The Price of Being a Hero

This chapter was difficult to complete, and may very well be longer than most of the other chapters. I ask you to bear with me: any questions you may have will be answered in the story later on. See if you can catch the foreshadowing scattered through the first two chapters.

I sincerely hope that you enjoy this fanfiction, and may I now present the second chapter of The Price of Being a Hero.

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII series.

Chapter Two: The Price of Being a SOLDIER

Denzel had greatly enjoyed playing in the snow, despite the lack of a proper playmate. There were only a handful of children in Nibelheim, and all of them were older than Denzel, considering themselves too 'mature' for children's games. Such as Denzel's current game of pretending to be Cloud infiltrating ShinRa. But Denzel was unbothered by having to play alone, and continued 'sneaking' around. Eventually the boy noticed that the sun was setting and turned to head back toward Beckah's house, only to be stopped by a large hand on his arm.

Denzel looked over his shoulder, surprised to find an older boy glaring at him. After his time in the slums, Denzel recognized that face. He was an outsider, and not welcome here. Even the adults were ignoring the situation. Keeping quiet, Denzel lowered his eyes. Experience had taught him that surrendering was better than fighting. Especially when you were classified as an 'enemy' by everyone around you. The larger boy sneered.

"Hey, outsider! Being a coward now, are you?! And you were just strutting around like you owned the place."

Denzel ignored the voice, yanking his arm away and continuing his walk in the direction of Beckah's house.

Growing angry, the larger boy punched Denzel to the ground, "You don't get to leave until I say you can leave! You've one of the strangers the Strifes dragged back, aren't you? Heh, they should have let you both die!"

Denzel glared at the ground where he had landed hard in the snow. His eyes felt a little strange, but the younger boy still didn't answer or raise his head. This wasn't worth it. Cloud would ignore insults like those, right?

But as the first punch was thrown, Denzel did the only thing he could.

He punched back as hard as he could. There was a scream.

And then silence.

"Go!" Angeal ordered, and his student turned to run with Director Lazard, leading him away from what appeared to be Wutai troops.

Angeal Hewley and his student, Zack Fair, had been sent to Wutai to complete a mission that Angeal's friend Genesis was supposed to be working on- had been working on, up until his disappearance. Both of the SOLDIERs had taken out plenty of Wutai warriors by this point- but aside from having the Director to protect, Angeal had thought these troops felt different.

Not that he had informed Zack before sending him away with the Director. If Genesis happened to be involved… He would rather have both his student and Lazard in safety. Sephiroth would likely be out to meet him the moment he learned of the altercation anyway, save for the off chance Angeal's instincts were wrong- but they hadn't been wrong yet, so Angeal intended to continue trusting them.

That was why he only made his move once Zack and the Director were out of sight.

However, in that moment something strange happened. Each of the warriors suddenly fell forward in a shower of crimson blood and dissolved into sparkling green light right in front of Angeal's eyes. Immediately, Angeal went on high alert- well, higher alert than he had already been on. Things like that just didn't happen-

The sound of a snort caught Angeal's attention, and he spun around.

In front of him stood a large grey wolf, sniffing the ground. Angeal recognized this monster from missions- it was a Nibel Wolf, certainly not a creature native to Wutai. In fact, Wutai didn't have wolves of any kind. And yet here one was- a large wolf calmly ignoring him as if being around a human with Mako enhancements was a normal, every-day event and worth none of its attention. There was only a small amount of blood on its paws to signify that it had been the creature to take out the Wutai soldiers.

"Hm. Have you defeated my copies already, old friend?" The mildly mocking question rang from above, "No- you had… help."

It couldn't be.

Angeal looked up, and saw, perched in the branches of a tree, Genesis. The SOLDIER looked worse for wear- even worse than he had the last time they had seen each other. Genesis' hair was faded, his coat was ripped- and a large black wing was settled behind his back.

The red-head smirked viciously at Angeal's look of shock, "Surprised, Angeal? Do you see what ShinRa did to me? To us?"

"Us- what are you talking about, Genesis?"

