Wings

Weiss was staring at Sephiroth and Angeal with a rather stunned expression when he saw them land in front of him, both with wings, the former's in black and the latter's in white. Real wings, not the half-wings Genesis had said they'd had in that other lifetime. Also, while Sephiroth looked a bit roughed up and his clothing at the back had definitely torn to accommodate the wings, Angeal looked like shit with torn, bloody clothing. At least he looked healed now, clothing damage aside...

"I believe you need a change of clothes, Commander," the boy offered as he wondered if his own wing would also have become wings.

"Most definitely," Angeal agreed in vague bemusement. "Where's Zack, by the way?" He began absently petting the top of Halo's head as she landed and stepped up beside him.

"Usually with Kal and Inder while they do most of the local coordination," Weiss replied with an amused smile. "We're apparently in a holding pattern at the moment, though we were sent a message recently to watch out for a specific wording flaw in our orders. We've established ourselves as the power here, and after the bombing, most of the people are actually grateful to us for saving them when they weren't our responsibility to save. In that regard, Fuhito did us a favor, though the cost of it I could have done without."

"And how has Argento's task as investigator been going?" Sephiroth asked curiously.

That made the white haired boy shrug. "I gather it's been good so far. She's skipping most of the general population and only questioning ones who obviously aren't happy with our presence. So far, all of those have given an answer which needs to be assessed, so no immediate eliminations yet. She also eliminated some of the nobles up-front after getting a response from the one back in Midgar. In theory, we should have had more orders by now, not been left in this holding pattern. Commander, you should go get cleaned up before going to find Zack."

Angeal sighed at the last comment. "Yes, most likely. I'll head out to do that, then."

As the black haired man flew into the air again and turned towards the facilities they had appropriated (with Halo following him), Weiss commented, "I find it rather amusing how the two of you have black and white wings—Genesis has black and I have white. We're effectively pairing up."

Sephiroth gave a sudden small chuckle and commented, "I could do worse than being paired with Genesis in likeness or with you or Angeal as opposites."

"True," Weiss agreed in amusement. "I'm glad you both came back safely, though."

"So am I," the silver haired man agreed. "Have you used your wings recently, though?"

"Not since leaving Deepground," Weiss answered, knowing Sephiroth would realize he meant 'not since coming back to the past with the Blessing'. Spies were everywhere, and Argento and Veld had actually caught one of their own troops who had been spying on them to forward data to an enemy (they weren't completely clear on whether that was the Restrictors, Fuhito, or both, but they were operating on the assumption of both). "They may have changed since then, given the different environment."

"You should probably find out now rather than at the moment you need to use them," the older man pointed out in dry amusement. "Because if they've changed, it may well hurt to call them out the first time."

"That's a—" Weiss began, then stopped and blinked before looking up at the silver haired man in surprise. "Did you just use a contraction when you were talking?"

Sephiroth's expression became annoyed as he said, "Yes, I used a contraction. Get used to it, since I don't plan to stop now."

The response made the boy chuckle in amusement as he said, "Please talk like that to Cloud. It'll probably help him separate you and The Nightmare. A lot."

It was the older man's turn to blink before he also gave a faint chuckle and offered, "Since I don't plan to stop, I'll probably get the chance eventually, depending on our orders from here. How did Tamblin go, by the way?"

"Azul took it," Weiss replied, lips quirked in faint amusement. "While it may not have been a requirement to take, he got it by the time the bombs went off here. It may have been possible for Wutain reinforcements to take it back, but what would have been those reinforcements walked into Angeal's forces, so never made it there to try. The result was Azul's success, though they have a lot more resistance to their presence than we do. Then again, that's a military fort with next to no civilian presence. That reminds me—you and Angeal both have to go talk with Argento about the details of the next stage of the plan, and soon."

"Does she have a theory?" the silver haired man asked curiously, turning to look in the direction of the Palace. How he knew Argento had basically made her base there, Weiss wasn't sure, except that he'd been with her for at least part of the take-over.

"She's sure you and Angeal will be recalled soon while she, Azul, and I will be staying here," Weiss commented. "I don't mind that arrangement—there's something I need to check on while I'm here, anyway, apart from Argento's investigation."

