Zack Fair

The walked down the path when suddenly two familiar faces appeared as they were fighting a man that was carrying a normal sword fighting against them.

The man had short black hair and was wearing SOLDIER clothes. John and Nesiara recognized the man immediately as Zack Fair as well as Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith.

The other two were Reno and Rude that were fighting him. Zack was winning against both quite easily when Kieron appears behind Reno and says, "It seems you are losing."

Reno suddenly jumped when he heard Kieron's voice as he hides on a tree branch while asking nervous, "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask the same," says Kieron as he disappeared and appeared behind Reno just upside down as he used Chakra to stand on the tree branch.

"Freak," says Reno as he jumped down when suddenly his foot was grabbed by something from under the ground when Kieron turned into smoke and the real one dragged Reno into the ground making Reno's head look out of the ground.

"This brings back some pleasant memories," says Kieron as he smiled at Reno who was fuming.

"Do you know how long it took to get me out of the ground the last time," says Reno angry when Kieron flicks his finger against Reno's forehead making Reno say, "That hurts."

"I know, be happy I only flicked my finger against you and not this," says Kieron as Ea appeared in his hand while continuing, "This sword was the first ever created. How painful do you thing a stab of it can be. I stabbed only one person with it and he had a hole in his body that could normally regenerate just like this."

Kieron snapped his finger making Reno nervous hearing that as he turned to Rude who had his hands up signalizing that he gave up.

Seeing that Zack rushed past him leaving the group behind since he didn't look at the group. Rude on the other hand was nervous since he didn't know what the group would do to him.

He knew that he couldn't win against the group containing those monsters alone when Nesiara says, "Just dig him up and leave."

Rude bows showing his gratefulness as he begins to dig Reno out of the ground while the group walked forward to catch up with Zack when Cloud says, "Is that the strength of a 1-Class SOLDIER."

"It seems quite weak if you ask me," says Kieron when suddenly Aerith hits his arm making to know her displeasure of Kieron comment.

"Don't be so mean," says Aerith as Kieron looked at her confused since he didn't even know the man.

"We should catch up to him. You can fight later," says John as he could see the tension between both.

'I think they will split up,' says John to Nesiara through telepathy when Nesiara nods.

'It might happen but we don't know that yet,' says Nesiara back to John using her mind.

They were about to arrive at a Mako Reactor when suddenly a Helicopter left flying over their head. When they arrived they found another Helicopter and Zack there who was about to destroy it.

John suddenly appeared in front of Zack and catches the sword while saying, "Easy now. We promised the other two safe passage that means they should be able to return home."

"And you are?" asks Zack as he needed to look up at John.

"I'm John Crownguard," says John as he let's go of the sword.

Zack thought that he has left at least a wound on John who caught the sword only to find out that John's hand looked perfectly fine.

"What is your name?" asks John as Zack puts his sword away.

"Zack Fair," says Zack as he then turned towards the group and sees three familiar faces making him open his eyes wide open.

"It seems you know some of my team members," says John as Zack suddenly turned to John.

"Why would Aerith be with you?" asks Zack as he knew that Aerith couldn't fight.

"She is because she wants to save the planet like everyone else in the group," says John as Zack looked suspicious at him.

"AVALANCHE?" asks Zack as John smiles.

"No, but the leader of AVALANCHE is Barret over there. Our enemy isn't Shinra but Sephiroth," says John as Zack became pale.

"How could you drag her into this?" asks Zack as he was suddenly afraid after hearing that name.

"Because he would try to kill her if she was alone," says John as Zack looked confused about it.

"And why?" asks Zack as he wanted to know it.

"She can manipulate the Lifestream that could hinder Sephiroth's plan on becoming a God. That's why we keep her with us so neither Shinra nor Sephiroth could do anything to her," says John as he walked back to the group with Zack.

"Welcome, I'm Nesiara Crownguard," says Nesiara to Zack as she took his hand and shook it.

Zack looked at the others of the Crownguard family seeing that they must be their children since they had at least one thing from John on them.

