Chapter 27: Progress of Time
She knows.
Its the first thing that really strikes Genesis, and dumbfounds him, when Kairi wakes up and is informed about the damage to the training room, and the consequences of it. They of course don't tell her anything real that happened in the fight itself, but she's not surprised by the damage, even if she admits to not remembering it. Nor by how they skirt around the issue of what exactly happened in the fight. She merely nods her head, an odd sadness to her eyes, an air of depression around her, her gaze lingering on all three of them as if waiting for something. The way her shoulders are tensed... he knows his apprentice inside and out.
Its like she's expecting rebuke, or punishment, or perceiving impending harm.
That ultimately bleeds the desire to confront her on her sadist-persona, and makes him think, really think, back to Tseng's initial debrief to them of Kairi's first 'madness incident'...
"Mother, mother why?"
What Tseng had told them, Kairi hadn't been calling out to a dead mother long gone. Its what she called the Persona. Goddess... there are so many implications he needs to consider with that. Sephiroth, bless the man for once not pouncing on the visible weakness, offers an apology for apparently hitting her hard enough for short term memory loss and losing control of the spar, suggesting she go get some rest. Her eyes search his for a long moment and she gives a quiet 'its alright', before leaving to hopefully do that.
"She knows."
Surprisingly, its Angeal who says it out of the three of them.
Sephiroth slowly nods, and proves that perhaps the three of them think more alike than any of them thought. "Tseng said, back in his debriefing of the first known incident, that she called out for a 'Mother'."
Genesis exhales in frustration. "Its what she most likely calls the Persona."
"Isn't 'Mother' what her girls call Kairi herself?" posed Angeal warily.
"There are implications of that," considers Sephiroth, "Dissociative Identities are usually formed in response to extreme trauma from what I have read, as a defensive mechanism to survive. Some are aware of their other aspects, some are not. A Mother is generally a supporting, comforting figure, but also fiercely protective of their young. Its likely this Persona protected Kairi while in Hojo's labs. Which in turns causes her to wish to assume such a mantle for those connected to her. Even down to the hostility she displays when they are threatened."
"The Persona goes overboard though," said Angeal flatly, "I'm pretty sure that this 'Mother' was very much actually trying to kill all three of us despite Kairi caring for us."
Sephiroth nods again. "I don't profess to understand this 'Mother' completely, but, I have an... uncomfortable theory. I've read that some mothers can be... overbearing, possessive, controlling. Including of those who interact with their children. This Mother persona was created in the labs, in which she would have to kill most things Kairi would interact with. Or, if that's not it, then perhaps... well, she made her opinion of Genesis known. Perhaps she doesn't approve of us in relation to her 'Daughter'."
Oh, Sephiroth likely hit the nail on the head in ways he didn't understand.
"My friend, the fates are cruel," recited Genesis, "You are assuming that this Persona actually cares about Kairi's well-being."
"Kairi? My daughter sleeps for now, not forever, not yet."
The sadistic words ring in Genesis's ear, there had been dark desire in them.
Sephiroth blinks. "You have reason to believe otherwise?"
"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."
Genesis licked his lips at the memory assaulting him again, for what must be the thousandth time, screaming at him that this is more than delusional madness, than a disorder, that something is terribly wrong. "Merely playing the devil's advocate."
"It is your favored role," mused Sephiroth.
Genesis huffed and whacked his shoulder, making the man smirk back with amusement. "Hmmm, so thin ice with all four of us then I believe the fat buffoon said?"
Sephiroth huffed. "Yes, and all things considering, especially with you and Kairi, this needs to be the last such incident for a very long while."
"So a year or so then until we muck things up again?"
Angeal groaned. "Lets not, Gen."
Genesis merely laughed and waved before he strode out the door.
Its... odd, in a way, as the months pass.
Without a single stir.
Sure, the other SOLDIERs are irritated at Kairi and the trio, but really, nothing happens. No more incidents in any form. Kairi's probation ends and she finally starts on missions again, the mainframe long since back up and the PHSs working. Not to mention finally training her girls again. Even Mother's bloodthirsty comments relax, seemingly sated on sparing with her sons. Kairi really, really hopes that Mother kept to her word about the fight, but Kairi really doesn't have it in her to ask either Mother or the trio about what happened.
She's caught Genesis more than once lounging about in the common area reading LOVELESS. Not the 'reading it aloud to annoy everyone' kind of thing, but quiet relaxing contemplation in a public space. Its... weird to not see him egging people on frequently.
Sephiroth is, as ever, far to busy with paperwork to usually hang out except on Sundays, and then, he simply sits in his chair at the gathering, leaned back, eyes closed, basking in their presence. A reprieve from the life of Shinra. Kairi knows things between them aren't... exactly the best. She's not even sure they'd be considered friends, let alone if he considered her family. But... some part of her does hope he finds some enjoyment in her presence.
Angeal is quieter than normal, and she corners him on it once.
"You okay Angeal?"
He turns away from aimlessly staring out the window. "Just thinking."
"About what?"
He pauses, eyes flickering, but they're alone, ya know since he was standing adrift in a hallway randomly. "If my mother knew about the experiments. You, Genesis, Sephiroth, there's no chance I wasn't experimented on as well. I just can't ever remember when. I'm... considering confronting her on it, but... some part of me is afraid to do so."
He runs a hand through his hair. "If I ask, I can't take back knowing."
"I suppose it depends on whether or not you want it hanging over your head the rest of your life," said Kairi, considering what Genesis had exclaimed about, that the experiments on him were done before they were born. It was likely the same with Angeal, but he deserved to hear the truth from his own mother, not passed down the grape-vine.
"Perhaps both you and Genesis can ask both of your parents," she suggested, "And be there for one another. Hell, see if you can get Sephiroth to go with you, I swear the man doesn't understand what 'vacation' means. If he sees it as a chance to support his friends, it might work."
Angeal chuckles. "Devious."
Kairi merely grins back.