Sephiroth's brow rose, but he nodded and agreed, "If that turns out to be true, I'd rather be in Midgar, as well. And somehow, I think it would be a good idea for Angeal to see Genesis again in person, and soon." He paused, then asked shrewdly, "If you're going to look into something personal and it might affect you, have you arranged someone to talk with about it?"

"Genesis is always an option," Weiss admitted in mild amusement. "At this point, I'd talk with Argento, too, if there's some reason he can't. Don't worry, if I find something which would bother me, I'll have support."

Nodding, the older man said, "I'll leave you to it, then, and wish you luck. Now, I'll go see Argento, and if I find Angeal first, I'll update him. If not, you can send him to Argento."

"Sure," Weiss agreed, and Sephiroth took to the air as well, heading for the Palace.

It was amusing on several levels how, of the four who had wings, two had come out white and two had come out black. What was the difference? It wasn't looks—his own white wings were the only ones which matched, as both Genesis and Sephiroth didn't have black hair (or skin), and Angeal didn't have white hair and his skin had more color in it than any of the other three. It also wasn't their genes, otherwise he, Genesis, and Angeal all should have had matching wings by their linked genetics. That made him think it might have been tied to personality and the way each of them handled things mentally and emotionally.

If he was completely honest, even though Genesis and Sephiroth were good men, they weren't 'honorable' in the way he and Angeal were. They both did very surprising and unique things, and often made decisions which were arbitrarily beneficial or not, all for their own reasons—they held to no particular 'belief' system. In many ways, they were actually also colder and harder than either himself or Angeal, as well, as both tended to take the route of expedient elimination rather than holding 'honor matches'. In theory, if they hadn't already been assigned to SOLDIER by their status, they could have made fantastic Turks. For Weiss and Angeal, the way Turks thought just didn't make any sense at all.

Thinking about all of that reminded him to test his wings—something he really should do, otherwise there was a good chance he'd have to deal with blackout pain at a time when he couldn't afford to. His guess was that Sephiroth had either been really lucky, or his had activated when he was already in what was effectively blackout pain, so it hadn't made all that much difference. Either was possible, and it wasn't his business to ask, but it still left him something to test and see if it had changed. By both Angeal's and Sephiroth's wings, there was a good chance being adopted by Minerva so early had actually changed the manifestation of the wings entirely.

There was an alley nearby where some crates had been piled to roof height. Its position meant next to no one would be able to see him, so he figured it was a good place to go, and if he was on the edge of the roof to the alley side, it would be both enough space and stable enough to hold him when they emerged. That plan in mind, Weiss made his way there, easily scaled the boxes, and braced himself on the roof, first wondering if he should spare his shirt the tearing, then realizing it wouldn't matter, since it would need the holes, anyway.

Finally ready, he closed his eyes and focused on his wings, and on calling them forth, which he'd already known would hurt (Minerva had said pain of initial tearing couldn't be completely prevented). As they tore out from his shoulder blades, he had to clench his teeth to keep from crying out. In the process, he arched forward and only didn't fall because he braced his hands on his knees, waiting patiently for the Mako in his blood to repair the damage. Yes, it hurt, but when his mind cleared from the initial pain, he found it receding fairly quickly, definitely more quickly than the Jenova version had done.

As the pain faded, he stood straight and turned to look over his shoulders, eying first one wing, then the other—and yes, there were two full, proper wings this time, both in white. That was also when he realized they had come out clean, tearing aside—the blood was all on his back from the skin having torn, not on the wings themselves on first appearance. He lifted and flexed them a few times, realizing these new wings could let him fly without using energy if he wanted—they would allow for natural flight. And by what the future was likely to hold, anything which would save them energy was a good thing, which also meant learning to fly without relying on it.

Pulling out his PHS, he put in a call to Genesis, which was answered right away with a worried, "I hope you're not calling because something went wrong, Weiss?"

