All in all, the Nibelheim mission was turning out to be like far too many missions Zack had received since becoming a SOLDIER First Class: weird, creepy, and involving him learning far more than he ever wanted to know about ShinRa's dirty little secrets.

The locals were too quiet and far too suspicious of any outsiders, especially those from ShinRa. Too inbred, Zack also suspected, although the girl who'd led them up to the reactor had been pretty enough. The reactor was full of weird science experiments, creatures he suspected might have been human before somebody put them into pressurised mako capsules. And ShinRa Mansion, on top of being full of monsters, had a dead guy sleeping in a coffin in the basement. Which you could only find by way of a secret passage.

The fact that the dead guy sat up and glared at them for opening his coffin was just par for the course.

And to make it weirder, Tseng seemed to recognise him and now Dead Guy – Valentine, Tseng had called him – was helping them search through all the weird books in this creepy library, and really, only crazy people would read some of these things.

"Zack," Tseng said abruptly. "Stop fidgeting."

He'd started doing squats, he realised with a start, nervous energy getting the better of him. He was a SOLDIER, made for fighting things, not spending time ransacking libraries for information. As much as he'd be the first to object if somebody said it to his face, he knew he hadn't made it in for his brains. This kind of mission was much better suited to Turks, and apparently, he now had two of them.

Still, as Valentine and Tseng both did their 'dark, stoic and dangerous' routine, made no less impressive for the fact they were only reading, he couldn't help but wish for some better company on this one. Maybe Cloud, who actually came from here, if he remembered right – although he could see why the kid had been so eager to leave; at least Gongaga had been close to a trade route. But he'd have someone to talk to, and he bet Cloud knew all the kinds of stories small towns like this had.

By this point, he'd even take Sephiroth, and the General was not exactly known for his great conversational skills.

Yeah, Zack thought, it would be so much better if he had Cloud or Sephiroth here.