Prevented Death

Tseng woke suddenly, feeling shaken and out of place as he quickly searched the room with his eyes to find an intruder, an attacker. The only person he saw was Kariya, who was sitting in a chair beside his bed and gazing at him worriedly, shades tucked in his pocket. At that point, the question didn't have to be asked—it was obvious.

With a small sigh, the Wutain asked, "I collapsed after they left, didn't I?"

"You did," Kariya agreed evenly. The question still hung in the air between them.

"Sephiroth...changed," Tseng answered tiredly, running his hand back through his hair and tugging his ponytail out as he did. It made it easier for him to rub his head. "He was...like you just saw, but then something happened and he went completely insane in the space of a week. I don't mean 'behaving strangely' insane, I mean 'Hellfire-bent on world destruction' insane. He annihilated Nibelheim, killed a large part of Shinra, nearly killed me—I'm still not sure how I survived that one—and tried to call Meteor down on us to destroy the Planet. Meteor is a singular spell in a special Materia which was meant to end all life on the Planet as the last resort to destroy Jenova."

Kariya blinked, then blinked again and asked incredulously, "And you're willing to work with him, to hand him crucial information he could—"

"Kariya!" Tseng almost snarled. The other man shut up. The Wutain Turk sighed and said, "Sephiroth went insane because of two things I hope will both be changed in short order. One was Genesis going insane because he had been...degenerating due to a genetic malfunction and was literally unable to differentiate between reality and fiction—in the process, he influenced the sanity of both his friends. This time, the degeneration can't happen—that was one of the 'gifts' Genesis should have been left with. The other problem was Jenova. If Chaos can destroy Jenova quickly, that thing won't be able to influence his mind. Between the two, Sephiroth shouldn't go insane."

"And what if you're wrong about the cause of his insanity?" Kariya asked quietly.

"Then we'll have another Nightmare on our hands, and we know not to go near the Temple of the Ancients, but to protect one particular girl with everything we have until she can activate Holy," Tseng answered surely. "And Genesis, Vincent, Cloud, and Weiss should all be aware of that fact as well."

The older Turk leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms as he asked, "So if you're so sure of this and so willing to give him a chance, what was with the sudden fainting spell back in Veld's office as soon as the General left?"

Automatically, Tseng's fingers went to the location of the wound Sephiroth had given him, a stab clean through the chest, between two of his rib bones and narrowly missing his heart. His younger body wouldn't have the scar, both front and back of his chest, but his mind conjured the phantom pains the scar had always generated. A person didn't just forget the sensation of eight feet of steel sliding through their body in a mere second, and even with one of Leviathan's gifts, he shouldn't have survived an attack by a being as powerful as the Nightmare had become.

The Nightmare...Sephiroth...

Finally, he told Kariya, "When he stabbed me, it should have killed me. It would have become a fatal wound had others not gotten me back to a hospital as quickly as they did. Either he deliberately didn't kill me or Leviathan has more power than the immortal Nightmare Sephiroth had become. If the latter was the case, we wouldn't have had to struggle nearly so hard to stop him, and if it was the former...I have to ask why. His actions made no sense at that time. There was literally no advantage to him leaving me alive, unless he somehow thought a single life of someone so powerless could somehow make a difference in his situation. But sparing my life wouldn't have helped him, unless it was meant to stop him."

After a pause as he lowered his hand, the younger man murmured, "I fear him for that, for the remains of Nibelheim, for calling down Meteor...but I fear him more for the torture his 'Remnants' put Elena and myself through while they were trying to find Jenova's remains so they could re-create him. Those three weren't 'him' directly, but they were his fragments, and the one who acted as the expression of 'his intelligence' especially knew how to be the Nightmare's level of cruel. She and I took over a month to fully recover physically and longer mentally, if we even ever succeeded. Elena may have, but I...To be faced with him again..."

At the words, Kariya sighed and levered himself up to go to Tseng's window. The act drew the Wutain's eyes to it, causing him to realize it wasn't long after dawn—the next day. For a few minutes, Kariya stood there with his back to the room, his arms crossed over his chest, thinking through what the younger Turk had told him.

