The most hated man in the world, Sephiroth had called him earlier. Zack didn't just want to hit an inanimate object. He wanted to slug Sephiroth, too!
They left Pithole that same afternoon and hit the highway toward Rocket Town.
Sephiroth drove in steady silence on the empty road. Zack spent the time listening to an oldies station on the radio while watching the mountainous scenery flash past them. The oil pumps surrounding the area gradually thinned out; he bid them a mental farewell. He tapped his fingers on top of Angeal's specimen container, where it sat between him and Sephiroth.
After an hour Zack decided to make some conversation. "Any idea where we're going to camp tonight?"
Sephiroth said patiently, "Somewhere isolated and unpopulated. Just in case we made anyone in Pithole suspicious."
"So we'll find a backroad, huh?"
"Probably just a dirt maintenance road if I can identify one, but it has to be functional enough for us to drive on."
"When do you plan to stop?"
"I want to cover as much distance as possible. We'll stop late."
"It'll be hard to set up camp in the dark."
"We won't make camp. We'll sleep in the truck," was the uncompromising reply.
Zack made a moue of distaste. He hated sleeping sitting up in the truck. He resolved to make Sephiroth sleep in the driver's side, behind the awkward steering wheel.
A familiar old song came on the radio. Zack hummed along, then started quietly singing. He stopped and laughed at the lyrics, and substituted his own, instead:
"On the road again.
Goin' places that I wish I'd never been.
Seein' things I hope to never see again.
Yet here I am, back on the road again."
Sephiroth side-eyed him. "Seriously, Zack?"
"You can't tell me you don't feel the same way."
Sephiroth shook his head. "No wonder Angeal and Genesis both compared you to a restless puppy."
"Does everyone know about that?"
"It's your own fault. You complained to anyone who would listen," Sephiroth chided him. "Your short attention span and lack of focus were frequent points of concern for Angeal, but I don't know why Genesis cared to make an issue of it."
"He didn't give a damn. He was just being nasty and letting me know that he'd spied on my conversation with Angeal's mom."
"That does sound like him," said Sephiroth. "Why don't you take a nap if you're bored? Or better yet, study that material I found on Centralia. The book is in the bag by your feet."
Zack obediently retrieved it and pulled out the book and a paper map. He stared at the bright cover and title: "Ultimate North Corel: History, Attractions, and Oddities."
"You stole this from our hotel room, didn't you?" he asked, recognizing it as the book of "interesting" information about the north Corel area that the hotel management had placed in their room.
"I left enough money on the dresser to cover its cost."
"The maids'll probably think it's just part of their tip."
"The book has an entire chapter on Centralia," Sephiroth said serenely, ignoring the criticism. "I suggest you familiarize yourself with it."
Zack grumbled but flipped it open. "I already know Centralia has that burning coal mine. Rich talked a little about it when I checked us into the hotel."
"Yes, he mentioned it to me, also. Read about Centralia. We need to be prepared for the hazards."
Hazards? Humming along to the song on the radio, Zack found the specified chapter and began to study it.
He learned that Centralia had once been a thriving coal town, which matched what Rich had told him. The defunct area's history was both fascinating and appalling. The place was riddled with old underground coal mines, as well as a number of open pit strip mines. Zack wondered how the whole thing didn't implode and turn into a giant sinkhole.
The fire had been burning for twenty-six years and spread throughout the entire labyrinth of mines, several hundred feet deep and covering an area of over three thousand acres. The official theories were that it had been started by—
Zack couldn't believe what he'd just read. "They're kidding! They set a freaking garbage dump on fire on purpose?"
Sephiroth kept his eyes on the road, but he smirked. "The intent was, and I quote, 'to clean up the landfill.' It is not an uncommon strategy to burn garbage. Many towns do it."
"The landfill was in an abandoned strip mine, and it was near another underground mine! They didn't worry about the coal catching fire?"
"Apparently not. That chapter covers their thinking on the matter. The local politicians were trying to solve an illegal dumping problem and approved the landfill's placement as well as the garbage burn."
"Probably paid off the inspectors to okay everything," Zack muttered. His recent experiences had soured him on politicians and their machinations.
"Probably," Sephiroth said. "In any case, the coal beneath the dump ignited and the fire spread. By the time they discovered the mine fire, it was too late."
Zack nodded. According to the book, none of the town's efforts to extinguish it had worked out, and not one of the remediation efforts had been effective. The fire had grown and spread across the whole area over the years. Vents continually opened up in the earth and emitted lethal levels of toxic gases. The underground mines became heated to unlivable temperatures and the heat eventually rose to the surface. The land's structural integrity failed. Sinkholes appeared and swallowed entire buildings. It had even affected the local weather.
The townsfolk simply hadn't been able to save their town.
Zack said sadly, "And so all of Centralia is now abandoned."
"Just so. A reasonable decision on the townsfolk's part. I imagine most cut their losses and moved as far away as they could manage."
That statement was harsh but practical. A lot like Sephiroth himself, Zack reflected. It was more than just "cutting their losses." Those people lost everything.
