Midgar to Modeoheim and Back, Saturday
They'd kept Zack busy since Thursday. Now that he was finally in Midgar without a strange blonde girl tagging along after him, it was the time to send him on all of the missions that they didn't want outsiders getting their hands on. The messy ones. The ones involving chasing down the last of the Genesis copies straggling around Midgar, and beating down Wutaian spies who had made their way into the city limits. And something about a ShinRa employee's pet Cactuar that had taken off with sensitive documents in its quills that had Zack running around the wastelands for a few hours, smashing monsters and little prickly green things. At least he'd gotten a new summon out of it.
... Kinda. Calling a Cactuar meant doing a silly dance. So did calling a Chocobo, for that matter. Summoning Cait Sith, on the other hand, was just a matter of having a happy cat thing bounce circles around him. Summons were weird. Zack had picked up those two summon items on missions for a kid who called herself the Treasure Princess. She looked kinda familiar, but Zack couldn't really put his finger on where he'd seen her before. Really, the only reason that he didn't throw out the missions that she sent to him was because she kept crying when she couldn't get all of his stuff from him while he wasn't looking, and he kinda felt guilty for making a little kid sniffle. Oops?
At the moment, Zack was taking advantage of a lull in the steady stream of missions to pick up his phone and try to call Sephiroth. No answer, again. Luxiere, a 2nd Class who was standing nearby while Zack hung up, was at least helpful enough to let Zack know that the silver-haired SOLDIER had been hiding away in the company's data room all weekend, researching the history of ShinRa's Science Department. A reasonable move, Zack decided, in light of recent events.
Maybe it was for the best when Aerith phoned. A distraction. She wanted Zack to make her that flower wagon that he'd promised, so that they could carry out Operation: Midgar Full of Flowers, Wallet Full Of Money. He promised he'd be right there.
He was stopped on the way by the sound of wings.
"Angeal!? Where have you been?"
"Apologies," Angeal sighed. "But, I am a busy man."
"Yeah, whatever..." It must have been an interesting sight, two SOLDIER 1sts, both facepalming at one another, one of them with a pair of white feathered wings spread out from the right side of his back. "I haven't been able to contact Sephiroth, either."
"Has something happened?"
"Not really," Zack replied. "He's just been holed up in the data room, reading old reports and such."
"I see," Angeal sighed, turning his back to the boy, making as if to leave.
"Hey!" As if Zack was going to make it that easy for him. "Now where are you off to? I just don't know with you, these days."
"Genesis and Hollander are in Modeoheim," said Angeal.
"You came to tell me that?" Well, that was something, wasn't it? "Are you actually... working?"
"I'm still SOLDIER at heart, I suppose. I've informed Lazard as well. They'll come pick you up soon."
And then he flew away.
Angeal hadn't been joking when he'd said 'soon.' Zack wasn't even halfway up the stairs to Aerith's church when he heard Tseng's voice behind him.
"Zack, I need you in Modeoheim."
"I know," he replied, holding up one hand. He didn't want to hurt Aerith's feelings by just standing her up, after all. "Just give me a minute."
"Aerith isn't there."
Zack froze mid-step, and then turned to look at Tseng, expression grim.
"Problem?"
"And how is it," Zack demanded, putting a hand on his hip, "you know Aerith?"
Tseng's arms crossed over his chest.
"It's complicated."
"Really..."
Zack was trying to picture the Turks' idea of 'complicated.' And maybe trying to figure out what that low note was, in Tseng's voice. Turks weren't supposed to care, he'd figured out that much. And hearing anything like it coming from Tseng's mouth was odd, at best.
"Did she tell you anything?"
"Not a thing," Zack shrugged.
"Then I won't, either."
The sound of helicopter blades started to echo around them. Their lift was on the way. Zack groaned, making his way down the steps toward the chopper.
"Well, whatever, I guess. Whaaaaatever."
It was a long, long, loooooong, boring helicopter ride to Modeoheim.
The sort of long, long, looooooong, boring helicopter ride that involved a lot of Zack, attempting to poke at the buttons on the helicopter's control panels to see what they did. The sort of ride that involved a good deal of Tseng, swatting irritably at his hands to get him to leave off while the pair of Infantrymen that were accompanying them stared with wide-eyes.
Ladies and gentlemen, the second most reliable SOLDER 1st Class in the world, behind only Sephiroth.
The flight dragged on. Gaia's Icicle Area was far, far north, a wasteland of ice surrounding the Northern Crater.
In retrospect, reaching out and tugging Tseng's ponytail in an attempt to alleviate the boredom somewhere along the way was probably a bad idea.
Zack was sprawled out on his face in the snow, with the flaming wreckage of what once was a helicopter behind him.
Yeah. He was going to have to tell Elena that pulling Tseng's ponytail had been pretty stupid, after all.
"Ugh," he groaned, pushing himself to his knees and rubbing the back of his head. "Well. That's a fine how-do-you-do!"
He stood and looked around. Snow. It was all snow and rocks and, of course, flaming helicopter bits.
"Tseng! Hey, guys!"
They were nearby, picking themselves up from the ground. And, thank Shiva, they all appeared to be alright. Tseng pulled out his PHS, flipped it open, and attempted to make a call for help.
"No signal out here," he reported. And then he fixed Zack with a glare that could have melted glaciers.
"Well," Zack contributed, always one to look on the bright side in the face of an 'if looks could kill' moment. "At least we're all in one piece. We'll be alright."
There was another moment of glaring, and then Tseng relented a little.
"Thankfully, we have someone used to this kind of terrain."
