"He had a recording of his explanation to someone else of Nibelheim's entire chain of events, and played it for me. Needless to say Sephiroth and what happened to him was ... on topic." And brought into focus that things might not have gone that way if he'd still been around. Surely he would have been if Genesis had still been alive at that point. What his mental state would have been was.. very debatable, but alive. "He was my friend. He was for years. It's ... it might be like finding out after you wake up that Zack had gone on a rampage and killed a town full of people for no reason. It doesn't line up with what you know, and what you know is he'd never do any such thing. Not who he was. And who he is now.."

Sephiroth's not just an echo of someone gone. "Who he is now is making his own life. His own friends. His own dreams."

Without the past. Maybe the past wasn't necessary. "Not long after we first met there was an effect here that dredged up our fears, without our interest in having them displayed." Something in Angeal's bearing shifts, from concerned towards stern. "Do you think you'd have to go out of your way to gossip for ANYTHING to get around? That aside, do I think you're the kind of man who'd see a friend in distress and then try to talk to them about it?" Yep.

He spreads his hands at his sides, expression grim. "You're here aren't you? Specifically because you're concerned about Zack? Do you believe you'd still be here if he picked up your calls, or would you have gone there instead?"