He read more, and then burst out, "For Shiva's sake, the town council tried to cover up how the fire started!"
"It was about money and reputations."
"Politicians and cover-ups," Zack growled.
"Speaking of politicians and cover-ups," Sephiroth remarked as a news report came on the radio. He turned up the volume.
"—ormer SOLDIER First Class Zack Fair has escaped Shin-Ra custody. I repeat: former SOLDIER First Class Zack Fair has escaped custody. His current whereabouts are unknown," a man's well-trained voice said. "Shin-Ra has dispatched an expert team led by SOLDIER First Class Sephiroth, hero of the Wutai War, to track Fair down and bring him back to face justice. Zack Fair is considered armed and dangerous. Any citizens spotting him are warned to avoid confrontations at all costs, and instead immediately report him directly to Shin-Ra. A hotline for this purpose has been established. The number is—"
Clenching his jaw hard against the sudden surge of rage, Zack slammed his palm against the truck radio to turn it off. "Fuck those fucking fuckers!"
Sephiroth raised a brow.
Zack wanted to hit something hard enough to shatter it. He should have been expecting a stunt like this. He should have been prepared for it! The way Shin-Ra had been whipping up anger against him should have warned him that they'd continue to find more ways to manipulate the public into hating him.
"Odds are any information obtained from that hotline goes directly to the Turks. Notice how they've warned people off from even speaking to you," Sephiroth commented with maddening objectivity. "They've been instructed to simply report you without making contact. They might hear your side of the story if they talked to you."
"I noticed that your reputation is still guarded like some holy relic," Zack hissed resentfully. "I'm the scapegoat, and you're still the golden hero."
The most hated man in the world, Sephiroth had called him earlier. Zack didn't just want to hit an inanimate object. He wanted to slug Sephiroth, too! And Hojo, and all the Shin-Ra executives, the Turks, even Cissnei! He hated them all!
"Why are you protected?" he burst out. "I may be the most hated man in the world, but you're the most famous! Everyone knows what you look like! They should be looking for you, too!"
Sephiroth gazed impassively at the road. "They are. They announced to the public that I was searching for you, so people will also be on the lookout for me. Anyone who recognizes me will wonder if you are also in the area and be likely to call the hotline. The company has so much invested in my publicity that they hesitate to implicate me in a way that would make them look bad, but make no mistake, they called me out to the general public as well."
"The face of Shin-Ra and SOLDIER," Zack laughed bitterly. "Poster boy."
Sephiroth turned his face away as though checking the truck's side mirror, his shaggy brown hair obscuring his profile. "Yes. Shin-Ra built me up to an absurd degree."
"The rest of us are expendable, is that it?"
"You already know that is true."
"You got credit for my achievements in Wutai!" Zack yelled, remembering his frustration and anger when he'd discovered that fact. It still rankled, and this time there was no Kunsel nearby to calm him or preach reality to him. "You weren't even in the area!"
Sephiroth's head snapped toward him. "That wasn't my idea. Don't blame me for corporate decisions!"
"But you never spoke up about it or told the public the truth, did you? And now I'm the big traitor, the most hated man in the world according to you, while your sins are swept under the carpet to protect the company's damned image!" Zack pounded a fist on the thinly cushioned seat.
He felt a phantom touch on his shoulder. Angeal's voice said in his ear, "Calm down, Zack."
"Shut up!" he shouted, whipping his head in the direction of that aggravating voice. "Just shut up!"
"It's not his fault, Zack," Angeal's voice said. "Stop yelling at him."
Sephiroth stared at Zack, wide-eyed and baffled.
"It's not his fault," Angeal's voice repeated.
Sephiroth jerked his head from Zack to Angeal. He abruptly pulled off to the side of the deserted road and shut off the truck's engine. He glared down at Angeal's container. "So you say," he all but snarled. He concentrated on Angeal's head, his lips compressed into a tight, white line. "No, I will not! You always take his side! Just like you always took Genesis's side. Take my side for a change!"
It was Zack's turn to experience bafflement so strong it displaced much of his rage. Apparently, they were both having conversations with Angeal. Different conversations, though, with entirely different perspectives, and both were infuriating to the participants who could actually speak.
The utter weirdness of that thought struck Zack with the force of a freight train, and the rest of his anger was blasted away. In that moment, a vision, a memory not his own, sprang into his mind: Sephiroth, himself, and Genesis holding a three-way sparring match in the VR Room on a holographic re-creation of the giant mako cannon at Junon. Sephiroth had once told him about that fight and its consequences, but Zack had never pictured it so clearly before—it was like he was actually there.
Like he was a participant. In that instant he found himself standing in Angeal's place.
He saw both Sephiroth and Genesis escalate the fight to irrational extremes, with neither willing to back down: Genesis growing more and more furious, and Sephiroth taunting and amused. He experienced the moment he—Angeal—got between them to put an end to it, taking Sephiroth's flashing, powerful blow against the Buster Sword on his back, and at his front blocking Genesis's full-strength Rapier strike with a standard Shin-Ra sword.
