Identity

Veld had met the helicopter on the roof and told Tseng and Angeal, "For tonight, just go to your room, Tseng, and you to yours, Commander. Everything else will wait for tomorrow. Though, fair warning, it will be a very early start to the day. Oh, and Third Tarins apparently needs to ask you a question about the Blessing which can only be asked in Wutain. If you think you can spare some time for a meeting, let me know in the morning. I'll call him and Commander Rhapsodos to the office." He then turned and walked away before anyone could even process what he'd said, and only just realized he hadn't acknowledged anyone else's presences.

The Wutain's shoulders sagged when he realized what was happening, then he sighed and said, "I guess that means I'm going to have company overnight..."

After having clarified for everyone else—he was especially not to be in his work space or other public areas of the building—and what it meant for them, he waved Angeal off and led the others to his apartment. Ansha had been there with Kariya while they visited with Neirine, but when the lady Turk suggested she take the girls to her room, both balked and insisted they were staying with Tseng. Or, more accurately, Neirine (in her usual place on his couch) was insistent on staying with Tseng and Tifa was insistent she'd stay wherever Cloud was, and Cloud was staying at Tseng's.

Giving the Wutain an amused look, Ansha wished him luck, said her good nights, and left. That left Kariya to ask Vincent, "So, you want to crash at my place so it's one less person Tseng has to find space for?"

Vincent replied flatly, "I don't need to sleep anymore." The undead man then left a gaping Kariya to slip out onto the balcony and perch on the rail.

"Seriously?" Kariya asked as he recovered, turning to look at Tseng. "And that guy's safe around kids?"

"Plenty safe," Tseng agreed mildly.

Kariya blinked, then asked, "Are you sure?"

Pointing at Cloud and Tifa, Tseng replied, "Ask them, not me. They're the 'kids' he's been hanging around for—well, since that past lifetime. Or, I guess more accurately it was their adopted kids back then." He then went to his room to change into his nightclothes, listening to the discussion through the slightly open door as he did.

Tifa asked, with confusion evident in her voice, "Why did that make me think of the names Denzel and Marlene?"

Cloud and Tseng both sighed, but it was Cloud (because he was the one in the main room) who said, "Because Denzel was a young boy we took in off the street, and Marlene was the daughter of a good friend who we babysat a lot. She and Denzel were like siblings, too. And both of them got into plenty of trouble and made us worry."

"Oh." There was a pause, then she announced, "That sounds right! Okay, so yes—Vincent is plenty safe around kids!"

"...How did being told that somehow make you sure of Vincent's safety?" Kariya asked the girl in surprise. Tseng returned to the door to his room just then.

Tifa gave Kariya a flat look and said, "Because my memories from my future self include Vincent bringing my kids back safely if Cloud couldn't."

Kariya blinked as Neirine giggled and agreed, "Women are a lot more likely to remember things like that than men!"

"You aren't 'women' yet, sweetheart," Kariya told her dryly. Then he gasped in agony as a fist hit his stomach hard, and he was thrown back to the wall.

"Tifa, please don't attack the other Turks..." Tseng sighed tiredly, pinching the bridge of his nose, then sending some healing over to Kariya, who was having trouble righting himself again. "And Kariya, I would strongly advise you to not say things which women—or their younger counterparts—would find offensive if you're around either Neirine or Tifa, because there is no bloody way I'm going to get between either of them and someone who has pissed them off. Especially not Tifa."

Kariya blinked owlishly at him, then asked in a wheezing tone, "Why's that?"

"I'm not in the mood to tempt another broken nose," he answered blandly.

"This round or last?" the other Turk asked.

"Last," the Wutain shrugged. "And I have no doubt she can still do it."

"Which girl do you mean?" Cloud asked from where he'd sat down at the table, his expression a bit amused.

"Both, actually," the Wutain Turk shrugged. "For some reason, every woman who wants to hit me aims for the nose if they aren't going the bitch-slap route. And these two women don't normally slap anyone, they punch them."

"True," Cloud had to admit in an amused tone.

"Stop talking about us like we're not here!" both Neirine and Tifa cut in, sounding supremely annoyed.

