Visiting Re-introductions

Vant had been given an address on the Upper Plate and told he was joining Tseng and the others to meet the group returning to Midgar from Rocket Town. He had been puzzled as to why, especially when he saw Anthony there—the boy had no reason to have been taken away from his training. As the party disembarked, he had thought maybe he would have to take charge of Rufus because the others needed to rest, but Reno approaching the President's son for that purpose negated his need for that. However, when Rufus moved aside, he had seen a woman with black hair whom he'd never seen before.

Or he'd thought he hadn't.

At first, his eyes had barely glanced over her—but then they had returned to her. With her hair falling down her back almost to her thighs and the locks to either side of her face cut only to brush the ear, she was attractive in a familiar-unfamiliar way. He had been about to look past her again, but then his eyes, trained as a Turk and refreshed in recent months, had begun tracing the lines of her face. Those lines had been familiar, hair color and style aside. The lines had been familiar in a way he should have known intimately. His mind had begun building a different image from the one in front of him—

Realization had hit him like a ton of bricks. Part of him had wanted to slaughter Tseng for not warning him, but the larger part had been focused on her, on what he was supposed to do...Would she welcome him after so long?

He had barely retained enough sense not to say her whole name, and to not reveal any other details which may have pointed to something other than the story he and Anthony had crafted with Tseng and Veld's help, even as he had run to her to hug her. That Anthony had followed him to her, let her hug him, told him Tseng had informed the boy of at least part of what this was supposed to be, details he was notoriously lacking. He had recalled the address, so when she had asked for privacy, he agreed they had a place for the day and led her away—but he had also paused to invite Sephiroth to join them. After all, he had every right to be there, to meet her.

Now, in that private apartment Tseng had arranged, Vant led the way to the furnished living room and turned to face them as he asked, "So exactly what haven't I been told about this?" His hand rested on the woman's shoulder, the action hiding the fact that he was shaking with emotion.

She nodded, her gaze a little worried as she looked between the two men, one younger and one older. Then she said, "Tseng thought the best way to hide me was to make me Anthony's mother and your wife, so I've been renamed Lunaria Valentine. Unlike you, I'm supposed to openly show my bond with Anthony. The basic background was that there had been an incident several years prior which destroyed Koste Village (1), which had been just on the other side of the Nibel Range, and in it, we were separated and I was assumed dead. The two of you didn't take that well and isolated yourselves for many years. Knowing that background, the Turks began searching for traces of me. I think you weren't told because then your reaction would look the most realistic it could, and if we had been separated when Anthony was young enough, he would be uncertain reacting to me because his memories wouldn't be clear."

"...I had never looked up any data about the destruction of Koste Village..." Vant frowned slightly, then looked at Anthony. "Did Tseng tell you?"

"It was destroyed in a landslide and pretty much everyone died. I would have been six. There were known scattered survivors, but no one really cared or searched for them all, so us coming out of nowhere isn't really surprising," Anthony explained. "But even though—I mean, I know what the story is supposed to be, but...with—Doctor Crescent back, do I actually still have a place in the family?" The boy looked truly worried about the response he would get.

They all jumped in surprise as a pale hand gripped Anthony's shoulder, looking to see Sephiroth standing behind and between Lu—naria and Anthony. The silver haired man said, "You are being ridiculous, little brother." He then looked at the other two and said, "Before you ask, Tseng sent me here to join you." The twenty-year-old's hand was still on Anthony's shoulder.

With a small smile, Vant said, "He seems to be quite far ahead of us all this time." His gaze then went to Anthony as he said, "And Anthony, feelings don't just go away because something changes in our lives. You're an established part of this family, and the only real question is how well you and Luc...Lunaria will get along. If the story placed you at age six when we thought she had died, it would be entirely expected for you to need time to adjust to one another again. In that sense, you have time to work out your dynamic." His eyes moved to Sephiroth as he added, "And yours."

After a pause, the silver haired man agreed, "As I have never known my mother and only recently found out she was not Jenova, it would be understandable. Also, as I am not 'technically' a member of the family, I should not become too familiar with her too quickly. Not in public, at least."

"Hojo told you Jenova was your mother?" Lunaria gasped in shock and horror.

"He did," Sephiroth agreed.

