Hello all, first fanfiction! I hope it's not too terrible and mundane. Written mainly because Hojo needs love

Puppeteer

Professor Hojo was used to the slander of others, used to their insults, used to the muttered jeers behind his back. What was he, to them? He was an old man, wasted away by years of negligence to him own self; he wasted away to his own fixation on his own work. He clearly had no regard for his own appearance – his clothes hung off him, his skin stretched to cover nothing but bones, his hair was tied in a messy and greasy tail because he could not be bothered cutting it. He spent all of his time in the labs of the Shin-ra building, working on his own projects and interests.

'A second rate scientist', Rufus had called him. A second rate scientist who had lost precious specimens due to his own weakness and – metaphorical – near sightedness. A second rate scientist who charged on ahead with no thoughts to the humane side of his specimens. All was right in science, though. What did they matter, as long as the goal was reached?

"It's that kind of dullness that makes you a second-rate scientist."

But a second rate scientist who had made, with his flawed attempts, the thing that made Shin-ra the super power it was, hadn't he? The mako injections of SOLDIER had been going on in Gast's time, true, but was it Gast who was willing to make the General? Was it Gast who was willing to sacrifice his own child to do so? Was it Gast who was willing to work his way though such a difficult project, with so many ifs, buts and needless complications?

No. It hadn't been. Second-rate to Gast Hojo might be, but he was the one who had given Shin-ra Sephiroth. Gast had not even been willing to give them Ifalna. Was he 'second-rate' because he could put his work before all other things? Was he 'second-rate' for giving Shin-ra the JENOVA project, which had led them to victory in Wutai?

Heh, even Sephiroth himself had thought so. But would Sephiroth have ever been able to become a god if it wasn't for Hojo?

Hojo was the backbone of that company, as under appreciated as he knew he was. He didn't care. All he cared about, even as he pulled the levers and set the commands for the Sister Ray, was seeing the results of his experiment.

Maybe he was a failure. But without him, there would be nothing. Without the sickly, pale, insane scientist that he was, Shin-ra would not be the super power it was, and Sephiroth would never have had an opportunity to become a god.

Nothing monumental would have happened in the lifespan of those who slandered and mocked him had he never been there.

He was the puppeteer.