Chapter Text
ZACK FAIR, MERCENARY - THE BELOVED, ZACK’S QUARTERS
Zack can tell Seph is curious about Aerith, and he feels a little bad ditching him after dinner so they can run off to Zack’s quarters. He’ll give him apology smooches later.
The reason? Aerith’s PHS is ringing off the hook thanks to one Tifa Lockhart.
“My love!” Aerith says upon answering, once they are sitting on Zack’s bed.
Zack doesn’t mean to eavesdrop, but it’s hard not to with his enhanced hearing.
“Aerith! Is Zack around?”
“Wow! I see how it is~” Aerith teases.
“Don’t be like that. You know I’m worried to death about you.”
Aerith giggles, and Zack has to smile. Tifa and Aerith definitely suit each other.
“I know, I know.” Aerith glances at Zack. “What did you want Zack for? I’ll put this on speaker.”
Zack lets her, even though he can hear just fine.
“Zack?”
“Long time no see- we have to stop running into each other like this,” Zack jokes with a grin.
Tifa gives a half-hearted little huff, before pausing.
“It’s about tomorrow. Um…” She sighs and gets to the point. “I talked with Cloud. You two were close, right?”
Cloud hadn’t stuck around during their big reveal. Tifa said he had been there at the bridge, which meant he left for some reason. Seems like she kept her promise to ask him about it.
“We were. Are. Should be.” Whatever. If things have changed, Zack will adapt. He’s flexible.
“...he doesn’t remember that.”
Zack doesn’t freeze at Tifa’s words. He doesn’t gasp or sob, he just stares at the PHS, frowning. He wasn’t expecting that, somehow. He was prepared for Cloud’s anger, or betrayal, or coldness- he wasn’t prepared for…nothing. His fingers tap on his knee. Zack has always been a good problem-solver, not easily discouraged. This is a problem. Aerith’s hand stills his tapping fingers.
“Okay,” Zack blurts out. “What do you think about it?”
Tifa is silent for a moment.
“I think…I think he’s really messed up. He hasn’t been aboard that long. I found him wandering around Sector 7 in Midgar a few months back.”
The timeline and location line up with Zack’s own escape.
“We were going to head there,” Zack confirms. “If… when we got out.”
After that disaster of a mission. After they escaped their test tube prisons. Zack crosses his arm and pulls on his calmness.
“We got out of Nibelheim. We were kept there as, uh, specimens. For three years. I escaped when the other firsts showed up, but he was…gone. I lost him. We had to destroy all of it.”
Every time he tells the story, his disappointment and regret deepen.
“Specimens…?” Tifa repeats, her voice low and horrified.
“It’s gonna be a hard stop here for me right now. Sorry. But you need to know…we looked everywhere. When Seph came back-”
“Sephiroth. The one who burned Nibelheim down back then.” Tifa’s voice is pitching higher. “Why is he even-”
“Hang on, hang on. Wait. I…I know. I know and you have every right to hate him. But that Sephiroth wasn’t the real Sephiroth.”
“How do you know that?” Tifa asks.
“We saw the others. We almost became them,” Zack says, leaning over the PHS like he can get closer through it. “Our Seph is…is trying to end this fucking clone thing. There’s tons of them. And something is infecting them.”
“Infecting?” Aerith murmurs.
“Whatever was in those labs under the surface- it was alive and infecting those clones. It infected the town and it infected him too. It makes people go crazy.”
“Infecting…Cloud said that too. But why are there clones to begin with…”
Aerith scooches in, interrupting.
“Where is Cloud?”
“I…I don’t know if it’s a good idea for you to meet him right now.”
Zack ignores the little knife stabbing into his heart. Tifa seems close to Cloud- even if she’s being protective, he feels like she wouldn’t say that lightly.
“Why?” he asks, voice soft.
“I’ve known Cloud since we were little kids. We weren’t super close, but…small town, a tiny nowhere planet, you know? We talked sometimes. He…came back different. I thought maybe it was just how he was after so many years.”
Aerith hums thoughtfully.
“You said he was a trooper, Zack,” she says. “Not a first class SOLDIER.”
“Cloud says he’s a former first class,” Tifa says. “And he believes it. He’s more social than he was. More confident. Like…like he’s a different person sometimes.”
Tifa sucks in a breath.
“But when I asked him about you…he didn’t know. He got antsy.”
Zack sits, hunched over the PHS, focused on it like nothing else matters.
“Thanks for this, Tifa. I- I didn’t think of this as a possibility. To be honest, I thought he was dead. I really did.”
“I still don’t know if it’s a good idea,” Tifa repeats, before she hesitates again. “But maybe…maybe you should meet. He doesn’t remember why or who you are, but I think he does know you, Zack. As we talk, I can tell. You sound like him sometimes.”
It’s definitely too early when Zack wakes up, his eyes popping open like it’s not still dark hours on the ship.
