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Chapter 9

"You told off Sephiroth?" Stopping short in the middle of the camp, his arms full of bulky canvas, Zack stared at Cloud in shock and not a little awe. "Are you serious?"

"It's not like I knew it was him!" Cloud protested, hefting his own armful a little higher and glaring at their companion, another man from their platoon. "Anton, do you have to spread this story around?"

"If he didn't hear it from me, he'd just have gotten it from someone else," the older man grinned at Cloud over his bundle of stakes and guy lines. "It's all over camp, kiddo."

"Never mind all that," Zack nearly lost his burden as he let go with one hand to wave off their words. "You told off Sephiroth?"

"Zack! Will you drop it already? I'm just thanking Ramuh he didn't court-martial me on the spot," Cloud said, flushing. "Now, you two might not care about getting these tents up before a bunch of tired and cranky SOLDIERs 1st Class come looking for them, but I do. Move!"

By unspoken agreement the troops healed by the SOLDIERs in Sephiroth's unit were, one by one, taking up the tasks and duties that would normally have fallen to the SOLDIERs. Such as setting up tents for them to sleep in, or sorting out the crates of supplies they'd had flown in with them. They were all well aware that the SOLDIERs didn't have to spend their own energy healing everyone who should have been tended to long before they arrived, and it was their way of paying the men back a little.

Cloud, especially, was willing to do just about anything Sephiroth might have asked of him in return for Zack's life. If the general had ordered him to go out unarmed and play bait for the monsters, he'd have done it. Running around doing menial tasks and basic camp chores to spare the SOLDIERs the effort seemed trivial.

"So then what happened?" Zack asked Anton as they started moving again towards the area of the camp where the SOLDIERs' tents were being set up. "I can't believe I missed all this!"

"Zack," Cloud moaned, shaking his head. He knew it was pointless; as Anton had said, even if Cloud managed to stop the conversation now Zack would only hear it from someone else. And probably a more exaggerated version of it, too. Rumours always grew with each repetition.

"So then he turns on the medic again," Anton took up where he'd been interrupted, clearly relishing both the tale itself and Cloud's reaction to hearing it. Worse, Zack was hanging on his every word.

Doing his best to tune both of them out entirely, Cloud stopped at a cleared space and dumped his armful of canvas onto the loamy forest floor. Wrestling with the collapsible poles that were supposed to thread through loops sewn into the tent fabric, Cloud grunted. "Little help here, guys?" he asked, breaking into the recitation.

Sephiroth's unit had brought more of the same 'jungle tents' the units already in place were using. Smaller than the more traditional rectangular tents, they fit into the spaces between trees without needing to cut down any of the forest, and the canvas was painted in mottled green camouflage. The collapsible poles were also easier to transport than the wooden posts needed for the big tents. Only the infirmary, the mess, and the command tent - now Sephiroth's tent - were the more traditional style.

"Aren't these things supposed to be designed so one person can put them up by themselves?" Cloud grumbled as Zack set down his bundle and came to hold the tent so Cloud could thread the pole more easily.

"That's what the instruction manual says," Zack agreed in a tone that was just a little too cheerful. "Tent version 3.2; jungle camouflage. Fits up to four, can be raised by one man even in adverse conditions. Not for use as a flotation device."

Pausing, Cloud gave his friend an odd look. "Does it actually say that about not being a flotation device?" he asked, not having read the manual himself. In his moment of inattention the rod he'd been feeding through the slot came apart, and he swore and started pulling it back out again so he could reassemble it.

"This is the army, kid," Anton laughed at him. "We're all about the three Rs. Rules, Regulations, and Restrictions. The more specific they can be about the permissible use of any object, the happier they are."

"Personally, I think the people writing the manuals just get paid by the word," Zack snickered. He grabbed another of the poles and started fitting the sections of rod together into one long length.

"Here," Anton said, dumping his load of ropes and stakes on top of Zack's tent. "You two can handle these, I'm going back for more."

Waving him off, Zack grinned at Cloud's increasingly frustrated attempts to get his pole to stay in one piece. "So, you actually told off the general?"

