Summary: Hojo's interferences changed the form of the Lifestream, but it was Shinra who hurt it. Back before the fall of Midgar, something strange appears before Hojo meant to change course of their future. But it affects more than expected and not in any way foreseen. Hojo?Cloud...? Or not. SLASH
Warning: This is SLASH. The most conventional pairing in this will just be a touch of Zack/Aeris, but for the most part, it is SLASH. I don't know how much clearer I can make this. In my mind, with what Cloud has experienced, and his relationships as shown thus far, he's pretty open-minded about the whole thing, and a lot of the other characters sort of lean in that direction, if not directly, then somewhat twistedly. Also, this may seem redundant, but obviously SPOILERS. I intend to include not only details from the FF:VII (1997) game but also from the spin-offs, Crisis Core and Dirge of Cerberus, to fill in either story holes or character holes.
Disclaimer: I do not claim to own any bit of FFVII as it would most likely result in my imminent and painful demise by Sony's spies and assassins. This is applicable for the rest of the fic.
Posted: 09-23-2007
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Day in the Life
Chapter One: How the World Turned
Hojo was a practical man. He prided himself on that. He knew what to use, how to do it, and what to do to get what he wanted.
At the moment, he wanted his Analyzer.
The problem was those idiot assistants of his had lost the delicate and sensitive piece of equipment to those muscle bound SOLDIER buffoons!
He could have torn his hair out when he discovered that. Luckily enough, he had managed to extricate (scream whole-heartedly at the poor sap) his device from the young intern who was returning it to him. He had merely left the machine at a bench in the equipment room when he had went to get a Microtool for it. But that escaped his mind in favor of how it must have been the assistants' fault that they didn't follow him around night and day (which they did when he let them) and gather up the articles that, because he was too busy calculating success and keeping track of his experiments, he left behind.
Brushing a strand of his greasy (unwashed) hair behind his ear, he studied his device intently, searching for damage of any kind on it's smooth metal surface.
So far, it looked unharmed (except for the fingerprints he would polish off later, had these mentally-lacking subordinates never heard of gloves?) and he was in the process of taking it back to his laboratory for tuning when the blasted thing went off his in hands. It emitted the highest pitch squeal he had ever heard (had he programmed it to do that?) and began to vibrate furiously in his hands as several lights blinked blinding flashes into his sunlight-lacking pupils.
Taking a moment of contemplation (it was not surprise it was not surprise it was not surprise) he stared at it.
What could set if off like that?
Short of a Mako Reactor meltdown, nothing.
It was sensitive enough to pick up the slightest traces of Mako though. He had designed and built it under the premise of following mako "trails." The trails were the residue left behind after Mako had been exposed to energy and negating the remnants, returning Mako back to the Planet in it's original and raw form.
However, it was at the stage of picking up released Mako bursts, and not the residue yet. So anything resembling a Mako explosion, such as a Materia based battle (which the labs were currently shielded against) would be read by the machine.
It was the level of the device's reading that somewhat puzzled him. Something must have been terribly wrong with it to have read like that. A Mako reaction of that scale would have leveled the entire Shinra Complex as well as the rest of the city.
He tapped his fingers thoughtfully on the metal sides.
Perhaps…perhaps his Analyzer wasn't broken, just…misaligned. After all, he had never built or kept anything that was useless (behind his back the assistants called him a veritable packrat, very quietly of course).
His device did require tuning, but…a Mako reaction…
Intrigued, he set the device on a higher sensitivity setting and decided to try to source the reaction.
If he knew what set it off like that, he could remedy it.
When the device led him down several floors, his first inclination was the basement, of course! The lower levels were in such disarray that some of the junk and loosely kept experiments would interact with each other resulting in the bizarre and violent reading. It was an obvious answer.
Then it took him outside.
A bit more perturbed than interested, curiosity kept him walking with the machine quietly beeping in his hands.
When he entered the SOLDIER dorms though, he began to believe that the apparatus was more faulty than he had assumed. With a small frown he followed the contraption until it led him to a door. He stopped there.
It was a SOLDIER's quarters. At least the SOLDIER was highly ranked so he wouldn't be dealing with barracks. Yet it was still a SOLDIER's quarters.
