Writer's Note: There were a lot of inconsistencies with Aaron's story in this chapter, so some bits and pieces have been added so it actually holds a little water. The rest is just the typical cleaning and tweaking.

Green Dreams

Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Mountains Have Eyes

Cloud stood up and backed away as Vincent rose from the coffin. The man didn't look the least bit surprised or perturbed that someone had disturbed his sleep, but Cloud knew Vincent was discerning as ever, and the ex-Turk didn't trust him for second.

Vincent looked the same as he would in a couple years when Cloud had freed him last time. He still sported the red cape, the pointed gold boots, and the matching claw. His hair was a lank, black mass that made his pale skin and sharp cheekbones look a little insidious in the poor light. It wasn't surprising Yuffie had cried vampire when she first saw him. Amazingly, other than a little dirty looking and the hair a little unwashed, he was perfectly fine after twenty-five years in a coffin.

Cloud brushed dust off his knees and shoulders. "I'll explain more, but first I have to do something," was all he said as he walked out.

"Where's Cloud and Dan?" Reno was barely awake enough to comprehend Aaron's question.

"Piss?"

He was rubbing his eyes, so he didn't see the scathing look Aaron sent him. "With his bags?" Reno ignored the comment, reaching to grab his canteen when he noticed the slightly smudged writing on his hand. He recognized the handwriting.

Well, damn. Cloud could be a real bastard sometimes.

He closed his fist, deciding this was going to be added to that growing list of things to ask Cloud the next time he cornered the blond.

"They must have left," John put in from where he was standing on the other side of the campsite. He was wandering around the area looking for tracks, scuffmarks, or anything really. He had Dan's bag in one hand, but there wasn't even evidence Cloud had sat down to rest.

"Something had to have taken them. They wouldn't just leave." Aaron was tugging on his hair in distress. "Do you think they're picking us off?"

"Cloud probably went off to be a hero," Reno said a bit roughly. He still wasn't quite fully there. "Either to save Dan, or the kid followed him."

John frowned at him as he shouldered his pack. "We can't stick around too long here if they were nabbed nearby. Let's look around the forest a bit more for tracks, but I doubt we'll find much." He nodded to a cold pan of food. "We left some for you, Reno."

"Cold oatmeal, my favorite," he muttered under his breath.

Five minutes later, Reno had scarfed down his food and packed everything up. The forest held no clues though as to Cloud or Dan's whereabouts, but they agreed they'd left willingly. However they couldn't agree on whether they'd been lured away or taken off on their own. Reno clenched one fist as they took to the trail again.

"Do we know where to go now?" Aaron asked.

"Path splits somewhere ahead of us," Reno answered. "We take the right fork."

"How do you know?" John asked.

Reno opened his hand and held it in front of his body so they couldn't see. "Cloud's a bastard, that's how."

With a little help from a sledgehammer, Cloud had destroyed well over twenty empty mako-tanks, and there were still two more rooms filled with them.

Vincent had followed him to the library without a word, and Cloud took that as a good sign. Previously Vincent hadn't even stood up from the coffin until mention of Sephiroth.

Even though there were self-destruct sequences built into all Hojo's machines because of the man's unwavering paranoia, Cloud preferred to do this by hand. It might have been a vindication of sorts, a way to get back at all of Hojo's maniacal work in both the future and the past, and present to be exact; but Cloud needed to make sure the deed was done, if only for his own sake.

He just barely heard the wisp of cloth and the crunch of glass under metal boot as he stepped towards the next mako pod. Cloud heard the unasked question.

"The Planet. A year from now Hojo locked me here." He swung, as livid as if it had happened yesterday. The pod exploded in a shower of glass. Cloud had made sure to drain them before his rampage, unwilling to get any mako on him if he could.

"For five years." He swung again, this time at the pipes and computer that operated the pod. This one burst into a volley of sparks and electrical wires.

"I was an experiment."

The next pod broke under the swing, Cloud grunting at his connected.

"Reunion."

Vincent was paused to let Cloud destroy the next console system. "Jenova Reunion Theory."

"Exactly." The mechanics behind the machine groaned and the pipes writhed like they were alive as all the pressure was suddenly released. Cloud moved on without looking back. "The Reunion happened. I killed Sephiroth, who was a puppet of Jenova. The other experiments were his clones—attempts to make more of the 'perfect SOLDIER'."

