Run in Packs

Title: Run In Packs Series~Aftermath
Fandom: FFVII
Author: Lynsey
Websites and Mailing List: See links under user information
Beta: None
Chapter: 1/1 Ficlet
Pairings: Sephiroth/Angeal/Genesis/Zack implied
Rating: R for violence
Warnings: Anthro, angst
Disclaimer: I do not own FFVII or its characters. I do not make any money from this fiction.
Summary: He had to find them. He had to.
A/N: Directly follows the drabble “Breeding Program.”

Zack cursed as he guided the transport around yet another impassable crater. It was taking too long, and he would have preferred to go on foot (it would have been faster, at any rate). However, he knew that while he would get there faster, he wouldn’t be able to carry all three of his pack mates by himself.

At least, not easily.

The mission had been a diversion to remove Zack from the area while this newest atrocity was enacted. He’d realized moments after his PHS rang with a memo to all SOLDIERs Third Class and higher to report to the practice battle field immediately. And to be prepared for injections at that time.

He’d known. He’d known that couldn’t be good. Not at all. Zack did have to smile at the remembered look of horror on the helicopter pilot’s face when he opened the door and saluted before jumping out. Priceless.

He hadn’t been that far out of Midgar when he’d jumped out of the helicopter. With his speed and stamina, it hadn’t taken long for Zack to make it to the battle field. His nose had twitched and filled with the scent of mating frenzy.

Zack’s mind was almost taken over by matefightmine, but he shook himself all over as if to rid himself of a coat full of water. The battle was already over, that much he could tell. The SOLDIERs that had been beaten back were exiting the battlefield and heading to the make-shift medic tents to see to any injuries and report the outcome of the latest…experiment.

It was the work of a moment to steal the transport and head into the devastation that remained of a once-flat field. Zack knew that Sephiroth and Angeal would do anything to protect their mate from those unworthy, but he hadn’t realized they would be so…thorough.

Finding his pack in the wreckage was nearly impossible, but Zack let his instincts and his nose guide him. He had to find them. He had to.

He did.

What he saw first was a piece of red fabric flapping in the light breeze. He threw the transport into park and rushed out the door. The fabric ended up being a shredded piece of the duster that belonged to Genesis. It smelled like him, as did the immediate area. Following his nose in a very desperate game of hot and cold, Zack paced back and forth with the fierce determination of the wolf he was on the trail of something very important.

The redhead wasn’t too far away. He was curled into an impossibly tight ball and half hidden in the hull of a destroyed transport.

“Hey, babe,” Zack said quietly.

“Zack?” Genesis whispered in a gurgling voice.

That was when Zack realized that what he had thought was the infamous red coat draped over Genesis was actually blood. Zack crawled into the ruined transport and pulled Genesis up to lean against him. The dark wolf’s breath hitched as he discovered that most, if not all, of the blood belonged to Genesis himself.

The red wolf’s neck was basically pulp. Huge rents were torn front and back, and Genesis was damned lucky his spine wasn’t damaged. More gore, wounds, and terrible injuries marred the once perfect, porcelain body. Zack glanced briefly to Genesis’ legs, but he turned his face away as he almost gagged.

The materia in Zack’s bracers flashed brightly as he cast Heal after Restore after Heal on the redhead. When he was finally satisfied that Genesis was healed as well as could be asked for, Zack picked up the limp body and carried the other wolf to the waiting transport. He was glad he’d taken the time to throw the sleeping bags into the back. Zack lay the other man on one blanket, and he covered Genesis’ naked body with another.

Making certain the redhead was comfortable, Zack turned to leave when Genesis grabbed his arm. Zack stopped in his tracks and turned back to the exhausted warrior.

“They are going to blame themselves,” Genesis said tiredly. “Don’t let them.”

Zack nodded and leaned down to brush his face gently against the other man’s before jumping out of the transport to find the remaining two members of his pack.

Angeal was the next one he found. The elder wolf was not too far away from where he found Genesis. He was kneeling in the dirt with his arms hanging limply at his sides. Angeal’s hands were stained dark red and occasionally dripping thick drops to the damp ground beneath them. His usually impeccable attire was torn to shreds and hanging from him in bloodied rags. The thick, dark tail drooped into the dirt in a sure sign of defeat.

“Angeal?”

The SOLDIER turned his head on a startled breath. It said something that Zack had surprised him. The younger wolf wasn’t even trying to be quiet.

“Is…he…?”

“He’ll be fine,” Zack assured him. “He’s just tired now. We need to get him back so he can rest.”

Angeal nodded but didn’t move. He stared into space again and ignored Zack.

Zack came forward and knelt in front of Angeal. He took both larger hands in his own and squeezed gently. His own hands were already covered in gore from handling Genesis earlier, so it hardly mattered that more of the sticky slick smeared over his palms. “We need to go to him, Angeal. He’s your mate, and he needs you.”

The hard, chiseled face twisted in grief and his sleek black ears were slicked back in distress. “I…we…he could have died. We were out of control. He could have fought off one of us, but between both…he didn’t stand a chance.”

