[.The Puppy and the Angel.](Zack Puppy! HERE BOY!)

[Angeal Hewley]

(Open just to Zack for now!)

Disheveled black hair popped out from a heap of rubble, mostly concrete, and a few scraps of old cloth. Mako-enhanced gaze peered around tiredly, and from the head, came a neck, shoulders, arms and finally a torso. Angeal had definitely been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Using his upper body strength wasn't a problem, if his arm would cooperate. He had injured it before, and now it was hurt again. He frowned with concentration, and pulled himself from the rubble, and jumped off of the pile of concrete and old cloth. Little bits of white stuff stuck in his hair, making him look older than his 25 years. He rose his left (uninjured) arm and ruffled his hair, watching as the white bits of drywall and concrete flew out of his hair.

His boots were scuffed up, but he was mostly worried about his body working properly. He rose his arms above his head, and interlocked the gloved fingers together, stretching. He knelt down, and through the hole, he grasped the hilt of The Buster Blade. Pulling it out, he checked for any damage to the blade. This blade was more than just a weapon to hack and slash with, it represented his very honor, and his dreams. He took out a polishing cloth, and wiped the blade down, and smiled a little bit as it shone with life. Good, there were no scratches on it.


A frown painted his strong features as he glanced around the ruined city of Nibelhiem. He had been here only a few times before, but the memories were a little foggy. He had no idea why he was here or why he was even alive it was very confusing for him. He knew Zack had killed him, despite the youth's obvious reluctance. Speaking of that, he glanced over his shoulder, and sighed with relief at not seeing that monstrous white wing. Just when he thought it was safe, a unit of men surrounded him. Angeal's brilliant blue gaze narrowed, and he grasped the SOLDIER blade he used instead of the Buster Blade. So, a fight was what they wanted, hm? Well, Angeal was only too happy to oblige. These guys had been hunting him for weeks before they finally found him.

To add to that, his wing made an appearance, which made him flinch, because of his bruised shoulder. He was still a monster, even now. His gaze glittered with a cold, calculating spark, and he waited. A masked Hunter lunged at him and Angeal acted accordingly, using a down-slash, he flinched as blood splattered on him, and watched as the first assaulter fell to the ground in a bloodied heap. He hadn't fought in awhile, but it seemed he hadn't lost his touch. Which was a relief.

[Zack Fair]

There were shouts around him, he opened his eyes blearily. His head was swimming, probably from some drug or chemical they shot in him. Wait a second.... he tried to move his arms to rub his face, but they wouldn't budge. Well, they would move, but not from around his back. He twisted his wrists experimentally, he felt the cold iron against the bones. They were tight and just trying to wiggle hurt them. So they'd drugged him, and tied him up good. He opened his eyes slowly, but the black cloth over them prevented him from getting a good look at his surroundings. His instincts told him that he was inside of a helicopter, even if it wasn't moving. He trusted those instincts. So if he was in a helicopter, that meant the men that had jumped him last night were either Turks, SOLDIER, or SHINRA infantry people. He didn't like any of them. Shinra had actually killed him a while back, after they experimented on him for years. He definitely didn't want to go through that again, so his objective was to get the hell out of dodge.

"It's awake," the voice that spoke was muffled, no doubt by a helmet. The cloth over his eyes was gone and the man winced from the light assaulting his eyes. He immediately started to look around, he was in fact, in a helicopter, but the standard was all different from what Shinra or the Turks used....what other people out there kidnap random passerby's then? He frowned at the sight of the random looking dude, he was wearing a flying helmet and had a canteen in his hands, he held it to Zack's face and gave him little option whether to drink it or not.

Zack was thirsty, but if these guys knew two shits about him, they would have laced the drink with more sedatives. After three swallows, Zack knew the water was clean. His mako-enhanced immune system didn't start rejecting the water. So these guys had no idea what he was capable of. "You gave quite a fight last night, bruised up Corporal real good." The man sat across from him, in one of the passenger chairs and started to open a military grade package, no doubt rations of some sort. He held out some bread that resembled a chocobo's tail and Zack took a bite of it. He had little choice, and he knew with food in his system, the remnants of the drugs would wear off faster. So he ate whatever this idiot gave him.