"Don't think stopping them both like that didn't hurt," Angeal's voice said, wryly amused.
Zack knew. He'd felt the destructive impacts against his back, chest, shoulders, and arm—Angeal's back and arm. Though braced, his muscles and bones ached from the physical shocks.
In slow motion, Zack saw Genesis press against the block, pushing harder into his attack. He saw his—Angeal's—Shin-Ra sword shatter under the strain, saw the sharp metal fragments flying. One pierced Genesis's shoulder—
"The beginning of it all," Angeal's voice said. "A different viewpoint for you."
And he watched helplessly as Genesis, claiming it was just a flesh wound and quoting Loveless, walked out of the room, leaving them behind.
Leaving them both behind. He—Angeal—did not follow Genesis out; he stayed with Sephiroth.
"We were all so shocked," Angeal's voice explained. "We'd always believed we were invincible."
The hallucination—the foreign flashback—was over in an instant. Angeal went silent. After a few seconds of quiet, Zack turned to look at Sephiroth. Really look at him.
He finally saw the dark circles under Sephiroth's eyes from too much stress and too little sleep. The dark brown hair color only heightened the gray pallor under his already pale skin. Zack understood. He could feel the bags sinking into the skin under his own eyes. They were both exhausted, worried, and close to breaking. They needed to slow down, calm their anxiety, and think rationally.
"I'm sorry for yelling at you," he said with deep contrition and shame. "I'm just... I'm having a hard time dealing with all this. I know it's not your fault. It's..." He uttered a tiny little laugh. "It's— This stuff is way beyond my pay grade, you know?"
Sephiroth continued to stare at Angeal's head. Had he witnessed the same vision that Zack had?
"Sephiroth, are you sure he always took Genesis's side?" Zack asked pointedly. "I mean, he might have lectured you about self-control, but he did fight against Genesis and return to us. He helped us, remember? He left Genesis and came back to us both." And Sephiroth rejected him, Zack also remembered. Sephiroth was angry back then, too, and both had been offended. If only they'd just sat down to talk, but by then everyone was in crisis mode, and no one had time for anything as prosaic as conversation.
"Then he went back to Genesis," Sephiroth muttered under his breath.
"He went back and forth between us. It was a really complicated situation. He probably didn't know what else he could do. Think about it."
Sephiroth closed his eyes for a moment then opened them again. To Angeal he said, "I understand." He kept his eyes on Angeal's container, but said, "I'm not crazy, Zack. I know you think I am, but I'm not."
Yes, you are, and yes, I'm worried about it, Zack wanted to say, but at least he now believed that Sephiroth wasn't delusional about his weird conversations with Angeal's head. "I know you're really talking to Angeal," he admitted. It was painful, and it made him doubt his own sanity, but there was no denying the reality any more. "I've been hearing him, too, though we aren't having any full-blown discussions. I heard him just now, in fact."
Sephiroth jerked at that admission. He lifted his eyes to Zack's and said with barely leashed intensity, "You, too? What did he say to you? What did you just see?" He looked...he looked hopeful. It was a careful, wary kind of hope, but it was plain to see in his expression.
"He told me Shin-Ra's nasty games aren't your fault, and that I should calm down and stop yelling at you." Zack didn't mention the vision Angeal had granted him. He doubted it would help matters.
Sephiroth sighed. "He also told me to stop fighting with you, and that I needed to understand you are too young and inexperienced to handle so much trauma very well. It was almost like one of his old lectures, but not quite as long-winded."
"Hey! I'm almost eighteen!" Zack protested, but shut up. Hadn't he pretty much admitted that exact same thing to Sephiroth only a moment ago? He uttered a small laugh. "So we both thought he was taking the other's side. I guess it's pretty tough, being the middle friend and all. He must have felt like we were tearing him in two just now."
"Perhaps he felt that way about me and Genesis at times, as well." Sephiroth looked distinctly uncomfortable at making that confession. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm relieved you're hearing him, too."
"I was worried about my sanity. Still am, if I'm honest, but at least we can be crazy together," said Zack, trying to lighten the severity of their bizarre predicament.
Sephiroth nodded. He sighed again, looking much more rational. "I want to get a lot farther before we stop for the night. We can drive while we compare notes about what he says," he said.
Zack said, "All right." They'd both need to stay calm, though. The thought of Angeal's spirit refereeing again made him feel both giddy and alarmed. Particularly if it happened while the truck was moving!
Sephiroth started the engine and pulled back out onto the highway.
Notes:
The defunct town of Centralia and its forever-burning coal mine are based on a real place of the same name. As with Pithole, I stole Centralia's history and circumstances. If you're interested, you can read about it here:
https colon slash slash en dot wikipedia dot org slash wiki slash Centralia,_Pennsylvania
https colon slash slash en dot wikipedia dot org slash wiki slash Centralia_mine_fire
.
Apologies to Willie Nelson for taking liberties with his song, "On the Road Again." Sometimes you've just gotta filk!
