Warning: This story will be dark, with themes of kidnapping, stalking, violence, non-consensual sexual situations and angst. If this is something that upsets you or is just not your thing, please don't read on.

This story is set in the FF7 world but does not follow the cannon of the game, although some details are similar, such as hometowns, jobs, etc.

Disclaimer: I don't own Square Enix or any of its characters.

Chapter 4 – Fire

The village was on fire.

He could hear the people screaming but he couldn't see them through the smoke. All he could see were hands. His own hands as they grasped the ground in front of him. He was trying to pull himself there… to get to his house, but it was hard. His body felt like it was shutting down. His muscles felt like boulders and the smoke was making its way into his lungs. He didn't know how long it would be until it drowned them.

There was something in the distance. He could see his house then beyond the rolling black clouds. It was burning like everything else was.

"No–"

Why was this happening? The evening had been like any other. The people were finishing up their business for the day, and mothers had started calling their children in from the streets for supper. His own was making a bean stew. The smell had wafted out to him before it was replaced with smoke. Then the fire began, houses going up in flames like lighting candles on a birthday cake.

He didn't even know what caused it. Everything after it started was chaos until he found himself here, trying to reach his house.

The screaming stopped. He couldn't hear the other people anymore. The people of the village. They had all gone quiet.

He felt his own lungs finally give out then. He no longer had the will to move his arms. The sight of his house burning, of them, stole it away.

He thought he saw, as he pressed his cheek to the hot earth and closed his eyes, a tall form standing in the middle of the flames. They weren't burning, just watching, waiting.

Maybe they were the angel of death, coming to take him away with all the others.

Cloud let out a breath as he pulled the towel away from his face. He dragged it from around his shoulders and then set it down on the edge of the bathtub. Feeling more than a bit dizzy from the actions of drying and dressing himself, he let his body rest in a half sitting position against the side of the tub.

It had been, maybe, three or four days since he'd woken up from the latest rounds of mystery injections. For the first few, he'd gone through the same horrid cycle of vomiting, pains and fever – so caught up in the sickness that he really wasn't sure how much time passed. He'd only come out of the worst of it that morning and must have looked such a bad state that his captor immediately ordered him to take a bath when he visited the cell.

Though the energy it took to wash himself seemed almost too much, especially with the hot water zapping it further, it did feel good to rid himself of the sweat and grime that had gathered on his body over the few days. Sometimes when he was lying in the padded room, soaked and shivering in his own bodily fluids, he found it hard to think of himself as a person anymore. He felt like a thing, a pathetic, wretched thing that didn't even have control of his own body.

He felt more like himself again now, or at least sort of. He wasn't sure he'd ever fully feel like Cloud Strife again, not as he'd been before. That boy he was and the life he'd had in Nibelheim seemed to be slipping further and further into the past.

The door to the bathroom opened. He looked over as Sephiroth walked into the room.

His captor stared back at him. His silver hair and skin always looked exceptionally pale against the white surroundings of the bathroom. It made his green eyes stand out even more than normal – separate and unnatural. They moved over him now in an assessing way that made Cloud want to turn away and cover himself with his arms. He didn't move, though, and soon Sephiroth's gaze flicked back up to his face.

"So, there was still a boy under there," were the man's light and somewhat mocking words. Cloud didn't say anything and Sephiroth then motioned for him to leave the tub.

He immediately noticed the new smell when he went back into the cell. He'd smelled it a few times before and it sort of reminded him of some of the cleaning stuff his mom used in their kitchen at home. He guessed Sephiroth sometimes sprayed the cell down while he was in the bathroom, probably to get rid of the bacteria that would surely build up on the padded material from all the time he spent in there.

The next thing he noticed was that the blanket and pillow he'd had for the past few days had been taken out, and a new set were waiting neatly folded in one corner. He looked at them and then back at Sephiroth as the man knelt at the edge of the doorway and offered him the usual two pills, and a bottle of water from a bag he'd set down just outside the door.

As Cloud swallowed down the tablets, he watched Sephiroth reach into the bag a second time. He lowered the bottle from his lips and twisted the cap back on, while his captor took out what looked like some books. They turned out to be magazines, and Cloud recognized what type as Sephiroth held them out to him.

