Disclaimer: All Characters belong to SquarEnix. Sadly.

Note: This story has little/nothing to do with the original "Crisis Core" plot, so there's no need trying to tell me that I got everything wrong/mixed up.
This is my story and it doesn't follow "Crisis Core", nor does it end like "Crisis Core". I changed the plot to a great extend, but there could still be minor spoilers. Some facts are true, others are completely off.

Chapter one: Failure

Hollander was positive that his experiment would have the best results ever. He would beat Hojo to it this time, that he was sure of. Hojo had been Shinra's top scientist for long enough now. It was time for him to retire. He was a mad man and had several projects going on at the same time. He wasn't able to take care of all of them and this was why he wasn't going anywhere with his research. Hollander smiled to himself as he went over his notes. He had scaled top values last week, which meant he was finally ready to proceed to the last stadium of his project.

The only project he had running at this time. Project G.

He had started it shortly before Hojo had started his Project S and to outplay him in advance he had convinced Shinra to let him do two projects of the same kind at the same time. So basically, Hojo had two test subjects for one project, whereas Hollander himself had only one subject. If he failed with this one, he would be doomed.

But for him there was no reason to worry at all. His test subject easily outstood both of Hojo's, especially when it came to the substance, that was actually being tested.

Hollander put the phone reciever to his ear. „Everything is ready. Send him down now."

A few minutes later the metallic door to his laboratory opened and a tall man entered the room. He wore black leather pants and boots, a black shirt and over it a leather coat of dark red. He had gloves on his hands, the exact same color as the coat, so the only skin that was visible, was that of his face. He was pale, but didn't look sick. Quite the opposite. The way he confidently walked into the room with firm steps, gave him a strong outward appearance. His piercing blue eyes stood out against his brown hair, of which strands fell into his face. His face was expressionless and he didn't even greet the man before him.

Hollander didn't care. He was proud of what he had created. Genesis was his creation. It would bring him success and fame and money all at once. With just one last test.

Genesis' body was adapting to the substance on a very high level, thus Hollander had always had better results than Hojo for the past four years. He was almost certain that it was because of the substance he used, which was actually a different substance than the one Hojo used in his project. While Hojo was using mako on his subjects, Hollander had used the original form of mako. Stagnant-mako. The pure form of mako, taken directly from the lifestream. The mako Hojo used was modified and less dangerous to a human body. But it was also less powerful.

Seeing as their goal was to create the strongest and most powerful warrior ever, it was totally pointless to Hollander to use the modified substance for it. He didn't know how Hojo thought he could keep up with him if he refused to use stagnant-mako, but he didn't give a damn anyway. Today would be his victory day.

He smiled at Genesis. „Ready for the final test?"

Genesis merely nodded. Hollander was about to say something more, but the door opened again and three men entered the laboratory. The scientist's face fell. Hojo, Sephiroth and Angeal were standing behind Genesis now.

Hollander pointed at his rival. „What the hell are you doing here?"

Hojo surpressed a smile. „Order from President Shinra. He wants us to supervise this little experiment of yours. Just in case something goes wrong."

„You're wasting your time.", Hollander spat at him. „This will be the end of my project and it will be verified by Shinra."

„Good for you.", Hojo told him and stepped up beside Genesis. „And I really don't want to miss how Genesis turns into the most powerful SOLDIER we've ever seen."

The scientist eyed Genesis with a strange look on his face. The First Class SOLDIER ignored him.

„Of course.", Hollander agreed smirking. „You can drop all your projects after this."

He turned and walked over to a metallic operating table, in the middle of the room. There was lots of empty space around the table.

Hollander waved at Genesis. „Come here. Lay down on your back please."

Genesis obeyed silently. While he positioned himself on the table, Hojo, Sephiroth and Angeal moved closer and stood around it. Sephiroth's face was as expressionless as Genesis', only Angeal had a worried look on his face.

Hollander held a special pistol for mako-injection in his hand. It was filled with the gleaming green substance.

„Relax, Genesis.", he told him, before he pierced the needle of the injection into his subject's neck.

Genesis gave no reaction to the contact and as the substance slowly left the injection and flowed into his body he lay completely still. Everyone in the room eyed the SOLDIER curiously, but nothing seemed to happen.

Hollander lay the injection from his hand and turned to Genesis again. He kept staring at the ceiling stubbornly and refused to move, for he feared something in his body would change then. There was something inside him, he could almost feel the cold substance gathering at one point in his body. Was it his heart? It was on the left side for sure. A pain shot through his back and he closed his eyes.

Sephiroth immediatley stepped forward. He sensed something was wrong. Angeal followed him, he stood on the other side of the table, opposing Sephiroth. Hollander noticed the SOLDIER's concern and shoved Angeal aside to have a look at his subject.

„Is everything okay?" He tried to sound calm, but his worry clearly showed and Hojo had to fight the urge to smirk.

Suddenly Genesis let out a scream and sat up straight. The moment he did so, something black came shooting out of the left sight of his back. It was huge and fast and it made the four man jump backwards in fear. Genesis continued to scream, while he embraced his upper body and tried desperately to reach his wounded back.

Seconds after that, the others realised what had just happened and stared in shock at the black wing, that had come out of Genesis' body.

It didn't take Hojo long to start laughing uncontrolably. With one hand he held his stomach with the other he pointed at the SOLDIER in red. „That's... that's just..."

While the scientist laughed his ass off, Sephiroth and Angeal lunged forward and each grabbed one of Genesis' arms, in order to prevent him from using magic against anyone. He was obviously out of his mind. The only things he felt were pain and rage and he wanted to destroy everything around him.

