Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

    Genesis opens his eyes, and takes in the sight of his ceiling. Depending on one’s view of things, the last time he saw it was either eight hours earlier when he lay down to sleep, or almost fifteen years ago when he abandoned Shinra, drowning in degradation induced insanity. He presses the balls of the palms of his hands against his eyes, and takes a deep, shuddering breath.

    It had worked . Goddess bless it all, it had worked .

    It had worked and if everything works properly he should be able to save everyone. Stop Angeal from degrading (since he can sense that Minerva’s healing is still in effect and he’s healed of his affliction) and forcing Zack to kill him. Prevent Nibelheim from burning. Prevent Meteor from being summoned. Hopefully prevent Sephiroth from going insane in general. Slaughter the entire Shinra Science Department. Train Cloud to the hero he should be.

    Cloud…

    Genesis grabs for his PHS, checking the date and grimaces at the sudden flash of light. Ow. But...he smiles at the date. Cloud should be reaching Junon and the enlistment station tomorrow. If he recalls correctly, Hendricks should be the recruiter there, and Hendricks would be willing to do materia affinity testing for all candidates. Cloud’s skill with materia had been something he’d possessed his entire life, and was a skill wholly his own, not gifted to him from Zack the way the basics of swordsmanship had been. The materia test would pick up Cloud’s affinity, and should lead to Hendricks reaching out to him or Commander Eanna over it.

    Huh. Eanna was alive again too. An odd thought; it had been years since he’d last contemplated his Infantry counterpart. She’d been killed in an ambush that would be taking place in the next...week? Or so. If Hendricks does what he should, both of them should be contacted, since Eanna had successfully argued for any SOLDIER candidates that test well for materia to be offered spots as Infantry Materia Specialists; she’d even successfully snagged three in the past. They could both head to Junon to speak with Cloud and he’d assign a squad of Thirds to deal with the mission that would otherwise kill her. He remembers vaguely from the incident report that someone with SOLDIER enhancements would have survived the ambush.

    He just needs to make sure Hendricks does the materia affinity test, get Cloud noticed and retrieve his younger brother so he could be safely trained.

Chapter Text

     Edgar Hendrick raises a brow at the email from Commander Rhapsodos, requesting all SOLDIER candidates be tested for materia affinities. Huh. He normally doesn’t do it first thing, but if Rhapsodos wants it done, might as well. It’s always kind of funny watching candidates flounder at it, or the cocky ones who think they’ll be the next Genesis Rhapsodos flame out in humiliation. And every now and again you get a kid with a flare for it which always made the Commander happy. 

    “Is the Commander serious?” James demands, the other recruitment officer glaring at the email. “That’s a waste of time!”

    “Get over it,” Edgar says, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. “SOLDIERs need to be able to use materia and it should be part of the regular testing to begin with. If the Commander wants it done, we’ll do it.”

    James glares at him, which he ignores. He knows the SOLIDER Third Class is barely able to use materia and it had been his physical combat abilities that had allowed him to scrape his way into SOLDIER. He on the other hand could use materia fine, even if not even close to as good as Rhapsodos. 

    “You do the physical tests and I’ll do the materia test,” he offers. “Yeah, the majority aren’t even going to get a spark, but it could be funny.”

    “You just want to set training dummies on fire,” James grumbles. 

    “So?”

    “Seriously Ed?”

    Edgar just chuckles. 

    “Let’s go get ready.”

    (Three hours later he gapes at the training dummy the slight Nibelese recruit obliterated with a lightning materia, the young teen’s bright blue eyes huge in his face as they both look at the destruction the kid had somehow managed to cause with an unmastered materia. 

    Rhapsodos is going to be delighted .)

    Genesis knows he’s worrying Angeal. Even so, he keeps his office door locked. He feels...off balance. Seeing Angeal for the first time in so long, a completely healthy Angeal at that, is more off putting than he expected. And he knows it will only get worse when he sees Sephiroth.  

    Sephiroth. A man he’d once considered a dear friend and rival, and now someone who he honestly wants nothing more than to stab. If it hadn’t been for him...Genesis shudders and closes his eyes, fists clenching. 

    The man he’d once known had tried to destroy the world repeatedly. Had obsessed over Cloud to a truly terrifying degree. Had tried to murder him because Sephiroth assumed his interest in Cloud was romantic in nature which just. No.

    Genesis sighs, opens his eyes and unclenches his fists. 

    Sephiroth hasn’t turned into that yet, and hopefully never will. Killing Hojo and destroying Jenova and the Nibelheim mansion should avert that, but he’d need to figure out a good mission to orchestrate that. And wake up Valentine so he didn’t accidentally kill the former Turk. The man didn’t deserve that. He also deserved first shot at killing Hojo, or at least is someone he trusts would actually do it. 

    How Sephiroth could go mad and decide to destroy the world, but not slaughter his piece of shit sperm donor mystifies Genesis. Really, he would have thought Sephiroth would do that before killing President Shinra or deciding to destroy Gaia.

    But the mansion in Nibelheim would need to go, and figuring out an excuse to get up there would also allow him to meet Claudia Strife. Which. Would be rather awkward, but still something that also needs to happen. 

    Fuck, he needs to figure out a means of justifying doing a DNA test with Cloud so he can ‘discover’ their relationship and thus justify getting to meet his birth mother. Maybe ‘jokingly’ suggest one based on Cloud’s materia abilities? How ‘obviously’ someone with such skill must be a relative~ which would prove their status as half brothers. 

    Genesis frowns at his office ceiling, leaning back in his chair. He still doesn’t entirely understand why Hollander stole him from his birth mother. He’d been deemed a ‘failed’ experiment. Why tell her that he’d been stillborn and then given him to the Rhapsodos family? Why not just leave him with his parents, rather than steal him, eventually causing the collapse of his parents’ relationship?  Then again, if that hadn’t happened Cloud wouldn’t exist...

    Another advantage to being in the past. He could get answers that were otherwise made impossible by Hollander’s death. And revenge.

    The sudden ring of his desk phone draws him out of a fantasy of flaying Hollander alive. 

    “Hello?”

    “Commander Rhapsodos? This is SOLDIER Second Class Edgar Hendricks, head of recruitment in Junon,” the voice says. “You asked us to check materia affinity with the latest batch of recruits. We’ve got a kid here with some rather...impressive materia abilities. He managed to completely destroy one of the training dummies with an unmastered lightning materia.”

    “Really?” asked Genesis, already knowing the answer to the question he’s about to ask. “What’s his name?”

    “Cloud Strife. Native of the Nibel Mountain range. I just did the ‘mana test’ with him, and his are higher than probably all of Third Class and about half of Second Class, even unenhanced,” Hendricks says. 

    “I’m sorry, what?” Yes he knew his younger brother to be naturally quite talented with materia but… 

    “His scores are like your’s or Commander Eanna’s,” Hendricks says. “Which is to say, completely ridiculous. I’ll send you them and you can see yourself.”

    “Please do,” Genesis says, mind whirling. “So I would assume you’d recommend the boy for SOLDIER?”

    “If not SOLDIER, then Infantry Materia Specialist,” Hendricks says. “Kid seems like he has his heart set on SOLDIER, so you’ve got a good chance Commander Eanna’s pitch won’t work on him. He’s still on the scrawny side of things, but he’s also fourteen and I get the impression comes from a pretty poor background. I’d say his materia ability makes up for pretty much anything, such as the fact his ability with a sword is pretty non-existent at the moment.”

    “That’s normal for the majority of Cadets during the initial exam,” Genesis points out. He opens the email with Cloud’s test results and they’re… “What the hell?” he says softly. Because yes, they do look a lot like Eanna’s. Which meant they look a lot like his . Which, come to think of, he needs to look into that because presumably his results were a result of his prenatal Jenova-exposure and to the best of his knowledge Eanna had had no enhancements of any kind.

    “I know,” Hendricks says. “I had him go through a full set of elemental materias and had him summon Shiva. You’d think the kid would be on the ground, borderline mana-exhausted, but he’s still in pretty good shape. I was having a flashback to Commander Eanna and the Costa Del Sol Incident from two years ago which is why I even did a comparison between their test scores.”

    Goddess, even though from his perspective it had been seventeen years since that mess, Genesis can still remember it clearly. Eanna had eventually ended up with mana exhaustion, but that’s because she’d Summoned what looked suspiciously like Hades. It had firmly demonstrated the Infantry Materia Specialist Commander had a mana pool comparable to his own, something Genesis still wonders about. His enhancements had definitely boosted his mana pool, so he still wonders what it is about Eanna that made hers’ so ridiculous. Then again, her aunt Venus Eanna was the famous ‘Mage of Mideel’...

    “You’re at Junon, correct?” Genesis asks. 

    “Yup. I’m to assume I should expect to see you in the next few days to talk with Strife?”

    “I will, and likely Commander Eanna,” Genesis says, quickly writing a message and forwarding the results to the woman. Even though he knows Cloud will want to join SOLDIER over Infantry, it isn’t worth the possible drama if he doesn’t let Eanna know, and it would keep her alive if she followed him to Junon. 

    “Alright. Do you want me to tell the kid you’re coming to speak with him?”

    “You can. Make it clear to him that he definitely has a spot in the program,” Genesis adds. “Regardless of any of his other test results. I’ll make arrangements and let you know exactly when we will arrive.”

    “Alright. Thank you sir and have a good rest of your day,” Hendricks says. 

    “Same to you.”

    Rowan ‘Ro’ Eanna, Commander of the Shinra Infantry’s Materia Specialists gapes at the exam results from Commander Rhapsodos. The Cadet’s scores are absurd . If she didn’t know better, she’d wonder if he was a member of her family to have scored like that. Goddess knows she has enough questions concerning if Rhapsodos is in fact a relative, seeing as the man was adopted as an infant. His ‘unenhanced’ scores had also been ridiculous, but she’s never managed to get a DNA test done to test her theory. 

    But she knows no one in her family has ever strayed up into the Nibel Mountains. But...but could there be a family like her’s in the Nibel Mountains? A holdover from what once was? She’s heard rumors of a flower girl in the slums and that’s a pretty strong hint of something…

    Ro shakes her head and quickly sends back a reply to Rhapsodos demanding to meet the Cadet as well. She tries her best to keep those truly skilled in materia out of the hands of the Science Department, especially the ones she suspects could be like her. 

    It’s just a pity if her suspicions are correct in terms of Rhapsodos that she failed him.         

    “Congratulations Cadet Cloud Strife, you have been accepted into SOLDIER,” the recruiter says, grinning. “I just spoke with Commander Rhapsodos. He and Commander Rowan Eanna of the Infantry Materia Specialists will be coming to Junon in the next few days to speak with you, but no matter what you are guaranteed a spot in SOLDIER. Shinra rule though that Commander Eanna also gets told when we get someone like you and she’s allowed to make an offer of a Specialist’s position.”

    He...he had made it. He had made it on his first try. But wait, what...

    “What do you mean ‘someone like you’?” he asks, brow furrowing. 

    “Strife, how many unenhanced people do you think could cast the way you just did?” Hendricks asks him. 

    “My Ma casts like that.” Though he’d only seen her need to Summon Odin once when they’d had a mess with a mako-high Nibel Dragon getting too close to Nibelheim. 

