice once they caught his attention, however, he always took care of his men. So, just where did Strife fall into this arrangement?

“Here is what is going to happen Cadet Strife.” Sephiroth started, keeping the boy within hearing shot as he voice dropped into a cool, commanding tone. “I will not allow someone as weak as you to parade about as if you are something worth my time. However, that does not mean you will be allowed to remain weak. You will report to the SOLDIER dorms by the end of the day and this evening I will ensure that your training will resume at a pace worthy of my association.”

In other words, Sephiroth wanted to make sure his new pending little brother didn't mar the family image. Not that having Hojo for a father wasn't already a glaring black stain.

Strife's face both paled and his eyes sharpened.

Sephiroth waited for the little brat to respond, already calculating how best to break the little worm before ideas got into his head. His father had after all requested he bring Strife into shape before the media got their grubby paws on the information. He had files waiting on his desk for review regarding this child and the more he glared, shifted his eyes away, the more Sephiroth disliked him.

From the kid's look, the feeling was becoming increasingly mutual.

“I'm no glory climber, sir.” Cloud responded before he jerked his shoulder away from the General's grasp and promptly put two feet between them. Since he had not been dismissed, there was no way he could simply flee and it did not look like Hewley or Rhapsodos was going to be releasing Cloud any time soon.

For whatever reason, his mother had decided to bind their family to the General's and there was nothing Cloud Strife could do about it. The absolute helplessness he had felt as a child, the drive to prove everyone in Nibelheim wrong was returning two fold here. Shin-ra and his crazy ideals of getting himself into SOLDIER was crumbling all because of this one decree from his mother.

The question to everything was why? Why would his mother even want to get married after everything they had gone through when he was just a child?

“You're dismissed, Strife. Do not forget to report to the SOLDIER floor.” Sephiroth finally stated, still battling the urge to just give in and strangle the little runt out of pity if nothing else. He was about to be related to that scrawny little thing and it did not please him at all.

Strife quickly vanished from their presence, returning most likely, to his post. Again, another thing that would earn the blond a mark against him. Sephiroth's training was one of the few things that kept the disgust from his face as he about faced and continued on his trek towards the external parts of Shinra Headquarters.
(break)

Once they were on the parade grounds, blades drawn and examined under the glaring sun above them Angeal let out a breath. Sephiroth glanced up at him through his bangs as Genesis raised his sword for a better look at the weapon's edge as he cocked his head to better listen in.

“That was harsh, Sephiroth.”

“The world is a cruel place and that child's mother is a gold digger.” Sephiroth explained. “Few know of the truth that Hojo is my biological parent. The only reason they even know now is because of our parents impending nuptials. My dislike of the child should be fairly obvious.”

“The boy was rude, Sephiroth, but he did not seem to favor the idea any more then you.” Angeal countered. “He was fairly angry.”

“He lacked control.” the general argued. “Should he respond to Hojo in the same manner that he did to me he would be mutilated and turned into tomorrow's lunch.”

“You were still far to harsh and that doesn't explain why you are ordering the cadet to attend training sessions on our floor when he has training of his own to get through.” Angeal argued, trying to see what kind of sense Sephiroth was executing in his attitude. Was this something he had been planning since he'd learned of the boy's existence? Or had Sephiroth decided to respond to the boy's antagonistic behavior by completely humiliating him and his dreams?

“Either way, the Cadet needs to be reminded of his place. However, we cannot expect him to perform at SOLDIER levels when he has yet to become one.” Genesis reasoned. “So, what Sephiroth, are you planning to do with him?”

The General glanced away as if he wasn't sure of his own reasons to terrorize the Cadet. Probably for the same reasons the cadet had felt the urge to confront someone he thought could do something.

“There is nothing else to be said at this moment.” Sephiroth stated, ending the conversation as swiftly as it had begun as he swung his weapon back into it's place across his back. The General quickly strode away as the two child hood friends glanced at one another before following him.

The three of them had been together since the beginning of the SOLDIER program. Above all, their loyalty to one another was unchanging even if they ended up bringing others, like Zack Fair, into their small social structure.

(break)

In Nibelheim, every child born was passed under the eyes of the eldest woman that resided in the village. Cloud had been no different when he had come to the blind woman's presence the day of his first birthday. The same day a Nibel Wolf had entered the village and stalked the shadows before it attacked one of the dragons that had strayed too close. Both dragon and wolf had vanished quickly in the storm raging outside, but that day had been the one to mark the baby.

