A/N: This was a prize I promised the winner of a contest on Deviantart. It just so happens that I won that contest, so I just wrote myself something fun. This is a ONESHOT for now! I have too many fanfics going to add one more... Much though I like this setup...T-T *EDIT* Okay, I lied. It's not a oneshot. Enjoy the knowledge that there is more to come!
Anyhow! I do not own FFVII or any of its relations! Please throw all of your money at the official releases like I do.
"Hey, brother," Kadaj shifted in the manacles that bound him to the wall as he spoke, his bare chest glistening faintly with sweat from his fruitless struggles. "What did you think when you found the Buster sword knocked over?"
Cloud refused to look at him. He stood behind the seated Turk, his arms crossed, and did not shift his gaze from the opposite wall. His heart was hammering in his chest, fury building up just under the surface. He wasn't entirely sure who that fury was directed towards, the remnant of Sephiroth who was still stubbornly alive, or Tseng, sitting impassively in front of him. He'd agreed to be a guard in this meeting more because he had sympathy for Tseng in confronting someone who'd once tortured him than because he was concerned about Kadaj's treatment. But the longer it went on, he wondered if those priorities weren't changing.
"Cloud is not the one you are talking to," Tseng warned, his voice dark. "Answer the question, or you will yet again face the consequences."
"You thought we were monsters, didn't you," Kadaj laughed, his madness shining through in every word, and his filthy hair falling in front of his filth-stained face. "You're wrong, though. You're the monster. You've killed everyone who ever really cared about you. You realize that, don't you?"
Tseng pressed the button in front of him, and the remnant contorted. He made not a sound, but Cloud heard the scream trapped in his throat as electricity coursed through him. His hands spasmed in their bonds, and his body curled in on itself helplessly. His teeth gritted so hard Cloud could hear them grind together with each fresh spasm. When Tseng removed his finger, the remnant went limp in his bonds, sagging there and panting raggedly. Blood dripped from his lips onto the cement floor. It joined the sweat that was all but pouring off him in a growing pool, with little rivulets already trailing down to the drain in the center of the floor. A crazed, burbling laugh wrenched itself from the remnant's throat as he hung there with his hair falling in front of his face and his body still twitching from the shock.
"How did you return," Tseng asked again, still as calm as a pool.
"First Sephiroth," Kadaj choked, "in the reactor. Then Zack who you were too weak to protect, then Aerith who you almost cut down with your own hands. Everyone who died because of meteor—All those lost souls—all your failure, brother."
Tseng pressed the button again, and Cloud closed his eyes. He knew what Kadaj was feeling as the choked cries slid past his grit teeth. Though his memories of the tortures of Hojo's lab were dim and fuzzed, and probably didn't even all belong to him, he still remembered viscerally. It was a horrible thing—it had left his brain blurred, and his stomach churning. But now he stood by as the same torture was repeated on Kadaj, because he was a monster. Because he'd tried to take everything that Cloud ever loved. There was no sympathy for him in Cloud. He tried to force himself to believe that.
"How did you return," Tseng repeated darkly as he lifted his finger once more, leaving the remnant choking for breath. It hadn't escaped Cloud's notice that the amount of time the boy was electrocuted increased with each refusal to speak.
"Then us," Kadaj choked, gasping for air between his words, breaking off to vomit black bile, his body taxed to breaking by the torture, though he was still smiling when he looked up again—the same vicious, empty smile he'd given Cloud so often. "Your brothers. How easy the world must be for you, Cloud, with us as your villains."
Tseng pressed down again, and this time Kadaj screamed, jolting violently in the hold of his chains. There was an ugly pop. Cloud winced, glancing over to see that Kadaj had dislocated his shoulder in his thrashing, and was still jerking helplessly against his bonds, which were themselves transmitting the electricity into him.
Tseng removed his finger, and watched impassively as the remnant retched and gagged, his lips a little blue, though whether it was from the freezing temperature of the room, or being unable to breathe while Tseng's finger was on the button Cloud didn't know. He didn't know if it mattered.
"If this is a ploy," Tseng warned quietly, "And you are trying to get me to kill you so you can pop right back to life, please be aware that isn't happening. I'll be keeping you alive. For years if I must. But only just barely, Kadaj. You'll wish to die every moment of every day until you talk to me, and then, perhaps, I'll let you have a few hours now and then where you do not beg me for the mercy of death."
"So my brothers are alive," Kadaj rasped, coughing heavily and spitting more blood. "Good to know."
