A/N: So here we are… the penultimate chapter. This has been written for quite a while, not only because it has helped spur me on through some rather boring bouts of writers block, but because I always have to know how these things end. It's been a wonderful ride writing this story and a real treat to come back to this universe. Despite some of its heavier topics, I really do like this world and the characters within it and I hope you have enjoyed it too.

To my two guest reviewers: Veronique and Valhalla, I thank you both. You've followed this story and left me some wonderful words of encouragement. Valhalla, I do wonder what it was you expected to happen, that I subverted so deviously!

Without much further ado, I give you chapter 10.

Much love. xxx

'One day this poor boy and to me was bound apprentice

Because of being so fatherless

I took him out of St. James Workhouse

His mother being in big distress.

One day this poor boy and to me offended

But nothing undo in they say

Up to the main mast I sent him

And kept him there all that long day.

Oh with my spike, I misused him

So shameful I won't deny

And with the rope I gagged him

Because I could not bear his cries.

His legs and hands on to me expanded

His pretty face to me like why

And by my barbaress cruel treatment

The very next day this young boy died.

So come here captains, all throughout this nation

Hear voice in warning take by mean

Take special care of your apprentice

That you are wrong the raging sea.'

The Captain's Apprentice - An English Folk Song – Circa 1820.

10

The Captain's Apprentice

Cloud chewed his nails, his gaze vacant and far inwards as Aerith's little car chugged its way down the highway towards Leon's apartment. His stomach flipped uncomfortably and his heart sat heavily in his chest, thudding loudly against his ribcage as he thought of all the things he might say when he set his eyes on Leon again.

Aerith had told him that she was sure he'd be waiting for him. Cloud didn't know how true that was. He hoped for a lot of things. Mainly, he hoped that Leon still wanted him. As desperate and pathetic as that sounded to Cloud, he hoped that even after everything he'd done and the danger he'd put himself in, even after all of that, Leon would still be able to look at him in the way he always used to. Cloud didn't know what he'd do if he couldn't.

"Sweetie, it'll be alright. You'll see." Aerith leaned over and patted him on the knee, giving him a warm and comforting smile.

Cloud appreciated it, but it didn't help the terrible knotted fear that sat in the pit of his stomach. He had messed up so bad. What if Leon didn't want him back? He recalled Seifer's words and tried to reassure himself, calming his breathing and clenching his trembling hands as he gave a heavy sigh.

"Try not to worry, he'll be glad to see you, I know he will." Aerith took his hand and squeezed it as the blond man just stared down at it, like it was a foreign object. Eventually, he squeezed back and turned her delicate hand over in his, tracing his thumb along the lines of her palm.

"I just… I'm not a good person, Aer. What if he sees that?" Cloud asked, pain lacing his words as he shook his head and turned his gaze out the window.

"Don't you ever say that, Cloud. You are a good person." The woman admonished harshly. She let a long silence fall over them, refusing to allow Cloud to let the matter drop; she waited for him to explain himself.

"How can I be a good person? I… I just…" Cloud let out a heavy sigh; he'd never have the right words to explain that feeling in him. He'd tried before, the day he'd walked out on Leon. He'd tried to explain that feeling of wrongness – of alienation – but instead, had shown him better than any words could have explained, by walking out on him. Cloud was a coward. He'd run at the first hurdle and not only left Leon but had gone back to a life that was… well, Cloud figured Leon would have every right to hate his guts. The things Cloud had done in those weeks he'd been gone would tear at Leon's heart and Cloud had known it. The drinking and sleeping rough, the sex…

Cloud rubbed at his face and shuddered. For a man like Cloud, what he had done could hardly be considered sex. But for a man like Leon, he might just see it a different way.

Cloud felt like the biggest scumbag on the planet – like in a way, he had cheated. Even though he and Leon hadn't been together and he had been paid for every single one of those nights, he still felt that in he had disrespected what he'd had with Leon. He'd made a mockery of it, and he wouldn't blame Leon if he never wanted to touch him again.

"I just don't understand." He finally said, looking down at his own tightly fisted hands. "Why do I do the things I do… hurt people."

Aerith took his hand again and prised his fingers apart, pulling his balled up fist over to her she held it to her chest.

"Everyone hurts someone at some point in their lives, Cloud. You can't make it through this life without inflicting some damage and getting your fair share in return." She said solemnly. Cloud thought maybe he'd already had his fair share of hurt. Maybe it was why he was so good at dishing it out to other people? He had a lot of experience to draw on.