The woman looked between Anthony and Sephiroth for a minute before lifting her hands to rest them on the silver haired man's shoulders. "If he's the one who raised you, as much as I doubt it could be called 'raising', you've become a remarkably fine young man." She smiled and moved forward to hug him. "Throughout the pregnancy, I kept seeing images, terrible things which showed you as an adult destroying villages, killing people. I was so ashamed of what I had allowed Hojo to do, using my child that way, and I truly feared those things would happen with Jenova's influence. Rather than staying to help you, to hopefully prevent that outcome, I ran away and—tried to end my life, but that didn't work, so I hid instead. I'm so sorry for abandoning you to him..."

After a stunned moment, Sephiroth lifted his arms to put them around her. It took him some time to process the words before he finally said, "The dangers you speak of may have been more true than not had Jenova not been destroyed. While I have no desire to—follow those paths now, different events could have caused much different results. What do you mean about Jenova's influence?"

"She has a powerful mind and a will strong enough and cunning enough to find and exploit all a person's weaknesses," Lunaria sighed, letting him go and standing back a bit to meet his eyes as she rested her hands on his shoulders again. "She tried...Her cells duplicate very easily, so the cells you had been infused with duplicated and transferred to me. I could hear her talking into my head, trying to get me to do things I didn't want to do, but I just didn't want to, and I was getting tired of hearing that destructive litany, so I went back to the place where everything had begun and put myself into a form of stasis there. Her power—the Turk who freed me, she nearly caused his death by fighting against him over my fate."

"Who was that?" Sephiroth and Vant both asked with something like a sense of pending doom.

"Apparently the Turks have code names now?" she asked, and they nodded. "His is Eden."

Both men released pained sighs as Anthony blinked and stared, but it was the younger boy who commented, "But he looked fine when we saw him just now."

Lunaria shook her head. "His hand landed in the stagnant Mako pool and began mutating. Aeris was able to heal him with help from a Summon, but his hand still has some scars and related issues. You wouldn't really know it unless he had his glove off."

They stared at her, then traded tired looks as Sephiroth said, "Eden requires a keeper..."

Vant huffed a small chuckle and shook his head. "I don't think any of the Turks could effectively do that with him, though. He's too skilled."

"Regardless, this was about the strength Jenova has, even when greatly weakened by her main body's destruction," Lunaria put in quietly, and the other three looked at her.

"So we have to be prepared to meet that strength," Vant commented, and the woman nodded. "Part of that means making sure her ties are severed by moving forward. If I had never met Eden, I would have still been completely weak and wallowing in guilt and self-pity—no help whatsoever in stopping anything which is endangering the world. I thought...When I saw you there, I thought you would hate me for not being able to protect you or our son. That would have been a weakness she could exploit."

Lunaria looked aside for a minute, then looked back up at him and said, "I thought you would hate me for infusing Chaos into you."

"I never hated you," he answered. "I hated myself and thought that was my punishment for everything I had failed to do. My demons were my own to face, which included the ones Hojo gave me as well as the one you did. But I started moving forward when Eden presented the thought that maybe Sephiroth wasn't Hojo's son after all, and if he was mine—maybe it was late, but I still had the chance to be a father. My bonds with Sephiroth and Anthony have been probably the biggest stabilizing factors in my life since Eden dragged me out of that dungeon I had locked myself in." He paused, then shook his head as he gave a wry smile. "I only wish in your case that I was physically capable of intimacy still. (2) If you would have me."

Both Sephiroth's and Anthony's eyes widened before they blushed faintly and turned to stare at one another, their gazes asking, "Are they really going to talk about that in front of us?"

With a soft chuckle, the woman shook her head and said, "I don't mind, really. Of course, I would have you—even when I was with Hojo, I still preferred you, and I wish Grimoire hadn't ended up putting a wedge between us. But right now, I don't really have those urges any more than you do, so it's really no loss, and I think we both have better things to do with our time." Her gaze turned to the two slightly flushed younger men, and her brow cocked as she addressed Sephiroth, "Do you mean to tell me an attractive, twenty-year-old man hasn't had any escapades with women—or whatever your preference is?"

"No, ma'am," the silver haired man answered, expression mortified. "Unfortunately, I was taught such things were weaknesses, and the two I had wanted to have such interactions with were murdered before things could progress so far. Any others in my life have been friends or family to me."

