A/N: While mild, the first part of the chapter is VERY significant.

Surprising Results

Weiss had gone through an entire day of his usual life before Shinra's fall, knowing he more than any of the others couldn't afford to show his new state, his new knowledge. It had been so routine that the only difficulty he found was with his reach as an almost-twelve-year-old, and his balance and timing had been a little off. At least he had the ready-made excuse that he hadn't slept much the night before, and while he wasn't sure why he felt Argento would support him, he somehow knew she would. It could have been her reaction to having realized he had Leviathan's Blessing—just the fact that she recognized it was a point in her favor—but he felt comfortable with her general presence since then.

They didn't speak, or change their interactions much, for that matter. The only real change had been that she didn't glare at him in that oh, so intimidating way, or when she did, it felt impotent. Where her gaze previously had been full of hatred, it was now merely acceptance, and as a trained warrior, he felt the difference. When he had been asked if anyone could verify his lack of sleep, he had cited her; he never asked them or Argento if she was questioned. It honestly didn't matter that much, because either she would support him or not, and he'd just be questioned again if they didn't like the answer, or if he 'kept losing sleep'.

Since he had no intention of having the same difficulties in successive days, there should be no issue, whether they asked Argento or not.

However, when he returned to his shared room with the slated Tsviets and saw Rosso sitting on the couch as she polished her blade, he suddenly wondered if he and Shelke—and Argento—were the only ones who could have ever been saved. Well, if he had anything to say about it, Shelke was never going to end up with Deepground in the first place, because she truly didn't belong there. She had become strong only insomuch as a permanently nine-year-old's body could, but the fact that Deepground's torture had broken her so badly her body had stopped aging told him she wasn't 'one of them.'

As far as the others went, Argento had just—disappeared when Deepground had been opened up again two years before the end of the world, Azul had probably already been a lost cause before ending up there, and Rosso and Nero...had never had another option. By the time Shelke had joined them, both had given themselves over fully to Deepground, to the leader of the Tsviets. Whether said leader was Weiss or Hojo using Weiss' body didn't matter to them, so their older selves couldn't have been saved, but these ones...Rosso was thirteen and Nero was recently eleven. Were they already too far gone?

He sat down cross-legged in the chair off-side of where Rosso sat, asking genially, "Blades working like usual?"

She looked up in mild amusement and said in her accented voice (inherited from the doctors who had raised her for her very young life), "As well as always. I simply—have too much free time, so polishing them alleviates boredom." Her hair was nearly the same fire-hydrant red as Reno's from the few times he'd seen the other man in the future, but it commonly fell to mid-back. Her current combat clothing was a tight, sleeveless shirt and shorts in red, with a black belt, gloves, and boots, the latter two to mid-forearm and mid-calf. The blade in her hands was more like a 'swallowtail', where two blades faced outward from linked hilts between them.

The side-effect of being raised in labs was a rather more in-depth knowledge of language at a much younger age than a normal child of their age would have had. His first time through, Weiss hadn't realized that oddity in their behavior until right now, looking at it as though from an outsider's perspective. Not that it was necessarily wrong for them to know more of the language, but how and why they had learned it...

With an amused smile, Weiss nodded. "I guess the tactics they wanted me to learn takes care of that problem on my end," he told her.

She gave a small smile and said, "Probably," as she went back to her work on the long, red blades.

Pausing, Weiss debated how to address the issue in the safest way, then decided on, "Have you ever thought about what you would do if we weren't in Deepground?"

"Do?" Rosso asked in confusion, stopping her work again as she looked up at him.

"It's more of a curiosity than anything—I know we're here and this is our life, but both Azul and Argento came from outside Deepground, and so did a lot of the regular members. What did they do before they came here, how did they make their living? If we had ever been out there, or ended up out there later on, what would we do with ourselves?" he asked in a musing tone which ended up holding Rosso's attention very well.

