Chapter 26: Mother and Sons
Warning: Jenova doing Jenova things. 2nd part of this chapter gets nasty.
Things... didn't exactly turn quite back to normal. At least, not right away.
Both Genesis and Kairi were brought before the board to be screamed at. Genesis at least had the 'oncoming mental instability' card to play. Kairi just got chewed out for taking 'unnecessary unauthorized risks'. That ended ultimately in a pay cut and six month probation. Kairi had the most 'inexplainable' (not really) feeling that the President was getting very tired of her and Genesis. Veld too, but that was his own damn fault for dragging Kairi to Hojo in the first place. Honestly, it wasn't like Kairi went absolutely out of her way for this kind of crap to happen, it just did, and she reacted. She'd like to see the President try to retire her without causing a schism in SOLDIER that would literally tear the company apart. But... if she could, she'd try to keep on the down-low for awhile, because she didn't want to risk her children in such an incident.
Hojo yanked her and Genesis down to the labs a few more times, but, not much came of that either since both of them were distinctly against doing that... weird merge thing again. Not to mention the entirety of the higher ups who even knew about it were against it as well. It was nice seeing Hojo shot down once in awhile from all sides. And because Genesis was stable, he lost a lot of the ability to demand Genesis's presence, though, the bastard did gain control of Genesis's periodic check ups since Hollander was... indisposed.
Whether than meant imprisoned or taken somewhere and shot, she didn't know; hopefully the later though.
Speaking of checkups...
She glanced down at her PHS as she lazed about in bed, bored out of her mind from being stuck in Shinra HQ on probation unless the higher ups directly approved a mission. Her calendar reminded her she had a checkup in an hour with Hojo. Ugh...
She texted Genesis: Checkup w the psycopath n an hour.
She waited, but he didn't reply in the next few minutes. She frowned a little, maybe he was in the middle of a spar or something with the others? She tossed the PHS to the other side of the bed and crossed her arms behind her head on her pillow, sighing. She couldn't even go train with her children unless she was escorted by Sephiroth or Angeal, because 'apparently' that counted as instructing and she wasn't trusted to do so at the moment. Fucks' sake... six months of this. No good deed goes unpunished it seems.
"Patience is a trait you will need learn child," commented Mother mildly.
Kairi rolled her eyes. "Of course, Mother."
She expected Mother to go silent after her short critical comment as normal, but surprisingly, "No, I don't think you truly understand. In many things you brush off my words of wisdom, but in this, you need pay heed."
Kairi sighed petulantly. "Why?"
"You and your Chosen One have joked about this, but child, you ARE immortal," said Mother patiently, "Baring being completely obliterated down to the last cell, you cannot die. That includes to wasting away as you age."
Kairi slowly sat upright, a shake to her voice "...w-what?"
"You heard me."
"But... how?" she whispered incredulously, "Down to the last cell? As in a microscopic little thing?"
"Yes," said Mother before explaining, "I told you before that you and I had become the same. We are the same kind of being, and so long as even a cell of us remains, we cannot die. Your cells no longer function as a normal being's, they contain all that you are, and from them, you may be reborn. For your sake, child, you should wish to never be reduced to a single cell, it is... unpleasant."
Kairi stared aimlessly at nothing, trying and failing to understand and comprehend Mother's words for a few minutes. How could anyone survive that? She was implying that if Kairi got shot in the head, or blown up... she'd still survive? "I don't..."
Brr. Brr.
Kairi shook her head and shoveled down her confusion, reaching for her phone and seeing a reply from Genesis: We will meet you down there.
She frowned a little. "We?"
She was a tad surprised, when come checkup time, when Angeal showed up as well. She gave him a friendly hello, but he merely returned a tight smile. Her surprise grew when they walked in and Sephiroth was there talking to Hojo. This felt like a little overkill.
"Nothing more than the standard procedure and booster, are we clear?" said Sephiroth in a non-negotiable voice, "We are having our own... experiment afterwards, and I want nothing to... contaminate results."
Hojo adjusted his glasses, a scowl on his face. "Fine then, but you owe me boy."
"Owe you? For doing your job as directed?"
Hojo didn't respond, eyes narrowed.
Sephiroth turned away. "Ah, good, 2nd Class Kairi is here. If you would get started professor?"
Hojo scowled, but motioned to the center of the room. "Strip to your undergarments and lay on the table."
Kairi did as instructed, folding her uniform quickly and shoving it under the examination table before laying down on the table, trying to quell her heartbeat, her fear. It was bad enough to be afraid when it was just her and Genesis in here, but the other two as well? Hojo went and did the normal doctor stuff that probably made the bastard nauseous to do, or he found pointless. Blood pressure, measurements, respiration, reflexes, ect... she wasn't sure if the blood tests were specifically needed, but the sick freak probably wanted to salivate over his precious samples when they were gone. Honestly, the way he looked at them, and sometimes at her, was worse then lecherous. Well, in its own way. Bathing in Wutai, there had been more than one infantry or SOLDIER who had ogled an underage girl, nothing her brothers would do thankfully.