    “Really? Interesting.” Hendricks looks thoughtful. “Regardless, the answer is the vast majority of the world doesn’t cast like that. You just outcast the vast majority of Third Class and I’d say at least a third, if not half of, Second Class. The only two people I know of who have scores in the same range as you when they were unenhanced are Commander Eanna and Commander Rhapsodos pre-SOLDIER. Probably the General would have been higher but his unenhanced scores aren’t public information.”

    “What?”

    That...that can’t be right. 

    “Kid, you should have required at least one ether after casting that many spells and doing a Summon. But instead you’re just fine. That’s extremely unusual and very impressive.” Hendricks grins. “Even more so that both Commanders are going to come out and talk with you. I know Rhapsodos definitely will, and Eanna always likes to make the pitch for Specialists personally.”

    “But you said I made SOLDIER?”

    “You did, but Shinra allows for her to recruit Materia Specialists from SOLDIER Cadets,” Hendricks explains. “It’s pretty unusual for people with any materia affinity to apply directly to Infantry, and the Specialists aren’t widely known anyway. For all Eanna is a Commander, her unit is only twenty people large. There’s more members of SOLDIER First Class than there are Materia Specialists for Infantry. But she has very high standards for her Specialists, so that’s part of what keeps the numbers so low.”

    But you think she’d want me? Cloud resists the urge to ask. It didn’t matter anyway, since he’d made SOLDIER, and SOLDIER is what he wanted. 

    He had made SOLDIER and he’s on his way to becoming a hero.

Chapter Text

    Genesis knows he’s going to pay for avoiding Angeal, Sephiroth and the Puppy for the past two days, and then running off to Junon with Commander Eanna so that he can retrieve Cloud, but he doesn’t entirely care. Seeing those three at the moment is simply too stressful, and he needs to be at least somewhat of an even emotional state. 

    He can’t risk upsetting Cloud. He simply can’t . He can’t risk ruining things. 

    “You alright Rhapsodos?” Eanna asks, sitting across from him on the helicopter. “You look...uneasy. You worried about motion sickness or something?”

    “Have you ever had a serious fight with your wife?” he asks, attempting to distract her. 

    “Genesis, what the fuck. ” Ooops, a glare and his first name. Bad choice in attempted distraction. 

    “Sorry. I’ve been stressed for the past few days and have partially been avoiding Angeal so I don’t accidentally have a fight with him,” he explains. “And you’re one of the only people I know who is not only married, but has a happy marriage…”

    “What has you stressed? Wutai?” Eanna asks. “Speaking of Wutai, thank you for offering up that squad of Second and Thirds to cover my mission. That makes things easier rather than pushing it back.”

    “Your mission could have been pushed back?”

    “Possibly? It’s a weird mission. Heidegger didn’t give me a lot of information,” Eanna says with a shake of her head. “Which is unlike him. Generally I get clear missions, not a vague thing that makes me wonder if I got handed a Turk mission by mistake.”

    “Turks have their own materia users.” 

    “I know, which is what confuses me further, and Director Veld claimed it wasn’t when I asked him about it anyway.” Eanna shrugs. “Either way, it’s no longer my problem. I’m much more interested in this Cadet Cloud Strife.” 

    “He had very high materia scores,” Genesis says. “And decent enough physical, though Hendricks expressed a few concerns that he’s underfed and thus underweight which can hamper the enhancement process.”

    “Nibel Mountain region is a pretty poor part of Gaia, if I recall correctly. It’s possible he grew up in poverty,” Eanna says. “He’ll be able to get access to regular meals at Shinra and if he needs dietary supplements, we have them. He’d hardly be the only cadet to get ‘em. It’s what, six months between Cadet status and the first shots? Time to bulk up a bit. Well, if he doesn’t accept my offer of a Specialist’s position.”

    “Hendricks was certain that Strife’s dream is SOLDIER and that he’d have no interest in transferring,” Genesis says. “Why are you always so intent on stealing all the best materia users for your division anyway?” He’s wondered about that for years. 

    “I run a Materia Specialist division, why wouldn’t I try to recruit all of the best for it?” she asks him a bit dryly. 

    “It always feels like a bit more than that,” he says, watching her closely. 

    “Does it?” she asks, expression bland. “Interesting.” 

    “Yes, it does.” He still lets the matter drop. “Either way, his scores are absolutely fascinating, and according to Hendricks, when speaking with Strife later he mentioned his mother as being comparable in her own materia usage.”

    “Really? Now that’s very interesting, that it could be a family thing.” Eanna looks thoughtful, but her family as he knows is also renowned for its materia users.  “Very interesting,” she repeats softly. She leans further into her seat. “Mind if I nap while we fly? We’ve got at least another two hours?”

    “It’s fine,” he says with a wave of his hand. “I have something to read.”

    "If it’s Loveless, I no longer think what you do counts as reading,” she says dryly. “And if it isn’t Loveless I’ll be shocked.”

     He flips her off, the only possible response.

    Cloud picks at the scarf of his Cadet’s uniform, waiting for the Commanders to arrive. He’s in Hendricks’ office, and trying very hard to not think about all the envious looks he’s been getting for the past two days. So far, he’s the only Cadet who’s been granted a guaranteed spot in SOLDIER. The others would need to prove themselves at the end of the six month boot camp. 

    It’s weird being the kid being envied for once. 

    He turns as he hears a knock on the door, and two people walk in. He recognizes Commander Rhapsodos from all the posters, and an unfamiliar woman in what looks like an infantry uniform has to be Commander Eanna. She has eyes he can only describe as being purple, and dark, wavy hair that’s been partially pulled up. He’s a bit disgruntled to realize that she’s probably a full three inches taller than him.

    He hates being short...hopefully he’ll hit a growth spurt soon. Ma had once mentioned his Da had been fairly tall, so hopefully he’ll get his height. 

    “Commander Rhapsodos, Commander Eanna.” Hendricks stands at attention. “This is Cadet Strife.”

     “Sir, ma’am.” Cloud stands and imitates Hendricks’ action. 

      “At ease SOLDIER Hendricks, at ease Cadet Strife,” Commander Rhapsodos says. “SOLDIER Hendricks, for the time being Commander Eanna and I will be borrowing your office so we can speak with Cadet Strife. We’ll let you know once we’re done.”

       “Of course sir,” Hendricks says, giving them both a nod. “I’ll go see how James is doing with the other cadets. He’s got them doing drills until they vomit.” 

      “Please don’t make the cadets vomit,” Commander Rhapsodos says. “That just smells unpleasant.”

      “And it’s not good for them,” Commander Eanna adds, giving them both exasperated looks. “So please do not make the cadets vomit from over training them.”

      ...He’s suddenly very grateful he’s getting to skip basic training for the moment to have this meeting. 

      Hendricks chuckles and leaves, closing the door behind him. Now it’s just him and the two Commanders. 

       “Congratulations on your acceptance into SOLDIER. Your materia scores were among the best Shinra has ever seen,” Commander Rhapsodos says. “As you’ve probably realized, traditionally acceptance into SOLDIER only happens during the ‘main’ exam following the six month Cadet boot camp, rather than the ‘entry’ exam done at recruitment stations, but your exemplary exams made you a perfect candidate for SOLDIER.”

      “And for a position as one of Infantry’s Materia Specialists,” adds Commander Eanna. “Hence why I am here. While it’s true we aren’t as renowned as SOLDIER, there’s a reason for that; namely, as unenhanced individuals we are a tad easier to kill, and Shinra’s enemies know it’s bad for them to let good materia users survive.” She grins. “We’re also a tad more selective than SOLDIER.”

    “Hey!”

    “Rhapsodos, my entire division is smaller than First Class,” she points out. “That should tell you something.”

     “Yes, that you’re a picky, picky person. And that the vast majority of materia users chose to be in SOLDIER.”

     “You know perfectly well that I recruit at best one person a year these days,” she says, giving Rhapsodos a flat look. “I’d rather get the best than something middling.” 

      “And you think I could be one of the best?” Cloud asks, confused.

       “Commander Rhapsodos and I wouldn’t be here if we didn’t think that,” she says, turning to face him. “You have entrance scores that are practically identical to both of ours, or at least in the case of Commander Rhapsodos, practically identical to his pre -enhancement scores. Both of us are amongst the strongest materia users presently alive. You would be a perfect fit for either of our groups.”

      That is...not something Cloud is used to hearing. Being told by someone other than his Ma that he has the ability to be one of the best (he knows everyone in Nibelheim expects him to come back, tail between his legs and a failed SOLDIER candidate). That he would be perfect for something.

     “Why would someone choose to be a Specialist over being a SOLDIER?”

     “Because we don’t have to deal with the Science Department,” Commander Eanna says, grimacing slightly. “On top of that, once you receive your first make treatment, that’s it. You have to stay employed by Shinra. Retirement for SOLDIER only comes with either permanent disability such as loss of multiple limbs or blindness. Even then you’re expected to remain with the company. Specialists are allowed to retire from service. We also get comparable salaries to SOLDIER, which is admittedly much, much higher than what the average trooper makes.”

    “What’s wrong with the Science Department?” 

     “Many things,” Commander Rhapsodos acknowledges. “But in my opinion, the benefits of enhancement overwhelm the disadvantages of having to deal with the vast majority of Science, though there is admittedly an exception to the rule in the form of Professor Hojo, the head of Science. It’s unlikely that you’ll ever have to deal with him or Professor Hollander, the second in command.”

     “I’ve wanted to be a SOLDIER since I first learned about it. I can put up with anything,” Cloud says firmly. “I can see why people may see that as a problem, but if it’s unlikely I would have to deal with them, I don’t mind.”

      “So you’re fine with signing your life over to Shinra?” Commander Eanna asks. 

      “Ma’am, I grew up in a reactor town. I know how much of the world Shinra controls, and I’m pretty sure even if you retire, Shinra still somehow owns you,” Cloud says, paraphrasing something his Ma had once said to him. 

     “You’d be surprised,” she drawls, but nods. “But I can tell when I won’t get a victory. A shame you’re choosing SOLDIER, you’d be an excellent Specialist.”

      “And in contrast to Commander Eanna, I am very pleased that you’re choosing SOLDIER over Specialist,” Commander Rhapsodos says, smiling slightly in a way that almost reminds him of his Ma. “Though I will admit, it may be wise to change up your training in comparison to what normally happens with Cadets. And I have some very specific thoughts for that.” 

      Huh?

       “What?” Commander Eanna gives him a confused look. “Wait, Rhapsodos, are you implying what I think you are? Didn’t you once describe Commander Hewley ‘foolish’ for doing what I think you’re about to suggest?”

       Commander Rhapsodos rolls his eyes at her. Then he turns back to facing him.

       “Cadet Strife. You’re a year younger than the average SOLDIER Cadet, and almost two years younger than the average Third Class SOLDIER. This puts you at a bit of a disadvantage in terms of traditional training, especially since you are on the smaller side of things. What I am proposing, is that I will personally mentor you.”

       Cloud’s eyes go huge and his jaw drops.

      “What?” he squeaks.

