Hi all, thank you for your reviews to Chapter 55 and I'm sorry I haven't replied yet. That's what I'll be doing right after posting this update :)

Take care of yourselves, friends

~Fifty-Six~

"You've always acted like protecting me means you have to treat me like a child! And maybe if you hadn't then I wouldn't have convinced myself that I'm so fucking weak, and then maybe some of the shit that happened wouldn't have happened!"

He was so angry. There were tears welling up in his eyes because of it. If Cloud only knew how much that killed him inside to see.

"You let me believe I have a mother and a father, that I had a life that was never mine. I trusted you, Zack. You were the only one I trusted."

He was just trying to do what he thought was best. That's all he had ever tried to do. He just cared so much and somehow it always just seemed wrong. Look at where it had all led? Whatever happened, it was his fault.

The sound of the cell door opening had Zack jolting on his bed. It had startled him from his half-sleeping state and he wasn't upset about it. Anything to distract him and pull him back to the present was welcomed, even if his present situation wasn't so comforting.

He looked over to the doorway where a guard informed him he had a visitor. Again. He seemed to spend equal amounts of time in the visitation room as he did in his cell. This seemed different though. It was early, he thought, earlier than visiting hours.

"What time is it?" he asked the guard.

"Seven-thirty," the man grunted. Definitely too early for a normal visitation from someone he knew.

He was led to a different room than the one he'd been brought to previously. There were no bars. It was just a simple room with a table and some chairs, not unlike an interrogation room. There was a man present inside, dressed in a navy blue suit. He was too young and too groomed to be a detective. Definitely wasn't a Turk though. He had a folder on the table in front of him and a notebook. He had on a pair of thin framed glasses that he removed when Zack was brought into the room. He stood and smiled. The guard who'd led Zack in didn't remove his cuffs but he did leave him alone in the room with his visitor. Zack watched the door close with a bit of confusion.

"Mr. Fair, it's good to meet you," the man spoke then, and Zack turned his attention his way.

"Is it?" he asked in return.

The man smiled once more and nodded. "It is," he said before gesturing to the chair across the small table from him. "Why don't you have a seat?" he suggested.

Everything about the man seemed expensive. His haircut, his suit, his teeth. Somehow it only made Zack more uneasy. Hesitantly, he made his way to the chair, shuffling himself between it and the table before finally sitting.

"My name is Peter Rice," the visitor introduced himself as he sat back down. "I'm from Barker and Maine Law Office," he announced.

A lawyer. It made sense now.

"Uh, I didn't call you," Zack told him, and the man shook his head.

"No, but my office is interested in representing you," he replied in a friendly tone.

"Why?" Zack asked.

"We find your case interesting," Rice said.

Zack couldn't help but smirk a little internally. It really wasn't an interesting case, he didn't think. "Okay. Uh, thanks," he said, "but I can't pay you anything."

"We understand," was the man's quick reply. "We want to do this pro bono. You wouldn't have to pay anything," he explained.

All Zack could do for a second was stare back at him skeptically, not even sure he was hearing correctly. He was really exhausted so he assumed he was missing something. After a moment he shook his head. "I'm sorry, I'm really confused," he spoke then. "How did you even find out about my case?" he questioned.

"Everyone on the continent is aware of it after your father's interview," Rice answered as though it should be obvious.

That statement only made Zack feel more lost than he already did. "My father's…what?" he asked.

"Your father's interview," the man repeated. "He spoke live to Midgar Daily by phone last night," he revealed. He smiled gently. "I take it this is the first you're hearing about this?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess," Zack uttered back without looking at him. He was sure Aerith would have told him about something like that, but he assumed that she must not have had the chance yet.

"Here, have a listen," Rice offered as he pulled up the recorded interview on his phone and set it up to play at a certain spot. He set the phone on the table between them then. Zack still couldn't believe what was happening until he actually recognized his father's voice.

"My son never wanted to involve us for obvious reasons. He was worried that there would be repercussions for us, but my wife and I have had enough of Shinra and their corruption. We were led to believe for years that Zack was killed in Nibelheim, we were never permitted to view his remains which was very difficult for our family. We trusted the company when they told us he wasn't coming back but then he comes home all these years later with a story that since hearing I haven't been able to sleep an entire night."

It was a hard declaration for Zack to listen to. It was bad enough dealing with what happened, but he hated thinking of his parents being so deeply affected by everything as well.

"Is the story you refer to the same that he gave in his video he sent to the media a few months back now?" the interviewer, a woman, asked his father.

"Yes, and Shinra can say whatever they want about it, but my son is not a liar," his father spoke firmly. Actually, he sounded angry.

"So, you're saying the things he claimed about being held captive and subjected to illegal human experimentation are true?" the interviewer asked.

"There's a reason he believes it is and it's not because of some mako hallucination," his father replied, making it clear in his tone the idea was ridiculous.

"You've said he's been arrested and is now in police custody, and he's being charged for that video he released?"

"That's one of the charges, yes," his father confirmed. "He's been charged with kidnapping for trying to save his friend from that torture chamber they were being kept in near Nibelheim for four years."

"His friend being former Private First Class Cloud Strife?" the interviewer asked for clarification.

"Yes."

"And the facility you refer to is the one that Shinra has said they were treated in voluntarily for trauma they sustained in the reactor incident?" was the woman's next question.

"I've seen the scars on my son and that wasn't treatment," Zack's father spoke bitingly.

"Mr. Fair, as many are aware now, Cloud Strife has contested claims that were made by your son and has said that, in fact, he did consent to be treated by Shinra," the interviewer pointed out. "Are you aware of that?"

