Zack forced his way through the packed slums, nudging people angrily out of his way. He was so impossibly confused. Everything in his life seemed so . . . just fucked up. He felt like a con-artist and he felt gross and sleazy. He wanted to get as far away from the HoneyBee Manor as he could.

So may things jumbled around in his brain. He felt lost and lonely and utterly powerless. This wasn't how any SOLDIER should ever have to feel. He, as long as he was the only SOLDIER in the area, was the most intelligent and powerful of all the people in the slums. He could get anything he wanted, by force or by manipulation, and yet nothing seemed worth it. It made him feel too different, too much on the line between human and monster.

Monster . . . did that term really relate to him? It scared him, but was it more truth in that statement than he feared? Zack knew that all SOLDIER's were infused with Mako to strengthen them, but Mako was just reformed energy. Shinra just reformed energy and ejected it into strong men through Mako therapy. Shinra creates SOLDIERS. Not monsters.

. . . Right?

Zack's head spun. He was exhausted from weeks without sleep, his days and nights occupied with work. He, amazingly enough, got no more than two hours of sleep nightly and yet there had been no decrease in his work ethic on either of his jobs. He trained just as hard and was even taking on extra missions. But now, once his drive faltered, he was crashing.

He stumbled, catching himself only barely before falling onto the muddy ground. It was a Sunday (or was it Saturday?) and the slum market was packed with people. He felt nauseous and weak, something so foreign to him since entering Shinra Corp, and yet so strangely familiar. He was dizzy, but it made him feel human. His hands ran along the tin walls of shacks as he tried to find an opening that led to some place less stifling.

It was midday, he guessed blindly. He looked up to the heavens, half-expecting to see the sun beating down, giving him the time of day. But he forgot that he was in the city the sun never reached, where looking up did nothing. He didn't sleep at all last night. He'd been wandering around the slums since he stormed out of the HoneyBee Manor the night (morning?) before. He hadn't checked in with Shinra yet today, but he just didn't care. Nothing mattered.

The world continued to spin as he wandered the crowded street, letting himself be pushed like a stone in a river. His eyes scanned the crowd, but for what he didn't really know. He was looking at people, he guessed. But no one really stood out. Normal people, strange people, poor people. They all seemed the same to him.

He felt weird and awkwardly out of place. He was too tall and too muscled and too tan to belong to Midgar. He felt alone, and he was. He looked out once again at the sea of dull people. But his eyes snagged momentarily on a young girl in a blue dress. His brain, although sluggish with fatigue, was still that of a SOLDIER and therefore could process on a level no human's could. In less than a second he knew that this girl was important.

His head dropped to the side, resting on his shoulder. His body throbbed. He was so tired. Zack brought his hand up to grasp his head. He pulled at his hair angrily trying to bring back alertness. Jerkily he moved through the slums, throwing his body to rest on the tin buildings at random intervals to try and stay conscious. His body was failing him.

Suddenly, he keeled over, feeling the urge to vomit. He gagged, heavily, but he had no food in his stomach to expel. He groaned, and his stomach clenched again. He was nearly crawling at this point. His eyes were closed, but he could tell that he was out of the crowd because the air, which was still stale, did not smell like hundreds of bodies. He inhaled, deeply, savoring the scent of flowers. Wait, flowers? He was still in the slums, right?

He looked up, cracking an eye open, to see a small house in front of him. To the left of it was an immense garden full of flowers. Flowers, growing in a place without any sun? Zack was sure that he was in some kind of dream.

He dragged himself over to a patch of clover and fell into it. It felt so soft and cool on his face. He wanted to sleep. He was so tired. So impossibly tired.

A pair of black dress shoes appeared near his face. He didn't move, just smiled. He recognized the type of shoes the man wore immediately as the same type Shinra employees had to wear, specifically the Turks. He continued to grin deliriously.

"Yo."

"What are you doing here, SOLDIER?" A voice said, almost spitefully. The mans voice was deep and drawling, with the slightest hint of a Watanese accent. Zack didn't recognize it, but somehow knew that this man was his superior.

"Did the president send you here?" The man asked again, not waiting for Zack's reply. But Zack didn't reply, because it was then that he fell into a nearly unconscious state. He listened, but barely heard, as the Turk flipped open a phone and dialed the buttons.

"How dare they send SOLDIER's into sector 5. This is Turk territory." Came the barely audible whisper. Zack closed his eyes as his head faded into black.

For anyone who's wonder, that's Tseng that Zack finds near Aerith's house. He was sent to look over Aerith before/during ffvii so he's pissed that the president sent over SOLDIER (or so he thinks). Tseng secretly has a lil crush in Aerith.