AN ;; warning for creepy Hojo, reviewers, prepare your pitch forks, this chapter will twist your hearts - Nightfall

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Sitting by Angeal's side, Cloud rested his head on the bed, near asleep from training. Zack was opposite him at the other end of the bed, staring at his mentor as he slept. Cloud's arms crossed beneath his chin, he struggled to keep his eyes open when he realised Zack had turned his sapphire gaze to him. He raised his eyebrows slightly, but Zack did not smile. He seemed deep in concentration about something, which was never a good sign when it came to the boisterous pup. Angeal shifted slightly in his sleep, the bandages around his chest having been recently changed and so still cleansed white, unstained from the liquids inside him. Having found a supply of G cell blood kept frozen in one of Hollander's old laboratories, Zack had been given it by the mad scientist Hojo before being thrown out, the man obsessing over something on in another room. The science department appeared empty other than the new metal containment units sat in the corner, shuffling about slightly and letting out strange moans as whatever Hojo had captured in them desperately tried to break free. Zack shook his head and brought the packs to the infirmary, giving Angeal the strength to sit up fully despite the gash down his chest once the blood was fused within him. The wound had slowly began to heal, but had still had to be stapled shut to keep his chest from falling open, his body too weak from not training regularly. But his hair had already began to tinge with a strange grey tone, the roots turning white as flour as though he were aging drastically. His body was shrinking in size, the muscles disintegrating, near disappearing beneath the sheets as Zack watched on, helpless.

Genesis, the one who had done this to Zack's mentor, had not been sighted since their mission to the now nonexistent Banora, the crimson commander appearing to vanish from the map. However, Zack had began to notice quite a few SOLDIERS disappearing, nearly the whole second class troops and a large majority of the third classes suddenly going AWOL. Lazard had given the command to the TURKS to shoot them if they were found, without asking questions, a direct command from President ShinRa himself, who simply became angrier the longer Genesis was flying around Gaia, resisting capture.

Zack sighed and ran a hand through his hair, staring at the blonde who was half asleep on Angeal's bed, slouched over onto the covers, his eyes now closed as his mind began to lose itself to the realm of dreams. The raven hair chose not to disturb Cloud, noticing how since he had returned, all Cloud had done was train. He had told him of how he found another of his old friends, the creature Nanaki, in Hojo's clutches in the science department and convinced Reeve to break him out, using the General as a distraction for Hojo's ever prying eyes, giving the two the time to get out. Cloud had sent the AVALANCHE leader a message via his phone, which had been coded in some sort of strange pattern that even Zack couldn't crack; obviously done in case the TURKS were monitoring their texts and calls out of the facility.

Cloud was peaceful as he slept, reminding Zack of the little joys he still had in life. Despite the situation, he could always count on the blonde being there by his side, like a little angel sent from the ethereal above. He could almost picture small white wings upon Cloud's back along with a glistening golden halo hovering above his ragged blonde spikes.

But what Zack desired the most right now was for Angeal to acknowledge his existence. While Gillian, his mentor's mother, had shown her support with caring touches on his shoulders and even petting his head in an Angeal like way, he still felt as though the man hated him. It was obvious he loved Genesis, despite however much he wanted to preach his honour and deny it entirely. What he and Sephiroth had discussed he did not know, but he already did not trust the General one little bit.

For although Sephiroth was not trying to run his sword through Cloud anymore, the way the small blonde looked at him, hung on his every word and beckoned to his every call, near infuriated Zackary Fair. He had done something to Cloud when he used his mastered time materia, he just knew it. But the blonde acted as though nothing had happened, not even the battle between the three of them. He simply continued his life like his past world had never existed, as though Sephiroth had never tried to destroy the planet. Because Zack knew, despite the friendliness the General was showing toward Cloud, he was still the same General. When he, and he would, eventually found out about his true birth, he would act exactly the same; allowing his mind to rot and become nothing more than a servant to the alien Jenova, trying to cause the genocide of humanity and make himself some kind of supreme god. Zack would not let that happen. He'd protect Cloud with his life against every enemy of the world, whether they be someone from Cloud's past, or from their new future.

