This is where part two begins. This is the turning point of this story.
Zack began his story:
"It got really foggy when I 'died'." Zack said. Cloud snickered. "No, I'm serious. A mist drifted in and I seemed to lose all connection to reality. It felt like I was drifting in and out of life. I could view events going on in the past, present, and future. I could see different dimensions. I became the ultimate observer. As far as I know, there are three dimensions…"
"What!?!" Cloud exclaimed, "Three? I thought two was one too many. Besides, are you sure you weren't just hallucinating? Well, you wouldn't be able to hallucinate if you were…" Zack put his hand up to silence Cloud.
"Patience." Zack said calmly, "I will get to everything in time." Cloud closed his mouth and sat attentively. "Thank you. So as I was saying, there are three dimensions. It made me seem extremely lonely. I was existing outside of everything. It was as if I was nothing. I wasn't dead, I could tell, because I was in neither heaven nor hell. I was in some state of limbo. I had no idea why at the time, but I knew I had some purpose. It wasn't my time to die. So for the time being, I was doomed to wander the planes between worlds. My main interest was you of course. I tried as often as I could to communicate with you through your dreams, but all it did was give you horrible flashbacks, so I only tried every once in a while. It was always the same. It pained me to see you like that. I watched you during your journey. I was happy to see you recover, albeit slowly, from the horrors at Nibelheim. Your battles with Sephiroth tore me apart. Both of you were my friends…"
"Wait!" Cloud interrupted. "Sephiroth was evil by then! That was the evil Sephiroth. The corrupted Sephiroth."
"I see you talked with Aeris." Zack said plainly.
"What?" Cloud wondered out loud.
"I was the one who told Aeris that. She is currently in the same state I was. She didn't pass on to heaven, so I met her in the interdimension. We came to the conclusion that we both still had missions to do, and they both involved you. I was resurrected before her, but I don't think she will be resurrected. I came to the conclusion that she is meant to act as your guardian angel, and won't pass on until this battle is over. I, on the other hand, was forcefully removed from the interdimension."
"Wait, so you're not…" Cloud didn't need to finish his sentence.
"Not at all. I might have dated Aeris before, but considering I 'died' I can see how she might fall in love with someone else. Besides, we were just dating. It wasn't a super serious thing." Zack grinned, he had moved on, but Cloud knew he was lying, but Cloud smiled back. Always full of smiles Zack was.
"So what about you being removed?" Cloud was full of questions. It was not Zack, but Vincent who then spoke up.
"Quiet, fool!" Cloud was taken aback. Vincent continued, "Listen, then maybe you won't have so many questions." Zack turned his head towards Vincent and made a slight gesture with his hand.
"Now now, Vincent, no need to be so harsh. I can imagine how Cloud could be confused. Not everyone has such a malleable mind as you Vincent. Vincent grunted and folded his arms over his chest, sitting down on a rock. "Now, please Cloud, don't interrupt. It just makes it more confusing." Zack stretched his legs out and then continued with the story. "Now where was I? Oh yeah, the battle. You know what? I'll explain the Sephiroth situation to you." Zack ran his hand through his hair, "boy is it confusing. It still boggles my mind. I only know this because I could see it all from an objective perspective while I was dead. I'll lay it out for you," Zack drew three circles in the dirt using his finger. Then he drew a box in between them. He pointed to the first globe and drew a long haired man inside of it. "This is Midgar. The man is Sephiroth." He then pointed to the second globe and drew another man. "This is Spira. The man in this globe is Kuja."
"Then what about the third globe?" Cloud asked. Zack held up his hand, signifying silence.
"This final globe is the third world. I do not know what it is called, or what it contains, because my soul was linked to yours. I could only visit the dimensions you were in. There is only one thing I know, and even that might not be true. I believe that there is a third part of Sephiroth in this world." Cloud was about to say something, but then decided better of it. Zack continued. "Kuja is not a corrupted piece of Sephiroth. The two are pieces of one being, the fallen angel." Zack paused, and Cloud could not contain himself.
"So Aeris lied to me?" Cloud look horrified. Zack remained calm.
"No, no on purpose anyways. To understand it, you must know that when I was resurrected, I was pulled away from Aeris for a time before I was resurrected. This is when I saw the things that changed everything. I had told Aeris my theories before that, so she told you what she thought was true, and even then, in a way it still is. Don't worry, she's looking out for you. She did help you regain your memories after all." As Zack finished speaking, Cloud's face lightened. Zack continued. "As I was felt my soul being tugged back to the living after that seemingly eternity of nonexistence, I saw three cords of energy. Two were headed straight for Spira, and the third for a place that I had never been able to see before. This is the third world. I looked towards Midgar and saw there was no energy leading there. It was because of what I was able to glimpse at the end of the third cord that led me to my current conclusion. I saw a third silver haired man. He wielded a silver blade and had a silver crystal embedded in his hand. I was too far revived to see what was on the end of the two other cords, for a new mist had started to form, but I suspect that it was Kuja and Sephiroth, for they are currently in the same world." Zack then went silent again.
