Perfect War

Title: Perfect War
Author: Enide Dear
Rating: some gore
Paring: none, Cloud centered

A/N: Follow up on Perfect Night and Perfect Day


War in Wutai was not what he’d expected. Cloud knew he wasn’t old enough, or trained enough, to be allowed in the battlefield by common rules. But the First Classers had insisted to president Shinra who had simply shrugged and waved his hand in admittance, not really caring one way or another about a single trooper. War was still better than being left behind in Midgar were Hojo was bound to take an unhealthy interest in the up-and-coming recruit sparkling with talent, or so The First Classers had told Cloud, dragging him along when they left.

It made Cloud wonder just how horrible Hojo really were.

Everything out here was a potential danger, from the poisonous insects, venomous snakes, lethal spider and flesh eating plants to the massive armies sent to stop them. He wasn’t ready for this, not by a long shot, and the helmet and rifle they gave him only made things seem more surreal. He kept as close to the First Classers as he possibly could during the long trek through hostile jungles to their base camp. Once there, Cloud’s nerves started to settle a little. Behind heavily fortified walls and surrounded by war veterans and Soldiers he felt he could relax and let his guard down enough to start being of some real use around camp. The reason invented for bringing him along had been that his speed and stamina was useful for courier duty, so he spent most days scurrying around camp with various papers and orders. He quickly got used to it and actually started enjoying himself. He would, however, had enjoyed himself more if the First Classers, especially Angeal, hadn’t insisted that he still needed to put on muscles and thus made him run around with the Buster Sword strapped on his back. The damn sword was *impossibly* heavy and cumbersome.

But he learned a lot about Soldier, camps, and jungle combat. He learned even more about the First Class Soldiers.

The first thing he learned was that the inevitable five o´clock yell of ‘Bucket Chain!’ meant that everyone not otherwise occupied had to grab a fire bucket, fill it with water and quickly form a line, passing the buckets forward. At first he thought it was a fire, and then a fire drill as the yell always came at the same time and chain always went to the same place. It took a week before he realized the bucket chain ended in Sephiroth trying to rinse the shampoo out of his hair.

He learned that the most exhausting task in the camp or out was known as ‘Puppy Duty’ and required you to run your butt off to keep up with Zack Fair bounding around the camp and trying to keep him in pants and out of trouble. The newly minted First Classer was all but impossible to keep out of card games, spontaneous dog pile fights, tug of war of the last beer can and mud pools. Often in combination.  

He learned to always keep something edible on him – anything really, an apple, a power bar, those supposedly sweet-tasting grubs found in the marrow of sugar-palms – so that when Angeal started one of his extremely tedious ‘honor-and-dreams’ speeches you could bribe him with that. Angeal never could turn down a snack and he was too polite to talk with his mouth full.

He learned that the five crates marked Fragile and Classified that he and his fellow troopers had dragged, carried and cursed through endless miles of mosquito infested jungle contained carefully stored canned Banora White juice. Even Cloud had almost lost his temper when he figured that out, but one glance at the wistful look on Genesis face when he opened the first can and drank it made him swallow his anger.


He learned that the four was an absolute terror in battle.



Wutai threw everything they got at the invading army. Rows upon rows of soldiers, anit-ShinRa monsters that shook the earth, magical lions and dragons and material.

The First Classers faced it all, head on.


Genesis was the armys magical powerhouse; before battle he all but hummed with materia hung from his weapons and armor. Even Cloud, with his limited knowledge of materia knew how to appreciate the subtlety and genius behind the russet man’s materia use; it was a delicate balance to keep so much magic at hand. In battle Genesis was the maelstrom center in an exploding nightmare of summons, deadly energy projectiles, lethal curses and fiery sword. Nothing magical could touch him, no matter its source.

Zack preferred more battle-directed materia;  Assault Twister, Quake and Costly Punch was his ordinary repertoire. It made him a bit slow, but he had the strength to taka few hits before delivering his own, single deadly assault.

