Well thank god for writing applications on mobile phones, because my computer is currently out of commission. It also means that this chapter has taken a good while to actually type up and you will all have to excuse spelling errors, as it is rather difficult to type on here properly.

Anyway on with the chapter!

When Cloud woke up early the next morning, he couldn't help a small smile of contentment as he found himself layed comfortably in the arms of Zack; his back pressed against Zack's chest and the even breaths fanning softly through his hair. The night had been amazingly nightmare free and despite being awake well before dawn, the blond was more well rested than he had been in a long time.

Moving slowly and carefully, Cloud turned over so that he was facing the sleeping raven-haired man. In the pre-dawn light Zack was beautiful; his face was carefree and open as his eyes fluttered gently in sleep. Cloud had to wonder how he had ever lived any semblance of life without Zack, and not for the first time, Cloud knew that he couldn't loose him again. It would destroy him if he did.

Carefully stretching out his hand, Cloud ran soft fingers over the side of Zack's cheeks that were once scarred with a small 'x', but the skin was still smooth, and the chance to keep it that way was here.

Roused from the soft touch, lightly glowing mako eyes peaked from under their lids and a soft smile formed soon after.

"Mornin'." Zack greeted groggily, his heart fluttering slightly at being able to wake up and see crystalline blue eyes first thing in the morning. Or maybe night still, as it seemed to dark for morning to Zack.

"Good morning." Cloud replied with an amused grin pulling at his lips. "Sleep well?"

In response, Zack simply tightened his hold on Cloud and nestled his face in soft blond spikes.

"Of course I did." Zack finally answered, smiling into Cloud's hair, "I've always heard that chocobos were cuddly, but now I know for sure."

Cloud poked Zack in the side for the chocobo comment, earning a small grunt, but other wise they both simply laid there; content to just be close.

"Why didn't I work up the nerve to do this sooner?" Zack mused, sounding more alert and awake now.

"Not sure." Cloud answered lightly. The first rays of light were starting to shine through the window now, and the blond knew that he would have to get up soon to report to the labs. Pulling out of Zack's gentle hold Cloud sat up and ran a hand through his hair, attempting to flatten some of the unruliness that sleeping always resulted in.

"Do you have to go now?" Zack whined, pulling the blankets up to try and compensate for the missing heat of Cloud.

"I was told to report first thing, so I'm probably already late."

"... That sucks." Zack said, adding a childish 'hmph' for emphasis.

With a chuckle Cloud stood up and moved to the bathroom to freshen up before leaving, grabbing his uniform as he did so. When Cloud came back out he was dressed and as ready to go as possible, and after a moments thought he moved over to Zack and gave him a chaste kiss. The raven-haired man was left shocked at the action, usually Cloud wasn't so open with his affection. It was extremely pleasant and when Cloud pulled away there was a light dusting of pink over Cloud's cheeks.

"Can you look after First Sword for me today?" Cloud asked, turning to hide the blush he felt.

"Sure..." Zack answered, feeling out of breath still. "One condition though?"

"What condition?" Cloud asked, feeling slightly wary about the smirk that he didn't even have to turn to see.

"I get to spend the night more often." Cloud laughed softly, thinking that he should have expected as much.

"You didn't even have to ask you know." Cloud said before saying a quick goodbye and leaving the room before he was distracted any more.

Reno was awake, lounging against the wall by the door looking incredibly like... Well Reno. There was no other way to describe it.

"You're up later than usual, have a good night?" Reno asked, a teasing edge to his voice and a large grin on his face. "Get any action?"

Cloud's only response was to glare at the red-head, and move out the door. There was no way that Cloud was going to discuss anything that was even remotely personal with the Turk. However it seemed that Reno didn't understand this.

"You know, if you had told me that you swung that way, I would have given you a hand and-"

"Just stop Reno." Cloud growled, cutting off what would have undoubtedly been a crude comment.

"Well ok, just sayin'."

Cloud only rolled his eyes as the red-head shrugged before proceeding to speed up as he made his way to the labs.

