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Midgar

Sector 5 Undercity Church

Despite all of his strength and all of his resolve ever since he got to Midgar, Zack was now stuck and had to now choose…

Was he going to go after Biggs to prevent his bomb run on a Mako Reactor?

Would he choose to help Cloud and his Mako poisoning?

Or would he go all in on his efforts to help Aerith recover?

Could he even have any power to do anything at all for any of the three?

"Argh!" Zack grumbled. "How the hell am I supposed to choose?!"

In the moment of his frustrations, he was caught off guard at the menacing presence of his former ally, now turned enemy ever since the incident that had taken place at Niebelheim.

"Sephiroth!" Zack exclaimed, the former SOLDIER ignoring his plea as he climbed the stairs. "Hey!"

Momentarily diverting his focus away from the Church's entrance, Sephiroth turned, Masamune in hand, pointing the blade down towards Zack.

"You want a piece of me?!" Zack hastily snarled, grabbing his Buster Sword as he put weight behind his left foot.

"No. Not you." Sephiroth remarked.

Effortlessly, Sephiroth swung his sword upwards, summoning the Whispers of Fate serving as puppets of his will, flinging Zack backwards towards the ground.

Try as he might, Zack tried to break free from the Whispers' hold to no avail and he could only lie helplessly, watching his former ally walk into the church.

As the Whispers continued to swarm him, Zack kept his composure as he found himself swirling down slowly in an endless void surrounded by the untouchable Whispers.

"It was all you, wasn't it Sephiroth?" Zack hissed, shifting his body weight to re-align himself once again. "Well, it isn't over yet!" He exclaimed, finding himself floating as his descent in the dark void came to a close and an endless white void opened up to take its place.

"I'll find a way. You'll see." Zack declared as he leapt towards the endless void swarming with bristles of white flower petals.

Continuing to navigate the never-ending plain of light that he'd wound up in, there truly was nowhere else to go but anywhere.

His attempts to run as fast as he could hoping that something, anything, would come into view, but no luck as the First Class SOLDIER sighed.

"White as far as the eye can see…" Zack murmured. "Hey! Anybody, there?" He called out.

Despite his call not being heeded in response, Zack refused to continue remaining in limbo stuck in this endless void.

His eyes scowered briskly everywhere, one more time, and suddenly, a small shimmering blue light came into view as the endless void suddenly began to turn dark.

"Huh…?"

With the light fully gone, the glows and slights of a small blue butterfly became much more apparent as it flew closer to him. He felt curious and yet remained cautious.

There was nowhere else to go and Zack felt like that he needed to take a chance and trusted in his newfound companion.

"So…where'd you come from, little guy?" He inquired, lifting up his finger, allowing his little friend to land on his finger. "Can you help me find a way outta here? I…seemed to have gotten a little lost."

No words were exerted from the tiny creature, but in response, it took flight once more as Zack continued to follow it.

"You lost too? Maybe we can help each other out."

The creature began to increase its speed, prompting Zack to keep up with its flight path as his walks slowly transitioned into a sprint.

"Hey! Wait for me!" He called out.

The butterfly ignored his plea and maintained its speed. As the darkness slowly began to fade, an even bigger blue light began to erupt right in front of him as a large blue door came into view.

Without having any time to react, the door flung itself open as Zack dove in, landing stomach first.

"Argh…! Rough landing…" He groaned, turning around to the door still open. "Wait, no-!"

Attempting to dive towards the door once more, the door faded from his view, disappearing entirely right before his eyes.

"Dammit!" Zack huffed, hitting the floor with his fist, standing back on his feet as he took in his new surroundings.

"This…doesn't look like Midgar." Zack murmured, confused at the sight of the giant blue staircase leading up towards another gateway.

Zack wasn't sure to make of where he just landed, but he knew that he couldn't remain idle as he figured out what to do.

He needed to get himself back into the fight and fast, but before his mind could rush into a panic, he cleared his mind, reached back for his Buster Sword, and took a deep breath as he closed his eyes, leaning his head close to the sword's surface.

His mind clear and his resolve still intact, Zack clamped his sword onto his back once more and took a good long look at the staircase before him.

"Nowhere to go but up…" He remarked.

With that, uncertain as to whether or not he'd make it closer to his goals or not, he climbed the stairs slowly, unaware of what awaited him beyond the green void that lay at the base of the clock-shaped gate.