"Most of all, he was something of a friend to me before he went insane, and I desperately wanted that friend back, the person I had known before then," Tseng said into the silence, and saw the orange haired man's head turn slightly as he listened. "I know mentally that he's not insane right now. And he isn't. There's nothing wrong with his mind outside the natural side-effects of having been abused and isolated from society until he was twelve. All of what he's already suffered can be fixed as long as we can keep him from taking that same path.

"He's human and he has a heart, enough of one to disobey his orders to slaughter all Wutains—he moves the civilians off the battlefield and takes on their soldiers on equal terms. That's something he was doing against orders long before he knew any Wutains worked for Shinra. He can be saved, I want to believe that. But my emotions haven't caught up to my mind, and I instinctively react emotionally to his presence with fear. I was holding it back that whole time so I didn't push him away, didn't ruin our chances to save him, but I...couldn't hold it back any longer once he'd left."

Since Tseng really had nothing else to say, he fell silent and let Kariya keep thinking through the situation. He also took the time to put his hair back up, even as something triggered in his mind, like a half-formed thought he didn't understand.

It took several more minutes before the older Turk turned back to the younger one and leaned back against the windowsill as he said, "So, we try to save him by removing the key causes of his insanity, one of those apparently without telling him about it—Jenova. Don't think I didn't notice how you conveniently never said her name back in Veld's office. Why don't you want him to know?"

"...Hojo told him 'his mother's name' is Jenova."

"...He'd think you were killing his mother?"

"Essentially."

"Is it really the best idea to hide that from him?"

"Genesis has to be the one to tell him, when he feels Sephiroth is ready to hear it. Some of the data I plan to bring back is the data on the Jenova Project, or Project S and Project G. That will help with some of it, because it'll show Sephiroth that his mother is actually a human woman—Doctor Lucrecia Crescent—and that Hojo's a sadistic and insane scientist with no moral compass, so he shouldn't believe anything the man says. There was already a rift between them because Hojo certainly doesn't know how to be a father, but it'll mean Hojo's word on anything will become suspect in Sephiroth's mind, and with what Genesis said earlier..."

"About the 'good doctor' literally hijacking that Weiss kid's body, you mean?" Kariya asked. When Tseng nodded, the older man mused, "It's possible the bigger the rift, the less influence the man's word will have over Sephiroth, but that strongly implies Hojo was also part of the cause of his insanity. Did you never make that connection before, or did I miss something?"

Tseng blinked, then gave another nod as he said, "I hadn't thought that much about it before, but you're right. I have reason to believe Sephiroth was set up to find the data he did which led to his insanity, and the only one who could have set it up was Hojo. Also, there were a lot of things Hojo did or said which were specifically planned to cause a particular reaction, and he was strangely good at it—he used it on Sephiroth just as much as he did on others. Notably, he shattered what was left of Cloud's psyche specifically to cause Cloud to break and give the Black Materia—the one Meteor is contained in—to Sephiroth so 'his son' could destroy the world."

"And you've added another layer of strange and another problem to the list," Kariya sighed tiredly, then chuckled as he saw Tseng staring at him in shock. "Baby Turk, even for us, you're starting to delve into problems we don't have a hope of fixing, and if you keep adding them, when will we have time to fix them all?"

"That's why one of the most expedient methods of 'fixing' things is by killing people like Hojo before those things happen," the Wutain answered sharply.

"Uh-huh. And did you ever wonder what made me so damned good at my job as the Death God of the Battlefield, or how I ended up being booted up to Legend status and given the handle 'the Legendary Turk' within two months of joining? It wasn't chance, or luck, or tactical or strategic planning, or skill." The man paused as his green gaze met Tseng's dark brown. "What made me so successful was how I actually planned for the 'after'." At the younger Turk's puzzled frown, he asked, "What, even fourteen years into the future, you never learned to plan for what was going to happen after you did the mission you set out to do? You never realized killing a certain person would cause a retaliation you had to set up defenses for, just as an example?"

"What are you getting at, Kariya?" Tseng scowled.

"Did you ever think about who'd take over for Hojo, or for Scarlet, or for Heidegger, or for the President, if you killed any of them?" the older Turk asked in a dry tone. "Heidegger's replacement would be Lazard—we're safe with him—and Shinra's would be Rufus—him, I'm not so sure about, 'cause the brat's a childish little shit with no sense of responsibility. But Hojo and Scarlet—who'll be taking over for them? I know for a fact Hollander is just as bad, and so are any of the other likely candidates in the Science Department. Hojo hand-picked most of them to be sure they had no morals and wouldn't try to stop him, after all. You kill him—and then what? You kill the whole Science Department because they're all just like him? You only planned as far as the immediate action which would have the desired result. Not very Turk-like, Baby Turk."

