The Future Imperfect

AN – To celebrate working through a section of this story that I've found particularly challenging, here is an update! A couple of days earlier than intended, but

Chapter Nine

Angeal leant forwards against the wooden railings of the bridge that led to Aerith's house, marvelling at the gardens that were laid out below them. Genesis was propped up against the railings next to him, his hands holding it lightly, with his back to the view and facing Sephiroth. Sephiroth himself stood against the opposite edge, his arms crossed across his chest and a thoughtful expression on his face.

Cloud and Tifa had followed Barret into the small house that nestled amongst the flowers, but before going in Cloud had slowed and told the three of them that Elmyra, Aerith's mother, didn't like SOLDIERs. They had decided they were better off waiting outside on the path between her house and the rest of the Sector Five slums. Given that the poor woman was learning that her daughter had been kidnapped by the Turks they didn't want to put any more pressure on her.

"What happened on the pillar?" Angeal asked eventually, turning his head to look at Genesis. It was surprisingly hard for him to stand here and look at Aerith's miraculous garden without the girl herself being present – it made him feel more of a failure for allowing the Turks to take her.

Genesis sighed, closing his eyes. "There were Turks there, two of them. It was Reno and his partner, the one that doesn't say much. Older but unmistakeable."

"Only two Turks, and yet they managed to defeat you?" Sephiroth asked, a hint of surprise in his voice.

"No." Genesis bit back, annoyed at the suggestion. "We were on top of the Turks, but then those cloaked figures interfered again. They stopped us from reaching the console as the Turk set off the separation sequence."

"What are those things?" Angeal muttered, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "How do we defeat them?"

Genesis drummed his fingers against the wooden guard rail. "Then Tseng popped up on the console screen to tell us that we couldn't do anything about it, though why he bothered I don't know. All it told us was that he had the girl with him and that she was an Ancient."

Sephiroth hummed. "Then he must have wanted you to know."

"He didn't see me when he was taking Aerith away." Angeal said, staring down into the water below. "If she just disappeared, then she would likely be assumed dead in Sector Seven. He wanted Cloud and Tifa to know that the Turks had taken her. But why?"

"One other thing bothers me." Genesis said, looking at the floor in front of him with a confused expression. "Reno recognised me, but he called me a Genesis copy. What in the Goddess's name is a Genesis copy? Why not just me? Do we not exist here anymore?"

"If we did," Sephiroth stated, conviction in his voice. "Then it would have been us on that pillar, make no mistake."

Angeal stayed silent, looking out at the garden, leading Genesis to regard him with suspicion. "You are unusually reluctant to reassure us. What do you know?"

Angeal sighed heavily. "When I first met Aerith in the sewers, she knew straight away who I was. She knows Zack."

"Really?" Genesis asked, interested. "But surely she knows you then? Obviously she has heard of you. Everyone knows how much that boy looks up to you."

"Heard of me, yes." Angeal bowed his head. "She met him in… I can't remember exactly, next spring sometime." Another deep sigh. "Well… spring year one. Not next spring, obviously, if we're in year seven. Gods, this is confusing."

"You are waffling." Genesis's voice had a note of concern, his eyes narrowed as he gazed at his friend. "You never waffle. What is it?"

"She said I died a couple of weeks after she met Zack."

A heavy silence fell at his words.

"Nine months?" Genesis choked out eventually. "You die in… nine months? At best?" Sephiroth shifted his stance, no longer resting idly against the bridge but standing upright, tension almost bleeding out of him. Angeal finally looked up, to see Genesis staring at him in horror. A quick glance over his shoulder showed that Sephiroth was already lost inside his own mind, his expression blank but his fingers twitching the smallest amount as he performed whatever complex calculations he did when he needed to process information. It was the most minute of tells, but Angeal had known Sephiroth for several years now, had practically grown from adolescent boy to man alongside him.

"I mean… how?" Genesis spluttered eventually. "That's just… you are one of the strongest SOLDIERs out there. What happened? A Wutai ambush? A mob of monsters? Very little would be able to take you out."