Angeal slowly nods. "I think... yeah, that would work. Its... not likely to be pleasant, but I'll manage with my friends."
Kairi deflates a little, giving a sad smile. "I know you and Sephiroth don't exactly like me, but I'm here as well if you ever want to talk."
Angeal pauses, turning his head to give her a contemplative look. "Kairi, its not that I don't like you as a person, but I'm going to flat out say that there are... parts of you that outright scare me, and not just from the... mental incidents. Not to mention, had what you did to heal Genesis went wrong, I could have lost him."
Kairi crossed her arms. "I won't apologize for what I did, it saved him."
Angeal merely sighs. "You have a good heart, Kairi, but the things it drives you to do are going to give me gray hairs before I'm even thirty."
Kairi smiled a little. "Hows that gonna work with Sephiroth, silver hair and all?"
Angeal snorts. "Not a clue."
They both reflexively check around to make sure the man isn't walking around the corner to overhear before giving one another a conspirators smile.
Her smile fades into something akin to a grimace. "As for the rest... I'm who I've always been, who I became after... after the labs, after being trained as a SOLDIER, and the war. There are parts of me even I don't particularly like, but, you can't just pick and choose. The good and the bad are part of make me who I am, so... I am who I am, Angeal."
He stares at her for a very long minute that feels uncomfortably piercing. "So long as you stay true to who you are, SOLDIER mom, then that's fine. Just... don't let it overtake you, the negatives in life. Don't lose yourself to your past, I don't need to know the details to know far more went on in your time in Hojo's labs than having monsters sent after you."
Kairi reflexively swallowed. "So long as you don't either. I'll tell you the same thing I told Sephiroth, I don't think any of us are fully human anymore, but, humanity is in action, not form. We're far more human than something like Hojo is."
Both his eyebrows climb, before falling into a furrowed look. "You don't think you're human?"
"Well, it was out of Sephiroth's mouth that time, but... no."
That gets a surprised look from Angeal, then worried. "Sephiroth... hrm. Perhaps I should talk to him during the vacation about that."
Kairi smiled a little. He's a good friend for the man. "I came to terms with what I was awhile ago, even if I don't fully understand it myself. It doesn't particularly affect me anymore."
There is an air of wistful respect about him. "Human by action huh? Something we could stand to learn from you."
Kairi snorted. "I don't think you have much to learn from me."
"You'd be surprised Kairi," he muttered, turning and starting down the hallway, "You'd be surprised."
Kairi frowned at his back, a tad confused and worried.
"His thoughts, his mind, shows himself little reprieve, they are his own worst enemy," commented Mother idly, "His own great weakness, he is a bulwark that he himself holds the key to shattering."
Kairi nods slowly, she'll ask Genesis to keep a closer eye on his friend, draw him out of his thoughts more. After all, if he was going to start a nickname for her, it was the least she could do to live up to it...
Bumping into the Turks was always something she didn't like.
Bumping into Director Veld Verdot was even worse, an exercise in restraint to not gut him. Even though that she wouldn't have come to this life in SOLDIER, to her girls, without him finding her... she will never forgive him for delivering her to Hojo.
"Director," she says in a clipped tone.
"2nd Class Kairi," he responds, a slight head tip.
They move to go past eachother after their assesses looks, before Kairi notices something.
His arm is mechanical. "What happened to your arm?"
His face briefly goes tight, a grimace, a loss, an air of pain around him before its gone. "Work hazard."
She could say something snide or cutting, but..., "My condolences."
An annoyed look briefly crossed his face. He merely nodded and turned to go.
That however riles her. She was being nice to him after all. "What, is offering sympathy poison to a Turk?
"It is when its all I hear about or my men keep dancing around me about it and my fam...," he cuts himself off, frustrated, teeth gritting and turning to just walk off.
Fam... as in family?
Shit.
She hated the guy, but...
"I'm sorry to hear that," she offers quietly, "And you should be happy to hear it from your Turks, it means they care."
He stops in the middle of the hallway for a long moment. "I suppose they do."
He continues on his way, and she goes on hers.
"Nope, you've been working waaaaay to much lately mom," said Jessie, her and Elena grabbing her under her armpits and dragging her down the hall towards the elevator.
"I was bored out of my mind during probation," said Kairi dryly, "And it's literally my life-slash-job."
"Well, not tonight, its girl's night out!" exclaimed Elena, "We've got the entire theater for one of their plays."
"Well, girls and the one token guy anyway," said Jessie, snickering, "Genesis bought out all the seats to 'grace us with LOVELESS's divine words'."
Kairi snorted, hiccuped, and laughed. "And everyone's showing up?"
"Well, if they're not out overnight to a mission somewhere," said Jessie, "I think most are coming just because its a group thing, some want to see if its everything Genesis made it out to be. Most of the 2nd batch haven't been exposed enough to him yet to get tired of hearing it all the time."
Part of being on probation had meant Kairi was chased away from even looking at the second SOLDIER boot camp and SOLDIER Prep girls being able to join. It had been, as predicted, a larger class of girls than the prior one, roughly forty more added to the family. The core of the web, her, next to her Genesis, then Elena, then the '1st batch' as they called themselves in a circle, then the 2nd batch. There was an... age of connection between them all, more firm and known between those who had been around longer. Kairi didn't really differ in her treatment of them all, but she was loosely aware of the different 'batches' grouping together. Not quite rivalry, but... something that Kairi doesn't quite know how to phrase.
Like the sitting arrangements once they arrived in the theater. The first generation sits in a circle of seniority. She and Genesis sit with the best seats, Elena next to Kairi, Jessie directly behind her, with the girls filling out in an order that almost seems subconsciously instinctual. There is no arguing or fighting over seats at all. There is an order and lack of conflict about it at that... stirs something.
Mother chuckles. "Its pleasing when all who bear your cells fulfill their designs to your will even in so simple a thing."
Kairi frowns a little.
"Or would you rather they overly fight and bicker? You're presence soothes such things, so is it not a pleasing sensation?"
