fanfic by volly
final fantasy vii (c) square enix
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chapter three: try? bleeding is believing
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forgot how to cry
what's up with that?
you're hurting me
"Zack?" he whispered.
Zack stirred weakly, cracking open an eye. "Hey," he rasped, trying to ease himself into a more comfortable position. "G'morning."
"What did he do to you?"
"The usual. No big deal." Zack attempted to laugh, but it came out as more of a pained cough. He winced. "Come on, don't worry about me. Did you sleep well?"
"Stop trying to change the subject!" Cloud knelt in front of his friend, touching each of Zack's wounds worriedly. Zack twitched, but didn't attempt to pull back. "Damnit! What did Hojo do to you? Tell me!"
"Just...beat me up a bit. I'm okay, seriously." Zack eased into the protective hug Cloud gave him and leaned wearily against the cool stone wall of their cell. The stone was rough, but nicely icy against his burning wounds. "Besides...I'm more worried about you."
Cloud stared at him, but it was now a different stare from the one Zack was used to. Cloud had changed, and it was definitely not for the better. His eyes, once a soft aqua hue, now glowed brightly in an alarming shade of clouded sapphire. Mako blue. Hojo, in fits of delight of having acquired such excellent Sephiroth substitutes, had pumped insane amounts of the substance into his two newest lab rats. Zack, being a first-class SOLDIER, was rather used to the treatment and resigned himself blearily to the scientist's will. Cloud, however, as he was still a grunt--and therefore unfamiliar with the Mako treatment--had been screaming, thrashing in pain as the bubbling green plasma enveloped his body.
The memory still haunted him. The first time Cloud was subjected to Mako.
"Don't be." Cloud's voice brought Zack back to the present, and he blinked, realizing that he'd been blankly staring at the frighteningly cold crystalline depths of his friend's new eyes. "I...I think I'm getting used to it now." And here Cloud gave a bitter laugh, one that set off warning bells in Zack's head. "It's ironic, isn't it? Mako...it's supposed to make us stronger, but we're so weak, just so weak here..."
"That's only when you're dumped into it for days on end, like that bastard's been doing to us." Zack hissed when a cutting flare of pain clawed at his ribs. Cloud drew back, looking both worried and frustrated when he realized he couldn't offer any relief from the pain. "He's seriously abusing the stuff."
"Won't we die at this rate?" Something shattered in Zack's chest when he heard the hopeful note in Cloud's voice.
But he couldn't summon up the energy to reprimand his friend for such suicidal thoughts. "No, I don't think so. Hojo's smarter than he looks, the filthy rat. Ever wonder why he chucks us in here instead of keeping us in those tubes all the time?" Zack shook his head, black locks swaying, the tips still dripping with sweat--or was it blood?--from his most recent torture session. "It's a sort of resting period. He's waiting for us to recover before he comes back and drags us off to experiment on again."
Cloud bit his lip, settling himself next to his dark-haired cellmate but taking care not to move Zack more than was necessary. He looked beyond horrifying. One of the SOLDIER's eyes was swelling, his arm was lying in an awkward position that suggested a broken bone, and countless cuts arched across his lanky body. The cross mark on his jaw, inflicted by Cloud in what seemed like ages ago, had also been opened once again, traced almost teasingly by the new, raw rim of blood. It was almost as if Hojo himself wanted to remind Cloud of what he had done when he had lost control. He shook his head, but rubbed a thumb across the morbid injury, wiping away the scarlet ichor and making Zack shudder in more than discomfort.
"You look terrible."
Zack laughed hoarsely. Cloud's face twisted at his friend's efforts of mirth. "Zack! I don't mean that as a joke! How do you take it? How can you be so casual?"
Zack immediately sobered. "It doesn't do any good to angst. Besides, I'm going to get out of here one day. I'll find a way to escape. I'll take you with me, too." Zack coiled his usable arm around Cloud's shoulders. Cloud's spirit was still frail from killing Sephiroth, and Zack kept forgetting how easily he could be broken. Zack kept himself strong and optimistic, if only to help Cloud, if only to mend him everytime Hojo broke him again and again, broke him the countless, infinite times that he did. "We'll break out of here someday, I promise. We'll be free. Hojo's bound to make a mistake one day, he'll let something or another slip, and then we'll fly, mmkay?"
"Okay..." Cloud whimpered, roughly pulling Zack to him like an one would do a beloved object of comfort. Zack grimaced at the needful gesture--Cloud's coarse shirt rubbed most uncomfortably against his untended injuries--but returned the embrace as best as he could do with one functioning arm. He was the only thing that was real anymore, the only thing that Cloud could ever depend on. Everything else had melted long ago into the ocean of pain and hopelessness that had become Cloud's life since the Nibelheim incident. Cloud needed comfort and affection, craved and devoured it more greedily and desperately as one would food.
