Oh... hey there. Been a while. 'Sup?
I don't own anything, anyone or anywhere you recognise. Sapphire, along with a few others who'll crop up every now and then, are mine.
So yeah, guess I got a life. Well, not really, but my usual time for writing has been kind of eaten. Sorry xD
Fortunately I have a handful of chapters pre-written, so I happened to find time behind the back of the sofa to proof read and post this one :D
Huge thanks to you guys who left reviews on the last chapter, you're far too sweet and far more than I deserve! justme7777, Cheddar, JustAFemaleGeek and Nyx, I cannot thank you all enough!
Cheddar, remake or OG timeline for the story? That'd be spoilers, obviously. And more obviously, far too far into the future of the story for me to have made a decision on that yet! You'll just have to stay tuned to find out ) Thanks for your kind words, I'm glad you like how it's going!
Nyx, hey again! Definitely had to get all this warm fuzzy bonding time between Sapphire and these two loveable SOLDIERs, because hoo boy, warm fuzziness and Crisis Core's storyline don't exactly go hand in hand, we need it where we can get it xD So glad you enjoyed the terribly self-indulgent end to that last chapter as well, it sure was nice to write as well, kind of had that same reaction while I did!
Hope you all enjoy this one as well, I have a sneaking suspicion you might ;) on we go!
Chapter 22 - Shades of Grey
If I didn't know any better, I'd say Angeal and I were starting to become friends. Between Genesis' strategy of uniting us against his annoying comments, Angeal's innate ability to find the best in people, and his mother's confirmation of my story, he'd been worn down.
So much so, he'd actually invited me out to visit her. The day after our conversation in my room had been predictably taken up with the man (kindly) demanding to know why I'd attributed the word 'struggling' to what most people would call a mental breakdown. And, to a lesser extent, what had caused it.
Whether it was something Gillian said or I did, I couldn't tell, but he extended the invitation before I even got to explain what my brain had conjured up. And before I could react to that, Angeal had looked at Genesis over my right shoulder, with a glare that would've made me flinch had I been the target.
Things were going so well between Angeal and me that I couldn't find the required backbone to address it in the moment. I did make a mental note of it, however.
Genesis didn't protest to our outing into Banora, smirking without humour and retorting sarcastically, "Have her back by ten, and no funny business."
Angeal leaving ahead of me, I decided I had just enough backbone to hang back and tease, "You're just jealous you weren't invited," with my widest grin before jogging after the SOLDIER: First Class.
If Angeal's animosity towards me could be reduced with Genesis and his humour, then I would offer mine to reduce theirs.
But before then, I had a woman to meet. After a walk to Banora filled with evasive, meaningless small talk, we arrived at Gillian's familiar front door. No signs of life were apparent in her home, the curtains all pulled shut even in the middle of the day.
The woman's son knocked gently with his knuckles, letting himself in a few moments later. He spared me the slightest attempt at a smile, indicating with a tilt of his head that I was welcome to follow him in.
Closing the door behind me plunged the room into relative darkness, incomparable to the bright cloudless day outside. It even seemed colder in here, untouched by the sun. Had it always been this dark?
"She must be upstairs," Angeal mentioned, voice a whisper and still loud in the thick silence of the house. I decided to make no mention of how obvious his observation was. The entire downstairs area of the house was made up of an open kitchen/dining room and a small bathroom, so if she wasn't readily visible, she wasn't on our level. "I'll go get her."
"Can I, uh…" I trailed off, perturbed by how loud my voice was. When the SOLDIER looked my way, I pointed at the closed curtains with raised eyebrows and a tentative smile. Pressing his lips together in a tight, constrained smile, Angeal shook his head to reject my offer, and without offering an explanation darted up the stairs.
I sighed, and with a last forlorn glance at the barest hint of sunlight peeking between the curtains, took the seat at the table opposite where Gillian always used to sit.