The assessment caused Tseng a sudden headache, and he rubbed his forehead with the fingertips of both hands to ward it off. "I do also plan for those types of things, when dealing with things and people I can plan for. I need the others who have the Blessing—or at least three of the four—in order to finish any planning any of us have started. I haven't even touched the tip of the iceberg in regards to everything we need to do and how quickly we have to do it before we either have to sink or sw—"

Suddenly, Tseng stopped and drew in a sharp breath as the half-formed thought came clear, seized his PHS, and checked his calendar and his messages. An alert from Donnel had come in a few minutes ago, sent to all Turks, but for the time it was sent, next to none of them would have gotten it. Last time, no one had found the alert until it was too late, as it had taken over an hour for it to be found and assistance sent. His lips pursed as he rose and bolted to his closet to change, not really caring that Kariya was still in the room or that he'd just been in the middle of a discussion.

Shortly after, he was dressed in a clean suit, his bracer and gun ready, PHS and ID in his pockets. A hand on his shoulder made him look at Kariya, who gave him a nod, then slipped on his shades and headed for the door. Tseng followed quickly, leading the way to the elevator.

"Where are we going?" Kariya asked as they walked. "It's not like we know where in Kalm we'll find them by the time we get there."

"The docks, if we get there soon enough," Tseng replied, choosing the floor for the landing pad, on fifty-nine. It wasn't far from their current location, so it didn't take long to get there.

"You think we'll make it?" the older man asked with a raised brow as he led the way towards the helicopters which were exclusively the Turks'.

"By the timing last time, yes," Tseng answered. "But I'm flying."

With a chuckle, the man threw open the door to the hold and hopped in, then turned back and reached down to catch the younger Turks' arm and pull him up. "Get flying, then, Baby Turk," the older agreed as he turned back to the door to pull it shut.

Tseng quickly moved to the cockpit to take the pilot's seat and had activated the chopper shortly after. He directed it to take off as Kariya sat beside him and pulled out his PHS. It was quickly obvious he'd made a call when he held it to his ear, and soon after said, "Yeah, me 'n' Tseng are heading to Kalm to give Donnel back-up. He woke up not too long before the alert came in, and he's recovered from his fainting spell—also, he knows where to find Donnel and the smugglers, so this saves us time. We'll report in again once we get the results." Since he hung up immediately after, he clearly hadn't given the person on the other end time to reply.

"Non-negotiable," Tseng commented with a faint smile.

"Of course, Baby Turk. Especially when another Turk's life is on the line. Now, we have to figure out how you pulled this off so it can go in your report without reporting your Blessing back to the Shinra Execs," Kariya answered in a dry tone.

"Just watch," Tseng answered in an equally dry tone, even as they quickly flew east across the wastes around Midgar towards Kalm and the river which ran alongside the town. "And if things will go anything like they did last time, have the co-pilot's controls active, because I might need to jump."

Kariya's brows rose, but he activated the primary co-pilot's systems, which would allow his set of controls to take over if no response came from the pilot's controls. "Jump into what?" the orange haired man asked, suddenly worried.

"...Last time, we found Donnel's body in the river. Actually, there were a lot of things in the river, from most of the smuggled weapons and drugs we'd been trying to stop to bodies ranging from civilians to smugglers to Infantry and Donnel. By the time Donnel ended up in the river, they'd moved to the boardwalk north of the docks, towards the wealthier side of town, but the entire waterfront had already been damaged, from the factory and Reactor slums to the docks, the warehouses, and the boardwalk and river-front homes. Since it started at the illegal docking site in the slums near Kalm's Reactor, by the time we get there, it'll have moved to the docks. I just need to know if the tanker docked there right now has been damaged—even blown up—already or not to decide my actions. Probably, though, I'll be jumping in the river."

"And if the water's burning from the oil spill from the tanker?" Kariya asked, his gaze apprehensive.

