002 [Video]

[pauldrons]

[8:45 AM]
Didn't see you during last night's patrol, man. Everything okay?

[4:20 PM]
General? You still reading me? Not like you to ignore a hail like that.

[7:20 PM]
Hey, Seph...where the heck are you? Just...let me know, okay? I'm getting worried.


[Evening, Animus-folk. Have a rather concerned looking Zack on your network today. He's definitely worried about something, and considering the late hour, that's not surprising. Monsters will be out soon.]

Has anybody seen General Sephiroth around today? I looked all over and I can't find him anywhere...his name's not on his door anymore, either, but that doesn't mean anything, does it? [a glance over his shoulder, probably at that door in question, then he looks back at the screen.]

Just...lemme know if you've seen him around, okay? It's not like him to not check in.

Comments

Action;

[atouchofstrife]

Yeah...

[ Cloud is tired too, but mainly because he had been thinking about the past and all the issues that had caused. ]

Has anyone told you about what happened?

Action;

[pauldrons]

Told me what happened when?

[That should be answer enough, and a warning to Cloud that things are only going to get worse. Zack's a good actor, sure, but for something as big as what Cloud's probably going to tell him? It would show on his face if he knew.]

Action;

[atouchofstrife]

[ Oh Zack, Cloud is going to looks so worried and tired and sad about this. ]

Nibelhiem and why the Tifa with the SOLDIER eyes hates ShinRa.

Action;

[pauldrons]

[That's precisely why Zack leans forward, trying to get a better look at Cloud's face. This is something big. Something really big. Why is he starting to get a bad feeling about this?]

No. No one told me.

Action;

[atouchofstrife]

[ He wasn't sure how to say it, how to take something that changed the entire world, and compress it into a couple sentences. He just didn't know how. ]

Sephiroth went crazy, Zack. He found Hojo's notes concerning him and locked himself up int eh basement, reading all of it. When he finally came out, it was to destroy everything in his path. He went to the reactor, into that place marked with the name JENOVA and found the thing that Hojo told him was his mother.

But she isn't. She is something alien.

Action;

[pauldrons]

[Oh, for the love of--here he goes again, not making any logical sense. There's no part of Zack that can believe what Cloud is telling him, even if it's Cloud and not Reno or someone else, but this? This is way too farfetched and Zack launches himself from the chair as if to leave the room.]

Not funny, man. He wouldn't do stuff like that. He'd never believe anything Hojo had to tell him, and he wouldn't burn down any town without a damn good reason. [frowwwnn.]

Action;

[atouchofstrife]

Zack...

[ Cloud just frowns, shakes his head and stands up. He doesn't try to stop him but he does rub his forehead, ruffling his spikes. ]

It's hard to believe, Zack. I know it is. He was a good man. I wish I could have done something to prevent it from happening but I can't think of a way how it could have been stopped.

Remember the headaches? Remember how he said that the mountain looked familiar?

Action;

[pauldrons]

[Hard to believe? Try impossible. Sure, Sephiroth's got a temper that can turn on a dime, but to burn a village? No. No, it doesn't happen. He wouldn't. He's too good a man for that.]

He never said anything like that! We hadn't even made it into the village when I got here!

[Zack raises his voice fairly often; to call for a friend too distant to speak normally too, or in battle. But never like this. Never like he's trying to fight off a nightmare with his bare hands.]

Action;

[atouchofstrife]

Then... none of it has happened to you yet.

[ Arms folded, he just looked at the ground. There really wasn't much he could point out and say that this is why, not without something to show Zack. All Cloud had were his memories, as fragmented as they were. ]

Do you really think that I would lie to you?

Action;

[pauldrons]

No kidding it hasn't happened yet.

[He sighs, raking his hands through his hair. He gets why Cloud feels the need to tell him, but his timing is just terrible. His best friend just disappeared and Cloud's choosing to spring this now? Geez...]

No, I don't think you'd lie to me. But you gotta understand how crazy this sounds, man. He was fine when we were flying in; didn't show any signs of going crazy or anything like that, and now you're saying he snapped so bad he burnt down an entire village for no reason. [he shakes his head, frowning.] Not gonna happen. He's not that kind of man.

Action;

[atouchofstrife]

He didn't change over night. It took a week or more stuck in that basement, no food or water, just him and Hojo's notes.

I don't even think he slept in that time...

[ He chewed on his lower lip, still looking at the floor while thinking it over. ]

He's not that kind of man, but have you ever seen him mad? Besides when he found the Masamune in pieces?

Action;

[pauldrons]

Like he'd believe anything that quack said or wrote. You're giving Hojo too much credit.

[As for the second question, Zack just shrugs]

Never that mad before, but yeah. I saw him lose his temper a couple of times when people put his men at risk. Guy has a temper when people he cares about are in danger.

[And no one could say the General didn't care about his men.]

Action;

[atouchofstrife]

I don't know what really pushed him, Zack. All I know is that he came out of that place not as the general but as a possessed man, talking about riding the world of the human corruption and reclaiming it for his mother.

[ He just shrugged, finally raising his head. He looks a little scared, a little confused and so very young. ]

Maybe my memory is messed up, maybe they managed to capture him and send out something almost like him, but I know that I fought him. I know my hometown burned and I know that in the aftermath that I ended up in Hojo's hands.