Aerith let his hand go and he pulled it back into himself, shoving his fists into the front pocket of his hoodie. He hunched down in the seat and considered Aerith's words.

If ever anyone had kept a tab on how much pain and suffering Cloud had been through and then dished out, he thought maybe, by now, he might have been even. He hoped he was. He hoped to God, or to whoever it was that was keeping the scores, that he was square. He wanted peace, and he wanted a normal life. He wanted Leon.

As Aerith pulled up outside of Leon's building his stomach gave another uncomfortable turn. The petite brunet killed the engine and turned to consider her friend, who had in the space of only a few short days, made such an impression on her that she felt as though she had known him nearly her whole life. She was certain that there was more to his story than he had told her. There was far too much pain and wisdom in his eyes for there not to be, but it was something she wouldn't press. She was a firm believer that everything happened in its proper time, and if the young man ever wanted to let her in, he would, and not a moment before.

"Cloud, sometimes, the hardest part of forgiveness is looking ourselves in the mirror afterwards. It's the guilt we can't bear to see and it undermines everything we've worked for." She hadn't moved a muscle, but somehow, Cloud felt as though she had moved closer to him. "Don't let everything you've ever come through be for nothing. Stop running." She finished, and when he lifted his gaze to meet hers she smiled such an understanding and brilliant smile, Cloud felt warmth replace the anxiety roiling in his heart.

"Thank you, Aerith." He eventually managed "For everything."

She leaned forwards and closed him in a hug, wrapping her arms tightly around him and he returned it, gingerly; pressing his face into the warmth of her neck he inhaled softly, feeling comforted by her.

He climbed out of the car a few moments later, with nothing but the clothes he stood up in. He had lost everything in the few weeks that he had been away and now, he was returning, hopefully to turn his life around for the last time.

He waved Aerith off and walked into the building, taking the elevator all the way to the top and for a brief moment, his thoughts turned to the night Leon had first brought him home and he had joked about being chopped up into little pieces and buried in his basement. That night had been the start of something so huge and momentous in Cloud's life, it was hard to get it all in perspective. It felt like a life time ago and so much had changed. Cloud had changed, and with a rousing thought he realised what Aerith had been trying to say. All of those months spent trying to piece together his past and repair his broken soul, all of the damage that Riven had done could have been so easily unravelled. In the blink of an eye, Cloud had been so close to losing so much progress. He realised he had a lot to thank Leon for.

As the elevator doors pulled apart and he stepped out into the hallway, he sucked in a quick, steadying breath. He walked to Leon's front door and was about to raise his fist to knock when he noticed a set of keys already in the lock.

His brow furrowed and as he got closer, he saw that the door was already ajar. He stopped just outside of the apartment and for no reason in particular an ominous feeling of foreboding came over him. It shivered down his spine and he swallowed hard. He heart began to race and as he lifted his hand to push against the heavy door, a prickly heat broke out over his skin.

He pushed the door open and that heat turned to a terrible ice cold terror.

Cloud could only ever remember feeling true gut wrenching, mind numbing fear at one time in his entire life. It echoed in his childhood, replaying nights of terror and hideous games of hide and seek huddled away in some darkened corner, or a tucked up in a forgotten cupboard, hoping – pleading to anyone that might have cared that he wouldn't find him. That visceral fear usually struck in the second after he knew he'd been caught but before he could escape. It was the fear of knowing he was trapped and it usually preceded a vicious and relentless fucking.

Cloud reserved this cold blooded terror for those memories only; allowing a lifetime - a barrage - of horrific acts to pass him by with a kind of blasé disinterest. Nothing could ever - would ever - be as terrifying as those lonely pain filled nights back in Midgar, not even being kidnapped by Corneo. Not even being held for ransom. Not even the vicious and merciless torture they had put him through. Nothing could incite within him the horror or the pain that his childhood years had. That was where his true terror lived.

However, the sight of Riven Kane, tall and menacing and as unchanged as time could allow, stood over Leon made the acute and blood freezing fear come crashing in on him in cold waves and he suddenly remembered what it was to be afraid. It immobilized him, his muscles locking as he felt all his strength and blood rush from him and his skin began to tingle from the loss of it.

Cloud didn't know which the worse sight was: Leon sprawled across the fine surface of his highly polished wood flooring, limbs lax with unconsciousness, or Riven. The man himself was stood tall and hulking, his mass seeming to bear down on the prone man without actually touching him. His shoulders where broad and rounded, thick bunched muscles plain to see moving under his grubby white t-shirt as he hefted the heavy mallet, preparing to bring it down across Leon's knee in an attempt to hobble him.

