Not a lot happens here, but it is still necessary for building up to the final battle and wrap up of this story!

I would like to take a moment to address real fast a few comments I've been getting from Guest(s). I don't know if I have made this clear in writing or just by telling myself this out loud, but I am not going to be writing and posting any more stories until at least one of the ones I'm working on now is finished. When I say I am working on the story that was suggested by comment from a guest, I am starting to get the major plot points and characters together, so when one of the stories I have now is done, I can get right into writing the next story without any delay. I know you really want this story, but I cannot be actively working on more than three stories at once. It is not possible for my brain at that point to keep plot lines and everything from mixing together, so you're going to have to be patient with me and give me so leeway. I am moving as fast as I can to finish my stories and start the one for you because I have grown invested in the layout I have made for it, but at the same time, I do not want to half-ass my other stories to get to the one you want me to write.

I don't know if I have also made this clear or not, but I read all comments on my work and I reply to all the ones I am able to reply to. That being said, if you are posting a comment as a Guest trust that I have seen your comment and read it but know that I am unable to reply to you because Fanfiction doesn't allow replying to Guest comments. I have tried to, but for some reason, I am unable to. If others can reply to Guest comments let me know how and if it is actually possible and my tech is just bugged, but until I know for sure that I can reply to guest comments, trust that I have read them.

That being said! If you want to talk to me about the story I am going to write for you dear Guest, I have this story and Chocobo SOLDIER's both cross-posted over on AO3 (Archive of Our Own) which does allow replying to guest comments, so if you really want to talk about this project I am taking on for you, head on over there and we can have a lovely chat!

It is now officially 3:40 am at the time of this going up for me and I still need to clear my bed off and hope that I can get some sleep before I start writing the next chapter for one of my stories!

Thank you all and hope you all enjoy the jumbled mess that is Chapter 10!

Chapter 10

Pain.

Everything was in pain.

It was too much.

Make it stop.

Please! Someone!

Make the pain stop!

'Hush, Golden One.'

Terror. Pain.

Everything hurt, but he still tried to move away from that tormenting voice.

'Try not to move too much dear Golden One. My release did more damage to your body then I thought it would.'

Terror.

He had to leave. The voice was bad news.

Pain.

But every time he even thought of moving his body screamed in protest.

Terror and pain.

How could he have let this happen?

Terror. So much terror.

How could he have failed his family like this?

'You haven't failed anyone, Golden One. You are saving them by staying with me. Remember, I can save everyone you love if you just give yourself to me.'

Lies.

The voice speaks lies!

But the pain in refusing is too great.

The terror in staying is too much.

Pain. Terror. Lies.

Someone save him.

Please.

Sephiroth…

Same me…

FINAL FANTASY 7

She knew they were getting closer to where Zack was being held captive in this horrible mountain, but she was expecting more resistance, like guards or patrols, or maybe even people just milling about doing nothing that would try to stop them. But other than the monster and a few closed doors that she had to manually cave in, she didn't see any sign of living life in this mountain base that should hold an entire cultist group for centuries at the least.

She had a bad feeling about all of this. A really bad feeling. And it set her nerves on edge.

So everyone should be able to forgive her for almost cleaving Zack's head clean off when he came barreling around the corner almost soundlessly, carrying a silent child that couldn't be any older than two years old. The fact that the only thing that saved Zack from death was a giant sword that was held in front of him as he ran was also another reason that she had struck out, it was long and large, and very close to actually running her clean through.

"Holy shit!" Was the shout that actually brought Rain back to the present and let her know that she had just about killed her favorite uncle because she was too wound up and had lashed out at the first moving thing she saw.

"SHIT!" She then screamed, yanking her blades back and jumping backwards to slam into Sephiroth, causing them both to tumble to the ground.

Sephiroth had blindly reached out to try to stabilize himself when she slammed into him and he ended up dragging both Genesis and Angeal down with him, so it was a pile of bodies and limbs that greeted Zack when he finally peaked out from behind the blade. She saw Zack open his mouth to say something when she felt her head being smacked.

"Language little bird."

Trust Sephiroth to still try and correct her language even after toppling them all to the ground in front of what could have been an enemy. Though she wouldn't have actually jumped away if it was an enemy, her swords would have already killed the attacker when she swung them. Nothing actually stops her blades, nothing but the weapons from the planet herself.