"Oh, for..." Snatching up a stake, Cloud chucked it at Zack, who laughingly shielded his head with his arms. "You're like a dog with a bone, you know that? Yes, fine, I snapped at General Sephiroth. I was worried about you, all right? I wasn't thinking, that's all."

Zack's smile turned soft. "I knew you were worth the effort of befriending, back in boot camp." He might have said more, but the pole he'd been working on chose that moment to fall apart in his hands. Blinking, he cursed at it and scrambled to collect the shorter rods again.

Turning red at the older boy's words, Cloud nevertheless had to laugh. "Whoever designed these should have worried a little less about making them collapsible and a little more about making them poles."

Between the two of them they managed to get the two tents set up, though Cloud lost track of the number of deities they called on or swore at in the process. Even so they were laughing as they moved back to see if there was anything else they could help with. Cloud was so relieved to have things back to normal between them, he would have happily put up with a great deal more teasing and smiled through all of it.

In the centre of the camp, though, they found a crowd of people waiting rather than a diminishing pile of equipment and boxes. It wasn't an orderly formation of ranks like Cloud would have expected to find gathering here, but literally a crowd.

At the front of the group was Sephiroth, another SOLDIER 1st Class, and the SOLDIER 3rd Class who had been acting as the camp's commanding officer before Sephiroth arrived. The latter looked thoroughly chastised, and Cloud had no doubt the man had been read the riot act by Sephiroth. He'd caught a few glimpses of the general as the man went about checking on the wounded, and every time Sephiroth had looked angrier.

The crowd was buzzing with rumours and speculation, but Sephiroth didn't need to ask for quiet. All he had to do was step forward, clearly intending to speak, and moments later there was absolute silence for his words to fall into.

"I want to thank you all for the efforts you have gone to here," the general started, his gaze sweeping over the crowd. Cloud and Zack had scrambled up onto a pile of crates to better be able to see over the crowd, and Cloud felt sure Sephiroth had focused on him for a moment. Or maybe that was just an illusion, because everyone around him looked like they were thinking the same thing.

"The danger in this area far exceeded anything predicted in your mission parameters," Sephiroth continued, his deep voice grave. "You have all shown remarkable valour and constitution in holding your position here, and continuing to make patrols despite the considerable threat. You do Shinra proud."

Cloud's heart beat faster in his chest, and a wave of pride washed over him. He caught Zack grinning at him from the corner of his eye, and turned to smile back at his friend.

"Tomorrow I will be taking my unit out in search of the terrorists and their horde of monsters," Sephiroth announced. "The rest of you will be set up in patrols around the camp and the town, in case the enemy takes advantage of our absence to attack. Once we have cleared out this nest of creatures and the men behind them, you will be sent back to base at Midgar."

There was a cheer from the units who had already been out in the jungle for more than a week, and Cloud's voice was part of it. He looked forward to getting back to the familiar routines of Midgar. Not to mention an absence of things that might end up killing him or Zack, or both.

"In the meantime, sleep well and recover your strength," the general concluded. "Those of you who have just been healed may be feeling energized, but I assure you that your body will welcome the rest regardless. Night patrol, report to Lieutenant Andrew. Everyone else, dismissed."

The crowd of people broke up in chattering groups as everyone dispersed either to their tents to sleep, or to the mess tent to socialize for another hour or two. "He's really different, isn't he?" Zack said thoughtfully, staring after the general as the man turned and gestured for the two SOLDIERs with him to join him in the command tent.

"Are you kidding me?" Cloud asked him incredulously. "Zack, he's Sephiroth. Of course he's different! He's the best SOLDIER ever!"

"That's not what I mean," Zack shook his head, glancing at Cloud. "He's different from the rest of the officers. He's not just a commanding officer, he's a commander and a leader. You know? I always wondered how a teenager could have won the war in Wutai, but now I understand."

"Yeah, I know," Cloud agreed softly, then stifled a yawn. Sephiroth's spell had healed him, but he had spent three days with very little sleep while he watched and worried over Zack. He was completely exhausted. "You can go socialize if you want, but I'm turning in. I'm totally beat."

