"I was brought accidentally?" Aerith asked.
Cloud nodded. "She said you followed me and when she noticed, she put you to sleep. There was some talk of damage if she didn't."
Aerith nodded. "Perhaps that's why I don't remember following you. If it was damaging, I might have destroyed some of my memories." She probably would never have said something like that if Elmyra was likely to overhear them. As it was, the woman had gone out for groceries.
Scowling at the still full teacup on the table in front of him, Cloud said, "I think Minerva knocked me unconscious before she ever grabbed me. I was heading downstairs for breakfast before I woke up in this time."
"If she was changing you like you've described," Aerith said, "I think she would have needed you asleep."
"What of Genesis?" Vincent asked.
Cloud turned his attention to the gunman. "I don't think Minerva told him much and he's certainly not from the future."
Nanaki, from his customary place under the stairs, asked, "If Genesis is destined to learn a valuable lesson, and had, in your future, why did Minerva not simply pull him from the future alongside you?"
"That," Cloud started, "is a very good question."
Cloud had absolutely no idea. Why hadn't Minerva simply pulled back his entire team plus WRO members and allies like Bugenhagen? Sure the old man was dead in the future and even if Aerith had forced her way back, Minerva certainly hadn't forbidden the trek so other dead people could have been brought back as well. If anyone deserved to be brought back, it was Zack and Aerith. Perhaps Zack hadn't had the same kind of power as Aerith, and he hadn't managed to follow because he wasn't Cetra.
"Maybe," Aerith said, "Minerva needed to conserve her energy to travel backward and to change in you whatever she changed." The young woman smiled. "It's not every day a person turns into Enemy Skill materia."
"Or has glowing hair," Nanaki offered.
Vincent murmured, "Or has chocobo gold colored skin."
Cloud groaned and let his head fall back to stare at the ceiling. Even Vincent was getting in on the mocking. It was only a matter of time before Tseng shook off his confusion and started harassing Cloud, too.
"Can we ignore that for the time being?" Cloud asked. "I don't know what she did to turn me weird colors and I don't know how to do it myself."
"Bioluminescent fungus," Vincent offered quietly. The gunman's expression remained utterly devoid of emotion, but it didn't take a genius to realize the man was messing with Cloud.
Cloud glared at him. Aerith's expression looked very smooth, and Nanaki promptly closed his eyes and laid down, pretending to immediately drop off to sleep.
"Strife," Tseng said, tone actually serious, shifting the atmosphere. "Do you know what Commander Rhapsodos is going to do from here?"
Cloud knew what he hoped Genesis would do. "No. I never actually met him before the caverns." He shrugged. "At least not when I wasn't in a mako addiction stupor. I've got a vague memory of a thought Zack had about not letting letting Genesis eat my hair, but it doesn't make much sense to me." Cloud shook his head. "I just have stories from the Turks and a few snippets of memory from Zack. I know he had something to do with Deepground, but I never knew if it was before or after his degradation was cured."
Tseng frowned. "Did you lie to Commander Rhapsodos then? You know how to cure his degradation?"
"Minerva did it in my future," Cloud said with a scowl. "I don't know what she did and no one else ever told me. Zack might have known, but it never came up in any vision he gave me. Sketchy reports have him showing up after Omega was defeated, but nothing terribly reliable, and no one seems to think he did anything but dramatically stare at things and make off with Weiss' body."
"And this time," Aerith said cheerfully, "Minerva has set Cloud the task of healing Genesis." Turning her warm smile on Cloud again, she said, "Perhaps she's decided to take you on as an apprentice."
Mildly uncomfortable with the thought, Cloud waved a hand in Vincent's direction. "Vincent would be better for that. He has Chaos."
Vincent's expression darkened, and Aerith laid a hand on Cloud's arm. "Chaos is destruction, Cloud," she said softly. "You know that. Minerva doesn't need destruction for this. She needs a catalyst and she says that catalyst is you."
"What if I don't want the responsibility?" Cloud asked, swishing the dregs in the bottom of his cup around. "What if I'd rather let someone else save the world for a change?"
Aggravatingly enough, Aerith's smile widened into a grin. "Then you're doing a horrible job at working to get what you want."
"Are you sure this is a good idea," Nanaki murmured. "That was the fifth man to try buying me from you in the last twenty minutes."
"We'll just keep telling them no," Cloud said, voice equally low.