Genesis bowed mockingly and answered with a condescending edge to his voice, "Degradation- a side effect of the process used to make us. You didn't know, Angeal? My friend, the fates are cruel…"

"Now is hardly a time for Loveless, Genesis. And what's degradation? You're not making sense." Angeal was growing tense. What had happened to his old friend? Where was the Genesis he remembered? "Come on, you can tell me while we go meet Sephiro-"

"No, Angeal. I will never return to ShinRa." Genesis looked disgusted by the very thought, but an instant later he was smiling, hand extended, "If you wish to know more, old friend… Come with me."

Angeal hesitated, tempted to take the offer if only for the chance to convince Genesis to come home. Luckily, however, a voice from nowhere interrupted Angeal's thoughts.

'Don't, Angeal.'

Angeal and Genesis both startled, looking around for the source of the voice. Well, Angeal looked around for the source- Genesis looked amused. But to Angeal, there was nothing to be amused about- that voice had been Zack's. And Zack should have been far away by now.

It was the wolf that pulled Angeal from his thoughts with a loud, echoing howl.

'We aren't supposed to do too much. But this… this needs to change.'

'I agree. Do you want me to use Great Gospel, Zack?'

'That would be great. Thanks Aerith.'

'It's no problem. You're right- this does need to change.'

The conversation went unheard by the SOLDIERs, being carried along in the howl. What they did experience, however, was the scent of flowers... right before rain began to fall from the sky. At that point, a miracle happened. That was the only way Genesis would be able to describe it later, and not even Angeal would be able to find a way to argue with it.

As the rain hit Genesis, life returned to his skin and hair, and the wing dissolved into black fog. To Angeal, it was amazing- and a good thing. To Genesis, however…

He managed to correctly associate the rain that was healing him with the out-of-place Nibel Wolf, and one final irrational thought that was ignoring the fact all he had wanted was a cure drove him to lunge with Rapier. He was too fast for Angeal to intervene and stop it.

And yet, Rapier was suddenly met with the Buster Sword anyway.

The figure that stood with his back to Angeal, facing Genesis, was dressed in a SOLDIER's First Class black uniform. Black hair was spiked back, with one spike of hair hanging in his face. There was a cross-shaped scar on his cheek- and bright violet eyes stared at Genesis. Despite the fact the rain continued to fall, the water did not touch the figure- in fact, it only seemed to break up into a glow around him.

Then again… Hadn't the wolf looked the same?

"This really brings back memories. Not that I could be hurt anyway, but still."

Angeal appeared startled by the voice, but Genesis was more startled when the serious expression melted into a grin.

"Who are you?!" Genesis demanded, not enjoying feeling mocked or seeing the Buster Sword being held by someone who wasn't Angeal- even though his mind was feeling clear again and he could see that Angeal was still wearing the sword himself.

"Zack Fair, SOLDIER First Class! Well, Ex-SOLDIER First Class. But it's still really what's inside that counts, and I've got my Honor and Dreams."

The man- who could not possibly be Angeal's Puppy, there was no way that this confident, battle-scarred SOLDIER could be the bouncy Second Class Angeal was training- looked baffled a moment.

"Wait- is it strange for a dead man to have dreams? Guess not. Anyway, Genesis, fun as it is to fight with you… I really don't want to fight you when I'm dead. That would be kind of unfair, you know?" The man laughed and turned to look at Angeal, "And you don't need to worry. You'll see in a moment. But I can't stay any longer. It's hard enough sticking around when no one can see me. So… Just take care. The Degradation isn't an issue for you anymore."

The SOLDIER faded from sight, but his voice echoed around them.

"Being a SOLDIER doesn't mean you're a monster."

As the rain stopped and the scent of flowers faded, the voice of a woman chimed in.

"Just ask Cloud."

Genesis and Angeal were left staring at empty air, with no time to ponder the words. Someone was coming, they could hear the footsteps.

So Genesis did the only thing he could think of, now that his mind was clear, "Angeal… I'll explain everything after Wutai is taken care of."

Angeal nodded, a little distracted, "Glad to see you're speaking sense again."

There was no time to say anything else. Moments later, Zack bounced into the clearing to find Angeal, and froze when he saw Genesis. As Angeal set about introductions and Sephiroth stepped into the clearing with an extremely brief expression of relief, Genesis could only wonder two things.

What the hell had he been thinking, and how by the Goddess had a puppy made him see sense?

Oh- and who Cloud was, he guessed.