I apologize for the long wait, Uni has been bombarding me with homework and proyects that barely had time to pulish this chapter.
Thanks to those who liked this work! I can't promise a straight update because the summer semester here in Mex. is a total bitch, but I really appreciate the Follows, Favorites and Reviews this story gets, again: Thank you very much!
Prototype FENRIR
PHASE NO.1
[December: Month 1]
A week ago, Sephiroth was relocated from the main lab in Midgar where he had been living for two years. He didn't ask why; he learned long ago that he shouldn't ask questions because they weren't worth anything amongst these loony lot. Everything in here was almost the same like his room in Midgar: cell-like, painted white with a cold marble floor and with a security camera tucked into the right ceiling corner from the door wall. The only differences being that the room was a little larger, a big window with bars was in the center of the far wall facing the door, and underneath it was a dark wooded desk; the thing that got him curios was the bunker bed stationed in the left side of the room.
He brings the subject with Dr. Ethos, the only man worthy of reasonable thought in here; and while he takes a small sample of his blood, he smiles slightly, "You'll see later, be patient."
Near the start of his first month—after his weekly Mako shower—Sephiroth goes to explore the small base lab. Like any other one, it was cramped, with many machines, strange metal tools with weird tubes and tangled wiring in each Control and Test room; it smelled strongly of Glutaraldehyde and felt damp and freezing cold. There were a Research and Analysis rooms painted in a very blinding white. The medical bay instead, was of a cream color. At the end of the lower level corridors were two doors, one leading to the Power Room and the other to the small Mako Tank room. He enters the latter by accident, and when the door opens, the room that greets him glows orange.
Sephiroth enters, entranced by the unusual color. Because whenever the tanks hold a specimen or Mako (when it's processed), they normally shine in shades of green or blue. The dark room's only source of light contrasts with the coal-ish pods and Primarial Control pad, giving them a small tint of yellow-red. When Sephiroth stands in front of the pod, his breath catches and his eyes widen.
There was a boy floating inside it.
The kid looked really young, his orange tinted hair waved slowly around his head like an abstract halo. He was completely naked and really skinny, Sephiroth could practically see his bones stick trough his skin. A breathing tube trailed from his mouth. The boy's body was pierced with long needles embedded in different parts of it, but mostly inserted around the main blood vessels. There was also a needle stuck in the middle of his chest; he only notices now, but the pod slightly flickers, weakly, at the rhythm of a beating heart.
The small status screen at the left side of the tank reads:
【 LVL.3 LUPINE INFUSION 】
「 PROCESS: 63% COMPLETE – STATUS: UNSTABLE 」
Sephiroth frowns after reading that last word. He has never heard the word Lupine and does not know exactly what kind of substance is. But what he does know, is that an unstable infusion tends to go very wrong and the specimen on the receiving end of it ends either dead or discarded as a failure. Sephiroth stands now face to face with the kid inside the tank, looking with his eyes narrowed as if expecting something from him.
He puts his hand over the glass, and notices that the surface feels warm. And then, the heart-like flicker stops abruptly, and the boy opens his eyes. Sephiroth's heart stops, and he feels a little frightened when the kid stares at him—at his very soul—and then starts to convulse violently. Bubbles start to rise from his mouth, the breathing tube expulsed. The pod he's inside vibrates with the howl of pain he unleashes, and the glass begins to crack, little dents slowly fissure the edges. The room starts to blare an alert signal. The flashing red light making a bizarre and terrifying contrast to the writhing kid inside the pod. Sephiroth can't move, he can't look away. He doesn't know what to do.
The hallway door opens, and inside rush Hojo and two other scientists.
"What are you doing here?" spats the greasy man, grabbing Sephiroth by the elbow and giving him a filthy glare, "Get him out!" he barks at his assistants.
The only woman in the small group claws her hand on Sephiroth's shoulder and harshly takes him out of the room. The last thing Sephiroth hears are the tiny 'Beeps' from the Primarial Control pad and an artificial voice signaling the final command after the alarm is turned off.
