Gun AU 4

[warmskies]

When he was a child, there were only a select number of people that he could ever remember growing up around.

There was Hojo, of course. There was always Hojo, an ever hunched presence that loomed through the shadows and passed through the light. Oppressive and never truly gone, even when the physical body was. A presence that disdained any tears and found emotions to be worthless, who demanded that Sephiroth pass every test without so many words. Once upon a time, Sephiroth thought that he would be there forever and never cease. As eternal as air or gray walls. An undeniable part of his world that he couldn't escape.

And there were scientists, as well, most of whose names he ended up remembering simply from overhearing their conversations with one another. Certainly none of them introduced themselves to him. Sometimes, Sephiroth had wondered if even Hojo knew their names, or if they were almost worth less than him. Even as a child, he had been able to recognize that Hojo only used them to do tasks that he saw beneath him, or that he didn't have time to do. Professor Loreto who generally handled his food, and then Professor Rikke who sometimes drew blood but only under Hojo's severe stare.... Professor Klara who was only allowed to calibrate equipment and sometimes little else. Professor Rogelio, who died, and then Lyndsey and Valpuri... Yes, even now, he can still remember all of their names.

And then there was a little girl.

Sephiroth can still remember the day they first met, because he was putting away the books that he'd been instructed to memorize, and then there'd been the sound of adult cursing overwhelmed by a much louder voice going, "I KNEW there was another boy here!" Turning his head had revealed to him a telling scene of an adult man crouched down, clutching his shin.

That had been all he could tell about the scene before a blur of brown and hospital white finished its rush into him, and there'd been a little girl right there clutching his arms. She'd been younger than him, by a good few years, and she had seemed elated at his existence. "They only let me play with Ronnie, but I knew there was someone else, because they have the same dumb tests as me sometimes laid out!"

So he'd met a little girl named Aerith and, shortly after, her mother.

A little girl named Aerith with long brown hair that had framed her face and big green eyes. Eyes that were the most color he had ever seen in his entire life where everything was defined by dead white and lifeless metal and the dark of the scientists' hair.

There, standing in the back door leading to the rest of the church past its pews and flowers, stands a girl with long brown hair that frames her face... and eyes as green as the rest of the world. Green like the jungles he's seen in foreign lands, green like Wutai's lines of forest, green like the verdant life right there in the center of the church.

Straightening up but still not stepping away from the flowers, Angeal says, "Oh, don't mind us. We'll be out of your hair soon enough. Our friend over there sitting down just needs to answer a couple of questions he meant to give us." Which is absolutely not how that man probably meant for his day to go but that is besides the point. Angeal glances back at Genesis and says something low and amused. "Could have told us that there was someone already in the building, Genesis."

"You were already shoving open the doors before I could get a chance to hear anything!"

Ignoring Genesis's annoyed hiss, Sephiroth steps forward himself, past some of the pews. "Aerith?" he tries, not sure even as his memory is almost positive. Yet it feels too good to be true, honestly.

Except reality is apparently far stranger than he would ever let his mind venture into, because the girls quints over at him suspiciously. "Hmmmmm," she says, rocking back and forth on her feet. "And just who would be asking? You don't look like those weirdo thugs, or any of the bigger weirdos who dress up in suits and go to see them sometimes..."

Weirdos in suits... She must be referring to the Turks, the only kinds of people to fit that description who would bother to come down into the slums like this.

That's a fact, one of many, that he'll store away in his head for another time. When they've all gotten a chance to breathe and go over everything. For now, instead, he frowns a bit, and almost in what he thinks... might be disappointment. That he was able to recognize her so quickly, but she wasn't able to return the favor despite his face being plastered all over billboards and commercials...

"Makeup," Genesis reminds him from the side of his mouth, keeping mostly quiet despite those words.

Oh. Right. Sephiroth blinks a few times, suddenly aware of the subtle weight along his jaw and just above his lip, the pressure of the beanie from where it grips his head. No wonder she wouldn't be able to recognize him... especially combined with his sunglasses that somehow he's still wearing alongside Angeal and Genesis. Then again, would she recognize him with mako-green eyes...? Was she still there, when the mako was infused into him?

"Want to help us interrogate this guy?" Angeal asks, a suggestion which draws both of their attention right back to him.

Sephiroth may not be a genius at social cues - most of his time adjusting outside of the lab has relied on looking to Lazard for how to properly act - but he's fairly positive that one should not just invite a teenage girl to an interrogation session with a thug. Yet proving that she always did go her own way, Aerith clasps her hands together. "Oh! I can get back at him for when he gave mom a hard time a few months ago!"

It doesn't seem as though Angeal is making offers just in the interest of interrogation, however. "I appreciate the garden you have going on here," he tells her, with something that seems far too genuine to be a lie. At least, any sort of lie that Sephiroth can figure out.

"Thanks, I'm not responsible for any of it," she tells him cheerfully, skirting around him to give room to turn right back around towards the door Aerith came through before. Sephiroth thinks that it's just a natural action for an energetic person, and maybe it's still that, still just coincidence, when she ends up right there besides him. Before he has a chance to blink, her hand is up there, plucking the shades from his face. "And there you are."

Sephiroth wonders, distantly and in the back of his head, just how many surprises the average normal person is expected to deal with in a single twenty four hour period. Surely it can't be this much.

"You remember me?" he asks, following after her and Angeal. He's vaguely aware that Genesis is keeping pace with him, peering over the rim of his glasses with a look of interest in his gaze, but honestly Sephiroth has given up on understanding what's going on through Genesis's mind besides, perhaps, reruns of LOVELESS on Broadway.

The sunglasses are still in her hands, twirled around and almost dropped by fluttering fingers. Always moving. He remembers them always moving. "No one else has that grumpy pinch to your brows as you do," she tells him.

A frown. He might be proving her right by frowning. Sephiroth can't help himself from doing it, however. "You told me that I never smiled or knew how to have fun," he counters, which was absolutely a thing she told him. Often. Usually when she was trying to teach him how to color - a completely foreign activity he hadn't understood at the time. He's not sure if he understands it even now.

What he does understand is that there is a spark of delight in her eyes when she glances back at him. "And yet you're not grinning like you're happy to see me," she says. Teasing. He thinks she's teasing.

More than ever, Sephiroth wishes that he had Lazard here with him. Lazard, he's positive, would be able to tell him what to do, how he should react to seeing his first and only friend for so many years out of nowhere, here, still in Midgar. Before he can say anything else, however, Angeal is up ahead asking which of the rooms might still have a chair in it, and Aerith trots up with clear intent. That gives Genesis plenty of time to slip up to his side. "You know her, hm?" he asks, eyes still far too bright behind his own sunglasses. "I thought you didn't have a chance to meet anyone, trapped in your cage as you were."

Right... He supposes that this would seem a bit strange or out of place, curious at the very least, to Genesis and Angeal. "She used to be in the labs with me," he tells him, finally remembering to look around as they step to the back of the church. A lot of the slum's trash has fallen onto it, but there actually seems to be a great deal more to this building than the outside showed...

"Oh? Was she a child of some important ShinRa suit?"

"No. Another experiment... I believe."

This time, it seems to be Genesis's turn to pause a moment before his steps find their rhythm. "A ShinRa labrat, and yet she's down here in the slums?" he asks incredulously.

"I didn't know that was where she went... but it appears so." Because it's definitely Aerith there, holding his sunglasses, watching Angeal position and tie up the thug in some spare room that could have been.... anything, he supposes. "After all, around when she was seven, her and her mother managed to escape the labs."

Sephiroth can remember those days well. After all... It had been the first time that the mundane repetition of his life had been broken up so severely. Red lights blaring, hands grabbing him, forcing him into his room, the lock sliding into place...

He closes his eyes, as though that can guard him from the memories of how the testing had gotten more strict, the schedule without any room for deviation, scientists watching him at all times - even when he slept, he knows. And then - "Shortly after that, Lazard brought me into SOLDIER."

In hindsight, of which he's had plenty of ever since he was able to settle into SOLDIER, makes him wonder how on earth Lazard managed it after something like that, honestly. Or maybe that just spoke to ShinRa's own desperation.

All of that, however, is a tale that Genesis and any of the others in that little group are well aware of at this point however. It's practically a good thing that Angeal steps back from the newly blindfolded and tied up lackey there on the ground. "Alright, now we just gotta wake him up," he announces. "Aerith, right?"

She gives a little mock salute; when did she get that sassy? "Present!"

