Marken: Poor Zack is a little neglected for sure but he knows how these things go sometimes. Seph is probably just ready to be back in the good graces of his lovers again so he can stop sleeping alone.

Beta Readers: Pixie, Kiza, and Discord.

I do not own FF7 or any of its characters. Talin, Unit 28, and some other side characters are mine.

Enjoy and please R&R.

Chapter 46

"They did what?!" Talin winced at Angeal's shocked exclamation and burrowed deeper into the mass of blankets that had returned to the bed upon his request. The two SOLDIERs were down in the kitchen and, although Genesis had told him not to, he was worried about the outcome of the conversation.

After cornering him in the bath, the Red Commander had tirelessly pried every detail of the morning's adventure out of the teen. Well, almost every detail. The meeting, the link, being carried back... the dream. That had taken longer than anything to get Talin to talk about but, with much insistence on his side, Gen had finally learned what had turned his Cadet from lamb to lion.

But, throughout the retelling, he felt that there was something withheld, something that didn't quite add up between the meeting and his passionate welcome home. Something else had happened but, without asking outright, the 1st couldn't quite place what or where the story was missing a plot point. Curious as he was, he'd been tempted to push, had even considered how best to ask, but a quiet knowing told him he'd get nowhere.

Talin had been thoroughly embarrassed about his verbal slip, which had been more than enough to get him talking, but, behind the flustered explanation, Genesis caught a glimpse of the teen's old spirit. Cracked and chipped it may have been but, with a bit more time and the confidence the link provided, he knew they would all see a quick return of the fearless youth that had captivated four SOLDIERs.

"He's fine, 'Geal. Honestly, you'd think he'd gone out to fight rabid beasts instead of just meeting his instructor," Gen had jumped to intercept his lover, stopping him from charging up to check on, or interrogate, Talin. "They've worked things out to their satisfaction, and all we can do now is be supportive of their choices."

Angeal ground his initial retort between his clenched teeth before thinking of something a bit more tactful. "I want to be supportive, but this is hardly what I meant when I suggested Seph give Talin more say in their interactions." Space, time, the right to walk away, those had been his recommendations to his silver-haired lover. How the man had taken that advice and come up with the idea of a 3rd level link was beyond him.

Genesis had known this conversation would be emotional. He himself may have been unable to form the link that Talin and Sephiroth had, but he knew of it and of its unique properties. Granted, most of the more interesting benefits were unavailable with a one-sided link, but that just made the situation more unique.

Taking Angeal's arm, Gen pulled him back into the kitchen in an attempt to keep them from being overheard by a no-doubt anxious Cadet. "Whatever your feelings, you have to be supportive." The larger 1st raised an eyebrow at the wording but was prevented from replying as the other continued. "You and I both know Sephiroth better than anyone, yes?" Angeal nodded slowly. "Then you know, just as well as I do, that he would never make himself so vulnerable to someone he didn't have absolute trust or faith in."

The point wasn't one that the big SOLDIER could argue. It was true. Above and beyond everything and anything, Sephiroth refused to be seen as weak by anyone but those he knew would never betray that confidence. That he'd allowed Talin within that infinitesimally small circle had been obvious from their interactions over the last few months, but then he'd gone a step further. He'd pulled the teen into an even smaller circle by giving him the ability, and the permission, to hurt him.

Angeal's thoughts were interrupted by fingers twining with his and, with a sigh and a quick tug, he pulled Genesis into a tight hug. "Sorry, I'm just... I'm glad they're working it out, I really am. I'm just surprised is all by the lengths Seph's going to do so." He felt and heard the chuckle from Gen as he was hugged back just as fiercely.

"No more than I am, I assure you." He pulled back and poked a finger into the heavily muscled chest, "All that aside, I think it wise that you teach Talin what you know of that link. I don't know why you didn't tell him to begin with but, now that he knows it exists, he's going to be full of questions only you, Zack, and Seph can answer, so you'd best be ready."

Angeal's laugh was low as he pulled the fiery 1st back against him. "I will answer all the questions I can, but our beloved General will have to be his primary teacher for that, as well. I may know all the practical but Seph has mastered all that and more." Genesis relaxed into the embrace now that the turbulence was over and happily slipped his hands under the light t-shirt to caress the strong muscles of the other's back while he listened.

"There were things that he did while we were linked that I couldn't recreate and which he couldn't explain well enough to teach me. Since the connection only goes one way, he won't be able to do most of them, but I'll be very interested to see if Talin comes up with any similarly... unique skills."

…

Talin had remained burrowed into the heavy blankets even when things had quieted below his level of hearing. He'd wanted to be part of that conversation, but Gen had firmly pushed him into bed and told him to rest just before Angeal entered the apartment. He'd half hoped, half feared, that the big 1st would come up to find them, but his unexpectedly tumultuous presence halted in the entryway and waited for Genesis to come down.

