A/N: Sorry it took me, but fear not, for before you lies (gasp) the longest chapter so far. Hope you guys enjoy it! It kinda kicked me in the ass while I was writing it... As ever, remember that your reviews are food for the author monster! (me.) Many thanks to the amazing Rakuengaki for being an awesome beta reader and reading, like, five different versions of this chapter!
I don't own Final Fantasy VII. Yet.
Chapter 10—As the Wind Behaves
Zack woke from dreams of floating, weightless in the dark, surrounded by loved ones, a brimming mug of his mother's hot chocolate in hand. It ought to have been a wonderful dream, but instead it left him feeling cold and empty, a reminder of all he had lost. He lay flat on the floor, head tilted back to stare directly into the bright light above him, feeling no need to move and reveling in the splitting headache pounding through his skull. It meant he was alive, and that was an improvement over the night before.
He lifted a hand slowly to his neck, feeling dried blood crusted on his skin, both his and Sephiroth's. In disgust, he started scratching it away, only to wince at the fierce pain his fingers elicited on damaged flesh. He dropped his hand back to the floor, the taste of blood strong in his mouth and its rusty smell overwhelming him. He hated nose bleeds much more now than he had as a kid. SOLDIER senses made the smell overwhelming. He licked his lips absently and grimaced at the taste of his own blood, then frowned in confusion.
There was another taste in addition to blood; something sickly and acidic. His eyes widened as he recognized it from a scent he had come to know intimately. He could taste Sephiroth inside him. His gut wrenched and he lunged for the toilet, retching the taste of his murderer (savior?) out of his mouth. The taste of bile replaced the faint traces of the psychopath in his mouth, but he remained leaning on the cold bowl for a long time, shuddering in agony.
It wasn't that his neck hurt. That was bearable, and the mako seemed to have done its healing work well. The problem was less the injury than the one who inflicted it. The whole time he'd been locked up in the terrifying, claustrophobic labs he'd reassured himself that Sephiroth, when it came down to it, would never kill him. What had happened with Cloud Zack had chosen to ignore and hide from, thinking that perhaps Sephiroth was mistaken and their blonde friend still lived somewhere. Then Sephiroth had strangled him to death the night before, and stolen even that slim hope.
He slumped to the ground again, tears streaking down his cheeks, making the blood on his face wet once more, because the one thing that he knew without a doubt was that he no longer mattered. Even death, where he had hoped to find some peace, had turned him away now, and he had no guarantee he wouldn't be flung back into that darkness anyway. Sephiroth had made it abundantly clear the night before that he could kill the younger SOLDIER any time he liked. Bitterly, Zack hoped that he would not be able to revive him again.
The guards entered the room to find him half propped against the toilet, his head bowed under the weight of weakness. They dragged him from the room without bothering to order him up, recognizing a broken man when they saw one. They were not an unusual find when you worked in Hojo's labs. He was hauled to the despicable treadmill, and the young man ordered him to run from the side of the room. Zack stood from the grasp of the two troopers and attacked the treadmill with an aggressive fervor, desperate to feel good at something.
It served only to remind him of how weak he really was as he failed only two hours into the test, breaking his record of steady improvement over the past hundred runs. He simply didn't have the will to continue past that and slumped like a boiled noodle to the moving tread below him. He was hauled to his feet again almost instantly and his arm yanked harshly outward to expose itself for the injection.
When the doctor approached he was startled to see a small syringe full of a pale yellow liquid rather than the usual black sludge. It pierced his vein neatly, with barely a twinge in sharp contrast to the usual shock of pain. He blinked confusedly at the young man whose head was bowed over his arm. The dark look he was given filled him with a sickening kind of dread. He tried to straighten, but was hauled out of the room by his guards before he could.
It took him a little time being towed along before he realized they were going the wrong way. He still couldn't quite gain his feet, but he continued to try, especially once the guards started grumbling nervously to themselves. He was pulled into a small room and almost panicked at the thought of being locked in. Then he saw the buttons along the wall. One of his guards shook him sharply to cut off his short chuckle before pressing the lowest button available. Zack was pretty sure it read 'B5' but he wouldn't have sworn by it. His vision was blurring viciously.
