Kidnapping?
It only took a week for things to go back to normal. Soon after Lady Shinra was released from the hospital, she visited Ed at Kariya's to show him what she had of a map so far of the places the Jenova Crystals had been. Since the group was keeping below Shinra's radar, travel was slowed by either leisure (which no one begrudged them, especially knowing Nina was with them) or by the necessary waits for transportation. That translated to fewer points over more time than Ed had hoped for, but it wasn't all bad. He still couldn't tell what was wrong with the pattern, but was thankful they were getting rid of the Jenova Crystals.
On Percia's end, she and Lakis had needed that whole week just to find Hollander, let alone start observing him. Apparently the cave system under Banora was larger than Ed had realized, and while there was a—very small—route from Hollander's cave to the one where Minerva's core was, he had never known about the other portion of the cave. In truth, he'd never had a reason to track it down, because Hollander was so very rarely a factor in anything Ed was involved in. Not directly, at least. And when he was, that either happened at Nibelheim or in the Shinra building. He was just glad Percia and Lakis still got along, despite Percia's faction switch.
Yufi and Shelke tried very hard to get him to go out on his regular schedule, even after Lady Shinra's limo was bombed, but their first attempt was a bust—he wasn't able to bring himself to step out Kariya's apartment door. The man finally told the girls to go play, and they could try again in a few days to get Ed to go out again. The second attempt worked marginally, but he only made it as far as the training floors before having to go back.
Finally, everyone hoping the third time was the charm, they got him to go out again. It was a week and a half after he'd woken, and that time, he felt a lot better about going out, though it almost seemed like Minerva was hovering worriedly in the background. To him, that meant something was about to happen, something she wasn't sure about, but had definite potential to go bad. Even though they were able to go out into the city that day, he was rather displeased about getting his feet wet in the new round of slush they'd gotten while he'd been stuck in his apartment, and was still wary and cautious.
Apparently, that wasn't enough, as a strong hand seized his arm as they passed an alley. Before he had time to blink, Elicia was knocked to the ground with a yelp and he was dragged away by someone with definite enhancements, someone who handled him like he weighed nothing. It was definitely no fun being carried over someone's shoulder, though. The man was quick to jump to the rooftops, crossing several very quickly, then dropping back to the ground. Several times, the man alternated between crossing sections of the city on the rooftops and on the ground—most of the places he went up and down were the ones the Turks used.
Then, he landed in an alley and stopped. Ed was lifted off his shoulder and put on his feet on the ground—and for the first time, Ed realized he was looking at Veld. Before he could process more than that, the man had seized his arm and pulled him to a door in the alley wall, where he was then dragged inside...a restaurant? One of the staff members saw the Restrictor and said the private room he'd wanted was ready, and to let them know with the alarm by the door when they wanted service. Veld agreed, then led Ed up a flight of stairs and onto a hall with many doors; not long after, they were in a private room tastefully designed and with a fair-sized table and six chairs.
Veld pushed him at the table and said, "Sit down. We have to talk."
"Do we?" Ed asked cautiously, not moving from where he was. It was hard not to fall into panic, and Elicia's presence would really have helped. He knew why Veld had tossed her to the ground, though—it was obvious she was a monitoring device, and anything that happened here would then have been recorded. So, he had to calm himself entirely on his own. All he could really manage just then was to work to regulate his breathing.
"No matter how I think about it, there's no reason you'd have known my name," Veld answered. "You're not allied to the President, and I don't see you ever having been. You were never slated to be a Restrictor, and I can't see any future where that would have happened. You aren't one of the originals or I'd know you, recognize something about you. The President denied wanting you trained for the roll, and affirmed he'd never told you my name. There are too many questions surrounding you, and I need answers."
"...So why haven't you taken me to Reactor Zero to force me to give you what you want to know?" Ed asked, feeling off-balance. He still didn't move, but that time, it was more for fear of falling over if he did.
"Because I want those answers, not the President or my fellow Restrictors," Veld answered bluntly.
What?
