Unavoidable
When Cloud woke in the morning, it was to his PHS ringing, and he answered it while still half-asleep with something which vaguely sounded like a, "Yeah?"
"Cloud, why aren't you here yet?" Veld asked, tone apprehensive.
"Yet? What?" the blond asked as he rubbed his face with one hand tiredly. Then, he had to blink at the white, winged dog sitting in front of him, staring at both him and the pup still curled against him.
"It's past nine thirty—over half an hour after I expect to see you in the morning," the man replied.
Pulling his PHS away from his face for a moment, Cloud found the time—and sighed. Returning it to his ear, he said, "Sorry, I spent most of the night awake and your call woke me. I can head in now?"
"No, that's fine. The President finally gave the okay to heavy-hand the war, so you're going to be heading out in three days. You have the time until then to prepare, so if there's anything you need to do before you leave, focus on that. Hopefully, you'll find your target quickly and will be able to get out of there soon after, but all I want from you is to let me know where you'll be if you leave the building. I'll update you on the exact details of your departure as soon as I have them," Veld explained.
"Okay, thanks," Cloud agreed. "I don't think I'll need to go anywhere, but I'll let you know if I do."
"Good. Go back to sleep, since it sounds like you need it," Veld told him.
They both finished saying their goodbyes and hung up—and Cloud yelped as Zack suddenly shoved his face into the blond's. A moment later, Zack's claimed puppy replaced the man's face, and he announced, "It's naming time!"
Cloud groaned as Angeal said, "Zack, at least give him time to wake up..."
"But I want to name them already!" Zack whined. In Cloud's mind, Fenrir was laughing in amusement at his younger self's antics.
"Then name yours and leave me alone," Cloud muttered.
"Aww, come on! Naming without help is no fun!" the Third retorted, pouting. "Hey, maybe there are old legends in your hometown you could name it after? What was that wolf deity? Finny?"
"Finny..." Cloud repeated flatly. "I think you mean Fenrir, who happens to be a Summon I have on me, so I can't name the pup that. If the pup is male."
"Oh," Zack blinked in surprise, then grinned. "They're both little girls! Mama must be happy her girls survived!"
"...I think she's just happy any of her pups survived, Zack," the blond replied, rolling his eyes. Did he have any memories at all of Zack behaving quite like this? The Third gave a puppy-like, honest-to-goodness whine (producing more laughter from Fenrir) as Cloud looked down at the Nibel Wolf-ish pup, then began scratching the top of her head as he said, "Tyra, named after Tyr, the god of war and law, representative of the Lady of the Mountains. He works with Fenrir, so why not (1)?" He then paused to lift the pup up to eye level and asked, "Are you good with Tyra?" The pup yipped and wagged her tail. "Tyra it is."
"Hey! You just went and named her without including me!" Zack whined again, turning his pup around to look at it. "Cloud's a meany, isn't he?" The tiger-striped pup just wagged her tail.
"So stop wasting time and pick a name from your area..." Cloud replied, putting the pup down beside him and laying down again.
"I've been trying names on their mother—you slept through all that, Cloud—and it seems like she likes Halo," Angeal commented, and the mother's head swiveled to look at him.
"Awww..." Zack sighed. "That only leaves me..." He then paused and gave a wicked grin as he said, "Well, we know this girl's been sparking with fire and lightning, so all she needs is a third ability and I could call her Delta." The puppy he held yipped enthusiastically and wagged her tail so hard Zack almost dropped her. "I guess that means you like that one, Delta!" he grinned, and got more yips. "So, that's Halo for the mom, and Tyra and Delta for the pups! We're good! And I can't wait to introduce Delta to Aeris!"
"Zack, we have to go to Wutai in three days..." Angeal sighed.
"Which is why we should visit her now and introduce everyone!" the Third replied energetically with a huge grin. "We can even go now! I know she'll be there this early!"
Angeal met Cloud's gaze questioningly, and Cloud hesitated, then sighed and nodded agreement, so the man said, "Fine, we can visit her and collect some things on our way back, like supplies they'll need—even if we take them out for walks twice a day, they should still be at least paper-trained, just in case."
