Chapter 12: Your Protection
Cobalt blue eyes opened, smiling faintly to see Zack's sleeping face. He rolled closer, assuming they were at Zack's place due to the spaciousness of the bed. His fingers pressed underneath the black sweater, sighing at the warmth as he buried his face under his alpha's chin. His fingers spanned over his abs, scratching playfully along them as he began to kiss underneath his jaw.
Zack stiffened against his hands and rolled away and out of the bed. "Sorry, I was just exhausted...and didn't want to sleep in the chair."
Cloud rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, not quite comprehending what he was saying yet. "Why would you sleep in the…" Memories hit him like a ton of bricks as he remembered where he was, and what they had found in the basement. He covered his mouth as a wave of nausea rolled through him, and he looked around to see that they were sleeping in a musty bed in the mansion. "Fuck…" he managed, panic welling up inside him as all he could hear were Hojo's words over and over again.
The SOLDIER's face was pained, looking like he was warring with himself on backing up or walking closer. "It's okay Cloud, we'll figure it out."
Cloud. In all the time he had known Zack, he had called him by his name maybe only one or two times. It spoke volumes. "Which part?" he managed, curling his knees up to his chin. "The part where the person you despise most in the world is my father, or the part where I was genetically designed to want to fuck your best friend?"
Zack flinched, and looked away from him, but not before Cloud saw the pain flash in his face. "Both parts, I suppose." He rubbed at his dark spikes. "What did you want me to say, exactly? That I was happy by what we saw in the basement? That I'm not positively crawling out of my skin just looking at you?"
It was Cloud's turn to flinch, clutching tighter at his knees. "I didn't know."
"Of course you knew," Zack started. "Of course you did, Cloud. You may not remember, but you were cherry picked to go to training academy and run into Sephiroth's path." He grinned sardonically, anger plain on his face. "Yet, you ran into me instead."
"Yes!" Cloud snapped. "I ran into you instead! Does that mean nothing?"
Zack shrugged. "It means something. It means I got to break you in first for your alpha."
It was worse than any punch could be. He felt like the wind had been knocked out of him, self-loathing filling him to the core as he saw how much he repulsed the man he was in love with. "Fuck destiny," Cloud managed. "Fuck genetics." He stood up. "Fuck Hojo. Fuck Sephiroth." He glowered at Zack, grabbing for his shoes as he slipped them on. "And fuck you."
"You're going the wrong way," Zack called after him as he walked towards the hallway. "Sephiroth's in the basement." He froze, looking back at the bitterness on the normally jovial face.
"What's he doing in the basement?" he questioned, ignoring the jibe of him just wanting to get to Sephiroth, for fear of what the other was doing around his forgotten childhood.
Zack sighed, rubbing his face in exhaustion as the sadness came back to his face. "What do you imagine, Cloud? You ever know Sephiroth to leave something lie once it's caught his curiosity?"
"Why didn't you go?" Cloud questioned. "Weren't curious?"
The SOLDIER gave an audible sigh, shaking his head. "What do you want me to say, Spike? Turns out, I'm still just a gullible idiot who wanted to make sure you didn't wake up alone." Zack rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Did Hojo tell you to sleep with me?" he asked in pained frustration. "Did he? Is it on those tapes Sephiroth is pouring through? Was this all a fucking game?"
"Maybe," Cloud murmured, not knowing what else to say. "I don't remember, so maybe? I don't remember, Zack. I could have been a terrible person. I could have planned all of this, but I don't remember. I'm the person I have always been with you!"
"And with Sephiroth?" Zack asked. "Who were you with him? Were you the same person who told me you loved me? Were you the same person who I became friends with a year ago?"
"No," He had never been the same with Sephiroth as he had been with Zack. "It's always been different. If this was all a plan, then don't you think you wouldn't have been in the equation, Zack?"
"You're Hojo's son," he accused, disgust thick in his voice. "You're his son, Cloud! He made me this way!"
