Hey guys! Hope y'all are having a great weekend! I have TWO chapters for you. That's right, count 'em! TWO. Though there's a bit of a reason behind that. I know I JUST said that I would be back to my regular updating times but I may not be able to update till next weekend or a few days after. I'm going to be spending the week with my dad and I don't really get to see much of him so I'm thinking I'll be pretty busy, though who knows, I may have an attack of insomnia and write something when I should be sleeping lol :D ALSO, please read the warning i give at the beginning of the next chapter. T'is very important lol. Thank you so much all who reviewed last chapter! I shall be replying later than normal meaning right after I submit this chapter hahaha! So, without further ado, i give you Chapter 14!

Disclaimer: FF belongs to someone else. But of course. :(

Chapter XIV

Zack awoke to a stiff neck as his head was resting against his chest. He groaned first against the aching pain that ran through him head to toe but exaggerated it at the end, letting the sound run from his mouth as long as it took the breath to leave his lungs. If he could have had anything in the world at that moment it would have been the freedom to lie down. But to his total lack of surprise he would get mako instead. He knew any minute one of the goons would be coming for him…

000

Edwin Doner and Vince Vallow. They were two of the four thuggish goons Hojo had hired to help with the 'enforcement' of his project. Basically they were there to escort/drag Zack and Cloud around and manhandle them whenever necessary. Doner was decent, as far as thuggish hired goons go. He was an ex-SOLDIER in fact but never would give the details on his 'retirement' from the program. Tall, muscular like some kind of pro-wrestler. He would make small talk sometimes, mostly with Zack. He never used more force than was necessary when dealing with them either. It was always a pleasure, so to speak, to have him the one dragging them around for testing and whatnot. Vallow on the other hand…Well. If there was a Decency Spectrum and Doner was on the one end Vallow would be way the fuck and gone on the other end. Large, not so much in height as weight. Still, he was tall enough. Vile. Zack and Cloud had learned from Doner that he had worked as a corrections officer for most of his career, mostly in juvenile detention facilities until he had been investigated by the feds over rumors that he was subjecting inmates to cruel and unusual forms of punishment. Before the investigation could really take off, Vallow was 'let go' from his job and lost all chance of working as a corrections officer ever again. There were a hundred million reasons Zack and Cloud could think of to avoid Vallow at all costs. Easier said than done of course.

Cloud stirred from his uneasy sleep by the sound of the door to the room opening. He lifted himself on his elbows to see Vallow standing in the doorway. "Dippin' time," he said in his hoarse brutish voice that suggested he had been a heavy smoker from many years. Dipping was what the mako treatment had been dubbed by the goons. Cloud dragged himself to his feet, still feeling drained from the 'Dip' the night before. He began to remove his shirt slowly. It was the new protocol. It made sense. After all, if he didn't take his clothes off there then they would be taken off in the lab anyway and there was a likely chance he'd be returned to the cell later and the goons would forget to bring his clothes with them or just choose not to bother.

Cloud felt Vallow's eyes on him as he undressed and it made him very uneasy. Images of the guard that still haunted his dreams sometimes flashed in front of him. He wished to God he didn't have to look like he did. He wished he could have had a more masculine physique. Some day he would perhaps…when he had finished growing, when he wasn't kept on the verge of underweight from not be fed enough, when his skin had a chance to age and roughen and he could keep his hair short the way it should be. He tried his best to ignore the fact that Vallow watched his every movement like a hawk ready to swoop in and attack. Just as he did his best to ignore the feeling that he was sizing him up from behind while they walked to the lab, Cloud in front of Vallow.

Once in the lab, sitting in his usual chair, he felt his tension lift a little, which was rather sad considering the lab brought little comfort. The routine had been adjusted slightly since the day after Zack flipped out in the Tread Room, which was three days ago. Instead of receiving mako treatment after being fed in the morning, the mako was administered first and food and vitamins given after. This was Cloud's fault really. The day after Zack's outburst as he floated in his tube having mako gas filling his lungs he had become too sick to hold down his breakfast and began to throw up. Because there was nowhere for it to go, he had begun choking on his vomit, creating a slight panic in the lab and a mess that none of the assistants wanted to deal with twice. The problem with being fed after the mako treatment was that the one of the side affects of mako was nausea and everyone knows how difficult it is to eat when you already feel like throwing up your entire stomach.

