Disclaimer: Yoruko Rhapsodos doesn't own Final Fantasy VII, Inuyasha, or anything recognized in this fanfiction.

Chapter Three

Secrets Revealed

It had been a few days since the incident at Modeioheim. Zack was, at the moment, back in Midgar. Though if he had anything to say about it, he wouldn't be back for very long. He had long since realized that Shinra wasn't all that it was cracked up to be. The enthusiastic young man had suspected something was wrong ever since Angeal first left. Why else would someone like Angeal leave? Zack was getting off of topic, though. Right now he needed to find Sephiroth. He had the perfect excuse, too. Sephiroth had informed him that he was to report to him personally to inform about the mission. He had a feeling that Sephiroth somehow knew that Genesis had been in the area. Finally, Zack spotted him.

"Hey! Seph!" Zack shouted to get his attention.

"Zack." Sephiroth acknowledged; "How was the mission?"

"Interesting. Not at all what I expected." Zack said.

"…Is that so?" Sephiroth said, "Follow me. Once we're in a more… private venue you can tell me all about it."

Sephiroth led Zack to his office. Or lair, as the latter liked to jokingly call it. Though, that was only when Zack was accusing the silver haired man of being grumpy. Once there, the general of SOLDIER informed his secretary that he was not to be disturbed by any means for any reason. Then they entered the office and Sephiroth closed and locked the door. Luckily, since he hated being disturbed that wasn't anything unusual.

"I take it you ran into both of them?" Sephiroth stated.

"Make that three." Zack said.

"Then Kagome was there?" Sephiroth asked.

"She talked sense into both of them. And… did something to heal them of the degeneration. Or rather, once she met back up with Genesis she healed him. She told me to give you this, by the way." Zack said, handing Sephiroth the envelope as he said the last part.

Sephiroth looked it over. He had to hide a slight frown. If Zack hadn't been as close to Sephiroth as he was, he didn't think that he would have noticed. Then again, Angeal had once said that one of the qualities that made Zack a good SOLDIER was his ability to notice people and things about them. Even the small and usually seemingly insignificant things. Plus, he'd been able to read Tseng to an extent since they met, and he was somewhat similar to Sephiroth. Sephiroth looked back up at Zack.

"Well, this settles it." Sephiroth said.

"Settles what?" Zack asked.

"I'm going to abandon Shinra." Sephiroth said.

Neither was worried about being heard, the walls and door were sound proof and Sephiroth regularly checked his office for cameras and bugs and removed any he found. Zack didn't, as he normally would, call him paranoid. When you had a guy like Hojo hounding after you like the taller and older man did, you had good reason to be paranoid. Zack himself had been a little paranoid about the man himself ever since the first unfortunate case of meeting him.

"So that makes all five of us, then." Zack said, "Maybe six."

"Five?" Sephiroth asked, confused.

"You didn't really expect me to stay here after learning about what Shinra was really like, did you?" Zack said.

"I suppose not. The sixth?" Sephiroth replied.

"A soon-to-be third class." Zack explained, "Her name is Cloud, and she'd already been realizing that Shinra isn't all it's cracked up to be even before the mission. After the mission and talking with me, she's been pretty annoyed by things."

"A girl in SOLDIER?" Sephiroth asked, surprised.

"Yeah. She came to Midgar all the way from Nibelheim just to join SOLDIER." Zack said, "And she's got a lot of potential, too. So I've started training with her."

"You're going to ask her if she wants to come along when the time comes to leave?" Sephiroth asked.

"Of course. Cloudy's my friend, and as unhappy with Shinra as I am." Zack said, seeming indignant, then more softly, "Besides… I already went through having a friend leave on me and never even tell me anything about it or ask if I wanted to go, too." Zack said.

'Angeal, my friend… you were quite foolish where Zack is concerned. This whole ordeal- especially you leaving- obviously upset him greatly. Kagome must be very upset with you.' Sephiroth thought, 'But… more importantly… why did I never stop to consider how Zack felt before? The one thing I prided myself on that proved I'm not the cold monster Hojo wants me to be is my consideration for those that I consider my friends and for the well being of those under my command.' "…You're very strong, Zack- and surprisingly selfless. I don't know if I could bring myself to think about my friends and place them in such priority in your situation." he said.

"The people that I care about are what matter most to me. What would it say about me if I placed myself over them in spite of that?" Zack replied.

'He has a point. That's what makes one human-the inability to place yourself before those that truly matter to you.' "You can go pack. Next joint mission, we leave and we're most likely never coming back." Sephiroth said.

Zack left in a flash, saying something about training and talking with 'Cloudy'. Sephiroth chuckled at the no longer surprising amount of energy. That was one person who would never change. He might calm down, perhaps, but never change. That was probably one of the best things about him.

'Such an energetic puppy. Kind and loyal, too. What selfish, foolish creatures we must be to have never stopped to think about him.' the silver haired man mused.

Sephiroth took the moment of silence to think over what the letter had said. Quite frankly, he was far from surprised at what he had just learned. Hojo had never been one to tell the truth, and had always been a greedy, unscrupulous character. So it came as no surprise to learn that his real parents had been Lucretia Crescent and her lover, Vincent Valentine. (How Kagome got a hold of this information, and how she managed to get genetic proof Sephiroth knew better than to ask, or even wonder.)Or that he'd planned on using Sephiroth to achieve his own agenda. The fact that Hojo and President Shinra had planned to get rid of him the moment he seemed to be his own person or his usefulness ended? That was simply the way people like that did things.

Of course, simply running away would never do any good. From the contents of the letter, Jenova was in reality a menace. And Hojo, rather than simply being a soulless that loved to play with a chemistry set, was a mad scientist. Action was needed, and soon. It would not do to leave the fates of many in the hands of a man who viewed everything as either test subjects, eventual test subjects, or nuisances. Sephiroth was eternally grateful that he and his two friends had someone like Kagome around. Otherwise, even he might have played right into the hands of the person who had experimented on and used him since before he was born. It seemed that he would have some very interesting things to talk about with Tseng when they had their ritual bi-weekly lunch.

Owari