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Chapter Text

 The young trooper's sword through his stomach was the first thing that Sephiroth had truly registered since his haze had begun. It brought with it the awful clarity that the thing driving him hadn’t been his own sense of will. Rather it had been the will of the uninvited passenger in the back of his mind. A passenger named Jenova, and a passenger he wanted gone. The second thing he registered was hitting the mako and suddenly his whole world was green as his body disintegrated on contact with the bubbling green liquid lifestream. 

      Sephiroth had died a few times now, and with each moment of clarity he realized more and more of the awful things his mother had made him do in the time between consciousness, and he’d been slowly making a plan. A plan that he put into motion as Jenova tried to pull him from the lifestream and into yet another version of his body. Only this time instead of going with only minor struggles, Sephiroth heaved away from his mother and deeper into the lifestream praying that with the further immersion, the lifestream could fully destroy him. Could finally end this awful struggle. The action of swimming deeper certainly had an effect he discovered. Just not the one he’d anticipated.

       A voice filled his soul, so different from Jenova’s that there was no confusing the two, and somewhere deep in the core of his very being Sephiroth knew it was the planet.

        You wish to fix what has gone wrong. You wish to end, but we wish to fix what is wrong, and you are the best vessel. You have one chance, and one chance alone, son of Calamity. We will send you back, and you shall end Calamity. Do not fail.

         Sephiroth didn’t have time to figure out what the planet meant by “back,” and “one chance,” or “best vessel” before suddenly he was hurled along the lifestream at a horrifying speed. The world around his soul passing by in the glowing green of the lifestream, blurred and incomprehensible. Then suddenly it all stopped and Sephiroth was jammed forcefully into a body so hard that he collapsed against what he was laying against. It took him far longer than normal to orient himself to his normal body, probably because, he realized with a jolt, he was alone in this body. Jenova’s voice, her presence was nowhere to be found in this body, the call of reunion utterly and completely absent. Sephiroth blinked and tested his body, trying to figure out what he had to work with.

       His…his body was…tiny! Sephiroth tried to sit up and look at himself, utterly shocked by the smallness of his frame, but found himself unable to move. He turned his head and finally assessed his surroundings. He was in the lab, the Shinra lab he’d spent the entirety of his childhood in, and he was bolted down on a very familiar lab table. One that as a child he’d dreaded with all his soul. The punishment table for when he made a mistake. A table that he should have the strength to escape now. Or well, “should” being the operative word, because when he yanked at the restraints none of his extra strength from living several years into the future was there. Usually when he switched bodies his strength was still there. This could be a…problem. As if to punctuate his point the door to the lab opened and someone Sephiroth had prayed to never see again stepped through and began to walk towards him.

           Hojo advanced with a look of unconcealed rage and Sephiroth abruptly remembered one of the rules of the punishment table that he had unintentionally broken when he’d been slammed back into this body. No moving from where Hojo had placed him, and no trying to escape. Oh. Oh this was going to suck. The next couple of hours were a blur as Sephiroth’s realization was proved correct. By the end of it his head was spinning from the amount of chemicals pumped into his system and he was so covered in blood, it was difficult to see his bone white skin beneath all the red. 

      Hojo unlocked his restraints with a short command to clean up and then strode across the room to input all the data he’d gathered from this session into one of his many monitors. Sephiroth did as he was told in a daze, trying to figure out what he should do next. By the time the lab was cleaned and Sephiroth had hosed himself off enough to no longer be leaving bloody footprints behind him, he had mostly come to his senses enough to actually start making a plan. Hojo escorted him to his room, spitting vitriolic words and curses at him, but Sephiroth hardly paid him any mind. 

         Hojo was far from the worst he’d endured. The man was nearly inconsequential in the sequence of horrors that made up Sephiroth's life. That being said, Sephiroth would take pleasure in killing him on the way out of here. Inconsequential or not, Sephiroth still had nightmares of his time in the lab and still had ingrained habits that he couldn’t get rid of even after all this time under Jenova’s control. When they arrived at the door to his room, just as Hojo pulled out his keycard to open the door, Sephiroth moved. It was easy to get his hands around the man's neck even if he had to jump slightly and it was simpler still to snap it sideways with an awful crack.

         Sephiroth grabbed the keycard from the dead man's hand and darted toward where he recalled the Materia they used for his training was kept. It was still there bright and glowing like in his memories. Sephiroth grabbed the fire and began to cast it, sending balls of fire across the whole lab, and destroying years of research and billions worth of science equipment. In a matter of minutes the whole department was ablaze and Sephiroth darted about setting everything he could on fire. Finally using the keycard he escaped out into the hall. The sounds of yelling, and pounding footsteps were coming from all sides as people stormed toward the lab department. 

       Sephiroth bolted for the glass window across the hall from him. His energy was flagging and he cursed this small body for its lack of mana and stamina. The reserves he’d had when he was older had seemed endless and yet this small body, while brilliant at combat for this time, was still young and utterly useless compared to what he used to be able to do. He broke through the reinforced glass just as several Turks rounded the corner along with some other security personnel. His wing was so much harder to summon than normal and it was also excruciatingly painful, but since Sephiroth had no intention of dying just yet, not until Jenova was dead anyways, he would simply have to endure. He wasn’t entirely certain this small version of his body would be able to survive this fall so it was better not to take chances.

        He glided downward, his flight shaky from both pain and not knowing how to balance this body just yet. Just as he landed Turks, troopers, and other personnel began to pour from the main entrance, orders to “catch the experiment” and to “be cautious” were shouted across the main square and Sephiroth took off running at full speed using his wing to give him slight bursts of speed every now and again. He darted into the slums before quickly hiding his wing and snatching a cloak off a startled passerby before they could react. His hair and skin were extremely distinct, and he couldn’t afford to keep them visible. 

         After wrapping himself in the stolen cloak, he jumped up onto a roof and took a moment to wrap his feet in strips of fabric he ripped from the bottom of his raggedy tank top. The pain was negligible compared to his other injuries and would be healed in a matter of minutes, but continuing to run with his feet unprotected would leave a trail of blood that even the most dull of SOLDIERS could follow.  Thus dressed he jumped across several more rooftops away from his previous bloody trail and then jumped back down. He needed to get to Nibelheim. Hopefully the lab there would have details on Jenova’s current location and if not, he could still hopefully train with the younger version of his rival. Train him in the event that if Sephiroth failed, someone would be able to stop him and Jenova. It was an awful thing to place upon such a young child who had yet to ever see the evil of Shinra, but Sephiroth needed some sort of back up plan to avoid burning the world to the ground. 

       He was getting near the edge of the city and an old mechanic shop he dimly remembered where he intended to steal a vehicle when a set of footsteps caught his attention. There were people everywhere down here, but those were Shinra standard tread boots by the sound of them. But only one, Sephiroth sighed. He’d done his best to minimize casualties, but it looked like another death would be on his hands tonight. Spinning around he caught the gaze of an unfamiliar Turk who was dressed to look like a slum dweller. Sephiroth would have even been fooled if it wasn’t for the boots and the obvious trained coil of her body. He prepared to launch himself at her when he saw the PHS in her hand, but to his shock, she held it up revealing the blank screen, and held up her other hand, a strange expression on her face.

       “I’m not going to call anyone just yet. I want to talk first. I have some questions.”

        Sephiroth eyed her, weighing his options. It was likely she’d already called in reinforcements, but in the unlikely event that she hadn’t called anyone, it would be better if he could get in close and kill her before she was able to alert anyone. It would give him more time to get away and hopefully throw them off the trail if he was able to hide the body well enough. The best way to get close was to play along…for now at least. 

         “What sort of questions?”

         The Turk gave him a closed lipped smile, but kept her hands and the PHS in the air. 

          “Are there more of you? From the lab that is?”

           Sephiroth saw no point in lying. She’d be dead at the end of this conversation anyway.

         “No. It's just me, the others have been dead for a while, and he hasn’t gotten anyone new yet.”

       He’d double-checked just to be sure before he set the place on fire, and as he was running around. There had been no other living specimens. To his surprise, the woman looked pained at his announcement. 

       “Ah, I'm sorry you had to deal with that. But if there is no one left, little one, where are you going?”

       Sephiroth stared baffled at the woman, temporarily side-tracked from his plans on how best to get close and kill her. Was that genuine concern and sympathy? Just how young was this body?!?! He’d rarely had reactions like that even as a small child! He answered on reflex, seeing no point again in lying.

       “Somewhere to prevent more of Hojo’s evil from spreading.”

       The woman inhaled sharply. 

       “I see. Would you like some help with that?”

        And-Well- Sephiroth was aware that Turks were trained in stalling tactics, but this was beyond bizarre. Before he could decide on a response though, the woman's PHS buzzed and activated a voice sounding through it, and Sephiroth prepared to lunge.

        “Eir, any sign of it on your end.”

       The woman, Eir apparently, barely dodged his lunge and before he could try again she responded with her voice eerily calm.

        “No, sir. No sign of it. This quadrant is as quiet as the grave.”

        There was a growl on the other end, but Sephiroth had frozen in shock, staring wide-eyed at the woman who was holding his gaze, something indecipherable in her expression. He was only distantly aware of the man's voice responding as he stared into sharp grey eyes.

         “No sign of it over here either, or in any of the other quadrants. We found a blood trail but it cut off abruptly and there has been no sign of it since then. I want you to do one more pass then report in.”

       The woman held Sephiroth's gaze as she answered, her voice still eerily even. 

“Yessir.”

       The PHS shut off with a buzz, leaving the two of them still staring at each other. Sephiroth decided to give in to his curiosity as he stared her down.

         “Why did you do that?”

        The woman held his gaze, her heartbeat steady as he listened to it with his enhanced hearing trying to listen for the sound of a lie. She answered and her heartbeat stayed steady with no sign of dishonesty.

       “Because while I may work for Shinra I’m not so foolish as to not realize it's corrupt, and while I’m fine with that most of the time there are lines even I won’t cross, and hunting down a child is one of them. Besides that, if I’d known Hojo was keeping people in his labs, I would have broken all of you out a long time ago, I may be a Turk but I still have standards.”

      That….That was unexpected. Distantly in some part of his mind he had known that not everyone who worked for Shinra was evil. After all Zack, Angeal, Genesis, and Cloud had worked there at some point, even if that did end up ending in tragedy. That being said, it was different to see it in person, than to know it logically. Sephiroth leaned back, straightening from his attack pose. 

       “Well, what do you intend to do now?”

        The woman seemed startled at his question but recovered quickly.

       “Well, you mentioned stopping some more of Hojo’s projects. I’m a Turk and I’m a decent hacker so I can help you with that if you would like. That being said I can’t send transmissions regularly without them being intercepted so you’d have to stay hidden here in Midgar if we did that. Or I can let you go, and you can continue your plan. I won’t stop you, but I will buy you a bike if you do that. I can’t condone stealing if I can prevent it.”

      Sephiroth raised an eyebrow at that. A Turk worried about petty theft? Now he really had seen everything. He mulled it over in his mind. He had no guarantee that the lab in Nibelheim had records of Jenova, and destroying her was his main prerogative. With a Turk he’d have access to more information and resources. It was a risk certainly, but if it paid off it would be well worth it. 

      “And if I were to stay here, where do you suggest I hide? I have no doubt that Shinra will continue looking for me for the foreseeable future. That makes it rather dangerous if I stay here.”

      The woman thought for a moment, hesitating briefly.

      “That's a good point. There are a few places you can go, but you would have to move around a lot. Or I guess you could stay at my place. I doubt they’ll search our houses, but it’s up to you though.”

      Sephiroth resisted the urge to gape at her. It was one thing to offer to help stop Hojo’s projects from coming to fruition but it was another thing entirely to offer one's home to a known killer and arsonist, much less one with super strength, speed, and other enhancements. Then he came to an abrupt realization that made everything in the past few minutes make sense. 

         Oh. She was crazy. He nearly smacked himself for not realizing it sooner. He’d seen crazy people before, heck he’d been crazy before! He should have recognized the signs. Regardless, her being crazy worked in his favor, and he’d definitely have to keep an eye out for erratic behavior, but at least her brand of crazy was useful to him. Mind made up, he looked back up to where she was waiting patiently for his response.

     “Your house sounds safest, but be aware that if you betray our deal, I’ll kill you.”

      The woman nodded seriously. 

      “Of course. I would expect no less.”

      Sephiroth nodded back at her and then followed her while she led him around several patrols and halfway across Midgar. They were near the tower again, and she took him toward an apartment building a few blocks from the tower, carefully guiding him through a side door and checking ahead of them both. As she helped him dart up several flights of stairs on the fifth floor, she talked to a few neighbors before sneaking him carefully into apartment number 520. With a sigh, she gestured to his couch and then disappeared once more to go finish her “patrol” and report in. 

        She came back several hours later and seemed saddened but not surprised when she found him still awake and sitting upright on the couch. She tossed him a bag and he caught it on reflex, blinking at her in confusion as she strode to the kitchen, her broad shoulders slumping ever so slightly as she went. 

        “Alright. I didn’t fully think this through when I first offered so I spent some time thinking while I was out and picked you up some clothes and toiletries. They are all in that bag. I’m going to make us some food while you shower and then we are going to talk and make a plan for the rest of this evening. Bathrooms down the hall and to the left.”

      Sephiroth internally snorted at her. Of course she hadn’t thought this through. Crazy people rarely did. Regardless, that was as good a plan as any so he decided to go along with what she’d said. He stood and went down the hall entering the decently sized bathroom, and after looking over the clothes and toiletries for anything suspicious, and checking for cameras (he was desperate not an idiot), he hopped into the shower and used the supplies from the bag to scrub down thoroughly. After drying himself off with a spare towel he found under the cabinet, he dressed himself in the t-shirt and cargo pants he’d found in the bag and slid the rest of the clothes back into the bag. Using the hairbrush he’d also found beneath the rest of the stuff in the bag, he started brushing out his….much shorter hair. He’d forgotten that Hojo used to never let it get past shoulder length and it was weird not to have to spend a good 20 minutes brushing his multiple feet of hair. As ready as he was ever going to be, he headed back out into the main area of the apartment. 

      He’d investigated the entire place earlier and memorized the layout. The Turk had an open concept kitchen and living room and a hall that split off from the kitchen in two directions. The one on the left led to the bathroom and a study that was full of various weapons and other tools of a Turks trade (Sephiroth had nicked a knife and a few Materia. If she didn’t want him to steal stuff she shouldn’t have left him alone). The one on the right leads to the master bedroom, and two guest bedrooms, one of which looked like it used to belong to someone else, based on a few personal knicknacks covered in dust that he’d found in there. A boy, if he had to guess based on the nature of the items, a former lover perhaps, but one who had been gone a long time based on the state of the room. 

         He entered the kitchen to find the Turk pulling out some sort of skewers covered in meat and vegetables from the oven, a pile of freshly made flat bread already on a plate on the counter. There was a lot, but not nearly enough for someone with a SOLDIER’s metabolism. That was something they’d have to discuss if he stayed here for any length of time. The Turk glanced up as he entered and sent a strained smile his way.

        “Feel free to help yourself. We’ll talk while we eat.”

        Sephiroth sat, and helped himself. The woman didn’t raise an eyebrow as he dumped over half the meat skewers on his plate as well as half the bread. She merely served herself two skewers and a piece of bread, and sat down across from him. They ate in silence for a few minutes before she spoke.

      “First off I forgot to introduce myself earlier. My name is Eir Tsoi. I’m a mid rank Turk who specializes in espionage and undercover work. Second, the plan for the next few hours. I don’t know about you but I'm exhausted and I intend to sleep for the next four and a half consecutive hours before I have to go into work tomorrow. I won’t be back until late in the evening so you’ll have free range of the apartment all day. At that point, we can start talking about what information you need me to get, and how you intended to disrupt the plans that monster had ongoing. Until then, are there any major injuries or concerns that I need to be aware of?”

     Sephiroth stared into the slightly bloodshot eyes of the woman across from him and resisted the urge to chuckle.

        “No, not at this time. Your plan sounds sufficient. As for names, it's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Tsoi. You may call me S.”

       The woman’s nose crinkled at his response and she waved a hand at him tiredly.

      “None of this Miss Tsoi business, I'm not even 21 yet. The name’s Eir, so please use it. Also, no way I’m calling you S like that ba- I mean- uh monster scientist. If you don’t have a name we can pick one for you. If you do have a name and don’t want to tell me your name that's also fine, but I’ll be calling Kid until you give me an actual name to call you.”

          Sephiroth once again resisted the urge to laugh. Oh if only she knew. He’d been alive much longer than she had. If anyone was a kid here, it certainly wasn’t him. 

       “Very well, Eir, we can come up with something to call me tomorrow. For now, I believe you said something about sleep.”

       For the first time the Turk-Eir, seemed to realize that they’d (mostly Sephiroth) finished all the food at the table and she blinked tiredly for a moment, before seeming to come to her senses and nodded, standing with a slight stumble as she gestured down the right hall. 

“Yeah, you can take the first room on the right. I haven’t cleared out the other guest room yet otherwise I’d let you pick.” 

Sephiroth stood, a faint smile on his lips as the woman strode down the hall, her tall frame seeming all the more ridiculous paired with her erratic tired movements as she led him to the mostly empty bedroom across from the one he’d examined earlier. 

         He entered and locked the door behind him, listening to her mutter and clean up after their dinner before heading to the master bedroom and collapsing on the bed there. Within moments her breathing and heartbeat were steady and she was fast asleep. It astounded Sephiroth how easily she was able to sleep with a very obvious threat in the house, but he was grateful for the time it gave him to think. He would not be sleeping tonight, maybe when she was gone tomorrow, but so long as the Turk was in the apartment he had no intention of leaving himself vulnerable, locked door or not.

       He went over the course of the day and resisted the urge to groan aloud. From certain death, to scrambling about as a small version of himself. This day truly had not gone as anticipated. Also how young he was had been answered when he’d looked in the mirror while showering earlier. He was ten years old, the faint silvery scar he’d gotten on his tenth birthday visible on his right shoulder, but the silvery remains of a burn he’d gotten on his eleventh birthday were nowhere to be found. He was so small and so helpless in this world he’d been thrown into. True he was still dangerous and capable of large amounts of destruction, but compared to his previous abilities he was practically an infant.

        This point had been driven home when he’d realized how short he was compared to Eir. Because for all that he was the more mentally mature one, physically the Turk’s six-foot frame towered over his four foot ten inch one. A single one of her hands was the same size as his entire skull, and it wasn’t like she was even that large. In fact, compared to most Turks and SOLDIERS, Eir was practically miniature. Sure she had decently broad shoulders, but that was only compared to her lean frame and narrow waist. She was tall but shorter than even Genesis, and only barely taller than his former nemesis, and Cloud wasn’t exactly known as tall. So to be smaller than all of them, rankled. He was shorter than his Cloud for Mako’s sake!

       He could barely wield a regular sword at this height, much less Masamune. How did short people do this?! Not to mention how much more frail his frame was. Before he’d been a towering giant made of pure muscle and had weighed at least 220 pounds. Now he probably weighed 120 soaking wet and while he had muscle it was all lean and thin, nothing bulky. How on earth was he supposed to take down all of Shinra like this? What had the planet been thinking? Jenova should be easy enough because she was unable to move, but what about President Shinra? Hollander? Literally anyone who was big enough to get him in a pin! He was strong yes, enhanced yes, but he was still a child. A weak child who had resorted to making a deal with a crazy Turk in order to fulfill his plans. Truly Sephiroth had never felt so insulted in his life. Sephiroth did not NEED help, Sephiroth was strong, he was invincible, he was- being a fool. He sighed to himself, what a bunch of lies.

         Of course he needed help. He’d been strong, yes, but none of that had helped him get away from Jenova. He had to get the planet's help for that. He’d been previously unkillable, but what was the point of endless life if he wasn’t in control of his own body. He sighed. It was high time he sucked it up and used the Turk for all she was worth. He would destroy as much of Shinra with her as he possibly could and then he’d leave, he’d go and travel, and train until he was strong enough to destroy whatever was left. Plan made, Sephiroth rolled over and began to mess around with the Materia he’d acquired. He still had the fire from earlier, lighting he’d also snagged from the lab, as well as a curaga. He’d swiped a poisana, a barrier, and a heal from Eir’s weapons room. It looked like the fire was almost mastered, as well as the lightning, barrier, and heal. The others would need a fair bit of work before they got to that point. He’d also need to find a bracer or belt of some sort to keep them close and at peak performance. 

       He moved on to the knives next. He’d wanted to grab something he was more familiar with, but none of the knives looked like the style he was used to, so he had grabbed two that looked similar to Kunai because he at least vaguely knew how to use those. Now that he was looking at them closer he realized that they weren’t even close to Kunai except for maybe the arrow shape of the blade. 

         They were both much heavier with weighted handles that offset the blade like a Kunai which implied they could be used for throwing, but he’d never seen a throwing knife so big. The blades were both about five and a half inches, and the handles added another three inches. They sat easily in his hands despite his small size and the balance was truly exquisite. He may not be familiar with this kind of weapon, but he could tell they were VERY well made. The other swords and guns in the room had appeared equally high quality from his quick glance. Though none of them had been in a style he was familiar with, with strangely shaped handles and blades. It made him wonder where exactly this Turk had learned to fight and what kind of fighting styles she favored. 

      He’d been so lost in thought that he was genuinely startled when an alarm went off in the room next to him. There was a long moment of silence with only the sound of the alarm before a groan sounded next door. Sephiroth glanced at the clock on the nightstand, surprised to see that it had in fact been four hours since the Turk had fallen asleep. There was a shocking thud as the Turk apparently rolled out of her bed and straight onto the floor with a full-body smack. There was another groan and then the sound of a body dragging itself upright and the sound of rustling clothes before the Turk opened a door in her bedroom and entered the master bathroom. The sound of a shower followed shortly as well as a few low-throated curses. Sephiroth snorted, apparently someone was most definitely not a morning person. He’d keep that in mind for if he ever needed to make a break for it.

       Ten minutes later the shower shut off, and six minutes after that the door to the bathroom opened and the sound of footsteps became clear. The sound of footsteps striding across the floor out of the Turks bedroom and outside his door would have startled him if he hadn’t been listening the whole time. Instead he merely smirked as a hoarse half asleep voice sounded in a whisper outside his door.

        “Don’t know if you're still awake, kid, but I’m heading out. I'm locking the door behind me so no one can get in. See you later.”

       Eir waited a long moment for him to respond and then left when he didn’t. The sound of her walking to the main door of the apartment and exiting was clear in his ears. The sound of the lock clicking was soon followed by the sound of fading footsteps as the Turk left the same way they’d both come the day before. With a sigh, Sephiroth flopped back on the bed and waited twenty minutes. When he was certain the Turk wasn’t returning anytime soon, he decided that it was high time he got some rest. A SOLDIER knew to sleep when he could, and it wasn’t as if he had anything better to do at the moment. And so Sephiroth, now ten years old, and in a world not yet destroyed by calamity, went to sleep.

Chapter Text

 Sephiroth awoke to the sound of the key turning in the lock of the front door several hours later, and when he glanced at the clock he realized with shock that it was four o'clock in the evening already. He’d slept for 12 hours. Just how weak was this smaller body of his? He listened as Eir moved about the apartment, shuffling about the kitchen, and the clang of metal against metal. He eased up and walked to the door of his room, sliding out into the doorway of the kitchen on dead silent feet. He watched, partially hidden, as the Turk began to cook. 

        A rice cooker was going on the counter while she cut up a variety of vegetables and a large hunk of meat. Within a matter of minutes, she’d finished with the vegetables and meat. Her hand was experienced and steady with the knife, resulting in a nearly blurred speed as she cut the ingredients into bite sized pieces. Her dark hair, which had been up in a tight braid yesterday, was now only half-up with a series of complicated braids that were ornamented with strange carved beads and charms, the lower half hanging loose to about halfway down her back. Sephiroth eyed the braids, remembering a few rather embarrassing times from the past when he’d turned in a battle or the wind had blown just right and he’d ended up with massive amounts of silver hair covering his eyes. But his determination to defy Hojo in that small thing had prevented him from cutting despite the safety risks.

        Perhaps he could ask her to teach him in between their mission and her work, because he fully intended to grow it back out. Because even if Hojo was dead, any action to spite against his foul rules lit up something inside Sephiroth's chest. The Turk was turning about to place the cutting board of ingredients somewhere else when her eyes caught him in the corner of her vision. She full body startled, very nearly sending the freshly chopped ingredients flying. Only her fast reflexes saved the poor chopping board just in the nick of time. She muttered a curse low under her breath in a language Sephiroth didn’t recognize, and then turned to smile at him, setting the board down safely on the counter next to the stove as she did so.

       “Hey kid! Sorry didn’t see you there, how was your day?”

        Sephiroth resisted the very strong urge to smirk at her, and instead nodded politely and moved to sit across from her on one of the island stools. 

        “It was good. How was your job?”

        The Turk snorted.

        “It was work, kid. Nothing special. Haven’t been needed for any active mission lately, except for last night, obviously, so I’ve been stuck doing paperwork for the last few weeks.”

        Ah yes paperwork. Sephiroth might have hated the stuff nearly as much as he hated Hojo, and it always seemed never ending. He definitely sympathized with the poor Turk. Active missions, combat, heck, life or death situations would be better than the loathsome and cruel parade of paper that seemed to be the lifeblood of Shinra. Sephiroth was so glad he wasn’t going to have to ever do that sort of thing again. Well, so long as everything went according to plan that is. Speaking of—

       “You said we could talk about further plans today when you got back from work. Shall we continue with the small talk, or can we move to the main topic now?”

        The Turk laughed outright at his declaration, her sharp gunmetal eyes flashing in the light coming from one of the windows in the living area. 

      “Not one to dance around the point, are we? Alright then, we can get started while I’m making the food.”

       As if to punctuate her point she began to pull more things from the fridge and freezer. She continued to speak even as she pulled a bag of something from the top shelf of the fridge, her face turned away from him.

        “Alright, first I need to know if you’ve come up with a name for me to call you, because “Kid’s” getting old real fast. If not, I have a list of names I've come up with and you can pick one of those if you like.”

       Sephiroth failed to see why him picking a name was so high priority to her, but decided that ultimately it wasn’t worth fighting her on it. 

       “How about Sirith?”

       It sounded enough like his actual name that Sephiroth felt he could respond to it easily enough, and the Turk seemed satisfied based on the small smile on her face, so he counted that as a win. 

      “Sounds good. Aright, Sirith. Yesterday, you mentioned wanting to destroy some of Hojo’s other work, and you seemed really intrigued when I mentioned hacking and record access. So what exactly do I need to be looking for?”

       Sephiroth inhaled deeply and deliberately. This was the reason he’d risked this, but saying the name was more terrifying then he’d like to admit.

          “Jenova. It's a…dangerous weapon from space that Hojo had direct authority over. One that has the potential to destroy the entire planet if not kept in check or destroyed.”

         The Turk froze in the middle of whatever she was doing over the wok on her stove, her shoulders tensing and coiling. She turned, a strange, horrified expression on her face.

        “Hojo had access to alien tech that has the potential to destroy the what? ”

          “Planet.”

           Sephiroth kept his tone clipped and expression blank. It was a long shot if she would believe him or not, but this would be much easier with a hacker with direct physical access to Shinra on his side. The Turk pulled the wok off the burner shutting off the stove before she crossed the room and collapsed in a chair at the dining table. She put her head in her hands as she breathed evenly and steadily through her nose. Sephiroth found himself matching her breaths, the familiar count and steadiness of it reminding him sharply of Angeal and Zack.

     “Right.”

     The Turk’s voice abruptly cut through the tense silence as she finally leaned back in her chair, her sharp eyes meeting Sephiroth’s gaze steadily.

      “I’d like to say I’m surprised, but quite frankly that lines up with both Hojo’s typical Modus Operandi and Shinra’s corrupt desire to be the most powerful company and entity in the world. Sorry for freaking out on you, Sirith, but you said it's Jenova, right? I’ll keep an eye out and do a little subtle hacking to see if I can find anything with that keyword. But if it's nearly as dangerous as you're saying, it's probably got a code name and files that have been encrypted five ways to Wutai. So it’s probably going to take me a while to get an idea of where it could be kept, much less how to get there. In the meantime, anything else you want me looking for?”

       Several things actually, but considering her reaction to Jenova, it was probably best to hold off on most of them for now. There was one thing that was niggling at him, though. It had been ever since last night when she’d asked, “Are there more of you?” He mentally shrugged. Worst case scenario, he killed her and burned Shinra to the ground entirely. He was trying to avoid collateral though, so hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.

         “Just one other thing: could you look for two names in Hollander’s files? I’ve heard them mentioned and I’m… somewhat concerned for them. Angeal Hewley and Genesis Rhapsodos. They should be about my age. One of them has dark hair, and the other has red hair.”

        Something in the Turk’s expression shifted at that, nearly offsetting the clear poker face she had going. Sephiroth had to admire her ability to simply process and keep a straight face. It was truly a good skill in a Turk. Especially one who was receiving such a large quantity of perspective-shattering information.

        “So there are more of you. I’ll look into it, Sirith. I’ll find your friends, I promise.”

      Sephiroth merely huffed in response. He hadn’t called them friends, and he didn’t intend for them to become his friends in this timeline. He had no need for such things. Only a mission to fulfill, and well, he did kind of owe it to them for causing them so much pain in the last timeline. He supposed it didn’t matter if he corrected her or not though. It wasn’t worth the wasted effort, and he did mean wasted, because Eir seemed like one of those people who seemed to view the world in such a way that no amount of protestation would change her mind once it was set on something. Instead, he merely nodded and waited for whatever she was going to say next.

       “Alright then, so Jenova, Angeal, and Genesis. I think that should be easy enough to remember, and is that really all?”

      It wasn’t, but that was all he was willing to tell her for right now, so he merely nodded. She nodded back and stood once more, bustling to the kitchen and turning the heat back on. It was quiet as she finished whatever it was she was cooking over there and soon Sephiroth found himself facing a mountain of rice, stir fry, dumplings, and a few other assorted side dishes. That being said, for as much as the woman had made this, it still wasn’t enough for his SOLDIER metabolism. He frowned to himself, thinking. He couldn’t exactly afford to get out of peak condition at this point in time. He would have to bring it up to the Turk, and there was no better time than the present. After eating a few servings, he spoke up, keeping his face as neutral as possible and his tone polite and even.

       “This is all very delicious Miss Eir, but I’m afraid I have to inform you it's not enough to sustain me.”

        The Turk startled from where she’d been staring at her plate, and then her brow furrowed.

      “First of all, like I told you last night, it's just Eir. None of this “Miss” business. Also, what do you mean? Do I need to get you mako or something from the labs?”

      Sephiroth startled at that. He hadn’t even thought ... .of course he would need mako. He was still ten in this timeline, and the injections wouldn’t have stopped until he was 12 and sent out for combat. He’d have to figure that out, if the Turk couldn’t get Mako for him.

       “Well, yes, mako would be ideal, but I’m primarily talking about the amount of food currently. Hojo’s experiments give me a wide variety of benefits and skills, but the downside is a rather dangerous metabolism. If I don’t receive a sufficient amount of calories and nutrients, my body will begin to cannibalize itself.”

       The Turk looked appropriately horrified.

      “That's — Ok, I can handle that. I know a lab tech who can get me some purified Mako doses without any questions. The food though… How many calories are we talking?”

       Sephiroth pondered for a moment, calculating his metabolism from an adult and doing some quick math to figure out how much he would need for this much younger body.

        “9,000 calories minimum daily, twice that if I use enough mana or am injured enough. Hojo was determined to reduce the consequences of my enhancements as much as possible, but that's the lowest he could get it.”

       The Turk breathed in deeply as she thought.

        “That's only about three times that of an adult male, so that's not nearly as bad as I was expecting. I’ll have to see if I can get some of the calorie dense bars they have for emergencies at the lab for the SOLDIER program. I should be able to cook enough food with enough calories normally, but it doesn’t hurt to be cautious. Thank you for telling me, Sirith. I’ll go shopping tomorrow and get enough supplies so I can feed you properly.”

       Sephiroth nodded and went back to demolishing what was left of their dinner in the most efficient and polite manner he possibly could. When he was done, Eir went to her fridge and pulled out a variety of leftovers that she heated up in the microwave and then slid over to him one by one. In less than thirty minutes, the Turk’s entire fridge had been emptied of anything that wasn’t just plain ingredients or condiments. The Turk sighed and muttered something about grocery lists and meal plans before she nodded toward the living room.

        “I don’t know about you, but I'm tired. You can watch the TV if you would like, but I'm going to sit down and read for a bit.”

       Sephiroth nodded and sat down on one of the couches while the Turk collapsed on one of the bean bags in her living room after grabbing a rather thick volume off one of the bookshelves that sat on either side of the tv. Sephiroth flipped through the channels until he reached the news channel. It would be nice to know exactly what was going on right now and figure out where EXACTLY he was in the timeline. The news had the date displayed in the bottom left corner of the screen, which answered a lot of his questions really quickly. 

      It was nearing the end of the year, so he would be ten for only about a month before he turned eleven. That meant he was a lot closer to the war with Wutai then he’d thought. Tensions would rise about half way through the year, and about a month before his birthday in the original timeline, he would have been deployed with Angeal and Genesis. That meant the two were definitely in  Hollander’s lab full time at this point. If it had been earlier in the year, it would still only have been occasionally, but he remembered Angeal mentioning off-handedly at one point that when he was twelve, the August of that year he and Genesis had been moved from their hometown permanently. This meant that Genesis was 13 at this point, almost old enough for legal deployment. Internally, Sephiroth laughed at that. Genesis was still very much a child, and thinking him old enough to deploy, or anyone that age really, had been truly foolish on Shinra’s part. Though he would say “child,” SOLDIERS did make great cannon fodder, and he supposed in a way Genesis had been an adult at that point. Both he an Angeal had died before reaching age 27, so he guessed that if you looked at their lifespans like that, the two of them could be considered adults.

        He was interrupted from his musings when the Turk snorted off to the side. He glanced over and found her smiling at the book she was reading, something gleaming in her sharp eyes. He watched her smirk growing as she turned a page and continued reading whatever had her so entertained. Sephiroth…found himself curious. It had been a long time since he had enough time, or indeed, had been in control of his own body long enough to read, but he remembered distantly at some point enjoying the activity, and before he could think better of it, he found himself asking —

        “What are you reading?”

        The Turk glanced up, startled, before a gentle smile crossed her face. 

          Cinder . It's about a cyborg who’s in a hard situation. She's trying to save her sister, keep herself safe, and not fall for a guy she likes. It's pretty good.” 

       Sephiroth found himself humming in agreement as he found himself asking another question.

        “Can I read one of your books?”

         The Turk smiled.

         “Sure. You're free to read anything on the bookshelves.”

        Sephiroth crossed to the bookshelves, trailing his hand along the book spines as he read the titles to himself looking for something that might catch his eye. Ender's Game, Path Finder, Shadow Hunter, Entwined, Followed by Frost, Dune, Enna Burning, Lost and Found, Medusa, Rifles for Waite, Dante’s Inferno, Jurassic Park, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Forgotten Locket, Howl's Moving Castle, The Haunting of Hill House, Watched, The Cask of Amontillado, W.A.R.P, and dozens of other volumes of text. Some he recognized like Loveless , and a copy of the Shinra Handbook. Others like Golden Son he’d never seen before. Eventually, he settled on a gilded volume titled The Phantom of The Opera. It had a deep blue leather cover and golden details pressed into its surface. The leather was worn in places, and the pages were well-loved from constant handling. It appeared overall far more handled then most of the books on the shelf. 

        It reminded him of Genesis and his near utterly destroyed copy of Loveless that was always kept in his jacket pocket. He crossed back to the couch, and, leaving the news on low volume to provide background noise, he opened the book. 

        “Le fantôme de l'Opéra a existé. Ce ne fut point, comme on l'a cru longtemps, une inspiration d'artistes, une superstition de directeurs, la création falote des cervelles excitées de ces demoiselles du corps de ballet, de leurs mères, des ouvreuses, des employés du vestiaire et de la concierge.”

        Sephiroth blinked at the words on the pages. The title had been in English but the rest of the novel apparently was not Or at least…. He glanced at the next page. Ah, it was a side-by-side translation. He’d rarely seen books like this in his last life, but it was intriguing to see what he assumed was the novel's native tongue laid side-by-side with its translated counterpart. Now, thoroughly intrigued, he settled more comfortably and began to read the translated text.

“The Opera ghost really existed. He was not, as was long believed, a creature of the imagination of the artists, the superstition of the managers, or a product of the absurd and impressionable brains of the young ladies of the ballet, their mothers, the box-keepers, the cloak-room attendants or the concierge-”

A ghost story. It made Sephiroth want to laugh. He’d met many ghosts in his lifetime — indeed, he had been a ghost, a spirit in the life stream, more than once. He would have to see what this ghost story had to offer and how it differed from his personal experience.

***************************************

     Sephiroth had just reached the part where the Phantom demanded that his private box be returned to him and that Christine Daaé replace someone named Carlotta in the night's performance when someone cleared their throat, interrupting him from his thoughts. The Turk was smiling softly at him, her book now marked with a metal bookmark and set on the side table beside the couch. 

       “I have to be getting to bed, but you're free to stay up reading as long as you’d like. Do you need anything from me before I go?”

        Sephiroth glanced at the stove clock. It was eight o’clock now, and if the Turk had to get up at four again, it made sense for her to be going to bed. He marked his own page with a strand of hair and stood.

        “I think I’ll head to my room as well.”

       The Turk nodded politely, and he followed her down the hall until he reached his room and slid inside. Moments later, the sound of her bedroom door shutting sounded as well. This was soon followed by the sound of the shower running. She must have been too tired last night and switched it to this morning, because it didn’t make much sense to shower twice in a day. Not long after the Turk had finished, she collapsed in her bed, followed quickly by the even sound of her heartbeat and breathing. 

      The rest of the week followed a similar pattern: the Turk getting up at four every morning, letting him know she was leaving. He slept during the day and planned at night while listening to the Turk sleep. Then she’d get home and make them both dinner, and they would discuss what she had found. She’d found encrypted files with all three of the key words he’d asked her to look into apparently. However, hacking into them without getting noticed was long and tedious work. Then, after dinner, the two of them would sit and read in the living room. The only major difference was when she’d come home with a mound of groceries and SOLDIER nutrient bars. She’d made a ton of food that evening, enough for him to have breakfast and lunch for the whole week without having to do much more than heat it up himself.

       Sephiroth almost mentioned that he could cook, but then remembered that at this point in the timeline his younger self had not learned, nor had the chance to learn how to cook yet. It would likely be suspicious if a child fresh from the lab knew how to cook, so he let the Turk be. He intended to start cooking within the month though. He’d simply claim he learned from watching her. When Sunday arrived, the Turk didn’t get up till much later in the day. She explained that it was her day off, and that's when their routine changed. It started with a simple question—

        “Normally I like to go riding on my motorcycle or go for a walk today. Would you like to come with me?”

      Sephiroth stared at her for a long moment.

      “I can’t go outside, remember? I’d get spotted and recognised, and even if I kept my hood up, the risk of it falling or getting knocked off is too great.”

      The Turk raised an eyebrow.

       “Who said anything about a hood? I was thinking more along the lines of a more secure disguise.”

     Sephiroth sighed.

      “If you're talking about hair dye, my hair won’t accept it. And regular contacts can’t hide my eyes; they're too bright.”

      The Turk hummed at that.

     “That does pose a challenge certainly, and a wig would have the same issues as a hood. Luckily for you, I have some other options. Temporary dye should work because it simply lays on your hair and doesn’t need to be rinsed or penetrate the hair follicle. And until we can figure out a solution for the contacts, we can have you wear some sunglasses. On a bright day like today no one will give you a second glance. So the only real question is, do you want to go?”

     Sephiroth considered it. Those were surprisingly viable solutions, and he knew from past experience that contacts could be developed to hide the mako glow of his eyes. If the Turk had access to a lab technician, it shouldn’t be too hard to get ahold of some of those. The temporary dye, if she was telling the truth, should have no problems hiding his hair since it wasn’t actual dye. 

      “Well, I guess it doesn’t hurt to try, but don’t say I didn’t warn you if the dye doesn’t work.”

     The Turk smiled back at him, her teeth flashing in a grin so wide she seemed to radiate joy. It reminded him painfully of Zack.

      “Fair enough. Now, I only have a few colors on hand from my last few missions, so brown, red, or blonde? I don’t have auburn since that's my hair color, but I should be able to get that color if you want it for next time. I could also snag black if that tickles your fancy.”

      Sephiroth considered it for a moment.

     “Brown.”

      The Turk nodded. 

     “Alright then, go change into one of your dirty t-shirts, please. I don’t want to get your clean clothes dirty. Meet me in the master bathroom when you're done.”

      Sephiroth nodded and went to go change. After considering it for a moment, he also pulled on some dirty pajama pants just in case. Then he left his room and hesitated outside Ei—The Turk’s bedroom door. She’d said the master bedroom, but it was the only room in the house he hadn’t fully investigated for the sake of her privacy. It felt strange to enter it now, even if he had explicit permission to do so. Shaking his head, Sephiroth straightened his shoulders and strode into the room, circling around a large bed and a few other items before arriving at the bathroom door. 

       He was careful not to look around too much, as it wasn’t his room, after all. In the bathroom, the Turk had set up several bottles: what looked like miniature paint pallets, brushes, and some other things he couldn’t identify on the bathroom counter. A chair had been set up in the middle of the large bathroom with a towel under it. The Turk looked up when he entered and smiled, gesturing to the chair as she turned back around to continue sorting through the stuff on the counter. 

       “Have a seat. I'm almost ready to get started.”

       After a moment's hesitation, Sephiroth sat. Moments later, the Turk crossed the room and knelt in front of him so they were eye to eye and he could more clearly see what she had in her hands. It was a bottle, some gloves, and a strange brush.

        “This bottle is the dye. It's more similar to paint than the regular hair dye, and unlike a lot of costume temporary hair dyes, it's waterproof. It coats the strands without damaging or actually tinting the hair color, and if you use this—” She held up a second bottle. “It washes out really easily. Otherwise, things like sweat, rain, or even swimming won’t pull it out. 

“It's primarily used by agents like me who need to go undercover and switch disguises regularly. Dying your hair too many times starts to become a problem, and wigs, even professional ones, don’t hold up very well on missions. Now, the way it works is that I have to brush it into your hair section by section. After it dries, I’ll brush it with a hair brush and we can style it however you want.”

      She paused, waiting in case Sephiroth had anything he wanted to say. He cleared his throat before answering.

        “That sounds like it might work.”

        The Turk nodded. her eyes still locked on his own.

         “Now, before I get started. Sephiroth, do I have your permission to touch your hair?”

         Sephiroth shrugged.

         “Well, you will need to touch it in order to use the dye, yes?”

         He failed to see why she’d asked such inane question. The Turk nodded, and then spoke again.

         “Yes that's true, but you're free to back out at any time, and I wanted to make sure you knew that. You can tell me no, and if you’d prefer me not to touch your hair, I can teach you how to do it yourself so that I don’t make you uncomfortable. And if you change your mind, I’m not going to force you to dye your hair.”

       That was—Sephiroth didn’t think he’d ever had such a clear set of choices laid out before him. Normally, it was clear what others wanted, and he’d either go along with it or there was a clear, singular course of action that he’d take. In battle, there was a clear way to lead the troops to safety and win the battle. In Hojo’s lab there had always been a good choice and a bad choice. With Jenova, there had simply been no choices. This offering of mundane choices reminded him of Angeal and Zack. He decided, as he stared into Eir’s eyes, that he rather liked having mundane choices. Not life or death decisions, on the better of two evils; just a simple choice on whether he wanted to do something or not.

       “I’m alright with you doing it. Just please don’t touch my neck, if you can help it.”

       He wanted to see what she would do. Was this a real choice, or something disguised as a choice. Would she really respect what he wanted? He doubted it would be easy to entirely avoid touching his neck while dying his shoulder length hair, so her response would prove if she was sincere or not. 

       “Sounds good, I’ll do my best to avoid touching your neck, Sirith.”

        The Turk stood and walked around behind him. She set the bottle on the counter with the brush, picking up some hair ties and a hairbrush as she went.

        “Alright, I'm going to start with parting your hair into sections. I’m going to touch your hair now, alright, Sirith.”

       He nodded his head, and then hands were gently running through his hair. The top section was pulled half-up into a large bun by the feel of it, and then the lower section was separated into two. One of those sections was tied off in a ponytail, and then Eir was picking up the bottle and paint brush again.

        “Alright, I’m starting with the dye now.”

        She picked his hair up from the ends, which meant she had to fumble a little to get the entire section in her grasp, but she didn’t touch his neck. Then the brush, wet, cold, and smelling slightly of chemicals, met the base of his scalp and began to brush down the strands of hair in Eir’s hand. Within a few minutes, the entire section had been painted and she let it fall against his shoulders and neck, careful again to keep her hands and fingers from touching his neck. 

        She pulled the second bottom section out from its ponytail and began to paint that section as well. Once that was done, she set down the bottle and brush and undid the bun atop his head, pulling out to more sections from the lower half of his head. Sheonce more separated it into a bun atop his head and two sections on the bottom half. She painted those two sections and then repeated her undoing of his bun and splitting it into sections. 

Distantly, Sephiroth realized that the entire time she’d been working, she’d been humming softly under her breath. Also despite it taking a good thirty minutes she hadn’t touched his neck once.

        He’d asked her not to and she’d complied, despite moments where her fingers had fumbled and struggled and it would have been easier to simply pick up the hair from the base of his neck. She’d simply decided to fumble instead, careful to avoid touching his neck no matter what. Interesting.

            After cleaning up a bit more, she crossed back over to him, holding what looked like giant paint pallets in her hands. Now that they were closer, he realized they looked like the makeup Zack would keep on hand for his infantry and trooper friends to help them hide some of the worst bruises and scars. 

          He believed Genesis had some pallets like these as well. Eir— the Turk knelt again and held them out, showing him the variety of fleshy colors on the large circle. This had to be the biggest pallet he’d seen. Both Zack and Genesis’ had been about the same width as a Materia orb. Her’s were the same size as her head with a far wider variety of skin tones, even some orange, yellow, blue, and purple mixed in with the normal human hues. 

       “Your face shape is very distinct, so while we wait for your hair to dry, if you would let me, I wanted to use this to try and disguise your face shape a little. It's a lot like paint for the face. It's called contour.”

       That was a good idea, and it’s not like it would hurt to try. Though he had no idea how she would change his face shape just by painting it. 

      “Sure, I don’t see why not. I would like that.”

       Ei—The Turk nodded and reached toward the counter, pulling a new set of brushes toward her. Soft strokes brushed across his face as she focused intently on him, and Sephiroth found himself relaxing under the strangely soothing feeling of the soft brush against his cheeks. He found himself watching lazily from under hooded lashes as Eir’s face settled into something focused and determined, a slight furrow to her brow as she gently brushed product across his face.

          Her tongue stuck ever so slightly out of the corner of her mouth in a way that was almost comical. She treated his face as if it was made of glass, something to be handled with care and great consideration. Eventually, the brush strokes slowed and she backed up, glancing over her work. She smiled and met his eyes, her own gray ones filled with something warm. 

        “That should do it. Now, why don’t we get that hair of yours brushed out?”

        Sephiroth nodded, and she put away the makeup pallet before picking up the hair brush from earlier. Gentle, steady strokes pulled through his hair, though it seemed slightly more stiff than usual. Slowly, as the brush passed through his hair, the stiffness faded and his hair settled softly around his ears and shoulders like it normally did. Once again, Eir was careful to never touch his neck, and the steady calm of her humming and the gentle tug of the brush strokes was lulling him into an almost trancelike state. 

This is nice, he decided. 

He really liked it when Eir Brushed his hair. Eventually, it came to an end, and Eir set the brush down.

       “Well, how about you take a look in the mirror and tell me what you think? If you don’t like it we can wash it off and try again with a different look, now or sometime next week, or never if you really don’t like it. If you do like it though, we can get changed and head out.”

     Sephiroth nodded and stood, turning to face the mirror for the first time since he entered. A stranger looked back. His silver hair was now a soft chestnut brown, his face had lost all its harsher edges, the apples of his cheeks and the roundness of this child version of himself now enhanced to make his face look…soft and innocent. His eyes looked more open, less slanted, and the only thing that really resembled what he actually looked like was the brilliant blinding mako glow of his cat-slit eyes.

        “How did you—”

        He trailed off, tracing the softened edge of his jaw bone. It still felt sharp but in the mirror it looked as if it were soft. If he focused really hard, he could still see his real features beneath what Eir had done, but even with his enhanced sight, it was difficult to tell. Eir smiled softly at him over his reflection’s shoulder, her gaze meeting his in the mirror.

        “Contour is an artist's magic, Sirith. This isn’t even half of what I can do. I have even more tools at my disposal. I’m a Turk that specializes in undercover work, remember?”

       Right. She was an espionage Turk, a spy, a trickster. Sepiroth suddenly had a lot more respect for the Turk division. If this was only scratching the surface of their abilities, he shuddered to think what Ei—The Turk could do with the rest of her skills. Still, this was definitely enough to keep him from being recognized, and now that he knew it was an option, he was itching to go back outside. He turned to face the Turk.

       “It’s sufficient. I think I can go out like this.”

        The Turk smiled at him, a beaming grin that lit up her whole face and once more reminded Sephiroth painfully of Zack. 

        “Excellent. You go ahead and get changed while I clean up in here and get changed. I'll meet you in the living room. Before you go though, do you like it?”

       Sephiroth glanced once more at the stranger in the mirror, scrutinizing the soft angles of his face and the soft warmth of his hair.

         “Yes, I think I rather do. It’s not quite me, but it's nice to look normal for once.”

         The Turk hummed and nodded her eyes, once again meeting his own in the mirror.

         “Perhaps, but I gotta say I do miss your hair. I think your real hair color suits you best. I do good work, of course, but your hair has a beauty and life to it all on its own, kiddo. Besides, I don't think I’ve ever met a single person in my life who was entirely ‘normal’. I think normal is more of a concept than an actual thing. Still, it will be nice for you to go outside again, so I suppose it's all sort of a moot point in the end.”

        Sephiroth held her gaze in the mirror for a moment more before nodding and retreating to his room to change into clothes that didn’t have temporary hair dye on them. He wasn’t sure what the Turk had been trying to say there, but he knew she’d been trying to tell him something, even if he hadn’t picked up on what exactly it was. A few minutes later had him sitting in a clean set of clothes and reading more of Phantom in the living room. He was nearly done and was debating going back and reading it once again in the original language and seeing if he could figure it out using just this book. 

           He’d found more books in the same language on the shelves as well as a few others in different languages and was trying to see if he could teach himself enough to read all the ones that shared the same language as this book. 

           The Turk entered the room a few minutes after he did, dressed in a loose t-shirt, cargo pants, and a leather jacket. She had a harness wrapped around her upper torso that looked purely for style to the untrained eye, but as she turned, Sephiroth noted the slight bulge in between her shoulder blades beneath the loose leather. She wasn’t as heavily armed as some off-duty Turks he’d met in his past life, but she was still a Turk. Sephiroth didn’t think he’d seen her entirely unarmed even once in the entire time he’d known her. She always had at least one firearm, blade, or Materia on her at all times. Not that he could say he was any different, and honestly, it was reassuring to see that the Turk, crazy or not, had some survival instincts.

       The Turk crossed to him and flopped on the couch beside him, which made him raise an eyebrow. He noted once again that for an adult she was awfully childish. She leaned back with a dramatic, relieved sigh before turning her head to face him, that awful, wonderful, bright smile that was so familiar and yet so different than the one he knew.

        “Alright, Sirith, you never decided earlier. Are we going for a bike ride, or on a walk, or maybe both? We can ride my bike to the market and wander around for a bit if you would like?”

         Sephiroth pondered for a moment, closing his book over the bookmark the Turk had given him a few days ago.

       “The bike ride to the market, please.”

        The Turk smiled at him and hopped to her feet. her dark braids (cornrows today) swaying behind her and waving back and forth like a tail as she darted across the room towards a set of keys hanging on a peg by the door. 

      “Alright, then. Let's go, kiddo!”

      Sephiroth followed at a more sedate pace, suppressing a grin as he did so. She was certainly a strange one, this Turk. He followed her down several flights of stairs and across the alley. The side door spat them into the parking garage that was apparently right next door. She led him up the first few levels and then to a bike parked on level four. It was a nice bike, fairly large, sleek black and with neon green highlights running down its body. It wasn’t a custom bike like most of the ones he’d ridden or seen others ride in his life. It was merely a standard model, but for a mid-level Turk, it was certainly not a bad ride. 

         She had opened a storage compartment on the back and suddenly, something was flying his way. On reflex, he reached up to grab it, preparing to cast his fire Materia in the event that it was dangerous, but it was only a helmet. The Turk smiled at him and tossed him a spare jacket that had apparently also been in the compartment. Both were rather large on him, and from the familiar orange-and-basil smell of them, they were likely the Turk’s own normal riding gear. 

       “I don’t have a spare helmet or jacket in your size just yet, but maybe we can pick a helmet out at the market while we’re there. And some other clothes so you can actually get something you like instead of what I got you the first night. But even if they don’t fit there is no way I’m letting a kid ride without a helmet, so if you wanna ride you’re going have to wear mine for now. Ok, Sirith?”

       Sephiroth resisted the sudden urge to roll his eyes; as if a bike crash would hurt him. Still, he doubted the Turk would budge on this, so he slid the bulky helmet over his head and pulled on the jacket. Even with the straps in the helmet as tight as they could go, the helmet was still slightly loose on him. Even the jacket’s cuffs had to be rolled twice before he could use his hands. Once again, Sephiroth cursed his small size at this point in the timeline, though he supposed it was better than being too big. In his original body, he would have dwarfed Ei—the Turk entirely. With that amusing thought, he prepared to slide on the back of the motorcycle, only for Eir to shake her head and laugh.

         “No way, kid. You're sitting in front of me Enhanced or not, you’ve been in a lab most of your life, and there is no way I'm risking you falling off the back of the bike.”

       Internally. Sephiroth was fuming. This was ridiculous. At no point had he acted dumb or helpless, and, child or not, the Turk was being entirely unreasonable. Grumbling under his breath, he slid on in front of Ei—the Turk, clutching the center of the handle bar where the two handle’s formed a junction. Though his short arms could barely reach, much to his increased fury. 

Stupid child body.  

How did the planet expect him to get anything done like this?! The Turk leaned forward, her stomach pressing against the small of his back as she reached around him and placed her hands on the handle bars. She started the engine, and the motorcycle came to life with a steady, satisfying rumble. 

        She kicked out the kickstand with her left foot and leaned forward, wrapping herself securely around him to keep him on the bike and reach the handle properly. They pulled smoothly out from the parking space and slowly spiraled down the levels of the parking garage until they reached street level. 

          They sped up slowly at first until the Turk decided to gun it. Suddenly, they were flying along the road at breakneck speed. Sephiroth would forever deny it but if the Turk hadn’t forced him to sit in front of her, the surprise likely would have made him fumble his grip. He wouldn’t have done something so foolish as fallen off, but he certainly would have had to hold onto her waist a lot harder than her ribs could probably handle. It was probably a good thing that the Turk had him sit in front, if only for the sake of her unenhanced rib cage. 