Cloud said it with such loathing that the next hit smashed the motherboard of the room into two large pieces and a hundred small ones. Cloud swung a second time to ensure it's utter destruction.

"The remnants were considered failures. But it wasn't over." He stopped then, breathing hard and leaning on the sledgehammer, but didn't turn around. "The Planet had destroyed Meteor and we—AVALANCHE—had taken out Jenova. But the Planet grew ill. Geostigma they called it. And Sephiroth came back."

Cloud turned now and began to walk back, towards the doorway where Vincent stood. He dragged the sledgehammer behind him, and it scrapped the floor in an eerie, high-pitched whine. Cloud didn't seem to notice.

"The Planet was dying. Even when we destroyed him a second time—another Reunion—it was too much. And the Planet did the only thing it could." Cloud shrugged. He'd gotten over that initial anger and betrayal when Aeris had told him what happened. He could almost understand, but he hadn't forgiven it yet.

"…And you're here." Vincent finished smoothly, as though time-travel wasn't a perfectly absurd concept.

Cloud couldn't help the small well of relief inside him. He had felt that if there were anyone who would take him at face value, it would be the ex-Turk, and he was glad he was right.

"Yes."

Reno, John, and Aaron had been walking since dawn, stopped for a quick lunch break, and continued on until they heard voices up ahead of them. There was a quiet argument over whether to ambush and take out the team—Reno's idea—just sneak by—Aaron's—or to try and steal their stuff—John. Without Cloud to break the three-way tie with his typical take-no-prisoners leadership style, the three agreed to sneak up on the other group and see if they could even ambush or rob them, or whether Aaron's idea wasn't the smartest one.

The team they came upon was Maxwell's, as irony would have it, except the boy himself was missing and his teammates were standing around like a pack of lost sheep.

"What's going on?" John hissed from where he was crouched next to Reno in the underbrush. They were watching the team from a stone's throw away hidden in the heavy undergrowth.

"Where's Maxwell?" Reno responded.

"Who's there?" Shouted one kid suddenly, spinning to face the opposite side of the forest where Aaron was hidden. "Max? That you?"

Everyone turned then, and Reno let out an annoyed hiss as Aaron stepped out from the trees with both arms up. "It's me, Aaron. I overheard you guys lost someone."

Reno and John crept forward as the boys pointed their knives and one handgun at Aaron, eyeing him suspiciously. "I bet you had something to do with that!" One yelled, and the others started to walk forward menacingly.

"No, no, you've got it all wrong," Aaron said cheerfully. "See, two of our members, Cloud and Dan, both disappeared last night. We figured something similar must have happened to you."

Reno audibly groaned as he stepped on to the path with John, Maxwell's team whirling around to confront them too. "You lost two people?" One guy asked, his knife lowering a little.

"Disappeared in the night. No trace." Aaron supplied helpfully.

"It's true," Reno put in, since it was too late to back out of this mess. "We thought they'd left on their own, but maybe something drew them out if you guys lost Maxwell too. That can't be coincidence."

The guy with the handgun eyed Reno and John. "You think it's deliberate?"

John nodded, trying not to look threatening. The guy with the gun was looking a little edgy with that trigger-finger. Everyone could tell it was not a paintball gun, and SOLDIER was serious about this test. "Three people go missing in twenty-four hours? Especially the leaders of two groups?"

After a long moment, the cadet slowly lowered the gun. The others followed suit after a moment of hesitation. Aaron looked perfectly unaffected, but John could see Reno's shoulders relax just a bit.

"Max was looking for some food in the bushes," the boy indicated with a thumb over his shoulder. "Went into the forest and didn't come back. We looked for him, but we found his gun," the one he was holding his held up sideways in a passive manner. "Don't know what happened."

"Woke up this morning and Cloud and Dan were gone. Could've been lured off by something." Reno rubbed the ink on his hand off on his shirt, looking deliberately nonchalant about the whole thing. "If they're picking people off—especially the good ones—then we'd be better off in numbers."

John had to struggle to hide his surprise that Reno would be the one to offer a temporary truce. He'd been expecting him or Aaron would be the ones to bring it up. Maybe Cloud was rubbing off on him more than anyone thought.

