Disclaimer: Kit Thespian does not own Final Fantasy VII or the characters therein. And she is not making money off of this.
Chapter Twenty-One- A Little Bit of Chaos
Dr. Kerring arrived at the house about twenty minutes after Cid carried Hojo to the upstairs spare bedroom. His eyes widened when he saw his patient, but only because of Hojo's frail form. Lucrecia, Reeve, Cid, Shera, and Tifa were watching solemnly as the doctor bandaged up Hojo's head. Marlene was peeking at the doorway.
"He's not hurt too badly. He'll have a headache for a couple of days, but nothing serious. However, I am curious," he turned to the others, "as to how he got this wound."
There was a short silence before Lucrecia sheepishly spoke up, "He's my husband."
"...Funny, I haven't seen him before."
"He just got back...after thirty-two years."
"...Ohhhh." Dr. Kerring decided that this was another one of those matters that went on in this house that he had just better keep his nose out of, "All right." He took his doctor's bag and got up, "Call me if he doesn't wake up by this evening. Try to get him to eat something."
The doctor left and the question arose as to who should wait with Hojo to be with him when he woke up. Lucrecia volunteered first, but Cid overruled it by saying that he didn't want her to be in that situation right away until they knew for sure that Hojo would do no harm to her. Lucrecia objected that he would never physically hurt her, but she was outnumbered. Tifa was out of the question; Cloud would kill Cid and Reeve if he knew that they left his pregnant wife alone in a room with Hojo, whether he was conscious or not. Shera wouldn't know how to deal with the scientist, so that left Cid and Reeve.
Cid finally consented to be the one to do it. He was the one who had stood up to Hojo earlier on, and though Hojo wasn't afraid of him, Cid could probably keep the scientist under control. Besides, Hojo was in no condition to put up a fight.
"...Let's try to get some food in his body when he wakes up," Shera said, "he looks almost anorexic." She turned to Reeve, "Did he ever eat anything at work, Reeve?"
"He was always really busy; I don't know if he took time to eat or not," Reeve answered, "None of us wanted to bother him about it, not even Heidegger or the President. As you may have gathered, we were all a little intimidated by him," Reeve shook his head and chuckled a little, "The President, Rufus Shinra's father, would take every word from Hojo's mouth as if it was from the Ancient's themselves. It was hard not to believe him. He could be very persuasive."
They said nothing else on the subject and left Cid in the room. Cid sat on Reeve's bed and stared at Hojo. Then he got tired of staring at Hojo and lay down. Then he got tired of staring at the ceiling and walked over to a meager bookshelf in the corner of the bedroom to look for something interesting to read. The bookshelf, as well as all of the furniture, was left there after the previous house owner died. He must have had someone in his family who was into poetry, because all of the books on this shelf were poetry books, probably stuffed into this room by the owner to be kept out of sight and out of mind.
"Oh, well. Better than nothing," thought Cid as he pulled out an old book and thumbed through it. He looked at Hojo, who was still showing no signs of stirring, "You like poetry, you sicko?"
No reply. Cid looked through the book and read a random verse aloud:
"My chest heaves out a wretched sigh
On the bloodied ground, battered I lie
Oh, help me, that I would die!"
"Eesh..." Cid winced, "that's kinda depressing, isn't it?" He flipped a few pages, "How's this one:
"Always there, never stirring
Unless a breeze comes its way.
Always quiet, never yearning
for other trees far away.
Ah, nature, let me be
as calm, content, and peaceful as that tree!"
"That's what you call desperate; wanting to be a tree..." Cid flipped the pages some more and read another entry, a limerick.
"Robert Jones went to the tree
with a hope somehow to flee
from Mr. Copper
who blew his "top-per"
because Robert had spiked his dog's tea."
"Well..." Cid raised an eyebrow, "that was different."
Hojo began to move and breathe deeper. Cid sighed, with both relief and dread. The man was finally waking up. Cid put the book aside and went to the bedroom door.
"Shera!" he called, "He's waking up! Bring something for him to eat and drink, okay?"
"If you please, young man," Hojo slurred, not opening his eyes and trying to be as polite as possible (he was a little grateful for not being dead), "do not shout so loudly. I have a wretched enough headache as it is."
"Sorry," Cid answered on reflex. He wished horribly that Lucrecia and Shera had not banned smoking inside of the house. He needed a smoke.
"I would like to know..." Hojo asked, still not opening his eyes, "who did it."
"Did what?"
"Hit me on the head. I have a terrific throbbing pain in the back of my head."
"You'll find out soon enough."
"It will heal faster than normally."
"Because of the Jenova cells?"
"...Yes."