      They sped through Midgar across roads and side streets at probably 160 km per hour, taking turns sharply. Sephiroth found himself grinning beneath the helmet's visor. It wasn’t as good as the heat of battle or flying, but the surge of adrenaline for no other reason than for fun was ... well, a lot of fun. All too soon, Eir was turning into Midgar’s main market and parking at one of the parking posts they kept for small vehicles and Chocobos. 

Reluctantly, Sephiroth slid off the bike and stowed the helmet and jacket in the hatch. He followed E—the Turk toward a shop selling various kinds of gear. Eir helped him find what helmet size he was, and he soon found himself the proud owner of an all-black motorcycle helmet and a matching jacket. As the shopkeeper was ringing up the Turk, the man sent a smile his way and eyed Eir with a mischievous look in his eyes.

       “Don’t tell me this young one’s yours, Eir? I didn’t think you were seeing anyone, and you're a mite young to have had someone his age.”

       Sephiroth flushed, opening his mouth to respond, but the Turk cut in smoothly. Her mouth was smiling, but her eyes were sharp.

       “He’s my nephew. Trouble with my sister up north, so he’s staying with me for a while.”

      Her eyes met his and the cold look in her eyes softened ever so slightly.

      “He’s a good kid, so don’t tease him too much, Ollie.”

       The shopkeep’s expression sobered.

        “Ah, sorry, ‘bout that, Eir. Didn’t mean to hit a sore spot. Your sister alright?”

        Eir shrugged and hummed, stepping closer to Sephiroth as she did so.

        “Time will tell. Thanks for the concern though, Ollie. Now we have some other errands to run, so it's time we were off.”

       The rest of their time at the market was uneventful, and Sephiroth found himself marveling at his ability to travel through the crowd utterly unnoticed. The shades were loose on his face, but with them and his dyed hair, no one even sent him a second glance. It was a novelty for certain. He didn't think there had ever been a point in his life where his appearance hadn’t caught the attention of those around him. 

It was a rather nice change, he decided, when a kind woman offered him a slice of sweet bread while the Turk browsed her wares. He had uttered a quiet, sincere “thank you,” and the woman had smiled back at him so brightly it felt almost as warm as the fresh bread in his hand. The Turk had bought several loaves of regular bread and one loaf of the sweet bread he’d tried before taking them to the next stall, and he waved to the lady as they left, receiving a friendly wave goodbye in return. 

       For the most part, they wandered about just looking at things Ei-the Turk only occasionally stopped to purchase something, and before long the semi-warmth of the afternoon sunlight and the pleasant chill of the mild winter air was fading into the sharper cold of the winter night. They returned to the bike and Eir placed their purchases into one of the large side bags on the motorcycle, and Sephiroth tugged on his new helmet and they were off. 

        The city was brilliantly lit up in a thousand colors as the sun cast its last rays of light across the gleaming buildings, and the neon signs of the city's nightlife began to flicker on one by one. The golden red of the sunlight lit the buildings up like fire and the signs flickered dreamlike as they roared past them. They reflected off the glass of his helmet, and sent lights dancing in his eyes. They lit up the front of the bike in colors that reminded Sephiroth of the one time he’d seen an Aurora Borealis in the Northern countries. The whole world was lit up in flashes of color and sound, and the sharp chill of the winter air could only nip at his fingers, unable to freeze him with the ever present heat of Eir at his back. 

            They arrived a lot later than necessary for a ride back from the market and by then night had truly fallen, leaving the neon lights of the city alone to light up the snow and the brilliant silver buildings in their fantastical colors. When they got inside, for the first time since he’d come to this apartment a week ago, he felt content, safe, and not full of anxious, pent-up energy.

             Eir passed him the bottle of cleaning agent for his hair when they got back and he went to go shower. When he looked in the mirror before bed, he looked like himself again. Except, that is, for the slight smile playing at the edge of his lips. Eir was making great progress in finding Jenova, Angeal, and Genesis. He was nearly done with his plan to take out Jenova when the Turk did find her and for the first time in his life, he’d been able to walk around without worrying about anything else. For once, it seemed everything in Sephiroth’s life wasn’t just going according to plan. Everything in his life was going well , and he couldn’t be more happy about it.

Chapter Text

  “What?”

          The Turk smiled at him from her usual place atop her favorite bean bag. It had nearly been a week since their first adventure into Midgar, and she had been teaching him bit by bit how to disguise himself so he could go out by himself if he so desired. Today though, she apparently had a very different plan for their after-dinner activities. 

         “Modified twenty questions. I played this game to get to know my co-workers without insulting anyone. The way it works is that you ask a question, then if I answer it honestly, you have to answer a question of mine. You have three passes for questions you're not willing to answer, and you can forfeit if you go over that number. If you win though, you get a prize. You can pick the prize for our game, but at work it was money. It's a good way for us to get to know each other because I know you have questions for me, and I most certainly have questions for you.”

      Sephiroth stared at the Turk, internally at war with himself. On one hand, it would be nice to ask questions and be sure of a mostly honest answer. Even if she didn’t answer honestly, he should be able to figure it out from her body language. On the other hand, that also meant getting asked prying questions in turn, which sounded like an awful idea. Still, he sincerely doubted the Turk would drop it. In the two weeks he’d been living with her, he’d discovered that the Turk was entirely too stubborn. Sighing, he nodded.

      “I suppose we could play. However, you said I could pick the prize, yes?”

         The Turk nodded. Sephiroth thought about it. What could he ask from the Turk that was in her power to give him that he didn’t have already? So long as it was logical, she’d been annoyingly willing to go along with just about anything he said. Then, he was hit with an idea.

        “If I win, then when you find Jenova, Angeal, and Genesis, you have to go along with what I say EXACTLY with no questions asked.”

      The Turk raised an eyebrow but shrugged after a moment before tilting her head slightly.

       “And if I win?”

       Sephiroth thought for another moment.

        “You can ask me another question: no holds barred at any point after this game.”

        The Turk hummed in thought.

         “Well what if I want a different prize?”

         Sephiroth narrowed his eyes at her.

        “Like what?”

        “You let me braid your hair tonight as many times as I want.”

        Sephiroth blinked at her. He wasn’t sure why she’d want such a useless prize, but he supposed it was harmless enough. 

        “Very well.”

        The Turk grinned and settled back into her bean bag, a pleased smile on her face. 

        “Alright then. The first turn goes to you. Ask away, Sirith.”

        Sephiroth pondered on that for a moment. It would be better to start small, he supposed.

        “Who's your supervisor?”

         The Turk hummed once before answering.

         “I report directly to the head of the department, Veld. Most of my intel is time sensitive, so he takes the info and gives it to the right people. Sometimes, if it's urgent enough, I’ll message ahead to the people who can best handle it, but that's really rare.”

         Huh. He hadn’t expected that. For a mid-level Turk, that wasn’t exactly a normal chain of command. Though he supposed it would make sense for operatives like Eir to work slightly differently from the rest of the department. He nodded at her, and she smiled before leaning forward to ask her own question.

        “What's your favorite food?”

        Sephiroth blinked. He failed to see how the answer would help the Turk gather information, but perhaps, like him, she was starting small.

        “Shrimp pasta.”

        She nodded seriously, and he resisted the urge to stare at her incredulously. 

        “Do you often get involved in combat on your missions?”

        The Turk didn’t even hesitate before answering.

        “Depends on the mission. Most missions I’m not supposed to engage, but if things go badly, I do tend to have to fight my way out. Some missions come with some combat built in though, so I’d say it's about fifty-fifty.”

       Sephiroth barely had a moment to process that before she was asking her next question.

      “What's your favorite color?”

      Sephiroth thought for a moment. Zack had asked him once and he hadn’t had an answer then. He thought he did now, remembering bright smiles and happy laughter. He responded with a slight smile on his face.

       “Sky-blue.”

         The Turk smiled back at him and he stared back, confused for a moment before remembering.

 Ah, yes. It's my turn. 

       “What's your favorite weapon?”

       The Turk leans back as she thinks, a slight furrow to her brow.

       “That's a hard one. I use a lot of different weaponry, but generally I favor hand guns and knives. I can’t say I have a particular favorite though. It used to be a specific knife my bro— someone gave to me, but I lost it a few years ago. So probably knives, I think?”

        Sephiroth chose not to comment on her slip of the tongue and simply nodded, accepting the response. He’d have to keep that in mind for if he had to ever take down the Turk. It sounded like she was a good mix of close and ranged combat, but not necessarily in sword fighting and magic like he was. He’d have to study her habits though just in case. She asked her next question. 

      “What's your favorite style of music?”

      That topic had started more than a few arguments between him and Genesis, and Angeal had to mediate more than once. 

       “Classical.”

      Most music grated on his nerves and was simply too much for his enhanced senses. He couldn’t stand it, and classical was at least tolerable. The Turk nodded, and he launched his next question,

       “How long have you been a Turk?”

       She tilted her head back, looking at the ceiling as she thought.

       “I started at 14, and I’m 20, almost 21 now, so a little over six years.”

      Ah. So she’d signed up as soon as she reached drafting age. Interesting. Most who did that applied to the SOLDIER program, not the Turks. She fired off her next question.

       “If you could go anywhere in the world for a vacation, where would you go?”

      Sephiroth thought about it. He’d been to a lot of places over the years, but perhaps his favorite would be the little cabin he had spent time with Angeal and Genesis in. It was the one time all of their leaves lined up during the war.

         “Costa Del Sol.”

        The Turk smiled.

        “Oh, so you have taste then. Nice to know.”

        Sephiroth sent a mild glare her way before asking his next question. 

       “Have you ever killed anyone, and if so, how many?”

        The Turk’s smile vanished, and her eyes glazed over ever so slightly. 

        “Yes, and I’m not sure. I’ve killed a few people directly, but well…there were some indirect deaths I had a hand in and I’m not sure how many. 200 confirmed kills though, if that's what you're wondering.”

         Sephiroth nodded. So not as high as his and the other SOLDIER’s kill counts at that age, but for a non-combat Turk, that wasn’t exactly a low number. 

        “Have you?”

        “Have I what?”

        Sephiroth knew what she was asking but he wanted to hear it from her mouth directly.

       “Killed anyone Sirith. Have you killed anyone?”

        Sephiroth met her gaze dead on. He may have killed fewer people in this timeline, but even at ten he had blood on his hands. In another timeline, he’d killed thousands, hundreds of thousands. So no matter how you looked at it, there was only one answer to that question.

       “Yes.” 

        The Turk inhaled sharply before nodding and instead of descending into a flurry of questions. She merely leaned back into her bean bag, something indecipherable in her gaze. Sephiroth waited for a moment before asking his next question.

       “Does that bother you, me having killed, that is?”

       The Turk met his gaze dead on, her gray eyes still full of that strange emotion.

       “Yes, but not for the reason you might think. Killing is hard on the soul, little one, and it pains me that you’ve had so much hardship in your life. But know this: I’m not angry with you, or disappointed. I am angry, yes, but I’m angry with the people who would put a child like yourself in a situation where killing became necessary.”

       There was no shouting, no disgust, merely clear, cold understanding. As much as he wanted to argue and say that the killing had been his choice…it never really had been. In the labs it had been kill or be killed and revived, an endless cycle of torment. In the war it had been obey orders or be decommissioned—Shinra’s pretty way of saying putting him down. With Jenova he quite literally hadn’t been in control. The only killing in his life that had been purely him had been Hojo’s death, and soon to be Jenova’s, Hollander’s, and President Shinra’s…Well, and he’d gladly kill if it meant putting down monsters. Before he could spiral further, the Turk asked her next question. 

       “Was it Hojo? Who made you kill?”

       Sephiroth hummed.

       “Sometimes.”

        They lapsed into silence. The Turk pondered his answer, and Sephiroth pondered his sudden realization. Sephiroth asked his next question, eyes focused on the Turk for whatever response this question might elicit.

       “Who made you kill?”

        The Turk hummed, her expression carefully blank,

        “The company sometimes, Veld other times, but usually just me. Just me and a choice between one person's life and others.”

        Sometimes, Sephiroth thought that was all there was to killing. A choice between people’s lives. The Turk’s next question was such a sharp turn from this topic that Sephiroth felt like he might have whiplash. 

         “What's your favorite animal?”

        Sephiroth was so startled he didn’t even think before answering.

         “A puppy.”

         He flushed immediately. He was supremely glad no one from his own timeline had caught that because, he had no doubt, Angeal and Genesis would have known EXACTLY what, or more accurately WHO, he meant. The Turk smirked at him, her eyes sparkling, and he scowled before firing off his own question. 

       “Do you have a partner?”

        The Turk looked startled, and her response came out almost like a wheeze.

       “Do you mean for work or romantically?”

       “Either”

        “I don’t have one for work, nor romantically.”

        Sephiroth scowled. If she didn’t have one at all, then why had she asked for clarification? 

         “What's your favorite dessert?”

        So far they were nearly halfway done with the game and the Turk had only asked one serious question. What exactly was her game here? Well, if she wanted to waste her questions, that was her problem.

         “Pear cake.”

         “If you don’t have a partner, whose room is across from mine?”

         He knew he’d hit a nerve when her expression shuttered, closing off like a fortress. For the first time since he’d met the Turk, she was genuinely upset. Despite that being the reaction he was going for, he found his stomach sinking at the sight.

         “Pass.”

         According to the rules, she only had two more passes, and that gave him a point, so to speak. The victory felt hollow and bitter. 

         “What's your dream once we’ve finished with all your plans?”

          Sephiroth almost reeled back from shock. After? He hadn’t thought about after. There had never BEEN an after before. What was he… what was he supposed to do after he’d finished off Jenova and dismantled the corruption in Shinra? What was he supposed to do when there was nothing left for him to kill? He certainly didn’t know, but there was no way he was going to tell the Turk that.

         “Pass.”

        The Turk nodded and Sephiroth asked his next question. 

         “What do you plan to do when you retire?”

         The Turk snorted.

         “Touché Sirith. Touché.”

          She thought for a moment, staring into his eyes as she thought. The gray depths had relaxed marginally since his last question, but only just. He found it eerie but made no comment about it as she thought. 

          “I don’t really have one to be honest. Turks… Turks don't retire.”

         He furrowed his brow at that. What exactly did she mean, Turk’s don’t retire? He’d never met a Turk older than Tseng, who was thirty, so he assumed that since they weren’t enhanced, they were forced to retire after their physical fitness deteriorated. Now, he was starting to think, there might be a different reason for it. The Turk’s voice was soft as she asked her next question.

          “How long were you in Hojo’s lab?”

         They were officially halfway through the game and the Turk had finally asked a serious question other than the one he’d goaded her into. He figured being honest about this timeline and not the other was best in this situation, just in case she found records.

          “My whole life.”

          The Turk inhaled sharply, but he asked his own question before she could ask anything to follow up. Game rules or not, she looked ready to start an interrogation. 

          “What do you mean Turks don’t retire?”

         The Turk breathed in and out a few times before answering, clearly forcing herself to calm down after what he’d said earlier.

        “Turks work until they can’t anymore. Most Turks don’t live past 28. There are a few exceptions, but as a general rule, we don’t live long enough to retire.”

         Ah, so his suspicion had been right. He’d have to factor that into his plans. If the Turk died before he finished his plans, he’d have to have a contingency in place. 

         “What's your favorite season?”

        Back to the mundane, then. Fine, she could play her little game. Sephiroth at least was going to get something out of this.

          “Winter. When do you honestly think you’ll be done finding Jenova, Angeal, and Genesis?”

          The Turk raised an eyebrow at that.

          “The answer is the same as the last time you asked. I should be finished with decrypting Jenova’s file next Wednesday, and since you told me to focus on it, Genesis and Angeal’s file decryption will probably be delayed until we are finished dealing with Jenova. When’s your birthday?”

          “December 11th. I’m ten right now. What did you mean when you said “we” when referring to destroying Jenova?”

           The questions were coming faster now for both of them, almost like gunfire.

          “Exactly what it sounded like. I’ll be helping you however I can to destroy it. Believe it or not, I’m not exactly enthused by the end of the world. Do you like ice cream, and if so, what’s your favorite flavor?”

          “No, I do not like it. If I win and I tell you that my plan involves doing this by myself, will you keep your word about agreeing to my plans?”

          The Turk hesitated, but eventually nodded.

         “I give you my word, but only if you win, Sirith. What helps you relax?”

          Sephiroth’s first thought was quiet evenings in Wutai with Angeal and Genesis. His second was days off with Zack. His third was the rare times all four of them had been together. But what about those situations had been relaxing? At first he wanted to say the quiet but that wasn’t right. Perhaps the lack of responsibility, since he could let go when he was with them? But that didn’t feel right, either.

          “I’m not sure.”

        He answered honestly and asked the next question before he could second-guess his answer.

          “If I say we have to burn the whole facility where Jenova is located, just like I did with Hojo’s lab, will you stop me?”

          “I’d help you evacuate any personnel that didn’t need to die, but no, I won’t stop you. I trust you to have a good reason for that. You don’t seem the type to do something that drastic without a good reason. Do you have any family?”

          “No. Do you intend to help Angeal and Genesis the same way you’ve been helping me?”

         Something about his response felt like a lie, but he reminded himself that in the last timeline anyone he’d considered family had died. If he intended to keep them safe in this timeline, it was best if he stayed away. So, even if his heart ached at the thought, he truly had no living family. The Turk’s answer cut through his dark thoughts.

          “Yes. As much as I am able to, I intend to help all three of you to the best of my abilities. What chore do you hate doing?”

         Sephiroth snorted at that, taken off guard.

         “Toilet duty. What chore do you hate?”

          The Turk gave an overdramatic shudder and widened her eyes at him playfully.

         “Sweeping. It's the worrrrrst!!!! What's something you consider yourself really good at?”

         “Sword fighting. What do you want from me? Or I guess the better question is, why are you doing all this for me?”

          The Turk moved at that, crossing the room, crossing the empty space that had sat between them the whole game, and knelt in front of him, taking his hands in her own. Her grip was loose enough that even if he hadn’t been enhanced it would have been easy to escape. Her gray eyes met his without blinking, her expression deadly serious. At this angle with him on the couch and her on the floor he was taller, and he felt like that was intentional on her part.

         “You listen close to me, Sirith. I don’t want anything from you except for you to be healthy, safe, and happy. I know that’s probably really really hard to believe, but it's the truth. You can choose to not believe me, and that's ok, but it won’t change the fact that it's the truth. I will keep doing my best to prove that to you. Do you understand?”

        Sephiroth looked into her eyes, searching for any hint of a lie, before asking, “Is that your eighteenth question, or do you want to pick a different one?”

         The Turk smiled ruefully and laughed slightly.

        “Tricky one, you are, but this is important to me, so sure. That's my eighteenth question.”

        Sephiroth hesitated for a moment more before nodding.

        “I understand.”

         She didn’t look like she was lying, but that meant very little in this situation. Her definition of healthy, safe, and happy could be very different from his own. Ultimately, as nice as the words were, they were merely pretty, empty things. But he did understand she meant it. It was his turn again, and the game was almost over. Two more questions, and so far they were tied. 

        “If I prove to be too dangerous, will you kill me?”

        The Turk leaned back on her heels, her hands loose in his grasp as she pondered his question. She was studying his face, something inscrutable in her expression.

         “Everyone has the potential to be dangerous, Sirith. If you're referring to potential danger alone, then no. If you're referring to becoming an active danger to yourself and those around you….I’d subdue you, but I don’t think I could kill you, not even if you wanted me to.”

        How had she—he hadn’t mentioned anything about that. He was certain he’d never mentioned his back-up plan with Cloud to her, so how? It didn’t matter. Her answer had been no. Something deep down inside him loved that she had said no, and another part of him cried. 

          “What's your favorite hobby?” 

        He rolled his eyes. Why on earth were her questions so dumb! The game was nearly over. Did she intend her last one to be the hardest? 

         “I don’t have one. Can you teach me to hack?”

          The Turk smiled, her eyes sparkling as she squeezed his hands. He’d forgotten she was still holding them. 

         “I’d love to teach you to hack! Now, last question: is ‘Sirith’ your real name?”

         “No. Is Eir yours?”

         The Turk’s grin hadn’t faltered at all, even with his blunt admission of lying about his name. 

          “Yep, it's on my birth certificate and everything.”

       The rest of the evening passed normally with little talk, but the next evening the smell of shrimp pasta filled the kitchen, and after giving the Turk a sharp look, Sephiroth finally realized the point of the game. Just like she’d said at the beginning, Eir had been trying to get to know him. How utterly baffling. The pasta was good though, so he couldn’t really find it in himself to complain, and if he smiled at her and said thank you, well… It was good manners, after all. 

Chapter Text

Wednesday evening, Eir came with the decoded files just like she had promised. It was…exhausting to realize how much work he had left to do. Apparently, the core body of Jenova was hidden at Nibleheim just like last time, but there were clusters of her cells at four other hidden labs. Eir had figured out a way to get them to Nibelheim and destroy the reactor without anyone suspecting them. They would hit another one of the labs on the way back to Midgar, but that left three more locations for them to destroy. 

         It didn’t help that Sephiroth couldn’t currently get access to the tower and all its weapons and training facilities. He had been doing his best to keep this body in peak performance, but there was only so much one could do in a small space. Otherwise he’d simply have run and driven between the reactors by himself and been done in a matter of days. He missed his adult body, he really did. Instead, he would be going with Eir while she went on a mission to a town near the base of Nibelheim mountain. She had left out some important information she had already found instead of giving it to Veld and was using that as an excuse to stay longer. 

         She would wrap up the mission since she only really needed to confirm one thing, and then the two of them would go up the mountain and handle destroying the reactor and the manor house. Then, on the way back, they would stop by the second lab on their list and blow it up. It was far from any civilian sites, so it should be a simple hit and run. If all went well, they should be done in three days tops. 

        The first part of their trip went well. They’d ridden Eir’s bike to the town below Nibelheim and it had only taken five hours. After an hour there they’d begun the climb to Nibelheim. The roads up the mountain deteriorated after a certain point, and trying to navigate it, even with a motorcycle, was a terrible idea. When they finally arrived in town, it was well into the evening and the innkeep gave them a rather odd look when they asked to book a room. Though that could have been because their faces were covered by masks made of bone that were carved to look like monsters rather than the late hour.

        That night, Sephiroth stared up at the ceiling, memories of flames, screams, and death ringing in his mind. Being back here felt wrong and he could feel her call in his veins. It was weaker than ever before, which he attributed to his time in the life stream and meddling on the planet's part, but it was still there and made his skin crawl. At about four in the morning, Eir woke suddenly and abruptly without the use of an alarm, and in moments was ready to go. Now it was time for Sephiroth to take the lead. 

       He led her up the mountain and the call of Reunion began to sing in his blood, a low murmuring voice beginning to whisper in the edges of his mind. He ignored them both and helped the Turk look for personnel. The reactor staff would need to be evacuated, but they needed the scientists to stay. Sephiroth remembered several of them from the last timeline and he couldn’t afford any of them escaping. He pondered the building before them watching the guard patrols rotate. Ei—the Turk sat utterly still beside him. Her posture was deceptively relaxed, but Sephiroth could tell that her core was tensed, which allowed her to be prepared to move at a moment's notice. 

      Right, what were his resources? 1. A highly trained Turk, 2. Firga, 3. Several explosives that the Turk had…”acquired,” 4. The element of Surprise, 5. Prior knowledge of the layout of the building, 6. His own varied skill set in both combat and strategy. 

       He hummed. The Turk was not going to like this plan. 

      “You need to distract the guard. Get as many of them out of the building as you can. I’m going to sneak in and barricade the scientists’ lab before pulling the alarm for the rest of the personnel. Then, I’m going to set the explosives and cast Firga once I’m far enough from the main body of the weapon.”

      The Turk eyed him for a moment, and when she breathed in he expected a stream of protests and arguments that he was too young to do this. Instead what she said was:

        “Yes, sir. Where are we meeting after the explosion?”

      Sephiroth blinked at her, taken aback, but collected himself quickly. 

       “We’ll meet here and then head to the manor.” 

        The Turk nodded, and Sephiroth watched as she stood and darted down the incline toward the reactor. She moved almost utterly silently even to his enhanced hearing, and within moments, she was a mere three meters from the wall. She pulled something from her bag and a few seconds later, lightning lanced through the air, breaking through the wall. The guards started firing down where she’d been moments before, but she’d used haste to retreat to the edge of the woods, which blocked their gunfire. She cast lighting again, and after continued failure to hit her with their bullets, the guards split up. Half of them stayed on the wall while the other half opened the gate and headed straight for her. They came within a few meters of her, and suddenly, she was moving. Three of the guards were down in under a minute and the rest of the guards atop the wall began to shout into their PHS’s. Then the guards and a few more from inside the building were crashing through the gates to aid their comrades. Eir vanished into the woods, the guards rampaging after her. 

       Sephiroth shook his head. They were abysmally trained, but that worked in his and the Turk’s favor, so he couldn’t complain too much. Eir had put on quite the show though; he was impressed. Turks were truly excellent at what they did. He jumped down the incline in three carefully measured hops, and then, after a moment of disappointed shock, entered through the main gate. The guards had left it open in their hurry to chase after the Turk. Incompetent didn’t even begin to cover this—this was just sad. 

       The call of Reunion was now loud enough that he could catch some of the words she  was whispering. “ Son”, “Beloved”, “Free me”, “Come”. The words felt slimy and awful and he shuddered as he drew closer, he wanted to run far, far away but he needed to destroy her. He needed to kill her, he needed to end this once and for all.

        The halls of dripping stone seemed to squeeze around him as he drew closer to his destination. It was a simple matter to barricade the lab door with the few morally corrupt individuals who worked there inside. It was small, more of a hole in the wall than a normal lab, so there weren’t many personnel to begin with. Her voice was louder now, Sephiroth’s cells humming in response to her call. The tanks came into view and his pulse roared in his ears as he did his best to shut out her voice. It was so loud now and full of so much rage that it could only be called screaming. Setting the charges around the main tank where her corpse resided only led to an increase in volume as her honeyed words changed to a scream of outrage and vitriol. 

        He turned and left. His body felt heavier with every step he took, her presence pressing down on him like a physical weight. Soon, his pace had slowed to a crawl, but he kept moving forward doggedly, each step feeling as if it were weighted down with the immense presence of his sins in the past timeline. 

          He reached the gate and took a few steps outside it before turning and carefully aiming the materia at the open main door of the reactor. He took a deep breath and then put every single ounce of mana in his body into casting Firaga. A ball of fire the size of a large car burst forth and shot straight through the door and down the hallway of the reactor. He pushed the button on the detonator simultaneously and, mixed with the sheer amount of Mako in the reactor, the effect of the two separate explosive forces was…catastrophic in nature. 

       The reactor blew apart with a concussive sound as he turned and used the trickle of mana left in his body to cast Haste and reach the cover of the treeline. He could hear Jenova cut off mid-scream in his mind as her physical form was utterly incinerated. Dark satisfaction filled him at the sound and he let his lips stretch into a feral grin. He turned and watched as pieces of debris fell from the sky. Not a single piece was larger than his hand, and most of those pieces were from the outer gate. The rest of the building had been turned entirely to ash. He felt weak from the sudden release of pressure as Jenova’s presence vanished almost entirely from his mind and from the sheer amount of energy he’d expended to accomplish this feat. The relief was palpable as a literal weight was lifted from his mind, and he felt a tension he hadn’t released was in him loosen ever so slightly with her absence.

      But he didn’t have time to sit and gawk. The flames were still burning merrily as they fed off the energy in the air. It wouldn’t be long before the barren wasteland of craggy stone choked out the fire, but until then, it shone as a beacon for miles around. He needed to move. Forcing his body to move reminded him of bad days fresh out of Hojo’s lab. Days when the man hadn’t stopped soon enough and left Sephiroth nearly unconscious from the sheer amount of pain and energy loss. 

       But he’d moved then, and he’d move now. He made it to the hidden alcove in the rocks where he’d agreed to wait for Eir and sat heavily, breathing as evenly as he could. He leaned back and tried to focus on calming down, on resting for however long this wait would be. He couldn't say for certain how long he sat there trying to regain himself, but he became more aware when a hand gently touched his shoulder. His eyes snapped open and he lurched forward, ready to take down whatever opponent had managed to sneak up on him. It was no opponent: it was the Turk. 

        Her mask glowed eerily in the light of the flickering flames. The carved bone highlighted and shadowed made it appear all the more monstrous. Sephiroth doubted his own mask was pleasant to look at either, but they did their job well, paired with the cloaks, dyed hair, and lack of any visible skin; No one would be able to identify the two of them after this night was over. He nodded to the Turk and she nodded back. Together, they began to make their way toward the manor hidden not far from the reactor. He was entirely out of mana, so they were going to have to rely on the second set of explosives the Turk had brought. Though it grated on him, he was grateful that the Turk had at least thought ahead. 

         He would need to check the lab thoroughly for any other specimens before they blew it sky-high. If he remembered correctly, this lab was the one that Hojo had used to enhance the trooper in the last timeline. Cloud had been so young, and it grated on Sephiroth that last time. His mind had been so lost to him that killing the child had seemed a rational course of action. And the less said about his careless murder of the Puppy the better. But if Hojo had used the lab for them, Sephiroth was almost certain he’d used it for others. It wouldn’t do to set the lab ablaze before checking for any poor souls that might be trapped within. 

        The manor came into view and the Turk stopped for a moment as her head turned side to side, clearly scanning for threats or guards. Sephiroth didn’t pause. He heard no heartbeats or movement out here, and according to Cloud, this place had been abandoned since he was a small child. He didn’t doubt that people had visited, but none would be easily visible like guards. The Turk followed her footsteps, near silent on the packed earth. When they came to the door, Sephiroth raised a fist to break it in, but the Turk held up a hand. She pulled something from her dyed red hair and began to fiddle with the lock. There was a clicking sound and the lock popped open. 

         The Turk gestured for him to lead the way. Sephiroth resisted the urge to snort. They were blowing this place sky-high, so what did a broken door matter in the grand scheme of things? He supposed it helped with stealth, though he doubted it was necessary. He led the way through the dusty halls and rooms till he came to the entrance disguised as a wall. He pressed down on the bricks and descended the stairs, the Turk hot on his heels. 

        The lab was lit by eerie mako green light, and while Sephiroth could not hear the sound of any breathing, he could hear a steady, though very sluggish, heartbeat. Only one heartbeat. He followed the sound of its dull pounding down a side hall he’d never noticed before. It was a crypt, full of coffins, and the heartbeat was coming from inside of one of them. Sephiroth held up a hand and spoke, his whispered words loud in the ringing silence. 

       “Someone or something is in the coffin to our right. I’m going to check and see if it's another one of Hojo’s unfortunate experiments, or a monster…or both, as the case may be. Be prepared to shoot.”

        He crept forward as the Turk trained her gun on the coffin, and he slowly lifted the lid. Two glowing red points of light peered up at him from the darkness. Eyes, he realized, as he pushed the lid over ever so slightly. The dull mako light coming from the doorway illuminated the figure. The person whom the eyes belonged to was familiar to him. It was one of Cloud’s teammates from Sephiroth's former timeline. Vermont, or Vinney, or some name starting with a V. The man spoke, his voice low and rusty from disuse.

      "To wake me from the nightmare...Who is it? ...Never seen you before You must leave."

        Sephiroth rolled his eyes. 

How dramatic of the man—first time seeing a face in who knows how long and he’s demanding they leave. 

      “Who I am is none of your concern, hence the mask. We are about to burn this place to the ground, so if you don’t wish to burn down with it, I suggest you leave. But that's entirely up to you. Just be forewarned, this place will be burned down regardless of your choice.”

      Having said his piece, Sephiroth turned on his heel and made his way to the door. The Turk eyed the dark-haired, red-eyed man where he sat stunned in his coffin before snorting under her breath and turning to follow Sephiroth. As she followed him, Sephiroth could hear her call over her shoulder.

      “He isn’t kidding, just so you know. We’re setting the charges now.”

       They were halfway through setting the charges from the Turk’s rather large duffle bag when Sepiroth heard footsteps from the crypt. He glanced up to see that the man was standing in the doorway, his brow furrowed as he watched them set the other half of the charges. Mentally, he shrugged. It wasn’t his problem if Cloud’s friends chose to be fools. When he and the Turk began to make their way up the stairs, the footsteps moved again to stand at the base of the stairs. The man seemed to be debating something, his eyes darting between them and the lab full of explosives they were leaving behind.

       They arrived outside the manor and began to make their way closer to the bridge that led to town. They’d made it a fair bit away before Sephiroth turned and prepared to press the detonator while Eir prepared to cast Firga. The man stood on the front porch, his eerie red eyes staring at them as he shuffled. Sephiroth raised an eyebrow behind the mask. 

        “Final warning.”

         He waited a moment. The man didn’t budge, Sephiroth shrugged and pressed the detonator. Eir cast Firga, the fireball arching beautifully before colliding with the front of the house dead on. It wasn’t as strong as Sephiroth’s earlier, but paired with the larger amount of explosives, it didn’t matter much. The house went up in a ball of flame. The man had darted away from the porch when Sephiroth had pressed down on the detonator and had narrowly missed being caught in the combined flames of the explosion and the Turk’s Firga. 

      He stood still not far from them, staring as the manor went up in flames. Sephiroth and Eir were already moving. Even this early in the past, the bridge was rickety and old, and frankly, Sephiroth was in awe that it hadn’t collapsed when they’d used it in his timeline. They crossed the bridge in a matter of minutes. Dawn was approaching quickly and the first light of the new day was shading the world around them in tones of gray. 

         The town was already stirring when they arrived, clearly woken early by the chaos further up on the mountain. Sephiroth could have sworn he saw a familiar blonde head of hair and stumbled briefly as his gaze snapped in that direction. A set of startlingly blue and very familiar eyes stared back. 

        He was frozen, caught in the gaze of the little boy. The little one had something highly intelligent in the depth of his fathomless blue eyes, though he couldn’t have been more than five years old at most. The Turk had frozen beside him, her gaze following his, and now she was looking in between him, and—Cloud. That was Cloud, no doubt about it. He would recognize that wild hair and piercing stare anywhere. 

        Something in his heart was twisting as he stared at the little boy who, in another world, would have grown to be the closest thing he’d call an equal. The little boy whose cheeks were round and soft, eyes large and shimmering, full of innocence, frame no more than three feet high, and pudgy hands that didn’t have any traces of calluses. He found himself moving forward against his will. There were only a few people out, but it was dangerous to be seen, and he knew that. But still, he was drawn inexplicably closer to the small child. 

       Before he could reason himself out of it, he found himself kneeling before the small child. His body language lowered into something soft. He held out his gloved hands, and the little one placed his own miniature ones into his grasp, as utterly entranced with Sephiroth as he was with the boy.

       “Hello, little one.”

        His tone was softer than he’d ever heard his own voice sound, and he gently rubbed the back of the boy's hands with his thumbs as he spoke.

        “Where is your mother?”

          From the few memories he had of the trooper before everything had gone south, he recalled hearing that Claudia Strife had been a very loving mother. He couldn’t help but worry with her nowhere to be found and little Cloud wandering about where anyone could hurt him. The little boy blinked at him before lifting one of his pudgy little hands and pointing to the building directly behind him. Sephiroth glanced up at the structure. It was small but cozy-looking, and the front door was ajar, clearly left open by the small child before him. He stood, picking up Cloud in one smooth sweeping motion, and placed the child on his hip. 

       He strode to the door in three quick steps and opened it wide before placing the small boy on his feet once more. He knelt and pushed his mask to the side so that Cloud could see his bright eyes. The child needed to know he was being sincere, and the way Angeal had taught him most people did that was by making eye contact. 

        “Little one, you must be careful and wait for your mother before you go wandering. There are monsters about. I have destroyed some of the worst of them, but there are still many that can get you.”

         The boy merely tilted his head, his eyes studying Sephiroth’s expression carefully before he seemed to come to a conclusion. He spoke, his little voice quiet and shockingly solemn for a child. 

        “Alright.”

        The boy said nothing more. Instead he simply turned and headed for a staircase across from the entryway, vanishing up it with steady, soft footsteps. Sephiroth stood, carefully rearranging his mask, and closed the door behind him. He turned to face Eir, who had hidden in the shadows of the building while she waited for him. She said not a word, and merely nodded for him to follow before dashing quickly ahead, sticking close to the buildings and hopefully out of sight. Sephiroth stayed close, his hand occasionally brushing against the back of her cloak as they ran. 

        They reached the end of town just as the sun rose in earnest. The dull grays faded to warm golds and pinks as its rays began to appear over the edge of the mountain’s peak. The descent down the mountain was far swifter than the climb, both gravity and their adrenaline working in their favor. They arrived at the town below just before noon. They quickly discarded their disguises and were on the Turk’s motorcycle heading straight for their next target within the hour. As the craggy, wild countryside flew by them, Sephiroth couldn’t help but think about the little boy. What would Cloud become now that Sephiroth had come to change the countryside? He wasn’t foolish enough to believe that the boy wouldn’t try to join SOLDIER. After all he’d already been a part of it before Sephiroth learned of him in his past life. 

        Images of a shy, stubborn, and kind Trooper filled his mind. Zack had loved the boy like a brother, and Sephiroth remembered being fond of the boy before he’d lost his mind. Cloud had been part of his contingency plan in this life, but now that he’d seen him…He didn’t know if he could bring such an innocent soul back into this mess. Those blue eyes, so calm, steady, and, most importantly, innocent, filled his mind's eye, and something in his gut twisted at the thought of them turning into the mako blue and green he remembered. 

         The eyes so full of pain and loss that had sat in the face of his greatest rival. No, he couldn’t do that to this child. Not this time. No, he would simply have to make sure Eir blocked Cloud’s admission to the program. The boy would live peacefully this time. Sephiroth would make sure of it. 

       Mind made up, Sephiroth leaned back against Eir and focused on the joy of riding something fast with the surety he wouldn’t fall off. The woods and fields blurred past in a blur of snow-covered, dull-colored shapes. The winter was cold here near the mountains, and that cold glittered in the air almost visibly. The snow made the road ahead almost blindingly bright, and Sephiroth was grateful for the tinted visor on his helmet that prevented it from becoming too unbearable. 

      They drove along the road in the general direction of Midgar for hours before Eir took a detour onto a far less traveled road. The pavement gave way to gravel shortly and, paired with small patches of ice from puddles, made the road treacherous enough that they slowed to a near crawl. It was another hour before a low building made entirely of concrete came into view. 

       This time, neither of them bothered to look for civilians. This was a primarily unmanned top-secret skeleton lab. No live subjects were ever taken here, and the only people who were supposed to be here were all Hojo’s private lab techs. Sephiroth would feel no remorse if one of them happened to be here. They set the last batch of charges all around the perimeter of the small building, and Eir drove them away at as high a speed as she could manage safely while Sephiroth cast Firga over her shoulder. He pressed the charges detonator a moment after, and the building was left as a smoking crater behind them. The snow would likely melt under the heat and slowly put out the flaming bonfire. There was nothing nearby that was at risk of catching fire, so there was little risk leaving it burning without monitoring. 

          The reminder of the drive back to Midgar lasted well into the night, and they didn’t arrive to the outskirts of the city until near halfway into the next morning. They’d stopped occasionally to stretch, but both of them were still rather stiff. After parking the bike, the two of them headed up to Eir’s apartment and stretched one more time before eating a quick breakfast. Then the two of them retreated to their separate rooms. Eir’s shower sounded mere minutes later, and she soon collapsed in a tired-sounding heap in her bed. She would likely sleep for most  of the day so that she was ready for work and reporting to Veld tomorrow. Sephiroth was tempted to give into the urge to rest, and couldn’t honestly justify a reason not to.

        Jenova was dead, and they’d made progress in destroying what was left of her. Hojo was also dead, Ei—the Turk had made a fair amount of progress in figuring out Angeal and Genesis’s current whereabouts, and not once in the entire two weeks he’d been here had she ever entered his room. She hadn’t even tried the door knob, so in spite of himself, Sephiroth found that he was giving into the siren call of sleep even though Eir was still here. If she did anything this time, he’d simply have to remember to never sleep when she was here again. With that settled, he drifted off into the bliss of exhaustion-induced sleep.

Chapter Text

He was back in his old body, but he was still in this time, unable to do anything at all as Jenova forced his body to chase after a familiar head of blond hair. He was screaming inside, wondering what had gone so wrong. Why had the planet not kept Jenova from coming back to his time? Did she not care for her little hero? Sephiroth was gaining on the little one easily, and his hand with Masamune's familiar weight came up in a smooth, familiar snicking motion. 

         He could only watch in detached horror as little Cloud was cleaved into two pieces. The only sound the boy made as he fell was a soft little mewling cry. Sephiroth screamed inside his own head, beating again the suffocating darkness that was Jenova’s presence. He had thought for a brief moment, a blissful two weeks, that he was truly free of her. Now he could only watch, a passenger in his own skull, as his hand flicked Masumne’s blade, splattering the corpse of the child with droplets of blood. 

       His body turned without his permission and began to make its way further into Nibelheim, heading down towards the base of the mountain. Then her voice, sickly sweet and a mockery of a loving tone, sounded in his head.

       “Did you really think you could get rid of me that easily, my son? Foolish child. Now, shall we find your little friends? You have missed them so, and it will be fun to kill them again. Though perhaps I’ll let you keep the red head. He did so love fire, didn’t he? He could be useful. Maybe I’ll even let you talk to him if you're good.”

        Sephiroth screamed, beating at the wall of black, shrieking before dissolving into sobs. Could he not have even this chance at redemption? Could he not have a chance to set his friends free of him and his evil? Could he not have a chance to be free? His thoughts were interrupted by…knocking? It was so confusing and shocking that he found himself sitting up, and—

       He was in his room, in Eir’s apartment, only emptiness in the place where Jenova was supposed to be. The knocking came again, and in a daze he stumbled out of his bed, dimly aware of sweat making his clothes stick to his skin. He opened his door and looked up at Eir, who had a look of panic on her face. Her eyes shone pure, glowing silver in the moonlight from the window. He could clearly see as her eyes scanned his body and face, searching for something before an expression similar to grief crossed her face.

        “Oh Sirith—-”

         She sank to her knees, hesitating a moment before gently and slowly enough that he could dodge if he wanted to, laying her hands on his shoulders. Her eyes met his, something soft and pained in her expression. 

        “Do you want to tell me what your nightmare was about?”

        And the panic finally began to fade as realization hit Sephiroth like a freight train. It had been a nightmare. Jenova was still dead, he was still ten years old, and Cloud and all of Sephiroth’s old friends were safe.  He slumped, and Eir pulled him into her. She took his full weight and lifted him fully from the ground, settling him into her lap and tucking his head beneath her chin as she wrapped her arms securely around him. It reminded Sephiroth of Angeal and Zack’s all-encompassing hugs. She began to rock, humming low in her chest as she ran a hand through his hair. She hummed and murmured soft reassurances atop the crown of his head. every now and again a soft kiss would be placed atop his head and she’d promise him he was safe here. 

          But she didn’t understand it wasn’t him that needed to be saved. it was the world that needed to be saved. Saved from him and the monster that used to live in his body. Sephiroth found that this little form had far less control then his old body and soon found himself sobbing once more. Something in his little body's heart was soothed by Eir’s careful kindness, while the older part of himself grieved the loss of those he loved. He wasn’t sure how long it took for his sobs to peter off into hitched breathing and then finally die out all together, but when it did, Eir stood. She didn’t let him down though, merely swung him round to her right hip as she walked to the kitchen. 

           She didn’t turn on the light as she pulled down a set of mugs from the cupboard and began putting various spices and powders into the two of them. While she worked, she swayed slightly, soothingly, and Sephiroth found his head drooping until it was laid on Eir’s shoulder, his eyes half lidded as he watched her work. Eventually, she began to fill her tea kettle and then stood by the stove and continued swaying him back and forth. The arm not holding him up was now running through his hair again as she hummed. Eventually, the shrill whistle of the kettle interrupted the still silence, and she poured the drink into the mugs.

        They waited again, Eir slowly mixing whatever she’d made as she swayed by the countertop. Sephioroth’s eyes had closed at some point and he was listening intently to the steady, da-da-dum, da-da-dum, of Eir’s heartbeat. She picked up both mugs with one hand, and the change in movement compelled him to open his eyes to half-mast once more. He stared under his hooded lids as she took them both to the table and reluctantly mentally prepared himself  for her to set him down and talk to him now that he was calm.

        Eir did no such thing. She set the mugs down, and then, in a single smooth movement, hoisted him once more into both arms and sat, arranging him in her lap so that his side was leaned against her chest. His legs comfortably settled atop her legs as she sat criss-cross atop the chair. She passed him one of the mugs, lingering for a moment to make sure he had a good hold of it before grabbing her own and beginning to sip it quietly.

        Sephiroth stared up at her, confused, but then mentally shrugged. He was too tired to talk anyway. If she wasn’t going to make him talk about it right now, then he’d take the distraction for what it was. He sniffed the drink, trying to figure out what exactly she’d made for them. It smelled of dumapples, spices, and something warm he didn’t recognize. He sipped it. It was sweet with a spicy undertone that was different from most ciders he’d tried, and it warmed him to his very core. He took another sip and then sighed, leaning his head against the crook of Eir’s neck. She set her mug down and ran that hand across his back, rocking slightly as she did so. Her hand was strong and sturdy, calloused from hard work, and she rubbed his back steadily, working out the remaining tension he hadn’t realized was still there before she picked up her drink again. 

          They stayed like that for about an hour, occasionally sipping their drinks as Eir held him close. Eventually, Sephiroth found himself nodding, and Eir slowly took the drink from his hand and set her own down. She settled in around him as she tucked her chin atop his head once more and wrapped her arms more securely around him. Normally being in such close quarters with someone meant danger and death, but this was nice. Sephiroth couldn’t find the familiar thrill of anxiety anywhere, and slowly, before he’d even realized it, he’d drifted back to sleep—-only this time, there were no nightmares. 

*********************************

         Eir’s POV:

        She awoke to the sound of screaming, shrill and anguished. Eir darted upright and was out of bed and fully armed in less than a minute. She was just entering the hall when the scream came again. She recognized that voice. It was Sirith. Before she could think it through, she was pounding on his door, debating the merits of breaking down the reinforced door to get to her kid when the screaming stopped. It was silent for a minute, and then a shrill cry came again, accompanied by sobbing. Eir pounded on the door and was just pulling back to kick around the doorknob and break the latch when the door cracked open, moonlight spilling from the room beyond and temporarily blinding her.

      When her eyes adjusted, she scanned the room and found it empty. She began to frantically run her eyes up and down Sirith’s frame, searching for injury, desperate to find what was wrong with the little boy. Finally, she met his wide-eyed, tear-filled gaze, and she realized why the normally stoic boy had been screaming. Something in her heart broke into pieces and shattered. His little face, already so pale, had lost what little warmth it had, drained away by his panic. His eyes were red-rimmed, and despite the darkness, his pupils were slit tinier than she’d ever seen them. Tear tracks stained his cheeks silver, and his hair was a ruffled mess. 

         She sank to her knees and hesitantly placed her hands on his shoulders before meeting his eyes. She spoke, doing her best to hide her previous panic and speak only in a soft, gentle tone. 

       “Oh Sirith—Do you want to tell me what your nightmare was about?”

       His expression remained blank for a long moment before his face crumpled and he slumped into her. She pulled him close on instinct, something in heart demanding she protect him from whatever had made the expression on his face. She held him close, and when he began to sob, she began to hum and brush his hair as she rocked, praying he couldn’t feel the tears running down her own face as her heart broke. 

         Something in her heart was cracking, snapping into pieces, and melting. What kind of person could hurt a child so badly that he would make such an expression of heartfelt grief? Hojo had been a monster—-she’d known that for a while—-but the true depth of his depravity hadn’t been driven home until now. She stared into the face of a child, utterly overcome with grief and pain. 

        As she calmed Sirith down and rocked him back to sleep at the kitchen table, Eir felt those pieces in her heart harden and sharpen into something new. She’d cared about Sirith before this. After all, who couldn’t love such a beautiful, intelligent, little boy like him? But now, she knew she’d do anything to bring light back into those mako green eyes. She would do anything to keep that little boy from being hurt again, and most of all, she would love this little boy so much that he would never doubt his worth again. He deserved all the love in the world and then some. Because now that she had a moment to think, Eir knew exactly what kind of grief had been in the little boy’s eyes. It was survivor’s guilt, and she fully intended to help him find his friends. No child should ever, EVER feel guilty for living, and by the very blood in her veins and the beat of her heart, she would make sure he knew that. 

        Mind made up and her boy now fast asleep, Eir found herself slowly fading into the darkness of sleep once more. Her arms wrapped tight around her very own mac gaolach , and her lips tilted in an exhausted smile.

********************************

        Sephiroth’s POV

       Sephiroth awoke to the sound of a distant alarm. He shifted and found himself unable to move very far. Something warm was holding him in place. Suddenly, much more awake, he opened his eyes wide and took in his surroundings. He was still in Eir’s lap, the Turk’s arms wrapped tight around him as her head tilted back at an awkward angle and she snored. Her hair was a tangled mess that at some point in the night had ended up tangled in his own hair, mixing the silver and black in a stunning contrast of colors. It was also tangled in his fingers from where he’d apparently been holding onto a handful of strands in his sleep. She also, to his great amusement and mild disgust, had a few strands across her mouth. He carefully maneuvered himself to look at the kitchen clock on the stove and winced.

         Ah, that would explain the alarm. It was 4:15 and Eir was likely going to be late to work. Sephiroth contemplated the Turk, trying to figure how best to awaken her without getting smacked by flailing limbs. The first thing to do was to get off her. Sephiroth wiggled experimentally, trying to gently pry her arms from around him. Her grip tightened and the Turk awoke with a snort, her eyes blurry as she sat upright and pulled him close back under her chin. Startled, Sephiroth let it happen and waited as the Turk shifted seemingly processing what was going on.

     When she let loose a stream of what was clearly curses in a different language, Sephiroth was unable to withhold a snort of his own. The tired Turk gently set him on his own to feet and looked him in the eyes, her hands on his shoulders.

         “ Gràidh, I am late for work. I’m sorry to run without speaking with you. Will you be alright alone?”

       Sephiroth raised a single eyebrow at her, unimpressed. 

        “I am not sure who “Gràidh” is, but I for one am perfectly capable of handling myself when you're at your job, as I am sure you well know.” 

          The Turk flushed to the tips of her very ears and nodded before darting to her room. In under two minutes she was fully dressed and running out the door, grabbing her keys off the hook and looping a belt full of weaponry across her back while simultaneously opening the front door. She was gone so quickly, and Sephiroth found himself blinking after her, surprised. Maybe she wouldn’t be late after all. Her reaction made him wonder who exactly Gràidh was. Perhaps the person who had previously occupied his room? It would make her behavior last night make far more sense if she wasn’t really seeing Sephiroth in her sleep deprived state.

       Then again, she’d very clearly called him Sirith last night, so perhaps he was wrong. Shrugging it off, Sephiroth crossed to the bookshelf and picked up the book he’d been reading. He’d finished The Phantom of The Opera last week, and had found himself relating far too strongly with the Phantom character. He’d been looking for a different book to read now that he was finished. Perhaps something with romance like Genesis seemed to prefer, though technically, he mused, The Phantom of the Opera was a romance, albeit a tragic one. 

       His eyes caught on one that he’d once seen in Genesis’s room in his last life, Princess of the Midnight Ball . Mentally, he shrugged. Genesis sometimes had good taste, and sometimes it was trash. He supposed it couldn’t hurt to see which category this book fell into.  

         He had just gotten to the part where Galen was preparing to enter the palace to try and save his friend when the door opened. Eir entered the room with something in her hands and a brilliant smile on her face. Cautiously, he bookmarked his page and set down the book, crossing to where the Turk was setting whatever was in her hands on the kitchen island. It was a file, full to the brim with papers, and a tablet that was open to a lock screen. 

         The Turk gestured for him to sit, her expression changing to one of intense focus. She started arranging the papers in the file in a certain order, and it was as she was moving one such page that he caught one of the words written on it. He got an inkling of what had the Turk so excited.

        “You found them?!”

        The Turk smiled and nodded, laying down a few more papers and unlocking the tablet before she spoke.

        “When the Jenova locations finished decrypting, I was able to divert my computer's processing power entirely to decrypting their files. It looks like Hollander got extra paranoid after Hojo’s lab and his own lab on that floor were destroyed. He moved the boys’ primary location and encrypted several of their files with extra layers of cyber security. Luckily, with the extra processing power, I was able to access these files and print them off in my office around noon, which gave me extra time to slide into his temporary lab and swipe this.”

        She held up the tablet.

        “It's hooked up to his main account, and unlike Hojo, he is neither smart enough nor paranoid enough to have separated any of his files from the main account. It was encrypted five ways to the Nibelheim mountains, but luckily with the physical tablet I have some more options that aren’t as easily available with remote hacking. That being said, I will have to transfer a copy of all the data tonight to my own tablet and return it by tomorrow before he notices it's missing. Which means we can’t look at the data on it until tomorrow.”

         Sephiroth leaned back in his chair. When he’d made an alliance with the Turk, he’d expected some things to go easier, but between this and her help with Jenova, his choice of ally was paying off far more than he had anticipated. He picked up one of the files, noting that it detailed Angeal’s reactions to mako at age six. Another contained a report on Genesis’s volatile personality and speculation on if his increased irritability had to do with the frequency of mako injections. Sephiroth smiled at that. The degradation had certainly destroyed both Angeal’s and Genesis’s emotional control later in their lives, but before that all the attitude had been purely premium Genesis Rhapsodos at his finest.

         “That's fine. Did you manage to figure out where he moved them?”

          The Turk looked up from where she was hooking up Hollander’s tablet to her own and setting her program to transfer the data. Something guilty was in her eyes.

         “No. That's actually why I grabbed the tablet. I was halfway through remote accessing it when Hollander’s increased security booted me. It should be in his main account and we should know where they are tomorrow, but I couldn’t get it today. Sorry.”

        Sephiroth stared at her, surprised. He hadn’t assumed most of his plans would go this quickly. In fact he’d anticipated this process taking years as he tried to figure out how to take down Shinra from the outside and gather resources. So the fact that she felt bad about a mere day after two weeks of extremely swift and effective work was baffling to him.

        “That's quite alright. I hadn’t anticipated finding them for months yet, so for it to only take a day is excellent news. You’ve been remarkably helpful, almost terrifyingly so in fact. No need to feel guilty.”

          The Turk glanced away, something dark in her expression. 

         “It really isn’t. My department should have put a stop to this years ago. Human experimentation was something the Turk department already was unsure about when President Shinra told us about the SOLDIER trials, and that was with criminals and willing subjects. To find out that we missed the fact that the Science Department was experimenting on children is…shameful. Veld and a few of the others who work with me have known for a while that things were going on behind the scenes and that something had gone rotten, but clearly we didn’t poke around nearly enough if we missed this. We were…afraid, I’m ashamed to admit. We were scared if we prodded too hard the rot would explode outward and spread. Clearly, our fear made us entirely too compliant, and for that I’m not sure if I shall ever forgive myself.”

         When she put it that way, he had to admit that he understood the guilt. All that being said, the Turks first and foremost worked for Shinra and reported directly to the president. It was their job to operate within the company's best interests no matter the consequences. In his past life, he remembered more than a few instances where the Turks had killed mercilessly at the mere word of the president. 