His frown deepened. It was that idiot, Zachary Fair's quarters. That moron wouldn't know what Mako was until a Materia orb slammed into his head. He did have to admit that the boy was unusually quick on his feet, but he attributed that to the Mako enhancements all SOLDIERs were gifted with.
A scuffling sound from within broke his thoughts.
"-you okay?" Undoubtedly Fair's voice.
There was a slight pause before the answer and it came quite hesitantly. "…yes…" Slow and drawn out as if the answer was still being contemplated while spoken.
Odd for any SOLDIER to think at all!
Hojo puzzled over it. Fair had a roommate?
He didn't remember. Perhaps this roommate was the source, after all, Fair had proven himself to be a right obtuse and dim-witted bicep-brain. That boy was more in love with his muscles than with the abilities of that the Cetra had graced him with.
Muttering to himself, Hojo retreated to his laboratory to fine-tune his instrument.
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"You sure you're alright, squirt?" Zack peered worriedly over the edge of the top bunk. The entire bed frame had shaken suddenly, and when he looked over, it looked as if Cloud was having a seizure.
He had been about to leap down and hold the boy still when just as suddenly as it started, it stopped.
Cloud had shot up straight in his bed, eyes open impossibly wide, chest heaving, and mouth open, panting.
He had stared around wildly, as if unsure of where he was, and when he caught sight of Zack's face, he had went as white as a sheet.
Zack slid down to the ground, crouching beside Cloud.
"You look like you've seen a ghost." He murmured with a smile.
Cloud's face went blank.
Frowning, as he knew he had said the wrong thing, Zack tried to lightening the mood by clapping Cloud on the back with a grin. "That's it, no more scary movies before bedtime, kiddo."
Cloud swallowed. His face was still pale and Zack could see a thin sheen of sweat on his skin. Worriedly, he placed a hand on the boy's forehead, feeling clammy skin, but no fever.
Cloud was trembling slightly though.
Face serious, he stared worriedly into Cloud's eyes. "Have they been beating on you again?" He asked quietly, knowing that it was a touchy subject.
If possible, Cloud's eyes went even wider. Then with something that sounded like half choking cough and half stifled laughter, the blonde shook his head vigorously in the negative.
Confused, Zack raised an eyebrow. Perhaps Cloud had hit his head harder than he had thought earlier that day. With a light shake of his head, Zack straightened. "Well, I'm just hoping that you're gonna stay in one piece, squirt. Tomorrow, I'm taking you to the Infirmary. We'll have you checked out. For all I know, it was probably a night terror."
"I don't get night terrors." Cloud said adamantly as Zack climbed back up to his bed.
It was the first clear sentence he had said since waking up so violently like that. It worried Zack. He was still able to hear that shaky tone that Cloud had tried to quiet.
He kept his eyes on the youngster, watching as the boy slowly drew himself back into bed, tucking himself in with the covers pulled all the way to his chin. Later, Cloud would burrow into the covers, tunneling in toward the bottom where the sheets were tightly tucked in, and curling up, looking like the largest bed bug there ever was. He figured that it was the habit of all mountain-born kids to do that.
But instead, Cloud merely lay there like a dead thing. Still and silent with the covers to his nose, unmoving. Zack could barely hear the boy breathe.
Definitely to the Infirmary tomorrow. First thing. He could easily get Cloud out of morning practice, so it looked all clear.
He should have known better than to get his hopes up.
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Shock was clearly written on his face when he had opened the Infirmary door reveal not one scantily clad (for a Shinra nurse anyways) and attractive (again, for a Shinra nurse) young woman, but sallow-skinned and greasy-haired Professor Hojo hunched over an examining table.
The man turned and straightened up quickly when he saw Zack standing in the doorway. Pushing glasses up his nose, he impatiently motioned them into the room.
"A patient for me, eh?" He asked, keeping his most cynical and contriving tones out of his voice. He wanted a better look at the subject, a short and scrawny blonde boy hiding behind Fair's girth.
Zack moved aside hesitantly, and Cloud straightened up, taking only a moment to recognize the doctor.