The words were shocking on several levels, and Ed knew he stumbled as he finally made his way to the table and sat. It was in the chair to the side of the head of the table. To his surprise, Veld sat across from him, gaze intent as he watched the younger man. This was completely not the way Restrictors behaved. This was completely not the way Veld behaved. In the past, he had never cared what knowledge Ed did or didn't have. For a few long minutes, the two just stared at one another, but then Veld did something else Ed had never seen before—
He took off his helmet and mask.
The man beneath the mask had medium brown hair cut short and hard, chiseled features, and looked like he was in his forties, maybe early fifties. His face alone had several scars—it was likely his body was no different. His eyes were brown, sharp, calculating...but also apprehensive. While he had a bit of a mustache and small sideburns, he was otherwise clean-shaven, with no particularly notable features. For a long time, Ed just met his gaze, feeling like the end of the world should come just now, then, when the world didn't end, turned to look around the room again, instead. Veld's gaze without his mask was shockingly intense.
Most of the colors in the room were warm browns, blue, and green. Over the window, covering it completely, were thick, green curtains (no one would be able to see them from outside), and most of the edging and borders of the room were green. The walls were a pale brown not far off the color of sand, but the table and chairs were medium brown wood. Place mats in blue with green leafy borders were at each of the seats while the chair cushions were the opposite—green with blue leafy borders. The floor was medium brown wood with a blue rug under the table. The room was well-lit, but the lighting was soft so there was no eye strain.
Finally, he returned his gaze to Veld, who had just waited patiently for him to finish his assessment of the room. Their gazes met for a long moment again before Ed finally sighed and said, "I may not be able to answer everything you ask, but I can answer a few things..." It was a wary agreement due to his knowledge of what was likely to happen if he didn't answer or if Veld didn't like the answer he gave.
Apparently, Veld realized where his thoughts had gone, and gave him a distinctly annoyed look as he said flatly, "I didn't bring you to a public restaurant to torture you. If you can't answer something, or can't answer it honestly, then don't. Just don't lie to me about it."
Ed blinked, then blinked again as he processed the words. Once he had, he sighed faintly again and agreed, "Okay." Did Veld really mean he wasn't going to hurt him? It was true the restaurant was elitist and well-designed, but now that he thought about it, there wasn't a huge amount of sound-proofing there—enough to keep ordinary loudness of discussion from being more than an unintelligible mumble from outside, but not enough to keep a scream from being heard. By that, it seemed Veld really had no plans to hurt him. Which left him the question of how much he could say about any one topic, or how much he should say.
"How do you know my name?" Veld asked. It was a completely expected question. It was also one of the few he could answer relatively easily.
"One time, when I was in Deepground, you and one of the other Restrictors tortured me. I should have been unconscious by the end, but instead my awareness hovered. I heard him call you Veld, and the leader of the Restrictors. That was actually the first time I realized what was different between your uniform and theirs, too," he explained.
"Those are your 'scenarios'?" the man questioned with a faint frown, and Ed nodded. Veld then braced his arms on the edge of the table and linked his hands. "Argento said you had Leviathan's Blessing, so I looked it up. However, what I found out was that, while there's a superficial similarity to it, whatever you have isn't the Blessing. One key factor in that is how things in your 'scenarios' wouldn't keep changing if it was. So, what do you really have?"
Ed swallowed tightly and looked away, not sure if he'd even be able to answer. It only took a few moments for the older man to say, "Fine, you're obviously not able to answer just now. Why do you work so hard to save Lady Shinra?"
Blinking at the complete change of topic, he repeated the question in his own mind, then said quietly and bluntly, "Because she's not completely blind to things that don't directly relate to her own power, including things Shinra company is doing which will either destroy the company or the world. If it destroys the world, there is no company. And she tries to fix what she can—all to keep Shinra in the position of 'top dog'."
Veld's eyes widened, then narrowed, but not in anger, in confusion. "What do you mean? She's working to take power from Shinra."
Again, Ed wondered how to reply so the Restrictor would get it, but then he sighed and asked, "How did you manage to control everyone in Deepground to the point where the President felt comfortable letting them out so much sooner than he ever has before?"
