Disclaimer- I claim no rights to Final Fantasy VII

Chapter Sixteen: Judgement

"You have not warmed," Zack stated, wariness in his tone as his hands locked with Cloud. "You have been sitting in front of the fire for two hours - are you not well?" Zack reached up, his free hand pressed against Cloud's forehead. "You are cold - just cold. Shall I call Ifalna?"

"It is a side-effect of-" Cloud's mouth clamped shut when he heard the shuffling of feet just outside the door. It had been no more than a day since their emergence from the Underground and with no one but the soldier's none the wiser to Cloud's new talent. "Of the Blessing. I can't seem to warm up." Cloud pulled his hands away from the Alpha's, placing them underneath the blankets that swaddled him from the world's eyes. "You don't have to worry."

"I am worried about you and what's happening to you, Cloud." Zack squeezed both of Cloud's hands in a fruitless effort to warm his hands. "Can this be considered a blessing? Do we understand what's going on?"

"No," Cloud responded, his voice still hushed. "We don't understand - I don't understand - but Hojo mentioned something to me before you arrived. He mentioned that I was a Cetran Omega."

At the title, Zack froze and his mind ran rampant as he tried to remember where he heard such a title before but he came up with nothing. His history lessons consisted of the history of the world along with his own bloodline, but nothing mentioned Cetran Omegas and he told Cloud just as much.

"I have heard of the Ancients," Cloud admitted with a swift smile. "The Nobles of Nibelheim claim that they are descendants of the Ancients, but aren't we all? The Ancients were nomads until a certain date before they settled into several different places and lost their connection to the planet and thus we came to be - just regular humans."

"Yet," Zack continued, tightening his grip on Cloud's hands at the thought. "You have awakened as a Cetran Omega - one who has a Blessing of Minerva and I don't know what I can do to help you." Zack lifted his head to stare into those blue eyes that made his heart skip a beat. "I don't know what to do to help you."

"You've done plenty to help me, Zack." Cloud protested, dropping the formality between for the moment. "You helped me find out what happened to my parents and stopped Hojo's activities." Cloud lowered his gaze, turning away from the Alpha's gaze. "I'm just sorry that we couldn't save those people sooner."

At the admission, Zack lowered his eyes and allowed a small moan of distress to escape his throat. The Underground had proved to be a treasure trove of information regarding those who had been missing and the numbers had been staggering, to say the least, and among them had been Barrett Wallace's daughter who had been found without her heart in the deepest of the dungeons specifically used for children. Cloud, in finding out, had rushed to Barrett's side, but it had been too late, the leader of AVALANCHE had demanded his daughter's body and would be returning to Corel with it to bury alongside her mother. He believed that she would find peace on untouched land.

"I would like to visit Marlene," Cloud whispered, his heart squeezing at the thought of the little girl leaving the world too soon for his liking. "When I am at peace for not saving her sooner, I would like to visit her resting place."

"You've done nothing wrong," Zack whispered, leaning down to press a kiss against his cold hands. "I am the one who should have saved the little one and I'm the one who should have noticed the atrocities that were happening on my land and I call myself an Alpha-"

"You're a wonderful Alpha and I'm proud to call you mine, Zack." Cloud reached up and ran his hand through Zack's thick hair and shivered when a brush of cold raced down his spine again. "It-it's alright. We'll figure this out and all of them will answer for their crimes."

"Yes." Zack buried his face further into Cloud's lap, but it didn't escape the Omega's notice about how dark Zack's tone had gotten nor did it escape his attention that the Alpha sounded excited about the thought and it was a motion that Cloud shared, no matter how morally questionable.

A knock on the door drew them away from each other and the door creaked open to see Kunsel on the other side wearing a long dark coat with silver pauldrons on each soldier, he completed the look with a pristine white shirt, dark trousers and knee-high boots that were lined with black fur - the last of the wolves that would haunt Midgar that winter.

"Your Excellency." Kunsel greeted, moss green eyes assessing the scene before him with a quiet grin. "We've transported Hojo to the executioner's block - we're ready."

Zack said nothing, merely rising to his own booted feet and looking down at Cloud with a touch of concern. "You will not join me?"

"I cannot." Cloud denied with a swift smile. "I cannot bear the thought of that man's face despite the fact that he will be missing his head soon enough."

"Of course." Zack reached down, grasping his hand with Cloud in a tight squeeze. "I will have a servant attend to the blaze in an hour and I will come and escort you back home before the sunset - this will not take long."

At the promise, Cloud's almost blue lips lifting into a graceful smile that failed to meet his eyes. "See that you don't keep me waiting, Lord Alpha."

"You won't mind the bloodstained hands?" Zack rumbled, eyes darkening at what awaited him just outside the door. "I don't do this for justice alone, Cloud."

"I am aware," Cloud whispered, reaching up and interlacing his fingers with Zack's gloved hand. "You will do what needs to be done and come back to me, understand?"