She sighed sadly and asked no one in particular, "So how did Hojo manage to convince himself that the act leading to procreation was a weakness when he wouldn't have any of his 'subjects' without it?"

"He likely didn't want his prime subject tainted until or unless he chose it," Vant commented in reply, making Lunaria look at him in mild surprise.

She then made a face and admitted, "It's rather unfortunate that you may actually have his reason right."

"Okay, can we stop discussing stuff like that now, please?" Anthony asked, sounding about as mortified as Sephiroth looked.

Both Vant and Lunaria looked at him in mild surprise before chuckling, then the woman asked, "In that case, could the two of you tell me how you've been living your lives so far? I know very little about your actual background, Anthony, and I need to know so I have some idea of how you'll react to things."

The four of them spent the rest of the day and part of the night catching up on their lives up to that point.

SH

Zack led Kunzel to his room on the SOLDIER First Class floor, then spun to face him as he asked, "So, did you keep an eye on Aeris for me?" He was grinning like a maniac as he did, even as he reached out to strip off Kunzel's helmet.

The older man glared at him faintly as he said, "Of course I did. She's remarkably capable and a quick study, and nothing happened which she couldn't handle herself. She was supporting the group and participating as much as everyone else—she may be 'your flower', but she's definitely not a 'delicate, helpless flower'. I'm not sure why so many people are obsessed with protecting her, because outside Hojo's interest in—well, anything unusual, she's capable of protecting herself. My advice is to let her do what she wants and only jump in if she meets something she can't handle herself. She's plenty strong otherwise, and I really think she'll be legitimately ready for the Northern Crater when we get there."

The younger SOLDIER blinked, then blinked again and took a step back as he laughed. Kunzel crossed his arms with a glare, prompting Zack to say, "That's not the problem. I thought she didn't really know what she was getting in to, and she's never actually picked up a weapon and defended herself before, just let everyone else do it for her. Also, I meant for you to keep an eye on her and let me know about cute scenes or if someone was trying to hit on her, that sort of thing. It's good to know she's able to make the trip on her own power, though. That's a bonus."

Kunzel's lips twitched slightly as he sighed in exasperation and said, "No, no one is 'hitting on her', though Captain Cid apparently figured she should be hidden away at home because she looks so delicate. As for cute scenes...it would help if you defined that, because I'm not going to turn into a possible peeping Tom just to maybe get a photo of, say, the ladies brushing one another's hair."

"Oooo, that would be cute, but no, I wouldn't want you to become a peeping Tom on my girl, anyway," Zack grinned impishly, waving the older man off. He wandered into the living room and tossed Kunzel's helmet onto the couch as he said, "Make yourself at home and I'll get drinks." As the more slender man was choosing a place to sit, Zack went to his fridge and chose a couple drinks, one for himself and one for Kunzel, both of them alcoholic. By the time he returned to the seats, his friend had set his helmet on the coffee table and picked one of the cushioned chairs to sit in, so he handed him the drink.

"Now, what else happened?" Zack asked curiously, sitting on the couch and facing Kunzel, his gaze oddly serious. "I don't think there would have been much up to Junon, but something happened in the second part. Maybe more than one something."

The Second was silent for a minute before saying, "We have orders from the Commander to leave what happens with the Turks in their hands, so I can't tell you part of that. I'm not sure I should be telling you about some of the other things that happened."

For a moment, Zack was quiet, until he finally asked, "So what happened to the hidden-Turk-Kunzel who always at least dropped hints for me about strange things?"

"...Strange..." the other man sighed, looking off into the distance. He then gave a faint smile and commented, "You know, Eden really is the odd man out, even more than Tseng. There's just something about him which almost screams 'you have to notice me, and if you don't, I'll make you.' The weird part is how easy it is to talk with him, like I'm just compelled to share with him what he wants to know. It's not like he interrogates anyone, just asks out of genuine curiosity. But that time, it was Aeris, Roy, and Genesis who drew the most attention, even though Eden was nearly permanently maimed. Figure out that dynamic."

Zack's eyes widened with worry as he said, "But the dynamic isn't that strange when they all have Cetra blood. Eden was nearly maimed?"

Kunzel blinked, then blinked again and asked, "Eden and Genesis, too?"