Not that she'd be a 'girl' for much longer. She wasn't exactly sure if the calendars here lined up perfectly with the ones back home, but she was pretty sure she was hitting eighteen in a few months. Of course, she was still thinking off back home, sixteen was the age of maturity in Midgar after all. The fact that children as young as ten could be registered into youth military programs through Shinra with parental consent was something that disturbed her incredibly. She was playing volleyball on the beach and goofing off with her friends at that age, being trained on how to kill instead was...
She shot down the thought as Hojo retreived a Mako booster and approached, jabbing her with it without any particular warning or preparation and inject it in.
Like the last time, and like her 2nd class injections, burning heat spread through her body. Mother's buzzing grew louder, not nearly as loud as back in Wutai, but it was distracting. To the point where it started to drown out her ability to hear her children through the web...
"Mom? You feel weird."
Kairi blinked, trying... trying to figure out who spoke. She should know instantly. Why did everything feel so muddled?
She shook her head and sluggishly sent down the web. "Checkup, Mako Booster."
"We... et... oosters?"
Kairi pinched the bridge of her nose, a headache forming, and lost all firm hearing from the web. Everything sounded distant.
"Hmm," hummed Genesis from near the door, staring at Kairi curiously, "She's compleatly muddled, I can hardly feel her, neither can the others."
Sephiroth, Angeal, and Hojo paused to regard him, the last fishing out a notebook to jot it down and speaking, "It likely disturbs her equilibrium as it offsets the natural mako loss. She will need time to adapt and will sort herself out."
Mother huffed. "There is no Mako loss, what little is spent in daily use is easily regenerated by the spirit."
Kairi blinked slowly. "What...? Then what is..."
"He wants to keep his profession, to make Shinra believe he is needed to continue SOLDIER, child," chided Mother, "People have done far worse than lie to maintain their positions."
Kairi took in a breath and let it out. "Can we prove that?"
"Perhaps eventually," mused Mother, "But, when we reunite, such a thing will be unnecessary, we will simply kill him. Would that not be more preferable?"
Kairi doesn't exactly say no. "If it could deal with him earlier in some capacity, make it less likely for him to hurt others..."
"He still has his uses where he is for now."
Kairi resists the urge to growl aloud.
"Done," says Hojo finally, and flatly, "Now get out of my lab."
She grabs her clothes, putting them on quickly, before speed walking out, the other three moving to walk with her. Sephiroth takes the lead and speak, "Come, we are going to the VR room."
Kairi frowns. "Why...? What did you mean by 'experiment'?"
"You'll find out, you will be sparring with Angeal first."
Kairi goes silent, not sure how sparring is an experiment. They've all sparred before, what makes this any different?
"I think I know," mused Mother, interest clear in her voice, "My my my, this could be interesting. Tell me, child, would you be... willing, to allow me the chance to test my sons? To see their strength firsthand and determine their power for when we unite to destroy Shinra."
Kairi's steps briefly hiccup. "What?!"
"I wont do anything to jeopardize your position nor your children," soothed Mother, "But considering what happened after your last 'checkup', they may be seeing if they can 'trigger' a relapse."
"And WHY would we do anything to suggest that is possible?" hissed Kairi, "You don't need to test them to know the four of us alone could take over Shinra if the rest of SOLDIER stood aside, more likely they'd join us even..."
"Because, it creates a cause and effect," answered Mother, "Rather than leave them wary and uncertain, always considering you a potential danger that may at seemingly random go off, they will know what supposedly causes it, that it is something the will believe they can manage and control."
That... gives Kairi pause. She does not like, at all, any indication that she might be insane, especially when its not true at all. But... she does remember Sephiroth's words, about him thinking her unstable anyway, despite no real 'relapses'. Would... would this kind of consistency... lessen that? Make her brother trust her more if he thought he could manage her supposed 'madness'? It makes her gut wrench either way, to 'confirm' it for him, or to just let it sit. There are no good outcomes to this, because she is still aware of how untrusted she is despite her position and role. Perhaps especially more with her role...
"If it were up to me, your half of the SOLDIER program would never have gone forward, and if it were not for Genesis and the President, I would have you removed from the program, either permanently whether it be death or allowed retirement, or temporarily for extreme psychiatric help."
Sephiroth's words are a depressing echo in her mind. "If you think it will help Mother... go ahead..."
Mother's touch is gentle in the back of her mind, soothing, an unseen hand combing through her hair. All the while, the buzzing is growing louder. By the time they all enter the VR room, its hard to hear even their own footsteps. She can feel the pressure coming from the back of her mind, from Mother, feel her awareness stretching, preparing...
