-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 6 - The Hero of a Planet
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Zak wandered the city, it was constantly warm there as many factories from the upper plate disposed of their air down below the plate but something about the never changing scenery made the area cold. Zak had asked around for a place to stay but not a single place had any room. Zak continued to wander until he came to sector 5. A large church had been converted to a tavern, which also had a place to stay. Zak wandered inside, the entire bar was decorated by natural flowers, the place still resembled a church as the owner had not wanted to decimate such a place. Only down one side there was the long bar behind which a young girl was serving. Zak wandered over and asked about the room, the young dark haired girl walked away and returned with a busty young woman.
"I apologise but the room is already taken" she said. Zak nodded
"Okay then" he said. As Zak got up to leave he recognised the young woman
"Aren't you Tifa?" he asked. The woman blushed and looked away
"Yes" she said sitting down and looked back at Zak
"I thought so" he said smiling "You're a legend in Nibelheim, two of our townsfolk saving the world" Tifa blushed again, she had never liked the publicity.
"It wasn't me that did the work" she said "Most of it was" but she trailed off, a hurt look in her eyes.
"What?" asked Zak
"Cloud" she finished "He's never fully recovered, he was fine at the beginning but then he began to say that Sephiroth was coming back" Tifa took a drink of water and continued "He began to make plans to track down every last item that belonged to Sephiroth, he set off for the North Cave and collected Sephiroth's things before coming back"
"So he did return?" said Zak
"Yes" said Tifa "But now he never leaves his home "I have all Sephiroth's belongings, someone might come and try to take them" he always says and so he's always cooped up inside"
"Where is his home?" asked Zak
"Sector two" said Tifa. Zak got to his feet and swept out of the bar into the artificial night created by the plate.
Zak asked for directions every so often to make sure that he was on the right path, in the end he came to a small grey bungalow, quite an ugly one but by Midgar standards it was probably quite nice. Zak knocked on the door which was thrown open instantly and he was face to face with the tip of a sword.
"Yes?" said a voice from the dark interior
"Cloud Strife?" asked Zak. Cloud lowered the sword and looked at Zak. He could sense enormous power from the kid but he couldn't sense the root of the energy. People who had used materia for a long time could sense power and so Cloud was very good.
"come in" said Cloud stepping aside. Zak stepped inside the cold house. His eyes were instantly drawn to a large black wardrobe in the corner of the room, it seemed to be radiating energy.
"I see you're drawn to the wardrobe" said Cloud. Zak looked back at Cloud, he was incredibly pale but the look made him look even deadlier as it contrasted dramatically with his spiky blonde hair.
"yes" said Zak looking back at it "What's inside it?"
Cloud smiled taking a key from the mantle piece and unlocking the cabinet. Behind the two large doors was a sheet of impenetrable glass behind which was a coat, an enormous sword, a pair of gloves and a pair of thin black sunglasses.
"Sunglasses?" commented Zak
"They were inside the coat pocket, reading glasses it seems or maybe they were just used to hide the Mako colour of his eyes" said Cloud. Zak did not need telling who Cloud was talking about.
"This isn't the source of the power" said Zak looking through the glass at the items within.
"Very good" smiled Cloud kneeling and opening a drawer. Four spheres lay behind another sheet of glass; one yellow, one green, one blue and one, which was radiating the most power, black.
"Sephiroth's materia" said Cloud "Too powerful for any human to use, one touch on the, and you'll explode"
"So how did he use them?" asked Zak
"Sephiroth was no human" said Cloud
"So what was he?" asked Zak.
Cloud smiled at Zak, it was not often that someone would come to the house in order to hear about the 'great' Sephiroth.
Cloud took his seat near the cabinet while Zak sat upon the sofa. They spoke for hours, covering the ideas that Sephiroth would be more powerful than ever were he to come back and Cloud's ideas on how he would be able to become corporeal again. They spoke until the sun went down and until the clock read 00:00.
"Midnight" said Cloud looking at the clock
"Long conversation" said Zak yawning
"You can stay here" said Cloud "As long as you don't mind the sofa"
"I don't" said Zak.
"Then goodnight" said Cloud walking to his room
"Cloud" said Zak. Cloud turned around
"Yes?" asked Cloud
"Congratulations" said Zak "For defeating Sephiroth" Cloud nodded and went into his room closing the door.