Strange Clues

Tseng had been living as Haruna for about three weeks by then, and had met with Kariya more than once in that time. Or, more accurately, he had been turning up (in full uniform) randomly at her door, sometimes even with Cloud and Tifa (who wore casual clothes for that, and actually really seemed to get along with Neirine, now Hokuto). He was also making a habit of flirting with 'her', which generally caused her both annoyance and embarrassment, which in turn amused him. Maya had been getting her up to speed so she could be functional in her own shop, which was surprisingly busy for some reason. While it had gotten some advertising, it hadn't been extensive, and yet—the shop rarely saw down times other than right at the end of the day.

Many of the customers were wives and mothers who had time to shop during the day, and were looking for ways to save money by purchasing fabric and patterns rather than made clothes. Some were sewing clubs or school sewing classes—the Home Economics teacher at the nearby school had brought her students in once a week for their project work. Earlier that week, a Home Ec. teacher from another school not far away had also brought her students in similarly. Sometimes men also showed up, both alone or with women, largely looking at fabrics and threads so they would be able to have something made in a fabric they liked. The customers' wealth was normally average, though sometimes the ones looking just for fabrics were very wealthy.

Haruna did the best she could to work with them, and many left very happy with her help—and over half had already returned for another purchase. Most of the in-shop tailoring was taken by Maya, other than Haruna setting up the order forms, so she very often directed customers directly to the woman who had made tailoring her life's profession. She knew what she could do for people, after all. Though, even Haruna could do some simple things like pulling a hem up a bit or fitting a suit jacket to its wearer—more complicated things like designs or making something from scratch was a no-go for her. Of course, since she was a Turk before she had anything to do with tailoring, that was no surprise at all.

But that day, she'd had a Bad Day, the kind where everything that could go wrong went out of its way to do so. Damaged fabric, a stolen bolt (which produce a 'what the fuck' moment because those bolts weren't small), an electrical problem, a leak in the ceiling (thankfully in the back, not the shop), displeased customers...She looked so ragged by the end of the day that some of her regular (good) customers made sure she was actually okay before they left with their purchases. And such bad days happened so rarely that she told Maya to head home without her after they had locked up for the day.

From there, she went to the only place she could think of to go—the Church in the Sector Five Slums.

Aeris' Church, where she grew the patch of flowers in the Church floor.

A place Haruna wasn't supposed to be, yet couldn't stay away from.

She honestly hadn't realized where she was heading until she was standing at the edge of the floor around the flower patch, staring down into it. Shivers ran through her, but she looked up, at the statue past the altar—and realized she was looking at a white marble likeness of Minerva. The only way the details could have been so close was if the maker had seen Minerva personally, which then led her to the question of 'how'?

The essence of Minerva inside her heard the question and asked, :Would you like to know, Leviathan's Blessed Child?: Since she was actually curious about that, she gave an affirmative, so Minerva told her, :There was once a time where all people knew me. After they began to forget me, I led those I could to a place where they would yet be able to see me, speak with me, learn, and grow. The one who crafted this visited me there, and made an attempt to reawaken others to my presence, which had worked well until the building of the many-layered place your people live. Perhaps, should you travel to the place where you would be able to visit 'me', I shall direct you there.:

:Is that safe to do—to have you meet your younger self?: she asked in reply, worried about what kind of destruction that could result in.

:Why would it not be?: Minerva asked, sounding genuinely puzzled. :People have created more potential methods of destruction through time travel than could possibly happen, feeling a need to place restrictions or exchanges where they do not exist to discourage others from attempting to do so. My 'younger self' is aware of my having come, and would not react other than to discuss details with me which she does not yet know. What is far more likely to result in 'destruction,' and that is only one possibility of many, is that changes which may occur from such a meeting could cause undue harm to certain people.:

:...Are you saying there's no restrictions to time travel?: Haruna asked in amazement.

Minerva hummed thoughtfully for a moment, then explained, :Energy and targeting a location within the flow of time are always the most prominent difficulties. There are also limited means by which those seeking to return to the past may return to their own past to change their own timeline. I have enacted one of those with you, by returning you to your own past body, which never functions without higher assistance due to an issue of placing more than one soul in a body. Changes wrought in this timeline were mine, not factors in a ripple effect. However, most who seek to travel through time are not seeking to return to a past body, they are seeking to return as their current selves to a point in time which is beneficial to them. As they did not previously exist in that timeline at that point in time, one of two options is possible.

