Done as a Christmas request for a horror story for ReplicaRiku'sgirl. I don't think I'm very good at writing horror, but I hope you like it anyway. None of these characters belong to me, just Square.
A blonde-haired man was slammed against a wall of an abandoned building with enough force to shatter the bones of any normal person. Luckily, or unluckily, for him, Cloud Strife was no ordinary human. He managed to struggle to his feet using his sword as a crutch to help him stand, groaning from the pain that the mako didn't manage to block the whole time. He then panted as he swiveled his head from side to side, looking for a glint of silver or acid green in the gloom of the ruined building he found himself in. Seeing nothing, he decided to slump against his sword for a few moments to catch his breath, his previously gained confidence leaving his body with every labored breath he released.
He thought it would be an easy battle, at least until he had been smacked through the outer wall of a building like a pathetic fly. All he had to do was get the box that contained 'Mother' away from that little brat Kadaj. Of course, he didn't anticipate him merging with Jenova's cells to turn into Sephiroth. He shuddered in disgust and nearly dry heaved at the mere thought of that inhumane monster and all the vicious crimes he has already committed against humanity. He quickly shook his head to clear his thoughts of fire viciously consuming a small village in the mountains. "Come on Strife," He muttered softly to himself, "pull yourself together. You've killed him twice now, you can do it again." Figuring he would lose even more of his nerve and leave himself open to an attack staying like this, he straightened himself back up and glanced around, slightly unnerved that the silver-haired monster had not shown his face at all during the break he took. He shook his head again, thinking that even that legendary warrior requires rest in an arduous battle like this.
"Foolish little Puppet. You still believe that you, a mere mortal, are on par with me?"
The blonde instantly clutched his head with both hands, his sword falling to the ground with a loud clattering noise in the process, in reaction to the malicious baritone voice hissing his vicious words directly into his mind. "S-Sephiroth..." He managed to choke out as his fingers dug into his skull. "H-how is this possible? I thought I kicked you out of my mind." He flinched at the deep chuckle that ran through his mind in response.
"Silly Puppet, you still think that you can succeed against me. I was made to level entire cities, decimate nations, and bring mankind to its knees. A solitary little pest like you is nothing compared to me." He chided to the younger warrior like a teacher telling a lesson to a pupil, superiority practically oozing from his tone.
"N-no..." Cloud whispered hoarsely, talking becoming ever more difficult as his body was strained from the mental invasion as much as his mind. "Y-you're wrong. We will defeat you just as we have in the past."
Another wicked chuckle greeted his words. "Ah yes, those beloved friends of yours." He suddenly appeared in front of his rival, instantly slamming him into a wall for the second time that day with a fist to the stomach. He sauntered over to Cloud and placed his hands on either side of his head, leaning his face down to make contact with him. "Relationships always did mean ever so much to you foolish humans." He grinned evilly as he noticed the blonde tried to shrink into the wall to get away from him. "Those friends of yours seem so nice and loyal to you. Wouldn't it be a shame if something happened to them?" He hissed down at him.
The younger man shuddered as he scrabbled as far back into the wall as he could, if only to get further away from the warm breath blowing into his face from their proximity. He glanced down at his sword, mentally wincing when he noticed it was too far for him to reach. He quickly judged that he had no chance of pushing the silver-haired devil away to get to it since his body still felt like gelatin from the mental assault, so, with great reluctance, he decided to humor the other man, at least until he lowered his guard. "What are you talking about, Sephiroth?" He asked with a frown as his eyebrows drew together, clearly not happy at being in this situation.
The corners of Sephiroth's lips curled upwards in his signature smirk, ever pleased with his puppet's confusion. His hand darted out to Cloud's chin and gripped it tightly, holding his head still to make sure he paid attention to his next words. "It is simple, my puppet. One," He breathed into his face softly, making Cloud strain to hear him even with their closeness, "I can destroy this entire planet along with your friends while forcing you to watch." He licked his lips subconsciously like a prime predator with his prey cornered at the look of supreme horror that blossomed on the blonde's face.
The ex-SOLDIER shook his head and to get the mental picture of Nibelheim on a far larger scale out of his head. "And the next option?" He inquired after he had regained his composure, though his tone indicated that he was still a bit shaken up.
The silver-haired man's smirk widened as insanity danced gleefully within his eyes. "I thought you would never ask. The second, and only other, option that I am offering is to join me in taking over this weak planet for Mother." He smiled warmly rather than wickedly as a faraway gaze took over his eyes and his grip on the blonde's chin slackened. "Ah, to have you actually accept Mother rather than trying to kill her would be wonderful. Then, and only then, we could actually have a proper family."
