Chapter Twenty-one: Not-Zack

Kunsel set a fast pace, moving through the dimly lit corridors. We started in the upper stories of a warehouse and descended a metal staircase. If I didn't know any better I would have thought that the SOLDIER was trying to lose me, but he kept pausing looking over his shoulder and then motioning for me to hurry. We passed a few of Genesis's men in the halls, but they must have assumed I was one of them because no one challenged us.

We reached a cargo elevator and Kunsel swiped his keycard over the security pad. The doors grumbled open. Inside I could see blood stains on the grated floor and smell the chemical burn of ammonia and bleach. Kunsel hit the button for the subbasement. The door closed and we started dropping slowly.

"Ask him what he means," Zack said appearing so suddenly at my elbow that I almost jumped.

"What do you mean?"

Kunsel looked at me. "I'll show you." He wouldn't say anything else.

It took ten minutes to reach the subbasement. Zack did squats the whole time and the temperature plummeted. I could see my breath. I could see Kunsel's breath. I couldn't see Zack's. The door started to open. I stepped to the side, shielding myself with the doors as long as possible. There were frosted glass doors about ten feet from the elevator and I could see a blinking red light indicating a keycard was needed again. Kunsel stepped out and swiped his card. I followed him.

Inside the frosted glass door was a laboratory. Spaced evenly throughout the room were tanks filled with pale green mako. Bodies floated in the liquid, eyes closed. It was eerie. I walked through the crop of bodies floating in mako tanks. Bodies? Corpses was maybe a better word. The hum an industrial air conditioning unit didn't help the atmosphere either. Gooseflesh puckered the skin on my arms and the hairs on the back of my neck felt electrified.

Then I saw Sephiroth. His silver hair hung like a cloud around his lithe body. He didn't look peaceful. His strong features were as cruel and heartless as always. He wasn't smirking though. His lips were slightly parted. There was no breathing apparatus in the tank. I tapped the tank with Kunsel's sword. The sound echoed dully.

Sephiroth's eyes did not open.

Kunsel was still walking, weaving between the tanks. Sephiroth never mattered to Kunsel. He once told me that Sephiroth was . . . My thoughts trailed off. The room seemed to tilt to the left as my eyes caught sight of something worse than a hundred corpses floating in mako. Somewhere to the left of Sephiroth I saw Zack. In the flesh. For the first time since I'd buried his body.

His black hair hung limp around his face, deprived of whatever it was that made Zack's hair spiky. His skin was pallid and in patches the skin was so translucent that I could see the fibers of his muscles. His eyes were partially open, but his pupils were all black with just a rim of blue along the outer edges.

Behind me I heard Zack see his body. He choked and started walking toward the tank. I could hear his boots striking the floor. "Wait," I said. "Wait." I turned, stepping in front of him. For some reason I didn't want him to see this perversion of him. Whatever the thing in the tank was, it was not Zack. Zack had been with me for months and months.

He was shaking his head, eyes transfixed on the not-Zack in the tank. He was making a noise somewhere between a whimper and a moan. Or maybe that was me. Or both of us. He walked through me. I felt a chill and gasped, spinning to follow his movements. He stopped at the glass and pressed his hand to the tank.

Not-Zack didn't twitch. My Zack's chest was rising and falling too fast. Kunsel was talking, probably explaining what the hell was going on. He looked excited and motioned beyond Zack to a pretty brunette woman in a nearby tank. I focused on my Zack again. He screamed. His body flickered. He drew his hand back, looking at his flickering flesh. Then he pushed his hand into the tank.

When he touched the flesh of not-Zack, they both convulsed. Kunsel was suddenly quiet. I froze, staring stupidly. Zack tried to pull his hand away from not-Zack. Not-Zack's hand moved with his. Zack went still. Then he turned his head to me. His eyes showed too much white. "Help?" he asked, too confused to say anything else.

Then he was gone. Not-Zack's chest rose and fell once. Then he was motionless, hanging just like every other dead thing in the tanks.

Kunsel laughed shakily. "That was weird. I've never seen them move before. But like I was saying, we're going to bring them back, Cissnei. They're all going to live again."

"H-how?"

"I don't know the science," Kunsel admitted. "Dr. Moonstone is in charge of the project. I come down here to talk to Kate and Zack a lot. I like to think that they can hear me."

"Dr. Moonstone?" I asked, numb. What the f#$% had just happened?