Cloud subtly directed Vincent and Nanaki to turn with him down an alley to cut to the next street to avoid another Soldier patrol. It seemed that even with the depleted Turk and army number from the Junon raid, Shinra Company still hadn't let up on the heightened patrols in the slums.
The three of them browsed the open-air stalls in Wall Market. Cloud couldn't very well start asking around about rival terrorist cells, but at least the one he wanted to attract would recognize him. Avalanche probably had spies all over Midgar as they liked to ambush lone Soldiers and troopers.
"Anything yet?" Vincent asked.
"Spies, probably Deepground, but no one else," Cloud said. "Nanaki?" he prompted.
"If it's Deepground," Nanaki said, "I can't separate their scent from the rest of the mako in Midgar air."
"But we have passed spies," Vincent said calmly.
Vincent had recognized careful watchers in the midday crowds and shared his observations. By the time the three of them made a full circuit of Wall Market, the so-called spies were nowhere to be seen. Cloud had hoped that meant they would soon be approached, but a half hour later, still nothing but the random outcropping of men trying to buy Nanaki as a pet.
"Do you think they're trying to get everyone to buy Nanaki?" Cloud asked.
"Possibly," Vincent said. Nanaki didn't offer his opinion on the matter.
Three avoided patrols later, as they were cutting through a short lane between two market streets, two men and a woman blocked the path leading to the next street. Cloud didn't have to glance back to know three more people blocked their return path.
"Our boss would like to speak with you," one of the men in front of them said.
Cloud paid careful attention to the six people around them, taking note of their edginess. They wouldn't be that tense if they had more people waiting in the background. They were all in civilian clothes, but Cloud easily spied the outline of guns beneath their jackets.
"Who's your boss?" Cloud asked bluntly.
"Introductions on arrival," the Avalanche member said flatly.
"Is there not some human tenet," Nanaki asked, "that claims one should never go unfamiliar places with strangers?"
The six Avalanche members shifted, hands moving for closer access to weapons. Cloud remained loose, head tilted slightly to one side as he eyed the ground in front of them. He noted that Vincent hadn't made to unholster his weapon so the gunman didn't feel particularly threatened either.
"Do you know who we are?" Cloud asked, eyes narrowing behind his goggles.
The six of them shuffled about again, this time more uncomfortably. One of the men in front of them edged back a couple inches.
"You three are the ones openly attacking Shinra Company," the one Avalanche operative said. "You've been blowing up reactors and raiding." He paused. "Our boss wants to get in touch with whoever you work for and figured a meeting with you three would be the fastest way to do that."
Perhaps the man thought Cloud more likely to follow orders if given more bits of truth.
Expression still blank, Cloud said, "I don't work for anyone."
The tension in the air grew palpable as hands actually touched weapons. The Avalanche members didn't draw them, they were still in too crowded of an area with people strolling idly past both entrances to the path between streets.
Cloud had left all his swords at Aerith's for that very reason. Too many people. Besides, short of Sephiroth or a Tsviet, nothing could take him down. He was too fast. And he still had most of his materia. Plus an extra spot where he no longer had to carry Enemy Skill.
The Avalanche lackey who'd been speaking said, "Fuhito wants to speak with you." Perhaps he thought the name of his leader would induce Cloud into compliance.
At least now Cloud knew which branch of Avalanche he was dealing with. He'd have gone if it was Elfé asking. He'd have considered going if it was Shears asking. But Cloud wasn't going peaceably anywhere near Fuhito. And it was too early to declare war on Avalanche. Besides, going to a meeting with Fuhito, into that madman's own territory, was as stupid as taking an invitation for tea from Hojo.
Cloud said, "Go ahead and tell Fuhito that if he wants to talk, he should come talk to me himself. I don't take invites from peons." Even Rufus would know better than to try and ask for an audience with anything less than a Turk or First Class Soldier. Cloud despised political maneuvering but still recognized when he wasn't being taken seriously.
The Avalanche fighters shuffled uneasily again, but didn't leave.
Cloud dropped his tone. "Do you really think the six of you can take out the three of us when we already took on the Turk department?"
The one who'd been speaking only hesitated a moment before saying, "We'll give Fuhito your message." Then all six Avalanche members disappeared among the rest of the milling market goers.
