"I want you to meet a friend of mine. He just moved back into town, and I think you two would get along great!" She exclaimed excitedly into the phone. Those words sent Zack into an alternate dimension where he faced an internal crisis.

Within this alternate dimension Zack debated whether or not he was jealous. Normally Zack was pretty adept at interpreting his own emotions, especially jealousy. He was either jealous or he wasn't. He either wanted something or he didn't. However in this case he was utterly confused. Perhaps it was because the current situation involved his ex-girlfriend Aerith. When it came to Aerith none of Zack's thoughts were clear. He felt more guilt, jealousy, happiness, and depression when things involved the angel of the sector seven church.

For seven years, Aerith waited patiently for Zack to come home to her. She wrote letter after letter for someone she had no idea was even still alive. She was heartbroken and depressed, left all alone in the slums, without ever having seen the sky. In the meantime Zack was running around the world after breaking out of a tube in a mad scientist's cellar, running home to Gongaga, killing Genesis in Banora, and received her eighty-ninth letter. The information in her letter caused him to angrily run off to Wutai to join an anti-Shinra rebel group and exact revvenge on Shinra. Instead of going to Aerith and reassuring her that he was alive he took the cowardly way out and avoided Midgar, his not yet ex-girlfriend, and Shinra soldiers out to kill him. He was selfishly hiding in Wutai being an all around jackass while Aerith was mourning him in a church, and someone he didn't even know was facing off with his insane best friend before he could fullfill his plans of world domination. Point for Zack! He sure was a hero now.

And then, when he finally had Aerith in his arms again, he ruined everything. He fucked up everything. Everything was one mistake after another. It was his fault he cheated on her with another man, his fault that her heart was broken, and his fault he no longer loved her. And yet, despite the fact that he was a hundred percent positive he no longer had romantic feelings for Aerith, Zack was still sitting there in his own little alternate dimension debating whether or not he felt jealous. Jealous that she was asking him to meet her new friend. Her new male friend. To Zack Fair, new male friend translated to new boyfriend.

And thus in this alternate dimension Zack's inner voices bickered rather violently about his feelings. Annoying inner voice after annoying inner voice representing his subconcious yelled at both him and each other. All this yelling caused Zack to wish that he still had the voice that sounded like Angeal. The Angeal voice always gave him a treasure trove of logical answers that solved Zack's problems and shut the rest of his inner voices up.

Ha Ha Ha Aerith's got a new girlfriend and you're jealous! I warned you Zack! You Baka! said the internal voice that sounded like Kunsel.

Zack, you're so immature. Can't you make up your own mind? You don't need petty feelings like love and jealousy! Said Sephiroth's haunting internal voice. The voice that once filled him with calm determination and now filled him with a cornucopia of emotions that included rage, pain, sorrow.....and fear.

What ensued after the Sephiroth-like voice interrupted Kunsel's session of scolding, was a marathon of even more intense internal bickering. This bickering took on all the voices of people who made it their business to haunt Zack and thus give him a headache. After some yelling from Genesis, Sephiroth, Kunsel, Hojo, his mother, father, and brother, Aerith's voice broke in. The alternate dimension's evil ways made it take awhile for Zack to realize it was her actual physical voice.

"Zack! Zack! Hello!" Aerith's voice echoed into his ear from his phone.

"Huh?" Zack asked stupidly as he tuned back into his phone call with Aerith and escaped his internal arguments.

"Zack, you were zoning out on me again! Why, aren't you a good friend?" Aerith exclaimed.

"Uh, yes I am, and no I wasn't!" Zack protested in outrage.

"Yes you were!" Aerith exclaimed with a giggle. "Like I was saying, my friend has been having a hard time lately, and I thought you and I could try to cheer him up. His wife just died in the deepground incident."

"Ouch that had to hurt," Zack said. He had gotten involved with that and fought alongside the WRO. He knew that fight had been ugly first hand. Very ugly. "How did she get involved in that?" Zack asked.

"She was fighting in it. They both were, saving the world was kind of their thing." Aerith said, a dark emotion bleeding into her voice. "Anyways, his kids talked him into moving back out here and he's back to his old business."

"Which is?" Zack asked wondering if Aerith's friend was a drug dealer. "Wait, Kids? Isn't this guy a little old for you?"

