Disclaimer: The characters are the property of Square Enix and the creators of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII.

Author's Note: Hello again! Wow, thank you very much for your response to the first chapter. That was very encouraging, so thank you, first, to all of you who read and reviewed Chapter 1, second, to those who followed, and third, to those who favourited.

So without further ado, here is the second installment of Ghost, and I hope you find it interesting. Action will come in due course. ;) Best, Zen :D

To: G. Rhapsodos

Cc.: G Hollander

Subject: (none)

Genesis,

After Professor Hollander's recent indiscretion, I agree that aspects of my plans may be flawed and require reconsideration before taking further.

You have my word that neither Angeal nor Sephiroth will be involved in any future schemes so long as you retain your silence on this matter.

As for their cell samples, their rights to these cells are forfeit on collection by the Science Department, from the moment of which they belong to the company. I cannot make any promises concerning their use.

Lazard Deusericus, Director of Soldier

To: L Deusericus

Cc.: -

Subject: (none)

Lazard,

I sincerely apologise for my slip up with Genesis. I do not recall ever siccing him into the thread. I don't have any record of having sent him the e-mails and this confounds me as much as I'm sure it does you.

I suspect that a third party may be involved and a possible bug.

Greyson Hollander, Science Department

To: G Hollander

Cc.: -

Subject: (none)

Hollander,

I suggest that for the time being that you refrain from contacting me about this business.

Genesis is a sharp judge of character and I agree with his sentiment regarding your incompetence. Small mistakes are the stepping stones to larger ones and, considering what would be at stake, I cannot afford any more 'slip-ups'.

Doctor Hollander, you have been a researcher at Shinra for a good many years now. That there 'may be a bug' is the norm. It should come as no surprise to you.

I am also rather sad to learn you hold my surveillance bypass in such contempt as to think it could be cracked so soon.

As I have said already, please refrain from contacting me any further on this topic.

Lazard Deusericus, Director of Soldier

In the Shinra Company mainframe, Cloud was very pleased with himself.

He wasn't powerless after all. He had edited an e-mail.

It was a small start, but the logical leaps from that offered a giddying high of potential. It meant that he could write and delete and edit, and once he learned how to make e-mails from scratch, he could communicate with the outside world.

Cloud had all of Shinra's written communications bar its paper notes in his hands. He could delete funding requests from Hojo's laboratory over and over again until the Science Department fell into disrepair! He could redirect Soldier missions just by switching out the names of those involved and the places they would be going! Zack and Sephiroth, and Cloud himself, would never have to Nibelheim.

He really could change many, many things!

Unless, of course, the past that Cloud had already experienced was already the result of a future-Cloud's meddling.

The thought shot him down from his whirling high like a giant Meteor, grinding his momentary euphoria to dust.

It was true. What if Cloud really had been here already? Had Cloud landed in the past to make sure that all those terrible things happened to prevent a time paradox? Was he expected to oversee and encourage the events that led up, ultimately, to Meteor?

Cloud refused to believe it. Had a future-Cloud already been present in the background of all those events in his other past, things had to have happened the way they did because he had tried to stop them, not because he had triggered them. He couldn't bear to think it had been any other way.

If all those events had happened because a previous time-travelling Cloud had failed to stop them, then it was doubly Cloud's responsibility to ensure that they didn't happen again. He just had to try harder than the Cloud before him.

He had to do something. He had to at least try.

You're going back on your words, a wheedling voice at the edge of his consciousness whispered at him. Didn't you say that you wouldn't change the course of events even if you could? Is it worth creating a new past when all the good things that you know came after will be destroyed?

…but wasn't there a chance that all the good things could be destroyed and remade better?

Exactly! Cloud seized upon the thought and shoved the whispers aside. The future could be better! The future could be a place where Cloud didn't indulge the eccentricities of a senile gadget-man by trialling his time-crossing communication device and winding up trapped in the Shinra computer mainframe of the year 2000!

What better revenge could he have on the future than denying its existence?

Besides, affecting the future was the birth-right of every living thing. Despite everything, Cloud was still alive, wasn't he?

Wasn't he?

He put a hasty block on that thought. Instead, he turned his attention to the Shinra systems the mainframe covered: Personal terminals, PHSs, card access, locks, employee databases, archived files, all the outlets of public relations, security cameras and enforcement bots – here, from the centre of Shinra, Cloud could access everything. He would need time to adjust to his senses and explore his capabilities, but once he had learned how to play with all the available pieces, Shinra's internal affairs were his for the sabotaging.

This needed more targeted planning. He needed to make clear with himself what exactly a Better Future was and then work out how he could achieve it.

He would have to think more on the topic when he wasn't being distracted by the strange new world, but to see any plans for the future through to the long term, he would have to keep his meddling subtle. It was a shame really. The idea of hacking into the Shinra PA system and broadcasting the Science Department's human experimentation record for all to hear was very tempting.

Speaking of human experimentation, Cloud reminded himself, he needed to follow up on Genesis Rhapsodos. That man had deserted Shinra's army in Wutai sometime around this period. He certainly hadn't been at Shinra when Cloud had arrived. What the circumstances behind the desertion were, Cloud could only guess, but the point was, Genesis had a record of willingly shrugging off duties to both company and friends to pursue his own ends – even if he had yet to actually do such a thing in this timeline. When Genesis had said he would go and find a cure for his degradation himself, he was very likely to do just that.

Except Cloud had seen the messages travelling to Genesis's inbox all day – mostly from a Soldier First Class Angeal Hewley (a Soldier Zack remembered with a warm respect and burdened sadness), but there were a couple from Sephiroth too – messages reminding Genesis of his duties, telling him about the missions they had covered for him, speculating on when the three of them would be sent to Wutai, asking whether if he would be up for a meal or a couple of bouts in the evening. Essentially, they were both checking up on Genesis in the most roundabout way possible to avoid scraping his pride.

Genesis had friends looking out for him even as he tried to push them away and keep them at arm's length at the times he should have needed them most.

Remind you of anybody? spoke up that dry little whisper at the back of his thoughts.

Shush.