Though, for Zack, he probably could have eaten anytime since he undoubtedly hadn't seen any sustenance in three days. Which was Zack's own fault. His first night in the ' Hanger' (there were names for everything), which was the same place Cloud had experienced his punishment after their last escape attempt, one of the goons had been ordered to administer a Cropping. A Cropping was essentially a whipping with the use of a flexible braided wand. Hanging by his wrists, just as Cloud had been, the goon applied a 20-Mark Cropping, leaving 20 burning, blistered welts across his back. The next day, Zack was supposed to be released from the Hanger but gave the goon a concussion instead which had him in there for another day and another Cropping. The third day he was released for a total of 5 minutes before busting the same goon's nose as he made an insulting comment about Zack's mother. Because of this, Cloud and Zack only saw each other for the hours that they were breathing mako or running for their lives on treadmills.

It was the morning of the fourth day now and Cloud was waiting to find out if Zack had managed to suppress his hostility long enough to end his suffering. Cloud knew Zack was going to have permanent scarring around his wrists from the amount of time he had spent suspended from the ceiling, having the metal cuffs digging into his flesh hour after hour. Reno, for some reason, had shown up in the lab to talk to Hojo so Cloud was also trying to strain his ears to hear what it was they were talking about. Zack was brought into the lab then, shuffling in nonchalantly, determined to prove himself unbeatable. He glared at Reno as he passed him and was led to his place next to Cloud.

"How ya doin', kid," he asked Cloud without looking at him. Like Cloud, he was focused on Reno and Hojo.

"Fine," Cloud answered absent-mindedly.

"That's quite possibly the creepiest partnership in the world," Zack commented then in reference to Reno and the professor

"No kidding…"

Hojo turned toward them then. "Well, Z1, I see you managed to make it down here without injuring anyone on my payroll," he said harshly, obviously not amused by the way Zack had been rebelling the past few days.

"Oh well, it's still early, there's always time for that later," Zack responded fast.

"I believe you would seriously regret that decision, Z1."

"What the fuck you gonna do about it Hojo? Your bullshit doesn't hurt me," Zack said sharply. Hojo smiled.

"Tsk Tsk, Z1. It's not always about you," he said strangely. Zack stared at him in irritated confusion. He watched Hojo stride over to Reno, taking his EMR from him. "I know exactly how you operate, Z1. And I know now that the best insurance I have to ensure you start keeping yourself in line," he went on as he walked back forward with the rod "is right…here." He stepped up in front of Cloud, holding the EMR up to his face, the end just centimeters from the skin of his right cheek. Zack felt his stomach sink hard. He watched Cloud as he pulled back from the rod nervously as far as the chair would allow, which wasn't much. "So from now on Z1, when you misbehave, it is C4 that will see the consequences," Hojo continued. He activated the rod, electricity sparking out the end and snapping as it was brought close enough to Cloud to make a jump to his body, sending a quick shock through the side of his face and neck. Cloud gasped and jerked his head away instinctively against the brief sting of pain. "Keep that in mind, Z1," Hojo said with a tight grin before handing the EMR back over to Reno who stood with a look of amusement on his face.

"You son of a bitch…" Zack muttered as he shook his head slowly, following Hojo as he moved to the cylinders to prepare the usual mako treatment. He chuckled mildly, knowing he had complete control of Zack now. He was forcing him to go against his nature to fight. He knew how awful it was going to be for Zack to keep himself restrained. And that was something that greatly amused him.

