Yay I have a quick update for you all-makes a bit of a change!

Chapter 5:

The city of Midgar reared up from the network of tarmac motorways and low suburban buildings surrounding it, a splash of grey and glittering pinprick lights against the sky, its towers and spires jutting upwards like skeletons raising their fleshless arms on high against the backdrop of the shadowy twilight. Cloud stopped dead as they perceived it-it was like nothing he, a country boy from Nibelheim, had ever seen before.

"It's so big," he whispered. Zack gave a short laugh.

"That's why it's so great for hiding in. C'mon…" He strode on and Cloud, shaking himself free of the city's spell, had to run to catch up.

"Hey, Zack-what exactly can we do there?"

"Well," Zack began. "You probably don't remember this. But I had this idea just before they attacked us."

Cloud thought back. His memories of the past year were returning horribly slowly, clouded by delirium and unconsciousness, confused by his impaired senses. He had to shake his head. "Sorry. I don't…"

"I just thought," Zack said cheerfully. "What are we best at? I mean what can we do?" He looked at Cloud as if waiting for an answer, but Cloud was at a loss. "Uh…"

"What have we spent our whole lives training for?"

Cloud frowned. "You're not talking about SOLDIER. They want us dead, remember? Or worse."

Zack rolled his eyes. "Thanks for that, Captain Obvious. We can fight, Spike, we've gotta be the best fighters outside SOLDIER in this whole world. We can sell that. There's a helluva lot of people want protectors, or mercenaries, or something." He was smiling broadly, awed by his own cleverness, and seemed surprised that Cloud did not share his elation. "What? D'you doubt my genius?"

Cloud shook his head. "No…but it's not that simple. We'd need money to get started, we'd need to advertise our services, and I thought we were supposed to be lying low. They're still searching for us, remember?"

"They think we're dead," Zack pointed out. "And we'll use fake names. I'll be Jasmine Cardew." Cloud still did not laugh, and Zack sighed. "Okay, what's really bothering you?"

"Nothing," Cloud mumbled. He did not want to admit that the idea of the future was still one of uncertain and formless terror to him: Zack never seemed bothered by such irrational panics, and it was time Cloud pulled himself together and showed a little strength. Zack was just going to get completely sick of his uselessness at this rate. Zack looked at him narrowly, doubtfully, but let it go.

…

Bill, balding, foul-breathed and grumpy, slumped behind the desk of his motel, surveyed the two newcomers warily: they were not his usual kind of customer, and judging by the exhaustion in their faces and their travel-stained, ragged clothing they had just walked in out of the wilderness. The taller, dark-haired one looked mercenary and dangerous, even if there was no threat in his eyes, and he hovered around the smaller one like an older brother, glancing back to check he was still following as they entered, unconsciously shifting his body slightly in front of him at Bill's customary sullen glare.

"Ya want a room? Money first," Bill grunted without much interest. The dark stranger looked harassed.

"Look, we don't have any money right now but we will have really soon, so if you could just let us off and we can pay when we leave…"

The motel owner stared back belligerently, preparing his old unforgiving riposte of "No pay, no stay," before throwing them out, suddenly noticed the enormous sword badly concealed by some old sacking slung across the dark young man's back, the scars as if from many battles crossing his hands. He gulped, looking away-his gaze fell on the other stranger, who looked barely more than a kid and was ashen-faced and haunted-eyed like a survivor of some terrible trauma. But what finally made up the motel owner's mind was the way the kid's eyes burned such an intense and frighteningly bright blue he could not look into them for long.

These two were dangerous, and he might do well not to get on their bad side.

"Sure," he said uneasily. "Sure, why not…"

…

Zack kicked the motel room door closed behind them and sighed, dropping with relief onto the nearest bed. "Home sweet home, huh?" he said, lying back. It had been a very long time since he had lain on a bed, so long that he had almost forgotten the feel. "Hey, Cloud, did ya see the way that guy looked at us? He was terrified…"

"Yeah…" Cloud was clearly not listening, fumbling with the rusty catch of the dirty, stained window and pulling it wide, before hanging out to gaze across the city. He kept his hands gripping the sill firmly, to conceal the fact that they were shaking: he just somehow could not get over the wave of memories and flashbacks that surged back in over him, now that he was back within four solid walls for the first time since leaving the lab. He felt trapped, imprisoned, caged-he just wasn't about to let Zack see it.