That fear again. Terror, horror, complete and utter animalistic panic that had nothing to do with himself pulled Cloud from his stupor.

"NO!" He screamed, still unable to move.

The sound of his desperate cry halted Kane's arcing hand and he twisted to settle his too calm - to controlled - gaze on Cloud, who felt the icy spiking stabs of fear all over again as he looked into the eyes of the man who had beaten, fucked and tortured him for over ten years. The weight of it - the intensity of it - made Cloud take a step back. It was his first movement in what felt like an eternity since walking through the front door and he gripped the handle harder, his sweaty palm slipping on the metal. His forearm shook. His legs shook. Hell, even his lips shook as he tried to press them together to stop the disbelieving, chocking gasps that wanted to creep out.

"Cloud." The way Riven said his name – oily and satisfied – made a chill pass over Cloud's skin. After all these years, he had walked back into Cloud's life and with one look, had sent the young man back to a time when he had been in control of everything in Cloud's world. He had made Cloud do absolutely anything he'd ever wanted. "It's good to see you, boy."

The moment Kane turned, forgetting Leon, and began a slow measured walk towards the younger man, all feeling came back to Cloud's limbs in an agonizing moment of physical pain and his self-awareness slammed back into his body with brutal force.

He had succeeded in drawing Riven's attention away from his former lover, but now Cloud wished with all his heart that Kane would stop looking at him - would stop walking towards him. He had no words for the kind of dumb bewilderment that had come over him. After all these years, he couldn't have known he'd still be this terrified - this helpless - in the face of this man. After all, he had come through so much after him. He had confronted worse things in the faces of strangers who'd paid him to do the sick and twisted things that Riven had merely taken from him. However, he simply wasn't prepared to still feel like the helpless child he had always been in the wake of his abuser. No matter how old or how many years had passed, Cloud thought, maybe he would always feel like this. And somehow, the knowledge that this monster might always have that power over him wasn't as soul destroying as he'd feared it might be. In a terrible and twisted way, it was freeing. After all this time and after trying so hard, all that running and all that talking and in the end it had made no difference. Riven would always be able to incite terrible, uncontrollable fear in him.

In reality, Cloud had never hoped for himself anyway. He had never really loved himself the way normal people did or considered himself worthy of much, and in retrospect, he knew that was where all of his problems lay. He had a sort of terrible disregard for himself that was so self-destructive; he couldn't blame Leon's frustrations with him.

Cloud attempted to swallow and found his throat too dry. His gaze slid past the figure that was heading towards him and came to rest, for the first time in nearly a month, on Leon. In a surreal moment of clarity, Cloud wondered how his fucked up life had managed to come to this. His fear for Leon, as his eyes flicked between the slowly advancing monster and his former lover, seemed to eclipse everything, and in a startling moment of fierce determination, he tried to push past his own childish panic as he realised there was more than just himself at stake.

Cloud may never have had much self-worth, but whatever was left in him that was good, belonged to the enigmatic brunet, who had already saved him in almost every way that it was possible to be saved. Despite Cloud's best efforts to sabotage their relationship, and despite Leon's misguided attempts to help, they'd never wondered far from each other, and he'd be damned if he was going to let a man like Riven lay a finger on a man like Leon. Riven could have Cloud, if he wanted, but Leon was Cloud's to protect. He'd fight for that. He'd protect Leon with everything he had – with his own worthless life, if he had to.

"What are you doing here?" He was surprised by the tone of his own voice, considering how just the sight of the man had turned him back into that pitiful child. Where was the fear, the terror? His voice was firm and controlled – everything Cloud wasn't. He barely flinched as Kane reached out a fat, meaty hand and grasped the door just above Cloud's head. He began to close it. Cloud calmly stepped out of the way, letting go of the handle as Kane pushed the heavy door closed with a soft 'thunk'.

The man was taller than Cloud (not as tall as Cloud remembered him but still a towering stack of a man at just over 6ft) and the man's fleshy reddened face was still as puffy and mottled as it had been when it was pressed in to the side of Cloud's face; breathing thick, suffocating alcoholic fumes on quiet darkened nights after the lights had gone out.

