Originally posted on Livejournal for the Strifehart Kink Meme. Leave it to a person like me to fill this one. Mwahahah. Oh, and mandatory disclaimer stuff: I don't own anything in the FF franchise other than merchandise that's too irresistible for me not to blow my paycheck on; I'm just an E6 in the USN, and therefore am not worth suing. Reviews, as always, are highly appreciated.

All dialogue and actions presented herein are directly from the game. Had to play a good hour from my closest save point to get all of it jotted down on paper. Blah. Only liberties taken are, of course, on the part of the warden's incredibly improper fascination and his final actions in this short story.

Prompt: I prompt the famous torture and/or prison scene from FF VIII with Cloud featuring as Seifer(Or by Seifers side)! *Insert evil maniac laugh here*

If he's good or evil is up to anon.

-BEGIN FIC-

Electrolysis

Cloud Strife sighed quietly as he exited the staff lounge he had been relaxing in, recalling moments before stepping foot into the passages beyond the flimsy door that protected the sanctuary guards of the prison he worked in from the dismal conditions outside to grab the black hat that completed his uniform. He was acting warden that day – the primary warden of the enormous D-District Prison in which he worked was on administrative separation owing to suspicion that he was planning to be lenient towards the newest prisoners to be brought to his facility. Cloud being new to the complex and hailing from the remote region of Winhill truly had no opinion towards SeeD; his lacking care or involvement with such organizations made him the perfect replacement for his supervisor, who had voiced dissension when presented with the inevitable fate of the perpetrators of an assassination attempt against Galbadia's new ruler simply because they were involved with an organization he held upon an irreproachable pedestal of beloved idealism.

The news had just reached Cloud moments before his exit from the lounge and the abandonment of his coffee mug; the prisoner Seifer Almsey, Knight of Sorceress Edea herself, had selected for interrogation had finally awakened. It was time to cajole him into granting them the answers their leader desired.

Cloud had the opportunity to see the great Sorceress only once. It was an experience that had rattled him to the core, driving more terror and quaking adrenaline through his veins than any episode of battle or engagement in his past. Standing before a military general, even as he'd done years ago, was not nearly so terrifying as standing before that slight woman with her cold golden eyes and her enormous ornate mantle with its flowing translucent fabric wings. Those eyes had looked upon him with ancient wisdom spanning the life of the planet, superior and inhuman and ice. Though dwarfed by the young blond man in his white trench coat, strong and tall and imposing with the scar that cleaved the bridge of his nose and tore messily above his left eyebrow making an otherwise perfect face asymmetrical and ferocious, she radiated more power than anything in her surroundings.

She had given Cloud and everyone he worked with simple instructions – force the SeeDs to divulge any and all information they had as to the origins of their organization, and their reasoning for opposing Sorceresses throughout time. She wanted to know what SeeD was. Her Knight was more than willing to get those answers for her. The soldiers who manned the D-District prison in which those assailants who'd been captured were imprisoned were to assist the boy named Almsey in any fashion he requested.

It didn't take long for Cloud to find the man he was forced by his position in regards to the powerful Sorceress to acknowledge as his superior. Walking calmly to Seifer's side, Cloud gave him a crisp nod even as he finished tucking the last of his wildly spiked hair under his cap, becoming a man who appeared no different than any other guard who roamed the D-District prison's confines. "Interrogation by electrocution?" he softly muttered, eyes focused on the tall and stern boy whose orders he was to follow.

The jade-eyed blond nodded his head even as he tightened his hand on his black-stained gunblade, glove creaking as it rubbed over the rubber pistol grip of his weapon. "Electrolysis will likely be the only way to get this one to cooperate. Shock him 'till he dissolves. Should be fun."

Wrinkling his nose Cloud shook his head as he and the younger man walk towards the interrogation chamber, listening to the chatter of the lion-like Moombas ahead. "Should have chosen an easier prisoner to break, then," he noted dully, looking towards the Knight who loomed over him. "Why pick someone when you know they'll require something like this to crack?"

Seifer doesn't bother adverting his eyes. "I owe this guy," he curtly said, lips curling with a sadistic sneer. No further answer was forthcoming.

Seifer pushed his way confidently into the room, Cloud hot on his heels and stepping around him to stand by the control panel for the torture device built directly into the room's prominent north wall. Once he'd finished checking over all the glowing indications before him, verifying that the machinery was indeed online and ready for use, Cloud turn to see exactly what person was unfortunate enough to have been selected to be pumped for information in such a fashion.

