01 Voice:Zack Fair: This isn't the right way, is it?

[notenoughsquats]

[The communicator is turned on to see Zack with a quizzical look on his face as he pulls at the crown atop his head] Oy, Cloud--you out there? Shit, she's really gonna forget me if I get lost on the way home.....

[He puzzles again for a moment in silence; things were a bit upside down could he just broadcast across a strange network like this it

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[vanitynightmare]

...

[That voice. He knows that voice.]

Well well well...I was wondering when you would show up.

[notenoughsquats]

[The original voice had lost some of it's spark, it was faded and more rough around the edges now]

Huh? Who is this?

[vanitynightmare]

[And the other voice, however silken, is wary, and guarded, either from rage or grief or a radical combination of both.]

...Dog. Do you remember the end of the world? Answer quickly.

[notenoughsquats]

[Zack's just silent for a moment, how the hell did he answer that quickly?! Really, he'd just found out he died and now some strange guy was calling him a dog? Did he think he knew Zack, he didn't sound familiar at all, finally he gives the only response his broken heart and over loaded mind can offer.]

Huh?! Tell me who you are! Wait--the end of the world....

[He stops talking then, his heart dropped is that what Tifa had meant when she said that alot of things had happened since he died?]

[vanitynightmare]

You aren't the same...?

[His voice changes, abruptly, softer, but still wary, still uncertain as to if he believes Zack or not.]

...What do you remember of...Angeal?

[notenoughsquats]

[Zack had been in the process of answering that first part, until he heard that name. His voice hitched and there was a hard, strangled sob followed by a crashing sound as the communicator slipped from his black gloved fingers.....Angeal...he was dead. His voice is ragged, grated when he starts again, clear that every word ripped at some deep part of his soul.]

Everythin', he was a SOLDIER, he was my mentor, my friend and without him I would not be who I am today, that is what I remember of Angeal, what could you possibly know of him?! He was a man of honor and dreams!

[vanitynightmare]

...

[An inhalation then. This person...it isn't the Zack from World's End, it isn't his enemy. He's not sure what to make of this, except that it's obvious this creature know sand respects his Dove...it's the Zack he vaguely remembers calling friend in years past.]

...Zack Fair...my name is Karasu.

You might not know me...but I know a great deal about you...Perhaps...

[He pauses, weighing the details. Does he want to talk? He's not sure, and that irritates him]

Thank you for answering my question.

[notenoughsquats]

[His voice was still tear filled, this day was just getting worse, now he couldn't shake thoughts of Angeal from his head on top of everything else. Had they found each other in the lifestream back home he wondered, somehow Zack desperately wanted to know this fact. ]

H-how do you know me? I don't know you, this makes no sense.

[He grabs the communicator hastily]

Wait, I answered your question, now answer mine, how, how do you know me...how do you know Angeal?

[vanitynightmare]

You wouldn't really...believe me if I told you.

[He sounds lazy now, sighing softly as he gathers his thoughts. Should he? Quid pro quo and all that, but still...]

I have been trapped in places such as this one...for years. I have known you...I have known many from your world.

...

[His voice softens, and there's a very faint grief now, hidden in the madness. He misses his family, Nero the Sable and Angeal Hewley. He only has Sheik and Avari for comfort, and it bothers him, it scares him and an animal always hates feeling cornered.]

As I knew him.

[notenoughsquats]

After what I've been told today, you'd be surprised what I believed and what I didn't. Besides, how could you have known his name? I'm not sure just yet, but...you knew him...somehow.

[Zack can instantly recognize that pain, why because it's the same one he feels and has felt ever since Angeal took his last breaths, it hadn't seemed so long ago, yet if everything was right it was over eight almost nine years now since he'd been forced to take his mentor's life. It was as sharp in his heart as the day it first happened.]

I-I've got to meet Tifa, she's comin' but, please can we meet? You've seen him and it's been so, so long since I have, I just want to talk.

[vanitynightmare]

...

[He's silent for a long time before replying.]

The house surrounded by crows. You...will find me there,

[notenoughsquats]

Soon as I find Cloud, I'll be there count on it.

[He stops, a heavy breath taken before he prepares to say goodbye; for some reason he didn't want to, it was a link in this madness to Angeal, that felt familiar to Zack and he wanted to pursue it...but Tifa was coming and Cloud needed him. Chasing the past would have to wait, for now.]

Thank you, Karasu...I'm not sure what you know about me, but you and me, we're gonna be friends. Here she comes, I have to go find him now, I'll be there as soon as I can.

[vanitynightmare]

...I will be waiting, I suppose..

[notenoughsquats]

I'll be there, soon!

[It's a determined response, filled still with the watered sounds of his crying as the feed is cut off]