AN: *bows* Thank you all for the reviews/favorites/watches!
Hojo's character has always been a bit deranged, but the reason for his more straightforward and uncalculated actions now is because he is under the influence of J cells.

Ratings, Disclaimer, and iWarnings! are the same.

Uprising
(By: Muse)

Chapter 7

Scarlet finished lighting all of the candles on the dining table and turned off the lights. The evening she planned was flawless. Her dress was of a red sequined design with a thigh high slit. Her heels were of the newer style, high with braided strings, and her gold ankle bracelets matched the rest of her jewelry perfectly. She looked rich, and that's what every man had a taste for.

Hearing footsteps approaching, she fiddled with her hair to make sure the bun was perfect and she turned to send a seductive smile as the door opened.

"Scarlet," the President's son spoke, quickly flicking the lights back on. "What are you doing in my home?"

"I'm sorry for intruding, Rufus," Scarlet slowly walked up to him, putting an obvious sway in her hips. "I thought that maybe the both of us could eat dinner together."

She had the impression that his silence was a good thing and felt a little bubble of victory at the thought of how her appearance made him too astonished to think… until someone else could be heard coming toward them, and her little victory bubble deflated.

"Mr. Shinra," the other man said before pausing in the doorway, taking in the sight. "My apologies, Mr. Shinra, I had no idea you had company this late."

"Nonsense," Rufus quickly responded. "Madam Scarlet was just leaving. Weren't you?"

Scarlet frowned. The foolish boy had the audacity to open the door wider to give the general idea that he wanted her out. Fine, two could play that game. She gave a nod and slowly walked up to the door with a haughty air of superiority.

"This is?" she gestured at the new man.

"The new head of Turks; Tseng," Rufus responded while the other gave a light bow.

"You look foreign," she said in feigned innocence, but her gaze was painfully critical.

"I am part Wutai, Madam."

"Oh," Scarlet's disgust was clearly heard in her words. It was obvious that the Turk had Wutai in his blood, and Rufus knew what she was trying to do with her degrading actions. He slammed the door shut before she could say anything else and eyed his employee.

"I gave orders not to allow anyone into my home," Rufus growled.

"I was not aware of her intrusion, it will never happen again," Tseng replied apologetically. "I've come here to inform you that the SOLDIERs sent out to Nibelheim have gone missing. We've lost all communications with them as of two days ago. I sent out some Turks to check the area, but they found nothing."

"Has my father heard anything about this?"

"No, Sir."

"Good, keep it that way." Rufus noticed the questioning look coming from the Turk and decided to elaborate. Tseng was, after all, his ace. "A few months ago my father somehow got it into his head that the Wutai wanted to go to war with us. He's so paranoid now that he's blaming them for everything. If he hears about this then he'll forget logic and the situation will be repeated."

"Understood, Sir." Tseng bowed and left the room.

'Of course, my father wouldn't think of anything logical. If Wutai did want to attack us they'd use ships and go around the Western Continent instead of through it.' The blond looked over to where the candle lit dinner was held and was half tempted to poke at the creations to make sure they wouldn't come to life. He should have kept Tseng here to taste test for poison as punishment for the sloppy security, but instead he quickly blew out the candles and tossed out all of the items. Tomorrow, he'll have the Turks sweep the area and check to make sure there aren't any tracers on his phone. Better safe than sorry.

*~0~*

*Junon*

"I didn't think you missed your puppy that much," Genesis commented as he watched his more muscular friend doing crunches. Angeal paused on the mats and looked up. "Let me guess. You're in here doing exercises because you can't get him out of your mind?"

"I didn't call you here to talk about Zack, but thanks for finally showing up." Angeal said as he got up. "Do you remember, about a year ago, when you said that it was probably Hojo's goal to drive Sephiroth mad?"

"Actually, I believe the term I used was 'batshit crazy'," he corrected. "It's a real medical term. I promise."

"Yeah… batshit," Angeal gave a look that was clearly not amused, "but you still believe that, right?"

"Well, of course," Genesis looked at him, patiently waiting for him to get to the reason behind their talk.

"And you still think Hojo's doing things he shouldn't be doing while people aren't looking, right?"

"Yes," Genesis became more serious, "Angeal, I'm getting the distinct impression that this conversation isn't leading to the decision of whether or not you should confess your undying love to the puppy."