He pushed experimentally through him, he realized with a shock that they hadn't removed his materia. He looked down at his arm to be sure he wasn't imagining things. The orbs glowed faintly just beneath the skin of his forearm. He looked up at the man and shook his head faintly. "Have you ever kidnapped someone before?" He asked, his voice was rough, but the man could understand him. The guy shook his head.

"Nah, this is my first mission with you otherworlders. After we tag this new one then we are gonna head back to The Crystal City." This man really was an idiot. Not only did he just admit to his ignorance, he also revealed their destination--not that Zack had a clue where that was, or where they were at the moment...he felt sorry for the 'new one'. Maybe if Zack could get out of here, he could save the man or woman and then go follow a unit back to the Crystal City and see what the hell was going on.

He watched the man take off his helmet and sit in the cockpit, he didn't turn off the engine, which led Zack to believe he was watching something. Zack looked down at his ankles to see that they were free of bondage, and that he wasn't strapped into the seat. These guys were amateurs! He stood carefully and moved as quietly as he could. The helicopter was big, for caring a large unit, so he could stand straight up. He saw through the front windshield a bunch of men dressed similar to this guy, surround a figure that looked familiar. Suddenly there was a white wing and recognition shot through Zack like another injection. He jumped forward then, his foot made contact with the guys head and he smashed into the dash in front of him. Zack got down on the floor and laid on his back, and moved his bound hands under his legs he looked at them with frantic eyes. They were only simple handcuffs instead of some complicated mechanism.

He started to cast a fire spell, and held it in his hand. The metal started to heat immediately from the fire, the metal changed from normal silver to orange and then red, then white. He let out a grunt and pulled his hands apart. Fragments of the handcuffs flew about the cabin but he was already pulling the door open and jumping outside by the time the shards all rested on the floor. With a quick glance around him, he realized with cold shock that he was in Nibelhiem. He hated this place almost as much as he hated Shinra. He ran forward and hid behind the water tower as he watched Angeal kill a man. He was covered in blood and Zack couldn't tell if he was injured or not.

He didn't hesitate as he ran forward. He didn't bother with stealth either, because this unit was full of complete idiots and they had all surrounded Angeal at once. Zack grabbed one's sword right out of his hands and killed him with it, then the next closest one before anyone realized they had just lost two members. Zack squared up with another guy, his blue eyes intent on his enemy. He wanted to talk to Angeal more, but he couldn't really do that with these guys around, now could he?

[Angeal Hewley]

Blood seemed to freeze in his very veins, SOLDIER blade whistled and flashed through the air, cutting more of these guys down. Mako-enhanced gaze locked onto an all-too familliar person jetting out of the helicopter and a smirk appeared on his face, he heard two bodies thud to the ground in succession behind him and the smirk widened into a smile.

Zack hadn't gotten rusty in his fighting, which made Angeal somewhat proud, he dodged an attacker and dealt a death-blow to the man's head, hiding his disgust as the disembodied head rolled onto the ground. The body itself fell with a sickening thud to the ground, and Angeal jumped away before the blood could splatter on him more.

He wrinkled his nose in disgust at the blood starting to pool around them. This battlefield was starting to smell bad, and on top of that his arm was starting to throb with pain from holding the sword. His right arm grew a bit limp, he was asking too much of an injury. He wasn't going to let Zack fight alone, that was the worst thing he could do,is leave Zack with all these idiots. He glanced over his shoulder at the younger male and smiled.

"Nice to see you're alright Zack" Angeal stated, and, ignoring the pain, slashed a man almost clean in half. He winced as someone hit him harshly on the back of his head, falling to his knees, but he gripped his sword in his good hand and did an up-sweep, and his opponent fell to the ground. It was a bloody battle, but Angeal wasn't about to give up. Disoriented, and a little bit of blood trickling from a cut on his forehead, his vision blurred. He rose a hand and wiped the blood off of his face as best he could.

I never thought I'd ever fight with Zack again..it's good to see him alive and well.. He thought to himself, he allowed a smile on his face, wincing as the skin on his forehead wrinkled a little bit, making the cut sting. Once this was over, Angeal was definately going to cast a few Cures on himself, and on Zack if his protoge was injured. He darted out of the way a little clumsily, narrowly avoiding getting his arm chopped off by a very sharp blade.

