Last chapter I titled after a Crisis Core soundtrack song but it wasn't until several days later that I actually compared the song "To a new post" with what plays when Zack meets Cloud…and realized that while similar, l had it wrong, lol! Cloud's introduction song is a cute little melody called A Moment of Courtesy. Screw it, they indeed did go to a new post so I'm leaving it as is! Just know that that chapter was supposed to be dedicated to Cloud :)
Shadow of the Day
The going was slow for the group and it was late afternoon before they reached the high bluff above the compound where Genesis was supposedly hiding. "A winter fortress. Does it get anymore cliché?" Zack asked.
"Um, Zack?" Cloud asked, becoming shy and bashful which somewhere, a fangirl has squealed at the mere thought of. "Do you think…I'll ever become a SOLDIER?"
Zack blinked, then doubled over laughing. "Not a chance! You suck at basic infantry work! And being a SOLDIER means riding on helicopters, planes, trains, chocobos and anything else that moves! Just…stay where you are."
"You could've lied to me, you know…" Cloud mumbled.
"Blatant honesty is the best policy, Angeal taught me," Zack said.
"If you two are finished with divulging your pathetic lives to each other, we have a mission to do," Tseng announced. "Zack, you'll infiltrate the compound. The grunt stays with me."
Cloud's depressed sag fell even farther.
"You'll need to sneak in without getting caught," he went on. "There are also five chests that hold valuable supplies in them. Retrieve these as well. During this mission, your body temperature will drop. If that happens, do your usual thing. You know…that barbaric squatting in the mud thing you SOLDIERs love to do so much."
"Uh, yeah, speaking of cold…I like how you dragged me out to basically Antarctica without so much as a jacket," Zack brought up, then pointed to the younger boy. "Cloud, aren't you cold?"
Cloud had to pause and think about it for a moment. "…no. Am I supposed to be?"
"Well, considering how pale you are, this probably is your normal climate," Zack shrugged.
"Nibelheim doesn't get a lot of sun!" Cloud defended, his boyish voice sounding more feminine than masculine.
"It's okay, we all know you're a vampire," the SOLDIER told him and casually strode down the hillside to position himself at the fortress entrance. Take out a few bad guys, raid a few treasure chests, break down the doors and rescue the princess!
Well, Genesis…same difference…
"Here we go!"
While the easy answer would be to say that he kicked ass and cleaned shop in under three-point-five seconds, the reality wasn't so glamorous. Zack was caught. Multiple times. Oh, they weren't the stupid guards of yester-year, the days where if you stood still hard enough, they would walk right by you even if you were basically in plain sight. Or if you made a noise, the lookouts would only inquire as to who was there but never actually get up and check. Or, easiest yet, you could throw a coin down the hall and the guard would either be dumb enough to stop and pick it up or figured the noise came from that continued direction. No, these guys actually had the capacity to reason and to understand that when an object is thrown, the source of the movement came from the opposite direction.
And yes, Zack tried this. When the guard ignored the coin in favor of looking behind him, Zack was caught with a face that basically spelled out "Yeah, I'm fucked."
"You know what? That was so sad, I'm going to act like I didn't even see it," the guard said, laughing and shaking his head. "Go on, you get a do-over. And please, for the love of Minerva, don't just stand there like a frickin' guppy—"
"You won't have to worry about that anymore," a new voice said and before the guard could blink, a bullet pierced between his eyes and he fell to his knees, the lopsided smile still on his face.
Zack looked at him in horrified silence before turning around to see Tseng casually putting his gun away. Behind him was a trail of bodies. "A gun and a silencer. Thirty seconds. Mission accomplished." As he passed by him, it was impossible not to miss the added snort of "Told you we're better."
As Cloud meekly followed the older man, Zack also didn't miss the barely concealed smile on the boy's face. So everyone was getting a laugh in! Fuming, he was made to stomp after them as they entered the compound.
Many pointless fight scenes later, complete with heavy metal background music, Zack stepped out of an elevator that led to the fortress basement to see…Hollander and Genesis.
"You wouldn't! You need me, Genesis!" the scientist begged, backing away from his creation who was pointing his sword in his face as he advanced. "Besides, I'm your biggest fan of Banora White juice! See, I wear a T-shirt with your logo on it all the time!"