"I believe a young man barely out of his teens, held in a situation where he is alone without any family or friends and has been subjected to what my son was would say a lot of things to avoid penalty or punishment," his father explained. The statement was so powerful that Zack could have easily started crying if he let himself.

"I see," the interviewer spoke in return. Zack wondered for a second if she was going to go deeper into what his dad was suggesting but she didn't. "Well, Mr. Fair, we reached out to the city police and they've said your son is also charged with attempted murder for a very serious attack on someone contracted by Shinra. Do you believe this is related to that time you say Zack was held in custody and presumed dead?"

"I don't know about that," his father spoke a little softer. "But after what he's been through I'm sure there was a reason for his actions, if he was involved."

Rice tapped his phone then, to end the recording. Zack stared down at the space on the table where the phone was, even as the man slid it back toward himself.

"It was a compelling interview," the man told him and he raised his eyes to look at him once more. "It's made waves. My firm is certainly not going to be the only one to reach out to you. We're simply the first."

"What do you get out of representing me?" Zack asked finally, finding his voice.

"If this case goes to trial, it's going to be one of the most high-profile cases ever tried in the city. Winning it will open up cause for action against Shinra Electric," Rice told him and he shook is head once more.

"I'm not innocent," he stated bluntly. "Of the attempted murder charge," he clarified. "And obviously I did make and send out that video that they're charging me with mischief for," he went on somewhat quietly, glancing around the room for anything that looked like microphone or recording equipment. He didn't see any. "And I did take Cloud from the facility near Nibelheim."

"Have you pled already?" Rice questioned in return.

"No," he denied.

"Looking at the charges currently against you, I'm very certain that the mischief and kidnapping charges are going to be dropped. The fact that Shinra acknowledged those acts already and did not pursue charges prior to now looks very suspicious. As far as the attempted murder charge goes, it doesn't matter whether you're guilty or innocent," the man told him then. "The point here is that Shinra is responisble for anything you may have done, or what they or the police allege you have done. You can't be held responsible," he argued.

"Why?" Zack asked.

"Shinra has publicly claimed that they knew you were unwell when you left their facility. They have stated they believe you suffer chronic hallucinations or delusions as a result of mako exposure from one of their own reactors. They've claimed you signed a consent form for treatment. Well, by you entering into an agreement with them for supposed treatment they took on medical custodianship. You were also a contracted SOLDIER employee which made them legally responsible for your healthcare. Your leaving their facility without signing a release or discharge document makes them responsible for your actions since leaving. As a licensed health facility it was their legal duty to ensure you were fit for release. If you weren't it was their duty to report it to appropriate authorities."

"Wait," Zack said then as he shut his eyes and tried to make himself understand everything the man was saying to him. "You're saying I should be pleading guilty then, right?" he asked as he looked up at him once more.

"No, that you're not criminally responsible," Rice corrected.

"That kinda sounds like an insanity defence," Zack pointed out. "I'm not actually delusional or hallucinating, we should probably get that clear," he said, a little irritated. "What I said in that video I sent to the media was true."

"I don't doubt it was," the man said softly after a moment. It actually shocked Zack to hear it, to have someone he'd never met before acknowledging that he wasn't just a liar. "But, that's not the case that's going to trial," Rice said. "Yet."

Zack sat back in his chair, feeling the road ahead of him suddenly stretching so much farther than he'd felt it to be before that moment.

"First we need to make them responsible for you. That will open up the opportunity for a new investigation into how their so-called treatment facilities are run," the lawyer told him.

Zack exhaled heavily. "I dunno," he found himself saying. He looked hard into the man's eyes. "This is Shinra we're talking about," he said. How far would anyone really get trying to make the company legally responsible for something they didn't want to be legally responsible for?

Rice gave him that expensive reassuring smile once more. "The bigger they are, the harder they fall, right?"

000

Since the moment that interview with Zack's father had aired for the first time on the evening news, Kunsel's phone had been ringing what seemed like every few minutes. By 6 am the following morning he was ready to throw it into a garbage disposal. After seeing Zack at the holding centre he'd gone off on his own for awhile and ended up a bar. That's where he'd been when the interview aired and it had come up on one of the televisions in the bar. Almost immediately afterward, his phone had come alive and he'd been ordered back to headquarters. He'd agreed to be there within the hour but that's not what had happened. He'd stayed at the bar and ignored any other calls that came in, including those that came from Aerith. He didn't know if she'd be calling to talk about the interview that had aired or if she'd talked to Zack and learned of his storage locker confession. Either way, he wasn't feeling in the right state of mind to talk to her, or anyone.

By noon the following day he still hadn't spoken to anyone and he still hadn't checked in at SOLDIER or anywhere else at headquarters. He'd used his keycard for entry to the building in the early afternoon, so they'd know he was around if they checked. Some of the messages that had been left for him over the previous hours he knew should probably scare him. There were repeated questions about where he was and warnings that he was breaking protocol and that if he didn't follow the orders he was given he was going to be hearing from the disciplinary board. One of the second class officers that he worked with regularly even went so far as to text him a message telling him that the company knew he'd gone to visit Zack the night before and that it wasn't looking good for him the longer he was missing.

He ignored all of it. Perhaps it was just the hangover influencing his thinking but he really didn't care. He had already made up his mind he was quitting SOLDIER. There was just one person he wanted to talk to before he announced it formally. Cloud. He needed to let Cloud know that he wasn't going to be able to mentor him anymore. It wasn't fair for him to find out from anyone else, even though Cloud might not care, or understand. On his way up to Cloud's apartment, Aerith called him once again. Exhaling heavily, he stopped in the hall outside the elevator on Cloud's floor to talk to her.

