A/N: Lucrecia Crescent will now be known as Lunaria Valentine in most situations.
Back to Midgar
Around two thirty the next afternoon, the Highwind arrived in Midgar, landing on the Shinra building landing pad in the space the helicopters had been moved from. Deneh and Nanaki had opted to only join Cid for the return trip to Midgar when Rufus was ready to leave for the trip to Wutai, so were currently still in Rocket Town with Shera. As the group disembarked, they found a few people waiting for them: Zack, Angeal, Sephiroth, Tseng, Reno, Vant, and Anthony. It was obvious Zack was there for Aeris (currently blond and resembling Eden's sister again) when he ran to her to snatch her up into a hug, pulling her right over the rail of the gangplank as he did. She giggled happily and hugged him back before they released one another and began whispering together.
Once they were all off the Highwind, Reno loped over to Rufus and said, "I'm takin' over guard duty fer the day, yo." Rufus scowled, but nodded and stepped away from the others—which also meant the people waiting for them could see the black haired woman with them. No one was paying much attention to that as Genesis broke away from them once he knew he wouldn't be on guard duty that night, and he greeted Angeal and Sephiroth with hugs, then ruffled Anthony's hair. Zack and Aeris had made their way to Tseng, who greeted the young woman happily enough, though not as enthusiastically as he likely wanted to by his expression.
Suddenly, Vant murmured, "Lu—" then stopped himself and ran to the now black haired woman to hug her tightly as the two whispered to one another for a few moments.
Anthony had tentatively followed Vant when he'd run forward, and when the two adults parted, he froze as the woman's eyes fell on him. She then gave him a small smile and held her arms out in an invitation for a hug. Because Tseng had told him more about the situation than Vant had apparently been told, he realized he needed to answer, so he moved forward to hug the woman, who was effectively becoming his mother to support their cover—Vant's, his, and hers. At first, it almost felt alien, but then he began to like being held by a sort-of mother figure.
It didn't prevent his curiosity, and he asked barely above a whisper, "I thought you were dead?"
"By all rights, I should have been," she whispered back. After another moment, she released him, but left one arm settled part-way around his shoulders as she looked at Vant to ask, "Have we got a place where we can speak privately?"
"For today," Vant agreed. "We should go. We have a lot to talk about." She nodded and the three walked away. When they were passing Sephiroth, the Turk paused to say, "You'll still be joining us for supper, though. I'll forward you the address later."
"If I will not be imposing, I will join you," the General replied, and got a nod and smile in reply.
As the three left, Sephiroth turned to a smirking Genesis with a questioning look, and the red haired man answered, "If you must know, Eden's at the center of it again, but our lady healer—Zack's young lady—was mainly the reason all is well."
"...The Turks knew," the silver haired man suddenly realized.
"Of course," Cissnei agreed as she walked by while stretching her arms out above her head. "And Flower Girl, give me a call when you need me again, would you?"
"I will, thank you, Cissnei," Aeris called after her. Carbuncle landed on Aeris' shoulder to wave to the retreating Turk, who gave a wave in reply just before the door closed behind her.
Tseng looked amused as he turned back to Aeris-in-disguise and asked, "How many does Cissnei make?"
"Um...Eight?" she asked, looking a little puzzled.
"Eight?" the Wutain questioned, only being actively aware of six of them.
"Mm. You, Eden, Ruluf, Freyra, Kariya, Kamil, Balto, and Cissnei."
"I see. When did you meet Kariya and Balto?"
"Wait, are those just Turks you know or something else?" Zack asked in confusion.
"Both," Aeris answered in amusement.
"I'm partly the reason she met Kariya, since he followed us into the Slums when I took Roy to meet her before his infusions," Genesis answered, explaining how Kariya fit in as Aeris nodded.
"And about Balto, I went to see Auntie Izumi now that everything has calmed down in the Wall Market area, and he was there," she explained to the Wutain, then turned to look at Zack. "Is it all right if I visit for a bit? I won't get many opportunities to meet Tseng now." The man in question looked faintly amused.