"What? Oh no! For one, he's only like twenty-six! And, two, we're not together like that! His wife just died a month and a half ago. True they were having issues before that, but Zack! There's no way Cloud would move on so quickly! His business is being angsty! And as for the kids, only the youngest is biologically his, and Roxas is only four. The rest are adopted!"

"Whoa. Whoa. Calm down! Breathe!" Zack cried as Aerith started to huff into the phone. He laughed at her reaction and decided that he should tease her a little more.

"Jeez Aerith. There's a phrase that applies to this. It's goes like this, Thou dost protest to much!"

"Zack! I'll admit that a long time ago I had certain.....feelings for him, but this isn't about that. He's really anti-social and he's raising three kids on his own. One of which is a teenager, and another is a twelve year old girl. He's stressed and probably depressed. He tends to bottle things up and hide behind a mask. He's like a turtle! Exactly, he's like a turtle, he shrinks back into his shell when the going gets tough and suffers through it all by himself. You and I could work on getting him out of his shell."

Hearing a man being compared to a turtle made Zack snigger. He had to fight to choke down the laughter before he could respond "I'm not sure Aer, I don't know if you want me to help you get with your new crush, what with me being your ex-boyfriend and all." he teased.

"Zack, I told you it's not about that! grrrr....Just please meet me at his gig at Eighth Wonder on Saturday. It's in sector three of Edge. Your house is just a few miles outside Edge isn't it?"

"Yeah, wait what gig? Don't tell me your guy's a musician!" Zack teased. "Ummm, what's Eighth Wonder?" Zack asked his bewilderment filling his voice.

"What's the matter, Zack? Are you jealous?" Aerith teased referring to his comment abut the musician.

"No, babe sorry I'm just looking out for my little sister." Zack said in response. "What's the Eighth Wonder? I've never heard of it." He said as his stomach decided for him that it was time to start getting some food.

Hmmmmm I wonder? Is that roast beaf sandwich from last week still good?

"I thought you were into partying Zack! The Eighth Wonder is that prestigious new club in Edge! It's supposed to be beautiful inside and out. All of Edge is according to Cloud. He said he wanted to drag me out of the slums and into Edge! He's good at dragging me places, he took me out to see the sky! I'm not afraid of it anymore! He said that he would build me a church not too far away from Sector seven. That's where he lives! He said he wanted me somewhere safer than the slums. Said that I deserve to live in a place that's not so dirty. That the sky is something just as beautiful as me and I should see it! He always worries about me living all alone, so far away from everyone, in a crumbling church. Isn't that great Zack? Me living out there? Under the sky?"

"Yeah fantastic." He responded mechanically, having tuned her out when she started gushing about Cloud. " But the only new club I've heard about was the one built by Rufus Shinra....." Zack said as he searched through his fridge. Ewww that's most certainly not roast beef anymore he thought as he found the remains of his once delicious roast beef sandwich. I guess I'll make a PB&J. He thought morosely, getting out a jar of peanut butter.

"Yep, that's the Eighth Wonder. Rufus has been building a lot of things lately. He's rebuilding the Midgar, too." Aerith said, a defensive tone dripping into her words.

Zack's thoughts were roughly brought away from his fridge and stomach when he heard the word Rufus. He dropped the jar of peanut butter he held in his hand and clenched his fists tightly, making sure not to crush the phone that was in his hand

"Aerith! SHINRA! You honestly expect me to go there!? Your friend is in bed with Shinra!?" Zack yelled. No way was he meeting this guy now.

" Oh please, Zack! Shinra isn't like that anymore! Not with Rufus as the leader! There isn't any funny business whatsoever. Cloud's not in Shinra either. He would never get involved with them if they hadn't changed! He's got more reason to hate them than you do!"

"What?" Zack yelled his exclamation followed with a few moments silence. His voice was deadly quiet when he came back into the conversation.

"How could he have that Aerith?" He asked a sneer making it's way across his face. Were those years that were taken away from them irrelevant? Was his suffering inconsequential? Shinra had betrayed him. He had risked his life for them on countless occasions! He had slaughtered people, destroyed homes and lives, for them. Zack had served them willingly and gave his loyalty for seven years. Seven years of service that was repaid with five years of experimentation in the basement of a lab. Left in the hands of mad scientist who injected him with Gaia knows what. Pronounced KIA while he was very much still alive. "I doubt that." he said his tone of voice stating very clearly that he was going to hang up soon.

