Zack Fair : story 4.
Death 
"Hey, would you say I became a hero?"
—Zack Fair
While Zack and Cloud head back towards Midgar, a massive army of Shin-Ra Troops awaits them. Despite Cissnei and Tseng's attempts to save Zack first, the Shin-Ra army attacks. Zack fights hard against overwhelming odds. However, the enemy is just too many, and despite all of Zack's SOLDIER training, he is defeated. Riddled with bullets, and his Digital Mind Wave destroyed, Zack is barely alive when Cloud awakes and comes to him. Zack hands the Buster Sword to him, like Angeal handed the Buster Sword to Zack four years earlier. Cloud wanders off towards Midgar. Zack is pulled into the Lifestream by Angeal. Zack wonders if he has become a hero after all.
The combined weight of all this trauma finally makes Cloud snap, and, aided by the Jenova cells he now has in his body, he adopts Zack's persona, combining it with his own. He truly believes that he was successful in joining SOLDIER, and that he fulfilled Zack's role in the fateful mission to Nibelheim 5 years before. Upon his arrival in Midgar, Cloud seeks work as a mercenary, just as Zack said he intended to do. When Tifa finds Cloud at the Sector 7 Station, she convinces him to join her and Barret with AVALANCHE. This is where Final Fantasy VII begins.
The combined weight of all this trauma finally makes Cloud snap, and, aided by the Jenova cells he now has in his body, he adopts Zack's persona, combining it with his own. He truly believes that he was successful in joining SOLDIER, and that he fulfilled Zack's role in the fateful mission to Nibelheim 5 years before. Upon his arrival in Midgar, Cloud seeks work as a mercenary, just as Zack said he intended to do. When Tifa finds Cloud at the Sector 7 Station, she convinces him to join her and Barret with AVALANCHE. This is where Final Fantasy VII begins.
Final Fantasy VII
Much of Final Fantasy VII's story revolves around Cloud's battle to reclaim his memory, to accept his true identity rather than relying on his constructed "Zack" personality—a combination of Zack's persona, the stories Zack had told him, and what he presumed a First Class SOLDIER would act like—and to validate himself in a world that has rejected him. When the party visit the depressed town of Gongaga Village, they learn that it was Zack's hometown. Aeris also reveals at one point that Zack was her first boyfriend, and that Cloud resembles him. His parents are also there, still waiting for Zack's return, concerned that they hadn't heard from him in a while.
In Maiden who Travels the Planet, Aeris encountered Zack after her death at the hands of Sephiroth, and he was among those who aided her in the destruction of Meteor.
In Maiden who Travels the Planet, Aeris encountered Zack after her death at the hands of Sephiroth, and he was among those who aided her in the destruction of Meteor.
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Although Zack has been long dead by the time of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, he shows up several times. Flashbacks show scenes of his and Cloud's friendship when Cloud visits the Buster Sword memorial outside Midgar, and is briefly shown when Cloud thinks of what he cherishes most during his battle with Sephiroth. After Cloud gets caught in Loz and Yazoo's kamikaze attack, he hears Zack and Aerith's voices before being sent back to Midgar, and sees him with Aerith in the church in the slums, returning to the Lifestream, letting Cloud know that they are alright together, and don't need him to worry.
Throughout the movie, a large gray wolf appears in many of the same places as Cloud does, but at different times, only meeting him once at the end. It is speculated by many that this is a representation of Zack's spirit, following Cloud. He appears next to the Buster Sword memorial in the wasteland, very briefly twice among the rapid succession of images of Sephiroth, Kadaj, Zack and the Jenova cells after Cloud's recollection of Zack, sleeping in the church when Cloud falls unconscious due to Geostigma symptoms, next to the lake in the Forgotten City after Aerith left a message on Cloud's phone, and next to Cloud before he awakens in Aerith's church. It is has been stated that this wolf is meant to symbolize Cloud's guilt, but there is still the possibilty it was Zack's spirit. But not so much since the wolf disappears in the end when Cloud finally managed to forgive himself for not being able to save both Aerith and Zack. Both spirits of Aerith and Zack will always be with him.
Throughout the movie, a large gray wolf appears in many of the same places as Cloud does, but at different times, only meeting him once at the end. It is speculated by many that this is a representation of Zack's spirit, following Cloud. He appears next to the Buster Sword memorial in the wasteland, very briefly twice among the rapid succession of images of Sephiroth, Kadaj, Zack and the Jenova cells after Cloud's recollection of Zack, sleeping in the church when Cloud falls unconscious due to Geostigma symptoms, next to the lake in the Forgotten City after Aerith left a message on Cloud's phone, and next to Cloud before he awakens in Aerith's church. It is has been stated that this wolf is meant to symbolize Cloud's guilt, but there is still the possibilty it was Zack's spirit. But not so much since the wolf disappears in the end when Cloud finally managed to forgive himself for not being able to save both Aerith and Zack. Both spirits of Aerith and Zack will always be with him.
