Seph's story and Zack's sorta bad cooping habits. Also fun surprise and visitor at the end. WARNING! MENTIONS OF CHILD ABUSE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT! And depression/anxiety attacks for our baby Chocobo.

This is up a lot faster than the last one! You can thank the creative gods for striking inspiration to get this out.

WARNING AGAIN! MENTIONS OF CHILD ABUSE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT! And depression/anxiety attacks for our baby Chocobo. If you don't like it or can get triggered you can skip over to the first line break and continue from there! If you do, just remember he was raised in a lab with immoral people who cared very little about him. The only change I made to his background is the age he was released from the labs and shoved in the public eye, the fact that Hojo actually cared about him and tried to protect him, and that it wasn't Shinra's idea to make an enhanced individual. This is all I can say for those of you who skip Seph's part of the story. The rest is explained in less detail by Zack before other things start happening.

Enjoy and please don't forget to comment and let me know your thoughts down below!

CHAPTER 8

"I guess I should start at the beginning," Seph sighed, not moving from his position of laying on Cloud's legs. The affirmative hums were all he got before he sighed again. "The earliest thing I can remember is the labs. Hojo wasn't the nicest person alive, but he also wasn't the worst. He was kind to me when no one was looking, he tried to make the experiments and tests as easy on me as possible, but he still had to hurt me to make sure no one reported him for not doing his job. His job was to create the perfect lifeform, to make the perfect super-soldier. But he wasn't doing it for Shinra. He was doing it for a blonde-haired traveler that had eyes that glowed brighter than the sun."

"I never realized he was there, that my President was the one that kept Hojo working on twisting me and breaking me. President Strife wasn't even the president yet, but he was always able to find us. He scared Hojo." Soft stroking motions started on his head, he could feel the others shifting closer to him, but he was lost in his memories of the cold labs.

"Hojo never once claimed to be my father. He knew who my father was, but he refused to tell me. Refused to even say the man's name for fear that the blonde traveler would catch wind of it and go hunt down the man so he could never take me or protest any of the things that were being done to me. Something Hojo was certain would happen because he feared the blonde traveler who had killed my mom after she had given birth to me, and my father had worked closely with Hojo before something happened and he was forced to leave before I was born. The official report says mom died during childbirth and I was stillborn due to complications. My father never came back, and the blonde man told Hojo to perfect me, to make me the perfect soldier."

"It was hell living in that place, but Hojo was the only one who actually cared about me. But Hojo really couldn't do much to help me, the blonde traveler wouldn't let him. My future President wouldn't let him."

Sephiroth sighed and opened his eyes when the hand left his head. He thought about looking at Cloud, to reaffirm that this was a safe place. He closed his eyes and shifted so he was still next to everyone but had space between them. He was giving them the space to leave that they would need.

"My memories start to get hazy towards the last year or two of the labs," Seph curled closer to himself, his head resting against his wing which was pulled taunt to his body. "I remember how people would hate me, but suddenly I was starting to remember arguments that others had around me, but those who had once cared were calling me a monster and those who couldn't care less were calling me just a human boy. I remember Hojo tried his hardest to protect me from the more immoral scientists, and those that were frightened into doing things they normally wouldn't. It was horrible, nerve-wracking, and I found myself trying to hide from a lot of them in Hojo's office. He never ratted me out, that I know, but my memories have the blonde traveler bursting into the room with someone horrible behind him, someone who wanted me hurt badly and had told him where I went to hide when things were becoming too much."

"I didn't see Hojo again except in passing when he was arguing with people that they were going to break me, scar me, ruin me, kill the little boy that he worked so hard to keep alive. When I next saw him, he was to introduce me to the board members of Shinra. That was also the time when I heard the blonde traveler actually speak, and he listed out all the crimes that Hojo had committed, every single one done because President Strife had held a blade to his throat and told him to do them or I would be given to someone more capable. A week later and I couldn't remember my time in the labs as good, I couldn't even remember that Hojo cared more for me than anyone else in that building at the time. But Hojo couldn't help me anymore. A week after that and Hojo had been killed in his sleep, but people said he died of heart complications, like a heart attack."