She could resist it, push it away, but she lets Mother, and it makes her shiver, a shake going down her arms, a sharp ragged intake of breath. She barely hears Sephiroth speaking, instructing her and Angeal on the rules of the spar. Something about going harder than normal...
There is a look of masked concern from Genesis, and not-at-all masked concern from Angeal, but Sephiroth pays neither of them heed. Rather, there is anticipation on his face. He and Genesis move to the entrance of the room and activate a simulation. It... its the slums. In fact, it looks almost exactly like... like where Mother had...
Oh gods above...
How?
Why?!
Mother was right, they WERE trying to exactly recreate the situation. She can't contain herself at the sight of it, not with Mother so loud in her mind, not with so much pressure, so hard to think...
So a choked sob escapes her, and she clutches her the side of her head as a spike of pain hits her. Why does it hurt...
Things are spotty...
Hard to hear...
"K...ai...?"
She blinks, feeling Angeal's standard sword against her neck. Had it started?
So hard to focus...
Genesis feels it the moment it happens.
Its like a sickly, icy sensation fills where Kairi had been in the connection between her, Genesis, and her SOLDIERs. Almost like some kind of taint. He instinctively pulls away from it with his mind, and can feel Kairi's girls do the same, shrinking back in bewildered alarm. He regrets this, regrets this so much from the moment he and Sephiroth first came up with the idea. He had wanted to shelve it, but Sephiroth had reminded him it had been his idea at first all the way back in Wutai, as a way to test this. His apprentice hadn't been in any condition to handle this, she had needed rest after the booster, not to be put into this. It makes him wonder, and concerned, if all female SOLDIERs will have this kind of reaction to...
He can't stop himself from tensing, absolute ice pouring over him, as Kairi speaks in that ghoulish tone that haunts his nightmares. "My son, you are unwise to lower your defenses!"
Her sword is drawn and seeking Angeal's heart almost faster than Genesis can register it. Angeal barely reacts in time, a hand backhanding the sword up to pierce into his shoulder rather than his chest, making him grunt in pain. Kairi latches onto Angeal's collar, pulling herself up and slamming her head into his chin, making him stagger back, head snapping up. Kairi yanks her sword free in a small pray of blood, the thin sword falling to her side as she aims a hand at Angeal, a sphere of fire forming in it. Except... she doesn't release it. His eyes go wide as she channels the spell, pouring more energy into it, the sphere glowing in size, releasing it only as Angeal recovers. The poor man barely has time to cross his arms defensively as it hits him and explodes, rattling the room and sending him rocketing backwards into a pile of scrap.
Kairi tisks. "Your brother responded better during our... bonding."
Genesis snorts audibly, subduing his emotions and calling out, "Ah, glad you remember our treasured time together."
Kairi turns her head to smile ghoulishly at him, her now green mako eyes piercing into him, sending another shiver down his spine.
Sephiroth swore quietly under his breath. "I see what you meant now. I feel it in the air. I don't think I've ever felt the like, even against some of Hojo's more abominable experiments. What in the world did he do to her?"
Kairi's eyes flicker to Sephiroth in consideration for a moment before she all the sudden sprung away, Angeal... Angeal with his Buster Sword DRAWN, swings down heavily where Kairi had just been. What in the world? He regards Angeal... and notices suddenly how tense the man is, how apprehensive, nervous... even perhaps... afraid. He clutches the Buster so tightly, as if for dear life, as if he needs it to ground him. Kairi smiles creepily at him, her tongue slowly piercing her lips and rolling over them hungrily. Genesis can see his friend's foot rise backwards briefly, almost stepping backwards away, but managing to steel himself and hold his ground, bringing his foot back down.
Genesis's heart is hammering so loudly he's sure Sephiroth can hear it. He has never felt more afraid for his friend despite both him and Sephiroth at the ready to intervene at a moment's notice. He doesn't however keep his arms crossed, he lowers one to one side, the other he rests on his rapier. He will not hesitate if he thinks he needs to get involved, no, not IF, when. Kairi would have killed him if he hadn't snapped her out of it. Angeal might be physically stronger than Genesis was, more durable, which might help him, but he does not exactly have Genesis's speed nor his magic.
Fortunately, the man is holding himself like the battle were life or death.
Which... it likely is.
Why in the world had any of them thought this was a good idea?
Oh he hopes she doesn't bring out her wing.
Rip tear.
She throws her arm to the side, and her own white wing explodes out of her shoulder and uniform.
Of course she did...
Sephiroth suckers in a breath, and Angeal lets out a chocked exclamation. Kairi's wing beats once, flinging her up into the air where she maintains her position, staring down at Angeal like he is an unworthy, insignificant speck. Light begins to spread across her body, engulfing it and her sword in a blazing glow. But there is no warmth from it, if anything, the area grows even colder, pressure in the air rising. Memories from his own battle are howling and clawing at his mind. He pushes them down as Kairi dives at Angeal, and he hopes, prays that the man had listened on the few warnings and hints Genesis had given, that Kairi fought with no self-preservation while in this state.