Angeal mostly equipped Heal, Restore and Cure materia, along with any number of Barriers and Phoenix Down he could find and throw at anyone who looked in desperate need. Without sword or battle materia he should have been the easiest target to take out. Whole battalions of Wutaiis finest perished in that belief.

Sephiroth donned a few materia before battle, but if there were any logic or thought behind it then Cloud couldn’t see it. He suspected that, as with so many other things the war hero did, it was mostly for show. All Sephiroth really needed as Masamune. Materia or not, he was as impervious to magic as Genesis, as strong as Zack, and skilled as Angeal and undouble the most lethal warrior on the continent.  

Cloud himself was given a Dash and a low-grade Cure, enough to heal a sprained ankle if he should trip. His only orders were to stay out of the way and occasionally run with orders.


Another thing Cloud learned, after several weeks at camp,  was that where there were First Classers, there were Turks. It wasn’t obvious at first, but Cloud started to get the feeling he was being watched, and by unfriendly eyes at that. At first he thought it was just war paranoia, but to be honest he was probably the least useful person in the platoon and thus the least likely to get assassinated, so it didn’t make much sense. And then little things started happening, almost coincidental things.  His shoes got lost and he had to get  a new pair, but the only ones left were too big or too small. His bunk was invaded by stinkbugs; if he’d missed them he’d have woken up smelling like the sewers under Honey Bee inn. He got to the mess hall just when the days rations were out. Little things, noting out of the ordinary, but there were *so many* of them. Cloud knew he wasn’t known for his good luck, but this was really pushing it. And it wasn’t as if he could go to the First Classers with it; they were his friends, but they also had a war to win and really couldn’t be bothered with an inconvenienced messenger boy. And it wasn’t as if he had any proof

Finally Cloud decided to lay a trap.

He managed to get a hold of a candy bar, a great prize this far from civilization, and then hide it from Angeal all day, an even greater feat as the man had a sweet tooth and super senses. When night came, he put the candy bar by his bunk, hid a flashlight under the blanket and pretended to sleep. He could hear Angeal passing by and sniffing at least twice as the hours rolled by, but the man had too much honor to steal from a sleeping man. Cloud didn’t think the same could be said about whoever was messing with him.

Midnight came and went, and then the lonely wolf hours of night when all was dark and still, the hours when most people died and most babies were born. Cloud waited and waited, barely daring to move, but nothing happened. His candy bar remained untouched throughout the night, the perfect bait, the perfect prank waiting to happen. But…nothing. Exhausted he saw dawn crack in the east over the jungles, welcomed by a cacophony of animal noises. In an hour or so it would be time to get up, eat something, and try to bear another day of being miserable. Maybe he really just had bad luck and that was it. Disappointed at his failure, Cloud sighed and rolled over.

Someone was sitting at the foot end of the bed.

With a squark, Cloud almost jumped out of bed, fumbling for his weapon and his flashlight all at once, dropping both and falling out of the bed to knock his head on the floor.

There came a snort from the quiet stalker who reached out and grabbed the flashlight – and the candy – and lit it straight into Cloud’s eyes. He could hear the candy bar being messily devoured.

“Clumsy, noisy, aggressive and setting traps a four-year old kid wouldn’t fall for. Yeah, you’re gonna be Soldier alright, yo.” The man shining him in the eyes snorted.

“What? Reno?! What the hell are you doing here?” Cloud tried to get up, but somehow his bootstraps were tangled together and he fell over again. How the Hell had Reno managed to do that while he was still awake? And how long had he been in Cloud’s tent anyway?!

“Making sure Wutai don’t mess with supplies, water deliveries, poisons, dealing with assasins and traps, a few kidnappings and blackmails of Wutai dignitaries.” Reno sucked the last candy from his fingers. “Standard Turk stuff. Messing up the lives of troopers I don’t really like is more of a hobby. Relaxes me, yo.” He smiled evilly in the pre-dawn light.