Hojo's dark beady eyes studied the boy, scanning him up and down as if he were a piece of meat. He noticed the uniform the boy wore. A Shinra grunt was he? That didn't explain why the boy was bunking with Fair. There had to be something unique about him for the child to be rooming with a First Class SOLDIER, loathe that he was to admit it.
The boy was an underfed little urchin, looking more like a homeless waif than a SOLDIER trainee.
He motioned the blonde closer and had him turn around a few times.
He was small. Very, very small.
Every once in a while though, the boy's clear blue eyes would flash the most interesting shade of green. That was fascinating. The corners of his lips quirked in anticipation. The more he looked at the boy, he more he found himself convinced that the blonde was the source of last night's disturbance. His assumption that they would be visiting the Infirmary had paid off.
Perhaps he wouldn't need that Cetra girl after all.
There was something much more intriguing under his very nose!
Under the guise of taking his vitals (the stethoscope was hanging uselessly around his neck) he was able to maneuver the boy around a few more times, looking for signs of Mako injections or enhancement. There were none!
He even went as far as to remove the boy's shirt. Flawless pale skin!
Any grunt always had a mark of some kind, whether it was a cut, bruise, or abrasion. This boy looked completely unscathed which pointed in one of two directions, either the boy was exceptionally skilled at combat and was able to escape even the smallest of injuries (the more unlikely of the two), or that he had an accelerated healing rate, indicative of the interference of mako!
So intent was he on his analysis that he completely overlooked the daggers Cloud was glaring into him.
Zack noticed though, and while he himself harbored an extreme dislike toward the scientist, he couldn't wrap his brain around the reason that Cloud would hate him so much. Cloud glared at the man as if the doctor had been responsible for murdering his family, burning everything he held dear, and kicked his puppy.
But as far as he knew, this was the first time Cloud had ever even seen the doctor.
Trying hard to be surreptitious, Zack leaned down. "Might wanna tone down that glare just a notch, squirt. Don't wanna burn a hole into Shinra's pet geek, right?"
Cloud made no motion of acknowledgement that he had heard, but blinked instead. In an instant, he was looking like the bored teenager he was supposed to be, even going so far as to slouch his posture a bit. His expression blanked and his eyes dulled, and Zack wondered if they had changed color. He hoped his mind was playing tricks on him.
For a few moments those clear blue orbs had looked…Mako green…
Shaking his head away from speculation he turned his attention toward Hojo.
From the gleeful look in his eyes and the rather animated way he was touching the boy, Zack quickly reached the conclusion that Hojo was a pedophile. It was far from surprising news, but it made Zack want all the more to pound the pervert into a bloody pulp.
He coughed instead. "Didn't know you were," his mind searched quickly for the right word, "gonna be playing Nurse today, doc."
Hojo seemed to notice that Zack was still in the room.
"You can leave, Fair. I'll just need to examine," he paused realizing he didn't know the boy's name, "my patient." He finished with a greasy smile that was meant to be reassuring.
"Nah, I'm fine." Zack grinned, leaning up against the wall and looking content to stay there.
"I'm sure that a SOLDIER of your caliber has pressing need elsewhere, Fair." Hojo continued, irritation edging into his tone.
The corners of Zack's lips quirked.
"As a matter of fact, I do," he smiled, "but I think I'm fine here. If they really need me, they'll come and get me." He added smugly. It was clear that he wasn't going to leave Cloud alone with the weirdo.
Hojo pursed his lips in annoyance. "Of course." He said slowly, pushing his glasses up his nose.
Fed up with their banter, Cloud slid away from the doctor, snatching up his shirt and putting it on. "Well, if you're both done, I'd like my clean bill of health, please." He added the last word as an afterthought.
Hojo leaned back slightly. "Of course." He said again.
He pushed up his glasses once more in a gesture they were quickly learning meant that he was thinking (scheming).
"You appear to be completely fine." He said nonchalantly and turning away to face a file he had been previously working on. "Contact me if you're feeling strange." He held out a slip of paper. "My office number. Call it and an assistant will give you my access code and password for my office." He said it so naturally that Zack almost swallowed his tongue in surprise.
Hojo's office code and password?!
