Disclaimer: I do not now or before and most likely not in the future, own Final Fantasy, Square Enix or any of the characters.

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Thanks to my beta Queen of Jokers! My other beta is unavailable for now, so it is all falling on QoJ.

"A fair reputation is a plant, delicate in its nature, and by no means rapid in its growth. It will not shoot up in a night like the gourd of the prophet; but like that gourd, it may perish in a night." –Jeremy Taylor

Chapter 24

While Zack was in the shower, Sephiroth started watching the movie with Cloud, "Do you enjoy this movie Cloud?" Sephiroth looked at him and a flicker of recognition came across the blonde's face. Zack had propped Cloud's head against the side of the wing-backed chair so that he would have an easier time seeing the television. Getting engrossed within the stupidity the simple amusement, Sephiroth was so involved in the movie that he sat in just his boxers and he marveled at the amount of entertainment involved in such a predictable plot.

When Zack came out of the bathroom he was wearing a towel around his waist and another wrapped around his head. Sephiroth smacked his hand over his mouth to keep from laughing out loud. Zack put his hands on his hips, "You laughing at me again?" Nodding his head with his hand still on his mouth, Sephiroth fought the laughter down until he was able to lower his hand from his lips. Zack grabbed some clean boxers out of the bag and disappeared back in the bathroom.

Having put his boxers on, Zack left the towel on his head, leaving an opportunity for Sephiroth to let a burst of laughter rushing out and the once stoic General of the most powerful army on the planet, the Demon of Wutai, the scourge of Avalanche and monsters alike, reduced to childlike giggles that even surprised himself. Zack just stood there trying to figure out why Sephiroth thought it was so funny. Gaining enough control of himself, he managed to point at the towel on the taller man's head.

Confused at first, Zack looked up, "Oh, I forgot about that." Pulling the towel off only brought a whole new round of laughter as spikes of black hair stood straight up on his head. The complete look of questioning on Zack's face just added to the scene that Sephiroth lost complete control of his laughter as he lay back on his bed rolling with laughter holding his stomach. Rolling too far, he fell to the floor and laughed even harder.

Seeing Sephiroth's feet kicking and hearing his laughter, Zack finally looked at himself in the mirror and started laughing at himself and in the midst of his laughter, he glanced over toward Cloud and noticed that Cloud had a tiny smile while he looked in the brunette's direction, "Hey Seph! Look!"

Pulling himself off the floor, wiping a few tears out of his eyes, he looked where Zack indicated.

"Hey Spiky! Are you awake now?" Zack watched and waited but Cloud's smile subsided and his eyes closed, "I guess it was just momentary again. It's a start though, right?" While filling the bathtub up, Zack went and combed his hair before it dried that way. Walking back over to Cloud, he bent down and started taking off the blonde's boots and asked him, "You ready for your bath?"

"I wonder if maybe I was picking up on some of Cloud's amusement, I do not remember ever laughing like that before," Sephiroth inquired out loud as he continued to sigh out more laughter.

"If you're still able to still feel some of his emotions that would make sense. Man, it sure was funny seeing you laughing your ass off!" Chuckling to himself as he recalled out loud how funny it was to see Sephiroth rolling off the bed and falling to the floor.

"I will admit that it did feel good," Pulling some sweat pants on, Sephiroth said quietly, "Being around you and Cloud makes me feel good, I like it."

"I'm glad you feel that way because being on your bad side really sucked." Zack took Cloud's dirty clothes over to the growing pile of dirty laundry.

Suddenly taking a serious tone, Sephiroth's eyes saddened, "Zackary, I was not in control of myself."

Glancing briefly to the silver-haired man, Zack added with a little humor, "Yeah, I know, but if it hadn't been Jenova in there, I could have totally kicked your ass."

"…" Sephiroth froze a moment and then added, "I think that you are mistaken. It is I who would, as you put it, kick your ass."