“I didn’t even know there were Turks here.” Cloud grumbled and tried to un-tie his boots; it was damn near impossible. He’d have to cut them open and then slosh around in his too-big, untied boots until the next delivery came from Midgar. And somehow Cloud just *knew* that his shipment of boots would have been ‘misplaced’. “Why are you messing with me? Is it still about your damn Sephiroth mission?”

“It was my cushy fucking *job*, you little twit, I had *earned* that spot and you just fucked it up!” Snarling and with chocolate all around his mouth, Reno tossed away the flashlight. “You’d better watch yourself, Strife!” He hissed as he stormed away, somehow melting into the pre-dawn shadows and disappearing.

Oh yeah, Cloud thought to himself as he got to his feet. This was just perfect.


“There are Turks here,” Cloud tried telling Zack over breakfast. ‘Somehow’ Cloud’s cereals were the soggy, chewy, unappetizing ones full of fibers while everyone else got TonBerry FruitLoops.  He sighed and kept chewing.

“Yep, Reno, Rude and Cissney.” Zack said, slurping down the last sweet tasting milk full of yummy artificial flavor. “Sometimes they send Tseng, but only when they’re after someone particularly nasty.”

“You…knew?” Cloud deflated.

“There are always Turks watching.” Sephiroth shrugged, neatly decapitating an egg and eating it.

“So people keeps telling me,” Cloud muttered sulkily. “Why are they here anyway?”

“To protect us.” Genesis, the firm believer that ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’ despite all obvious evidence to the contrary,  was chewing a dumbapple.

“From what?! What could you four possibly need protection from?”

“Ourselves, mostly” Angeal finished his first portion and started looking for the next, leaving a confused Cloud behind.



A few days later the war took a turn for the worse. What had been expected to be a crumbling Wutai fortress turned out to me stock-full of monsters and soldiers and the ShinRa army was woefully unprepared. Heavy losses occurred within minutes and shortly after Genesis screamed at Cloud to run for reinforcements; Sephiroth, Angeal and the greater part of the ShinRa army was still left behind at the basecamp. Zack was somewhere in the midst of battle, but could no longer be seen.

Cloud started running as Genesis’ magic lit up the jungle with its eerie glow.


It was at least ten miles to camp; he couldn’t run flat out like his panicy brain told him to or he’d never make it. Forcing himself to husband his strength and speed, Cloud sat out in a quick jog that would eat up the miles without leaving him die in the process.
He barely made it one mile before something came crashing through the canopy. Screaming, Cloud Dashed away from the falling object, and then screamed again as he saw the broken, unconscious body of Zack slam into path where he’d been running. The sword, the huge, cumbersome Buster Sword Angeal had lent him, disappeared somewhere in the undergrowth.  

“Zack!” Forgetting all about his mission, Cloud fell to his knees next to the body – no, not the body, Zack was still breathing, but his arms and legs were clearly broken and he wasn’t responding. Dark panic spread through Cloud’s mind. What should he do? What could he do? He had a low-grade Cure and that was it; trembling he used it but saw no difference except a few bruises healing. Useless! Should he get Genesis? But the general was surely caught up in the conflict. And besides he didn’t have Cure, Cloud had helped him equip materia himself that morning. Should he get Angeal? But he was hours away and Cloud couldn’t just leave Zack here! Maybe Zack had some potion in his pockets, materia, anything! Desperate Cloud started rummaging through Zack’s pockets where he heard it.

The footfalls were deceptively quiet and the enormous body seemed to blend in with the shadows as the Vajradhara Tai charged at the two men. Cloud could only stare as the huge axe came falling down at them.


Suddenly the world took on a yellowish cast, seconds before the axe fell. Instead of striking him dead, the axe slid off the yellow triangular light, shattering it but leaving the two men unscattered. The monster roared and tried for another swing, but a small fire hit its side and it swung to face the new threat.

“Get your ass up, Strife!” A familiar voice shouted and Cloud caught a glance of fire truck red hair rushing by; Reno danced at the edges of the monster’s reach, plummeting it with distracting, if useless, Turk Lights.  “Figh, yo! You’re the Soldier here, I’m just a fucking decoy!”

