Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Price for a Memory ❯ Recovery and Suspicion ( Chapter 25 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

25.

Cloud’s head pounded as he attempted to force his eyes open.

He felt like he had been hit by a train. His whole body shook and ached. With every limb twitching and shaking, more aches and pains shot up and down his very being.

Hazy mako green eyes fluttered open.

Cloud glanced slightly to the side. Everything in the room was tinged emerald.

What the hell had happened? Never before, even with the mako treatments had the green been so, strong.

Forcing his tired body to move, he groggily sat up on the hard bed he had probably been dumped in.

Raising a weary hand to his head, he ran his fingers through his spiky hair, shivering as he felt the dirt and grease. He needed a shower, fast.

“Cloud? You finally awake?”

Cloud? Was that his name? Yes, he was sure it was.

Deep green eyes stared into his from the other side of the room. Flaming crimson hair covered the others face but he could still make out those deep oceanic green eyes.

“Uh huh….I guess….” Cloud winced at how sick his voice sounded.

He almost couldn’t force any kind of sound out. The sentence was choppy and confused sounding.

“So glad you’re alright. For a minute, we didn’t think you would make it. The three of you are in pretty bad shape.”

“Three? Who?”

“You, Zack and General Sephiroth. The three of you had your routine mako shots. I don’t know, something happened and all of you blacked out.”

Cloud seemed to ponder the two names.

Zack….

Sephiroth….

“Zac k? Sephiroth? Are they?”

“Their alright. Zack woke up hours ago. He was sent back to his quarters to rest.”

Cloud nodded slightly while wringing his hands together tightly. His flesh was crawling and searing.

“W-what about the General?”

“See for yourself.” Reno seemed to spit out that last sentence.

However, Cloud put it down to him being worried about their safety.

Cloud arched his neck and looked round to his right.

He gasped slightly at the state of the General. Old bruises marred his skin. Blood obviously old, had dried and stuck on his body and hair.

Cloud looked hard at the face to his right.

Even with all of the dried blood and the two black eyes, Cloud saw that he was very beautiful.

Wait….beautiful? Since when had Cloud thought that?

Ridding his head of those slight thoughts, Cloud looked again at the red haired male.

“Is he ok? What happened?”

“That happened while he was being brought here. He woke up suddenly and flipped. We barely managed to suppress him.”

Nodding his head again, Cloud made tracks to try and stand up. His body roared in protest as his legs slid off the side of the bed. A dull throb settled at the base of his spine and just wouldn’t ease.

What the hell had he done?

“Woah Cloud. Not so fast. Where do you think you’re going?”

“I really need to shower. Please?”

“Ok….but be careful.”

Reno glanced over and noticed Sephiroth’s eyes flickering. He had to get Cloud away fast, then get the silver haired pest away faster.

Reno all but shoved Cloud into the shower room and slammed the door shut.

“Now it’s your turn Seph.”

-----

A loud slamming sound reverberated through his throbbing head like a jack hammer.

Groaning loudly, vivid green eyes sparked open. An angry mist filling them. Everything in his line of vision had turned a fiery green. Forcing his body up. Sephiroth almost shot out of the bed.

“Watch it General! Your in no condition to be leaping about!”

Sephiroth, ignoring his apparent nudity, glanced warily around the room.

When did he get here? What happened? He remembered training with a Cadet the other day….what Cadet it was….he couldn’t recall….then nothing.

Taking a painful step forwards, Sephiroth’s leg buckled, sending him stumbling to the ground.

“I said careful General! You broke that leg. I’m amazed it healed so fast!”

His eyes snapped open again to come face to face with worried deep green eyes.

“Reno? What am I doing here?”

Reno stood back up, hesitating to produce an answer.

Sephiroth stood back up, ignoring the biting pain in his leg.

“That’s a direct order Cadet.”

“You don’t remember? Both you….and Zack Aegis were receiving your mako shots the other day when you both blacked out. You eventually woke up and went berserk. It took 8 of us to stop you while Hojo knocked you out with a tranquiliser.”

Reno on purposely left out Cloud’s name. He figured that Sephiroth may remember everything that had happened to the two of them if he said the blond’s name so early on.

“Listen General. Hojo is pretty pissed about the mess you left in the lab. It would maybe be for the best that you retire to your quarters….just until you are fully healed.”

Sephiroth snorted. Since when had mere Cadet’s ordered him around?

However, he finally agreed. Glaring at the red head, Sephiroth spun round, limped over to his discarded clothes and shakily pulled his leather trousers on.

Draping his coat over one arm and holding Masamune and his boots in the other, he almost staggered to the door.

Reno giggled as the door closed over.

“Hope you have forgotten where you stay. Prick!”

-----

Hojo sat scribbling down numerous notes on an already filled notepad.

He worked out mathematical equations and rapidly added up his experiments progress by using the small calculation he had mapped out.

He was astounded at their progress.

Not only had both subjects survived the first 5 days, they had began to develop already.

