A/N: I will get back to One Good Thing soon if anyone's still waiting for an update, but I just had a fun little plot bunny idea and wanted to get it down. This will be a series, sort of a character study of the different aspects of Hojo's character.
Shinra HQ was an empty wreck since the mess with Deepground, but it was the whole debacle that made Reeve think it was really the responsibility of the WRO to make sure there were no more skeletons in the closet that were liable to leap out and put his friends in danger.
He'd lost more than enough of his men during their operation to shut the previously unknown group of SOLDIERs down, after all, and they'd come close to losing Vincent twice, which had been an unpleasant reminder of the last time they had lost a member of AVALANCHE.
So he ordered his men – search the building floor by floor, recover any documents and then we're raising it to the ground. He got the OK from Cloud, Tifa and Vincent that they were fine with Reeve issuing the same order about Shinra manor, and since the fake townsfolk Shinra had put in Nibelheim were long gone after the Deepground attacks, there was no one else to consult with.
On the upside, it gave Reeve a chance to wipe two buildings that had been home to way too many of Shinra's atrocities off the map for good.
On the downside, it meant a ton of paperwork to get through, much of it just boring administrative stuff that had never been touched since Shinra went under.
Except for the tapes. They'd been found on one of the higher floors of Shinra HQ and delivered straight to Reeve with the cautious note of May contain sensitive information pertinent to AVALANCHE, and so he was listening through them as he shifted through more pages in his office in edge.
When he managed to dig out a cassette player and set the first tape to play, he nearly dropped his mug of coffee.
"At long last, I have reclaimed the subject, and discovered that she also has a child!"
Reeve hit pause, reeling from the revelation. That was Hojo's voice. These were his tapes.
A distant memory came back to him: of walking into Hojo's lab, seeing the man ranting to himself and backing right out of the room again.
So he hadn't just been ranting; he'd been recording. Given how much the scientist valued his own intellect above other's, that shouldn't surprise him. But what made Reeve's heart sink a little were the number of tapes in the box. Could they really all belong to the Professor?
He hit play again.
"The little girl looks unremarkable at first glance – skinny, still possessing that puppy fat appropriate for someone her age in the face, likes wearing dresses and her hair long.
But there are signs she shares her mother's abilities. First, those green eyes that appear so normal on first glance but are so unique that I've never seen their like anywhere else, except, of course, for the mother.
And she draws. Left to her own devices I believe she cannot help but point us towards the Promised Land."
Reeve's throat went dry and the details clicked into place. Hojo was talking about Aerith.
No wonder his staff had marked this tape for his attention.
He set it going again, praying he wouldn't be trampling his late friend's privacy by continuing to listen. As much as he'd rather keep the details secret and just destroy the tapes, he felt a strong need to make sure the world knew, even if in the vaguest of outlines, the sheer breadth of the damage Shinra had done to everyone's lives.
"That damn woman escaped with her child! And now I've lost access to both my Ancient and my Ancient-hybrid test subjects. The President is furious and I cannot say I blame him. If I find any of my own staff aided her escape, heads will roll.
It's so hard to find good scientists nowadays, ones who understand that you should be willing to do anything in pursuit of a great discovery.
And the Promised Land would be exactly that. Like JENOVA was, it's a discovery to redefine the shape of history. And I'll get my name on it too, if it's the last great achievement I make in this life!"
The tape whirred on, Reeve sighing as he remembered all those damn boardroom meetings where he'd had to put up with Hojo's unnerving presence the next chair over.
"The Turks are keeping an eye on the specimen for now, but she's in a less than ideal living situation. The slums, so they tell me, underneath Midgar's plate.
She's healthy enough for a slum-dweller, but it bemuses me. I've impressed on the Turks that they should promise her whatever riches she wishes if only she would co-operate with Shinra, but they insist that she will not come and it will not work if she is forced along.
I rather suspect they never told her of my proposal and are content to merely guard her until the time is right. In fact I think they might be getting a little too fond of their charge. I need her in pristine condition, of course, but I fail to see why Shinra keeps hiring guard dogs that are far too prone to sentiment! Pragmatism in battle ought to extend everywhere else, frankly."
