A Type 1 Incident: Hollander had escaped Junon Prison. They sent Zack.

Zack and Tseng arrived on the scene to find the island city obliterated in a holocaust of flame, ransacked by troops that were all too familiar.

"Copies? Genesis is dead!" Zack yelled.

"I told you not to count on it!" And Tseng started shooting. Zack rushed into combat-mode with his sword singing.

He ran along FDR Drive—the expressway that looped around the entire island—sword flying in flarecrosses at falling clones. Street sweeping. He'd better be getting community service hours for this at least!

He slash-twirled his way along the Upper East Side of Junon where the buildings of the wealthy elite torched like a riot in full swing. Zack cleared his sector of clones unscathed, he could only hope the other SOLDIER's had come away as lucky as he had.

He made it down to the Disaster Zone set up under the Queensboro bridge, where FEMA personnel stood around with clipboards being about as useful as the Turks. A civilian came up to him because he was a man in uniform.

"What's going on here? Are they shooting a movie or something?"

Zack directed him to the Incident Commander of the Civilian Evacuation Site and went around to see if anyone else needed help.

A Security Officer looked flushed and flustered.

"How you doing Colonel? Everything alright here?"

The Colonel threw his hands in the air. "That rookie grunt over there got motion sickness from the helicopter ride. Here we are facing catastrophe, and he gets freaking airsick! That's just great…"

Zack caught sight of an infantry kid leaning with his head down against the bridge column. He went over to see if he could help, maybe at least get him to the medical tent.

"Hey, are you alright?" Zack asked.

The kid's helmet hung limp in his hand while his other braced him against the column. "Y-yeah. On the helicopter…I got a little nauseous."

He looked up at Zack with blue eyes like neon and blonde hair that shot to the sky. Zack's face lit up.

"Hey! Cloud!"

Cloud managed a slight smile and a shudder.

"Hi Zack. Wow, you remembered me."

"Of course I do! How could I forget?" Zack was so elated he glowed! But poor Cloud radiated the entire color spectrum between blue and green. "...Eek, you okay?"

"Yeah, sorry, the last time I was on a helicopter was like the worst day of my life."

Zack beamed a smile that took in his ears, holding back the urge to just jump all over him.

"Zack!" Tseng called from across the staging area. "I need you front and center."

Zack bobbed his head, mocking the Turk, and looked back at Cloud.

"Hey listen, when all this is over, come find me in SOLDIER wing. We need to hang out!"

"Definitely! That would be great!"

"Yeah, we'll grab a bite to eat—my treat."

At the mention of food, Cloud spewed his guts out against the column.

"Whoa!" Zack stood back enthralled by the pure projectile force. "You've got some real propulsion power there. Solid four stars!"

At the restaurant reference, Cloud chucked again.

"Oh man," he shuddered. "Embarrassing."

"Haha! Don't worry about it! Hope you feel better."

Zack clapped him on the back, sending him into choking fits, but there was nothing left to upchuck! He went over to see what the heck Tseng wanted now, but Kunsel and Luxiere caught up with him halfway across the staging area. It was good to see they were still in one piece and looked like the clones hadn't given them too much trouble. They huddled up when they got to him.

"Hey Zack, Cissnei is here."

They saw Zack's jaw clench. His expression didn't change, but his eyes did a darkening and lightening thing that sent a shudder through their spines.

"Where did you see her?" he asked in an even tone.

"She came up to us. She gave me this postcard for you. I didn't know what you'd want me to do with it."

Kunsel gave him a postcard of white beaches, a tropical sun beaming down on blue waters as clear as his eyes. Costa del Sol, he got the reference, and the message even though there was nothing written on the card.

What the hell, they were in the middle of a Type 1 incident where people were wounded and structure loss was at critical levels and she drops this on him NOW? She picked the best times to try talking to him.

"You know what I want you to do with it? C'mere, I'll show you."

Zack walked over to a Parks Department garbage can, tore the card into tiny pieces, and dropped them in the tin. Ohhhh, Kunsel and Luxiere covered their mouths while Zack brushed his hands off in a very deliberate motion, knowing she was watching somewhere. He continued over to Tseng, but Kunsel and Luxiere did a double-take, looking at each other and back at their buddy to be sure. They saw something in Zack that they hadn't caught a glimpse of in a long time…his tail was wagging.

Tseng stood with his arms crossed, surveying the situation at the Disaster Zone.

"No sign of Hollander."

