Miasma

Chapter 3

Genesis was fairly sure that he was going to kill someone before the board meeting was adjourned.

Sitting in the all-too-familiar conference room outside of Debriefing, the Commander grit his teeth as his Zack waxed near-poetic on their 'success at Fort Condor.' He wasn't entirely sure if success was the right word for it. All they'd done was salvage shitty, outdated equipment and dissolve the body of a little girl in a pool of raw mako. Tactfully-or maybe cleverly-Angeal's ward had left that detail out of the report. Bitterly, the redhead acknowledged that there was no chance Administration didn't know about it; the techs were required to report back on his status and the status of the mission every four hours. No, the Brass was simply choosing not to acknowledge it at all. Because it was far easier to pretend that it had never happened than to notify the grieving parents and face the possibility of legal action.

He didn't know why it bothered him so much.

Disposing of potential liabilities wasn't exactly a new theme in terms of Shinra. Genesis had rolled countless bodies into obscure and nameless pits during the Grasslands War. It had never bothered him then. Thinking back, maybe he'd been right when he said it was something that 'comes with age'. Then again, he didn't remember any of his senior officers suffering from some form of survivor's guilt, so maybe it was just him. Because apparently his brain had decided to grow a conscience; and it sucked. Shifting in the hard, high-backed seat, the redhead glanced sideways at Lazard, who narrowed his eyes at him through his spectacles before looking elsewhere. Sighing, he folded his arms and dug his heel into the rough-carpeted flooring. The President was saying something gracious, egregious and greasy and he simply didn't have the time for it. Zack had sat back down looking as cheerful as ever and they moved on to the next obscure topic.

Genesis didn't know why he was there.

He was forbidden to speak up during meetings, but the Brass insisted it was best he be present. The Commander had the sneaking suspicion it was to try and ease him into a false sense of security and authority...mitigating him to do something hot headed and extremely stupid. Genesis was not stupid. He'd been a member of SOLDIER for over a decade and he wasn't about to try to cross Administration somewhere obvious. No, he had his cards in place, and he would happily wait to play his hand when it was safe to do so. Intelligence could throw as many moves his way as they wanted; he was going to take his time and do this right. Because-realistically-Genesis had one shot, and he was not going to waste that shot by losing his temper or getting careless or becoming impatient. Regardless of his state of mind, there were too many lives at stake, and he wasn't going to waste lives to save one life.

Frowning, the blue-eyed first nodded absentmindedly at Tseng as he sailed into the room. The man in question didn't return the gesture, preferring to station himself behind Lazard without a glance in his direction. That mentality didn't-of course-make his desire to act rashly any easier to control. He knew there was a good possibility that Sephiroth had already given birth, that the child they had created had already been sequestered away somewhere dark and secret and unhappy. The mere thought was often nearly enough to make him draw Rapier and start tearing the facility apart, but he withheld by some small miraculous sense of preservation for the sake of perseverance. Nothing made it easier, but it did make it rational and mature. Genesis tried to tell himself that that was a good thing. It didn't always work.

"Meeting dismissed."

The scarlet-haired FIRST blinked in surprise when the scrape of chairs indicated the egress of all those involved in this particular conference. Having been lost in thought, he wasn't entirely positive that he knew what it had been about. No one had addressed him directly, however, so he supposed it couldn't have been that important. A gloved hand on his shoulder gave him pause, and he looked up to grimace bitterly at Zack, who tilted his head before clapping his back perfunctorily and retreating somewhat so the redhead could stand. The President and his cronies filed past them as he did so, but Shinra's top executive didn't spare either of them a word or glance; preferring to disappear in the direction of the elevator. Genesis was fine with that; he didn't have anything positive to say to the pudgy man regardless. Administration and Intelligence were strangely mute when it came to him these days, but he didn't let himself get bent out of shape about it. If he were entirely honest with himself it was a nice change compared to 'do this!' and 'do that!' and 'don't ask questions while you're doing it!'