Zack Fair

Zack Fair is a non-playable character from Final Fantasy VII and the main protagonist of its prequel, Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-. The wielder of the Buster Sword before Cloud Strife, Zack received the Buster Sword from his predecessor Angeal Hewley  Zack is a 1st Class SOLDIER and is Cloud’s best friend during their time working for the Shinra Electric Power Company. He is affectionately nicknamed “the puppy” in Before Crisis and Crisis Core.In Final Fantasy VII, Zack only appears in flashback sequences which portray him as almost identical to Cloud Strife, the game’s main protagonist. These sequences elaborate on Cloud’s past and his connection to Sephiroth, Cloud’s arch-nemesis. In Crisis Core, Zack’s own history and influence upon the Final Fantasy VII world are brought into focus. Zack also appears in Last Order -Final Fantasy VII-, Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-, and briefly in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete.If the player performs the correct actions in Crisis Core, Zack can get his own fanclub like many other 1st Class SOLDIERs. Known simply as the “Zack Fair Fanclub”, the player’s actions determine its popularity by the end of the game.

Appearance and Personality

“Eyes infused with Mako energy. A SOLDIER trademark. Color of the sky, right?“

—Zack to Aerith on his eyes

Zack goes through a series of changes throughout the events of Crisis Core. In the beginning, he has short spikey black hair and bangs framing the sides of his face. He is also tall, well-built, and features the iconic sky-blue “Mako Eyes” that many SOLDIERs have, with the exceptions of Sephiroth and Cloud who was only an infantryman. At first, he wears a dark blue SOLDIER uniform, gloves, boots, and is equipped with a standard SOLDIER Sword. Later, he is upgraded to a black 1st Class SOLDIER uniform. When Angeal, his former friend and mentor, transforms into a monster, Zack is forced to fight him. After Angeal’s defeat, Zack obtains the Buster Sword as well as an X-shaped scar on his cheek. Later, he also changes his hair. It is still spiky but longer than it originally was, going back with a lock of hair hanging down in front of his face.

Zack initially has a strong attitude and is always ready for work. His energetic personality helped him earn the nickname “Zack the Puppy” from Angeal. He is very loyal to SOLDIER and dreams to become a hero. He also has a very friendly and caring personality, easily making friends with almost everyone he meets. Angeal’s words of having dreams and honor have had a great impact on Zack, leading him to protect his honor and dreams as a member of SOLDIER, though still he retains his upbeat self. Zack is very flirty with women, occasionally asking a few out on a date as he does with Aerith right after meeting her, depicting himself to be somewhat of a ladies’ man. Zack is also very protective of his friends and will be ready to defend them without hesitation. He does not hesitate to fight Sephiroth after seeing Nibelheim ablaze and finding Tifa injured in the Mako Reactor, and he points the Buster Sword at Cissnei, threatening to attack her in Cloud’s defense. After meeting Cloud, Zack’s friendship with him progresses for the rest of Crisis Core.

Story

“SOLDIER 2nd Class Zack, on the job!“

—Zack Fair

Childhood and Early Life

Zack, born in the town of Gongaga, had childhood dreams of joining SOLDIER to become a 1st Class like the legendary Sephiroth. At the age of thirteen, Zack left Gongaga, without even telling his parents, and joined the Shinra’s military forces.

Entering SOLDIER

By October of 0000, he had reached SOLDIER 2nd Class under the tutelage of SOLDIER 1st Class Angeal Hewley. Angeal’s words of wisdom and strong sense of honor had a profound effect on Zack, who wanted to be just like his mentor. During his time in SOLDIER, Zack befriended 2nd Class SOLDIER Kunsel, who guided him in the ways of Shinra. Zack works under Director Lazard Deusericus in the 49th Floor of Shinra Headquarters, along with many other SOLDIER members.

War With Genesis

“Angeal would never betray us! Never!“

—Zack Fair to Sephiroth

In Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-, Zack is first introduced undergoing a digital training session with his mentor Angeal Hewley. Zack successfully completes the mission, but while he is caught off-guard by the victory, is attacked by a virtual form of Sephiroth. Sephiroth overpowers Zack, but Angeal saves him and ends the training. Angeal leaves saying, “Embrace your dreams. If you want to be a hero you need to have dreams…and honor.” Despite the debacle in training, Angeal requests to Director Lazard that Zack be promoted to 1st Class. Zack is soon sent on his own mission to Wutai so as to prove his abilities. Though Zack became ecstatic over Angeal’s suggestion, he received some interesting news during the briefing: 1st Class SOLDIER Genesis Rhapsodos had deserted Shinra, taking an untold number of 2nd and 3rd Class warriors with him.