Losing myself to my thoughts, I was startled when heavy footsteps landed on the stairs, and waited patiently but eagerly as Angeal escorted his mother down the stairs. The sight of one strong, gloved hand anchoring one of Gillian's, small, pale and bony, brought a sad smile to my face.
How honourable.
"Ms Hewley," I greeted, getting to my feet, before making a face. "That doesn't sound right…"
On the bottom step, she glanced my way, but the lack of expression on her face made me wonder if she was looking right through me. "It was Gillian before, wasn't it?" she corrected softly.
Maybe I was reading into it too much, but she seemed warmer with Angeal here. The thought had me beaming. "Gillian," I agreed warmly, nodding once. She left the SOLDIER, looking a little imposing and out of place standing at the bottom of the stairs, to take her seat. "You're looking well."
"As are you," she returned the compliment, eyes narrowed my way in scrutiny. "My son tells me you've found what you lost."
Cryptic, but accurate I supposed. "That's… one way of putting it."
"Genesis," she uttered with such bitterness that I flinched, "is not to be trusted."
The longest two seconds followed, as my mind short-circuited in complete incomprehension. "Huh?"
"It was him you saw, on the trail that day, wasn't it?" she persisted. "Angeal told me as much, and how you've been attached at the hip since the day you left."
Her accusing tone was almost as startling as the direction the conversation was actually taking. But I hadn't actually told Angeal what had happened those two weeks ago, I had only told Genesis, last night after Angeal had left. I looked to the SOLDIER, perplexed. "How did you—?"
"An educated guess," he barely explained, though not unkindly. In fact, he looked agonised. "I'm sorry, Sapphire, I can't imagine how hard that was."
Even preoccupied as it was, my mind decided to note, Genesis had said it better. I shook my head dismissively, pressing him more sternly, "How did you guess?"
His eyebrows coming together and forehead creasing in consternation, Angeal took a step closer. His mako eyes, the same bright green-blue colour as Genesis' and yet still so different, bore into mine with a gravity that I couldn't ignore. "Genesis is involved in some dangerous work," he began.
"More than involved," Gillian interjected, though fell silent at a sharp look from her son.
"He is working together with a scientist named Hollander, a man every bit as bad as Hojo, who wants to achieve the impossible."
Dim lights buzzing, liquids in test tubes bubbling, machinery whirring, a door slamming—
"Genesis is desperate for Hollander's work to succeed, which is why he's here. He brought all of those SOLDIERs with him to be used as experiments, and intended to stay here for a while, judging by how he killed the villagers."
A foreboding cackle, echoing from somewhere far away—
"I appreciate you must be very attached to him. I know he's attached to you as well, but trust me, you aren't safe with him, Sapphire. If you're concerned about learning your history, I swear on my honour to tell you all I can. But I cannot leave you with him, because he is a danger to you."
"He said… a man named Hollander healed me," I croaked, my mouth a desert all of a sudden.
Angeal remained silent, a crease in his brow.
"He healed me. And Genesis is… he's our friend. What…" I licked my lips, "what are they doing?"
The SOLDIER explained in some detail, slowly, while I snatched only a small number of standalone statements and phrases. All the while, Gillian watched on, silent and judging.
A wound that wouldn't heal… Cells degrading… Experimented on since childhood… Looking for a cure.
Copies. Cells that can be implanted and replicated in any SOLDIER to create a perfect physical duplicate.
"So, I really… saw that? I saw that SOLDIER, but… it wasn't Genesis, it was a… a copy, another person?"
The thought made me sick, as if my body was trying to physically reject it whether my mind comprehended it or not.
And I was relieved. Disgusted with myself for it, but relieved that my mind wasn't broken. But the truth was so much worse, so much more despicable. The man who I was overjoyed to see living was the reason I'd seen him dead – but not him, a copy of him, an individual who Genesis had experimented on.
The thought repulsed me, but then I'd recall that he was the victim of the same, except as a child. Now he was just looking for the cure.
But he was the victim of the same, how could he inflict it on someone else?!
I put my head in my hands. This was way beyond my pay grade.
