En Route to Midgar (A-la-Reno-and-Elena, still), Friday Morning

[puppy_fair]

It had been a bit of a roundabout trip out of Junon for Zack and Ino, yes. They'd managed to thumb a drive as far as Fort Condor, and the walk to the cave from there hadn't been terrible. Actually, Zack had been pleasantly surprised to see that at least that much hadn't changed. Caves were going to be caves no matter what year he was wandering around in.

Really, it was a shame that he couldn't say the same for apparently every human settlement ever.

Past the cave, it was the swamp, which they managed to slog through with surprisingly little difficulty.

Zack dusted his hands off on his shirt as they continued their way through the bog, leaving a giant, cobra-like carcass behind them.

"Man," he mumbled, looking at the piddly 400 Gil that he'd picked off the corpse, "they really just don't make monsters the same way that they used to."

[For That Girl and phone calls!]

Comments

[intraspective]

"It looks scary," she admitted, with a bit of a laugh. "But once we fought him, he weren't that scary at all."

Which was a bit depressing. Really, if you looked that scary weren't you supposed to be super hard to beat?

[puppy_fair]

Seriously. The stupid thing was like fifty feet tall when it reared up, and could have swallowed either of them whole, and Zack had... one-hitted it.

Jeez, at least give him time to activate Combat Mode before dying, giant snake.

"If we see another one, I might almost be tempted to throw it a few potions, just to give it a fighting chance," Zack laughed. "Against, like, baby birds and other fierce things like that."

[intraspective]

"Now, now," she said, smiling as she walked with him. "It could surely kill baby birds. They'd have a heart attack when it reared and bam, no problem for the giant snake."

[puppy_fair]

"Oh..." Well, now Zack was just going to pout at the thought of it. "Okay, no baby birds. But I bet a Toad could totally take it on."

It was sad because it was not far from truth.

[intraspective]

"Probably," was her calm agreement. "Though I think it'd be a lot scarier for people who've never fought before, yeah? That was the Zolom, right?"

Ino had spent enough time in Midgar to pick up just what the Midgar Zolom was, yeah.

[puppy_fair]

"Pretty sure," Zack agreed, shrugging as he slogged onwards. The grasslands were in view by now, at least. Getting back to dry land was totally something to look forward to. "I mean, we're in the right area for that. I always just kinda thought that he'd be... Bigger."

... How big did you think it was, Zack?!

[intraspective]

She gawked at him.

"Seriously?" Ino echoed, trying to shake one foot out. "Bigger?"

[puppy_fair]

"Or at least meaner," Zack insisted, looking back and forth between Ino's feet and the marshy ground. "I mean, we've had SOLDIERs in Midgar for how long? And these things are so easy to beat up, how in the world ar they still here?"

Okay, so there had been that skeleton of one, skewered on that huge wooden spike on the other side of the swamp. That probably served as a good indication of the difficulty of defeating this Zolom thing, huh?

Still? He was totally disappointed.

[intraspective]

It was futile, yes. That was not going to stop her from shaking out her other foot either, almost defiantly. So there.

"Maybe it's to serve as a deterrent--so people don't want to travel as much or a line of defence if people attack?"

[intraspective]

Ino was a little fussier with her bag than she might otherwise have normally been but, really, with everything that they were approaching she didn't think that her nervousness was going to be noted as anything other than... about that.

"We're almost there," she said anxiously. "I've told you before 'bout it, yeah?"

Yes, Ino. Yes you have. If Tseng had been angry yesterday, he'd have been livid about this.

Reno was going to--kill her, maybe. Ino wondered, with nervous, scattered thoughts, if he might be relieved on some level. Easier to go forward when nothing was hidden.

[puppy_fair]

"You have," Zack replied, shrugging a little. "You're not the only one who has, either."

So... Really, it wasn't like he didn't know to expect something huge.

"I'm ready for this, Ino."

He had to be.

[intraspective]

Yeaaah. And for all her brave words to Tseng she was feeling like no one could ever really be ready for something like this and what had she done?

And yet, she was going forward.

"Okay," she murmured. "I--we can take our time, to look. It's a lot to take in."

And Zack called Midgar 'home'.

[puppy_fair]

"No hurry," Zack agreed, keeping his chin up. Keeping one foot moving in front of the other. "I'm really in no hurry."

He might be, once they crossed over this one last dune, once they had a view.

He was holding his breath.

[intraspective]

Ino took those steps faster, moving up that dune just a bit ahead of him.

In a way, she wanted to see it before he did. One more time. Ino clenched her hands. No, no she wasn't sure at all that this was a good idea.

Just that it was one and it was happening and they'd see just... about... now.

[puppy_fair]

Zack stopped at the top of the dune. His hands tightened into fists at his sides, and the breath that he'd been holding let go all in a whoosh, as if he'd just been punched in the guts. And then he just... just stood there. Stared.

It was like his mind went blank entirely. Like every last little neuron inside of his brain stopped firing, and he was left standing there, staring blankly at the damage until he could force a restart.