Seph did some kind of snort growl thing in the base of his throat, it sounded weird even to him, but he still wouldn't open his eyes. He didn't want them to see just how broken he was. "Heart complications indeed. I don't know about you, but a normal unenhanced individual can't function with a sword run through his heart in such a way that it cut his heart clean in half. I should have realized sooner that it was a bad place, that the President was behind everything that was happening to everyone. But he had already gotten into my head. He had already started to change my memories and even me. He had already taken everything I loved from me and was trying to plant himself as the center of my world."

"The next two years passed in a blurry haze, sometimes he would let me surface to see the world around me, but he usually kept me controlled and under his thumb in a haze. The only times when I wasn't under his thumb was when I was with my Angeal, Genesis, and Zack, and it was the best mistake that he could have ever made, letting me be conscious to spend time with them. They cared for me, protected me, took me out to see new places, to learn new things. The also slowly learned the truth about our President every time we met."

"Seph," a soft voice called. Zack. "Come closer, your shaking."

Sephiroth drew himself in tighter. He was getting to the parts that were becoming clearer the more he talked about his past. He could remember the sickening tastes, the brutal touches, the horrid smells, the screams that he knew were ripping his throat apart. He could remember all of it and he didn't know if he could handle anyone touching him. He felt so dirty, so disgusting, broken, like a puppet. Is that why he couldn't sleep right without curling around Cloud? Had he broken him so badly that Seph can't function without the feel of that body curled around and against him?

A soft hand, gentle against his head, cut through all his thoughts. Seph slowly opened his eyes, bright broken green cat-like eyes meeting bright sky blue eyes, eyes holding understanding and softness. Cloud understood, Cloud got it, Cloud didn't hate him or see him as a failure, he hadn't upset Cloud by being weak.

"You don't have to talk about it anymore," Cloud whispered, sitting before him, his hand still lightly rubbing circles on his head. "I understand, and the more you speak the more pissed off I become. To think a version of me is fucking up your life so badly. It makes me sick and it makes me want to kill him more."

"Why?" Seph asked quietly. "Why do you care? You don't even know me."

Cloud looked up at the ceiling and frowned as he thought about it, his hand never stopping the gentle motions. After what felt like forever, Cloud finally shrugged and looked back at him. "I don't know. It just seems wrong. I kill things for a living as an actual super-soldier. I stopped my Sephiroth from destroying the world multiple times already, and I can't hate him. I couldn't hate him after we found the documents describing just what he went through, just how badly he was treated and how inhuman he was raised to be. To think that people would actually force others into doing this to a child who can't fight back, to kill the parents of the child to prevent them from stopping them. To know it was another world's me, to know that another me was the cause of this suffering. It's wrong, even on my broken moral compass I know it's wrong."

Everyone was quiet, no one wanted to break the silence, not after seeing Seph's face scrunch up and frown in thought, though it might have had something to do with the way his face had done so in the most adorable baby Chocobo way possible, even though while being the youngest Sephiroth was still the tallest.

Cloud sat closer to him, not enough to have more physical contact, but close enough that if Seph wanted it he could easily push himself against the only solid connection he had to them instead of lost in his head. His hand never stopped the soothing circles ontop of Seph's head as Zack lead Angeal and Genesis off to explore his land. Cloud stayed by Seph's side, content to lean against the wall and let himself drift into thoughts of if he should build a new house or not.

FINAL FANTASY VII

Zack laughed as he ran around with Angeal and Genesis. They were messing with the other Chocobos Cloud was raising on his farm, and they were out running all of them, even the Golds Cloud was so proud of. It was fun and it was a great way to distract them all from what they had all learned from Seph, the twelve-year-old boy who had been hurt on orders by the very President he had served even before the man was President.

Fuck it was still pissing him off.