Angeal and Zack arrive in Wutai and began their walk to the Fort Tamblin. On the way, Angeal asks Zack if he knows what “dumbapples” are. Zack replies no and learns the origin of the apples and that Angeal was poor growing up. As they wait for a bomb to go off, Zack questions Angeal why he never uses his sword, the Buster Sword, saying it seems wasteful. Angeal simply states that “Use brings about wear, tear and rust, and that’s a real waste.” The bomb goes off and Zack jumps down and takes out the forces single-handedly. Zack enters a room and is attacked by two anti-soldier monsters. He defeats them before a third falls. Zack attacks it,and believes it to be dead. When he turns his back, the monster uses a backhand slap and sends Zack flying to the wall. Angeal arrives, just in time, and kills the monster using the Buster Sword right before the monster finishes Zack off, and when Zack asks about his sword, Angeal says, “You’re a little bit more important than my sword, but just a little.”

While heading back to meet with Lazard, several soldiers attack but Angeal stays behind to deal with them while Zack gets Lazard to safety and heads back to discover Angeal missing. Ifrit appears and battles Zack. Once again, Zack falsely believes he won and gets attacked. Just then, Sephiroth arrives and defeats Ifrit in one blow. A shocked Zack watches Sephiroth identify the bodies as copies of Genesis. Realizing that these were the soldiers that Angeal had last been seen fighting, and that he was nowhere to be seen, Sephiroth comes to the conclusion that Angeal left with his long-time friend, Genesis. Zack, however, refuses to believe that his mentor would ever desert Shinra.

Zack soon is given a new mission by Lazard. He is joined by Tseng of the Turks. In Angeal and Genesis’s hometown, Banora Village, Zack and Tseng find a grave and Tseng stays to investigate. Zack heads into the village and finds only one person, Angeal’s mother, Gillian Hewley. She asks him where Angeal is but Zack says he doesn’t know. Zack heads outside and finds an alternate path that leads to a factory. Inside, Genesis appears and taunts Zack and injures Tseng. Angeal arrives and defends Zack, but soon pushes him away. Tseng soon reveals that due to the high number of hostiles, several planes are going to bomb Banora. Zack races to save Gillian but finds her dead on the floor, Angeal standing above her. Thinking Angeal did it, Zack punches him and questions his honor. Genesis arrives and trips Zack, letting Angeal go. Genesis summons Bahamut, which Zack defeats. Zack soon questions Genesis about his honor to which Genesis replies that he has no honor. Sprouting a black angel wing, Genesis flies off. As Zack heads towards a Shinra Helicon with Tseng in it, he watches the bombing of Banora and gets on the Helicopter.

In April 0001, Zack is at Shinra Headquarters when Lazard awards him the title of SOLDIER First Class. Zack is not happy that he attained his dreams so early, and after so many losses. At that moment, Genesis’s army attacks Midgar, and Zack has to fight them throughout the city. Along the way, he saves Cissnei, another member of the Turks. Sephiroth and Zack both head to the Sector 5 Reactor to find the rogue Dr. Hollander, who is suspected of working with Genesis. Zack chases Hollander through the Reactor until he runs into Angeal, who says that his goals are world domination and revenge. Sprouting wings, Angeal tells Zack that he is a monster. Zack replies that he is not a monster because he has angel wings, and Angeal questions him on his answer. Not satisfied with his response, Angeal attacks Zack and knocks him back. Refusing to fight his old friend and mentor, Zack refuses to defend himself from Angeal’s attack. Angeal then uses magic to knock the platform beneath him away, causing him to fall.

Zack drops through the roof of a church, where Zack meets Aerith Gainsborough. Grateful to her for saving his life (although she insists that she did nothing but say, “Hello-o!”), Zack offers to pay Aerith back with one date. However, Aerith laughs and calls him silly. Zack sees the flowers and is impressed, saying that flowers are rarely seen in Midgar. Zack suggests that Aerith should sell the flowers that grow in the church. Later on, Zack gets his wallet stolen by a child, and would eventually find him, only to find that the child’s wallet was eaten by a monster. In generosity, he lets the child keep his wallet in order to buy some medicine, or you can choose to take the wallet back from the monsters. That being done, it happens that the kid had a lot more money in his wallet than in Zack does in his. Zack then buys Aerith the ribbon that she is seen wearing throughout the series.