For the moment, Cloud was busy wrapping his mind around Sephiroth being a concerned friend of any sort to anybody. A series of impossible images paraded through his consciousness: Sephiroth the Winged Menace checking his phone, Sephiroth the God Who Almost Was at an office desk, Sephiroth the Bringer of Doom to all Mankind taking a moment between paperwork to type out an e-mail.

Clearly none of these images were impossible anymore but they were still required Cloud to his force his mind into shapes that couldn't be healthy for his sanity.

The idea of Sephiroth being alive again had apparently not sunken in yet. It was possibly because Cloud hadn't seen him yet, but when that bombshell finally dropped on him, Cloud certainly hoped he had some other outlet for his frustration in cyberspace other than messing with Shinra's e-mails, or else the technicians would be dealing with a flood of complaints as to why all their messages had been replaced with a single typed out scream.

It had surprised Cloud a little when Genesis had demanded both protection for Angeal and Sephiroth from Lazard and Hollander's plans. To be fair to the man, it shouldn't have surprised Cloud at all, but he had been a deserter in Cloud's previous past. If he cared about the other two Firsts at all, why had Genesis left?

Now that he came to think of it, Angeal Hewley hadn't been around when Cloud joined Shinra either. Something must have happened to break these three Firsts apart, and whatever it was, it was going to happen soon.

The most obvious 'something' would be Genesis's degradation. Hollander had referred to an accident in his e-mails involving Sephiroth and Angeal, where Genesis was wounded and his degradation discovered shortly after. Hollander had already encouraged Genesis to isolate himself and keep his condition a secret. On top of that, Genesis's pride, or insecurity, or maybe it was just that special brand of insanity that seemed to come with the title of First Class was already threatening to drive the tip of a wedge between them.

Something was going to start from Genesis's degradation that would result in Angeal and Genesis leaving Shinra and Sephiroth continuing on, lonely at the top.

A thought occurred to Cloud. Wouldn't it be easier to deal with Sephiroth if the other two Firsts were alive? He had no idea what their skill or strength was, but seeing as Cloud was a puff of binary tucked into the heart of Shinra and wasn't going to be swinging a sword any time soon, he needed somebody around the place who could fight on Sephiroth's level - if Cloud couldn't manage to kill him before Nibelheim.

Cloud turned his thoughts back to Hollander and Lazard's e-mails. He had a niggling feeling that he had missed something important, and after sieving his memories he remembered with a jolt.

A clone army. Genesis's cells turned those who received them into his clones, and they had been planning to make a clone army from them. Even in Cloud's books of Extraordinary Phenomena I Have Seen and Wished that I Hadn't, a clone army was far from normal, but more to the point, hadn't an ability to trigger her own replication by taking over the bodies of others been a famous property of Jenova?

Cloud cursed to himself. Had he a body, he would have been pacing around in cyberspace, his arms folded, his strides short and tense.

Damn the Science Department, damn Shinra and damn the thrice damned Soldier program! Was Genesis a host for Jenova cells as well? If he was, killing Sephiroth would all be for nothing. Genesis could just as easily be sent to Nibelheim and take his place. Then what of Angeal? Was he another potential 'son' of Jenova? How many 'sons' had Shinra created in their quest for their so-called Promised Land?!

Cloud didn't know enough about either of the other two Firsts to make any useful decisions. That had to change. He couldn't afford to be ignorant, not this time. He needed to know if they were related to Jenova, and how they were likely going to be a threat to his plans.

He hummed to himself and shifted through the swirling data sea.

There was one department that, if it was doing its job probably, ought to provide him with answers. Stretching out the fingers of his awareness, Cloud located the Science Department's file area and drifted towards it, curious to test his abilities.

He was disappointed to find that one thing he couldn't do yet was get into the Science Department's files. Apparently somebody exceptionally paranoid had put it under the metaphysical version of triple-lock, retina scan, voice recognition and blood test 'authorised MHC here only' security and Cloud was still figuring out how to lift the door handle.

He bit back his frustration, but promising to himself that he would come back once he was wiser he turned away to go hunting elsewhere.

Hollander's laptop, for example. He could feel it connected up to the intranet like an open sluice-gate letting water flow into a lock. If Hollander had been studying Genesis's degradation, there was a high chance he had something useful on his disks, and if Cloud could get out of Cait Sith and Reeve's PC, in theory, he ought to be able to get into the laptop without much trouble.

He tried to recall the experience of flowing he had felt on leaving Reeves' computer, imagined reversing it, and suddenly he was supple, cold and trickling down a canal into a space packed with the silent noise of resting data, like bats tucked up on the ceiling of a cavern, occasionally stretching their wings and clacking teeth. All the firewalls and anti-virus software were pitiful in the face of Cloud.

After the lack of boundaries and walls inside the mainframe, the sudden bottling into Hollander's laptop was tight and suffocatingly restrictive. For a moment he was trapped in a loop of claustrophobic panic. The same urge to claw at the walls that harried him to flee from Cait Sith rose up in him again like a scream…

He took a metaphysical deep breath. It was alright. He could flow free from Hollander's laptop any time he wanted. He was just going to look around, search for anything containing possible references Genesis or Jenova, and hopefully find something reasonably useful so that he could formulate his plans.

He found what he was hoping for much faster than he anticipated, because when Cloud slipped inside his computer, Hollander was busy updating records on Project G with all the new observations from Genesis's cells.

Cloud left the laptop with a copy of the file tucked under his proverbial armpit, and Hollander remained blissfully ignorant of the theft that had occurred right under his very fingers.

"The next time I say that I am going to take on a mother Behemoth and her three children alone and unhindered, you will respect my wishes or I will disrespect your rights to remain amongst the witless living. Do you understand or do I need to arrange to have this tattooed onto your knuckles?" Genesis snapped, whirling on his heels to confront the two Second Class Soldiers slathered in black monster ooze behind him.

"We understand, sir," mumbled the two Seconds despondently, dripping slime onto the floor. "Sorry, sir."

Genesis huffed. Honestly, these two men had the build of fruit stalls and looked as though they had melons waiting to burst from their arms and they were twiddling their fingers and scuffing their shoes like nervous children! Genesis would have laughed if he hadn't just been (not saved, dammit, definitely not saved) assisted in a death match gone wrong with a Behemoth.

