A Flower's Touch - Chapter 3 - Cards on the Table

Aerith could admit, she had underestimated Veld. She hadn't even had a week. Five days, five days and he had retrieved both Felicia and Vincent and gotten back here. Felicia was somewhere else in the Turk area, and Vincent... well... he was sitting next to Veld in a conference room. Aerith was rather surprised Veld had been able to stir him out of his rut.

Veld, Tseng, and Vincent were the only three Turks present, no one else was there. Shotgun and Cisseni had led her to the room and left, leaving the three Turks staring silently at Aerith.

Aerith didn't... really know how to interact with Vincent at the moment. It was so strange, to see her old comrade staring at her with curiosity, not a hint of recognition. It was kind of painful actually. They hadn't known eachother long in the original timeline, but... the mere fact that he didn't know her anymore hurt. It would be even worse if she ever met up with any of the others again...

She smiled weakly at Vincent. "It's good to see you up and out of your coffin."

Vincent half-raised an eyebrow. "Chaos and Veld didn't give me much of a choice."

Aerith was caught offguard. "Chaos? He wanted you to help?!"

Vincent studied her for a moment. "You know of it?"

"He's a special WEAPON of the planet," said Aerith, deciding not to disclose the purpose of Chaos and Omega as of the moment.

Vincent nodded slowly. "He told me that the 'Fail-Safe', you, desired my aid and that I would have to obey."

Veld slapped a hand on his shoulder, smiling warmly at him. "And I did a bit of guilt tripping over Sephiroth based on what you told me, Ancient."

Aerith blinked a few times, studying Veld. She hadn't seen him to many times in the original timeline, but, she never recalled seeing him seem so happy. That pleasant and content look on the Turk Director's face, if her changes had already changed a man like him to such a degree by returning his daughter and partner, well, she felt a bit more confident in what she was doing. It... pleased her to be off to such a start.

Vincent slowly nodded. "If I can spare Lurecia's son from being enslaved, I will. It's the least I can do to atone."

Tseng cleared his throat. "Aerith, these visions you saw, and knowledge you gained, give us a very clear advantage over what is to come. We need all of the information you can give in order to plan our next moves."

Aerith only briefly mulled over her choices before deciding to follow through with her plans. "Hollander."

Veld raised an eyebrow. "What about him?"

She had long since decided that she was going to be as truthful as possible. Lies, deception, they were what had ended them all up in this mess to begin with. She would not repeat the mistakes of the past.

"Ignoring Jenova and Hojo, the true crisis begins with him and Genesis," said Aerith.

Veld frowned intently. "Genesis Rhapsodos... he is a dangerous man to cross, we'll have to play it carefully in taking him out and..."

Aerith shook her head violently. "No no no! You don't have to kill him! We have to save him!"

Veld gave her a confused look. "Explain."

"In less than a year, he's going to get injured in a training accident with Angeal Hewely and Sephiroth. Because of the experimentation on him when he was an embryo, the wound will not heal and his body and mind will begin to degrade. Hollander will use Genesis's desperation and instability to influence him to leave Shinra do horrible things," said Aerith.

"This in turn will eventually lead to Angeal leaving Shinra as well and dying," said Aerith, "And betrayed by, and losing his friends on top of the lies Hojo planted for Sephiroth, he will be vulnerable to Jenova's control."

Vincent cleared his throat. "Vulnerable? I was under the impression Jenova's control did not require a vulnerability."

Aerith shook her head. "Those with extremely strong wills can resist her, but, Sephiroth's will and mind were just... in tatters."

Veld pondered it for a moment before nodding. "I browsed briefly through the library in the basement of the Shinra Mansion before burning it. I know damn well some of the things I read were lies."

Aerith nodded. "Yes."

"So, to clarify, Genesis and Angeal die, and Sephiroth is controlled in the visions you saw?" asked Tseng.

Aerith nodded. "Yes."

"Without those two, there's no one that could come close to stoping Sephiroth. That alone demands we attempt to preserve their lives just incase we fail with the end goal of keeping Sephiroth's will free," mused Tseng.

Aerith was tempted, very tempted, to refute that. Cloud could handle him, well, maybe. Without Hojo's experimentation on him, she didn't know if he would be strong enough. Regardless of the power it would give him, she would never let him be hurt like that again. Regardless, she wanted Cloud and the other's identities kept quiet for the time being.