Angeal shook his head, not knowing the answer. Aerith hadn't gone into any details. He didn't think he really wanted to know.

"You are likely dead too." Sephiroth said eventually, eyes focussing back on the pair of them before honing in on Genesis. Genesis started.

"Me?" He considered for a moment. "Yes. I think I must be. Why else would someone go to the effort of trying to make copies of me if I was still alive?"

Angeal shuddered, that sounded like something from a nightmare. "It worries me that we are considering someone trying to make copies of you at all. And yet, it is not something I would put past Hollander or Shinra. After today, there is not much that I think Shinra wouldn't do."

Genesis hummed in agreement. They fell into an uneasy silence, waiting for anyone to emerge from the house below.

It was Sephiroth, surprisingly, who broke the silence. "Did you see anything unusual earlier?"

"When earlier?" Angeal asked, finally turning around to face his friends.

Sephiroth's brow creased slightly into a frown. "As we were walking towards Wall Street, when Cloud stumbled."

"I was somewhat preoccupied with keeping Cloud on his feet, but I didn't see anything else." Genesis stated, flicking his hair out of his face using one gloved hand. "What do you think you saw?"

Sephiroth shook his head, staring down at the planks of the bridge. "It… doesn't matter." Angeal looked sharply at Sephiroth and noticed Genesis doing the same, but before they could question him further the front door of the house closed heavily, interrupting them.

All three of those who had gone into the house looked thoughtful as they returned. "Your daughter was there?" Genesis asked Barret as the trio approached. Tifa replied instead of the large man, letting out a sigh of relief.

"Yes, thank goodness."

"What now?" Angeal asked, standing up and turning to face them.

Barret frowned at the SOLDIERs, Tifa resting a hand on his arm placatingly. Cloud rolled his eyes and replied on their behalf. "We're going to go back to Sector Seven, see if we can find any survivors."

"We owe it to 'em." Barret ground out, voice subdued. "Biggs, Wedge, Jessie. Anyone else who couldn't get out."

Genesis tapped his lips with his index finger. "Biggs… I remember a Biggs. Bandana? Slim guy, modified gun?"

"That's him," Tifa replied slowly, eyeing Genesis curiously.

"I found him on the stairwell of the pillar, cured him up and sent him on his way. A girl too, with a ridiculous metal breastplate. Hopefully they should have managed to get out of the sector before the plate came down."

Hope lit up Tifa's face. "You saved them?" She took half a step towards Genesis, hands clasped together in front of her.

To Angeal's surprise, Genesis didn't preen or pose as he absorbed the praise. Instead, he ducked his head down, letting strands of his red hair cover some of his face.

"Anyone would have done the same." He said quietly, humbly. "And there is no guarantee they actually got out."

"Well, we ain't gonna find out by standing around here." Barret said gruffly, pushing between Genesis and Sephiroth to stomp heavily across the bridge away from the little house.

Angeal frowned after him. "What about Aerith?"

Cloud sighed and shook his head, Tifa turned her gaze from Genesis to look at Angeal. "Aerith's mom thinks that we would only make it worse for Aerith if we go after her."

Genesis scoffed while Angeal frowned. "So we're doing nothing?"

"No," Cloud replied, straightening up and glaring at Angeal. "Of course we're going after her, but Barret's right. We owe it to the people of Sector Seven to do what we can first."

"Once we've all calmed down, we'll talk to her again." Tifa reassured him.

Angeal slowly let out a breath an rolled his shoulders. "Sector Seven, then. Back through Wall Market?"

"No, we won't all be able to get over the rubble like you did." Cloud stated, leading them to where Barret is waiting. "But Aerith showed me another way."

He led them through Sector Five, where concerned residents were standing around a large television that was broadcasting news about the plate fall. Angeal spared half a glance towards it, wincing at the images of the falling plate taken from above. The whole segment of the plate was aflame as it dropped out of its place in the circle and plummeted to the ground. If the plateside residents hadn't been evacuated then it would have been nearly impossible for them to survive. Angeal shuddered at the thought.

