Bridge

Genesis woke with a start to find himself staring up at an early morning sky as he heard others around him apparently also waking with groans. That left him feeling bemused—hadn't they all just been trying to route Fuhito from the Reactors before they could be bombed? And hadn't the bombs all just gone off?

Sitting up, he looked around, expecting to see death and the burnt-out remains of the Reactor he'd been at...but had to stop and stare as he realized nothing looked familiar. Actually, it wasn't even that nothing looked familiar, it was that there were no remains of anything metal anywhere nearby, no trace of destruction, and no trace of the trees he'd have seen around the Reactor he'd been at. For that matter, at Fort Condor, there weren't any trees to start with, but he was now surrounded by them. And there was a water source nearby, but probably not salt water—he'd be able to smell the salt.

"Well this is a mess," a familiar voice sighed, and Genesis turned to find the speaker, seeing Lady Shinra as she rose with a hand from Vincent. Her gaze traveled around everyone nearby, then she asked apprehensively, "Where's Edward, and why are there no civilians here?"

"Isn't Ed a civilian as well?" someone asked dryly, and Genesis thought it had been a Turk, but not one he was especially familiar with.

"No," another voice said, this one a young woman's. "He'd have been out here with all of us, except he got sent on ahead to make sure we'd have allies when we landed, not enemies."

"What?" several voices asked in confusion.

"She means that whatever happened at the time of the explosions, it forced Minerva to take us all and leave the Planet. This is the world she chose to land on with us," another woman's voice answered, and Genesis recognized that one as Ifalna's—he'd been to see her to talk about some things in his life often enough to recognize it. "But I'm not sure what Aeris means about Ed. Our civilians are just waiting for us to move away from here, spread out and establish a perimeter to be safe, before being released. We've also obviously been left with Healers, not only combat types."

It was then when Genesis realized he could see the 'adult' Cetra and Motos, all the combat personnel associated with either Shinra or Wutai, all the free-lance mercs, and even a fair number of the Shinra Academy combat students. The group was a fair size, and they all seemed to be gathered to one side of a large rock rather like the bust of someone's head and shoulders. There were trees growing rapidly around them, and many of those bore fruit, but the ground was actually rather sandy. There was plenty of soil in it, but he was a bit surprised by the quantity of sand—it would usually be what you'd see at the edge of a desert or beach.

"Aeris, can you tell us why Edward isn't here?" Lady Shinra asked, her tone apprehensive. "By his own bond with Minerva, I'd have thought he'd be so he could help us adapt to this sudden change."

"Usually," the young woman's voice answered in agreement. "And usually, she'd have done that, too. But this was different because while she was on her way to our next destination, something cut her off and—talked with her and Ed. They decided Ed was going back to his homeworld ahead of us because they desperately need his help, and we'd make our way there more slowly. There was space for us in the middle of a desert which had been a prosperous nation hundreds of years ago—that's where we are now, though it's not a desert anymore. But, he was put back into his—er—younger body." At the last, she began chuckling with mirth.

"...How young?" a new voice asked tensely, and Genesis realized it was Tseng's.

"He's six now, and has been here for almost a year already," Aeris answered, still sounding highly amused.

"Wait—Ed, the golden cat nothing gets past, is a little munchkin?" Yufi asked suddenly, and Genesis noted that he could hear both her and Shelke giggling.

"He's still just as smart as he ever was, he's just got a little body now," Aeris answered, her tone still amused. "And most of the damage we knew he had isn't there anymore. I think he still has the shapeshift form, but no visible traces of it unless he takes it, and he's got the Mako blood, but that's it. That was really the better end of the deal in that sense. We just have to wait for him to grow up again. And we're apparently going to meet a lot of people he thinks of as family, from his actual parents to his adoptive ones."

"...And how is he helping us by that?" Lady Shinra asked in a rather dry tone.

"He's making friends with our closest neighbors, people called Ishbalans," Aeris offered. "And I think they were going to be on their way here with a caravan of goods? But Minerva has asked that we please organize ourselves to start moving away from here—the bridge won't hold for very long, and she has lots of people to let out before it collapses...?" Since she sounded very confused by that, Genesis guessed she wasn't getting very clear data about the 'bridge' in question.

After a short pause, Lady Shinra sighed and said, "That's fair. General Valentine, Commander Rhapsodos, you both have wings to use for a quick aerial scout. There shouldn't be actual enemies here, but we definitely need to know the lay of the land and where that 'bridge' is so we can leave the immediate area."

Genesis rose as Sephiroth also did so, and it Sephiroth who agreed, "We can do that and be back in a few minutes. Yes, Genesis?" His gaze turned to find Genesis', and the red haired man nodded. Both accessed their wings—and Genesis immediately knew something felt different, so quickly turned to look over his shoulder. On the left, he was seeing a full wing in dove gray, not the small one he'd had before, and on the right, he could see...a wing made of energy which was otherwise identical to the physical one.