June 8, 2009

Tartarus

Lobby

The night of the operation began.

Yukari and Mitsuru took their agreed upon position as back up in order to pinpoint the lost Fuuka's position with Tartarus while Makoto, Akihiko, and Junpei entered Tartarus via the Gym Locker Storage to extract her right away.

As the operation began, things started to go awry.

Mitsuru's communication equipment attached to the transmitter at the back of her motorcycle couldn't reach her teammates effectively despite being at max capacity so there was no way to extract them or back them up.

"Mitsuru…can you hear me?"

Akihiko's voice faintly rippled from the transmitter, catching Mitsuru's attention as she hastily replied.

"I'm here. I've confirmed your position. You're higher up than expected. You're barely within communication range." Mitsuru replied. "Is everyone alright?"

"-don't know-got-separ-"

"Akihiko?!" Mitsuru worryingly exclaimed. "Come in, Akihiko!"

"Is he out of range? That's worrying…" Yukari sighed.

"Hm…?"

Continuing to focus on keeping her transmission afloat, her Persona was beginning to take note of another presence inside Tartarus besides the three S.E.E.S. members that they'd sent up.

"What is it?" Yukari asked.

"There's…something else here." Mitsuru remarked. "No…! Someone."

"W-W-Who else could be here?" Yukari shuddered.

Mitsuru scurried to refocus her Persona along with the range of her transmitter, intent on focusing on the presence currently within range of Tartarus' lower levels.

"You there! Identify yourself!"

Tartarus

Arqa Block: Floor 43

Zack couldn't tell how much time had passed ever since he first landed in this place at the tower's base.

He figured at first that it'd be a quick sprint up for answers, but things started to get complicated as these dark creatures gave chase to him, to which he responded with brute force in defense.

For what he could count, the first twenty floors of this tower were dark hallways littered with checkerboarded tiling, and the next twenty upwards, was a weird masquerade of purple with faces staring at every corner of every wall.

It's nothing that the SOLDIER wasn't used to since he's seen and encountered many monstrous things during his career that normal people would consider freaky and uncomfortable.

But all the same, Zack was a little beat and decided to take a break and catch his break from all the fighting he'd been doing for hours, looking up at the next flight of stairs as he closed his eyes for a moment, attempting to mediate his focus.

"You there! Identify yourself!"

Promptly hearing a girl's voice ring aloud, he reached for his sword's hilt, scowering his surroundings, looking for someone that wasn't currently present.

"Huh…" Zack sighed, confused, remaining calm. "Hello?"

"Who are you?!" The voice demanded once more.

"Uh…hi?" Zack stumbled. "Zack speaking? Who is this?"

"Zack…?"

"Uh…yes, ma'am. That's my name." Zack remarked.

"How many more are with you?"

"Just…me." Zack shrugged. "I've just been climbing for who knows how long but it hasn't been easy with all of the creeps crawling around this place…wherever here is."

"That's impossible, that's-! Zack. I'm afraid we're short on time. Three of our teammates are currently out of range and we have no way of reaching them. Can you help them?"

"Uh…yeah, sure! Search and Rescue is my thing! I totally got this!" Zack bellowed. "Sorry…but I didn't catch your name."

"It's Kirijo. Mitsuru Kirijo."

"Mitsuru, huh…? Where am I? What is this place?"

"I'm afraid we don't have time…please! You must hurry!"

"Alright! I'm on my way!" Zack beamed, making a run for the next set of stairs. "And just for the record, my name? It's Fair. Zack Fair. Don't worry, Mitsuru! I'll find your allies in no time! So hang tight, okay?"

Back at the lobby, Mitsuru let out a large sigh of relief, yet tension clinged to the back of her mind as she continued to lean forward on the equipment.

Noticing her demeanor slightly shift, Yukari spoke up.

"Are we…sure about this?" She asked. "We don't even know this guy."

"We don't have a choice…" Mitsuru exhaled. "Akihiko and the others are currently out of range and I can't send you up there all by yourself."

"You think this Zack person is another Persona user?" Yukari wondered.

"I…don't know." Mitsuru pondered. "His presence felt different than our current teammates. It's hard to say, but it seems as though he was telling the truth when he said he's been climbing Tartarus for a long period of time. I could sense it in what fatigue I could feel when contacting him."

"I just hope he'll be okay…" Yukari quivered.