The guy with the gun was probably thinking the same thing, but he was a lot more skeptical of Reno's intentions. "Sure I wanna believe you?"

Reno shrugged, "Sure. After all, I know which fork up there goes to Rocket Town and which'll leave you with your ass out in the cold."

"You can search around the forest if you want, we're not lying," Aaron suddenly said. "Dan and Cloud are both gone. We've been by ourselves since dawn. If you don't want to lose more people, I'd recommend sticking together. Plus, we're in the deepest parts of the woods. Less people means more animals."

From Aaron's voice and manner made it seem as though he wasn't the least bit perturbed by anything he was implying, but one of Maxwell's team shuddered slightly. The new leader looked resigned. "We had a run-in with a wolf last night. Max barely got a bullet into the thing's shoulder before it took a chunk out of a tree. Ripped it near in half. Ain't no joke."

John nodded. "Cloud warned us the Nibel wolves are dangerous."

Reno rolled his eyes and tucked his hands in his pockets. "We gonna move or what people? If Maxwell got nabbed right here, someone might be hanging around."

When Cloud returned to the library finally, Vincent was seated at Hojo's desk with numerous papers spread out before him. None of them were about himself; unsurprisingly all were about Sephiroth.

"He never mutated." Vincent didn't really ask questions, Cloud had learned after years of travel with him.

The blond sat down in an overturned chair, though he didn't feel tired. Anxious. Anticipatory maybe. "No. The only negative side-affect of having the Jenova cells was a general mental deterioration. All the numbered experiments were mindless drones for the most part. Sephiroth didn't even show signs of it until he made contact with Jenova, and even then he became more violent, not helpless."

"You were not."

Cloud stared past Vincent into the dark bowels of the library. He didn't want to think about it. "No. And the Remnants that returned with Geostigma weren't either."

Vincent put the paper down. "You're going to burn it," he said in his usual monotone.

"Yes."

There was a pause as Vincent seemed to consider saying something else, but then stood up and walked out without another word. In the bygone future Vincent had known when Cloud could be argued with and when he couldn't, and it seemed he knew that now too.

Cloud sat in the chair a moment longer, reflecting only briefly on what he had to do. Then he too left the library, and standing in the doorway took out the Fire materia. He sent a strong pulse of magic to it, one of the most powerful ones he'd done yet, and watched with steady eyes as the flames licked up all of Hojo's work.

"Maybe it's just like with the drug interrogations. Picking us off one at a time to make us scared. Probably moved Cloud and Dan off somewhere else on their own to freak 'em out." Reno was just thinking aloud, throwing out every possibility he could think of.

"I heard about that drug bust," John put in. They were walking uphill along the path, surrounded by trees. It was a fairly boring journey, if a little tiring, and the tree cover hid most of the scenery, not that anyone particularly cared. The rest of the group followed behind, the one with the handgun at rearguard. "The official report was bullshit, but from what I've heard, there were some minor budget cuts to the science department. Some of the scientists apparently leaked mako-laced drugs into the slums for extra cash."

Reno's mouth dropped open. "So it was bad luck some cadets had it?"

"Yup."

"Huh."

Vincent and Cloud left the Shinra Mansion, recovering a simple revolver for Vincent to use as they did. Cloud started another small fire in the piano room, and when the flames were hot enough, the magical shield that kept the Lost Number from burning the rest of the house broke. It took mere moments for whatever was left of the mansion to rise up in flames.

They trekked up the mountainside together. Cloud knew the path well, and other than running into a handful of monsters that even Vincent's rusty skills could easily deal with, it was a smooth trip to the bridge.

As they walked, Cloud filled Vincent in on the details. He told him about AVALANCHE, about his mixed memories and chasing Sephiroth across the world, about Meteor and the Planet, and then the three remnants and destroying the fallen General again. Through it all Vincent asked no questions and offered no commentary. It was cathartic for Cloud, whose voice was flatly monotone for most of it, but occasionally would grow gruff at the mention of Aeris' death and the fights with Sephiroth. He only touched on his captivity with Hojo once to explain Zack's death, but he skirted his own past for the most part. Vincent could well understand that.

