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Rogue and Zack 10
“Zack, Rogue, you've got a job. It's something real this time.” Lazard's cultured voice rumbled from behind them as they sat in the SOLDIER lounge, sprawled out together on the couch. Rogue glanced back over her shoulder.
“Oh, really now?”
Shortly after being promoted to Second Class, Rogue had been the president's escort and been promoted to First because of some very... Interesting handling of some lazy infantrymen. Much to Zack's frustration and Rogue's personal amusement. The job had been boring. The president had just found her attitude entertaining. That'd been quite a thing to rub in Zack's face... Then kiss up for afterward by cooking dinner. Something that she was worlds away better at than him.
“Yes, really. It's for the day. You're to be shipped out to Fort Condor and help out there...” Lazard trailed off slightly as he looked just over Rogue's shoulder. An action which sent a chill up her spine, and she quickly whipped around to look. Zack glanced over his shoulder curiously, one eyebrow raised.
Genesis stood leaning against the opposite wall behind them, his arms neatly folded across his chest, his long red coat flaring around his legs and a thin smile on his face. His Mako green eyes were sizing Rogue up, and she visibly stiffened.
Looks like I'm finally getting that meeting with daddy dearest.
“Ah, well well, you finally grace me with your presence,” she began smoothly, starting to turn away, toward Zack and Lazard, spite blazing through her veins like lava. “Too bad I'm just on my way out. Try again next time, old man.”
Genesis chuckled softly, lifting his head so that the shock of copper red hair fell back from his face.
“I think Miss Rogue will be sitting out on this one. I think it's about time my daughter and I had a heart to heart. It's been so long.” There was an icy threat carried in the undercurrent on that smile, and Rogue could see and feel it, plain as day. “I think Mr. Fair can handle a simple Condor assignment on his own. If he can't, then he shouldn't be a Second Class yet.”
The words were meant to be biting. Zack didn't rise to the bait, but he guessed, correctly, that Rogue would. Before she could even open her mouth, his hand rested on her arm. “It's fine. I've got this one.” He grinned at her. “God knows, maybe this'll be my chance to catch up with you.”
Rogue's mouth snapped shut, the anger boiling down to protective concern. Yeah, Zack could definitely handle himself. Of that, she was certain. It didn't stop her from worrying about him. When you only had one person in the world... Their being in danger didn't settle well with you, no matter how minute the chance.
“You better take care of yourself. Don't do anything stupid.” She looked away, crossing her own arms in an eerie imitation of her father, lifting her chin to try to come off as imperious. Untouchable, uncaring. She couldn't show any concern in front of her father, he'd never let her live it down.
Zack knew. He gave her a halfhearted salute. “Yeah, yeah, princess, I hear you.” He shouldered his sword and started off down the hallway. He was at the elevator doors when she heard him mutter “bossy, bossy”, and she couldn't stop the grin that was tugging at her lips.
It was meant to make her smile. She knew that much, and for that, she thanked him.
She was going to need that in the next few moments.
Once Zack was gone, Lazard himself quickly retreated for safety. He had no idea that Genesis was Rogue's father, but, at this point, you could already cut the tension in the air. The pair of them being in the same place... Made the atmosphere heavy, filled it with restrained energy, like the air before the breaking of a storm.
“Well, you came to me, didn't you?” Rogue raised an eyebrow at her father, noting how she'd only claimed his pale skin tone and slightly narrowed eyes.
Aside from the ShinRa added genetics, that was all they really shared.
She splayed her hands, looking annoyed.
“You kept me from a job with my partner. Sent him out alone. You better actually have something to say to me after all this time.” Rogue bit her lip, cutting herself off before tacking a “dad” onto the end of that sentence. She wasn't yet sure if she wanted to call him her father or not. Dad or Genesis. Dad? Daddy? Father? Hell, how would she ever know. It felt weird to be in the same space as the man.
“Of course I did. Did you think I wouldn't notice your rapid progress?” A grim smile pulled at his thin lips. “You're doing this job, this company, damn proud, aren't you?”
“That a compliment or an insult?” Rogue snorted, turning her head away. ShinRa... Why would she want to be doing this company proud? She couldn't care less about their politics. This was a job to her, made personal only through her connection to Zack, who seemed hell bent on making something heroic of this job, and the man who stood before her... Who seemed to slowly be losing himself to the tides.
“'Though the morrow may be barren of promises... Nothing shall forestall my return.'” Genesis quoted softly, pushing himself away from the wall to pace in a loose circle around Rogue. “Do you want to continue on here, toward a future barren of hope and life? That is the future a life with this company creates, Rogue, and you need to come to see that. The sooner you are disillusioned...” He turned a fevered, passioned gaze to her. “The sooner you can join me in rebellion. The sooner we can shatter the mirage ShinRa has cast over the Planet.”
“Mirage? LOVELESS really did get to you, didn't it? Your language is getting out of hand, seriously. Can you just... Speak in normal English and tell me what you're talking about?”
Genesis sighed impatiently, tilting his head so that his hair swung forward to curtain his face.
“I'm talking about the illusion ShinRa's creating that they are, in any way, beneficial to this Planet and to society at large. They're not. In fact, if you take a little day trip down to Cosmo Canyon, the elders there will be more than happy to show you exactly how they're destroying the Planet.”
Well... Alright. Not the news she'd been expecting, exactly, but he certainly had her attention now.
“Are you gonna tell me anything else, or are you going to do the whole mysterious thing where you leave it at that and walk away, leaving my head spinning about deceitful conspiracies and evil corporate agendas and make me figure it all out by myself? You would be the man who would lurk in the shadows and watch your trail of dominoes fall...”
He responded with a tight smile.
“I think that sounds like fun, don't you? Have fun, Rogue. But keep in mind... You don't have forever. There is the chance that if you do not hunt down the mystery... It may come after you soon enough.”
And in a swish of his coat, Genesis had turned on his boot heel and vanished around the corner before the chill had even traversed Rogue's spine, spear heading into the base of her skull and splaying out it's numbing fingers.
“The man would make... An excellent horror story narrator.” Rogue murmured, backing away slowly and going to the lobby to, patiently, await Zack's return.
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