"Hollander's threat can be dealt with by assassination, the degradation of Commander Rhapsodos however, how do we deal with that?" asked Veld.

Aerith went silent for a moment, not exactly thrilled by being one incuring another murder. But... Hollander was almost as bad as Hojo... maybe... maybe another death was okay...

She blinked and refocused. "I... may have a personal solution to that."

"May?" asked Veld.

Aerith bit her lip nervously before slowly pulling Holy out of her pocket and placing it on the table. "This..."

Vincent suddenly shuddered, a gold light entering his eye. "Little ancient, you play your hand too freely."

Veld flinched a bit, staring at Vincent warily. "I don't think I'm ever going to get used to your demons Vincent."

Vincent-Chaos eyed him briefly, an amused look on his face, before returning a critical eye to Aerith.

Aerith pursed her lips. "I know what I'm doing."

Vincent-Chaos studied her briefly before shrugging. "Your choice little ancient, if you fail, you won't get a second chance."

With that, Chaos relinquished his control and Vincent viciously shook his head. "..."

Veld put a hesitant hand on his shoulder. "You okay?"

Vincent merely huffed. "Fine."

Tseng studied Holy. "I've never seen a materia like that before."

"This is Holy, its a one of a kind special materia from the planet itself," explained Aerith, "It can only be used by an Ancient."

"What are its capabilities?" asked Tseng, interest clear in his eyes.

"Aside from counteracting the black materia? I don't really know," said Aerith.

"Black materia?" asked Veld warily.

"Another threat we're going to deal with later when we get a chance," said Aerith gravely, "That materia is too dangerous to leave around, but, it's not an immediate threat. We'll retrieve it when we get a chance and return it to the planet so Jenova can't get her hands on it."

Veld nodded slowly. "Very well, but, for curiosity's sake, what can the Black Materia do?"

She smiled nervously. "Summon a meteor to impact the planet."

The eyes of the three Turk's widened immensely.

"How is that not an immediate threat?!" demanded Veld.

"Because Jenova is not active yet with a host to go retrieve it," said Aerith.

Veld's gaze was dark. "Fine, but it will be dealt with, soon, with a high priority."

"Your going to need a robot to safely retrieve it, I suggest getting Reeve Tuesti's help. His robot was how it was retrieved in the future," she explained, "A little incentive to get him started on that project early might be a good idea."

Tseng nodded. "Noted."

Vincent cleared his throat. "Back on track, Holy."

Aerith closed her eyes and sighed. "I... don't know if Holy can be used to save Genesis or not, but, I have no other options to choose from. Either it works, or it doesn't."

"So, the future hinges on that one act?" asked Tseng with concern.

Aerith hesitated. "I... don't know. I don't really have any ideas if Genesis dies. Maybe we could salvage the situation, but, I don't know. It would certainly make things a lot more difficult."

"Continue speaking under the assumption it works, if it doesn't, we'll come up with a backup plan," ordered Veld.

"Well, with Felicia here, AVALANCHE won't happen...," began Aerith.

She blinked a few times. "You did kill Fuhito, right?"

Veld nodded. "No questions asked."

Aerith bowed her head and sighed. "It... was for the best I suppose. He's just as bad as Hollander and Hojo."

She frowned. "That reminds me, I need to see your daughter as soon as possible and get the materia out of her hand."

Veld nodded once more. "She's fine as of the moment. After this meeting you will do so."

Aerith took in a breath before letting it out. "As I was saying. AVALANCHE isn't going to happen. So a lot of things are already going to change."

Veld nodded. "Of course."

"If Genesis doesn't desert, and AVALANCHE doesn't form, then, I don't think there will be any major problems up until the Nibelheim Incident, if it even happens as it did in the vision," said Aerith.

Vincent frowned intently. "The way you say it, I take the 'Nibelheim Incident' is where Sephiroth is controlled?"

Aerith nodded. "It's where everything that can go wrong, did go wrong. Jenova was in the reactor..."

Veld held up a hand and pulled out a phone, dialing a number. "Reno, get Rude and get a chopper out to the Nibelheim reactor, bring camera's to set up. Search the reactor for a mutated blue 'woman'. If you find it, call me. If not, set up the cameras inside the reactor and get out. You are not to be detected. Understood?"

He waited for confirmation before flipping the phone closed. "I assume confirming that Jenova is not currently there is important."