"I have his DNA according to that video, but I am not his son," Cloud bit out. "As to how he made you, I've never thought anything was wrong with you Zack, so why do you hate yourself so much?"
"I wasn't given a choice! I wasn't told about the consequences!" Zack screamed.
"Neither was I!" Cloud countered. "I understand though. I understand you hating me. I understand that we're over. But don't hate yourself Zack, you may not be entirely human, but you have more humanity than anyone I've ever met."
Zack rubbed at his face, taking a deep breath as he looked up towards the ceiling in thought, and just for a moment, Cloud had hope. He thought maybe his alpha would forgive him, but then he shook his head in disgust. "I can't, I'm sorry," he managed, before turning and walking out.
Cloud tried to keep it together as he heard the door to the mansion slam shut, stomach heaving as he tried to hold in his breath to stop the sobs. Why had he come here? Why had he come to this awful place with both of them? What compelled him to want to return to a laboratory he was raised in like a science experiment?
Why had Hojo done this to him? Why had he fathered him, and then whored him out to an alpha? None of it made sense. None of it made the demons in his head any less loud as he considered what he had done to both Zack and Sephiroth under that madman's orders.
He gripped at his head, trying to quell the panic attack rising within his body. The stress was almost too much to bear as he sank to his knees. Was he playing into the scientist's hands even now? How far had his life been puppeted? What else would he find down in that room...on those tapes?
His stomach ached as he pushed himself shakily to his feet, heading towards that passageway as he stumbled down the stairs. What did it mean that Sephiroth's pheromones were implanted in him? Attraction...sure...but what else? What were they to each other?
How many times had he walked down these stairs in his life? He leaned against the stone walls, feeling like his body weighed 500 pounds as he struggled to not collapse under the strain. He heard the same voices that he had the last time he had come down here, but he knew this time that they were from the past.
His past.
Cloud's face was a hollow mask as he took in Sephiroth pacing through the basement. Countless files were spread across the room, and Hojo's tapes were playing in the background. His numb mind took in his teenage form as Hojo was drawing blood on an exam table.
"Read any good books lately?" he asked, voice barely above a tremble as he stepped closer. Sephiroth had yet to look up, flipping through more pages. Cloud glanced over to the screen, and to his disgust and horror, Hojo was performing a pelvic exam. "Sephiroth?" He still didn't look up or reply, so Cloud went over to the monitor and shut off the horrors on the screen.
The SOLDIER did look up at that, eyes intense and focused as they narrowed in on him for the first time. "Cloud," the voice was a bitter purr. "Don't like to watch your childhood footage?"
His hand fell numbly from the screen, traveling to his stomach as he watched him. "Do you have answers now?"
Sephiroth watched him, brow raised. "You could say that. Not all of them though. I think I know where to find them." His eyes were hard slits of aqua as he watched him. "How are you feeling?
Cloud gave a sardonic grin. "I literally took a grenade to my life a few hours ago, so, not great." His hand rubbed his stomach as the sickness crept up, Sephiroth's eyes narrowed in on his hand. "What was on the tapes?"
"Answers about you and me," Sephiroth spoke. "About why I'm drawn to you, and yet, not all the answers."
Cloud nodded, too exhausted and numb to fight. Not like he had done with Zack. When his alpha had walked out on him, he had lost all of his will to continue the struggle. "Do you hate me then? All these horrible things I did to you both...I understand it."
"Do you?" Sephiroth questioned. "Because I don't think you even know what you did. I've gone through the research. I know what he did to your mind. I also know it was because you asked him to."
"What?" he questioned, voice hollow as his mind was threatening to shut down.
"You wanted to be normal. You begged him. He taped all your sessions when he was in Nibelheim and not in Midgar. Suppose it was his way of giving you a gift." Sephiroth shrugged. "Or it was another experiment in his mind." Those cat-like eyes watched him. "A way to see if the pheromones he had injected into you worked. If without knowing who you were meant to be with, you somehow found your way there."
"To you?" Cloud questioned. "He must have been so disappointed in me."
