A/N: Cloud makes another appearance. He's actually pretty fun to portray. I love teasing his character with regards to answering his phone because he rarely does.
Saki: Well, it's not bad to say 'dawww' xD.. thanks for the review. :)
Chapter 50: Torrid
Normal POV
(1 WEEK LATER) DAY 30
This thing he was about to do was very unlike him, and Cloud...wanted to seriously hurt himself for it. In his hand was his phone, Rufus' number appearing large and vibrant on the screen. Should he do this? Cloud knew Tifa would surely laugh if she knew the thoughts scurrying through his head—contemplating to call someone or not as if he was committing a grave crime—at the moment, and he really didn't want that to happen.
"Cloud, is everything okay?"
Cloud looked up to see Tifa staring at him with concern. She was carrying a tray of dirty glasses from one of the customers that had recently left. He nodded once.
"You've been staring at your phone for a while now," Tifa remarked curiously wondering what was up with Cloud.
"I just lost my train of thought. I'm going to call Vincent..." Wait, what? No! He wasn't going to call Vincent. Cloud really resisted the urge to smack his forehead.
"Oh, that's good... I have to take care of these. Say hi to Vincent for me," Tifa smiled and without another word whisked herself away to wash the dirty glasses and to attend to more customers.
Sighing, he quickly got up and rushed upstairs and into his room. The only real reason he wanted to call Shin-Ra was that he wanted a meeting with him. He had to stop that ambitious president from going overboard with his plans and put the planet in danger again. Well, Cloud was happy that the Remnants had been captured but...Rufus wanted to use them...and that wasn't a very good idea.
"Screw this," Cloud muttered, pressing the 'call' button and holding the phone to his ear, and waited for Rufus to pick up.
vVvVv
He opened his eyes to be greeted in the same place he was in when he first woke up. Yazoo never knew silence could be so loud in such a place. Even when he had been in these kinds of places when he was a child, silence never actually reigned supreme...until now that is. What time of day was it? And he'd been sleeping for what seemed like an eternity already. When was the last time he even saw daylight? And you really couldn't blame Yazoo for feeling so useless after being cooped up in his containment cell, and admitted in bed without ever getting up for a long, long time.
Once more, the Remnant tried his fortune at getting up, but no such luck. He still felt like a vegetable. Was he paralyzed? The thought sent unpleasant imaginings to the young man who was still confined to the hospital bed. He'd just slept for so long, how come he was so weak? Yazoo blinked a couple of times and very slowly, with much needed effort, tried to bend one of his knees upwards—a stepping stone to fully getting up.
After accomplishing the hard task, he managed a faint smile. At least he wasn't paralyzed, that was for sure. Yazoo grunted, planting his hands against the mattress for support and tried in vain to get up. But alas, he could only go as far as to lifting his torso four inches above the mattress before sinking back down. 'What the hell?' he thought. Okay, now he was frustrated with himself. He shouldn't be like this.
The glass doors to his containment cell opened with a mechanical whir, and in walked a middle-aged male scientist, catching Yazoo in his moment of trying to get himself upright.
"It's good to see that you're finally awake," the man mused, smirking.
Yazoo blinked before even finding his voice to ask. "What do you mean?"
"Why, we've been observing you for a week now." The professor gasped, surprised that the Remnant wasn't even aware that he was unconscious for a week. "You'll be happy to know that you woke up just in time."
"A week?" Yazoo croaked out, his voice rising feebly as his eyes darted around for a means of escape.
"Yes." The aged man nodded once, a wicked twinkle in his eyes—excitement perhaps. "We've been giving the clone a couple of test runs. But he's not activated yet. The final ingredient is yet to be added to breathe life into him."
"What are you talking about?"
"Don't mind and simply submit," the man smiled knowingly, finishing his task of unlocking each of the little wheels to get Yazoo's hospital bed moving.
But before actually doing so, leg irons and SOLDIER standard restraints sprouted from the bed railings and mercilessly attached themselves to Yazoo's weak body. Long, curved metal arches rose from both sides, and one clamped down on his neck, the second one across his chest, the third one across his middle, and the last one across his knees.
"What are you-?" He didn't get to finish his cry as the professor put duct tape over his mouth to keep him from speaking.
Nonchalantly, the aged scientist wheeled the hospital bed out of the containment cell so the subject would be put into the subject's waiting room—where the others would also be in during the course of the final test run they would perform on Sephiroth's clone.
Yazoo shifted and writhed about to no avail. It didn't really help that his muscles felt numb and there were teeny pricks of pain felt all over his joints. It didn't help that his precious Velvet Nightmare's location was unknown to him. Where had they put his weapon?