"Nah, I'm for sleep," Zack said, turning towards the area where their platoon's tents were clustered. "He's right about us needing the rest, even if we don't feel like it."

As they walked back to their tents, Cloud felt a sharp pang in his chest. Zack had been in the middle of avoiding him when they'd chosen their tentmates, so of course they were in different tents. Not that it really mattered, they were only going to be sleeping, after all. But at the moment Cloud still kind of felt like he needed to keep Zack in sight, or Sephiroth showing up and the older boy's miraculous recovery would turn out to have been a dream after all.

Chiding himself for acting like a scared little kid, Cloud steeled himself as they reached his tent. "I guess I'll see you in the morning, then," he said, proud that his voice was both steady and casual.

Snorting, Zack shoved by him through the tent flap. "You'll see me a hell of a lot sooner than that. Dumbass."

"Huh?" Startled, Cloud scrambled in after him. The dome-shaped tents weren't tall enough for them to be able to stand up inside them, and there was hardly room to step anywhere inside. 'Fits four' was an overly generous estimate, in the opinion of anyone who'd ever had to share one with three other people, but they were crammed in four to a tent regardless.

Scanning the neatly laid out sleeping bags and duffle bags, Zack found the ones labelled with Cloud's name. "Zack, what are you doing?" Cloud asked, bewildered, as Zack scooped up his bedroll.

"Moving you, obviously," Zack replied with his most irrepressible grin. "Don't just stand there, grab your gear."

Knowing better than to argue with Zack when the older boy was in a mood like this, Cloud just shook his head and grabbed his duffle. "You can't seriously be proposing to squeeze me into your tent," he said as he followed Zack back out into the warm night air. "Someone will be smothered. There isn't even enough room for four people in these things, let alone five!"

"Of course not," Zack shook his head. "You have no faith in me, honestly."

Nobody but Cloud batted an eye as Zack proceeded to shamelessly badger one of his tentmates into switching places with Cloud. If anything, the members of B platoon who were present seemed relieved, which both confused and embarrassed Cloud. Of course he'd realized that everyone had to be aware that the unit's two youngest members were on the outs, but he hadn't realized it had been affecting anyone else that much.

Settling into his bedroll, the top half thrown back because of the heat, Cloud listened to the familiar sounds of Zack shifting around next to him and smiled. He'd gotten used to hearing Zack above him, and he hadn't realized he'd missed that familiar presence nearby just as much during the night as during the day.

"Sleep well, Zack," Cloud whispered, turning on his side so he could look at his friend. He wasn't all that surprised to find Zack looking back at him, smiling as well.

"Sweet dreams, kid," the older boy said, reaching out to ruffle Cloud's spiky bangs once before they both composed themselves for sleep.

Despite his exhaustion, Cloud hadn't been sure if he would be able to sleep. The urge to keep his eye on Zack so his friend couldn't turn out to be an apparition was strong, but not enough to overcome his body's needs in the end.

He was therefore sound asleep when the shouting began, and the first alarms sounded. It was Zack shaking him roughly by the shoulder that woke him, and he dragged himself out of sleep reluctantly. "Wha..."

"Something's wrong," Zack said, his voice rough with sleep as well but his eyes glittering darkly in the dim light of the tent. Their two tentmates were slowly waking as well, and then all four of them were suddenly wide awake as the main alarm bell started clanging.

"They're attacking the camp?" One of the other men blurted out as they all scrambled for clothes, armour and weapons. "They're going to take on two full companies and two units of SOLDIER, all at once?"

"Two units of SOLDIER who spent the afternoon exhausting themselves healing the rest of us," Zack countered grimly, slinging his extra ammo over his shoulder. Cloud was still struggling with his shoulder plates, so the older boy quickly helped him with the buckles. "We haven't been asleep more than an hour, which means everyone is still tired, wound up from today, and the 1st Class unit probably doesn't have much power left for spells. This is the best chance they'll ever have."