From what he overheard, Angeal apparently received a visitor upon his arrival home this morning. Sephiroth had thanked him for his assistance with Talin and then informed his Commander and lover that he'd be taking over the Cadet's training once more. That had prompted a similar response to Genesis' news of just why and how the two would be training together and ended with the General deferring to Talin to explain if he so wished.

That his mentor had left the choice up to him to talk about their link eased the knot of tension the teen had felt when Angeal reviled his visitor's identity. At least until the Commander's shocked exclamation.

All tension was gone from the air now, but Talin still found himself unable to relax enough to fall asleep with the two SOLDIERs still talking downstairs. They'd pitched their voices in just such a way to distort their words and, without going to the rail to listen, he had no hope of hearing them.

With a yank, he pulled Gen's pillow over his head and closed his eyes in the darkness of his fluffy fort. He was too tired to bother getting up and really, really didn't want to talk about the link yet with anyone. Genesis had been an exception only because the highly perceptive Commander had caught him practically with his pants down and there was no hiding that something had happened. It was just convenient, if a little embarrassing, that he had the dream as an excuse for his reluctance to talk about everything instead of the real cause.

Thinking back to the source of his wildly imaginative dream, made the teen peek into the Void. No one was nearby so he pulled together his shadow and held up the unassuming key once again. It was so... plain. Nothing like the dagger the General had described as his linking item with Angeal. Though, if he thought about it, it made sense that the key would be so unremarkable.

It wasn't the actual trigger for the connection like the dagger cutting the vines had been, it was his surrender and acceptance of the silver SOLDIER's touch... Uncomfortable with the memory being possibly picked up from his mind in the Void, Talin focused back on the obsidian key and, on a whim, tossed it out and thought of the General. The silver thread that flowed out into the darkness was like a beacon and he followed it as any sailor would follow the dots of light that led to safe harbor. He'd expected to see the dark mass with its hypnotic swirl and flow but found something quite different.

Angeal had shown him examples of other manifestations, like the shields, that he might be able to make one day. Silent tripwires to alert you when someone came close and tiny sensors that pinged when they hit something were the friendly type of defenses. The ones he saw now, floating around the heavily defended mind his string led to, were decidedly not friendly.

The small sensors were alive with static, vibrating like they were hardly able to keep shape under the load of electrical energy they'd been imbued with. The tripwires too looked supercharged but something told Talin that contact with them, as dangerous as it looked, wouldn't cause death. It wouldn't do to accidentally kill a SOLDIER just for wandering too close to the General...

To his surprise, none of the sensors moved towards him as he carefully followed the string of light deeper into the minefield. The exclusion zone the 1st had set up was impressive and terminated in the center with a wide space, free of anything but a green-tinged sphere. It struck him then, as he came to the edge of that clearing, that the traps surrounding him should've been invisible. Angeal had needed to maintain mental contact with Talin to show him such things... undoubtedly, it was another effect of the link.

Talin hesitated, suddenly nervous about entering the area, but he wasn't about to just leave after coming this far. Cautiously, he moved forward, almost expecting the shield to drop and for the SOLDIER to be looking right at him. A flutter along the shield's surface made him halt before it settled again, the color having shifted to be more teal than green, and Talin felt the first pull of curiosity. Did the General really not know he was there? Emboldened by the thought, he crept ever closer.

The shield shifted every few seconds and, for the first couple, Talin froze, till he was sure it wasn't in reaction to his approach. It was only when he stopped a short distance from the shell that he could see the remarkable truth of the unique barrier. Where Talin's shield plates were still larger than the span of his spread fingers, these were no bigger than his fingertip. Thousands of them, all fitting together in a perfectly spaced web that didn't sacrifice safety with the need to remain open to the Void. The Cadet couldn't help but move a bit closer to look at the tiny structures and then watched in startled fascination as the next ripple flowed over the surface.

The rolling wave again changed the color of the shield, almost sky-blue now, and Talin saw that the color shift was due to the change in the shape of the plates that then shuffled to latch back together in a new pattern. Gen had told him before that the silver 1st and Angeal were the most powerful of the SOLDIERs to develop an aura. He'd seen the Commander's formidable shields and caught glimpses of the cloud of mini alert sensors that flitted around them during their training, but this was so far beyond any of that.

The amount of control it took to generate such an intricate shield, along with the massive number of other constructs floating in the distance, floored the teen. The fact that all that power and control was no doubt being managed subconsciously... In the fort of pillows and blankets, wrapped in fluff, and warm to the point of being too hot, Talin felt the prickle of goosebumps as a chill ran across his skin.

His first thought was to leave, follow the path back the way he'd come, and get away from this radical display of the difference between mentor and student, but a larger part wanted to stay. As threatening as that wall of armed traps was, not one of them had tried to hurt him or even seemed to have noticed him when he'd drifted too close. The link was doing just what the General said it would so he circled a few times, feeling strangely invisible within the protected space.

No one would be fool enough to come through that minefield and if his Mentor hadn't sensed him yet at so close a range, then there was nothing to prompt him to come into the Void. Talin almost laughed at the sense of freedom the thought gave him so the Cadet decided to appease his curiosity a bit longer.