And so with heavy melancholy was Yazoo led to another dismal room that surely had death written on its walls. The Remnant was undeniably helpless and unable to move at all. The man left him there, alone in the darkness and silence had taken its throne up once more. He breathed heavily as his cat's eyes darted across the room, confused as to why the darkness seemed to swallow up everything—though before, he never had a problem with that since he could see through that precocious veil they called darkness.
It wouldn't really take a genius to tell Yazoo enough for him to figure out that he was alone...but not for long.
vVvVv
Hours later, the door to Yazoo's new prison opened and the lights flickered on, blinding bright, as the scientists brought in another hospital bed that was being occupied with no other person, but Loz himself. The middle Remnant strained his neck as far as he could lift just to see his older brother being stationed six feet from him. There was no mistaking it. It was definitely Loz.
His eyes were closed, and he looked skinny. Yazoo blinked rapidly; still weak and exerting much effort to turn his head. Loz's skin appeared sallow and shrunken in the glare of the bright lights, and it was then that Yazoo noticed the machine to which they were hooking him up to and again noticed a similarity to the giant hunk of metal near him. He didn't know what these guys were doing, but judging from Loz's appearance, he knew it couldn't be good.
Yazoo had been asleep for a week, and he really didn't know how he looked, but he felt the same—except being extremely weak—as before. He still had that damned duct tape over his mouth and he really couldn't say anything even if he wanted to. Now it only left one more question: Where was Kadaj?
The scientists finished injecting the various needles in Loz's body and proceeded towards Yazoo's direction. The Remnant's eyes widened in recognition, and for the first time in his entire life, Yazoo felt how it was to be afraid.
vVvVv
Kadaj opened his eyes and blurrily focused on the liquid being drained and coaxed by the machine towards the bottom of the tank. He wondered what was happening and for a split second, thought if he had been freed. But of course, the answer was a no. The breathing apparatus detached from his mouth and the tank's glass door slid open, and unbelievably, Kadaj sank to his knees on the floor and could've dropped face first if not for the strong arms that suddenly slid under his arms and pulled him up.
Someone had hoisted him up enough so he was able to strap the youngest Remnant to a wheelchair as he slowly regained consciousness. Kadaj really wasn't in a state to understand what was happening. All that he could comprehend were strung into awkward phrases that ran through his head. But unlike Yazoo, Kadaj was aware that he had been kept inside that Mako tank for a long time. (He was thinking probably a week or so—which is quite right.) He not only knew, but he could feel the effects ravaging on his helpless body—his body that was once filled with strength reduced to a vegetable-like state.
Instead of increasing his strength, the Mako only succeeded in draining him, and so resulted into a vulnerable state that made the youngest Remnant powerless to resist Sephiroth's strong presence rising to the surface of his consciousness. Kadaj knew the SOLDIER couldn't take over his body without their Mother's remains, but he could really feel his mind being constantly inhabited with the SOLDIER's dreaded memories and cravings to destroy the planet. At a time, feeling Sephiroth felt like staring at a child through a transparent sound-proof glass case, wherein he would pound against it to no avail, but now, Kadaj felt like somehow, that barrier in his mind that kept Sephiroth out had broken.
Moreover, Kadaj knew of Shin-Ra's plans for a cloned Sephiroth, and that only increased the Remnant's suspicions towards their purpose of placing him in custody.
Kadaj blinked weakly, fighting the unbearable throbbing in his head when he was brought to an impossibly cool room. The temperature could have been freezing in his state. The lights were on, and Rufus was standing in front of a figure of a man encased in a tank, the stranger's long silver hair being carried by the liquid in the container, causing it to float somewhat majestically.
Of course this was no stranger. This was Sephiroth. Kadaj recognized him easily, and could really tell that the creature was still quite lifeless. Rufus turned to the newcomers, and smiled knowingly at the silver-haired youth attached to the wheelchair.
"Now you have set your eyes upon the object of my projects; the main event as they say," Rufus smirked, eyeing the gorgeous clone dotingly.
"You disgust me," Kadaj spoke in a low voice.
"Funny, I should say the same thing about you." Rufus let a cruel smirk adorn his face.
"What do you want from me?" Kadaj demanded without as much force as he spoke these words.
"For you to disappear from this planet of course. That's what the people of Edge desire, and so do I... but you simply cannot join the Lifestream without being put to good use, so I thought of this," Rufus stepped closer to the Remnant. "You should be grateful, Remnant. My company and I are the reason you and your brothers and so many others lived a long time ago. Admit it. You could've died if it weren't for this company."
