A/N: This chapter has a general note, and a note specific to people also reading Salvation's Hands, so the people only reading this path of the story don't have to read the second note (2/SH). (Well, technically no one HAS to read ANY of the notes, but they're there to clear some things up if anyone needs or wants.)
Heart-to-Heart
"...I just thought of something," Zack said suddenly, and Aeris, Eden, Felicia, and Elmyra looked at him, seeing his thoughtful expression. His gaze was on Eden as he said, "It's great to start over on another world, but that would be without our memories—if what Angeal told me is true, we'd all end up dead before going somewhere else. If we don't have the memory of what not to do and why we don't do it, how are we supposed to keep from making the same mistakes? I mean, obviously the Ancients still fell into the trap or we wouldn't have the society we do now."
Everyone was surprised by the words for a few moments, until Aeris said softly, "That's not actually true." They all looked at her in surprise. She looked sad, but she explained, "Well, maybe the Cetra—the Ancients—would have gone this route, but it would have taken them a lot longer when left to their own devices. After Jenova, they were barely still surviving, but Minerva says about a thousand years after Jenova landed here, something she thought was a 'normal' meteor hit her. The Cetra went to investigate because she told them something had arrived with the 'meteor', but...
"They didn't find a meteor. They found a metal structure with technology they had never seen, and humans who at first didn't dissipate into pyreflies when they died. Those people were also dying from Mako poisoning just from being here, in normal air, so the Ancients gave them transfusions, which stabilized them. As generations of those new humans passed, they began to dissipate like the Cetra did, and Minerva accepted them as her children as well. Cetra spent their whole lives traveling, but these other humans didn't. They set up homes, towns, cities, and rooted themselves in those places no matter how much they had to struggle to live there. That's why we have a money system, and why we even know about graves and graveyards.
"Without them, though, there was a good chance the Cetra would have died out completely, because we aren't very prolific, but those other humans were. Families of Ancients were lucky to have two or three children in their lives, but those other humans could help them have five, six, seven, they were so prolific. Mixing the genetics also meant there were Cetra being born without the basic abilities all Cetra had previously had. Hojo thinks there is only one Cetra left, but really, there are many of them—they just don't actively have the abilities of the Cetra. Minerva will activate those abilities again when she feels the time is right."
"So basically, this world is a melting pot of 'otherworldly' influence," Eden commented, and Aeris nodded. He looked back at Zack and said, "But you made a good point, and the only way to circumvent that is if Minerva is able to redesign Omega to act as a literal 'vessel' like the ship running between Junon and Costa del Sol. If she can't, all she can do is try again and hope they learn next time, but if she can make it hold people intact, say in a kind of stasis until she lands somewhere and it becomes habitable, they would have those memories intact, as well as their original forms. That would then be a kind of 'ark' meant to preserve the existing ecosystem as it is rather than her building a completely new one."
He paused and eyed the others for a minute before saying, "And that also has downfalls, because part of the reason this world got so screwed up in the first place is because those people who landed here had their memories intact."
"Damned if you do and damned if you don't," Felicia commented. "That's not very encouraging. Eden, I have to wonder if you actually are human, though."
He was about to reply when Aeris said, "He's human, but he's got more relation to the other humans who arrived here later than to the Cetra." She gazed at him for a moment before she asked, "How can you be a Sentinel, then? That's a branch of the Cetra, but you aren't from here, after all."
Eden blinked at her, then blinked at her again in sudden realization as Zack asked, "You're not...from the Planet, Eden?" (1)
"...The Gate," Eden said to Aeris. "The Gate was the unifying link between the worlds and people used it to cross between them, and when the Cetra stopped using the Gate, they stopped exchanging people—until now."
"Ooooh. Okay," the girl grinned, and the others stared at her as the blond teen gave her a small smile in reply.
"...That's it?" Zack asked her curiously.
"That's it. Since 'humans' are from another world, too, like you, should it matter to me?" Aeris asked him in reply, and he chuckled.
