Matrix of Dreams
Chapter Two

Rating: PG
Category: AU
Pairing(s): Zack/Seph, Cloud/Reno.
Warnings: Angst
Summary: Sephiroth has a long journey home. But he’s not alone…
Notes: For miss janae_twilight, winner of the Problem With Pickles contest! My lady I hope you enjoy your guest appearance! I have to say I was very nervous, I very much hope I portrayed you to your satisfaction!

If you have not read part one, click here.

It was a long stressful night. Sephiroth’s fever abated, but only slightly, and Zack moved him back into the house from the koi pond. Shivering, Zack then climbed into a bath to warm up, his limbs numb from the cold. As he sat in the warm water, waiting for his body to warm up, his phone rang. He groaned.

“Cloud can you get that?”

Cloud went to answer the phone, hearing Dr. Gaywell’s voice on the other end of the line.

“How is he?” she asked cautiously.

“He’s… hanging in,” said Cloud.

“Good. Okay I’ll be down in while. I found something that may be able to help but I’ll have to run it by Zack first. See you in an hour.”

“See you then.”

Cloud hung up, then made his way into the bathroom where Zack was still soaking in the bath.

“Who was it?” Zack asked tiredly.

“Dr. Gaywell. She says she has something that may help. Zack… you need to sleep.”

“I can’t. What if he dies?”

“You could sleep beside him. He might like that. At least you’d be close.”

Zack thought about that, then nodded. “Yeah okay. Yeah I need some rest. After Dr. Gaywell leaves, I’ll sleep.”

Dr. Gaywell arrived on time, and not looking significantly better than Zack. It seemed obvious that she too had been up the better part of the night worrying. She walked into the house carrying her leather bag, her hair askew, eyes red-rimmed from lack of sleep.

“I found something that could give him a better chance of surviving this, but it has a drawback.”

“Of course it does,” said Zack sleepily. “Why should something be easy? What will it do?”

“Well, if it works the way it is supposed to it will help his system better fight the virus, significantly raising his chance for survival. On the other hand it… hasn’t been fully tested yet and I can’t swear as to its effectiveness.”

Zack sat down heavily in a chair, sighing, linking his hands behind his neck as his head fell forward. He studied his bare feet.

“What are Baby’s chances?”

“Considering his current condition and how high his fever is… twenty percent. If we can’t get his fever down then his brain will cook in the casing and all the love in the world won’t cure the insanity that results.”

“And the medical board will insist he be destroyed,” said Zack softly.

“I brought a pool,” said Dr. Gaywell, sidestepping the comment. “It’s a therapy pool usually used for expectant and birthing mothers. It has a sloped back and he can lie in it.”

“Doctor I was up all night with him in the koi pond,” said Zack. “It did almost nothing.”

“It may not have lowered the fever but I’m willing to bet it stopped it from going any higher.”

“I’ll get it,” said Cloud. “We may as well. It’ll be better than sitting with him in the pond again getting eaten alive by mosquitoes and fish.”

Cloud left to get the pool. Zack lowered his hands, leaning back in the chair. “Okay. We’ll try. Dammit I hate this experimental shit! If Shinra was going to create warriors like my Baby then they should have thought of ways to keep them healthy too!”

“Zack this virus is like getting hit by lightning; fewer than three percent of all the people on Gaia are affected by it annually, and Baby is the first known genetically altered warrior to ever contract it. Now I’m not a fan of Shinra Inc either but with all due respect just how were they supposed to plan for this contingency?”

“I am not in the mood for being forgiving. Not when the best news I’ve gotten in twenty four hours is his chance of dying is now only 80% rather than 85.” He looked at Dr. Gaywell. “What do you think about this medication? Could it help?”

“It could but as I said it has not been fully tested. I can’t guarantee it will help.”

“But it’s probably better than nothing.”

She shrugged. “I sincerely hope so.”

Zack sighed heavily. “Okay let’s get the pool set up and put him in it and inject him. Fuck I hate this. If he dies…”

“It won’t be your fault.”

“Yeah and that will be of great comfort to myself and my children I’m sure.”

They set up the shallow pool in the livingroom, laying Sephiroth in it. The water was not as cool as the koi pond, but it was clean and not outside where the bugs were. Zack sat in the pool with Sephiroth, and watched as Dr. Gaywell injected him with the medication.