Anyone would in this hellhouse that called itself Hojo's laboratory.
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massacre
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Fire.
Cloud stared in horror as the greedy flames consumed his hometown, flickering tendrils snaking out into the cold expanse of the winter sky. Townspeople ran about erratically, trying to pull treasured posessions and family members from crumbling buildings. A young child collapsed where he stood--he might've fainted from lack of oxygen or overheating, or perhaps even died of pure shock and terror. Cloud wouldn't know.
He ran into the fiery inferno that had been, just little more than a half hour ago, Nibelheim. Not knowing exactly what he wanted to achieve, he hesitated, eyes flicking from one catastrophe to another. Damnit! What was happening? How did Sephiroth and Zack let this happen?
"Hey! HEY YOU! SOLDIER!"
Cloud whirled. Tifa Lockheart was running towards him, wild-eyed and hysterical, cowboy hat lost and forgotten. He could smell burnt hair, and her gloved hands were caked with carbon. "What is it?" He nearly shouted out Tifa's name, but bit down the impulse. His helmet was still on--with it, he was totally unrecognizable.
"Come with me!" Tifa seized Cloud's wrist, locking it in what could best be described as a deathgrip. "I know where he is! Sephiroth! He's the one behind this!"
"Sephiroth!" Cloud gasped, but didn't have time to interrogate his childhood friend further. Tifa sprinted forwards madly out of town. Dimly Cloud realized that she was pulling him into the forest, where the ice rimming the trees' leafless boughs were already starting to melt due to the heat of Nibelheim's bonfire.
She was leading him back to the bridge.
"They're at the reactor!" Tifa was hyperventilating badly, and she stumbled into a halt at the canyon's edge, fumbling for a globe of Materia on her belt.
"You didn't rebuild the bridge?"
Tifa stared at the helmeted SOLDIER, surprise written clearly on her soot-streaked features. "How...how did you know there was a bridge here!"
Cloud stiffened, cursing at his slip. "Uh...someone I know told me. How are we going to get across?"
"Like this!" Tifa triumphantly yanked a glowing orb from her hip. "THUNDARA!"
And a bolt of lightning streaked down from somewhere in the heavens, slicing into the heart of a towering pine rooted near the two. Cloud swore and leapt lightly out of the way as the tree shuddered and began to fall towards them. A mighty crash sounded at its landing, and Cloud stared in amazement at the new bridge Tifa had summoned up. The girl had truly exceptional aim.
"Hurry!" Tossing the spent Materia away into the snow, Tifa jumped nimbly onto the fallen trunk and dashed across. Cloud took a breath before following her.
He made it across safely, and couldn't help but sigh in relief as he felt solid ground under his boots once again. Tifa gave him a strange look, but said nothing other than, "This way!" before taking off again. Cloud hurried after her, still pondering over what Tifa had dared to accuse Sephiroth of.
Sephiroth? How could Sephiroth have done this? Cloud had seen how cold and harsh Sephiroth had been when they first met to plan the mission. However, he never thought that the general would do anything like this. And why would he? What was Sephiroth trying to achieve?
How dare he burn down Nibelheim! Cloud furrowed his brows, mind whirling furiously. His hometown was going to be torched to the ground. Everyone he knew would be dead or seriously wounded...what would happen to his mother?
"Goddamnit! The door's bolted shut!" Tifa rummaged on her belt for more Materia. "Sephiroth, you son of a b--BLIZZARD!" she shut her eyes tightly against the whirlwind of ice that blasted out from her palm, solidly freezing the steel door over. Cloud gave the frozen obstacle a vicious kick and it splintered. "Thanks! Come on, we've got to--ohgods!" her face paled and she collapsed to the ground next to a body on the floor. "Father!"
And sure enough, Cloud recognized the fallen man as Tifa's father, the very same man who had struck out so furiously against Cloud as a young boy, enraged over the condition of his daughter and convinced of Cloud's uselessness in saving her. The memory hit him in full force, and he knelt next to Tifa, staring blankly at the lifeless face, whose features were now carved not in the familiar, harsh lines of fury but in shock. Tifa gave a heaving sob, her shoulders shaking. "Dad, oh dad..."
More to tear himself away from the unexpected sight of the corpse than anything else, Cloud stumbled to his feet, scanning the depths of the reactor urgently. Where was Sephiroth? Where was...he stopped and stared in horror at the scene unfolding a few yards away, by the neon glow of the Mako river.
