The mighty have fallen

“The mighty have fallen”
Part 4


“Have you eaten?” Cloud asked, stalling as he tried to make up his mind whether or not to release the other man from his restraints.

Sephiroth shook his head.

“Are you hungry? I know that machine sustained you for all this time, but I don’t know when the last time you ate was before…before…” Cloud couldn’t finish.

Sephiroth smirked. ~Before I destroyed the town in my undisciplined rage? Before you stabbed me while my back was turned and followed up with a delightful tour of the Lifestream? ~ Out loud, he said: “Let’s just refer to that as the unfortunate incident, for the sake of advancing your little plan. No Cloud, I’m not hungry.”

A peculiar sound came from his gut as soon as he finished speaking and Sephiroth pressed his lips together. Cloud raised his eyebrows and looked meaningfully at the other man’s stomach and Sephiroth looked away. Was it his imagination, or did Cloud detect a very subtle rise of pigment in the general’s pale cheeks?

“Not hungry, eh? Your stomach doesn’t agree.” Cloud crossed his arms over his chest and grinned.

“I won’t be fed like a helpless invalid,” Sephiroth stated softly.

Cloud wondered about that, looking at the lean, toned muscles of the other man’s arms and torso. Maybe it really was too soon for Sephiroth’s strength to have returned enough for him to break free. He saw a barely visible diagonal scar on the tight abdomen and he knew it was from when he’d run Sephiroth through from behind. The Jenova cells had healed the wound so well that the scar was only a paper-thin stripe, easily missed by average eyes. Cloud dragged his gaze away from the faint scar, not wanting to think about that day. His eyes came to rest on Sephiroth’s chest.

He’d always thought Sephiroth had the perfect chest. He kept staring at it, fascinated with the smooth, hairless skin and defined pectorals. The flat nipples were dusky rose in coloring and Cloud imagined what they would be like when erect…then he realized how quickly his thoughts were spiraling out of control and gave himself a mental slap.

“I guess I’ll have to let you out of those restraints,” Cloud shrugged, hoping that the other man would assume his lapse was due to considering whether or not to let him out of his bonds. “You should probably start off with soup and bread, first.”

Sephiroth didn’t argue. He stared and waited. He was confident that he could break his restraints on his own but he chose not to. He wanted to test Cloud. If the wary, stern expression on the blonde’s face as he moved closer was any indication, he probably suspected as much. That suited Sephiroth just fine—he enjoyed a good challenge and there was none to be had with an adversary that underestimated him.

Cloud stopped at the edge of the bed, looking down at Sephiroth with what he hoped was a casual expression. The silver-haired man stared back at him, emerald eyes challenging. Cloud began to revise his opinion that Sephiroth was like a cat. Now he reminded him of a viper. Maybe he was a little of both—a cat waiting to pounce or a serpent waiting to strike—either one was dangerous. It wasn’t fear that made him move slowly and carefully, but battle instinct and the awareness that he might have to dodge at any moment. He began to reach out to the buckle that secured Sephiroth’s left wrist to the bed.

Sephiroth smiled, causing Cloud to hesitate. The smile was knowing and sensual, daring him. Daring him to do what, exactly? There seemed to be more to the challenge than releasing the restraints.

“Well?” the general purred.

It occurred to Cloud in that moment that their faces weren’t far apart. He could feel the warmth of Sephiroth’s breath against his skin and he wondered how it could smell like cinnamon when he hadn’t had anything to eat or drink yet. Cloud’s eyes flicked to his captive’s mouth and the sensual curve of his lips. He quickly tore his gaze back to Sephiroth’s eyes, remembering the importance of keeping contact.

The buckle snapped open and Cloud kept his eyes locked with Sephiroth’s as he tugged the strap loose. The taller man slowly pulled his wrist free of the loop and rested it on his thigh. He didn’t move, he just stared directly into Cloud’s eyes and waited.

~This is stupid, ~ Cloud thought even as he began to lean over his companion’s body to unbuckle the other wrist, ~He can undo the other ones now that he’s got a free hand, so why am I doing this?~ His pulse quickened as his shoulder brushed against Sephiroth’s and the distance between their faces shrank. Still the other man held perfectly still, holding Cloud’s eyes. The other wrist was freed and Cloud began to straighten up. Sephiroth’s eyes released him long enough to glance down, silently pointing out that his lower half was still bound.

Knowing it wasn’t necessary but helplessly intrigued by the strange sensuality of the act of freeing him, Cloud moved on to the legs. He swallowed, knowing that Sephiroth was naked beneath the covers. He stubbornly latched eyes with him again and lifted the sheet. Unfortunately he couldn’t see what he was doing and he was forced to look away to locate the leg restraints.