"Don't follow Genesis's example in how interrogations should go," Angeal says as his redheaded partner crouches down in front of the lackey. Sephiroth isn't entirely sure if he means Genesis's example in general, or the fact that Genesis reaches over to start smacking the unconscious man in the face with his palm.

Sephiroth has never had the opportunity to be tied up and blindfolded with no idea where he is; he's never failed a mission like that. (He's never failed a mission in general, but that may be besides the point.) Still, from what he's heard from other people, it is quite disorienting. The tied up man certainly seems to give that impression as he sputters into consciousness and tries to kick out awkwardly at anything he can hit. That's nothing, as it turns out. "Wh - where am I!?"

"Hell," Aerith says.

"The bottom of a dumpster," Angeal responds.

"You're not in the position to earn that information," Sephiroth informs him.

"You are in a place where you shall so very shortly find yourself with a blade at your neck and freedom in your throat," Genesis purrs, although Sephiroth isn't... entirely sure what that means? He's never been particularly good with art or literature. "Whether you shall earn the latter very well decides on how well you open that mouth of yours, lest the blade slip in deep. We know whose man you are, after all..."

Do they? Sephiroth goes over everything that they've overheard from the group, and what's been said amongst all of them. He doesn't recall the information, if it were ever said... So, a bluff, then?

An impressively delivered one, he admits, for it made him even doubt his own memory for a moment. Certainly it makes their captive stiffen up, although he does make an effort to summon up some bravado again. "If you know I work for him, then you know that you should let go of me right now! Corneo controls all the slums!"

Corneo... Sephiroth isn't familiar with the name. A quick glance to the side shows no reaction on Angeal or Genesis's side either, although he supposes that shouldn't be too surprising for people who only just arrived in Midgar.

Aerith, however? Aerith frowns, her fingers laced behind her back, and tilts her head to the side. When she realizes that he's looking over to her, she makes an exaggerated face - brows pinched together until they're nearly one, nose all wrinkles, her tongue stuck out of a wide open mouth. Well, that makes sense. If this is where she lives now...

His attention gets drawn back to Genesis's long sigh. "Oh, do you really think that he'll care about a small fry such as yourself?" he needles. "Yes, yes, Corneo - but you'll notice that it's his name you have to rely on. Do you think the reverse is true?" He waits a moment, eyes sharp as they are brilliant, and taps the heel of his boot down against stone when the man slumps in his place. "As I thought."

Stepping forward, Angeal crouches down besides the man and places a large hand on his shoulder. He doesn't even say anything, not right away. Instead, it rests there for just a couple of seconds. "Now, consider this," he says, voice low and somehow warm. "If you tell us what we want to know... who's gonna know you said anything? We took out the rest of your little group in no time at all, right? No one knows anything else about anyone else. Just consider it."

Is it working? Is the silence one of admittance, or reluctance? Sephiroth wonders, not for the first time, just how people can tell what others are thinking. He wonders how Genesis and Angeal feel so confident as they speak to him, try to convince him.

"And what exactly do I get out of telling you anything?" he finally says with no small bit of hesitation... but perhaps the fact that he's asking is a good sign.

Angeal taps his finger once against his shoulder. "Well, we do have you blindfolded and tied up in a location you've never been in," he points out. "Where we go from here is honestly up to us more than you. If we find you to be a complete nuisance, than there's no reason we can't just hide you in all this dump.... and who do you think will actually come and find you? But if you just answer us, well, you'll have lost approximately nothing because Corneo isn't going to care about small fry like you, and we all know it, and we'll probably drop you off in somewhere that at least has cushions. I can't speak for my overly verbose friend over here-"

"Hey!"

"But I'm a man of honor. Talk, and I'll get you somewhere mostly safe. Maybe I'll even loosen the ties a bit for you. I mean, you don't even know what I look like, so what skin is that going to take off of my back?"

Maybe it is the tone that Angeal uses, the impression that he gives off. Perhaps the argument really is something worth considering for a man in that kind of position. Sephiroth isn't entirely sure. However, after a minute or so of thinking, their captive finally hisses out a breath. "What do you want to know, exactly?"

"Nothing that should be too difficult for you," Angeal says.

Genesis picks up the thread of conversation, spreading his arms out wide even though the man can't see such a gesture. "All we need know, my good man of ill repute, is to know what exactly had a group such as your very own go down into such an impoverished area such as that neighborhood and cause trouble. If you were simply trying to get money, then I hardly think you would need such numbers. A man or two, yes?"

Off to the side, Aerith nods - so this is also something common, Sephiroth notes. Why does that happen? He doesn't understand. Unfortunately, this isn't the time or place to ask about it.

Especially not when the man lets out a huff. "That... Ugh. It's just something that Corneo demanded a bunch of us get to doing. He got one of those Turks banging down his door right as he was in the middle of his usual bullshit, so it put him in a shit mood. Got all of us going to make up for it - literally got a guy knocked off 'cuza this. ShinRa's got their ass in a bonnet and, well - listen. They don't tell any of us shit, you're right, we don't feature in the ranks at all. But we're not dumb, either. They got us combing through the slums all for whatever we can get on whoever might be suspicious."

The grin on  Angeal's face is absolutely - shiteating, yes, Sephiroth thinks that's the right word which he's occasionally heard from some of the Thirds, or even Turks. A shiteating grin which does not match the exasperated tone of his voice. Sephiroth has heard that's difficult to pull off. "All this trouble, and it's to do with the ShinRa nonsense. Can you believe it?"

"I told you that you were both jumping the gun," Aerith leaps in with, as though she has always been a part of this group. As though what any of them are saying is actually true.

Sephiroth cannot reiterate this enough: the man is blindfolded. And yet with all the drama that may very well be home on a theatre stage, Genesis sweeps one hand to the side while walking from one side of the room to the next. "Yes, yes, we are merely being cautious while we are here," he insists. "Now hush, we do still have a guest."

"Not for much longer," Angeal says, leaning down to haul the man up into his arms bridal style. "A promise is a promise. Give us a minute, and we'll get you somewhere that might just have a cushion and isn't buried under five layers of trash."

Sephiroth says nothing throughout all of this. Everyone else here seems to be on some sort of wavelength that is utterly alien to him, and he doesn't know how he's going to keep up with it.... disregarding that he's never been good with lying like that either. Instead, as Angeal and Genesis step out and immediately off with some sort of intent, Sephiroth lingers behind just a little bit. Just enough that Aerith can't be left behind completely.

In his memories, he always recalled her as being short, and, logically, he understood that was because she was just a child, barely not a toddler.

While the years have passed, she is apparently not that much taller - not in comparison to him at any rate. "I thought you would have left Midgar a long time ago, when you both first escaped," Sephiroth says, watching as she slips his sunglasses onto her own face. They're just a little bit too big for her, at risk of slipping down the bridge of her nose.

Aerith doesn't seem to particularly mind that, honestly. At least, she doesn't take them off again, her hands swinging back down to her side and then looping around her back, fingers lacing together once more. "We couldn't make it," she tells him. "She passed away."

Oh.

Sephiroth isn't even aware of his own feet anymore, the way his footsteps stutter for a moment, the threat of his body halting entirely. He had known Ifalna somewhat. If anything, sometimes he wondered how much he knew her, despite Aerith reaching out to him. Aerith had occasionally been pulled out from the room to check on her health and a couple of tests as well just to see how her development was going... The room was still where she stayed the most.

Sephiroth had known that because it was right next to his. Because they were able to speak to one another through the vents, and Aerith would tell him that she was glad he'd be there with her in the end.

Had he been there when they'd made their escape? Of course not. Of course not. That would have been so many eyes....

And it had been up to Ifalna to take care of Aerith. Because there were people in the world, he had come to learn, who looked at the child that they birthed and thought that deserved protecting.

It'd been hard for him to understand, initially. He couldn't figure out a logical reason why Ifalna would reach down to stroke Aerith's hair, why she would bother to make her voice so soft and gentle when speaking with her. One day, he had even dared to ask her why she did it.

The look on her face... Lazard had reminded him of it, every time Sephiroth told him of his life in the labs.

But when she could, when their paths crossed inbetween the different tests that they both were subjected to, sometimes she would tell him of what the sky looked like. Of where she and Aerith had lived before ShinRa. Of what Aerith meant, when she insisted strongly that a pink scribble on a piece of paper was a flower instead of a pink scribble.

She'd told him he was a good boy, once. She'd told him that he deserved better. Had better meant, he'd wondered, that she would be a parent to him like she was to Aerith? He didn't know. He couldn't know.

Up until now, he's never understood why people would say I'm sorry in the face of tragedy that never had anything to do with them. Tragedy that they only heard about in its effects on someone else. And yet, it clogs there in his throat for a moment as he stands there in the dark shadows of the slum.