“There,” she said. “Now we’ll just see how he f…”

Before she finished the sentence Sephiroth’s huge body began to spasm, and he thrashed and convulsed in the pool. Cloud and Zack dove on him, holding him down.

“What the hell is going on?” asked Zack.

“I don’t know!” Dr. Gaywell snatched up the small bottle from which she had drawn the serum, studying it. She held it up to the light, staring at the bottle, then swore, tossing the bottle aside, swearing.

“Well?” asked Zack.

“Someone mislabelled the bottle! Dammit!” She pulled out another bottle and filled a syringe, then injected Sephiroth.

“Well what’s wrong with him?” demanded Zack.

“He’s having a reaction to the… dammit hold him down, I have to call the hospital!”

“Well fucking hurry because there’s red froth coming out of his mouth! What was in that bottle?”

Dr. Gaywell finished calling the hospital, then darted into the kitchen where the light was better to see if she could read the hidden label. When she finally deciphered it, she was most succinct.

“Shit.”

“What is it?” asked Zack.

“It’s Barbacitophen.”

Zack’s eyes became huge. “You’ve got to be fucking shitting me!” He actually screeched. Cloud had never heard Zack screech a day in his life.

“What’s Barbacitophen?” asked Cloud.

“It’s a pain killer developed specifically for children who suffered second and third degree burns,” said Gaywell. “It stops the pain and it’s far less risky than other drugs for little kids.” She then growled; “And teenagers steal it because it’s a nice happy high.”

“And then change the labels so they don’t get caught, I suppose,” growled Zack.

“Seems so.”

“So what’s the problem?” asked Cloud. “Why is Sephiroth reacting this way?”

“Because in genetically altered warriors the drug reacts with the chemicals in their body, mutates and causes excruciating pain and does extensive damage to the respiratory system,” said Gaywell. “Cloud help Zack hold him down, I have to get the Halcinol in him or we’ll never be able to load him onto the helicopter.”

The flight to Healin was short and rocky. Even with the Halcinol, the Barbacitophen interfered to the point where Sephiroth was up and weakly raging, froth and blood leaking from his mouth and nose. By the time they arrived the thrashing had become convulsing, and the green eyes were staring lifelessly. They took him from the helicopter and hurried him into the emergency room, laying him on the table. Zack continued to hold Sephiroth’s hand, trying to comfort him as the doctors worked. He noticed a girl of about sixteen come in and begin assisting the doctors, and narrowed his eyes. He was not feeling especially well-disposed towards teens at the moment.

“Can I help?” the girl asked Dr. Gaywell.

“Yeah,” snapped Zack. “Tell me who the hell has been stealing Barbacitophen and then putting fake labels over the half-empty bottles so that my husband ends up foaming blood while he convulses!”

“Zack…” said Cloud, trying to calm him.

The girl stared at Zack, eyes wide. “I… I don’t know!!”

“You damned well do and you’re gonna tell me!”

“I don’t!” she insisted.

Zack stared at her coldly, mentally reaching for her, forcing his seldom-used ability to read her feelings. He didn’t like what he found – guilt, fear, and desperation. He narrowed his eyes.

“It was you, wasn’t it?”

“No! No I wouldn’t do that!”

Zack had never truly been in a rage before. Oh he had been angry to be certain, but never to this degree. Never to this extent. But the idea that his children were going to be left motherless because this little bitch with an entitlement complex wanted to party with her Paris Hilton wanna-be friends sent him into a part of himself he had no idea existed. He drew his sword, his eyes focused on the girl.

“Zack...” said Cloud.

“I only did it because everybody else was!” she yelled. “You can’t get mad at me for that!”

What came out of Zack’s mouth was something very, very few people would shout at a teenaged girl, then he sincerely tried to bisect her with his sword. Screaming, she fled into the hospital, Zack dead on her heels and Cloud heading after Zack.

“Zack!” he called after him. “Zack you can’t…!”

“Hell yeah I can!”

“Zack!”

“THE BITCH MUST DIE!”

Zack tore after the terrified teen, blasting through doors and walls in his pursuit. He chased her out of the back of the clinic and caught her by her hair, dragging her down to the ground.

“You better pray he lives and you only end up in jail,” he snarled. “Because if he dies I’m gonna make you explain to my six year old why her mommy is dead and how it’s not your fault, and then I’m gonna beat you into a pile of meat and bones and leave you for the animals to rip apart, and I can guarantee you that no jury will convict.”

