Genesis Rhapsodos – One of the Three First Class Soldiers from Project Jenova. In terms of power, he was only a step below Sephiroth, but he too wished to prove himself to be a hero like Sephiroth.

Later, he begins to suffer genetic degradation due to his imperfect infusion of Jenova Cells, and he leads a rebellion against Shinra with the intent of finding a cure.

He was a skilled manipulator, single-handedly instigated war and manipulated the events to cure his degradation, upon which he succeeded, despite his defeat in the end.

Shetland,

“I thought your holidays were still a week or two away,” Wendy, an ordinary Kree living on Earth, supported another Race that her Race was bent on killing until there were none left.

Currently, though, she was in a human disguise; as to how she managed to do that, not being a Skrull went above their head. Still, no one asked her.

“We had a –revelation,” Cloud gestured towards Aerith, “At least she had so.”

“Oh. Who is dying this time?”

“Howard Stark,” Tifa sat down on the couch, sulking, and she shot a look towards Cloud, “Speak.”

“Wait, wait, you can’t throw a bomb like that. Howard Stark is about to be killed?”
“Yup, in about three—two and a half-day time. He would be traveling to deliver Super Soldier Serum, where he’d most likely be killed,” Aerith blinked, “You know him?”

She felt a glare from Tifa and backed away, “Or not.”

“We’ll talk about this later,” Tifa leaned forward, narrowing her eyes as she fixed them on Cloud, “Explain to me. Why is it that when everyone thinks that you are a Dark Wizard and thinks that you tried to kill Harry because you were jealous, and yet you refuse to say anything? Not only that, you were more rude than usual towards everyone who came to help.”

“I know,” Cloud breathed in, “The voices in my head have been running wild, making me slightly paranoid. Well…more than slightly.”

“I want to know what they are saying, Cloud? What are you being paranoid about? You can’t say it’s the voice and leave it be.”

Cloud shook his head, “Few things that don’t make sense to them.”

“Like?” Aerith blinked in curiosity.

“For one, why wasn’t Dumbledore there? In the Teacher’s stand? He has been there for the past two years. What was special about this one?”

“He’s the Headmaster. He must have been busy.”

“He’s not just the headmaster. He’s also the strongest wizard there is. If he were there, whoever was behind it wouldn’t have even tried, worried they would be found out. Yet, one time, when a celebrity of the Magical World was there. He wasn’t?”

“Bit of a stretch, but okay,” Wendy, a.k.a. Mar-Vell, crossed her arms, watching Cloud and Tifa. This was the first time she saw Tifa angry at Cloud, let alone fighting.

“I noticed a sudden presence of a monster on the Third Floor. It’s as if it’s guarding something. Alongside that troll,” Cloud looked away, “The voices after this incident are overly active, and they chipper every time they notice something. And frankly, they don’t shed a perfect light on Professor Dumbledore, that is, to say the least.”

“Cloud, connect the dots for me. I don’t understand.”

“It’s a bait,” Wendy fluttered her eyelids in thought, “He’s trying to say whatever is there. Is bait. And I think Professor Dumbledore of yours caught whoever he hopes to find.”

“He’s not acting on it,” Cloud crossed his arms and legs, leaning back, “In Wendy’s language. It feels like a controlled experiment, and if you try and break it down further like they are doing. It feels like jumping down the rabbit hole.”

“Like?”

“I don’t want to get into it. Like I said. I am being paranoid because of the voices, and I don’t want to inflict you with the same paranoia. To ensure that there are neutral observers in case I become biased and mess something up,” Cloud talked more than he usually talked. He usually didn’t say more than one or two lines, but today there were more.

Tifa stood in a huff, leaving the living room, “Ok. Fine.”

Aerith bit her lip, wondering if she should say it or not. At the end of it all, she decided to say, “Tifa, we still have to discuss the mission.”

Tifa stopped in front of the stairs, with her face flushed, and clenched her jaw, “Fine! I don’t want to be responsible for that person’s death.”

She sat down, sulking when Mar-Vell clapped her hands and spoke to bring their attention and relieve the awkward atmosphere, “Howard Stark. It could be said that he’s a brilliant scientist, especially since I know the standards of this planet’s technology. There aren’t many tools available on this planet, so I used my portable space lab. But Howard Stark has nothing like my toys yet succeeded in recreating Super Soldier Serum.”

“What is that? Is that similar to?” Tifa glanced towards Cloud and turned her gaze back at Mar-Vell with questioning eyes.

