What We Used To Be
Summary: Before SOILDER and before the madness, there were three young men. The oldest, a 15 year old full of pride and hopes, as well as a want to keep his best friend safe. The middle child was a 14 year old who had never known anything beside the labs and pain, the two who came to him confused him because they said they 'cared about him'. The youngest was a new 14 year old poet who had hair of fire and a personality to match; he had a fierce desire to help the middle child who pushed him away. This is what we used to be.
A/N: I have never seen any fan fiction that explained how these weirdo's became friends anyways. So, in Spanish class I had a eureka moment and drew a comic staring teenager Sephy and Gen-Gen. From there I was all like- this would make a good story. I am far too lazy to post up more than one chapter tonight, though. Back to FF13! ^_^
Oh yeah, If you don't hate Hojo just yet… Let's say you will hate him with a passion I thought only Vinnie could have. *hint hint*
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"WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE IS IN CHARGE OF SOLDIER!" Genesis practically shrieked at Lazard, the 14 year old red head obviously unhappy that the slightly older Sephiroth had been declared the leader of the pack of third classes- of which there were three. Angeal, 15, tried to console his younger friend. Futile in his attempts to do such, Genesis started to stomp off, only stopping to tell Lazard "This is bullshit! I am going to give that guy a piece of my mind! He didn't look at me once while we were training!" With an angered look on his face, Genesis stormed out of the room-you could practically see the flames coming off him- leaving Angeal and Lazard to look at each other.
Lazard sighed. "Angeal… you have to stop him. I don't know Sephiroth personally, but if what I have heard and seen of him… He has had far from a normal childhood. In other words, the guy is not normal."
Angeal didn't say anything, but he did give the slightly older teen a look that distinctly read as 'no shit.'
Rubbing his temples the blonde began to explain the rumors of the quiet teen to his Banoran friend. "All I really know is that Sephiroth practically grew up in the labs, god knows what Hojo's done to him over the years. It's simple enough to say the guy was raised to be a SOLDIER and is most likely treated as a specimen rather than as a kid. It's simple enough to say that Sephiroth doesn't feel too comfortable around other human beings. It doesn't help he has another appointment tonight with aforementioned scientist."
"That does explain his… odd behavior."
"You need to stop Genesis. If my theory is right, simple things like hugs could be misinterpreted as threats."
"Ri~ght… guy has social issues. Got it." Angeal started to walk away.
"Angeal, hurry. God knows what Hojo'll do to Sephiroth if he is late. I have seen him walk out of the labs looking more or less like he was in a train wreck." Lazard told his friend with unusual seriousness.
'Hmm. Genesis will do far worse if I am not at the dorms when he gets back.' Angeal thought to himself, 'best to wait there.'
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Sephiroth knew he was being followed. He had been trained to use his enhanced senses like that. He used his peripherals to see who it was. The teen wasn't even trying to conceal himself, choosing the more direct approach of following Sephiroth. His pursuer had auburn hair and the look Hojo gave when he had done something wrong. 'Anger' was apparently the name for it. Sephiroth remembered that the teen was the youngest SOLDIER, and his name was 'Genesis.'
"Why are you following me?" He asked calmly, slightly turning his head to acknowledge the other teen's presence.
"Don't give me that crap! Now you listen here, mister! Angeal is the most fitting of all three of us to run SOLDIER, so why are you in charge?" Genesis was yelling at him, shouldn't he be afraid? If people didn't ignore Sephiroth entirely, they were afraid of the silver haired teenager.
"I didn't ask for this." Hojo had told him that "My greatest experiment is the only thing fit for running SOLDIER. Not Hollander's mere failures."
"Sure you didn't. And I am a puppy called Zack."
The red head used the same tone that Hojo used when the mad scientist said "Just one more- Hah!" as Sephiroth cried out in pain at the next round of fire being injected into his veins.
Shaking the thought from his head, Sephiroth tried to explain his situation to Genesis. "I have an appointment with Hojo this afternoon… He didn't mention that it would probably take up the rest of the night at this rate. His tone as he said 'appointment' was almost the same one Genesis had used only moments before.
"Even BETTER." Genesis told Sephiroth in the voice Hojo would be using later. After Sephiroth showed up at least 5 minutes late.
Genesis grabbed Sephiroth's arm and proceeded to drag the slightly older teen along. Sephiroth surrendered, knowing that the more he resisted, the longer this would take, and the longer this took… The more pain he was in store for later. He quietly voiced his dark thoughts of what his legal guardian was going to do to him later. "Hojo isn't going to be happy…"
Genesis gave him the look Sephiroth got when he tried to refuse the experiments. "Since when do SOLDIERS care about mad scientists?"
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Angeal could hear two sets of feet coming down the hallway.
"Genesis, where are we going?" Came a deepish voice from beyond his door.
"Seriously dude, you really don't know?" Came his friend's incredulous reply. Genesis came in with a look of mild disbelief on his face. It didn't match the one on Angeal's face as Sephiroth himself walked in, looking mildly disconcerted at the unfamiliar surroundings, but he quickly pushed the look aside as Genesis continued. "Aren't you like, 15 or something?"
"14." Sephiroth corrected Angeal's friend.
He looked between the red head and the silverette for a moment before dragging off Genesis by his ears.
"Ow. Ow ow. OwowowOWOW!" Genesis didn't like the ear with his earring on it being pulled. The Mako in his bloodstream tried to heal it, and well…. Let's just say it hurt- a lot.
