Hello all! So a warm welcome to 'Children of Shinra'!
Now some of you might know that I have begun this fic while I am mid-way through writing my other big story 'Fearing the 1st'. I just wanna say if you are a reader of that fic, firstly I LOVE YOU :D and secondly, please don't panic! Both fics will still be getting regular updates and I am not abandoning either. Not in the slightest.
Similarly if you haven't read 'Fearing the 1st' and you do enjoy this story, please go check it out and drop me some PM's or reviews on your thoughts. It would make you one my new final fantasy friends!
Now as for this fic! This is going to be a Sephiroth/Aerith fic , what kind of relationship they are going to have is a mystery and other than what you have read in the plot description I am giving nothing away! MUAHAHAHA :D. First thing you should know about me is that I never give anything away early, so you never have to worry about reading spoilers in the A/N's. Just know that I will do my best to make this exciting and enjoyable to read and I never abandon fics.
Anyways I hope you all enjoy! Please drop me some feedback it is hugely appreciated especially when a story is just getting started, reviews and opinions at an early stage are like gold dust!
Have fun, feel all of the feels and I have decided I will only say this disclaimer once so don't expect to see it again: I do not own any of the FF7 material being used in this fic, it all belongs to Square Enix.
On we go!
Staring up at the blank white lights that covered the entirety of the ceiling in his room, Sephiroth let his mind zone out and wonder aimlessly. Not something he did on a frequent basis, but in moments like this it always seemed to help ease the pain.
Laying on the small bed he was fast outgrowing in a half-conscious and trance like state, he frowned hazily up at the sky. Why did the ceiling need to have this many lights? And did they really need to always be this bright? Surely the professor would still be able to see him even if they were just a teensy bit dimmer? He turned his head weakly on his pillow to look at the large single sided window covering one of the walls of his sterile colourless room, the man was probably watching him now.
If he had the strength, Sephiroth would have glared at his own reflection in the hope that Hojo would be on the other side to receive it. Though it would probably be for the best if he wasn't, it would only give the scientist an excuse to send him for another series of sessions with doctor Coates, Hojo's preferred company psychologist.
Sephiroth didn't like Hojo, well truth be told he never liked Hojo but lately his disliking had started turning to hate. Every day the stuff the scientists were doing to him under the man's ever-watchful eyes was starting to hurt more and more and the professor didn't even seem to care. In fact, if the bone marrow injections he had endured earlier were anything to go by, the scientist actually seemed to enjoy it.
Sephiroth exhaled shakily, it was all because he was becoming older now, his body was supposedly getting stronger and therefore more resilient at withstanding heavier amounts of experimentation. At least that's what he overheard the doctors saying, no one explained anything to him anymore.
It was while he was on that trail of thought about being older that he was reminded of something amusing that made his lips curl up slowly at the glaring lights again. It was his twelfth birthday today. Not that it really mattered, not that anyone would care or anything would be any different. The continuous cycle of lab, training, studies and sleep would continue because there had only ever been one person who had really cared or remembered about his birthday.
The smile that was barely hanging onto his face fell off completely and Sephiroth tried to swallow the small lump in his throat but had little success as they were dehydrating him in preparation for his next visit to the lab.
Why did Professor Gast have to leave? Did he not care anymore? Were all those things he said about them being friends a lie? Sephiroth didn't know, he just knew that he missed the kind professor, missed him so much he wanted to curl up and cry. Not that he would dare to really do it, that would earn him a whole lot more than just an extensive visit to doctor bad-breath Coates.
The boy continued gazing up at the lights in mournful thought. Professor Gast had been the only one who made all of this tolerable, the only one who showed him any sort of affection or care. Today as it was his birthday, the Professor would have found a way to secretly slip him some sort of present or treat which Sephiroth would have taken the greatest of care to keep hidden. But Professor Gast was no longer around so he would get nothing, without any reason or explanation the only father figure he had just disappeared one day many years ago without even saying goodbye.
That hurt more than Professor Hojo's experiments.
He didn't like it here anymore, he wanted to leave and every day it was getting worse. Soon they would start putting Mako into him and if his lessons on SOLDIER and Mako had taught him anything, it was that Mako… HURT. He would become the youngest person ever to receive the chemical enhancements that would turn him into a powerful machine of war, they keep telling him that it is something he should feel proud and honoured about. He just felt scared.
Sephiroth blinked. Perhaps he could run away? He was good with a sword as it was by far his strongest skill and one of the few parts of his training he truly enjoyed. He could take a blade during his next practice session and fight his way out, maybe even slice Hojo's ugly beady little head off along the way as a bonus.