“Mm. Yes and no,” Wendy/Mar-Vell shook her head, “Super Soldier Serum’s history is closely tied to Tesseract. The item that I used to create Light Speed Engine. I read and researched that Super Soldier Serum gives a person Enhanced Strength. A human with that strength is the same as Kree but better.”

“Better?”

“Yes. It’s not just physical strength, speed, reflexes, and even that human’s mind becomes better. Though as a side-effect…they are close to being broken.”

“It’s weak?”

“No, quite the opposite. It’s strangely strong, but it depends more on the person’s heart and could go either way. Pure Evil or Pure Good. Much like what happened in the history of this planet when Captain America was born.”

“Sounds familiar. He’s famous.”

“Because he’s the real-life superhero on this planet. One that lived during the Second World War. Even I have heard of him.”

Aerith was leaning against the chair’s arm, “And according to the System, this man created five of those?”

“If he managed to recreate them, then even one of them could cause too much damage. And if the takers of this SSS are trained and supported? That is far too much trouble for the people of this planet. Unless we are talking about magicians, they might fare slightly better. But if most of them need to use a wand. You understand, right?”

“Yes. I can deal with them for most parts,” Cloud wasn’t kidding. He had dealt with a crowd of soldiers, shooting, using magic, and more, and they were trained correctly, so he understood.

“So you can appreciate what Five Super Soldier Serums represent,” Wendy raised her eyebrows.

“Trouble,” Aerith puffed her cheek, breathing out.

“We can’t take too much time since we don’t have any,” Tifa wondered, “Let’s go back to school for now, and we can do this at night.”

“No. I am afraid that at night won’t do. Let’s get over this today.” Cloud walked over to Tifa, standing in front of her, and she looked into his eyes.

“I’ll explain.”

Tifa softened, “Okay.”

The three of them used the fast travel point to reach the location. But strangely, they didn’t find them inside a house, but on the empty road, withing nothing to see.

“Hm. Certainly looks like the house of a billionaire,” Aerith clasped her hands, “Just needs a little imagination.”

Tifa tucked her hair behind her ear, looking towards the street camera, “Let’s try to avoid that.”

************** ********** ************ ********** ************ ******

“Howard Anthony Walter Stark, an inventor, scientist, engineer, businessman and move direction. The founder of Stark Industries, Public’s Enemy Number One, The Army’s Number One Weapons Contractor, this guy has earned a few titles,” Tifa threw the magazines on the table of a local diner.

“It’s the same as what Wendy said, but a little more detailed,” Aerith stuck out her tongue.

Cloud took the magazine, “Someone so high profile. I doubt they’d post his address. How are we supposed to even find him? We can’t go barging in Stark Industries Headquarters. That’d bring too much attention.”

Tifa leaned against the wall, looking outside the glass window, sighing, “Even the System gave us an empty road as the fast travel point. I wonder what that is about.”

“Assassination Point,” Cloud looked towards the magazine, at Howard Stark’s picture, lost in thought, “If I had to kill someone, I’d kill them in a place like that. All you have to do is break one camera we saw there, and voila, perfect crime. An accident.”

Tifa raised her eyebrows, making Cloud shrug, “One of them is an expert in this.”

“So…are we supposed to save him when he is about to be killed? Moreover, Wendy is an Alien; she had seen much, so she believed us. This guy? He’d be harder to deal with. We could expose ourselves,” Aerith puffed her cheeks.

“We are not thinking about not stopping the assassination, right,” Tifa leaned forward, looking into Cloud’s eyes, confirming.

Cloud glanced away, “You know what happened last time.”

“Yes, and that was related to an Alien Civilization that we couldn’t handle. This? We probably might. We have to figure out what we are up against. If possible, then I don’t want to let them die. No, I don’t want to fail.”

Cloud gazed at her, sighing, “Fine.”

“Right, then it’s best we go and meet Howard Stark,” Aerith clapped her palms, declaring.

“Really? Did you find something about him,” Tifa leaned forward, looking at her with hope.

“Not at all.”

“What did you even do while we were gone?”

“I ate,” Aerith guiltily looked away,

“Then how do you suggest we find him?” Cloud covered his face.

“About that, we don’t need to find him. But we need him to find us.”

“Oh, how do you plan to do that? Ask the planet to make Howard dream?”

“No, the planet has better things to do,” Aerith shot a look at him, “But…every father worries about his son. Suppose we leave a message for him that his son’s life is in danger. He’d be the one to find us.”

“Oh, that’s a good idea. But he has been alive for what, 70 years? I doubt there is much he hadn’t seen. A threat like this might not even reach his ear, let alone baffle him.”

“Hehe, but there is something we know, and Howard knows, probably the President of this country knows, but no one else does. Super…Soldier…Serum!”