Every detail - every deep bruised vein that appeared spidery and blotchy under ruddy skin - was etched in painful clarity in Cloud's head, and the sight of his own vivid memories come to life before him was so surreal, so clear, it made his stomach churn. He felt it revolt and he clenched his jaw against the sourness on the back of his tongue.
He saw Kane smile, a slithering at the corner of his lip as it quirked upwards. A slight twitch of amusement.

"You not pleased to see me?" He asked, his deep burr of a voice sending tremors through Cloud's chest.

Cloud felt his fist curl. "What do you want?"

Kane's hand came up to wipe at the sweat that had gathered on his top lip, his calloused fingers - dirt encrusted around the ridges of his ragged and tatty nails - pulled at the skin around his mouth as he tugged down; a string of saliva stretching between the soft purple flesh of his lips. A thick and blubbery tongue came out to wet them.

"You grew up nice." His insidious voice was laden with meaning and his smug smile broadened as he watched the fear and revulsion pass over Cloud's face in equal measure. He reached out a giant hand and gripped Cloud's face under his jaw, the spades of his fingers digging into the soft flesh around Cloud's mouth, pressing against the bruise on his jaw, and the man's sweat which he had just wiped from his own skin was rubbed into Cloud's.

The younger man had to congratulate himself for not flinching, though he screamed inside.

Kane turned Cloud's face this way and that, his eyes roving and appreciating as they slid over him and the man's hand slipped lower, grasping the pale column of his throat. He squeezed lightly.

The gentle moan from behind them broke their intense reunion, and Kane looked over his shoulder at the slowly writhing form of the billionaire as he came too from his heavy punch to the head. Kane felt the weight of the mallet in his other hand; for the space of a moment, he had almost forgotten why he was here.

Cloud watched as Leon stirred; the brunet stiffly raised himself onto his elbow. His nose was bleeding, the vicious red staining the front of his white shirt a startling crimson and Cloud's heart fluttered as he realised Kane's attention was slipping.

Leon's eyes were blurry, no real vision as he pressed a hand to the bruise which was forming on his right temple and the gash that was slowly oozing thick blood into his left eye. He shook himself, immediately regretting the action as his vision swam and nausea bowled him over. A painful stabbing ache throbbed away behind his eyes and as he tried to swallow down the sickness in his stomach, he pushed past the thumping in his skull. As his head cleared, the image of Cloud with a stranger's hand wrapped around his throat immobilised him. For several terrifying seconds, he couldn't remember what had happened, where he had been or what he had missed, before a recollection of muddied boots and hours of trawling the streets looking for his ex-lover came flickering back to him and brought everything crashing in on him with terrible waves of panic. He tried to sit up.

"Cloud!" He gasped desperately, caught half way between the exhilaration of seeing him again and then seeing him with a hand around his throat - knowing something was dangerously wrong but unable to piece anything together when his thoughts kept slipping against each other.

"If I were you, I'd stay right where you are." Kane warned, squeezing Cloud's throat tighter even though he knew Leon wouldn't be able to tell. It wasn't a warning for Leon.

Cloud winced, his throat closing only for the briefest of moments and he choked out a small gasp.

"What... who are you?" Leon asked; his brain finally able to process his urgent thoughts. He squinted, shaking his head ever so slightly to try and reline his quivering vision. He watched as an amused smile broke out over the intruder's face and he turned back to Cloud.

"You know who I am, don't you boy?" He replied lightly, though his voice rasped in his throat. "Why don't you tell him?"

Leon's gaze slid to Cloud and he saw his face, deathly white and utterly calm. His eyes were bright and pin pointed, his mouth set in a firm, grim line. Without words, he knew; Cloud didn't have to tell him anything.

"Enough games, Riven. What do you want?" He heard Cloud's clear voice, strong and firm.

A cold wave of rage stole over Leon. This was the man who had tormented Cloud - who haunted him still. This was the man who had crippled nearly everything in Cloud and left him barely a shell of a person. He was the reason Cloud was always so heartbreakingly afraid of everything - was the person who had stolen everything from his childhood and replaced it with depravity. He was the man who had hurt Cloud, who was still hurting him even after all these years. There were no words for the coldness, for the intensity of his feelings. Leon sat completely frozen – disbelieving, and suddenly everything made terrible sense.

"What do you think I've come for?" Kane replied, stepping an inch closer to the younger man, his huge palm still wrapped around Cloud's neck.

