“Boy oh boy... the price of freedom is steep.”<br />
—Zack Fair
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Zack Fair is a non-playable character in Final Fantasy VII and the main protagonist of its prequel, Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-. The second wielder of the Buster Sword before Cloud Strife, Zack received the Buster Sword from his mentor Angeal Hewley. Zack is a 1st Class SOLDIER and is Cloud's best friend during their time working for the Shinra Electric Power Company.<br />
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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, the game's villain. In Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-, Zack's history and influence upon the Final Fantasy VII world are brought into focus. He also appears in Last Order -Final Fantasy VII-, Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-, and briefly in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete.
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Early Life:
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Zack, assumed to have been born in the town of Gongaga, had childhood dreams of joining SOLDIER to become a 1st Class. At the age of thirteen Zack left Gongaga without telling his parents, and joined the Shinra's military forces.<br />
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By October of 0000, Zack 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 emulate 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.<br />
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War with Genesis:
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In Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-, Zack undergoes a digital training session in the Virtual Reality System with his mentor Angeal Hewley. Zack completes the mission, but while caught off-guard by the victory, he is attacked by a virtual Sephiroth who overpowers Zack, but Angeal saves him and ends the training.<br />
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Despite the debacle Angeal recommends Zack be promoted to 1st Class. Zack is soon sent on a mission to Wutai so as to prove his abilities. Zack becomes ecstatic over Angeal having recommended him for promotion, and receives interesting news during the briefing: 1st Class SOLDIER Genesis Rhapsodos has deserted Shinra, taking an untold number of 2nd and 3rd Class soldiers with him.<br />
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Angeal and Zack arrive in Wutai and journey to Fort Tamblin. On the way, Angeal asks Zack if he knows what "dumbapples" are. He tells Zack the origin of the Banora White apples and that he was poor growing up. They make their way to Fort Tamblin and Zack takes out the enemy forces singlehandedly. After an encounter with a nine-year-old Yuffie Kisaragi, Zack enters a room and is attacked by two anti-SOLDIER monsters, which he defeats, but one of them launches a counterattack. He is saved by Angeal.<br />
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While heading back to meet with Lazard, several unknown soldiers attack the two. Angeal stays behind to deal with them while Zack escorts Lazard to safety and heads back to discover Angeal missing. Ifrit battles Zack, but Sephiroth arrives and defeats Ifrit in a single blow. The unknown soldiers' bodies are copies of Genesis, the missing SOLDIER member. Sephiroth concludes Angeal has abandoned them and left with his long-time friend, Genesis, but Zack refuses to believe his mentor would desert Shinra.<br />
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Zack is tasked with searching for Genesis, and is joined by Tseng of the Turks. In Angeal and Genesis's hometown, Banora Village, Zack and Tseng find Genesis's parents' grave. Zack heads into the village and finds only one person, Angeal's mother, Gillian Hewley, who asks for Angeal's whereabouts but Zack doesn't know. Zack finds a path to a factory where he learns from Tseng that Sephiroth had deferred the mission to him. Genesis appears, taunts Zack and injures Tseng. Angeal arrives and defends Zack, but soon pushes him away.<br />
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Tseng reveals Shinra planes are going to bomb Banora to the ground to cover up the incidents and Zack races to save Gillian, but finds her dead on the floor with Angeal standing above her. Thinking Angeal has killed her, Zack punches him and questions his honor. Genesis allows Angeal's escape, and sends Bahamut after Zack, which he defeats before questioning Genesis's motives. Sprouting a black wing, Genesis states he is a monster and flies off. As Zack heads towards a Shinra Helicon, he witnesses the bombing of Banora.<br />
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In April 0001, Zack is at the Shinra Headquarters when Lazard promotes him to SOLDIER 1st Class, but Zack is not as happy as he thought he would be attaining his dream. Genesis's army attacks Midgar and Zack fights them throughout the city. Along the way he saves Cissnei, a member of the Turks. Sephiroth and Zack head to the Sector 5 Reactor to find the rogue Dr. Hollander, who is suspected of working with Genesis. They find papers documenting Shinra's Project G, which they presume to stand for "Project Genesis". Zack chases Hollander through the Mako Reactor until he runs into Angeal, who says that as a monster he only dreams of monstrous things: world domination and revenge. Sprouting wings, Angeal attacks Zack and knocks him back, but Zack refuses to fight his old friend and mentor. Angeal destroys the platform beneath Zack and send him plummeting into the Midgar Slums.<br />
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Zack falls through the roof of the Sector 5 Church where he meets Aerith Gainsborough, whom he offers to pay back her help with a date. Zack is impressed with the flowers that grow in the church, as flowers are a luxury item in Midgar, and suggests Aerith sell them. He and Aerith go to a local market where his wallet is stolen by a child, and he discovers the child's own wallet had been eaten by a monster. Zack recovers the kid's wallet and buys Aerith a pink ribbon she will always wear from then on.<br />