Zack faced off against Sephiroth on the catwalk, Buster Sword in hand. With blinding speed, the silver-haired general launched an attack, Masamune blade sweeping out in a slash intent on slicing the first-class in two.
"Zack!" Cloud raced towards his friend and the maddened Sephiroth. Zack threw out his enormous sword in a desperate block, and the two blades met in a deafening clash of cruel steel. The impact was so great that it knocked both weapons from the grips of their respective owners. Cloud watched numbly as Sephiroth's Masamune flew out, clanging against the ground in front of the walkway's entrance. Zack's Buster, however, landed almost right at Cloud's feet, and he grabbed at it, hands closing around the now-familiar handle. He had to go and separate the two before they killed one another...
Sephiroth swung, a gloved fist smashing into the side of Zack's head viciously. Zack flew back from the impact, face screwing in pain, blood running down the edge of his mouth. Before he could leap into a more defensive position, however, his attacker struck again, this time treating the SOLDIER to a kick square in the face, then another in the stomach, in the blink of an eye.
All the wind was knocked out of him, and Zack gasped as he collapsed against a wall. Satisfied, Sephiroth stepped over Zack's prone body and advanced towards a pod at the far side of the reactor.
Tifa shoved Cloud aside brutally, features twisted in abnormal, vindictive fury. She snatched up Sephiroth's Masamune and flew across the bridge, a shriek tearing from her lips as she prepared to run the silver-haired general through with his own sword.
But Sephiroth was far too powerful for Tifa to handle, even if he was weaponless. The SOLDIER general easily sidestepped the hasty attack and grabbed at Tifa's free arm, jerking it towards him, reeling Tifa closer. Once this was accomplished, he could easily free the Masamune, and did so, his free gloved hand twisting Tifa's arm savagely. His slender sword fell to the ground and Tifa gasped in disbelief, twirling back from Sephiroth's grip and staring at her suddenly broken wrist.
He had to stop Sephiroth from getting the Masamune. Cloud raced forwards, trying to snatch up the hilt of the famous weapon. Sephiroth was faster, however, and he scooped up the sword effortlessly, dismissing Cloud with a elbow to the face. Cloud stumbled back with a bloody nose, dropping the Buster sword to the ground, and Sephiroth smirked before gliding across to where Tifa stood. The Masamune flashed out, an unrecognizable silver streak, plowing into Tifa's shoulder, right above the heart, ripping almost entirely through her slim frame.
Tifa gasped and buckled, still clutching her injured hand. She keeled over, sprawling out onto the ground, much as she did in the collapse on the bridge. And for a second Cloud was transported back at the ravine, back to the disbelief and horror and the falling crimson leaves...
Sephiroth gave a soft laugh and turned away to once again regard the strange-looking containment across the suspension, daintily stepping across to reach his goal, jade-green eyes glinting with a manic light. And in that one moment Cloud felt nothing but total, undiluted rage towards the man who had single-handedly annihilated his hometown and incapacitated his two best--if not only--friends on the Planet. He had taken away everything, absolutely everything.
He picked up the Buster and charged.
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/massacre
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"Hello, professor."
Hojo peered into the chamber, squinting in the darkness. "You're alive, hmm? How lovely." But his smirk suggested otherwise. Cloud twitched.
Zack shrugged. "Yeah. I'm hard to kill. Not that you were trying to, right? You need us alive." At least, he hoped so. Sometimes, though, he wondered if he was only saying that for confirmation of their own survival--the doctor was unpredictable, and though temper tantrums were a regular habit of his, he seemed to be much more unhinged than usual nowadays. Apparently the scientist's efforts of trying to create perfect Sephiroths of the two SOLDIERs was failing, and Hojo was not pleased. Zack rubbed at his eyes, scowling when one refused to open more than a mere crack. A black eye atop of everything else. He really needed this. "You're up early."
"I hope you didn't mean to sound so accusing." Hojo smiled unkindly. He bounced a ring of keys in his palm, and Cloud's eyes widened at the telltale sound. "You're going for a walk. Both of you."
Great. This could only mean one of two things: the laboratory, or the tubes. Though the lab--the torture chamber in which Hojo carried out his many experiments--was a very undesirable place, the tubes and the Mako treatments were pure hell. Despite Cloud's insistance that he was familiarizing himself with the Mako, he always fell into either delirious pain or a blank, unresponsive stupor upon initiation.
Hojo taking one of them would result in torture within the lab. Taking both was torture by tube. Zack tensed and he almost swore that he could already hear Cloud's screams.
The professor opened the door with a click, and the first-class struck, lunging out of the room and at Hojo, desperate to disable him as quickly as possible. Zack's fist slammed against the side of Hojo's face, knocking his glasses to the ground and very nearly smashing his cheek in.