He hadn’t meant to lift the covers quite that much and Cloud caught a glimpse of Sephiroth’s genitals. His face heated up and he quickly looked away, biting his tongue painfully to stop himself from blurting an amazed compliment. The bastard wasn’t even hard and…and…Cloud felt his groin swelling as the mental image of Sephiroth’s long, thick cock and heavy balls stuck in his mind like glue. He refused to let it shake him though…at least visibly. Defiantly meeting Sephiroth’s eyes again, he resumed the task of unbuckling the restraints holding his thighs and ankles. He couldn’t help but brush his fingers against Sephiroth’s skin as he worked and he found himself appreciating how silky it felt.

When the last restraint was removed, Cloud faced away from Sephiroth to hide the bulge in his jeans. “I’ll go and ask someone to bring you some soup,” he said, hoping that his arousal and confusion wasn’t evident in his voice. How releasing someone from hospital restraints could feel like undressing them was a mystery to Cloud, but somehow it ended up feeling like that to him.

“Why thank you, Cloud.” Sephiroth’s voice was again a dark caress, making the young man’s body tingle.

Cloud almost left his captive’s room without considering the consequences of freeing a criminally insane First and leaving him unattended. His common sense nagged at him just as he reached the door and he twisted to look over his shoulder at Sephiroth.

The silver-haired warrior hadn’t moved and appeared to be completely relaxed. His bright eyes regarded Cloud knowingly, as if he had read every thought in his mind. “You look tense, Cloud. What could be troubling you, I wonder?”

Cloud’s flush deepened as anger collided with his arousal. “You’re a really subtle bastard, aren’t you?” he said with a glare.

Sephiroth gave him another one of those maddeningly smug, sensual smiles. “Learning is fun, isn’t it Cloud? Now, if you’d like to see a more direct example of my nature, you could always give me a sword.”

Sephiroth’s jaw tightened as though he were bracing for a blow and Cloud realized he was expecting the splitting pain that normally would be his reward for defying Hojo. That made him even angrier.

“Go to sleep,” Cloud snarled. It was time to test the snooze button.

Sephiroth looked puzzled. “Is that the best—“ his sentence was broken with a yawn—“Insult…you can…” He realized what was happening and his pupils dilated. “H-how dare you!” His beautiful face hardened with anger and he made as if to try and get out of bed, but the mental command took hold of him before he could do it. The green fire of his eyes was snuffed out abruptly as the lids dropped. He fell back against the pillows, his lips parting and his expression relaxing in sleep.

Cloud hadn’t realized he was holding his breath until Sephiroth went still. He wasn’t sure he was doing it right at first because he’d naively expected it to be immediate. “I suppose it’s better this way,” he considered aloud, “I wouldn’t want you to break your nose falling flat on your face.” Well, most of the time he wouldn’t want it. When it occurred to him that Sephiroth’s little untying challenge was designed to make him uncomfortable enough to get careless he’d been royally pissed off. Truthfully though, Cloud blamed himself as much as he blamed Sephiroth.

When it came to battle and killing, Sephiroth’s methods were usually direct. When it came to other things such as getting what he wanted, the man was a genius at manipulation. Cloud already knew this but he’d fallen into the trap anyway. Sighing, he crossed the room and lifted Sephiroth’s dangling left arm to place it over his chest. He stared at the general’s face for a minute and wondered if he was really strong enough to take on this responsibility. He needed to control his attraction to him, or at least find a way to keep it from fucking up his common sense. Nearly setting Sephiroth loose on the first day of his revival was a lousy start.

~**************************~

Cloud returned with a bowl of creamy chicken soup and a glass of iced tea from the cafeteria. He used his foot to roll the dining tray into position next to Sephiroth’s bed and he placed the food and drink on it.

“Sephiroth,” he called, feeling a little bad for waking him up when he looked so peaceful. “I brought you some food.” He reached out and placed his hand on the other man’s shoulder to shake him gently. Sephiroth’s head fell limply to the side and Cloud had a moment of panic. He leaned in to listen and he sighed with relief when he heard the general’s deep, even breathing.

Cloud shook him again and called his name, but there was still no response. He backed away with a fierce frown and reached into the pocket of his jeans for his cell phone. Flicking it open, he searched through the saved numbers until he found Reeve’s. It rang a couple of times before it was answered.

“Cloud?” Reeve’s voice said on the other line, sounding puzzled. “I haven’t left the building, you know. You can still find me in my office.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t want to leave Sephiroth alone again,” Cloud explained in a rush. “How do I wake him up?!”

