History-Present

Vincent watched tiredly as Cid finally managed to land the new airship on the landing pad of the Shinra building at nearly midnight that night. He had expected it sooner, and had to keep reminding himself that this Cid was next thing to a teenager and didn't have nearly the experience of his older counterpart. Under the circumstances, he'd actually done very well, and now that the airship was in Shinra's hands, they could take their time going over it. As far as he knew, Cid and Air and Space weren't going to be the only ones working on it—Urban Development and Weapons would be, too.

That wasn't why he was tired, though, because sleep was irrelevant to him in that sense—he was tired because Rufus (with Dark Nation at his side) had decided he was staying to see the new airship personally. And the President had agreed, almost seeming proud of Rufus...for the first time in living memory. Of anyone. Of course, that could just have been because he was actually proud of Rufus showing initiative and something like 'business sense' the way the President understood it, but with him, who knew? There were too many variables, the only reliable one being greed in some form.

"It's awfully quiet for an airship, isn't it?" Rufus asked from beside him as the ship came down and settled. "And there's very little back draft from the landing, too, with very little to displace the air."

"Which is probably how no one realized it was an airship before now," Vincent told the blond in some amusement, eyes on the ship. Yes, it was very much like the Shera, but not exact, and the differences were disorienting to him. Still, it could be useful, and not just to the President's private army.

"Still, if it took Cid this long to get it here, either it travels very slowly or the technology it runs on is so different from ours that it's probably not useful to us," the younger man commented.

"Are you saying you don't think our engineers can work out how it functions so it can be useful to us?" the Turk asked, now very much amused. "Because I can guarantee you they can make it useful in short order, even if it takes them decades longer to work out how it was actually put together so they can make more of them."

"And what if they're some sort of alien technology we actually can't replicate?" Rufus returned in annoyance. "No amount of 'understanding' it can compensate for that lack of production materials, and there's no guarantee we'll have an equivalent here on the Planet."

Since that had been one of the problems future Cid had been having with the Shera, Vincent had to give the boy credit for that insight and foresight. What Rufus currently didn't know about were the 'black boxes' all over the ship which they had no idea how to get into, what they did, or how they were put together. All they knew was that they were integral to running the ship, but beyond that—if one broke or broke down, they had no way to replicate it or replace it, and they honestly wouldn't even be able to tell which one had broken down unless it somehow came apart in the process. There were visible mechanics to running the ship, but that was only half the equation.

"That's something we need to study, because right now, we don't have those answers," Vincent answered dryly.

"Weren't Reeve and Scarlet supposed to be here?" the blond then asked in an even more annoyed tone.

"They're coming in early in the morning to have a look-over and decide on some people to do some preliminary work on it while the two of them keep working on other independent projects to get them done. Once those projects are done, they'll then return to the ship to focus on it," the undead Turk explained.

:You do realize this ship actually came from another world, yes, Host?: Chaos asked him in dry amusement.

:We knew it was a completely unknown technology, but not where it came from. One of the options we pondered was that it had arrived from another world, but in the end, by then, we had no way of verifying that,: Vincent told him, mental tone sounding very annoyed.

Chaos' amusement grew. :I was created to be hosted by someone from another world, Host, not by one of the Cetra. Minerva planned for the arrival of people from a world not her own, who would arrive here and mix with her own people. The people who came did so in those vessels—at least, the ones she had planned for. Neither she nor I quite know where the Wutains arrived from, but they had the same general arrival story as the ones who came from space in those ships, minus the ships. You've found two of five ships now. One I believe was either destroyed or dismantled for some other purpose, but the others are still out and about.:

:Why are you bothering to tell me this when it doesn't matter?: the Turk asked his in-body partner, still obviously annoyed.

:Because it may be important to determining how the ships function, especially knowing they had once been in space, where survival is slim at best,: the Weapon replied.

Vincent couldn't argue that, but who could he tell it to in this day and age? It wasn't like he'd be readily believed if he basically told people everyone but the Cetra were interlopers on this world!

Chaos sounded annoyed that time as he said (obviously he'd been listening in on Vincent's personal thoughts), :You were not interlopers, and I said no such thing. I informed you that the people who came with these vessels were expected, the opposite of being interlopers.:

:That's still how people will interpret the words, no matter how carefully worded, because what will stand out to them is that this isn't their native world, and as such, the automatic response is 'we have no right to be here.' And the President especially will react badly to that,: Vincent answered flatly.

