Zack turned back to the card reader, which, this time, responded with an affirmative beep and a green light, and made the door glide open to reveal a dim, dusty, vault-like space, whose actual size was obscured by rows and rows of shelves and closets reaching all the way up to the high ceiling. He looked around, but could not see far with all the shelves blocking the line of sight, and Sephiroth was nowhere to be seen. He walked a few steps along the first row, past yellowish, faded labels indicating topics, years, and places. Having no idea what Sephiroth was looking for, he decided that these indices would not help in tracking him down, and so he kept walking, looking down every single aisle, occasionally stopping to listen for noise that could tell him where to find his friend.
It occurred to him eventually that he could as well just call out his name and hope for a response, but something inside of him feared that a terrible thing could happen if the peace of the tomb-like archive was disturbed. Even so, he was eventually rewarded when, in an aisle about halfway through the long hall, he caught sight of the silver-haired man pulling out one folder after another from a cardboard box, carefully studying the labels and checking the contents here and there. Zack approached him carefully, studying his face from the side. He was completely focused on the files, but he looked more exhausted than I had ever seen him in life. His eyes were dry and red and seemed not to open completely, possibly from the long time he had spent amid all this dust. Nevertheless, I was happy to see him again after so many weeks, even if I was rewarded only by him laying his eyes on Zack, whose footsteps eventually roused him out of his deep focus.
He immediately turned back to the file he had been looking at, his face hidden by his bangs, so that Zack could not see his mouth twitching. They had never talked about what happened that night in Wutai and I was certain that there was not much meaning to it. Sephiroth had craved physical touch ever since he got a taste of what cuddling felt like for the very first time. I suppose that growing up without parents or siblings, essentially inside a mako tank gives a person certain deficiencies in that regard. And he grew up not tolerating being touched by most people, while simultaneously craving the touch of a person that loved him. To be quite honest, he could be quite clingy at times, as soon as the figurative ice between us had been broken, to the point where he remained firmly attached to me every time I tried to prepare dinner for us and Genesis, until both of us got scalded by boiling water once. It was cute and annoying at the same time, but I could not be angry with him about it, no matter how bothersome it could be at times.
Even though it was just human to long to be touched, he was embarrassed now for letting himself go that time in Wutai and forcing himself on Zack while he was in such a bad state of mind, and so he did the one and only thing he knew how to do: shut him out, by demanding abrasively: "What is it?", in place of a greeting. Zack stopped at a respectful distance, put his hands on his hips and looked around. "There are lots of documents here", he stated the obvious, to which Sephiroth replied: "It's an archive." Zack sighed and said: "Thanks! I wouldn't have noticed." Sephiroth lowered his hand holding a brown folder with scribbles all over the cover, exhaled deeply and finally turned to face Zack to ask again: "Do you want something from me?"
Zack folded his arms and explained: "I haven't seen you in a while and just wanted to see how you're doing." Sephiroth stared at him for a brief moment and then turned back toward the shelf to sort the files back into the box, while responding dismissively: "I'm great, thanks." Without further words, he finished filling the box, slid it back into the cabinet and pulled out the next box. Zack followed him, and, leaning against the shelf, continued: "The truth is, my girlfriend was so worried about you that she made me check on you to see if you're OK." Sephiroth froze for a moment as soon as Aerith was mentioned, which even Zack could not fail to notice. "You do know her!", Zack pressed on. Pulling out more files, Sephiroth finally revealed: "She was a little kid when I met her. I'm surprised she remembers me. I knew her mother, though." Zack stared at the ceiling, trying to make sense of what he had just heard. "I recognized her in the photo because she looks like her", Sephiroth added. Zack scratched his head, objecting: "No, she doesn't." Sephiroth looked back at him and clarified: "Her birth mother."
Zack stared at him in disbelief. He had known Aerith for several months at this point and he had no idea that Elmyra was not Aerith's biological mother, as neither of them ever so much as hinted at the lack of a blood relationship. It made little difference to him, but it was just strange to learn such new facts about people he thought he knew, yet again. Sephiroth's eyes rested on him for a moment and then turned back to his file. "Trouble in paradise?", he observed, but Zack shook his head, pushed himself off the shelf and looked around for a bit, trying to decipher the labels on the shelves around him. Mystified, he realized that the one Sephiroth was currently standing in front of was labeled "Sector 4 plate construction". Why was he interested in that?
"What are you looking for anyway?", Zack asked, but Sephiroth kept flipping through the file without answering right away. He sorted the files back into the box, pushed it back to where it had come from and moved on to the next. Finally, he spoke again: "When Genesis first started… changing, and then Angeal as well, Hollander tried to find a cure for them." Zack nodded and added: "He didn't find anything that actually worked." Sephiroth nodded ever so slightly as was his habit. Finally realizing what was going on made Zack's skin crawl, but he managed to ask eventually: "Are you… changing, too?" Instead of responding, Sephiroth turned to him and looked him straight in the eyes, revealing his snake-like pupils. It took Zack only a brief moment to comprehend. Although I thought his new eyes were just as beautiful as his old ones, it was only natural to be worried if one's eyes suddenly turned into something like that. Though, realistically speaking, Sephiroth as a whole was already so unusual that one thing more or less did not make too much difference in the grand picture. If I had been there, naturally, I would have tried to help him see the positive about the situation, to wait and see if that was really so bad, but I realize the hypocrisy in that notion, seeing as I, myself, could not get to terms with the fact that I was slowly turning into a monster and became able to turn monsters into what resembled myself. Hollander kept praising this new ability of mine, but he had his own reasons for that.