Cloud stared, his mouth dry and his eyes wide, at the leather-clad boy who was tethered to the wall. His heart thundered in his chest and he was forced to swallow lest he allowed any unintended sound to leak from his throat, staring with unabashed fascination at what dangled before him from cruel restraints. It wasn't the blood, the dried trails of pain-drafted tears, the sweat from the exertion of keeping himself upright enough to keep his arms from rotating out of their sockets that drew such a reaction from the blond man - rather, it was the way the boy's white t-shirt clung to his skinny torso with the v-neck sliding askew so his prominent collarbones were visible, the way the boy's black leather pants highlighted every curve of his body and stuck sensuously to thin legs and veritably forced Cloud's eyes to draw to that junction between those long, supple limbs. Cloud tried to avert his eyes, feeling rather uncomfortable as he heard that young man's soft tenor voice moan while he clung desperately to consciousness; the blond sharply bit his lip to inflict pain to distract himself, his imagination drawing erotic pictures of the boy's moan emerging under far different circumstances.

Cloud watched with interest as Seifer strode with cocky arrogance to stand before the prisoner, his Hyperion-model gunblade resting easily in his right hand. "I'm sure you can imagine what happens now," he haughtily said, his voice a snake's confidant slither.

Cloud sucked his breath as the prisoner opened his eyes and the blond saw ice, glacial grey glaring with hatred colder than any winter storm he'd ever been exposed to. They're the most fascinating things the blond had ever seen, their coloration draining the heat out of the room.

Then he spoke. Cloud's ears sang with the gorgeous notes of his voice as he struggled and growled at Seifer, asking harshly about what he might want.

Cloud paid little attention to the interview, barely listening to Seifer as he wildly flung his weapon about, pointing it in the leather-clad beauty's face one moment and swinging it in anger the next. The SeeD boy gave no answers, his eyes remaining cold and hard as he told the irate Knight that even if he knew any secrets that were divulged unto them upon earning the title of 'SeeD' as the Knight had never done, that he'd not bother telling him.

As Seifer snorted at the boy, saying that he was on his 'tough-nut-to-crack' list, the blond warden heartily agreed. The anger that lit the boy's face was enthralling, as was every shiver of his body as he dangled from his manacles. Cloud's eyes followed the trills that raced along the boy's leather-clad skin, encouraging the blond's blood to flow with vigor through his veins and heat his flesh. Cloud was forced to turn away from the sight to keep from embarrassing himself, from giving this SeeD child any opportunity to know that he has encouraged such a reaction from D-District's acting warden.

His eyes barely caught Seifer's signal right after he told the prisoner that he has something for him. With reluctance, Cloud reached to the lever on the panel before him.

He was loath to do it, but orders were orders. His hand tightened on the lever. One quick pull towards the floor, and he listened to the sparking of electricity flooding the room. The smell of searing flesh met his nostrils even as that beautiful tenor voice of the SeeD tethered to the wall cried aloud in agonizing pain. As Cloud listened to his sobs, he lifted that switch again and turned to see his unfortunate handiwork.

Cloud's heart pounded within his ribcage as he watched new tears of unabashed suffering stain pale cheeks and the SeeD's chest heave as he struggled to draw breath. The racing of blood through the blond's veins drowned out Seifer's conversation with the lithe young man, allowing him to hear nothing but the thundering of his own pulse as the Sorceress' assailant offered a single barely whispered question. Cloud shook his head in a vain attempt to clear his ears, listening without interest as Seifer squawked about attaining his childhood dream, prodding at the imprisoned SeeD before him, driving with his selfish proclamations of grandeur and victory over his opponent to perhaps encourage the SeeD to lose his temper, perhaps divulge what those who served the Sorceress wished to hear.

Cloud found himself longing for the young man to simply say Seifer wished to hear. His hands were sweating, his fingertips tingling from the one shock he was forced to administer.

"… A torturer," the SeeD murmurs, his head dropping as he lost consciousness.

Cloud's heart suddenly stopped its wild thundering.

Did the SeeD just insinuate…?

The blond's fascination was instantly washed over by a flood of anger, his blood transitioning from warm and pleasured to boiling hot. He had just been longing for the boy's well being, for him to garner some semblance of common sense and free himself from his pain and suffering, and he had the audacity to make such accusations. As Seifer shouted "This is the scene where you swear your undying hatred for me! The tale of the evil mercenaries verses the Sorceress' Knight…. The fun's just started, Squall. Don't disappoint me now!" Cloud found himself agreeing with the adolescent Knight.

The fun had just started. The SeeD thought he could resist answering the Sorceress then insult Cloud without repercussion simply because he'd passed out?

Without order or hesitation, Cloud threw that lever again, anger finally driving his hands. He found no reluctance as he'd feared he would just moments before.

Watching the young SeeD jolt back into consciousness brought Cloud pleasure. He'd garnered the pleasure of looking into those hateful gray eyes once more.

The interrogation was interrupted by one of Cloud's fellow guards entering the room, informing Seifer that the missiles that were to be fired at those Gardens that would oppose Galbadia's Sorceress ruler were ready for launch. With a few more professions of ongoing battle to the boy Seifer had identified as 'Squall,' promising that he would be Edea's bloodhound and hunt down every one of Squall's kind, the Knight told the SeeD not to die on him before instructing Cloud to continue with the interrogation and leaving with his coworker.

