Genesis followed Hawke and the Cetra girl through the winding paths of the Fade, guarding the rear.
A living Cetra. Well, that explained why Hawke talked about the supposedly extinct species so much, and with such authority. He had a great many questions about it all, but for afterwards.
First they needed to find Angeal and escape.
Aerith walked with her shoulders set and her staff in hand. The pathways behaved for her in a way they hadn't for him or Hawke, and the trees pulled back to let them through. The great seashell palace rose before them. Spirits flittered over the canopy, and followed at a distance. He kept his sword drawn. He had lost all patience for the spirit's little games and taken up the guarded mode he adopted in enemy territory.
He smelled dumb apples. He looked around, and the forest was gone. An orchard surrounded them. Thick green grass pulled at his boots and he could hear the bubbling of the creek. Curling Banora white trees surrounded them.
Aerith slowed.
"Aega said Angeal would be in this area somewhere," she said, looking around with her brow furrowed.
"This way." Genesis took the lead. He knew exactly where Angeal would be.
He wound between the trees and crossed the little dirt paths towards the creek. Fantail birds bobbed between the branches, trading little chirrups. Despite everything the last dream of Banora had thrown at him and his resolve to stay on his guard, something in his chest eased out under the golden light. It felt like home and comfortable old dreams. He clenched his jaw. They weren't going to trick him again.
The ground sloped away. Laughter rose up to meet them. Angeal's laugh.
The creek came into view, clear water running over a bed of smooth rocks and reflecting blinding light. On the opposite bank lay Angeal as he had been fifteen years ago: chubby faced and slightly sunburnt. He lay on a flattened patch of grass, eyes closed, face turned up to the sun, and bare legs hanging into the creek.
Next to him lay Genesis. Just as young and innocent looking, swinging his feet in the water.
Genesis halted. Next to him Hawke lifted her staff, but he put a hand on her arm. He should stop the illusion, he should cut the spirit down.
But he wanted to see.
"What are we going to do today?" Angeal asked, his hands crossed behind his head.
The spirit wearing Genesis' face hummed. He plucked a dandelion and tucked it into his hair. "Nothing. We're going to sit in the grass and watch the birds."
Angeal laughed. "And then what?"
"Then we're going to come back tomorrow and do it again."
Angeal cracked an eye open and looked at the other boy for a moment. "You don't want to go anywhere else? Do anything else, or talk to anyone else?"
"No," the false child Genesis replied. "I just want to stay here with you."
Angeal grinned and closed his eyes again. "I like the sound of that."
The real Genesis looked away. It had been his idea to join SOLDIER, to go to war, to challenge Sephiroth on his lofty pedestal. Banora had never been enough.
He knew Hawke and Aerith were both watching him, waiting for his cue.
The young Angeal looked so content, with a Genesis who didn't dream of more. Who could be satisfied with things as they were. He swallowed through a dry lump in his throat and tried to keep the hurt off his face.
"What do we do?" Aerith asked, her voice low.
He shook his head. "What is the point of this cruelty? Taunting us with what we can never have, dangling our hearts desires before us?"
"It's not your heart's desire," Hawke said. "It's just what will keep you stationary. He's never going to leave here on his own, but that doesn't make it what he actually wants."
Down on the bank Angeal and that innocent, false Genesis laughed.
"It's only a dream," she offered, apologetic.
He bowed his head. He would not have chosen to see this in front of an audience. He would never have chosen to see this at all.
"It feels more cruel to wake him," he admitted.
"How long have you been asleep?"
"Three, four hours"
Hawke's brow lowered. "How long did your mission take?"
"No time at all, we got off the plane this morning. I messaged you when I landed."
She stared at him, her eyes going round.
"You've been gone for a week," she rasped. She grabbed his arm. "You have to wake up. Go, wake him, before you don't have bodies to go back to anymore."
She didn't wait and leapt down the bank herself. He followed close on her heels.
The two boys in the grass sat up at the ruckus.
The spirit wearing his face grabbed Angeal's arm with a clawed hand and tried to drag him away.
Hawke lifted her staff and a blast of energy threw the spirit back.