“Oh, right! We could try that!”

Cloud rested cheek on the palm of his hand, looking at her with a troubled gaze, “You will make us the enemy of the whole country.”

“Not if they don’t know who we are,” Tifa leaned back on the chair. She looked towards her blue jeans, brown deep v-neck top, and the camouflage jacket she wore on top of it. They decided to fit in, but maybe what they needed was to disappear.

“We need other faces, identities, but not of people of this world…from ours,” Tifa looked up at Cloud, “This should work.”

Cloud leaned back, picking up the glass of water, drinking, “Hm. Then…I know someone perfect for the job. Especially when I think of the consequences of leaving a message like that.”

He stood up, going towards the bathroom, “I’ll be back.”

Aerith propped her chin on her hand, “I wonder if he’s starting to notice that his Transfiguration breaks all rules of Transfiguration Magic?”

Tifa wondered as her eyes gazed into the distance, “Right. He probably has. The voices…he ignores them. Mostly. I am wondering… if he’s starting to use Obliviate on himself.”

Strangely, Aerith didn’t reply to that; instead, she started to act suspiciously, being far too obvious. Tifa, who saw her reflection in the glass, narrowed her eyes, “You knew?”

Aerith folded her arms on the table, resting her cheek on them, looking at Tifa.

“You,” Tifa sighed, “Eri…you are perceptive. Since when has he been doing that?”

“I suppose today could be the first time,” Aerith cupped her cheeks, furrowing her brows, “But maybe sometime before. He said the voices were making him Paranoid. I am afraid he used Obliviate on himself before meeting Professor Dumbledore. So he doesn’t seem biased during the talk. And that’s…why he probably doesn’t want to explain in detail. He probably doesn’t understand them himself.”

“I see,” Tifa looked downwards with a saddened gaze.

Aerith held the handle of her coffee cup, taking a sip, putting it down, only to hear a voice. Someone raised her coffee cup, taking a sip, “You two should leave. It’s not safe here.”

Tifa and Aerith turned their eyes, looking towards the young man, about 6’5, with light brownish-red hair, wearing a black turtle neck and a casual red jacket over black pants and black boots.

“Should have known, Genesis,” Aerith tilted her head, grinning, “What do you plan to do?”

“That’s on me. Although these people haven’t set up a camera network and only use it in top-secret facilities, they should have other ways to get the work done. The last thing we want is for them to know anything about this. I’ll see you back at home.”

“Be careful,” Tifa smiled at him, and he nodded, “Wipe the fingerprints.”

Immense heat released from the palm of his hand, destroying the cup and the coffee, yet none of the people around noticed anything strange.

He stepped out of the diner, looked around, and his eyes zoomed in on the phone booth on the other side of the road.

He took a step forward, and his body disappeared, appearing right beside the phonebooth, stepping inside, dialing the number he saw on the magazine.

“Welcome to Stark Industries. What can we do for you?”

“I need to talk to Howard Stark.”

“Sorry, sir. We cannot connect you to him. But can I help you in any way?”

“Tell him it’s about Super Soldier Serum. I have a dose of it…if he’s interested. He’ll find me….”

‘*Click*

Cloud removed his head from the phone, narrowing his eyes as a smile appeared on his lips. Even he was aware he was acting much more like Genesis than he was acting like himself.

His thought process had shifted, allowing him to see the circumstances more clearly. He stepped outside the phone booth, leaning against it, and manifested a book out of thin air, “LOVELESS, Genesis used to think it was about him, Sephiroth and Angeal. But now that I think about it….”

He didn’t speak but turned the page, starting to read the poem that Genesis was obsessed with. It probably took a few minutes, five minutes, to say the least, when he felt a sense of danger. He wanted to glance up but kept his eyes on the book, waiting for another five to ten minutes until the ones trying to surround him were ready.

There was no sound of a shot, but he heard a bullet tearing through the air, about to hit his head, but it was as slow as a snail in his eyes. He raised the book, slammed the book shut with his hand, and pulled away from the phone booth.

“You really shouldn’t shoot when the street is so busy,” Cloud loosened his grip on the book, and a bullet fell on the ground. It attracted the attention of the sniper.

“Looking for something?” The sniper focused on the bullet on the roof of a nearby building since they couldn’t believe that someone had stopped a bullet.

“He’s here!”

“Impossible!”

“Don’t fret! Attack!”

Cloud looked at the agents surrounding him and kicked the agent who was the first to find his bearing and hit his stomach. The agent got hurled back, hit against the railing, and fell.

