Genesis and his colleagues were fighting Alexander with all they had. But the Summon wouldn't go down the easy way. Its light beams were powerful enough to tear the ground in its passage and one of those beams was heading right towards Cissnei. To complicate things even more, the M-Barrier Genesis had cast previously was now gone. There wasn't enough time to re-cast it so Genesis jumped as fast as he could, grabbed the girl and fell on the ground with his back turned up, protecting her. The light beam hit the ex-SOLDIER's sword that was in its sheath. Thanks to the Rapier shielding him, he didn't take direct damage, but the pressure of the spell was powerful enough to crush a few of his bones and make him cough a bit of blood.

Cissnei was astonished by his action and became speechless.

There was no time to keep dawdling as Alexander was already preparing another round of his holy spells.

Genesis got up enduring the pain and sliced the air again, this time using wind element. The blast cut through Alexander like razors.

The beams were ready to blast but Cissnei was still on her knees in shock.

"Cissnei, wake up! This is a battlefield, don't make me go save you again!"

The girl came to her senses and picked herself up from the ground. He was right, she didn't have the privilege to be afraid. She threw her Shuriken to slow their enemy down for a few more minutes, though when it hit Alexander the beams were already on their way.

Weiss, confident in his own strength, walked right in front of one of the beams and, with two swings up of his blades, the beam redirected upwards.

"Wait, I have an idea!" Cissnei shouted after seeing Weiss' feat. "Holy element is essentially light, right? It's possible to reflect it using your swords, just like Weiss did now!"

"That's it! And Holy is weak against itself, we can reflect the beams towards Alexander to beat it." Genesis turned to Cissnei and added. "Take this, you'll stick with the support magic while we handle the spells."

Cissnei took the barrier materia and cast M-Barrier right after equipping it. Next, she threw her Shuriken for the third time as Alexander was regaining its speed one more time.

"Okay Weiss, are you ready?"

The silver-spiky-haired man nodded.

They positioned themselves accordingly and deflected the coming beams. When the spells slapped the Summon, it groaned for the first time since the battle started. That was a good sign, the plan was working perfectly.

They kept spamming the holy beams at it and Cissnei would, now and then, reforge the M-Barriers and slow Alexander's movements.

One more beam was moving towards Cissnei again, but this time, the barrier was still up. However, Genesis looked back at her to make sure she was alright.

A few minutes later, one final spell clashed against the foe and it dissipated right back to its red orb.

Genesis lay down on the ground after the conflict.

"Genesis, are you alright?!" Cissnei yelled.

"I've never... Felt so alive in my entire life!" A huge smile was sculped on his face.

"That's good, brother, but we need to contact that pilot to come pick us up."

Everyone agreed and Cissnei called Cid.

They were back on Edge with the others and, after resting for a while, they gathered around a table to report what was needed.

When Genesis heard about the new clones, he thought something was off.

"A piece of this puzzle is missing. How could she upgrade the monsters? Is anyone here not telling us something? Speak, anything at all could solve this!"

Cloud's lips started moving. "When all of you were gone after the Summons, she came here."

"What? Why didn't ya say somethin' before?" Cid questioned.

"I didn't think it was important, she didn't do anything special." He stopped to think deeper and then spoke again. "But now that I think about it, she pulled a few strings of my hair out."

Genesis eyes widened when he heard Cloud's statement. Why didn't it occur to him sooner? He was the answer all along. Sveta did the exact same thing he did with Zack's hair, a few years back. Both Cloud and Zack had pure Sephiroth cells within their bodies. Using those cells would make the clones stronger.

The green-eyed man punched the table.

"That's the key piece. Even with the Summons, she wouldn't be able to call Sephiroth's soul without a container for it. She's going to use the cells to reproduce his body. She planed all this... She used the fact that we were focused on the Summons to get the cells without anyone noticing... We fell for it like ducks...!"

"But wait, how does she have everything else she needs if the orbs we've collected are hidden in the Turks HQ?" Barret thought.

"Tseng and Elena... Damn it! Something really did happen to them, afterall!" Cid remembered.

"Maybe, but I'm pretty sure they wouldn't lose the Summons to the enemy. All that must have happened while Sveta was messing with Ciss and the other two. This means she sent her slaves to take care of Boss. If it's just the henchmen, Tseng can surely win." Everyone was amazed at Reno's deduction. He was simple-minded but sometimes he would say clever stuff.

Rude adjusted his sunglasses in agreement and suggested going back to HQ to check on things. Cissnei wanted to go with them, but they didn't let her.

Night eventually came. While everyone remained inside the bar waiting for Reno's call and mourning for Reeve's death, Genesis was sitting in the town's plaza. He hadn't read LOVELESS for quite some time so he took the book out of his pocket.

A few minutes later, Cissnei sat down beside him in silence. She just stood there watching the man, carefully. He felt troubled by her gaze and decided to close the book.

"Didn't I tell you not to get close to me? You'll only get hurt if you keep this up."

"What about Weiss? Why does he get to stay? It's not fair, is it?" She asked angrily.

"He is bound by the same fate I am. He has no other choice but to stick with me."

"Humm... Is that fate risking your lives for others?"

"That's what a Hero does, isn't it?"

"Then, next time, I'll be your Hero. Next time, it'll be my turn to save you." Cissnei smiled.

Not again. Genesis heart was beating fast again. He knew it was dangerous to get emotionally attached to the girl but there was something about her that kept drawing him in. He couldn't fight against it anymore and finally hugged her.