Cloud and the other two waited in the alley for several minutes, just to make sure the Avalanche fighters wouldn't return. Something stirred on the edges of Cloud's perception. It was familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. It was jagged like Genesis, but subtler, actually feeling more natural than anything with Jenova cells had ever felt. It still felt remarkably unnatural, but far less so than anything else he had ever felt.
Of course, he'd never been able to tell what his own genetic makeup felt like to others with Jenova cells. Even if he had known, it would probably be different now that Minerva claimed to have "purified" him.
"Signs of anyone else?" Vincent murmured.
"If I had to guess," Cloud started, "I'd say a Tsviet is observing."
"What makes you say that?" Nanaki asked. "I had not thought they received Genesis' cells until after his defeat at Zack's hands."
Cloud stared absently in Nanaki's direction, trying to get a better feel for the vague impression. "That's when they got Genesis' mutated Jenova mako after Minerva purified him. I'm reasonably sure they shared genetic traits with him before that." Cloud paused. "I can't even tell if this is Jenova cells I'm feeling, only that it's similar to Genesis."
"Could you be sensing them as an extension of him regardless of the Jenova factor?" Vincent asked.
Cloud nodded. It made more sense than him randomly being able to locate anyone with high levels of mako in them.
"If we stand here much longer," Nanaki said dryly, "we're sure to gather unwanted attention. You should run your next errand. We'll slip back to the house and retrieve your change of clothes."
"You're both coming afterward?" Cloud asked, curious as to why it wouldn't be only Vincent again.
Nanaki nodded. "The place you described seems to pose interesting navigational issues for a quadruped. I wish to try my skills."
Cloud shrugged and separated from the two. If Nanaki wanted to try navigating ladders and air ducts, Cloud wouldn't stop him. A smile flickered into place as he remembered the giant Guardian of the Planet crammed into a Shinra trooper uniform and wobbling around on only his hind legs. Nanaki had always been proud to so easily pass for a human, but Cloud thought the ship's crew thought themselves drunk or hallucinating and chose to ignore his friend.
A slight smirk ghosted across his face as the source of this new sensation followed him, seeming to leave Vincent and Nanaki alone. At least whoever was following Cloud didn't seem likely to interfere as they kept their distance, even following him up through the plate.
The shadowing was somewhat impressive all by itself as Cloud moved through places he knew he couldn't be seen in. It gave him the inkling that perhaps he might not be the only one who could sense the other's presence. But as his watcher wasn't making a move to interfere, Cloud decided to let whomever it was alone.
Above the plate, Cloud slipped around the outside of Shinra headquarters like a spector. If the lack of any response to his proximity was any indication, they no idea he was there. He kept his presence tightly leashed so as not to inadvertently alert Sephiroth of his arrival. He made his way to the stairwell entrance and went inside without a second thought. The place was just as easy to get into as it had been last time, and just as full of trash.
It didn't take long to sprint up the stairs as far as they would take him. Rather than tempt the elevators, he slipped out of the starwell on the fifty-ninth floor and immediately crawled into the ventilation system. Cloud was utterly filthy by the time he reached the sixty-sixth floor. He wasn't really all that worried about the dust on his clothes, but smears of dirt on his exposed arms and the smears on his cheeks would definitely need cleaning.
As soon as Cloud found the office, he waited in the air vent for his target. Mentally, he reasoned that he shouldn't refer to Rufus as his target. He only wanted to talk with the vice president after all.
Cloud waited a half hour before Rufus entered his own office, Reno in tow, Rude nowhere in sight. Rufus situated himself behind his desk and Reno sprawled across from him, slouching in the chair.
"I wasn't expectin' Sephiroth to make such…insightful comments about all that Nibelheim info. I was expectin' him to sorta flip his shit."
Seemingly unperturbed by Reno's speech, Rufus said, "I thought he would be more than willing to attempt CS Delivery's techniques."
Cloud frowned. Techniques?
"At least the general had a point," Reno said. "It'd mean big trouble if all our Soldier boys went nutso."
Cloud dearly wished to ask exactly what they were talking about, but didn't know if he could bring it up when he had his own conversation with Rufus.
"Enough of that," Rufus said dismissively. "I'll think of something else to bring CS Delivery under control. He's too effective to leave running around on his own. Any progress on that front?"
Reno shook his head. "Not really. We still can't find solid proof that Fair's buddy likes bombs. Veld says his Avalanche contacts haven't heard that they've caught that asshole either. That Fuhito freak is keen on the asshole though. Rumor is the freak wants to dissect 'im."
