A/N: In canon, at this point in the timeline, Rude would only be 22, but due to events in the story as I have them set right now, he's 'around 30'. This is one of the changes I'm making to the pre-0000 canon data. Also, to be clear on Rude's color of skin: it varies quite a bit, but my first time seeing it was in the FFVII main game done back when the best they could do with graphics was blocky characters. It comes out to a pale to medium brown which isn't very different from the color of skin Ishbalans have (which is a medium brown color), but is a little paler than theirs. Sometimes I refer to him as having Ishbalan coloring from Ed's perspective, or dark/er skin.

Assessing

Not long after his assessment of the Materia he owned, Edward was in the library, looking for more data on Materia. Each of his new weapons had given him one more slot to put Materia in, so he now had twelve to work with. One Armlet still maintained Restore and Heal, but the other now had Final Attack and Revive—those two would now always be paired. Even though Shiva had tried to convince him to not bother with the regular Ice, he asked her how often he could call for her help and she shut up, so he now had Shiva, Manipulate, Enemy Skill, and Poison in the Glove and Fire, Ice, Lightning, and Earth in the Rapier. He'd worry about Sense and any other Materia he got later, when he had better bracers and weapons which had more Materia slots.

There was no doubt he made progress that afternoon, so spent the whole next day in the library, and the day after. On the fourth day he'd been in Junon, he spent the morning exploring the wilderness in the hopes of finding a monster called Zemzelett—the owl-like one he'd met on his way to Junon—so he could test Manipulate and get his first Enemy Skill activation with an ability called White Wind. Since it was a healing ability, he couldn't get it without using Manipulate, or so the book on enemy skills said. If the first one worked, he should probably make note of the rest of them so he'd know what to collect them from. Shortly after noon, he found a Zemzelett, and sure enough, it had the desired effect on both counts, so after eating a late lunch, he went back to the library to make notes on the skills the Enemy Skill Materia could gain.

On the fifth day, he was back to his Materia research in the library, though he was starting to branch out to the data they had on their world. By the end of the sixth day, he had realized he was on another world entirely, one which the natives largely called 'the Planet', but which was actually named Gaia. The world seemed to be quite small and contained, with a very different map from his own and a hugely different dynamic and belief system. There were no 'countries' by that definition, and the Shinra Electric Power Company was the world's governing power and military force, so by it being another world, there was no way joining the Turks would create a conflict of interests due to his also being an Amestrian State Alchemist. He'd also come across data about the Lifestream and how it functioned while looking up both Materia and the Planet, and was starting to understand what had happened to those monsters he'd seen breaking apart. He was exhausted and needed a break after that—he needed time to assimilate all the new data he had.

He had a further problem, though. The realization that 'the Planet' was another world entirely was a blow and left him with nightmares all night as his mind forcibly ran him through memories of his stupidity at eleven which resulted in Al being in the suit of armor and the realization that the Philosopher's Stone was made of living humans' souls. By dawn, he'd given up on sleep and just stared out the small window in the room as he realized and tried to accept that there would be no going back to Amestris, no way to find Al (unless he was somehow on Gaia with him, but something told him that wasn't the case or Al would have been at Fort Condor, too), and no further work there for him. What Truth had done to him had left him stranded, alone, on a world he didn't know and with no way to go back. Shinra didn't have a means of manual travel between worlds, and he was never going to make the mistakes he'd made in the past to try to open the Gate again—he wasn't going to try to revive some dead person, and trying to create a Philosopher's Stone was out because he could never slaughter so many people.

It hurt to realize that, and he needed a distraction. Badly.

As such, on his seventh day in Junon, he spent the day exploring the two towns and the places the soldiers would let him go. For example, he could go right down to the door into the Underwater Reactor Junon was built for, but they wouldn't let him inside the Reactor itself. He wondered how the Reactor was still intact with such lax security, but hadn't found a lot about Shinra yet to know what kind of path or life it would be if he did anything which allied himself to them, though he could guess the Hell he'd get if he got on their bad side. This time, since he was allowed, he looked around barracks and apartments, mostly inhabited by Shinra Infantry personnel, finding a room which had a few troopers and holograms of three other men who told him about fighting techniques, skills, weaknesses, Materia, and something they called a Limit Break. Did he have one? If they were to be believed, anything which was sentient or semi-sentient had one, so by default, that should include him.

