onepassingnight | 008 || tea for two?

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008 || tea for two?

Zack's strength of mind hasn't been at its peak lately, which may explain his absence from the consciousness of others.

As it was, the former SOLDIER was secluded in a web of emerald wisps and crystals, cocooned in the center by an even thicker web and two white wings surrounding his form. His eyes were closed, head bowed, the rest of his body also concealed by the maze of webs. So he... hasn't been able to meld himself entirely cohesive yet, but he's getting there. There's no telling what the rest of his body looks like, trapped in that mess.

If you dare to approach, he'll glance up briefly, quietly. He's studying you, wanting to know the reasons why you would come deep into the Lifestream like this, to talk to a forgotten, deceased SOLDIER.

And he'll welcome the company.

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Unlike with Cloud, the wings continue to conceal the rest of his form, even pulling tighter at the sight of Sephiroth drawing nearer.

He isn't afraid - the real Sephiroth had no place in the Lifestream - but he doesn't exactly want to expose how much he had been tearing himself apart, either. To force his mind to be this active, to tear against the endless waves of mako just to hear a dear friend's voice... he certainly stood out from all the others here.

He opens a path, allowing Sephiroth entry to his personal little space in the Lifestream.

"You remembered my name." He barely did, himself. With the knowledge that comes, knowledge is also lost, passed to others so that they may learn.

"...Sephiroth."

"Of course. I saw you not long ago." He knows many of the SOLDIERs in his command, and the Firsts best, especially reduced as they are in the time of the Genesis War. He knows Zack better than any others, now.

He studies their surroundings soberly as he continues his approach. It's an odd, shifting place. Yet oddly, it doesn't feel strange, no matter how unfamiliar it is. He adds, in case of some confusion, "Following the incidents at Modeoheim."

And his mind returns, as it always does (always will?) to the betrayals and deaths of his friends, that low heat of anger slowly beginning to rise, only to be pushed away again, pushed down under further pressure.

Modeoheim. Of course... where everything ended, and everything began.

It robbed him of his childish naivety, twice over, and melded him into the man he'd grown up to be. And who he'd passed on as. This gets another uncomfortable shift, but the eerie, vacant gaze remains gentle, warm.

This was not about him - it was about Sephiroth.

"It's been a few years." The 'voice' chimed in erratically. "And more's happened since then. Is still going on."

"Then you're also from a possible future." He considered no future set before its time. That defied all reason, as far as he was concerned.

He did not believe in fate, like Genesis. What had happened to them was the result of the chance actions of individuals, not the subject of some prophecy written out in poetry. If you sought similarities between vague verses and reality, of course you would find them. That did not mean it was anything more than coincidence.

The mind saw what the heart showed it. What he wanted was to see the truth. "And what is it that is happening?"

"You don't need to know. Not yet."

To tell him would be to disrupt the Planet's order. It would be simple, to change the course of events for the better, make Cloud's life better, to fix everything. That just wasn't how the world worked, and he wouldn't be responsible for the next cataclysm following Meteor.

"Why don't we just talk? How are you, Sephiroth?" The wings relax slightly, revealing a little more of the soul's form, but not too much. He would do this gradually, give the other time to adjust. There was no need to rush, after all.

They had all the time in the world.

"I am aware of certain things," he said, for not everyone was as wise and careful about what they said in dreams as Zack was. He had heard things, but he was not sure if he trusted what he had been told.

"I'm willing to talk." Yet he didn't relax, his body tense, his manner watchful. "The current situation is far from ideal, and I am uneasy." There were few people he would speak to about this feeling, but Zack was one of them, if not the only one now.

Zack shrugs a shoulder, managing to keep his hands out in front of him as he raps his fingers against each other.

There wasn't much he could do about how the Lifestream treated his form, so Sephiroth would simply need to, once again, adjust. It's not like his form was any more terrifying than the one the Planet was showing him, of his dear friend corrupted by power and madness.

