Chapter Eleven: Human Experiments
He was at her side when she awoke again, staring at her until he would take a small break to look at the clock in worry and impatience. She caught him in the latter phase, and began to sit to let him know she was up. He turned to her quickly as he registered her movement, his head whipping around rapidly, and then the anxiety and rage in his eyes subsided a little.
"Are you…okay?" he asked timidly, putting a hand on the arm that had been operated on.
It took a while for Aralyn's brain to come to the point where she could remember what he was talking about. It came back all at once, overwhelming her with the memories of the lights and the inability to perform the most basic of tasks with her arm. She closed her eyes and took a breath, keeping the panic at bay by reminding herself that it was over and done.
At Sephiroth's hesitant request, Aralyn started by wiggling the tips of her fingers, and was rewarded with success. She worked her way up, testing her hand, then wrist, elbow, and shoulder. There was no pain or trouble accompanying the movements. "It's like nothing happened," she said, greatly relieved.
"You can go ahead and think that," Sephiroth muttered, turning away. His expression was troubled.
"I'm all right, Sephiroth," she assured him. She grinned and reached out toward his face, putting one hand on each side and pulling his cheeks into a very false, but very comical smile. "See?"
Sephiroth wasn't smiling when she released him, and she stopped her laughter, feeling awkward at his silence. "It's not all right," he said, reaching out for her arm again. "You don't know what they did to you."
He turned her arm at an unusual angle, stopping when going any further would have hurt her. "You can't see all of it," he said. "But look. The scar…it runs all the way up your arm."
She couldn't see it fully; her head's position wouldn't allow it. She could, however, make out a pale red line, separated by even stitches of black thread, before it disappeared from her view.
"So I have a scar. It will heal. Maybe not the whole way, but I'll live with it. I don't understand, Sephiroth. It's over, and I'm fine."
"You think Hojo just left it at that? Just a scar?" Sephiroth's voice was harsh and angry, and Aralyn flattened against the wall, afraid at this new, furious demon. Sephiroth raised his head, his eyes burning, until he saw how Aralyn had shied away from him.
"I have to go," he muttered, his voice barely distinguishable. The fury had not subsided, though he was trying very hard to suppress it.
"No, please, stay here! Stay with me!" Suddenly the thought of being alone was frightening, and even more daunting was the notion that Hojo might show up. "Don't leave."
"You don't need me now," he said as he slid from her bedside. "I just want to…I'll be…I don't know. Away. From here."
"Then at least tell me what happened!" Aralyn said. "What did Hojo do to me, and what were you so scared of in the operating room? What did you think he'd do to me?"
Sephiroth's wing twitched, the action reminding her of a shudder. The rest of his body was rigid and tense. "He didn't sedate me," he began in a dead tone of voice. "Not when he grafted in…" He trailed off, his wing fidgeting again, this time his hands shaking along with it, "…my wing."
Aralyn was stunned into silence for a moment. "Sephiroth…"
"But I won't let him do anything like that to you," he said solemnly. "Whatever my power is, I promise I will use it to protect you. I swear it!" he repeated firmly.
Aralyn could not speak. She stared at him for a long time, but he still remained with his back toward her, troubled but resolute. A machine attached to her arm whirred softly, and a noisy, clattering cart was wheeled along the hallway outside. People spoke just outside her door, and Sephiroth and Aralyn drew in sharp breaths as they recognized Hojo's voice.
When it became apparent that Hojo would not enter for a moment, he moved a pale hand to pull a few stray strands of silver hair out of his face. "I don't know why," he said, his voice calm and almost musing as he answered Aralyn's unasked question. "I don't know why I promised that. But you make me feel…" he stopped, shuffling his feet as he searched for a word, then sighing in defeat as nothing presented itself. "And I meant it."
The door opened, and as they had feared, it was Hojo who entered, this time unaccompanied by Gast. He stopped when he saw the child half his size standing firmly in front of him and sighed, clearly irritated. "Sephiroth, you may leave now."
"No."
"If she's all right, she'll be in her quarters in an hour. You can see her then." This was not meant as a condolence, but as an excuse to remove the boy from the premises. He flicked his hand at Sephiroth in dismissal.
"No, I want to stay with her."
"Then stay in that corner and don't interfere," Hojo sneered as he gestured to the furthest corner from Aralyn.
"I'll do what I want," Sephiroth spat back in childish spite. "Just try to stop me!"
Hojo pushed his glasses up further with one bony finger, his face set in disapproval. He opened his mouth to reply to this challenge but a feminine voice interrupted. "Oh, let him stay. He's too stubborn to be stopped; it's in his blood."
The woman that Aralyn recognized as Joyce walked into the room, smiling slyly at Hojo at her inside joke. Hojo did not find this amusing, but strode past Sephiroth without any attempts at removing him. Sephiroth's green, catlike eyes followed every move the older man made.
"Okay, Aralyn," Joyce said as she gently grabbed her arm. "Let's see how you're doing."