fandomhighdorms | The Salle, Monday Morning

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The Salle, Monday Morning

It was a Monday.

It had been a normal weekend.

Arthur, ergo, was in the salle, practicing his staffwork for once. He did have a battle with Mat due tomorrow ~~which was going to be pushed towards next week due to a sudden case of the fox, SPOILERS~~ and it wouldn't do to show up in anything but perfect fighting shape.

He made for a few impressive sweeps through the air as he practiced, showing off for his (Merlin-y) audience as usual.

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Arthur sighed. "You know you're barely leaking details," he offered. Which was an offer. Yes. "Whatever it is, though..." his eyes flicked to Zack's side again. "You're decent at handling yourself."

... which was not a warning for Zack not to talk about it, but a compliment, thank you.

And Zack was going to take it as such, because he was too tired and still far too used to taking people at their word to consider it anything but.

He was looking at Arthur now, thoughtfully, poking through everything that had happened on the weekend. Trying to pick out things that he could talk about without cracking. SOLDIERs didn't crack.

"There was a dragon," he offered. Because that seemed like a nice, safe place to start. He was kinda proud of taking down Bahamut on his own, without someone stepping in to bail him out. No amount of confusion and heartache and anger would sweep that much aside.

All good soldiers, right?

He nodded, pursing his lips. "And where does the dragon fit into this?" he prompted.

"It was... a distraction, I think," Zack replied. "To keep me occupied while Angeal got away, maybe. Or... maybe not that, either. The summon wasn't intended for me. I think it was for Sephiroth, but Sephiroth turned down the mission."

Turned it down. They really did spoil him too much.

"And... I don't think Angeal had anything to do with it, either. And Genesis stuck around to watch me finish it off... And..."

Trying to figure it out was making his head hurt, and he demonstrated as much with a frustrated exhale as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Could be another party," Arthur offered, evenly. "Could be any of them. Somehow, I don't think the dragon is the most relevant part of the tale." He considered the ceiling. "Which is funny, because they tend to be extremely relevant."

Pooch. Underneath the castle. Yes.

"Usually," Zack acknowledged with a small nod. "It's all... kinda complicated. I mentioned the SOLDIERS who had gone missing, right?"

Probably a few times by now, Zack, yes.

"Once or twice," he agreed, charitably. His eyes had narrowed as he watched Zack; it was mainly concern.

If you put him at gunpoint, he might even admit it was for more than simply a fellow reserve leader crumbling. "Listen-- just start at the beginning. Where did you go."

Zack sighed again, a little more reserved than the huff of air he'd exhaled a moment before, and he nodded. Right.

"We went to Banora. Um. Tseng and I, I mean. He's a Turk. They're kinda..." He shrugged. "That's not important anyhow. We went to Banora, which is the hometown of Genesis, the deserter. And Angeal's hometown, too."

"He went back home," Arthur said, thoughtfully.

Zack nodded a little.

"They both did. When Genesis went back, he brought... Well, a bit of an army with him. They slaughtered nearly all of the townspeople."

Arthur's mouth may have creased just a bit more, there, but he said nothing about it. Yet. "How many."

Zack's eyes were now on his lap. Because the ceiling was getting boring, supposedly.

"Everyone except Angeal's mother. Including two of our Turks."

He nodded once or twice, quiet affirmation to himself.

His mouth... was not losing that crease, but his eyes darted towards Zack. "Did you find his mother?"

More nodding. His head was far more eloquent than his mouth today.

"When she was still alive," Zack replied. "She wanted to know what was going on with her son. And I... Didn't know. She was fine when I left her there. She wanted me to take care of Angeal."

Arthur chewed on his lower lip for no reason at all. "I'm sorry," he opted for, at last, reaching to put a companionable hand on Zack's shoulder.

For his standards, that was downright soppy.

Soppy, but much appreciated. He nodded (again), sighed (again), and glanced Arthur's way.

"We found the missing SOLDIERs," he noted, idly. Because this was totally not a big deal and they could move right along without getting into this bit, honest.

"What state were they in."

Arthur had heard phrases like that a few too many times not to ask.

Zack was now tracing random squiggles on the floor with his toe. It was very productive, honestly.

"Alive, kinda."

The key word there was pretty obvious, wasn't it?

Details. He was lucky Arthur actually caught that one, because five times out of ten he might not (different circumstances, though. Maybe it was just a... war thing). "Sounds terrible."

Zack was nodding his agreement as the toe-floor-squiggles started to take on a more definite shape. A weird kind of boxy figure that one might recognize as the emblem of SOLDIER, or, at the very least, 'that little pattern on Zack's girdle-thingie.'

"They weren't themselves anymore," he noted, his voice picking up a little, his eyebrows furrowing. He was getting angry again, thinking about it. "Their minds, their faces. They stopped being them, completely."

Which sounded like crazy talk, and he was well aware of that fact.

Well, spending time in Fandom did a few things, and Arthur may have winced slightly. He was trying not to consider any of the images that flashed at the thought. "Some kind of-- madness, then," he surmised, slowly. "Someone poisoned them."

"Close," Zack agreed, his hands balling into fists. "Genesis stole ShinRa technology, that lets him make copies of himself. Using SOLDIER members."

A beat.

"And monsters."

It was weird, how the melancholy managed to seep back in, even around the seething.

Yeah. Okay.

Processing that, not so much.

"...Copies."

Skepticism, here you are. Even if it did come accompanied with a sudden and acute recognition of Zack's rage.

Zack was no longer tracing anything into the floor. Zack had both feet firmly planted, and he was clenching his hands into fists so tightly that his arms were shaking.

"Copies," he agreed. "Human copies. At least, their faces are. I don't think there's a bit of their mind left to them, though. They just... stand there. Twitching. And then they attack, like they just want to do whatever their master wants them to. Or maybe because they just want to kill."

That last bit seemed entirely too likely.

Arthur's eyes flicked up to Zack's face. Searching.

He found something. He wasn't going to divulge.

"Sounds almost... inhuman," he said, not entirely recognising his voice. Possibly because he was still too-- whatever. About everything. "Time for a fight."

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