"I suppose," says Kairi as the lights dim and the curtains rise.
"Oh its been too long," says Genesis softly, his eyes lighting up as he eagerly watches the actors take stage.
Kairi smiles at his enthusiasm, feeling it fill the web, seeping into others, bringing some enjoyment to the girls who were here only because everyone else was. Kairi hadn't had all her girls together since the graduation ceremony, but as it did then, it filled her with such contentedness to have them all together...
Made her eyes sharp and glowing...
Fulfilled and together yet separate and apart...
She half closes her eyes, and more enjoys the thoughts and feelings of her children and Genesis more than she does the play...
Horrific pain rips through the mental web, worse than anything Kairi's felt before from one of her children, even in nasty training accidents.
Its enough to make Kairi gasp and stumble as she walks into the SOLDIER floor common area, one hand clutching her head, the other reaching out for the wall for support. There are wheezing, coughs, gasps, and even a muffled scream from her children in the area.
"The fuck?" one of the guys says, slowly standing up.
Zack is there as well, glancing around nervously. "Uh... you girls okay?"
"Whose out on missions?" Elena calls out, "Someone just got mucked really fucking bad, like holy shit I felt like I got stabbed and I'm sitting right here."
"Bastet is off in Junon, nothing dangerous."
"Trinnie is at Corel, clearing out a infestation in their mines."
"Nichole went off on leave, shouldn't be anywhere dangerous."
"Gale's up by Icicle Inn with a squad of infantry and one of the guys, something about investigating a bunch of people going missing."
"Lanna is en-route to her mission at the moment, don't think its her."
Jessie comes rushing into the room, right for Kairi. "Mom you felt that?"
Kairi nods. "Yeah."
"Pretty sure that was Gale and...," begins Jessie.
In a moment of agonizing pain, a hole is abruptly torn right through the mental web.
Kairi falls to her knees and screams.
Screams and screams and screams, her vision blurring with black spots and red haze.
All of her girls, no matter where they are in the world, collapse and scream as well, convulsing. She can feel Genesis gasping for breath up in his room, clawing at his chest.
"Holy fuck! What the hell?!"
"Does anyone have a Sleep? Knock them out before they hurt themselves!"
"Pin them down! Pin them down!"
It is a minute of chaos as SOLDIER scrambles. Zack is by Kairi, gripping her shoulder and pinning her firmly to to the wall as she shakes and screams. "Kairi! Kairi! Get ahold of yourself!"
It takes a long few minutes as her children are knocked out one by one before the feedback loop of agony going through the mental web lessens to a point where Kairi can even consciously think. She slides down the wall out of Zack's grip to the floor, stunned, numb. He takes a few steps back, looking around anxiously.
Sephiroth and Angeal both enter the room, likely drawn by the screaming. The former barks sharply, "SOLDIERs! What is going on in here?"
"Don't know sir!" one of them, Sebastian maybe, Kairi can hardly see straight or hear coherently enough to tell, "There was a incident, they all kinda just gasped in pain, said one of the others out on a mission was hurt bad. Then like a minute later they just started howling and convulsing. Ain't ever seen anything like it."
Sephiroth frowns intently, glancing towards Kairi, eyes narrowed in wariness and concern. "2nd Class Kairi?"
"Dead."
Sephiroth blinked. "What?"
Kairi shakes, breathing labored, rasping out, "One of my girls is dead. The... the backlash of it... it just..."
Sephiroth purses his lips, eyes flickering around the room to judge every collapsed female SOLDIER. "I see."
Angeal massages his face tiredly. "Well, we were wondering about downsides and dangers to that mental connection. If one dies they all go down."
Kairi snarled, flickers of fury filling her. "One of my children is DEAD! Do you even care?!"
Angeal points a finger at her, his voice sharp, "Don't you put words in my mouth Kairi, you know that's not what I meant!"
Kairi grits her teeth, closing her eyes, tears welling up.
There is a quick footfall, the crinkling of leather of someone kneeling down, and Sephiroth's firm hand is on her shoulder. "You have my condolences for your loss, but you need to pull yourself, and the rest of your girls, together, now SOLDIER."
She doesn't know how.
The pain is still there.
There is a horrific gaping wound in the web that is pulsating suffering to them all.
"Close it," hisses Mother, sounding groggy and pained, "Close off the wound and cut it off from the rest of the web until you can heal it properly."
"I don't know how!" Kairi exclaims back.
"Fortunately for you, I do," snaps Mother, "Its been eons since I first felt a child die, since I was vulnerable to this. I had forgotten the danger of a psychic backlash when it is pain rather than nourishment."
Kairi's nostrils flare. "Nourishment?!"
Mother pauses and quickly rephrases her words. "As a drive, my child. Feel the death of your child, and let it spurn you on. Let vengeance become your goal."
Kairi doesn't bother even trying to hide her suspicion of that quick cover up, but she just wants the pain to stop so she looks over it. "How?"
Mother guides her. It feels like the skin over her chest is ripped open and something was torn out. She slowly pushes the mental bloody flesh back in place, but there is a sunken hole where there once was something before. The edges are frayed, the skin not yet knitted closed nor healed. But its enough to quiet the bleeding agony into a painful throb of loss. The unconscious girls around the rooms stop twitching in pain, the few that are still conscious groan.
"F-fuck...," sobs Elena, "Fuck!"
Jessie staggers upright and over, falling down and curling into Kairi's side, burying her face into the uniform and sobbing, clutching her for comfort. Kairi reflexively puts a hand through her hair, trying to offer what was needed when Kairi desperately wanted it for herself. She opens her eyes to wearily meet Sephiroth's gaze. He gives her a crisp nod and stands up.
"Until further notice, all female SOLDIERs are barred from missions until a method can be devised to limit this kind of damage," he orders.
Kairi does not object.
"This is a danger and a weakness that cannot be left unchecked," he said mildly, "Imagine if this had been a battlefield, it would have gotten every single one of them killed."