"Hello," he greeted sullenly, pressing his back against the one wall near by.

"Kunsel? What is going on? This is probably the tenth time I've called," Aerith told him and he nodded to himself.

"Yeah, I know," he said softly in return.

"You know? Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, I—" he started to answer her slowly but she interrupted.

"Did you get my messages? You must have seen or heard the interview by now, right?" she spoke almost urgently.

"Yeah, I—" he said once more and again she was talking before he could say anything else.

"I just got off the phone with Zack. I'm heading up to see him now. He said he has some important news," she revealed, making Kunsel's stomach sink. He imagined the news was probably regarding what he'd done with the storage locker evidence. "The centre won't let me talk to him on a phone outside of visiting hours, which I can't stand," she went on. "He didn't know about his father's interview until early this morning. I'm worried about how Shinra's going to respond to what his dad said. If it ends up hurting Zack, it'll be my fault. I've been keeping his parents updated. After I told them bail was denied they were really upset, they—"

"Aerith," he spoke firmly into his phone, trying to get her attention and quiet her. "Listen, I…" he spoke quietly then as she was waiting for him to speak. A bunch of words were on the tip of his tongue. A bunch of things he imagined saying to her. Confessing to her. But after a moment all he said was, "I'm sorry."

"Why?" she questioned finally. "What's going on?" she asked worriedly.

"I really can't talk right now. I, just, I gotta go," he told her and he ended their call before she could say anything else.

He pushed himself away from the wall at his back, slid his phone back into his pocket and headed toward Cloud's apartment door down the hall. For some reason he found himself clearing his throat before knocking. He felt nervous. After a moment the door was opening and Cloud was looking at him.

"Hi," he greeted. "Can I come in?" he asked before Cloud could say anything in return. Cloud stepped back to let him enter. When he did his eyes were drawn immediately to the television where Zack's father's interview was being aired again. "So, you've heard it, huh?" he spoke back to Cloud who shut the apartment door and nodded as he faced him.

"It's Zack's father," Cloud stated.

"Yeah," Kunsel said with a sigh before he plopped himself down on the sofa in the room. "I have to talk to you about something," he revealed.

"He said Zack's been charged with kidnapping me, is that true?" Cloud asked as he came over to where Kunsel was and sat in the nearby chair. Kunsel used the remote on the coffee table to mute the sound on the tv.

"Is it true he's been charged?" he replied in question. "Yeah."

"I don't think that's what happened," Cloud told him and Kunsel couldn't help but scoff a little.

"You don't think so?" he retorted, the words coming out in a way that sounded accusatory. He shook his head a little. "Um, look, I can't mentor you anymore. That's what I needed to talk to you about. I'm going to be leaving SOLDIER," he said and he waited to see what, if any, reaction Cloud would have to what he said.

The only thing he got back in return at first was a blank expression followed by "Why?"

"I just can't be here anymore. It's all just too much to handle," he explained vaguely. Truth be told, he didn't really want to talk about it, especially with Cloud. "Anyway, I'm sorry to have to leave you. I'd take you with me if I could." He'd thought about it before, what that would be like. What would happen if he just put Cloud in a vehicle and drove away with him.

"Where?" Cloud asked him then and he shrugged.

"Anywhere else, doesn't matter," he said

"Like, the Academy?" was Cloud's following inquiry and it had Kunsel surprised and a little confused.

"The Academy?" he echoed. "Why there?" he asked. It wasn't really what he was meaning when saying he would take him away somewhere if he could.

"Can I go there?" Cloud asked him almost hopefully. "To see it," he added.

Kunsel thought about it a second. "Yeah, I guess," he agreed. "I don't see why not. Is there a reason, or…"

Cloud looked away from him then. He seemed to be thinking hard about how to explain his reason, if he even had one he could articulate. It didn't seem like he was going to be able to manage it in any reasonable amount of time.

"You know what, never mind," he told Cloud as he stood up from the couch again. "Doesn't matter. If you want to go there, sure, I'll take you down there now," he offered. Cloud seemed a little surprised at his response, only staring up at him a moment before Kunsel told him to hurry up.

He didn't want to admit it but until they'd made it across the company grounds to the campus, weaving through the various buildings, he actually imagined some miracle situation where Cloud would see the halls and the spaces he spent time in when he was fourteen years old and all of his lost memories would come rushing back. That's not what happened, though. In fact, nothing really happened. The Academy was mostly empty for the spring break. As Cloud wandered, there were no indications of anything new coming to him, no recall. Just the same disappointing flat-seeming expressions he'd come to expect.

He'd taken Cloud around to the dormitories and the cafeteria and through some of the classrooms and training areas and finally back to the large main open hall at the entrance where Cloud's attention was captured by the various display cases of old weaponry and photographs of past classes and star students. He was just about to tell Cloud it was time they left when he heard his name spoken, and it wasn't in a friendly tone. He turned to see who had called to him. He recognized two of the men that he saw approaching him, both of them officers, but flanking them was a security guard. He looked back briefly at Cloud who was still focused on the museum-type artifacts in front of him. Then he headed forward to meet the men approaching. He was told he'd need to go with them immediately and he didn't protest. He walked with them back toward the main company building, leaving Cloud behind.

Cloud had no idea when it was that Kunsel had suddenly disappeared. He turned around and scanned the area with his eyes as he realized he didn't see him.

"Cloud!" someone called from the direction of the main doors leading outside. He recognized the person. It was Paul. He looked from him back over the large hall and all the people coming and going, still scanning for Kunsel. "You looking for someone?" Paul asked him when he was near.

