Boom! New chapter. Wuhhhht so soon? Just like old times, right. Thanks, everyone, for reading and reviewing the last chapter. Enjoy.

Additional note: I just learned that at the time I submitted Chapter 35 (or 42 depending on how you look at it), there was something going on with the site and notifications weren't going out to let people know a chapter had been submitted so if you're reading this chapter and feel a little lost you may not have read the one before it.

Songs: (1) Untitled (Lost Letters) by Fabrizio Paterlini; (2) Wreck of Innocence by The Autumn Film; (3) Ruins by Nebular Spool.

Chapter XXXVI

"The lifestream?" Rayna spoke with clear confusion, while watching Aerith's chest rise and fall slowly where she was lying. "She's still breathing," she pointed out. "She's alive, Zack,"

"I know," he replied quietly without looking at her. He was sitting on the floor with his back resting against the second cot in the room that was behind him. His eyes were fixed on Aerith's form as questions raced through his mind about what he could do to wake her up. As much as he'd suspected her capable of entering the lifestream, she'd never done it, at least not while he'd been around.

"Then she can't—" Rayna started to argue but he stopped her.

"Yes, she can."

"How?" Rayna pressed on, drawing from Zack a look that told her it wasn't the right time to be asking him anything about it.

"Let's go," Johnny said from behind her, urging her from the room.

"Do you understand what's going on right now?" she asked Johnny as she stood just outside the bathroom where he was standing by the sink washing away some of the dried blood still on his face and around his wrists.

"Sounds like she can enter the lifestream without being dead," he said bluntly and she rolled her eyes.

"Which makes almost zero sense," Rayna said back. She rested her head back against the wall next to the bathroom doorway. "Who can do that? No one. I mean, what is she?"

She waited for Johnny's opinion but he said nothing.

Sighing, she decided to give up on the topic for the time being. "Who was that little girl in that photo?" she asked him. "Chelsey? She did kind of look like you," she pointed out.

"Coincidence," Johnny said back. Rayna glanced into the room and looked at Johnny through the mirror as he was wrapping his wrists in some bandaging. "I was hired to find her."

"Did you?"

"No," Johnny answered her without looking at her.

"How long's it been?"

Securing the bandages with clips he said "Over a year now."

She wasn't sure she should ask her next question but she did. "You think she could be alive?"

"I have to assume so until I see a body," was the logical response that didn't surprise her coming from him. "I need to go get my gun and car back," he said to her with clear indication in his tone he was saying she should go with him instead of hanging around there with Zack.

Nodding, she watched him leave the bathroom to sort through a bag of clothing for something to change into. "What're we supposed to do about Scorch? All his men. Their vehicles."

"I called in a crew. They should be dealing with it right now," he explained.

"You know, that many people going missing at once isn't exactly discrete. People are going to wonder when the club stays closed. Scorch had a lot of clients." She could see him smirking from where she was standing.

"I'm sure someone will take care of them," was all he said. She couldn't help but narrow her eyes at his comment. Her immediate suspicion was that Johnny was intending to take over Scorch's business but she hardly felt she had the right to ask so she kept her mouth shut.

Johnny asked Zack if there was anything they could do for him or Aerith before leaving. There wasn't. At least, nothing Zack knew of. The only thing he could think to do was to keep her warm, and he was doing that on his own. The moment Johnny and Rayna left, he broke down. Sometime in the next hour, his phone began ringing. He thought for a brief moment, perhaps irrationally, that it was Cloud calling from wherever he was so he scrambled to answer. He was met instead with the sound of Kunsel's voice. He'd almost forgot he'd called him outside the warehouse. He burst into tears again without any hope of holding it back.

"What's wrong?" Kunsel asked him worriedly.

He could barely get his words out as he said, "It's Aerith."

"What happened?" Kunsel questioned next. "Where are you?"

"I…" Zack began to answer but quickly stopped himself.

"Zack? Where are you? I'll come to you," Kunsel told him.

Zack shook his head to himself. He knew it wouldn't be right giving the location of Johnny's home. If it had been his own place he could have taken the risk. "I can't tell you," he said honestly.

"What?" Kunsel said back with shock. "Well, what's going on? Is it Hojo?" he guessed.

"No," Zack denied and he made an effort to calm himself before going on to explain. "Aerith. I think she's entered the lifestream. I don't know how. She's only ever talked about the possibility of doing it. You remember, right?" Kunsel had also known of some of the things Aerith was supposedly capable of.