Leon's blood was running dangerously cold. He shifted himself closer to the back of the couch, needing its solid frame to help him stand. As he watched the great hulking man with his hand around Cloud's throat he realised he needed a plan, fast. In a rippling wave of ice cold fear, it dawned on him. He knew exactly why this man was here and it had nothing to do with Cloud.

His eyes slid to that giant fleshy hand pressing fresh marks into Cloud's throat and all he wanted to do was pry those violating fingers away from the blond's neck because he couldn't stand to see the coldness and quiet acceptance in those blue eyes. He had never seen Cloud look so utterly afraid and yet still so determined before. It scared him.

"Me?" He heard Cloud ask, his voice breaking only the smallest amount.

Riven barked a sharp laugh, throwing his head back. His amusement was short lived as he sobered and scoffed down at the man he held in his giant grip.

"If I'd wanted you, I would have come and found you a whole lot sooner than this." He sneered, lifting the hand with the mallet in it and placing the flat of the weapon against Cloud's pale cheek. Leon tensed.

"There isn't a place on earth you can run to where I won't find you, boy." Riven whispered as he leaned in, his humid breath spilling over Cloud's lips which were pressed thin, all colour bleached from them. "I got tired of fucking you years ago." Cloud could see the broken blood vessels around the whites of Riven's eyes. "The only reason you got away was because I let you. You understand?"

Cloud didn't think it possible, but he felt even smaller then. His escape - the only thing that he had been able to accomplish on his own, the thing that had seemed so momentous and important and the only thing which he had been able to draw strength from because he had done it, he had escaped and he and survived - was a lie. And now Kane was mocking him with it. Once again, the soul crushing realisation that Riven had been the one with all the power all along, stole over Cloud and his legs almost buckled under the weight of it.

"What do you want then?" Cloud chocked out. He was dismayed to find his voice had cracked and his cheeks burned. He staggered back as the force of Kane's hand on his neck increased and he stumbled into the wall next to the door, his shoulder digging into the key hook.

Riven placed the mallet next to Cloud's head, the cold metal edge of it brushing the skin of his temple.
"Money!" He replied simply.

Cloud's surprise was only surpassed by his relief.

"Money?" He choked out "Is that the only reason you've come all this way?"

For a moment, Cloud quite forgot himself. A frozen anger that he hadn't even realised he had stowed away came bubbling to the surface. This was the reason he had shown up in his life again? This was the reason he was turning Cloud's whole world upside down? Cloud didn't know which he should be more incensed at: the fact that Riven was back or that he was back for something so trivial as money.

The hand around his throat squeezed harder and a flutter of panic rippled through Cloud as his windpipe was crushed for a fraction of a second. He gave a short aborted cough.

"Seen you on T.V." Riven replied, that smug, self-satisfied grin still on his face. "Seems you landed on your feet, didn't you, boy?" And Cloud could have laughed with the absurdity of it all - could have cried with a desperate, humourless sob. "Seems to me you got enough to go around."

Cloud's gaze flickered to Leon who was staring wide eyed and disbelieving at them, his whole body frozen as he lay sprawled out and propped up, his beaten face somewhere between bewilderment and anger. Cloud had no idea what Leon had done with his money. He had no idea where it was or how much Leon had access to. He had never asked because he had never really wanted to acknowledge that part of Leon's life. It had done nothing but complicate things. In truth, Cloud hated that Leon had so much. Not out of jealousy, but because it had always stood between them. In any case, Cloud was obviously not the reason Riven had come back. Leon was. Or at least, Leon's money was.

"It's not my money, Riven." He told the man, knowing it wouldn't do any good.

"Why do you think I didn't come pay a little visit to you first?" Riven replied, turning his head to look over his shoulder at Leon, whose eyes had become sharp and piercing: a look of pure hated and anger.

"What do you say, princess. How much is he worth to you?" Riven asked the brunet, jerking his head in Cloud's direction as he brought the mallet back and poised it over Cloud's left cheek, ready to bring it down and obliterate the young man's face.

Cloud's guts dropped away as he saw what Riven intended to do and in all his wildest nightmares he had never imagined that Riven would actually try to kill him. Strange as it now sounded to Cloud, he had always assumed that Riven would want him – would never stop wanting him – alive, to torture and to own. There had never been a moment in his life when Cloud thought Riven would ever let him go. And in that flashing second before Riven began to bring the heavy mallet down across his face, Cloud had recalled so many nights when he had wished for death. In those deepest darkest days, Cloud had wished for the strength to do it himself, or for the courage to endure it if Riven ever became careless and went too far. Cloud had always been ashamed of the nights he had spent praying for that.