The ex-Turk hadn't doubted Cloud's honesty for long. Though initially more than a little shocked to find a teenager opening his coffin, there has been little room for doubt of Cloud's authenticity following that. It was only confirmed by Cloud's mastery of materia, his obvious knowledge of highly classified information, and the story.

That skeleton of belief was only filled in more as Vincent had the opportunity to watch Cloud in action. He moved with a fluidity, confidence, and strength that Vincent saw very rarely and only in the most seasoned of fighters. It would be impossible for Cloud to be a mere cadet and fight like that, not to mention his frightening maturity and even resignation that only those who had seen war carried.

Also, Chaos knew it was the truth.

The beast was run by its instincts; it didn't have doubts, coherent complicating thoughts or questions. It followed pure primordial instinct, which made it so repulsive to an analytical mind like Vincent's, but also one that, occasionally, knew something he didn't. Chaos,Vincent had long ago hypothesized, was tied to the Planet through a much closer connection than humans. Even with the mako in his system, Vincent could not feel the Planet as a humming string through his being the way Chaos interpreted it.

The demon knew instinctively that Cloud was connected to the Planet. It was restless in Vincent's mind, both repelled and drawn to Cloud, feeling the Planet alive in the SOLDIER cadet. It would be difficult to render the feeling in words, but Vincent knew inherently through Chaos that Cloud was not an ordinary man.

Vincent had little doubt Cloud's memories were true enough. Whether Cloud physically came back in time, or whether the memories of a possibly future were passed to him and he believed he had lived it, it didn't matter. Vincent wanted to atone, and Cloud was not only offering him a way to do this—to save Lucrecia's son from a potentially terrible death—but also to exact revenge upon the man who had started this all: Hojo.

Reno seemed convinced there would be no more abductions, although John wasn't completely sold by his performance. They'd gotten Cloud and Maxwell, the leaders, and probably Dan inadvertently, so it was possible it was over, but everyone was still very jumpy. It wasn't clear how anyone had been taken or why no one had noticed, but it was a great scare tactic.

The whole group was now seven people. Maxwell's team had gotten lucky on the weapon draw. There had only been two handguns and Maxwell had gotten one. The fact that it was left unfired on the ground didn't bode well, but no one said what they suspected out loud. Aaron had shot Reno a warning look when he'd started to broach the subject, and a swift elbow to the gut was enough to silence him.

"Hey," John said suddenly. "Turn around."

Reno and the others did slowly. They were on the top of a ridge of some kind, but with all the trees it was difficult to see anything. Still, Reno looked up to where John was pointing to see a column of smoke twirling lazily into the sky.

"Looks like a fire," one of the guys said.

"No shit," Reno said reflexively.

"It's not in Rocket Town's direction," Aaron pointed out. "It's down the mountains. It must be Nibelheim."

"You wanna bet Cloud's behind that?"

John shook his head and started walking again. "Is everything with Cloud a conspiracy to you?"

Reno shrugged; no one else seemed to be putting the pieces together. "Pretty much."

The smoke from the burning mansion was clearly visible from the steps of the mako reactor. It had taken over an hour to make it all the way up the snowy mountainside and across the bridge that had nearly tumbled Tifa to her death. Vincent's cheeks weren't even pink from the cold or the exertion, and Cloud envied the man's enhancements had for a moment before he checked himself.

The reactor was exactly the same as he remembered. Rusted and frozen on the outside turning it an ugly shade of red, with sheer metal exterior, the twisted pipes and mechanisms high above them, and the same "no trespassing" and "hazardous materials inside" signs posted every few feet. It was at least three to four stories tall, a harsh, modern contraption in the middle of the wilderness.

Cloud willed away any memories of this place, steeling himself for the grisly images he would undoubtedly be bombarded with. This was not, by any means, a place he would willingly come to again.

Vincent was a silent presence behind him as he stepped into the main room. Two-dozen mako pods of considerably size were laid out on various raised levels. Cloud already knew what was inside them, and he didn't waste time looking at them. The same stairs Zack had been thrown down—Cloud's shoulders stiffened as he focused on a nail on the floor until it was all he could see—led up to a metal door with an archway engraved with the word "Jenova".