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Their date is cut short when Zack is recalled to the Midgar Plate to defeat Genesis. En route Angeal appears and explains he and Zack must work together. Angeal flies him to the Shinra Building where Sephiroth explains Hollander is most likely after Professor Hojo due to Hojo having taken over his job. Zack, Genesis and Angeal arrive and when Genesis flies out Angeal grabs Zack and flies him to face Bahamut Fury while Angeal deals with Genesis. After the battle, Angeal and Genesis are gone.<br />
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After the Midgar attack, Zack is sent to the mountain town of Modeoheim with Tseng and several Shinra infantrymen, one of whom is Cloud Strife. Their helicopter is shot down by Genesis's troops and the team hikes across the snow. Zack and Cloud make headway and when Zack comments that his companion can at least keep up after seeing how far behind Tseng and the other troops have fallen, they learn they are both "country boys" and become immediate friends. From this point on Cloud looks up to him as a hero and role model, not unlike Zack looking up to Angeal.<br />
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They discover on a Mako Excavation Facility that Zack infiltrates while Tseng and the troops continue on to Modeoheim. Zack finds Genesis and Dr. Hollander arguing over Hollander not being able to cure Genesis's degradation against his earlier promises. Zack confronts Genesis while Hollander squirms away and, defeating him, Zack watches the former SOLDIER fall into the depths of the Mako Reactor. Assuming him dead, Zack hurries after Hollander.<br />
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Within a ruined bath house Zack finds Hollander and Angeal. He learns Hollander used the late Gillian Hewley as a test subject for Project G, or "Project Gillian", and being Gillian's son, Angeal has gained the powers of Jenova as a result. It is revealed Angeal did not kill his mother, but she killed herself, unable to live with her actions. Although Hollander refers to him as the perfect soldier, Angeal refuses the title, instead calling himself the "perfect monster". He fuses with several Angeal Copy monsters and becomes Angeal Penance.<br />
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Zack fights Angeal Penance and obtains a scar on his left cheek. Angeal is left barely alive, and using his last strength, he hands the Buster Sword to Zack, telling him to remember his dreams and honor 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. As one of the last 1st Class SOLDIERs, and with Genesis War considered over, Zack succeeds Angeal's role as the emotional heart of the organization. He meets another SOLDIER member named Luxiere, who looks up to him as a role model, inspired by Zack's speech to the Shinra troops he commands.<br />
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In Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-, 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 Player Turk is female, Zack will hit on her. Essai and Sebastian are kidnapped by AVALANCHE and turned into Ravens, monstrous genetically enhanced humans created by Fuhito to be his personal guard. Zack attempts a rescue mission and brings the two back to their senses, but they die. When the player Turk leaves, Zack kills a Raven named Kyneugh. After escaping the base, Zack makes a grave for Essai and Sebastian with both of their swords crossing.<br />
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In Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-, by early summer, Zack is sent to Costa del Sol to rest with Cissnei watching him. His vacation is interrupted by an attack by Genesis copies, the first salvo of a new round of conflict. With the help of a secret traitor within SOLDIER, 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's copies and the stolen machines of the Shinra Company. Hollander escapes with Genesis copies' help, but Sephiroth, who arrives late on the scene, forgives him, and gives Zack permission to return to Midgar and see Aerith.<br />
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Midgar has been under attack from hordes of monsters escaped (or perhaps set free, according to Kunsel) from Hojo's lab, but an Angeal copy protected Aerith from the monsters and Shinra's confused machines until Zack's arrival. Although never fully stated, it is believed 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.<br />
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Before Zack leaves on his next mission, he and Aerith build a wagon so she can sell flowers in Midgar. Zack accompanies her on her first day of business, but has to stop when he is called away for another mission. He entrusts Tseng with looking after Aerith before heading to Nibelheim, Cloud's hometown, with Sephiroth, Cloud, and two other Shinra troops, to inspect the emergence of monsters in the area and a possibly malfunctioning Mako Reactor.<br />
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The Nibelheim Incident:
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Zack, Sephiroth, and Cloud 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 villager snaps a picture of Sephiroth, Tifa, and Zack together.<br />
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The malfunctioning reactor is fixed, but within the reactor Zack and Sephiroth find pods filled with makonoids, humans infused with massive amounts of Mako and turned into monsters. They find a creature named Jenova, whom Sephiroth was told was his mother. This, along with words from Genesis who reveals to Sephiroth his past as part of the Jenova Project, sends Sephiroth over the edge. Sephiroth hides in the basement of the Shinra Manor reading files upon files of the project for seven days. When Zack tries to talk to him, Sephiroth wants to be left alone. On October 1st, Sephiroth emerges and burns the village to the ground, slaughtering most of the townsfolk.<br />
