Hey guys! BTW: This is a flashback sequence, set when Zack had first been imprisoned!

WARNING: THIS CHAPTER WILL BE RATED M TO BE SAFE! EXPLICIT Blood and gore ahead! This chapter will be mostly centered around acts of violence and inhumanity! MINORS be warned turn back please!

Chapter 3: Behind these Steel Bars

"Who is this?" the officer asked, hitting the steel bars to a cell inhabiting a man with his back turned to them. The man in the cell didn't budge though.

A policeman of lower status scanned quickly over the prisoner's files, "Zack Fair, 24 years old, used to be a part of Shinra and their military SOLDIER."

"Why is he here?"

The policeman's eyes widened as he read the information with his lips trembling silently.

The officer turned to his subordinate, "I'm listening,"

"H-he…he k-killed an entire division…"

"What?" the officer couldn't believe this.

"He….killed an entire division of SOLDIER, the largest of them…more than a thousand of Second and Third Class SOLDIERs, infantrymen and helicopters."

"What Class was he?"

"F-first Class s-sir," the papers in the man's grip were shaking

The officer's cigarette fell to the floor, his mouth was slightly open before it closed into a thin line.

He hit the steel bars of the prison cell hard, "Why did you kill your own men?! Why have you betrayed Shinra?! Answer me SOLDIER!" the resonating sound of the vibrating bars sounded within the prison, causing most of the prisoners to quiet down and listen in to what was happening to the newcomer.

They had no idea who the guy was, just that he had been brought in with the highest security guards as well as heavy chains and shackles attached to his feet, hands, waist and neck.

The man sitting on the floor cross legged didn't move a single muscle at first.

A deep young voice sounded," You ask me, why I killed my own men who betrayed me and hunted me down like I was a criminal? You ask me, why I turned my back on a company I've worked for years and pledged my loyalty to, only to be on their list of people they still needed to kill?" the man rose suddenly, slightly hunched as if sporting an injury and turned around.

The officer and policeman behind him took a step back.

Electric glowing blue eyes glared at them with unbound killing intent, their glow only further enhancing the bloodlust the man must have felt towards those that have rammed a dagger in his back.

"You're with Shinra, aren't you?" the man, the prisoner, Zack Fair, asked.

The officer snorted, resting a hand on his hip with a smug look, "What's it to you, murderer?"

Blue eyes widened, Zack's pupils dilated and his muscles tensed, teeth clenched tightly.

All hell broke loose.

One minute the officer was smugly leaning against the steel bars, taunting the imprisoned former SOLDIER, the next, said SOLDIER had a arm wrapped tightly around the officer's neck, pressing him tightly against the steel bars.

The officer made choking noises, clawing at the muscled arm that was locking him in a death grip, his eyes were wide in shock at the unexpected act.

"You call me a murderer? Shinra killed millions of people, innocent people, my parents, my friends, my girlfriend all of them. They tried taking away my best friend, but we escaped. Then my own men gunned me down, tell me, officer, where is he?"

Choking noises. Zack tightened his grip and growled into the officer's ear:" That's an order,"

The poor policeman was in shock, trembling on the floor, too terrified to call for help, too much in shock to stop Zack from choking the life out of his superior.

Zack sharply turned the officer's head toward his glowing blue eyes, not enough to break the bone, but certainly enough to hurt, "Refusing an order?" to the officer, it seemed as if the dangerous glow of his eyes only intensified with killing intent.

"I-I-I-I-" he choked, gasping for air, clawing at the arm holding him, drawing blood but Zack didn't care, didn't even feel it anymore.

"Sorry, you can't breathe, can you?" Zack loosened his grip just so he wasn't cutting off the man's air supply anymore but nonetheless held a firm grip.

"I-I-I d-d-d-don't k-know…..d-d-don't know…..a-a-anything-"

"Bullshit!" Zack snarled, tightening his grip again, "You know! I can see it in your eyes you scumbag! Where. Is. He?!" Zack glared venomously, feeling his anger and resentment rise.