Several minutes passed while he watched and studied the shield as it moved from octagon to hexagon, then a triangle, decagon, pentagon, square, and so on in no discernable pattern. It almost looked as if it would feel soft to the touch as the ripple of change overtook the surface. Would it feel like the smooth scales of a large reptile? Or maybe like the chain-link armor he'd seen on the bodyguard of a traveling merchant...

Palm almost itching to know the answer, he raised a hand and had pressed it lightly to the shining wall before his brain caught up to him... It was warm. It somehow felt both solid and liquid as it rippled around and over his hand. His mind had frozen the moment he'd touched the sphere, realizing his error, but seeing his hand sink into the glowing shell got him moving again.

His hand felt cold when he yanked it away but he didn't have time to process the sensation as he saw the shield twist and curl before rapidly melting away. In a snap decision, Talin all but exploded his shadow, spreading the cloud of his conscious as thin as possible so as to blend into the darkness of the Void as he beat a hasty retreat. His vision in this form was blurry at best but, as the last of his cloud slipped out amongst the sensors and traps, he could see the General stepping out of the collapsing sphere.

The remainder of the glowing shell twisted around the tall figure as he gazed in Talin's direction, no doubt in his mind that the SOLDIER knew he was there and not just guessing his location. With the teen's vision so distorted, the shield, furled behind the General in a graceful arch to one side, looked like a large wing and he almost wished he could have gone back to find out for sure.

With a quiet gasp, Talin surfaced from the Void back into the nearly oppressive heat of his pile of blankets but didn't push to escape the heat just yet. He'd watched and known he hadn't been followed as he zipped back along the thread, but Talin still felt unable to let down his guard. Ducking back into the dark realm, he formed his shield, clunky and terribly crude compared to what he'd seen, and wrapped it loosely around himself before finally pushing free of the blankets.

The quiet voices from downstairs were gone and, as he stretched his hearing along with that other sense that told you when you weren't alone, he found the apartment silent and empty. How long was I in there? Rolling to his back, Talin was about to kick free of the last of the bedding when a loud ping by his ear scared the teen nearly out of his skin.

In blind reaction, he tried to jump away from the source, but his legs were tangled in the sheets. Instead of a jump, he ended up slipping off the bed, crashing to the floor with a startled shout that would have had any of his lovers rolling with laughter. The realization that the chime had only been his phone made Talin glad for the absence of the three Commanders at that exact moment. They never would have let him live it down.

Grumbling his annoyance, the teen freed his shins from the silk sheet that had thwarted him and then crawled back to retrieve his phone. He read the message and halted, looked out into the Void to see his shields still in place, and peaked between the plates to reassure himself that no one waited beyond them.

His irritation and the minor ache in his back from the fall were forgotten as he tapped out a response.

SMS Message from: Sephiroth

Sephiroth: Did you need something?

Talin: No. I was just exploring.

The choice of words didn't sit well with the teen but it was the most honest he could be without crossing into unknown territory. His presence in the space near the General could have been explained away as him practicing with the link, but he could think of no reasonable answer for why he touched the shield. Several moments passed after his response and, thinking that maybe the 1st was satisfied, he went to put his phone down when it chirped again.

Sephiroth: You followed the link?

Talin: Ya, sorry if I bothered you.

Sephiroth: Not at all. I gave you the right to my attention when I asked you to be my trainee. If you need something, do let me know.

Talin: I will.

The Cadet struggled with his emotions as he typed the short reply. There were a great many things he wanted, all well within the General's power to grant, but every way he phrased the requests felt wrong. Several bouts of typing and deleting followed before he gave up, deciding to leave it for now. He'd forgotten about the little typing dots that exposed his multiple starts and stops, but it was clear that the SOLDIER was paying more attention than Talin would have thought.

Sephiroth: Was there something on your mind?

Flustered at being caught, he latched onto the first thing that came to mind.

Talin: Angeal was here. He said you'd talked with him about taking over my training.

Sephiroth: I did.

Talin: When?

Sephiroth: When would you prefer?

Talin took a moment to consider the question. He could wait another few days, pick back up on his old schedule when he moved back down with his Unit on Monday... Impatience and anticipation wared with his hesitance to be alone again so soon with his Mentor, but it was a short battle.

Talin: I want you to finish teaching me how to use the link.

Sephiroth: As soon as you've recovered from this morning, I will teach you.

Talin: I feel fine. I'm ready.

Sephiroth: Now?

The teen had typed out 'yes' but caught himself just before sending the message, and changed it. As much as he wanted to, he wasn't ready just that second to charge out and meet the man.

Talin: At our normal time.

Sephiroth: See you after lunch then, Cadet Graft.

Talin: Yes Sir.

Two sets of near-identical eyes looked down at their respective phones and winced at the choking formality of their final exchange. One hated it but respected the need for the distance it provided. The other lamented that same need but was willing to take the time to once more slowly chip away at the wedge that had fallen between them. Neither was satisfied and both swore to effect a change.