A/N: Back again with another chapter I hope you like. We're getting closer to the end now...keep with it and please review. I love reviews They make me write more

Chapter Eleven

Experimental Procedures

"General, Sir, if I could have a word?"

"As long as it's a quick one. I'm busy."

"Yes, well, Although it was kind of you to take disciplining... less tactful members of us Turks into your own hands, I would be truly grateful if you would leave it to me, given I'm head of that department. I know that President Shinra has given you permission to use your own discretion for such situations but leaving Reno in that state was less than considerate of you- I'm not saying that we're not grateful for saving us the bother, but...you weren't the one who found him in that situation... it wasn't the best of circumstances to-"

"I don't give a shit what you think I should do when it comes to discipline Tseng, but if – faster boy, even a guard hound puppy would have already killed you about four times by now!- you're going to let him away with murder, I'm the one who's going to have to deal with it!"

"It wasn't murder, it-"

"Rape then and I did ask for the boy to take the parcel straight to you! It was his fault for taking something that wasn't intended for him."

The gym was deserted. Or at least, it was apart from Tseng; head of the Turk's division, Sephiroth; General of the elite army, and Cloud; Sephiroth's "pet". The gym hadn't been specifically block for these three males but circumstances had lead to everyone vacated the area when the intimidating man with the fantastic body entered the room. It was impolite to stare, was the excuse.

Everyone knew that Sephiroth was a slave driver. If you were on the treadmill doing thirty minutes, he would make you do another thirty. "If you can do it once, you can do it again." And this meant that everyone suddenly needed to shower or fold their uniforms at exactly the same time. This suited Sephiroth fine. It meant he would have the whole place to himself, or in this case, train the boy. He hadn't counted on Tseng being around.

"You know fine well Reno wasn't responsible for that event, you were only doing it to satisfy your own sadistic pleasure, the fact that it seemed to actually have an effect on him is miraculous, astounding and a very lucky coincidence. Reno was only doing what Reno does best, and you took advantage of that!"

Sephiroth walked over to the shorter, Asian man. Although still impressively tall, he was about a head shorter than Sephiroth but he was not intimidated in the least. He watched Sephiroth as coldly as Sephiroth did to him.

"So what if I did Tseng? What exactly did you plan to do about it?"

"I'm sure President Shinra might have a thing to say about your actions."

"That fat fuck wouldn't dare approach me unless his millions were at risk; you know he doesn't care what goes on behind the scenes unless it costs him money."

"Don't fight..." Cloud said quietly from beside Sephiroth. He was acting a lot braver than he currently felt. He was so quiet however, that had he not been pulling at the General's arm, he probably wouldn't even have registered the boy making any noise at all. The silver haired man pushed him from his arm with enough force for him to tumble to the floor.

"Back to training boy! The treadmill; start running. NOW!" he said with enough frustration in his tone that Cloud did so immediately, red with embarrassment.

Tseng ignored the blond. He was none of his concern; he was supposed to be settling matters between the General and the Turks, the boy was a trifling inconvenience.

"I expect you to apologise to Reno, Sephiroth. The only thing worse than having Reno around is not having him around to pilot the helicopter."

Sephiroth considered. Not having him around was a blessing with a drawback. If he wasn't there to pilot the plane, it would cripple the productiveness of future operations, but he still had no intentions of going to apologise.

"So, I'm expected to believe that Reno willingly told you exactly what happened to him?"

"There are no secret held from the Turks Sephiroth, only BY the Turks, and he didn't need to tell me anything! I found him. You gave him mislabelled aphrodisiacs that were confiscated from the evidence room and tied him to the radiator! What in Gaia's name –?"

"He was a sexual deviant, and I saw fit to punish him in a manner befitting. Let me guess, he sent you to me to make me say sorry? He was being bullied and went to Mummy to sort it all out with the big kids."

"No. I am telling you to."