Angeal moves his massive slab of a weapon and blocks. Kairi spins as she lands, her sword screeching across the Buster as she lashes out and boots Angeal's side with her foot... and does absolutely nothing but make him wince, little done against the wall that is his friend. She yelps when Angeal frees a hand, grabs her ankle, and proceeds to fling her into and through a pile of slum scrap, sending her flopping across the ground. She springs to her feet, a scowl on her face, but no embarrassment like his real apprentice would have had over such a blunder, her wing flickering threateningly.
Angeal takes a moment to roll his shoulder, but doesn't bother to actually cast cure to heal the stab. All things considered it will heal on its own in a few minutes. He likely wants to keep his mana reserves until he actually needs them.
"Such a sturdy child," mused Kairi aloud, "You lack either of your brother's raw power, but you could become a bulwark for your dear mother. A titan that none could dream to bring down, one who shatters hope. Shall we test this? My son? To see if you are worthy?"
Angeal narrows his eyes, but keeps his silence. In a true fight, the man doesn't bother wasting breath on banter or wordplay.
Kairi swings her sword... and a wall of blazing light erupts in its wake, surging at Angeal whose eyes widen in surprise, crouching down and moving the Buster to block the brunt of the wave as it slams into him. The light-fire washes over his sword, singing parts of his uniform, but Angeal withstands it. Genesis's jaw hangs open in surprise, she certainly hadn't done THAT before.
"I've never seen Kairi glow like this," stated Sephiroth quietly, because 'apparently' that was more important to focus on, "I can see and feel the increase in strength it gives her."
"I don't think my apprentice normally knows how," said Genesis, "I don't believe Kairi actually knows half of what she is capable of. Hell, I don't know half of what she is capable."
Sephiroth goes silent for a long moment, watching Kairi begin to pepper Angeal with blasts and waves of light. "She is more dangerous than I assumed, contains far more potential, if it could be harnessed without... this."
The first half made Genesis tense with concern, about Sephiroth reacting poorly to this, but the second...
"On one hand," said Sephiroth, eyes tracking the arc of Kairi's blade, the light burning out of her, "To see her at her worse is... more than I imagined it, even after your words."
"And the other?" posed Genesis quietly.
"It lessens my condemnation of her normal escapades," admitted Sephiroth, reluctantly, "They pale compared to this."
The man takes a minute of watching Angeal on the defense, weighing and judging, before he makes a verdict, "We have to be very careful on all future Mako Boosters, to keep this contained. Its nothing I, or the two of you together couldn't handle, but we must be present."
"You'll stay your hand then?"
Sephiroth nods. "So long as no further triggers are discovered, yes. This is... manageable if we can control when it happens and who witnesses it."
Genesis lets out a breath.
"This... persona... is strange," said Sephiroth, an air of curiosity where there should be tension, "The 'mother' thing I can view as a twisted uptake on her protectiveness and possessiveness, but the violent hostility coupled with it seems... off. She claims him as a son yet is very quick to try to kill him."
"You don't seem concerned by that," posed Genesis, eyes flickering as flames of light washed over Angeal again, making his own heart pound.
"She had an advantage against you that she doesn't have with Angeal," said Sephiroth, "Two really. You burn quickly and blazingly in a fight. If she survives that, which she will with her regeneration, then she will defeat you."
Genesis bristled and gritted out. "The second?"
"He's not degrading as you began to."
"Fair point," agreed Genesis quietly.
His eyes flicker to Sephiroth, but see no further comment, or a look sent his way. Sometimes he wonders if Sephiroth understands just how hard it was to admit such a thing to him. If he hadn't witnessed some of Kairi's memories, the conversation on the elevator, where Sephiroth admitted (to someone else of course) that he cared, what he would be willing to do for Genesis, he might not have...
Kairi suddenly gave a roar, pointing her blade at Angeal, then thrusting it into the sky...
"Angeal!" cried out Genesis as a pillar of white fire erupted from the ground at Angeal's feet, engulfing the man before he could move.
Sephiroth's hand latched onto his shoulder before he realized he had been starting to move.
Angeal himself, definitely singed and 'slightly' on fire, burst out of the pillar, leaping with inhuman strength into the air and swung his buster at Kairi. She blocked, but was sent plummeting to the ground by the force of the blow, impacting and shaking the room hard enough that the VR briefly flickered before restoring itself. Genesis briefly winced at his apprentice's behalf, but she merely dusted herself off and stood up. Angeal landed a moment later, patting himself down to extinguish what fire remained.
"Have some faith in our friend, Genesis," commented Sephiroth mildly, "I am aware of the effect her current presence has on our... circulatory system, but there is no need to overreact. He is in no real danger despite what we feel."