"Yeah, yeah," Zack sighed with a shrug. "I'm a country boy..."
"All right, then." Tseng was pressing onward already. "We would have reached Modeoheim by now if we hadn't crashed. So we're going to need to make up for lost time."
Rub it in some more, Tseng.
"Alright," Zack crowed, stepping ahead, "follow me, then!"
Even out here, the most dangerous part of travel wasn't the treacherous landscape of the Modeo Ravine. Replicons, which looked something like ostriches crossed with chickens and given hands, were all too happy to leap out at unwary travellers in pursuit of an easy meal. Zack made quick work of them, of course, but it did manage to slow them down some.
Which was possibly for the best, because Tseng and one of the Infantrymen seemed to be having trouble keeping up anyhow.
"Yo," Zack called out, cupping a hand over his mouth and trying not to laugh. "Don't fall too far behind!" A pause, and then he turned to grin at the Infantryman who was still holding pace alongside him. "At least someone's keeping up."
"Well," the other boy said, in a soft, shy voice, "I'm a country boy, too."
Zack couldn't help but smile at that. Another 'country bumpkin,' as Arthur would say.
"From where?"
"Nibelheim," the boy replied, and, Zack couldn't help it. With a place name like that? He burst out laughing. "How about you?"
"Me? Gongaga!" Oh, there was totally a grin and a pose to go with that. He hadn't been there in what felt like forever, but he could be damn proud of his hometown when it came up in conversation... Of course, the Infantryman was laughing, too. "Heeey. What's so funny about that! You know Gongaga?"
"No," the boy confessed. "But it's such a backwater name."
Well.
"Ditto Nibelheim."
Pardon Zack for a moment while he pouts. He'll be over it shortly.
"Like you've been there," the Infantryman scoffed, following after Zack as he pushed onward.
"I haven't," Zack admitted. He supposed he did laugh first, didn't he? "But there's a reactor there, right? A mako reactor outside Midgar usually means..."
"... nothing else out there," Zack and the other boy both finished at once.
And then they were both laughing.
"Good news, Tseng," Zack piped up after a moment, turning and calling back to the Turk who was still lingering behind. "Me and..."
Uh.
"Cloud," the boy supplied, pulling off his helmet and smiling. Blond hair stuck up wildly in all directions, and Zack couldn't help but grin a little more.
"Me and Cloud here are both backwater experts! Oh yeah!"
Take that, Arthur. Country bumpkins of The Planet unite!
From somewhere behind them, the Turk leaned sideways against one of the stone walls of the ravine.
"Good. Carry on then."
If ever he was caught in a helicopter with Zack again, Tseng was going to bring him a coloring book or something. Just so that they would never, ever end up having to walk.
Eventually, the snow and stone began to give way into signs of civilization. Massive pipes jutted out of the rocks here and there, increasing in frequency as they pressed onward, until finally, they reached a ledge overlooking what appeared to be some sort of warehouse.
While they were waiting for Tseng and the other Infantryman to catch up, Cloud asked Zack what it was like, being in SOLDIER.
"Well, once you join, you'll know what it's like," Zack had replied.
Cloud seemed to deflate a little at that. Zack offered a bit of an 'if I can do it, you can too' pep talk, before they made their way to the ledge to peer down at the warehouse. Armed Genesis copies were patrolling the area.
"That's a mako excavation test site," Tseng explained, finally stepping up behind them.
Zack had his orders handed to him. Infiltrate the site while avoiding combat, because they couldn't afford to lose men, here.
... Being a spy was a Turk's job. Zack didn't last three minutes while attempting to sneak in the back door before he was found out, but at least he handled the guards without too much hassle. And now Tseng probably knew better than to expect anything resembling stealth from a kid who had 'Puppy' for a nickname, and who randomly yanked on other people's hair to squelch his boredom.
There was an elevator inside the excavation facility. It led down to the lower levels, which consisted, like Reactor 5 had, primarily of metal gridwork flooring and then a sheer drop to the mako pool, this time so far below them that it didn't so much as cast a greenish haze on their surroundings.
The view from down here also consisted of a man in a red leather coat menacing an overweight scientist at swordpoint.
Really, this scenario was threatening to get repetitive.
"What's the meaning of this?" Hollander was backing away, wide-eyed. "You need me, Genesis, remember that. If you get rid of me, who's going to stop the degradation?"
Genesis' hair had taken on streaks of grey. Even the leather of the coat around his shoulders had started to fade, as though simply being in constant contact with his skin was enough to destroy his clothing as well.
"The Jenova cells."
Zack stepped off of the elevator at a run, drawing his sword and bringing it down on top of the red blade that was pointed at Hollander. The scientist turned to run, but was grabbed from behind by a soft-spoken boy with yellow hair.
It was a short-lived sort of triumph, mind. Hollander's elbow saw to it that Cloud's grasp didn't hold for long.
"But... nobody knows where the Jenova cells are being kept," Hollander protested, standing behind Zack again. They were enemies, true, but the SOLDIER in black was the only thing standing between him and Genesis' blade, and he knew it. "Not even Hojo knows. You'll never find it!"
"Then I shall willingly accept my fate," Genesis replied. "But, I'll take the world with me!"
That. That was what a monster was.
World domination, or revenge.
Calamity.
"Howl in terror, ShinRa lapdog!"
Genesis and Zack clashed swords. Hollander ran. Cloud pursued him. The battle was on.
When the dust settled, it was Zack left standing. Beaten, poisoned, cursed, and bleeding. But standing.
Nothing an Esuna and a Cura couldn't fix.
