Dire Situation

In the end, Eden worked right through the next two days on the storage floor, and had managed to finish organizing them all by the time Reno interrupted him for supper on the second day. His body hurt something awful, and he'd discovered some muscles he hadn't known he'd had—only because they now ached more than he'd thought possible. He'd also managed to trip or drop things several times, which actually began to worry Reno, because he was doing it when he wasn't tired as much as when he was. The room with the engineering parts had been the worst because most of the differences were very subtle and he'd had to ask Reno to ask Tseng how he was supposed to label those items in that room. Someone had turned up from Reeve's department to go over the measurement sizes with him—and also thanked him profusely for organizing everything for them.

Once the two Turks had stopped by Eden's apartment so he could change and had eaten supper in the cafeteria, the red haired man escorted him to Reeve's office. There, Winry and a star-struck Shalua who was practically worshiping the blond fifteen-year-old were waiting to outfit him with his new, temporary leg. Once he'd tried it on (it was only slightly large on him by then), the blond girl told him how to extend or shorten it for the next two weeks or so, and gave him a small tin of oil for his joints—he'd need it more with the temporary leg than he had with his stable limbs. He also remembered to tell her about the dress at Mrs. Gainsborough's which she'd have to get fitted, and told her she'd be able to ask Al and Mei to show her the way.

Once they were done there, Reno showed him to Tseng's office, where that time, he was motioned to close the door when he stepped inside. Reno left to do his own thing, and Tseng and Eden were the last Turks still in the Turks' offices other than whoever was monitoring the cameras. When the blond sat down, he was rubbing his arms because they hurt easily as much as—if not more than—his one flesh leg. He'd also acquired some bruises, and one of those was on his face, so it caught Tseng's eye.

"You look tired," the Wutain commented.

"I feel tired," Eden replied with a half-hearted glare. "I'm almost ready to fall asleep sitting up. Is it really necessary for me to do every storage room in the whole building?"

"Yes, Eden, it is. I wasn't joking when I gave you that instruction, and I don't back down on my word easily," Tseng replied. He then took out a stack of folders and pushed them over to Eden. "Those are the same mission data files you had been given a few days ago. While it wasn't wrong of you to assume what you did because I had never told you where you were supposed to stop—at merely data compilation—there is a legitimate reason why we don't do more so early on a mission. In those files is the original data you had, and the new data I was still waiting for has been added to it. Reassess them all with the new data included—just do it in your head, not in written form—and tell me your impressions."

Slowly, the blond Turk picked up the first folder and opened it to scan the new data—only to find that the new data had completely changed how he'd originally assessed the case. He set it aside and went on to the next, and the next, and the next—all the way through the stack. Of them, two generated the same result he'd originally thought it would be, while the other dozen or so had all completely changed. Finally, with a deep sigh, he dropped the last folder onto the stack of ones he'd gone through, rubbing his head like it hurt.

"And you couldn't just tell me that nine times out of ten, the conclusions I'd drawn would have been wrong—were wrong?" Eden asked, feeling even more tired.

"Would you have believed me without the evidence?" Tseng asked shrewdly. "What you did would have caused us more work than using the gather-then-assess method. I should have known better because nearly every Turk makes this mistake, even when they're given proper instructions, and they nearly all have to see the proof to accept it. Even I did the first time I was assigned to this task."

"...I should have known better..."

"How? You were in a direct combat position before, not an investigative one, and this is your first actual experience dealing with our pre-mission paperwork."

The words brought a faint smile to Eden's face before he gave a small nod and asked, "So, what else do we need to talk about today?"

Tseng sat back for a minute, his gaze thoughtful. Finally, he asked, "How different are your homeworld and the Planet? Did you adapt so well to being here because they're so much alike, or is there actually a chance they exchange people fairly frequently?"

Shaking his head, the blond teen answered, "Other than a few things, like the existence of humans and some regular animals, and a few geological functions, they're as different as night and day. As for my adapting so well, I had Minerva's help with that, and my experience as a traveler for the last five years. Why?"

"I can understand you and your fellow Amestrians knowing about the arrays because that's a function of your world and society, but then how could Genesis or those criminals in Wutai know them?"

