Chapter Text
My dreams, my legacy.
They’re yours now.
He remembered looking at those big blue eyes of his blonde friend, hazy at first but then slowly gaining clarity as he began to recognize their situation. They had been on the run for so long – or more accurately, Zack had been on the run for so long – that he was utterly amazed that he had managed to progress so far, and all with his unconscious friend on his back, that of course it was too good to be true to think that he might actually make it. He was even able to see the city of Midgar on an overlook, their final destination, to get the help that they desperately needed. So close, and yet so far. His body riddled with bullets, and his mouth filling up with blood, he knew he only had so much time and had hoped that he was able to convey everything to Cloud in as few words as possible. With a shaky hand, he grabbed the hilt of his Buster Sword, shoved it in Cloud’s direction, and in an air of quiet resignation, watched as his vision grew dark. For him, almost making it was not making it at all, but at least Cloud had a chance, and that was all he could hope for.
Until now.
He had hoped that death was peaceful. When he saw his friend and mentor, Angeal, succumb to his injuries, he had noticed a small and pleasant smile tug on the older man’s lips, although everything else about him was marred and deformed. Those wings, Zack remembered thinking to himself, I want them too.
He had thought that losing consciousness was the end, and then afterwards there was no sense of self. Instead, he felt like he had been conscious the whole time. One second, he was dying in his young friend’s arms, and the next, he was cold and aching all over, wanting to scream from the pain, but not having the means to do so.
Oh god, he thought. Please don’t let this be hell… or back there, with him…
He could not feel his own body, which meant that he had no idea if he was lying down or floating around in some chamber like last time. When he was eventually able to get a sense of himself, he realized that he was lying down. With no small effort, he moved a finger. Apparently, somebody noticed, because soon after he felt a hand rest on his head and heard a voice murmur indiscernible words to him in a low yet steady lull. Whoever it was seemed gentle and reassuring. Whew. It was clearly not Professor Hojo. But if not him, then who? He did not have time to think about it, as the sea of oblivion decided to pull him back in, and now he was unconscious again. He went through this cycle of going under and then coming back up so many times that he gave up trying to count. Something was happening outside of his control, so there was no point fretting over it.
And then, one day, it happened.
He opened his eyes.
It was like any other day, except that it wasn’t. He tried his best to remember what the hell had happened. One second, he was dying in Cloud’s arms, and then the next he was waking up in a bare room, flat on his back, staring at a ceiling bathed in blue light.
“Holy shit.”
Zack lifted his head just enough so that his chin was pointing at his chest. He had all kind of wires attached to him by sticky leads. There was a consistent beeping sound in the background that reminded him of a hospital. A single sheet had been draped over his body, and as he repositioned himself, he sensed he was naked underneath the sheet. Staring at him from across the room was a man with bright red hair, leaning forward in his chair in apparent disbelief.
“So, uh, how do you feel?” Reno asked.
Zack was not sure how to answer that. Confused? Disconnected? Angry? When he suddenly remembered what had happened to him, he felt his cheeks burn with fury. “You set me up,” he rasped. It seemed his voice was not working too well from lack of use.
“Whoa there! Not me!”
“Fucking Shinra, then!”
“The former President, yes. But Rufus has something else in mind.”
“Rufus?” blinked Zack. “What happened to dear old daddy?”
“Assassinated. Rufus is the president now.”
It took a while to register in Zack’s discombobulated mind that some time had passed since his supposed death. “How long was I out?” he asked.
“About a year. And what a year that was!” As if to accentuate his point, Reno pulled out a flask from the inside of his jacket, took a swill of it, and then patted it back in its hiding place.
“A year…” That did not amaze Zack much, considering that prior to his daring escape from the lab, four years had gone by. So now he missed a total of five. Zack pulled himself up a little more, resting on one elbow while pulling off some of the wires connected to him with his free hand.
“Not that one,” Reno snapped angrily when he saw Zack grazing one of the wires attached to his neck. “That’s a central line! Wanna bleed all over the floor? Wait for the nurse to do it.”
Zack slowly put his hand back down and returned to a supine position, now that he realized he did not have to be on guard. “Are you, like, babysitting me or something?”
“Something.” There was a sign that read “Danger! Oxygen in use!” in the room which Reno blatantly disregarded as he pulled out a cigarette from his front pocket and lit one up. “Rufus had all the Turks taking turns sitting here on guard duty. You just happened to wake up on my week.”