           It made him wonder how many Turks like Eir had disappeared or been fired under mysterious circumstances before their forces became the cold-blooded killing machine he remembered. Or perhaps by the time things had been revealed in the past timeline, the Turks had been in too deep to leave or fix things anymore. It came down to this in the end, though. No matter what had happened in the past, Eir was fixing things now, and at a terrifyingly rapid pace. Sephiroth stood rounding the island and leaned over the corner of the counter, placing his face above the tablets and forcing Eir to meet his eyes.

         “We cannot change the past. What matters is that you're helping them now. You’re helping me now. You have no need to regret what cannot be undone when you are doing your best to fix it now. The past is past, and you are doing remarkably well now. I haven’t yet expressed how thankful I am for that. So thank you, Eir, thank you for helping me and the others.”

          Eir set down the cord she’d been fiddling with and, much to his shock, she cradled his head in her hands and lowered her head bumping her forehead against his, her eyes closed, and she breathed in deeply. Her next words were whispered so quietly that without his enhanced hearing he wouldn’t have caught them. 

        “ Gràidh, how could anyone hurt you? Sirith, how could anyone look at such a wonderful child and hurt you? I will never understand the monsters in this world that wear human skins, and I grow to hate them more and more with each passing day.”

        There was a wealth of pain in the words that Sephiroth didn’t understand. Why would she care so much about what had happened to him? They had known each other for less then a month, yet the Turk sounded as if someone had carved out her heart and lit it on fire. It reminded him of the way Zack had cared about him before it all went wrong. Angeal and Genesis had also seemed as if it caused them physical pain to find out what his life had been like before he met them. 

           But he had known the three of them for years. How could this Turk who had just met him feel anything like that? And how could he stop it? He couldn’t afford connections this time around. He couldn’t risk his presence hurting anyone else ever again. Pulling back from her grasp, he watched as her eyes opened and nearly froze at the pure anguish that swam in her eyes. What he had done to elicit such a response from this woman, he truly did not understand. Eir spoke at full volume this time as she turned back to the files. 

           “You’re right. We must focus on the task at hand. By the looks of their files, they're going to need more frequent boosts of mako than you in smaller doses in order to keep them stable. I’m guessing they’ll also need the same amount of food as you based on their records, so I should probably make a list and start cleaning out the other guest room for the two of them. Anything else you think they’ll need when we get them out?” 

          Sephiroth thought about it for a long moment, but anything he would suggest was personal to Angeal and Genesis’s tastes and he wasn’t supposed to have met them yet in this timeline, so he shook his head. He spent the rest of the night sorting through the files with the Turk. He could tell she had a plan for these files, but what exactly that was he hadn’t determined just yet. It did make part of him both slightly jealous and relieved to find out that Hollander treated the boys far better then Hojo had ever treated him. He did his best to bury the jealousy as deep down as he could. He had no right to be jealous of them, monster that he was. He would not be like his past self, and he wouldn’t be like the Phantom, who had held on so tight it nearly destroyed those he loved. 

          He had a second chance, and he intended to do it right this time. Jealousy had no place here, especially since he was jealous of their lack of pain, pain that he would never wish on another living thing. Except for maybe Hojo. It would have been a sweet moment of irony if Sephiroth had been able to inflict even a quarter of what the man had done to him. That evening, he helped Eir clear out the things in the other bedroom. She placed most of the knick-knacks and personal effects into boxes which she put in a storage closet. She'd ordered a second bed and new sheets for both beds while at work, which had arrived half-way through their cleaning. Between the two of them, the bedroom was soon vacuumed andaired out, the beds were built, and the freshly made sheets spread neatly across the mattresses. 

         Eir then muttered something to herself about taking all three boys shopping for personal decor, and Sephiroth couldn’t wait to see her reaction to Genesis’s…..costly taste. The boy's families may not have been the best, but Genesis’s parents had parented their son primarily by sending egregious sums of money to him. Angeal conversely would likely try to insist he needed nothing, and Sephiroth was definitely interested to see how Eir would handle it. He did wonder just how she was paying for all this. Turks had decent salaries, certainly, but this seemed a bit much even considering that. 

         He supposed he’d have to keep an eye on that. The Turk seemed the type to handle such things alone even if she really shouldn’t. It reminded him of Zack’s self-sacrificing nature, if a bit less extreme. He blinked. How often was he comparing Eir to the most important people in his last life? Pondering on it, he found that it was a common thread in his thoughts. It was interesting that the Turk could remind him so strongly of them while being utterly unique in her own way. 

             It also made him wonder why he kept comparing her to the memories of those he’d cared for. Unable to figure out a satisfying answer, after a few moments, he decided to ponder it later. Eir had gone to sleep a few minutes ago and he found himself unwillingly starting to doze as well. Apparently, last night had been enough to settle him back into a nighttime schedule. How irritating. Considering how last night had gone, he supposed it couldn’t hurt. Eir had no intention to harm him while he slept, of that he was certain. Though he would have to be certain to keep any future nightmares quiet lest he bring her running in once again. As sweet as it had been, they had both been lucky he hadn’t lashed out on instinct. Eir may be sturdy for a human, but she was still human. Sephiroth was decidedly not, and it wouldn’t take much to break someone like Eir. 

       He drifted off slowly and, to his relief, the night was filled with dreamless sleep. The next day passed in a crawl as he waited for Eir to get home. As the clock ticked closer to when she normally got home, he found himself tapping his foot impatiently, his book forgotten off to the side as well as a few half-finished craft projects Eir had gotten for him to entertain himself with while she was gone. 

        The time she normally came home passed, and an hour later, Sephiroth found himself pacing the living floor. Had she been caught while returning the tablet? Had someone found out she was harboring him? Did he need to run? Should he go looking for her? Should he- his panicked musings were interrupted as the door burst open and Eir entered carrying two unconscious bodies, two very familiar unconscious bodies…

Chapter Text

Eir entered the apartment with a bang. Her door bounced off the wall from how hard she’d pushed it, and she froze five steps into the room as she made eye contact with an utterly shocked Sephiroth. Her braid, which had been neat and full of beads and intricate smaller braids this morning, had come almost entirely loose and appeared to be singed in several places. In fact, as Sephiroth looked closer, he noticed what looked like embers smoking in the end of what was left of her braid. She had several smudges of soot across her face, her clothes were slightly torn and bloody, and Angeal, who was slumped half across her back and shoulders, also seemed to be slightly singed. 

          Genesis was slumped in a bridle carry in her arms, his head tilted back as he breathed evenly. His hair hung elegantly in a gentle cascade as his head lolled over her right arm, and out of the three he seemed to be the least worse for wear. Which was typical of the fashion-obsessed man, or well, boy. While Angeal, as always, dwarfed the other boy, neither he nor Genesis were anywhere near the tall, intimidating men Sephiroth remembered from his past life. Heck, both of them still had the soft roundness of baby fat to their cheeks and looked positively angelic as they slept. After taking all this in, he slowly made eye contact with the Turk. The Turk met his gaze, wide and unblinkingly, with a slightly manic gleam in her ash-colored eyes.

        She made quite the sight with the wide, opened door, literally smoldering appearance and the two apparently kidnapped children in her possession.  Sephiroth inhaled once, doing his best to gather his inner peace as he crossed from behind the couch to face her properly.

       “And what, may I ask, do you have there, Miss Eir.?

        The manic glint, if anything, got brighter as she stared him down. She carefully closed the door behind her with her foot as she held eye contact. Then, slowly, she held up a previously unnoticed bag in one hand. Precariously held between a bag and a few fingers was a cup with a straw in it that she held up to him as much as she could without dropping Genesis or Angeal.

       “A smoothie.”

        “............”

       Sephiroth’s brain short-circuited, giving the Turk a brief moment to dart toward the guest bedrooms while he rebooted. She had just gotten halfway through the kitchen when his wits returned to him. 

       “Is that so? And what, pray tell, might be the….. packages you seem to have acquired along with it?”

       The Turk halted and sighed, changing direction as she headed for the couch and beginning to carefully arrange Genesis and Angeal on opposite ends as she responded.

       “It was a spur-of-the-moment decision, alright. I returned the tablet, and when I got back to my office, I started looking over the files on the copied tablet. I found out that they were hidden in the building. Hollander was planning some invasive tests for tomorrow before moving them at the end of the week. I hacked the weapons department to fire off a bunch of weaponry and set off a small explosion on one of the other floors. Popped into their holding area, tranqued them both with some SOLDIER-grade sedatives Hollander had in the lab, hid them under my desk for the rest of the work day, then stuck them in a hover crate that I snuck out to my motorcycle, then drove here.”

       Sephiroth pinched the bridge of his nose.

      “And I take it you explained nothing, and that the sedatives will be wearing off shortly?”

      The Turk fidgeted nervously.

      “Maybe. It was perhaps not the most thought out of plans…”

       Sephiroth wanted to shake the woman violently. It wouldn’t help the situation though, and all things considered, this could have gone much worse. They would simply, as Zack had once put it, have to grin and bear it. 

       Eir started making dinner, and Sephiroth sat on the bean bag closest to the couch with his book. He couldn’t focus on it, but it gave the illusion of calm and control which they would need if they intended to convince Genesis and Angeal that they truly had rescued them. 

       Eir had just started setting the food on the table when Angeal began to stir. His brow furrowed and he stilled before his breathing resumed its steady pace. He relaxed, clearly trying to pretend to still be asleep, and if he had been anyone else, Sephiroth would have been fooled. Unfortunately for Angeal, Sephiroth was not anyone else.

       “You're awake.”

        He didn’t shift from his place, book still open, but he trained his eyes on the other boy, noting the slight twitch of his eyelids. When Angeal didn’t do anything else, he sighed before speaking again.

        “You are not fooling me, Hewley. I know that my companion likely startled you a great deal, but I promise you, we mean you and Rhapsodos no harm.”

        Angeal’s eyes shot open at the sound of his name. He was up and on his feet in moments, feet planted in a defensive stance and fists raised. He glanced around the room, noting Eir in the kitchen, the exits, Genesis still sleeping on the other end of the couch, and finally meeting Sephiroth’s steady gaze. He startled visibly, and lowered his fists slightly when he registered that Sephiroth was not another adult. Sending a glance toward Eir one last time, he spoke, tone guarded and cold as he shifted to better cover Genesis’s unconscious form with his body. 

       “How do you know our names? Why did you take us? Who are you people?”

       Sephiroth sighed, closing his book with a soft thump and setting it aside as he leaned back in the bean bag. He did his best to look non-threatening. He could be across the room and snapping Angeal’s neck in less than a moment, but the other boy didn’t need to know that.

        “In order, I heard your names in the lab that I escaped from. We took you because I mentioned you to the Turk and she agreed to help me free the both of you. Finally, the Turk’s name is Eir. You may call me project S, or Sirith, since Eir insists on the use of names and not designations. You, like Eir, will have to earn my real name, as it is one of the few things I own.” 

        There. To the point, emotionally vulnerable enough for potential connection, and friendly enough to not seem unkind or cold. Angeal eyed him for a moment before turning to face the Turk while still keeping his body angled between Sephiroth and Genesis. 

       “Do you have anything to add, Turk ?”

        He spat the title like a curse, and worded it more like a statement than a question. His mako blue gray eyes were cold and untrusting, but he seemed to view the Turk as the highest threat at the moment. Which was understandable, considering the circumstances. Eir met his gaze unflinchingly as she gently set down a tray of bread on the table. 

        “Only that I am sorry that I wasn’t able to talk to you in the lab earlier. If I had more time, I promise you I would have talked to you rather than simply knocking you out and bringing you and your friend here. As soon as I have gathered enough mako shots so that I can be sure you can be sent out on your own safely, you are free to leave or to stay with any family you may have. Or I can set you up with passage outside the city and disguises. I will not force you to stay. I may not have given you much choice when I took you from the lab, but how you live is your choice, and I don’t intend to get in the way of that. I only ask that you and your friend stay for dinner and do your best to keep each other safe.”

       Genesis sat up abruptly, eyes glimmering with mako as he smirked and stood leaning slightly against Angeal for support. 

        “And why in the world should we trust you? If you do recall, you kidnapped us from our current legal guardian, and do answer us honestly if you please. Or else all I have to say to you is, ‘ All that awaits you is a somber morrow ’ brought upon you by Angeal’s justifiable wrath.”

       The Turk met Genesis’ gaze steadily, silver meeting mako blue. 

       “Trust is something earned, and I, as of yet, have not earned your trust. Of this I am well aware—”

        Then, to Sephiroth’s surprise, she bowed slightly, her right hand making a complicated gesture before clenching into a fist and settling over her chest. 

       “There is little I can do that will prove to you my sincerity except to simply give you my word. So I swear to you both, not as a Turk, but as a child of the North, that so long as you are in my house, no harm shall come to you from me. All that I have told you is the truth. I give you full permission to kill me if I break my word.”

        Genesis and Angeal didn’t look particularly mollified, but they didn’t argue either, so Sephiroth supposed that it was the best they were going to get. Sighing once again and standing, he watched in detached amusement as Angeal and Genesis scrambled back before both seemed to realize that they were taller than him. 

     “As much as this wonderful back-and-forth amuses me, I, for one, would like to eat before the food gets cold.”

       He tossed both a cure and a poisona toward Genesis and watched as the boy scrambled to catch them. Angeal tensed even further at the perceived threat. 

     “If you two are anything like me, I doubt you will eat anything without checking it first. That's your insurance; feel free to cast it as many times as you would like. You should eat though. I sincerely doubt you ate anything before Eir retrieved you, and our metabolisms are not to be taken lightly. I would be rather put out if my and Eir’s efforts to get you free resulted in you two starving from sheer stubbornness.”

        The two of them exchanged a weighted look as he crossed to join Eir at the table. They seemed to be arguing about something. Eir distracted them though by speaking up as she began to fill Sephiroth's plate with her eyes on the table and the food. 

       “You don’t have to sit down if you don’t want to. I can prepare plates for you, and you can eat them anywhere in the apartment that you choose—whatever you are most comfortable with.”

        The two, if anything, looked even more tense than before. Sephiroth sighed and started to eat his own food. After he had taken a few pointed bites, he spoke up once more.

      “If we intended you harm, we could have easily done so while you were unconscious. At the moment, you pose a much higher threat to the Turk than she does to you.”

       Genesis bristled at that, stepping slightly forward as he glared at Sephiroth. 

        “ Even if the morrow is barren of promises. Nothing shall forestall my return. Forgive me if I don’t believe you after your pet Turk knocked us out! Besides, we're just as much a threat to you as to her, don’t you think?”

        Sephiroth resisted the strong urge to pinch the bridge of his nose, but only just barely. 

        “ There is no hate, only joy, for you are beloved. For the last time, we don’t wish any harm upon you. Quite, the opposite in fact, and no, Genesis, you never have nor ever will pose a threat to me. This is simply a fact.”

        Sephiroth was familiar with Genesis’s temper, and really, he should have anticipated the attack that followed his words. But he had genuinely hoped that the use of Loveless and the uncertainty of a new opponent would at least make Genesis wait to challenge him until he had more information. He was wrong. Apparently, the little impulse control and wariness that Genesis possessed in his past life had come from maturity, and this child did not possess even that small shred of self control in the slightest. 

       Genesis had used his enhanced speed and was across the room in a blink, lunging straight for Sephiroth’s throat. Eir was on her feet just as Sephiroth’s hands came up to block Genesis’ hands from wrapping around his throat. Before she could move to help him, however, Angeal was on her. They grappled for a moment while Sephiroth did his best to subdue Genesis without hurting the other boy. Sephiroth took just a moment too long. 

       Despite Eir’s superior training, Angeal still had greater speed, agility, and, most importantly, strength than the unenhanced woman. He also didn’t care if he hurt his opponent, unlike Eir. With a roar of rage, he tossed the woman across the room and into the kitchen island. She collided with the stone counter with a sickening crack and went still. Sephiroth lost all trace of calm. He understood that they were both panicked, he understood their fear, but he would not tolerate the injury of his new companion. 

       With a snarl, he twisted Genesis sharply. The red-haired boy's eyes went wide as he jabbed him in a nerve cluster, sending Genesis to his knees as his body went limp. Angeal screamed in rage and charged forward, his young face contorted in rage. Sephiroth stared him down with cold calmness and redirected his flurry of punches before striking him in one arm. When it went limp, he jumped, striking the back of Angeal’s neck and sending the other boy's eyes rolling in his skull. Genesis watched with naked fear and rage as Angeal collapsed in a boneless heap beside him. Sephiroth breathed in deeply before yanking Angeal up over his shoulders and dragging him to the couch once more. He deposited Genesis beside him shortly, and then, after a moment's hesitation, went to check on the Turk. 

      To his immense relief and surprise, the Turk wasn’t dead like he’d thought. The crack had apparently been her arm. Somehow, the Turk had oriented herself midair in such a way that her arm took the brunt of the impact. It was snapped at a nasty angle, and the whiplash appeared to have knocked her out. Which explained why she hadn’t gotten back up or even screamed at the impact. Otherwise, she seemed to be just fine, which, all things considered, was pretty good for an unenhanced human straight out of a fight with a SOLDIER. 

       The break was clean, so Sephiroth carefully set it up so he could snap it back in place. It would hurt and likely wake the Turk up, but it would certainly help her healing process if he could take care of it before the swelling got in the way. Feeling exceedingly grateful for his emergency medical training from his time in Wutai, Sephiroth breathed in and out and then yanked and twisted. He was especially careful to set the bone in a single, sharp motion. 

         As he predicted, Eir came to with a guttural half-cut-off scream. She breathed in and out through her nose and made not another sound as she assessed the area around her. Her eyes were glazed slightly from the pain, but much like Angeal had done when he first awoke, she assessed the apartment for threats and exit points before relaxing somewhat. 

         Her eyes were still dull from the pain, but as her eyes focused on Sephiroth, something in them sharpened into focus. She shifted and winced slightly, a considering expression on her face. Sephiroth knew that look. She was assessing her condition and cataloging different potential strategies based on her state of mobility. It made him sigh internally. SOLDIERS and Turks weren’t all that different when it came to certain things, and fighting while still injured was definitely one of them.  Even if it was extremely ill-advised. Eir finally spoke, her tone eerily calm and level despite the sheer amount of pain she was likely in. 

        “Well, that could have gone better.”

        Sephiroth snorted despite himself, and Genesis huffed grumpily from his slumped position on the couch. Eir’s gaze snapped to him, and a look of sadness rolled over her face as she stood carefully and crossed the room in order to crouch in front of him on the floor beside the couch. Sephiroth followed close behind, not particularly enthused with her getting close to the people who had hurt her less than a minute before. He loved and respected his friends, but they were dangerous, and they also weren’t his friends just yet. Never would be in this timeline, if he could help it. Genesis was glowering at Eir as much as he could from his immobile position, and Sephiroth stared at him passively over Eir’s shoulder with as much sternness as he could muster. 

      “Sirith, how did you incapacitate them, exactly?”

      Sephiroth didn’t move his gaze from Genesis, but he couldn’t stop the slight furrowing of his brow at the question. Eir knew he was trained, didn’t she? What exactly did she mean by her question? 

       “Well, we fought, as I’m sure you're aware, and my combat skills were superior to their own, so I prevailed rather quickly.”

         Genesis bristled at that, looking very much offended, but Eir just sighed.

       “I know you fought, Sirith. I meant did you bash Angeal’s head to knock him out? Did you inject Genesis with something to make him still? I just want to know if I should be looking for any injuries to help them with.”

        This time both Genesis and Sephiroth stared at Eir in open mouthed shock. Genesis recovered first and spat out a biting, if highly-confused, jumble of words. 

       “You're crazy. What kind of person gets knocked out and their arm broken, and then immediately starts looking to help the people who caused said injuries?”

       Sephiroth had to agree. He already knew that the Turk had a few screws loose, but this was a bit much even for him. 

       “I must concur with Rhapsodos. Your sense of self preservation seems to be skewed….”

       He paused for a moment, considering.

       “Perhaps you are concussed. Whiplash can cause that if the brain is jolted against the skull hard enough.”

       Genesis looked pensive at his words, as if he was contemplating the validity of the statement. Before either of them could speak again, the Turk huffed and spoke.

        “Sirith, you never answered my question, and I can assure both of you I am quite alright and not crazy. Most adults faced with injured children who attacked out of fear and self-defense would check to see if they are alright as soon as possible. Most GOOD adults anyway, which I’m starting to wonder if any of you have ever met. Now, Sirith, please tell me if either of them is in danger of becoming more hurt the longer they go without treatment.”

       Sephiroth huffed, he still thought she was concussed. No person with an ounce of self preservation would do what Eir was doing, good adult or not. Still she was stubborn enough to not let it go until he answered so he might as well give in now instead of arguing the point. 

       “I hit different nerve clusters on both of them. Angeal’s neck will be sore, but he is not in danger of a concussion nor does he have any other injuries. I have temporarily paralyzed Genesis by hitting a nerve cluster that renders the opponent's limbs unresponsive. Since they are both enhanced though, we have maybe two or three minutes before Angeal regains consciousness and Genesis regains movement.” 

       Eir nodded and leaned back on the balls of her feet as she considered Genesis. 

      “Well, I suppose the question remains. What shall we do with the two of you? I don’t wish for either of you to be injured, but it's clear neither of you trust us enough to even stay the night. Restraining you will not help with that, but I also don’t want to let you loose in the city because currently Hollander, security, and the rest of the Turks are combing the city looking for you…..”

        She shifted, cradling her injured arm unconsciously as she thought, and Sephiroth contemplated finding something to use as a makeshift cast or sling. Ultimately, leaving her alone with Genesis and Angeal was too much of a risk though, so he stayed put.

      “I told Veld I had a few spots to check, and he’ll be calling to check in with me soon. I need to get out on the streets and join the search before he realizes I’m not actually out there, so maybe…”

       Sephiroth glowered at her back. If she thought she was going anywhere, injured as she was, she had another thing coming. Apparently immune to his telepathic yelling, Eir finally looked back up at Genesis. 

      “How about this: as soon as your friend wakes up, we’ll head out. I’ll guide you around the patrols to a transport hub, and you two can go wherever you want from there. If you two really really want to go back to the labs you can, but well — at least this way we gave you a chance at freedom. Sirith and I will disappear if you do that, but if you do go back and ever decide you want to get back out, just ask to see Veld and tell him ‘Chocobo Fluff Donuts Rock.’ He’ll contact me and I’ll help you get out.”

         Genesis stared into her eyes, something calculating in his gaze. Sephiroth wanted to shake him and Angeal both. Was staying with the Turk really such a terrible option? Were the labs truly the only place they had right now? Also, if Eir thought he was going to let her take them out tonight by herself, she was sorely mistaken. 

      “As much as it pains me to say, if that is what you wish, then Eir is right. We will…help you get away or back to them as needed. Even if I sorely disagree with this plan.”

       Eir glanced back at him, something worried in her gaze.

       “Sirith, you can’t go out with us if they spot you — ”

       Sephiroth snarled at her, clenching his fists as he glowered.

        “I am fully aware of what will happen to me if I’m caught, Eir. Trust me, I have no intention of setting foot in one of those cursed labs ever again, but if you think I’m letting you walk around with two hostile, enhanced SOLDIERS you are dearly mistaken. Besides, if I'm in the disguise we made, it's unlikely that I will be recognized. My hair and eyes are my most distinctive features, after all.” 

       “That disguise is only when you’re not actively being suspicious. Besides, we’d be running with two other escaped lab subjects. It wouldn’t be hard to connect the dots and — ”

        “So what, you're just going to try and keep me out of anything remotely dangerous?! Might I remind you which of the two of us can snap the other in half with minimal effort?!”

        “Sirith I’m not denying that you're skilled. I’m just worried that — ”

         “Well, I’m worried, too, and nothing you can say will change my mind about this!”

       Eir opened her mouth to argue but was cut off by a small, pointed cough. At some point during their argument, Angeal had woken up. Genesis had mostly recovered use of his limbs, and the two of them were staring between them with expressions of uncertainty. Genesis was the one who had coughed, and he spoke up now, some of his haughtiness diminished by confusion. 

        “If you were sincere about guiding us to the transport hub, then we will take you up on that offer.”

      Angeal looked confused and slightly like he wanted to protest, but a glance from Genesis settled him. He trusted his friend. 

        “You are right, though. Neither of us want to go back to the lab. Or at least, I don’t. Hollander already told us what would happen if we left, and I doubt it will matter to him if we were taken against our will or not.”

       Angeal looked down at that, something bitter in his gaze, but didn’t dispute Genesis’ words. It startled Sephiroth. Angeal had always been loyal even until the end, so what had Hollander said exactly that shattered his trust in Shinra and SOLDIER enough for him to not protest Genesis’ statement? Eir nodded and stood.

        “It’s settled, then, I’ll go get you two some clothes that won’t stand out as much, as well as some wigs for your hair so it will be harder for them to recognise you, and — ”

         Sephiroth cut her off.

        “I’ll go dye my hair and change while you get them ready.”

       Eir turned and faced him, her arms raising as if to settle on his shoulders, but when she placed her hands on his shoulders, he shook her off, glowering at her.

         “They have already proven that they don’t mind hurting or attempting to kill you, and I still need you if we are to destroy all that is left of the weapon. If you think I’m going to let you go alone, you are severely mistaken.”

        Sephiroth himself didn’t know why he was so determined to keep her safe. Part of him wanted to go to keep Angeal and Genesis from being hurt again, but to his surprise, most of him was sincere when he said he didn’t want the Turk hurt. It made no sense. She was useful, yes, but not vital to his long term plans. He hadn’t even known her for long but the idea of her being hurt again made something in him bafflingly angry. How utterly strange and irritating, but it couldn’t be helped at the moment, so he supposed he’d have to ponder this later. 

       The next half hour was full of suspicious glances, sharp words, and more than a few aborted attacks from Genesis. Sephiroth cut him off each time, but the tension was certainly high by the time the three of them were utterly unrecognizable. Sephiroth had dyed his hair blonde this time and had, with Eir’s help, darkened his skin into a more healthy hue. Genesis was wearing a brown-haired wig and tinted reading glasses, and Angeal was wearing a blonde wig and a face mask that wrapped around and mostly hid his eyes in the desert style. All three of them were dressed in jeans, t-shirts, and hoodies. For the cold winter weather, the excessive layers didn’t read as too suspicious, but Eir still looked nervous. 

       “They’ll be looking for two boys, one with red hair, one with black hair, and maybe Sirith, but they won’t be looking for a group of four with brown and blond hair, so hopefully we’ll stay unnoticed. If anyone spots us though, please for the love of all that I hold dear, let me do the talking.”

         The other two looked reluctant but eventually agreed, and Sephiroth sent the Turk a reassuring nod. Taking a deep breath and muttering something in that strange language she often cursed in, Eir led the way down to ground level. She took them down streets that none of them were familiar with and twisted and turned around Midgar, her PHS out as she tracked the other patrols. About twenty minutes into their journey, her PHS rang and her shoulders tensed ever so slightly. She answered the video call from Veld and the man's face appeared on the screen, screwed into a scowl. 

         “Report. Quickshot said he hasn’t seen you despite your patrol routes having several intersection points.”

         Eir’s face was the picture of calm as she responded, her tone even and her eyes serious.

       “Sorry, sir, I ran into one of my informant groups — ”

         She briefly panned to them, only letting the camera on her PHS rest on them briefly before she turned it back to herself.

      “They mentioned seeing some suspicious activity down near the mythril market. We checked it out but found nothing. I’m crossing the city because I think it might have been a distraction and I deviated from my route significantly. I apologize.”

        Veld narrowed his eyes at her and was silent for a long moment before he sighed.

       “I have no idea what you’ve been up to lately, and I have a feeling that you're using these experiments that have escaped as an excuse to further that agenda, but you also haven’t ever let me down before. I’m choosing to trust you. Don’t make me regret it. I’ll cover for you tonight, but if you pull another stunt like this or Nibelheim I can’t promise I’ll be able to keep it from the higher ups.”

        Eir smiled ruefully.

        “Of course not, sir. I’ll do my best to wrap up quickly.”

        Veld released a massive sigh before he hung up, and Eir turned to face them with a grin on her face.

         “Well, this should help us significantly. So long as we can avoid the other patrols, Veld won’t report on me, so we should be able to get you out of here safely enough.”

        Genesis and Angeal stared down the Turk suspiciously, and Genesis spoke up, voice cold.

        “That's all well and good, but what's this about other agendas and Nibelheim?”

         Sephiroth could respect being wary, but this was boarding on both paranoid and hilarious.

        “That would be me.”

         Genesis’s gaze swept to him, his eyes flashing.

         “And what exactly do you mean by that?”

         Sephiroth smirked slightly beneath his mask as he started walking with Eir again, not waiting for the other two to follow.

         “The agenda? That's me. She’s helping me take down some dangerous weapons Hojo made that I know about. Nibelheim was us blowing up some of those weapons. The agenda is her hacking and finding locations for me. Frankly, it's a miracle only Veld has caught on so far with the amount of shenanigans the Turks have been up to on my behalf.”

          Genesis snorted. 

          “And how long exactly have you two been doing this?”

          Eir was the one who responded this time.

          “A little over two weeks now.”

          Angeal was the one who stopped and spoke this time, his voice incredulous.

          “Wait. He’s the thing that escaped the labs and blew them up two weeks ago! But they said that was a monster on par with a second class SOLDIER! He is clearly human, and he’s a kid. What on earth is going on?!”

          Sephiroth snorted.

          “Yes, that was me. Also, appearances can be deceiving. I’m only partially human, which is how they justified classifying me as company property. Never mind that it's them who made me not entirely human in the first place. Starting to see why we wanted to help you get out now?”

          Angeal and Genesis subsided into silence, though based on various hand gestures and some meaningful glances, they were still having a conversation, just not of the verbal kind. After a while, Eir finally spoke up. They were on a dark street very familiar to Sephiroth. This was the same place they’d met two weeks ago. 

        “We’re almost to the transport hub, but we have a patrol that's going to pass really close by in only a few minutes, so we need to start hurrying. Hopefully no one mentions anything to the patrol before you're long gone. Let's go.”

         They picked up the pace and soon the hub was in sight. Sephiroth was just starting to relax. They had almost made it! But the keyword there was “almost.” Right before they reached the hub, a man dressed in SOLDIER’S familiar third class uniform rounded the corner just ahead of them and locked eyes with Eir. He waved and called a friendly greeting, and Eir sighed before whispering to them softly.

        “Remember, let me do the talking.”

Chapter Text

       The SOLDIER had long dirty blonde hair that fell in a long pony tail out of his helmet. His visor also did absolutely nothing to hide the enthusiastic grin on his face as he power walked toward Eir. When he was only a few feet away, he stopped and waved excitedly at the Turk, the enthusiastic grin on his face near manic as he shifted energetically on his feet.

        “Eir! Fancy seeing you here! I was hoping we might run into each other! Not that I was hoping something would go wrong at the tower, but like, you’re so cool and I really — ”

         Eir cut him off, a gentle, polite smile on her face. 

         “Kindle, is that you?”

          The SOLDIER cut off abruptly and even with just his nose and chin visible, Sephiroth could see the sudden crimson flush of his skin. Was he angry? He felt himself tensing slightly. Genesis and Angeal also shifted nervously behind him, which didn’t help his worry in the slightest. To his utter shock and bafflement though, the SOLDIER removed his helmet and began bashfully rubbing the back of his head. From his darting eyes, Sephiroth realized that the flush wasn’t anger. No, it was something far worse. Embarrassment. Oh, please let him be wrong, or this was going to get awkward really fast. To his horror, the SOLDIER began to stammer foolishly.

        “I’m so sorry. I forgot about the helmet! I just, uh…So I was wondering…Since you're here and all and we don’t usually see each other…If you were lost…I uh — I lost my number…I mean I was wondering if you lost your number and if I could lose my number to…I mean.”

          To Sephiroth’s fascinated horror, the man had slowly been turning redder the longer he stood there. He was now fumbling in his pockets until he pulled out a scrap of paper, took a deep breath and tried again. He started speaking periodically, glancing at the words on the paper and clearly reading what was written out loud as he looked anywhere except Eir’s utterly flabbergasted expression, 

          “I — I, uh, seem to have lost my n-number. C-can I have yours, and maybe a-a date?!?”

        The silence that followed his words was deafening as the Turk stared in dumbfounded shock at the SOLDIER, who was clearly utterly taken aback. Frankly, the second-hand embarrassment Sephiroth had for the man made him want to crawl into a hole and hide. That had been physically painful to watch, good grief! Apparently Genesis agreed with him, because he was the first to break the shocked silence. 

        “I don’t think I have ever seen such an abysmal attempt at flirting in my life. ‘ Pride is lost,

Wings stripped away, the end is nigh.’ Please never do that within my hearing again.”

        The man, Kindle, if the Turk’s first assessment was correct, winced and proceeded to flush an even deeper scarlet than before. Which was honestly impressive because Sephiroth hadn’t thought that was physically possible. The man was now the same shade as a particularly overripe tomato, and looked to be on the verge of collapse, his mako eyes darting to look anywhere except their group. 

         “I-I’m just gonna go.”

              He shoved the helmet back over his head and actually ran, Eir blinking after him in utter bafflement. 

          “That…was unexpected,” She intoned finally. Her voice was flat, and her eyes were round, emotionless disks. Angeal snorted, before gruffly stating, “You can say that again.”

          The four of them exchanged looks before Eir spoke, her voice still empty and hollow. 

          “So the transport hub…”

          They stood for a moment longer, the four of them staring at each other. Then as one, they nodded and began to head for the transport hub as quickly as possible. As they went, Sephiroth prayed to any deity that may be listening that they run into no more flirtatious young SOLDIERS. He genuinely didn’t think that they could handle another one. He would literally take a massive fight over experiencing that again. Seriously, what the heck was that?! His prayers were blessedly answered when they arrived at the transport hub without any further incident. 

          Genesis and Angeal stood awkwardly as Ei — the Turk began counting out some Gil from her wallet. She seemed to be mentally calculating something in her head and ended up giving them far more than they could possibly need no matter what route they took from the hub. Angeal immediately bristled, his eyes narrowing, and blocked Genesis from grabbing the Gil, much to the red head's frustration.

         “Why are you giving us so much?”

         Eir met his gaze steadily before lowering herself just enough so that she was on the same level as the 12 year-old. It wasn’t quite a crouch, but it was enough to be clear she wanted his full attention. 

        “You two are freshly escaped from an organization that has no problem not only with human experimentation, but human experimentation on children even younger than you. It is also an organization that doesn’t hesitate to…cut off any loose ends. I could give you enough Gil to go anywhere you want, but then you’d be stranded wherever you ended up with no money and no backup. You won’t let me help with the backup part, so I’m going to make sure you at least have enough money to stay a few days in a hotel while you two make a plan. A few extra Gil is nothing to me so long as you both are safe.”

         Angeal met her gaze warily, his eyes searching. Eventually though, he looked away, his shoulders slumping wearily, something defeated in his posture. 

         “You really just want to help, don’t you?”

         He said it like it was some terrible confession, some crime he was admitting to rather than a statement of realization. Genesis scoffed, looking utterly unconvinced.

       “That's just what she wants us to think. Come on, Angeal!”

       Genesis swiped the Gil from the Turk’s loosely clenched fist and stalked off towards the hub's entrance, stopping right in the doorway and tapping his foot impatiently, arms crossed as he turned to look back at Angeal. Angeal glanced at Genesis and then back at the Turk, who was slowly straightening once more. Then he glanced at Sephiroth, something strange in his gaze.

       “Did you mean it? When you said she was helping with taking down Shinra’s weapons?”

        Sephiroth eyed him before answering honestly.

        “Yes. We’ve taken out three of them so far, though I suppose two of those were in the same place, so they could be counted as one. We still have a few to go, and then I intend to start taking down the science department, with or without Eir’s help.”

        Angeal hummed. 

        “And she hasn’t hurt you so far? Or tried to turn you in?”

         Sephiroth shook his head, eyes unblinking as he focused on Angeal.

         “No.”

        Angeal hummed again, his gaze searching, before he turned back to Eir. 

         “I don’t trust you. I don’t like what you did to get me and Genesis out, but I do believe you had good intentions. Thank you for the Gil and for bringing us here.”

         Turning on his heel, he walked quickly towards Genesis, and the two of them vanished inside the building. Eir sighed, her eyes focused on the doorway they had vanished into. 

       “I hope they’ll be alright.”

        Then she turned and looked at Sephiroth, something pained in her gaze.

         “I’m sorry I couldn’t convince them to stay, Sirith.”

         Sephiroth shrugged. All things considered, it had gone remarkably well, he only hoped that with less time spent with Hollander in this timeline, the two of them wouldn’t degrade and would be able to have long, happy lives. He turned and began following the route Eir had taken to bring them here, and Eir began to walk at his side, her gentle humming filling the air shortly after. It was a long walk back and many things were uncertain, but Sephiroth was comforted by the fact that they’d done their best.

********1 month later*********

            Sephiroth gritted his teeth as he poured over the files Eir had brought home that night. The last few weeks had been slow going as they tried to figure out how to best access and destroy the other three labs with Jenova’s cells, but he’d been content to patiently plot and wait for the right opportunity to arise. Things had been going well, and his birthday had passed quietly, making him 11, though he hadn’t told Eir. However, this was apparently the end of his peace. 

           Eir was sitting with her head in her hands beside him on the couch as he sorted through the files on the coffee table. He didn’t blame her. Personally, he wanted to scream. Angeal and Genesis had been caught when one of them had tried to steal a dose of Mako from a reactor in North Corel. Something that could have been prevented if either he or Eir had remembered the doses of Mako she’d swiped for them before they left. It was useless speculation now, but Eir blamed herself for what happened. 

            Sephiroth just knew they needed to get them out of there. Hollander had been utterly enraged when his pet lab rats had vanished, and had gone into detail to one of his lab assistants about what he planned to do to them when he got his hands on them. Eir had been monitoring him after the boys escaped and heard the whole thing. She’d retched for a solid half hour when she got back from work that day, utterly horrified by Hollander’s horrid plans. She’d sent a series of breathless prayers of thanks from her place by the toilet in between vomiting, thanking all that would listen that Hollander didn’t have his hands on them any more. 

           That gratitude was sour now that the boys had been recaptured, and as the new head of Science, Hollander, much like Hojo before him, had plenty of ways to avoid detection or repercussions for any of his less savory endeavors. Hence, Eir frantically downloaded every file she could get her hands on about where the other boys were, as well as a dangerous trip to Hollander's office to swipe and download his tablet’s info. Info that made it clear just how utterly vital it was that they get Genesis and Angeal out as soon as possible. 

        Sephiroth remembered his bitter thoughts about how the boys had suffered less than he had with Hojo and wondered if karma thought this was funny. Genesis was scheduled for a vivisection tomorrow morning. Sephiroth knew from personal experience that Mako, while allowing one to live through such an awful ordeal, did not dull the pain in the slightest, and Angeal was scheduled for the same thing in two days time. Hollander had apparently found some of Hojo’s notes and wanted to test some of the procedures himself. 

        As he sorted through the files and frantically tried to think of a solution, Sephiroth could only tremble in rage and terror as it became clear just how much Hollander had upped the ante since the last time Eir had broken in and saved the two older boys. The science department’s entire floor now ran on a separate security system then the rest of the building, and only those with clearance could even access the floor. Prior to the boy's escape, that clearance included all mid-level personnel; now it only included the scientists, the heads of the departments, and President Shinra himself. This did not include the Turks. 

         Hollander had Scarlet install bio-locked weaponry throughout the whole floor that would fire on anyone who didn’t have clearance to be there, so even if Eir managed to steal a keycard, neither of them could access the floor safely. Sephiroth let out a growl of pure frustration and threw the papers on the table as he stood to pace. 

          He could hypothetically fly to the correct floor and use materia to try and break the windows and fight his way to Angeal and Genesis, but his eleven year-old body didn’t have nearly enough mana or strength to reliably manifest his wing, let alone power enough materia to get himself and the other two in and out safely. That wasn’t even considering the likely conflict with Hollander’s new security staff. Eir’s soft voice interrupted his frantic musings as she stood and crossed to him, her ash gray eyes blazing with something hard, cruel, and determined.

        “I have to tell Veld.”

         He immediately started to protest, his lips pulled back in a snarl as he prepared to shout at the foolish Turk, but she raised a hand, her gray eyes flashing and her tone sharp as she interrupted the beginning of his protest.

      “I will not tell him everything. I’m not stupid, Sirith, but I have been slowly gathering evidence against Science this entire time just in case something went wrong and you needed his help. Hollander knows that this crosses the line, and he doesn’t know I have cameras installed on his floor.”

       She breathed in. 

     “I hate it so much, but you said Genesis will survive this right?”

      Sephiroth nodded sharply, hating where this was going.

      “If I show Veld the recording and we save it to the Turk’s database, that paired with the other evidence will be enough for us to blackmail President Shinra into letting us arrest Hollander. It will make it so the President is aware of the threat I’m building against him. Genesis will have to suffer through this first session, but it will ensure that Science can’t go too far with him and Angeal again. I might even be able to blackmail him into giving me custody of them. It means that our cover story for why you're living with me will get put under scrutiny, but I’ve been building that up for the last two months, so it should be fine. Ultimately, it comes down to this: this is the only way I can think of that will get all three of you safe and out of Hollander’s reach.” 

       There were so many potential dangers with this plan, like Veld deciding to shut down or even kill the Turk instead of helping her, President Shinra weighing the blackmail inconsequential in his overall mission, Sephiroth being wrong and Genesis dying on the operating table, or a dozen other awful scenarios. That being said, Sephiroth couldn’t think of a better option that wouldn’t result in either Angeal or Genesis suffering either irreversible damage or death. His thoughts raced as he desperately searched for another solution and Eir waited patiently, her gray eyes focused intently on his own. Her patience was unwavering and Sephiroth wanted to scream at how sure she was, but he truly couldn’t think of a better alternative that wouldn't result in horrible, possibly fatal, injuries for either himself or the other boys.

       “I don’t like it, but you're right.”

        His words came out clipped and sharp, but Eir simply nodded and turned on her heel.

        “I’ll get everything ready to show Veld. Then we just have to wait for Hollander to—”

        She cut herself off, her shoulders twitching as she closed her eyes. Something excruciatingly pained crossing her face, and Sephiroth finished for her.

       “We just have to wait for Hollander to hurt Genesis.”

        Eir inhaled sharply and then continued from where she’d paused in the hall, heading for her office where she’d apparently stored the other evidence. Sephiroth collapsed back on the couch, letting his head thump dully against the back of it as he stared up at the ceiling. Why had he let his guard down? He should have known from his past life that things were going far too well for it to not end in tragedy. If he had paid better attention or handled their first meeting better, would Genesis be safe with them instead of trapped in Hollander’s lab, awaiting horrible torture? Could he have prevented this? Was it his fault, like everything else in the last time line? Was he doomed to an endless cycle of watching people getting hurt because of him? Was there truly no escape?

          The night passed in sleepless pacing and little talking between him and Eir as the Turk organized and re-organized her evidence, desperately trying to think of another solution. Sephiroth also brainstormed and paced, doing his best to think of a way into the accursed tower that wouldn’t end with all of them dead or caught. The Turk’s alarm went off, and what little color remained in her face drained as she closed her eyes and tilted her head back. Her lips were moving in a silent prayer. Sephiroth’s pacing became frantic once she left and all he had was the ticking of the clock. Each moment agonizing as he waited for it to hit the time Genesis was scheduled for the procedure. The hours ticked by, five o’clock, six o’clock, seven o’clock. Sephiroth braced himself against the counter as the last few minutes trickled by in a crawl. He watched the clock, his heart beating a frantic tattoo inside his chest. 

        7:53, 7:54, 7:55, 7:56, 7:57, 7:58. Sephiroth was going to be sick. 7:59. The numbers seemed to warp in his vision, twisting into monsters that laughed and waved scalpels as he screamed for them to stop in his mind. This was no dream though, but the terrible sharpness of reality. 8:00. Sephiroth collapsed against the island with a keening sound. His heart burned in his chest. Hollander would be starting now, and Genesis, younger than Sephiroth had ever seen him in his last life, would no doubt be panicking. He squeezed his eyes shut, clutching his skull and yanking at his hair as Genesis’s young face appeared in his mind, eyes blown wide with panic and terror. The confident boy reduced to screaming in the nightmare of Sephiroth's mind. 

         The time that had seemed to pass in a frantic blurr before now seemed to slow and stretch like molasses. The minutes passed like hours, and Sephiroth felt ready to claw his skin off by the time 9:37 rolled around and the PHS Eir had given him rang. He scrambled to answer it, his breathing coming quick and fast. His words came out in a strangled croak.

       “Eir is he—?”

         Eir’s voice was dead and empty, not an ounce of the emotion he had become so familiar with contained within her stone-cold tone. 

         “Subject G is alive. The president agreed to let us remove Hollander. There has been a change of plan. Come to the tower, please.”

         The PHS beeped as Eir hung up and Sephiroth closed his eyes. They had been worried that he’d be summoned to the tower, and depending on what Eir said, he was supposed to do different things. “Subject G” instead of “Rhapsodos” meant that the damage was extensive. “The President” instead of “Shinra” meant that while the blackmail had worked, there had been complications. “Remove” instead of “kill” meant Hollander was still very much alive and a threat. “Change of plan” instead of just “come to the tower” meant to be extra thorough with his disguise and to use the experimental contacts from Eir’s lab friend. The “please” meant that Genesis and Angeal wouldn’t be coming home with them. All of this was bad news, but was also better than any of the worse case scenarios they’d come up with. 

         Taking a moment to gather himself, Sephiroth began to get ready, being extra thorough with the makeup to give himself the healthy warm complexion Eir had. The hair dye carefully selected to match the Turk’s natural hair color, his contacts changing his electric mako gaze to a soothing brown. Close enough to looking like Eir to make their cover story of him being her nephew believable, but different enough to thoroughly hide his most distinct features. Taking one last deep breath, he began the trek to the tower. When he arrived, the main lobby was buzzing with activity, and the receptionist he walked up to looked deeply frazzled. 

         “Look, kid, today is not the day to come looking for your hero or try and enlist young. Go home.”

        Sephiroth did his best to keep his composure despite the delay grating at his already frayed nerves.

        “I have permission to be here. My guardian called me. She said to come right away.”

        The receptionist finally gave him more than a cursory glance and gave a startle.

        “Oh, you must be Eir’s kid. Sorry, everything’s a bit of a mess right now. Here, kid, she’s on floor 63. This keycard should get you up there so long as you don’t try and wander.”

         Sephiroth accepted the keycard with a stiff nod and whirled around, stalking toward the elevators, his shoulders drawn tight and stiff as he fingered the knife in his pocket. He wasn’t sure what had happened, but he was prepared for whatever might happen. He’d given himself an extra mako boost before he left in case he had to fly out of here. Under the sleeves of his oversized hoodie he had a materia bracer on his left wrist, and another knife strapped to his right forearm. It was pitiful in the face of the might of the entire cooperation of Shinra as an eleven year-old boy, enhanced or not, and something in him screamed at the danger. 

       Gritting his teeth, he swiped the access card across the elevator card reader and stepped into the metal box with a few other people. The elevator bustled with noise and movement, but all Sephiroth could think of was how few exits there were, how close the others pressed to him, and how utterly trapped he was in this building of lies. 

       After several stops and people getting on and off, he finally arrived at the correct floor. Stepping out, he headed to the front office of the Turk’s lobby. This floor was blessedly quiet compared to the others but came with the downside of open office doors and sharp, intelligent eyes from multiple people. Every single person here had a specialty and was a highly-trained weapon in their own right. It made them far more dangerous than the average Shinra employee, and Sephiroth was painfully aware of it. The woman at the desk had short blonde hair and sharp green eyes. She wore a warm smile that didn’t reach her eyes as she greeted him. 

      “You must be Sirith. Eir’s waiting for you in Veld's office. Just head down the hall and it's the last door on the left.”

        Sephiroth gave her a terse nod and strode down the hall, rolling his shoulders back and keeping his fingers close to his weapons as he passed the open office doors on either side. He recognized few of the Turks; most of them had probably died and been replaced by the time he was old enough in the original timeline to meet them. Or they had never been assigned to work with him, but he did spot an eerily young Tseng. The older man was now only a teenager that stared at him sharp-eyed from his place beside another Turk. His eyes were brighter than Sephiroth remembered, almost none of the heavy grief and shrewd wariness that had characterized his dark gaze present. 

      Sephiroth gave him a light nod when the stretching eye contact grew too long and switched his gaze to a few of the other Turks he remembered as he continued down the hall. Rude, Shotgun, Knife, and a few others, all so much younger than their counterparts he’d worked with on occasion in his own time. Finally, he arrived at Veld's office. He knocked on the door and a smooth male voice told him to come in. 

        He entered the office, his gaze snapping to the eerily young Veld Verdot with bright red hair and none of the gray streaks he remembered. He was at least a fully grown adult, which was a relief compared to most of the teenage Turks he’d seen outside, but it was still so strange to see someone he’d known before be so young. He hadn’t really had a chance to see people he knew in the last time line yet, and this influx of twisted familiarity paired with his stress and panic gave the whole scenario a fever dream feel. 

         Veld gestured for him to sit by Eir, who was slouched in a chair across from the Turk, her head in her hands. Sephiroth sat beside her and cleared his throat, ignoring Veld as the man started to speak, only holding up a hand to tell him to stop as he focused on his Turk. 

       “Eir.”

       The woman straightened her eyes, expression blank as she stared at him. They held eye contact, a thousand unspoken words passing between them before she sighed and she leaned forward, her eyes focused on his own.

       “Project G is currently sedated while the lab tech, I trust, is stitching his injuries shut. Project H is with him at the moment. Shinra agreed to let us detain Hollander, but he won’t give me full custody of the boys. According to the paperwork they both are Shinra Property, so—”

        Veld cut in, his voice sharp.

        “Snitch, that information is all classified. As much as you may want to, you cannot just—”

        Eir leveled a cold look in his direction. 

        “Sirith is just as smart as I am and has been living in my house for two months now while my sister recovers. He got into my files, and he’s the one who found out about half the things that are wrong. He was the one who found out about the boys. I couldn’t keep him out if he tried. I intend to make sure he knows that those boys are going to be ok, when he’s apparently the only one who cares about their well being in this accursed building.”

       A flurry of emotions flashed across the man's face before settling on something pained and regretful.

         “Snitch, I know, ok. We’re doing everything we can to keep those boys safe, but protocol and your safety are the priority right now. What would your nephew do if Shinra decided to ki—fire you? You can’t do that to Sirith. Please, Snitch, just let me help you.” 

         Eir breathed in sharply, her eyes glinting like bullets in moonlight before she subsided. But Sephiroth had caught what Veld hadn't said. Eir was on President Shinra’s radar now if she hadn’t been before, and the President did not appreciate split loyalties. Eir had exposed their hand in order to keep him and the others safe, and it had opened up a weak point. One that was in danger of being exploited if they weren’t careful. Eir spoke once more, her voice soft now.

          “Fine.”

         Veld breathed in a heavy breath and leaned back, his eyes moving between the two of them before he focused on Sephiroth and began to speak. 

          “Snitch already mentioned a lot of what happened, but here is what we are both actually cleared to tell you. Two boys in Hollander’s lab have been removed from his care, and your aunt has filed for custody. She has been denied full custody, but has been granted partial custody and is responsible for their wellness check-ups as well as their basic training.”

         “However since they are both primarily under Shinra’s custody, they aren’t allowed to leave the building as a safety precaution. Your aunt and I talked and decided it would make more sense for her to be closer to the boys for their safety, so she’s moving to an apartment here in the living quarters of the tower. Since you're her dependent, that means you’ll also be moving here since it's illegal for a minor to live alone. I know that it's sudden and a big change, but you two have the next few hours to get whatever you need from Snitch’s apartment and move it to the tower. I’ve assigned a few of the others to help you move, so hopefully it goes quickly. Do you have any questions, son?”

          Sephiroth met the man's gaze steadily, letting his years of experience intimidating irritating people shine in his eyes. The silence stretched and Veld shifted uncomfortably. Sephiroth smiled to himself internally. He may be young in body, but he knew his eyes still carried the weight of his authority and power. Veld looked away first. Sephiroth stood with Eir, the Turk syncing eerily with his movements despite the fact that he hadn’t signaled to her that he was going to move. 

         “No, sir. I would say it's been a pleasure, but it really hasn’t.”

          Turning about in a swirling turn that flared his hair behind him, he crossed to the door, Eir right at his feet. When he opened the door, to his surprise and shock, he sent several Turks tumbling to the ground. Several of them stared sheepishly up at Eir, who was pinching the bridge of her nose, eyes closed as she breathed steadily. Gun spoke up from the bottom of the pile, the blonde woman smirking up at the other Turk. 

       “Snitch! You never mentioned your kid was such a spitfire! I like him already. Is he going to join our department when he’s older?”

          Eir seemed about five seconds from committing murder. Sephiroth knew the feeling. He had worn that same expression often when dealing with Genesis in his last life. Eir breathed before answering, her eyes sharp as she met Gun’s gaze. 

          “Sirith will be doing whatever he wants when he’s older. I don’t know what his plans are, but I sincerely pray it has nothing to do with our department, not in the least because you and the others are here.”

         Gun squawked indignantly and squirmed her way out from under the pile of Turks in order to poke Eir in the shoulder. 

          “What's that supposed to mean?!”

           Eir raised an eyebrow, staring down at the shorter woman disdainfully. The two looked the opposite in every way. Short, pale, and blonde Gun. Tall, tan, and dark-haired Eir. Inverses of each other to an extreme, and yet…Eir began to laugh, and Gun laughed too. Swinging her arm around Eir’s waist in a quick side hug, Gun spoke, her tone more serious than before.

          “Now, let's get you two moved, shall we? You’ve got some boys that I’m sure would be up for a visit when we’re done, so we should hurry.”

          Eir glanced at Sephiroth, her eyes questioning, and he nodded back at her. It wasn’t ideal, but it wasn’t dangerous for him just yet. So long as they were careful, no one would ever know that he was the missing Project S, so there was no point in running. 

        With a dozen able-bodied Turks and their vehicles helping, Eir’s sparse apartment was quickly stripped bare. Her books, weapons, and cooking supplies were packed in boxes and taken to the tower, leaving almost nothing in the apartment. Sephiroth packed his clothes and one of the blankets from the bed and met Eir in the hall in her bedroom where she stood over the bed, folding her own clothes and putting them in a duffle bag. The bathroom was bare behind her, all the makeup and disguise supplies he’d been memorizing the placement of now packed into two lone boxes. He spoke up quietly, looking out the window to avoid her gaze as he was careful to keep his voice low enough to not be heard by the others.

       “I’m sorry.”

        Eir’s eyes snapped up to him, her hands stopping where she’d been folding a shirt.

        “Whatever for, Sirith?”

         Sephiroth kept his eyes on the rays of the setting sun out the window. 

        “Everything. You’ve been helping me, and now you're under the President’s scrutiny and you have to move from your home. I should have just left that night and done this on my own. I’m sorry for dragging you into my mess.”

