Forgive me for the long wait for this chapter. Inspiration struck multiple times, but the characters just wanted to snuggle and sleep. They were also just being lazy chocobos and it was annoying because nothing flowed right. Sorry guys!
Also! WARNING! HINTED SEXUAL ASSAULT AGAINST A CHILD! Sephiroth didn't have the best childhood in this story, and his President took advantage of that to do what he wanted with the young boy. Sephiroth thinks back to those times vaguely and he has major abandonment issues because of his President.
Chapter 6
Cloud didn't know what he was doing when he felt the tug in his chest, but he knew he had to follow it. It felt so much like when Sephiroth was tugging on his mind that he felt frozen at first, fear gripping him, that irrational fear that Sephiroth was going to bear down on him and kill him while he was frozen. When he felt the tug continue calling him but from his chest and not his head he felt an unusual calm, but also an unusual fear. It was this revelation, this sudden understanding, and feeling, that made Cloud leave the bed as silently as possible to not wake Tifa and make his way to where the tug was bringing him.
He didn't realize what was happening, or where he was going until he was entering the barn and saw the angry black hazy fog surrounding the four chocobos, the silver crying out in pain while the other three twisted and groaned in agony. Whatever the fog thing was, it was hurting all of them. Then the feeling of being led by the tug was back, stronger than the last time he felt something like this. He was quick to ignore reasoning and logic, the fear and sorrow the tug was bleeding through was cause enough for Cloud to grip his sword tightly and walk into the haze with a purpose. Pain and bright light had greeted him, and he found himself wandering in an empty white world, the pain getting greater the longer he stayed there.
Then he heard the scream, a scream in a very familiar voice but so much younger. Cloud didn't think, he followed the sound, eventually running into a wall the same color as the floor and ceiling. Cloud paused, the scream was just beyond this white room, but where even was he?
"That worthless bug," came a voice that sounded like his own but filled with so much hate and malice. Cloud gripped his weapon tighter, it had come from directly behind the wall he was standing before. "Will never come. You belong to me. And when I'm done with these two, I will personally snap that disgusting thread and kill that worm who dared to touch you."
A soft whimper, pain in his chest from the thread he had been unconsciously following, and Cloud swung, his sword connecting to the wall so hard it exploded. Cloud was aware by the flinches from everyone in the room before him that the bright light had escaped into the extravagant but welcoming office he found himself in.
A quick second to take in the situation before him showed two familiar-looking men on the ground before the wall to his left, both men with broken bones and in various states of pain. One of them, the black-haired one, had a man in a suit outfit crushing his skull with the fancy shoes the bastard was wearing. The bastard looked like him in every way, except for the missing sword and the suit instead of battle gear.
A glance to his right was what made his anger rise to the point of blissful sharpening calm. Standing closer to a white sofa before a wall of windows, was Zack looking not a bit different from when he died on the cliff and Sephiroth, looking so small and fragile compared to Zack, who was holding his shoulders tightly. It would have made Cloud feel better, Zack protecting Sephiroth, but a second look and letting his hearing come back to him showed that Zack's eyes were unusually bright, even for all of his enhancements, and the bones in Seph's shoulders were being crushed and broken under Zack's grip.
He pulled his eyes away from Zack and Seph to turn his glare to his doppelganger, gripping his sword tightly. "You seem to have things mistaken," he spat out, his voice filled with hate. He could feel the relief coming from the two men on the ground and Seph. This bastard was going to die for hurting his family. "I'm going to kill you and take my family back."
He dashed out and swung at the bastard wearing his face, and the man threw his arm out, a sword appearing in his grasp to block the blow. Cloud got to see the man's face change from rage to shock as the room around them exploded and the bastard was ripped away from their clash as if being dragged away by an unseen force. Cloud was quick to grab the two injured men and throw them through the hole he made into the white expanse instead of the black void they were all being sucked into. As he turned towards Zack and Seph he growled as he saw the bastard wearing his face trying to take Zack and Seph into the darkness with him, and how only Seph was keeping Zack from following the bastard.
A quick burst of speed and then Cloud had his sword buried to the hilt in the bastard with his right arm, his left one wrapped around both Zack and Seph, before he jumped back with the two, dragging his sword out painfully and swiftly from the bastard. He had them through the hole he had made and into the white expanse beyond before the darkness consumed the entire room behind him.
Cloud didn't get a chance to breathe through as the white room shattered around him. When Cloud opened his eyes again, he was met with the barn, though it looked more like a warzone than a barn at the moment, and the four slowly waking chocobo's that he had adopted into his family. He tried to move closer, to check on them, but his body hurt and soon he was leaning against the wall for support, his sword digging into the ground to help keep him upright.
