Zack sat on the uncomfortable stone slab inside of his accursed cell rubbing his legs in a vain attempt to relieve the burning sensation within his underused muscles. Knew I should never have stopped doing squats. I wonder how long it has actually been since I last did some, he thought in exasperation. He gave up and lay down finally finding a position where the pain was lesser, and started to try to count the days he had been trapped in this cell. However, the task proved near impossible since there was no way to know if it was morning or night.

He stood up to pace but quickly regretted it, as the dull aching sensation in his calves got worse, and he nearly fell over onto the slab. He decided instead to remain laying on the slab and count the stones in the ceiling once again. After a while his eyelids became heavy and began to droop against his will. He considered fighting it just to stay awake but gave up and drifted off to sleep.

A loud noise caused him to startle awake and he sat up abruptly looking around for the source. Gingerly, the ex-SOLDIER rose up from the slab and placed his feet against the floor already bracing himself against the leg pain that was sure to come. However, as he stood he found that there was no pain whatsoever and he thought to himself in relief, I must have healed. Realising that the sound had not originated from inside the cell, Zack moved to the outer door in an effort to see what had happened outside. Just as he grabbed the iron bars of the small cell door the outside door opened and someone he recognised walked in. "Tseng, is that really you?" asked Zack.

The Turk looked at him, "Ah, here you are Zack! We've been looking for you for months now."

"Months?," he paused in disbelief, "It doesn't matter. Please, help me get out of here, and Cloud too. They took him away so we will have to look for him first.")

"I'm afraid I cannot do that Zack. Not yet anyway."

"Why..? What do you mean?"

"Well, I need more time. You see Aerith told me yesterday, that she was not ready to start dating anyone just yet because she's still hurting from the broken heart you caused by leaving her. I feel she's starting to come around though, and may agree to date me soon."

"What! I asked you to look out for her, not steal her from me."

"She admitted to me that she's thinking about moving on, and that you obviously left her for someone else."

"No! Never! I will return to Midgar, to her! You tell her that!"

"I can't Zack, I am in love with her. I have been long before she ever met you. I was just waiting for her to accept me."

Tseng turned away from Zack to look at the Buster blade. "I need your sword to convince her that you are dead." He took it from the way before walking out the door without another word.

"Tsung! When I get out of here I will kill you if you dare lay a finger on her!" he shouted while shaking the bars, in an attempt to force the cell door open. The door refused to budge, he "AERITH, wait for me!" he yelled as he heard a familiar hiss, great the sleeping gas, he thought as a fine mist was sprayed at him. Shortly after his limbs felt heavy. He fought the gas, and continued shaking the bars.

Eventually, his hands slipped from the bars as the urge to sleep overwhelmed him, his body slumped down onto the ground, as sleep overwhelmed him.

He heard a noise and his eyes shot open, he realised he was on his slab how'd I get here he wondered. As he heard the noise again, he turned his head and noticed that an infantryman was unlocking the cell door while another was carrying an unconscious Cloud. "Stay where you are, and I won't put you back to sleep." Zack stared at the man and nodded slowly in acknowledgement. The infantryman smirked and opened the cell door so the other could walk inside. He harshly slammed Cloud down onto the other slab before quickly retreating. Both infantrymen laughed as they locked the cell and left.

Zack noticed his buster blade was back on the wall and he stared at it in confusion. Did that mean his seeing Tseng was just another dream?

Cloud, started to groan, so Zack tried to get up to check on him, but as he did the burning sensation in his legs returned and he screamed in pain before falling back down onto his slab.

Finally edited with the help of my Beta. Hope this flow of this is loads better.