A cargo truck bounced across the wasteland.
On the distant horizon, the outline of a colossal city built from steel, mako, and desire was growing clearer and clearer.
Midgar.
“Look, Cain… that’s Midgar.” Zack leaned back in the passenger seat.
His voice was still weak, but his eyes shone with the excitement of returning home.
“Pretty amazing, right?
Like a giant pizza.” Cain gripped the steering wheel and nodded silently.
He could feel the same oppressive aura radiating from the city that he had felt from the mako reactors.
He did not like this place, but this was Zack’s wish.
This was the destination of their journey.
“Once we get there, we’ll be safe.
Shinra’s power is mostly concentrated on the upper plate, so we can hide down in the slums.” Zack coughed a few times, then continued, “After that, I’ll take you to see Aerith.
She must have been… waiting for me for a long time.” He looked out the window, and his gaze became incredibly gentle.
“If… if anything happens to me,” Zack suddenly said, his tone turning serious, “you have to find her for me.
Tell her I’m sorry.
Tell her I’m late.” “Don’t say stupid things,” Cain said with a frown.
“We’ll get there together.” Zack smiled and did not argue any further.
He looked at Cain and said earnestly, “Cain, never be ashamed of your power.
In Nibelheim, you saved Tifa and seriously wounded Sephiroth.
Just now, you saved me.
Your power is a power meant to protect.
Remember that.” Cain’s heart trembled.
Zack’s words were like medicine, soothing the self-loathing that had been born from the killing in his heart.
He nodded heavily.
And yet, fate’s malice always struck its heaviest blow just as someone saw the first light of hope.
The sky suddenly darkened.
It was not because of clouds, but because of the massive shadows of dozens of Shinra military helicopters.
The roar of their rotors swept in from afar, eventually merging into deafening thunder as they surrounded them completely.
The truck was forced to stop.
Across the wasteland around them, countless Shinra troops jumped down from transport vehicles and quickly formed an airtight encirclement.
This time, it was not a squad.
It was an army.
“Tch… they really think highly of us, huh?” Zack looked at the dense ranks of soldiers outside and gave a bitter laugh.
He tried to pick up the Buster Sword beside him, but that single movement alone nearly drained all his strength.
“Stay in the truck.” Cain unfastened his seat belt, his eyes turning cold and resolute.
“No!
The enemies this time are different!” Zack grabbed his arm.
“Their target is you, Hojo’s ‘perfect experiment’!
I’m just an irrelevant traitor.
Listen, Cain.
I’ll draw them away, and you use the chance to escape.
You have to survive!” “We leave together.” Cain’s voice left no room for argument.
“That’s an order, rookie!” For the first time, Zack used the commanding tone of a SOLDIER.
He stared hard into Cain’s eyes.
“Your survival is more important than mine!
Live for both of us.
Go make your dreams, and mine, come true!
Now go!” He used all his remaining strength to shove Cain out of the driver’s cab.
Then he lifted the massive Buster Sword onto his shoulder, staggered down from the truck, and faced Shinra’s army alone.
“I… am Zack Fair, SOLDIER 1st Class!” he shouted, his voice echoing across the wasteland.
“If you want my life, then come and take it!” Cain hit the ground after being pushed out.
He looked at Zack’s back, a back that was not especially broad, but at that moment seemed impossibly heroic, and his eyes instantly reddened.
He wanted to rush forward, but Zack’s command to “live for both of us” was like an invisible shackle that nailed him in place.
“Open fire!” Gunfire, cannon fire, and bursting magic drowned out everything in an instant.
Zack’s figure swung the Buster Sword amid the flames like an enraged lion.
He was badly wounded and poisoned by mako, but he was still the strongest SOLDIER 1st Class.
Every swing of his sword took the lives of several soldiers.
Cain hid behind a boulder, his fists clenched so tightly they shook.
His right arm trembled uncontrollably.
Blue-green light surged wildly beneath his skin, screaming for him to charge out and tear everything before him apart.
But he could not.
He knew this was the chance Zack was buying for him with his life.
If Cain exposed himself, then Zack’s sacrifice would be wasted.
The battle continued.
Zack’s wounds multiplied, and his movements grew slower and slower.
But he did not fall.
His feet seemed rooted to the earth, holding firm as he built a line of life and death for Cain behind him.
At last, after cutting down an unknown number of enemies, the massive Buster Sword fell to the ground with a heavy clang amid a burst of concentrated gunfire.
Zack’s figure slowly sank to his knees.
The entire world seemed to freeze in that instant.
Cain’s mind went blank.
He rushed out, charging madly toward the kneeling figure.
The remaining soldiers saw him and instinctively raised their guns, but the officer leading them lifted a hand and stopped them.