Genesis threw a barrier over Angeal, still young and wide eyed
The spirit started to morph into something tall and monstrous. Hawke charged and threw herself at it. She plunged two daggers into its chest. It toppled over backwards, screaming and writhing in the dirt.
Genesis focused on Angeal.
"What's going on?" the boy said, eyes wide and roaming like he couldn't really see.
"It's just me."
"Genesis? Where are you? Genesis!"
Behind him the spirit stopped moving. Angeal's form lost some of its cohesion, turning slightly translucent. Hawke stood again, ichor splattered on her armour.
"What's wrong with you?" Genesis demanded. He put a hand on his shoulder, but it didn't feel right, not fully solid.
"He's not really a mage," Hawke said, coming back. "He only has a weak connection to the Fade."
"So we can't bring him with us." He pursed his lips and glanced at the boy. Angeal looked back, unrecognising. He looked away. "Will he be safe here?"
Aerith spoke up. She had hung back before. "If we can defeat Sloth we should all wake up."
Hawke backed her up, and he gave the young, dreaming Angeal one last look.
"Lead on then."
Aerith took up the lead again. The curling seashell palace rose before them. She didn't look back or to either side. The orchard fell away, and the grass was replaced by cold white tiles.
Aega had warned her that if they faltered there would be no escape. That Sloth would be watching, and waiting.
The spirits floating overhead disappeared. The steady footsteps of the other two behind her were the only sound. She gripped her staff tighter.
The doors of the ancient palace stood before them.
She steeled herself, remembering all the great things Aega had shown her, all she knew herself to be capable of. She pushed the door open-
-and stepped into the overbright halls of the Shinra Science department. She faltered.
A Turk in a pressed suit attacked her. She yelped and threw a fireball at him. He dove through the flames, a burning rage spirit. Genesis intercepted it so quickly she didn't even see him pass her. He sliced it in two. The flames died.
A door beyond them opened, and a faceless scientist stood backlit by the green glow of Mako.
They fought their way through, cutting down turks and lab techs and scientists in white lab coats. The spirits fought back, far stronger than those they imitated could have.
Aerith found herself backed up against a Mako tank and glass cell doors. She swung her staff out and knocked a tray of scalpels and syringes to the floor. Her knees shook and the spell misfired, reverberating back up her arms. The Turk brought his mag rod down on her. She yelled and slammed her staff up into his stomach.
Grasping vines leapt up from the floor and latched onto him. They tore him limb from limb. She sucked in shaking breaths and pulled herself back together.
The other two slaughtered the rest, and they pushed on, running through the halls. Genesis led the way now, his face hard. Hawke fried any spirits that followed, and Aerith threw shields over them all. In some of the rooms the spirits didn't play at being humans at all, only unspeakable, mutated monsters that smashed out of the cells and lunged at them with snapping teeth and claws.
"What is all this?" Hawke muttered, as they passed room after room of gurneys and medical equipment.
Neither replied.
They burst through a door, and they weren't in the labs anymore. Dark stone walls hedged them in, and only intermittent torches in the walls lit the way. Thick iron bars closed off rooms where rusting manacles were chained to the wall.
Men and women in full suits of armour with a flaming sword emblazoned on the breastplate attacked them, followed by others in robes who cast spells and wielded staffs like Hawke did. The blows fell harder, and Aerith's defences crumpled faster. Genesis' materia were all but useless against them. The passages were narrow and screams tore through the air. Genesis faltered.
Hawke moved with sudden vehemence. She appeared behind an enemy. Her knife stuck out through the enemy's neck. The spirit shrieked and she jerked the dagger up sharply.
Hawke led the way through the imitation Gallows. She fought quick and dirty, her teeth bared and magic cracking through the air. The spirit's manipulations were wasted, she was numb to it all, more focused on the swing of her blade and the rush of magic through her limbs.
They burst out into the courtyard. A giant copper statue swung a sword down on them. Genesis ignited the fire runes down his sword and leapt up and met its challenge. She turned back and threw a firestorm over the spirits chasing them. Behind her Aerith yelled as she cast and Genesis leapt between the walls.
The copper statue fell in a wreckage of slag.
He landed on the stone ground, breathing hard. Aerith clutched her staff with two hands, cheeks red from intensive casting.
