Beyond

Flora Winters

I do not own Final Fantasy VII, and I'm not making any money here either.

Summary: Sometimes the dead simply do not stay dead. This story will contain boy love, strong language, and scenes of explicit violence.

Chapter Sixteen

If I smile and don't believe

Soon I know I'll wake from this dream

Don't try to fix me I'm not broken

Hello, I'm the lie living for you so you can hide

Don't cry

--Evanescence

Cloud's frozen beauty was glacial, sharper than a frigid razor blades icy edge. His aqua-blue eyes never blinked, not even once. He was truly captivated by Vincent's indescribable art at torture. The professor's wordless screams were sweet music to his ears. He really could drift off into the Sandman's embrace to the agonized cries of his enemies screaming in excruciating pain.

"How does it feel, Professor?" Vincent asked. His voice was demonically deep and distorted. The words coming from his mouth had a deliciously spooky echo to them. "How does it feel to be on the receiving end of the knife?"

Cloud chuckled when another shrill cry was torn from the professor's throat. He was completely enthralled by the almost bloodless violence of it all. In fact, he was so fucking hard at the moment he was dripping like a goddamn faucet. He really was losing his goddamned mind. Hell, it was done gone. It had fled the fuck away without leaving a note or a by your leave.

"Please…" Hojo whimpered. His eyes were wide with horror.

Cloud's eyes narrowed into venomous slits of pure reptilian poison. They burned with acidic hatred. "What did you just say?" He asked, taking a frightfully looking step towards the little bug that was prisoner in his deadly web.

Vincent slowly stepped aside, holding the blade as if it were holy. His molten red eyes were glazed.

"Did you just say please, Hojo?" Cloud asked. He was grinning. It was funny. Hell, it was fucking-goddamn hysterical.

He suddenly smacked the worm across the face with all his might without so much as thinking about it. This insect was now his. He could do whatever the fuck he pleased with it.

"Please?" He hissed. The tears came to his eyes. "PLEASE!" He screamed at the top of his lungs, punching the struggling fly right in the gut, causing the old man to swing back and forth again, coughing up blood onto his naked chest.

This pitiful bastard son of a whore was the reason Zack had died back in the old world. He had mentally screamed for Zack not to leave him there behind that rock. He had known in his locked mind that Hojo would never let them go alive. He had screamed and begged "please" so much.

"CUT OFF HIS LEGS!" He shrieked, pulling at his blond hair.

"NO!" Hojo cried, struggling even more. He was like an animal now.

"CUT OFF HIS ARMS!" He screamed, howling with laughter, grabbing Hojo by the throat, squeezing it as if he were a constrictor. He was instantly calm, while the professor gagged and spluttered for breath. "And then we're going to let that monster finish you off."

"Don't you want to do it?" Vincent asked. It was like those ruby-red eyes were devouring him.

Cloud released his hold on Hojo's scrawny neck, and then punched him right in the nose, shattering it. The bug gurgled, mewling in terror.

He turned to Vincent, stepping right up to him. Icy blue gazed up into fiery red. "This…thing took everything from you, Vincent." He put his moth-white hands to Vincent's muscular, hot chest. The man seemed to radiate heat like a furnace. "He took your love, your life, and pieces of your body." He took those golden talons in his hands, putting them to his lips. "This monster deserves your wrath, your hate, and all the vengeance from the hell he put you through."

He felt those talons gently tremble in his hands. It made him smile.

"Do with him what you will, Vincent," he said, turning to the beast in the metal cage. "But, let this big boy eat him alive."

He walked over to the large cage with a malicious sneer on his gorgeous face. The creature snarled in rage, but took a step back from the smaller human.

"That's right," Cloud whispered, putting his hands on the door. "I could tear out your heart and lick it before you could finish pissing." He turned back to Vincent, pointing at a dazed and hysterical Hojo. "I WANT THAT CUNT TO BE THIS BEAST'S SHIT-PILE COME MORNING!" He snapped, spinning back around, grinning like a mad lunatic into the large beast's fanged face. "Because," he cackled, flicking the beast in the nose, jumping back from those deadly paws with a crazed laugh. "A piece of shit is all he is."

Vincent nodded his head. "What will we do after this?"

Cloud put a finger to his bottom lip, tapping it while the beast rattled the cage. "We'll make the sprinklers go off," he said, rubbing his cock. "It would seem that I have dripped my crazy all over the goddamn place in all the excitement."