"T-t-t-t-town,"

Crush

Zack removed his arm from between the steel bars, his glowing blue eyes cold and sharp as he watched the now dead man slide down the bars and fall onto his face, breaking his nose and teeth from the impact on the hard floor, causing blood to gush out of his mouth from his broken neck and jaw.

The policeman trembled in fear and horror, looking up at the intimidating man behind the steel bars

"W-w-w-wh-who a-a-are you?" he couldn't hide the terror and fear in his voice not even if he tried.

Zack directed his cold gaze toward the whimpering man on the floor, there was some blood on his face, little drops that must have escaped from when Zack broke the officer's neck and jaw earlier.

"Zack Fair, SOLDIER First Class,"

The man would never forget the tremendous killing intent in the terrifying SOLDIER's expression, he would also never forget those murderous, scary glowing blue eyes.

The eyes of a killer.

The eyes of Zack Fair. SOLDIER First Class.

Zack bit his tongue hard, feeling the bitter taste of his own blood in his mouth as he tried to not make a single sound.

"God damn it, these guys must do this every day, they know where to hit that it counts," Zack thought as he felt the stinging, mind numbing pain on his back, stomach and chest.

"He's got enough," a voice, distinctively male, said in the room, somewhere from Zack's right.

"No, this boy was First Class material, I bet they had to endure far worse than this!" he pushed the dagger deeper into Zack's open wound, the hot blade searing Zack's flesh and burning it's outer layers. Zack remained firm and didn't make a sound.

"Tough guy huh?" his torturer chuckled darkly and almost broke Zack's ankle, twisting it in a unnatural angle.

These were experts, they knew exactly where the nerves were the most sensitive and where it really hurt.

"Let's try this again. Tell us SOLDIER, where is your little buddy? Cloud Strife?" he slammed his boot against Zack's back, making him cough out blood and bend slightly forward on his scraped and bruised knees.

The determination and stubbornness never left Zack's eyes, "I don't know, asshole" a kick to the face, Zack spit out what he thought was his tooth since it hurt so bad but it was only more blood.

"Feisty and disobedient, no wonder they kicked scum like you out of SOLDIER," his torturer walked around Zack, purposely stepping on Zack's bruised black and blue ankle, causing Zack to grit his teeth tightly in pain.

"Would you look at that, a SOLDIER's body is quite resilient. He's withstanding the pain very well, most others would have passed out by now," another man in the room said, Zack lost count to how many people were in the room exactly.

He could see blood – his blood – all around him, he was sure he was losing a lot of blood.

His eyes slowly moved down to quickly inspect his stomach wound, on his right. The dagger was on the floor, bloody and hot as hell, his wound had stopped bleeding, Zack almost snorted. Those idiots, they didn't know by heating up the blade of the dagger they had seared Zack's wound shut.

It had hurt like a bitch, but at least it was one wound less. A hundred more to go.

Zack growled when his torturer gripped his spiky hair sharply and drew him back, only further putting tremendous strain on Zack's open wounds.

"Listen up SOLDIER boy, I'll be quite frank. Since our superiors don't know we are doing this to you, unfortunately, we can't do this all too often but I do hope that these past months, you've learned something." He roughly let go of Zack's hair

The men all around Zack started to laugh, Zack almost winced when he felt a kick to his badly wounded side.

Then he lifted his head up to look at each one of them.

"You know nothing of pain," Zack spit out the rest of the blood gathering in his mouth, he slowly brought one hand forth so that all the men could see it clearly how it rested on his side as did the other.

They had bound him with ropes, they had cut into Zack's flesh and made him bleed but Zack had managed to free himself in the midst of their distraction of torturing him. How foolish of them.

"Hey…how did he…" the man quieted down, glaring at Zack as he straightened himself to his full height, bleeding wounds and torn flesh and clothes.

"Just because you actually still managed to stand up doesn't mean you are-" the man never finished his sentence.

A dagger was plunged deeply into his head, above his wide open eyes. He fell to the floor with a thud.

"What the-?!" Zack moved.

