What Lies Within

Chapter Fifteen

Angeal hovered over Zack’s limp body, his brow furrowed in worry as he pushed the damp spikes out of the youth’s face. The medical team had given the 2nd Class SOLDIER a blood transfusion during the helicopter ride and the larger man had taken Zack back to his apartment, striped him and given him a warm bath. During this entire time, the teen had been unconscious and limp underneath his touch. He hadn’t even winced as the other man slid the plug out of his tight entrance. Angeal gingerly tucked the boy in and waited patiently, stroking through Zack’s hair with an ungloved hand.

“Wake up, Puppy…” He pleaded under his breath, mindful of the two Turks that had entered just a few moments before.

“Angeal, you need to take a look at the footage we confiscated from the factory.” Rude told the other man. Dark blue eyes flashed with irritation as the SOLDIER looked at the bald headed man, who didn’t even flinch.

“It’s important. Your apartment is secure, only people you have given the code to can get in. Zack will be safe here.” Reno nodded silently in agreement. Angeal slid off the bed and followed the pair to the door, looking over his shoulder once more at his slave before leaving his apartment with the Turks. They took the elevator to the fifty-fourth floor and entered a vacant office with nothing but a TV and conference desk inside. Rude locked the door and motioned to Angeal.

“You might want to sit down.” The bald headed Turk advised, causing the SOLDIER to frown.

“Is it that bad?” Angeal questioned, taking a seat even as he spoke. Reno was fiddling with the television and then looked back at the taller man with a slight frown.

“Depends on your perspective?” The teen fell silent when Rude gave him a look of warning.

“The only other people to see this besides us were Sephiroth and Tseng. When you are finished viewing it, the footage will be destroyed. Tseng is passing on a modified story to the President and the Executive Director.” Rude informed, earning a surprised look from Angeal. The Turks were lying to the President? An uneasy feeling settled into his chest as the SOLDIER leaned back into his chair with a dark look in his eyes.

“Just show me.” He demanded, wanting to know exactly what had happened that left his puppy in this state. Rude nodded to Reno and the emerald eyed teen switched the television on and took a seat behind Angeal, next to his Dom. Angeal leaned forward with narrowed eyes, watching the Wutain swarm assemble and wait, taking orders and advice from the ex-Shinra employee.

It was ten minutes into the footage before Angeal and Zack rushed into the assault, cutting through the chaos with precision from training diligently together. The attack stopped and the man stepped forward with a smug look.

Angeal only half listened to the words, since he already knew them and was anticipating the content that he didn’t.

Zack obediently fell to his knees after the sharp command issued from his master, crying out the other man’s name and reaching out to stop his fall. The green light snaking out of the shoulder wound caught the man’s attention, but nothing like what the teen said next.

“I…I love you, please don’t die!” The teen was crying brokenly. Angeal’s eyes widened and then narrowed when the troopers began to laugh. Zack… Even though he owned him, had initiated him with brutality and humiliated him… Zack was in love with him? It had to be some mistake, Zack couldn’t be…

I want something permanent and where I can fall in love with the person, I can’t trust someone who wants me for just sex…

Angeal’s dark blue eyes widened when he recalled what the boy had messaged him before he even knew that Exalted was his mentor. It…It could be possible… He turned his attention back to the television, surprised when the boy picked his Buster Sword up with ease, mako hazing over the blue. An expression he had never even imagined Zack wearing twisted the delicate features, anger.

“Kill him… Kill him!” Zack rushed forward and effortlessly impaled the traitor, the rage in his mako eyes fading to turn into something that made Angeal’s heart hurt. Blank, it was like Zack had lost everything… The older man watched with hitched breath as his student and slave cut through the entire room, almost moving too fast for the camera to capture his movements. There was blood splashing everywhere, but Zack seemed to have sailed past inexperience with killing to a place where vengeance was all-consuming. He didn’t even seem to care that he was getting bitten, shot, and sliced.