Seeing that his rival's attention on him seemed to be waning, Cloud wrenched himself away from the deathly cold hand that gripped his face and dove down to grab his sword. Once he had a grip on the handle, he swung it in front of himself. "Well too bad, you bastard!" He spat at him, disgusted and nauseated at his offer. "I'll never join your wretched family!"
The former general smirked again, drawing Masamune from its sheath. "Alright, I see that you have chosen both options. Ah well, I was not looking forward to breaking you." He sneered at him with sadistic pleasure shining in his acidic orbs. His smirk widened as Cloud gave him that confused look that he was growing to enjoy.
"What in Gaia's name are you talk-" He began, but was cut off mid-word as an intense pain flooded through his body. He fell onto his hands and knees and cried out from the pain that felt as though it was ripping through his body, burning his blood vessels and locking his muscles in place out of instinct. Then, just as suddenly as the pain had appeared, it vanished from his body, letting him fall in a heap to the ground, taking labored breaths, eager to gulp down the air that he could not only seconds earlier.
Sephiroth cackled sadistically at the pain he had caused to his favorite toy. "Do you enjoy how I can manipulate the Jenova cells within you to turn against your very body?" He asked tauntingly, grinning down at the man on the floor.
Cloud struggled to rise up to his knees as his eyes grew as wide as saucers at what his enemy was telling him. "J-Jenova cells? But t-the water..." He trailed off, assuming that Sephiroth was still invading his mind, an assumption that was proven true within his next sentence.
The silver-haired man frowned to himself. "Yes, that water that wretched Ancient conjured up somehow cured you of your Geostigma, however," His expression changed to that wicked smirk that Cloud was all too familiar with by now, "it was not able to eliminate Jenova's cells from your bloodstream, something that I am taking full advantage of right now." He kicked First Tsurugi away from his hapless victim and began slowly circling around him like a shark around its prey. "Now then, since you were so amusing just then, I will give you one more chance to choose." He slipped the flat part of Masamune under the younger man's chin and lifted it, staring straight into the sky blue eyes beneath him. "Will you watch the world's destruction or take part in it?"
Several emotions flickered across the blonde's face rapidly; rage that this sick, twisted man in front of him would think of this scheme, a slight curiosity at what Sephiroth would do if he denied him for the second time now, and even slight fear from the thought of the punishment he would surely receive from rejecting his offer again. Eventually, and predictably to the silver-haired man, rage won over the rest and the blonde glared up at him. "Go screw yourself!" He spat up at his former idol, lips curling upwards into a snarl.
One of Sephiroth's eyebrows twitched in irritation at his once-loyal puppet's disobedience, though the sadistic grin he had on his face revealed how he mainly felt about his lack of loyalty. "Very well, you have chosen your fate."
Before Cloud could think over what he had just gotten himself into, another burst of pain tore through his body, causing him to fall back to the ground while letting out an agonized cry of purest pain. His spasming hands tried to clutch anything in reach, but he found nothing but the floor beneath him as his jaw was clenched shut with enough force to bite into his tongue if it were in the way. He managed to barely open his eyes through the searing pain to squint up at his torturer.
The ex-general knelt down in front of his victim to make him look at nothing but his cruel, sneering face. "Aw, it seems as though you are still conscious." He tangled his long, cold fingers in the soft, spiky locks beneath him and jerked Cloud's head back up after he noticed that the blonde had tried to bury his face in the floor to keep from looking at him. "Let us fix that, shall we?"
The last thing Cloud saw before blacking out from a sudden increase of the pain was Sephiroth laughing triumphantly at his misery, the look on his face promising nothing but even more pain.
The blonde groaned softly as his eyes lazily opened. Though his brain normally did not work properly immediately upon awakening, it took him only a few seconds to notice he still could not see anything. He began to panic, twisting his head back and forth to try to see any source of light, but finding none. As he was struggling to find light within his dark confinement, he noticed another thing that worried him; he was chained up tightly to a wall, spread-eagled, with thick metal rings enclosing his ankles and wrists. A bit of testing his bonds showed that he could barely move his hands and feet in any direction. Cloud gulped worriedly to himself, knowing that in this new position, he was completely at Sephiroth's mercy, also knowing that the vicious man would show none.
Suddenly, he received the source of light he was searching for moments before as a door opened in front of him, causing him to shut his eyes tightly and bow his head out of instinct.
