A/N: Don't worry, I'm going to try to keep going with this---we've made it insanely far. I don't want to give up on it, even if it is trying at times. Thanks to everybody who reviewed! If you asked questions and I didn't get to it, remind me. It's so late it's early XD Thanks to: TattooKitty, Marezuls, kiralover44, minoki, NicotineGum, whatevergirl, Dame Nosferatu, CaseyAnn'sPrecious, Risikaa, CornCob, Nalie, Valitiel, -CNFB-, KT, and OvenBased! Oh, and a note to everyone, since there seemed to be a bit of confusion: Fenris, the wolf thing, he wasn't the one Vincent killed, just for clarification. I tried to explain that through the other monsters, but it wasn't very clear at all, sorry.
Sephiroth detested the Labs. It was almost a nightmare to be in them, the way they twisted like a labyrinth, all too memorable.
They had been Hojo's Labs, once upon a time. What disgusted him was the fact that when they had been built, deep underneath the base, they had been off of specific blueprints. It was the exact design of the place he had been kept as a child.
Perhaps that was why they could still unsettle him slightly, like nothing else was capable.
He had spent years of his life in an lifeless lab just like the one he was now walking through in near darkness. There was almost no difference except for the flow of the air; the labs he remembered had been almost stagnant, deserted. This place had a feel of life to it, of people besides just one or two scientists hovering over petri dishes.
Few knew about these particular labs. They were where the more extreme testing was done. After all, Shinra had to conceal its genetic research, given Hojo's not so private dismissal. It was now the property of Hollander, though few knew it. There was access around the base to get inside, but it required the highest of clearance. When he had been younger, Hojo had to escort him into the underground building. It was where he had gotten his treatments for a few years, far away from the prying eyes of Hollander or the other SOLDIERs. It was designated to whoever was the Director of the Science Division.
His mind kept flashing between past and present, as he went down a very familiar stretch, one of the longest, in fact. He had to keep closing his eyes, regulating his breathing. But still, the memory was burned in, permanent. He had avoided the hall for years, but to get to where he needed, this was the only path. There was only one entrance to the Labs' main computer.
He was going on instinct, knowing that it was the one computer that also had a more direct contact to the base's main system. If anyone were to try to gain control to the base, it seemed the most logical route to go—given knowledge of how the system worked, anyway. He knew for a fact that the Labs' computer could be accessed with the proper codes, making it much easier to manipulate. He had managed to get information from it before...a long time ago. Even so, they all were just suspicions, nothing more. He could be pursuing absolutely nothing.
Sephiroth's mind would not go to rest. Green eyes warily observed the surroundings, vivid in the darkness, reflecting like living mirrors. He could remember, he could see it all so flawlessly, as though not even a day had passed....
He shut his eyes again, trying to fight it off, but finally his hands went to his hair, fingernails catching in his scalp. He stopped walking.
The hallway was long and antiseptic. The lights glared, overpoweringly bright for such a confined space. He was running for all he was worth, chest burning, seemingly imploding internally with every pained inhalation. He felt like he was breathing in flames.
It was the mako. Too much. It was always too much.
There was a deep laughter ringing behind him, echoing. He ran faster, though everything screamed for him to just stop. He could feel the toxicity pumping through every vein, setting them alight. His chest felt heavy, and he could feel the cold sweat beginning to run down his temples. The lights kept fading in and out, and he realized with a start that they weren't flickering, he was.
He rounded a corner, grabbing the edge with a small hand, using it for support. He vomited for a moment, letting whatever was in his belly be purged. It had kept rising in his throat, acidic, making it even harder to breathe. He didn't even bother to wipe at his mouth, but turned and ran again.
He wanted out, any way out. Jade was crazy. Jade had gone crazy, he was sure of it. What if Hojo had done something to him? The man just kept getting worse and worse, and it scared him. Hadn't they been friends? When had it begun to blur with 'enemy'?
That thought made him want to turn back, to find Jade, and face the horrible laughter and the cruel hands. Maybe it was all just some sick sort of test he was failing at? How he wanted to believe that, but the urge to run was so much stronger. Every part of him was urging him, begging him to flee.