"You're saying there's a spy?" Cloud exclaimed. When Zack just gave him an odd look, he shrugged. "How else could they have known that now would be a good time to strike?"

"Yeah, maybe," Zack agreed, picking up his rifle and handing Cloud's over as well. "We can worry about that later, though. Right now, we need to..."

Whatever he'd been about to say was cut off as something large and snarling slammed into the side of their tent, ripping the guy lines and stakes out of the ground on that side. The impact snapped the collapsible poles like they were tinder, and the whole thing came crashing down on top of them.

Yelling, Cloud thrashed beneath the weight of monster and canvas. He felt something draped over his upper legs and hips, and it took him a moment to realize Zack had fallen half across him. Razor sharp claws slashed through the canvas and tore into the earth beneath as the monster struggled to get free of the entangling tent, and Cloud tried not to hyperventilate as the claws flashed far too close to his face.

"Shit, shit, shit!" he heard Zack cursing, as they both fought the weight crushing them. Finally the beast found its feet, and they were able to move freely again.

Getting free of the draping canvas of the tent was more difficult than Cloud would have thought it would be, but when they finally burst free they found themselves in the midst of sheer chaos. Soldiers and SOLDIERs were running everywhere, any thoughts of a formation lost in the first moments of the attack. There were more monsters than Cloud ever wanted to see in one place again, and the noise level was overwhelming.

"Cloud!" Zack shouted, and from the corner of his eye Cloud saw the older boy level his rifle at him. Instinctively he ducked, and Zack's shot tore over him to slam into the wolf that had been creeping up behind him. From his crouched position Cloud opened fire on the dragon still shaking free of the last ropes from their tent.

From somewhere near the centre of the camp there was a sudden crack of lightning, followed a fraction of a second later by a deafening clap of thunder. "Looks like somebody's still got energy left," Zack shouted, flashing a quick grin down at Cloud. "My money's on Sephiroth!"

"I'm not stupid enough to take that bet!" Cloud called back, wincing as the lightning struck again. That had to be at least a Bolt 2 spell, if not Bolt 3. He'd never seen one from this close before.

He didn't have time to really appreciate it, though. The dragon had freed itself and turned on them, its wings lifting menacingly as it thrust its head forward and hissed at them. Remembering the way the swordsman had burned to death, and the way he'd killed that dragon, Cloud fired at the beast's head.

This time he didn't manage the lucky shot. His first bullet glanced off the dragon's tough horn, and the second went wide. "Zack! The dragon, shoot its mouth!" he called, spinning on his heel and aiming for the wolf instead. Zack was a much better shot than he was, and was more likely to be able to shoot the dragon before it finished gathering breath to flame them.

Zack whipped around so he was facing the other way, and Cloud heard his rifle fire. He didn't have time to worry about whether or not the shot went true - if it hadn't, he'd know in a few seconds. If it had, then he needed to make sure they weren't saved from the dragon only to be eaten by the wolf.

The wolf went down, but there was one of those animated plants behind it. Cloud scrambled to his feet again, and put his back against Zack's solid body. They both fired again and again, twisting to follow each other any time one of them was forced to dodge or turn to aim. If one of them ran out of ammo, they fell to a crouch while the other stood guard over them to reload.

Cloud wasn't sure what had happened to their two tentmates, let alone the rest of the two companies. All he could focus on was one monster after another, his arms shaking with exhaustion and fear but his aim as steady as it had ever been.

Finally the inevitable happened, and Cloud cursed as he pulled the trigger and nothing happened. "Zack! I'm jammed!" he called, working at the bolt to try to force the chamber clear.

"Shit, and I'm almost out of ammo," Zack swore, swinging around to shoot the plant-creature Cloud had been aiming at. "We need to find cover!"

Glancing around, his fingers still struggling with the bolt, Cloud spotted one of the stacks of supply crates. "Over there!" he said, gesturing. Zack glanced over, and nodded.

"On three, we'll make a break for it," the older boy declared. "Ready? One... two... three!"