"Dreams of the morrow hath the shattered soul. Pride is lost..." Genesis stretched his wing, attempting to pull himself to his feet. "Wings stripped away, the end is nigh."
He fell forward again. And then, looking upward at Zack, he found his own words.
"Such is... the fate of a monster."
"We are not monsters," Zack snapped, stepping forward, his sword still in hand, "you hear me? We're SOLDIER! Where's your honor?"
"Even if the morrow is barren of promises," Genesis stood again, and was now limping backwards, toward the railing that separated the platforms from the mako pool below them. "Nothing shall forestall my return." He wavered where he stood. "If this world seeks my destruction..."
With a flap of that black wing of his, he was now perched atop the rail.
"... It goes with me."
And then Genesis fell. Down, down, down and away, into the blackness below.
Cloud, Tseng, and the other Infantryman had gone on to Modeoheim without Zack. There was, after all, work to be done. It was evening by the time Zack had healed himself and made his way to the abandoned town, and it had taken him some searching from there to find the tracks in the snow that led into what remained of the local bathhouse.
'What remained' was a generous phrase in that regard, really. The place was in an absolute state of disrepair.
The griffin that Zack encountered in the hot spring area didn't help matters much. And when he laid that monster to waste, he realized that, not unlike the Sahagins and Fly Eyes in the reactor in Midgar, this one was wearing Angeal's face on the top of its head like a mask above its wickedly hooked beak.
He frowned at it for a moment, and then he hurried on. Genesis was gone. But Angeal copies...?
At the top of the stairs, that was when Zack tripped over Cloud and Tseng.
Cloud was attempting to pick himself up from where he'd been sprawled across the floor. It wasn't working so well.
"We're alright," Cloud managed.
Tseng looked to be the worse off of the two, slumped against the doorframe nearby. Unlike Cloud, he wasn't going anywhere any time soon. He had one hand over his middle, like he was holding his insides in. But he still managed to speak.
He was, after all, a Turk.
"Down that way," he said, lifting his free hand to gesture through the doorway before it fell limp to his side again. "You have to catch Hollander. Angeal... is waiting for you."
Angeal?
Angeal did this?
Angeal did this.
Angeal was standing in a room on the second floor of the bathhouse, staring at the far wall, his wings held loosely at his back. Zack paused in the doorway for a moment, and then quietly approached him from behind. Hands on his hips. Casual.
"It should have been me," Angeal said, just barely turning his head to look over his shoulder at Zack. "I should have dealt with Genesis."
"Yeah," Zack replied. The words tried to sound happier than they were, but it came out as more of a tired huff. "Then why did you send me?"
And then, all at once, Angeal was turning to face him, raising his sword and holding it toward Zack.
"To prepare you... For your next fight."
Right there. The point of the Buster Sword in his face, and all Zack could do was narrow his eyes, look at Angeal incredulously. He was too tired to be hurt. He felt entirely too betrayed to be worried.
"Have you lost it?" The only reply that Zack got was a massive sword swinging down in a swift arc that would have cleaved him clean in two if he hadn't jumped backward out of the way. He dodged again as the sword swung to the side. And down. "Stop it!"
Angeal wanted a fight. Angeal wanted this over with.
"Someone's waiting for you, no?"
Aerith.
Angeal knew about Aerith. Who hadn't been at the church. Zack hadn't been able to tell her that he wouldn't be there, and now she was expecting him and he was hours late, and Angeal knew. And he'd hurt Cloud and Tseng. Cloud could barely sit up, and Tseng had a gaping hole in his guts. Zack felt sick.
Angeal was threatening to hurt Aerith. To go back and finish the job on the wounded men in the bathhouse. To go back to Fandom if need be to take down anyone and everyone that Zack was close to, until he had his way. Cissnei, Sephiroth, Zack's parents, Arthur, Dinah, Elena, Bobby, Ino, on and on and on, with no end in sight...
Zack's hand found the hilt of his sword.
"Angeal," he pleaded, "don't do this..."
Their swords clashed. Angeal's pinned Zack's blade against the floor.
"Very good, Angeal!" Hollander, out of nowhere with the worst timing in the world. "It is time to exact vengeance for our family's suffering!"
"Family," Zack managed, looking at Angeal in shock.
"No!" Angeal pulled away sharply, freeing Zack's sword. "My father is dead!"
Hollander? Hollander was... But. But Angeal's mother had said...
"Fine," Hollander replied. "Then do it for your mother."
"My mother's shame," Angeal hissed, "made her take her own life."
Everything froze, right then. Zack's eyes went wide. The body on the floor in Banora. Zack screaming, picking Angeal up and shaking him and hitting him and throwing him. She was dead. She was dead, and he'd been standing right there, and...
And...
Gods, Zack had accused Angeal of murdering his own mother.
My mother... could not continue to live. And neither can the son.
He had punched Angeal in the face. And Angeal had been contemplating suic--
This.
Contemplating this. All along.
"Shame?" Hollander again. "How terribly misguided! She should have been proud... Proud that she was the namesake of our experiment. 'Project G,' or should I say, 'Project Gillian.'"
Hollander was cut off abruptly when Angeal's hand grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.
"Don't say her name!"
"Gillian," the scientist pressed on, undaunted by the manhandling. He reached up and carefully, almost gently, pulled Angeal's hand away from his shirt. "The woman implanted with Jenova cells. Genesis, who had her genes mapped onto him during the fetal stage. Yes, Genesis was a failure, I'll admit it. But you, Angeal..."
