The cold metal burned into Lucrecia's palms. The light was almost blinding. Still she stared, stared into the brilliant emerald depths of the tank that held her son. Her hands and face were pressed up against the smooth metal surface, her anxious expression directed at the view visible through the small glass porthole. The baby had been immersed in the tank of Mako for months. The sight of him floating there caused Lucrecia to cringe. His tiny arms and legs flailed helplessly, and his gleaming silver hair stuck out in all directions. Although he could take in oxygen through the tubes plastered to his face, it looked extremely painful. Little Sephiroth was treated like a machine. Nutrients were pumped into the tank for him to absorb, and the Mako was changed once a day. Still, the poor child was constantly living in unclean liquid.
A tear trickled down Lucrecia's cheek. How could Hojo have done this? He was a monster...Before Sephiroth had even been born, Hojo had injected him with tremendous amounts of Mako energy. Now he was being forced to absorb even more. The constant assault on the young child's body would give him superhuman strength and abilities--if he didn't die first. Mako was an extremely dangerous substance. The sight of her little one like this was almost too much for her to bear.
Lucrecia had never loved Hojo. She had married him in the name of science--as a mere tool to his twisted experiments with Mako. Now, she hated him more than she had previously thought possible. The things he could do to her son--their son--proved that he had no human feelings. She wished she had pursued a relationship with her secret childhood crush, a Turk named Vincent. She knew he loved her--but by that point she was far too involved with Hojo's twisted experiments to stop. Hojo--an inhuman monster! A monster! The thoughts raged frantically in Lucrecia's mind. As soon as her son had been born--on the first of November--he had been snatched away from her and subjected to horrible tortures. She had never even been allowed to hold him. Not once!
The only thing she had been able to give him was his name. Sephiroth. The name was imposing. Lucrecia chose it to represent her shattered dreams. When Lucrecia had discovered she was pregnant, her heart had filled with hopes for her child. She had planned to raise him well. She prayed he would end up being a rich man--a Mythril miner, perhaps. She would teach him all he needed to know. That was her goal, but Hojo stood in the way. Sephiroth was being overloaded with Mako. If he survived the treatment, as it appeared he would, his mind would be very unstable--he might even go insane at some point. Lucrecia's worst fear was that he would become evil. His Mako-given strength would allow him to conquer the world and engulf it in darkness. Lucrecia shuddered to think of what would happen then. She hoped against hope that the Mako wouldn't destroy him, and that he'd end up being a kind and wealthy man, as she had planned. However, the possibility of that becoming a reality was slim.
Lucrecia jumped to the sudden touch of a hand on her shoulder.
"Are you ready yet?" Hojo's cold voice intoned.
"I'll never be ready." Lucrecia's voice was bitter.
A ghost of a smile appeared on Hojo's face. "I expected that response," he said icily. "Start the process!" he barked at a young engineer standing nearby. The man leaned over an intricate control panel and pressed a series of buttons.
Although Lucrecia didn't want to watch what was happening, didn't want to see, she found she could not tear her eyes away from the glass porthole in the heavy metal door. A panel over the floor of the tank slid back, revealing an intricately crafted drain. With a rushing, slurping sound, the Mako-infused green liquid began gurgling through the hole. As the level of the fluid dropped, Sephiroth floated to the top of the tank, his head finally above water. He spluttered and coughed, struggling to draw breath. A mechanical arm reached down and tore the tubes away from the baby's face. A surge of natural oxygen invaded Sephiroth's young body, causing him to gasp and choke. Within a few seconds, however, the child's lungs adjusted to the change. He lay in a tangled heap upon the freezing metal floor of the tank.
A strangled sob broke the silence. "Look at him!" Lucrecia bawled, all traces of dignity gone. "He can't even sit up..how could you do this to him? How?" Tears streamed down her face.
Hojo looked at her disdainfully. "This is all in the name of science, my dear Lucrecia." Showing incredible daring, he lay a hand on Lucrecia's shoulder.
In a heartbeat, Lucrecia's sadness transformed into white-hot rage. "How dare you!" she shrieked, slapping his hand away violently. Her voice was sharper than a thousand needles. "Curse the name of science! Science? What about love? He's my son! Our son!" She slid to the floor, all energy drained from her body. Although Lucrecia had once been powerful, her recent sadness had robbed her of that strength. She cared about nothing except for Sephiroth.
Her will to live revolved around him.
Stepping over her limp form in disgust, Hojo pressed a red button on the nearby control panel. The door of the tank began to slowly open. Lucrecia scrambled to her feet, energized by the thought of possibly holding her son. Hojo, however, would never let such a thing come to pass. He called for assistance, and several junior engineers appeared within seconds, wheeling a flat steel cart.
"Take the boy and clean him up," Hojo ordered expressionlessly. The men, looking slightly disgusted, picked up the naked baby, wrapped him in a stark white sheet, and wheeled him away on the cart, ignoring his wails of fear and surprise.
"He has a name!" Lucrecia scolded. Hojo ignored her.
Hojo's cold hands gripped the steering wheel tightly. Ignoring the passionately sobbing Lucrecia gripping the door handle, desperately trying to wrench open the locked door, he floored the gas pedal and sped away in a roar of dust. The baby lay motionless in a cage on the passenger seat. Sephiroth had been free of Mako poisoning and extremely lively--so lively that his cries had been nothing short of obnoxious. To make the drive easier, Hojo had given him a large bottle of milk--containing a hefty dose of sleeping potion.
