New Factors

The Wutain girl had to admit she was awed by Midgar, especially from her perch on one of the taller buildings on the Upper Plate. She'd always thought the Palace and the Da Chao statue were impressive as a young child—and they were, since she couldn't completely negate that—but Midgar easily trumped them. A city hovering fifty meters above the ground, above a whole other city (which she admittedly couldn't see from where she was), and a tall spire of a building above that—it was like a fairy tale come alive. For a moment, she debated going to see the 'Lower Plate' city, then decided against that—her target was on the Upper Plate anyway, since she was heading for the Shin-Ra building.

Starting on her way there across the rooftops (she was really thankful for her Ninja training, though!), she absently wondered how long it would take her father to realize she was missing. Well, more like, would he even notice, or care if he did? And, even if he realized she had disappeared, he'd probably send people to search all over Wutai before sending them to Shin-Ra lands, let alone Midgar. Even though it was actually really easy with the trader's airships to hitch a ride to just about anywhere in Shin-Ra lands, even as a stowaway. Though, the trip had not been pleasant for her, and she wasn't eager to repeat it any time soon—motion sickness sucked!

Now, because Shin-Ra kept treating them like dirt, she planned to steal them blind!

Giggling to herself as she neared the building, she thought about how she could infiltrate without being noticed. One thing jumped out at her—the building was shockingly easy to climb by design alone. The Palace was more defensible only because it didn't literally give people easy entry access at all floors, and she had to wonder if there were really no defenses on the Shin-Ra building just now. That would be stupid of anyone, to leave it defenseless, wouldn't it?

Her stomach rumbled hungrily, so she gave a little, unhappy sound as she stayed on her current perch, which happened to be the roof of a building not far from Shin-Ra Headquarters. The ground around the base of the building was devoid of all shelter, so she'd have nowhere to hide anywhere around the base of it, but the only place which seemed to have lights and monitoring was the front door. A stairwell around the side of the building might let her in, or she could climb it around there or at the back, just as long as she was careful not to cross too many windows. Others looking over from other buildings she could probably mostly avoid by staying close to the same parts she'd have to climb.

At least it was dark out, so the only light came from in the city itself, causing shadows to drift upward. Moving in those shadows would help, too.

With another grin, she moved to the side of the building near the rear and crossed quickly to it so she could start climbing. Some of the gaps were a big reach for her, so having brought along her grappling hooks had been a really good idea. Then again, she'd known it in Wutai, too—she was still a kid, so she was too short to reach all the places an adult could, and the hooks had been a huge help. And they were again now, though she was really having fun climbing the Shin-Ra building! It was a challenge she liked! It was just too bad they were the bad guys.

Most of what she passed were offices, she could see as she glanced in windows. She found other things—plain halls, archives, a cafeteria, two hospital floors. In the last, she was surprised to see Commander Genesis Rhapsodos, the Burning Demon of Wutai. Why would he need to be in the hospital? Especially since he didn't look hurt! She'd heard about him and the Silver Demon and the Regretting Demon (1). Everyone respected them for keeping civilians out of the fighting (though, there wasn't much of that since the last truce was signed a couple years ago), even Wutain ones, but they loathed the Burning Demon because he kept finding ways past their best defenses. When he was looking, anyway.

She still didn't know the difference between loathing something and hating it, though.

Finally, she came to several floors of small apartments. The lower floors of those were mostly occupied, and she was pretty sure those were by SOLDIERs by their eyes. The two top floors of the residential area of the building seemed to be sparser, but in a couple of those rooms, she'd seen Turks, who she'd been told were Shin-Ra's version of the Ninjas. Were those two floors for them, then? Suddenly, she paused on the balcony of one room, peering through the doors and wondering why that room was different from the others. Since she couldn't see anything, she first kept checking the rest of the building for what was there, mostly finding places she both couldn't get food and couldn't hide.

Curiosity piqued, she then returned to the odd room on the lower of the Turks' floors and slipped quietly inside, wondering what the near-hidden wires around the balcony doors were for. It puzzled her, but she thought Shin-Ra used a lot of really loud alarms made with machines and wires, so maybe this was a quiet one of them? If that was true, she should hide for awhile before properly searching the room, so she quickly looked around for a place to hide. As it sounded like a door in the bedroom opened, she dove for the cabinets under the kitchen counters, tucking herself into one which was mostly empty and letting it shut behind her. She was really thankful to Leviathan she was still so small!