:Either they have created a new, branching timeline from their original one, what would be called a 'dimension,' or they would have simply been placed in a different dimension, in which they would create for it a different future. Neither of those options would help them in their own timeline. It is then exceptionally difficult to return to their own future because they are aiming for the wrong location in time and space. As such, yes, there are restrictions to time travel; however, those are in the intrinsic functionality of the act of traveling through time, not how the traveler or the original would react to one another, particularly with awareness of one another's presence or the knowledge that time travel could be possible (1).:

:...That sounds far too complicated for me,: the Wutain mentally sighed, which just produced a gentle chuckle from Minerva.

"Hello?" an all-too-familiar voice asked from behind Haruna, whose mind jumped back to being Tseng, and 'he' had a sudden moment of panic. Aeris, the real girl, who was twelve (rapidly approaching thirteen) right then, was standing behind 'him'. For the first time, Aeris-as-Airmed became just Airmed to 'him', and Aeris was the living girl who 'he' wasn't supposed to be in the company of just then...

Because 'he'd' been caught, however, 'he' slowly turned to face the girl, who eyed 'him' with a puzzled frown for a moment. "Hello," 'he' offered slowly, and she seemed confused.

As 'he' was about to say more, she suddenly gasped softly, "Tseng!" and bolted forward to hug 'him' tightly. "I was so worried about you!" the girl added softly as 'he' hugged her back—and saw the material wrapped around 'his' arms—

And just like that, 'he' was hit with the fact that 'he' was currently the woman called Haruna, and Aeris had somehow still recognized 'him'.

Sighing faintly, Haruna replied quietly, "You have to call me Haruna, not by that other name. No one is supposed to have any idea we may be the same person."

Aeris leaned back to look at 'him' in puzzlement for a minute, then mused slowly, "Ha~ru~na~..." She then asked with a confused look, "So how are you even—like that?"

"A very rare Materia which can switch a person's gender to its opposite," Haruna told her dryly, feeling resigned. At least she was pretty sure no one else was around just then. "I can't give you further details just now, and we shouldn't even be discussing this."

The girl giggled and hugged her again. "So I guess I have an honorary sister for awhile while my honorary brother is away!" she offered cheerfully. "But you both really look alike, so I guess that was what I 'saw' when I looked at you?" She then whispered, "But your whole sense feels different, like it's also—the Lifestream's?"

With a faint groan, the older woman muttered, "I can't believe you can sense that..." The words produced another giggle from Aeris, but she said softly, "I heard you know about the Blessing." When the girl blinked and nodded, Haruna went on, still keeping her voice low, "I wasn't just sent back, the Planet's essence from—then—stuffed itself...herself...into my body. By doing it, she effectively made me—like you. A Cetra."

"Oh...Oh! That explains so much now!" Aeris blinked, then grinned. "I can give you some advice and tips and pointers? It would help make it easier for you."

"Ignoring it seems to work just fine," Haruna replied in mild annoyance, setting Aeris off on another giggling fit.

"It doesn't, or you wouldn't be annoyed," the girl answered in a sing-song voice. "So, help me with the flowers and we'll talk!"

As Aeris seized her arm to pull her to where she wanted to work that day, Haruna just gave a heart-felt sigh and offered no resistance, knowing already it was futile. When the girl wanted something, she was a force unto herself, and it took someone as warped as Hojo to not end up going along with whatever Aeris wanted. Though, a part of her was also happy to spend that time with her honorary younger sister, so she didn't really want to resist or complain, either. Airmed just sent her a sense of amusement from her place in her ponytail.

MB

Cloud was sitting in the Weapons Department main room as he peered down at his current schematic and absently tapped the eraser end of the pencil he held on it. Turks could be shockingly creative in what they wanted, and it took work to fine-tune some of the weapons' specs for their Turk owners. Even Vincent's Infinity Chaos had only been completely finalized after they had gotten to Shinra around three weeks ago. Though, at least it had been mostly complete anyway. And it wasn't like Cloud had really been starting from scratch after how long he'd known Vincent and his former gun, Cerberus.

With every other Turk, their weapons were new to him. For that matter, only a few of the Turks were familiar to him, making him wonder what had happened to cause such a huge turnover of Turks by the time he'd been dealing with them. After all, if he was right, it had taken about four years to nearly completely replace the entire current roster of Turks, and some of them, like Sirra, wouldn't go down easily by any stretch of the imagination. It was also interesting to him to note that the majority of the longest-running Turks other than Veld and Vincent were women.