      “The other advantages of mentorship is that instead of living in the barracks you’d live in the guest room of my apartment. As Commander Eanna noted, Commander Hewley did something similar in the past with his former mentee, Zackary Fair, who is a sixteen year old SOLDIER Second Class. He enlisted at thirteen after lying about his age, which Angeal noticed,” he adds, a bit wryly. “And probably only initially got away with due to being very tall for his age.”

       Commander Eanna looks as stunned, Cloud thinks, as he feels because...because he can’t be hearing this right. Commander Rhapsodos can’t have just offered to train him, and have him live in his apartment rather than the barracks. Something like that doesn’t just happen. 

     (But then again, just two days ago he would have thought the same thing about his almost easy admittance into SOLDIER.)

    “You want to train me. Personally?” Cloud asks faintly. 

    “Yes. You show extreme promise as a materia user, and I am Shinra’s foremost mage,” Commander Rhapsodos says, ignoring Commander Eanna’s annoyed huff. “Though I must admit to being curious if such skill runs in your family. Hendricks mentioned something about your Ma…?”

    “Ma has always been good with ice materia,” Cloud says. “She taught me how to use materia when I was a little kid. There’s a natural mako fountain in Nibelheim where materia forms, and I always got stuff from there.” And the caves, but his Ma had made him swear to secrecy about those.

    “You may struggle slightly with Shinra’s artificial materia,” Commander Rhapsodos warns. “You can request exemptions to use natural materia if you already have it, but there is a degree of difference in using artificial if you’re used to natural. I personally use natural materia I’ve gathered from the materia caves near my childhood home of Banora.”

    “I have my bracer and materia from home.”

    “Good, good.” Rhapsodos opens his mouth to say something else and then pauses, giving Commander Eanna an odd look. She looks extremely thoughtful. “Eanna? Is there something wrong?”

    “I’m going to ask a very weird question, and I apologize for it now. But Cadet Strife, I have to ask, do you know anything about your Da? Since there’s something familiar about your look,” Commander Eanna says, completely derailing conversation. “And as I recall from your file there’s nothing about him in it.”

    “I do,” Cloud says, a hint defensively because he does not want to go into his father, or the complications around that. But he has a feeling he knows what she’s thinking. “And it’s not President Shinra and no, you aren’t the first person to wonder, since Nibelheim happens to have Shinra Mansion there.” And apparently his Ma had worked for Shinra for a while when she’d been a teenager, though she’d quit years before he was born.

    “Unfortunately, a fair number of people will ask you that,” she says with a twist of her lips. “Because the man rather infamously has several bastard children, including the present Director of SOLDIER, and you do look quite a bit like Rufus Shinra, the only acknowledged son. I would strongly advise doing a DNA test to prove that you aren’t a Shinra and it’s easy enough for the company to do.”

    “Is it going to be that much of an issue?” Cloud asks. 

    “It could be, Eanna has a point,” Commander Rhapsodos says with a grimace. “It’s a fast, relatively painless test to do, so we might as well. And hey, who knows, you could discover something interesting.”

    Cloud frowns, but nods. “Okay.” He doubts they’ll notice anything interesting, but sure. If it’ll avoid people thinking he’s one of President Shinra’s kids…

    “Excellent. We can run the lab work here and know within twenty four hours. Let’s go do it,” Commander Rhapsodos says. 

    “Let’s.”

Chapter Text

    “So how exactly does this work?” Strife asks, following them into the on-site lab. 

    “Fairly simply,” Ro says with a slight hum. “I’m going to take vials of blood from all three of us. Then I will put them into that machine,” she gestures to a nearby device, “where it will run all of our samples against everyone in Shinra.”

    “Why are you and I doing it?” Rhapsodos asks, raising a brow at her. “And why do you know how to take blood or use that machine?

    “In terms of knowing how to draw blood and use the DNA test machines, that would be because Specialist Luka Moore is a bit of a dumbass and there was an Incident,” Ro says, biting back a snicker. Ishtar’s blessings, that had been a mess , but at least it had been funny in the end. “Also, Junon has the old machines which require more than one sample to run. Technically we need at least two, but three or more is better. This way poor Strife doesn’t have to give me more than one sample.”

    It would also allow her to test her suspicion that Rhapsodos was a member of her extended family. While in theory the man’s DNA should already be in Shinra’s system, and in theory just running the test with her and Strife’s samples would prove if she’s correct or not, it wouldn’t surprise her if Science or SOLDIER had segregated SOLDIER members’ DNA registry from the general registry.

    “Besides, do you know how to use the machine?” she asks, locating the necessary supplies for drawing blood. “Doubtlessly you know how to take your own blood since I know SOLDIERs do field tests for their mako counts, but…” 

    “I don’t,” he admits. “I never had much need for DNA testing.” 

    Ro pauses, studying Rhapsodos. The expression that had crossed his face...she resists the urge to frown. She can’t quite name the look that had crossed his face, but she doesn’t like it. 

    “Any questions or concerns Strife?” she asks, turning to face the blond teen as she rolls up her sleeve. 

    “No,” he says, watching her closely as she prepares to draw her own blood. 

    “Excellent. I’ll go first, then you, then Commander Rhapsodos,” she says. “And then we’ll run the test.”

    And then we’ll see if I’m right to suspect Rhapsodos is a relative.

    “Now how about you demonstrate how good you are with materia?” 

    Cloud retrieves his materia bracer from his barracks. It’s an Old Nibel style bracer, which means it’s a combination of a bracelet with thin chains connecting to five rings. Each ring has a small fragment of elemental materia and the bracelet itself has larger materia slots. Right now he has a larger piece of lightning materia, a wind materia he’d found recently, and a Cure slotted. He had left certain materia back home in Nibelheim at his Ma’s order. 

    He steps back out of his barracks to where the Commanders are waiting.

    “I would like to see your use of personal materia, and after that, see your use of company materia,” Commander Rhapsodos explains, guiding them past the training ground where Hendricks is shouting at the other cadets as they run laps. A kid Cloud vaguely recognizes from the entrance ‘exam’ is on the ground; he thinks he’d been one of the ones who boasted about how good of shape he’d been in. “That will give me a better sense than just the report and will allow me to best create a training routine for you. Since, for example, per the report you could already destroy one of the training dummies with a single company Bolt, a feat that’s actually quite difficult.”

    “It is?” Cloud asks.

    The Commanders exchange looks. 

    “Those dummies are supposed to be materia resistant, so they should be rather hard to destroy the way Hendricks described you destroying it,” Rhapsodos says. “Most people when using materia would need to put a lot of effort and use a Mastered materia to even singe them, let alone destroy. Even then, most would be fatigued by the amount of energy it should take.”

    And he’d used an unmastered materia, and while he’d definitely put effort into it, he’d also been able to cast every other materia he’d been handed after it just fine. He’d noticed no one else had even left a mark on the dummies, but he hadn’t really thought too hard about it. 

    “Can you destroy them?” he asks, unable to resist. 

    “Yes, though I’ve been told repeatedly to knock it off, and at the Tower we have even sturdier ones that I struggle to damage.” Commander Rhapsodos smirks. “Eanna?”

    “Surprisingly enough, I haven’t,” she says, shaking her head. “Admittedly, I haven’t gone out of my way to do so, but I also don’t favor using fire materia. My favorite materia to use is water materia, which is also something you’ll rarely run into,” she adds. “R&D has yet to find a way to make an artificial version, and it’s very, very rare for them to pop up in nature. My family’s estate happens to be above a mako fault line and things pop up.”

    “Your family’s estate ?” Cloud’s eyes are huge as he stares at Commander Eanna. 

    “The Eanna family is one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in Mideel Islands,” she explains with a shrug. “My Aunt is a well regarded materia researcher and her wife is a lawyer. My parents are a politician and a doctor. My younger brother, Asher, works in Shinra’s R&D’s materia division and our cousin Lilith runs a courier service out on the Islands, though she sometimes takes deliveries on the southern portion of the Eastern Continent.”

    “My family and Commander Hewley’s family live in Banora,” Commander Rhapsodos adds. “On the opposite side of Mideel from the Eanna family. There’s also a materia cave down there and it’s where I found my first materia and realized I had a knack for it.”

    “But the vast majority of Shinra employees use artificial materia. It’s simply easier to get your hands on,” Eanna says. “Only people from regions that are on materia lines have any real ability to get their hands on natural materia, and it can be hard to get your hands on large enough pieces to be of any use. Imagine,” she tugs off her glove and it’s something that looks oddly similar to his own bracer, but with only two rings around her middle and ring fingers, with thing chains attaching them to her wrist, “how hard it would be for you, or I, or the vast majority of the materia specialists if we didn’t if a sense encircle the rings on our hands with materia. I keep fragments of water materia along with a large piece on my bracelet.”

    “I still don’t understand how those don’t work for me when I’m from Mideel too,” Rhapsodos grumbles. 

    “Honestly, I’m confused by that too,” Eanna admits. She claps her hands. “But that really doesn’t matter at the moment, I want to see just what Strife can do.” 

    Rhapsodos picks up what looks like the materia bracer from yesterday’s exam, rolling it in his hands. “Goddess I always forget how weak these are,” he says, barely audible. 

    “Well we do technically want the recruits to not blow up the training dummies,” Eanna drawls. “Admittedly, I’d say Strife has a good chance of doing that with his personal materia if he could do it with the unmastered materia, but that may be you just have a really strong affinity to lightning.”

    “I kind of do,” Cloud admits. “Ma’s really strong with ice, I’m really strong with lighning. She once mentioned her older sister was really strong with fire.”

    “You have an aunt?” Rhapsodos asks. 

    “Yeah, but Ma doesn’t like to talk about her. They had a really bad falling out when they were younger.” Cloud shrugs. He suspects Shinra was somehow involved.

    Shinra is always involved if something goes weird in Nibelheim.    

    “Now, let’s see how well you can use your materia. Lightning first, whatever other elemental materia you have loaded and since I can see a Cure...why is there one empty slot?” Rhapsodos asks, looking curious. 

    “We have a summons. Ma found it when she was younger but we both decided it should stay at home in case anyone at Shinra wanted to take it.”

    “That makes sense,” Rhapsodos says with a slight hum. “Alright, to check your summoning ability you’ll use Shiva again.”

    “Alright,” Cloud says, and then he starts casting. 

    Lighting first. The left arm and chest blast off. 

    Ice after. It coats the remaining part of the dummy’s chest.

    Wind next. A slice cuts through the right side. 

    Fire to follow. It only lightly singes, but fire’s never been his best. 

    Earth to end. And the ground lowly rumbles under their feet. 

    “Very, very good,” Rhapsodos says. Eanna just applauds slightly. “Now, let’s see how well you do with company materia, and then grab some dinner.”

    Cloud swaps out his brace and begins to cast again.

“So the results are in and…” Commander Eanna’s eyebrows are practically in her hairline as she looks at the printed off report. “Well, this is interesting and going to cause utter havoc back at headquarters, and proves at least one of my theories involving you Rhapsodos.”

“What?” Genesis frowns. “Give that to me,” he demands, gesturing to the document. 

“Here you go,” Eanna says, handing him the document. “Also, congrats Rhapsodos, it’s a little brother. And congrats Strife, it’s a big brother,” she adds, gesturing between them.

“What?” Cloud gapes at her. 