"Damnit, Genesis, I'm not in love with Zack!" Angeal's tone would have been more believable if his face wasn't flushed to his ears. The Commander had started on this topic months ago. Angeal had told Genesis to stop multiple times. It was embarrassing to realize he had feelings for his protege and he didn't need to be reminded. "No, this doesn't have anything to do with that so leave him out of it! This is about Sephiroth. The other day I ran into him, and it felt as his he was a hairline from going on a killing spree."

"What happened?" Genesis wondered.

"Nothing, the President said something to him and walked off. Sephiroth just…" Angeal drifted off in thought.

"So what do you suppose it is?"

Angeal drew a deep breath and let it out. Looking up, he replied, "Ok, I believe you now. What's your plan on bringing Hojo down?"

"Hojo's not going to just leave the company, and he won't be fired unless he's deemed useless," Genesis replied. "So what we need to do is fight science with science."

"And how do you suppose we manage that?" Angeal raised his brow in question.

"Hollander."

Angeal looked at his friend as if just now remembering something. "Aren't you supposed to be observing the SOLDIER tests?"

Genesis grinned. "It's being taken care of."

*~0~*

"He's not coming. He's probably just sitting in his office waiting 'til we all start dying of hunger or thirst."

All the examinees were back inside the building. The night before, Cloud and a few others checked the perimeter for any sign of wildlife. There was none. There wasn't even a fresh water source nearby. Now all they were doing was waiting for the Commander to show up.

"He probably forgot about us, you know? Or seeing how long we can last without food or water." The guy that had tried to take a swing at him last night had been complaining for almost an hour now, and most had lost their interest in what was said.

"You know, there's this rumor about him among the SOLDIER ranks." That perked people's attention. "It's said that Commander Rhapsodos had taken on a couple juniors to mentor. You know, like what Angeal does every now and then, but they'd always quit SOLDIER and go back home."

"What are you getting at?" one of the boys spoke up in annoyance.

"What I'm getting at is that the last guy who was mentored by Rhapsodos was never seen again! Like I said, I heard it from a few SOLDIERs! I overheard them talking about how there was this guy, one of the more promising SOLDIERs, who went missing out on one of his missions! They were talking about how the guy was going to replace the Commander, but then he suddenly vanished!"

"What?" one of the other guys said as they sat up, "that's not true, is it? You're just joking, right?!"

"It's all true! Why do you think that Hewley is still in the mentor program, but no one's ever seen Rhapsodos with a student in years?"

"Isn't it like you said," Cloud spoke up, "that it's all just rumors?" He received a glare from most of the others who didn't appreciate the story's interruption.

"Yeah, but isn't there at least some truth to rumors," the other countered. Cloud turned around and ignored whatever else was said. Let them all think what they wanted. The other guy was just trying to get them all to fight as an act of revenge for his friend.

Cloud paused and looked around. The four others that were with him last night were the only ones trying not to pay attention. They rest soaked up the words like a sponge, and the look in their eyes reminded him of the people in early AVALANCHE. They were about to rise up, and if they started to fight against their superior then they'd have no chance in hell in continuing the test, let alone stay in Shinra. It was best to end this now before anyone else wrecked their dream of SOLDIER in the heat of the moment just because of one hot-headed guy.

"This is getting way over your heads," Cloud said as he got up. He was a little shaky from the lack of food, but so was everyone else.

The other guy was swiftly up on his feet too and stood firm. "Oh, really? So what do you plan to do? Fight for some deranged lunatic like some Shinra dog?"

"I'm not a Shinra dog!" He wasn't! He was fighting for the planet, for Zack and Aerith and Tifa, for everyone! He was using Shinra to get stronger, not the other way around!

"You look pretty tame to me, dog!" the other yelled at him. As Cloud stepped forward to teach the brat a lesson, one of the guy's lackeys hopped up and was soon followed by the whole room. He was surprised to see the four that were with him had his back. Their eagerness to throw punches reminded him of the drunken fights at Seventh Heaven.

They were split, a three to one ratio, and from the looks that Cloud was getting he felt like he was in for a world of hurt.

"I hope I'm not interrupting something," a deep voice came from the doorway. "Should I come back later?"

