Chapter 13
One day and a half later, Zack found himself back on the Eastern Continent on his way to Gongaga. With nothing but the rumble of the truck filling the air, the teenage boy found himself doing sets of squats every now and then to keep himself busy.
"Settle down," orders Angeal. Truth be told, it was bad enough he was stuck on a truck with the rambunctious SOLDIER member and a handful of infantryman for at least two hours. Watching the boy's form bounce up and down as he did squats gave him a headache.
Zack stops mid-squat and finds a seat on the floor of the truck, feeling a little embarrassed to be chastised by his superior.
"Nervous?" wonders Angeal after a few minutes.
"No," Zack responds as his eyes wander. "What makes you think that?"
"Well, last I checked, you haven't been back to Gongaga in a little over three years," replies Angeal, crossing his arms. "Nervous about seeing your folks again after so long?"
Zack falls quiet, giving the First Class SOLDIER the hint that he didn't want to talk about it.
"If it makes you feel any better, we're stopping by Hoku Village to load up on provisions before heading to Gongaga," he says at last. "So you won't have to see your parents too soon."
"Hoku Village?" repeats Zack. Suddenly, memories of the day he ran away and met Zen came flooding back to his mind.
"That a problem?" wonders Angeal, raising an eyebrow.
"No, no, it's fine," stutters Zack, tinkering around with his helmet.
Zen's parents must be worried about her, he thought and smiles. Maybe I'll pay them a visit to let them know how well she's doing.
A few hours later, Zack found himself back in the very place where he left to join the Shin-Ra army with Zen. Looking around, he found not much has changed since he was last here. Granted, he wasn't in the village for very long so if there were any changes, he wouldn't really know what they were.
"Don't wander too far, we've still got a ways until Gongaga," warns Angeal.
"Got it," Zack responds with a two-finger salute. He walks up to a boy not much younger than him who seemed to be lingering around on his own. "Hi there! Do you know where Zen lives?"
"Zen?" the boy's eyes brighten up at the sound of that name. "You know Zen?"
"Sure do," Zack lets out a friendly grin.
"In that case, follow me!" the boy motions with a wave of his hand.
Zack follows him through the town towards a rather unpopulated area behind a grassy knoll. He thought that perhaps Zen's family lived a little out of town. That was, until he saw that there was no house to see for miles. The boy was leading him to a small graveyard where several plots were laid out evenly, each with a stone grave marker that must have been meticulously cared for in the past, but now layered with weeds and dust.
The boy turns to look solemnly at Zack. "Be sure you greet them politely and say please and thank you." With that, he leaves Zack to the graves, knowing in his heart the Third Class SOLDIER meant no harm.
For a few minutes Zack simply stood there dumbstruck. Zen rarely, if ever, spoke about her family and when she did, he had always assumed they were still alive and waiting for her to come back. Never had the thought that they weren't around anymore came to his mind. And Zen didn't want anyone to know, not even her own brothers in arms.
Because of this.
Zack falls to his knees as he fought to suppress tears that threaten to streak down his face. While he and Kunsel had family to return to, Zen didn't have anyone to welcome her back with open arms. She didn't have a home; she didn't really have anything. She hid her pain through smiles and words of optimism despite what laid behind her in the past. All this time, she hid the truth from him. Her best friend.
"Hh… Hi…" spoke Zack. He rolls his fists up on his knees and tightens them as he fought back tears. "Mm… my name's Zack. I'm a good friend of your daughter." He lets out a long sigh and relaxes his fists a bit. "She's doing… really well. She's very strong and looks out for our friend, Kunsel, and me. We're all very close, like best friends. Like… brothers…"
An incredible sadness washes over him as he struggles to get to his feet. His legs felt like gelatin seeing Zen's family like this. He didn't want to do anything but double over and cry his heart out. But he couldn't do that, not now. The time for tears is later. He still had a mission to do.
Looking at the graves one last time, Zack turns to rejoin Angeal and the others.
With helmet firmly planted on his head, Zack watches as Angeal spoke with the mayor of Gongaga. He tries to hide his face as best as possible from the mayor of all people, for it was his own father who ran Gongaga now. He wonders what happened to the previous mayor and seeks to find someone unfamiliar to him to get answers.
"Just don't bother the other townsfolk," he could hear his father warn Angeal quite sternly. "You keep to the inn and the Mako reactor. I don't want any trouble."
"I assure you we mean no harm," affirms Angeal with a face that was straighter than a ruler.
"Yeah, I'm sure you do," scoffs Jack. "Your forsaken Mako reactor is the reason why the previous mayor became ill and died. And now we've got more monsters coming into town because of that thing!"
Well, that answers one question Zack had.
"You just do your little investigation and take care of those renegade monsters," continues Jack. "My wife has already been injured by those cretins and I want them gone ASAP!"
"If you have any injured, we do have Materia to help you with," says Angeal. "Like I said, we don't mean any harm, we're here to help."
Jack sighs angrily as Angeal motions to Zack to follow the man to his home. The whole way, Zack listens to his father mutter bad things about Shin-Ra and their military dogs. It hurt him to hear the man talk about him and his friends that way, but nothing compares to the hell that would be wrought should his father finds out about him. It was almost worth having to hear all that instead of deal with his father directly.
It felt strange to reenter the very house he left all those years ago. After Jack closes the door, Zack spots his mother lying on the couch in the living room with her right arm all bandaged up. He could easily see the blood seeping through the white layers of gauzes, his mother's face in a painful grimace.