As they followed Cloud along the path towards Sector Six and then into an old collapsed roadway, Tifa told them about their meeting with Elmyra. How she had confirmed that Aerith wasn't her biological daughter, but that one day Elmyra had found a young girl and her dying mother at the station and promised to keep the girl safe. How the girl would occasionally come out with some unusual things – none more so that when she told Elmyra someone close to her had come to say goodbye several days before she received the official notice from Shinra that her husband had been killed on the front line in the war with Wutai.

Then one day the Turks had come. Aerith had tried to deny it, but they had all known the truth – that she was different to other children. The Turks called her the last Ancient. Someone who could communicate with the Planet. But for whatever reason, the Turks had allowed her to roam free under the plate and not taken her straight back to Shinra. Until now. But what none of them could answer was why.

After fighting their way through the monsters that were lurking in the tunnels of the old road system, they eventually emerged back at the children's play park where Angeal had found himself when he initially escaped Sector Seven. He could see that the people had tried to shift some of the debris but it was still a complete mess.

"Wymer!" Barret shouted, greeting a man with a beard and flat cap similar to the one Genesis was wearing. "You're alive!" The huge man engulfed the other in a bear hug, causing Wymer to squeak slightly as his breath was driven out of him.

"Still in one piece," Wymer grinned once Barret had set him down.

"Who else made it out?"

Wymer shook his head. "I wish I knew. Sorry." He gestured to the side. "Though Biggs was around here earlier, helping take an inventory. He may know. He's a bit banged up so we didn't want him helping us search the sector."

"Biggs is ok?" Tifa gasped, clutching Genesis's arm tightly in relief.

"Well he don't look too pretty right now, but he'll be ok. More'n we can say for a lot of folks."

Angeal didn't listen to the rest of what Wymer was saying. He was watching Genesis closely, noting that Tifa had yet to release his arm. His right arm. His sword arm. And yet Genesis hadn't pulled away or said anything dramatic. He had just stiffened in surprise.

Angeal had known Genesis since they were small children. Genesis had been the only other child close to his age in the small village of Banora that they had grown up in, so they had inevitably been drawn together despite the difference in their stations – Angeal having been the only son of a pair of poor farm workers whilst Genesis had been the son of the wealthiest family in the area. Angeal almost knew Genesis better than he knew himself – knew that despite the extravagant and dramatic persona Genesis liked to portray, he was actually a bundle of insecurities wrapped up in a prickly exterior. He threw out poetic phrases and grand gestures in order to ensure that he was in charge of the narrative at all times, that any contact was strictly on his terms.

So for him to stand there and allow Tifa to clutch at his arm was… unusual, to say the least.

Angeal studied his friend carefully, but other than a tightness in Genesis's expression he couldn't see anything too out of the ordinary. His wound must be still hurting him. He turned to see what Sephiroth thought about it, to find the man staring intently at the back of Cloud's head and completely oblivious to the tension bleeding off of Genesis. Angeal blinked at the sight, taken aback. What was going on with his friends?

Tifa eventually let go of Genesis to follow Barret across the playground towards a figure that was sitting on the ground with his back against the moogle slide that was now decorated with a girder or three. The man was resting against the side of the slide, his face scrunched in thought as he was scribbling away on a pad of paper with his right hand. His left was bound up in a sling and one leg stretched out in front of him was also covered in bandages.

"Biggs!" Tifa cried out, running the final steps. Biggs looked up and broke into a beaming smile.

"Hey guys, you're alive!"

"Yeah," Tifa nodded. "I'm so pleased to see you. Do you know what happened to the others?"

Biggs put down the pencil he was using and with Barret's help got to his feet. "Jessie and I helped each other get out the sector, she's clearing a path to Wall Market for supplies. I haven't seen Wedge." He frowned in concern. "I sure hope he's ok."

"We'll go look for him," Barret promised gruffly.

"Thanks," Biggs smiled gratefully. "I'm not really good for much right now…" He nodded at his arm. "Instead I'm trying to work out what we need for the next few days to keep us all going." He looked up at them, catching sight of Genesis lurking behind the rest. "Hey, it's you! Thanks man, I reckon you saved my ass back there."

