Chapter Fifty: Homecoming

Hana had been silent all morning, not a single word since the maidservants had come to take her away. She had endured everything without a sound, letting the women work around her while she lingered in her thoughts. Pa and Godo were the only men to witness her transformation, sitting and watching in grim awe.

Shining from the perfumed waters she had been bathed in, she sat on a cushion while extensions were expertly woven into her hair. With each stroke of an oiled comb, her hair grew longer and thicker, straight and sleek, until its midnight lengths pooled to the floor and trailed behind her. Her chin did not dip with the weight, and she held her head high, eyes steady but unseeing.

Another servant brought a tray of powders and brushes. She eyed them for a moment, and then gently closed her eyes in permission. In the wake of the steady path of the brushes, her skin was painted alabaster, and with each subsequent stroke more and more of her face and neck were hidden behind a mask of moonlight-pale perfection. Another brush painted a rosebud of brightest scarlet over her lips, and a third darkened her eyebrows to ebony. When she opened her lightless eyes, she had the solemn face of a woman wrought through the fires of rebirth.

When her hair and makeup had been groomed to otherworldly perfection, the servants drew away, talking in hushed whispers. The break was so unnatural as to draw Hana's attention back to the present. She raised her eyebrows in inquiry. One woman bowed deeply to Godo and whispered a few words to him behind a hand.

Godo sighed. "You must stand for them to dress you properly."

Hana said nothing, face a passive mask. They all knew she couldn't; not without the crutches, which would only get in the way of the robes.

Pa rose to his feet and went to her side. With his old, weathered hands, he pulled her to her feet, and then offered his shoulders as further support. The servants resumed their fluid dance around her, and Hana faded away again, this time her eyes closed as the maids and Pa moved both to dress and support her.

Her hakama had been cloaked in one kimono after another until her shoulders sagged from the weight of eleven robes, layering shades of blue, silver, and white. She endured the dressing with eyes fixed ahead until the twelfth and final robe was brought – a midnight blue kimono embroidered with silver phoenixes, wings unfurled in their full glory. Though she showed no reaction as it was unfolded, she could not keep her eyes open as it, too, was laid on her shoulders.

Her hair was pulled aside and around her waist was tied a length of skirt that trailed two feet behind her on the ground, a train of opalescent silk embroidered with sakura blossoms of the softest pink. Fully dressed, the maids busied themselves with adjusting the opulent layers, laying her long sleeves straight and smooth, combing her hair anew so it trailed down her skirt, and folding and tucking so each kimono's unique hue could be seen in the dip of the neck and as they diverged beneath the belt.

"You are beautiful, Yukihana," Godo said. "A phoenix in full right and glory."

Hana opened her eyes slowly at the comment, as if awakening from a dream. She only stared at the emperor in response.

"Are you ready?" Godo asked.

Hana said nothing, only slowly fell to her knees with Pa's help. The maids adjusted her hair and sleeves and skirt anew, and then the guards came in and lifted her by the palanquin on which she sat.

Her eyes stayed forward as she was carried outside of her chambers and into the throng beyond.


Sephiroth returned quietly, without fanfare of any kind. Per protocol, he promptly reported to the Turks, where he gave his full report of his time in Wutai in strict confidence. He checked in with Lazard and took a brief detour by the medical wing to get a preventative vaccination for Wutaian fever on his way to his apartment. Besides the bandage on his arm from the shot, there was nothing on him that was indicative of where he had just come from or what he had done while he was there.

But everyone knew. Officially, only those he had debriefed had a right to know, but whispers had run rampant for days.

Sephiroth's comrades-in-arms all fully expected his homecoming to be extremely awkward for everybody. Sure, he would walk as normal, with his head held high and airs preened to intimidating perfection, but underneath the act, his friends knew that the man reporting for duty would be a very different one than the man who had left only a short while ago.

So Angeal and Genesis had let themselves into the general's office and waited for his return in silence, Zack's account of all that had happened weighing heavily on their minds.