The elevator jerked downward with a scream of gears and Zack lost his slight footing, wrenching his shoulders as he slumped in the grips of the altered troopers. They didn't move, and Zack didn't attempt to regain his feet, finding himself justified in his decision as they slammed to a halt suddenly enough that one of his guards stumbled.
When the doors opened, he was slung into a dark, cavernous room where he landed hard on the freezing cold floor. He gasped softly as it touched his still over-heated skin. He struggled to his hands and knees quickly, hearing the elevator doors slide shut behind him. When he looked up, he was greeted by the sight of Sephiroth standing stark and pale, like a beacon shining in the dark room, fixing him with a startled stare.
"Oh," Zack muttered venomously, "it's you." He forced himself to his feet, coercing damaged muscles into cooperation in the face of his murderer. He glanced briefly around the vast arena. It was almost utterly featureless but for a wide, dark row of windows inlaid high up in the bleak walls. They were being observed. He looked up to the ceiling and found only a black abyss above him. A powerful fear stole over him at the sight of emptiness above. Before he could even begin to guess at what was happening, a voice erupted from the walls.
"Well, Project S," Hojo droned, voice horrifically loud in the cavernous area, "aren't you going to welcome your friend?" Sephiroth remained silent, standing stock still and gazing at the one-way windows above them. A faint, static-like noise was slowly filling the air, and Zack began to wonder what the hell was wrong with Hojo's equipment as the buzzing slowly grew.
"This is a test of attention." Hojo's voice announced, clearly and concisely. "Project S will commence battle while attempting to defend a secondary subject."
"What?" Zack barked in protest, staring daggers at the one-way windows, "I don't need him to protect me!" He carefully noted how Sephiroth's body language had shifted subtly, his knees bent and shoulders stiffened against a so-far invisible threat. Even as the words left his lips, the world seemed to tilt around him, sending him reeling for a moment.
"The hell..?" he muttered as he regained his balance. Sephiroth's gaze flew back to him, eyes wide. The humming noise intensified, filling the cavern around them with the mind-numbing scream of static. Slowly and deliberately, Sephiroth tilted his chin back, lifting his wide-eyed gaze from Zack to the ceiling above them. Zack looked as well; despite the blurriness of his vision, he could see that the darkness was moving. He was almost certain there were little shapes swimming through the black.
"Zackary," Sephiroth murmured, voice quiet and calm, "stay close."
"I'd really rather not." Zack snapped back, hackles up from Hojo's comment and far from pleased about being given advice from the man who'd killed him the night before. Sephiroth's gaze lowered to Zack again and he nodded faintly.
"Understandable," he said, shifting slightly. Zack watched him turn away, his ratty hair falling over tense muscles.
"No failsafes will be put in place," the voice of Hojo cut through the air. "Testing will now commence."
The static abruptly changed into a shriek from above. What Zack had taken for a black tunnel with small lights inside it suddenly spread itself and erupted into hundreds of winged creatures, midnight colored bat-wings suddenly stretching taut with a crack audible even over the roar.
"Perhaps now you will consent to stay nearby?" Sephiroth whispered for Zack's ears only. Zack nodded mutely, though Sephiroth's head was turned, and watched in horror as the first group of creatures detached themselves from the ceiling sweeping down upon them. Zack sunk down into a crouch, fighting off another wave of inexplicable dizziness, fists clenching in preparation.
Before the creatures could attack, Sephiroth tensed. An explosion of air whipped Zack's hair across his face, forcing him to close his eyes against the biting wind. When he opened them, Sephiroth had a monster of a wing arching out of his shoulder, joined to his back in a patch of pitch black down and reddened, irritated skin. Before Zack could process the vision, the silver general lept into the air, wing snapping down sharply, propelling him upward. Zack was left behind on the ground, gaping upwards as Sephiroth ripped the first beast's head from it's shoulders. Blood splattered to the ground below the whirling vision of pearly skin.