"Well, I'd say the first step is to get some kinda job, to pay for our luxurious stay here at Hotel Midgar, and then we can get saving to fund our own business…" Zack rambled on, closing his eyes and allowing himself to fully relax into the softness of sheets and pillows for the first time in years. Cloud found that he was not obliged to answer: Zack was perfectly happy airing his plans to the whole world all by himself.

…

Cloud sat hunched into the corner of the motel room, arms wrapped around his knees, eyes screwed tight shut. His head seemed to be exploding, and the memories of their torture in the lab were so close he could feel their insanity ripping at his mind already. Zack had gone out, he said to find out where they could talk to someone about the after-effects of mako poisoning, but although Cloud knew his friend was trying to help him right now he was falling apart on his own, and more than anything he needed Zack to be near him, to tell him it was okay, just to shield him from the horrors that lay within himself…he could not be alone, he was breaking up inside and terror rose to claim him.

He knew right then that he would never be free of the lab, that whatever had been done to him had altered something irrevocable and fundamental inside him. It was not just the psychological effects, and those would be hard enough to deal with on their own. He could feel the change inside his cells, cursing him with these abilities, these moments of madness, making him someone he was not, stripping away even his humanity. The thought was torment and he felt himself slipping deeper into his own consciousness: he heard the screams of the past and finally allowed the images to take him-he had no strength to fight any longer. Back in the lab, Hojo had paralysed his whole body with some drug and was now scanning his brain, opening the back of his skull and inspecting the inner workings of his head, and Cloud could not scream, frozen where he lay, he was only aware of the searing, agonising pain and driving, all-consuming terror…

Zack pushed through the motel room door and immediately knew that something was wrong. It was pitch dark but for the faint glimmer of street lamps from outside; Cloud had not turned the lights on.

"Spike?" he called uncertainly. "Uh-Cloud?" He took a step forward and tripped over a chair; cursing he righted himself, squinting through the gloom. Finally he was able to make out a small hunched figure in the corner, and his brow creased in worry as he hurried across and dropped down beside it, reaching out to grab Cloud's shoulder.

"Hey, you okay?"

Cloud's head jerked up and a snarl of fury broke from his lips: Zack flinched away in horror as Cloud lashed out at him, his eyes wild and animal, completely devoid of recognition-his friend's blow connected, knocking Zack to the ground, but as Cloud tried to run past him he reached out and gripped his ankle, bringing him crashing down. Cloud gave a yelp of pain as he fell and clawed blindly at Zack, and then suddenly all the fight went out of him and he went still, his harsh, ragged breathing the only sound in the darkness.

"Zack," he whispered. "Zack, I'm so, so sorry…"

Zack sat up, relieved to find himself unhurt. "It's not your fault," he said, as he had before. "You couldn't help it."

Cloud just lay there, eyes wide open, staring into nothingness. "I could hurt you," he murmured, so softly he could have been speaking to himself. "Or someone. It's getting worse. What are we gonna do, Zack?"

Zack tried to smile. "Well, I did find a mako specialist who says he'd like to examine you."

Cloud looked up, a new hope flaring in his eyes. "You did? But-we don't have any money…"

"He doesn't know that yet." Zack shrugged. "It's worth a try."

…

Dr Freed looked up as the two young men entered his office, his blue eyes sharp and calculating below the half-moon glasses, his preferred black clothing giving him, when combined with his hooked nose and craggy features, the aspect of a hunched, overgrown raven, a tangle of white hair sprawling over the top of his head. He recognised the dark-haired, confident youth, now having removed his distinctive SOLDIER uniform in favour of less noticeable attire, and his gaze now fell on the other. Clearly this was the source of Zack's concerns about mako poisoning: his younger companion's eyes gleamed so bright a blue they almost hurt to look into, definite signs of the chemical's over usage.

"Zack Naskar," he said in welcome. "Good to see you again." Zack did not miss a beat at the sound of the alias he had given the doctor on arriving, and Cloud, though he looked a little taken aback, seemed to assimilate it quickly too.

"You too, doc," he said cheerfully, dropping into one of the two chairs opposite Freed's desk. Cloud, more shyly, hesitantly took the other. "This is my, uh, brother, Cloud," Zack told the doctor. "It's him who…"

"Yes, yes…" Freed nodded slowly. "And tell me, Cloud, how exactly did you come into contact with enough mako to have that effect on you?"

Cloud's mind drew a blank. He could not tell the truth-they'd both be arrested. He just stared at the doctor in panicked silence, trying desperately to think up some plausible lie. Zack came to his rescue.

