It had been a rush, once Rufus' ticket had set the wheels in motion, to get everything in order and go. Zack had picked up his new sword from Amaya yesterday - had paid for it in materia he'd had kicking around - and had left the buster sword in her care. He'd arranged for Summer to take over administration of the shelter while he was away, since he had no idea how long he'd be away, and to take care of Girl, because there was no way he was bringing his dog along to a world where the main seat of government was willing to waste endless infantry on hunting him down in an attempt to kill him or drag him back to hell.

And he... really didn't have much else to arrange for, beyond that, but he'd done it all around snowman attacks and locating supplies to make this trek across The Planet a little smoother than the last one. He wasn't hauling a comatose person around this time and he'd had two years to heal after escaping Nibelheim. He liked his odds.

Even if the portal spat him out somewhere in Mideel.

Even if the moment he was through it, two dozen Genesis copies all looked up from what they were doing and attacked him in unison.

A grin slowly cut across Zack's face as he unsheathed his sword.

He was back home. And apparently he had more work to do than he'd thought while looking for Iris.

[OOC: This is not a permanent arrangement, nah, but the puppy had some loose ends that needed tying up back home because GUESS WHO FORGOT TO TAKE CARE OF GENESIS TWO YEARS AGO. GUESS. it was me, hello hi. NFB for distance, can be open for phone calls/texts if anybody's phone has a charge!]