To his surprise she was quiet for a few minutes—he almost thought she wouldn't answer at all—before she said, "Travel, I think."

"Travel?" the white haired boy asked curiously.

"There's a whole world out there with places people say are too dangerous to go to. There's so much we could go and see, do, experience, that no one else, or nearly no one else, would have ever done before. I like that—to see or experience or feel things, something as simple as rain or sunlight on my face. We've never seen anything but this underground cavern, so the more I can do and see, the better. If I can show them how weak they are by going to those places and coming back alive, that's even better."

The words made Weiss blink in surprise, then chuckle as he commented, "Your answer is actually much more creative than mine. It sounds nice."

At the admission, Rosso asked, "What did you decide on?"

With a faint grin and a small shrug, the younger 'boy' said, "I thought I'd end up as a mercenary or in the main SOLDIER unit. They still need people to fight for them, so I could make a living off it, and in the end, I really have no other skills. It would be the same kind of job as we're being trained for, I'd just be free to choose the jobs and-or employer. After all, there are plenty of strong people out there who cause trouble for President Shinra, so there would have to be some worthy opponents in the mix."

The older girl was quiet for a minute before she gave a grin and a small laugh, then said, "Practical as ever. I'll tell you what—after I've gone and challenged—and beat—every natural opponent out there, I'll come work for you. You could set up a mercenary company for all of us who got displaced, and decide who we're supposed to go fight, so you could save people you think will be really strong opponents for the Tsviets and people who are only a little strong for the regular members."

With a small smile, Weiss said, "That sounds like fun. It might even be—doable out there."

"It is, and I'm rather surprised by your topic of discussion," Argento commented dryly from the doorway. With her were a smirking Azul and a confused Nero, and both Weiss and Rosso inclined their heads at her. The woman's expression was a little pinched, as it usually was when she was dealing with her Deepground roommates. Rather than her sleepwear, she was wearing the silvery clothing she normally wore during the day, a SOLDIER-like uniform (sword included) in design under a long, sealed coat which resembled a dress the way she wore it, with an open-face helmet and an eye patch over her damaged eye.

It was the red haired girl who grinned and said, "I was bored. This is something fun to think about. Of course, we're not planning to leave, but it's fun to pretend every now and then when we have free time. And if we'd basically just end up back in the same role, anyway—is there a point to trying to leave?"

"Your option wasn't the same role," Azul pointed out, dropping into another chair. He was a huge, bulky and muscular man with some weathered tanning, a very thick neck, and strength enough to snap a steel pole with his bare hands. All of it was training he'd given his body before getting to Deepground, and the metamorphose experiments he'd been subjected to had only increased his strength, along with the Mako injections they were all given. His hair was an oddly blue-gray—the result of the experiments—and he tended to wear a sleeveless shirt in medium gray with white pants and dark gray boots.

Argento and Nero also sat, Nero beside Rosso on the couch and Argento in the last chair, her chair by the lamp, as Rosso replied, "I always wanted to do that, though. The doctors already know that's one of my dreams—I can't wait to leave and see the world outside, the real one, not the VR room version. Even if I would always come back, it wouldn't stop me from relishing in everything I can see and feel and every new place I can go. If I could just—do that for years on end, I'd be so happy..."

When she drifted off into a dazed grin, Azul barked a laugh. "Can't argue with that, I guess," the large, blue-gray haired man smirked. "I never found much of interest out there, but then—I was always looking for strong human opponents, not for natural ones. If I had to, I'd go for the mercenary idea, since like Argento said—it's definitely doable, and it would keep us funded, fed, clothed, sheltered, and supplied."

"Supplied?" Nero asked. The boy was similar in facial features to Weiss, but his hair was black and falling past his shoulders in a shaggy style. He was also very slender, his main strength being his 'void' ability which effectively caused whatever was caught in it to just cease to exist. His current clothing was black pants and a black, long-sleeved shirt fitted with 'shackles' at the wrist. Those were a sort of control on his power, and the Restrictors could use them to chain Nero to walls in some of the rooms, the only real defense against Nero breaking out being how doing so would damage his own body by trying to remove the binds on himself.

