Author's Note: I'm sorry for these short chapters everyone but we are progressing with the story as quickly as I can. I haven't had the most time to write but I want to keep giving you all updates. Hope you enjoy!

Markin: Writing effective bad guys has always been something I wanted to learn to do and I think I finally pulled it off with Rald. You can always like a bad guy, it's why so many people like Sephiroth in the original games, but I've found it infinitely harder to write for a character that is genuinely a horrible human being with real goals and ambitions that are as understandable as they are warped. When I started writing Rald and found myself dreading any scene I knew he was going to be in, that's when I knew I had made a proper monster out of a man.

I do not own FF7 or any of its characters. Talin, Unit 28, and some other side characters are mine.

As always, I hope you enjoy and please R&R.


Chapter 61

~You have my word. I'l-~

"I tire of this hide and seek boy. You will come to me! Now!" The reviled man's words wouldn't have stopped Sephiroth from finishing his thought, but as the barked order echoed off the walls, the General found himself violently repelled from his trainee.

The powerful crash of something hitting the link connecting them staggered the SOLDIER and he grit his teeth to prevent any sound from giving away his presence. He hoped he'd been successful because he couldn't hear anything over the ringing in his ears. The static that had enveloped his senses took only seconds to clear, but by then, it was too late.

Talin was gone, body and mind, and when Seph reached for his Lieutenant in the Void he couldn't find him.

"-ou're not crawling." Over the slowly fading ringing, he heard the thud of something hitting the hard stone floor and Talin's pained gasp. Silently, the 1st moved to the entrance of the cavern and had to force himself to remain still instead of launching at the sneering man that stood above the teen. Patient as he was, this situation was no easier on him than it would have been for Zack, but the one true thing that held him firmly in place was shock.

What the hell is... Why... His disbelief doubled when Talin didn't dodge the kick to his ribs. Or the second one... Get up! Again, he reached for Talin, pushing his mind in a straight line at his charge... The spike of pain that shot through his skull made Sephiroth recoil. It wasn't the worst he'd ever felt, but it still made his vision spin.

The sudden headache was easily ignored but the static from before was back and took a great deal longer to clear this time. When he looked back into the cavern, he saw Talin standing and had a moment of hope that the redhead was going to fight back. It was short-lived, as he heard Rald start slinging questions that the teen answered slowly at first but then with more haste.

"Shin-Ra. T-to become a SOLDIER." The tremble in Talin's voice wasn't unexpected as he listened to the teen reply, but why was he just standing there? Why was he answering questions instead of beating this man senseless?

"How dare you even think of degrading her gift by becoming one of those abominations!" This time when Talin was struck, Sephiroth saw both the young fighter's true emotion and the true horror of what was happening to him. The teen reared back to attack, eyes blazing with fury, ... and then he was frozen mid-swing. Somehow, Talin was being restrained, invisibly coerced, and helpless to deny the whims of his step-father. The click of this one last piece snapping into place made the picture all too clear.

This is what you were truly afraid of... It was the 'Why' for every panic-inducing nightmare and memory. Why he'd been unable to leave and had to drug Rald the night he'd summoned the Ifrit. Why he'd kept following orders and killing...

Knowing now that Rald had still been alive when the teen left on the trader's cart the next morning, Sephiroth realized that Talin was extremely fortunate not to have been unconscious longer. The older man could have easily woken up first and ordered him back before he could get away.

"Looks like I'll have to re-break you to your leash." The glow in Talin's eyes, which had died after being frozen, flared white-hot. The General, just about to step in, halted as a disturbing possibility crossed his mind.

That word, Leash, and Talin's reaction to it... was this the reason that his Cadet had been so hesitant, almost frightened when he'd suggested the Link? Was it a mental connection? It would explain a great deal if it was, including why Talin had instinctually reacted with violence at Seph's first, experimental brush across his mind in the Void.

