Once they cleared the ice field surrounding Veidboer harbor, it was smooth sailing for the next two days. Cloud was sick, of course, but Zack kept busy and the days passed quickly for him.
By the time the first mate called, "Land ho!" he almost didn't want to leave.
Maybe that would have been the wiser choice, because now he's sitting in a jail cell with a burlap sack over his head. Moreover, he consented to every step that brought him here.
It makes sense for them to hide their headquarter's location, and it makes sense that they wouldn't trust an ex-SOLDIER operative right away. Cloud had reasonably argued that he could watch over them in his spirit form and relay the images to Zack through the bond, meaning they wouldn't really be blind in the first place.
It all seemed very reasonable, right up until Cloud told him not to panic.
"Why would I panic?" Zack asked, not really wanting to hear the answer.
"Because we're in a cell with chains on the wall, and it'll look bad if we freak out."
He's in the process of freaking out and ripping the sack off of his head when Veld's daughter walks in. She looks different from the grainy cell phone picture.
Rather than a plain brown uniform, she's wearing a blue silk robe over a tank top with the sleeves tied back by white strips. A colorful sash is tied over a pair of uniform khakis, woven in many colors with fringe tassels dangling around her knees. Her formerly brown hair has the distinctive red-auburn color of a bleach job discolored by sea water.
She looks ragged. Not worn out, not tired or disenchanted, but not totally put together either. When she drags a stool from the corner to sit in front of him, she has big, blotchy ink stains all over her right hand.
"Hi there, sorry for the rough welcome. I'm Elfe, head of security and counterintelligence. This is a standard entry interview, and you'll be let out as soon as I've assessed your risk factor."
"Risk factor?" Zack asks. Cloud's spirit form hovers in the corner. His body is slumped next to Zack on a metal bench, his head still covered.
He feels a powerful, almost irresistible impulse to throw Cloud over his shoulder and run. The woman's lip twitches up, barely a smile and miles away from her eyes.
"Your likelihood of being a Shinra spy," she says bluntly. "You can untie your friend now. The bags have served their purpose."
Zack doesn't care for her ordering him around, but he doesn't need to be told twice. He unknots the other bag and pulls it off. Without his spirit inside, Cloud's eyes are vacant and glassy.
Elfe seems bothered by them. Zack catches her eyes widening a moment before they skitter away like she's seen something horrible. Offended on Cloud's behalf, he sits him up a little straighter and fixes his mussed hair.
"What's wrong with him?" Elfe asks.
"Nothing," Zack grunts. "He has mako poisoning, but he's the same person inside."
"I see. Was that the reason for your defection?"
"Defection?"
"From Shinra."
Sometimes Zack hates the mako eyes. Everyone thinks they know his life story just because his eyes glow in the dark. It is a good excuse though, and easier than trying to explain the truth.
Cloud's spirit meets his eye over Elfe's shoulder and shrugs.
"I didn't defect. There was an accident in a mako reactor and we were presumed dead. I chose not to correct them because out-of-commission SOLDIERs are given to the science department."
Elfe studies him, her eyes intense and penetrating. It reminds him uncomfortably of Sephiroth— how he'd always seemed to look through people rather than at them. The metal legs of the stool crack and creak when she sits back and rests one heel on the cross bar.
"You're lying. Why?"
"Huh?" He tries to hide his reaction, but not fast enough. He feels it warp his face and sees her eyes harden in response. That fight-of-flight feeling comes back stronger, and he wraps his fingers around the edge of the bench.
"Your story doesn't make sense," Elfe says, widening her stance and bracing one hand on each knee. "Gloria picked you up to save you from the Turks, but you claim to have been declared KIA. Why would they waste resources chasing dead men?"
"Because they figured out we weren't dead. SOLDIERs are considered Shinra property, they never close a file without a corpse. When ours didn't show up, they went looking."
"And with your training and enhancements, you expect me to believe that you couldn't handle a couple of Turks? Give me a break."
"It's the truth!"
"The truth?" Elfe scoffs, making a show of arranging her robe around a sheathed katana when she stands. "The truth is you're the least convincing mole they've sent yet. And to think, they even gave you that poor man to use as a prop and prey on our sympathy. Disgusting."
Zack doesn't know what happened. One second he was sitting, and the next he was rushing up behind Elfe and grabbing her by the ties of her sleeves.
