Nothing To Do With Your History, Sir.

Chapter 1

Zack wiped a drop of blood from the side of his cheek and turned back to look at Sephiroth. The man looked horrible, far worse then Zack could have ever imagined. His right arm hung limply at his side, a spiral of blood trickled down the fingers in his ripped gloves before dripping to the ground. A twisted metal chuck stuck out from just below his ribs, and his left hand supported that as best he could.

For a moment Zack wondered how Sephiroth could ever possibly have ended up in this situation.

How any of them had ever wound up here.

He flicked his sword, the Amerirose, to clean it of blood from the mako enhanced monsters. Up ahead a few more of the cautious animals lurked. They seemed to almost communicate with each other through body language. Plotting, surely, to again advantage of their new prey. Zack sighed and pulled his own ShinRa Soldier cloak closer towards him. It might only be fall, but just south of the Northern Glacier everything was frozen solid.

Making a mako reactor here was the worst idea that bitch Scarlet ever managed.

Sephiroth inched closer to Zack, careful to give him enough distance incase the monsters ahead attacked.

"We'll be fine." Zack replied to Sephiroth's unspoken worries.

Sephiroth's only reply was an almost uncharacteristic snort.

Zack finally decided that waiting for the damn beasts to attack would be useless, they'd freeze before the monster did. He raised one of his gloved hands, pummeled the snow around the beasts with fire magic, and rushed forward. The first of the three went down in an easy slice. The second raised it's human like arm to block the Amerirose, and swung it's other crystallized arm forward. Zack was forced to release and take an underhanded swing into the beast's gut. Steaming blood poured out and he moved onto the last of the creatures. This one sprung back several times showing an amazing amount of agility.

"Clever." Zack commented, and then struck hard at where he expected the critter's head to move. In an instant it changed direction and swung back with it's length arms. Zack's right shoulder took most of impact, and his armor there managed to protect him long enough to heft the sword back up and across the monsters legs. I let out an unearthly screech, before the Amerirose's glistening red blade cut across it's neck.

Sephiroth wondered over an offered him an approving nod. "We need to get moving before the sun dies."

"Yeah." Zack replied and scratched the back of his head. He looked over at the bodies of the monsters which laid in the snow. Steam still rose up from most of their wounds, and it wound about eerily in the air before dissipating.

Neither of them moved for a moment, and then Sephiroth simply took off without looking back at the melted reactor behind them. Zack followed behind, constantly unable to keep from glancing back at the tangled reactor.


Later in the day, maybe around noon they found themselves admit a flutter of snow. Sephiroth's keen eyes managed to point out a large cliff wall, and they strayed towards it hoping that maybe they would spot a cave or something close to shelter. And just as the snow started to really pick up into a blizzard Zack noticed a gapping hold in the cliff about forty feet off the ground. Sephiroth eyed it uneasily and slowly took his left hand away from the metal protruding from his ribs.

"Think you can make it."

"Yes." The reply didn't seem very confident, but there was no arguing with a general on any account. He then went about moving his right hand, it looked terribly painful and blood slowly started to pulse down from the wound along his arm. He frowned at it as if hoping it would just mystically heal up. And frankly, Zack thought, if he was a wound and had gotten a glare like that, he wouldn't have wasted any time bleeding.

The silver hared general finally flung himself into the air, and in a tricky looking maneuver he scrambled up the forty or so feet and into the cave. Looking back down at Zack he nodded. "I could have gone up there and check it out you know…" Zack murmured to himself before taking hold of some rock which stuck out at an odd angle and wrestling himself up the cliff face.

The cave itself was quite a bit more extensive then anything Zack had been expecting. "I think it's a Materia cave." Sephiroth said smoothly before wondering further in.

Zack watched him for a moment and then followed, feeling tried, worried and relieved all at the same time. He caught himself yawning after following Sephiroth off towards the right as the cave twisted back around on itself. And then took another few twists before entering a room filled with glowing light. It shocked Zack's consciousness right out of the abysmal state it had been in.

"Bright." He stated. "Camping in here sounds nice, except I wont be getting any sleep."

"There's another door way over there, if it twists around a bit more I suggest staying in there."

"Right." Zack wondered forward, no feeling quite appropriate letting the injured general go first. After all, it would hardly progress his record if he came back and Sephiroth didn't.

The pathway twisted around twice more before coming to a somewhat ragged end. Sephiroth nodded and flashed some fire magic back down the hallway which they came from. It served to heat the space up to a more conformable temperature.

Sephiroth sat down on the floor and pulled his dismantled trench coat off his shoulders. He glanced up at Zack who was still standing. "You can sit, I hardly think we'll be needing a watch."

"Righto." Zack replied and slumped down to the floor. He stared over at the general for a moment, and looked away feeling edgy for staring at the man. Sometimes the guy was just so inhuman that it was hard to look away. And now as Sephiroth prodded his own broken and bleeding arm, it certainly seemed to be one of those sort of moments.

"Your sure you don't have any sort of healing magic….?" Sephiroth asked again.

"Positive." Zack said leafing his fingers over the side of his Amerirose, five slots total, two having summon materia, one combo of fire and all, and a deathblow. His gauntlet only had a weak new ice that he was training, a shield and a quake.

Sephiroth sighed and ran a shaky finger down along his arm. After a moment he pulled his gloves off and leaned back against the wall. "How long have you been in Soldier?" He asked attempting small talk to pass some of the necessary time.

"Thirteen days."

"How very unlucky."

"Yeah, I've never been much up for the superstitions thought."

"Your from Gongaga correct?"

"Yeah…" He replied. "But I left."

"I see." Sephiroth shifted a bit, and then. "Thank you for your help. I'll see to it that this all goes into a promotion."

Zack grinned. "Thanks." Maybe being nice to monster wasn't quite disappointing after all.

Sephiroth nodded back and then closed his eyes. Zack watched him for a moment, just staring at him, and then finally shut his own eyes.

The soft sound of breathing echoed out of the room.


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A/N: I've always wanted to run thought how Zack and Sephiroth became such wonderful friends. And I figured I could start with a nice little incident. Any ideas for some intricate little missions for Zack and Seph to go on before the War starts would be appreciated.