There is no escape from the slave catcher's songs

in a town that cold and gray, we will have a sunny day

The relationship between Zack and Angeal is beautiful. Reflecting their relationship is the relationship between Zack and Cloud. Not that I think the two can compare: Zack was far stronger and more able bodied than Cloud. Angeal and Zack were both very strong and died for their convictions as opposed to being defeated due to lack of physical strength. If they turned their back on what their beliefs, maybe they'd both would have lived, but they certainly would not have been as endearing-- there is not a single culture that respects cowardice as a virtue. Most cultures of the world are patrilineal, and their is a great amount of stress on men standing up and being a man meaning shouldering their responsibility, never showing fear, and never backing down in the face of adversity (not to say the same doesn't go for women). As a soldier, those sort of ethics would be twice as strong.

The two went through so much, so much that should have broken them completely, but it didn't, and in the end they are both redeemed. With Angeal's death, Zack was right by his side, there was no blood shown, and Angeal was surrounded by his white feathers. Both have a peaceful, resolute, smiling countenance when they died. For both deaths, there is a cleansing rain - rain falls when Angeal passes, and rain washes Zack free of blood.

Square could have easily closed off Crisis Core with Zack, lifeless in a pool of his own blood. But they allow that cleansing rain to fall, washing the blood off of and away from his body, followed by the clouds breaking and the sun shining in beautiful hues of sherbet and rose. And they don't leave Zack there, they have Angeal come from the Heavens and take him away, Zack's physical body taken right away to the Lifestream, not left to rot on the hard ground. Zack's death is painful to watch, and I'll admit I cried, but despite such a violent death, there was an overwhelming sense of peace. Death is the Great Unknown Country, but Zack didn't face it alone, Angeal was there. And Though Angeal died, almost like a gaurdian Angeal he was close, and nothing is more reasurring than feeling like the ones you have loved and lost are still near you, looking down on you. That death is not a terminal, permenant end, but a new beginning.

And it is a new beginning. Is it over no? By the end of Advent Children Zack has helped Cloud through his guilt, ans, in the way Angeal gave Zack the strength to escape the lab Zack gives Cloud the strength to defeat Sephiroth. After Zack is assured his friend is better - no longer emotionally laden with self-loathing and guilt- he returns to the Lifestream. There is a patch of yellow flowers on the otherwise barren earth on which Zack had lain and Cloud has cleaned the Buster Sword and leaves it in Aeris' church.

It's difficult to define their relationship in words. And some prefer to define it with yaoi, which I don't exactly agree with, but hey, it's fandom, what can you do. I feel as if their love was not of a passionate kind. Rather, a love built on mutual respect and understanding, not to mention a deep comradary. Zack is angry with Angeal's behavior after he leaves Shinra, but he never stops believing in him, that in the end Angeal will do what's right. And Angeal, at one point caught up with the desire for vengeance, physically attacks Zack, but not with enough conviction that he actually did harm to the young man who made it to SOLDIER:Class 1^st at the age of 17 or 18. Angeal backs off and let's Zack do his work, but is obviously never far off, as when Zack's life is threatened, he is immediately there to save him. No doubt there were other SOLDIER: Class 2^nd's who had good prospects for Class 1^st, but Angeal chose Zack to mentor. There is a lot of their relationship pre-Crisis Core that we won't ever know. But what we do know is that Angeal help Zack to the same regard (emotionally) as he held Genesis, someone he knew since childhood. Though he remarks on Zack's hyperness, he never looks down at him due to it or Zack's youth. He knows Zack is impressionable, and makes sure to be of upright character so that Zack will have someone to look up to. It's touching, and it's glad to know they were able to reunite in the Lifestream.

Twice does Zack ask Angeal Those wings, lend them to me. During the time he is held in the basement of Shinra Mansion and after his death. And it seems Zack may have been granted those wings-- after Angeal has taken him away a single white feather blows over head Cloud, asking him to look out for Aeris for him, and blowing back to sweep the ground where his body had lain I really became a hero, didn't I, and lifts high into the heavens.