With a nod, Cloud walked away from the panel he had been at to stand before Squall.

Cloud's nostrils flared, taking in the scent of burned flesh and charred leather and freshly freed blood mingling with sweat and tears. A smile took his lips; at that point, he couldn't determine if it was desire to watch that arrogant, causational SeeD twitch and writhe as he was tortured or to watch that arrogant, causational SeeD writhe and squirm under his touch that encouraged his mouth to curl with pleasure.

The fine young man was under Cloud's control, his life Cloud's for the taking or granting. "Ready to talk?" he quietly asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

One part of him, dark and filled with hate he could not understand, hoped the boy was not so Cloud might have the pleasure of watching him shiver and listening to him scream, his restraint and conviction melting and dissolving under the stimulus of electricity. The other part of the blond warden, the merciful part that rested in the depths of his soul, prayed that the SeeD would answer truthfully so Cloud could rescue him from his fate and take him into his arms to comfort him.

The leather-clad SeeD sneered at Cloud, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. "… I… don't understand… the question…" he coughed, his voice carrying in its depths a hint of mocking laughter.

Cloud's mercy was instantaneously buried, replaced by that lingering anger that burned his blood. "Don't mess with me!" he snapped, anger coloring his normally stoic demeanor. "Edea says you know something! Now spit it out!"

As the boy looked upon Cloud with disdain, the bond guard felt his muscles shiver with adrenaline-laced fury. Dashing to the control panel for the torture device laced into the wall's construct, he laid his hands upon it. "Talk!" he shouted, his voice strained. "What is SeeD all about?"

Moments of silence drove Cloud to snap that lever down, listening to the sharp crackles of thousands of volts of painful electricity rip through pale flesh. Lifting it, he turned to his prisoner. "Hm? Yeah, so?" he snapped, glowering at the dangling young man.

As Squall's lips slowly moved, Cloud found himself approaching. Hope welled in his heart; perhaps the SeeD would finally say something that could free him from his pain, that would allow Cloud to lift his burned and twitching body from its resting place and grant him some comfort. Perhaps the SeeD would finally say something that would grant Cloud the rights to finally silence that smart-aleck mouth once and for all. "What's that?" he quietly questioned, leaning close.

Cloud backpedaled as the boy's head snapped forward, a wad of spit landing solidly on the blond's cheek. "Your… breath st… stink... stinks!" the SeeD mocked.

Recoiling, shaking in rage, Cloud had no hesitation with turning the device the SeeD was strapped to on and leaving it on. "Punk… you asked for it!" he growled, watching until the boy blacked out completely and refused to be roused again.

Flipping the switch back up, ceasing the flow of electricity, Cloud walked back to his prisoner and reached up with a glove-covered hand.

The cheek he touched was eerily cold, instantly bringing Cloud's rage to a premature termination and drawing concern from the blond in its place. His body shivering with something akin to fright, he softly whispered encouragements to the boy, praying to draw him from the numbingly desperate state he'd been driven to.

Electrolysis. The conduction of electricity through something to induce decomposition.

The boy's life was decomposing before his very eyes. And Cloud, contrary to their status as enemy patriots of Balamb and Galbadia, as SeeD and Galbadian Soldier, as prisoner and warden, found himself more concerned than he should rightly have been.

Bringing his fingers to the boy's nostrils, breathing a soft sigh of relief as the warmth of breath snaked across his calloused skin, Cloud took a step back. Dizzy from being so close to the SeeD's nearly intoxicating scent, the blond lifted a hand to his temple and retreated to the room's solitary door.

Seeing a pair of the fuzzy orange servants the D-District prison enslaved, Cloud lifted a hand to garner the Moombas' attention. As they ambled over, he put as strict of a face as he could muster onto his features.

If Seifer returned to torment his prisoner again, the simple-minded creatures could not be trusted to not divulge what they saw in the other guards to the Knight. Cloud had no doubt that the wild adolescent with his gunblade would react poorly to discovering that the blue-eyed warden had abandoned his interrogation due to his fright and his incapability to inflict more pain on the incapacitated young man tethered to the wall within that chamber.

"Tch! Completely knocked out cold," Cloud hissed, gesturing with his head towards the interior of the room. "Hey! You two Moombas! Watch him!" After a few moments of consideration, he tossed a potion into the room, watching as it rolled to rest below the suspended prisoner's feet.

As the two orange lion-like creatures dashed to the room to follow the sharply bit order, Cloud held his hand to his temple and sighed.

He prayed no one heard him as he whispered for those honorable little creatures to take whatever opportunity was presented to free the SeeD called Squall.

Enemy or not, he was too fascinating allow to die.