XxXxX

The Shinra labs were exactly what many would expect them to be like; extremely white, sterile and in Cloud's opinion, almost claustrophobic. Even this early in the morning there were dozens of people rushing around for various reasons. Cloud made his way over to the main desk and told the woman there that he had been instructed to report. She gave him a kind smile before looking up his information.

"Ok, the first procedure is just a basic physical check up, after that you will be told any further instruction. So just take a seat sweety, and good luck with your mako testing and future injections."

Cloud gave her a small smile and a nod before joining Reno on a small row of plastic seats. He didn't like the sights of so many lab coats, and he hated the smell of surgical equipment and sterilizer. Hojo may have been cruel and crude, but he had always spent the time to carefully clean all his equipment while Cloud and Zack had been under his 'care', although Cloud also expected that at least some of it was to taunt his captives with.

"Yo, you ok man?" Reno asked, bringing Cloud out of his thoughts, the blond was tense and clenching his fists. Cloud took a breath before answering.

"Fine." It was a short, controlled answer and it spoke volumes to the red-head.

"Don't like the guys in coats eh? Me neither." Reno said, for once foregoing his usual smart commentary. "But hey, at least I'll be there yo."

Cloud wasn't sure what to think of the attempt at cheering up, especially when it came from the red-headed Turk, but he decided he would take it positively.

"Thanks." He responded softly, forcing himself to relax at least a little.

It was a little while later that a young man came out and lead Cloud and Reno to a small, plain room with small pieces of equipment used for the physical checks. Reno took up a position against the wall near the door, quietly keeping watch as the check-up took place.

The whole thing only lasted five minutes or so, with usual tests like blood pressure, weight, height, and general wellbeing being done. It was almost like a small trip to a general healer or doctor, only each person in the room knew that these tests were just a preliminary for the main testing to come; all these tests were for was to help create a rough expectation for how much mako Cloud's body should be able to handle physically. The blood tests that would come later would determine any possibly dangerous sensitivities to mako, but Cloud already knew what his blood would say: that his each and every cell was already swimming with the substance, and that any further contact with a concentrated form would leave Cloud in a very bad state, and not for the first time either. Mako addiction could be deadly, and it was incredible that the blond had survived it twice before.

While Cloud had been lost in thought, the final checks had been completed and the results recorded for later analysis. Cloud was once again moved to a different room: this one the same bland white type of room, except the only equipment was a gurney in the middle of the room. The young man who had done the initial test told Cloud that someone would be in to see him in a moment before leaving, closing the door with a soft click.

"Stuck up lab rat..." Reno muttered, sending a glare towards the door that the young scientist had just walked through.

"It's just his job Reno." Cloud said looking around the room in slight confusion. "Shouldn't there be more in here?"

Now that Cloud had mentioned it, Reno couldn't help but wonder the same thing. He was pretty sure that there should have been at least a sink or something in the room, definitely some monitors at least. He was no expert on the whole lab-work topic, but to him this looked more like a detainment room than anything else.

"You know, I think your right blondie. I'll go find out if they put you in the wrong damn room or somethin'." Reno moved to open the door, only to frown when he found it locked. Giving the door a rattle, Reno's frown deepened as he became concerned. Cloud was by his side in a second, looking at the door that Reno was now knocking on.

"What the hell man? Why the hell did they lock us is yo?!"

Cloud scanned the room once more before turning his attention to the door as well. The sinking feeling he had felt yesterday was not back in full force as he watch the Turk furiously pull on the door handle. There was no key hole on this side of the door and the red-head was beginning to wonder just how right he had been about the detainment idea.

"Let me try." Cloud said calmly, pushing Reno out of the way.

"What can you do that I can't man?" Reno snapped, irritated that something wasn't right, and he had't picked up on it.

Cloud didn't answer, only grabbed the door handle himself and gave an experimental tug: only the tug wasn't up or down, but towards him. If the door was locked and didn't have any means of unlocking it, then he would rip the entire mechanism from the door.

There was little to no give as Cloud began to pull in earnest, but after placing both hands on and putting more effort it the handle began to bend slightly and small cracks appeared on the door around the handle base.

