[Fanfiction randomly decided not to publish this even though it sent out an email? So...sorry about that. To avoid future FF glitchy nonsense, please see the Ao3 version under AimeeLouWrites]
Zack picked up on the second ring, his exuberant voice just slightly too loud over the speakers. "'Geal!" he enthused. "What's up? Need something?"
"Hello, Zack," Angeal said with patient amusement. "I need you to come join me in Genesis's apartment as soon as possible."
"Oh? Uh, sure, I'll head up now. What's going on?"
"Hm, let me ask you a question first. Do you have any blond friends in SOLDIER or the Infantry?"
There was a long pause. "Yeah, I've got a couple of blond SOLDIER friends —James, Titus, Adeen...uh, Kunsel's kinda dirty-blond, don't tell him I spilled the beans on that…"
"And in the infantry?"
Another very long pause. "I...had one." His voice was suddenly subdued enough to make Angeal blink in surprise. "Cloud. Good kid, wanted to be in SOLDIER but he needed a bit of time to grow, you know? Smart, and strong, but he was tiny. I told him to keep trying. He was really something. He, uh...he vanished a few weeks ago on a mission. Got declared KIA cuz no one really cares about infantry grunts. I didn't even find out until I —" His words stumbled to a halt.
Angeal frowned at the depth of the grief in his apprentice's voice. "Can you...describe him for me?"
"Sure, he had these big blue eyes, like sad eyes man, if he wasn't so withdrawn all the time he'd be —he would have been a real ladykiller...uh, he had this ridiculous blonde hair, really light gold, and it stuck up all over the place. I think I called him chocobo-butt once and he sincerely tried to strangle me." Zack laughed, but it was unsteady.
No, thought Angeal. It can't be. A few weeks isn't enough time to enhance someone like that…
"Why did you need me to…?" Zack asked, trailing off uncertainly.
Angeal chose his words with care. "Genesis and I encountered a young man earlier today. He mentioned a 'Zack' but we weren't sure if it was you. He's currently unconscious from severe sleep deprivation and we don't have a name or any identifying information, other than the fact that he's wearing an infantry uniform." He decided not to mention the mako eyes just yet.
"Blond?"
"Very."
"Short?"
Angeal held a hand to where the teenager came up to compared to him and squinted at it. "Eh, roughly 5'5" or so?"
Zack was quiet, then said "I'll be up in a minute," and hung up.
Angeal couldn't quite decide if he hoped the teenager would turn out to be Zack's missing trooper friend or not. On one hand, losing a friend was always hard and he wanted to spare his apprentice the pain of it. On the other, he could very easily imagine the absolute havoc Zack and the blond would wreak together, and he refused to even think about the amount of paperwork that would inevitably go along with that.
Although, they would probably end up as friends anyways now that he'd gotten Zack involved. The teenager was like a magnet for new friendships. Shit.
When Zack came jogging down the hall a few minutes later, his expression was unusually serious. He nodded silently to his mentor and went straight for the door. Angeal arched a brow at his behavior but obligingly swiped his keycard and allowed him in first.
Zack got all of two steps into the apartment before he spied the teenager on the couch and choked in a gasp. "Cloud!" he cried, stumbling for a moment before he sprinted forward, hurdling the coffee table and falling to his knees to drape himself over the blond. "Holy shit, Cloud, oh gods —"
Well, that answered that question. "Zack, don't wake —" Angeal started, but Genesis waved a hand and interrupted him.
"He won't. I Sleepel'd him to make sure we wouldn't have a repeat of earlier." He was watching the interaction with keen interest.
Zack was laughing and crying, gathering the sleeping teenager up in his arms and holding like he never wanted to let go, forehead pressed to bare chest. Angeal narrowed his eyes a little. How had he never heard about this friend, if Zack was this deeply attached to him? His apprentice babbled so much that it seemed like an impossibility that he wouldn't have mentioned 'Cloud' at all.
Unless he'd been deliberately avoiding mentioning Cloud?
"I'm sorry kid, I'm so sorry," Zack was whispering through the odd, choked laughs. "This is all my fault, isn't it?"
What?
"So he is a friend of yours then, Zackary?" Sephiroth asked. He had the stoppered vial in one hand and an expression of muted confusion on his face.
Zack jolted at his voice, turning his head to the side enough to see Sephiroth. They would have to work more on situational awareness later, evidently. "Oh," he said, clearing his throat. "Uh, yes. He's a friend of mine. I thought he was dead." His voice cracked, but he did seem to be calming down.
"His name is Cloud?" Genesis asked, probing. He had a knuckle to his lips, one elbow braced on the opposite hand.