"Kunsel," he answered Paul without looking at him.

"Was he supposed to meet you?" Paul asked but Cloud only half-heard it. "Hey," Paul called for his attention then and he looked at him. "Are you alright?" he asked. "I heard you were shot at the parade protecting the president! I missed that whole event, couldn't believe what happened."

Cloud nodded then. "I'm alright," he confirmed simply.

Paul smiled. He put his hands in his pockets and chuckled. "You don't seem to know how amazing what you did is," he said and Cloud gave him a small uneasy smile in return. After a moment, Paul was serious again as he asked, "Did you hear about Johnny?" Cloud nodded and Paul went on. "I know it's not the same for you, but it's just so crazy. First we find out you and Officer Fair are alive after all these years and now Johnny too. He wasn't…with you and Officer Fair for the years you were missing was he?" he inquired.

"No," Cloud told him. He looked directly at him then, finally accepting that Kunsel must really have left him where he was. He didn't know why he'd left so suddenly. There must have been a reason. Since Kunsel had told him he was going to be leaving SOLDIER, he wondered now if he was going to see him again or if that was it.

"It's just really sad that now that he's back no one can even talk to him, you know?" Paul said to him of Johnny and he nodded. "I was kind of jealous that you guys got to hang out in the army. I sort of wished I was there," Paul confessed to him. "What was it like?" he asked.

Cloud thought about it but there wasn't much he could say but the truth. "I don't really remember," he told him.

"Why can't you?" Paul asked curiously. "What it just the mako exposure or…"

"I guess it was the mako," Cloud agreed, though somewhere deep inside himself he knew there were other reasons. "They told me I was in a coma," he explained slowly. "When I woke up, I didn't remember anything at all."

"But you remember some things now?" Paul questioned and he nodded. "You remember being here?"

"A little, but not really," Cloud answered honestly. Paul seemed disappointed by that.

When Paul spoke next, he did so quietly. "Cloud, is Shinra lying about what happened to you and Officer Fair?" he dared to ask. "Were the things Officer Fair said in that video he made actually real?" As Cloud struggled with how to respond, Paul kept talking. "It's just, that statement the company released after his video was so strange. I guess it sort of made sense, but at the same time it didn't. It sounded almost like you'd recovered from the mako exposure from the incident, and were coherent enough to sign a consent form for treatment and decide you wanted to stay publicly dead, but then later they said you were suffering mako toxicity and were basically comatose again when Officer Fair left the facility with you. I mean, how did you get so sick a second time? Maybe I just don't know enough about mako exposure, but it just seems odd."

Cloud listened to everything he said, but he felt frozen, unable to really answer him. What statement? That one question kept repeating over and over in his head. He tried to think back, to place himself back when he'd seen Zack's video. It was difficult. His memory was so hazy from that time. It was because of treatment he'd had around the time of his brain surgery. Rand and Hojo had told him that. Things that had happened around that time were either missing, fragmented, or jumbled. The sequence of some of the events he could recall were out of order. He did remember seeing Zack's video but he couldn't recall all the details. And a company statement about it? He didn't know what that was at all. Earlier, when he'd heard the interview Zack's father had given, it had been said Zack was charged with kidnapping him from a company facility. Is that what the company had also said in their statement?

He didn't know what to say. All he could do was shake his head and look around, like somehow the answers were going to appear somewhere on the walls around them. His eyes found a large bronze coloured clock and as he registered what time it was, he found himself beginning to walk in the direction Kunsel had initially led him from.

"Wait, where are you going?" Paul asked him as he began walking with him fast.

"I have to go," was all he said in return.

Paul tried to apologize then. "I'm sorry if—"

"I have to go," Cloud repeated. He sped his pace and Paul backed off, slowing to a stop and letting him go.

Back in the tower, Tseng was standing outside a meeting room, holding the door open for the president and members of his legal team that were accompanying him. The other attendants were arriving off a nearby elevator. Rufus, Elena, Anya, and some notetakers. He continued to hold the door as his phone rang, reaching for it with his other hand.

"This is Tseng," he greeted.

"It's Galen," the calling voice replied.

"What can I do for you?" the Turk asked.

"Is Cloud with you?" he asked.

"He is not," he answered with a bit of confusion. "He should be with you, shouldn't he, what time is it?"

"That's why I'm calling. He hasn't shown up in the lab yet," Galen told him.

"Okay," Tseng replied uneasily. "I'm not sure why. He must be in the apartment then. He said he'd be able to go there on his own when the time came," he explained.

"Great, well, Hojo's here," Galen revealed, surprising Tseng a little. It seemed too soon for the professor to be back at work, having sustained a gunshot injury just a few days prior. "He's not happy," the lab assistant noted.

"He never is," Tseng replied. He sighed then. "I'm about to head into a meeting, I'm not sure I can—"

"Never mind, Cloud just walked in," Galen told him and Tseng exhaled deeply, relieved to hear it. It would be short-lived relief. The meeting he was headed into was about Zack. About what needed to be done about him…

Down in the lab, Cloud was surprised to see the professor for the first time since the parade. The man's left arm was in a sling but he didn't have a cast on so probably not a broken arm…He didn't really know what the professor's exact injuries had been, only that he'd been hurt. The man was wearing his lab coat awkwardly, draped over his shoulders, his right arm in the one sleeve but the left hanging vacant at his side. He looked irritated.

"You're late," the man told him when he came forward slowly. "Why?"

"It was hard to remember how to get back here," Cloud told him. He looked from the professor to Galen who gestured for him to sit down in the collection chair so the man could dispense the injections that were prepped for him.

