Chapter 15: Your Memories
"If you keep staring like that your face is going to get stuck that way," Hojo informed him as Cloud glowered, not fighting as his arm was grabbed and a needle was stuck into his vein. They had gotten back to headquarters days ago, and Hojo had been putting him through a litany of tests ever since his boots had landed on the ground.
"When can I see Zack?" Cloud asked him, mouth set in a firm line as Hojo shook the blood sample into the anti-coagulation serum.
"Not Sephiroth?" Hojo asked with a disappointed mock.
"Did I ask for Sephiroth?" Cloud questioned right back, grunting as he was pushed back on the table and his shirt was pulled up to show his stomach.
"No," Hojo agreed with the assessment. "You haven't been asking, but you talk in your sleep."
"You're lying," Cloud spat, wincing in discomfort as hands palpated his lower stomach. "When do my test results come back? Women just have to pee on a stick."
They had gotten back to Midgar, and Cloud had been marched to the 65th floor of headquarters without being able to sort through anything that had happened. He had spent the last few days being poked and prodded, and Hojo had been avoiding any real questions he had tried to get out of him.
"Your body is a bit more complex than that. But if you would like to pee on a stick, I would be happy to go find one for you." Hojo assured him. "Zachary Fair is away in Wutai. He wasn't happy about the assignment if you were wondering, but unlike you, he knows how to listen."
"That must be so frustrating for you," Cloud managed, sarcasm dripping off his tongue, sitting up on the table.
Hojo rolled his eyes at him. "Must you always be so difficult?"
"I like to annoy you," Cloud assured him.
"Clearly," Hojo agreed, pushing up his glasses as he stared him down. "You don't have a child in you. I knew before even bringing you in here, but I felt like you had earned some poking and prodding after the trouble you put me through."
The stiff anger slipped from his face, hand coming to his stomach as he felt a pang go through him. A sense of loss that he didn't think he would be feeling after something he had never planned on filled him.
Sephiroth had looked so happy though.
"Don't worry," Hojo stated. "I'm sure he'll understand."
"You don't know me!' Cloud snapped.
"Right, not all all," Hojo agreed with a sarcastic lilt. "Do you want to know about your scent? Or are you going to continue to be a brat?"
"Depends," Cloud replied. "Which one is going to annoy you more?"
Hojo had taken the time to explain to him what he had already known. He had been put here as an experiment for the SOLDIERs. He had been the first, but Hojo assured him he wouldn't be the last. Vincent had been the Turk assigned to his project. He had helped to raise him. When Cloud had questioned if he were Sephiroth's father, the scientist had chosen not to reply. He hadn't gotten many answers after that.
"You slept with him, didn't you?" Hojo questioned. "You didn't finish the mating. Your body is calling for it, and it's making you sick."
"I bit Zack," Cloud countered, trying not to let confused panic fill his face.
"Yes, you did," Hojo agreed. "But he didn't bite you, did he? The only thing you accomplished with that little stunt is to ensure he can never be rid of you, and yet...he can never be with you."
"So you keep saying." Cloud continued to glare, rubbing at his aching stomach. "It's like a heat," he mused.
"Yes," Hojo agreed. "On suppressants. That's why it's so painful. That's why you're so sick."
"Why can't he be with me?" What did Hojo know. He knew nothing beyond this experiment he created. He knew nothing about him and Zack.
"Because he'll die." Cloud's eyes widened at that, horror filling him as he slowly shook his head.
"You're lying!" he snapped, because that's all Hojo did was lie.
"I'm not." Hojo grabbed his chin, tilting his blue furious eyes up to him. "I made you for control, that much is true. But I also made you to prevent Shinra's greatest assets from decaying to dust." He sighed at the horrified look he was receiving. "The Alpha and the Omega. You can't have one without the other. Shinra wanted to wipe out all the Omegas, and they succeeded. They created themselves an army so strong they could take over the world. However, there was a problem. The SOLDIERs kept dying. Their body decayed at a cellular level, and they died screaming."
"So they brought you in to solve the problem?" Cloud asked, horrifyingly fascinated.
"They did," Hojo spoke with pride. "I'm good at solving problems."
"Better at creating," Cloud argued, causing Hojo to shrug.
"Semantics. It worked out for them all the same. Besides, you were born. You should have a slim bit of gratitude."
"I have disgust," Cloud replied with a glare. "I feel nothing else for anything that you are." Hojo turned to spin the blood, and Cloud grabbed at the lab coat. "Tell me about the deterioration."
"The mating stops it," Hojo replied. "Haven't you figured that out by now? I created a pair. To save him."
