For the last few hours since his grand escape, Zack's been doing nothing but repairing, or so he hoped he was, the lab's main computer. With all the bullet shells and burned wired he found, he was surprised that the only things still functioning in the lab were his and the other test subject's Mako chambers.
"Seriously, was there a war going on after I died?"
That was yet another question to add to his ever-growing list that he had asked himself today. And the only way to answer them all was to get the damn computer up and working properly. While basic electrical maintenance was a requirement for all SOLDIER members to learn, Zack was constantly regretting having slept in most of the lectures; especially since he really needed the knowledge right now in order not to fry himself with all these wires. Thankfully though he only had one wire left to connect and there was only one port to connect it to.
"Well here goes nothing."
He crossed his free fingers and connected the wires, bringing life back to the dusty old computer and its console. He cheered in victory at his accomplishment, forgetting that his head was still in the console's panel, he accidentally hits his head on the inner panel's walls, giving him a headache as a result.
"Ow ow! Note to self, do not do that again." Zack complained as he carefully pulled himself out of the panel and sat on the steel floor rubbing his aching head. After making sure his head was okay, he stood up on his feet and faced the large screen. As eager as he was to see what events had unfolded during his absence. At the same time, he was worried about what experiments were done on him. But more importantly, what was it they did to him that brought him here because he was sure that he was supposed to be a dead man.
The first thing that caught his attention before he even started his search was the date displayed on the screen. It was November of the year 0011, instinctively, Zack dug a hand into his pocket and pulled it a slightly wet cellphone, which surprisingly still worked, and flipped it open. The date displayed on the cellphone's screen was September of the year 0007, that's four years ago! He had been MIA for four years again? What kind of bad luck was he cursed with?
"What's up with me and these mako naps? that's a total of eight years I wasted sleeping."
Eight years he will never get back most definitely. His parents must be worried sick about him by now. He could just picture them sitting on the couch going over every Shinra newspaper and news source they could find in order to know what had happened to their only son. Thou, his parents were never the type to believe an MIA report anyways. If it were not for his cell phone not having a signal, then he would have called them by now, just to finally give them some peace of mind.
"I'll call them when I get to some place with a good signal. Should I call her too? No, I'm eight years too late fix that relationship."
He sighed sadly, going over the photo album stored on his phone of his girlfriend, well Ex-girlfriend given the circumstances, Aerith Gainsborough. He used to take pictures of her all the time whenever he met up with her at the church. He even took some in secret when she was busy tending to the flowers; She simply looks best when looking after her little hidden garden. So imagine his utter shock when he realized that he'd been gone for four years. He had left her alone for so long, she must have felt like he didn't love her anymore. He was so close last time, if only Shinra didn't come after him, if only he was stronger.
"Well, there's no use crying over spilled milk. what's done is done so for now, I need to get back to work."
He sighed, slipping his cell phone back in his pocket. He needed to focus now, there's no time to dilly dally. Relaxing his tense shoulders, he soon guided his fingers over the computer keyboard. He mentally listed that the first order of business was to know what was done to him. Then he could find out what he truly missed in those eight years he was sleeping in this cold dark lab.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
The city of Edge, Morning...
The city had undergone a few changes since the DeepGround incident. No one was allowed entry into Midgar's ruins unless permitted by the WRO, The World Regenesis Organization, in order to avoid contact with the high mako levels in some if its areas. Aerith's church was probably the only place open for the public to visit at any time. The building structures in Edge themselves have gone into renovation as well after taking some damage from the invasion as well. The city was finally as lively as it should be, at this time of year especially; For tomorrow marked the day that Meteor almost destroyed the planet.
At a bar far from the main road of the city was a bar name 7th Heaven, home to Cloud and Tifa along with their little family. Around this time of day, the family gathers at the bar level of the building to have breakfast. Cloud was enjoying a nice cup of coffee on his rare day off while Marlene and Denzel chattered away at Tifa as she eagerly listened to them.
"Please Tifa! Can we go?" Marlene begged the grown woman with her best puppy dog eyes she could muster. "We won't stay out too late."
"Well, what do you think Cloud? Should we let them go with their friends during the MeteorFall festival?" Tifa tore her sights away from the children to face her blond boyfriend.
The Meteorfall festival was founded so that the people wouldn't forget the events that transpired years ago as well as celebrate surviving the whole ordeal. Not only that but it also helps them honor the memories of all the victims and heroes that sacrificed themselves in order to achieve such a victory. To get the newer generation involved in the festivities, the adults would give out candy to the kids as well as share the story with them. In recent years, people both young and old began masquerading as real or fictional characters during the event. The town also pinched in the celebration by having carnival games placed in the city's square for all to enjoy.
While Cloud and his friends were some of the many heroes that the people are thankful towards, they prefer not going out in the town during the event. But since Marlene and Denzel weren't that well known and have nothing to do with the whole saving the world, there really wasn't a reason to keep them away from all the fun.