Kairi can't fathom the agony of what that would have felt like.
"Madness inducing likely," said Mother mildly.
Kairi doesn't disagree, she feels frayed around the edges as it is. But...
But red is starting to seep in.
Red rage.
Dark twisting hatred.
Fire is igniting under her skin.
She rises to her feet, Jessie clutching to her leg. "Agreed, and it will be handled, after we've done our duty."
Sephiroth's face twitches, a slight frown. "Your... duty?"
"One of my girls is dead," snarled Kairi, absolute hatred dripping from her mouth, a chill in the air that makes both Sephrioth and Angeal, all of the guys, tense, "That does not go unanswered."
"Kairi...," begins Sephiroth in warning.
"Elena, Jessie, get up," snaps Kairi, pouring the rage and fire she feels down the web.
Elena and Jessie gasp, a few of the other girls coming back to consciousness, all of them rising to their feet, their shell-shocked faces twisting into hatred and wrath, eyes gaining a faint pink glow to them akin to Kairi's.
Kairi coldly and calculatingly goes through the web, judging those who are fit enough to partake in vengeance. She nudges them one by one. "You all will come with me, and we will have revenge. Everyone else, take care of your siblings."
"Sephiroth, I want two helicopters ready in ten minutes," she said icily.
He regards her for a long minute. "...very well."
He didn't challenge her on it.
Good.
"Angeal and myself will be coming with you to... observe," he added.
"As you wish," she said dismissively, glancing around the room, "Get the rest of my girls either to the infirmary or back to the room."
She sweeps out of the room after, her girls on her heels, Sephiroth and Angeal behind them, the former dialing his PHS. Genesis falls into place as they exit the elevators, already anticipating her move and joining her without needing prompting. "I don't believe I've ever felt anything quite like that."
"Neither have it," said Kairi in a clipped tone.
Not even her thoughts of losing her Island, Sora, Riku, her friends, her adoptive family, had felt anything like losing one of her children.
"Whatever or whoever killed my daughter will suffer."
Genesis nods. "My soul, corrupted by vengeance..."
"I'm not in the mood for LOVELESS," she snaps, climbing into the helicopter.
"Perhaps not," he agrees, climbing in after, "But it paints the picture we are to make all the same."
She catches sight of Tseng as their pilot, watching warily out of the corner of his eye. Sephiroth and Angeal fill in, followed by as many of her girls as she can in this helicopter. The rest of those she is taking will fill out the second. They lift off towards the Northern Continent. Sephiroth types with his PHS, but strangely does not call. Or perhaps not strange if he doesn't wish to be overheard. She doesn't care about procedure or politics at the moment if thats what its about. All she can focus on is the fire in her bones. The molten hatred burning in her core. Its unlike anything she's ever felt before.
She frowns. How is she going to figure out what killed her child?
"Carefully open the wound and look," advised Mother, "She bore your cells, you should still be able to glean some of the memories left in your web."
Kairi closes her eyes, and it feels like she's peeling skin off herself to open the wound in the web...
Its so fucking cold here, even with the damn enhancements, brrrrr. Gale hoped they'd find whatever had been offing villagers soon, roaming around this snowy little hellhole wasn't her idea of a good time.
"Whats the matter girly?" teased Justin.
Cute guy, bit of a hunk, if he weren't such an ass she might consider dating the SOLDIER. "Cold as tits here."
He huffed with laughter before giving her a sly look. "There's ways to heat em up if you're cold."
"In your dreams perv," she snubs.
"I thought SOLDIERs were serious," she hears one of the troopers whisper behind them, "These two have done nothing but flirt since we got on the helicopter."
But it was so fun to do so! Especially when she intended to leave him high and dry and...
An ear splitting roar fills the air, followed by the rapid crunching of something big running through the snow. She whirls in time to see a giant yellow Behemoth tear into the infantry behind them. Horns severing one in having, trampling another, biting a third and swinging its head back and tearing a giant chunk out of the poor man. Its tail lashes out, slamming with enough force to crush ribs into an unfortunate trooper.
"Shit!" she exclaims, drawing her sword and making forward.
"No!" exclaims Justin, grabbing her shoulder, "We need to split! Everyone bail, NOW!"
"What?" she demands, "Its a behemoth, we can take it!"
"KING Behemoth!" he counters, "There's no way two 3rds and a few troopers can take that thing!"
Gunfire erupts, but not for long, the King Behemoth slaughters the troopers in seconds before roaring and standing up on its hind legs, a massive sphere of energy starting to form infront of its head.
"FLARE!" roars Justin, tackling her into the snow, "Get down!"
The flare barely misses them, but explodes near enough to send them both flying, the explosion and impact leaves a brutal ringing in her ears, her vision swimming as she rises to her feet...
She screams in horrific pain as a horn erupts through her chest and lifts her up. The beast roars and throws her across the snowfields. She tumbles, leaving a trail of blood in the snow. She lays there, gasping for breath, tears in her eyes freezing on her face. She tries to rise, fumbling for her bracer and cure materia. She... she couldn't... couldn't die here. Not... not like this...
There is an awful scream and she looks up. The King Behemoth's jaw is around Justin's elbow and it... oh fuck...
It bites right through the shoulder, clean ripping his arm off. Justin collapses into the snow, shivering and convulsing with pain. The King Behemoth chews and swallows it, bloody teeth bared as seemed to grin. It lifted its head up, roared in triumph, and then speared down, driving its horn clean through Justin's chest, and unlike her, he doesn't have mom's endurance and regeneration. He doesn't move again after the King Behemoth pulls its horn out with a brutal spray of blood.
Gale screams.
The beast whirls, nostrils flaring, and charges at her.
She turns and bolts, clutching at her chest as she runs, sobbing.
Not like this, not like this, not like this!
The King Behemoth catches up and slams the side of its head into her body, sending her flying. She hits the snow and rolls, trying to get up. The best tramples her into the snow, rearing up, its hoof coming down right for her head.
She screams and...
