It was impossible to tell how much time had passed in this place, but it still didn't feel like enough. The SOLDIERs and Cloud were still reeling from the experience as the Goddess drew their attention once more.
"Time grows short, and we must continue," she said. "Once you have been remade, this place will be no danger to you. Mere humans were never meant to stay here alive."
The implication that they were going to be something more, or something other than human was not missed. But really, that wasn't all that different from SOLDIER, was it? At least whatever they'd be now wasn't going to get them killed.
Probably.
At least not without good cause.
"I gift you these powers in the understanding that you will wield them for the Planet," Minerva intoned. "That you will, first and foremost, strike down the Calamity and any of its minions who cannot be turned away from its service. Thereafter, you will either remain in service of the Planet as its immortal WEAPONs, guardian of the remaining Cetra Oracle, or you will forfeit your additional powers. The choice need not be made now."
A heavy silence blanketed the SOLDIERs, expressions somber as they processed her words. Later, there would have to be discussion. But for now… what choice did they have?
"I see your resolve," Minerva said, "and now I take you for the Planet. Kneel, warriors."
No one dared question, the five men kneeling at once, heads bowed reflexively. Hearts pounded in anticipation, but even the most irreverent of them was silent in the face of the magnitude of what was about to happen.
The sense of the Goddess' power increased, swelling like the rising tide and washing over them. For a moment, it was suffocating in its weight, flooding through them. Intense pressure drove the breath from their lungs.
And then, just as it was nearly too much to bear, it changed to the familiar heady rush of a limit break.
It was so intense Kunsel could feel it through his link with Zack. It was that same rush of power, tapping into the depths that lurked within everyone, normally only roused when you were pushed beyond bearing.
But then, that was what the Goddess had said - she was remaking them into something more, something beyond mere humanity. It was an awe inspiring thing to experience, even second hand, feeling the power grow and grow, full to bursting and yet somehow instead of overflowing, their reserves deepened.
A blue haze joined the gentle green glow of the Lifestream around them, emanating from the soon-to-be-WEAPONs. Kunsel placed a hand on Zack's shoulder and felt the energy thrumming through him, like holding a charged materia in your hand right before you cast a spell. There was magic at play here like nothing he'd even heard of. It made him itch to know, to somehow understand what was going on. Later, he'd ask Chaos. For now, he just rode it out with them, waiting for it to be done.
And slowly, the overwhelming energy began to recede a little. No longer feeling on the cusp of a limit break, the blue haze faded away. Kunsel breathed a sigh of relief.
"Rise, my WEAPONs," Minerva said.
The five men rose as one, earning a small, pleased smile from their patron.
"You are now ready," she said. "You will face the Calamity's pawns, and cleanse this world of its influence. But first, a test of our young Oracle, and your ability to protect her."
Cloud reached for Aerith's hand, looking determined.
On impulse, Kunsel took Zack's as well, smiling faintly when he got a reassuring squeeze. Whatever had just happened, whatever had been changed, he trusted Zack was still fundamentally Zack.
"There is another of your ranks, who has fallen away. One who still calls out to me, despite being ravaged by the Calamity and its attempts to control or destroy him," Minerva said, and oh, they put that together real fast.
Genesis. Well. He'd been MIA, but no one had actually believed he was dead. The former SOLDIER was notoriously hard to kill, and unless the degradation had finished him off it wasn't hard to believe he'd still be out there.
"He is near," Minerva continued, waving her staff, though with no real sense of direction in this place it didn't help. "Find him. Cleanse him of the Calamity's taint and restore him to health. He will be weak at first, but ultimately able to assist you in your task."
"Do we bring him here?" Zack asked.
"No," she said. "He must first redeem himself for what he has done, before he can be accepted as one of my WEAPONs. For now, his gift is his life."
Zack nodded, glancing aside as Chaos stepped forward.
"Then we shall return to Midgar and begin the cleansing, once we've reclaimed Rhapsodos," Chaos said, humming at her nod. "Very well."
Minerva looked them over, expression somber. "The Calamity will sense time grows short. Expect powerful resistance. Know that the Planet supports you, but it is not impossible that you could lose your mortal forms in this battle. Should your fleshly form perish, you will be provided with a WEAPON's form to continue the battle, but will be unable to return to humanity after."
A grim potential that was not, necessarily, better than dying. But it was something. And they'd already known that the risks were high.