"Why are you here, then?" I mumbled to my fingers. "I'd get if you're here to save Gillian, or to… stop him, but you don't seem to be doing either. No offense."
"I… haven't decided."
Angeal's hesitance had me dropping my hands and staring at him, brow furrowed and mouth agape in bewilderment. Gillian had a similar reaction, twisting to gaze with wide eyes in his direction. "Still?" she criticised, though her anger had waned. Now she just sounded tired. "That man ordered our neighbours killed, Angeal. He doesn't deserve your kindness."
Something passed between them that I didn't understand, and Gillian bowed her head a few moments before Angeal actually responded, "Perhaps not, but he has my understanding."
There was something there, but the heaviness in the air choked the inquiry in my throat. I also battled down the revulsion, that if Gillian was correct (and I wasn't biased enough to think she was lying), Genesis had blatantly lied about his involvement with the army's less-than-amicable arrival at Banora. I'd deal with those things later, when I could think on my own, in my room, without influence. I found my voice and decided to interrogate for myself, asking, "So you warn me he's dangerous, but you don't know what you're doing about it?"
The burdened SOLDIER heaved a mighty sigh. "I'm trying to convince Genesis that he's taking the wrong path, but he won't hear of it. In fact, there's only one thing he wants to talk about. That's why I had to warn you, to tell you that he's a danger to you and to himself, and that you should run."
He sure had a way of making it sound like he was explaining things but actually just making things make less sense. "What are you talking about, what one thing?"
Angeal's mako eyes bored into my own, "I'm looking at her."
"Oh."
"He's convinced himself that the two of you arriving here so close together isn't just fortunate coincidence. He's losing his rationality, Sapphire. You must understand, the more attached he is to you, the more at risk you are. Both of you have lost the other once already, do you really want to go through that again?"
Thoughtfully, I answered his emphatic argument, "No, I don't."
"Good," Angeal breathed with relief.
"That's why I'll stay."
The two Hewley's reacted in synchronisation, with a "What?!"
Slowly, I lifted my shoulders in a shrug. "If me being here is important to him, important enough that he won't listen to reason from you, maybe… maybe he'll hear it from me." Seeing a cold frown on Gillian's face, I looked instead to Angeal, and the concern but reluctant understanding I could see in him. With a slightly forced laugh, I tried to break the tension, "I don't really have anywhere else to be. Besides, I've lived through a lot worse, in case you've forgotten."
Angeal folded his arms. "I don't like it," he complained.
Smiling widely, I replied, "I don't care."
"How can you forgive him?"
My smile dropped as quickly as it came. I studied the woman sat across from me, who suddenly looked very frail. Her tone had been stony, almost biting, but she just looked forlorn. Her shoulders were hunched and her eyes, brown and so different from her son's, were downcast.
Gillian persisted, "How can you ignore all that he has done? Both of you?"
"We won't," I responded, after a pause when I cast a glance to Angeal, who nodded to my unspoken request to speak. "But… he's hurting. And he's our friend, or he used to be. If the old Genesis is still in there, we owe it to him to help him come back.
"He saw me. I fought his SOLDIERs, killed them, and he could've killed me, had his retribution, but he saw me. And he didn't have to save me, I could've been nothing to him, could've spared himself the hassle, but he saved me. And he has been nothing but gentle with me, and sweet and caring. Maybe he is a monster, but I have to believe that's not all he is. And until I'm certain, I won't give up on him."
…
That night, the root of our problems found me sitting in the booth, in the breakout room where Angeal and I had our first disastrous meeting. I had decided I needed somewhere else to stew on my thoughts besides my room, somewhere less comforting, so that I wouldn't be so tempted to fixate on the good and ignore the bad.
That room already had too many fond memories. The chair by the window. That patch of the floor between the bed and the wall. I could look at those places and convince myself there was only one side to Genesis, but I needed to be unbiased.
His crystalline eyes, that stunning blurry mix of blue and green, were bright with curiosity as he took in my presence in a room I'd long been avoiding. When all I could muster was a limp smile, they narrowed in compassion.