Aerith takes his hand and tugs him along, simple as anything. As though they are children again, and she is finding him to be very silly in how he doesn't even know how to play. "I'm really glad I got to see you again," she tells him. Up ahead, there was a pause in the bickering between Genesis and Angeal, but they're still moving as well. "I've only ever seen you on billboards, now, when I get to go up onto the plate. You really grew your hair out long, didn't you?"

Right. Whenever Ifalna died, then clearly it was a long time ago. Long enough that... the news is fresh and painful to him, but Aerith can still keep walking. Sephiroth pulls himself back into the present; compartmentalizing is an easy enough thing for him at least. "It was thought that it would be a good look for posters," he answers quietly. "And Hojo didn't have say over it."

"Well, it is pretty," Aerith agrees. Ahead of them, Angeal and Genesis start leaping up over piles of scrap and abandoned machinery. "So you got out of the labs as well, did you?"

Sephiroth nods, ascending up the hill of metal. "I was fortunate. The director of SOLDIER was down in the labs, and he helped me get out of there the same day that we met." There's a lot he could say about Lazard - a lot that he wants to say about Lazard, he realizes, to this girl who was there with him, trapped in there. More than anyone else, after all, she knows the most about that life. She understands, more than anyone else could.

Before he can, however, there's the sound of shins hitting metal, and huffing, and then Aerith's voice. "Hold - on!"

Blinking, Sephiroth turns around. There down at the bottom of the hill - if it can be called as such - Aerith is still trying to haul herself up the first couple of sturdy enough piles. It hadn't truly hit him, before, that her outfit did not lend itself well to traversing such obstacles. Even Sephiroth's borrowed and baggy clothes, annoying as they are, don't quite get in the way as her simple dress does. When she catches him staring, Aerith huffs in exasperation. "I can't get up as fast as the rest of you!"

"Sorry!" Angeal calls back from where he is at the top of the pile; Sephiroth hadn't expected them to be close enough to still hear her.

Well, it looks as though Angeal still has his hands full with the thug in his arms. That's fine. This... is more personal for Sephiroth anyway. He hops down lightly upon the various and precariously balanced metal scraps, until he's there besides Aerith again. "I can carry you," he offers, although he doesn't dare make a move, not yet. It would be the easiest and most efficient way of doing things, but he's never sure what the right course of action is when it comes to other people. Would she be fine with him just hauling him up into her arms? He doesn't know.

All he can do is wait for her to think on it, before she nods decisively. "I've always wanted my own private butler to carry me everywhere," she teases while he delicately sweeps her up into his arms in a mimic to how Angeal is carrying his own human luggage.

It's not as though she's very heavy, either. In fact, Sephiroth can still move as quickly as he did before, right across all the different ledges and solid items which make up the pile inbetween everything that would fall apart underneath his footsteps. Angeal and Genesis have waited for him as well. Only when they're all together again does Genesis yank open the door to a rusted van of some sort.

Sure enough, as far as Sephiroth can tell, it is indeed a car with some sort of cushions in it... although he can't say that they look comfortable. The fabric making them up is torn, and most of the stuffing has spilled out in the holes that exist. Sephiroth honestly would not be surprised if something was making it a nest.

But cushions are cushions. They never promised the man nice ones, after all. Angeal dumps him on a back seat, facedown so that he can reach over to tug slightly at the ropes binding his arms behind his back.

"There, that should do you well enough if you struggle a bit," he tells the man, stepping back and resting his hand along the top of the door. "Still, you should probably struggle pretty quickly. Everything looks clear so far, but you know how monsters are. Something will probably come poking its feelers around sooner or later... but we'll keep the door closed. I doubt most will make an effort to bust in, especially if you don't yell too much. As for your job... I'd take the day off, personally. Best not to get involved in any messy business, right?" And the door slams shut. There's not even a window in its frame anymore.

"So, how did you take to your first round of interrogation?" Genesis teases once they're all far enough from where the van is buried, and quickly on the path leading hopefully out of this particular area. "You know, I don't believe you ever properly introduced yourself."

"Well, you never properly asked," Aerith shoots right back, although she seems far from upset about it. She's still more than happy to stay there right in Sephiroth's arms, her own wrapped securely around his neck. "Besides, hasn't Sephiroth talked about me at all?"

Ah. Sephiroth frowns again, although he wonders just how obvious it is. Of course he hasn't spoken about her at all, so why should he feel guilty about that? Especially with everything that's happened lately. And yet, for some reason, that doesn't make his feelings go away. "We only met today," he says, before amending his words. "Rather, we met last night."

There's the sound of chatter and people moving and life clattering on ahead of them. Aerith pats at his arm, and so Sephiroth finally puts him down. "Oh, so the thing about ShinRa headquarters that everyone is talking about," she says. No... Sephiroth supposes that they haven't been particularly subtle about it, in some ways. While the production of lies that Angeal and Genesis put on for the thug might have been enough, clearly not the same for anyone else. Especially the person who hadn't been blindfolded and tied up with no idea of what was going on. "You don't have to worry."

Do they? Well, Sephiroth is inclined to trust Aerith, of course. He knows that there's no logical reason to. They were merely children in the same labs together. That doesn't mean trust can just be assumed. And yet...

Maybe he wants to trust her. Just like he wants to trust Angeal, and Genesis. All of these people who hold such deep connections to him in a way that he struggles to put into words, even for himself.

He glances over to Genesis and Angeal, to try and get a gauge on their emotions and thoughts as well. Angeal is frowning, just a little bit, but the same can't be said for Genesis. If anything, the redhead seems quite pleased with how all of this is going judging by his wide grin. "Oh, someone so eager to interrogate a thug is clearly more trustworthy than those who would scamper off," he says. "But if you truly want to prove your sincerity, then can you help get us up and out of this place? We made a promise that we would not be long... and that remains true even if we are going to be sidetracked a little bit."

"We still have to go back to get the things we bought," Angeal points out. "Because where we're going is definitely not that way. Where should we meet up?"

"My house," Aerith announces immediately. "I want to introduce you to my mom, Sephiroth!" She suddenly trots ahead, right past Angeal and Genesis, her hand raised to her brow as she starts looking around. He's fairly sure she already knows where she is; why the show? Then again, she's always been like this... "It's this way!"

Sephiroth follows the direction of her pointing finger, taking in the path that splits off to where light seems to glow up from where another little neighborhood has started up in the slums. Rather than just doing that, however, Angeal tilts his head back and takes in a deep breath. "Huh.... I think I smell fresh water. You know, something that hasn't runoff from a sewer system, or is just collected rain water that's gone through fifty different pipes on the way down from the plate..."

Hm. Mimicking Angeal, Sephiroth takes a deep breath as well. His senses have always been fairly keen, even if none quite as strong as his eyesight, but that smell that Angeal says he can pick up on... He can't.

When he lowers his head again, he sees the way that Genesis is silently laughing at him, hand gracefully covering his mouth. Not a lot of people actually laugh at him, not so brazenly. He's not sure how he feels about that, especially when he takes in the warmth in Genesis's eyes. "Oh, I remember when I would try to do that," he murmurs. Before he can continue on, however, Aerith nods over to Angeal.

"That's right. There's actually a river that runs underneath Midgar. My mom has a house that lives right along its journey, before it disappears back into the ground."

"Well!" Genesis exclaims, clasping his hands together. "That settles that, now, doesn't it? Angeal, you can go fetch everything that we stored away, and we'll wait for you at Aerith's house. I'm sure you'll be able to find us again, if you know there's a river by it."

Angeal shakes his head, hands going off to the sides in a gesture of surrender. "You just want to get your nose in everything," he comments. Genesis huffs, but he doesn't exactly deny it. All he does is wait right where he is as Angeal walks over, and the other man leans in to press his forehead to Genesis's. "Try not to get in too much trouble... We don't know just how much ShinRa will get involved in the slums. We really should have considered that they'd be nosing around here... If anything goes wrong, just remember to get back to the apartment."

Beneath his words, Sephiroth... can almost feel a lot of things that were left unsaid. Like a kind of fog or mist, where it isn't something that can be solidly grasped, but is still felt.

All the sharp teasing on Genesis's face leaves him. He tilts his head back just enough for Angeal - there's not much height difference between them compared to some others - and hums. "Oh, I cannot promise anything about trouble," he murmurs. "But I shall swear to keep myself safe."