"Okay, everyone go to bed!" Tseng cut off what could all too easily have become a rant. "Girls, in the bedroom. I don't care if you share the bed or one of you sleeps on the floor, but preferably not Neirine because you're still recovering from your injuries. If you're both okay with having Cloud in the room, he can take the floor. Otherwise, he and I will sleep out here. Kariya, take the paperwork I gathered to Veld. And there's one file in particular you want to have a look at—the one regarding Genesis."

"Why do I need to look at that one and not the others?" Kariya asked with a frown, but moved over to the bag to pick it up.

"You'll find out when you read it. Though, you're welcome to all of it," the Wutain offered. Kariya left with a nod as Cloud looked over at the girls questioningly.

"Girls night!" Tifa grinned, and Cloud shrugged, gaze amused.

It didn't take long for the two to migrate into the room, so Tseng settled on the couch where Neirine had been, and Cloud laid down on the other. By the giggling they could hear from the bedroom, it was obvious they weren't going to sleep.

When Tseng huffed in annoyance and started to rise, Cloud said, "Leave them be. They'll just get mad and ignore you anyway if you try to stop them from being—well, girls. They'll just do it more quietly."

The Turk gave him an annoyed look, but settled back down—for a little while. He knew what girls were like (he'd had three sisters, after all), but the quiet noise they made only made it harder for him to set aside the things he needed to in order to sleep. As such, maybe half an hour later, he'd finally realized he was nowhere near ready to sleep, so rose and started pacing. Cloud sat up to watch him warily for several minutes before sighing and rising to check the cupboards. Tseng stopped to watch in confusion as the boy pulled out cocoa, sugar, and milk (the last from his fridge).

A voice behind him made him jump out of his skin and spin to face Vincent as the older man said, "He's making hot chocolate. I guess he thinks it will help you sleep."

"You don't know?" Tseng asked in surprise.

"Tseng, I'm a corpse. I can't digest food, which also means I get none of the effects foods have on living bodies," Vincent replied dryly.

"What about from before then?" the younger man asked, wondering why he apparently wasn't thinking of when he'd actually been a living human.

"Neither of my parents made that as a means to help me sleep," the older man shrugged. "What has you so agitated? Besides the girls?"

Tseng sighed and reached up to rub the back of his neck. "What I found in Shinra Manor...There had been an awful lot of data removed by the time Sephiroth destroyed the town. I don't know who removed it or why, but in this time, it was all still there. Some records indicating Deepground exists, the actual truth of both Commanders' genetics...And there's no name listed for Sephiroth's father."

Vincent blinked, then looked at him sharply, only for both to start when Cloud commented, "That's because Hojo was never Sephiroth's father, and he utterly loathed that fact." Both men stared at him in confused surprise, so he set two cups of hot chocolate on the table and added, "I found out from Reeve, not anything mysterious. Future Reeve got his hands on an old sample of Sephiroth's genetic data and ran tests on it compared to a sample from Hojo—they didn't match. Reeve was trying to find out who the father was, but hadn't been having any luck. I'm pretty sure the answer has been staring us in the face this whole time." His gaze was on Vincent as he said that.

Rather than pursue the line of thought his gaze implied, Cloud turned to Tseng and pointed at one cup while he moved over to sit at the other and sip it. Both older men were grateful he wasn't going to try to point fingers just then, so Tseng sighed and sat in front of the cup Cloud had pointed to. Sipping it cautiously, he was surprised to find out it tasted shockingly good. When both finished their drinks, they returned to the couches—and Tseng found himself drifting into sleep not long after.

MB

Tseng was woken suddenly by his PHS ringing, making him push himself up to look around for the device—only to see Tifa holding it out to him and dressed in a long nightgown. Weight on his feet made him glance over to see Neirine curled up on them, watching him curiously. On the other couch, Cloud was—hidden completely under his blanket.

Finally, habit took over and he grabbed his PHS, opened it, and answered it, barely glancing at the number shown—Veld's. "Yes?" he asked.

"Get down here with your guests. You have to be ready to go as early in the day as possible. And bring your Shapeshift Materia with you," the Director of the Turks said.

"Hold on—if I'm now leaving again, this time indefinitely, Neirine can't stay in my apartment," Tseng told the man, reminded of that detail by the weight on his feet.

"I'm going with you, then!" Neirine put in, tone insistent.

Veld sighed, indicating he'd heard her, then muttered something. "Is that even possible?" he asked Tseng.