Tseng's finger descended in anger after those words. He pressed the button before him so hard that the tip of his finger turned white. Kadaj ran out of breath to scream with, and jerked helplessly in his bonds, his inhuman eyes rolling back in his head and his bared muscles spasming uncontrollably.
"Tseng," Cloud warned, glancing from the Turk to the convulsing boy.
The button was released, and Kadaj went limp once more, giving ragged chokes for breath. His eyes were half lidded, and he didn't seem able to focus them. Cloud watched him, no longer able to keep his gaze on the wall. He looked young, his traitorous mind commented. Young and hurt, like he himself must have looked when Zack saved him. Evil, of course. No one made of so many pieces of Sephiroth could be anything less than evil. And yet here he was, standing by while Shinra tortured him. His stomach twisted.
"I want to be a hero," Zack's voice murmured in his head. "So that I never have to watch anyone get hurt again."
"But that was you," Cloud murmured to himself quietly, trying to quell the voice of his former best friend.
"Who now," Kadaj choked brokenly.
Cloud looked over, studying the boy. His head wasn't even raised. It hung as though it were far to heavy for him to lift it. Drips of sweat were dripping off his face, along with the blood from his lip. Except that Cloud wasn't entirely sure it was all sweat. The little choked sounds he was making sounded less like laughter now. When Tseng reached for the button again to punish the words, Cloud caught his wrist automatically.
"What do you mean?" he asked darkly, watching the remnant carefully. He felt Tseng's annoyed gaze on him, but ignored it.
"In your head," Kadaj rasped, head tilting slowly to the side and looking up at him through dark lashes and eyes full of tears. "Who's talking to you now?"
"The man whose sword your profaned." Cloud answered darkly. "And I'd have killed you ten times for that alone."
"You profaned it first," Kadaj laughed brokenly, his teeth flashing in the dim, flickering light of his own personal dungeon. "Letting it rust like that. How Angeal would have screamed."
"This interview is not about the past," Tseng snapped, removing his hand briskly from Cloud's hold. "Answer the question now, or I'll shock you into oblivion and start asking Loz."
"I already told you," The little hellion snarled, lips pulling back away from his sharp teeth and his nose wrinkling in distaste and hatred, "I don't. Know. Loz doesn't know. Yazoo doesn't know. Ask your Gods or Mother if you want an answer. We've never had a say in anything."
Cloud noticed, as he was sure that Tseng did, that Kadaj was not looking at the Turk as he spoke. He was staring straight into Cloud's eyes, with his monster's gaze. Cloud looked into those eyes, and felt his own change, just a little. He tried to fight it back, but he knew from the way Kadaj's flickered that he'd briefly shown the mark that Sephiroth had left on him. He glanced down at the blood on the remnant's upper lip, where his nose was bleeding.
"Well," Aerith's voice practically sang in his head, "He certainly bleeds like a real person."
"You know what that's like, don't you brother," Kadaj rasped, gazing at Cloud through his dazed eyes. "After all, we used to be-"
"Just the same," Cloud finished quietly, still staring at the boy.
"Mr. Strife, I believe you should remove yourself from this situation at once," Tseng warned darkly. "This is an interrogation, and definitely not a reunion."
"Brother," Kadaj rasped wearily, "At least save Loz and Yazoo. If not me, at least them. They didn't understand. Especially not Loz. And Yazoo never really hurt anyone. It was all me. Always me."
"Your brothers seemed to have few enough qualms about harming Elena and myself," Tseng said darkly.
"You're Turks," Kadaj scoffed. "Why not torture the torturers? That's your method of getting information, isn't it?"
He laughed at Tseng, bloodied teeth flashing. Tseng tapped the button, just long enough to halt the laughter and replace it with a groan.
"He is a manipulative liar. As you well know, Cloud." Tseng warned. "nothing that comes out of his mouth should be trusted."
"They told you they found nothing at the Northern Caves," Kadaj groaned, pleading in his voice. It would have been a whine if not for the honest fear and pain behind the words. "They hid her head from you as surely as they hid it from me, Cloud. Shinra are the liars. I'm insane, and out of control, but I'm not a liar. I've never lied to you. Not once."
"Leave the room, Mr. Strife," Tseng repeated coldly. "I am relatively certain I do not need protection any longer."
His finger was tapping the button lightly, not quite pushing down. Cloud glanced over to Kadaj, watching his wired eyes follow the movement of Tseng's finger. Each time it made contact ever so lightly with the button, a jolt of fear worked its way through the boy. Cloud closed his eyes for a long moment."