“What theory did you have about me?” Genesis asks, reading the report himself and feeling his own eyebrows go up. Because it had quite a bit more information than he’d been expecting. 

What he expected; his status as the older brother of Cloud Strife and eldest son of Claudia Strife. What he didn’t expect; Claudia Strife to actually have a file in the Shinra system. His father being Leon Caine, aka Legend, a very famous Turk he’s done missions with in the past. His cousin being Rufus Shinra, through their mothers being sisters. 

Cloud’s own report came back with their connection, his connection to their mother, and the same connection to Rufus Shinra. No report on whoever his Da is, which isn’t a surprise. 

“I theorized that your DNA profile, and likely the rest of the First Class leadership, is segregated from the general system,” Eanna says. “Since I imagine there’s plenty of people who have tried to figure out, for example, if they’re related to Sephiroth.”

“All that would accomplish is them realizing they’d be related to Hojo,” Genesis drawls. 

“...Wait, what?” 

“Professor Hojo is Sephiroth’s father.”

“...Are you sure?”

“Unfortunately. I imagine Sephiroth looks like his mother.” 

He had assumed upon meeting Vincent Valentine, and seeing how Sephiroth arguably looked more like the man, and Valentine’s own history with Crescent that it would have turned out that Valentine was in fact Sephiroth’s father. Per Valentine, he and Lucrecia had never had sex, and Sephiroth had been an IVF baby. Plus, part of what made Sephiroth’s Jenovan enhancements more ‘stable’ than his or Angeal’s was due to how both Hojo and Crescent had injected themselves with Jenova’s DNA before ‘conceiving’ Sephiroth. If Valentine had been his father, he would have likely had similar issues to him and Angeal.

Well, eventually at least.

“Huh. Well, he has my sincerest sympathies then,” Eanna says. She frowns. “Strife, are you okay?”

Genesis looks at his younger brother, the teen still and silent in a way he really doesn’t like. His hands are tightly clenched fists, and his body language is...tense in ways Genesis learned from the older Cloud to be afraid of.

“My Ma thinks you're dead,” he says flatly, looking up at Genesis. “She told me when I was little that I should have an older brother, but he was stillborn. That the doctor wouldn’t even give her the body, instead cremating and giving her the ashes. There’s a small rattle in the family shrine because she didn’t have any pictures. She buried the ashes in the family plot.”

“But I’m alive and that means the doctor kidnapped me for some reason,” Genesis says. “And then gave me to the Rhapsodos family to raise.” Shittily at that. “That is...concerning to say the least.” Whose ashes did they give to his mother?

“Who the fuck would do something like that?!” Genesis watches Cloud’s hands where lightning seems to be dancing along the one. He’d listened to him the night before and put on his bracer that morning, something Genesis now regrets. At least they’re not in a lab and Hendricks’ office is...marginally less of an issue if it gets damaged by a rogue lightning spell.

“I don’t know, but I imagine whoever did it is about to have a very, very bad day,” Eanna says, her own eyes on Cloud’s hands.

“Well yes, I intend to Fireball them in the face the first chance I get,” Genesis says. And Cloud would likely electrocute them, based on present actions. Ah Hollander, how enjoyable it will be to murder him.

“No, not that,” Eanna says with a shake of her head. “Rhapsodos? Your internal Shinra profile likely doesn’t reflect you're the President’s nephew, so it’s something I doubt he’s aware of. If he was, and was involved in the baby theft, there definitely would have been a system failsafe to hide that even if someone ran a DNA test the way I just did.”    

“No offense, but do you truly think he’d care?” After all, the man had had several of his own illegitimate children and lovers killed when they’d attempted to request child support from him. Genesis is fairly certain the President had even contemplated killing off Rufus a few times, only to then remember he needed a legitimate heir to inherit the company. 

“The President doesn’t like to be lied to, and I imagine if you were stolen, there’s a lot of bullshit in your file, and holy shit Strife, please take off your bracer before you destroy something .” Eanna’s eyes are huge as she stares at Cloud and Genesis winces at the sheer amount of lightning, a virtual storm on his younger brother’s hand. 

Cloud closes his eyes and slowly unclenches his fists, taking a deep breath that Genesis hopes is calming.Then he rapidly unlatches his bracer and tucks it into his cadet uniform. 

“We are going to need to do something about this. Look at who the possible subjects for this could be,” Eanna says, calmer than either of them. Or at least Genesis thinks she’s calm, it can be a bit hard to tell at times. 

“We?” Genesis asks. 

“Rhapsodos, do you really think I wouldn’t want to get involved in this sort of situation? You’re going to need much more assistance on this, and while I’d imagine if the President is pissed off enough he’d get the Turks involved, there’s no guarantee. Also, I have one very important suggestion for you. Bullshit a mission to Nibelheim…?” she gives Cloud a questioning look and he nods to. “That way you can speak to your mother and potentially get more information that would be useful for nailing whoever did this. It’s also far kinder to tell her in person that her supposedly dead son is fact alive.

“Fair point,” Genesis acknowledges. He glances over at the clock Hendricks’ keeps in his office. “Let’s make the calls in the morning and sleep on these revelations since I think we both,” he gestures between himself and Cloud, “need time for this to settle in.”

“Yeah.” Cloud runs his hands through his hair and takes a deep, shuddering breath. “I’m going to go back to my barracks if that’s okay?”

“That’s fine,” Genesis says, tempted to suggest that instead he sleep in the suite he gets as one of the Commanders, but Ro has the other room and he has his own questions for her. 

Such as just what were the other theories she had about him.

    (Veld wakes up and assumes the day will be normal. The report waiting on his desk and Tseng standing next to it immediately dissuade him of that. The report itself makes it clear things aren’t going to be ‘normal’ for quite some time.

    The report reminds him of a very important thing.

    That he loathes the Science Department with a deep, burning passion.)

Chapter Text

Rupert cannot for the life of him remember why he ever thought early morning Board meetings were a good idea. Come to think of it, it may have actually been Renee’s idea when she’d been pregnant with Rufus since she’d been in a rather...spiteful mood at the time. The long since the fired and unlamented former Head of Research and Development had hated waking up early and had badly antagonized her so he thinks she’d gotten back at her by asking him to put Board meetings before 9:00am.

(He refuses to think about the changes he’s kept even though she’s been dead for nearly fifteen years, even ones that technically annoy him .)

Scarlet glares at him from the door, the present Head of Research and Development no happier than her predecessor at having to wake up early. She stalks over to her seat next to Reeve Tuetsi, promptly peering over the man’s shoulder to look at whatever he’s doing. He can never entirely figure out why she does that, or why she decided over fifteen years ago to sit next to Tuetsi over Heidegger or Palmer.

Alright, that’s a lie, he knows exactly why. She’d either have to sit next to Hojo or in between Heidegger and Palmer. When she’d first become Head of R&D fifteen years earlier there had been...incidents that had then led to broken hands for both men. Tuetsi was and still is a non-issue there. As was Rufus who sat on her other side, though that was a result of his son having long since realized Scarlet is his oldest sibling.

He glances down the board room table. Hojo, Heidegger, Palmer, and Lazard to his left, Rufus, Scarlet, Tuetsi, and Veld to his right. He’s not entirely sure how over the years the crazy or incompent (well, excluding Lazard) had ended up on his left and the sane (or at least mostly sane in Scarlet’s case) and competent ended up on his right. A question for another day.

He zones out the chattering, contemplating another visit to the Honeybee Inn. The Sector Six ‘entertainment establishment’ should be having another one of Andrea’s performances soon, and for all he’d never admit it out loud, he does enjoy them. And definitely enjoys admiring the Honey Girls. He’ll just need to make certain that this time he’s going when Palmer isn’t . The man’s habit of ‘netting’ Honey Girls is just bizarre...

“That’s ridiculous Heidegger. I know I’ve made it clear that that set of materia is not ready for use,” Scarlet snaps, surprising him out of his Honeybee Inn thoughts. 

Tuetsi says something too low for him to hear that earns him a whap on his shoulder from Scarlet, but she doesn’t glare or make a snide comment at him. Probably wants him on her side for whatever this fight is about to devolve into…

“We need it out sooner rather than later,” Heidegger says, and Rupert bites back a groan since he can see Scarlet’s eyes narrow and Hojo’s eyes roll. “Just…”

“If she says it’s not ready and is willing to acknowledge it’s not ready, it’s not ready,” Tuetsi says flatly, surprising Rupert a bit. It’s fairly rare for Tuetsi to get involved in these sorts of arguments. Even more so for Scarlet to not glare at him for saying something like that. “If you’re really that interested in getting the Materia Specialists killed, or any SOLDIERs who specialize in materia killed...”

“We’ll buy the nice sort of plastic flowers for your funeral after Commanders Rhapsodos and Eanna are done with you,” Scarlet says, a bit dryly.

“I…” Heidegger trails off, and Rupert bites back a sigh. Did the man really not think about how the top two materia experts at the company would react to that sort of thing?

“Honestly, I’d say he deserves the shitty ones if he’s going to antagonize Commanders,” Tuetsi says just as dryly as Scarlet and oh no . They’re playing off each other. It only happened once a year if that, but rarely ended well for whoever had managed to annoy them both.

Then it occurs to him why Tuetsi is siding with Scarlet like this. Eanna is married to someone in his department. His employee’s wife dying because Heidegger is being an idiot would understandably upset her. 

“Heidegger, if the materia set isn’t ready, it isn’t ready and will not be used,” Rupert says, deciding to end the conversation before it devolves further. “We’re ending this now before Scarlet shoots you,” he adds. 

“Sir, you know I’m not carrying a gun at this moment.”

“And the key words there are, ‘at this moment’,” Tuetsi snarks, earning himself another whap on his shoulder. He at least seems mostly amused by Scarlet’s reactions rather than horrified by them so...

He will never understand what’s going on between those two, and is almost afraid to even try.

“And with that we’re done for today,” Rupert announces, cutting off any more potential arguments. Or confusing interactions between Scarlet and Tuetsi. Or Rufus continuing to be asleep with his eyes open. 

Everyone leaves with minimal grumbling, and Tuetsi looks oddly satisfied, which means he may have accidentally approved more funding for some project, or declined to fund a project Tuetsi disliked. Possibly a new project based on Scarlet still attempting to peer over Tuetsi’s shoulder as they walk out, and him seeming to actually allow her to do so.

...He’ll definitely need to watch the recording of the meeting to figure out what those two are up to, since Tuetsi and Scarlet working together can end strangely. 

He then notices Veld, while having stood up, is not heading out of the room. 

“Sir, I need to speak to you in private,” Veld says after everyone else is gone, the Turk Director’s expression unusually tight. “It involves your late wife and her sister.”

Well Turk interest in Dia never ends well… 

Veld has worked for Rupert Shinra for the better part of forty years. He has watched the man grow a former arms company into an energy company and  into what is arguably a global government. In that time he has never seen the man like this.

He has never seen such pure rage on the other man’s face.

“This is accurate,” he says flatly. It isn’t really a question; his hands are pressed against his desk and still in a way Veld knows he’s preventing them from shaking.