The old car rattled along the dark, abandoned roads much too slowly for Hojo's taste. He would have preferred one of the sleek, fast Shinra vehicles, but he had been advised not to, as a lone Shinra car traveling along back roads late at night would have looked suspicious. Shinra employees generally flaunted their presence, traveling in numbers down well-used streets. However, the car Hojo was driving was hard to control and moved at a snail's pace. He would have preferred looking suspicious.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity but couldn't have been more than a few hours, Hojo arrived at his destination. The large, stone building he faced looked like a prison, although it wasn't. It was, however, more complicated and mysterious than the wooden "King's Home Orphanage" sign would have led visitors to believe.
Stepping out of the car, Hojo slammed the door a little louder than he had intended. The imposing door of the orphanage opened a crack, and a long, mean face peered out. Seeing Hojo, the door opened wider and the woman inside came out.
"What took you?" she growled. "I've been waitin' by the door for at least an hour!"
"They insisted I take this dumpy old car," Hojo replied with a trace of impatience in his voice. He strongly disliked the woman who ran the orphanage.
The feeling was mutual. "Where's the kid?" she growled.
"Right here," replied Hojo coolly. He opened the passenger door and handed the cage to the woman.
"You put 'im in a cage?" she asked dubiously.
"It was neccessary to avoid contamination," Hojo answered drily.
"You make him sound like he's one of your test specimens or somethin'!"
"He is."
Ignoring the woman's obvious disgust, he quickly changed the subject. "How much do I owe you?"
"Ten thousand," the woman replied flatly.
Hojo let out a strangled gasp. "What?! I'll never pay that much!"
"Then take back your test subject," she growled.
His face burning, Hojo reached for his wallet and handed her a wad of bills. "Nine thousand," he said. "No more."
The woman accepted his offer. "Fine. Now be gone with you!"
Hojo was in no hurry to leave. He watched his son being conveyed into the orphanage without budging. Finally, he turned and climbed into the car. He drove away, never once looking back.
By the time Hojo neared his laboratory, the first fingers of light had begun to drift across the horizon. He wasn't too worried about Lucrecia. He'd calm her down. He always managed--
The car suddenly ground to a halt. Hojo gasped, his eyes glued to the horizon. There was more there than just the approaching dawn. In the direction of his lab, a strange red glow burned brightly..
Lucrecia had stared after the car for at least an hour after it had gone. She made no effort to control her tears, which splashed down her cheeks and onto the ground. Finally, she realized there was no point in standing outside waiting. Hojo wouldn't come back until the morning, and there was work to do..
Lucrecia plodded slowly down the hall, avoiding the eyes of all the engineers. She reached Hojo's secret lab, its door handle sealed with an electronic combination lock. Listlessly, she keyed in the combination and dragged herself into the room.
A sudden anger burned through Lucrecia. Looking around, she saw beakers and boilers, experiments galore in progress. She was posessed with a sudden and intense desire to destroy it, to smash it all to smithereens. Picking up an empty glass vial on the table next to her, she hurled it to the ground. The loud crash that followed only kindled her rage more. Picking up the glass containers on the table next to her one at a time, she threw them all
aside. Each shattered beaker fueled her fury. She smashed everything on the table within seconds. It wasn't enough. Everything in the room, everything in the whole laboratory must be destroyed! She overturned an entire table covered in vials, these filled with hissing, bubbling substances. This felt good! It was exhilirating! She wouldn't stop until everything in the laboratory--in the world--existed no longer.
She rushed back to the small table which she had destroyed the contents of first. Picking it up by one of its legs, she hurled it to the ground. The leg snapped off. Picking it up, Lucrecia used it to aid her destruction. Expensive equipment flew to shards beneath the metal rod. Hazardous chemicals splashed to the floor, running together into a foaming, hissing puddle.
It wasn't enough! Hojo's laboratory had been far too easy to ruin. She needed more! Flying out the door, she dashed down the hall. Every unlocked room was robbed of its contents too soon for Lucrecia's desire. This was too easy! She needed a challenge! The door across the hall was locked, of course. She had only seen the wonders it held once in her life. She had to destroy them all. Her life wouldn't be complete unless she did. Hacking violently at the lock with her tool, she managed to open the door a crack. That was enough. It would all be destroyed! All of it! The equipment within the door must have cost millions of gil. All the better for Lucrecia! She smashed, shattered, and destroyed with a fury she'd never felt before. The more she ruined, the better she felt!
Shouts and curses rung against her eardrums. She ignored the sounds. Rushing feet swarmed up behind her. Although her insanity was growing, she knew that there would be no more destruction if she was caught. The room of the lab she was in had one huge window. She ran to it and slammed the table leg into it. With a crash so loud it could have deafened the scientists, the window gave. The hole, at first small, grew and grew. Lucrecia threw herself through it, running with all her might. She had to destroy..
Back in Hojo's secret lab, the room she had first vented her frustrations on, the pool of hazardous chemicals continued to bubble and steam. A wooden table had collapsed into the center of it..The fluid, dangerous and flammable, soaked into the wood. It burst into flames...