"Good point," he agreed, then looked at Eden. "Are you ready to go, then?"
Eden looked at Felicia questioningly, and she gave a nod. "We're all finished, so you're free to go."
"I want to rest a bit longer, first," the blond teen replied, putting his head back down.
"Of course," the others agreed.
Soon after, Aeris roped Zack into helping with the housework—something he quite happily helped with. When asked why, he explained that he'd been an only child, so had often helped his mother in the kitchen and doing housework. Finally, about forty-five minutes after Eden had put his head down to rest, he felt well enough to head back, so he and Zack said their good-byes and began their trek back to Shinra.
FoW
When Eden woke in the morning, it was to Genesis' and Zack's voices outside his door loudly enough to be heard.
The red haired man was just saying, "Let me in to see Eden!"
Zack's reply was, "He needs his rest, so let him wake up on his own." Eden rose with a sigh and began pulling on a pair of black pants and the nearest shirt—one of the white, button-up, Turk ones.
"Oh, come on, let me in, Zack..." the other man practically whined. Exactly who was the puppy, Zack or Genesis?
"Sorry, but no," the First replied. "Those aren't my orders, and via chain of command, both Angeal and Sephiroth gave me orders to make sure he rests properly, so the General's command trumps yours."
Finally, Eden was dressed, and Zack had just finished talking, so the blond went to the door and opened it to see Zack nearly backed against his bedroom door and Genesis just past him, pouting at the younger First. "Arguing right outside my door doesn't help," he said dryly, making both look at him in mild surprise. "Genesis, next time I need to rest, please just wait for me to get up, and Zack—the next time you're in a situation like this, keep the intruder as far away from the room your charge is in as possible."
"Sorry..." the other teen said wryly, rubbing the back of his head.
"Does this mean I can come in now?" Genesis asked eagerly.
Raising a brow, the blond Turk answered, "I don't know, maybe I should make you wait for awhile after you woke me from a long sleep I obviously needed..." As the red haired man's face fell and turned horrified, Eden gave an impish grin and said, "But I think I'm plenty awake enough now for company, so you may as well come in."
"Oh, you're a brat!" Genesis laughed as he slipped past Zack. He then turned back to the younger First and said, "Go grab Eden a meal—I'll make sure he doesn't do anything too strenuous in the meantime."
Zack looked at Eden for verification, who heard his stomach grumble and gave a wry grin and nod. The black haired teen headed out, so Eden went back into his room and sat on the bed as he asked the older man in red and black, "So, is there anything in particular you wanted to see me for?"
"Besides to make sure you're okay, you mean?" Genesis asked. When Eden nodded, the man crossed his arms and dropped down on the edge of the bed beside the younger teen. "Eden, I don't think my breakdown yesterday covered what I needed to say, but I got kicked out too soon." His arms dropped and he turned to face the blond as he said quietly, "I didn't have the best childhood—not the worst, but far from the best. There are a lot of things it's hard for me to understand and deal with, insecurities I have which don't quite go away no matter how successful I am or how much I trust someone. I mean—I already knew both Angeal and Sephiroth would take me seriously when I told them Angeal and I were dying, and I knew they'd help...My mind had no doubt of those facts, but my emotions had already turned it into the worst case scenario."
The red haired man sighed faintly and looked away for a moment before looking back at Eden to say, "The lack of emotion you got from me that day in my office was because I was struggling with my own insecurities at the same time. When it looked like you felt I couldn't do my own job, it all hit me, those old feelings I had thought I'd overcome, and I didn't dare have a breakdown then and there—I had no idea my own emotional imbalance would do you so much damage. I'd say I'm sorry for that, but I can't really pick and choose when those kinds of things hit me, so an apology would be pointless...What I will apologize for is not keeping you there long enough to explain what had just happened, even though I knew you were hurting when you left."
