Zack looked up. His vision was fuzzy. He didn't know how he got here. He was chained to a think white tree in the forgotten city forest. The dark night sky made the trees shine even brighter than usual. Zack hated being at the forgotten city. It had been were Aerith had died, and for that he couldn't stand the place.

Memories of that day came flooding back. He and cloud had gone to the altar on the strange building in the middle of the forgotten city to find Aerith. He remembered when, out of no were, a long thin sword pierced Aerith's abdomen and how she flopped lifelessly. He remembered how devastated cloud was. Zack was also obviously heart broken but cloud seemed particularly distressed.

Cloud. Zacks eyes darted around the forest searching for his spiky, blonde friend. Cloud was chained to a tree a few feet away, he hadn't woken up yet. His head drooped over to rest on his chest, hanging limply to the tight chains around his body.

"Ah brother, your awake" a mocking voice broke the silence. Zack looked in the direction of the voice to see a man dressed in leather with medium length silver hair swept across his face. His features were very feminine, a small pointy nose and thin lips combined with bright green cat-like eyes. He looked a lot like Sephiroth...

"Brother?" was all Zack managed to say.

"heh...you are funny, Brother" The strange man replied.

"Who are you?"

"Me? I'm just a remnant...nothing more than a puppet..." The man trailed off.

"You gotta name?"

"Kadaj...but you may refer to me as Brother"

"I'm guessing you are the one who brought me and Cloud here?"

"Ooh you're a clever one brother" Kadaj teased.

"Why did you bring us here?"

"You have Mother"

"Who?" Zack tilted his head like a confused puppy.

"Mother...the reunion is coming...we need Mother"

"Look who ever 'Mother' is we don't have it"

"heh...is that right?" Kadaj paced over to Cloud who was just waking up.

"ugh...z..zack?" Clouds speech was slightly slurred as he was only semi-conscious.

"Ha ha..this is going to be fun" Kadaj said, viscously grabbing a lock of clouds hair and slamming his head into the tree Cloud was tied to. Kadaj then turned back to Zack.

"Tell me were mother is!" He demanded.

"We don't have her!"

"Heh fine. Have it your way" Kadaj ripped the chains off cloud with amazing force and threw him to the ground. "If you don't tell me were Mother is I'll just have to keep hurting brother until you do" Kadaj stated gesturing to Cloud.

"I'm telling the truth! We don't have your precious 'Mother'" Zack said sounding desperate. " Please stop hurting Cloud" He pleaded.

"AAGGHHHHH" Cloud screamed in pain as Kadaj ripped Clouds arm from its socket.

"Tell me were she is!"

"WE DONT HAVE MOTHER" Zack shouted.

"Wrong answer bother" Kadaj smirked as he grabbed clouds hand and snapped his fingers right back. A loud 'CRACK' shook the air as Clouds fingers broke.

"arrughh..." The intense pain was making Clouds whole body shake and he was sweating. Kadaj quickly threw clouds arm down and smashed his foot into clouds chest. With each viscous attack Clouds cries of pain became more strained and unbearable to hear.

"Kadaj stop please! You have to believe me, we don't have 'Mother'!" Zack pleaded more, hoping to get through to Kadaj.

Cloud was used to this sort of abuse. He had flashbacks of the school yard all those years ago, when he would get beaten up almost every lunchtime. He knew if he just stayed as quiet as possible, then whoever it was who was beating him would hopefully just get bored and go away.

Zack herd a small rustle in the bushes. He looked over to see a small tawney-brown creature that looked a lot like a wild dog. It had a short coat, shining hazel eyes and a long snout tipped with a small black nose. Its body was littered with scars and it was clearly scared of Kadaj.

As Kadaj looked over at the creature Zack saw a chance to escape and ripped his chains from the tree, shattering them. Before Kadaj had a chance to react Zack grabbed his buster sword (that was propped up against a near by tree) and hit Kadaj in the head with the blunt edge. Kadaj yelped in pain, a lot like an animal, and jumped back in shock. Zack slashed across Kadaj's face then his legs and watched him fall to the ground in pain. Kadaj looked up at Zack snarling and Zack hit his head again with the blunt side of his buster sword. Kadaj collapsed against the cold, hard forest floor. Zack went over to cloud and crouched next to him. "Cloud?"

Cloud looked up wincing in pain. Zack smiled trying to re assure cloud everything would be okay. Cloud sat up and moaned in pain.

"Are you okay?" Zack asked.

"uh..." Cloud looked over his injuries. "no..."

Zack pulled cloud to his feet trying not to hurt him more. Cloud gasped in pain and bit his lip as he got pulled to his feet, still trembling in pain. Zack decided cloud was to hurt to walk and slipped one hand behind clouds legs and put the other on his back. He then lifted cloud and carried him out the forgotten city. Zack looked at cloud who was still shaking, sweating and pale. He knew cloud would struggle getting all the way back to Midgar in this condition. By foot anyway...

"Hey I got an idea" Zack said sounding rather pleased with himself. He sat cloud down leaning on a tree and pulled out his PHS. He found Cid's number and sent him a text ( he was never really fond of talking to Cid over the phone...he didn't know why though)

"Me and Spiky r stuck outside Forgotten City, Spiky hurt, Plz cum get us"

Zack smiled at the text then sent it, hoping Cid's phone was on.