"Don't mention it." Genesis replied airily, waving a red gloved hand. He coughed into his hand as Tifa sent him another beaming smile.

"Well, we should go see what we can do in Sector Seven." Barret said, breaking the silence that followed.

"Could a couple of you go and help Jessie?" Biggs asked, gesturing towards the far side of the playground. "We really need to get some medical supplies in, the item shop owner could only bring so much and Wymer's teams are pulling more injured people out every hour."

"We can do that." Angeal offered, looking at Genesis and Sephiroth. Genesis nodded, absently rubbing the front of his left shoulder again. Sephiroth frowned in thought and met Angeal's gaze.

"I wish to go with them into the sector."

"The two of you would be plenty of help." Biggs smiled reassuringly. "Just ask for Jessie, I think she's in charge over there."

With that, he slumped down again, sliding down the edge of the old slide back into his sitting position and picking up the paper.

"Let me know if you need anything." He called, waving the pencil before turning back to his list and frowning at it.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Cloud followed Barret through the tunnel into the ruins of what had been the Sector Seven slums. By some miracle, the exit of the tunnel was clear as when the plate had broken up the pieces had collapsed in on themselves nearer the centre. This close to the boundary with Sector Six had been spared the worst of the destruction. However, the amount of material that had fallen meant that despite the plate itself missing the area, everything had been flattened underneath concrete or metalwork from the plate supports or the buildings on it.

Tifa stared about her, eyes wide as she took in the devastation. Barret immediately ran to a group of men who were struggling to lift a concrete slab that was trapping a woman. Marle was there directing the rescue, she greeted Tifa with relief as Barret and Cloud leant their strength to raise the slab. Sephiroth helped to carefully pull the woman out, making sure that the grey cloak still covered his head so that no one could see his identity. As soon as she was free he stepped back, allowing the other rescuers to whisk her away through the tunnel to safety.

After a quick chat with Marle, they continued their way into the sector to see the wreckage for themselves. The voices of other search parties could be heard echoing around them as rescuers crawled like ants over the rubble. Cloud sighed and looked around at the pointless destruction. Every so often, tremors rumbled through the ground and caused plumes of dust to billow into the air as the rubble shifted and the ground gave way.

Barret eventually stopped, looking up at something with a sombre expression on his face. Cloud followed his gaze, finding the first half of Seventh Heaven's sign. It was broken down the centre, lying sideways propped up against other collapsed buildings. Behind it fires still raged amongst the debris. Nothing else of the bar that Tifa had made her own could be recognised amongst the rubble, it had been completely obliterated.

"Tifa…" Cloud started, but tailed off as he watched his childhood friend step closer to the sign. A slight sound caught his attention, and he dove forwards to pull Tifa back just as a large metal box slid off the pile it had been leaning on precariously. It crashed to the ground where Tifa had been standing.

"Thanks," she gasped. Cloud looked around to check that nothing else was likely to fall on them, catching Sephiroth's gaze with a jolt. He had momentarily forgotten the SOLDIER was with them, but he stood quietly a respectful distance away.

A soft mewing tugged his attention down to the ground and a familiar looking calico cat. A memory flew into his mind, this time a recent one, of Wedge showing him a trio of calico cats.

"This is Biggums, Reggie and Smalls."

"Hey," Cloud drew everyone's attention. "Isn't that Wedge's cat?"

Tifa looked down at the animal, which mewed again before disappearing behind a large concrete slab. "We should follow it."

Barret immediately moved to the slab and started to push on it. Cloud took up a position next to him and with a dramatic swirl of his cloak Sephiroth stepped next to Cloud. The slab had no chance with the three of them, and crashed to the floor to reveal a small path winding between the rubble.

The cat waited at the end, next to a sinkhole that disappeared into the ground. It mewed again, disappearing down the hole.

Crouching at the edge, Cloud could see that it wasn't too deep. It was also a slope, possible to navigate. More concerning was that the earthen tunnel soon gave way to metalwork and concrete.

