Warnings: Angst mostly. And Zack speaks.

Chapter 5 : Moving Mountains

Vincent listened to the old house creak, he heard the tinkle of falling glass, and he watched a portion of the roof collapse. How had the comatose boy known that the machine would cause such damage? If overheard conversations were to be believed, he and the dark-haired one had been in the lab for several years. They would never have seen the device before and should, therefore, have had no idea of the killing power of its self destruction.

Of course, considering the work Hojo had done on him, it probably wouldn't have killed him, merely brought out one of his less civilized aspects. He slanted a sideways glance at his companions, all of them victims of ShinRa's Science Department, and decided the explosion probably wouldn't have killed any of them. Since he didn't want to discuss what he had undergone, Vincent didn't ask if his theory was correct. To ask would be to invite questions. Especially from the dark-haired one with the fat sword.

It only took seconds for the four of them to catch up with the rest of the troop. The group had just reached the outskirts of the ruined village, moving steadily but relatively slowly; keeping a careful eye out for DGS troops left behind or other dangers.

"Any problems, Captain?" Sephiroth inquired.

"Nothing, Sir, not even a wolf," Biggs reported. "The engineering team is here. They've started their assessment of the buildings. They estimate repairs on some of the more sturdy structures could start tomorrow; the inn, the mayor's house. Maybe the store."

Sephiroth nodded acknowledgement, Nibelheim was going to be their forward base for the next stage of the fight. However, he didn't miss the subtle flinch in Ms. Lockhart's stance. The mayor had been her father, killed when he'd tried to negotiate with Hojo's forces when they'd taken over the village. He had tremendous respect for the woman's courage and abilities and saw no reason hard memories should be allowed to cause her pain.

He gave Zack a subtle chin-jerk in her direction. The black-haired SOLDIER nodded back and ambled over to talk at her and distract her from painful memories. The interaction had been so instinctual, as if both of them had stepped back in time, it made Sephiroth's chest hurt. He'd learned to recognize the reaction as emotional pain. He still didn't like it.

The captain was continuing his report, "Mr. Wallace has been in contact. They eliminated the last of the Deepground forces, and have set the charges in the reactor. They're retreating to the assembly point now."

"Casualties?" the General forced himself to keep his breath and voice steady even as he watched his SiC, former-SiC, former—must try to remember that, get a small smile out of the dark-eyed fighter.

"Nothing serious," he said.

"Very good. We'll proceed to our transpor—" The rest of his sentence was lost beneath a huge hollow boom. Zack whooped in delight, making Tifa laugh out loud.

The ground, well, it felt like it kind of bounced a bit. Zack put his arms out for balance and managed to keep his feet. Tifa did the same, but many of the others lost their footing. Not Sephiroth or the ex-Turk, though they staggered a bit.

"Who needs the ocean to surf?" the SOLDIER called out happily and most of the people still standing howled in agreement. The ones on the ground just dug in until they were sure the earth was stable again.

Behind them, around the mansion and along the path they stood on, great pits appeared as the dirt dropped to fill in the caves and secret lab that had existed under the place for decades. With a groan, one side of the mansion collapsed into the hole, exposing the elaborate stained-glass windows in the back wall. They were somewhat damaged from the machine's explosion but still impressive—and completely out-of-place in this rustic, little backwoods village. The sun was shining through them, causing a rainbow of colours to sparkle.

Sephiroth remembered those windows. He remembered the mansion. He'd been born there or underneath it, Sephiroth mused. Born there and spent his early childhood hidden away behind its walls, living in darkness even when standing in the dappled lights caused by the sun shining in those windows. One of the place's many secrets.

It couldn't be buried deep enough.

"Ngggh." Wings fluttered and stretched tentatively. It was a question.

"Yes, Cloud. It's gone. You can never go back there."

White wings beat so hard they nearly pulled the youth from the General's arms. Sephiroth tightened his hold, knowing that Cloud was expressing his happiness in the only manner open to him. He had the sudden temptation to delve under Cloud's shirt and rub his hand over the soft, very sensitive down between his lover's wings, to rub and massage until he was hard against him, and maybe even longer.

"Ggghh." The sound was vaguely approving and Sephiroth realized that the impulse wasn't just his—Cloud wanted it too.

Since most everyone was busy babbling excitedly about the effects of the explosion, the General pressed a hard kiss down through that amazing hair, "Soon," he whispered, and the blond subsided, wings giving one last happy beat before furling back around his lover. Sephiroth sighed, "I miss you, Corporal Strife. Please, come back to me."

