Sephiroth looked at the white ball of fluff in his palm.
"Zackary, why have you given me a ball of fur?" Sephiroth eyed the grinning SOLDIER standing in front of him.
"Don't call her that…" Zack pouted.
"Her?" Sephiroth raised his hand to his eye level.
Zack poked the ball. After a few moments, it started to move. First, two furry triangles popped up from its surface. And a long, thin, furry…thing…uncurled from around the ball. Slowly, the curled up cat untangled its limbs and stretched. It blinked and yawned, exposing tiny but sharp teeth. The tiny baby kitten sat on Sephiroth's outstretched palm and looked up at him with big blue eyes.
"Meow?"
"Zackary." Sephiroth counted from one to ten then back in his mind, just like his shrink had taught him.
"Yes, Seph?" Zack rubbed the pad of his finger between the kitten's ears. It closed its eyes and started purring.
"Why have you given me a cat?"
"She's not a cat!" Zack explained. "I got her from the labs."
"And why would I want an experiment?"
Zack sighed, then started explaining.
"Hojo made these pets for First-Class SOLDIERs. They're small and fragile at first, but they get really big, you should see the grown-ups down at the labs! The president wants us to train them when they get big, so they get mako shots and stuff too. I already got mine!" Zack pulled out his phone and showed Sephiroth a picture of a small dark brown fur ball. Two beady black eyes were looking curiously at the camera.
"How am I supposed to take care of an animal if I'm barely home?" Sephiroth sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"You're not supposed to leave her at home, Seph…" Zack put his phone away. "You have to be with her at all times. She's gonna be a SOLDIER too. Go by the labs, some scientists are giving out information to how take care of them." Zack made a sloppy salute and left, closing the door behind him.
Sephiroth plopped back down in his chair (graciously, of course) and sighed. He looked at the kitten in his palm. She blinked at him. He stretched out a finger and held it in front of her face. She went cross eyed and stared at the tip of it. Sephiroth chuckled at her and touched her nose. He gently rubbed it up and down. The kitten started to purr. Sephiroth found the noise very calming. He decided to go down to the labs and know more about her.
Standing up, he looked around for somewhere to leave the kitty, then he remembered it would be better if he took her with him. When he stepped out of his office, he was immediately assaulted by Jane, the office bitch.
"Oh, my Gaia, it is so adorable!" She stretched out her hand to pet the kitten. Sephiroth was immensely pleased to see that the white animal bared her teeth and hissed at Jane.
Jane, however, had the IQ of a fencepost, and inched her hand closer.
"Look, General, she's smiling at me! OUCH!" The 'smiling' kitten had scratched the overly manicured hand. Sephiroth chucked and petted the kitten on the head,
"I guess she doesn't like your plastic nails, Ms. Maly…" Sephiroth walked away and pressed the elevator button. It opened immediately for him. Stepping inside he looked at the small furry cat sitting quietly in his palm. He smiled softly. When he stepped out onto the lab floor, he was stunned for a moment. SOLDIERs and Turks were all around, one screeching animal to each person. The humans were trying to keep the animals from running away, or gnawing at them. Sephiroth looked down to the kitten in his palm.
It was unfazed.
"I keep liking you more and more…" Sephiroth muttered. The kitten turned her head to look at him. Sephiroth thought he saw the corners of her mouth turn upwards. He shrugged it off and stepped to one of the stressed-looking scientists.
"Hello, General, come to learn about your new friend?" The lady behind the desk said.
"Yes." Sephiroth simply answered.
"Well, I'll start you on the basics." The lady started typing on the computer. "General Sephiroth… ah, here." She double clicked a file. "Female, white fur, blue eyes, is that right, General?"
Sephiroth held his palm out for the lady to see.
"Oh, so well behaved…" she smiled.
"Why wouldn't she be?" Sephiroth looked around the chaotic room.
"It's nothing, we're waiting for them to calm down so we can apply this month's mako shots." She waved him off and started typing again.
Sephiroth looked down to the kitten when he felt her move. She was arching her back and hissing at the doctor. Her fur was standing up, making her look twice as big (which wasn't much).
"Well, let's get started, shall we?" the lady put latex gloves on and took a syringe filled with liquid. Its telltale green glow made it easily recognizable as mako.
Sephiroth winced slightly as small claws grabbed his palm.
"There, there, little kitty…" the lady approached with the syringe. The small animal leapt from Sephiroth's hand and plunged into his coat. After much struggling, Sephiroth pulled the kitten out by the scruff of her neck and held her still. The shot was applied and the patient's eyes began to glow faintly. Sephiroth slowly loosened his grip and held the kitten in his palm again. She looked up at him with sad eyes. Sephiroth gave her a sympathetic look, he wasn't much of a fan of the shots either.
"Well, General, you need to buy a few things." The lady interrupted them, throwing the syringe and the gloves in a bin. "Some normal cat things, like a kitty bathroom with sand and a few toys for her to play with." She handed him a pet shop's business card. "She doesn't need cat food, anything you eat should be fine for her too."
Sephiroth nodded and took the card.
"She has to take mako shots every month, if you prefer, we can schedule them together with yours."
"That would be optimal." Sephiroth said. "What of her training?"
"She will have a growth spurt soon, we are administering a training program for the new companions. There are two different programs, for Turks and for SOLDIERs."
"How big will she get?" Sephiroth looked at the tiny creature in his hand. He resisted the urge to snort.
As an answer, the scientist lady pointed to a few cages at the back of the lab. In them were apparently the same creatures Sephiroth saw in the room, only bigger. There were cats, dogs, birds and reptiles, though all of them were absurdly large. A wolf should be 40 inches tall, tops, but Sephiroth was sure that grey one at the front was at least nearing 70 inches. For good measure, it bared its teeth and growled at Sephiroth. And was that a toucan over there? It was at least three feet tall…
"There is another stage, but we do not know yet what it is." The scientist lady was saying. Sephiroth nodded and went to the elevator. Again, it opened immediately for him. When he stepped inside, Zack was stepping out. His pet appeared to be a dog. A very frightened dog. Zack was cooing at it to calm down.
"I'm glad you're so well behaved." Sephiroth thought aloud looking at the kitten. It looked back at him with faintly glowing blue eyes.
"I see not the need to cause any disturbances, unless I feel threatened."
Sephiroth's eyes went wide. He stared down at the cat in his hand.
"Is there a problem?" The kitten blinked up at him.
"You speak." Sephiroth said dumbly. Internally, he thanked the elevator was empty.
"Yes." The cat answered. 'Duh' went unsaid.
