Second Side 8
Chapter 8
“This place… is really, really creepy,” Sora stated as they wandered down a nearly black tunnel.
“And the winner of the horror movie cliché goes to…” Axel muttered in response.
No one else seemed to be paying the two any mind, more focused on what lie ahead than the then and there. Sora frowned a little, the tense atmosphere heightening his fear and anxiety. He turned sharply when he saw something move out of the corner of his eye.
“Ow!”
Everyone spun around to see Sora pulling some sort of dart out of his arm. Tifa blinked.
“Where the hell did that-?”
She didn’t get to finish as Sora suddenly gasped and his pupils dilated. The glass dart fell from his hand and shattered against the ground, leaving small drops of glowing green in its wake. Cloud’s eyes flew wide and he moved to Sora and grabbed his shoulders. Sora winced and doubled over in pain.
“What the fuck was that?” Axel snapped and looked down at the green.
“That’s mako,” Vincent stated emptily.
“Cloud,” Zack said, a hint of urgency in his voice.
“Go,” Cloud replied and turned back to Sora, “I know it hurts, but I need you to listen, alright?”
Zack turned and started to damn near sprint down the length of the hall, the others very quick to follow, Sora’s screams of pain and Cloud’s voice following them the whole way. Panic ripped through Axel at the thought that Roxas could have been screaming like that.
Zack kicked the door at the end of the hallway in and showed his sword the room before following carefully. The others inched in and Tifa tried very, very hard to not wonder how the blood spatter got on the walls and the floor. Axel stared at the blood wide-eyed and felt himself beginning to hyperventilate.
“Empty,” Leon stated the obvious since no one else was making a move.
“They were here. They can’t have gone far,” Yuffie stated, looking around.
“Yuffie!”
They all looked around, searching for whoever had yelled for the girl.
“Hello?” Tifa asked hesitantly.
“Tifa!” the voice called back, “There’s a hidden door. Hurry!”
Zack moved forward and shoved on the place he seemed to remember a door being, even if there was a wall there now. His hunch proved right when the door disguised as a wall fell off its hinges and slammed to the floor. Panic flooded Zack when he saw why they had needed to hurry.
He moved forward and rammed the glass tube that he could remember being trapped in for far too long with his sword and shattered it. Roxas fell into his arms coughing up the mako that he had been nearly drowning in.
“Roxas!” Axel started forward but Tifa caught him.
“You can’t touch the mako!” She said, looking apologetic, “It’ll make you sick.”
“Nanaki?” Cid asked, turning everyone’s attention to the red furred beast who was staring at them.
“I knew that voice sounded familiar!” Yuffie exclaimed.
“That’s all well and good, now could you please let me out?”
Vincent moved forward and looked at the computer panel before finding the button that would release Nanaki.
“Thank you,” Nanaki said as he bounded out of the cage and to the other side of the room, “I’m sorry Zachary, I tried to get out-”
“Not your fault,” Zack assured Nanaki as he steadied the now puking Roxas. It worried Zack greatly that the only thing the boy was puking was more mako.
Axel watched helplessly just outside the puddle of green that was slowly flooding the room. Roxas looked like hell.
“Where’s Hojo?” Leon demanded, looking back to Nanaki.
Nanaki shook his head, “I haven’t seen or heard him in hours.”
“He was probably in that damn hallway with us!” Barret hissed angrily.
“Zack…” Reno said in an odd tone and Zack tilted Roxas’ head to look at him.
“Fuck,” Zack whispered, “We need to get the fuck out of here. Now.”
“Where’s Cloud?” Nanaki asked as he padded out of the room, sniffing to ensure that Hojo wasn’t nearby.
“In the hallway,” Rude said as he watched Zack scoop a completely dead to the world Roxas into his arms.
“Move!” Zack snapped at the group and they quickly filed out of the room and made their way quickly down the hallway.
Zack seriously felt bad that he couldn’t even let Axel touch Roxas out of fear of what the mako still on him would do to the redhead, but most of his mind was flashing back to almost ten years before when he had, had to carry Cloud out of the same damn room with the same look on his face.
______________________________________
“Mother fucking goddamn shit!”
The group in the layout room jumped at the string of swears that echoed from the phone Aerith had been holding. Naminé bit her lip worriedly and looked at Riku who was fidgeting.
“…Reno?” Aerith asked into the PHS.
“We found him,” Reno said, sounding a little bit calmer than he had a minute ago, “but he ain’t looking so good.”
“Not good how?”
