But in the place of darkness came light.
He blurred into focus for what seemed like the first time in forever, and shot awake at the sight of someone familiar.
Angeal.
He stood before Zack's cryotank, a look of disgust in his eyes.
"You call yourself SOLDIER? Pfft, you're a disgrace to the SOLDIER name."
He turned, silently disowning him, and started off.
"ANGEAL!" Zack screamed, but the man was through with the weakling he'd wasted his time on. "ANGEAL!!"
Zack flailed, punched the glass, kicked like a child in the womb. Mad flaring of fists careening against his prison, his living tomb, and his knuckles bled tendrils of blood in the Mako. Harrowing impacts sent spider cracks across the glass, Zack threw everything of himself against the cryotank, shattering his confinement at last.
He toppled across the concrete floor in a flood of Mako and blood, ripping tubes and wires out of his skin. He was free!
Angeal was nowhere, but Zack's blurred vision fixed on Cloud's tank where he floated unconscious like a corpse. Urgency seized him, he threw himself at the tank, pounding to wake him. How to get him out?
There. Against the wall, Zack's sword leaned like it had been waiting for him all this time. He grabbed it in a daze and with a sensational swing shattered the glass of Cloud's tank. He toppled out in his own flood of Mako, where Zack caught him as they both fell to the ground.
His hand shot to Cloud's throat. He wasn't breathing! Zack got to his knees and clasped his hands over his diaphragm, slamming his weight down in chest compressions. Two rescue breaths, and Cloud still wasn't back.
"No!" Zack screamed, pumping his chest to a desperate count. "Come on. You're all I've got left!"
Two more breaths, and Cloud spurted up fluid, coughing like a drowning victim. Zack choked back tears as he rolled Cloud on his side, vomiting Mako and blood. Cloud shivered with blue lips, and his mouth muttered a single word.
"...Mother."
But Zack gaped in horror as he beheld Cloud. He'd doubled in size. His muscle tone was that of a grown man. They'd injected him with testosterone and Human Growth Hormone to make him more like Zack. Even his voice was a little deeper. Rage pooled in the back of Zack's throat, but he had to get them out of there.
Cloud was zoning, barely conscious and incoherent as Zack hauled him up. Arm over his shoulder, he dragged him past their shattered cryotanks, but caught something in his peripherals: A third cryotank.
Bold typeface peppered a status sheet that hung from the unused pod.
TEST SUBJECT 3
NAME: N/A
STATUS: UNAPPREHENDED
Zack smiled. Atta girl!
He grabbed Cloud's rifle off a table and they hobbled through the facility door, sounding an alarm. Flashing lights flared and Zack ran, dragging Cloud as fast as he could through blank corridors. The alarm blared, but so far no guards assailed them. Adrenaline drove Zack on as they barreled out a side door into the outside world, where glaring sunlight blinded Zack temporarily. He whirled back, but caught himself amid mad cycling of stress hormones. His training took over.
C'mon SOLDIER, SA-Up, Situational Awareness...What's around you?...Shed...Go.
He dashed like a first person shooter game to the shed with Cloud on his shoulder, and hunkered down behind it. His heartrate bashed in his ears like machine guns.
YOU ARE READING
Crisis Core: The Novel
FanfictionZack Fair is a SOLDIER in an elite paramilitary organization. But when a revered 1st Class operator goes rogue, his tight-knit family of teammates gets taken for a fatal ride. Friendships will be tested and loyalties strained as mentors abandon him...