Whether he liked it or not, Zack was missing.
It had first been alerted to Sephiroth’s attention by one very agitated Xelong, whom had persistently asked him to go looking. At first Sephiroth ignored it, but after a rather convincing bite to his posterior from the growing dragon, Sephiroth gave in and had decided to go looking. The youthful dragon had also talked with Aeris about it, whom seemed rather concerned, but could offer no useful advice as she was just a child herself.
Zack had been missing for near four days now, and after a complete and thorough scan of everywhere he liked to go turned up with no result, Seph himself could not figure out what to do. Secretly he was rather concerned about it, for it was not like his clone to just vanish completely, but he would never openly admit that, not even to Jenna.
Out of curiousity, Sephiroth had later visited the base, because it was kind of hard to scan from the outside due to the protective barriers in place. It was on his visit here that he discovered Zack’s complex time/dimensional jumper machine. After working out what it was for and checking the settings on it, Sephiroth returned to the house to devise a strategy on how to get his clone back. He later concluded that he would just turn on the machine again and use it with the exact same settings to go to the time period where Zack was and retrieve him. Aeris wanted to go as well, but as she was a dragon, she had asked Jenna to turn her into a human so as not to arouse suspicion.
They returned to the base the following morning, and Sephiroth turned on the machine. Aeris did not like the way it looked and did not trust it at all whatsoever, but as she did not want to hinder helping Sephy and Xelong out, she said nothing. Sephiroth gave the machine a sharp kick and it turned on with no effort at all. After a brief moment it had generated a portal and Sephiroth stepped through it, Aeris following close behind.
They were rather unceremoniously dumped on hard cold sidewalk on other side just a few moments later. The sky above was pitch black as it was the middle of the night, also starless and overcast. The air around them was thick and humid, tainted with smog and other air pollutants, and smelled of burning tyres. Neon lights blinked from their mounts on the sides of buildings, advertising all manner of things to the passers by, who just walked wherever they were headed, not seeming to care about anything.
Aeris frowned as she surveyed the area around them. The human form she had been given was rather convincing, except for her eyes, which were slitted and remained unchanged from her dragon form. Her eyesight remained completely unchanged, and so she could see everything around her in the dim light with no problem at all.
“This place looks modern…” She seemed rather unhappy. “Are you sure this is where Zack came?”
“Yes, now shut up and start looking,” Sephiroth snorted. “We didn’t change any of the settings on that stupid machine, and this is where it put us. So, he’s here. Just concentrate on looking and stay close. These cities have a reputation for being rather unfriendly.”
Aeris followed close behind Sephiroth as he walked down the sidewalk, pondering where to go next. He could not sense out Zack here, but maybe the man had moved elsewhere. He had to have moved. In any case, he was in for some serious reprimanding for his careless vanishing act. Sephiroth would make sure of that much.