He must really be jonesing for a hit or something, or maybe really high. Shinra's top scientist did not give out his codes freely. From what he knew of the man, Hojo was paranoid on the edge of insanity. The man was a total schizo, and a pedo to top it all off.
Cloud simply took the proffered slip with no intention of ever calling. "Thank you doctor," he said blankly, and left the room with Zack in tow
Hojo watched both of them leave with gleaming beady eyes.
His mind was a whirl.
He needed to get a hold of that boy. He had a feeling that great potential was held within him. Perhaps even a living specimen of Cetra.
Far more interesting than a little flower girl, and easier to capture as well.
After all, he didn't work for Shinra for nothing.
He was sure that acquire the boy would be no trouble at all.
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They were only a few meters away from the Nurse's office when Zack suddenly leaned over, slinging an arm around Cloud's shoulder.
"Hey Cloud," he began lightly. "We're buddies, right?"
Cloud regarded him with a shrewd look, suspicious of his troublemaking, like always. However, it was a bit different this time since Cloud actually appeared defiant, rather than giving his half-hearted protests.
Still, Cloud gave a small nod, to which Zack smiled brightly.
"So, how about you give me that number of his, Professor Hojo's I mean." His grin widened. "I'm sure you have no use of it."
That was true, Cloud contemplated. He has been planning to throw it away at his first opportunity. The fact that Zack wanted it could not bode well. Zack hated the man, with good reason, and was always looking for ways to piss the hell out of him. Cloud hadn't minded, his only worry was that Zack would get caught.
Though, being a First Class SOLDIER helped with getting away with nothing more than a reprimand, and possibly a minor suspension (which Zack would view as a vacation anyways).
Cloud took out the paper, which he had balled up into his pocket, and looked at it thoughtfully. He uncrumpled it and smoothed it out, noticing how Zack's sharp eyes watched him. He gave Zack just enough time to memorize the short sequence of numbers before re-crumpling it and shoving it back into his pocket, shaking his head.
"No, Zack. I don't want you getting into anymore trouble than you usually do. You'll just run amok if you gain access to any official's office." He said sternly, trying to sound like he didn't know any better.
Zack looked indignant, as if he had been insulted. "C'mon kid! Give me more credit than that!"
The corners of Cloud's lips quirked, unable to contain a smile. Blue eyes sparkling, he answered "of course I do. I expect you to not get caught." And then he turned around, walking away from his slack-jawed superior.
"Hey! Does that mean you're okay with it?" Zack shouted from behind, surprised that Cloud would ever approve of any of his pranks.
He supposed Hojo had creeped Cloud out more than he had thought. Then again, he would have been scared too, to have that greasy-haired, bony-handed, pallid specter of a man handling him the way he had with Cloud. He shuddered.
Gross!
Taking a moment to watch Cloud from behind (a rare thing since the boy was so often not in front of him) he caught a glimpse of something unusual. Cloud was walking differently.
He usually walked with the stiff and slightly slinking way of a person who was constantly on edge. But now his posture was strong but his stride was clumsy, as if he were adjusting to an injury or drawback. Yet, when Cloud's shirt had been removed, there had not been a mark on him.
That was weird.
Just a few days ago, he had personally beaten the crap out of the other grunts who had hassled him. The blonde should have been sporting the black and blues of fist-prints on his ribs, and at least a swell on his cheek.
But instead, there wasn't even a discoloration.
He shook his head.
Strange.
There was no way an unenhanced person could heal so quickly, and he was sure that he had seen the bruises just yesterday. Hell, he had been the one to drop off the linen rolls on Cloud's bed!
Well, he'd find out sooner or later. Cloud would tell him what was going on when he was ready.
Looking up, Cloud was far ahead of him with those stiff strides of his. He had to jog to keep up with Cloud. Catching the boy's neck in the crook of one arm, he ruffled Cloud's blonde spikes with the other. Despite their appearance, they were soft and fluffy. Not a hint of gel, unlike his carefully maintained head of wild dark blue spikes.
Cloud made a sound of protest, but didn't have the strength to throw Zack off.
He laughed.