"Because of Zack?" Sephiroth questioned. "Don't worry. Think that problem has taken care of itself, don't you?" Those eyes hardened. "Or did he welcome you in with open arms when you woke up?"
"He just needs time," he supplied, not knowing if it was true. "Or he doesn't...what does it matter anymore?" What did anything matter after what he had found out? "For what it's worth, I'm sorry."
"What are you apologizing for?" Sephiroth questioned, setting the file down as he walked closer. "Do you think you've wronged me in some way?" He came closer, grabbing his chin as he dragged it up to look at him. "You were made for me."
"I was made," Cloud agreed, eyes bleary as he looked up towards Sephiroth. "It's all a lie. That's why I'm sorry. You deserve better than to be Hojo's experiment."
"And you?" Sephiroth questioned, turning his hand to stroke down the side of his face. "Do you deserve better?"
Cloud opened his mouth to answer, but the sorrow and overwhelming anxiety consumed him as he broke down instead. His entire body shuddered, before he gave in and collapsed against the tall SOLDIER. Sephiroth reacted immediately, leaning down to grab at the back of his legs as Cloud clung to him as he was lifted, hugging tighter around his neck as he buried his face into his neck.
Sephiroth's arms wrapped around him as his legs clung around that waist. Cloud inhaled the comforting scent as he was carried into his room. The SOLDIER sank down on the bed, rubbing Cloud's back in comfort as he did everything possible not to cry as he grieved coming here and losing Zack.
Lips pressed to the top of his hair, and the nausea that had been plaguing him since getting into that truck finally started to lessen. "I messed up everything. I messed up your lives." He couldn't bring himself to pull away and see the disgust in those eerie eyes. "I'll go. I'll disappear, and you both can go back to normal before I decided to ruin your friendship."
He knitted his eyebrows as Sephiroth's chest rumbled in laughter, pulling him back to look into his face. "Cloud, you're not going anywhere. I understand that you've had a lot to process today, but you're going to have more before the end. Given the choice between Zachary's friendship, or getting to have you...I'd choose you."
Cloud's lip curled in anger at the slight, eyes flashing as he opened his mouth to respond on how wrong Sephiroth was.
"Stop it," Sephiroth snapped. "You don't understand. Of course I don't want to lose him as a friend. Of course I'm aware of what I would be missing, but I found you. I found my other half...my omega...the person carrying my child."
The bottom dropped out of Cloud's stomach at the words, feeling like he was punched as he watched Sephiroth with wide eyes. "What?"
"I told you," Sephiroth responded, hand swiping through blond spikes as he kept their eyes locked. "Your smell has changed."
Cloud scrambled back and off that lap, feeling sick almost immediately again as he grabbed for his stomach. "What are you saying!?" he all but yelled. "Stop it. It's not a joke!"
Sephiroth grinned at him. "I'm really not laughing."
"You're lying!" he snapped at him. "You're crazy from whatever you might have seen in Hojo's notes and you're lying!" It couldn't be true. His mind flashed to the basement in the Wutai. He remembered the notes about breeding omegas. He couldn't be...he couldn't even think the word. He felt his mind begin to crack around the edges, grasping for any sanity he could hold onto.
Sephiroth growled, and Cloud felt his knees tremble with the need to obey. "Relax. You're going to have a panic attack."
"I don't care!" Cloud screamed at him. "I don't care about anything anymore!" He wanted to go back. He wanted to go back to the village in Wutai when it had just been him and Zack...and before any of this had ever happened. But he had been the one to go to Sephiroth. He had been the one to take that knot inside him. He had been the one to press the issue. It was all his fault. It was always his fault. He still wanted them both. He still needed them both.
He wished he had never met them.
"Cloud," Sephiroth started placatingly, as if he were talking to a wild animal. "It'll be okay. I can just test your blood and we can find out."
Blue eyes burned with rage at the suggestion. "Nobody is pricking me with another needle. Nobody is bringing me to another exam table. Nobody is experimenting on me ever again!"
