Just a little request for my buddy, because we both got listening to Metallica, and had the General brought to mind at the sound of "The unforgiven". Just a bit of a challenge really, nothing much apart from it. Could be made into a series, but I am not sure. hehehehe

Disclaimers: I do not own Final Fantasy or any of the said characters involved. I also do not own Metallica or any of their written works. I, in short, own nothing.

-sob-

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What more could they ask for now? He was stripped bare, down to his very soul, which now seemed to lie in a shattered pile around him. From the day he was born, he knew what his life would be like. They'd surrounded him, encouraging breaking those limits, pushing farther, and beyond all, doing everything that he was told. He smirked a little at the irony. Here he was a puppet in his own right. All he was doing now was waiting, biding his time. After all this, after all the experimentation, exploitation, degradation, it was coming to an end. He knew that of all things, he regretted it. He had remembered how it was. It wasn't having the blonde entering the cave hell bent on destroying him. No, it was the blonde by his side, hell bent on destroying others. He couldn't help but ponder what it would have been like had that monster of a professor done what he'd done. He'd been labeled as so many things, treated as somewhat of a god in the eyes of the public, but what was he behind those doors? He was disposable, a rag doll in the middle of a sick range of supposedly beneficial experiments… It was all he could do to bite back the bitterness. He'd followed the path built for him, never once daring to create his own. Somewhere along that path, he'd lost the only thing he had held dear to him. His sanity.

He could feel them drawing nearer, as he reconsidered everything that had ever happened to him. Everything in his life had been planned by others, and he'd gone along with it, trying to please all of them, every demand thrown at him. This was it though, his reckoning. This was the day when the almighty General would see his fall. He knew that as greatly as anyone. He had felt Holy throughout the cave; he had felt the glow burning through his eyes, holding him transfixed. Inside the materia orb, a message conveyed, of all of it, everything he had been built up to by Hojo, crashing and burning in a blaze of glory. The fight of the planet, the very thing he had been raised to despise and destroy, turning the tables.

Then there was Cloud. That spikey headed kid that he'd seen the potential in, but overall ignored, was now the one who would bring about his demise. He'd been a comrade, brother in arms, somewhat of a beacon for him. Cloud had been a representative of all the things he himself could never be. Zack had been too, and now, those same people he had followed blindly, had been responsible for his best friend's death. He'd been pained so much he felt nothing anymore. He'd become somewhat of a monster. He was no longer a public idol, but the venom of society, and he had attempted to ruin it. What had he become? If he felt all of this now, maybe the feeling he thought to be void still lingered. Maybe he was still partially human. He cringed at the thought crossing his mind. 'Were you ever human at all?' He felt blinding anger. He was… a puppet… Was he ever anything else? He'd tried and still failed miserably at breaking the strings holding him to his manipulators.

What he'd felt, what he'd always known, had all been controlled, dominated, and it had been almost an objective of their lives, to run his. He still sat, waiting. He had grown weary and felt old now; he awaited his death at the hands of a former friend.

Cloud… he had arrived. But… he was alone? It wasn't possible. Even Cloud knew that he wasn't capable of it all on his own. The final stance, yes, but the lead up to it, he needed something that the General never had. He needed support. Why was he here now, why had he stumbled so blatantly into this?

Maybe he knew the General more than he gave the blonde credit for. Cloud had fought brilliantly, and was approaching his waiting bay.

"Cloud…" he began, but the blonde, held up first, his hand, followed by the Ultima Weapon that the General himself had fought to remain hidden. Cloud had once again exceeded expectations.

"I've come here alone…" Cloud said, piercing blue, with the coldness to rival the General's own.

"I have noticed. I can't help but wonder…"

"I bring a final warning."

Cloud had interrupted, lacking the respect that he had once shown in vast quantities for the General. Emerald green was puzzled, watching and waiting for some sign from the sapphire blues.

"If you have one shred of you left in there, stop this all…" Cloud said calmly. Cloud had changed very much so since the last time the General had seen him. He still had the image of the timid but capable young blonde imprinted on his mind, and the figure that stood before him was very different. Although still clearly capable, there was a steadiness in his eyes. Cloud used to tremble in fear at the very sight of him, but now, he seemed so sure, so able, and so calm.

"It's not possible anymore, Cloud… Everything's far different from how it used to be…" The General bit back on his words. Was it really not so late? Was it possible for things to go back to how they were? He had nothing but cloud from his old life, he had nothing left. Was that maybe the better side of it? He had nothing binding him anymore, Hojo had been killed, and Shinra had crumbled.

"You're still there though, aren't you?" Cloud asked quietly, lowering his weapon, "I can see it. I don't know what's happened, maybe enlightenment for you, but you've found part of yourself again, haven't you?"

He'd sheltered himself all this time, he wasn't about to stop now. Just because Cloud was showing him what he presumed to be compassion, maybe even sympathy, he wasn't going to break. He'd already given in. There was too much at stake for him to change.

"You're going to have to kill me Cloud…" He replied, turning his back. He froze in shock as a hand grabbed his shoulder.

"Don't make me…"

"I killed your family, Cloud…" He said quietly, full of confusion, "I killed your friends…"

"My mother was ill. I had no friends…" Cloud replied, still with the almost pestering calmness to him, "The only friend I had was your friend too."

"Zack was…" He began, but he spoke no further, as Cloud frowned.

"Do not deny your friendship with him…"

"I never would…" The General replied, removing Cloud's hand from his shoulder and seating himself on an overlaying rock.

"Why do you do it? I give you the opportunity now, break free. Go into hiding, think of what Zack would think right now…"

"He'd hate me Cloud. I'm a shell of my former self!" He hissed, leaping once more to his feet, "Although how you can be a shell of a shell escapes me… Come back soon Cloud, kill me, let it end."

"I don't want to kill you…" Cloud said almost painfully, and the General felt pained at the effect he already had on those whom he once cherished.

"You were friends with the old me. I have seen the world without me, Cloud. Take it in your heart as the most fitting option and leave me to my contemplations…" The General spoke sternly, finally afflicting the authority he aimed for. Cloud's eyes were saddened as he nodded shortly, turning his back. The General fixed his eyes on the blonde's back as he made his way to the exit of the cave. Without turning, the blonde paused and placed his sword back in its scabbard.

"You're not a bad person…" Cloud said shortly, "When you think for yourself."

Cloud allowed the words to sink in, letting the General stew over it. Cloud turned his head enough to see the general retreating into the shadows.

"The trouble, understand Cloud," The darkened figure replied slowly, "Is that I never will be able to…"

"Then I'll be seeing you soon," Cloud replied slowly, biting back his anger at both the feeble attempts of a weakened soul, and the way in which he reached that state. Nothing could be done now.

"Regain your soul Sephiroth…" Cloud said, ascending the spiral stone staircase, "It's the only thing you can truly own…"

With that, the blonde spikes disappeared from view, followed by the pointy reckoning that the General now both dreaded and welcomed. His shining salvation.

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Metallica- The unforgiven