It was another two hours of walking before Rocket Town came into view. It was only the tip of the giant rocket that gave the town its name, but it was the first guaranteed sign they were going in the right direction. It was still a ways off, down the side of the mountain range on a road that twisted and writhed all the way to the base. John estimated it would take most of the day to get down that, and they would lose sight of the town as they descended, so they decided a break was in order.

"I'm gonna take a shit." Reno wandered over to where Aaron was off from the rest of the team.

The other boy nodded, waving his hand at Reno as he fished in his bag for his canteen. "Sure, sure. Should we send a spotter?"

"No one's watching me squat in the woods," Reno said with a little extra bite. "Pretty sure they got who they wanted."

"Depends on who they are," Aaron reminded him as he snapped open the canteen.

"Yeah well, let's hope they wanted Cloud, accidentally took Dan, and Maxwell got dragged into the forest by something that eats meat."

Aaron didn't respond as Reno headed off into the forest, keeping one ear on the conversation as the rest of the group gathered together to eat the nasty rations they'd been given, the other for any signs of life out here. Other than a handful of monsters, including a nasty flying one that proved to be almost agile enough to dodge bullets, the damn thing, they hadn't had any problems. Glancing back, Reno could just make out the color of one of the guys jackets—red, what kind of idiot where's red in a forest?—before dropping his pants by a nearby tree.

He was just zipping himself up when the hair on his neck began to prickle. Reno kept his posture deliberately relaxed, straining to hear breathing, maybe a low growl, something to cue him in to what was stalking couldn't make out where it was, the forest was too dense and there were too many dark spots to hide in, but Reno was willing to bet money it was above him or directly behind him in his blind spot. That's where he'd be, if he were the predator.

Casually as possible, he belted his pants and was about to stick his hands in his pocket like he was just walking down the street when it struck.

Reno was barely able to turn before the handkerchief was over his mouth and nose and the other arm was around his neck to hold his head back. He held his breath, able to barely taste the chloroform, and brought his hands up to pry the person's fingers free. They were tough whoever they were, and a knee to the kidney was enough to cause Reno to involuntarily exhale, and when he inhaled reflexively he got a mouth and nose full of chemicals. He was out cold in seconds.

Vincent didn't ask what was inside the mako pods. A bare glance was enough to know that there was a lot of mako in there and something elsethat was distinctly humanoid. There was little doubt it had once been one.

The door at the top of the stairs was card and number coded. Cloud knew that most likely only Hojo had the required information. He had no qualms about blasting the door open if he had to. Cloud was reaching for his materia when Vincent stopped him. Without a word, the red-caped man glided forward, amazingly quiet on the metal floor despite the boots, and over to the keypad. With the tip of a blade hidden in his pants, he sliced four clean cuts around the little machine and pried it from the wall. It came away with a dozen wires. Vincent cut one and the door slid open soundlessly.

Cloud was too used to the ex-Turk's skills to be impressed but nodded in thanks as he headed into the next room. This one was also unfortunately very familiar. It had a long gangplank that crossed the room over a huge vat of pure mako. The glowing liquid simmered down below and threw the whole room into a sinister green glow. Cloud pointedly did not look down as he crossed the gangplank quickly to the room beyond where Jenova lay. He could barely hear Vincent's hollow footsteps behind him over the pounding of his heart.

Cloud deliberately blanked his mind before he walked into that room. He refused to acknowledge any thoughts, centering himself as he tried not to remember watching Sephiroth rip Jenova from the wall, calling her "Mother", visibly descending into madness as she pushed him over the brink. Cloud was going to cut that alien up into pieces and burn them, and he wouldn't be happy until they were scattered from Cid's airship across the far ocean.

As he stepped in he didn't hear any whispers. There was not a single echo of the terrifyingly seductive voice Cloud distinctly remembered. No oil-coated words to charm him. His body was finally clean of her influence; Cloud was able to draw a breath.

He didn't look up to where she was. He could sense, somewhere in the back of his mind, that he was probably mirroring Sephiroth's actions that fateful night, head cocked as he heard the voice—the one thankfully missing now—and then eyes slowly moving up the pipe to stand in front of the Calamity hidden by the name Jenova.

But when his eyes finally reached the metal case, there was no glowing beast inside.

Jenova was gone.

Reno was missing.