Then again, maybe he already knew one of his by things he'd done back home...

When he finished there, where he found another new Materia for Added Effect, he kept exploring—and found his way into an underground area like a posh bar where four men from various walks of life were playing cards. As he stood near the entrance debating whether he wanted to leave or not, he felt someone large and with a powerful presence come up behind him.

"You're new," a man's voice came from behind him, so he turned his head to look. What he saw was a bald man in around thirty with near-Ishbalan dark skin and a large build—and dressed in what he gathered was the Turks' uniform. Unlike the other two Turks he'd seen, this man wore shades as well, and didn't seem to want to say much.

"Just debating if I should ask to join the game or leave," he said in mild amusement. "I need a break from my research, so..."

After a pause, the man asked, "You're Edward?"

"Yeah. I'm guessing all the Turks know about me now."

There was another pause, then the big man gave a nod and took his elbow to lead him to the table where the card game was going on. When the others paused and looked up to greet 'Rude' and invite him to join them, he said, "He's joining, too."

...What kind of name was 'Rude'? Well, it could have been a shortened form of Rudy, Rudolf, or another similar name, he supposed...

While the others were clearly surprised, they all readily made space, exchanged names, and set up a new game with six instead of four. For the rest of the day, he played what was obviously a variation of poker with the group, and when they finally broke up, late in the evening, Rude followed Ed back to the main street and towards the inn. As odd as it was for Ed to think of it because Rude was basically a stranger, he didn't mind the companionship as he was currently living without the constant presence of his brother, and the Turk's size and silence was a lot like Al's.

At the door to the inn, Ed stopped and asked, "Are you staying here, too?"

"No," Rude answered, but it felt like he was going to say more, so the sixteen-year-old just waited. Finally, the man went on, "You're a good choice."

"You mean to join the Turks?" the boy asked with a blink. When the man nodded, the corner of his lips quirked and he said, "Don't think I'm not giving it serious thought. The results of my current task will have a lot to do with my decision, though, so it's not possible for me to just say 'yes' or 'no' right now, and I'm not stupid—once I'm in, the only way I'll be getting out again is by death. Thanks, though."

After a minute to consider the words, Rude nodded, somehow managing to convey both agreement to the last statement and acceptance of the first at the same time. He then held up his PHS and said, "Call me if you need."

Giving him a grin, Edward said, "Thanks, Rude. Good night." A smile was his only reply, so he turned and stepped inside the inn to sleep for the night.

CA

With the realization that he couldn't go back to his own world, let alone his homeland, he felt it was better to absorb himself in the new world he was on—to just not think about everything he'd lost yet, or he would risk having nothing to keep him moving forward. In Amestris, he'd always had something to push him forward, or someone in the form of Al, Winry, or even Mustang or other Amestrians, but now...That was a blank, and there was nothing which would keep him moving if he didn't do it himself. Ironically, it was thinking of all the people he'd said, "You have a good, strong pair of legs, so get up and use them. Move forward," to which was giving him the push to do it himself, because he really hated the thought of being a hypocrite, and if he couldn't move forward now, that would be exactly what he was.

So, his attention turned to Gaia and finding out everything he could so he didn't crash with no one to pull him out of it again.

The next week passed quickly, most of it spent on research, especially when he finally came across some more substantial data about Shinra and a name of a place he could go to in order to get more data about Materia and Gaia itself. Once more, he wound up playing poker in that bar and lounge, spending a good part of that day with Rude again, but his main concern was with what he was finding out at the library. He could easily begin with what wasn't being said about Shinra, and with how much he could tell at a glance was being covered up because the Company had almost complete control over the media in all forms. In short, it looked too good, too clean—even a perfect, pristine company known to help the community (one which actually met those conditions, rather than pretending to) had occasional accidents and dishonest employees, so for all of those to just not exist or to have been played down to an extreme, the manipulation was obvious. Propaganda at its worst.