The man frowned, this time in partial confusion and partial anger. "What does that have to do with anything?"
Pausing for a minute, the blond formulated his thoughts, then said, "Any previous time I met Deepground, and the few I was in it, the only thing you had going for you was the control chips and fear. They were never loyal to you, and eliminated you the first chance they got. There was no loyalty because they had nothing to be loyal to, only a simmering rage under the fear, a rage and a desire to be free. Control can't be forced that way, and only lasts for so long. It was cold, cruel, painful, and the shortest route to insanity possible. What's different this time?"
When Veld's expression became thoughtful, Ed went on, "The President is a control freak. Very literally. He doesn't care how he gets that control, as long as he gets it. He tends to go for expedient, but ultimately ineffective methods, like fear and torture, and covering up wrong-doing. Those things all leak out and turn people against him and the company, causing his control to slip, and in turn causing him to retaliate by creating more fear and pain. You can only hide so much, and people will only take so much, before they'll snap and hit back."
He paused to cross his arms and rest his elbows on the table, gathering his thoughts again. Finally, he went on, "Lady Shinra does things to make people like her, and to like Shinra. She'll put herself, her people, her money, and her control out for something if it means she can effectively regain it by having people like and respect her. She reads people, and sees when she can't push through something the people won't like, because ultimately, a leader can't lead without people. Pushing people away by doing things they don't like or want, or killing them because they don't agree with you, causes a collapse of power. She realizes that, and adapts to situations so people will keep letting her have that power. Without her, Shinra would be holding onto his power by the skin of his teeth right now. But, her doing those things which keep him in power mean she's going against what he wants to dictate, so he wants her eliminated."
Veld eyed him for a very long moment before blinking in surprise, but then he just gave a small nod. "That doesn't explain your apparent rejection of things like SOLDIER and Deepground itself."
"Combat forces are needed, but Turks are the proof that the extreme experiments in Deepground and the less extreme SOLDIER ones aren't," Ed replied. "Those are harmful to people, whether it's through agony and high likelihood of death or through putting a parasite's cells into a person's body so the parasite has a new playground. And the sheer amount of agony Shinra company has caused the Planet and the people on it is marching it very neatly—and rather quickly—to its doom. The President even knows the Reactors are, quite literally, killing the Planet, but he doesn't bother to find another way because that's too much effort he doesn't want to put in, money he doesn't want to 'waste'."
"How do you know that?" Veld frowned in confusion.
"You seriously need to spend more time in the Shinra archives, looking up data," Ed replied dryly. "He's got all the reports and records there—he's just chosen to ignore them. While you're doing that, you can look up things like how prone he is to lying, betrayal, and ignoring planetary cycles, like Chaos and Omega Theory. The last, you could even ask Doctor Crescent about."
"Isn't that a myth?" the older man asked, even more puzzled.
"If it's a myth, how is Vincent housing Chaos?" Ed asked in reply, and Veld's eyes widened in shock.
"That's right, his records, the shapeshifting..." the man murmured. He was quiet for long moments before asking, "And Jenova, since that's what I assume you mean when you say 'parasite'?"
"This world collectively has next to no grasp of actual scientific theory," Ed told the man bluntly. "Most scientists, Hojo included, don't know the difference between a product and a by-product, or between a parasite and a symbiont. The ones who have the most grasp of it are Grimoire Valentine, who's dead, and Lucrecia Crescent, and neither realized all of what Jenova was. It didn't help that she was mis-labeled as a Cetra when she's not one. Hojo knows she's not one now, though. Those records should be in the hidden basement Lab in Shinra Manor in Nibelheim, along with a bunch of false data deliberately kept there to lead people in the wrong direction."
Again, Veld was silent for a long time, then asked, "And if you know so much, does that mean you know where the Promised Land is?"
Ed's lips quirked in something very much like a small smirk as he said, "Death."
"I beg your pardon?" Veld asked, obviously not sure he'd heard right.