Rufus hummed thoughtfully. "I doubt CS Delivery is easy quarry. We've had our own issues. Perhaps the next time you run across him, you should attempt bribing him instead of kidnapping him."
Cloud scowled uselessly down through the vent grating. Reno had been trying to kidnap him. The Turk really sucked at it if that's what he was trying to do.
"It wouldn't look right, sir," Reno said. "That asshole won't even talk when I'm around. How am I supposed to negotiate?" The smirk that spread over Reno's face screamed deviousness. "Besides, that asshole is a pretty fun spar."
Cloud couldn't see Rufus' face with the angle, but he could practically hear the arched brow in the vice president's voice. "A fun spar?"
Reno shrugged. "Last time we met, I electrocuted him and he gave me a concussion."
"How delightfully masochistic of you," Rufus said dryly. "Any progress on acquiring more of Professor Hojo's data?"
Cloud listened with only half an ear as they rattled on about stealing Hojo's data. He was more perplexed by Reno's statements. It almost sounded like the Turk was trying to befriend him.
A rather dull hour passed before Reno finally left Rufus' office and the vice president set to reading through a packet on his desk. Cloud waited only fifteen minutes before quietly pulling a slip of paper from a pocket and dropping it through the air vent.
The little slip of fluttering immediately caught Rufus' attention. The vice president watched its path with narrowed eyes all the way down to the floor. Then he stared searchingly at the air vent, but no signs of realization changed his expression so he must not have seen Cloud in the dark of the duct.
Rufus slowly rose from his chair and approached the innocuous slip of paper with more caution than Cloud expected. The vice president delicately picked up the paper with his first two fingers. After reading it, Rufus stared searchingly at the vent, one brow quirked.
Still holding the slip of paper, Rufus strode casually over to his door and locked it. He then resumed his seat, laying the slip of paper on the desk.
"At the risk of sounding like I'm talking to myself," Rufus said quietly, "yes, I am available for a while. I don't have any pressing engagements for the next two hours."
With that, Cloud took a leap of faith and pulled the vent grating up into the air duct and wriggled his way out into the office. He dropped to the floor in a cloud of dust, leaving a frosting of gray on Rufus' pristine carpet.
"You should really look into getting those air ducts cleaned out," Cloud said, brushing more dust off his clothes to thicken the layer of it on the ground.
"And save myself the trouble of coming up with an excuse for why the ventilation system threw up all over my carpet?" Rufus asked in arch amusement. "I think not." He paused, eying Cloud speculatively. "To what do I owe the pleasure of this rather unexpected visit from the infamous CS Delivery? You haven't decided to take up assassination as a hobby have you?"
"If I was going to assassinate people, I wouldn't start with you." Cloud remained standing, deciding he would at least try to be polite and keep the dust in one spot.
"My dear father perhaps?" Rufus asked casually.
Cloud only stared at him. The effect was probably far less than it would have been if he wasn't wearing his goggles. One couldn't really be intimidated by an invisible piercing glance.
Rufus asked, "Have you forgotten, my dear terrorist, that you still haven't told me to what I owe the pleasure of your company? I can't very well conduct the conversation you want without knowing the topic."
Cloud sighed. "The eco terrorists aren't exactly wrong you know."
Rufus quirked one brow but didn't speak.
"The mako the reactors are pulling out of the ground is damaging the Lifestream."
A small smile crept onto the vice president's face. "You actually believe all that ritualistic folklore?"
Cloud would have laughed if it weren't such a serious matter. "That folklore is my fact, Rufus. Mako extraction is damaging. When was the last time you cracked open a geography book? The lands around Midgar didn't used to be desolate the way they are now."
"Climates change," Rufus countered. "That is also among geographical knowledge."
"Climates change over centuries, not decades. If the Shinra reactors do enough damage, the Planet will send the Weapons after you."
"More children's stories," Rufus said. "I expected something more from someone of your capabilities."
"There are seven Weapons in total," Cloud said, brushing off Rufus' insults. "Six can be released in an attempt to subdue threats to the Planet. The seventh is the last ditch effort to preserve the Lifestream when the Planet is a hairs breadth from destruction."
Rufus' expression took on some semblance of consideration.