The day didn't get much better after that. Following the mako treatment, Cloud and Zack were brought back to their cell, together once again, where Zack consumed both his and Cloud's meal. Cloud didn't care, he wouldn't have eaten it anyway. He wasn't feeling particularly well. He couldn't be positive but it felt like a little something more than just the usual mako effects. That was confirmed later on as he was undergoing testing in the tread room. He and Zack had been gradually pushing closer to 3 hour runs. At 2 hours and 40 minutes Cloud knew something was wrong. His chest grew tight all of a sudden and though he tried to breathe in, it seemed that the oxygen was getting blocked in his airway. Zack saw that something was wrong as Cloud gripped his chest and pain was drawn in his expression.

"HEY!" Zack shouted at the darkened window ahead. "STOP THE TREADMILLS!"

Too late. Cloud was already down. Zack grabbed the handles of his treadmill and used them to swing himself off the moving tread onto the floor where he dropped down next to Cloud who was still gripping his chest hard. Air went in and out of him in short wheezes. As Zack leaned over him, Cloud grabbed his arm with his other hand. "I-I—" he struggled hard to speak, barely able to make sound. "Can-'t…b-rea-the." Zack watched Cloud's face getting redder as the veins in his neck seemed to be trying to push themselves up out of his skin.

"MARSH!" Zack yelled out, his voice quivering in panic. The doctor was just coming through the door with a black case in her hands. She dropped down on her knees on the other side of Cloud, opening the case.

"Za-ck," Cloud mouthed his name. As he did, blood pushed past his lips, running in lines down the sides of his face.

"Hold on, Spike!" Zack urged him then looked at Marsh who was filling a syringe with clear liquid. "What the hell is happening to him, Doc?"

"His heart is failing, it's causing his lungs to fill with blood," she responded like a textbook though her hands were shaking as she tried to work fast.

Zack felt Cloud's grip on his arm loosen then and looked down at him to see his eyes rolling back. "CLOUD!" Zack shouted frantically, gripping his friend's face with both hands. "Look at me, Cloud!" he pleaded angrily, knowing he was going to bloody lose it if Cloud died right then and there. Marsh injected the clear liquid from the syringe into Cloud's arm. Cloud's eyes refocused but threatened to roll back with each second as his eye lids hung heavy. "Stay with me, Spikey," Zack commanded, a few tears falling with gravity from his own eyes and landing on Cloud's one cheek. "Please…"

Just then, someone was grabbing him and pulling him back from Cloud. He fought back till he realized the goons had moved him to make room to bring in a stretcher and an oxygen tank. An air mask was strapped to Cloud's face and he was hauled up on the stretcher that the lab assistants began wheeling out.

"Doc!" Zack shouted to Marsh, struggling against Doner who was holding onto him and keeping him immobilized. "Let me go with you! DOC!" Marsh looked back at him, the pain of indecision in her expression. "Doc, please!" As she stared at him, at the tears streaming down his face she knew she couldn't say no. She nodded at Doner who marched Zack down to the med sector with Marsh and kept watch on him while there.

000

For the first time in what seemed like an eternity, Zack had a concept of how long he and Cloud had been locked away from the rest of the world. In the med sector there was a calendar on one of the walls. September…I don't believe it, he thought to himself. The Nibelheim mission was in April. It had been over 5 months that they had been held captive deep below the surface of the world. Dumbfounded, Zack shuffled backwards to the chair he had been intermittently sitting in over the hours he'd waited nervously to hear about Cloud. He jiggled his one knee as he looked to the doorway where Doner stood and kept his eyes fixed there hoping to see Marsh come around the corner any minute.

About 10 minutes later, she arrived. Zack jumped from the chair as she entered the room.

"How is he?" he asked eagerly.

"He's fine. The surgery went well. He's stable," she replied. A long exhale of relief left Zack.

"What happened?"

"He suffered pulmonary edema though I'm not entirely sure why."

"What do you mean you're not sure?" Zack questioned skeptically.

"Well it's hard to say if his heart failing caused the edema or if it was something to do with his lungs that led to the heart failure. There was a substantial amount of scar tissue in his lungs that suggests damage from inhaling toxic substances…"

"Mako," Zack said angrily. Marsh nodded slowly.

"If that's true than you would also have the scarring and are at risk for the same thing to happen. Though I believe since Cloud's suffered previous trauma to his heart and lungs not that long ago it may have made him more susceptible to further trauma."