“Mako poisoning.”
“Mako?!” Aerith exclaimed, “Where in the world did he get-”
“He stole it from the fucking ShinRa vault. Fucking sneaky ass motherfucker! We never even saw him!”
“What are you talking about Reno?”
“He was right fucking there and none of us knew it, sneaky fuck! He just walked right on by, shot a fucking dart with goddamn mako in it at Sora and continued on his fucking way!”
“What?!” Riku exclaimed, paling.
Reno seemed to pay him no mind, “And none of us can do a fucking thing for Roxas cuz he was fucking swimming in the shit so we can’t touch him!”
“But surely Cloud and Zack-” Aerith started.
“Cloud’s taking care of Sora, but we have no idea how much of that shit was in the damn dart. Zack’s doing what he can for Roxas, but… well, mako poisoning. The only person known to have survived that…”
“Is Cloud,” Aerith supplied.
“Right… so I guess he and Zack are the two people we want with us for this shit, but still.”
“Are you on the Highwind now?”
“Yeah, we’re passing over Twilight Town. We should be touching down fairly soon.”
“Where are you taking them?”
“Reeve says that ShinRa offered up his medical facilities as soon as he found out the mako was gone.”
“We’ll meet you there.”
The connection was cut off and Aerith looked up to see a livid Riku.
“What the fuck is mako and what is it doing to Sora?”
___________________________________
“Common Roxas… try and focus. Please?”
A completely blank stare was his only response. Zack gave a sigh and glanced over at Cloud who was holding Sora’s wrists and had the boy curled into his lap. Sora would spasm and scream from time to time, but not even that could get a reaction out of Roxas.
Sora whimpered quietly as another spasm ran through his body and Cloud murmured to him quietly while holding him still so he wouldn’t hurt himself in his pained thrashing. Zack could see the strain written on Cloud’s face. This whole thing had brought some of Cloud’s worse fears to life. Zack knew it would be a while before Cloud recovered from this one.
“We’re landing!” Cid’s voice echoed to them and Zack felt a small knot of tension ease from him.
They were going somewhere with the proper supplies to help Sora and Roxas. They would help them. Zack didn’t give up with Cloud and he sure as hell wasn’t going to give up now. Zack scooped up the more or less comatose Roxas and looked at Cloud as he grabbed Sora in much the same manner, his grip tighter as Sora was trying to thrash again.
They exited the ship and followed a nurse looking person down many hallways that all looked the same. Zack could hear Reno curse and one of the other nurses scolding him and insisting on looking at his leg. He could hear the argument echoing after them but really didn’t care. He and Cloud were alone in the hall, minus the nurse they were following.
Zack gently bumped his arm against Cloud’s and Cloud looked at him. They didn’t need words. They didn’t have the words to say. They both knew they were thinking the same thing, so why bother trying to put something so complicated into words? They were both relieving their own nightmares while being pulled back into the reality that it was happening to someone else and there wasn’t anything either of them could really do about it.
The nurse directed Zack toward a shower room and he took Roxas into it. Cloud fidgeted, clearly having a problem with leaving either of the boys. He sighed a little and leaned against the wall, waiting for Zack to come back.
Zack set the boxer clad Roxas against the wall while he turned on the taps. He received no response, not that he had really expected one. After making sure he wasn’t going to burn or freeze them Zack went back over and picked Roxas back up. He held him under the water and watched the green tinged water flow down the drain. He didn’t pull Roxas out from under the water until the water ran clear. He reached over and turned off the shower before scooping the boy back up and taking him back out into the hall.
They started to follow the nurse again when Sora let out a strangled cry and trashed hard enough to nearly break Cloud’s grip. Zack knew full well that was no easy task. He looked at Cloud who looked just as startled as he felt.
“What the hell was in that mako?” Zack whispered.
Cloud shook his head a little as they entered Sora and Roxas’ room.
______________________________________
Sebastian screamed with delight startling the hell out of everyone in the room as he launched himself out of Olette’s arms and straight into Axel’s.
The only reason Axel had even been able to catch the kid was because of experience. He and Roxas had both learned rather quickly that, that noise meant you had better be ready to catch him.
Olette looked highly startled by the whole thing, but Axel’s lack of surprise assured her that this was a normal occurrence.
“Got a set of lungs that one,” Cid muttered and rubbed his ear.
“You have no idea,” Axel intoned, shifting his hold on the kid who had him in a near death grip, “Christ, what did you guys do to him while I was gone?”
“Ha, ha…” Naminé replied.
