Quote Originally Posted by YianKutku View Post
I'm not sure Gaius ever saw Nero as anything more than settling for what he could get, and Nero responded to that level of (lack of) loyalty in kind.
I kind of don't think this is quite the case. While Nero is certainly second to Cid in terms of engineering ability, Nero is the one I'd trust more then Cid to deliver what he promised when he promised to do it. I can see Nero replacing Cid as a lead engineer, but I can't ever see Cid as a Tribunus.

The very reason Jessie even hires Nero on is because Cid really isn't cut out for running the Ironworks. He's really bad at keeping the business side of the Ironworks going on a day-to-day basis and can't seem to get that the Ironworks has to make a profit off of what he's doing. In fact, what he's doing is usually making sure various technologies don't spread. Which given the type of technologies he comes across is understandable, but still... Cid's seems like the kind of guy who comes up with all the prototypes, but never bothers figuring out how to mass-produce them. That's everyone else's job at the Ironworks. Only recently, it sounds like he hasn't even been making prototypes because he's so busy helping the Scions... I can easily see Jessie hiring Nero because she knows Cid will focus on what Nero is doing once he finds out about it (as opposed to not wanting to work on anything he doesn't feel like working on).

Oh man... I just thought of something hilarious... Jessie and Giaus have worked with both Cid and Nero. I can so see Jessie and Giaus swapping stories about all the difficulties they've had trying to get Cid to work on the engineering projects he's supposed to be working on. And all the ways they managed to get him to do what they wanted.