Zack didn't want to hear this. Didn't want to be anywhere near this. Wanted to run. Wanted to be sick. Wanted to scream. Jenova and Genesis and Angeal, Ino had been Jenova, Jenova was a part of SOLDIER, Mother, calamity, she'd wanted calamity, he'd hurt people for her, and Angeal... Angeal was...
"You were actually bred inside Gillian's body. You..."
Angeal looked like he wanted to be hearing this about as much as Zack did.
"... You are perfection."
Hollander was shut up once again by a rough shove, courtesy of Angeal, who then turned and walked away a few steps.
"Zack, I am perfect." A pause filled with words that Zack could only wish would remain unsaid. They didn't. "A perfect... monster. My cells can absorb genetic traits, and pass them along to others."
The sahagins. The fly-eyes. The griffin and the hounds that were prowling this very building. Angeal copies.
"A two-way conduit," Hollander muttered as he picked himself up again. "Jenova's power has passed on to you completely."
Angeal looked sharply at Hollander, and then turned his gaze toward the floor, his lip curled back in disgust. At Hollander, maybe. At himself, more likely.
"Zack, do you remember what I said? About our enemy being all that creates suffering?"
"Yeah..." Zack's mouth was dry. There was hardly any voice behind his words, now. "But you're not one of them."
"But I created my own suffering." Again Angeal turned to face the boy. "Zack, let me show you."
Wordlessly, Zack turned to face his mentor. To face his friend. Somewhere behind them, Hollander was yelling that Angeal didn't know what he was doing. He went ignored. Angeal put a hand into the air, and then there were monsters, dropping from the hole in the ceiling. A griffin. A hound. A fly eye. A sahagin. All copies. All wearing Angeal's face.
Hollander was screaming, now. Trying to grab at Angeal's hair, for just one genetic sample. For the means to make more. More monsters, like Angeal. He was thrown to the side effortlessly, like a ragdoll.
The creatures all charged at at once. Zack raised his sword, readying himself for the onslaught, and...
... They moved past him, as though he wasn't there.
And they dove onto Angeal.
If there was one thing that Zack had learned over the course of the past few days, it was that bright white lights like that one were never a good thing.
Hollander had run away.
It was just Zack and the monster, now.
The monster with Angeal's face.
It moved forward, thrusting a lance at Zack, leaving a deep gouge in his face. Warm blood started to dribble down his cheek, trickling over his jawline. He gasped at the jolt of pain, but he didn't move.
"Angeal, what happened to honor?"
There was no reasoning with Angeal, now. Leonine claws cut deep trenches in the wooden floorboards. Massive wings spread at his back. But only on the right side. The wings had only ever been on Angeal's right side. His own arms were folded over his chest. It was the arm of a sahagin that was holding that lance, wasn't it? But Angeal's, all the same. There were teeth, where the torso of a SOLDIER merged with the body of a hound...
Zack wasn't crying as the creature that used to be Angeal lifted the weapon again, poised to strike.
But it was a near thing.
Somewhere during the fight, Angeal's blade had caught Zack in the face again. He didn't notice.
He didn't notice the razor-sharp feathers that flew toward him more than once during the battle, or the blasts of energy that were thrown at him, or the claws, or any of it.
Zack reacted. Zack did what he needed to do to keep himself alive.
For Cloud and for Tseng. For Aerith. For Ino. For each and every person that Angeal would target until he found peace.
He was thrown to the floor. He picked himself up again and lashed out with his sword. This time, the hit he made counted.
The bodies of the monsters faded from around the man that they'd attached themselves to.
And when the SOLDIER bloodlust let go of Zack, when his mind cleared enough for him to be aware that the battle was over, he looked down to see Angeal, laying on the floor. His hair had gone grey. His skin was pale.
Degrading.
Dying.
Feathers littered the floor, but there were no wings to be seen.
"Zack," Angeal said, his gaze turned upward, unfocused, tired. But he made the effort and looked Zack's way. He was smiling. "You have my thanks."
Zack had never felt so helpless in his life as he did just then, crouching by Angeal's side. He couldn't say anything. If he tried to speak, he'd lose complete control of the sobs that were catching in his throat.
"This..." Angeal lifted the sword from the ground, holding it toward Zack. The Buster Sword. His honor. "Is for you."
He smiled again. Nodded. And it was all that Zack could do to keep from breaking down completely. He had to look away. Close his eyes. Swallow and draw in a ragged breath and whimper a little before reaching up with unsteady hands to take the sword.
The moment the weight was taken from him, Angeal's arm fell back to the floor.
"Protect your honor, always..."
And then nothing.
Zack slumped to the floor, too.
And then picked himself up again. Pressing the sword against his forehead, eyes squeezed tightly shut.
Embrace your dreams.
Crying.
If you want to be a hero you need to have dreams...
He wasn't even pretending that anything was okay, anymore.
Angeal was dead. He was alone.
And honor.
It had started to rain.
Zack didn't notice.
"Hey, Zack? The sky is closer in the city above, right? Kinda scary, but the flowers might like it... maybe."
Zack didn't hear Aerith for the tears.
How he'd found his way to the church after all that had gone on was a mystery to him that he didn't care to unravel. There'd been a helicopter pickup from Modeo. Reports to be filled out that Tseng said he'd handle.
None of it had mattered. He barely remembered it now. He wouldn't remember it tomorrow.
Zack was on the floor of a church. He was curled forward into himself, and he was sobbing. Somewhere nearby, he could smell flowers.
And now, instead of some faraway hint of Aerith's voice, there were arms wrapping around him from behind, warm and caring. The arms of a friend.
So, why did he still feel so completely alone...?