The man didn't love him, didn't care, that's what the doubt kept telling him. He didn't want to believe it. But he was running, so he must have believed. He must have known somehow.
"Come on, Sephiroth! Don't you like this game, little one?"
The man was close. So close. Sephiroth's pace became panicked, faster, more desperate. He had to run. If he ran fast enough he could get away. He could...escape. Maybe get away from Hojo too? But how many times had he tried that and failed? There was no way out. It was a maze, and he was nothing but its prisoner, never to be free. Even Gast had grown to hate him and left. They all hated him, even Jade.
His bare feet were almost silent on the linoleum, and the flowing clothes helped keep his sound down as well. His hair was hacked horribly short, no longer hanging around his neck like it had before. There were pieces of it that stuck up, then others where it was completely shaved. But only a few minutes before, it had been the hard staples across his scalp that made him tear his fingers away, too scared to feel what damage had been done. Then Jade had come, all sick smiles, looking at the mess of hair in amusement. What had he said? 'Pets don't get to avoid the shears'?
He let out a whimper when he looked back and realized that the man was right there. The laughter was so loud his head was starting to pound, and he was getting more light headed by the second. The lights were winking in and out, the floor kept becoming a black, twisting hole, gaping open to swallow him into blackness. But he ran. He didn't stop, even when his gait became almost sideways, his hands skimming across a wall in a vain attempt to keep him upright.
"No!" he screeched, feeling those impossible hands latch around him.
He struggled, kicking hard at whatever was behind him, but Jade only laughed again, running a hand over the mess of silver hair, fingers digging into the child's chest.
"But don't you love me, Sephiroth?" he asked mockingly, evilly. "You don't hurt the ones you love, didn't anyone tell you that?" A mouth was by his ear, biting at it. "I'm not so bad, I promise."
The child, though young, didn't believe him. He was too far gone for that, too smart. He knew how the game worked, and he wasn't falling for it. Sephiroth could feel the tingling in his fingertips as he willed everything to that one precise point. He shouldn't have been able to do it, yet somehow he could. He wanted it so badly, so much, because he hated being small, he hated being weak. He hated being at Jade's disposal.
There was a searing heat from his hand, but the man didn't drop him, practically snarling in pain. The 'nice' voice changed immediately, and one of the hands found a chunk of longer hair, yanking it until some came out into his palm. Fingernails dug into the tiny body, white teeth gnashing like a predator.
"You want to play that way? We can do it that way if you would like, you little shit," Jade growled, licking the side of the child's face almost as an afterthought.
Sephiroth made a sound of disgust, trying to break free, but the grip was so much stronger than he was, and he was so weak.... The whole world seemed dim. He was being carried, held so impossibly tight he thought his bones would yield to the pressure and snap beneath it. He cried out in pain, causing that face to smile down at him.
"Let me go," he protested weakly, trying to wriggle out of the arms, but finding himself further crunched in the vice. They kept moving quite quickly, Jade's stride much longer than his own was.
He whimpered pathetically, trying to claw at the face with his hands, to no avail. He was only further restrained, fingers wrapping around his wrists, pinning them together.
"If you cared you'd let me go," he said hopefully, fighting off the soreness at the edges of his eyes.
He had loved Jade so much...he couldn't understand why the man didn't love him back. His teacher had to be so mean, so hateful. He knew that things would never again be the way they had been, when they were really friends, or he had thought they were. Jade was evil, just like Hojo. He had to forget about all of those things from before; it had all been nothing but a lie. The trip to the pond, all of it. Lies. Everything was always fake, why couldn't he seem to learn that? He had to keep trusting and trusting, when he knew better.
He wasn't sure how long the man carried him in his arms; he merely watched the overhead lights pass him by, trying to figure out how to get loose from the strong hands.
Sephiroth's fears were confirmed, yet again, when they neared the door, an all too familiar one.
"No!!!" he screamed, becoming frantic at the sight of it.
Jade only crooned to him cruelly, face coming dangerously close to his. Sephiroth tried to wrench himself free, small teeth snapping together loudly as he went for whatever was closest. But his mouth latched onto nothing, found no skin to rip apart. The man had pulled back somewhat, laughing insanely, as though it was the funniest thing he had ever laid sight on.