"Yes, my love." Zack purred, leaning down and pressing a kiss against Cloud's cold forehead before leaving the room with Kunsel as a silent shadow behind him.

Once the door clicked closed, Cloud gathered the blankets and moved towards the window and through the fogged glass he could see a large number of people gathered around the guillotine and Hojo, dressed in rags, was shoved into the lunette and Cloud was expecting an executioner with their hand on the handle, but he was surprised to see that it was Zack with his hand on the rope holding up the blade. At the sight of the Alpha, Cloud wanted to step away from the window despite him wanting Hojo to die for what he did to the countless innocent people, but something kept him rooted to the spot, watching as Zack addressed the crowd and before he knew what he was doing, Cloud turned the switch to the window and pushed it open, shivering at the burst of wind that flowed over him. He peered over the window, flinching at the roar of the crowd as Zack's booming voice echoed across the plaza, firm and confident about his actions and the path that lied ahead.

"The man who cowers before you is the one who has taken countless men, women, and children and used them for unethical experiments to meet his own sick and twisted desires. He has taken people - our people - and turned them into shells of their former selves! No longer capable of caring for themselves and understanding the reality around them. They, too, were given the flames, sacrificed for his own needs-but, no longer, my people. No longer will this vile man stain Midgar's purity - it's prosperity. He and those responsible will face the guillotine and will pay for the crimes in the underworld.

It was as the words left Zack's lips that Cloud felt an intense urge of guilt. Not because of Hojo's execution, but Zack's hand in it. Zack, who had been kind and just for his people was now almost consumed by vengeance and he knew in that deep in his bones that this wouldn't be the last time that Zack stood by the guillotine. Cloud wanted vengeance for those that died, but not at the cost of Zack's morality. Not at the cost of his love and his kindness.

Yet, despite these feelings and wants, Cloud watched as Zack released the rope holding the blade and watched as it separated Hojo's head from his body, ending his life and the crowds below roar and cry in triumph and further cementing Cloud's guilt.

"Excuse me?"

Cloud whirled around, heart racing against his chest when we spotted a woman - a servant - standing at the doorway giving him a curious look. "Are you Cloud? The Lord Alpha's guest?"

"I am." Cloud rushed to close the window and locked it, causing the servant to shoot him a strange look but said nothing of it as she moved towards the fire to stroke the blaze. "Thank you for re-heating the blaze. I think I have caught a bit of a chill."

"It's quite alright and this is one of my more simple tasks." the servant gave a small bow before her eyes strayed to the closed window. "Did you enjoy it?"

"Excuse me?"

"The execution?" the servant stepped closer and suddenly, warning bells went off in Cloud's mind and he found himself reaching for the small blade tucked into his belt. "Did you enjoy it?"

"The people found their peace and justice-"

The servant tilted her head at his answer and Cloud took the opportunity to take a look at the servant. She was young, younger than most of the servants that occupied the manor, but what stilled Cloud was the odd gleam in her eyes that reminded him of Azul - a collection of insanity and intelligence that frightened him down to his bones.

"Who are you?" Cloud tightened his grip on his blade ignoring the shiver that ran down his spine due to the constant cold his body experienced. "Answer me!"

"Shelke. I am Shelke the Transparent - a Bloodhound."

Even before she was finished speaking, Cloud was shaking his head in pure disbelief. This child? A Bloodhound? How could Hojo do this? How could anyone be so cruel as to use a child?

"I am nineteen winters so I am far from a child." Shelke continued as if reading his mind. "This is the result of the experimentation. It makes assassinations a bit easier, hmm? No one would suspect a child to kill a grown man or woman."

"You're the last remaining-"

"No." Shelke denied, a wicked smile pulling at her lips, making her appear like a demonic child. "Beneath the cold and the flames, we managed to escape, but Azul was lost us." Shelke pulled out a blade of her, a strange glow to the metal. "He would bear the shame because he fell to an Omega - a weakling, but thankfully, I was given permission to restore his honor."

Cloud clenched his blade tighter, well aware that the air around them was growing cold, the light of the fire whipping before it was extinguished, leaving them to rely on the sunlight coming in from the window.

"I'm sorry." Cloud murmured, drawing out his blade, covering it in a light layer of ice. His apology drew a look of confusion from his opponent. "I'm sorry that you have to die for such a useless cause."

"And I'm sorry." Shelke countered, a wide, manic smile on her lips as she charged towards him, swinging her short swords with little to no care of what was around her. "That you have to die!"

Cloud's lips thinned, raising his blade, his skin crawling as the muffled roars of the crowd below reached his ears - as if cheering their own battle on. Again, he would have to face such a monster without Zack, but that was fine, this would be the beginning of his atonement, to release those who had been tainted by Hojo's pride and a sick sense of accomplishment.

This would be his atonement to those he failed.