Kairi gasps, a sob, a wail escaping her lips.
Elena and Jessie clutch her. Her other children trying to scoot closer and reach for her.
"Kairi?" poses Angeal.
"She went digging through the remains of... of where her SOLDIER had been in the web," gritted out Genesis, "I caught glimpses of it, the squad was wiped out by a King Behemoth."
Sephiroth's eyebrows furrow. "A King Behemoth? Icicle is still some distance from the Northern Crater. One truly ventured that far from its territory?"
Genesis nods.
Sephiroth closes his eyes and sighs. "Damn."
"We're going to need to keep the 3rds back then," said Angeal, "A King Behemoth isn't something I'd risk 2nds on, even entry 1sts would have a hard time against that."
Kairi takes a shaky breath, gritting her teeth and pushing herself through the horrible death-echo. "We're it only a few of them perhaps. Fifteen of them plus me and Genesis will be enough. You two may observe as you said, but do NOT interfere."
Angeal leans back at her tone, at the rage on her face, uneasiness clear as day on him. He doesn't reply. Sephiroth merely raises an eyebrow. "So long as it is kept under control. If I believe one of them is in danger of dying, I will intervene. I do not particularly enjoy losing my SOLDIERs, two in what was supposed to be an ordinary mission is far to much as it is."
Kairi meets his eye for a moment before giving a crisp nod.
They set down at Icicle Inn hours later. Sephiroth takes a few minutes to question the townsfolk and get a direction of where the previous group had went. Then, like predators on the prowl, Kairi leads them out, Genesis at her side, Elena and Jessie right behind them, the rest of her girls spread out. Sephiroth and Angeal jog quickly to catch up. Tseng, perhaps smartly, doesn't join them. A suit has little place transversing the cold terrain, especially at SOLDIER speed.
They find the remains a few hours later.
The troopers are ripped apart, laying where they fell. The SOLDIER Justin, dead in the snow, a pool of blood out of his missing shoulder and arm staining the snow. And her daughter... her daughter is dead some yards away. Head crushed like a melon from the King Behemoth's hoof. A giant horn sized hole right through her rib-cage. Even worse though is her stomach and bowls ripped open, no, chewed open.
"It fucking ate part of her," chokes out one of her children.
Kairi shakes with blind fury and hatred. She is going to find this animal, and she is going to slaughter it.
"If it ate part of her," said Mother in a careful tone, "Some of your cells will still be in it. You can use that to locate it. Here, let me show you."
Mother's guidance is cautious, almost like she is... afraid... of Kairi. She wonders absently if Mother can feel the depths of her anger and hatred, how much it is pouring through the web. This was her daughter, one of her children, a part of her, a singing part of the mental web all binding them together. And she was gone. Ripped away. There was nothing in all her time as a normal schoolgirl that could describe the horrible sensation. Its an... other sensation, not human. A hatred beyond what a human can feel.
She revels in it as much as she loathes it.
The crest a hill, and there it is prowling around.
Gigantic.
Yellow skin.
Horns bigger and longer than Kairi is tall.
Incredibly muscular.
Power ripples from it, crashing against an otherworldly sense, easily the strongest monster she's ever faced, above the Dragon Genesis pitted her against.
It will die as nothing.
She mentally nudges Genesis, and warns him to brace himself. When he does, she pours that hatred into him, the volatile emotions, and he snarls, his eyes shinning just like hers. He runs a hand along his sword, igniting the runes in red energy as the orange aura of a limit break is pushed through him. He thrusts his hands into the air and roars, "APOCALYPSE!"
The King Behemoth whirls, nostrils flaring.
But doesn't get more than a step before a runic sigil appears in the sky above it, raining energy down that bombards and blasts it into the ground. When the snow and the energy clears, the King Behemoth is battered and burned, struggling to get to its feet.
Kairi's eyes turn into pure slits.
Predator before wounded prey.
Kairi howls with inhuman hatred. She charges blindingly fast, sword stabbing into the King Behemoth and slamming herself into it with enough SOLDIER grade force to topple it over. Then the rest of her children are there. Snarling. Stabbing. Cutting. Clawing. Biting. Peeling flesh from bone. Ripping it apart. Eating its flesh. A trio of her children rip open its chest and rib cage, reaching in to rip out its bloody beating heart. The descend on it in in a gory tug of war, three heads nestling in and ripping back and forth to tear chunks out of it.
"Good gods," gags Angeal.
Genesis doesn't join in after the initial barrage. He stands at the ready nearby, eyes on the horizon searching protectively for additional threats.
Its some time before they're finished.
Before their vengeance is sated.
Kairi regards the blood and gore not with horror or squeamishness, but with grim satisfaction. Genesis watches them solemnly, Angeal looks a mixture between wanting to be sick and looking terrified. Sephiroth merely has a single eyebrow raised, motioning back the way they came with his blade. She wills her children to rise, and they leave the corpse of the King Behemoth in tatters behind them, to be forgotten and picked apart by any animals or monsters that come, walking off without trying to clean themselves off. Its blood a badge of honor and vengeance. They are united. They are one in their revenge. There are no doubts in any of their minds about what just happened, nor any of their siblings who catch traces of it down the web.
Kairi gently picks up and cradles the corpse of her child to her when they return to the scene of loss.
Her children pick up the remains of the others.
"Angeal, could you run ahead and see if they have body bags or... or something else we could use at Icicle Inn?" she asks softly, pained.
Angeal takes a long look at her, fear plain on his face fighting with whatever else he feels before he nods, his fear slowly fading in the face of duty. He rushes on ahead. Genesis walks beside Kairi, a comforting hand on her back. Sephiroth walks beside them.
"I will smooth over anything on the Board's end if something comes of this," offered Sephiroth.
"Thank you," she answers.
She's not sure when he ordered it, or perhaps Angeal did since he'd have had hours with his run VS their quiet mourning walk, but there is a third helicopter waiting for them that they load the bodies into. Kairi gently lays a hand on her dead child's shoulder, grief so strong it threatens to bring her to her knees, before she zips the body-bag closed.
