SOLDIER's Zack Fair and his mentor Angeal Hewley are dispatched to Wutai to support the Shinra war effort,[15] but during the fighting, Angeal disappears.[16] Zack is appointed to find both him and another missing SOLDIER, Genesis Rhapsodos.[17] Zack, accompanied by Tseng, learns that Genesis and Angeal deserted Shinra,[18] and he and Sephiroth are assigned to kill them.[19] With help from Dr. Hollander, a scientist with a vendetta against Shinra, Genesis creates an army of clones to attack Shinra headquarters.[20] After the forces are defeated, Zack and Sephiroth track down Hollander's secret laboratory,[21] where they learn Hollander used both Genesis and Angeal as part of "Project G," an attempt to create supersoldiers infused with the extraterrestrial lifeform Jenova's cells.[22] Sephiroth faces off against Genesis while Zack pursues Hollander.[23] Angeal, intent on keeping Hollander alive so he can be returned to normal, prevents Zack from killing the doctor and knocks him into the slums of Midgar.[24] Zack recovers as he finds Aerith tending to him.[25] After spending some time together, Zack returns to SOLDIER headquarters, which is now under attack by Genesis.[26] Zack re-allies with Angeal, who has developed doubts about his and Genesis' actions.[27] As Angeal, Zack, and Sephiroth protect the headquarters, Angeal confronts Genesis before both disappear. Zack is subsequently ordered to investigate Modeoheim, where Genesis has been spotted.[28] While en route to Modeoheim, Zack meets Shinra infantryman Cloud, and they become friends.[29] Near Modeoheim, Zack encounters and defeats Genesis, who seemingly commits suicide by throwing himself into the depths of a reactor. Zack travels on to Modeoheim, where he finds Angeal and Hollander. Tired of the fighting and succumbing to his gradual degradation, Angeal summons and fuses with his own clones and mutates into a monster, forcing Zack to kill him. Before dying, Angeal gives Zack his Buster Sword, telling him to protect his honor.[30] While Shinra continues the pursuit of Hollander, Genesis re-emerges, producing clones; some of them appear in Midgar, forcing Zack to return to protect Aerith.[31] Leaving her with an Angeal clone to protect her, Zack travels with Sephiroth and Cloud to investigate a Mako reactor near Nibelheim.[32] Upon confronting Genesis at the reactor, Sephiroth learns that he is also an experiment, as he was implanted with Jenova's cells before his birth.[33] Genesis explains that his body is degrading and he needs Sephiroth's cells to survive, but Sephiroth refuses.[34] Overcome with the recent revelations regarding his past, Sephiroth locks himself in Nibelheim Mansion. He sets Nibelheim ablaze a week later, going to the Mako reactor to take Jenova's body and wrongfully believing her to be his mother. When Zack fails to stop him, Cloud throws Sephiroth into the Lifestream below the reactor. Zack awakens to find that Shinra covered up the Nibelheim incident and that both he and Cloud have become part of Professor Hojo's experiments on Jenova cells and Mako exposure.[35] Zack is able to escape and takes a catatonic Cloud with him, but they immediately become high-priority targets for Shinra. While fleeing, Zack learns that Genesis and Hollander are still trying to stabilize Genesis' mutation,[36] and plan to use Cloud's cells since he is the only one with Sephiroth's genes.[37] Hollander tries to get to Cloud, but Zack kills him. Zack then finds Director Lazard who, now mutated into a humanoid Angeal clone, has turned against Shinra.[38] Lazard directs Zack to the remains of Banora to find Genesis, where he defeats Genesis. Upon returning, he discovers Shinra has located them and killed Lazard. The Angeal clone left guarding Aerith arrives but is also killed.[39] Zack discovers a note he had carried from Aerith and learns he and Cloud were subjected to Hojo's experiments for four years. As Cloud begins dying of Mako poisoning, he and Zack are hunted by the Turks as he carries Cloud towards Midgar. Genesis' body is collected by two soldiers: Nero the Sable and Weiss the Immaculate of Deepground.[40] Shinra pursues Zack and Cloud, catching up with them just outside Midgar as Tseng and the Turks attempt to rescue Zack against Shinra's wishes. Leaving the still semi-conscious Cloud hidden away, Zack fights off an enormous number of Shinra troops but is fatally wounded. Cloud awakens and finds Zack's body after Shinra leaves; as he is dying, Zack bequeaths the Buster Sword to Cloud, as Angeal had done to him.[41] Zack is welcomed into the Lifestream by Angeal and wonders if he has become a hero. The epilogue recreates the opening scenes of Final Fantasy VII, as Cloud arrives in Midgar and claims to be a former