John stood up from the ground, brushing dirt off his knees. Reno's tracks were clear all the way to the smell of feces in the clearing, but after that nothing. It was like he'd been teleported from the spot. John wondered if maybe something flying had gotten him, but the tree cover was too thick for that. "You don't think Reno'd do it as a practical joke, would you?"

Aaron paused as he came through the trees towards him. "I don't think so. It shook him up that Cloud vanished like that. Plus, he'd knock some snow or leaves to the ground if climbed up, and I don't see anything."

"Yeah," John sighed. "I guess we keep moving then. Hopefully he'll make it in on his own."

Aaron didn't look too pleased, but there really weren't any other options. "This test is a lot harder than I thought it'd be."

"It wasn't this bad when I took it last time. The second test was literally an hour after the first. I thought for sure they weren't doing that again this time when they let us all go out. The stakes must be higher."

Aaron glanced back at the other guys who were gathered by the road talking quietly. "Chances are we're going to beat Cloud, Dan, and Reno to Rocket Town. We pass just for getting here, but…"

"We're gonna look pretty stupid for losing three members," John finished, shooting a sidelong glance at Aaron.

The metal canister that had once held most of her upper body was empty. There wasn't even liquid inside it. It was totally empty.

Cloud stared.

He felt numb. How could Jenova not be here? Hojo hadn't moved her to Midgar until after Sephiroth's fall, and in fact he'd left her here deliberately so that he could organize the mission to Nibelheim and introduce Sephiroth and her. It would make no sense to spontaneously move her back to Midgar and then hide her away from the General.

A cold hand touched his shoulder very briefly then slipped away. "Jenova was moved recently." Vincent's rough voice was enough to draw Cloud's attention away from the empty tube and to more important matters: Jenova wasn't here. This wasn't ending today.

"Hojo must have taken her." Cloud knew it even before the words left his mouth. There wasn't a scratch on the building. The tube had been properly opened, cleaned, and locked. The only person in the world who would go through that procedure was Hojo. Cloud and Vincent were the only outsiders who'd been here, and no one else but high Shinra executives knew where Jenova was, if that, and no one but Hojo had any interest in her.

But why?

Vincent remained silent as he walked back to the doorway, silently waiting to see what Cloud would do.

There was no way Hojo could have gotten wind of Cloud's plans. He'd told nobody, and no one knew he knew anything about the Calamity until he'd told Vincent. Reno was certainly not at that point, not even close. There couldn't have been surveillance in the Nibelheim mansion—Vincent would have known about it. No one was monitoring the building anyway, it hadn't been used since Sephiroth's relocation to Midgar as a young child. Someone else must have moved her.

Fueled by rage he hadn't felt in years, Cloud took up his sword—a poor replacement for his own—and sliced a clean line through the empty cell of metal and tempered glass.

A SOLDIER was waiting for them at the entrance to the town as the group straggled in. He asked for the identification numbers and then led them into town. They passed several empty fields, a pile of engine bits and small planes resting on a patch of land, and then into the town proper.

The giant rocket was huge. It was set a couple miles from the town and clearly visible even at night. The boys had been able to see it on occasion over the treetops as they descended from the mountains. Rocket Town itself was boisterous with a small-town vibe that made it seem quite comfortable, if remote. The SOLDIER led the cadets through the town square and into the main hotel without stopping and left them to be debriefed.

The whole hotel had been taken over by SOLDIER for the exams, so there were scattered maps, papers, and some personal stuff all around the lobby. Several soldiers were standing around on the far side by the fire, and it looked like the reception desk was now a monitoring center for the test.

A Third pointed them to a soft and some chairs in one corner of the room, and the teams relaxed into them, but John still felt nervous. He wasn't sure if they'd be penalized for losing three members, and he was worried about what had happened to them—especially Reno, because the redhead had no doubt been taken against his will. Reno wasn't stupid, and he wouldn't just follow after some movement or lights in the forest. John felt sure whatever had taken him had also taken Cloud.

A SOLDIER entered and walked over to them, introducing himself as a Third Class before sitting down across the table. He pulled out a notepad and pen, explainingquickly how the debriefing process worked.