Genesis mouths 'circulatory system' to himself in disbelief that that was how Sephiroth refereed to the pounding fear in Genesis's chest. But... he doesn't miss the 'we' part of that statement. So even the great and mighty Sephiroth isn't immune to it. Just so absurdly controlled he doesn't let it affect him. He absently wonders if this 'fear effect' is some kind of weird magic ability that she is pressing upon them, or an instinctual reaction to her presence. He personally leans towards the latter.
"I do wonder however," said Sephiroth, "And I wonder very deeply, how she is preforming this... magic of hers. I know of no materia that does anything like this, and I know what materia she currently has, nothing unknown and..."
He trails off.
Genesis breaks from his listening (and curious agreement), to see that Kairi's head is half turned to lock eyes with Sephiroth, the glow of light around her fading. "Perhaps not with my daughter's light, nor her degree of regeneration, but this is something you yourself could learn to do, my son. All of you."
Genesis slow blinks. "What...?"
Kairi reaches up to brush a loose thread of hair from her eyes. "Despite your power, you are so larval, the lot of you. You, like my daughter, require your paltry little limit breaks to even begin to tap into the power that dwells within you rather than learning how to draw it out at will. None of you are a fraction of as powerful as you could be."
Genesis has a stupor filled moment of considering what it would be like to call out Apocalypse at will before he carefully pushes the thought away for later. "If it comes at the price of madness, then no thanks."
She turns a ghoulish smile towards him. "I am curious, why do you think I am insane?"
Another wave of ice pours down Genesis's spine. "You absolutely lost it and slaughtered dozens of monsters while laughing might have something to do with it."
"Are you saying you don't take paltry missions to vent on them yourself?" she asks, eyebrow raised mockingly, "That you don't enjoy the kill?"
Genesis hesitates.
"You have no concept of how long that was held in," said Kairi, a snarl escaping her lips as she turns her back on Angeal to glare at Genesis, pinning him rigidly in place with nothing but fury and malice, "The chance to release my rage has not come often. I took the chance, my daughter was not supposed to have suffered any public backlash from it."
Angeal took the opportunity to come at her from behind and made a stabbing motion, only for Kairi to not even bother moving, letting the slab of a sword stab right through her, breaching flesh, lung, and ribs in a spray of blood, but continued talking as if nothing had happened, "Had I known a Turk would be there, I either would have restrained myself, or made sure there hadn't been any witnesses left to report it."
"Good gods," gagged Angeal, withdrawing the Buster from her and stepping shakily away, shocked by the lack of effect.
Genesis HAD tried to warn him.
Sephiroth had a briefly disturbed look on his face, but masks it, crossing his arms. "The ability to conceive premeditated murder doesn't make you sane."
"No, but the ability to hold intelligent conversation might," commented Kairi mildly.
Genesis was thrown by how Sephiroth in tone that sounded.
Sephiroth blinked once. "Neither does that mean soundness of mind."
Kairi sighed and shook her head. "Those who do not understand always seeks to define and identify to their own means, never allowing that what they do not understand may be so much more than what they allow."
That... was rather philosophical for a sadistic persona of his apprentice.
"Then what would you say you are then?" posed Sephiroth.
"Hmm, better," mused Kairi, "That you ask rather than define, but you aren't capable of handling the answer, not yet."
Something in Genesis squirms at the way 'yet' rolls off her tongue...
She levels her gaze firmly on Sephiroth. "In the simplest terms for you, my larval son, I am a PREDATOR!"
Kairi thrusts her sword-less hand forward and-her entire arm elongates to the extreme and twists into a flesh-bone like spear! Genesis cries out, "WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK?!"
Sephiroth dives out of the way, knocking Genesis over in the process as the spear stabs into and through the VR room wall before withdrawing with a disgusting slurp sound, reforming effortlessly into a completely human form. Sephiroth hauls them both to their feet, tense and ready, but Kairi makes no further move, merely studying her hand curiously, almost with an air of disappointment. Her fingers shift, her ring and pinky finger to one side, her middle, index, and thumb to the other like a V... that splits down her hand, ripping it open into two bloody oozing parts that she looks at with complete detachment.
Genesis flinches at the slow ripping sight of it continuing down her arm before she seemingly pulls herself together at will.
"Do you not fear, my son?" asked Kairi, glancing up at Sephiroth.
Sephiroth scowled as if the question offended him. "As little as possible."
"Fear, my child, is not the enemy," murmured Kairi softly, "It is a treasured friend, an instinctual guide that warns you of dire moments. When you must commit with everything that you are, or must flee. So allow mother dearest to give you a gift."
She smiled ghoulishly at Sephiroth. "Allow me to give you fear."
Sephiroth tenses, readying his sword.
"And remember, my sons, everything I am capable of doing, so too can you."
Genesis's breath comes up short in that one moment.