"You're right," he muttered. "I'll leave you in peace, Tseng."
"Brother-"choked the remnant, jerking against his bonds before giving a piteous whimper as the movement jolted his dislocated shoulder.
"But I'm taking the remnants with me," Cloud said calmly and flatly, looking neither at Tseng nor at Kadaj. "All of them."
"Absolutely not," Tseng snapped. "They are in Shinra custody-"
"Shinra no longer has any custody to be in," Cloud turned his gaze to the Turk as he spoke. "Or have you forgotten that you've been relegated to a bunch of regular old body guards in charge of nothing more than the president of some random electric company. All military options go through the WRO. Of whom I am head consultant. I'm deeming this case to be out of your hands."
He strode past the Turk without fear. Once he'd have been worried that Tseng would stab him in the back, but that fear haunted him no more. The Turk was powerless against Cloud's status, renown, and otherworldly attributes, and he knew it. One more from him would result in his head being ripped off. Anyone who'd killed Sephiroth as many times as Cloud had could take a single human in one on one combat any day.
He walked over to the remnant, crouching before him. Kadaj's eyes stayed fixed on him, but there was something strange about them. Despite having obviously been trying to gain Cloud's help, the remnant's gaze was one of honest shock. Cloud held it with his own eyes, knowing that they were steady and firm. He'd given up being half-hearted long ago.
"You'll do as I say," he warned darkly, "And go where I go. You're still a prisoner, and I'm not setting you free. But if you follow orders, I'll make sure Shinra never gets their hands on you again."
"Please," Kadaj rasped. It dawned on Cloud that he'd never seen the boy from this close before. His eyes were wide, and greener than Sephiroth's had been. His blood was bright and red, and reeked of iron from so close.
Cloud gripped the manacle on his right arm and forced it open. Then he paused a moment, waiting too be punched at. Instead, Kadaj just curled the arm around himself, still breathing deep and hollowly.
"Cloud," Tseng warned. "He's manipulating you. He'll stab you in the back the moment he gets the chance."
"You know what's been confusing me lately," Cloud murmured as he shifted his attention to Kadaj's other arm. "Why I ever stopped being anything but enemies with the Turks. If you're looking for revenge for him and his brothers torturing you, we'll just say it's payback for one of the thousands of people you killed when you dropped that plate. Or payback for when you slapped Aerith. Either way," he turned to glare at the Turk out of eyes that he knew were glowing. "If I were you, I would go ahead and get your Turks out of the rooms with his brothers."
Tseng clenched his teeth, glaring at Kadaj. Cloud turned back to his work, pulling the manacle apart with a concentrated flare of mako. The kid probably could have broken them himself if not for the mako inhibitors the Turks always pumped their subjects full of. He'd had them in his own system more than once by that point.
"And for the record," he muttered to the remnant. "I did clean the sword."
"Finally." Kadaj muttered back, casting him a weary, broken smile. It dissolved with a whimper as Cloud freed his dislocated arm.
Tseng watched them with clenched teeth, and finally turned to leave the room ahead of them. Cloud knew it wouldn't be the end of it. He was taking away something Tseng wanted, and Turks did not do well with being denied anything, especially information. He didn't let himself dwell on it. He would deal with Tseng when the time came. He wished Marlene hadn't grown a soft spot for the Wutaian man, or he could have just killed him and gotten him out of the way. He wouldn't have, though, because even without Marlene he knew Zack and Aerith would have disapproved.
"Can you stand up?" He asked as he unhooked Kadaj's feet at last.
The remnant surged upwards, briefly, with a burst of energy, then fell instantly back to his knees with a little whimper. He shook his head hard, and Cloud watched his eyes unfocus and focus again. He clenched his dislocated arm to his side with his other hand, gritting his teeth to keep from making a noise. Cloud sighed at the rather pathetic spectacle, and moved over to help him up, only to have his hand slapped away roughly.
"Don't," Kadaj snapped.
"You'd rather stay here?" Cloud muttered with a roll of his eyes.
"I can get up," the prideful remnant insisted, struggling against gravity and the torture he'd just undergone to rise.
Cloud eyed him, then nodded his satisfaction. He turned to walk to the door, keeping an ear on Kadaj even though he wasn't watching. It felt so very wrong to turn his back on someone with silver hair. And yet, this remnant had, at least, been drawn up to the lifestream after his death. That said something for him not being quite as much scum as Sephiroth was.