The former SOLDIER slammed his boot against another man's head, breaking his neck and slamming his whole body against the wall, a loud, sickening cracking noise echoed.

Zack punched another man in the jaw, easily dislocating it, he punched him again in the stomach, kicked his legs and slammed his joined hands on the back of his head. He was dead in seconds.

At long last, Zack turned toward the man that had mainly tortured him for hours and the past few months.

He smirked as he stalked toward him.

"W-w-what? N-no! Get the fuck a-away from me! You damn monster!" the man tried to draw his gun but cried out in pain when Zack's tight grip on his hand broke his fingers. All of them.

"Monster?" Zack grabbed his gun instead, aiming it at him, "You call me a monster? Despite what you have done to me the past few months? What you did to others as well?"

The man crawled to a corner but Zack continued stalking him, suddenly the man who thought he held so much power over these criminals here, was absolutely powerless to stop this one criminal he had tortured for months.

"I-I thought I had broken your will! I thought I broke you! W-why the hell are you standing?! You lost so much blood!" he looked at all the blood on the floor in horror and fear.

Zack craned his aching neck, hissing in pain, "Just like you said, a SOLDIERs body can endure a few things. Though I've been told I was a stubborn bastard a few times," the glow in his eyes intensified.

He licked his bloodied lips, "What are you planning on doing to Cloud? To my friends?" Zack slammed his boot against the man's broken wrist, causing him to scream in pain.

"I-I-I ain't t-telling it t-to-"

"Think over what you will say. It just may be your last,"

The man fell silent, before he looked into Zack's burning eyes, "S-Shinra…t-t-they…w-we…"

Zack applied more pressure, "A-argh! W-we p-p-plan on u-using them as experiments!" Zack rose an eyebrow in suspicion.

"Experiments? What kind of experiments?" he glared straight at the terrified man.

"T-the scientists of S-Shinra want to conduct experiments on them! W-w-with mako! T-t-they put something else in it! I don't know what it is! I s-s-swear! They said it was a s-secret!" the man's bloodied lips trembled

"Who is leading this experiment? And you better answer me on the first try," Zack's grip became crushing

The man hissed sharply in pain, "B-b-b-by the l-lead scientist! I-I-It's Hojo!"

Zack's eyes widened, "Hojo? What the hell does he want with mako and Cloud and the others? Something else….the bastard said they put something else in the mako…but what?" Zack tore himself out of his thoughts

"Do you know how the substance they put in the mako looks like?"

"I-I-I d-don't know! I-I was never allowed to s-see anything!" the man was shaking from fear, terror shining brightly in his wide eyes.

Zack smirked, "I hope you enjoy your time in hell, greet your buddies from me, scum"

Snap!

Zack stood up on shaky legs, supporting himself with one hand against the wall as he left the dead body of his torturer and the rest behind.

He already heard security as they were thundering down the hall, they had probably heard the screams and the commotion by now.

"Tch, I was never fond of guns anyway," Zack threw the gun away, holding his still bleeding side. He blinked back the blood that annoyingly kept seeping over his right eye. Wait…had he been injured on the head? He couldn't remember anymore.

Zack's vision darkened, his steps became even more hazy and wobbly. Zack grit his teeth, blinking away the blood and the black and white spots that were starting to fill his vision.

He saw masses of blue and black…the guards? Zack couldn't quite tell, he could hear shouts, then he felt something slam against the side of his face, his whole body was bleeding and aching.

He opened one eye that wasn't completely busted up. Gray? He was on the floor? Wait…red…his blood…damn it…he was bleeding too much…

The last thing Zack remember was seeing red, worried, red eyes staring into his. Wait…red?

He knew that rare eye color…Tifa…

So his old friend had come to visit him? Oh great…she was going to kick his ass for worrying her…especially in this state…

He smiled and closed his eyes. At least he knew he had friends he could count on, Tifa, Cid, Barret…Cloud…all of them…

It felt good to have friends he could count on.

REVIEWS AND OPINIONS are welcomed! Don't worry, in later chapters there won't be so much blood and gore! Thanks for reading everyone! What do you think of the new Zack?