boomchickfanfiction: [image description: An image of a cramped huddle, black and white except for th

boomchickfanfiction:

[image description: An image of a cramped huddle, black and white except for the blood. Closest to the viewer, with their backs turned, are Genesis and Cloud. They are looking towards where Angeal is crouched before a wounded Zack. Angeal’s hand is in Zack’s hair, and he is looking at Zack, deeply worried. Zack’s right eye is a mess of blood, spilling down his face. He bears bruises and bloody wounds all over his face and arms, but he is looking up at Cloud with his good eye, and smiling sweetly through the pain, as if nothing at all is wrong now. End image description]

Den of M[arionettes]
Whumptober 2020

Art by @tomowowowo, story by Boomchick

Read on Ao3
Read from Beginning on Tumblr

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Day 9: Take Me Instead

So, thought Cloud to himself, what he was learning from his ‘educational field trip’ with Zack boiled down to this.

1. He was getting much, much stronger. Almost like being surrounded constantly by the elitist of the elite was rubbing off on him.
2. If Zack says something is ‘going to be super easy,’ he should say ‘no thank you.’
3. If Zack says something is going to be ‘fun,’ he should run as fast as possible in the opposite direction.
4. He had to start getting better about not freezing up when people grabbed him.
5. If Zack had known that he was trapped in the labs, he’d have torn the science department to kindling looking for him.

Because yeah. He was stronger. He could slice a dire rat in half. He could face down monsters and gangsters alike at Zack’s side. He could shake off a hit and keep fighting. They likely began enhancements on you Sephiroth had said, inspecting the injection marks on Cloud’s inner elbow. You may find changes in yourself.

But that was just the effects of lesson one.

Lessons two through four came when Zack jogged off to check on something ahead, promising a continuation of their adventure. The moment he was out of sight, a dozen hands were suddenly on Cloud. Lessons two through four came in as he locked up and shut down, terror freezing his blood and his body in memory—

Dude, that’s fucked up—

— and by the time he had the wherewithal to struggle, his hands were tied behind his back and there was someone tying a gag around the back of his head, muffling his screams.

Keep reading