"Do you have any idea where he may have taken her?"

"Modeoheim. That's where Genesis and Hollander are."

"Are you sure?"

"He told me himself."

Tseng and Zack flew in the back of the chopper with a two-man infantry escort, frantically trying to hash out a rescue plan.

"We might need the whole army on this one."

"No, not necessary. Angeal won't hurt her."

"Zack…"

"He won't hurt her!"

A crash. They slammed up against the roof of the chopper as it whirled out of the sky. An impact like a ten-ton MACK truck, and Zack woke up ten minutes later face-down in the snow.

He looked over to see the chopper engulfed in flames, and leapt to his feet.

"Tseng!"

"Over here Zack."

Tseng, the two infantrymen, and the pilot all emerged from behind a snowbank, scraped up but alive. Zack breathed a sigh of relief and went to them.

"No signal out here," Tseng held his phone up.

"Man, what hit us?"

"RPG—a Genesis copy. Looks like they're here after all."

They trekked through the mountains in street clothes looking for some ascent route to a rescue spot.

"Yo Sea Level!" Zack called out to Tseng. "Don't fall too far behind! There aren't any road signs out here!"

But not everyone was a useless tool. Someone was keeping up…an infantryman hiked right in step with Zack.

"At least someone's keeping up," Zack smiled at him. SOLDIER and Security were usually mortal enemies, but hey, out here in the snow everyone was equal. Zack caught the hint of a grin under a field helmet, a young boy's voice still cracking answered him.

"Well, I'm a country boy…"

That caught Zack's interest, might as well strike up conversation now that they were trudging through snow like a bunch of idiots. "You too huh? Where from?"

"Nibelheim."

Zack took one look at the kid, folded his arms, and laughed so hard he spun around.

Oh as if! The Infantry boy took a step toward Zack. "How about you?"

"Me?" Zack looked at him like he had bragging rights. "Gongaga!"

The kid snickered.

"Hey! What's so funny about that! You know Gongaga?"

Zack stood there like he was some air-headed champion, and he kinda knew it too, but in Zack's world he could have been from the moon and it would have made it an awesome place to be from. After all, Zack Fair was from there!

The kid finally quit chuckling and met Zack's gaze. Mako eyes? No, he just had really piercing blue eyes—like Zack had before the surgery.

"No. You know Nibelheim?"

"No, but there's a reactor there, right? A Mako Reactor outside Midgar usually means…"

And he and Zack finished each other's sentence.

"…Nothing there."

The both burst out laughing.

Wow, the truth sucked. They were both pathetic, backwater boys from backwater towns now stuck back in some godforsaken ice ravine walking around like a couple of tourists.

"Good news Tseng!" Zack called back to the elite Turk. "Me and…" Zack pointed at the kid, realizing he hadn't gotten a name. The infantry boy took off his helmet and smiled.

"Cloud."

His hair was east, sticking up in bleached spearheads that pointed perpetually toward the sun—at least they wouldn't need a compass. He was a skinny kid with a worker's body from swinging heavy tools around all day for no reason other than a boot to the behind if it didn't get done…farm boy, straight up. But a little grin gave him away—and Zack had thought he was the puppy.

Zack put his hand on the kid's shoulder and yelled back at Tseng. "Me and Cloud here, we're gettin'er dun gude!"

Cloud chuckled at the mockery of their parents' country accents. Zack winked at him and they continued on up the ravine…while Tseng wheezed up behind them.

"Good. Carry on then. Don't worry about us. We're fine. We don't need help at all." His sarcasm was lost on the ice.

Cloud and Zack went on ahead busting on hick-culture and joking about summer vacation not being vacation—seeing as it was harvest season—until they started seeing massive frozen reactor pipes jutting out of the mountainside. That didn't look natural. They got quiet and scouted up ahead.

A massive abandoned power plant resembling the old Wutai Mythril mines lie sequestered in the heart of the ravine. Zack and Cloud got there first.

"The heck?" Cloud muttered.