Zack's jaw fell slack as he stared into the air. The power in every slight movement Sephiroth made was breathtaking. In midair, where romantics would imagine each move as graceful as water, Sephiroth was militaristic, every snap of his enormous wing calculated and precise. The first three monsters were reduced to bodies on the floor within moments of Sephiroth taking to the air. As the beasts left on the ceiling jostled each other, shrieking defiance to the walls, the general descended, touching down next to Zack with barely a sound.
"You have a wing," Zack hissed as Sephiroth backed up as step to stand just to the side of him. The mentioned appendage shuddered with tension, and Zack could hear the quills clacking against one another. Sephiroth made a quiet noise of assent, shifting a little. His bare feet slid across the uneven floor beneath them, feeling out the unstable, ragged footing it offered.
"He's probably drugged you," the winged man murmured, eyes still fixed on the threat above them. "Fight as long as you can. When you give out, I will be there."
Zack was about to make a comment on how unlikely he found that when the next group of creatures detached from the ceiling. Black feathers struck down against the air, sending Sephiroth screaming upwards to meet them, bare hand against tooth and claw. Zack watched the beasts part around him, two smashing into his punishing blows while the others flowed past like interrupted water, streaming downwards to meet him.
Despite himself, Zack grinned in manic joy as he raised his fists. He was tired, confused, and hurt, but he'd been raring for a fight since he first woke up. He wasn't about to turn down a chance to obliterate some monsters.
The first bat-thing reached him, jaws opening wide to reveal a solid row of wickedly curved fangs, and he reveled in the feeling of it's skin bending underneath the power of his fist. After that he was lost in a whirl of battle, barely keeping ahead of his three opponents as they swept in on each others heels. In the back of his mind, while he automatically blocked each attack, he added fighting to his list of things he'd missed. After all, he liked things he was good at.
The tortured, inhuman cries from above implied that Sephiroth was sharing similar success against his own opponents. Zack's enthusiastic grin stayed firmly in place. As his first set of opponents fell, he once again felt the jerk of dizziness, but shook it off, raising his head to watch Sephiroth, a constant blur of movement as more and more monsters swept down. He didn't have much time to observe before he was attacked again. There was, after all, only so much one man could do.
There was a rhythm to the fight. Zack was never entirely overwhelmed, since the monsters seemed to prefer attacking him in groups of three or four, appearing to share a preference for staying in the air. Still, they were relentless. He never had more than a brief moment to glance upwards at his general as he slowly massacred the ranks of beasts attacking him before he was once more ensconced in battle. He'd taken out four groups of the things, struggling to avoid the bodies starting to choke the floor when things went bad.
As one of the bat-things descended upon him, he shot a fist out to meet it, and was stunned to feel his wrist collapse under the contact, weakening the punch so much it only stunned the beast instead of taking it down. His eyes widened as the world seemed to smudge around him, the overwhelming echo in the cavern warping. As though from a great distance, he felt himself crash to his knees, and watched the gaping maw of a beast descend on him, trying to raise a hand only to find his arms unresponsive. 'Move,' he ordered himself mentally, 'move or you're dead. Again!'
He moved, tucking into an undignified roll, to remove himself from the monster's path. He hauled himself to his feet, feeling for the first time the weakness spreading through his body, having been held at bay by the enormous amounts of adrenaline pumping through him. He took a deep breath, backing away a couple steps from the regrouping crowd of creatures. They glanced at one another, wide nostrils sucking in deep breaths of air through their pig-like noses, beady eyes examining one another before turning on Zackary again, approaching in predatory hunches, wings tucked tightly to their sides and inelegant gaits lengthening.
"Shit..." Zack hissed to himself, "that's a hunting bunny rabbits look!" he accused the approaching creatures. "I'm not a bunny!" They lunged at him and he forced himself to listen to his instincts rather than his pride. His instincts were screaming 'run,' so he turned, booking it back towards the center of activity in the room. There was a whirling mass in the middle of the air which was centered on Sephiroth, monsters swooping down from the ceiling in spirals as quickly as the bodies dropped to the floor.