"Sure. I'll hang with Kunzel for awhile if you want. Call me when you're ready to head out," Zack answered, then waved the Second over to him. They quickly left as well, leaving Angeal and Sephiroth puzzled as Genesis sighed in relief.
"Well, as much as this is great, kiddies, I have family to visit," Genesis put in. "Oh, Tseng, is Kariya around?"
The Wutain paused thoughtfully for a minute before nodding and saying, "He should be off his stakeout shift in about an hour and a half, so don't call him until after then."
"Really? Okay, then. I'll head to the Academy to visit my sisters," Genesis agreed, heading inside as he called, "Want to join me, Angeal?"
"Sure," the black haired man agreed, then quickly followed the red haired one.
Reno looked at Rufus and said, "We'd better get goin', too, yo—yer old man's expectin' ya."
"Oh, for—!" Rufus scowled, then nodded and said, "Fine, let's go." The two of them left as well, followed by Dark Nation and Stray Hope, leaving Sephiroth standing there alone and looking confused.
"Sephiroth, could I ask a favor of you?" Tseng asked the man, who turned to him.
"That would depend on the favor, though most likely my response will be 'yes'. What do you need?" the silver haired man asked curiously.
"This young lady—have a look at this," Tseng said, fishing his PHS out to show him a picture in it. Sephiroth blinked, then looked questioningly at the Wutain. Tseng said, "She lives in the city. If you happen to see her around and it looks like she's in trouble—no matter who her assailants are—would you step in to protect her?"
After a long silence, the silver haired man looked over at Aeris to meet her currently green-gold eyes, and finally agreed, "I would be able to. The likelihood that I will ever be in such a position is low, but it is in the realm of possibility, so should it happen—yes."
"Thank you," Tseng told him, sounding honestly grateful as he gave Sephiroth a small smile. "By the way—you'll want to head to an address I'm going to send you momentarily. I doubt 'they' will mind if you join them now." He then used his PHS to quickly send an address to Sephiroth, who checked it, then sent the younger man a questioning look. "Well, go on," Tseng told him with a small smile.
With a sudden blink, the man realized what Tseng was getting at and turned to run from the landing platform, eagerness and excitement in every line and motion.
With that, only Kamil, Eden, Freyra, Roy, Aeris, Tseng, Carbuncle, and Libby were left, as Cait Sith had apparently wandered away at some point. The Wutain faced them and said, "I have everyone's reports. Eden, you were given an activity to do by the doctor to counteract the stiffness in your hand, as well as a moisturizing cream, yes?"
"Yeah, I'm all good," Eden answered, ignoring the startled stares from the others.
"Show me your hand," the head of the Turks replied.
With a sigh, the blond pulled his glove off his left hand, letting the older Turk see the brownish scars pretty much covering it. They weren't bad, not nearly as bad as they could have been, but it would have been easy to mistake them for him having burnt his hand rather than what had happened. The problem was that, like all scar tissue, they pulled tighter than normal skin, and with nothing but other scar tissue to pull on, it had started to create something of a tense shell over his hand. The moisturizer would soften the skin and allow it more elasticity, and if he did his exercises while it was soft, he would be able to alleviate the stiffness and only need to reapply the cream at times, such as with extreme temperature changes. At the moment, the hand still showed its surface stiffness, though.
Tseng gave a nod and looked up to meet Eden's eyes. "As long as you can function, that's the important thing. By the doctor's report, you won't be endangering your life or anyone else's, even if he didn't give you the medication and exercise, it will just help keep you from feeling the wound for a longer time as you age. Was there any way you could have prevented what happened?"
"I don't think so," Eden replied, shrugging. He then pulled his glove back on. "I'm not sure I'm the best one to ask after our Flower Girl collapsed while locked in place. There was only one way to unlock her. Maybe the others saw something I could have done. Or they could have done."
Looking at the others, he mainly got shakes of the head, and Kamil said, "There wasn't a lot of space there, and the platform was already full to capacity. We would have needed more space, though I guess I could have immediately followed the Commander and Roy when Eden yelled for them. I think that would have required a premonition of the fact that Eden was going to pass out, though. I don't think he had any idea that would happen, let alone the rest of us."