"He'll come back, Seph," Zack said coming close. "I know he will. It'll just take some time."

"I am being impatient, that's all. I am not good at waiting."

"You used to be pretty good." Despite his easy smile, the dark-haired SOLDIER kept a watchful eye as the group picked themselves up and reassembled for the march to the transport. There was a, not a clone but something similar—an altered human-thing hybrid, that must be one of the DGS fighters that they'd been talking about.

Before he could comment on the body, Sephiroth had cast a Firaga on it, completely destroying it. "I seem to have lost the knack, although that may be because I haven't had someone to share it with. I know Kunsel is your friend," he looked at Zack and gave his little half smile, "but he is not you and it isn't the same."

"Kunsel's still around?" Zack asked, surprised.

"Hmmm," Sephiroth confirmed as Captain Biggs started the party moving again. "He's still a SOLDIER Second Class. He was leading the forces that liberated the village and the mansion."

"Still a Second?" Zack couldn't believe it. It had been three years and Kunsel had been a good SOLDIER.

"He is happy as a Second. It gives him more versatility." Zack looked baffled and the General realized that his SiC, wouldn't know about the First's weakness to Jenova. Or maybe he would. "Did Hojo or one of his people talk about the link between Jenova and the SOLDIER program?"

For a moment Zack looked even more bewildered, then his eyes widened, "In the chamber, when I cut her out. That smell! I knew that smell was familiar."

"The mako injections used on the First Classes did indeed contain Jenova cells," the General confirmed. "Since Hojo left, the Turks have been sifting through his notes. He knew, soon after Professor Gast left the Jenova Project, that the original Jenova was a Cetra who became infected with an alien virus. Many of the Cetra were infected. Those that escaped the virus fought to destroy those who had succumbed. They nearly eradicated themselves trying to stop the virus. When Gast found the creature we call Jenova, he inaccurately identified her as Cetra."

"Her body..." Zack tried to remember everything he'd seen of her but, quite frankly, he'd been trying not to throw up from the smell, "It looked almost the same." Except for the glowing eyes, silver hair, blue skin, claws, and the leathery wings, she could've been Aerith's cousin.

"The more cells that are controlled by the virus the more physical change occurs. My eyes are a good example."

"They're not red," Zack pointed out. Neither one of them could resist looking at the enigmatic gunman.

"My eyes are a family trait that I inherited from my father, as he inherited them from his," and even if they weren't it was clear the gunman would say no more on the subject.

Sephiroth resumed his tale. "Gast wanted to reawaken the power of the Ancients that's why he started the Jenova Project. By the time he left, it had been perverted into discovering ways to make the perfect warrior. Hojo had discovered that the more cells the virus controlled in a body the more powerful the host would become. It was this that Public Safety had wanted to harness, so Hojo proposed the SOLDIER program."

"Hojo proposed it?" The mad professor's disdain for anything military had been notorious so Zack found it hard to believe he'd come up with the idea.

"For the funding it would bring, and the fame, and the chance to continue his experiments. He sold the ShinRa Board on its military application, but he was sold on the possibility of immortality. He told the President that Jenova would lead them to the Promised Land and he was given carte blanche to do what he liked. However, the first subjects injected with unadulterated Jenova cells had to be destroyed. Their names aren't even recorded."

The topic was a grim one, Sephiroth mused, but it suited the surroundings, as the party walked through the remains of Cloud's hometown. "His failure provided an opening. Scarlet hated Hojo even then and proposed a kind of contest between him and another bright young scientist, Trey Hollander. Hollander was even more ambitious than Hojo. His seeming breakthrough with Angeal and Genesis infuriated Hojo."

"Breakthrough? They degraded and went crazy, or Genesis did," Zack protested.

"Those problems didn't become apparent until many years later. When they were babies they seemed to be perfect. Hollander injected both of them with dormant Jenova cells that had been filtered through an altered host. To be fair, at this time most of the scientists believed that Jenova was nothing more than a preserved Ancient; unique but still native to our planet. So when Hollander asked, Gillian Hewley—"

"Angeal's mom," Zack exclaimed.

"Yes," he confirmed, "she agreed to be injected, and then she agreed to let her unborn child be injected with re-activated cells from her own body. Angeal's infection was more stable because his mother was also infected. As a comparison, Hollander also injected the cells into another foetus but this time the mother hadn't been previously infected."

"Genesis," Zack stated quietly.