“But I’m not…” But he was, wasn’t he? He trained with Angeal, learned swordplay with Zack, materia from Genesis and was, well, *friends* with Sephiroth. He had to do this. Or they’d die, all three of them, and possibly the whole platoon still engaged at the fortress.

His fumbling hand found the Buster Sword. He didn’t let himself think of how heavy it was, how impossible to wield. He lifted it, engaged the Costly Punsh and hit the Vajradhara straight in the back.

The monster turned around and backhanded him across the path, into a tree.

“Holy shit!” through the massive pain and possible concussion, Cloud saw Reno crouching over Zack’s prone body, useless EMR still in hand as the monster charged them. Anger, wrath and terrible fury rushed over him and Cloud staggered to his feet, found the Buster Sword and charged.

The rest was a blur of lights and screams until the monster fell over, dead, not two meters from Reno and Zack. Swaying, Cloud sat down on his ass, wiping monster blood from his face as Reno shaking got to his feet. He rummaged through the corpse and tossed a potion to Cloud.

“Not too bad, chicken butt. You’ve earned that.”

“No.” Cloud shook his head. “Give it to Zack…”

“Zack ain’t going nowhere and that potion wont do anything for him. You need to get your ass to camp and that potion should do the trick. I’ll stay here, keep him safe. Now run, we don’t have much time. Run!”

Cloud drank, and ran.


He made it. Somehow, he made it. Angeal and Sephiroth along with a large part of the army hurried to relieve Genesis while medics ran for Zack and Cloud sat down and tried to get air back into his lounges. In the end, ShinRa won the day again and although both Zack and Genesis were a bit worse for wear they were alive and would be fine. Zack was sent back home to Midgar to rest up for a few weeks, but Genesis was fine once he’d been Cured. Everyone thanked Cloud for getting  back up so fast, and congratulated him on his first Limit Break.  Cloud didn’t know what to say; he just knew he had to find Reno again. But the Turk seemed to have vanished from sight.

It took him days to track the Turk down and when he did find Reno smoking behind a barrack, the Turk had a cast around one arm and a few fading bruises on his face. He glared up at Cloud, who suddenly remembered that Reno didn’t’ like him much.

“Um.” He shuffled his feet under the teal stare. “I just wanted to say thank you. You know, for saving my life.”

Reno snorted, and blew smoke from his nose.

“Don’t get any stupid ideas, I didn’t save *your* life.” The turk shrugged, then grimaced as his broken arm stung. “I saved the life of Zack Fair, First Class Soldier, ‘cause that’s my job. I don’t’ go out of my way to save dumbass troopers.”

“But….”

“You were just the means to an end, yo. I used you. Worked damn good to. Someone oughta give me a raise.” Reno stared at the smoke rings, not even looking at Cloud.

“I don’t believe you.” Cloud said, quietly.

Reno spun around, anger flaring.

“What did you say?!”

“I think you would save me to, if you had to. Even though it’s not your job. I don’t think you’re all about the job, just because you say so.”

“Why you little…” Reno got up with a snarl, but this time Cloud was faster and threw himself around the Turk. Reflexes ingrained during a life time made Reno’s muscles go limp, so that when he hit the ground under an assailant it would hurt less, and he’d be able to squirm free an arm or a leg – enough to get leverage. But he wasn’t wrestled down, he didn’t hit the ground and there were no pain. The unexpected result was that he hung limp as a ragdoll in a surprisingly strong embrace.

“Hey! What the Hell?!” Reno snarled and squirmed, deeply uncomfortable in the hug, but Cloud held on, whispering ‘thank you’.

Very little evaded mako-hearing and the strange ruckus behind the barrack definitely needed investigating, so general Sephiroth slid like a silver shadow towards, it, Masamue held ready. But he couldn’t help but smile when he saw the awkward hug, the grateful trooper and the hissing, spitting Turk who really had no idea how to handle the situation.

“Get him the fuck off me, yo!” Reno squealed at the general who just shook his head and smiled.

“Yes,” Sephiroth mused. “He does grow on you, doesn’t he?”