I remember the day Kadaj was born. No, not born…
Hatched.
We'd done the designs for him at least four years ago, my close colleagues and I. He'd taken quite a while to think up, unlike his brothers. Loz and Yazoo… I'd enjoyed designing them, of course, but it was the original prospect of this boy that had… excited me.
He'd developed over the next couple of years, in the same kind of test tube as Jenova. It was a bit odd, watching him grow so quickly in such a short period of time. It was like watching a baby in the womb, only so much faster. I would check on his progress in the morning, then when I returned in the evening, he would have grown a few inches.
I'd planned to grow him to be around seventeen. Old enough to be physically mature, but with still a ways to adulthood. Strong, yet submissive. The perfect servant.
Two whole years had passed since I'd placed him inside the tube. I'd stepped into the lab, and my eyes had fallen upon my vision. He was perfect, his arms clutching his knees to his chest, head ducked, eyes closed; the typical remnant standby pose.
His hair was long. Not nearly as long as Yazoo's who was in the tube to my left, but long nonetheless. It was a similar shade of silver to my own, perhaps a little lighter. His pale skin was stretched over limbs made from only skin and bone, it seemed. Still, plenty of time to train him up and get some muscles showing through those skinny arms.
But it was his face that really entranced me. I took a look at Yazoo and Loz's sleeping faces, but neither of them had Kadaj's… innocence. Loz's face was stronger, more masculine. Yazoo's was almost haunting, like he belonged in a wax museum. But Kadaj had this incredible naivety in his features. It was an odd purity I think I myself had lost long ago.
We'd planned to release all three boys from their tubes at the same time. Only Kadaj made it out, first time around. It was, as I recall, very much like a baby bird, cracking through the shell of its egg.
Simultaneously, the boys released their grip on their knees, and their legs slowly stretched downwards. They floated in the ghostly liquid, arms resting at their sides.
My eyes were then totally fixed on Kadaj. He had very long, very skinny legs. They looked almost abnormally long against the rest the rest of his body. A long, skinny tube stuck into his stomach, much like the umbilical cord on a baby. This was how we had been feeding him and his brothers these past years.
Then Kadaj had moved. I'd wondered absently why Yazoo and Loz weren't doing the same, but then all worry faded as I gazed, transfixed, upon the boy's graceful movements.
His hand stretched out towards me, before his long fingers came to rest upon the glass. I thought a saw a flicker of movement behind his closed eyelids. His fingers ran along the glass, then he pulled his hand away slightly. Slowly, his hand came to rest at his side once more. All was still.
One minute passed. And another. And another.
Why wasn't he moving? Were there flaws in his program? Impossible, seeing as both I and my top scientists had overseen each and every aspect of Kadaj's creation.
Then…
iTHUMP.i/
Kadaj had his fist balled against the wall of his tube. A small crack had appeared where he had struck. His eyes were still closed, though his brows were drawn together slighty.
iTHUMP.i/
Another blow. The crack grew larger, splintering in a long line downwards. There was surprising strength in his strike, ithump, thump, thump!i/ The crack grew larger and larger, drops of the liquid he was suspended in oozing out of the cracks.
iTHUMP.i/
And the whole thing shattered. Shards of glass fell to the floor like rain, and the liquid gushed out, over the lip of the tube and past my boots.
Kadaj, no longer supported, fell forwards. IV lines tore off arms, neck and stomach, leaving raw patches on the milky white skin. He slid off the bottom of the tube and fell to the floor, writhing around in a pool of glass and liquid, his 'umbilical cord' dangling from the roof of the tube.
Doors opened behind me. My medics hurried past me, cursing and yelling that they needed to cut the cord.
I couldn't move. I could only watch as my remnant writhed about on the floor, limbs jerking. His eyes were screwed shut, and his mouth was clamped equally as tight.
iSHICK.i/
The medics had cut through the cord. Kadaj's eyes flew open and both he and I gasped, though for different reasons. His was in pain, mine was in shock.
His eyes were incredible. They were a startlingly bright blue, flecked with green, and his pupils were slits. Cat-like.
From the first moment he opened those stunning eyes, they were fixed on me. What could only have been about three seconds, but felt like an eternity, passed. A moment in which it was only us.
And I knew it. He was the one.
The medics had pulled him away, still thrashing wildly, to run tests on his abnormal behavior. I was told later that there was nothing actually wrong with Kadaj, but that he had strongly inherited my fear of entrapment.
Another year passed, in which Kadaj was trained, and his brothers were born. Technically, because they had been in their tubes longer, Yazoo and Loz were older. They were calculated to be around nineteen now, two years older than Kadaj's estimated age.
While Yazoo and Loz were being born in the regular manner (the suspension liquid was drained, the boys were scanned, the cord was cut), Kadaj was being taught to talk.
I'd been watching from behind a one-way mirror in the teaching room.
"Do you know your name?" The doctor had asked formally, staring across the tabletop at Kadaj.
"Name…" Kadaj mumbled, toying with the button on the white shirt all remnants wore. "My name… is… Kadaj."
Good, I'd thought. He knows the standard information I'd programmed into his brain.
The doctor nodded. "And who do you serve, Kadaj?"
"Mother."
Of course he'd say that. It was mine and Jenova's cells that had created him, and he was not meant to know me. Though I can't say I hadn't wanted to hear him say my name.
Over the next few months, life was pretty straightforward. My remnants would be taught the ways of the world, fighting, speech, etc, and I would watch. Their progress was important to me. It was vital to know which one would become my shell.
Although I think I already knew.
I remember… It was the night before we'd set Loz, Yazoo and Kadaj off to infiltrate Midgar. The stigma panic had been planted long ago, and now it was time to shake things up.
Kadaj was lying on the medical bed. It was a last minute checkup before we sent him out. Trails of wire bridged off his body to the equipment on the floor beside him. His chest rose and fell gently, the heart monitor beeping steadily.
He looked different to when he'd first been hatched. His body seemed to have settled into all the right places; his legs didn't look so freakishly long now, and muscles showed through on his arms and stomach. He'd grown quite the attitude too, I thought fondly. I cast my memories back a couple of weeks to when he'd grabbed his doctor by the ponytail and smashed his face into the tabletop, scattering papers everywhere.
He really was unique. He made me feel… almost human.
I touched his cheek with the tips of my fingers, careful not to rouse him. I leant down, pressing a soft kiss to his forehead. The next time I saw him, I'd be inhabiting his body.
As I pulled away, I heard him whisper something. I couldn't be sure why he said it, or if he'd been conscious at the time or not. All I know is that this word made me feel so incredibly alive, it was painful.
i"…Father…"i/
b~Owari