Could he fake that so convincingly? The thought weighed on me, and I looked away, my smile twisting into a wry grimace.
I had noticed before that I was attuned to him, almost hyper-aware of each movement, gesture, whatever he did. I'd presumed it was due to him being the first person I had a genuine connection to, and wrote it off. I wanted to know every idiosyncrasy because I wanted to see if it matched up to what I could recall. Maybe it was more than that.
But now, my previous level of focus seemed trivial, because there was nothing else that could distract me. Now I really needed to be sensitive, to everything. Every word he said could have second or third meanings, layers of deception, all carefully woven for… something.
When he took in a quick, quiet breath, it felt like he was steeling himself for something. He walked purposefully up to me, standing at the end of the table, within arms' reach. He was here to face the music.
I'd spoken to Gillian, with Angeal. There had been open hostility between the two childhood friends before we left, at least on Angeal's end. Angeal was trying to return Genesis to his senses. So… Genesis suspected me of jumping sides? As if it was a war. As if I was some double agent, simulating affiliations on one side to gather intelligence for the opposition.
My head hurt.
"How was Gillian?" the redhead asked airily. I looked up at him, eyes pleading, weary.
"I'm tired. Can we save it for another day?"
I thought about Lilah, the sweet old woman who I'd sent on her way to Mideel. I thought about the poor victims of the SOLDIERs we'd seen then, too. Gillian was sure this was the man who gave the order, and I was inclined to believe her. But… maybe confronting that could wait. Just until tomorrow.
My cowardice left a bitter taste in my mouth, but when Genesis sat down beside me and tossed an arm over the back of the sofa, I let my head tilt back and rest against the warm leather and hard muscle.
But I didn't let myself huddle closer for comfort, drawing up my legs and wrapping my arms around them instead.
Tomorrow.
…
Two weeks flew by in blissful procrastination, until Genesis stormed into my room in the middle of the day, with an order I had just started to hope I'd never have to hear, "We have to leave."
"What?!"
Genesis looked remarkably calm as he spoke words that sent me into a tizzy. "Shinra have found us. Took them long enough."
Aghast, my voice raised an octave as I interrogated, "What, you've been waiting for this?"
He looked at me then, and his brow furrowed. "We need to get you out of here." And just like that he was all business, the delayed reaction more along the lines of what I had been expecting. He swept to his feet and stood over me, deep in thought judging by the way he looked right through me. "Head towards Mideel, and keep off the beaten track. I will catch up to you. How far is it?"
"A few days' walk," I supplied, and as he mumbled about how he would surely locate me before I made it, I gritted my teeth and fisted my hands. "Genesis! I'm not going without you."
He met my eye then, his slightly wide in some surprise before narrowing sharply. "You are. Shinra will be here searching for me. If they don't know you're here then we should keep it that way."
"I made it through Junon. I was in Midgar, for over a week! If they're looking for me, they don't seem to know what they're looking for. They'll have no reason to think we're allies. I can stay with Gillian, plain clothes, keep my head down like I always have."
A logical argument, I felt, but judging by his expression Genesis was unconvinced. He didn't even offer an explanation or rebuttal, mulishly reiterating, "You're leaving."
For a few moments I glared, contemplating. Trying a different tack, I cast my eyes away with a soft, "I can't lose you again."
Genesis put a hand on my shoulder, and I tried not to show on my face the eager anticipation for him to relent. Stroking one gloved finger over my turned away cheek was his invitation for me to turn my face back to his, which I accepted with a small, careful smile. There was a similar gentle smile on his face, perhaps smaller, as he said sweetly, "You're leaving."
Like lightning, I slapped his hand away and glared, huffing in displeasure. The hand fell to my shoulder, and he squeezed both comfortingly, eyes squinted slightly with his grin. "Give me one valid reason why I can't be here if I'm unrecognisable."