When the doorknob turned and Sephiroth entered, not a word was said between the three friends. No ceremony, no greetings, only wary glances between them as each gauged the other. Genesis had a bet with Zack that Angeal would immediately break into the lecture to rule all lectures, but when it came down to it, words fell away, and the most that even Angeal could manage was a heavy sigh.

Sephiroth sat down at his desk, pulled a ream of papers from the top of a monumental pile, and began his work.

"How much do you know?" Sephiroth asked, not looking away from his work, and his face as bland as if he had inquired of the weather.

"Well, Blackwell told you something about your mom that made you lose your marbles, you incinerated a noble's estate in the Capitol, barbequed everyone in it, wounded Zack, almost killed your wife but got off with permanently crippling her instead, and presumably have abandoned her, brokenhearted, at the palace to meet the fate of the physically and emotionally shattered." Angeal visibly grimaced with each of Genesis's harsh accusations, but Sephiroth showed no reaction other than an odd lightlessness in his eyes. "…Did I miss anything?"

"No," Sephiroth said softly. "I believe that is all of it."

"Is it true?" Angeal asked, voice colored with an impossible hope.

"Yes."

"All of it?"

"…Yes." The word was whispered, and it was the only sign that the two friends needed to know that Hana had not been the only one shattered by the events in Wutai.

Genesis rubbed the back of his neck. "Dear goddess," he sighed.

"What's done is done," Angeal said, and the both of them expected something to follow to mitigate it, but Angeal gave up. "Zack took it the hardest," Angeal said slowly. "He said he can never forgive you."

Sephiroth's lips pursed tight, and he drew in a deep but silent breath. "I do not expect him to." He finally stopped his writing, and slowly set his pen down on his desk. He laced his fingers together and rested his head on his hands. "I will complete the paperwork to return him to Second Class so he will no longer have to be under my command. If he wishes to leave SOLDIER entirely, I can find another position for him elsewhere."

Angeal and Genesis had to wait a long time for the words they already knew were coming.

"I extend the same offer to you two as well." He began working again, pen scratching on paper.

"We're not going anywhere," Angeal said softly.

Genesis gave a soft snort and a shrug of quiet assent.

Sephiroth's hand was slightly quivering, and his breathing was heavier. Relief pulled the tension from his shoulders but made his throat clench tight.

Angeal gave a weary smile and clapped his friend on the forearm to reassure him that he hadn't lost everything. Not his friends.

"Look," Genesis said. "The bigwigs are out for the coronation. Seriously, all of them. It's practically a holiday. You should take the day off and rest while you can."

"Coronation?" Sephiroth's head shot up.

"Party of the century," Genesis said. "Pity we weren't invited. The festivities are going to last a week."

"Who's being-?"

"Oh come on, don't play dumb. I get it, really. You were trying to protect Hana from a second encounter with your insanity when you left her. I still think you could have done something to stop her. Whatever. What's that saying…'you can't break the cookie without the crumbs' or something?"

"What does Hana have to do with-?"

All of Genesis's levity was drained in an instant and Angeal's eyes were wide. Genesis examined his silver-haired friend's expression carefully, and upon finding genuine confusion, he hissed several curses that turned the air green. "Dear Goddess, you seriously didn't know?"

But Sephiroth was smart, and it only took him a few seconds for the pieces to fall together. His friends knew he had it figured it out when all the color drained from his face.

"It's impossible. Godo would have had to—"

"Nothing happened to him," Angeal said, trying to remain calm for his friend's sake. "It's the old samurai code. He was emperor when he lost the war. A couple decades ago, the country would have demanded his ritual suicide to right his dishonor. As it is now, he's merely stepping down and exiling himself. And Hana—"

Sephiroth stood up with enough force to knock his solid wood desk forward two feet, eyes ablaze. "Stop the coronation."

"How?" Genesis asked. "She's halfway across the world and the ceremony is happening in an hour! She'll be empress before you can even arrange to get a helicopter!"

"If she is crowned Blackwell's claim to the throne is sealed and her life is forfeit!" Sephiroth roared.

"You think we don't know that?" Genesis shot back. "If you didn't want this to happen, you never should have deserted her! You should have been the one to stop her!"