The 1st's sharp hearing caught the scarlessly restrained sounds the teen was making, no doubt wanting to be a wrathful tirade, and saw Talin's body trembling from the strength of his struggle to be free. The desperation, rage, and fear that Sephiroth knew his Lieutenant was likely feeling at being helpless was too much for him to ignore.

Seeing Prishin moving his way, happily following orders to go wake the settlement, was reason enough for him to intervene. He took no pleasure in cutting down the disfigured old hunter, but he couldn't let their presence here be known. It did, however, also appease his need to help Talin take vengeance.

He made is a faster death than the man disserved, but the sound of his cut-off shout of surprise did its job in drawing the attention of his main target.

"Prishin, what-" The annoyed tone in Rald's voice cutting off in a gasp of shock made the General almost smirk. He knew his sudden entrance with his eyes glowing, sword drawn, and standing over the slain man, was enough to have most shaking in their boots, but he wanted Rald to be more than just scared...

"I'm afraid I had a bit of a grudge against this 'Prishin' of yours..." Seph let his voice fill with biting frost, his animosity clear, and he watched Rald recoil in alarm at his appearance and scarcely controlled horror at the death of his minion. That was a sight Sephiroth did enjoy.

"Who are you? How dare you enter here! Talin! Protect me and get rid of him!"

The panic and desperate struggle for control was clear in the teen's eyes as he turned to face his mentor. Muscles trembling, teeth clenched tight enough to cause pain, Talin fought as his body was pulled along by the strings of whatever compulsion Rald had him under. Fighting Sephiroth would be one thing, he could never hope to win a sparring match without a handicap, but this was different. The order pushing him forward wasn't to just fight... it was to kill.

The abhorrence of that though, of hurting his General, was powerful enough that one of those puppet strings started to fray and when the younger fighter shifted down into a fighting crouch, the movement was rough. He was close to breaking past the order, he knew it, and pushed harder. Throwing himself painfully against the invisible barrier and ripping at anything he could find weighing down his mind.

"Enough of this defiance! Now obey!" Rald's voice boomed throughout the chamber, the echo muffling Talin's sharp intake of breath, and then the redhead's world went quiet.

Seph had been watching, ready to defend himself if needed, but also looking for any sign that his Lieutenant might break free. He saw Talin's face go from concentration, to pain, and then... vacant... and the SOLDIER had never felt a chill reach as deeply as it did at that moment.

Was he still there? Was Talin still even conscious or aware of-

The glow of Mako wasn't enough warning this time and, before the 1st could finish his thought, the teen was within striking range. The slam of steel echoed like screams in the enclosed space. Every attack was backed by Mako and it proved just how much Talin had held back while training, but those strikes must have been hurting the teen as well. Like attacking a boulder with a bat, the recoil was damaging his body with each clash of their swords.

"Talin... Cadet!" Nothing. No hesitation. No thought or emotion registered in the bright eyes, just a glazed, blank expression and the continued onslaught of attacks. It was his Cadet's greatest fear and the General could see why.

While the silver 1st was defending against the redhead, Rald was all but laughing from the farthest wall of the cave. "Such a waste of effort. He can't hear you. Even if he could, it wouldn't matter. He's mine!" The SOLDIER wanted nothing more than to silence the revolting man and end his control over Talin, but the younger fighter was there every time he moved in that direction. What was worse, he was throwing himself in front of Sephiroth's blade to take the hit meant for his step-father.

After the old man saw the General divert his own attack to avoid striking Talin the first time, he knew he was safe, and continued to use the boy as a living shield. Rald might not know the teen's limits like Sephiroth did, but he knew he couldn't go on fighting forever. With a chuckle and a voice full of a twisted pride, he called out to his ward.

"I think you've had enough fun, my boy. Kill him and be done with it."

Only because he was looking directly at Talin did the 1st see the dimmest glow of emotion flit through his Lieutenant's eyes. Panic and fear.


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See you next week!