The redhead went from looking vaguely amused to pensive. I was at least grateful that he seemed to be taking my request seriously, and when he met my gaze once again, it was with a gravity that hadn't quite been present before that. His answer was a carefully intoned, "I don't want to lose you again."
I didn't even mind that he'd rephrased to sound less needy, the floor still fell out from beneath me regardless. "That's not fair," I whined, defeated.
"You never stipulated that it had to be," Genesis snarked as he leapt into action, retrieving my travel supplies from the wardrobe and urgently helping me put them on. I didn't have time to miss his hands on my shoulders before they were replaced by my backpack straps. Next came my sword, which he examined with disdain by the wardrobe. "Remind me to get you a better sword when I see you again," he murmured, almost to himself, before approaching me.
I might have found it endearing if I wasn't a little startled by his closeness, buckling the belt for the sheath around my hips. "So, walking to Mideel?" I recapped, earning a raised eyebrow for the slight squeak I'd made somewhere in the middle.
Genesis looked thoughtful as he rose from his kneeling position, standing over me and awfully close— "Perhaps transport would be better. Yes, I'll have one of my SOLDIERs drive you there. I'll be able to come by and pick you up after I deal with things here. Perhaps a dozen should follow a little time later, staggered, just to ensure you aren't followed."
As he plotted my own escape aloud, standing inches from me and not even seeing me, I became inscrutably uncomfortable and retreated a few steps. I pulled the backpack off my shoulders and set it on the floor in front of me, taking stock of my supplies. "Can I get a change of clothes? And I wouldn't mind getting a refill on a bottle of water."
He frowned, but actually acknowledged what I said, even if it was to refuse my requests. "You have enough water to last until you get to Mideel, where you can restock. Spare clothes are non-essential."
Out of the blue, it struck me. He was preoccupied thinking about my escape, assigning troops and vehicles to my protection. Not about the impending attack, the strategy he would adopt in retaliation, the possible outcomes, the repercussions... the many things he probably should have been thinking about.
"I'll see you soon?" I asked, for reassurance. At a distance of a few feet, I could see him from top to toe, and I took the opportunity to take in as much of him as I could, burning this sight of him into my memory.
My eyes were on their fourth trip down his body when he reacted, taking a rushed breath as he took a stride to close the gap, and enveloped me into a firm and steadfast embrace. One hand was splayed across my upper back, pressing me close, while the other held my head into his chest. His jaw pressed into the top of my head, as if to fold himself over me as well as around me. My own arms squeezed as tight as I could manage around his waist, hands struggling to find a grip on the leather of his coat.
The hold (because it wasn't a hug, how we clung to one another) was uncomfortably tight, particularly with my cheek being squished against the straps over his chest. It felt desperate, like promises made that would surely be broken. Though we said nothing. As if we couldn't bear to make those false promises, and instead sought comfort now, to prepare us for what felt like an inevitable farewell. After all, hadn't we both been witness to the other's death before now? These seconds were stolen, and could run out in the blink of an eye.
The pressure on my head eased, my cheek aching slightly from where the strap had been digging in. His head lifted as well. Displeased, I burrowed my head against him, striving but unable to achieve the same level of closeness as before. It wasn't time to let go.
His chest concaved away from me. With a furrowed brow, I tilted my head back to glare at him for his retreat, but found the opposite. Heavy lids and dark lashes hid all but a tiny fraction of vivid mako eyes, hidden completely a second later as his lips pressed against my own, accompanied by the sound of a sharp intake of breath through his nose.
Oh.
Struck dumb, I stood rigid.
My eyes fell closed of their own accord. I felt the smooth leather of his coat at my fingertips, but couldn't recall how to move them, or how to exert any more or less pressure. I felt his own gloved fingers, long and elegant, lighten their press on my back and ease into a caress, becoming a touch of pleasure, not of desperation. I felt how his head minutely tilted to his right, how the tip of his nose pressed slightly into my reddening cheek, and how his lower lip leaned into the gap between my slightly parted lips.
