Whoo hoooo.... I finally got this chapter how I wanted it. I apologize in advance for the shortness of the chapter but...... the next chapter is looking to be the last chapter, and I didn't want to just suddenly spring it upon you. And yes, it will be a much, much longer chapter. So please be prepared to wait....

Thank you's, as always, to Stephy for guinea reading, and to SuperWitch (aka SuperPerv, lol) and IA1979, for boosting my confidence with their reviews and their support. And that goes to everyone that took the time to read and review. I hope I managed to reply to all of you this time :)

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Chapter 28

"You've come to gloat," Cloud accused from the bed, his voice raised, his face set to one of suspicion.

"Gloat? No," Zack insisted quietly, putting his hands up in front of himself in a show of submission. "Hey, look... I come in peace. I just wanted to check you were.....you know....."

Clouds eyes narrowed. "No, what? Battered? Bruised? Laying unconscious in a puddle of my own blood?" The words he spoke came out harsh and bitter, seemingly full of venom. Zack subconsciously took a few paces back from the bristling boy, putting space between them.

"Look, seriously, I'm just saying I know what a bastard Seph can be. I was simply worried about you, okay?"

At his earnestly spoken words, Cloud seemed to calm down. His hunched up shoulders actually appeared to un-tense, and he released the tight hold he'd had on the bed covers. As soon as his half asleep mind had heard the opening and closing of the main door, he had readied himself for the appearance of his captor. He hadn't realised how anxious he had been about seeing the tall man again until he had noticed it was not the silver haired general standing before him staring down, but his dark haired second in command. He pushed himself up in the bed now, his face grimacing as his sore ass took the pressure of his weight.

Zack saw the pained look that flashed across the boy's face, and his sympathy for him immediately took over. "Here, let me take a look at your butt," he offered.

Immediately Cloud's guard was shuttered back in place, and his hands clenched tightly once more into fists, his look becoming glaring. "You're just as fucking bad as he is," he hissed, his voice scathing.

Zack cast a puzzled look at the snarling blond, wondering what he was talking about, replaying over in his mind what he had just said and trying to figure out what had provoked such a reaction, trying to understand what it was that could have caused the instant hostile animosity.

As Cloud shifted on the mattress, obviously in pain from his nether regions, Zack suddenly realised how his last sentence must have sounded to the boy, and he couldn't help it as an apologetic laugh escaped from his lips.

"Whoa.. No...No" he chuckled. "Cloud, no! I didn't mean it in that kind of kinky way," he tried to explain.

Cloud tilted his head. "Is there another way?" he asked.

Zack burst into loud laughter, bending over at the waist to let the belly laugh out, his hands on his knees, his face scrunched up in mirth. It was only when Cloud slammed his eyes at him and turned over on the bed, facing away from him, that he sobered up and tried to reason with the upset boy.

Approaching the side of the bed, adopting a no nonsense attitude when Cloud simply threw an icy glare at him over one shoulder as he got closer, he said, "Hey, I just want to check you out for damages, okay? I don't want to touch you. I don't want to prod you. I certainly don't want to poke you." He held a single finger up to his lips as Cloud opened his mouth to utter something. "Shush. You listen to me. Like I said, I know Sephiroth is a violent lover. I only came here to make sure you are alright. I can see there's nothing wrong with your temper, or your attitude, but I'd just like to check that your body is holding up just as well, too."

Cloud still continued to glare at Zack. But to himself he admitted that what the man said was true. He was hurting. And uncomfortable. But he wasn't sure if he wanted to expose his ravaged ass to another person to see and touch. There was some shame connected in his mind with his rapes, and the fact that he had come to enjoy them.

"I'm alright," he asserted gruffly. But his voice did not carry any conviction, and Zack wasn't easily fooled.

"Have you washed?" he asked. Cloud nodded. "Was there much blood?"

This time Cloud shook his head. The bleeding from his anus had begun to stop after the second day of him being taken by the general, his sphincter muscle being by then too stretched to tear and rip.

"Well, that's good," Zack breathed with a sigh of relief. "Um, I'd still like to take a look though," he said. "If you'll let me?"

"Are you a doctor?" Cloud asked, turning in the bed now to face the persistent man.

"Not a qualified doctor, no," Zack admitted. "But we all have to learn a certain degree of medical skills, for when we are out in the fields fighting," he answered.