“By all indications, yes,” Veld says. “The reasoning given for the DNA test is that  Commander Eanna thought Cloud Strife looked similar to Rufus and they wanted to make sure he wasn’t one of your illegitimate children. I don’t think either Commander was aware Rufus looks like your late wife, not you. Commanders Rhapsodos and Eanna put in their own DNA samples because they were using the Junon labs which use the old style DNA tests and require multiple samples to do a proper test.

“I also cross-checked Rhapsodos’s DNA sample in the company’s internal records and it brought up the same results. On top of that Rhapsodos’s DNA sample was in a segregated system in the SOLDIER records, along with General Sephiroth’s and Commander Hewley’s,” something he intends to look further into since he has always though Sephiroth looked suspiciously like Vincent and his old friend at least was having an emotional affair with Crescent, “and that also registered him being related to Claudia Strife, Rufus, your late wife, and Legend.” 

“Claudia was in Banora at the time,” the President says, tapping his fingers on his desk. “Along with Scarlet since they were experimenting on a possible mako fueled motorcycle. Rhapsodos, if I recall correctly, is one of Hollander’s experiments along with Commander Hewley?”

“Yes, both were part of Project G which he ran, while Professor Hojo ran the more successful Project S,” Veld verifies. “It is...possible that Hollander interfered in some fashion with Ms. Strife’s neo-natal vitamins, or injected her with something while Commander Rhapsodos was in-utero.” Since what he vaguely remembers of the woman he doubts she agreed to having her child experimented on.

Actually he almost has to commend Hollander for being so arrogant that he thought he could experiment on the sister-in-law of the President. Yes, his employer isn’t exactly known for having much familial loyalty, at least not towards the vast majority of his illegitimate children, but he had cared for Renee and that had been the only period he hadn’t been sleeping around. It seems he had also been fond of his sister-in-law. 

“I want you to send Tseng and Legend to Nibelheim and Claudia, and for a copy of the DNA tests to be taken with them to prove that Genesis is her son. I imagine she’s going to be very interested in coming here to ‘speak’ with Hollander.

“You should also avoid Scarlet hearing about this for the time being,” the President adds. “As I recall she actually considered Claudia a friend.”

...The fact Scarlet is capable of friendship may be one of the more disturbing parts of this conversation.

“Sir, is it fair to assume Hollander won’t survive Ms. Strife’s ‘speaking’ with him?”

“Nibel wolves rarely take kindly to people targeting their cubs” the President says calmly, which is a rather strange sentence. “And Claudia and Renee both were a bit more like Nibel wolves than you’d expect a human to be.”

...Alright that wording is almost more disturbing than Scarlet being capable of friendship.

“I’ll go have Tseng and Legend prepare to go to Nibelheim. Hopefully Legend’s presence will increase the likelihood of her coming since the DNA test shows he is Rhapsodos’s father.” 

“Or she’ll stab him.”

“...”

“Oh, and Veld? Have Hollander arrested and Science put on lockdown. I have a few questions for both him and Hojo.”                

Angeal paces his office, frustrated. Genesis had vanished off to Junon with Commander Eanna over some matter of a kid who’d shown a lot of skill with materia. Which, alright, understandable. Eanna had managed to recruit the last kid to demonstrate potential like that right under Genesis’s nose and his fiance is still sulking over it. But normally Genesis at least calls to let him know he’s going to do something like that. 

Sephiroth knocks once and then walks in, and Angeal suspects he’d only barely remembered to knock.

“Any idea what’s going on? There’s some sort of disturbance going on with the Turks. Rumor’s placed Veld repeatedly entering and exiting the President’s office which isn’t like him. Not unless there’s a major emergency. Maybe Rufus did something stupid again? But then again, the Turks lately have seemed a tad more loyal to the Shinra heir…” Sephiroth says thoughtfully. “And has Genesis replied to your phone calls? He seems to be ignoring my emails and text messages.”

“All Genesis said is there’s some Cadet that had scores similar to his and Eanna’s scores for materia, including blowing up a training dummy with a lightning blast,” Angeal says. “I guess he wanted to avoid her snatching them up again for the materia specialists like she did last time?” Plenty were willing after a discussion concerning Science.

“Logical,” his friend says.

Both of them jump slightly as Zack suddenly rushes into the room.

“Hollander’s been arrested and Science is in lockdown,” he blurts out, blue eyes huge. 

“I’m sorry, what ?” Angeal asks, gaping at his former mentee. 

“Cissnei gave me a heads up to avoid their floor and about the arrest. He’s apparently done something to really piss off the President, but she’s not high enough in the ranks to know exactly what. Normally she’d suggest we ask Tseng but apparently he went on some emergency mission earlier today.”

“Did Rufus do something?” Angeal asks, since that’s the only reason he could see the Turks’ second-in-command go out on an emergency mission.

“If that had happened I'd assume Reno and Rude would go with him and I saw both still here,” Zack says with a shake of his head. “He was either going alone or picking up a Turk from somewhere else.”

Most likely picking up a Turk located at a different location. As Director Veld’s second-in-command it is rare for Tseng to be sent on solo missions, or even on missions these days that don’t involve guarding Rufus.

What the hell is going on lately?!

Genesis’s PHS rings and he frowns at it. Lazard. It’s rare for Lazard to call him unless he’s on a mission and retrieving a promising Cadet does not count as a mission

“You, Commander Eanna, and Cadet Cloud Strife are being ordered to Midgar immediately,” Lazard says, not even bothering to say hello. “I do not know what exactly is going on, but Professor Hollander has been arrested and the entirety of Science has been put on lockdown. The President is also very angry over something involving them and wants to see you, but he did assure me that he’s not angry with you. Or Cadet Strife which was a bit strange to add.”

“Alright. The helicopter we used to get here is still at the base and I’ll give the order to prepare to fuel it and get it ready to head back to Midgar,” Genesis says slowly.

“Then I’ll see you in a few hours then and let the President know.”

“Well, we’re being called back to Midgar and I’m assuming based on what Director Lazard said, Eanna guessed correctly about the President being upset over this since I was given an assurance Cloud and I aren’t in trouble, Hollander has been arrested, and Science is in lockdown,” Genesis says, hanging up his PHS. 

“Wait, they put Science in lockdown ?” Eanna asks, blinking at him. “ Seriously ?”

“Hollander has been my doctor since I arrived at Shinra,” Genesis says slowly. “And he’s probably either in the know of who would have stolen me or may have been the one to steal me himself.” Well, he’s certain that Hollander is the one who stole him since he was in charge of Project G. “Science being in lockdown is a bit of a surprise.” Especially since outside of Hollander and Hojo he’s not sure who could run the SOLDIER program’s medical aspect, and that sounds an awful lot like the President has concerns involving Hojo. While it’s true Gillian Hewley was involved in the original project he’s not entirely sure she is an actual doctor, and Lucrecia Crescent is literally encased in a mako crystal. 

...Actually in hindsight the fact that happened with both her and her son is darkly funny.

“So back to Midgar we go. Go pack up your things Cloud and we’ll get ready to leave.”

Cloud nods silently, brow furrowed. Eanna gives him a thoughtful look as Cloud walks away. 

“Interesting that you’ve almost immediately started using his first name,” she says a bit blandly. 

“He’s apparently my younger brother. It feels a bit odd to use his last name, especially since I may swap to using it if I get permission from him and our mother,” Genesis says with a slight shrug. 

“You’ve gone by Rhapsodos your entire life.” Eanna side eyes him, obviously trying to figure something out, but he’s not entirely sure what.

“I’ve also always had a poor relationship with my adoptive parents. It’s a fairly well known fact. If I can detach myself from them name wise I’d like to.”

She just hmms. “I’m going to go pack myself. See you in about an hour when the helicopter is ready. You should give Hendricks the heads up we’re leaving since he’s technically out of my chain of command as a SOLDIER.”

“I will,” Genesis says, watching her walk away. 

This entire situation could make things both more and less complicated....

Sephiroth strolls into Angeal’s apartment, not even bothering to knock on his door, a thoughtful look on his face. “According to Lazard, Genesis, Eanna, and a cadet named Cloud Strife are on their way to Midgar,” Sephiroth says. He’d been called down by their Director. “Whatever is going on is distracting the Director, and he warned me it would be several hours after they arrive before we can see either Genesis or Cadet Strife.”

“No offence to him, but why would we want to see Cadet Strife?” Angeal asks

“Evidently Genesis intends to personally train him in light of just how good his materia scores are. He doubts that any of the lower ranking casters will be able to keep up with him,” Sephiroth says, taking one of the seats in the office. “He’s already sent Lazard the paperwork, and Lazard’s already approved it.” Sephiroth smirks slightly. “I think he’s hoping it’ll keep Genesis a bit less likely to scare the cadets.”

“Doubtful,” Angeal says under his breath. Personally knowing Zack when he’d been a cadet certainly hadn’t gotten Genesis to stop tormenting them. 

“By the way, has Genesis called you yet? He still hasn’t responded to any of my text messages, which isn’t like him. If I knew Commander Eanna’s number I’d call her, but unfortunately I rarely need to speak with her.”

“Did you try calling Hendricks? He runs the training camp out there and he may have been able to grab Genesis.” And he’s annoyed that’s only just occurred to him. 

“I did, but they’d all already left. The President ordered them to leave immediately, since whatever is going involved very heavily involves Genesis and Strife. I imagine Eanna was simply included because she’d been with them at the time.”

“That makes sense,” Angeal says, even though really nothing makes sense. Traditionally if the President dealt with any of them it was Sephiroth, not Genesis, due to his fiance’s short temper.

“Let’s see what happens when Genesis gets back and finishes his meeting.”

“I’ll see you two later,” Eanna says, stepping out of the helicopter and waving at them. “No real point to me attending after all and I should go make sure none of my specialists have blown anything up, including themselves. Again.”

“Bye,” Cloud says, waving back. His other hand is tight around his bag, and he’s still kind of green from the flight. He’d forgotten to mention his motion sickness and Commander Rhapso- Genesis had cast Sleep on him to prevent him from vomiting.

“I’ll see you later Eanna,” Genesis says, nodding at her. “Now, let’s head down to the President’s office,” he adds, guiding Cloud toward a different roof elevator than Commander Eanna is using. He flashes a keycard at it and the door opens. There’s only six buttons, one of which has a P. 

“I would advise not being too nervous if you can avoid it,” Genesis says. “Eanna is correct. The President seems to care more than I’d expect since he isn’t exactly known for being particularly familial. The fact he even gave Lazard the assurance he isn’t angry with us is a very unusual sign, as well as the fact that he’s already arrested Hollander and put Science on lockdown which I’ve never heard of him doing before.”

The door stops at the ‘P’ and opens to an opulent office. Even Cloud can tell it’s intended to impress whoever walks in. There’s a man standing with his back to them, staring out the window at Midgar’s smog covered sky, and another man standing by his desk, holding a file. 

“That would be Veld, the Director of the Turks standing at the desk. That isn’t too much of a surprise since very little that goes on here he doesn’t know about,” Genesis says softly. “That is the President standing by the window.”

Cloud nods and takes a deep breath. This isn’t the sort of room he’d ever expected to stand in, not even if he manages to accomplish his goal of making First Class. 

The President turns around and studies them both. He looks directly at Cloud. 

“You look a great deal like your mother and Renee,” he says. “And I must have missed you being related to them because you don’t look as much like Claudia and Renee,” he says, studying Genesis. 