"Good. Then you can pull your own weight around here. The only reason you're not eviscerated and lying in a ditch is because..." Cid froze, "-Bleepit-, I almost gave it away!"
"Because of what?" Hojo asked, sitting up and propping his pillow.
"Nothing."
"Young man, whenever someone says 'Nothing' in response to a question, it could mean one of several things. One, the person forgot what they were talking about. Two, the person is dismissing what they would have said as impossible or not worth it. Three, the person is hiding something. Now, considering that my injury has happened recently, I think we can discard the first two options. What are you trying to hide from me?"
Shera entered the room with a tray before Cid would have to work up the effort to answer and she placed the tray down on the nightstand beside Hojo's bed.
Shera said, in her normal cheery manner, "Tea, sandwiches, and a little bowl of trail mix. Eat up."
"Yes, Mother," Hojo replied disdainfully, crossing his arms and looking away. Shera leaned over and said,
"There's some relish and mustard to put on your sandwiches. Eat up, or you won't get dessert."
The mention of relish and mustard seemed to spark some interest in the old scientist. His eyes turned towards the tray and he ignored Shera's last comment. Shera looked at Cid with a knowing glint in her eye. Cid realized that she must have gotten "sandwich-making-for-Hojo" tips from Lucrecia, or Lucrecia herself made the sandwiches. Hojo eyed Shera one more time before taking the tray. He took up the tea and smelled it.
Shera said, "Green tea with a drop of honey. Hope you like it."
Hojo narrowed his eyes at Shera, but sipped the tea. In fact, he gulped half the cup upon discovering that it wasn't too hot. Then he looked at the trail mix. It was the kind of mix that would come with dried slices of fruit, raisins, dried raspberries, cashews, peanuts, and almonds. But Cid noticed that all of the fruit slices had been picked out. Again, probably the work of Lucrecia. So, she remembered how he liked his lunch. It was rather thoughful of her, Cid had to admit.
It hadn't occurred to Cid just yet that considering all of the little details, Hojo would find this all vaguely familiar. He addressed Shera, "Did you make the lunch?"
Shera answered, "Yes." But her eyes averted; she wasn't very good with lying. She said, "I'm going to stand here and make sure you eat every bite."
Hojo didn't say another word, but fell to the food. He applied the relish and mustard to the ham and cheese in the toasted bread, and gingerly took a bite. But then he progressively worked up to bigger bites and soon finished off the lunch. So, he wasn't anorexic. He had probably been too busy all the time, like Reeve said, to eat. Shera thought it was cute how he would search for the almonds in the trail mix.
Just as Shera was taking the empty tray, they heard a voice in the doorway, "Who're you?"
Marlene had sneaked upstairs in curiosity to see who the stranger that everyone was making such a fuss about was. She looked at him, and he looked at her. Since Marlene didn't know who Hojo was or anything he had done, she just thought he was a skinny, slightly scary-looking man with glasses. Hojo assumed that perhaps Marlene was Cid and Shera's child. He hadn't seen a child in a long time; not since the Cetra.
"Marlene!" Cid fussed, "You're not supposed to be up here and you know it."
"But, Uncle Cid," Marlene protested, "I wanted to see..."
"Well, you've seen. Hurry along now!"
"Now, now, Uncle Cid," Hojo said, "there's no need for that." He put his feet on the floor and addressed the little girl, "Come here, Marlene."
Marlene looked a little frightened, but approached. Cid didn't think there was any use in objecting anymore. At least now Marlene might be afraid of Hojo and wouldn't want to go near him anymore.
"How old are you?" Hojo asked.
Marlene held up five fingers, "Five."
"Five? And where are your parents?"
"Papa's away on a trip with Uncle Cloud, Uncle Sephy, and Aunt Yuffie."
"I see... Uncle Sephy, is it? Sephy-what?"
"Marlene..." Cid sternly spoke, but unfortunately they had not coached Marlene properly in not mentioning her new best friend. In fact, she had sneaked out of the basement and down the hall to the stairs. Reeve and the women had been in the kitchen.
Marlene blurted out before Cid could further shush her, "He has a funny name. Sephy Roth. He's my best friend!"
Cid threw his hands into the air in frustration. Why keep up pretenses now?
"Don't get that smirk on your face, Hojo," Cid growled, "I doubt seriously that he will find your coming welcome. In fact, don't be surprised to get a Masamune in your chest when he and the others get here!"
"I am frightened out of my wits," Hojo said, sarcastically, "So, why is he traveling with Cloud Strife?"
"He's actually acting civil now, which isn't something I can say for someone in this room!"
"Speak for thyself, Cid," Hojo narrowed his eyes.
"Stop it, both of you!" Shera snapped.