Zack was sure to take note of the slight upturn of a smile on Sephiroth's lips, "Maybe we could settle this with a spar sometime?"

A full smile crossed his entire face, "That would be…" The former General searched for the right word, "fun."

"Good, then it's settled! But right now, I've got to wash the little chocobo here." Standing Cloud up and walking him into the bathroom, he got him in the tub. Soaping up his underarms, a barely audible snort of amusement came from him, he didn't recoil though. When Zack was almost done with his hair, he was rinsing out the shampoo and Cloud started fighting and groaning loudly, "It's okay buddy, I'm almost done. Just hang in there for me."

Once Zack was finished, Cloud's face relaxed and so did his body. Picking him up out of the tub and drying him off, and in a fresh pair of boxers, Zack laid him back on the bed, "Hey hand me some of the bandages would ya?" Bringing the bandages over, Sephiroth took a closer look at the wound. Zack began bandaging his chest back up. For some reason his gunshot wound wasn't healing well.

"It doesn't seem infected," Sephiroth said clearly concerned, then his eyes darted to the scar just to the left of the gunshot wound. A scar that he had given the innocent blond so long ago. Memories flashed in his mind of that night, with the young soldier hanging from the end of his sword, a trickle of blood dripping from the corner of his mouth and the determination in the dark blue eyes of the young man who'd lost everything in the world… Zack's words jarred him, but he didn't let the brunette know he'd not been paying attention.

"It looks better than it did a week ago," Lifting Cloud up a little, "You hungry buddy?" Sephiroth handed him an opened can of peaches.

Once Cloud ate, the three of them finished watching the movie. They were comfortable in their clean boxers, heated room and freshly bathed. Sephiroth looked at Zack and Cloud as Zack laughed out loud, a faint smile set on Cloud's lips.

Sephiroth woke up with a jump and realized that Cloud had not woken during the night. Looking over to his left, Cloud looked as if he were dreaming and Zack slept solidly. Getting up, he made his way to the bathroom.

Zack woke up when Sephiroth came back out and headed to his bed. Sephiroth asked, "How is he this morning?" The younger former Soldier tried focusing his eyes as he rubbed the sleep from them.

"Sleeping. I gotta go to work here in a bit," As Zack got up and started to get dressed, Cloud started to stir and groan. Zack looked over at him and a worried look flashed across his face as the blond frowned and groaned a little louder.

"Stop worrying. I got Cloud covered," Sephiroth assured. He moved over to Cloud's and Zack's bed and sat next to the blond, he put his hand on Cloud's shoulder and looked at Zack, "Just go to work already."

As Zack turned the doorknob to leave, he turned around to Sephiroth, "Yes dear…" Laughing as he shut the door behind him.

Cloud's eyes opened and he was looking around, "Are you hungry Cloud?" Sephiroth got up and picked some powdered food out of the bag and mixed it with some hot water. He brought it over to feed Cloud, "How about some eggs?"

Zack got to the office promptly at eight, "My goodness, you are right on time. You must be Noah. I'm Sam. Henry said you would be here." Sam held out his hand for Zack to shake, "Our handy man moved to Coral for more work, he's been gone for a while, so we have lots of things that need to be done around town. After a couple of jobs, you're supposed to get the grocery store." Sam clapped his hands together, "Let's get started over at the workshop."

Zack winced at that word. Taking a deep breath, he followed Sam and it turned out that it was very similar to Charles's workshop. He just couldn't seem to make himself go in, "I'll just wait out here if that's okay."

"Oh, that's fine. I'm just grabbing the tool box. So Henry said that you were here with your brothers?" He inquired as he left the workshop and shut the door behind him.

"Oh yeah, we are just trying to get back home," Zack fell into Sam's stride going down the street.

"Where is home?" Zack looked down. Sam could tell that he didn't really want to answer, "Well it doesn't really matter. I have two brothers also, are your brothers older or younger?"

"I'm the middle one," Zack rubbed the back of his head.