"Yeah, but she said it was dangerous, easy to get lost," Kunsel said back. "Why do you think she's done that?"

"I'm sitting in front of her right now," Zack explained. "It's like she's in a coma. We talked about it earlier. She just wanted to help."

"Help with what?" Kunsel asked. "What was she looking for?"

"Cloud," Zack spoke back sadly.

Kunsel was silent for a few seconds before he said reassuringly "She'll be alright, Zack. She's a smart girl and she's a fighter. If there's anyone who can successfully navigate the lifestream, it's going to be her."

"You're right," Zack agreed. He took a deep breath to calm himself.

"Is this what you were calling about a little while ago?" his friend asked then.

"Uh, no," he replied. "I needed to know if you've ever heard of a Turk named, uh, Bison?"

"It doesn't sound familiar," Kunsel said after a moment. "I'll look into it though."

"Can you talk to Reno and Rude about it? I really can't handle dealing with them right now."

"Yeah, for sure," Kunsel agreed. "Just sit tight and I'll get back to you soon," his friend said.

"Thanks, Kunsel," Zack said back.

Zack had tried not to worry himself into a frenzy over Aerith, but it was hard to accomplish as the hours were passing and she hadn't made even the slightest movement. He was scared to death that this was it. She was never going to wake up again. She'd once spoke of the lifestream like a giant swirling maze of spiritual connections. To navigate it a person needed to be able to find the right connection and follow it. He'd been told when he was younger that when a person dies they become part of the lifestream. It would be possible then for someone capable of navigating the stream to find the remnants of someone who has passed. He wasn't sure how much of that was reality. Afterall, he'd never been in the lifestream himself, but he'd seen too much in his life to completely discount it.

By mid-morning, he was exhausted, both physically and emotionally. He'd hadn't left Aerith's side longer than it took for him to pace the room to get the circulation in his legs going again. He'd been holding her hand, trying to will her back to him. Eventually, his exhaustion got the better of him and he began to drift off. It was then that he felt his hand being squeezed gently. He opened his eyes fast, jolting awake again and looking down into Aerith's open eyes.

"Aerith," he said, his breath rushing out of him all at once while he grasped hold of her, his one hand cradling her head as he lifted her upper body to embrace her. "Thank god," he spoke with tears breaking away from his eyes fast. He didn't want to let her go. She hugged him back weakly. "What were you thinking?!" he asked her urgently, squeezing her a little tighter.

"He wasn't there," she replied barely over a whisper, her voice sounding strained. He was barely listening as he began to scold her but she cut him off, saying "Cloud's alive, Zack."

He didn't even take the time to let what she said sink in. He pulled her back from him slightly so he could look at her directly. "I told you not to do that," he chastised. "What if you weren't able to get back?" he asked as he placed his one hand on her cheek, feeling her cold skin under it.

She gave him a small but reassuring smile. "I had faith," she said. "I knew I'd get back to you."

"How?" he asked, unable to keep his expression from softening a little, he was so grateful to have her back.

"You were like a string wrapped around my hand. All I had to do was hold on and follow it back," she explained before leaning in to kiss him. With her safely back in his arms he was able to think about what she had discovered while on her lifestream journey. She was sure Cloud was alive. If that were true though, he wondered why she hadn't been able to make a connection with him at all. What did that mean? Where was his friend?

000

When Cloud opened his eyes to the world again, he felt removed from his body. He tried to connect his brain to the rest of himself and found he couldn't move but he felt the sensation like he was encased in something. His mouth started to salivate from the realization something was resting against his tongue and he realized as he tried to swallow that whatever it was it was extending down his esophagus. His gag reflex was quick to become irritated and he found himself coughing. Dove's face appeared over him, blocking out the dull grey plane above. One of the man's hands came to rest over his forehead and he spoke. "Hang on a second, Cloud. You're okay," he assured him. Dr. Fisher came into his view after a moment of his sputtering and light convulsing and he began removing what was making him choke. Cloud's eyes teared up and obscured his view and he gagged harder against the feeling of slick plastic sliding against his esophagus. When what appeared to be a long tube was removed from inside his body he took a deep breath but his body didn't seem to want to try and stop coughing out what had been close to his airway. His chest stung painfully. The doctor removed some other kind of tubing from inside his nose and placed an air mask over his mouth and nose. It wasn't like normal air. It felt soft somehow. After a moment, his body stopped trying to fight against what was no longer in his throat. He still found it difficult to swallow.