SOLDIER Update. They were the magazines produced by Shinra about their SOLDIER programme. Cloud had been collecting as many as he could for the past two years from the vendors that came to the village.

He looked up at Sephiroth's face in surprise and the man smirked.

"You've bared the past few days well. Now that you're feeling better, I'm sure you'd appreciate something to pass the time." He set the magazines down on the padding beside Cloud's legs. "Continue as you are, and things will improve for you."

With that, he pulled back out of the cell and shut the door. When he was gone, the first thing Cloud did was move over to unfold the blanket so that he could wrap it around himself. The strange, cold feeling that had come after the first injections had returned and though he didn't want to acknowledge anything from his captor, he was incredibly grateful for the blanket these past few days. The fresh one felt especially good now and he spent a few minutes just holding it close to his body until he'd achieved a comfortable temperature.

He almost felt like he could fall asleep for a while then, the bath had pretty much felt like a full days' work. At the same time, his mind rebelled against doing something he'd already done so much of up to that point. So instead, he found his attention drifting to the magazines.

He reached out a hand and ran his fingers over the glossy front cover of the one on the top. Issue 462. The merchants weren't regular with their deliveries, so he hadn't been collecting the issues in order. He was pretty sure this one was a lot more up to date than any he owned. He picked it up and read some of the front taglines.

Fuelling an Army – The Ten Foods Every SOLDIER Candidate Needs in Their Diet

One SOLDIER's Experience from Grunt to Hero

The Wutai Threat Increases

The last one in particular caught his attention so he opened it up to that page. "War Looms from the West" was the headline above a two-page article detailing how Shinra forces were getting ready for war with the Wutai region.

Cloud felt his heartbeat start to speed up. He knew there had always been tension between Midgar and Wutai – something that started out as a dispute over a Mako reactor – but as he read down through the article, it became clear that tension was finally turning to conflict. Shinra was gathering an army to retaliate against several terrorist attacks by Wutai resistance forces on innocent citizens under Shinra's protection. The article described the coming war as one that would change the tide of the planet.

He closed the magazine and shook his head in disbelief. Was this true? It was talking about war… real war. If that happened, what would that mean for the land? For the villages in between the regions? Would Wutai continue to attack the smaller towns on the western continent first? Places like Nibelheim that were basically defenceless. People might have to start evacuating. His mom… she'd already lost him and now she would lose her home too? She'd be all alone.

He felt his eyes begin to sting with tears and he forced them back. No… he wouldn't let that happen. He wouldn't leave her alone. He needed to get back to her. No matter what and no matter how. He would see his mo–

Mother

He squeezed his eyes closed as a flash of pain shot through his head. It only lasted a couple of seconds, but it left him feeling like he'd lost what little strength he had. He moved then to pull the pillow on the other side of the cell over to him and stretched his body out with his head resting on it.

But as he lay there and let sleep eventually come, a new determination overtook the hopelessness that he'd been consumed in. He couldn't stay here. He couldn't die here. He had someone waiting for him back home, and for that reason, Sephiroth would not win.

Despite his determination, all Cloud could really do was silently plan and wait for an opportunity to try to make an escape. And that wasn't something that presented itself in the weeks that followed.

Three more times he'd been brought to the medical room and three more times he'd been given injections that made him sick for days after. By the fourth and fifth time he did find that the illness was more bearable, but it was hardly that comforting because of the increasing despair he was feeling at being locked up in the cell for so long. Day after day, week after week… left alone with nothing to look at but the same four padded walls. It was starting to wear him down mentally and he didn't know how much longer he could stand it. Maybe those times when he was sick were a blessing because he didn't know if he'd still be sane if he'd been awake and fully alert for all the time he'd been in there.

On the days that he was better, before he was brought back for more shots, Sephiroth brought him more magazines to pass the time. They helped, but they also made him even more anxious because increasingly their articles were focused on the impending war. Wutai had apparently gathered a huge force and were preparing to make an attack, and Shinra had no choice but to retaliate with the same.

He'd just finished reading another article about some of the worst Wutai leaders and found himself sitting in one of the corners of the cells, chewing at his nails as his mind ran through the information it had just processed. War Monger. Countless sieges against defenceless regions. Public executions. All he could think of then was his village getting attacked and the people being cut down by the vicious Wutain warriors. His mom caught up in the middle…

It was almost a relief when Sephiroth finally showed up to the cell for his usual bathroom trip.