He could heard the snap of wings behind him and screamed to a stop, ducking in time for one of his pursuers to sail over his head, talons extended as it shrieked indignantly. He almost passed out straightening again, cursing under his breath as he looked around the newly formed circle of foes, shifting around to keep an eye on all of them. He was filled with an absolute certainty that if he didn't do something fast he would be messily devoured in no time. Instead, against his will, he sank to his knees, arms sagging to his sides, even as his every instinct screamed that he had to fight.
The creatures lept forward as one, and Zack braced himself, curling inwards over his chest, hoping he would survive this onslaught.
The strike never came. Instead, a hollow shriek split the air. Zack jerked his head up to stare at the vision of silver and black standing before him. Sephiroth's wing was spread upwards, shaking in threat, his form tense where he stood in front of Zack. The cries of the beasts were deafening, and Zack looked up to see a whirlwind of them above, circling the two warriors with the lazy grace of vultures. They were so thick in the air that the well-lit observation room seemed black as pitch.
"Oh Gaia..." Zack muttered quietly, trying and failing to pull himself to his feet, "We're gonna get slaughtered."
"No," said Sephiroth, voice hard as stone, unwavering despite the intense effort he had already put forth into covering the ground in a blanket of bodies. He backed up a step without looking away from the whirl of enemies, reaching down to grip Zack's bicep, hauling him to his feet with barely a thought. Zack stumbled, but locked his knees firmly in place, staying upright through desire alone. "I will deal with these vermin, and you will defend yourself as long as you can. When you are no longer able..." The silver haired warrior glanced at him for the first time, and Zack felt the brush of feathers across his back as the wing shifted to half-guard him from the beasts, caught breathless by the calm assurance in those uncanny eyes. "Then you will stay out of the way."
At that, the beasts dove inward, ending their respite. Zack whirled to face the opposite direction from Sephiroth then stayed rooted to the spot, strangely comforted by the knowledge that behind him was the strongest man on the face of the earth, who was currently his ally. Right before his fist connected with the first beast, he heard his general rumble under his breath "Don't disappoint me, Zackary."
It was a furiously fast exchange, the monsters swooping in relentlessly, shrieking cries echoing off the walls. Those not fast enough fell at their feet, forming a wall of bodies about them. Even as he surfed atop the cresting wave of battle, Zack could feel the encroaching paralysis promised by Hojo's injection. Behind him were the screams of those monsters unlucky enough to choose to fight Sephiroth, punctuated by the soft grunts of the sliver general himself. To Zack's right, he could sometimes spy the movement of his partner's wing, stretching out to balance him, or twitching as it took the brunt of an attack that was intended for Zack himself. Sephiroth's attention was certainly divided.
Zack held out as long as he could; he had always been a fighter, but even he could not stand against his collapsing body for long. His punches grew weaker, and Sephiroth was forced to defend more often from the enemies flanking him, but even the silver general was not infallible. Zack caught a talon across his shoulder, which at least he'd deflected from his chest, but that was the end of his limited control over his body. He slumped to his hands and knees, gasping for air.
A moment later, a dirtied, pale foot stepped in front of him defensively, and he heard the quiver of feathers cracking against each other in anger.
"Stay down," Sephiroth's voice growled above him, only slightly weaker than the last time he spoke. "You've done your part." The words that would have been bitter or condescending falling from other lips brought a slight smile to Zack's face even as he slumped to the ground. For Sephiroth, that was the height of approval. The screams of battle above him began again as the monsters grew used to the new configuration, remaining clearly audible, even as his other senses distorted. With a wince, he forced himself to turn over. If death was coming, he wanted to see it.
