Ku's notes: This stemed from an idea for a Role Play between myself and a few friends. We were going to start with this as the backstory but we opted not to in the end. As such, considering that I liked the concept too much, I wrote this on it. As of this moment it's only a one shot but there is an idea for carrying it on into a multi-chapter piece. If you'd like, read, review and let me know what you think. Also, if you think I should continue let me know. If not, it's all good.
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core
Title: Honour's Fall
Length: 1,362 words
Beta: None
Summary: A "what if" take on the battle between Genesis and Zack in Modeoheim.
Rating: M to be on the safe side
Characters: Angeal, Genesis and Zack
Honour's Fall
The clash of steel, rhythmic and musical even as the two participants battled and dueled for their very lives in the hall and cavern of steel and rock. A high note was reached and punctuated by a battle cry and thus it carried. And then, without any warning at all, there was the sound of steel ripping through flesh and loudest and longest of screams uttered as of yet filled the air.
The song was ended. The battle decided.
A smirk crossed the man's lips, he who remained untouched by his opponent's weapon while his own had punctured through the younger's body through completely.
Blood was already pooling, collecting, on the floor by the raven's feet. His sword fell to the floor, the sound of it's clatter carrying in the vast room. Now his hands were holding the crimson sword, painted a darker red by his own blood and his breaths became little more than shuddered gasps. Pain coursed and flared through his entire body rendering him as defenseless and weak as the animal he'd been nicknamed; a puppy.
Zack could feel his strength slowly leaving him with each and every drop of his life flowing liquid that quietly slid along his body or along the former SOLDIER's sword and ultimately joined the gathering on the floor. He didn't have to ask himself if he was meeting his end. He already knew that he was.
Even so, he would not surrender to the man, his ideals and the sense of honor his mentor had instilled in him too strong. Even if his body was failing him he would not give.
"Dreams of the morrow hath the shattered soul; Pride is lost; Wings stripped away. The end is nigh." The cruel and taunting smirk grew. "Nay, your end is now Puppy.."
"Sh-shut up..." The young Gongagan managed weakly. His body broken the younger SOLDIER glared up at the man. "J-just... sh-s-shut up..."
Though he may have wanted to, Zack couldn't muster his strength not even to utter more words. He was expending all that he had left on clinging to life as it was. Still, he felt the effects. His limbs were getting heavier, breathing was a chore, his hands loosening their grip upon the metal. With each passing second the blade was becoming his only support.
Suddenly, the sword was pulled from his bleeding body and without the support the young SOLDIER crumbled to the floor. It was with a pained wince and the slow movement of his hands that he covered the wound in his abdomin. He tried to staunch the bleeding to cling the last bits of life that he had and he knew that he was failing miserably. Then again, there had never been any hope for him to begin with.
Genesis, on the other hand, was more concerned with cleaning his blade of the dark red liquid. The victorious and cruel smirk had yet to leave his pale lips, greyed by his Degration. Zack kept his eyes trained on the SOLDIER poet, having been taught better than to take his eyes off the enemy, no matter the situation.
"You disgrace that uniform," he said suddenly, his ebony wing stretching before folding as much as it could to rest against his body. The runed blade had disappeared, to where Zack didn't know, and Genesis's ashen face turned to look upon him with digust. "Whatever possessed Lazard to promote you to First I'll never know but it clearly was a mistake to do so."
A growl, quiet and broken by strained coughs, was the only response. Genesis smirked again.
"I wonder, if you ever realized." The poet approached the raven, kneeling and grasping some of those spikes in a merciless hold. "You were his greatest pupil, his pride and he even thought of you as a brother, little puppy. Without his light and hope, where do you think Angeal will end?"
Eyes glazed over from the pain coursing through his body widened at the words, doubting their truth while knowing they were not false. Leave it to Genesis, to say that when he was already... so tired...
"S-scr-screw... y-you..." Zack gasped, his eyes falling closed.
He didn't want to be here, he wanted to go back. Why couldn't time turn back to before all of this anyway... Things were so much better then. So much better...
When he opened his eyes again, perhaps to glare at his opponent and victor, he found that he was alone. And cold. The blood that had left his body, the puddle was growing to a pond and he wasn't sure how much longer he could hold on. Maybe, just may Cloud or Tseng would come back and find him.
Maybe the gods would smile down at him and it would be Angeal instead.
"Yeah... That would..."
Whatever his statement would end with, the world was not meant to know. The youth gasped, intook a sharp breath and released it slowly. It almost seemed as if his soul was escaping his ruined body as he exhaled and his eyes fell closed. With the lids covering the hues there was no way to see the final spark of life leaving the happy and energetic SOLDIER.
Just seconds before the sound of hard and fast, no doubt running, steps echoed as feet crashed against the steel steps. It was less than a minute later that man, a large and heavy blade strapped to his back, was at the fallen youth's side.
His eyes were wide in shock and disbelief. The thought that his student would fall in battle, the entire concept of such a thing, had never entered his mind. Zack had always been a promising SOLDIER with limits only as high as he could set them. His strength and energy seemed to have been bound and limitless.
To see this... To see the broken, bleeding and battered form of the young, youthful and spirited Gongagan brought the memory of his mother to his mind. The Fair should have been able to thwart Genesis, even if the red mage had been in better health than he was current. Zack should have been able to defeat his friend, should have been the victor to find and face him next. He wasn't meant to die. He wasn't supposed to laying lifeless here.
What was worse, the icing on the cake of tragedy, was that he died alone. There was no one for him here. There was no one to carry on his spirit. No friend to shoulder the burden, to carry the weight of Zack's soul with them. Though, had anyone been there, none would truly consider the fallen First Class a burden.
"Zack..." The older man finally spoke.
He was still in shock, frozen with uncomprehension. He still didn't understand how it could have happened. He didn't think it was possible but faced with the reality, there was no denying it.
"Zack... I'm sorry," Angeal all but whispered. Whether it was to himself or the lifeless body before him, even the man himself didn't know. Still, he kneeled at the youth's side, his arms carfully slipping under the smaller body in order to lift him out of the pool of blood. "It should have been me."
And that had been his intent. Genesis was meant to be a preparation for a far more difficult battle against none other than himself. He was the one that was supposed to die this day, not Zack.
He had to get the youth's body somewhere safe.
A new fire burned within the Banoran First and his eyes narrowed in grim determination.
He would find somewhere safe for his student, put his body to rest somewhere safe and then he would avenge him.
Genesis would learn his fury. Genesis was not the man he thought. Genesis was no more his friend and the red head would learn that soon. Oh so very soon. He wasn't the man he thought he had been. Was not as misguided as he thought he had been.
The desease had spread from the body and plauged the mind and Angeal there was no saving his childhood friend now.