A/N: Was wondering what would be next when I was listening to Bring me the Horizon (Don't Go), so that is what this chapter's song base is…

Warning: Heavy themes, mentions of rape, mentions of murder, very depressing… Extremely AU.

Rain, be warned; this chapter is very heavy, but I promise to make the one after the next as fluffy as possible.

Summary: Hope sees the Scars all over Snow and wants to know all about him. Snow is a bit reluctant...

Disclaimer: Nope; not mine. Not the song or the characters or the game. The idea of the mix in storyline is all I can claim.

Setting: One of the rooms in Oerba. This takes place before the second chapter (well, actually it's a breakdown of one of the in between points of the last chapter).

Chapter Three: Don't go

Two l'Cie lie down as darkness covers the land. The younger stares after the other, watching, waiting, silently beckoning his warmth back to the bed.

In the dim light, Hope can see markings on the blonde's shirtless form. Silvery-pink lines across his back, chest and arms. He reaches out as the larger, more muscled frame moves back down to the bed, tracing them.

Snow didn't say a word; it was Hope's habit to trace the scar on his own neck to comfort himself, when it was free, anyway. Somehow, Snow found it comforting, as well.

But then Snow tensed; a simple question arose. "What happened?" the boy asked, voice unreadable to Snow. Reading people was Lightning's thing; she dealt with bad guys and read them well. Snow could only read the emotions Hope wanted him to know about, and that could be more than stressful at times.

"Snow? Are you okay?"

"Yeah… Yeah, I'm okay, kiddo," he managed with a smile, not so sure this was a conversation he ever wanted to have with Hope. One that he'd flat out refused to have with Serah.

But Snow could trust Hope; right? Snow could talk to Hope about these things; right? I have your back and you have mine. No matter what. That was a promise. A promise he couldn't have with Serah. Because Serah didn't have his back. He was just her plaything. Her hookup. Her punching bag, both mentally and physically.

But Hope was his teammate. His equal. His everything.

Serah may well have been his older sister.

"Will you tell me about them, Snow?" Hope asked in a small voice, sensing Snow's reluctance and already able to tell they weren't from an animal or any kind of fair battle. Before Snow was strong. Before Snow could protect anyone. Before Snow could protect himself.

"Yeah, okay, Hope. I trust you. Where do you want me to start?" the nineteen-year-old asked, staring straight into the fourteen-year-old's eyes, now both laying on their sides.

"How does the beginning sound?" Hope stated more than asked, a little unsure.

"Well, let's see," Snow started, debating on if the silence was helping him to concentrate or making it harder.

"I think you already know, but I was raised in an orphanage, run by the Sanctum. I don't know how much you know about those facilities, but there's a reason why Light fought to make sure she and Serah didn't get sent to one; if we've learned anything about the Sanctum on our journey, it's that its anything but sanctified," he finished, thinking about what to say next; how to start, how to explain…how to put the unwanted part of the story off.

"It was built with all the other Sanctum facilities, in the very back of Bohdum, away from the shore were the valley starts to form. Some people don't even say it's part of the city, referring to it as 'Sanctuary,'" he continued on.

"I… used to have a brother…" he started to hesitate.

If it had been any other time, Hope might have asked, 'Used to?' but he kept his mouth shut, waiting instead for the rest of Snow's explanation.

"Some stuff happened when we were about eight…" he went on, still hesitant and now extremely edgy.

Hope buried his fingers into Snow's now bandana free hair, running them through the locks in a comforting gesture. It seemed to give Snow the courage to go on.

"His name was Cloud. My orphan brother. He was always quiet, shy people said. I always thought it was more of oppressed. One day, Cloud snapped…" he broke off for a moment, voice going unusually high at his last two words.

He restarted, voice void of emotion, a skill he didn't think he had. "I don't know what happened; I don't think anyone except for he and the soldier. I think that the soldier did something to him, I know he had been for a while. You could argue that it's all in my head and he was just insane, but I never knew Cloud as a person to do something for no reason…

"This was before PSYCOM started recruiting and took over everything; when everything was run by both Shin-Ra and the Sanctum. We had Shin-Ra SOLDIER guarding us rather than PSYCOM or Guardian Corps," he said, just to put it off a bit longer.

"Cloud took the SOLDIER into the forest, the clearing with one of the old shrines. I followed Cloud and I saw what he did. He seemed somehow lifeless; throwing the guy onto the muddy ground. I remember him asking the SOLDIER things like How does it feel? or Do you like that? I thought maybe the man had hurt him in similar ways. Cloud took the man's sword and slaughtered him, not really caring even after he was dead. He stomped on him; there's still an imprint in the earth…

"I remember him looking over at me when he was done with it all, like he had known I was there all along. He still looked lifeless. I wasn't scared of him, as crazy as that might sound. I even went towards him.