Vincent suddenly punched Hojo in the face. There was a cracking sound and the head slumped all the way back as the body twitched. The legs actually kicked a few times before falling completely still. He had broken the bastard's neck.

"Oops," he said, smiling with such sharp teeth. "It would seem that I don't quite know my own strength yet."

Cloud's face fell. He was pouting like a little kid. "Now why did you have to go and do that for?" He actually stomped his foot.

Vincent was suddenly looming right before him, gently gripping his shoulders. "I just couldn't stand letting that man look at you."

Cloud blinked. "Vin…"

Vincent rested his chin on top of his spiky, blond head. Cloud was pulled into a warm embrace, being held in those powerful arms for quite a few silent moments. He could hear the bigger man's heart pounding in his sculpted chest.

"Put your clothes back on, Cloud," Vincent whispered, smelling his silky spikes of gold.

Cloud looked up at him. "And what if I'm not ready to put my clothes back on, Vincent?"

Those red eyes looked to be hotter than magma. Now that was molten horniness.

"Don't tease me, Cloud," he whispered, letting that snowy-white body go.

Cloud reached out, but stopped himself like an avalanche frozen in time. What the fuck was he doing? He could suddenly see the look of betrayal in Zack's gorgeous blue eyes. It caused him to tremble, making him fall to his knees before the older man. He started to laugh, hiding his face behind his shaking hands.

"I'm losing it," he snorted, letting the tears fall. "I'm losing me, Vincent."

Vincent got down on his knees and held him. Cloud felt like an idiot. He needed to pull himself together. He had a fucking job to do. He could break down and cry when Shin-Ra was burning to the ground at his feet.

"I need more power, Vincent," he said, giving him instructions. He would have done it himself, but he didn't have the freedom of flight. "Can you do this for me?"

Vincent nodded. "It may take me some time though…"

Cloud smiled, wiping at his eyes. "Don't worry," he said. "I'll be making a mess of people's lives while you're away."

Vincent cocked his head to the side. "You will be careful?"

Cloud tapped him on the chin. "They'll never see my face until all the summoning magic in the world is in my hands."

That was when his mind suddenly fell into a very dark place. It was as if he had just gotten sucked into a black whirlpool of wickedness.

What about METEOR?

What about it? He asked.

That terrible voice laughed. It's just a little magic we can use if something were to happen to Zack.

His eyes widened. He would never let anything happen to Zack.

You're such a silly little Pumpkin. The voice giggled. We don't have to summon METEOR. We can simply use the power of the orb to summon WEAPONS to destroy our enemies.

Cloud blinked.

But, the voice said, if something was to happen to Zack, we can use it to become the GOD Sephiroth could never hope to be. We can make life and death dance to our beat.

"I could keep Zack with me always," he whispered under his breath. "Nothing could take him away from me then."

The dark Storm-Cloud thundered with laughter.

We could use this whole planet as a ship, traveling the universe, sharing in wonders with the ones we love.

The idea was all sparkly with the pretty-shiny. There was no way Shin-Ra was equipped to deal with WEAPONS. Hell, they weren't even equipped to deal with him as he was now.

Wait! What about Aeris' sacrifice? She was not in this new world? She had sacrificed her life in the old one so HOLY could save it from Sephiroth.

It was merely a hypothetical idea, the voice told him. We were just stating a fact. If something were to happen to Zack, we would no longer have need of this world. You can't watch him die again without letting me out. We are one and the same, only, I'm stronger than you.

Cloud squeezed his eyes shut. He wouldn't let anything happen to Zack. His mind couldn't, wouldn't survive getting him back only to lose him again.

And that is why I am always here for you, the voice told him. It almost sounded like a treasured friend for a small second. I'm the one who lets you hide away from the pain in blissful, sleeping ignorance.

The sound of a distant explosion filled his ears and the room shook under him, making the beast roar from its cage. He was on his feet in an instant with Vincent's help.

"What was that?" Vincent asked him.

Cloud hid his wicked smirk. He had known this would be coming sooner or later. He just hadn't been thinking about it. That was the desperate cry of a new ally. "Take care here," he told him, fetching his clothes, putting them on as quickly as he could gracefully manage. "Daddy has to go and comfort the baby."

"What?" Vincent asked.

"Trust me," he said, tearing out the vent in the wall, throwing it aside with a heavy clang, and slithered into the darkness within.

"Cloud!" Vincent called.

