Zack XXII: Anxiety
The next morning, Cloud was already up by the time Zack awoke. "Hey, sleepy head", Cloud greeted him when he finally woke. "Morning!", Zack greeted him back enthusiastically. Since his promotion to class 2nd, he had only ever slept with another person in the same room whenever he was deployed, and the feeling was quite refreshing. "Did you sleep well?", Zack asked. Cloud shook his head slowly while assembling the final parts of his gear. "There was a lot of noise coming from the room next door." Zack slowly nodded. He had not noticed anything, but he was quite a deep sleeper usually, and if Cloud said it had been noisy, he had no reason to doubt it, although it had, fortunately, not bothered him. "Well, you can sleep a little more on the flight to Wutai." Cloud nodded and answered in a defeated tone: "I'll be fine. I never sleep that well on deployment. I'm already used to it."
Zack had never heard Cloud talk so much without being edged on, and he wondered if he could get the young grunt to tell him a little more to satisfy his own curiosity. As Zack pushed the blanket aside and swung his legs out of the bed. Cloud turned away and picked up his bag and rifle. "I'll be in the mass hall. See you later." Zack watched him leave in mild confusion. They still had two hours before they were scheduled to meet at the helipad. There was no need to rush. He took a quick shower and put on his uniform. Before gathering up his things, he checked his messages and found one from Aerith, telling him about how she spent her previous day. He had somehow missed the message the day before because he was out with Cloud, and Reno and Rude had been very entertaining for the rest of the evening, so he had not thought to check his messages.
Aerith was probably up already, so he gave her a quick call to catch up and tell her about the very special day he had. When the call ended, his thoughts wandered back to his unusual older friend. Sephiroth had not contacted him since the previous afternoon. He had reluctantly agreed to help Zack train with his new sword the previous day, but he had not actually told him what to do. Zack sent him a short message, inquiring about his well-being and if he had any instructions for training. He packed up his things while waiting for Sephiroth's reply, and a few minutes later, his phone finally beeped, announcing the arrival of news from Sephiroth. He said that he felt recovered from the ordeal of the treatment in Hojo's lab, but his training instructions, if they could be called such, were quite cryptic and nondescript. Time was running out, though, so Zack picked up his things and his swords and went for to the mass hall for breakfast. He would message Sephiroth again later.
When he stepped out of his room, he ran into Reno and Rude, who were just leaving their own room next door. "Morning!", Reno greeted Zack cheerfully. Surprisingly enough, he was not hung over after drinking so much the previous night. Rude simply nodded and adjusted his shades. Rude's mood was always impossible to tell, but with the two glued at the hip, Zack usually assumed that the two were in the same frame of mind, and at least Reno was very expressive about it.
"Morning!", Zack replied. "You seem really happy, considering that we're going behind enemy lines." Reno looked back at him while walking along the hallway toward the stairs. "What?" Rude clarified for him: "Wutai." Reno nodded and responded with a sarcastic tone: "Oh right. Wutai. That's where we're going. That doesn't sound safe." His insincere attitude scared Zack a little, considering that Reno was supposed to be in charge during this mission. "You seem a little distracted", he noted carefully. Reno threw his bag over his shoulder and said: "Don't worry, my good mood won't last." Zack was uncertain what he wanted to say by that, but decided not to ask any further to avoid raising his temper, which Reno was well-known for. They were all risking their lives by probing the terrain as the vanguard before the main party arrived, and everyone had different ways to cope with that. In fact, he noticed as he studied Reno a second time, that today he had not only properly buttoned his shirt and zipped up his suit, he had also donned the black tie prescribed by the Turks' dress code. If anything told him that Reno's cool attitude was a façade, it was the fact that he had put on a tie.
When they got to the mass hall, Zack noticed with concern that Cloud was sitting by himself at one table and the other four infanterists sitting at another. He had seemed so relaxed earlier that Zack had hoped he would try to socialize with his peers. Reno rolled his eyes, but before he could direct his step towards a third table, Rude walked past him toward Cloud, nodding at the other men when he passed them. Reno growled, but followed Rude, snarling: "He needs to learn to open up. You're not helping him by always being nice." Zack followed the pair as Rude responded: "Cut him some slack. He's just a little kid." Rude was not wrong about that, seeing as none of the other infanterists on the mission was nearly as young as him. Only failed SOLDIER applicants and children of families so poor that their sons had to enlist rather than learn a regular trade usually entered the military that young. Zack had made it into SOLDIER on his first attempt, so he was spared of the experience of being a young boy surrounded by grown men, and also the experience of being sacrificed as cannon fodder before he had even kissed a girl, a fate that had befallen so many of the young boys in the Shinra Army.
When they finished eating breakfast, the eight of them boarded the helicopter. Rude and Reno took the pilot's and co-pilot's seats and the rest of them occupied the seats in the back. Zack kept both of his swords with him when he got on and put them on the ground in the cabin to keep them out of the way during the flight. The three-hour trip to Wutai's capital was spent in relative silence as the anxiety about their expected reception in Wutai grew. Zack was watching the scenery as they crossed over a series of islands, then the ocean, and finally, the coast of the Wutai continent.