          Eir set the shirt down and circled the bed until she was in front of him. She knelt, placing her hands on his shoulders as she looked up at him, her eyes determined and sparking like lightning. 

        “You have nothing to apologize for, Sirith. I’d gladly move a thousand times and be under the scrutiny of the entirety of Midgar if it meant I could meet you. You are so incredible. I am truly blessed to have met you, and I regret none of what I have done since I met you. Now, let's get finished packing so we can see Genesis and Angeal, yes?”

        Sephiroth nodded wordlessly, not meeting her gaze as he went back to grab his bags and pass them to one of the Turks taking things to one of the cars ready to go to the tower. He felt something sick twisting in his stomach despite Eir’s reassurances. His actions had put the woman directly in the line of fire, and something dark and paranoid told him it wouldn’t be long before something went wrong. It was only a matter of time. Everyone who stayed near him too long died. It was simply a fact of life. 

          Still, he needed her. Her help was invaluable, and was his best bet for making sure the Shinra corporation fell before it destroyed the world. The necessity didn’t make the bitter taste of concern and worry any easier to swallow though, and the guilt rested like a stone in his stomach. He could only hope that the changes he’d already made would be enough in the end, and he needed to remember to keep a sharp eye on the Turk, Genesis, and Angeal, lest he make a mistake. 

        The last of Eir’s belongings were loaded, and they rode on her motorcycle to the tower to begin setting up everything in their new place. The apartment was nearly identical to Sephiroth’s in his last life, which made sense, because he was pretty sure his old apartment was only two doors down from this one. The sorting felt like it took an eternity despite Eir not owning very much, but finally, it was time to go visit the medical wing. Sephiroth fidgeted by the door while Eir grabbed her keycard and finished her conversation with the Turks who had helped them. He wanted to go now. Her eyes met his and she laughed gently, her eyes soft as she crossed to him and wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

         “Alright, you lot. Out. Sirith and I are going to go check on the boys. Thank you for all your help.”

        She ushered the Turks out and locked the apartment behind them, and then the two of them began to make their way towards Medical. Sephiroth could feel himself stiffening the closer they came to the awful place, and about two halls from Genesis’s room, Eir stopped and laid a hand across his back, leaning in to speak softly.

      “Are you alright?”

       Sephiroth nodded and marched forward before she could ask any more questions, his feet gliding across the floor as he sped toward the room the other boys had been assigned. Eir scrambled to catch up, her boots clacking loudly on the floor as she darted after him. When they arrived before the door though, Sephiroth froze. His heart was pounding in his chest and he hesitated to knock. He was scared, scared to see what his friend had suffered because he hadn’t been careful enough. His friend who he should have helped better. His friend who lay just beyond this door. Eir squeezed his shoulder and waited beside him, her breathing steady and calm in his ear. Finally, Sephiroth gathered his courage, knocked, and at last, he opened the door…

Chapter Text

 “Genesis was pale” was Sephiroth’s first thought. The older boy was sitting up in the hospital bed, Angeal beside him with their hands interlocked. When they entered, Angeal jumped to his feet, placing himself between them and Genesis in an awful mimic of that night a month ago. But Sephiroth couldn’t focus on Angeal; his eyes were drawn toward the line of healing stitches stretching across Genesis’s bare chest. 

          The black stitching was stark and clear against the other’s paper pale skin. The familiar Y shape of the injury had Sephiroth staggering forward, landing on his knees beside the end of the bed. Angeal made an aborted movement to stop him from getting too close, something confused and concerned in his gaze. Distantly, he could hear Angeal aggressively asking Eir what on earth Sephiroth thought he was doing, but his eyes were focused on the injury spanning across Genesis’ chest. A voice cut through his thoughts, sharp, clear, and familiar.

        “ Infinite in mystery …what on earth do you think you're doing, kid?”

         Sephiroth dragged his eyes up from the injury, ignoring the other two in the background as he met familiar, sharp eyes framed by red hair. The other boy's gaze was harsh, but there was something strange floating there that Sephiroth didn’t recognize—not that it mattered. He spoke the words, sounding distant to his own ears even as he spoke them.

         “I’m sorry. This is all my fault. I’m so sorry, we were never supposed to match.”

         A heavy silence filled the room and those sharp eyes came closer. Genesis leaned forward, his expression eerily neutral and calm. 

        “What do you mean by that?”

         Sephiroth’s mind felt sluggish and his usual sharp wit and sense of separate timelines had left him entirely. Genesis sat, young and hurt. Genesis sat older than before, a manic expression on his face as the degradation spread. Genesis sat hurt because he messed up the timing in this timeline. Genesis sat bleeding from the wounds Sephiroth had caused. 

         “I should have remembered you before I left the first time. I should have figured out the cure sooner. I should have saved you before. This is all my fault. They would never have hurt you if I’d stayed. I could have fixed it all. I should have—I knew Hollander was dangerous. Why didn’t I kill him with Hojo?! I should have killed all of them before the surprise wore off! Why didn’t I—”

        Sephiroth cut himself, placing his head in his hands as he closed his eyes. 

        “I’m so sorry. I’m so so sorry Genesis. I should have known—”

         Genesis cut him off, his voice sharp. 

         “Were you the one who cut me open?”

          Sephiroth's thoughts blurred, seeing an older version of the boy before him, Masamune slashing through skin and bone. It hadn’t happened in this timeline, but his actions had resulted in injuries much like the ones he’d given Genesis in the future past.  Genesis didn’t know that though and he couldn’t tell him that, so he slowly shook his head.

          “Then I fail so see how you getting out of a bad situation makes it your fault that I ended up here. You got out, kid, and while it was rude you and your friend kidnapped us, I’m pretty sure that Hollander would have gone off the deep end even without your interference. So stop being so self-important. You're not the main character.”

          Angeal snorted.

        “What's that supposed to mean, Gen?”

          Genesis leaned back, flipping his hair dramatically. 

         “Well, obviously I'm letting this kid know his place. After all, with someone as fabulous as me, science was bound to want a piece of me eventually, just like all my adoring fans. Him trying to take the credit for the sheer fabulousness of my existence is entirely uncalled for.”

           Sephiroth stared at Genesis, his mind short circuiting. Did the man ever stop with the superiority complex? He knew that the answer was no, but whenever he had a moment of doubt, Genesis seemed determined to bash it from his mind. Angeal huffed a half laugh and turned to face Sephiroth, something calculating in his gaze. 

          “What did you mean you and Gen match?”

           “Yes, I’d rather like to know that as well.”

          All three boys startled at the soft female voice. In the blur of the last few minutes, they’d forgotten the Turk, Something Sephiroth was deeply regretting as those gray eyes met his own. the dark-haired Turk stared at him with something sharper than he’d seen from her in the last two months of knowing her. She leaned against the wall, almost lounging, but her body was coiled languidly like a spring about to snap. 

          Deadly. Dangerous. The Turk had hurt none of them so far, but Sephiroth was suddenly sharply reminded that Turks were not only trained, but also smart. Dangerously smart. What did brute strength mean if you didn’t even have a chance to fight, after all? For the first time since their first meeting, Sephiroth felt a twinge of worry about the threat the Turk might pose.

          Still, the other boys were waiting, and Eir had asked… Turning to focus on Genesis, he lifted his shirt ever so slightly, revealing his torso covered in distinct, silvery mako-healed scars. There were a variety, but he knew which one all three of them were focusing on based on the sharp inhale of breath from Angeal. A thick, ropy silvery-scar, one that matched the healing wound on Genesis’ chest. The Turk spoke, her voice cold and glittering in the silence. 

         “When did Hojo do that, Sirith?”

          Sephiroth shrugged, not meeting her gaze as he stared at the Y on Genesis torso.

         “Most recently? Can’t remember. The first time? MMmmm, maybe when I was four or five?”

          The silence was heavy, though Sephiroth didn’t understand why. He was out. He was fine. He had, in fact, been out for a long time, longer than they knew. Ah, perhaps that was the problem. By all rights, for most people, two months wouldn’t have been enough to recover. Indeed, he remembered not being nearly as…well-adjusted the first time around. Though there had been…other contributing factors to his precarious mental state in that particular timeline, so he wasn’t sure how much he had actually cared about this particular ill in his last life. His thoughts were interrupted by a slowly released breath. Footsteps sounded in his peripheral, and he looked up to face the Turk. The Turk sat in one of the visitors chairs, her face concerned but determined as she looked over the three of them.  

       “All of you need so much therapy, by the Stars. I doubt we’ll be able to find someone you lot can trust in this building though, so we’ll just have to make do for now. Sirith, we are going to talk about this later, but first—”

       She looked him dead in the eye.

       “You are aware that what Hojo did was wrong, yes?”

        Sephiroth raised an eyebrow at her.

        “Did killing the man and burning the entirety of the science floor not drive home the point far enough? Yes, Eir, I’m aware what he did was in no way morally correct.”

         Eir raised her hands.

         “I just wanted to be sure. You're being rather….calm about this whole thing, and I was a little worried that had been… conditioned into you. Frankly, I'm concerned about all three of you and potential conditioning.”

       Angeal snorted while Genesis huffed dramatically.

      “I’d like to say you're wrong, ma’am, but I'm pretty sure that there is, at the very least, a little of that in play.”

         Ei—the Turk smiled ruefully at Angeal.

         “Well, at least you are self-aware. Also none of this “ma’am” business. It's Eir, no miss or ma’am. I got enough of that from Sirith in the beginning.”

       Angeal shifted uncomfortably but didn’t argue. Genesis flopped back dramatically. groaning and throwing an arm over his eyes.

         “There are entirely too many emotions and positive intentions in this room right now. Get that foul stuff away from me or I can’t promise one of you isn’t going to get singed.”

         Eir laughed, casting a sly, mischievous smile in Sephiroth’s direction, which he returned with a vicious smirk of his own. 

        “Oh, but Genesis, don't you want a hug for the pain? Or perhaps a kiss to make the hurt go away?”

         Sephiroth dead-panned, causing Angeal to choke slightly and Eir to nearly collapse in her chair from trying to contain laughter. If looks could kill, Sephiroth would be dead four times over from the searing glare Genesis leveled at him. The red head smiled sickly sweet and leaned in close, his nose inches from Sephiroth’s own. 

        “A kiss you say. Think you can handle this, huh?”

         Their noses touched. Eir was starting to look distinctly uncomfortable and Angeal looked concerned. Sephiroth resisted the urge to roll his eyes; he'd been dealing with Genesis and his particular brand of weaponized flirting for years. The boy wouldn't do anything so long as he didn’t antagonize him. If he saw weakness he’d probably kiss him to assert dominance, and conversely, if Sephiroth called his bluff, he’d also get kissed. Genesis used this as a way to intimidate people or genuinely seduce them, but Sephiroth also knew that he was in no way Genesis’ type. It would be empty, and frankly Sephiroth wasn’t interested in kissing someone he considered his brother. An annoying, pain-in-the-butt brother, but well, what else were siblings for? 

         So Sephiroth did what any good sibling would do in this situation: he held eye contact to assert dominance and, before Genesis could react, kissed the tip of his nose, keeping his face utterly blank as he did so. Genesis reeled back, utterly baffled and wiping angrily at the tip of his nose as he sputtered indignantly. Angeal looked like he was in physical pain trying to keep his laughter contained, and Eir was turning an interesting shade of red as she apparently held her breath in order to keep herself contained. Sephiroth met Genesis’ betrayed glare head on and leaned forward. The red head leaned far back, apparently now wary of nose kisses. 

        “I think I can, in fact, handle this, as you put it.”

        Then, before the red head could retreat further, Sephiroth kissed his hand and lightly tapped the injury on Genesis’s torso. 

         “There. There. There. All better now.”

          Eir lost it, followed shortly by Angeal, and the two descended into howling laughter as Genesis screeched indignantly, quickly covering his chest with both hands and looking utterly affronted.

          “Angeal, you traitor! I have been violated, and all you can do is laugh?!”

           He sounded so utterly betrayed, and that sent Angeal into another hysterical round of laughter as Eir slowly slid from her chair, soundless wheezes leaving her mouth as the laughter refused to let her breathe. Genesis sent a heated glower towards Sephiroth and he smiled back, serenely, utterly calm in the face of the other’s wrath.

           “You're evil.” Genesis decided after a long moment of glaring. 

Sephiroth felt something twinge in his chest. Something like pain as memories of fire, screaming, and corpses filled his mind. Instead of acknowledging it though, he simply cocked his head and blinked lazily at the other boy.

        “Whatever makes you say that? I’m just trying to make you feel better, and you seemed like you were too scared to ask for a kiss to make the ouch go away.”

          Genesis let out an inarticulate sound of rage and lunged for him. Angeal had sunk to his knees, the laughter having utterly consumed him. Eir was lying fully on the floor, her breath coming in gasping pants as she cried with mirth. Sephiroth gently caught Genesis’ wrists to prevent the boy from clawing his face off and smiled serenely as the other boy squirmed, trying to get loose. About a minute into the struggle though, after glancing to make sure the other two were still incapacitated, he leaned forward, his face deadly serious. 

         “You are an excellent warrior, Genesis.” He whispered, leaning closer to the older boy's face so only he could hear him. 

Genesis jerked back slightly startled, his eyes narrowing, but Sephiroth continued anyway.

          “I regret that we had to meet under such unwelcome circumstances, but—”

          Something got stuck in his throat, heavy and cloying, and his next words came out slightly strangled.

          “—I’m grateful to meet someone whom I respect. Perhaps, when you are better, we can spar?”

        He could only hope he’d played this correctly. Genesis was prideful and vain to a fault, but it stemmed from a place of deeply felt inadequacy and Sephiroth could only hope that his playful teasing hadn’t hurt the boy too deeply. He…missed spending time with his brothers, he had…missed them. So so much. Long before the Planet had sent him back, long before he had gotten stuck in an endless loop of death and rebirth, he had missed them.

            Despite his resolve to not get involved for both their safety, that ship had long since sailed. He was already involved and now that he was, he wanted them back…He was so tired of being alone, and he just wanted his big brothers back. He could only hope that for once the universe would grant him this one thing. 

       As if in answer to his voiceless prayer, something in Genesis’ expression softened. The harsh, angry edge to him fading ever so slightly—not vanishing entirely, but definitely not nearly as strong as before. He yanked his arms back, leaning back with a pout as he considered Sephiroth with a flinty-eyed stare. He seemed to be judging his sincerity. The other two were nearly recovered when he finally came to a decision. Eir was now seated once more in the chair and Angeal on his feet. As Angeal’s breath started to even out, Genesis nodded slightly.

          “Maybe we can. No promises though, goblin child.”

           Angeal looked between the two of them, suddenly far more alert than before and clearly upset that he’d missed something. 

           “No promises about what?”

            The words were flat and suspicious, more of a demand than a question, but Genesis merely waved off Angeal's words, clearly uninterested in sharing. Before Angeal could press further, Eir spoke up. 

           “As much fun as this has been, we really do need to discuss what happens next. Have they told you two anything? Also, would you mind telling me what happened? I know the jist of it, but I’d like to hear it from you two personally.”

            Angeal sent one more suspicious glare at Genesis before turning once the red head huffed and faced away. 

        “They told us that Hollander was detained for misuse of power and for unethical experiments, and that we are now officially under the jurisdiction of someone called ‘Snitch.’ They didn’t tell us why after all these years and the permission he received for the…procedure this morning, he suddenly was stripped of power, but I can guess that had something to do with you two…”

        He trailed off leadingly, and Eir nodded, her face carefully neutral.

       “Yeah, I hacked into Hollander’s files. I've been gathering information since I met Sirith, and after we caught what happened to Genesis on cam footage, it was enough to finally blackmail him…I’m only frustrated that I had to let Genesis’ procedure this morning happen before I was able to fully blackmail the president. I do apologize for that. Sirith and I tried to figure out a way to get you out without allowing Genesis to be operated on, but—”

       Angeal breathed in through his nose, and Genesis wouldn’t meet her eyes as she glanced between them.

         “It was either that or get shot down trying to get past the security system. I tried hacking it, but, well—”

        She shrugged helplessly.

         “Programming isn’t like in the movies. Tapping at the code won’t make it go faster, and the program has to run its course. If I had enough processing power on my computer, the program would hypothetically be fast enough, but I’m currently….on probation from my last attempt at boosting the computer.”

          Sephiroth spoke up.

          “I did consider storming the tower anyway, but even with my flight capabilities, I would have gotten shot down before I was able to get both of you out. Also, don’t worry about Snitch. That's just the Turk’s code name, so you're under her jurisdiction….mostly anyway”

         All three of them were staring at him once he finished, and he blinked at them.

         “What? She forgot to mention she was Snitch. I was just clarifying.”

          Genesis spoke this time

          “No that's not—what do you mean flight capabilities?!?!”

          Sephiroth blinked. Wait, had he not told any of them? Angeal and Genesis made sense. He kept messing up the timeline in his head and they didn’t know yet, but hadn’t Eir known from the night he escaped? Glancing at her face revealed genuine shock and confusion. Huh. Oops. He thought that she had at least known. Now was not the time for this though.

          “I’ll tell you all later. Eir hasn’t finished explaining what's going to happen next.”

         All three of them looked like they wanted to protest, but when Sephiroth stared hard at Eir, the Turk sighed and turned to the other boys once more.

         “Fine, but we are definitely discussing this later. Sirith is correct. My code name is Snitch, and I was able to blackmail my way into a joint custody arrangement with the Shinra company as a whole. I couldn’t get you completely free or get full custody, but I do have access to you at all times no matter where you are in the building. That means whoever ends up in charge of Science will have to discuss it with me if they want to see you, and I’ll have final say on whether or not you get taken back to the labs. At least…in theory. I have no doubt the President has some plans on how to get around the paperwork, but hopefully by then we’ll have you two fully out of his and the rest of the company’s grasp. I have pretty much the entirety of the Turk department backing me because once they found out about the three children Shinra authorized experimentation on, they got a tad…irritated on your behalf.”

           Sephiroth had a feeling from her tone that it was more than mild irritation, which once again begged the question: what had happened in the year between now and when the three of them were deployed next year in the last timeline? What had changed the Turk Department’s moral compass so drastically in that time?

        War certainly brought out the worst in people, but something told him that wasn’t the only reason that the Turk department had lost what was apparently a decent set of morals. It did make him determined to keep a sharp eye on the lot of them for any signs of corruption though. His thoughts were interrupted as Eir continued.

          “All that being said, you're not allowed to stay in Sirith’s and my apartment despite my best efforts. They told me that until you both have undergone treatment for injuries and a thorough medical exam, you have to stay in medical just in case. I am pretty sure they are lying to me, or at least fudging the truth, but if you're still not out in three days, I have the authority to override medical and take you to my place here in the tower.”

          Angeal’s brow furrowed.

         “I thought your apartment was outside the tower?”

         Eir shifted uncomfortably, and Sephiroth gritted his teeth, speaking up as he did so. Irritated didn’t begin to cover his opinions on being forced to be back in this accursed tower, and yet here they were.

         “She was forcibly relocated once she became your legal guardian, and since I’m her dependent, I’m also here. It's less than ideal, but at least this way we can keep a better eye on you if Shinra tries anything.”

         Angeal looked alarmed and Genesis also shifted nervously.

          “Infinite in the mystery !—What do you mean forcibly relocated?!”

         Eir held up a calming hand and glared at Sirith ever so slightly.

         “It's not as bad as Sirith makes it sound, which is to say our move was not forced at all. Veld and I discussed various options on how to best keep you safe, and being in the tower is the best option right now.”

        Angeal didn’t look convinced, but both he and Genesis subsided reluctantly. Eir rubbed the bridge of her nose, looking tired. 

        “Speaking of my apartment, we only have a little time before one of the other Turks I’ve set on watch comes to check on you. They’ll make me and Sirith leave so we can all actually get some sleep tonight”

         Sephiroth felt himself stiffen and noticed the other two boys shifting as well. He voiced what he was sure the other two were thinking, his heartbeat speeding up ever so slightly.

        “A watch?”

         Eir looked up, her gunmetal eyes glinting sharply. 

        “Yes, a watch. Believe it or not, I do actually have a solid plan to keep all three of you safe from this corrupt company. I have two lab techs and three doctors that I’ve carefully ensured will be the only ones allowed near you two. All of them are people I would trust with my life and have trusted with my life in the past. Also, Shinra doesn’t know that they're associated with me, so it was simple enough to hack the schedule without drawing suspicion.”

       “I’ll show you pictures of them, so if anyone else comes in, you can contact me or attack immediately. I’ve placed the six Turks I trust the most on a 24-hour rotating watch outside your room starting at 11 o'clock tonight. If anyone I haven’t assigned to you tries to gain access to your room, they’ll take them down without mercy. I am also going to set up a security system in my and Sirith’s apartment to act as a bunker for him or all three of you in the event that anything goes wrong. Scarlet and her department may be the weapons experts, but unfortunately for her, us Turks have access to most of her stuff as well as our own tricks. We are called specialists for a reason, after all.”

        That was…shockingly well thought out. Sephiroth knew Eir wasn’t dumb, what with her hacking skills and her status as a Turk, but he also hadn’t thought she was the brightest dumbapple in the barrel. It was hard to believe she was particularly good at forethought with the way their first meeting had gone. Much less her previous… ill thought through kidnapping of Genesis and Angeal. So this was honestly terrifyingly competent and well thought through of her. Based on Angeal and Genesis’ stunned expressions, he hadn’t been the only one not anticipating this. Eir glanced between the three of them and raised a judgmental eyebrow, her eyes narrowed. 

          “What?”

         She sounded mildly offended. It was Genesis who spoke for them, his tone taking on that shifty, almost flirtatious tone he used when trying to not offend a target. 

        “Nothing. It's a brilliant plan. We were simply amazed by how well you seem to be handling this situation. After all, you’ve only had a day to figure out the finer details. It's remarkably impressive.”

          Eir eyed him and then glanced at Angeal and Sephiroth. Both of them nodded along with what Genesis had said, and Sephiroth prayed that she’d leave it at that. Eir seemed to sense that they weren’t saying something, and her eyes narrowed even further, but she didn’t comment. 

         “Well, thank you, I suppose. Do you two have any other questions for me before Sirith and I go? We only have five minutes till eleven.” 

         Angeal and Genesis both glanced at each other before Angeal spoke up.

        “Just one. Why did you help us and Sirith? It seems out of character for someone who works for Shinra, so forgive us if both your previous actions and current ones are…remarkably suspicious.”

         Eir breathed in sharply, her eyes closed as her lips moved in what Sephiroth was fairly certain was a silent prayer. When she opened her eyes again, there was something deeply pained in her gaze.

         “How far have we fallen that our whole company is considered a threat to innocent children?”

         She rubbed her temples and leaned against her hands. Sephiroth exchanged a silent look with the other two, wondering if that had been a genuine question or rhetorical. The Turk spoke, her head still facing toward the floor, her voice soft and slightly strangled.

          “I was trained to be the best of the best at an academy that specializes in turning out highly deadly individuals for a variety of security and bodyguarding jobs. Only a handful of candidates are selected for the Turks from a variety of places like the academy, and I was selected out of a class of fifty to undergo the further training the Turks provide. All of that was with one goal in mind: to protect, to defend, and to prevent danger from growing before it was too late.”

         She looked up at them, eyes full of grief,

         “The point of learning trained combat should always be to protect. Never to offend. This job meant obeying the employer of course, but it also meant providing power to places that needed it. It meant protecting those who couldn’t. It was to defend against unseen threats. So boys, that is why. My entire life I have trained, I have bled, I have worked to defend those who cannot or should not have to defend themselves. You have been hurt, you have been threatened, and you have been forced to become far more mature and wary than anyone your age should ever have to be. For that, I am sorry, because those of us who swore to protect have failed you, and in the case of the Turk department at the very least, that's everyone there. I have failed, and I can only hope you will let me help you now.”

         They lapsed into silence after that, and a short while later a knock on the door sounded. It was the Turk assigned to the first watch. Eir stood and walked out of the room, closing the door quietly behind her. She talked to him for a while outside the room, and they sat for a moment in continued silence.

        Genesis was once again the one to break it.

        “What do you think, Sirith? You’ve spent the most time with her, and while I don’t trust you, I do trust you slightly more than her at the moment. Fellow lab rat and all that.”

         Sephiroth hummed softly as he thought.

         “She’s useful.”

         He briefly pondered on what he should say next, focusing his hearing on the two Turks outside as they discussed patrol routes and what the next few weeks would look like. He spoke again, meeting both Angeal and Genesis’ gazes.

          “I’ve spent two months with her help. I asked her to help me destroy Hojo’s more dangerous work, and she's helped me do so. I overheard Hojo talk about you two, so I asked her to find you and she did. She may not have handled it the way I would have preferred, but she did help…”

          He listened again. The other Turk was asking Eir something about another mission. He still had time.

        “That being said, I don’t trust much of anyone who works for Shinra. She hasn’t lied yet, I’ve been careful to watch everything she does, and there hasn’t been once she has intentionally deceived me. But that means very little if she’s purposefully omitting things. I would—”

         His next words felt stuck in his throat, but he continued on anyway.

         “—like to trust her. But I’ve never had someone in my life not betray my trust. Some of them betrayed it with good reason, but trust is something that is…difficult to give once it has been broken enough times. I do trust she hasn’t lied to you at all tonight though. I have been trained to know if someone is lying or not, and she hasn’t lied once this evening. Do with this information what you will, but—”

        He breathed in.

        “—if there ever comes a time where you truly do not feel safe with the Turk or here in the tower, I have some…alternate routes I didn’t take to get out the first time I escaped. I could get you out, and unlike you two, I know several places where we can obtain mako without getting caught.”

         A heavy silence fell then, much more uncomfortable than any of the others that had fallen this evening. He listened as Eir wrapped up her conversation with the other Turk. Promising that yes, she would send him the files, and that yes, she was certain the information was accurate. That was her job, you moron. Sephiroth found himself smiling faintly as he listened to the two Turks banter, and Angeal seemed to notice the smile. He turned away from his silent staring contest with Genesis and smiled softly back at Sephiroth.

           “We’ll keep that in mind, kid.”

        Sephiroth could hear Eir coming back to the door and stood quietly, crossing to shake Angeal’s hand before he leaned in and spoke to both Genesis and Angeal in a soft, almost light voice, too quiet to be heard by the Turks outside. 

        “Don’t mention it, and you both can call me Sephiroth so long as no one else can hear.”

        He stood up straight as Eir entered the room and smiled at her. The Turk’s eyes glanced between him and the other two, but she said nothing at all, merely smiled painfully back at him.

        “All right, Sirith, let's go.”

        He glanced back only once as he was leaving, meeting a wide-eyed Angeal’s gaze and a suspicious Genesis’. He nodded once and then followed Eir back to their new apartment. That hadn’t gone too bad, all things considered. He could only hope it would be enough.

Chapter Text

 The next three days were painful patience as the medical department as a whole attempted to get around Eir’s restrictions. Several doctors tried to change the rotation she had set only to find themselves unable to override the schedule. They were forced to let the medical personnel assigned to the other boys be the only ones allowed to enter.

       One particularly foolish lab tech tried to get around the Turk guard on duty and promptly had his right arm and left leg broken for his trouble. A doctor that had worked under both Hojo and Hollander tried to get in next, claiming he had permission, and had ended up getting shot in the thigh, shoulder, and hand. No one else tried after that. All three of the days Eir brought him to visit the other two boys, and instead of discussing any of the heavier topics, the three of them had ended up playing various board games on the table arranged next to Genesis’ cot. The boy was almost entirely healed the morning after they had spoken and seemed irritated beyond belief that the doctors were making him stay in bed all three days. 

           He and Genesis had also gotten into a heated discussion about various books that had Angeal groaning and pretending to take a nap to avoid being dragged into. Eir gave them space at Sephiroth’s request and didn’t enter or allow anyone else to enter without knocking first. It was nice. The first day, neither of the boys had mentioned or said his name except in a quiet farewell. But by day two Genesis was teasing him about it and giving him ridiculous nicknames. Neither of the boys used his name in the presence of others, and for that he was grateful. 

           On the morning of day four though, problems arose that had his fingers clenched into tight fists. They had arrived at medical to pick up the other boys, and the doctor at the desk had refused entry. She had a pinched, sour expression on her face as she glared down her nose at Eir. Which was impressive, since the Turk absolutely towered over the small bony woman. 

          “The boys are not ready to be moved, and I’m afraid you are not currently cleared to see them, Miss .”

        She spat the word like it was vile, and Sephiroth’s shoulders pulled back as he prepared to pull out his knives or materia. He was stopped by a gentle hand on his arm. Eir was looking cooly down at the woman, her lips in a perfect, gentle, and polite smile, face open and sweet. Her eyes betrayed her though. The smile did not reach them. Instead, they glinted and sparked like twin pools of lightning.

         “And who said I wasn’t cleared to see them? I have partial custody, and I’d like to know who thinks they can challenge that.”

           The woman shifted, doing her best to remain unruffled, but it was clear Eir’s lack of visible rage was unsettling her. 

          “Well, the head of the medical department was looking over their medical charts and—”

          Eir cut her off, leaning in. Her smile widened as she leaned against the woman's desk. It was casual, no movements toward any weapons, no threatening gestures and yet…It felt deadly. Lethal, as if she were a panther stretching her claws inches from the woman's throat.

         “The head of medical does not share custody of the boys with me. The President does. So I’ll ask again: who thinks they can challenge my custody and right to remove my boys from medical?”

          The woman inhaled sharply, her eyes transfixed by Eir’s unblinking gaze.

          “I-I-you can’t order me around, you stupid Turk! You have no authority in this department! You’ve been directly told that someone who outranks you gave an order that the boys aren’t to be moved. You don’t have the ability to override a direct order!”

            Eir leaned back, her smile gentle and her fingers tapping at the desk.

           “Oh, but I can. In the laws of our country and the rules of this company, a parent or guardian has the right to override any medical treatment of their dependents if they so choose. I don’t need to have authority in your department to exercise that right, and the boys will be coming home with me today. You can either let me do so, or I will be forced to take legal and physical action, and I sincerely doubt your department wants to go to war with mine.”

           The entire time, that cordial smile stayed on the Turk’s face. Her finger tapping remained slow and calm, her body relaxed. The woman snarled, standing from her desk and poking Eir directly in the chest with a sharp boney finger, the action making Sephiroth twitch. But Eir merely stared down at the woman, raising a single eyebrow as the woman, trembling with rage, spoke in tight, snarled tones.

            “Next time you end up in medical, I’ll personally ensure you vanish for good, you *********. You have no right to take those specimens from us! Years of research are going to waste because your department decided to grow a conscience, and it means nothing in the long run because once you’re dead, we’re going to go extra hard on those stupid lab subjects we’re going to te”

          The woman was cut off by a hand settling round her throat. Eir didn’t squeeze, didn’t tighten her grip at all, merely settled her hand there as a threat as she leaned in close.

            “They are not stupid, they are not specimens, they are children, you sick, twisted monster, and you and your department are never getting your hands on them. Never again. Also, if you think that after all these years as a Turk I’m suddenly just going to roll over and die because of some weak noodle-armed scientists and medical officers, you’ve got another thing coming.”

          She leaned in even closer, her grin spreading to sharklike proportions. 

          “Frankly, I'm going to enjoy watching you lot try.”

           She released the woman with a gentle push and then, with a small nod toward Sephiroth, she glided past the medical desk, smiling cheerily at several lab techs and doctors who had been waiting just inside the entrance of medical watching the conversation. They all scuttled back at the sight of her, and Sephiroth followed in her shadow, utterly baffled by what he’d seen. He’d threatened people before, he’d watched his friends threaten people before, but that had been…It had been so cheerful. So calm, so confident, so utterly unaffected. It spoke of someone comfortable in their body and their abilities, a killer hiding in the skin of a polite woman. 

         Did it say something about Sephiroth’s life that he found that deadliness comforting? Perhaps, but it was the least of his worries at the moment. The medical desk attendant hadn’t minced words, and he was starting to wonder just how deadly the coming conflict between the medical, science, and Turk departments were going to be. He doubted it would just remain within those three departments or else he would have immediately bet on the Turks, but with Shinra, it would likely become an all-out war between everyone in the building. Eir spoke as they neared the door to the others’ room, her voice soft.

         “After the stunt their attendant just pulled, I doubt we’re going to avoid conflict when getting to my apartment. Don’t fight unless the other Turks and I go down. They don’t know about you yet, and I’d like to keep it that way for as long as possible.”

          Sephiroth nodded, and the Turk on guard duty came into view moments later. It was a Turk named Trickshot, one who took a lot of shifts, and another Turk Sephiroth didn’t recognize from his first life. He was older than Eir, probably in his late twenties, and he seemed to be the Turk Eir talked to the most, aside from Veld. The man was tense, his dark eyes and skin stark against the surrounding brilliant white of medicine. 

         “They’ve all been acting shifty all day, Snitch.”

          He muttered when they came within hearing range, and Eir nodded grimly.

        “They tried to stop me from entering.”

         Trickshot's right hand tightened over his many weapons holsters and he smiled grimly at Eir, dark eyes glimmering with resignation. 

        “Think we’ll have to fight our way out?”

          Eir hummed, her eyes darting about.

         “No. But I don’t doubt some incident is bound to occur when we try to leave with the boys. Are the others on standby?”

         Trickshot nodded and flicked at a dangling earring that hung from his left ear. 

         “The emergency beacon Spyder built is ready to go in case we need them.”

          Eir smiled. This one was genuine, all sharp teeth, sharp angles, and glinting eyes, and Trickshot smiled just as viciously back. 

            “Then let's get this party started.”

            They entered the room to find Genesis and Angeal standing anxiously, heads inclined toward one another as they spoke. They both fell silent when the two of them entered the room, and Eir smiled soothingly. 

         “As I’m sure you’ve noticed, medical is trying to keep you here, but after some discussion, they’ve agreed that we can go back to my place now.”

          Sephiroth side-eyed her dubiously. Discussion was certainly a polite way of phrasing the situation that he’d just witnessed, but he didn’t comment on it. Genesis did though.

          “Uh huh, and did that discussion involve fists or weaponry?”

           Eir smiled.

           “No. It was just words. Two adults speaking with one another and coming to an… agreement . That being said, I’m not sure how long that agreement will remain in place, so the sooner we get moving the better.”

           The two boys looked at each other, then at Sephiroth, and when he inclined his head slightly, Genesis sighed, crossing his arms.

           “Fine, let's get this over with.”

           The first hallway held no opposition of any kind. Trickshot stayed at the rear, guarding their backs while Eir led the way out of medical. While she made it seem like she was just showing them the way to the apartment, her words were light and cheerful as she made small talk. Sephiroth knew better than to call it anything other than scouting. Her expression was open and relaxed but her shoulders were pulled back, ready for any hostile action. Her eyes darted from side to side, sweeping methodically, carefully, over every little detail. 

            They were halfway back to the entrance of medical when the medical department finally made its move. Three doctors and six lab technicians more burly in nature crossed their path in a group. They were trying to act casual, but the hunger in their eyes when they saw Angeal and Genesis and the poorly hidden scowls they leveled at Eir gave them away. Gave them away as surely as a visible knife would have. They filled the hallway, blocking the way forward with their bodies. One of them stepped forward, an awful attempt at a friendly smile twisting across his face like rot. 

          “I’m afraid we can’t allow you to take those subjects any farther, Snitch. We have orders to stop you by force if necessary. It would be better if you just let us take them—then no one has to get hurt too badly.”

          Eir hummed, that same polite smile from earlier appearing on her face. 

          “As I informed your personnel at the desk, both the law and the rules of the company back me. Are you certain you want to try and start this fight?”

         The doctor sneered at the Turk, his face twisting into something monstrous that had both Angeal and Genesis audibly tensing behind Sephiroth's back.

           “In case you’ve forgotten, you only have partial custody. Those lab subjects aren’t even human under their contracts that their families signed. I feel pretty good about our chances against the law and the rules.”

            Angeal inhaled sharply, and Sephiroth felt his lips pull back in a snarl of his own as he stared down at the man who’d dared mention Angeal’s family. Sure, Genesis’ parents sucked, and yes, Angeal’s parents weren’t the best, but his friend loved his mother dearly despite the pain it caused him. The man had no right to bring them up. Sephiroth heard Genesis inhale, clearly preparing to say something biting, but before the boy could utter a word, Eir spoke once more.

          “I see. Well then, I have just one more question for you.”

           Her voice was still chillingly pleasant, almost cheerful, and it clearly startled Genesis enough to stop him from talking. The men in front of them all shifted uncomfortably, clearly put off by the Turk’s unnatural cheer. The man who’d been speaking for the group swallowed audibly before steeling himself and sneering at Eir once more. 

         “Oh, and what's that?”

          Eir smiled for real, her teeth glinting in the harsh light as her hand vanished into her jacket.

          “How long do you think your department will last against a Turk team on a mission?”

          The man and the other doctors and scientists lurched forward, drawing forth some kind of strange devices from their pockets, but Eir had already pulled out the weapon in her jacket. Trickshot began firing off strange, silent shots from two handguns, his aim eerily perfect as he put a tranq dart into each of the three doctors with the strange devices. That left the six burly lab techs, but Eir didn’t seem to mind.

           Even with his enhanced senses, Sephiroth had trouble following the path of several knives that suddenly took flight from Eir’s hand. She nailed three of the scientists in the thigh, and all three dropped instantly, the blades clearly laced with something similar to Trickshot’s tranq darts. In less than a minute, six of the nine assailants were down, and in the next minute, Trickshot had nailed those three as well. All before any of the enemy could deploy their weapons. Eir breathed in and out once before crossing to the limp form of the man who’d been speaking initially and prying the device he held from his hand.

           “Looks like I was wrong, Trickshot. Sorry about that. I'm not sure how many more of these morons we’ll have to take care of on the way out, but call the others. I don’t want to risk us going down before the boys are safe. These are some sort of smoke bomb, and I’d bet you anything it's got some chemical strong enough to take out even someone enhanced.”

             Trickshot nodded and snapped the earring in his ear into two pieces. Sephiroth spoke up then, keeping his voice cool and even.

          “We can fight if we have to.”

           Eir looked back at him, her face blank and emotionless.

           “I know, Sirith. But Genesis and Angeal are the main targets. They’ll do anything to get them back, and getting rid of me and anyone who stands in the way is merely a bonus. That means they’ll have stuff to specifically counter people with enhancements. If even one of you boys gets hit with one of the tranqs or smoke bombs they’ve set up, it’s game over and we’ve lost. It's better if you don’t give them that opportunity.”

             Sephiroth hated it, but she was right. If they broke formation to fight, that meant in the event that something went wrong and one of them went down it would become ten times more difficult for the Turks to get them out. He nodded sharply and Eir nodded back, turning forward.

          “Let's move.”

           The next twenty minutes was a blur of fighting and dodging as Eir and Trickshot fought off assailants to get them to the entrance. As soon as they reached the entrance and crossed the threshold, a group of six Turks closed ranks behind them, preventing anyone else from following them out of medical. There were screams of outrage and several scientists were trying to break past the Turk’s barrier, but Eir ignored them. Instead, she turned towards the boys and smiled sharply.

           “Well then, let's get back to the apartment, shall we?”

           They walked through the tower, personnel and staff whispering as they glided past, but no one else tried to stop them. Once they arrived at the apartment door, Eir exchanged low words with Trickshot and then left him to guard the door as she ushered them in. As Genesis’ mouth opened when they reached the kitchen, she held up a finger to her lips, face still abnormally blank. 

           “Not yet. I have to make a call real quick, and then we can talk.”

            The Turk pulled out her PHS when Genesis’s mouth snapped shut and she dialed a number before putting it to her ear. It picked up, and Sephiroth listened as a familiar, sickening voice sounded over the line. 

            “Well, well, well, if it isn’t Snitch. I heard that there were some scuffles down in medical. I’ll be sure to get your boys out, but you must understand these things take ti—”

              Eir cut off President Shinra, her tone even and deadly none, of the faux friendliness from the past hour in sight.

             “So, you did know. How fortunate. Then I have no regrets for what I’m about to do. I did warn you, Shinra, we’ll just call this an evening of the scores. Don’t worry, I won’t release it all, just enough to prove my point. Also, just in case you're planning something else to get them back, I’ve rigged my heart to a wire system that will trigger an alert on my computer. If you kill me, all the information, as well as several explosives and assassin contracts I've set up, will all be set off simultaneously. You were warned once, Shinra. This is your second one, and I don’t believe in giving people a third warning.”

              Before President Shinra could sputter out a response, the Turk hung up and tapped something on the PHS. The screen flashed red and a twisted grin spread across her face as she tucked it away. Sephiroth eyed her warily. Something told him Eir had understated how far she’d taken her blackmail when she’d gotten custody of Angeal and Genesis. 

          “What was that?”

          Eir smiled at Sephiroth, all sharp angles and glittering violence.

          “I just sent proof that Shinra has a hand in child experimentation to several dozen news stations and law firms. It doesn’t mention any of you three by name, but it will majorly tank the company’s reputation. I didn’t release the rest of the information, but now, not only are you three protected by the Turks, the whole world now knows you exist. So if I die or Shinra destroys the Turk department, you won’t vanish back into the labs.”

          Genesis whistled, low and impressed.

            “Oh, you're vicious.”

            Eir smiled serenely,

              “Why, thank you. I do try.” 

               Angeal spoke, sounding subdued and concerned

              “The thing with your heart…You weren’t serious, were you?”

               Eir laughed and waved a hand.

               “Oh, that. I did that when I first kidnapped you two months ago. Couldn’t have Shinra think getting rid of me would allow him to get to you. He has no problem getting rid of loose ends. I can't even count the number of people he’s killed for less. Heck, half the Turk deaths over the years can be traced back to him if you look hard enough, and that's not even including rivals or people from other departments that we Turks have handled for him. It's practical, if a bit inconvenient.”

            Angeal looked deeply uncomfortable, and Sephiroth glowered at her. 

            “If you knew this could get you killed, why did you bother helping us?”

            Eir’s playful demeanor vanished instantly, and she crouched so she was looking up at Sephiroth, her eyes deadly serious.

             “Because you needed me, Sirith. You needed help, so of course I was going to help. It's as simple as that. I’d be a monster if I didn’t help a kid who needed me, and besides, my job puts my life on the line regularly. It's not as if this is something that's new to me. At least this time I’m putting my life on the line for something I actually believe in, instead of just because someone told me to.”

            And that…It was true. It was literally a Turk’s job to do whatever was necessary to fulfill a mission. So why did it make Sephiroth sick to his stomach to watch her do it for the three of them, despite barely knowing them at all?

Chapter Text

Eir’s POV:

        When Eir had run out on the capture mission that night a little over two months ago in November, perhaps the last thing she’d thought would happen was her becoming responsible for a highly enhanced teenager, much less three within the course of two months. Yet here she was, and willing to die for any of them if anyone so much as dared look at them funny. Life was funny like that. 

         All that being said, she was going to put a bullet through her own brain if Genesis didn’t cease with his endless monotone loop of Loveless that he’d been reciting for the past three hours. The other two boys were sitting relatively quietly, Sirith with his book, and…well, Eir was ninety percent sure Angeal had fallen asleep with his eyes open.  Don’t get her wrong, she appreciated recitation of good literature and understood the necessity of repeating something several times in order to memorize it perfectly, but they’d passed the threshold for logical repetition somewhere around the hour and a half mark. At this point she was half wondering if the time in Hollander’s lab hadn’t driven poor Genesis utterly mad.

          Only half though. The boy was, after all, nearly a teenager, and they were entitled to some level of rude insanity, especially since this was probably the most child-like thing she’d seen any of the three of them do in her presence. Still, if this went on for even one more minute, she was liable to start screaming, so…battle tactics. How to distract three highly intelligent, deadly, and enhanced teenagers without endangering either them or those around them? Sirith loved riding on her motorcycle—she’d have been a fool to miss his massive grin almost every time he rode with her—but that option had two major issues. One, her motorcycle was not big enough for four people, even if three of those people were children and not adults, and two, she still hadn’t figured out a way to get the other two out of the tower undetected.

         What else? She enjoyed hacking, but while Sirith was good at it, he hadn’t seemed overly enthusiastic about it. She doubted the other two would be much better. She’d suggested reading since Sirith enjoyed it, but, well…that had been her last suggestion, and it had resulted in this endless loop of Loveless, so that wouldn’t work. What the boys needed was to move, but how was she going to—Eir was an idiot.

             Mentally berating herself for her own stupidity, she began scrolling through her PHS. Oh, perfect, there was a private room that still had open slots for the next four hours. Selecting all four slots., she stood from her spot on the couch and darted for her bedroom-turned half office and storage space. The awful loop of Loveless abruptly cut off, and she heard Sephiroth’s book snap shut as she vanished through her doorway. 

           Oh, she definitely had their attention. Wonderful, that would make this much easier then. She was rifling through her third, partially unpacked box when she heard steps stop in her bedroom doorway. A polite cough made her glance up. Sirith stood in the doorway, his brows furrowed, and as she looked up, Genesis came behind him, eyes narrowed.

          “ Infinite is the mystery , what are you doing now, you crazy Turk?”

           Eir chuckled and turned her back to both of them once more as she answered the red-haired teen.

        “You three need to move, or you're going to drive yourselves and anyone near you insane. Normally, I’d take Sirith out into the city on my motorcycle or on a mission to take down one of his target locations, but with you two currently under what's essentially house arrest, that's not really an option at the moment. So—”

       She cut herself off, leaning into the box and nearly vanishing entirely into the large container as she leaned forward. Her fingers brushed against the object of her search. Of course it had to be at the very bottom. Her fingers snagged it, and with a triumphant cry, she emerged from the large box with a grin spreading across her face. 

       “Ahah! Got it! I’m taking you three to the training rooms to blow off some steam.”

      She waved her weapons and materia access card at them gleefully.

      “With this, you three should be able to go as wild as you want in the simulation room.” 

       The look in Sirith’s eyes spoke of judgment and Genesis had raised his eyebrow so high it looked like it was trying to escape his face. Eir felt herself faltering. Perhaps this hadn’t been a good idea after all. Neither of them looked particularly enthused, after all. Before she could come up with an alternate activity for them to do though, a quiet voice she’d only heard rarely spoke up.

       “That sounds like a good idea, Eir.”

       Angeal didn’t talk nearly as much as the other two, but he was also steady in a way the other two weren’t. That steadiness was aimed at her right now, his mako blue eyes calm as he smiled gently up at her from behind the other two boys, his shoulders relaxed. Genesis huffed and crossed his arms but didn’t protest, and his eyebrow went down. Sirith looked between the two of them before sighing and nodding.

       “Angeal is correct. That sounds like it could be…distracting, at the very least.”

        Eir smiled softly at him. The boy cared deeply for the other two; that much was clear. For all that he claimed he didn’t know them well enough to care, his actions spoke differently. It was incredible. For a boy raised in such a horrible environment, Sirith had a good heart. They all did. Underneath the trauma and snark, all three boys were genuinely good people, and it was both beautiful and heartbreaking to see. Oh how she wished she could turn back time and save them from the horrors they had lived. Alas, time travel wasn’t possible. All she could do was help them now, and help them she would to the best of her abilities. 

        “Alright then, let's get going!”

         Smiling brightly at the three of them, she began to herd the boys towards the front door. Genesis grumbled and Sirith glowered slightly at her, but Angeal just looked amused. After exchanging a few words with Slice, the current Turk on duty, Eir began to lead the way towards the elevator. The boys all seemed wary, all three of them darting their eyes back and forth in a steady sweeping pattern that covered all blind spots. Not that she blamed them; the tower was far from where she wanted them to be right now, but it also wasn’t something she could fix for them just yet, so she said nothing. 

        The elevator ride was full of tense shoulders and narrow-eyed glances from the other passengers as they eyed the boys. A polite, shark-toothed grin from Eir had most of the stares quickly redirected toward the walls, floor and ceiling, and she resisted the urge to snarl. That's right, you weak willed cowards, look away, look away from her boys or die. If Veld could hear her thoughts, he’d probably scold her for needless aggression. Luckily for her, the man hadn’t yet mastered mind reading, so she was safe for now. 

          Arriving at the training floor had her shoulders loosening ever so slightly as she passed several SOLDIER’s and Turks also heading for or leaving the training rooms. The SOLDIER department was split fifty-fifty on opinions about the boys. Half were determined to obey Shinra no matter how wrong the company was, and the other half had come to the Turks, promising to help as best as they could to protect the boys. 

        They finally got to the training room she’d scheduled for the next few hours, and she smiled at the boys as she slid the card across the weapons and materia cabinets just inside the doors. 

        “Alright you three. So long as you don’t destroy the room itself too badly, you're free to do whatever you want.”

         Genesis immediately darted toward the Materia shelves, his eyes gleaming in a way that made Eir wonder if perhaps she had made a mistake. Angeal distracted her from the other boy by tapping her lightly on her arm. She turned her attention to the quiet boy. He met her gaze steadily, but his posture was stiff and nervous. 

       “I, uh—I have a sword that belongs to me and my family. Hollander made me check it into the main desk before we transferred to his latest lab, and I was wondering if you could…help me get it back?”

        Halfway through his request, his gaze had dropped and his posture had gone stiff as stone as he clearly did his best to keep from fidgeting. Eir’s heart ached just a little. Oh, these children were going to be the death of her, she just knew it.

       “Of course, Angeal. Let's go. Let me just let Sirith know where we’re going first.”

       She glanced up to look for Sirith and found his eyes already on her, his gaze focused and calm as he nodded at her.

       “You two go get Angeal’s sword. Genesis and I can practice while you're gone.”

        Feeling slightly unsettled, Eir watched as Sirith glided to the sword rack, selected the longest katana available, and practically floated across the room toward Genesis. Sirith always moved with uncanny grace, but the intent in his movements and eyes now set something on edge inside her. Something told her that leaving the two of them was a terrible terrible mistake. Still, she had just told Angeal she’d take him, so she’d just have to pray it went quickly before these two could get into too much trouble.

        Twenty minutes into a heated argument with the desk clerk later, she couldn’t help but want to scream. The itch that said the two boys shouldn’t have been left unsupervised was growing. Angeal looked on the verge of tears when the foul man in front of her sneered at him, saying something about Shinra property not being able to own anything, and Eir lost it.

         The last few months had been trying at best, and she was sick and tired of people treating these beautiful, talented, and hurt boys as lesser beings. Five minutes later, Angeal had his sword, and the main desk attendant was…on break…indefinitely…for undisclosed reasons. As Eir stalked down the hall, a slightly stunned Angeal trailing behind her, she couldn’t help but roll her shoulders happily. Oh, that hit felt good. Not that Veld would ever be hearing about it. No sir, absolutely no physical violence here. She was farrrrr to responsible for that. Besides, what Veld didn’t know couldn’t hurt him. 

         As she sped-walked down the hall though, something in her gut twisted. A small crowd was gathered around the observation glass of the room she’d left the boys in, and she could see brilliant flashes of light and hear the sound of yelling and crashing. Oh Shiva’s toenails, that was going to be her problem, wasn’t it…

 *******************

          Sephiroth’s POV:

       Sephiroth wasn’t sure how long he had until Eir came back and put a stop to whatever he and Genesis ended up doing, but he did know that the second Eir’s back was turned, he was starting this spar immediately. Genesis seemed to have picked up on his plans as well because the other boy already had all the Materia he’d grabbed equipped and ready to go. 

         Sephiroth began to advance toward Genesis, slow enough that Eir wouldn’t immediately panic, but quickly enough that Genesis would be in easy range as soon as the Turk was out of sight. The moment the door shut he pulled his sword into a ready position, and Genesis leaned forward on the hilt of his own blade, casual and deadly grace in every inch of his body as he smirked at Sephiroth. 

        “So I’m guessing you want that spar you asked me for?”

         Sephiroth hesitated. Right, the other boy hadn’t ever actually agreed. Recovering quickly, he nodded politely. 

       “Only if you're willing, though.”

        Genesis’ smile spread to near manic proportions as he leaned back, spinning the sword in his hand as the materia in his bracers began to glow. 

        “ My friend, your desire is one that I am more than willing to accommodate.”

        It was only years and years of knowing Genesis that allowed Sephiroth to dodge the first fireball. The boy was quick and his body language was different than Sephiroth remembered, but it was still Genesis, and oh Shiva did Genesis love his fire. Sephiroth allowed the next three fireballs to graze impossibly close to his face, shoulder, and leg in order to close in on Genesis and get up in his space. 

         He miscalculated this much smaller body's reach though, and his slash only nicked the edge of Genesis’s shoulder instead of slashing the other's bracer when the older boy dodged. Genesis danced back, sending out another round of fireballs as well as a time stop that had Sephiroth ducking almost to the floor in order to avoid being frozen. 

       Genesis cackled as he sent another barrage of fireballs his way, and Sephiroth found that a small smile was beginning to play at the edges of his mouth. He dodged right, launching himself high into the air and kicking off the wall when he got close enough. He used the weird angle and added momentum to get behind Genesis. He tapped the older boy in the middle of his back with the sword and danced away when Genesis whirled around with a scowl, two much larger fireballs blazing in the palms of his hands. 

       Genesis launched them both at Sephiroth at blinding speed. Sephiroth dodged one entirely, but allowed one to graze his shoulder in a decent hit. His greatest mistake with Genesis in his last life had been allowing his pride to never let Gen think Sephiroth saw him as an equal. Perhaps in swordplay and strategy he was better than Genesis, but Genesis had always been much better with Materia and people than Sephiroth could have ever hoped to be. Hopefully in this life he could ensure Genesis’s insecurities wouldn’t devour him like last time. A cure for degradation wouldn’t be remiss either, though that was a problem for another time. 

       With a quirked smile, he dodged Genesis’ next several blasts of magic, as well as a particularly enraged sword slash. They were both slowly getting faster and faster as the spar went on, and Genesis’ fireballs were starting to resemble walls of fire large enough that Sephiroth had been forced to resort to flashes of brilliant green barrier spells to avoid being too badly singed. 

       Distantly, he was aware of people approaching the viewing window. Distantly, he was aware that their time before Eir returned was swiftly dwindling. None of it mattered though. He was here with Genesis, in the here and now. And oh, it felt so good to once again cross blades and wits with one he had once believed to be gone for good. His grin as he darted in close to slash at Genesis’ legs was matched by a vicious smirk on the older boy's face as he dodged and launched a fireball at Sephiroth’s head. Sephiroth dodged and was preparing to use a barrier to cut through Genesis’s next wave of fire when the door slammed open. 

        Genesis froze mid-cast, and Sephiroth stumbled as he dropped from his leap, both of them turned to face the door. A familiar SOLDIER stood in the door, his lips moving silently as he tried to come up with something to say.

       “Ummmm, does Eir know you two are trying to kill each other?”

       Sephiroth resisted the urge to groan and instead raised a judgmental eyebrow. Genesis also groaned, throwing his head back and rolling his eyes so hard Sephiroth was surprised they didn’t get stuck in the back of his head. 

       “We aren’t trying to kill each other, we’re sparring, you idiot. Also, of course Eir knows! She’s the one who brought us here! She’s just helping Geal get his sword back right now.”

        The SOLDIER—Kindle, if Sephiroth remembered correctly—shuffled, his cheeks flushing before he straightened, his shoulders squaring as he met their gazes head on. Shockingly brave for a man who couldn’t flirt with Eir to save his life.

