Darkness. Cold, empty, soul sucking darkness. For a long, horrible moment Zack genuinely feared that Nero had killed him and he was in some sort of limbo.

But no. No, he hadn't. Because Zack opened his eyes to a hazy dark world, like some bizarre twist on when they'd been standing in the Lifestream. Getting upright was… questionable. Was it upright? Was there an up here? He chose to believe this was 'up' because debating multiple ups and downs was making his brain hurt. He was on his feet and most of the black energy that was swirling around was waist level or lower, so that was probably the best up he could ask for.

Peering around was useless. Mako eyes had met their match in this strange place, where he wasn't even sure what he was seeing. It was dark, but not in the pitch of night. It was dark in a way that he wasn't sure how to articulate, the dark that came from things. Almost like being surrounded by a dense cloud of smoke, but even that wasn't quite right. The air felt thick. Heavy. As he took a cautious step forward, he could feel it move around him tangibly, bearing down on him with ear-popping pressure.

This was not somewhere he wanted to linger. And yet, just as there was no certain 'up' there was also no certain 'out.' Which complicated matters.

Zack started walking because he knew he couldn't just stay where he was, and squinted a little as things shifted around him, long slits of distorted light blinking in and out of existence as he turned his head to look at them. 'Disorienting' was an understatement.

"So weird," he said quietly, and his words sounded flat, like the darkness was absorbing some of the sound of them the way the heavy snowfall had in Modeoheim.

Don't think about that, he reminded himself, taking a breath and trying to focus. His mind wanted to drift, anchorless in this strange place. But he couldn't let that happen. Every moment he lingered here, Nero was free to wreck havoc, on top of the Restrictors and the numerous other troops. He was SOLDIER's hardest hitter - their general - he couldn't just check out.

His fight for clarity just brought new challenges with it. The more in-the-moment he was, the more aware he was of the cold and fatigue and pain threatening to swamp him. Worse, there was so much of it all at once that he couldn't tell how much of it was his and how much of it was Kunsel's. He'd have expected most of it to be his, after going toe to toe with Weiss while Kunsel had handled intel, but there was no telling what had happened to him in the time since Nero had first grabbed him up.

He needed to find Kunsel. Not just to put his fears to rest and make sure he was okay, but because he wasn't going to be able to focus until he had things straight in his head. But how was he supposed to find him in this void where reality was warped in ways he could barely process?

"I need light," Zack said, just to hear something in this strange stillness. He paused his walking, and took stock of himself. What did he feel?

He ached. He hurt, in fact, active and potent pain especially in his head and back where he had presumably slammed one too many times into the ground, especially that last one from Nero. His arms had a weird sort-of ache that was definitely pain but didn't feel quite like pain in comparison to the rest of it and was probably from the jarring strength that Weiss' blows had impacted his sword with. None of that was new, and none of it felt urgent. The cold was new, but it had to do with the shadowy place he was in, more than something with himself. The fatigue could be excused by his limit break, and was almost entirely muscle.

Huh. His magic was actually pretty good. Lower, but nowhere near drained. Maybe he could use that? He didn't feel any stifling status effects, let alone specifically Silence, which meant he could probably do something. Hinging on his ability to focus, anyway.

"I need light," he said again, and the moment he actually began to focus a dim glow illuminated his hands.

He'd been thinking of fire, but alright. This worked.

"More light than that," Zack muttered, squeezing and relaxing his hands. The glow began to spread and strengthen, until he was standing in a little circle of light and could better watch the things moving around him like dark Lifestream. Was this some sort of shadow world? Did the Lifestream have an inverse that Nero had somehow sucked him into?

This was nowhere near Zack's realm of expertise, this wasn't even in the same country as his realm of expertise. But somewhere between listening to Benji talk magic theory and reading far too many comic books… he might have some ideas. Because he'd stood in the actual real Lifestream, and when he'd been in the Lifestream, he'd been cut off from his Jenova-soaked SOLDIER enhancements and instead given new powers tied to the Lifestream when he was made one of the Paladins of the Oracle.