Now he was smiling softly again which the twelve-year old boy found interesting. The way a thought alone could change his temperament and distract him from the intense discomfort he was feeling.
Maybe his weapons trainer was right after all? Maybe pain and emotions really were only in the mind? Perhaps that was the answer to escaping all of this and making life more bearable? Simply blocking it all out.
Sephiroth thought he would test this theory out for himself.
When the next alarm went off in his sleeping quarters an hour later to alert him that his next visit to the lab was grimly upon him. Instead of groaning miserably and getting up lethargically as usual, the boy propped himself up as quickly as possible, forcing a shaky grin in an attempt to hide any pain from showing and hoping that if he didn't grimace or whince it would make it better.
His own experiment failed, the agony in his limbs felt like his body was trying to tear itself apart and he collapsed back down to a horizontal position gasping for air. It was the pain under his ribs that was the worst, the burning sensation radiating in that area was making it hard to breath. He choked on his ragged breathing sadly. Shutting off his emotions and separating his mind from his feelings hadn't worked. Not yet anyway.
He would stick at it, he had to, otherwise he might just well go insane.
Trying not to drag his feet in thirsty exhaustion, the newly one year away from being a teenager navigated his way uncomfortably through the Shinra corridors in the direction of the laboratories. It was a long and arduous walk through repetitively blue and grey halls with the occasional flight of stairs or elevator along the way, the former of which he would always choose if given the choice. Regardless of how tired he was, sharing a small and confined box with another person was not Sephiroth's idea of pleasant and he would often avoid it at all costs.
Walking along the same frequently traversed route on autopilot, Sephiroth stared straight ahead at nothing in particular the entire time, he didn't need to look around to know that everyone was giving 'the boy with the silver hair who Hojo said we can't talk to' a wide berth. He didn't care anymore, he was used to it, most of them were probably dull morons who he could chop up into a thousand tiny pieces if he so wished it anyway. In fact he wouldn't talk to them even if they did have the guts to face the mad scientists fury and try to strike up a conversation with him. HE would reject THEM.
So taking the fastest elevator free route down to the science department, he refused as always to make direct eye contact with anyone along the way, which was harder than it seemed because of the time of day. It had just turned afternoon so much to the boys disliking the corridors were packed with swarms of employees making their way happily to lunch, subjecting him to their aggravating noisy ramblings about stupid stuff like who didn't get invited to what party. Or who got caught doing what with who. Or if bad mouthing their colleagues wasn't the prime topic of discussion, perhaps the same old whinge about canteen prices or unfair workloads and expectations would be more to their liking?
It was always the same dull droning and he was tired of it. He would rather listen to some of the idiotic and unintelligent ramblings of children his own age for once over the pathetic drivel that adults came out with. Unfortunately adults were the only thing he was ever surrounded in so instead of listening to their conversations, Sephiroth focused on playing with the sleeves of his dark plain navy jumper instead.
When that got dull, which was extremely quickly, he started playing a game he often liked to play in his head on occasions just like this when he was surrounded by people and got bored. It was a strategic game where he imagined and planned out what he would do if everyone around him at this very moment had weapons and suddenly tried to attack him.
Scanning around the battlefield, Sephiroth decided he would first dispatch of the two second class SOLDIER's up ahead who had just opened the heavy double doors he was soon to pass through. His opening move would be to stab the bigger blonde haired one who would be too slow in drawing his weapon. Then he would use a double underhand high-block and slash to deal with his brown haired colleague who would react instinctively and try to use his height against him.
After that the lonely third who was stood arguing angrily with a fire extinguisher nearby would become his next target. Ok so he knew the guy was actually holding a PHS to the other side of his head, but from the side Sephiroth was approaching it looked like he was shouting at a bright red inanimate object which made him smirk.
Next he would take down the group of cadets who were stood whispering about him over on the corner of the junction that turned off towards the lecturing halls that were predominantly dedicated to the studies of materia proficiency. It wouldn't take much to handle the group of seven, once he had killed two or three of them with basic manoeuvres, it would then simply become a case of chasing the rest of them down when they inevitably tried to run.
After the seconds, thirds and cadets were all dead, the rest of the untrained staff in this corridor would be a mere clean up duty from that point on.
The young silver haired anomaly sighed tiredly when the final mass slaughter of all the office and administrative employees played out in his mind and thus signalled the end of the game. Not that it was a problem because he was arriving at the Shinra lab's now, the pungent smell of chemicals and sterile cleaning fluids always alerted him to that depressing fact early. Sephiroth hated that smell.