[And done. NFI and NFB, with a warning for possibly triggery, suicide-related material within. Taken from Crisis Core and sobbed all over because I'm a big baby but you can leave OOC if you want to. When Zack returns to Fandom, he'll be sporting a black uniform, a sword as big as he is, and an x-shaped scar on his left cheek. I'm going to go hug my kitty, now.]
... Kinda. Calling a Cactuar meant doing a silly dance. So did calling a Chocobo, for that matter. Summoning Cait Sith, on the other hand, was just a matter of having a happy cat thing bounce circles around him. Summons were weird. Zack had picked up those two summon items on missions for a kid who called herself the Treasure Princess. She looked kinda familiar, but Zack couldn't really put his finger on where he'd seen her before. Really, the only reason that he didn't throw out the missions that she sent to him was because she kept crying when she couldn't get all of his stuff from him while he wasn't looking, and he kinda felt guilty for making a little kid sniffle. Oops?
At the moment, Zack was taking advantage of a lull in the steady stream of missions to pick up his phone and try to call Sephiroth. No answer, again. Luxiere, a 2nd Class who was standing nearby while Zack hung up, was at least helpful enough to let Zack know that the silver-haired SOLDIER had been hiding away in the company's data room all weekend, researching the history of ShinRa's Science Department. A reasonable move, Zack decided, in light of recent events.
Maybe it was for the best when Aerith phoned. A distraction. She wanted Zack to make her that flower wagon that he'd promised, so that they could carry out Operation: Midgar Full of Flowers, Wallet Full Of Money. He promised he'd be right there.
He was stopped on the way by the sound of wings.
"Angeal!? Where have you been?"
"Apologies," Angeal sighed. "But, I am a busy man."
"Yeah, whatever..." It must have been an interesting sight, two SOLDIER 1sts, both facepalming at one another, one of them with a pair of white feathered wings spread out from the right side of his back. "I haven't been able to contact Sephiroth, either."
"Has something happened?"
"Not really," Zack replied. "He's just been holed up in the data room, reading old reports and such."
"I see," Angeal sighed, turning his back to the boy, making as if to leave.
"Hey!" As if Zack was going to make it that easy for him. "Now where are you off to? I just don't know with you, these days."
"Genesis and Hollander are in Modeoheim," said Angeal.
"You came to tell me that?" Well, that was something, wasn't it? "Are you actually... working?"
"I'm still SOLDIER at heart, I suppose. I've informed Lazard as well. They'll come pick you up soon."
And then he flew away.
Angeal hadn't been joking when he'd said 'soon.' Zack wasn't even halfway up the stairs to Aerith's church when he heard Tseng's voice behind him.
"Zack, I need you in Modeoheim."
"I know," he replied, holding up one hand. He didn't want to hurt Aerith's feelings by just standing her up, after all. "Just give me a minute."
"Aerith isn't there."
Zack froze mid-step, and then turned to look at Tseng, expression grim.
"Problem?"
"And how is it," Zack demanded, putting a hand on his hip, "you know Aerith?"
Tseng's arms crossed over his chest.
"It's complicated."
"Really..."
Zack was trying to picture the Turks' idea of 'complicated.' And maybe trying to figure out what that low note was, in Tseng's voice. Turks weren't supposed to care, he'd figured out that much. And hearing anything like it coming from Tseng's mouth was odd, at best.
"Did she tell you anything?"
"Not a thing," Zack shrugged.
"Then I won't, either."
The sound of helicopter blades started to echo around them. Their lift was on the way. Zack groaned, making his way down the steps toward the chopper.
"Well, whatever, I guess. Whaaaaatever."
It was a long, long, loooooong, boring helicopter ride to Modeoheim.
The sort of long, long, looooooong, boring helicopter ride that involved a lot of Zack, attempting to poke at the buttons on the helicopter's control panels to see what they did. The sort of ride that involved a good deal of Tseng, swatting irritably at his hands to get him to leave off while the pair of Infantrymen that were accompanying them stared with wide-eyes.
Ladies and gentlemen, the second most reliable SOLDER 1st Class in the world, behind only Sephiroth.
The flight dragged on. Gaia's Icicle Area was far, far north, a wasteland of ice surrounding the Northern Crater.
In retrospect, reaching out and tugging Tseng's ponytail in an attempt to alleviate the boredom somewhere along the way was probably a bad idea.
Zack was sprawled out on his face in the snow, with the flaming wreckage of what once was a helicopter behind him.
Yeah. He was going to have to tell Elena that pulling Tseng's ponytail had been pretty stupid, after all.
"Ugh," he groaned, pushing himself to his knees and rubbing the back of his head. "Well. That's a fine how-do-you-do!"
He stood and looked around. Snow. It was all snow and rocks and, of course, flaming helicopter bits.
"Tseng! Hey, guys!"
They were nearby, picking themselves up from the ground. And, thank Shiva, they all appeared to be alright. Tseng pulled out his PHS, flipped it open, and attempted to make a call for help.
"No signal out here," he reported. And then he fixed Zack with a glare that could have melted glaciers.
"Well," Zack contributed, always one to look on the bright side in the face of an 'if looks could kill' moment. "At least we're all in one piece. We'll be alright."
There was another moment of glaring, and then Tseng relented a little.
"Thankfully, we have someone used to this kind of terrain."
"Yeah, yeah," Zack sighed with a shrug. "I'm a country boy..."
"All right, then." Tseng was pressing onward already. "We would have reached Modeoheim by now if we hadn't crashed. So we're going to need to make up for lost time."
Rub it in some more, Tseng.
"Alright," Zack crowed, stepping ahead, "follow me, then!"