They ran for all they were worth, Cloud dogging Zack's heels. Neither of them looked back, though Cloud was achingly certain there had to be something snapping just inches away from him. Zack vaulted over the first of the boxes, Cloud right behind him, and they got a moment to breathe.

The weren't the only ones who had thought of taking shelter here. Half a dozen men had rearranged the crates into a fortress with a small space in the middle, and that was where Cloud and Zack came to rest. Two of the men had set aside swords that were useless for the moment, and were reloading spare guns for the riflemen.

"What's the situation?" Zack asked as he took up a position in the defensive circle. Cloud dropped his jammed rifle and grabbed one of the spares, trying not to think about the fact that they must have been salvaged from dead troopers.

"They got past the sentries on the west side somehow," the oldest of the men, a sergeant, replied. His voice was calm and steady, his aim solid, but Cloud could see tension in his bulky shoulders. "From the looks of it the SOLDIERs are grouping in the centre and trying to fight their way out to whoever is controlling the monsters. Some of my men tried to get up there to join them, but..."

Zack nodded, moving over to make room for Cloud. The sergeant didn't need to say anything else. The ground between their position and the centre was a morass of bodies, human and beast alike. Many of them weren't moving, but there were plenty of live threats between here and there.

"We're almost out of ammo," one of the swordsmen called in a high, thin voice as Cloud took aim and fired on another wolf. "We're not going to last long after it's gone!"

"Is there no end to these bloody bastards?" the sergeant snarled, shooting a dragon as it reared up over a running trooper a dozen feet away. No, not a trooper, Cloud saw as the man went down before the dragon's fiery breath just moments before the sergeant killed it. A SOLDIER, his massive buster sword falling from his hand as he collapsed.

Cold fear clenched at Cloud's heart. Trapped, cut off from reinforcements, with their ammo running out... they were as good as dead, unless one of them came up with something brilliant. Distracted, he shifted his rifle too far out to the side of his shoulder, and the recoil of his next shot sent his arm slamming back hard.

Biting back a cry of pain as his elbow impacted with one of the crates, Cloud gingerly raised the rifle to his shoulder again. He paused, glancing back at the crate thoughtfully. "Hey, what's in the crates?"

For a moment, everyone in the little fortress just stared at him blankly. "Shiva's tits," one of the men swore, and there was a scramble for the crates. Three of the riflemen kept guard while the rest of them pried open any crate that wasn't integral to the defensive wall they'd built.

"Potions and ethers, looks like," one of the swordmen reported.

"I think these are hi-potions, but I've never seen one before," Zack said, crouched over another crate. The sergeant, who was one of those still standing guard, glanced over his shoulder.

"Yeah, they are," he confirmed. "But if these things get close enough for us to be damaged enough to need them, it's going to be too late to use them. We need something offensive. See if you can find any grenades or bolt plumes or something."

"Here!" the other swordsman called, holding up a fistful of grey spheres. "Grenades!" He started passing them around, and Cloud snatched up an armful gratefully. They didn't have the range of the rifles, but they also did a hell of a lot more damage and could hit more than one enemy at once. Aim didn't matter nearly as much, especially considering how thick the trees were around them.

They started throwing the grenades, and the explosions were almost loud enough to drown out the lightning still sporadically striking the camp. The bolts were coming down further away now, indicating that the SOLDIERs were making progress towards the far side of the fray.

"It's not going to be enough," Zack muttered, eyes narrowed as he tossed a grenade at a dragon and followed it up with a quick burst shot to the head. "Damn it, I think some of these things are resistant to physical attacks. The armour, or something. We need magic."

"If there's anything in here that casts magic, it's in the walls," Cloud said despairingly. "We don't dare take them apart to find out, the monsters will rush us through the breach."

"Yeah, I know, but... maybe we don't need items to cast spells," Zack replied, his eyes fixed on one of the dragon corpses.

No, Cloud realized, not on the dragon. On the SOLDIER that had fallen beneath the dragon, and his sword lying in the mud. The buster sword had the standard two materia slots, and Cloud could see the gentle green glow from whatever magic materia the SOLDIER had equipped.

"Zack, no," Cloud protested, but he was too late.

