Something was off.
Hojo could feel it —he could smell it in the air, like the first whiff of burning plastic in a failing centrifuge, or rotting flesh on a dying specimen. Something was off.
Tapping his lips, he mentally reviewed all of his ongoing projects. Nothing stood out. There were strange reports about Specimen S's behavior today, but that seemed to be spurred mostly by the buffoonery of his inferior companions. Word hadn't come in yet from Hojo's Restrictors about stealing that girl for Deepground, but it was a delicate bit of sabotage and there was time yet. None of his remote J sample repositories or cell culture banks were returning imperfect readings.
So what was off?
"You," he said, snapping his fingers at one of the underlings scurrying around his lab. Dr. R-something or other, he thought. She jolted, launching the clipboard in her hands out of shock, but her voice was admirably even when she spoke and she caught the clipboard before it got very far.
Good. Hojo would have added her to his specimen list if she'd actually dropped it.
"Yes, Professor?"
"Get me all the security footage involving Sephiroth from today," he said. "I want to review it myself."
"Yes, Professor," she said, and hurried off to get it.
Hojo sat back in his chair and crossed one ankle over his knee, considering. He would sniff out whatever was bothering him, one way or another. If it was with Subject S, he would call the boy in for an examination. If not…there were other agents he had at his disposal.
Nothing —and no one —could hide from him for very long.
The SOLDIERs reconvened in (read: Angeal dragged them all to) Sephiroth's apartment. Zack was the hardest to convince, but once Angeal told him about Cloud's disappearing act, he visibly wilted and let Angeal herd him along, though he typed furiously on his PHS the entire way, guarding the screen jealously to make sure none of the SOLDIERs could see it.
Angeal's concern climbed one notch higher, then two, when he noticed the positively predatory gleam in Gen's eye as he watched Zack. He grimaced. So much for keeping his apprentice clear of the Genesis Mystery Theater.
"Okay," Angeal said forcefully as soon as the door to the apartment had shut, "enough is enough. Zack, what exactly possessed you to put your friend in a duffle bag and try to smuggle him down to your rooms?"
Zack looked away and crossed his arms, standing near the door even while Genesis and Sephiroth took seats on the couch.
"Zackary Fair," Angeal snapped, patience wearing dangerously thin. "This is serious! Not only is your friend not well, but there could have been serious repercussions if he'd been further injured during your little stunt, and not just for you! As Genesis's —" he ground his teeth, glaring at the man in question "—apprentice, he comes under an extra layer of scrutiny and —"
He finally had Zack's attention, as his head whipped up and he looked wide-eyed at his mentor, realization dawning. "His apprentice—"
"Yes, my apprentice, what about him?" Genesis interrupted, smug and possessive as he watched Zack's every move. What does that knowledge inspire in you, hmm? his eyes seemed to ask.
The answer was homicide. "YOU!" Zack said, and went for the kill.
"Will you both stop!" Angeal snarled, just barely saving Genesis from his second grapple that day by catching Zack in a hold under his arms. Genesis would have deserved it if he'd let go, but they had more immediate problems. "Now is not the time, we have an unstable SOLDIER gone AWOL!"
"He's going to corrupt my Cloudy!" Zack hollered in outrage, squirming like a tantruming toddler in Angeal's grip.
"I do believe he's now legally my 'Cloudy,'" Genesis said smugly.
Angeal toed off one boot just enough that when he kicked his leg, the boot went sailing across the room and straight into Genesis's face. His friend (yes, his friend, they were still friends, even if Angeal had to remind himself of that) went "ACK —!" as his head snapped to the side.
Zack was too busy steaming with rage in Angeal's grip to be placated, making incoherent, high-pitched…threats? Angeal thought they might have been intended as threats.
For once in his life, Sephiroth looked openly entertained.
"AnGEAL —" Genesis started, but Angeal was having none of it.