That day, exactly two weeks since he got to Junon, he took his notes back to his room at the hotel and spread them out around him to start sorting them and re-reading the data as he did. The next day, he spent his time finishing that sorting, and then assessing the data he'd gotten from all of it for a decision on his next step. Much of that was being done as a re-write where he was throwing in his own notes as well.

Gaia differed from his own world in two major ways: the presence of a Lifestream which was physically interactive with the world, and the existence of Mako and Materia.

On his world, carbon was the key component in all things, along with other base metals, minerals, and non-metalic elements, and when the object decomposed or otherwise broke down, it returned to those base physical components, which then nourished the land. The process took an extended time, often ranging between weeks and eons, unless someone decided to create a funeral pyre for the dead. There was also no Mako or Materia, despite the fact that his world had a form (weaker, maybe?) of the Lifestream—the Veins of the Dragon. He'd never heard of energy wellsprings where there was nothing but pure energy coming up from them, and the closest approximation they had to Materia was the Philosopher's Stone, which wasn't created by any natural process, nor any benign one.

The Planet he was on now was the exact opposite. Everything in the world was made up of Lifestream energy condensed into a physical form and given functions in order to 'experience life'. When it decomposed or otherwise broke down, it would eventually just revert to energy form and be absorbed back into the Lifestream. While the Planet was healthy, there was an abundance of Lifestream energy, which created Mako springs, or outlets for the world's excess energy—that led people to the assumption they'd found a power source which would never run out. It was also known that natural Mako springs produced Materia, which meant they were also a formation of excess energy and came from a benign source—the Lifestream itself.

That wasn't a terribly difficult concept for Ed to understand, in itself, but what puzzled him was how people composed of Lifestream energy could possibly get 'Mako poisoning'...unless it wasn't actually 'poisoning' and people had their data wrong...

It also meant Materia couldn't be compared to Philosopher's Stones because they were a natural byproduct of the Planet's own energy and would exist with or without people. The Materia themselves also seemed to have some degree of almost-sentience, just for the fact that something like Final Attack or Enemy Skill could function. Being made of planetary energy instead of people's souls also meant they couldn't be 'used up', as the energy was a constant application and regenerated itself while at rest.

The major oddity he'd found was with the dead zones around the Reactors, and the production of Materia as a byproduct of energy being sucked out of the land. Also, how could there still be existing natural Mako springs if the world was being so badly damaged?

He could really only draw the conclusion that Mako springs and Materia formed in specific places where there was an over-abundance of Lifestream energy, regardless of the state of the land immediately surrounding it. Gaia wasn't 'a contained unit', but rather a collection of smaller units, many of those 'smaller units' being force-created by the Reactors...and in a way, that also meant the Reactors themselves were extremely inefficient and were pulling up much more energy than their communities used.

Materia themselves weren't that hard to understand—in his opinion, at least. There were five main types, from least rare to most rare: green Magic, yellow Command, blue Support, purple Independent, and red Summon. While those were the general colors, not all of them were uniform shades of each, other than the red ones—he had a Fire Materia which was a darker green than his Ice, which was darker than his Restore, for example, so he knew what the note about color variance meant. In general terms, Magic and Summon Materia were based on 'elemental' properties or the lack thereof in order to attack, heal, or affect the status of an enemy or ally, or more than one. Command types gave people access to skills they may not have had naturally, and Support modified the effects of many of the Magic, Summon, and Command affects. Only Independent Materia operated independently of the rest, boosting personal ability or causing an alternate independent effect, such as luring or repelling monsters.

Of course, he was rather curious about how the Materia actually gained experience, as 'participating in battle' made no sense. Gaining experience by casting Magics and Summons and using Commands, other than Enemy Skill, also didn't make sense as Support and Independent Materia couldn't gain any that way. Also, after assessing the 'growth' of his Materia over a few days of doing nothing which used them, he was finding they were all growing, gaining 'experience'. The only real explanation he could come up with was that their contact with him through the slots was allowing them to siphon some of his energy to help them grow, much the way they came to exist through excess Lifestream energy in the first place.

