Spectacular Protector
Weiss woke at some point the following day as he heard Azul snarl, "You know damned well what you did to him and how bloody long it would take him to recover! You're not dragging him back into training until then!"
"That's not your decision to make," the leader of the Restrictors replied in a cold tone.
Sighing faintly as tears filled his eyes, he squeezed them shut tightly. It was going to be another bad day, and what Azul and Argento were doing, as much as he appreciated the sentiment, was only going to make things worse. And it wasn't just for him it would, it was for them, too. The fact that they were willing to do so was impressive, but in the long run, it wouldn't help. After that pause, he rubbed his eyes to rub away the tears he couldn't afford to let slip and forced his aching body to move, to rise and dress. Thankfully, it wouldn't take long with just a shirt, pants, and the soft shoes he normally wore.
"It doesn't change the fact that we're not just going to let you take him away right now," Argento put in, voice frosty.
"Neither of us will just let you do that," Azul affirmed.
"Maybe it escaped your attention, but you both don't have a choice. We've made sure of that," the Restrictor told the two. "Get out of my way!" As he snarled that, there was the sound of movement, then a tremendous clash.
He made it to the door of his room just in time to see Argento blocking a hard blow from the Restrictor as the Restrictor blocked a punch from Azul.
"Stop!" he shouted, causing all three to abort their pending attacks to turn to stare at him. He gave his head a small shake and told his two fellow Tsviets, "Thank you. Just the fact that you tried means a lot. But the reality is, in our current situation, there's nothing you can do, and trying things like this will only make everything worse—for all of us. If they've decided my punishment isn't over yet, then my punishment isn't over yet."
"...Weiss..." Argento sighed faintly, lowering her weapon. After a pause, she sheathed it, gaze going blank as she said, "Very well."
Azul made a growling noise, but also backed down.
"You're willing?" the Restrictor asked, sounding like he was cocking a brow at the boy.
"Say instead I know I have no choice," Weiss replied in a flat tone, pushing away from the doorjamb where he had been leaning and carefully making his way into the room. "Better to get it over with than to drag it out and expand the range."
"Meaning?" the older man asked.
"Any punishment you would have given Azul and Argento for this, give it to me. I'll talk with them—they both came from outside, after all. This won't happen again," Weiss replied evenly, stopping in front of the Restrictor. Both other Tsviets' eyes widened in horror.
The Restrictor, on the other hand, snorted and said, "Very well, but in exchange, if this does happen again, all three of you will pay the price."
Weiss' jaw was set as he replied, "It won't happen again."
Smirking, the man offered, "We'll see. Come along, then." He turned and left the apartment, and Weiss followed him.
It was a bad day, and it was just going to get worse. By the fact that he wasn't being left to recover for nearly long enough, it was more than obvious, and that he was being led back to that room...The one where they had set all of Deepground against him in wave after wave...
"I'm going to start killing them unless you specifically tell me not to," Weiss said bluntly as the Restrictor opened the door to the room. He knew Genesis wouldn't be happy about him having to, but also that the older man wouldn't want him to just not defend himself in such a situation.
"We don't actually care what you do," the Restrictor replied, waving him over to the circle he was to stay inside for the purposes of this 'exercise'. "As long as you don't kill the four of us, the rest are just fodder anyway, and you killing them or not won't really change anything."
With a small nod, Weiss moved over to the place he needed to stand, the circle he wasn't to leave, to wait for the 'exercise' to start. As he did, he prayed, to Genesis, to Minerva, to anyone who might be able to do something for him, because if things kept going the way they were, he wasn't going to survive even just a few more days. That reality wasn't one he could ignore anymore—what was being done to him was no 'punishment', it was intended to end someone who had stepped on their toes.
The attacks began, and this time, he aimed to kill. He did it quickly, efficiently, over and over again until there was a pile of corpses around him tall enough to forcibly halt the fighting until the corpses could be cleared away. It gave him a short, but much-needed, reprieve before he had to go back to killing, only to create that pile of corpses again. That time, he saw the Restrictors scowling at him and knew it had just gotten worse—much worse. He began praying again, not willing to stop the process of killing he'd begun, because his only chance was for them to have nothing else to throw at him.
And they themselves had told him he could kill as much as he wanted.
He was sure they hadn't realized his killing efficiency, though. They had been expecting blows to reach him.
Wave after wave came at him, and as he found himself more and more drenched in blood, he also found his mind beginning to go blank. Soon, he wouldn't even be conscious!