"Get off!" Cloud shouted from somewhere beneath his arm. His unsuccessful attempts at throwing the older man off made Zack grin and tease the boy further, surreptitiously slipping his own hand into Cloud's pocket. It wouldn't do to have Cloud take any sort of interest in Hojo's offer.
"C'mon my little fluffiny! We have some work ahead of us!" Zack announced proudly, digging his fingers deeper into Cloud's hair and marching away. He really liked how those blonde locks felt. They felt so much softer than they looked, somewhat like another comrade of his.
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Sephiroth was irritated. He never got pissed or upset, only irritated. It fit his image, though it was one forced upon him.
He was allowed to be vengeful, wrathful, and cold, but not distraught.
So, when he woke up, once more from sleep that wasn't rest, and with his head full of memories of deeds he had never committed or experienced, he was neither distressed nor was he troubled. He was irritated.
Sephiroth did not have nightmares.
He usually did not dream at all, only falling asleep and waking up precisely four hours later with no other thoughts than what he would have to do that day.
Dreams were something he had never truly experienced.
He sometimes saw images as he slept, but that usually came with something significant happening, and he did not really remember it in the morning.
Here though, he remembered. With crystal clarity he could recall each singular image that he had seen in his dream. They were scattered, disjointed images following no particular order, but he could see them, and remember them.
It made no sense though. Burning villages and a creature which extended it's arms toward him. Bright green light and monsters he had never yet seen, or even read a report about. What were they that appeared in his mind?
It had started the previous night, but he had thought nothing of it. Perhaps a one-time occurrence. A second time was not so negligible. Still, he believed that it would not happen again. Perhaps a Mako imbalance or something. He was hallucinating in his sleep.
It would not happen a third time.
If it did, perhaps he would discuss it with…someone.
Most likely not though.
It was nothing troublesome, and he could ignore them
However, something stuck in his mind, refusing to be forgotten or disregarded.
It was an expression more than it was a face, something he felt more than he saw. And when he thought of it, he felt something tug in his chest, like he was heavy or sinking.
Frowning, he swung his legs over the bed in his still dark room.
His catlike eyes could see clearly in the dark, so a lack of light was never an obstacle for him.
He silently made his way to his closet to get dressed for the day.
Large blue eyes, narrowed in determination, fear, anger, sadness… They swam with so many emotions, one could not identify them all, but they blended into a single illustration of desperation and despair.
Why did they stare at him so?
He knew those eyes were looking straight at him, but he could not bring to mind any reason where he had seen such eyes before, or even why.
The only thing he could think of were the battles in Wutai. There, each man carried on an air of strength and resolve. It was something he could admire and respect. Yet orders were orders, and he cut them down without mercy.
Their eyes had all been a deep black though, never a clear blue such as the one in his mind.
At Shinra, all of their eyes were dull rocks in their sockets, blind to everything but what would profit them, and what was a danger to their profit.
No where else could he think of seeing such a vibrance and life.
His frown deepened as he snapped on his shoulder guards, the straps criss-crossing his chest. He rolled his shoulders to the fit and slipped on his gloves. Flexing his fingers, the gloves conformed to each curve of his hands, almost completely seamless and smooth.
Shinra Company was an enormous multi-faceted, lifestream-sucking monster who created more like itself.
He glared at the back of his hand.
A number branded forever into his flesh.
He was nothing but cattle to Shinra, a guinea pig, a lab rat to experiment on.
It was something to remind him that no matter what he did, became, or was, he belonged to them.
Disgusting.
Self-loathing blocked out memories of his dreams, and he slipped out of his quarters for another day at Shinra. What other innocent would they have him slaughter this day?
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Well, this is something that I've been working on. The idea has been in the head for over a year, spawned from the bagajillions of fics of the same type. As you could probably tell, it's one of those "Cloud goes back in time to before the Nibelheim incident" fics. I love them and thought I could make my own, but when I started it began to take quite the different turn and has turned into something quite crackfic-ish.
While I'm here, I'd like to put out an ad for a sounding board. A beta would be nice as well, but I'm more the type to need someone to bounce ideas off of, and tell me when my writing sucks. Please e-mail me, although reviews would work as well, as long as I can find a way to contact you back.
Please help.