"Our father used to run a mako reactor in, uh, Golgada. He left Cloud to handle it one day and it kind of exploded."

Dr Freed looked shocked. "But then you're amazingly lucky to have survived!"

"Yeah," Zack said with real fervour, oddly considering the explosion had never happened. "He was. But then he spent a year…" Cloud flinched. "Sort of catatonic. He only kind of recovered a few weeks ago and then, well, stuff like what I told you started happening."

"I see…" Dr Freed inspected Cloud closely until the youth started fidgeting uncomfortably under his penetrating gaze, and only then looked away. "I'd like to examine you properly, Cloud, if that's okay," he said. "It'll just be a few scans to see if there's anything up."

Cloud glanced instantly at Zack, who grinned his encouragement. "Uh…okay…I guess," he replied a little stiltedly, fighting the throb of panic inside. Freed stood up. "Excellent. Walk this way?"

…

"Cloud, I'm afraid I have some very bad news," Dr Freed said gravely, the tests being completed. He was now sitting opposite Cloud, the X-ray results in his hands, in the examination room. Cloud looked up, fear plain in his eyes, but clearly making an effort to appear brave.

"What is it?"

"Well-it seems that the mako you were exposed to during that explosion has somehow bonded with the cells of your body, effectively altering your genetic makeup. It's power, you have to understand that, which would be where these abilities of healing and suchlike could come from-it has in some way supercharged your body and during the year you spent sick with it you were undergoing a very profound transformation."

Cloud had gone paper-white and his face had taken on the expression of the injured animal caught in a trap; his eyes were fixed on the doctor's face as if pleading for some hope, any hope, of salvation. "But…but what can we do?" he said, his voice a little shaky. "There has to be some way…"

"No human being can deal with this kind of power or this kind of transformation," Dr Freed said gently. "You almost lost control of it a few times before, according to your brother. He said you attacked him, that you seemed to suffer some kind of temporary amnesia. I'm sorry, but the likelihood is that it will happen again, and at some point it will be irrevocable. You will lose control of these abilities and the power within you will do as it will until your body is completely burned out."

Cloud did not move or speak, frozen into a tight, icy shell of pure horror. This nightmare was really happening to him and the agony and terror inside threatened to rip him apart-he was not even aware of trying to appear strong, but was nevertheless grateful for the way his body seemed to have frozen up of its own accord, preventing the doctor from witnessing his inner breakdown.

"I am sorry," Dr Freed said softly. "But there is nothing I can do that you would survive." He stood up. "Come. Would you like me to be the one to tell your brother?"

Cloud's head jerked up to meet the doctor's eyes. He looked blasted, shattered, terrified, but he shook his head. "Please," he said hoarsely. "Can I just have…a few seconds…to think?" His voice was rough and low, not sounding like his own at all. Dr Freed nodded, his eyes filled with sympathy. "Of course. I'll be right through in the surgery." He moved across the examination room and left silently, leaving Cloud alone: Cloud let his head fall forward into his hands. Absently he massaged his temples where the roots of a headache were beginning to pulse.

…

"So what's the verdict?" Zack demanded, leaping up as Dr Freed re-entered the surgery where he had been waiting. "Where's Cloud?"

Dr Freed looked at him tiredly. "Your little brother wants to tell you himself what we discovered," he said evenly. "But I'm afraid the news is not good."

Zack blinked. "What do you mean? What did-" He was cut off at that moment by an agonised scream from the other room, and both he and the doctor started for the door. Neither of them was quick enough, though, and someone else got there first. The door to the examination room banged violently open to reveal Cloud standing there, his hands aflame with pulsing, mako-green light, eyes blindingly bright with madness. Zack felt all the breath rush out of him and staggered back.

"Spike, no-"

Cloud reached out a hand and a jet of green light flared from his palm, narrowly missing Zack and searing straight through the opposite door, which creaked open, the wood singed and splintered. Cloud strode through the room without looking to the side, knocking Zack to the ground when he reached out to try and stop him, and in a blaze of flashing light was gone. Once out of the building he began to run.

Zack struggled up from the ground, already making for the door to run after his friend, but he found Dr Freed clutching his arm and stopping him. "Get off me!" Zack cried angrily, trying to shove him away, but the doctor held him fast.

"Zack, there is nothing you can do," he said, his face twisted by horror and sorrow. "The only way to save your brother now is to kill him. I should probably tell you what we discovered."

Haha, cliffy anyone? What's Zack going to do now? Reviews are much appreciated!