Happy new year! Let's end the first day of the year with a bit of fic!
The long way home
continuation of: [1]
part 2
It started out same as so many things do with Zack. An offhand comment and him running with it.
In this case, it was a bit more serious than the latest prank or date idea.
Genesis and Angeal had fallen ill, and so far, all the doctors were useless. It looked hopeless. If there was something Zack couldn’t handle, it was being unable to help.
An offhand comment from Dr. Hojo had given him just the bit of hope he’d needed.
Oh, he knew Hojo’s intentions. The scientist certainly didn’t mention it to be helpful. Zack’s naivety hadn’t survived the shit show that had followed after Genesis’ diagnosis. There was only so long anyone could maintain a puppyish optimism with all the skeletons crawling out of the walls and vents and all the other places Shinra had hidden them after it ran out of closet space.
The closets had burst rather spectacularly after Genesis started flinging fireballs around.
So. He knew Hojo hadn’t dropped that remark by accident. He knew Hojo wanted him to get desperate enough to retrieve his specimen for him. The scientist wanted to use him, and thought Zack oblivious enough not to realise it.
Hojo could keep right on wanting and choke on it, for all Zack cared.
But he also knew the scientist did have a strange sense of code he followed. Lie about a specimen’s capabilities like that? It may not be the truth, but specimen S had to have some healing ability for the scientist to make a such a claim.
He had been prepared to figure out how to use the specimen’s cells to cure Angeal and Genesis himself. Maybe employ the help of Kunsel and Tseng, to find a doctor who wasn’t completely morally corrupt.
He had been prepared to chase after ghosts. He had been prepared for a whole long, hard, thankless slog of a mission. He had been prepared for months, years of work.
He had not been prepared for this.
It was obvious now he got a good close look. There was a human being under that shapeless cloak. The proportions and vague shapes he could see under the concealing fabric were clear now. A tall human being, sure, but definitely human. Maybe there were a few more subtle mutations underneath, given the slit pupils, but from the look of it no extra limbs or strange growths, unlike so many unfortunate residents of the labs.
Zack had been unwittingly hunting down a person.
Zack was freaking out. “You're a dude! You're a person! Holy shit! Dude, are you alright? Shit, I just destroyed your shelter, I'm so sorry! Are you hurt?”
Zack tentatively guessed him to be a guy, anyway. He could be wrong! The face offered no definite answer, and the cloak concealed much, but his height and the width of his shoulders made him guess male. S wasn’t correcting him either way. Just gave him a wide-eyed look, as he slowly, subconsciously eased the pressure of his blade. The bare-teethed snarl faded to something less aggressive.
S’s body language wasn’t animalistic either. There was a feral desperation there, much like many of the human opponents Zack faced on missions, with a calculating edge that was sharper than the katana that was still locked against Zack’s sword, and the stance…
S was trained. And trained well. His stance was a swordsman’s stance. A good one, one Angeal had to drill the recruits on for months, if not years, before it came as naturally to them as it came to S.
The more Zack learned, the more things weren’t adding up about S. He felt as bewildered as S looked.
Not for the first time, Zack really wished his former mentor was here. Angeal would know what to do, right?
But Angeal wasn’t. Couldn’t be. If Angeal could have been here, Zack wouldn’t have been on this mission. Wouldn’t be bothering S and wouldn’t carry a rank that felt far too big for him to fill.
S looked increasingly overwhelmed under Zack’s barrage of words. Impulsively, Zack retracted his sword, letting it rest at his side. S didn’t relax that much, but his sword did dip down as he kept staring at Zack as if he was a tonberry dancing a rumba.
It was almost funny, how lost he looked, and Zack felt himself relax a little. Yeah, this was the right approach. S wasn’t aggressive. He was just defending himself. Totally fair and understandable! With renewed cheer, Zack barrelled through his silent bewilderment with aggressive friendliness, babbling about food and blankets and other stuff to compensate for ruining S’s place.
S finally blinked and tried to say something, but only a faint croak came out. Zack immediately shut up.
It took a few tries, with Zack babbling encouragement whenever he looked about to give up. “I’m undamaged,” specimen S rasped in a soft voice that sounded like velvet that lost a couple of rounds against a sheaf of aggressive sandpaper. Zack kinda wanted to cry at how bad he sounded. Like he hadn’t talked in years. He spoke so softly Zack was glad for his enhanced hearing.
“That’s good. That’s great, buddy,” Zack said with a relieved sigh. “I’m so sorry about your shelter, man. Can I make it up to you? Rations, blankets, other supplies? If you come back to base I can give you a hot meal-”
Zack did not miss the way S’s expression changed at the mention of hot food. His heart broke a little more. But S just shook his head, not pursuing any of Zack’s offers.
“I just want to be left alone,” he rasped.
“Come on buddy, don’t be like that. I can help you! It can’t be fun living like this-“
Even knowing it was going to happen, S’s sheer speed still caught him off guard. Zack lunged just a fraction too late.
Frayed black fabric whispered through his fingers before he could get a grip. It was only thanks to his enhanced sight that he could track the fleeing S until he disappeared among the trees, diving into a crack within the rocks towards a narrow valley that Zack had explored before in his search. From there, there was no telling where he would go.
Zack stood stock still for a moment.
Then he let himself slump, face and arms falling, sword sinking with a dull thunk in the rocky soil.
Fuck.
Fuck.
He screwed this one up but good.
Not for the first time, he cursed all of the Science Department into the deepest depths of hell. The litany was almost becoming as common a recitation for him as Loveless was for Genesis.
This… this was going to be even harder than he thought.