"...In theory, it should be. If she knows Wutain," the young man mused slowly, knowing he could use his Shapeshift Materia to make her look like anyone he'd seen, even just a photograph.

Before he could get any further, Neirine said in practiced Wutain, "Of course I know Wutain—not enough Turks do, and I was also going to spy in Wutai, since Veld won't send you there unless he has no choice." Apparently, the words spoken in Wutain also made Cloud poke his head sleepily out from under the blanket, glancing around in alarm, which puzzled him—Cloud had never had any particularly bad experiences with Wutains.

At the same time as Neirine was speaking, Veld said, "She does."

Tseng closed his eyes tiredly. "Then I can change her appearance the same way I can change mine. She'd be my younger sister." Veld snorted as Neirine grinned, so he told the man in annoyance, "For the purposes of the undercover mission, it would be official, not the traditional way Turks think of it."

There was amusement in the older man's voice as he said, "Don't take offense—it wasn't an insult. Fact remains that I need you here very soon, and I need you gone again, or at least looking like your persona, before Heidegger gets here."

"Okay, we'll be there soon," the Wutain Turk sighed faintly, then remembered Kunzel's question and added, "You might want to call Genesis and Kunzel up there, too," then hung up and looked around at the others. "I have some things to collect, and we have to go to Veld's office." Cloud scowled, but said nothing, so he faced Neirine. "If you do this, Neirine, then you need to come with me and be dressed appropriately."

"Which is?" she asked curiously.

"Up," he told her, then led her to the bedroom.

Quickly, he found one of his traditional-style outfits, sent her to the bathroom to change, then adjusted how it was sitting once she had stepped out. The benefits of wraparound clothing rather than tailored-fit items was that it was a great deal easier to fit them to a person. There were some restrictions, but it didn't take much to make her look like she was dressed in traditional Wutain clothing for a girl. He then sent her out of his room with a change of Tifa's clothes so she could change in the other bathroom, and picked another of his traditional outfits to put on. He gathered the other non-Turk uniform clothes, bundled them into a side-strap bag with some of his toiletries—and his Materia—and stepped out of the room, checking quickly to make sure he had everything else he needed.

Since his check-list was complete, he faced the others, who were all ready, and led them to the Turks' office on floor fifty-eight. There was one other person in the large office, and that person happened to be a very annoyed Reno. The red haired Turk pointed them to Veld's office, then pulled out his PHS as he left the room, so Tseng led the group to the indicated room. The door was open and Veld was standing by the window, staring out at the pre-dawn light.

"So, how many of these people are actively hearing the discussion, besides Neirine now?" Tseng asked dryly.

Veld turned to face him, eying him curiously, then looked over Neirine and gave a nod. He then looked around at the others, noted Cloud's scowl and Tifa's curiosity, stared at Vincent for a long moment, and returned his gaze to Tseng. "In theory, now that you have a 'younger sister' she'd need a friend or two her own age, or close to it. The two from Nibelheim will work wonders in that regard, but other than them, Kariya is the only one who should know the details—most of which he already has. And I'd also really rather address the—er—elephant in the room privately, so he can step out while I talk with the rest of you."

"Are you calling me fat, Verdot?" Vincent asked in sleepy amusement, and Veld's lips twitched upwards.

"Don't start. We really don't have time for that," Verdot replied, motioning him out of the room. Vincent shrugged with a faint smirk and left, deliberately making his cape billow on the way out.

Once the door closed, before Veld could go on, Cloud asked, "Did you really try to kill my mother on the President's orders?" The glare in his eyes was shockingly dark for a twelve-year-old, and Tseng wanted to pinch the bridge of his nose in exasperation.

Veld blinked at him, then asked, "You're Rayne Strife's son?" Cloud nodded sharply, and Veld asked, "Do you really think she'd have lived long enough to hide herself, or that she'd have been able to stay hidden indefinitely, if I had intended to kill her?" As the blond's brow furrowed, the older man told him, "I had orders to kill her, yes. That doesn't mean I tried to carry them out. I didn't, I just needed to look like I did for the President's peace of mind. Speaking of which—"

"No, I'm not going to tell him the truth. I don't need or want anything from him," Cloud bit out, but now he just seemed annoyed, not outright angry.