Marlene stomped her foot, "Yeah, stop it, Uncle Cid! You're being mean!"
"I'm being...?" Cid then realized that he was being mean. And he was making himself look like the bad guy to Marlene instead of Hojo. That was just humiliating.
"Marlene," Shera took hold of Marlene's hand while balancing the tray with her other arm, "Mr. Hojo needs to sleep now. Come along."
"Bye-bye, Mr. Hojo!" Marlene waved at the professor before leaving the room with Shera.
There was a short silence before Cid spoke, "You like kids, Hojo?"
Hojo pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and answered, "I haven't really formulated an opinion of them lately."
The Midgar Wilderness...
"How do I get myself in these messes?" Cloud wailed.
"Get these -bleep- things off of me!" Barrett struggled, forgetting his language etiquette.
"Yuffie, don't just stand there!" Sephiroth snapped, trying vainly to protect his hair, "Do something!"
"I'm not just standing here," Yuffie said, with an armful of baby chocobos, "I'm trying to help!"
The group had stopped to get some food (some civilized food) at the Chocobo ranch on the way back to Kalm. Thankfully, the wild chocobos that they had ridden across the swamp a couple of weeks earlier were still grazing in the area around the mythril mine, so there were no problems there. Cloud mentioned to Sephiroth that tame chocobos were a lot more civil than wild chocobos, and a lot less afraid of humans. Unfortunately, shortly after the group arrived at the Chocobo Ranch, the gate containing all of the baby chocobos (fifty of them) mysteriously opened, and Billy was running around trying to get them rounded up.
To make a long story short, one baby chocobo had wandered up to Cloud and Cloud scratched it behind its left ear, thinking it was kind of cute. The baby chocobo seemed to take an instant liking to Cloud. Now, inexplicably, all of the baby chocobos were crawling all over the sprawling Cloud, Sephiroth, and Barrett. Billy was doing his utmost to gather the babies and put them back in their cage one or two at a time. Yuffie was helping him, amused, but extremely concerned about Sephiroth's temper. She was surprised that he hadn't wielded the Masamune by now. Maybe it was because he couldn't get to it for the twenty baby birds giving him chocobo-kisses.
After a half an hour of frantic back and forth deliveries between the baby chocobo pen and the three incensed men, Billy and Yuffie finally managed to get all fifty baby chocobos back to their pen. All the humans were covered with feathers. They were all so disgusted or exhausted that none of them noticed that Red XIII was nowhere to be found. Billy assured them that any smell in their clothes would be aired out while they walked to Kalm, since baby chocobos were cleaner than adults. But he couldn't explain why the babies had acted in such a way.
No one noticed Red XIII go to the baby chocobo cage and whisper, "Great job, kids."
Revenge was sweet.
After an hour of refreshing themselves, the group continued on their way to Kalm. Sephiroth hoped that he would never have to see another chocobo as long as he lived. Fortunately, the little chocobos' beaks weren't sharp enough to bite his hair off, but they had pulled at it.
Yuffie wrapped her arm around his and leaned on his shoulder, "I'm sorry; I moved as fast as I could."
"She's sorry about him!" Cloud moaned, picking chocobo-down from his cape.
"When we get home you two can have Tifa and Marlene as sorry for you as you want, but I want to be sorry for Sephiroth," Yuffie pursed her lips and wrapped both arms around Sephiroth's arm.
"His Mama can feel sorry for him," Barrett said, checking his ears once again to make sure there were no feathers.
"Oh, stop complaining!" Yuffie rolled her eyes.
"First, wild chocobos," Sephiroth spoke for the first time since they left the ranch, "then frogs, then carnival plays, and now rabid baby chocobos. This has to be one of the most unusual trips I've ever gone on, on foot. If this day could get any stranger, I'd like to know how."
They were about to find out.
In Kalm...
Dr. Kerring was in the market place walking by the fountain when he noticed Cloud and his friends coming into town. He waved at them.
"Hey, Mr. Strife, Mr. Wallace! Good to have you back! How are you doing?"
"Fine," Cloud answered.
"Swell," Barrett replied.
"And how is Miss Kisaragi?" the doctor asked.
"I'm fine, thanks," Yuffie smiled.
"And the brave rescuer?" Kerring addressed Sephiroth.
"I'm all right, thank you," Sephiroth said, trying to forget the earlier incident.
"And I haven't seen you in a long time," Kerring said to Red XIII, "the talking animal from Cosmo Canyon."
"Greetings," Red spoke.
"Hey, er, I want to warn all of you that you have a new guest," Dr. Kerring said, "A rather odd-looking fellow. Ms. Lucrecia said that he was her husband."
The group's faces all dropped and were silent for a few minutes.