Cloud's feet pound against the treadmill, which had been preset to a heavy incline. His limbs ached, he was shaking from overworked muscles and he really needed a drink. He had no idea what an aphrodisiac was but if it was one of the bottles of liquids from the box Reno had stolen and it was drinkable, then he wanted one to quench his thirst. Panting heavily, he persisted; he didn't want to upset Sephiroth any more than Tseng was succeeding in doing.

Sephiroth raised a questioning eyebrow at Tseng.

"No-one has ever made me do something I did not wish to do, who do you think you are to demand anything from me?"

"I think I am the one who controls your pay check starting next month!"

"Nonsense." Sephiroth scoffed. Everyone knew that Sephiroth didn't get pay checks. Everything he needed or bought was automatically charged straight to the company, everything from his expensive hand crèmes and moisturisers to his custom made leather jackets was added right to Shinra's bill. It had always been that way.

"Not any more. As of next month, your salary comes out of the Turk's expenses. Of course, our budget will be increased accordingly but who is in charge of it? I am. You really need to start going to the meetings Sephiroth."

"You bastard!" Sephiroth growled and grabbed Tseng by the collar. He felt a cold metal against his chest. Within seconds Tseng had reached for his gun and now had it pressed against him.

"Sephiroth, calm yourself, it was Hojo's idea. You do remember the experiment you and he brought back into effect a few months ago? He needed to divert funds from your account to continue them and since you weren't there to argue against it...well, by mixing your "allowance" to put it bluntly, with ours, he was able to gain enough to bring it back accordingly..."

"How sneaky of him," Sephiroth mused. Hojo wouldn't have dared bring that up while Sephiroth was there. He released his grip on the now creased shirt. Tseng brushed himself off.

"Why are you telling me about this? Surely it's top secret then?" Sephiroth was glad he now knew what that psychotic scientist was up to. He had known before but didn't realised he was trying to siphon money from him. But now he was worried about how easily Tseng had parted with the information, how much did he know?

"Hojo had already told us about your involvement Sephiroth, and I like I said, you should be at the meetings."

Still, as calmly as he had arrived, Tseng walked out of the gym. Sephiroth turned to Cloud.

"Boy. Move."

For the last however long, Cloud had been running full pelt on the treadmill and, unable to stand now, Sephiroth dragged him back to the room.

Cloud didn't know what was happening. All he knew was that Sephiroth wasn't happy at something Hojo had done and that was a reason to stand clear. However, since he was the one currently dragging Cloud back to the room it was slightly impossible at this moment in time. When they reached it, Cloud was thrown onto the bed while Sephiroth rooted around for Masamune.

"Sephiroth, please, what's going on?"

Sephiroth paused, considering whether or not to punish Cloud before or after he sliced Hojo's head off. Hooking his sword belt under his leather coat, he pulled the sword out at pointed it at Cloud.

"What did you say?"

"M-Master!" Cloud gasped, realising his mistake and scrambling back towards the headboard.

"That's not what you said." He walked back towards the bed and the point of the blade pressed up against his chin. Cloud whimpered. "What did I tell you? You are to call me MASTER now." He dropped the blade as he cornered the boy and grabbed him by the throat.

Cloud found himself accidently staring straight into Sephiroth's cruel aquamarine eyes. There was no sympathy in those eyes, only fury, which was currently being misdirected at him.

"I'm s-sorry, Master!" Cloud choked through tight fingers, word catching in his throat. "Master...pl-please...I didn't mean to...Master, y-you said to Hojo...you'd...not l-let him kill me...you're angry...at him...not me!"

His pleading last words struck a note and he released the boy who fell to a heap on the bed, deep red marks on his neck where the General had dug his nails in.

"Master...y-you're hurting me lately...w-why d-do you hate me?"

It wasn't that Cloud wasn't used to being hated. It was that he was sick of not wondering why, he needed to know, what was it about him that made him so unworthy to be treated as fairly as he had been at...that house...there was a family once; a family who had looked after him, or had that been a dream. He ransacked his brain but he couldn't put a face or a name to them. It was just a feeling; a feeling that probably wasn't real.