"Can you hear me?" Fisher asked him from above. That was when Cloud realized he couldn't so much as nod. "Blink twice if you can," the doctor instructed and he complied slowly. "You've been under a heavy sedative. You should have some movement back in a few hours," the man explained. "Do you feel any pain?" he asked then. Cloud had to think about it a moment. He tried to assess himself fully but he couldn't make it past his neck. His head was pounding though so he gave the doctor another two blinks. The man nodded in acknowledgement. "In a few minutes you won't feel it," he said. The doctor hadn't lied about that. He guessed something was administered to him and within seconds he felt like he was floating. He didn't stay awake much longer after that.

He woke some hours later, in more pain than before, but also with more mobility. He knew that because he could feel himself trembling and could feel his skin touching a soft surface, not only below him but almost as if it was holding him in place. Like his body had been pressed into a foam board, or a mold. His head was also held in place, he could see out of the sides of his eyes the material that was hugging him. He tried to lift his one arm to see how deeply he was sunken into whatever it was but something restrained him at his wrist and elbow. Though not as steel-like or cold, it felt just like the restraints on Hojo's operating table, the one he'd spent weeks on end strapped down to while his whole body ached to stretch and move. Panic ran through him immediately and he found himself straining.

"Whoa, there, dynamite," a voice said from nearby that he registered as Galen's. He stopped his movements when Galen was visible. "This equipment wasn't cheap, so be gentle," the man said with a grin. You were restrained to keep you from injuring yourself. It's going to stay that way until we know you can handle yourself," he added. "You're quite the thrasher. Let's see if those lungs of yours are ready to work at full capacity now that the sedative is out of your system," he remarked as he reached down to detach the mask over his face. He took in a breath of the cool air of whatever room he was in.

"Where am I?" Cloud asked then, his voice cracked and strained, reminding him of the hours he'd spent screaming in the bunker.

"Don't worry about it," Galen answered. "You won't be anywhere but a bed for the next few days, at least until your body can make up for all the blood you lost. There's no such thing as transfusions for freaks like you. One thing Hojo did have that we don't. A stock supply of your own blood for such occasions as these."

Cloud wondered then just how much blood he'd lost and how. He could recall throwing it up and coughing it out back in the bunker bathroom but he must have continued to expel it somehow after he'd gone unconscious. He could have asked Galen to explain but instead he questioned, "Why am I alive?"

"Your body expelled a monster's amount of mako and you overcame the trauma of it. What your body couldn't get rid of, it accommodated. Essentially, a detox." Galen paused, one eyebrow raised. "And there's Jenova, of course."

Cloud blinked a few times to clear some of the blur that was obscuring his view of Galen's face. "You think the Jenova cells have something to do with it?"

"No doubt," Galen affirmed. "Think of it as a supercharge to your immune system," he suggested.

Though he somewhat understood, it still didn't make much sense to him. He let it go for the present moment and asked, "So what happens now?"

"Now you relax and let the sleep aid do its job," Galen replied while leaning over him, presumably to administer something to his IV feed.

000

Cloud didn't know when it was he had been moved to what seemed like a regular hospital bed. He woke at some point, still feeling weak and heavy. He still had no idea where he was, though he knew he was above ground at least. There was a window to his left. Though he was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to get to it, he could see it was barred, so escape would be unlikely. The room was plain, the walls made of cinderblock. The door to the room was open so he could see out into the hall but there was nothing to really see. More cinderblock. It didn't feel like a real hospital. He couldn't hear any of the activity he'd expect in a hospital going on outside the room.

As he shifted, he was immediately aware of what felt like an entire body muscle pain. It was difficult to move against so he didn't push himself. He scanned himself instead. There were IV tubes in his one rather bruised arm. Both of his arms were bruised. He thought it might be from straining against the restraints that had been used to hold him down. Besides catheter equipment there was no other medical equipment connected to him which seemed like a good thing. Had he actually beaten the mako sickness? As he quickly began to recognize the feeling of nausea in his gut, he felt doubtful that was the case. It was only minutes before he was expelling bile into a pan that he noticed was sitting on a small table next to him. Someone came into the room while he was throwing up. It was Dove. The guard disappeared for a moment and Cloud heard a tap running so he assumed there was a bathroom attached to the room. When Dove returned he had a paper cup filled with water in his hand. He held it out to Cloud when he'd finished throwing up.