When Gillian made her way into the room, Cloud shifted slightly, sensing her presence but not awakening. Zack smiled to her slightly before turning his eyes back to Angeal. His mentor had been resting for around four hours now, having left the puppy toy on Zack's chair, rather than throw it across the room like a petulant Genesis would. Zack held the plush in his arms and said nothing as Gillian stood over them, then he got up, offering her the chair. She was gracious and sat down, her old muscles creaking as they relaxed into the metal seat. She kept her eyes on her son for a while, then turned to Zack, who was sat on the edge of the bed beside Cloud, his hand trailing closer towards his head.

"Shh, let him sleep." Gillian murmured, Zack's hand moving away from the blonde spikes to rest on his knee instead. When the pup did not say anything in response, she asked him, "who is he?" gesturing to Cloud. Although the blonde had been here before, she had never questioned his presence there, as he sat like a silent guardian angel, simply…watching.

"My friend." Zack replied softly, hoping that his voice would not awaken the sleeping cherub. When he felt Gillian still staring at him, he added, "an old friend."

"Angeal never mentioned a hedgehog."

Zack stifled a laugh. Angeal had a terrible habit of picturing people as creatures rather than humans; Zack was his puppy, the ever loyal, defensive, naïve cadet he had met when he was only sixteen years of age. Genesis, the cat. Proud, dominating, arrogant, autocratic; throwing fits whenever things did not go his way or acting like a spoilt child, but never less just as loyal and as beautiful as the raven haired second class. Sephiroth…he had never given the man a beast in his name. It seemed unfitting to class Sephiroth as any type of cute animal, the man being the very epitome of fear. When Gillian continued, he moved away from his thoughts, turning his sapphire gaze to her.

"My beautiful baby boy…I don't know if he will survive, Zack…" she turned to him, gesturing to their family heirloom, the legendary buster sword, resting by the end of the bed, just inches from his reach, "if…if the worst happens…I know he would want you to have it."

Zack stared at her as though she was saying Angeal was already dead. He could have been, of course, to Zack's knowledge, seeing as his mentor refused to even look at him when he was in the same room as him. A sigh escaping him, he could not lie to Angeal's mother.

"Angeal is degrading…" he held a hand to his face, forcing back the tears into his eyes, not allowing his resolve to break before the mother of the man who acted like a father to him, and a friend, "due to the wound Genesis gave him, his body is slowly falling apart…" turning to ash, Zack thought, but chose a different wording so as not to seem offensive.

Gillian simply smiled slightly, but she seemed disgusted with herself.

"He told me this would happen… I… I did not believe him." He? Who was he? Zack's frown signalled for Gillian that she had to tell him more, the boy not knowing what she meant, "Angeal's father, he was a scientist here…when he placed the G cells into my son, he told me should he ever receive a permanent wound, his body would start to degrade, until nothing was left but the memory of his ever being alive…" what? She had known this would happen, yet allowed it to happen? When Zack stared at her, unveiled anger in his eyes, she smiled softly, "it was for the glory of science, to help the human race…I was a foolish, naïve young woman, and now my son is suffering for it…"

"Then, you knew…Genesis…?"

"Their meeting was not coincidence," Gillian responded, her fragile body trembling slightly, "it was all planned out, right until he was taken from me at fourteen years old my his father and placed into this gods damn facility…"

Zack did not know how to react. If she had been a man, he would have lunged onto her and beaten her into a pulp. But she was just a frail, old woman who was clearly concerned for the well being of her child. He turned his stare away from her, not wanting to display the disgust in his eyes. No wonder Angeal and Genesis had befriended the sociopath Sephiroth, with parents like their own, they would not have known the difference between an angel and the very demons who now used them as mere weapons for power and wealth.

When Gillian stood, her shoes tapping softly against the concrete floor beneath them, she gave one last glance to Zack.

"Take care of my son…" she whispered, a tear beginning to run from her eye, then she looked away, making her way out of the infirmary without looking back. Zack blinked, wondering where she was heading too, not realising Angeal's eyes had been open, listening to the entire conversation.

