Genesis led the pair of teenagers (one conscious, the other not, both increasingly intriguing) to his own en-suite bathroom. There was a second guest bathroom, but it lacked a bathtub and Genesis knew from experience how difficult it was to bathe an ill soldier without one. Normally he wouldn't have offered his own private spaces up like this —he would have volunteered Angeal's —but he found it a minor inconvenience compared to the delicious mystery the teenagers presented.
"Here we are," he said, pushing the door open and standing back to let them enter. Young Zackary's expression was still a little unfocused. "Do you need help?" Not that he particularly wanted to help, but he was intrigued—just how many impossible scars had Cloud gained? Where? What kinds?
The look Zack shot him was downright distrustful, which made him suppress a smile. Smart boy.
"No, I've got it," Zack said, setting Cloud down.
Genesis nodded agreeably. "Very well. Towels are under the sink. Use any of the soaps in the shower but leave my medicine cabinet alone. And I think it goes without saying that if I catch you snooping in my room…" he summoned some fire to his palm and let it crackle menacingly.
Surprisingly, Zack snorted a laugh. "I've heard about you and your fondness for dodge-fireball," he said as he began to unlace Cloud's right boot. "I'll pass."
"Hmm. Good." Genesis left, shutting the bathroom door behind him —but not the bedroom door. With it open, they would still be able to hear most of what was going on, even from the living room.
Sephiroth and Angeal were standing together in front of the couch, reading from a PHS. "Yes, I am certain it's correct," Sepiroth said in reply to something Genesis had missed. The barest trace of annoyance laced his tone. "This document version is from before he vanished. Even if the file was altered later, this version would not have been."
"But still," Angeal said, "fourteen? The kid's fourteen and he managed to get the drop on us?"
Genesis couldn't decide whether or not he was offended by that fact as he joined the huddle over the PHS and began perusing Cloud Strife's file. On one hand, it was humiliating, being surprised by a child like that. On the other, Cloud had clearly gained some kind of intel or ability that they were just barely starting to scratch the surface of. He'd managed to solve a problem that he shouldn't have known existed, much less had the resources to fix. It didn't matter what his file said —he was not even remotely what he appeared to be.
What a marvelous enigma.
Zack had finished running a bath by the time they reached the end of the file. His voice was constant, but too low to make out his words. The tone, though, was alternately encouraging or deeply apologetic. The file didn't add any new clues as to why he seemed to blame himself for Cloud's disappearance, unfortunately.
"His initial test scores were good for his age and size," Sephiroth commented, reaching the end of the commentary from the instructors. "Why was he denied —ah. Mako sensitivity."
Angeal winced. "He wouldn't have gotten in with anything less than prodigy-level scores considering that. Too much risk."
"And yet here he is, enhanced to impossible levels and somehow not in a coma," said Genesis archly, then amended, "well, not in a mako coma at least."
"It is possible," Sephiroth said slowly, scrutinizing the details of the teenager's mako-sensitivity report, "that he was...selected for testing a less standard enhancement process because of his sensitivity."
Angeal blanched, the poor honorable thing. "I—even if he volunteered, doing this much in a few weeks is reckless! He could have died!"
Genesis clicked his tongue. "Angeal, my dear friend, I highly doubt that the boy underwent this voluntarily, considering that his aversion to the word 'doctor' transcended absolute unconsciousness."
"You think someone is working below-board?" Angeal asked, shamelessly clinging to his last shred of optimism.
Genesis had no compunctions about shredding his childhood best friend's endearing faith in the rule of law within Shinra. "Were I a betting man, I would say Hojo did this. Hollander is too incompetent." He sneered at the thought. And to think he'd been desperate enough to plan on going to the sniveling little man about his shoulder. Feh!
Angeal looked to Sephiroth, who blinked and inclined his head, agreeing with Genesis's assessment. Angeal sighed in resignation. "Right. And now that you're interested and I'm uncomfortably aware that I should have been paying more attention, I suppose we're going to get to the bottom of this."
Genesis grinned, sharklike. "Naturally. Though, given the nature of our introduction to dear, darling little Cloud Strife, I suspect he may be attempting to beat us to the punch on that front."
"Speaking of which," Angeal said, turning the full force of his stern scrutiny on Genesis, "why did I have to find out from that same dear, darling little Cloud Strife that you were ill to the point of needing a 'miracle healing,' Genesis?"
"It's hardly important now," he dismissed, waving a red-gloved hand. "My shoulder hadn't quite healed was all." Sephiroth instantly looked guilty, in his weird repressed way, which was exactly what Genesis had been trying to avoid.
"Oh, is that all," Angeal drawled, not buying his bullshit for even a second. "You should have told us, Gen! What if something had happened on a mission!"
"Well it's fine now," he responded, growing irritated. "I don't need a second mother, Angeal Hewley! I was handling it!"