That seems to be enough for Angeal. He steps away, nodding to Aerith. "Feel free to scold him when he misbehaves," Angeal tells her, which earns a small laugh. "And thank you for the hospitality, ahead of time." Finally, his attention goes back to Sephiroth, and he rests his hand along his shoulder. "And take advantage of the time you've got here. It's none of my business what goes on between you and her... but it's something that you shouldn't miss a second of." A small pat, and then Angeal is jogging off, leaping up along piles of scrap metal with an ease and grace one wouldn't necessarily expect out of his broad-shouldered form.

Well... Sephiroth has to admit that Angeal is right. Whether he stays in Midgar, or goes off somewhere else, whatever his choice ends up being in the end... He's not entirely sure just how many more chances he will get for something like this. If he leaves, she'll be here. If he stays... will ShinRa ever let him off his leash?

And, even if they did, would it do Aerith any good to have ShinRa know where she lives because of a stupid mistake such as this one? Of him going down to visit her? He can manage stealth, yes, but all it would take is one mistake...

"Sephiroth." He blinks, just in time for Aerith's thin knuckles to rap against his forehead, right there between his brows. She has to stand on her tip-toes to do it. "There. Come on, we shouldn't keep my mom waiting any longer." Rocking back onto her heels, she grins at him with his sunglasses threatening to fall down off her nose.

Needless to say, in contrast to but ten minutes ago, she's the one who leads them along the paths into the next little neighborhood. It is truly a mess of scrap metal and abandoned vehicles - Sephiroth can see a shop operating out of the windows of an abandoned train car which no longer has anything that could pretend to be wheels on it. There's an enormous pipe, even, bars on it that used to be there bent out of shape and with some kids messing about with them.

Most notably of all, however... People know Aerith. Mostly people older than her, proper adults rather than teenagers who all give her polite nods and ask about her mother even as she's trying to lead him and Genesis through the streets. The teens her age? They... don't look twice at her. Or, rather, they seem to purposefully look away from her.

If only people would look away from him, and Genesis. Sephiroth does his best to stay out of the spotlight, so to speak, but, well. He and Genesis both tower quite a bit over Aerith's petite form, so that's impossible to miss. Even worse is that Genesis is dressed all in red, meaning everyone turns their head to look at him. In contrast to how Sephiroth tries to keep his head down - all the moreso with the mako green of his eyes - Genesis preens underneath the clear attention.

Is that alright? Sephiroth suddenly and intensely wishes that Angeal hadn't gone to go get their purchased items. Angeal seems to be solid, reliable, and could absolutely tell him if he should be letting Genesis stand out like this.

Fortunately, the pleasantries don't last for too long. Aerith is a girl on a mission, as the saying goes, and she soon leads them to somewhere that has light filter down a little bit more from the upper plates. As they round a corner of scrap and rust... Sephiroth has to pause himself again.

It... is like the church, almost, although different. There is no towering stone, no pews lined up in quiet reverence for an age that no one could ever speak of again. And yet, somehow, that reverence seems as though it should still be there, because, here too, the ground becomes soft underneath his boots, and the smell - he thinks he understands what Angeal meant, now, about the smell. It is soft and sweet, different from the rivers that he's passed by before on the rare mission that would take him near such places.

Maybe it's the flowers. The same flowers which found sanctuary there in the emptiness of that abandoned church, blooming there. They still seem rather young, truth be told. Sephiroth can't say that he's an expert on plants, but he can clearly see the way dirt has been freshly dug up around their bases, and how there are so many less than in the church.

"I just planted them not that long ago," Aerith tells him, as his gaze shifts from the garden behind its little picket fence and up to the small cozy house that has somehow managed to exist down in this place of discarded metal. "Someone showed me the church not that long ago... So I thought they'd be nice here."

A low hum rolls out of Genesis. His eyes are closed, when Sephiroth looks over to him, and he seems to be moving his head along to something. "Yes... I imagine that, being near to a river, that has helped them adjust a great deal. I wonder what Angeal would say..."

"He likes plants, doesn't he?" Aerith says as she starts to hop up to the little path that leads up to the front door of the house. "I could tell right away. No one would ever look at plants the way he did unless they really, really liked them. Honestly, if it weren't for that guy you kidnapped, then I would have talked to him more about that than anything. You don't see people appreciate plants like that down here.... Not often. Although, I guess not too many people know about how the church has those blooming there...?"

Sephiroth would guess that, no, not many people do know about that church, although one would think it regularly populated. A nice sturdy building, made out of stone... That's a rarity down in the slums, at least from what he's witnessed.

He's about to ask her about that - about just what exactly keeps anyone out of that church, what a church even is - when Aerith reaches the door of her own home only to throw it wide open. "MOM!" she calls out, cheery as anything. "I brought over friends!"

As Sephiroth gets nearer to the door, he can just about hear a soft chuckle. "Oh, Aerith... Welcome back. I'm glad to hear that. Just who - ah." And that ah would be because Sephiroth has cautiously poked his head inside.

It looks like... the kind of home he thinks he's seen in commercials, sometimes. Not the kind of commercials for products that anyone might need or desire, but, rather, commercials for movies, and television shows. The kind of shows that depicted some sort of idyllic lifestyle, or distant past. There is nice warm wood, and a functional oven over there in the corner next to a robust looking fridge. Flowers, everywhere, even pressed into picture frames.

And there, right before a small little dining table, is a woman with pale brown hair, and an absolutely bewildered expression on her face as she stares at him, and then Genesis when he shoves his way around Sephiroth to get a good look at everything himself.

...It occurs to him that, even without his sunglasses (that Aerith is still wearing), he and Genesis still look incredibly suspicious as the friends of a teenage girl.

At least, he has not seen their kind of group anywhere else, certainly.

Genesis takes it all in stride, of course. He smiles over to the blond woman - not Ifalna, no, she doesn't have that dark hair and the facial features are all wrong, so why is she "mom"? - and gestures to himself proudly. "A fine pleasure to meet the woman that Aerith has spoken about with such praise," he says, which Sephiroth supposes.... isn't a direct lie? "My name is Gen, and-"

"And there's Sephiroth, just like I told you about!" Aerith says, so bubbly and matter of fact, as though she didn't just namedrop someone very famous and who absolutely shouldn't be here.

Angeal should be here, Sephiroth decides. Or he should be with Angeal. He has, very quickly, decided that Angeal understands people better than he does, and he isn't as confusing as Genesis is about it all.

The woman still has something in her eyes that may very well be suspicion or confusion, but she manages a smile in the face of it all. "I... see," she says at last. "Well, it would be rude to not welcome guests... especially friends of Aerith's. Although..." She raises an eyebrow as she looks down at the girl. "Just where on earth did you meet them, did you say...?"

Aerith, in fact, did not say anything about where she met them. Or when. Sephiroth suspects she is fully aware of this, judging by some sort of light in her eye, although she steps back with her hands lacing behind her back again. Why does she do that? Some sort of tic? "I met them at the church," she says, which is true. "He's not here right now, but he'll catch up soon - Angeal took a liking to the flowers that grow there." This is also true.

There is absolutely no mention of the man that the three of them pulled into the church with the clear intent to get answers out of him, or that Aerith very cheerfully offered to help with the interrogation. Now that Sephiroth is thinking about it, no longer held in surprise's vice grip, they all rolled with it rather well...

The woman squints down at Aerith, clearly sensing that something must be up, but it's no use. Aerith just smiles right back up at her. With that clearly no good, she sighs, before smiling back up to them again. "Well, it is nice to meet the two of you. I imagine that Aerith of course didn't think to mention me by name at all.... But I am Elmyra."

Elmyra... Sephiroth wonders what her connection is to Aerith. How on earth she ended up with her, and why Aerith calls her "mom". Was she a friend of Ifalna? Did she help her escape, all those years ago? He wants to ask. He doesn't know how to.

As he's turning over that in his head, Aerith trots off to disappear into some room in the back - a bathroom, he thinks, just going off of the tile that he can catch a glimpse of. Elmyra keeps talking. "Feel free to take a seat, and you can tell me a little more just how you met Aerith... I didn't think that many people went to the church. People say some funny things about it..."

Funny things? Well, Angeal had shown some surprised interest at the existence of it. Sephiroth never had any time to follow up on that. "Is that so..." He carefully takes a seat at the table himself, and Genesis plops right down besides him. "We saw it, and gained an interest in it. That is it."

Also it suited their purposes of having a building of some sort where they could interrogate a grown man in peace and quiet, but, if Aerith didn't say that, Sephiroth will not either. He may not be able to lie well, but he knows that much.