“But I didn’t mean to hurt anyone!” she said in a small sobbing voice.

Zack dragged her by her hair back to the emergency room, showing her the writhing form of his husband, blood dripping from his mouth and nose.

“Tell him,” he snarled. He then pulled out a photo of Sephiroth lounging on the grass, his “cubs” surrounding him. “Tell them. Tell my babies you didn’t mean to hurt anyone, you just wanted to steal drugs from five-year-old burn victims so you could get high.”

“This isn’t fair! I didn’t mean to hurt anyone, this isn’t my fault!”

“YOU’RE WRONG!” he screamed into her face. “THIS IS ABSOLUTELY YOUR FAULT!! One hundred percent you scrawny little bitch! It’s yours and no one else’s! And I’m gonna make sure the entire fucking planet knows it!!”

He released her. She fled the hospital, never to return again. Zack looked at Gaywell.

“I’m pressing charges.”

“Fine, I’ll help. Just hold him down so I can get this IV in. It’s gonna be a damned long day.”

***---***

“Why is the water becoming darker?” Sephiroth asked quietly.

“Your body is weakening. Soon the vortex will claim you no matter how you feel about it.”

“I refuse to be claimed by a vortex. I promised my daughter a trip to the petting zoo and a vortex would completely interfere. Where is this monster I am to fight, anyway?” The great silvery-black fish smiled wickedly. “Are we there yet?”

“No.”

“Are we there yet?”

“No.”

“Are we there yet?”

“I can summon forth that vortex, you know.”

“I’ll be good.”

“I find that very hard to believe.”

They reached the crest of a small hill, and gazed out into a veritable ocean. It was a pale crystal blue at the surface, but slowly and steadily, layer by layer, became darker, fading from pale blue to inscrutable blackness. Somewhere just above the final blackest layer, great vague shadows patrolled the darkness, moving slowly, moaning eerily. Sephiroth stared down into the gloom.

“Is that where I am to go?”

“That is what you are to avoid. The creatures down there are soul-eaters; it is their duty to devour any souls that try to escape the vortex. Watch this creature ahead of us.”

Sephiroth looked towards a streak of golden-red, busily swimming, long decorative fins fluttering. It was beautiful but slow, though very determined. It was far over the chasm when something shot up, the head of which was so hideous that the mere sight of it could have driven a lesser being insane. The grotesque jaws slammed around the fish-like creature, and the long neck withdrew with the speed and abruptness of a bungee cord. All that was left of the pretty red creature were a few broken bits of fin, fluttering sadly in the mako.

“We have to cross the chasm,” the guide said. “We must be slow and steady. Only the souls that are being drawn to the far reaches of the life stream are permitted to be here. We must drift, and be slow. Move straight, and keep your eyes forward, as if your will is not your own. Or you will share the fate of the red fish.”

“What will happen to the red fish?” asked Sephiroth.

“I do not know. The guides are not permitted to know the fate of those who are devoured. I do not wish to find out.” She smiled slightly. “You go first. And don’t look down.”

Sephiroth gave her a disgruntled look, then, gathering himself, he began drifting slowly, mindlessly across the chasm, realizing just how very far it was. The other side was a distant streak of green, and all around were drifting souls being pulled along on their journey. Occasionally a soul would dart out, seeking escape from the life stream, and once more that hideous monster would shoot its head up, grabbing the soul and then retracting like a ball on a string. It would be comical were it not so ghastly.

Sephiroth kept on, drifting slowly, trying to keep his mind blank and his eyes focused straight ahead. He had to get home. He had to get back to…

The pain was blinding. The violent jaws slammed down on his slender silver body, and he screamed as he was yanked into the darkness, watching as pieces of his fragile body were left behind, sparkling like bits of glitter on the surface of a pond. He thrashed and began to fight, struggling wildly. He tried to bite the creature, then screamed as he felt the teeth drive into his flesh again as it began to chew. He flailed, trying to break free, the fluid in which he swam staining red with his own blood. The teeth drove into him yet again, and Sephiroth felt his eyes begin to roll back in his head. He was sinking deeper and deeper into the gloom, pulled towards a blackness from which he would never awaken, drowning…

There were twin glints of silver, and the pressure released. Weak and broken, Sephiroth slowly made his way into the levels of light, trailing blood. He was vaguely aware of the monster below him battling with his guide, but though she had freed him from its jaws, he doubted she had bought him more than a few more minutes of life. He was done. Slowly he rolled onto his back, drifting upwards, rising in a slow swirl of trailing red towards the light, while far below his guide slew the monster in a whirl of flashing metal blades.