:And it is not the President who needs that data, Host, nor will the two who do need it tell him,: the being replied just as flatly. :You are creating a larger problem than actually exists, Host.:

He just sent pure annoyance back at Chaos and turned his attention to the ship as Cid and Ansha finally stepped out from a hatch on the side of the vessel which they obviously had to manually open from the inside. As the two made their way towards Vincent and Rufus with grins, Cid shouted, "Wowie, that there's a real beaut! Lemme keep workin' on her, will ya? There's so much to see and study in there—would be a huge help to Air and Space!"

"As far as I know, you're scheduled to do so, but not on your own—there will be others from your own department and people from Urban Development and Weapons working on it as well, including the department heads," Vincent told him. "But for now, you need to go get a proper meal and a rest." His gaze turned to Ansha as he said, "Our cafeteria is still open and Tifa has food for you, so both you and Cid can get a good meal before going to rest."

"Oh, good! I'd wondered about that—the main one wouldn't be open now, and usually Tifa would be in bed by now, too," Ansha grinned. "We're good, then! I'll make sure Cid gets his share. Is there an assigned room for him somewhere or does he have to try to go back to the Air and Space apartment complex?"

"He can borrow one of the general rest rooms for the night, and there should be a more permanent residence assigned sometime in the morning, probably near the building," the older Turk explained.

"Good," she sighed. "I don't think things in Wutai went quite as expected, though."

"Things almost never do," Vincent replied in amusement, and Rufus snorted. "Go on, then." Ansha led Cid away as they apparently went back to a previous discussion so technologically loaded he lost track of it in short order. "Rufus, you should go to bed, too. You'll be able to return in the morning, and the only time you'll need to leave is when you have your training session with me."

"I could, but I won't get much sleep," Rufus replied with a shrug. "That seems to be something else from those 'memories'."

"And you're sixteen, not twenty-five. You actually need to sleep," the Turk answered flatly. "So go lay down and do something like read until you fall asleep." He turned back to the building and made his way inside, followed by Rufus and Dark Nation.

"You're 'mother henning' me again," Rufus told him in annoyance.

"If you want to destroy yourself early, feel free, though none of us will thank you if you decide to do so before you've left a legitimate heir. We can't afford having the company go up for grabs like that," Vincent told him, sounding like he was discussing the weather.

That caused an annoyed noise from Rufus as he turned to head down the stairs rather than take the elevator. And Vincent could only hope he was going to actually try to sleep after a rebuff like that over his behavior. For his own purposes, Vincent headed back to the office to make sure everything was in order before heading out on some 'rounds' of the building and city he'd been doing almost since arriving there. Unlike Rufus, he didn't actually need to sleep, so the time he wasn't scheduled to work more often went to those kinds of patrols, intended to ferret out information they still needed or people still in need of elimination.

In the office, he found that Lakis—the last Turk there that night—had written a note for him, but because the man was still there, he said, "Reeve was pretty vague in his message, but you should get it—I think it has to do with your arm? And Ansha and Cid went into the cafeteria. I gave Ansha a Seal Materia so she could Blind him to leave, so I'm going to bed now." The brown haired Turk then left, and Vincent realized his desk had been cleared.

Going into the office, Vincent quickly found the note and silently read it: Reeve called and said he has three projects he has to get done before seriously starting on the new airship, and the most important one is yours. That also means he needs you back in his office in a few days, so wants you to set aside some time in the afternoon three days from now. 'It' isn't quite done, but that should be the last check he needs to finish. Lakis' name was signed on the bottom.

With a faint sigh, Vincent destroyed the note, then turned to leave—only for his PHS to ring. Pulling it out, he saw Veld's number, so answered it with, "What did you need, Veld?"

"Things here are still a bit hairy since Fuhito blew out part of the city, though we should be mostly done finding people in the rubble now. We haven't even really started cleaning up. As such, it's going to be awhile before I get back—our remaining airship is helping to lift away large pieces of debris so we can get to people, and we'll need that to clear some of the streets. I don't have an ETA anymore, so the best I can do is give you a call when I'm getting on the airship," Veld replied in a bit of a harried rush.

"...When did this 'blowing out' of the city happen?" Vincent asked slowly, brow furrowed. This was new.

"A bit before you got the notice for Cloud to pass on," Veld replied. "Argento prioritized getting that out, then split the forces here to keep up with the takeover and deal with the disaster. Though, it didn't take long for the rest of the Wutain forces to put down their weapons so we could all switch to search and rescue with just a group of arranged patrols. We won't need full forces once the worst is dealt with, I hope."

"So some of them would be able to return to Midgar, and you don't know if that's going to include you or not. And Felicia?" Vincent asked, knowing that was why the man had gone out there personally.