Zack had dealt with enough cases of child abuse and sexual assault to see all the signs, he wasn't stupid. Seph had been clinging to the one thing he knew, even when Cloud had been hostile towards him if only for a few minutes. He didn't want to know more, not after seeing how Seph was silent, talking only when he thought it wouldn't make others mad, he trailed behind, or stayed close to someone stronger than him. Zack should have put everything together sooner, especially when Seph started contradicting himself and looking oh so confused and scared.

"Zack!" Came the sudden shout.

Zack jolted out of his thoughts in time to slam on the breaks and avoid running straight off the cliff in front of him. He blinked owlishly. How the hell had he gotten so far from Cloud's land without realizing it?

"Are you trying to kill yourself pup?!" Genesis shouted out, but his voice was shaking.

"Shit!" Zack said, before turning around to face the two very worried and scared chocobos behind him. "No of course not! I just got lost in my thoughts again. I'm sorry. It happens sometimes when I need to process things."

"So you run off ledges?!" Genesis screeched, grabbing Zack harshly and dragging him away from the ledge. "Fuck I forgot you had a tendency to just run when you need to think. Run and squat. I should have paid more attention to where we were headed and stopped you earlier."

"You couldn't have known what was in front of us, Gen," Zack tried calmly. No need to have the red-head freaking out on him. "It's not your fault I accidentally led us to a cliff."

Zack was tugged into the Chocobo equivalent of a group hug by Angeal and Genesis. He sighed but let them look over him anyway, had to reassure the mother hens somehow right? Now, where exactly where they? He should know these cliffs by heart now after watching Cloud roam them for a while now. That and he also explored quite a bit of the land while he was still alive.

Looking around as best he could with Genesis and Angeal still mother henning him, seriously getting out of hand here guys, he started to notice things that were very, very familiar. Like gun marks and small craters and cracks in the rocks where explosions had blown things up. Even the very rock that he knew he had hidden Cloud behind all those years ago.

"This is where I died," Zack said. Then blinked when Geal and Gen reeled back with choked gasps. "I said that out loud didn't I?"

"You died here?" Angeal asked, his entire body spinning in circles to see everything. "It looks like an old warzone."

"He did say he died fighting an army Geal," Genesis remarked, watching Zack closely. "We should leave, being in the place where you died shouldn't be good for you."

Zack was about to nod when he felt IT. He didn't know what IT was, but he felt it none the less. Zack turned his head to look back at the ledge, he felt like IT was calling him.

"Zack?" Genesis asked, moving to block his view of the ledge. "Come on. We should be getting back to Cloud and Seph anyway. We've been gone for a much longer time than we intended."

"Yeah," Zack responded absentmindedly, cocking his head to have the ledge back into his sights. "Just… I wanna try something… Don't get scared…"

He heard Angeal and Genesis scream at him, felt them try to drag him back, but Zack just brushed them off with a swipe of his wings. It was calling him, the spot that his body returned to the lifestream.

He wondered if he should have fought the tug instead of listened to it when a bright white light engulfed him and he felt himself falling. Hopefully, the others didn't hold it against him. He could still watch over them from the lifestream. Then his world turned dark as if a light switch had been flipped.

FINAL FANTASY VII

Honestly, when Zack awoke, he wasn't all that surprised to see Aerith looking down at him in concern. What he was surprised to see was Angeal and Genesis the Chocobo SOLDIERs looking down at him as well. It was not computing well.

"Zack?" Genesis asked, nudging his arm gently. "You okay?"

Zack groaned and shifted to feel his body, then stopped. He had gotten used to the Chocobo body he had, and now he could feel arms instead of wings, proper human legs, he could feel so much more then he could before. And he was quickly becoming convinced that he was somewhere between death and life.

It hurt to think but his girlfriend, Aerith, was still dead, and she wasn't going to be coming back to them. Gaia wouldn't let her leave the lifestream while something was threatening it.

"Zack?" Angeal asked, then nudged his head to try to help him sit up. "You doing okay buddy?"

