Singlet State

Further inside the reactor Sephiroth and Zack found another old-fashioned Mako tank ‒again occupied by a catatonic Dead Man‒ a bed and a whole lot of paperwork. They did not however find a scientist. Zack groaned, kicking at the metal floor. He needed to talk to Angeal, dammit! Where the hell was his mentor?

Sephiroth, apparently unperturbed by either the floating body or his subordinate's poor humour, leafed through the notes and papers attached to a clipboard whilst muttering darkly to himself. As far as Zack could tell, most of the words the Silver General was uttering were highly profane and addressed at both scientists in general and Hollander in particular. He hadn't known Seph even knew those rather colourful phrases and had certainly never heard them used before.

"Did Cloud tell you about Project G?" the Silver General asked after tossing the clipboard aside in contempt.

"Only in passing," Zack admitted carefully. "I know it was named after Angeal's mother and that she, Genesis and Angeal were the test subjects. Genesis was considered a failure and Angeal a success, but both needed the same medical treatment, which Vincent provided."

"The reason they needed treatment was that the experimental project implanted in them cells which hosted an extraterrestrial virus. Said virus had matured within them to the point of being entrenched enough to consume them completely, which would have degraded their bodies and eventually killed them. Had Valentine not intervened when she did both Genesis and Angeal would be very sick by now. Possibly dead, certainly dying."

Zack's jaw dropped.

"Even if they were still alive they would certainly have become severely mentally unbalanced and irrational," Sephiroth went on, "as sick people are rarely sensible and brain cells would have been just as affected as the rest of their internal tissues, not to mention the effects of the pain they would be suffering. We all owe Valentine a great deal for that." He paused, head tilting to one side. "Follow my lead."

There was a moment of quiet, then a few soft sounds drifted over from behind Zack; someone was coming down the stairs. Then the spiky-haired brunet heard Hollander's voice:

"Se-Sephiroth!"

"Hollander," the Silver General replied coolly, turning to face the scientist. "So you are here after all." he walked closer, drawing the professor's attention away from Zack, who considered edging closer to take the man down.

"Who else did you think would be capable of stopping Genesis and Angeal's degradation?" Hollander retorted. Zack wasn't fooled; the scientist was afraid, he could almost smell it.

Then Genesis dropped from the rafters, swings spread and sword drawn, landing lightly between Sephiroth and the professor. The Crimson General moved smoothly, wings mantling back in clean arches behind him to block the scientist from their sight. He smirked over at the two ShinRa SOLDIERs, hair fluttering and earrings swaying.

"Genesis," Sephiroth said flatly. Zack moved so that he was behind his General and a little to the right. The Crimson General levelled his rapier at them, point inches from Sephiroth's throat.

"I will not hand over Hollander," the black-winged SOLDIER drawled calmly as the scientist fled the scene.

"Zack, go after Hollander," Sephiroth snapped. Unsure of what the whole pantomime was in aid of and unsure of his place in the grand scheme of things, the young first-class just nodded and obeyed, dashing off at speed. He was a straightforward kind of guy and this all was too complicated for him to keep track of, so he resorted to the military default: follow orders. He trusted Seph, so he had no issue with chasing after the renegade professor.

Genesis stepped aside graciously, wing curving back to let Zack give chase to the scientist while never wavering from keeping the Silver General at swordpoint. Taking this as permission from both parties, the brunet sped on up the stairs at Hollander's heels.


Zack finally caught up with Hollander on the lowest floor of the Mako reactor, down by the open and unfinished part of the building that had a missing wall, so the sky was visible over the edge of the Plate. The SOLDIER was angry at whet the scientist had done to his mentor, angry at the man's short-sighted greed and lack of care.

"Do you even understand what you're doing!" he shouted angrily, advancing as he drove the cringing professor closer to the open edge. Then a very familiar sword swung down from behind a pillar, blocking his advance. Hollander instantly took advantage of the distraction and fled. Zack sighed. "what are you playing at, Angeal?"

"World conquest," came the deadpan reply.

"Ha, ha, very funny. Enough with the boring jokes already!"

"Revenge then," Angeal said, eyes staring straight ahead out at the overcast late evening sky.

"If it's for revenge, why are you working with Hollander? Isn't he the one you should be taking your revenge on?" Zack pointed out logically. Angeal ignored his words, walking over towards the open end of the floor where the biulding work hadn't been finished yet. "Oi! Angeal!" Zack called after his mentor, moving closer.

There was a flurry of white feathers and Zack took a step back with an awed gasp. Angeal had wings. Pristine white wings, one pair large as a griffins if not larger with a smaller, vestigial pair tucked underneath the main ones.

"Look what I've become," Angeal said unhappily, "and tell me what I should seek beyond revenge or world conquest. I am no longer human."

"They're beautiful," Zack countered, walking closer. "You have angel's wings."

"So if I am an angel, what should my goals be?" Angeal snapped, wings twitching angrily. "What dreams should I have?"

Zack didn't know what to say. Theology was not his strongest subject and he'd never seen his mentor go completely to pieces before. The Dark General hefted the Buster sword and drove it into the floor, then advanced towards his student with dangerous deliberation. Zack retreated. "Angeal," he pleaded.

"Angels have only one dream," the white-winged General growled at his protégé.

"So tell me what it is," Zack responded, still retreating. His instincts were screaming at him and Angeal was not an opponent he could beat, which left running away.

"Angeal paused. "To be human," he hissed through clenched teeth. Then Zack was airborne, bent double from a punch to the stomach.

He landed heavily, tumbling across the floor to end up in a heap on the metal gratings back near the stairs. The first-class staggered carefully to his feet, moved into a fighting stance then relaxed with a self-mocking chuckle. He couldn't fight Angeal; he didn't even want to fight Angeal. But his mentor wanted him to fight back. Back before they defected it had always been Genesis that was the pushy one.

Which meant that it fell to Zack to do what Cloud had always done whenever he wasn't in the mood to be creamed by the Crimson General in a not-quite-spar: not play along.

"Fight!" Angeal snapped at him.

Zack rocked on his heels and shook his head, a bemused smile on his face. He, Zackary Fair, was being the grown-up one for a change. Go figure.

Angeal frowned and his right hand ignited with a Fire spell. The Dark General roared in anger and the spiky-haired SOLDIER flinched; this was going to hurt. Then too many things happened at once:

Angeal punched the ground, causing the Fire to shoot towards Zack along the ground at high speed.

Something hit the cringing SOLDIER from the side, knocking him out of the way of the blast as it exploded and loosened the floor gratings beneath him.

Someone shouted.

Zack rolled over on the unsteady gratings into‒

‒Rosso?

Rosso had knocked him out of the way of the blast.

"Rosso!" came a second bellow. Zack looked up just as the gratings fell away from beneath him to see Genesis leap down towards them from the top of the staircase. The young first-class had barely enough time to wrap himself protectively around the girl who'd tried to help him as they fell down into the abyss, the Crimson General plunging after them.

Then the corner of one of the gratings slammed into Zack's skull and everything went black.


More confrontations in the Sector Five reactor and Zack falls through the Plate again, though this time with company. I think Genesis may be next, but there will be Turk viewpoints after that as I will have moved to a point in the plot where long overviews are possible.

So, Veld. I'm looking forward to it.