His Part to Play
By: Phoenix Dayze
(Sephiroth, Zack, Cloud)
R
Warning: AU. Disturbing images. Character death.
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII or its characters. Lucky for them.
Cold terror seared Sephiroth's body as he watched. No! This can't be happening! This wasn't how it was supposed to be! Anything. Anything but this... He forced himself to swallow around the tight, choking knot in his throat. This can't be real... But it was real. Their mission had taken a devastating turn and now he could do nothing but stare from his concealed spot as a small blond form was hoisted up on a hastily fashioned cross, his arms bound against the rails. With the help of his drastically enhanced vision, Sephiroth was just close enough to see the sweat on the boy's skin, to count the boy's quick, jagged breaths as his chest heaved with the weight of his fear, to hear the heartless, jabbering laughter of his captors. And Sephiroth knew—as surely as he knew his own name—that they were going to kill him.
It hit him then, as more than just outside information or meaningless battle statistics. He suddenly felt the truth of the situation like a razor iron in his heart. They're going to kill Cloud. He moved then, his entire body coiling with furious, vengeful rage. His vision narrowed to a single point on the horizon, one heartbeat drumming its scattered, terrified rhythm in his ears. He would not allow this. He would kill them all. He would...
A hand seized his arm, strong fingers tight around him and drawing him back. Sephiroth turned wild, fiery eyes to his companion, crazed, irrational motion quivering along the lines of his body. A familiar voice rang through the haze, hard and desperate. "No! Sephiroth!" A harsh, penetrating whisper. "Sephiroth, don't you see? They're trying to lure us out!"
Small, barely contained whimpers crawled over his senses, and Sephiroth's eyes darted back to Cloud. Red smoke. Vicious, flickering flame. Cruel taunting and hollow promises for information the too young captive didn't have. Sephiroth yanked against Zack's hold. "Let go! Cloud will be killed if I don't go!"
Zack's other hand snaked around his other arm, pulling him away from the exit to their hideout, away from the open, away from Cloud. "But if you give away our position now, our mission, what we've been fighting for, it will all be over, and everything we have done, everyone who has died...it will all have been for nothing!"
It was true, Sephiroth knew. They had been working for years for this chance, daring fate on a daily basis to manipulate an opening in Shinra's treacherous company. They had risked their lives for this one moment. And now... Sephiroth trembled in Zack's grasp. He couldn't...not now...it wasn't worth it! Let ShinRa stay. Hundreds more people would fall to its clutches, the planet would suffer, but right now, in this moment, in this ripe, terrible choice, it seemed a fitting price. He pried at Zack's fingers. "Let go, Lieutenant!"
"I can't!" Raw sorrow coated Zack's voice and he tightened his grip. "I can't let you go."
"But Cloud will die!"
Zack's body went still, the moment seeming to stretch out between them until it was taut and wire-thin and humming with the vibrancy of their emotions. His words were nearly lost in the harsh, unwavering pain of their tone. "I know."
There was a sharp cry of unsilenced agony and both heads whipped around. Unforgiving flames licked at innocent flesh and the screams that echoed across to them were enough to make them ill. Sephiroth clenched at Zack's hand, merely holding, feeling the connection. He swallowed hard. "Zack..."
"Don't, Seph. We all have a part to play in this war. This is Cloud's. Don't make it be for nothing."
Zack's hands fells away, and Sephiroth stood rooted, unable to move forward, unable to look away. Hot, sizzling pain. Ruined flesh. Tears that evaporated before they fell. And the constant, soul-shredding screams. There was a wave of intense self-distance beside him, laced with steel-edged resolve. Sephiroth's eyes drew away from their tragic sacrifice. Blood dripped from between Zack's clenched fists, the skin cut raw by his nails. His entire body was rigid and wrought with anguished resignation. And reality gleamed in the hard, angry, agonized violet of his eyes.
Sephiroth reached for Zack's hand, forcing open the straining fingers and winding them through his own, the heated blood oozing between their palms. They clung to each other, and Sephiroth did the only thing that he could do. He focused, pouring all his strength, all his energy in one single task. He dug through the myriad voices, thoughts, minds until he found the gold and blue coil that was sparking with pain and death. He caught it in his mental hands and pulled it into himself. Rich, breath-stealing pain flooded his senses, and Sephiroth grit his teeth and concentrated—delved deeper into Cloud's existence. Slowly, he filed through the memories, the hopes, the dreams, the intense agony that claimed Cloud's consciousness, until he found the tiny thread that connected Cloud's soul to the living world. Then, drawing on his unholy powers, Sephiroth snapped the thread.
Silence reigned, the consuming screams cut off as abruptly as a gunshot. Sephiroth looked up. Cloud's head hung limp between his shoulders, and his body was relaxed, free of the tension and the pain it had been feeling so wretchedly only a moment before. Cloud was gone. Sephiroth let out a breath, heavy with sorrow, regret, and guilt. But he was glad. He had stolen the last seconds of Cloud's life, but now Cloud wouldn't have to suffer anymore.
There were wet drops against his hand, and Sephiroth didn't know if they were his or Zack's, but it didn't matter. Slowly, he turned away from the scene outside and pulled Zack with him. "Come on. It will be time for us to do our part soon enough. It's best we be ready." He tugged Zack close and wrapped his arms around the man's broad, quaking frame. "There's nothing more to see out there anyway."
Sephiroth let his gaze travel one last time to the fire-ravaged cross. ShinRa would go down. He would make damn sure of it. He and Zack would not stop fighting until every last shred of ShinRa's contamination had been eradicated. Either that, or they would die. But when the world began to revive, one way or another, Sephiroth would make certain that people knew whose ashes their new world was built on, for while they would never understand the sacrifice, the choices, the terrible, unjust price that had been paid for their freedom, Cloud deserved the recognition. After all, that was why Cloud had joined SOLDIER in the first place.
tbc.