" STABILIZING LUPINE INFUSION "
[March: Month 4]
Surprisingly, the boy survives, and Sephiroth properly meets him three months later after his accidental venture to the Mako Tank room. The kid's shorter than he expected and looks sickly pale. His hair is a shade of platinum yellow and really messy. The scars of the needles look faint, he has small dark circles under his eyes and his veins are visible. A pair of blue glowing dead eyes stare back at him, and he feels slightly uncomfortable.
There's something wrong with this kid.
"Sephiroth, this is Cloud, he's going to share your room from now on", says the scientist holding the boy's shoulder, "Until further instructions, you and him must remain together, are we clear?"
He gives a tiny nod to the scientist, and the woman leaves them in the middle of the hallway.
He stares back at dull eyes, trying to find something in them; a spark, some life, anything. But there's no avail in keep trying it, there's nothing. They stay there in a prolonged silence; a chill runs through Sephiroth's skin when Cloud tilts his head, his spiky hair bobs softly and his eyelids drop a little. As if he were trying to figure him out, but in a really lazy manner.
Sephiroth is at a loss in what to do because he has never had contact with another kid before. The only logical thing he thinks of is extending his hand expectantly; his heart pounding a mile per hour anxiously and his ears ringing.
Cloud stares back at the pale limb with his droopy dead eyes, and Sephiroth waits—for what feels like eternities—until Cloud slowly reaches for it and grabs it weakly.
Sephiroth leads them to their room.
"How old is Cloud?"
"As far as we know, he's ten."
"He doesn't look like it, he looks barely eight."
"Hmm."
"Why was he in the tank?"
"I cannot tell you that."
"Is that why he looks sick?"
"No, that's not it."
"Is he going to die? He looks like he is going to die."
"No, he won't."
"How are you sure of it?"
"Because he's special."
[May: Month 5]
It starts slowly, but after two weeks of sharing a room with him, Cloud begins to talk and regain some color. After a long exhausting day of training, Sephiroth comes back to his room and greets Cloud; who seats on the dark desk with his skinny legs crossed and his bony back facing Sephiroth, and stares back at the night sky.
"Hello" he says with a tiny, raspy, and disused voice.
Sephiroth gawks in disbelief at the blond, who hasn't moved a muscle from his spot.
"What?"
Cloud's head turns slowly back at him, and the dullness in his eyes doesn't look as bad like last week's.
"Hello" he repeats, tilting his head.
Sephiroth's grin doesn't leave from his face for the rest of the night.
Cloud's vocabulary expands after that. From tiny "Hello's", and "Bye's", to "Good Morning", "Good Night", "Book", "Hallway", "Men", "Women", "Orange", "Stop", "Yes", "No", "Cold", "Warm".
By the end of the month, aside from looking less pale and sick, he says "Sephiroth".
The night Cloud says his name—a thunderstorm decides to unleash its rage on their topical location in Mideel—the both of them share the top bed together. Cloud's breathing lulls Sephiroth to sleep, while his hand entwined with his', reassures Cloud that everything is okay.
[September: Month 10]
In a span of 5 months, Cloud suddenly comes to life. He looks healthier, the marked blue veins fade and are replaced with bright and chubby skin, filling the bits that were showing his bones. The circles under his eyes disappear and dimples form on his cheeks when he smiles widely. His unruly hair is cut every two months and he eats more than when he was a walking dead.
With this development in the child, Hojo and his crew let him roam into the wild—out of the small lab base—before twilight; he returns filthier than ever, with twigs in his hair, his feet dark and covered in mud, one or two small cuts on his knees and a big broad smile. His blue eyes now sparkle, and he's more talkative than ever. Sephiroth does not mind at all and listens to everything the boy says, he loves to hear Cloud talk.
"I came across some merchants, but stayed out of their sight. They had Chocobos Seph, Chocobos! I've never seen one before, I really wanted to ride the blue one so badly! I also climbed some trees and—"
Cloud is so very much alive that he suddenly starts to get a little wild when his weekly checks come to schedule. Sephiroth heard from one of the older coots that Cloud had growled at them when they suggested putting him inside a tank for cellular enhancements. He thrashed and made a mess of the revision area when the scientists tried to get a sample of his blood. He knocked out three of them when they managed to get a small portion of it.
