Chapter 15

Disclaimer: I own nothing of the final fantasy universe or the characters there in

A/N: Just so everyone knows, when I was ranting hysterically about killing Zack off, I didn't mean it. I promise he will live to see the end of this story. He was just getting on my last nerve when I was trying to finish that chapter, and I might have lost my temper. I'll try not to let it happen again.

Also, I need a good first name for Hojo. I can't seem to find an official one anywhere (maybe I'm just looking in the wrong places), but I need one. If anyone would like to help with suggestions that would be very helpful. *edit: I've given up on Hojo's name. Maybe it'll be mentioned in the remake.

Thirdly, does anyone know what that leather half-skirt Cloud wears is called and what's its function is?

'Indicates direct thoughts'

I will remind everyone that this is not a slashfic, but it may lead to it in the sequel.

Everything was silent. The various machines were on their sleep cycle. The lights were dim, giving the lab a dusky but not dark feel. Hojo had left the labs an hour ago and Vincent found a roost somewhere above in the rafters. Probably meditating or whatever he does in place of sleep.

With the shrapnel out, the piercing sharp pain he'd had to live with for the last few days was muted down to a deep throbbing ache that would be gone by morning. It wouldn't last long until the next injury, but Cloud would take the relief while he could.

Finally! Cloud could try to sleep. It was all he wanted at this point. All he had to do now was lay there and let his body (and the mako) do all the work. Although, he doubted he actually could get any rest. The Professor kept his left arm, leg, and chest strapped down. "For his own safety" Hojo had said. His right side was at least free. 'Small favors' he snorted to himself. Still…it beat the alternative.

Cloud sighed and forced all of his muscles to relax. The next phase would be starting soon, and this might be the last chance to do so until it ended. He was NOT looking forward to the next part of his tasks. The warrior in him hated to be stationary, and this would require him to keep still for long periods of time within Hojo's territory. Nevertheless, the sooner he started, the sooner it would be over with. Procrastinating would only delay everything else, and he didn't have enough time to waste it frivolously. It was part of the plan. He just needed to remember that it wouldn't be the worst thing that ever happened to him while under Hojo's hands. It wouldn't even reach the top five.

"I had assumed that you were just avoiding me, then Soldier Fair informed me you were down here."

Cloud's entire body tried to jerk up, but the bindings prevented him from following through. It left his right side flailing wildly for a second before he got the panic under control. He desperately gasped for breath. As soon as he calmed down he looked up and gazed into the very amused green eyes of none other than Sephiroth. If there was ever a time for one of Hojo's crazy freak lab monsters to attack, it would be now…right now…please.

Damn his luck.

Sephiroth was standing just behind his head. They stared at each other for a few seconds before the Soldier seemed to see what he wanted, then moved out of his sight completely. Cloud listened intently to the sounds of metal scraping against metal until Sephiroth returned with a chair. He just barely stopped a twitch when the other man positioned the chair at his bound side level with the bandaging.

Cloud glanced up to regain control and caught the subtle glow of Vincent's eyes. The gunman was there and observing them both. A glance to the right showed where his sword still rested where he placed it earlier. He wasn't completely without defenses. He could do this. Cloud just wished he wasn't so exposed. Vulnerability never sat well with him, especially when he couldn't afford to be vulnerable.

It wasn't easy holding onto his panic as Sephiroth sat there silently observing him. The only comfort he could take was in the security of Vincent's watchful gaze over them. Though he would have words with the gunman later for not alerting him to Sephiroth's presence beforehand. He knew Vincent knew the second the door opened, nothing got past the former Turk.

Cloud felt the faintest brush of pressure around the edges of the bandage. While his mind was trying to find its center, Sephiroth was curiously examining the wound. Cloud watched the Soldier trace around the injury and he didn't once look up at him. Was Sephiroth deliberately giving him time to calm down? He let out a soft gasp and allowed his muscles to jump slightly when Sephiroth brushed along a particularly sensitive patch of skin just above his hipbone.

"Did I hurt you?" Sephiroth asked softly. The Soldier paused his movement, but didn't lift his hand from Cloud's side.

"No Sir. It's just ticklish." Cloud whispered roughly. His throat still sore from earlier.

"Hmm," Sephiroth focused back onto Cloud's face still without removing his hand "Was this Professor Hojo's work?"

Why was he asking? Why was he even here? What did it matter if Hojo decided to cut him up and patch him back together again? It was simply part of being am experiment of the Doc's.

Still, Cloud saw no reason to lie "Of a sort. I took in shrapnel when the Helo went down."

Sephiroth frowned "Fair reported the crash, he didn't report that anyone was injured."

"He didn't know." He didn't want Zack to get blamed for something he wasn't involved in.

"How was that possible? It doesn't appear to be something easily missed."

"I hid the wound. Bad habit of mine, hiding things like that. I've been working on it."

'Great…he was starting to babble.'

"So it seems."