"I'm not entirely sure of the details, but I know the Materia operate on the same arrays, meaning those arrays are also functions of this world. The details may have been forgotten, but that doesn't mean people can't—glean knowledge from a few very highly skilled people repeatedly placing a huge amount of focus on the topic, something which previously never happened."

"What?" Tseng asked, his brow furrowing in puzzlement.

"...It's like this," the blond Turk answered with a sigh. "Physical things, like books or teachers, aren't the only ways knowledge transmits between people. The Lifestream is a kind of 'universal consciousness' which causes things some people learn or think to transfer to others by the information being imprinted in their minds without their say. There was a study done to test the theory. (1) From what I can tell, there are two ways it works. Either many of a sentient or semi-sentient race know something, so by default, it imprints in the majority of the rest, or a few people with very strong wills know something, so their knowledge imprints in a few people who are highly susceptible to it. There is the chance that because Genesis and I are both highly focused on the arrays, people susceptible to that knowledge—like those criminals—got it through that transference. And any number of people who are also susceptible could have gotten it to varying degrees as well."

After a long moment of silence, Tseng asked, "And what do you propose we do with them to keep them from destroying society?"

Giving his head a small shake, Eden answered quietly, "It's more likely they'll go insane from a huge influx of data they really know nothing about than that they'll destroy anything, especially with alchemy locked down around Reactors. In other words, they're more likely to kill themselves than to destroy society. I don't know about handling them either way beyond finding and keeping track of them, though."

The Wutain was quiet for a minute before nodding and saying, "Directly, I don't think we should do any such thing, otherwise we'd alert Hojo to the existence of a large number of people with a trait he may want to experiment with. It's possible I could commission Gaia's Refuge to take care of them on the premise that someone needs to keep track of them, but it's not actually our business. Also, handing it off would mean we could devote more of our own resources to things like tracking down Fuhito."

"That's certainly one way to play it," Eden agreed. "But damn, Fuhito's a slippery bugger. I've never known a human that good at getting away from hunters like the Turks. Not to mention, who gets away from eight Summons when they're all attacking at once?"

"Good question," Tseng agreed. "Does his ability to slip away have something to do with the shadow you mentioned he had attached to him?"

"...I don't know," the blond Turk sighed. "Well, yes, I do—most of it is his natural ability as a tactician, because he still managed to get away from me in Corel, but he definitely didn't have a shadow then, so all the 'shadow' does is keep him alive to escape if he makes a tactical error. All the rest of the time, he's doing it himself."

"And what is the shadow? I know you said you didn't know, but you must have some kind of suspicion."

"Do you have more data on it? I mean, I know what I put in my report, but I didn't have a clear view."

"Felicia told me to ask Crescent Unit Captain Inagi because he had the best view, and he described it as something inky black and like a solid wisp of shadow. He called it a demon, for that matter."

"...I think it's—you know, the two options which come to my mind are that it's either a fragment of the 'Gate' we Amestrians came through or it's some kind of homunculus. Of course, it could also be something else I haven't thought of yet."

"...A fragment of what or a what?"

"The Gate has—some weird, black, shadowy hands that grab you and drag you in, push knowledge into you, and toss you back out. A homunculus is a created being which usually is 'shadow-ish' in its natural form and which can look like a human, is super-powered, and has its own soul."

"How do we tell the latter apart from the population?"

"You don't without forcing them to show their true power or form. All the ones I met had a fully human form with the ability to tap into their basic form as a homunculus, but they were definitely as sentient as any human. Normally, I'd say it wouldn't be possible for a human to suddenly have one attached to them, but...With the reintroduction of alchemy to the Planet and my experience with a very powerful homunculus creating weaker ones by embedding them in humans...It's actually possible. In terms of power, a homunculus is along the lines of a being like Jenova, and if an Omega could get here independently, any world which has access to an Alchemist's Gate could have random homunculi appearances because some reside in the space around the Gate. If it's true one is working with Fuhito, it's going to take an equally powerful being or everything we have to take him out, assuming we make sure he can't slip away again. Of course, most of that is also true of him having part of the Gate itself attached to him."

"...So are we dealing with Fuhito or with—either other option rather than him?" Tseng asked apprehensively.