Maxwell's team went first, and their story was fairly uneventful. Other than the run-in with the wolf, Maxwell's disappearance, and later Reno's, there was little else to be said. They'd spent most of the test looking for the path, and they'd found one small one that ended up too snow-covered to follow. It was by shear luck they'd made it to the same path John, Aaron, and Reno had been on.

Then it was the other team's turn. Aaron glanced at John for just a moment before he leaned forward to tell their part. "It wastwo nights ago when we decided to steal some rations off a team ahead of us. Cloud and Dan took one side of the road to be a distraction while John, Reno and I were on the other to make the steal. The three of us were waiting for Cloud's cue, but it never came."

There was no way the SOLDIER could miss the other team's disbelief as they heard this totally new story. John worked to keep a straight face, because Aaron was doing a damn good job selling it.

"See, we waited awhile, but still heard nothing, so we decided to regroup back at the starting point, but Dan and Cloud never showed up. We tried looking for them too, but we couldn't find anything. When we traced their steps all the way back to where the other team was camped out, we found out one of their members was missing too."

The SOLDIER's was jotting down notes as the remaining members of Maxwell's team cried foul. "That's not what you told us!"

"So anyway, it was Reno's idea to ask what happened. They told us," he thumbed the other team, "that Maxwell was missing, and we figured Cloud and Dan were just dealing with him. They didn't come back though, so we thought they might have gotten turned around in the forest. Cloud's pretty good at navigating, but those trees all look the same." Aaron waved his hand around vaguely, and John nodded along. He and Aaron had worked out an outline for this story to make Cloud and Dan sound good to pay back Cloud for basically hauling their asses through the first exam.

"Megarian, you traveled with Tamboia the whole time. Can you pick up the story from there?" the Third asked, and John was about to answer when the Lieutenant General passed through the room with a steaming cup in his hand. He flopped down onto the nearest chair.

"Pretend I'm not here," he said, smiling over his cup.

John glanced over, feeling slightly intimidated as the friendly-looking man settled into his chair like he was about to listen to a story and not a debriefing. John coughed slightly, feeling a pit in his stomach as he lied through his teeth, "After we heard what happened to Maxwell, we, um, figured it'd be safer to work in a large group, so we… fixed the story." He knew he wasn't nearly as smooth,but hopefully he could pass it off as embarrassment for blatantly lying to the other guys. His eyes slid over to the First Class SOLDIER, but the man didn't seem to be paying them any attention at all. He was balancing his cup on two fingers like there was nothing better to do.

The SOLDIER debriefing them scribbled some more notes before looking back up at them calmly. "You are still missing a third team member you said. Cadet…" he pulled out several pieces of paper and flipped through them, "…Reno."

John paused awkwardly, floundering for what to say, when Aaron swooped in again, uncaring that the Third has specifically asked John to finish the story. "When we up at the top of the mountain, Reno found some tracks into the forest. Human tracks. He wanted to go after them, but I thought it would be better to just finish. So Reno went on his own, even though we tried to convince him otherwise."

John nodded along appropriately, and the SOLDIER's eyes just barely flicked over to the Lieutenant General, but the First Class SOLDIER didn't look like he was paying them any attention.

"I expect," John interjected, because Aaron had been doing all the talking so far and he should get one more thing in, "that Reno will come back in, maybe even with Cloud and Dan. They'll all make it though."

John's confidence wasn't paper-thin; he really thought they'd come back. To him at least, Cloud was more capable then most of his commanding officers, and Reno was nothing if not clever. Aaron was looking somewhat smug too, and thankfully the SOLDIER seemed like he might be buying it.

While John reflected on how many invisible points he should be getting for loyalty, Aaron hid a knowing smile from the Third. He rather liked flouting authority, and it was hard to do that in the military, so it was nice to spice it up.

The SOLDIER debriefing them folded down his legal pad, reshuffled the papers, and seemed mildly bothered by his superior's presence or lack of attention the whole time, probably worrying he was the one being judged, not the cadets. "We'll have your results back to you when we return to Midgar, but for now, congratulations on getting into SOLDIER. There are rooms available on the second floor for you."

That seemed to be the cue to celebrate, and while John and Aaron were getting some dirty looks for lying to their other teammates, confirmation of SOLDIER—and real confirmation this time—was too good to not be happy about. There was laughter and high five-ing, and John just wanted a hot bath and to sleep in real peace after three weeks of hell. Aaron, however, was apparently quite emboldened by his euphoria. He turned to the Lieutenant General with a bright smile and a hand out. "Aaron Tamboia."