"I'll go get dressed and ready, then," Cloud agreed, setting Tyra down on the floor beside her mother and getting to his feet.
He then made his way up to his apartment, sending a message to Veld as he did to let him know Zack had apparently decided they were all visiting a friend of his in the Slums. The response he got back was an obviously amused affirmative, so he focused on getting to his apartment, doing his business, and changing. And on trying to mentally prepare himself to meet Aeris officially for the first time since he'd been in the past. He'd never known her at such a young age, but that didn't make meeting her easier. If anything, it made it harder.
It then also occurred to him to let Fenrir know what had happened the night before, so while he was on the way back to Angeal's he mentally said, :Hey, Fenrir?:
:Yeah?: the man-made-Summon asked in reply, sounding curious and tentative.
:I think I got the wrong point from the last time you tried to talk with me...You meant that I had stopped thinking when I fought him, right?: Zack gave a small affirmative, so Cloud told him, :There's so much familiarity there, when it's The Nightmare, that habit started taking over and I stopped actively seeing what was going on around me. In that, you're right. I don't know about 'obsession', but I know I need to stop—not thinking.:
There was a silence, then warmth like a hug from Fenrir. :Now that you know, you'll be able to do it, Spiky. I'll do what I can to help you, too.:
It was Cloud's turn to be silent for a moment before saying a heart-felt, :Thanks.:
Finally, he'd returned to Angeal and Zack's apartment and the three could head down to the Slums with the three dogs—which, of course, drew plenty of stares.
MB
Genesis was woken by a displeased yowl from Sierra and the giggling of two girls from the direction of the kitchen table. A very tired-sounding Kunzel said plaintively, "Please don't take her food away..."
"I'll give it back," Shalua replied in amusement.
"It's hers, and you don't have a reason to take it at all. So just don't. If you keep doing it, I'll let her bite you or use her mini-Blaster on you because you'll deserve it," the young man replied flatly. "She's still a feral Coerl, even if she likes you, and you don't take food from wild animals. That's asking for trouble."
"But—" Shalua began.
"No one takes someone else's food from them in my home," Genesis called from the couch as his little chick roused and found her way out from under the blanket. "That includes from the ones who don't look human. We're not living with a food shortage, so just don't go there. It's not a joke to not have food or to have it taken away from you."
A long silence fell before an obviously scowling Shalua asked, "Like you'd know!"
The red haired man snorted and laughed. "Ever been ditched in the middle of nowhere on a battlefield with no food in sight—and left there for several days, Sweetheart?" The pure acid in his tone produced a horrified silence.
"That was one of your deployments to Wutai, wasn't it?" Kunzel asked in sudden realization.
"It was. That was about two years ago, and a whole regiment of SOLDIER and Infantry were left there for ten days with about two meals' worth of jerky and nothing else. We were lucky we had a river not too far away and could follow it to a town of Wutains who knew we had no food and had enough excess to share some of it with us. In exchange, we unanimously told the President to stuff it if he actually expected us to attack the town which was the reason we were still alive. It also made us very temperamental and reminded him of why he absolutely does not try to starve SOLDIERs," Genesis replied. "And if you haven't given Sierra's food back yet, Shalua, you'd better."
Another long silence fell before Shelke asked tentatively, "So...What do we do now? Go home? Where will we live if we stay here?"
"You're staying in Midgar—it's safer for you here so the men who tried to kidnap you won't be able to do so again," the red haired man sighed faintly, sitting up and lifting the chick as he rose to take her to the table—where she went right after the bowl of fruit. "Let me get changed and all that morning stuff, then we can sit down and start going over your options."
With their agreement, he went to do exactly that, then returned to the table and sat—only to find that Kunzel had already placed breakfast on the table for him and his chick was already most of the way through the peach she'd chosen that morning. "Thanks," he offered to the younger man, who just gave him a grin.
"So...Our options?" Shalua asked as Genesis ate.
He told them what he and Kariya had discussed last night, then finished by saying, "He should be here soon to work that out with you and finalize the details. Of course, you're both welcome here whenever you like—assuming I'm free—regardless of where you choose to live and go to school."
"Can we just start going to school here? Don't you have to have really good grades to get in?" Shalua asked slowly.