"What did you say?" he shouts, his heart suddenly hammering.
It's the room, her tone of voice. When he blinks he sees Hojo's lab, sees Bennet's cold eyes and tastes moldy, recycled air. Cloud yells in his mind, telling him to stop, and he knows he's acting crazy, knows that what he's seeing isn't real, but it feels real and it tastes real, and maybe if he fights back sooner this time, maybe things can go down differently. Maybe he can get them both out before the tank warps their psyches beyond recognition.
A cold wave washes over him from the inside, and as quickly as the visions started they disappear.
Elfe watches him with a open curiosity, surprised but not afraid. Her blue eyes drop from his face to where his clenched, shaking fists grip her clothes.
With deliberate slowness, she wraps her hand around his wrist and pulls. He resists, and both of their arms quiver like they're arm wrestling, caught in a deadlock of equal force.
"I called you a bad liar and a Shinra spy," she says quietly.
"And then you called Cloud a prop," he growls. "Say what you want about me, but I won't let anyone disrespect him."
"Now that," Elfe says, narrowing her eyes into sharp slits, "that I do believe."
Redoubling her efforts, she pinches a nerve in Zack's wrist and slowly, forcefully draws his hand away. He stares, uncomprehending, as a woman a head shorter than him with a thin, frail-looking frame easily overwhelms his enhanced strength and shoves him hard enough to send him sliding into the opposite wall.
Cloud calls his name, running to kneel beside him with worry pouring into the bond. The cell door crashes open at the same time.
Maria rushes in with an unfamiliar man in her wake.
"We heard a crash, is everyone… dios mio, Zack are you okay? What happened?"
"He attacked me," Elfe says.
"She called me a spy!" Zack wipes gray concrete dust off of his jacket.
" Elfe , how rude," she says like a scolding parent, striding quickly past to pull Zack to his feet. "I'm so sorry, she can be a little..." Maria makes a so-so gesture with her hand, which he chooses to interpret as 'crazy.'
"I beg your pardon," Elfe scoffs. "That man has you fooled, Captain, and you're a fool for believing him."
The lanky brown-haired man who came with Maria hovers in the threshold of the cell. With a hesitant face, he tugs on the tan cuffs of his uniform sleeves to smooth out the wrinkles and steps fully inside.
"Commander, might I request to review your reasoning?"
"No, you may not. This is my purview and my prerogative."
"So it is," Fuhito says. "But seeing as my own duties require me to be here, perhaps you'll indulge me."
"Your duties?" Elfe asks doubtfully.
"I asked him to take a look at Cloud," Maria says with a hesitant glance at Zack. "He's an expert on planet energy, trained by Bugenhagen himself."
"I don't know about that…" Zack hurries to stand between him and Cloud, his partner's spirit close on his heels.
"But he can help you, he treated Gloria's father when he was alive," she insists.
"Now, now, let's not get ahead of ourselves," Fuhito says with a tentative clearing of his throat. "There's no reason to do any kind of check if my co-commander is set on rejecting them.
"W-well I wouldn't say I'm set on it. I'm just not willing to risk the safety of the entire organization willy-nilly like some people —"
"Some people?!" Maria balks.
"Who appreciate your commitment to your duty," Fuhito interrupts. "But in light of recent—and if I may be frank, rather unpopular—decisions on your part, do you think it's wise for you to take such a rigid stance?"
Zack's brows furrow as he loses the thread of the conversation. Across the room, Elfe scrunches up her mouth like the statement left a bad taste.
"This has nothing to do with my father," she says.
"Fucking shit," Cloud mouths.
"That doesn't mean it's Veld." Zack has to fight to keep his face blank. "It could be a coincidence."
"No, it's him. She pictured him when she said 'father.'"
"Son of a bitch, Reno was right."
Unaware of their silent conversation, Fuhito clasps his hands behind his back and regards Elfe with a cool expression.
"Indeed, the two recruitments are not related, but it would be simple for rumor to construe it that way," Fuhito suggests. "People may hear that you refused to harbor fugitives, and wonder if two innocent souls have been sacrificed in the name of restoring your reputation. They may see it as unjust."
"The only unjust thing would be if I offered either of them special treatment, which I'm not. In fact, before you all barged in, I was on the cusp of giving this man the same conditions.