"Chaos will instruct you in the use of your abilities, but much should be instinctive, so long as you do not fight it," she continued. "You have the advantage of strategy and combat experience over most of my WEAPONs. Use them. Play to your strengths, but do not rely on sheer force. The Calamity is wily and will use every trick at its disposal. Be sure you do the same."
"You got it." Zack nodded firmly, gripping Kunsel's hand.
Kunsel squeezed back tight.
Minerva nodded slowly, assessing them a long moment before waving her staff. Around them, the tendrils of Lifestream brightened until everything went white, and the ground fell away. For an undetermined amount of time, they were suspended in nothingness, before the world was suddenly there again.
The goddess was gone, the caverns were gone, and they were outside once more, standing in the meadow with the transport in the distance. In the descending darkness of twilight, five sets of eyes glowed Lifestream-green.
"So how, exactly, do we find Genesis?" Zack asked. "She said nearby, but I'm not too keen on setting up a search grid over this whole island."
"Yeah, no, me neither," Benji said. He tipped his head, considering. "…I wonder if we could sense him out."
The others considered that, and Zack frowned. "…maybe? He's good at hiding his energy, though."
"When he knows he needs to, sure," Drew agreed. "But ShinRa doesn't send SOLDIERs down here much."
"If he's close, there's no way he didn't sense us," Kunsel said. "Which would probably send him to ground. Any one of us, he might take on, minus Chaos and Valentine, but the collective? He's not stupid."
"He can hide his magic," Cloud said. "I wouldn't think he could do anything about his Jenova cells."
There was a beat of silence, followed by several slow, pleased smiles.
"You know, you have a very good point," Benji said. "And we ought to be even more sensitive to that than before, right?"
"You'd think so," Drew said.
"It's… potent," Aerith said mildly.
Cloud nodded. "Just feeling it second hand, yeah."
"Sure was potent from the Restrictor. He won't be hard to find," Zack muttered. "Genesis wasn't that bad."
"Not previously, no," Vincent said. Now back on the mortal plane, he and Chaos had resumed their more familiar shared form, and the way red eyes had a golden tint said Chaos was most definitely paying attention. "But your perception may well have changed now that you no longer carry the same taint."
"Hey, as long as it means no one can get in my head…" Zack smiled tightly. "I think we're good."
"So, what are we doing and how are we doing it?" Cloud asked, a little lost.
"We're going to sort of… sense for Genesis, I guess," Zack said. "Feel for his energy."
"…SOLDIER thing?" Cloud ventured.
"Mage thing," Benji corrected. "Also a SOLDIER thing, but the technique was developed by magic users, way before SOLDIER. Of course, SOLDIERs default to better magic stamina than most people in general, and it just gets better with use, so it's natural to pick up tricks like that."
Cloud nodded thoughtfully. "So, anyone can do it."
"Anyone can, but you're better at it if you're good with magic," Benji said. "And five of us here know what Genny-boy feels like on top of knowing the technique, so we're good to go."
"Sooo… the rest of us what?" Aerith asked. "Stay put until you find him?"
"I may not know how to sense him, but you should be able to pick out a source of Jenova cells," Cloud pointed out. "If we go together, I can protect you long enough for other people to arrive."
"The goal's not to kill him, after all," Drew agreed. "Contain, cleanse, and -"
"- take ruthless advantage of his gratitude and former camaraderie to turn him to our side?" Benji added.
Drew rolled his eyes. "Something like that, sure."
"Awesome. We have a plan," Zack declared. "Just raise your energy high when you find him. We'll find you. But don't let him fly off, or we're going to have some trouble."
"Fortunately, in most cases, his ego should keep him grounded a while," Benji said. "I mean, don't bait him into combat, unless you know what you're doing, but he's a talker. You might be able to engage him a bit in conversation."
"It's a thought, anyway," Zack agreed. "Not sure if he'd believe what just went down or not… I'd rather no one get skewered for perceived 'blasphemy' so, you know, pick your battles."
"So is that a yes or no to Aerith and me joining the search party?" Cloud checked.
"I think -" Zack cut himself off, head tipped like he was listening to something far away.
Vincent's eyes flickered gold briefly. "He is a very bold man."
"What? What's going - oooh." Cloud wasn't used to this sensing business, but he felt that. There was something headed their way. Something dark and powerful.
Genesis.
A/N: The good news is, I have more of the story plotted now. The bad news is that I'm massively distracted and the words just aren't flowing. Expect periodic, but erratic updates until I can get some proper buffer.