"Guys!" Zack finally managed to spit out as Genesis and Angeal disentangled themselves and moved to help her and Sephiroth untangle their own limbs. She hated how flexible and bendable she was sometimes, especially when it led to her being unable to untangle herself from people without help from others not in the pile.

"Hello Zack," she groaned out. Her side was really starting to hurt a lot. Did she hit it on something when she leaped back? "Glad to see you're free."

"Yeah…" Zack said hesitantly, staring at her side. "I'm free and I got little Rain with me… And you have a sword sticking out of your side…"

Rain looked down to see that she did, in fact, have a sword sticking out of her side. One that was very long and very thin, and belonged to the man she was still laying on top of.

"So that's why my side hurts so much," She said, her tone stuck between awe and bored. "Good to know that I can still get run through by swords on accident." She then proceeded to yank herself to the opposite side, causing the very sharp Masamune to slice clean through and out of her body.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Genesis screamed out, rushing to her side. His hands glowed with the power of the cure materia he had on his bracer. "ARE YOU EVEN AWARE OF WHAT YOU COULD HAVE POSSIBLY DONE TO YOURSELF?!"

"Other than pulling myself off the blade?" She asked, her head tilted to the side, watching with visible confusion as Genesis started to poke at the blood-stained and torn part of her shirt. "What are you freaking out about, Gene?"

Genesis didn't answer her, but his motions did start getting a bit more confused. She watched quietly as he started to pull her shirt up to look at her side without the fabric in the way. He looked really confused.

"Where?"

"Genesis?" Angeal called out, moving closer to where they had ended up. "What's wrong?"

"There's nothing there," Genesis muttered quietly, his eyes and hands still running over her side. "She should have a very visible and bleeding cut from Sephiroth's sword, and yet, she has no wound."

Rain suddenly understood why Genesis was so confused. She had forgotten about that little side effect from all her years under the scalpel and then living inside a materia until Gaia sent it to Sephiroth. She healed faster than you could hurt her. It wasn't very pleasant in the slightest. She stepped back and pulled her shirt back into place, turning away from Genesis and looking towards Zack and where he came from.

"I'm not human anymore," was all she said before walking over to Zack and the child he was holding in his arms. To think she used to be that small and that reliant on people before. Well, maybe she hadn't been reliant on people, her earliest memory was of Professor Hojo and his labs. He was what made her the inhuman monster she was, and no one could ever convince her otherwise. Besides, humans aren't supposed to be able to heal as fast as she was, no matter how much mako you pumped into them, nor were they able to regrow any limbs that they may have lost, especially not the head.

Zack, having come back to his senses, held the blade out between him and her. It was a nice thing he did, except it wouldn't actually stop her if she wanted to end his life. Favorite Uncle or not, no one was better than her even when she wasn't trying. This was not the fate she wanted for the child in Zack's arms. She stopped at the end of the blade anyway, looking down the metal to peer at the small bundle in his arms.

The child looked so much like Cloud right now, and she hoped that the little girl would never get the ethereal beauty that she had gained, one because that would mean she was more than human, and two because that beauty was a weapon in and of itself and she would have no teachers on how to be a weapon of grace instead of power. That was the one thing she regretted learning. Men flocked to beauty like hers, and they fell just as hard and ugly as their souls.

"Zack lower your weapon," Sephiroth said from beside her, snapping her out of her thoughts in time to feel his hand landing on her shoulder. "She isn't an enemy. She is here to help us."

"Who is she?" Zack asked, lowering the blade slightly but still keeping it between him and her.

"Who I am is of no importance," She replied, pushing the blade fully away from her and moving closer to him. "What is of importance is the fact that you smell like smoke, Cloud, and that bastard that tried to deep fry me not too long ago. Did you see a man that looked like Cloud but had golden eyes?"

Zack backed away from her as she approached until his back hit the wall, Rain standing just close enough he could feel the heat coming off her body but couldn't feel her body yet. He tried to keep the young child closer to him and away from her the entire time. Rain found herself looking down into the young child's eyes more often then glaring at Zack to demand answers in a way that is entirely genetic from her father.