"Well that's interesting," he commented in a flat tone.

"Maybe, but we can think about it later," Sephiroth answered with a sigh. "If there's a time limit on that 'bridge', Lady Shinra's right and scouting is more important."

"Right, then," the red haired man agreed with a sigh, and both of them took to the air, flying up a fair distance before pausing to hover there for a moment. From there, Genesis could see the bridge, but he could also see a lot more than that, especially for a land which had apparently been a desert before their arrival. "There's the bridge I'm guessing the ladies meant," he commented, and Sephiroth turned to look.

"That would indeed qualify," the silver haired man agreed. "Let's do a bit of scouting around the perimeter of this...lake? If we can find places with what looks like decent food sources, those would be areas to aim for once we're off the island."

"Makes sense," Genesis agreed. "Shall I just head down that way, then?" he asked, nodding in the direction of the land bridge.

"I'll go the other way, then. We'll worry about looking further away later."

Sephiroth turned to fly in the opposite direction from the bridge, so Genesis headed for the bridge itself. It didn't take him long to see what Minerva had meant about the bridge—it wasn't intended to hold for long and was already showing signs of crumbling at the edges. They probably could only safely use it for a few days, and would have to develop ports to get to the island after that. Not that they'd especially need to rush, since the island wasn't actually very big and the mainland around it would be far more valuable to them.

After taking a quick look most of the way around the outer edge of his half-circle, he returned to the central island, and arrived around the same time as Sephiroth. By the time he landed, though, the silver haired man was drawing in the dirt with a stick he'd picked up, drawing out the island and the two edges of the 'lake'. When he finished, he offered the stick to Genesis, so the red haired man finished drawing in what Sephiroth had skipped, including the bridge.

"Most of my side really only let me find places of food growth in the trees on the shore," Sephiroth said as Genesis worked quickly. "We're on an island in the middle of what looks like a very large lake with some decent shores for small ports, but I don't think it would be viable to have large ships on this lake, regardless of its size. If we assume the sun rises and sets the same as ours, we're on the southern side of the island, and by Genesis' positioning of the bridge, it's angling southwest. The lake should at least be a good source for fish while we're establishing ourselves."

"Thank you, General," Lady Shinra agreed. "Commander, what do you need to add?"

He'd just finished drawing, so he said, "I think Minerva's being nice to us, but she definitely doesn't want to maintain the bridge for long—we'll have to get back to this island by boat, or air, I guess, once we've left. It's mostly made of soil and small stones, and will probably only last a few days—if we get a storm, it'll be gone. However, one of the best sources of fruit trees I saw was right off the side of where the bridge reaches the mainland, so that and fish isn't a bad way to start. There were several other places where fruit trees were along the coast, but the land mass beyond the lake was too big to do a check of right then. We'll have to be more detailed later."

"That we can do," Lady Shinra agreed, then pressed her lips into a fine line for a moment. "Especially if the bridge is really as weak as you say. All right, that means we need to make sure no one is lingering around here, so we need to direct people to it and over to the far side quickly. If the Motos and some of our combat personnel who can move very fast could go ahead to start working out a reasonable perimeter, followed by the rest of the forces not needed to direct people, that would be a good start.

"Rosso, you have good speed, so you and the others with your enhancements can go with the Motos. I'll leave you in command until someone like the General and his forces can catch up to you. That means you'll have the Turks before you'll have more SOLDIER forces. Get started on your trip across, all those I've named." As they did, taking some direction from Rosso so they weren't choking the bridge or knocking people off it, she turned to scan her available commanders.

After a moment, she called, "Commander Hewley, I'd like you and yours to stay here to direct everyone to and across the bridge. That means your people will have to spread out across it. Aeris should be able to tell you when everyone's out and making their way across the bridge." Aeris gave agreement, so she nodded and said, "Then you and she are going to be the last to cross, Commander. Arrange your forces for that." She then faced Genesis again and said, "And you'll have to take me across before doing anything else."

"Me, not Sephiroth?" the red haired man blinked in surprise, not expecting that.

"Why not you?" she asked flatly. "You're not an enemy and never have been. I don't like calling on Chaos and Zirconaide, so you and Sephiroth have to take both myself and Vincent across. Then, you and he will have to decide on who's going to patrol the bridge during what times while civilians are crossing—you're not going to have time to do anything else. There's always the risk of someone falling off, after all, and you'll get to them faster than even the men guiding them across."

From beside him, Sephiroth sighed and commented, "Thanks for giving that part of the instructions all out of order, Lady Shinra." Genesis chuckled at that, but added his own 'point' comment in agreement.

The woman looked amused, but she said, "I'd have been more worried if they were longer instructions. And we'd better get moving."

