Still working on everything, finally got the motivation to do this! It could be complete here but I'll leave it open in case I decide to add a little bit more!

Cloud's lungs burned as he doubled over, the Buster sword nearly falling from his numb fingers as he tried to breathe. Black spots danced at the edges of his vision as he swayed to one side and nearly fell. He managed to suck in a tiny bit of air, shuddering as he blew it back out and tried to take another. He pressed a hand against his chest, his heart pounding beneath his palm far more rapidly than even a fight should cause.

How long had they been fighting… no, how long had it been since Sephiroth began to toy with him? He suddenly couldn't remember… he tried to look around him, it was too dark to see - just a creeping blackness and a low icy wind that cut into him as much as the tip of Masamune.

Where, how had he…

He stumbled forward as he felt yet another shallow wound open on his back. His shirt was shredded, hanging from his elbows in black, blood stained, tatters. With a grunt of pain he forced himself back up, trying to spin and face his tormentor - as if it were any use. The moment he met Sephiroth's eyes, saw the faint smile ticking up the corners of the man's mouth, he was gone again.

"Where are you, really?" Sephiroth spoke behind him, for the first time during their fight it was something more than a taunt or a mocking laugh, "aren't you just dreaming, Cloud? Trapped with no way out, did you really think you were worth rescuing?"

The words didn't make sense, Cloud was awake, he wasn't (trapped strapped down drowned TRAPPED STRAPPED DOWN DroWnedTraPpeDstra) He clutched at his temple, yanking viciously on his hair, trying to rip the dream/memory/horror out of his head by the roots.

He wouldn't stop, Sephiroth kept going, his words and his sword cutting and cutting."Too weak to be of any use to Hojo. But I… I could make use of you, my confused little puppet."

"Don't," Cloud couldn't even hear his own voice over the sound of water in his ears, "I can't, I don't want…"

He tried not to scream as more blood spilled down to splatter the ground in the growing pool at his feet, another and then another, cuts opening and bleeding and his back would be a map of scars if he survived.

"Tell me where you are, now , Cloud." Sephiroth demanded, harsh, biting, then much softer, cajoling, "Which one are you?"

Cloud couldn't keep a panicked whine that gasped from his mouth, finally losing the battle against himself to keep tears from rolling down his cheeks. What did Sephiroth even mean? Cloud was here, he'd been here for… he was here . One? Which… which ONE?!

"Do you have a number?" behind him, the man's voice went from merely questioning to something too close to pity for Cloud's taste, "or are you a failure? You've done nothing but fail your whole life, isn't that right, Cloud? Not even good at being tortured, experimented on like an animal. An animal would have been a more useful subject than you are."

Another cut, deeper this time, slashed along his right arm. "Sh..shut up," Cloud whimpered, visions of green and grey static parting a little to show a procession of men with the same face and then just green-green-green-gr

Cloud stumbled forward and collapsed with a broken scream as Masamune slashed across the back of his calves, the Buster clattering to the ground as he voiced his agony. The sobs, screams, he'd been holding back the whole time began to wrench out of him. He was a ball of misery on the ground, shuddering as his hand slipped in the pool of blood as he tried to rise, his heart felt like it would beat out of his chest.

"All you have to do," Sephiroth was in front of him again, his green eyes locking on Cloud's and everything blurred as tears filled his eyes again, "is show me where you are. My puppet, my Cloud, I chose you . So different from the rest . Uncover your eyes and let me see !"

"I can't !" Cloud screamed as Sephiroth vanished again, the words breaking as they left his throat, "I don't know, I don't know ! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!"

"I know what you need," Sephiroth's voice behind him was full of sadness, tragic and understanding, "let us go back to the beginning."

Whatever air was left in his lungs was punched out of him as he looked down at himself. Blood coated the silver blade emerging from his chest, positioned in just the right place to not kill him instantly. He made an animal sound of fear as he was lifted, just like the first time, but backwards - he couldn't grab the blade this time.

Somehow, the inevitability of it all left him relaxing in something like relief - If this was the end, well he'd done what he could. He went limp as he was raised higher and he began to slide back. He watched an unseen light glint on the blood that smeared up the blade as his weight dragged him down it. There was no pain, he realized, merely a creeping weakness that slowed his heart and eased the choked breaths that became deep and even. Panic receded, and a strange calm spread through him.

"Shh," Sephiroth's hushing whisper was close. Cloud could feel the breath on his cheek as he came to a stop against the hilt of the nodachi, "there you are puppet, all better now? No more pain, no more fear. It's all over ."

The former general was so strong, he held Cloud's body aloft on his sword with only one hand. His other stroked through Cloud's hair, pulling his head back to lay against Sephiroth's shoulder, "Puppets don't feel, Cloud, all they do is what they're told," His voice was soft and coaxing, "I'll take all your pain for you, all the fear, all the difficult choices ."

Cloud turned his head toward the man's voice until he could feel lips touching the shell of his ear. His vision glitched green again, but the static cleared and left everything crisp and glazed with a jade green light. No pain? No fear? What was a choice anyway, and why did it matter so much?

"It doesn't matter anymore," Sephiroth echoed his thoughts and Cloud found himself nodding. Nothing mattered anymore, it was over, wasn't it? He was going to be… he was finally … and he was so tired. "I'm all that matters to you, aren't I?"

Cloud sighed, deeply, "Yeah," he felt fresh tears roll down his cheeks but it wasn't pain or fear. Those were gone, they were something other people… that people felt. He blinked into the emerald darkness, trying to remember what he'd been doing all this time. Where was he?

"Good boy, so close," Sephiroth's lips pressed against Cloud's hair, "what am I?"

The answer was easy to find, written into his soul as it was, "my everything…"

" Very good ," his Master's hand drifted down from his hair to cover his eyes. That was perfect, it took away the questions and the uncertainty that lingered deep in Cloud's mind that he wanted to rip out of himself. It wouldn't hurt, nothing hurt anymore, he didn't feel after all…

Warmth blossomed in his chest, like blood welling and rushing down. He understood it now, he knew such peace in the darkness behind his eyes, "Everything, you can have it, everything, Master."

"Of course, Cloud. I'll take it all away. Now, my precious puppet," black gloved fingers pressed hard into Cloud's temples, "I just need one more thing from you."

"What?" Cloud, whimpered, "Master?"

"I need to know which one you are," Master said, as the pressure in his mind grew, "just open your eyes, puppet. Wake up."

Cloud's head lolled forward and he reached up to try and pull back the cloth that covered his face, looking around him from where he was wrapped in the arms tenderly holding him like something precious. The soft whispers of the ones (and twos and fourteens and thirty-eights) all around him came to a stop. New words took the place of the one they all knew.

Chosen

Chosen

Sephiroth

The one, no the forty-ninth , knelt slowly, cradling Cloud against his thin chest before he raised him up to Master like an offering .

Master's voice was so clear in the sudden silence and all around them the other numbers fell to their knees.

" There you are, my Cloud."