        “Well then, how about we spar together? I don’t want Eir to come back to find either of you injured. Besides, maybe I can teach you two something. I am a trained SOLDIER, after all.”

       Genesis and Sephiroth shared a look. The two of them were on par with a 2nd Class SOLDIER—it was doubtful a mere 3rd Class would stand a chance against them. Still….Genesis sent a smirk full of violence towards Sephiroth, and Sephiroth returned it with a small smirk of his own. Genesis turned toward the man, leaning against his sword's hilt as Sephiroth rested his blade against his shoulders.

       “Alright, we’ll bite. What are your rules for sparring?”

        Kindle looked nervously between the two boys for a moment before answering Genesis’ question. 

       “No cuts, burns, or major injuries. I’d prefer you avoid bruises, but with Mako enhancements, it’s kinda pointless. Every hit to the torso, neck, or head counts as a kill shot and is worth one point. Hits to the limbs and extremities count as half a point. The person with the most points at the end of the spar wins.”

       Genesis hummed and glanced at Sephiroth once more.

       “What do you think, Sirith? Those rules sound good to you?”

        Sephiroth shrugged, swinging his blade off his shoulders and spinning it around his body in three swift rotations as he tested the weight of the blade. It might be tricky in this body against someone an adult’s height, but he could manage. 

       “It’s up to you. I want to spar with you, and I don’t really care who else joins us as long as you're willing to spar with me. Either to practice fighting each other or working as partners. Either works.”

      Genesis nodded to himself and turned back to the SOLDIER.

      “Alright then, Kindle. We accept your terms. Me and Sirith versus you. Good luck.”

       Genesis’ smile was nothing short of deadly as he stared at the man. Kindle shifted uncomfortably, but didn’t back down. The man was determined, Sephiroth would give him that. After selecting a buster-style sword from the rack and strapping on one of the materia bracers, the man crossed to them, stopping a few feet away and standing in a ready position. Genesis nodded to Sephiroth, and together they launched themselves at Kindle. To Sephiroth’s surprise, the man didn’t immediately falter under their dizzying barrage of attacks. He was struggling, his sword acting as more of a shield than an actual weapon, but they also hadn’t actually hit him yet. 

       Intrigued, Sephiroth upped the speed slightly, Genesis matching him seconds later. Kindle stepped back once before regaining his rhythm, his sword only just rising in time to block their attacks. Sephiroth smirked. This would be fun. This time it was Genesis who increased their tempo, nearly tripling his speed as he targeted the small cracks in the SOLDIER’s armor. Sephiroth followed suit, launching himself up and around the SOLDIER so that the man was forced to defend both his back and his front. It wasn’t enough. Sephiroth and Genesis were landing regular blows now, light taps just enough to bruise the man's back, chest, stomach, spine, and occasionally the back of his neck. Each blow was precise, not one straying to his limbs or hitting too hard. The points were stacking rapidly, and Kindle had yet to be able to do anything except defend against them. 

        He was retreating toward a wall, trying to force the two of them to face him head on with his back at a wall. Sephiroth smirked and sped up once again, herding the man towards Genesis instead. He was just about to land his 97th point when the door to the training room slammed open. All three of them froze. Genesis lowered his sword and Sephiroth resisted the urge to hide his own behind his back. Kindle’s face flushed as he made eye contact with the woman in the doorway, and his hand came up to rub the back of his neck as his sword hung loose in his other hand. 

       Eir stood in the doorway, her eyes flashing coldly. Angeal stood halfway behind her, his sword clutched in his arms and his eyes round with shock. Eir’s face was drawn in a scowl, and for a brief moment Sephiroth was afraid she was going to start screaming at them. To his shock instead of beginning to shriek angrily at them, the Turk took a long, exaggerated breath and straightened in the doorway, her hand loosening its death grip on the handle as she visibly shoved all the anger deep down out of sight. Her eyes continued to flash though, and something in Sephiroth flinched at the dangerous light they held. 

       “What exactly is going on here?”

        Before Genesis or Sephiroth could get a word in edgewise, Kindle spoke up, shockingly calm and collected as he held Eir’s gaze.

       “The boys wanted to spar, so we set some safety rules and went at it. Don’t worry, neither of them has a scratch on them.”

         Sephiroth resisted the urge to scoff. As if someone of Kindle’s skill level could even come near scratching him or Genesis. Though he did wonder why the man hadn’t mentioned the beating he’d just taken. Perhaps he was trying to save face? Eir eyed the three of them skeptically, her eyes narrowing when she took in the careful straightness of Kindle’s posture and Genesis’s shifty-eyed glances. Sephiroth met her gaze dead-on, his face utterly blank. The Turk would get no information from him. 

       “I see, and how about you, 3rd Class Kindle?”

       Kindle’s eyes darted between Eir, Genesis, and Sephiroth, mild confusion in his gaze. Sephiroth just shrugged. He wasn’t sure what she wanted either. Eir sighed. 

        “Do you have any scratches, SOLDIER? No offense, but the boys aren’t exactly…normal combatants.”

         Angeal snorted, and Genesis smirked evilly. Kindle shrugged, though Sephiroth could see a flash of pain in his eyes at the motion. Even with SOLDIER healing, the man was likely extremely sore at the moment. Eir clearly caught the internal wince as well, and her eyes narrowed even further. She glanced at Sephiroth and Genesis before turning to Angeal.

        “If you would make sure they don’t get into any further trouble, Angeal, it would be much appreciated.”

        Angeal nodded. Genesis opened his mouth to protest, only to be cut off by a stern glare from the Turk.

         “You two, regular sparring is fine, but whatever you were doing that brought SOLDIER Kindle in here had better not happen again.” 

      She then stormed up to Kindle and stared him straight in the eyes, leaning in close so they were eye to eye. Kindle froze a faint flush running up his neck and to his ears as Eir maintained eye contact.

        “You are going to come sit next to me on the bench, take off your shirt and let me handle whatever the boys did, and you are never going to try and stop them again. Next time, just come and get me. Understood, SOLDIER?”

        Sephiroth was fairly certain the man was going to pass out. His eyes were wide and the red flush had spread up his whole face. Sephiroth was also fairly certain the man had stopped breathing entirely. Eir leaned even closer, their noses inches apart.

         “ Understood, SOLDIER?”

          Kindle squeaked out something that might have been a yes, and Eir backed off, storming over the cabinet and rummaging around, muttering something about idiot SOLDIERs, stressful, enhanced teens, and the unfairness of the universe. Sephiroth watched as Kindle’s brain visibly rebooted, and the man took a huge breath before crossing to the bench. Genesis looked both deeply entertained and appalled, and Angeal looked about five seconds from murdering Sephiroth and Genesis both. The murderous look only got stronger when Kindle removed his uniform jacket and shirt, revealing a painting of rapidly healing, deep bruises. Sephiroth didn’t meet his gaze, and Genesis crossed his arms defiantly. 

        Angeal spoke, his voice eerily calm and steady. His eyes spoke of pure homicide though, so Sephiroth took the calm with a grain of salt.

       “Would you two like to spar, then? Surely not all your energy is gone just yet.”

        Sephiroth sighed internally. Angeal was on a warpath. The boy would deny it to his dying breath, but he was just as stubborn as Genesis, so until the two of them had suffered enough to satisfy Angeal’s sense of honor, they would not be leaving the training room. He nodded, and Genesis said something along the line’s of “bring it.” Suddenly, Angeal was flying at the two of them, his family’s Buster Sword securely on his back as he swung another at the two of them at blinding speed. Sephiroth kept one eye on the fight and the other on the Turk as she emerged from the cabinet, still grumbling.

         She stalked towards Kindle and started roughly rubbing bruise cream across the worst of the man's bruises. The man looked resolutely at the floor the entire time she worked, his ears burning crimson. Eir’s hand slid across his back, and Sephiroth scowled when the man relaxed. 

       His distraction cost him because Angeal landed a nasty hit to his side. Sephiroth turned back to the fight far more viciously than before and did his best to ignore what was going on behind them. Eir was too good for some stupid 3rd There was no way she’d give him the time of day. Frankly, Eir was too good for anyone in Shinra. If she was going to date someone, she should date someone that lived outside of Midgar. 

         A hero like Cloud Strife had been in the last timeline, maybe someone taller than she was, and with dark hair. Sparks flew as he drove the edge of his sword against Angeal’s. The other boy scowled and pushed back with his superior height and strength. Sephiroth snarled and threw himself into the spar, the dancing of blades, the heavy hits, and the flash of steel ringing in his head as he lost himself in the fascinating movement of fighting. Perhaps an hour later, when all three of them were heaving for breath and Sephiroth’s restless energy had been appeased, a voice broke the calm silence that had fallen. 

         “You three ready to head back yet?”

          Sephiroth looked up, startled. In the blur of fighting and crossing blades with his brothers in a familiar, calming dance, he’d forgotten they had an audience. Kindle was nowhere to be seen, and Eir was sitting alone on the bench. She was surrounded by gun parts that she appeared to be cleaning, if the oil and rag in her hands meant anything. Sephiroth glanced at the other two for confirmation. Angeal shrugged and Genesis simply flopped on his back, star-fished on the ground. Sephiroth turned back to the Turk and responded for all of them.

          “Yes, just give us a moment to do some cooldown stretches. Then we shall be ready to leave.”

         Eir nodded and began assembling her gun in a blur of practiced, smooth movements, wiping away the last of the oil from several parts as she did so. Sephiroth and the other three took perhaps ten minutes to cool down before joining the Turk by the bench. She smiled at the three of them and stood, sliding her gun into her back holster and then sliding her jacket on over it. The walk back to the apartment was quiet as the three of them felt the welcome burn and exhaustion of a good workout settle into their bodies. Sephiroth could see Genesis visibly beginning to lag, and Angeal’s footsteps were painfully deliberate as the boy's blinks began to grow slower and longer. Once inside the apartment though, Eir turned her eyes, sparking ever so slightly, which had Sephiroth’s shoulders tensing automatically. 

      “You three are exhausted, so I’ll keep this short. In the future, please don’t needlessly harass others, even if they bother you first. Kindle is nice enough and a good portion of the SOLDIER department is on your side, but not all of them. All Shinra needs is an excuse, and an accident in the training room or serious injury of a SOLDIER who complains to a higher-up is all the President needs to gain that excuse. I’m glad you two had fun, and from what Kindle told me, he also had a good time. But in the future please be more careful.”

        Sephiroth couldn’t meet her gaze, Genesis was puffing up beside him, preparing to argue, but Angeal’s heavy hand landing on his shoulder had the red-haired boy subsiding with a few grumbles. Sephiroth felt like an idiot. What had he been thinking? Of course fighting with a SOLDIER had consequences. They truly had been lucky it had been Kindle and not another SOLDIER with more split loyalties. Eir had already made it clear how precarious their current position was. Why on earth had he thought rocking the boat was a good idea? Suddenly, a hand was on his shoulder, and when he looked up, he found Eir had her other hand on Genesis’ shoulder and was looking at both of them, something strange in her expression. 

       “Neither of you two were in the wrong. You were careful not to break any bones or actually hurt Kindle. It was a spar that probably humbled him a little, but you stuck to the rules and were careful. Heck, it sounded like you two were having fun and Kindle was a little overwhelmed, but he had fun too. Under normal circumstances, a spar like that would be totally ok. In fact, I would encourage it because it seems like you guys liked it a lot. It's just not safe right now, ok? Hopefully sometime in the future that will change and you guys can spar to your heart's content, but for now, just try and be careful alright? I want you both to know I’m not mad, ok?”

        And how was Sephiroth supposed to respond to that? She wasn’t…mad? She wasn’t pissed they hurt Kindle? That didn’t make any sense though…But the Turk was holding eye contact with both of them, her heartbeat steady and calm. No twitching or nervous shifting, her body language open. She wasn’t lying. She meant every word she’d just said, even if it didn’t make a lick of sense. Genesis snorted before speaking, his tone slightly subdued.

       “Sure, ok. There is no hate, only joy, or whatever. We get it, you're not mad, can we go now?”

        Eir pulled back, and stood, her figure towering over them both for a moment before she backed away, gesturing grandly to the rest of the apartment.

        “Of course. Don’t let me get in your way. I’m going to start cooking, and I don’t want you lot going to bed before we take care of your insane metabolisms, alright?”

        Eir smiled softly one more time and vanished into the kitchen leaving the three of them standing in the entry hall. They stood frozen for a moment before Angeal spoke up, folding his arms sternly as he glowered down at the two of them.

       “She’s right, you know. That was reckless and stupid of both of you, which I expect from Genesis at this point, but I thought you at least would think things through, Sephiroth.”

          Genesis scowled at the other boy.

         “Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!”

         Sephiroth wouldn’t meet Angeal’s gaze though, instead focusing on the floor as Genesis bristled beside him. 

          “Sorry. I’ll do better next time.”

           Genesis went silent at Sephiroth’s whispered apology. Suddenly, two hands were slammed against Sephiroth’s forearms and a sharp-featured face was shoved close to his own. 

          “ Pride is lost , do you truly think this is all your fault? How big-headed of you. We’re both equally to blame, you little boggart! If anything, give me all the credit. It was my idea, after all.”

          Sephroth avoided his gaze. Sure, but Sephiroth was an adult. Sure, he looked like a child, but he knew better. He’d done all this because he’d forgotten for a moment that he wasn’t actually a kid. Forgotten that having fun always, ALWAYS, had consequences. 

         “I know better, though. I should have stopped you, or forced Kindle to leave. Eir already told me to be careful. I know how Shinra works. It was stupid of me. Heck, I might have blown my cover, which could put you in more danger.”

        Oh Shiva, he’d forgotten to hold back. There had been people watching. People who probably now knew he was enhanced. After all the work Eir had put into his disguise and paperwork, he’d gone and thrown it in the trash. He was such an idiot! He curled in on himself, yanking himself out of Genesis’ hold and clutching his head as the full weight of what he’d done crashed down on him. 

        “Oh…Oh no! I-messed up! I forgot to hold back! By the nine circles, I’m so stupid!!! They probably know who I am now! I’m going to get us all killed! I know better. What in the world is wrong with me?!”

        Suddenly, two heavy hands were pressing against his shoulders. The hands let go and tilted his chin upwards to meet blue gray mako, calm and steady. 

        “Kid. You're fine. We’ll talk to Eir. I shouldn’t have said anything. Yeah, you guys made a mistake, but—”

       Angeal looked like he was struggling with his next words, as if they pained him physically.

       “ —We’re kids, Sephiroth. We’re allowed to make mistakes.”

        Sephiroth yanked away from the physically older boy's grasp.

         “Maybe you are. But I know better. I am better. I don’t—I can’t make mistakes.”

         He’d already made too many in his last life. He couldn’t afford to make any more.

         “Well, that's absolute nonsense.”

          A sharp voice cut in. Genesis glowered at him, his arms crossed.

         “You're 11. More than that, you're human. As much as I come close, no human is perfect. It's simply a fact of life. Deal with it, kid.”

           Sephiroth laughed darkly, a spark of anger and bitterness that had been festering for years before he’d traveled back in time settling in between his ribs like a burning ember.

            “Those would be brilliant words, Genesis, if they were true. I’d have to actually be human for that to apply though, so I’m afraid your point is invalid.”

            Angeal’s hands were back, almost painful with how hard he was holding on. Before he could say whatever false platitudes he’d come up with, a voice cut through the tense air. It was quiet, calm, and utterly controlled. 

           “And who exactly told you weren’t human, Sirith?”

            Eir had returned; she was holding two pieces of paper that she set on the side table in the entryway, and she met Sephiroth’s gaze. She didn’t reach out to touch him, she didn’t crowd him, she simply met his gaze head on, steady as stone. Sephiroth broke eye contact first, shrugging under Angeal’s bruising grip as he avoided looking at any of them. He felt exposed, surrounded, seen, and he hated it. Genesis spoke up, his voice sharp and barbed,

          “Well, whoever said it was a—”

          “Genesis, not now please. Sirith, who?”

           The red-haired boy bristled and opened his mouth to scream something when Sephiroth spoke, his voice quiet and steady as he met Eir’s gaze once more.

          “It doesn’t matter who. You’ve seen files on my biology, and these two got the description given to the teams sent to hunt me down. A dozen people could argue I’m a person, but when it comes down to facts and what my DNA says, I’m not human. You can’t change facts, none of you can, and the fact is that genetically, I’m not human. I was made, I was created, and I was built to be a monster. A being made to rend and destroy. It's as simple as that.”

            The silence was deafening as he held Eir’s gaze. The Turk hummed and nodded, which, even though that's what he’d wanted, made his heart crack. Before he could nod back though, she spoke.

        “I see. Then are Angeal and Genesis monsters, too?”

         Sephiroth jerked out of Angeal’s grasp as he gaped at the Turk. 

        “Of course not! Did you not hear anything I just—”

         Eir hummed, her eyes still calm and her steady expression still blank. 

         “You said your genetics are what prove it. That because you were built by someone else, you are a monster. At what point does the human part go away, then? Because Angeal and Genesis are almost as altered as you are. True, you have a higher percentage, but neither of them are fifty percent human any more. In fact, what about the SOLDIER program? All of them are also altered, and the higher the class, the less their human genetics show up. So, Sephiroth, at what point do the alterations to your DNA mean you're a monster?” 

          Sephiroth opened his mouth to respond before he snapped it shut. He had almost said that none of them had done what he had, but…in this timeline he hadn’t done those things. He wasn’t technically a monster yet. His soul was still as monstrous as ever, but how did he explain that to them? Besides, even if he revealed it all to Eir, something told him Eir would point out Jenova, would point out Hojo, would point out pressure and unwilling participation. Just like Zack had once in the lifestream after one of his many, many deaths. But they were wrong. All of them he was–he had to be–but if he wasn’t–what did that mean? What did that mean for his life? What did that mean for everything he’d gone through? if he wasn’t the villain, if he wasn’t the monster, then what was he? 

             “Angeal and Genesis aren’t monsters. They never will be. It’s–it’s not the same”

            He said it softly, holding the Turk’s gaze as he spoke. He felt unsteady. Floaty. The world had stopped making sense, and he wasn’t sure what to do. 

            “Why isn’t it the same, Sirith?”

             Eir had come closer; she was kneeling before him, still not touching, giving him space, her full, undivided attention entirely on him. 

             “Because. Because I-I’m—”

             He cut off, unsure how to continue, and a voice, usually prickly and sharp, sounded softly to his side.

              “No, kid. If we’re not monsters, then you can’t be one either. It wouldn’t make any sense.”

             Sephiroth met Genesis’ eyes, feeling unsure and off-balance. He didn’t think he’d ever seen the other boy ever look so determined or kind. Not in this life or the last. He twisted, meeting Angeal’s gaze, and the bigger boy nodded. 

            “He’s right, kid. For once, he’s completely right.”

             Warm hands surrounded Sephiroth’s own, and he startled, his eyes circling back to meet the Turk’s gaze. Her hands were so much larger than his own. She was so big compared to this stupid body of his, but she didn’t seem it right now. She seemed small as she met his gaze with her own. 

           “You're not a monster, Sirith. Now, gràidh, can I hug you please?”

             Sephiroth pondered the request for a moment, before he let himself fall forward. She was close, but if she didn’t mean it, he would fall. He didn’t fall. He didn’t even make it an inch before two arms were wrapping around him, pulling him close and tucking him beneath a chin. One of the arms shifted, gesturing for something, and slowly, hesitantly, two more sets of arms and two more bodies joined the hug, surrounding him on all sides.

            “Oh you beautiful, hurting boys.”

             The words were whispered softly, and Eir’s arms tightened around all three of them, pulling them close. Sephiroth couldn’t say how long they sat there, but eventually the Turk started singing softly, her voice lilting in a language he did not recognise as she rocked all three of them in her arms. The Turk still needed to make dinner. Sephiroth still needed to tell her about the possibility of others knowing who he was. He needed to gather himself up again after this foolish show of weakness. He needed to re-center his plans and figure out how to stop something like this conversation from happening again. 

But for now, he stayed. He stayed, and he let himself hold onto Eir tight enough that her bones creaked. The Turk and his two brothers from another timeline held him. Sephiroth let it all go for a moment, the pain and memories, and he held them right back. He held them right back.

Chapter Text

 Luckily for Sephiroth the rest of the evening was uneventful, and for the next week no one brought up any of the conversation had in the hall that night. Eir took them to the training room almost every day, and Sephiroth settled into a wonderful routine with the other two boys—even if Eir looked to be at her wits end with Genesis by the end of the week. In the Turk’s defense, the older boy had apparently made it his mission to see how far he could push her before she snapped. The answer so far was undetermined as, despite her rapidly waning patience, the Turk had yet to yell at Genesis or explode. Honestly, Sephiroth was impressed. In his past life, he’d never met anyone who could handle the full force of Genesis’ particular brand of attempting to drive them to rage and not explode, himself included. It was rare, but on occasion in the past Genesis had been one of the few people who could get a rise out of him. 

      The Turk had lasted much longer than just about anyone, and Sephiroth was starting to become invested in how long it would take for the woman to blow her top. Angeal had tried to help at the beginning, clearly uncomfortable with enraging the Turk who had custody of them, but as the week passed, he also seemed to become invested in seeing how long the Turk would last. It was Sunday and the Turk was on the couch reading while Genesis lay star-fished on the floor, reciting Loveless and various barbed comments that had the woman's eye twitching visibly over the edge of her book. 

         “ —and I fail to see how someone like you reports directly to the head of the Turks. Truly Infinite in the mystery , because you don’t seem nearly skilled enough for that.”

        The Turk inhaled slowly, clearly trying to keep herself from snapping at the boy. Genesis, if anything, took that as encouragement and continued. 

        “You couldn’t even take on a 3rd Class SOLDIER, I bet! What makes you so special?!”

         Eir slowly shut her book, staring blankly down at Genesis, who smirked at her evilly from his lounging spot on the floor. He opened his mouth to continue and the Turk shook her head rapidly.

        “No. Shhhhh, sweet spirits, child, and I thought Shield was chatty before I met you. I was such a fool. Clearly, you would give anyone else a run for their money. Now, what do you want?! You’ve been pushing me all week and you clearly want something, but I cannot for the life of me figure out what!”

         There was a long moment, then Genesis smirked coyly at the Turk. 

        “Sounds like a skill issue on your part. I mean, come on, aren’t you supposed to be able to pick up details? That's your job, right? Why don’t you figure it out, Miss spy Turk?”

          Eir looked like she desperately wanted to either throttle Genesis or bang her head repeatedly against the nearest wall, and honestly, Sephiroth felt for the poor woman. A week of non-stop barbed insults and endless Loveless recitations would put anyone on edge. Which made him all the more impressed when the woman visibly shoved all her irritation deep down and her face returned to the eerie blankness that had set in on day three of Genesis’ chaos.

           Genesis looked rather put out and opened up his mouth to no doubt continue to push at the Turk’s buttons, but as he let loose another stream of vicious, sweetly-worded insults, the Turk merely picked up her book and continued reading. Genesis let his voice rise ever so slightly, changing the pitch to be just short of shrill, but the Turk didn’t so much as twitch her eyes riveted to the novel in front of her. In the end, it wasn’t Eir who broke. It was Angeal about an hour later when Genesis finally resorted to just straight up singing his insults mere inches from the poor woman's face. 

         “Enough, Genesis! Leave the Turk alone! She’s just as stubborn as you are, and I cannot deal with you any more!”

          Genesis turned, thoroughly affronted, to glower at the other boy while Sephiroth watched in mild amusement. 

    “No! I’ve almost won! When the war of the beasts brings about the world's end, the goddess descends from the sky , I will prevail Angeal! You will not stand in the way of my victory!”

Eir set down her book, her brow furrowed.

      “And what exactly are you trying to win, aon teine? I was unaware that we were competing…”

Genesis glowered for another moment at Angeal before he answered the Turk. 

      “I was waiting to see which one of us would break first, but now that you know, there isn’t any point in continuing this experiment!”

        Eir stared at the red-haired boy, her expression confused and wary. Then something seemed to click in her mind and she sighed, leaning back and putting a hand over her eyes as she groaned.

       “You were pushing my boundaries to see what it would take for me to lash out, weren’t you?”

       Genesis bristled but didn’t deny her claim, his mako blue eyes boiling with some uncertain emotion. It looked to be a mix of fear and rage, which, all things considered, was rather fitting for the fiery boy. Sephiroth found himself watching Eir, intrigued to see how the woman would respond to Gen’s silence.

      The Turk sighed before leaning forward. Her eyes were locked with Genesis' own gaze, a habit that Sephiroth noticed she used whenever she needed to convey her sincerity to one of them.    

      “I cannot promise you I will never be angry or upset. I cannot promise I will not make mistakes because I’m human, and for all I may try, I will never be perfect. But I can promise to never physically hurt you and to do my best to not hurt you in any other way. You can keep pushing if you want, and so long as it doesn’t hurt you or others around you, I will let you push and find out the rules and boundaries for as long as you need to gauge my sincerity. I will, however, explicitly tell you that bodily harm comes with consequences; not consequences like in Hollander’s lab, but consequences nonetheless. For example, if you hurt someone beyond bruises or minor injury, I would confiscate your copy of Loveless, and depending on how badly they are injured, I will keep it for a longer period of time. If you hurt yourself, I will take away your access to whatever you used to hurt yourself. Etc etc. Food will never be taken away, bodily harm will never be used as a punishment, and lack of essentials will also never be punishment. Understood?”

       Genesis blinked, clearly taken off guard by the clear statement of the rules and boundaries the Turk had in place. Angeal spoke up, his eyes narrowed.

      “Does that apply to all three of us, then?”

       Eir’s unblinking gaze shifted from Genesis to Angeal, her expression dead serious.

       “Yes.”

       Angeal hummed and held her eye contact, and then slowly, carefully set down the cooking supplies he’d been messing with in the kitchen area. Before any of them could react, he picked up a glass figurine that sat as part of a display piece on one of the smaller countertops and threw it against the floor. It shattered into a million tiny pieces, and Sephiroth found himself on his feet, his shoulders tense as he eyed Angeal nervously. Genesis had also stood, something contemplative on his face, before he grabbed a potted plant on the coffee table. He too threw it, shattering it across the floor. Sephiroth backed away. Logically, he knew they were just testing boundaries, but he also knew that he hadn’t tested the limits of Eir’s boundaries for a reason. He still needed her help, but he also needed to protect his friends. The two sides of him warred within him, screaming like two demons as he eyed Eir’s blank expression, the woman unmoved from her place on the couch.

      In a single, burning moment, he made up his mind. Eir had helped him a lot, and she was kind, but in the end, Angeal and Genesis meant more to him. They meant more to him than just about anything on the planet. Clenching his jaw, he gripped the book he’d been reading, a copy of a book called The Count of Monte Cristo, written in the same language as the Phantom of The Opera, the first book he’d read when Eir had given him permission to read any of her books. 

      This book had careful, painstaking handwriting in the margins that didn’t match Eir’s sprawling style of lettering. It was important to the Turk. He remembered her explicitly asking him to be careful with it. His stomach clenched, but he still forced himself to make deliberate eye contact with the Turk. For a long, stretching moment, he held her gaze. Then the moment ended and he clenched his jaw. In a sharp, calculated move, he ripped the book into two pieces right down the binding. The Turk flinched, something shattering in her eyes as she watched him drop the two pieces of the book on the ground and grind it under his heel. 

        For a long moment, none of them moved, and slowly, the Turk’s eyes closed, her hands slowly clenched at her sides. Sephiroth felt himself tensing in tandem with both the other boys. The Turk didn’t move after that, though. In fact, she’d stopped breathing altogether, her eyes clenched shut and her whole body motionless as stone. Sephiroth was painfully aware of the ticking of the clock on the wall as a full minute passed. Then two. The Turk still had not moved. Angeal broke the tense silence tone, harsh and biting, but Sephiroth could see the fear in his eyes.

        “Well, what are the consequences then, Turk?”

         Angeal had committed to this. Sephiroth almost felt his heart stop in his chest as the Turk’s eyes opened slowly, her gray gaze locking onto the dark-haired boy. With eerily smooth movements, the Turk stood and walked into the kitchen Sephiroth let his muscles coil tighter and tighter with each step the Turk took toward Angeal, and he could feel Genesis tensing beside him as well. Angeal held the Turk’s gaze, but did not move, his shoulders square and stance defiant. The Turk’s heavy combat boots crunched the glass beneath her feet. The sound grated against Sephiroth’s frayed nerves, but the Turk didn’t stop in front of Angeal or even behind him when she walked around him. She simply crossed to the pantry and pulled out the broom and dustpan she kept there. She crossed the kitchen once more and held out the broom to Angeal, her entire expression blank, her muscles forcibly relaxed,

       “You broke it. You will clean it up, and you are on dish duty for the week.”

        Angeal held her gaze for a long, tense moment before slowly reaching out and grabbing the broom from her hands. She nodded and then turned, not acknowledging his bewildered expression. She glided past Genesis and Sephiroth toward the main hallway. She returned moments later with a vacuum and a spare broom in her hands. 

        “Genesis, you will also be cleaning up your mess, and you are on sweeping duty in the kitchen for the next week.”

         She pressed the vacuum and broom into his hands after a long moment of him just standing there, and then she crossed to Sephiroth. Unlike with the other two boys, she wouldn’t meet his eyes, and instead she knelt and tapped his shoe. Slowly Sephiroth lifted his foot off the book and she gathered the pieces and held them in her hands. She breathed for a moment and then stood, meeting his eyes, her expression and eyes perfectly neutral and blank.

       “Sirith, I’m going to do some research, and you're going to help me fix this if it's possible. You are also banned from reading any of my books for the next week.” 

       Holding the tattered remains of her book gently against her chest, she crossed the room once more and gently set it on the coffee table. All three of them stared at her, and she met their gazes, her expression still perfectly, flawlessly, neutral. 

        “Alright, come on, enough staring. You lot get started on the cleaning.”

        The three of them glanced at each other, unnerved, but then Genesis’s jaw set and Sephiroth felt his heart sink. Genesis was going to push one more time, the foolish idiot. Sephiroth wanted to lunge across the room and stop him, but he could only watch in morbid fascination as the boy's mouth opened, his blue eyes flashing defiantly. 

        “And if we don’t?”

        The ensuing silence stretched for a full three minutes on the clock as the Turk’s eerie, cold gaze locked on Genesis. The Turk Sephiroth knew was not here right now, only a blank, unmoving shell. 

         “Then I shall clean it up for you, and I will ground all three of you from the training room for the next week.”

         Genesis scoffed. 

         “Isn’t that more of a punishment for you? Being stuck with us in close quarters with you for a week? How long will your sanity last, huh?”

          The Turk’s gaze never wavered, and her body never moved from her rigid stance.

          “You misunderstand. You will be stuck in the apartment with each other. With food, water and anything else here that you wish to use. I will not be there. If you choose option two, I shall be spending my time elsewhere. The Planet knows I need to catch up on paperwork. The Turks will continue to guard the door. I’ll continue keeping Science and the President away from you. I will continue with my efforts to get you free of Shinra entirely and find you all suitable places to live that you both like and want. I will simply not be present. You are angry with me, you do not trust me, and that is understandable. But I will not continue to put myself in situations that put me at risk of doing something I would deeply regret. If that's what you prefer, then so be it. Simply say the word.” 

        Genesis’ eyebrow raised.

        “Put you at risk of doing something you’ll regret, huh? So you are angry.”

        The Turk didn’t so much as twitch.

         “Oh, I’m livid. Logically, I know why you three did what you did, but logic means very little to the emotional mind, as I’m sure you're aware. I’m simply very very good at controlling myself.”

         Angeal looked deeply unnerved by the entire exchange, and Sehpiroth could feel his own hair standing on end. For someone who was livid, she didn’t look it, or sound it. Utterly empty expression, quiet, calm voice, and a heartbeat as steady and slow as if she were merely discussing afternoon tea. Genesis scoffed. 

         “Fine then. Leave, I bet you won’t.”

          The Turk blinked at him slowly, utterly unphased. Then glanced at Angeal and Sephiroth, who both hadn’t moved. Angeal, still utterly frozen in a sea of glass, and Sephiroth staring straight at her. She hummed.

         “Alright, then.”

          To Sephiroth’s total shock, the Turk turned abruptly and vanished into her room. Before Genesis could get smug though, the Turk reamerged. She was strapping on one of her weapons harnesses and sliding a jacket over it. Sephiroth’s heart rate skyrocketed and Genesis went pale as paper, but the Turk didn’t turn the weapons on them. She merely crossed the room, grabbed a handful of books from the shelves, and then headed for the apartment's main hall.  

         Before any of them could process what was happening, the sound of the front door opening filled the silence. Before Sephiroth could even begin moving, it shut with a click. The quiet sound of the Turk talking to the door guard could be heard, though they could make out no specific words, and then the familiar sound of the female Turk’s footsteps receded. The footsteps did not come back. The silence was deafening as the three of them stared in the direction the Turk had vanished. In the direction Eir had vanished. 

          Sephiroth felt sick to his stomach. The Turk had kept her word. If he wasn’t feeling so guilty he would be entirely in awe. She hadn’t snapped, she hadn’t screamed, she hadn’t hurt them, heck, she hadn’t even threatened them. The silence stretched, and then Angeal started sweeping. A moment later Genesis started sweeping up the big piece of pot and torn plant from the carpet, Sephiroth crossed to grab the kitchen trash can and bring it over to Genesis. He bent to start picking up the pieces of broken pottery, and then Angeal’s soft voice filled the silence.

       “Did we do the right thing?”

        Sephiroth glanced over at the torn remains of The Count of Monte Cristo. He thought about warm food, an all encompassing hug after a nightmare. He thought of stupid, foolish questions, and he thought of gentle hands carding through his hair. Then he remembered moments from the past, smiles and laughter with the boys he was now cleaning up with. He remembered battles with Genesis’ spine against his own. He remembered Angeal gently caring for his injuries, and he remembered playing board games with the two of them, soft laughter filling the air as Genesis screeched about Sephiroth counting cards. 

       “I don’t know.”

        And he honestly didn’t. Angeal didn’t speak again, and Genesis didn’t even look up from the mess. That night, Sephiroth went to bed with an empty stomach, unable to make himself eat even a bite of the delicious stew Angeal had made, but something told him the hollow feeling didn’t just come from hunger. He curled around himself and listened. The guard posted at the door rotated out three times that night, but not once did the soft, steady gait he was now so familiar with sound in the hallway. Sephiroth didn’t sleep a wink that night, or the next, but by day three he forced himself to sleep. What was done was done, and it was no use wishing otherwise. Still, when a knock sounded on the fourth day, he couldn’t help but perk up. He was the first to the door, Angeal and Genesis right behind him. But when he opened the door, he was met with the sight of an unfamiliar Turk with an armload of groceries. Sephiroth would forever deny it, but his shoulders slumped at the sight of the man. 

        The man asked to come inside, and when they let him in, he babbled on and on about how Eir had made sure the groceries were double-checked three times before she determined they were safe, and how she’d told him to tell them to cast Curga and Poisana just in case because Hollander and Science were sneaky buggers. Then the man left, and the silence enveloped the apartment once more. Sephiroth mechanically started helping Angeal put the groceries away. About halfway through, he froze. In the fourth grocery bag was a loaf of sweetbread, from the market stall he’d visited with Eir. He growled internally and shoved the bread into the pantry, and when Angeal and Genesis ate it later, he refused to eat any, claiming he didn’t like cinnamon. Neither of the other boys called him on it. 

***** three weeks later *****

        Sephiroth was fairly certain that if they weren’t able to leave the apartment soon, he was going to kill Genesis in cold blood. They’d settled into a routine after that first week of tiptoeing silence and tension. Now that the initial shock of Eir’s abrupt departure had worn off, he’d been pretty happy to settle into a steady back and forth with the other two. It had reminded him a lot of his past life with the two of them. However, this did not make him immune to Genesis’ particular brand of harsh commentary. Even Angeal was starting to get snappy with the both of them, the boy’s restlessness rising with every passing day. SOLDIERS were not meant to be still or in small spaces, and there were only so many squats, push-ups, and tight semi-spars in the cleared living room they could do before the energy became too much. It was Wednesday when Angeal finally snapped entirely. 

        “We need to get out.”

         Genesis snorted.

         “Well I, for one, am not asking for that stupid Turk to come back.”

         Sephiroth tilted his head thoughtfully.

         “Well, she said we were only grounded from the training room for a week. Technically we aren’t banned any more, so we could ask the door guard.”

        Genesis rolled his eyes.

         “I doubt that. She’s just waiting for us to come crawling back to her, and I’m not breaking.”

          Angeal looked about ready to vibrate out of his skin.

          “Fine, then we sneak out. If anyone finds us out, we just tell them Snitch said we were only grounded for a week, and we aren’t technically breaking any rules. But I swear if I don’t get to move in the next four hours, I’m going to destroy the entire apartment.”

          Genesis sat straight up from where he’d been laying starfished on the ground. and Sephiroth stared at Angeal. wide-eyed and shocked. Genesis was the one to voice what they were both thinking. 

         “I cannot be hearing this right. Angeal, honor is everything, I follow all the rules, Hewley did not just suggest sneaking out and causing potential major harm to an innocent apartment.”

        Angeal glowered at them both, looking downright homicidal. 

        “You both heard me just now. Help me figure out how we are going to get past the door guard or I swear I’m going to just knock him out myself!”

        Sephiroth and Genesis looked at each other. Sephiroth shrugged, and a feral grin crossed Genesis’ face. 

         “ My friend, your desire , is my command. What do the two of you say to me causing some mild fire damage to the building as a distraction for our dear guard?”

         Angeal considered briefly before nodding, his brows furrowed low over his eyes.

         “Just be careful not to hurt the guy. It's not his fault he’s the one on duty right now.”

         Genesis’ grin widened to near maniacal proportions, and Sephiroth felt a twinge of concern. Perhaps letting Genesis loose upon the poor Turk guarding the door was a mistake, but it was far too late for regrets. Genesis had already vanished down the main hall, and a few moments later there was a startled screech of surprise and then running footsteps. 

         Sharing a startled glance with Angeal, the two of them stared after Genesis as the sounds continued. Sephiroth was unsure how Genesis managed to distract the Turk without the man noticing the red-haired boy, especially since he was certain that he hadn’t heard the front door open. Dashing quickly down the hall with Angeal at his heels, he found himself staring at Genesis’ dangling legs, the older boy hanging from the vent panel next to the door. 

         There was a sudden whooshing sound and another scrambling of feet outside their door, and Sephiroth came to a sudden realization as light flashed brightly from under the crack of the front door. Genesis was launching fireballs through the vent system. A vent system that split multiple times before exiting in three places in the hallway just outside their apartment door. The Turk was shrieking something about backup being needed, and Sephiroth had no doubt the poor man was on his PHS letting the other Turks know there was a problem. Genesis sent one more blast of fire into the vents, then hopped down and cracked the front door open. 

       The male Turk, who had stayed steadfastly by their door every morning for the last few weeks, was across the hallway, examining a scorched metal grate as he spoke frantically over the PHS he held in one hand. His other hand frantically attempted to pat out his blazing hair. Sephiroth winced in sympathy but followed Genesis as the other boy slinked down the hallway, careful to keep in the Turk’s blindspot. Angeal was right on his tail and closed the door softly behind him before darting after the two of them. 

        By the time the Turk had started to turn, they were already sliding into the elevator and Genesis was frantically pushing the button for the training floor over and over again. The man had nearly turned all the way, his eyes slowly rising from the floor when the door shut, hopefully before the Turk realized just who was in the elevator. They were home free, at least for now. 

       The rest of the ride to the correct floor was achingly tense as they waited for the elevator to stop on another floor, or for an alarm to go off, but by some divine grace they made it utterly unchallenged to the training floor. They glanced carefully around, and, after some careful maneuvering, managed to dart toward one of the empty training rooms. They’d made it. Genesis sent a feral grin in their direction and began to head straight for the Materia and weapons cabinet. 

        The next thirty minutes or so were spent sparring as they had before the argument with Eir had gone down, but the entire time Sephiroth couldn’t help but feel that something was deeply wrong. It had been so easy to slide out and up to this floor, too easy. He knew from past experiences that at least one Turk and one SOLDIER were assigned to constantly monitor the cameras of the building. Someone should have come to find them now. Slowing and pausing in his spar with the other two, he began to listen to the noises on the entire floor. Genesis and Angeal continued sparring behind him, their swords and magic clashing and ricochetting loudly against the walls. 

          Sephiroth couldn’t hear anyone in the training rooms around them. He frowned, that twisted feeling in his stomach growing. He listened even harder. None of the training rooms seemed to be in use. Something was very very wrong here. 

          “Stop.”

           The other two froze mid-strike, and Genesis bristled. He opened his mouth to say something, but Sephiroth held up a hand, his grip white-knuckled on his sword as he let all the muscles in his body coil tightly. He could sense the other two stiffening behind him, picking up on his agitation. 

          “What's wrong?”

           Angeal’s tone was clipped as he walked to stand at Sephiroth’s right shoulder. The older boy's sword was held in a low ready position, his shoulders rolled back and spine straight. 

          “Listen.”

           Sephiroth hissed. For a long moment, there was nothing as the three of them listened intently, then—

          “I don’t hear anything, Se—wait.”

           Genesis cut off abruptly, and he came to stand at Sephiroth's left shoulder. All three of them moved to be back-to-back as they studied the room and the hallway outside the glass.

          “We need to move.”

           Angeal’s voice was steady, but the taught line of his body at Sephiroth's back betrayed his anxiety. Genesis was just as tense as he spoke, his tone clipped.

          “What are the chances that whatever they’ve set up on this floor doesn’t spring before we can get to an exit?”

         Sephiroth gritted his teeth, his eyes darting around the eerily empty hallways beyond the glass, his ears straining for any sign of what might await them and hearing only ominous silence in return.

          “Near zero.”

            He kept his own tone devoid of any of his internal turmoil, but some of his stress must have come through because Genesis let out a dry chuckle beside him. 

          “The fates are cruel, I’m starting to think we’ve made a grave error in not letting that Turk at our door see us.” 

           Angeal snorted inelegantly. 

           “Hindsight is always twenty-twenty in matters like this. It's too late now though. We should get moving before they decide to make the first move. That way we can at least maintain some maneuverability in whatever is about to happen.”

           Sephiroth hummed an acknowledgement as he eyed the door warily. 

           “Let's get moving, then.”

            They’d barely moved three steps before the trap sprung. Mist began to fill the room from the vents, and when Sephiroth lunged for the door, he found it locked. Since the room was built to withstand SOLDIERS sparring, no amount of hitting the reinforced glass would do anything. Snarling, he whipped his shirt up to try and filter the air. It wouldn’t do very much, but hopefully it would give him just long enough to figure out another escape route. 

       The other two boys had done the same, and all three of them began to examine the room for weak spots. Sephiroth was rapidly becoming dizzy, and he could see Genesis beginning to sway. The boy was much lighter than Angeal and had less Mako in his blood than Sephiroth. It made sense that he would be first to weaken, but that didn’t make it any easier to watch. 

         Sephiroth staggered as he fought the effects and could only watch in a sort of detached rage as Genesis fell to his knees, the red-haired boy's blazing eyes dimming rapidly before closing entirely.  

       Genesis collapsed into a disjointed heap and Angeal staggered over to him, falling to his knees beside the other boy and wrapping himself around him as if that would protect him from what was coming. Sephiroth gritted his teeth as he frantically looked for any escape. But this trap had been well-planned; they were in a room made to withstand their enhancements, with SOLDIER grade sedatives pumping rapidly into a room with no other exits. In short, they were well and truly doomed. 

         Sephiroth found himself staggering over to the other two boys and curling beside them, some horrible part of him begging that he be close to them before whatever new horror began and inevitably tore them apart once more. The last thing Sephiroth saw before his eyes slipped closed was a familiar figure standing at the glass, a figure with wild hair, a scraggly beard, and a cruel grin stretched across his vile face. Hollander. 

       His last thought as his eyes closed was the distant hope that Eir wasn’t still so mad at them that she wouldn’t bury them properly when this was over. It was more than they deserved, but frankly, it was all he could hope for. 

******************Elsewhere in the Building*****************

      Eir’s POV:

           Eir was going to kill someone. Probably several someones, actually, before this day was over. Starting with whichever vile cretin had messed with the cameras, and possibly Strike for failing to notice when the boys had left the apartment. The Turk was a good man, but he’d also failed at his job to properly protect and monitor the boys, and her patience with failure at the moment was paper thin. So potentially, he would also be dead by the end of today, but he was currently very low on Eir’s hit list.

          The top person at the moment was the man a few feet from her, smiling smugly from behind reinforced glass as he ran a program preventing anyone from accessing the cameras and thus determining where her boys had gone off to. Eir made direct eye contact with the man and flicked out a small blade from her pocket; the man smirked, unintimidated as she advanced to the door. Eir allowed herself to let a slow, twisted grin spread across her own face in response as she slid the blade into the space in the door frame. The blade superheated, cutting straight through the deadbolt and allowing the door to pop open. The man suddenly looked terribly frightened, and Eir let the grin stretch to maniacal proportions as she darted across the room and plunged the knife straight into his gut, twisting the blade savagely before yanking it up towards his sternum and pulling it free in a vicious rending motion. The man dropped, and Eir stalked toward the computer, yanking free the drive the man had inserted into the computer to keep them from the camera feeds.

          Her dull joy at the man's end was soured immediately as her eyes registered a group of scientists loading a set of suspiciously large boxes into a truck in the garage, a very familiar man directing them. Oh, she had been so foolish as to let Veld promise to keep the man contained for her. She should have killed him the first time, regardless of the consequences. She stormed from the room, the group of Turks she’d brought with her parting like the red sea as she glided past. They fell sharply in behind her, several of them near sprinting in order to keep pace with her. 

          Eir ignored the elevator entirely, stalking towards the stairs and pulling free her grappling hook from her belt. Distantly, she was grateful she’d grabbed her full mission belt before heading out, otherwise this particular manuver wouldn’t have worked in the slightest. Eir anchored the Hook in place around one of the stairwell railings, and without a moment's hesitation, launched herself over the edge of the railing and into a speedy descent, so swift it was nearly freefall. She dropped past the floors in a matter of seconds, and instead of trying to unhook her grapple she left it hanging as she darted toward the garage. 

         She arrived just as the truck pulled away, and she snarled, booking it after the moving vehicle. She had nearly caught one of the handles on the back when it sped up, heading toward the main road. She snarled, lunging forward to catch it— something rammed into her. She went tumbling across the garage floor, end-over-end, her limbs banging painfully against the concrete.

         She rolled with the momentum of the hit and came up with her guns pointing toward where the hit had come from, only to be forced to dodge seconds later when she registered the fact that what had hit her had in fact been another vehicle and not a person.

         She snarled, shooting out the window as the car roared past her, and the car veered into a wall as the driver abruptly lost his rights to living. Growling low in her chest, Eir launched herself toward the nearest fast-looking vehicle, a SOLDIER-issued motorcycle much larger than her own. She threw her leg over it, and after a few precious moments filled with colorful curses, she hotwired the darn thing and pulled out of the garage with a roar. The truck was already at the end of the street turning around the corner, and she tore after it, heedless of the traffic as she charged after her quarry. When she turned the corner, the truck was turning again, its tires squealing as it struggled to make the tight turn. 

           Eir leaned into the curve, nearly slamming her body into the asphalt as she turned on a dime, desperate to keep pace with the truck. Her desperation cost her dearly. The truck driver had slammed on his brakes, and the front of the motorcycle crunched against the rear end of the truck as Eir used all her training and brute strength to avoid being thrown bodily from her seat.

       It was all in vain, though. Despite her best efforts, she still lurched forward, and while her iron grip had prevented her from dying in the collision outright, it didn’t stop her head from colliding with the metal door of the truck. Her last thought as she crumpled to the ground atop the smoking remains of the motorcycle and the truck pulled away with screech was that Hollender better pray to every deity he believed in, because when she woke up, she was going to turn him into a pile of mincemeat. Then, despite her mental screaming, the darkness of unconsciousness consumed her. 

Chapter Text

   Sephiroth’s POV:

      Sephiroth hated waking up in the lab. It didn’t matter how many times he'd done this in both his lives, it never became a tolerable experience. If anything, with each instance it became less palatable. Waking up in a lab with Genesis and Angeal strapped down on tables beside him, however, was new, and was not preferred, if he was being honest. In fact, this experience was already doing its level best to place itself in the top most hated lab experiences of Sephiroth's existence. Which was impressive, because he had a lot of truly awful and hated lab experiences. His thoughts were rudely interrupted by an awful, slimy voice. 

        “Interesting. Not only were you the last to go down, you were the first to wake up. I’m starting to think that perhaps our dear Turk was lying about you being her Nephew.”

          Sephiroth’s gaze snapped to the speaker, and he let a snarl grow across his face as Hollander in all his demented twisted glory came into view. The scientist chuckled darkly, utterly unphased by Sephiroth’s clear hostility. 

        “Oh no, none of that. I’m afraid you’ll have to learn some manners in your time here. Such behavior is unacceptable, after all. I did some preliminary studies of your blood while you three were unconscious, and I must ask, Sephiroth, how exactly did you escape that night? Did it have anything to do with that blasted Turk, hmmmm?”

        Sephiroth glared at the man, his blood boiling in his veins, and kept his mouth tightly shut. A soft, shifting noise sounded beside him, and in the corner of his eye, he could see Angeal slowly coming around. Hollander's gaze immediately snapped to the dark-haired boy, his face twisting into something furious.

       “Ah, Angeal. So kind of you to join us. I must say it's been quite boring without you and Genesis to keep me company.”

       Angeal growled in response, and Hollander’s hand shot out, smacking Angeal’s head against the table he was strapped to with a vicious backhand. 

      “Have you truly forgotten yourself after being gone for only a short time? Shame on you, boy. I thought you , at least, would retain some sense of respect and decorum towards your betters.”

       Sephiroth hissed and glared at the man.

       “Angeal is a hundred times the man you’ll ever be. He has no need to show you any sort of respect.”

        Hollander raised an eyebrow at that, an awful smirk crossing his face.

       “Is that so? Well, then I suppose I should start by teaching you manners first, since you seem so willing to talk back.”

        Sephiroth merely glowered silently back at Hollander, unwilling to give the man the satisfaction of a response. Hollander crossed to a familiar wheeled table and began to arrange the tools resting atop its stainless steel surface. 

        “I took the liberty of removing your shirt earlier. I must say it's disappointing that I won’t be the first to perform this procedure on you, but ah well, Hojo was always allowed far more leeway than myself when it came to his projects. Now that he’s gone though—”

        The man raised a scalpel and a thin blade, studying their edges in the brilliant light of the fluorescents overhead.

        “—Well, it's only fitting I pick up where he left off, yes?”

        Sephiroth merely stared blankly at the man, unphased. He sincerely doubted that in one session and with such a limited amount of tools and supplies, Hollander could come anywhere near the torment Hojo had inflicted on him. Angeal was not so unaffected, though. 

       “You leave him alone, you vile, disgusting toad!” 

        Hollander only laughed.

        “Oh, worried about our new friend, are we? Well, you really should be more worried about yourself. The last person who worried about you boys didn’t exactly have a happy ending, after all. No need to fret, Angeal, you’ll have your turn soon enough.”

        Suddenly, Sephiroth didn’t feel nearly as bored or confident. Angeal also picked up on Hollander’s subtle implication, his eyes darkening. 

         “What did you do?”

          Hollander hummed his eyes on the blades in his hand as he picked up an alcoholic spray and began to cross towards Sephiroth’s table. 

          “Hmmm, oh, no need to act so offended, boy. It was quick, after all. I would have preferred to make it slow after all the trouble she caused me, but in the end, she merely needed to be taken out of the way like the nuisance she was. A bit messy, but she probably died instantly if that's what you're worried about.”

          Angeal looked as if he’d been punched in the gut, his eyes reflecting a dull shock. A voice pulled Sephiroth out of his thoughts from his left as Genesis made his consciousness known.

         “I don’t believe you for a second, you old rat. That Turk may be annoying, but she’s highly competent and I doubt someone with your subpar skills could do anything to her.”

         Hollander threw his head back and laughed.

         “Oh ye of little faith. She wasn’t even that hard to get rid of in the end. It was mostly an accident, you know. We just needed her to stop following us. It's amazing how fragile the human body is when faced with high-speed and moving vehicles. Skilled or not, her bones snapped just as easily as any other humans when faced with blunt force trauma.”

         Hollander was beside Sephiroth now, cold-gloved fingers trailing across his torso as the man sprayed the disinfectant and began to wipe down Sephiroth's skin with a cloth. Sephiroth glared at the man, but kept his mouth shut. He was with Genesis on this one. Eir was many things, but incompetent enough to be killed by the likes of Hollander and his lackeys was not one of them. Hollander uncapped a pen and began to make little marks along Sephroths skin, the tip trailing across his chest ominously. 

          “Now, let's get back to talking about you boys. Sephiroth here is going to go first, and then Genesis. We can begin where I left off last time when we were so rudely interrupted.”

        Sephiroth didn’t miss Genesis’ small flinch from the corner of his eyes, and he gritted his teeth, resisting the urge to snap his teeth uselessly at the monster above him. Pinned as he was to this table, he knew he didn’t have the range to get a good bite in even if he resented that fact. Hollander hummed again and then picked up the thin blade, resting it gently against Sephiroth’s sternum. The cold of the steel was so sharp and cool, it felt as if Hollander had rested a piece of ice there instead of metal. 

       The foul man made direct eye contact with Sephiroth and then pressed down, the blade cutting easily into Sephiroth’s skin like a hot knife through butter. Sephiroth held the man's gaze, not so much as twitching as a cold line of brillant pain spread down in a straight line across his torso. Hollander looked faintly disappointed for a moment before he turned his gaze back to his work. He lifted the knife to make a second incision, only to be interrupted by the sound of the door to the lab exploding inward. 

        A silhouette stormed into the room wreathed by smoke and coiling trails of fire. They didn’t even pause in the doorway, instead dashing across the floor in a blur of limbs. Suddenly, Hollander’s arm was being twisted, and he gave a pained yell as it snapped. The figure of fire and ash slammed Hollander to the ground and used the momentum to brutally rip the broken arm from its socket, dislocating the bone and partially ripping the skin attaching the limb to the shoulder. 

        Dark hair matted with blood and a face covered in bruises stared down at the scientist pinned beneath combat boots with a look of such intense rage that Sephiroth became abruptly grateful that this figure of fury personified was on their side. Eir stood above Hollander, bruised, battered, smoking, with a shoulder hanging strangely and blood dripping in a steady stream across her face, but very much alive, and very, very angry. 

         Eir stared down at Hollander the same way one would look at a piece of particularly foul trash. She raised her undamaged arm and aimed a gun straight between the man's terrified eyes. 

       “Should have killed you sooner. My mistake. I won’t be repeating it. The broken bones are for Angeal, the dislocation and body slam is for Genesis, and this—”

        She stomped her foot down, and Sephiroth could hear the sound of ribs shattering, followed by a sound of pain gurgling pain from the vile scientist.   

       “ —Is for Sirith.  No one touches my kids you ******”

          Then she turned off the safety on the gun. Her eyes were dispassionate, the color more black then gray as she stared down at the man on the other end of the barrel. 

        “Finally, this is for every single person you’ve ever hurt.”