"Do some research on the Cetra and the way they lived their lives. Then take into account that they were fully aware they came from the Lifestream when they were born, and went back to it when they died. To them, coming to the end of their journey and returning to the Promised Land would be what?" Ed asked him shrewdly. "Of course, since the Lifestream is the energy form of Mako, that would be why there's an association between mass amounts of Mako and the Promised Land. But, you can't 'get to it' unless you die, so what's the point? It's not for the living."
The man sat back and stared at the blond across from him for a long time, just stared. Finally, he gave something like a faint sigh and asked, going back to the second question he'd asked, "Since you don't have Leviathan's Blessing, what do you have?"
Again, Ed hesitated, then decided to go for broke and sighed. "Dimensions." At the older man's puzzled frown, he elaborated, "Every time I die in one dimension, one version of this world, I land in another. Those versions differ by people having made different decisions, or different events having happened, or different outcomes came from those events. This is the first one where Lady Shinra has been alive, and it's also the one I've found in the best position to fix things since the first one. I can't remember a version of this world which didn't end up destroyed, but...this one might survive. If the President doesn't get to destroy it. Or Fuhito. Or Jenova."
A silence followed, then the man said, "I have a lot to think about. I may have more questions, so I'll call the waiters to bring us food and drinks while I'm working out what, or if, there's anything else I need, or want, to question now."
Ed nodded—it wasn't like he had a choice—and Veld got up to push on the white button near the door, sitting at about the place a doorbell would have. He returned to the table, and soon after, a waiter came in with menus for them, asking if he should return in about five minutes or wait there to take their orders. Ed solved the problem by asking what they had with fish in it, and suddenly felt like he should add, "And no onions." Veld looked highly amused by the words, but said nothing as the waiter assured him any dish could be prepared without onions at his request, then listed and briefly described their fish options. By the time Ed had decided on one, and a drink, Veld was also ready to order.
After the waiter told them it would be about half an hour, the young man left, and Veld and Ed were alone again. The older man asked, "Is that your metamorphose form talking?"
"Probably," Ed admitted in vague amusement. "I hadn't even noticed it before about a week or a week and a half ago."
He shrugged and admitted, "Most people who have another form tend to react to it instinctively in some small ways. One of those is often a preference in food. It's a running joke in Deepground. For you, we'd say, 'Your cat is showing.'"
Ed couldn't help but chuckle a bit at the phrase. "You really have jokes in Deepground this time? That's definitely new."
"It got boring without them," Veld replied. "We've had to be very quiet about most of what we've done, otherwise Lady Shinra would have noticed, so we didn't get to release tension by sending members out on raids and things. I'm beginning to wonder if it wouldn't have been better for her to have found out."
"That's definitely a first," the blond replied dryly.
"You're getting a lot of firsts in this one, aren't you?" Veld asked in reply, and Ed blinked at the similarity to the very thing he heard from the Guards all the time.
"You wouldn't be the first to comment on that," he said after a moment.
They fell silent until the waiter returned with their food, then ate in silence as well, but somehow, Ed didn't feel threatened or awkward. It was strange to be sitting with the man like this, but Veld had kept to his word and been non-threatening, even the one time he'd been angry for a short time. While he had always known Restrictors were men of their word, that had never been applied in a benign situation, so he'd also never actively realized that they would keep their word if they swore off harming someone. He'd been fearing the changes in Deepground would be bad ones, but now he wasn't so sure that was the case—Lady Shinra's continued presence and power had actually put things in a better place overall.
As they were finishing up, Veld asked him suddenly, "How many dimensions? How long have you been doing this?"
"...Kariya asked the same thing once," Ed answered quietly. "I don't have an exact number, but...It's been over a hundred dimensions and spanned over three hundred years. This is the first one which has a real chance to not end in destruction, and the only notable difference..."
"Is Lady Shinra," Veld finished, and the younger man nodded. He then sighed and said, "If you're done, let's go pay for this—I'll cover it—and I'll return you to the Shinra building." It didn't take long for them to do exactly that, though Veld left him at the doors and went off on his own.