"Good," Veld answered, nodding. His gaze returned to Tseng. "The easiest route we could give you for this mission was in textiles. No, you don't have to know how to sew, though you may want to have Maya teach you some basics, since she's going with you as a tailor for times when you need one. Mainly, you'll be working with fabrics, with a shop in the city and in a month or two—depending on how quickly your first bite comes—you'll start traveling to sell to more remote areas. That route, to be believable, will have to take you right to Wutai."

"Why all the way there when we were trying to catch someone here?" the younger Turk asked with a puzzled frown.

"Because since I got it, some new information came in which indicates we're not looking for a single person or a small group—we're looking for a fair-sized criminal ring," Veld answered with a sigh. "And with that, I ended up with a list of at least five things you're now in a prime position to deal with. Until we have a lot more to pin on Heidegger, the deeper your disguise and the longer you're in it, the better. And this takes care of several missions at once with the least fuss possible."

"Fine," the Wutain sighed faintly. "And since I'm not actually selling cloth, what am I doing?"

"Well, you will be selling cloth to legitimate customers," the Director answered, his expression faintly amused, which made Tseng scowl. "But for those 'special' customers, Kariya will be passing you data and items which will be traded off hidden in the bolts of fabric. Essentially, you'll be selling some of Shinra's specially-chosen secrets, all things the President will have agreed to for the purposes of this case. We may also pass you some things through Cloud or Tifa, and now that Neirine is going with you, that's actually the safer way to pass on reports rather than you doing it yourself."

"Baiting," Tseng realized, and Veld nodded. "So I have to maintain a fabric shop here in Midgar, also as my warehouse and my base of operations, otherwise I wouldn't be able to travel to begin with. Then, my route has to cover the whole of the territory a Wutain would sell Shinra's secrets to—which would include places like Wutai and Cosmo Canyon, where they aren't completely sure of Shinra's sincerity or validity."

"That's right," Veld agreed.

"Fair enough," the Wutain agreed, suddenly feeling tired. "And Maya is there to help teach me what I need to get caught up on, and to help customers with actual tailoring, since just selling cloth wouldn't be very practical for a business in this era."

"Exactly. Now, how are we registering Neirine? Her name and appearance, that is," Veld asked, head tipped a bit to the side curiously.

Tseng eyed her as he fingered the Shapeshift Materia under his waistband, then said, "I think to step away from the association it would cause if I gave her one of my sisters' names, I should give her a different local name. For appearance—one of the families had a daughter who looked remarkably similar to the girls in my family, but different enough for Wutains to realize they aren't looking at someone from my family." He then faced Neirine and said, "The spell I'm going to cast on you is going to feel very uncomfortable, but it won't break or fade over time. It's going to change your appearance, and possibly things like your height or bone structure."

"Okay," she blinked, so he cast the Copy Skin spell as he pictured the girl from that other family.

She had been close to Neirine in age, but maybe a year younger the last time he'd seen her, placing her at twelve—Cloud's age, and a year ahead of Tifa. Neirine shrunk about an inch to match the girl's age, as her hair turned rich black and shiny, growing long enough to fall below her shoulders, tied in braided pigtails. Unlike people in some areas of Wutai, she had smooth, silky hair which was well-behaved, and her eyes were medium-dark brown, not the near-black Tseng had. She also had no stone on her forehead, though her skin tone was a match for his and she had the more almond-shaped eyes of Wutains. In her traditional-style clothes, Neirine could legitimately pass for a Wutain girl.

"Ouch," she muttered, looking annoyed as she rubbed her arms, even as Cloud gave an impressed whistle and Tifa said a small, awed, "Wow!"

"For her name," Tseng said as an idea occurred to him. "Hokuto Hayashi."

"Hokuto?" Veld asked with a startled blink as he took a photo of her with his PHS.

"That's a constellation name!" Neirine blinked in surprise. "Girls and boys can be named that sometimes, right? But why choose it for me?"

"For you to be the age you are right now—twelve—with your current birth date, you were literally born under that constellation," Tseng told her dryly.

She blinked in surprise, but there was a knock on the door and it opened a crack for Vincent to say, "Genesis and his Third—Kunzel Tarins, I assume—are here."

"Okay, I'll talk to them, or at least to Kunzel," Tseng agreed.