Hojo smiled sickly sweet when the General entered the science department for his monthly check up. Sephiroth's expression was blank as always, even when he approached with the syringe in hand, rending him unconscious for the majority of the procedure. He took his blood, filling two vials as he always did, before drilling the metal pipe into the General's side and stopping when he came to a rib, filling up a vial with his marrow before sealing the wound with a laser and leaving him strapped to the table. He checked his vitals, the man being covered in a variety of different coloured wires from his head to his chest, legs and arms. Hojo ignored the sound of the females crying and begging to be released from the metal chambers close to where they stood, the other scientists having been dismissed whilst he experimented on his own child. Taking a small lock of Sephiroth's silver hair, he placed it into a vial, then mixed it with a strange chemical, watching as the locks began to melt away into nothingness. When Sephiroth began to awaken, feeling the pain in his side from where the incision had been, Hojo leered over him, grinning with delight.

"Ah, so you're awake," he left him strapped on the table, circling with his arms crossed behind his back, "I have an important experiment I wish for you to partake in, my son."

"What is it?"

Ah, ever so willing to please. If only his mother Lucrecia had behaved as such in her final months working by his side, their child kept in the containment unit within the middle of the department. After he had dealt with his wife's ex lover, the blasted TURK Vincent Valentine, leaving his body in the Nibelheim mansion laboratories for when he took his monthly research trips there, the woman had become insufferable, going so far as to demand she be given her son and allowed to leave the facility. Oh, the threat did not intimidate the professor in the slightest. Until Lucrecia had used her key cards to break into the science department during the night to take her son by force. Hojo had been experimenting on him, the boy wailing in agony as he cut into his body, the wounds healing near instantly unless he used a laser. His wife had screamed at him that he was a monster, for she did not understand the purpose of this experiment, the true meaning for Sephiroth's birth. He had allowed the woman to name their son, but other than that, she had simply been a carrier for his seed and the DNA of the beautiful, ancient Jenova to fuse within. When she had drawn a gun, he cut through her throat with the scalpel, the woman falling to her knees and clutching her neck, blood spilling out onto the sickly clean floors. What a waste, Hojo thought to himself, before pushing her down onto her back with a kick to her side, then kneeling down over her, kissing her once last time. Lucrecia had bitten his lip, drawing blood before he ripped his flesh away from her, furious that she would disrespect him even as she lay dying. He stabbed her once, twice, again, and again, and again, until her chest had so many incisions, he could no longer count how many times he had drove the blade into her. The child still screaming, he ignored Sephiroth and dragged Lucrecia by her hair towards the disposal units, which would be incinerated within seconds of being tossed down the shoot into the slums of Midgar. Lucrecia murmured something as she struggled onto life, drowning on her own blood. Hojo would have twitched an ear if he could, turning to her and holding her up by her hair.

"What was that, my dear? I'm afraid you'll have to speak louder; the baby is crying."

Lucrecia spat her blood in his face. Hojo wiped his glasses with a couple of fingers, then laughed softly.

"So stubborn, even at the end?" he tilted his head ever so slightly, his teeth glistening crimson from the wound she had given him, "what if I was to tell you, my dear darling wife, that our son will never know of your existence? He will grow up learning that Jenova is his mother, that she died during giving birth to him, that she was beloved by all. You, your face, your memories, nothing will be passed down to him…he will never know you ever existed."

Lucrecia's eyes filled with an agony much stronger than the wounds she suffered at the forms of her husband. She could do nothing as Hojo slowly lifted her motionless body into the disposal unit, her fingers trying to cling onto anything, even gripping his laboratory coat at one point before he wrenched her grip from him and threw her into the metal tunnel, hearing her frame slamming against the sides as she went down into the flames below.

But now was not the time for reminiscing on such fond memories. He had an experiment he wished to proceed with.