Cloud drank down a few sips of the water. His throat felt strange. Setting aside the fact he'd just vomited, it almost felt strange to have something travelling down his esophagus, like he hadn't used it in days.

"How long have I been here?" Cloud asked. He felt as though a lifetime had passed.

"It's been a few days," Dove answered vaguely at first.

"A few?" Cloud pressed.

"Five since you were brought up from downstairs." the guard elaborated.

Cloud finished off the water in the cup while he observed Dove. It was hard to put his finger on but he felt as though something was different. Like the guard was looking at him differently than he had those first few days he'd been held in the bunker. "What?" he asked, a hint of annoyance in his tone.

"I guess I'm surprised you pulled through," the man replied. "A lot of us are," he added.

A lot of us? Cloud repeated in his head and wondered just how many there were. He'd only seen the same three people since being taken wherever he was.

"It wasn't looking good for a few days," Dove said while he took a few strides toward the small window of the room to look out.

Cloud knew it must have been bad, just given what he'd experienced while conscious and in the past few times with Zack that he'd been overcome by the sickness. He could recall easily the stress and pain his ordeal had caused the people around him. Zack, Tifa. They looked at him with so much pity in their eyes, like he was nothing but a beaten animal. Something that needed to be watched, to be looked after, to be lied to for his own good. Like they were afraid the truth would make him something different than he was.

"Is it really over?" he asked Dove then, still with a feeling of nausea twisting throughout his stomach.

Dove looked back at him and nodded. "For the most part."

"Then why do I still feel sick?" he asked.

"The drugs, probably. Sedatives, anesthetic, pain killers. Any or all could do it."

"Then I don't want any," he claimed adamantly.

"You can tell the doc when he comes back to check on you," Dove replied.

That's just what Cloud did when Fisher arrived just under an hour later. He'd vomited a few times more by then, and over the following twelve hours after he was taken off all medications. The pain had been fairly overwhelming, but not unbearable and he felt it dulling in the passing hours. By the next day he felt as though a giant weight had been lifted from his chest. If anything, he felt sapped of energy and like his muscles were being used again for the first time in years. Aching to get up and feel in control of his own body again, he demanded that next day that the doctor free him of the medical equipment attached to him so he could get up and out of the bed. Dove told him he'd be taking him to see Galen instead of bringing him immediately back to the bunker.

Cloud didn't know what he was expecting when he was brought out of that cinderblock room but it wasn't what he was met with. It became clear to him while being led down a long hall by Dove that they were in some kind of school building that clearly hadn't been used for such purposes in some time. Judging by the height of the lockers on the walls, he thought it was probably a middle or high school at one point.

He could hear some sounds as they were approaching one room down the hallway. Amongst the sounds were some voices. As he and Dove entered the room that was the source of the sounds, Cloud found the faces of seven or eight people turning to look his way. The room was silent as they looked at him. He barely noticed though as he followed Dove into the room and walked behind him slowly. He was too focused on what he saw on the desks, or, rather, workbenches. He recognized quite a few things that had him coming to a realization pretty fast.

Dove had led them to what seemed like a small office attached to the back of the room. Galen was there, standing behind a desk and flipping through some pages in an old binder. He glanced up when they came into the room, smiling a little before continuing to turn the pages.

"Look who's here," he said.

Without hesitation, Cloud remarked "You're building bombs."

"Said the genius," Galen quipped back.

"I don't know anything about this," Cloud claimed, thinking now that this is what he was expected to do.

"Your brief stint at the SOLDIER Academy taught you how to take them apart," Galen argued. "Same difference."

"I don't remember doing it," Cloud snapped back.

Galen sighed. "I think you'll find there's a lot your body remembers even if your weak-ass mind can't keep up." The man looked up at him then. "You done throwing up?" he asked. Not waiting for a response he added "I think it's safe to say you're out of the green."

It was said so casually, Cloud found himself growing angry at Galen. He followed after the man as he moved around the desk, with the binder in his one hand, and left the small office. Again, Cloud saw the same faces from the small group of people in the room looking his way.

"I almost died," he spoke to Galen's back.

"Technically," the man answered while still walking ahead and headed for the door back to the hallway Cloud had come from with Dove. Dove hung back now, staying with the others in the room while Cloud and Galen went off.

"Wouldn't it have been easier to just get me the medications I needed? I can't be that important to your plan if you were willing to take the chance I'd kick off," Cloud fired at Galen. The man turned to face him in the hall.