"Shut up..." Kadaj seethed, pouring as much hate as he could muster into the death glare he sent Rufus' way. "You want nothing but power...since the beginning."
"You're one to talk, Kadaj... Speaking as if it was me who yielded to Jenova's wishes to destroy the planet. You speak as if I inflicted the stigma that caused a lot of sufferings in Midgar." Rufus shook his head and his statement made Kadaj quiet.
Rufus was right, but even the Remnant knew he was a puppet back then. "So what do you want from me? I have no use. Why don't you just kill me?"
"You're the final ingredient to breathe life into my new creation."
vVvVv
"Please! I've had enough!"
The pleading didn't help and was a second too late before the seven-foot long whip—armed with tiny spikes—lashed out at her back again, this time drawing an insane amount of blood trickling across her back. She was breathing hard, unable to hold herself up. She faced the Turk holding the whip and was waiting for another signal from the scientists to crack it again.
With great effort, Ria managed to get onto her wobbly legs, her blood soaked shirt sticking painfully to her back—so much for being pain-resistant. None of their attempts at this part of her experimentation worked at all.
They only succeeded inflicting her with mental and physical torment that left her rugged, miserable, and in pain. They had been increasing her daily tests, because the clone's completion was drawing near. Only one thing was still missing according to Professor Gillard. And Ria really wasn't enthusiastic or excited to be Sephiroth's breeding partner, or the fact that she was to be a breeder for that matter. If they succeeded in making her numb to pain, her first artificial insemination would be take place next week, but so far, there were more than one 'minor' setbacks.
Another loud crackle rang from the intercom, giving the signal, and the Turk mercilessly cracked the whip, and drew it back. Ria watched as it lashed out through the empty air, coming towards her, and with as much agility and determination as she could muster, she took hold of the tip as it came at her. The spikes on the ominous weapon pricked the skin at her palms, drawing more blood. Glaring at the obnoxious Turk who stared at her disbelief, she pulled. Barely having the strength to sustain the momentum when the Turk resisted, she ended up sprawled in the far corner of the testing room—a bloody and pathetic heap.
A shadow fell across her and found the Turk grinning at her wickedly. He struck her across the face, her cheek and lip splitting from the powerful blow. Her dark brown hair was tangled and drenched with sweat as she trembled and managed to look up at her tormentor with tear-filled eyes, imploring that they stop this.
The Turk nodded once, and spoke into the device attached to his collar. "Your specimen can't take it anymore. And besides, if I were you, I'd let her get plenty of rest since the president's planning on completing the clone later, and he specifically wanted her presence there."
"Very well," the scratchy voice boomed over the intercom and they listened as it faded to crackling static.
A scientist entered the dreary room, and picked her up, muttering to himself why it wasn't working. They obviously tried everything, but the Turk was right. She needed her rest if they were going to introduce her to cloned Sephiroth later on.
vVvVv
"Cloud, I don't understand," Tifa sighed, folding her arms across her chest after hearing the blonde's outrageous explanation about Sephiroth being revived—cloned—by Shin-Ra.
Upon hearing her say these words, Cloud grunted. "I told you everything..."
"Yeah, but...how and why."
"I don't know either Tifa. I'm thinking he's gone mad...or something. That's why I have to find his new location and stop whatever he's planning—to try to talk him out of it. Unluckily, he plans on bringing his clone to life today. At least that's what he told me," Cloud shrugged, shifting his weight onto his left foot.
"Maybe they've been working on it before..." she mused.
Cloud nodded once. "I have to stop him. And whether he likes it or not, his clone has to be destroyed...along with the Remnants."
"You can't do that alone," Tifa protested. "I'll call everyone else. We'll catch up..."
"It's not that easy. They had their new company building established in the outskirts of Midgar. I don't know where it is, and I'm gonna have to look for it," Cloud reasoned, cursing himself for not asking for directions.
He tried calling Rufus again, but the president wouldn't answer his phone. And Cloud, really didn't have the patience to laugh at the irony.
Tifa blinked. "Well, it is a big building. It won't take you long. More reason to call the rest of the gang," she beamed.
He snorted. The last time he saw AVALANCHE altogether was during that day when Kadaj's Bahamut nearly destroyed the city. And he really hated how much Tifa made sense right now. Cid's airship would be a big help if he was going to find Rufus' new discreetly made building. And since when did luck start taking Shin-Ra's side? He hadn't heard from Reno either. He should've been suspicious from the first time the president had asked for Jenova's remains.
Cloud sighed heavily. "Alright... Tell them, and catch up, okay?"
At least, if the newly formed clone wreaked havoc, he wouldn't fight Sephiroth alone.
