He spend the evening in the Shinra Mansion, lying awake in bed, eyes locked onto a broke light fixture hanging by one screw. He tried to remember if he got any sleep when he finally peeked out his window. After many attempts to remember when he dozed off, he decided he must have slept. Clouds whimpering and turning in the bed next to the one he had claimed seemed to have died out one or twice the night before. Now he rolled over on his side, the bead screaming as he did so. Cloud lay sleeping soundly on his side, dusty, dirty pillow clung to his chest. Smiling wearily, Zack yawned and pushed himself from the bed. It couldn't have been much before dawn. Two hours at most? It was still dark, but the stars had died.

The two young men had not dared leave the mansion. When Zack had entered it the day before most of the town had lined up at the gates, whispering that the general had gone mad. He didn't want Sephiroth to go out there, ranting like a lunatic. Shinra wouldn't look good, and know Seph…Well, he probably wouldn't take the stares of the townspeople to lightly.

So Zack and Cloud had stayed inside, avoiding questions from the town. The black haired SOLDIER had sent the other guard off the fetch his sword, and Cloud and Zack watched the hole Sephiroth had disappeared into. Stretching his arms Zack sat back on the bed, reaching under the old furniture pierce to retrieve his boots. A mouse scarred from under cover of shadows to duck under Clouds bed. Zack hardly noticed, nor cared. Slipping cold feet into his scuffed up boots, his mind wandered to Sephiroth. The young red haired guard was to get him if ever the general left his new residence in the basement. Zack didn't break the young mans nose a second time, so he assumed the war hero was still there. He picked his sword up off the floor, fastening it to his back.

Must be. he though, standing and returning to the guest room that held the stairway. He didn't even bother snapping the dozed off guard to attention- The man needed his sleep. He did think about moving him from the velvet upholstered chair to the bed, but then he remembered the glass and thought better of it.

Silently as he could manage, he tapped the books on the 4th shelf, noticing the other novels he had sent toppling the day before had been carefully place back into their original position. Even dusted off. The guard must have done it. All well. Small, random, acts of kindness to a swiftly growing evil didn't make men heroes, or even get the any public recognition. Zack would be though a fool to bring such a simple act up the Sephiroth.

Who probably wouldn't care, or even listen, anyway. Zack shook his head. Sephiroth had always been mad, but now the 1st class SOLDIER elite was beginning to wonder if Sephiroth was unraveling.

Didn't much matter, he guessed as he stepped into the darkened stairway. Sephiroth would still be some godling to all the little boys.

"Zack?" Zack stopped dead, five steps down into the darkness. His head shot around, the stairs trembling at his sudden movement.

"Cloud!" He hissed, glaring at the guard behind him. "Go back to bed!"

"But I-" The little boy yawned, taking a step down towards Zack.

"No. No buts. Look Cloud, why don't you go visit your mother again. We'll be leaving in a few days, and once the general his back to himself you wont have time to see her again."

Cloud shook his head. "no…I'm coming with you. I don't want to see mother. She only makes me feel miserable."

"Dammit Cloud! You heard him yesterday! He's going to be grumpy and depressed today, if he found anything out about his mother or father. He'll probably take it out on me as it is, but I wont have him skinning your hide! Go-go…Go guard the door. Go back out front and watch the gate, make sure no one gets in."

"But-"

"Grr. That's an ORDER Strife!" he snapped. Clouds eyes widened, and he looked as if he had just been smacked in the face.

Dammit! Your tired, you don't want him hurt, but yet your taking this all out in the wrong way!

"I-…" He bowed his head and looked away. "Sorry Cloud."

"Its…Its alright. I'll…I'll go watch the gate for you."

"Cloud.."

"Sorry to bother you, Sir."

He heard the door slide shut behind him, and Clouds footsteps race away. Zack sighed miserably. I didn't mean to snap, Cloud…

Slowly he started for the basement, feeling even more crummy then he had when he awoke. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

By the time his black head reached the study door Zack had concocted 11 different ways to apologize, many ending with him in tears or on his knees. If it would get Cloud to forgive him, he didn't care how pathetic he looked. He just couldn't believe he had hurt the boy. He had never done that before…Had he?

