After a few minutes more of walking, they spotted a few tents set up in a clearing. Genesis held his SOLDIER helmet a little tighter as he straightened up to his full height and took a deep breath. This was the moment he had been waiting for, the opportunity to give the hero, Sephiroth, some of his family's prize winning dumbapples.

Angeal could see his friends excitement, and decided not to point out the fact that there were no SOLDIER operatives in sight, only a few Shinra infantrymen. Maybe things would play out alright, but it was starting to look like the news that had reached Banora hadn't been entirely accurate. Actually, now that he thought about it, they had never been told that SOLDIER was involved, just that a Shinra had sent a group of operatives to this area. It was never specifically stated what type of operatives, SOLDIER, infantry, or even the Turks, were in the area. When Genesis had heard the news he had immediately assumed it was SOLDIER and hadn't given a second thought to the possibility that it was another group altogether.

Genesis started walking quickly towards the camp, and Angeal followed slowly behind. Once they were in sight of the infantrymen a few walked over to them. Genesis sauntered towards them like he owned the place, keeping a cool and collected expression on his face.

"And just who might you be?" asked one of the infantrymen.

"We're members of SOLDIER. Here to join the rest of the group. We fell a little behind. Some people required our help, and we couldn't refuse them, now could we? It took us a little bit longer than expected, but now that we've finally caught up, we'd like to be taken to the rest of the SOLDIER members, if you don't mind."

The infantrymen all burst out laughing at Genesis' speech. His face turned an angry shade of red that almost matched his hair as he shouted "How dare you laugh at me! I am a member of SOLDIER!" He held out his wooden sword threateningly. "I could kill you with this in an instant and not give it a second thought! But," he looked down his nose at them, "I'm feeling merciful. So just take us to the others. Now!"

The snickering infantrymen stood straight and saluted Genesis as they fought to hide their smiles. "Yessir!" they said as they led the boys into the camp. One of them held open a tent and gestured for them to enter. "Please wait here, and we'll see if we can find the rest of the SOLDIER members for you, sir."

"That was far from you're best performance," Angeal told Genesis after they were left alone.

"I know. But do you think they bought it?"

"I doubt it." Angeal stood off to the side of the tent with his arms crossed. "Genesis, I hate to have to tell you this, but I don't think there are any members of SOLDIER in this camp."

"You don't have to sound so sarcastic Angeal. And besides, Sephiroth could still be here. If he is here they wouldn't have had to send any other SOLDIERs, he could handle it all by himself."

Instead of arguing, Angeal just shook his head and closed his eyes.

A few minutes later, the infantryman came back in. "I'm sorry to have to inform you, sirs, but it appears that you're in the wrong place. The SOLDIER operatives are on the other side of Banora. But if you start walking now, I'm sure you will be able to reach them by the end of the day tomorrow. And perhaps if you have time you can stop in Banora and have some of their famous dumbapples!" The infantryman gave them a huge grin and motioned for them leave.

The boys both stood and stared wide-eyed in disbelief.

"The other side of Banora?" Genesis asked quietly.

Angeal didn't say anything, he just gave Genesis a quick glare and strode past him out of the tent. Genesis followed him after a few seconds, and they were almost out of the camp before he managed to speak again.

Turning back to the infantrymen, Genesis asked "If this isn't the SOLDIER camp, then what are you doing here?"

"That's the business of the Shinra Science Department, not infantry or SOLDIER. All I know is that Professor Hojo is here doing some work that is related to some of his experiments."

Genesis just nodded and ran to catch up with Angeal.

They walked in silence the entire way back to Banora, arriving home just as the sun began to set.

xxxXXXxxxXXXxxx

Genesis smiled as he remembered the lecture that he and Angeal had received from their parents when they got back. It was one of the worst that they had ever gotten, and they had been forced to do some of the worst and most tedious chores imaginable for weeks.

Turning away from the gathering of items, Genesis walked down the path to a deeper section of the cave and continued his work in searching for the gift of the goddess, the solution to his degradation.

I'm not sure how much I like the ending of this, Genesis seems a little bit OoC to me, but please leave me some reviews and let me know what you all think!