"Yeah, just in a different format. I think we wouldn't know anything about this if Eden hadn't turned up and started attracting attention, though, even of the Summons. Because it was the Summons who opened up the issue of how much we know about Cetra society, how they lived, what roles they had, what abilities came with those roles. I found out the Cetra have two general functions and power structures, the Sentinels, like Eden, Genesis, and Roy, and the Healers, like Aeris. It's the Sentinel's jobs to protect the Healers, and they're academics and warriors—it's in their nature to draw attention, which also draws attention away from the Healers. Healers are gentle and unassuming, and usually just blend right into the background unless you're looking for them, but they also are the ones who fix people, plants, animals—the Planet."

"...Shouldn't Hojo and Hollander be a lot more interested in Genesis if he has Cetra blood?"

"They should, except I'm pretty sure Sentinel genetics register differently from Healer genetics. I'm not clear on the details and I'm sure not going to try to scientifically study something like that, but our Science people don't register the genetics of a Sentinel as Cetra genetics on the assumption that Healers are the base genetic form of that race. Normally, with other races, that would be true, too, but by default, that means Sentinels have to just not show the key traits people like Hojo think makes a Cetra," the younger man explained. "Of course, Genesis has it bad enough without Hojo knowing he has Cetra blood, so I don't plan to fill him in."

"...And your interest in Aeris is...?" the older of the pair asked, gaze wary.

"Me? She's gorgeous! And she's sweet and gentle, and she's patient and so, so understanding, and she laughs at my jokes, and every time she's nearby, it's like a breath of fresh air, and—" Zack began, his expression completely smitten.

"Okay, I get the picture," Kunzel chuckled, cutting Zack off. The younger of the two blinked at him in surprise. "If you're still together in five years, you have my blessings."

"Five...?" Zack stared, then his eyes widened in horror. "Five years? Even Aunt Izumi isn't so harsh!"

"...Aunt Izumi?"

"...Oops...Well, how about we go meet her, since Aeris will be awhile?"

"...Okay, I guess..."

The two got up to leave, Kunzel putting his helmet on again as he left the apartment.

SH

Tseng and the temporarily blond Aeris went to his office (and noted on the way that Riha was nowhere to be seen), where he closed the door, then led the fifteen-year-old to the wall in the corner of the room and triggered it to open. They stepped inside and he led her to one of the rooms which was designed like an apartment, where he motioned her to look around while he checked how the fridge and cupboards were stocked.

She explored in something like amazement, then returned to sit at the kitchen table. "So, what's this and why are you showing it to me?" she asked curiously.

The twenty-year-old looked faintly amused as he went back to the fridge and pulled out a jug of juice to show her—standard apple juice. She nodded acceptance, so he poured glasses and took them to the table, then sat across from her. "This is something we've kept up mainly because you never know when someone will need a temporary hideaway. In your case, I really thought about just having you go home to your mother, but then I realized that would actually put you in a lot of danger of discovery, disguise or not. As such, until you're ready to return home—and stay there—it's better if you take your rest time here. Obviously, that means you can join me in my office when I'm not with one of the Turks who doesn't know about you, and as long as you're in disguise, you may even be able to look around the building some."

"So...I'd be able to visit Winry or Zack or Eden?" Aeris blinked.

"I assumed you would want to, and this will be the trial for whether or not we can feasibly keep you safe and hidden in these circumstances. You'll need a Turk escort to get onto the floor where Winry's office is, but Zack and Eden both live and work on floors people have access to. If someone becomes a little too interested in you, even knowing you're Zack's girlfriend, we may have to make alternate arrangements for you and Cissnei, possibly staying in Rocket Town while the others return here. If the destination is Junon, things should be easier because people like Hojo won't be there."

"So how do I let Mom know I'm okay?" the girl asked as she sat back to look around the room they were in again.

"Write a letter which I'll have a Turk deliver in an unmarked envelope," he immediately offered.

She looked back at him and met his gaze as she said, "I don't think you're handling Eden the right way right now."

"I told you my reasons already," Tseng answered evenly. "He can't work on anything without Genesis, anyway, and Reno knows already that if I send Genesis to wherever they're working on any given day, he can let Eden go."

"Does Genesis know that?" Aeris asked shrewdly.

The Wutain blinked then blinked again and pulled out his PHS to send a note to Genesis, informing the man of the arrangement. "He does now," he said as he put his phone away and looked back up at her.