What he saw instead was Sephiroth guarding his prone form, striking down any monster that came within ten feet of him. His lighting speed far outmatched the quick reflexes of the beasts, his wing whipping out to help him maintain balance. Zack could hardly keep up with his movements in his exhausted state, but even he could tell the general was all but unstoppable.
It was the 'but' part of that phrase that proved to be the problem.
One of the beasts managed to strike his wing hard, throwing him off balance. The splatter of his blood on the hard floor made Zack jump slightly, and he stared, eyes like saucers, stunned by his defender's injury. Sephiroth didn't even flinch past the initial stumble, but neither did he return to dominating the field. In no time he was forced back towards Zack, the monsters continually trying to cut him off. Soon Sephiroth was reduced to fending off only the creatures who made themselves imminently dangerous.
Zack could see that he was, in fact, making a significant dent. Most of the creatures lay broken on the floor now, steaming corpses in the cold room. The whirlpool of bodies above them had thinned to a smattering of dark wings in the air, and Zack was starting to regain feeling in the tips of his fingers, blood-pumping excitement wearing the toxin quickly out of his system. In contrast, Sephiroth was fading fast. The creatures had jumped on his moment of weakness as quickly as they had exploited Zack's, descending on him thickly from all sides. Capable as Sephiroth was, even he had blind spots. Zack didn't see exactly which of the monsters hit him first, but he felt the hot blood that splattered from Sephiroth's side onto his cheek, the acidic smell as effective as a smelling salt to the exhausted man. He blinked, forcing himself to watch more closely, struggling against gravity to rise and assist his general. The silver warrior gripped the jaw of the creature that had bitten his side and ripped it of his own flesh, tossing it away.
One of the remaining creatures noticed Zack's renewed energy and swooped down upon him only to be rudely interrupted by Sephiroth, who stepped in to stand over Zack, halting the creature's decent only by implanting his forearm in its path. More of that hot blood spilled down onto Zack's torso as the monster ground its teeth in Sephiroth's arm before being swatted aside like a fly. Zack heard a soft hiss of pain from the man above him.
Sephiroth risked a glance downwards, meeting Zack's gaze for an instant, before switching his attention back to their opponents, leaving Zack wondering if he had imagined the pride lingering in those pools of green.
There were too many of the beasts left. The remaining creatures appeared to have grown smarter as they watched their companions fall. They circled now, both on ground and in air, growling lowly in their chests, waiting for their opponents to falter, apparently aware that they now held the upper hand. Zack took a quick head count and found twenty seven still active. He took a deep, calming breath, trying to believe in Sephiroth's abilities to pull them through, but he knew this wouldn't go well.
"Test has shown remarkable capabilities thus far," Hojo's voice whined disappointedly over the speakers. Zack let out a low, annoyed moan that elicited a snort of amusement from the stoic general. "Final stage of test will commence." At his final word, an unbearably loud, high-pitched shrieking blared over the speakers, filling the cave. Every one of the monsters remaining screamed their anger to the sky. Sephiroth also let out a sharp yell, raising his hands to his ears. Zack grimaced, but he found it bearable. Obnoxious certainly, but not painful as it appeared to be for the others. The bat creatures folded their large ears down to their sculls, shaking their heads, but Sephiroth remained hunched over, the noise apparently destroying his concentration. With their hearing blocked, the creatures turned their ugly faces as though by unspoken command to Zack. Suddenly, Zack found he could speak again.
"Oh HELL no!" he yelled, voice hollower than normal, but still louder than many humans ever managed. He struggled to sit, and found it useless, his muscles barely managing to flex at his command. The creatures lunged.
With a yell of effort Sephiroth darted forward once again getting between the creatures and their intended victim, face pulled up in a snarl of frustration and pain, bright red blood streaking across his skin. His wing fluttered behind him like a torn banner, crumpled feathers trailing droplets of darker blood in its wake.
