A/N: Phoenix: Thank you for the reviews and the list! No, I don't need more information, since there are limited 'attacks' monsters in FFVII use in real time to start with. Only about half a monster's attacks (if that) get announced in-game, so they aren't all 'officially' named—a monster clawing or biting someone isn't a 'special attack'. The only reason FFVII designates names for them clawing or biting someone is because computer data requires those designations to react appropriately during play.

Guest: You wrote that same review (twice, once after I'd already answered) near the start of this story (chapters 3-4, I think). My answer is the same now as it was then: Not happening. Stop posting your 'idea' as a review on my story and go find a forum to offer it on so someone who's interested can write it for you, because I'm not going to. And I'm only going to say it this once, even if you still add a second identical review this chapter, like you did the last time you left that review.

Perspective

Weiss and the Tsviets had made it to the elevator when a familiar blond caught up to them and joined them, followed closely by Vincent, Veld, and the brown haired girl Weiss thought was named Tifa. There was a silence as the doors shut, and Cloud gave Weiss a curious, questioning look. He was, by how he indicated Vincent and himself with a slight tip of his head, asking if the Tsviets were trustworthy at this point, and Weiss himself had to question that. Then he remembered how they had stood up against the Restrictors in his defense, even Azul, and realized he'd earn more loyalty by being honest rather than secretive.

"Are you going to be joining us once we've chosen rooms?" Weiss asked mildly, gaze on Cloud, who gave him a vaguely amused look.

"Are you fit to have the company?" Cloud asked in reply. The elevator reached the Firsts' floor and the door began opening, even as Azul, Nero, and Rosso frowned.

"As long as I can rest, I can still talk," Weiss shrugged, and Azul gave him an annoyed look, even as Argento's gaze became amused.

"Shall we, then?" Veld agreed, stepping into the hall.

The others followed him as Azul asked, "Why should we be talking in front of Turks?"

"Because in this case, I can cover for you," Veld replied flatly, heading down the hall.

Tifa giggled and skipped after him—but only after she'd seized Rosso's and Nero's hands and pulled them along with her. They both yelped and protested, but otherwise didn't try to stop her, so Cloud followed the three and Weiss fell in with him. Vincent kept a step behind the pair, who were walking at Weiss' pace, and Argento and Azul brought up the rear, the woman still looking highly amused.

"What's with you, Argento?" Azul asked, giving her an annoyed look.

"I think you'll like this discussion," was all she said in reply.

Soon after, Veld had stopped at one door, labeled as 97, and motioned at the room across the way, which was labeled as 96. "This room can be your temporary room, Gentlemen, and the Ladies can move to the one across the hall to sleep," the man offered, then opened the door to lead the way into room 97. "I'll let Lazard know for you," he added as he took out his PHS to send a message while everyone else looked around curiously.

It looked like any other apartment in the main building, and not at all like the excessively utilitarian rooms in Deepground. It made Azul, Rosso, and Nero feel out of place, but Weiss quickly settled in one of the plush chairs, which were way softer than the ones in Deepground. It didn't take long for the others to find seats, though Rosso and Nero went out onto the balcony for a bit to stare down at the central 'open' space where the indoor 'garden' was. They then returned and sat on the floor at the coffee table, which was also where Cloud and Tifa were sitting.

"So...We needed to discuss something?" Azul finally asked, still looking annoyed.

"We can begin with the fact that Weiss, Cloud, and I all have a trait in common," Vincent replied flatly. "I'm guessing, by Argento's comment earlier, that she already knows, but I'm not surprised—she's Wutain, after all. The catch is that we have a lot of work to do, and Weiss trusted you enough to want you to know this. It wasn't safe while you were in Deepground—things would have gone much worse for all of you if it had come out then—but now, we have a bit of breathing room."

"And 'that' is?" Rosso asked, looking puzzled.

"The three of them have Leviathan's Blessing," Argento put in, making everyone look at her. Weiss was thankful she was stepping in. "And as far as I could tell, Commander Rhapsodos has it as well. They obviously all know one another, so chances are they were sent back together to fix something destructive. And Weiss intends to help fix it, or he wouldn't have also been sent back."