"No," the boy answered in vague bemusement. "Two things. Angeal and Sephiroth got back about half an hour ago, and they're looking good. I think you'll like another change to Sephiroth which you'll see the next time you and he meet. The other thing is your wings—you'll want to activate them and start practicing with them now, because they're definitely different and are capable of real flight, not reliant on energy. I mean, they still do the energy lift thing, but it'll save us energy if we only revert to that method of flight in a time of need, not all the time. And you have a baby bird to teach flight to."

Genesis gave a snort of amusement and commented, "Point about Diva. How do you mean our wings have changed, though?"

"There are two physical wings which are the proper size for real flight, just to start," Weiss replied dryly in amusement. "Otherwise, things like color should be what we expect, but also, the initial tearing hurts enough that you probably only want to do it when you aren't in the middle of a battle. I mean, unless you end up in a fight as soon as you hang up with me and end up needing them."

"Not likely when I'm alone—other than Diva—in my apartment just now," Genesis chuckled. "But I do have to warn you the President is listening in on our discussions through our PHS's."

"Is he?" the white haired boy asked in surprise, and got back an affirming hum. "Maybe that's why he hasn't given us new orders yet, then—he was waiting to see how that thing with Angeal and Sephiroth was going to go."

"If you get new orders in the next day or two now that they're back, that's possible," the red haired man on the other end of the line agreed. "You're doing well otherwise?"

"Yes, fine. I'm going to take a flight now that I've got my wings out, though. I'll talk with you another time," he told the other man, wanting to start looking for the thing he was trying to find. He didn't expect to find it right away, so the sooner he started looking, the sooner he was likely to find it.

"Later, then," Genesis agreed. "Thanks for the update."

"Same," Weiss agreed, and they both said their goodbyes and hung up. From there, as he'd said, Weiss took to the air.

It had come up in that future, one time when he and Genesis had checked into something and had found some data on his and Nero's mother. There wasn't much to go on, but it had hinted at Wutain heritage. They'd found out their grandmother was a Wutain who had moved with her family into one of the towns Midgar had been built over when she'd been a child, but they hadn't had the time before the end to find out much about the family in Wutai. Obviously he and Nero were only a quarter Wutain, but it explained Nero's hair being so Wutain-ish—if he'd stop cutting it in a shag style, he could pass for one. At least, he could while he was a child.

Either way, finding that family and who they were was something he'd like to do—maybe they had family somewhere, and maybe both he and Nero could have more for siblings than just Genesis and their fellow Tsviets. Whether that would work out, he didn't know, but it was something, and he'd take what he could get. That meant the one clue he had, a specific landmark, was one he'd first have to find in order to find their former home, which also meant it wouldn't be in the city... (1)

MB

Genesis had gotten the call from Weiss fairly early that morning (evening for Weiss out in Wutai), after Kunzel had left with Sierra to take her for her regular morning walk. At least, it was becoming regular. Since then, he'd been thinking about activating his wings, but had been hesitating all day. It was now around five, and technically, he should have been heading out for a meal right then, but his gaze was on Diva as she tried to climb the back of one of his chairs. Her talons dug holes in the material, which made him sigh faintly, but she wasn't tearing the fabric the way Sierra would have if Kunzel hadn't thought to get her a scratching post.

She was using her fledgling wings to help her, but her efforts were clumsy at best, and the likely reason was that she had no example of how to use wings. If it was true their wings were now proper bird wings, she would recognize them and he'd be able to teach her how to flex them properly. Though, part of him still didn't want to activate them, anyway—he had easily as many bad memories associated with those wings as he had with his many copies of LOVELESS.

When Diva fell to the chair seat with a squawk, he sighed and rose. "Fine, fine. I guess I knew it was coming eventually."

Meanwhile, she tried to right herself—only to give him a curious chirp as he picked her up and rested her on her feet on the top edge of the chair. He then took off his coat and shirt, draped them over the arms and seat, and moved over to the balcony door to brace his hand on the jamb. It only took him a moment of focus to get a reaction, and he bit his lip with a flinch as he waited for the pain to pass. He was surprised by how quickly it did, and without looking at them, he first just tested the flex of them a few times.