One of the others took this time to put his finger on the trigger, only for the man in the red jacket to disappear from his gaze, and then he was beside him. He hadn’t even processed what happened as the man placed his finger on the side of the rifle, shifting it to the side until it was aiming at another agent.

He leaned forward, whispering in the agent’s ear, “Shoot.”

It was a gentle whisper, but it spooked the agent out; before he knew it, he had pulled the trigger, putting numerous bullets inside another agent.

He knew he had to stop, but he was blanked out, and the man kept shifting the aim, making him shoot more agents until one shot back, and his body flew back.

“Kill him!”

Cloud tilted his head, smiling, stomping his leg on the roof, which cracked and broke down, causing the agents to fall. They shot, but their air was towards the sky, missing all shots.

Unlike them, who barely had the time to react, he felt he had all the time in the world to use the falling stones as the foothold.

The agents only felt a red flash, hitting every one of them before they even hit the ground, and their bodies got hurled backward, hitting the walls.

He looked around at an old couple, watching him, stunned, before looking over the mess he made, “Didn’t think this through. If you two don’t want to die, run.”

The couple stood up, looking at the agents, screaming, running out of their own house.

Cloud scratched his cheek, walking towards the first guy he made sure to knock out. He took off the helmet, looking at the man with black hair and brown eyes, “Oh, good. I thought I killed you.”

The man didn’t speak, growling at him, “Don’t speak. I don’t need you to. I can read your memories, dig through your secrets or who you work for, or you could tell me where I can find Howard Stark.”

“Memories…”

“Oh, maybe I should give you a sample?” Genesis put his hand on the agent’s face, speaking the spell in his mind, using Legilimency, going into the first layer of his mind. He could have used Consciousness Scan, but that would lead the Jenova Cells to become more active. Something he’d instead not do unless necessary.

The agent could feel as if someone had put a hand inside his head and started to ask, “What is your name?”

A voice asked him that question, and he was pulled back to a recent memory of when he was selected as an agent, and his name was called out.

“Brock Rumlow!”

“Yes!” He took a step forward, stomping it down, and with that stomp, his view got pulled back until he saw the smile on the man who defeated them, appearing demonic to him.

“I can dig around, but that might only result in you getting killed by your boss, comrades, or maybe someone else entirely. I doubt this is worth losing your life? All I wish to know…where does Howard Stark live?”

He didn’t wait for Brock Rumlow to reply and directly read the first layer of his mind, looking at his memory of Stark House, right here in New York, pulling his palm back, “I see, thank you. Brock Rumlow. May we never meet.”

“Who…who…are you…?”

“I…? A preview of the next Act. I hope you do live long enough to watch,” Genesis floated in the air and made them close their eyes as he disappeared with a flash of light.

Near Hogwarts, Forbidden Forest,

Cloud appeared in the forest, falling on his knee, gasping for breath. He wasn’t his own body, his 13-year-old self with long hair tied in a ponytail. His ears were still ringing, with Genesis’s voice, his whispers inside his mind.

“CLOUD!”

Cloud looked up, seeing the worried faces of the two girls, and he took a deep breath, wiping the sweat off his cheek, “I know where he is.”

“How are you?” Tifa shook her head, telling him not to worry about it, asking about his condition.

“Feel less like me…more like Genesis. But I’ll be fine as long as I don’t have to do that again,” Cloud held his head, “Anyway, I am a bit hungry.”

“No, no, no, wait. You did transform your appearance into that of Genesis, right?”

Cloud looked away, shaking his head, “No…this was different. It was like I was…Genesis. I knew his thoughts…his way of thinking, his desires, and I have to say, the way he looked at the situation, and we did…was terrifyingly different.”

Cloud breathed in, slowly shaking his head, “Anyway. I am better now. I have a plan.”

He was about to raise himself from the ground when Tifa leaned forward, planting a kiss on his lips, calming his pulsing heart.

He pulled away, “I’d rather not kiss you when you are in this body. Somehow, it feels wrong.”

Aerith laughed, and Tifa followed, “Oh, that’s our Cloud. Come on, let’s rest a moment.”

“No, we need to leave now,” Cloud narrowed his eyes, “They must be on their way too.”

[Your interference has changed the future, a new scenario is into play.]

[New Priority Mission – Save Tony Stark

Mission Failure will put the users at a severe disadvantage in the future.]

[New Fast Travel Point has been set.]

“You said you had a plan?”

“Yeah…but Genesis…. I …didn’t realize that Tony Stark could severely affect the events. It doesn’t change the fact that this is also the proof that this would work.”

He didn’t answer their question but used transfiguration, turning into his adult self, “Let’s go. We need to make haste.”