"The array wasn't any indication?" Tseng frowned.
"By itself, the use of any array doesn't knock people out," Roy cut in coldly. "Believe me, it doesn't. We couldn't have used that as an indicator. What caused the problem was apparently how long it tangibly took for the alchemic reaction to stop, and most alchemic reactions only last between two and six seconds. The longest I know about were consistently ten to eleven seconds. The one Eden did then took over a minute to stop, and he passed out because he had no ability to withdraw from the reaction once he'd started it until it stopped on its own. If that was Minerva, I can safely say I'm not sure I want to save her."
"It wasn't Minerva, though," Aeris said, making the others look at her in surprise. "There are a couple places where Jenova is still a little anchored. Until those are taken care of and Jenova is disconnected from them, she still has a little power. The Doctor was one of her anchors, and if the Doctor left the crystal, she would lose that anchor—Minerva gave us the ability to free her while she had a desire to be free because that would definitely sever the bond she'd had with Jenova. It was Jenova Eden had to fight every step of the way, which was what extended the reaction for so long."
"How many more anchors does she have?" Tseng asked with a frown.
Aeris looked a little puzzled, then frowned a bit and gave her head a small shake as she said, "The SOLDIERs aren't, and even Sephiroth isn't anymore—I think that man who was here for Lu—naria is the reason Jenova was severed from him. That leaves the other scientists or experimental subjects infused with Jenova's cells. Did any of the other scientists do that? Were there subjects besides the SOLDIERs?"
"We would have to look into that," Tseng nodded. "In the meantime, we have a bit of time to visit—I have the excuse of investigating your value as a traveling companion to Rufus—once I give my people a run-down of the next few days." She nodded, so he looked at the others waiting there. "Second Mustang, you have the time off until the group sets out again unless Genesis calls on you for a mission. Riha is in the office right now and Mr. Fuery will be off his shift in about three hours, so you should visit them while you can. You'll get a notice when you need to prepare to head out again."
"Got it. Do you mind if I borrow Riha for awhile?" Roy asked, smirking a bit.
"If she's done the task I had assigned her," Tseng agreed. "She should be nearly done if she isn't already." When the SOLDIER gave a nod and left, he turned to the Turks and said, "Freyra, Kamil, you have the time off as well, unless you choose to help out with a mission. You'll also get a notice when the group is ready to go, so go visit the people you want to visit." They nodded and left, so he looked at Eden.
"I'll give you today off from cleaning up the storage rooms, and because we have no guarantee of keeping to a storage sorting schedule for now, you'll be working tomorrow," the Wutain informed the sour-looking blond. "Depending on how long it takes for the President to let Rufus leave on the next leg of your journey, you may or may not have many days of work. Because guard duty has mainly been assigned to Sephiroth while you're all back here, you'll be working on storage every day until you leave, but I've arranged for you to only work until supper so you also have some actual time off."
"You really won't let up on that, will you?" Eden asked in an oddly soft voice, something like defeat. "Even during the time of the trip? I mean, I know I still will have to do it all, but—everyone else gets to rest after three weeks straight of literally no rest, and I have to keep working, except for a few hours a day?"
Aeris was blinking in surprise as Tseng crossed his arms and said pointedly, "You were assigned the duty in the hopes that you wouldn't do what caused it to be given again. It isn't supposed to be pleasant, Eden, and I'm already being lenient in the original terms by giving you extra time off in the evenings."
"So then, what time does Eden have to work on things like Felicia's arrays?" Aeris asked suddenly, making Tseng look at her in mild surprise. "He can't do it while he's sleeping, and because our trip was so tight through the whole first two parts of it, he only had one day to work on it with Genesis. He's barely getting any time to work on all the things he's supposed to be working on, and most of those really can't be put off right now. And then, if he uses the few hours you gave him to work on that, he won't get to visit with any of his friends or family, which was what I assume you actually gave him the time to do. Is it really not possible to make him make up the time when the trip is over?"