"Me too!" He smiled and Zack relaxed and tried to enjoy the conversation. Sam started to explain the things that needed to be done first, "The first place I'm taking you Mrs. Snyder's house but she prefers everyone call her Rebecca." As he was walking Zack to the house, Sam added, "She is old, but friendly." Knocking on the door, Rebecca answered and let them in. She was a tiny old woman and her head full of grey hair only came to Zack's bicep. She reminded him of his grandmother before she'd passed away when he was younger.

Zack smiled, "Hello ma'am."

"Rebecca this is Noah, he's here to fix your sink," Sam left quickly, leaving Zack looking confused.

"Well, hello there," She grabbed a hold of his arm and pulled him further inside the house and to the kitchen, "It's the kitchen sink, it drains really slow." She stroked his bicep as they walked, "They tried to change the pipe because the other one was rusted or something like that." She looked up at him and smiled, "My goodness, you are a big boy aren't you!"

Zack smiled gently at her, "Let me look at the sink." Zack knew nothing about plumbing except for once after he made Soldier Second Class, he'd dropped his favorite earring down the sink. He ended up taking the pipe off and water got everywhere. Zack remembered that Angeal was not happy having to explain that to Lazard.

Turning the water valve off, he maneuvered under the sink and looked at a mess of pipes. Lying on his back he looked up and scratched his head. While he began taking the pipes apart, he felt a hand on his thigh. With a jerk, he hit his head on the pipes that hung over his head, "What the fu- heck?" Rebecca had made herself a resting spot on the floor, very close to his lap. Rubbing his forehead where it had made contact with the pipe, Zack asked, "Is there something you need ma'am?"

"You are such a good-looking boy. If I were younger…" she sighed.

"Thank you ma'am, but I-"

"-If you need anything, anything at all you let me know right away," She had started gently rubbing his thigh and he was trapped under the sink.

Reaching down, he took her hand gently and said, "I need to fix this ma'am." As difficult as it was, the way she touched his thigh, his body responded the exact opposite of what he intended or wanted. It had been a really long time and he inadvertently thought of Aerith, which only made things worse. Wearing loose-fitting fatigue pants and boxers gave plenty of room so it didn't help hide the situation either. He whispered to himself, "Oh shit." Then he thought to himself, 'I hope she is blind.'

"Oh my!" That was all he heard from her as he was now trying to get out from under the sink.

Once he was back up on his feet, she was looking at him expectantly and he smiled uneasily, "May I use your restroom please?"

She smiled with a wink and said, "It's down the hall, right next to the bedroom." She followed him down to the restroom.

Quickly shutting the door before she could do or say anything else, he put the lid to the toilet down and sat on it as he murmured to himself, "Only friendly? No wonder he left in such a hurry. Okay, un-sexy thoughts, un-sexy thoughts… Palmer dancing the cha-cha in a Speedo while sucking down another bucket of ice cream…" After a few minutes, he got the situation under control and exited the bathroom carefully. Looking both ways in the hall, he didn't see her. He went back to the kitchen and hurried to finish the sink. As he headed for the front door he heard her call him, "Noah. Could you come help me in here please? The fan in my room has stopped working."

Hunching his shoulders, Zack winced as he made his way to the door, "I will get to that later. I have other jobs I need to take care of first," Quietly shutting the door, he leaned on the outside of the door and took a really deep breath. That was when he looked over and saw Henry and Sam standing across the street with huge smiles on their faces. They were laughing to themselves as he hollered to them, "Okay guys THAT was not funny!" He jumped down the stairs and trotted across the road.

"Let's get to the next job okay," Sam slapped a hand on Zack's back and laughed a little more to himself.

"Any more jobs like that one?" Zack asked with a smile on his face.

"Nope. She is one of a kind!" Henry informed him with a laugh.