"Tactically speaking, to act as a mercenary company, you need some form of recognizable identification and access to weapons, armors, and Materia for those in your company," Argento answered the younger boy. "Mercenary companies are like free-roaming militaries, much like Shinra's own. Right now, we are merely a branch of that, but the principle applies. The weapons and training you have right now were paid for by the Shinra Company—they weren't free, they cost a pretty gil. On average, a basic mass-produced weapon is no less than five hundred gil, but a successful company won't buy basic ones, they'll buy quality ones, some of which cost around twenty-five thousand gil per. For specialized weapons like those of us in this room use, the price can easily go into hundreds of thousands or even into millions. Those all need to be accounted for in addition to food, standard clothing, medical care, and shelter."

"Oh..." Nero blinked, then looked up at Weiss and asked, "Would there be a reason besides showing off to go to those dangerous places Rosso wants to visit, Brother?"

Weiss blinked at the question, then said, "If some of my tactical lessons are right, there are items and monsters in those places which are really rare. Things like—if we needed leather or claws off a Behemoth or Dragon Zombie, we'd have to go to the Northern Crater, one of the most dangerous places in the world, to get them. Some doctors and scientists also would want samples of various things from those areas, and would pay well if they could send people on demand to get them. One of Shinra's scientists does that to Turks and SOLDIERs, doesn't he?" At the question, his eyes went to Argento, who gave a nod.

"Professor Hojo, the head of the Science Department, often uses Turks to collect his experimental subjects or other ingredients, and when he needs something dead or out of his path to go somewhere, he gets SOLDIERs to do it. Unpleasant man though he is, he's a prime example of the value of acquisition jobs, and some mercenaries do those, as well," the Wutain explained.

"You mean I could be part of the mercenary company from the start and still get to explore all those dangerous places as part of my work?" Rosso asked excitedly.

"Of course," Argento agreed, and was rewarded with a sudden cheer and a hug from the younger girl. Her expression went from somewhat pinched to completely shocked, producing a laugh from Azul and smiles, wry and amused, from Weiss and Nero. A minute later, Rosso had calmed down and returned to her seat, still looking very pleased by the thought.

"So, what about you, Nero?" Weiss asked. "What would you do?"

The boy actually took a minute to think about his answer before surprising all of them by saying, "I'd go with Rosso for those 'acquisition jobs'."

After a pause, Azul laughed, then asked Argento, "And what would you do, newcomer?"

"You're still calling me that after a year?" she glared at the larger man.

"Until you accept your place here, you're a newcomer," he answered.

She sighed and said, "I was a soldier in the Wutain army. It's what I chose to do with my life. As such, my answer is the same as Weiss'—either SOLDIER or a strong mercenary company."

"Not back to your people?" Rosso asked in surprise.

"I'm not the same person they knew, so I wouldn't want to—disrupt either their senses or my own by trying to go back," the Wutain woman answered. "To them, I'm dead. Shinra lands seem to be far more open to strangers and to allowing even known people to disappear, so this is the better option."

"But, would you serve in a mercenary company Weiss commanded?" Azul asked.

Argento paused, frowned thoughtfully, then said, "If I felt comfortable that he wasn't just taking Shinra's orders, but making his own decisions, then yes. If I still saw or felt too much of a connection to Shinra, I'd rather either an independent company or just be open about it and join SOLDIER."

First, Weiss blinked while the others stared, then he gave a wry smile and said, "So, if the opportunity comes up, we'll become a mercenary company called..." He then paused and frowned in confusion before asking, "What should we call ourselves?"

After a shocked pause, all four others burst out laughing.