Zack crossed his arms across his chest, simply to stop himself from punching something, the doctor specifically. "Well can I see him?" he asked then.

"Of course," Marsh agreed, leading him down to a familiar recovery room he had seen on several occasions. "He's still under anesthesia though so he's unconscious," she pointed out before letting him pass by into the room.

Zack took a seat in the chair next to the bed where Cloud lay. He looked over his friend, shaking his head in frustration as he stared down at the dressing covering the line of stitching in the centre of his chest. He felt so helpless. It made him feel like bawling. I didn't know how much more he was going to be able to take. He couldn't handle seeing his friend dying in front of him again. He'd seen it more than once over the time they had been held captive and each time he felt himself being pushed ever closer to the breaking point. Marsh entered the room then and stood at the foot of the hospital bed, watching the slow rising and falling of Cloud's chest.

"How long is it gonna take for you to wake the hell up?" Zack asked after a brief awkward silence. She glanced at him behind her glasses. "Hojo's killing us, Doc, and you're helping him!"

"That's not true," she denied, taking obvious offense.

"Yeah well, that's what it looks like from here. You just stand back and watch as he takes us apart bit by bit, putting us through his ridiculous fucking experiments. All so he can create some goddamn super-SOLDIER. Well, it's impossible! Look at him, Doc," he demanded, pointing at Cloud. "He's 15. Do you remember what you were doing when you were 15? Was it as painful and torturous as what he's been going through? All he's ever known is pain and sadness and I swear to God, Doc, if he dies here and the last thing he experiences is more pain I am going to take out everyone in this whole fucking hellhole and that includes you."

Marsh studied his expression. He was deadly serious and she knew it. She had to leave the room before breaking into tears like the pathetic excuse for a human she was. Zack had every right to say the things he did and she couldn't blame him for a second for feeling like he did. Hojo and Shinra had stolen their lives. Even if they survived the professor's experimentation, what they went through would be a part of them forever, that's if they didn't become so transformed by what she knew was still to come that they no longer knew who they were anymore…

Zack sat with Cloud as long as he was allowed before Doner was told to bring him back to the cell. He deduced by the fact that he wasn't brought for mako treatment that night that Marsh had expressed her concerns over the mako administration and Hojo was now in deep contemplation about how to get his poison into his subjects.

Zack didn't sleep that night. He lay on his back in the centre of the room staring at the ceiling and imagining a dark sky full of stars above it. In Midgar you could never see the stars at night. In his hometown though…it was incredible. He thought of his parents then, of what the past 5 months had been like for them. He suddenly wished he had tried harder when he had the chance to keep in touch more often with them, to call them or write them and tell them how much he cared about and missed them. It was just another of those things people took for granted he supposed. As hard as he tried not to, eventually he thought of Aeris. He wondered what she was doing, if she was sound asleep in bed or lying awake and restless like him. He wished there was some way, some sign he could give her to let her know he was alive and thinking of her. Closing his eyes, he focused on the image he had in his head of her face and thought that perhaps if he concentrated as hard as he could maybe, just maybe she could read his thoughts…

000

The next morning, Zack was shocked to find the door to the cell opening and Cloud being led into the room with the help of Doner, holding his one arm as he was still weak and groggy from his recovery and whatever medication he had been given. Zack pulled himself up to help Cloud sit down. "You okay, buddy?" Zack questioned. Cloud nodded though he didn't really seem to know what he'd been asked. "Should he have been brought back here this soon?" he asked Doner who just shrugged and headed for the door. Zack frowned, looking back at Cloud whose head was hanging a little. He seemed about ready to drop off to sleep. That was pretty much confirmed when he slid toward Zack and let his head rest on his shoulder before passing out. Zack scoffed in mild irritation knowing Cloud really should be lying down in a bed and not slumped against a wall on the floor next to him.

Cloud slept for what was probably about two hours. Zack had to wake him up when their vitamins and food came. He nearly dropped the paper cup with the pills in it and Zack closed his hand around Cloud's to help him grip it, doing the same with the water.