There was a heavy pause on the other end of the phone. “Pardon?”

“We had an argument earlier and I put him to sleep,” Cloud elaborated impatiently, “I’ve just come back with some food for him and he won’t wake up.”

Reeve chuckled.

“It’s not funny!” Cloud snapped.

“Ah, you crazy kids in love,” Reeve said, prompting Cloud to blush furiously.

“We aren’t—“ He began defensively, but he knew that somehow Reeve had managed to figure out the nature of his feelings even if the others hadn’t. “Just tell me how to wake him up again,” Cloud sighed in defeat.

“Calm down, Cloud. It just struck me as funny,” Reeve said in a comforting, amused voice. “When you turn a television off, does it come back on by itself?”

Cloud’s eyebrows furrowed. “You mean he can’t wake up unless I let him?”

“That’s the gist of it, yes. You have to will him to wake up just like you willed him to fall asleep.” Reeve’s voice sobered. “Hojo set it up that way so that he could punish Sephiroth for insubordination for as long as he wanted, without having to concentrate to do it.”

Cloud felt a fresh wave of rage and he had to fight to keep from crushing his cell phone with his bare hand. “Why didn’t you tell me about that before?” A memory of a conversation he and Zack had about the general resurfaced and suddenly it made more sense. Before the events that led to Sephiroth going insane, he and Zack were pretty close. Zack once told Cloud that sometimes the general didn’t personally participate in missions he sent other soldiers out on because of debilitating migraines. He said that sometimes they were so bad they made his nose bleed heavily.

Those migraines took on a whole new meaning for Cloud. They weren’t caused by a condition Sephiroth was born with; they were the result of disobedience to Hojo. Cloud felt the sting of tears and he wished Hojo were still alive, just so he could kill him again. The strength of his rage on Sephiroth’s behalf shocked him.

Reeve sighed, sounding tired. “I’m sorry, Cloud. This entire affair has been so rushed and I had a million other responsibilities on top of it. I swear, I thought I told you about the trigger working both ways. He’ll be fine.”

Cloud swallowed the lump in his throat and drew a shuddering breath. “It’s okay,” he assured Reeve in as steady a voice as he could muster. “I know you’re a busy man. I guess it’s as much my own fault for not asking enough questions before going through with this. Now that I think of it, I need to know if putting him to sleep is the only way to keep him in line.”

“No,” Reeve answered, “It’s just the most effective and fastest way to stop him. I see I neglected to tell you about the compulsive aspects of the trigger.”

Cloud groaned. More thought could have been put into this on all sides. The science department neglected to tell him everything about the chip and he neglected to ask. “Go on,” he sighed.

“You can give him orders. He can resist but it won’t be easy for him. Something direct and simple like ‘Hey, don’t kill anyone’ would be hard for him to disobey. If you give him a long string of orders it gets diluted and easier to resist and you can’t force him to do stupid things like wear a bra on his head and whatnot. It’s meant to compel military obedience, not frat pranks. I was hoping one of the doctors would have the sense to explain that part to you but I guess they thought I did. Sorry, Cloud.”

Cloud closed his eyes and shook his head. It was hard to imagine being in a position of that much authority over Sephiroth. Maybe it was karmic irony. “All right, I think I get it. Hey Reeve, do me a favor and have someone print me up an instruction booklet, will you? Owning a human being is pretty fucking complicated.”

“Uh…sure Cloud. Why don’t you get some rest before you…uh…take him home.”

“Yeah, rest,” Cloud muttered. “Goodbye.” He hit the “end” button without waiting for Reeve’s response. He felt a little bad for being so cross with him but dammit, the man made him take a ticking time bomb for sake keeping and didn’t see fit to tell him all of the details on how to keep it disarmed!

Cloud replaced the phone in his pocket and turned to face Sephiroth. “You can wake up now,” he said as he willed it. He probably didn’t have to command it out loud but he was getting tired and cranky.

Sephiroth mumbled softly and stirred. His eyelashes fluttered as he blinked and as soon as he saw Cloud, he sat up and scowled at him. “Does it give you a thrill to dictate even when I sleep, Strife?”

This time, there was no caressing use of his given name. The use of his surname and the lethal tone of his voice told Cloud he was well and truly pissed off, but the blonde couldn’t bring himself to care. “You brought it on yourself.”