However, their date is cut short when Zack has to return to the Midgar Plate to defeat Genesis. While on route, Angeal lands and explains that he and Zack must work together. Zack agrees and the two fly off to the Shinra building. Sephiroth explains that Hollander is most likely after Hojo due to Hojo taking over his job. Zack arrives and Genesis does as well as Angeal. Genesis flies out and Angeal grabs Zack and puts him down so that he can face Bahamut Fury while Angeal deals with Genesis. After the battle, Zack sees Anreal and Genesis gone and once again asks himself where he is.

Tragedies of Modeoheim

“Angeal, what happened to honor!?“

—Zack before facing Angeal Penance

After the Midgar attack, Zack is sent to the mountain town of Modeoheim, with Tseng accompanying him once more, as well as several Shinra infantrymen, one of whom is Cloud Strife. Their helicopter is shot down by Genesis’ troops on the way there, and the team must hike their way across the snow. Zack and Cloud make headway fast. When Zack makes the comment that his companion can at least keep up after seeing how far behind Tseng and the other troops are, they learn that they are both “country boys” and become immediate friends. From this point on, Cloud begins to accompany Zack on many missions and start to look up to him as a hero and role model, not unlike Zack looking up to Angeal.

They eventually come up on a Mako Excavation Facility that Zack must infiltrate while Tseng and the troops continue on to Modeoheim. Inside, Zack finds Genesis and Dr. Hollander arguing. He confronts Genesis while Hollander squirms away. Eventually defeating the degrading Genesis, Zack watches while the former SOLDIER lets himself fall into the depths of the reactor. Assuming him dead, Zack hurries after Hollander.

Inside a ruined bath house, Zack finds Hollander and Angeal. He learns here that Angeal’s biological father is actually Hollander, who used the late Gillian Hewley as a test subject for Project G. It is also revealed that Angeal did not kill his mother, but that she killed herself. Although Hollander refers to him as the perfect soldier, Angeal refuses this title and, accepting the monstrosities of Project G, renames himself as the “perfect monster”. He then fuses with several Angeal copy monsters and becomes Angeal Penance.

Zack is forced to fight and kill Angeal, obtaining the scar on his left cheek. Angeal is left barely alive, and apparently degrading from his wounds. Using his last strength, he hands the Buster Sword to Zack, telling him one final time to remember his dreams and honor in order to be a true member of SOLDIER. Distraught over the death of his mentor and friend, Zack finds comfort in the arms of Aerith, strengthening their relationship to its strongest point. As one of the last 1st Class SOLDIERs, and with the war with Genesis considered over, Zack takes over Angeal’s job of being the emotional heart of the organization. He meets another SOLDIER member named Luxiere, who also looks up to him as a role model, and constantly sends Zack mail, as he is inspired by Zack’s speech to the Shinra troops he commands.

Before Crisis

On January 16, 0002 Zack Fair is sent to deal with the insurgency known as AVALANCHE. He is sent to Icicle Inn to destroy an AVALANCHE base along with a player Turk and his SOLDIER friends, Essai and Sebastian. If the Turk player is female, Zack will hit on her. Along the way, Essai and Sebastian are kidnapped by AVALANCHE and turned into Ravens, monstrous genetically enhanced humans created by Fuhito to be his personal guard. Zack fights and kills a Raven named Kyneugh, and tries to save the SOLDIERs. However, when he arrives they have been completely transformed and must be defeated in battle. After their deaths, Zack makes a grave for them with each of their swords crossing, which appears in his DMW.

By early summer, Zack is sent to Costa del Sol to rest with Cissnei watching him. However, his rest is broken by an attack of Genesis Copies, which is just the first salvo of a new round of conflict. With the help of the secret traitor within SOLDIER, no one less important than Director Lazard himself, they break Dr. Hollander out of imprisonment in Junon. Zack is sent there, with a good number of Turks and Shinra Troops to quell the threat of Genesis’ copies and the stolen machines of the Shinra company. Hollander escapes with the help of the Genesis Copies, but Sephiroth, who appeared late on the scene, forgives him, and gives him permission to go back to Midgar and see Aerith.