"From where?" Hojo questioned sharply.

"The Academy campus," he answered while working on freeing his one arm from his sweater so Galen could access it.

"Seems you've been allowed to run wild while I've been gone," the man commented. "How did you end up all the way down there?" he inquired.

"Kunsel," Cloud said. "But, he went somewhere, I had to find my way back," he explained. "I'm sorry, professor," he said then as the man stared back at him hard.

"So, you came back on your own then?" Hojo spoke back finally and he nodded. For some reason the man smiled at that.

"He came back on his own after the parade," Galen told the man then.

Cloud looked at both of them but didn't say anything. Was that not what he was supposed to do? Go to the lab when he was supposed to be there?

"The parade," Hojo echoed then. "You're not expecting some sort of verbal expression of gratitude from me, are you?" he asked Cloud as he looked down at him.

For what? "No, sir," Cloud replied.

"Good," Hojo said. "You did your job, I'd expect nothing less from you at this point," he stated before finally stepping aside to let Galen do his.

000

"So, where are we right now with this continuing Zack Fair problem? This kid's become a pain in the ass that I don't want to hear about anymore," the president spoke when everyone had seated themselves.

Elena was the first to speak on the matter. "That interview his father gave last night has gotten the attention of some powerful legal firms. Barker and Maine reached out to the company this morning to let us know they'll be representing him from here on out," she announced.

"So, what do we know about that?" was the president's next question. He looked in the direction of the members of their legal team at the table.

"We had an informative discussion. They know we can't really push the kidnapping and mischief charges on account of not pursuing them earlier. They're putting together a not criminally responsible defense. They're going to argue culpability of Shinra," the one member, Arthur Sidwell, revealed.

"Excuse me?" the president responded with shock.

"They've got a good chance in proving it," Sidwell said. "The company acknowledged publicly that Fair was unstable and yet didn't do anything to ensure it was safe for him to be out of custody," he pointed out.

"So they aren't going to try to deny he did what he did?" the president inquired skeptically.

"They probably know they can't," Sidwell replied with a light shrug. "Doesn't look good for us though," he went on. "The fact the company announced he suffers from delusions and hallucinations means they can argue he isn't responsible for his actions. People are more likely to support him given the story we already provided the public in response to his attempted exposé."

The president rolled his eyes in immediate response. "This is ridiculous. We need to silence him once and for all! I'm not going to fork out more money to defend the company against his slanderous allegations!" he spoke loudly in anger.

Tseng was about to respond but Elena beat him to it. "That's not going to help," she argued. "His supporters and the conspiracy theorists and the company opponents will go crazy. That scandal alone will see a decline in financial support from multiple sources, it would cost us money regardless."

"Would they support him if they knew he was a serial killer?" Anya spoke up then. She'd been assigned the task of keeping in contact with the police department and following the progress of Zack's case as it moved through the court system. As all eyes turned her way she continued. "It may be just a matter of time before he's linked to the killings of those mansion guards."

"Why?" Tseng did finally speak up then.

"Police took his DNA," she told him and the others.

Tseng shook his head then. "We cleaned the scenes," he reminded her and she shrugged.

"But then, maybe we didn't," she said. What she was implying was obvious. They could always hand over their own samples to the police, taken from the scenes to help their investigation into those deaths. Perhaps the police simply weren't as lucky as they were in obtaining samples…

Again, Elena spoke what Tseng was thinking before he could say it. "That would be a bad idea dredging that up. People are going to notice the pattern of the victims. All of them were employed by the company. Those men had less than admirable reputations and backgrounds. It might give more support to the claims that Fair has made about his time spent in the mansion."

It was Rufus who responded then and it seemed to surprise a few people. Indeed, the vice president wasn't usually vocal in meetings his father attended.

"Look, we dropped the ball when the decision was made to suspend the mission to apprehend him after his escape from the mansion." He caught sight of one of the attorneys and the expression he had on his face that said he wanted to argue or correct him. "It was an escape. An escape from forced custody. Let's not dance around it, and just call it what it was. No one in this room is unaware of the truth. Let's do what we should have done to begin with and get him back into our custody in a legal way while we still have the opportunity and before the preliminary trial," he suggested firmly.

"How?" his father inquired interestedly.

Tseng, too, was interested to hear what Rufus had to say. He hadn't expected him to say anything in the meeting. He didn't like the fact it sounded like the man had already had a plan in mind, one he'd never divulged to this point.

"Simple," he said. "Our attorneys present Midgar PD and Fair's defense team with a very generous plea deal. One he can't refuse."

"What kind of plea deal?" Sidwell asked in a tone that almost sounded irritated, as though Rufus had no sense at all.

"Well that's what we pay you to figure out," Rufus snapped back at him. He put his hands behind his head and leaned back in his chair casually. "One where he doesn't deny the crime he committed in exchange for a much more lenient sentence to be served in a rehabilitation facility, rather than a prison."

"Why would he agree to that?" Elena asked.

"Maybe because he is responsible for multiple murders and if something like that went to trial he'd be looking at a minimum of life, and possibly execution," Anya suggested.

"See," Rufus said through a grin as he raised his hand above his head slightly. "She gets it." He looked around the room then when it was taken by silence. "If there's any other ideas…" he said.

"Fine," the president said. He looked from Rufus to the attorneys. "Let's make it happen as quickly as possible," he ordered before coming to a stand, signalling the meeting was ending.

Tseng followed Rufus out when he was leaving, tailing him as he made his way to his office. When the others were no longer within earshot he spoke, and he did so quietly just in case.