If only Hojo was alone. Before Zack could recoil for another attack, another scientist from behind him had stepped in and pricked the specimen with a needle. Instantly he felt his muscles clench and freeze, his weakened body tense up, and he dropped to his knees, spasming furiously as he tried to get up again.
Tranquillizers. Damn.
"You never learn." Hojo rubbed at the edge of his mouth with a sleeve, scowling at the sight of blood on his clothes before glancing around vainly in search of his fallen spectacles. "Everytime you attempt escape, it never succeeds. What will it take for you to give up, Specimen? How many times will I foil you until it finally gets through your skull, hmm? Will I have to rip it open and write the words in with your own entrails? Escape. Is. Impossible."
"Keep telling yourself that," Zack spat, shooting livid glares at the lab aide as she fastened restraining cuffs on his ankles and wrists. Another assistant had already approached Cloud, who had learned from Zack's most recent mistake and was reluctantly submitting to the inevitable. "Just keep that in mind when I do find my way out of this goddamned place. You'll eat your own words, then."
Hojo just smirked, ignoring his forgotten glasses and pulling a new pair from inside his breast pocket. "You know, as I do, that there will be punishment for such impudence. And for the breakout attempt, as well as for losing my glasses." He yanked Cloud out of the cell by a manacle, looking the blond over briefly before shrugging. "I had planned, originally, for you two to be swimming in Mako for only a few hours. But this warrants something more. A month, perhaps? A year? Would that be sufficient?"
"A month?" Cloud finally spoke. "No...please..."
"Don't beg to me." The professor suddenly snapped, tugging swiftly at the chain around Cloud's neck and eliciting a pained gasp from the youth. "Tell your friend. He was the one who brought about this about in the first place. Escape, indeed!"
And he stalked off into the darkness, leaving his two apprentices to haul his two specimens after him. If it weren't for the sedatives, Zack would've kicked himself. How could he had been so careless? So impulsive? Hojo knew that Zack would always be harder to break than Cloud, so he reinforced his punishments the only way the scientist knew how: through Cloud.
Because torturing the younger man was just like torturing Zack himself.
Maybe he should give up. After all, if he continued to try and break out, Hojo would only continue to strike out at Cloud, and it would only be a matter of time until the blond snapped, both psychologically and physically. He really shouldn't be risking Cloud's health so, really shouldn't be playing with his friend's life like it didn't really matter in the face of possible freedom.
But. Cloud was going to break anyways in this environment. Escape was necessary.
The sudden searing sensation of Mako enveloped him as he was once again dropped into the infusion chamber. Just a moment later he heard a shriek as Cloud was dipped inside his own prison, but he could only watch helplessly as the adolescent writhed, as if trying to fight off the liquid that was seeping into his mouth, into his bloodstream and very soul. Tendrils of green were already spiraling up his limbs and across his cheeks, down the edges of his eyes like tears would if he was crying. Maybe he was.
"You brought this on him. Remember that." Hojo hissed disdainfully. "Keep this up and you just might kill him. Won't that be nice?" And with a dismissive sneer, the professor whirled and walked out of the room, his two croneys at his side. At that split second Zack would have given anything--even Cloud's life--to be able to close his hands around the man's throat and just snap it.
A shuddering moan. Cloud curled up into a fetal pose, his golden hair--now streaked heavily with the emerald hue of Mako--fluffing over his brow so that only his vibrantly-glowing blue eyes were visible from his face as he tightened into himself. Already he had stopped screeching, though his eyes were growing steadily hazier and unfocused as the pain of being so violated by the substance was fixing itself into his mind, tearing all vestiges of sanity from the ex-recruit.
Zack inhaled deeply. Mako dispelled all drugs instantly from the body, and it was hard to breath when your diaphragm was as flexible as stone. But he felt no relief from being able to move again.
There was only guilt. Which gave way almost immediately to fierce determination.
"I'll get you out." He promised, but already he could see that Cloud was unable of hearing him. "I'll get you out. Just. Soon."
But even as he said those words he had to wonder if he was even capable of holding such a promise. It was just a matter of time until the harsh nature of the laboratory would shatter Cloud. And he wasn't sure if he would be able to break out before that time ran out.
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author's notes
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I know I'm fucking with canon a bit. I don't think that this is very AU though--I just want to mess with the past. I hope you don't mind, but I really don't care if you do.
Funnily enough, I just saw a fic with the same name as this one floating around. Uhm. Okay. Bring on the flames, I s'pose...? I've never seen the story before, but apparently it's older than this one. Hn.
But. Hey. I updated this. And I hate this chapter, too. What a surprise. I still don't know why people even like this thing. Ohwell. It will forever remain a mystery.