"No, we'd better give Rosso's team time to get there and get set up," the red haired man answered dryly. "Half an hour should be good at their speed—it'll take the civilians a lot longer to get to it and cross."

"But—" she began.

"Lady Shinra," Vincent cut her off. "He has a point. Even someone running at twice the average run speed of a human would need a certain amount of time to get across. Since you can't walk it on your own and your wheelchair isn't here, we need to wait for them to cross, otherwise it would be just you and me in the wilderness. In theory, that shouldn't be a problem, but even Minerva wanted us to be safe, not to rush to the point where we might risk harm. The combat personnel wouldn't have been the first released otherwise."

She was silent for a minute, and Genesis had the sudden impression she was pouting at being outnumbered. When she looked at Sephiroth questioningly, he said, "I agree that we need to wait until Rosso and hers have crossed before taking you over. In the meantime, though, we should probably also fly along the bridge to rescue any falling SOLDIERs or other combat personnel. They don't all have the most reliable footing."

"And we can keep an eye on Rosso's progress that way, too," Genesis offered suddenly.

Lady Shinra sighed at the words, but nodded and said, "Fine, if that's what you're going to do, you should head out to keep an eye on things."

With nods, both men took to the air again and flew out to the bridge. By the time they got there, Rosso's speed fighters and the Motos had gotten almost half-way across, and as they watched, she called a halt, which resulted in them switching to walking for several minutes before she called for a run again. In the meantime, the Turks were pacing themselves (Genesis had to wonder if Lady Shinra knew Rufus was with them, but decided not to mention it to her), and were about a third of the way across at the time Rosso called the switch to walking.

In contrast, the SOLDIERs at the head of the line were straggling between the Turks and the island shore, not really trying especially hard to pace themselves or strain to keep up with the faster pace of the Turks. As the two winged men watched, they also saw the Turks put a gap between the SOLDIERs nearest them and their own position. The separation of the groups had the interesting side effect of letting Genesis see how many students were 'marching' with each group and wondered if Lady Shinra had split them up between the various commanders somehow or if the commanders had done it.

"I'll go back to Rosso's side for their progress," Sephiroth said suddenly. "But we need to time how quickly we can actually reach someone who falls, regardless of where we are at the time. Especially if Lady Shinra expects only one of us to do so in rotating shifts. Patrolling the whole thing for anyone who falls won't be easy for a single person."

"That's going to mean staying above the middle of the bridge so we can see both sides, as well," Genesis commented thoughtfully. "You don't have any Summons, do you?"

"No, none," the silver haired man answered. "Why?"

"Hmm..." the Commander murmured as he thought, then took out a Materia he didn't often use and held it out to Sephiroth, who took it, then took one of the ones from his bracer and also offered it. "You can use Bahamut and Ifrit to help patrol the bridge. I'll use Bahamut Fury and Phoenix. I think even the Bahamuts have human-shaped forms to allow them to be much less threatening."

"Can Summons do something like that and last long enough to be of use?" Sephiroth asked in surprise.

"They can as long as that's what you're calling them for," Genesis nodded. "Take Ifrit and let me call my own out so you know the general idea of what you have to do. Then, as long as you're awake and aware, they'll be able to stay. Once everyone's safely across, you can give the Materia back to me." When Sephiroth took the Ifrit, Genesis focused and called out, "Bahamut Fury, Phoenix, I need your help to patrol a very long bridge in case anyone falls off it."

The two large Summons appeared in front of him, then took a look around at the area and the bridge below them. The two then traded looks and looked back at Genesis as Fury asked, "Do you want us to do so in these forms?"

"If you have human-ish ones, that would probably be good," Genesis offered. "The basic idea is that Sephiroth and I will be working in shifts to patrol the bridge until everyone has crossed, so you two will have to be out and about while I am, while the Bahamut and Ifrit I loaned Sephiroth will be out with him. You can rest or explore while I'm on off-time. Well, unless I fall asleep, and depending on how long this process will take, that's actually possible."

Both Summons gave nods, then closed their eyes and took on human shapes, one as a young man with long, golden hair and a golden robe, and one as a completely androgynous youth with red-orange hair and a red robe with multi-colored tassels. "We shall decide on our options as the patrols progress. If you expect it to take over a day, you may wish to take somewhat longer patrols—around six hours—so you will actually be capable of resting during the six when you are on the ground," Phoenix said, then looked at Sephiroth. "Call out the other two. We shall resolve this immediately."

Sephiroth did, and the other two were in agreement. As they took human forms (which the lady Ifrit was already mostly in) and all six of them spread out over the area of the bridge, Genesis realized both he and Sephiroth had just called two Summons without having a Double Summon Materia in hand. He'd thought only Ed could do something so impressive, but it made him wonder what the details of calling multiple Summons actually were. Up until this point, he'd thought calling one was the only option because of the sheer focus needed to do so...

Focus.