"He lifted a gun; not at me though. He was crying, but he didn't look sad at all. 'I can kill people so easily, Snow,' he told me. I didn't know where he was going with it. He started laughing like he was insane, but he still looked emotionless as ever. Then, he stopped, saying, 'But I don't feel sad about it at all. I don't feel pain when he hits me. Or when he rapes me. Or when he tells me I'm worthless. I don't feel anything, Snow…'"

It felt as if everything stopped. Snow looked like he was somewhere else. Somewhere deep in his mind. He told Hope everything as he saw it in his mind.

Cloud had bruises on his neck and blood going down his legs, staining his white orphan uniform. His shirt was gone, it looked as if the SOLDIER had put out a cigarette between his ribs. Snow saw his wrists, little scars crisscrossing up his left arm, needle marks at vein points in his right arm.

Somehow, Cloud looked strangely beautiful covered in blood. His blank features somehow added to the effect.

A bullet flew through his stomach.

'That won't work on me,' he said flatly. He almost sounded sad about it. Snow watched in horror as the cut glowed with blue light and mended itself back together.

Cloud didn't even aim; directing his arm slightly behind him and firing, not surprised at all by the sound of the infantryman hitting the ground.

'I'm not human,' he stated flatly at Snow. 'I'm not your brother; I'm your emulation, grown in a test tank. I'm not a Strife; I'm not an anything anymore. And you, you're just a test subject. Run, Snow. Get as far away from these people as you can.'

But Snow couldn't move. Snow didn't want to move. Cloud was his brother, everything he had. All he had left was Cloud, his exact replica.

'Which of you killed that man?' came the voice of a SOLDIER, one they knew well, who visited them every once in a while. Angeal Hewley.

'I did,' they both stated, at the same time; Snow didn't know why, but he had to take the blame.

Cloud didn't argue.

They both ended up in Shin-Ra test facilities. Mistreated and abused, he got everything that Cloud had, only they liked to scar him more severely. They'd whip him, leaving scars on his back, One time, one of them had wanted to see if he'd heal as fast as Cloud, slicing across his chest. They'd violate them in front of one another, knowing neither could do anything.

He always begged for them not to let Cloud leave him. It never worked.

Snow started getting stronger, but was left in the facility when he was ten; the Sanctum took Shin-Ra down. He'd been forgotten and Cloud had escaped or died… Snow never knew which.

He was scared and didn't leave for a while. He took the smallest SOLDIER uniform he could find, still hanging loose on his small frame.

He did the only thing he knew how to do at the time. He ran. And he ran. And he ran until there was nothing left. The oxygen came harshly into his lungs and when he looked up he saw the place he never again wanted to see; the forest clearing with the shrine. He heard a voice, perhaps just in his head.

Who are you?

Well, who was he? He no longer remembered. He might have been Snow, he might have been Cloud; it didn't really matter, did it?

I'm Snow, he answered before falling onto the muddy ground.

Everything spilled form Snow; how the orphanage couldn't find any files on him (courtesy of Shin-Ra), how he was taken back to the orphanage, how the SOLDIER were replaced with Guardian Corps and were nice to them. And the voice that had called to him was Gadot.

They had given him a new last name; he'd refused to tell them his real one, feigning forgetfulness. Villiers. He wasn't sure if it fit. It was just a name to him, either way.

As if he'd snapped back to reality, he held Hope tightly to his chest, more as a comfort to himself than anything. He whispered something nearly inaudible; had Hope been even five centimeters away he wouldn't have heard. But he wasn't five centimeters away, he was hardly even one centimeter away, he heard the simple phrase quite well.

Don't leave me…

And then he felt them; hot, wet crystals he often felt falling down his own face. Tears.

Hope was shocked; Snow never cried. But then he realized it; Snow is human, just like him, just like all the others. Humans cry, even Light, though he'd never seen it he was sure. He'd heard her once, choking out Serah's name in repetition.

Yes, Snow was human and Snow needed to be comforted; needed to be held… and so he held him, albeit awkwardly; Hope had never really had to comfort anybody before, never felt compelled to. But tonight, he did. Snow needed to be held and Hope needed to hold him.

I have your back and you have mine. No matter what, he'd promised.

A/N: this chapter will be in two parts; it's long enough as it is and it seemed like a nice place to leave you hanging. If you had the courage to read this far, please leave a review. And if you're Memories of Rain and made it this far, I promise you fluff at the next chance I get (: