Cosmo Canyon Highway, Gaia, Friday Night Fandom Time
The bike had been... well, it had been awesome, the sidecar making it easy for two to travel quickly, and Zack was getting some impressive mileage on it. Cloud was still asleep, had been asleep since they'd left Nibelheim with no sign of waking, and while they'd done a decent job so far of avoiding notice, life on the run with only a bike, some materia, a sword, and the dead-weight comatose form of an unconscious friend could stand to be at least a little more comfortable. They hadn't slept in a bed since the ShinRa Manor, because what bed could they trust?
The answer had hit Zack like a sack of hammers, too easy and too good to be true. So they were on the highway headed for Gongaga.
The sight of something perched on a road sign overhead made him slam on the brake, and as he stepped onto the road and drew his sword, two winged Genesis copies jumped down to face him.
He could have taken them, too, if it wasn't for the real thing kicking him to the ground from behind. As he pulled himself up again, the two copies flanked him, grabbed him, held him in place by the shoulders, by the hair. They pulled and jerked as he struggled, which just made him struggle harder.
Genesis looked as insufferably smug as ever as he paced back and forth across the asphalt in front of him.
"When the War of Beasts brings about the world's end, the Goddess descends from the sky," he quoted, an apple in one hand, gesturing dramatically with the other. "Wings of light and dark spread afar. She guides us to bliss, her gift everlasting."
Zack wrinkled his nose at Genesis. He was used to the posturing and the recitations, even if he'd kind of been convinced that the man had died long ago. Some movement from the side caught his eye, and he looked at one of the copies that had been restraining him to see it hold up a handful of--
"That's my hair!"
And it wasn't like he could get it back, but come on!
"You were a test subject in Hojo's new experiment," Genesis continued. "A modified version of Jenova's power runs through you."
"What?" Zack's breath caught a little as he looked at Genesis, mako-blue eyes wide. He'd struggled for the longest time with the idea that SOLDIER was synonymous with monster. His time in the lab had dulled that somewhat. There didn't seem to be any point to worrying, when his freedom had been taken away. But now... "Seriously?"
In reply, Genesis simply made a gesture with one hand. The copy that Zack had looked at before raised the hair to his mouth and...
"No way. He just ate my hair."
There was no way for that statement to not sound as ridiculous as it was bewildered.
"Your cells will be my gift of the Goddess," Genesis continued, spreading his arms and his greying wing in a victorious pose. "The degradation will cease."
Zack struggled free. This time, the copies let him.
"You..." he straightened to look at the man before him, smug in spite of the wear that his cellular degradation was clearly taking on his body, "are twisted."
The look that Genesis gave to him was similar to one that somebody might give something unpleasant on the bottom of one's boot.
"The monster has been harvested," he said, and Zack struggled to bite back bile rising in his throat at that word all over again, "and can be discarded."
"You're the monster!"
"Legend shall speak," Genesis said, turning away from Zack, quoting Loveless yet again, "of sacrifice at world's end. The wind sails over the water's surface, quietly, but surely."
And with that, he flew away, followed by one of his clones, once a member of SOLDIER himself. There was nothing left of the man he used to be, now. He was simply a puppet for the winged monster who had put them all through so much hell. The other clone...
Zack turned around to face the copy as it grabbed at its throat, cried out in an only partly human sound of pain, and then fell to its knees. A green glow overtook its body, and then a brilliant flash of light. What was left in the copy's place when the light faded was... was definitely not a perfect clone of Genesis. Two twisted, batlike wings tipped in wicked metallic clawed hands stretched out from its back. Its feet were clawed, its arms had grown scales, and its shoulders were feathered, like some nightmare amalgam of every monster Zack had ever faced. An extra two pairs of crablike legs reached out from the monster's back, twitching and spasming as though they had minds of their own.
His hair had done that?!
Zack didn't have any time to dwell on that, because one of those wings was reaching to grab him in a stranglehold and pumping lightning through his body, and if he didn't take care of this monster, there wasn't going to be anybody left to keep an eye on Cloud, either.
~~~
A few minutes later, the copy was dead on the road, body fading into the sickly green glow of the lifestream. Zack put his sword onto his back again, and then trudged back to where he'd left Cloud and the bike, hands on his hips.
"Angeal," he murmured, casting one more look at the fading corpse. "What do I do? Tell me?"
ShinRa wasn't the only thing he had to worry about, anymore. And Gongaga was a long way off.
~~~
Zack had made good headway before he needed to pull over to fuel up the bike again, and had taken it - and Cloud - off the beaten path to hide in some overgrowth while he ate a meal he'd picked up at the fueling station. He was going to need more than what he had on him to get by if they were going to keep running. Especially now that Genesis was a problem again.
On a whim, he pulled out his phone, not expecting much.
He blinked as the screen lit up with a little mail icon. Squinted. And then flipped the phone open and selected the message.
Got an announcement from General Affairs that you were killed in action. But those announcements are never true, are they? Where are you? What are you doing? What did you have to do for the company to reclassify yourself as a dead man? Let me help you if you're in a jam. Talk to me, I'll be waiting.
Kunsel. Zack's closest friend in SOLDIER after Angeal's death. Hell, his closest friend in SOLDER period. And to this day, possibly his only one. He flicked through a few more e-mails.
Zack, where could you possibly be? Let me know if you're reading this. You've gone missing since your mission with Sephiroth. Do you have anything to do with Sephiroth being killed in action? I heard rumors about something going down in Nibelheim. Are you there right now?
Another message from Kunsel. And then one from Luxiere, a lower ranking SOLDIER that Zack had helped out of a jam once before.
Zack, how have you been all this time? I was so worried about you! Please tell me where you are. I'll come and get you. In fact, let's put on an act for everyone, okay? If you let me catch you, it would score me a promotion for sure. Then with my newfound authority, I might be able to spare your life. Please, just tell me where you are!
...
Right. Zack was blocking incoming mail from Luxiere, then. It was nothing personal, really, he just...
He wasn't doing that again.
He sighed, and then he settled down to finish his sandwich.
"What do you say, Cloud? Should we answer Kunsel's mail? He seems worried." Cloud, predictably, said nothing. Zack gave a terse smile in return. "You're right. Maybe not until things are a bit safer out there."
He took a bite. Chewed for a minute. And then blinked and looked back down at the phone.
"Hey, Cloud? You haven't been paying my bills when I wasn't looking, have you?"
More silence. Zack was starting to accept the silence as a friend in its own right, and he let himself sit in it while he thoughtfully looked at the little glowing screen.
The only one who could possibly be paying the bill was Ino.
And that thought stirred up a hundred others, everything from the idea that she knew he was still alive to the brief, burning desire to call her right there and then. Very brief. Ino was a Turk.
They were after him, too.
And there was a road of thought that Zack didn't want to steer down at all.
[OOC: NFI because distance, and huge chunks plundered from Crisis Core. Gettin' there. Gettin' there.]
The answer had hit Zack like a sack of hammers, too easy and too good to be true. So they were on the highway headed for Gongaga.
The sight of something perched on a road sign overhead made him slam on the brake, and as he stepped onto the road and drew his sword, two winged Genesis copies jumped down to face him.
He could have taken them, too, if it wasn't for the real thing kicking him to the ground from behind. As he pulled himself up again, the two copies flanked him, grabbed him, held him in place by the shoulders, by the hair. They pulled and jerked as he struggled, which just made him struggle harder.
Genesis looked as insufferably smug as ever as he paced back and forth across the asphalt in front of him.
"When the War of Beasts brings about the world's end, the Goddess descends from the sky," he quoted, an apple in one hand, gesturing dramatically with the other. "Wings of light and dark spread afar. She guides us to bliss, her gift everlasting."
Zack wrinkled his nose at Genesis. He was used to the posturing and the recitations, even if he'd kind of been convinced that the man had died long ago. Some movement from the side caught his eye, and he looked at one of the copies that had been restraining him to see it hold up a handful of--
"That's my hair!"
And it wasn't like he could get it back, but come on!
"You were a test subject in Hojo's new experiment," Genesis continued. "A modified version of Jenova's power runs through you."
"What?" Zack's breath caught a little as he looked at Genesis, mako-blue eyes wide. He'd struggled for the longest time with the idea that SOLDIER was synonymous with monster. His time in the lab had dulled that somewhat. There didn't seem to be any point to worrying, when his freedom had been taken away. But now... "Seriously?"
In reply, Genesis simply made a gesture with one hand. The copy that Zack had looked at before raised the hair to his mouth and...
"No way. He just ate my hair."
There was no way for that statement to not sound as ridiculous as it was bewildered.
"Your cells will be my gift of the Goddess," Genesis continued, spreading his arms and his greying wing in a victorious pose. "The degradation will cease."
Zack struggled free. This time, the copies let him.
