Direct Scattering

Genesis was angry. No: he was enraged. He'd just found out why Angeal was so miserable and erratic: Hollander was twisting his words to mess with the Dark General's head. Worse still, the pathetic professor had been spiking the honourable SOLDIER's food with high grade depressants, making it even harder for Angeal to cope than it already was.

The redhead stalked through the Modeoheim reactor, Rapier in hand and glowing softly. Hollander had gone too far this time and death would be far more merciful than what Vincent had in mind for the scientist. The red-eyed rogue Turk had been furious when Genesis told her what was going on and had immediately informed him that she would be in Modeoheim in under an hour, but the Crimson General had no intention of letting Hollander live even that much longer. Angeal had been his friend all his life, long before the redhead knew the brunet was also his cousin and the professor's actions were unforgivable.

The Crimson General cornered Hollander on the platform over the reactor core and closed in, sword pointing steadily at the bastard's nose.

"Stop!" the professor protested. "What's the meaning of this? You need me Genesis, remember? If you kill me, then who's going to stop the degradation?"

"Let me tell you a little secret," Genesis purred as he closed in, blade luminous red: "We aren't degrading." He savoured the expression of horror and abrupt panic on the snivelling scientist's face as he swung his Rapier in a smooth arc, lopping off the traitor's head with ease. He should have done this weeks ago.

There was a clanking sound to Genesis' right as Hollander's head bounced across the floor. The Crimson General turned to see Zack standing in the lift, eyes wide and jaw dropped. He'd clearly witnessed what had just occurred. As had Cloud, who was standing beside the puppy in a blood-flecked sky-blue third-class SOLDIER uniform, slightly taller than Genesis remembered him being and with an expression of Turk-like blankness on his face.

"Cloud," the redhead mused warmly, "it really has been too long since I tested your skills, hasn't it? Let's see how much you've improved, shall we?"

The blond SOLDIER third obligingly stepped out of the lift and drew a very impressive broadsword from the harness on his back. "Why is Hollander dead?" he inquired politely, settling into the guard position.

Genesis growled. "He crossed one line to many." That said, the Crimson General lunged.

Cloud proved to be a truly excellent swordsman, with all the grace and nimbleness of his pre-enhancement days compounded with a level of strength, power and speed more commonly found in second-class SOLDIERs. The two limited themselves to pure swordplay for the first ten minutes until Genesis started charging up his Rapier, prompting Cloud to grin like an Ahreman. The Crimson General almost lost a hand to the blast of ice from the blond teen's Contain Materia, then matched the younger boy grin for grin. Cloud combined Sephiroth's proficiency with blades with Genesis' own skill with spells and, despite lacking the strength and speed to match either General blow for blow, he was clearly adept at making his opponents work hard for their victories. This would be closer than Genesis had expected and more fun than the redhead had had in months. Casting Haste on himself, Genesis charged once more into the fray.

It wasn't until Cloud dodged, circled around and jumped high, tendrils of blue dancing over his skin as he called on a Limit Break, that Genesis noticed that Zack was no longer present. However he swiftly put the niggle out of his mind; the blonde chocobo-head could not be allowed to win!


Leaving Cloud to deal with the ever-competitive Genesis Rhapsodos –or was it Genesis Valentine now?– Zack went looking for his former mentor. On determining that Angeal was not in the reactor the SOLDIER first-class started checking all the other buildings in the compound. He didn't bother with the radio tower though, as that was where Tseng and the last surviving infantry grunt were holed up. They wouldn't have left either, since it was the only intact building with heating.

It wasn't until Zack entered the derelict bathhouse that he spotted Angeal, staring into space with the Buster Sword hanging limply from his right hand and his upper pair of wings half-furled around his shoulders. Zack walked closer, hands shoved in his pockets and boots sounding loudly on the tiled floor.

"To tell the truth, I really should have been more careful with Hollander," the Dark General said conversationally, not looking at his former student.

"Well, from what I saw that's been taken care of now," Zack said, the image of Hollander's head soaring through the air to bounce across the floor of the reactor floating across his mind's eye.

"Perhaps, but the next bit is entirely up to you," Angeal continued, spinning around to point the Buster Sword at his onetime student.

Zack stared at the sword point hovering scant inches from his nose. "What do you mean by-" his question was cut short as Angeal lunged forward, sword swinging. The younger SOLDIER leapt out of range of a blow that would have taken his head off if he'd moved any slower, then dodged another potentially lethal blow. "Stop it!"