While he had complete lists of the kinds of Materia out there, that was actually the least of his current worries, as he was still missing a lot of data about the Planet and the Lifestream, though at least he knew he'd have to go to Cosmo Canyon to find out more, and they hated Shinra people. Actually, just by being a stranger to them, he wasn't likely to be allowed in unless someone from there invited him in if the data in the library was true, but he couldn't say that was or wasn't unless he went there. To compound the issue, he'd found no references to someone who got information overload from touching Materia with bare skin, the closest reference being a group of thought-to-be-extinct people who had once lived on Gaia and were purported to have the ability to hear and speak directly to the Lifestream. Again, his best bet and closest link to that maybe myth, maybe legend lay in Cosmo Canyon.

And then, there was Shinra. He'd made several notes which he now re-read:

Shin-Ra Electric Power Company officially, though spoken and written form often interchangeable w/owner's family name, Shinra (President Shinra/son: Rufus Shinra)

Creators of Mako energy, which made people's lives much easier—at a cost

Developed several departments: Weapons Dev (Scarlet), Science (Hojo), Urban Dev (Tuesti), Space Exploration (Palmer), Public Safety Maintenance (Heidegger)

*What does a COMPANY need with Weapons or 'Public Maintenance'—an army?

Public Safety Maintenance branches:

Investigation Sector of the General Affairs Department/Department of Administrative Research—A.K.A. "The Turks" (affinity to Rufus?/just guarding him?)

SOLDIER (Special Operations, Logistics, Demolitions, Infiltration, Enforcement, and Reconnaissance)—joint project with Science (Hojo)

Security Department—A.K.A. "Infantry and Police"

The Roboguard—joint project with Weapons (Scarlet)

*Looks like Heidegger isn't very much in control of his own department :P

From what he'd read, SOLDIERs were enhanced with Mako injections created by the Science Department, which meant they were a bunch of science experiments in the name of creating the 'perfect soldier'. A man (women were excluded due to concerns with fertility, apparently) had to be strong to get into SOLDIER, but being in it made him stronger. The one sure way to tell if someone was actually a SOLDIER was by their eyes, which almost invariably turned glowing blue with a rim of green or teal around the pupil—an effect no normal person had. The Turks and Security, on the other hand, were ordinary, un-enhanced people, the greatest defining factor being their natural level of skill in combat—the Turks far exceeded Security. While almost half the Turks were women, the regular army didn't appeal to women, and the reason listed was that women wouldn't join a completely useless unit good for nothing but show—Ed was actually surprised that note had been allowed into print. Otherwise, there seemed to be near-equal numbers of men and women in all the research-based departments of Shinra, regardless of how morally and ethically questionable the department studies were.

Considering he'd been invited to join the Turks, it had the benefits of giving him access to data he wouldn't have otherwise—the same reason he'd joined the Amestrian military as a State Alchemist—and it looked like they weren't used in experiments. On top of that, the average pay people of their position made was huge, he knew that from experience, so it would give him that steady income he'd been worried about before and then some—he'd be able to keep up his personal research habits. The down-side was that they were also the ones who did the Company's dirty work, and he wasn't sure how well that would sit with him, but he was sure Veld would be able to—tailor his missions a bit, or he'd be able to request ones he thought he'd actually be able to fulfill. However, joining the Turks, especially now, would shut a lot of doors to him, ones which had the potential to be useful—Cosmo Canyon and Wutai, along with others.

Was it worth losing access to those places, or should he wait until he'd visited them? Rather, was it worth risking a trip to Cosmo Canyon just to likely be turned away, or a trip to Wutai as someone sharing general looks with their enemy?

