Fourth Iteration

SOLDIER second-class Zack Fair was not a happy puppy. Yes, he had almost single-handedly taken Fort Tamblin. Yes, his promotion to first-class was almost in the bag and would likely come through in the next six months. But Genesis had defected with a chunk of Zack's comrades for unknown reasons, Angeal had vanished and Sephiroth was angry with both of them for leaving him. Or quite possibly for not taking the Silver General with them; Zack wasn't really sure. The real problem was that he was stuck in the jungles of Wutai with a very unhappy General Sephiroth, a whole lot of troops looking to him for guidance -even the first-classes Ifrit damn it- and no Cloud. The absence of the chocobo-blond was a very big problem and one that would only be getting worse. The energetic second-class was not privy to the all the secrets Valentine had shared with the three Generals -Angeal had thought it safer to keep him out of the loop- but Cloud was and Zack's gut told him that Sephiroth's disgruntlement was connected to those secrets.

Cloud would be able to diffuse the Silver General's misery, but the blond wasn't here. Wasn't allowed to be here, even: he was going through the six months of Mako shots that everyone had to do on being moved up a level in the program, meaning he wouldn't be deployed on longer missions until the beginning of March.

By which point the war might very well be over, considering how Sephiroth was taking out his anger on the natives.


Zack had initially only bothered to compare Sephiroth's pre-Cloud and post-Cloud behaviour, but now he was stuck out here with the General and without the blond he realised that there were three distinct variants rather than just two.

Pre-Cloud the Silver General had been cool, aloof and intimidatingly professional at all times with a touch of subtle humour when he relaxed a little. Courteous but distant, present yet violently untouchable. After meeting and spending large amounts of time in the company of the spiky-haired blond Sephiroth had changed, showing two new behavioural variants: With-Cloud versus Without-Cloud.

With-Cloud was amazing: Sephiroth bloomed in the younger SOLDIER's presence, warmth seeping into his expressions and voice and dry wit infusing his words and actions as the aura of untouchability receded. Cloud was completely unafraid to punch, prod and generally harry his mentor in a good-natured fashion and Sephiroth reciprocated, ruffling his student's gravity-defying hair, patting him on the shoulder and occasionally flicking his nose with a clawed fingertip. The teasing the duo engaged in was subtle yet outrageous and the Silver General was often the instigator: only a month ago the three of them had had to ride chocobos for a mission and Sephiroth had been forced to bribe his his extremely jittery mount with Greens. Cloud had wandered closer to see what the problem was, helmet tucked under one arm, and the General had absently held out some of the Greens towards his protégé's face as he petted the crest of his reluctant bird. Cloud had queried why his mentor was shoving leaves at him and had been met with a blink and a stare.

"I am sorry Strife," the Silver General had said mildly, "but I mistook you for another chocobo there. Perhaps a change in hairstyle would be in order?"

Cloud had blushed, growled and muttered something about evil Generals and poor humour but Zack had been clutching his sides and sniggering uncontrollably. Sephiroth did have a sense of humour and it was pure genius! Genius!

Unfortunately, it appeared that all this friendly warmth melted away when Sephiroth was Without-Cloud. The chilly aura of isolation descended again even colder than before and the Silver General stepped back behind icy walls and spoke to all and sundry with a brisk courtesy and cool professionalism that was even less inviting than his Pre-Cloud attitude. Zack guessed that Sephiroth missed his student's cheerful presence and retreated inside himself so as not to put his melancholy on display, but that wasn't much fun for those who had to deal with him in the meantime.

Cloud didn't actually have to be right there all the time to trigger the thaw in the Silver General's attitude, just around and findable. Unfortunately the blond was currently on the other side of the Planet and Seph was the only General ShinRa had left, so the silver-haired SOLDIER would have to stay in Wutai to lead the campaign. Wutai, where Cloud wasn't. The SOLDIERs who'd been deployed from Midgar with Zack himself and had witnessed how the Silver General's mood depended on the presence of his protégé were already muttering with their colleagues who'd been out here for longer and eyeing their new commander nervously.


Of course, Zack also had problems of his own. Why would Angeal defect? For that matter why would Genesis defect? Was it connected to the wings everyone in SOLDIER knew the Crimson General now had? Zack thought those were a result of the experimentation that Genesis had been put through early on in life, but if that was the case did Angeal have wings as well now? And what about Sephiroth? The Silver General certainly had very strange new pupils in his eyes and very sharp claws; Seph had yanked Zack out of the way of a blow during his fight against the SOLDIERs in strange uniforms and cyclopic helmets and the second-class had recieved a neat little row of puncture wounds in his forearm as a result. True they had healed quickly enough afterwards, but still. Claws.

But why, oh why would Genesis and Angeal just leave without telling Seph, who had suffered just as much as they had at the hands of the science department, if not more so? Why would Angeal leave him, Zack, behind? Where was the honour in just abandoning the people who counted on the Dark General?

Ifrit's Hells, what about Valentine? Did she know what was going on? She'd spent a lot of time after hours with Sephiroth in the past few months in between her random trips out of the city, so where did she fit into all this?

Zack groaned and clutched at his hair. This was so not good. In fact, he would go out on a limb and say it was bad. In four days more reinforcements would be shipped in from Midgar to replace the deserters but nobody would be allowed to return to the city for a further two weeks at the very least, if not longer. Two whole weeks of increasingly cranky Sephiroth going through Cloud-withdrawal and nobody else for miles around capable of deflecting the General's attention.

He was doomed.


Zack worries. Sephiroth sulks. Angeal really should have known better.