It wasn't a question, but Sephiroth answered anyway, "Yes, Genesis. He degraded much faster than Angeal because of it, but at the time it looked like Hollander would be given the promotion and the clearance Hojo coveted so Hojo went one step farther. He injected himself with dormant cells but he used 'active' cells from Jenova on his... his wife, and his own embryonic child. He was infected; the mother was infected so the child, he reasoned, should be a perfect copy of Jenova. He did know that Jenova was saturated with an alien virus, by the way."

"Fuck," Zack muttered in horror. "He did that to you, his own kid?"

Sephiroth didn't like to think of it. He was a specimen, an experiment, barely human... except to Cloud and the man walking beside him. "To Hojo, anyone was a possible subject. You should know that."

A pale body, strapped down on a steel table. No anaesthetics as skin and muscles were peeled away. All the structures of the arm were subjected to injections, electrical stimulation, and even just poking them with a long needle. All the results written down and compared to last month's results.

That time, it hadn't been Cloud but a cute, little lab tech who'd tried to make their lives better. Just small things some of it; a chocolate bar, a cheesy magazine, a gentle touch, but Hojo didn't want their lives to be better. Too bad for her.

"Yeah, yeah, I do," his answer was quiet. It covered the fact that Zack wanted to punch something until it broke and shattered—Hojo's head by preference.

Not close, but not really far away, they could hear snarls of scavengers attracted to the smell of blood. "Captain Biggs," Sephiroth called, "your people made sure all the corpses were destroyed?"

"We tried, Sir," was the officer's response.

"Perhaps you should take some men and check out what they are fighting over. We don't want the DGS mutation spreading."

"Yes, Sir," the captain agreed, and picked out a squad to go check it out.

"I will accompany you," Vincent said in his gravel-voice. He needed to get away from the two swordsmen. Their conversation was resurrecting too many memories. His failure haunted him more deeply the more he heard them speak. He would assist the unaugmented soldiers in their task and maybe in this small way, he could begin to atone.

He stayed off to the side of the squad as it moved out, distancing himself from them. He didn't want to be a part of them or have to converse with them. The quiet would be better than the empty chatter or the inane banter that soldiers usually indulged in. It would be infinitely preferable to the topic the two SOLDIERs had been discussing.

He hadn't counted on Captain Biggs, however. "Is it true you've been imprisoned at the mansion for nearly thirty years?"

Vincent blinked as he wondered why Biggs asked the question. Was it relevant to the mission? Would any harm result if he answered? He decided that the man was merely curious and thought about whether or not he wanted to answer. Biggs, of course, continued talking.

"It's just, that's longer than I've been alive. I bet things have changed a lot in thirty years."

A safe question with a safe answer, "I imagine they have."

"ShinRa would've just been building Midgar; The Wutai War hadn't really gotten started yet. PHS's hadn't been invented, and computers. I bet you didn't have the World Wide Network either. TV, and the cars we got now! The world has really changed in thirty years."

"The technology may have changed, but I imagine that people are essentially the same as they were before. There is still greed, so there is likely to be hunger and want. Where there is cruelty, there will be kindness. Where there is hope there will be despair. Pain is eternal and only death remains unchanged."

Biggs looked at him in dismay, "Um, right. Okay." He went back to his troop and Vincent heard him comment to the sergeant, "That is one depressing mother-fucker."

He wasn't approached again.

In the end it turned out to be nothing. A deer, perhaps injured by a stray bullet, had wandered into the village ruins to die and been followed by a pack of Nibel wolves. They did not try to separate the predators from their meal but walked in silence to rejoin the main group at the transports, two heavy trucks, still being unloaded by the engineering crew.

From a distance Vincent noticed that the silver-haired General had her hair, so long and fine but standing up in front to frame his face—just like hers had done. He searched, but could see no trace of his father in him, at least not physically. Sephiroth seemed cold and distant from the others, except for the two he had rescued, but everyone else he seemed unaware of, as if they were unimportant in his world. That was very much like the Professor Hojo he remembered.

Perhaps he should have tried harder to see Sephiroth when he'd been young, rather than entombing himself in his voluntary prison, but he'd been afraid that he would lose control of his demons. And maybe he'd been afraid that he would see too much of Lucrecia in her son.

Lucrecia. Would she forgive him if she knew how he'd failed her and her son? He hung back as the captain went to report, needing to consider this new idea. He'd never thought of absence as a failure before.