"I do not hate you boy, you are my property, I will treat you as I like." And to prove his point, he scooped up the shaking boy and stood him up to look at him. He pinned him against the wall.

"You will call me Master because you belong to me, failure to call me Master means you are being ungrateful for everything I've done for you, if I had left you with Hojo, you would be dead, a decaying corpse rotting away in his laboratory or better yet, an immovable husk, slowly maddening lying there, vacant, just like how I found you."

Cloud tried not to break into tears but couldn't help himself, for the first time since he could remember, he was crying and it wasn't his father causing it. Not that he could even remember him at this point, the mako having cleansed his system of everything before Shinra.

"Sometimes, I wish I was dead, Master..." he allowed himself to mutter, to realise: "it isn't fair!"

Sephiroth scowled at him. He was a wretched, pitiable sight.

"Grow up, this second. Life isn't fair! And the second you realised that the better," he drew nearer to Cloud who unconsciously shook when he approached him. His hand grasped his chin again but this time it was for a cruel kiss. His lips smashed against the boy's with fury and within seconds, his tongue was in Cloud's mouth. He didn't know what to do so he let him, his own tongue motionless at the floor of his mouth, his eyes, cross eyed, stared back at four closed eyelids. The General's tongue flicked against Cloud's dormant one, trying to coax some life into it to no avail so he pulled back, defeated for now.

"You are mine." He told him, his hand still holding Cloud's chin. "As such; I don't not ever want to hear you talk like that again do you understand me boy?"

"Yes Master!"

"Then kiss me properly."

"K-kiss you Master?" He hadn't encountered that word before.

"Yes. What I did to you, return it."

Cloud went to copy Sephiroth, in his haste to obey he all but head butted the General who pinned him against the bed, infuriated.

"You're trying my patience," he whispered with a growl and kissed the boy's lips again; softer this time. He took his time now, his tongue flicked Cloud's bottom lip; it quivered nervously beneath his onslaught.

"Open your mouth," he told him before returning to lick the boy's lips; bottom then top then, grinning at Cloud's mewling whimpers, pressed his tongue against his.

Cloud liked. The feeling gave him a buzz so great that he clung to Sephiroth, his arms bravely reaching up to lock around him and pull him closer. The kisses trailed down his neck, getting rougher as they did. When teeth found the previously made hickey still lingering on Cloud's neck, Cloud's bitten nails bit into the leather of Sephiroth's coat. The General bit it, softly, and pulled it, he sucked the bruise, making it bigger and flicked the flesh caught between his teeth with the very tip of his tongue.

"Master!" Cloud squealed in both pain and delight. Butterflies danced in his stomach and cart wheeled in his throat.

When the bruises started creeping up the boy's jaw, Sephiroth peeled Cloud's hand from around him and sat up. Cloud remained half-dazed on the bed. His eyes closed and his chest panting.

Sephiroth considered his options. Either he could take the childlike creature with the fantastic vocal chords now...with his delicate, milky skin that bruised so beautifully and so easily...with his damnable hair...He shook himself mentally.

Or he could run the point of his blade through Hojo's neck and out the other side until every single drop of his blood dripped down every inch of his white lab coat and he released his experiments to eat the evidence.

He looked at the boy again. He was so pure, purer than he'd thought. It was rare to find such a person these days, particularly around Shinra. The boy would keep, but Hojo... he would enjoy his pain first.

"Cloud," He said suddenly, and Cloud's eyes snapped open. "I'm going out again to deal with a few minor problems. You will remain here in that spot till I return, understand?" His voice had a deep growl in it that made Cloud's toes curl for reasons he could not understand. Grabbing his discarded sword from the floor with a clink, Sephiroth headed towards the door leaving Cloud panicking over why his trousers were suddenly too tight.