Even out here, the most dangerous part of travel wasn't the treacherous landscape of the Modeo Ravine. Replicons, which looked something like ostriches crossed with chickens and given hands, were all too happy to leap out at unwary travellers in pursuit of an easy meal. Zack made quick work of them, of course, but it did manage to slow them down some.
Which was possibly for the best, because Tseng and one of the Infantrymen seemed to be having trouble keeping up anyhow.
"Yo," Zack called out, cupping a hand over his mouth and trying not to laugh. "Don't fall too far behind!" A pause, and then he turned to grin at the Infantryman who was still holding pace alongside him. "At least someone's keeping up."
"Well," the other boy said, in a soft, shy voice, "I'm a country boy, too."
Zack couldn't help but smile at that. Another 'country bumpkin,' as Arthur would say.
"From where?"
"Nibelheim," the boy replied, and, Zack couldn't help it. With a place name like that? He burst out laughing. "How about you?"
"Me? Gongaga!" Oh, there was totally a grin and a pose to go with that. He hadn't been there in what felt like forever, but he could be damn proud of his hometown when it came up in conversation... Of course, the Infantryman was laughing, too. "Heeey. What's so funny about that! You know Gongaga?"
"No," the boy confessed. "But it's such a backwater name."
Well.
"Ditto Nibelheim."
Pardon Zack for a moment while he pouts. He'll be over it shortly.
"Like you've been there," the Infantryman scoffed, following after Zack as he pushed onward.
"I haven't," Zack admitted. He supposed he did laugh first, didn't he? "But there's a reactor there, right? A mako reactor outside Midgar usually means..."
"... nothing else out there," Zack and the other boy both finished at once.
And then they were both laughing.
"Good news, Tseng," Zack piped up after a moment, turning and calling back to the Turk who was still lingering behind. "Me and..."
Uh.
"Cloud," the boy supplied, pulling off his helmet and smiling. Blond hair stuck up wildly in all directions, and Zack couldn't help but grin a little more.
"Me and Cloud here are both backwater experts! Oh yeah!"
Take that, Arthur. Country bumpkins of The Planet unite!
From somewhere behind them, the Turk leaned sideways against one of the stone walls of the ravine.
"Good. Carry on then."
If ever he was caught in a helicopter with Zack again, Tseng was going to bring him a coloring book or something. Just so that they would never, ever end up having to walk.
Eventually, the snow and stone began to give way into signs of civilization. Massive pipes jutted out of the rocks here and there, increasing in frequency as they pressed onward, until finally, they reached a ledge overlooking what appeared to be some sort of warehouse.
While they were waiting for Tseng and the other Infantryman to catch up, Cloud asked Zack what it was like, being in SOLDIER.
"Well, once you join, you'll know what it's like," Zack had replied.
Cloud seemed to deflate a little at that. Zack offered a bit of an 'if I can do it, you can too' pep talk, before they made their way to the ledge to peer down at the warehouse. Armed Genesis copies were patrolling the area.
"That's a mako excavation test site," Tseng explained, finally stepping up behind them.
Zack had his orders handed to him. Infiltrate the site while avoiding combat, because they couldn't afford to lose men, here.
... Being a spy was a Turk's job. Zack didn't last three minutes while attempting to sneak in the back door before he was found out, but at least he handled the guards without too much hassle. And now Tseng probably knew better than to expect anything resembling stealth from a kid who had 'Puppy' for a nickname, and who randomly yanked on other people's hair to squelch his boredom.
There was an elevator inside the excavation facility. It led down to the lower levels, which consisted, like Reactor 5 had, primarily of metal gridwork flooring and then a sheer drop to the mako pool, this time so far below them that it didn't so much as cast a greenish haze on their surroundings.
The view from down here also consisted of a man in a red leather coat menacing an overweight scientist at swordpoint.
Really, this scenario was threatening to get repetitive.
"What's the meaning of this?" Hollander was backing away, wide-eyed. "You need me, Genesis, remember that. If you get rid of me, who's going to stop the degradation?"
Genesis' hair had taken on streaks of grey. Even the leather of the coat around his shoulders had started to fade, as though simply being in constant contact with his skin was enough to destroy his clothing as well.
"The Jenova cells."
Zack stepped off of the elevator at a run, drawing his sword and bringing it down on top of the red blade that was pointed at Hollander. The scientist turned to run, but was grabbed from behind by a soft-spoken boy with yellow hair.
It was a short-lived sort of triumph, mind. Hollander's elbow saw to it that Cloud's grasp didn't hold for long.
"But... nobody knows where the Jenova cells are being kept," Hollander protested, standing behind Zack again. They were enemies, true, but the SOLDIER in black was the only thing standing between him and Genesis' blade, and he knew it. "Not even Hojo knows. You'll never find it!"
"Then I shall willingly accept my fate," Genesis replied. "But, I'll take the world with me!"
That. That was what a monster was.
World domination, or revenge.
Calamity.
"Howl in terror, ShinRa lapdog!"
Genesis and Zack clashed swords. Hollander ran. Cloud pursued him. The battle was on.
When the dust settled, it was Zack left standing. Beaten, poisoned, cursed, and bleeding. But standing.
Nothing an Esuna and a Cura couldn't fix.
"Dreams of the morrow hath the shattered soul. Pride is lost..." Genesis stretched his wing, attempting to pull himself to his feet. "Wings stripped away, the end is nigh."
He fell forward again. And then, looking upward at Zack, he found his own words.
"Such is... the fate of a monster."
