This is what morning had to offer the five Soldier variants and their lifestyles. Cloud Strife jumped to his feet by four thirty in the morning, bent on making all of his delivers on time. He stumbled to a halt when he remembered that he was in all actuality only eleven years old and unable to actually accomplish this goal.
Sephiroth awakened promptly at five in the morning and proceeded with the difficult chore of getting Genesis and Angeal up in time to face the music. There was a moment when the General in him largely considered the benefits of small children and teenagers when neither of the two SOLDIERs seemed willing to actually answer to that call.
Zack Fair finally came to life at eight thirty that morning and left a bored Cloud stumped how someone can go from log to action that swiftly. All before they had morning coffee. Or in Cloud's case cereal heaped with sugar. Shuddering the blonde child watched the Fair family go through the motions of their day until a knock echoed dully through their ear drums.
((Break))
"They are children, Sephiroth. What were you thinking?" Angeal said, turning to confront the younger man the moment their feet hit the ground.
Sephiroth smirked slightly at the confrontational tone in his 'older brother's' tone as he seemed to sink into a lecture mode. As the youngest of the trio, Sephiroth found himself frequently challenged by Genesis and corrected morally by Angeal. His own role remained a bit confusing to himself, however, the three of them were a force to be reckoned with once he was able to 'fix' the pair of them. Narrowing his green eyes, he took in the casually observing form of Genesis as he leaned against the wall watching the pair of them.
"Those two boys have mako in their systems. Without proper training or handling, they could hurt others. SOLDIER would be held liable." He rationalized. "Especially since the older of the two has already filed documents to join the military."
"That doesn't explain why you were manhandling a pair of brats, Sephiroth." Genesis corrected. "You don't even treat our recruits that rough. Perhaps, did they remind you of something unpleasant?"
Ever the poet, Sephiroth thought to himself as he shifted his stance to include both men in his field of vision. "Children do not belong in the military."
He kept his gaze locked with Angeal's as he waited out the man's thought structure on the statement. For Sephiroth he wanted to simply keep Zack and Cloud from Shin-Ra and SOLDIER. It wouldn't prevent them from being a challenge, however, that was why he had Hojo and Jenova. A little more pressure on Cloud's already fragile and fractured mind would reduce him to a puppet once again. Zack of course would needed to be handled with a little more care. The Puppy and the Puppet would be destroyed before they could ever become a threat.
"I need to make a phone call." Angeal declared as he finally made up his mind. Heading for the door to the main office the three of them shared, the dark haired man turned to look towards them both before declaring his intentions. "We can at least ensure the minors are better prepared than the usual foot soldier."
Once alone, Genesis lifted a red eye brow at their silver haired friend. "How intriguing that the mighty hero thinks of the safety of children. Yet, I do not believe that is your true motivation, is it, Sephiroth?"
"I can never truly fool you, can I, Genesis." Sephiroth responded, watching the red head for signs of rebellion. A tool was only as useful as the cause, of course. What the eldest of the three of them stated next undid the bulk of his plans in the span of seconds.
"Did you think you were the only one, Sephiroth? What are you planning for Angeal's little puppy?" Genesis asked as he pushed himself up from the wall. Crossing the distance to Sephiroth the red head leaned his head casually to the side. "I may have been asleep for the bulk of your misadventures, however, I was the original villain, my friend."
"A contest then? To claim the right to destroy the world or some other twisted version of Loveless, Genesis?" Sephiroth teased. They were still friends after all.
"A mere observation. Why not bring the children into the fold. Set them under Angeal's expert guidance and truly turn them to our side. Unless you wish to admit defeat, Sephiroth?" Genesis laid out the challenge.
((Break))
Stepping out of the room Angeal paused to listen at the door for the conversation Genesis no doubt would strike up with Sephiroth. The three Firsts each had had a different motivation for finding themselves in the past. Sephiroth had simply gone insane once he learned the truth. Genesis found a way to cure himself through his personality remained questionable.
((Break))
Slowly, Mister Fair opened the door to admit the early morning guest as both boys immediately stiffened their spines to note the long familiar blue suit and tie combination. Zack's eyes flicked to the old umbrella his mother sometimes used when the rains got too much even as Cloud toed the bat he'd brought down from Zack's room.
Both sets of mako eyes narrowed at the Turk as he glanced in their direction.
"I'm here on behalf of an insurance issue from Shin-Ra to interview anyone who has been exposed to mako due to the untimely explosion." The Turk stated, his dark eyes staring hard at Zack's father. "The interviews will need to be conducted in privacy to insure accuracy, of course."