        She unloaded an entire clip into the man's skull, staring on in cold, dispassionate fury. For a long moment she just stood there after unloading the clip, her shoulders heaving as she breathed. Then her head snapped up, her eyes landing on the three boys strapped to the lab tables.

       The string of curses the Turk let loose had to be in at least five different languages, but she didn’t stay still as she said them. She was already moving toward Sephiroth, her hands snagging a thread and needle from the cart as she passed it. She opened the spray bottle Hollander had left at his side and dumped its contents over her hands, wiping them clean on the rag beside him. Then she paused, her eyes meeting his. She threw aside the needle and thread and pulled a Curaga from her belt and cast one of the most intense healing spells Sephiroth had felt in a while. The wound in his torso sealed itself shut in a flash of light, and Eir nodded, her eyes never leaving his as she began to speak.

       “Sorry for keeping you waiting, boys. Let’s get you out of those restraints, yes?”

        There was a long moment of silence as Eir began freeing their limbs from their bonds, using a key pulled from Hollander’s corpse. As Eir began to unlock the last cuff on Angeal’s ankle, Sephiroth finally found his voice. 

        “You came for us?”

         Eir froze where she stood, her eyes snapping back to his own, her eyes wide. For the first time, Sephiroth realized that her pupils were two entirely different sizes, and he remembered what Hollander had said about blunt force trauma and vehicles. Eir crossed the room in a flash, and before Sephiroth could decide whether or not she was a threat and if he should attack the Turk, two bands of warmth were wrapped around him, pulling him beneath a bloodied chin and into a body smelling of copper and smoke. 

       Before he could react with more than a startled gasp, Eir was moving him and grabbing a startled Genesis with one arm, yanking Angeal close with the other. She pressed all three of them so close to her chest that Sephiroth briefly wondered if she was trying to absorb them into herself. 

        “Always, clann mo chridhe. Always.”

         Angeal was the first to act, his arms slowly rising and wrapping around Sephiroth’s and Genesis’s shoulders and Eir’s lower back. Sephiroth found himself following suit, burying his head beneath Eir’s chin, and after a moment's hesitation, he felt Genesis tuck himself into the Turk’s side. Sephiroth couldn’t say how long the four of them stood there, wrapped in each other's arms, when suddenly a commotion sounded in the hallway. Eir was pulling away from them, her gun and a handful of throwing knives rising in a blur of motion, only to stop herself from firing when an entire team of Turks and SOLDIERS appeared in the doorway. In front stood Kindle and Trickshot, the two men staring at all four of them with twin expressions of awed concern. Kindle spoke, filling the surprised silence with a tone that could only be called worshipful.

        “Has anyone ever told you look really really hot when you're covered in blood?”

        And then Genesis was groaning, throwing his head back. Angeal sighed, and Sephiroth let out a strangled sound as he stared at this unfathomable buffoon of a man. Kindle looked about five seconds from simply passing away from embarrassment, and about five of the Turks looked to be also near death from sheer second-hand embarrassment while all seven of the SOLDIERS standing behind Kindle roared with laughter. Trickshot shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose before throwing his head back and staring at the ceiling with an expression of suffering.

       “Idiots. We are surrounded by idiots, Eir. Also, next time leave something for us to take out, yeah? You didn’t need to burn and shoot everything down yourself.”

       Eir slowly turned her gaze from where she’d been staring in utter shock at Kindle, her eyes slow to focus as they settled on Trickshot. She hummed and shrugged.

        “If you didn’t want me to annihilate everything in my path, then you should have kept up. Sounds like a skill issue to me, Trickshot. Just get good.”

       The sound Trickshot let out in response reminded Sephiroth of a particularly frustrated Chocobo, and he resisted the urge to laugh hysterically. They had been captured, taken from safety because they’d been stupid enough to slip their minders, and yet Eir had come. She had come bleeding, smoking, and much the worse for wear, but she had come. She had come, and now here they were laughing in the middle of a partially destroyed lab base, Hollander’s corpse lying mere feet away, and a SOLDIER flirting shamelessly with a Turk amidst it all. 

        Suddenly, Genesis was in his face, the older boy’s hands fluttering around his body as if unsure what to do, something distinctly panicked in his gaze.

      “What's wrong? Where are you hurt?”

       Sephiroth blinked at Genesis in confusion, and the boy blurred strangely in his vision. 

       “Nothing’s wrong, I'm not hurt. Eir already fixed everything. Why do you ask?”

        A strange look crossed Genesis’ face, something wary and concerned in his eyes. Eir was the one to answer. She had come up behind Genesis and laid one hand on the red head's shoulder while her other hand raised and gently cupped Sephiroth’s cheek. 

        “You're crying, Sirith.”

       Her voice was achingly soft and those gray eyes stared at him like liquid silver, wide and full of something he could almost call…..no, he was being foolish. She brushed her thumb beneath his right eye, and for the first time, Sephiroth became aware of the liquid pouring down his face. Shocked, he raised his own hand to his face, swiping beneath his eyes, and stared down at the shimmer of clear liquid across his fist when he lowered it to look. 

        “Why am I crying?”

         He stared up at the Turk and Genesis, his brows drawn in confusion. Distantly, he was aware that the SOLDIER and Turk team had gone quiet, looking anywhere but at him. Angeal stood, his back to Sephiroth and his arms crossed glowering at the team to keep them from staring. His focus was held by his Turk as the woman hummed and leaned forward. She tugged his head gently forward and touched their foreheads together. 

       “I think you're in shock, luv. That, or just really really relieved. Your body is not sure how to handle everything, so it's responding the best it can. It's alright, gràidh, it's going to be alright. All three of you are safe now. I’ve got you.”

        And for once, Sephiroth believed her.

*******************************

      Eir was guiding the three of them back to the tower. There was discussion among the Turks about what needed to be done and how to handle the president, and Kindle offered to add a few trusted SOLDIERS to the guard roster. Everything felt hazy, almost unreal, but soon they were back at the apartment and Eir was waving them in and telling them to go wash up. None of them protested, and when Sephiroth came back out, he was greeted by the sight of Eir cooking. 

        Her dark and bloody hair was pulled up in a ponytail. She was covered in an assortment of hastily wrapped bandages, and there was a visible line of clean skin up to her elbows where she’d washed away the dirt and grime in order to cook. Her pupils, he noticed, were still dilated, and after a shower and fresh clothes, he was able to recognise exactly what that meant.

        “Why are you cooking? You're concussed, you should be in medical.”

         Despite his calm tone and the logic of his question, Eir merely raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him.  Though her gaze took a moment longer than normal to focus on him. 

         “Can’t go to Medical. They want me dead, remember? One of my few friends in Medical agreed to meet me at my place after I finished getting you guys fed and taken care of. Besides, Trickshot looked me over, and there isn’t anything terribly life threatening. I just have to stay awake long enough for the danger period to pass for the concussion.”

          Sephiroth glowered at the woman and debated the merits of picking her up and shoving her onto the couch. Then the rest of her sentence registered. 

          “Your place?”

           Angeal’s voice filled the room, voicing the exact question on Sephiroth’s mind. Angeal and Genesis walked in, the two of them in new clothes and Angeal’s hair dripping wet. Genesis appeared to have towel dried his, the diva. Eir glanced up at them before turning back to the stove where she stirred whatever it was she was making.

        “What, did you boys think I was just living underneath my desk? Just cause I agreed to give you guys space doesn’t mean I’m going to sleep on the floor! Honestly!”

        Something was sinking in Sephiroth’s gut and he could see that same disappointment reflected back in Angeal’s eyes. And though Genesis tried to cover it with a flash of rage, Sephiroth could see it in his face as well. 

       “Hmph, so you're not coming back to monitor us then?”

       The red head's tone was sharp, but Sephiroth could hear the hope in it. Eir hummed, tasting whatever was in the pot and nodding to herself.

        “Well, I’ve already doubled your guard. Just because you three got into trouble doesn’t mean I’m not going to respect your wishes. I’m not Science! Just cause you made a mistake doesn’t mean I’m going to take away your free will. You told me you didn’t want me staying with you three, so while I am going to increase the security and ask that you please, for Shiva’s sake, tell your guards when you're leaving so that Science can’t get its mitts on you, I’m not going to ignore your wishes. It's your right to choose who lives in your space, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

       Sephiroth wasn’t sure if he should feel elated by the respect and consideration she was offering them, or just hollow because he desperately wanted her to come back. Genesis looked similarly conflicted, and so it was Angeal, bless his heart, that spoke up for them.

     “Oh. Well thank you.”

      Eir hummed absently back and then pulled the pot off the heated burner, setting it on the back of the stove and then opening the oven to check on something inside it. 

      “The stew and the bread should be done in a few minutes if you three want to sit down and rest. I know it's been a bit of a trying day for you lot.”

        Unable to think of anything to say to that, Sephiroth merely nodded and went to sit on the couch, his eyes trailing to the empty spaces where a glass figurine and a plant had sat the last time Eir had been here. How were they supposed to fix this? Did the other two even want to fix it? What if he was the only one who wanted Eir to come back? He’d known her longer than they had, after all. It was quite possible that they didn’t care about Eir the same way he did. What if Eir didn’t want to come back even if all three of them did want her to come back? They hadn’t exactly…been kind the last time they’d talked.  Once again, it was Angeal who interrupted the silence, his steady voice calm and warm.

      “Speaking of what happened today, I don’t believe we’ve thanked you yet, or apologized for our negligence.”

          Eir looked up from the counter slowly, her eyes once more taking a second longer than normal to focus on them. She blinked slowly, seemingly processing what Angeal had said. Then her brow furrowed as she stared at the three of them in confusion. 

      “You're welcome? I would have done it regardless. After all, I promised you three I’d keep you safe. Besides, your my—”

        She blinked slowly again, her brow furrowing as she muttered to herself. 

       “ —What's the word?”

        Sephiroth narrowed his eyes at the Turk. Eir’s disorientation seemed to be getting worse, which was not reassuring in the slightest. Eir glanced up at them and shook her head slightly, her eyes ever so slightly cloudy.

        “Regardless, I made you three a promise, and you’re kids. Of course you’d want to sneak off. True, it ended poorly this time, but I don’t blame you three at all. The only person to blame is Hollander and Science. Since Hollander is dead, and so is half of Science, I’d say it worked out in the end. I’m just sorry I didn’t get to you three soon enough to stop him entirely.”

       Genesis folded his arms, glaring at Eir as he spoke.

       “And I suppose we’re just supposed to believe you had nothing to do with it. The whole floor being abandoned and no Turks noticing our absence despite the fact that I know you Turks have cameras throughout the whole building.”

        And…Sephiroth’s heart dropped. He hated to admit it, but Genesis had a point. No one had entered the elevator. The whole training floor was empty, and no one had seen them at all despite the fact that they’d passed multiple cameras in the halls. They’d had a fight with Eir, and suddenly they weren’t safe the second they left the area she’d grounded them in? It…it fit way too well. 

         Had she been working with Science? But then why kill Hollander? Well, the answer to that one was obvious, Hollander was known to them, a known threat, and Shinra had never shied away from killing its members in order to further their agenda. What was a few scientist deaths if it resulted in gaining trust from its greatest weapons?

        What if Eir had been sent his way that night all those months ago for this very reason? After all, Sephiroth had proven that night that fear and conditioning could only go so far in controlling SOLDIERS if they decided to go rogue. What better way to bring him back than to convince him he’d escaped? Was it all a lie? The late nights? The book reading? Eir storming Hollander’s lab to get Genesis and Angeal? Eir coming after them and taking out Hollander? 

       How could one Turk do all that? Now that he was actually thinking about it, what kind of Turk was able to storm an entire science base on her own without a full team? What kind of Turk was able to blackmail the president? If she really had all that information, why hadn’t she released it yet? Public outroar would be huge. It should be more than enough to set them free.

       But then….Jenova. That hadn’t been fake, Sephiroth had felt her death. Yes, there were still pockets of cells he needed to destroy, but the screaming of reunion and the howling of her voice were gone. Shinra couldn’t fake that, and Jenova was too powerful of a resource to simply destroy. That night, the night of his nightmares, Eir hadn’t ignored him, hadn’t hurt him at all with her knowledge of such a glaring weakness. The talk about how he wasn’t a monster, why would someone who worked with Shinra want him to believe he was human? For all that so many things pointed to Eir being a potential traitor or double agent, there were also so many that pointed to her truly being on their side. 

       He looked up at Eir, staring at the Turk who had frozen at her place on the counter entirely silent, her mouth parted slightly as she blinked dazedly at Genesis. She still hadn’t spoken, and the thoughts in his head swirled, doubt, fear, hope, and uncertainty enveloping his mind as he stared at the concussed Turk. Finally, she spoke, her eyes focusing slowly on Genesis. 

      “I—they took out the cameras. I had to kill a lab tech to find out where you guys were. But I don’t know how I would prove to you what happened. I—”

      A beep filled the air, and she jumped, whirling around one of her guns up and pointed at the oven as it let out another shrill beep. She didn’t fire, but she did let out a ragged breath before reaching up to rub at her temple as she stowed the gun back in the holster at her side. She pulled the bread from the oven and set it on the counter, leaning heavily on the stone countertop. Her back was to them, her shoulders tense and her head leaned forward as she seemed to slump forward in exhaustion. When she spoke next, her voice was dull and tired.

    “I don’t know what to tell you, Genesis. No matter what I've said and done so far, it seems as if I can do nothing to prove the truth of my words. I don’t blame you for being wary. In fact, I’m proud of you for being so careful. I just also don’t know what to do to earn your trust.”

       Genesis harrumphed.

      “You can start by looking me in the eyes.”

        Eir turned and met his eyes instantly, gray eyes hazy and slightly dazed but focused on the red-haired boy nonetheless. Genesis stared at the Turk, his own gaze heavy and weighted. 

       “Tell me, Turk, do you want to hurt us?”

        Eir shook her head, her eyes still focused on Genesis’s own. 

        “Do you want us to stay and work for Shinra?”

        Eir’s lips curled in a snarl, and the vehement ‘no’ that followed was backed up by her heartbeat and the honesty in her body language. Genesis hummed.

         “Considering that I’m trained to spot lies, and the fact that you are currently supremely concussed and probably incapable of lying, I'm going to choose to believe you. You’ll still have to prove the truth of your actions to the other two, but I, for one, trust that at the very least everything you did today was to help. Even if I don’t understand why you would do such a thing.”

        The Turk stared at him, and when Angeal spoke up her eyes flickered to the dark-haired boy instantly. 

         “I agree with Genesis.”

          Sephiroth eyed the Turk who had been helping for these last few months. This woman who baffled him at every turn. This Turk who seemed determined to do everything in her power to have them trust her, and he finally spoke the words that had been building in his chest since he’d seen her storm into the lab.

          “I trust you, and Eir—”

           The Turk’s eyes met his, gunmetal connecting to acid green, and for the first time in the last hour her eyes looked almost clear. 

           “ —You can call me Sephiroth.”

           The silence that followed was charged with a strange sort of anticipation, and then to Sephiroth’s utter shock and panic, something began to glisten at the edges of the Turk’s eyes. He was on his feet and across the living room in seconds, the other two sitting in stunned shock behind him as tears began to pour from the Turk’s eyes. Sephiroth was checking over the Turk’s whole body, looking for any particularly dark spots of blood or anything that was bent wrong, only to suddenly be pulled forward without warning and clutched desperately against the Turk as tears rolled into his hair.

          “It’s nice to meet you….Sephiroth.”

        The words were whispered almost reverently into his hair as the Turk holding him began to rock back and forth, her arms squeezing so tight that if Sephiroth wasn’t enhanced, he’d likely be gasping for air. Sephiroth let himself melt into the hug, there was nothing else for it. He trusted the Turk for better or worse. He could only hope that she kept her word because he wasn’t sure he could take a betrayal in this timeline without having a total mental breakdown. Something deep in his bones though told him that Eir wouldn’t break her word. Something deep down and forgotten to time trusted her, and Sephiroth merely snuggled closer to Eir, content to let himself be held. Dinner passed in a blur, and soon Eir was hovering in the doorway to the apartment, something deeply conflicted in her gaze. Genesis scoffed and folded his arms.

         “Well, what are you waiting for! You need to get that concussion treated and get cleared to sleep so you can come back before it's late enough that there isn’t any point in sleeping.”

          Eir blinked at the red head, her dazed eyes full of confusion.

          “Come…back?”

           Genesis snorted.

           “Well, obviously Science is more subtle then we gave them credit for. It only makes sense for you to be close enough in an emergency for us to yell for you. Infinite is the mystery, are you dense? The most tactical place for you to be right now is in the apartment. You promised to protect us, right? I hope you're not planning on doing a subpar job.”

          The Turk’s eyes were glimmering with barely contained laughter, but she kept an astoundingly good poker face as she nodded seriously. 

          “Of course. Right, sorry, you’re right. That would make the most sense tactically. I must be more out of it from the concussion than I thought to have missed that. See you boys soon.”

        Then she left, something loose and relaxed in her shoulders as she walked down the hall toward the elevator. As soon as she was out of sight, Sephiroth turned and raised an eyebrow at Genesis while Angeal also stared the boy down. 

        “Tactical decision?”

         Genesis shrugged and lifted his chin haughtily. 

         “I’m right, and you both know it. Keeping the Turk close when the others have failed makes the most sense. She has single-handedly done more to keep us safe in a day than any of the others have in the entire time they’ve been watching us.”

          Angeal nodded, a smirk playing on his lips.

           “Right, and that totally wasn’t your way of apologizing and asking her to come back.”

            Genesis glowered at them both before spinning on his heel and storming into the apartment and toward his and Angeal’s room. Angeal’s laugh trailed after him, and Sephiroth smiled an amused smile of his own. Everything was going to be ok.

Chapter Text

Eir’s return to the apartment was quick and quiet. Almost painfully anticlimactic after the chaos of her departure. The next few days were spent in recovery for all three of them, though by the time the bruises and cuts had faded entirely from Sephiroth and the others' skin, Eir’s bruises were just starting to get particularly dark. It was a stark reminder that, for as competent and dangerous as the Turk was, she was still very much an unenhanced human. The days of recovery also brought something new into their day to day schedules. Kindle.

        The man had apparently decided that Eir’s injury was a personal slight against him, and had made it his duty to be at her beck and call at a moment's notice. This meant that he spent an abnormal amount of time hovering outside the apartment, or inside it on the rare occasion Eir let him inside. Genesis looked disgusted whenever the man so much as glanced in Eir’s direction, and Angeal didn’t seem very impressed either. On Sephiroth’s part, he found the man's presence both irritating and understandable. 

      The man had clearly realized that the woman he loved was extremely mortal and was compensating for it by doing his best to ensure nothing could come her way. It was the curse of the enhanced, Sephiroth supposed; regular humans became terrifyingly squishy in comparison. 

       That didn’t make his constant hovering any less annoying though, especially since his talents weren’t particularly needed. What was a random 3rd going to be able to do that Sephiroth, Angeal, and Genesis couldn’t? The power difference was laughable, and frankly Sephiroth was mildly offended the man didn’t realize how utterly outclassed he was. 

        The man also hadn’t stopped with the utterly awful pick up lines even once. Sephiroth was fairly certain that by the third one, Genesis had started plotting the man's imminent dismemberment, and possible defenestration. Sephiroth was fully on board with whatever plan Genesis came up with. Unfortunately, he didn’t think Eir would let them enact it no matter how much Sephiroth or Genesis pleaded. 

        So unfortunately for now, Kindle was here to stay. 

        Another major change was the amount of time they spent outside the apartment once those first few days of healing had passed. With Hollander now….permanently indisposed, and a good portion of Science…missing in action, President Shinra had backed off. Not entirely, of course, but enough that Eir was now allowed to take them into the city. They had a radius and had to wear tracking beacons when they left, but it was certainly an improvement. That, and with Hollander's death, no one else alive knew that Sephiroth was Project S, so he and Eir were allowed to go as far as they wanted. 

        This meant that so long as Genesis and Angeal stayed put, he and Eir would be able to take out another one of the JENOVA labs. The three remaining labs were scattered across the country in Gongaga, Hyru, and Kaara Kar. Kaara Kar was a small town in the middle of the desert, and Hyru was on a small island off the coast of Costa Del Sol. Both were harder to access, so he and Eir were planning to hit Gongaga’s lab first. 

       Sephiroth and Angeal had insisted that the mission wait until her bruises and formerly dislocated shoulder were completely healed. Eir had protested until Genesis told her off in his own roundabout way. So they wouldn’t be going for at least a week more, which gave Sephiroth entirely too much time to think about what, or more accurately who, he might run into when they went to Gongaga. Zack.

       Zack would be six years old right now, and Sephiroth couldn’t decide if he was desperate to see him or utterly terrified of so much as glimpsing him. If his current luck held though, there would be no avoiding Zack, even if he tried. So he supposed it would be best to mentally prepare himself as much as possible. Even thinking about the kind boy served to make Sephiroth’s heart ache like an open wound in his chest. Memories of the boy's kindness and eventual death by his hand flashing in his mind as vivid as if they had happened yesterday. 

       Still, when the last of Eir’s bruises faded to pale yellowish things and the last details of their plans were put in place, they got ready to go. The plan was this: Eir would be taking her nephew, Sirith, to meet with an old family friend to see if anyone else could watch him since she was so busy with two child SOLDIERS. Or at least that was the cover story. In reality, Eir and Sephiroth would be setting some long distance charges in and around the hidden lab over the course of a few days. Then, after making sure the townspeople saw them leave, they would denote the explosives when they were far enough away to plausibly deny association. 

       It was a lot more risky then the last three labs they’d destroyed, with Eir now being under such high scrutiny, but even if they were caught, Eir had ensured that Sirith would be able to escape with Angeal and Genesis in the event that she was detained. It wasn’t perfect, but Sephioroth would take what he could get so long as it meant destroying all of JENOVA’s remaining cell clusters.

       After a lot of arguing and haggling Wednesday morning, he and Eir set off, leaving Kindle and Trickshot in charge of ensuring the other two boys were safe while they were gone. It had been a while since Sephiroth had been able to ride on Eir’s motorcycle, but it was just as amazing as he remembered. The world blurred by in smears of color as the bike’s engine purred quietly beneath them. Gongaga wasn’t as far out as Nibelheim, but it wasn’t exactly close either. Last time the ferry had carried Eir’s bike with them across the channel, but this time Eir left the bike in a warehouse. The ferry would take them almost directly to the coastline where Gongaga sat, so there was no need to bring a vehicle when it made more sense to walk. 

        After a little under a full day’s travel, they arrived late in the evening at Gongaga’s main road, and Eir took them to an inn where she booked a room for the next few days. The sun was just setting when Sephiroth followed Eir out into the humid evening air out their room window. 

      They wore the same masks and cloaks they’d worn in Nibelheim, and as they slunk toward Gongaga’s reactor, Sephiroth couldn’t help but notice the almost animal-like hunch to Eir’s shoulders. When they arrived at the reactor, the two of them nodded and circled around it, heading for a small, barely visible trail that led deeper into the jungle that was hidden by the bulk of the reactor. 

        It took perhaps 20 or more minutes to reach the end of the trail and the small squat concrete building that lay there, but when they arrived it was immediately obvious that this wouldn’t be nearly as simple as the last lab hit. 

       Unlike the reactor, manor, and lab in Nibelheim, there were no Shinra personnel on guard, oh no. There appeared to be mercenaries guarding the building. 

      Which raised several questions. Had Hollander hired them before he died, and they just hadn’t gotten the news yet? How would this affect where they placed the explosives? Most importantly, was there someone besides Hollander who was still running projects, and if so, were they a threat to Angeal and Genesis? Eir’s shoulders were tense, telling him the Turk had also realized just what exactly these guards might mean. Eir signed a quick retreat signal, and together the two of them slunk back the way they came, utterly silent as they made their way back to their room at the inn. 

     Once Eir had double-checked that the window was shut and the door locked, she sat on the edge of one of the beds, pulling her mask from her face. Sephiroth sat across from her on his own bed and pulled off his own mask so that he could meet her gaze. 

       “Our original plan should work so long as we monitor the guards and figure out the patrols, but I’m more worried about what their presence could mean. Did you see anything that could identify who they might work for that I might have missed?”

      Sephiroth shook his head and frowned, laying his chin in his hand as he thought. 

      “No, nothing. They're definitely mercenaries since they don’t have any cohesive uniform. The real question is who hired them. Our luck isn’t good enough for it to have been Hollander. Can you think of anyone that might have access to Hollander’s projects and files?”

       Eir scowled and fell back on the bed, staring at the ceiling as she thought. 

      “There are a handful of assistants that he gave his access codes to, but I killed them all on my way through Hollander's lab. I can’t think of anyone else—well. Maybe….”

       The Turk sat back up, her brow furrowed. She stood abruptly and crossed to her bag, pulling her tablet out and beginning to flick through some glowing files. The files went by so quickly that despite the clear glass making the files visible on his side of the tablet, he couldn’t make heads or tales of what Eir was looking at. She halted her frantic search abruptly, her lips twisting back in a soft growling sound. She expanded the file and turned the tablet so the words were no longer backwards for Sephiroth. 

       The file had a single picture of a wild haired woman with slightly crazed eyes and crooked teeth. According to the file, her name was Nagashree Kane, and she was one of the main biologist assistants on Hollander's team for Angeal and Genesis. Sephiroth also noted that she did not have the notable red heading in her file that meant she was deceased. No, it was yellow, which meant the scientist in question was missing in action. Or more accurately it would seem, gone rogue. This could prove to be a major problem. He could only hope that Kindle, the Turks, and the SOLDIER team did their jobs and kept any threats away from his brothers. 

         He didn’t have much faith in that though. If this scientist wanted to take down two enhanced teens, a few regular humans and a group of slightly less enhanced adults wouldn’t make much difference. Eir was tapping away at the tablet again, her brows furrowed as her fingers blurred over its glowing surface. She stilled with a hum and spoke, her eyes fixed on whatever she’d found. 

        “I found a few transactions on the day I killed Hollander from his bank account, as well as Nagashree’s and a few other scientists’. All the money was transferred within minutes of each transaction. It all went to one anonymous account. That same account made a payment two days later to a variety of accounts. All those accounts are associated with various mercenaries currently active in the country, so I think it's safe to say we found our culprit.”

       Suddenly, a vicious smirk crossed the Turk’s face as she typed something out. 

       “I can’t access the mercenary accounts. Whoever set them up made sure the security was way too good, which is typical for those working in the merc business, but–”

        The smirk widened into a grin that spelled trouble.

        “ —Nagashree’s account isn’t nearly as secure. So I’m transferring all of her money to one of my alias bank accounts, one that Veld and the others don’t know about. It won’t get rid of the mercs right now, but it does prevent her from hiring anymore for the other labs. It also means that if I have to run with you boys, we have more than enough untraceable funds to keep up with your metabolism while I find a job.”

        Sephiroth blinked and resisted the urge to shudder. He had known logically that as a hacker, Eir was likely able to get into just about any computer system, but knowing that and applying it to apparently robbing people blind with ease was an entirely different matter. This was definitely a good thing though, and he smiled back at Eir when she looked up. Sure, it didn’t solve their current problem, but it certainly minimized the amount of damage Nagashree could get up to until they could get rid of her. 

        “Now, with the mercs on duty, we will have to figure out how to sneak around their patrols. We’ll have to spend most of the time we were planning on setting the charges on surveillance instead, and rush to set the charges. We should do it at night to avoid the mercs asking the townspeople if they’ve seen any suspicious behaviors. So I guess we’ll be doing a bit more sightseeing this trip then I originally planned. Is that alright with you Siri—– Sephiroth”

         The slip up was small, but it made something warm in Sephiroth’s core to hear Eir making an effort to say his real name. He nodded, and Eir smiled softly at him and began to close tabs on her tablet.

        “Sounds good. We can look around town tomorrow. Maybe we can find something to do for the next few days. For now, we should get some sleep. G‘night, Sephiroth.”

        Sephiroth hummed in response and began to change, getting ready for bed while the Turk changed in the bathroom. Sleep came quickly that night, and for once, Sephiroth’s rest was blissfully dreamless.

***************************

        Sephiroth didn’t know whether to praise or curse the universe as he stood in a tense standoff with a dark-haired, blue-eyed, slightly feral boy. The events leading to this encounter were nothing short of chaotic. Now, as he held unblinking eye contact with a six-year-old Zack Fair, he couldn’t help but wonder if the universe had a sick sense of humor.

       In the boy's arms, a frog with familiar silver, gray, and red patterning stared at him, pleading with him to rescue her. Sephiroth could understand the poor woman's discomfort, but in his defense, Zack’s desire to keep Eir as a froggy pet was the least of his concerns at the moment. To clarify, Sephiroth's morning had not anticipated Eir getting turned into a frog by a touch-me-not, and it most certainly had not had a run in with the Puppy on the schedule.

       Zack Fair, however, was as always a force of nature and didn’t seem to particularly care what Sephiroth’s schedule entailed, even if the boy was too young to be working for SOLDIER just yet in this timeline. So Sephiroth took a deep breath, blinked and leaned forward to restart his argument with Zack for the fifth time this morning.

      “Please give me my frog back. I need to get her a Maiden's Kiss so she can turn back into my guardian.” 

       And just like the last five times Sephiroth asked, Zack attempted to raise an eyebrow, resulting in both his brows raising in a confused rather than judgmental look as the little boy scowled and clutched Eir closer to his chest. 

         “I don’t see any touch-me-nots near here, and I found her ages ago! If she's really your gu-gu-uhhhhh…. adult, then why didn’t you get her sooner! Besides, all the grown ups know not to touch a touch-me-not, so there is no way your grown up was stupid enough to touch one. So just like I told you last time, she's not your grown up, and you can get your own pet frog!”

         Sephiroth felt very much that the universe owed him an explanation. He also felt the highly irrational urge to cry. Which…ok, sure he’d cried more in this body then he ever had in his previous life, but that didn’t mean his body had free reign to do whatever it wanted! He was a highly trained SOLDIER of the highest caliber with knowledge of the future, and he’d once destroyed the world. He could not cry simply because his best friend from his last life was refusing to give him back his guardian in this life.

         Which….was quite the unique situation he had to admit. What even was his life? He was pulled from his thoughts when a tiny hand suddenly patted his forearm, and he looked down into two huge blue eyes. Zack was staring up at him, frog Eir in one hand as he patted Sephiroth with the other, something deeply concerned in his soulful eyes. The little boy gently held out Eir to Sephiroth and spoke, his voice soft.

         “Here. I’m sorry I called you a liar, please don't cry. I didn’t mean to make you sad. Here’s your adult, and I’ll take you to my momma and dad. Maybe they can help you fix your grown up.”

          Sephiroth’s hand came up to automatically accept the frog Zack was pressing toward him even as his eyes welled with tears. How was Zack always able to tell, in this life and the last? Zack had been one of three people in his life to be able to tell what Sephiroth was really feeling. Zack was also the one who had always been the best at it. The little boy looked well and truly panicked now as Sephiroth stared, frozen stiff, and cried, tears pouring down his cheeks. Eir was patting him with one froggy hand, her big eyes staring at him with as much panic as her amphibian features could muster. 

        Zack was taking Sephiroth’s hand now and dragging him rapidly toward one of the houses further down the main street. When they were a few feet away, he began calling out for his mother. A dark haired woman rushed out, and her eyes immediately narrowed in on Sephiroth’s tear-stained expression. In an instant, she had knelt before Sephiroth, her hands coming up to cradle his cheeks tenderly.

        “Oh my! What's the matter, dear?”

         Sephiroth opened his mouth, but a sob over took him (curse this young body and its lack of control!). Zack answered for him, sounding nervous.

        “I was down by the ponds and found a pretty frog that wasn’t a touch-me-not, and I picked it up. I wanted to take it to you and Papa and ask if I could keep it, but he came out of nowhere and started demanding I give him the frog, saying it was his adult. I didn’t believe him, and we started arguing about it a little, and then he started crying! Can you fix it, Mama?”

        Zack’s mother sighed.

        “Oh you poor dear, we’ll get your grown up sorted right away. I have a maiden's kiss in my house just in case Zack touches a touch-me-not. I’m so sorry my boy didn’t believe you, but it's going to be just fine.”

         Sephiroth found himself unable to argue or come up with a reason why he shouldn’t follow Zack’s mother, and soon he found himself in the Fair family's living room as Zack’s mother vanished further into the house to retrieve the maiden's kiss. Zack fidgeted awkwardly beside him as he idled in the doorway, glancing periodically up at Sephiroth and then looking away, then looking at Eir and looking away in an endless cycle. Finally, Sephiroth couldn’t take it anymore.

        “What is it you want to ask?”

         Zack jumped slightly before flushing to the roots of his hair and staring determinedly at the floor as he responded. 

        “Uhhhh, I just wanted to know if you and your grown up are new in town? Like I said, all the grown ups know not to touch-me-nots, but I also saw a foreigner get transformed once, and Mama says it's ‘cause they didn’t know the rules.”

        Sephiroth shrugged, lowering his eyes to stare at Eir’s froggy face as he spoke. 

        “I’ve been here before and I think my guardian has, too, but I kinda forgot about the touch-me-nots. Eir got in between me and one that was charging ‘cause I wasn’t paying attention, and then–”

        He flushed,

         “ —Well, we met you.”

          Zack made an “oh” sound and nodded his head, one of his little hands coming up to tap his chin as he thought. 

          “Is Eir your guardian?”

           Sephiroth startled but nodded, unsure as to why that was the point Zack was fixating on. Zack hummed and lifted his head, meeting Sephiroth’s gaze, something burning in his gaze.

          “Is that a girl or a boy's name?”

          Sephiroth raised an eyebrow at the odd question, but answered anyway. 

          “Eir is female.”

           Zack nodded seriously as if he was pondering a matter of great importance. 

           “So she’s your mama then!”

            The statement was said with so much enthusiasm and bright excitement that for a moment, Sephiroth was distracted from the words themselves in the face of the sheer amount of energy Zack was exuding. Then, the reality of the boy’s words set in, and he felt his eyes widen as he lurched back in shock.

          “WHAT?!?!”

          Zack looked confused

          “You said she was your guardian, right? So she takes care of you, and she's a girl, so that means she’s your mama, right?”

           At that moment Zack’s mother returned, and she glanced between both Sephiroth and Zack in confusion, sensing the tension. She narrowed her eyes and put one hand on her hip, sending a look at Zack.

         “Zack, dear, what did you say to the poor boy? He looks nigh’ ready to faint from surprise!”

          Zack pouted, but also looked worriedly at Sephiroth before he responded.

          “I asked about his adult and he said she’s a girl, so I asked if she was his mama, and he got all weird and confused!”

            The woman had a flash of something like understanding cross her face as her expression softened ever so slightly. She knelt, pulling Zack close and meeting his eyes. Then she laid another hand on Sephiroth’s shoulder and spoke softly. 

        “Zack, not everyone has a mother and father in the same way you do, darling. Do you remember Suzie?”

          Zack nodded hesitantly.

          “She lives with her pops and nona because her parents are gone.”

          Mrs. Fair gave a pained smile. 

           “You couldn’t have known, but it sounds like your friend has a different relationship with his adult, sort of like Suzie. She takes care of him just like your father and I take care of you, but he was probably confused because he’s never called her Mama. Just like Suzie never calls her nona Mama. Is that right, dear? Or have I perhaps misread the situation?”

           It took Sephiroth a moment to realize that the last bit of that little speech had been directed at him, but once he did, he nodded once, still feeling strange at the thought of someone thinking that Eir was his mother of all people. JENOVA had been his mother in his last life, and technically Lucrecia, a woman he’d never met, was also his mother. It didn’t sit right with him to put Eir in the same category as both women. One who’d left him, and the other who had taken his life from him long before he died. 

      Still, as Zack’s mother pulled Zack close and gave him a peck on the top of his head, something unfathomably warm in her eyes, he couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps Eir could have been his mother in another life. Someone he called Mama like Zack did with his mother, someone he could rely on to keep him safe. It didn’t matter though, he decided, as Zack’s mother used the maiden's kiss on Eir, because even if he wanted her to be his new mother, he doubted Eir felt the same way. 

            The maiden’s kiss took effect quickly, and suddenly Zack was standing beside the tall, dark-haired Turk once more as she blushed and waved bashfully at the Fair family. 

        “Hello there. Sorry for the trouble, and thank you very much for your assistance. Is there any way I can make it up to you?”

        Zack’s mother laughed and waved her hand dismissively as she stared cheerfully up at the much taller woman. 

         “Oh, it was no trouble at all. Everyone in Gongaga’s gotten hit by a touch-me-not spell at least once. I’m just glad I could help you and your boy.”

          Eir flushed darker from embarrassment and smiled down at the other woman.

         “Thank you. I’m afraid I probably caused him a fair bit of needless trouble and anxiety. Regardless, please at the very least let me buy another maiden's kiss for you. You two saved my kid from having to hunt one down and buy it on his own, and I know they aren’t cheap, so please let me replace it for you.”

          Zack’s mother shook her head with a chuckle and sighed.

           “Oh, alright then, but only if you two stay for dinner. You two have had a trying day, and I’d like to hear how you both ended up in that situation.”

       Eir looked like she wanted to protest, but before she could, Zack spoke. He was staring up at her with huge, sparkling blue eyes, and the look on his face was positively angelic.

      “Please stay. I want to play with your kid, Miss! He looks lonely.”

      Utterly taken aback, Eir stared down at Zack for a moment before glancing uncertainly at Sephiroth, a question in her eyes. Sephiroth could only stare at Zack, transfixed by the pleading look in the other boy's eyes. A look he was intimately familiar with from his last life. He found himself nodding without even thinking about it too hard, and Mrs. Fair laughed in the background as she began to move around the kitchen. 

      “Zack, next time just ask nicely. You didn’t have to call the poor young man lonely. By the way, I don’t believe I caught your names–”

       Eir smiled, a strange look in her eye.

      “Normally we’d have had to introduce ourselves before receiving an invitation to dinner, but I suppose that today has been strange enough that we all sort of forgot about that. My name’s Eir Tsoi, and this is my nephew, Si–”

        Sephiroth interrupted her. Zack could know his name—there was no one else he trusted with it more.

       “My name is Sephiroth. It is a pleasure to meet you, Mrs–”

       He trailed off and Zack’s mother smiled at him over where she was rolling out dough on the counter as she answered.

       “Our last name is Fair, but you can call me Nadia. No need to stand on formalities, and both of you know Zack already. Now sit down, sit down. No need to stand in the doorway.”

        Sephiroth and Eir glanced at one another before walking deeper into the house. Sephiroth let Zack lead him to the table, but Eir walked over to Nadia and started asking if she could help with any kitchen tasks. Before Sephiroth could see if she succeeded in getting assigned something from the Fair matriarch, Zack grabbed his attention by tugging hard on his arm. 

        Sephiroth found himself once again transfixed by twin blue blazing points of light as Zack pouted up at him. The younger boy was now holding onto Sephiroth’s right arm with both hands as he tilted his head up in order to meet Sephiroth's eyes. 

        “Do you like adventures?” 

         Sephiroth shrugged and looked away, desperately trying to avoid that hypnotizing gaze. Zack wasn’t deterred in the slightest. Instead, he tugged once more on Sephiroth's arm before yanking just hard enough in the right direction to throw Sephiroth slightly off balance, causing Sephiroth to stumble. Zack used that stumble to guide him toward the couch and sit him down before he could protest. The boy plopped down beside him and leaned so close that his little face with its tiny button nose was inches from Sephiroth’s own as he stared Sephiroth directly in the eyes. Sephiroth leaned back ever so slightly, overwhelmed by this highly enthusiastic, miniature version of his best friend. 

       “Well, do you?”

      There was no avoiding the question, he supposed. Much like his older counterpart, it would seem that Zack was stubborn as a chocobo bull when it came to things he wanted. 

       “I suppose adventures can be interesting, though I find most to be either dull, or entirely unworth the effort and pain they cause.”

        Zack nodded his little head seriously, almost smacking his skull against Sephiroth’s own as he rocked back and forth with the motion. 

       “I love adventures! I like to play the hero or the SOLDIER with my friends, and we save the princess or the town when we beat the bad guy! I want to be a SOLDIER when I grow up because their swords are cool and they get to have glowy eyes! Mama says that the SOLDIERS aren’t very nice though, so I guess I’ll have to be the first nice one! What about you? Do you want to be a SOLDIER when you grow up? Though you were crying earlier, so maybe when I grow up I can protect you instead, and you can be a-a-a—”

         Little Zack paused, thinking hard and swinging his feet as he pondered something. He looked Sephiroth up and down and nodded to himself, once again nearly smacking their heads together with the ferocity of the motion.

        “ —You can be a baker! Then you could give me pies while I was working at SOLDIER! What does your mam—I mean uhhh—your adult do for work? My mama helps mend clothes and sells new ones sometimes! My dad works in the jungle! He collects materials to trade with the merchants who come to town sometimes! He’s reallyyyy strong!”

          Zack paused and looked intently at Sephiroth, clearly anticipating a response though, Sephiroth wasn’t entirely sure what part of that mass of words he was supposed to be responding to. Did he want him to confirm he wanted to be a SOLDIER? A Baker? Explain what Eir did? Comment on his parents' jobs? What exactly did Zack want from him? He decided to answer the two most obvious questions the little boy had asked and pray that was enough.

        “I don’t want to be a SOLDIER or a baker, and uhhh, Eir works for the Turks. She’s hoping to find some of our family here since she recently adopted two SOLDIERS, and she's trying to find someone else for me to stay with so she can take care of them.”

         There, a clear answer to Zack’s question and a good layout of his and Eir’s cover story. Though he did absently notice that his words had Mrs. Fair sending a sharp look Eir’s way. Something about that must have been worded poorly, then. Oh well, that would have to be Eir’s problem. Sephiroth was dealing with the far more dangerous Fair at the moment. Zack was frowning now, clearly thinking hard.

         “Why would she adopt them if she wasn’t keeping you? That doesn’t seem fair! You were there first! Also, if they’re SOLDIERS, wouldn’t staying with them be super safe? They have super powers! I would totally love to live with them! If you don’t stay with her, can I go live with the SOLDIERS?”

        Ah. Never mind. Perhaps his faulty wording was his problem. Before he could answer though, Eir spoke up, her voice soft as she paused mixing something in a bowl for Mrs. Fair. 

          “I want to keep Sephiroth, Zack. But I also want to keep him safe. The SOLDIER program is no place for children. If it was up to me, I would take the two SOLDIER boys I’m in charge of and run away to a place like Gongaga with them and Sephiroth. But it's not up to me, so I’m doing my best to find a safe place for Sephiroth. I love him just like your mother loves you, and all I want is for him to be happy.”

          Zack frowned in confusion, his brow furrowing while a look of dawning understanding began to cross Mrs. Fair’s face. Zack spoke up, his bafflement clear in his tone.

       “Well that doesn’t make sense at all! If you love him and want him to be happy, you have to stay with him! I wouldn’t be happy at all if my mama left, and you said you loved him like my mama loves me!”

        Eir had a strange, fractured look in her eyes, and despite the fact that this was all part of their cover story and he wasn’t actually planning on ever leaving Eir, Sephiroth found his friend’s concern deeply touching. It was Zack’s mother who spoke up this time.

       “Zack! That isn’t a very nice thing to say! I’m sure Eir loves Sephiroth very very much, but sometimes things in life aren’t as simple as we would like. If I thought it was the only way to keep you safe, my love, I would take you to someone else just like Sephiroth's aunt is doing. We are blessed in that I don’t think I’ll ever have to do that, but you mustn’t judge others for their choices. Unless their choices are hurting others, of course.”

      Zack’s scowl, if anything, deepened.

       “But it is hurting someone! She’s leaving Sephiroth behind! She’s hurting his heart!”

       Before anyone could continue the argument or try to explain to Zack further, Sephiroth interjected. He felt awkward about the argument going on about him.

        “Zack, she isn’t hurting my heart. She really is doing this because she loves me, and I love her, too. I trust her.”

          He hadn’t really thought about the words before they were coming out of his mouth, but as they poured out of him in an uncontrollable stream, he realized that they were the truth. He didn’t know when he’d started recognizing what Eir’s little gestures of kindness meant, but at some point he’d realized that Eir loved him. What's more is somewhere along the way, despite his best efforts, he’d started loving her too. He genuinely, truly loved and trusted her. It was a vulnerable feeling to realize that he trusted someone to take care of him, and it made him wonder exactly what Eir was to him.

        He didn’t love her the way Zack loved Aerith in the last timeline. He didn’t love her the way he loved Genesis and Angeal. He didn’t love her in the same twisted way he’d loved Hojo as a child. No, it was something new. It was, in a terrible way, closest to his childhood adoration of the man who had raised and created him. As he’d gotten older, he’d realized how wrong his love for his legal father was, but there was none of that with Eir. 

      She cared for his well-being like Hojo, but not because she needed something from him. She cared about his emotions like Angeal and Genesis, but understood those emotions better than the other boys did. She cared about his preferences like Zack, but unlike when he’d first met the younger boy, it wasn’t because she was fangirling. She respected his choices and judgment like his SOLDIERS had when he was general, but was willing to offer advice like Genesis and Angeal. She loved him unconditionally in a way very few people had in his life. So what was Eir to him?

        He watched as Zack’s face turned confused. Mrs. Fair sighed and put down the knife and vegetables, crossing the room to kneel beside her son with Eir trailing behind her. As he watched Mrs. Fair pull Zack close, he began to slowly realize that he might just know the answer to his question. 

         But for all that Eir cared for him, Angeal, and Genesis, he couldn’t be sure she felt the same way. He couldn’t be sure he could call her his ma—well, he just couldn’t be sure. So he tucked the answer deep down in his heart and resolved to keep it safe there until he knew for certain if the Turk felt the same way. They had time, after all, and in this timeline, Sephiroth wanted to do things right.

Chapter Text

  The next week was spent carefully sneaking around the mercenaries and setting charges in hidden locations inside the lab at night. During the day Sephiroth and Eir pretended to search the village for Eir’s “relatives,” but on the second day, when no one could recall ever meeting a  Ben Tsoi, Eir pretended to reluctantly give up. This meant that Sephiroth had the time to spend with Zack and get to know his best friend all over again. 

        Zack was…even more wild than he remembered. It seemed that the patience and semi-coherent logic Zack’s older counterpart possessed hadn’t come to him until later in life, much like Genesis. This Zack had little to no impulse control (as evidenced by the incident with the spiders. Sephiroth still wasn’t sure why Zack thought eating the horrid things was a good idea). He also, Sephiroth discovered, had quite the temper. It wasn’t sharp or long-lived like Genesis’ near perpetual cloud of rage, but it was certainly easy to rile the little dark haired up. 

       Though to be fair to the small boy, he was only six years old. Zack adored spending time with Sephiroth though, even if Sephiroth didn’t exactly contribute a ton to their games. Zack mostly just let Sephiroth stare blankly and occasionally pretend to sword fight. Zack would chatter away in an endless stream, weaving tales of knights, SOLDIERS, aliens, fairies, monsters, robots, and princesses in need of saving. He would occasionally ask Sephiroth for input. Sephiroth would provide a suggestion or thought here and there, and Zack would grin every time and incorporate the idea immediately into whatever adventure they were currently on as easily as if it was always meant to be there. 

       Sephiroth found himself less and less interested in the mission, and more and more focused on spending time with Zack. But he never really fully let the mission go, even if Eir kept telling him she could finish it on her own. If he truly wanted to be friends with Zack, he needed to ensure that JENOVA could never hurt this world ever again. So, though it was reluctant and he found himself thinking of Zack the entire time he was setting about some of the charges at night, he never really let himself get off track. The current sleepover at the Fair’s small home notwithstanding, of course. He was merely taking a break, that was all. Eir had seemed ecstatic when he’d hesitantly asked if he could accept the Fair’s invitation, and it had bolstered his desire to come. Now though, as he sat awkwardly across from Zack’s mother while Zack himself took his bath for the evening, he found himself regretting his decision ever so slightly. 

         Mrs. Fair was seated on the floor beside where his and Zack’s bedrolls were set up, and she was neatly folding piles of freshly dried clothes from a basket that sat on her right. Her hands were sure and steady even as she stared calmly at Sephiroth, her brown eyes filled with something firm and stubborn. The same something that Sephiroth had seen in his version of Zack many times. A look that meant she wouldn’t be backing down no matter what happened.

        “There never was a Ben Tsoi, was there, dear?”

         Mrs. Fair may have phrased the sentence as a question, but her tone made it clear that it was a statement of fact. Her eyes were bright as she folded a shirt, gaze unblinking as she met Sephiroth’s startled gaze.

         “Your guardian is an excellent liar, and so are you. We all would have been fooled if not for the fact that everyone in Gongaga knows everyone else. We also happen to remember every single person to have lived here, and none of the older folks recall ever meeting a man by the same description as your supposed uncle.”

          Sephiroth shifted, his hand grazing the knife hidden in pocket, but didn’t draw it yet. He eyed Zack’s mother warily and waited for whatever the woman might say next.

        “I don’t know why you and your aunt, if she even is your real aunt, are here. But I just want to make certain of one thing. Are you safe, Sephiroth? Or is she putting you in danger?”

       Sephiroth was frozen as he stared in wide-eyed shock into Mrs. Fair’s dark eyes. Of all the questions and concerns he had expected from her, that was perhaps the last on his list. As the woman shifted a look of deep concern on her face, he was brought abruptly back to reality and let out a low, dark chuckle. One that clearly shocked Mrs. Fair as she flinched back ever so slightly.

       “I’m safe as I can be, and that is because of Eir. To be quite frank, if either of us is putting the other in danger, it's the other way around. Eir is here in this town to help me. She’s lying because of me, and she adopted those other two boys because I asked her to help me keep them safe. So no, Mrs. Fair. The very last thing Eir would ever do is place me in harm's way, even if I asked her to.”

       Mrs. Fair’s brow was furrowed in a harsh line, and her eyes gleamed a dark, almost black in the dim light. She set down the pants she was folding and leaned forward, something curious and deeply worried in her gaze.

        “Are the both of you in danger then, Sephiroth? If so, perhaps my husband and I can he—”

        Sephiroth shook his head sharply.

        “I already regret dragging Eir into this, and she’s a trained weapon in her own right. The last thing I’m going to do is bring your family into my mess. Thank you, Ms. Nadia, but I’m afraid your good intentions will not be able to help us.”

        Mrs. Fair’s mouth was opening, something defiant and so so stubborn on her face. Sephiroth was very familiar with that expression. He’d seen it on her son's face a dozen times, and he knew how to field that concern. At least this time.

      “Please, you have a wonderful son who needs you, and Eir knows what she's doing. If things keep going the way she and I have planned, then maybe me and my brothers can move here to Gongaga and you can see for yourself how much she’s done to keep us safe. But please, don’t put your family in danger because of me. I already have more than enough help.”

      Mrs. Fair didn’t look happy, but she did subside with a little huff and returned to folding her basket of laundry while Sephiroth pulled out a book he’d brought with him to read. Perhaps ten minutes later, Zack appeared, his hair dripping ever so slightly, and settled on the blanket roll next to Sephiroth. Zack’s warm, cheerful chatter filled the room, and the tension that had lingered in the air began to fade slowly into the night. Sephiroth would be leaving Gongaga soon, but as Zack rolled over in his sleep and used him as a living teddy bear, he couldn’t help but be grateful for the brief time he’d had to reconnect with his friend. 

       And who knew? Perhaps, if all went well, he and the others really would be able to move here to Gongaga. He thought he would like that a lot. 

*************************

       It was their last day here in Gongaga. Eir had set the last of the charges the night before, and all that remained was to leave tomorrow and detonate them once they were far enough away to maintain plausible deniability. So Sephiroth was desperately trying to come up with a way to say goodbye to Zack. 

       The younger boy was currently dragging him around town, looking for some sort of plant his mother needed to make lunch, and was chattering away rapidly while Sephiroth pondered the dilemma of telling his new/old friend that he was going away. They were on the edge of the jungle now, Zack muttering something about maybe following the path deeper in to try and find the plant, and Sephiroth was still no closer to figuring out what to say.

      As they went deeper into the jungle, Sephiroth frantically went over a dozen different ways to let his friend know he was leaving, each more ridiculous than the last. He was abruptly yanked from his thoughts by a low, growling sound just at the edge of his hearing. He halted immediately, his hand going to where he’d concealed his materia bracer under his long-sleeved shirt. 

       Zack kept walking for a few paces, utterly distracted, and then stopped, turning to face Sephiroth with a confused expression on his face. With his back now turned to the forest, Zack didn’t see the monster that emerged behind him and onto the path. It was a Kimara Bug, but mutated. It had a wider torso with patches of fur and a few extra limbs and sharper than normal claws. Sephiroth was moving before he could even think, drawing his knives and tossing one directly at one of the Kimara Bug’s eyes. Zack let out a yelp, ducking andyelling something about not hurting him.

        Sephiroth didn’t have time for whatever Zack was babbling about. The hit had enraged the Kimara but done little to actually damage the beast, so he darted forward in a flash and yanked a still startled Zack out the way of one of the monster's flailing strikes. Zack suddenly shut up as he caught sight of the Kimara and finally realized the situation they were in. 

        The Kimara was coming after them, its mandibles clicking together ominously as one of its mutated limbs split apart like a venus fly trap, revealing rows and rows of teeth. Sephiroth fired off as large a blast of Fira as he could safely manage, and the beast flailed back with a roar. Sephiroth used its distraction to bend down and yank Zack’s small body into his arm and run as fast as he could. His enhancements certainly helped, but he was still short, so he didn’t get nearly as far as he would have liked before he heard the Kimara begin its pursuit. 

       Sephiroth considered his options. He could stash Zack somewhere in the jungle undergrowth and fight the Kimara head on, but he had no guarantee there weren’t other monsters hiding nearby. He also had a sneaking suspicion that if he did so Zack was highly unlikely to stay put. He could try and fight while holding Zack, but it would be a struggle in this body to do so effectively without injuring himself or the boy.

       Sephiroth cursed out his small, ten-year-old body mentally. The monster would already have been beheaded if he was his proper size with Masamune. This tiny body was going to be the death of him, and Zack!   

       The Kimara was beginning to gain on them, the sound of its legs pounding on the ground drawing close behind them. Before he could think it through too much, he tossed Zack as gently as he could a few feet ahead and then spun around, preparing to fire off another blast of materia—

       —Only to come face-to-face with the Kimara’s maw as the monster attempted to bite off his head, somehow even closer than he’d thought. 

       He lashed out his hands as fast as he could and grabbed its top and bottom jaw, using his enhanced strength to prevent the rows of teeth from descending on his skull. 

      To his shock and horror though, the monster's jaw started to slowly descend anyway. Apparently whatever had mutated the Kimara’s arms and torso had also given the thing a higher then usual amount of strength. The monster snarled and twisted its head viciously, the sudden movement driving one of its serrated teeth into his forearm. 

      There was a panicked shout behind him, and suddenly a small child’s shoe was flying through the air and striking the Kimara’s one remaining eye. Sephiroth didn’t have time to worry about that though. He used the Kimara's temporary shock to free his arms and shove the beast back a few feet with a brutal shove. 

