Chapter 1- Laying in Wait.
"Lazard Speaking," A frail man with shoulder length blonde hair spoke into the intercom situated in front of him the briefing room of the SOLDIER headquarters.
"Sir!" A young male's voice responded to Lazard's. "Neibelheim is completely vacant. There are no signs of life in the town and it looks as if the people had abandoned it quite a while ago. We still have yet to check the reactor, do we proceed?"
"No, I'm sending in a first class to investigate the reactor. Fall back. You and your team can head out to your next mission." Lazard clicked the intercom off when he had finished talking into it. "Sephiroth, I want you and Angeal to see what's going on there. I don't know what you'll find; just report back to me when you do find something."
"Understood," Sephiroth and Angeal stood up at the same time. Sephiroth, the tallest of the pair led the way out of the briefing room, his long silver hair swaying as he passed through the doors and his cat-like green eyes narrowed as he pondered in thought about what exactly was happing in the little mountain town. Angeal followed behind him, adjusting the large broadsword on his back into a more comfortable fashion. He stared at the back of his colleagues head with his mako-infused blue eyes, as if her were trying to figured out what exactly Sephiroth was thinking. Angeal had to push his shoulder length raven hair out of his eyes when the sliding door to the room created some wind when it opened.
"I'll meet you by the train station." Angeal stated and headed off in the opposite direction of Sephiroth to back a few things for the journey.
Not too much later, Angeal and Sephiroth awaited the train to Neibelheim. Angeal shifted from foot to foot as he anxiously stood next to Sephiroth. Sephiroth however, stood completely still. He was a cold fellow; some had even called him an icy bastard behind his back. But that was okay with him, he didn't give a damn about what other people thought. He knew his place and what he had to do. Working for SOLDIER was the only thing that mattered in his life. Everything else, such as relationships, emotions and wealth only got in the way. He had nothing to protect, nothing to strive for.
Angeal however was quite opposite. Though he was a logical, serene fellow he wasn't quite as could as his silver hair buddy. His face was fixed in a permanent scowl, but those who were close to him knew that he had a heart of gold. He'd always tried to embrace his dreams while managing to protect his honor. Angeal had grown up in a poor town with little money and to him, honor and dreams were what he solemnly lived for.
The burgundy train pulled up to their platform and the two first class SOLDIERS were off. They found a secluded cabin and spent the rest of the journey in silence, Sephiroth taking a quick nap and Angeal watching the rolling hills pass by through the train window. After a few hours, the train stopped at the southern part of Neibelheim and the men stepped off the locomotive.
"The reactor's at the top of the mountain." Sephiroth flicked his head slightly in the direction the mountain was.
"Let's get to work." Angeal replied.
They trudged through the thin layer of snow on the ground across the empty town. Angeal was holding up a handheld device in the hair, scanning for life signs through the whole two, but as the group of 3rd class soldiers had discovered, there was nothing. Not a single form of life. Finally, they reached the icy steps to the Mako-Reactor and began their descent. After carefully avoiding black it hidden underneath the snow, they finally made it all the way up to the reactor.
The door had been left open and Sephiroth slowly opened the door wide enough to fit the two grown men in side of it. Angeal fumbled around for a few moments until he found a light switch. With a flick of his finger, the whole building became illuminated. Angeal pulled out his handheld scanner again to make another check. Starting from his right side, he slowly moved the scanner across his line of sight so that it was now on his left right. He was about to slide it back into his pocket when it began beeping widely. Sephiroth looked the screen over Angeal soldier and saw that there was 1 life sign in the entire reactor. The two SOLDIERS headed in the direction of the life sign, passing broken science materials such as test tubes, computers, body chambers, microscopes, syringes and other things along that line. Not only were they broken and smashed, but they all seemed to have a dark ash-like charcoal soot coating them, as if there had been some sort of fire.
As they continued looking around the room, Sephiroth walked over to what looked like a pile ashes in the corner. As he got closer, he noticed it wasn't a pile of ashes but something he had not expected in the least bit.