The door was shoved open very roughly. They moved inside, captured and captor. It was a place of shining, brutal looking instruments that made the child start screaming instantaneously. His wrists had been released, so he clawed at Jade's back, begging him to turn back between his breathy shouts. He fisted at the expensive suit beneath him angrily, nothing but incomprehensive words and primal instinct.
Abruptly all sound ceased. Jade was shaking him, eyes filled with fury. The boy was suspended above the ground, hands holding him tightly under the arms. Like a toy, he was shook, until he felt as though something would come loose. It was so harshly done that his head snapped back painfully.
"Quiet! You want it worse? Do you really?"
Suddenly Sephiroth was mute, green eyes watery, fearful. The coldness in the voice had torn him from his frantic thoughts, the part that urged him to flee at whatever cost. The situation was truly reaching him. The man only smiled, obviously aware that the child had come back to reality: he wasn't getting away this time.
"Please...please, I'll be good, I promise. I won't run away again," the child said softly.
Jade held the boy closer again, as he began tugging at the straps on the table with a free arm. There was a sob, and the child petted at the man's suit, letting his head rest against the chest as a sign of goodwill and his last resort.
Sephiroth knew the game, how to play it. Jade liked a fight, not compliance; it irritated him. If he played victim maybe the man would get bored?
"Don't even start that," Jade stated in annoyance, practically throwing the boy onto one of the cold medical tables.
There was scrambling as the child tried to get back up, only to find himself being restrained. He started to lose his composure again, grabbing at the man's hands, pleading pathetically in ways he would hate himself for later.
"Too late for that. We could have played nice, but you wanted to go exploring. You know what happens when you're bad, don't you Sephiroth?" Jade was grinning, that dark glint in his eyes.
The room was full of reflective surfaces. The heady scent of an alcohol cleaning solution made his nose wrinkle, nostrils burning. Sharp, painful tools all around...knives, scalpels, electric saws strong enough to slice through bone.... The torture devices. All around. Everywhere, no matter how his gaze attempted to avoid such unpleasantries.
The man looked the epitome of elegant, suit almost too perfect. Sephiroth's eyes followed him, his head pinned down to the table, so tight he couldn't move in the slightest. There were silver cufflinks at the wrists of the suit, scorpions, that the boy stared at, trying to ignore what the man was doing.
Jade was pulling on one of the contraptions hanging from the ceiling, something the child didn't know the name of, but was all to physically familiar with. He whimpered from his place, trying in vain to squirm out of his restraints. He knew it would please the man to know he was dreading it, but he didn't care. He just didn't want to be hanged up in that thing again for hours, with long, pointed rods digging into seemingly every part of his upper body.... He wanted to be anywhere else. He would take the touching over it.
"I'll do whatever you want," he said in a rush, hating himself for being so weak and giving in.
Jade paused theatrically in his ministration, turning to look, hands still poised as they adjusted metal.
"Anything?" he enquired with that disgusting smile.
Sephiroth blinked, shaking his head. He had stopped along the hallway, breathing heavy. He could usually ignore such onslaughts of emotion, but the surroundings were making him throughly uncomfortable.
Jade had toyed with him that day, and he had complied so stupidly, thinking he could avoid the pain. But in a way, those long torture sessions, they had made him more what he was than anything else. He had learned about pain and how to take it, and how there was never a more pleasant alternative. Pain would always come; there was little use avoiding it. It waited, then it came, right when one's guard was down, when one was the most vulnerable.... That was always how it worked.
That was why he hated his almost avoidance behavior with Vincent. He was delaying the inevitable. He knew he could not sustain any sort of relationship; it was simply not a part of who he was. He was singular, independent, always would be. He could not even let Angeal into every part of his life. He sighed inwardly at that all too apparent fact.
His thoughts inadvertently continued to return to his student, even as he tried to focus on the task at hand, eyes narrowing in the darkness. His stride quickened, the slight creak of leather sounding as he glanced over a pauldron almost reflexively. It was at least relief from thoughts of his former teacher.