Suddenly, all motion stopped abruptly as the head of the Restrictors bellowed, "Halt!" Into the silence, the man added at a lower tone, "Clear a path and back away to the walls. Weiss, stay where you are." Everyone else backed away in a wave as the four Restrictors approached him.
It had just gotten worse, and the only thing he had left to do was try again to pray, to reach for Genesis, Minerva, anyone...
"You don't seem to be able to cooperate with us in the way we want you to," the head of the Restrictors almost snarled at him. "We were supposed to have found someone to replace you with by now, but since that doesn't seem to be happening and you're too much of a loose cannon, elimination is the only other option. Hold still so it's at least fast and painless."
His fear spiked as he reached one last time for Genesis—only for the energy to jump to another as the blows from all four men drove at him hard.
Light blotted out his vision as someone both familiar and unfamiliar wrapped their arms around him in a hug, and a moment later, the arms vanished and the light cleared—and all he could do was stare around himself in shock. The room had been splintered by a force apparently striking all around it, a great deal like he'd expect an air strike to resemble, and two of the four Restrictors were dead, next to nothing left of their bodies. The other two were still alive, but badly injured and staring at something above him in something like amazed horror.
Following their gazes, he saw the hovering form of an Alexander, hazy and not entirely there, as it clearly shielded him. It had wings, something he'd never previously known an Alexander had, and seemed to be in a 'sentry' position, rather than fading away, its attack done. Warmth spreading through his body made him suddenly look down, holding his hands up in shock as warm flames ran over his body and healed his injuries as it went. He was still exhausted, and not quite everything had healed, but he could already feel the difference, and knew the fire was from the mark Genesis had put on him. It had come through!
But who, or what, was the Alexander that it would help him?
The Restrictors backed away from him as the Alexander's wings folded around Weiss, and when they had joined the other members of Deepground against the wall, the wings relaxed and folded back behind the hazy form of the being. Everyone just stayed like that, until the door to the room opened and Argento stepped through, calmly walking up to stand several feet from the Alexander, even as its wings began spreading in warning. She then dropped to one knee and rested one fist on the ground, head lowered in the form of a bow, stopping the Alexander from spreading its wings fully.
"Lord Alexander, you have made your point, that you will not allow this boy to be harmed. I am not his enemy. As long as you remain in this position, nor can he rest or receive care for any injuries he already had. I thank you for your intervention on his behalf, but at this moment, there is nothing more you can do for him. Please let me see to his injuries and rest," she said to the being humbly.
After a few long moments, to everyone's surprise, the being faded out, and she rose to go to Weiss—only to have to jump to catch him before he hit the ground as he fell. She shifted her grip on him to carry him in both arms, then rose to leave the room with him, making her way towards the door, where Azul, Rosso, and Nero all waited.
"You can't just walk away with him!" one of the surviving Restrictors snarled, trying to force himself up.
She paused and turned her head to look at him over her shoulder. "Do you realize that Alexander would have utterly destroyed this place and killed us all had I not placated it? If you try to attack Weiss again with killing intent, it will reappear to defend him. Your people see Summons only as tools...You have neither met nor been faced with one who roams freely, who answers to no person alive. That is not something you are equipped to fight, so regardless of your plans or desires, they will have to be put on hold for the time being. I swore to see to his injuries and allow him proper rest, so those are terms I must abide. If you will excuse me?"
The first started to say something, but the other's voice cut through the first one's as he said, "For now, then, all of you will be restricted to your rooms. Rosso and Nero will have permission to leave at mealtimes to retrieve meals for the five of you, but otherwise, that is where you will stay. When we've decided on something further to do with you, we will pay you a visit to discuss those terms. Go."
Argento gave a nod and proceeded on her path towards the door. It was then when Weiss' awareness faded to darkness, even as he tried to find the link back to his protector with a heart-felt thanks, the last thing he remembered before everything was still and silent and dark in his mind.
MB
"Tseng! Tseng! Oh, Shiva, what happened? Tseng! Please answer me! Tseng!" the sound of a young girl crying and calling out to him reached him as he tried to work out what had happened.
The last thing he remembered was starting up some music for Neirine to listen to while she read and getting up to go back to his seat—only for something to pull on him. It had felt surreal, as he'd seen a boy he was sure was Weiss, but younger, in the middle of a room full of corpses and men—Deepground by their uniforms—attacking him. The boy was at a disadvantage and was badly injured, exhausted, and at the end of his endurance.