"I know what I'm doing," Cloud said, poking his blond head out. "Just do as I said. You're my friend, Vincent." He told him, turning back around, crawling away into the dark. "I love you."

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Vincent just stood there, gazing into that black hole in the wall. It made him so happy to hear those three little words. He didn't care that it was only a friendly love. As long as he could be close to that crazy blond, he didn't care at all.

He turned to the bellowing monster who was rattling in its cage. "Are you hungry?" He asked, grinning. His eyes glowed like red stars. That ever-moving cloak billowed all around him.

Another explosion boomed in the distance as he let the body hit the floor with a thud. There was the sound of rapid gunfire as well. What in the world was going on out there?

"Well," he said, opening the cage door, floating up with the speed of a cat's swiping claws to sit on the ceiling. "Have at him, boy!"

He watched the monstrous beast with relish as it tore Hojo's body limb from limb, feasting on the bastard's face. He closed his eyes as the sprinklers came on. The monster that had haunted his dark dreams was now nothing but a quickly fading memory. Cloud had helped him to destroy his most powerful demon. He owed that psychotic beauty so much.

He began to fade into the darkness that was filled with the sound of falling water and powerful jaws crunching away at snapping bones. He had much to do. It was the least he could do for Cloud.

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Cloud crawled his way through the tight darkness as quickly as he could. He had to make sure that Zack was safe first. He had made sure he had been sedated the fuck out before skipping off with a basket of shiny red grenades to blast the shit out of Hojo with.

He punched the vent before his face once, sending the metal cover flying, landing with a loud clang in the floor. He crawled out, getting to his feet, looking this way and that in the blinding darkness.

He took off with the speed no normal human possessed, heading for the stairs. He moved with the swiftness of a blond twister on a rampage.

He raced through the door, down five flights of steps, entering a long hallway at a full run. He suddenly smacked right into Sephiroth. He stumbled back with a grunt, seeing the general losing his balance, doing the same. Sephiroth must have been running at top speed, too.

"Where the hell is Zack?" The general asked, catching his balance. "Where the hell have you been?"

Cloud's eyes widened and he took off running. Why the fuck did he mean by where the hell was Zack?

"Cloud!" Sephiroth thundered. He could hear the general running after him. "We have to report for duty! We're under an attack!"

"Fuck duty!" Cloud roared, heading for the door to Zack's room. "I have to find Zack!"

He threw the door to his lover's room open, racing inside, finding the large bed empty. His heart sunk like a ship during a terrible storm. Where the hell was he? He had sedated him. He should be sprawled out on that bed, snoring loud enough to cause the ears of God herself to bleed.

"Cloud!" Sephiroth snapped from the door. "We have to go!"

"SILENCE!" Cloud commanded. It was more like a shriek of lava-hot lightning splitting a tall tree down the middle. "I NEED TO THINK!"

That was when he heard it. It was the sound of gentle snoring. It was coming from under the bed.

He dropped down on all fours, looking under, finding Zack on his tummy, snoring. His heart rose like a drowning sailor who had just been saved by a siren of the sea. Zack had rolled out of bed and then under it. If he hadn't been so scared, he could have though it adorable.

"Zack suffers from a rare sleeping illness," he quickly lied, getting to his feet. "You go kill the bad guys and I'll stay with him." He could hear SOLDIERS running down the halls, shouting orders.

"What?" Sephiroth asked. "What illness?"

"It attacks when he's been under a lot of stress," Cloud told him. "I'm sure my accident triggered this one."

Sephiroth cocked a brow.

"He can't wake up," Cloud told him, getting back down on his knees, gently pulling Zack out by his left arm. "He's completely helpless."

"You should have told me about this," Sephiroth hissed. "Hell, he should have told me about this."

Cloud looked down, pulling Zack into his arms, cradling him. "Sorry…"

"Stay with him then," Sephiroth said, turning away, drawing his blade. It flashed with a strange light. It was the oddest thing. At one time, the flash had been wicked. This one had been very different. For some odd reason, the sword no longer looked ominous.

Cloud watched him leave, and gently squeezed his lover. He ran his fingers through his hair, grinning.

Four minutes later, he was heading for the roof. Red-hot lightning was sparking from his fingertips.

TBC…

Please review and tell me what you think. Thank you all so much for the wonderful reviews. It makes me so happy that you're all enjoying this crazy story. Let me know if you enjoyed this chapter as well.

Flora.