"So help me I will shred your first edition," he threatened, and Genesis gasped, one hand going to his chest.
"That seems a touch harsh," Sephiroth said mildly, hiding the upturned corners of his lips behind his glove. "What did the book do to deserve such a fate?"
"It consorted with an idiot who doesn't know when to shut up, that's what," Angeal ground out.
Zack, still thoroughly pinned, finally calmed down enough to go limp, breathing hard. The heat of his glare remained scorching. Genesis scowled back at him, rubbing at the boot marks on his cheek.
"Are we all prepared to act like adults now?" Angeal asked, sweeping his own glare around the room. Sephiroth just raised his hands placatingly, but Zack nodded and Genesis rolled his eyes viciously, which was as close to an agreement as they were going to get. He exhaled hard and finally let Zack go. "Good."
Stiffly, Zack sat as far away from everyone as he could manage. Angeal opted for the tactical position and sat down directly between his student and Genesis, in case of another murder attempt. "Okay. Thank you. Zack, please just tell me why you were smuggling Cloud out, alright? I thought we agreed that he would be safest in my apartment. I want to know what you were thinking."
Zack looked down at his hands. One of them was still holding the PHS. "I…"
Genesis opened his mouth when the silence stretched. Angeal reached pointedly for the pocket where he knew Gen kept a copy of LOVELESS at all times. Genesis leaned back and shut his mouth with a sharp click.
"I said I would make sure he stayed out of Science. Do you not trust me to keep my word, Zack?" Angeal asked, unable to stop the subtle notes of confusion and hurt from entering his voice.
Zack looked up at him. "Would you?" he asked quietly, and with a deadly seriousness that Angeal just couldn't understand. Where had it come from? "If Hojo and the President demanded that you hand Cloud over to Science, would you?"
And this was all…starting to border dangerously on treason. But why? Sure, Shinra might have been behind this —Gen and Seph both seemed to think it was a possibility, at least —but why would Zack assume that? He was an eternal optimist. He loved SOLDIER, and Shinra by extension. And anyway, Angeal and Genesis (and maybe Seph) owed Cloud huge personal debts, if Genesis was to be believed about the severity of his mystery disease. Of course he wouldn't just toss the kid aside.
"Of course not, Zack," he said, and meant it. "I would never just hand Cloud over. But it won't come to that, as long as we're all smart about this. That's exactly the reason I was trying to keep Cloud under the radar." Unlike somebody I know, he thought, tossing a glare at Genesis.
And Zack…believed him. Angeal watched as a light seemed to bloom in his eyes, some unknown hope rekindled for reasons Angeal couldn't even begin to understand. He didn't know how he'd lost his student's faith—he hadn't even realized he had —but the sight of it returning made his throat feel a little tighter than it had any right to be.
"I would burn Shinra to the ground for much less than all this," Genesis said casually, which kind of killed the mood.
"I check my apartment for bugs regularly," Sephiroth said, "but nonetheless I would advise you to be a bit less cavalier about admitting such things."
"Pish," Genesis responded, waving a hand. "As if they don't know that about me already."
Angeal sighed and put his head in his hands.
Materia, Cloud thought happily, trotting down the corridor on his bare feet, shedding dust as he went. Explosions plan, gonna explode all the bad stuff before it gets too bad…
He stopped in front of Rhapsodos's door, triple checking with Zack, and him-as-Zack, and Tifa to make sure they were in the right place. They all agreed, so he popped the cover off the locking mechanism, then pried the panel next to it off the wall and set about getting his hands deep into the guts of the electronics. After a few minutes of fiddling, the door beeped and unlocked.
You know the Turks are gonna see this eventually, right? him-as-Zack said.
Cloud waved a hand, replacing the panel and the lock cover before he slipped inside and shut the door behind him. There's no way Explosions Plan is gonna happen without them seeing me anyway, so we're all going to get the hell out of dodge. Besides, we have to go do Operation Raccoon right after.