"...I take it you know him?" Dr. Kerring asked.
"No, it can't be!" Yuffie exclaimed.
"Did he have long, black hair, glasses, a white lab coat, yellow eyes, a sunken face, and a rather nasty disposition?" asked Sephiroth.
"Well, I don't know about the eyes or the disposition, but you've got everything else all right."
The group all looked at each other and shrieked in unison, "Hojo!"
Dr. Kerring didn't even get a chance to ask any questions as they made a dash to the house. He shrugged and continued with his shopping. The Strife household was the strangest household in the entire village, and had been the strangest since the doctor lived there.
Cloud and Sephiroth were the first to get to the house, crashing into each other into the front door, which failed to open at the right time. They fell back, almost knocking Barrett, Red, and Yuffie into the ground. They jumped back up and opened the door.
"Mother!" Sephiroth exclaimed.
"Tifa!" Cloud shouted.
"Marlene!" Barrett yelled.
Lucrecia popped her head out of the living room door and asked, "Is there a fire?"
"Fire? No!" Barrett said, "Hojo!"
"It's nice to see you too, everyone," Lucrecia said calmly.
"No, Lucrecia, you don't understand," Cloud breathlessly said, "Hojo's in this house! And...why are you so calm?"
"Cloud," Tifa emerged from the living room, "it's all right; everything's under control."
"Under control? Dr. Kerring said that Hojo's here!"
"Really, Cloud," Tifa said, "You didn't think we could keep Hojo under control? The man weighs less than Yuffie. He's upstairs."
"How can you be so calm," Sephiroth spoke angrily, "when he's here? I'm going to kill him!"
Then something happened that no one in the hunting group expected. Lucrecia grabbed Sephiroth by the straps of his armor with one hand and pointed a finger in his face with the other.
"You...will...do...no...such...thing," she spoke lowly, "He's your father, no matter what he has done... He was looking for you."
"What for?" Sephiroth still had bitterness in his voice.
"...I don't know. I knocked him out before that. He hasn't even seen me."
"You knocked him out?" Red spoke.
"Gracious!" Lucrecia jumped back, noticing Red for the first time, "What is that?"
"That's just Red, Lucrecia," Yuffie said, "he's perfectly all right. He helped us...helped us..." 'Kill Sephiroth' didn't seem to be an appropriate thing to say at this time, "He helped us."
"Anyway..." Red said, "you knocked him out?"
"It...It's a long story. Come in, and we'll try to explain."
"Why do you have feathers on your clothes?" Tifa asked, examining Cloud's cloak.
"That's a long story too," Cloud answered as they all walked into the living room, "but what about Hojo?"
"Cid and Reeve are with him right now..." Lucrecia said.
Tifa spoke to her husband, "He came in, wanting to know where you were. I don't know; I guess he thought that we might know something about Sephiroth, or why he may be resurrected. Hojo said he didn't know why he was alive. But he demanded to know where Sephiroth was, especially when he saw this..." Tifa pointed to a towel left on the floor.
Yuffie laughed as she picked it up, "Oh, no! It's the towel I used to catch Sephiroth's hair when I trimmed it a few weeks ago. I stuffed it underneath the couch and forgot."
"You...cut Sephiroth's hair?" Red asked.
"I only trimmed it."
"The point is," Sephiroth said, "that he saw that."
"Yes," Tifa continued, "And he got angry. Cid got angry too. Then Lucrecia came up behind Hojo and hit him on the head with the Nail Bat."
"My Nail Bat?" Cloud asked.
"Yes..." Lucrecia said, "I'm sorry; it broke."
"...That's okay. But then what happened?"
"Cid took Hojo upstairs, we got Dr. Kerring to come look at his head, and he woke up a few hours ago, and that's about it."
"Papa!" Marleneran into the livingroom from the kitchen, where Shera was.
"Marlene!" Barrett ran to his daughter, "Are you all right?"
"Uh-huh!" Marlene hugged Barrett when he picked her up, "I'm glad you're back!"
"I'm glad to be back, sweetie!" Barrett rubbed Marlene's nose with his.
Sephiroth had crossed his arms and looked very stern, "What are we going to do about him? Hojo, I mean.
"...We'll have to see," Tifa answered, "Especially when Vincent gets back; he went for a walk and won't be back until late."
"I'll be outside," Sephiroth walked out the front door. He wanted to cool off and think about all of this.
Cloud rubbed his head, "This will be interesting..."
"I don't want Sephiroth to speak to Hojo until after I speak with him," Lucrecia said, "I'll find out why Hojo wanted to see him."
"One problem," Cloud said, "how is Hojo going to react to you?"
"...I don't know," Lucrecia hung her head.