"Where are we?" Genesis asked.
"Don't worry about it," Hawke replied, her expression hard.
Her reserves were holding but she had taken hits of spirit magic and the damage was hard to shake. She swallowed down the pain and spun her staff.
"Oh children, why are you so unhappy? Were you not comfortable?"
The little hairs on her arms all stood on end. A wave of exhaustion washed over her. She shook herself and threw the spell off.
The courtyard lost its shape around them. They stood on a flat platform above a lake of still, black water. The tall form of a Sloth demon stood in their midst: hulking, rotting muscle above a skeletal ribcage.
"You have suffered enough," he said, voice deep and melodic. He reached his clawed hands out to them. "I offer peace."
Aerith and Genesis blinked, and relaxed their stances.
Hawke slammed her staff into the ground. Dispel burst out from her in a ripple.
Genesis snapped back to attention. Aerith shook herself then scowled. Genesis raised his sword to the demon.
"I'll take an honest fight over your false peace."
"That's a no from me as well," Aerith spat.
Hawke ran forward on silent feet while they held its attention.
Sloth closed his hands. The chamber grew dark. "It will only be harder for you if you struggle."
She plunged her lightning-charged staff into its back. Or tried to. It dodged, far faster than her. He swiped a clawed hand, and she rolled out of the way. Genesis lunged in to slice the demon's back while she held its attention.
Sloth's beady black eyes met hers just as it's claw grazed her shoulder.
Her mana reserves emptied. She fell to her knees, gasping.
Wouldn't you like to rest? Are you not tired of having your efforts thrown in your face? Sloth's voice sighed through her head.
Maker, she was tired. Genesis was in front of her, fending off a blow.
Are you not tired of being a failure?
Aerith's restorative magic surged through her. She stumbled back, shaking her head against the voice. She wouldn't survive a second hit.
She brandished her staff and called on as much lightning as she could. A volley of bolts slammed into the spirit. Aerith reigned down fireballs upon it, carving through it at a distance. Genesis was barely making any headway but holding it off them, its arcane form soaking up physical damage easily.
Genesis took a hit.
Hawke rushed in, stacking speed spells on herself. She leapt over Genesis, and jabbed daggers into its face, setting off bursts of ice magic. It snarled and lashed out, trailing entropic magic through the air. She danced around it, flipping, ducking and weaving out of the way.
A burning sword pierced through it's exposed ribcage.
Sloth made a noise of disgust and wrapped a claw around the blade
"Get back!" Aerith yelled. A blinding white glyph lit the ground around them.
They threw themselves back.
The air exploded. The sharp edge of Spirit magic rushed past hawke, making her feel like she'd been turned inside out. The roar subsided, and she blinked hard to get her vision back. She held her daggers up in a defensive stance.
In the centre of the platform remained only a fleshy smear across the floor.
"Oh, yuck," Aerith said
Hawke snorted a laugh. "Good job." She was running on empty and aching all over. Genesis limped over from the other side of the platform. She poked him with a healing spell and got a grateful look in return.
"Quite," said a Pride spirit.
Hawke spun, brandishing her daggers.
The tall spirit walked across the platform towards them, long silken robes rippling behind her. Sloth's remains disappeared as she did, and the chamber itself rearranged around her. Ancient and powerful carvings decorated the floor, and shafts of light fell from the ceiling, landing upon her.
They no longer stood in Sloth's domain.
"Aega?" Aerith asked, her hand still tense on her staff.
"You may leave," Aega replied, inclining her head to the Cetra. "May Gaia bless your path." She turned her eyes to Hawke and Genesis and her lip curled in disdain. "You, agents of the Evanuris, are not fit to walk the Planet's soil."
"Hey!" Aerith stepped forward. "Don't insult my friends. We had a deal. We all get to leave now."
Aega raised an eyebrow at her, a distinctly human gesture at odds with her ethereal form "A deal which I have kept. You said nothing of your companions, who threaten and desecrate the very Lifestream you are charged to protect."
Aerith looked between them, her brow furrowed.
"We do not serve the Evanuris," said Genesis, his voice hard.
