How Zack Survived

They arrived at the Gongaga Village where Zack was waiting for them as he was packing his things and explained to his parents that he would be leaving for a while.

"Those are your parents?" asks John as he sees them while Zack nods.

"Yes, they are all I have except for Cloud and Aerith," says Zack as he looked at his parents.

"We came here looking for a Keystone do you know something about that?" asks Nesiara as Zack nods.

"Yes, we had said Keystone but we sold it to the Gold Saucer not long ago. The owner of Gold Saucer wanted it quite badly," says Zack as John sighs when Zack asks, "Is something wrong?"

"No, it's just we came from there. That's why he is sighing," says Nesiara explaining to Zack why he was sighing.

"How did you survive in the end?" asks John all of a sudden.

"What do you mean?" asks Zack as he was confused by that question.

"*sighs* I helped to reconstruct Cloud's memories. We saw the battle against Shinra. How did you survive it? You looked quite beat up on the truck when suddenly we could hear some gunshots," says John as Zack nods.

"I was almost killed that day. We were surprise attacked by Shinra as a sniper shot at Cloud. I jumped between the bullet and Cloud. I remember only falling from the truck who continued as promised leaving me there to die. Then everything turned black but I felt someone helping me. I don't know who but when I woke up I was in a house with a person in a tunic looking over me," says Zack making both Nesiara and John open their eyes wide for a second when Zack asks, "Is something wrong with that?"

"No nothing," says Nesiara as both leave him alone for now.

"Sephiroth saved him," says John as he was ready to kill Zack at this moment when Nesiara calms him down.

"It could be any other person as well that saved him. Not only the clones use tunics as clothes," says Nesiara telling the truth as John looked at her.

"We can't teach him Haki or Ki until we are completely sure about it. If he is somehow connected to Sephiroth like Cloud was. It could put us all in danger," says John as Nesiara shakes her head.

"We can always just revive them using the Dragonballs," says Nesiara as John shook his head.

"We can't be too sure in that since normally souls don't enter like here in the Lifestream but go to heaven or hell," says John as he begins to walk towards the group Aerith and Kieron seemed to be separated for now.

"It seems we will return to the Gold Saucer before going to Cosmo Canyon," says John as Red XIII sighs in relief.

"It seems you really don't want to return home," says Tifa sad.

"It's not like that. It's just that something happened before I got captured by Shinra. It was a blessing and a curse at the same time," says Red XIII as he really didn't want to return to Cosmo Canyon because of what happened before he was captured.

"You won't tell us?" asks Barret as John intervened when he saw that Red XIII didn't want to answer it.

"Let him in peace everyone has his secrets. Also Barret I made this for you," says John as he throws a metal underarm with a hand at Barret.

"What do I do with it?" asks Barret as John just sighs.

"Just put it on. I used technology from my homeworld to create it," says John as Barret took his mini-gun off and put it on.

"It fits but what now with what do I attac-," says Barret when suddenly a bigger gun appeared instead of his hand.

"What the hell!" shouts Barret surprised to see that when John sighs at him.

"The metal used is Mythril for your arm. I combined it with Nanobots making your underarm transform into a weapon when you are thinking of attacking," says John as the gun returned to a hand again.

"It's fascinating that your technology is that advanced," says Cait Sith as John looked at him.

'Right, now we have two spies in our midst instead of only one,' thinks John as he smiled at Cait Sith.

"Yes, my world technology is quite advance we can build building faster thanks to the Nanobots and if something gets destroyed we can rebuild it as fast as possible making it appear as nothing happened in the first place," says John as Cait Sith's eyes opened suddenly surprising not only John but everyone in the group.

"Cat your eyes," says Barret astonished by seeing them for the first time as Cait Sith normally had them as a slit opened.

Cait Sith recovered when his eyes became normal again and says, "Sorry, it's just wonderful to hear about what John just said. Just thinking about how many things could be repaired without risking human lives."

"You mean the plate right?" asks Cloud as it was the only thing that came into Cloud's mind at that moment.

"Yes, many people working in Gold Saucer has or had family in Midgar. With what John now said many people could have been saved since the plate wouldn't have fallen," says Cait Sith as he sounded sad about what happened in Midgar almost like regretting what happened.

"We can't change the past but the future is still unwritten. Maybe you will find that technology or maybe not. Only time will tell," says John as he then looks at Barret and says, "You should play with it a bit. It has three Mini-Arc-Reactors inside just for your gun model."

