A/N: I don't know. Don't ask me!

"And the shot goes through my head and back.
Gun shot, I can't take it back.
My heart cracked, really loved you bad.
Gun shot, I'll never get you back, never get you back"

Gunshot – Lykke Lie.

Gunshot

When Cloud had felt the first pull of Sephiroth's mind – unmistakably him as it surged and pervaded – he had left almost immediately. Without stopping to wish his loved ones goodbye, without a final word of care or a whispered confession, he had fled. The call of fate and danger and of an enemy long supposed to be dead turned his gut, freezing his blood with remembered pain. No matter what, Cloud couldn't let that happen again. He would protect all he held dear, to his last dying breath. There would be no more Aeriths, no more Zacks. He knew so little of himself, yet he knew that much.

Chasing the memory of a ghost across the crystal fissure, he'd stopped in the darkened mouth of a long canyon, the end of his search dissolving from the bluish mists in a hazy swirl of silver hair and a flash of metal. A darkened wing, wicked and magnificent hung in the dusted shadows and Sephiroth's gaze peered out, bright and intelligent, mad and calculating.

'Just like a puppet to come when called.' Calamity's son spoke, whispers and smoke coiling their way towards Cloud's feet.

'I came because I had no choice; you've given me no choice.' Cloud retorted, his words bitter.

'You think me that omnipotent, I'm flattered.' A silver smile in the darkness.

Cloud's grip tightened on the hilt of First Tusrugi and his shoulders tensed.

'I won't let you hurt them, not again.' Cloud swore, his jaw tightening against the bitterness of his vow.

Sephiroth chuckled, his laughter carrying itself like a snake around the granite walls of the fissure. Coiling his wing around himself – its feathers glimmering like an oil slick as the movement tussled the hulk of it – the thing dissolved. It seemed to pull all light into it, a void of nothingness opening up where it had hung and slowly, melting from the mist appeared a form.

The flash of a blade and suddenly the mettle of the katana, Masamnue was pressed to the pale neck of a man. In Sephiroth's grip, the weakly struggling form of Leon was held by his hair, his arms heavy at his sides, his balance precarious on tip toes.

Cloud jolted, his left foot digging into the dirt behind him as he braced himself against his shock, and he couldn't help it: he called out the man's name, the sound slipping from his mouth in a panicked gasp.

'Leon!'

The sound ricocheted off the high walls pelting the three men with vibrations.

'I see this one is precious to you.' The General spoke.

Warm summer nights and warmer touches came back to him: a caress of his cheek and a strong hand at his hip.

'I'm not ready to let you go.'

And a faltered whisper, rough and sincere breathed against his mouth as he'd swallowed the words in a kiss.

'Please, Leon, don't make this harder than it already is.'

He'd pleaded, begged, even tried to hurt him. He had fought as hard as he could to stay away. He had failed again.

'I won't stop, you know I won't.'

'You don't know what you're getting yourself into.'

'I don't care.'

A flash of gunmetal eyes and Cloud came back to himself. He stared, hard and unblinking at his lover, his dark half clutching the head of brunet hair in his gloved claw, yanking it into the man's neck, exposing the long stretch of flesh to the edge of his blade. He pressed lightly and a sharp hiss was his reply. When Cloud flinched again at the sound, Sephiroth released another peel of mirth.

'You are too easy to control, Cloud. If this were any easier, I'm not sure I'd be having quite this much fun.'

'Let him go!' Cloud replied simply, bringing his sword up, wrapping his left hand around the hilt as he prepared himself.

'Why do you do it, Cloud, is your weak heart that needy?'

Cloud's throat tightened and a stilted noise died in his mouth.

'Trust me, you don't want to see inside it.'

A hand place above his heart was removed, the blond afraid that the darkness inside would seep out and taint what was trying to get in.

'It'll only end up hurting you.'

'With one flick of my wrist I could destroy all you cherish.' The threat brought him back and Cloud's heart once again beat wildly, its feral rhythm a maddening rush inside of him.

'You want to hurt me, is that it?' Cloud tried desperately to stall, painfully aware that his mind games would never be as good as the fallen General's.

'Hurt you?' Sephiroth smiled, 'No, I want to break you, the way you did me. I will return from whatever nothingness you send me to, again and again if that is what it takes for you to suffer as I have. You took away my future, my purpose; allow me to extend the curtesy.'

With a clean, straight slice, Sephiroth pulled Masamune across the milky skin of Leon's throat, and a stifled gag and wide panicked eyes broke Cloud's stasis.

A terrible scream filled the canyon, deafening like a gunshot, and only as the last dying trembles faded away did Cloud realise it had come from him. He watched as Leon's body sank to his knees, his frame collapsing as if cut from invisible strings.

'I'm willing to risk it'

'I'm not.'

It had been such a lie, but necessary. And now, so pointless; a useless gesture. Unable to take his eyes from his fallen lover, he missed how Sephiroth melted from view, his presence dissipating into the blackness of secret shadows.

Cloud bolted, dropping his sword as he neared Leon – the one and only time he had ever left himself defenceless in the wake of such danger – and collapsed to his knees, rolling the still warm body into his arms; the life, the soul, the whatever it was that had made Leon was gone, only a milky white corpse and blood stained skin remained and Cloud screamed again.

'No matter what happens, I'll always want you.'

Pressing his face to the waxen skin, Cloud let it consume him: a tidal swoop of darkness, pain and anger. He had promised himself no more yet he had failed a long time ago. The moment he had let himself feel, the moment he had let himself become close, he had doomed them.

'I want you too; you've no idea how much.'

He stayed until it was dark and then he stood, Leon's body in his arms as he turned and retraced his steps, wondering the obscurity of night until he returned to the rebuilt city. He laid Leon in the square, under the fountain where he was sure to be discovered and unfurled his own dark wing, its shape twisted and grotesque, inky black against the starlit sky.

'Don't say it.'

'I love you...'

A dry sob convulsed his chest before he was perfectly still. He looked up, scanning the vastness of the high domed vaulted night and felt his own insignificance – how small his place in the world really was – his corner of the universe so inconsequential: how the ripples of his heartache would fade to nothing.

He leapt up into the air, dust and dried leaves scattering in his wake and the square was still again, the soft muted sounds of falling water punctuating the stillness of a heavy dawn.

'…and I know you love me, too. So I'll wait for you… I promise...'