For a minute, the blond teen just stared at him, then asked quietly, "Even though you knew I was hurting when I left, did you actually have any idea that, or what, you'd need to explain to me to fix it?" Genesis blinked at him in surprise and confusion, then slowly shook his head, so Eden said, "Even if you had stopped me, it wouldn't have done any good, anyway, because my mind was already so far gone I'd lost touch with reality. I completely missed some very obvious things which should have anchored me, things I'd have caught if I'd been myself right then. There was a mis-communication on both our parts, and apparently, that accidental issue caused us both a lot of pain—a lot more than either of us ever expected. It wasn't, and isn't, something you need to apologize for."
"Ed..." the red haired man sighed, then gave his head a small shake. "I guess you've got a point there." His glowing blue gaze met the younger's golden and he said, "You're my friend, like a brother in some ways...I didn't really realize how close I'd gotten to you in such a short time until right then. By default, that means the things you say to me have a lot more impact than if a stranger had said them. Isn't that the same as what happened to you?"
Blinking, the blond agreed, "I think so...It's like how much impact it has on me when Rude or Balto says something. That can go both ways, helpful or destructive. Trying to deal with the Turks being my new family has been hard enough, but if I'd accidentally formed a bond like that—close friends or brotherly—with you as well without even realizing it...I guess that would have increased the impact and my reaction."
Genesis nodded, then gave the younger man a small smile and reached forward on a whim to give him a hug. "And yet, I'd never want to lose the people I treasure right now."
Eden returned the hug as he gave an equally wry smile and admitted against Genesis' shoulder, "Neither would I." He then paused before asking, "Can we both deal with that now?"
"I believe so," the red haired man agreed, letting the blond go and sitting back. "So...The other reason I came is because of something I found while I was looking at my copy of El—Felicia's arrays. I thought you should have a look at it, because I think it's one of the critical components to what we need to do to save her."
"Really? Which component?" the blond asked as he pulled out his copy and began flipping through them.
Rather than try to explain, Genesis took the stack from his hands and flipped through it until he'd found seven particular sheets from the four shards Ed had. Those, he laid out in their rough orientation to each other (it was a circle of a sort) and said, "These seven are identical and resisted being broken, even though they clearly show damage in places. I have a feeling these are so basic and intrinsic to Zirconaide's form that we'll have to include them and work all our other calculations around them."
"Seven...Arrays using seven as the base are the most powerful and difficult to properly form," the young Turk said quietly. "I've used a seven-point array only twice before because of how complex they are to put together so they'll function. If Zirconaide's basic form is actually a seven-point array, you're probably right and everything we do will have to account for that fact. By default, that means moving the broken sub-arrays will be even more touchy, because we actually can't just pick a side to move them to, we'll have to be very specific about where we move them. We also need a much larger space to lay them out in so we can hopefully see the whole thing properly." (2/SH)
"I thought that, too. It's going to be a delicate thing from the start," the older man agreed, nodding. "I haven't found anything intrinsic to which type of Materia it is, though."
"I have a few points on that," Eden replied, taking his papers back and pulling out several arrays, three from each of the five sections. Four of those sets were identical while one was different—the different set came from the one attached to Felicia.
"So you're working instead of resting?" Zack asked in exasperation from the door, making the other two look up at him in surprise. He carried a tray of food in one hand.
With a small grin, Eden answered, "Mentally. I did this in the hospital, too, and they let me, no matter how bad my physical state was. Besides, this is a very important project—Felicia's life depends on it."
Zack blinked, then sighed and nodded. "Fine. At least eat before you get too wrapped up in it." He then moved over to Ed to give him the tray.
In the meantime, Genesis took the pages the Turk had pulled out in order to examine them closely, and while Eden ate, the red haired man sat with one hand to his chin as he calculated something. By the time the blond had finished eating and Zack propelled himself off the wall to take the tray, the older man had laid the five sets of three out next to where they'd oriented the set of seven Genesis had found. Eden eyed the new layout as Zack watched curiously, but the black haired teen stayed silent while the other two eyed the arrays they had scattered across the blond's bed.