Walking through the sleek double glass doors that opened automatically, the young boy couldn't help but internally chuckle to himself just like he did every time he passed through those doors. He once watched them malfunction and refuse to open for Hojo while the creep had his head buried in a clipboard. The scientist had walked into them face first with a satisfyingly loud smack, breaking his glasses and very nearly his nose in the process. It was certainly one of Sephiroth's happier memories.
Stepping unemotionally into the so called 'lobby' of the science department he was rather taken aback when the usual mob of expectantly waiting scientists wasn't there to pounce on him. Was he early?
He looked up at the clock. No, not early.
That was strange. Maybe they had forgotten about him and he could go back to his room and rest? Or maybe they remembered it was his birthday and decided that one body violating experiment was enough for the day? Pfff, what silly wishful thinking that was.
Twenty-five minutes had passed and Hojo and his lap dogs had still not arrived. Sephiroth stood leaning against the far wall of the lobby with his arms folded, tapping his foot away in annoyance as he watched waves of white coat clad scientists pass by on the other side of the wall of glass that separated the reception with no receptionist from the nightmarish labs.
They all seemed to be in a rush, even more so than usual that is but it was kinda hard to tell, Hojo ran this place with an iron fist so people were always in a bit of a frenzy. Actually 'iron fist' was an understatement, Sephiroth was convinced that if Hojo ordered every scientist and doctor in this department to throw themselves off the top of the Shinra building right now, they'd probably do it in fear of what worse things would happen to them if they didn't. Not him though, he wouldn't be intimidated, Sephiroth would always take great pleasure in resisting and aggravating the greasy haired lab tyrant at every available opportunity he could. Provided that it didn't earn him a trip to Coates or the cold metal table that is.
He looked at the clock again and growled impatiently, he wanted to spend as little time as possible in this infernal place. Then it occurred to him. What if this WAS the experiment? Sephiroth folded his arms a little tighter. Perhaps they were watching him through the cameras right now in some kind of mental test to analyse his patience or his behaviour when he thought he was being unobserved?
"YOU STUPID BLITHERING BUFOON! REMOVE YOURSELF FROM MY SIGHT BEFORE I EXTRACT ONE OF THE TWO REMAINING BRAIN CELLS YOU MIGHT POSESS IN THAT WITLESS HEAD OF YOURS!"
Maybe not.
The twelve-year old boy watched as Hojo came storming into view of the window and marched down the blank white corridor with a pack of his ever-trying-to-please boot licking cronies close at his heels.
Sephiroth rolled his eyes at the sight. Pathetic
"OUT OF MY WAY YOU IGNORAMOUS!" Hojo raged on as he grabbed a young lady by the scruff of her coat and launched her out of the way for obstructing his path. "GAIA I AM SURROUNDED BY INFERIOR MORONS!"
The particularly grouchy professor stomped towards the lobby menacingly but Sephiroth didn't move an inch, he remained propped against the wall in idol observation.
"She is here! At long last she is here!"
The hard-nosed, round spectacled scientist crashed into the lobby rubbing his hands together and licking his lips eagerly, his facial expression taking a surprising polar opposite switch from anger to sheer excitement. At the same time Sephiroth's eyes flicked to his favorite automatic double doors as they hissed open on the other side of the room and a wave of hysterical sobbing and screeching flooded into the room to pain the boys ears. The horrendous sound was then followed by two SOLDIER's marching in while dragging a small girl of about six or seven kicking and screaming by the arms. Sephiroth's head lifted in intrigue.
"NO! GO AWAY! I DON'T LIKE IT! MAMA! I DON'T LIKE IT!"
She was tiny, the tiniest human he had ever seen in his life with small chestnut curls accompanied by a long twist of hair that traveled down to her waist and a light orange summer dress that was dirty with black smudges. What struck him most about the girl however were the owlishly large emerald green eyes she had that were pouring with tears and made him jump slightly when they spotted him across the room and held his gaze pleadingly as she yelped away while they pulled her along. Sephiroth's head became a bit of a blur. What did they want with a girl? Women couldn't become SOLDIER's. Did this mean he could leave?
He stood in encapsulated silence on the far side of the lobby where no one but the girl seemed to have noticed him yet.
"MAMA! IT HURTS! YOU'RE HURTING ME! I WANT TO GO HOME!"
Hojo stared down at the child in exhilarated fascination, dry thin lips peeling back in mirth as the girl tried to recoil away from him in fright.
"Oh yes! Oh yes oh yes! This is most definitely Ifalna's runt! Simply fascinating! It is like my old beloved specimen is staring me right back in the face!... Mind you, can't see much of you know who in it. Perhaps the imbecile gene skipped a generation?"