Sephiroth turned back to the new box and started pulling out folders and reading what was written on their covers without another word. "Why are you looking in the section on Sector 4 plate construction then?", Zack wanted to know. The question was acknowledged by a sigh, which he had no idea how to interpret. "The files are numbered", Sephiroth began to explain. "Theoretically, one should be able to find every file simply by looking up the number in the electronic database and then find the shelf and box with the corresponding numbers." That made sense. "But…" He showed one of the files to Zack. "Why is this here?" Zack read the label, which stated "Construction of a planetary observatory". "Oh, I had no idea we had a planetary observatory in Sector 4", Zack exclaimed, to which Sephiroth sighed again and shook his head. "We don't! And the number doesn't match what should be in this box either."
Scratching the back of his head, Zack mused: "So somebody made a mistake while sorting the files?" Sephiroth flipped through the folder he was holding. "Some of these are even mislabeled and don't even match the contents. This was not done by mistake." – "You mean someone messed them up on purpose? Why would anyone do that?", Zack countered as Sephiroth put the files back into the box. "To prevent others from finding certain information about certain topics", he explained matter-of-factly. "I asked Tseng about those files several times. He said that the files are gone, but I think he just didn't look carefully enough." Zack looked around the shelves around him again. "What's the point in hiding files in random boxes? Wouldn't whoever did it be unable to find them again after that? Why not simply steal or destroy them?" Sephiroth closed the folder he was looking at and paused for a few seconds. "It's not random. But the pattern is hard to figure out." Zack turned back to him. "So you're looking through all of the boxes in hopes to find what you're looking for eventually?"
Sephiroth remained quiet, but Zack could see him biting his lower lip, perhaps realizing the futility of what he was attempting to do. Of course, I could do nothing but gawk at my beloved in wonder. I knew how tenacious he could be, but this seemed to beat everything he had ever done in the past. I wished I could help him. With two people it would take only half the time. And perhaps Genesis, too, although he may have held us up, by bothering us with reading out aloud passages from the files, which he found interesting or nicely worded. While he possibly would have drawn out our ordeal, he would definitely have made it more bearable and entertaining. Zack was no bookish type at all, and so I was not surprised when the solution he came up with was not to share the work, but rather: "Hey, I have an idea!" Sephiroth looked up at him again. "What? Are you good at puzzles or something?" But Zack shook his head. "No way. Let's play a prank on whoever's responsible for this mess. Bet they'll feel pretty stupid if they can't find their files anymore." Sephiroth opened his mouth as if to speak and then blinked, his mouth twitching into the hint of a smile. "You mean…" Zack nodded and said: "Let's put their files in random places."
Sephiroth thought for a moment, then his shoulders started twitching as if he was laughing without making a sound, the way he sometimes did, and so they collected the misplaced files from the next couple of boxes and Zack ran around the archive to stuff them in random locations. They kept at it until the novelty wore off, because doing that naturally did not get them anywhere in terms of finding out what Hojo had done to Sephiroth. But they had fun together for fifteen minutes or so, and even Sephiroth could not help himself but smile once or twice. He stopped handing files to Zack when he had quite enough, and Zack knew that the fun was over and he wanted to resume his search for information.
"By the way", Zack began before leaving Sephiroth to his search. "Do you think you could make some time to train with me?" Sephiroth looked up. "Is that really necessary?" Zack shook his head and did a few squats while he answered: "I haven't had any real missions lately and the simulator's getting really boring. It's always the same." Sephiroth sighed. When we were Zack's age, there was no combat simulator yet, so we only trained with each other and sometimes with other SOLDIER members, but we were stronger than any of them and so, our training did not often involve people beyond our small circle. Zack had no one to train with now, and neither did Sephiroth. It was only natural. "Come on, just once", Zack pleaded with his flat hands pressed together, regarding his friend like a puppy, the way he always did when he wanted something. Sephiroth sighed again. Perhaps he realized that he needed to do something different just for a single day and he had nothing else to do, for he ended up agreeing without needing further convincing: "OK, I guess." Zack pumped his fist in the air and yelled: "Yes! Let's meet tomorrow at 9!" Sephiroth watched him for a moment and finally said to my surprise: "Sure." That Sephiroth would be in for the training did not surprise me, but he was not a very spontaneous person, and if he set his mind on something, he was not easily swayed. To have him suddenly change his plans on the very next day was asking a lot of him, but he still agreed. Perhaps Sephiroth liked Zack more than I thought and that is why he agreed to Zack's idea so easily. He and Zack appeared completely incompatible in terms of personality, but from a slightly different point of view, they complemented each other quite well. Sephiroth needed someone to pull him out of his shell, and perhaps Zack could be that person for him.