"But – er - Sir?"

He shot the Second a look that dared him to continue if he valued his life, but there was clearly something about Soldiers - maybe all that mako mucked up their instincts for self-preservation - because the hapless Soldier Second went on to ask: "Are you alright, sir? Because you seemed to be in a bit of pain when you went in for the cut over – "

"Sir," his partner interjected as Genesis's smile started to take on the shiny curved look of a drawn scimitar, "it was a privilege following you on this mission today. We apologise for getting in the Behemoth's way - I mean, your way."

"Good." Genesis continued to smile at the pair of Seconds for another uncomfortable minute, before he pulled off his gloves and gestured at them to go away with an imperious flick of his hand. "Then this is where it's customary for me to say, 'well done, thank you for your efforts, today you have done good in the name of Shinra, etcetera, etcetera', so! Well done, thank you for your efforts, today you have done good in the name of Shinra. There! Joy to the world! I've said it now, so if the two of you can now exit stage left and find somewhere with a shower and lots of soap, I'll be much happier with the view currently in front of me."

"Yes, sir! Thank you, sir."

"You are dismissed."

The Second Classes clicked their heels, saluted and went on their way. To Genesis's amusement they left behind a track of sticky black bootprints across the reception floor, earning them some very pointed looks from the receptionists until a cleaning robot trundled out from behind a potted plant and started sucking up the slime from the carpet.

He watched the robot apply what looked like a small hair-drier to a footprint before making his way to the lifts. He had a feeling that the temp girl at the reception desk had piped up a request for an autograph, but it was quiet enough that he could pretend he hadn't heard it. He brushed her aside, stepped into the first lift that came and pressed the button for his floor.

Soon the lift was rising, smooth and slow. For anybody with normal hearing it would have been utterly silent, but with Genesis's enhanced hearing he could hear the wires creaking above and below him and the scour of the cable on the pulley. He preferred it to oppressive silence. It reminded him of how precariously close anything living always was to death. He thought it was rather fitting for Soldier 'lift music'.

Bracing himself for the state of his coat, Genesis glanced down at himself. He grimaced at the splatter of black blood smeared across the hems and inwardly raged.

This would never have happened before the accident!

The whole point of the red leather longcoat was that it was a boast of his skill! And excellent aesthetic taste!

He paused. Alright, perhaps the display of skill wasn't the whole point, but it was a very large part of the point. That he could move through a battlefield in that cumbersome longcoat coat without getting a single mark on it, just as well as Sephiroth could, was something Genesis had taken great pride in. No, not just as well as Sephiroth – better than Sephiroth. Sephiroth flapped around in his monstrous black cloak like a giant bat. Genesis, on the other hand flew with style, and panache.

But now the red leather longcoat stank of monster, the hems were stiffening with drying blood, and his reflection in the window looked strained and just slightly stunned. He had taken on Behemoths many times before. He knew what he needed to do to bring them down, what cuts to use, where to apply them, how fast he needed to move, and yet, this time, he had needed the intervention of a couple of green-eared Seconds to get him out of his mess.

"You don't get between a predator and its prey." He remembered the reckless dive of one of the Seconds straight into the path of the angry Behemoth sow, blocking Genesis's attack. "Isn't that one of the first things they teach you in the Monster Behaviour seminars?"

Before he knew it, he had bunched his hands into fists, and he would have punched a sizeable hole into the window if the lift doors hadn't chosen that moment to chime and open wide.

A small man in a grey suit. He looked like an accountant. He stepped into the lift, carrying an armful of paperwork, took one look at Genesis standing by the window glass with his fists raised and went deathly pale.

Genesis flashed him a thin-lipped smile. "Are you sure you don't want to use the other lift?"

The man slowly backed out.

"Well done." Genesis kept his hands clenched and his smile taut. "Your head will remain on your neck for one more insignificant day of your insignificant life."

The doors closed on the terrified accountant's face. Genesis lowered his hands to his sides.

The look on all their faces, of everybody who wasn't in Soldier, the way they quailed and cowered and stared! It wasn't hero worship at all. It wasn't envy either. It was the very same look that they gave the monsters the Soldiers sometimes captured, be it on a dissecting slab, in a cage or an observation chamber. Prey recognised predators by instinct and when the soft, sheltered, little people of Midgar and Shinra looked at the Soldiers their hearts saw monsters in human skin.

And the little people had been right all along. What human being could turn other men into their own mindless copies just by a sample of his DNA?

The doors of the elevators opened onto the Soldier habitation floor. It was already late in the evening, so the corridors were largely empty, and when the odd Second saw him stalking by towards them in the same foul mood as he when he had left for the mission, they sensibly made themselves scarce.

Angeal had left a note on his door. Apparently he was pleased to hear that Genesis was out on missions again, but had been poached by Shinra for a Soldier recruitment event in Junon. It happened quite often these days. Sephiroth the long-time Shinra poster boy had gotten cleverer over the years and somehow always managed to disappear on a week-long expedition just when the recruitment events came round. In Sephiroth's absence, Shinra PR had turned to Angeal. Angeal could swing a sword that was roughly the same height and weight as his favourite student. There wasn't a single more obvious display of how mako could enhance a body, and, unlike Genesis's Rapier, the Buster was big enough to be seen by the kids at the back of the crowds.

Lately, however, the PR department had started sparing Sephiroth the tedium of the events to check Angeal's availability first. Angeal was just too good at what he did. He was far more patient with the potential recruits and their questions than Sephiroth had ever been. PR had never asked Genesis to go to a recruitment fair. They probably thought Genesis, with his lean build and toothpick of a blade, would make potential recruits think they were being scammed, or perhaps they simply didn't dare.

Genesis tore down the note from his door and pushed into his room.

It was as he was peeling off his coat and trying to recall what floor number for Shinra's dry-cleaning service that his PHS buzzed on the table.

It was an e-mail, but what made Genesis pause as he opened his PHS to have a check it properly was that the sender's name was blank, not a dot or dash or letter in sight.

There was however a subject:

In case you think this spam, I know about your degradation so I suggest you read on

That word 'degradation' slapped Genesis in the face like the flat side of Angeal's Buster. The PHS creaked under the pressure of his fingers.