"Wow…" was all Cloud could say, "Your saying that Sephiroth, Kuja, and this third man are all three parts of a fallen angel?" Zack nodded his head. Cloud slumped back against his rock.
"They all have such similarities, it's hard to ignore," Vincent spoke up.
"Yeah, but if they were separated, why are they coming back together? Well, at least Kuja and Sephiroth are. Also, where do I fit into the picture, and what resurrected you?" The questions flowed from Cloud like a torrential rain. Vincent answered Cloud's first question.
"I can answer that. While I don't know how or why they were separated, I can tell you why they are reuniting. It is Kuja's doing. He opened the portal that sucked up you and Sephiroth into Spira. He was trying to reunite the pieces of the fallen angel. Apparently he thinks that if he is in control of the fusion, his consciousness will keep." Zack interrupted.
"It's either that or he simply wants his true form to be restored, whether he keeps his consciousness or not. The thing he didn't count on was Jenova. Jenova's cells and Hojo's experiments caused you and Sephiroth to share a dangerously close bond, which caused a fragment of his domineering consciousness to bleed over into you. I was only unaffected because I died too early. Kuja needed that piece of Sephiroth back, and it didn't matter who obtained it, because he was planning on fusing with Sephiroth anyways."
"Why is it Kuja that is doing this and not Sephiroth?" Cloud asked.
"Well if my theory holds correct, it's because Sephiroth reincarnated himself as a child in order to not be able to be refused." Zack stopped talking. Cloud wondered the reason for the silence. Then he remembered.
"Lucrecia…" Vincent muttered. Vincent's long lost love, tricked into giving birth to Sephiroth, and then killed herself for it.
"Exactly," replied Zack, "Originally, none of the pieces, for that is what I will call them now, wanted to be refused together. Kuja though, changed his mind for some reason. The barrier originally set up to divide the three worlds had weakened at the spot sealing off because of the mako plants at Midgar city. This allowed Kuja to warp Sephiroth into Spira, and you were taken with him because your proximity to Sephiroth and the part of Sephiroth that was inside you. Kuja will try to fight Sephiroth and subdue him, then he will absorb him and become 2/3 complete. I don't know why I was brought back, but I believe it was to fight alongside you. There is a higher cosmic power working here, and we need to stop it. We must halt the reformation of the fallen angel." Zack stared ahead, determined. Cloud could feel his passion. Zack had seen much and it had enflamed him.
"Alright," Cloud responded, "how do you propose we do that?
"We find the final piece," Vincent replied. "We must go to the new world, find that piece of the angel, and destroy him."
"Why not defeat Kuja?" Cloud inquired.
"I can't be done," Zack replied, "at this point, not even Sephiroth can stand up to Kuja's power."
"But how are we going to get there?" Cloud asked.
"Like this," Vincent pulled out a sphere. It was perfectly round, small, and green with purple cracks. It had an eerie glow to it. "This is a warp materia. It is a materia Kuja imbued with his own power to allow him to break the dimensional barriers. He can use it to either warp within a dimension or to another one. He can't, however, warp to the new dimension because he can only use it to go places he has glimpsed. He has never seen the new dimension or an image of anything inside of it. The way he brought you and Sephiroth through the portal was simply by breaking the barrier and having you fall through it, because he knows what Sephiroth looks like."
"So why can't he pull the third piece through the final barrier?" said Cloud.
"I don't think he knows it exists. The final piece of the angel is smart. He has sealed himself away very well," said Zack, "He doesn't want anybody coming through."
"Or maybe he does want us to come through," interrupted Vincent, "I think he allowed Zack a glimpse of his dimension so we could come through."
"So we can kill him?" asked Cloud.
"No," replied Zack, "but I'm assuming that's what it is going to come down to." Right as Zack had finished speaking, there was an incredibly loud explosion. It came from far in the distance. Cloud looked to the source, and he saw a giant cloud of fire on the horizon.
"That's our cue," said Vincent nonchalantly. He stood up. Zack did too.
"Let's go," he said. Vincent tossed the materia to Zack. Zack pushed the materia into his arm, and it effortlessly melded with him. Cloud stood up, but with much more urgency that his comrades.
"What the hell was that?" he exclaimed.
"Kuja has begun his assault on the world of Spira. It won't be long before he finds Sephiroth and reabsorbs him. We have to use the materia while he is focused on his hunt so he doesn't sense the special disturbance."
"But what about everyone here?" Cloud's face grew dark.
"If we stay here, everyone will die. If we go, there is a chance to save them." Zack looked Cloud straight in the eyes, "But I'm not promising anything."
Zack grabbed Cloud by the arm and drew him to his side, and then grabbed Cloud's Brotherhood sword and lifted the Buster Sword from the ground. Vincent put his hand on Zack's shoulder. Zack held out his left arm, and the cliff face in front of the three seemed to melt into nothingness. What was left was a shimmering portal of something that Cloud couldn't describe.
"I assume we're jumping through there." Cloud said.
"Yup, so hold on tight," Zack replied, "It's time to party." Zack leaped forward, taking Cloud and Vincent with him. In a flash, the three were gone, and the portal had closed up behind him. As far as Spira cared, Zack, Cloud, and Vincent never existed.