"Which are?" Zack asks, his stomach twisting into knots.
With all the travel and subterfuge, he'd almost lost track of why they were here in the first place. It's for Aerith, for her and for Cloud. He just needs to get in and get Veld out, and then all this running and hiding will be over. The thought of being so close and then failing because he couldn't convince this woman to trust him makes a sudden bout of anxiety spike in his chest.
Elfe loosens the tie holding up her sleeves, and the blue silk slips down her arms. Laying one side over the other, she closes the robe and uses the same tie to belt it.
"They will be allowed to join, and housed with the other high-risk members. They'll have a strict curfew and will be locked in at night. Should either of them leave base for a mission, the other will remain as collateral. And of course, they'll be subject to our disciplinary processes if they should bring any harm to the organization."
"We're not going to do anything that needs punishment," Zack says firmly.
More accurately, when they did take action to harm Avalanche, they wouldn't be hanging around long enough to be punished.
"Excellent," Fuhito claps his hands once, as if pronouncing the matter settled. "Captain, if you please…?"
Maria perks up immediately, trotting outside with a spring in her step and returning with a wheelchair and a beaming smile.
"Surprise!"
Zack doesn't know what to say. When he looks to Cloud, he doesn't see his spirit form anymore.
A soft grunt makes him turn on his heel.
"Maria…" Cloud says, just a little over a whisper and gravelly from disuse. Emotions flutter and overlap, too tangled and fast for Zack to identify them.
His bright eyes meet Zack's, and the happy feelings seem to win out, because the bond stabilizes around a feeling of airy, buoyant impatience. He could get used to sharing that feeling.
"Go on scarecrow, put him in! I want to push him like a racecar."
"Uh… maybe not that fast," Zack chuckles nervously, but works his arms around Cloud all the same. "One, two, three—"
The chair rolls back a little, and Cloud's eyes widen. His fingers grip the padded armrest reflexively. Zack leans back to get a look at him, and gets a watery half-smile in return.
"Hang on, calaca," Maria coos, and just like that she takes off, turning a fast loop inside the cell and then scooting out through the door fast enough to startle a laugh out of Cloud.
"H-hey, I said not too fast," Zack shouts, stumbling to his feet. "Where are you going?"
"To the cantina! We need to fatten this little chicken up," Maria calls.
By the time Zack skids out of the cell, they're already gone. He cups his hands around his mouth and yells, a sinking, irrational fear tightening his chest.
"Maria, hold on. Maria!"
Fuhito strides from the cell, polishing his glasses with a small cloth that he shoves in his pocket. Lifting a brow at whatever he sees on Zack's face, he slides the spectacles back on and then stuffs his hands in his coat pockets.
"I was going to offer a tour, but it seems the Captain has already claimed that responsibility," he chuckles. "I think I know where she's headed, if you don't mind having a slightly less enthusiastic guide."
Outside the cell is a large, carved stone room.
One end opens up to a large cavern where sea waves roll and crash into a wooden, moss-covered pier with only a few small skiffs and row boats docked. Far beyond, at least fifty meters out, La Libertad sits in the bay with its anchors dropped.
The end of the room slopes down and inward, darker and darker the further in it goes. Braziers hang on either side of a hefty door, lit not by electricity but open flames. It feels like a portal into an ancient world rather than the back door of a secret terrorist base.
Fuhito tips his head in question, and belatedly Zack nods, thrown off by the severity of the dread pooling in his core.
Maria is a good person, he became convinced of it aboard the ship. Back at Shinra, even the best bosses got ripped to shreds at the water cooler, but her crew had nothing but love for their Captain. If he knew nothing else about her, that would have been enough to earn Zack's respect.
So why does he feel like he's dangling over a cliff? Why are his hands clamming up and the back of his neck beading with a cold sweat? Cloud has been out of sight for less than thirty seconds, but he feels as if he's lost him forever.
It's ridiculous, he knows it is, but the fear doesn't care about logic. It grips him like a giant hand around his spine, like a voice whispering nightmares in his ear. It only takes a moment for things to fall apart. He took loved ones for granted before and then he lost them one by one. It can happen again, at any time.
Fuhito leads the way through the oversized oak door, and Zack makes himself suck down a calming breath.
This is paranoia, nothing more. Everything's going to be fine.