It didn't take him long to realize they felt different from the ones Jenova had spawned. His mind was clear, and they felt like they were truly a part of him. Turning his head to look, he saw two large, black wings, ones which looked as natural as they felt, and he felt better by seeing that—these weren't Jenova's wings (though they still seemed to molt like crazy, or he was imagining the black feathers floating around). No, they were Minerva's, and once he was used to them, he thought he'd be proud to bear them. If Weiss was right (by what he could see, he probably was), they could also function like normal, proper wings, which then would also reduce their energy use if they could learn not to rely on it.

Turning to look at Diva, who was peering at him intently, wings spread, he had to smile faintly. He then began to slowly fold and flex them in basic motions for control of the muscles, and the chick began copying those motions—hence the reason he was doing them slowly and deliberately. As long as she would copy the motions, it would give her better control of her own wing muscles, which would both help her balance and her ability to use them first for short flights, then for long. Her previous 'fluttering around' would actually become short, directed flights. Though, to teach her to fly properly, he'd probably have to actually fly with them, not use the usual energy lift.

Oddly, there was no blood on them, despite this being the first time they'd emerged since they'd all been sent back—from what he could feel on his back, the blood had been limited to the areas around his shoulder blades, and some had dripped down his back from there before the wounds had scabbed. The lack of blood on the wings directly helped, and how short-lived the pain had been had also been a relief just for the lack of it. Unlike last time. Minerva was definitely the better entity to follow than Jenova, cell origins aside.

Right then, the random thought popped into his mind that, just maybe, there would have been enough time to have saved his mother, if he'd known how to heal mental damage—or if he'd appealed to Minerva for help. Now, it was too late because she was dead anyway.

At least they'd saved Shelke this time, which had also meant saving Shalua. Pushing up Deepground's timeline had been beneficial in some ways. In the end, would that make up for the new damage they were going to do, especially now that they'd joined forces with Fuhito?

Since he had no answer to that just then, he just kept flexing his wings for Diva to copy, which she did with apparent fascination, even sometimes sparking with what he'd learned were 'false sparks', things which looked like bits of sparks off a fire but had no heat and didn't cause any kind of burning, no matter what they landed on. He'd come to the realization that those were like bits of phosphoric dust motes her feathers generated as they rubbed against one another, not actual sparks. When she made real fire, a person could easily tell the difference.

He heard the door open and Kunzel's voice saying, "—and would easily have a—what the fuck?"

"Um...?" Shalua blinked as Shelke gasped, "Oh Shiva! Wings!"

A short pause followed before the next voice Genesis heard made him freeze—Kariya asked in a flat tone, "So, what's with the wings, Genesis? I mean, I knew SOLDIERs were experimental subjects, but that takes the term to a new level..."

Since Genesis had frozen, Diva folded her wings and turned to look at the others as she began singing happily. For some reason, even though that was very much amusing, Genesis couldn't laugh or turn to look. And apparently, he couldn't talk just then, either, though he wasn't sure why. He was used to people not liking him, and he very much didn't care about others' opinions of him—he'd learned a long time ago how useless it was to try to be what everyone else wanted when everyone wanted something different from him.

When a hand touched his shoulder, he flinched slightly and just hoped it had felt like a shift to the one touching him, not a flinch.

That hope was dashed when Kariya said from right behind him—at just the right distance for the hand on his shoulder— "As shocking and confusing as this is, none of us actually thinks badly of you, Genesis. We'd just really like answers."

With a faint sigh, Genesis said, "This isn't the result of the SOLDIER program, it's the result of Project J, and Sephiroth, Angeal, and myself were the first—and only—subjects in that 'project'. It's nothing like the infusions SOLDIERs get, even though they have J-cells in them like we do...They just have a lot less of them. The only other one who has this effect is Weiss, and I'm honestly not sure why—he technically shouldn't have enough J-cells for that. My best guess is that, like Cloud, he's an anomaly. And this is how they come out when we've been adopted by Minerva instead of Jenova."

"Do they bleed every time?" Shelke asked worriedly from by the chair where Diva was still sitting and singing. "If they do, wouldn't that hurt? How would that be good?"

"They should only hurt and bleed the first time—this is the first time I've used them since tossing aside Jenova in favor of Minerva, so they're different now than they were," he told her, managing to turn to look at her with a small smile. He hoped it would reassure her. "My body had to adapt, hence the initial damage when I first called them out."