Then Kairi's entire body splits in half in a fleshy stretchy bloody explosion. Before Genesis can finish throwing up his breakfast and even begin containing his horror, her body finishes splitting, and then starts reforming the other split away half for each part. Genesis gapes, puke drooling down his chin, as flesh and bone and clothes steadily reform until there are two identical Kairi's standing side by side. Though the way the clothes aren't seamless where the split happened gives him the unsettling feeling part of those clothes are imitations made of flesh, and that second sword is likely made of bone for all it looks like metal.
Kairi lets out a dark chuckle from both bodies, twin voices speaking out, "MY daughter indeed."
"Gods above, what the hell ARE you!" exclaimed Angeal, "Sephiroth, this is completely out of control. Shut this down and shut her down! Permanently if we have to!"
Genesis takes in a raged breath. "Angeal!"
"You see?" posed Kairi, "He is in tune with his fear."
"I'm very tempted to agree with him," gritted out Sephiroth, "What is this?"
"Education I suppose," she mused mockingly, "Or do you think I was lying?"
Nausea fills Genesis, not able to think, to comprehend how or why or what was going on with this. That any of them could do that.
"There's no way we could do something like that, we're not monsters!" shouted Angeal.
"Aren't you?" said Kairi, both bodies raising the arm facing one another upward, almost touching, a sphere of light forming between them... that rather than released light, began to suck it in.
The room began to darken. Like an all consuming void she devoured every scrap of light in the area, every source of heat, leaving nothing but darkness and cold, with an impossible sphere of light that gave off none itself.
"Scream for your mother."
There is a grunt, a slicing of flesh and a cry from Angeal, followed by a very close clashing of Masamune against another blade.
"She's not insane," spat Sephiroth, "She's sadistic."
Kairi laughed from two separate areas of the room.
Genesis locked down his emotions, his face cooling into fierce control as he took stock of the situation. His first instinct was to cast fire, which was promptly put out by the light sphere. Except no, he could feel the fire, feel his control over the spell, but not light or heat. He frowns at the impossibility of it all before snuffing it out. He focuses his senses on his hearing, on the way Sephiroth's leather coat swishes as he moves, the tightly control humming of Masamune as it reaps space. On the heavy parting air of the Buster Sword, the scuffle of Angeal's boots. They could manage this, could fight if they could learn to work together in handling the lack of light.
But since when had Genesis ever been a real team player? He always went for the glory if he saw it.
He rushes away from the fighting, straight for the sphere of absorbing light itself. Best to remove her advantage. He leaps up, gives a roar, and swings down at it, only for what feels like a snake to coil around his waist and yank him back, his sword missing by inches. He is flung to the far corner of the room and slammed hard into the wall. He grits his teeth, and then notices the sphere of light is now moving around rather than staying in place.
"Bitch," he grits out.
"Unworthy weakling," calls out three Kairi's voices.
Genesis's heart stops briefly.
When the hell had she split into three?
"Why my foolish daughter sought to make you her Chosen One is beyond me," she continued scornfully.
"The hell is that supposed to mean?" prompted Genesis, trying to figure out where the third one was.
Except...
There is no sound that isn't nearby Sephiroth or Angeal. He listens, listens carefully, but he hears nothing...
Save for a soft whistling from behind!
He ducks forward, a sword cleaving some of his hair off, but not his head. He rolls as he lands, springing away and firing fire at where he suspects her to be, but doesn't hear anything aside from fire hitting the wall. She's not flying, he would have heard the flapping, so levitation then. He hears it again, a stabbing motion, and readies to move except... wait.
He lets it stab him, gritting through the sharp piercing pain, and then latches onto the arm. "Yes, I suppose she did choose me, and incase you forgot, that means I'm now probably close to as annoying to kill as she is!"
He wrenches her to him as he slams his head forward, cracking their skulls together and earning a grunt from her. He boots her with all his might, sending her rocketing back and slamming into the wall with enough force for cracks to briefly allow outside light in before that too is swallowed whole. He turns and bolts for the light sphere, tracking its movement, leaping, and slicing it in half. The resulting explosion temporarily blinds him and flattens him to the floor, making the entire room, and probably the floor, shake.
Kairi tisks, and then Genesis looks up, blinking rapidly to try and make the blurriness go away. If he had anything left in his stomach he would have heaved it up, as it is, he gags at the third Kairi. Only partially formed, more fleshy and skeletal than skin and clothes, one arm being a bloodied bone spear, the other long and thin like a snake. No lips, but the sneer is still transparent to him.
"I think I liked you better decaying," mused the third Kairi, a putrid aura emanating from her rather than light, "Shall we fix that?"
Genesis tensed.
"Grand Cross."
Its like reality itself warps around them, bending and twisting as the walls crack and scream and shudder, the VR program disrupted, the lights flickering. Empty holes rip themselves open around Genesis, and some kind of red and black miasma begins to pour through...
"Genesis move!"