Fair enough, both specimens resembled large baked beans at the moment, but already they had phenomenal power radiating through their tiny, no limbed beings.

He walked over to the two simulation wombs and ran his hands affectionately down the sides of them.

“Hmmmm, R.1.K.U. has more power….on the surface, but 5.O.R.A. seems to already have hidden depths. Hidden depths, just like his biological father.”

As if he remembered something important, Hojo shot back over to his cluttered work station and typed in the three digit number into his speaker phone.

Getting impatient as it rang more than three times, Hojo could feel his temper flaring.

“Sir. I was awaiting your call.”

“About time Reno. How are they?”

“Zack thinks he reacted badly to the mako injections but to be sure, he cant remember anything of that day….just incase. Sephiroth is awake, I told him pretty much the same. I didn’t mention Cloud’s name. If he had remembered his little pets name, he would have surely asked about him. Cloud is awake also. He was the most disorientated out of the three of them. He could barely remember his name.”

“Good.”

Hojo ended the call before Reno could say anything else.

Glancing back over at his wondrous creations. He smirked to himself

“Very soon my children.”

------

Cloud’s entire body shook and ached as he attempted to stand up straight under the intense shower of warm water.

It felt like thousands of tonne weights on his tiny battered frame.

“W-what the hell happened to me? This can’t be just from mako shots could it?….”

Cloud glanced down over every bruise, blood smeared cut and deep gash, mainly on his arms and legs. They felt like they had been pulled off, snapped, then stuck back on the wrong way round.

Manoeuvring his arm and running his finger tips down his back, Cloud winced at the pain in his lower back. He sucked on a sharp groan as the white heat moved up his spine, sank back down and pooled right above his tail bone.

Being barely able to remember his name, never mind the finer details of what Reno had told him, Cloud decided he had better let his mind rest.

The rest of his shower consisted of silent thoughtless musings followed through by the occasional sharp intake of a pained breath.

------

Reno waited patiently outside the shower room.

He could hear Cloud’s pained experience with the warm water. Oh how those sounds coming from the blond made his blood boil. Oh how he wanted that male.

Shaking his foggy head, Reno calmed himself just in time to hear the door unlocking and said blond step out in nothing but a towel.

“Hey, how are you feeling?” “Where’s Sephiroth?” Cloud immediately cut in.

“Erm, he woke up just now and wanted to go back to his quarters to rest up. You know how he hates being inside a lab.”

Cloud narrowed his eyes at the red head.

Did he know Sephiroth enough to know he hated labs?

“I really hate being down here.”

“I do to Cloud. However, it’s the only place that allows for mako injections.”

“I hate those jags too.”

“You and me both….Cloud.”

Cloud shook his head. Was that really a memory? Why couldn’t he remember much about anything?

“Cloud? You sure you’re ok?”

“I-I’m fine! I need to talk to Sephiroth….I think….”

“He doesn’t want to be disturbed. I hear he has a mission to go to in Nibelheim soon. He needs time alone to prepare for it. Why do you need to talk to him anyway? I doubt he would allow it.”

Cloud shook his head while picking up his uniform trousers.

“I don’t know why I have to talk to him. I just get the feeling that I should.”

Reno backtracked a bit. Didn’t Cloud have trouble remembering his name just 20 minutes ago? What the hell was going on here? He finally decided to speak. Save Cloud from becoming even more suspicious.

“Well, he told me, a direct order. He does not wish to be disturbed….by anyone. Not even his second in command Zack.”

Cloud remained tight lipped. His head throbbed painfully making his brains feel like mush. His eyes felt swollen….almost as if they were too big for the sockets. His stomach cramped terribly and his lower back still pulsed that dull but hot ache.

Heading shakily to the door, he spared no second glances at the attractive red head.

If he couldn’t talk to the General. He would try talking to Zack. Surely something bigger than mako injections had happened to the three of them?

Cloud was dead set on finding out.

------

“Any luck yet Shera?”

“Hmmm, patience Cid. The tests still come up inconclusive….however, I have a theory.”

Cid paced about the small lab in the very bottom basement in the old ShinRa Manor located in the heart of Nibelheim. He agitatedly smoked cigarette after cigarette, waiting for Shera to find out something.

“Wait….what’s this?”

“What is it Shera?!”

Shera glanced through all the online data she had compiled in her short investigation. Her eyes widened.

“Oh god….Genesis….he’s going to….”

“Dammit woman! What the hell is it?!”

“Hojo! He plans to recreate Sephiroth and Cloud….not by using a pregnant female though. He plans to….do the same as he did to Genesis.”

“Who?!”

“Genesis. He was a failed experiment. The mako injected into his body before the experiment proved fatal to his body. His cells began to demobilise and break down before Hojo could proceed. That’s why he went mad. His body was breaking down from the inside. His mind swiftly followed.”

“You mean that Hojo is going to the same thing to Sephiroth?”

“And Cloud too I fear….if he finds out who Cloud is though….we can only pray he does not….for all their sakes.”