wingenvy | [Action]

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[Okay, so. He'd been en route to Midgar with Cloud. With a motorcycle, it had been awesome. And they'd been making good progress! Sure, he wasn't all that certain about directions, but being underground for so long can screw with a guy a little. There's no helping it. He'd been in a pretty good mood, though.

So if things had been going well for the first time in ages, why did he wake up this morning and find himself in the woods, alone and unarmed, in a fresh pair of white pants that didn't belong to him? It meant he hadn't been captured, since he wasn't in the lab, so... what? Seriously, what?

More importantly, where is Cloud!?

There's a sense of panic he hasn't felt since the troopers in Nibelheim had first started dragging Cloud away from him, so he wastes no time getting up and heading off to get a look around. If the military isn't responsible for this, maybe Cloud just wandered off (somehow) after whoever it was had taken Zack out. Man, so much for life getting easier...

tl;dr Zack will be ducking around the village early-ish in the morning, trying to make the most of the late November sunrise by doing his best ninja impression. He's trying not to be seen, but how effective he is at doing so? Really depends. SOLDIERs are sadly not ninjas.]

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[Aye sir. And- is that a smile? Sort of? God, did Zack ever miss that! He falls into step beside Cloud immediately, grinning.]

So am I allowed to ask what you do remember, or do I have to wait for that too?

Like I said, not a lot.

[Pause.] I...barely remember anything from after I joined Shinra. Almost nothing at all.

...Man, seriously? That's... a long time, Cloud. [He doesn't know exactly how long, but...

...stupid Hojo. It was the lab, wasn't it? And the mako poisoning...]

Yeah, I know. [Cloud's reluctant to speculate or anything about it; that part of his head is still a jumbled mess and he'd like to stay far, far away from it thank you.

Luckily their destination isn't that far from the clothing shop and he leads Zack inside, already searching for the Buster.]

It should be in here somewhere...

[Zack's not about to blather about it if Cloud isn't interested; truth be told, he's glad. If he were Cloud, he wouldn't want to have the memories of the lab back, either. It's a shame about losing the rest of it, though.

Well, whatever. He digs around to try and find the Buster, and after a few minutes- SUCCESS! And here it is.]

Oh man, you were right! Looks like it's still in the same shape, too. Good thing.

[...huh. That's strange. It should at least be a little dirty; he'd put it in that clifftop a few weeks ago.]

Any materia in it?

[Zack blinks, then checks, and-] Whaaaat? My materia! I had some really expensive ones in there, too! Damn...

Yeah, mine's gone too. [Which Cloud is also pissed about. His stuff was expensive too, IT TOOK FOREVER TO GET THOSE MASTERED.

...of course, he's about out of stalling techniques.]

Zack, um... [Holy. He doesn't even remember his last name.]

[Stupid Malnosso. Zack glances over at his name, lifting a brow.]

Huh? What is it, Cloud?

[ACK. Oh geez.

Cloud looks away.]

I-...I'm sorry I don't remember anything.

[Zack pauses at that, then rests the Buster sword against the wall, freeing his hand to clap it onto Cloud's shoulder.]

You don't have to apologize for that, you know. I'm just glad you're okay.

[...Zack must not know.

Yeah, Cloud is never, ever telling him.]

Actually, uh...what's your last name again? I remember you're from Gongaga, but for some reason I don't remember... [Pretty much ANYTHING ELSE.]

[Huh, what a weird thing to forget.]

Zack Fair. [He pauses, and then offers out a hand.] It's nice to meet you, Cloud.

[That's kind of strange. But...sure, yeah, Cloud can work with this. He takes Zack's hand and shakes it firmly.]

Yup. Good t'meet you too.

[Awesome, they're at least on the right track. It's not exactly how Zack saw things going for them, but he's not about to complain when Cloud's right here in front of him, walking and talking and... okay. So Zack's happy.]

So, food? And hey, do you have a place to crash? I mean, until we figure a way out of here, anyway.

I don't yet, but I know where to look for one.

As for food...yeah. There's a few places we can get some stuff. I'll explain what's going on along the way. [Because Zack doesn't seem the type to sit down and calmly peruse that huge guide.]

[So let an epic journey in search of food and lodging happen! And Zack will listen to each bit of what Cloud has to explain... more or less. He tries, anyway. Some of the stuff goes right over his head.]

[Cloud isn't going to try very hard. It's pretty obvious by the way Zack's eyes drift off to the side and he falls into the habit of humming at somewhat regular intervals.

Eventually Cloud gives up on explaining things and switches to asking. On one hand he's...well, a bit in awe; this is the man that died to save his life. There's guilt there, of course, and a heavy weight settling in his stomach that he knows he's going to deal with until Zack discovers the truth, but there's also so much curiosity he's nearly bursting from it.

Zack was friends with him, right? Why else would he break Cloud out of the labs instead of just escaping himself? He must know something. Maybe they hung out, maybe he had stories of both of them. Maybe there's some evidence of him not being...quite as pathetic as he fears he was.

Plus he just wanted to learn about Zack. He must've known so many things already, if he'd confused himself with Zack before; they had to have been close.]

Hey, so uh...when did we meet?

[Zack blinks, brows furrowing, and thinks back for a moment.] Let's see... that'd be... two years before Nibelheim? We were on a mission to Modeoheim and the helicopter crashed, so we had to walk there. The two of us led Tseng and the other troopers to the mission because we were total country bumpkins. [And it was lulzy and awesome.]

We walked away from a helicopter crash?

[Zack he can understand; Zack was -is- a SOLDIER. But he would've just been some scrawny kid. And the other troopers survived too?

What the hell, he is so lucky with these things. Fall off a mountain? Scraped knees. Helicopter crash? NO PROBLEM.]

Yeah, go fig! Guess those Shinra models are really tough. It wasn't in bad shape after we went down, so nobody died.

Modeoheim...where is that? I've never heard of it. [...uh, or rather-] I don't remember where it is, I mean.

Ah, Modeoheim... doesn't really exist anymore. It used to be up north by Icicle Inn, but it was abandoned way before we even went there.

So it was snowy. [Cloud mulls this around; helicopter crash in the snow. That has to ring some bells, right?

...unfortunately not yet. He scowls a bit and scratches the back of his neck.] I don't remember any of it. What happened?

[Damn, his memory really is messed up.] It's... kind of a long story. We were looking for some SOLDIERs who'd abandoned Shinra and were causing trouble. We tried to rescue a scientist, but he got away when- [When Angeal changed...] ...When a monster attacked, and... yeah, it was kind of a mess. [He smiles faintly.] But I'm glad you were there.

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jsyk i'm totally going to handwave all the explanations /lazy

BORING CONVERSATION ANYWAY

-said Zack.

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