I don't know why you let Zack name it, him-as-Zack sighed, but then Cloud caught sight of Rhapsodos's materia cabinet and all other thoughts went right out the window. Had he been slightly more cogent, he would have noticed that he was drooling a little bit.
"Oooh, small me, you're a genius," he said, prowling up to it hungrily. Rows of materia glinted from behind reinforced panels of glass. He examined the lock. "Yuf don't fail me now," he muttered, and pulled a stiff wire out from the wild tangles of his hair to set about picking it.
"HA!" he crowed when it popped open. He kissed the wire, offered up a thank you to Yuffie, and put it back into his hair.
If that lock had been even a little bit higher quality that wouldn't have worked, Tifa-voice warned him.
"I know," he muttered in response, pawing quickly through the orbs to find what he needed. "But —shit! None of the summons we need are here!" There was only a Shiva and an Ifrit. He needed a Bahamut at minimum. Phoenix and Hades would be ideal, but he wasn't sure if anyone in Shinra had those at the moment. Things were still pretty damn swimmy in his memory for big events, never mind little details. And Zack had already defied his expectations —who knew what else he'd forgotten?
I bet Genesis has Bahamut on him, Zack speculated.
Cloud took his pick of the materia, slipping them into his pockets, before he locked the cabinet back up. Let's go get it off him, then. Sneakily! We can do it, Yuffie and Vincent knew what they were teaching me.
And if it doesn't work we can just punch him for it, him-as-Zack voice reasoned, and that sounded like a pretty solid plan to Cloud.
Let's mosey!
"I want to get Cloud far away where no one can touch him," Zack said bluntly. "He helped you out, so you should help him out too." He glared at Genesis.
Angeal kicked Genesis before he could open his mouth and inevitably make things worse. "Zack, it's not that simple. Even before Cloud was put back in the system as a SOLDIER, it wouldn't have been easy to get him somewhere unnoticed. Shinra is everywhere. He would have been noticed eventually."
"There are some places," Zack said, but he looked down at the space between his shoes and misery clouded his expression. "I would have figured it out."
"We are getting ahead of ourselves," Sephiroth interjected. "We first need to find Strife before we can do anything to help him. Preferably, we should find him before Hojo takes notice."
Zack's mouth twisted with disgust. "I would join Genesis in burning Shinra to the ground before I let that creep touch Cloud a —" He cut off abruptly.
Genesis looked keenly interested, and Sephiroth also sat up and took notice. Had Zack been about to say again?
Angeal snapped his fingers to get everyone's attention. "Focus," he said. There were too many questions, and not enough answers. As soon as they got sidetracked interrogating Zack, they would fall into a spiral of 'four new questions for every anwer' and never get out. "We need to find Cloud."
"I can easily access most of the security cameras around the Tower," Sephiroth said.
"You all find him," Genesis said, standing. "And I will gather a few things to make sure he stays found."
"Gen —" Angeal started
"The hell do you mean by that?" Zack demanded, hackles rising.
Genesis waved a hand even as he moved to leave. "Relax, puppy," he cooed. "Just materia. My Seal and my Time, perhaps. Nothing that would harm my apprentice."
He stopped abruptly in front of the door and made an inquisitive sound. "Mmh?" He looked over his shoulder at the three of them, a very strange look in his eyes as a smirk slowly pulled up the corner of his lips. "Ah. Or, perhaps —" he said, projecting his voice.
He yanked open the door and lept to the side. A short blond blur streaked in through the door, yelling in surprise when he missed his target and went tumbling ass-over-teakettle onto Sephiroth's carpet. The very AWOL teenager they'd been talking about finding landed on his back and blinked up at Genesis like a startled cat.
"—I needn't after all!" Genesis finished, slamming and locking the door. He even went so far as to block it with his body. "There you are, apprentice. I have so many questions for you." He grinned, predatory. "And this time you're going to answer."