The President is unusually silent for one of these incidents. Usually he is fuming after something involving Kairi after all the messes she's caused so far. He taps his cigarette in his ashtray, and takes another puff. Perhaps its because Sephiroth might have 'slightly' smudged the report of what Kairi and her children did to the King Behemoth. How... animalistic they had been carefully hidden away. He stands with Genesis and Angeal in front of the board. All of them agreed what they would say on the way back.
"Hmm," muses the President, "Its been a good year and change, after that training room mishap. Quiet. Business as normal. A well oiled machine. All things considered..."
He huffed. "I was expecting worse when the next incident happened."
Sephiroth's shoulders slowly relax. Perhaps he will not have to run as much interference as he expected.
"A quick takedown of a threat is something Shinra can appreciate," he muses, "Though the resources devoted to doing so were... excessive."
"No one in particular was thinking straight," admits Genesis, "Sephiroth and Angeal supervised to make sure nothing went completely out of hand. But... I don't think I can properly describe what it felt like to have part of the mental web connecting Kairi to those who bear her cells ripped out. Pain like nothing else."
The President studies him in consideration before looking at Sephiroth. "I trust you've already made it clear that this cannot happen again?"
Sephiroth nods. "I've instructed her to try and find a way to... lessen the mental backlash that such an event would cause."
"Good, good," agrees the President, glancing at Heidegger, "What is the bereavement leave policy again?"
The man in question straightens up in his chair. "A week for the person in question to get their head on straight again. If they want longer it comes out of their normal leave."
The President waves a head towards the door. "Give them all a week then. During that time, I want a solution found, and my SOILDERs ready to resume their duties afterwards."
"All of them, sir?" poses Heidegger, baffled.
"Well," admits Reeve, "No one here is blind to how much the female SOILDERs cling to one another. They openly call themselves family," he glances at the President, "I'm surprised you noticed, sir."
More like he's surprised the President is taking that into consideration at all, and Sephiroth quietly agrees.
The returning smile is thin, head nodding towards Veld briefly. "We've discussed policy and incident management in regards to our newest branch of SOLDIER. We have to take such things into consideration when valuating proper responses. This is rather mild all things considering. A small hiccup to be paved over. I am a business man, Mr. Tuesti, I do what it takes to keep my business running smoothly."
Ah... so Veld decided to run interference. That is... curious.
Or perhaps not.
Sephiroth has considered worst case scenarios about Kairi and her 'children'.
So to must have Veld.
Anything to keep things towards the status quo would be preferred.
Good.
Sephiroth gives Veld a small nod, and the man returns it.
With that, the meeting ends and they go on their way.
They've sealed off one of the larger training rooms for their own use.
Roughly seventy female SOLDIERs sitting in the room, plus Genesis.
They'd come up with a way to seal the hole, the gaping wound in the web.
Kairi sits against the wall, listening to her children reminisce about their fallen sister. Memories are slowly poured into the wound. She packs them in quietly, carefully reaching in and doing her first conscious alteration of the web without Mother's guidance. It just... comes to her. The pained ruptures are sanitized and smoothed over with her lost child's laughter. Her coy teasing and flirting that Kairi would have teased her about if she had more time to devote to enjoying her children. It grieves her to have learnt more about her child after she died than when she was alive, fills her with shame. Kairi lays her head down on Genesis's shoulder as she does her duty to her children, the living, and the dead.
It takes hours, to fully treat the wound.
She won't say heal, because its not gone, its still a scar. A reminder. A memory both good and bad. A graveyard in their mind that they can find if they wish to remember one who was fallen. Kairi stares at it, and a part of her dreads it. She dreads the ideas of more of these mental gravestones being erected in the web. But... at least even if they're gone, she'll always have something to remember her children by.
The emotions are hushed through the web, faint echoes to the rainstorm they could be, the flood of emotion and thought normally there.
Making mental walls that they can raise and lower between them all wasn't that hard to do. Though Kairi misses the freedom of being able to so easily reach out to her children without any resistance. They usually lower them the moment they feel her reaching for them anyway, but... she still misses the innocence of it. Before the loss. But they can't afford to remain that innocent and naive. They can't afford to be crippled by the loss again. They are lucky that no one was in a position that being hit by that would have left them vulnerable and likely to die. There's no guarantee they would be so fortunate in the future.
So, walls come up, and some of her children she can faintly feel are both relieved, and feel slightly guilty, to have mental privacy again, the ability to close off easy access to the web. She doesn't hold it against them though. In truth, even with the walls, she's never felt more close to her children. United in their grief for one of their own...
Kairi licks her lips, feeling awkward and... sad.
She put this off to long as it is.
She's clothed in a dress uniform, a folder under her arm carrying information and procedure for her dead child's birth family.
She's never done a Death Notification before, she's not sure she ever wants to do this again. A Turk could have done it... but Kairi had pushed herself to do it (punished herself with it).
She raises her hand, and knocks on the door of a small house out in Gongaga.
A middle aged woman opens the door a few moments later, and Kairi twitches at her child's features on the woman's face. "Good evening."
"Oh!" exclaims the woman, "You're the first girl SOILDER, right? Kairi isn't it? Seen you on the tele."
Kairi nods. "Yes, ma'am."
"Oh no need for that," the woman waves off, "What can I do for you? Is this about Gale? She didn't cause any trouble did she? She always liked a bit of mischievousness."
Kairi's face falls. She'd been given her lines to say, how its usually done. But it just... it feels empty.
The woman's face turns into concern. "Is... something wrong?"
"Ma'am," says Kairi softly, "Could we take this inside? Is the rest of your family in?"
"We were getting ready for lunch," the woman says uneasily, "My husband and youngest daughter should be setting the table."
"Perhaps we should take this to your living room," says Kairi quietly.
There is an air of dread about the woman now, she has to have a hunch what this is about.