The one who had been there longest was Anki, who had been on the roster for twelve years already, and used a revolver or pistol, depending on her mood. She could also handle a dagger with ease if the situation called for it. For her, smoothness of barrel rotation and ease of loading were priorities. After her, with eleven years, were Eonna and Leana. Eonna could use virtually every weapon with better-than-average skill, but relied on martial arts and a gun, so needed a glove (or boot) weapon which didn't impede her ability to handle her gun. Leana was interesting largely for the fact that she wanted him to find a way to make her swallowtail blade as light as a katana without sacrificing durability—she was decidedly rough on her weapons.

Terri had ten years of service and favored a whip and a revolver. The more versatile his whip, the better—and adding Materia slots to one wasn't an easy feat. Nine-year-agent Sirra dual wielded guns, but she'd at least upgraded to handguns, and wanted them to run on hair triggers. When Cloud had realized how steady her hands were, he realized she could probably do it, too. Lenno, with eight years—the average lifespan of a Turk by that title—wanted his katana to have a blade he could flip around so he could choose to use the cutting blade or the back edge of the blade. It was quite a feat to somehow make one blade into both a katana and a sakabatou, as the former was meant to kill with and the latter was meant to render unconscious with at best.

The rest of the current Turks hadn't yet reached their eighth year of service, but Doriss would be joining them soon, as she was in her seventh year, and he'd already modified her weapons. Donnel followed her, though he didn't seem to want anything (yet), and Verde was next with a scythe he wanted to power up further. Lakis fought with magic, so needed a weapon he could functionally use in a pinch, and Viney used a rapier he had an idea for, but wasn't yet sure how to put it into words. Derin used a huge boomerang which he would love to have both lighter and easier to carry, and Ansha was also a martial artist who had already made her own changes to her gear.

Those were all Turks he had never known before, who had all died in that four years between their current year and 0002, when Sephiroth had gone insane. Most of them had even died before the end of 0000. Rude, Reno, Kariya, Tseng, and now Ruluf, were the only familiar ones, other than Veld himself. With Tseng 'away', Rude working with Kariya on their bombs, and Reno using an EMR made by Weapons, he also had nothing to do for them. Ruluf wanted more training and to get the feel of being a Turk before changing his weapons, so his would come later.

That still left him a whole lot to work on. Especially for those long-running 'old hands' who had made it past eight years and were finicky about their weapons. Staring at schematics really didn't help him fix the problems he'd run into, especially with what he could do with Leana and Derin's weapons.

Suddenly, Scarlet sat down beside him, so he looked up and asked, "Did you have a schematic for me to look at?"

She gave him a wryly amused smile and answered candidly, "Not this time. But, I did want to know what you showed to Rufus to keep him from coming back to me to pester me about a gun 'like his mother's'."

Cloud's expression turned amused as he answered, "His mother's first weapons, before she was wheelchair-bound. After handling one of them himself, he realized it fit his hands way better than a gun. The Turks have also been testing him for other weapons, and he's actually dedicated to learning to use them properly. I don't think he'll even use a gun now unless it's a last resort, so he'll get the training, but not bother you."

"Good," Scarlet answered, smiling. "Having him pester me about something I know better than him was annoying, and I'm glad you got him off my back." She paused for a moment before asking, "Why the Turks? You know their reputation, I'm sure."

Making a face, the now-boy answered, "I know it, the worst of it, probably better than you do. I also know my mother's alive because Veld let her walk away when he'd been told to kill her—while she was pregnant with me."

Blinking, Scarlet eyed him for a long moment again, mulling over the answer. Finally, she asked, "Are you repaying that favor, then?"

That time, it was Cloud's turn to blink. He sat back in his seat and looked back down at his schematic for a moment. "No," he said at last. "When I decided to go with the Turks, it was really more because Vincent was a friend of mine, and going with him would get me out of a small, backwater town that only wanted me as a scapegoat. It gave me something to do with a skill I couldn't develop there."

He paused again for a moment, thinking about how to say what else he wanted to, then finally went on, "It was only after meeting the other Turks like this, as one of them, that I realized they maybe aren't what the rumors say, but they have tight nooses around their necks so can only do so much. Because I'm one of them, they let themselves be people to me. The rest is just a shield, a false persona they use to protect themselves."