Without asking, Sephiroth carefully removed the bandages from the wound. Hojo didn't bother to stich the 'V' cuts he made as they would heal on their own without any interference. But the edges were still raw and bleeding sluggishly, though they were already starting to knit back together. Cloud watched closely as Sephiroth gently traced the air over the incision. He swallowed back the vulnerability the exposure left him feeling.

"You heal remarkably fast." Sephiroth commented as he watched the flesh slowly knit itself back together. It was a disturbing sight, skin and muscle pulling itself together again. There was something very unnatural about it. It used to freak Barret out all the time.

"Yeah, you can 'thank' Hojo for that gift." Cloud snarled.

Sephiroth cocked his head at Cloud's harsh tone and he took a calming breath. It wouldn't do to vent his frustrations at the Soldier. At this moment Sephiroth was still Shinra's lapdog and he go around showing dissent to its most powerful Soldier.

"I gather you didn't consent to your procedures." There was an odd note in Sephiroth's tone but Cloud was too tired to fully pick up on it.

"Does the Doc seem to strike you as the type of person who waits for someone to consent first when there's something he wants to try?"

Sephiroth smiled slightly bitterly at him and in that moment, they shared a perfect understanding of each other. They both were test subjects of a mad man with little choice but to accept or to fight it. And fighting was almost never an option.

The longing to get as close to this man as he could suddenly struck him harder than he's experienced in years. The siren call of Reunion echoing into his very bones, filling him with the joy and pain of joining with him in that one precious second. It took every ounce of will to keep from confessing everything to the man he was made after.

"Do you know what he's trying to do to you?" Sephiroth asked softly.

"Yeah, I know what he did to me," Cloud sighed "and I know he failed to reach his main goal for me."

"Can you tell me?"

Cloud rubbed his face tiredly with his right hand. He must be more tired than he thought if he was willing to have this conversation. He needed to watch his words carefully. Yet he couldn't deny Sephiroth at least some of the answers he was so desperately searching for.

"You're not gonna like it." Cloud cautioned.

"There is little he does that I do."

Cloud caught his gaze. Telling him was probably a very bad idea, but he liked the thought of Sephiroth knowing. The faint traces of the remnants echoed in him, trying to constantly draw him to this man, and Sephiroth to him. He hated the call of Reunion, but he couldn't deny how he craved to have Sephiroth's attention only on him.

"He was trying to build another copy of you."

Sephiroth pulled back drastically in shock. "What?" he demanded.

"Should anything happen to you, he wanted to have an exact copy of you. A perfect replica down to your memories and thoughts." Cloud shrugged with his free shoulder. "It didn't work the way he wanted it to."

Sephiroth jumped out of his chair and started pacing back and forth by the table. The fast action caused Cloud to twitch and tense again. It seemed to take Sephiroth forever (though in reality it was probably under a minute) to settle down again. By then, Cloud's nerves were once again frazzled.

"Why you?" Sephiroth bit out as he took his seat again. The waves of rage coming off of him were almost visible.

Cloud grimaced in pain of those first real memories he has. Those tiny snippets of dreams from Hojo's lab in Nibelheim. The constant unrelenting cold of steel and mako.

"I honestly don't know why he chose me." Cloud finally forced out.

Cloud felt Sephiroth's hard stare on him but this time he couldn't meet his eyes. He kept his head turned away from Sephiroth until he heard the other man sigh. He shifted just enough to see Sephiroth lean back and rub his forehead whether from fatigue or stress he couldn't tell. His long silver hair a dangling mess obscuring his face. He looked so human.

"I am sorry I can't give you the answers." Cloud whispered quietly.

"I understand." Sephiroth whispered just as quietly.

Nothing more was spoken between them for the rest of that night. Sephiroth never left his side until morning. He just silently examined the injury while it quickly healed under his watch. Cloud, for the first time since he got sent back, slowly drifted into to true sleep.

Once he was sure the boy was truly asleep, Sephiroth quietly gathered the materials necessary to clean off the cut now that it finally sealed completely. He knew from long experience that dried tacky blood on the skin was an unpleasant thing to wake up to. He didn't question why he stayed with the sleeping blond, or why he cared somewhat about his comfort. This stranger suffered the same fate he had. The only difference was his stretched over his entire lifetime and the boy's suffering was compressed into a couple of weeks. It was anyone's guess which one could be considered worse.

The faint sound of moving fabric let Sephiroth know the stranger that had been hiding in the ceiling finally decided to come down. The being had been there since he stepped into the room and it was only Cloud's constant reassurance of its presence that kept him from lashing out at it. If what he said was true, then Cloud was made for him and he didn't like sharing what was his.

Sephiroth watched the tall dark man appear out of the shadows and silently approach them. An impressive feat when he saw the metal shoes and flamboyant clothing the stranger was wearing. He moved cautiously yet fearlessly closer.

"That's close enough." Sephiroth told him coldly as he stood up from the chair, pulling power into him in case he needed to fight.

