Crisis Core: The Novel

Chapter 17 - Honor

Zack and Cloud walked out of the facility together. Hollander had slipped out a service hatch during the fight and evaded them, but there weren't too many places he could go. Most likely he was headed to the same place they were headed, Modeoheim.

Tseng and the others were gone too, but footprints in the snow showed them where they'd gone. An ice tunnel next to the facility for bulldozers and transport mechs cut a passage through the mountains. Zack and Cloud started down it side by side.

He gave Cloud a few of his marbled X-potions, telling him not to buy from Shinra anymore. Hearing that from a Shinra employee made Cloud raise his eyebrows. Zack told him to do all his shopping at the Wall Market in Sector 5 instead. They started talking to pass the time, about their jobs and working for Shinra. Zack said that working for this company was pretty much one big worse-case scenario; anything that could go wrong did, and then they called Zack. Cloud was guarded about his job details, Zack could tell he hated it. He came around eventually, holding a lot of bitter undertones back with flood gates. He said the Security Branch guys were the dumbest people on the face of the planet. They'd catch Cloud reading a book and give him hell about it for weeks. A lot of fat guys were in the regiment that didn't like working out, so Cloud was made to sit around going out of his mind most of the time, but he kept himself in pretty good shape trying to see how many squats he could do in a day. He didn't have any friends at work and was starting to have problems with higher ranking members. He'd already had to deal with a few instances of people getting physical with him in the lockerroom and had gotten pretty hurt the last time it had happened. Hearing Cloud say that absolutely set Zack off.

"Who's messing with you? I want names! I'll go down there and straighten them out!"

"Thanks but that'd probably only make it worse."

"Not if I do it! As soon as they see a black shirt, they'll go hide under their beds and never bother you again. Trust me."

Cloud looked over at him then. Zack was pretty high-ranking wasn't he? And he didn't seem that far out of Cloud's league. Maybe if Zack could do it, Cloud could do it too. Zack pressed him more, calling him on his non-existent self-confidence. He didn't do it the way the Security guys in his unit did it, like they were covertly trying to uncover more things to make fun of him with, Zack actually seemed to care. Cloud shrugged at his feet, and started talking at the ground.

Apparently Cloud's mom had sent him to a sort of proto-religious academy that was supposed to instil discipline and fortitude in its students. It instilled inferiority-complexes and low self-esteem in Cloud. An only child raised by a single mom, Cloud never had a "best friend" or anyone to confide in growing up. That bothered Zack a lot, in his mind everyone should have someone to call "bro." Life wasn't worth living without that!

Zack made him feel better about his situation, telling him that SOLDIER wasn't like that at all. Once Cloud got in, he'd have more friends than he knew what to do with! Everyone in SOLDIER was pretty tight, and even people who didn't know each other got along. Zack told Cloud about his friends back at Shinra, and the stupid antics and pranks they pulled on each other, about how Swifty had ended up on janitor detail for a week because he'd martyred himself for the joy of his fellow SOLDIER's. Zack told the story with mocking morbidity as if Swifty had somehow died and been given a company funeral, a good and honorable servicemember who would put his life on the line so that his friends could laugh. Cloud was in stitches.

He asked about what it was like working with the "Big Ones," did he ever get to work with Sephiroth? Zack laughed and said those guys were just kind of there. They were these illusive entities that strutted around SOLDIER wing out of uniform as a deranged form of performance incentive; like if they all just worked harder they could someday be that cool.