Sephiroth doesn't see Cloud for two weeks.
He becomes uneasy without Cloud's presence; Hojo doubles his training for every failure he performs inside his academic studies; their room is so utterly quiet and cold that is unsettling. He misses the blond and every time he comes back to their room, he expects the tiny kid to be sitting cross legged on the desk, looking at the night sky, waiting for him.
He feels sad and hollow when an empty cold room greets him instead. He tries to not show how upset he feels when he's on examination.
Hojo does find out, and throws a fit; telling him many nasty things about how emotions are useless unnecessary humane things and that he's better off not ruining his ever growing perfection over such petty things. He was supposed to be perfect, those defects were only asking for trouble. Showing weakness would never leave him anything good in his life.
Sephiroth goes back to his room seething and with his chest hurting for how tight it felt. Then he opens the door, and Cloud's head instantly turns at him. Sephiroth stares at the pointy dog ears that perk upwards in Cloud's head, and doesn't know what to say. The blond doesn't wait and lunges forward to him. Trapping Sephiroth in a warm and asphyxiating embrace. Sephiroth's anger immediately disappears, and he proceeds to hug back as reverently as the blond is.
Sephiroth can feel small tears falling from his eyes, and he buries his face in Cloud's hair. He doesn't say anything about the long tail that Cloud has behind. Nor of the sad noise the blond makes, as if he were a crying animal.
[August: Month 21]
It's been a year and a half since Cloud came to exist inside Sephiroth's life. On that span of time, they've moved a total of 3 times to different labs for Cloud's tests and Sephiroth's training. Cloud has yet to gain an inch on him, Sephiroth has yet to win against him on a race.
They've gotten together on survival tests, endured the deadly summer heat of that dessert island near Mideel, hunted down a loose Kyuvilduns (when they stayed that month in Rocket Town) with nothing but an old spear and a rusted sword. They endured their small doses of Mako showers and the long-suffering scanning tests Hojo ran on the both of them every three months.
They've been exposed to each other for really long that they slowly start to synchronize in small things without words ever being spoken.
Stop
Turn left
This way
I've got you
Over there
On your right
I'm here
One day, after Hojo let them out for a trek, a Scientist takes Cloud with her; he doesn't come back till the next night wearing a weird collar on his neck. His left arm bandaged with small dots of blood peaking where his veins are. When the blond looks at him, his eyes are golden.
"Ulfhednar", says Cloud in a dry tone.
"What?"
"They told me that I'm an Ulfhednar", Cloud says again, balling himself in the corner of the bed. "They told me that I'm the last child of Fenrir... and that my mother tried to sacrifice me as an offering to my father."
Sephiroth really doesn't know what to say, so he sits next to Cloud in silence.
"Do you think… it's true?" Cloud asks terrified in a tiny voice, "Was she really going to do that? I can't remember anything from before I woke up from the pod… "
"I don't know if she would've done it… I don't know what it is to have a mother", he answers in a dry voice, "Do you really want to know?" he ask then, with his cheek resting over Cloud's head.
Would Cloud really want to remember? Would anything good come out of it? If Cloud remembered, would he stay? Would he go? Would Sephiroth return to experiencing being alone like before?
"No..." the blond says, and leans next to Sephiroth, resting his spiky head on his shoulder. "If I remember… Would they take me away from you?"
I don't want to know.
[March: Month 28]
It is when Hojo decides to throw them into Mt. Nibel (in the week that a blizzard hits the region, no less) that Sephiroth understands why Cloud is under a different testing procedure than his's.
They are left standing at the base of the mountain on the south from Rocket Town with only three orders:
1) Go seek a Dragon claw.
2) Survive.
3) Come back down in a week with the claw.
That was probably the harshest week in Sephiroth's life; thrown straight into the mountain to fend for Cloud and himself with no equipment or proper gear, Cloud and him, against nature.
The first two days begin harsh, with Sephiroth trembling from the chilling cold and Cloud pacing restlessly at night, unable to sleep. They kill a Zuu, manage to eat and get rations for two days, they also find a cave; but it's freezing cold, and Cloud's warmth doesn't manage to cease Sephiroth's clacking teeth and his lips from turning blue.