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Zack runs up the mountain behind an enraged Tifa, both out to defeat Sephiroth. Within the reactor Tifa is cut down by Sephiroth. Zack approaches her but she is frightened of him. Zack finds Sephiroth outside Jenova's containment tube and the two battle, but Zack is defeated. Cloud, furious over the death of his mother and seeing Tifa gravely wounded, takes up Zack's Buster Sword and defeats Sephiroth who falls into the Lifestream.<br />
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Tifa is saved by Zangan, and Cloud and Zack are taken by Shinra forces to be used in Professor Hojo's newest experiment: the Jenova Reunion Theory. Hojo predicts Jenova's parts, even on a cellular level, will strive to gather and become whole again and to test this theory, Hojo exposes the survivors of the Nibelheim Incident, including Cloud and Zack, to Mako, and injects them with Jenova cells.<br />
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Defeating Genesis:
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Zack and Cloud are held captive in the Shinra Mansion and experimented on for four years. Hojo labels the two as failures, puts them in a cryogenic sleeping state and leaves them in their pods. On December 19th, 0006, Zack hallucinates of Angeal appearing before him in the Shinra Mansion basement. As he flies off, Zack's will to be free allows him to break out and he and Cloud escape.<br />
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Due to Hojo's experiments both have become Sephiroth Clones, but as a former SOLDIER member Zack is unaffected by the experiment. Cloud's Mako poisoning puts him in a vegetative state, but Zack can still fight. He cuts their way out of a rebuilt Nibelheim and Cissnei in Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-, or whoever the player's Turk is in Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII-, is ordered to take Zack in, but betrays orders and allows him to pass.<br />
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Zack and Cloud hide out from Shinra while trying to reach Midgar until early autumn 0007. A Genesis Copy eats a lock of Zack's hair to cure its degradation due to Zack's body possessing S Cells, being a Sephiroth Clone, but it turns the copy into a monster as Zack's S cells have already mutated and adapted by Zack's body. Zack defeats the creature, and heads home to Gongaga where he runs into Genesis, now with a degrading Genesis copy who was once Hollander. Hollander and Genesis try to take Cloud for his pure Sephiroth Cells, as Zack is worthless thanks to being a former member of SOLDIER. Lazard — in the form of a degrading Angeal — and Zack fight the two and Zack kills Hollander once and for all.<br />
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Zack realizes Genesis has been working from Banora the whole time, the Banora "dumbapples" Genesis always carries being the clue. Zack leaves Cloud under Lazard's protection and travels into Banora Underground and comes upon Genesis who wields the power of the Lifestream, but is still defeated, although the Lifestream cures him from his degradation. Zack takes his old enemy up to the surface.<br />
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Together with a catatonic Cloud, a beaten Genesis, a dead Lazard and the final surviving Angeal copy that had lived in Aerith's church, Zack eats a dumbapple. As the final Angeal copy dies from degradation, Zack finds the 89th and final letter from Aerith it had been carrying, and realizes he had been contained in the Shinra Mansion for four years. Desperate to return to Aerith, Zack leaves a now pacified Genesis behind while he and Cloud set off to Midgar.<br />
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Zack's Final Stand:
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“My honor... My dreams... They're yours now. You'll be... My living legacy.”<br />
—Zack to Cloud, moments before his death
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At the end of September 0007, while Zack and Cloud head toward Midgar, an army of Shinra troops awaits them. Despite Cissnei and Tseng's attempts to locate Zack first and save him, 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.<br />
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In the Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete versions, Zack notices the ambush, and hides Cloud behind the rocks, then goes to face his fate. As the battle wages on, the memories Zack had with everyone flash before his eyes and he collapses as the remaining soldiers barrage him with bullets. In the original Final Fantasy VII flashback scene there are only two Shinra soldiers and one commander, who shoot Zack by surprise.<br />
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Riddled with bullets Zack is barely alive when Cloud comes to him. Zack hands the Buster Sword to him, like Angeal handed the Buster Sword to Zack years earlier, and tells Cloud to carry on his dreams, and be his "living legacy".<br />
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As Cloud wanders off towards Midgar, Zack looks up at the sky as the sun emerges from behind the clouds. He sees Angeal descend from the sky, and takes Angeal's outstretched hand, entering the Lifestream. As Cloud continues on his journey, Zack's voice tells him to say hi to Aerith for him, and asking, "Hey, would you say I became a hero?"<br />
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"Hey, would you say I became a hero?"<br />
--Zack Fair
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