Aerith nodded. "Yeah, its a good idea. I'm not certain if Jenova would be there now, or if she was moved there."

"How far in the future was the Nibelhiem Incident?" asked Tseng.

"Roughly three years," answered Aerith.

Tseng tilted his head in thought. "So then, assuming Genesis is saved, we will have three years to prepare for this 'incident', if it happens at all in any form."

Aerith nodded. "If we can deal with Hojo and Jenova, it won't even come up. I know Hojo needs to be stopped, but..."

She gave Vincent a pointed look. "It has to wait until we find Jenova. We need him to track her down."

Vincent raised an eyebrow. "Would it not be safer to simply kill him? No one will activly be trying to weaken Sephiroth that way."

Aerith hesitated. "Well... maybe... but... if Jenova is just laying around somewhere and is stumbled across, things could get messy, and Gaia forbid if Sephiroth stumbles across her unprepared, or if Genesis or Angeal do, they too could be controlled."

"There is danger in either route," said Tseng, "But, Hojo will most likely not act until he feels he is ready. Losing the Shinra Mansion library, and Sephiroth's friends remaining alive, will make his plans more difficult to go through with. This in turn may extend the timetable on the 'Nibelheim Incident' or any similar event."

Aerith nodded before hesitated. "There... might be another way to also help prevent Sephiroth and the other's being controlled..."

"How?" demanded Veld.

Aerith met his gaze dead on. "By telling them the absolute truth about Project Jenova, Project G, and Project S in a controlled environment."

Veld stared at her in disbelief. "Are you insane?!"

Aerith frowned at him. "It's the lies about both G and S that led to this whole thing happening to begin with! They will have time to adapt and adjust to the truth that will leave them stronger for it. Those three have been lied to their entire lives, they deserve the truth!"

Veld looked... very uncertain. "..."

"We will think on it," interrupted Tseng, "For the time being, is there any other countermeasure we can come up with or idea you have?"

Aerith hesitated, before finally making a decision on SOLDIER. "There... is something that we can try, to weaken Jenova's influence and create a backup plan."

"Such as...?" asked Veld.

"Jenova cells are being used in the SOLDIER process. Each one of them is a potential host for Jenova, each one of them carry her cells to be used," said Aerith, "That has to stop."

"The President wont give up the SOLDIER process," warned Veld.

Aerith nodded. "He will if we give him a safer way."

"A safer way?" questioned Tseng.

Aerith faltered for a moment. "If... I... well..."

She closed her eyes. "My cells. If they used my cells, the cells of a real ancient, instead of Jenova's, the process will still work. I asked the planet to confirm it and it did."

Veld frowned. "You do realize that will involve you returning to the labs at some point."

"I know," said Aerith weakly.

"Hmm, we'll need to get a volunteer to serve as proof that the process works," said Tseng.

"Me," said Aerith quietly.

Tseng looked at her sharply. "You can't be serious."

Aerith frowned at him, it had taken a lot of nerve on her part to even go through with offering the idea, she was not going to back down now. "It has to be me. I have to become a SOLDIER. If all else fails, I need to be as strong as I possibly can in order to fight Jenova, and even Sephiroth if need be. I'm the only one with the knowledge, ability, and the power to commune with and get the aid of the planet. An ancient, even a half-ancient like me, infused with Mako, is something I don't think has ever existed before. I will be the final fallback fail-safe if all else fails."

Tseng looked unsettled, staring at her in bewilderment. To be frank, Aerith secretly shared in that stare. She could hardly believe she had gotten herself to go through with and say that. It was out there now, and there was no taking it back.

She smiled faintly. "I won't be alone though. Ancient infused SOLDIERs, and even the WEAPONS of the planet can be used if need be. I don't think the Planet will hesitate to call them out if need be, or if I ask it to."

"What about the current Jenova infused SOLDIERs?" asked Veld.

Aerith blinked a few times, contemplating it. "Hmm."

How was she going to handle that?

PURGE.

Aerith nearly jumped at that. She wasn't even praying and the planet was talking to her! Wait, the planet wanted her to KILL them?! No way! That would kill Zack too!

She frowned and thought back, "DON'T WANT TO KILL THEM."

PURGE. NOT KILL. INFUSE CELLS. REPLACE CALAMITY.

Aerith was surprised. "My cells will overpower Jenova's?"