He strained his ears for the tell-tale whine of a Turk bug somewhere in his room and heard nothing. Glancing over his shoulders for good measure, he opened the e-mail.

To: G. Rhapsodos

Cc.: -

Subject: In case you think this spam, I know about your degradation so I suggest you read on

First Class Genesis Rhapsodos,

If you value your friends in anyway, you will listen to what I have to say. This is not because I am holding them hostage. I am trying to appeal to you as a human being, since that is what you are.

Genesis snorted, but read on nonetheless, although his head was buzzing with an explosion of questions. The sender had kicked a mental hornet's nest.

Please take some time to read the attached file. I took this file directly from Hollander's laptop and I think it should answer most of the questions you might have about degradation and its causes.

Once you have read the file, send me a reply. You do not need to worry about the Turks. They will not see these e-mails. This I can promise, although, since you don't know who I am I will understand if my promises mean very little to you.

"Exactly so," Genesis murmured, contemplating the strange e-mail, "and how am I supposed to reply to somebody without an address? Care to tell me that?"

Was this a trap? Was this an elaborate scheme by the Turks to catch Genesis out as a traitor to the Company? Had they seen his potential involvement in Lazard and Hollander's coup and decided to lure him out with a leaked file?

Having said that, what did it matter anyway? He was planning on the leaving the Company as soon as a mission took him somewhere Shinra's influence was weaker. Wutai, for example. Once there, he could disappear into the enemy territory and start looking for a cure to his degradation himself. As soon as he could be assured that Angeal and Sephiroth weren't going to be used by two men who thought little of disposing of them like snotty tissues, Genesis was ready to strike out on his own.

He was already a traitor at heart and, to be honest, he was almost curious to see those Turks just try to bring him in.

With an icy trickle of anticipation running down his spine, Genesis set up his laptop on his desk and re-opened the e-mail. The attachment was a classified document. The first page was a title-page, printed in crisp manuscript font and headed in bold capital letters, emblazoned across a Science Department watermark.

PROJECT G

Report 1: 14 October 1979

G Hollander, F Sommszy, R Matthenson, K Machiya, G Hewley et al.

Objective: The reproduction of Ancient abilities in humans via the implantation of Ancient cells into human foetuses.

Abstract: Here we report on our first success in infusing a human foetus with Ancient cells via the vector of a mature human female host. Foetus remained stable during development and was delivered safely to term without difficulties. Ancient cells were fully incorporated into the blastocyst without any need for strong external stimuli and contributed to the embryo.

Through real-time imaging of the foetus' cells, as well as gene rearrangement analysis, we found that close contact exposure to the Ancient cells produced chimeric genomes and mimicry of DNA methylation and SNP distribution in foetal cells, suggesting a high potential for manifestation of an Ancient's abilities in the future.

Thus our findings indicate that Ancient cells that have been previously acclimatised to a human physiological environment in a mature human host (G Hewley) can be used to successfully produce an Ancient/human hybrid embryo.

Infant born without physical defects to V Rhapsodos and remains under observation.

He felt cold all over as if doused in melting snow. Genesis read on, his fingers twitching on the mouse, eyes glued to the screen, his blood seething as he turned page after page.

There were tables, charts, pictures of fluorescing proteins and cells stained a spectrum of colours, interspersed with ultrasound pictures of a developing human baby, health reports first of 'G. Hewley' and later 'V. Rhapsodos', and a meticulously detailed record of how Genesis had been created.

Specimen, hybrid, chimera, acclimatised cells - If he hadn't already thought himself a monster Genesis would have been convinced of it now, but 'G. Hewley'? Wasn't Angeal's mother a 'Gillian' Hewley? Genesis had vague memories of calling a stern but gentle-faced woman 'Ms Jill' when he was younger, but how had she come to be involved in this experiment?

And as Genesis turned a page, his mind swimming with questions, he found himself slamming his fist onto the table in a burst of outrage.

It was incomplete! The file this anonymous sender had sent him was incomplete! He had piqued Genesis's interest this much and he had the nerve to keep him hanging?

With a ferocious tapping of keys, he tossed down a reply (This is only half the file. Where is the rest of it? Who are you? What do you want from me?) and sent it before he could realise just how ridiculous it was that he was sending an e-mail without an address and expecting it to be received.

To Genesis's astonishment, seconds later, a new message appeared in his inbox, again without a sender address.

It was little like watching writing being inscribed on a wall by an invisible hand.

I sent only half of the Project G file because I didn't think you would reply to me otherwise. I thought you would take the file and run. I am sorry I had to drip feed the information like this. I will give you the rest of the file when I am finished here.

What do I want from you?

My guess is that you are planning on leaving the Company to search for a cure to degradation by yourself as soon as you can. You feel that Shinra has betrayed you, and, yes, it has.

Doubly so, now that he read that file and learned how Shinra had been keeping the truth from him all these years. Genesis grimaced and narrowed his eyes.

As you can probably work out from the contents of the first part of the Project file, the cells of the 'Ancient', processed through Gillian Hewley's body, are the cause of your degradation. Since Gillian Hewley's body contained these cells, there is a high chance that your friend First Class Angeal Hewley will also be affected by degradation.

I want you to reconsider leaving the Company. Aside from the obvious that your leaving will abandon Angeal here to face degradation alone, with nobody but Hollander to understand what is happening, I also can't help but think that deserting will just drive you straight into the hands of people who would want to use you. Hollander or Lazard will probably approach you again, and when you are a sick and dying fugitive, without any allies, I think you will find it much harder to refuse whatever they offer you.

They will find a way to make use of you, they will get away with whatever plans they have involving you and you will not see a cure. They will use you and then leave you to die.

A concerned stranger

Genesis curled his fingers over the keyboard. How dare this man, or woman, or whoever it was - this stranger! - dare to look down on his capabilities in this way? Genesis would survive fine on his own, be he rotting inside out or not! And how dare he bring Angeal into this? Who did he think he was?

The clock on his desk pointed delicate blue steel hands at the passing minutes. Genesis sent his reply.

Stranger,

I am insulted you think I cannot manage on my own and that I will need somebody within Shinra to help me get by. I will survive whatever is thrown at me and I refuse to be bullied this way into giving up my plans simply because you are holding Angeal's life hostage against me.