He doesn’t bother turning his lights on, there’s enough visibility between the auxiliary lights and his enhanced vision to see. Aerith snoozes in his bed, while he stretches out on the floor on his yoga mat. Zack didn’t dream, but he has a fleeting thought of Cloud, which he sinks into happily.
The view isn’t great- the gray void of his ceiling in the dark, no windows to gild anything in star softness. The harsh glare of the night lights catch the photos taped to his walls.
It doesn’t matter. Zack tries to remember all those moments he shoved away under grief. He blinks hard at the dark above him, letting his imagination paint a picture just for him. Something he hasn’t trusted himself with before. Scared he’d ruin the only good memories he had.
The thing you noticed about Cloud first, from moment zero, was his hair. Zack had seen it around even before they met, because it was that bright, catching the light always, and kind of a mess.
They met on a mission, when everything was falling apart in Zack’s life. He’d been promoted just in time for Genesis to go AWOL. Angeal followed Genesis not long after, and Sephiroth was lost, trying to understand. Zack was lost too, grieving and fucking up his new relationship with Aerith. He’d pulled some cheesy line and Cloud had laughed, then pulled off his helmet and-
Hair. Eyes. Smile.
Zack never stood a chance.
He kept running into him, despite the odds. Cloud had been identified as good mission support for him, apparently, but at the time Zack felt lucky. Everything was still falling apart but Cloud never asked him for anything. He didn’t treat Zack like some hardened warrior, or scold him for being immature. Zack joined Shinra when he was barely fourteen, and he wishes he had ever realized how young that really was. He couldn’t get that time back. Cloud cemented that in his brain for some reason. Cloud’s only two years younger, but Zack caught himself protecting him, wishing he didn’t join Shinra, daydreaming about leaving together- silly thoughts.
That’s how they met.
Blue eyes, light blue, like the sky on a sunny day. Cloud liked Zack for being Zack.
Zack was like a moth to a flame- couldn’t help wanting to keep him around, and yeah he was sorta dating Aerith at that point, but no one said he couldn’t have new friends and keep them close.
Zack understands now how he lied to himself.
Maybe if he had been honest it could’ve worked out with both. He could have gotten a happy ending with the two of them, but he wasn’t brave back then, just bold. Life sure taught him a lesson about dragging his feet.
It had to be his fault, because Cloud didn’t deserve one second of what he got.
Focus on the hair. And the eyes . Even after the mako, so bright. Like the moon.
Take a deep breath.
Laughing at Zack’s bad jokes, always giving Zack his full attention. Oblivious to Zack’s flirting in the most charming and frustrating way.
Zack’s talked a lot about it to Genesis. Sometimes it’s all he talks about. The way the scientists preferred Cloud as a subject for whatever fucked up shit they were testing. The way Zack was unable to get their attention back- please leave him alone, he’s not like me, he can’t handle it. Take me instead. Please.
Because Cloud seemed young like Zack had been- still was- before he got picked as a SOLDIER candidate.
Quiet, earnest, observant, born-in-a-blizzard scrap of a kid ready to tell Zack all the worst things about himself.
And Zack was a loud, unstoppable, impulsive, born-in-a-hurricane jungle boy ready to grab him and tell him to shut it, both laughing like everything wasn’t about to go bad. Real bad.
It’s still early.
Zack leaves a note for Aerith and finds himself in front of one of his favorite doors, waiting after a spirited knock.
It opens after a moment, and Sephiroth peers out, vivid green eyes curious.
“Zack,” he says, already stepping to the side to invite him in.
“Mornin’ Seph. You’re up early,” Zack says with a grin. He strides inside.
Sephiroth’s lips quirk up in a tiny smile. “Look who’s talking,” he says.
“And in a good mood! My lucky day,” Zack exclaims. He can’t believe Seph ever made him nervous before. He already feels better and it’s been two seconds.
“And you…aren’t,” Seph says, hesitant. He glides over to the table Zack’s perched against.
Zack doesn’t know what gave him away.
“Huh? I’m great. I’m fine!” Maybe a little too enthusiastic.
Sephiroth reaches out, stilling Zack’s bouncing knee with a hand.
Oh.
“Is it Cloud?” Sephiroth asks, letting his hand drop but staying close.
Zack rubs his face, groaning.
“I talked to Tifa,” he says. “He was there.”
Sephiroth nods.
“Is he part of AVALANCHE?”
“Maybe?” Zack pushes off the table and saunters over to inspect a mug on the little counter. Tea. “Seems less rigid over there, people go in and out…but Tifa’s from his homeworld. Nibel. They were childhood friends.”
Sephiroth’s eyebrows shoot up to the ceiling.
“Nibelheim,” he says.
“Yeah, I don’t know how much she remembers about…that day. But she does remember you. And Cloud. He’s…different now. She said he was different. He thinks he’s a first class SOLDIER.”