It was like a punch to the gut. Panic welled inside him as his stomach lurched, and Hojo was there with a bucket to catch his vomit. "Do they know?
"About the Alpha and Omega?" Hojo questioned. "Of course n—"
"That they're dying!" Cloud snapped, reaching out to grab onto the front of his shirt as he pulled him close. "How could you do this to them!?"
"You're the one doing this to them," Hojo replied. "You can only pair with one, and as I have already explained. You chose the wrong one."
Cloud jumped up off the table, panicked as he had finally gotten his answers and they had damned him. "I'm leaving. I don't need to be here for anymore tests!"
Hojo sighed. "Fine, I'll have Sephiroth come grab you to take you back to the barracks. However, do try to keep the information to yourself. Word gets out that the SOLDIERs are dying, and they may begin to panic to claim their only form of salvation."
He didn't have to ask to know what that meant. He had heard the deal Genesis had made with Hojo. It was lie, wasn't it? It had to be. One more way to manipulate the situation and get what he wanted. The SOLDIERs were about to rebel against this organization, and so Shinra had to tell them something. It didn't mean it was true. It was just like Hojo telling Zack and Sephiroth he was in danger for a baby that didn't even exist.
This choice that he claimed he must make. It was all to get him what he really wanted. If he had to choose to save one of them...well...he wouldn't even humor the lie. "I don't need an escort." This had to stop. Either Hojo kept him here as an experiment, or he let him go back. "I just want to go back to the barracks. If I miss any more time I won't be able to take the test for SOLDIER."
Hojo burst out into laughter, actually covering his mouth at the offended look on Cloud's face. "Oh, you're serious?" Cloud glowered as the scientist grinned. "You still think you're going to join SOLDIER? With what you are?"
"No one asked you!" Cloud snapped, wanted to strangle the man. "Am I thrown out of the training program, because that would seem to me like that would take me out of Sephiroth's path."
"You think you're not in his path at this point?" Hojo questioned.
Cloud frowned, trying not to let the desperation he was feeling show. "Don't take this from me. Please." Even if it was all a lie. Even if it was all in his head. This was all he had.
Hojo sighed, pressing two fingers to the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Fine. You can return to your classes, but the moment your symptoms get too severe, and they will, you need to do something to fix it before driving the entire SOLDIER squadron crazy. Is that understood?"
He didn't understand. "But the suppressants?"
"They're making you too sick. I wasn't lying at Nibelheim, Cloud, you keep fighting your instincts it won't end well for you." Hojo walked over to a cabinet, pulling out a bottle of pills. "For the pain."
Cloud eyed the pills warily, reaching out to take them as he examined Hojo's face for any sign of a lie. "There'll be pain?"
"Oh yes," Hojo assured him. "But you're used to pain. You've had a lot of practice with it. Think about what I said, I am trying to save them."
"You're not doing anything to help them," Cloud argued, not buying this savior bullshit.
"Regardless of what you think...denying your destiny will have consequences."
"It's not destiny if it was cooked up in a lab," Cloud argued.
"Someday you'll understand all this, and you'll be thanking me."
"I'll never thank you," Cloud assured him, turning to walk out the lab.
Cloud took the elevator down to the barracks, trying to process everything he had heard from Hojo. If the SOLDIERs were in danger he needed to help them. He needed to find out exactly what was going on. Sephiroth could help with that. He had run the tests on him. They didn't need Shinra to fix this. Obviously they had no qualms about turning people in SOLDIERs knowing this was a possibility. If they were in danger that meant Zack, Sephiroth, Genesis, and Angeal were all in danger. Why would mating stop the decay? What difference would it make?
He hated that Zack was away on a mission. Of course they would send him away when Hojo had taken him off suppressants. Cloud didn't trust himself when he was away from the Alpha. He just wanted him close so that he wasn't tempted. He just needed to stay away from Sephiroth until Zack got home. He could give the information about the deterioration to Genesis. He could be strong.
To his defense. He made it almost two weeks. Two weeks of misery before he truly started to crack. The vomiting had stopped a day after he had gone back to the barracks. By the third his head was feeling clearer, and he had more energy. He pushed himself into training. He called Zack nightly, and they talked about his training...or about what stupid movie they had been watching. They talked about everything besides what was between the three of them, and it almost felt like normal again.
After the first week the symptoms had started. It had been an itch at first. That course scratch of untapped arousal brushing over his skin. It kept him up at night, tossing and turning in his bunk as he felt clammy. Then came the stomach cramps. They were beginning to affect his performance in training, distracting him as he couldn't quite perform the athletics they wanted him to.
