Zack Fair paused in his casual flirting with a cute assistant to watch Sephiroth storm down the hallway to his office, a thundercloud over his head. He looked the vision of a warror walking off the battlefield, covered in dried blood and other nameless goo.

Secretaries scattered at his approach.

As he drew near Zack's Mako sensitised nose caught a whiff of what could only be the smell of garbage steaming under a hot sun.

"Uggh, what the hell happened to you? He gagged.

"Zack. In my office. Now."

Zack smiled and shrugged at the cute assistant before following him. He was used to Sephiroth's near constant grumpy attitude. He used it to judge Sephiroth's moods on a scale from mildly grumpy which on anyone else would be ecstatically happy to get the hell out of the room now! grumpy, which meant that blood would very likely soon flow.

Zack followed his general, shutting the door behind him and making a bee line for the window, which he opened. Leaning back against the sill he watched Sephiroth flip through a file cabinet and pull out a file, flipping through it as he paced in front of his desk.

Zack judged his mood to be get out of the room Now! grumpy and hoped he hadn't done anything to cause it. Sure he was the closest thing to a friend Sephiroth had, so he wasn't exactly afraid for his life but Sephiroth was hardly ever diplomatic and his bad moods could quickly move to violence.

"All right what happened?"

"I found the Cetra."

That caught Zack's attention fast. He only knew of one Cetra, he also knew that on the whole planet there was only the one, his best girl Aeris."

"You did." He said carefully. No one knew that he had dated one of Shinra's most wanted. Or that she was a close friend that he talked to frequently. He also knew that it was in everyones best interest to keep it a secret.

"Yes." Sephiroth said, "She was right there. I had her."

"...and?"

"She got away." He grumbled.

Zack looked at Sephiroth, surprised. Yeah he knew Aeris could take care of herself, and had been leading the Turks in a merry chase for years now but this was Sephiroth. No one escaped him.

"How?"

"She just did." Sephiroth shot back, his expression clearly stating that that subject was closed to discussion.

"...Okay."

"I need you to reconnaissance with the Turks, find out everything they know."

"Speaking of which. Isn't this one of their cases. I mean, we're SOLDIER, this isn't our territory."

"That girl is wanted by Shinra. The Turks are hopelessly inept and so if falls to me to bring her in."

"Why do you care so much?" Zack asked with a sinking feeling. He felt like he was walking on eggshells. Whatever Aeris had done, she had made it personal. And Sephiroth was a bad person to have as an enemy.

Sephiroth stopped in his pacing, eyed Zack with that intense expression he had, the one that made him look both crazy and volatile. Zack gulped at that look.

"She mocked me. I can't let her get away with that."

"What did she do?"

Sephiroth shook his head at him. Just follow my orders Zack and report back to me asap."

"All right, I'm on it." He said, heading for the door.

"Good." Sephiroth answered absently, flipping through Aeris's file

"Seph?" Zack said pausing at the door.

"What?"

"You might want to consider taking a shower, you stink and you got gum stuck in your hair."

Sephiroth took a moment from his glaring to finger through his hair until he found the offensive wad and growled.

"Oh, when I get my hands on her, she's going to be begging me to let Hojo have her."

"Oh yeah, speaking of which, Hojo wants to see you in the lab, like yesterday."

Sephiroth rolled his eyes at that.

"He can wait."

"OK but you might want to give him a call back just in case. You know how he is.

"I know better than you Zack believe me, he can wait."