Midgar had also been in danger at the same time. Hordes of monsters had appeared, escaped (or perhaps set free, according to Kunsel) from Hojo’s lab. One monster in particular, though, had gone to Aerith’s church. A single Angeal copy that was protecting Aerith from the monsters and Shinra’s confused machines until Zack arrived. Although never fully stated, it is believed that this single copy is all that is left of Angeal’s will on the Planet, and is perhaps being controlled by Angeal from the Lifestream.

Before Zack leaves on his next mission, he and Aerith build a wagon so that she can sell flowers throughout Midgar. Zack has to stop selling early, though, as he is called away for another mission. Trusting Tseng to look after her, he, Sephiroth, Cloud, and two other Shinra troops head to Nibelheim, Cloud’s hometown.

The Nibelheim Incident

“Sephiroth! Have you completely lost your mind?!“

—Zack to Sephiroth after he descends into madness

Inside the Reactor.

Zack, Sephiroth, and Cloud Strife all enter Nibelheim on September 22nd, but Cloud hides his face out of fear of being spotted by his childhood friend, Tifa. Just before the group heads up Mt. Nibel to reach the Reactor, a picture is taken of Sephiroth, Tifa, and Zack together. They all then head up the mountain and reach the Reactor.

Zack sees Sephiroth with Nibelheim ablaze.

The problem is easily fixed. However, inside the Reactor are pods filled with horrible monsters that had been infused with massive amounts of Mako. They also find a creature named Jenova, who Sephiroth was told was his mother. This, along with words from Genesis, sends Sephiroth over the edge. He hides himself in the basement of the Shinra Mansion reading over files upon files of the Jenova Project for 7 days. When Zack tries to look for Sephiroth, and finds him, Sephiroth says that he wants to be left alone. However, during a DMW scene, Sephiroth talks to Zack about the Jenova Project’s result, himself. On October 1st, Sephiroth comes out of the Mansion. Now insane, Sephiroth burns the village to the ground, slaughtering most of the townsfolk.

Zack runs up the mountain behind an enraged Tifa, both out to defeat Sephiroth. Inside the Reactor, Tifa is easily cut down by Sephiroth. Zack approaches her but she turns away from him, frightened. As he goes to confront Sephiroth, Zack overhears Tifa say that she hates him along with Shinra and SOLDIER. Distraught, Zack cuts down the doors to Jenova’s room. Sephiroth stands outside of Jenova’s containment tube, and does not even notice Zack enter. The two battle, and Zack, being a 1st Class SOLDIER, manages to hold his own against Sephiroth for a time before he himself is defeated. Finally, Cloud, furious over the death of his mother and seeing Tifa gravely wounded, takes up the Buster Sword and defeats Sephiroth. Sephiroth falls into the Lifestream, where he will disappear for four years. Tifa is saved by Zangan, but Cloud and Zack are both taken by Shinra forces to be used in Professor Hojo’s newest experiment.

Defeating Genesis

“No! Open your eyes, Genesis!“

—Zack telling Genesis to face realityZack defeating Genesis.

Four years later (December 19th, 0006), Zack has a hallucination of Angeal appearing before him in Shinra Mansion’s basement. As he flies off, Zack’s strong will to be free allowed him to break the tube enabling him and Cloud to escape. Because of Hojo’s experiments, both have become Sephiroth Clones, but Zack is completely unaffected by the experiment thanks to having been in SOLDIER. Cloud is completely comatose from Mako poisoning, but Zack can still fight. He cuts their way out of Nibelheim, which had been rebuilt by Shinra to hide the Incident that occurred four years earlier. Cissnei in Crisis Core, or whoever the player’s Turk is in Before Crisis, is ordered to take Zack in, but betrays orders and allows him to pass.

Zack and Cloud hide out from Shinra forces while trying to reach Midgar until early autumn 0007. One of Genesis’s Copies eats a part of Zack’s hair. Since Zack has been infused with Jenova Cells, it turns the copy into a horrible monster. Zack defeats the creature, and heads home to Gongaga. Here he once again runs into Genesis, now with a degrading Genesis Copy that was once Hollander. Hollander and Genesis try to take Cloud for his pure Sephiroth Cells, because Zack is worthless thanks to being a former member of SOLDIER. Instead, Lazard – in the form of a degrading Angeal, thanks to unknowingly obtaining his cells – and Zack fight the two. Zack finally kills Hollander once and for all.

