"Aerith's on her way." Zack said as he bounded back into the room and almost took his chair to the floor in his excitement to sit down again. Everyone jumped visibly at his sudden arrival and he grinned apologetically.

"Cissnei shouldn't have reason to suspect anything with so many people staying." Cloud commented. "Including the kids there'll be five."

"That's true." Zack nodded.

"Are you going to begin looking in Nibelheim then?" Tifa asked curiously. Cloud glanced at Zack and the dark-haired man nodded.

"We don't have any other ideas yet, so that's where we'll start. We might even stumble across or clue or something when we're there." Zack explained.

"Yeah, hopefully Sephiroth's staying somewhere in Nibelheim so it'll be easier to track him down." Cloud agreed.

"What if Genesis already tried looking in Nibelheim?" Tifa questioned. Cloud frowned and Zack bit his lip in thought.

"There's no way of knowing, yo." Reno spoke up. "We gotta start with whatever information we've got."

"True," Tifa sighed. "I just wish we had some other clue of some sort."

"Like Zack said before, we might find something in Nibelheim." Cloud shrugged.

"Tifa!"

The terrified scream sounded from upstairs and in an instant Tifa had leapt from her chair and was racing up to find the children. Cloud, Zack and Reno all stared at each other in shock before also getting up and following.

Tifa entered Marlene's bedroom and found Denzel on his knees in the middle of the room with one hand on his forehead and the other on the ground.

"Denzel? Are you okay?" Tifa asked as she dropped to the floor beside him and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. He recoiled immediately and his eyes looked up at her in anger.

"Don't touch me." he spat. Tifa's eyes widened in horror as she stared at his face and where the beginnings of geostigma was appearing.

"Zack; grab a cloth and dunk it in cold water." Cloud ordered, pushing his way into the room and then bending down to scoop Denzel into his arms. He took him over to his bed and lay him down, ignoring the boys protests.

"What are you doing?" Denzel growled. "You're going to get it too just from touching me!"

"Cloud, here."

Cloud turned to take the wet cloth from Zack and then turned back to Denzel and lay it across the boys forehead.

"Try and relax." Cloud said. "You're going to be fine."

"I don't want you to get sick because of me!" Denzel continued to protest.

"If I do, it's my fault. Now lie still!" Cloud frowned slightly and firmly held Denzel's shoulders until he stopped moving around. "We're going to look after you."

"Why bother? I'll die anyway." Denzel muttered, choking over some of the words as he fought back a sob.

"Don't say that!" Tifa exclaimed, horrified.

"But everyone with the stigma dies! There's no cure!" Denzel yelled.

"Quiet!" Cloud ordered. The boy fell silent and looked away from them all. "You need to rest, so stop getting so worked up. Try and sleep."

Turning and heading towards the door, Cloud gestured for Tifa to follow him. They walked downstairs before Cloud turned to face her, a look of pain and confusion on his face.

"Fill me in on what I've missed. What's geostigma?" he asked.

"No one's really sure of how it's happened. But it's a new disease and it's deadly." Tifa explained quickly, not wanting to lose control of her emotions in front of Cloud.

"What does it do?" he pried.

"Well as you saw, it appears as a black substance on the skin. It's really painful and... very contagious." Tifa bit her lip nervously, now wondering herself whether or not Denzel would survive.

"And no one's been known to recover from it?" Cloud asked quietly.

"No one." Tifa confirmed in an equally quiet tone. Cloud began pacing in front of her, a look of concentration fixed to his face.

"Zack has to go look for Sephiroth. There's no way we can avoid that without risking the destruction of the entire world." Cloud said as he paced. He wrung his hands together and took a deep breath. "I'm going to find a cure for the geostigma. I don't care what it takes. I'll find one. You, Reno and Aerith stay here and look after Denzel. Make sure Marlene doesn't get too close to Denzel so she doesn't get it too." He stopped and turned to face her, now a look of determination on his face as he stared at her.

"Cloud, what do you-"

"Please Tifa! We have to stop Genesis' plan and I'm not going to let Denzel die." Cloud interrupted her. Tifa stared up at him with pain in her eyes and then stepped forward, wrapping her arms around him in a hug.

"Aerith and I can look after Denzel while you're gone. Reno should go with Zack." she murmured to him.

"That's a good idea. I'll let him know." Cloud replied, also putting his arms around her.

"Cloud, I'm so scared." Tifa whispered. "I'm scared for Zack, Reno, you and Denzel. And I'm scared that Marlene might get it too."

"It's going to be fine. I'll find a cure." Cloud reassured her.

"Try not to be long." Tifa urged. Cloud was silent for a moment before speaking again.

"If I leave now I'll be back sooner."

Tifa stepped back from him with a gasp, staring up at him with a horrified expression. "Cloud, not yet!"

"When, then? There's no point in waiting longer, Tifa." Cloud reasoned with a sigh. Tifa looked down sadly.

"I guess you're right."

*

"I'm sorry, I seem to have misunderstood you. Could you say that again?" Rufus asked, puzzled. He stared at Genesis with a frown on his face as the red-head sighed and folded his arms.

"You should have told me that before!" Cissnei exclaimed, her eyes wide. "I didn't understand what you meant when you spoke to me last."

"I'm sorry for not being clear. I was in a hurry." Genesis apologised.

"One more time for the record. What do you wish to achieve?" Rufus asked, anger beginning to build up inside him.

"I need to find Sephiroth."

"I gathered that much! I want to find him too!" Rufus fumed. "But what after that?"

"I just finished explaining all of this, however for your benefit I believe I will have to repeat it. With the help of Sephiroth, I wish to unlock the true meaning of LOVELESS." Genesis said.

"LOVELESS... you only care about LOVELESS..." Rufus turned away, putting a hand to his head and closing his eyes as he tried to calm himself down and keep from yelling in his anger.

"I'll tell Reno! Once they know you're on our side we can all work together to find Sephiroth!" Cissnei said enthusiastically as she began pulling her PHS from her pocket.

"No you will not!" Rufus roared, half standing from his wheelchair and then falling back down with a wince. His breathing sped up and he wheezed, placing a hand against the bandages around his chest. Cissnei had frozen in the act of dialling Reno's number and now looked utterly terrified.

"You're not in any shape to be making orders." Genesis pointed out.

"Don't speak to me like that." Rufus snapped, trying to calm his breathing. "I wish for you to refer to me as President or Sir."

"President of what, Sir?" Genesis sneered.

"Don't you dare!-"

"As I said. You're in no shape to be making orders. From now on I will be the one in control and you will take orders from me. Cissnei, call Reno and inform him of what's going on. Rude, I want you to go over there and fix your friendship with him so that you can be partners again. And Rufus, you can stay here with me and explain why exactly you wanted to take over the world."