His thoughts were interrupted by a distant explosion. Everyone turned to look. It was the Mount Nibel reactor going up, filling the sky with acid-green flame. Where there were clouds, they were rimmed in vibrant shades of green and yellow, looking dramatic and poisonous. The reflected light made the mountains glow. It was beautiful and awe-inspiring. It was also an end to an era.

The Nibel reactor had been one of the first ever built. The mako was so close to the surface, so rich, that it had been easy to exploit even with ShinRa's first, crude technology and Nibelheim's isolation.

Sephiroth listened to the murmurs of the people around him and realized, more than the collapse of the Midgar plate and even more than the loss of half the known world to Hojo, the destruction of the sixty-year old reactor symbolized the end of ShinRa Electric Power Company's domination.

The troopers and the medics who'd grown up under the company's overwhelming influence might have felt nervous at the change. Those who had suffered, who'd been treated as things to be experimented on, felt a fierce satisfaction. Hojo may have thought of the torturous experiments, but the ShinRa executives had turned a blind eye as long as it gave them profits.

They stayed to watch until the glow lessened; no longer making the area look like it was bathed in toxic sunlight. As the group loaded into the transports, Zack took one more look over the valley. So many endings here. So many beginnings.

As they drove away, a fat but fearsome Nibel dragon winged in to land on one of the distant mountains, bugling its ownership of this damaged and abandoned place. Zack snorted. The beast was welcome to it.

By unspoken agreement the three SOLDIERs—because if Cloud wasn't enhanced to SOLDIER First Class level it was because he was altered beyond it, had one of the fold-down benches to themselves. The regular troops settled on benches or the floor, wherever they could find room, talking quietly or not about the things that concerned them most; girlfriends, the reactor explosion... wondering if any of their friends had been wounded or had been removed from the injured list; normal soldier talk, routine and yet strange to someone who hadn't heard anything like it for years.

Zack leaned back, half-closing his eyes, trying to take it all in. He was free, out of the mansion. He was part of group consisting of more than just him and Cloud. He'd seen his first sky in nearly three years. It was a little freaky and he felt like an idiot for being afraid of the sky, of all things. Maybe he should do some squats, get rid of some of this, this... coil of... of whatever this was he was feeling.

A PHS was placed in his hand. "She is memory dial number four." The voice was a calm order.

He looked at the phone. "You're really bossy, you know that?"

"Of course. I wasn't designed to be an office drone, after all." There was a lazy smirk on the General's lips and Zack had to smile. Seph's sense of humour was as weird as ever. He stared at the phone. "Memory dial four."

A deep breath, a push of a button, and it was ringing. And ringing. He could still hang up. He'd tried; she just hadn't answered. Not his fault if she doesn't pick up the phone.

"Zack?"

It was her. It was her soft voice so full of kindness and joy. Aerith. His throat tightened. His eyes burned. He held the phone and could say nothing.

Sephiroth leaned over, "Give him a moment, Ms. Gainsborough," he said into the mouthpiece.

A light giggle. Oh gods it was really her. "No problem, General. I've waited this long."

"Aerith." He wanted to say more. He tried to say more. Three fucking years.

"I wrote to you, every week, just like I promised. When the company announced your death I didn't believe them so I kept writing. Then Sephiroth appeared in Fort Condor and said you weren't dead, so I kept writing. Tseng's been keeping them. He figures he'll run into you before I do."

"Fuck," he muttered trying to figure out how many letters that was. Then he realized he'd cussed in front of Aerith, "oh shit, sorry, Aerith. Fuck. I did it again." He dropped his head into his hands and she laughed out loud.

"I lived under the plate in the slums and now I live near the army barracks. I've heard the words before, Zack," she teased.

"I know. It's just… it doesn't feel right."

"What would feel right?" she asked, "A hug?"

He smiled, "Yeah, a hug would be nice."

"How about a kiss?"

"Could definitely try a kiss or two."

"But going out for ice cream would be the best, right?"

This time he laughed out loud, "I'd rather have some of your pie." A thought occurred to him, "You haven't been giving Tseng any of your pie, have you, doll?" The endearment slipped unthinking from his lips. Gods, he wanted to hold her, to breathe her scent in. Of course, there were a few things he'd have to tell her first.

"Of course not," she chuckled, "Cookies only. I'll make some pie when you come back. You can bring Cloud and your General."

"He's not 'my General'. He's Cloud's if he's anyone's," he protested.

"Sure he's yours, because he decided he is. He's chased down every rumour, any trace of you since he came back. It's considered wonderfully romantic. They're writing plays about it." That made him laugh out loud—Sephiroth as a romantic lead, what actor could do him justice? "You would do the same for him, wouldn't you?"