Angeal's degradation is only a vague possibility. Worst comes to worst, I will be setting out to find a cure for the both of us. Angeal can stay here, with his honour, dignity and reputation intact and all the things he cares about around him. The only one who needs to fall is me, and Angeal will not be alone if Sephiroth remains.

I notice that you don't talk about Sephiroth. He is different from the two of us, isn't he? I imagine that he isn't part of Project G at all, but another Project altogether. He won't degrade like the rest of us, will he? I'm right, aren't I?

Trust Sephiroth to always be the perfect one.

You seem to have sent me this HALF of a file (may I remind you) to convince me not to desert Shinra. All it has done is confirm exactly what I already thought to be true: We Soldiers are monsters, and we three Elite are the most monstrous of them all.

It is the way of the monster - a creature that knows no love in the world and never will – to carve itself a place of its own by force of its own will, and run, and destroy, and cause pain to others. I am just doing as a monster is a meant to do.

Shinra made me the monster that I am. Forgive me as I pay my due respects to Shinra by behaving like the one I was born to be.

Genesis Rhapsodos, Soldier First Class

He sat back from his laptop, felt something twist inside at his own words like a poison he had been forced to swallow. He could taste his own self-loathing at the back of his mouth.

A soft chime. A new message. He hesitated before opening, and then pushed himself to open it when he realised he was behaving like a trooper over a letter of acceptance to Soldier. No attached file, he noticed with some annoyance. The stranger was determined to keep him talking.

Genesis would be damned before he walked away with only half of the whole truth.

Genesis,

There. You've said it yourself.

You know that you will cause pain and you know that you will be acting exactly in the way that the Company wants. They wanted to use you for your clone-production ability. They want you to think that you are a monster in order that they can use you as exactly that - a monster, with none of the rights of a human being.

Are you really going to let Shinra direct what you believe about yourself? As for behaving like the monster you were created to be, well, the glue on the back of sticky notes was supposed to be used for aeroplanes.

I'm surprised that you're so quick to condemn your friends as monsters. I can't say much for Sephiroth, but Angeal seems about as far from a monster as anybody.

A concerned stranger

'I can't say much for Sephiroth'? Did this stranger know Sephiroth? How could he know Sephiroth? Sephiroth was about as subtle in the sea of human relations as an iceberg the size of the Gold Saucer. If Sephiroth had got to know anybody outside of their smallest of circles, be it as a friend or an enemy, Genesis and Angeal would definitely have seen the ripples of the crash.

Genesis stared up at the ceiling. The white paint was peeling. He focused on a crack in the wall from where he had last 'accidentally' skewered a Turk bug with his rapier and thought as hard as he could without inducing a migraine, as tended to happen these days.

This was getting difficult. This stranger who had obtained the files of Project G, with his tease of all the information he had and could offer, his possible tie to Sephiroth (because wouldn't it be great to have something to get under Sephiroth's skin with?), his e-mails that came from nowhere was intriguing Genesis, and the more intrigued he became, the more he could feel his own determination to leave Shinra at the nearest possible opportunity slipping. Here was a new mystery, shiny as a freshly printed book, so new the leather still smelt of the ink of the publishing house and not the hands of an owner, and it infuriated him that this stranger - with his impeccable timing in interfering with Genesis's plans! - could distract him like this.

And the angrier and more indignant Genesis got with this 'concerned stranger' (Concerned? Concerned? In what way was this stranger 'concerned'? All he had been so far was rude!) the more he wanted to stay at Shinra where this know-it-all stranger was, so that Genesis could investigate and find out exactly who he was.

Then the stranger could try and hide behind the anonymous mask of cyberspace all he liked. Genesis would finally know him, and he would finally come face to face with this one person who seemed to be on Genesis's side...

He stared at the crack his rapier had left in the wall, a warm pride in his superhuman accuracy and strength mingling with a newfound disgust.

No, this stranger wasn't on Genesis's side, and he was a fool to think anybody would be.

The stranger didn't know Genesis like he seemed to know Sephiroth. He had never tried to contact Genesis before his accident or Hollander and Lazard's e-mail exchange. This stranger was, even now, withholding information Genesis knew was his goddam rightto know. The only reason he had come forward with the Project G information in the first place was to stop Genesis deserting for some mysterious purpose of his own.

With a slow burn of amusement, Genesis cracked his knuckles and typed a new message for the stranger.

Stranger,

What do you gain from my remaining here? What are you so 'concerned' about that you are trying to stop me from leaving Shinra?

Genesis Rhapsodos, Soldier First Class

Cloud had been waiting for Genesis to ask. As far as he could tell, Genesis wasn't (entirely?) stupid. If the question hadn't been asked sooner or later, he would have thought Genesis wasn't taking him seriously. Shaping his e-mail by mimicking the structure of how all the other e-mails looked in the mainframe world and wrapping it up in a copy of Lazard's surveillance bypass, he sent Genesis the answer that he had had some time to prepare.

Cloud had read through Project G's contents himself. There was no way Cloud was going to let either Genesis or Angeal leave Shinra Company's reach until Nibelheim was over. He wanted the Firsts where he could see them and know what they were doing. Since Cloud was at the centre of Shinra, he needed to keep them here with him.

The message that returned to Genesis was short.

Revenge on Shinra and all of its secrets.

Cloud wasn't lying. In changing this past so that the Nibelheim incident and Sephiroth's Reunion never happened, Cloud would be denying Shinra of the fruits of all its years of experimentation and everything that the Soldier program had been leading up to. It gave Cloud an odd sort of pleasure to think he could hinder Shinra's advance, and, besides that, if fate had chosen to dump Cloud back in the past when he had been quite content with his future, he rather felt fate owed him the satisfaction of at least some revenge where it was due.

As soon as Cloud worked out how to make it happen, Hojo's days were going to more numbered than his latest brood of lab rats.

In front of his laptop, Genesis sighed.

Genesis savoured his tragedies. He had a special place in a secret part of his heart for comedies. The occasional romance was chocolate mousse for the soul, but there was nothing quite like watching the good old-fashioned revenge drama play out in all its often bloody glory. It was becoming difficult to resist the stranger's demands, especially when a whisper with a decidedly vengeful bent was rubbing against Genesis's own soul like an attention-seeking cat.