"Y-yeah," Zack stuttered out, making Rain snap her eyes back up to him. "Cloud and I were trying to find a way out of this place when we stumbled upon a chamber with a golden dome inside it. We were curious about what it was and it's in this place, so we decided to try to figure out what it was and if it was important to the bastards here. Except when we got closer to it, CLoud started to get more distant, like he was getting lost in his head and wasn't paying attention to anything but what was in his head."

"You found the demon's cage," Rain hissed out, spinning around to slam her fist into the wall away from Zack. "Tell me that you guys got separated and the cage didn't open up."

"Well we did get separated," Zack said slowly, almost hesitantly. "But the cage kinda exploded when we got halfway towards it. The only reason me and little Rain here are alive is because Cloud came back to his senses quick enough to shove us behind him and out of the way of the blast and flying pieces of the golden cage dome thing. It was still enough to cause us both to go flying back and out of the room, but because Cloud took more of the blast then I did he was pretty banged up. Then the guy that looked like Cloud but had golden eyes came strolling out of the room like nothing had happened, dropped a piece of the cage on me to keep me from getting up quickly, picked Cloud up, and then strolled away back into the room, caving in the doorway and the halls around me while he was walking away. The ground gave underneath me and I've been trying to find my way back up to that room so I can save Cloud from that man."

Everything was silent in the hallway, and then, as one, the adult Rain and the child Rain screamed in frustrated anguish at the same time, the screams merging together and filling the mountain base so everything rang with the screams.

FINAL FANTASY 7

Where am I?

Why is everything black?

Zack?

Zack where are you?

Am I dead?

Hello?

Someone! Please answer me!

'So you're still able to hold thoughts that aren't about me then?'

I know that voice! That voice belongs to the man that hurt my family!

'Hurt them? Why I would never. What my followers do has nothing to do with me. They stopped actually listening to me around a century after I was imprisoned.'

No! You hurt them! You hurt Zack and my daughter!

'When did I hurt them?'

The explosion was you! I know it was! You were in that damn golden dome!

You were pulling me to you! I felt it! You bastard!

'Hmm. So I did hurt them. I'm sorry. I can go find them and make sure they are okay if that will please you.'

Where am I? Where did you put me?

'So demanding and vocal today aren't we?'

Answer me damnit!

"You're locked inside your mind until you finally give into me. If I have to go out of my way to prove to you that I can and will heal and protect your family to do so, then I will. I have no problem with that as long as I can claim you Golden One.'

Why are you doing this to me? Why can't you just leave me alone!

'Your beautiful Golden One, and because of that, no one else but me are worthy of even looking at you, let alone touching you.'

Fuck off! I decide who I am with, and I most definitely am not going to go willingly into the bed of an asshole who thinks much too highly of themselves!

'I am afraid we are going to have to disagree on that. See-'

See what? What points do you have to make that take away my rights to decide who gets to see or touch me?

'We will have to finish this discussion later. It seems a certain pest has managed to slip under my nose and into my domain. Fear not, though you are stuck in the darkness of your own mind, your body is being well watched over. I am the god of a very devoted cult after all. No harm shall befall you while I am away.'

What?

Wait! Don't go!

Hold on!

Come back!

Don't leave me here!

I…

I don't want to be alone…

Someone…

Save me…

Sephiroth…

Sephiroth help me!

Help me, please!

SEPHIROTH!

FINAL FANTASY 7

'SEPHIROTH!'

"Cloud?" Sephiroth muttered, turning his head to look around. "What?"

"Seph?" Genesis asked, moving to walk beside him instead of in front of him. "What's wrong? Do you need me to start quoting Loveless again?"

"Please don't," Sephiroth replied, tilting his head to the side. "I just thought I heard Cloud screaming my name for a second. Must have just been-"

"You heard Cloud screaming your name?"

Sephiroth could only nod dumbly as he found himself suddenly face to face with a very attentive and quick to anger girl. He also unconsciously found himself shifting the child sleeping in his arms closer to himself.

"Call back to him!" Rain looked very excited and also very scared. "Try to see if you can talk to him!"

"How?" Came the dumb reply from his lips.