“I assume I look more like my father,” Genesis says calmly. 

“Honestly you don’t look much like either outside sharing Legend’s coloring,” the President admits. 

The President rubs at his forehead, drops his gaze, and everything about this makes the man seem almost human in ways Cloud wasn’t expecting. 

“Fuck, this is harder than I thought,” he says so quietly Cloud could barely hear him. He raises his eyes again. “I’ve sent two Turks to tell Claudia what’s going on, and bring her to Midgar if she wants. Which she most likely will, because I can’t imagine her not wanting to see you Commander Rhapso... Genesis , and honestly she has my full permission to shoot Hollander,” the President adds. 

“I’m sorry, what?” Genesis says, looking confused. 

“She’s probably not going to shoot him, she’s probably going to want to stab him,” Cloud says, not really thinking about how that sounds. 

Not until he notices the incredulous look from Genesis, the way the President is nodding in a ‘you know you’re right’ fashion, and the Turk Director looking almost thoughtful. 

“The Nibel Mountains have a lot of views on vengeance,” the President says, and Cloud is starting to wonder if he isn’t from there too. There had always been the ‘Shinra Mansion’ in Nibelheim after all… “Some of them kind of bloody.”

“Alright,” Genesis says slowly, now giving the President an odd look. 

“I’m assuming as Cloud’s mentor he will be staying with you?” the President asks. 

“Yes,” Genesis says, looking a bit less concerned now that they were no longer discussing Ma taking bloody vengeance on anyone. “It seemed most logical since Angeal did the same thing with Second Class Fair.”

“Go set Cloud up. Someone will let you know if or when Claudia will be arriving,” the President says. 

“Alright. Thank you sir,” Genesis says, and Cloud silently follows him to the elevator. 

That was...really not what he’d been expecting…                

Genesis sets Cloud up in his spare room and knows he needs to speak with Angeal at the very least. His fiance is likely hurt by him just vanishing like that to Junon and not responding to any of his phone calls or Sephiroth’s texts. 

He takes a deep breath. He is really not ready to see them. He’s been friends with both of them for years, and all he can think of is Angeal degrading and dying at Zack’s hands, and Sephiroth’s insane obsessiveness towards Cloud, and utter willingness to destroy the world. And possibly rape his brother. The last time he’d seen Sephiroth the man had attempted to murder him, all because Sephiroth assumed he’d had a romantic interest in Cloud.

Which. Just. No . 

But he needs to speak to Angeal at the very least. He can’t avoid his own fiance. That’s just...Goddess, he’s missed him. He’s missed Angeal so much and he’s afraid to see Angeal, but at the same time is desperate to see him .

So he heads to Angeal’s apartment and let’s himself in. 

“Gen?” Angeal asks, putting down the book he’d been reading. “Are you okay?” he asks, and Genesis almost wonders what sort of look is on his face, but at least he sort of has an excuse if he looks kind of numb. 

“I just discovered that not only do I have a younger brother, but that I was literally kidnapped as a newborn from my parents, who were told I was a stillbirth. Oh, and that on top of that my father is the Turk Legend, Rufus Shinra is my maternal cousin, and I’m the President’s nephew,” Genesis says, plopping down on one of the living room chairs. He doesn’t notice as his fingers start to tap against the arm of the chair, a habit he’d only started doing after he’d ‘awakened’ from his healing.

“I’m sorry, what?” Angeal gapes at him. 

“You’re aware of the fact I went to Junon with Eanna to look into a recruit by the name of Cloud Strife with exemplary materia scores, correct?” Genesis asks. 

“Yes, though I hadn’t been told his first name.”

“Well, Eanna noted after we first finished chatting, and Cloud decided to go with SOLDIER rather than Materia Specialist that he looks an awful lot like Rufus Shinra. We decided to run a DNA test to make sure he isn’t a Shinra bastard. Since we were in Junon it had the old-style testing machines, the ones that require at least two samples,” Genesis explains. “So we put a blood sample for myself, Cloud, and Eanna. Running the test revealed mine and Cloud’s relation, along with my connection to Legend, our connection to the Shinras, and that led to the discovery that our mother used to work as an R&D engineer in Banora .”

Which really made him wonder how long his hometown had been controlled by Shinra…

“What the fuck Genesis?”

“Yes, it’s been a very strange twenty four hours,” Genesis says with a sigh. “Also, I think the President has given my birth mother permission to murder Hollander.” 

“...I’m sorry the President did what ?”

“As I said, it’s been a very strange twenty four hours.”      

The last time Claudia had had to deal with a Turk she’d been seventeen and Renee had tried to send a message to her. She’d thrown it in the fireplace, an admittedly immature response and punched Leon in the face. She hadn’t been prepared to speak with her sister, and there’s a part of her that hates the fact she’d never had the chance to speak to Renee again due to whatever illness killed her. 

Well, it had better been an illness and not more of the Science Department causing tragedies for her family.

Claudia had never intended to ever go to Midgar. Midgar had been Renee and Rupurt’s territory and it had never been of interest to her. She bites back a grimace and the almost...corrupt sensation of the multiple reactors powering the city. She can’t fathom why Renee wouldn’t have attempted to convince her husband to stop draining the land like this. Miles around the city are dead, and she can’t think of anyone who could fix it.

She knows what she is and she knows she’s not capable of fixing something like this. It has never been a matter of her family.

But...she looks again at the file Leon had handed her.

DNA test positive for SOLDIER Commander Genesis Rhapsodos to be the brother of Cadet Cloud Strife, son of former R&D Engineer Claudia Strife, son of Leon Caine (Legend) cousin of Vice President Rufus Shinra, and nephew of Renee Shinra nee Strife (deceased).

She had been told her oldest son had been a stillbirth. That something had gone wrong at the very last minute. The only thing she’d been handed was an urn full of ashes and the last thing she’d done was scream at Renee for suggesting she use Shinra doctors. She knows that she hadn’t been being reasonable over that, since in a town as backwater as Banora a Shinra doctor was likely the most competent.

A Shinra doctor named Hollander, who Rupert is almost certain is the one who stole her eldest and then gave him to the Rhapsodos family in Banora. A town she’d all but fled after her son’s seeming death. 

She looks at the additional note Rupert had added to the file. 

You have first blood.

“Before we head to Midgar we have one last thing to do,” Claudia says calmly, looking at the two Turks. “We are going to take a look around the old mansion. I’ve had a few concerns for the past few years, but didn’t want to go there by myself.”

“Alright Ms. Strife.”

“Sure Dia.”

“Let’s go then gentlemen.”

Chapter Text

“So, is there anything in particular you like to do?” Genesis asks, not entirely sure how to handle this younger Cloud. It’s been a few days since they met yet...

The Cloud he’d met in the future had... not been interested in having an older brother, to say the least. Or at least, had no interest in being Genesis’s younger brother. Maybe had they met when they’d been younger, before Nibelheim they would have had some sort of relationship. 

He’s still sick with the knowledge that his actions in the reactor led to his mother’s death.

If he’d never gone to Nibelheim, never taunted Sephiroth, paid attention to the way the man had been breaking... how many things would have changed? How many people would have lived?

“Generally back home I spend a lot of time in the woods or helping Ma with things,” Cloud says. 

“What about things with your friends?” Genesis asks. 

He recalls Tifa once mentioning she and Cloud had been friends as children. And he should try to figure out how to make it so Cloud could meet with Squad Tyr, the unit he’d been part of while a trooper. Sergeant Johansson and his men had been close to Cloud while he’d been a trooper, and following Advent Day had worked as employees for Strife’s Delivery Service. Along with the remaining members of SOLDIER at Kunsel’s suggestion…

(He needs to remember to orchestrate it so Zackary introduces Cloud and Kunsel.)

“I…” Cloud grimaces and looks down. “I didn’t really have any. There was this girl but... she didn’t really spend much time with me. Her dad hated my guts since he blamed me for a time when she got hurt.”

...What?

“What?” he asks blankly, because that does not sound like what very little he knew of Cloud and Tifa’s childhood. Tifa had given him the impression they’d been very close and spent a lot of time together. After all, if they hadn't, how else could she have helped Cloud put his memories back together after his dunks in the Lifestream?

Then again, Cloud had continued to have memory issues and had  made off hand comments about memory gaps. He’d always assumed they were just related to his time at Shinra, but then again he had managed to remember Squad Tyr well enough once he’d met them again…

“I was the weird kid who lived out of the village and my Da wasn’t around,” Cloud says, looking uncomfortable. “ Tifa got hurt when she tried to go further up on the mountain after her Ma died and I got blamed over it, even though it happened because we slipped off a shitty bridge. She wouldn’t listen when I told her not to. The adults in the village blamed me because they decided I was the one to convince her that she’d find her Ma if she went up the mountain even though I knew it was stupid.”

Probably because it was easier than acknowledging they were careless with a girl who was grieving and  could have died , Genesis thinks. 

Tifa had told him about the mountain incident, but the more he thinks about it, the more he realizes that neither Tifa or Cloud have ever really discussed things beyond that. Just made reference to that and a promise on the water tower. 

“It also didn’t help that everyone but Ma thought there was something wrong with me because of how much the Nibel wolves and dragons liked me,” Cloud adds, drawing Genesis out of his thoughts. His little brother then stiffens, as if realizing that is something he possibly shouldn’t have said.

“What?” Genesis asks, blinking. He’d known Cloud had a soft spot for both types of monsters, but not that it had been reciprocated(?).

“I liked playing with the wolves and the smaller dragons,” Cloud says, not meeting his eyes. “I spent a lot of time with them.”

“How?” Genesis asks, mystified. “Both species are human eaters.”

“Only if they’re mako poisoned or starving,” Cloud says with a shrug. “I never had any issues."

"Huh,” Genesis says. “I wonder then how Bahamut would react to you?” Cloud gives him a confused look. “I primarily use the Bahamut summons. He rarely cooperates for other people, and I’ve discovered over the years that summoning him requires far less mana from me than most people have to use.”

When he’d been younger he had assumed it was due to his enhancements, but then he’d witnessed Sephiroth summon Bahamut and need to use much more than him. According to the other man he’d had a bit of a struggle ordering the summon. He’d still never wondered much of it, but now he wonders if it could be a Strife thing. 

Cloud, as he'd recalled, also had  tendencies towards high level Summons though, such as Knights of the Round and Odin…

“What do you think about using Summons?”    

“I have cousins,” Rufus says slowly, resisting the urge to gape. “Commander Rhapsodos and his new protege, Cloud Strife.”

Well Strife he could definitely believe, since that’s his Mother’s maiden name...

“The DNA tests were conclusive,” Veld says. “A DNA test was done on Strife due to how similar you and he lookSince the Junon lab was used, Rhapsodos added in his sample; the machine simply won’t run off one sample for some ridiculous reason. As such it picked up the relationship between the two of them, you, and your mother.”

“Why did my aunt,” and it’s strange to hear about her, his Mom had always been close lipped on her, and his Father hadn’t exactly been any better, “give Rhapsodos up?” Based on age, maybe due to teen pregnancy…? His aunt is around the same age as Scarlet, isn’t she?

