AN: Soooo...there has been some tweaking. Lots and lots of reviews-YAY! However, several of you have brought up some pretty good points and ideas so I'm going to revamp a few of my unposted chapters. Please bear with me! Love you guys!
Despite Lazard's permission for the rest of the war, the SOLDIERs did actually need to return to ShinRa to regroup and plan after what they'd found in Deepground's base. Sephiroth and Vincent spent a great deal of time with Hojo, finally coming out with information that frankly horrified everyone. The only good bit of news they'd managed to extract was the location of a cave outside of Nibelheim to which Hojo thought Lucrecia had fled.
When they emerged from the scientist's cell, Sephiroth nodded to Chic and the handful of Crimson Guard. Turning his back, he subtly switched off the cameras and then left them to it. Mysteriously, Hojo didn't make it through the night and what was left of him wasn't fitting for an open-casket funeral. He paid for every single moment Delta Team had been useless to their General and every agonizing scream they could still hear ringing in their ears.
Angeal's men were ecstatic about his return, the rookies looking up to him with even more awe when they learned he'd been undercover the whole time.
The Crimson Guard only felt validated pride in their General when the truth came out. Still, a group of them was always outside of Tifa's room-any time of the day or night. Deepground had kept them for almost a week and none of those that had endured it were healthy. Tifa had taken the brunt of the torture and then taken an explosion of live Mako directly. The medics didn't know what effect that would have on her. They'd had to cast Cure constantly on the way back to HQ and even then she was barely hanging on. They also learned to work around the Crimson General, as he refused to leave her side. Since his magic seemed to be one of the only things actually helping her, they didn't comment.
There was a large gash running across her body, from her shoulder to hip that refused to heal correctly. Something about that wound specifically, made Genesis' fists clench in rage and his jaw tighten with helplessness. She'd nearly been cut in two and it reminded him of that day in the training room-so long ago now-that he'd barely saved her from the same fate.
It actually didn't concern the medics as much as the state of her back. She'd been whipped and beaten to the point that there was very little skin on her back and shoulders. Her hair had matted and stuck in her wounds to such an extreme the medics had been forced to cut the locks. Genesis' continual flood of magic had allowed the doctor to perform graphs over the gaping damage. Once that began healing, they could concentrate on her front. Finally, though, they had done as much as they could. It was a waiting game until Tifa woke.
Sephiroth and Angeal quietly opened the door to their sister's room, finding the mage in his usual place. Elbows on her bed, he was bent over, a constant stream of spells and prayers falling soundlessly from his lips. Sometimes, the Mark Tifa bore glowed faintly, something like a broken, static-filled song rising for a moment before dying off.
The doctor came in behind them, the heartache in the room almost more than she could bear. Gripping her chart, she tactfully drew their attention.
"According to reports, General Lockhart had multiple open wounds when the reactor exploded. All of them absorbed undiluted Mako. This, on top of the physical brutality she sustained, makes it very likely that she will have long-term damage."
Angeal cursed and crossed his arms while the other two men remained unmoving. "What kind of damage?"
The doctor shook her head, unable to meet his eyes. "We don't know. If she wakes—"
"When," Sephiroth broke in to correct her. "When she wakes."
Swallowing, the doctor cleared her throat and hastily nodded. "Yes, of course. When she wakes, we'll be able to tell you more. For now, we've done all we can. General Rhapsodos actually seems to be helping her where we can't."
Looking to the red-headed man, Angeal wondered if he even knew anyone else was in the room. Delta Team 1 had given their reports of their captivity and what they'd seen done to Tifa. All three Generals had read them and it was only through the absolute knowledge that they needed a concrete plan that they were restrained from burning Gaia to destroy AVALANCHE.
Checking Tifa's vitals and the machines hooked up to her, the doctor noted them on her chart and quietly left the room. As she did, Genesis' bloodshot eyes slid open.
"She's still not answering," he choked, dropping his face into his hands.
Sephiroth forced himself to look at his sister-the sight of her still froze his heart. She was wrapped in bandages from her neck to her feet and her face was swollen and discolored-nearly disfiguring her. She no longer looked dead, but still seemed to hover on the edge of it. Her breathing was shallow and stuttering and her heartbeat was far too slow. Mostly, it was the uneasy stillness about her that crushed him. Tifa was so vibrant that seeing her like this was almost like seeing another person.
Genesis had been trying to get through the block she'd put on the Bond, with no success. He still couldn't feel anything from her but her unnervingly slow heartbeat. If Sephiroth had doubts about how the mage felt about Tifa, this situation put them to rest. Maybe the Crimson General had manipulated events with his relationship with Tifa, but right now…right now he looked like he was watching his last bit of air dissipate at an agonizing crawl. Sephiroth knew without question that he also blamed himself for what had happened.
"I can't feel her," he whispered, the raw emotion rubbing their insides like a serrated blade. The admittance broke something in him, because when he raised his head, the desolation in his eyes broke them. "I should have been able to get to her."
