I Specimen

The sky was very cloudy that day, and while the rain kept pouring down onto him, he barely felt it. Zack Fair had made his final stand against ShinRa, and he was now dying from the many gunshot wounds the soldiers had given him. His best friend Cloud sat beside him, Buster Sword in hand.

"I'm your living legacy" Cloud repeated softly.

Zack tried his best to smile faintly, and was about to close his eyes for the final time and begin his peaceful rest, but the sound of a nearby helicopter made him try his best to keep them open. They were coming back, and he could only think of one reason why: Cloud.

"Run" he said between labored breaths.

Cloud took one glance where the noise was coming from, then turned back to his friend. Hesitation was written all over his face.

"Go!" Zack commanded, trying to shout, but barely making it a loud whisper.

Don't let me die for nothing.

Cloud nodded firmly as he stood up, and to Zack's relief hurried away the best that he could in his body's weak condition. He heard the faint voices of the ShinRa infantrymen that were now nearby, but he didn't care anymore. Cloud was safe, and just knowing that kept him calm.

I'm sorry Aerith...

His only regret was not being able to see her one last time, but there wasn't anything he could do about it now, so he slowly closed his eyes, and let everything fade to black. The last thing he remembered was the voices getting closer.

When you fall asleep, then wake up the next morning it can only seem like a few minutes have past when in reality it's been hours. That's how it was for Zack when he was blinded by a sudden white light. Thinking that he was dead and was passing on to the lifestream he tried to lift his hand and block some of it out so he could see, but found that he couldn't move either of his arms. Panic rushed through him instantly as he began to struggle against the restraints that held him down to the cold metal table, but it didn't do him any good.

No! No no no no no!

How could he be back here again? He escaped, he was killed! Glancing around the lab while he continued to struggle he noticed that he wasn't back in ShinRa manor, but ShinRa itself in Hojo's lab.

"You shouldn't have run off like that" a voice said behind him, leaning over him with that smug look on his face that he loathed.

"Hojo" he spat.

"You should be thankful," he began. "I treated your wounds just in time"

"What have you done with Cloud?" he demanded, looking around for him.

"Cloud?" he asked, walking away from the table to grab something from another. "Ah yes, the blonde one, completely useless to me, an utter failure. A disappointment really, I had such high hopes for him as one of my specimens."

Anger and rage boiled in him as Hojo spoke, and he struggled more violently than before hoping that he could get free and strangle him, but at the same time was relieved that Cloud had gotten away safely.

"You on the other hand," Hojo continued, now walking back to the table with a large needle in hand. "Are quite promising, and nearly complete."

Fear coursed through him as Hojo smiled and lifted the needle so Zack could see it. A thick blackish liquid flowed inside it, and sent shivers down his spine. He stopped struggling for a brief moment because of it, giving Hojo enough time to force the injection into his arm. He bit back a scream as the dark liquid began to course through his blood stream, setting every nerve on fire along the way. The pain didn't fade, and he knew there was much more to come.

Please just let me die...

Every day was the same. Two infantrymen would drag him out of the cell he was kept in and take him back to Hojo's lab, where he would be strapped against the steel table, and have more fluids injected into him. With each day the pain got worse, and made him to weak to fight back anymore. He thought for sure whatever Hojo was doing was killing him from the inside.

Tseng visited him in his cell once. He apologized for not being able to stop Hojo from starting the experiments from the beginning in Nibelheim, and said that he did try to stop them from taking him back to the lab as well, but they wouldn't listen to him. The shooting had been a misunderstanding of orders. Since Cloud really was worthless to Hojo, he wanted him officially disposed of. It had been Cloud that they had been told to kill, and Zack was supposed to be taken back to the lab.

"Are they still looking for him?" he asked as he continued to lie on his cot to weak to sit up from the pain.

"No."

He breathed a soft sigh of relief, then clenched his teeth as another sudden spike of pain shot through his body. They had become more frequent recently.

"Here."

He held out a small thin black box to him that had a piece of tape with the word "Sealed" in black bold letterson it to keep it's contents from spilling out. He glanced at it for a moment, then forced himself to sit up when he recognized Aerith's hand writing on the envelopes he saw through the transparent lid. He had found the rest of her letters that she had written him, all eighty eight of them.

"Thank you" he said softly.

He knew that he would be taken back to the lab before he got a chance to read them, so he tucked them under the mattress for safe keeping. From then on just thinking of her kept him going just enough to bear all the pain, and give him a shred of hope that some day he would get out and see her. Still, day after day the experiments continued, until he was once again locked in glass tube full of Mako.

It was then when he started to panic again. How long would he be left in here? How much more of his life was going to rot away thanks to Hojo? He tried to break out, just like he did before, but he was still very weak. After what seemed like a few more days the Mako numbed his pain, but it also made him feel tired, and so he slept most of the time.

"Is this him?" The President asked as he examined the sleeping Ex-SOLDIER in his Mako tube. "He doesn't look like much" he commented.