Zack dimly felt teeth clamp down on his leg as Sephiroth fought off the more life threatening beast. The searing pain was enough for him to concentrate all his energy into kicking the hell out of whatever had its teeth in him. He managed to bang it hard enough on the nose for it to release, stepping back in confusion. Then Sephiroth was there, standing possessively over Zack, with blood now streaking in pink rivers down his legs and smeared across his chest grotesquely. His eyes were blazing pools of mako green, his labored breathing aggressive. The creatures paused again, made hesitant by the mad light in Sephiroth's gaze, then rushed as one, leaping upwards to crash down on Sephiroth's head, sharp talons extended.
Zack saw a fleeting smile flick across Sephiroth's face, then the world exploded in flames. So did the remaining beasts. Zack flinched as flaming body parts pounded to the ground around them, smelling disturbingly of barbecue. He blinked up at Sephiroth, drawing in a long breath, trying to coax his heart out of his throat.
"Holy shit," he managed. The high pitched whine finally cut off the speakers and Sephiroth shook his head as though to clear it, his wing tucking firmly up against his back. He didn't move from where he stood over Zack, eyes fixed on the elevator doors as he waited for the inevitable troopers to arrive for them. Zack was about to explode from the sheer badassery of the fight, but paused when he saw the shaking muscles in Sephiroth's leg, and the bloodstains on his feet, where he'd ripped them on the hard floor while protecting him. He shivered slightly as he realized exactly how close that fight had come.
The door slid open to admit a set of no less than seven altered troopers, guns at the ready. They approached slowly, pausing outside the ring of bodies Sephiroth had created. Zack recognized his usual guards as they stepped forward to grab him, and nearly jumped out of his skin when Sephiroth snapped at them.
"One hand on him and you join the bodies," he snarled. Zack watched in wonder as long legs tensed. The crazy bastard meant it. The troopers halted in their steps. Painstakingly, Sephiroth bent and grabbed hold of Zack's arms, hissing "walk if you can. Show them you're strong."
When Sephiroth placed him on his feet, Zack looked up at his friend's face, blank as a block of ice. The hands gripping his arms were quaking. He locked his knees and straightened. The toxin was well on its way to wearing off, and if Sephiroth could rip himself to shreds for his sake, he could stand up. Sephiroth released one of his arms, but kept hold of the other, striding somewhat slower than usual through the body piles. His grip kept Zack upright, even with his injured leg howling at every step. He showed absolutely no weakness in the face of their captors. Three of the altered guards stayed behind, presumably for cleanup, Zack thought with a wicked smile. The others boarded the small elevator with them, keeping their guns trained on the two prisoners, body language tense. Zack imagined that behind the helmets there must have been fear in their eyes.
The walk back to the cell would have been a misery of pain without the thrill of victory still vibrating through him. Added to that was that the more he walked, the more he was able to move. It made the bite on his ankle hurt more too, but that was beside the point. Sephiroth was a silent, solid presence beside him, but Zack saw something of a swagger in the man's stiff walk. None of the guards dared get to close, keeping their guns raised the whole march. Apparently, they had taken a good look at what Sephiroth had done to the monsters littering the ground in that room.
One of the troopers opened the door, and the two men walked in under their own power. Almost as soon as the guards closed the portal behind them, Zack started laughing, folding over in helpless whimpers of amusement. It felt wonderful to laugh again, even at something so dark as the encounter they had just survived. Remembering his companion, he railed in his chuckles to look over at Sephiroth. The horrifically confused look the silver general was giving him for his inappropriate laughter overcame Zack with another round of giggles. He had to wipe a tear of mirth from his eye, wheezing for breath, when he managed to straighten again, a dazed smile still on his face.
"Get over here and sit down before you pass out," he ordered his commander, a hint of glee still hidden in his voice. Sephiroth let out a long, bemused sigh as he stepped over towards him, wing still folded tightly against his back, apparently attempting to be discreet without vanishing again. Sephiroth's step faltered suddenly, one leg giving out under his weight, and Zack caught him without a thought. He was startled to feel the heat of the pale, sweaty skin, so sharply in opposition to the usual deathly cold. Apparently the geostigma took even the heat out of him.