"Enough!" Angeal said, pushing the two men away and using his own body as a shield between them. "Bickering isn't going to do anyone any good. Sephiroth didn't know. There was nothing he could have done." He shoved both of them hard and managed to get a few feet of distance between the two.

"She made this choice," Angeal said. "And she knew what it meant. All we can do now is trust her."

Sephiroth leaned against the wall and put his face in his hand. "Does this change anything?" Angeal asked. "Will you go back for her?"

Sephiroth could not answer the question.


"You don't have to watch this, you know," Genesis said, addressing his friend on the couch.

"I know," Sephiroth said, but made no move to turn off the TV.

"Let him do what he wants," Angeal said to Genesis under his breath.

"Fine. Popcorn, Seph?" Genesis asked.

Angeal glared at the redhead and joined Sephiroth on the couch.

They were all back in Sephiroth's apartment now. Angeal had invited them to his place to watch the coronation, but Sephiroth had insisted that it would not make a difference where they watched it. It was a lie. They all felt it. The place smelled stale from having been vacant for so long, and all around them, there were reminders of the greatest vacancy of all – the one that could not be fixed with time. Hana's teapot was displayed next to the stove with a satchel brimming with her tea leaves, a vertical container holding her chopsticks, and the sakura china dishes Sephiroth had bought her washed and stacked by the sink with care. The walls were painted, but the wainscoting she had started was only half finished, her brushes and tools set on a cloth in the corner. Angeal had closed the door to Hana's bedroom, but still he thought of the things she had left there – beautiful yukatas, a neatly made futon, things she had brought from her homeland to make a new home.

She was in every part of the apartment that she had made a home during her short stay in Midgar.

The men half-listened to the introduction of the nobles of Wutaian court, hastily gathered for the occasion. They could hear the Wutaian language in the background under the voice of the translator. Every nobleman brought an exquisite gift and added it to the mountain that awaited the future empress. They fell to the ground, foreheads to the floor, and gave elaborate sentiments of fealty to the new monarch enshrined out of sight in a curtained palanquin of phoenix wings wrought of gold and jewels.

Angeal looked sideways now and again to gauge how Sephiroth was taking it, but could tell nothing. He imagined what would have happened had he been in that throng. Would the unconquerable Silver General have bowed and offered obeisance to her as well?

President Shinra and the officials were presented together. They bowed stiffly from the waist, not bending a knee. "Empress Kazehawa," the president said as his present was taken and added to the rest. "May your rule over Wutai be long and prosperous."

Genesis snorted. "That's it?"

"We won the war," Sephiroth said blandly. "They are going only through the minimum formalities. They want to remind her that she is empress of a conquered country and who is really in control of the world now."

"I hate politics," Genesis said. "Wonder what their gift was. A nice, ShinRa logo T-shirt?" Angeal grunted and they resumed watching the procession in silence. The line of nobles to be presented before her still stretched out of the palace's grand hall. Genesis fell asleep once, but Angeal woke the man up with a sharp jab of his elbow to his ribs when he stared snoring.

Blackwell was next in line. He, like the ShinRa officials, offered no words promising fealty, but said only, "Dearest Yuki-chan, I am so glad that this day has come."

"Coward," Genesis seethed. "He's never around anymore. Not where I can get to him and give him exactly what he deserves."

Blackwell took his place in the throng, walking as proudly as if it was he that was going to be crowned. In a way, his attitude wasn't misplaced.

"You never answered my question, Sephiroth," Angeal said. "Will you go back for her?"

Sephiroth stared at the TV and gave no answer.

"If you do," Genesis said, "you need to know what's going to happen here."

"And what is that?" Sephiroth asked mildly.

Angeal crossed his arms, a dark scowl on his face. "Blackwell hit fast and hard. There's a proposal called the 'Post-War Reassignment of Duties and Responsibilities' that is aiming to essentially dissolve SOLDIER as it is now and reintegrate it into the army. Certain high ranking officials will be put behind desks and kept quiet while Blackwell becomes chief of all branches of the military – Turks and Weapons Development included. From there, it will only be a matter of time before he assassinates his way to head of the whole company or stages a coup d'état."