His captor peered in at him from the open door. The expression on his face was odd, like he was studying him. Cloud slowly lowered his hand from his mouth and at a nod from the man, moved himself forward. As he finally stood up and made to go through the door, his captor suddenly caught hold of that hand.

He froze and watched as the man lifted his hand to his eye level and seemed to inspect it. Cloud looked down too and realised his fingers were dark red where he'd been chewing them, and there was actually some blood around two of his nails. He didn't think he'd been biting that hard, but it looked like he'd worn them partway to the beds.

He immediatly felt a cold sweat breaking out on his skin and resisted the urge to pull his hand back as he waited to hear what Sephiroth was going to say on the matter. His body tensed, instinctively ready for pain, and he was badly startled when Sephiroth suddenly dropped his hand.

"Go," was all he said to him. Glancing up in shock, he quickly lowered his eyes and moved around the man. He didn't wait to be told twice.

In the bathroom, he used the toilet and then moved over to the sink to rinse his fingers under the cold tap. Now that his attention had been drawn to them, he realised that the area around his nails was stinging pretty badly. The cold water felt good, so he kept his hand there for several minutes. As he did, he lifted his eyes to look at himself in the mirror.

He guessed he could see what Sephiroth had been looking at in the cell. He looked awful. His skin was so pale it matched the tiling behind him, and his eyes looked red and bruised underneath. He thought he looked skinnier too and that really bothered him because one of the things he was already teased about at home was his smaller size compared to the other boys in the village. It wasn't his fault. Sephiroth still didn't really give him solid food aside from some chocolate bars, and he'd been throwing up so much that he was losing what little he had. It was probably due to whatever was in the juices that he wasn't a complete skeleton… but they clearly weren't enough if they had him looking this bad.

He ran a hand back through his hair as he felt his anxiety and frustration rise. This place was going to kill him and he knew he needed to get out before that happened. He just didn't know how.

He was so caught up in what he was feeling that he jumped a bit when the bathroom door opened. He must have run over his time. He shut off the tap and dried his hand in his sleeve while walking back over to the door.

When he got there, Sephiroth didn't move from where he was standing to let him through, which immediately made him uneasy. He paused and glanced up.

"Come with me," the man said, before turning and walking away from the door. Cloud stared after him in surprise before forcing himself to follow. He felt his stomach sinking hard as Sephiroth led him to the door leading out to the second hallway.

As they went through it, he started to mentally count the days since his last visit to the medical room. It hadn't been that many, had it? Or had he slept for longer than he thought? But surely it was too soon for him to get more; he was only just recovering from the others.

He was about to break down and ask his captor about this, when to his surprise Sephiroth passed the door to the medical room and kept walking. Cloud followed him silently all the way over to the stairway, at which point the man finally turned around.

"I expect you to appreciate the opportunity you're being given," he said in the low, cautioning tone he often used with him. Not sure what exactly that meant or what this "opportunity" was, Cloud just nodded.

With that, Sephiroth motioned for him to follow him up the steps.

Cloud watched the man for a moment before he moved. The metal surface of the steps felt cold against his socked feet as he used the railing to pull himself up each one. He was surprised by how much effort the short ascension took. He was actually sweating and breathing a bit heavily by the time he stood on the second last step from the top. In front of him, Sephiroth reached forward to open the door.

What was on the other side was not what Cloud had been expecting. At first it was so bright that he had to shut his eyes and cover them with one arm. Blindly, his feet stepped off metal and onto something that was smoother and warm. The air that washed over him was warmer too, and it smelled different. Less stale maybe.

He lowered his arm and blinked a few times to get his vision to adjust. Though the lights were bright and harsh in parts of the lower level, this was different. This was real, natural sunlight. It was coming in from a series of wide windows on either side of him.

He dropped his arm completely and moved his eyes over the space he now found himself in. To his surprise, he was standing in what looked like someone's home – someone with a lot of money. The door led into a huge, open plan style area. The walls were pale grey, and the space was filled with modern, expensive looking furniture. Right in front of him he could see a large sofa with a glass coffee table and TV in front of it. Behind that, there was a big kitchen area with white cupboards and a wide marble island in the centre.

