Of all his years being part of Shinra, he sadly admits that he never once rode the airships back at Junon. He had a tour of one in the past sure, but he never actually got on one and soared the sky. He leaned forward on the rails and stared straight down at the fast-changing scenery below. This probably isn't a good idea though since he was on the open deck, but the wind blowing in his face felt so good, he just couldn't help it. He was enjoying it so far, till the speakers almost made his ears bleed from the extra volume.
"Are you nuts kid?! Get your $&(% away from the $#% railing already!"
The grumpy captain yelled through the speakers at the happy Ex-SOLIDER on the open deck for the fifth time. Zack had a feeling that if he didn't do as Cid said then he might find himself a mako puddle on the cold hard ground below, so he slowly backed away from the railings.
"Good choice."
That simple sentence belonged to none other than Vincent Valentine who was leaning on the wall next to the entrance with his eyes closed. To Zack, he was either in deep thought, or that was asleep standing up. Against his curious nature, he decided not to test that theory seeing as he has Aerith waiting for him back at home. He turned his attention back at the changing scenery, occupying his mind with everything that's happened so far.
The change from Midgar to Edge, Shinra's downfall, Aerith's injury, and the infamous Deepground, it was a lot to take in. He read about what the dark organization was and their diabolical plan. They sounded worse than Shinra to him.
"You really shouldn't think too hard on it." Vincent's advice jerked Zack's thoughts back to reality.
"Hu? On what?"
"Deepground"
"…And how did you figure that I was?"
"It's obvious really."
"I see. Well if you say so."
Zack shrugged his shoulders and lifted his head up to relax. But then he remembered a question that he always wanted to ask his gloomy friend.
"Say… Were you ever in Shinra Mansion?"
Vincent didn't reply and instead opting to open his eyes to stare at him. Zack saw it as a threat and waved his hands defensively towards the red eyes man.
"Easy there! Forget I asked"
Vincent uncrossed his arms and stood straight, making his way next to Zack but his gaze looking at the scenery. Since he said nothing, Zack took it as an ok and relaxed.
"I need to go inside and check on some data Reeve gave me." Zack smiled and waited to hear a reply from his quiet partner but got nothing.
He shrugged his shoulders again then walked inside the airship. Vincent, on the other hand, stood rooted to his spot and his eyes glued to the view.
"Deepground… is my problem to worry about, not your Zack."
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
2 PM, Costa Del Sol, Coast Villa...
The Villa's door slamming hard caused most of the photo frames to fall off the walls. The young owner had just arrived back from her part-time job at the Jetski rental store, obviously angry from an event that occurred there.
"That... ungrateful... bastard!" She cursed under her breath as she entered her home, full of rage.
"I work hard in that stupid run-down shack! Just smiling at some rude customers! And what do I get? Fired because I 'upset' a pervy customer?! The nerve! He should be glad I didn't throw the customer across the room!"
"My sounds like you had a very rough day my dear."
The reply of this stranger startled her so much that when she faced the intruder, she was in martial art stance. If this stranger though he was going to get the jump on her, he would be sadly mistaken, or so she thought after seeing who it was that intruded in her home.
"G-Genesis?!"
The identity of her unexpected house guest caught her off guard completely. There, sitting at her dining table was a man she thought was dead. "B-But you are supposed to be dead, Zack... killed you, didn't he?"
"Well, he did defeat me. But come, let us not dig up the past miss Cissnei." The poet got off the table and made his way to the startled young woman.
She needed to defend herself, Genesis is no joke after all. But she was unarmed, she needed a weapon. Just then Cissnei remembered her most trusting shuriken, which was hanging over the fireplace wall across the room. She slowly moved, making sure she was getting a bit closer to it. But then she saw that he noticed what she was planning, time for plan B, run for it.
She bolted to the fireplace, jumping over the couch and sliding under tables till she was merely inches away from getting her shuriken. But before she could, her arms were pulled back. Genesis had her arms behind her back, as well as drag her back to the couch that she had just jumped over.
"Sorry for my rudeness miss Cissnei. But I'll need your attention."
"Why should I listen to you?!"
"Maybe because I'm not really the threat you should be worrying about my lovely dear."
"Oh really? What's this threat that exceeds what you did in the past?"
"How about the reemergence of Deepground?"
"Impossible!"
"Sadly it's not. Here, have a look for yourself." He lets her go and throws on her lap a file from the WRO of the recent activity of the Deepground servers, as well as the members that have escaped captivity.
She was skeptical but going through the file on her lap, she realized there was a threat coming. The record detailed how active those networks were in the past few days. And where the escapes were mostly sighted, Midgar. She was hoping the file was fake, but sadly, the signature of the WRO president was there, as well as his handwritten notes and some other reports.
"Oh Gaia this is bad... wait a sec, you work for the WRO?"
"No."
"No? then how?"
"I borrowed them."
"Sooo, you stole the files. Dear Gaia, you're awful."
"Dear Cissnei, would you have believed me if I told you of Deepground without solid proof?"
"I... guess not."
"Good, we got that out of the way. Now let me ask you something, my dear. Will you be my partner?"
"Your What?" she was shocked, did he mean a 'romantic' partner? Was he crazy? He was just talking about the Deepground threat, where did this come from?
"My partner in stopping the threat of course. Having an Ex-Turk on my side will help a lot with finding more info on the common enemy don't you think?"
That kind of partner, of course, that's what he meant, she felt stupid now about that. "I guess so."
"Then it's settled then. now let me bring you up to speed with the current events." He lifted her off the couch, handed her the shuriken, then flew out the window with breakneck speed. such speed caused her to scream out of surprise, which made a lot of her neighbors run out as she and Genesis were out of sight.
"Wh-where are we going?!" She shouted with her eyes closed from the strong wind hitting her face. Her arms holding him very tightly, worried that she'd fall if she didn't.
"To my nest of course."
"DAMN IT GENESIS, WILL YOU PLEASE NOT TALK LIKE THAT! YOU SOUND LIKE A EFFING KIDNAPPING PERVERT!"