That stopped his laughter. He'd just suffered through hell to protect the man, how could he argue with her? "I would."

"Well, then. Look after each other until you can come for pie." He could almost see her tilting her head in that way she had; being bossy but nice about it. "And have some fun too, if you can."

"We will."

"Commander, he's pulled in his wings." There was a barely perceptible note of panic in the General's voice.

"It's okay. They've been out a long time, he's probably just tired," he reassured the General and, sure enough, Cloud drooped even more bonelessly as he fell asleep.

"Um, Zack?"

"Yeah, doll?" he responded absently. Cloud's little frown of worry and fear, a fixture for endless months, was gone. He knew they were safe. Zack blinked rapidly to get some road dust out of his eyes.

"Did he just say that Cloud has wings?"

"Uhhh, yeah. Yeah he did."

"Ooh," she said as if that answered a question she'd had. What question it might have been, Zack had no idea. "Do you have wings?" she asked followed almost immediately by "Oh, I've got to go. My grocery shopping escort is here. Reno!" she said in gentle horror, "Why couldn't they have sent Rude? He's much easier to shop with."

"Reno's taking you grocery shopping," Zack repeated absolutely floored. Domesticity and Reno… it somehow seemed wrong.

"Uh-huh. I always have a Turk escort, just in case Hojo tries to kidnap me again. Reno's the worst. He always puts the most horrible things in the cart." He could hear a distant 'hey!' in protest.

Reno's statement that canned cheese wasn't horrible had Zack smiling. He was with Aerith on this one. For some reason the redhead was addicted to the stuff. Everybody else watched in horror as he sprayed it on biscuits, bread, casseroles, and into soups, stews and once, even on ice cream.

"Is that Zack on the phone?" he heard, and Aerith's affirmative and then it was "Hey, Fair, you slacker. You still owe me poker money," right in his ear as the redhead took over the PHS.

"I've got some back-pay coming. When I get paid, you get paid." Reno hadn't changed. It made Zack smile.

"Shit man, I'll be waiting until we reach the effing Promised Land," he complained.

"Talk to your boss. Maybe he can expedite the process."

Reno snorted, "Good fucking luck on that one, Fair. Once you get it, let me know. We'll get together for a poker night, right?"

"Sure, I warn you though; I won't be such an easy mark. I've been working on my poker face." 'No, doctor, having a needle stuck in my kidney without anaesthetic doesn't hurt at all. Fucking Hojo. His hand clenched and the PHS creaked in protest.

"I've been playing with Rude, yo."

Shit, Zack grimaced, Rude. Even Tseng thought twice about playing with the big Turk. The redhead would be able to read him easy.

"Anyway, I gotta take the babe out for food. D'ya think if I stop bugging her to buy cheese spray that she'll bake me a pie?" he teased and Zack could picture his face perfectly; eyes, watchful and slyly amused; thin lips quirked up in a lopsided grin; supremely confident and utterly slovenly. Deadly on the job and completely lazy off it.

"When Zack gets back, I'll bake a bunch of pies and invite all of you over," Aerith said in the background.

"Sweet! You heard that, right? You can't let yourself be killed now, yo," he ordered.

"I'm not planning on it."

"Yeah, with your luck you'll fall in the shower tonight and break your neck."

"Thanks a lot, Reno, you asshole."

"Love ya too, babe. Gotta go," there was a click and the PHS went dead. He stayed where he was, just holding the phone.

"It is hopeful?" Sephiroth asked.

Zack smiled, "Yeah. Fuck yeah." He gave the silver-haired SOLDIER back his PHS. He'd arranged Cloud flat on the bench seat with his head on the leather-clad lap.

"Good, I'm glad for you." Sephiroth stroked long fingers through golden hair.

Zack leaned back tiredly, resting his head against the side of the truck. He tilted it toward his CO, former CO. "Thanks, Seph."

Sephiroth looked into those blue eyes, a deeper, darker blue than Cloud's light colour but with the same mako glow. The confidence and optimism that he'd always seen in them was gone replaced by weariness and pained acceptance. It hurt to see it. The General knew he wasn't good with emotions and he didn't know how to ask... how to admit to what he needed, so he reached out and took it. He placed his free arm around Zack's shoulders and pulled him in to rest on his broad chest.

"Thank you," he said softly.

He held Zack against his heart until the dark-haired SOLDIER fell asleep.