“She didn’t,” Veld says with a shake of his head. “Hollander literally kidnapped Rhapsodos just after he’d been born. Evidently he’d interfered with Claudia Strife’s prenatal vitamins, injected her with something, then took Rhapsodos with the assumption that whatever he’d been doing had been successful. She understandably didn’t handle her son apparently dying at birth, and that’s why she and your mother stopped speaking. Now everything’s come out due to the Junon DNA test, and your aunt should be on her way so she can most likely brutally murder Hollander.”

“Understandable,” Rufus says, leaning his cheek against his fist. “My Father’s allowing that?”

“The President is... looking into several anomalies related to the Science department that have come to light as a result of this,” Veld says delicately, “and he is very, very unhappy with the discovery that Hollander took Rhapsodos like that, especially in light of how it ruined things between your mother and aunt.”

He thinks he can believe that. Supposedly his Father had loved his Mom, but Rufus isn’t entirely sure the man is really capable of that emotion. But his Father can be incredibly possessive, so everything about this could lean more into that and…

“Veld, Rhapsodos isn’t…” Rufus trails off, not entirely sure the best way to word his question. 

“If your question is ‘Is Rhapsodos just my cousin or also my half brother?’ the answer is he’s your cousin; his father is Legend. He and Claudia Strife were involved when they were teens, and thus Rhapsodos. She was sixteen at the time, your parents were already married, and Renee would have castrated Rupurt.”

True. From what Rufus remembers of his Mom, she would have definitely castrated his Father for sleeping around on her. His Father only screwed around before he married her, and after she died.

“What else does my Father think Science may have done?” Rufus asks, since the idea of that department, of all departments, could get into trouble is mystifying. Science frequently spat out massive problems, but it was rare for there to be any punishment. 

Veld pauses, and Rufus can’t understand the look on his face. Then he sighs slightly.

“Between Hollander and Hojo, Hojo was always the more arrogant of the two. If Hollander was willing to try something in concerns to your aunt , someone your father openly favored, well…” Veld grimaces. “There have always been questions since your mother’s death over her illness. To be blunt, in light of the situation with Rhapsodos, the Science department is now being investigated to see if there’s a connection between her illness and something Hojo could have done.”

“He thinks Hojo could have caused my mom’s death?” Rufus asks, more than a little incredulous. 

“I honestly wouldn’t put anything past Hojo,” Veld says. “The man is certainly arrogant enough to think he can get away with anything. If he was, say, careless with one of his experiments and it affected your mother somehow, he’d assume your father wouldn’t care and it would be ignored.”

“But you don’t think so.”

“Rufus, I have worked for your father for the better part of forty years. I am very much aware of the type of person he is,” Veld says. “He is possessive and selfish, and does not actually take well to people harming what he considers to be ‘his’, no matter how useful the person who did the harming may be. The simple fact of the matter is the President’s suspicions are strong enough that right now I could probably go down to Hojo’s apartment, kill him, and get away with it.

“Think about that.”

Claudia really, really, really wants to either stab something or someone. Sadly, the person she most wants to stab is presently in Midgar, and it’ll take at least another two days to arrive. She tilts her head thoughtfully. Hmmm, should she stab Hollander or gut him? Or something else. She does have a mastered Poison materia after all. Along with a mastered ice…

Alright, she may be being a bit more sadistic than necessary.

On the other hand, between her oldest child being stolen from her by a jackass, and with all the bullshit she’s dug out of the mansion, including a man who was supposedly dead (though in truth horrifically experimented on, and she and Rupert are going to have a very, very long chat about hiring Odin be damned scientists with morals rather than amoral assholes who think infant theft and human experimentation is appropriate ), extremely fake research concerning the Promised Land and Ancients, and some rather unhinged journals from both scientists involved in Project S. She’s allowed to be pissed.

Thankfully , she’s both hardly the only one, and at least going to get her pound of flesh with Hollander. And making damn sure Rupert allows Vincent to get his pound of flesh from Hojo…

“Are you alright Dia?” Leon asks, dropping a hand on her shoulder and startling her slightly. 

“I’m pissed, possibly could be considered homicidal, and really want to see my sons,” she says, running her hands through her hair; it was down instead of in her customary ponytail. “And scream at Rupert.” And stab him, but that’s not necessarily the wisest thing to say in front of three Turks.

“Well, we leave in ‘bout an hour and it should only take us two days to reach Midgar using Highwind’s ship, so at least you’ll get to stab someone, see your boys, and yell at the President,” Leon says, sounding almost amused. Probably at the fact she’s going to yell at Rupert. 

“I still do not believe it to be wise for me to come with you,” Valentine says, the vampiric looking man leaning against a wall.

“I don’t care. You’re coming because I am making damn sure you’re allowed your pound of flesh from Hojo,” Claudia says, turning towards him. “And based on the bullshit in these journals, along with your own personal experience of dealing with that asshole and Dr Crescent, we need you to verify how much of this ‘research’ is dragon dung.”

“On top of that, Sharpshooter, I’m pretty sure Crescent’s kid doesn’t know he’s her kid,” Leon says. “From what I know of Sephiroth’s files, and from an interview the kid’s given in the past, he thinks his mom’s name is Jenova.”

“...Jenova was the name given to the presumed-Ancient corpse they extracted DNA from for Projects S and G,” Valentine says flatly. “Sephiroth’s biological parents would be Hojo and Lucrecia.”

“Ugh, really? Poor kid,” Leon says with a grimace. “Since you know, there had been some rumors about you and Crescent,” he adds, wagging his eyebrows at Valentine; Claudia smacks him on the arm. 

“Lucrecia made it quite clear to me when she chose to marry Hojo that she didn’t have that sort of interest in me,” Valentine says coolly. “And they used IVF to conceive Sephiroth. It was the only safe way to inject him with pure Jenovan DNA.”

“Well that’s a relief. At least no one had to fu- ooof,” Leon chokes as Claudia elbows him. He pouts at her, but she ignores that; he’s lucky she didn’t go for something sharper than her elbow.

“Enough,” she orders. “Let’s finish getting everything together, and Tseng, I don’t know what in Freyja’s name it was you handed Tifa yesterday, but it better not have been a job offer.”

“It was not,” Tseng says, neatening up a pile of papers. “It was a number for her to call if she needed assistance, but it was not a job offer. I don’t think she’s the right sort of person for doing Turk work, and in light of what was in the mansion I’m not entirely sure how much longer SOLDIER will be happening. Or at least if new SOLDIERs will be getting made,” he amends.

Claudia’s lips thin.

On one hand, after what she’d discovered, she doesn’t exactly want her son being injected with that shit. On the other hand, it had been Cloud’s dream for years to be able to join the elite ranks, and he’d even been offered a spot already. 

“I don’t see the President suddenly deciding to shut down SOLDIER just because of this,” Leon says. “Maybe as Veld’s second in command you know something I don’t, but…”

“But Rupert won’t necessarily stop something so valuable so quickly anyway,” Claudia says. “We’ll see how he responds to this research.” And the fact the ‘Promised Land’ he’d been seeking is a load of shit. “And if he’ll allow me to brutally murder Hollander.”

“That was very attractive.”

“Shut up, Leon.”

Rupert Shinra has had the sense for days that he should be preparing for his funeral. He’d sent Tseng and Legend a week earlier to Nibelheim to retrieve Claudia, only for them to be delayed dealing with something at the mansion; he had only approved the delay due to remembering Project S had been done in the labs there (and the knowledge Claudia would have ignored him and made the two Turks follow her anyway).

The only advantage to them being delayed is it allowed him to start looking into certain projects he should have thought more about before approving. In hindsight, allowing Deepground to make the shift from a medical facility to new experimental SOLDIER-types had been a mistake. He’d already ordered a planned kidnapping of Shelke Rui canceled, and ordered that a bruiser by the name of Azul in Costa Del Sol be put down rather than recruited. 

Honestly the more and more he thinks about Deepground, he can’t believe he even thought that any of it was a good idea in the first place. Yes, a secret backup army could be useful, but he’s pretty sure Hojo would've used it as more of a playground to do experiments Rupert wouldn’t have approved.

However , even outside of that he can already see two major problems that Claudia is probably going to attempt to throttle him over. 

Namely, the use of Genesis’s cells being grafted onto the three ‘Tsviets’, Rosso, Weiss and Nero, and the fact Rosso was Legend’s child. 

...Actually, he isn’t going to be able to avoid Claudia throttling or stabbing him over that. He rubs at his forehead, a headache steadily building.

A knock at his door, and Rupert knows his time is up. 

The first person in isn’t Veld like he’d almost thought, but Claudia. It’s a suckerpunch to see her, and be reminded first hand just how much she and Renee looked alike. She still wears her hair pulled back in a simple ponytail with bangs framing her face, the same way she’d done as a teen, though now she wears a long blue skirt and red blouse, rather than grease stained pants and shirts. 

“Hello Dia,” he says, standing up from his desk. 

“Hello Rupert,” she says, smiling slightly. Then she scowls and crosses her arms underneath her breasts. “What the fuck is wrong with your entire company!?” 

“Good to see you Claudia,” he says with a sigh, sitting back down. At least her hand isn’t on the hilt of her knife...

“Rupert. I know you have all the morals of a starving Zuu, but what the fuck!?” She demands, blue eyes narrow. “Human experimentation?! Kidnapping?! Listening to someone more full of shit than a chocobo stable?! What is wrong with you !?”

“I…” he trails off, mystified at the sight of the four men who follow Claudia into the office. Four men, when there should only be three . Veld, Legend, Tseng, but not a vaguely familiar mysterious man in a crimson cape.

“Vincent Valentine, formerly a Turk and Director Veld’s ex-partner,” she says, gesturing at the caped man, obviously aware of just what’s confusing him. “Hojo shot him, experimented on him, and Dr. Lucrecia Crescent then saved him via a different set of experiments.”

Oh for fuckssake, he’d told Hojo to leave the Turks alone; they were too hard to replace. Even before he’d ordered the Science department be put on lockdown, he’d been wondering if Hojo was starting to go too far, and if Valentine was Veld’s supposedly deceased partner... 

Claudia sits in the chair in front of his desk, and it’s been a while since someone has given him such an unimpressed look. Then again, Claudia has never exactly been impressed with him. Not after the time he thought it was a good idea to carry her under his arm like a sack of potatoes when she was five, and he ended up with a scar on his forearm as a result of the fact she has goddamn sharp teeth and was a bitey little kid. 

Cute, but an Odin be damned menace.

“So to reinterate, what the fuck is wrong with your company?” she asks flatly. “Since honestly, it doesn’t sound like you’ve used an ounce of common sense in the past forty years, if you thought shit like Project J and its outriggers were a good idea, or that the Promised Land exists.”

“Excuse me?”

Claudia gives him an even flatter look. “The research about the Promised Land and how an Ancient can guide you there? Is an utter load of shit. The Promised Land is another term for the Lifestream and thus death. ”

“The Promised Land is a place of unlimited mako!”

“Seriously Rupert?” Claudia crosses her arms. “Firstly, unless there’s something I’m missing, where have you ever been told mako has a limit? If it’s from the same books babbling about the Promised Land, then it’s a load of shit. If it’s from something else, I’d be interested in hearing about it, since I haven’t ever heard about that. And if it is a concern that mako will run out, why not just work on creating some sort of alternative fuel? Gods know you control the power grid for most of the world. If it’s that much of a concern for you, create an alternative, or alternatives, and then just control that.”