"Angeal I found the life form." He motion for his comrade to come and see what he was looking at. Sephiroth bent down and rolled over what ever it was huddled up in the corner. A young girl, covered in soot and ash was lying on the floor. Sephiroth looked at her eyes and noticed they were wide open but she was blinking, or looking anywhere in particular, the big crimson orbs were just staring. She was still alive, though her breathing was light and she hadn't moved at all other then Sephiroth rolling her over. Her long black hair fell messily across the floor and her face. Her hands were pulled tightly to their opposite shoulder and securely held down in a soot covered strait-jacket. The ashes on her face seemed a lot darker with the tear stains rolling down her cheeks. She couldn't have been more then 16 years old. She was wearing a skirt that was unidentifiable by colour and length because the soot on her skin and clothes melded into one colour.
"Maybe she can tell us what happened hear," Angeal suggested.
"Let's bring her back to SOLDIER H.Q. and that will be Lazars job." Sephiroth picked up the girl in his arms, hooking an arm around her lower back and underneath her knees.
Angeal nodded and did one last sweep with his life sign scanner but picked up nothing else. He saw a box that had been untouched by the fire in the corner and noticed that it was full of video tapes. Angeal picked the box up and then the SOLDIERS left the reactor, Sephiroth carrying the filthy girl down the steps. It was pretty much nightfall by now plus it was snowing and the girl was wearing quite thin cloths, though, she didn't seem to feel the temperature change at all. He could fell her heart beating slowly; the pace hadn't seemed to change at all.
After a few hours on the train again, it pulled up in the Midgar Train Station. There wasn't any snow there, but it was still quite cold being, nightfall and all. The men walked back to the SOLDIER building and through the front door calmly. Many of the younger SOLDIERS stopped what they were doing and turned to look at their entry.
Lazard came out to greet them. "Who is this?" He pointed at the girl in Sephiroths arms. The girl's eyes were still wide open, and she still wasn't moving or blinking. She continued to stair into the abyss.
"We found her on the floor in the reactor. She's been like this the entire time," Angeal pointed to the girls face.
"Hm…" Lazard thought to himself. "Take her to the medical ward and see if you can find some one to clean her up."
With that, Sephiroth left the two men behind him and went straight to the medical ward. The doors opened for him automatically and he placed the sooty girl on one of them empty beds, black particles falling off her onto the white blanket and pillow. He stood above her bed, staring into her eyes. He could tell that that particular pair of irises had witnessed many horrors and been through much torment.
While Sephiroth was lost in thought, a plump woman in a nurse's outfit scurried in with a pale of water and a few cloths soaking in it. She placed it on the bedside table next to the girl and wiped her hands on her apron.
"Can you give me a hand with her cloths?" The nurse asked, turning the young girl on her side to unbutton the back of her straight-jacket.
Sephiroth propped the girl up as the nurse pulled off the jacket. He noticed the girl's mouth twitch in pain, and then go back to the emotionless stare it was moments before as her arms fell to her sides. The soot hadn't touched the white shirt she's been wearing underneath or her arms. Her arms with as pale as death, as if they had never seen the light of day in her entire life. Not only was she horrifically pale, but she was extremely skinny, in fact, her ribs seemed to protrude from underneath her shirt. The nurse pulled off her skirt to reveal an adult sized diaper.
"Thank you that will be all," The Nurse shooed Sephiroth out of the infirmary. Sephiroth went outside and watched from the window. He honestly had nothing better to do with his time. He just wanted to see if she would eventually snap out of her trance.
The nurse rang out one of the cloths and started scrubbing the girl down. By the time she was done, all the cloths and the entire bucket of water were black. She moved her to a clean bed and pulled the sheets over her. The nurse scuttled away to dump the water out the drain, throw out the girls ruined cloths, and find some fresh ones. She returned to dress the girl in the only thing she could find, a pair of black leather Capri's and a white tank top. Fortunately, the nurse had found a set of clean female underwear for the young girl. She had pulled over a screen while she was changing her, it wasn't often that there were young girls in the SOLDIER Headquarters and she knew that some of the young cadets would be dying for a peep show. The nurse ran a hair brush through the girl's hair and even though she was unintentionally tugging quite hard on the girls hair, she never fidgeted, winced, or gasped in pain. She seemed like a zombie.
