insusurro | ARRIVAL.

ARRIVAL.

𝑰𝑵𝑺𝑼𝑺𝑼𝑹𝑹𝑶: 𝑨 𝑾𝑶𝑹𝑳𝑫 𝑾𝑰𝑻𝑯𝑶𝑼𝑻 𝑫𝑬𝑺𝑻𝑰𝑵𝒀

𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐒𝐓 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄 you moved under your own power. The shadows that dwelt in the corners of your vision vanished, the world is bright and the shackles of destiny fall from your liberated limbs.

You're free.

But before you can take that next step, before you can alter your fate, a terrible howling fills your ears. It's an ill wind full of malice, one that rips you off of your feet and back, back, back from this chance to seize your destiny. The shadows coalesce into a single entity, its hands locking around your throat. It cannot let this stand.

You think that maybe this is the end. The world goes dark as it rushes past you, this is the end.

Except you wake to the feeling of rain on your skin.

The cliffs around you bare the scars of a fierce battle. Before you, a massive city faces the sea. Behind you, greenery sprawls for miles. Midgar has never looked so beautiful, but it has also never looked so unlike itself. The Sister Ray points proudly towards the sea. A bustling city crawls out from its shadow, looking wealthier and more robust than the slums ever did. You don't have long to ponder this.

Because you aren't alone. Others are coming to, looking just as confused and uncertain as you do. Some are battleworn and bloody, as if they were pulled from a fierce battle. Others appear to be in perfect health, as if they were simply pulled from a long slumber, though no less confused and lost. The howling that filled your slowly begins to fade, and as it does, the rain begins to clear.

𝐌𝐈𝐃𝐆𝐀𝐑 is within a few hours walking distance. 𝐊𝐀𝐋𝐌 lies not much further in the opposite direction. There is no presence urging you to walk to one or the other, no voice from on high telling you what path your feet should walk. Underneath this infinite blue sky the choice to go - or to stay - is entirely yours.

𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐋 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐃𝐎 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐈𝐓?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You think I don't know that!?

[ Unlike that cute blond he's always hauling around these days, when the flashes hit, Zack doesn't stumble. There's the toxic chemical smell of mako burning in his sinuses, the hushed sounds of the world outside his glass cage, the touchless purgatory of scratching and scratching and scratching against a tank and feeling nothing. For years. Years and years and years and years and—

It doesn't make him falter, it makes him fight harder. The sword is holding him back. He swings it one way, sends it flying while he lunges the other, aiming to tackle his opponent to the ground. ]

You don't.

[ zack lunges and it's only then weiss moves, hands snapping out to grab for his shoulders. either he'll misjudge zack's strength and be sent toppling over (thrilling) or he'll hold him by the shoulders like an unruly dog.

he's alright with either option. ]

Whatever you have experienced has only scratched the surface of what awaits you.

[ Considering who the fuck is writing this shit of course they're going to go rolling like tumbleweeds down a hill into the dirt. Zack isn't exactly sure what he wants to do when he gets to the bottom of the hill, so focused on just holding on and fuming, so when it comes time he's just...

Panting. Whew it's almost like overexerting yourself can catch up to you or something. And it's not like Weiss is... really trying to kill him. Actually, it kind of seems like the guy's just having fun.

He pounds Weiss into the ground a little harder for it. ]

Who are you!?

[ one pale hand lifts to fist the front of zack's uniform. up close, those uncanny mako eyes are even stranger. he's amused. ]

Weiss the Immaculate Emperor. [ he raises an eyebrow. ] A Tsviet of Deepground.

[ and then he's trying to flip them, to wedge one arm across zack to pin him. ]

Shinra's best kept secret.

[ Oof. All the air goes out of Zack's lungs in one rattling wheeze when he hits the ground. Fuck, he's spent. This guy is massive. Give Zack a few years, he'll grow into his shoulders and maybe get a few of the hundreds of bullets embedded in his body fished out and then they can have a fucking rematch to end all rematches. Right now, Zack's vision is blurring. ]

M-Modest too...

[ He tastes blood. Yeuch. What he wouldn't give for an Ether Cola right now. ]

Good news? Looks like your secret's... safe... I'm just gonna...

[ Close his eyes, just for a second... ]

[ is he dead? how unfortunate.

ah, no. he can still feel the rise and fall of the soldier's chest underneath his forearm. what a fighter. a true champ. he might even make tsviet - or would, if weiss' entire goal right now wasn't go back in and dismantle everything. from there... he's not sure? kill all the surface dwellers? mm.

whatever. he has time. he needs to get the rest of them out. he hops off of the boy and then reaches down and

throws him over his shoulder like a sack of rocks and go rooting around the corpses until he mugs a heal materia off of them. sorry, whoever, sucks die and winners thrive.

so like.

enjoy waking up in a fucking cave with a feral wildman some unknown about of time later, zackary. ]

[ Kinda strange how this is the first good sleep he's gotten since... Uh. Uhhhhhhh. UHHHHHHHHH nevermind. Maybe ever. Yeah, let's go with that.

So he sleeps for a long time. Far longer than he should. And then he wakes up, and he's in a cave? Okay. Just shutting his eyes and going back to sleep.