Sephiroth’s eyes narrowed and his pupils thinned to slits. Cloud realized that he’d just inadvertently said something Hojo probably said to him all the time when he punished him. Before he could try to rectify the mistake, the silver-haired swordsman launched himself out of bed with lightning speed. Cloud suddenly found himself shoved hard against the wall with a very naked and very angry Sephiroth gripping his neck and snarling in his face. He’d known the general wasn’t too weak to break his restraints but he hadn’t expected him to be able to move this quickly, and he certainly hadn’t expected him to be this strong.

Sephiroth’s eyes were full of mad rage, but he only pinned Cloud against the wall and didn’t squeeze his neck hard enough to cut off his air. Cloud knew without a doubt that it was the chip preventing him from doing so. He tried to break the taller man’s hold but Sephiroth’s strength was phenomenal. The general pinned one of Cloud’s wrists against the wall with his free hand, leaving the blonde’s other hand free to ineffectively try to pry Sephiroth’s right hand off of his throat.

“The original trigger wasn’t satisfying enough for you, was it?” Sephiroth accused in a lethal tone, “You aren’t trying to take Hojo’s place? What a pathetic liar you are, Cloud.”

Cloud twisted against Sephiroth’s body, trying to break his painful hold on him. “Dammit Sephiroth, I had them remove the pain trigger and replace it with a sleep trigger! The only way you’ll ever get a bloody nose from me is if I punch you!”

The silver warrior’s expression changed abruptly and his eyes went blank. His grip loosened only enough to be less painful but not enough to allow Cloud to break free. “How did you know about the nose bleeds?”

“Zack told me,” Cloud said with a snarl. “You remember Zack, right? Or did you cut him from your mind when you cut him open?” He’d told himself that he wasn’t going to do this, that throwing old wrongs in Sephiroth’s face wasn’t going to help or change anything. He was angry though, angry and confused.

Sephiroth slowly released him and lowered his eyes. “I remember Zackary,” he murmured. His eyes met Cloud’s again and he asked; “Did he survive?”

Cloud swallowed as old and painful memories filled him. “He survived your attack. Hojo found both of us wounded and took us to his lab. I’m sure you can imagine what he did to us in those fun-filled years, trying to recreate you.”

Sephiroth stared at him and Cloud was a little surprised to see some regret in the tall man’s eyes. “You obviously escaped,” Sephiroth reasoned. The unasked question hung in the air and Cloud obliged.

“Only because of Zack. He broke out one day and took me with him. By that time I was practically a vegetable—couldn’t even hold my own head up, much less fight. He stole a truck and got us as far as Midgar territory before Hojo’s goons caught up with us. They…” Cloud swallowed again, feeling his eyes burn, “they shot him down. They left me for dead, I guess figuring I’d be worm food in a day, as helpless as I was. I had enough sense to crawl to Zack and be with him while he died. Now I’ve got some of his memories.”

Sephiroth hadn’t blinked. “Zackary died defending you,” he said. It wasn’t a question.

Cloud nodded and he couldn’t stop his eyes from blurring with tears.

“Isn’t that just like him,” Sephiroth whispered. “Always looking out for someone else.”

With a sigh, Sephiroth stepped away. He didn’t seem to notice or care that he was still standing there naked. Even through his grief, Cloud couldn’t help but notice and he averted his eyes…not because he didn’t want to look at Sephiroth’s beautiful body but because it felt wrong to do it when the man was coming to terms with human grief. And Sephiroth was grieving; Cloud could see it in the frown on his lips and the somberness in his eyes.

Without saying anything, Cloud grabbed one of the hospital gowns that hung from the line of hooks on the wall and he held it open. Sephiroth saw the gesture and looked down at himself, finally noticing that he was nude. He allowed the blonde to help him slip it on, wincing in the process as if he were stiff. Cloud reasoned that he probably was, now that the rush of adrenaline had worn off. His spontaneous aggression had been spurred by pure emotion…a thing that most people accused Sephiroth of being incapable of. Now he was frowning unhappily with the news that a man who had once been his friend was dead, and it was his fault even if his blow wasn’t what killed him.

Sephiroth went to the bed and sat on the edge of it, staring blankly at the floor.

“You should try to eat some soup,” Cloud said when the silence stretched on. “Before it gets cold.”

Sephiroth looked at the soup in question, then back at Cloud. “I’ve lost my appetite.”

Cloud didn’t push the issue. “I guess you want to be alone.”

Sephiroth nodded.

“I’ll leave the soup here in case you change your mind,” Cloud said. He hated to do it when Sephiroth was already upset, but he couldn’t abandon his responsibility. “Don’t leave the room. In the morning I’ll take you to Kalm with me.”

Sephiroth’s eyes were resentful as they met his, but he didn’t argue. He just resumed staring at the floor.

Cloud desperately wanted a drink.

~*************************~

-To be continued