"Just so we're clear," Cloud muttered, "this doesn't mean I forgive you for all that you've done. Or that I like you. At all."
"Clear enough," Kadaj muttered with a faint wheeze.
Cloud glanced back at him and sighed as he watched the boy waver on his feet. Despite his distaste for the remnant, it wasn't comforting to be reminded of the staggering fall that had precipitated the boy's death. Though Cloud had been kind in that moment, it had been less because Cloud liked Kadaj, and more that he'd been unable to help but think of the other people he'd seen die in his life—people he had loved. When it came down to it, he didn't regret holding the boy when he passed. Not even now that he was back and alive again.
"What am I doing," Cloud sighed softly to himself as he opened the door to the containment cell Kadaj had been locked in. Part of him was surprised to find that Tseng hadn't just locked them both inside.
There was no answer, and he wasn't surprised by that. It seemed that huge portions of his life were undertaken by him simply because there was no one else to do it. He let out a breath of air and straightened his back. This was the right thing to do, he assured himself. Even if Kadaj did turn on him eventually, he'd once sworn he'd never leave another soul to the tender mercies of Shinra's custody. This was his first chance to prove it since saving Nanaki. Not that he'd remembered his own conviction at the time.
"You're daydreaming," Kadaj accused wearily behind him. "I could kill you while you're doing that if I wanted."
"You could try," Cloud answered with a shrug, not bothering to look at him. "But I have a feeling you'd just hurt yourself. I wouldn't even have to help."
"Whatever," The remnant scoffed.
Cloud glanced back to see him toss his hair, then stagger to the side as the movement threw him off balance. He allowed himself a small, wicked smirk at the grimace on the remnant's face, then he sobered. The kid was pale and sweating, still breathing in heavy gasps for breath. His eyes were clenched closed where he leaned against the wall, and from the grey cast to his skin, Cloud could tell he was close to passing out. He sighed, the humor of the moment vanishing as quickly as it had come.
"Let's fetch your brothers." He muttered. "Then I'll have to figure out where to put you all."
Reno was standing outside the door to a room further down the hall. He scowled at Cloud and the remnant tottering unsteadily behind him like a drunken duckling.
"You're nuts, yo," Reno accused, shaking his head sharply. "They're psychos. They'll just stab you in your sleep."
"Just hand whichever one you have over, Reno," Cloud growled, not in the mood for the redhead's antics. "Consider it penance for one of the ten thousand evil things you've done in Shinra's name."
"They tortured the director and Elena," Reno said darkly, even as he ran his key card through the door's reader. "I still plan on returning the favor, even if it's off the clock."
"Threat noted," Cloud waved a hand at him, shooing him out of the way, and pushed the door open.
The slender brother whose name Cloud had never caught was lying on the floor, trails of blood streaming off him from thin, elegant cuts in his skin. The long strips of flesh that had been removed from him were laid out on the table where Reno must have been basing his questioning. There were quite a few of them.
"Yazoo," Kadaj muttered, staggering past Cloud to drop by his brother's side, pushing long silver hair out of the other boy's face.
Reno had taken a slice from the face too, and there was an ugly scab over the portion of the remnant's cheek where it was healing quickly. Cloud shot a glare at the Turk, and received a blank and uninterested stare in return.
"That seems excessive," Cloud commented, not bothering to hide the bitterness from his voice.
"Obviously not," Reno said with a shrug. "Bastard still didn't talk."
"Because he doesn't know," Kadaj snarled from the floor, one hand carefully resting on his brother's upper back, nestled carefully in between cuts. "None of us do. Stupid mother-fucking Turks."
"Let's just get him out of here," Cloud sighed, shaking his head as he walked over. "There's no reasoning with them."
He crouched at Kadaj's side, checking the other remnant's face for himself. The one called Yazoo was ashen, and both his eyes were bruising from what must have been a pretty vicious head-blow, but he was breathing steadily. Cloud shifted his hands under the boy's naked form to lift him, drawing a pained hiss from the unconscious remnant.
"Careful," Kadaj scolded sharply. "If you hurt him, I'll-"
"You'll what," Cloud asked, not even bothering to look up at him as he lifted the slender piece of Sephiroth. "Piss me off so I leave you both here?"
Kadaj fell silent, and bowed his head a little. Cloud just sighed, resettling the bloody remnant in his grip until he had one hand free, and turning to leave the room. The boy hardly weighed anything, and it wasn't hard to balance him in one arm.
"Come on," He called back to Kadaj. "One more to go, and then we can leave."