"Woah..." Reno breathed, watching the blond closely, there were very few signs of strain on the blond, but when Cloud's eyes flicked to him for a moment the Turk swore he saw a small glow in the firery blue depths. Looking back to the handle, Reno saw that the cracks had increased in size, and it looked like the crazy idea would work "Just a little more yo!"

Cloud knew there would be questions later, but if the danger he felt closing in was anything to go by then he didn't care very much. Just when Cloud felt another give go through the handle though, things went down hill: a large, and very painful, bolt of electricity came through the handle and caused Cloud to let go with a hiss. The electricity was powerful enough to leave visible small sparks running through Cloud's hands and up his arms, and the handle became a crackling vibrant blue web of electricity.

"Damn..." Cloud ground out, now certain that this was well beyond a mistake.

Reno was looking at the door handle like it was a bunch of snakes on some freaky ladies head.

"Ok, some one tell me what the fuck is going on!" Reno growled, talking to no one in particular. He certainly didn't expect some one to answer.

"Not to worry, we are not interested in you."

The cold voice caused both men to turn, and for Cloud's body to fall straight into a battle stance. Razor stood smirking in one of the corners of the room, his dark gaze looking triumphant as he looked at Cloud.

"No where to run little hero." Razor mocked.

Cloud's hand moved to where First Sword should have been, only to curse internally when he remembered it was still in his room where he had left it with Zack. Reno moved to stand between the blond and the intruder. It took the Turk only seconds to realize that the man standing before him was the one he had been instructed to keep an eye out for.

"How sweet, another pawn to die for Gaia's little guardian." Razor sneered, moving forward slowly, before drawing a small blade and darting forward. Cloud only just managed to pull Reno back before the red-head found himself without a throat.

Spinning Reno out of the way, Cloud managed to grab the Turk's nightstick in the process. He was ready just in time to block a blow that would have been left his right arm useless.

Reno watched on in confusion as Cloud held the strange man at bay with his nightstick, but only just. It was clear that Cloud was at a disadvantage then. Reno was amazed at just how quickly both men were moving as they fought, he doubted he would be able to move at that speed. Pulling a small device out of his pocket, Reno flipped the lid off and moved to press the button. It was a small device that all new, or still in training Turks were given if they were taking an assignment that had the possibility of getting dangerous. Tsung called it a panic button, and Reno had always sword he would never need it. Oh, how wrong he was.

Before he was able to press the button though, he was suddenly launched through the air into the wall behind him with a hand at his throat and the device in the hands of the dark-eyes attacker. Razor crushed the device in a heart beat before glaring at the young Turk.

"Razor! Let him go." Cloud growled, and Reno turned to see Cloud with the nightstick still ready, but a large gash running down one shoulder.

"I don't think so." Razor replied arrogantly, his grip on Reno's throat tightening, leaving the Turk scrabbling of air. "I was planning on just killing him once I had you, but I think I might just keep him alive for now. So Cloud, why don't you put the stick down."

Cloud hesitated for a moment, reluctant to relinquish his final defence, but a choked gasp from Reno was all it took for him to drop it to the floor, his gaze piercing as he glared at Razor.

"Aww, don't look so mad," Razor taunted, releasing Reno's throat for just long enough to grab his head and drive it back against the wall, leaving Reno to slump down to the floor in a heap. "You should have seen this coming, after all, dear Hojo is just itching to meet you again, and the kind scientist gladly offered his services."

Cloud didn't bother answering, he just stood there assessing everything as his heart raced with the new information. He was tempted to go for the nightstick again, but Razor would be able to kill Reno easily before he could use it.

So when Razor moved to stand in front of Cloud, the blond wasn't given any time before he felt the prick of a needle in the side of his throat. Razor was smirking triumphantly as he replaced the needle back into his pocket.

"A special gift from Hojo." He explained to the now swaying blond, "This stuff is made for enhanced SOLDIERs, so you can't fight it."

Razor was actually impressed that Cloud was able to fight off the sedatives effects for as long as he did, and that the heated glare never faultered once. Catching the blond once he finally fell, Razor finally felt the joy of having captured his prey, especially after having been thwarted so many times.

Now the fun could begin; breaking a person's spirit was always a good challenge, and Razor was looking forward to having the saviour of the planet to himself...