"That depends on how well Fuhito and 'it' get along, and which one it actually is. If it's a homunculus and Fuhito took it in willingly, both of them are participating equally in what they're doing, which is the more likely option by how little Fuhito's behavior has changed. If it's a fragment of the Gate, we have no idea what knowledge it has or is giving him, but that's really all it does besides deflect attacks—gives him some random knowledge. That would mean we're still dealing with him directly."

Pausing for a moment, the teen leaned forward and went on tersely, "Alchemically, that means Fuhito may be getting help from a very long-lived and intelligent being to improve his skills, or getting that data from a Gate fragment. He may not be, but it's likely he's getting at least some pointers from his new—buddy, because the arrays the criminals in Wutai were using were just too primitive for him to create the newest round of Ravens with. A truly functional array would normally easily take two or three months to design, even with my level of knowledge. Now, he has sheer carelessness on his side, and could have possibly created more Ravens in Corel than the ones I fought, but the ones in Wutai had to have been partially alchemically modified to have changed from the ones in Corel in only about three weeks. No matter how I look at it, some part of it had to've come from his new buddy, regardless of 'what' it is."

"I see," Tseng sighed, letting his eyes slide closed for a few moments as he thought. Finally, his eyes opened and he leaned back in his chair as he asked, "What kind of regenerative abilities does a homunculus or a fragment of the Gate have?"

"Er...For both, think of it like trying to kill Sephiroth with a sword. Unless you cut his head off, that's exceptionally difficult. Only, even cutting their head off doesn't guarantee you've beaten or killed it, because I'm pretty sure when I defeated 'Father', the only thing that happened was for him to be weakened and returned to the space around the Gate. If it was a fragment of the Gate, I don't think anything besides it being sent back to the Gate would happen regardless."

"I see...What purpose would either thing have for helping someone like him?"

Eden leaned back and stared up at the ceiling for a minute as he thought. Finally, he said, "Fuhito wants to wipe out all human beings basically just for the sake of wiping them out, so if he is indeed working with and housing a homunculus, it's one which actually wants to destroy life, but for what reason is questionable. If it's part of the Gate, I don't think the hands are sentient enough of their own accord to assess that, so they just—impart data like they were designed to do. The hands aren't 'helping' him in that sense if it's a fragment of the Gate we're dealing with." (2)

For a long moment, Tseng gazed at him in quiet contemplation, then asked, "For what reason would a being more powerful than a human want to destroy us? We have no connection to or impact on them."

"Uh, Tseng...Why did Jenova want to destroy us again?"

The man was silent for a long moment before saying, "If your theory is correct, her reason was a retaliation in an attempt to protect herself, but in the process, she descended into insanity. Are you going to claim insanity in their defense?"

"No, though I'm pretty sure all sentient beings are lesser or greater degrees of insane anyway," Eden answered with a wry grin. "The longer beings like them live, the more likely they seem to be to fall into destructive forms of insanity. Some may have reasons like Jenova's, some may want power for the sake of having it—Hell, some may even just do it for the entertainment value and they see us as nothing more than pawns to play with. What I know is that Minerva doesn't want a being like Fuhito to destroy us, so ultimately, their reasons aren't in our best interests, they're in theirs and only theirs. Minerva herself is probably the only real exception to the trend I'm aware of."

With a nod, the older Turk had to admit, "I suppose you have a point. Knowing the reason would be helpful in predicting their moves if it's a homunculus, but it's not necessary as long as we know the goal. Fuhito has made his goal abundantly clear, and has given us enough indications of how far he'll go to get it, which covers us for both eventualities. With his ability to escape situations he shouldn't be able to, this is actually beginning to worry me and I have a feeling we're going to wind up having to use you as bait for him, and even then, it's a risk I'm hesitant to take with the vendetta he has for you."

"Why?" the teen frowned in puzzlement.

"He may just be able to get away again—and take you with him."

After Tseng's dire words, Eden sighed and met the older Turk's gaze as he said, "It's not the first time, either that I've been targeted or that I've been kidnapped. With my brother around in the armor, it was hard to do but far from impossible, and there were several times I could legitimately have died without that peculiar luck I seem to have. I guess my world's Lifestream liked me too or something, just by how many times I've gotten out of trouble just in the nick of time, before I'd have died. With Fuhito...maybe the only way to trap him and make him die is exactly by using me as bait. Especially if we can let it slip that I have the pieces of Zirconaide—all of the ones not attached to Felicia."