Aerith wasn't here, true. And this wasn't the Lifestream. But something was answering his thoughts as he willed things to happen, and he had a suspicion that he had far more power here than Nero expected him to.

"Alright," he said. "You're gonna make me a paladin? Make me a paladin."

He had a very specific image very clearly in mind when he'd said it, and that was where things went - right? wrong? - forward, regardless, as power abruptly encompassed him.

A thousand voices filled his head, a mix of tones and languages that he didn't know, an echoing, overwhelming multitude creating an indecipherable, cacophonic chorus that was almost too much to bear. His hands went to his ears, and instead of comforting leather on skin he abruptly had metal on metal ringing in his ears.

But it helped, the external stimulation tearing him out of… whatever that was. The feeling of power drained away, and he was suddenly acutely aware that he was wearing something new.

Armor.

He shifted around, trying to get a proper look at it, making little sounds of awed disbelief. It was more or less what he'd pictured, just made more practical. More real.

Armor, like a paladin. Holy shit.

Zack grinned behind his full-face helmet, and basked in the heat that had come with the power and not left since. This was a definite improvement. The dark stuff wasn't coming anywhere near him, which meant he could see better where he was going now. Perfect!

He reached back for his blade, bringing it to hand to examine - same Buster Sword he'd had, which was what he'd been hoping for. He didn't need anything 'better' than this.

Determined to make actual progress, he stretched his senses and felt power coming his way. Shifting to a better grip on the Buster, he made his way towards it with determination.

He made out the bubble of an active Wall first, and paused when the person inside summoned lightning in their hand. He smiled knowingly, waiting as they spun and stared at him.

"Zack?" Benji let the lightning dissipate.

"Hey. Looks like you found Drew, too," Zack said. "Awesome. Looking for me?"

"Well your energy's bright, if nothing else," Benji quipped, still staring at him.

Which was how Zack noticed, meeting his eyes, that they were different. "Your eyes -"

"Green, yeah. Drew and you too," Benji said.

"…me?"

"I think it's tied to the Lifestream," Benji said. "This place… whatever it is, is related."

"Yeah, I figured that much out," Zack said. "Any running theories?"

"None you'd like," Benji said. "Let's just say we want out of here."

"…well that's not ominous," Zack muttered. "Do you know how?"

"I've got theories, but we need to find Nik and Kunsel, first," he said.

"Yeah." Zack grimaced, started to say something, then gave Benji an odd look. "How'd you get here?"

"Oh, y'know." Benji shrugged. "I walked."

"Not right here, just…" Zack waved to the encompassing area.

"I know." Benji grinned despite the seriousness of the situation. "He left his shadowy shit all around the church so I just walked in."

Zack stared at him.

Benji grinned wider.

Drew heaved a sigh. "So, finding people? And what did you do? Is that armor?"

"Well… Benji's always saying how magic is power, plus willpower, plus intelligence so I smartly willed myself to be a legit paladin," Zack said.

It sounded better in his head than outloud, to judge by the look Drew gave him before he started laughing. To be fair, it was also probably part stress relief.

Benji though… Benji was looking very, very intrigued as he looked around. "Huh. Well. Guess I'm smarter than I thought."

"…you?" Zack was not pouting. He wasn't. But Benji wasn't the one in cool new armor.

"We're in the Lifestream," Benji said. "Maybe a section infected by Jenova or something, I don't know. But definitely in the Lifestream."

"So I was able to pull on my tie to that power to make this," Zack gestured to his armor, "happen?"

"Yep." Benji hummed. "Well isn't that neat."

"Neat?" Drew rasped, recovering. "He just made mythril armor with his brain and it's neat?"

"Hell yeah." Benji grinned devilishly. "That means we can too."

A/N: Running low on buffer, but I do intend to chip away at this.