On the third day, they encounter a Twin Brain and a Screamer when twilight claims the sky. They take the first one quickly and dispose of the part of its body to defend themselves. Half away through battle, Sephiroth begins to tire, his lungs hurt with each sharp intake of icy air and some snot manages to run down his nose. His legs tremble under the snow and he feels like it might be the end.
The Screamer is about to pummel it's mace down, when the mountain begins to howl. The monster stops, and Sephiroth uses that small second of distraction to get out of the way.
Cloud doesn't. Because he is suddenly spasming violently, and low growls rumble from his throat.
Sephiroth can't see his face, but his heart hammers violently when Cloud's body begins to shift in a really grotesque manner. Cloud is in all fours, his back sticking up in an unnatural arch, his arms and hands getting furry and sharp and the sounds coming from his throat are inhuman.
The howls emerge again, and Cloud joins with a powerful one.
The Screamer leaps, and Cloud rushes forward; striking and getting hit. Clawing and slashing through the monster until there's nothing but a puddle of dark goo and two amber eyes staring at Sephiroth.
Cloud then begins to whimper, and his morphed body subdues a little of the animal in some parts. The face neither human nor of a beast. His hands long and arched with long claws, trembling violently, the goo dripping slowly from them.
"Seph", Cloud whimpers in a throaty voice, and Sephiroth immediately leans towards him, "I'm scared."
Cloud begins to cry; animal whimpers leaving his body and his face buried in Sephiroth's neck; Sephiroth hugs Cloud, trying to gain a bit of warmth, and trying to calm the blond down. He doesn't notice that he's crying too.
Cloud can't turn back to a complete human body.
On their Fifth day, they encounter a lone dragon near the top of the mountain on a cave that smells like Mako. It takes them a day to take it down and dispose of its claw. Sephiroth's right arm has a naughty slash from the elbow to his wrist. Cloud's fur gets a little burned and his left calve is injured.
But they manage to go down as fast as they can.
By the end of the final day, they are back at the base of Hell Mountain. Hojo and four men are waiting for them; and when they take a look at Cloud and the bloodied clothes in both boys, they immediately take off to the Base Lab in Junon.
A week after their survival test, ShinRa declares war to Wutai.
[August: Month 33]
Sephiroth is going to war tomorrow; Cloud cries silently that night. After nearly three years of being together, the thought of separating is foreign and painful. After all they have endured together; every infusion, training, tests and transformations (in Cloud's part), the concept of "only Sephiroth" and "only Cloud", alone, sounds so wrong.
"I want to go with you", says Cloud between tiny sobs.
Sephiroth hugs him closer, his chest panging in a dull ache, and whispers, "I want that too."
At dawn, a scientist comes to escort him for a last test. Hojo is waiting for him on the main lab with all the machines turned on and the syringes with Mako next to the examination table; in the whole process neither of them say anything; two Mako injections and two scan tests later, he deems him ready, and before he departs Hojo says, "Don't get killed."
Sephiroth goes to the waiting truck, and before he leaves, he turns back to Doctor Ethos—the man that has all his respects—and tells him with a serious face, "Please take care of Cloud."
A week after that, Cloud is transferred to the private lab in Medeel and put into a "Lupine Infusion Stasis Sleep"
Prototype FENRIR
COMMENCING: PHASE NO.2
A/N: A friend questioned me at the part of Month 28; asking why the both of them get severly injured and barely survive despite being treated with Mako.
It's because they are kids , I'm throwing a pair of child testsubjects into the cold wild with absolutely nothing but their brains and each other.
Cloud starts his exposure to Mako Showers at the beginning of month 21, taking in count he's being infused with a compleatly different substance, results from the Mako exposure are really slow. I'm also counting that by age 12 he's not very strong (yet). Sephiroth on the other hand may be well trained and has a Standard Mako Enhacement, but he's a kid and I wanted to keep this a bit realistic in that regard. I don't believe he was really powerfull/strong since a young age. I'm of the firm belief that it came with time and all the other Mako/J-Cell Treatments he got along the years.