If anything he looked like he was on the brink of death. It may have just been the look the Mako gave him, but he looked rather pale. Hojo had promised him that if he got this runaway specimen back, then he could turn him into the most powerful human weapon yet, even greater than Sephiroth. Shinra, getting very impatient because of the recent doings of AVALANCHE wanted to see results immediately.

"Right now he may not, but the process is nearly complete"

"How long?"

"First I need to find a way to make him snap, something that will set off his anger and rage. After that the effects will be instant"

"Just make it quick" he told him heading for the door.

"One more thing" Hojo said, catching his attention once more. "When you're done using the Cetra to find the Promised Land, I would like to repeat this experiment on her as well"

"As long as I get the results I want you can do what you want with her"

Cetra...Why did that word sound so familiar to him? Zack may have been asleep, but he faintly heard the conversation between Hojo and the President. He opened his eyes halfway to see the green sea of Mako as he thought. Cetra... There was something that he was forgetting, he was sure of it.

So tired...

The pain was gone now, completely replaced with that numb feeling. He couldn't feel anything at the moment, he wasn't sure if that was good or bad. He slowly began to close his eyes again to go back to sleep, telling himself that didn't really matter right now when it finally clicked: Cetra; Ancient; Aerith. Hojo was going to experiment on Aerith, and ShinRa was allowing it.

His eyes snapped open, now fully awake as rage suddenly boiled within him. He pounded on the glass with all his might, slightly surprised that it broke with only one hit allowing all the Mako to spill out and giving him a chance to escape.

"I'll kill you!"

Everything after that passed by in a blur, completely unaware of things that he was doing or what was going around him. It wasn't until he heard a specific voice call his name that he snapped out of it. What he saw made his blood suddenly run cold as his anger and rage disappeared as quickly as it came. Cissnei stood in front of him, fear and shock in her amber eyes. In one hand she held her weapon, Rekka, the other clutched at her stomach, blood seeping through her clothes and dripping from her hand. However, what horrified him the most was the amount of blood dripping from his right hand; it was her blood: He had hurt her.

He barely noticed as she dropped her weapon with a loud metal clang and fell to the ground as she died, for he was to busy backing away in shock staring at his blood stained hands. What had he done, what had Hojo done to him? He let out a terrifying scream as he realized that what once had been his hands was now blood stained sharp claws; Hojo had turned him into a monster.

"There he is!"

He glanced up to see three infantrymen down the hallway all aiming their rifles at him, so he ran the opposite direction as they opened fire on him. He tried not to look at all the bloody corpses around as he ran back in the direction of the lab, knowing that he had snapped and done all this, but part of him did wish that Hojo was among them. He wasn't.

He turned the corner and the gunfire grounded to a halt. He wasn't sure if they had run out of ammo, or were planning on chasing him and hunting him down, but he didn't hear any of their footsteps.

"Should we go after him?" asked one.

"No, the other intruder has been made top priority"

He sighed from relief softly as he heard their footsteps retreat away from him, then very quietly headed back to where his cell had been. He wasn't leaving without Aerith's letters.

There was a single guard near the small prison block. He hadn't expected him, so he was noticed. Zack hadn't meant to kill him like the others, but when he fired his gun at him instinct took over and he swiped him with his claws. He couldn't look after that.

However then he had another minor problem: He forgot which one was his. Taking the guard's keys he opened one of the middle ones, and to his surprise found Cloud silently sleeping by the wall, Tifa on the cot. He blinked in confusion, and then quietly backed away not wanting either of them to see what he had become.

He thought for sure he was in one of the middle cells, so he opened the one across from Cloud's. Sure enough it was his, and he found the box where he left it. He held it carefully not wanted to accidentally break or crush it with his claws, and wondered silently who else was here with Cloud and Tifa. Thanks to his Mako enhanced senses he was able to hear someone snoring loudly in the cell to Cloud's left (most likely male) and slow soft breathing from the one on the right.

He wasn't sure what it was, but something inside him screamed at him to open the door. He hesitated at first, but did so and found his angel unharmed and fast asleep on the cot. Immediately he wanted to go to her, to wrap his arms around her and kiss her passionately as he apologized for being gone so long, but he couldn't. He didn't want her of all people seeing what he had become, he wouldn't be able to live with himself if she did.

"I'm sorry" he whispered, tears coming to his eyes. "I never should have left" he was starting to choke on his words knowing that this would be the last time he ever saw her again, but he was able to get three words out before leaving: "I love you."

And with that he quietly closed the door, but left Cloud's open so he would have a chance to escape.

Author's Notes

Well, first I'd like to give a super big thank you to Zythxx for betaing this, and if any of you are fellow Star Fox fans you should definitely check out his stuff. Anyway, new Zack lives fic, but other than not killing Zack and Aerith off and Zack being a monster experiment I'm not changing much. Most of this is going to take place after Dirge of Cerberus, so there will be spoilers on pretty much everything, and there will also be some mild CloudxTifa fluff (I'm mainly focusing on ZackxAerith for this one). Other than that, I hope you guys like this so far, and please review.

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