Title: Ice Cold Fires
Author: Chibi Envy Chan
Rated: PG-13
Warnings: male/male relationship
Pairing: Sephiroth/Reno, Zack/Cloud, Wesley(OC-SOLDIER First Class)/Hikari (OC-Turk Back-Up)
Extra: This is a gift fic for Chaos Silk on Gaia, aka BloodyChaosDragonKnight. She’s a good writer. Check out her fics if you like to laugh. XD I have her under my fave authors.

Disclaimer: Square Enix pwns all characters except my OCs.

Eleventh Phase: The Angel

AngealAngealAngealAngealAngealAngealAngealHewley!

One minute he was teasing his former student and the next he was on the floor. Angeal half-heartedly pushed the younger SOLDIER off, but he wouldn’t budge. All those mako treatments, how could he forget how strong his puppy had become? “Zachary Knight Fair.” Sadly, it fell on deaf ears.

More than amused, Sephiroth allowed this behavior to continue until Angeal looked thoroughly frustrated. He reached over and pulled hard on his second in command’s ear.

“Ow! Ow! Ow! Easy on the ear, Seph!” Zack pitifully whined. As soon as it was released, he gently rubbed his poor appendage. He stuck out his tongue childishly while his former mentor had his back to him.

Sephiroth merely shook his head at Zack’s antics. Then he turned his attention to his newest visitor. “Is there something I can help you with?”

Most people didn’t know how close these two were. They were like brothers and best friends. So it didn’t make sense for Commander Hewley to be fidgeting like a fan boy. He appeared hesitant on relaying his message. If anything, the lack of eye contact signaled bad news.

“What’s wrong?” Zack asked before the General could formulate the question in his mind. Everyone knew Zack was better at dealing with people. He just had this friendly aura around him. As he moved closer, he was stopped.

“Everything,” Angeal growled. He threw the unfortunate folder on Sephiroth’s desk. It contained the reports of all the missing SOLDIERs in the past two weeks. They were all linked to Hojo in some manner.

This was certainly news to him. He looked through the documents. A total of five went messing: two thirds, two seconds, and one first. The first was the latest in the string of MIA; however, his case only had the preliminary report as the Turks needed to investigate the scene thoroughly. “Were they listed as AWOL?”

“Four of them. One went missing during patrol. Evidence shows he was ambushed, but it could have been a cover up if it hadn’t been for Genesis persuading them to reveal any information out of the accompanying troopers. They were told to keep silent.” Normally calm and in control, Angeal maintained a stoic but serious and stoic appearance, but this nearly made him lose his infamous composure.

Being good at reading people, Zack knew this heavily affected his former mentor as well as Sephiroth. Having mastered the Angealean language, he had no trouble with Sephirothos. Unlike what most people thought, Zack knew when to be quiet.

“Unacceptable, completely unacceptable,” Sephiroth seethed with uncontrolled rage. He clenched his fists, knowing what kind of damage he could do. As head of SOLDIER, he should be informed of this. “Do you know where these orders are coming from?”

Angeal shook his head. “Not yet, but we suspect Hojo. We’re looking into the matter, but this isn’t our usual duty. It may take longer to find anything.”

“Understandable. This is more on the Turks’ side.” Sephiroth felt like punching someone, preferably Hojo. This made him want to start their plan as soon as possible. No doubt, there would be a few opposed to this SOLDIER.

“What’s our plan?”

The General blinked a few times.

“You’re concocting a plan right now. I know you better than you think so you can’t deny it.” Angeal wanted in on the plan. He waited patiently as his long time friend considered this.

Sephiroth couldn’t deny he was up to something, but he didn’t want Angeal to be caught up in this mess. The same thing could be said about Zack. They were both first classes and knew the risks involved, but he wasn’t about to risk it when he had the power to prevent it.

“Nothing has been planned. I’ve only been informed of this minutes ago.” It was the truth.

For a short time, Angeal didn’t look like he’d accept. “When you do come up with a plan, please inform me. I’d like a chance to avenge the missing.” No words were necessary. They all knew what horrible experiments Hojo was capable of inflicting.

“I shall let you know.”

With that being said, Angeal bid them farewell. He trusted his long time friend and knew he’d do something about this mess.

“So are we going to tell them?”

“Zack, not now.”