To the healing fountain!

[wickedcultured]

Characters: Genesis Rhapsodos and Angeal Hewley
Progress: Ongoing
Summary: Genesis goes to pick up Angeal and take him to the Evil Forest to be healed by the Healing Fountain, as per Sephiroth's request (not that Genesis would refuse).
Location: Troia then Evil Forest
Date: June 8th
Warnings: None

Comments

[boundinhonour]

They were both about an equal ways away from Troia, though Angeal had to find his way out of a forest. And he did have some help, yes, but by the time they got out of that horrible place the airship that Lillisette had arrived on was gone. So, they had no choice but to walk their way to the nearest, safest town They had flown a little too, to knock some time off of their already long trek. When Angeal had finally arrived to Troia, he waited where he and Genesis had agreed on.

As time passed, Angeal almost let himself think that Genesis wasn't going to show. The thought passed through his mind a few times, but it seemed not too long after that he received a text. Sighing, Angeal shook his head, heading for the beach.

Once he arrived, Angeal was quick to spot the redhead among the sands and made his now tired way to his friend. He was tired as well; this was all very taxing on his body. The new world, being stuck in it and even starting to degrade though it was only his wings that appeared. Another sigh and Angeal was a few feet from Genesis' back. "What ever happened to waiting at our original location?"

[wickedcultured]

Genesis didn't really move from there he sat other than lean forward off of his hands. He brushed the sand off of it them with a chuckle. "I grew bored of the area. The beach is always a much nicer view."

It was also very relaxing. The sound of the waves, the salt in the air, the warmth of the sun. It was something he hadn't been able to enjoy in the last four years, his body degraded too much. The pain and agony of it, the constant exhaustion, something like sitting in the sit would have hurt too much eventually.

His gloved hand waved a spot next to him. "Come. Sit and rest, I know you're tired from your flight."

[boundinhonour]

Shaking his head, he couldn't fight the small smile. the redhead always did get bored of things fast. Well, most things anyway. Angeal didn't think he was that late.

Though Genesis was right, the beach was much more appealing. It was warm but comfortable enough that they didn't need to find shade. The sounds of the ocean were also quite relaxing compared to the sounds of the monsters in the forest.

Plopping down with a sigh, mindful of his new wings, Angeal leaned forward on his knees. "It wasn't so much the flight that was tiring. How was your trip?"

[wickedcultured]

Genesis didn't answer the last question. Instead, he said, "Yes, I know. Which is why our next destination won't be Lindblum. Sephiroth has requested I take you to a place between Macalania Woods and Lake Bresha. Despite its name, it holds the cure for you. Which is why I would agree to taking you to a place called the Evil Forest."

[boundinhonour]

Angeal gave him a curious look. After all the time of degradation he wasn't used to seeing Genesis wanting to do something to help him. A terrible thought to think but unfortunately true. Of course, he only could give Genesis a look that strongly presented a pout. "Another forest? What could possibly heal me in something called 'Evil'?"

[wickedcultured]

"Something called the Healing Fountain, naturally," Genesis chuckled. "Sephiroth says I had you drink it before to heal you and it worked as you had shown none of the symptoms since. I'm inclined to believe him for he has no reason to lie."

Yes, it would be a first for Genesis to do something like this. Genesis had been too selfish before, but now he wasn't. He wouldn't be. Angeal didn't deserve that from his friend and really, Genesis hardly deserved Angeal for a friend. But he was just so tired. Mentally, emotionally. All his anger and frustration had faded away this past year, leaving him with nothing but simple exhaustion.

"My friend, your desire
Is the bringer of life, the gift of the goddess..."

Genesis turned to Angeal. "Do you still trust me?"

[boundinhonour]

"Of course," He laughed with Genesis too. It seemed this world had it quirks too. Aside from naming things ironically, it had the ability to make others forget their previous stay. He was a little curious as to what happened in their last stay, but Genesis was right; Sephiroth didn't have a reason to lie.