"That's definitely not what I'd have expected to hear from someone they trust to make their functional gear," Scarlet commented thoughtfully. "Does it take being a Turk for them to trust a person?"

"No," Cloud answered dryly. "That just makes the process go faster. Trust is earned, and they take it seriously if someone's earned it from them."

"Don't they distrust nearly everyone on principle?" she asked in vague amusement.

"Only Hojo and Heidegger, who have earned their lack of trust," the boy answered as he had a sudden thought about a way to lighten the weapons, so wrote the note down with a question mark next to it—he'd have to run a few tests to see if it would be viable, after all. "Most of the scientists and doctors are also not to be trusted—Hojo has them too well trained."

"That he does," Scarlet agreed, tone dryly amused. "How does a person earn the Turks' trust if they aren't a Turk and don't interact with them much?"

That made Cloud pause for a moment before sitting back again to look at her curiously. "Are you asking just out of curiosity or because you want an in to build that trust?" he asked slowly.

For a moment, she was silent, her gaze troubled. Then, she sighed and shook her head as she rose. "Try Adamantaimai shell," she said, then walked away.

Blinking, Cloud looked back down at the schematic in front of him, blinked again, then gathered his things and left, heading to the archives, labs, and libraries—anywhere he might possibly find viable data and tests on Adamantaimai shells used as weapons. They were giant turtles which tended to leave behind very large shells, so it should be possible to have the Turks kill just one and meet any and all weapons requirements with it. If it would work for what he needed it to. That also meant he had to find some sort of evidence that the shells were both strong and lightweight, and were capable of being crafted into functional blades, or a boomerang in Derin's case.

He spent a few hours researching the shells, but his mind kept jumping back to his most recent discussion with Scarlet, and frankly, the more he thought about it, the more it disturbed him. He felt like something was wrong, and he knew from personal experience that someone who had been hurt didn't trust others easily with what had hurt them. He didn't think there was a single person alive who had never hidden something painful to them, even from someone they trusted. And Scarlet really didn't have anyone she was close to for her to trust them. If anything, Cloud—what she perceived as a child in a Turk's uniform who practically lived in her department—was the closest she came to trusting someone.

Finally, he gave up on his research and headed back to the Turks' office, finding most of the Turks working or out and the door to Veld's office open. When he went to it, he saw the older man at the desk as he worked on the computer, but Veld glanced up long enough to motion the boy inside. Cloud closed the door and moved over to a seat, where he sat and waited for the older Turk to finish what he was working on so intently. When Veld sat back and turned to face him, the man asked, "Did something happen?"

For a moment, Cloud paused, then said slowly, "Nothing happened to me, but I think something happened to Scarlet, or will happen again, or soon. It's not something I can put my finger on, but she was trying to figure out how to earn the Turks' trust. Before then, I don't think she was, but I accidentally dangled a proverbial carrot in front of her, and if she's desperate, that carrot would have looked like a feast."

The man eyed him for a moment before saying, "Tseng was sure we'd need to eliminate Scarlet. Are you saying that's not true?"

Sighing, Cloud told him, "I only met Scarlet at the end of zero-seven (2), nine years from now. Nine years is a long time for someone to change, and if the turning point in her desire to cause harm came just at this time because she had nowhere to turn, maybe that can be changed without having to kill her. I won't just discount what Tseng said—that Scarlet, we'd have had to kill, no question about it. But I'm not sure this Scarlet is yet that Scarlet. I'm not entirely sure what I should do. And because she tried to kill me and nearly killed Tifa and my other friends in that future, I'm not exactly predisposed to liking her, so I'm sure this isn't the same Scarlet who did those things."

Veld peered at him curiously for a minute, then said, "Right now, she approaches you and talks with you. Unless something extreme happens, I think your best bet is to keep being there for her to talk with. If you can find out something certain which is a danger to her so we know who or what to target, we can do so, but with something which just amounts to a feeling, we have limited ability to observe her, let alone set guards or act against anyone in her defense. That also means you need to have a weapon on you, just in case you find out something in the moment, and you need to keep me updated regarding possible dangers to her. The more you can tell us, the more we can do."

For a moment, Cloud just peered at him with a thoughtful expression, then finally said, "I'm honestly a little surprised you're taking me so seriously."

Veld's brow rose. "Because of your age?"

"Because no one has ever taken me seriously before. Not until I became an accidental hero who saved the Planet," Cloud replied flatly.