"I'm a bit of a gambler," he claimed. "Besides, taking those drugs you'd be suffering mako sickness for half your life. Bleeding it out is a hell of a lot faster."

"You a fucking doctor?" Cloud spat back at him and he smiled before turning to continue his trek down the hall with Cloud behind him.

"A fucking chemist actually," he said back. "Med school couldn't handle someone like me. I was experimenting with mako the moment I was given access to it when I started college. I know what the sickness is like. I know everything there is to know about mako and what it does. And in my professional opinion, not that Hojo ever gave a damn what I had to say about it, the professor had a hard on for overkill. He could have got the same results with a quarter the amount of mako he doused you with if he had administered it properly."

Cloud reached a hand out to grab Galen's shoulder and stop him. "So I don't need the medications anymore?" he asked when Galen turned to look at him.

Galen shook his head. "No," he confirmed. "You're going to feel like shit for some time though," he added. "But it's better for you if you can keep your strength and endurance up by moving around."

Cloud wasn't sure how he was supposed to feel about what he was being told, or how he should feel towards this man that had, in a way, given him part of his life back, or at least the hope of a future without always tipping on the edge of paralysis and death. "Am I supposed to thank you?" he asked, resentment still the most evident emotion in his tone.

"I don't give a damn, so long as you do the job we brought you here for," Galen said back simply.

Cloud gestured back towards the room they'd just come from. "So, this is what you needed me for? Bomb making?" he asked skeptically.

"Not really. I'm going to leave you to the task of placing said bombs where I tell you to put them. You'll arm them and then evacuate wherever it is you are at the time," Galen finally explained but it still didn't make much sense.

"Anyone could do that," Cloud said and Galen nodded.

"True," he agreed. "Did you know there's a mako derivative in the riot gas used by the police against violent criminals or terrorists?" he asked.

"They gas people with mako?" Cloud spoke back with clear doubt.

"I said derivative didn't I?" Galen fired back at him fast. "The ratio is small. It would knock me or any other average person out within seconds. With maybe some minor sort-term side effects but no lasting damage. A SOLDIER would be weakened, easily disarmed. But you? It's pretty well a sure thing that you could walk through a 20 mile cloud of it and for the most part you wouldn't feel a thing. That is, when your strength is back up. We won't push you too hard just yet. There is someone you should meet though." Galen started walking again.

"Who?" Cloud asked as he followed.

"The one in charge of this operation."

Cloud was silent then. Though Galen had made mention before of having a leader, he'd regarded Galen himself as the one who ran the show. He couldn't imagine who it was he was about to be faced with. Someone else from the mansion? Someone connected to Hojo? A Turk?

A few moments later, he was led into another room off the long hallway. He'd looked at the small sign on the door that read Staff Room while entering. His eyes travelled across the room and came to rest on the slightly hunched form of a man. The man was sitting on a couch facing a line of windows at the back of the room. His shoulders were hunched slightly as he was leaning forward, his forearms resting on his knees.

"What is it?" the man asked with his back turned.

"Our star guest was finally up for a visit," Galen answered him.

"That took a lot of time we don't have," the man commented back before finally turning and setting eyes on Cloud. Cloud was taken aback as his own eyes connected with the vibrant greenish-blue of this supposed leader's eyes. Eyes that seemed to pierce right through him. Eyes that he'd come to recognize as holding an unmistakable mako gleam. "For the best I suppose…" the man said a little quieter. He looked Cloud over as Cloud did the same to him. "Leave us for a little while so that we can talk," he said to Galen. Galen gave a short nod and left them. Cloud watched him until he'd disappeared into the hall before bringing himself again to look at the man ahead of him.

"Do you know who I am?" the man asked while gesturing a gloved hand toward a chair that was sitting adjacent to the couch. Cloud shook his head while he made his way over to the chair to sit down. There was something familiar about him though. He figured he'd seen him at some point, maybe in a photograph. "My name is Genesis" he said. Cloud found those aqua-coloured eyes studying him and his expression. The man looked at him as though he expected some recognition from hearing his name. Leaning back on the couch, he went on. "Galen tells me your captivity in Hojo's hands left you with amnesia. How far back do you remember?"

Cloud gazed out the windows to his side and tried to think about it, to see if anything new may have made its way into his head while he'd been there. Outside he found himself looking at a snow covered sports field that was bordered thickly with trees. It occurred to him then that there was no way he could be in Midgar if what he was seeing was real.