“This is all well and good, but where the hell are Sora and Roxas?” Riku snapped, clearly at the end of his patience.
“Down like fifty halls and to your left,” Reno drawled.
Riku flicked him an annoyed look so Tifa stepped forward, “We’re kind of forbidden from leaving this room at the moment.”
Riku snarled quietly, but one look from Axel shut him up. He may have been worried about Sora, but that had to be nothing compared to what Axel was feeling.
Hayner fell onto one of the couches that filled the waiting room with a sigh, “This is going to be a long night…”
__________________________________
“Cloud,” Sora whimpered and lashed out again, “Cloud… it hurts…”
“I know…” Cloud breathed and ran a hand through Sora’s hair, “It’ll be alright in a while…”
“We sent his blood work to our lab and to be blunt, he’s lucky to be alive,” the doctor stated to Zack who was hovering over Roxas.
“No shit,” Zack hissed, “What are you doing to fix it?”
“A bit of de-tox and then we have some things that will even out his levels a bit. We need to get some of it out of his system first though or he’ll OD.”
A low growl from Cloud assured Zack that he had been listening to the doctor. The doctor licked his lips and scurried out of the room.
A small scream escaped Sora again and Cloud moved to hold him in place as a rather violent tremor ran through him. Once he calmed again, Cloud closed his eyes.
“Were we really like this?”
Zack gave a small shrug, “Who knows… I assumed most of our pain was Hojo, but maybe not…”
Cloud’s eyes flashed as he opened them again, “He’s out there somewhere still.”
Zack moved around Roxas’ bed and sat next to Cloud, “Yeah… I know. Cloud, worry about them. Let the others handle Hojo.”
Cloud closed his eyes again and a shudder ran through him, “I failed them Zack…”
Zack gave up on restraint and pulled the blonde into his lap, hugging him tightly, “You didn’t fail anyone Cloud. None of us saw any of this coming. There was nothing any of us could have done…”
Cloud let out a tired sigh and inhaled the familiar scent of Zack. He shifted a little and hugged Zack back just as tightly. Zack relaxed a little and let Cloud find as much comfort as he could in him. It had been a hellish few days and they both needed the warmth more than either of them would care to admit.
Next Chapter: http://ashley-reyland.livejournal.com/3987.html
“This place… is really, really creepy,” Sora stated as they wandered down a nearly black tunnel.
“And the winner of the horror movie cliché goes to…” Axel muttered in response.
No one else seemed to be paying the two any mind, more focused on what lie ahead than the then and there. Sora frowned a little, the tense atmosphere heightening his fear and anxiety. He turned sharply when he saw something move out of the corner of his eye.
“Ow!”
Everyone spun around to see Sora pulling some sort of dart out of his arm. Tifa blinked.
“Where the hell did that-?”
She didn’t get to finish as Sora suddenly gasped and his pupils dilated. The glass dart fell from his hand and shattered against the ground, leaving small drops of glowing green in its wake. Cloud’s eyes flew wide and he moved to Sora and grabbed his shoulders. Sora winced and doubled over in pain.
“What the fuck was that?” Axel snapped and looked down at the green.
“That’s mako,” Vincent stated emptily.
“Cloud,” Zack said, a hint of urgency in his voice.
“Go,” Cloud replied and turned back to Sora, “I know it hurts, but I need you to listen, alright?”
Zack turned and started to damn near sprint down the length of the hall, the others very quick to follow, Sora’s screams of pain and Cloud’s voice following them the whole way. Panic ripped through Axel at the thought that Roxas could have been screaming like that.
Zack kicked the door at the end of the hallway in and showed his sword the room before following carefully. The others inched in and Tifa tried very, very hard to not wonder how the blood spatter got on the walls and the floor. Axel stared at the blood wide-eyed and felt himself beginning to hyperventilate.
“Empty,” Leon stated the obvious since no one else was making a move.
“They were here. They can’t have gone far,” Yuffie stated, looking around.
“Yuffie!”
They all looked around, searching for whoever had yelled for the girl.
“Hello?” Tifa asked hesitantly.
“Tifa!” the voice called back, “There’s a hidden door. Hurry!”
Zack moved forward and shoved on the place he seemed to remember a door being, even if there was a wall there now. His hunch proved right when the door disguised as a wall fell off its hinges and slammed to the floor. Panic flooded Zack when he saw why they had needed to hurry.
He moved forward and rammed the glass tube that he could remember being trapped in for far too long with his sword and shattered it. Roxas fell into his arms coughing up the mako that he had been nearly drowning in.
