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As soon as Angeal gets the mission, he knows Genesis will be there. It's exactly what they used to do as children when Genesis' parents were paying too much attention and they couldn't meet without Genesis getting yanked away for improper behavior.
So they developed their system: They would both go out to do their chores but Genesis would purposefully stall on his last one – usually talking a walk around the entire dumbapple farm - while Angeal finished all of his in record time. Then, he would go to meet Genesis there, out of eye- and earshot of nosy neighbors, other busybodies and anyone else who would tell on them to Genesis' parents. The only people there usually were the farm workers and they had gotten used to the two of them long ago. They let them play in the fields, usually smiling indulgently and occasionally gently redirecting them when they got in the way.
The unfinished mission at Fort Tamlin feels exactly like those walks in Banora: setting up an opportunity to talk to each other with nobody able to overhear or report on them. Angeal just wishes Genesis would stop giving him a heart attack. Disappearing on a mission like this – a mission so easy the two Thirds and the Second Gen took with him as formally backup and as informally an audience for his brilliance were considered overkill even by the President who could barely remember their capabilities on a good day and once asked Angeal if he'd be safe if he was sent out into the Wastes alone – comes dangerously close to threatening desertion on a good day. And right now, with Wutai's defeat so close on the horizon, threatening desertion isn't something SOLDIER can afford.
Zack handles Fort Tamlin's defenses expertly, keeping himself focused and alert in the way he always is on missions but never in training. Admittedly, it isn't like the Fort presents a particular challenge. Wutai admitting surrender is mostly a formality at this point and the entire region around here is controlled by Shinra. They don't have to fear backup and anything that Wutai can throw at them that they haven't retreated to their capital, Zack can handle - and Genesis could probably have done it blindfolded. Angeal mostly occupies himself by watching Zack, keeping an eye on Lazard, and subtly searching for scorch marks and other indications of his friend's presence.
There are none to be found but Angeal learned long ago to not let that worry him. Genesis always waits at the end.
So when they get ambushed on their way out, Angeal expects it. The SOLDIERs move out of the way the second Zack and Lazard are out of their sight and he simply nods at them.
«Gen?»
«Accepting defeat so easily?»
Angeal turns around and snorts. “You set all of this up for a reason, Genesis. I’m not stupid enough to think you just did it for your own amusement.”
The cracking of twigs to the left lets him spin around in time to see his friend leap out from the trees, materia bracelet flaring with power.
Right. They were still technically in enemy territory.
“You have approximately thirty seconds to explain yourself before Zack will barge in on us.”
Genesis grins, a lazy, dangerous smile. “Don’t worry about your puppy, Angeal. I’ve thrown him a bone.”
Angeal eyes the materia on his wrist suspiciously. There are at least two elemental ones and a summon materia. “If you kill him, I will be very upset.”
“Relax, Angeal. You taught him well.” Genesis gestures to Fort Tamlin in the distance, coat flaring with the movement but his movements lacked the usual dramatic flourish. Automatically, Angeal finds himself running his eyes over his friends in search of the injury.
They’re still in enemy territory and Angeal doesn’t know if he’s talking about Shinra or Wutai. They don’t have time.
“Be serious. You wanted me to find you. Talk.”
The smile gets wiped from Genesis’ face in an instant. His expression shutters closed like the front door to the expensive house of his parents’ used to after the servants shuffled him inside when they were children.
“I’m dying.”
At first, the words don’t even register properly. They’re SOLDIER. Yes, they fight wars, but they’re Firsts. There is nothing on this world that would provide more than a challenge.
Then, the annoyance hits.
“Gen, we don’t have time for your antics. Shinra already thinks you might have deserted and even being a First will not let you get away with a slap on the wrist.”
He doesn’t say “especially not a First” because that particular fear doesn’t need to be voiced into the silence of a Wutaian forest.
“Do I look like I’m joking to you?”
Genesis’ answer has more bite to it than their usual banter and Angeal turns to meet his eyes.
Gen looks exhausted. His coat is more of a mess than the six month campaign through the depths of Wutai’s jungles had made it. He moves weirdly, like his limbs are stiff after spending days sleeping on solid ground or the Science Department’s floor.
But it’s Genesis. Angeal has never met anyone who is more alive than his best friend.
“Either way, it’s not funny. You need to come back, Gen. Lazard can’t protect you forever.”
Sephiroth misses you, hangs unspoken in the hot, humid air between them. But it’s better not to mention Sephiroth to Genesis when he’s in one of his moods, so Angeal swallows the words down his throat instead.
“I’m not coming back,” Genesis states instead and the ground under Angeal’s feet rocks.
“What are you talking about?”
“Angeal, I’m dying.” Genesis has always been intense but the near manic glint in his eyes as he talks is new. “My body is giving out on me and Shinra has never been known to invest in a failed version if they have a perfectly functional one.”
“What by the goddess are you talking about?” Angeal can barely find his voice again. It can’t be true. None of it can be true.
Shinra would not leave his best friend out like that. Lazard would not give up one of his Firsts without a fight.
“Hollander told me. He has the records of the experiments they did on us when we were children.”
Now that had to be a lie. Gillian would never have let any Shinra scientist even into the same village as their family.
“That doesn’t mean you’re dying, Gen,” he answers rationally. “What did Hollander tell you? Maybe you misunderstood…”
Angeal regrets his word choice a second later when Genesis’ eyes flare up in the way they usually do just before he starts throwing Firaga spells everywhere. But instead of lashing out, his friend rips off his coat and reveals his upper body.
“Am I misunderstanding this?” he hisses, shoving the bloody mess of bandages into Angeal’s face.
And maybe it was just a wound. Maybe it was coincidence. A new injury sustained in a different fight. Maybe it was nothing. They’re SOLDIERs. They get injured all the time and simply walk it off.
But the second the coat hit the ground, the sweet smell of rot that had been hanging in the air the whole time hits Angeal’s nose with full force and there is no excuse that can close his eyes from the truth written in pale grey lines into Genesis’ skin.
His best friend is not lying.