"What the hell was built down there?" Barret blustered, echoing Cloud's thoughts. A tall, slender figure dropped next to Cloud and peered down the hole.

"It looks a little like a laboratory." Came Sephiroth's smooth voice as he straightened up again. "Though I haven't heard of any built under Sector Seven."

"Figures." Barret grumbled as he started to slip and slide his way down the tunnel. "That's exactly the kind of shit Shinra would do, buildin' labs under our feet without us knowing."

Tifa slid down cautiously, looking around with wide eyes. "This place looks old though, it must have been years since it was used." She reached the bottom of the earth and stepped tentatively onto a metal walkway. "Do you think Wedge is down here somewhere?"

"Even if he isn't, we need to check that no other poor bastards got stuck down here." Barret told her, walking further in. Cloud sighed and shook his head.

"I guess that means I'm going in too."

An amused huff next to him caused a slight smile to form on his face before he leapt down onto the metal walkway. He felt the slight movement reverberate through his feet as Sephiroth landed behind him. Cloud took a few steps forward, noticing some stairs to their left that descended into the darkness. Leaning over the rail, he realised he couldn't see down to the bottom.

His movement must have startled some creatures, large insects flapping towards his face. Cloud reached for his sword, only for Barret to blast them out of the air with his gun.

The ground shook, a tremor that rumbled through the structure they were standing in. Cloud, his balance already on edge due to being in the middle of drawing his blade, found himself teetering. A strong arm wrapped around his waist and stabilised him.

Then the floor opened up beneath him.

He crashed down, falling through the roof of the room below and slamming hard into a metal grating that buckled under the force. Again he tumbled down, though this time the drop was shorter until he hit the concrete floor below.

Cloud groaned, pushing himself onto hands and knees, shaking his head to try to clear it. An arm, the same one that had stopped him overbalancing a moment earlier, appeared in his vision. His gaze travelled up the black glove, the sleeve of the leather jacket to the edge of the grey cloak, showing the merest glimpse of the silver pauldrons that matched the hair lazily drifting out of the hood. Eventually, he met green eyes that were watching him impatiently.

Annoyingly, Sephiroth didn't look as though he'd just fallen though the floor and… what looked like a couple of metal walkways, as Cloud squinted up above to look at them. His stance was relaxed, although his Masamune was drawn in his other hand and held out alertly.

"Thanks." Cloud muttered, taking the offered arm to pull himself up. Looking around, he saw that they were in a tunnel of some sorts. Tifa and Barret were nowhere to be seen, but in the distance he could hear the muffled sound of a gun.

"We separated from your friends." Sephiroth informed him. Cloud nodded, looking around. There was no way back up the hole they had fallen through. Their only option was to follow the walkways and hope it eventually led them back.

Cloud could still hear the distant gunfire. He shook his head as he thought that Barret wouldn't be hard to find. He just hoped Tifa was with him.

"Come on." He led Sephiroth across the room towards a partially open door. With a heave, he managed to push aside enough of the debris blocking it to open it fully. He was about to slip out when Sephiroth's voice stopped him.

"Cloud…the one we saw earlier – is that what I become?"

Cloud looked back at the SOLDIER, surprised to note he had discarded the grey cloak and had stowed it somewhere inside his long leather coat. Back in just his uniform, he cut an imposing figure, although the uncertainty in his eyes differentiated him from the Sephiroth who stalked his nightmares. And, apparently, his waking life as well.

"I don't know." Cloud admitted. "I thought… I thought I was hallucinating."

"The others could not see him." Sephiroth stated in his impassive way. "I could see why you would come to that conclusion. You have seen him before?"

"I… yes." Cloud turned away. "We should go."

"What did he want?" Sephiroth's voice stopped him again. "Why did he only appear to you? How is that possible? How could I see him?"

"I don't know!" Cloud repeated, this time in anger, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "I thought he…you… were dead. I killed you! Then he shows up and tells me the planet is dying and he wants me to be stronger… and now I can't seem to escape him." Static filled Cloud's mind and his hand clutched at his temple. Images of fire flickered through his mind, the dark figure standing tall in the flames, the manic glint in his eye.