There's a short hum sort of noise - one of acceptance, although not believable acceptance - and Elmyra adjusts her skirt as she goes to sit down as well. No coffee or tea, he notices. Gillian had made some, but Elmyra doesn't. Does that mean anything? He really can't tell. Sephiroth has never had anyone dare approach him for home visits. He's never had anyone visit his home, besides a few times when he first got his apartment. Lazard visited. He always brought fruit. Maybe Sephiroth should have brought fruit.

"You know, it's quite interesting," Elmyra says slowly, something in her eyes not quite matching her expression. "You have a name rather like a famous general, and here I thought it was rather uncommon-"

"I told you that it was Sephiroth," Aerith says, all exasperation as she comes over to him and just... sits there, side-saddle, right on his lap. Sephiroth blinks a few times, definitely not sure how to deal with this sort of action, before he decides to just let it happen. That's how it always worked when they were children, after all. "It's because of that terrible fake scruff on your face, you know."

"You can tell it's fake?" Sephiroth asks, as Aerith upturns a bottle into some washcloth she has in her other hand. No one else had said anything.

A giggle leaps out of Aerith's throat. "I mean, you don't just suddenly get dark eyebrows and beards with hair like yours," she points out, which he supposes is true. But then, how was she able to tell who he was so quickly in the first place, after so many years? And he can't ask Aerith, because Aerith says, "No, stop talking, I'm going to clean all the makeup from your face."

She has a solid point. From all his time having to be dressed up for photoshoots, Sephiroth is well aware of the dangers of makeup and an open mouth. Still, for all that work to go to waste? "It's important that I'm not recognized," he tells her.

"I'll put it on again after! I think we probably have something... Now hush!"

So he shuts his mouth and lets her get to work. Just past her shoulder, he thinks he can see Elmyra sink her face into one hand. Genesis is snickering.

Exasperation... soon turns to shock, however, when Aerith finally pulls away the dry towel from his cleaned face. "There!" she announces, satisfied with her work ruining all of Angeal's. "Now you look like you should. Your jaw got thinner."

"Jaws cannot get thinner," he tells her patiently, feeling a dizzying sense of deja vu. It's almost as though they're both back in the labs again. Aerith is saying something he finds silly, and him? He has to try and correct her, only he never is listened to. Not once. "I simply lost the fat in my face as I reached adolescence."

Elmyra's hand is trembling a little bit, he notices. It's not even too subtle, like he's noticed with some other people he's spoken to in his life. But she tries to hide it regardless, bracing it against the table and covering it with her other hand. "You.... really are General Sephiroth?" she asks. Again, that inaccurate nickname. It seems that he'll never be able to escape it. How frustrating.

"Yes, ma'm," he says patiently.

There's something sharp about Genesis's gaze as he watches Elmyra, although he doesn't look at her directly. There's no denying where he's focused, however. "Indeed, a celebrity in your own home," he confirms. "Although it sounds as though Aerith never told you that the two of them went back quite a ways, did they?"

Her hand tenses, knuckles standing out starkly as her hand grips down on its partner. It's easier to see that when Aerith gets off of Sephiroth's lap. "I did not think it was really you," she says, and she still manages to keep her voice steady. Nothing at all like the state of her hands. "Well! I'm sorry that we do not have anything a little nicer to welcome you with. I didn't know that we would be getting such an esteemed guest today."

"Oh, he's not that impressive," Aerith says, dusting off her dress before she whirls around to face him once again. "Alright! You have to wait right here. I have something to show you."

Just like that, she's off in a flash once again, her sandals clomping against the wooden stairs going upwards. Incredible, really, all her energy.

Elmyra waits until the footsteps have stopped completely, leaving behind only the sound of rustling and dragging from some room upstairs. Then, only then, does she lets out a broken sort of exhale. The kind that stutters and shatters in her throat and falls apart on her lips. "What are you going to do with her?"

What? "What?" he asks. Besides him, Genesis makes a small noise of understanding.

Her knuckles crack, just a little bit, from how she flexes her hands together. "Lately, men from ShinRa have kept coming down to see her," she says, and something in her voice sounds rough, dry. Every word comes out through great effort; even he can see that. "So now it's you, isn't it? I know.... I know she's special. I know... that her past tied her there. But if you're going to make her go with you like this-"

"We're not taking her," Sephiroth says, sudden, sharp, ice curled there in his gut.

Elmyra looks up at him, straight at him. He can see her eyes are wet, now. Tears, gathered there along the bottom of her eye, and threatening to fall at any second now. "What?" she says, breathless.

What else can he say? How can he say it? How can he say that, for so many years, he was almost envious that Ifalna was able to take Aerith and escape, even as he understood that it never would have been possible for him to go with them? How he would never undo all of Ifalna's hard work, that work born out of the kind of love he could only have imagined? That....

There's so much. There is perhaps too much. And for that reason, he's grateful that Genesis speaks up before anything can fumble out from his lips inelegantly. "We didn't come here to take her," he promises, voice soft. Warm. Warmer than he thought he could become, honestly. Sephiroth is too used to the teasing and laughter and bright fiery confidence. "We were not lying to you, Missus Elmyra. We truly did just run into Aerith in the church, through sheer happenstance. We are under no orders from ShinRa. When we are done here, and rejoined by my dear Angeal, we shall take our leave. The only reason that we are this far into the district is because there are some rather troublesome people waiting around the train station that we came down on, and we are not entirely sure that they shall let us or anyone go so easily. So we are attempting to find an alternate route, you see."

In the back of Sephiroth's mind, he thinks of Angeal. He thinks of the way that Angeal had cajoled and convinced the thug they had been interrogating. It spurs him. Inspires him, perhaps.

"I swear on my honor," he says, trying to remember the way that Angeal had done it. Done it even in the midst of teasing, and lying. Because none of the promise had been a lie, had it? Serious. Solemn. Slow, with each word bearing the weight of the whole. "I swear that we shall never take Aerith to ShinRa. No matter what happens. I will not put her back in that place."

Does it work? A part of him almost isn't entirely sure. It almost doesn't feel as though he should be able to make an oath such as that. What is honor, anyway? Can a person like him, someone who was just a mindless SOLDIER for ShinRa's use... even claim to have that sort of thing?

Maybe he can't. Regardless, Elmyra stares over at him before she lets out a heavy breath. The tears don't fall. Not until she reaches up to pass a hand over her face and subtly clear them away.

"I suppose if you truly wanted to take her away, a person as renowned as you could have done so easily," she admits. "And you would not have come here in the kind of silly appearance that you did." While Sephiroth reconciles the fact that he was dressed silly, Elmyra pushes herself up to her feet. Maybe it's because her palms are braced there against the table, but they no longer shake. Not for now. "I will get some tea, then. It is the least that I can get you both. Besides, Aerith will get quite fussy about these things. She's never brought anyone over before."

She's never brought anyone else over before... Sephiroth isn't sure how he should process that information, and he looks around the house as though that can help him. Little pots with more of those flowers, picture frames upon walls, knick knacks of all sorts on various surfaces....

Nothing like his apartment, upon the plate. Barren. Empty. What photos would he put on the walls? What use would he have for knick knacks?

This place is definitely nothing like his apartment. And that she should never have had anyone visit it at all, is... It doesn't feel right. It doesn't feel right at all. Aerith, with another person that she can call mother and who adores her, who has this house surrounded by flowers, rooms filled with things that feel like a life... She deserves to have people visit this place, this life of hers.

"What is going on in that mind of yours," Genesis murmurs, and Sephiroth blinks out of his thoughts. The other man has one elbow upon the table, all the better for him to rest his chin there in his open palm while he leans in Sephiroth's direction. "It seems as though you are absolutely awash with thoughts, I must admit."

Sephiroth can't really say he's wrong. Adjusting Masamune where it leans against his chair, Sephiroth looks back over to where Elmyra is. "She was the only other child I knew," he says quietly. "Aerith, I mean to say. I thought that, when she escaped... She could have a life that she deserved. I couldn't envision what that kind of life could look like.... But I had hoped she would get everything that she wanted."

Because one of them had to make it out of the lab. Right?

"I had hoped that she could have the kind of life... that was barred to me as well."

Genesis hums, that same low sound which rolls around through his lungs, and curls there in Sephiroth's ears. "It's barred to you no longer," he points out once more. Of course. Of course. Theoretically.... He could go chase that kind of life. Could try all the things that Angeal told him about as they stood there in the kitchen together, passing dishes between each other.

Would it stick? Would it work? Could he truly just stay out there, somewhere far away, where ShinRa could never find him? He has no idea how that could be possible, honestly. ShinRa would still find him in the end, wouldn't they?