Zack stood crossing his arms likewise. "It's not over, is it?"

"We'll begin evacuating the residents. You'll secure Hollander when Intel has pinned down an attack field."

"You're making me babysit Hollander? Don't you think I'd be put to better use on the battlefield?"

"Hollander knows company secrets classified at the highest level. The President insists that he be secured."

Zack shook his head with a frustrated sigh. "This chain of command has gone straight to hell in a handbasket."

"Shinra wanted their best operator on this job, so they called you."

Zack looked up. He'd been a 1st for a while now but it was the first time he'd ever heard that. The magnitude of that statement stuck out in his being for later contemplation.

Tseng's phone rang. He answered it without a word and the expression on his face told Zack the whole story. They'd found him.

"Zack. Junon Cannon. Go!"

He rushed off at full sprint to leap off steel girders onto the bridge. He ran up to the gondola, swiping his ID card at the turnstile which doubled as his Metro card—man it's $2.75 a ride now—and rode it over to Roosevelt Island.

The island was a manufactured structure that hosted the monumental Junon Cannon. Technically registered as a monument with the city, a little museum was situated at its port for the tourists. Zack rode up a platform airlift to the main level, where he saw Hollander running for his life toward the airship dock.

"That's far enough!" Zack yelled as he rushed up with a hand on his sword hilt, cornering the scientist at the edge of the platform.

Hollander turned in a slow shuffle to meet the SOLDIER. He was at the edge now, nowhere to run. He shook in horror-gaped spasms, pale as a ghost.

"Really?" Hollander leered with a wry smile. "You sure?"

Something about this whole scene seemed eerily familiar to Zack, like something out of a stage-play he'd seen before, and he realized his error.

"Hey!" Zack ran to him, but Hollander backfell off the platform. He reached the edge in time to see the doc carried off by two flying Genesis clones.

"Mission failed," a familiar velveteen voice spoke behind him. "This goes on your permanent record."

Zack whipped around, his mouth gaping in awe.

"Sephiroth!"

And there he was, the living star, standing in defiance of the sun. He looked at Zack with that secretive gaze, that guarded composure that hid the subtle sarcasm in his voice. So this was the ghost Hollander had been running from.

"Let the Turks take care of the rest. I was on my way to Headquarters, but I heard you were in the area."

He walked past with that cool saunter, that flowing stride. He'd come to see Zack.

Sephiroth looked out over the edge of the platform, staring out into the sunset. "The situation has not resolved. Genesis sightings have been pouring in from around the world."

Zack stared out at the sunset with him.

"That can't be. Genesis is dead. I saw him…" Zack stopped, remembering. He bore into Sephiroth with a certain stare that the man returned right back.

"Did you see him die?" he asked Zack.

"I saw him fall…" But he realized the error of his ways. Sephiroth was always the bane of absolute truth; always confirm the kill. Zack struggled, remembering the day, while Sephiroth looked back out at the fading horizon.

"They've been sighted in Midgar as well."

"…I see."

"…The Slums too."

Zack's eyes flew into planning, a million thoughts swirling in his ocean irises. Sephiroth saw, glancing at the young SOLDIER with the subtlest of gazes as if he was trying to peer underneath a parapet. Was that worry he caught?

"Permission to return…granted."

And the most elusive grin escaped him. Here was a man of few words.

Zack stood stunned as they lingered on the airship platform, parhelion umbras encircling them from the sky.

"Take care," Sephiroth waved him off, and he was dismissed.

"You too," Zack added after a long moment. His attention remained transfixed on Sephiroth.

The man stared off into the sun, bathed in an aural radiance that gleaned off him in a stellar eclipse. Zack hesitated, wanting to speak, wanting nothing more in life than to say words that wouldn't come. Sephiroth waited while Zack lifted a hand with an opened mouth, nothing. The words were dead air caught in his throat.

The slightest grin escaped the man's silver countenance. "We'll meet again soon."

A wagging finger, and Zack pursed his lips.

"I'll hold you to that."

And he started away from the cannon bulkhead.

He didn't see the warm glow in Sephiroth's eyes as he watched him go. Zack had changed so much since Wutai—he'd grown. He strode with his sword like it had never belonged anywhere else, like the sword had chosen a new master, and it suited him. With the wind at his back and the sun in his hair, a thought crept through Sephiroth's mind as he watched Zack walk away with the sword of a dear friend on his shoulder.

Angeal, you did a great job with him.

.

[Received Dragon Armlet]