"And I am one of those officials to be swept aside," Sephiroth stated.

"You have a lot more to fear than a desk job," Genesis said. "You're a liability; the public loves you too much. You're a threat to his position and he knows it. Blackwell will quietly slip you out of the public eye, keeping you around as a figurehead for a while, at least. But then—"

"He will convince the company that I have been disloyal and that I know too much, and then will have me disposed of."

Angeal nodded. "And he's not above using Hana as leverage to get what he wants from you."

"She's already on his hit-list to get the Wutaian throne anyway," Genesis added.

"I know her position there is dangerous, but if you leave it may not save her, and ShinRa is done for. Genesis and I can't fight this alone anymore. It goes for a vote in a matter of weeks."

Sephiroth hummed a single note. "You two will be assassinated as well. Not immediately, but you will probably go before I will."

"We know that," Angeal said.

"Sure would be nice if you could guard us while we sleep to make up for all the work you've dumped on us these past weeks," Genesis said.

"I did apologize. Multiple times."

"Words are cheap, my friend."

They could finally see the end of the line of nobles, and the tension grew. The commentators stopped translating the nobles' speeches and started talking about the event that was to come.

"We don't have to watch this," Angeal reminded Sephiroth.

Sephiroth took the remote from Genesis and turned up the volume.

"we are watching live from the Wutaian capitol with coverage of this historic event. Not only is this the first time that the mythical Kazehawa family has held the throne in centuries, but Yukihana is the first empress to be crowned in several generations. It's hard to believe that only a few weeks ago she was in our midst as the starry-eyed bride to the General Sephiroth. Her life sure is very different now and the world is clamoring for answers not only for how the throne came to change hands so quickly, but also what happened between Sephiroth and Hana, and why the General not here."

"Fuel for the tabloids for years," Genesis commented idly. "At least it will make it that much harder for Blackwell to get the public to forget you."

"…The ceremony itself is rather simple. Yukihana will be presented with the three treasures of the kingdom and then take a short oath of servitude to her country. There are only three noble families left and I can see the courtiers carrying the treasures…"

The nobles were clearing, and the cameras could get a better view of the dais where Hana was enshrined in an octagonal palanquin made from wings of gold and veiled in curtains of silk. At each point, a courier in full armor knelt by the rod he had used to carry lift her, a naginata laid parallel to the ground across his lap.

Genesis whistled softly. "That's royal treatment," he said.

Sephiroth was still as stone as the curtains were pulled aside and Hana was revealed in her full glory.

Dressed in the twelve robes of an empress and painted in a mask of moonlight perfection, she exuded a power that stunned Angeal and Genesis breathless. Her face was set, grim and determined, chin raised to the challenge before her.

She raised her eyes and looked straight into the camera, gaze fiery and piercing. Across the world, connected only by an electronic signal now, her husband gazed back at her.

"Who is that?" Genesis asked quietly. "And what did they do with Hana?"

Sephiroth smiled softly, sadly, his eyes never leaving hers. And it was then that Genesis and Angeal saw the true Hana, all weakness scoured away by trial and pain.

"Now," Sephiroth said slowly, "after all this time, you can finally see the woman I married."

Genesis looked to Angeal, wondering if he was seeing what he was beginning to see. Slowly, understanding was dawning on them both.

"She is…strong," Angeal said.

"She's like you," Genesis said.

Genesis looked back and forth, looking at his commander, and then the empress, and then back to his friend. Finally, after all this time, after all pretenses had been burned away, the two of them together began to make an inkling of sense.

"She is radiant," Angeal said. "Reborn…like the phoenix."

"She never was a phoenix. She is Yukihana." Sephiroth corrected. "This is what she always was from the very beginning."

"Then why haven't we seen this?" Genesis asked.

Any answer was lost as Hana's gaze intensified. Something in her changed as it was announced that the emblems of her coronation were approaching. A smile spread across her lips, an action that stopped even the approaching courtiers in their tracks.

Slowly, with the eyes of the whole world watching, she rose to her feet.