"You..." he straightened to look at the man before him, smug in spite of the wear that his cellular degradation was clearly taking on his body, "are twisted."
The look that Genesis gave to him was similar to one that somebody might give something unpleasant on the bottom of one's boot.
"The monster has been harvested," he said, and Zack struggled to bite back bile rising in his throat at that word all over again, "and can be discarded."
"You're the monster!"
"Legend shall speak," Genesis said, turning away from Zack, quoting Loveless yet again, "of sacrifice at world's end. The wind sails over the water's surface, quietly, but surely."
And with that, he flew away, followed by one of his clones, once a member of SOLDIER himself. There was nothing left of the man he used to be, now. He was simply a puppet for the winged monster who had put them all through so much hell. The other clone...
Zack turned around to face the copy as it grabbed at its throat, cried out in an only partly human sound of pain, and then fell to its knees. A green glow overtook its body, and then a brilliant flash of light. What was left in the copy's place when the light faded was... was definitely not a perfect clone of Genesis. Two twisted, batlike wings tipped in wicked metallic clawed hands stretched out from its back. Its feet were clawed, its arms had grown scales, and its shoulders were feathered, like some nightmare amalgam of every monster Zack had ever faced. An extra two pairs of crablike legs reached out from the monster's back, twitching and spasming as though they had minds of their own.
His hair had done that?!
Zack didn't have any time to dwell on that, because one of those wings was reaching to grab him in a stranglehold and pumping lightning through his body, and if he didn't take care of this monster, there wasn't going to be anybody left to keep an eye on Cloud, either.
~~~
A few minutes later, the copy was dead on the road, body fading into the sickly green glow of the lifestream. Zack put his sword onto his back again, and then trudged back to where he'd left Cloud and the bike, hands on his hips.
"Angeal," he murmured, casting one more look at the fading corpse. "What do I do? Tell me?"
ShinRa wasn't the only thing he had to worry about, anymore. And Gongaga was a long way off.
~~~
Zack had made good headway before he needed to pull over to fuel up the bike again, and had taken it - and Cloud - off the beaten path to hide in some overgrowth while he ate a meal he'd picked up at the fueling station. He was going to need more than what he had on him to get by if they were going to keep running. Especially now that Genesis was a problem again.
On a whim, he pulled out his phone, not expecting much.
He blinked as the screen lit up with a little mail icon. Squinted. And then flipped the phone open and selected the message.
Got an announcement from General Affairs that you were killed in action. But those announcements are never true, are they? Where are you? What are you doing? What did you have to do for the company to reclassify yourself as a dead man? Let me help you if you're in a jam. Talk to me, I'll be waiting.
Kunsel. Zack's closest friend in SOLDIER after Angeal's death. Hell, his closest friend in SOLDER period. And to this day, possibly his only one. He flicked through a few more e-mails.
Zack, where could you possibly be? Let me know if you're reading this. You've gone missing since your mission with Sephiroth. Do you have anything to do with Sephiroth being killed in action? I heard rumors about something going down in Nibelheim. Are you there right now?
Another message from Kunsel. And then one from Luxiere, a lower ranking SOLDIER that Zack had helped out of a jam once before.
Zack, how have you been all this time? I was so worried about you! Please tell me where you are. I'll come and get you. In fact, let's put on an act for everyone, okay? If you let me catch you, it would score me a promotion for sure. Then with my newfound authority, I might be able to spare your life. Please, just tell me where you are!
...
Right. Zack was blocking incoming mail from Luxiere, then. It was nothing personal, really, he just...
He wasn't doing that again.
He sighed, and then he settled down to finish his sandwich.
"What do you say, Cloud? Should we answer Kunsel's mail? He seems worried." Cloud, predictably, said nothing. Zack gave a terse smile in return. "You're right. Maybe not until things are a bit safer out there."
He took a bite. Chewed for a minute. And then blinked and looked back down at the phone.
"Hey, Cloud? You haven't been paying my bills when I wasn't looking, have you?"
More silence. Zack was starting to accept the silence as a friend in its own right, and he let himself sit in it while he thoughtfully looked at the little glowing screen.
The only one who could possibly be paying the bill was Ino.
And that thought stirred up a hundred others, everything from the idea that she knew he was still alive to the brief, burning desire to call her right there and then. Very brief. Ino was a Turk.
They were after him, too.
And there was a road of thought that Zack didn't want to steer down at all.
[OOC: NFI because distance, and huge chunks plundered from Crisis Core. Gettin' there. Gettin' there.]