Renormalisation
Zack sat quietly in the Turk-piloted helicopter taking him to his next mission, running over the past two weeks in his mind. After falling through the grating in the reactor he'd woken up in a derelict church in the slums with Rosso leaning over him. The redhead told him that Genesis had left after agreeing to put up with their budding relationship, presumably to continue whatever mission the forces under his command had come to Midgar for in the first place. The newly promoted first-class had therefore made the most of his time with his crush –who was quite happy to become his girlfriend– until a call came through from Sephiroth summoning him back to the ShinRa building: Genesis had invaded the Science Department.
On his way across the Plate Zack had run into Angeal again. The Dark General had confessed to experiencing moments of diminished awareness and reduced sanity before changing the subject back to his preferred topic of conversation: honour. Zack had been persuaded to help his former mentor and had then been bodily lifted into the air and flown across the city to the ShinRa building by the white-winged General.
Once inside Zack and Angeal had passed Cloud and later Sephiroth fighting monsters and Dead Men on different floors before finally reaching the Science Department, where Genesis had Hojo at sword-point and was looking seriously irritated. After the interruption the Crimson General had backed off a little and quoted LOVELESS –there are no dreams, no honour remains: the arrow has left the bow of the Goddess– before blasting a hole in the wall through an expensive-looking piece of equipment and taking flight. Angeal had grabbed Zack again and flown after his red-coated colleague.
They'd caught up again on a deserted road on the edge of the building site that was Sector Seven, where Genesis had summoned Bahamut, or at least a Bahamut. It had been much, much nastier than the one Zack had fought in Banora a few months previously. Just as that fight was starting Rosso had called to give him the address of the apartment under the Plate where she would be staying for a while, so he'd had to cut the conversation short due to being divebombed by a massive, gold-plated dragon. Whether or not Genesis approved of Zack as a match for Rosso, the Crimson General certainly wasn't going to make it easy for the brunet SOLDIER!
As soon as the nightmarish invasion was over Zack had been shunted off for his Mako shots as required for his promotion to first-class, which had been the most physically unpleasant experience of his life to date. He'd spent four days bedridden and insensible, another three adapting then been sent out on more missions, this time to retrieve ShinRa supplies stuck in out-of-the-way places. He'd just finished a run and been just outside Rosso's apartment building when Tseng had found him and informed him that he's been selected for a mission to Modeoheim. The damned blue-suit hadn't even let him bang on Rosso's door and say hi!
So here he was, in a helicopter on a seven-hour flight up to the Northern Continent, which was bloody freezing no matter how much Mako a SOLDIER had in his veins. He was a jungle boy, not a mountain boy, Ifrit take it! Snow was Cloud's thing not his!
Speaking of which, Cloud was also coming on this mission, though Zack couldn't fathom why Tseng needed two SOLDIERs in addition to the four regular infantrymen he had booked for the trip. The seven of them could probably conquer the entire continent by themselves if it came to it, which said exactly how deserted the area was.
Cloud was currently slumped next to Zack, opposite the army grunts with his face slightly pale and his luminous blue eyes firmly closed. Zack felt for him; Spiky hated flying, though apparently helicopters were less bad than cargo planes. The young blond claimed that Gelnikas, ferries and trucks were all instruments of torture and only set foot in them when copious quantities of tranquilisers were in his system. Unless it was an emergency of course, in which case he would spend the entire journey an unflattering shade of green after vomiting his last two meals out of the vehicle within the first fifteen minutes.
Oddly enough, Cloud got on just fine with motorbikes and chocobos. Zack suspected that most of Spiky's transport issues would disappear if he was allowed to drive or pilot his own transport, but knew that the Silver General's protégé was unlikely to be given an opportunity to test this for himself.
Since they weren't due to land for another five hours Zack closed his eyes, ignored the whispering of the infantrymen –who really cared if Cloud was Seph's student?– and tried to get some sleep. SOLDIER had been run ragged since the invasion and rest had become something of a luxury: he hadn't had a full night's sleep since getting back on duty.
Zack awoke from an unpleasant dream involving his fall through the reactor floor to find the helicopter plummeting through clouds and past snowy peaks.
"Zack! We hit something! Get the grunts out!" snapped a familiar voice from the cockpit. The spiky-haired brunet was responding instinctively to the unmistakeable Tone Of Command when he realised that the speaker had been Cloud, who was technically his subordinate. Looking around, he spotted the blond leaning around the front seat of the chopper with one hand braced against the control panel while the other tore a knife through Tseng's flight harness.
"Cloud, what-"
"We're crashing Fair!" the third-class barked in a disturbingly Sephiroth-like manner. "Jump!"
Zack shoved the grunts out of the helicopter in pairs as the ground came into view –far too close– and leapt after them. The explosion behind him blasted him away from the wreckage and into a snowdrift, miraculously preventing serious injury. Spluttering, the brunet dug himself out. "Here's a fine how-de-do," he muttered irritably. "Bloody monsters not looking where they're flying. Hello? Tseng? Cloud? Anyone?"
A crunch and a thump from nearer the crash site had the first-class investigating. Only two of the infantrymen had survived the crash, the ones he'd pushed out of the helicopter first: the remains of the chopper had landed on top of the other two, crushing them. Roughly in line with the shattered windscreen a pale blue figure in the snow uncurled from around a darker blue one and staggered to its feet.
"I have safety glass in my hair," Cloud said matter-of-factly, shaking his head and sending glinting shards flying.
"Spiky! Are you alright?" Zack fussed, checking his friend for damage. He found thin cuts but nothing more serious. The wounds were already closing.
"Pretty good considering," the blond assured him, stepping out of reach. "Tseng?"
"I'm fine," the Turk said shortly, opening his PHS. "No signal out here."
"Well, we survived," Zack said bracingly, deliberately not mentioning that two of the grunts had not. "That's gotta count for something."
"At least we have someone with us familiar with the terrain," Tseng agreed.
"Yeah, I know my mountains alright," Cloud groaned, flicking more glass out of his collar and using a handful of snow to clean the blood off his arms. "And my snow. We should probably get moving before the grunts freeze."
"Very well then," Tseng decided, "We would have arrived in Modeoheim by now if we hadn't crashed so we don't have far to go. It's just at the bottom of these mountains, in fact. It shouldn't take us too long to get there."
"Follow me then," Cloud said agreeably, crunching across the snow in the direction Tseng had indicated, totally oblivious to the bitter wind and snow flurries. "Zack, point or rear guard?"
"Point; we're more likely to run into monsters than have them following us," the SOLDIER first decided. "Infantry to the rear; let's get moving!"
Modeoheim. Ergh.
Tseng brought Cloud along because he wants to work out what makes the blond tick, but our chocobo-head isn't making it easy for him. The crash did not go as well as it did in canon, but that's life for you.
I've got the next bit already written and it is BAD. Prepare yourselves for the worst...