Kairi is led to a couch, and sits down, waiting for the family to be gathered.
"I...," begins Kairi before swallowing, going through the rehearsed lines, "I have been asked to inform you that your daughter gave her life in the line of duty last week. She was killed in a mission investigating a mysterious loss of life up near Icicle Inn on the Northern Continent. I personally led the follow up mission that determined that she and her entire squad were killed by a high grade monster known as a King Behemoth, which was overwhelmed and put down. On the behalf of the Shinra Corporation, I extend to you and your family my deepest sympathy in your great loss."
They stare at her, shellshocked.
"I'm sorry," says Kairi quietly.
"I'm so sorry."
The next batch of cadets is smaller than the first two.
It also has a lot more of what Kairi's experienced eyes detail as 'Turk Recruited SOLDIERs'.
At least a quarter of the girls, and guys, look terrified and scared to be there.
Especially the smallest of the group.
She's pretty sure Shelke Rui is NOT actually the thirteen years old her file lists her as, she'd be lucky to be ten. Her file has been flagged for some kind of important ability. Kairi doesn't have the faintest idea what 'Synaptic Net Dive' is. But apparently this cadet was personally selected by the President to join the female SOLDIER program. The recruiter suspected that the mental web might enhance the girl's abilities to a greater level then normal. It still disquiets Kairi to see a child, not even a teenager, being put into the bootcamp, and eventually the SOLDIER program.
Its...
Its not right.
Anyone who looks at the child feels queasy.
Genesis mutters LOVELESS platitudes about 'no honor remains' that Kairi ignores.
Sephiroth's jaw is closed tight, eyes lingering on the child through the observation window as the girl struggles to keep up with the training.
All he offers when she pokes him on it is. "At least she can be somewhat protected here in SOLDIER. They could have secreted her off to Hojo to be picked apart in his labs after all."
Shelke's not even Kairi's daughter yet, but she is enraged at the prospect of it.
She's already nudging her children through the web, pouring in an image of the young girl along with the relevant information, and making an order. 'They're not likely to fail her out of the Cadet Program because of this 'Dive' ability. I want ALL of you to look after her when she's enhanced.'
The tide of protective fury she gets in response warms her. It also slowly kills off the last kind of denial most of her girls have. They're only now realizing just what kind of company Shinra truly is. None of them are satisfied. Nor are the guys either. Angeal looks like he swallowed something absolutely foul. He takes one look at Shelke, runs a hand down his face, and leaves, muttering to Sephiroth that he is scheduling his vacation trip home that they had talked about.
Shinra had best be careful about the atrocities shoved down SOILDERs throat.
There is only so much they will take.
"Is it even safe for her to be enhanced at that age?" mutters Kairi.
"No," said Sephiroth, "Being enhanced before puberty can cause extreme dangers, including impeded physical and mental growth. I'm not sure how I circumvented it, I was enhanced younger than she is to be, but for her I believe the assumption is that your cells will avoid this issue."
"Assumption," says Kairi flatly, "And if this assumption proves true, are they going to keep snatching children off the streets?"
"They would even if it doesn't," says Sephiroth quietly, an air of disgust in his voice, before he turns and marches away, fists clenched tightly.
Until the time comes... the best Kairi and her children can do is take in these forcefully recruited children and give them family...
Kairi doesn't realize anything is wrong until she feels a shocked, twisted sensation from Genesis.
She blinks awake wearily, looking at the clock. 5'AM in Midgar. So that'd be... 7 or 8 down in Banora. She fishes for her phone and shoots him a quick text.
He doesn't answer.
His walls come up thick, and at the distance between them, she can get nothing.
It doesn't set her at ease. Him, Angeal, and Sephiroth had went down to Banora for their 'vacation', for Angeal and Genesis to question their families with Sephiroth there as support. Something has gone wrong.
"Mother?" she asks.
Jenova is quiet, eyes in the back of her head calculative, but unanswering.
Its not until she's taken her shower and getting ready to start her shift that Genesis finally calls her.
"Angeal's mother tried to kill herself," he grits out.
Kairi freezes, one hand on the door handle, on hand on her phone by her ear. "Why?"
"Guilt? I don't know. I was off comforting Angeal after the first round of questioning while Sephiroth stuck around. He smelt the blood and found her bleeding out in the kitchen, she tried to kill herself on the Buster Sword. If he hadn't found her in time she'd be dead. As it is, even with a Full Cure, she lost a lot of blood."
She hears the shaky breath from him.
"How is Angeal?" she asked.
"Distraught, this is not what he needed," said Genesis angrily, "How could she do that to him? Her own son?! Leaving him adrift, questions unanswered, wondering if its his fault. I've never known Gillian to be so damn selfish. Even with all of that, Angeal has barely left her side in the town clinic. Its likely he's going to be burning all of his saved up leave to stay."
Realistically, she knows there is nothing she could do. Actually... "Should I... should I see if I could get Zack sent down there? Would that help Angeal? Or no?"
Genesis hums. "I don't know. His puppyness might not be appreciated in this situation, or it could be a relief from it. One minute, I will head back inside and ask Angeal."
She hears a desperate sounding yes from Angeal, audible even at a distance, and hangs up her phone.
He finds Zack flirting with a Turk in an elevator, Cissnei if Kairi recalls right. The Turk seems exasperated more than anything, but she is what Kairi needs at the moment. "Turk, could you get a helicopter ready?"
Both of them turn as she steps into the elevator. Zack gives a sheepish signature grin, as if he hadn't been caught as a shameless flirt. Cissnei just gives her an appraising stare. "Why? Is there a mission you need to be flown out for? I haven't been dinged with approval for one."
Kairi hesitates for a moment. "Zack needs it."
He blinks. "I do?"
She licks her lips. "Genesis called, just said Angeal's mother tried to kill herself, he needs you there as support, ASAP."
Zack recoils, jaw dropping. "She what?! Oh shit, oh man, poor 'Geal. Damn."