After a few more winding halls, he finally reached the door he had been searching for. He had to run his card as well as enter a very long code, but it clicked open without resistance.
He had a feeling the tech crew wouldn't check this particular computer for days, if at all. They weren't necessarily permitted in the area; all of the electronics were maintained by the Labs' staff, to keep information in 'loyal' hands. Janitors weren't even allowed. All of the original ground rules had been set by Hojo and passed to Hollander, who appeared to agree with the secrecy.
It was a fairly small room, lit by flashing lights and switches that were the only manual components of the entire system. Nearly everything was automated, something the General had always disliked. Complicated things were subject to fail.
The screen flickered on brightly, before he had even moved to do anything. The lights came next, illuminating the dull scenery. There was an immense flat panel screen on the wall, extending up to the ceiling, and stopping only when it reached the green console below.
He advanced across a few bland linoleum tiles, looking around quickly. His pupils had become almost invisible slits, the light far too bright for his sensitive vision.
He was waiting for something.
"Good evening, General Sephiroth, how may I be of assistance?" The dull monotone filled the quiet, distinctly inhuman. It had the tinge of metal to it that one expected from a machine.
So it was working. Good. It just might provide the answers he needed. "Who was the last person to access the system?" he questioned, eyes fixated on the screen.
There was nothing but blinding white for him to look upon, no stats appearing for him to glance over.
There was a pause. "That information is currently unavailable."
Sephiroth smiled to himself. Perhaps his hunch had not been so far from the truth? How interesting. "Unavailable? Define."
"No access log has been kept."
"You are required to maintain a list of each visitor to the system," he stated.
"There has been no access to the system."
The man found himself smiling again. "In what time frame? I want the last year."
"There has been no access to the system," it repeated.
"Not ever?"
"There has been no—"
"Yes, I understand that," he interjected, talking over it. "Have there been any system errors within the last week?"
The screen wavered for a moment, making him frown. There was the electronic hum of the system, which he could hear fading in and out. One of the lights blinked on the console, the one he realized was for the monitor.
"Has there been a power outage?" the man questioned, growing ever more alert.
No response.
The screen, which had been a bright white, disintegrated into grey. A hole appeared, starting out as a speck, but slowly growing, swirling like a drain. But instead of becoming smaller, it soon covered over the entire screen, making it a plain black.
Sephiroth sighed, taking a few steps closer so that he could examine what few controls there actually were. He looked over them one by one, black gloved hand hovering over one of the switches for a moment as he ran over options. There still had been no answer from the computer.
"No need to fret now."
The General, much to his credit, showed no outward reaction. The voice echoed all around, replacing what should have been a lifeless inflection. It was a man's voice. He straightened, moving backward slightly, eyes assessing, calculating.
"I've just been...having some fun, you see. Not that you know what fun is, no, no." There was an overbearing laugh, one that descended into giggles in a matter of seconds.
"And you would be?" Sephiroth responded, visibly expressing his distaste.
Someone had managed to get full access to the computer. That explained the lack of documentation on its part; it had clearly been compromised. His eyes were darting over the screen, looking for an image that wasn't there.
"The one who corrupted the system, of course! And here I go thinking I'm going to have to send one of my lackeys to talk to you, tsk tsk. I must have underestimated you. Terribly. Isn't that terrible?"
"You are the one who spoke with Commander Hewley, yes?" He was drawing a conclusion together rather quickly; he already had his suspicions of who would attempt to shut down the base.
"Yes, yes. Impeccable memory I see. But no, let's not talk about that. Let's talk about something else. Like, Hojo."
Change of tactic? What did Hojo have to do with anything? The only reason the person would be interested in the scientist was because of experimentation. Sephiroth decided to go with it instead of fighting it. The best approach was to let the man get to what he wanted to talk about. He would tell more that way, which could be useful.
"He was the reason you killed Renault. It must have been distressing to discover that I made it to Hojo first," he said sardonically, with a ghost of a smile.
"Oh, indeed, very distressing."
So they were from AVALANCHE, it seemed, if Tseng's information was correct.