"Wait, Zack don't shut me out! He does have more reason than you, he truly does. He risked his life to tear them down! He was in Hojo's hands with absolutely no pre-exposure to mako, for the same amount of time as you! He has all the strength and abilities of a SOLDIER and he never was one. That's worse than what happened to you! Can you imagine waking up one day, remembering nothing and finding you have unbelievable strength? Suddenly knowing how to win a battle that pits one against twenty? Suddenly having a remarkable sword ability that you didn't have when you truly needed it? That you don't remember learning? While you were in Wutai he was fighting Sephiroth and stopping Meteor, without even knowing who he was. He saved my life, Zack. " she said her anger petering out towards the end of her tirade. "He stopped Geostigma and Meteor, only to lose his wife to deep ground. You stopped Genesis and Angeal, only to watch your best friend go insane and try to destroy the world. You two are equals. Your histories are so similar it's scary. Especially if you figure in the fact that you can't get three words from him, and can't get you to shut up."

"Aerith.... I" Zack stuttered in shock. For once he was without something to say. His angry sneer was gone and replaced with an expression of extreme guilt.

"Shut up! Zack you've both been through a lot. Because of your past you've been trying to drown yourself in parties, sex, and adrenaline. He's probabaly already drowning himself in guilt and self loathing, he's done it before. You've both saved the world, drowned yourself in your own shit, and faced off with the demon of Wutai. You are a LOT alike. Wouldn't life be a little better if you had a friend like that? You'd be best firends, I just know it. Please come and meet him." Aerith said, a note of pleading in her voice.

"Are you talking about that Cloud Strife guy? Geostigma, Meteor, Sephiroth all of that? I've heard about him. A lot. I didn't know you knew him."

"I do, the both of you fell through my church roof. Another thing you have in common. I could list the swords too you know."

"Huh?"

"Yep you both have a thing for huge swords. Is it a mako thing?" She asked, no emotion in her voice whatsoever.

"Jeez Aer, look, I'm sorry. I can't go. It's my girlfriend's birthday and I promised I'd take her somewhere nice." Zack said, with a frown. Aerith was doing it again, making him feel guilty. She was good at it.

"Girlfriend? I thought you batted for the other team?" Aerith asked with a giggle.

"Nah, babe, I love girls! Men too. I'm bisexual." Zack responded in a deep silly voice.

"Zack you're so silly!" She said happily, "Why don't you bring your girlfriend along? Like I said, the club is prestigious. She's probably never been there. And Cloud's band used to be really popular! Your girlfriend would be so flattered!"

"What do you mean his band used to be popular? You aren't dragging us to a has-been show are you?"

"Oh no, they're really good. When his wife got pregnant they moved back to their hometown Nibelheim. After their mom's death the older children wanted a change of scenery. Cloud was happy to oblige, he hated Nibelheim anyways, there were too many bad memories for him."

"I can imagine, if he was one of Hojo's experiments." Zack said morosely. His anger had done nothng to his appetite and he was very happy to be able to listen to Aerith as he made a PB&J.

"Yesh" Aerith said.

"Yesh?" Zack asked grinning.

"Zack!"

"Hey, Aer can you give us a ride to this place? I don't know where it is and Rin's terrified of my bike."

"See, ANOTHER thing you have in common, Cloud loves motorcycles. He built his own from scratch. It's absolutely amazing. It holds all seven of his swords and he's driven it through explosions. The thing defies the laws of Science! Tifa was never afraid of it though."

Zack whistled, "Whew sounds like he had a great girl there."

"Yeah she was great. Really brave and strong, gorgeous too." Aerith responded wistfully, "Well I've gotta go now."

"Yeah me too. Have ta tell Rin about our new b-day plans, and Aer? "

"Yes, Zack?"

"You're brave, strong, and gorgeous, too. " He said as he hung up the phone. Not letting her make her ever modest response. After that phone call he felt so much guiltier for all his fuck-ups the recent ones and the older ones.