He'd only seen half of Project G's file. Already he wanted to see Doctor Hollander boil in acid, and preferably gas the Science Department as he did it.

It was a heady and dangerous thing revenge, and all the more thrilling to observe for it.

Genesis didn't need to leave Shinra really. He could always go looking for a leads to a cure on the side of his missions, or take a sabbatical – surely he'd earned one? – and go on a merry jaunt around the world without needing to camp out in swamps and marshes, or look over his shoulders for old comrades coming after him. Shinra in Midgar had more experts in Soldier physiology concentrated in a single building than any other university or town he knew. Until he became aware of any alternative laboratories, facilities and talented scientists he could poach outside of Shinra, he would be better off staying where he was.

Then he could watch over whatever this stranger seemed to have planned for the Company, and if he proved to be more than just bold words, well then, it might be worth seeking him out. It was always useful to have allies in vengeance.

Damn this stranger! He was distracting Genesis from his troubles, and what's more, Genesis couldn't persuade himself that he didn't want to be distracted. He wanted something to take his mind off his degrading body, and here was a mystery wrapped in a ribbon of secrets and presented with such perfect timing that he couldn't help himself.

But he wasn't going to go give in so easily.

Genesis set his fingers to the keyboard.

Stranger,

I have reconsidered. I have decided that I will not leave Shinra in the foreseeable future. Instead, I will stay to watch you attempt to carry out your revenge and get my full fill of entertainment as you struggle to accomplish whatever it is you have in mind.

However, agreeing to remain with Shinra will most likely condemn me to a slow and painful decay until my death. Therefore, as you are preventing me from finding a cure for myself I feel that it is only fair that you, concerned stranger, help me to find a cure for my - and potentially Angeal's as you so graciously pointed out - condition in my stead.

Can you fit that into your schedule of vengeance, stranger?

Genesis Rhapsodos, Soldier First Class

If this stranger with his access to secret Shinra files could also look for potential cures, between the two of them, Genesis had a tentative hope that something could be found to help him, although Genesis was also getting a vindictive delight out of foisting his troubles on this nameless person. If this stranger wanted to interfere in Genesis's troubles, then let him interfere and choke on them.

The reply wasn't instantaneous. In fact, Genesis had time to draft his report for his most recent (near disastrous) monster clearance mission, trim his nails and polish his sword until it gleamed coppery red in the dim light of his room before his inbox chimed again.

He set Rapier down across his knees and clicked on the message.

Genesis,

You won't find a cure for degradation from me. I might know others who could help, but for me to reach them will likely take a lot of time and the chances that you can be helped are slim. I'm not going to lie to you by offering up a cure straight off, but I'll do what I can to look into it.

Thank you for reconsidering. I'm going to hold you to your word.

I attach the other half of the Project G file. I'll leave you to decide what to do with it. It's your secret, not mine.

A concerned stranger

The stranger was true to his word, and at last, after all those e-mails, there was the attachment with the rest of the file for Project G. Genesis couldn't wait to read it, even though the idea of what was within those pages repulsed him as much as he craved to know it.

Even though Genesis suspected that the stranger wouldn't have released the rest of the file until Genesis had agreed, he didn't blame the stranger for that. Genesis was stubborn. It had probably been a wise move and if their positions had been reversed, Genesis knew he would have done the same.

One last message then, before he settled down to reading and hopefully had the whole thing skimmed through by the time the canteen opened for dinner. He had had enough of phoning down to catering and eating alone in his room, especially if it was what Hollander wanted him to do. Both Angeal and Sephiroth were out, but that didn't mean he couldn't collar a few of the Seconds or Thirds he had taught straight blade techniques to and take on in a spar afterwards. Around fifteen Thirds or ten Seconds should be a bit of fun.

My concerned stranger,

Thank you.

There was no reply, but Genesis hadn't been expecting one.

A month went by and Midgar entered autumn, although most could scarcely believe it from the arid breeze still sweeping in off the wastelands and the crisp blue skies overhead.

Genesis had transferred the file for Project G to a standard Shinra issue pen disk, which he kept in his longcoat's breast pocket, nestled against his copy of Loveless. He carried it with him wherever he went, ready for when he needed to either present it to Angeal or use for his own purposes. The stranger had said it was Genesis' to do what he wished with, after all.

Since receiving the file, however, Genesis had heard nothing from the 'concerned stranger', and neither had he seen hide or hair of his supposed vengeful activities. The silence irritated and unnerved him in equal uncomfortable measure. It reminded Genesis all too much of how he felt in the marshes of the Midgar Zolom. He would know that the great bulk of the Zolom was swimming nearby, possibly just beneath the surface of the grey-green marsh waters, possibly deeper down, but so long as it remained unseen and apparently inactive, all he could do was chew on his tongue and think in circles. Angeal had called it 'fretting' once and got a Firaga in the face a moment later.

Oddly enough, seeing Genesis grinding his teeth and huffing about apparently nothing seemed to put Angeal and Sephiroth at ease around him again. The brooding, surly and intensely private Genesis of the past few weeks they had treated like a rolled-up hedgehog Lazard had dropped into their bare hands. Irritated, mood-swinging, teeth-gnashing Genesis, however, they knew exactly how to handle.

"It's good to see you acting like yourself again." Angeal clapped his hand onto Genesis's shoulder on their way to Lazard's office. "You know, Genesis, we were actually starting to worry."

"Well, I never asked you to worry about me, so if you worried needlessly, then that is your own fault and most certainly not mine."

"Perhaps you're right, but in our line of work, I don't think there is such a thing as needless worry." Angeal reached over his shoulder to gently touch the hilt of the Buster Sword strapped to his back like a talisman. "It's all too easy here to lose sight of what matters to us the most."

"Oh, goody, I knew I was due my monthly dosage of 'dreams and honour' sometime soon. Wake me up when we get to Lazard's office – I'll sleepwalk to the sound of your dulcet tones until then," Genesis grumbled, but Angeal took it in his stride as he always did and they fell into companionable silence. "Is Sephiroth coming to this meeting?"