"Y-yeah…" Zack croaked out. His throat hurt and his voice shook. "Wh-what happened?"

"You brushed us off when we tried to stop you," Gen started softly, still watching him closely, his wing pressed against Zack's arm. "But you walked towards the ledge. But you stopped and a bright light engulfed you. We couldn't see what had happened but the next thing we knew, you were lunging off the cliff and trying to catch a pink blur falling rapidly from the sky."

"When we got down here," Angeal continued. "You were human again and cradling this young lady who has been silent since she woke up before you. We tried to get you back to Cloud but she wouldn't let us touch you to even try to help you. She stood in the way."

"Cool," Zack groaned, his brain taking a moment to get everything processed. It was only when solid, warm, and gentle hands grabbed his that he actually registered that the other two were seeing her as well and that he had apparently jumped off the same cliff that he died on to try and catch her as she fell from the sky.

"Holy shit!" Zack shouted, yanking his hand from Aerith's grip and then running his hands over her face, arms, anywhere he could reach anyway. "Fuck! Aerith are you okay? Is anything broken? Does anything hurt? Did I hurt you when trying to catch you?"

Aerith smiled softly at Zack and shook her head, pushed his arms away, and hugged him tightly. Zack quickly returned the embrace. Something had happened and while he was glad he could hold his girl again, he was terrified to find out what had happened to make her mute.

"Zack," was the croaked whisper against his shoulder. "Zack."

Zack held her tighter. Not mute, just hasn't used her voice in a long time. Not for her physical body anyway. He wasn't going to push her for information. She would tell them everything as soon as she was able.

"It's okay, Aer," Zack whispered against her head. "Let's get to Cloud okay? He's got a great place that we can crash at until your better, okay?"

Aerith shook her head, pulled back, and looked up at Zack terror and confusion in her eyes. "Zack… I…" Then promptly passed out against his shoulder.

Zack froze in shock, but then promptly wrapped his arms around Aerith and picked her up. He quickly turned back to Gen and Geal, trying to contain his panic. He probably wasn't doing a good job because Genesis and Angeal had both moved closer to him and were trying to get him to climb onto Angeal's back.

"Come on, Zack," Angeal cooed, helping Zack climb up as best as he could. "When we get back to Cloud we'll explain everything as best we can. He'll be able to help us. Okay?"

"Right," Zack mumbled, his body starting to tremble on top of Angeal. He tightened his grip on Angeal's neck feathers. "Cloud will know what to do…"

Genesis and Angeal shared a look and quickly set off towards Cloud's land. They had to return so they could get help. They didn't know what to do. They didn't know who this girl was and why Zack was so shell-shocked at how she was acting. Cloud would be able to help. Cloud has always known just what to do to make them all feel better, even if none of them gave any indication that they were feeling down or unwell.

"Hang on tight, Zack," Angeal cooed while running. "We'll be back home shortly okay?"

Zack didn't respond, but his grip got tighter. Angeal and Genesis shared a look. They ran faster.

FINAL FANTASY VII

Hey! I just wanted to say thanks again to the wonderful guest who keeps leaving really helpful comments! I really wish I had a way to talk with you to try to flesh out the story more because I have started working on it (the Shalua pays an OC to find her sister idea) and I have the AVALANCHE adopts Shelke story on the back burner at the moment because I am still working out how that would happen without starting a civil war between everyone. Tensions are high after DOC and all that they are forced to go through. Cause even if Vincent did most of the work, everyone still had to do things during all that jazz. Finding a way to place a child who isn't a child into that dynamic just keeps my mind going blank.

Again thank you for your wonderful suggestions and your help! I still wish I had a better way to answer and respond to you than just the endnotes, but alas, tis not to be. Curse not being able to respond to guest comments.

Anyway! Hope everyone is having a safe and fun time during the pandemic currently sweeping our world! Hope you all enjoyed and don't hesitate to comment about everything and anything! You are the light of my world when I get comments!

Love you all!