When the land came in sight, Zack immediately recognized the lush Wutaian landscapes he had been so impressed by when he had been here for the first time. He had participated only in a single mission on the Wutaian main land, immediately before Angeal defected. Even on his trip to the Tamblin Fortress, he had still had a mind for the beauty of the scenery. The land was a charming collage of steep hills, plateaus, dark green forests and small settlements surrounded by terrace fields and only a few larger cities. It was a massive contrast compared to Midgar, which sat like a massive disk of steel in the midst of a dry, rocky and dusty wasteland and barren mountains almost devoid of any natural wildlife or greenery.
They finally arrived near the Wutaian capital, which sat safely surrounded by mountains, almost inaccessible from the ground. Several fortresses were built on the mountains around it, intended to ward off invaders. Zack knew that the traditional style of Wutaian buildings and uniforms was extremely misleading, as the Wutaian military was equipped with modern weaponry almost on par with the latest Shinra technology developed by the genius engineer Scarlet, who had recently been promoted to the Head of Weapon Development. Under normal circumstances, a Shinra helicopter would be shot down before it would ever be allowed this close to Wutai City. But they were expected, and Reno was communicating with the Wutaian air control over radio, announcing their arrival and awaiting landing instructions. As soon as they reached the mountain range surrounding the capital, two red Wutaian helicopters flew out to escort them, flanking them on either side. Rude flew the helicopter to a small airport within Wutai city as directed by the Wutaian military.
In the back of the helicopter, the soldiers got increasingly uneasy as the helicopter approached the ground. Zack got his sword ready, clenching the handle tightly, uncertain what to expect once they got off. The infantrymen were on stand-by, their rifles loaded and ready to go. Just before they touched ground, Reno reminded them to keep their cool, and to not provoke their hosts. He himself looked tensely out the window down on the scene below them, while they were hovering over the airport, where several of the red Wutaian helicopters and a few small planes were parked. A traffic controller was waving a flag to direct them to their spot, which was surrounded by trucks, armored cars, and dozens of Wutaian soldiers with their typical gun lances.
Zack closed his eyes for a few seconds, attempting to focus, while his hands clenched the sword handle tightly. He had checked his materia twice since they crossed over the Wutaian shore, but while checking his equipment made him feel safe, it did not really quench the anxiety before a battle. When he opened his eyes again, he found Reno looking at him silently through the window between the cockpit and cabin. "Think you can take them if worst comes to worst?", he inquired in a joking manner that seemed entirely inappropriate for the situation, but his strained face belied his lax attitude.
Zack looked out the window again. There were so many soldiers down there, and among them he noticed three of the commanders of the Crescent Unit positioned around one of the armored cars parked nearby. He bit his lip and got up from his seat to get down on the ground on one knee and putting his old sword on his back. The helicopter was too low for him to actually stand and put on his sword. The Buster Sword would remain in the helicopter for a moment longer.
With three Crescent commanders there in addition to dozens of soldiers, artillery and two escort helicopters that were armed without a doubt, Zack was not so certain that he would make it out alive in case the situation escalated. He wished that Angeal was here with him. But they had come to negotiate a truce, and this whole arrangement was too elaborate just to lure a bunch of expendable nobodies into a trap. Despite his anxiety, he finally nodded at Reno, who gave Rude a sign to take the helicopter down, and Rude obliged.
After the helicopter touched ground, Zack gave Cloud a sign to open the door, which the infanterist did, and Zack rose while stepping out, closely observing his surroundings. The soldiers surrounding them looked equally tense, and for a few seconds, no one moved, until finally, a Crescent commander, whom Zack recognized as Argentum, stepped out from the crowd towards them. He stopped ten steps away from Zack and bowed. Zack was not used to Wutaian customs, so it took him a moment to figure out what was a appropriate reaction. Finally, he heard Cloud whispering "Bow!" at him from behind. Zack should have realized that on his own, but he had no time now to ponder his lack of cultural skills and instead performed a stiff bow.
This seemed to satisfy his host, who stepped aside and saluted at the two other Crescent commanders, who escorted an official-looking elderly man in ceremonial robes towards them. Zack felt a hand on his shoulder and saw Cloud smiling at him as he turned his head to look at him. Zack stepped aside and made way for the infanterists to get off the helicopter. Reno and Rude had already gotten out of the cockpit in the meantime and assumed their spots at the tip of their formation, with Rude trailing slightly behind, at Reno's right shoulder. Zack reached into the now empty helicopter and retrieved his Buster Sword, which he fastened to his back in addition to his old sword. He took the rear together with Cloud.
From his rear spot, he could see the elderly man walking up to the waiting Reno with a somewhat displeased look on his face. Although Reno was wearing his uniform correctly today, the short, skinny man with spiky red hair, face tattoos and goggles on his forehead certainly did not conform to the man's expectations of an emissary. Maybe they should have sent Tseng with the advance party, seeing as he was able to fit into pretty much any official role he was given, but on second thought, perhaps a man who was so obviously and undeniably of Wutaian origin being sent to lead a diplomatic party of the Shinra Company could be deemed an offense to the proud Wutaians.
They were finally led to two of the armored cars, where the party was split. Reno directed Zack to get in with him and two infanterists, while Rude took Cloud and the other two into the second car. They took their seats in the back, where cushioned seats were laid out to face each other in two rows. Through the thick, bulletproof glass separating the cabin from the driver's area, Zack could see two Wutaian soldiers occupying the front. The driver finally started the car and, surrounded by escorts, they drove off of the airport and toward the heart of the capital.