"No, the truth behind the project (obligatory theme song reference!) is that I'm the first person to come up with the idea of making apple juice! Yes, I alone, at the tender age of eight, came up with Banora's most common-sense product after centuries of poverty! There's orange juice. There's grape juice. Hell, there's even cranberry juice. But who would've ever thought to make apple juice? I became a child millionaire over night, making me even more filthy rich and obnoxious and I won first place for my 4H project. Happiest day of my life…"
Zack snickered. The idea of Genesis being in an agricultural club tickled his funny bone.
"Hey, where did Tseng go?" Cloud whispered to him.
"He…decided to investigate the place…" Zack answered cautiously. Truth was, Tseng had come across, ahem, the remains of those that were no longer with them anymore and not having had a fix since the discovery of Genesis' parents, he couldn't resist any longer. Zack was seriously not trying to dwell on the matter.
"Oh, look who showed up, Zack the Mongrel and…some no-name nobody," Genesis commented, glancing over at them. Hollander took that second to turn and make a mad dash for the exit.
"Cloud, capture him!" Zack ordered, while he himself went to block Genesis from escaping too.
Cloud caught Hollander in a full nelson but the heavier man reared an elbow back and knocked the boy in the face, loosening his grip to where he slipped away. Wanting to do his part, the blonde got back up and chased after him…still always three paces behind the overweight guy in flip-flops.
Genesis began to circle Zack for a moment, both of their swords withdrawn as they sized each other up. "Hello, Genny. Still dying a slow and miserable death, I see."
"Do you say that to cancer patients?" Genesis asked smoothly.
"You're not going to guilt trip me."
"Hmph." Genesis dropped his sword, walking away with his head held down as though his mind were too distracted to be bothered with fighting. Quietly he muttered, "'Sekaii de ichiban ohime-sama. Sou iu atsukai kokoroete yo ne?' Miku Hatsune, World is Mine. Yes…yes the world is mine…"
Zack's face broke out into a grin. "You do realize that the first line loosely translates to 'Number one princess in the world', right? Well, it was only a matter of time before you revealed yourself—"
He didn't get to finish as Genesis did a surprise charge attack on him, gliding across the floor with his physics-defying one wing. Zack raised his sword to block him and was nearly too late as the red blade swept only inches from his face. The two fought swiftly, but no blasts were exchanged…which Zack was thankful for considering he wouldn't surpass the more experienced SOLDIER in materia combat.
Instead, the redhead gave him a perfect opening and he gladly took it. Just as Genesis was about to do a cross-slash to his chest, Zack brought a hand up and…chopped him on his degrading shoulder.
"Augh!" the man cried out and immediately dropped to his knees, sucking his teeth for a very prolonged period of time.
"Payback's a bitch, bitch," Zack smiled, standing over him.
"It…won't end this way." Genesis stumbled to his feet, teeth grit in pain and slowly backing up. The only thing behind him was a rail that did little to seal off the endless depths of the compound. "I won't be defeated by…the likes of you…"
"Hey, what are you doing?" The boy asked, taking a step forward as a means to try and stop him. Instead, Genesis summoned his strength and flew into the air, landing with perfect precision on the rail despite his injury.
"If this world seeks my destruction…then it goes with me." With a final haunting smirk, Genesis allowed himself to fall over backwards, weightless.
"NO! Fly, you moron, fly!" But as Zack peered over the edge, all he could see was a never ending darkness.
~.~.~
He waited in front of the entrance back out into the chilly air of Modeoheim for the others to show up. Cloud appeared first…without Hollander.
Before Zack could even say anything, Cloud blurted out, "Okay, so I failed another assignment, I'm a failure, I get it!"
"Actually, I was really going to say—" But Zack was cut off by the arrival of Tseng, who was zipping up his pants.
"What'd I miss?" The Turk asked.
The other two shut their mouths immediately and without another word, began marching quickly into the depths of the snowy village.
~.~.~
Not much remained of the old mining town and its last large structure happened to be a public bathhouse. As Zack scanned the now empty baths, he whistled to himself. "You know, a little renovation, I bet I could get this place up and moving as a ski resort. And I could spend some one on one time teaching Aerith how to snowboard…Hey Cloud, wanna be my business partner?"