“Roxas!” Axel started forward but Tifa caught him.
“You can’t touch the mako!” She said, looking apologetic, “It’ll make you sick.”
“Nanaki?” Cid asked, turning everyone’s attention to the red furred beast who was staring at them.
“I knew that voice sounded familiar!” Yuffie exclaimed.
“That’s all well and good, now could you please let me out?”
Vincent moved forward and looked at the computer panel before finding the button that would release Nanaki.
“Thank you,” Nanaki said as he bounded out of the cage and to the other side of the room, “I’m sorry Zachary, I tried to get out-”
“Not your fault,” Zack assured Nanaki as he steadied the now puking Roxas. It worried Zack greatly that the only thing the boy was puking was more mako.
Axel watched helplessly just outside the puddle of green that was slowly flooding the room. Roxas looked like hell.
“Where’s Hojo?” Leon demanded, looking back to Nanaki.
Nanaki shook his head, “I haven’t seen or heard him in hours.”
“He was probably in that damn hallway with us!” Barret hissed angrily.
“Zack…” Reno said in an odd tone and Zack tilted Roxas’ head to look at him.
“Fuck,” Zack whispered, “We need to get the fuck out of here. Now.”
“Where’s Cloud?” Nanaki asked as he padded out of the room, sniffing to ensure that Hojo wasn’t nearby.
“In the hallway,” Rude said as he watched Zack scoop a completely dead to the world Roxas into his arms.
“Move!” Zack snapped at the group and they quickly filed out of the room and made their way quickly down the hallway.
Zack seriously felt bad that he couldn’t even let Axel touch Roxas out of fear of what the mako still on him would do to the redhead, but most of his mind was flashing back to almost ten years before when he had, had to carry Cloud out of the same damn room with the same look on his face.
______________________________________
“Mother fucking goddamn shit!”
The group in the layout room jumped at the string of swears that echoed from the phone Aerith had been holding. Naminé bit her lip worriedly and looked at Riku who was fidgeting.
“…Reno?” Aerith asked into the PHS.
“We found him,” Reno said, sounding a little bit calmer than he had a minute ago, “but he ain’t looking so good.”
“Not good how?”
“Mako poisoning.”
“Mako?!” Aerith exclaimed, “Where in the world did he get-”
“He stole it from the fucking ShinRa vault. Fucking sneaky ass motherfucker! We never even saw him!”
“What are you talking about Reno?”
“He was right fucking there and none of us knew it, sneaky fuck! He just walked right on by, shot a fucking dart with goddamn mako in it at Sora and continued on his fucking way!”
“What?!” Riku exclaimed, paling.
Reno seemed to pay him no mind, “And none of us can do a fucking thing for Roxas cuz he was fucking swimming in the shit so we can’t touch him!”
“But surely Cloud and Zack-” Aerith started.
“Cloud’s taking care of Sora, but we have no idea how much of that shit was in the damn dart. Zack’s doing what he can for Roxas, but… well, mako poisoning. The only person known to have survived that…”
“Is Cloud,” Aerith supplied.
“Right… so I guess he and Zack are the two people we want with us for this shit, but still.”
“Are you on the Highwind now?”
“Yeah, we’re passing over Twilight Town. We should be touching down fairly soon.”
“Where are you taking them?”
“Reeve says that ShinRa offered up his medical facilities as soon as he found out the mako was gone.”
“We’ll meet you there.”
The connection was cut off and Aerith looked up to see a livid Riku.
“What the fuck is mako and what is it doing to Sora?”
___________________________________
“Common Roxas… try and focus. Please?”
A completely blank stare was his only response. Zack gave a sigh and glanced over at Cloud who was holding Sora’s wrists and had the boy curled into his lap. Sora would spasm and scream from time to time, but not even that could get a reaction out of Roxas.
Sora whimpered quietly as another spasm ran through his body and Cloud murmured to him quietly while holding him still so he wouldn’t hurt himself in his pained thrashing. Zack could see the strain written on Cloud’s face. This whole thing had brought some of Cloud’s worse fears to life. Zack knew it would be a while before Cloud recovered from this one.
“We’re landing!” Cid’s voice echoed to them and Zack felt a small knot of tension ease from him.
They were going somewhere with the proper supplies to help Sora and Roxas. They would help them. Zack didn’t give up with Cloud and he sure as hell wasn’t going to give up now. Zack scooped up the more or less comatose Roxas and looked at Cloud as he grabbed Sora in much the same manner, his grip tighter as Sora was trying to thrash again.