"But not half so distressing as ending someone close to you must have been. I congratulate you on having such tremendous gall."
"Hardly."
"Oh, so killing a blood relative isn't distressing? Oh, there I go again, assuming you're human like the rest of us!" The laugh was insane again, filling up the tiny space. "Forgive me!"
Sephiroth hid his confusion well. "I think you have me mistaken for someone else," he replied flatly.
"No. Not at all. It's hard to mistake the bloodthirsty General Sephiroth, pride of Shinra, for anyone else. Even as a child you had such striking features. Quite a screamer, weren't you?"
Something had immediately begun to squeeze down on him, his face prickling with apprehension. He blinked several times, his only show of his waning control. Blood relative? Screaming? Something was very off, and he did not like it in the least. He continued very cautiously.
"I am not sure what you mean," he answered simply, green eyes narrowed.
"I retrieved some rather...interesting things from Hojo's labs, you see."
"Oh?" His jaw was clenched, a thin eyebrow arched. He clenched a hand in the folds of his coat.
"I suppose you must have been too busy to notice such things, being distracted by the boy. You seem to have developed some tendencies. They wouldn't be residuals would they? You wouldn't want to anyone to think you liked it, now would you?"
Sephiroth appeared placid on the outside, but his mind was snatching up thoughts at an alarming rate, making his blood quicken. The man was saying things he did not like. Hinting at things he shouldn't know. There was something wrong.
"Daddy thought it was funny, didn't he? Terrible, terrible. Hiring assassins to train children? Oh, he must have been in his right mind; why did I not think of that?"
He swallowed, nearly unmoving except for his breathing. "What are you talking about?" he demanded, not willing to divulge anything on his own part.
"Daddy. Hojo? Oh how precious. He never told you that, did he? Just a minor complication." The tittering again. "That man, what was his name? Sinclair? No, you called him something else, Jade, was it? Yes, yes, your assassin friend."
Sephiroth was breathing heavily regardless of how much he demanded his lungs to slow. His pulse was pounding against his skin, and he could hear the hard thumps of his heart being overworked.
Lies. It was all lies.
Hojo? His father? That was positively laughable. It almost made the conversation seem like nothing but a foolish joke. But yet...something about that claim made his skin raise with bumps, hairs on end, tense against the leather covering his body. Just a stupid misunderstanding.... He repeated that to himself silently, green eyes locked on the floor.
How did the man know about Jade? What could he possibly have found? The thought of anyone knowing made him feel physically weak. He shook his head, as if to clear it, chest heaving.
"What do you know of Jade?" he enquired darkly, eyes becoming steely, defiant. He refused to become a slave to his own confusion and mess of emotions. He wouldn't allow it, not ever. He could mull it over later, when the time was more appropriate.
"Everything, of course. What Hojo knew, and then some. See, I was thinking of striking up a deal with you, an exchange...of sorts."
Sephiroth could hear the smile in the stranger's voice, making his own expression become one of irritation. "You didn't answer my question. What do you know of Jade?" he repeated, eyes clouding with his troubled thoughts.
"He worked for one of the dynasties in Wutai, once upon a time. Pederast. Fancied himself a bit of a God, didn't he?"
When the man did not continue, Sephiroth went back to his original suspicions of being baited. Perhaps the man knew nothing, only some vague references in a file he himself had somehow missed. The rape...he knew that there could be several reasons the man knew about it. It hadn't been much of a secret in the Labs during his time there. He was sure tiny staff must have known something. It could have traveled along, somehow. But that was not a very satisfying answer.
"You know a few things. Why should this interest me?" Again, he played stupidity and disinterest, even though he was overwhelmed with raging thoughts.
"Weren't you listening? An exchange. I think we should talk this over, consider our options, don't you? I have a heart-to-heart. Then again, I've never really expected a son of Hojo to be much for those sort of things. Might you prove me wrong?" The voice was mocking, but at the same time, teasing, as though daring the General to consider it. "I hope so. I wouldn't want any of this to go to waste."
A/N: I feel like this was one of the better chapters, as far as content. Lots of stuff going on. Revelations! :D
