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 Eighteen
Frozen inside without your touch
Without your love, darling
Only you are the life among the dead
--Evanescence
Cloud's feet softly touched the barren soil and he slowly stepped out of Genesis' sculpted embrace. His blue eyes took in the disturbing scene before him. It was Aeris' house, but there were no flowers. The house still looked exactly the way he remembered it being, there was just no flowers. It was so sad and it hurt him to see what he remembered being so beautiful look so desolate.
"Is something the matter?" Genesis kindly asked from behind him. His voice was so soft, cultured, dripping with poisoned sweetness. He pictured him holding a dumbapple that had been painted the reddest of red, offering it with a wicked smirk to the image of some pretty boy in an enchanted mirror.
"No." Cloud lied, shaking his head, putting on a fake smile. "I was only thinking there should be a flower garden here."
Genesis stepped up, standing beside him now. His voice had a longing in it. "I don't think I've ever seen a flower in Midgar. Do you like flowers, Strife?"
Cloud nodded, noting the hint of sadness in Genesis' voice and began to walk through the empty space, seeing and smelling the memory of shimmering sweet flowers. Aeris had loved flowers so much. He could still hear the little children calling her the "Flower Lady."
"What are you seeing?" Genesis asked, walking just a step behind him. It almost felt like Genesis was afraid to let him out of his sights.
"What once was," Cloud whispered, walking through blinding flashes of memories, down the steps, toward the side of the house that had been coated in flowering vines. This place should be a tiny paradise. All of this was so very wrong. He knew deep down in his heart that Aeris was not here. She did not exist in this new world.
"What once was?" Genesis asked. He sounded very much like a confused little boy. "What do you mean?"
Cloud turned around, looking at the handsome man. He saw shadows of flowers all around him. The light had caught Genesis' face, causing him to look even more beautiful. That hair of his burned like fire around his wholly masculine face. He looked so spooky with that lost look in his eerie azure eyes. It was like gazing into a foggy looking-glass.
Genesis cocked his head to the side. The swift movement reminded Cloud of a raven. "Why do you look at me with such eyes, Strife?"
"If I tell you," Cloud said, taking a small step towards the taller man. "Will you listen?" He wanted to tell him. He wanted Genesis to be on his side. He wanted everyone Shin-Ra had ever hurt to be on his side. He wanted to avenge them all. He wanted to avenge Zack, Aeris, Vincent, Sephiroth, and now Genesis as well. They had all been treated as guinea pigs and destroyed in the end. He wouldn't let that happen again.
Genesis nodded his head. He looked like he was about to answer him, but a sudden look of pain washed like an ocean wave across his face. The redhead trembled and grasped his chest. He fell to his knees, gasping in pain for breath.
Cloud was down on his knees before him in a blink, putting his hands on those broad shoulders. Genesis was trembling in pain. "Shin-Ra must pay what they've done, Genesis."
"I don't…" Genesis whispered, wrapping his arms around Cloud's narrow waist. "I don't want to be a monster…"
He looked like a frightened child and his torment clawed at Cloud's bleeding heart with razor-sharp talons. It was like witnessing his own pain before his eyes.
"Goddess, why have they done this to me?" Genesis moaned, resting his head against Cloud's chest. The bigger man slowly looked up into Cloud's wet eyes, cupping a bone-white cheek with a large hand. Cloud closed his eyes. Genesis' gorgeous face was covered in beads of sweat, and unshed tears were in his eyes. He opened them, seeing that beseeching look in their aqua-blue depths. "Save me?" Genesis asked. "I don't want to stop existing."
Cloud nodded his head, placing a cool kiss upon that salty brow. Genesis smiled, resting his head back against the smaller man's chest, holding him tight.
"Is someone there?" A familiar voice asked, making Cloud look in surprise. Aeris' mother came walking around the corner of the house with concern on her kindly face.
"Yes," Cloud said, helping Genesis to his feet. "My brother here has fallen sick."
"Oh, dear," she said, stopping, looking at the both of them. She seemed to be taking in their appearance. "You'd best bring him inside. It's rather chilly out here."
"This is so humiliating," Genesis hissed under his breath. Cloud felt him sniff his neck. The larger man's hold on him didn't lessen in the slightest. "I had hoped my demise would be more dramatic than this."
Cloud chuckled, helping him into the house. "You bounce back rather quickly."
Genesis coughed, going down on one knee, taking Cloud with him. "Not so much…"
There was blood on his sultry red lips.
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Sephiroth was barking out orders left and right. Oh, he was pissed! He was going to make that redheaded bitch pay dearly for this shit. Not only had the bastard kidnapped Cloud, he'd also put a bomb in the damn building, and he had insulted his hair. He was going to fucking murder him!
"Send in the robots now!" He commanded. "That bomb could be anywhere!"
He glanced to his right, seeing that Zack was still out cold. The poor guy was going to wake up and have another mental crash when he finds out that his boyfriend has been kidnapped by a raging homicidal maniac.