"Zack Fair," the First Class SOLDIER and second in command of all the troops said, putting his cup back on the table and smiling back as they shook hands. "I heard Cloud went missing on your guy's watch?"

Maxwell's team had wide eyes as they heard Lieutenant General Fair refer to Cloud by first name. John had learned about Cloud's private training from Reno, so he wasn't surprised the Lieutenant General had sat in. Apparently Aaron knew as well since his face didn't reflect any surprise.

"Yeah, but I'm sure he's fine. He probably just had to take the long way down. That guy never takes the easy way out," Aaron said easily, waving away any concern.

"Why am I not surprised?" the First said with a somewhat rueful smile that hinted at an inside joke. "Well when he turns up I'll find out what happened. 'Til then, you guys should take advantage of those beds. Trust me, no Third's quarters beats a hotel."

"It was a real honor to meet you, sir." Aaron finished off smoothly, while the rest of the guys uncomfortably snapped salutes and repeated Aaron without any of his confidence.

John had just exited the room but paused when he heard Lieutenant General Fair speak up again. "Seems he vanished. I'm a little suspicious. Think the Turks did something?"

"No." It was the General's voice; John froze. He'd had no idea the General had heard them. "He's of no interest to them." The conversation continued in low tones John couldn't make out, and he didn't think twice before taking a conscious step back from the doorway. There was no way he wanted to be caught eavesdropping on the two highest ranked SOLDIERs in Shinra. He went up to the second floor, unable to stop thinking if Reno was right and how much more to Cloud there was.

Cloud could tell Vincent did not agree with his decision to destroy the reactor.

The blond knew it was risky: Shinra would notice, for one. The undue attention it would bring would also tell Hojo that he was lucky he'd taken Jenova when he did if he'd moved her, and that would make the paranoid scientist even more dangerous.

But Cloud couldn't find it in himself to care as he watched the pipes he'd shattered spew acid that ate away at the side of the building and dribbled mako all over the hungry earth. He couldn't bring himself to feel anything but fury.

This whole thing could have been over. He could have stopped worrying so much; it would have taken care of half the problem.

But no. Not for him.

Aeris had said he'd have to be a hero someway. Apparently it just had to be in a way that couldn't be easy. Cloud clenched and unclenched his fists; frustrated was too weak a word to describe his current mood. Furious, seething, raving, enraged, those were better.

"I know," he bit off suddenly, an answer to Vincent's continued presence that spoke volumes more than he would ever say. The man would never demand an explanation, but the blond felt some need to justify what he was doing. "This place-"

"-Is the same at the Shinra Mansion," Vincent said. And that was all that needed to be said.

He was still incensed with it all; still wanted to rip something apart, grind every last piece of the reactor into dust, and murder Hojo a dozen times over. He would hack every tentacle limb off that man into sushi-sized pieces before he'd ever be satisfied.

Unfortunately Cloud had to settle for his steaming blood cooling in the frosty Nibelheim air as he watched as the tubes of mako began to explode inside, the shrill pops of the shattering glass like fireworks. Part of the ceiling began to groan under the weight of the tubes he'd cut in his frenzy. It wasn't nearly as satisfying, but he still had time to make it to Rocket Town. Maybe he'd take the long way up and see if he couldn't entice a dragon into a fight.

"Thanks for, uh, taking out that, um…thing." Dan swallowed audibly.

"It was nothing."

He stumbled over something on the ground as he tried to make out who was leaning against the tree. Dan squinted into the dark of the forest, just barely able to make out the shape of the man. His eyes glowed strangely, but he was otherwise not altogether frightening in appearance. He wasn't overly tall, with narrow shoulders and a lean build, and all his actions so far were very graceful.

At first Dan had though those bright eyes was a monster, but when the stranger had flicked his wrist and split a beast creeping up on Dan in two with as much effort as Dan took to blink, the cadet was incredibly relieved to no longer be alone in this forest.

"My name is Dan," he offered after a moment of silence, trying to smile as nicely as he could.

The stranger smiled back as his eyes flickered from red to blue then back to red again.

"Genesis."