Zack woke in a comfortable hospital bed, with machines beeping to his side, as he looked round confused, trying to get his bearings a nurse walked in.
"Why hello there sleepy head, you're finally awake" Zack looked at the nurse, but didn't recognise her, "So, how you feeling?"
"W-where am I?" Zack asked.
"You're in Sector 2, in the last remaining free hospital,." The nurse stated proudly.
"Sector 2, as in Midgar Slums Sector 2?" he asked her, hoping no other towns were segmented into sectors.
"Yes, that's correct, good ol' Midgar slums" the nurse replied.
"How long have I.. err." Zack trailed of wondering if he wanted to know the answer.
"Been here? A couple weeks now, it'll be a month on Tuesday" The nurse replied. Then continued "Doctor Adas gave you slim chance of even waking up. Hold up I need to call him in, he'll want to check you over."
"Please Wait" Zack called as he tried to get up pulling the probes off his skin, as he did the beeping turned into a siren, the nurse rushed back into the room.
"What are you doing? You've been in a coma, for a long time, we need to make sure you're ok before you get up" the nurse pressed a switch on a machine, and the siren stopped. A man in a white jacket, and slicked back black hair walked in. The doctor gave Zack the creeps there was something about how was standing he didn't like.
"Nurse, is everything ok with patient Doe" the man asked while the nurse was trying to hold Zack down.
"Yes", the nurse replied as Zack relented and lay back down, "he woke about 10 minutes ago I was just coming to call you. He tried to get up as soon as my back was turned".
"I See, thank you Anne" the doctor acknowledged the nurse, she walked away from Zack and the doctor walked over and started to ask Zack some questions.
An hour later
"Well Zack, you appear to be fine. Your memory seems fine, even if your newest is from 3 years ago. That could be attributed to the fact you've been in a coma for longer than we knew. I can't see any reason to keep you here. We need the bed for other patients. You may leave." The doctor informed Zack. Zack got up out of bed and performed a couple squats, then realised he was in a medical gown.
"Err, Doc, I can't go out like this? Can I..?" The doctor, just left the room. As Zack was wondering what he was going to do the nurse walked back into the room carrying some clothes and a bag, she handed him the clothes.
"These are the clothing we found you wearing, the Doctor, told me to jsut thow them out, but I kept them hidden in my locker for you" the nurse informed him handing him his clothing. "I also had them cleaned for you."
"Thank you" he smiled at her, he decided he liked this nurse, "err, so anyplace I can get changed in private here?"
"Right here" she said looking disappointed and pulled the privacy curtain round to give Zack some privacy. After he had finished getting changed into his uniform he opened the curtain, and saw the nurse was still holding the small bag, which she quickly offered him, "these are your personal belongings, I'm afraid Dr Adas, sold most your Materia to pay for your treatment here, I saved your wallet. As for that big sword, some guy with golden spikey hair claimed it, said it was now his, I refused to let him have it, but Dr Adas said he had paid 500g for it and I would be fired if I refused to hand it over." He thanked her and took the bag from her, finding a single Cure material, his wallet, as well as his phone inside. He turned on the phone, and got a message saying 'invalid connection' he swore, and figured he'd have to get it reconnected somehow. He checked him wallet, and found close to 2000g inside as well as the paper Aerith had handed him before he left for the ill-fated Nibleheim mission, he smiled at the nurse, who was staring at him, and decided to give her a quick hug, to thank her for saving at least some of his items. He thanked the nurse, and left the hospital, then decided to head to Sector 6, where hopefully Aerith would still be waiting for him.
A bit later, he finally managed to get to Sector 6, but found the market area was deserted. As he wondered past the marked, towards the church, he heard church bells ringing, from the direction of Aeriths church he sped up, wondering what was going on? When the church was in sight he saw a mass of people crowded outside cheering, he walked up to the nearest person and asked, "excuse he sir, What's going on?"
"The flower girl, Aerith, is getting married today" Zack took a step from the man in disbelief, he stared at the man,
"WHAT! You're kidding..?" the man looked at Zack.
"Why would I joke about this joyous occasion?" Zack tured away from the man, and rushed towards the church to try to stop the wedding, as he got within meters of the church, the doors opened and a man wearing a white suit walked out followed by Aerith who was wearing in beautiful white wedding dress, he couldn't see the man she has married, as his view of him was blocked by the man in white.
Te man in white spoke "Ladies and Gentlemen, May I present to you, Mr and Mrs Cloud and Aerith Striffe. Everyone cheered, and Zack stood there, thinking to himself, when did Cloud and Aerith meet, why are getting married? She's my girlfriend.. he continued watching as the man in white finished talking then stepped aside, as Cloud lifted the veil covering Aerith's face then pulled her closer to him and they kissed. While watching them kiss something inside him snapped and he rushed forward connecting a punch square on Clouds jaw, sending Cloud back into the church, knocking him out cold in the process, he then turned to Aerith, who stepped back in fear,
"Aerith.." Zack took a step closer to her, she tried to step back again but found she had back into the wall she found herself trapped.
"Do I know you.." she asked him. He reached into his pocket and pulled a piece of paper from his wallet which he looked at, then handed it to her, a tear escaped his eye "What's this?" she asked taking the paper, she read it, and her eyes opened wide finally recognising him "ZACK!" she exclaimed looked at him lifting a hand to his chest, "You're alive.., it's been 4 years I gave up waiting, when a couple weeks ago, Cloud appeared in the church with your sword". He started to explain what happened, as he did Cloud grabbed him from behind turned him to face him then punched him in the face, as he did Aerith put a hand on his arm to stop him, "Cloud, what are you doing.. Please stop, this guy is my old boyfriend Zack..". Zack barely hear her speaking, as the world went black..
Suddenly he woke up, found himself back in the cell with Cloud sat there staring at the ceiling his back against the wall, realising Zack was awake, he looked over to him "You ok Zack? " Zack nodded at Cloud, then realised it was just a dream.
"Yeah, I'm ok. Just a bad dream is all" Zack got up and started to do some Squats.
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Hi, sorry for the delay between updates, I tend to write this as and when I get inspiration to write. I was thinking of writing this as a "Zack lives" story, with this as Chapter 1.. what do you guys think?