He could sleep for a thousand years longer, but the black and blue ichor in his blood mends him quickly. It doesn't take him long to wake up for that second time feeling like a whole new person—in a kind of disturbing way, considering everything he's been through—startling to his feet and casting a glance around and— ]

Man oh man. Where the hell am I?

[ it's been years since he'd seen it the outside world. four, in fact - he'd come tromping up here with his little brother to collect project g on a rainy day as well. before that, it had been short missions to wutai to "test his combat capabilities". it had been 'fun' in the way that any chance to stretch his legs had been fun - the hapless wutainese soldiers hadn't proveed much of a challenge.

it's late now. the sun has set. all that's really visible in this cave are the crackling embers in the fire, and the glow of weiss' golden-blue eyes. ]

The outskirts of Midgar. [ weiss flicks the materia in his hands at him and stretches out, scratching his bare chest. ] Though that doesn't look like any Midgar I've ever seen.

That's for damn sure.

[ Zack catches the materia automatically. Does he even need it, really? He's turning his hands over and over, openly disturbed by how much the damage has lessened over the course of his slumber. His skin feels hot, too hot. He can feel the things they injected him with working and it makes his stomach twist sickly.

What have I become?

Time to focus on something else. Weiss's hand draws his attention. His eyes take in that massively sculpted bare chest. Which is a totally normal thing he does that all dudes do. Sick gains, brah. ]

Are you... kidnapping me?

[ he's in great shape for someone who spent the last several years chained to a mockery of a throne. 'emperor' was Restrictor's way of mocking him, but strength held power in DeepGround. and he's the strongest.

so he just ignores the question.]

Tell me. Where were they holding you?

[ he's certain genesis gave the details, but he isn't the one that keeps track of that. ]

[ Zack hits himself with a shot of the materia, for good measure. Weiss doesn't seem to be taking questions. Might come in handy, y'know, just in case. His teeth grind as the green glow of spelllight washes over him. It's always left a funny taste in his mouth, this one. Maybe because he remembers what it feels like when it comes from Aerith, pure and sweet and crisply fresh like mountain spring water. This just does not compare.

He'd also maybe be a little relaxed despite his current situation, but—that question. He's obviously sensitive about it (imagine that) and you can hear it clear as a bell in his response: ]

What d'you know about that?

DeepGround is a facility beneath Midgar. Laboratories where amoral men make weapons out of the sick, the dying, or the new.

[ he raises one fine white eyebrow. ]

A regular SOLDIER would not have been capable defeating Genesis. They also would have been crushed by a single strike of my swords, especially with injuries like yours. The fact that you're still breathing is proof enough that you've been altered.

[ its genuine praise. ]

Tch.

[ Nevermind that whole 'relaxed' thing. Zack is seething now, head bowed, jaw locked and bulging. ]

You mean I'm a monster.

Are all SOLDIERs this needlessly dramatic?

Wh....

[ At least now Zack's forgotten himself. He's just gazing up at Weiss with the most absolutely lost look in his eyes. ]

... You— You kidnapped me!

Would you rather I have left you to the buzzards?

[ Zack's head tilts like a dog who's just been asked do you waaaannnaaaaaaaa.... ]

So... I'm free to go? You're not gonna try to stop me?

[ well he didn't say THAT. ]

That I haven't decided. I may need your strength.

[ JDKDKFKSKDK ]

That's—! No. Look.

[ Count to ten, Zack. Just like Angeal taught you. Not.... directly but by doing it a lot in your presence. ]

Nibelheim, okay? They... did what they did to me in Nibelheim. Which makes us the same, right? Maybe we could just... work together? I'm sick of fighting people I don't need to fight, man. Look—gimme your arm, I'll give you my number right now. I reckon that's the next best thing to holding me hostage in a cave.

[ oh, this boy is precious. he would have broken so beautifully in the underground. weiss gets to his feet. ]

Was I unclear? [ yes. ] We are working together.

[ because he says so. clearly. ]

My brother and subordinates are still trapped. You will show me the way to the Shinra building, and from there we will raze it to the ground and let them out.

[ None of that makes sense until it abruptly does. Zack's head bows again. He loops his arms around his knee, sighing. ]

Guessin' I don't have much choice in the matter.

Not unless you can kill me.

[ so pleasantly. so pleased. ]

You should be pleased. Shinra took your life from you as well. This guarantees your freedom.

[ Zack sucks in a sharp breath through his teeth. Kill Weiss, kill every last Shinra... This is what he fought so hard for? This blows on ice, dude. ]

You really think that? 'Cause I'm thinkin' this shit never ends. There's always gonna be another Shinra. Always gonna be another nutcase with silver hair. Freedom's less of a guarantee and more like somethin' you gotta fight for as long as you mean to keep it.

[ He pushes himself to his feet, fists clenched. ]

If you stand in my way...

"Death is always by your side in Deepground" is its motto.

[ he's on his feet in a flash, heaven and earth both drawn and trained upon him. ]

Life is a battle in which only the strong survive. The only guaranteed way to live is to become the strongest. The only good way to die is at the hands of someone stronger than you.

[ Zack doesn't flinch, just takes another slow step forward. He fixes his glare on Weiss until it's close enough to cast that blue mako glow on his face. ]

My strength isn't my own. Everyone I've ever cared for fights beside me. Nothin' in the whole world is stronger than that.

[ His fists remain at his sides—for now. ]

Nobody has to die here.

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