... He doesn’t really want to acknowledge she has a point, but she does sort of have a point. Mako is simply cheaper than experimenting with something new. But if they cut back Hojo’s budget…

“How are you so sure the research about the Promised Land is fake?” Veld asks. 

“Dates don’t match the institutions the books were supposedly published by, some of the institutions simply don’t exist and never did, and others are ‘written’ but the people I know wouldn’t have either written them or don’t exist,” Valentine explains. “One was supposedly written by my father Grimoire, and I know for a fact he had no interest in the Ancients or the Promised Land. WEAPONS and stagnant mako, but not Ancients or the Promised Land.”

Rupert taps his fingers against the arm of his chair. He doesn’t particularly want to acknowledge what seems like a high chance of him being lied to. On the other hand, in light of the recent discoveries concerning Science it’s very possible. The idea of the Promised Land was a lure to allow several of Hojo’s projects to happen, but if he’d been lied to…

“Question Hojo over it,” Rupert orders Veld. “Now. I want this resolved immediately.”

“Of course,” Veld says, the Turk immediately walking out. 

Because Rupert  is getting fed up with being given the wrong information. He’s the most powerful man in the world, he should know things. 

Like how many stitches he’s going to need after telling Claudia about the Deepground situation…

Oh well. Might as well get it over with.

“There is something I need to let you know, Claudia, something concerning a division of SOLDIER known as ‘Deepground’.”

(Frankly, the fact that Claudia only puts her knife through one of his hands is a miracle.)

(Nerve damage is still going to be a bitch)

Genesis can’t stop staring at the door. Any time he hears footsteps in the hall he tenses, and only untenses when no knock comes and the sound of steps fades into the distance. 

Cloud is curled up on the couch, half watching him, half reading one of Genesis’s admittedly many copies of Loveless. He’s not sure his younger brother truly has any  interest in the play or the poem. He may only be reading it because Genesis famously likes it. 

“Ma’s not going to be angry at you. Upset over what happened, but not at you,” Cloud repeats for what’s possibly the tenth time that hour. “President’s probably been stabbed,” he adds thoughtfully.

…What is with Nibelheim and stabbing people? Tifa had once jabbed him with a Goddess be damned wine screw before.

Like, he’d admittedly deserved it in terms of his own actions at Nibelheim, but that had still been extremely painful. 

Ah consequences, how he hates dealing with them. 

Consequences like giving Sephiroth that last push off the deep end and being a cause for the end of the world, a cause for Sephiroth to obsess over his little brother, a cause for his own mother’s death twice over.

Knock, knock.

He stiffens again, but walks to the door, hesitating only a moment. Then he opens it. 

Claudia Strife looks a great deal like Cloud. Her eyes are a similar brilliant blue, just lacking any mako glow, and her hair is a similar untamable mess. She’s dressed simply, in a way he’d imagine of a woman who lives in a rural village. Legend is standing at her shoulder, dressed in the same sort of suit all Turks wear. His hair is only a shade or two off from Genesis’s own, and Genesis would argue he can see hints of his facial features in the other redhead, something he’d never noticed before when dealing with the Turk. 

“Hello,” he says, voice cracking slightly. “Welcome to my apartment,” he says, stepping to the side so they can both step in.

They both step in, and Claudia allows him to close the door before she reaches for him. She gently cups his face, and her eyes well up with tears. 

Genesis feels like there’s something in him about to break . 

“I didn’t even get to hold you when you were born,” she says softly. “I thought I heard you cry, and then he took you away from me, and claimed you had died . That you’d been born unbreathing , and that I’d deluded myself into thinking I’d felt you move within me, or that I’d been too weak, and taken too long, and you’d suffocated while being born because I didn’t have them cut you out of me.”

Claudia shudders, but her hands are still gentle on his face, and Genesis brushes away the tears that spill out of her eyes. 

“He took you away from me, and I am going to make him regret that to his very last moments,” she swears, voice shaking slightly. She then closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, visibly trying to calm herself. 

She opens her eyes again. 

“So little griffin, how have you been?”

She’d told Rupert to have his carpet removed for this, and made certain neither of her sons would be in attendance. Frankly it would traumatize her Stormcloud and she’s not entirely certain how Genesis would react. He’d served in combat, but witnessing something like this… well, she’s not entirely willing to allow either of her sons to see just how angry she is. 

(How vengeful she can be. By name and by nature as her husband had so lovely put it, and Loki’s blood does she miss Wulfric ...)

So instead, it’s her, Leon, Rupert, and the Turk Director, Veld. She’s not entirely certain why he’s here, but oh well. Probably just a matter of curiosity over what she’s going to do. Thus far she’s found the Turks to be very polite, but then again, they’d always been polite towards her. Can’t upset Rupert’s sister-in-law after all, not when he's actually fond of her.

She half sits on the side of Rupert’s desk, the man himself sitting behind it. Leon stands to her left, and Veld stands to Rupert’s right. She focuses on the door, and faintly she can hear struggling as what is likely Hollander is dragged towards it. 

“I wonder if someone made a comment over what’s going to happen to him?” She asks idly. She taps her fingers against the knife sheathed and resting on her hip.

“More likely he’s aware that nothing good can come from being taken to the President’s office after spending almost a week in lock up,” Veld says. 

“Hmmm, fair point.”

The office door opens, and Tseng and a young redhead with facial tattoos walk in, dragging in a man she vaguely recognizes. Hollander . He’s got a short beard, likely a result of not being able to shave, and his hair is greasy. She imagines Rupert’s cells don’t exactly have shower access, and no one has cared to hose him down.

“What’s going on, what’s the meaning of this?” he demands. 

“Why did you think it was a good idea to kidnap Genesis Rhapsodos from his biological parents when he was born?” Director Veld asks. “So far you’ve been rather... reluctant, to say why. This will be your only chance to save yourself.”

A load of shit, since Rupert has already said she can do whatever she wants but…

Hollander looks at them warily, as if it’s finally sinking in that he’s in serious trouble, or at least Claudia imagines that must be what he’s realizing. The man had been arrogant enough to kidnap her son and think it would never come back to bite him on the ass after all, and he probably assumed whatever trouble he was in over it would be just a slap on the wrist. 

And, alright , he’d most likely be correct if not for two things; the fact that Genesis is her son, thus Rupert’s nephew, and that evidently the ‘enhancements’ he’d attempted to do on her son before birth hadn’t actually been successful. Maybe Rupert would be a bit less willing to let her do this if…

Oh wait, her brother-in-law was probably going to allow the other scientist who had been successful, Hojo, thrown off the roof of the Tower by Vincent, never mind.

Success only got you so far with Rupert if you pissed him off.If you cost him something he viewed as more valuable than whatever you gave him...

“I…” Hollander licks his lips. “I believed a teen mother wouldn’t be able to care properly for him.”

“You believed the President’s sister-in-law, who would have had access to all the resources of the Shinra Corporation, would not be capable of caring for her child?” Veld asks flatly. “And that you, a bottom-of-the-barrel Shinra scientist, would?”

“A woman you also should not have even gone near in the first place,” Rupert says, and his voice is as frigid as winter in the mountains. “While I had approved the involvement of several women for Project J and it’s offshoots, Projects G and S, Claudia was very much not one of them. Now would you like to explain why to me, in Loki’s name , you thought using Claudia was something I would permit?!”

Claudia resists the urge to glance over her shoulder at Rupert, since, interesting choice of their Gods to swear in the name of…

“I…” the scientist’s eyes flick around the room, as if looking for a sympathetic face, and Claudia can’t fathom why he’d think he’d find one. 

I believed a teen mother wouldn’t be able to care properly for him. 

“You thought Rupert wouldn’t care because I was a pregnant teenager,” Claudia says, cutting off whatever excuse the man may try to use. She tilts her head. “Because you figured he’d be annoyed at me getting knocked up, so might as well use me for something 'useful.'” Then, when you saw that he wasn’t annoyed with it happening, you panicked because you realized Rupert wouldn’t allow you to just take my eldest. Not even if Genesis had been a quote unquote 'success'. He would have remained with me and Legend, because otherwise Renee would have castrated Rupert for me. And that meant you couldn’t use Genesis in whatever piss fight you were having with the other scientists.”

Rupert snorts softly behind her but doesn’t disagree with her. Which. He shouldn’t because Renee would have. 

She smiles thinly and rolls her wrist, feeling her mana rise. “Did I guess correctly?”

Hollander tries to get up and do what she can’t even imagine, and she casts a Stop spell on him, freezing him in place. 

“I’ll take it that I’m right,” she says. She smiles, and she knows it’s not a nice expression. 

“Now, let me show you exactly why you shouldn’t have ever interfered with my pregnancy, or stolen my son .”

She draws her knife from the sheath on her hip.

And then she focuses on making sure what she does next hurts .

Something is going on.

Suddenly all training lessons have been paused. Suddenly all of the scientists have vanished. There were still guards around, but Rosso hasn’t been yanked into a lab and forced down on a table in three days. She’d managed to speak with both Nero and Weiss and they’d said the same.

“Rosso, come with us.” Ah, spoke too soon. 

The Crimson Tsviet’s lips twist in a sneer and she glares disdainfully at the scientist. Two guards are standing behind the scientist, so while it’s tempting to ignore him, it’s also not very smart. She has no desire to be hit with a Sleep spell again and wake up strapped down. 

(She hates not knowing what’s happening in between the moments of her unconsciousness and being awakened)

She goes to follow and freezes at the sight of a man, no, a Turk . She recognizes that suit, that’s a Turk striding up from behind the scientist and his guards. She can’t see a weapon in his hands, but she’s certain he’s armed.

“Professor Gray, I could have sworn you were ordered to stay the fuck in your office and not speak to any of the members of Deepground,” the man says, smile sharp in a way that feels familiar to her. “I wasn’t aware you wanted to be taken out back and shot that badly.” 

The scientist blanches. The guards pull their hands away from their weapons, as if to show they aren’t a threat to the Turk. 

“I…” The scientist for some reason takes a step towards her, and doesn’t get a chance to make a second step.

Instead, there’s a bullet in his head and a gun in the Turk’s hand.

“Scram,” he orders the guards, and they listen. He holsters his gun, and Rosso has no clue what’s going on.

He smiles at her. 

“You’re Rosso, right?” he asks. “You look like her photo at least.”

“Yes,” she says, not entirely sure why he’d care.

“Name’s Leon Caine, also known as Legend,” the Turk says. “And I’m your father. I’m here to take you out of Deepground. President Shinra is shutting down the entire thing, with non-Tsviet’s being transferred either into SOLDIER Third Class or SOLDIER Second Class depending on skill level. You and the other two Tsviets have got a few more options than that, so let’s go.”

“Go where?” she asks, but there’s white noise in her head. 

I’m your father. I’m your father. 

I’m here to take you out of Deepground.

“Up into the Tower,” he says, gesturing for her to follow him. “Director Veld is getting Weiss and Nero, and we’re getting out of here.”

She’s leaving Deepground. She’s going upstairs. 

  She’s going to get to see the sky.