He took a few stumbling steps forward, his dazed mind struggling to adjust to the sudden change in environment. After so long in the plainness of his cell, the amount of detail surrounding him felt overwhelming. He sort of felt like he was in a dream.

"Come."

A touch to his arm brought him part way back to his senses and he didn't resist as Sephiroth used the light grip to lead him across the room. They passed the living area where he could see further detail of an encased centre fireplace and some electronic equipment under the television. It all looked futuristic and grand compared to the tiny box TV and video players he and his mom owned, but seeing them, seeing something so normal, still made his heart ache to be back home. He would give anything to just spend a night sitting on the couch with her, talking with her.

While his heart felt like it was compressing in his chest, Sephiroth led him on over to the kitchen. There were some high stools positioned on the outer facing side of the island and it was on one of these that he instructed Cloud to take a seat. As he slowly pulled himself up onto the stool, Sephiroth rounded the island and walked over to a large, steel fridge in one corner of the kitchen.

Cloud settled himself against the island with his arms resting on top of it. He watched Sephiroth for a moment as he took something out of the fridge, but then he moved his eyes away and over to the right side of the room. On the wall on that side, a long row of windows gave a view outside. The sky was perfectly blue, there wasn't even a single cloud. He could see a rocky landscape that seemed to spread far into the distance and he thought it seemed like they were up high.

The outside… freedom. He could hardly believe how close it was.

He quickly turned his eyes forward again when Sephiroth left the fridge to move over to a microwave oven resting on a shelf on the wall directly across from him. As he watched the man put a container inside and adjust the settings to start it cooking, he realised how completely bizarre it was to see him doing something so… normal. In his mind, Sephiroth wasn't a normal man and he didn't do things that everyone else did, such as eat or do laundry or even sleep. But of course, that wasn't true. Sephiroth was a man. A man that was evil enough to do this to him… but still a man.

But that was good because men… people, they had weaknesses. He just had to find Sephiroth's.

He shifted his hands on the countertop as his captor turned around. "This… is your house?"

Sephiroth leaned back slightly against the counter behind him and crossed his arms. His silver hair was long enough to gather against the marble surface. "It's a house," he confirmed. Cloud hesitated before going on.

"Are you the only person that lives here?" It didn't seem like anyone else was there, at least not at that moment, but that didn't mean someone else wasn't around. Cloud wondered how many people were involved in his kidnapping. He knew that at least one other person was – the doctor that gave him the injections.

Sephiroth seemed to find his question amusing. His expression showed it as he cocked his head to the side. "You mean aside from you?"

Cloud felt his stomach dropping immediately. He had to lower his eyes and force himself to stay calm. "I don't live here," he said, his voice barely above a whisper, "my house is in Nibelheim. With my mom."

"Are you sure about that?"

He looked up fast and opened his mouth to answer, when a sudden dinging sound cut him off. It was the microwave, he realised, as he watched Sephiroth turn back around to take out the now heated container.

When it was set down in front of him, Cloud was surprised to see it was some kind of instant soup. It smelled like chocobo maybe. It smelled salty and that instantly made the glands in his mouth salivate. He wasn't feeling particularly hungry at that moment – his stomach felt like it was filled with thorns – but his body was clearly craving something it hadn't had in a long time. Food… not chocolate but something hot and savoury. He guessed he never really did appreciate the home cooked meals his mom made for him every day. That was the first thing he was going to thank her for when he was out.

Sephiroth opened a drawer on the other side of the island and there was the sound of clinking cutlery as he took out a tablespoon, which he offered to him. Holding off for only a moment, Cloud lifted a hand to take it.

He gripped the handle tightly in his fingers, feeling its metal edges dig into his skin. It felt weird to even hold cutlery again. Oddly enough, it instantly made him feel like he had more control over his actions than he had in a long time. It was small, but to do something normal, to feed himself, helped him remember who he was.

Slowly he brought the spoon down to the container and submerged it in the yellowy liquid. White steam wafted up towards his face, warming his skin a bit. He could feel Sephiroth watching him as he did this. The attention made him uncomfortable enough that he had to will his hand not to shake too much as he lifted the spoon to his lips. When he finally did manage to bring it to his mouth, it wasn't the flavour that hit him first, but a sudden burst of pain as the hot metal pressed to his lower lip.