Sephiroth comes out of nowhere and slams into him, throwing him clear and across the room. Then the miasma hits him, and Genesis, for the first time in his life, hears Sephiroth scream. The man buckles to his knees, arms wrapped around his chest, looking utterly sickly and frail, blood is pouring down sours opening across his face and body. Genesis snarls in protective anger, going for his Sense materia and...
Sephiroth has almost every single ailment possible on him that his equipment doesn't guard against, along with ailments Sense can't even identify! "Esuna! Full Cure! Esuna!"
Sephiroth takes in a deep, gasping breath as the magic washes over him, and rises shakily to his feet. The intensity on his face is something Genesis isn't sure he's seen before. "We end this, NOW!"
"As you wish."
It wasn't either Genesis or Angeal that responded.
"Five."
Genesis jumps out of the way as a Kairi goes past him.
"Four."
The three Kairis moved to the center of the room.
"Three."
They began to meld together in a disgusting display of twisting flesh and bone.
"Two."
Genesis, Sephiroth, and Angeal all tensed.
"One."
Kairi reformed herself in one body and smiled.
"Ultima."
The entire room was blown apart in a sea of green.
"...I don't care for excuses, Sephiroth!" came the President's shrill voice, "You four are not allowed to spar together at once ever again! Or at least not in the damn building! The repair costs alone are estimated to be in the tens of millions of gil! Medical expenses for non-SOLDIER personal injured will be in the tens of thousands easily!"
Genesis groaned and blearily opened his eyes, finding himself in a bed in... not the SOLDIER floor infirmary. Probably got wrecked by the... Ultima. Good gods, she cast Ultima without the materia. He takes a quick look around, spotting Angeal and Kairi unconscious on another bed. Sephiroth stood at attention speaking with the President, Directer Lazard, Director Verdot, and Professor Hojo.
"I understand," said Sephiroth in a clipped tone, "I willingly offer to pay as much of the damages as I am able to, I don't particularly spend my salary on anything after all."
President Shinra narrows his eyes. "It will be coming out of all four of your funds. All of you will be taking a paycut on top of this as well. I expect better from you especially, Sephiroth, don't let it happen again. You are now all on incredibly thin ice."
"Understood, sir."
Rupert Shinra shakes his head and leaves.
Verdot raises a single eyebrow at Sephiroth, but the man doesn't react or offer any words.
Veld mirrors Rupert, shaking his head and leaving.
Lazard sighed. "Its going to take days for any kind of mainframe repair to be done, as such, the PHS Mission Roster System is likely shot for the time being. All SOLDIERs are grounded for the time being, and as part of the punishment, all of them will know exactly why that is."
"I see," is all Sephiroth says.
Lazard hums and leaves.
Hojo clasps his hands behind his back and studies Sephiroth for a long moment. "I do believe that is the first time, in a very long time, that I have seen you bloodied in a training accident, boy."
Sephiroth says nothing.
"Are you particularly injured?"
"No."
"So it has all healed then? Superficial wounds?"
"Yes."
"Fatigued?"
"Not physically."
"Mentally then?"
"No."
"How so?"
"Tired with myself more than anything."
"You allowed things to spiral out of control then."
"...yes."
"Was whatever your experiment was worth all of this?"
"Not in the way I imagined, but yes."
"I see."
Hojo studied Sephiroth for another moment longer before turning and leaving without further word.
Sephiroth closed the door and sagged against the wall with a heavy sigh, scrubbing at his face with a hand
"I'm surprised she lasted that long against you," said Genesis to his silver-haired friend as a friendly opening shot.
Because he could.
"I couldn't see her," commented Sephiroth mildly, not even glancing at him.
"Bullshit, you can see in the dark..."
"There was nothing to see!" he snarled back, legitimately angry, "That sphere sucked in everything, I could not see her at all. Relying purely on hearing and reverberations through the air is not something I have excessive experience in. Not since the labs..."
He cut off with a growl. "I was, for once, held at a disadvantage that I could not immediately circumvent or overpower. It is an... unsettling experience coupled with the effect her presence had."
"And thus does the god come down from his lofty mountain," mused Genesis.
"I'm trying not to die of a migraine over here Genesis," groaned Angeal, "You aren't helping."
A full-cure washed over both him and Angeal, but not Kairi. Evidently Sephiroth didn't want her up yet. Discussion time then.
"Not insane," Sephiroth opened with, "Full blown mental split. Kairi herself displays almost none of what that persona does. Everything negative was split and shunted into creating that by something Hojo did, likely whatever enabled that... that ability to bodily modify herself since she knows how to control it. Kairi couldn't cope with it, and the persona was born."
"Bodily modify herself," said Angeal flatly, "Is that what we are calling it? Gods above, Sephiroth, I've never been terrified of real monsters like I was that thing, even before it ripped itself in half and put itself back together again."
"Her," said Genesis in a warning tone, "She is not a thing. Not if we aren't as well."