       He wasted no time in casting a Firga in the beast's direction, and then twirled his bracer and fired off a lightning for good measure. Turning on his heel, he came face to face with Zack, who had crept closer to the fight while Sephiroth’s back was turned. Sephiroth snagged the boy and began running once more, ignoring the boy’s shouted protests. He had to get them to the village and get Zack inside so that he could focus on actually fighting the monster instead of splitting his attention between Zack and the thing actively trying to kill them both. 

       The village was in sight now, but the Kimara’s enraged roars could be heard just behind them. Zack was shouting something about how it was gaining on them. Just then, the inn’s entrance came into view and Sephiroth saw a familiar dark head turn abruptly to face them, turning away from where she had been talking to the innkeeper at the door. He felt a rush of relief only to immediately be filled with pure, burning panic as he tripped and began to roll. He tucked himself around Zack and braced for claws to descend on the two of them. Eir was right there, but it would mean little if the monster stabbed them before she could get close. 

       Instead of the horrid feeling of being stabbed, the air was filled with the sound of four echoing BANGS! This was followed by the monster's enraged screeching, and Sephiroth felt the ground shudder around him as the monster stumbled. He peeked up from where he’d buried his face into Zack’s raven-colored hair and found that the monster had four bullet holes in its torso and had reeled backwards. It was already recovering and Sephiroth prepared himself to fight once more, only to suddenly have his vision filled with a cascade of red-brown hair and broad shoulders. Eir’s guns fired off again, and then suddenly she was launching herself off the ground and driving the heel of her boot into the monster's torso. 

        There was a sickening squelching sound as she drove a knife deep into the monster's skull. Finally, the monster let out a warbling keen, and after twitching thrice it fell still. The sudden silence that followed was filled only with the sound of heaving breaths as Sephiroth tried to calm his racing heart. Moments later, the little body in his arms began to tremble, and the sobbing began. 

            Zack was curled into his arms, the smaller boy clutching so hard that if Sephiroth hadn’t been enhanced, he could have caused serious damage. Zack had buried his face into Sephiroth’s chest and his little chest heaved with each sob as his tiny fingers dug little nails into the skin of Sephiroth's chest, holding onto his shirt as if it was the only thing keeping him alive. 

          Sephiroth wasn’t sure what to do, so he simply held the smaller boy closer, lifting his head to stare wide-eyed at Eir, begging her with his eyes to come and help him with the traumatized little boy sitting curled in his arms. Eir stepped away from the monster instantly, her bloodstained knives vanishing into their holsters carelessly without cleaning as she focused her entire attention on the two of them.

        She was beside them in an instant, her hands darting over them as she searched for injuries. Instead of asking a dozen questions like Sephiroth had expected, she merely hummed under her breath and pulled them both closer to her as she continued her examination. Only when she seemed to deem them sufficiently healthy did she speak up, her voice only just above a whisper as she spoke. 

        “Zack, Sephiroth, is it alright if I carry you both to Zack’s house so that you two can have a bath and calm down with some nice hot chocolate?”

        Sephiroth eyed her, a bit confused, but when her eyes darted meaningfully to Zack, he let his mouth open in an ah sound as he nodded at her. He spoke up, careful to keep his voice low as he responded. 

        “I don’t mind, I think that would help the both of us. What do you think, Zack?”

        A long moment of quiet sobbing and gentle sniffling followed his question, and for a moment he thought Zack wouldn’t answer at all, but then—

      “Ok.”

        The word was almost lost when he murmured it against Sephiroth’s chest, but was just loud enough that Eir, who was leaning close, caught it. She sent a strained smile to Sephiroth, and suddenly he was being pulled upright and Zack was being gently mauvered from his arms to rest against Eir’s chest while she tucked Sephiroth on her hip like a baby. 

       The world spun slightly as Eir rose to her feet, her right arm firmly wrapped around his waist while her left arm wrapped fully around Zack’s small body and cradled him close to her torso with her palm pressing his head beneath her chin. Then the rocking motion began as she walked down the small town’s main road towards Mrs. Fair’s home. 

        Sephiroth found himself relaxing into her hold as the adrenaline slowly leaked from his body, and the urge to sleep hit him so suddenly it was almost utterly irresistible. He slumped further into Eir’s steady grip and let his head rest on the Turk’s shoulder. Eir didn’t react, other than to adjust ever so slightly to make his position more comfortable. The rest of the trip to Mrs. Fair’s house was uneventful and calming as Sephiroth was rocked steadily back and forth in the safe embrace of his adult. 

       When they arrived, Zack was promptly snatched from Eir’s arms by an extremely worried Mrs. Fair. With the sudden absence of Zack, Sephiroth shifted, anticipating being set down. Instead, Eir swung him around so that both her arms were supporting him on her other hip in a secure, steady hold that still let him look around without having to hold on to her himself. 

      Sephiroth considered asking to be put down anyway, but ultimately decided it wasn’t worth it and settled more securely on her hip instead. After a lot of worried scolding, murmurings, and tears, Mrs. Fair finally looked up from where she’d buried her face in her son's dark hair.

     “Let's get you inside, young one, and then you can tell me and your aunt exactly what happened to you two out in the trees.”

       She turned on her heel before either he or Eir could respond and strode into the house, Zack still held tightly against her chest. Eir followed after a moment, ducking ever so slightly to enter the low door frame, and then stilling as she waited for Mrs. Fair to direct them further. 

       Mrs. Fair bustled about, holding Zack close as she began to set various ingredients in a pot on the stove. After a long few moments, she crossed to the couch and sat down, Zack held tightly in her lap as her sharp eyes bored intently into Sephiroth and Eir where they stood in the doorway.

      “Well?” she said expectantly, and patted the couch beside her. 

“The sooner you and Zack can tell us what happened, the sooner your aunt and I can do something about it.”

       Eir crossed to the couch and sat, maneuvering Sephiroth to sit beside her as she did but still keeping one arm firmly around his shoulders. Then silence fell as both of the older women waited for either him or Zack to speak. After glancing once at the still shaking six-year-old, Sephiroth determined he would likely be the only one giving a report. 

       “Zack and I were heading to the woods, ma’am, to get the plant you requested. A ways in, we encountered an abnormal Kimara. I hit it with a small Firga to distract it, and then attempted to make an escape with Zack. Unfortunately, it recovered much stronger than anticipated, and I was forced to change plans. We both got distracted and hurt it as much as we could, but continued trying to make it back to the village, as neither of us had the equipment to take care of it at the moment. I fell and dropped both of us a few feet from the village. Luckily, Eir happened to be outside and close enough to handle the problem. Then she brought the two of us straight to you, and I believe you know the rest, ma’am. To clarify, neither of us sustained any injuries aside from scrapes and bruises, and I believe some mild to moderate shock on Zack’s part.” 

       The silence that followed his report was heavy and suffocating as Mrs. Fair stared at some distant point in the air, her hand stroking mechanically through her son's hair. Eir’s grip around his shoulders had tightened halfway through the story and had yet to loosen. Her gaze was sharper than Mrs. Fair’s though. She seemed to be pondering something. Sephiroth saw the moment she decided something and after a moment's hesitation, she spoke up, her tone carefully even.

       “Did the Kimara seem off to you at all?”

        Sephiroth internally winced. How had he forgotten? Report 101 stated to mention any abnormalities or anomalies experienced in combat. He couldn’t believe he’d gotten so lax with such basic protocol.

        “Yes. It was mutated with fur and teeth despite its insectoid structure. It also was far faster and stronger then any normal Kimara I’ve encountered.”

        That declaration pulled Mrs. Fair out of her strange reverie, and suddenly Sephiroth found himself pinned under a dangerous gaze. 

       “What do you mean you’ve encountered other Kimara?”

        It seemed that Mrs. Fair’s apathy had been replaced with rage as she turned on Eir, her dark eyes blazing. 

         “I stayed out of it because it was none of my business, but everything I learn about your child has me more concerned. What exactly is going on here! What have you been doing to this poor boy?! Why on earth does he act as if he’s an experienced SOLDIER? I was content to leave it, but now whatever this is has dragged my boy into it, and I demand an explanation!”

        Sephiroth opened his mouth to protest and defend his Turk, but Eir beat him to it, her voice perfectly calm in the face of Mrs. Fair’s rage.

        “I would like to know just as much as you do about what has happened to Sephiroth, but I am waiting until he’s willing to tell me. I only just got custody of him five months ago, and permanent custody of his brothers a little over a month ago. His previous guardians were not…not ethically minded when it comes to children–”

        Eir breathed in shakily before continuing,

       “ –I would love to tell you more details, but there is a lot I don’t know, and what I do know is not my knowledge to give you. It's up to Sephiroth whether or not he wants to tell you. As to what he and I are doing here, some of the same people who were involved in hurting Sephiroth and his brothers are in the area and we are….going slightly outside of my legal mission parameters to handle the problem. The situation with the Kimara shouldn’t have been connected, but based on what Sephiroth said, it might be connected to the labs we are currently...handling. I wish I had more I could tell you, but the rest would either actively put you in danger, or I don’t even know myself.”

      Mrs. Fair sat in silence as she absorbed Eir’s words, stormy shards of emotion swimming in her gaze, but then Zack shifted in her lap peering, one bright blue eye out at them, something intensely serious in his young eyes.

     “You're here to stop the bad guys like Sephiroth did with Kimara, right?”

      Eir glanced up at Mrs. Fair before she answered, her eyes just as serious as Zack’s as she leaned in to meet his gaze,

      “If we can, yes. Sephiroth is a really good kid, and he was going to try and do this even before he met me. I’m just grateful he let me help.”

       Zack leaned slowly away from his mother’s embrace, his eyes far more intelligent then any six year old had any right to be. 

      “Sephiroth saved me, so that makes him a hero. If you're helping him save other people, then you're a hero too. Mama–”

       Zack turned to face his mother, completely serious.

       “ —can we help them?”

        For a moment, Mrs. Fair looked extremely conflicted, but eventually she sighed and nodded, turning her eyes away from her son's soulful eyes and staring at both Sephiroth and Eir.

       “He’s right. I may not know everything, but if the people you're after have the ability to make things like the monsters in the jungle stronger, then they need to be stopped. If only to keep my son and husband safe from similar beasts. What can we do?”

     Eir and Sephiroth looked at each other in surprise before turning back to the Fairs. Eir spoke for both of them. 

     “We can’t put you in da–”

     Mrs. Fair waved a hand and interrupted Eir with a huff,

     “We’re already in danger, Ms. Tsoi. Helping you at this point benefits all of us. So I'll ask again: how can we help?”

     Eir glanced once more at Sephiroth before a thoughtful expression crossed her face. Sephiroth spoke this time, his eyes serious.

     “Well, how do the two of you feel about explosives?”

      The pure manic glee that lit up Zack’s eyes and the intense look of intrigue that filled Mrs. Fair’s eyes made him think that, perhaps, he had made a mistake. After all, the last thing this world needed was more people like Genesis; one was already more than enough. 

Chapter Text

Angeal’s POV:

           Angeal’s morning began with some rather creative prose on Genesis’ part. 

“If you come any closer or ask either of us to train with you, I swear I’ll gut you groin to chin, you uncultured lump of chocobo dung.”

      Angeal would like it on the record that he did not support the same level of chaos as his brothers did. That being said, if Eir had genuinely thought Kindle could keep any semblance of control over Genesis on his own, then she was simply delusional. So obviously it fell to him to handle the red-haired boy, just as it always had.

     Unfortunately for him, Genesis was not easily ‘handled’ and actually rather enjoyed it when people tried. If only so Genesis could laugh at them when they failed. So perhaps the better term would be to say he was mitigating the damage rather than actually keeping Genesis in check. After all, he was only 12. He could be forgiven for not being able to stop Genesis’ brand of chaos when even fully grown teams of adults had failed. That being said, as he stared at the scene unfolding in his living room, he could only pray that he’d be able to mitigate enough of the problem that the apartment was still standing when it was all over. 

        Kindle had come this morning right on time with the schedule Eir had given them to follow while she was away. He was supposed to take them to the training room to blow off some steam, but Genesis apparently had other plans. 

        “Excuse me?” Kindle was balking at the red haired boy, his eyes almost bugging from his skull in shock. Genesis hummed and turned a page in the book he was reading, utterly unbothered.

       “You're an excused SOLDIER.”

       Kindle snapped his mouth shut and stared incredulously in Angeal’s direction. Angeal merely shrugged. If the SOLDIER wanted to engage in a verbal battle with Genesis, that was his problem, not Angeal’s. Kindle turned back to Genesis, staring the redhead down warily as he pondered something before speaking once more,

        “Genesis, what exactly have I done to you that warranted…that sort of response.”

        Genesis glanced over the edge of his book. 

        “If you're referring to the fact that I threatened your southern regions and right of living, if you so much as dared to come within ten feet of me or had the delusion to ask me and Angeal to come train with you, well… to put it simply, in terms your feeble mind can understand. We. Do. Not. Like. You.”’

       Kindle looked taken aback, but before he could interject, Genesis continued,

        “We tolerated you before because Snitch was nearby and because we were in a public space, but within our domain and with our Turk currently away I have no need to play with such subtle niceties with you. So, little SOLDIER boy, run along home. Angeal and I can handle ourselves until Snitch and Sirith return.” 

       Kindle took a deep breath, clearly trying to decide what he was going to do in response, when Angeal decided to interject. Now that he knew the reason for Genesis’ stream of…. creative words, he found himself agreeing with his brother. 

      “I will not say it so crudely as Genesis, but Sir, I do agree with him. I’m afraid your services are not required. We can handle ourselves for a few days while we await the others' return.”

      Kindle glanced between the two of them, and Angeal couldn’t help but notice the way the SOLDIER tensed before forcibly relaxing. 

     “I understand that you two don’t like me, but the fact remains that Eir asked me to watch over you both while she was gone. If you two don’t want to spar today, that's totally fine. But I also can’t leave you two entirely unsurprised. Besides, my aunt would kill me if I didn’t do my best to watch over you guys like ordered. She about beat me senseless the one time I lost my cousin, Kunsel. If I didn’t manage to do my job and watch you two older teens, well, my family takes bodyguarding, childcare, and protection very seriously. I’d probably not be able to show my face at family dinner ever again.”

      Angeal narrowed his eyes and Genesis merely snorted, turning back to his book and speaking, his tone full of total apathy, as he said, “ The wandering soul knows no rest, I suppose you shall simply have to never go to family dinner then, because you are dismissed, SOLDIER.”

      Kindle stood still before turning pleading eyes towards Angeal. Angeal raised his eyebrow at the man. He’d made his stance perfectly clear. No amount of pouting or pleading on Kindle’s part was going to do anything to sway him. Kindle visibly slumped as he glanced between the two of him. His hand shifted, rubbing at the back of his neck as he seemed to ponder on what to do. Finally, he sighed and straightened back into a relaxed parade rest.

      “I’ll stay outside in case you need me, but I’ll respect your request. Eir said your comfort and concerns came above all else except mass murder, harm to either of you, or burning buildings. So I’ll honor her instructions.”

        The SOLDIER nodded sharply to the two of them and then half-marched, half-walked out of the room and beyond. The second he was out of sight and the sound of the door closing echoed through the apartment, Genesis put down his book and leaned forward to look Angeal dead in the eyes. 

       “Angeal, I have a most important question for you.”

         Angeal stared his brother down warily. This could mean absolutely nothing good. Perhaps he had been too hasty in dismissing Kindle outright. The look in Genesis’ eyes spoke of chaos far outside of Angeal’s ability to contain. But it was too late now to call the SOLDIER back, so he supposed he might as well commit fully to whatever disaster was about to occur. 

       “And what might that be, Genesis?”

       A slow, dangerous grin spread across the older boy's face, and when he responded, his voice was pure, venomous honey.

        “Is it patricide or assassination if your legal guardian is the president?”

         Angeal could feel something like panic rising in his chest and shoved it down forcefully. He then seriously considered the question. It was a good one, after all. Their situation was rather unique, and hypothetically it would be nice to know what they might be charged with in court if this conversation ended the way he thought it might. 

         “Both, I believe.”

          Genesis’ smirk widened to monstrous proportions.

          “Excellent. If I’m going to commit a crime, I might as well go all the way, yes?”

          Angeal could practically feel the gray hairs growing in already.

          “I don’t suppose you’ll let me stay uninvolved and deny any association with you, will you?”

          Genesis pretended to frown and consider it, before chirping out a cheerful,

          “Nope!”

          Angeal had been right. Dismissing Kindle had been a mistake. He only prayed that everything would settle down BEFORE Snitch and Sephiroth got back. Though knowing his luck….well, he supposed he better add in a bail out section to whatever nonsense plan Genesis had concocted. Maybe if they got a continent over before the others got back they could have a chance. Knowing Sephiroth and Snitch, that wasn’t likely. A boy could dream, though. He could certainly dream.

************************

   Genesis POV:

              Genesis had perhaps not fully thought this through in its entirety. In his defense, he’d never claimed to be the smart one. After all, the hero was the one who saved the day, not the man in the chair. That being said, there was no going back now. Angeal had been lost along the way in the wondrous chaos of the distraction the other boy had cooked up to keep the group guarding president Shinra occupied. Genesis would remember his sacrifice and would laugh at him later when they met back up. He was currently crawling down the extremely cramped air vents towards Shinra’s office. 

                Hopefully, if all went well, he’d have at max a guard or two to take out when he got there…assuming Angeal’s distraction was distracting enough that is…eh. It was probably fine.   

        He was drawing closer now, light visible at the end of the metal shaft and the faint sound of voices coming from the metal grate. He shimmed forward, careful to avoid banging against the sides of the vent and alerting his targets to his presence. 

        Four feet, three feet, two feet…He was at the grate now, staring down into the president's office as Shinra berated the five SOLDIERS and three Turks guarding him. More than Genesis had hoped certainly, but not too many to be a legitimate obstacle. He studied the president's guards. None of the SOLDIERS were above 2nd class, and of the five, three were 3rd class. Nothing he couldn’t handle, which left…the Turks. If meeting Snitch had taught him anything, Turks were major wild cards. That being said, if he managed to kill the president, he knew that the majority of the Turks were on Snitch’s side, so he could hypothetically convince the three Turks to stand down once their job was void. After all, it's hard to guard a dead man. 

       He had no guarantee of that though, so he’d have to play this as if all eight individuals below him were out to kill him. Well, nine if he included Shinra, but the man looked about as sturdy as a house of cards, so he was virtually a non-issue. 

         The Turk in the corner was armed with two long, curved knives hooked at his hips, and something was hidden in a holster along his right arm. The Turk nearest the group of SOLDIERS was armed with a long, thin sword holstered at her hip, her hand resting gently on its pommel. The last Turk was the one right beside the president. This one was not visibly armed, but that meant very little. The man could just have a variety of small-ranged weapons, or he was a Turk that specialized in hand-to-hand combat, or even materia. All three options made him easily the largest threat in the room. 

        Assessment finished, Genesis let his mind race as he decided how to go about this. Time was rapidly running out, and he needed this done before Angeal’s distraction wore off completely and the other guards all returned. He’d go for the Turk beside the president, and the president himself first. He would blast the Turk with a fireball to act as a smoke screen while he stabbed the president with his knife. The Turk with the sword would be the next target, and at that point he’d probably have to deal with the final Turk and all the SOLDIERS as a whole once the surprise had worn off. 

        Genesis leaned back and breathed in before carefully turning the bracer on his wrist with the Firga Materia. He froze when the Turk beside the president tensed slightly, his eyes darting about and narrowing slightly before he settled once more after a long moment. Genesis held his breath as he finished prepping the Firga. After one more deep breath, he kicked the vent grate with a sharp, explosive movement. He leapt across the room, sending a massive wave of fire toward the Turk closest to the president while he swiped at Shinra with the knife he brought with him. He’d underestimated the Turk though. The man twisted under the flames in a strange move that made it look like he had no bones while simultaneously using a hand to yank the president down with him. 

       Genesis still managed to nick Shinra, but it was far from a killing strike. It bit deep into the man's shoulder and upper arm, causing it to immediately begin to bleed profusely, but the Turk was already casting Curga on the wound while the other two Turks and the SOLDIERS closed in. Genesis cursed under his breath as he re-assessed. 

       The other Turks were in range now, and the first Turk was in front of the president, his face set in a scowl as he stood between Genesis and his target. He knew the moment he was recognized though, because the Turk’s expression faltered slightly before hardening back into its emotionless mask. 

        Genesis felt something in him sink at that. He had hoped— well, it had been foolish. The only Shinra Personnel in this cursed building that he could truly trust was Snitch. He shouldn’t have expected anything else. Genesis was surrounded. He glanced about, considering. It would be tricky, but he might still be able to fight his wa—The door slammed open and a group of SOLDIERS with hard faces stormed in, Angeal pinned between them. 

       Genesis let his shoulders slump. It was over, they had failed.  He could only hope that Snitch wouldn’t be too mad when she and Sephiroth came back to find him and Angeal court- martialed in her absence. The president was saying something now as Genesis allowed his hands to be bound behind his back by the Turks and SOLDIERS, but Genesis ignored him. He had known what would happen if they failed. What did it matter, the specifics of how they’d handle him and Angeal? The Turks looked regretful and the president looked smug, that's all he needed to know. 

       The door slammed open again and Veld stormed into the room with Kindle two steps behind him. Veld looked as composed as ever, but Kindle looked downright murderous. Genesis blinked. He honestly hadn’t though the weak-willed SOLDIER had that in him. Good for him. The next few minutes were a blur as Veld argued with President Shinra, something about him not being able to keep the boys no matter what had happened since Eir had partial custody. 

       A thrill of fear ran down Genesis’ spine at the thought of vanishing back into the labs instead of just being killed outright. He’d known it was a possibility, but frankly he’d weighed the risk against the benefit of Shinra being dead and hadn’t thought further than that. That had been his mistake, one that both he and Angeal would be paying for dearly. Then suddenly, a firm, baritone voice interrupted Veld and Shinra’s argument.

      “You are within your right to detain them, President Shinra, but anything further than that will lead to an immediate uprising of half of your company. Starting with me, and ending with Eir putting a bullet between your eyes for hurting her kids.”

       The other SOLDIERS and Turks in the room shifted uncomfortably, but none of them outright denied Kindle’s claim. In fact, all of the Turks as a collective whole looked like they suddenly very much did not want to be here. A few of the SOLDIERS straightened and let hands rest on their weapons, but not one spoke up. President Shinra narrowed his eyes, something cornered and wild beginning to gleam in them. The look of a man backed into a corner was a familiar sight to Genesis, but that didn’t make it any less satisfying to see it on President Shinra’s vile features. 

        “Excuse you, SOLDIER. I don’t believe I gave you permission to speak.” 

         Kindle looked the man dead in the eyes.

        “No, sir. You did not.”

         Shinra’s eyes narrowed.

        “Have you forgotten that I can have any SOLDIER court martialed with a single word?”

         Kindle’s shoulders tightened ever so slightly, but he didn’t blink or back down. 

         “No, sir.”

          President Shinra leaned forward, the blood from his injured shoulder standing stark against the paleness of his skin and the flash of his teeth as he snarled viciously at the SOLDIER who had dared stand up to him.

         “This is your only warning, SOLDIER. Unlike the boys, as you’ve so kindly pointed out, you don’t have a Turk defending you. Speak up again and I’ll have Elite here put a shard of ice in your skull.”

            The Turk that had stopped Genesis stepped forward as Shinra spoke, his impassive expression seemingly carved from stone. Shinra slumped back in his seat as he glowered about the room at his various personnel. 

            “Useless, the lot of you. It’s your job to protect me. Fine job you lot did.”

           He waved a lazy hand as he stared straight into Genesis’ eyes with a vicious scowl spreading across his face. 

           “Lock them up in the cell block, and detain the SOLDIER who spoke out of turn until I decide to release him.”

             The SOLDIER squad sprang into motion, the two holding onto Genesis dragging him after Angeal’s two SOLDIERS out the door and down the hall. Two other SOLDIERS were escorting Kindle behind them with his arms wrenched firmly behind his back. They marched all together into the elevator and began to descend towards the lower levels. The cells. About halfway through the ride Kindle spoke up, his smooth baritone terrifyingly even.

             “What on earth is wrong with you two?”

             Genesis hummed and then answered before Angeal could get a word in edgewise.

             “Would you like that list in alphabetical, chronological, or numerical order?”

              Kindle groaned and threw his head back, forcing the SOLDIERS holding onto his arms to adjust to his sudden shift in weight and tighten their vicious hold on his arms. 

             “Please, kid, for once, can we dispense with the sass! Do you have any idea how close you were to getting seriously hurt back there?! This isn’t a joke!”

              Genesis huffed, and looked away when he spoke so that he wouldn’t have to meet the SOLDIER’S piercing eyes.

              “I know it's not a joke. I know we—no, I know that I messed up, ok. You don’t have to rub it in…and….”

               Genesis trailed off as he struggled to push down what remained of his tattered pride to say what he needed to next. He took a deep breath and continued.

               “Thanks. For coming to help us.”

                The silence that followed his declaration was deafening. It pulled and stretched until—

               “I can’t believe it. You actually broke him. I mean, he’s right, and we are both super grateful that you came to help him, but Shiva’s left tooth, how in the world did you manage to get Genesis to admit it?”

                Genesis turned his head as far as his captors would allow to glower at Angeal over his shoulder. The SOLDIER’S gaze held onto, and he and Angeal both looked deeply disturbed by the murderous homicide in his gaze, but Angeal didn’t so much as twitch, the smug little rat. 

       Before Genesis could contemplate the merits of breaking free just long enough to punch his brother, Kindle’s voice sounded again. It was softer now and quieter.

                 “I was only doing what needed to be done. Eir’s right, you know. You boys deserve better than you got in this life. I can only hope that what I did was enough.”

                 Before Genesis could formulate a response or look in the blond SOLDIER’S direction, the elevator dinged and Kindle was forced past them and into the hall beyond. The two SOLDIERS still had Kindle’s arms wrenched backward, and the blond-haired man stumbled as one of the SOLDIERS pushed a little too hard. The last thing that Genesis saw before the elevator door closed behind Kindle was the man's head turning at an odd angle to look back at them with a sad smile on his face. 

                Then the door shut and Kindle was gone. They were alone, heading down toward the cells with only the prayer that Ei—Snitch could get them out when she got back. A good man now detained and probably being punished for protecting them, all because Genesis had thought it would be a good idea to take a risk. 

         As the elevator descended further down and he and Angeal were shoved into a shared cell, he could only hope that when this was all over, he could find the courage to properly apologize to the Turk and SOLDIER who had risked so much for him and his brothers. He could only hope, and wait, and Genesis had never been the best at waiting.

Chapter Text

  Sephiroth’s POV:

     Perhaps telling the Fairs about the explosives he and Eir had set around the lab had been a bad idea. Sephiroth watched as Mrs. Fair. with a tad too much excitement in her eyes. prepped Zack to set off the first batch of explosions once he and Eir boarded the boat they were supposed to take back to the tower that day. 

     Once the mother and son had heard about the unethical lab and the mercenaries currently lurking just outside of town, both had immediately demanded to be able to set off the explosives that he and Eir had already placed. Eir had immediately shot them both down, only to be immediately given a sharp look by Mrs. Fair.

      Mrs. Fair stood and placed her hands firmly on her hips and asked–

      “Didn’t you say it would be better for your and Sephiroth’s safety the farther away you are so you can have plausible deniability?”

       Eir had sputtered, but ultimately agreed, that “yes, it was better, but that their current plan already took them far enough out.” Mrs. Fair had been utterly unimpressed and pointed out that since she and Zack lived here, it was unlikely that the detonator would ever be traced back to them, which would give Eir and Sephiroth a much stronger alibi should anyone get suspicious. Eir had tried to argue the point, but much like the version of her son that Sephiroth remembered so well, once she’d set her mind to something, Mrs. Fair was immovable. 

       It would seem that the hard-headed, endless stubbornness he’d known Zack so well for in his past life was a Fair family trait. It had taken about thirty minutes of back-and-forth arguing because Eir wasn’t exactly a push over either, but ultimately, Nadia prevailed. Her dark eyes shone triumphantly as Eir resignedly went over the details of the detonator. 

         Sephiroth eyed the terrifyingly enthusiastic look on Zack’s face as the younger boy listened attentively to his mother explain his part in setting off the explosives, and strongly debated dashing out and setting off the explosives now before Zack could learn much more about pyrotechnics. Alas, Eir had already taught Nadia, and Sephiroth had a feeling Zack would be learning the exact same things his mother had regardless of whether or not he and Eir set off the charges now.

        Sephiroth met Eir’s gaze and noted an equally conflicted look in her gaze. It seemed that neither of them had anticipated the sheer enthusiasm the Fairs had in regard to fire. At that moment the door opened, and all conversation in the room halted as a tall, black-haired man with a striking resemblance to the Zack from Sephiroth's original timeline stepped into the room. 

        The man halted and stared in between Sephiroth, Eir, Zack, and Mrs. Fair. For a moment the silence stretched painfully like sticky syrup. Then, Zack was up and darting across the room, his little arms outstretched as he shouted–

        “Papa!!!”

        The man's arms reached out automatically and swung Zack up and into his arms even as his gaze remained fixed on Mrs. Fair, Eir, and Sephiroth. His eyes met Mrs. Fair’s, something wary and concerned shining in his steel-colored eyes. He spoke, his voice a low, bass rumble as he held Zack gently in his strong arms. 

      “Nadia?”

       Mrs. Fair smiled and crossed the room, turning her face up toward him. The man dwarfed her easily, but didn’t hesitate to lean down and lock his lips with hers when she leaned into him. After a moment where Eir looked away respectfully and Sephiroth shifted uncomfortably, Mrs. Fair pulled back and spoke, her voice soft in a way they hadn’t yet heard in the time they’d known her. 

       “Guo, these are the two I was telling you about. There is a lot that’s happened since I first told you about them the other night, but we’re going to help them… take care of some people that have been causing trouble here in Gongaga–”

       The man opened his mouth, something sharp and dangerous flashing in his gaze, but Nadia spoke over him before he even got half a word out. 

       “ —and before you ask, dear, no, they didn’t suggest it initially. In fact, Eir here was rather against allowing me and Zack to help, but I insisted, and she eventually saw reason.”

       A look of consternation followed shortly by resignation and then finally sympathy crossed the man's face as he made eye contact with Eir.

       “Ah. So you tried to outstubborn Nadia, did you?”

        Eir shrugged helplessly, and Sephiroth nodded balefully as he stared curiously at the man who, based on overwhelming evidence, must be Zack’s father. Eir spoke up, her voice even and serious.

      “Maybe you’ll be able to help me on that front. I’m not particularly enthused about involving civilians in something so actively dangerous. Perhaps you can convince he–”

         Guo Fair threw his head back and laughed for a full minute before shaking his head ruefully and meeting Eir’s gaze once more. He adjusted his hold on Zack as he spoke next, swinging the six-year-old to rest on his right hip. 

       “I’m afraid what's done is done. Once Nadia has set her mind to something, there’s no stopping her. We can only give in and get out of her way or help, and since I love my wife dearly, well…I suppose you have a third Fair to add to your team.”

        Eir’s shoulders slumped and Sephiroth let out a groan. It would seem that Zack had come by his irrepressible nature from not one, but both parents. The three Fairs merely smiled at them from where they stood wrapped up in each other's arms in the doorway, and despite smiles supposedly being a friendly gesture, Sephiroth couldn’t help but feel deeply threatened. The Fairs would be helping, it would seem, whether Sephiroth and Eir liked it or not. 

**************one day later****************

       Sephiroth and Eir had left late the night they met Zack’s father and had been assured by the eager family of three that they would know when the charges detonated. Sephiroth had prayed they meant they’d message them on their PHS. Alas, the skyline just beyond the dock where they had departed from shore an hour ago suddenly lit up in brilliant, fiery light. The light came from just outside Gongaga from an explosion far larger than the charges should have caused.

         Eir stood silently beside him, the two of them staring back at the flickering flames as they rapidly began to spread lighting up the late morning sky in hues of red and orange. There was a long moment of silence as they watched the fires burn, then–

        “I would like to be able to hang out with Zack again sometime. He and his family seem to be efficient at solving problems, and are kind as well.”

         The sigh that Eir let out following his words could only be described as bone-tired. Sephiroth could only smile in return as he turned back toward the front of the ship and toward Midgar. Only one lab left. Maybe they could bring Angeal and Genesis this time. After all, Shinra was the only real obstacle left. Things were looking up, and Sephiroth, for once in his life, was feeling genuinely hopeful about the future.

******Back in Midgar deep within the bowels of Shinra Tower*******

Kindle’s POV:

        The sound of footsteps was loud in the hallway. Kindle took a deep breath as the steps drew closer. It was ok, he knew what he’d signed up for when he’d stood up for the boys. It was ok, it really was, so why did it feel like his heart was going to beat out of his chest? 

        The bootsteps stopped just outside his containment wall, and Kindle met the familiar gaze of his commanding officer. The man looked grimm, his dark face drawn in a scowl as he stared through the glass at Kindle. Kindle offered the man a weak smile. 

        “Long time no see, Jax, Sir. Sorry we’re meeting again in such poor circumstances. I’d salute, but–”

        Kindle wiggled his fingers merrily from where his hands were shackled to the wall and did his best to keep his smile from twisting into a grimace. His commander closed his eyes, something deeply pained entering his expression. The expression vanished moments later and something blank and formal descended instead.

         “Kindle…..”

          The pause felt like pure torture as Commander Jax struggled to maintain his composure.

          “I was able to reduce the punishment, but I couldn’t convince Shinra to keep it just to confinement. He…was adamant that we make an example of you.”

           Kindle felt his smile slip and took a shaky breath as he straightened as best he could against the wall. He squared his shoulders, took another deep breath, and faced his commander, doing his best to exude strength as he nodded solemnly. Commander Jax nodded back and waited patiently for Kindle to gather his words.

         “Understood, Sir...May I ask when—when they’ll be coming? And who will be doing it?”

          Commander Jax’s dark skin seemed to pale as he visibly struggled to keep from breaking protocol. 

          “1300, and Officer Aki will be the one to carry out your punishment with President Shinra and Commander Lex standing by as witness.”

           Kindle let his eyes fall closed. Shinra had no doubt asked Commander Lex who to assign for this. He could see poor Aki’s face now. The boy had only just graduated to officer as of a week ago and struggled with following orders he morally disagreed with. This was as much a punishment for Aki’s refusal to be cruel as it was for Kindle’s defiance. He opened his eyes and tried to smile, but he knew for a fact it came out as more of a grimace. 

        “Thank you, commander. I will see you at 1300, then.”

         Commander Jax nodded sharply and turned on his heel, his bootsteps vanishing rapidly into silence and leaving Kindle to slump back into his bonds, his heart sinking somewhere in the base of his feet. 

        As he considered everything that had led up to this point though, he couldn't think of anything he’d change. Sure, he was scared now, but he wouldn’t have ever been able to forgive himself if Angeal and Genesis had gotten hurt on his watch. Even without Eir asking him to watch her boys, he would have done whatever he could to help. 

        Those boys deserved to have people stand up for them. He could only hope that whatever came next wouldn’t crush the little hope Eir had fostered within them. Well…and that whatever it was that happened would only hurt for a moment. He wasn’t too hopeful on that point though. After all, Shinra was many things, but merciful was not one of them. 

        Kindle leaned his head back, allowing his head to thunk softly against the concrete. Whatever happened next, one thing was for sure: he stood by what he’d done, and he’d do it again a thousand times over. Screw Shinra, those boys weren’t his to keep!

************************

         Genesis’s POV:

         There had been a flurry of movement on and off for the past hour down at the end of the hallway near their cell. It came from the direction of the stairwell leading to the next floor. There were several SOLDIERS muttering darkly there now, and several of them wore worried looks. Genesis had given up shouting after the first night, but now he was considering starting up again. Suddenly, an eerie silence descended on the entire group of SOLDIERS. Startled, Genesis shifted, trying to get a better look at them, Angeal sitting up from the cot and crossing to join him as the silence stretched.

         The SOLDIERS were staring at the clock on the wall, their shoulders tense. The clock read 1300, one o'clock in the afternoon. A minute passed on the clock, two, then three, then four, then on minute five a younger SOLDIER spoke up, his voice tentative.

         “When do you think they’re going to–”

          A bloodcurdling scream sounded from the floor above them, echoing in the stairwell, and the young SOLDIER yelped, a look of horror spreading across his face. One of the older SOLDIERS grimly gripped the younger SOLDIER’S shoulder, and several of the other older SOLDIERS closed their eyes, something deeply pained in their expressions. 

          The scream came again before trailing off into a pained wail. Genesis could feel something sinking and twisting in his gut. He had to be wrong. That couldn’t be–The scream came again, breaking off halfway through as the owner's voice cracked mid-shriek. Genesis couldn’t deny it any longer. He knew that voice. He’d spoken to the owner of it a day ago, and some of the last things he’d said to him had been snarky, cocky things, despite all the man had done for him. Kindle screamed again, a tormented, animalistic sound that echoed horribly in the stairwell and halls, the soft sounds of two of the younger SOLDIERS retching in the background. 

         Then, an ominous, horrible silence fell. The empty quiet stretched and pulled like taffy, sticking in Genesis’ ears as he strained to hear anything else. Only the empty ringing of silence greeted him. Kindle had hushed, and no other sounds filled the emptiness. 

        That cold, twisted thing in his gut was growing. What had just happened? Was Kindle still alive? It was doubtless that whatever had happened, the man was far from alright, but Genesis could only pray that whatever had happened to the SOLDIER, the man was still breathing. So pray he did, for Kindle, for Angeal, for Sephiroth, for himself, and most importantly that Eir would get here soon enough to fix whatever had just occurred, because something told him that they needed the Turk now more than ever.

Chapter Text

Eir’s POV:

        Eir made it exactly five steps into the building before she stopped and glowered at the desk lady. When she and Sephiroth had entered the tower, whispers had begun immediately, and several people began to scurry towards various exits. 

        She stormed toward the trembling woman at the front desk, blessedly a different one from the lady in the medical department. She didn’t think she could handle that bug faced woman today. As she crossed the entry hall she couldn't help but notice the rapid increase in whispers. Something was wrong. What on earth had the boys gotten up to while she was gone?!

        “What happened?”

        The words were sharp, and not an ounce of mercy entered her tone as she stared down at the terrified blonde sitting at the desk. The woman swallowed visibly, her eyes darting between both Eir and Sephiroth before she responded, her voice shaking something fierce. 

         “I…I’m not cleared to tell you, ma’am. P-please don’t m-make me tell you.”

          Eir debated lunging at the woman and shaking her viciously before she caught herself. The desk lady was genuinely terrified of Eir, but something else had her even more scared. It wasn’t her fault Shinra was a vicious dog that needed to be put down, and Eir shouldn't be taking out her worry and anger on the poor woman. Eir forced herself to take a deep breath and nodded, turning on her heel and storming toward the elevator. Veld would tell her what she needed to know, and if not….well, she hadn’t learned hacking just for fun. 

         The ride up to the Turk’s floor was tense. Sephiroth stood still as stone beside her as she leaned against the elevator wall with her arms crossed. The other people riding in the elevator had all bunched up on the opposite side of them, scrunching so close they were crammed against one another in order to stay as far away from Eir and Sephiroth as possible. 

        Eir was panicking. She wouldn’t admit it and she was too well trained to show it, but every single nerve in her body was on thrumming like a live wire as the minutes dragged by. Sephiroth’s shoulders were becoming tighter and tighter beside her as every muscle in his body began to slowly grow more and more tense, his small body mere seconds from trembling under the force of his anxiety. 

        The dark hair dye in his hair shifted in the light as Eir focused on the boy's forcefully even breaths. Her darling boy, one of three, a child forced to become an adult far too young and she still couldn’t fully protect him and his brothers. Not yet, but she was close. So close, and by the stars she would do everything she could to make sure no one ever hurt them again. The elevator opened with an echoing ding, and Eir found herself nearly sprinting in an effort to keep pace with Sephiroth as he power walked down the hall. His enhancements and panic were driving his pace up far higher than normal. 

       Not that she blamed him. In fact, the closer to Veld's office they got, the faster both their paces were. The other Turks on the floor were whispering, avoiding eye contact, or in one extreme case, literally jumping out of the window to avoid her gaze. Eir noted down the Turk who’d jumped. Something told her that whatever Elite had done while she was gone was very bad indeed. Depending on how severe it was, Elite would either end up with broken bones or a bullet in the head. He wasn’t her concern at the moment, though. 

         The door to Veld's office banged open and dented the wall under the force of her shove, and Veld's head snapped up from where he’d been working on papers, his eyes wide with surprise. He took one look at who was in his doorway and let out a massive sigh. He slumped in his desk and rubbed the bridge of his nose. 

       “I’m not sure if I’m supremely relieved to see you because it means that this nightmare is likely about to end, or if I want to cry because I know you're going to be utterly furious with me and the others.”

       That did not reassure Eir in the slightest. In fact, she was pretty sure her pulse had just rocketed up to the same speed as a hummingbirds. Sephiroth seemed to agree with her since he leaned his full weight against the desk and snarled at Veld, a truly vicious expression on his face.

        “How about you start talking, and then I can decide whether or not you still need all your limbs after today.”

         Veld let out another sigh from deep within his chest before meeting Eir’s eyes, his expression deadly serious. 

       “Do you want the good news first, the bad news first, or the really bad news first?”

       Eir could feel something cold and hard settling in the pit of her stomach. Veld very rarely used that expression in anything other than the most dire of situations. She breathed in before locking her gaze with that of her mentors, steeling herself internally for what she was about to hear.

        “Start with the good news, end with the worst.”

      Veld nodded sharply

      “The good news is no one died while you were gone.”

       Eir felt the knot loosen ever so slightly. If no one was dead, that meant there was still a chance to fix things, so at the very least there was that. Veld continued.

       “The bad news is Genesis and Angeal are currently detained on charges of trying to kill the president.”

        Eir felt her heart drop like a stone in her chest. This was bad, this was so very bad. She was going to have to do so much damage contr—

        “The really bad news is that Kindle took the fall for them, and Shinra...made the punishment the permanent variety. He made sure to make an example of it as well. So everyone in the tower has seen it posted on the announcement feed already.”

       Eir’s stomach bottomed out. Taking the fall for something that significant…she’d left the boys in Kindle’s care and she couldn’t be more grateful to him for stepping up, but–

       “Show me.”

         Her words came out clipped and sharp and Veld winced, but under Sephiroth's enraged glower he quickly pulled something up on the tablet he had on his desk. There was a long moment where he hesitated, then he took a deep breath and slid the tablet across the desk. For a moment there was nothing to see, only a black screen. Then Shinra appeared, his face pulled in a smug grin. 

         “It would seem that some of you have forgotten who you work for. Let this be a reminder as to who exactly it is you should listen to.”

        The screen went black again before one of the detainment cells on the SOLDIER level came into view. Kindle, a young SOLDIER, the president, Commander Jax, and Commander Lex were all there. Kindle was roughly pulled from the wall by Commander Lex from where he’d been chained upright. He was forced to his knees, his head held down by Commander Lex’s considerable strength at Shinra’s feet. 

       The young SOLDIER raised trembling hands and began to read off a list of crimes, but Eir had her sole attention focused on Kindle. Despite the awkward position, his shoulders remained straight, blonde hair cascading in a mess across them from where it had come untied sometime during his incarceration. When Lex forced his face up to look at the camera, there was nothing but calm defiance in his gaze. She could see the tension in every line of his body as the cadet left the camera's view to grab something, but his face remained carved in stone. Shinra hadn’t broken him, not yet, but something told her she was about to watch Shinra do that breaking in real time. 

       When the cadet came back on screen with a rod in his hands, she hated that her first thought was that she’d been right. Kindle stared straight ahead as the young SOLDIER trembled and shook, clearly moments from tears as he brought the rod level just above the skin, just below Kindle’s jaw line on the right side. There was a long, tense moment, then Shinra barked–

        “Begin”

         The cadet shook once, twice, and then pressed the rod against Kindle’s skin. The reaction was immediate. Kindle screamed and tried to thrash in Commander Lex’s hold, but the larger SOLDIER didn’t so much as twitch as he held Kindle in place. Smoke began to rise the moment the young SOLDIER pressed the rod to Kindle’s skin, and even when he pulled it away, smoke continued to rise from the burnt SHINRA that now sat just below Kindle’s jaw. 

       Eir thought for a moment that would be all, and then the young SOLDIER set down the rod and pulled out something else. Tears were streaming down the young man's cheeks now as he approached Kindle for a second time. Kindle was heaving for breath, his eyes glassy, but he tried to smile reassuringly at the young boy, voice a cracked sounding warble as he whispered–

      “Hey, Aki, its ok. Its going to be ok, alright, it’s all—”

      “SHUT UP!”

       Commander Lex shook Kindle with a vicious scowl on his face as Commander Jax’s fists clenched at his side and Aki bit back another soft sob. President Shinra watched it all with a small smirk playing across his face. Eir could tell Commander Jax was five seconds from decking Commander Lex in the face and grabbing Kindle and running. She almost hoped he did, but somehow she knew that the Commander wouldn’t do it. There was simply too much at stake. 

        “Continue”

        President Shinra’s voice was filled with a sick kind of mirth as he spoke, and Aki shook as he closed his eyes and held up the next tool. An electric baton. Aki didn’t look as he turned on the power and drove the baton into Kindles' side. The scream Kindle let out was a twisted thing that cut off with a wail and then a wheeze. The baton was clearly set to far higher than it normally should be, if the visible arcs of electricity meant anything. But Kindle, for better or worse, was an enhanced SOLDIER. Something like this wasn’t nearly enough to kill him.

        After a minute or two of electrocution, Aki lowered the baton, his eyes opening but staring firmly at President Shinra and Commander Lex, clearly trying to avoid looking at Kindle. Eir wanted to feel bad for the boy, but all she could feel was a dull, rising rage as she watched Kindle’s head slump against his chest, his shoulders heaving as he tried to catch his breath. President Shinra stared dispassionately at Kindle before humming. 

       “You may continue the final section of his punishment.”

        Eir felt something in her gut clench. She’d known distantly that the video likely hadn’t come to its climax yet, but having confirmed it, it twisted a dark knot in her stomach. The young SOLDIER looked like he dearly wanted to vomit, but he nodded once sharply and left the camera's view for a third time. He came back carrying a strange device that Eir didn’t immediately recognize, that is until Shinra spoke.

       “You should thank your commander, boy. Initially I was going to cut your back-talking tongue from your skull entirely, but he convinced me that temporary silence would be much better, since having a mute SOLDIER would render you virtually useless.”

      Kindle’s blue eyes stared balefully up through his long blond strands of hair that were falling in a disastrous wave across his face and shoulders, but he didn’t respond. Shinra smiled, an evil, twisted thing. 

       “Ah, so you can learn to keep your mouth shut. Perhaps there's hope for you yet. But to make sure the lesson sinks in…”

       He gestured to Aki and the boy took shuddering steps forward. The device was lifted and Eir finally realized what it was. A muzzle with straps that had spikes lining the inside surface. It was made to not only silence but to dig into the soft flesh around and inside the wearer's mouth. A long term torture device. 

       The cry Kindle let out when the sharp bit piece was placed in his mouth was cut off almost immediately as the muzzle was pulled taut around his face. Aki finished securing it in place and then stepped back, his eyes on the ground, his hands shaking. President Shinra stood for a long moment, staring flinty-eyed at Kindle, studying his work no doubt. Then the President nodded and turned to the camera.

         “This is your last warning. Do not forget who it is you work for.”

       The screen went black, and a long moment of silence stretched slow as molasses as Eir absorbed what she’d seen and Veld anxiously awaited her reaction. For a long moment, then two, Eir felt nothing in her chest, and then something like lava began to fill her veins. She could literally feel the heat spreading out from her chest, rising in a massive tide until it couldn’t be contained any longer. 

      With an incomprehensible roar of undiluted rage, she chucked the tablet at the wall. It shattered into a thousand shining glass pieces, but she couldn’t care less. She was already lunging across the desk, her fist gripping the front of Veld's shirt and dragging him closer until his face was inches from her own. The word she let out came out as more of a bestial growl than anything human, but the meaning was clear.

     “Where.”

      Veld didn’t even hesitate, his eyes wide with shock, but also understanding as he answered–

      “Eir, I understand that you’re upset, but if you act rashly, you—”

       The sound that Sephiroth made beside her couldn’t even be considered human, and she had a feeling that if her teeth ground together any harder they’d crack into pieces just like the tablet. Veld sighed and slumped in her grasp.

       “The boys are in detention level 0 cell 347, and Kindle is detention level 1 cell 64.”

      Eir dropped Veld and turned on her heel, Sephiroth right behind her as she swung the door open so hard it ripped from its hinges and collided with the wall in a cloud of plaster and dust. She stalked down the hall, Sephiroth at her side and out the door. 

        Not a single person got in their way, even as she stormed down several levels to get to the cell blocks. Three squads of Turks and two SOLDIER squads took one look at her and Sephiroth and promptly got the heck out of dodge.  

        She stopped on level 0 first, and when the lock denied her access, she howled in rage and began hacking it immediately. She was distantly aware of Genesis and Angeal speaking and Sephiroth answering, but her pulse was roaring far too loudly in her ears to hear what they were saying. The door clicked open and the boys barely had a chance to get out of the cell before she was dragging them into a hug so tight that if they weren’t enhanced, she would have broken their bones. 

           “You absolute idiots. I’m so glad you're safe, but you better believe you are getting so many consequences for this stunt, you little goblins! Now let's go save my SOLDIER.”

         She whispered the words sharply into their ears, and when she pulled back, Angeal was already nodding while Genesis spoke, his tone more serious then she had ever heard.

          “Yes, ma’am, let's go get our SOLDIER, then. I think he’s waited long enough.”

         A small part of her was so proud of Genesis for claiming the SOLDIER as his own and opening his heart just a little, but for now, that little detail was crushed under the need to get to Kindle and get to him NOW!

         The four of them stormed up the stairs and down the hall toward Kindle’s cell. When the SOLDIER final came into view, Eir resisted the urge to howl in rage. He was chained to the wall, his wrists and ankles shackled into place and giving him no respite. His head hung low, blonde hair tangled and matted and that awful muzzle anchored to his face. 

        The hacking of his door and charging into his cell took a matter of moments, and then she was pulling out her hair pins and picking the locks on his ankles, her movements steady but her heart pounding. Kindle startled, and dazed blue eyes jumped up to look at her as she worked frantically on his second ankle. She began on his wrists next, and then Kindle was slumping forward, his overtaxed limbs shaking from exhaustion. Genesis was at his side in an instant, helping Eir lower him to the ground so he was sitting instead of standing like he had been for hours. 

        And at last, all that was between Kindle and the end of this nightmare was the muzzle. Eir traced the awful thing lightly with her fingers as she searched for the release, desperately trying to avoid putting any pressure on the device. She prayed that the spikes weren’t moving as she began to unlatch it from the back of Kindle’s head, but she also knew that there was only so much she could do to prevent it from causing Kindle pain. 

       The muzzle came away with a wet sloop, leaving several bleeding round holes in Kindles cheeks, chin, and mouth. Eir threw the ghastly thing across the room and cradled Kindle’s face in her hands. The wounds were healing over, but far slower then they should have. Prolonged captivity, lack of mako, and lack of nutrients made Kindle’s enhanced healing far more sluggish than normal. Eventually, after an agonizing five or so minutes, the last hole had sealed over, leaving behind an already fading pinkish scar. Kindle’s mouth twitched in a sad sort of smile.

       “Well, fancy seeing you here. Thanks for the save. I guess this would make me the princess and you the knight, right? Does that make the boys the fairytale helpers, though? Or would they be the happy ever after family?”

       Despite his attempt at levity, his voice came out cracked and raspy, and it was clear that speaking physically hurt at the moment. Yet still he tried. Eir had only truly gotten to know Kindle in the last three months, but his endless optimism truly made her respect him more than words could say. In fact, she genuinely didn’t know how she would ever begin to thank him for all that he’d done for her and her boys in the last few months. 

        So she did the only thing she could do to let him know how grateful she was. Eir tilted his head down towards her own and kissed him. She did it softly so as not to aggravate the injuries in his mouth, but she kissed him with all her gratitude, relief and sorrow. Praying he knew just how much everything he had done meant to her, and if the way he melted into her kiss with a soft, barely, broken-off sob meant anything, she had a feeling he knew.      

        Their lips broke apart, but they stayed curled up together for a good while.  Kindle cried softly, his arms wrapped around her waist, Eir’s hands softly cradling his head while all three of the boys leaned in and hugged the both of them. Eventually, Eir pulled back, and with the boy's help, got Kindle to his feet. 

        The journey back to the apartment was long and they had to stop several times for Kindle to rest, but eventually they got back. The first thing Eir did was give Kindle a dose of Mako. The second was to feed him one of the specialty SOLDIER supplement bars to hopefully reverse his body's decision to eat itself. She was often grateful for all four of her boy's enhancements, but at times like this where even two days with lack of food could lead to weakness and degradation, she hated their superhuman metabolisms with every fiber of her being. 

         Once she was sure Kindle was settled with Angeal and Genesis at his bedside, she nodded at Sephiroth and headed to the door. Trickshot nodded to the two of them as they glided past, something dangerous in his gaze, and Eir had full confidence that between her various security traps and Trickshot, no one would be getting anywhere near her family while she handled…some ‘business’. 

Chapter Text

Sephiroth’s POV:

      Sephiroth followed Eir as the Turk marched on her warpath through the building towards Shinra’s office. Her dark hair with its braids and beads clacked and waved behind her in a symphony of sound like the clinking of windchimes in a storm. 

       He could feel the rage boiling under his skin. His brothers, imprisoned while he was away. Kindle, punished for defending them, and a tower full of cowards who had done absolutely nothing as all of this had gone on. With every passing day he became more and more convinced that burning the entire place to the ground would truly be the best option.

       Still, he was trying to commit fewer atrocities in this life than his last, so total annihilation of this building and everyone in it would have to wait until he was sure Eir had weeded out all the good people and ensured that they were away while an… accident occurred at the tower. 

      Eir slammed through President Shinra’s doors, and instantly his entire protection detail had their weapons trained on her, the president scowling at her from behind his desk. When his guards noticed just who had entered the room though, a good portion of them seemed to have a collective aneurysm and the other portion looked like they dearly wished to be able to simply vanish. Shinra didn’t seem to notice his men's sudden panic and spoke up, his voice sharp. 

       “Now I know why those blasted brats have no manners, if this is what their ‘guardian’ is like when meeting her superiors.”

        Eir let out a sound that was half-Nibel Dragon hiss and half the growling of some great mountain beast, and stalked toward the desk. Shinra’s men only half-heartedly pretended to keep their weapons trained on the irate Turk. Sephiroth was fairly certain the SOLDIER in the corner was five seconds from passing out. Shinra finally seemed to read the tension in the room, and he leaned back ever so slightly as Eir slammed her hands on his desk.

        For a long moment, no one spoke as Shinra stared wide-eyed at Eir. Eir shook with an unholy amount of rage. So much rage in fact that Sephiroth was a tad worried she’d just burst into flames at any given moment. Eir let out an inarticulate sound of fury and wrung her hands at Shinra as if she was imagining wrapping her hands around his throat and squeezing. Then Eir turned her face away from him and visibly shoved all the rage down, down, down deep inside of her, a bitter expression on her face as she swallowed her own anger. 