"If you were going into it purely Shinra-funded scholarship-based, yes," Genesis agreed. "They don't want to waste time or money on someone who's just going to flunk out and work at a gas station or something. It'll be either or both Kariya and myself funding you, though, so Shinra's not footing the bill. Not directly, at least. Instead, you're getting in via recommendation of an existing employee. Also, because they tried to grab you both, it's very likely the President would fund you to go here regardless, for your own safety."
"Could I learn new things about computers here?" Shelke asked curiously.
"They have plenty of tech classes you could take," he agreed. "Actually, the available course list is very extensive and you both have a lot of options. You don't need to decide on a specific path just now, so taking a variety that appeals to you is the best way to start. As you work out where you're aiming for, you can hone it then. The variety and laxity of the courses in city schools is much less varied, though some schools do have some very interesting course options."
Both girls sat quietly for a few minutes before Shelke asked tentatively, "Do we both have to agree on the same school? Because I'd like to go here, even if Shalua doesn't."
Genesis blinked at the reply as Shalua sent her younger sister a sharp look, but the SOLDIER told her, "I don't know what Kariya thinks about that, but I don't actually care if you both want to go to different schools or live in different places. You're welcome to. Just keep in mind that you have to be an Academy student to live in Academy student housing."
"Going to school here keeps us close to both of you without putting either of you out of your own homes," Shalua sighed in annoyance. "And you already told us we can visit when we want. If Kariya's planning to be anything like a father to us—even though I really want to hate him for not bothering until Mom died—then probably that invitation's open from him, too. Do the Turks have anything against visitors?"
"Are you planning to visit him at the office?" Genesis asked with a raised brow as Kunzel chuckled.
"Maybe," the girl replied, gazing at him challengingly.
"The Turks are going to be keeping an eye on you two, anyway. Stopping in to visit them will make their lives easier, especially if you form a pattern they can track to know they should go looking if you don't turn up when you were expected," the Third offered to them, still looking amused.
They blinked at him, traded amazed looks, then returned their gazes to him so the older girl could ask, "How do you know that?"
"I have a friend in the Turks who told me about the specific watch on the people we know the Restrictors went after directly," Kunzel explained. "They've retrieved some of the ones on the list who showed no traces of having been approached, so for the moment, keeping them in the city with occasional check-ups is good enough. Others had already been taken, and some—like the two of you—were interrupted mid-snatch attempt. Anyone in the last category is going under the 'watch' list since they had obviously prioritized you for some reason. It's not likely they're going to just quit trying when we know they can actually get into Midgar, and the place it's hardest to get to is right here in this building."
The door opened suddenly, making all of them turn to look—only for Kariya to say, "Howdy," and stroll in like he owned the place.
"I don't remember giving you permission to walk in without even knocking," Genesis pointed out to the man dryly, gaze annoyed.
"You didn't complain last night," Kariya commented with a raised brow.
"I'd have lit your ass on fire—literally—if you hadn't come back last night, though," the First answered. "This is different."
"How? You were still expecting me," the Turk shot back, that time looking highly amused. "So, have you already started talking about options?"
"Girls, feel free to fill him in on your current plan," the First replied with a smirk.
As the two descended on a suddenly alarmed-looking Kariya, Kunzel shook his head with a small laugh. "So if you just sicced them on him, what are we doing today?"
"Taking another mission or two for Slum clearing," Genesis replied, lifting the chick to his shoulder and giving her time to figure out how to cling onto his jacket's shoulder. He was suddenly thankful for the leather coat for a different reason—protection against talons. Once she'd gotten a good grip, he pulled a random fruit from the bowl and rose as he stuck it in his pocket, and Kunzel rose with him, Sierra on his heels as the two men left the apartment.
MB
Approaching the Sector 5 Slum Church felt surreal, Cloud reflected with a sigh. Just being there was so much memory of everything it was hard to keep walking, and it was actually made worse by seeing the Church mostly intact, not broken-down and full of healing water like it had been in the future he'd come from. Zack was bouncing on his toes, grinning like a loon, and the pups were exploring the sides of the path but staying close. Angeal's newly-named Halo was walking placidly beside him, which was probably a good thing given her wings.