"I found her. She's made of sterner stuff than anyone realized, but she also got most of AVALANCHE on our side, and that's made a huge difference in how well the rescue has gone. For now, I don't mind spending the time with her, for as much of it as we've had in the chaos," Veld answered, sounding both tired and amused.

"And I'm guessing you haven't had time to rest, either?" the black haired Turk returned, sounding partly amused and partly annoyed.

"I've been relieved of duty for a rest, though I'm anticipating a short one unless they find all the people who are still alive in the next few hours," Veld replied in amusement. "I'm planning to sleep for awhile now."

"Rest well, then," Vincent agreed, and the two hung up.

That also left him in charge for longer, and he found that to be decidedly annoying for reasons he couldn't fathom. Either way, because Wutai and Midgar were twelve hours apart, that meant nearly midnight in Midgar was nearly noon in Wutai. The Shinra forces had been working through most of the night to dig people out of the rubble left behind by Fuhito's bombs. In a way, he really wasn't all that surprised—Fuhito's solution to everything was 'blow it up.' What did surprise him was how he'd aimed those explosives at Wutai, not at Shinra, which had just burnt one of his major bridges.

Unless those bridges didn't matter to him anymore, and it was possible they didn't if he'd joined up with the Restrictors who had escaped from Deepground.

The only question then was who was funding them. In the existing society, a person needed goods to make or keep up anything, and needed money to get those goods. Unless they were stolen, which had potential, but in the quantities their experiments would need? Acting like bandits against farmers or small towns wouldn't get them the goods they needed, and the facilities and shipments which would have such goods hadn't reported anything unusual, nor had any of them 'gotten lost'. That left someone funding them, someone with a lot of spare cash.

Scarlet and Reeve weren't funding them, and Rufus hadn't gotten that far this time. The President probably wasn't, either. Hojo—or even Hollander, for that matter—had some potential, assuming they had any idea AVALANCHE even existed or where to find the Restrictors. Palmer wasn't funding anyone, he'd just been skimming off the top of what Heidegger had been taking. The scientists were unlikely, though admittedly, Hojo could actually be pissed enough at the President for denying him Sephiroth and letting women into SOLDIER.

Shaking his head, Vincent headed out for his rounds as he thought about who might be funding the terrorists. It occurred to him that maybe it wasn't one person, it could have been many. Fuhito had been far too well-equipped for just one person to be funding him, even if that person was Rufus, who only had a small quantity of available funds compared to the profits the company and his father had. In theory, anyone who made a decent income and loathed Shinra could have been 'donating' some funds to any number of terrorists.

With that in mind, he started checking some of the more easily accessible offices...

MB

Weiss had left Inder in charge of the patrols they were still running for city defense and the occasional small fight while he and the rest of his troops joined the search and rescue after the explosions. He'd been very surprised that had even happened, let alone in two places in Wutai City—even in the other timeline, when he'd blown out their main base near the Statue, Fuhito had been very careful not to damage the rest of the city in the process. This time, it had been as much of an attack against Wutai as it had been against Shinra. And that also meant he was secure enough in his position to risk the hatred of his former supporters.

Regardless, most of the Wutains they'd been digging out of the rubble had actually either been in no shape to fight or had just been glad to get out of the traps they'd been in. Some—mostly ones who hadn't really been injured—had tried to fight, but when they'd realized the Shinra forces were only defending, not attacking back, they'd warily stood down. Those same ones, once they'd gotten them to Felicia's command at the announcement hall, had taken to helping their more-injured countrymen. Through the night they'd worked, and their own airship (one people actually recognized as one) had been helping them lift large segments of rubble.

Then he saw a group of returning Firsts and Seconds being led by Angeal—and he'd frowned as he'd eyed the man in confusion. Something was off, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Were there gray strands in his black hair? If there were, it was only a few, and by all rights, by the damage to his clothing, it could have been from stress, but that wasn't likely. SOLDIERs and members of Deepground had to be very old to actually get gray (or white, or silver) hair unless they were born with that color, like Weiss and Sephiroth had been.

A moment later, as the other group vanished around the corner with three more injured Wutains, he realized what had been wrong—even assuming Angeal had been caught in the explosion like his men (some obviously showed as having been), his wounds hadn't healed yet. The other men were fine, but not him. More than odd, that was alarming, and Weiss actually had no idea what to do about it—he thought Genesis would know, but he'd never been told the solution.

The thought of Genesis made him pull out his PHS and dial the other man's number, and he had to smile faintly as Genesis asked apprehensively, "What's the matter, Weiss?"

"Fuhito blew out part of Wutai City, and apparently Angeal was caught in the blast. That was over twelve hours ago, and by the looks of it, his wounds haven't healed yet," Weiss informed him.