Cloud ripped at the walls of the room he was in, tearing down the images of him on the exam table. He stormed out, swiping his arms across the tables as the book and files Sephiroth had been pouring over slammed into the wall, scattering all over the floor.
His eyes locked on a tank of green liquid, flashing with rage for what may have occurred in them as he grabbed for a chair, throwing it into the glass as it shattered. Mako liquid gushed out across him, soaking him and ruining all of the research he had thrown onto the floor.
He screamed in rage as he was grabbed from behind, the mako burning into his skin as he fought against his captor, scratching wildly at his arms. He vaguely noticed the arms weren't wrapped in the leather jacket Sephiroth was wearing, but were rather clad in a dark suit.
"Let go!" he screeched, feeling his sanity begin to shudder inside his mind yet again. The mako was beginning to burn through his skin as he was dragged away from the wreckage.
"Put him down," he heard Sephiroth hiss, and he caught sight of the SOLDIER staring in worry across from him before a needle was shoved into his neck, and he felt his entire body go slack as a haze washed over him.
His body was numb as he was lifted up, his head lolling back in sedation as he stared at the person holding him. He saw long dark hair, and crimson eyes that were slitted in the same way Sephiroth's were.
"I won't tell you to put him down again," Sephiroth growled, but Cloud couldn't draw his eyes away from the face that was so very much like the alpha's...if you had aged him a few decades. The rage had been replaced with sedation, not able to do more than blink as the liquid continued to burn his flesh.
"Do you want him to get third degree burns?" the man questioned angrily, carrying him over to the emergency wash station, and Cloud gasped as water began to spray down upon them both.
He coughed and sputtered as the warm water washed the chemical off him, turning his face to the side to gasp for breath.
"S-stop…" he managed in a drugged haze as he was dragged away from the shower and carried back to the bed to be laid down. He blinked, brain in a fog as he watched the stranger round on Sephiroth.
"What were you thinking bringing him here?" the man bit out. "You're meant to be a genius, yet you bring your mate to this place?"
Sephiroth watched him with narrowed eyes, and Cloud saw his fingers inching towards his sword. "Who are you?"
"Vincent Valentine," the man spoke. "No need to introduce yourself. I'm well aware of who you are."
"Vincent Valentine?" Sephiroth questioned. "The Turk?"
Vincent nodded to him. "So they say. Cloud was not meant to come back here. When Hojo wiped his mind, he wiped this place. You're going to break him."
"Who are you to Hojo?" Sephiroth asked, suspicion strong in his tone.
The turk scoffed in disgust. "It's complicated. He has something of mine. Until he gives it back, I must do what he asks."
"Blackmail?"
Cloud's eyelids were getting heavy as he fought to stay awake.
"Something like that. You need to take him and the Alpha and go. It's not safe for you to be here."
"I'm not going anywhere until I go to the reactor," Sephiroth disagreed. "I read about…"
"Yes," Vincent interrupted. "You read. Reading is nothing compared to actually seeing it." He motioned to Cloud. "It'll break him."
"He's strong," Sephiroth argued.
"It'll break you!" Vincent barked at him.
"I can handle it," he argued again, and Vincent gave the same smirk he had seen multiple times on Sephiroth's face.
"No," Vincent assured him. "You really can't, but if there's no stopping you, then I'll take you."
Vincent leaned down in front of him, and Cloud struggled to remain conscious as he saw how his teeth seemed to be sharper than normal. "Don't I know you, mister?" he asked, his tongue weighted in his mouth as flashes of memory of a man talking to him...teaching him to read...tucking him in filled his head.
The turk reached out to swipe spikes away from his forehead. "Cloud, you know he's going to make you pay for this. I can't protect you if I don't know the mistakes you're making."
"I'll always protect you," Cloud repeated, hearing the words in his mind.
"Sleep," was the command, and Cloud's eyes slid shut almost instantly.
"Start talking." He heard Sephiroth bite out, but couldn't focus on anything beyond the haze of his mind, and how for just a few moments he wanted everything to stop.
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