"I am afraid our guest is from Nibelheim, sir." Zack's mother interrupted. There was fire in her voice and the native Gongagan gestures for her husband to leave the door open as she poked a finger in the Turk's chest. "While we can allow you to speak with Zack, we cannot give permission for you to interview Cloud. Since we are focused on these interviews we are not about to allow you to interview our son either."
"If you are interested in collecting any of the finances set aside by the company we are required to conduct the necessary interviews." The Turk argued.
Cloud grabbed onto Zack's sleeve as the fourteen year old made to get to his feet. Looking back at his much smaller friend, the teenager slowly started to back away with Cloud until the eleven year old came even with the back door. It took a few more steps in which the Turk jerked his head to stare in the direction in which both mako infused children had wrenched open the back door and barreled out into the thick underbrush of the jungle.
Zack's footing was slightly slower than Cloud's however the smaller child was able to keep pace enough that the two of them only took a rough fifteen minutes to reach the road that led from the Gongagan forest to the outskirts of the next territory.
"Cloud, man, I just ran away from home. Again!" Zack panted out, looking back in the direction they had come from. "I don't think we're going to be joining the army again, are we?"
Cloud shook his head no. "We're going to need some materia if we're going to be fleeing the Turks. Weapons too."
"No one's going to sell weapons to a couple of kids without military identification, Cloud." Zack said evenly. "Not even Shin-ra is stupid enough to break that law."
Cloud shook his head. "There are unused weapon caches all around the Planet. We'll have to make use of what we find in those."
"And if we're asked for the licenses needed to actually carry those weapons?"
"Dog tags." Cloud responded. "Children and grandchildren of veterans are automatically given a probationary time in which they can learn how to use a weapon or enter the Schools provided for by the Shin-ra electric power company."
"Neither of my parents or grandparents were in the military, Cloud." Zack stated.
"Our grandfather was according to what you stated to Sephiroth." The blond replied, his blue eyes turning to stare Zack down. "We're half brothers from the same father and our paternal grandfather went missing before the Wutai war. We know he was a member of the Research and Development department but dog tags are never issued to Turks."
"Wait... where exactly are you going with this?"
"If Vincent is unwilling to physically help us we can still use him as a resource." Cloud explained. "We might have to work the cover story along the way."
"Cloud, no one is going to believe that we're related." Zack stated solemnly.
Letting out a breath of air, the eleven year old turned to look at his friend. "When you died... I inherited several of your traits. My memories rewrote themselves and only because of Tifa did I rediscover who I was. Zack, in my head, I was you."
"So, you're saying you have a few of my personality traits and habits?" Zack asked. "Mako changes the natural eye color so you're obviously counting on that to hide more obvious questions. You had some time obviously to think of some kind of story. How long have you been in the past, Cloud?"
"A little over a week." he responded, turning his head slightly away. "I... felt your presence here... in Gongaga."
Zack blinked at him, urging the younger boy to clarify for them both what he was trying to say.
"We share the Sephiroth gene. Reunion pushes individuals to return to the source and those same feelings can be used to locate and manipulate a person's will." Cloud answered, his eyes unable to meet Zack's as he spoke.
"I see." Zack responded, remembering the attack where he had been forced to kill Angeal and the times he'd been pushed into battle with Genesis. "So, Sephiroth was like them then."
The statement brought Cloud to looking at Zack fully. "I didn't get a lot of memories, Zack. Just... a few things like how to use a sword."
"I suppose I should explain to you. You may not remember them but they had a large impact on what happened with Sephiroth, Nibelheim, and the two of us. A few years before I met you I was an apprentice to Angeal Hewley. He's the guy who originally had the Buster. He and the other two commanders were friends. Genesis went rogue first and Shin-Ra sent me after him because the other two refused the mission. I was promoted to First and we met on that mission to Modeoheim."
"Tseng was piloting. We crashed." Cloud added in as Zack paused.
"Angeal forced me into combat with him and I killed him. I promised myself I would never let something like that happen again. We both don't need to remember those years in Hojo's lab so I'm just going to jump to the end of that last year. When the military attacked us, I left you behind some rocks, and went out to face them. By then I was getting pretty worn down, Cloud. It took an entire army and even then those bullets still didn't cut me down. I wanted you to live free of those dark memories and able to carry on for me what I couldn't accomplish."
"I did my best..." Cloud began, cut off when Zack shook his head.
"You did better than I thought. You continued to hold onto your honor and even if you forgot everything else you were able to come back to yourself, save your girl, save the planet, and defeat the bad guy." Planting both hands on the blonde's shoulders, Zack starred the younger boy down. "You may have had a habit of running late but you were still there."
"Only because..."
"I'm not dead and you're not going to carry this burden alone. So, let's go wake up the creepy old guy in the coffin and make some mincemeat out of the General." Zack declared, holding out his hand to Cloud.