He had been cast with the sign of the Nibel Wolf, destined to take on dragons and storms, when all other options were cast out. The wolf had been found a mile from the village half mad with mako poisoning and as for the dragon... All that was found from it was a shredded wing and the scars on the wolf's hide. The villagers had dubbed the wolf Fenrir, in honor of old legends, and when they went to put it down it had escaped. It was later discovered the wolf actively hunted the dragon that escaped it's mad war path through the mountains as pieces of both were found over the ensuring years.

The old woman had died that night and subsequently cast Cloud into the role of village outcast. Superstition wasn't supposed to carry over during these modern times however no one had ever said it didn't happen. Cloud had been bullied, pushed aside, cast into the role of loner simply by that one little moment when he was a year old.

Every year since a strange wolf head emblem was given to Cloud as the village's 'gift'. It wasn't unusual. Every child received a village gift in some form or another. Most were given clothes or money to finance their educations. Cloud was given a wolf head emblem in the shape of rings, necklaces, even the few clothes he owned was embroidered with the silvery-gray wolf somewhere on the article of clothing.

Cloud let out a breath as he remembered the parting gift he was given at thirteen. The tattoo every child who left was 'gifted' with was seared into the flesh using stolen mako from the little stream under the water tower. The green stylized wolf burned daily on his right shoulder when he handled the materia in classes or in battle.

He sometimes wondered if that tattoo hadn't possessed a part of his mind.

It had to be the only logical explanation for his anger towards the General. Like the wolf attacking the dragon, he had gone after the General like a deranged dog. Unlike old Fenrir, Cloud only had the small licking of mako in his system.

Letting out a breath of air, the cadet shifted his position until he was back in the preferred attention stance mandated for all on duty troopers. Cloud hated it. He hated the very fact he had to be here because the Mayor had been ordered to find the most promising of the village children and send them to Shin-ra as a recruit.

He and two other boys had been scouted out and sent before they even turned fourteen. His mother had never been really affectionate with him, but he had thought she would at least fight to keep him home. No, it never happened, because Ifalna Gast was always a bit colder then everyone else was with him. She had taken him to that old woman in a snow storm. She had given him glasses of glowing water late at night and instructed him when everyone else was long asleep.

Gaia was the name given to the Planet by the people who didn't know any better. Minerva was a name assigned to the Life Stream and Jenova was the name of the Calamity.

Cloud's eye brows furrowed together as he tried to remember other things that should have been important. Yet, none of it ever made it past the need to destroy Sephiroth. So, why was his mother suddenly marrying Hojo of all people?

Was it all for the sake of her revenge?

His shoulders tensed when he heard the approach of several feet coming in his direction. The same loathing as before for the General and inadvertently his companions flickered back into full scaled hate. Cloud was glad he had returned his helmet to his head, there by hiding his aggression from all three of his superiors. The presence of Zack Fair did not go unnoticed or in how the older teenager glanced at him with something akin to sorrow and pity. His mother had made drilled Cloud on him, his girlfriend, and a former Turk associated with the Weapons for months.

The General stopped in short of Cloud's presence as recognition flared in the man's stance. “Zack, why are you here?”

Zack grinned, walking towards Cloud and looping an arm around the smaller figure. “I'm Spike's training buddy. When I heard you had him reporting here today from Security I just knew he was going to need some back up.” The second class stated. Much as Angeal had done with the younger SOLDIER, Zack had seemingly adopted a cadet.

There was a knowing look in the teenager's eyes as he stared down the three firsts. Scarily energetic, Zack Fair had one thing none of them noticed and mostly forgot until they were reminded of it's presence. Zack was keenly intelligent and seriously loyal to those he cared about. There was something quite different in the way he handled Strife, almost as if he thought the blond would break without his presence.

“Your friend was rather disrespectful, Zack.” he admonished the second class even as Zack shrugged at the announcement.

Blue eyes glittered with suppressed emotion. “He received some strange news and Spike has every right to be concerned when his mother is marrying ole' Hojo. It's bad enough to know your only parent is a scientist but when you add in your old man it tends to get a bit terrifying. He probably thought you could help with the situation.”

...and just like that guilt set in.