Story: What if Lucrecia had twins…instead of just Sephiroth? And no one knew…except for Hojo, mister mad scientist himself? How would the world be impacted with the Meteor Crisis?
Chapter 1 - Beginning of life, to SOLDIER.
Hojo drew back in surprise, blinking wildly behind his glasses. He had not expected twin children, especially a twin, which had completely eluded his scientific tools. Irritated, Hojo slammed his fist down on the counter, only causing the two babies to cry louder. Lucrecia, left dying in her room, barely had time to name the little boy. "Sephiroth," she had whispered, unable to continue, and passed out. The little girl, the fraternal twin of Sephiroth, was unknown to the sick mother, and she sobbed, softer than her elder brother, but still causing Hojo to have a splitting headache. "Damn it…" he whispered, rubbing his temples. There had been enough Jenova in Lucrecia's bloodstream for only one child, but for two? Then the Jenova line would be weakened. The alien had caused an extremely interesting experiment for one scientist, but this second child could ruin everything. A loud pounding was heard coming down the wooden staircase, dilapidated, and worn. Running footsteps were heard, and Hojo quickly pushed both babies behind some books, the noise of their crying suddenly mute in his mind. Pulling a gun from the inside pocket of his lab coat, he held it behind his back.
"Damn it, Hojo! Where are you?" shouted a deep, angry voice. With a crash, the door to the laboratory in the downstairs of the Nibelheim ShinRa Mansion swung open. Vincent Valentine, the Turk from ShinRa swept into the room, his deep brown eyes blazing with hatred and fury. "You…monster! How could you! She's dead! Dead! Your wife! How could you kill her like that…how could you leave her? You could have saved her…you could have kept her alive!" the Turk raged, then ripped his gun from its holster on his side. Hojo, expecting this, said nothing, but quickly pulled his gun around to shoot the Turk in his left shoulder. The pain of the shot, as assumed, knocked Vincent out almost instantly. The scientist sighed, and kicked Vincent over, onto his back. He would live; which was good enough for Hojo's purposes.
The mad scientist turned back to the two children, allowing the Turk to lose blood, thus rendering him weak when he awakened. The male…Sephiroth, cried abominably…however the female stared at Hojo, her eyes focused on the scientist. Slightly alarmed, and surprised, Hojo crept forward, keeping his eyes on the girl. She stared back. "I thought that babies didn't focus their eyes until much later…perhaps Jenova is much more advanced than at first believed…" Hojo whispered, scribbling something into his journal, still not taking his eyes from the girl. "Juno…" he hissed, the word forming like acid on his tongue, "I suppose you need a name…Jenova Under Nebulous Oddities…Project Juno." Thus marked the beginning of Project Juno.
Juno grew up, subject to Hojo's torturous experiments, alongside of her brother. Sephiroth, although could do little, grew close to his sister, with no one else his own age around. Juno spent much of her time pacifying her brother, for he had a temper, and some of her time pacifying Professor Hojo, their caretaker. Apparently their caretaker had had no wish to deal with two unruly children, and seemed to resent them very much. But they had no other choice, and lived in a sleepy little town called Nibelheim. Or, at least, what little of they saw of Nibelheim, as they were rarely allowed outside of the dusty mansion. Spiders lurked in the corners of the mansion, and some monsters had even managed to find their way into the smaller, darker rooms of the house. But the darkest, most dangerous fear came from the children's fear of Hojo himself. Always seemed to leer out from the darkest corners, he always was ready to pounce on one of the children, and drag them off down into the eerie basement, with shots, and pills, and all kinds of weird painful things that would happen down there. More than once did Juno recall passing out in the basement, only to awaken upstairs, with her brother. But he never mentioned how she'd gotten there.
Despite all the torture given to them by Hojo, Juno rarely felt threatened or panicked in Nibelheim. When she was old enough, she ventured outside the house to see what the outside was like. All the windows had heavy curtains in the house, and she was unable to really get a look outside…not that it mattered, really. Juno cared little for the life outside…all was green, and bright…much unlike the inside of the mansion. Stepping on a flower and grinding it with her toe, she grimaced at the scent of the air. The air reeked of Mako, and it bothered her with a headache. At the young age of twelve, soon to turn thirteen, Juno had felt different, even from her twin brother. Sephiroth watched her with curiosity, his face bright and eager. "Someone told me that we'd be leaving this place, soon, sister! We're going into a city…what do you think it'll be like?" he asked, almost breathless from excitement.