"It's natural. To feel that way, I mean. If I was like this out in the living world, I think most people would wanna burn me at the stake." The fingers intertwine, the muscles tout. "But we're not here to talk about me. I'll rephrase that - how've you been?"

"Ah, your wings. They're not unfamiliar to me, of course." Not that he's ever seen Zack bear them before. He studies them anew, thinking of Angeal, of Genesis. "I have few positive associations with them, but that's not what I meant. I referred my current situation, as I assumed that was what your meaning."

He pauses, because the "current situation" is so complex, and it's difficult to pinpoint what makes him most uneasy. Sephiroth being Sephiroth, he can't say it's the deaths of his friends that have shaken him. Instead, he speaks about his work.

"There's been a great deal to do following the Modeoheim incident." With less personnel, there's been more work for him. He's seen as indefatigable, powerful, so no one hesitates to increase his labors, and he never complains, not while he's awake. Even now, his statements are relatively mild. "There is unrest. Morale is low."

He understands the relationship Sephiroth has with wings at his current point of time, and Zack would gladly change his form in a heartbeat, but... it's also something he wants his friend to be able to face, to adjust to. And that's why he keeps them out. They might even nudge further in the other's direction, prompting for physical contact.

"I know, Sephiroth. I was there."

His tone is soft, kind. Following Angeal's death, and Lazard's assumed 'betrayal', ShinRa had been in a temporary state of chaos. It was why he rose up to help lead SOLDIER, to try to do some good for the world to counteract the bad.

Unfortunately... things had only gotten worse.

"But as long as you're still there - we're still there, it'll be okay. The younger SOLDIERs look up to us, man. Don't let them down when they really need hope. ...okay?"

It won't do any good, he knows this. Maybe he was just hoping himself.

Even false hope was better than none.

"I know where you were. I usually do, when you're on duty. You asked how I was." His tone of voice is somewhat dry, as usual, as if he's not aware of the softness in Zack's. It's unlike him to admit to any weakness, or perceived weakness.

He thinks over Zack's words, then slowly shakes his head. "That's what I thought. That I should remain for their sake. After so many left us." A variety of thoughts jockey for position in his mind, but one takes precedence over all: I should leave Shinra.

"But that may not be the best idea."

He pauses again, again studying Zack and his wings. There's a certain light in his eyes, his thoughtfulness sharpening momentarily into something else: less quiet, closer kin to anger. Oddly enough, Sephiroth laughs, as he speaks against decades of conditioning. "I'm beginning to think we were betrayed."

"Who betrayed us, Sephiroth?"

Of course, he knows the answers. He knows everything that happened, and everything that's going to happen up to where he was now. But to blurt it all out at once was not the road to travel. He wanted to be able to talk his friend through it, to let it seep in a little at a time.

And then...

What happened will happen.

"Do you trust my judgement? My leadership? Do you think Angeal did a good job of keeping things together? I want to hear everything you're thinking. I want to know." The wings then pull back, revealing the gouged, torn form gradually. He was incomplete, at the time, and this knowledge, this acceptance, would help them both.

In the end, Sephiroth would be saved.

"ShinRa," he says, easily enough, but his next words aren't so easy. "I'm going to leave them," he adds, not even sure if it's true, but to have the chance to hear what it sounds like, to say those words.

I'm leaving ShinRa.

Like Genesis did, and Angeal after him. He's still angry, at both of them, for what they did, though far more so at Genesis. But he won't be leaving for the same reasons, if he goes. He'll be leaving for reasons of conscience. And if he dies, then... So be it.

"That's what I'm thinking."

He pauses, because he may be so certain in a dream, but he knows he won't be so in life. "Angeal was a great leader once, but in the end he was wrong," he says, with sudden vehemence. "I won't make that mistake." He won't throw his life away. He studies Zack, thinking of his leadership, as he was asked to do. "You're young," he decides at last. At least, he is at the time Sephiroth knows him, now. "Maybe not as you are now, but... You have a great deal to learn."

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008 || tea for two?

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