***---***

Somebody was screaming his name.

“Sephiroth! Baby talk to me! Baby answer me please!!”

Was that Zack? He sounded positively hysterical. Dammit, what hurt? What was that smell?

“BABY!”

Sephiroth batted weakly at the cause of the screaming. “Zack shut up.”

Zack burst into tears, and took hold of Sephiroth’s hand. “I thought you were dead! Baby I was so scared!”

Dead? No he hadn’t been dead, he had been….

He had been in the life stream seeking a way home.

Yeah… that kinda counted as dead.

Sephiroth opened his eyes, blinking confusedly at Zack. He reached up to touch his face, slowly wiping away the tears.

“Was I dead?” Sephiroth asked quietly.

“You certainly were,” said a voice. “But you managed to come back. I knew you were a fighter.”

Sephiroth turned his head. Standing before him was a woman clad in glowing white, her dark skin shining softly from the hospital lights. Her hair was tied back into a ponytail, and along one arm was tattooed a chrysanthemum with the words “Perfectly Imperfect” framing it. Her ears were pierced with gems and strange bars of precious metals, and her dark eyes gazed at him from behind black-rimmed glasses.

“We’re going to bring you to your room now. You’re not out of the woods yet. We’ll have to monitor you for a few days and make sure you’re all right.”

Sephiroth gazed at her in utter confusion. “Do I know you?”

“I don’t think so. I was brought in after your husband chased a candy-striper into a closet and threatened to lop her head off. I’m a student nurse.”

“Well if I have anything to say about it, you’ll be graduating the top of your class,” said Dr. Gaywell. “That was very good work, remembering that a simple anti-histamine will help calm the effects of Barbacitophen in genetically-altered warriors.”

“Anti-histamine?” said Zack. “Are you shitting me?”

“I shit you not,” said Dr. Gaywell brightly. “The chemical workings of a physically rearranged warrior are a truly bizarre thing. Sadly this particular effect was only noted recently after a similar tragedy that did not end as well. I hadn’t yet heard of it, but our new recruit fortunately had. What this all boils down to is Baby is going to extremely fragile for a while. He’s going to have to stay here for at least two weeks, but you can stay with him, and after a couple days you can bring the kids up. We still have the problem of the virus and we are not out of the woods. But I think as long as we’re careful he has a very good chance.”

“Who gave you permission to call me Baby?” growled Sephiroth.

“Sorry. General Baby.”

Zack reached down to stroke the long white hair. “You hush. You had me scared to death. Baby you were dead. Your heart had stopped. You were… you were gone.”

“I was in the life stream,” he said softly. “I was trying to come home, but the monster grabbed me. And then I was saved by… somebody.” He glanced at the nurse with the tattoo on her arm. “You saved me.”

She smiled. “All in a day’s work for Super Nurse. Now if you don’t mind I have to go leap a tall building in a single bound.”

Sephiroth watched her go, then looked to Zack. “But I saw…”

Zack kissed him gently. “Baby you were awful sick. Just… try to relax and don’t worry.”

“But the monster… the nurse…”

“Hush,” said Zack.

“She was in my dream,” Sephiroth insisted weakly.

“Hush,” said Zack softly. “You just rest. We can talk about this later.”

“I wanna talk to the kids…”

“Baby it’s two in the morning, if we call the kids now they’re gonna think you’re dead.”

“Well I was…”

“Don’t remind me.” Zack kissed his nose. “Just relax, okay? You’re still a very sick bunny. Get some rest.”

Sephiroth settled close to Zack, mumbling something in his sleep. Then he sighed quietly, and drifted into sleep. Zack stroked the long white hair, still shivering, feeling his body shake with emotion and exhaustion. It had been a very long thirty-six hours, and they still were not out of the woods. But at least they could see daylight through the trees.

“I love you, you big silly cat,” he whispered.

Sephiroth did not respond, but Zack grinned as he heard a quiet sawing sound that Sephiroth was completely unaware he made; a sound that he only made when exhausted, but content. Many had mistaken it for a snore, but as Zack rested his head on his lover’s back, he recognized it for what it was.

Sephiroth was purring.