"I was comparing multiple Materia arrays and found that these three sub-arrays exist in each one, with only fairly minor differences," Eden said as he tapped one set of three. "Since I have some of all five types, the more I looked, the more I realized these aren't functional so much as formative. I actually don't understand every mark written in to them, and I can only guess at the complete meaning, because the notations they have are basically single words which are disconnected. However, there were some words I realized could very well be defining what 'type' of Materia they are, because they're ones like 'casting', 'skill', 'assist', and 'calling'—other words for Magic, Command, Support, and Summon. Also, every single Materia of that type has these in identical form—every one of my Supports has these three in exactly this way, and every one of my Summons has Felicia's three exactly that way."
"Ah," Genesis nodded thoughtfully. "I'll run a check on mine and see what my results are, but on the assumption you're right, that could very well be the set we need to change. Also, if it's true every one of the arrays in Materia of that type is identical, that becomes one of the easiest things we need to do, because we'd be turning them all into Independent Materia—and all Independent Materia have the same pattern without exception, so..."
"Don't assume that, though," Eden said with an intent frown at the three. "I'm still comparing Materia types, but there may be more arrays involved in forming the type of Materia than just these three, and those could be the ones where the majority of changes from one Materia shard to the next come into play."
"There's that, but on the other hand, if we're already complicating things by making it into a seven-point array, would it still be able to function with the level of complexity you're implying?" the red haired man asked, head tipped to the side.
Golden eyes met his glowing blue as the teen asked, "Do you have any idea how complex an array can be made before it stops functioning?" The words were soft and made the older man and Zack both blink in surprise. "A single array, if made on a large enough scale, can create an other-space, a pocket of space and time cut off from the world we live in. It can slaughter an entire population to turn a single being into something akin to a God—can you even begin to imagine the complexity of an array like that? And that's using a single array. If you start adding in sub-arrays, each capable of being as complex as a single array, and attach a soul to that...Just how complex do you think that can become? Because let me tell you—there is no limit to how complex an array can be before it doesn't function anymore. Too little complexity destabilizes it or prevents functionality with only a very few exceptions, but too much—there's no such thing."
Two pairs of glowing blue eyes widened at the words, and Genesis released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "Then I guess you're right and it's too soon to decide those three arrays are the only things we need to worry about. Though..." The man paused for a moment as he let a thought form in his mind, then said, "Three and seven are both power numbers, strong ones. It wouldn't be unreasonable to say both would be used in one complex array. On the other hand, if it's not actually three, it would probably have to be seven, wouldn't it? Unless there are other power numbers you know—literal power numbers, not the most common ones."
"Three and seven are uncommon in our arrays, but we never particularly allocated 'power' to them, just a—I guess balance or energy format? But many numbers won't function in a seven-point array, so we'd be pretty limited in compatible numbers," Eden mused. "So you're probably right in saying any of the numbers we'll be using will be threes and sevens, possibly with multiples of those in a few aspects."
"And none of this freaks you two out and makes you want to run away and never touch arrays or Materia again?" Zack asked incredulously.
"It's just data," both of the other two answered at the same moment, making the black haired teen stare at them in amazement as they looked at each other in momentary surprise, then chuckled.
"What happened to Leviathan, by the way?" Eden asked the black haired teen suddenly.
Zack dug in his pocket and withdrew two red orbs which he offered to Eden, then said, "As soon as we finished with our meeting with the Director, Angeal got the original from me and sent it back to Wutai. The Emperor should be getting it soon, but I had time to produce three of those in the meantime because Angeal let me keep the first one I produced. Er—Yufi has one because she stole it from me, and Illis spanked her, but I felt bad about it, so I told her she could keep it as long as she promised not to steal again. If she steals again, Illis will take it from her and give it back to me or to you. I sort of think Illis only agreed to that because Yufi is the Princess of Wutai—Leviathan actually sort of belongs to her by birthright."