That caused the older man to blink in surprise, then say, "If even the Turks didn't, something was literally broken in that future, Cloud. Tseng mentioned you'd been through a mental trauma, and Mako poisoning. Severe cases usually result in some degree of memory loss, assuming the person even ever recovers. Can you say with certainty that you haven't lost memories of having been taken seriously?"

Pain crossed the blond's gaze. "I can't. There are some pretty large gaps in my memory which I may never be able to fill. But the one thing I know about the Turks is that, if I had ever met one who took me seriously, so would all the others, and none of them did, of the memories I do have."

"Not even Tseng?" Veld asked, sounding genuinely surprised by the admission.

"Not even him," the younger man-boy answered quietly, looking away.

"Then I think you missed something, or he was working hard to cover his actual thoughts. He knew you had been experimented on and weren't all there mentally. While he hasn't shared many of the details with me, I'm sure he took you seriously enough to be legitimately worried about your well-being." The words caused Cloud's eyes to widen and return to Veld, who paused for a moment before saying, "As for right now...Tell me, you're our new engineer, and have already done two previously impossible things, for Vincent and Doriss, respectively. Why would I have a reason to disregard what you're saying when you are obviously far from stupid?"

"It's not the Blessing?" Cloud had to blink again in surprise.

"That just tells me your mind is fourteen years older than your body, not its capability. Your skills tell me its capability. You also showed clear foresight and knowledge when you brought Rufus to us," the brown haired man said in amusement.

"What about me?" a new voice asked in surprise from the door, and the other two looked up to see Rufus standing in the doorway, knob in his hand.

"Do you ever knock?" Veld asked in annoyance as Cloud gave the two an amused look. Yes, it was rare for the pampered, entitled Rufus to knock on doors in his own company building. Apparently even before he owned it or held the Vice President's title.

"When someone is expecting me, no," Rufus answered flatly. "So, why was I being referenced?"

"I was thanking Cloud for having had the sense to show you our shrine to your mother," Veld explained, then rose. "And yes, it's true we're expecting you." He paused to look at Cloud again, telling him, "Once again, get—or make—yourself a weapon in case of an emergency, and keep me updated as things change, but otherwise, keep to what you're doing. It's currently the best chance we have to intervene before something goes very wrong." He then went to the door and motioned Rufus out of the room, leaving Cloud there with the door open.

"...Keep doing..." Cloud sighed faintly, rising and going to the main room again. Of the Turks who were there, he realized one was Derin.

Knowing his spying skills, Cloud approached him, which made him look up from his current folder work in mild surprise. "Is there something I can help you with?" he asked curiously, head tipped to the side.

"Would you be willing to do some checking on something for me?" Cloud asked him. "It's more of a hunch right now, but anything would help."

"What's that, then?" the black haired man asked curiously.

"I have the feeling that Scarlet's in danger," Cloud said, and the other man blinked. "I don't know who, how, or why, and even though she might share with me before the worst happens, she also may not. Any amount of observation you could manage would help, I'm sure of it."

"I can give it a try," Derin offered slowly. "But with the limitations, it would be a shot in the dark."

"I know," the blond agreed candidly. "It's still something."

"Fine," the black haired man sighed. "I'll let you know what I find out."

"Thanks," Cloud nodded, then went back to his research on Adamantaimai shells.

Notes:

(1) Yes, many, many stories create 'destruction paradoxes' based on 'seeing your past self', or 'your past self seeing your current one' or 'touching your past self' or etc. I think they're all bullshit, especially in a society which has already been inundated with the idea of time travel. I've read a lot of theories about 'all the things that could go wrong with time travel', and pretty much all of them are bullshit, whether they're the Harry Potter themes or from something like Doctor Who. Those are literally just being created to make problems where there aren't any, and the only real problems with time travel are in the mechanics itself, because—as noted in the story—everyone has no idea what they're actually aiming for. And, aiming for planetary energy lines with technology isn't exactly easy, nor is staying anchored to that energy so you can get back. So no, it's not a use-all, it just doesn't have shit-loads of extra problems attached.

(2) I'm having Cloud short-hand the 0007 date because they're before the post-Wutai War dating system in 1998, and zero-seven could be either the new dating system or the natural progression of the original one. The only thing which would be different would be the very first number (it could be a 2 instead of a 0), and they don't know for sure which it will end up as. Mostly, though, Cloud's short-handing the date because that's what people do. :P