"I have the Underwater Materia on—I can stay under the surface with Donnel indefinitely, but I'm not sure how many Underwater will spread to. I only know it definitely covers three—the one wearing it and two others who the wearer has designated as allies and who are within a certain proximity. There's a good chance we'll be finding out its limits today. I didn't know why I put that on before I went in to work yesterday, because by all rights, I should have had time to sort my Materia properly before needing to use any of them, but something...I guess part of my subconscious was reacting to this."

"...Underwater...Is there a difference between a Mastered one and one that's not?"

"I...don't know. Maybe how far the distance will go, or how many it'll affect, or both, but I don't think even Cloud knows, and I can't ask him now, anyway."

"Guess I can't argue with the water part, then, but what if the problem's on land?"

Tseng paused to think about that for a moment before answering—but as Kalm appeared on the horizon, both men's eyes widened at the red glow coming from it. The closer they got, the more defined the steeple-roofed, quaint homes and the glow became, until it formed fire spreading across the waterfront through the slums and up to the docks. As they flew overhead, they could see Donnel and some Infantry struggling to protect some civilians from the smugglers on the end of the dock, and while the tanker further down was undamaged, Tseng's heart jumped into his throat.

:Aeri—med, will Underwater work on all those people?: he asked of her.

A sensation like a minor throb entered his eyes, then she replied, :Yes, if you ask the Lifestream for help. Call to those voices—they aren't Minerva, not the one you met and is now housed in you, they're from the actual Lifestream of this time, and you want to save their lives. The Lifestream will answer that call for someone it takes as a Cetra.:

Sending a sense of thanks to her as they neared the battlefield on the end of the docks, Tseng ordered, "Take the controls, Kariya. You'll be able to take care of the rest of this mess, but there's only one way out of that trap."

As Kariya took the controls, Tseng shut off the pilot's console, causing all operations to go to the co-pilot. He was out of his seat a moment later, and as he slipped past Kariya's, he slipped a hand under the man's suit jacket to his belt to tug one of his bombs off it.

"Hey—!" the man began in alarm.

"Fly over the docks between the two groups," Tseng said, heading to the hold and throwing open the door. As he stood at the open door, holding onto the grip above the door with the hand not holding the bomb, he was suddenly thankful they'd come up from the side they had, since the door faced the smugglers.

There was only one way to break the trap. His saving grace was Underwater.

The chopper flew lower, but still over fifteen feet above the level of the dock as they flew past. As they were crossing the dock itself—which caused a momentary pause in the fighting—he jumped, and a moment later, he threw one of the infamous 'Death God's' bombs at the smugglers, using the force of his throw to propel it downward. He was counting on it hitting first and shattering the dock before he landed, though he was going to end up with some burns from hitting the back draft of the explosion.

Sure enough, the bomb hit and exploded violently, causing screams all over the dock and a splintering and cracking sound from both the wood and the concrete forming the dock. The civilians, the Infantry, Tseng, and Donnel all fell into the water, and as soon as Tseng hit it, he reached out to both Underwater and the Lifestream to save all those people who had fallen in the water with him.

The next thing he knew, green and white tendrils of energy spun around him, flowed through his Underwater Materia, then spread through the water to touch everyone who had fallen with him. He looked up and around as the others were starting to realize they could breathe and were clearly shocked by the realization, but his attention focused on Donnel, who was injured and leaking blood into the cold water. With a quick cast of Full Cure (on himself as well as the other Turk), he was able to repair the damage to his fellow Turk, whose gaze met his in mixed confusion and gratitude. All eyes of the others who had fallen went to the two of them, looking for instruction.

After a moment, Donnel motioned for Tseng to take over, so the Wutain sighed, then gave a nod. He then lifted his sleeve and pointed at the purple orb on it—and Donnel's red eyes widened in understanding, realizing Tseng had to stay under water. The older Turk (he was about twenty-one years old) had blond-red hair to the shoulder, but while wet, it looked quite a bit darker, which would actually be a benefit to keeping Donnel hidden if he went to the surface. Tseng made the motions for the older Turk to go up and scout out the enemies and a safe location to surface, so Donnel nodded and headed to the surface while the others just waited where they were. With fiery lights playing across the surface of the water, none were eager to return to the mess they'd just been in, especially not the mothers or older siblings there with young children.