"...Excuse me?" the man asked with a small frown.

"Fuhito had one fragment on him, so I find it hard to believe he didn't know what they were," the blond answered. "Maybe he doesn't know as much as I do, but on the premise of the personality fragment in the shard he had, he probably has the view that the being he would Summon would annihilate humanity. Before I talked to them, that's also exactly what they would have done. If you want him to be so obsessed with me that he actually gets careless enough you can kill him, that would be your best bet—to put everything you can in his face so he's no longer paying attention to anything but me."

"Eden, you're putting yourself in danger to a degree no Turk could understand or accept by saying that," the Wutain informed him.

"Desperate situations call for desperate measures, and Tseng—I'm the one offering, you're not suggesting it," the younger Turk answered evenly. "There's a difference, a huge one. I know what I'm risking, and I don't like it, but Fuhito isn't someone we can keep messing around with—and I know if he made off with me, the Turks and SOLDIER would tear apart the Planet to find me. I'm serious—make him completely obsessed with me. He's a tactician by nature, but that only works because he's cold and calculating. Obsession, especially of the level I want to push him to, will interfere with his tactical ability because he'll start seeing only certain things, the ones he wants to in order to give him the advantage he's looking for. Also..." Eden paused there, not yet sure how to voice what he was thinking.

Tseng's head tipped to the side and he prompted, "Also what?"

Closing his eyes, the blond Turk began, "You know...one of the things Rude talked with me about was how I never let anyone protect me." His eyes opened as he looked up to meet the other Turk's dark eyes. "It's true, too—I never let anyone protect me in the true sense of the words because I don't trust them to do so, even if my mind knows they will. And Tseng, that's a huge hurdle I have to overcome, or there will always be a wedge between me and everyone I know—the Turks, or Genesis, or the kids. By making myself bait for Fuhito, it would force me to trust everyone else to protect me—because I'm sure I won't be able to protect myself as soon as Fuhito focuses so strongly on me. And just to be clear on this, that actually scares me shitless, both having him so obsessed with me and having to rely on others to save me."

Leaning back in his chair to assess the words, the black haired Turk eyed the younger man while he thought about exactly what Eden—and what Edward—was saying. He was beginning to see a trend and to understand exactly what made the younger teen so skilled—he didn't break under pressure, not in the true sense of the words, he rallied his strength, pushed past his fears, and faced it all head-on. It was a trait many Turks had, and even many SOLDIERs had it, but blessed few had the sheer degree of it the slender blond sitting across from him had.

Finally, Tseng relented with a soft sigh and asked, "Are you trying to send me to an early grave, Eden?"

"Not a chance. It's exactly because it's me that you won't take any chances of letting anything go wrong," the younger teen answered. "I'm not entirely sure why I know that, but I—just do."

The words caused a small smile to form on the older's face before he commented, "So your mind trusts me, and us, but your emotions don't. I can see why you'd want to bring them in line with each other. But, can we divert his attention so strongly to you? If he's got something showing him how to use alchemy capable of doing what Zirconaide would give him the power to do, would the fragments entice him to you?"

"Yes, I suspect so, because summoning Zirconaide would be a lot easier than trying to learn all the arrays, and he's got his hands full with improving the Ravens."

"If we assume we're going to have to set you up as bait, the things which need to reach Fuhito's ears include your possession of the Zirconaide shards and your ability to use the arrays." As Eden's eyes widened, the man said shrewdly, "You said yourself he's getting help, but we don't know to what extent, and your words left the impression that he was getting only incomplete data. While I could see reasons why the 'being' sharing his body would either want him to learn them or not, as long as it isn't stopping him, I feel he'd want to learn what he can as it would further his goals. If his—visitor—isn't teaching him, or isn't able to, he'd have to look elsewhere.

