Zack Fair (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
colorofthesky) wrote2008-06-06 06:30 pm
colorofthesky) wrote2008-06-06 06:30 pm
Entry tags:
when you're feeling empty
Who: Zack and Sephiroth
Where: Shinra Manor...Nibelheim.
When: During the mission in Nibelheim (Crisis Core).
Rating: PG-13....maybe?
Summary: [AU] After the revelations in Nibelheim's Mako Reactor, Zack stays with Sephiroth and tries to keep him sane.
[ It's been three days now since the trip up to the Mako Reactor. The same amount of time has passed since Sephiroth locked himself in the basement of Shinra Manor.
Zack went down there the first day, just to verify that Sephiroth was really there. He left him alone the second day, knowing the other didn't like to be bothered when he was doing research. By the third day, however, Zack starts to worry.
Bringing a sack lunch for both of them, Zack navigates the musty old corridors until he finds the archiving room. Sure enough, Sephiroth is still there, pouring over manuscripts.
He frowns a little and sets the food on the table. ]
I brought you something.
Where: Shinra Manor...Nibelheim.
When: During the mission in Nibelheim (Crisis Core).
Rating: PG-13....maybe?
Summary: [AU] After the revelations in Nibelheim's Mako Reactor, Zack stays with Sephiroth and tries to keep him sane.
[ It's been three days now since the trip up to the Mako Reactor. The same amount of time has passed since Sephiroth locked himself in the basement of Shinra Manor.
Zack went down there the first day, just to verify that Sephiroth was really there. He left him alone the second day, knowing the other didn't like to be bothered when he was doing research. By the third day, however, Zack starts to worry.
Bringing a sack lunch for both of them, Zack navigates the musty old corridors until he finds the archiving room. Sure enough, Sephiroth is still there, pouring over manuscripts.
He frowns a little and sets the food on the table. ]
I brought you something.
no subject
[there were hundreds of books and journals laying around, some of which were being used as bookmarks for other books, others tossed aside in favor of a different kind of read. Sephiroth was standing at a bookshelf with a journal in hand, reading the crabbed handwriting of Hojo and trying to make sense out of them. He knew he was one of a special kind of child, but the notes talked about Cetra and how he came from the DNA strands of one preserved in ice.
Was it possible that he truly was not human?
Zack and his interference with the discovery wasn't welcomed, not when he still had more lab reports to go through.]
no subject
But now. Three days without anything -- food or sleep, more than likely -- is too much. ]
You should eat something, anyway.
[ He looks around at the mess of books and reports scattered all over the place. It just about gives him a headache, and he hasn't even read any of them.
He picks up on of the book idly, and turns it over. ]
Have you slept at all?
no subject
But he shook his head, dismissing both and went back to finding his place in the notes.]
It doesn't matter.
no subject
Too-blue eyes fix squarely on the General's back. ]
Yes, it does.
[ Quiet. Firm. Persistent. ]
no subject
[Quiet, forceful, laced with anger. He was trying to read this file. He was sure the answers were here and Zack is just...
He's just being...
Zack.
He frowned at the line he had been reading, seeing the squiggles and loops of Hojo's writing and wondering what was wrong with him. Wasn't Zack just being concerned?]
I need to know.
no subject
I know you do.
[ Hell, there are answers he wants, but taking it to an extreme like this...it's not healthy. If it's more horrors they're going to find, going nonstop isn't going to help matters.
He sets down the book, still watching the General -- no. His friend. ]
The reports aren't going anywhere.
no subject
[The nagging feeling if he just turned his back once that the answers will disappear made his hands tighten on the journal he was reading, the smell of ink and paper and dust over-powering even the smell of food. He just couldn't leave it sitting here. They will disappear.]
No telling who knows about this place down here.
no subject
[ Besides the two of them and Cloud, no one else was here from the company. The state of the mansion itself spoke to that -- it reeked of dust, mold, and cobwebs, and building had a deserted feel to it.
Of course, it occurs to him that's an oddity in itself. If the research material down here was so important, why wasn't it better protected? ]
If people knew about it, there wouldn't be so much dust.
no subject
[They had to be here, even if it was at a small number outside of them. It wasn't like Hojo to leave any of his notes laying around without someone to keep an eye on it. Hojo was paranoid like that. He always had been paranoid because of how cutthroat the rest of the scientists were.
But...
If he was paranoid, wouldn't these records be under better locks? Granted there wasn't a system Hojo made that Sephiroth couldn't figure out in time, but this was...
This was odd.]
What do you smell?
no subject
It makes no sense. ]
Mold. The air is stale down here.
[ He thinks about the coffin he found earlier and the man (sleeping?) inside. What was that all about?
The more he thought about it, the more confusing everything was.
He looks at the other finally, uncertain. ]
Sephiroth...if all of this is so important...why isn't it better protected?
no subject
[He felt the headache hit him harder than before, a sharp, clawing pain that almost made him drop the book. He could smell the dust and years but these books, they smelled wrong.]
Something's wrong.
no subject
He places a hand lightly on the book Sephiroth is holding and looks him in the eye. ]
Sephiroth... [ His voice is soft, very real concern etched into the lines of his face. ] I think we should go.
no subject
Notes that should be old, but weren't. He could smell the ink and if they were old, he shouldn't be able to smell it, not at the strength he could. The mold and the dust should have affected the journals. There should have been places where monsters took them apart.
But.
This place...
His head hurt.]
Zack... How long?
no subject
...Three days.
[ It's why he came down here to begin with. He was starting to get concerned. ]
no subject
[If there was one thing that Hojo had insisted on even when he was a child, it had been regular meals. His system needed it to fuel all the changes that made him different than human. Even the nutrient bars - as hateful and dry as they were - had to be eaten at regular intervals to make sure his system kept on working right.
But he didn't remember having anything to eat for a while. Not even some water to keep his throat moist - that might be why his throat hurt him now. It might be why the room shuddered and swayed like he was on a helicopter.
It might be the cause for the headache.]
I better sit down.
no subject
Once Sephiroth is sitting, he hands him a canteen of fresh water. Fluids first - then food. ]
no subject
I was here... for three days?
no subject
Since you left the Mako Reactor, yeah.
[ What in the world was going on here? ]
You think you can eat something?
no subject
[The water sat in his stomach like a rock, making him feel a little dizzy. The headache was getting worse, feeling almost like long nails being driven repeatedly into his eyes and ears constantly.]
Too long.