Hello!
Okay, so here we have chapter three. I have another fic going, and since no one else seems that interested in this one, it's kind of on the back burner.
thatotherguy: *shrugs* have no idea .-.
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy. Woe is me.
The lights came on early in the morning, making Demetri groan. I sat up as Hojo's voice rang out over the intercom with orders to ready ourselves for the day.
"Jus' five more minutes," Demetri grumbled, rolling over and burying his head in his pillow.
"Now!" Hojo bellowed. "Or no breakfast!"
"Slave driver," he mumbled, rolling out of bed. He looked a mess, with bags under his eyes and his raven hair skewed and disheveled. I think he looked paler than he had the day before.
"How do you feel?" I asked quietly, knowing my voice wouldn't be picked up by the microphone.
"Same as yesterday. And the day before. And the day before that," he said, standing and walking over to the adjoining shower room. I detected the subtle irritation he masked so well in his voice. He was tired of being reminded.
"Have you asked Professor Gast about it?" I inquired, rising myself.
He turned and arched an eyebrow at me like I had lost my mind. "Trying to get rid of me, Sephiroth? You know he'd have to report it to Hojo, or Hojo would find out some other way. Then I'd be 'put down' like a dog and that'd be that. I may not be afraid of dying, but I'm not in any real hurry. And what would you do without me? I mean really. When I got here, you had the personality of a rock. Thanks to me, you have a chance at getting a girlfriend."
"Don't change the subject," I ordered. "You're looking worse by the day, and Hojo will pick up on it eventually."
"Then I guess that'll be that," he repeated. "No sense in hurrying it along by reporting to Gast." He then disappeared into the shower room.
With a sigh I followed him.
We showered, changed clothes and Demetri cleaned the room. A man in a white coat opened the door with a tray of food (or something along those lines) and left quickly after delivering it, locking the door again behind him.
We ate in relative silence before two more white coats walked in to take us to the injection lab, where we both received our respective injections. I received a cocktail of Mako and "Jenova Plasma", while Demetri got a Mako shower. The procedures used to make us sick for a day or so, but we had soon developed something of an immunity to the unpleasant side effects.
After that, instead of going to the learning room, we past it and continued down the hall.
"What gives?" Demetri demanded of our escorts. "I was all set to have my young, moldable mind filled to the brim with science, arithmetic, and world history with a Shinra twist."
The employees around here had learned to ignore Demetri's comments. "Hojo has something special planned for you," one replied in a bored tone.
"Oh, wow. I'm all excited now. What is it?"
I roughly elbowed him in the side, making him stagger a few steps. I felt a little guilty, but the feeling vanished when I saw the mock indignation on his face. "You're going to make whatever this is worse," I said in a voice so low, only those with Mako enhanced hearing could possibly pick up on it.
He obediently quieted, but I could see his irritated countenance. Annoying his captors was one of the few things he seemed to really enjoy.
We reached another room further down the hall. It was spacious enough, with a long metallic table, a few potted plants, and no windows. At the end of the table sat a thin man reading something in a manila folder with my picture pinned in front of it. A similar file with Demetri's picture sat on the table before him.
I recognized the man before me, but only vaguely. I had seen his picture in one of our papers in class. He was the Director of SOLDIER, Lazard. He had a narrow face with chin length blond hair and wire glasses perched on his nose. He wore a pinstripe suit that was a strange purple color and white gloves on his hands.
"Ah, Sephiroth, Demetri," he greeted us with a smile and set the folder down. "Please, sit down." He gestured to the chairs on his left.
I did as he asked, taking the seat next to him. Demetri followed suit behind me, sitting to my left.
"Leave us, please," he said to the white coats. They obeyed, shutting the door behind them.
"I am Director Lazard," he introduced, still wearing a warm smile. "I am here representing SOLDIER. Has Hojo told you why you're here?"
"Something about 'blazing new trails in the name of science and showing all of those blasted Shinra suits what I am reallycapable of'!" Demetri announced in his best Hojo impersonation. "Or, at least that's what he told me on specimen initiation week."
Lazard chuckled lightly. "Interesting, Demetri, but I meant why you were here," he gestured to the room.
"No," I answered quickly before Demetri launched himself on another tangent.
Lazard considered this for a moment, his eyebrows coming together in a delicate frown. "I see. Well, I have been after Hojo to allow you two into SOLDIER for a long time now, and he has finally granted his permission, after you undergo a field test. I asked to be the one to brief you on the subject."
"Why?" I inquired suspiciously. No one asked to see us. No one visited. The only people we ever saw had white coats and nasty dispositions. What was this man's interest in us? Aside from benefiting from us joining SOLDIER, he had little to gain from a personal visit, as far as I could tell. It bothered me.
"I wanted to meet you. Hojo has mentioned you several times and seemed to have nothing but good things to say."
"Warm fuzzies," Demetri commented. "What's this 'field test'?"
"Very simple, yet very dangerous."
"Should be fun, then."
Lazard seemed to have a lot of patience, for he only gave Demetri a sympathetic glance. That bothered me too. "You and Sephiroth are to spend two weeks out in the Nibel Mountains alone. All you will have with you will be a first aid kit. If you both survive, you will make it into the SOLDIER program."
I arched an eyebrow. "Is this standard procedure for all SOLDIER candidates?"
"No," Lazard shook his head. "As I said, this was the only way Hojo would allow for your release." He seemed genuinely troubled over it.
"Sounds about right," Demetri nodded. "Needs one last chance to kill us off before we leave."
A humorless smile crossed the director's lips. "The Nibel Mountains are a very dangerous area. The monster count is very high, and Nibel Dragons are certainly a force to be reckoned with. I don't have too much time at my disposal here, so I will have to make this brief and to the point-".
"I don't like lizards," Demetri commented on our way back to our room. "Especially big ones that eat people."
"We'll be fine," I said. I was both terrified and excited. I had never been outside before. I wanted to see all of the things Demetri had told me about and the things I had read about in books. I wanted to touch a tree and feel sunshine and see other people, how they looked and what they did. I wanted to see a bird and other animals with my own eyes.
But I didn't want to leave the safety I had here. I had been on this floor of the Shinra building my whole life. And Demetri…there was no help out there for him in the mountains. What if he became worse? What if he died?
"Of course we'll be fine," he said with mock cheeriness. "Man-eating lizards have nothing on the great Sephiroth, do they? I'm sure you can wipe the floor with their scaly behinds."
"Don't mock me, Demetri," I said darkly. "We'll get through it, then we'll be free of Hojo. We'll be in SOLDIER and, with any luck, we'll never have to see his face again."
"I don't have luck, Sephiroth. I'll be back here afterwards, you'll see." He sounded very sure of that. I didn't like it.
"Not if I get any say in it," I promised.
"That's very nice of you, Sephiroth, but very vain. That ego of yours isn't good for you. It blinds you to my awesomeness."
I sighed, but let him change the subject. We didn't speak anymore of where we were going in the morning or what the next two weeks might hold for us. We just lied awake in silence for most of the night, lost to our own thoughts and fears.
Like I've said, this is sort of an experiment, and I'd like to know if it's a complete failure, or if it just needs some fixing up, or if I should keep going :T
If you have comments/ideas/constructive criticism, I'd love to hear it. Please review!
God Bless,
-RainFlame