Eventually, he took a few more steps.

He stopped again. Repeated the process.

There was no way what he was looking at could possibly be real. No way.

[intraspective]

She fidgeted at his side, from foot to foot and not sure if she ought to say anything or if watching was the better part of valour and it was funny, wasn't it, how seeing it with him here made it new all over again in a way?

Ino watched, Ino waited.

And Ino promised herself, again, that she wouldn't let this happen in Zack's world.

[puppy_fair]

It took Zack a small eternity to finally find words again. And when he did, they were small, and tired, and maybe a little more broken than he'd ever meant to let them be.

"What... did this?"

[puppy_fair]

Somewhere else, Ino had said. And so somewhere else, they'd gone. Not Fandom, not that broken excuse for a Gaia that they'd been wandering through for the past week, not Konoha.

Zack's own Gaia. Home, the way he remembered it. The way it should have been.

The ridiculous amount of Gil that had been in his bank accounts was gone, but that was fine. He still had more than enough to buy their admission into the Gold Saucer, and then, while he'd let Ino go and rest, he'd left her a note and then made a beeline for the Battle Square.

He needed to beat the living crap out of things. Even if it involved paying good Gil to do it.

[intraspective]

Ino slept not well, or long, but the deep, dreamless sleep of the truly exhausted.

When she woke up, the sun was down and the chicobo was fluttering around her head, cheeping at her. That earned a faint smile.

It was hard to not smile at it. "You're ridiculous," she informed it, rolling over and realizing that Zack wasn't in the room. Her smile faded as she sat up, cold fear sinking into her.

He wasn't there? Where was he? She stood, shakily, and closed her eyes with relief when she found the note on the table. Battle Square, right. She had no idea where that was but he was still here.

A look in the mirror said she looked a fright and feeling cold, feeling tired, feeling bruised on the inside, Ino slipped into the shower.

Maybe then she'd be ready to face the world.

[puppy_fair]

Another fight, another handicap. Already, Zack's summon materia were temporarily broken, he'd dropped five levels, and his speed had been cut in half, and now he was holding his breath and waiting for the reel to stop spinning its counterpoint to his own DMW.

His armor cracked around him, and he heaved a sigh of relief. It would have been way worse. He'd take broken armor over something like sealed items or mini, any day of the week.

A little grin on his lips as he threw himself bodily into the next challenge, and go!

Whatever else had been eating at him, it was a thousand miles away. He'd worry about it when his reel stopped spinning. For now? It was just the fight.

It was the monster in him that enjoyed it, perhaps.

[intraspective]

A shower didn't really make her feel less like curling up and crying more but it gave her something to focus on and when she got out of it, clean and feeling slightly less frail, Ino thought she'd best go find Zack.

If only for her peace of mind.

He wasn't dead yet.

The yet sounded fragile in her ears and she shook her head, pulling on clean clothing, the frilliest, most cheerful things she'd packed. It was the wrong time of year for a bright pink sundress with white lace trim and she didn't care, not today.

Wrong time of the year to leave her hair, still damp, loosely brushed out and hanging down her back held away from her eyes with a hair band the same brilliant pink of her dress. A touch of lipstick for lips that weren't smile, nail polish to add to this strange, careful, armour of hers.

Sandals that had laces up to her knees.

The chicobo watched her intently through all of her preparations. Ino glanced at it as she reached for her bag.

"You coming?" she asked, and was rewarded with exuberant chirping and it flew around her head several times before coming to land on her shoulder and ducking behind a bit of her hair.

"Alright," she said, lifting her chin. "Let's go."

[puppy_fair]

Zack had beaten the Battle Square a couple of times by the time that Ino was finished with her shower. The staff were starting to wonder, by the time he went to trade in ten more BP for another go, if perhaps they ought to either raise their prices, or raise their handicaps.

Zack didn't seem to notice. It wasn't his fault that their monsters couldn't handle SOLDIER.

He handed over his payment, and then reached for the sword on his back.

It didn't seem so important to watch for wear, tear, and rust, after seeing the state of affairs that it had been in, in Aerith's church.

[intraspective]

The trip to find the Battle Square was one that gave her plenty to look at. Plenty to listen to and smell and immerse herself in. Ino took her time, finding Zack. He'd be there.

She knew that much.

He'd stay until they got rid of him.

It was another hour, maybe two, before she made it to the Battle Square and slipped around to where he'd be sure to see her, on his neat time through it.

[puppy_fair]

Zack really didn't show any signs of slowing down, no. He ambled out of the Battle Square, collected more points, and then contemplated what to get with them. Omnislash was still a little too expensive, he'd have to spend another day and night just beating things down here. But there was that belt, or...

He glanced up from his counting to watch where he was going, and then kind of blinked and smiled Ino's way.

"... Hey."

Still not completely with it. Maybe he was just still riding that Combat Mode high.

[intraspective]

"Hey," she said quietly, which was at odds with her bright clothing. But that was alright, he wouldn't care. "Keepin' busy?"