"Do you remember the day Nibelheim was destroyed?" Genesis asked, the man's voice dragging him back from where he was swimming in questions in his own head.

"Not really," Cloud said back, though with the few memories he now had back of his mother the event had more meaning and hurt more to think about.

"You took down Sephiroth that night," Genesis said.

"That's what I'm told," Cloud returned passively.

"He was a good friend of mine," the man said with what seemed like bitterness underlying his words. Cloud turned his head to look at him again fast.

"He killed my mother," he said sharply and the man nodded.

"Fair enough," he said calmly. "Anger is a powerful motivator. You must be familiar with such an emotion."

Cloud's eyes narrowed in his direction. "Is that what you want from me?" he asked. "Enough anger at Shinra over what was done to me to help you take them down?" He waited for a response but the man only stared back at him. He went on then. "Even if I am angry about what happened, I'm here because I'm being forced to be."

"But you do hate Shinra?" Genesis questioned.

"The man or the company?" Cloud retorted.

Genesis shrugged. "Either."

Cloud gave it a second's thought. "I don't know much about either." He watched then as the man's eyes moved to the windows while the fingers of his left hand tapped the couch arm next to him.

"At the end of this mission of ours, both will be destroyed," he commented with something like longing in his voice. Cloud watched him a moment.

"Do you expect me to do that?" he asked then.

The man shook his head slightly. "The company will not be brought down by any single person. The president…well." He looked Cloud's way again.

"So all of this, it isn't just about terror," Cloud replied. "Bombing buildings and creating havoc. You want me to kill the president?"

"At the very least subdue and secure him so that he may be disposed of," Genesis suggested.

"But still, you want me to be responsible for putting him in the position in which he is assassinated." Cloud pushed on and got a very minor nod of affirmation from Genesis. "Why?" he asked then. He couldn't have expected the response he got.

"Because he made you to be what you are," Genesis said. "He made you to be a weapon of Shinra. He made you for the purpose of killing who he wanted killed. What is more fitting than that?"

Cloud opened his mouth to protest but the words didn't come. He stood up instead running his hands through his hair in frustration and approaching the windows next to him. He felt suddenly tears of frustration coming on but he held them down.

"You didn't know this?" Genesis asked but he didn't look back at him.

"We were never really told why we were being experimented on. The goal." he answered quietly. He placed a hand against the glass of the window and felt the cold air from outside against his palm. He lowered it again as he heard Genesis rising from the couch behind him. A moment later the man was standing next to him. Cloud glanced at him, curious, if anything, to see how tall he was. He seemed about Zack's height but something about him…like an imposing air, made him seem larger. When Cloud looked downward though he could see the man was holding onto a cane and leaning on it as he stood by the window next to him.

"Sephiroth was his most efficient machine but that experiment proved to be a failure in the end when he went rogue," Genesis explained. "He no doubt would have come after Shinra and the president had you not stopped him." He smiled to himself. "Now, ironically, you'll be able to finish what he started. You'll show the company why they cannot create weapons out of people." "Sephiroth was made by both Shinra and Hojo as well but not as you were. Sephiroth was bred for it, you were built."

"That's not what I am," Cloud argued. "And I'm not going to kill someone just because I'm told to." He left his spot at the window to walk away a few paces.

"But you were a soldier," Genesis said without turning. "That what they do."

"I became a soldier to defend and protect innocent people. Not to assassinate," he stated firmly, though he knew it made him sound naïve. He was on his way to the door when Genesis stopped him.

"Do you hate Professor Hojo for what he did to you?" he asked. Cloud halted and turned back to face the man that was now looking at him again.

"I hate him, yes," Cloud answered honestly.

"Could you kill him if you were asked?"

Cloud shook his head. "That's different," he said.

The man started to move toward him, leaning heavily on the cane at his side as he did so. "Let me explain something about President Shinra," he said. "The man finances Hojo's work. He is well aware of the projects Hojo takes on, therefore he knew of the experimentation on you and paid Hojo to do it."

"So what? You think he deserves to die because of it?"

"Do you think Hojo does?" Genesis retorted.

Cloud let out a frustrated exhale. "What difference does any of this make?" he nearly shouted. "You're blackmailing me to be here. I have to do anything you tell me to or you'll kill two innocent people who have nothing to do with this!"

"That is Galen's way," the leader protested.

"What's your way?" Cloud asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

Genesis smiled lightly as he came to stop in front of him. "To convince you we're on the same side."