Genesis hissed, then asked, "Do you have access to a doctor who can do a blood transfusion?"

"A—I don't know," Weiss blinked in surprise. "Some of the Wutains should be able to if one of our military doctors can't, but all of them are working hard to save the people caught in the explosion—the civilians."

"This isn't actually optional—Angeal needs an infusion from Sephiroth to fix the cell die-off that's happening to him right now. It's the same thing that happened to me, only my single injury was small and the pain just kept getting worse. If he got a sudden die-off start and he's got several injuries causing pain, he'll go insane a lot faster than I did. And I'm also sure waiting for them to come back here will deny them the transfusion," Genesis sighed. "The only question is if he'll accept it..."

"Why wouldn't he?" Weiss frowned. "There's nothing honorable about staying injured so you can't do your job properly."

"Just...Let's just say he sometimes has a very strange sense of honor," Genesis sighed. "In this case, 'the civilians need help more than I do, so I'll just wait until they're all taken care of.' And if he's got so many injuries, that could be fatal."

"Then how do we guarantee he'll get help?" the white haired boy asked, brow furrowed. "The last thing we need is one of you three going off the deep end and possibly taking either of you with them."

"I can't be this time," Genesis replied flatly. "But that doesn't mean I want to lose Angeal, either. I'll see if I can talk with him, if you want to alert Sephiroth?"

"I'll do that, then," Weiss agreed. "All I can do is wish you luck with Angeal..."

"That's still something," the red haired man agreed with faint warmth in his voice. "The issue won't be Seph—he'll be eager to help, and has been expecting to give Ang an infusion eventually. We were just waiting on a doctor who would do it without reporting right back to Shinra."

"I see. But he doesn't know the whole of the problem, does he?" Weiss asked, suddenly feeling wary.

"Not quite, but he has a base. I didn't tell him about the sudden cell die-off which led to my insanity. He'll need to know that part, and that Angeal is now going through that sudden cell die-off. It's not going to look very pretty in very short order," Genesis sighed faintly. "Thank you for letting me know, and stay safe, all right, little brother?"

That made Weiss smile. "Yeah. Thanks. Let me know how it goes?"

Genesis snorted. "You'll probably know before me. Later, then."

Weiss hung up, then paused to look around. A lot of the area had been cleared, or at least cleared of living civilians, so he jumped up to the top of a still-mostly-standing house and peered around. Where would Sephiroth be? His gaze then focused on a section of the town where the airship was pulling up debris near the larger hole. If the General would be anywhere, it would probably be there, so Weiss jumped back to the ground (rooftops and walls which were broken weren't safe to jump on) and ran for that area.

Once near the airship, he searched around for the silver haired man he needed to find, and saw him just as Kal pulled a child free from under a board he was holding up. Kal placed the child on Akira's back as Sephiroth lowered the board, then the three turned to take the child to Felicia. "Sephiroth, do you have a minute?" Weiss asked.

The silver haired man paused with a blink, then motioned Kal to go on ahead with the words, "I will rejoin you shortly." He then faced Weiss and asked, "What seems to be the problem?"

"I saw Angeal earlier and—I assume he was caught in one of the explosions?" Weiss asked.

"From what I understand, he was at the edge of the smaller one in the district proper," Sephiroth frowned. "Why?"

"His wounds haven't healed yet," Weiss told the older man, and Sephiroth's eyes widened in alarm. "I called Genesis to ask him about it, and he told me..." Weiss then explained the situation to Sephiroth as Genesis had told it to him. Finally, he finished with, "The problems are going to be Angeal's honor and how fast it will happen. Even if Genesis talks to him, Angeal may still be stubborn about others needing care first, and who knows when his honor would actually let him get help."

"Yes, that is an issue with Angeal," Sephiroth sighed tiredly. "I was aware of his needing a transfusion from me, but this has changed the dynamic. There must be another way, just in case the worst happens before we can arrange one..."

"If anyone would know, it would be Minerva," Weiss pointed out.

"Who I currently have no time to ask," the silver haired man sighed faintly. "We have more work to do yet, and I know Angeal will not stop before the living civilians have all been found. That would be the first point where we might be able to catch him and get the transfusion done."

"So the sooner we finish, the sooner our first chance comes," Weiss nodded. "I'll get back to work myself, then."

"Thank you for informing me of the situation, Weiss," Sephiroth told him as the boy turned away.

Weiss gave a wave over his shoulder and said, "If you think you need my help, let me know." He then jumped and headed for a nearby area not yet cleared to start looking for more of the civilians they needed to find.

All anyone could do at that point was hope Angeal would see reason after Genesis spoke with him.