A Cure for the Past

Chapter 4

Genesis caught Cloud's unconscious body when it slumped forward, pulling him against his chest.

"That was dramatic," Rufus sighed, cutting the awkward silence. "How long will you little sleep-spell keep him under?"

"It should be about 12 hours," Genesis grunted, slowly dragging Cloud to the couch that Angeal and Zack had been sitting on and laid him down gently. He bent down and arranged his limbs in a more comfortable position and tucked one of the smaller pillows under his head. "So, are you planning on explaining what just happened?"

Genesis stood up and turned to level Rufus with a look that threatened violence if he even tried to lie to him. All of the generals and Zack stood in at different points around the couch, almost creating an unintentional barrier between Cloud and Rufus. While Angeal, Sephiroth and Genesis looked to Rufus for an answer, Zack's gaze was glued to the now calm face of his best friend.

Where did all that rage from come from?

He raised his eyes to the crumbling hole in the wall. The hole that was meant to be Sephiroth's head.

"Well," Rufus started off casually, "let me start off by saying that I'm not the Rufus Shinra from this world."

Everyone blinked.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Angeal asked warily. Zack and Tifa shared the same look of confusion, and Nathen pulled her hand after him to stand in a position where they could see the President's face. Tseng stayed where he was, guarding the entrance of the office, but he didn't seem surprised at the news.

"Simple; I'm not from here. Neither is Cloud, over there." Rufus gestured to the unconscious body behind them. "But if I really want to explain the full story, I'd say that this world doesn't exist, technically. Though we want it to be real."

"How is this world not real?" Sephiroth's baritone voice spoke for the first time.

"You can't honestly believe what he's saying," Genesis snapped.

"What I want to know is why Cloud tried to kill me." His tone was emotionless. "And clearly Rufus and Cloud know each other somehow, which is impossible considering they've never met. Don't you find it odd?"

Genesis chose not to respond, huffing instead.

"Our world," Rufus called everyone's attention back to him, "was dying. At least, that's what the Cetra told me. Don't interrupt." This was directed at Zack, who clearly wanted to ask something right then. "We will have enough time later to get into the details and honestly, Cloud can explain them much better than I ever could. But I can go into why we were brought here and how we can avoid the tragedy that's about to spill over into this world.

"I'm guessing you all have heard about Jenova?"

If Rufus hadn't been looking at Sephiroth already, he would have missed the way his posture stiffened sharply at the name. Angeal's features twisted in surprise and he took a step forward with no real intention to approach Rufus. "How do you know that name?"

"She's basically the bane of our existence," Rufus chuckled humourlessly. "An alien parasite that landed on Earth some years ago and managed to leech her way into our planet. Her genes are used to develop the mako that flows through our reactors and our bodies."

"Doctor Hojo told me she was my mother," Sephiroth's said. "You say she was not even human."

He had always known that he was different from all his peers. Growing up in the labs, under the careful scrutiny of the mad doctor, his parentage was revealed to him after a particularly unpleasant round of tests. It didn't surprise him when the doctor declared himself as his father (why else would he invest all his time on a single subject?) but his young heart gave a painful beat when the doctor told him that his mother was a meaningless surrogate who died shortly after giving birth to him. He used the stationery that was permitted to him to write out the name 'Jenova' over and over again for weeks, carving her name into his memory.