Almost immediately, Zack kneels down to her side and raises his right hand over her wound. The green Cure Materia embedded into his armlet began to glow softly as the magical energy within becomes the catalyst that causes the woman's wound to heal quickly. Rose groans as she could physically feel her arm fixing itself. After a few minutes, the Materia stops glowing and Zack pulls his hand away. He watches his mother unwrap her arm to view his handiwork. Neither a scratch nor a scar was to be found on her skin.
"Thank you," she smiles warmly at Zack.
"This doesn't excuse the rest of you military dogs," growls Jack. "You're all still enemies in my book." He opens the door and motions for Zack to get out. Before Zack leaves, he hears his mother call to him.
"Wait!" cries out Rose, grabbing his arm. "Have you seen my son? His name is Zack and he would be around your age by now with black hair. He left to join the Shin-Ra military three years ago."
"No, I'm sorry," responds Zack.
"But if you do run across him," pleads Rose. "Tell him that his parents love him very much and to come back home soon."
Once we get into SOLDIER, you have to promise to write back to your parents at least once. No matter how noble your intentions, running away and letting your parents worry to no end is the worst thing you could do to them.
"I promise," assures Zack, turning around to exit the house.
Zack found himself leaning on the railings overlooking the fountain near the Shin-Ra headquarters, reflecting on that day. He hadn't seen Zen since he came back since she was on another mission. Kunsel had also been missing in action due to his own missions as well so Zack had been by himself for two days straight.
"Hey, Porcupine!"
The young man turns around to see his best friend approaching him with what looked to be a bag of popcorn sitting inside of her helmet.
"Been crazy these past few days, huh?" she exclaims, popping an exploded kernel into her mouth. "Just came back from finally seeing the Loveless play that everyone's been hammering me to see. It's pretty good. Maybe we could go see it with Kunsel when you guys get the time."
As soon as she came close enough, Zack wraps his arms around her in a sorrowful embrace, causing the girl to nearly drop her helmet of popcorn.
"Porcupine? What…?" stutters Zen.
"Why didn't you tell me?" he asks her.
"Sorry, I didn't know you wanted to go see the play that badly. I wou—"
"I went to Hoku Village a couple of days ago."
Upon hearing that, Zen falls silent as the helmet slips out of her gloved hand and hits the ground with a metallic thud. Some of the popcorn spills out onto the ground, but that was the least of her worries at the moment.
"So… you know, huh?" she asks rhetorically, knowing very well what the answer was.
"All this time?"
"Do you really want me to answer that?"
Zack hugs her one last time before letting her go.
"This…" began Zen, averting her gaze. "Was why I never told you or Kunsel."
"If we had known—" began Zack.
"What? You'd try to bring them all back to life?" laughs Zen. "Last I checked, there was a statute of limitations when it came to phoenix downs."
"I'm sorry," apologizes the black-haired boy. "After I met your family, I had to go meet mine. But I couldn't let them know who I am because my father hates SOLDIER and Shin-Ra."
"At least… you can always go back to them," Zen walks over to the railing and leans her arms on them.
Zack turns to lean on the railing beside the girl. "Are you ever going back to Hoku Village?"
"I don't know," answers Zen uncertainly. "I don't think I'll ever be ready to go back."
"But, it's your home," continues Zack.
Zen laughs bittersweetly at the sound of that. "Home is where the heart is. My heart died along with them."
"… Do you want to tell me what happened?" asks Zack.
"You think you're ready for a river?" Zen smiles meekly as she looks at Zack.
"I've got two shoulders," Zack retorts back with a smile.
Zen turns her gaze back to the fountain below them and lets out a deep sigh.
"Hoku Village is renown for explorers. We have a tradition in which everyone is to go on a one-year journey to visit various parts of the world to expand our knowledge and see new things. My father had died before I came of age to go and my mother needed to stay home to take care of my sisters. We decided that I would go with Teacher so I can continue my training in addition to fulfilling our village's tradition. I was ten years old when I left Hoku Village for the very first time."
Zen lowers her eyes as the memories came back.
"During the year I was gone, Hoku Village came under attack from monsters. Half of the village was decimated and many people died. My family was amongst the deceased."
She closes her eyes to prevent tears from forming.
"Teacher left after I came back to Hoku Village. The remaining villagers allowed me to live with them while we rebuilt the village. Once the village was fully restored, I left to join the Shin-Ra military."
Zack was silent for a few minutes as Zen's story sank in.
"Do you blame yourself for what happened to the village?" he asks her.
"Every day," she answers somberly, opening her eyes.
"You really shouldn't," says Zack.
"Why not?" wonders Zen, her voice breaking. "If I wasn't gone, I would've been able to help the villagers fight the monsters and protect my family."
"You couldn't possibly know what would happen," affirms Zack. "Your village did the best it could."
"I just feel I let everyone down," spoke up Zen, tears streaming down her face. "I shouldn't have left."
"Zen…"
"I'm sorry," Zen turns to pick up her helmet, the bag of popcorn still nestled inside. "I joined Shin-Ra to forget and move on. Can we not talk about this anymore?"
"Okay," sighs Zack, watching on as Zen quickly makes her way back to the barracks, never once turning back to look at him.
A/N: Man, crappy times for Zack, huh? Well, I guess it's equally crappy for Zen since Zack found out about her little secret. Oh boy.