The tape clicked and whirred on.
"One of the Turks has finally delivered the specimen back to me! What a good day this is. But Planet...Aerith has truly become her mother in these long years. Ifalna is everywhere in her – her features, her eyes, her dignity.
I reacquainted myself with her earlier and she kept an excellent composure, even as I told her of her mother's fate."
Reeve grit his teeth. He should have done more to help back then. If it hadn't been for Elmyra and Ifalna's efforts, Aerith would have been robbed of her childhood entirely.
"She is an imperfect specimen compared to her mother, no doubts about that. But she is the last. And I know she hears them, and she will guide us to the Promised Land just as we hoped.
And if not in her lifetime, I proposed to President Shinra that we breed her with the most elite of our SOLDIERS. It will dilute the Ancient blood further, but there are no other options. At least the SOLDIERS will be better partners than the one Ifalna picked…"
A strange, bitter pause as Reeve remembered that awful boardroom meeting when he'd heard Hojo's intentions for Aerith. Between that conversation and the stress from the plate falling, he'd never felt so sick with the company in his life. If it hadn't been for his wish to protect Midgar and her people, he would have walked out then and there.
"But Palmer's reaction disturbs me. The fat bastard is far too enthused about my proposal for the Ancient. Frankly, it disgusts me. If a specimen is to be subject to something it is out of necessity, not cruelty. And she is far too valuable a specimen to subject to serious harm unless circumstances demand it."
Reeve clicked off the tape with an annoyed sigh. People often called Hojo a contradiction of a person and now it seemed was no exception. So he didn't want to think of forcefully breeding Aerith as subjecting her to harm, but he also judged Palmer for recognising and embracing the cruelty of it?
Almost to the end of this tape, thank the Planet.
"The girl's friends came and escaped with her. I demanded all the resources in the world to get her back, but once again Shinra fails me. Reports suggest she is no longer in the city.
Time will tell if the new President Rufus ousts me for this.
Even if he does, it doesn't matter. I just have to follow the trail of the Promised Land – and of the Reunion – and I'll get my answers."
A click has Hojo stopped and started the tape again. When he resumed talking, he sounded almost...subdued.
"Reports suggest it was the case, but it has now been confirmed: the last Ancient, Aerith, is dead. I believe my so- Sephiroth was the one to kill her.
I see now that JENOVA and the Ancients have been on a centuries long collision course, and my studies brought the two entities closer than ever before.
I admire the Ancients as some of the finest creatures to have ever walked the Planet. Excellent command of magic and materia. And if pictures of the girl's home are to be believed, their mere existence in a place has a rejuvenating effect on the world around them. A collection of flowers like that grows and thrives nowhere else in Midgar, that can be said for certain.
But they are ultimately short-sighted stewards compared to the real power on this Planet now: JENOVA herself. Sephiroth is the proof of that, and I couldn't be prouder.
Without the Ancients, this Planet is surely doomed. For today only, I will pay my respects to her and to the race who protected her.
And for the last of them, well, even I can see she was well-loved. It isn't every day someone breaks into my lab demanding the release of a specimen.
...I can count on one hand the times that's happened."
And then it ran to silence. Reeve wiped the wetness from his eyes; Planet help him, he could be a soft touch sometimes but hearing about Aerith like that from Hojo of all people had poked the edge of a wound he expected would never truly heal.
He grabbed a marker off his desk and wrote AERITH #1 on the side of the tape box, then turned to the others yet to be listened to.
It was grim, and he knew it was going to be a long evening, but he resolved to listen to every damn tape in the box.
There may be victims of Hojo who deserved reparations still to be discovered, but more than that he wanted to be sure he found every last tape pertaining to AVALANCHE and ensured their suffering at the mad doctor's hands was kept far, far away from the public eye. He owed it to each and every one of them for each day he didn't put a bullet in Hojo's head when he'd had the chance.
And given that Hojo had hurt so many people in his group of friends, he knew he was in for a rough ride.
But he rested Aerith's tape to one side, put the next into the slot, and pressed PLAY.