I can't reply to my newer reviews through messaging as the site won't let me, so I'm doing it here:
wanderingmusician: thanks, that stuff is more important than you'd think...
Road and Tyki: Cloud has no idea, but Angeal is guessing, Vincent knows and Lazard is suspicious.
Kitsune Onna1: Seph will indeed have a terrible time, but by then Vincent will be better at doing it.
Khelc-sul Renai: Thank-you! It's really encouraging to get this kind of review.
Lemrinth: Dark red is the official Valentine colour scheme. It's traditional as it matches the hereditary Valentine eyes.
Now, on with the story!
Periodic Orbits
Five days after Angeal hitched a lift to Junon with the infantry Genesis breezed back into Midgar looking as though he'd come back from a three-week bender. Despite his slightly thinner and paler features the Crimson General was still as melodramatic and flamboyant as ever, sniping at Sephiroth in an attempt to get a rise out of the younger General and quoting LOVELESS to all and sundry. He was also intrigued by the anonymous prankster who was terrorising the board of directors; on the day the Crimson General returned Lazard's office was painted in a tasteful shade of pink with yellow and green pastel butterflies decorating the ceiling. There was even a betting pool in SOLDIER on who the culprit -or culprits- could be and a lot of gil riding on the outcome. Genesis tracked down Angeal's puppy as soon as Lazard had given him the bare bones of what had been going on in his absence and had the second-class give him the particulars of everything that had occurred while he was away.
Zack obligingly recounted every last prank, which took a while as he kept having to stop because Genesis was laughing so hard at the descriptions and a few other passing firsts and a second joined in to add bits and pieces Zack missed.
"I think it's the Turks," Zack said at the end of the recital. "The flowery Mideel shirts were just to throw us all off; only a Turk could have made all of Hojo's needles disappear for the day and do the sugar syrup stunt. Unless you think it's one of the scientists?"
"No, it can't be a scientist, but why would a Turk want to do all that stuff?" a first-class asked. "And did you see Veld's face on the day of the Shirt Incident? No way is it a Turk conspiracy. I'd have said it was the scruffy redhead Turk except he has alibis. Valid alibis."
"How's Sephiroth been dealing with the blatant anarchy and sabotage?" Genesis asked. He personally thought this had something to do with Vincent's cute blond protégé; he'd only met the boy the once over breakfast, but the stories had indicated the presence of the kind of sense of humour that would enjoy switching Scarlet's wire shipments for string liquorice.
"He's not acting like he'd stab you for breathing too loudly anymore, thank Gaia," the first-class said. "Lazard found him an aide who runs errands and organises the paperwork. The kid's totally fearless; looks all delicate and cuddly right until he points a weapon at you and his eyes freeze over."
"What?" Zack blurted out, looking panicked. "Spiky threatened someone? What did they do? Why didn't anyone tell me about it earlier?"
"Relax," the first-class -Genesis thought his name was Yuri Antonin- chuckled. "It happened yesterday while you were out on those training missions. One of the upper level bureaucrats in the Space Exploration Department decided -very stupidly considering whose aide the kid is- that he wanted the blond as a bedwarmer, cornered him in the lower offices and tried to pressure him. According to the secretary on duty Strife pulled a gun out of nowhere and shoved it in the moron's groin, telling him to back off or lose his bits."
Genesis eyes lit up. "Strife? Chocobo haircut, pretty face, moves like a hunting cat on the prowl?"
"You know him sir?" Antonin asked.
Genesis grinned. "The wind sails over the water's surface; Quietly, but surely. Strife wants to join SOLDIER; he'll be signing up in the autumn provided the Turks don't abduct him before then."
"Shit, sir," Antonin said, "Strife'll make a fantastic SOLDIER. He's not afraid of any of us; hell, not even General Sephiroth scares him."
"What happened to the bureaucrat harassing him?" Zack inquired, voice dangerously light and even. Genesis hadn't known Angeal's puppy had it in him to sound that scary.
