Hi dear readers! Back again with a new chapter! :3 Enjoy! Sorry that its so short! .

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot, Square Enix owns Final Fantasy and all its characters!

Chapter 4: Suspicions and Silent Broodings

Aerith and Zack stood there selling flowers almost the entire day and they made some money. Thank god for that. The women in particular were very generous…after taking a few flowers and ogling Zack for about ten minutes straight…some even wore rings on their fingers…Zack didn't want to know where those poor husbands of theirs were…

Aerith giggled as Zack's face took on a disgusted grimace, the flower girl asked knowingly:" Is it about the old lady?" the mute SOLDIER nodded solemnly.

An old woman had approached the handsome SOLDIER, Aerith had thought that she wanted to admire the flowers…well…in the end she admired something else…

Long story short, Zack had barely escaped an array of wet, wrinkled kisses to his face and surprisingly strong tugging at his muscular arms. Barely. The old lady had suddenly called out to her friends and Zack found himself bombarded with a whole herd of old women ranging from their late sixties till their late eighties…boy oh boy…

He shook his head and rubbed a hand on his face, trying to stop the shivers. Aerith only giggled at her friend and asked curiously:" Zack, how comes you have the entire day off?" she was curious. Since usually he was always so busy.

The dark haired man's eyes widened suddenly, he checked his phone. 8 missed calls from Sephiroth…Damn…

Zack looked apologetically at Aerith as he pointed at his phone and frantically flailed with his arms, it looked funny. Aerith waved his concerns off and said:" Don't worry about it, I'm sure they need you."

The tall SOLDIER nodded and smiled as Aerith said:" Thank you a lot for today…it was really nice spending time with you." Zack crossed his arms and sent her a large, genuine grin.

He nodded and waved at her before he ran at top speed in the opposite direction. He was going to get an earful…or maybe even worse…why couldn't he be deaf? He shook his head…then again, he wouldn't be able to hear Aerith's angelic voice. He shook his head and fought down a blush as he sped up his running.

"Where. Were. You. Zack?" the deadly voice of the one and only super SOLDIER rang loudly in Zack's poor ears as he tried hiding himself inside his turtleneck…why wasn't he a turtle? Or some other shell animal? That way Masamune won't be able to harm him…maybe…

Sephiroth sighed heavily and said:" Whatever the case, we need to continue our pursuit of Angeal and Genesis." Zack frowned deeply, crossing his arms and shaking his head "no". The silver haired male said with narrowed eyes:" I know how you feel Zack but it's our mission. We need to talk to them anyhow. We still don't know why they defected in the first place.",

Zack's head lowered, he knew why…Angeal had told him but…could he really tell it Sephiroth? He doubted it…he would tell him later, maybe once they found Angeal and Genesis and he had his voice back…still another 4 days…

Zack looked at his gloved hands, his thoughts constantly on Angeal.

"Why would he view himself a monster? It doesn't make any sense, those were the wings of an angel…" he scratched his head as he thought:" Genesis has one too but it's black…they said they had Jenova or whatever cells implanted to them…but why would Shinra make such SOLDIERS? Was Sephiroth part of it too? Does he know? Does he have those wings too?"

Thousands of questions coursed through Zack's mind, to some of them Sephiroth alone had the answer. He looked up at the First Class and clapped his hands once to gain his attention. Sephiroth looked at Zack in expectation.

Zack spotted a stack of papers on a desk nearby and quickly jogged to it, fishing out a pen and quickly writing down his question. He held it up for Sephiroth to see.

HEY, DO YOU KNOW WHAT HOLLANDER IS ACTUALLY DOING IN HIS LAB?

It was a safe question as far as he was concerned, it didn't reveal that Zack knew of the deeper mechanics behind the mad scientist. Sephiroth frowned and asked:" Why would you want to know that?", Zack scribbled down his short reply.

CURIOSITY.

Sephiroth said:" Curiosity killed the cat." Nonetheless Sephiroth answered him:" As far as I'm allowed to know, Hollander conducts a number of experiments concerning mako, how SOLDIERS can use it effectively and usually one of his assistants injects mako injections in us and the other SOLDIERs whenever our mako supply is low."

Zack nodded, so he didn't know anything…or maybe he wasn't telling the whole truth.

ANYTHING ELSE?

Sephiroth crossed his arms and thought for a moment before he replied:" Not that I can think of. Don't worry, your voice should return to its noisy self in a few days time." He smirked at Zack and left.

Zack was left standing there, asking himself whether or not Sephiroth may have lied to him and he did know more than he let on.

Angeal frowned as he said:" I don't know about this anymore Genesis…" he paced back and forth while Genesis leisurely lounged on the couch. The red commander looked at his friend and said:" Why is that Angeal? Don't tell me your "SOLDIER honor" is drawing you to Shinra?"

Angeal glared at him and replied:" Very funny. I'm worried about Zack and Sephiroth. Do you think he found out? About Jenova?", the redhead snorted and retorted:" I doubt it, our dear Sephiroth has his head too far up in the clouds to care about what a mad scientist does in his little lab. As for Zack…" he jumped to his feet and asked suspiciously:" Did you tell him anything?"

Angeal growled and said:" No, I didn't." Genesis smirked and replied:" Then he doesn't know anything at all.". Angeal looked off to the side, his fist clenching in frustration. He had to tell Zack, if there was one person in Shinra he would tell this to it would be the pup. Sephiroth wouldn't take the news too well without something to restrain him and take Masamune away from him.

Who knew? Perhaps a future even worse than doing the dirty work for Shinra awaits them...a future full of death and chaos...

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