"We are not monsters," Zack snapped, stepping forward, his sword still in hand, "you hear me? We're SOLDIER! Where's your honor?"
"Even if the morrow is barren of promises," Genesis stood again, and was now limping backwards, toward the railing that separated the platforms from the mako pool below them. "Nothing shall forestall my return." He wavered where he stood. "If this world seeks my destruction..."
With a flap of that black wing of his, he was now perched atop the rail.
"... It goes with me."
And then Genesis fell. Down, down, down and away, into the blackness below.
Cloud, Tseng, and the other Infantryman had gone on to Modeoheim without Zack. There was, after all, work to be done. It was evening by the time Zack had healed himself and made his way to the abandoned town, and it had taken him some searching from there to find the tracks in the snow that led into what remained of the local bathhouse.
'What remained' was a generous phrase in that regard, really. The place was in an absolute state of disrepair.
The griffin that Zack encountered in the hot spring area didn't help matters much. And when he laid that monster to waste, he realized that, not unlike the Sahagins and Fly Eyes in the reactor in Midgar, this one was wearing Angeal's face on the top of its head like a mask above its wickedly hooked beak.
He frowned at it for a moment, and then he hurried on. Genesis was gone. But Angeal copies...?
At the top of the stairs, that was when Zack tripped over Cloud and Tseng.
Cloud was attempting to pick himself up from where he'd been sprawled across the floor. It wasn't working so well.
"We're alright," Cloud managed.
Tseng looked to be the worse off of the two, slumped against the doorframe nearby. Unlike Cloud, he wasn't going anywhere any time soon. He had one hand over his middle, like he was holding his insides in. But he still managed to speak.
He was, after all, a Turk.
"Down that way," he said, lifting his free hand to gesture through the doorway before it fell limp to his side again. "You have to catch Hollander. Angeal... is waiting for you."
Angeal?
Angeal did this?
Angeal did this.
Angeal was standing in a room on the second floor of the bathhouse, staring at the far wall, his wings held loosely at his back. Zack paused in the doorway for a moment, and then quietly approached him from behind. Hands on his hips. Casual.
"It should have been me," Angeal said, just barely turning his head to look over his shoulder at Zack. "I should have dealt with Genesis."
"Yeah," Zack replied. The words tried to sound happier than they were, but it came out as more of a tired huff. "Then why did you send me?"
And then, all at once, Angeal was turning to face him, raising his sword and holding it toward Zack.
"To prepare you... For your next fight."
Right there. The point of the Buster Sword in his face, and all Zack could do was narrow his eyes, look at Angeal incredulously. He was too tired to be hurt. He felt entirely too betrayed to be worried.
"Have you lost it?" The only reply that Zack got was a massive sword swinging down in a swift arc that would have cleaved him clean in two if he hadn't jumped backward out of the way. He dodged again as the sword swung to the side. And down. "Stop it!"
Angeal wanted a fight. Angeal wanted this over with.
"Someone's waiting for you, no?"
Aerith.
Angeal knew about Aerith. Who hadn't been at the church. Zack hadn't been able to tell her that he wouldn't be there, and now she was expecting him and he was hours late, and Angeal knew. And he'd hurt Cloud and Tseng. Cloud could barely sit up, and Tseng had a gaping hole in his guts. Zack felt sick.
Angeal was threatening to hurt Aerith. To go back and finish the job on the wounded men in the bathhouse. To go back to Fandom if need be to take down anyone and everyone that Zack was close to, until he had his way. Cissnei, Sephiroth, Zack's parents, Arthur, Dinah, Elena, Bobby, Ino, on and on and on, with no end in sight...
Zack's hand found the hilt of his sword.
"Angeal," he pleaded, "don't do this..."
Their swords clashed. Angeal's pinned Zack's blade against the floor.
"Very good, Angeal!" Hollander, out of nowhere with the worst timing in the world. "It is time to exact vengeance for our family's suffering!"
"Family," Zack managed, looking at Angeal in shock.
"No!" Angeal pulled away sharply, freeing Zack's sword. "My father is dead!"
Hollander? Hollander was... But. But Angeal's mother had said...
"Fine," Hollander replied. "Then do it for your mother."
"My mother's shame," Angeal hissed, "made her take her own life."
Everything froze, right then. Zack's eyes went wide. The body on the floor in Banora. Zack screaming, picking Angeal up and shaking him and hitting him and throwing him. She was dead. She was dead, and he'd been standing right there, and...
And...
Gods, Zack had accused Angeal of murdering his own mother.
My mother... could not continue to live. And neither can the son.
He had punched Angeal in the face. And Angeal had been contemplating suic--
This.
Contemplating this. All along.
"Shame?" Hollander again. "How terribly misguided! She should have been proud... Proud that she was the namesake of our experiment. 'Project G,' or should I say, 'Project Gillian.'"
Hollander was cut off abruptly when Angeal's hand grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.
"Don't say her name!"
"Gillian," the scientist pressed on, undaunted by the manhandling. He reached up and carefully, almost gently, pulled Angeal's hand away from his shirt. "The woman implanted with Jenova cells. Genesis, who had her genes mapped onto him during the fetal stage. Yes, Genesis was a failure, I'll admit it. But you, Angeal..."
Zack didn't want to hear this. Didn't want to be anywhere near this. Wanted to run. Wanted to be sick. Wanted to scream. Jenova and Genesis and Angeal, Ino had been Jenova, Jenova was a part of SOLDIER, Mother, calamity, she'd wanted calamity, he'd hurt people for her, and Angeal... Angeal was...
"You were actually bred inside Gillian's body. You..."