There was a long silence, then Azul asked flatly, "Do you think you could repeat that in Standard for the people here who've never heard of Leviathan's Blessing before?" Nero and Rosso eagerly nodded in agreement to the question.

It was Cloud who said plainly, "We lived fourteen years into the future, watched the world crack and break apart, and found ourselves back in our past bodies in this time. And we need to stop the world from being destroyed."

That made everyone, even Argento, blink in surprise, but Veld said, "That never gets easier to hear. Tseng, who Hojo mentioned, is also one of those with the Blessing, which means the Turks have been absorbed into this mess by default. We need to know if you're on board, and to what extent, so we can see the appropriate and relevant data to your hands."

"So we're supposed to be peace-loving, tree-hugging ninnies, is that it?" Azul glared.

The words made Weiss laugh and ask, "So, Vincent, Veld, how many people and assorted 'others' need to be killed to fix things? I never got the full tally before we were sent back. I only know Hojo is a definite."

"Hojo, yes," Vincent agreed, gaze cold and hard. "I destroyed Jenova's body, but he's infused himself with so many of her cells that she's moved on to his body to host her. She's a parasite which arrived here from space and could still control others' minds while she was only semi-aware. She's also the reason things like Behemoths, Dragons, and—well, nearly all monsters—exist. As long as she's around, Hojo is durable and we're going to have monster problems. We also have the risk of one or all of Shinra's top SOLDIERs—the Commanders and General—going insane due to her control."

"If, however, we assume they are firmly on our side after hearing about things like the Sector 7 Plate collapse, we have other targets to focus on," Veld cut in. "AVALANCHE needs to go, but I'm going to need to be directly involved in that. From what I gather, they're easily equivalent to SOLDIER. The Restrictors and those from Deepground who followed them have to go. We'll need to do something to stop Heidegger, Scarlet, and the President from destroying things, and there are assorted other enemies to eliminate, including Corneo and his group, though they can be left the longest."

The man paused, then met Azul's gaze flatly and informed him, "The fact is that the 'peace-loving, tree-hugging' part of the equation isn't yours to deal with, it's Reeve's, so leave that to him and the Urban Development Department. We have plenty of combat and killing tasks to handle in the meantime, and if we can have your support for that, things will go much better. At this point, we'd rather as few enemies within our ranks as possible, because we already have a long criminal execution list. The only questions are 'how' and 'when', and hopefully not too long into the future."

After a long moment of silence, Weiss looked up at Azul and said, "Don't worry, I won't ask you to do anything beyond combat-related tasks. I know that's where your strength is, so I'm going to allocate you where you'll do the most good."

The man huffed and agreed, "As long as I can keep testing my strength, I'm good with that."

"In which case, we need to do some planning," Vincent put in. The others agreed and they set to work.

MB

Finally, late that night, Genesis made it back to his room. It was the first time he'd realized only two other Firsts had ever taken on a mentee, and only one of those was currently alive. The dead First's mentee was a Second soon to be promoted to First at this point, and the living one and his mentee were away, leaving Genesis as literally the only one everyone could ask about the Program. Of available Firsts, about three quarters had already asked him that night, though normally it was the question of who they should take on as a mentee. It had surprised them all to realize it wasn't going to be an easy answer other than in a few cases, because most of them would need to observe Cadets, Thirds, or Seconds to find someone they would like to try teaching.

Kunzel just watched the process in amusement, until some of the Firsts had decided to ask him about his thoughts—what had helped him adapt, what had been useful or not, how a mentee was likely to react to the offer. Even moving to the cafeteria for food didn't help—if anything, that made it worse, and caused word to spread to the Seconds and Thirds, resulting in them asking questions, too. Before then, no one had paid much attention to the Program, and personally, Genesis thought the President was taking advantage of the situation to force people into becoming aware of it and putting it to use. Why have a program no one used, after all?

A message to Lazard about his situation and being unable to help with the room assignments resulted in a very interesting response, though, because the man told him to just keep doing what he was. As Lazard said (which also made Kunzel snicker when Genesis showed him the message), the interest the rest of the SOLDIERs had shown in the Program was keeping them all from crowding his office at once to claim mentees, which in turn gave him and Sephiroth time to find places for the ones who needed them. Since Genesis being the center of attention was actually helping the two men, he decided to just go for broke and play it up until most of the other SOLDIERs finally wandered away.