"Everything..." he heard Leon call; a note of panic on the edge of his normally controlled voice. "You can have everything, just... let him go."

Cloud cracked his eyes open to see the desperation and the wild panic on Leon's face. They locked eyes for only the briefest of seconds, but Cloud's heart had never felt so heavy with love before. It was an odd time to feel such a powerful emotion, Cloud thought. Surely, he should have been crippled with fear, or lost in memories of his life as they flashed before his eyes.

Riven turned back to Cloud, a gleam of satisfaction in the yellowish whites around his pale green irises.

"You see?" He said, pulling the mallet away and digging his finger nails into Cloud's jaw. "He understands how to behave." Riven's eyes darkened and his tone lowered as he stepped even closer, devouring the miniscule space between them until his chest was pressed up against Cloud's; Riven's arm stuck painfully between them. Suddenly, Cloud's vision – all of his senses – where filled with Riven Kane.

"Remember all the trouble you used to give me?" The repulsive man asked, that thick blubbery tongue coming out to wet his lips again. "That was your problem." Riven's huge bulbous nose was only millimetres from Cloud's, the older man's gaze slipping up and down his face, devouring. "You never did what you were told." He leaned forward, his grotesque lips ghosting over the skin of Cloud's cheek, his hot, stale breath condensing against the chilled flesh.

"You were good for nothing, you know that Cloud? A waste of oxygen."

Cloud felt the man drag his lips across his skin, could feel the heat and moisture of the man's sweat, his nose filled with the tangy pungent stink of him. Cloud felt himself begin to tremble. His own breaths were coming in short sharp pants.

"There was only one thing you were ever any good for." Riven held his own mouth poised over Cloud's, everything about him invading and oppressive. "Do you remember?"

Cloud told himself not to flinch, even when he felt those lips ghost his own. He squeezed his eyes shut.

"There's only one thing I'll ever want from you. Only one thing you'll ever be any good for." Riven pulled back slightly, enjoying the look of desperate horror on Cloud's face as he ran the pad of his thumb along Cloud's plump bottom lip.

"Whadda ya say? One more time, for old times' sake?" He suggested, cocking his head to the side. "You always were good with your mouth."

Cloud's eyes snapped open. Somewhere deep within himself a part of him shattered. His paralysis was broken and any part of his brain that might have warned caution was swept away in a blinding surge of anger. The urge to fight was as strong as it had ever been. He knocked Riven's hand away, breaking the crushing, bruising grip on his face and pushed the man back as hard as he could. There was no way that he would allow this man to simply take what he wanted - he never had done. He'd fight. He'd fight like he'd always done even if, in the end, it had never really amounted to much.

Riven staggered back only slightly, startled, but his control had not been broken completely. He might have laughed at Cloud's pathetic attempt to fight him, but instead all he had to do was reach out and grasp that tender neck again. Quick as lightening he had his large sweaty palm crushing the already bruised flesh and he pushed back, hard. He heard a sickening crack as Cloud's head connected with the wall behind him and a strange strangled moan as the wind was forced from his lungs.

Cloud's eyes slid shut, the force of the impact whiting his vision before the churning nausea crept in.

"You see?" Riven spat angrily, small flecks of spittle flying out and landing on Cloud's deathly pale face. "Always causing trouble - never doing what you're told!" He repeated, squeezing his hand as hard as he could. He watched Cloud writhe for a moment before letting his hand go slack. "You always made things worse than they needed to be."

Cloud managed to crack his eyes open, squinting up angrily at the man stood above him.

Riven looked over his shoulder at Leon, who had frozen half way through trying to raise himself onto his knees using the back of the couch as leverage. His desperate gaze flicking between Cloud and the crazed man who held him pinned to the wall.

Leon had never felt more impotent in his whole life as he did while he was sat there, watching Riven inch his face closer and closer to Cloud. He knew he should have been doing something. He couldn't allow himself to just simply sit there and watch whatever it was that Riven obviously had planned. But the harder Leon tried to order his body to obey him, the worse his head swam. His body felt fluid, like water and he had no strength in his legs as they scrabbled against the slippery wooden floor. His fingers held no grip as he clawed at the back of the couch and he tumbled back onto his butt as he blinked sweat and blood from his stinging eyes.

"Maybe you need to learn a lesson." They both heard Kane say.