"Would you explain to me what you're thinking?" he demanded to know but didn't give Rufus an immediate chance to respond. "Do you know what could happen if Zack is brought back into Shinra custody."

"It wouldn't exactly be Shinra custody. Just a Shinra-funded facility," Rufus corrected.

"I think we're saying the same thing," Tseng argued and the man smiled.

"You know that if he goes into the city prison system, there's no way he's getting out," Rufus pointed out. "This is the better option, Tseng, do you not agree?"

They stopped as they reached the man's office. "What do you care what happens to him?" Tseng asked him then and Rufus scoffed as he was punching in his access code to the room.

"I don't, exactly, but I know you and some others, maybe a lot of others, do," he explained. He placed his right hand on the scanner next to the door and with a beep and a click the door unlocked. He opened it but didn't enter. "Maybe it's just the right thing to do," he said as he looked at Tseng. "And perhaps we need him in the right position to use to take apart the science department." Tseng hummed at the comment. Of course, there was more than goodwill behind Rufus's decision making. "We don't need the world knowing what he did to those men from the mansion," the man went on. "We need my father out of power soon. The waiting period before the official commencement of operations with Hark Inc. is short." He stopped speaking as Tseng's phone rang.

"It's the hospital," the Turk told him after a quick glance. "Hello," he answered. Rufus observed the call quietly. "He is?" Tseng said. "Thank you, bye—" A sound of the caller saying something else stopped Tseng from ending the call. "I'm sorry?" he replied. "Private Six? yes, I'd like the upda—"

Rufus watched Tseng's countenance change.

"Are you certain?" Tseng asked softly. "I understand. Thank you." He lowered the phone then, but he continued to stare at it as he rubbed his chin with his other hand.

"What's going on?" Rufus asked.

"Rand is awake," Tseng told him as he looked up at him. "And Johnny Six has just been declared brain dead," he added regretfully.

"What?" Rufus replied in shock. "But I thought—" he started to say something and stopped. "What happened?" he asked instead.

"There was another stroke," Tseng relayed what he'd been told on the phone. "He didn't make it through. They're going to keep his body on life-support until his family can fly into the city sometime late tonight."

Tseng watched as Rufus took in the information and let the implications set it. The news did something to him. Although he tried to hide it, Tseng knew him and knew when he was upset, and this news had upset him.

"I see," he uttered with his head down. "Excuse me," he said as he motioned to retreat to his office.

"Rufus," Tseng called his attention back. With a light huff, the man faced him again. "This isn't your fault," he tried to assure him but the claim only provoked a scoff.

"Isn't it though?" was his bitter reply before shutting himself away in his office.

000

The last thing Tseng wanted was to have to give the news to the those close to Johnny that he had been declared dead, and in actuality he wasn't even allowed to. Only a few trusted people knew about the contact that he'd had with Zack, Aerith, and Tifa. He had always tried to avoid making calls to any of them. While it also wasn't the smartest thing in the world, he did still occasionally contact Reno. It was easier to justify. He didn't have time to go down to the slums to give the news, so unfortunately, he was going to put that burden on Reno's shoulders. He called and explained to him what had happened to Johnny and expressed condolences, asking him to pass them on to the others. Reno had sounded devastated. He imagined it was going to be hard for the others to take but he could only really imagine how Cloud might react.

It was after dinner hours, around seven-thirty when he made it back to the apartment and was able to speak with Cloud. That's when he told him the news. He kept it as simple as possible, for clarity, only Cloud still didn't seem to really understand.

"So, he's not going to wake up?" he asked when Tseng used the term brain death.

"No," Tseng said.

"Just his brain is dead?" he questioned next, confusion clear in his voice.

"Sort of," Tseng answered slowly. "There are machines that are keeping his tissues alive," he explained.

"Why?" Cloud asked.

"For his family, so that they can be present when he passes," the man said.

The answer didn't seem to make things clearer. "So, he's not really gone yet?"

Tseng shook his head. "He is. He's gone. When they turn off the machines, it's just the final step."

Cloud looked away from him, down at his own feet. There was no real emotion displayed on him, just a look like he was still trying to figure things out.

"Cloud," Tseng said his name to get him to look at him again. "We still haven't talked about what you know about what happened at the parade," he reminded him. "You need to tell me, did you see how he was shot?"

After a long tense moment, Cloud nodded. "It was me," he stated in a sudden confession.

"You shot him?" Tseng asked to confirm but Cloud shook his head.

"I…" he started trying to explain. He exhaled hard and shut his eyes before continuing. "He had the gun. I just made him use it," he finally revealed.

The words had Tseng reeling. He knew what Cloud was saying but he couldn't really comprehend how it was possible, even knowing Cloud had abilities that were generally unexplainable.

"He shot himself?" Tseng asked and Cloud nodded.

"Because I told him to," he said.

That didn't explain the reason though. "But, why?" the man inquired quickly. "He shot you first?" he asked, knowing that some of the bullets Cloud had been shot with matched the one from Johnny's head. They'd come from the same gun.

Cloud looked hard into his eyes. "No. I don't know why," he said at first. "I just…he was shooting Genesis. I saw him fall and then I saw Johnny and…" He was searching in himself for the reason but he couldn't get to it. "I don't know why I did it," he spoke almost painfully. "I just know I did but I can't…I just can't remember," he concluded.

That's right, Tseng thought to himself, there were also matching bullets recovered from Genesis.

"You were angry," Tseng told him after a moment. "You saw Genesis being hurt. It scared you and it made you angry," he said, explaining for Cloud what he obviously was incapable of remembering.