He hated this, all this blood and fighting, but it was necassary, if he didn't fight, he'd die, and Angeal wasn't about to die again, not after coming back for a second chance. Speaking of which. Why wasn't Zack older by now? It confused him, he couldn't quite remember after he had died, but he remembered vaguely being in the lifestream and helping Zack out with the clones he had left behind. Ah yes, the clones. He wondered, were there any left? He doubted it, but it seemed in this world, anything could happen, but he pushed that to the back of his mind and clashed blades with another one of the Hunters.


"Give it up..You won't defeat me!" Angeal stated in a calm voice, but inside, his emotions were in turmoil. what if Zack got hurt? or worse, killed?! He'd never be able to live that down, not being able to protect his protoge. With that thought in mind, he quickly sheathed the SOLDIER blade he had been using, and brought out the Buster Sword.

He mentally apologized to the beloved sword, and started slashing viciously at the hunters that came near him. He wasn't going to sit around and let Zack have all the fun. Well, fun wouldn't really describe what he was doing, but there was no word to describe the carnage as the Buster blade bit through flesh, muscle, and bone, Angeal sheilded his emotions for the time being, mako gaze carefully guarded. He was killing..and doing a damn good job at it. Blood splattered on him, making him look almost Zombie-like.


He'd definately need a shower after this...

[Zack Fair]

Zack was back in the routine of fighting as if not a day had gone by for him. He would dodge an attack then do one of his own. He was so fast and strong that even if his opponent managed to bring up his sword in defense, his attack would break the sword and then cut deeply into the enemy. There were nearly twenty of them in all, and with the three he had killed, stacked on top of the six or so Angeal had already gone through...they were surrounded. Zack glanced at the man and felt a ping of fear. Angeal didn't look like he was doing too good. He had returned the SOLDIER weapon in for his Buster Sword, which distracted Zack for a terrible second. Zack had given Cloud the sword before he died. How did Angeal come across it....Did...Angeal kill Cloud to get it? Zack feared that he was correct and because of that hesitance, he felt the skin along his collarbones slice open. He let out an enraged yell and blew the man responsible away with a Firaga spell. The charred remains smelled awful and destroyed what moral of the enemy there was. They were all fighting for survival, which made it all the more difficult for Zack and Angeal. Zack rushed forward and jumped into the air, higher than the men had thought possible and cut down on one, severing his body from the right side of his neck to his left hip. The entrails spewed on the ground. One of the younger members of the unit broke off and ran for the helicopter. Zack knew if he made it, then there would be more of the enemy arriving. Zack aimed and threw the sword in his hands with all his might. It caught the retreating man between the shoulder blades and he fell to the ground.

Zack felt a little bad for killing a defenseless man, but he had little choice. He did not want to die again. His torso burned from being cut open, even if it was shallow, the skin was thin there and extra sensitive. The blood soaked into his shirt but he tried to pay it no mind. there were still several left, even though Angeal was cutting through them like butter. Zack now had no weapon with at least six people around him, holding weapons. Zack cast another Firaga spell and tried not to look as it caught two on fire, the third flame circled around them magically and burned another. Zack retrieved on of their fallen swords and hacked through a distracted man.

The two that were left were two that knew what they were doing. They came at Zack at the same time and from two different directions. Though they both had swords. Zack stepped out of the way at the last second of one of them and knocked the other's sword into the falling man. The one left alive yelled out in anger as he realized that because of Zack, he had just killed his own man. He cut at Zack, now full of rage, and one of his cuts actually caught him across the shoulder. Zack took the sword in one hand and punched the man hard. The man fell sideways in a heap and Zack didn't hesitate to kill him.

Panting, he lifted his head and saw that there were no more. Angeal and himself had cut through twenty men. Zack put a hand on his chest, heaving. He was angry that he was out of shape, but being dead was hardly something he could have avoided. He looked over at Angeal, so many things were burning through him along with the adrenaline from battle. "You..." He said slowly, his chest rising and falling. Zack took a few steps towards him, though he more or less staggered. "I killed you." Regret obviously caked his words, but that still didn't change the fact that Zack had known Angeal was dead. Seeing him alive meant that the others could be back as well; such as Genesis and Sephiroth. Zack bristled at the idea. He wouldn't sleep until they were properly dead.