"So why now?" Kunzel asked in a shrewd tone. "Why not a lot earlier?"

"...I was honestly avoiding them," he sighed. "But after a call from Weiss earlier, I knew I couldn't keep doing that, and watching Diva struggle with her wings was extra incentive to pull them out and show her how wings work."

Kariya gave an amused snort and commented, "I'm surprised her need was enough to get you to do something you really didn't want to."

"It's not," Kunzel informed the man in an oddly flat tone for him. "Genesis doesn't do things which in general terms aren't necessary—there were other options, like finding another bird to show Diva how to fly—if he really doesn't want to do them. He usually only overcomes that if he can feel something wrong coming in the not-too-distant future or something dire is happening to someone he cares about. It's not the latter, so that leaves the former, and we should all be bracing ourselves for a shit-storm to come in the near future. I'd give it a couple weeks at most, and probably sooner."

The words were bemusing to Genesis, who really had no idea such a thing would be the case, though Kunzel had a reputation and probably wouldn't have said it unless he had reason to believe it was for real.

"How do you know that?" Shalua asked curiously.

"Living with him means learning his habits and things," Kunzel replied to her, sounding amused rather than flat. "And this is a trend."

"How bad do you figure said 'shit-storm' will be?" Kariya asked in a thoughtful tone.

"Well, that's going to depend on a few factors," the SOLDIER Third replied in a thoughtful tone of his own. "It might just be limited to our sting to hit Dante. The thing is, if he's really working with the renegade Deepground and AVALANCHE, we're not just dealing with him, we're dealing with them, too. And if you're right that they're after Shelke again, right here in the city, we have a perfect recipe for exactly the kind of shit-storm which would end with another manhunt for terrorists. Whether or not they'll get to do us extensive damage first is another story."

"And that's going to depend on how fast we can eliminate them," Kariya replied. "So the plan to track them which we've got in motion now will be a good thing. In the meantime, how likely are they to want to grab Genesis, especially if they find out about his new wings?"

"By what we know of them, Fuhito's as much a danger as an independent scientist as Deepground is if any of them find out about his wings. Some of their newer experimental results have been going the line of out-right creepy, so this would be one more thing they could use to try to create something we might not be able to counter," Kunzel commented.

It was then when Genesis noted how his floor was covered in feathers, shiny black feathers Shelke had begun to collect curiously. "What are you doing, Shelke?" Genesis asked her, and she blinked before looking up at him.

"I could use them for crafts and school projects. May I?" she asked.

At that, the red haired man had to chuckle and say, "Okay, fine. Just don't tell anyone the feathers came from me."

"Then what do I say?" she asked in surprise.

"They're a lot like Zuu feathers, so say they came from one of them. Only a real expert on monsters would realize they weren't," he offered, and she smiled in amusement.

"I could say you're a Zuu, anyway, just one who's not completely bird-shaped," she returned, and that time, he actually did laugh.

And he finally turned to look at Kunzel and Kariya, who had found the discussion amusing, along with Shalua, who had begun collecting some of the feathers which had scattered further away.

In this case, whatever he'd been worried about hadn't happened, so he was okay with the people and the situation now. At least, in regards to his wings. Only time would tell how Kunzel's 'shit-storm' would turn out, and he was right to say they had a definite recipe for quite a doozy of one.

Here was to hoping they'd be prepared enough to weather it well.

Notes:

(1) Yes, I'm playing with Weiss and Nero's background, though the final result isn't decided yet. It has several potentials which could go either way (good or bad) based on the Wutain situation, or I could just make it a dead end. This range could be anything between the noted dead end and the brothers being part Summon and High Nobles. If people want this to go further or have offers of a preferred path, please let me know—that will have an effect on how seriously I develop this thought into something other than a random search to show his humanity.

On a side-note...No one else can tell me your thoughts on a topic FOR you, so YOU, as the one reading it, have to do so. That could be in a PM to me if you don't feel like leaving a review, or it could even be in an email, but it still has to be YOU doing it, and I'm SURE nearly everyone reading will have an opinion on this topic. So please, let me know what you think! I don't ask just for the fun of it.