"There's someone waiting for you, isn't there?" Angeal said evenly, moving closer.

Rosso sprang instantly to Zack's mind, her warm voice over the phone telling him to 'come back safe'. He had promised to. Reluctantly the spiky-haired first-class reached for his own sword. What was going on in his ex-mentor's head? "Angeal, you're not serious are you?" he pleaded. "You have people waiting for you, too!"

The brunet General did not respond, circling his former student and lunging again. Zack parried. "Angeal, why?" he begged. "You have family-"

"My father was dead before I was even conceived," the white-winged SOLDIER growled, "and my mother was so ashamed of me she committed suicide!"

Zack's eyes widened. Gillian had killed herself? That did make more sense than Angeal having killed her, but it couldn't have been because she was ashamed of her son. She had sounded so proud of him when Zack visited her. Besides, the Dark General was honest, honourable and loyal, a true hero that anyone would be proud of.

"I don't believe that," Zack contradicted firmly. "She sounded so proud of you, she would never be ashamed of you."

"Shut up!" Angeal roared. "I'm nothing but a monster! Part of the evil that contaminates the world! Remember your promise!"

Zack had promised to help Angeal purge the world of evil, but there was no way Angeal was evil. That was like saying Midgar Zoloms were cute and fluffy. He was about to say so when there was a flash of light and then where his former mentor had been standing there was a creature unlike anything Zack had ever seen before. It had the body of a Guard Hound with three barbed tails, the wings of a griffin, the arms of a Sagahin and a disconcertingly human face surrounded by a wolf-like mane of dark hair. It also had a very large and nasty-looking trident in its right hand. Zack gaped as the monster bounced in place on all four legs then levelled the trident at him and lunged. One of the weapon's saw-edged outer prongs slashed his cheek to the bone when he didn't dodge quite fast enough.

"Angeal, what happened to honour!" the young first-class screamed, fury and misery churning in his stomach as he raised his sword back into the guard position. His mentor may have gone completely insane, but Zack absolutely refused to force anyone else to deal with it.


One very messy battle later the bathhouse was gutted with most of the ceiling gone and Angeal was back in his human form, lying on the ground mortally wounded with no wings in sight. Zack stared hopelessly down at his former mentor as the older man struggled for breath. This was Sephiroth's uncle, Genesis' cousin and best friend, and Zack had all but killed him. Guilt weighed on his heart like a Sector Plate, crushing it.

"Zack? You did well," Angeal rasped. The younger brunet dropped down on one knee and couldn't stop a sob from leaving his throat.

"I'm counting on you to go on," the Dark General continued, clumsily holding out his Buster Sword. "Take it."

Zack gasped and sobbed again, unable to stop himself, but nonetheless reached out to grip the sword hilt. As he took the weight Angeal's hand fell back to the ground, leaving him holding the blade alone.

"Never forget your honour," the Dark General whispered through blue lips, then relaxed and closed his eyes. Zack quickly swung the Buster Sword to one side and leaned closer. Angeal couldn't be dead! Genesis and Seph would kill him!

"Angeal!"

Zack leapt backwards across the rubble-strewn floor as a figure wrapped in a tattered cloak dropped from the sky to crouch over the Dark General and frantically felt for a pulse. "Angeal!" the desperate cry came again.

The SOLDIER swallowed hard. Wild black hair and a gold gauntlet over the left forearm; this was Vincent Valentine, Sephiroth's mother and Angeal's older sister. She made an odd keening sound, then her head snapped up to glare at him, burning crimson eyes boring holes in his skull.

"Get out."

"I..." Zack stuttered, not sure what he wanted to say.

"OUT!"

Zack fled. As he reached the doorway to the outside the entire building exploded, sending him flying into the snow.

"Zack?" Cloud appeared and helped the SOLDIER first to his feet. "What-"

"I killed Angeal," Zack said flatly, voice sounding oddly distant to his own ears as rain began to fall around them. "He's dead." The brunet's breath caught painfully in his throat. "Seph's going to kill me."

Cloud gently took the Buster Sword off the other SOLDIER and produced a Materia. "You need to rest Zack; you're in shock," the blond said gently. "Sleep. I'll take care of everything for you."

Zack surrendered to the rising darkness. He really did not care anymore.


And cut. You can never plan for everything and when you try to, shit like this happens. Poor puppy.

I'm sick and bedridden, so the next chapter may take a while. Take heart in that death is not always the end...