A contemplative look passed between the two men, as Cloud stared at Zack, trying to read his intentions, and Zack stared back just as steadily, trying to convey he really meant no harm.

Finally, with a small sigh and a resigned shrug of his slim shoulders, Cloud lay upon his stomach on the mattress, folding his arms under his head. "Do what you want," he said quietly. "It's not like I could stop you anyway."

Zack was almost tempted to slap the boy around the head and knock some sense into him, but he accepted without a word the chance to inspect him, and he did so quickly, before the blond could change his mind.

Pulling the sheet down, exposing Cloud's naked torso, Zack's eyes grew larger and larger as he took in the numerous amount of marks he saw upon the pale body.

From the boy's neck, all the way down to his ankles, Zack could see the imprint of teeth where Sephiroth had bit him. On his flamed red ass cheeks were the distinctive patterns of handprints, obviously the result of being brutally spanked. Dig marks, scratches, bruises and cuts littered the blonds back and thighs.

Taking all this damage in, Zack dreaded to think what Cloud's nipples looked like, although a part of him was sorely tempted to turn him over just to look. He had to fight down this unbidden impulse, had to force himself to concentrate on what he had come here for.

Sephiroth was right though, he silently thought. There was something special about this boy. Even he could feel it.

"So, can I cover back up now?" Cloud asked, his question jerking Zack out of his deliberation.

Zack coughed, and pressed a hand to the boy's spine, holding him in place. "Um, no. Sorry. I was just....taking a look at your back. It's pretty messed up," he answered. "I'll just....excuse my fingers if they're cold."

He proceeded to carry out his intended inspection, his hands gently prying open the boy's ass cheeks, his fingers carefully tracing around the abused hole. He could only imagine the pain Cloud must have gone through when Sephiroth first took him.

"Well?"

Pulling the sheet back up in place, covering the boy's injuries once again, Zack kept his voice light when he replied to the barked out question. "Not as bad as feared," he said, reaching into a pocket inside his jacket and holding out his hand. "Here .... take these."

Cloud lifted himself up a little off his folded arms, his blue eyes taking note of the three small orange pills that the man held out to him. For one brief moment he wondered if he were being offered a permanent way out of the silver haired man's clutches. And then reason set in, and he understood what they must be.

Accepting the pain killers, he swallowed them whole in one gulp, hoping their numbing effect kicked in soon and allowed him some sleep.

"I'll try to come back tomorrow with some more for you," Zack said as he stood to leave. He noted the barely made nod Cloud gave back. He wished he could stay longer and give the boy some company, but he suspected Sephiroth would be missing him by now.

His suspicions were confirmed as soon as he tried to slip back into his chair un-noticed. One silver eyebrow arched up quizzically, and without even turning to face him, Sephiroth asked, "Happy, now?"

Zack had the grace to blush. He had never been able to pull anything over Sephiroth. The man always seemed to know what he was up to. "I gave him some K's," he said simply, not even trying to excuse where he had been.

"How many did you give him?"

"Three. You left him in pain, Seph. Those strong tablets should soon have him......"

"Did you even stop to think that I might have wanted him to be in kept in pain?" Sephiroth snapped, turning around in his chair now to face his friend. His narrowed green eyes pierced into Zack accusingly. "Did you even consider that perhaps I might have already given him some pain relief? What if, with your act of kindness, you've overdosed him, Zack?"

Suddenly Zack paled, and his mind raced frantically. The boy hadn't said he'd been given anything. He hadn't refused the medication. Then Zack remembered the resigned way that Cloud had accepted his inspection of him, and the way he had quickly and without question taken the pills from Zack's outstretched hand and swallowed them.

"Fuck...."

As Zack bolted towards the door, intending to return to Sephiroth's rooms for a second time, the general's cold voice stopped him, his words chastising and scathing at one and the same time.

"You ever give my pet anything again.... without my permission.... and I will hurt you."

Zack pulled up short, his heart thudding, his hand seemingly glued to the door handle. And as Sephiroth turned away from him and nonchalantly continued on with his work, Zack slowly realised that Cloud was in no danger of dying. Had he been so, Sephiroth would surely have beaten Zack out through the doorway.

He returned back to his seat, and cast the general a disgusted look.

"You're a bastard, you know that?"

A small snort was all he got back in return.