They exited the ship and followed a nurse looking person down many hallways that all looked the same. Zack could hear Reno curse and one of the other nurses scolding him and insisting on looking at his leg. He could hear the argument echoing after them but really didn’t care. He and Cloud were alone in the hall, minus the nurse they were following.
Zack gently bumped his arm against Cloud’s and Cloud looked at him. They didn’t need words. They didn’t have the words to say. They both knew they were thinking the same thing, so why bother trying to put something so complicated into words? They were both relieving their own nightmares while being pulled back into the reality that it was happening to someone else and there wasn’t anything either of them could really do about it.
The nurse directed Zack toward a shower room and he took Roxas into it. Cloud fidgeted, clearly having a problem with leaving either of the boys. He sighed a little and leaned against the wall, waiting for Zack to come back.
Zack set the boxer clad Roxas against the wall while he turned on the taps. He received no response, not that he had really expected one. After making sure he wasn’t going to burn or freeze them Zack went back over and picked Roxas back up. He held him under the water and watched the green tinged water flow down the drain. He didn’t pull Roxas out from under the water until the water ran clear. He reached over and turned off the shower before scooping the boy back up and taking him back out into the hall.
They started to follow the nurse again when Sora let out a strangled cry and trashed hard enough to nearly break Cloud’s grip. Zack knew full well that was no easy task. He looked at Cloud who looked just as startled as he felt.
“What the hell was in that mako?” Zack whispered.
Cloud shook his head a little as they entered Sora and Roxas’ room.
______________________________________
Sebastian screamed with delight startling the hell out of everyone in the room as he launched himself out of Olette’s arms and straight into Axel’s.
The only reason Axel had even been able to catch the kid was because of experience. He and Roxas had both learned rather quickly that, that noise meant you had better be ready to catch him.
Olette looked highly startled by the whole thing, but Axel’s lack of surprise assured her that this was a normal occurrence.
“Got a set of lungs that one,” Cid muttered and rubbed his ear.
“You have no idea,” Axel intoned, shifting his hold on the kid who had him in a near death grip, “Christ, what did you guys do to him while I was gone?”
“Ha, ha…” Naminé replied.
“This is all well and good, but where the hell are Sora and Roxas?” Riku snapped, clearly at the end of his patience.
“Down like fifty halls and to your left,” Reno drawled.
Riku flicked him an annoyed look so Tifa stepped forward, “We’re kind of forbidden from leaving this room at the moment.”
Riku snarled quietly, but one look from Axel shut him up. He may have been worried about Sora, but that had to be nothing compared to what Axel was feeling.
Hayner fell onto one of the couches that filled the waiting room with a sigh, “This is going to be a long night…”
__________________________________
“Cloud,” Sora whimpered and lashed out again, “Cloud… it hurts…”
“I know…” Cloud breathed and ran a hand through Sora’s hair, “It’ll be alright in a while…”
“We sent his blood work to our lab and to be blunt, he’s lucky to be alive,” the doctor stated to Zack who was hovering over Roxas.
“No shit,” Zack hissed, “What are you doing to fix it?”
“A bit of de-tox and then we have some things that will even out his levels a bit. We need to get some of it out of his system first though or he’ll OD.”
A low growl from Cloud assured Zack that he had been listening to the doctor. The doctor licked his lips and scurried out of the room.
A small scream escaped Sora again and Cloud moved to hold him in place as a rather violent tremor ran through him. Once he calmed again, Cloud closed his eyes.
“Were we really like this?”
Zack gave a small shrug, “Who knows… I assumed most of our pain was Hojo, but maybe not…”
Cloud’s eyes flashed as he opened them again, “He’s out there somewhere still.”
Zack moved around Roxas’ bed and sat next to Cloud, “Yeah… I know. Cloud, worry about them. Let the others handle Hojo.”
Cloud closed his eyes again and a shudder ran through him, “I failed them Zack…”
Zack gave up on restraint and pulled the blonde into his lap, hugging him tightly, “You didn’t fail anyone Cloud. None of us saw any of this coming. There was nothing any of us could have done…”
Cloud let out a tired sigh and inhaled the familiar scent of Zack. He shifted a little and hugged Zack back just as tightly. Zack relaxed a little and let Cloud find as much comfort as he could in him. It had been a hellish few days and they both needed the warmth more than either of them would care to admit.
Next Chapter: http://ashley-reyland.livejournal.com/3987.html