"He's already there."

"Oh, he would be early, wouldn't he?"

Angeal knocked before entering the office. Inside, Sephiroth was indeed already waiting for them, sat in one of the chairs arranged around Lazard's desk with his legs stretched out in front of him as though measuring the length of the desk.

"Ah, gentlemen," said Lazard, looking up from the papers he was shuffling in his hands, "take a seat."

Angeal settled in the chair to the right, giving Sephiroth a nod in greeting and leaving the one in the centre for Genesis. As soon as Genesis had sat down, Lazard leaned across his desk, laced his fingers together and dropped one word between them: "Wutai."

At last. Rumours had been flying and it was almost a relief to hear them confirmed. The Wutai War had been reaching vicious levels of ferocity again as drew on, but reports from the troopers already there seemed to suggest that it was final snapping of a cornered animal. There were some who predicted that the war would be finished by the following spring, if not earlier. President Shinra was keen to see it end as soon as possible. He was bored with Wutai, frustrated by the resources being poured into it with apparently little to show for it, tired of dancing around shareholders and eager to set his sights on a fresh target to bully into submission.

As the Firsts listened, Lazard outlined a plan to dispatch at least one of them to Wutai and bring the war to an end. There was a fort that, if secured, would considerably strengthen Shinra's position in the region and cut down the projected timescale until Wutai surrendered by two months.

"I think in the final push, the Soldiers and troops already out there could do with a morale booster, as well as the additional strength that having one of you three with them could provide." Lazard adjusted his glasses and peered over the top of his hands. "Now, personally I would like to see a quick end to this war. I don't want to lose any more good Seconds and Thirds than I have to and we've lost far more than we had originally forecast. Sending all three of you at once would certainly be the answer to that. The President, however, expressly wishes that at least one of you stays behind in Shinra Tower."

Genesis examined his nails. "To protect the President's own saggy backside?"

"I believe that the idea is for the First who remains to maintain control over the Soldiers here in the Tower," the corner of Lazard's mouth twitched, "but yes, the President undoubtedly has his own safety in mind. Now I am also mindful that a new class of Soldier recruits will be joining us in January. At least one of you will be required to assist with those – "

"And the President's go-to First is Sephiroth and Angeal's the best at handling the new recruits. Well, before we proceed any further, because I think we can all see where this is going," cut in Genesis archly, and Angeal and Sephiroth both lifted their heads in astonishment, because the Genesis they knew would never have turned down an opportunity for glory on the battlefield, "there is something that I should have told you all before. As you all know, about a month ago now, I was injured in an accident in the VR room." He saw Angeal wince out of the corner of his eye. "Unfortunately, my injury from then has experienced some complications during the healing process."

Angeal paled. Sephiroth stared at Genesis as if he could see pierce through his longcoat all the way down to his greying wound with his eyes alone.

"You are right to think that I was thinking of sending you to Wutai, Genesis." Lazard drummed his fingers on the table top. "But I haven't seen any reports to suggest you've had any problems with your mission performance since the accident."

"That is because all my opponents have been mindless beasts, my longest mission was five days and I was able to return every evening to full board accommodation stocked with good food, access to medicine and a decent bed! It is a far cry from a potentially six month tour through the coldest and wettest months of the year in a tent with nothing more to eat than rations and what we can steal off the local villages!" Genesis curled his hand into a claw on the pommel of Rapier's hilt. "It won't do to give Soldiers false confidence. I will not do it. I will not go to Wutai. If I cannot perform to their expectations, I will be a danger to them and a liability." It stung to bend his pride like this and he never wanted to do this again, but if anything years of Soldier had taught him, small pains had to be suffered for the greater gain. Wasn't that the way of the Hero? "I'm sure, however, that I'd be able to defend our dear President without much difficulty, should the needs require it. As for the recruits in January, if you send both Sephiroth and Angeal together, the war will probably be over by the middle of December."

"You cannot know that, Genesis. When the Great War began, people were saying that it would be over by the Winter Festival of the same year, and we all know how long that went on for." Lazard sighed and rubbed his temples with his hands, the meeting he had thought would be so simple having suddenly turned much more troublesome than he had anticipated. "But if your wound is still troubling you, yes, I agree that it would be rather risky to have you out on the front where our Science Department can't monitor your health. Sephiroth? Angeal? What do you think?"

Sephiroth adjusted the cuffs of his gloves. "Genesis is correct."

"I'm sure he is, on many things. More specifically, what?"

"He is correct in predicting that Angeal and I would clean up the last of Wutai's forces and be able to return before the new recruits arrive. However, he has made a slight error." Sephiroth cast Genesis a sly sideways smirk. "If the two of us were dispatched, we would be finished by the end of November."

Genesis tossed his hair out of his face with a derisive snort. "Three hundred gil and a case of the Society Exhibition Cabernet Sauvignon that you won't even make it for the Winter Festival."

Sephiroth's eyes gleamed. "Done."

Angeal stared between them. "You two are not betting on how long the war will be, are you?"

"Of course not, Angeal, we are betting on how short the war will be, which is a bet in everybody's favour really. I'd thought you'd be pleased with a little extra incentive."

"So, you, Sephiroth," Lazard cut in loudly, as Angeal glowered with disapproval, "would agree with Genesis that, were you and Angeal dispatched to Wutai, you could end the war before we needed to re-equip and acclimatise troops for the spring environmental conditions again?"

"Yes, Director."

"Angeal?"

Angeal sat back and stroked his chin. It was the same kind of contemplative expression the Banora apple-growers got when studying the weather and trying to predict how the harvest would be. "If Sephiroth and I both went to Wutai, we would be able make short work of it. I am also confident, Director, that Genesis would be perfectly capable minding the Soldiers here. If it is required of him, I'm sure he would also make an excellent assistant with the January recruits."

"I'm sure he would," agreed Lazard, and Genesis knew they had him. The President hadn't given any specific orders for which First he had wanted at hand like a guard-dog, so if he had been expecting Sephiroth, tough luck. The Company was pressed for time and money. Lazard didn't have the minutes to spare forcing Genesis to go on the mission. "Alright. In that case, Sephiroth and Angeal, I will be briefing the two of you tomorrow at nine in my second office. I'll have the relevant paperwork sent round to you by six this evening."

