Zack could hear his own heart beat in his ears and a familiar beep of a heart monitor. Shouldn't he be dead? He should have been. How had he survived? One would think that with the many wounds he had he would have died. Perhaps his injuries were not as severe as he thought, and Cloud; with his small frame had somehow managed to carry his body to a hospital.

But...as he opened his eyes slowly and expecting to be blinded by a bright light he was met with darkness. Zack found this to be quite odd as he tried to blink away his grogginess and felt strange; almost drugged. Maybe the doctor had given him a high dose of something?

His vision was still a little blurry but he could see a gentle green light illuminating part of the wall at the end of the room.

Curious, Zack tried to turn so he could face the light better and figure out where it was coming from but found that he could not move at all. Whatever the doctor had given him must have been strong.

Zack groaned and turned his head slightly, searching for Cloud with his eyes but his young friend was nowhere in sight. His eyes finally landed on a table only big enough for two people though this didn't scare him in the slightest. It was what was on the table that frightened him.

'Please no! Please don't let this be true, please...' Zack thought as his eyes shifted around frantically and his worst fear had come true.

He knew now that he wasn't in a hospital, but a lab.

"Welcome back, my little test subject. You were not the one I was hoping for, but I suppose I can still use you. After all you are the only one close to what I had achieved with the other one." Was he talking about Cloud? Zack felt disgusted by Hojo's voice and the words he chose made him want to puke.

"You don't happen to know where he might be, hmm?"

"Guh..hrmph..."

"Ohohoho! Well that is just too bad."

That was where Zack's torture began.

Every day was different. First; Hojo thought it'd be fun to cut into Zack's skin and pour a light stream of some greenish purple fluid into the wounds he opened, causing Zack to thrash around in agony at the burning sensation. Then he later decided he wanted to shove his hand into the dark haired SOLDIER's stomach, saying that he needed to get 'acquainted' with everything again. From there, it became worse.

Zack had so many unknown liquids injected into him that he felt terribly sick. He was throwing up quite a bit, while feeling shaky and weak.

Never had he felt such pain in all the years he was alive. Only when Zack was certain that Hojo had left him did he let himself silently sob away. He was close to his breaking point.

The torture he was enduring soon became too much for him to bare three months later and felt all self control desert him. Something inside him snapped. Zack; who had been doing so well in keeping his cries from escaping pass his lips, never giving Hojo the satisfaction he wanted, could no longer stop himself from screaming and calling for help.

The crazy scientist had gotten what he wanted and it pained Zack even more to know that.
The ex-SOLDIER had tried so hard to stay strong but alas, Zack Fair was now broken.

He sat inside his cage like cell, where Hojo had placed him when he had gotten busy with other projects he had going, forgotten. Not that he minded. It'd give him some time to recover from the last traumatic event that occurred.

'If that's even possible...' Zack thought as he shifted slowly into a more comfortable position and regretted moving when his head swam. He hoped that wherever Cloud was, the kid was safe.

He hated it in there. The guy was creepy and his 'work' was just as creepy. But as much as he hated it, Reno was curious as to what Hojo was doing. The guy had locked himself in his laboratory and nobody could figure out why. So, the red-headed Turk decided to take it upon himself.

When Reno made it to the door he started to get that bad feeling again. This feeling first came to him three months earlier.

Reno had been sitting at his desk supposedly typing up a report but was actually goofing off. Two minutes later, he had twirled himself and the chair around until his stomach churned slightly. At first Reno thought it was because he made himself dizzy, but; he soon found out that that wasn't the case.

last night The red-head was on his way to exiting the building when he thought he heard the sound of a muffled scream and had stopped abruptly, listening intently as he pressed his ear against the door and heard another scream. This time it was a call for help and it had scared him a little.

Now that Hojo was out of the lab due to a meeting he had to attend to Reno took this opportunity to pick the lock and quickly slipped inside, shutting the door behind him.

The Turk wandered and looked around at the different tubes that housed odd and creepy things filled with what he assumed was mako. It gave the room an eerie greenish glow making Reno shudder.

He moved further, finding cages. As the Turk walked up to one that seemed empty he nearly jumped out of his skin when a disturbingly human like creature threw itself against the metal bars with a loud thud. Reno gulped as the creature's eyes locked with his own and he quickly walked further down the long line of cages.

Reno glanced at his watch knowing he still had about two hours before Hojo came back.

He came to an abrupt halt when he heard soft mumbling from one the cells. The voice sounded so familiar to him and he turned slightly to see if he could find the source of it and his jaw dropped. How was it even possible? Who was he, superman?

"Fair?"

Zack jumped at the sound and looked up slowly, finding the fiery red-headed man standing on the other side of his cell and watched as Reno grabbed hold of the metal bars separating them.

"I thought you were dead." Reno said bluntly and Zack frowned a little.

"I thought I was, too." Zack's voice was almost a whisper as he spoke. "Next thing I know I'm here." The dark-haired SOLDIER closed his eyes as his head throbbed.

"Hey, hey! Fair, I'm gonna get you outta here, mkay? You don't look so good."

"Don't feel good either..." Zack mumbled as Reno began pick at the lock on the cage.

"Almost there...Just a little more-Aha! Got it." Reno whispered and stood, opening the door slowly, and cursing as it squeaked. The Turk stepped inside the cell carefully shrugging out of his jacket and placed it over Zack's head who let out a. "What the hell?" and was hoisted up.
"We can't let anyone recognize you." was the simple answer from the Turk.

Reno looked at his watch one more time as he helped his once best friend walk. He still had plenty of time to get Zack to his apartment.

Once they made it to the elevator(after Reno made sure to lock everything back), Reno used his electro rod to push the elevator security camera towards the wall and finally moved inside pushing the button for his floor.

Zack held on to Reno and the rail for support as he felt his stomach flip when they started moving while the Turk reached into his pocket pulling out his phone and called his usual partner, Rude. "Rude, buddy can you meet me at my apartment? I'm gonna need some help with a little something."

"I am not helping you raid Elena's underwear drawer again."

"Pfft, You and I both know you enjoyed it and may I remind you, it was your idea to hang them out on the flag pole."

"..."

"Anyway, Just come by when you can." With that, Reno ended their call and helped Zack out of the elevator and into the apartment without being noticed and locked the door once they were inside.

Reno placed Zack onto the couch and removed the jacket from his head tossing it next to the arm of the said couch and took a seat on the edge of the coffee table.

"Fair, look at me." Reno tilted his head trying to gain the other's attention but Zack did nothing. It was like he was staring off into space and it started to annoy him. He reached over, about to grab the ex-SOLDIER by his chin when Zack suddenly mouthed a 'Thank you'.

This caused Reno to stop and put his hand back at his side. "When Rude gets here, you've got some explainin' to do." The red-head stood, making his way into his small kitchenette and returned to the living room with a glass of orange juice, nudging Zack's leg gently.

"Drink."

Zack reached up slowly and took the glass into his hand. It started out as sipping, and turned into gulping it down. Boy, was he thirsty!

"More?" Reno asked with a raised brow and Zack nodded.

"Tylenol, and food?"

"Pills, no. Because I don't know what Hojo's done to you. Food, however is a yes."

Zack smiled softly and closed his eyes, leaning his head on the back of the couch as Reno went into the kitchen. "Reno?"

"Yeah?"

"Please don't mention his name again. For my sake."

Reno frowned a little as the mustard missed it's target, the bread, and landed on the counter. "Sure, no problem."

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AN: Sorry it took so long to publish this. Let me know what you think. And I apologize if characters are a little OOC _