         The face that then turned toward Shinra was one of eerie blankness, and if anything, Shinra looked more off-put by that than the Turk’s silent rage. The SOLDIER in the corner passed out, and three others looked like they might follow him at the slightest provocation. Good. That meant they had some life preservation after all. Eir spoke in the same sickening calm voice that she’d used on the medical desk lady a few months ago. 

        “If it weren’t for the fact that I haven’t yet figured out a way around your contingency plans in the event of your death, I would like you to know that you would be missing every single one of your fingers, toes, and teeth by now, and that I would have poured acid on you and laughed. But since, despite your unfathomable idiocy, your backup plans are solid I will simply let you off with this.”

          Eir’s hand shot out, and a bolt of blinding white light struck Shinra in the forehead. A rune glowed briefly before fading into his skin, and the man sputtered, his hand shooting to touch the place where it had been, his eyes wide and full of fear. 

        “What did you–”

        “Do?”

          Eir interrupted him, her voice ice cold.

          “That is a bit of binding materia my people learned for blood-sworn enemies. Congratulations, Shinra, you have managed to bring your entire family into your feud with me. 

        “This little bit of magic means that if you or anyone in your family touches anyone in my family or under my protection, you will die instantly and everyone else in your family will be marked with the sigil of the blood traitor. Only someone from my family can remove that sigil or this curse and only if they truly are willing, so extortion and blackmail will get you nowhere.”

          Eir smiled, and it spread across her face in a twisted, sickening crescent of sharp teeth.

         “You’ve made an enemy of the Old North, Shinra. You better watch your step. Oh, and–”

          Eir’s fist shot out at blinding speed and caught Shinra dead center in the face, breaking his nose and knocking him unconscious instantly. 

            “ —That's for my boyfriend and my kids, you bloody Argr .”

           Sephiroth may still not know what language it was that Eir sometimes spoke, but he had a feeling that Argr was not a kind word. Good. He had a few choice words of his own for the slimy, gutless worm that lay sprawled on the ground behind the desk. 

        Eir didn’t even bother looking at the SOLDIERS or Turks on duty. She simply made a clean about-face and stormed toward the door. Not a single one of them stopped her. Sephiroth hesitated for a moment, considering, and then instead of breaking one of Shinra’s bones like he wanted to, he spat on the prone man's body. He then turned and walked toward the door where Eir stood waiting for him.

          The two of them walked through the tower at a much slower pace than before, the silence stretching and strange in the eerily, empty halls. Eventually, Sephiroth broke the silence, keeping his tone even as he avoided looking directly at the Turk. 

       “Why didn’t you set the blood curse before?”

        A long pause, then–

       “Veld and the other Turks have had a hand in raising his son. Rufus. The curse is very clear and virtually impossible to modify without reducing its potency, and well, Rufus isn’t perfect, but he’s a good kid. I didn’t want him to potentially face the consequences of his father’s actions. Once we figure out a way to ensure Shinra’s death, I intend to lift the curse. After all, the sins of the father are not the sins of the child.”

        Sephiroth hummed. The Turk made a valid point, and while he knew that in the future Rufus would become a much bigger problem, he was the only one who knew that future. Besides, it was likely that if they removed Shinra from the equation, Rufus wouldn’t turn out nearly as…problematic. 

       So instead of arguing, he simply nodded and continued to walk beside her and back towards the apartment. When they arrived, Trickshot nodded and made a strange hand signal in Eir’s direction. Eir responded in kind before opening the door, and Sephiroth followed her inside. The rest of the day was spent resting with the other boys, and despite the chaos and the rage that had burned so hot in his veins mere hours ago, he quickly found himself settling in and even falling asleep that evening with little to no trouble. After all, with Eir nearby, the likelihood of something getting through her and to him or the others was little to none. 

********************

        The week was a blur of shifting about as Eir moved the other two boys into Sephiroth’s room and gave Kindle the boys' old room. The SOLDIER had protested at first, claiming that he could just take the couch, but surprisingly Gen was the one who nixed that. 

        “ My friend, do you fly away now ? Let us take care of you, you foolish man! It's clear you can’t handle yourself, so you have to stay where we can keep an eye on you! Eir is obviously the only one here with any sort of logic, and you should under no circumstances be left unattended.”

       Kindle did as Genesis asked, and if the red-haired boy would periodically get up in the night to check on Kindle’s sleeping body, well’ Sephiroth was no snitch. Despite the fact that the Turk and the SOLDIER had kissed the day Eir had saved Kindle, it would seem that very little had actually changed between them. Kindle continued to drop unfathomably awful pickup lines, and Eir continued to be largely unimpressed. 

       That being said, Sephiroth had caught the two of them in the kitchen the other evening with their foreheads pressed together. Eir was muttering something soft as she held the SOLDIER’S head down against her own. Kindle's hands had been wrapped tightly around the Turk’s wrists, and his breathing had been panicked and quick. Sephiroth had left Eir to deal with whatever that was and continued on his way. 

          Absolutely no one had mentioned the hand-shaped bruises around her wrists, especially with Kindle constantly sending her guilty expressions. Eir had merely raised her eyebrows at him every single time and mouthed, Your intent was what matters. It was an accident, now stop blaming yourself, you fool. 

Sephiroth and the other boys pretended not to notice the exchange every single time. One week bled into two, and then three. January finally came to an end, marking the fifth month since Sephiroth had come back in time, and with a jolt he realized he’d been here nigh on half a year now. It was strange how quickly time had flown by. It was also incredible to see how many of his goals had been accomplished or had changed over the course of those five months. 

         He had his brothers back, only one lab left to destroy, and only Shinra and Director Scarlet remained as active threats. He had a new mam—a new guardian, and a new half-guardian in Kindle. He also, with a strange sense of shock, realized that for the first time in his entire life, he felt content and even, dare he say it, happy?

        The end hadn’t come and work still needed to be done, but the world wasn’t ending. He wasn’t fighting constantly, his family and friends weren’t in danger, and his mind was his own. All in all, life for Sephiroth was actually looking really good. Which is why, of course, the universe decided that it was time to shake things up. 

         “What do you mean you have a mission you can’t get out of?! It’s obviously a ploy by Shinra to get you out of the tower! You can’t seriously be considering this!”

          Eir sighed from where she had been getting her gear ready and set down the utility belt in her hands in order to turn and face Sephiroth. 

        “Partially yes, but Veld also personally asked me to take a look at this. I won’t be long, and while I’m gone a friend of mine has offered to help get you to that last lab and take it out. Then all that's left is the corruption within Shinra. Besides, I’m moving Kindle and your brothers out of the tower while we’re gone so Shinra can’t get access to them. Please, Sephiroth, I promise I’ll get back as soon as possible.”

         Sephiroth huffed and crossed his arms, staring down the stubborn Turk as he thought. Logically everything Eir had said made sense, and with Kindle, Genesis, and Angeal outside of the tower, he didn’t truly have any reason to disagree with Eir. That being said, something dark was churning in his gut. Something told him that if he let Eir do this, something was going to go catastrophically wrong.

        Still, he had no logical explanation for the feeling, and he truly did need to take care of that lab. As much as he would like to deny it, Eir was in fact a Turk. Which meant she did actually have to fulfill her job obligations, if only to ensure that Genesis and Angeal couldn’t be taken from her custody. So despite the bubbling tension rising in him, he sighed and glowered at the Turk. 

         “Fine, but when you get back, we are watching Phantom .”

          Eir threw her head back and laughed. Sephiroth had been pestering her over the last few weeks to see the film. Ever since he’d discovered that the book he’d first read in the Turk’s apartment had a film adaptation, he’d been determined to see it with her. Eir had argued, saying that watching it live was infinitely better, but Sephiroth had pointed out that there hadn’t been a showing for six years, and there likely wouldn’t be one anytime soon. Eir shook her head with a sigh and smiled fondly at him. 

          “Alright, alright, we can do t hat, gràidh, I promise it's not nearly as good as the book though.”

          Sephiroth shrugged. The Turk was likely correct, but he still wanted to see the piece performed. Eir left that evening; Genesis, Angeal, and Kindle left the next morning. However, as Sephiroth set out with Hindsight to take out the lab, he couldn’t help but pause and look back at the tower, that sense of foreboding filling his stomach once more. Something was wrong. He could only pray that whatever it was, they could handle it. So Sephiroth turned, nodded to Hindsight, and strode off to finally finish off the last of Jenova. 

*********************************

       Genesis POV:

       Genesis wasn’t sure what exactly it was that Sephiroth did every time the other boy left with or without the Turk, but at the moment he couldn’t care less. He peered disdainfully around the safehouse Eir had sent him, Angeal, and the SOLDIER to while she and Sephiroth ran their separate missions. 

       Which was totally unfair! Why on earth did Sephiroth, the youngest of them, get to go while he and Angeal were stuck babysitting Kindle? Now on a logical level, Genesis was fully aware that it had everything to do with the fact that everyone who knew about Sephiroth's enhanced status was deceased. On an emotional level, he couldn’t help but be pissed off about being unable to do something that an eleven-year-old kid was able to. 

        Still, Eir had left him and Angeal in charge of making sure Kindle didn’t do anything stupid, so he supposed not all was lost. (He pointedly did not think about the fact that technically it was Kindle watching them. The SOLDIER had lost that privilege when he got hurt. Genesis was the dad of the house now, dangit!). 

       His train of thought was interrupted by the sound of something moving in the kitchen of their temporary apartment outside of the tower. Genesis followed the source of the sound and found Kindle standing at the sink, gazing out the window with a strange look on his face. Genesis huffed and came to stand beside the SOLDIER, looking out the window and trying to see what had the SOLDIER so agitated. He saw absolutely nothing other than the bustling cityscape beyond. 

       “ Ripples form on the water’s surface , what has you disturbed, SOLDIER boy?”

       Kindle visibly hesitated, something dark twisting just beneath the surface of his gaze before he reluctantly responded.

        “I just—”

        The frown grew more pronounced and he hesitated again.

        “Something feels wrong. Call it a gut feeling, a hunch, or a figment of my imagination, but something is telling me that unless something changes drastically in the next few hours, something is going to go catastrophically wrong.”

         Genesis prepared to argue, but then he paused. He thought about it and a wave of unease crashed over him. He’d been deliberately ignoring the feeling, but now that Kindle had pointed it out, something thrummed in the air like a plucked guitar string. It felt expectant, heavy, and most importantly, dangerous . Something big was coming, and Genesis wasn’t sure if they were ready for it. He paused, hesitating beside Kindle, and then finally he spoke, his eyes focused on the distance–

          “I can feel it too. But what are we going to do about it?”

          Kindle shifted, his eyes still focused outside the window, his face downturned in a scowl.

          “I–I don’t know.”

          Genesis nodded and leaned against the older man, ignoring the way the SOLDIER startled before settling and hesitantly wrapping an arm around Genesis. 

           “I’m…worried.”

            Genesis hated how weak the words sounded. He wanted to take them back the moment they left his mouth. Kindle just hummed and wrapped his arm tighter around Genesis’ shoulders. 

             “Me too, kid. Me too.”

***********Far away deep inside the Ryko City slums**********

???? POV:

       The air stank of sulfur, human refuse, and blood. His eyes darted about as he followed behind a tall, red-haired woman who had come to visit the boss. She was strange, and something about her set his nerves on fire. For someone who was just supposed to be a pretty face with some information, she was awfully tall. She also moved in a way that reminded him of a dangerous man he’d once met from Wutai. Not obviously dangerous like SOLDIERS, Guards, and brawlers, but quietly dangerous in the shift of her shoulders and the steady placement of her feet. 

        He followed her into the main hub and slunk to the back. He needed to tell the boss, whoever this ‘Zeri Wu’ was. A simple informant wasn’t it? She was dangerous, and it would likely be best to kill her before she could become an active threat. 

       He entered the back and slunk up to the boss, whispering into his ear moments before the woman entered the room. The redhead smiled prettily, her green eyes large and enticing. He didn’t trust it one bit, and neither did the boss. 

        “Who are you?”

        The redhead blinked, her brow furrowing and her lips parting slightly as she gazed confusedly back at the boss. It was so beautifully done that he almost doubted himself when she asked–

         “Zeri Wu, you told me to come tell you what I knew, sir?”

         But still, as beautifully done as it was, he’d been raised to see the details, and Zeri Wu’s left hand didn’t follow the rest of the lie her body was selling. Her left hand was tracing something subtly, something hidden up her sleeve. He bared his teeth and the boss shifted angrily in his seat, his dark eyes focusing on the lying redhead as he spoke. 

         “See, but Hund here doesn’t believe you, and I trust him far more than I trust you.”

         The boss leaned forward and Hund slunk closer, his shoulders rising as he prepared for the woman's reaction. Oh, and what a reaction it was. The pretty, delicate lady seemed to transform before his very eyes. Shoulders that had been slumped delicately to appear smaller rolled back and revealed how broad the woman actually was. The thing up the sleeve turned out to be a knife with a materia set into the handle. She had also at some point produced a gun from somewhere. That pretty, guileless confusion melted from her face entirely, melting into a look of pure steel. Her voice was what changed the most though, the soft lyrical accent and high tones shifting to a lower register that, while still lyrical, spoke of a land from the North instead of the South. 

           “Well, Hund is pretty good then. I gotta ask, what gave me away?”

            The boss laughed, his dark eyes glinting in the dim lights.

            “Since you're about to die anyway, I don’t see the harm. Why don’t you tell her, Hund?”

             Hund was silent for a long moment as he studied the woman. Despite the fact that the room was full of armed men who now had their weapons trained on her, she seemed largely unaffected. Annoyed? Yes. Afraid? Not in the slightest. He wasn’t sure if he should be sure in his boss’s confidence or the woman’s. Still, his boss had given an order, so Hund spoke, his eyes locked with green eyes that he swore for a moment flashed cold, gunmetal gray. 

             “The way you walked, Miss Wu. The only people I’ve seen walk like you are warriors from Wutai. Quiet killers.”

             The woman claiming to be Zeri Wu smiled at him, those dangerous eyes glinting savagely as she did so. When she spoke, it was directly to Hund, not the boss. 

              “Well, Hund, for what it's worth, you’ve got a good eye. I’ve met very few people who can see that at just a glance. Now then, shall we begin?”

              As the gunfire and materia began to fill the room with flashes of blinding light and sound, Hund found himself retreating and slipping away. Maybe his boss would win, maybe he wouldn’t, but something told him that whatever happened, Miss “Wu” wasn’t going to go down easy…..

Chapter Text

Eir’s POV:

        The world around her was on fire, and Eir cursed for the thousandth time the man who had blown her cover. All around her the world burned, and the beams of the building groaned as they collapsed further inward. 

         She was nearly to the door when she ran into a group of trapped civilians. The smell of burning flesh and the sound of screams filled the air. Eir considered leaving them, she really did, of going home to her boys and heading out into the clean air outside. Instead, she sighed, and bit-by-bit she began to shift the debris that had crushed the group of civilians to help them escape. 

         One by one, she set them free, some heading straight for the door, others staying to help her shift more off of the other trapped individuals. When the last poor soul had been freed, Eir helped carry three of the most injured to what remained of the front door in an unsteady stagger.

         She exited just moments before the building collapsed behind her in a heap of burning rubble. She had taken perhaps an extra thirty minutes in her efforts to save the poor souls inside, and as she set the last of them down, she turned to find an entire host of enemies before her, spread around the square, but it was the person at their head that had her halting and pausing. Something bitter as bile rose in her throat as she locked gazes with a very familiar face–

Angeal’s POV:

       Something was wrong. Angeal knew the others could feel it too. The feeling was not helped when the second day into their forced vacation, the tower that sat just down on the street began to swarm with frantic activity, both Turk and SOLDIER alike. The fact that it calmed down and vanished within hours didn’t give Angeal any confidence that the worst was over. He could only hope that when Eir and Sephiroth got back in three days, that whatever trouble was wouldn’t be more than all of them could handle….

Eir’s POV:

       —Eir didn’t let her deep-rooted sadness show on her face as she stared Myr dead in the face, her shoulders squaring as she prepared to speak. 

       “So it's come to this, then.”

         The SOLDIER shrugged, her gaze impassive. The hand on her massive sword tightened though, showing that no matter how dull her expression, something about Eir’s words had hit home. 

       “If not me, then one of the others. Shinra wanted to be certain you didn’t come back today. I figured better than one of the others.”

        Eir snorted at that, her heart tightening in her chest, and rage began to boil in her gut. 

       “Ah yes, because facing me with a whole gang of thugs is a fair and merciful fight.”

        Myr just threw her head back and laughed. The deep-throated peals of laughter seemed to unsettle the thugs around her, and several scooched slightly away from the SOLDIER, looks of deep unease crossing their faces. But none shifted enough to leave an opening. Dang it all, Eir thought, as she re-focused on the still laughing Myr. The woman was slowly coming to herself now, wiping away tears of laughter from her eyes with one leather-gloved hand. The second class SOLDIER let a manic grin cover her face, something cruel and vindictive shining in her eyes. 

        “Yes, it's come to this you stuck up, goodie two shoes. What did you think, that the rest of us subscribed to your sense of honor? Oh, some little brats had to grow up too fast, boo hoo! Grow up, you spineless worm! Guess what, the world doesn’t work that way! It's dark, and cruel, and unkind. Pretending it's anything else just makes you delusional. You might as well just enjoy the power that comes from being skilled and dangerous rather than try and pretend you're so high and mighty. But no, sweet, kind Eir wants to save the kids. She wants to take down Shinra and change the world. Well, guess what!? Some of us like THIS world, the one where I can rend and tear as I please without any consequences.”

         Eir could feel her shoulders coiling tighter and tighter with every word that fell out of the SOLDIER’S mouth. She’d always known Myr was one of the more volatile SOLDIERS in the SHINRA roster, but she felt like perhaps she and Veld hadn’t researched the woman nearly enough. Because THIS? This had not been in Myr’s file. Eir didn’t want to use the little gift Gunpowder had made for her, but with the way things were looking, there wasn’t any other way she was getting out of here alive. 

       She’d tuned out Myr’s continuing rant (more of a monologue if Eir was being honest) and studied the situation. She’d have to time it just right, but if she threw Gunpowders little surprise just there—

Kindle’s POV:

      Kindle was done waiting. He didn’t know what was wrong, but something told him he and the boys needed to be at the tower days ago. As they sped towards the tower, he could hear Angeal and Genesis softly speaking in the back seat of the car. Both of them sounded worried.

      Kindle wished with all his heart that he could reassure them, but something told him that whatever had happened, his reassurances were going to mean very, very little. As they pulled into the tower's parking garage and saw the hive of activity at every entrance, his heart sank just a little lower. Something was wrong, terribly, fully, catastrophically wrong, and he could only pray that whatever it was wasn’t going to break him and the boys forever….

Eir’s POV:

        —She could potentially turn this situation in her favor. It seemed Myr had finally realized that Eir wasn’t paying attention, because the woman suddenly let out an enraged scream, and Eir snapped her gaze back to the insane SOLDIER.

           “ARE YOU SERIOUSLY IGNORING ME YOU *****”

        Eir simply raised a singular eyebrow, and she rocked back on her heels. She let both her thumbs hook into her belt as she stared Myr in the eyes. It gave the illusion of nonchalance while also bringing her right hand right on top of the pouch holding Gunpowder’s gift. 

             “Well, obviously, the moment you started spouting sewage filth from that dirty mouth of yours, I decided my attention was much better deserved elsewhere.”

          Myr sneered at her, her lips pulling back and baring her teeth like a dog snarling. 

           “Awww, are you looking for a way out, you coward?”

            Eir snorted, rocking on her heels, and palming the small round sphere from her pouch in the same movement. Hidden, discrete, careful, just like Sleight had shown her. 

             “Well, obviously, who’d want to stick around you? Your mouth spews filth, and your face is hideous enough to scar children for life.”

             Myr turned a brilliant shade of purple, and veins began to pulse in her forehead. Ah, so Eir had struck a nerve then. Myr let out a guttural roar and charged, the gang members quick to follow suit as they unleashed a hail of black rain from their guns. Two or three shots hit Eir before she managed to get her shield up, but the delay was worth it because the moment Myr had lunged forward, Eir had chucked Gunpowder’s little present right into the dead center of the group. Right at Myr, in fact. 

             She had pulled the pin a few seconds ago, and right at the peak of the arc the “grenade” went off with a deafening BOOM that shook the earth. Even with her shield, Eir was unable to withstand the shock wave. Instead, she was tossed back like a ragdoll as everyone in the plaza was either incinerated the moment the bomb went off or knocked every which way. Eir staggered to her feet moments after she hit the wall, her head was ringing like a bell. Her limbs felt far more shaky then she had anticipated, but she had to get up. She had to move.

        Eir had just a moment to survey the battlefield and the scattered bodies all around, to admire the sheer destructive force of Gunpowder’s creation (she really needed to check in on Gunpowder, because that had NOT been a mid level explosion, thank you very much, you crazy pyromaniac, but also bless you, Gunpowder, cause hooo boy that had been effective). 

        But Eir had only one moment before she registered the figure about to collide with her like an oncoming freight train. Eir dodged to the right while also throwing up a shield, and only just barely managed to deflect the full rage-filled sword strike of an utterly enraged SOLDIER.

       When Myr stood back up from where she’d slouched over her sword that was now thoroughly jammed into the earth, Eir was finally able to get a good look at the battered SOLDIER. Half the woman's face was charred, and one eye was almost completely missing from its socket. Myr’s ribcage was fully visible from where the explosion had hit her dead on in the stomach, but before Eir’s very eyes the skin was melting back over the ribs and face. 

        The woman's chest plate was dented and warped, but it seemed that it had done its job and protected the woman's heart and upper chest from the explosion, keeping the SOLDIER alive, but only just. Only just, if the sheer amount of red that trailed behind her was any indication. 

         Eir scrambled back as Myr began to yank on her sword. Myr’s one good eye blazed with unholy mako light as she stared Eir down, something far beyond rage and hatred burning in that expression. This was pure, undiluted loathing, and Myr had only one target. 

        The sword came free with a sudden jerk and Eir’s legs were still shaking, but she was on her feet, and she was backing up as fast as she could. She wanted to turn and run, wanted to get as far from this terrifying incarnation of wrath given mortal form, but she knew instinctively that turning her back on this threat would mean certain death.

       For the first time in her entire life, Eir almost wished that the Turks were enhanced like SOLDIERS, because her weak bones? Her mortal speed? Her mere human body? She wasn’t sure if she could withstand what was coming her way. But then she thought of her boys, of Kindle, Genesis, Angeal, and Sephiroth. Her kid. Her boy, her son. Was she really just gonna roll over and die because some person was physically stronger than her? That had never stopped her before, and dang it all, it wasn’t going to stop her now. 

        So as Myr began to advance, flesh bubbling and warping as it healed, clothes tattered and hanging off her corpse-like, and sword dragging on the ground sending up flaming sparks, Eir planted her feet, strengthened her shaking knees, and began to plan for all she was worth.

        Quickshots POV:

           Quickshot wanted to say he was surprised that Snitch was still standing after pulling off the impossible and taking out near two hundred enemies in a single explosion, but well, that would be a bold-faced lie. 

          The Turk hadn’t even used half her magical capacity just yet, and despite the explosion literally having blasted her into a wall, she’d gotten up and walked it off like nothing had happened. 

           Snitch had always been one of the most stubborn Turks in the department, which in a department of people who lived off spite and stubbornness alone was a feat in and of itself. As Snitch deflected a massive strike from SOLDIER Myr’s sword, Quickshot could admit that he was likely going to have to utilize his back up plan of facing Snitch himself. 

         Which, well, he’d orchestrated this plan, he’d been given a mission by president Shinra directly, he had his orders, and he had always been one to follow orders implicitly. But as he watched Snitch stand back up once again and stand her ground against the advancing SOLDIER, he couldn’t help but sigh.

         He’d never wanted to be the one to kill Snitch personally. He had too much respect for the woman to look her in the eyes and pull the trigger without at least a little hesitation. It was looking like he wasn’t going to have a choice though. The building going down in flames hadn’t worked, and the gang and SOLDIER at the entrance hadn’t even seemed to truly slow Snitch down. 

        He’d have to put a few more things in place to make sure Snitch was worn out enough for his plan to work, but–

         Quickshot took one more glance down at the fight below—there was no doubt in his mind that whatever happened in the next few minutes, Snitch would be coming out of this fight on top, and dang it all if he didn’t respect her for that. 

         But well-respected or not, he had orders. So he placed a hand on his earpiece and gave the order for phase three to proceed. Turning fully away from what was sure to be the fight of the century, Quickshot made his way toward the safe house. He might not know everything about Eir, but she was likely to come back if only because there hadn’t been a single Turk that had gone against Veld’s declaration of turning against SHINRA, and she’d be worried about Quickshot. Ironic, Quickshot pondered, that the very heart that allowed her to keep going was going to be what killed her in the end. So very ironic…..

Eir’s POV:

      Eir wasn’t going to be able to match Myr’s strength head on, but luckily for her she wouldn’t have to. Myr was raising her sword now, her ripped lips spread in a bloody grin. Eir merely smiled back and sent a blast of ice to engulf the SOLDIER in the same moment she twisted out of the way, like a matador with a charging bull. 

        The SOLDIER broke through the ice with a roar of rage, but the cold had slowed her enough that Eir’s dodge had been enough to keep her out of the way of that heavy blade. Eir cast again, engulfing the SOLDIER entirely in ice, and in the same moment Eir danced her way behind the SOLDIER.

        Myr screamed a hunted, animalistic sound that wrent the sky like a knife. She broke free again, but slower this time. The cold, the ice inside her injuries, and the quickly depleting energy were all slowly beginning to take their toll on the SOLDIER.

         As Myr spun, Eir used the brief moment before the SOLDIER could face her fully to send a knife straight through the back tendons of Myr’s right knee. The SOLDIER screamed again, falling to one knee, physically unable to force the leg to support her way without the tendons that made it work. 

       The woman swung her sword blindingly and managed to just nick Eir’s side. Eir jumped back as blood began to pour from her side. The cut wasn’t large, but it was deep, and now Eir was solidly on a timer. Eir gritted her teeth. She didn’t have time or power for more than a flash Curga, so she let it burn into her side. The wound stitched shut, but Eir could tell that one wrong move would send it ripping open again. She didn’t have time for that though. She only had so much time before Myr’s leg healed enough for her to move again.

       So Eir threw a series of daggers at Myr. The SOLDIER blocked most of them, but one managed to bury itself in her sword hand and the woman howled once more. The burning mako glow in her eyes was even brighter than before. 

      Myr was trying to get to her feet and failing, but Eir only had so long before she succeeded. It was time. With a roar of her own, Eir poured about half of her remaining magic into the strongest ice blast yet. Myr was frozen solidly in place, but Eir could already see the cracks forming on the surface. She had only the time for one more attack, so she’d better make it count.

      Eir lunged forward, and in the same moment pulled her longest knife from her jacket, slamming it with all her might through the SOLDIER’S frozen throat. The ice shattered on impact, and Eir’s momentum carried her forward, knocking Myr flat on her back with Eir slumped on top of her. 

     The SOLDIER gurgled beneath her and twitched. The hand holding her sword tried to rise, but failed once, twice, three times before finally, at last, the body beneath Eir went still with a dying, sputtering sound. Blood splattered across Eir’s face as in a final act of spite, Myr spat blood directly at her.

        Eir heaved for breath for a long moment, unable to even think about moving as she sat astride the corpse of the SOLDIER, staring down at the twisted face of the woman she’d just killed. 

       Finally, she had found the strength to stagger to her feet when she heard movement behind her. She turned to find about twenty members of the gang that must have heard the commotion and come running.

        Eir internally checked her magic stores as she wiped her bloody knife across her pants and stared down the new arrivals. It wasn’t much, but….well, for twenty normal, unenhanced opponents? Eir had a feeling that she’d have enough.

       Smiling grimly at the nervous-looking men, she began to advance, Firga crackling on her fingertips. It seemed she had a little more to clean up to do before she could go check in on Quickshot. She could only hope that her fellow brother-in-arms wasn’t dealing with nearly as much as she was. She’d hate to have to save him as well…

Chapter Text

Kindle’s POV

      Kindle felt an awful lot like his heart had stopped in his chest. The drive over to the tower had felt like an eternity, but now that he and the boys were here waiting to get into the parking garage, he could also see in detail exactly what sort of activity was buzzing around the tower. 

        More specifically, he could see Trickshot crying silently as he stood, blank-faced and steady, while three covered forms were wheeled into the building from a transport truck across from the distraught Turk. One of the sheets shifted in the wind and Kindle saw what might have been Quickshot, the partner that Eir had gone with on her latest mission. The man's face and most of his skull was missing, but the unique pattern on the right arm of the uniform was semi identifiable beneath the wash of blood. The sick feeling in his stomach got stronger. 

       Trickshot and Quickshot were cousins. He knew that Eir was far closer to Trickshot and that she had mixed feelings about Quickshot, but it didn’t make it any less horrible that the man was dead. 

       Wait but Quickshot had been Eir’s partner on the mission, so….who could be under the other two sheets? Something told Kindle that he wasn’t going to like the answer.

Eir’s POV

        Eir heaved for breath as she staggered away from the pile of bodies she had left in place of the group of thugs that had attempted to stop her. Her magic stores were dangerously low at this point, and the visible SOLDIER transport ahead didn’t exactly fill her with joy. That being said, it looked like they hadn’t spotted her just yet, which meant she had an opportunity to avoid a head-on collision with the three enhanced men. 

        Eir staggered behind a nearby building and considered her options. A frontal assault was out of the question. Just taking out Myr had been nearly too much to handle, and assuming the SOLDIER transport was full, that was another five enhanced people to take care of. So what did that leave?

           What were her resources? She had enough magic for one last big spell or three small ones. She had one full clip remaining in only one of her hand guns, a variety of knives, and a small grenade she’d nicked off one of the thugs that had tried to throw it at her.

           The grenade wouldn’t be nearly as effective as a Gunpowder surprise special on its own, but paired with one large Firga and the explosive nature of the mako in the SOLDIERS transport, it might be just enough. 

            The big question now was how to get close enough to set off the three explosives before the SOLDIERS realized what was happening.

           Just chucking it would do nothing. SOLDIER reflexes meant that at least one of the SOLDIERS would survive the explosion, and that was if she was lucky and they didn’t spot it and bounce the explosive away before it could hit anywhere close to the engine. 

            She’d have to get close. Close enough to be certain the grenade would land where she needed it before the SOLDIERS could stop it, but also far enough away that she wouldn’t get caught in the blast herself.

          She pondered the problem nervously as the seconds ticked by, and with every passing moment she knew it was more likely that one of the SOLDIERS was going to get out of the transport to check the perimeter. 

             But how was she going to do this? If she just had a few more resou— Eir was an idiot. She did have more resources. How could she have been so dumb! Just throwing it wouldn’t be fast enough, but attaching it to something and boosting it with a mix of Firga and time stop would not only allow her to launch it the proper distance quickly, but also would have the added effect of being three times as destructive once it hit the engine. 

           Eir wrapped time stop carefully around the grenade and then pulling at her wailing reserves of magic she launched the grenade, time stop and all, straight at the transport engine with all the force of a high-powered Firga behind it. 

          The initial explosion was massive, nearly on par with Gunpowder’s surprise. Then the mako caught, and the two SOLDIERs who’d managed to dodge the first explosion weren’t able to dodge the much larger second one. 

          A smoking crater was all that was left of the three SOLDIERS and transport that had been in the center of the blast, and Eir had to turn her head away from the smoking, mangled remains of the other two SOLDIERS, her stomach turning. 

         This job never got any easier, and there was only so much her iron stomach could take. But she had to get back, back to the boys, back to Kindle, and right now back to Quickshot. Hopefully the other Turk was still alive and SHINRA had targeted only her. Otherwise, she might be heading straight into a bloodbath. 

        Heaving a breath, checking her final gun clip and knives one last time, she began to trudge steadily back to where she and Quickshot had agreed to meet after the mission. She also nervously pressed one hand to her side to check the wound Myr had given her. It wasn’t bleeding heavily, so that was good, but her hand did come away with a few small patches of red, which meant that the injury was no longer sealed from her flash Curga attempt. 

        Eir squared her shoulders. One problem at a time. With a determined scowl she ripped the bottom half of her shirt and tied off the injury as tight as she dared, and then kept marching on. 

Quickshot’s POV:

       Quickshot’s hand tightened around the comm as his transmission with the SOLDIERS abruptly cut off. There was only one reason he could think of as to why the comm had gone completely offline instead of dropping. How many explosives did that woman have? He’d known her kids were fire happy, but it seemed that they’d gotten it from Snitch. 

        It made him wonder about her mission reports and the strange missing sections Veld had always dismissed. Just how often had Snitch solved her problems with gratuitous use of flames? Regardless, it would seem that the matter was truly up to him now. Something sunk like a rock in his gut, but he shook it off and straightened his spine. Orders were orders after all, no matter how unpleasant they were…

Kindle’s POV:

        Getting into the tower with the boys was far easier than Kindle would have liked, and it made something churn under his ribcage. Why on earth would everyone be so accommodating in a place like SHINRA tower unless there was an ulterior motive, but—

          —he had to know. He was also fairly certain the boys would have gone on ahead of him to figure it out themselves if he’d tried to protest. While he was certainly on better terms with Genesis and Angeal then he’d ever been before, he by no means had any true amount of control over what the boys did and didn’t do. 

        The sense of foreboding only grew when several people scurried out of their way, people he knew for a fact would have sneered at the boys only a few days prior. Sephiroth would be back soon he knew, and Eir should have gotten back the day after, but if Quickshot was back due to….things going sideways for the man, he could only assume the mission had ended early. 

       So where was Eir?

Eir’s POV:

         The meetup spot by some miracle seemed relatively unharmed, and Eir found hope rising in her chest as she slunk towards the entrance. It wasn’t a guarantee, but the chances of Quickshot being alive had just risen a not-insignificant amount. 

        The building didn’t even seem to have clocked Shinra’s radar, which made sense. Turks never gave away their hiding spots till after a mission, and sometimes not even then. Eir took one more glance at the street behind her and pushed open the door silently, peering one cautious eye through the crack she’d created and checking out the room beyond. Quickshot was where she had left him, typing idly away at his comm unit, and internally she sighed.

        While Trickshot had always planned ahead, Quickshot was more the “shoot first ask questions later” type, something she knew for a fact Trickshot had scolded his cousin about multiple times. But to be so utterly oblivious to the current situation meant that Quickshot had once again gotten distracted while on the job and hadn’t been paying attention to the task at hand. On the one hand, she was grateful he hadn’t gotten involved since it would have been much harder to escape with TWO people unscathed. 

        That being said, back-up for this utter dumpster fire of a situation would not have been remiss. Still, Quickshot was here, and being mad about the fact that he wasn’t there earlier would change nothing of the past. Now was the present, and she needed to get him out of here before SOLDIER or Shinra was able to get a lock on her location once more. 

       Eir shut the door loudly behind her and dodged preemptively down and to the left. The noise had its intended effect. Quickshot jumped about a foot in the air and sent a round of bullets into the door with his favorite gun in his left hand, which meant his bullets veered to the right. 

       Predictable to a T. Startling Turks was always a bad idea, but sometimes it could be fun. Eir smirked as she straightened back up and met a thoroughly annoyed Quickshot’s gaze.

       “How many times have Trickshot and I told you your habits are going to get you killed, hmmm?”

       Quickshot scowled at her and rolled his eyes before turning back to his PHS with a grumble.

        “Too many times to count, and it never gets any less annoying.”

         Eir snorted and walked up to lean on a wall closer to Quickshot. It was just because she wanted to be casual, not at all because the blood loss was slowly beginning to make her dizzy. Of course not. 

        Out of curiosity and maybe a little because she wanted to stall for an extra minute of rest, she decided to look over at Quickshots shoulder and what had him typing frantically away. Her eyesight was blurred enough that she almost missed it before Quickshot moved the screen out of her view, but fast as he was, he wasn’t fast enough.

        Not fast enough to hide the screen open to a SOLDIER chat that had Shinra’s name in it. One that had a kill order, that Quickshot had confirmed to execute. Quickshot held his PHS close to his chest and for a moment the room was filled with only the soft dripping of her wound onto the wood flooring. Then Quickshot sighed.

        “I don’t suppose there’s any way you let me make this painless and go down without a fight?”

        Eir snorted ruefully,

        “You got about the same chances of that as me being able to trust you, apparently.”

        Quickshot winced at the words, his shoulders tightening.

        “Orders are Orders, Eir.”

        Eir huffed out a bitter laugh at that and let her head thunk softly against the wooden wall with a hollow sound. Just once, just one tap against the wall, and then she was slowly assessing her options as she spoke once more.

        “I get it, Quickshot. I just don’t agree with it.”

         Quickshot shrugged, his body coiling in preparation as he also assessed the situation.

         “Yeah well, that's kind of the point of what led us here, isn’t it?”

         They both moved at the same moment. Eir lunged, plunging her knife deep into Quickshot’s back at the same moment he twisted and fired a full round into her heart point blank. 

          Quickshot staggered away from her, more covered in her blood then his own. He coughed, blood spurting from his lips, likely from his now punctured lung, Eir thought with grim satisfaction. Before the other Turk could fully recover, she lifted her final gun and fired a precise round straight into his skull. The explosion of bone and brain matter splattered the wall behind him, and something in her winced. But well, she had to make sure that a curga wasn’t going to work, couldn’t let him get back to her boys in the tower. 

         She’d have shot to incapacitate if she thought she could handle the aftermath, but….She gurgled, her chest heaving as blood filled her chest cavity and her heart desperately tried to pump blood around the holes that now no doubt littered its surface. Quickshot was…hadn’t  been as good a shot as Trickshot, but at a range that close he hadn’t needed to be. 

          Eir scrambled for a Curga, her blood-slick fingers fumbling with the materia, once, twice, three, four times before she managed to smack it awkwardly over her chest. She pushed. The magic didn’t come. She tried again, the edges of her vision growing blurry, whether from the blood loss she’d had prior to this, or the utter devastation of her chest she couldn’t be sure, but it didn’t matter. She had to-she had to-

        What did she have to do? Something slipped from her finger and hit the floor with a wet plink. It rolled away from her, and some distant part of her was screaming to go after it. So she did. With a weak scrabbling hand, she reached for whatever she’d dropped. Her hand wrapped around something round. Why was it important? Oh right, healing, she had to–Eir weakly tried to shove more magic into it…she frowned when only an ache remained. Why couldn’t she?

       Oh right. Out of magic. But w-why did she need m-magic again? She–? Eir was–? It was imp—? Ei–W-what was her name again? Something w-was -www-rong? Nap? N-no? Something important. Se-Sephiroth. G-Genesi, An-nn–geal? Ki—ndle? R-Right? The boys? The bbbbboys. Why were the boyssss im-im-portant again? Sh-She needed to staay awake. RIght? 

        Eir’s heart stuttered in her chest, and her thoughts fled. Only images remained. White hair, sharp smile, and sarcastic voice, dark hair, lots of patience, green eyes so sad, blond hair, beautiful eyes, lips against hers, three boys in her arms, who were they? They were important, Eir, Eir needed to. Her heart skipped, once, twice, then it stopped. For a moment her brain stayed awake, four faces in her mind's eye, and a sense of urgency, and then—

Kindle’s POV:

       Kindle had his answer now. He found himself staring numbly at the figure on the morgue table in front of him. Distantly, he could hear Genesis arguing hysterically with Veld, and Angeal was standing in sullen, wide-eyed shock behind him. Distantly, he knew he had to help the boys, but all he could do was stare at the face of the woman he loved. Stare at Eir’s cold cold form, and feel as if his world had turned to ice, and then the earth had fallen out behind him. 

       Slowly he walked over to her still body and bent, pressing his forehead and nose against her own. Her skin was ice to the touch, stiff rigor mortis having long set in. He let himself stand there for a full minute, his grief consuming him like a living, breathing thing that filled his lungs with lead, his stomach with emptiness, his throat with a strangle vine, and his heart gone from his chest entirely. 

       He let it fill him up slowly like a tidal wave, and then he put all the feelings tight into a box, and put the box in the back of his mind. All he wanted to do was curl up in a ball and sob until his body disintegrated, but the boys. The boys needed him. Now more than ever. 

      So Kindle filled up the box, and stood wrapping a gentle but firm hand around Genesis’s shoulder, gently guiding the boy over to Angeal with a soft order to help his brother walk. Genesis huffed but took the distraction for what it was, sending biting comments at Angeal to get a move on “big oaf,” but the words had only half the bite and volume they normally did. Angeal moved stiffly like a robot and Kindle walked behind the two of them, touching their shoulders every now and again, a clearly fabricated attempt to guide them.

       Both boys clearly knew where they were going, and didn’t actually need him to gently guide their shoulders every now and again. But they let him do it, recognizing and reluctantly accepting the comfort he was offering, even if they didn’t necessarily fully desire it at this moment. 

       When they arrived at Eir’s fortress-like apartment, Trickshot was already there, his eyes slightly bloodshot, but he nodded to them and stood himself in front of the door as soon as they entered, his intent to stand guard despite the situation clear. 

      Kindle guided the boys to the couch and went and made tea. Neither of the boys protested when he sat between them on the couch and gave them each a mug of Eir’s unique blend of fresh Ginger and basil tea she kept in the freezer.

      After a long moment, Angeal huffed and leaned back, his eyes closing. Genesis didn’t say anything in response; he just leaned into Kindle shoulder and sipped his tea. Slowly, bit by bit, Genesis’s body weight sagged against Kindle’s side, and eventually Kindle took the mug from the boy's loose grip and leaned back, gently maneuvering Genesis to rest more comfortably, partially on his chest. Kindle wrapped one of his arms around Genesis’s waist and used the other to press the boy close, one hand buried in that bright red hair as he closed his own eyes and let himself sink. 

       He knew they’d have to wake up eventually and acknowledge reality, and one of them was going to have to tell Seph. But for now, for now he let Angeal rest next to him and cradled Genesis close. Praying with all his heart that wherever Eir was now, she’d give him the strength to be here for their boys if nothing else.

Chapter Text

 With Hindsight’s help, the final lab was easy to destroy. The biggest issue in the end was the travel time. Sephiroth wished he could say he felt relieved when the place went up in a massive ball of fire, but then he would be lying. 

        With every hour that passed, that feeling of foreboding had gotten stronger, and in the end he just felt numb when the last of Jenova was destroyed. The trip back to the tower had him near vibrating in his skin as the two days passed like endless sand in an hourglass. By the time he finally arrived, the tension was pulling his muscles so tight they might as well be steel cables beneath his skin. 

        So when he ran into a couple of Shinra’s personal SOLDIERS on the way into the tower and they attacked him on sight, it was almost a relief. He took them down in a matter of minutes, his blades whirling. Hindsight provided scarily calm fire support from behind him, and soon the two of them were continuing into the building. 

         They ran into four more squads on the way up, and one of them managed to hit Hindsight in the leg, which distracted Sephiroth long enough for one of them to hit him in the side. Now, thoroughly pissed off, he stormed towards Eir’s apartment only to be stopped by a positively terrified looking Turk. One who asked him to come to Veld's office as soon as possible. 

         Scowling, he glanced down at the gash in his side, snarling he loosened his belt and yanked off his ruined shirt. He shoved the shirt against the gash and used the belt to tighten it in place almost painfully. It would heal quickly yes, but blood loss was a ***** and he couldn’t be bothered to deal with it right now. 

          Glaring up at the now petrified Turk, he gestured rudely for the woman to lead the way. Hindsight lined up at his back, and when Sephiroth raised an eyebrow at him Hindsight merely shrugged and made the hand sign for back up. Huffing, Sephiroth stormed after the still shaking, as of yet unnamed Turk.

          Hindsight stayed close even when another Turk tried to derail him at the entrance to Veld’s office. He merely stared his fellow Turk down until the man subsided, and so with dubious backup limping behind him, Sephiroth entered Veld’s office in a whirlwind of rage.

          Veld sat, his hands folded neatly in front of him and with a strangely grim expression on his face. Not stoic, not tired, but grim, and it set off every alarm bell in Sephiroth's head. 

         Hindsight seemed to share his concern because the quiet man’s shoulders had stiffened and he slid slightly closer to Sephiroth's back, one hand going to the blades at his side and his stare hardening as he stared down Veld. 

         It reminded Sephiroth eerily of Eir, if Eir was selectively mute, ten times as judgmental, and a man. But regardless, the similarity was there in the protective stiffening of the man’s spine. 

        It didn’t stop the rising feeling of nausea in his stomach though. The feeling of wrong that had been rising the whole time he had been gone had reached a fever pitch, and every single one of his instincts told him that something catastrophic in nature had occurred, something that would affect him deeply in some way.

         Veld sighed and sat back in his chair, rubbing the ridge of his brow, something infinitely tired in the slope of his shoulders.

         “Sephiroth….son I….I have some bad news”

        The words sent an arc of lightning across Sephiroth's already fried nerves, and he only just barely contained a vicious, animalistic snarl that rose in his throat.

         Veld didn’t seem to notice, or if he did, he didn’t care enough to comment.

         “Sephiroth your mo—I mean- Sni— no.”

         Veld paused and breathed deeply.

          “There’s been…an incident on the Lyr mission. Eir was involved, and….she…well she…”

           Sephiroth nearly lunged forward in his rage, barely containing himself enough to just slam his fist against the table.

          “Spit it out!” He roared, his heart pounding in his chest. 

Veld sighed.

          “She’s dead, Sephiroth. Eir Tsoi as of 15:27 yesterday morning is dead.”

           Sephiroth stayed frozen for a minute, two, three, the words stretching in the silence as he struggled to process them. But….he couldn’t. Eir, hurt? Yes. His brothers hurt? Yes. Enraging and giving him a need for revenge of biblical proportions? Absolutely. But dead?

           The word did not compute. It didn’t process, it didn't make any sort of sense. Veld spoke, his voice soft and his gaze pained.

          “She’s downstairs, kid. We were waiting for you before we….before we cremate her. Your brothers and Kindle already said goodbye.”

        The words went in one ear and out the other. Sephiroth clenched his fists hard, his fingernails digging into the meat of his palms, and distantly he was aware of the drip, drip, drip of blood from the puncture wounds. But most of him was focused on looping Veld’s words in his mind over and over again. His side throbbed in time with his rising heartbeat, but words looped over and over like a hammer in his chest, cracking his heart more and more with every single awful stroke.

           “No. You’re lying. Eir would never leave me”

            Vaguely, Sephiroth was aware of how childish the words were/ Distantly, he knew Veld would never lie about something like this, but– The-the grief and regret in Veld’s eyes deepened.

           “I’m sorry, kid. Like I said, she’s downstairs. Her body was already cold by the time we got to her and Quickshot.”

            The flickering flame of hope Eir had been nurturing with her stubborn love and seemingly endless patience sputtered once, twice, and then went out at the same moment his heart shattered in ice-like shards. It felt as if the pieces had scattered all over the floor, leaving a sharp, cold, empty feeling inside his rib cage that yawned like a chasm deeper than any in Nibelheim mountain range. 

          Sephiroth choked on the feeling inside him. His Turk, his Eir, his mama, was gone, and Sephiroth never even got to ask her if she thought of him as her son. He never got to call her mama, and now he never, ever would.

The journey downstairs felt like a dream, or perhaps it would be better to call it a nightmare. Sephiroth felt like he was floating above his body as Veld guided him down, down, down to the lower levels of the tower. Hindsight followed the man's steady presence at Sephiroth’s back.

         Whispers followed him as he descended into the bowels of the tower, as staff spotted him and the Turk’s head making their way down. Knowing what he knew now, he could feel a distant sort of rage at these people.

         These people who had stood against Eir and now celebrated her death. Celebrated the end of the barrier and protection she presented. All that protection, all that safety, was gone now, and it was up to Sephiroth to pick up the slack. 

          Sephiroth set his jaw and squared his shoulders. When he had first entered this world, he hadn't expected to have help of any sort. He was a machine, a deadly force of nature, the man who had brought the end of days. Not a child to be coddled and protected.

         He had grown complacent under the care of the Turk, and now he was paying the price. Had he not learned the first time in his previous life? Sephiroth was not made for loving, not made for kindness and gentle things. Sephiroth was made to rend, tear, and annihilate all that stood in his way.

         They were drawing near the tower's morgue now, and Sephiroth's pulse was beginning to pound a rapid tattoo inside his chest.

  Veld’s steps had slowed ever so slightly, as if the man was reluctant to go further. Sephiroth wasn’t sure he could stand this strange limbo of uncertainty for much longer. Logically, he knew Veld had no reason to lie to him and that the strange behavior of those in the tower all but confirmed the truth of Veld’s words, but still, he couldn’t help but pray that perhaps there had been some error or mistake on the head Turk’s end. That perhaps, just perhaps, he would enter that room and Eir would laugh and proclaim it a joke. 

          That he would awaken in his bed and find this all just an awful dream. Instead, Veld guided him to a door in a darkened corner. The head Turk paused and gazed at Sephiroth for a long stretching moment, then opened the door. The smell of alcohol, chemicals, and death wafted out from the open door.

          Sephiroth couldn’t see very far into the room just yet, but he could see a handful of Turks he recognized as well as rows of metal tables. He also could see some tangled dark strands of hair just at the edge of his sight hanging over the edge of one of the tables. Very familiar dark hair. No. Sephiroth heaved for breath for a moment as his mind battled itself.

       Then he entered the room. The low murmur of conversation that had filled the room stopped the moment he passed the threshold. The Turks in the room made eye contact with Veld for a long moment before nodding and exiting the room. Sephiroth could care less what the Turks did; he only had eyes for one thing. The limp form on the furthest table from the door. Dark strands of hair tangled and still slightly damp hung from beneath a white sheet.

        Whoever was beneath the sheet was tall, perhaps six feet. Based on the rise and dips of the figure's body, they were likely female. Sephiroth reached out a hand, his fingers shaking ever so slightly, and pulled back the sheet. Familiar features and a form dressed in a grey tank top and sweats with familiar scarred arms and hands filled his vision. He stared down at Eir’s limp body and felt something cold slither up his spine.

       The room was silent, Veld at his back utterly still. Sephiroth could feel something building inside his chest. It was snarled, it was white hot, it was familiar. It was the feeling that had sustained much of his past life: rage. Unending rage so cold it burned. It burned at his insides like an insidious cancer as it ate away at his self-control and his hope. It rose up inside him in a tidal wave until he physically could contain it no longer. He let out a long, drawn-out scream of rage and punched the table beside Eir’s, driving a hole straight through the metal with an awful screech. He clutched his skull, hands digging into his scalp and yanking at his hair as he screamed obscenities at the planet, at the Turks, and at Shinra. Shinra. Suddenly Sephiroth's rage focused into a fine, needle-sharp point. He snapped his head up and met Veld’s gaze, the head Turk flinching under the full weight of his stare. 

        “Where is Shinra?”

         The words came out in a rasped, growling tone, his throat raw from screaming, but Veld flinched at the tone and swallowed hard before he responded.

 “President Shinra died today. He was assassinated in his bedroom, and Trickshot shot the corpse to make sure”

         All at once the rage expanded again. Its target was no longer available, but of course that made sense. Eir had said, after all, that once her heart stopped, Shinra’s death would be ensured. Sephiroth let out an incomprehensible roar of rage and tossed one of the tables across the room and through the wall. Then the rage flooded out of him, a cold rush leaving him to feel the full weight of his grief, crushing and all-encompassing. 

         He slumped against Eir’s table and cradled his mama’s head. Her dark hair was damp and still slightly greasy from whatever quick wash the Turks had given her corpse after they’d retrieved the body. It felt wrong. Eir showered every day, and while she didn’t bother with makeup or fancy clothes like most women Sephiroth had known in his last life, the Turk had always taken care of her hair.

         He’d asked her about it once. About the braids and the earrings. Eir had been hesitant at first, but then she’d taken him through what each braid and bead meant and why they were important. She’d also mentioned off-hand that reversing the braids was what one did when someone died. She’d mentioned doing it for her mother when the woman had passed a few years ago. 

        Her braids. Sephiroth felt sick. Eir had mentioned that when someone died it was the duty of the immediate family to braid their hair before their bodies were burned. The beads were then transferred from the dead's hair to their immediate family to carry on the family line so that the memories and history were never lost. She’d smiled sadly, fingering six different beads. and mentioned that she carried her whole family with her. That she was the last of her line, that she was scared because she hadn’t selected anyone to carry on the memory when she died. Not yet at least. Now she never would, and the beads, the memories and traditions of her family, had all ended. Ended far too soon. Sephiroth pressed his forehead to Eir’s as he stood at the end of her table, his hands on either side of her skull as he began to sob. It wasn’t fair!

       Why would the planet send him back? Send him back to fix things, let him meet Eir, let him do so much good, and then take away his mama? Why even give him the chance to meet Eir if she was just going to be taken from him? Why? Why? WHY?!!!

       Sephiroth couldn’t say how long he stood there, his tears slowly seeping into Eir’s dark hair, but eventually he came to himself again. He leaned back, gazing down at the pale, still face of the Turk who had come to mean so much to him. 

         Now that he was more focused on her, he was able to fully take in the state of her body. It was…mangled. Someone had done their best to wrap up her torso with bandages to try and disguise the damage, but Sephiroth could see the dips and lumps of shattered ribs, and mutilated flesh even beneath the clinical layers of white. There wasn’t any blood, not without the heart to pump it out onto the bandages, but Sephiroth knew what a body was supposed to look like and Eir’s had been damaged too much to fully piece back together. Especially since…Since there was no point in altering the body since it was going to be burned.

          A selfish part of Sephiroth wanted to say screw that and bury her instead, a place to visit her, and an even darker part wanted to hold onto the body even once it had faded to bones, to never let go of his mother even if the heart in her cold chest remained still and quiet. 

          But he knew Eir wanted to go home. Go home to her mother, her father, her grandparents, her brother, and for her going home meant burning her body. Sephiroth had never much believed in religion, but he prayed to whatever Eir had believed in, that the world his mama believed in came after this one was waiting for her. 

         That the world and spirits of those he’d loved before were there to welcome her with just as much love as she’d given him. He could only pray and…and Sephiroth’s eyes welled with tears again and he crawled up onto the table curling up under his mothers stiff arm. Hoping against all hope that he was wrong. That she was just resting her eyes. It was difficult. 

        Rigor Mortis had long set in and her arm didn’t want to move, but he managed to wiggle in and pretend that she was just sleeping. He laid his head just below her collar bone listening desperately for the soft thump thump of her steady heart. Silence greeted him. Cold empty silence, and there was no warmth around him. The flesh was stiff and cold, the body he curled into chilled and hard like ice. 

         The tears were pouring down his cheeks now as he curled his head into his mothers shoulder burying his face in her soft hair and screamed. Screamed. Screamed. He screamed at the pain in his chest, the blistering piercing feeling not unlike a sword to the stomach. He screamed at the unfairness of it all. He screamed at the world for daring to take his mother. He screamed at the planet for letting him meet Eir in the first place. He screamed at the world that had taken her instead of him.

         Eventually his throat ached too much to keep screaming, and he ran out of water to keep crying, so he simply curled tighter into his moms side and listened. Listened to the silence of her body, the low murmur of Veld talking to Hindsight. The sound of air moving as Hindsight signed back. The movement of people out in the corridor. The sound of the air conditioning in the vents.

The sound of ---