By now, a group of people had gathered by the window, watching the girl. Such people included, Sephiroth, Genesis, Zack, Angeal, and Lazard. The nurse came out to report her findings.
"Has she said anything?" Lazard was the first to ask.
"No sir, in fact she didn't move the entire time. There's something I want you to see." The nurse led the first class SOLDIERS and The Director to where the girl was laying.
As they got closer, every detail on her skin became visible. The Nurse lifted up one of the girls jello-like arms and showed the men. Many cuts and scars ran across it. Her cheek bone was bruised and there were even more scars running down her neck. Her entire body seemed to be covered in recent and old scars, bruises and cuts.
"Her shoulders, fingers, wrists, and elbows were all dislocated. No doubt because of the beatings she attainted. The straight jacket didn't help the cause either. I managed to snap them all back into place, but we'll see how she recovers. Also, there's one more thing." The nurse turned the girl over and moved her hair out of the way to reveal the back of her neck. "I found this while I was washing her." The lady pointed to a spot where the ghostly girl's skin appeared to be branded with the Shinra logo. Then the nurse let the girl rest on her back again.
"Give her a cat scan and a full skeleton x-ray. Let me know when you have the results. I have some work I must attend to." Lazard walked out of the medical ward, shooing cadets away from the window as he went. That left the four first class soldiers and the nurse standing over the young girl.
"Does this mean she's like us? You know, with the tattoo and all?" Zack's hand stroked the back of his neck where the Shinra Logo was forever embedded into his skin. The nurse left to go tend to another patient a few beds down from where the girl was.
"It could…" Angeal said thoughtfully.
"Other then a pregnant woman, Shinra has never used a female for their research and experiments." Genesis stated.
"She might not even be an experiment, she might just be the property of Shinra," Angeal scowled at his own comment.
"WHAT?!" Zack turned to face Angeal. "HOW CAN SHE BELONG TO SHINRA?!"
"Calm down Zack, it's the same concept with you belonging to SOLDIER. You can never leave." Sephiroth said, icicles forming around each word he spoke.
"Zack don't you have a mission to do?" Angeal questioned. "You too Genesis."
Zack let out an exasperated sigh and left the room, followed by Genesis.
"I put the tapes in the video room. Lazard wants us to take a peak at them," Angeal motioned for Sephiroth to follow him down the hallway. They went into a dark room with a large television screen, a few couches and some chairs. Sephiroth flopped on one of the couches, lying across it. Angeal popped in the first tape he had picked out and then sat in a lazy boy recliner chair.
The screen went fuzzy for a moment then the picture on the tape popped up.
The man the seemed to be holding the video came began to speak in a dry, raspy voice. "May 3rd, 11:11 p.m. The subject has officially been born." The camera zoomed in on a sleeping infant. "The subject has been given the mark of Shinra to make sure the father doesn't try to swap it. Subject killed the mother during birth. The experiment was a success. As the subject grows, further tests on it's abilities will take place."
The screen went fuzzy for a second then changed to another scene.
"August 9th, 9 a.m. Subject is now 5." The camera man was recording the girl writing out equations on a chalk board that some of the greatest minds had a hard time figuring out. "Subject demonstrates tremendous intelligence and appears able to solve any problem confronted with. Subject can not speak but is a quick learner." The girl turned around to face the camera man, she stepped aside to show him her work, hoping for praise but there was none. She kept her eyes on her shoes as she waited for a response from him. Her left arm was wrapped in a heavy bandage and she had a black eye.
The screen went fuzzy for a second then changed to another scene.
"January 30th, 3 p.m. Subject is 11 and has matured rapidly." The camera showed a girl who didn't look in the least bit like she was 11 but more like she was 15. The girl was running around a room at a speed that was far from human. Her long brown hair whipping behind her as she dashed around. Then, she ran up to a bar on an exercise machine, gripped it tightly and pulled herself into the air. She repeated her set of chin-ups at a lightning quick pace.
The screen went fuzzy for a second then changed to another scene.
