A/N: This was from a Tumbr prompt from a list of Soulmate AUs. The prompt was "Zack/Kunsel, the one where soulmates share extreme physical sensation — if one gets hurt, the other gets hurt, and etc." There was an opportunity there, and I took it.

Kunsel woke up screaming.

He was a SOLDIER, he'd been to war, that wasn't new, but he hadn't ever woken up screaming because he felt like… like his chest had just been carved open. He was half way to hyperventilating when someone hauled off and hit him hard enough that he went back down on the mattress. Blue eyes stared blindly as he clutched at his chest, wheezing.

"-sel? Hey, c'mon man, get it together." The voice filtered in first. Everything was dark, and it still spun sickeningly.

Then the lights came on - not blind, that's good - and Kunsel blinked a little bit more, wiping tears out of his eyes with a thick sniffle. The pain had faded almost as quickly as it had come, leaving behind a sharp ache. He pressed at his chest a moment, willing the world back into some sort of order.

"Kunsel."

"Yes, s-sorry." He coughed, shaking his head with a shudder he could feel down to his bones. Everything was going numb, what the hell?

"You need a doctor?" Kythe's expression said exactly what kind he intended to call first.

Kunsel waved it off. "No, man, I'm fine. Just had a physical, there's nothing wrong with… me."

Oh.

Oh no.

No, nothing was wrong with him, not in the slightest. That wasn't his pain in the first place. "…Zack."

Kythe's gaze sharpened. "What?"

"It's Zack," Kunsel breathed. "I can feel him."

Kunsel's bond with Zack was something of an open secret at this point - everyone knew they were soulmates, though not everyone knew the nature of their bond. Because, of course, if they'd told administration 'hey, I can feel anything my soulmate feels strongly enough' that would have been cause for dismissal, and neither one of them was ready to give SOLDIER up. Assuming they even got to retire.

But Kythe knew. Another career Second, he'd climbed the ranks at the same time, and was well familiar with the particular nuance of their bond - had, in fact, covered for both of them about it more than once.

So when Kunsel said he felt Zack, after waking up screaming, not three weeks after Zack had been declared dead?

A low growl rumbled in his chest. "One more they're trying to take from us."

Kunsel bared his teeth, mako eyes brightening. "Not this time."

Kythe nodded. "We need to make some calls, before we take this in the field. Seems to me, too many people have gone out in groups of two and no one's come back."

"Good idea. I'll just… wait for feeling in my legs again." Kunsel rubbed his face with trembling hands and tried to turn the frantic refrain of Zack is alive Zack is alive Zackisalive into something useful. Because Zack was alive, for the moment. But he was hurt, badly. And there were people who had let that happen. "Hey, grab my phone first, would you? I'm not bending for it yet."

"Sure." Kythe took it off the dock and dropped it on his lap, before going to get his and make a few discreet phone calls of his own.

Kunsel stared at his phone a moment. It wasn't quite six yet, but on a week day it was an acceptable call time. "Hey, Ky? Who're you calling?"

"Morrison," he said. He was one of the only Firsts they had left, and the only one in Midgar. "I think he's on base, and he can help me organize people."

"'People'?" Kunsel said.

"Look, I know you're going to call that Turk who liked Zack," Kythe said. "But I think they might be a lot more inclined to listen if half the base shows up."

Kunsel shook his head. "Yeah… thanks, man."

"You got it." He nodded. "'Cause I am ready to go public with this. Zack had connections. People loved him. When they find out this is more ShinRa BS? There's going to be hell to pay."

"How long do you think you need to get a good group?" Kunsel asked.

"I could have half the base roused in a half hour," he said.

Kunsel smiled. "Perfect."

Cissnei was awake when her phone rang, though not yet out of her pajamas since it was a rare day off. She blinked at the ceiling a moment, before rolling onto her side and picking it up to check. Kunsel? Huh. She flipped it open, rolling back over. "Morning."

"Hey, morning." He sounded subdued. "I was just wondering if you'd like to go to breakfast. I, uh… I need to talk."

Sympathy squeezed her heart. He'd been so lost since Zack died. "Sure, I can do that. When do you want to meet?"