"Goddamn it!" He bellowed when two robots collided with each other, falling over with a loud crash. He stomped forward with hellfire burning in his acid-green eyes. "Can't you two fucktards do anything right?"
Rik and Steff both blanched at the same time, lowering their heads in terror. "We're so sorry, Sir."
Sephiroth growled. He had evacuated the building of all personal, and he had closed off two city blocks from civilian access. What more could he do? Where the hell was that idiot president that ran this bitch? He felt like snapping a whore in two. He had to wake Zack up, rescue Cloud, and bitch slap the teeth out of Genesis' head. There was simply too much shit he had to do.
Was this the beginning of the end? Was the mighty general about to lose his goddamn mind? He wasn't used to feeling this so overwhelmed.
That was when a deafening explosion filled his ears. He could actually feel the heat. He spun around, looked up, seeing the whole top floor of the Shin-Ra building in flames.
"Sir," Rik stuttered. "We found the bomb."
Sephiroth's left eye twitched. He put a trembling hand over his mouth, muffling a snort. He then began to snicker uncontrollably.
Rik and Steff both looked at each other, and then slowly began to back away from the silver-haired terror.
The general suddenly threw his head back, howling with deep laughter.
The robots actually began to back up.
"PUT IT OUT!" Sephiroth roared, spinning on his booted heel, picking up a snoring Zack, tossing him over his left shoulder. He pulled his blade of doom, and stalked off. Nobody said a goddamn word as he passed. He had to find Cloud. But first, he needed to find a way to wake this idiot up.
"LOOK OUT!" Steff shouted. "TIMBER!"
Sephiroth kept walking, even though the building was collapsing behind him. It looked like a transfer was going to be in order. He sniffed and his tummy rumbled. He wanted some chicken. The kind of chicken you could buy that was grilled on a thin wooden stick.
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Vincent snorted from the shadows, texting "SUCCESS" to Cloud. That had worked even better than he had hoped. All he had to do was wait for Cloud to get his sexy self kidnapped, wait for Sephiroth to get Zack out of the building, and then blow the bitch up. Cloud was such a wicked genius. Shin-Ra would now be in disarray for quite sometime.
"Now to find some materia," he said, taking to the sky on wings of crimson darkness. "I gotta capture them all."
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Cloud joyfully slipped his phone back into his pocket and put the cool washcloth to Genesis' smooth brow, gently wiping away the sweat. He couldn't help but smile a little evilly. Even in so much physical agony, Genesis was still drop-drawers gorgeous. He loved seeing such helplessness in a man so powerful. It was so damn sexy.
He had removed Genesis' heavy leather jacket from his broad shoulders and his dusty leather boots from his large feet. The jacket now rested on the back of the wooden rocking-chair in the corner and the boots at its side.
"I'm hot," Genesis moaned, pulling on his muscle-tight, black shirt. It tore just a little, revealing tan flesh.
"Here," Cloud said, helping him out of it. He had to gawk at such a perfect physique. Those hard muscles were begging to be bitten into. He had the kind of abs that could be used to wash stains out of whites. "Is that better?"
Genesis smiled, closing his eyes. It suddenly tore at Cloud. "I need you, Genesis," he told him, watching that frost slowly creeping through all that red. Genesis' hair was turning white before his very eyes. "I need you to stay with me."
Genesis' dulling eyes softly fluttered open. "I'm…listening…"
Cloud began to tell him everything, pulling out the needle which contained his pure cells. Tears streamed from his eyes, spilling onto Genesis' sweaty cheeks. He didn't see how Genesis' flesh seemed to devour those tears like a parched desert does rare raindrops. "Swear to me," Cloud whispered, showing him the needle. "Swear you will help me end Shin-Ra."
Genesis swallowed. It looked as though it had been very painful for him to do so. He nodded his head. His eyes looked so frightened and yet filled with such hope. His voice was like a skeletal rasp. "Save me?"
Cloud plunged the large needle directly into Genesis' failing heart, injecting his pure cells directly into him. Genesis screamed in agony, arching his broad back off the bed, digging his powerful fingers into the mattress hard enough to snap springs.
He pulled the needle free, tossing it over his shoulder. Genesis began to convulse violently, and he fought to hold him down. The white fell away to shocking red and youthful vitality flooded Genesis' face.
"GODDESS!" Genesis screamed, blindly grasping to hold Cloud close to him. His eyes rolled up in his head and he passed out, falling deathly still.
"Yes," Cloud smiled. His eyes were like moonlight shining on twin pools of molten ocean blue. He held the sleeping angel in his arms. "I'm close enough…for now."
"Is everything all right in here?" Aeris' mother asked from the door. She looked out of breath. She must have run up the steps.
Cloud looked up, nodding his head. "The medicine he has to take is very painful. I'm sorry if it frightened you."
She leaned back against the doorframe, looking relieved. "I thought he was dying."
Cloud shook his head and then cocked it to the side. "Do you like flowers?"
TBC…
Please review and tell me what you think.
Flora.
Note: Thank you all so much for your wonderful reviews. They keep this story going.