Although, then again... They never found Gillian. And, in turn... They've never found Angeal and Genesis, either.

Aerith's footsteps clomp against the wooden floorboards over his head and, soon enough, she's trotting down the stairs again with something clutched close to her chest. Sephiroth can see just a hint of gray before Aerith shoves her hands over at him. "Look! It's you!"

It... is most certainly him. Of course, it is not the literal and physical him, not by any means. However, Sephiroth can recognize the doll she holds there in her hands - the big green stitched-in eyes, the long fake gray hair that seems to have become even paler than his own is right now. Even the black SOLDIER outfit it wears is... as accurate as it can be, considering it's all made out of cloth. That line of dolls had been shown to him ages ago, for some sort of promotional something. Sephiroth hadn't cared about it, then, and he still doesn't, really. But that doesn't mean he can't recognize it.

There's a deep wheeze to the side, from Genesis, and the redhead presses his face into one hand, shoulders shaking. Now he's definitely being made fun of. Sephiroth can't understand why.

Then again, he can't understand this entire situation happening in front of him, either. "Why... do you have a doll of me?"

"I've mentioned you, before," she says, pulling the doll back. "But my mom thought I was just one of everyone who was a fan of yours. So she got me one of these once. I think it was back when you'd first been deployed, and ShinRa couldn't stop talking up your victories." She laughs, apparently finding this as funny as Genesis does. "Well, I always made sure you were well hydrated!"

He... thinks he should be flattered about this. He thinks. "Thank... you?"

That's around the time that Elmyra, fortunately, distracts them all with some tea. It's cheap tea, from what Sephiroth can tell, but he's never really cared about that kind of thing before anyway. It's preferable than having nothing to distract him, after all. Something that he can put in his mouth and use as an excuse to not talk so much anymore.

While he's still not sure if Elmyra entirely believes them about not taking Aerith away... It's still clear as daylight to see that her mood lifts greatly, with Aerith simply being there. Aerith, talking with her, talking with them, getting Genesis started on Loveless again - slowly the weight seems to fall from her expression. In time, all the sign that she was ever crying or coming close to it are the faint red rims along her eyes, and the faint way her voice catches in her throat from where she had to swallow it all back. Maybe Aerith can tell. Maybe that's why she stays so close to her, even as they all talk.

It doesn't take very long before there's a small knock on the door and Aerith is up on her feet to go get it in the blink of an eye. "Sorry that it took so long for me to get everything," Angeal says, with his arms more than full. A backpack, a suitcase, various things tucked away in both... And a paper bag of some sort in one arm?

Genesis squints at it almost immediately. "Angeal, what on earth is that?" he says, in the kind of exasperated tone that says he already knows what it is.

Angeal squints right back at him. "It's called food," he says. "I had to pick something up, if we were going to impose on someone." Sephiroth tucks this knowledge away, even as Genesis throws his hands out to the side. "Don't make that face at me. I could hardly call myself an honorable man if I just waltzed right into a person's house and didn't bring something."

Then that solves it. Elmyra definitely didn't serve tea because they didn't bring something, and Sephiroth got off with Gillian because Lazard was technically kidnapped. Maybe? Sephiroth has so many questions and so little time.

"Sephiroth, Genesis, help me carry everything in," Angeal says, voice snapping through the fog of social niceties. When Elmyra gets up to start protesting a bit, Angeal shakes his head. "No, we couldn't. Just take a seat for a moment, and we'll have something out in a heartbeat. My name is Angeal, and it's a pleasure. Aerith really helped us out."

And yet... Perhaps it's not all just social niceties. As the all gather together near the little kitchen corner, Angeal starts murmuring to them even as he starts handing out the things in his arms and hands.

"I think someone was trying to find me, as I was getting our things and passing through some of the neighborhoods on the way here... And I definitely saw a lot more thugs on the streets, too. I managed to slip past them and just about everyone else... but we may want to get topside, sooner than later."

Genesis bumps into his shoulder, hard, even as Angeal pulls out some wrapped up meat. It looks cheap and as though it might have been in a can not too long before he put it down on the cutting board. "I am telling you, the best way to razzle a den of snakes is to cut off the head. If we simple go in and out, a large enough explosion will take care of their attention for more than long enough, no doubt draw it away from the train stations as well. If we move quickly enough-"

"I understand that your preferred method of handling problems has always been arson, Genesis, but that still might cause more problems for us than any actual solutions. Just think - if a big display of magic like that happens, then ShinRa will know that we're still in the city instead of potentially having escaped. They'll focus inwards again, and the chance of them finding Ma and us rises up."

There's a sharp click of Genesis's tongue, but he doesn't argue with Angeal on the matter. "So we are restricted to finding a more acceptable and subtle way back up to the plate. That still may take us a great while longer, especially since we cannot simply fly up there without drawing more attention. Although I wonder how often people truly look up in this smoke-filled city..."

"Not often," Sephiroth confirms, and Genesis scoffs ever so lightly. "What if you used a smaller diversion simply to draw people's attention away from the station long enough for you to board?"

Angeal shakes his head, spreading some oil onto a pan to heat up. "If we were just going up against this Corneo nuisance, then I would say that's something worth trying," he explains, seasoning the meat really quickly. "However, with ShinRa involved, I'm a little worried that they might look at the scans on the train. If they do that, we might not have enough time to trick the system so that we don't register... and they might still realize that there's some extra bodies on the car than there should be."

They truly have thought this sort of thing through, despite having run away from Midgar long ago. Sephiroth has to give them credit for that. He thinks carefully, trying to imagine what other options are available to all of them.

Frankly, despite the difficult construction of Midgar... It is not impossible to traverse it without relying on the railways. That much he always knew, and which was proven when Gillian lead them through the sewer systems last night. The main problem, as he's certain Angeal and Genesis are well aware, is that such paths would take a great deal longer. Especially taking into consideration that they all want to get back to Gillian and Lazard as quickly as possible.

Even if they did fly.... It wouldn't be as quick, necessarily, as a train barreling down its track.

Something suddenly hits him, and he stirs a bit as Angeal puts together some sandwiches. "What if... we weren't inside the train cars?" he asks.

Angeal raises an eyebrow at him, but Genesis seems to click into understanding almost immediately with the way he perks up. "Atop the train cars," he hisses in delight, and Angeal groans. "The luggage would be a problem, of course, but we could always leave them in an empty train car, of which I am certain there must be - especially going from the slums! Even if we were to simply get off at one of the earlier stops, that would still give us  more than enough time to find a more suitable route on foot!" There's that pleased and satisfied smile of his, now, but directed to - "Fantastic thinking, Sephiroth."

He has been praised before. The scientists would occasionally do so, although that was rare - of course he was expected to pass all that they placed down before him. More often, the praise came from Lazard, for all sorts of things, even just making it back.

So why does this kind of praise... feel somehow a little more special?

"Then that sounds like what we'll do," Angeal agrees, even as he's shaking his head. "One of us can scout ahead to get an idea of how things are looking, and what cars might be empty for us to dump our things. We can figure that out once we leave... and make sure that your friend, over there, doesn't get dragged into any of this."

He nods his head back to where Aerith is sitting, Elmyra leaning in close and whispering things to her in a voice that's low enough that even Sephiroth can't quite make it out - not while he's simultaneously trying to listen and plan with Angeal and Genesis, of course. Still, Angeal has a point. While he's been glad to see Aerith again... There's no way that he can bring her into what's happening here.

Just... a shame that he'll have had such little time to speak with her.

Angeal lightly elbows him in his side, drawing Sephiroth's attention back to him. "As long as you're both alive, you'll always have another chance," he reminds him gently. Before those words can truly settle in, Angeal hands him a plate. "Bring that over to them - I'll clean up the dishes I used really quickly, and then the three of us can get moving. I'm sure you want to see Lazard again as well."

That's right - Aerith is here, but she's at least safe. Established. She has her mother and, while ShinRa clearly knows she's here, they aren't going to do anything to her just yet. But Lazard.... Lazard is in a much more precarious position.

Of course, not that Aerith or Elmyra need to know anything about that just yet. All Sephiroth tells them is, "We will likely take our leave in a short while. We were only meant to visit this sector before going back to a prior arrangement." From the first first few words, Elmyra already looks relieved - so his oath wasn't good enough, then.

Aerith, however, frowns a little bit. "You were hardly here at all," she points out, which is true. While he's by far no expert on them, Sephiroth supposes that reunions like this should be more meaningful. More drawn out. "You are going to come back to visit me, aren't you?"