When the two finally got back to their own apartment, Genesis was bemused to find Angeal, Zack, and Sephiroth there, sitting at his kitchen table as they ate snacks Angeal had made. The two joined them tiredly, though they didn't eat much. For himself, Genesis really only took a cup of tea he could nurse for about an hour until he had unwound enough to sleep. It didn't take Kunzel and Zack long to migrate to the living room.

"Gen, is something bothering you besides that whole—Deepground thing?" Angeal asked carefully, looking apprehensive. Sephiroth just cocked a brow.

After a pause, the red haired man realized there was and sighed. "There's no easy way to do it," he answered tiredly, gaze moving to Sephiroth.

"This is in regards to me this time?" the silver haired man asked curiously.

For another moment, Genesis was silent, then he asked, "How sure are you of Hojo's honesty regarding things he tells you?"

The younger man paused for a moment before his jaw tightened and he replied, "After Vincent Valentine announced that Hojo has been lying to me about my mother's identity, I must now take everything he has told me as potentially false. Why?"

"The data Tseng brought back has the real information in it," Genesis replied. "At least, about all three of our origins. And about the Projects which created us. The interesting thing is that no one is listed as your father, and if Hojo held that honor, it would be noted." Sephiroth blinked rapidly several times as the red haired man looked at Angeal and asked, "Could you grab the papers from my room, please, Ang? They're in the top drawer of my nightstand right now."

"Sure," the black haired man agreed, rising. "None of those were easy for us to see, so you know—our files were...not what we had expected, either." Once he'd directed that at Sephiroth, he headed for Genesis' room to get the requested files.

"The identity of my father is unlisted...But my mother's is?" Sephiroth asked, a puzzled expression on his face.

"Shocking, isn't it?" the older man asked in vague amusement. "I'm still trying to figure out what I think of my parents being alive and Angeal's father not being who he always thought. I already knew your real mother's name—from the Blessing—but even I had thought your father was Hojo. To realize it's not..."

"He would have to very specifically hate the one who is my father to have not listed his name," Sephiroth answered flatly.

Angeal returned and offered Genesis the paperwork as the red haired man agreed, "I know. I have a theory about who it may be, but unless I can get him to agree to a blood test, we won't know, and there's no point in anyone getting their hopes up."

"Fair," Sephiroth agreed as he watched Genesis flip through the file, then pass him his section of the paperwork. It didn't take him long to state, "This is in agreement with what Valentine said of my mother." He paused as he looked through the remaining paperwork, then looked up at Genesis to ask, "So what are we if we share the blood of a parasite intent on destroying the world?"

"We are ourselves," Genesis replied evenly, causing the two men at the table to blink in surprise. "I've had a lot of time to think about this in that future. Our world has a sentience—the one I tend to call 'the Goddess'. I've personally met her, and she's the one who did the act of sending the five of us back in the Blessing. She is 'this world', and the only reason we exist. Damage her essence too much, and—well, you know what that led to. She's powerful, and there are incredible things she can do, but there are still limits to her abilities, especially the weaker she becomes. If something like Jenova could have done so much damage to her, what then must Jenova be?"

The other two men traded looks before their eyes widened and Sephiroth breathed, "She must be a being of similar or equal power—the same type of being, a planetary sentience."

Zack's voice interrupted the discussion, making them all start in surprise as he said, "Yeah, but 'planets' don't kill people. Well, I guess they don't go out of their way to kill people. It sounds like 'Jenova' does that? How does that make her a 'planetary sentience'?"

They looked up at Kunzel and Zack, both of whom were gazing at them in something like puzzled amazement. "You both heard all that?" Angeal asked warily.

"If Genesis and Tseng are to be believed, I'm supposed to know or would have found out anyway," Kunzel replied in a dry tone. "And you weren't really being discreet, so you shouldn't be so surprised we heard what you were discussing. And Zack made a valid point."