Sephiroth huffed distastefully as all of Hojo's minions let loose with their well-practiced but undeniably fake cackles in their never-ending battle to win the head scientists favor.
With a dismissing wave of the professors hand, the two restraining SOLDIER's let go of the squawking girl and when Hojo's boney hand shot out to roughly grab the girls chin to get a better look at her, Sephiroth considered sneaking away. Her constant crying for her mother and pleas to be let go had turned into one continuous high pitched squeal and it was giving him a headache. However he was extremely glad he decided to stay or else he would have missed the precious moment that unfolded before his eyes when Hojo tried to get a look at the girls teeth by pulling her lips down. The brown haired child squirmed away, whimpering and fighting to keep her mouth shut but then she suddenly bit back and sunk her small teeth into the professors finger while stomping her foot against his big toe, making Hojo howl and lose his grip on the new arrival.
Sephiroth grinned from ear to ear in satisfied delight, but then his expression turned to wide-eyed shock as the momentarily free girl came running in his direction while rapidly hyperventilating in terror.
He stood up sharply, not sure whether or not he should dive out the way or use an offensive manoeuvre on the approaching target.
Instead he froze up and in his panicked indecision he failed to react and she ran into him, latching her arms desperately around his middle to cling onto his waist as she only stood up to just below his chest.
His adrenaline spiked like mad and he took in an audible intake of breath while looking around at the room of scientists, completely at a loss for what to do with his arms suspended in mid-air like they were being held up by strings. Hojo was shouting and cursing loudly in the background and as Sephiroth looked down at the little thing attached to his middle trying to bury itself into his clothing, he couldn't help feeling sorry for the girl. She seemed so innocent and was shaking like crazy while gripping the back of his jumper with a strength he was surprised such spindly little arms could be capable of.
He slowly let his arms fall from their awkward position in the sky to rest gingerly on the girls back but he quickly put them up again and swallowed when the contact made her quickly look up at him. He stared back blankly with eyes that he was sure were making her puffy red and sparkly green ones look small. His training had never taught him how to handle a situation like this, at least he didn't think so, he would check over his text books later to be sure.
And then the strangest thing happened, it was no longer than a few seconds max but while he was trapped in that mind boggling hug, she looked up at him with this stare that knocked the wind out of him and made everything seem to stop for a moment. She was analyzing him, not just gazing helplessly in his direction but was intelligently and rationally studying him like she was trying to figure out who he might be or what kind of person he was. Sephiroth stood there rigidly under her inspection and it nervously baffled him how a girl who had to be at least five or six years younger than him was making him feel like the child.
Her hysterical crying had died down into quiet damp eyed sniffles and as Hojo and the other scientists ran over to grab the girl off him and take her away, he felt her small hand slip into his and she tip toed up to whisper something in his ear which he couldn't help but lean his ear down to listen to.
"Keep it safe, please don't let the bad man take it"
They snatched the girl off of him and although Hojo growled viciously in the child's face, she didn't make any more noise.
"I'll show you what happens to disgusting little animals that bite!"
They roughly whisked the girl off to the door of the lobby to take her away into the science labs and as they did so, Sephiroth who was feeling rather numb up until this point, regained some of his sensation and felt that something was in his hand the girl had touched. Taking a look he saw that she had placed a small white orb in the palm of his hand that was about a third smaller than the size of regular materia. He frowned, it didn't look like anything special. It couldn't actually be materia, it was too small and the wrong color for a start, plus it didn't show even the faintest hint of possessing any kind of magical properties that could be sensed in even the lowest grades of materia. Why would he bother putting his neck on the line to hide and keep something this worthless safe?
Then out of the corner of his eye, Sephiroth saw Hojo turn towards him at the door.
"And you boy!"
He reacted instinctively and closed his hands around the white orb while letting them fall discreetly to his sides.
"You won't be needed today"
Sephiroth nodded neutrally and made straight for the door, he didn't need to be told twice.
"BUT!... Don't think for one minute you're going to be lazing about for the rest of the day you idle little lout. I want you over with Wilkes for the rest of the day training". The professor glared and pointed his finger at him, "And if I find out you haven't been, your feet won't touch the floor for a week... After all, we wouldn't want you thinking today was anything... special"
Hojo sniggered spitefully and then slinked away out the door after his newly acquired test subject.
Sephiroth clenched his teeth. So the god damn bastard knew it was his birthday after all.
Oh well… the joke was on the professor, he actually enjoyed weapons training.