Antonin grinned. "Well, he almost pissed himself when Strife pulled the gun on him and legged it. Then the kid tried to file a sexual harassment charge but the General came to see what was holding him up and found out what had happened." he paused dramatically. "He was so pissed, and I mean really, really angry. Not like the latent anger back before Strife showed up but burning, focused rage. The Turks had to scramble to get the guy out of the building and shipped off to Rocket town so Sephiroth couldn't dismember him for his insolence. The Space Exploration Department was panicking 'cause the Silver General was storming around all four of their floors with Masamune drawn looking for someone to kill and it took Strife hours to calm him down even after Palmer promised to fire the moron and get him blacklisted on the company register." Antonin chuckled evilly. "General Sephiroth really, really wanted to get a helicopter up to Rocket town and chop the guy into itty bitty pieces. Strife did talk him out of it but if the General ever sees that moron again I wouldn't bet on his chances."
"What is it with Strife and General Sephiroth anyway?" a second-class asked. "That's kinda overkill for a sexual harassment charge."
"Sounds rather like what Angeal would have done if another SOLDIER had tried something similar with Zack here," Genesis said casually, "and Cetra knows Sephiroth's the possessive type. If the kid's his aide and as good as he seems then there's no way he'll let any kind of threat near the boy if he can help it. Us SOLDIERs can take care of ourselves but Strife's not augmented." The Crimson General paused thoughtfully. "Anyone willing to bet against Sephiroth taking Strife on as his student if the blond makes it into SOLDIER?"
"No way; I'm not that gullible, sir," Antonin responded with a grin. "He's already been tutoring Strife with swords in the simulation room. I've watched: the kid's got talent to burn."
"Then us SOLDIERs will just have to keep the Turks away until Strife passes the exams," Genesis announced. "We can't have Sephiroth's new protégé wearing a blue suit now can we?"
As soon as Genesis had cleared up his paperwork backlog he hunted down Sephiroth for a spar. The Silver General was more relaxed than the redhead had ever seen him before -which was suspicious in itself- and agreed immediately, pushing his own paperwork to one side and striding out of his office, Cloud at his heels in a smart ShinRa suit.
Sephiroth insisted on two 'warm-up' fights before going all-out: one pure swordplay and one with just magic and hand-to-hand. Genesis agreed readily enough and the sparring session began, Zack standing well out of the way with Cloud and acting as referee while a large number of SOLDIERs of all three ranks gravitated to the observation room to watch. The Silver General won the sword fight in under ten minutes but the Materia brawl dragged on for ages, the advantage swinging back and forth between the two generals until Genesis finally clipped Sephiroth with a Stop spell and pinned him to the ground.
"So, one-all," Cloud said lightly, dropping down to bring both Generals ethers and somas to get them back up to fighting strength for the final match. The Crimson General's sharp eyes caught a glimpse of the green Materia in the boy's fist. "Either of you need a Cure?"
"Genesis has heavy bruising on his leg and a twisted ankle," Sephiroth said promptly, "and I have burns on both arms."
Cloud cast a spell that just had to come form a mastered Full Cure. It also felt more powerful than any Cure spell he'd ever felt before. "Where'd you buy that Full Cure Materia, Strife?" Genesis asked.
The blond looked puzzled. "Um, this is a normal Restore Materia, General. Naturally formed and everything. I've never even heard of a 'Full Cure' before."
The Crimson General's eyes widened. "Natural Materia? How many natural Materia do you have exactly, Strife?"
The boy looked puzzled. "All my Materia are natural; manufactured ones really don't compare since they only do one spell apiece. As for numbers, um, twenty-nine I think."
There was a stunned silence in the simulation room.
"You have on your person twenty-nine different naturally formed Materia," Genesis repeated incredulously. Even Sephiroth was staring now.
"Well, I've got a few repeats of the more useful ones and a couple of baby ones I didn't count from when I mastered the others, but yeah," Cloud confirmed uncertainly. "Why, is that a lot?"
"After this fight is over you are going to show me everything you can do with your Materia," the Crimson General breathed, a slightly fanatical gleam glinting in his Mako-blue eyes. "Come on Sephiroth; let's get this show on the road!"
Genesis returns, ready to take on the planet and rescue siblings in distress.
Cloud doesn't realise how good he is with magic because Vincent just insists he be able to do everything with anything. He also doesn't know how rare natural Materia are generally considered to be; they take more effort to level up than ShinRa manufactured ones and cost slightly more when new. The truth is that they're only rare in Midgar because ShinRa produce so many manufactured ones for SOLDIER use that natural ones don't sell. Out in less civilised areas natural Materia is easy to buy. Or steal, as is often the case with Cloud.