When someone had gotten up the courage to ask about the 'dogs' when they were still near the train station, the Commander had just raised a brow and replied, "If you're brave, feel free to ask the Shinra Lab staff—we just inherited the results." The response had at least amused Cloud ("So true," he'd felt like adding), but it had been short-lived.
Finally, they reached the doors and stepped inside—only to stop and stare as Aeris calmly worked with the flowers while a Jumping (sort of?) watched her from the side of the hole in the Church floor. After a minute, the white, rabbit-like creature (which had somehow grown about three feet taller than a normal Jumping, which was already nearly the size of an average human man) put its front paws down on the dirt—and a moment later, several new flowers grew.
Cloud reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose as he noted how the Jumping had a small, two-inch-long, pointed horn and white wings, but they seemed to be very small wings. Comically small wings. His first thought was a Lab escapee from the same break-out which had ended with them having the 'dogs', which had only happened yesterday. What was especially odd was that Jumpings in the wild were insanely, stupidly aggressive towards non-Jumpings, and often attacked creatures they knew were much stronger than them, but this one was...placid. It seemed to be more intelligent than a normal monster or animal, too, by having apparently learned to grow plants by watching Aeris.
"Um...Should we be worried, Aeris?" Zack asked her after a surprised moment.
"What?" she blinked, turning to look at them as the Jumping looked up to eye them warily. Then, she blinked at the 'dogs' with them and just gave them a puzzled look. "What do you think you should worry about, exactly? Especially when you came here with some very odd-looking dogs?"
"They're Lab escapees we adopted so we didn't have to kill them," Zack told her. "And they're pretty mild, even with the powers we know they have. But—that's a Jumping, isn't it? They're, like, really aggressive..."
"Zack, that Jumping already proved it isn't for some reason," Cloud sighed tiredly, realizing he hadn't yet made the jump to where it had logically come from. "Which is probably the result of it being a Lab escapee, too."
"But that only happened yesterday!" Zack exclaimed in surprise.
"I only saw it here this morning," Aeris commented dryly. "I didn't even notice it until I'd been working on my flowers for a bit and it came to watch me. Until now, I had no idea it could grow them, too. By the way—who's the blond with you?"
"Oh, this is Cloud!" Zack grinned, apparently dismissing the Jumping's presence once he was sure it was safe. "He's the Turks' engineer, so he doesn't do missions, just makes and fixes their weapons and tools. Since we have to head out to Wutai in a few days, I thought I could introduce you today—to him and to our new pets."
At the words, the brown haired girl straightened and asked eagerly, "Tifa's Cloud?"
For a moment, he paused, then sighed and agreed, "Yeah, Tifa's and Hokuto's Cloud. Yes, the one who's been avoiding you."
Suddenly, he found his arms full of laughing girl hugging him tightly as she said happily, "Finally! It feels like I've been waiting forever to meet you!" Then, she pulled back, seeing how he looked just plain shocked. Her smile softened. "You're one like Tseng, aren't you? He sort of implied that, and that things had gone really badly—and you were avoiding me because of it. Things won't go that way this time, though. Not with all of you trying to fix it. And I can sense you'll be a great friend."
All at once, something in him relaxed and he smiled softly. "Thank you, Aeris." Somehow, the whirlwind of emotion she produced all the time had calmed him more than he'd been expecting, eased his own whirlwind of old, painful emotions. Maybe in her case, it would have been better to meet with her sooner?
"So...Me next?" Zack asked impishly, holding out his arms to hug the girl.
She giggled and let him, then stood back and asked, "So, your new dogs?"
"The mom is Angeal's and she apparently liked the name Halo. The pups are Tyra—Cloud's—and Delta—mine," Zack explained eagerly. "Yes, the pups are both Halo's. They have some pretty weird powers, too. If that Jumping is going to stay around here, will you name it?"
"I guess if it does stay I would so I had something to call it," the girl answered as she knelt to pet the pups, whose tails both waved at the attention. "But right now, no. If it doesn't stay, there's no point. Anyway, I don't have the money to take care of a pet, so it'll have to take care of itself. At least if it can grow plants like I do, it should be fine on its own. You're going to Wutai, Zack?"