Angeal frowned when he saw the last enemy fall. No one had hit Zack in the chest, so how…? The teen lodged the Buster Sword through the ground, desperation in the drained blue eyes. Zack stumbled over to Angeal’s body and tried to staunch the green light ebbing from the larger body. When the boy reached for a gore-splattered gun, Angeal’s fingers curled into his fatigues, midnight blue eyes widening. No…

The barrel of the gun was pressed over the teen’s heart, his other hand still pressed over the wound in Angeal’s shoulder.

“Master… Please don’t…” Zack whispered, closing his eyes in surrender and pulling the trigger. The two Turks flinched in sympathy as the SOLDIER tensed and was unable to stifle a cry of denial over the blast of the bullet.

The bullet tore clean through the lithe body, creating an exit wound through the teen’s back, blood splattering from the force. Blue eyes became blank before closing as green burst from the two wounds, the 2nd Class SOLDIER slumping forward over Angeal. The souls circled the pair aimlessly before twining together and pulsing blue, fading into both. The 1st Class SOLDIER opened his eyes and winced before making a sound of distress, shaking the teenager.

“Zack! Wake up! Zack! Zack… Zack!!”

Angeal blinked as Reno turned the screen off. The room lapsed into uncomfortable silence as the SOLDIER tried to make sense of what he had seen. It was nearly too much to take in at once…

“What was that…? When the souls returned, why did it change color like that?” Angeal managed after a few minutes of struggling to find his voice.

“I couldn’t even begin to guess, Angeal. But let me draw your attention to something.” Rude nodded to Reno and the Turk jumped back up, turning on the screen and returning it to the scene, playing it frame by frame.

“Sephiroth was the one who noticed this… Watch…” Reno murmured, playing the scene slowly forward. Angeal’s eyes widened as he watched the souls phase into blue from green, merely returning to the body nearest.

“They don’t separate; they just go back in…” The taller SOLDIER frowned. Did this mean that some of Zack was in him, as well as part of him in the teen? Rude nodded.

“The General wanted to see you after you watched this. Go on and meet with him. We’ll take care of the evidence…” The bald headed Turk went to the television to join his smaller Sub, disconnecting wires and pulling the disk out. Angeal watched them for a few seconds, deciding against asking if they would keep this secret. They already were lying to Lazard and the President. The long haired man nodded to Rude when their eyes met and he stood up, leaving the conference room with a soft ‘thank you.’

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Zack shifted in Angeal’s bed, becoming aware of slim gloved fingers running repeatedly through his hair. They paused at the movement and the lithe teen opened his eyes, blinking in confusion at the blurred figure above him. Auburn hair and grey eyes, definitely not Angeal…

“Who…?” The spiky haired teen questioned, only to wince when the fingers in his hair tightened.

“Finally awake, baby puppy?” The man asked and Zack squinted, the figure sharpening into the image of the third General, Genesis Rhapsodos. A blush stole over the lithe youth’s features when he realized the sheets had been pulled off of him and that he was utterly nude. Genesis chuckled darkly, his grip on the teen’s spikes not loosening.

“You’re coming with me, little one. We’re going to have fun, understand?” The auburn haired SOLDIER asked, gripping the teen’s collar and unsheathing his rapier. Zack tensed.

“But, Angeal…” He started, still confused. Another dark smirk stole over the man’s face.

“Never mind Angeal, sweet puppy. He’ll know about this later…” Zack cried out in alarm when the sword nicked the vulnerable skin of his neck, the collar being sliced off causing a deep feeling of loss within the slave. He began struggling against the taller man, who ‘tsked’ and brought the hilt of his sword down on Zack’s head, humming when the 2nd Class SOLDIER fell limp.

A single black wing burst from his back and Genesis pulled Zack into his arms, bursting through the window of Angeal’s apartment, making a quick escape.

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Angeal blinked as his phone began vibrating and he took it out, midnight eyes growing wide when the heart monitor on Zack read a flat-line.

“Oh Gaia… No!” The 1st Class SOLDIER dropped the cell and turned to dash back to his apartment, his meeting with Sephiroth taking second priority.

To be continued...

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