Everyone in the room dropped their stances and faced forward as the Commander leaned against the doorframe. Though as amused as his expression was, Cloud didn't think he'd be too humored once he found out what this scuffle was about. The redhead looked directly at the one that started the dispute. "Report."

Cloud's jaw dropped as the other's personality did a one eighty and stood at attention. "Sir, argument over authority, Sir!"

"Whose authority?" the Commander questioned.

"Yours, Sir!"

"At ease, SOLDIER." Everyone was dumbstruck as the declared SOLDIER dropped his salute.

"Wha… what's going on?" one of the other boys tried to make a half laughed attempt to try and lighten the mood.

"A test of loyalty," the undercover SOLDIER replied with a smile and looked over to Cloud and the others beside him, "and congratulations to you five, you're deemed worthy enough to pass."

"Wait!" someone else spoke up, "something isn't right here! If this is what you say it was then how did the Commander know when to come in at exactly the right time?!"

Commander Rhapsodos stood quietly and allowed the SOLDIER to explain. "This belt buckle has a button that I pressed to send a signal."

"But… so… everything that you said…"

"Was to see if you would follow me and 'rise up against a Commander that might be corrupt', or follow blondie over there," he nodded his head in Cloud's direction, "and stay loyal."

"What about the others that died during the first test!" someone else piped up.

Rhapsodos gave a chuckle, "No one died during the first test."

"Like hell no one did! What about my friend? I saw him jump into the water with me, and he didn't make it to shore!"

"The tests are carefully observed," the Commander responded lamely. "There were SOLDIERs underwater that were watching the event. If there was any moment in time that one of the examinees stayed under too long then they were brought into one of the submarines to be revived. When test time was up, they were transported back to Junon so none of you would see."

"Why… why set all of this up like that?!"

"To see if you are worthy to make it into SOLDIER," the redhead replied. "You may not be aware of it because this kind of thing doesn't make the news, but every so often there are a few of you who get into SOLDIER and either abandon their responsibility or go temporarily insane. This year I've come to personally weed out those who are weaker minded before they get their enhancements and run rampant through the cities."

"And we failed just because of a SOLDIER who tried to get us to quit from the get-go! I was sitting right behind him during the signups, he was saying things!"

"No," the Commander growled out fiercely. "You failed because you weren't loyal to me." The room was filled with pissed off and confused foot soldiers. "During wars there's always someone trying to find a way to break a military's strength from the inside. Rumors, either true of false, spread through an encampment like wildfire and doubts arise. It causes riots that can guarantee the opponent's victory.

"Maybe you have forgotten what SOLDIER is about. So, let me explain. The first test wasn't the physical; it was inside the recruitment building. It was to test your courage, to see if you would take a test that, if failed, could forever cripple the chances of rising within the ranks. The second was to test your stamina, both mental and physical. I could have easily made you run laps around Junon like the previous examiners did, but pausing for breaks was too often done and in the ocean you can't just stop swimming. It exhausted you physically and mentally, always thinking 'if I don't finish this I could die'. People who couldn't handle it went under. The last test was to check your mental health, to see how long it took before you cracked and how you would crack.

"And this last one was the most important of all; loyalty. Not to Shinra, but to your superior officers."

"Permission to speak, Commander," the SOLDIER spoke up.

"Granted."

"I request that foot soldier Dwite also be promoted to SOLDIER."

The boy beside him looked surprised at the request.

"Reason?" Rhapsodos inquired.

"Dwite had been hanging out with me since the beginning. Last night he'd spoken with me and requested that I quit my behavior. Dwite was the first one up during the argument, followed by others. I believe that he wasn't fighting to go against you, but for a friend."

The Commander eyed the blushing kid down and nodded. "Approved, congrats to you six. I have high hopes for you in SOLDIER… don't let me down."

To be continued…

AN: I hope you guys didn't see that ending coming in the exams though. I tried to do a different test than what other people have done, more psychological if anything. Though the swimming part is used often, nevertheless it is such a good one to do. Seriously. But I did put my own twist on it to make it different. I do hope you see Genesis' reasoning for doing the test the way he did. Forgive him? Also, there's another secret in there… you'll find out about it in later chapters. XD

Have any questions? I might have answers!

Please review! (Criticism accepted as long as it's constructive…)