Rain was silent though, her head tilted in thought. "I don't know actually. I was told that talking between you both was something that came naturally when it came to the strange connection that even Gaia couldn't break. Something about projecting emotions instead of words and then being able to pick up words from those emotions?" She shrugged. "Don't know. You're on your own. I've never been connected to someone like that before. Well not someone I could talk back to and understand."

Sephiroth nodded and thought of Cloud, of talking to him. He didn't know what he was doing, since the only time he had ever actually done this was by letting Jenova do the work and then him just walking right on into Cloud's head. It might not even work the way he was trying, but he had to try if only to say that he did when they found Cloud in this place.

'Cloud? Can you hear me?'

FINAL FANTASY 7

'Cloud? Can you hear me?'

Sephiroth?

'Cloud?! It actually worked!'

How? How did you?

'No time for the hows when I'm not even sure myself. Where are you? We're searching for you.'

I don't know where I am at. That bastard that hurt Zack and Rain forced me into isolation in my mind. My body is basically a puppet that he can do whatever with and I will never know. I've tried to see what's happening around me outside of my mind, but I keep hitting a wall that I can't remove or break down. He's managed to trap me inside my own head.

'I see. So he's taken your will away like I did when under Jenova's influence, except he has done it much better than I ever could. Interesting.'

WHAT PART OF MY CURRENT PREDICAMENT IS INTERESTING TO YOU?!

'...'

Wait… What did you just say?

'So my thoughts are going over to you without my consent… This is highly concerning… Ignore every mention of Jenova you get from me. I am not under her control and I am not a danger to you now or in the future unless you turn your blade on me.'

…

'Cloud?'

I don't want to be alone again…

'You won't be. I promise. When we find you we won't leave you alone. We'll find a way to get you out of your head together, okay? And when you get free we can go about being a happy family, okay?'

Family? We can be a family?

'Yes. A family. My time away from Shinra and living and growing with my friends has opened my eyes to a great many things. I also have a young girl named Rain Cresent Strife to thank for that as well. She showed me what family means. What family is.'

A child just barely two showed you what family is?

'No, a young girl who came from a different time to help stop the time loops and to help us defeat the bastard who did this to you did.'

Okay. Can't wait to meet her.

'Seriously? You're taking this much better then I thought you would.'

Your not the only one with memories of the past, though how you remembered in this life and none of the others is beyond me, but whatever. At least the darkness doesn't feel as lonely anymore with you around.

'I'm glad I could brighten your darkness.'

That sounded like a really bad pick up line that Zack would use and I am fully prepared to kill you when I am free from my own mind again if you use another one of those stupid lines.

'Sorry. Zack really has been rubbing off on me, hasn't he? Maybe I really should take him up on spars more often. Maybe getting thrown around and slammed into things will make Zack stop corrupting me. And maybe the mindless violence will get me thinking straight again.'

I like the way your thinking now. Though Zack could use a good ass-kicking after this is all over.

'Yes. Then I shall give Zackary the toughest ass-kicking I can.'

HAHAHAHAHHAHAH!

'Zack is glancing back at me now and shivering. I think he is onto my thoughts. That or your beautiful laugh is loud enough for him to hear you.'

God damn it Sephiroth! Stop it!

'Stop what? Thinking about kicking Zack's ass or complementing your laugh?'

Damnit! You are making it really hard to see you as just a cold military General with no romantic bones in your body right now!

"Well, I'm bound to have romantic bones in my body. I have grown up with Genesis after all. That man lives and breaths Loveless and romance. And he is currently sprouting Loveless now. God Damn it.'

I can feel your emotions…

'Forgive me. I am still new to doing this myself.'

No!

'Cloud?'

I like having your emotions flow over… I like how warm it's making me… Your happiness and love for your friends… It's nice…

…

Seph?

…

Seph what's going on?!

…

SEPHIROTH!

…

…

…

…

It's getting colder…

I can feel your rage Seph…

I don't know if you can hear me or not, but you can't fight while pissed off! It won't work!

Sephiroth, please!

…

…

…

…

It's so cold here now…

Am I fated to be alone?

I don't want to be alone anymore…

Seph…

Help me, please…

…

My darkness is turning to ice…

Your rage is so cold…

I don't like it…

Please don't give in to your rage…

He'll win if you do.