He could understand Wutai's hatred of Shinra, as the 'power company' had demanded the right to take over Wutai, only to be told no, so had launched an attack on the small 'country' to take the land by force. Unfortunately, most mega-powers worked the same way—just look at Führer Bradley and 'Father'—so he was well-aware of that problem. It didn't give him much faith in Shinra's policies, nor their actual degree of care and concern for the citizens whose lives they controlled. On the surface, Shinra looked great, as did Mako energy, but Wutai's only reasons had been a desire to continue living in their traditional ways, which had maintained their own lands a lot better than Shinra's ways did theirs. The Company didn't even keep up basic maintenance of things like their roads, the Reactors, or power lines, making their policy come out like 'let's build it then just let it fall apart because we don't care about anything but money anyway.'

If only he knew more about the things Shinra kept hidden from the public...

And all of that was besides the string of oddities surrounding his arrival on Gaia. He hadn't yet had time to really think about those, either, so now may be a good time. The Materia windfall he'd appeared at, his reactions to the Materia, his reactions to slotted Materia, how a language he hadn't known had suddenly become legible—

A knock on the door made him quickly shuffle his notes to show Cosmo Canyon on the top, then he went to open the door. To his surprise, Rude and Freyra were outside, the man carrying a tray of food—and his stomach suddenly rumbled loudly as he realized how hungry he was. Rude gave a small smile, but Freyra laughed as Ed blushed, then he stepped back to let them enter the room.

"Hi Freyra, Rude. What brings you here?" he asked curiously, sitting down on the bed again—only to find Rude presenting the tray to him. Taking it slowly in surprise, he then grinned at the man and said, "Thanks. I guess I missed a meal or two."

"You did," Freyra agreed. "It was Rude's idea to come and make sure you'd eaten when we hadn't seen you around today. Is something wrong? You don't look sick."

"No, I'm not," he answered between bites of his meal. "Nothing's wrong except for having to compile and assess what minimal results I got from the first stage of my research and what I'm going to do from here."

"Cosmo Canyon?" Rude asked as he examined the top couple sheets of research Ed had done. He set them down again and turned his gaze to Ed.

"It's the only lead I have left, but I'm not sure if I should go that far just to be turned away for being a stranger," he shrugged.

Rude and Freyra traded looks, then the woman plopped herself down beside him and said, "I think you should tell us a bit about what the problem actually is, because only people who think something's wrong in the world ever go there or want to go there."

"Is there really 'nothing wrong in the world'?" Ed asked in amusement, making her blink, then turn faintly pink. "But no, that's not my reason. It's more personal than that, something which affects me specifically. It has more to do with how I react to Materia than it has to do with the Lifestream itself, but Materia are a byproduct of the Lifestream, so there's still a connection."

"How you react to Materia? You seem to use them just fine, if with stronger reactions than a normal person would have," the woman commented.

Pausing, Ed stared up at the ceiling for a minute, the hand with the last of the sandwich which had come with the meal sagging back into his lap uneaten. Did he really want them to know the actual depths of his problem, or was it too risky? Finally, he heaved a sigh, shoved the last of the sandwich into his mouth, and grabbed a clean sheet of paper and a pen to draw small versions of six different arrays for the Materia he had on him. He set them up with two across the page and three down, using the main one for Shiva, the third for Restore (Regen), the strongest for Fire (identical to Mustang's), the main one for Final Attack, and two of the dormant ones on Enemy Skill.

Holding it out to the two Turks, he asked, "Have you ever seen anything like this before? If not, there's no point in my saying more."

Freyra looked at it thoughtfully, but Rude said, "Send them to Genesis."

"Oh, that's right! He has things like this in his office, doesn't he?" the woman asked cheerfully, pulling out her PHS. "Do you mind if I send them to Commander Genesis Rhapsodos? He's our Materia expert, so he'll be the most able to talk with you about this, and he's obviously seen them before to have images of them in his office."

The sixteen-year-old looked between the two in surprised amazement for a moment, then slowly nodded, so Freyra took a picture with her PHS and sent the image in a text to Genesis.

Done with that, she grinned and said, "We should have his attention soon, so we'll see what he thinks of that and what he has to say to you."

After that, they just chatted about general things while they waited for a response.