As he pushed opened the door though, all thoughts of Cloud vanished as laughter reached his ears. It wasn't pleasurable laughter, more like hysterical laughter mixed with insanity. Frowning and cocking his head to the right, Zack walked farther into the study.

"Ha, ha, ha...... Who is it!?" Zack stopped in front of the entry to the hall, looking down it. Through the hall were piles upon piles of books, and at the other end a desk and more shelves. Sephiroth sat at the desk, looking angered and disappointed.

"Hmph... Traitor."

"W-What?" Zack asked, confused, walking down the hall. "Traitor?"

"You ignorant traitor."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Zack asked, stopping at the mouth of the new room. The general stood up, a mad glint in his green eyes.

"I'll tell you." He said, a grin flashing momentarily on his face. "This was a itinerant race. They would migrate in, settle the Planet, then move on... At the end of their harsh, hard journey, they would find the Promised Land and supreme happiness. But, those who stopped their migrations built shelters and elected to lead an easier life." The general had come around the desk to stand in front of Zack, smiling curly, hands locked behind his back. His coat and hair swished with every step. "They took that which the Cetra and the planet had made without giving back one whit in return! Those are your ancestors."

Zack took a step then, the tone in Sephiroth's voice frightening him. Had he lost it completely?

"S-Sephiroth…" He said slowly, stopping his backwards walk after two feet.

The man wrinkled up the side of his nose, turning swiftly from Zack to walk towards a shelf on the right wall.

"Long ago, disaster struck this planet. Your ancestors escaped... They survived because they hid. The Planet was saved by sacrificing the Cetra. After that, your ancestors continued to increase. Now all that's left of the Cetra is in these reports." His long fingered hand plucked up a novel, waving it a little as his head turned to face Zack again.

"I don't understand." Zack said, confusion clearly written over his face. "None of this makes sense. What does all this have to do with you?"

Sephiroth let out an exasperated sigh. "Don't you get it?! An Ancient named Jenova was found in the geological stratum of 2000 years ago. The Jenova Project. The Jenova Project wanted to produce people with the powers of the Ancients...... no, the Cetra! ...I am the one that was produced."

"Pr-…Produced?!" And it all crashed down on him.

Like the monsters in the reactor…Jenova…They were making-

"Yes. Professor Gast, leader of the Jenova Project and genius scientist, produced me." He stated, dropping the book down onto a pile of others.

"W-What?!" Zack asked, a new fear swallowing the respect he had held of this man. The hero of the war…He had heard men assume he took some sort of drug or steroid to get his powerful…But no. It was much worse, much more complicated then that. Now he knew… "How?! How did he-S-"

Sephiroth was walking towards him now, hate in his eyes, hand resting on the masumane.

"Sephiroth?"

"Out of my way." He said, voice deathly calm. His hand grabbed the front of Zack's shirt, and he slammed the younger man against the shelves and out of his way. Books toppled down onto Zack's un-shielded head. "I'm going to see my mother.

Zack blinked rapidly, staring at his back as he vanished out of sight. His mind tried to put together everything so as he could re-view it, but the once solid explanation he had had a moment ago had vanished in an instant. He slowly lifted one of the books off from his lap, opening up to the page it had fallen upon. He hardly noticed the page missing, blankly reading the entry about the experiments placed upon humans. He shook the thing a little, feeling fear finally catch up to him causing him to tremble. Shaking his head he flipped to the front of the book, looking for the name of the journals owner.

Gast. Zack sighed, fingers playing at the place where the leather was stapled down into the cover of the book. He frowned slowly, watching his finger wander along the edge of the leather. Usually there was something to hide the staples. Not on this one. He didn't understand why. And why did it fold to the inside of the novel?

He flipped to the back, where he saw the usual gold fixture holding and hiding the leather.

How odd. He though blankly, flipping to the front again. His fingers tugged at the leather. Has to be a reason for it. Maybe…

With a rip that tore up the books cover, the leather slipped off. From between the brown hide and black cover came tumbling a scrap of paper. Cocking his head to the side, feeling drowsy, he skimmed through its contents. Suddenly he chocked on air and had to re-read the whole page.

