Final Fantasy 7: AU
Hojo's Pleasure Dome
Disclaimer: I don't own 'em. I ain't gettin' paid.
Pairing: Sephiroth/Cloud
With thanks to Auroran Flash for some very helpful C&C.
----------------------------------- Professor Hojo carefully polished the lenses on the video cameras he had just installed in various places in his lab. They were all set up to provide as much coverage of one area as they possibly could.

That area was Hojo's sample tank; a clear cylinder of reinforced, plexiglass. Inside it, slept the naked figure of a young man. His blond hair stuck out in random directions. The most notable of these spikes the one that stuck out from atop his head. His slim but muscular body was the result of the tough life he lead. His waist had been kept trim by a diet forced upon him by frequent travel. The muscles of his shoulders and arms were toned and sculpted by all the times he'd wielded his sword.

The motion-sensitive cameras quietly switched themselves on as the figure stirred and opened his eyes. This boy had deprived Hojo of the pleasure of seeing the Cetra girl mate with the four-legged specimen he'd captured. Now the boy would provide that entertainment himself.

Still groggy, Cloud Strife looked around at his surroundings. He remembered the transparent prison; it had been the one that Avalanche had just rescued Aeris from. They'd almost escaped, but the Turks had caught them. He had tried to fight them, but Rude had knocked him out from behind. Cloud had just finished taking out one of Shinra's guards. When the man had fallen, the blond rebel had seen Rude's distorted reflection in the polished railing of the stairwell, a split second before the blow connected with the back of his head. Cloud saw stars for a moment, then he saw nothing.

Hojo examined the semi-conscious rebel through the plexiglass for a moment, then stood up. "Is the secondary specimen secured?" he asked his assistant.

The woman checked the readouts on her monitor and nodded.

"Filter out the gas." Hojo ordered, "I want him to be awake when the experiment takes place."

Cloud continued to see nothing for some time; a wavering, intangible nothing which slowly became a hard, cold nothing. The hard, cold nothing slowly resolved itself into a hard, cold floor as his consciousness slowly returned. He heard someone speaking; fragments of sentences; "...secured?", "gas...", "...to be awake when..."

Cloud rubbed his head and winced. Getting to his feet, he frowned at his nudity. What on earth did that sick bastard Hojo have in mind? Cloud wasn't about to stick around and let who-knows-what happen to him. He couldn't see his clothes anywhere. Damn. Well, he'd worry about clothes later. If he could escape, he could get back up to the sleeping quarters and liberate some clothes from one of the lockers.

"Let me out of here!" he demanded as he banged his fists on the sides of the tank.

"And deprive myself of an evening's entertainment?" Hojo shook his head, then turned to his assistant. "Bring in today's specimen." he ordered.

As the woman threw the switch in the control room, Cloud heard the motor and felt the floor tremble beneath him as the elevator rose into his prison.

Cloud's eyes widened in amazement as the 'specimen' was revealed; In the middle of the elevator, his greatest enemy lay unconscious.

"Sephiroth." His mind went numb with anger at memories of what had transpired five years ago in Nibelheim; at the heartless murders, and the betrayal of one he'd thought was a friend. That had made the incident all the more horrible. Had Sephiroth been nothing more than his commanding officer, Cloud would still have felt the anger he now felt, but at least he wouldn't have had to deal with the pain of having a friend turn into an enemy. Cloud could easily have snapped the Sephiroth's neck if he'd had a mind to, but decency stayed his hand.

~I won't kill a defenseless man no matter what he has done,~ Cloud thought to himself as he contemplated the inert figure before him. The coloring of Sephiroth's hair and skin was remniscent of those winter mornings when the sun has not yet risen and the pure white snow on the ground is matched so beautifully by a clear silver sky. The eyes that had always been so intimidating were closed for the moment, though a faint shimmer could be seen glistening along the lower rim of his closed eyelids. Like Cloud's body, Sephiroth's was slender and muscular; very healthy-looking despite its pale coloring.

"Enjoy his body," Hojo indicated the silver-haired young man lying naked in the middle of the elevator. "After all the pain he's caused you, you're more than welcome to it."

~If I work on the boy's rage over what happened at Nibelheim,~ he reasoned, ~I should be able to goad him into wanting to attack and humiliate the reason for his suffering. I'll make the ungrateful bastard pay for trying to kill me. Oh, yes, Sephiroth, I will make you pay.~

Sephiroth slowly opened his eyes and sat up. The first thing Cloud noticed was that they seemed diffused somehow; still glowing, but not quiite as brightly.

"Hojo," Sephiroth warned, glaring tiredly at the man who had captured him, "once I'm free, I'm going to make you suffer for this."

"You won't be freed until you put on a show for me." Hojo informed them. "You should have no problem with after all he's done to you and those you loved."

Cloud was shocked by the proposition his captor was offering him. He shook his head violently in refusal at the obscene request. "N-no,." he told his captor, "I won't ... won't ..." he forced the word out "rape him."

~Whatever evil Sephiroth may have done,~ Cloud mentally reminded himself, ~he doesn't deserve to be treated this way. Is this what he grew up with? By the Lifestream, no wonder it took so little to drive him over the edge.~

"Very well," Hojo sneered at his captives, the corners of his mouth turning upward in a sadistic grin "enjoy your stay. At least until you both starve to death. Even you can't last within my anti-magic shield, I'm afraid."

To chapter 2