Can he make a promise like that? Sephiroth... isn't entirely sure he can, even with all the reassurances in the world from other people. Even with how much he very much wants to do just that. The conflicted feelings in his chest make him hesitate... but fortunately, there is Genesis again, the warmth of him against Sephiroth's back. "As long as you are both alive, and your souls connected, can there ever be any doubt that you will meet again?" he proposes.

Does that count as a promise? Should he be letting someone make a promise for him? Sephiroth is pretty sure not...

Still. He lets it stay there, and nods down to Aerith. "Stay safe," Sephiroth tells her. "And... I will help keep you that way, if I can." If he stays within ShinRa, perhaps he can look more into just what they want her for.... why she was kept in the labs down with him in the first place. Or if he goes... Could he do more against ShinRa's plans for her as someone who was operating completely separate from the leash they'd tied around him?

It seems as though every passing hour only gives him all the more to consider, more than he's ever really had to do in his entire life. Sephiroth isn't entirely sure how he feels about it all.

What he is sure is that Aerith observes him for a moment for she nods, as though what she's seen is good enough for her. "Then I can take you to the train station," she says, and, no, no, that is not how their plan should be going at all.

It is fortunate for them that in this moment that Elmyra decides to speak up with a shake of her head. "You still have so many chores that you promised to help around with here, Aerith," she points out, although Sephiroth wonders if it's truly her care for the chores that has her speaking up. "The house was really a mess this entire time while we've had guests.... And I would bet you've only gone and made your room more of a mess in looking for that doll."

Sephiroth looks down at the doll of himself. It was given a place of honor right there at the table. Neither Aerith or Elmyra had made any mention of it.

For a moment, it seems as though Aerith might protest... but she merely heaves out a sigh. "We won't even get anyone visiting besides them," she points out, "and none of them made any comment about the house at all! But okay. I'll do it for you." Leaning down, she presses a kiss to a relieved Elmyra's temple. "You all need to stay safe, okay?"

Is she referring to the fact that they're clearly running into trouble with Corneo, or ShinRa, or both? Sephiroth can't quite be sure. Aerith was always impossible for him to read as a child, and he's realizing that might have simply always have been a part of her personality.

But... that's fine. After all, this is a promise he can make more than easily enough. "We will stay safe."

"She seems nice," Angeal says once they've all managed to leave, each of them carrying at least two sandwiches in hand and all of them contributing on some level to carrying the various things they've bought. "It takes a... special kind of person to just roll with the punches when they walk in on an interrogation like that."

"Aerith has always been unique," Sephiroth says, because that's true. Perhaps it may very well be personal bias speaking, but he never really did meet anyone quite like Aerith, even after leaving the labs.

Genesis laughs. "Well, I rather like her," he says, before taking a large bite out of the sandwich. "Mm - Angeal, you have done it once again. I didn't think you could make anything this good with the kind of food that's available down here..."

Oh. Right. Sephiroth supposes, if they still have a ways to go... He starts to eat as well, appreciating the bold savory flavors. While he can't say if it's better or not from what's been had in the slums... "This is better than what ShinRa gives me," he confirms, and Angeal looks away with a smile. Ah, but that reminds him, while they're here.... "I wanted to ask you, but, before, you said that stone building was a church. What does that mean, exactly?"

"I suppose you wouldn't really see them up in one of the more modern areas like up top on the plates," Angeal muses, tapping his finger along his own sandwich. "Still... With ShinRa's war against Wutai, you've probably seen some of the temples there, haven't you?"

Angeal has been to Wutai? Sephiroth wonders how.... and when. Then again, is it really such a surprise, when apparently the three of them were so willing to break into ShinRa headquarters? Why not somehow traverse to a country that ShinRa was at war with? He supposes one only needs a boat... Regardless, he nods. "So a church is similar to a temple in function?"

"Well, I would hardly say that the two of them are completely alike... but there are some similarities," Angeal agrees, taking another bite. "Basically, it has to do with community, and possibly showing reverence and respect to beings stronger than humans. In Wutai.... Genesis, who is it in Wutai again?"

"Leviathan," Genesis answers, tucking some of his food into his cheek. "Even in the more rural areas, especially along rivers or the coast, you see such serpentine decorations everywhere, don't you? There is a connection there, do not doubt that."

Yes.... Sephiroth certainly can recall that, although he always wondered about it. Just what did that do for them, when it seems as though ShinRa would never give up....?

Genesis shakes his head. "Honestly, I must admit that I am curious as well as to just what is the story behind that church and how it dwells all the way down here," he says. "It is by no means a small building, so it must have been of great importance.... Ah, well. I suppose there is no point dwelling on it for too long." A long, dramatic, drawn out sigh. "Oh, to have had a little more time to investigate it and see what secrets it could have held!"

"We have our own secrets that we have to work on," Angeal says, finishing up the second of his sandwiches and dusting off his hands. "So let's focus on that. Who volunteers to go scout out the train station?"

Smirking, Genesis leans against Angeal's side. "Oh, not interested in going off to do all the work again?"

"I think I'll pass on having you shove all the work onto me again, thanks." A heavy sigh. "Although I suppose this does help me make sure that you don't set anything ablaze that you shouldn't..."

"You make me sound as though I am an absolute arsonist."

"I will go," Sephiroth says, which cuts neatly through the pair's bickering. Both of them blink, glancing back at him. "I know there is no reason to trust me on if I will stay true to you, so I will understand if you decline.... But I have found that I am tired of holding such a passive role in all of this."

Angeal raises an eyebrow. "You helped us take out the various nuisances which are keeping us stuck inside that shop," he points out, but Sephiroth is already shaking his head.

There is a chance that his attempts to explain will make no sense... That is not something unusual for him, where he so often finds himself detached from other people despite Lazard's best attempts. Still, he tries. "In the end... I was still following your lead." He frowns, hand curling into a fist at his side. His fingers dig into the bread of the sandwich he's still holding. "Whatever else I decide... I know this much. I know that I must take a firmer grasp of my future and the present than I have before."

Already, from the corner of his eye, he can see Genesis opening his mouth to say something, perhaps a protest... but Angeal reaches over to lay a hand gently along his bicep. "So this will make you feel as though you've taken the lead on your own life?" he asks. Sephiroth nods. What else he can do? What can he say? That seems to be enough for Angeal, at least. "Alright. Then, how do you want to keep in touch?"

Right.... Angeal and Genesis didn't bring any sorts of radio or phones with them, as far as Sephiroth could tell. Or, if they do have them back at the apartment, they didn't deign this excursion important enough to bring them.

Genesis clicks his tongue, and sweeps his hand through the hair dismissively. "Oh, you know we need not think too hard on it," he tells Angeal, almost teasing. Tapping his sunglasses again, Genesis surveys Sephiroth. With Angeal having agreed on something, he seeems far more confident in everything now. "How high can you whistle?"

...This is not the kind of question that Sephiroth would have ever thought he'd be asked in a situation such as this, but he supposes it is what it is. "Fairly high," he says. "I had to be heard over the sound of combat in Wutai, and other such things... although I understand it's rare to be so clear."

Already, his explanation is being mostly waved away; he supposes the most important information was given. "Then that is all you need to do. I imagine Angeal and I shall not be very far. If you encounter any difficulties, then all you need to is keep one short whistle, and I shall hear it. If things are clear, than a couple short whistles in short succession is all we should need. That, I think, should not stand out too much in a place like this."

No... No, Sephiroth imagines it wouldn't, in this place where the train's screech out steam, and metal slides again metal, and people run through the dirt streets in mad dashes. He nods. "I will let you know as soon as I can. And Angeal - you said you were being followed?"

"I couldn't tell you by who or what," Angeal tells him, sensing his question ahead of time. "I could smell something off in the air, however, while I was going to get our things... It's part of why I went to get food in the first place. A good way to shake off anyone that might be poking around instead of just leading them straight to the house. But I would say...." He falls silent for a brief moment, going through his memories. "...They weren't near the goons or even the occasional suit I saw. So, ironically, sticking near to them might keep you away from that scent I picked up. Well, if things are still as they were when I was on the way back, at any rate..."

In the average SOLDIER mission, Sephiroth knows that sort of explanation wouldn't be given much weight by some of the Seconds. Even some of the rare few who had been given the title of First after him would likely be skeptical.

Yet, as Sephiroth takes to moving atop the various piles of scrap, finding balance on long abandoned construction vehicles... He keeps that thought in mind.

Perhaps it is foolish to do so. It is not as though he and Angeal have known one another for very long. While he is well aware that Angeal is as fit as one might expect of a First Class SOLDIER, and can hold up against him for at least a momentary second in a fight... What does he know, truly, of that man's capabilities? How much to trust him?