Zack takes a bite out of a Banora White, fulfilling Genesis’s childhood dream.

It is at this point that Zack finally realizes that Genesis has been working from Banora the whole time, the Banora “dumbapples” that Genesis always carried being the clue. Zack travels there, and leaves Cloud under Lazard’s protection. Zack travels down into Genesis’s cave until he comes upon Genesis who uses the power of the Lifestream, but still is defeated. Zack takes his old enemy up to the surface.

Together with a catatonic Cloud, a beaten Genesis, and a dead Lazard, he eats a Dumbapple. The final Angeal Copy that had protected Aerith is present as well, and as he finally dies from degradation, Zack finds the 89th and final letter from Aerith that it had been carrying and realizes that he had been asleep for four years. Desperate to return before Aerith forgets him, Zack leaves a now pacified Genesis behind while he and Cloud go off to Midgar.

Death

“My honor.. My dreams.. They’re yours now. You’ll be.. My living legacy. “

—Zack to Cloud, moments before his death

Cloud inherits the Buster Sword.

At the end of September (0007), while Zack and Cloud head back towards Midgar, a massive army of Shinra Troops awaits them. Despite Cissnei and Tseng’s attempts to save Zack first, the Shinra army attacks. In the short animation Last Order, a Shinra sniper attempts to assassinate Cloud, but Zack notices this and tells Cloud to get away, causing the sniper to miss his mark, starting the battle. In the Crisis Core version and Advent Children Complete, Zack notices the ambush, and hides Cloud behind the rocks, then went to face his fate. Zack bravely fights hard against overwhelming odds, for his freedom, and for Cloud’s freedom, and the most, for Aerith. As the battle wages on, the memories Zack had with everyone flashes before his eyes. But soon, as the fight wears him down and his injuries increase, they fade from his mind. Struggling to survive, he remembers Angeal, and everything he’s taught him, about life, about pride, about dreams. Growing tired and weary, Cloud enters his mind. He has to protect Cloud, the person who looked up to him, the person who admired him, the person who believed in him, like he did Angeal. He has to protect Cloud. The battle is slowly taking its toll. Zack, breathing heavily and severely injured, is unable to concentrate. Staggering, unable to move, barely able to lift his sword anymore, he fights on. However, his injuries are too great, and he doesn’t have the strength to defeat the entire military. He collapses as the three remaining military barrages him with bullets. In the original Final Fantasy VII, in the flashback, there are only two Shinra soldiers and one commander, who shoot Zack by surprise. Riddled with bullets, and his Digital Mind Wave destroyed, Zack is barely alive when Cloud awakens and comes to him. Zack hands the Buster Sword to him, like Angeal handed the Buster Sword to Zack four years earlier. He tells Cloud to carry on his dreams, and be his “living legacy”.

As Cloud wanders off towards Midgar, Zack looks at the sky as the sun begins emerge and shine, remembering how scared Aerith was of such a beautiful thing. He then sees Angeal descending from the sky, two white wings outstretched, finally a free spirit. Zack says that he wants Angeal’s wings too and takes Angeal’s outstretched hand, proceeding thus into the Lifestream. As Cloud continues on his journey, Zack tells him to say hi to Aerith for him, and then asks the question “Hey, would you say I became a hero?” echoing his once called “unattainable” dream of becoming a hero.

“Hey, would you say that…. I became a hero ?.“

—Zack

Zack’s end.

The combined weight of all this trauma finally makes Cloud snap, and barely conscious, he makes his way to Midgar dragging the Buster Sword behind him. Collapsing in the Sector 7 Station, Cloud is found by Tifa, where he, aided by the Jenova cells he now has in his body, adopts Zack’s memories and persona, combining it with an idealized image of himself to create a new personality and history for himself. After the creation of this facade, Cloud truly believes that he was successful in joining SOLDIER, and that he fulfilled Zack’s role in the fateful mission to Nibelheim four years before. He believes he has come to Midgar to seek work as a mercenary, just as Zack said he intended to do. In fact, Zack no longer even existed in Cloud’s mind; the altered memories placed him in Zack’s stead. Realizing something is wrong with Cloud, Tifa convinces him to join her and Barret with AVALANCHE to keep an eye on him. It is on the mission to blow up the Mako Reactor that Cloud performs for AVALANCHE that Crisis Core ends and Final Fantasy VII begins.