Sephiroth finally moves, two steps that count as pacing for him.
“If it is Cloud, it’s not surprising his brain would have sustained side effects from the mako exposure and the experiments.”
“It’s the real him,” Zack says firmly. “I don’t know how to explain it, but I know.”
Sephiroth nods. “It’s easy enough to confirm. Especially if…”
If Jenova cells run through his veins.
Zack slumps over. It always leads back to that.
Jenova. A sentient, predatory symbiont from some sorry crevice of space. World-eater, if you were trying to make it blush.
From what they’ve gathered, Jenova could’ve rotted away if it hadn’t been discovered by some of the most depraved minds in science. Conveniently on Shinra’s payroll.
Zack was the only first class SOLDIER that wasn’t from one of the fucked up experiments on literal children and babies. All three of the original first classes have Jenova’s material entwined with their DNA.
Sephiroth, right in front of him, almost went mad when he learned of his origins.
Angeal and Genesis just got even.
Hell of a baby story, Zack figures.
Zack had luck on his side. He was already as mako-enhanced as possible by the time that dick Hojo tried to make him the next fucked up experiment, but Cloud suffered for it.
It’s a mystery what those cells are doing to Cloud now- is he degrading? Is he still mutating? They didn’t need to worry about it when Cloud was presumed dead.
Zack needs to ask Gen if he still has the documents from the lab.
Sephiroth reaches out, jolting Zack out of his thoughts. His hand rests on his head, smoothing dark spikes down. Zack knows they pop right back up again, and Sephiroth smiles on cue. Zack’s getting so many smiles from Sephiroth today.
“We will meet him together. If you want. I’ll know if he’s connected to me.”
“You sure it won’t kick something off?” Zack asks, skeptical. Nothing’s easy when it comes to this science shit.
“No. But I am confident I can handle this body, and I am confident you will be able to handle anything that goes astray. However, I am concerned about…the others.”
The other Sephiroth, and other Jenova mutations.
“Yeah. Could be a problem if they catch a whiff.”
Zack’s back to tapping his feet, and Sephiroth’s hand drifts down to his cheek.
“Would you like to stay with me until a more humane hour of the morning?” Sephiroth asks, his voice deep and smooth.
It chips away at Zack’s bad mood like a jackhammer.
He grins. “ Would I- I call dibs on big spoon!”
By the time Sephiroth convinces Zack to get out of bed (again), Aerith is eating cereal in the mess. Angeal and Genesis are there too, arguing over the coffee machine.
Aerith wiggles her eyebrows up and down when Zack and Sephiroth walk in. Zack does it right back at her before grabbing a bowl and sitting next to her.
“Can’t believe you’d sneak out of your room to go cuddle with your coworker,” Aerith says, wagging her spoon at Zack.
“Appalling manners,” Genesis agrees. “Coffee?”
Zack shakes his head. He wants mooglemallows.
Angeal clears his throat.
“We’ll be heading to rendezvous with the Shera at 1200 hours. Sound good to everyone?”
“Sounds good to me,” Zack says with a stretch. “I’m sure Aerith is excited to have a change of clothes.”
“Mhmm. And it’ll be nice to have everyone together,” Aerith says.
She’s interrupted by her PHS going off. “Sorry- hang on…Hi Tifa!”
Yelling filters through speaker mode, and her smile fades.
“Tifa, we can’t- what’s going on over there?”
“Bad news. Shinra found us. We’re trying to get out of here.”
“Shinra?” Zack repeats.
“What type of ship?” Sephiroth asks, giving a sharp glance to Angeal.
“Small? Very quick. We’ve seen this ship before. They don’t have a vessel tag on radar.”
“Turks,” Genesis and Angeal say in unison.
Zack groans. “I missed my cue. Can we try again?”
Aerith slaps his arm before returning her attention to Tifa. “Are you guys okay?”
“We can help if needed, we just need to set course,” Angeal says, looking ready to run to the bridge.
“We got it under control, but we don’t want to lead them right to you-”
There’s sudden whooping down the line- Barret, by the sounds of it.
“ATTA BOY SPIKEY!”
Someone whistles.
“I think Cloud’s got it handled,” Tifa says breathlessly after a pause.
Zack’s heart stops for a second- that’s becoming a common occurrence. Cloud? What’s he doing? Is he leading the Turks off? He almost bends his spoon in half.
“Of course he does,” Aerith chirps, waving her spoon in the air. “Ugh! I always miss the good stuff.”
Another, calmer voice calls out. The red fire-lion. Red?
“Cloud says go ahead with the meet - he’ll keep them occupied and lead them out.”
Tifa sighs, clearly not happy with the turn of events.
“Okay…okay! We’ll see you guys soon. Be careful.”
“Will do,” Angeal affirms.
The SOLDIERS all share a glance as the line goes silent.
Zack holds his head in his hands, Aerith’s hand settling on his back.
Please let Cloud be okay.