"It's been long, Zack," says Cloud as Zack was surprised.

"You remember me?" asks Zack as Cloud nods.

"Thanks to John. He helped me a lot all this time," says Cloud as Zack turned to Tifa.

"I'm sorry about what happened in Nibelheim," says Zack as Tifa makes a sad face.

"Don't worry we all did the best we could back then," says Tifa not holding it against him since he tried to stop Sephiroth.

Then Zack turned to Aerith. He hugs her making Kieron feel jealous while Aerith didn't know what to feel about it. For Aerith, the hug didn't feel like before. It felt wrong she just didn't know why.

"Why did you never return to Midgar?" asks Aerith as she suddenly formed tears not knowing why since she was so happy to see Zack.

"I couldn't, I'm on the wanted list from Shinra for knowing too much. If I were to get to Midgar no one I care about would be safe," says Zack explaining to Aerith why he never returned to Midgar.

"Well, it seems you know those three let us present you the rest," says John as he sees Aerith wish her tears away.

"We have here Barret, Red XIII, Yuffie, Cait Sith, and my children. They are Yui, Nora, and Kieron," says John presenting the group to him when he continues, "Group this is Zack. He will be joining us."

"I never said I would," says Zack as he was never asked to join them.

"Just do so it would be good to have a SOLDIER with us," says John when Zack sighs.

"I will have to inform my parents about it," says Zack as he walked back on the path that they came from when he says, "I will meet you in Gongaga Village."

Zack then leaves them behind when the group enters the Mako Reactor to see what could be salvaged from it when Nesiara approaches Aerith.

"Is everything alright?" asks Nesiara seeing Aerith's face that had a complicated look on it.

"I just don't know something didn't feel right about Zack. It wasn't like before when we hugged in the Slums," says Aerith not knowing why she felt she did wrong.

"You think you did something horrible?" asks Nesiara as Aerith nods not knowing what it could be.

"You are far too innocent to know it. I think you need to sort out your feelings then you will know why you felt this feeling that resembles guilt. Once you find out you need to tell both about it or it will hunt you down alright," says Nesiara as Aerith looked complicated at her.

Nesiara suddenly hugs her and says, "I will see you always as a daughter even if you don't end up with Kieron alright."

This relieved some pressure on Aerith as she smiled for the first time after seeing Zack and asks, "Can I take my time to think about it?"

"Take as much time as you need. I will tell Kieron to not border you until you sorted it out," says Nesiara as she petted Aerith who was now really happy to have had this conversation.

Kieron, on the other hand, was still jealous of what transpired some moments ago when John sat down beside him and says, "Sit, son."

"What are we going to talk about?" asks Kieron as John sighs.

"We are going to talk about your jealousy," says John as Kieron sits down.

"What do you want to say?" asks Kieron when John put his hand on Kieron's shoulder.

"Aerith needs time to sort her feelings out. Zack was her first love after all," says John as Kieron opened his eyes wide after hearing that.

"I know this feeling, jealousy. I had it and I broke a really loved person. Don't do the same as I did since your mother and Aerith are quite different. Your mother is strong while Aerith isn't," says John knowing that it was Nesiara and their friends that saved her from what could have happened.

If Aerith would to pass through that she might not survive that kind of betrayal with her friends needing to chose one of the two.

"Just give her time and she will most likely return," says John as he saw the face Aerith did and her tears making him think that Aerith felt guilty because of something.

"Then I will wait," says Kieron as John nods while standing up and they joined the group again.

Once everyone was together they showed what they found with Cloud having a Red Materia in his hand.

"You really are lucky," says John to Cloud as he smiled into the group and says, "We will have to ask Zack about the Keystone later since he lives in the village he must know who owns it."

"What do we do after getting the Keystone?" asks Barret as John looked at Red XIII who sighs since he really didn't want to go there but it was on the way.

"Cosmo Canyon will be our next destination since it lies on the way to Nibelheim. It's also my hometown," says Red XIII surprising everyone that didn't know about it.

Now then let's go to Gongaga Village," says Nesiara as they followed the way they came from.