"Fair enough," the Turk agreed as he grinned, then handed the incomplete one back to a startled Zack. "Produce a few more before you give it back to me. I think we might want to start producing some reserve Materia people can use in emergencies. Hold on and I'll give you some of my other ones so you can make copies tonight." With that, he got up to find his bracers and weapons, then pulled out Odin, Carbuncle, and Sylph, and was about to pull Alexander free when Genesis stopped him.
The older man pulled Phoenix off his bracer and Bahamut from his pocket, then offered both of those to Zack. "Take those two as well and make copies," Genesis told the black haired teen. "I'll be back tomorrow to retrieve my originals, and Eden can take the ones you produce."
"Okay," Zack agreed, taking the batch of Summon Materia and going to the living room to put the tray down and lay out the new Materia he had to Master. "Eden, do you want more than one spare of any of these?" he called as he sat.
"Give me an extra of Carbuncle so I can give it to Rufus," the blond called back.
Both Zack and Genesis snorted at the request, but the black haired teen replied, "Will do!"
With him out of the room, Ed looked at the red haired man and asked, "Are we done with the arrays for now?"
"Yes, for the moment," Genesis agreed with a small smile.
"Good...Thank you," the blond said with an answering small smile.
They kept talking about more general things until the older man got a call asking him to meet someone elsewhere, then he left.
FoW
The rest of that day and the next passed quietly, mainly with people visiting Eden or him heading to the library next door to his room for more reading material. On the first of those days, Zack went with him, but he was left to move around on his own the next day, or with company he chose. Balto and Rude both also visited him for heart-to-hearts as long as or longer than the one he'd had with Genesis, and they helped talk him through some of the things eating at him. He felt more settled by the time he had to meet Tseng, and had things for his mind to work on in the meantime.
Over those two days, all their kids, Cait Sith (one of Reeve's non-hedonist ones), Rufus, several of the Turks (including but not limited to Reno, Cissnei, Emma, and Ruluf), and Sephiroth and Angeal had all visited him. What puzzled him was why Tseng hadn't visited him, when even Felicia had managed to find time to stop in for a visit to make sure he was doing better.
Finally, it was supper of the next day, and his meeting with Tseng was set for after that, so he took his time eating as he exasperatedly allowed Reno to sit with his arm around his shoulders while the red haired Turk babbled about everything under the sun. Mainly, he had to put up with the other man's arm because he couldn't move it, just like he hadn't been able to the day they'd arrived in Corel in the chopper. It was annoying, but what was even more annoying was when Reno managed to coax him into responding to all his babble.
"Will you stop that, Reno?" Eden finally asked in annoyance. "I'd really like to finish eating before my meeting, and I can't do that with you talking a mile a minute and trying to get me to answer you!"
After a moment of surprised blinking, the older teen burst out laughing and rested his forehead on the blond's shoulder as he said in amusement, "Don't sweat it, yo! Tseng didn't give ya an actual time to meet him, so you don't have ta rush!"
When the blond stared at him without comprehension, the red haired man pulled out his PHS and opened it, going to some sort of schedule with the Shin-Ra logo on it, then showing him the scheduled times for 'the evening meal'. If the data in the provided grid was true, Eden didn't actually have to report to Tseng until eight in the evening, so slowly closed his eyes and sighed—and left Reno's arm around his shoulders.
What was with him, anyway?
Notes:
(1) I would anticipate Felicia telling Shears and Zack caving and telling Angeal, leaving the possibility of Sephiroth and Genesis finding out that Eden's from another world. I don't especially think the SOLDIERs would care, mainly because they're rather 'otherworldly' themselves with Jenova's genes, and as long as Felicia doesn't especially care, Shears probably won't, either. I doubt anyone outside them will know unless it comes up after they get to Spira.
(2/SH) In this version, Genesis got a whole lot less done than in SH because he was busy both with his new 10-year-old charge and worrying about Eden after his breakdown. In SH, he spent most of his time after retrieving Al & Co. doing nothing in particular while waiting around for Mustang & Co. to get there, so worked on this—time he doesn't have in Fates of Worlds.