"That's true," Genesis agreed, and the others looked at him. "I recall my insanity and the very stupid and destructive things I did while in that state," he offered. "I was in agony with no relief—frankly, sanity was one of the last things I was worried about. By the time I was relieved of it, I couldn't even recognize myself anymore, and I'd had no idea anything was wrong until the pain stopped. The scary thing—really, really scary—is that my behavior was effectively a mirror of Jenova's, even before she had any actual power to manipulate my mind. By extension, she would have been in extreme agony. The difference between her and me is that my life is short and finite while hers is long, and near-infinite. How long do you think she'd been suffering for before arriving here?"

"But the solution was to destroy her?" Angeal asked with a dark look.

Sighing, the red haired man told him, "She's too far gone to heal."

"You never tried," the black haired man replied flatly, and the others began to look alarmed.

Genesis, on the other hand, cocked his head to the side and said, "There's this thing called Chaos and Omega Theory. The only way to prove it is to destroy the world." The others' expressions, even Angeal's, became fully alarmed. "It's possible to trigger it before the planet is ready to die, when life is still thriving on that world. In my future, when Hojo was controlling Weiss, he forced Omega to form and prepare to leave the world, and the only reason it didn't is because Chaos destroyed the Omega body. While that gave us an extra year or so, it also meant the Omega couldn't leave when Minerva realized the world couldn't hold itself together anymore, even with her help, because the Omega body takes time to form."

He paused and glanced around to meet all their gazes. "Chaos and Omega Theory states that when a world dies, the Omega body takes form with Chaos, who will then slaughter everything left alive to return that energy to the Omega. The Omega will then leave the planet to find a new world to start life over on. The Omega body is composed of genetic data which forcibly creates new life and growth on that new world, and the energy gives it the strength to grow, because that's Lifestream energy. From our experiences here, there are a lot of ways to interfere in that process, or to harm the same being which is the reason we're all alive. Normally, without sentient interference, Chaos wouldn't have much to do by the time Omega needed to form, because the world itself would have been gradually dying over many—millions of years."

Leaning back in his seat, the red haired man sighed faintly and finished the explanation, "Minerva has been in pain since Jenova arrived here around three thousand years ago, and the President made her pain a thousand times worse when he created Mako Reactors to drain her blood from her without care whatsoever for what it's doing to the world. She's still sane and still has hope for us, or she would never have bothered to send us back to fix what we'd screwed up.

"Jenova, on the other hand, immediately lashed out at the first race of this world, the Cetra, the moment she arrived—she was already beyond saving when she arrived, already aiming for destruction. By default, that would mean she'd already seen the—probably violent—destruction of her own world, which took who knows how long, and had traveled through space for who knows how long, before she arrived here. She may even have seen more than one world's destruction by sentient race before getting here, but unfortunately, we're never going to know. I'm not even sure she remembers that far back. There's only so much a being can take before they just can't be saved anymore."

A long silence fell before Kunzel asked, "So, comparatively, how long were you insane and in pain for, to have been able to regain your sanity?"

Shrugging, Genesis said, "Seven years or so. I'm guessing that one of my years would be equivalent to maybe a thousand years of Minerva's? It's hard to estimate for such a large being. But if we default it one to one thousand, Jenova was in pain for longer than seven thousand years, and the only real variable in Minerva's case was the sudden increase she felt when the Reactors were added to the equation. In the meantime, she had been slowly healing for three thousand, pain aside. I didn't have the luxury of healing until the event at that seven year mark, which somehow caused my deteriorated body to kick-start an immune system which rapidly began undoing the damage. Planetary sentiences don't have 'convenient' quick fixes, it has to be slow."

"The immune system removes the cause, thereby creating healing. The Planet should heal as quickly as we do," Kunzel frowned.

"So cleaning a wound of possible infection makes it heal immediately?" Genesis asked with a raised brow. The others gaped. "Jenova's 'infection' is the reason we have monsters. The monsters aren't going to just disappear because we get rid of Jenova. Her arrival was a 'wound', but it was an infected wound, and even the wound itself never had time to heal before the infection set in. That's no quick fix, even for us."

"How does she have any control over us, Genesis?" Sephiroth asked slowly, like he was processing something.

"What?" both Kunzel and Zack asked in surprised confusion, looking alarmed.