Right, anyone who chose to develop their focus could do more than someone who couldn't. That meant both he and Sephiroth had the focus required to have two Summons free at a time. He wasn't sure he wanted to try more at this point, though he wouldn't be opposed to testing increasing numbers at a later date. For now, two was good, and he wouldn't complain when it was giving them more aerial patrols of the bridge.

Speaking of, one of the clumsy SOLDIERs Sephiroth had mentioned to Lady Shinra had just fallen off the side of it, making him sigh and dive down to retrieve him and return him to the bridge, where his friends all just stood there and howled with laughter. The man looked highly chagrined at having to be fished out of the water by the Commander, but otherwise took things well, so Genesis kept his response to just a faint smile and let him go on his way.

Awhile later, Sephiroth returned to him and said, "It looks like Rosso's group have crossed and begun moving out into the surroundings, so we should be able to take Lady Shinra and Vincent across now."

"Let's get it done, then," he agreed, and both wheeled to head for the island where they'd left Lady Shinra and her guard.

As soon as the two landed in front of her where she'd moved to sit on a nearby rock, she asked, "Oh, does that mean Rosso is finally in place?"

"It does," Sephiroth agreed in mild amusement. "Now you can move to the other side of the lake and hurry up and wait there, instead." The words made Genesis and Vincent snicker as she looked affronted.

"Better there than here, of course," Lady Shinra replied. "Let's go, then."

The two men carried her and Vincent across to the far side, much to the Summons' bemusement, then returned to the patrols for a few minutes before Genesis turned to return to the island. There, he looked for Angeal, and saw a brown haired young woman—Aeris, he assumed—and Zack sitting next to him, Zack's arm around her. Landing there, he turned to the startled woman and asked, "Do you have any idea how many people need to be released or how long it will take to do so?"

"Um," she blinked, then tipped her head to the side. "I know it's in the thousands. Maybe hundreds of thousands? With the kind of destruction it was, I don't think we could go higher than a million survivors. And that's also based on her size—she can only take so many people. But probably, we're going to need a good part of the few days she thought the bridge would last for to get everyone across."

He sighed and nodded. "Thanks. We'll plan to have long shifts, then."

"Shifts?" she asked in surprise.

"To keep an eye on the people crossing in case anyone falls," he replied, then took to the air again. A glance back at the bust-stone showed him what were probably the first civilians being released—they were apparently the children of the Cetra who were still at the rock and the young Motos. That was also when it occurred to him that Shelke being released when she was made her a combatant, and he wondered when that had happened. He knew she was a Mage, but she also had a strong aversion to fighting. Then again, he'd seen her fight—actively fight—alongside Yufi when she felt she had no choice.

Soon after, he'd returned to his area of the patrols they were using at the moment, and when it brought him close to Sephiroth, he called over, "It'll have to be long patrols—that woman, Aeris, is pretty sure it'll take most of the few days the bridge has for everyone to cross. If she's right to say the number is approaching a million, it probably will!"

Pausing, the man called over and asked, "Then, did you want first shift or second?"

It was his turn to pause as he thought about that, but then he said, "I'm too keyed up for an early rest, so I'll take first. Are we going with six or longer?"

Sephiroth made a face. "While we could do longer, I don't think that's wise over the span of a few days. If it was just one day we'd have to push that hard for, it would be doable, but not this. Six is the best option we have at the moment."

"Head down to rest, then, and I'll let you know when six hours are up. Since it looked like the civilians were just being released, we can't both leave now," the red haired man called back, waving him off.

Sephiroth went to the two Summons attached to his energy to let them know the plan, then all three headed down to the general area where Lady Shinra was while Genesis and his two spread out across the bridge. A check of the time gave him the marker for when he'd send a notice to Sephiroth—about ten minutes before he needed to be up there to replace Genesis—then his attention turned to his patrols. While a few others of the combat personnel fell off the bridge (one was also pushed off), most made it across safely, and his shift ended with the first civilians about half-way across. Apparently, organization was problematic on Angeal's end, and he knew that wasn't the other Commander's fault.

When the silver haired man and his two (borrowed) Summons came to relieve him, Fury and Phoenix both returned to spirit form and Genesis dropped to the ground. He knew he wouldn't rest immediately after spending so much time in the air, so walked around some of the area not far from their 'main camp'—and found a track like a dirt trail for vehicles running in a southwestern direction. It drifted more west than south as it went, but the fact that it existed at all was mind-boggling.

Suddenly, Rosso landed beside him and commented, "This track goes a shockingly long distance. We're debating sending someone to follow it and just see where it goes—it might go to something we can use."

"You'll have to take that up with Lady Shinra, but I agree with you," he offered, then yawned. "And I'd better get some rest before my next shift starts."

He then headed off to find a place to lay down as she chuckled behind him. Better leave the exploration to her until all the civilians were across.