Zack chews on that question for a little while. Because more than anything…he wants to be clear without somehow making any of this worse. He’s gone over things in his head multiple times since their last conversation, and it’s… He doesn’t want to explain any of it wrong.
He takes another sip of the mead (why not, he’s not getting drunk off it) and…gathers his thoughts.
“I’ve had…a lot of time. To think about how things happened. With you and Sephiroth and Genesis. And the only reason I really wanted to tell you about Nibelheim…was because I wanted you to understand the conclusion I ended up at. After thinking about it for a long time.”
He takes a breath…and goes on.
“I fought all three of you. Not because I wanted to - but because none of you gave me a choice. And that happened…because all three of you decided the same thing. That you weren’t human anymore. That you were…monsters. And as a result…you decided to die. Genesis decided to take the company with him. And Sephiroth…he decided everything needed to burn.”
All three chose the path of destruction. In differing degrees, of course, but the result was a dead end.
“I’m not saying that to say I don’t…understand why. I do. I know. It’s why even after…even after our fight, I couldn’t hold a grudge or…or hate you. For any of it.”
He saw what the degradation did to Genesis, to the copies. He knows Angeal had engineered his own way out to avoid that fate.
“We can’t take any of it back. That’s not going to happen. But the point of this place isn’t to…to take things back. It’s…it’s to figure out how to move forward. And I told Sephiroth here a long time ago that…until he was willing to choose a different way - a way that wasn’t constantly trying to threaten or inflict pain on people…nothing was going to change. This place is…designed to make certain things possible that wouldn’t be back home. So until you can…you can reckon with that idea. And find a way to reach a different conclusion about yourself…we’re going to end up where we were before. And that…”
Zack looks down and blinks. Several times.
“Now that you’re here, I don’t…I don’t want to lose you again.”
It hurt so much the first time, and he really can’t bear the idea of losing Angeal again.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2025-01-10 09:56 pm (UTC)He takes another sip of the mead (why not, he’s not getting drunk off it) and…gathers his thoughts.
“I’ve had…a lot of time. To think about how things happened. With you and Sephiroth and Genesis. And the only reason I really wanted to tell you about Nibelheim…was because I wanted you to understand the conclusion I ended up at. After thinking about it for a long time.”
He takes a breath…and goes on.
“I fought all three of you. Not because I wanted to - but because none of you gave me a choice. And that happened…because all three of you decided the same thing. That you weren’t human anymore. That you were…monsters. And as a result…you decided to die. Genesis decided to take the company with him. And Sephiroth…he decided everything needed to burn.”
All three chose the path of destruction. In differing degrees, of course, but the result was a dead end.
“I’m not saying that to say I don’t…understand why. I do. I know. It’s why even after…even after our fight, I couldn’t hold a grudge or…or hate you. For any of it.”
He saw what the degradation did to Genesis, to the copies. He knows Angeal had engineered his own way out to avoid that fate.
“We can’t take any of it back. That’s not going to happen. But the point of this place isn’t to…to take things back. It’s…it’s to figure out how to move forward. And I told Sephiroth here a long time ago that…until he was willing to choose a different way - a way that wasn’t constantly trying to threaten or inflict pain on people…nothing was going to change. This place is…designed to make certain things possible that wouldn’t be back home. So until you can…you can reckon with that idea. And find a way to reach a different conclusion about yourself…we’re going to end up where we were before. And that…”
Zack looks down and blinks. Several times.
“Now that you’re here, I don’t…I don’t want to lose you again.”
It hurt so much the first time, and he really can’t bear the idea of losing Angeal again.