"Ah, I see you are finally awake."
Cloud cringed at the familiar voice and lifted his head to face the one who put him here in the first place. "Sephiroth..."
The man in question chuckled deeply at the malice in his rival's voice. "Ah, good, you remember me. I was worried that the amount of pain I pumped into you was too much for your weak little mind."
The blonde snarled in reaction to the other man's amusement. "Shut it Sephiroth!" He yelled at his captor. After that show of disobedience, a strong hand wrapped itself around his neck and squeezed tightly, cutting off his airway. His tongue lolled out of his open mouth as he attempted to gasp in even the tiniest amount of air, his efforts proving futile. He turned pleading eyes up to the man who was strangling him without much effort, noticing that the silver eyebrows were drawn together in a cross look rather than the one of amusement that Sephiroth previously showed toward his disobedience. Right before he felt as though he was going to black out again from the lack of oxygen, the silver-haired man thankfully released his hold on his neck. He eagerly gulped down the air that was made available to him as soon as he was let go and panted as he kept his eyes on the unpredictable man keeping him wherever he was.
The silver-haired man scowled down at his captive, tiring of how stubborn he was being, though after a few seconds of thought, his expression shifted back to one of arrogance. "I assure you that you won't be so disobedient after I get through what I have planned for you."
The younger man raised an eyebrow, silently asking what vicious treatments he had in mind. It was then that he noticed Sephiroth had not come in the room empty-handed.
The former general smirked as the other man's eyes widened at the contents of the silver tray he was holding. He picked up one of the syringes out of the assortment he had on the tray and rotated it in his hand, making the contents glint in the light streaming from the open door. "Do you know what these are?" He questioned, though his eyes were still focused on the syringe.
"S-somewhat." The other man answered nervously, recognizing the glowing green liquid in the syringe that his enemy was holding as mako, however, he was not sure of the identities of the other two fluids on the tray.
Sephiroth tapped the syringe he held with a finger. "This one is obviously mako. Hopefully, you already knew that. He set that one down and picked up one that had a light blue liquid in it. "This is a nice, healthy dose of Jenova's cells." He saw the questioning look in the blonde's eyes and quickly added, "Though Shinra Tower may have degraded since the last time I was there, Hojo's samples have stayed in pristine condition. Good thing I decided to drop by there before I took us here to Nibelheim."
"Of course!" Cloud thought to himself as he looked around the room. "I thought this looked familiar." As he glanced around, he recognized the room as the basement of the Shinra Mansion, though all the lab equipment had been moved, leaving just the bookshelves as decoration. He turned his attention back to his rival and looked at the last syringe on the tray, one that had a thick liquid that was the color of magma. "Then what's that one?"
"Ah," He carefully set the one he held down to pick up the one that held Cloud's attention. "This is a special substance that Hojo was still perfecting when all of this happened. I took this just in case you're still lucid after I pump the cocktail of mako and Jenova cells into you. As for its effects," He grinned, "well, I will keep that a secret until I have to use it." He set that one down and picked up the syringe full of mako again. "Now then, let us see if you can survive this better than the last time you had mako put in you."
The blonde struggled as much as he could while being chained when Sephiroth leaned in closer to inject the mako into him, though it was not very effective as about all he could do was shake his head from side to side. He winced as the other man clamped down on his right arm in an iron grip with one hand, the needle of the syringe hovering menacingly over his flesh in the other. He could only watch as Sephiroth jabbed the needle into a vein and slowly pushed down on the plunger. The pain he felt as soon as a single drop of the liquid entered his bloodstream made the mental pain he felt earlier seem like the pinprick of the needle he just received. It felt as though his blood was being converted to liquid fire, searing his veins and arteries. He was in such pain that he could not even focus enough to scream, his eyes bulging and mouth agape, yet no sound escaping his tense throat.
The silver-haired man smirked down at his victim, pleased at how the mako was changing his eyes, making them appear to be like his own with normal pupils. He chuckled to himself as he raised the syringe that held the Jenova cells. "I'll change that soon enough." He thought to himself before plunging the needle into the same spot as the last one before Cloud could recover from the mako.
Just as his muscles had begun to relax, the blonde felt another sharp prick in his arm. This time, instead of flame rampaging through his body, it was ice freezing his being. Though it was cold, the intensity of it made it feel as though it was burning his body rather than freezing it over. His body shuddered uncontrollably as the cold ravaged his body. His muscles were relaxed enough this time that he could scream and he did so, pouring all the pain from the last injection as well as this one into his shout to project out into the room.