A sudden weight against his side and the worried but relieved slitted emerald green eyes set in the face of the silver chocobo in his face, was enough for Cloud to finally collapse to the ground, ready to pass out and sleep for the next twenty-four hours. He smiled lightly when Seph came to the ground with him, curling closer to him, but he lost the smile when he looked back over at the other three. Zack had finally opened up his eyes, his eyes still holding that unnaturally bright glow that they had been in that bastard's world, the same bright glow that that bastard's had been.
A quick hand signal to the other two to restrain Zack, and he turned his attention back to Seph, who looked sad and beaten, his entire body screamed resignation as if he knew something they didn't.
"You're going to explain what that was Seph," Cloud stated as softly as he could, careful to keep his voice light and calming, but also an order at the same time. "And you're going to tell me everything you know about breaking that man's control."
Cloud watched so many emotions run through Sephiroth's eyes, and Cloud instantly felt sorry for even thinking of demanding that Sephiroth spill everything to him. But the determination that took hold of those bright emerald green cat-like eyes had him keeping his mouth shut. He still saw the other emotions in those eyes, but Sephiroth was going to tell them what he wanted to know.
He only hoped that it wasn't as bad as he was thinking it was because that office looked too much like the old President's office in Shinra, only it was slightly more welcoming, and that bastard was him, of that Cloud had no doubts about it, not with those deep sky blue eyes and that untamable mass of blonde spikes called hair on that man's head.
FINAL FANTASY 7
Sephiroth knew he had to get Zack back to himself, but he honestly didn't know how to break out of the control once you were in it. President Strife was a cruel bastard and he had a habit of breaking people's minds and taking their memories and replacing them. It was why even though Sephiroth was terrified of him, he still loved the man and would do anything for him. But being with these versions of Zack, Angeal, and Genesis and not the ones President Strife had broken was so empowering in making him want to rebel. It was only after he had started to rebel against the man that he started to remember bits and pieces of the life he lived before President Strife took them from him.
Though Sephiroth had to admit it was nice living like a normal person and not like he had been raised in the labs for ten years of his life. Though he felt so broken, so ripped apart and stitched back together in a way more mind breaking then living in the labs. Though that was probably the reason President Strife had done those things to him. Twelve years old and he already knew just how to please his President in ways that made his Angeal and Genesis sick and his Zack pissed. They had tried to teach him that what the President was doing to him was wrong, that it was sick and that he shouldn't be touching him like that, especially since he didn't know anything but obeying commands so he really couldn't consent.
It was their care and concern that made Seph start questioning if what he knew was real or not. If what was happening to him was really his choice. If he wanted what the President was doing to him. Seeing how cruel his President was, seeing how the people he thought were friends were broken and cut down all for trying to get him out of a situation he was quickly coming to understand he wanted no part of.
It was family that made it easier to fight off the control that President Strife tried to enforce over him, that mind-numbing pleasure of following orders and seeing his President's pleased smile. It was friends that made his mind start questioning what was around him and to start thinking for himself. It was family and friends that helped him get his feet under him and stand against the control, but he didn't know how to break it once you were under it. He never managed it.
He didn't want to see Cloud's eyes filled with hate towards him, didn't want to see his new friends and family throw him away like the others had when he told them he wouldn't be able to tell them how to break the control. Though he knew even if he did know how to break the control, they still would throw him away and hate him once they understood that he wasn't really the Sephiroth they thought he was, that he wasn't like them, and that was exactly like what the President had wanted in the first place, and the god of his world got who and what he wanted.
"So let's start with the most urgent matter," Genesis grunted, pulling Seph from his thoughts. He was putting his entire weight on Zack's back to keep him from standing or getting a foothold to throw him and Angeal off. "Do you know how to break whatever has Zack's mind?"
Seph blinked and looked at Zack. "Not really," He said softly, his eyes trained on Zack. "I know how to fight it and keep from falling under, but I haven't ever been able to break the President's control. He usually gets tired of controlling me like a puppet eventually and lets me go. I don't think that will be the case for Zack though, not until the President can ensure Zack can never leave his side. Like he did for me until I did leave his side."
Angeal groaned, then slammed his head into Zack's to bring it back to the ground. "Great. Just what we needed. A SOLDIER stronger than us being mind-controlled by a bastard. My head still hurts and my bones still feel wrong and this isn't helping Zack!"
"Get a grip pup!" Genesis growled out, nipping just above Zack's tail. "You're better than this!"
"How did you learn to fight it?" Cloud asked, his voice soft. Seph knew if he looked, Cloud's eyes would be as cold as Shiva's eternal ice. The President always had that look when he wasn't good enough, Cloud would be no different.