"Genesis. What the heck! He has grown up around Hojo and you expect him to act normally? Hojo is his legal guardian! He has mako injections tonight, which means Hojo has free reign tonight. And if Hojo is really like Hollander said he was… This thing is not ending pretty for Sephiroth here."
"Really… well, it does explain his odd reactions to sarcasm and rage, the guy almost flinches." Genesis looked thoughtful for a minute. Then his face brightened like a light bulb had come on. "If Hojo is his legal guardian, then why don't we try and become friends with the guy? Only if to spite Hojo." Hollander had raised them to hate the man for calling the two failures.
They decided to check on the silver haired teen. Aforementioned teen was looking intrigued at a statue of a Banoran tree.
"He does really need to get to Hojo, though." Angeal reminded his good friend.
"Ri~ght." Genesis went to bring the 14 year old to his guardian. "Well, Sephiroth, It seems that, for once, I am wrong. Forgive Me?" He attempted to sling his arm around Sephiroth's shoulder, only to have him being thrown to the ground. "Why did you try and strangle me?" Sephiroth asked calmly. The teen's face was carefully kept emotionless, but Genesis could see the shadows of confusion in Sephiroth's eyes. "I wasn't trying to strangle you; I was giving you a fucking hug!"
"…Hug?" Sephiroth now looked downright confused as he tried to figure out what that was.
Angeal sighed and grabbed Sephiroth's arm. Dragging the teen toward the labs, he told Sephiroth, "he'll explain later."
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"So, you've decided to come." Hojo's voice echoed throughout the lab, said man scrunched up his nose in 'disgust.' Sephiroth didn't say a word.
"Well?" Sephiroth stood there, cowering slightly at the sound of the man who had made all of his life absolutely miserable.
"Hmph. Come here- boy." Once again Sephiroth was being dragged toward the fire Hojo would inject into his veins and watch the results.
~In the labs~
Sephiroth prepared himself for the inevitable fire. He closed his eyes.
-SMACK- There was a slight crunching sound as Hojo hit him in the cheek.
"Keep them open. Take it like a man."
And the first wave of pain came- Sephiroth hardly even flinched.
Hojo smiled at his favorite subject. It was hardly anything like what he had seen that Ilfana woman had given him once. Ilfana's smile was like sitting by a fireplace. Hojo's was like getting your muscles removed one at a time-without anesthesia. Sephiroth knew that from experience.
He held up his act until the sixth wave of pain came hurtling towards him. His screams came in full force as Hojo set the now empty needle down and held up an even larger needle of the blood-fire. "Just one more-Ha-ha!"
After the twelfth wave, as Sephiroth began to see black dots lining his vision, Hojo stopped. 'Doesn't want to break me just yet, does he?' Sephiroth thought darkly. He began to drag himself off to some abandoned corner where he could let unconsciousness take him. But no, Hojo grabbed the youth before he could do anything about it.
'Should have known that I wasn't going to get off with just injections…' He thought. You see, Hojo had a funny way of making sure each visit was more painful than the last. Hojo loved to make bad situations worse. Hojo put the machine on him, and dragged Sephiroth over somewhere in the general direction of the training rooms. Hojo then locked the machine onto Sephiroth's head, and called out a Summon. Sephiroth could only tell because the mako inside him was reacting to the materia.
Hojo then threw the teenager to the ground. Something metal hit his side and fell away. Feeling around, Sephiroth grabbed the object. 'Piece of pipe.' He thought, 'It will have to do.'
He ran towards the collection of lifestream he assumed to be the Summon.
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Genesis couldn't sleep.
"I was giving you a fucking hug!"
He really could have dealt with Sephiroth's lack of social interaction better.
Genesis sighed. All of a sudden, a noise came from the hallway. He heard a footstep, a distinct sound of dripping liquids, and then something let out a muffled groan of pain.
"Agh!" Whatever was outside his room had just slipped and fallen. 'Whatever is out there is injured. Badly.' He mused.
The sound of leather against metal. Whatever was outside was dragging itself in order to keep moving. It paused, let out a hitched breath, and he could hear footsteps again.
Moments later, somewhere farther down the hall, it fell with a cry. But it did not get up again.
He sighed again. 'Better see what it is. If it's a monster I'll put it out of its misery. No one else would be up and outside in the frigid air at this ungodly hour.' Genesis sat up, briefly musing on whether or not to but something over his plaid boxers.
He decided against it, and strutted over to his door. He opened it, and his easy confidance disappeared as he noted the bloody footsteps coming from down the hall and leading toward where he had heard the noises coming from. Falling into a more defensive position, he began his slow walk down the cold hallway.
He noticed a bloodstained, pale, bare foot first, it was shaking- probably from the cold. Following the foot was a leg. The person was only in his boxers as well, though his were a pale silver, and covered in blood and soaked…. How'd that happen?
The man's- Teens?- Chest was covered by blood and guts. 'How much of that is his? I don't see many wounds…' Save the 10 inch gash in his chest. There was also a couple of tiny puncture wounds- probably from needles by the way the skin around them was irritated. His hair was a mop of blood and dirt, his appearance was worsened by the…. Machine…that was stuck in it. His eyes half closed and eye brows scrunched up in obvious pain. The teen in question- and he was a teen, no man's body was that out of proportion- was sobbing quietly. He didn't seem to notice Genesis' approach.
And although he wasn't acting anywhere near normal, not even by his own standards, the teen was definitely who Genesis thought it was.
"….Sephiroth?"