Releasing the straps from Sephiroth's limbs, he allowed his son to sit up as he approached the containment units. Pressing a few buttons and flicking a switch, a large plastic room began to make it's way down from the ceiling towards the floor. The very same one that Sephiroth had been imprisoned in throughout his entire childhood. The General said nothing, watching, motionless other than his cat slit pupils following his father's movements towards the boxes. He kicked them, the creatures inside letting out more wails and cries, before moved them toward the one opening of the room. Releasing the women one by one, Sephiroth watched as the four civilians crawled their way out of the boxes before huddling together within the containment room, Hojo locking himself in with them before approaching them, communicating to his son through the speakers.

"These, are for you…" he informed, running his hand over the dark thigh of one girl, her eyes wide with horror as she struggled to get away from him, but having her limbs broken, could do nothing but spasm on top of the other girls, not able to speak due to having her tongue removed. Hojo grabbed the hair of another, holding her up, her blonde locks entangled in his fingers, the woman's mouth parted in a silent scream of terror, "they were collected from the slums, bought from Don Cornio's whore house…" he turned his snide grin to the woman, running his lips over her ear as he murmured, "pure…virgins…"

Sephiroth however was disgusted. This man was a sociopath. What did he think he wanted with these girls? To have them as slaves? When he mentioned them being virgins, Sephiroth's chest tightened. He was to partake in sexual relations with these females? For what purpose? He had never done such a thing, he had never wanted too. There had been no one who he had been attracted to, even when the disposed Genesis begged him time and time again to be pounded into any nearby furniture, simply to be ignored by the silver haired man. The professor had clearly lost his mind if he thought he was willingly going to partake in this. He had no interest in these girls, who ranged from varying ages; he assumed the youngest to be around fifteen, the same lifespan to which one particular blonde was when they first met.

…Cloud.

Sephiroth would never admit it to anyone other than himself, but Cloud held his infatuations. His one and only, true desire. Everything about the teenager grasped his instant interests, from his sapphire blue eyes, to his pale, unblemished skin (other than from where he had left the scars upon him, which he fully took pride in), tiny hands, clasping onto an oversized sword which was nearly as big as his body, that gentle, small neck to which sat upon the face of an angel.

Sephiroth continued to stare on in silence when Hojo finally moved out of the room, leaving the naked women to huddle together for warmth, strange, inhuman groans coming from tongue-less mouths. The scientist locked them in, shifting towards his son with that grin ever present upon his lips.

"Well, do you not desire them?" Hojo tilted his head, noticing the General was very much unaffected by the sight of the beautiful specimens he had collected.

"What is the purpose of this experiment?" Sephiroth replied quietly, keeping his eyes upon the women as they stared back at him with fear brimming in their eyes.

"Why, now that you ask, I should tell you it's a breeding programme." Hojo informed, turning away from the silver head and approaching a strange vial he had on the tables close by, pressing a syringe into the cap of the bottle and turning it on it's side, filling the surgical instrument with the liquid, "I need more research specimens, my boy. You alone are not enough to quench my thirst for knowledge." once he had finished, he tapped the syringe, the liquid squiring out somewhat as the smile never left his lips. He adjusted his glasses, "think of what we could achieve? You and I, together, as father and son. You would be helping the human race, giving them a better, more prosperous future."

Sephiroth said nothing, his eyes locked onto the women as the needle pierced his back. His pupils sharpening, the liquid flowed into him as he lashed round, grabbing Hojo by the arm and staring at the half empty syringe, eyes blazing as he slammed him into the wall, surgical instruments spilling from the tables as Hojo's legs were dragged across them.

"What did you just inject me with?"

Hojo laughed lowly, ignoring the pain coursing through his arms as his son held him.

"A simple aphrodisiac, my boy…" his eyes glinting with delight, he continued, "to assist you in this experiment."

Sephiroth's eyes wavered. What? An arousal? He was to be forced to mate with those women? He dropped his father, backing away as he stared at his hands, already beginning to see double. Hojo said nothing, continuing to laugh as he backed away, turning and walking briskly out of the science department, the serum making it's way through him and towards his heart. The women shuddering and crying out when Hojo crouched down to view them from behind the plastic, he smiled to the terrified humans.

"My son will be with you shortly, my dears."