He pursed his lips and gave his head a shake. "These were the terms—his days off would go to sorting, effectively meaning he has no days off until he's done. If Genesis gets a free day and wants to work on the arrays, he can let me know and I'll let Eden go for the day to work with Genesis. If someone else actively asks for time with him, I can also let him go for some visiting time, but he can't just have the time off or I won't be holding up my end and he'll think he has enough power to modify the terms as he sees fit. I can't have that from my Turks—they need to be dependable when the situation requires it. And so you know, there was always an allowance in place for people to ask for Eden while he was working on storage sorting."
"Won't Genesis have free time like everyone else?" Eden asked quietly.
"He only has today, like you," Tseng answered, meeting the blond's gold gaze. "With Sephiroth on guard duty, Genesis traveling, and most of the Firsts there because of luck, not the more traditional method, Angeal is the only stable elite mission specialist in the department. While Genesis is back, he's going to be picking up the missions Sephiroth would have been doing, starting tomorrow. I don't know how busy they are over there, but I have a decent idea, and he's going to be busy pretty much the whole time. On the up-side, once you leave for Wutai, not only will you have no storage sorting, but you'll have a great deal more free time than the previous two legs of the journey gave you."
With a sigh, the blond nodded and turned to the door leading inside, just feeling weighed down, tired. There was no real reason for it, but he largely just wanted to go sleep in his room for a very long time—and he'd already been doing a lot of sleeping in the last few days. In that sense, going to see Winry, Al, the other kids, and anyone else he wanted to go see, would be a good idea for him to do before he got too tired, since he knew they would worry about him if he didn't. As he went inside, Libby followed him, and he didn't see Aeris and Tseng watching him worriedly.
It didn't take long to get to Reeve's office, where he checked the listings to see where Winry's new office was, then headed for it. She had told him she had one, but he hadn't seen it yet, and with it being almost right across from Reeve's, it was easy for him to find.
As soon as he opened the door quietly, Winry called from across the room, "I'm working, so sit down and wait for me to finish, Eden!" An elderly man looked at the Turk in amusement from beside her as she positioned something which looked a lot like a type of gun above some metal in front of her and a grating sound filled the air, like metal grinding on metal very fast. She was in her work clothes with a green bandanna around her head and goggles on, too, so he shut the door and moved over to sit in one of the two chairs across the desk, which was on the far side of the office, Libby following him and crouching at his feet, leaning against his leg.
While she worked, occasionally pausing to murmur with the elderly man, Eden looked around the room, seeing one side covered in the tools, parts, and machines he was used to seeing along with some new ones. It was familiar. The other side of the room had the office desk (covered in paperwork and a computer she was obviously already using a lot), and tons of books on engineering and programming. The first two weren't familiar, but the last was. Finally, on almost every wall, spaced about three feet apart, were brackets supporting plant pots with many green, leafy, flowering vines growing from them and across a series of simple, black nets she'd attached to the ceiling. That was not familiar at all.
Finally, Winry stopped and set down the 'gun' as she released a deep breath and asked, "So, how did I do this time, Mr. Valsted (1)?"
"Much better. It looks like you've worked out the program measurements this time. I've never seen such a quick study before, honestly," the elderly man replied, giving her a nod and a fond smile. "We'll try it again tomorrow morning, and if you do at least this well then, we can move on to the next lesson. Now, since it seems you have a visitor, how long would you like me to give you?"
Winry turned to look at Ed, lifting her goggles to examine him as she did, then said, "I don't know. How about if I just call you up when I'm done and just say something like, 'You can come back any time now'?"
"That should work," he nodded, then gave her a wave, nodded to the Turk, and walked out, closing the door behind him.
Pulling her goggles and bandanna off, Winry set them aside, then turned to look at Eden as she asked, "What happened while you were away?"
"Say what?" he asked, raising a brow.
She gave her head a shake and said, "I'm a Cetra Healer—just like Aeris. I hear Minerva all the time, just like Aeris. Actually, I'm pretty sure I hear her more clearly than Aeris, too, but that may be because my Mako exposure from the Reactors is a lot lower. Minerva had a fit of—irritation, I guess—then a panic attack, then began moping, all because of something directly tied to you somehow. She's done moping, but really—what happened? I asked Tseng, and he wouldn't tell me, said it's 'classified'."