With Sephiroth and Angeal having accepted the mission in Wutai, the meeting soon came to a close. The three Firsts pushed back their chairs and climbed to their feet.

"Genesis," Lazard raised his voice. Genesis paused, half-crouched in his seat. "I'd like to have a word with you."

Genesis looked towards Sephiroth and Angeal, both of whom were eyeing him with some concern. He laughed, managed to sound more confident than he felt, and swept back his hair. "Even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return."

"Loveless, Act III." Sephiroth nodded. "We will see you at dinner."

The door closed behind them, and Lazard continued to fiddle with the pens on his desk, ordering the ball-points and pencils into lines. Genesis sat back in his chair and crossed his ankles in front of him. For a moment, he watched the man roll pens across the surface of his desk, absently using them to collect his thoughts together.

"I see that those two still don't know about your degradation." Lazard's voice was quiet. He glanced up from his pens, all laid out in length order. "You didn't tell Angeal even though it may affect him too, Genesis?"

"I said that you would have my silence concerning the e-mails and its contents, so long as you gave up on using Angeal and Sephiroth in your plans."

"Hmm, you are a man of your word then. I must admit, I am surprised."

Genesis ran his hand over Rapier's hilt. "To be honest, so am I, and I don't want it getting around. I have a reputation to uphold."

Lazard chuckled and started reordering the pens in the other direction. After five pens were down, he spoke up again. "Why are you really staying behind in Midgar, Genesis?"

He widened his eyes. "Was it that obvious?"

"You may enjoy your plays, Genesis, but you certainly aren't as good an actor as you think you are."

Genesis glared. The cheek of it! "There is a five star performance of Maria and Draco transferring here from Junon and I want to be here on the opening night. I couldn't possibly miss it."

"And most people here would probably believe you if you told them that - which might I add, says something a little sad about most people's opinions of you, Genesis - but not me, I'm afraid."

Genesis sniffed and turned up his nose. "Fine then. Well, I was saving it for after Angeal and Sephiroth were gone to Wutai, but I suppose it wouldn't harm you to know earlier." As he spoke, he listened, first for the distinctive whine of a Turk bug in the room and second, for the breathing of eavesdroppers at the office door. When he was sure there was nobody unwelcome listening in on them, Genesis relaxed. "I am staying here for the inquiry."

"An inquiry? I haven't heard about any inquiry."

"The inquiry as to whether Doctor Hollander should remain on the Shinra payroll or not. Which with your help, Director, will happen – oh, the day after Sephiroth and Angeal have left, perhaps? Maybe that very evening? I'm flexible, so long as it eventually happens, and happens soon."

For a long minute, Lazard said nothing. Then he took off his glasses, held them delicately between the thumb and forefinger of his left hand, and having unfolded a pocket handkerchief with his right, cleaned them with a soft squeaking noise. "Doctor Hollander has access to a great many Company secrets, Genesis. If an inquiry finds him unfit for his job, considering all of the knowledge and experience he has working with you Soldiers he will be far too dangerous a man for Company security to allow peaceful retirement or transfer elsewhere. He will, almost certainly, be 'fired'."

"Well, yes, that's what I hoped for," Genesis scoffed.

"By the Turks, Genesis."

Genesis laughed, and his shoulders shook. "Oh, yes, I know what 'being fired' means for the senior employees of this Company, Director."

"Which means that you won't be able to bring an inquiry to the attention of the President without providing some very condemning evidence of misconduct," Lazard went on, settling his glasses back on his nose, and Genesis had a vague feeling that the Director was enjoying this conversation. "That particular e-mail conversation would certainly serve you well in that regard. You could suggest an inquiry into Hollander for conspiring against the President, but I'm afraid I can't let you do that, given how their contents also seriously implicate me."

"I have an idea as to how we could use those e-mails. We would, however, have to work together." Genesis couldn't resist a smile. "What do you think, Director? You only have to gain from this. Doctor Hollander knows all about your intentions regarding the Shinra presidency and unless he's discredited, or he disappears in some way or another, he is a danger to you and your plans."

Lazard pursed his lips. He knew that what Genesis said was true. "If not conspiracy against Shinra, on what grounds would you be suggesting the inquiry into Doctor Hollander?"

"I was thinking 'incompetency in the handling of Shinra Company's secrets'."

"Then a single miss-sent e-mail thread is hardly enough for a case." Lazard seemed disappointed. He was tapping a pen against his desk in beats of three. "Whatever we both may think of Hollander, he is still a very valuable asset to the Company. It would have to be a very serious breach of Shinra secrecy to even consider bringing an inquiry against him - "

"Just a moment." Lazard closed his mouth and sat back in his chair, allowing Genesis some time and space to rummage in his breast pocket. When he had found what he was looking for, he dropped it onto the desk, right on top of Lazard's length-ordered pens.

Lazard picked up the Shinra issue pen disk. It was red, smooth and tapered, just as they all were. It always made Genesis think of a bullet or a nugget of liver. "What is this?"

Out on the marshes, if they waited long enough, the Midgar Zolom always made an appearance, whether out of curiosity or hunger or berserker fury, nobody knew, but it always eventually appeared. It was a simply a matter of playing the waiting game.

Which would break first? The water's surface or Genesis's patience?

If the Zolom didn't show up, Genesis's answer to that was to pass a short sharp shock of Thundaga through the marsh water to remind the Zolom to take him seriously. The result of that tended to be one enraged Zolom attempting to crush Genesis in its coils and Genesis's accompanying troop of Seconds being shocked until their hair stood on end. Genesis had never been patient. As Angeal had once put it, Genesis was too impatient to even try to learn patience.

So, my concerned stranger, how will you react to this?

Genesis crossed his ankles and grinned at Lazard in that white-toothed way the Seconds who most often came out with him on outings knew meant that they needed to scramble for dry land faster than they could shout, 'Thundaga!'

"I would like to take this opportunity, Director, to report a serious leak of information from the Science Department, pertaining to a long term classified Shinra science project known as Project G."

Well, I wanted to try something a little different. Thank you for reading! And Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Best, Zen