"X year, X month, X day- A child has been born, and his life is thanks to the Jenova project. We hope that his coming into the world will bring new answers for Shinra and for the world. The child will be named Sephiroth. The mother has already become very attacked to the child. I regret to say we were forced to take it from her. If any of the plans she had for him were accomplished, the purpose of his birth may be forgotten. The father, and Professor, thought it best to separate the mother from child after its birth. Hojo has taken it away from his wife. Now only to figure out what to do with the woman, then the child."

Zack's eyes grew larger, if that were at all possible.

Child of…Hojo? Hojo and who?! He re-read the page, over and over before crumpling it and throwing it in frustration. Nothing about the mother. But the father…

"then…He wasn't created like he thinks!" He explained. He jumped to his feet. "Sephir-"

But Sephiroth had long sense left the basement. Zack swore. "Dammit!"

He broke into a run, racing out of the lab and the corpse hall, up the stairway. If Sephiroth was going to see Jenova, and if that look in his eyes meant anything at all, Zack know the outcome wouldn't be good.

As his feet hit the solid upper story of the mansion he could feel a sudden change of tempter that had never been there before. He could hear people screaming and something roaring outside. He glanced at the chair once occupied by a guard. No one sat there now, but blood stained the ground, and the window's hole was much larger now. Zack swallowed and ran out of the room, careful not to slip on the blood.

And as he skidded to a halt at the top of the stairs, peering through the mucky windows facing the village, his eyes widened. Black only half an hour or so ago, the ancient glass was filled with a red glow.

"Oh no…" He moaned, and raced down the rickety old stairway. His hand reached the door before the rest of him, and he yanked at the doorknob. The door flung back quickly, causing Zack to side step in order to avoid its backwards plunge. He ran straight out into the chaos that Nibleheim has become.

Besides the burning buildings and the heat of the flames, Zack noticed that Cloud was missing from his post. Zack swore, tears threatening to takeover his sight. Oh no. If anything happened to him- if he's dead-

He didn't want to even think of that. Quick as his feet would carry him, Zack raced across the gravel path, towards the small stairway going down into the village. Reaching the topmost step, Zack put all his strength behind him as he crouched and leaped the stairs.

He landed and rolled once he was on the other side. His eyes frantically looked about.

"Hey!" A voice called. Zack's eyes snapped in the direction of the speaker. Zangan, the old martial arts expert. "Hey it's you! You're still sane, right?"

"Yeah!" Zack called, feeling a little dizzy. The heat was overpowering him.

"Then come over here and help me! I'll check this house. You check that one over there!" He called. Zack nodded, going in the direction of Clouds mothers house. He kicked open the door, hoping what he found would be good news-

But he couldn't even get inside farther then the welcome mat- which has burst into flames. He faced back out, coughing and shaking his head. Clouds mother…

"Terrible... Sephiroth... This is too terrible…" He whispered. But just as he finished a moan caught his attention.

"Cloud!" He yelled, racing towards the fallen blue suited guard. He grabbed the boys hand, watching him tremble in pain. The boy gasped, rolling onto his side as if trying to roll away from the pain. He was only faced with more horror as he watched the flames consume his home.

"Zack- Mom- Tifa-"

He heard him sob. Zack gritted his teeth, feeling the tears of fear turn into tears of sympathy. He flung his arms around his hurting friend.

"Sorry, Cloud." He whispered. Cloud just trembled in his grip.

But neither were allowed a moment long, for laughter turned both heads. Zack glanced at Cloud. The boy looked frightened.

"Sephiroth! Come on Cloud." Zack whispered, standing and dragging Cloud up with him. The boy walked a few steps, before stumbling on account of his guard helmet. Zack cursed the thing and pulled it off his head, shoving it into the boys hands.

As they both made it to the stairway, they could make out the silver gleam of Sephiroth's sword and hair. Screams followed the flashes of silver. Two thuds followed. Cloud leaned heavily into Zack. Zack held him closely, not willing to let him fall, nor take his eyes off Sephiroth. "Sephiroth!" He yelled, glaring. "Enough!"

The man turned his attention to the two younger soldiers, a grin crawling up his face. He continued to laugh for a moment, before turning and walking for the mountains. The flames consumed his back and body…

But soon Cloud and Zack saw the man walk, unharmed, up the mountain path.