NB: Special characters have been alienated to fit the website, a complete version of this fanfic with proper characters, fonts and layout is available at Vixen-sama (dot) deviantART (dot) com /art/FF7-Key-of-the-Twilight-full-164831098
Ain't no Mountain High Enough
[Mu ]-Era1973 –May,23
Nibelheim in summer was a rather pleasant place. Lucrecia found it charming. Hideaki thought it looked like the kind of quiet place where nothing ever happens. Vincent tried to see the small village as a new home sweet home since he knew he'd be there for some time. And Gast just led the way.
"This is the Shin-Ra Manor" he commented as the said manor appeared down the street. "The company built it just for you, it's a wonderful place."
Hideaki nodded with a "aha". Just for them? Rather in case it'd be needed for anything to be done in a forsaken place, no manor can be built within a week. And why a manor? Couldn't it have been more discreet? Oh, no, the Company had to show how rich and powerful it was even when it came to secret projects.
Yes, Gast's JENOVA Project was a top-secret experiment. Even if according to Hideaki, it looked like a big joke.
They visited the manor, chose their rooms and unpacked their luggage, which took half the day. After a nice lunch Gast briefed again his assistants about the goals of the experiment and told them they would see the specimen the following day.
"And to do so we'll have a nice trip through the mountains!" Gast announced.
"Oh great, the weather is perfect!" Lucrecia went on.
"…You don't look much enthusiastic, Hideaki … Forgot your sun lotion?"
"Yes I did, Professor Gast."
[Mu ]-Era1973 – May,24
The footpath reminded Hideaki of his childhood in Yakubayama though the mountains here were rockier than in the Wutain place where he used to live. But still, the ground was fertile and many bushes and flowers colored the landscape. The air was pure, the sky was blue, little birds could be heard singing here and there… it didn't look that bad. But Hideaki couldn't forget what they were heading to.
The place where Gast's specimen was kept was a brand new kind of reactor supposed to create electricity out of Makô energy. It was called 'Makô reactor' and this one was the very first one. A sort of real-life test, in fact, because the Company wasn't sure it would work until it had been tried out. Since this implied some risks, it also explained why it was built in such a recluse place. It wouldn't have been really good if that new kind of reactor had been built in the center of Midgar and could have blown up the city from a little technical problem.
"Ha, that's tiring, Professor… I pity the poor guys who had to come here to build that damn reactor!"
"Everything was brought by the air, Hideaki …"
"Hmm, as I thought so then… too bad we ain't that important to get a helicopter too…"
Lucrecia nudged her husband. "Darling, walking is healthy, and don't forget daylight is essential, you just can't keep on playing the geek locked up in a lab all the time!"
"And don't worry," Vincent added, "we'll almost be able to see the reactor, we'll arrive soon."
The Makô reactor was more than impressive, standing still and straight between the rocks, like a monument in honor of progress and technology fucking the nature. The interior was impressive as well, full of sophisticated devices and such. A gateway just up the Makô tank gave access to another room.
"Isn't it dangerous to be this close from Makô?" Lucrecia asked, a bit worried.
"Not the least, honey," Hideaki answered. "Do you really think Shin-Ra could create something potentially dangerous?"
"As long as you don't expose yourself to the Makô for years there's no risk, it was proven by our studies. And of course as long as you don't dive in it. There, I agree there would be a risk. You would just dissolve in it within a minute and that would be a really stupid death, but who's crazy enough to do that anyway?" Gast said.
"Well, there could be an accident…" Vincent began. "If someone accidentally pushed somebody else…"
"Oh, just mind what you do!" Gast snapped.
They entered in the following room to find an other kind of devices, those ones were designed for scientific experiments. Hideaki and Lucrecia were a bit surprised and amazed to discover such a gear.
"We thought the reactor could be a good place for some experiments with Makô and some devices requiring a huge amount of electricity…" the professor said mindlessly. "But here we go, up those stairs is my specimen!"
Everybody looked at the door up the stairs then at the notice proclaiming "J.E.N.O.V.A" just above. They thought that, at least, the content of the room was obvious.
Gast opened the door. The room was probably the strangest of the reactor, full of cables, wires and pipes of all kinds. In the middle of all that junk, was a glass tube filled with a glowing liquid. And in the tube was JENOVA.
Gast was satisfied with his assistants' expression of awe and amazement toward his specimen. It looked like an angel, a perfect humanoid body and incredible hair flowing all around, a wonderful face and such a serene expression… Hideaki was dumbstruck so Lucrecia spoke first.
"Is it a female?"
"It seems so from its physical appearance, the hips and face features are feminine and well, I assume you noticed the breasts, but since we don't know much about the Ancients maybe we still can have some surprises…" Gast snickered.
"I'm sure it's a woman," Lucrecia said. "Is she still alive?"
"Actually yes and it's a miracle I'm somewhat proud of… We found it in a sort of materia cocoon and first thought it was dead, but after further analysis I realized it was just like frozen in time. I decided to bet everything on putting it out of the cocoon and stimulating the body with electric impulsions to reactivate the vital functions. And it worked pretty well as you see."
"This is just so amazing, professor…"
"You're sweet, Lucia" Gast said. "Hey, Hideaki, you didn't say a word…"
As no reaction went he turned to the young man, calling him again.
"Hideaki? You heard me?"
"Yes, I heard, Faramis. I was just thinking about the procedure for the analysis. We'll probably need different sorts of samples…" Hojo answered with a grin and a ravenous glare.
Gast stared at him for some seconds with a puzzled expression. "Switch back to your normal cynical mood, Hideaki, you freak me out there, you look mad."
"…Hehehe… Excuse me. Maybe I'm a bit too fascinated. Once she catches your glare it's hard to look elsewhere…"
"Hahaha, don't fall in love, huh! You're yet married!" Gast joked. "Well, we're gonna take the needed samples and get back to the village, okay?"
"Yes, prof!"
"Err, may I help in any way?" Vincent asked.
"Yes," Hojo said. "Go outside and pick pretty flowers, that'll make Lucia happy."