Out in the room, she could hear someone walking around and checking things, then heard him say to someone, "I checked it out and there's no one here. Are you sure it didn't just go on the fritz?" A moment later, he quickly backtracked, sounding almost alarmed, "I mean, maybe a bird was picking at it or something, not that you wired it wrong—I know you didn't." There was another pause, then he sighed and said, "All I can do is tell you what I found, which was nothing. There's no one and nothing here which shouldn't be, and nothing is out of place. I mean, someone may have come in, glanced around, realized they were in the wrong place, then left, but that's the best I can offer, since we can't judge by the state of the balcony door—it's been left unlocked since Dor started coming by." There was another pause, then he apparently agreed, "Right, I'll let her know. Later."

Finally, it sounded like he was done talking to whoever it was and walked away, heading for the bedroom. Did he live in the apartment? Again, there was the sound of a door opening (or closing, this time) in the bedroom, and everything went quiet. She waited several minutes longer, then cautiously slipped out from her hiding place to check for the man she'd heard. Even checking the bedroom revealed it to be empty, but...

There was a door in the bedroom wall, which didn't lead to the bathroom?

What?

Going back to the main room, the girl again checked the room for entrances and exits—then realized there was no door out into the hall! The balcony doors were one of the very few ways into or out of the room, and it was likely the door in the bedroom was another. Maybe there was another one somewhere. The alarm on the balcony made sense if it was left unlocked, though. Checking the place, she found some snack foods—either recent additions or recent restocks—so grabbed some of those to eat, wondering why there was no actual food there. Well, in a way, that was better for her, because there wasn't much she knew how to cook, anyway.

So, the room looked lived-in, but the person who lived there wasn't the one who had been in there earlier. It was a place they also kept a close eye on—someone they wanted protected? Who or how the other man had been talking to she didn't know, though maybe it had something to do with those 'PHS' things they used to talk to people far away? If that was true, the one who had left the alarm had talked to the man in the next apartment. She'd need to figure out a better way in and out later—

But right then, she was tired, so decided to hijack some of the linens in the storage room and tuck them into the cupboard she'd hidden in before to create a nice, warm nest she could sleep in without having to worry about being found out. There would be time later to figure out other details, and sleep was her friend right then.

FoWD

Zack sighed faintly as he headed back to Cosmo Canyon, having finally found the last of the Cerberuses to have made their way into the area. The only problem was—it hadn't been alone. When he'd found it, there had also been a Shadow Monk, a Mover, a Master Tonberry, a Lature Dano, a Death Dealer, a Belial, and the largest, a Jabberwock. The very odd group of monsters had apparently been holding some sort of council, after a fashion, and none of them were weak by any stretch of the imagination, leaving him puzzling over it. There were a lot of questions it raised—why they were working together, just to start. What were they after? Why were they after it? What had the actions of the Cerberus pack actually been for?

When he returned to Cosmo Canyon, he had to smile wryly at Deneh going about her business with Nina riding on her back as Alexander trotted along behind the pair. It amazed him how the female Moto apparently just completely ignored the girl when she did things like climb on them. Of course, that also meant Nina would unceremoniously get dumped off her back just as easily if she happened to need to move in such a way, and Nina took it all like it was some sort of carnival ride. Nanaki was much less indifferent to the young girl, though he also enjoyed spending time with her and telling her stories—and hated having her jump or climb on him without warning.

But then, there had been a day when Nina had been so dizzy and disoriented she couldn't even stand up, and his heart had gone out to the little girl, and to Aeris, who had obviously been upset over it.

At the moment, Aeris was sitting by the Cosmo Candle, so he climbed up to the available seats to join her. She gave him a smile and asked, "How did it go?"

"It was strange," he admitted. "I mean, I killed them all, but it was a mixed group of them, all from deep in the Cave and apparently working together." He told her what he'd seen, then blinked as she sighed.

"I guess there's something in this area which Jeh-nova wants..." Aeris mused.

"...Sorry, could you clear up that cryptic statement for me?" Zack asked in reply. "Since it might actually be relevant to my report."

She glanced up at him, then looked back at the fire and said, "The original pack was just a decoy sent out to distract everyone from whatever that other group was doing. I think they were trying to find something for the Calamity, the being whose 'J-cells' are infused into SOLDIERs like you. The J-cells come from a being Shinra called Jenova, a simplified version of Jeh-nova, the Calamity from the Skies. I don't know how you could add any of that into your report, though. I wonder what would be in this area which she would want, though...Because I don't think there's anything. The closest place would have been Nibelheim and the Nibel Mountains, where the Reactor is."

"Why? What's at the Reactor?" Zack asked in surprise, knowing it was an experimental facility for some very high-clearance research. As such, he knew nothing about what might be there.