He had never jacked off so much in his life. Nothing helped. Nothing stopped the itch. He knew Zack couldn't come back. He was in the thick of battle, but he was so close to begging. Hojo hadn't called him back to the lab. He had done what he had said and let him go to training. Of course, the bastard had obviously known what was going to happen when he stopped giving him the meds.
It was easy to fall back into old routines. It was easy to pretend like he had never gone to Nibelheim and discovered who he was. It was easy to go back to hanging out with Reno in the cafeteria after classes. To remember how his one thought in the world had been getting good enough for Sephiroth's class. To be good enough for testing into SOLDIER.
On day 12 he had begun popping pain pills like they were candy for the cramps. By day 14 he couldn't get out of bed. He tossed and turned in misery, legs squirming as the sheets were soaked underneath him with sweat. It wasn't arousal like he had felt the first time. Though, there was need. This was more pain. It was like his entire body was attacking itself. He knew that if he called Zack he would come, but they would court martial him for desertion. Not only that, but what about if the same thing happened as last time? Zack had pulled away after he went into the rut. It had almost broken him.
"Blondie...you gotta let me do something," Reno begged, leaning down next to him on the bed and placing a palm over his forehead. "Fuckkkkkkk you're on fire...and not in the good way." Reno shrugged. "I mean, still in the good way because you're gorgeous even all clammy and shit."
Cloud smiled at him as the other fluffed up his sweaty spikes. "Thanks, you know I always try to look my best for you."
Reno snorted. "Don't try too hard...you're starting to smell."
Fuck.
"Smell bad?" Cloud questioned, because Reno wasn't a SOLDIER, it shouldn't affect him. Yet, he remembered the red head saying he had smelled good. It hadn't meant anything at the time.
"I didn't say bad," Reno replied, pushing into the twin side bed as he laid next to him. His head rested on his folded up arm as he looked up in thought. "It's weird...it's like...my first boyfriend."
Cloud raised an eyebrow. "I smell like your first boyfriend?"
"Yeah," Reno said enthusiastically. "He always wore this cologne that he got from the pharmacy in Wallmarket. Corneo's Secret...or something stupid like that."
"Sounds entirely trashy," Cloud replied with a smile.
"Oh he was. One of Corneo's goons...he had the hottest tattoos though," Reno mused. "Big dick."
"Sounds perfectly dreamy," Cloud mocked sarcastically, curling up into himself as pain lanced through his stomach, trying to hide the agony as the meds didn't help at all anymore.
"Dude, no offense, but I think you're going to die." Reno murmured, sounding legitimately worried as a hand continued to pet through his hair. "Let me call Zack."
Cloud shook his head, teeth gritted as the pain became unbearable as wetness soaked his thighs.
Fingers tightened in his hair, and when Cloud looked up Reno's pupils were blown. "I feel weird...maybe I have the same thing you've got?"
Cloud reached up, slowly unentwining those grasping fingers from his hair. "Reno, you've been in that special program, right? The one Tseung recruited you for?"
Reno nodded, laying their foreheads together as his fingers trailed along his cheek. "You're not the only one who's special."
"Did they give you something?" Cloud questioned. "Some sort of treatment?"
"Injections," Reno replied. "They give them to all the Turks. Why won't you tell me why you're sick? Why do you keep disappearing?"
"Why?" Cloud teased. "You worried about me?"
"You're my friend," Reno admitted. "Of course I'm worried. I don't have very many friends." He knitted his eyebrows, looking confused at his own words. "I don't know why I'm telling you all this. I usually try to impress you."
Cloud laughed at that. "You don't need to impress me Reno. I promise I'm not worth it."
"I would argue against that presumption," a voice spoke from the doorway, and Cloud looked up to see Sephiroth frowning in the doorway. "I smelled you from two floors away. We need to go. Now." His teeth were sharp as he said it, and his eyes were glowing aqua.
A rush of need...want...mate...love...alpha flowed through him as wetness soaked his thighs, and he actually heard Reno whine in pain as his friend curled up next to him. Cloud heard a crack, and looked up to see Sephiroth's hand had crushed the door frame as he was bent over, back heaving as he clearly was trying not to lose control.
"Reno," Cloud tried, knowing things were going poorly as he pulled the redhead back to look at him, his eyes hazy and far away as he attempted to focus. "Don't let them give you any more injections. Promise me."
"I feel weird," Reno murmured, pulling back as he rubbed his face. "Like I'm stuck in a fog. I want to kiss you."
"I wouldn't suggest it," Sephiroth spoke from the doorway, and Cloud pushed himself up to sitting as well.
"Seph...it's okay. We're just friends." Cloud reached out, stroking Reno's hair in the same way the other had done for him. "Reno, promise me...no more injections."