The light press of Genesis' lips began to ease. And all of a sudden, a jolt from my spine raced through my extremities and awakened my lead limbs. My toes curled. My arms seized, tightening their hold to prevent him retreating any further, and with an urgency I didn't recognise and could only attribute to instinct, I tilted my head up to close the distance he had begun to create. Our kiss revived with multiplied vigour.
The hand on my back rose to the base of my neck, pressing me to him with far greater force than before. The other rose to the right side of my neck, cradling my jaw with one thumb, the lightest of touches, a gentle guide for the tilt of my head.
I couldn't say how my lips moved, or why they moved the way they did. Perhaps I followed Genesis' lead, because every adjustment, every lapse or increase in pressure, every rushed peck and languid caress, all of it was entirely in sync.
The fiery, breath-stealing tangle of a first kiss fell into stillness, accompanied with shuddering breaths. The only movement was Genesis' thumb lazily brushing circles over my neck. That particular sensation was doing absolutely nothing to aid my consciousness' slow return to the waking world, though I was sure that was intentional.
"I will find you again before you know it," Genesis breathed against my lips, and I imagined I was able to read what he would mouth with touch alone. Unwilling eyelids opened to the vision of his vivid, shining eyes staring into my soul.
"Were we talking before?" I whispered, taking in his crystalline blue-green eyes in a daze. He spared me a grin, one I felt more than saw, his eyes attractively creasing at the corners.
"Time to go, Sapphire."
…
Up until now, my survival happened to hinge on my avoidance of Shinra.
Mostly.
If you overlooked the bit where I set sail for the greatest SOLDIER stronghold on the entire planet, and docked there, and literally walked away from the city.
…Also, that scant week and a half spent on the lookout for a particular SOLDIER, in the city that made them all. Us all? No, them. But ignore that too.
It was practically ingrained into my non-SOLDIER DNA at this point; avoid Shinra.
So it undoubtedly makes perfect sense that the swift departure I undertook from Banora (the village Shinra were currently investigating) was brought to an equally swift conclusion, when I clobbered my escort around the back of the head.
Our motorbike had collided with a tree, my steadfast grip on the dazed SOLDIER and the motorbike the sole reason we didn't fly into it ourselves. Having seen that he wasn't terribly responsive, slumped over the handlebars, I had thrown his arm over my shoulders and inelegantly hefted him off the bike, dragging him to another tree and propping him up against it.
I left the one dumbapple that had sadly fallen from the struck tree beside him, before squinting in contemplation.
Removing his helmet had affirmed my suspicions. "Well, you'll enjoy the apple at least," I commented to the Genesis copy, an unpleasant shiver racing down my spine. Bleary, familiar eyes stared up at me, his expression that of… reverence. I didn't linger. Chilled to the bone, I took off at a swift jog back to town.
Don't get me wrong, I appreciated Genesis looking out for me, as uncomfortable as this particular method made me. And somewhere in my head I was registering seeing the fruits of his labour up close for the second time, but the first time with understanding, and my skin crawled to think that I had been condoning such a thing just to avoid an argument with Genesis.
Gillian was right. What he'd done was too much, whatever his circumstances. Compassion like Angeal's was all well and good, but not if it blinded us.
Maybe Genesis could be saved. But that had to come second. First, he needed to be stopped.
…It seemed like Shinra might have that handled for us, conveniently. Whether they did or didn't wasn't my concern though. My obligation, my reason for shaking off my escort and returning to Banora wasn't Genesis.
Banora had been threatened by Shinra once before, not so long ago. And I'd asked myself a question; coward, or killer? Run from the town and abandon Gillian, the woman who'd offered me shelter, or defend her and her home from invaders (and likely killing us both in the process). By a twist of fate, I'd chosen the former, mostly, and become the latter.
I'd decided that, if it came down to it a second time, I wouldn't leave Gillian's side. I didn't really expect it to happen again, and certainly not so similarly, but life's funny like that sometimes.
A look of surprise, realisation dawning, bright mako eyes slowly sliding out of focus, the sudden full weight of a body falling slack on top of me—
Maybe I would have to experience that again. And that was horrifying. But if they were going to do the same to Gillian, my loyalty lay with her.