Whether it was really Weiss or not, his heart went out to him and instinctively, he wanted to protect him from that killing attack—and he'd suddenly become an Alexander. That form had not faded until a Wutain woman with one blind eye had sworn to tend the boy, and somehow, he had believed, trusted, the oath she had given, allowing the Alexander form to fade and his awareness to return to his own body.
That—all of that—should have been impossible.
And yet, he was completely exhausted, and had apparently collapsed...?
Oh, right, the crying girl who kept pleading with him was probably Neirine, and he struggled to try to move or open his eyes, or—well, anything. Nothing was working, and trying was exhausting him more, leaving him caught in a peculiar zone halfway between waking and sleeping.
A new, familiar voice cut into Neirine's pleading and crying, asking her urgently, "What happened, Neirine?"
"I don't know!" she replied tearfully, speaking very fast. "Onemomenthewasjustheadingbacktohisseat andthenexthe'd glowed with light andcollapsedandnowIcan'twakehim andIdon'tknowwhattodoand—"
There was the distinct sound of flesh striking flesh in a slap, and the girl's words and tears both abruptly cut off. The new arrival—he thought it was Kariya—told her in a shockingly gentle tone, "Panicking won't help him. Take some deep breaths and calm down so you can think. If someone is injured or ill, and you don't know what to do to help the person, what's your next logical option?"
"...Call someone who may be able to?" she asked slowly after a pause, sounding more alert and grounded, rather than panicked.
"Right," he agreed, but was cut off from saying more as the door was thrown open loudly.
Another new-but-familiar, terse voice asked, "Kariya, how's Tseng?"
"That's what I'm trying to figure out, but I first had to calm Neirine down to get actual sense from her," Kariya replied.
"I don't know if we have that long," the newcomer replied, voice still terse. "Has he told you about our boy in Deepground?"
"He's mentioned him—Weiss, right?" Kariya replied.
"Yes, the one who was tortured. And apparently again almost immediately after the first incident I had to intervene in. This time, somehow, his call to me jumped over to Tseng, and I have no idea what happened, but if Weiss was really in the state my power was healing him from..." At the words, Tseng realized it had to be Genesis.
"But he's not showing signs of physical injury, and how would that call have jumped to someone Weiss barely knows?" Kariya asked in confusion.
"The stone on Tseng's head is red!" Neirine cut in with a gasp, silencing the other two men.
Wait, it was?
Then again, if what Genesis had said was true, then what he had seen could very well have been true, too...and that meant he'd projected a summon-aspect form he hadn't even known he had into a location he was completely unfamiliar with.
It would explain his exhaustion, he supposed.
But how? How had he done that at all? He should have been aware since he was a child of a shapeshifting or projection ability if he had one!
"Damn..." Kariya breathed. "Genesis, call out one of your Summons and tell it to feed Tseng energy, because if what I think just happened really just happened, he doesn't even have enough energy left to keep himself alive, or only barely that."
"He almost killed himself to save Weiss?" Genesis gaped in surprise, then quickly added, "Never mind—we'll discuss that more later. For now, is there any particular Summon which is best for me to use? I have Bahamut, Ifrit, Phoenix, and Alexander on me, but that's it right now. Or should I try calling one of his, like Airmed?"
"Can you? Assuming we can find where he put them?" Kariya asked in near-annoyance.
"In his ponytail! That's where he keeps Airmed!" Neirine put in, and Tseng felt her hands touching his head, his hair, loosening the tie to get to Airmed.
"...Why do you know that?" Kariya asked in surprise as Tseng felt a jolt from Airmed's Materia shoving itself away from Neirine's hands, which also caused her to give a startled yelp.
"He told me, back when we did that four Turk scenario with Ansha and Verde," Neirine answered, then gasped, "How can you touch it after it jumped away from me?"
"I can because he and I shared an experience which gives us the right to touch one another's Materia," Genesis replied, then paused for a moment. When he next spoke, it was to intone, "Airmed, Tseng needs some energy infusions to replace what he just used to protect Weiss."
Aeris' oh-so-familiar voice said, "I can do that, but it will take awhile, if you're willing to stay here until I've finished?" It was mystical in the way of all Summons, a voice he heard partly in his mind and partly with his ears.
"I can," Genesis agreed.
A moment later, he felt the peculiar sensation of energy trickling into his body to touch his core, then to begin flowing throughout it in small bands like threads. It was almost like it was slowly sewing him back together, piece by piece. For all the sensation was odd, somehow, it was also familiar in a way which made him think he had felt something like it before. However, it also eased his mind and allowed him to drift into actual sleep, rather than hovering halfway between as he had been until then.