"Cover me!" Zack yelled over his shoulder as he dropped his rifle and vaulted back over the wall, hitting the ground running. Frantically Cloud pulled the pin on two grenades at once and tossed them to Zack's left, where one of the carnivorous plants was rushing to meet him.

He managed to damage the plant badly enough to slow it, and then Zack had reached the dead SOLDIER. Snatching the sword up from the ground, the dark-haired boy swung it in an awkward arc, chopping through the plant's head. It collapsed, and Zack staggered back towards the fort with the sword dragging behind him.

"Holy Alexander, this thing is heavy," he gasped as he tumbled back over the crates into the safe space in the middle. "Here, catch!" he added as he pried one of the materia loose and tossed it to Cloud.

All of them wore bracers with two linked slots and two unlinked, standard issue Shinra armour, but Cloud had never actually equipped a materia before. He didn't even know what sort of magic the materia he was holding did... but then again, he wasn't sure it really mattered. Whatever it was, it would be better than nothing. Taking a deep breath, he shoved the materia into a slot.

Thin tendrils of energy wound through the bracer and into him, and somehow he understood that he was holding a fire materia. A strong one; it was mastered, or close to it. He couldn't hope to use the third level spell, but he thought he might be able to cast the second level. Once.

Well, once was better than not at all. Turning, he focused on the materia and his target, a cloud of the same bats that had nearly killed Zack. Concentrating hard, he willed power into the trigger words as he spoke them. Green energy flared all around him as the materia responded, and a column of flame engulfed the bats.

He'd forgotten that magic materia only worked on one enemy at a time unless it was paired with other support materia, though. He killed one of the bats, but the rest of the swarm was fine and now he was out of energy. "Hades take it," he swore, glancing over to see Zack expending a Bolt 2 spell to better effect against one of the dragons. "Now what?"

Zack was reeling, one hand against a crate to steady himself. Cloud doubted he'd be able to cast again any more than Cloud could, but Zack was grinning at him like he'd just won a prize. "Now we put those ethers to good use," he said, and gestured at one of the swordsmen.

Understanding flared in Cloud's eyes, and he caught the ether that was tossed to him. Downing it, he felt unnatural energy pouring through him. It was easy to channel it through the materia again, and this time he focused on the bigger enemies and left the bat clouds to the grenades.

They still had a limited amount of ethers and only two materia, but between that, the rifles and the grenades, it was enough. At some point as the first false hints of dawn lit the eastern sky above the trees, Cloud looked around for another target and couldn't find one.

Blinking in surprise, he scanned the area again, swaying on his feet with exhaustion despite the artificial energy of the ether he'd just downed. There were monster carcasses everywhere, and some of them were still twitching, but there was nothing that seemed to be an immediate threat.

After a moment when nothing further attacked them, one of the riflemen whooped with glee. The rest of the group took up the cheer quickly, slapping each other on the backs and shouting themselves hoarse with the giddy relief of victory. All around the camp Cloud could hear other similar cheers starting, as other defended pockets of troopers realized there was nothing more to fight.

"Shit, that was insane," Zack said, his eyes wide and almost feverish with the energy of the ether. He grabbed Cloud around the shoulders with one arm, ruffling the younger boy's hair vigorously with his other hand. Cloud struggled, but not as hard as he might have. He was too relieved to have come through the night alive, and with Zack still at his side.

"We need to regroup, in the centre with the others," the sergeant proclaimed wearily. "General Sephiroth will be gathering everyone there for a debriefing. Check bodies as you go, see if any of our people are still alive, and kill anything else that's still moving."

"I think I'll just hang onto this, and a few of these," Zack said, gesturing with his bracer and scooping up the few last ethers. He handed a few to Cloud without being asked, and Cloud tucked them into his belt. He felt a lot better having them.

"Think they'll let us keep the materia?" he asked with a weary smile as they climbed over the crates. "Not that they'll do us much good without the ethers to back us up."

"I'm claiming mine as a bloody souvenir, if nothing else," Zack declared with an equally weary grin. "We've earned it."

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