"Arc-Reactors?" asks Barret confused thinking that he heard that before.

"Let's just say one of them could produce enough power so Midgar would never need to use the Lifestream ever again," says John as now everyone except for his family and Aerith had their mouth wide open when Barret's new hand was slowly shaking.

"You are saying that I could power up Midgar three Lifetimes with just my arm?" asks Barret not believing it.

"Yes, and quite easy to say you the truth. They used to be a Stark Product in the beginning but after Jack, my grandfather, got the licenses for the Arc Reaktor he experimented with them in every direction. In the end, my father completed his work making it possible for an Arc-Reactor to power up a whole nation," says John explain how potent they could be.

Barret took his hand off and wanted to give it back when John says, "I created it for you so use it to defend your people."

"Thank you really much," says Barret as he was almost crying from knowing what his hand was made of.

"Anyway we should drive back to the Gold Saucer," says Nesiara as she looks up and says, "We might as well camp on the way and see how strong you have become."

Everyone nods when Zack entered the group and says, "I'm ready to leave with you all. Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing. We just are going to meet Dio once again," says Cloud as he was quite nervous to meet his God once again.

"Don't worry about Dio. I met him before he seems to be a nice man. We just need to ask him politely and he should give it to us," says Zack not knowing Dio's real identity.

"Yeah...," says Aerith worried about it.

"Does everyone here know a secret, I don't know," says Zack as he looked at them.

"We can talk about it once we are on the way to the Gold Saucer," says John as he began to move.

The others followed as they reached the buggy and Zack says, "We won't fit into the buggy."

"That's right we won't but we should since two hours have passed the other buggy should be repaired," says John as he opened his hand and Justice appeared in it.

"It is repaired. I made some modifications to it reinforcing the front so it shouldn't break that easily as it did before," says Justice while looking at Tifa when he summoned the buggy.

"It was just a little accident," says Tifa a little red from embarrassment.

"I needed more than an hour to repair it. If it was only a slight accident I would have needed only 15 minutes," says Justice back as he was floating up and down showing his displeasure.

"Now how about you don't let everything out on the pure girl. She must have driven for the first time," says Nesiara protecting Tifa when Justice stopped nagging on Tifa.

"Right, I also modified the bike while it was inside Paradise," says Justice as then the bike that they stole in Midgar appeared.

"The young ones take the buggies while we ride the bike," says Nesiara as she jumped on the bike.

The bike was now bigger and could now support John completely now. John sat down behind her and asks, "You know how to drive?"

"Didn't I do that last time on the highway," says Nesiara as John couldn't deny it.

The others went to the buggies as Kieron was driving now one with Barret, Red XIII, Yuffie, and Nora. While Yui was driving the other with the rest of the gang.

They began to drive as Nesiara made a wheelie with the bike before getting the front wheel down again. The others followed and halfway towards Gold Saucer they stopped and made camp as John began to meditate while the others trained.

"What is John doing?" asks Zack to Yui who became friends on the ride.

"My father is trying to reach the next level in Magic. Once he reached it he will be on the same level as my mother," says Yui as Zack nods.

"So he doesn't need Materia like the rest of us," says Zack as Yui nods.

"That's right, but we have to worry about you it seems," says Yui as Zack looked at her confused.

"You were put through the same experiment as Cloud making it probable that Sephiroth takes over your mind and body. That's why Nora will be looking into your mind before we can train you like the others," says Nesiara appearing out of nowhere.

Aerith was training beside John as she found safety from everything that is happening beside him.

"Why are you here, Aerith?" asks John as Aerith was also meditating.

"I feel more comfortable beside you or Nesiara since I see you as my patents beside my mother," says Aerith as John smiled with his eyes closed.

"Then you are welcome. Just take your time before you choose. You have three choices after all," says John as he was now concentrating on giving tips to Aerith and his magic.

"What do you mean?" asks Aerith who suddenly stopped her meditation looking at John.

"You can choose either Kieron or Zack, but there is a third choice that would be not choosing at all. Leaving both in the dust. Think about it. You are a strong woman who doesn't need a man except she wants one," says John as Aerith never thought about that third choice that John told her.

Aerith then wanted to hug John when suddenly Nesiara stopped her. John suddenly stood up and Mana was released all around him making him open his eyes as be reached the next step in Magic becoming a Master like Nesiara.