After a full day, Zack was ready for a shower, but then again, he wanted one of those after his first job. Opening the door, he saw Cloud sitting in the chair by the television in a clean pair of pants and a t-shirt. Sephiroth sat comfortably reclined on his bed reading a newspaper and the pile of dirty clothes were washed and put away and both beds made up. A clean change of clothes for Zack sat in a neat folded stack at the foot of his bed, "You are such a good wife Seph!" Sephiroth narrowed his unique eyes at him as Zack continued, "You would not believe the day I had. It all started-"

Dropping his paper to his lap in frustration, Sephiroth blurted out, "Did you know that he doesn't like eggs? He got eggs everywhere. I thought I was going to have to give him a bath." With an exaggerated movement of his arms, the silver-haired man sighed as he leveled his eyes at the man who struggled to keep from laughing.

Finishing shutting the door, Zack finally laughed out and informed him, "Seph, he doesn't like eggs."

Sephiroth glared at him and folded the newspaper neatly and turned his attention to the bag in Zack's hands, "What is in there?"

"I picked up a few things at the store. I also got a pie from one of the residents, as a thank you," Zack handed the bag to Sephiroth, "I thought I would give the pie to Mr. Cloud I'll-only-eat-sweets Strife."

As Sephiroth rummaged through the bag, he asked, "You were saying something about your day?" Before Zack started talking, he leaned over the distracted man's head and picked something out of his hair and handed it to Sephiroth with a smile. Holding out his hand, he took what Zack offered, "Eggs? …figures."

Chuckling, Zack started, "Oh yeah, I met the town octopus this morning," Zack turned Cloud around and pulled the chair over towards the bed, he sat on the foot of the bed and fed Cloud.

"What do you mean?" Sephiroth took a bite of an apple.

As Zack told him the story of what happened with Rebecca, Cloud ate almost half of the pie and stopped eating. Making his way to the bathroom, Zack paused when Sephiroth grinned and shook his head with a light chuckle, "Better you than me."

Once in the shower, Zack closed his eyes and repeated to himself, "I promise Cloud, I'm going to get us all home."

Later that night, getting Cloud in bed and crawling in after him, he heard the blond grunt, "What's wrong Spiky?" Cloud's eyes were open and he was actually looking at Zack, but in his eyes there was a scared look, "Spiky?" His eyes closed slowly and he breathed in deeply and then nothing, "I think he's messing with me Seph." After settling in, Zack closed his eyes and fell into a deep and physically healthy sleep, but it cost him dearly…

Zack was sitting on the chilly floor of the cell in the mansion basement and Cloud stood in front of him.

The blade of a knife in his hand glimmered in the fluorescent light. Bending down to look in Zack's eyes, Cloud's eyes looked distressed, he'd been crying and looked worn out, "Zack, I don't know how much longer I can do this." Dropping to his knees, he moved quickly and held the knife to his chest, puncturing his ribs, his blood dripped and pooled on the floor. Zack tried to protest, but he was unable to talk or move, Cloud's eyes filled with tears as he pleaded, "Just let me go…" Collapsing on the floor, he sank through it and disappeared.

Zack closed his eyes and shook his head and when he opened his eyes again, he was standing in a small clearing in the woods. Looking around, he saw Cloud sitting beside a tree with his head hung down, "Cloud! Don't give up, please!" Zack implored.

Cloud looked up at him and his eyes were green and his pupils were slits, "Jenova isn't going to let me go now." He shook his head sadly, "She never will."

"Why?" Zack took a step toward him.

He jumped up and took a step back and held his hands up. His eyes changed; darkness took over the light, sinister and menacing was what was left of Cloud's once beautiful eyes and his voice was different, "It's not important." Turning around, he started walking farther into the woods and just before he disappeared, "Your friend is lost to you." Zack heard the real Cloud's voice all around him, "I'm still here and I'm scared that I'll never get to see you again." A short pause and Cloud continued sadly, "Thank you Zack. Thank you for being my friend."

Zack fell to his knees, "Don't you dare give up! I'm never going to give up on you!"