Cloud was reminded of his one and only time snowboarding, an effort to impress a pretty girl back home. With absolutely no practice, he attempted a run down Mt. Nibel…
His memories of what happened next pretty much ended there, followed by weeks of being in a body cast. "I think I'll pass…"
As they went through a doorway on the second floor of the building, a large mutated creature burst out from behind a stack of bath salt crates. The creature had a bird's head, the front feet of a chicken, the back legs of a lion and greatly resembled—
"Buckbeak!" Cloud shouted joyfully, actually running forward. Tseng reached out a hand and pulled him back.
"Harry Potter is forever done, go geek over something else now," the Turk snapped.
"You two go on ahead! I'll handle this," Zack instructed and thankfully without any protest, they slithered around the winged creature and ran on.
Before they'd even been gone for a full ten seconds, the monster was dead and Zack artfully twirled his sword around to replace it in its holster. A floor above, the pubescent sound of screaming reverberated through the walls and he took off running to go save the runt's ass.
It would seem though he was too late. Lying on the floor was Cloud, who was barely breathing. Against a wall, Tseng was slumped over, gripping his side in pain.
` "What happened? He asked the Turk first.
"Another…griffin attacked us," Tseng gasped out. As he talked, Zack searched himself to find a cure materia. "The noob tried to hop on it and ride it and it got pissed and mauled him pretty badly. It got one good swipe on me as I tried to aim and shoot it."
Zack nodded in understanding. Finally finding the Curaga, he absorbed it into his palm and touched Tseng's injured ribs. They healed immediately but he knew from experience that that meant nothing. The man was still going to be shaky for awhile and would need some rest. Once he was finished with him, Zack made his way over to Cloud. Although…he could've sworn he saw Tseng give a nearly imperceptible headshake, as though not wanting him to heal the half-dead Cloud…Oh. Right.
Following his better judgment, he performed a Curaga spell on the infantryman as well, patting him on the shoulder. "You'll be alright, dude. Stay here and rest up. I'll explore the place on my own." He rummaged for another materia, a deep purple one that he inserted into his other arm.
"Barrier no jutsu!" he called out and the two collapsed people were encased in a force field. He nodded in satisfaction before taking off up another flight of stairs.
After a series of small battles more annoying than random Pokemon encounters, Zack arrived on the top floor. In a similar setup from the scene in Genesis' hideout, Angeal was there, pointing his sword in Hollander's face again.
Really, you'd think by now they'd have just killed him. Stepping further into the room, he did the honorable thing and got inbetween the blade and the scientist. "Angeal! Don't do it! Remember your honor!"
"My honor is why I want him dead!" Angeal yelled, trying to get around his protégé. "I'm a complete monster because of him!"
"You're complete perfection, is what you are," Hollander corrected. "Genesis was a failure, born with a severe identity crisis that makes him think he's a Japanese pop idol! But you…you're everything your mother and I hoped you would be when we started Project G."
"Don't speak of my mother!" the man screamed, nearly knocking Zack over as his fury made him take another swing. "And you're not my father! He died a long time ago!"
"Did he?" Hollander asked. "Sure that wasn't another Shinra employee I simply paid to take care of you because I couldn't be bothered with having a child? Just as I did with Genesis?"
Not having an answer, Angeal was forced to pause. Before he'd begun treating everyone like a complete asshole, Genesis had always wondered about his true origins. He questioned his foster parents daily, almost to the point of obsession, and some sleepovers Angeal was made to hear the boy crying quietly in the night and calling for a mother and father that would never come.
Of course this did not excuse him from being a bitter bastard, but Angeal tried to be understanding of his pain.
"You're still not my father," he finally spoke up. "I actually resembled my father…unlike I do with you."
"We have the same hairstyle," Hollander pointed out.
Angeal shrugged. "True, true."
"Now that that's cleared up, we can take Hollander into custody and get help for you and Genesis!" Zack babbled, hope filling his eyes. No more talk about being a monster, no more one-winged angels, no more Gackt lyrics! Peace could be restored to Midgar, the fangirls could keep on drooling, and maybe he could make something happen between him and Aerith.