The blond Turk's brows rose as he asked, "My injuries are 'classified'? Really? That's—not normal, unless he has a reason to want to make it look like I'm not injured."
After a moment, the blond fifteen-year-old moved over to sit in the chair beside his, gaze intent on his. "What injuries?" Eden paused for a moment before sighing and pulling his glove off again, letting her see the scars. She immediately sat forward to run her fingers over them gently, then looked up at him to ask, "So, what was it that caused this to happen? My first instinct is to say 'burns', but your boss wouldn't be so tight-lipped about that." As she said that, she reached down to give Libby's head a pat to let the little robot know she hadn't been forgotten.
Shrugging, the other blond said, "Apparently, stagnant Mako is a quick way to deformity. But then, I created another new Summon which was able to largely reverse the effect, but not without leaving behind marks—stagnant Mako is strong, and deadly. I'm lucky to still have this hand, let alone be able to mostly use it normally. It really was accidental, though, because Jenova didn't like what I was doing right then."
Her lips pursed, then the girl gave a small nod. "I guess that also explains why he didn't want it to be known—there would be too many questions."
Silence fell for a few minutes as both took some time to think, then he pulled his glove back on and asked, "So, what's with the vines?"
"My apartment looks like this, too, and I'm just glad Tifa and the others rather like it," Winry said with a small face. "What happened was that I put seeds in the pots because Aeris said I should since I'm a Cetra Healer like her, but I didn't think anything would happen. By the end of my first day of work, the vines in every pot had grown three feet, give or take a few inches. The same thing happened at home overnight with the plants I keep there. I can't not grow them in places I spend a lot of time. Mei, Al, and Mr. Fuery are the same, but I pity Mei because Yufi keeps giving her the seeds of plants which will make Wutain poisons. I think Tseng has taken the plants away five times already."
Eden blinked, then blinked again and asked, "Al is growing plants like this, too?"
"He only activated about five days ago so his are smaller, and he mainly chose ones for greenery, not flowers," Winry offered.
"Has he gotten a cat yet?" the Turk asked, just shaking his head at the news.
Winry's expression became wryly amused as she said, "He and Anthony each picked a cat, though they're mainly Al's. Well, he described it as 'they each picked a cat,' but I think Anthony just got taken in by the 'cute factor' of little kittens. On the up-side, the plants in their place mean the kittens have lots of toys—the vines—and a veritable jungle to play hide-and-seek in. Shelke adores the kittens, too, and tried to take one back to Shalua's with her. Needless to say, that didn't go over well with Shalua, Elena, Anthony, or Al."
"I see. I guess that means Al stopped denying his nature as a Healer," Eden sighed softly, a small smile on his face which was a mix of fond and pained.
"I think that boy he's tutoring is good for him," Winry said in amusement. "Evan, I think his name is?" When Eden gave a nod, she added, "But something about Al is still bothering you. Shouldn't you already know about his kittens and the plants and things like that? You said you were going to call him while you were away."
"I did call, every few days like I said I would," Eden sighed. "I called and even sent him text messages, and he never answered a single one."
"Not one?" the blond girl asked, wide-eyed in shock and something almost like horror. He shook his head, gaze pained and absent, and she reached over to rest her hand on his arm. "I have no idea why he would behave like that—he hasn't really been getting in touch with me, either. What's gotten into him?"
Eden just shook his head and said, "I'll find out when I make it to his place to talk with him."
"Okay," Winry agreed with a small smile. "Now, let me see how your leg is doing so I know if you need a replacement yet."
At the words, Eden groaned, but obediently rolled up his pant leg so she could have a look.
It didn't take her long to declare, "Your growth has slowed down! Finally!"
Notes:
(1) Obviously a made-up name for some random engineer working in Urban Development, and the one Winry was introduced to in order to bring her up to speed on technology. I had no particular reason for picking that specific name. It's not important, and you don't need to remember it.