The implant in Cloud's head was doing exactly what it was supposed to. He hadn't been able to put those emotions he'd felt in the moment of the event in his memory bank. He couldn't retrieve them now. He couldn't look back at what happened and feel what he felt.

There were still unanswered questions. "When did he shoot you?" Tseng asked then when Cloud stayed silent.

"He didn't," was Cloud's confusing reply. "It was Rayna," he revealed.

Suddenly, it all came together. The missing piece and the reason for the missing gun. He'd suspected there'd been another person involved but now he knew for sure.

"What should I do?" Cloud asked him then. It was a question Tseng had no answer for at the moment. He wasn't even sure what Cloud's reason for asking was or if he was even asking in relation to what they were talking about. Maybe he was simply asking what he should do next in general.

"There's something I need to do," he told Cloud. "I have to go down to the hospital to take care of something. Would you like to go with me? You could see Johnny, say goodbye," he offered. After a moment of thought Cloud nodded in agreement.

The hospital wasn't far from Shinra, just a few blocks away. Tseng drove them. Cloud was quiet, staring at everything he could see out the windows. When they reached the hospital, something happened that at first Tseng found strange but quite quickly he realized what had happened. As they exited the main entrance area in the hospital and headed into the first hallway on the way to a line of elevators, Cloud stopped abruptly. Tseng was already a few paces ahead without him before realizing. He looked back to see what he could only describe as fear or apprehension in his eyes. He asked what was wrong but Cloud only stared past him down the long hallway that ended in a set of dark gray double doors. Printed in large white letters on them was D-Wing. As soon as Tseng read the lettering and thought about it, he knew what must have stopped Cloud in his tracks. Hojo's lab in the mansion had been in the D-Wing. Watching Cloud was like watching him sinking back in time. He started to take some steps backward and Tseng stopped him, taking hold of his one arm gently. It took saying his name twice to get Cloud to look away from those doors down the hall and back at him.

"It's okay," he told Cloud who seemed a little confused by his own reaction to what he'd seen. "You're in Midgar," he reminded him. "You're just going to see your friend," he added. Reality seemed to set back into him then as he nodded and the tension that had stiffened his whole body eased. He remained silent as Tseng walked him to the elevators about halfway down the hall. His eyes never left those doors at the end until they were entering the elevator.

When they reached Johnny's hospital room, Cloud looked in from the hall at what he could see. Only part of the bed where Johnny was lying was visible, the lower half of his legs, two shapes were covered with blankets. He could hear the sounds of the machines that were keeping his tissues alive, as Tseng had told him. He felt hot suddenly and there was a feeling of sickness setting into his stomach.

"I shouldn't be longer than ten minutes," Tseng spoke quietly then, announcing he was going to be leaving him there alone for a short time. "Will you be alright?" he asked when Cloud just stared into the room ahead of him.

"Yes, sir," Cloud uttered back finally. He looked at his right shoulder as Tseng touched it, squeezing it briefly before he let go and headed away back down the hall they'd come. He watched after the man until he disappeared around a corner. It was then that he made himself move forward.

It couldn't have taken more than two or three steps for him to get far enough into the room to see Johnny entirely, but the distance seemed to stretch to some impossible length. Tseng told him what to expect, that Johnny would look just like he was sleeping and that there would be machines showing indications that he was still alive. Blood pressure and heart rate indicators. A ventilator that was making his lungs function. But all they were doing was feeding artificial life into his tissues. That whatever had made him who he was, was already gone.

As he stood staring at Johnny's body he thought to himself about how he'd see this before. It was like the body he'd seen in the facility in Gongaga. Angeal's body. It had been confusing. He'd encountered Angeal in the lifestream, he thought, but he wondered if what he'd experienced had been real. It was hard to understand how it was possible, especially after seeing the man's body, biologically still alive. Somehow, seeing Johnny helped him make sense of it. If what Tseng had said was true, that what made Johnny who he was, his soul perhaps, was already gone, then it could be true that he really had met Angeal in the lifestream. The man was split and it was like he was in two places at once.

Was that what had happened to Johnny? Was he now in two different places? And what about when he went to the lifestream himself? At times it had almost felt as though he'd been kicked so hard from his body that he'd slingshot into the lifestream and sailed like a ball attached to some kind of elastic. He'd go and go until he reached the limit of what the elastic allowed only to be pulled back, snapped back into his body. Is that what death was? A person splitting apart but unable to be pulled back together? How had he pulled himself back together?

"How do I fix it?" he found himself whispering aloud as he approached the side of Johnny's bed slowly.

What if part of Johnny was just lost in the lifestream? What if he just couldn't find his way back? What if he knew the way but couldn't get all the pieces together again? What if his body was like a vehicle he couldn't get back into? What if the door was there and it just wouldn't open…

In another wing of the hospital, Tseng located Rand's room. It would be the first time he'd be seeing the man since the parade. Even then, he'd seen him prior to his assault, not after. He'd been kept updated on his condition and injuries but hadn't yet seen for himself how he looked.

The room was dimly lit, the only light source from a small strip of fluorescent glow on the wall at the head of his hospital bed. The man must have been improving quickly because outside of an intravenous line attached to him, there was only a simple heartrate monitor clipped to his one finger. As Tseng entered the room quietly and approached him, he took note of what he could see of Rand's physical condition. There was some bandaging taped to the side of his head and his face had contusions and ample bruising, but the swelling seemed to be under control. It was better than he had imagined. Rand's eyes were closed. He couldn't tell if the man was sleeping but he stood silently for a moment and just watched him breathe. It took a few seconds but finally Rand became aware of his presence and opened his blood spotted eyes. Before the man could say anything Tseng spoke.