He pointed toward an office at the end of another line of tanks. The blinds were drawn but I could see a shimmer of light. I started toward the office. "Tell Zack that I'll be right back," I said. My voice was a bit hollow, but Kunsel nodded. He didn't seem to see how wrong this was.

I used Kunsel's sword to cut the door open. "Dr. Moonstone?"

A man looked up, blinking from a trashy Junon romance novel. He was a portly little old guy with white hair and wrinkled pale white skin. His eyes were watery and seemed fishlike because he had no lashes. "Who are you?" he squeaked. "SOLDIER doesn't have clearance for –"

"Wrong. I'm a Turk," I said.

"The Turks don't have clearance either –"

I pushed the door closed, ignoring him. There was a wooden chair with a bunch of papers precariously balanced. I knocked the papers to the floor and wedged the chair under the door handle. That would keep him from escaping even if it wouldn't stop anyone from coming to his rescue. He was simpering at me, alternating between threats and questions.

I held up three fingers, silencing him. "First," I said, ticking one finger down. "I'm with the Turks, not the fools who think they're 'Genesis's Turks.' The real Turks." I smirked. "That means I don't need any clearance."

He swallowed and clutched the romance novel closer to his chest.

"Two," I said, ticking down my second finger. "One of the bodies out there used to be a friend. I don't like what you've done with him." I stepped toward him. "And third, I already don't like you. This can and will get worse for you. But if you play nice, then maybe I will."

"What do you want?"

"Tell me the science," I said.

"That is classified –"

"Wrong answer. I am a Turk. Classified just means I have to ask for the information the right way." He talked after that. I won't detail what happened to the little old man. In the end I found out he wasn't a scientist at all. He was just an actor. He'd cast Genesis as the hero of LOVELESS in Genesis's first stage play. When Genesis had died, he'd mourned the death of a great actor. When he found out Genesis was alive and in a real-life version of LOVELESS, he'd offered to help. His offer had just cost him a clean death. I wiped the blood from my sword and used a cloth to wipe the blood splatter from my face.

The bodies outside weren't coming back to life. They were cloned bodies without souls. The people were already long gone. They were not coming back. It was just a ploy to keep people like Kunsel fighting. I moved the chair and headed back to the tank with not-Zack.

As I approached Kunsel I could hear him talking to not-Zack. His voice was quiet. He was explaining that he thought I might be able to help him rescue Kate. He didn't trust Genesis and he just wanted to get Kate and Zack away from Genesis.

"Kunsel?"

He turned, smiling a bit. "Y-you're covered in blood," he stammered.

"I had questions. He didn't want to answer."

Kunsel scowled at me. "Cissnei –"

"I'm a Turk, Kunsel. It's what I do." I tossed him his sword. "Will you listen to me?" I stepped to the tank holding Zack. "You don't want to be blind again, do you? You want to see the truth before everything goes to hell this time right?"

"What do you mean? I can see just fine."

I had a headache. "Dr. Moonstone said there is no science. Genesis can clone the bodies, but he can't bring the spirits back. It's a lie."

"Cissnei –"

"That thing isn't Zack. I'm going to . . . destroy it."

"Okay – wait, no!" Kunsel grabbed me, dropping his sword to the floor with a clatter. "You can't take that chance."

I just stared at him, willing him to believe me. For several minutes we locked eyes, him glaring and trying to convince me that Zack was coming back. My expression was tired. I needed whisky. I needed a smoke. I needed the room to stop spinning around. I needed him to not fight me. I needed him to believe.

His expression hardened. "You're just a tool," he said finally, voice harsh. "I thought you loved Zack. But you really don't have emotions, do you? You're a monster." He let go of me, stepping back. "Leave. Now. I don't want to fight you here, Cissnei, but the next time that I see you, I will kill you." He turned toward not-Zack. "I'm sorry, man. Some people aren't really people. I thought she might be different."

I turned from him, walking away. I wasn't leaving. I was getting a sword and materia. And then I was going to save Zack. There had been a sword in the office. I reached the door. My fingers were cold and I was shivering. I could see the splatter of fake doctor's blood. The lights flickered. Then I wasn't in the subbasement anymore. I was in a warm field of lilies. The scent of the flowers hung in the air like heady perfume.

There was a girl kneeling by the flowers, hands ghosting across the petals. She wore a pick dress and combat boots. As I stared, she turned, her spring green eyes meeting mine. "Oh," she said, putting one hand against her mouth. "You're not Cloud."