KINGDOM HEARTS

THE WANDERER


Zack's Advice


A full week had passed since Cloud's visit with his friends, and since then he had refused to speak with anyone. He had fallen into a state of depression that even Kuja's joke regarding the flying toilet could not cure. Though after hearing it

Cloud could understand why Zidane thought it would fry a persons brain. He suspected the only reason he still had a working brain was because of his depression. He knew he had to get past this, he knew his friends would accept him again once he escaped the darkness that now held him.

"But what if i never do? What if it holds me for the rest of my life?" He thought. He was standing out on a huge balcony that overlooked the dark expanse that surrounded the castle. He thought it looked an awful lot like his soul did. Or maybe

he was wrong and his soul was worse.

"You should no better than to doubt yourself." A calm voice said from behind.

He whirled to find a ghostly spectre standing there, a transperant image of a man. The man was wearing a dark blue uniform with combat boots, steel shoulder gaurds, and leather gloves. It was the uniform worn by the elite military force that

defended Radiant Garden against threats. Cloud and Leon had both hoped to join it one day, even though Sephiroth had been its commander. The force was called SOLDIER. The SOLDIER before Cloud was the one who had been training Cloud how to use that large sword on his back, Zack Fair. Cloud's mentor and friend, and the one who had given him this blade.

"Zack! Your'e alive!" Cloud cried in sudden joy.

"Nah, i'm dead as dead gets. Not as bad as i thought it would be, but certainly not as fun as life." Zack replied as he ran a hand through his spiky black hair.

"Then how are you here?" Cloud asked confused.

"I came to help you straighten yourself out, so you don't get killed." Zack said with a cheery grin.

"First tell me why SOLDIER wasn't there to fight the heartless when they invaded our world! Why did you leave us to fend for ourselves!?" Cloud suddenly demanded.

Zack's grin vanished as he looked at the ground and said "Sephiroth betrayed us, only a handfull of us managed to escape the initial attack. All but me opted to get Ansem the hell out of there. I opted to look for Sephiroth when i heard from

one of the fleeing citizens that he was fighting the heartless, but when i found him he was not fighting the heartless. He was killing the people of Radiant Garden."

FlashBack

Zack stared in horror at the corpses surrounding Sephiroth as he slashed another innocent man across the throat with sadistic glee.

"Sephiroth what the hell are you doing!?" Zack demanded loudly.

Sephiroth slowly turned towards him with blood dripping off his blade, a sinister smirk on his face. "I am doing what i've always been meant to do, i'm freeing her." He said, stretching out each word as if speaking to a slow student.

"Who? And what does that have to do with these people!?" Zack demanded ever more forcefully.

"She is none of your buisness, what is your buisness is that i am about to kill you, though i thought the heartless would have done that already." Sephiroth replied as his wing flexed in preperation for battle. With an angry scowl Zack drew the

a large sword very similiar to the Buster Sword in design then brought it before him in a battle stance. Sephiroth smirked as he said "Though i suppose there are some other things i could tell you, like how i'm the one who let the heartless into this world. Or how after i kill you i am going to hunt down your little pet."

"Cloud." Zack said in realization.

Sephiroth smirked all the wider as he said "Very good, but enough talk, it is time for you to die!" Then the silver haired warrior sprang forward and swung the masamune in a precise arc for Zack's head but his blade parried the blow before he

swung horizontally at Sephiroth's head, but he ducked andswung his blade up at Zack who went into a long flip to avoid the blow, then sprang at Sephiroth from behind with a feirce slash. Sephiroth whirled and met the blow head on locking their swords together with a fierce ringing.

"I won't forgive you for this!!" Zack snarled through grit teeth as his blade slowly began to bend back towards him.

"Fool. What makes you think your opinion matters to me!?" Sephiroth asked before he pulled his blade back and swung it forward slicing at Zack's chest but the younger man jumped back barely avoiding the hit.

"I don't care who it is you think your trying to free, nothing can excuse this!" Zack snarled, then he struck hard but Sephiroth met the attack with ease before throwing Zack to his back several feet away. Before he could have even thought of

standing up Sephiroth dissapeared leaving several dark feathers behind, then he was right in front of Zack and he stabbed the younger fighter through the chest and the blade came out the other side and tore into the ground. Zack cried out in horrible pain as Sephiroth lifted him into the air and kicked the large blade away.

Sephiroth looked over towards the canyon from which the heartless were pouring about a hundred feet away, then with a flap of his wing he lifted the two of them into the air and sailed over the canyon. Zack looked down to see the large drop

below him, with tens of thousands of heartless waiting for him as they swarmed out. He turned back and glared into Sephiroth's mocking eyes. "I'll tell Cloud you said hi." Sephiroth said, then he tilted his blade causing Zack to slide off of it and fall away, into the blackness of death.

End Flashback

"So thats that, i suppose the other SOLDIER's got killed on their way to the palace, but at least you young guys survived. By the way, your friends took your advice and cancelled their attack on Radiant Garden and did some scouting instead.

After they saw what awaited them they turned away." Zack said.

Cloud nodded, then said "My friends and i had a disagreement."

"Don't worry, they have already forgiven you, i talked to them about it before i came here. Though i should warn your, Leon wants a rematch next time he sees you." Zack said with a kind smile.

"But i hurt him." Cloud protested.

"Not really, he was just knocked out. He made a full recovery by the end of the day. Really, don't blame yourself for these things." Zack said.

"But i am of the darkness, like Sephiroth. How could they forgive me?" Cloud said hopelessly.

Zack sighed as he circled around behind Cloud and said "You are nothing like Sephiroth, think about it. He gave into the dark for power, you did it to save your life. He let it consume him. You fight it constantly. Even your wings are different.

You are a good person no matter what you think. You are a hero, if not in the typical sense. I have to go now, but i'll talk to you every once in awhile, by the way, i think Morrdinn wants to see you." With that he vanished in a swirl of light.

For a moment Cloud just stood there, then he muttered "Zack. Thank you." Then he started for the thone room.