"Scoop from the side first!"

His mom's chastisement rang in his head as he quickly pulled his hand back. He closed his eyes and lowered the spoon for a moment. When he was sure it had cooled enough, he tried again.

The soup tasted okay; it was pretty watery so the flavour seemed diluted. He was just happy that it didn't make him feel sick and managed another few spoonful's before he felt he needed a break. At that point he let the spoon rest against the container and looked over at Sephiroth.

As he was eating, the man had taken out what seemed to be his cell phone and was scrolling through something on the screen. Again, it seemed strange to see his kidnapper doing something so normal. But of course, Sephiroth had a phone. He had access to all the things other people had, including news of the outside world.

Licking his lips to get rid of the salty residue clinging to them, he decided to ask the question that had been eating at him. "Is the war with Wutai really going to happen?"

Sephiroth seemed surprised to hear him speak. He stared at his phone for another few seconds before lowering it to the counter and regarding him.

"It will," he said simply, and took all of Cloud's will power not to fall into an immediate panic at the answer. Of course it had said as much in the magazines, but part of him had been hoping it was all just a story or an exaggeration so that people would keep buying the issues. But to hear his captor confirm it so certainly… there was no way he could deny it.

He took a breath. "When will it start?"

"When Shinra have gathered their forces," Sephiroth answered him, "it won't be long now."

Though he tried to fight it, Cloud felt tears coming fast to his eyes, "and what about the land? The people? Will they be protected?"

Sephiroth pressed one of his hands down on the counter while glancing towards the window. "Shinra will protect what it feels is important," he said in a vague, unconcerned tone, "of course, resources need to be used wisely. It's a game of weighing what they're willing to lose, with what they aren't."

Cloud could only stare at the other, shocked by the heartless words. Surely people's lives were more important than anything else? Protecting the people of the continent should be Shinra's first priority. But by the way Sephiroth spoke, it was clear that wasn't going to be the case.

His thoughts must have shown on his face, because Sephiroth arched a brow at him. "You don't need to worry, of course. The war won't get to you here."

"I'm not worried for myself!" he said fast, clenching his fists against the counter top as it felt like his blood was going to burst through his veins, "what about the people in my village? My mom." He felt his voice cracking a bit and had to close his mouth and literally swallow back his emotions. There was a moment of silence before Sephiroth gave him a pitying smile and pushed away from the counter top.

"That's not your concern anymore either."

With that, he turned his attention back to his phone. Cloud stared at him, disbelief and anger making his blood rush in his veins. He was shaking as he lowered his head to look at the soup container.

He didn't even let himself think for another second about his next action. Before he even realised it, he was reaching down and grabbing the container in both hands. The sides were roasting against his palms, but he barely acknowledged it as he lifted and flung the near scalding contents across the island.

He didn't wait to see Sephiroth's reaction, only that the man had stepped back quickly to avoid the hot liquid. By then, he was already jumping down off the stool, his socked feet slamming into the ground for a moment before he was running towards the door on the other side of the room.

He could see the windows, the sky beyond them. Out. He just needed to get out, everything would be manageable if he could just achieve that.

When he got to the door, his body practically slammed into it as he reached down for the handle. He almost expected it to be locked, but to his surprise it gave as he applied pressure. He sobbed out loud with relief as he pressed it down and pulled the door open.

Immediately a burst of cool and bright air hit his face. His eyes seared for a moment before they adjusted. What he saw then was rocks. Rocky land, spreading miles in the distance and going downward as he'd suspected. He couldn't immediately see any houses or a road. There was what looked like a rough path leading away from the house, though, which he assumed would join to the latter eventually. That's where he needed to go and he opened the door wider to step outside.

But that was as far as he got.

A hand was there in a second, long and strong, the leather material of the sleeve rubbing against his one cheek as it applied pressure to the door to push it shut once more.

"No!" he hissed, using his own grip on the handle to prevent his one attempt at escape from being taken away. But it was like fighting against metal, a machine. In one move that arm had pushed the door back closed before it was reaching for what Cloud could see was a lock higher up on the frame.