MB

Deep in the basement of Shinra Manor, Vincent had finished his first discussion with Chaos and was sitting cross-legged on the destroyed coffin remains as he stared at the door. Unlike last time, he was wide awake and felt none of the depression dragging him into sleep, so was fully aware and active. The result was a great deal of free time and boredom when he had no one to talk to. He supposed he could talk with the Summons, but he'd had enough of dealing with Chaos for the time being—he didn't need any more of the same 'kind' of discussion or variant of ability to talk at the moment. They'd get a chance to put in their pieces, but not until he was ready to deal with more spirits.

His only source of light was the pile of Materia he'd moved to the floor several feet from the door, and he'd even gone through all the other coffins in the room. They held mainly stacks of paperwork, old newspapers, and some of the research data Hojo had worked on there. A couple of them had mostly-decayed bodies, making him very glad he couldn't smell anything unless he chose to. Those two, he closed up again and sealed against the smell.

Being undead as he was, bodily functions were non-existent at worst and optional at best, and while that had benefits at times—like him not needing to use the washroom or choosing to not smell the stench of decay—it also had downfalls. Sleep, too, was optional, and he had to be both willing and able to shut his mind down in order to achieve it—while in his current active state with a goal in mind, that was pretty much impossible. The other benefit it had was in allowing him enhanced dark vision, meaning he could see as clearly in the dark as in daylight, it was just all in shades of gray unless he had an alternate source of light.

Suddenly, he turned to look at the papers in one coffin thoughtfully, debating how much of it he could possibly get through before Cloud got there. Since the now-boy would have to recover from high-level Mako poisoning, it would easily be days, maybe a few, maybe several. In the meantime, his dark vision would let him read the papers without a proper light, and the Materia gave off just enough light for him to even see in color.

Rising, he went to the first coffin, one filled with reports on experiments.

MB

At first, the day and following night had been incredibly boring for Cloud, as he was bed-bound and had absolutely nothing to do. Zack had given a yawn and gone to sleep not long after his situation was resolved as much as it was going to be, so he couldn't even talk with him until the next day. The new Fenrir had woken when the doctor had said he was allowed to go home, but he'd have to stay in bed, and that the doctor would be over to check up on him once daily unless his condition worsened. When his mother had arrived to get him with a bag for his Materia collection, she and the doctor had grudgingly let him walk the distance, something he asked to do thinking he'd be fine—

Only to find out he wasn't fine and had barely been able to make the short walk between the doctor's office and his own home. It was going to be very, very hard to adapt to having a body which couldn't withstand what he was used to it withstanding and which didn't just adapt quickly to changes in itself. He also realized Zack and the other adults were right—he'd be bed-bound for a few days, at least, so no going to get Vincent. He was a lot of things, but stupid wasn't one of them, and he currently couldn't even make the walk to the Manor, let alone fight the monsters in it, open the safe to get the key (at least he already knew the password!), fight the monster Hojo had stuffed in the safe, and make the trek through the trap door to the basement.

In his own childhood bed in his own home again after so long, he thought it might not have been so bad to go back to the time before Nibelheim was destroyed.

That morning, after he ate and had the doctor's visit, his mother sat beside him on the bed and said, "So...you still want to know about your father, I assume..."

"I do," he told her softly. Because she hadn't asked a question, he probably didn't have to answer, but he felt better doing so.

With a nod and a sigh, she began with, "A long time ago, when I was still young and idealistic, I went to Midgar to get a job with Shinra. Since I was trained in engineering, I could get a job pretty easily back then. The pay was great, and I got to visit a lot of different places around the world—some of those, I could have done without, but most were wonderful places to visit and work for awhile. A lot of my work involved the Reactors or other mechanics and computerized systems they needed maintained. One time, I ended up in Junon to help with the special tram to the upper city where the executives stay when they go there."

The blond woman paused, then sighed. "It was also where I met your father. I knew it wasn't really going to amount to anything, but he was attractive and in good shape back then. I'd also run into a problem with most men being too afraid of my mind to want a relationship with me, so even though I wanted a family, it didn't look like I would have one. I probably should have used contraception—I'd told him I had—but I chose not to, since then I'd have a child to raise, even if I didn't have 'a family'. I never intended to go to him for anything once he left Junon, especially since I made more than enough money to raise a child myself.