"So long as they don't stay out late I don't see why not. Denzel is old enough to look after Marlene on his own anyway." He answered while placing his cup of coffee on the table. At that moment, the two children tackled him off the chair in joy, both giving his gleeful hug and smiles as a thank you.
Tifa hid her mouth as to secretly giggle at the adorable display in front of her. It was worth a photograph, sadly that would upset her spiky hair boyfriend to do so. It was hard to believe that this was the same guy that was so consumed with depression that he would find any excuse to flee happy moments like these. He changed so much after the Geostigma incident. Now he can't wait for his day off so that he could as much time with the kids as possible. Granted he wasn't the same as the Cloud she knew when they were kids, but that was ok, as long as he's happy she doesn't mind the change.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
After hours of near endlessly exploring through the computer's many files available, he did find some answers to his questions. Unfortunately, Zack hasn't learned much about the experiments that were done to him or his partner. The main reason for that was because they were password locked. He tried guessing the password at first, but it didn't work. He looked through some documents and tried using their data as a password; However, it didn't work. He even used the word 'Hojo' as a password, but it still didn't work. So he gave up trying and left it alone, moving on to something else.
He did, however, learn where this place was. The lab was actually part of a facility named 'DeepGround', one of many that were at Shinra authority. Oddly enough, he wasn't familiar with this DeepGround facility; In fact, this was the first time he ever heard of Shinra having a facility like this one. In data, Deepgoprund was a medical division for wounded SOLDIER members before the Wutai war. But afterwords it was converted to a human experimenting facility to make stronger SOLDIERs that were completely loyal to the president of Shinra at the time. However, they almost destroyed the planet last year by unleashing the planet's last line of defense, Omega, but thankfully they were stopped by Cloud and his friends.
Speaking of his old friend, Cloud, was a hero to the town which made Zack proud. Going against THE Shinra Inc, fighting off a revived the fallen hero Sephiroth, going against a rouge military that the 'good old professor' had control over after finally lost his marbles in his final few days, and that same military group AFTER they got rid of Hojo. Cloud sure kept busy after he was gone. His living legacy has made a name for himself and he couldn't be any prouder.
With all that data searching done, he can now move on to more important things, leaving this creepy place. But before he can do that he needs to release the other test subject, hoping that the poor soul isn't dead. Then he needs to get out of these Mako drenched clothes. Afterwards, he needs to get supplies for the trip, Edge may be close but it would still take some time reaching there. And lastly, escape the underground lab and up to the surface. Midgar and DeepGround shouldn't be a problem, the place was evacuated long ago so no one should stop them. But since the places have high mako radiation in some areas them there will be monsters on the prowl, so caution is key.
Now that he's got a plan, it was the time he set it in motion. He turned his attention to the dense Mako chamber behind him. Whoever was in there must have suffered just as much as he did, being locked away in this cold lab, forgotten and lonely, same as himself. He looked at the control panel to the chamber and studied the report stored in it about this unfortunate soul. This person is a Cetra, a half-breed of one anyway. This came as a surprise to him since the only person he knew and was for sure the last, as informed by Tseng of the Turks, is Aerith. Aerith… He can't help but get back to that subject. He kept wondering about how she's been, How beautiful she must have gotten, and how she most probably thought that he left her, which was not true at all. With her smarts and beauty, he was sure that he probably replaced him by now, after all, eight years are a ridiculously long time. He sighed as he thought more on about her while his fingers typed in the code for the Mako draining process for the chamber.
Recalling the time he almost reached Midgar was unavoidable. With a Mako poisoned Cloud to look after, Shinra troops chasing them left and right, and thwacking Genesis' plans. And by the end of it all, his efforts wasted when he got killed by the last three soldiers just outside the city's borders, its wasteland even. He looked down at his bullet-torn and bloody uniform as memories filled his mind. His conscious stating over and over that he tasted death. Yet it didn't phase him so much as the regret and guilt he was feeling. All the people that suffered because he was blind to Shinra's hidden plans, how he couldn't stop Sephiroth from going mad, how he couldn't keep his promise to Aerith, and how powerless he was to save Angeal. He could be optimistic all he wants, but he could never escape the fact that he was a failure; Even the data stored in his Mako chamber's panel deemed him as such.
He exhaled one big sigh as he unconsciously confirmed the code. All he needed to do now was wait for the Mako chamber to drain out completely, and maybe plan out what he should do when he does reaches Edge. He was given a second chance at living so it would be best to not join any military group, He fought for freedom, so he's going to live free of war and its restraints. Maybe he should also consider settling down while he was at it, his parents would want it anyways and he wasn't going to get any younger. And if he could, he would love it if he could see her again. Although wishing he could, at least, explain all the crazy events to her and maybe even mend their relationship, he knew very well that the chances of seeing Aerith were very slim.
It was at that moment that he realized that the control panel was beeping. He snapped back to reality and stared down at the flashing screen under his hands. The device was signaling that the Mako chamber was fully drained and ready to be opened now. As he looked up to the empty chamber, his eyes went wide, filled with both shock and surprise as realized who the other test subject finally was… He didn't know if he should feel blessed or horrified with what was right in front of him.