"Ain't that adorable?" Vallow commented as he waited for them to finish with their vitamins. Zack glared at him.

"Shut the fuck up, Vallow," he sneered, wanting to smack the stupid grin off his face.

"Or what?" Vallow challenged, stepping forward. Zack bit his tongue before he could respond. He suddenly remembered what Hojo had said the day before. So from now on Z1, when you misbehave, it is C4 that will see the consequences. He couldn't risk stepping out of line. "That's what I thought," Vallow said smugly as he snatched the paper cups from them and left the room. Zack stared at the food that had been left.

"You hungry, Spike?" he asked Cloud who shook his head softly. "Yeah, probably a good thing. I doubt any normal hospital would let you eat right now anyway. I swear these assholes don't have a clue about what they're doing…" Cloud was silent though his eyes were open so he appeared awake. "Whatcha thinkin', buddy?" Zack asked, nudging him a little with his elbow.

"Bridges," he muttered quietly, barely loud enough to hear. Zack's heart ached to hear that word come out of him. It was a piece of ancient military terminology. Having your commander give the order to 'Go Bridges, or Burn Bridges" meant basically to lay down arms and either surrender to the enemy or take your own life to prevent capture.

"Don't think like that, Spike," Zack scolded.

"I'm tired, Zack, I don't wanna do this anymore. If there was any chance of surviving this—"

"We are gonna survive this. We'll find a way out, I promise. Just don't give up, okay?" Cloud nodded slowly, looking at the floor. "Say it out loud, Cloud," Zack demanded.

"I won't give up," he said just above a whisper. It didn't do much for Zack's confidence.

By the afternoon, after Cloud had slept some more, he seemed to be doing a little better. Not long after he woke the door to the room was opening and Dr. Marsh came in with some paper cups.

"We already had our candy," Zack spoke from where he lay on the tile.

"It's medication, for Cloud," she replied, walking to where Cloud sat and handing him the cups.

"Thank you," Cloud said softly as he handed the cups back to her, which she placed in the one pocket of her lab coat. She caught Zack rolling his eyes at his politeness toward her.

"I know you think I'm heartless," Marsh spoke sadly, her hands in the pockets of her lab coat.

"No—" Cloud began.

"Pretty much," Zack spoke over him, drawing a harsh look from his friend. Marsh took something from her pocket then. It was a thin leather card holder. She opened it slowly and looked down at it before handing it to Cloud. His eyes fell upon the face of a young girl, no older than 4 or 5. She had long dark hair and big beautiful green eyes.

"That's my daughter, just before she got sick," Marsh explained quietly.

"Sick?" Cloud questioned as he passed the picture off to Zack.

"She developed a rare form of cancer. She's spent the last year and a half of her life in the hospital. It's been difficult to afford the treatment she needs to keep her alive…"

"That's why you work for Hojo?"

She nodded. "He makes sure she stays at the top of the treatment list."

"What about her father?" Zack spoke up then, reaching the card holder back out to the doctor. She stepped forward to take it from him, shoving it back in her pocket.

"He died in an automobile accident not long after she was born," she replied without emotion, as if all she could possibly feel over it had already been exhausted long ago.

"Sorry," Cloud said sympathetically. She gave him a thankful nod.

"I didn't tell you this to make you feel sorry for me, though. I think really what I'm hoping for is understanding. It breaks my heart to see you both suffer here…but I don't know what I can do. My daughter is all I have left in the world…"

She looked like she could break into sobs where she was standing. Zack and Cloud looked at one another uneasily. "It's fine, doc," Zack said at last, exhaling heavily. "You look out for the ones you love. That's life."

She studied his expression. She knew what he was saying was truth. She knew he was being sincere but she could also see past it, down to the place where she could almost hear him saying to her 'there's always another way.' She left the room feeling no less guilty than when she had entered.

"She just had to have a daughter," Zack sighed as he lay back and rested his hands behind his head. Well that puts plan b out the friggin window, he thought then as he realized Marsh would never sacrifice her own flesh and blood to save him and Cloud. Until he could think of something else, they were screwed.