"June 13th, 6 a.m. subject is 16." The television screen showed the girl preparing to spar with a prosperous man. The man swung the first punch. The girl blocked it with her opposite wrist then firmly gripped his wrist and pulled the many into her so that his neck would smash into her elbow. The man took another swing at her, but she ducked and hooked her leg behind his. She grabbed onto his shoulder and pushed him backwards causing him to trip over her leg. The man stumbled backwards, panting and managed to regain his composure to block the first few strikes the girl shot at him. Strike above the head, blocked. Knee to the stomach, blocked. Wrist to the chin, missed. With the strike to the chin the girl took advantage of his disorientation and increased her attack speed. She seemed to be a black-haired blur on the camera. The man she was fighting flew in the air backwards and smashed against a wall. The girl ran up to him and grabbed him by the back of his shirt. She hoisted him over her head and flung him with immense force across the room, sending him crashing throw a brick wall. The girl went to finish him off, walking slowly across the floor.
"Shit!" The camera man cussed and dropped the camera to run and stop the teenager. The man practically jumped down the stairs and grabbed a large stick in his hand. Several men and woman wearing white lab coats ran into to his aid. Two other people picked up the man she had thrown through the wall and hurried him out. The girl turned back to the man who had been filming. Her eyes were now completely golden, even the white parts, with a cat-like slit down the middle. Fangs grew from her mouth and she jumped on his back and started tugging at his hair. By now there were at least 20 people in the room.
A stocky pair of men grabbed the girl by her arms and tried to pull her off the camera man. As the pulled her, she used their strength to flip the camera man onto the floor with her legs. Repositioning herself, in a upright position, still held tightly by the men, she jumped up slightly and kicked them in their groans. There was a sickening crunch heard on the camera and the men rived on the floor in pain. The girl's skin started tuning a pale ash color and her finger nails grew 3 inches instantly. She held the palm of her right hand towards the ceiling and snarled at the people standing around her. 3 down, 17 to go. A glowing orb appeared in her hand, it was a lime-like colour. A tremendous lightning storm was being shot around the room from the palm of her hand. 12 people fell to the floor from the shock.
"It'll destroy us all if it goes any further!" A man dark haired man in a white lab coat shouted. "Some one stop it!" 3 of the 5 remaining people jumped at the girl while her back was turned and tackled her to the floor. One man ran up with a long piece of rope and started wrapping it around her tightly. The girl squirmed to get out but she was tied down. The camera man picked himself off the floor and strutted towards the tied up girl. She was looking at him with golden eyes filled with hatred and fear. He stared at her then began punching and kicking her. The surprising part, she took it. No tears, just a small trail of blood coming out from her mouth.
The young girl looked directly at the camera from when it had been left. The lens cracked when she scowled at it and the video went fuzzy. This time, there wasn't another scene after it.
Angeal and Sephiroth watched parts of the 6 other tapes in the boxes, but none of them had anything to do with the girl. They were on other experiments, none on humans though.
Lazard was waiting for Sephiroth and Genesis in the infirmary. The results of her tests were put on a white screen to help the men look at them better.
"This is incredible!" Lazard pointed to the scan of her brain first. "These brain patterns are off the chart. She's a genius! She might just have the greatest mind on the planet. And her skeletal system is designed to support weights that are more then 1000 times her own body mass." He gawked at the x-rays.
"She's also skilled in combat and knows how to use material," Angeal said.
"This is incredible!" Lazard repeated. "I would like to have a conversation with her when she snaps out of her trance. The nurse took a blood test and it came out saying that she's been heavily tranquilized and sedated."
"When do you think the drugs will wear off?" Sephiroth asked. He himself was slightly curious to what exactly this girl was.
"A day or so. She's been given some medicine that will hopefully reverse the effects faster." Lazard stated. "Did you two find out anything else from the videos?"
"There was only one that revolved around her." Sephiroth leant up against a far wall.
"Towards the end, some one on the take said, it'll destroy us all if it goes any further! It, referring to her. What's bothering me is the any further part. I'll show you the clip and you'll see what I mean." Angeal took Lazard to the video room to show him the last clip of the girl.
Sephiroth stayed in the room. The gears in his brain rotating quickly as he tried to figured out what all this could mean. Unfortunately, he only ended up with a headache from it. He looked into the girls eyes again. Her expression hadn't changed at all.