After what he saw at the Nibelheim reactor, he began acting weirdly. He became obsessed with old books about the Jenova experiment. Zack couldn't really talk to him.

You had a bad feeling something was about to happen.

It was just like any other mission. He was smiling gently yesterday, and now.. he suddenly returned to his gloomy state.

You two have known each other for a long time, and you've been a First Class SOLDIER since you were a teenager, just like him. With time and the different life experiences you had gone through together, warm feelings developed between you, which still existed until now, even though you weren't in an official relationship, or at least that was a secret that only Zack, Angel and Genesis knew, who weren't here with you anymore.

You knew how much he missed his mother, whom he'd never seen, and how desperately he longed for a normal life. You were the first person he turned to whenever he fell into this state.

But now..

He seemed so far away. Too far away for you to reach, or those were just your fears.

You knock gently on the basement door, but there's only a low hum, and it doesn't seem directed at you. You cautiously open the door. There's no response. No reaction.

You walk over to him and see him sitting in a chair in front of a desk, books scattered here and there, everywhere in the room, as he reads a book, almost obsessively.

A suffocating pain shot through your chest when you saw him in this state. He didn't even look up from the book. He couldn't see you.

But what mattered to you was saving him. Your greatest fear was that Sephiroth would sink deeper into darkness. Yes, Shinra was despicable, and Hojo was even more despicable, but Sephiroth didn't deserve all of this.