"It's not your fault, Genesis," Sephiroth told him roughly. "AVALANCHE did this."
"And Hojo, and President ShinRa," Angeal spat. Shifting, he flopped down in the chair on the other side of Tifa. "How did they keep you from tracking her?" The question was without accusation; the man had honestly been shocked that anything had been able to interrupt Genesis' and Tifa's Bond.
Rubbing his eyes, Genesis fought back the violence clamoring in his soul. Exhaling harshly through his nose, he straightened and turned his gaze to Tifa. "They didn't," he informed them in a hollow voice. "I felt a burst of pain and terror mere seconds before…before Tifa buried the Bond."
Startled, Sephiroth jerked his head around to his brother. "What? You two can do that? I thought…"
The mage shook his head. "No. It doesn't work like that. The majority of the time, Tifa's emotions seem as a golden hum in the back of my mind: always there, but not intrusive. It isn't as if I am perpetually sorting my emotions from hers. Unless I reach for her, I am merely aware of her general status." Some life came back to him as he spoke of the Bond. His face darkened, however, as he finished. "Tifa's extreme concern for me and the absolute horror she knew she was going to face prompted her magic to push the Bond so deeply into her psyche that all I can feel is her life. It was a protective measure; part of her intrinsic need to shield those she loves from her burdens."
"What happened in the church?" Angeal asked in a bid to shift the subject.
A faint, humorless smile touched his brother's face before his eyes slid closed. "I've told you: Tifa is very gifted at manipulating magic. While she doesn't possess a great deal of her own, compared to a mage, she has an extraordinary ability to use the magic around her. The Bond was created when I pushed my magic into her and she strengthened it over the years by pushing hers at me during times of duress. At the church, she pulled every bit of magic in me to her at one time and used it to steal the magic around her before turning it on the reactor." His voice died, having thickened the longer he spoke.
Sighing, Sephiroth ran a hand down his face and pulled together his scattered thoughts. "We need you to focus right now. If AVALANCHE is going to continue Hojo's goals, we're in a boat load of trouble."
"AVALANCHE couldn't care less about activating the Lifestream or the Weapons, unless they would destroy ShinRa," Genesis answered woodenly, his animation dying quickly at the topic switch. "Get Tseng to find out about the Tsviets. If Hojo created them, they could be wild cards in the war. We need to know if he managed to splice Sephiroth's genes into them before Tifa," and he stumbled over her name, "escaped."
The calculating light in his eyes died as they drifted back to the girl lying in bed. There was only a great emptiness on her end of the Bond and it threatened to engulf him.
A tentative knock sounded at the door.
"What?" Angeal barked.
Reno stuck his head in, making Sephiroth wonder at the man's timing. Seeing that he wouldn't be attacked, he nodded to the two looking at him and eased into the room, his hands behind his back. His normally mischievous face was somber as he took in Tifa's condition and nodded to the Generals.
"Rude and I found something we figured Lockhart'll want when she gets done sleepin', yo."
And from behind him, he pulled Tifa's battered duster. An almost sheepish expression flickered in his eyes as the Turk passed it to Sephiroth, as if he was embarrassed to be doing something nice.
Sephiroth blinked down at the familiar garment and then met Reno's odd eyes with a sharp nod. Both of them knew how much she adored that coat and for him to actively search for it bumped him up several notches in Sephiroth's book.
"She'll want to thank you personally, I'm sure," the General told him quietly.
Remembering a conversation from years ago when Tifa was just beginning to make a name for herself, Reno smirked. Shoving his hands into his pockets, he shrugged.
"Tell her she makes bandages look good, yo," he grinned, giving them a playful salute as he left.
Angeal's eyes flicked from the door, to the duster, to his brother. "What was that?"
Holding up the coat, Sephiroth passed it to him, Genesis following the interaction, though he remained silent.
"I gave this to her when she made 1st." He tore his gaze away from the beloved garment and met Genesis' silent questioning. "It covered the Mage Mark, but also gave her some protection." Swallowing thickly, he touched the crimson shoulder guards. "Her men started calling her 'General Rhapsody'."
Choking a hysterical laugh, Genesis finally sat forward and sobbed.
Lazard projected the information in front of the Three Generals and Zack while Tseng stood beside him. "The Tsviets were Hojo's extreme experiments. He subjected them to horrors I can't begin to explain. From the rubble of Reactor 0, we found Rosso the Crimson and Azul the Cerulean dead, as well as several others we're working to identify. We're certain, however, that Shelke the Transparent, Nero the Sable, and Weiss the Immaculate survive. Tseng took a team to the Temple of the Ancients where he was able to recover the Black Materia Genesis discovered was a target."
An evil-feeling Materia the color of night was placed on the table in front of them.
"Since we don't know what will happen to the Lifestream, should it absorb something like this, we're looking for other ways of destroying it."
