A/N: This was a prompt fill for the 2019 FF7 Fanworks Exchange, for machineblue over on Ao3. The prompt was, "Kunsel and the terrible horrible no-good very bad day in which his snooping accidentally causes a wild chain of events exposing the science department."

Kunsel kind've had a thing for information. He was good at gathering it, great at retaining it, and fantastic at parceling it out as he deemed fit. Which, to be honest, usually meant sharing tidbits with Zack now and then, because Zack had the best reactions.

And Zack, bless his country boy heart, also had very unique perspectives on things. Which meant that some things that slipped by the rest of them, he noticed. And while a lot of it was just odds and ends Zack found interesting, things that Kunsel either knew or didn't find overly interesting himself, sometimes he would pick up on something that was right up his alley.

"That Sephiroth sim is creepy," Zack announced, flopping down beside him in the SOLDIER lounge.

Zack and nonsequitors went hand in hand, so it was more the content than the sheer randomness that got Kunsel's attention. "Sephiroth sim?"

"Yeah!" Zack, sensing he had information that Kunsel did not, grinned widely. "So, I'm in the training room with Angeal, right? And we're doing a combat sim, no big deal. He's probably done it like, a zillion times. And I come rounding a corner to take on the next set of troopers and you know who's there? Freaking Sephiroth."

It was probably just as well you couldn't see Kunsel's dumbfounded staring through his helmet's visor. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Sephiroth!" Zack made a gesture over his head, presumably in reference to their general's significant height. "And, I mean, I haven't really hung out with him, but for a minute there I really thought it was him! I almost got my head taken off standing at attention!"

"Angeal couldn't have mentioned that?" Kunsel said.

"Angeal was pissed off," Zack said. "That wasn't supposed to happen. Like, apparently he knew it could, but it wasn't planned - he didn't activate a sim specifically with Sephiroth's digital likeness in it."

"Okay wait, back up," Kunsel said. "Tell me exactly what went down with this."

So, naturally, Zack did, in dramatic cinematic detail complete with sound effects and mimicry. His Sephiroth stance, complete with a passable imitation of the esteemed First's facade of bored indifference, was particularly inspired.

Of course, then Angeal came after him for more training or some such, leaving Kunsel alone with this new information. He could have taken a mission off the board, of course, but his mind had latched on to this. Because here's the thing with programs, they did sometimes do really weird stuff, but that was entirely garbage-in, garbage-out. Operator error. Human imperfection in a mirror made of code.

This? A stunningly realistically coded 3D clone of their general? Someone didn't forget a bracket closing a line, this was deliberate, and of the insanely-time-consuming nature. Which brought up a few good questions.

1) Who had the skills needed?

Not just the coding, but the knowledge of Sephiroth, down to personal details like posture and verbal tics. This was someone who spent a lot of time around Sephiroth, or a creepy amount of stalker-like information gathering.

2) Who not only had the skill, but the authority to plug the program in on an administrator's level?

Because if this was some sort of subprogram that could activate within other sims, you had to have even higher level authorization; that wasn't someone just making one sim up, that was someone with permission to edit all of them. Or, at least, had the access to do so.

3) Who could possibly think this was a good idea?

They all appreciated Sephiroth, of course they did. The rookies with their blind hero worship and the more experienced SOLDIERs with actual work experience with the man alike would take a shuriken for him any day, not that he needed it. But that was just it - Sephiroth was the SOLDIER. He was their best. And while people might fantasize about beating him, or at least taking his place, no one actually could.

(Genesis had been actively trying to beat him since before the war started; if it was going to happen, SOLDIER's finest swordmage would have done it by now.)

So who in their right mind would put in a sim at a skill and strength level to get even close to Sephiroth, that could just… wander across simulations and pop up on an unsuspecting Second like Zack? Because yeah, Zack was a prodigy, but he wasn't that good. If Angeal hadn't been there, that could have gotten ugly.

Kunsel tapped his fingers on his knees a moment, then got up and headed back to the dorm he and Zack shared. Zack wouldn't be back for hours, and he had something he wanted to look up. Namely, who all had access to sim development. He knew it was a collaborative effort between the SOLDIER Department and the Science Department, but who, exactly, was in charge he didn't know.

He'd kind've thought Lazard, at first - the man was highly active in almost all aspects of their department. But this wasn't his style, pitting SOLDIERs against each other. While he was fine with some healthy competition, he knew he wasn't happy about some of the rivalries (especially Genesis and Sephiroth) so he'd definitely not encourage that.

It wasn't any of the officers, he was sure of that. Even if they were into coding (and he saw no evidence of that) no one had time for that with the war and the constantly filled mission board.

Which left Science, and well… that was when the gut feeling kicked in. Because yeah, there was someone in Science freakishly obsessed with Sephiroth. Someone who had the authority to go in and tweak the entire VR system and was known for designing simulations for SOLDIER. Someone who'd get a kick out of seeing this sort of disaster unfold.

And someone who had pretty lousy security, for being a director. He could really take some tips for the Turks. It took him more than an hour to break in to their stuff.

Kunsel hummed and cracked his knuckles. Time to see what Hojo was up to lately.

That was a terrible idea, gods save him, it was a terrible idea.

Looking into Hojo's files was kind of like playing roulette. There was some interesting stuff in there, there was, but there were freaky things, too. And it was like watching a car wreck as it happened; you knew something bad was happening, but you couldn't look away and suddenly there was this horrific scene you couldn't get out of your head for days.

And then, sometimes, it was like you were a frog in a frying pan, and you didn't realize what was going on until it was too late. Because one minute he'd been looking at Sephiroth's sim data, and then he was looking at a prototype for one of Genesis, and of course his mind had latched on to that because Genesis, as far as he knew, was overseen by Hollander, and Hojo and Hollander didn't share.

So how did Hojo get the information? The obvious answer would be that he was the director and had access to all of Hollander's work whether Hollander liked it or not. But then, why Genesis and not Angeal? Or why not Genesis and Angeal? The time stamp on the work said it was an older project, which was also confusing. It would have been started before Genesis had even joined ShinRa in '91, let alone become the famed Crimson Commander. He was, as far as SOLDIER was concerned, a nobody at the time. Hell, in '85 he was what… nine?

Why did they have information on a nine year old Genesis?

(There was a little voice most people had that told them, hey, you might not want to do this thing, this sounds Classified. Kunsel had long since gagged this voice, tied it up, and thrown it into a bolted closet, and therefore did not question the impulse to dig deeper.)

And that was how Kunsel found himself staring at a picture of a girl who couldn't be much younger than Zack, with brilliant red hair and cunning red eyes and my, she looked uncomfortably like a young Genesis in her early pictures.

As far as his records stated, Genesis was an only child. He was also far too young to have a fifteen year old daughter. It's impossible, it's just a freaky coincidence, there's no way -

Oh.

Gene grafts. Okay then, that was horribly invasive, immoral, and nonconsensual. Must be Tuesday.

Her name was Rosso, and like Sephiroth she was given no last name. Unlike Sephiroth, however, she wasn't alone. A little more digging revealed two younger boys, brothers named Weiss and Nero who'd had similar treatment on top of all sorts of complicated enhancements. To what ends, exactly, Kunsel had no idea. He kept seeing mention of this Deepground Protocol, so presumably there was an attached Deepground Project.

"You would think there would be a project list…" Kunsel worried at his lip a moment, finally running up against some tougher security clearance.

Which left him at a crossroads.

Who do you tell?