Disclaimer: I do not now or before and most likely not in the future, own Final Fantasy, Square Enix or any of the characters.

A/N: A guest review is at the end of the chapter and my response is in italics. I'm sorry for taking so long. School has kept me especially busy and I also started working too. (Guest review responses are at the end of the chapter. Thanks!)

Thanks to my sugar-powered super-beta SubZeroChimera!

"People who are intimidated by you talk badly about you with the hopes that others won't find you so appealing." -Unknown

To You I Give My Heart

Chapter 37

~Be On Your Beast Behavior~

Zack stood motionless, he was confused as how a woman could claim to be an inanimate object like a cloud; it made him scoff. The whole time he was with Hojo, his clouds were kept to himself, no one else knew about it. He made sure that no one else knew, not even Harding, until his death. Who was this woman and how did she know about his secrets?

Breaking eye contact with the blond, he looked around the room, waiting for the mad scientist to come out and gloat in Zack's slip-up.

Movement to his left, the blond, caught his eye and he watched with guarded interest as she spoke, "I can't believe you're here, out of nowhere!"

When she got closer, he bared his teeth like so many of the dog-like creatures he'd killed, and he let out a low and feral growl. Either not paying attention, or ignoring his warning, she tried to wrap her arms around him, "Zack! I remembered everything that day-"

Pushing her backward and leaning over at his waist, in a defensive stance, Zack held out a hand, ready to strike at any attack or movement.

In confusion, the woman asked, "Zack? What's the matter?!"

Backing away a step, Zack yelled, "Where are you Hojo?!" He knew this was a trick of the Professor's, he would never get to see his parents, his friends, or his clouds, Hojo told him so many times that he believed it as the truth, despite his dreams and wishes.

"Hojo isn't here. It's just me."

Lowly, he sneered and asked with anger dripping from the words, "How are you a cloud? My cloud?! How do you know about that?"

She stilled and took a deep breath, "My name is Cloud." Reaching out one of her hands, she tried to make contact.

Fighting the urge to kill her, he instead waited and watched. He wanted to believe her, wanted to trust her but she knew things that she shouldn't. Not leaving the constant eye contact, he narrowed his eyes and made a move with his left hand, distracting the woman so he could strike.

With his right hand, he quickly reached for the bone in his pants pocket. With a dangerous move, he swiped down toward her neck. Moving in a way that he'd only seen Sephiroth move, she jerked back to the left away from his weapon. Using the bone like a sword, he struck the air in a downward stroke again, and again she dodged, but to the right instead.

Taking a different stance, Zack stabbed at the woman, but moving quicker than he'd ever seen, she blocked his attack with the heel of her hand. Taking another swipe, she again backed away, so turning with his side exposed to her, he elbowed back, trying to knock her out with a shot to the face, but she raised her hands and didn't allow his elbow to get much closer than a breath. Backing away, the brunette asked with an angry and incredulous tone as he prepped for another attack, "How did you learn those moves?"

Dropping her hands to her sides, she visibly fought to keep her composure, "You... ta-taught them to me."

Taking a step forward, he jumped at her and attempted to cut her throat with the makeshift sword, "Lies!" Dropping to the floor, he tried sweeping her legs from under her, but she countered with a jump and kick, knocking him back into the cabinet below the sink. Rolling to the side, and jumping to his feet, he feigned right and when she acted on the left, she surprised him with another kick to the stomach and a backhanded punch to the side of his face.

Watching as she again dropped her hands to her sides, she screamed, "Stop this Zack!"

"What is going on in here?!"

The blond held her hand out, stopping the man in the doorway from coming closer, "Gen, it's okay."

The red-head tilted his head and asked with a furrow of his eyebrows as he raised his red-gloved hand to the equally red blade of his rapier, "Zackary? How did you-"

Without thinking, Zack slung the blond away from him and dove for the man. Without a chance to make contact with the former red Soldier, Zack was flung to the side, his back ramming into the counter top and knocking him to the ground. Jerking his eyes up, he locked gazes with the former Soldier Commander and launched himself at him again. The man almost looked surprised at his hostility, so Zack took advantage of it and again tried to get to the man, but again his attack got stopped by the blond.

Picking himself off the floor from where the woman threw him, he let out a feral growl and tossed the bone in the air and with a swift movement, he turned and kicked out in a round house, kicking the bone toward the red-head.

"Wha-!"

The little girl came through the doorway and the object of Zack's rage swept the girl up in his arm while he turned his back to Zack, blocking the girl from the boney weapon headed his way. Much to Zack's delight, the makeshift spear dug its way into the back of his intended target, dropping the man to his knees as he still clutched the small child.

The sight of the girl in his arms made Zack's blood boil anew. This little girl, black hair, light eyes and bright smile was his now, and he wouldn't let anyone touch her. Before anyone else could react, the brunette adopted the high-pitched screech that Harding used to call out to him, "Miiine!" and jumped up and out, attacking the man, biting into his skin, tasting the coppery blood tainted with mako and Jenova cells.