“Well, what’s his deal, anyway? Why does he care if I live or die? And how was he able to resurrect me in the first place?”
“Huh. Maybe I oughta explain from the beginning. After you mostly died, the Turks were ordered to retrieve your body. Rufus had hypothesized that with some good ol’ fashion TLC, the mako coursing through your veins would do the rest in repairing you. And he was right! Who woulda thunk it?”
“The mako…” It really did make him superhuman, after all. He had remembered all those times he was injected with the stuff following every intense workout regimen. The improvements seemed incremental, but then as he started to compare himself to the regular troops, he saw that he had outperformed them by a wide margin.
“Yeah, the mako,” Reno agreed in a hollow voice. “Your blessing and your curse.”
Zack groaned at just how stiff his whole body felt. Perhaps all that energy spent on reviving him sapped him from all his strength. He tried to get up again but the first time proved to be too much, so he laid back down.
“You remember Angeal?” Reno asked quietly.
Zack scoffed at the question. Of course he did. How could he not? He remembered the pained look in his former mentor’s eyes as he begged the young Zack to kill him, as he transformed into something ugly, grotesque and barely human, making the fatal blow of what was once his Buster Sword an act of heroic mercy.
“The same thing can happen to you.”
“You think I don’t know?” Zack snapped. He was trembling now and wrapped what little blanket they gave him around his wracked and feeble body, curling himself into it the best he could.
“Don’t take it as a death sentence just yet.”
“What do you mean?” By now, Zack was already aware of the fact that just about every SOLDIER that was infused with mako had either died an early death or they had turned into monsters.
“The reason why Boss wanted you alive. You might hold the answer to your own cure.”
“Oh, he cares, huh?” Zack could not help but let the sarcasm drip from his words. “Who knew he had such a bleeding heart for my wellbeing?”
Reno rolled his eyes. “It’s personal.”
“So what’s stopping him?”
“Your blonde spiky friend. Oh, what’s his name? Mr. First Class Douchebag?”
“Cloud Strife?”
Reno snapped his fingers. “Hey! There you go. Royal pain in the ass.”
“Well, what’s Cloud doing?” Zack found himself perking up at the mention of Cloud, relieved at the revelation that he really did make it.
“You mean other than being a pain and traipsing around Midgar with the Avalanche Crew and the Other Misfits?”
“You don’t think he’d want to help find a cure if he knew he holds a key to it?”
“He’s not going to hear it from us, because he’ll never believe it, and quite frankly, I don’t blame him.”
“You tried?”
“Of course we have.”
“I really find it hard to believe that he won’t at least listen.”
Reno braced his hands on his knees and chuckled. “Then you really don’t know him as well as you think.”
“He’s changed?”
“We all have.”
Zack was not sure if it was just his imagination, but he thought he saw a something akin to pain or regret flicker across Reno’s face, who seemed to be taking great strides at avoiding eye contact, his gaze rigidly fixed to the floor before him. “So where do I come in? Does it have something to do with Cloud?”
“You guessed it. Bring Cloud back to us at Shinra’s headquarters, preferably voluntary but by force if you have to.”
Zack let out a dry laugh. “We’ve been down that road before – by force. He’s seen me killed by Shinra’s troops. You think I want to do your dirty work? You think I want to go back to SOLDIER? Well, I don’t. If you want me to convince Cloud to come back, you’re gonna have to convince me too.”
“How’s this for convincing? Time’s ticking as the mako mutates your cells. The progression has slowed down in your case since you were comatose for a year. But Cloud? He’s since had a double dose of the stuff. And… there are signs that the transformation has already begun.”
There was a long period of silence. Zack was trying to recall what the beginning stages of monster transformation looked like. He recalled when Angeal had suspected that happening within himself. There was aggression, there was loss of rationalization, there were blurred lines between enemy and friend. His first mission as a First Class SOLDIER was actually something similar – rein in Genesis Rhapsodos back from his trail of destruction. Genesis himself had been looking for a cure, but he never found one. Zack wondered what happened to him after he left him by the apple tree. “Swear you won’t hurt him,” he finally said.
“Guaranteed,” Reno replied. “We need him alive.”
“Don’t do anything that would make you regret bringing me back to life.”
The redhead flashed him a smile, as if that was supposed to seal the deal. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”
~O~