Leon watched as the man turned back to Cloud who was watching Riven with a kind of helpless burning anger, and Leon understood that kind of powerless rage all too well. He watched Cloud's face drain of colour and felt his own heart flutter at the monster's next words.

"Maybe your fucking pretty boy would like a taste, huh?"

Cloud's heart thudded painfully in his chest once, before it seemed to stop completely and his whole body, which had been burning with fury, went cold with icy fear. There were no coherent thoughts that flashed through the blond's head at the man's disturbing words, only horrific terrifying images - images that Cloud knew too well because he had lived every single one of them. Only this time, instead of himself, he saw Leon. He knew exactly the kind of things that Riven was capable of – the kind of hurt! Before he could stop himself he had called out, his hands reaching up to grasp the front of Riven's shirt to stop the man as he began to pull away.

"No, stop!" His voice was high and clear. "I'll do it." He said; no hint of uncertainty, no tremor. He had never been more certain of anything in his life. No matter what, Riven could not - would not - lay a finger on Leon. "I'll do whatever you want."

"Cloud, don't you dare!" He thought he heard Leon's desperate, panicky voice. He tried to drown it out. He wouldn't be able to do this with Leon's voice in his head.

Cloud watched through wide, imploring eyes, desperate to convince the man towering above him not to touch Leon. Desperate to keep the man's attention on him; something he had plenty of practice at. "Whatever... just... whatever you want... just don't..." he felt his throat close up and it had nothing to do with Riven's hand still wrapped loosely around it. He was fully aware of what he was doing and even though he had never willingly given himself over to Riven before - had never surrendered without some semblance of a fight - he knew that he could. He had to do this.

He watched the consideration in Kane's eyes, the twisted pleasure at seeing Cloud manipulated and degraded in a way he had never tried before. He saw the delight and lust and he shivered. He was pulled back from the edge of his conscious thoughts - unaware that he had started to slip into that place that would keep him safe through terrible things being done to his physical body - by Kane's giant hand that had slipped back up to his face, gripping the flesh of his jaw and relieved the pressure on his neck.

The man leaned in with a look of barely concealed disgust on his face. "And why would I need your permission?" He let go of Cloud, pushing the younger man away and knocking him into the computer desk beside the door. "If I wanted anything from you, I could just take it, you pathetic piece of shit."

Cloud staggered and reeled from his sudden release, knocking over the monitor and caused the expensive piece of equipment to topple over and crash to the ground. He caught himself against the edge of the desk, bringing his hand up to rub at the bruises left on his neck.

"You're disgusting, Cloud. There's nothing I want from you anymore." He heard Kane say.

Cloud lifted his head, his chest tight with stinging emotion and he was perversely hurt that his offer had been rejected - that even this man, who was so depraved and revolting didn't even want him. And yet he couldn't deny that immense feeling of gratitude. He wasn't sure if he could have stood to let it happen all over again - without a fight. Still, he had to do something to keep the man's attention and the danger away from Leon.

"There must be something you want?" He called out as he grasped Riven's arm, clutching desperately to stop the man from walking away.

Riven ripped his hand back and brought it down across Cloud's face. The young man staggered back into the wall, cracking his head again and slid to the floor. He shook himself, rolling onto his side as he tried to fight past the ringing in his ears and the white hot pain behind his eyes. He thought he heard Leon calling his name.

"I just want my fucking money." The sound of Riven's voice rose up as he moved away, stalking over to where Leon was propped up against the sofa, his nose still bleeding. The man's twisted and disturbed mind had turned again, and his focus was back on his only goal.

Riven dropped the mallet and pulled the brunet up onto his feet by the front on his shirt, reaching into the waist band of his jeans he pulled out a hunting knife, its ridged edge jagged and violent. He pressed it to Leon's cheek.

"Give me your fucking money." He said slowly and calmly.

Leon's eyes were hard and steely, his face a deadly calm mask of hidden rage. "You can have it, but it's gonna take some time…" he was cut off by a sharp back hand to the face, sending a fine spray of blood across the leather of his couch.

"Wrong answer." Kane informed him calmly, walking them backwards until Leon was pressed up against the bookcase.

It took a few moments for Leon's head to stop spinning, and all he could taste was blood, but under the weight of the huge man pressed up against him, those vile brawny hands twisted in his shirt, he soon came back to himself. He spat blood out onto the floor.

"You don't honestly think I can just walk up to my bank and hand over 3 billion munnies to you just like that, do you?" His voice was full of distain and spite.