"Iaunno," replied Zack. "Let's wait for the others before we check it out."

They could barely see Tseng back at the bottom of the trail, they'd be waiting a while. After standing by with their arms crossed for a few minutes, Cloud looked up at the SOLDIER.

"Hey, Zack, uh…"

"Hm?"

Zack looked back at him with a lazy shrug that threw Cloud off. Zack seemed like just a guy, like him. Security wing made SOLDIER's out to be these big tough brawlers who chewed tobacco and ate small kittens, but this guy, he seemed pretty cool.

"Um…so what's it like to be SOLDIER?"

Zack cocked his head. "I don't get the question."

"Um…"

Why was this kid so nervous? Zack wasn't going to bite him. Why was his self-confidence in his boots? Cloud was small but not a wimp.

Zack shrugged it off, smiling at the kid in classic Zack Fair fashion. "Well, once you join, you'll know what it's like."

But Cloud seemed to slump, his eyes falling to the steel toes of his boots. "If I can make the cut…"

"Don't sweat it!" Zack jumped around him. "If I can do it, you can too!"

His energy was insane, like a hyperactive kid who stayed perpetually a little boy. It made Cloud smile underneath his shy slump. Plus, he laughed on the inside at Zack's implication. If someone like ME can do it, what the heck are you worried about?

Zack peered under his hand at the factory. "Cloud, look…"

He motioned his hand toward the ground, and Cloud caught on immediately to stay low. They crept toward the edge of a cliff overlooking the factory, stalking like lynxes to get a better vantage point. Cloud could walk even quieter than Zack in the snow.

Guards with gas-powered rifles crawled like ants all over the facility. Tseng joined them in time.

"That's a Mako Excavation Test Site," he said. "If there's anywhere for a clone army to germinate, it's there."

Zack nodded, a deathly serious shade crossing his face. "I'll go check it out."

"Our primary objective is to investigate Modeoheim," Tseng retorted. "We can't afford to lose people here."

"Aerith might be down there," said Zack, and Tseng nodded.

"Infiltrate and recon," he ordered. "Silent hits."

Zack nodded. The talk about hits made Cloud shudder. This guy who had been laughing and smiling a moment ago had turned dark and serious…like a hunter.

Zack threw Cloud a smirk before dashing down the cliff like a phantom in the blurring snow. Once he reached the gateway, he waited until the last guard passed the entryway, and jumped in behind him.

"Hey!" the guard yelled as he spotted Zack.

Well, so much for that plan.

Zack drew his sword to upslice the guard. He flew into flaring figure-eight's to take down the rest of the patrol, which effectively sounded the alarm for the whole facility.

"ARRRGGHH Zack, I said silent hits!" Tseng ran his hand over his face at the cliff's edge.

Cloud laughed. "He doesn't seem like the silent type."

Zack raced ahead with a mean smile as the backup patrol ran at him.

"Sis boom bah!" he called, leaping into flying arc-slashes that knocked down guards like bowling pins. He spun his sword with one hand and rushed for the next patrol.

"Helicopter helicopter over my head, I pick the color and the color is…" a spinning spiral-slash knocked four guards out cold. "Hah! You're dead!"

Eight more guards took their place, running at Zack in double-lineout formation.

"Uh-oh!" Zack bounded away like a kid playing laser tag where he wasn't supposed to be.

"Ninja vanish!"

He scurried up a ladder to the facility roof as the guards rounded the corner perplexed. Peering at the group of guards scratching their heads, he leapt down into the fray.

"BANGARANG!"

He spun in a whirling crescent-slash to send them all flying. Man he loved his job!

Zack surveyed the area, strewn with his confirms and none of them moving. A glance back up at the cliff saw Cloud and Tseng jumping up and down, cheering him on.

Alright, my own entourage!Zack waved back at them with a huge smile that made them wave their arms even more frantically. Zack threw them a thumbs-up.

A hard clunk on the back of his head sent him toppling to the ground.

Tweety birds. Twirly tweety birds.

.

[Received Phoenix Down]