"I had friends who pointed things out," Seph started. Here comes the anger, the hate from all of them. "Friends who helped me think for myself and realize that the President had basically taken all my memories and changed them into something else. Helped me see that what he was doing to me was wrong in multiple ways. It was only after he broke them and sent them to their deaths that I realized how close I really was to them, how broken and lonely I actually was. How weak and pathetic I really am. How what my President has always said about me is true."
"Friends huh?" Cloud said, then stood and moved towards Zack. "Friends help friends. Family helps family. If having thoughts of your own helped you keep him from controlling you, then I can help Zack break this. After all, I have broken free from the control of a god multiple times myself."
Zack stopped struggling as Cloud crouched to make eye contact with him. Cloud just sat and stared into his eyes. Zack stared right back.
"Hello Zack," Cloud said, sitting on the ground one leg pulled up to his chest, the other stretched before him. "You're lost in your own mind right now. But I know you can hear me."
"I'm not lost, you bug!" Zack hissed out.
"Of course you are," Cloud chuckled, smiling. "You're calling me, your best friend, a bug. You're lost in your head and I need you to come back to me. Aerith will be very sad if you don't come back to us."
Zack blinked in obvious confusion. "Aerith?"
"Your girlfriend," Cloud said, a smile still on his face. "She's making preparations to come see you again. You don't want to see her again while lost in your own head do you?"
Zack frowned, his eyes flickering between normal glow and the unnatural bright. "No… Aer can't see me like this…"
"So you're admitting you're lost?" Cloud asked, tilting his head to the side. "If you want I can help you come back to yourself so that Aerith doesn't see you like this."
"Cloud," Zack said, his voice cracking. His eyes were flaring brighter now. "Cloud it hurts… Make it stop."
Cloud moved closer, placed his hand on Zack's head, then everything froze. Zack and Cloud were glowing brighter, not just the eyes but their bodies were surrounded by a golden glow.
Before Seph could get too concerned with what was happening, Zack's eyes closed and he slumped to the ground passed out. Cloud leaned backwards and almost fell on top of Seph when he lost his balance.
"Fuck I hate that," Cloud muttered, his eyes closed as he shifted to rest easier against Seph, moving his hand to stroke the soft feathers of his neck. "He should be better when he wakes up though."
Angeal and Genesis both moved to get off of Zack, then started to cuddle him and make sure he was physically fine. Seph shifted his head to rest it on Cloud's lap.
"What did you do, Cloud?" Genesis asked after making sure Zack didn't have any major injuries. "What was that glow?"
Cloud didn't open his eyes or respond to Genesis' question, and if it wasn't for the fact that Cloud had stopped petting him and had frozen up, Seph would have thought that Cloud really hadn't heard it. "You don't need to worry about it. I got him out of that bastard's control and now we know how to stay out of it if he decides to try to take one of us again."
"You have the same powers he does don't you?" Seph asked softly. He lifted his head to look right at Cloud's face. "Is that why you're keeping them closed?"
Cloud groaned, opened his eyes to look right at Seph and waited for him to react. "I called upon the cells inside my body that live in Zack as well to bring him back. It was how the One-Winged Angel managed to break my mind and turn me into a puppet multiple times, but using them is also how I managed to keep breaking myself out of it and turning the power from the cells into what makes me more monster than human, but I still have friends and I don't go on mindless slaughters, so when I do need to use them I know I have people who are ready to kill me if I can't find my way back."
Seph could only nod as he watched, fascinated and terrified, as Cloud's eyes slowly changed from the slitted green pulps so much like his own back to the sky blue he had come to associate with freedom and family. This Cloud's eyes were so much more open and loving then his President's eyes, the blue was brighter, the glow was softer, and his eyes were so much more expansive and expressive.
"Your eyes were like mine, but now they are back to being such beautiful blues."
The sound of three chocobo's choking on air and Cloud's wide blue shocked eyes startled Sephiroth. "I-I… I…"
Cloud recovered first, his eyes softening and a slight flush on his face. "Don't say shit like that… My eyes aren't beautiful…"
Then Seph found his head was forced back into Cloud's lap as three other chocobo's were forcing Cloud to look at them. Seph could only laugh happily as Cloud started turning redder with each word from the three. Maybe he wouldn't be thrown away once they remembered he was supposed to tell them the truth.
Seph curled around Cloud, keeping him in place when he tried to stand and leave, and allowed himself to be lured into a peaceful sleep for the first time in a long long time, the sounds of the other three complementing Cloud's eyes, hair, flustered face, and anything really that they could come up with.