....But he had been able to smell the river flowing underneath and around Aerith's house, long before he ever saw it.

Much like all the traveling they'd done together before, there isn't much that gets in the way as Sephiroth takes the shortcut through all the debris and garbage. Occasionally, he sees monsters skittering through or hiding amidst it all... but most of them take one glance at him and leave him to his journeys - Hedgehogs curling up amidst holes and spaces in the debris, Whole Eaters slinking back into ruin. No, they are no trouble at all... and so long as Sephiroth can keep out of sight of the people traveling down in the actual paths, they don't give him any trouble either.

Frankly, the train station is easy to spy on. It's little wonder that there were spies about, keeping a close eye on it from around corners and loitering near the street lamps. However, not a single one of them expects to look up, and Sephiroth takes advantage of that as he casts a keen eye on everything from a short distance away.

Truly, he has to appreciate his eyesight at times like this.

Two people beneath the street lamp. There are three, just around the corner there, all leaning in and speaking with one another. One of them looks sweaty, out of breath - did he stumble upon any of the news that one squad had been taken out already, or is it unrelated? Hard to say with the little  information that Sephiroth has now; eyesight can only go so far. And then he thinks he sees another person pacing along the street there. Nothing else, just pacing. Well, that's hardly a good form of camouflage at all.

But this isn't enough. He told Angeal and Genesis that he was going to do this, and so he's going to do it properly. This is a good vantage point, but it has its blind spots. He starts to move again, steps light but decisive as he navigates down the hill -

And then he stops. Mid-journey, his boot shifting to keep him perfectly balanced and steady in place against the wobbling piece of metal there underneath him.

He can see something bright crimson darting amidst the trash just as swiftly as he is. Was.

It isn't one of the hedgehogs, he can tell that immediately. Too large, for one thing. They're smaller than a human child, round and fat little things, and the distinctly adult figure he caught a glimpse of did not fit that description in any way whatsoever. There is the idea that it could be Genesis, of course, with his inclination for the color... But that's not right, either.

Amidst the red, and the black... He thought he had caught a glimpse of glowing blue.

Hm. Sephiroth narrows his eyes slightly, adjusts his balance again and goes a slow pace, down the opposite ways he'd originally been intending. Someone else who can move through this disaster of a sector with that much skill... That isn't normal. Whoever it was hadn't looked to be in the average SOLDIER uniform, but neither had they looked anything like Corneo's men... or anyone else who would have a reason to lurk about down in the slums.

He can see what Angeal meant now, about sensing something off down in the area. Even without getting any closer and just catching a glimpse of that person... It's clearly getting to be much more intense than any of them expected.

For that reason, Sephiroth slips into the shadows - the piles which make up the various slums offer no shortage of them. And... it gives him time to think.

There is a chance, he knows that they could still go ahead with their initial plan. A distraction could be set off to get all the attention of the various thugs stationed there at the train stop, and they could slip onto its top while no one was looking. If they are fortunate, and perhaps plan well - perhaps even snare the strange pursuer's attention with whatever the distraction ended up being.

And yet.... that still carries far too much risk with it. What if the pursuer didn't fall for the bait? What if they still managed to see Angeal and Genesis, trying to get to the train? What if they simply spotted them at all, and were able to contact ShinRa to ensure that there were troops at the next stop that could surround them? Even simply knowing more about what Angeal and Genesis looked like could be a problem.

So... In the end, the best course of action, he knows, should be to take out the opponent himself. Before Angeal and Genesis can be caught. Before... ShinRa can cover up even more of the things it's done.

It's hard to believe that Genesis will be able to hear him, no matter how good his whistling might be. Still, Sephiroth goes exactly as they'd planned - two sharp, quick whistles. They cut through the air, rising high only to dissipate into nothing. He hopes it's enough.

And in the meanwhile... Sephiroth reaches the dirt himself, no longer taking the high ground there amidst all the scrap metal. It may take longer, quite frankly, and he has a higher chance of running into thugs who will be suspicious that their paths didn't cross before... But it's still the more preferable option compared to an unknown threat that could cause a great deal of problems.

It is a simple, solid idea. One that should give him no other problems than the ones he's already foreseen as a reasonable potential consequence.

Approximately seven seconds after he's made it to the dirt, chunks of something that might once have been a giant metallic hand start getting thrown his way.

Sephiroth leaps back once, then again, ducks underneath more debris only for a whirlwind of silver and red to come slicing his way so quickly that the wind alone almost threatens to cut at anything that has the misfortune of being soft enough. Not something he has to worry about... But worrying nonetheless.

Masamune is still attached to his back, still masquerading as an ordinary umbrella if an ordinary umbrella were six feet long from hilt to tip. Sephiroth doesn't grab it, instead dragging out a long piece of pipe from the debris in the same moment that he twists around to dodge the violent slashes. A pipe does no good against any weapon of any true quality....

But he doesn't need it to fight. All he needs to do is twist, step to the side - brace the pipe upwards there against where the hilt of the attacking weapon meets, and stop it right there in its tracks.

There before him, braced against the dirt, a woman with burning red hair stands, muscles straining underneath the suit that she wears, and she bares her teeth at him. A feral expression, something belonging more in the maws of a monster with fangs than on a human face. "Then there is no doubt about it, is there," she says, a thick accent of some sort purring through each of her words. "The prey that I have actually been allowed to hunt."

With both of them in that brief second of a standstill, Sephiroth is able to get a better look at her weapon - an impressive and complicated beast. Dual blades, with some sort of gun mechanism there in the middle where they're joined. A pipe won't be able to withstand it; it's already crumpling a little bit where it braces against the thing from a combination of both their strength.

That's fine. Sephiroth lets it crumple, uses the twisting of the metal to throw her balance with the momentum disrupted. Kicks her away.

He's kicked people, before. In tests, for the scientists' studies. In practice, so that Lazard could make sure he knew how it felt to fight real people and how new recruits knew what they had to live up to.

They've broken walls, before. Never gone through them... but left cracks in stone, and dents in metal, and limbs twisted from the impact.

Yet the woman skidding down the dirt path doesn't collapse - and she doesn't quite go flying, either, although the way she stabs her weapon down into the dirt helps keep her firmly grounded in that respect. A wheeze scrapes its way out of her throat; he can see the way her knuckles stand out sharply with the way she grips onto her blade even past the gloves.

While he may have held back like he's practiced to do.... Sephiroth still feels he should have done more than just that. Than the way that her knuckles spasm just a bit before she straightens up, sweeps her blade to the side decisively. "I see! So it is little wonder that they call upon a Tsviet to do what all their little toy soldiers can not."

Clearly, she is talking to herself more than him, which is a good thing, because Sephiroth cannot say that he understands a single thing that she's talking about right now. Tsviet? And who is they that she's referring to? None of it... makes sense.

Still.... He tosses aside the pipe, the bit of warped metal having served its purpose. It won't be much use to him anyway. "Whatever it is that  you're looking for... or whoever it is... I have nothing to do with it."

She laughs at him for those words; well it wasn't as though he had faith that they would work anyway. "Oh, darling... It is a bit late to try and claim that." Her movements shift, become relaxed as she begins to walk - not directly towards him, but rather going off to the side, like someone putting on a performance... or a monster trying to stalk around its prey. "You fit the description, after all.... Dark brows, that muscular build.... and eyes so very bright with mako."

Oh. The realization crackles in his mind. Nevermind - there really is no escaping the fact that this is some arm of ShinRa's, one way or another. Because he understands what is happening here.

That description... should be what Angeal looks like.

And yet here Sephiroth is, with those large clothes of his that don't quite fit his frame. Here he is, with his long pale hair tucked away underneath a dark beanie hat with not a sliver slipping out of place.

Here he is, sunglasses stolen by a childhood friend, and leaving bright green eyes bare to the world.

It would be an incredibly easy thing to disprove this little case of mistaken identity. It would also be an incredibly easy thing to risk losing whatever freedoms he's been able to enjoy as a member of SOLDIER, if someone ever asked a little bit too much.

But Sephiroth realizes that, even if he had that choice... He wouldn't take it. Not here, not with Angeal and Genesis waiting for him. Not here, with Gillian still there at the apartment, thinking that they'll return to her. So Sephiroth shifts, presents his side more than his front, ready for the next attack. "So... This is about that. And so then... Who exactly are you, Tsviet?"

She pauses, no longer trying to circle around him. Now that her expression has become just a bit calmer... She's no older than Aerith, is she?

"If it is one last wish for a dying man... I suppose I can introduce myself. I... am Rosso the Crimson."