"No, I must pay for the sins I've caused," Angeal stated. But of course he would. "I once told you Zack that our enemy is all that creates suffering. Well…I created my own suffering."
"Oh come on, that has got to be the lamest reason to kill off a character—" Zack countered, but was interrupted.
Before anyone could stop him, Angeal held up an arm and beckoned to something behind them. A stampede of Angeal's own copies rushed forward, as though greeting their master. Instead, they all attached themselves to his body, like a massive leech orgy…Zack cursed his inability to create decent analogies.
The grotesque form in the middle of the room began to glow and Hollander made a break for the door, a hand over his mouth. Zack couldn't fault him. What was left standing wasn't Angeal anymore. He truly had become a monster. And a SOLDIER's duty was to protect the public against monsters. Oh, Angeal…
"You know, I have half a mind to just leave you looking like that," Zack informed him. The Angeal monster gave him a pleading look. "Yeah, let's see how many fanwomen still want you when you look like that!"
The creature gave a disgruntled grunt before thrusting out the star-pointed spear in its hand, scratching Zack's face in what was to become another classic anime scar.
"Ouch! Fine, I'll put you out of your misery! But you owe me one!"
Except when it was all said and done, he realized there wasn't any way for someone to repay you for putting them out of their misery because…well, they're dead.
Or dying. The deformed creature had reverted back to the shape of a man and Angeal lay gasping his last few breaths. Like Genesis, his hair, face (and yes, clothes) were the ashen gray of degradation.
Angeal coughed and dust came out. Both of them looked at it with equal expressions of surprise. "Well then…" Angeal murmured.
Zack knelt next to him, realizing what he'd done. "Angeal…I'm so sorry."
A small headshake. "No. You did the right thing. With my death, Hollander won't be able to create any other experiments. Zack…you have my thanks."
Zack began to openly sob now.
"This is for you," he heard his friend say, and pulled his hands away from his eyes to see that he was holding up the legendary Buster Sword.
Okay, so there's no real legend to a sword that's never even been used before but it still sounded cool.
"No matter what, protect your honor. Always." Angeal rested his head on the ground, so tired and only wanting to rest for a few moments. Tomorrow morning, he'd be back at the academy, teaching the rookies like always.
His tomorrow would never come.
The night sky was clear, not a single cloud to be seen and yet it still began a steady shower. Zack would've made a Square Enix joke but his heart just wasn't in it at the moment. Instead, he tipped his head back and let his tears mingle with the rain.
~.~.~
"Hey, Zack? I've been thinking." Aerith stood in the pulpit area of the Slums church, a single beam of sunlight from Midgar's setting sun shining down on her. "Why not just create a flower shop? Then people could come to me instead of thinking I'm some beggar girl on the streets. And I could charge people ridiculous prices for the flowers I sell, like Vera Wang! Zack…?"
"Long ago, just like the hearse you died to get in again…we are…so far from you…" Zack sobbed on the other side of the church, sitting with his back to the girl.
"I understand your friend just died but you don't have to go all My Chemical Romance on me, complete with the panda eyeshadow," Aerith huffed. But then she felt bad. It wasn't every day a girl got to see tough men break down in tears in front of them. Her mother had tried to push her on Tseng once she'd realized that the man harbored feelings for her, but Aerith had resisted. Now she was happy that she had.
Swallowing her usual crass comments, she walked over to him and knelt, wrapping her arms around his chest. She didn't say anything. Nothing needed to be said. A death is what it is. A loss, a moment of grieving, and finally, a time to say goodbye.
Terrible time to write this chapter…a friend of mine recently revealed that a family member of theirs has passed away. Yes, this was an up and down chapter, folks.
But with that said, I have about two more chapters I want to write based on Crisis Core before I at long last break free with the recap and get on to the true plot of this story. No, I've not forgotten, lol. And I really hope I've not disappointed anyone with the fact that this so far indeed has been a recap. I kinda couldn't help myself; writing fanfiction is the closest I'll ever get to doing an abridged series, xD! But anywho…whether you laughed, cried or did both, leave a review!