Angeal looked like he wanted to be hearing this about as much as Zack did.
"... You are perfection."
Hollander was shut up once again by a rough shove, courtesy of Angeal, who then turned and walked away a few steps.
"Zack, I am perfect." A pause filled with words that Zack could only wish would remain unsaid. They didn't. "A perfect... monster. My cells can absorb genetic traits, and pass them along to others."
The sahagins. The fly-eyes. The griffin and the hounds that were prowling this very building. Angeal copies.
"A two-way conduit," Hollander muttered as he picked himself up again. "Jenova's power has passed on to you completely."
Angeal looked sharply at Hollander, and then turned his gaze toward the floor, his lip curled back in disgust. At Hollander, maybe. At himself, more likely.
"Zack, do you remember what I said? About our enemy being all that creates suffering?"
"Yeah..." Zack's mouth was dry. There was hardly any voice behind his words, now. "But you're not one of them."
"But I created my own suffering." Again Angeal turned to face the boy. "Zack, let me show you."
Wordlessly, Zack turned to face his mentor. To face his friend. Somewhere behind them, Hollander was yelling that Angeal didn't know what he was doing. He went ignored. Angeal put a hand into the air, and then there were monsters, dropping from the hole in the ceiling. A griffin. A hound. A fly eye. A sahagin. All copies. All wearing Angeal's face.
Hollander was screaming, now. Trying to grab at Angeal's hair, for just one genetic sample. For the means to make more. More monsters, like Angeal. He was thrown to the side effortlessly, like a ragdoll.
The creatures all charged at at once. Zack raised his sword, readying himself for the onslaught, and...
... They moved past him, as though he wasn't there.
And they dove onto Angeal.
If there was one thing that Zack had learned over the course of the past few days, it was that bright white lights like that one were never a good thing.
Hollander had run away.
It was just Zack and the monster, now.
The monster with Angeal's face.
It moved forward, thrusting a lance at Zack, leaving a deep gouge in his face. Warm blood started to dribble down his cheek, trickling over his jawline. He gasped at the jolt of pain, but he didn't move.
"Angeal, what happened to honor?"
There was no reasoning with Angeal, now. Leonine claws cut deep trenches in the wooden floorboards. Massive wings spread at his back. But only on the right side. The wings had only ever been on Angeal's right side. His own arms were folded over his chest. It was the arm of a sahagin that was holding that lance, wasn't it? But Angeal's, all the same. There were teeth, where the torso of a SOLDIER merged with the body of a hound...
Zack wasn't crying as the creature that used to be Angeal lifted the weapon again, poised to strike.
But it was a near thing.
Somewhere during the fight, Angeal's blade had caught Zack in the face again. He didn't notice.
He didn't notice the razor-sharp feathers that flew toward him more than once during the battle, or the blasts of energy that were thrown at him, or the claws, or any of it.
Zack reacted. Zack did what he needed to do to keep himself alive.
For Cloud and for Tseng. For Aerith. For Ino. For each and every person that Angeal would target until he found peace.
He was thrown to the floor. He picked himself up again and lashed out with his sword. This time, the hit he made counted.
The bodies of the monsters faded from around the man that they'd attached themselves to.
And when the SOLDIER bloodlust let go of Zack, when his mind cleared enough for him to be aware that the battle was over, he looked down to see Angeal, laying on the floor. His hair had gone grey. His skin was pale.
Degrading.
Dying.
Feathers littered the floor, but there were no wings to be seen.
"Zack," Angeal said, his gaze turned upward, unfocused, tired. But he made the effort and looked Zack's way. He was smiling. "You have my thanks."
Zack had never felt so helpless in his life as he did just then, crouching by Angeal's side. He couldn't say anything. If he tried to speak, he'd lose complete control of the sobs that were catching in his throat.
"This..." Angeal lifted the sword from the ground, holding it toward Zack. The Buster Sword. His honor. "Is for you."
He smiled again. Nodded. And it was all that Zack could do to keep from breaking down completely. He had to look away. Close his eyes. Swallow and draw in a ragged breath and whimper a little before reaching up with unsteady hands to take the sword.
The moment the weight was taken from him, Angeal's arm fell back to the floor.
"Protect your honor, always..."
And then nothing.
Zack slumped to the floor, too.
And then picked himself up again. Pressing the sword against his forehead, eyes squeezed tightly shut.
Embrace your dreams.
Crying.
If you want to be a hero you need to have dreams...
He wasn't even pretending that anything was okay, anymore.
Angeal was dead. He was alone.
And honor.
It had started to rain.
Zack didn't notice.
"Hey, Zack? The sky is closer in the city above, right? Kinda scary, but the flowers might like it... maybe."
Zack didn't hear Aerith for the tears.
How he'd found his way to the church after all that had gone on was a mystery to him that he didn't care to unravel. There'd been a helicopter pickup from Modeo. Reports to be filled out that Tseng said he'd handle.
None of it had mattered. He barely remembered it now. He wouldn't remember it tomorrow.
Zack was on the floor of a church. He was curled forward into himself, and he was sobbing. Somewhere nearby, he could smell flowers.
And now, instead of some faraway hint of Aerith's voice, there were arms wrapping around him from behind, warm and caring. The arms of a friend.
So, why did he still feel so completely alone...?
[And done. NFI and NFB, with a warning for possibly triggery, suicide-related material within. Taken from Crisis Core and sobbed all over because I'm a big baby but you can leave OOC if you want to. When Zack returns to Fandom, he'll be sporting a black uniform, a sword as big as he is, and an x-shaped scar on his left cheek. I'm going to go hug my kitty, now.]