Shaking her head, Aeris replied slowly, "Jeh-nova's body."

Blinking, the young man found himself drawing a blank, so asked, "Why do you know a thing like that? I'm pretty sure random civilians don't have that kind of clearance."

"I'm not a 'random civilian', though, I'm one of Hojo's experimental subjects who he wants back, and mostly only hasn't been able to get me because Tseng won't return me to him unless I'm willing to go. Because Hojo thought Jenova was a Cetra, he ran parallel tests between me and my genetics and hers very often. That's why I know she's usually kept there when he's not actively using her for anything," the young woman explained, just sounding and looking tired.

Zack leaned back thoughtfully, resting his hands behind him on the stone bench as he assessed what she'd just said, then decided the best option was to be blunt. "So, as much as I appreciate being given top-secret data and all...Aren't you taking a huge risk by telling me that? Why would you chance it?"

"What do you plan to do with me, then?" Aeris asked, still just staring at the fire, though he could tell she was carefully controlling her emotions to keep all of them hidden. Aeris never did that! It was actually disorienting to see the lack of feeling on her face and hear nothing in her voice.

But, something Luxiere had told him once came to mind (which also caused a pang of hurt at the loss of his friends), and he thought she might have been testing him to see if he could be trusted. It was something apparently a lot of women in 'delicate' positions often did with people they didn't mind having around.

As such, he went back to the question itself to decide on his most honest answer, then said, "Guards and Hounds in the Turks aside, I'm pretty sure you're still free because Hojo's willing to wait for you to return on your own, otherwise he'd have just gotten other Turks to snatch you. Also, Hojo is pretty creepy, and I don't like the idea of giving a girl—well, young woman—to him, you know? And Nina would be devastated to lose you. So yeah, I'm not planning to do anything, also because it's really not my business—I was just sent here to kill some monsters causing trouble for the locals."

After a pause, the fifteen-year-old beside him began giggling with mirth, managing to gasp out as she did, "I guess Minerva was right about you!"

"Uh...So is Minerva Nina's 'nice lady'?" he asked in something like bemusement over her chuckling. She managed a nod, but then the two fell silent to wait for Aeris to calm down. When she had, he asked, "What was she right about?"

"I guess...That you have a habit of just not being a typical Shinra SOLDIER," she offered, sounding not quite sure of her wording.

"...What precedent does Minerva have for that?" the Second asked in surprise.

"I don't have good words to explain it, but apparently there are other versions of the Planet which are all at the same point in their timeline, but where things are different between them because of different decisions people made along the way. Since there are so many, and all or most of them have a version of you, I guess she's taking those 'other yous' as justification for the way you'll behave now. For some people, that doesn't work well, but you're...I guess pretty reliable in the way you react to things?" the young woman explained tentatively.

"I see," he blinked in surprise. "That's kinda a lot to take in." She just nodded, so he leaned back again and commented, "I have to head back to Gongaga, and to Midgar, now that I found that last Cerberus...It's probably going to be a long while before we meet again, but I definitely want to."

Aeris smiled and said, "Just be discreet about me and the things I told you which you know are top secret, okay? Otherwise, I'm pretty sure we'll meet again later."

He chuckled, then said, "Actually, I'm going to stay here today, then set out in the morning. I think they were having a 'fire festival' tonight?"

"Yes, it's somewhat like a harvest celebration from what they told me. It's probably just as well that you stay, anyway, so you have all day to get back to Gongaga," the young woman smiled.

"Big Flower Sister! Big Brother Bear! They're setting up big tables!" Nina suddenly burst out from the foot of the stairs, hopping up and down eagerly, and with Alexander beside her. "Will we get to eat soon?"

"Tonight, Budling," Aeris replied as both older ones chuckled. "They'll have a special feast for everyone tonight."

"Yay! Can I help them at all?" the girl asked hopefully.

"Go ask them. You won't know unless you do," Zack told her in amusement, and Aeris nodded.

"Okay!" And, just like that, Nina was off like a shot to ask people if she could help.

FoWD

Ed looked up from his papers in surprise when Lucrecia stepped into the room with a smile on her face as she asked, "How are you feeling this morning, Edward?"

"Better. As long as you don't give me a heart attack," he replied in a dry tone, thankful he'd been working on alchemy just then, exactly because her entrance had been more sudden than normal.