Juno shrugged, and kicked the remains of the flower away, "We're going with Hojo…it won't get much better," she sat on the grass, picking blades out, and throwing them away. Sephiroth frowned at Juno's pessimism, "You were so excited a few days ago…and you haven't sang anything lately…what's wrong, Juno?" The young boy flicked his silver hair over his shoulder, it was longer than most boys were, or at least the ones they'd seen in the village. It reached greedily down to the middle of his back, and his bangs stuck out front, bouncing as he turned his head sharply to look toward the road leading out of the village. "I'm just not…excited…" Juno admitted, "I have a strange feeling…that we can't trust these people…they've been to nice to us…with the exception of Hojo," she added, bitterly. Sephiroth sat next to his twin, poking at a stray beetle, rushing for cover. "You can't have it all, you know…at least we're getting away from here…and I heard something…called SOLDIER. I wonder what that is…maybe there's more kids like us!" Sephiroth said, his aqua eyes glowing with dreamy thoughts. Juno just sighed, and leaned on her brother, "What if it's not…? I don't know…I feel…used…" she said, her eyes downcast.
Dark, angry thoughts twisted around in her head, and Juno wasn't even certain they were her own thoughts anymore. Ancient anger, bitter hatred…it all swirled around. Little was certain anymore, especially since Hojo had been giving the children things lately. His normally frightening attitude had altered abruptly, since an urgent telegram had reached him. His usual cursing about the lack of decent technology had instantly changed into eager mutterings, as he'd read the letter. Juno, strapped to a table, twisting in pain from a recent injection of God-only-knows what medicine, focused what she had of her attention on Hojo, and caught words, "to Midgar…the Lab…both needed…Mako…SOLDIER." Juno felt Hojo's eagerness, and it twisted her stomach. Whenever he got eager, he always injected the children with something horrible and painful. Sephiroth had already finished whatever injections he'd been given, and was rubbing his arm, which was a horrible red. "I hate this…every day…" he was muttering, and looked up as Juno wandered over to him, "Don't you just want to run away…?" Juno kept silent…she had no reason to worry her brother over something she wasn't even certain about…but somehow she had the feeling she was being watched…or, even better, observed. It wasn't a good feeling.
Sighing again, Juno continued to pull the petals off of a flower, which she just realized she'd been holding. Sephiroth watched her silently, uncertain of what to say, or do. Obviously, his sister was hiding something; he'd always been able to tell when she had. But lately, she'd been more and more moody, and quiet. Something was bothering her insanely, especially plants. She'd thrown a rock at a bird one day, hitting it, and breaking its wing. Sephiroth wasn't too pleased with Juno's carelessness of throwing the bird to the cat, but Hojo had seemed delighted in the evil act. What was up with her? Juno had used to sing for Sephiroth, especially one time when he'd been sick. This had been about a year ago, and Juno had always been making up little tunes to hum or sing as they played, but when Sephiroth had been sick, Juno had sat down right beside him, and taken care of him. More so than Hojo or any of the other nurses, which randomly came out from the lab to check their blood pressure and pull cells for DNA samples, as they'd said. But when he'd awoken, fever so high he was becoming delirious, he heard Juno's voice, singing softly, as she was taking a cool, wet cloth and bathing his face. She was so different now…and soon they would be leaving for Midgar, for ShinRa, and for SOLDIER.
"Sephiroth! Juno! Come here!" shouted a voice from inside the mansion. Both children were pulled from their reminiscences, and drudged wearily up to the mansion. Sephiroth was giving his sister sidelong glances, and finally she noticed, turning her face towards him, and smiling. Cheered up significantly, both kids raced each other to the mansion, and pushed through the door, trying to make it into the great hall first. Hojo stood there, looking irritated at their antics, and frowned at them, looking ferocious. "As you both know, we're leaving for Midgar soon. It's a big city, and you won't be allowed to wander as freely as you can here. There are a lot of dangerous people there, so don't leave the ShinRa tower unless you are instructed to do so. But…you won't be needing protection, soon," Hojo said, ending with a laugh. The twins eyed each other nervously; Hojo's laugh was never a good thing. "And so," Hojo continued, glaring down at the children though his glasses, "you shall both be joining SOLDIER…it's a new elite training program. You two are going to be soldiers in ShinRa's SOLDER army…to prove all the work we have done will pay off. You two are dismissed…go to sleep. We're leaving tomorrow." Hojo walked away, heading back into the bedroom, which held the secret door to the basement. Juno swallowed nervously, what if she wasn't good enough to be in SOLDIER? Anxiety took over for a short time, forcing Juno to stumble into the room she and Sephiroth shared, and lean against the wall, sinking down into a kneeling position. Taking deep breaths, she closed her eyes and attempted to relax, unaware of Sephiroth's worried expression, as he walked into the room and saw his sister looking so traumatized. Silently, they both crept into their beds, and fell asleep, the next day drawing into chaos, as they were both shipped off into Midgar, central pollution in the world.
(Author's Note: Yay! I actually started creating my Juno fic! :D I don't want to give any spoilers, but I hope this fic gets better...even I'm disappointed in the first chapter. Ooo...Juno's having issues already. *sigh* ^_^ R&R please? ~Misamore~)