Cloud said, "Sapphire Weapon is aquatic with a long tail for moving through the water. Ultimate Weapon looks like a Bahamut and has an equally nasty temperament. Diamond Weapon looks like a well-armored humanoid with a tasteless cape on, but its energy attacks are quite nasty. Ruby Weapon prefers deserts and only comes out after at least one other Weapon is defeated."
The consideration on Rufus' face was slowly morphing into somber seriousness. Perhaps the executive was actually beginning to believe the lecture.
"Emerald Weapon is slow and remains entirely under the ocean. Jade Weapon is the smallest and probably the weakest of all the Weapons. It's always sent out first. It can even be awakened for particularly powerful monsters or summons behaving in a threatening way."
When Cloud stopped, Rufus waited several long moments before speaking. "You said there were seven Weapons." The utter lack of amusement told Cloud that the vice president wasn't dismissing him out of hand.
"I'm not telling you about that one yet," Cloud said, "and you'd do better to wait until I'm willing to talk instead of poking around for information. Or having your pet Turks search."
"Why's that?" Rufus asked, smile retaking its place on his face.
Hoping to convey the gravity of the situation, Cloud spoke slowly to enunciate clearly. "If Hojo hears even one rumor about it or sees anyone else looking into it based off information that might even remotely come from a mysterious source, he'll get interested. If you don't trust me on this, Rufus, we're all quite thoroughly screwed."
The small smile morphed into a slight smirk. "Why share information at all if it's so important even the small pieces remain secret?"
"Because somewhere underneath your politically correct exterior, with all its penchent for tidy, white clothes and grandiose speeches, is a lying, two-faced, power hungry dictator," Cloud said.
Smirk strengthening, Rufus said, "That hardly seems like a good reason to divulge sensitive information."
Smirking sneer tugging at Cloud's expression, he said, "Beneath that lying, two-faced, power hungry dictator is someone that actually wants to keep the people he rules alive and stupid enough to keep civil unrest from brewing open rebellion once your old man is out of the way."
"That's the bluntest assessment anyone has ever had the honesty to give me," Rufus said, amusement ringing clear in his tone. "I think I might be flattered."
Cloud huffed a silent laugh. "You've got to have the people alive in order to rule them. I can agree with the 'people alive' part. If Hojo hears about it, far too many people will die."
That seemed to curb some of Rufus' amusement at least.
"Again, I ask, why tell me any of this?" Rufus made an airy gesture at the room.
Cloud shook his head and sighed. "Did you really think I was going to start demanding things from you and not give you anything in return?" Cloud retook his smirking sneer then. "Or that you'd have to trick me out of things?"
Rufus' smile deepened at that.
Cloud said, "I do know how you operate, Rufus."
Apparently satisfied with Cloud's answer, Rufus asked, "How well is my Turk serving you?"
The waters got a bit murkier there. At least Cloud was prepared for it. "Tseng could make a fine babysitter if he ever decided to switch career paths."
A flicker of irritation flashed over the vice president's face. "Tseng can be far more useful in other capacities. If you aren't going to utilize his skills, I would appreciate his return."
"I'll bet," Cloud said flatly.
No irritation that time, but the politician's mask slid firmly back in place. "I didn't expect you to admit so openly to your association with Cloud Strife. What prompted this openness?"
"Yes," Cloud mused, "because we both know how useful it would be to pretend I didn't know him after you captured my comrade on video."
"What do you want with the boy?" Rufus asked.
Boy? Cloud reasoned he was supposed to be a teenager after all. "Everyone needs a little rescuing now and then," he answered vaguely.
"From what exactly?" Rufus asked.
"Take your pick of the crazy scientists running around Gaia."
Smile widening slightly, Rufus asked, "Are you here to tell me about the damage my company is supposedly doing to the Planet, tell me about the Weapons, or give me further incentive to get rid of Professor Hojo?"
"Didn't I just do all three?" Cloud asked dryly.
"I suppose I'll have to figure it out on my own," Rufus said. "Unless you have anything more to offer," the vice president said vaguely.
Cloud shook his head.
Gaze sharpening, Rufus asked, "You wouldn't happen to be that seventh Weapon would you?"
Cloud huffed another silent laugh. "I'm no Weapon, Rufus." A smirk stretched across his face. "I'm told I'm a catalyst. From what I've seen, I'm not inclined to argue yet."
Ignoring the vice president's calculating gaze, Cloud climbed back into the air vent.
AN: Any and all random author's comments, disclaimers, and notes are on my profile page. If I get asked a question enough times, its answer is there too.