MB
As Tseng's body relaxed properly while Airmed knelt beside him with a hand on his forehead, Genesis released a relieved sigh and looked up at Kariya and Neirine. "I have to stay here because she's actively pulling on my energy to maintain her form," he told the two. His gaze focused on the younger girl for a moment before turning to Kariya as he commented, "And I'm not sure we can keep the details from the munchkin anymore."
With a heart-felt sigh, Kariya agreed, "I don't think so, either."
"What details?" Neirine asked in surprised confusion.
Genesis just listened while Kariya explained Leviathan's Blessing to the girl, listing for her the people they knew who had it, all in relation to the same event—stopping whatever would eventually lead to the end of the world. The man also answered questions about it for her. Finally, she asked, "So what does that have to do with him collapsing—or, like the Commander said, him almost killing himself to save Weiss?"
"Apparently, we have a deeper bond—the five of us—than we realized," Genesis replied to that question, and she turned to look at him in surprise. "And Weiss' situation is dire—fatally so. Last time, I took the brunt of it, but this time, it...jumped. The one it jumped to was Tseng, so he took the primary brunt of the damage, and I only came into it to provide energy to activate the array I left for Weiss last time, which gave him healing when he badly needed it. Hopefully, with the display it became this time, they'll lay off torturing him—trying to kill him—for awhile now."
"Why are they trying to kill someone so high in their ranks?" she asked in alarm.
"...He just proved to them that he's far too independent to be controlled. And despite warnings and attempts to hide that fact, it was found out very quickly," Genesis answered quietly. At the puzzled looks both Turks shot him, he elaborated, "Deepground is all about the President's absolute control over his own private army. He's even got them controlled by implanted chips which are directly manipulated by the four Restrictors. Those four are the go-betweens for Deepground and the President, and are only loyal to the President. They'd thought they had control of Weiss, but he showed them he was capable of his own thought—and more durable than they realized. This had to have pissed them off with the realization they wouldn't actually be able to kill him. We also don't know what the President will do in response."
"Will they even tell him?" Neirine asked in surprise.
"With two of the Restrictors dead, they don't have much choice," the SOLDIER answered.
"How long will it take Tseng to recover?" Kariya asked suddenly.
"Awhile—only Airmed will know when she finishes," Genesis replied. "Why did you know what Tseng needed to recover, Kariya?"
Rubbing the back of his neck with one hand, the older man answered quietly, "I'm not quite a normal human, either. Mostly what I got out of the deal was over three thousand years' worth of memories, and my reaction was to some of those memories coming to the fore. Since Tseng is a half-Summon, and that's been happening for thousands of years, occasionally they would project. My...other part...recalled immediately that projecting—temporarily becoming a purely spirit-form Summon—was very hard on the human body, and by extension, would drain it. In this case, it could also have been the situation he was dropped into—he may have over-reached his ability in that form. It happens to pretty much all half-Summons the first few times they do it. Only problem is, my current form doesn't let me trade off the energy he needs to him because I'm closer to a human than to a Summon."
"You're a Summon?" Neirine gaped as Genesis' eyes widened. "Tseng is a Summon?"
Kariya made a dismissing motion with his hand. "I'm not—I'm a Summon who somehow got stuck in a human body, merged with the essence of the body, and therefore is no better than a skilled human. And Tseng is a half-Summon—he's mostly human, and for the last eight years, hasn't had access to his Summon aspects, regardless. For the most part, he still qualifies as human, and most of his Summon abilities aren't nearly so spectacular as this one. I also know this one really can't be used often—it takes a certain amount of energy build-up to use."
"Energy he's been building up for the last eight years, if what you said before is true," Genesis put in thoughtfully. Kariya nodded, and Genesis looked at Neirine to say, "This isn't something for you to share—with anyone. I daresay Kariya will tell Veld, but otherwise, you keep this to yourself, all right?"
"The Turks are good—she can talk with any of them. Besides, there's no real way we can hide Tseng's collapse from them just now," Kariya replied.
"The other Turks?" Genesis asked with a raised brow.
"It didn't take long for them all to realize what had happened, so we're all on board," the older man replied, and the younger man sighed faintly.
"So much for keeping it secret..." the younger man commented.
"Uh..." Neirine began, sounding faintly amused as the other two looked at her. "We're Turks. We always deal in secrets, and keeping a secret from a Turk is like keeping a flood back with a sponge—it won't work." She then made a pouting face and added, "I'm just annoyed I'm the last to know all this."
The two men had to chuckle.