"By that logic, who do we have who could possibly teach someone alchemy? Mei, Alphonse, Mrs. Curtis, Third Mustang, Genesis, and you. For his purposes, SOLDIERs would be far too hard to capture, and the other three count as civilians so we wouldn't risk them. Also—'it's in a Turk's job description to act as bait periodically,' as Vant said. Right now, like most people, Fuhito probably doesn't know you've been doing any more than modifying Materia the way Genesis does. If he becomes aware you're an expert with the arrays, I daresay he would target the 'weakest' of you, on top of his vendetta. It would also give us longer to act before he does you serious harm—he would want your knowledge and you have to be yourself to give it. I think we could feasibly go through Felicia to leak the information to him, and it would make her aware of the plan indirectly. The more eyes watching out for you, the better."

"Hey, that makes it sound like I'll get snatched when you're not ready!" Eden complained.

Linking his fingers in his lap, Tseng replied shrewdly, "By your track record to date, you probably will, Eden. Which is also why I'm so worried about this whole scenario. If anyone would be able to reach you, particularly without alerting Fuhito, it would be Reno, so that is one option we have, assuming you have faith in him being able to get to you. It doesn't make the whole level of risk and the worry any better."

Eden stared in surprise, then looked away in thought as he thought about the time he'd spent with the older teen. Reno was pretty steady despite his energy, but he had a vicious streak and mostly didn't take things too seriously outside his work. If something triggered his vicious streak or he was working, he was entirely focused and a force to be reckoned with. All of those were points in favor of having him be the one to actually rescue Ed when the time came, and he didn't have any complaints about those points. His only 'issue' of a sort was just how touchy-feely the man had proven he could be, but that was a minor point under the circumstances, and from what he could tell, while Reno was actively working, he kept his mind on said work.

Finally, he looked back at Tseng and said, "I don't have any reason to think he'll be unable, so I can go with that."

"Good. I've already been working on coordinating your schedules because he has to be able to watch you when you're working on storage sorting. Rufus will have to attend a social affair six days from now, and the President decided Sephiroth is to be his guard and escort for it, so that's your first day off guard duty, then every third day thereafter. Your days off will start at noon and end after breakfast the next morning. This will be true unless you're told otherwise for a specific day."

The blond nodded and asked, "Anything else?"

After a silence, the Wutain Turk said, "You do realize if we go through with this, you're going to need to have a tracker on you like the one we gave to Genesis, yes?"

"I gathered that. Whether Fuhito will or won't guess is a question."

"We'll assume he'll look. His finding any would depend on where we put them, and he'd have to take the time to search for them, which would be longer again before he'd do you serious harm. Since we have as long to prepare as we do, we feasibly have time to hide them all on you so you don't even know where they are. Of course, I can think of an exception to the time factor, but I'm hoping he won't think of it since the usual track record is that no one ever does. The only way to circumvent it would be to sew the tracker into your body somewhere. Going through with that would require Hojo's assistance, and I wouldn't be inclined to believe he'd do only that to you."

"Neither would I. The next question then would be—how strongly do you believe I would actually need to have the tracker sewn into my body? Enough to risk Hojo, or was that really just you thinking out loud about the worst case scenario?"

"...I won't have a clear answer until we start getting some reports back about his behavior from Felicia's agent, but as things stand, I don't believe Hojo is worth risking."

"Okay, then you're probably going to be borrowing my clothes over the next few days while I'm with Rufus, right?"

"Whatever you don't take with you. When you get the chance to switch everything off, I want you to do a complete switch so all the items we couldn't put trackers in will be left for us to work with and everything on you then has trackers. For now, that's the extent of what we can do for you, and otherwise—we'll start preparing. Oh, you can read this file so you know Mrs. Curtis' history, then you can go get some rest so you can return to guard duty tomorrow."

"Right," Eden agreed, taking the folder Tseng offered to him, quickly reading it (the background she'd been given was certainly a unique one), then handing it back so he could rise and head out. He was exhausted and dragging his feet—and looking forward to being back on guard duty just so his muscles would be able to get a break.

Notes:

(1) There's a much more detailed version of this in chapter 1 of Fates of Worlds, when Eden and Genesis are talking in Genesis' office and the end-chapter notes, for anyone who really wants to know more.

(2) Keep in mind that these are just Ed's best guesses, not necessarily what they're actually dealing with.