“He didn’t die. He’ll be fine,” Zack said adamantly. “He’s a little battered, but he’ll be fine.”

“The worst part…” Angeal fixed his eyes on Zack’s purple-blue gaze. “The worst was he didn’t fight back. He just...let us…maul him like he was a piece of meat.”

“He knew, Angeal,” Zack soothed. “He knew you wouldn’t go too far, regardless of the fact you couldn’t control yourselves. He trusted you. He was hurt, but he’ll recover. You didn’t kill him even though you were under the influence of one of Hojo’s Gaia-forsaken experiments-”

Angeal ripped his hands from Zack’s and glared fiercely. “But what about the next time? Or the time after that? How can he trust us every time? How can he trust us ever again…?”

“Because he loves you,” the young wolf was sincere. “Just as I do.”

Angeal’s ears drooped as sadly as his tail. “Where….where is he?”

“I drove a transport in. He’s in the back, resting. You should go to him while I find Seph.”

The dark wolf nodded and leaned forward to place his cheek against Zack’s. The younger sighed and hugged his mentor. The parted slowly with a brief kiss.

Angeal trotted off in the direction Zack indicated he had left the transport.

Sephiroth was the hardest to find. It wasn’t because he was hiding. The silver haired warrior was actually far from hidden when Zack finally found him. It was that Sephiroth’s scent had changed. The familiar smell of his pack mate was still there, but it was interwoven with other scents now.

The scent of rival and feathers.

The General was perched atop a hill created by the shrapnel from a crater. Zack picked his way up the slope, careful to avoid the spots of loose sand the shifted threateningly under his feet. Finally at the summit, Zack wasn’t sure this was where he actually wanted to be. Between Genesis and Angeal, he felt as if he was emotionally drained. Trying to calm the fears of another pack mate seemed beyond his abilities for one, hopeless moment.

Then Sephiroth turned to look at him.

Zack took the other man in his arms without hesitation. Gods. His beautiful green eyes were so lost. Like a puppy kicked one too many times.

And he had wings.

Amazing, ebony stretches of muscle and feathers extended from Sephiroth’s shoulders. That was why his scent was so off. The smell of Sephiroth and wolf was now interspersed with eagle. But…it wasn’t a bad smell. Just different. It was like clouds heavy with rain, like he had rolled himself inside the thick fog of a thunderstorm before the dam burst and water poured from the heavens.

Those wings drooped, whether from exhaustion, grief, or both Zack didn’t know. The tail was still there though, and Zack did know how to read tail-speak if nothing else.

And Sephiroth’s tail said so many things Zack almost cried for him.

Sephiroth didn’t relax when Zack cradled him. He stood stiffly, as if he didn’t even realize Zack was there.

“Seph,” Zack whispered. “Seph look at me. Please?”

Luminous green eyes blinked slowly, unseeing. Zack reached up and licked the side of his mate’s face in a move that was as instinctive as breathing. Gently, he cleaned the side of Sephiroth’s face of the dirt and blood that marred it. He also tasted the salt of shed tears.

“It’s not your fault,” the words were soft and serious. “None of this. Please…please talk to me.”

No response. Just the slow, measured blink of long-lashed eyes.

“Please,” Zack pleaded. “Please. You’re scaring me.”

That was what did it. Life suddenly returned to Sephiroth’s eyes, and they focused on the dark-haired wolf clinging to him.

“Zackary?”

“Yes. I’m here. I love you…” Zack buried his face in the other man’s chest, shaking.

“Genesis,” to many that word may have been said tonelessly, without inflection.

To Zack, it was so loaded with pain and worry it made his heart twist.

“He’s fine. Really, Seph. He’s fine. He’s waiting for us. Let’s go home.”

Densafehome.

“Let’s go home,” Sephiroth agreed. His eyes focused elsewhere for a moment, and the large wings stretched outward. They snapped into place in a furious shake of feathers and settled quietly in perfect lines against his muscular back.

Zack shook his head in amazement and kissed his mate’s cheek. “You are so beautiful,” he murmured as he rubbed his cheek along Sephiroth’s.

The silver haired man returned the gesture with a sad smile on his face. “Monster,” he corrected in a whisper.

“No more than I,” Zack countered, raising a hand to tweak his own fluffy black wolf ears.

Sephiroth sighed but didn’t argue.

They picked their way back down the hill and made their way back to the transport in good time.

Sephiroth paused at the rear gate to the large truck with an anxious and hear-sick expression on his face.

“Get your ass in here and let’s go!” came Genesis’ impatient voice. He didn’t sound any worse for the wear, just tired and highly annoyed. Sephiroth smiled and vaulted over the half-gate into the bed of the transport. Zack shook his head and climbed into the cab. He couldn’t help but smile as he listened to Genesis berate both Angeal and Sephiroth for being ‘weak witted sniveling children’ and ‘over typical martyrs’ the entire ride back to the Shinra complex.

Leave it to Genesis to reassure someone by yelling at them.

But…what the hell. It worked.