"All three of us are—Cloud's job is to retrieve a child from there who's in a dangerous position right now, and we need her to be in a safe place," Angeal told her, speaking for the first time. "So, he's going to retrieve her and get her back here as quick as he can while we end the bloody—literally and figuratively—war. Chances are he'll be back here long before Zack and myself."
Aeris blinked up at him for a moment, then asked, "So you're aiming to end the war this time, somehow? When it didn't work before, even with the two of you Commanders and the General there?"
"This time, we have five combatants at our level, and all five of us now have mentees who are also skilled, and who are improving rapidly with our guidance, so a total of ten, not three, who count as those 'powerful fighters'," the older man explained in some amusement. "We also have a different commander, not Heidegger, and a way to bypass Tamblin easily—that's been our sticking point for some time now. Bypassing it lets us attack the capital directly. We also have several registered Turks with us, and you know their skills. Even if we don't count Cloud or the Infantry, we're already in a much better place this time than before."
"Okay," the girl agreed as she stood and eyed him for a long moment. "Why are you determined to take their land away from them for a company? That's not fixing a problem, it's making a bigger one."
"Tseng and one of our Wutain heavy-hitters advised us to do it because the Wutain nobility are killing off too many of their truly good and honorable nobles," Cloud informed her flatly, and she turned to stare at him. "There are five families left of a few dozen, and Tseng is the sole survivor of the attack on his family—that's how he ended up out here. Those attacks need to stop, and because the perpetrators are hidden in the highest levels of their society, the only way to get rid of them is to start forcibly killing off anyone forsaken by Leviathan.
"Yes, Tseng gave us a sure way to know. Yes, we need to do this. No, it isn't making a problem worse, it's fixing a bigger one. Because if it stays the way it is, the Wutains who will be left will become our worst enemies and start torturing and murdering our civilians with impunity, because the only ones who will be left won't have any honor."
"...Oh..." she blinked, then her gaze saddened. "He didn't tell me that." She turned to look at all three of the men, who all looked grim, then said, "Okay, then I'll wish you luck, and pray to the Planet for your safety. Make it as painless as possible, please? It'll be a lot of death as it is..."
"What?" Angeal asked in confusion.
It was Cloud who said, "The point of heavy-handing it with our current resources is to make it quick and clean. We don't have any interest in torture—for those few who do, I'm pretty sure Sephiroth and Angeal will kill them before things get out of hand." He gave her a nod. "I know torture hurts the Planet, Aeris. It probably hurts it more than just death because of the amount of negativity it puts out. Minerva gave us a chance to fix things, and we already know the triggers, so we won't do more than we have to—but this is still something we have to fix, otherwise we'll be screwed later anyway."
After a pause, she smiled and agreed, "Okay. Do your best, then. I'm not getting any kind of disagreement or warning from the Planet—or from Minerva directly—so it must be okay if you stick to the plan you have. Just be careful. Things could change in a moment, and I don't want you hurt or killed, either."
The men all gave agreement, then their topics turned to happier things, like the animals they now had to deal with and how odd it was for the 'dogs' and the Jumping to be okay with one another, even if they'd all been Lab escapees.
Notes:
(1) Tyra's name in particular is coming out of Norse mythology through the tie-in with Fenrir, but I deliberately changed a bit of the mythology. Tyr is actually the Norse God of law and war, but Fenrir wasn't his helper—Fenrir is generally not thought of as a 'good' entity in their mythology. However, I felt the FFVII 'Fenrir' would fit in the category of enforcing law in a general sense—at least, enforcing laws which make sense.
Everyone should know what 'Delta' is if they've played video games (delta attack = fire/ice/lightning combo), but her last thing in this case is actually silence, not an element. Halo is because she has some light-based powers, too, and personally favors those over other methods of fighting.
The Jumping will eventually have a name, and will keep hanging around Aeris, but as she says, it's not really a 'pet' because she can't take care of one in that sense. Can anyone guess how the Jumping could grow things the way Aeris does? It's actually pretty obvious with a bit of thought, but I can answer it for people who can't work it out (some people are good at things like that while others aren't—I have a friend who couldn't work this out without me bluntly telling her).