"How are you feeling?" he questioned in a gentle tone.

"As good as can be expected," Rand replied in a strained voice that perhaps was more indicative of the pain he was feeling than his outward appearance.

"You're not going to be feeling up to coming back to work with Shinra," the Turk told him firmly then. An expected look of confusion came over Rand. It was subtle but still discernible.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

Tseng reached into his pocket and retrieved what he'd brought with him. Rand followed his hand with his eyes as he set down the item on the small table next to the bed. When Rand recognized it he released an audible exhale. It was a pill bottle that had come from the side table next to his bed in the apartment he'd shared with Cloud. The bottle, now empty, had once contained muscle relaxants.

"I don't want to see your face again on company property," Tseng spoke sternly, clearly. "I'd like to spare your victim from the impact that would come with making what you did openly known."

There were tears in Rand's eyes as he turned them upward once more.

"Whatever you think you know—" he tried to retort but Tseng stopped him.

"Are words that came from him," he countered. They both knew without him having to say it that he was meaning from Cloud.

Rand dropped his eyes then, something like a hard look of concentration or contemplation setting into his face.

"Do we have an understanding then?" Tseng asked when the man stayed silent. After another short moment he received a nod. "Good," he said. He reached to pick up the pill container off the table and put it back into his pocket, never looking again at Rand before he headed out of his room and made his way back toward Johnny's.

As he was rounding the corner in the final stretch of hallway to Johnny's room he could see Cloud coming out of the room slowly. He was close enough that Tseng could see he seemed different than when he'd left him not long ago. He supposed that wasn't surprising, given the circumstances, but he didn't really expect what he saw. Cloud didn't seem to notice him coming toward him. He took a few steps from the doorway of Johnny's room to where two chairs were placed against the wall and sat down heavily into one, almost appearing to collapse into it. He dropped his head into his hands and rested his weight on his elbows that he propped on his knees.

"Hey," Tseng spoke when he was close. "Are you alright?" he asked with concern. He could see then when he reached him that he was trembling, his whole body almost seemed to be shivering. But he was sweating. He was also breathing a little heavily.

When Cloud didn't move or respond he took a moment to step around him and look into Johnny's room. He really didn't know what he thought he'd see. His imagination had him thinking some crazy things in the split second before he confirmed Johnny's body was intact and seemingly untouched or unchanged. The machines were all operational and didn't appear to have been tampered with in any way. With the alternative erased from his mind, he was able to conclude Cloud's current state to be reflective of brief feelings of grief he must be experiencing.

"Cloud, are you alright?" he asked once more and Cloud lifted his head to look at him. He nodded slightly.

"I'm just…really tired," he breathed out. In fact he did look and sound exhausted.

"Okay, come on, let's go," Tseng said as he helped Cloud stand himself up again.

Cloud was quiet on the way back to Shinra. His eyes were closed on their short drive and he was in bed just minutes after they were back at the apartment. It was hard for Tseng to sleep, knowing that sometime in the overnight hours Johnny's family were going to be witnessing him being taken off life support. Now, with the information he had from Cloud about what had actually happened to Johnny at the parade, he was struggling with what he should do. It was hardly fathomable that Cloud had been able to do what he said he'd done. Who was going to believe that? And was it worse if it was believed? What would that mean for Cloud?

Somehow, even with his anxious thoughts keeping him from fully resting, he found himself being startled awake by his phone buzzing on the coffee table he had his feet propped on. The book he'd been absentmindedly reading when he'd nodded off sometime after midnight slid to the floor as he set his feet down and leaned forward on the couch to reach the phone. He didn't even see who it was that was calling when he answered. He learned quickly enough it was the hospital calling, but it wasn't one of the nurses, it was one of the doctors.

"I apologize for the hour," the man told him and he shook his head to himself.

"No, that's fine," Tseng replied quickly. He actually didn't know what time it was. It was still dark outside though. He assumed the doctor was reaching out to let him know that the process of taking Johnny's body off life-support had been completed and to reconfirm that the company didn't want to proceed with autopsy. In this case, given they knew how he died, there was no real reason for autopsy.

"I felt I should inform you that at approximately eleven-thirty last night the patient was taken off of life support. I was in attendance as well as three of his family members. Approximately a minute and a half after power was ceased to the life-assisting devices, the patient then began breathing on his own," the doctor explained.

"What?" Tseng spoke in shock. The doctor didn't pause to confirm what he'd just told him. He went on.

"We observed and recorded stable vitals for a sustained period of time. An EEG indicated renewed brain activity, and during MRI, the patient became conscious," the man revealed.

"He's awake?" Tseng managed to find his voice to ask.

"Was awake," the doctor said. "He's sleeping now but all indications we have are that he's stable. I really don't know what to say about it. It's medically impossible. I don't know how, but all I can say is that somehow brain death must have been misdiagnosed. We're going to be thoroughly looking into it," the doctor assured him.

"W-was he speaking at all, or?" Tseng inquired.

"No, he wasn't awake long. We'll have to wait to see what happens over the following hours. There's a lot of testing that needs to be done but but we'll keep you updated," the man told him.

"Thank you, doctor," Tseng replied. He didn't say anything else as the man said goodbye and wished him a good night.

As he lowered his phone from his ear, he sensed that he wasn't alone in the living room. He looked back over his right shoulder and spotted Cloud standing just outside his bedroom. Before he could say anything, Cloud spoke and the words which could have seemed comforting on some level, only seemed unsettling to Tseng. It was a question. A simple question. But behind it was something clearly implied that the man just wasn't ready for.

In a curious but level tone, he asked, "Did I fix it?"