A/N: I just realized after uploading Chapter 18 that SOLDIER's Song finally has an actual music insert. XD If you're wondering what Zen was humming in the tent, it's the main theme of Final Fantasy VII. She comes from a village of explorers after all, so she's sure to have come across the melody somehow.
Chapter 19
The sun shines brightly overhead as Genesis and Zen march onwards to their destination in the northern Gongaga area. Today's mission was to investigate yet another monster outbreak due to a Mako reactor malfunction. Zen hasn't been on one of these missions since her near-death struggle at Wutai and she wished the suspension period on them would last longer. These investigations usually clear up pretty quickly, leaving less time and opportunity to get some monster slaying in.
Putting a gloved hand up to her mouth, Zen lets out an exasperated yawn as she watches Genesis' taller form walk ahead of her with an infantryman flanking each side. She hated going on these kinds of missions most of all, even back when she was a trooper with Zack and Kunsel. Investigating Mako reactors were very boring and mind-numbingly uneventful missions. The first few times she's been on these missions, she'd hope to come across some mutant beasts or some challenging creatures to test the might of her horse cutter on. The novelty of the thought died down after a dozen or so of these missions and so Zen had been resigned to complete and utter boredom.
"Do we really need First Class and Second Class SOLDIER members for these kinds of missions?" she groans exasperatedly.
"The Mako from the reactor can cause unpredictable mutations to the environment around it," explains Genesis matter-of-factly as he walked along. "Better to overestimate than underestimate in case it's a very powerful mutation."
"If that's the case, then how come I've never seen anything like that happen on these missions?" Zen glowers.
Genesis turns around and shrugs with a smirk. "I guess you're just unlucky."
Great. Just fantastic, thought Zen with a sigh.
After another half hour of walking, the group finally found the Mako reactor they were looking for, erected deep inside a Gongaga forest in the midst of a clearing. Zen opts to stand and wait outside while Genesis and the infantrymen go in. Once you've seen five Mako reactors, you've pretty much seen them all. Shin-Ra isn't exactly creative when it comes to building their reactors. Plus, guard duty seems much more appealing when compared to the mundane task of checking every component of a Mako reactor for defects.
Once they all went inside, Zen began wandering around the outside of the reactor looking for something, anything interesting to keep her occupied. She traverses the circumference of the reactor to find—well, what do you know—nothing.
Sighing in disappointment, the young woman then circles the reactor in a wider radius, veering into the forest as she did so. The chirping of birds and rustling of furry critters fill the air as Zen wanders on. Another thirty minutes had passed before she checks over in the direction of the reactor to find that Genesis and the others were still inside. She doesn't remember how long it takes to typically investigate a reactor, but these things aren't exactly the size of a house so she predicts they could be here for as long as three hours at least.
Seeing that everything within fifty feet of the reactor was as harmless as an ant, Zen proceeds to wander out even deeper into the forest.
Genesis should be tough enough to deal with mosquitoes at least, she thought.
Walking in a northwest direction from the reactor, the young woman eventually comes across a cave. Giving silent thanks to Gaia for providing her some means to escape boredom, she eagerly scampers up to the rocky opening. She aims an ear towards the interior of the cave, utilizing her enhanced hearing abilities to discern whether it was occupied or not. After a few minutes of hearing dripping water, Zen decides that it was safe enough to enter.
She takes Promise from her back and grips its handle firmly as she enters the dark and damp cave, wary of anything that might suddenly jump out at her. She sees a faint light in the distance and follows it to determine what its source was. As she wanders deeper into the cave, the light became brighter and brighter. The next thing Zen knew, she was in a rather large chamber where some shiny, glowing crystals lay embedded into the rocky walls on the far end.
Whoa, she breathes with fascination. Man, if only Porcupine and Kunsel were here to see this. I wonder what these are. I think Sephiroth once told me something about naturally occurring materia. Maybe that's what these are!
Zen chuckles at the idea of SOLDIER members decked out in materia armor in all their shining glory. That would suck the magic energy out of anyone.
The young woman withdraws her sword and began to walk towards the crystals to examine them farther. However, the closer she got, the more she became uneasy for some odd reason. Then, as soon as she got within seven feet of the crystals, Zen doubles over in pain.
It was strange. All of a sudden, it felt like her blood was boiling within her veins and arteries. As she backs away from the crystals, the pain eases a little but not enough. Fearing what was happening to her, Zen quickly scrambles out of the cave towards the Mako reactor. As she ran, the pain suddenly spikes and began to become more intense in the area of her shoulder blades. She couldn't figure out for the life of her what the heck was going on with her body. Did she get bit by some undiscovered bug or were the materia crystals tainted in some way?
Zen collapses at the base of the Mako reactor just as Genesis and the infantrymen came out of the entrance. Her entire body felt like it was getting stabbed in all directions by invisible, scorching needles and there was nothing she could do about it.
"Genesis…" she groans, looking up at the First Class SOLDIER with pleading Mako eyes as she clutches her stomach. "H-help…"
Instead of a helping hand, Zen was instead greeted by shocked expressions on the face of Genesis and the infantrymen. Not knowing what to make of their reactions, she looks up at the clear blue sky above and blacks out.