He turns and gives Cissnei his best puppy-dog eyes. "Pleaaaase Ciss?"
The woman has a slight frown on her face, sounding out, "Gillian Hewely attempted suicide?"
The Turk knows the man's mother's name off the top of her head? That rings alarm bells. "Yes."
Cissnei eyes go distant for a moment, thinking. She speaks slowly. "I will need to get quick approval from my boss. I don't know the specifics of it, but I am certain he needs to be appraised."
Kairi's not sure its a good idea for the Turks to find out the trio had gone snooping, but... it is what it is. To late to take it back.
She watches the helicopter lift off twenty minute later, Veld Verdot himself standing next to her watching it go.
"The company could offer a... approved therapist for Mrs. Hewely," he muses.
"Perhaps, but you do know there's only one reason she would have tried to kill herself," Kairi poses, as if she didn't have insider knowledge of what the trio had gone poking for.
"Most likely," he gives as a non-answer, side-eying her.
"You had to know they'd try seeking answers eventually," she says, non-committal, "For what little I know, we do know I wasn't enhanced normally, and neither were they."
Veld sighs.
"What are you going to do about it?" she asks.
"That is up to the President, and to Hojo," said Veld, "IF they ask, its likely he will offer an overview of the... project that led to their birth as placation. Its purpose without going into details they don't have the clearance for."
"What you will advise them to offer you mean," she muses out loud.
He huffs. "You're getting used to how we operate."
"Well, it was bound to happen eventually after you plucked me off the streets and threw me into a cage in Hojo's labs to be experimented on," she answers flatly.
He doesn't answer.
She turns and walks away.
Kairi grabs Hojo by the throat and pins him to the wall, oh so enjoying having him there at her mercy. "Listen here you psychopathic freak."
Shelke lays on the examination table, ready to be enhanced after the graduation from the Cadet Program, her head is turned, watching them, wide-eyed.
"If she ever disappears," snarls Kairi, "I will gut you no questions asked. She will NEVER be allowed alone with you, I don't care what the Board of Directors says. One of her sisters, or myself, will always be with her. She's already told us about the first few 'testing sessions' you had with her about her ability, and if you ever do anything like that again to her in our presence, you will die. Am I clear? AM I FUCKING CLEAR?!"
He wrinkles his nose in annoyance. "You've made yourself vocal, Specimen K."
Kairi drops him, scowling. "Then get it done, the sooner she is away from you and with her new family, the better."
Hojo fixes his glasses before moving to obey, going to grab a vial of the enhancement solution.
"F-family?" squeaks out Shelke.
Kairi moves to stand behind Shelke, running a gentle hand through her short red hair. "Yes, family. All of the other girls will be your sisters, and me your new Mother. We will protect and cherish you. We wont let anyone hurt you ever again."
Shelke swallows, looking so very scared, and whimpers out, "I want Shalua."
"Who is Shalua?" asks Kairi quietly.
"M-my s-sister," she whispers.
Kairi frowns thoughtfully. If this Shalua hadn't been brought in alongside an unwilling Shelke, its likely she had been shot and killed if she had been around during the abduction. She is however not going to say that to the poor traumatized child whose just out of being forced to train to be a weapon at so young an age.
"When you've joined the family, you'll be able to show us what she looks like with your mind," offers Kairi, "We'll keep an eye out for her, okay?"
The girls are eyes are wide. "R-really?"
Kairi nods.
"You promise?"
"I promise."
Hojo walks over and injects the serum into Shelke without any particular decor. Kairi scoots the child over as she takes in raspy breaths, shaking as the mako and Kairi's cells spread through her. She holds Shelke close as she joins the family, her daughters, Shelke's new sisters, there mentally for support no matter where there are in the world. They'd been planning this moment for months, ever since they'd first seen the girl.
They welcome her into her new family.
Any fear she feels at the sensation is quickly overwhelmed and carefully brushed from her mind...
Author's Notes:
Next chapter: AVALANCHE + Tifa/Cloud entering the boot camp. We are currently in the early months of the year 2000. Shortly before Genesis would have received his training room incident in the cannon timeline. SOILDER will be butting into the original AVALANCHE crisis for explosive-cadet-targeting reasons outlined next chapter.
O.o
Review Responses:
Dragofist07: 'Corruption of Kairi's character.'
'Glances at Jenova'
Seems about right.
:D
You touch upon a plotline that won't happen for a long while. Jenova's influence will stay even past her potential defeat. How Kairi struggles with it, and maybe or maybe not is influenced by that, and how others react to that, is a major thing.
Garbage Man: First, I'm glad you enjoyed the fanfiction. Second, you're slightly wrong. There is likely... 10 or so chapters to go left in Book One, give or take. AVALANCHE will take a few, followed by a chapter of intermission, and then the Nibelheim Incident which will likely be a few chapters. After that, book one is over. Book two I'm not sure of the exact size, likely similar in length. Book three is where we'd return to the KH universe. So...
Far, far more than 20 chapters until the overall end of this trilogy. :D
Third, this story does not exist in a vacuum. I have many other stories I'm steadily working on. So really, your 'lazy ass douchbage' comments really don't have any weight and are not appreciated when I have continually updated a variety of stories over time. There's no need to get hostile simply because the one you prefer isn't my main story that I work on. If I didn't care about writing my stories, I would drop fanfiction entirely and stop writing. I write for my own enjoyment far more than I do others.
Antex: Oh, Jenova is capable of much more disturbing things, tee hee, and no, Kairi is a bit to skittish to confront Jenova or the trio over what happened.
WanderingStarmaster: Glad to have you along the Calamity of Light train, choo choo!
The Uplanner: Mmm, I don't think Kairi is going to pure Calamity, not like Jenova, or even Tifa in Calamity's Reign. Maybe, we'll see. And the trio would have won if Jenova hadn't ended the fight with Ultima, Sephiroth himself is capable of soloing Kairi-Jenova at this point. Once she gets 1st Class enhancements though... that fight would become a lot more difficult.