Carefully, Ed stepped inside—only to jump in surprise as a familiar voice called, "Edward!" It didn't take long to find Verdot, who was striding towards him rapidly, even as he pulled out his PHS. "Come on, I'll get you to Lady Shinra's office," he told the blond, catching his elbow and pulling him to the elevator. As he did, he held his phone to his ear, and moments later said, "I found him, I'm showing him to your office now." He then hung up and pulled Ed into the elevator.
"Um..." Ed began warily.
Verdot faced him and looked him up and down, eyes sharp. "You don't seem injured. Doctor Crescent will still want to have a look at you to make sure, but otherwise, the rest can wait until you're safely in Lady Shinra and Vincent's care."
Clearly, talking wasn't something Verdot was encouraging just then, so a very nervous Ed waited quietly as the elevator rose, and let the older man lead him to Lady Shinra's office. Rufus, Lady Shinra, Vincent, Lucrecia, Carbuncle...and Elicia were all there, waiting for him. It only took a moment for a trembling Elicia to jump into his arms, making a sound like she was crying as she did, and for the first time, in a reversal of rolls, he had to calm her down. Everyone waited quietly for her to calm, only taking the time to make sure he ended up sitting in one of the chairs across the desk from Lady Shinra.
Finally, when he looked up at the woman, she said, "I want Doctor Crescent to do a quick check to make sure you're unharmed."
"I probably only have a few bruises from when he carried me over his shoulder, if that after this long," Ed answered cautiously.
"That," the woman said in a shrewd tone. "Elicia took a single snapshot of a Restrictor seizing you. How did you get away?"
"Uh..." the blond blinked, assessing her words for what she was assuming. "I thought I might have to, or wait for rescue...But he...kinda took me to dinner and asked me some questions I don't think anyone but you has ever asked before."
There was a pause as everyone's heads tipped to the side and their eyes crossed, then they reverted to normal as Rufus asked warily, "Was that a romancing 'taking you to dinner'?"
Again, Ed blinked, then chuckled and said, "If it was, it was a very strange way of doing so. I really think all he wanted was a private place away from everyone to ask those questions, and since he picked a restaurant, it would have been too strange, and too notable, if we hadn't had anything to eat. I've never had a Restrictor, or anyone from Deepground for that matter, ask those kinds of questions before."
"Like?" Vincent asked curiously.
"Why I keep protecting Lady Shinra," Ed said, making them blink in alarm. "Why I don't agree with Deepground, or theoretically with SOLDIER. What's wrong with the Reactors, and the fact that the President is willfully killing the Planet. I don't know what will come of it, but if he had the drive to research Leviathan's Blessing—and to realize by extension that I don't have it—he may actually look into what I said."
After a silence, Lady Shinra sighed and nodded. "We'll wait and see what happens, then. In the meantime, you and Lucrecia can use my antechamber to see how you're doing. Of course, we know bruising won't be visible, given the state of your blood, so I apologize in advance if any pain comes of it. Hopefully, the others we sent out looking for you after you were kidnapped will be back by the time you're done. I sincerely hope this doesn't happen again."
"I think we can all say we hope for that," Verdot replied. "I'm sure the President knows about this, so should we play it that someone else kidnapped Ed and it was the Restrictor who found him and returned him to the building on the premise that Shinra's business stays within Shinra?"
"If he knows, feel free. If the Restrictor took Edward's words seriously, that would give him a cover so no one would know he was the one who did the kidnapping," Lady Shinra agreed. "If it turns out Marius doesn't know, then don't say anything."
"Fair enough. I have to report back to the office before I can head home for the day, so if we're done here, I'll head out," Verdot agreed.
The others nodded, so he left, and Lucrecia led Ed and Elicia to the antechamber. Thankfully, it didn't take long for her to do her examination, and when they stepped back out into the office, Kariya, Doriss, and the two girls were there, both girls hugging him tightly as soon as they saw him. Kariya and Doriss also hugged him, then led him back to his apartment, where he fell into bed and immediately fell into sleep.