Giving him a small smile, Aeris said, "Okay, that's better, but...I just feel like something is off..."

"Off?" Tseng asked with a small frown. "In what way?"

With a small shake of the head, the younger girl sighed and said, "Ever since his hand...He's been tired a lot more, and sort of...not all there? I don't know how to explain it. I'd think it was depression if he was showing more signs, but I guess the best I can say is something more like melancholy or like there's a weight on him which wasn't there before. I'm not sure what to do about it, and even Minerva doesn't know."

For a minute, the Wutain Turk was quiet, but then he shook his head and said, "That's not a lot to go on, but I guess we should keep an eye on him. In that regard, if it's something like depression, letting him just have time off where he does nothing but sleep won't really help him, especially not with recovery. I know enough about him to know his normal habits would include visiting his friends or raiding the library if he's not working, so if he just opts to sleep, there may be something wrong. We won't really be able to do anything about it until we know if something's wrong and what the cause is, but I'd rather he not be allowed to wallow in whatever it is, either way."

"Mmm..." the girl murmured, then gave a nod and got up to hug Tseng. With his head leaning against her belly, she said, "I know it's hard for you to be the Director so soon. I mean, I knew Veld already had his eye on you as his replacement, but being the acting Director is a lot less stress than being the actual Director. How are you really holding up with all the new expectations on you?"

He released a small sigh and shut his eyes as he leaned against her, letting her hug him. "It's a lot harder than I expected it to be. Veld made it look easy, but he'd also been doing it for a very long time, and I...Well, I expected to be able to learn from him for several more years, at least." He paused as he thought about how his life had changed. "I don't regret it, really, but there are mistakes I made which I should never have made, and the only real reason I'm holding things together this well is because I still talk with Veld every so often, get advice or get directed to more data. I have no one else to turn to, and even Reno is having trouble filling his new shoes with the sudden switch. In a way, putting Eden on disciplinary duty and having Reno watch over him is giving Reno a lot more time and ability to adapt to his command role, and he's learned quite a few things he needed to from that position...from Eden. But one of the things I regret the most is having to give Eden that discipline, even though I know I had to do it."

"Well, kids are going to misbehave sometimes, and you do have to discipline them. And even adults sometimes misbehave. At least it wasn't a criminal offense," Aeris said in amusement. "I think you're right to stick to the punishment in normal circumstances, and if the incident with the stagnant Mako hadn't happened, I'd be all for what you've done with Eden now. His reactions just aren't normal, that's why I'm not sure it's best."

Tseng had to smile a bit at the first part, but then he sighed at the second. "I know. We'll keep an eye on him and see if we can figure it out."

"Maybe it would be easier for you if you really got a proper night's sleep?"

"...If things weren't so hectic..."

"Tseng, they won't get less hectic just because you work harder. Sleep. That's really more important."

Before he knew it, he had relaxed to the point of falling asleep leaning against his sister, secure in her safety and her company.

Notes:

(1) This is a made-up village which would have been almost directly south of Rocket Town at the edge of the northern Nibel Mountain Range, just in a position where it could be hit by any sort of 'slide' (mudslide/rockslide) disaster. The world would technically have many of these kinds of villages across it, but they aren't key locations and are generally skipped past by travelers using what pass as Gaia's 'main' travel routes. This was one which slipped through the cracks, didn't get the help it needed, and so just sort of vanished. Now, the Turks can use that to their advantage.

(2) I know, most people think Vincent is 'a vampire' and operates by the same rules, which means he's both interested in and capable of sex. The reality is—he's a fucking preserved corpse (who had clinically died BEFORE he was experimented on), NOT a vampire, meaning his body isn't capable of sexual functions. No, he can't have sex. No, he can't actually 'breathe'. No, his body doesn't properly process food, and sure as Hell doesn't need blood intake. He can feel emotions, but his physical body isn't capable of reacting to some of them in the way a normal, living, man's would. If I'm in the mood for pure smut, I choose not to nit-pick this point because I really don't care in that case, but this story isn't ABOUT smut, and I'm actually trying to be realistic, which means taking into account his actual body status. Despite him being capable of feeling love, or even lust, emotionally, it will never affect his physical body, just like sorrow or pain can't actually make him cry—produce tears.