When Genesis turned, Angeal did too. It was a stange quiestion since Angeal had showed up but it was a legitimate question. He looked over his friends face before sighing and giving a small smile. "I do." After all, they had been friends for as long as he could remember. Angeal would have never given up on Genesis. "In fact, I was still trying to get you to come back home." Not to much avail, but, he was trying.

[wickedcultured]

Genesis nodded. "Good."

He remembered that. One of the many arguments they had during that hellish time. The redhead felt horrible, now that he could remember in it retrospect and he sighed softly. But really, even now he would have never gone back to ShinRa. There was no way he could with the knowledge he had.

"You know I would have never returned," He murmured. "I never understood why you kept trying. Even if I hadn't degraded, if I hadn't been a failed experiment... there was simply no way I could have ever stayed with the company after that."

[boundinhonour]

His head shook at the words, Angeal stretching out his legs and moving to lay down on the warm sands. He was almost deathly tired from his tromp through the woods and all the stops to get here. "It would have all been different had we not been..." He paused, making a slight face because he's not so sure the word is good enough; "Experiments. I wouldn't have looked to going back either. I would have tried to talk Sephiroth out of it too." But, that wasn't how things played out.

"If anything I just wanted us to go back to get healed. Then we could have left. I wouldn't have mind doing that. I only wanted us to be free of this." Angeal paused again, sighing as he closed his eyes. "But I never got that far in being able to talk to you."

[wickedcultured]

That was one thing he wished he had done as well. He wished he had talked to Sephiroth, gotten him to defect as well. He waited too long and strained their friendship to the point of breaking, to the point that when Genesis did finally go for help...

"You will rot." Had been his words and were they really so undeserving? Genesis shook his head. "The company would never have taken us back. They would have done the same as Lazard and Hollander had done. Bribed us, made false promises. Angeal, they never cured me. Over four years, I degraded. My hair was white, my skin was practically in ashes... nothing. I had never been close to being cured until I found the Goddess Materia within the Banora Mines."

Genesis swallowed lightly and looked down into his lap. There was no cure for them. And right now, Angeal was the one degrading. It was why he agreed to go to the Evil Forest. Sephiroth had no reason to lie and really, if the Healing Fountain was as revered as Sephiroth made it out to be, then there was no reason for it to be poisoned either. Genesis may have been mad at Sephiroth, may have hated for a time, if there was one thing the redhead knew about the former General, it was that he never lied.

[boundinhonour]

Angeal laid quietly on the sand listening to the little shifts, or lack thereof, that Genesis made in his his silence before speaking up; making Angeal breathe a little easier. He wasn't sure what the redhead would have been doing, but it was hard to tell with his body degrading.

"They probably wouldn't have. Not as General's anyway." He managed to say despite his stomach twisting and knotting up at the thoughts. "But they would have taken us back to heal us, at least. They wanted super SOLDIERS. They wold have kept us to run tests. That's when we would have left, after we were healed." Where they would have gone after that he didn't know, but it would have been better than dying or being test rats for the rest of their lives.

"..." Which, of course, got Angeal thinking about his own life back home. Or rather, what he was told he would be soon enough. "Sephiroth... told me I was going to die soon." He paused, opening his eyes and looking over to Genesis. "Back home, anyway."

[wickedcultured]

Genesis raised his legs up to rest his arms on his knees with a heavy sigh. "They wouldn't have let us go so easily. I told you, there is no cure. They would promise it, but they wouldn't have kept it. I doubt even Hojo would have known the cure had he wanted to try and figured it out. You put too much faith in a corrupt company, Angeal.

"Zack and Cloud were unlucky enough to experience that themselves," Genesis finished.

When Angeal revealed what Sephiroth had told him, he nodded. "You are. But not by the degradation. Though it is part of the reason." He looked to Angeal, his eyes boring into his friend's. "Zack, as per your orders and persistence, killed you. Now that you have your wings, you feel like a monster and that self-loathing and self-hatred festered in your heart and until you finally decided to end it."