"You don't have long," Veld reminded him, motioning at the light outside. "And you still have paperwork to go through before you have to leave."

"It shouldn't take long," Tseng agreed. "And I'm not taking my persona until there's no one else not in the know to see it."

Veld sighed faintly and nodded, then said, "Then, while you're talking with Third Tarins, I'll pull out the paperwork for Cloud to hand to you, and have a bit of a chat with Vincent. You can start going through the paperwork, and your kids can wait in the hall to keep an eye out for Heidegger."

"Fair enough," Tseng said, then ushered Tifa and Neirine—Hokuto—out of the office with him. Kunzel stared at her in shock when she gave him a cheerful wave, but she and Tifa headed for the hall as Tseng faced the two SOLDIERs. "Sorry about the early call, but we're a bit pressed for time."

"I noticed," Genesis agreed dryly. "I was awake anyway, so it's not a big deal. Now, I'm still reeling from the data you left me, so I'm just going to go find a place to sit and stare into space while you and Kunzel talk." He then wandered into one corner of the office, pulled over a nearby chair, and sat so he could lean back against the wall.

Facing Kunzel, Tseng asked softly in Wutain, "You apparently had something to ask in Wutain?"

"It's not as simple as a single question, it's more of a...line, I guess?" Kunzel answered, his Wutain as good as Neirine's but not quite as formal as hers.

"I'll see if I can help you arrive at an answer, then," Tseng agreed, and Kunzel smiled faintly, knowing it was the kind of reply steeped in tradition.

"I've been thinking about it since I found out Genesis had Leviathan's Blessing, but that he somehow didn't care all that much that I knew—he even expected it. Even though I wasn't sent back with you, and I'm not really anything special, why is he okay with me being part of this?" Kunzel asked. "Or more accurately, why are all of you okay with it?"

Tseng blinked, then tipped his head to the side and asked, "Have you heard of the memory carry-over some people seem to be getting?"

"Heard of it, yes. But, I'm sure I'm not getting any future memories, and even just that half-way state of some people is strange enough," Kunzel offered. "That's not how Leviathan's Blessing works."

"I know it's not," Tseng agreed. "But 'Leviathan' has never been trying to undo the world crumbling apart before, either."

For a long moment, Kunzel was silent in thought, then gave a slow nod and asked, "So is there a reason I'm not getting those 'half-way' memories?"

"I don't know. This is an inexact science at best, and we don't know all the terms. Most of those who aren't getting them had no soul in the future to send back."

"...So I was dead in that future?"

"No, most certainly not. You were actually doing very well for yourself."

That produced a blink, then the younger man asked again, "Why are you okay with me knowing all of this?"

"Because you were never not part of it all, we just didn't realize how true that was until much later, not long before the point we were sent back from."

"I don't understand." Kunzel seemed almost distressed. "I'm no one special, I'm not getting memories, I'm not nearly as strong or capable as others—"

"Maybe your 'half-way' memories aren't coming because you think so poorly of yourself," Tseng cut him off, tone annoyed. Kunzel blinked at him in surprise, so he said, "Kunzel, stop comparing yourself to others and just focus on what you can do—you're a Mage, you're a SOLDIER, and if you'd take it, you'd be a Turk, too. You have all of the qualifications of all of them, and you actively use them. There were things in that future which went a lot better than they could have because you chose to intervene, even if it was from the shadows and in the form of notes sent to certain people as warnings. We trust you, and you've done right by us from the start. Now you just need to realize that and stop selling yourself short."

For a long moment, the half-Wutain was silent in surprise, then blinked rapidly several times and said in Standard, "Oh."

"Anything else?" Tseng asked, also in Standard.

"No, I'm good now," the Third answered, then wandered over to Genesis.

The two quickly left as Cloud handed Tseng the paperwork. He had mostly finished with it by the time Veld and Vincent were done, so quickly finished up, had his last meeting with Veld, and took the children out of the building with him via the stairs (thankfully, it was going down, not up, so was easier on all of them, especially Neirine—Hokuto now). Once on the main floor landing, just before stepping out onto the street, he took his new form as Haruna and gave the kids time to examine 'her' before 'she' and Hokuto left the building to head for their new home address.

It would be a long time before any of them—Tseng, Neirine, or Maya (who was already at the home and shop)—returned to the Shinra building.