"Genesis mentioned that, but only once and briefly," Angeal answered, making a disturbed face. "She definitely has some sort of—way of forcing control of others, and proximity to wherever her mind happens to be at the time is one factor. That used to be her genetic body, but now—Tseng, Cloud, and Vincent believe she's anchored in Hojo. It's not fun when she takes over."

Genesis made a face similar to the one Angeal had just made. "Having her cells, which all SOLDIERs do, gives her a free pass to try to take over your awareness. For Sephiroth, Angeal, and myself, we have a larger quantity than the others, like you two, and that larger quantity makes a difference in how easily she can take over. It's a lot like a queen bee directing the rest of the hive, only it's the mind controlling individual cells.

"Like what would be needed to create new life on a barren world, those cells need to be both malleable and very, very durable, and she always has some say in what they do and how they develop. Unless a person can overcome her will, she'll then win and take over. She can't control someone with a strong will to just not do something, but the battle is much, much harder when you're right next to her and have a large amount of her cells."

"So...my failed resistance which prevented her from using me to kill Tseng and Cloud was...A strong resistance, not a failure?" the black haired man asked slowly, blinking in surprise.

"Where were you at the time?" the red haired man asked in reply, looking surprised.

"The Mount Nibel Reactor," Angeal answered. "We were just heading back to the chopper to leave and debating if we should destroy her body right then or not."

"In which case, you having resisted her will is nothing short of a miracle," Genesis answered in dry amusement. "Trust me—that's incredible strength. She can't get to me now because I already know her tricks to try to gain purchase in a strong mind, but only two people have ever resisted her entirely of their own accord, with no outside help—Sephiroth and Cloud. The form that resistance takes isn't necessarily good, though."

"That would have something to do with—whoever I killed in that future who was not Hojo, the one, or ones, you refuse to speak to me of," Sephiroth said in a flat tone.

A long silence fell before Genesis sighed and answered, "And my reply is the same now. You haven't done it yet, and you may never. I'm hoping it's never. But knowing the details could very well make you follow the same route again. It's enough, what you know already, for you to know you don't want to go that route, and you have the will to resist her. The only difference is that...This time, you can't be tricked into thinking you're a Cetra whose home has been taken over by people who were never meant to be here, and that they—we—all deserve to be destroyed."

"Isn't that true, though?" Zack asked, blinking a few times in surprise. "You said the Cetra were the first people on this world, so—"

"First, but had never been the only intended inhabitants," the red haired SOLDIER replied flatly, rolling his eyes. "Chaos never went to a Cetra. Chaos must have a human host to function properly. Minerva knew others were going to arrive here, knew something about them, and planned for them to be here. Also, Cetra aren't inclined towards destruction, they're inclined towards healing and growth and creation. They'll adapt to work with new arrivals, not try to start a war with them or hide from them. No, they are the exact opposite of what Sephiroth was led to believe they were last time. In theory, the three of us actually count as Cetra, just ones belonging to a different entity. If we choose creation above destruction, Minerva isn't opposed to adopting us and allowing us to flourish to our truest powers."

"...That's...deep. How do you even know that?" Kunzel asked.

"From asking her, of course," Genesis replied, sounding amused. In truth, the question did amuse him, but seeing the others gape at him again was far more amusing.

"You can't just—how would you even find her to ask?" Kunzel asked, clearly still floundering with the new information.

"There are two places people can go to in order to speak with her directly," Genesis smirked, and the others blinked. "Yes, I know both. One takes more than a single person to open up, though we'd only need two to three at our level, and that only because there's a time limit, not because it's hard. The other is a very long trek through very dangerous territory—it's a group project. To clear up one point, though—Cetra had warriors as well as healers amongst their people, and their genetics show significantly differently from one another. You won't know you're still looking at a Cetra if you're looking at a warrior's genetic structure."

"How do you know they exist, then?" Zack asked curiously.

"Because they're called Mages now," the red haired man grinned, and sure enough, all their jaws dropped.

Genesis was glad of that good laugh before he went to bed, leaving them all to mull over his words until whenever they next wanted to address the issue.

Though, he did hear Zack ask, "So...would someone mind filling me in on all that 'future' stuff you guys were talking about?" Which produced another snicker. Yes, he had left them in an awkward position, hadn't he?