Sephiroth stiffened under the touch, muscles shaking. For a moment Zack thought he'd end up on his ass for touching the warrior. Then Sephiroth straightened slightly, without removing Zack's hands from his person. Zack noted the almost imperceptible amount of weight Sephiroth placed on him and felt his chest tighten. The short walk to the cot against the wall took no time at all, but it felt important. Sephiroth had saved Zack, and Zack had helped Sephiroth in return, however trivially. From here they could work.
Sephiroth sat down carefully, wing lifting tiredly out of the way, spreading itself out across the hard surface like a living blanket. The silver warrior let his head bow, his breaths immediately easing, more even now that he was off his feet. Zack slowly removed his hands from Sephiroth's chest to kneel and examine the wound in his side. He flinched at the pull on his wounded ankle, but the sight of the injury up close forced him to reconsider complaining at all about it.
There was a significant amount of damage. The creature had sunk every one of its fangs into Sephiroth's side gouging jagged rips across his skin when it was ripped from him. The ribboned flesh was a poor concealment for the damaged muscles beneath. Though the wounds were bleeding only a little as Sephiroth's enhancements did their work, they must have been horrifically painful. With a wince of solidarity, Zack moved on to his friend's massacred arm, inspecting the torn muscle and biting back nausea at the sight of pearly bone healing itself beneath the red.
"Holy hell..." he exclaimed as he investigated the wound. There were a dozen other nicks and slices across Sephiroth's body from the wicked talons of the beasts, but the silver general was healing so fast that they were already all but insignificant. Looking back up into his partner's face, Zack burst into a wide grin. "You're so damn cool you bastard!" he cried, almost exploding with excitement. Sephiroth only arched an eyebrow calmly at his statement, but Zack was too busy being enthusiastic to care.
"How long have you had a wing?" he questioned incredulously, standing upright again to peer over Sephiroth's shoulder, moving his hair out of the way. Sephiroth gave an eloquent shrug, the wing following the motion with a half-flap of agreement. Its dark blood still dripped off of black feathers onto the dull metal of the table in oily splashes. Zack reached out a hand to touch the downy feathers connecting it to his general's back. Zack had enough time to notice how soft they were before the man jumped, gasping softly, the feathers shifting under his touch in reaction. He lifted his hand away quickly and pulled back, staring at Sephiroth in worry.
"Sorry! Did I hurt you?" He asked quickly, hands drawing automatically to rest on Sephiroth's biceps, all qualms about touch forgotten in the wake of their ordeal. Sephiroth was staring at him with such a startled expression that Zack had to fight down the urge to laugh again, instead waiting for an answer. Slowly, Sephiroth shook his head, and Zack let out a breath.
"Why do you care?" the wounded man asked, sitting still as stone but for the wing moving gently behind him. Zack heard no accusation or sarcasm in his tone, only gentle, confused inquiry, and frowned to himself, removing his hands carefully from Sephiroth's skin to cross his arms thoughtfully. His brow furrowed slightly as he considered it. He hadn't stopped being angry, exactly, but the fight had reiterated what he had known even in Nibelheim. Sephiroth, in his right mind, would never hurt him.
"You're my friend, Seph," he finally stated, deciding it was the best way to say it. Simple statements were always the way to go when dealing with emotions around the stoic general. "In fact, at the moment, you're my only friend. I'm not saying I'm not confused as hell because I am, and I'll also probably be pretty pissed when this sedative wears off, but even then, you still just saved my ass big time. It counts for something. 'Sides, you're more interesting to talk to than creepy dream lady."
Sephiroth, who had been slowly relaxing during this speech, his eyes softening at Zack's sentiment, snapped ridged at the last words, staring at Zack with wide eyes. Zack frowned slightly at the movement, running his eyes over Sephiroth's form and concluding that yes, sitting that stiffly was hurting him. The sharp movement had even re-opened the wounds on his side, sending fresh blood sliding down to pool on the metal below. He was about to get started scolding him for it when the man spoke, his voice intense and focused.
"What woman, Zackary?"