"You're gonna have to think of something pretty boy, cause I'm not letting you out of my sight until I have something to show for my fucking troubles." Riven's hand had slipped up from the front of Leon's shirt to fix itself around Leon's throat, squeezing his point home.

"If you want a single penny, you're going to have to take your filthy, child molesting hands off me." Leon croaked out, his face only inches from Riven's and his eyes full of the hatred and disgust he felt for the older man.

A blank, dazed look passed over Kane's face as Leon's words sank in, and the brunet could almost see the wheels turning in his fat, meaty head before a cold, insidious smile slid its way across the man's lips.

"Cloud been whining again, has he?" He asked, a lightness in his tone that made Leon's skin crawl. "The fucking shit always was a mouthy little cunt." Riven shot a glance over his shoulder and Leon followed his gaze to where Cloud had propped himself up against the door. Riven had thrown him hard and he looked dazed and disorientated, a hand still pressed to his cheek. Leon's heart turned and ached violently and in that moment he could see exactly how all those year of abuse and fear and violence had happened. He saw Cloud as a little boy, huddled in a corner, afraid and hurt and this vile and dangerous sadist bearing down on him. And suddenly, Leon understood why. All of those questions he'd had and all of those endless nights sat up, wishing that Cloud would let him in, if only for a small while, were pulled into sharp relief. If he had been there – if he had actually seen it all happen the way that Cloud had – he wouldn't have wanted to remember any of it either.

"There wasn't a single thing I did to him that the little fucker didn't deserve. He practically begged for it half the time." Riven sneered across the room at Cloud, whose large and hurt blue eyes flicked up to meet Leon's, begging him not to listen.

Leon's heart broke, and as his gaze slid back to the man pressing him into the bookcase, his hurt turned to hot, destructive anger. Riven's gaze was locked so intently on Cloud's huddled form that he didn't see Leon's hands come up and wrap themselves around his wrists and before he knew it, the brunet was forcing his hands away, twisting the knife from his grip.

Riven turned, startled and caught off balance and he had to push down with his massive shoulders to break the impressive grip that the brunet had on his arms. He broke Leon's hold and slapped him back into the bookcase. In the five seconds it took for Leon to wright himself again, Riven had brought the knife up and slashed it down across the bridge of his nose and Leon was sent sprawling with the intense pain, a hot, wet splash of blood covered his face. Distantly he heard Cloud cry out and then through his thick, hazy red vision he saw Riven stumble away from him.

Cloud's whole body turned icy and heavy with fear as he saw Riven bring the blade down across Leon's face. In those few split seconds he didn't have the time to think about anything. He had to find a way to move his body, but he knew - as he watched in horrifying clarity as the knife came down, Leon's eyes closing at the last moment and then the thick, bright blood as it sprayed across the wood floor - he knew, he would never get there in time.

As the terrible sound of spraying blood spattered onto the floor, Cloud cried out and lunged for Riven. He had no idea how he had moved himself across the room but he gripped the hulking man around the shoulders, pulling back and down with all of his strength, twisting the man's neck back and yanked him off balance. Out of the corner of his eye, Cloud saw the flash of silver and red as the knife was brought round in a wild and slashing arc and he reached out his hand and gasped at the flailing wrist, staggering back with the force of the momentum.

Riven managed to right himself, twisting in Cloud's grasp, breaking away to reach forward and grip Cloud around his neck again. He put all of his weight behind the knife and pushed, hard.

Cloud staggered under Riven's bulk and he tried with all of his last remaining strength to twist the knife point away from his guts. He pulled wildly on the thick wrist and stepped back, his heel connecting with the discarded mallet that lay forgotten behind them and then fell backwards, pulling Riven Kane and the knife down on top of him. His head and shoulders connected with the solid wood flooring with a sickening crack and a dull and crushing pain shot through Cloud's stomach that radiated up into his chest and expelled all of the breath from his lungs, as Riven's huge hulking mass pressed down on top of Cloud.

The blond tried to suck in a shuddering gasp through his winded lungs and that aching dullness in his stomach throbbed again. He couldn't breathe. His whole body went cold. He tried to move his hand from where it was trapped between him and Riven, his fingers still clutched desperately around the hilt of the knife and Cloud felt blood coat his hand in warm, sticky pulses.

Riven lay heavy and squirming above him, his face pressed into Cloud's neck and his weight pinned the younger man, who tried desperately to pull a breath into his crippled lungs; unable to move with that dull ache in his stomach growing into a sharp and terrible pain.