Angeal snorted. "Why not just send it off Gaia? If it can Summon Meteor, let some other creature be fool enough to destroy their planet."
The Director blinked in surprise. "That's…that's actually a very good idea, Angeal. It hadn't occurred to me to do anything but destroy it."
Sephiroth nodded. "If it is off planet, then no one can use it. ShinRa was backing a space program not that long ago; what happened to it?"
"Funding was cut," Lazard sighed, rubbing his nose under his glasses. "Still, I know the pilot tipped for going into orbit would leap at another chance. Zack, have your men escort a Cid Highwind here as soon as possible. He lives in Rocket Town. Now, about these Weapons…"
Tseng clicked a button and everyone's tablets displayed a folder. "This is everything we know about the Weapons. Apparently, when Jenova crashed here, it caused such devastation to Gaia that the Planet created Weapons to protect itself. Had the Cetra not taken care of the situation, the Planet would have unleashed these creatures to do so. The Turks fought Jade Weapon after destroying Zirconaide, though we didn't know the full extent of what the creature was at the time."
"Hell," Zack muttered. "So, how many are there?"
"We think there are six left, after Jade Weapon was destroyed," Lazard replied. "Everything that Genesis, Angeal and the Turks were able to learn indicates that the Weapons will remain dormant as long as the threat to the Planet is kept at non-critical. Unfortunately, should they be awakened now, there is a very good chance that they will see the Mako Reactors as threats. We've stepped up the conversion process as high as we can, but I want to avoid the situation all together. Our contacts at Cosmo Canyon have been working with us to minimize the risk even beyond the reactors."
"Weiss the Immaculate is the unstable leader of the Tsviets," Tseng picked up the former thread. "Genesis was able to discover that Hojo had implanted all of the Tsviets with chips in their brain-stem. This allowed him to restrict their abilities, even so much as to prevent them from leaving or attacking him. When he died, a computer virus was released into the remaining Tsviets brains, effectively uploading a ghoste of Hojo to them." He paused and met their astonished eyes. "We believe he's going to try to wake Omega Weapon. To do that, he'll need the Protomateria."
"Vincent," Sephiroth stated, his face slack.
Lazard inclined his head. "Exactly. He's already been debriefed on this. I need you, Sephiroth, to go with him to the cave Hojo spoke of. See if you can find anything of Lucrecia and the experiments done during her time with Hojo."
"What about Fuhito?" Genesis asked, his face blank. "Kisaragi has vowed to keep her father out of the fight. Should we spare Wutai any further destruction, they will surrender formally when AVALANCHE is destroyed."
The Director arched a brow. "I would have dearly loved to have been there when you two met, Genesis. I've heard she's…exuberant."
The mage only blinked, not bothering to comment; only wanting the meeting done so that he could get back to Tifa.
"Very well," Lazard sighed, "Angeal, take what you need and track down Fuhito. Tseng will accompany you. This time, make sure the bastard is dead. On the subject of the dead, it was confirmed that Miska Ranmaru was killed in the Deepground destruction. Scarlet is still at large. I have a feeling our dear president might have had more to do with Deepgound than he'll want to admit. After examining the paper trail, it seems as though the president began Deepground but made the mistake of putting Hojo in charge of it and then mostly forgetting about it. Hojo was supposed to create perfect, obedient SOLDIERS that would be completely loyal to the president alone. Left to his own devices, Hojo teamed up with AVALANCHE, furthering their Raven program while trying to get his hands on more of Jenova's cells."
Angeal ran a hand down his face. "Do we know if he managed to splice them?"
Tseng shook his head. "Negative. We think Weiss would have been his first choice for such a thing, but Weiss had become increasingly problematic recently. After reading Delta team's account of their captivity, there is some evidence to suggest that he was planning on using one of them or Lockhart as a new test subject. Correspondence between Hojo and Ranmaru indicates an interest in both Lockhart and Fair, as they were protégés of the Three Generals, but didn't have Jenova cells. Hojo was obsessed with something he called 'purity', though what his requirements were, we haven't discovered."
"Why Omega Weapon specifically?" Zack asked, creeped out to learn that the psycho scientist had been in any way interested in him or his friend.
"We hope Sephiroth and Vincent can find that answer in Lucrecia's cave," Lazard answered.
On Tifa's end of the Bond, something fluttered. Genesis stiffened and then focused on the faint feeling completely. It was so light, he would have missed it had he not been feeling nothing from her for days. Flaring his magic, he reached through the Bond for her, gripping her tightly when he finally found her. It was just a wisp-a bare echo of her, almost, but it curled into him desperately.
Quickly on his feet, he rushed from the room, to the shock of the others. Frowning, Sephiroth stood and exchanged looks with Angeal.
"Something must have happened with Tifa," the Black General realized.
In a heartbeat, they were chasing after their brother, leaving Lazard to cross his arms and roll his eyes.
"Go on," he huffed to Zack. "I know you want to."
Grinning, Zack raced out the door.