Sephiroth eagerly watched as the blonde's body transformed further, the mako fueling and quickening the Jenova cells' powers to alter the body. He could barely tell that Cloud's pupils turned into slits through his almost-closed eyelids and that golden hair of his was steadily turning a metallic shade of silver. He merely smirked down at his weakened rival, cupping his chin in his hand and tilting his head up to look at him. "Had enough, Puppet?" He asked in a gloating tone as though his victory had already been achieved.
Cloud spent several moments getting his eyes halfway open and focusing on the blurry visage of Sephiroth in front of him. He gulped in a breath of air before weakly muttering, "S-screw you..." The hand supporting his head suddenly drew back and struck his cheek, his head jerking to one side and his breath leaving his lungs again in surprise.
"Insolent Pup!" The silver-haired man spat down at his captive. After he took out that small amount of frustration out on the other man, he seemed to become almost inhumanely calm, especially when compared to the fit of rage he was just in. "Cloud, Cloud, Cloud," He said in a scolding tone as though he was speaking to a child as he picked up the final syringe. "You always pick the hard way, don't you?" He grinned as he clutched his arm again. "It seems as though we are more alike than you care to admit."
The newly silver-haired man's eyes slowly drifted over to the syringe his captor now held. "Well... what does this one do?" He asked weakly with a lopsided grin on his face as a sign of his continued disobedience.
The older man simply smirked at how his rival continued to fight against him. Oh, how he was going to love his reaction to what he had in store next. "Hojo was perfecting this solution to draw out the worst parts of whoever it was injected into. Do you know just what this means for you, Puppet?"
Cloud's eyebrows furrowed in confusion and he shook his head, thinking that the worst part of himself was the part that leaves Tifa and the orphans alone for extended periods of time without warning.
Sephiroth chuckled softly out of amusement rather than malice this time and poked Cloud's head. "I see that you are still as clueless as ever, Puppet." He frowned within his own mind as he noticed that the other man was too focused on the syringe to pay attention to his insult. "Seeing as you carry a part of me within yourself due to Hojo's experimentation, this substance will draw from that to make you a true, perfect monster." He grinned widely, his eyes shining with maniacal glee. "Just. Like. Me." He hissed, poking his captive's face on every word.
The younger man's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, his face betraying his emotions for once, showing the pure horror he felt towards the idea. "N-no..." He stammered, his reawakened will to struggle forcing his weakened body to fight against his restraints once more. "You can't! Please!" He begged, his hatred of becoming like this monster before him overriding his pride.
The silver-haired man gave him a sucker punch to the stomach, making his body go limp from surprise and pain. "I can and will, though I do find it quite adorable that you are willing to beg for mercy now." His free hand moved to trace along his jawline, tipping his head up once it reached his chin. "Ah, if only you would have done that earlier, then we would not be here right now." He shrugged. "Oh well, it was your choice afterall. Now then," He stuck the needle into the other man's flesh, "time to finish this." He sneered down at him wickedly as he slowly pressed down on the plunger with his thumb.
Once the liquid entered his bloodstream, Cloud's vision started to blur heavily as though he had just had one of Tifa's strongest drinks. His head swayed from side to side drowsily as his eyes slowly closed on their own accord. The last thing he saw before he shut his eyes was Sephiroth's wicked smirk and acid green eyes boring into his face.
Sephiroth paced back and forth in front of his prey, waiting for the change to be complete. The few moments that had already passed seemed forever even to his immense patience. The mere thought of having this disobedient, renegade part of his family finally join and accept them making the patience he built up over the years of his life whittle down to almost nothing. His head jerked up immediately when he saw Cloud stir out of the corner of his eye. He walked over to him, glancing down at his face, pleased when he saw a smirk that mirrored his own on his face.
Cloud's eyes flew open, the orbs glimmering with the insanity that oozed from his wicked smirk. "Good to see you, Sephiroth." He greeted, his voice devoid of the disobedience that it formerly contained.
"Good to see that your little personality change worked." The other man responded as he unchained his former victim from the wall, backing up a bit afterwards to give him room to stretch his muscles. "Now then, ready to go take the planet back from the humans?"
The younger man pried his eyes from checking the state of his muscles and instead turned them to face the other man. He lifted his hand to cross his chest in a salute as he lowered his head slightly as a sign of respect. "Yes," He lifted his head back up to make eye contact with Sephiroth, the smirk on his face now a full-blown grin of maniacal glee, "my brother."