"No!" he cried again. An overwhelming feeling of despair hit him at the sound of the lock clicking into place, sealing him where he was, still in the house. "No…" He couldn't even make himself move. His entire body seized up against the door and he wasn't able to do anything but stare ahead of himself at the pale, solid wood.

"Turn around."

He felt tears gathering more intensely in his eyes but he shook them away and resisted the order.

"Let me go," he shouted instead, clenching his teeth tighter as he shook the handle a few more times even though he knew it was pointless.

"I said turn around, Cloud."

"I want to go home!" he cried back then, still not turning to face his captor. He couldn't. "I swear I won't say anything if you just let me leave. It isn't right to keep me here."

When he got no response, he slumped forward to rest his head against the wood. He didn't cry, but his breathing felt heavy and laboured, as if elastic bands were wrapped around his lungs and not letting him get enough air.

Aside from that, it was quiet for a moment before he heard the shuffling sound of the man moving behind him. Sephiroth moved so smoothly and silently that he didn't know where he was until he suddenly felt a hand on the back of his head. He stiffened and tried to shift himself away but the hand just followed him.

"Poor child," the silken voice barely whispered behind him, "how long will it take you to learn? I decide what's right or wrong for you."

With that, the fingers in his hair tightened and he called out loudly as Sephiroth used the grip to pull his head and the rest of his body away from the door.

"St–" He lifted his arms to try to ease the grip in his hair but the man just pulled harder so that he fell back against his taller body. A second hand wrapped around his middle then, effectively trapping his arms against his sides.

With his hold on him secured, Sephiroth turned them both around. When Cloud saw what direction he was forcing him, he began to struggle in earnest.

"Stop!" he spat, kicking his legs and writhing his body as much as possible in his captor's grip, "let go of me. Fucking… let me go. I'm not going back down there!"

It was no good. Sephiroth's arms never loosened no matter how much he pushed against them, and when he tried to slow him by digging his feet into the floor, the man just adjusted his grip and lifted him clean off his feet. He carried him that way back down the steps, then straight back through the first hall and into the second.

Instead of locking him back in the cell, the man suddenly released his hold and flung him down onto the floor outside it. Cloud landed on his side, his left elbow colliding hard with the ground.

"Ng– ah," he gasped as darts of pain shot up his forearm from the joint. He immediately thought a bone had been broken. He did start to cry then, grasping the injured limb close to his body and staying on the floor as his captor moved around him. The man walked in a circle, only stopping when his boots were directly in front of his face.

"I thought we were starting to understand each other." One black booted foot moved under his chin and forced him to tilt his face upwards. Cloud felt goosebumps break out on his skin at the expression on the man's face as he stared down at him. His eyes looked suddenly brighter, as if some sort of dark magic were burning behind them.

"I told you that obedience brings reward," the boot moved away from his face. "And what does disobedience bring?"

There was silence. Sephiroth tilted his head to the side lightly and his eyes slitted. "I said, what does disobedience bring?"

"…" Cloud swallowed, feeling more tears spilling from his eyes. "P–pain."

The smirk sharpened. "That's right." And with that, the boot returned full force to his face.

Sephiroth closed the door behind him and then leant back against it. He shut his eyes for a moment before opening them and looking down at his hand. A patch of the leather material of his glove was wet. The red tinge of the stain was only barely visible against the black.

He used his other hand to wipe it away before reaching into his coat pocket and taking out his phone. He dialled in the number and then held it to his ear as the line began to ring.

"Sephiroth," the nasal voice eventually picked up. He felt his lips quirk in distaste.

"I need you to make an early trip here. And bring medical supplies," he said, glancing down at his glove again.

"You think you can just summon me at will like some kind of valet?" the man scoffed, but Sephiroth could sense the irritation wasn't genuine. Whatever the professor's distaste at taking orders, it didn't trump his curiosity about his current affairs.

"I need you to come," he paused, "and we need to talk about accelerating the process. I'd hoped to be seeing better results by now. As you know, my presence will be required elsewhere soon."

"There are other methods I've been looking into. Now that he's primed, we can consider them."

"We'll discuss it when you arrive," he said by way of agreement before hanging up the phone. He put it back in his pocket before turning back around and looking at the door.

Sorry, slightly shorter chapter than normal but I wanted to get something out. If you enjoyed and want to see more, please leave a review.