"They're gone, the war's over and Arlathan has long fallen," Hawke added. She jerked her head at Genesis. "And he's not even from Thedas."
Aega fixed her with a look.
"Ignorance will not absolve you of the damage you do, Champion. You know this already."
Hawke grew still.
Aerith stepped forward, planting herself firmly between them. "I'm not leaving without them."
Aega approached her, towering over them all. Hawke cast a barrier over Aerith. Next to her Genesis lowered his chin and adjusted his grip on his sword.
Pride looked between them, ancient, fathomless eyes assessing. Finally she looked down at Aerith.
"Do not bring them back here."
She flicked her wrist, and the dream collapsed.
Genesis opened his eyes to a dark forest canopy. The air was still and warm. He breathed in the sweet smell of old rot and new life.
He looked down. He was leaning against a tree and half buried in leaves. Little green vines were growing over his boots.
Opposite him, an emaciated Angeal slept against a tree.
He rocketed to his feet.
"Angeal!"
No reaction. He pulled the vines of him and felt for his pulse. It was light and thready. He had lost fat and muscle mass: his face looked gaunt. His uniform sagged off of him. The lines of his veins were blackened and pulsed oddly.
Genesis cast cure. It did nothing. Still firmly in survival mode, he followed every procedure for an unconscious SOLDIER. Each achieved nothing, and he mechanically worked through them.
He didn't know how to tell if he was still in the Fade, if he had been caught up by the Pride spirit. Even as he thought it, he knew that wasn't the problem. He cast cure again, as powerful as he could, and watched the Blighted lines running up his neck refuse to budge.
He called for an emergency pickup.
He pulled Angeal forward, lifted him in a fireman carry, and nearly buckled under the weight. He steadied himself, and set off for the edge of the forest.
Hawke made her way into the military airport outside of the city limits. She entered codes Genesis sent her and entered areas strictly forbidden to civilians, let alone non company employees. She hid in the shadows of a building and waited while a plane came in to land. An ambulance drove past her to meet it on the tarmac.
Genesis hadn't told her what exactly had happened, only that it was urgent. The cold winds of the Midgar plains whipped her with gritty dust. She kept her head down and waited.
The ambulance drove back the way it came, stopping nearby. The backdoor opened a crack. She slunk in.
A skeletal, ghoulish Angeal was laid out on the table. Genesis barely looked better, but he lacked the stark black lines of taint tracking along his arms.
He closed the door behind her and stepped over the medic sleeping peacefully on the floor.
She got straight to business. She pulled off her gauntlet and stretched her hands. The amount of casting she had done in the Fade still had her limbs aching.
She started by casting a mid level heal on Genesis. She could see the lines of magic tying him to the driver, presumably dictating that he not question any of this.
"Don't heal me, heal him!"
"You're no good to him if you knock yourself out with exhaustion," she replied.
She turned to Angeal and got to work. She poured the strongest magic into him she could, with nothing held in reserve to keep the casting tidy. It glowed so brightly it had to be leaking out of the doors.
Angeal started to shake. His eyes sat half open, but nobody was home. She was building him back up and trying to treat the symptoms, but there was no beating back the Blight. It was so far progressed in him she could hear it singing in his veins, humming against her magic. He threw up bile with fleshy clumps in it.
Genesis held his head and handed her ethers. They worked together in tense and grim silence. She burned through all the ethers she had, and started to sag.
Angeal recovered some colour. His eyes rolled in his head, and he hummed something in his sleep. He was keeping beat with the call of the taint thrumming through his veins.
Hawke's magic died out. She was on the verge of collapse.
Genesis cast a restorative spell on her, and steadied her.
"We're at the Shinra tower," he said quietly.
She nodded. "Just let me out somewhere nobody will see."
The vehicle stopped moving, he cracked the door open, and she ducked out the back.
She stepped onto the flat streets around the back of the Shinra building in the late afternoon. The ambulance disappeared into the backdoor entrance to the Science Department.
A/N: Thank you for reading! And thank you for your patience on the update speed. I'd like to get back to once a week, but realistically it's going to be fortnightly more often than not. Reviews and Concrit are welcome.
Next Time: Wicked Wings.