The stranger stopped just shy of touching distance from the sleeping boy. His tattered red cape continued to flow forward on its own until it brushed against the table before settling down. It was a dramatic move that even Genesis would find overly showy.

"Who are you?" Sephiroth demanded.

The stranger ignored his query; instead he stared down at Strife as though the blonde held some deep mystery. Sephiroth bristled at the attention he was giving the boy. The stranger's head cocked slightly in bird-like curiosity as if the boy had done some new and interesting trick.

"He sleeps."

Sephiroth narrowed his eyes "Obviously."

The stranger flicked his crimson eyes to meet his before returning to passively watch Strife again. Sephiroth wasn't foolish enough not to know that the other was tracking his every breath. Everything about him screamed threat and Sephiroth didn't want him so close to the vulnerable boy. Sephiroth drew more power into him cursing the fact that Hojo forbade Masamune to be brought down here. The boy's own sword was in that back but he didn't want to chance leaving him to the other's mercy to fetch it.

"Who are you?" Sephiroth demanded again.

"Vincent."

Sephiroth didn't like how closely Vincent was watching the blonde. The stranger didn't have the right. He laid a proprietary hand on the boy's trapped shoulder, allowing some of the energy to flow into him. Vincent followed the movement without shifting a centimeter. He was aware he was behaving irrationally but he couldn't seem to make himself care. There was something about the other man that set him on edge.

"I'm not a threat," Vincent told him calmly "but you feel that I am."

"Yes." Sephiroth agreed.

Vincent finally turned to face him fully. The man's bloody gaze held his demonic ones in a perfectly balanced horrifying match of wills. A match he would not lose. He mentally shifted through what materia he brought with him. He could cast Wall onto Cloud and hit 'Vincent' with Hell-Blizzaga. It would make a mess but the boy should stay safe.

"Do you understand why?"

"He's mine." Sephiroth snarled possessively.

Vincent nodded "He is yours. Hojo made him to be so."

So the stranger knew what was going on, at least somewhat.

"Do you understand why?" Vincent asked again.

Sephiroth sneered "As my replacement."

Vincent side-stepped closer to the boy and Sephiroth couldn't stop from bristling more at the man's presence. He prepared the debilitating spell, ready to cast at the man. The materia on his bracer glowed hot with the power he held ready.

Vincent stopped and gave him a meaningful look.

"He is more than that to you." Something dark surfaced in Vincent's smooth monotone.

Sephiroth looked down as Strife's body started twitching. The power he'd been pouring into him reacting strangely with his body. It seemed to be both rejecting it and calling out for more. He started petting and kneading the flesh under his hand absentmindedly, and the boy settled back down. The energy blending into him seamlessly. While the muscles under his hand were hard even in their relaxed state, the boy's skin was incredibly soft. He didn't want to stop petting it.

"I don't understand this impulse." Sephiroth said reluctantly.

Vincent observed his actions for a moment "What is it driving you to do?"

"Do?"

"Do you want to kill him" Vincent shot him a sly look "or perhaps you want to kiss him?"

Sephiroth glared at the impudence of the other man. Vincent met his glare head on. He had to give him credit for that, there weren't many who could meet his gaze without flinching. It still didn't give him leave to make such base insinuations.

He thought on just what he was feeling and no matter which way he turned it, he couldn't make sense of it. Sephiroth looked down at his hand where it touched Strife's shoulder. He was still kneading it without being aware of it. He didn't stop.

"I…want to possess him." He finally answered. It felt like a drug was seeping into his bloodstream. Vincent was watching him closely and Sephiroth sneered at him. "I…want to…pull him into me and lock him in forever. I want him under my control and protection away from outside influence. It's compelling."

Vincent jerked back at his description. The slight tinge of fear on his face was the most emotion Sephiroth has yet to see. It was not a reaction Sephiroth expected. The other man backed up away from them shaking his head.

"Reunion." He whispered distractedly. Sephiroth almost missed it.

"What does that mean?"

"Nothing…it doesn't matter anymore."

Vincent turned away suddenly and walked back into the shadows. His cloak once again flowing violently on invisible wind. Before he disappeared completely, he stopped and cocked his head over his shoulder. He didn't meet Sephiroth's this time, just stared in his general direction as his cloak moved organically around him. Sephiroth didn't move from Cloud's side. Whatever Vincent was could still pose a threat to the sleeping blond and he wouldn't risk it.

"The feeling…should dissipate when he wakes, or with distance."

After that, Vincent vanished completely from Sephiroth's senses. He scanned the area but he couldn't find any trace of the other man. That more than anything else was worrying to the First. If he could blind himself to Sephiroth, just how powerful was he? And what was he doing down here with his blond?

It didn't matter right now. Sephiroth sat back down next to his sleeping blond puzzling over both conversations he had this night. He managed to get a few of his questions answered, but now he had a whole new mystery to solve. It was fine; he had time to solve it.

His new pet wasn't going anywhere soon.