Angeal scrubbed at his face. "So we're all monsters then? Experimented on by madmen playing gods?"
Genesis hesitated. He had been hoping Angeal wouldn't realize he likely bore Hollander's touch as well. "Angeal... you..."
"What? You think I didn't realize it about myself? Hojo calls us both Hollander's Failures," snapped Angeal.
"Angeal," ordered Sephiroth firmly, "Look at me."
Angeal, the good soldier he is, obeys on reflex.
"Monsters are not born, they are made, by actions, by deed," said Sephiroth, "Before you personally encountered this persona, did you at any point truly consider Kairi a monster?"
Angeal hesitated.
"Do you truly consider Genesis a monster?"
"No!"
"Me?"
"No."
"Yourself?"
"...no."
"But you are so very scared you could be."
"...yes."
Sephiroth let out a breath. "So am I, I suppose. Because I do very much believe she was telling the truth, though I don't know how she did any of that."
"I don't particularly think its something to experiment with," said Genesis crisply, "If we cut off a hand and it doesn't grow back immediately, we're screwed at bare minimum until the next Mako Booster of hers in which we had better pray asking nicely for advice works, and then we'd have to explain how the hand grew back."
"I'm voting never intentionally trigger that personality again," snapped Angeal instantly, "Next booster, we see if having her just relax and sleep keeps that abominable persona at bay. Some lines between man and monster should never be crossed. Let... let the real Kairi continue on in blissful ignorance of what she's capable of. If she remains the SOLDIER Mom for the rest of her life, that's fine, that's good. Anything but that thing."
"Agreed," said Sephiroth, "I think it needs to stay firmly under wraps from now on."
He shifted focus. "The only reason more eyes were not drawn into poking with what happened as anything more than us taking things too far is because of how few people even know that Ultima Materia even exists. Or have ever seen it in action to recognize it. The majority of the people in the world who would have the reserves to even cast it live in this building."
Angeal propped a knee up. "So we're going to address that elephant in the room then? Kairi was casting magic without materia."
"She did not just cast any old magic with Materia, she cast Ultima without materia," stressed Genesis.
"Only the most elite monsters I have ever faced could cast that spell," said Sephiroth, "And none with the degree of force Kairi did."
Genesis let that sink in, lets that remind him that Kairi knocked him the hell out with that spell, Angeal too, even if they were caught offguard by it, before taking a heavy breath and letting it out. "The arrow has left the bow of the goddess. How?"
"If I had to guess, genetic splicing," said Sephiroth.
"Which is what?" asked Angeal.
"Taking genes from something and putting it into something else," said Sephiroth, "Its a poor explanation, but its the best I know of it from listening to Hojo ramble at times. I don't know where he found whatever gave her that 'Grand Cross' magic, I've never heard of it before, it was... unpleasant."
Genesis snorted. "I think you are putting it lightly."
He hesitates and grudgingly offers. "Thank you for getting me out of the way of that."
Sephiroth of course merely waves it off.
"So he... what? 'Spliced' monster genes into her?" asked Angeal, voice indicating he didn't understand the how of it.
"Hojo does love to experiment," mused Sephiroth, "In complete defiance of if he should."
"And he and Hollander did that to all of us?" asked Angeal quietly.
That makes Sephiroth frown.
"Because, I still don't know when the hell Hollander experimented on me and Genesis," said Angeal, "But Hojo only had her for a single year."
"And while I wont exactly speak of it without Kairi's direct permission, I witnessed a portion of that when we... 'merged'," said Genesis quietly, "I don't recall anything like the ability to split yourself in half."
"If the memories were divided, would you have?" asked Sephiroth.
"I don't know," he admitted.
Yet... even more than before, something about all of this tickles him in a horrible way. Where as before, when he fought Sadistic-Kairi alone, it had been her words that had unsettled him, here it had been her actions and abilities. When he took both of those things and tried to combine them together... it was illogical, paranoid, scared thoughts that made more sense than saying 'blame Hojo' and being done with it.
"Those who do not understand always seeks to define and identify to their own means, never allowing that what they do not understand may be so much more than what they allow," he recited, "That's what she said."
Sephiroth blinked. "You think we are wrong?"
Genesis shrugged helplessly. "I don't know..."
"She believes, so foolishly, every word I say," mocked Kairi against herself, "She can open the door through her own power, and if she was in the right place, push more than her consciousness through. Once she is mine, and this world consumed, I will go through the door myself."
She laughed. "She will meet Sora again, oh yes she will, but like the Ancients of this world, when he greets me as his dead lost friend like they did, I will deceive and devour him. And thus, will the cycle continue as it always had."
He lets the memory rest in the forefront of his mind, remembers feeling her memories of Sora, how she had treasured the boy, warring with himself to -tell them tell them tell them-, and finds himself instead saying once more, "I don't know..."