„Hold him down!", yelled Hollander, as a wave of despair hit him. His experiment had failed. The only thing he had managed to create was a one-winged monster. And if it couldn't even bear the pain of having a wing coming out of his back, it definitively could never be the most powerful warrior in the world.

With a crushed look on his face Hollander watched, as the two First Class SOLDIERS tried to calm their childhood friend. He was spitting angry words at them, while trying in vain to break free. They dragged him from the table and made him lay down on the ground on his stomach, so that his back would not be damaged further. The black wing fell numbly on Sephiroth's shoulder. His eyes widened in surprise as something soft touched his neck. The wing was actually feathered. It was just the blood on the feathers that made it look like it was a demon wing.

Angeal looked everywhere but at Genesis' face. He couldn't bear his friend's hurt and betrayed expression any longer. Genesis still struggled to free himself, but he was too weak and too much in pain to succeed.

Hollander stumbled around the table to take a closer look at the wing, while Hojo, unimpressed with Genesis' outbrust, went up to the table. Its surface was covered in blood as well and the scientist with a smile on his face reached out to touch the red substance, that had come out of Genesis' wound. When it touched his fingers it was still warm... and slowly started to disappear. Hojo turned to Hollander.

„That was hardly a success. You gave him a single wing, that's all. He suffers from it and it doesn't look like he can move it. It seems like it is just a side effect of the stagnant-mako and not a real part of his body. Poor thing."

It was true, while struggling against Sephiroth and Angeal, Genesis never once moved his wing. It hang completely numbly off his back.

Hollander turned to his rival angrily. „His body didn't react like that last time. Maybe it was just too much mako in one month."

Hojo let out a sharp laugh. „Face it, Hollander. You failed. You failed, because you refused to use Jenova Cells on him. This failure just confirmed my theories. Stagnant-mako doesn't go with any other substance and because it is so strong it destroyed Genesis' own cells and build up new ones inside of him. That is why you have to give him a dose per week, am I right? Because otherwise the mako cells in his body would fall apart and he would deteriorate."

All of a sudden every single sound in the room died down.

Genesis finally gave up. He lay his head on the cold ground and closed his eyes. Sephiroth loosened his grip around the arm he had held and looked up at Angeal, who had a very sad expression on his face. They both heard of it for the first time. So this was the price? The price for being one of the most powerful creatures in the world. Genesis payed it by letting it eat up his own body.

But something was amiss. As he opened his eyes again, Sephiroth could see that Genesis hadn't known any of this either. The shock of this revelation clearly stood on his face. Hollander had been lying to him all those years.

Angeal wondered what excuse the scientist had been using all the time, to convince Genesis of taking mako constantly. He could imagine that it wasn't easy to betray Genesis, but Hollander had surely managed to do so.

It didn't slip Hojo's attention that the one-winged SOLDIER had just learned of his own fate and so he decided to use that fact to his advantage.

„My, my... what a cruel thing to do. You poisoned Genesis' body and the only thing holding it together now, is the stagnant-mako. You made him addicted to it.", he said nearly pitifully. „Tell me, how long can he go without? How long does it take until his cells begin to fall apart, if he wouldn't get the mako?"

„None of your damn business!", Hollander shouted, his voice trembling with anger.

„So, does this mean I can inform President Shinra of the failure of your project then?", Hojo asked with a mocking tone in his voice.

„Leave.", Hollander hissed. „Get out of my laboratory!"

Hojo smirked and turned from the other scientist. „Sephiroth, Angeal, we're going." He left the room, without looking back once.

Angeal hesitated to leave his friend's side. But he knew very well that he couldn't possibly disobey an order. With a sigh he eventually let go of Genesis' arm and stood, ready to follow Hojo through the door.

Sephiroth was about to do the same, when he suddenly felt a light grip on his wrist. He looked down to see that Genesis had set his pleading eyes on him. At that very moment they reflected nothing but pain and fear.

„Don't leave.", he managed to mouth, but there was no sound coming from his lips.

Sephiroth was slightly taken aback. In all those years he had known him, Genesis had never once asked him for something, let alone begged him. But he did now. Genesis was begging him to stay.

„I have to.", Sephiroth said in a low voice. He tore his eyes away from Genesis and stood, easily breaking out of the weak grip the other had on him.

„Don't worry. I will take care of him.", Hollander assured the First Class SOLDIERS before they left his laboratory. Leaving their friend laying on the ground.

The scientist crouched down beside Genesis and carefully touched the black wing. To his surprise, Genesis reacted to the touch, the wing twitched slightly. A warm smile graced Hollander's face.

„I knew it. It's not the best of results, but it definitively is a result. One that Hojo can only be jealous of. I gave you a wing. Does Sephiroth have a wing? No. Does Angeal have a wing? No. You're the only one. You will crush them all, my precious monster."

While whispering to himself, he gently stroked Genesis' hair, never realizing that his touch was torturous to Genesis. The SOLDIER had every desire to kill Hollander at this very moment, but due to the pain and numbness in his body, he couldn't move a finger.

„Oh, I know.", Hollander exclaimed happily. „While you're recovering, I'm going to read Loveless to you, how does that sound?"

He got to his feet walked through the room in search for the book and came back again when he had found it. He seated himself on the ground and began to read out the first chapter of Genesis' favorite lyric.

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Thanks for reading the first chapter. I hope you liked it. More is to come. Until then, review please?