"Didn't you know?" Sephiroth questioned. "Turks don't go through as extreme of mako treatments, but they go through them all the same. Makes them faster...stronger."
"Better," Reno finished. "I just want to be better."
"Yeah, so do I," Cloud agreed, looking up to Sephiroth. "Is he going to be okay? It's not like what happened to Zack, right?"
Sephiroth didn't reply for a few moments, clearly trying to compose himself. "I'm not convinced I'm going to be okay at this point, Cloud. Call his cousin, and let's go."
"Cousin?" Cloud questioned, confused as he clutched at his stomach.
"Genesis," Sephiroth replied. "Didn't you know? Why do you think he's already being scouted by the Turks?"
Shock went through him as he punched Reno's shoulder. "You didn't tell me you were related to Genesis! You asshole!"
"We don't get along," Reno murmured, voice still a drugged haze. "He's an asshole. I wanted to do it on my own."
"Cloud," Sephiroth bit. "Now. He's touching you...and I can't...I'm trying to control it."
Cloud nodded, knowing better than to argue when the strongest man in the world was about to lose it. He leaned forward and kissed the top of his head, guilt eating at him at what he had done. "Just text him okay. Tell him Sephiroth said so."
He grunted as he was ripped up off the bed, gasping as he was thrust against the wall and a tongue was shoved into his mouth. Sephiroth was trembling against him as he kissed him almost furiously, hands bunching in his t-shirt, one coming down to the back of his black sweatpants.
Sephiroth pulled back, mouth open in a pant and Cloud watched in fascination as a drop of mako rolled down his cheek from his glowing eyes. "How did he resist you?"
Cloud reached out, fingertips brushing away the mako as he froze his fingertips. "It's okay." If he pushed Sephiroth away right now he knew it would be the same. He'd go into a rut. He'd hurt him just as he had hurt Zack. "Seph...there's too many SOLDIERs on your floor." A growl reverberated through Sephiroth's chest at just the thought. "I'll help calm you down, okay? But I don't want anyone to get hurt."
Sephiroth laughed, fingers pressing up the back of his t-shirt to span over the burning flesh of his back. "Calm me down...how are you going to do that, precious?" The Alpha grinned at him, leaning down to his face. "Do you have any idea the things I'm going to do to you? My precious Omega?"
Cloud shut his eyes as need took over him, wetness dripping down his thighs. "Where?"
"I know where," Sephiroth managed, grabbing for his hand and yanking him out the door before he even had a chance to grab his shoes.
"Sephiroth!' Cloud scolded as he was yanked down the hall, looking around as his cheeks were burning. "If someone sees...Seph!"
"If someone sees I'll inform them that you are mine to do with as I will. If they see, I'll fuck you in front of them just so they're sure of what they're observing. We wouldn't want any rumors." Sephiroth yanked him down the hall and into a stairwell. Cloud moaned as he was slammed against the wall by the stairs, Sephiroth pressing between his legs as they kissed again. Sephiroth's mouth tasted like mako. It swept Cloud under that need as he wrapped his arms around the other's neck and let himself be lifted up onto the railing.
He fought against his base desires, and how good it felt to have Sephiroth pressed up against him. He thought about how things were getting back to normal. How he hadn't seen Zack, but they had been getting back to normal. He loved him. He had bit him. Zack wasn't here. He wasn't here again. Even though it wasn't his fault this time.
It didn't matter. This wasn't about him and Zack. This was about him letting things get too out of control. Sephiroth was in pain. The Alpha was hurting.
His true Alpha.
Cloud pushed on Sephiroth's chest, pushing him back to see those glowing pools of aqua. "Hey, let me help. We can't have sex when I'm like this Seph...it wouldn't be real. But, I can help you."
Sephiroth grinned, and his sharp teeth almost glimmered. "Help me?" He stepped back, fingers coming to the front of his pants as he unsnapped them. "Do you remember what I told you? After what happened with Zachary?"
His eyes traveled down to those fingers as Sephiroth slipped his hard cock out of the leather pants, and Cloud felt his mouth water as his stomach cramped in desire this time rather than pain. His own cock was straining against his sweats, and he knew he was failing. Sephiroth inhaled, wiping at the mako leaking from his nose.
"You told me that you wouldn't be dumb enough to resist," Cloud answered, because the Alpha had asked him a question. "But this isn't okay. We're back together...Sephiroth...there's no baby."