"Handling it by letting a rogue science experiment solve the problem for you?"
"Don't be a smartass, I hardly knew that was going to happen. If you must know, I had planned on informing Hollander tomorrow." He clicked his tongue, briefly turning his ear toward the bathroom. The tub was draining. "I owe Cloud a great deal just for getting me out of that conversation, nevermind the actual healing."
"Was it infected?" Sephiroth asked, staring down at the vial in his hands with a little puzzled furrow between his brows.
Genesis hesitated. "I'm…not sure. At the very least, it wasn't healing."
Sephiroth held the vial up to the light, inspecting it, then unstoppered the top and wafted a bit of its scent toward his nose with the expertise of a chemist. His frown deepened. He wafted again, then gave up and held the vial directly up to his nose. He looked at them and shook his head. "Nothing. It smells like water. Perhaps purer than most water available in Midgar, but I cannot detect anything chemical or biological."
Angeal rubbed his chin. "How did Cloud know at all? And why did he want us all to drink? Nothing's wrong with me, and I didn't feel any different after."
"Perhaps…" Sephiroth narrowed his eyes, re-capping the vial and tucking it into his coat, "perhaps we share whatever factor prevented Genesis's shoulder from healing properly. Hm. Cloud was —must have been —in a lab recently. It is possible he uncovered something there while he was escaping. Information Shinra did not deign to share with us. Perhaps he found this 'Healer' he mentioned. There are numerous possibilities."
"Then how did Zack know?" Genesis asked, exasperated. The more information they got, the more questions seemed to arise.
"How did I know what?"
The three Firsts startled a little, so caught up in their speculation that they'd missed Zack emerging from the bathroom with Cloud in his arms. The blond was still out cold, enveloped in one of Genesis's luxurious towels so that only his face and lower legs were visible. Free of grime and with some color back in his face, he finally looked his age.
Zack arched a brow, head cocking to the side a little, like a puppy. "Well?"
Angeal took the lead. "Zack, did you know —hm. Did you ask Cloud to do you a favor in regards to us?"
"Uh," said Zack, confusion deepening, "Geal, I thought he was dead until today. How could I have asked him for a favor?"
The Firsts looked between themselves. "Did you know I was injured recently?" Genesis asked, looked at Zack carefully.
This time, recognition flashed in his eyes. He looked down, hesitating, then smiled sheepishly. "I uh...yessir, I did. I didn't tell anyone though, I swear."
Genesis was genuinely taken aback by his answer. How the hell had these two whelps figured it out when neither Angeal nor Sephiroth, his best friends, had? "How?" he asked, not bothering to disguise his astonishment.
"Well, it's uh —" his shoulder rolled up like he wanted to raise a hand, except his arms were busy holding his friend. "It's...kind of obvious, I guess? You were uh...babying it. Just a little. And your pauldron on that side was a little offset, probably because you had a bandage there?"
He knew where the injury had been. That was proof enough, but Genesis's eyes narrowed a little in suspicion. His knowledge of Zack was secondhand through Angeal, but something still felt off about the teenager's answer. Was he lying? Hiding something?
Zack coughed a little. "Anyway," he said, "I'm gonna take Cloud back to my apartment."
"Absolutely not," Genesis said immediately. There was no way in hell that anyone was removing the blond from his sight until he got answers. He didn't even care if President Shinra himself asked, on this he was not going to budge an inch.
"Ah, he needs clothes though, sir," Zack argued, frowning at him. "I already asked Ku —a friend to get the stuff that was gonna be mailed back to his Ma."
"No," Genesis said, crossing his arms. "Go get them and come back, if you must. Otherwise I'll lend him some of my own clothing."
Zack narrowed his eyes, holding Cloud protectively to his chest, as if he suspected some nefarious scheme to steal the boy away. Which, admittedly, he wasn't entirely wrong about. "I'd rather just take him somewhere he'd actually feel safe waking up, sir."
Angeal quickly stepped in. "Alright, alright, both of you simmer down," he said. "Zack, I'll go get his stuff from your apartment and you can stay with him here, okay? It would be better if you didn't walk the halls carrying him like that anyway."
"...okay," Zack agreed at length, suspicion lingering in the set of his mouth. Genesis frowned. He thought Zack trusted Angeal implicitly. Was his friend just mistaken about his student, or...was Cloud just that important to Zack? Important enough to make him wary of everyone?
"Great," Angeal sighed, running a hand through his hair. He glanced once at the still-unconscious blond. "I'll be right back then." He leveled all three of them (four, if you counted Cloud) with a stern look. "No fighting while I'm gone, got it?"
"Yes, mother," Genesis said with a vicious eye roll as Zack and Seph nodded agreeably. Pansies. It was almost —almost — enough to make him pick a fight on principle, but he decided to restrain himself.
After all, it would be much more enlightening to stir up some strife (ha!) once Cloud was awake to join in, now wouldn't it?