"Give me an hour? I can meet you in the lobby and we could go somewhere," Kunsel offered.

"Yeah, sure I can do that," she agreed.

"Great, I'll see you then."

"Sure thing, Kunsel." She hung up and sighed, getting up and going to get ready for the day. It was just enough time to shower and tidy up before she went out to meet him.

The lobby was a lot more crowded than she was expecting when she came down. Well-honed senses tingled with foreboding as she approached Kunsel. He wasn't wearing his helmet for once, and there was something in his eyes she'd never seen before. They were a little too bright. A little too hard. "Hey…"

"Hey, Cissnei." He pushed off the table, coming to stand in front of her. "Got a question for you. You were in Nibelheim for the cleanup, right?"

The feeling of foreboding strengthened. He had his back to the cameras, and she'd forgotten, somehow, that he was a good bit taller than her. "The director handled things personally."

"Uh huh." He arched a brow. "He tell you Zack was still alive?"

Cissnei felt her stomach bottom out, gaping at him as her mind stuttered. She hadn't been in the reactor, but she'd seen bodies taken out on stretchers. She'd assumed — "I… what?"

He stared at her a long moment. "So you didn't know. Then I need to talk to someone higher up. Because we're not losing him."

We? Cissnei looked around and suddenly started to realize that the vast majority of the men around her, watching her, however discreetly, had mako eyes. Her mouth went dry. "Kunsel…"

"You talk your boss," Kunsel said softly. "Because by the time you do, all of SOLDIER will know. This can go one of two ways - you guys can help us out, and we can handle this quiet, or we can burn every last ShinRa stronghold down until we find him. Clear?"

"Clear," she whispered.

"Atta girl." He smiled icily. "You go on now, have a word. You've got a whole hour before I go public with this. See how far that fanclub we made reaches."

She nodded, swallowing hard. "I should go."

"You should," he agreed.

Cissnei nodded again, taking a few steps backwards before making herself turn quickly and head back for the elevator, a couple dozen mako eyes burning into her back. She got her phone out at once, dialing Veld directly. "Director? We've got a problem."

There was a lot of blood on Veld's hands. More than he'd like was innocent, people he didn't think had earned their fate, but he went along with it because… well, ShinRa had his leash.

Nibelheim was one of those times.

He'd known, going into Nibelheim, that it was wrong. That was the whole reason he'd handled it himself; his hands were never going to be clean, he could at least spare his Turks that.

Funny enough, he'd never seen this coming.

The bond between soulmates was a private thing, something that varied from pair to pair; you never knew what it was that had told them 'this is the one.' He'd had a name on his wrist, scarred over now. And Kunsel, apparently, could feel sensation, if it was strong enough. Like pain.

What have you done, Hojo?

He supposed it didn't matter, not in the position they were in. Because he didn't doubt for one moment Kunsel was serious. SOLDIER had lost too much, and they knew who was to blame. They were done. And if a third of SOLDIER would leave for Genesis, who had been a charismatic leader but an acquired taste, the rest of them would leave for Zack, who had been a charismatic leader who had never met someone he wouldn't reach out to.

They couldn't afford that loss, not for Hojo's petty little game of vengeance.

Of course, he could take it to the President, but it would be… safer, easier, to settle this on his own, and leave that as a last resort. He didn't want the board involved in this.

So, forty five minutes after Cissnei called him, he came up to the SOLDIER floor, to be met by enough SOLDIERs to literally tear the building apart by hand, if they felt like it. The anger in the room was a palpable thing, and several sets of mako eyes had a warning tint of green from how wound up they were.

Kunsel was one of them, sporting a full, furious ring of it; if he was any angrier, he'd be on the verge of a limit break. "So, Director. What's the deal?"

"I'll be taking you to Nibelheim personally," Veld said. "You'll get your soulmate back, as long as you let me handle the politics."

Kunsel eyed him a long moment, then offered a hand to shake.

He could feel the sensors in his hand protest. Had it been his flesh one, he'd have been in pain.

Judging from the Second's smile, that was fully intentional. "So long as I get Zack back, no strings attached, I'd be happy to. I don't want any fuss, Director. I just want him back."

"Deal."