Swords clash against each other as Zack tries hard to defeat his doppelganger. Not far from him stood Angeal, watching onward to see if the young man had improved within the last month. Judging by the beads of sweat dotting Zack's forehead and the fact that his sword has yet to inflict any injury on the Zack copy after thirty-seven minutes of fighting, it doesn't look very good for Zack.
After a few more minutes of fighting with no significant improvement, Angeal finally takes out his PHS and inputs the option to cancel the simulation. Soon after, the Zack copy and the world around them break up into pixels and fall away to reveal the interior of the training room.
"Aww, c'mon, I almost had him," whines Zack, panting heavily.
"How about no?" responds Angeal, flipping his phone closed and heading towards the door.
Zack follows his mentor out the door to the SOLDIER lounge, where a handful of SOLDIER members of the Second and Third Class variety were standing around waiting for the training room to be available. As soon as they see Angeal and Zack appear, they all walk towards the now open training room, emptying the lounge until only Zack and the First Class SOLDIER were left.
"You're distracted," notes Angeal once the last of the SOLDIER members disappeared from the lounge.
"What? No, no, I'm fine," assures Zack.
As experienced as Angeal was with people, he didn't buy it for a second. "You're worried about something."
"No, I'm not," affirms Zack. He sees Angeal cross his arms and stare at him with those grim I-don't-think-so Mako eyes of his. "Okay, so I've been having these weird dreams."
"Weird dreams?" reiterates Angeal, cocking his head to one side.
"Yeah," continues Zack. He walks over to one of the lounge benches and sits down. "It always starts with something nice and happy. And then it ends with me sinking in some body of water and unable to swim up."
"Interesting," notes Angeal, bringing a hand to his chin in thought. "How long have you had these kinds of dreams?"
"Well," began Zack, rubbing the back of his neck with a hand. "Ever since that mission I had back when I was a trooper. The one where we fought the people of Fort Condor."
"Ah, I remember that," says Angeal. "Didn't it fail?"
"Yeah, it did," remarks Zack. "That was where Zen and Kunsel got really badly hurt and… I couldn't do anything to help them."
"You felt useless," interprets Angeal.
"I just…" Zack trails off as he tries to sort out his thoughts. "Ever since that day, I always worry that I'll lose them. Every time I worry about them… dying in a mission, I get these dreams. Back then, I only get them once in a while, but they've gotten more frequent after that mission to Wutai."
Angeal sighs and takes a seat next to his protégé.
"Zack…" he begins. "This is a problem everyone in the Shin-Ra army encounters when they've become close friends with their comrades. It's hard to care about them when you need to take care of yourself. You just have to find the courage to change what you can and accept what fate hands us."
"Do you feel the same way about Genesis and Sephiroth?" wonders Zack, turning to his mentor.
"We just decide to live each day as if it's our last," answers Angeal. "After some time, you just learn to not take life for granted and live in the moment. It's easier that way."
He puts an assuring hand on Zack's shoulder. "But most of all, you need to have faith in your friends' abilities to take care of themselves. You've already gotten this far. There's no reason to think that you won't be able to go all the way."
Zack's tight-lipped mouth gives way to a relieved smile. "Thanks, Angeal."
"Anytime, Zack," Angeal nods with a smirk.
"Well, seeing as the training room is occupied," says Zack with a much happier spirit. He notices that night had fallen on Midgar after looking out the window panels. "I'm hungry. How about dinner?"
"Sure," agrees Angeal.
Zack was fast asleep on his bed when he hears some loud pounding noises coming from his front door. Groaning, he tries to will the visitor away and plops his pillow over his head in a futile effort to drown out the pounding. When he realizes the visitor wasn't going away, he groggily waves his hand around to find his digital alarm clock. Once it lands on the plastic box, he turns it towards him to look at the glowing red time.
5:30 in the frickin' morning! he thought, irritated.
Wearing nothing but grey pajamas pants, Zack forces himself out of bed and stumbles his way to a wall to flick on a light switch. Momentarily blinded, Zack blinks his Mako eyes a few times to adjust to the sudden illumination of his SOLDIER quarters and waddles towards his front door. He groans. The frantic pounding was starting to give him a headache.
With a push of a button, the door to Zack's room slides open to reveal a disheveled Kunsel, who was still clad in his dark red Second Class SOLDIER uniform minus the belts and armor for some strange reason.
"Kunsel?" greets Zack as he rubs the sleep out of his eyes. "Do you know what time it—"
"Zack, it's terrible!" Kunsel interrupts quickly, looking clearly distraught about something. "Zen, she's… she's…"
"Causing trouble again?" questions Zack with a smirk.
"No, Zack!" Kunsel grabs Zack's shoulders firmly, his face dead serious. "She's gone, Zack. Zen has disappeared!"
A/N: And now I leave you with a cliffhanger. BYE!
*runs off before her readers give chase with torches and pitchforks*