She chuckled and offered, "But, you see—I think you're now past the point of actually having one, fear or surprise aside." He gaped at her, and she went on, "Now, I have the next stage of your genetic therapy worked out, and it will effectively be a type of chemical bath which you'll be spending an hour in daily for the the next few weeks. That means coming here every day around this time for three weeks. I'll check the results again then and let you know if you'll need more time. I'm assuming you'll want a guard during that time, since it's likely you'll quickly fall asleep, so I've asked for Kariya and Doriss to have time scheduled to act as such for about three hours, the one during and two after, while you'll still be groggy. We'll be doing the first one today shortly. Questions?"

"What is this 'chemical bath' supposed to fix, and how is it doing it?" he asked in surprise, assessing what she'd said.

Nodding, she informed him, "There were several attempted enhancements they tried to make to you which backfired and caused you a problem instead. We went over a few of those—skin sensitivity, bowel sensitivity, and cellular level damage. Those are the ones I'm aiming to either reduce greatly or fix entirely at this point because they're straining your body unnecessarily. They're also the ones most receptive to this form of genetic therapy—absorption is always touchy and tends to only work in certain situations. With the chemical compound I'll be using as the catalyst, your skin cells should be more receptive to absorbing the actual modified cell samples which will kick-start cell repair under those three categories. However, the modified cells will only be able to make so much progress on any one round of therapy, because your body needs time to adapt to the new instructions we're giving it, hence the minimum three week time we need to complete the process."

"...I see. And you're starting now?" Ed asked, pondering the data. It made sense.

"That's the plan," she agreed.

"What do I do after the first round today?"

"Head back to your own apartment with Kariya. If you're still too out of it to walk, he has no issue with carrying you back, but other than the side effects you're likely to experience from the chemical bath, you're recovered—and technically discharged from hospital care."

At that, Ed's lips quirked a bit in amusement as he asked, "In other words, I might wake up in my own room, rather than here?"

"Possibly," the woman agreed, then paused for a moment. "Anything else?" she asked when he didn't ask another question right away.

"I don't think so," he told her. "Though, maybe I'll have more questions after this first round. I mean, since I assume the chemical bath isn't going to be toxic to humans."

"No, it's not," she grinned. "There's a form of chemical bath which is, but this one isn't for that specific difficulty, so we don't need to use anything almost equally as harmful as helpful. There won't be any pain, and the most discomfort you'll feel will likely be from your cells complaining about having to do work they normally don't."

Ed snorted, then agreed, "I guess we should get it over with, then."

"Up you get, then, so we can get to the room and get started," Lucrecia agreed, so he rose and followed her to the room where the bath was waiting. Outside, Kariya was standing, and gave him a smile and wave as the two passed by to enter the room.

In the room, there was a lower area around the outside of it which led to a gently upward-sloping floor that leveled out at the top edge of the medical tub fixture in the middle of the room. There were about three feet of flat floor around the tub rim, and stairs at thirds around the tub led down into it, with a grip-rail in stainless steel anyone getting in or out could hold onto for help. Steaming water filled the tub, which was white, but the water itself then showed as an odd cross between green, yellow, and red, nearly obscuring the seats and bottom of the tub. From a table to the side of the room, down on the main level, Lucrecia took a light-weight, white robe and told him to change into it, then he could step into the tub wearing it. He noticed a change of his own clothes was sitting on the same table she had taken the robe from. In the corner near it was a curtained partition for him to change behind, so he did.

Once he was in the white robe, Ed tentatively approached the tub and cautiously dipped the lower part of one foot in it—then blinked as he realized it was just warm, not hot. The smell of the chemical in the air wasn't very strong because of the ventilation system, but right over the tub, it was impossible not to smell it, and for some reason, he thought of a cross between a cleaning chemical his mother had used and eggnog. At least it wasn't a smell of rotting eggs! Either way, he stepped carefully down the stairs, noting how they had rough, non-slip patches on them, and decided on a place to sit. As the various 'seats' in the tub were actually at varying levels, he could choose a higher one rather than a lower one, which also kept his head above the water.

Soon after he settled, his skin began to itch, even as his eyes started drooping, and it was only the Doctor saying, "You should lean back now," that kept him from dropping his head face-first into the water.

After that, he didn't remember much besides a last, drifting thought that he really wished he could scratch his whole, itchy body...

Notes:

(1) In the original, Sephiroth was the only SOLDIER who had a 'title', which was 'the Demon of Wutai'. He was literally the prized specimen, and the only one anyone saw as worth such a title. With the change in dynamic in Dimensions, Sephiroth isn't letting himself be used the way he previously was, so Genesis (the Burning Demon) and Angeal (the Regretting Demon) are much better known, even to the Wutains. By extension, they all earned nicknames, and all the nicknames had to be different enough to tell the three apart by, so needed to be a little more specific.