TOUCHED BY THE AVATAR. FAIL-SAFE. CANNOT BE TAINTED.

Aerith was a bit lost on that translation as to the why, but, she understood then that she was immune to Jenova's cells, but...

"Can my cells purge Genesis, Angeal and Sephiroth?" she asked the Planet.

CALAMITY'S CHILDREN. TO TAINTED. PREVENT CONTROL. NO OTHER SOLUTION.

Aerith frowned at that.

SAVE FOR AVATAR'S CHOSEN. HOLY. PURIFY AS INTENDED.

Aerith nodded slowly. The Planet was giving her the go ahead to use Holy on Genesis. She knew his 'experimentation' as part of Project G wasn't the same as Angeal's. He wasn't as... directly infused as Angeal was, and Sephiroth by extension.

Aerith pondered it briefly. "Hmm..."

"Aerith?" came a voice.

Aerith blanked for a moment before glancing up at Tseng. "Huh?"

"You were... communing?" asked Tseng.

Aerith smiled. "The Planet told me my cells can be injected to replace Jenova's in everyone except for Sephiroth, Angeal, and Genesis."

Vincent crossed his arms. "That will require a lot of blood to be withdrawn from you overtime, thus many visits to the lab."

Aerith gave him a warm smile. "I guess you'll have to be my bodyguard then. I don't think Hojo would try anything with you and Chaos there."

Vincent frowned. "..."

Veld rubbed his chin. "If all the SOLDIERs lose their Jenova cells save those three, and those three remain in control of themselves, Jenova's threat will be heavily neutralized."

Aerith frowned. "To a degree, but..."

She closed her eyes. "It runs the risk of awakening Jenova. She's... dormant I guess, right now. But, if were actively struggling against her, if she feels her grasp slipping to fast, she may become active. Do not ever underestimate Jenova herself. She CAN become her own threat. She was the one directly responsible for the fall of the Cetra."

It was definitely true. Cloud and the others had fought Jenova in her true form in the Northern Crater after all. Though, she had been subjugated by an insane Sephiroth's will.

"So then, we will do it slowly, over time," suggested Veld.

Aerith nodded. "It's a good idea."

"So, aside from SOLDIERs and Jenova herself, there's no other sources of her cells anywhere?" asked Veld.

Aerith hesitated before glancing at Vincent. "Well... I mean... Hojo may have hidden caches somewhere, but, Lucrecia is the highest concentration of them outside of SOLDIER that I know of."

Vincent sucked in a breath. "Lucecia lives?!"

Aerith nodded. "You and her are more alike than you think. She's intentionally entrapped herself in a Mako crystal in a cavern on the western continent as her own atonement and punishment. She..."

Her eyes went wide as an idea struck her. "Oh! OH!"

She grew excited. "Vincent! You have to convince her to come out of her imprisonment! In the future, Sephiroth is lied to and convinced that Jenova is his mother, that helps to weaken him. If he meets his real mother then he won't be as easily controlled or deceived!"

Vincent stood up. "I will not make Lucrecia wait. She never had a chance to even hold her son. I'm going, now. Where exactly is this cavern?"

"It's behind a waterfall in a circle of mountains that kind of looks like a crater. There's a lake in front of the cave. Its dead center of the western continent," explained Aerith.

Vincent left the room without further word.

Aerith smiled, feeling giddy. "She'd be the perfect one to tell Sephiroth the truth too!"

Tseng frowned. "He may not react well to it."

Veld nodded. "Especially since his mother was a willing participant."

"Up to a certain point," argued Aerith.

Veld sighed. "I suppose it'll have to do. We will wait for Vincent to return with Doctor Crescent before moving forward. In the meantime, I believe you have an appointment helping my daughter."

Aerith nodded. "Take me to her."

Veld and Tseng rose to their feet, making for the entrance of the room. Aerith did the same, feeling so excited and happy that she wondered if she had become a little kid moving in with her adoptive mother for the first time again. The plans they had in place, the ideas, especially the last one, had given her such hope and confidence for the future. If everything went smoothly, she felt sure that everything would turn out alright.

She prayed it would... oh how she prayed it would...

Author's Notes:

Self-explanatory chapter.

The Lucrecia's return thing actually wasn't even planned. It just hit me to do it as Tseng was asking about more sources of Jenova cells. Tee hee, on the spot inspiration ftw!