Soon, Donnel had returned, but looked terse as he made the motions for what he'd found—they had a problem in the fact that the smuggling ring had been larger than they'd realized. Another Turk was up there fighting, but the casualties were high, and anything near-by was a no-go—especially not with all the bodies scattered around. With more motions, Tseng asked about the state of the area north of them. For a moment, Donnel looked into the distance absently, recalling to mind what he'd seen, then gave a nod and the motion for 'safe'. The battle hadn't spread that far yet.

Turning to look around at the group, Tseng motioned them all north, the same direction the current was flowing in and which had been causing them to drift a bit in that direction, regardless. Everyone did, some slower and some faster, so Tseng pointed at a few of the Infantrymen and motioned them to the rear of the group, just in case. It didn't take them long to get to the boardwalk, where Tseng motioned Donnel and some of the Infantry out of the water first, then sent the civilians and the rest of the Infantrymen onto dry land. He emerged last, to see that Donnel had already gotten help in the form of blankets and hot drinks for everyone, and when the older Turk caught his eye, he gave a nod—the action had been correct.

Soon after, Donnel returned with a blanket for each of them so they could wrap themselves up to warm up and dry off a little—which they quickly did before he asked, "What's our next step, then? I mean, I'm pretty sure that was Legend, so you must have a plan."

Tseng looked in the direction of the flames, the burning docks, then looked back at Donnel to say, "Kariya's holding them off, but if the number is as high as you indicated, we'll have to change the plan—you and I need to get back to him before he runs out of bombs. Is this all the Infantry left in town, or was this just what was left of one unit?"

"It should just be what's left of the unit responsible for the docks," Donnel answered promptly. "Do we get the rest of the Infantry in town to set up a blockade so the problem can't spread?"

"We do. Did you want to make the call, since you were here first?" Tseng asked in reply, knowing Donnel didn't take nearly as well to orders as to suggestions. He had to wonder about the young man's past, but he knew Donnel loathed slavers and only didn't take the missions to remove them from the Midgar Slums because he wouldn't be able to control his temper if he tried.

The older Turk readily nodded and pulled out his PHS to make the call—only to suddenly dive to catch Tseng as the Wutain lost his gravity and began falling. His body suddenly just felt limp like he was a rag doll, and he didn't like the sensation, though he could guess at the cause. It was his first time trying to call on and channel the Lifestream, and he'd done something quite extensive with it, so it wasn't really far-fetched to say he'd over-exerted himself by doing it. He heard Donnel issuing the orders to the Infantry stationed in town as he recovered himself and managed to sit up on his own.

As Donnel snapped his phone shut, he asked with a glare, "So what the Hellfire was that all about, Tseng?"

"Underwater isn't supposed to work on so many people, so I think I—accessed a Limit Break in order to make it, and now I'm feeling the after-effects of using one for such a long period of time," Tseng answered tiredly, citing the first thing which came to mind and would make sense.

Most people actually were 'capable' of accessing a Limit Break, but most never did, and it was usually people in combat roles—notably Turks and SOLDIERs—who did access them, quite often. They resulted from a build-up of negative energy generated by being attacked by 'an enemy', whether that was an animal, a monster, or a bandit, or from a sudden surge of strong emotion, and came out as an explosion of power. Normally, the 'explosion of power' just meant increasing strength, stamina, reflexes, and battle clarity for a couple minutes, which was normally also how long it would take to overcome one's opponent. Some Limit Breaks, however, were very spectacular attacks, or even healing abilities, like something which resembled the spell Comet or the Enemy Skill White Wind. However, keeping up a string of Limit Breaks or holding one for longer than a couple minutes—could kill its user.

The words made Donnel's eyes widen in worry as he asked, "Then, is going into battle something you can do after nearly getting yourself killed with that Limit Break?"

"I can still shoot a gun," Tseng answered dryly, rising carefully. "Once the Infantry get here, we have to go help Kariya."

One of the Infantrymen, who had been heading over to check with them, said, "Give us orders, Sir, and go help your fellow."

"You're up to that after the battle you already fought?" Tseng asked in surprise.

"We weren't fighting it for that long, really," the man answered dryly.

Donnel took advantage to say, "If you're sure, the thing we most need is a perimeter between the fighting and the area it hasn't reached. That's what we need you to do."

"Yes, Sir!" the man grinned, then ran back over to the others to let them know.