In the blink of an eye, he was in Charles's workshop, laying across that damned table. Hojo stood there proudly next to his surgical tools, "Well Z, you have been a naughty specimen. What should I do to get the point across to you, C belongs to me?" Pulling out a bone saw, Hojo offered, "Maybe this will do the job?"

Hojo started by grabbing his left arm and brought the saw down right below the elbow. Zack yelled for him to stop through gritted teeth but Hojo was unstoppable, he started sawing through his skin, then muscle. His blood splattered on his face, in his mouth and he could taste the metallic, thick, hot liquid. Zack screamed and wiggled against his bindings as the saw severed the nerve endings. Once Hojo got through the bone, Hojo grabbed his hand and yanked and pulled what was left of his arm off.

Zack's bindings disappeared and he fell to the floor grabbing at what was left of the rest of his arm. Horrified, he looked to Hojo and instead of holding his arm he had a hold of Cloud.

Cloud looked directly at Zack whispered, "Please don't…"

Still unable to get up, the brunette screamed to Hojo, "No! Take me instead!"

"Zackary!" Sephiroth shook Zack hard, "Wake up!" Opening his eyes, he was breathing hard, sobbing and drenched in sweat.

Jumping to his feet, he punched out, making contact with Sephiroth's face.

Getting knocked back over his bed, Sephiroth got back up and dodged two more punches before he succeeded in getting Zack fully awake.

Taking a deep breath and setting Zack back down on the foot of the bed, the panting former Soldier put his face in his hands and sobbed silently. Sephiroth got two cold wet rags and put one on the back of Zack's neck and put the other one up to his bleeding nose and lip. Zack grabbed the rag and wiped his face.

Zack looked up at Sephiroth and said with sad distraction, "Sorry about that." Standing up, he staggered a step as he went into the bathroom and quickly shut the door and slid down the wall to the floor. Planting his elbows on his drawn up knees, he ran his hands through his hair, screamed out in anger and slammed the back of his head on the wall.

Sephiroth listened to Zack's scream and flinched, he knew what the man was feeling, because he often had nightmares of his own. It puzzled him, he wasn't sure what it was that woke him at first. Was it Zack screaming, or Cloud's non-verbal communication that something was wrong or was there something else?

Looking over at Cloud, his deep blue empty eyes were wide and focused on something that he couldn't see. Whatever it was that Zack dreamt about, he wasn't going to talk about it and Sephiroth was not going to ask either. In Zack's struggles in his sleep, Cloud had gotten elbowed and kicked, he didn't seem injured, but Sephiroth straightened up the covers around him.

When Zack finally emerged from the bathroom, he looked twenty years older. The former Soldier slowly approached Sephiroth, "I'm sorry about hitting you. It's just that…"

Putting a hand gently on his shoulder, he reassured, "Zackary, there is no need to explain anything to me. I understand, really," Sephiroth raised his eyes to Zack, "I understand what you are going through."

Zack lowered his eyes, "Thank you." In a strange way, it comforted him to know that his former General and now friend knew what was happening to him because they had all three suffered at the hands of the same mad man.

Zack didn't know what to make of the dream and the two deep pools of ocean colored eyes were open and glancing around the room slowly, seemingly looking for something. Zack lay back on the bed on his side, face to face with Cloud.

The brunette didn't sleep for the rest of the night, he couldn't. His dream had put a hint of doubt in his heart about his friend and his ability to save him. His best friend's fate was at stake and he had to stick by him until the end, he had to and he was going to see this through.

Zack laid there and the rest of the night, and watched over Cloud. He watched him sleep, open his eyes, grunt, close his eyes, groan, scream, furrow his eyebrows, cry and even smile. Zack's friend, his brother, was still in there, he was going to get Cloud back and he would never give up on him, even if it killed him.

A/N: Thanks to everyone who reads, favorites, subscribes and/or reviews, I appreciate your time and I dedicate all of this to you. To quote another author, "Getting reviews makes me feel all warm and squishy."

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