"You're gunna regret it, Spike," Reno warned as Cloud passed him. "They aren't normal. They aren't savable. You're in over your head this time."
"Right," he responded, uninterested. "I'll make note of that."
He glanced back once, waiting for Kadaj to get to his feet, then turned to walk further down the hall, listening to Kadaj skitter around the livid Turk to follow. Reno's quiet grumbling curses followed him down the hall, and Cloud ignored both them and the hot blood under his hand on the leg of the remnant he was holding. In all honesty, despite all he'd seen in his years, he was struggling very hard not to lose his lunch at the thought of those strips of skin on Reno's table. It was definitely time to stop letting the Turks get anywhere near Denzel and Marlene.
Rude was leaning against the wall further down the hall. His shades were on, and his suit was as impeccable as ever. He looked at Cloud out of the corner of his eye without turning face him, and said nothing. Cloud tried the door and found it already unlocked. He glanced at Rude's frown, and got a bad feeling. He opened the door up quickly, still balancing the willowy Yazoo in his other arm.
The moment the door was open, the sound of ragged crying became apparent. Cloud didn't argue when Kadaj shoved past him to get into the room more quickly, but he did have to stabilize Yazoo with his other hand.
"Oh shit," Kadaj's voice sounded.
"Kaddy?" A teary, thick voice cried, cracking at the edges with what Cloud assumed was pain.
Cloud lifted his gaze and instantly winced. Loz was bound to the chair before the table. His wrists were shackled to the surface. And if Cloud wasn't wrong, all of his fingers were broken. The big remnant was hunched over the table, trembling minutely and beaded in sweat. He jerked against his bonds as Kadaj all but fell over him, still shaking himself from the Turk's rough treatment.
"Guess we'll be dropping by a doctor after all," Cloud muttered as he approached. "I can't heal broken bones."
"You," the big clone hissed, lifting furious, teary eyes to him. "what are you doing here? Kadaj, get behind me!"
"Like you could do anything like this," Kadaj sniped, sounding a little teary himself. "Oh, your poor hands. They just shocked me a little. Why were they so much worse to you?"
"Dunno," Loz sniffled. "why's he here, Kaddy?"
"He's getting us out," Kadaj muttered, tugging ineffectually at the bonds holding Loz to the table. "I don't know where we're going, but anywhere but here would be good. These won't come off!"
"You've got mako inhibitors in your system," Cloud informed mildly. "Otherwise you'd have gotten yourself out of trouble. Back up."
He gripped the manacles one handed and ripped first one then the other off of the table top. Loz whimpered at the touch. His wrists were bloody under the confines. Kadaj grabbed his bigger brother in a one armed hug, and only whimpered a little when his dislocated shoulder was jostled by the hold. In return, Loz grabbed him with his arms and wrists, but kept his broken hands out of the way. Cloud cast a glare back at Rude, but found that the silent Turk had already vanished.
"Let's move," He muttered. "I don't want to give Tseng time to figure out a way to change my mind about this."
Loz rose shakily, letting Kadaj brace himself against his side, but keeping his broken hands close to his chest. Yazoo's head lolled against Cloud's shoulder, and a puff of breath hit his neck, sending shivers down his spine. He tried to shake the feeling that he was holding a big cat that might at any moment rip his throat out, but the mental image stubbornly stayed put. With a sigh, he started walking towards the exit to the building. Loz and Kadaj trailed behind him, murmuring soft words to each other now and then, but mainly just 'sorry's as one or the other nudged his brothers injuries. He was keenly aware of the fact that both of them were keeping a very close eye on the remnant he was holding. He let that pass, struggling to come to terms with exactly who it was that he was saving.
He opened the door out of the Turk offices and held it open for the remnants. As they passed him, Kadaj reached out to touch Yazoo's leg lightly, and Loz started to do the same before whimpering softly as he remembered that his hands were broken, withdrawing the started touch. Cloud let them both pass, and fell in behind them, shifting Yazoo in his grip and wincing at how slippery his hand was getting with his blood. Ahead of him, Kadaj twitched at Loz's side, pausing briefly as he swayed unsteadily, before bracing himself on his older brother. Loz just sniffled softly, hunching his shoulders a little, and twisting his brows as he looked down at his brother.
Cloud shook his head just a little at the mess he had gotten himself into. He set aside all his doubts and worries, and pulled out his phone, pressing the first speed dial.
"Tifa?" he started once he heard her pick up on the other end. "I could use a pickup out at Shinra. I don't think I can fit everyone on Fenrir."