Genesis reared his head back in agony and screamed as Zack tore a chunk of flesh from his neck. Without warning, the large black wing appeared and knocked Zack backward, into the blond, pinning her between the large brunette and the oven.

"Stop!"

Glancing to the small voice of the small woman at the door, Zack stilled momentarily. The woman's long light brown hair was drawn up in a ponytail and twisted down to her slender waist. Her bright eyes twinkled in knowledge, but the scowl she wore told of her seriousness.

Turning his rage-filled gaze back to the man holding what was his, he chewed the mouth-full of flesh he still held in his teeth and swallowed it just before he burst forward with intent to kill the man. Genesis anticipated another attack and quickly pushed the child into the arms of the woman at the door.

Zack jumped and wrapped himself around the man, legs around his waist and arms over his shoulders, grabbing at the bone still imbedded in his back. Face to face, they both growled, but Zack withdrew the weapon and leapt back, leaving the spear imbedded in the man's chest.

"Zack!"

Stopping at the loud declaration from the little girl perched safely in the arms of the lovely woman, Zack startled, "But I-"

"No, stop it! He's my guardian angel."

Shaking his head, Zack watched the blond rush to the side of the man on the floor as he bled from his various wounds. He could still taste the blood on his lips from the man he knew he hated. The memory of seeing the man in the treetops while he was captured by the Turks was almost more than he could take. There was something he was missing, something that he desperately needed to make him whole again and he reached over the wounded man on the floor and caressed the cheek of the tiny girl, leaving a streak of dirty blood on the untouched skin of the innocent child.

Seeing that he'd marked the girl with the filth from his fingers, he recoiled his hand like a tight spring, took a few steps back, toward the door he'd entered just minutes before.

"Don't go," The little girl wiggled in the arms of the woman until she let her down. When the girl stepped forward, Zack matched her steps, only he still moved backward, "Please stay."

Dropping to his knees, he faced her and sadly repeated his thoughtful desire to be whole again, "I feel like I'm missing… a piece of my heart."

"I know," Raising her hand to his forehead, she lightly touched his skin and smiled sadly, "Sleep."

Zack's eyes fluttered open, drowsiness blurred his vision, but he could make out shapes and colors. The blond woman who said her name was Cloud, the woman with the long brown hair and the man in the red coat lay on a couch in the sparsely furnished living room of the small house. Quickly closing his eyes, faking still being asleep, he listened to what they had planned for him as he formulated a plan of his own.

"Cloud, you can't let him stay here. He's dangerous, even with mine and your enhancements."

"Gen, we've been looking for him for years, now here he is. There's a reason Charlotte brought him here."

Wringing out another washcloth, the pretty brunette woman spoke, "She has powers that not even the planet understands and the fact that she found him the way she did only speaks of her gifts."

"There is no telling what Hojo has done to him. By the Goddess Cloud, he's not normal anymore." Pausing, the man on the couch pleaded, "At least tie him up before he wakes."

"No, I won't tie him up," The woman with the long blond hair sighed, "I can't give up on him Gen."

Through his slightly opened eyes, he watched the blond turn her gaze to him. Zack would be lying if he said he didn't feel anything from her, or about her, but he had to protect himself and his secret, whatever that secret was anymore. The look she gave him was one of pity, and he hated that look. He didn't want pity.

Shaken from his thoughts, the blond addressed the other woman, "Aerith, could you take Charlotte for a couple of days? I want to see if I can help him."

The woman called Aerith stopped her ministrations of healing over one of Genesis' wounds as she spoke, "Of course, but I believe she will be able to help, if only a little."

"Cloud, you cannot be serious! He is a danger to you and everyone he is around."

"I can take care of myself," Her gaze again fell upon the Soldier-turned-experiment lying on the floor, "If he'd wanted to hurt me, he could have, but he didn't."

"As you wish, but I will stay close by for when you need me." At this sincere declaration that the red-head said, he also took one of the hands of the blond and held on to it with a feeling of familiarity that set Zack on edge. For some reason that he was unaware of, he lowly began to growl as he narrowed his eyes at the swordsman's hand that held the smaller hand of the woman. Slowly releasing the woman's hand, Genesis replied with a fair amount of smarminess, "See what I mean?"

"I appreciate your concern Gen, but I can handle whatever he dishes out."

A/N 2: Thanks to everyone who reads, favorites, subscribes and/or reviews, I appreciate your time and I dedicate all of this to you. To quote another author, "Getting reviews makes me feel all warm and squishy."

Please send me your reviews if you want. It is really easy. Just click your arrow in the little box, write what you thought or felt about the chapter and then click right down there, just below the box. A little lower… a little to the right… yeah, right there! Click it! *grinning*

To the Guest Review: Time-wise, Charlotte said that it was her fourth birthday back in chapter 35 and Zack was captured shortly after she was born, when she was about two weeks old, so it's been four years since he's seen his family. Thank you for reviewing.

Shire: Thanks for your kind words and leaving a review. I hope that you continue to enjoy the story.