"Cloud Strife," Zack confirmed, looking back down at his friend. "He was aiming to be a...SOLDIER…" he trailed off, leaning closer to the blond's bare chest. "How did he...how did he get these scars?"
Angeal's lips pressed together, puzzled by the quiet rage in Zack's voice. No —not by the rage. By the suddenness of it. By its intensity. And by the way Zack's hand went to the smallish scar just over the teenager's sternum, hovering like he was afraid to touch.
"You never saw them before?" Genesis asked, a keenly interested gleam in his eye. Angeal winced, familiar with that look. He was going to have to hide Zack from Genesis for a while, until he lost interest. It was far too late for the blond, but he wasn't about to let his apprentice get sucked into the Genesis Mystery Theater if he could help it.
Incredibly, Zack shot Genesis a suspicious look, curling over Cloud a little, as if he suspected Genesis of scarring the kid. "He didn't have scars like these before."
The three Firsts all frowned simultaneously. "Impossible. Some of those are years old," said Sephiroth, eyes on the same scar Zack's hand had been hovering over.
"But he also didn't have any mako in him a few weeks ago," Angeal told them grimly. This was all shaping up to be much more of a mess than he'd anticipated. Had they uncovered some kind of company conspiracy here? He knew of rumors that Science —Hojo, specifically —stole unsuspecting employees away in the dead of night, but he'd never given them much credence. A missing infantryman turning up with half-coherent references to "the Lab" and mako in his veins made him stop and consider the possibility that there was truth in those rumors after all.
Zack's eyes went round at the news. "What?" He thumbed open one of Cloud's eyes, much like Genesis had earlier, and drew in a sharp breath as he saw the mako glow for himself. "Shit, kid," he whispered. "What did they do to you?"
"He had yet to be inducted into SOLDIER? Are you certain?" Sephiroth confirmed, eyes narrowing dangerously. Whatever he suspected, he was not very pleased with it. Maybe he was thinking along the same lines Angeal was.
Zack was very still in a way that made the hairs on the back of Angeal's arms stand on end. "Yes," he whispered, an odd note to this voice. "I am absolutely certain he wasn't part of SOLDIER, Sephiroth."
Then he shook himself and looked up with a tight smile that didn't reach his eyes, completely ignoring the other two Firsts. "Can you hand me the kit, 'Geal? These need to be reopened." He tapped the skin above an angry red laceration that had clearly healed closed around some kind of shrapnel. "Dumb kid. You gotta clean them out fast when you're enhanced."
"I can't imagine he had a standard introduction to his enhancements," Angeal said neutrally, retrieving the rest of the kit. His apprentice certainly had gotten quite skilled at medical care in the past few months, he mused as he watched Zack put another towel beneath Cloud's arm and clean the area with antiseptic. Very skilled indeed. His hands were steady as he carefully reopened the wound and began plucking the shards of...metal?...out with tweezers, flushing the opened wound with saline every time he had to make another incision.
Had he been hiding his injuries again? It was the only explanation he could think of.
Angeal glanced over at Sephiroth and Genesis, who looked equally as fascinated as they watched. Sephiroth caught his eye and quirked a brow. Angeal shook his head, and the other man frowned thoughtfully, pulling out his PHS.
There were only two major injuries that needed tending, the rest either freshly healed or well on their way to it. Silently, Angeal sat on his knees and assisted his protege, collecting the bloody shrapnel in a dish and handing Zack the implements he needed. After Zack finished casting the final Cura, the teenager wiped his bloodied hands on a towel and took a deep breath. He looked to Genesis. "I'm going to give him a bath, if that's alright," he said.
Angeal blinked in surprise. He hadn't expected Zack to be quite so...steady when speaking with Genesis for the first time, since Zack tended to be excitable at the best of times and downright hyper when meeting other First Class soldiers. His blond friend seemed to be having quite an effect on him.
How very, very strange, for a friend he had never mentioned...
Genesis also looked a bit surprised, though for a different reason. "If you think he'd be comfortable with you doing that, then by all means. I hardly enjoy having my couch stained by dirty teenagers."
And Zack looked...zoned out, completely oblivious to the scrutiny he was getting. Angeal might even have said he looked downright miserable. "Right, thanks," he mumbled, pulling the blanket off of Cloud's legs and picking him up in much the same way Angeal had earlier. Genesis shot Angeal one last questioning look before leading the way to the master bathroom.
Angeal sighed and started cleaning up around the couch. Genesis would bitch about the mess if he didn't. Maybe, he thought as he gathered up the several bloody towels, he was just naive for hoping that Zack would actually clear up some of the mystery rather than leaving them with even more questions.
What a mess.