"Shortly after I got back to Midgar, my pregnancy was showing—and a Turk showed up on my doorstep telling me I had to abort the child or they would have to kill me. I told him my intent, and his answer was, 'Regrettably, as much as I would like to ignore you unless you actually make trouble, I was ordered to give only these two options—directly.' He then said he'd come back in a week to see if I had done as ordered, or to kill me if I hadn't. In a way, I think he gave me that opening, hoping I would take it and leave, and that I'd somehow manage to evade them, because by all rights, he or another Turk should have been watching me that whole time. Obviously, I took the opening, and ended up here."

She stopped again, so Cloud asked tentatively, trying not to hate the Turks more, "So...who was my father...and who was the Turk?"

Slowly, she looked up and met his eyes, her natural blue to his Mako-blue. "The Turk was Veld," she said softly. "He's a family man, so in a way, I understand why he let me go. Your father...is President Shinra."

Cloud's jaw fell open, and in the back of his mind, Zack was choking on air in his shock from the one spot against his skin where he could keep a random Materia shard, Cloud's shorts waistband. Finally, after a few minutes, the now-boy said quietly, "Then I know why he can't know. If he knew your name was Strife, I'm surprised he never bothered to do anything to me when I joined Shinra in that future time..."

The woman blinked, then shook her head. "There are others with the name Strife. As long as you never approached him about being his son, he would have kept pretending the problem had been taken care of."

"But I'm not the only one of his illegitimate children who survived, so the guy must sleep around as much as Corneo," Cloud sneered. He had never known Lazard Deusericus, but he had once met Evan Townshend (he had never realized they were half-brothers, though)...And then there was Rufus...Who didn't seem to care about his siblings...

Rayne gave a small chuckle and said, "He did, and probably still does. The only reason he seems to get away with it is his power and his money, but he could really do for some curtailing of the habit. I'm surprised any of his illegitimate children besides you did survive, since he apparently made a habit of executing them. How do you know? Did you meet them in that future?"

"Yeah, one of them," Cloud agreed. "I only met Evan once...I think he'd be eight around now. I only ever knew 'about' Lazard—he'd be the Director of SOLDIER right now—but never met him. Apparently Rufus knew about him and didn't really have an opinion one way or the other—he didn't about Evan, either. I have no idea what Rufus would have thought of me being his half-brother, but he really didn't seem to care about his siblings' presences, unlike his father."

The woman turned serious again and affirmed, "You really have no intention of going to him to get anything—money, a position of prestige, anything at all?"

"Mom, if I was going to go to someone, it would be Rufus, but I'm not going to do that. I don't trust them. Even if Rufus doesn't care about his siblings being around, I wouldn't feel right going to him—not after our history—er—future—er—"

She smiled and said, "Don't try too hard, Cloud. And please remember, you were sent back to fix things, not to hold on to old grudges, or to act on them unless absolutely necessary. With some people, that might be hard, but try not to turn their present self into whatever you knew of them fourteen years from now."

Her warning made him sigh. "It's hard to do that with people who tried to kill you, often more than once, over that fourteen years."

Rayne eyed him for a long moment, then nodded. "I know it can be hard, but keeping that fear, hatred, and mistrust the way you're holding it now—the only one it's hurting is you, son. You can choose not to trust someone without carrying around all that baggage with you. I'd never have been able to raise you as I did if I held onto hatred of your father for trying to kill us, or have us killed, so this is something I know, something I once struggled with. Deal with it and let it go. These people alive right now aren't even the same ones you knew in that future."

Again, Cloud sighed, but he relented enough to say, "I'll think about it. Thanks, Mom." She gave his cheek a gentle pat, then handed him some books he could read while he was bed-bound.