"Cloud?"

He blinked. The image was gone, though Sephiroth still stood in front of him. Cloud started back, reaching for his sword, but stumbled as he realised that Sephiroth made no move towards him but instead looked saddened. Cloud shook his head.

"Sorry."

"It's… understandable. Though I am concerned why you and I… he, rather, share such a connection." Sephiroth frowned and turned away. "I am not sure I wish to associate myself with that version of myself."

"Like I said, I thought it was a hallucination." Cloud admitted, his head turning away. "I get flashes sometimes… I thought it was in my mind."

"Evidently, that is not true."

Cloud shook his head again to try to clear it. "We should go. The others will be looking for us." Turning his back on Sephiroth, Cloud walked out of the door. The thud of boots on the floor told him Sephiroth was following again.

"Did I know you when you were a SOLDIER?" He eventually asked, breaking the awkward silence they had fallen into.

"I told you, I wasn't a SOLDIER." Cloud muttered, taking out a flying bug with a particularly vicious swipe of his sword. He shoved open the doorway into the next room, stuttering to a halt at the sight of a walkway that stretched between tall glass tubes, each over a metre in diameter and taller than a man. Static filled his mind again, and an image of a similar tube filled his mind but filled with a bright green liquid. Mako.

Sephiroth stilled momentarily before walking over to the first tube and peering inside. "Human experimentation." He said with a grimace.

Cloud stared blankly at the body floating inside the tube. It was grotesque, a human like form but mutated almost beyond recognition before being abandoned here to die. Almost all the tubes had a corpse in them, but Cloud walked closer to a rare empty one.

"I am not sure why anyone would volunteer for this." Sephiroth stated as he looked around.

"They didn't." Cloud replied, his voice toneless as images flickered in his mind, superimposing themselves on the present. "That is why it is under the slums. They weren't given a choice. No one misses a few slum-dwellers, do they?"

Sephiroth looked horrified. "I knew the science department was doing some illicit activities, but this is… beyond even what I believed."

Cloud walked slowly up to the tube, stretching out his hand and gently touching the cold glass.

Static filled his mind.

The glass tube, surrounding him. Unyielding, no matter how hard he scrabbled against it.

"I…"

The painstaking task of scratching into it, fingernails breaking as they scraped down the glass in the same place over and over until it left a mark.

…L….E….T….S….

"I wasn't a SOLDIER…"

Green, mako green, filling his gaze. Surrounding him, suffocating him, inside him.

…G…E…T…

"…I was…"

…O…U…T…

"I wasn't SOLDIER."

…O…F…

"I was…"

…H…E…R…E…

"I was…an experiment."

"Another useless failure!"

A hand gently encircled his wrist and pulled it away from where he was apparently pulling on his hair. Or pulling out his hair, judging by the blond strands he was still grasping tightly. Cloud blinked up at the green gaze, wondering when he had fallen to the floor. His other hand was still pressed against the tank, fingers clenched so tightly he had driven gouges into the glass.

Sephiroth slowly tugged him up and in, gently grasping Cloud's jaw and moving his head with the hand that wasn't still holding his wrist so he could check for injuries. Cloud found himself pressed nearly against Sephiroth's chest as he was checked over carefully. When he was done, the taller man took a second to look closely at Cloud's face, searching for something in his eyes. Eventually Sephiroth must have been satisfied with whatever he had found, because he stepped back and put distance between them again. Cloud let go of the breath he hadn't realised he had been holding.

Turning away from Sephiroth, he looked in horror at the figures floating in the tubes. "Is this what I am? A monster?"

"No." Sephiroth stated firmly, shaking his head. "You are no monster. The monsters are only those who would do this to you and every other soul who ends up in a place like this." He walked back to the door they had entered through, pulling Cloud with him as he hadn't yet released the Cloud's wrist. "We should leave this place. We will not find your friends this way."

"Right." Cloud rubbed his forehead with his free hand. "Right. Let's go and find Tifa and Barret."

Sephiroth nodded and they continued down the corridor, side by side for the first time.

"And Sephiroth? Thank you."