My pace picked up, feet pounding on a discreet trail through wilder Banora White trees than I'd seen elsewhere around the town and surrounding lands. No doubt a route picked for its lack of accessibility from overhead, a winding grassy track that probably joined the main road a few miles down. A route that only a local would know.
I shook my head free of thoughts of the redhead, perhaps already fighting SOLDIERs. My focus had to be on Gillian.
She wouldn't die.
Not on my watch.
"Genesis," Angeal called out, in his SOLDIER Commander tone that was never far from the surface. The redhead nearly wanted to stand to attention, but caught himself before he could, remaining loose-limbed and keeping his sharp gaze on the window, searching for the slightest glimpse of Shinra.
"Angeal," he welcomed in return, voice airy. His childhood friend would easily see through the carefully crafted lack of concern he displayed, but Genesis found he didn't mind. "My friend, the time for your decision draws near."
A slightly ominous warning, one which Angeal chose not to answer to. Instead, after a quick glance around the room, he questioned the absence of his ward. "You've sent Sapphire on her way already?"
Genesis glanced at the dark haired SOLDIER out of the corner of his eye. "Of course."
Angeal took a relieved breath, "Good."
The redhead narrowed his eyes at his friend. What, had he expected him just to keep her here, an easily exploitable handicap for their enemies to use?
Well, maybe not easily, history proved Sapphire wouldn't go down without a fight. Unless she saw someone she recognised. But what were the chances that his little student from years ago would find a familiar face in those hunting him down?
…Ah. Not as unlikely as he'd first anticipated, judging by Angeal's odd expression. "You are expecting your puppy to make an appearance, then?"
"I think it'd be foolish to rule it out," Angeal confirmed, grimacing. "I recommended him for First. Lazard will either have him on patrol duty until this all blows over, or he'll be chasing both of us down at every turn."
"Lazard is on our side." When his friend let out a huff, looking as outraged as Angeal could, Genesis smirked, saying, "Didn't I mention that already?"
Angeal grumbled.
"All the same, my money is on the latter. Lazard needs to maintain the façade, and sending Zack is in Shinra's best interest." All the more reason to have Sapphire well away from here.
Angeal still hadn't picked a side. The puppy's presence would likely sway him in Genesis' opposition. And if his old friend was truly plotting against him as he suspected, along with whatever unspoken outcome had been reached at that meeting of theirs, then removing Sapphire altogether from the equation was the safest option. Perhaps in doing so, he could hold onto her a little longer.
If he hadn't pushed her away already with that farewell. What had possessed him…?
"Makes sense," Angeal agreed, and took a breath. The air between them became charged and heavy, as if threatening a thunderstorm. Genesis turned to face the SOLDIER head on, he suddenly looking half as big, looking at his boots.
He had something to say that Genesis wouldn't like. "What is it?" he growled.
"It's not just Zack," he began, confusing the redhead further. Rolling his eyes to the ceiling, Angeal amended, "Not that I know Zack is coming here, or that he'd see her, or even that he'd recognise her. But the two others she roomed with during her Cadet training, now a SOLDIER and a Turk, Ash Matthias and Will. I barely heard them talking, but a few months ago, they were on a mission to locate her, I'm sure of it." Genesis, in an uncharacteristic show of frustration, raked a hand through his hair, while Angeal tacked on, "I only just made the connection."
"Convenient," he snapped, with no real bite because he knew it was the truth. "And you told her about these two friends already, last week?"
Sapphire'd had bloodshot eyes, and was slumped with her back against the bed so lethargically she nearly fell over once. Her voice was slow, her words somewhat slurred and disjointed, but it didn't hide the raw emotion as she told him of her friends, Zack and Ash and Will. Elation, hope, and such deep sorrow. Such a broad spectrum of emotions she felt, for people who he'd barely spared a moment for.
He might meet them again, Genesis speculated, as his old friend nodded in confirmation.