“Mission target eliminated.
Test Subject C’s mental state is unstable.
Retreat!” The helicopters and military vehicles withdrew rapidly, as if they had only come to carry out an execution.
On the wasteland, all that remained was devastation everywhere, and two people abandoned by the world.
Cain ran to Zack’s side, dropped to his knees, and held him in his arms.
Zack was covered in blood.
The breath of life was fading from him with terrifying speed.
“Hey… Cain…” He opened his eyes, but there was a relieved smile on his face.
“Did I… become… a hero?” “Yes… you’re a hero…” Cain’s voice choked, and burning tears fell onto Zack’s face.
“You’re my only hero.” “Ha… good…” Zack smiled with relief.
Using the last of his strength, he lifted his hand and pointed at the Buster Sword nearby.
“This… is yours… My honor… my dreams… all of it… I’m giving it to you…” His gaze began to lose focus, as if it had passed through Cain and reached the flower girl far away.
“Aerith…” “You’ll be… my living… legacy…” His hand fell limply.
Cain held Zack’s gradually cooling body and let out a cry like the howl of a wounded beast.
A blinding chaotic light erupted from his right arm and enveloped his entire body.
The madness of the Jenova cells, the violence of demonic power, and the endless grief of losing his dearest friend collided inside him, nearly destroying his sanity completely.
But in the end, he controlled it.
He remembered Zack’s final request.
“Live for both of us.” Cain slowly and carefully laid Zack’s body on the ground.
He stood up, walked over, and gripped the Buster Sword’s hilt with trembling hands.
That sword was unbelievably heavy.
Cain stood on the edge of the cliff where a hero’s blood had been spilled.
With the enormous Buster Sword on his back, he took one last look at the dear friend lying peacefully on the ground.
He did not shed another tear.
All his sorrow had already hardened into a will of steel.
The wind howled across the wasteland, sweeping up sand and dust like a lament for the fallen hero.
Cain knew he could not leave Zack here, could not let the beasts of the wasteland and the merciless wind and sand disturb his long sleep.
He lifted Zack’s body and walked step by step toward the highest point of the cliff.
There, a natural hollow in the stone formed something like a rock bed, like a coffin prepared for a hero.
He carefully placed Zack’s body inside it, straightened the blood-soaked and tattered SOLDIER 1st Class uniform he wore, then gently wiped the blood and dust from Zack’s face with his sleeve.
Without life, Zack’s face no longer held pain.
Instead, there was a faint, almost imperceptible smile of release.
It was as if, in the final moment of his life, he had truly seen the flower girl waiting for him in the church in Midgar.
“Aerith…” Cain remembered that name.
He remembered the gentleness he had never seen before in Zack’s eyes whenever he mentioned her.
He had to find her.
He had to deliver Zack’s final words to her.
He looked around.
On this barren land, there was nothing but sand and stone.
This should not have been a hero’s resting place.
Zack’s life had burned hot and bright like the sun.
He deserved flowers and blessings.
Just as helplessness welled up in Cain’s heart, a hint of color in a crack beside the stone bed caught his eye.
In that hard, lifeless crevice between the rocks, a tiny, nameless wildflower was blooming with stubborn strength.
Its petals were pale purple.
Against the gray-yellow wasteland, it looked so small, and yet so unyielding, like an indomitable soul.
Cain’s heart trembled.
He remembered Zack once laughing as he told him that Aerith was just like that, a girl who could grow the most beautiful flowers in the most barren places.
He carefully picked that flower and gently placed it in Zack’s hands, which he had crossed over his chest.
That fragile bit of purple became the only bright color in this land of death, and also the gentlest farewell this hero would receive in his life.
Cain knelt on one knee, clenched his right hand into a fist, pressed it to his chest, and gave him a SOLDIER salute.
“I promise you, Zack.” His voice was hoarse, but incomparably firm.
Every word was like an oath carved into his soul.
“I will inherit your honor.” “I will fulfill your dreams.” “I’ll find Aerith, and I’ll tell her for you… that you came back.” “I will… live well, for both of us.” “Rest in peace, hero.” After saying that, he stood up and did not look back.
He was afraid that one more glance would let the flood of grief shatter the resolve he had only just forged.
He turned around, carrying the Buster Sword that was broader than his entire body, and began walking with firm steps toward the colossal city of steel that had swallowed the life of his dearest friend, and yet was now his only destination.
Midgar.
The afterglow of the setting sun stretched his shadow long across the wasteland.
The silhouette carrying the giant sword was lonely and resolute.
From this day on, he was no longer the boy from Nibelheim who feared his own power.
He was Zack Fair’s living legacy.
He would carry his dearest friend’s dreams and honor, and cut open this unjust world.
His journey had only just begun.