"Do you think I'm not aware?" Sephiroth asked, head tilting to watch him as he stepped close to grab at the waistband of Cloud's pants. "I questioned Hojo about everything. I made sure you were safe. I've fended off all your would be attackers so that you could feel normal again since I knew what Nibelheim did to you. I did everything for you...not him...me." Sephiroth cupped his face. "Don't you understand, Cloud? I'm in love with you...and it's not just your...condition."
Cloud shook his head. "It's not real. It's chemical. I'm doing this to you, and I'm sorry." He managed, moaning as he was yanked in for another kiss.
"Don't be sorry," Sephiroth managed, pulling back. "I've been experimented on my entire life. Believe me, I know the difference."
He blinked as he looked up at Sephiroth. "What do you smell?" he questioned, remembering what Reno had said.
Sephiroth knitted his eyebrows in confusion, tilting his neck to the side to bury his face into it to inhale the pure extent of his in heat scent. "I don't smell anything but you," Sephiroth spoke, before sharp teeth leaned down and sunk into his neck, breaking the scent gland before Cloud even had a chance to consider the possibility.
Cloud screamed as pleasure unlike anything he had ever felt before filled him, and he whited out as he came, vaguely aware he was clinging to Sephiroth as he was lifted, and then the Alpha's cock pressed into his slick open entrance up to the hilt as that mouth stayed latched on him, lapping at the scent.
It felt like the universe expanded and contracted around him, exploding in a sea of blue and green as he could feel the planet...and he could feel Sephiroth as the other pulled off his neck, only to crash their mouths back together as they kissed.
Sephiroth ripped him off the wall as his thighs squeezed around him. They fell backwards onto the stairs as Cloud scrambled to straddle the other's thighs. His neck was bloody and soaking the front of his shirt as his hands pressed against Sephiroth's chest. As he looked into those glowing eyes he saw his own in the reflection, burning just as bright as he pressed the Alpha back against the stairs as sank inch by inch onto that hard cock.
His fingertips wiped at Sephiroth's bloody mouth as he raised himself up and down on top of him. "What did you do?" He asked, pleasure exploding through him as with every thrust inside he felt it along the length of him. He felt what Sephiroth felt, crying out as it felt like his cock was enveloped even as the other pressed inside.
"What I had to…" Sephiroth managed, forehead burying into his chest as he lifted him up and down. "I made the choice for you."
But it had never really been a choice at all, had it?
Because he loved Zack, but this...this was destiny. This was everything right with the world.
Sephiroth shifted his hips, pressing deeper as Cloud fell back. Cloud's fingertips hit the floor as his head leaned back against a stair as his body bowed. The alpha thrust up his hips, angling so that Cloud could practically feel it in his stomach, while simultaneously feeling it from Sephiroth. His sanity began to buckle slightly at the overwhelming pleasure as drool leaked from his mouth.
A hand pressed to the back of his shoulders, pulling him back up and to that bloody mouth as they kissed roughly, Sephiroth's fingernails digging down his spine as Cloud began to move his hips.
Cloud's body was on fire as he panted, feeling pain in his jaw as he cried out as he felt his teeth elongated, an animalistic nature taking over as he laid their foreheads together. His glowing eyes rolled to the back of his head as he felt Sephiroth's cock expanding and then pressing into him. He lunged then as he felt that knot inside him, not able to control himself as he surged forward and latched onto the same spot on Sephiroth's neck.
The taste of Sephiroth and mako splashed over his tongue as he felt himself cum again, his entrance spasming as he milked that knot. He spilled across Sephiroth's chest at the same time that he spilled into the other's mind, seeing the experiments, the war, the loneliness, and a creature...some sort of creature latched deep within Sephiroth's consciousness.
Jenova.
The thought was gone as soon as it had come as he was brought back to the present as Sephiroth was kissing him, blood splattered across the stairwell from their necks. Anyone could walk in at any time. There was so much wrong with this. He didn't care. He didn't ever want to be apart from him.
When he came back to himself they were kissing lazily, and he felt full with Sephiroth's sperm, his stomach slightly swollen as he practically purred as the fingertips trailing down his spine. Sephiroth held him close, pulling back from the kiss to look up at him. "Cloud…"
"Hmmm?" Cloud questioned, feeling sated and drugged as he leaned in to kiss him again, Sephiroth placating him for only a moment before he pulled back.
"I saw your memories."
.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.
A.N. So...that was unplanned. Oh well...I suppose these things happen. I think I probably feel more guilty about what happened to Zack than Cloud does….which is pretty par for the course (Looking at Cloud as he promises to remember Zack, immediately forgets him, and then tries to steal his girl) I am ALMOST done with the remake. It is soooooo good. I am currently at Headquarters and I just don't want it to end. Hopefully what just happened was a good surprise for everyone...please review and alleviate me of my guilt.