Sweat dripped down Cloud's back, making his turtleneck stick to his skin and the metal under him. Chills wracked his body as blood dripped from his fingers and toes. Broken, red nails lay scattered on the floor around him, the nailbeds empty of their occupants. His breaths came in shallow inhales, heavy exhales as he slowly lost feeling in his hands and feet. It hurt, a lot.
But he could handle worse. Had handled worse. His nails would grow back in a relatively short span of time because of his boosted healing rate. He was glad that it wasn't one of the others that were captured. They were too soft. Not even Barret with all his muscle and snark could resist breaking under Hojo. Just target his daughter and he would be like clay for the scientist to shape. They all had weaknesses.
Cloud was better than them. He was prepared for this. He was a SOLDIER.
Then, a familiar little voice in the back of his head said, why are you worried for them? Aren't they your weakness?
"Shut up," Cloud wheezed, fingers digging into the table, smearing the blood on the metal further.
"What was that, lab rat?" Hojo asked, cleaning his hands off with a off-white cloth. It came away red.
Cloud dropped his chin to his chest, muttering something under his breath.
"Do speak up, my ears aren't as young as they used to be. Mumbling will not be tolerated."
Cloud sent a glare without lifting his head. "Go burn in a ditch."
Hojo frowned, adjusting his glasses as he walked over to where Cloud lay, looking down at the blonde before, maintaining eye contact, planting his foot heavily on Cloud's injured toes. He ground the heel of the boot into the flesh and Cloud stifled a scream.
"I do appreciate you clearly articulating your words, but that was rude," Hojo said.
"That...was the point..."
Hojo clicked his tongue, digging a pair of earplugs out of a pocket and putting them on. "Fine then. Let's continue." He strode over to his trusty cart filled with tools before picking up a simple white remote. Was he going to put on some TV for Cloud or something? The mercenary scoffed.
And then it started.
And it was loud.
Music, different than anything Cloud had ever heard, blasted through the room. High-pitched screeches mixed with inconsistent drumming and banging left him cringing. Penetrating his skull, it took him multiple moments to get used to the volume, but he already wanted the silence back.
Hojo was in front of him without warning. Water sloshed out of a pitcher he waved in one hand, a cloth flicking in the other. A grin too joyful for this situation was plastered on his face. He said something, mouth moving, but all Cloud could hear were the invasive noises coming from the speakers around the lab. He didn't need to know what the scientist said, however, he was well acquainted in seeing the suffering those two simple objects could inflict. Dread was a heavy rock in his stomach.
Hojo pressed a button on the floor on the side of the operating table and with a swift movement, it was angled so Cloud's head was tilted towards the floor, his feet slightly elevated. Hojo made his way to the side of Cloud's face, draping the cloth over the sharp eyes and bared teeth directed at him, holding it in place with his hand over Cloud's forehead. He couldn't have the boy squirming his way out of this one.
And squirm Cloud did. Despite having already gone through this...sometime before, he was not keen on repeating the experience. He sucked in deep breaths through his nose and pressed his mouth into a tight line. Never before had water seemed so frightening to him. The bright lights were dimmed through the thick, white cloth, but nothing muffled the constantly changing hellish soundtrack to it all.
His ears were ringing and he was in the middle of a breath when the first splash of cold water took him by surprise. Spluttering as it went down his nose, he struggled to regain control of his breathing. His arms strained to get him up right again, being obstructed yet again. His nostrils burned as he forcefully exhaled the liquid out. More headed down to replace it, however. He thrashed his head back and forth, trying to dislodge the cloth, static steadily growing at the back of his skull.
Nononono...not now!
He couldn't deal with his headaches, hallucinations, visions, whatever, he couldn't deal with them right now. But he couldn't breathe and holding off the static was getting harder and harder. His nose had been filled, and Cloud tried not to inhale. His lungs and nose burned from the water and lack of oxygen. Instinct caused him to open his mouth and his brain screamed for it to close again. At first the water was refreshing, the cold liquid a pleasant haven for his parched mouth. And then it became steadily harder and harder to swallow and push out of his mouth, choking on every mouthful.
And then he was upright, the cloth falling into his lap, water soaking his clothes as he coughed it up. Tears formed in the corner of his eyes, mixing with the water rolling down his cheeks as he wheezed. His heartbeat almost drowned out the deafening music. His bloody, empty nailbeds pressed painfully into the operation table, leaving pretty red streaks. The whole ordeal felt like hours, but was most likely only a handful of minutes, no more than 4 and yet Cloud would rather fight 100 of Shinra's finest SOLDIERs and troopers than go through that again.
But if Hojo thought that that was enough to break him, he was sorely mistaken.
The mad scientist in question grabbed the remote to the speakers and Cloud muscles tightened in anticipation for the music to increase in volume. But with the press of a button, the sound was gone and the silence left his ears ringing. It was almost worse than the noise itself and his headache from what felt like so long ago returned with a vengeance.
Cloud wanted to curse out Hojo, but he didn't trust his voice, still coughing, so he sent a watery glare Hojo's way.
It seemed like all he was good for was glaring...
He couldn't protect himself, and because he wasn't there Avalanche got caught up in the Sector 7 plate crash...and Jessie...
He shook his head, biting harshly down on his tongue. Not the time. He had to stay strong.
Hojo pulled his earplugs out of his ears. "Now, what's going on in that intriguing little mind of yours, lab rat?"
"None of your—" cough "—fucking business—" cough "—asshole." Screw being silent, screw trusting his voice, Cloud couldn't help but try and knock Hojo down a peg.
The scientist sighed heavily, setting the remote and the empty water pitcher down and crossing his arms. "I'll have to reteach you obedience. Weren't you ever taught to respect your elders?"
"I'll respect you when you earn it." His voice was still disgustingly hoarse, but at least he wasn't coughing anymore.
"When I'm done with you, you'll regret those words, boy."
"Is that a threat?"
"It's a promise. I've been going easy on you. Figured your...prior training would've been an easy building block. However, seems I miscalculated your stubbornness."
"Damn right," Cloud spat. "Nothing you can do will make me into your dog."
"We'll see..." Hojo mused, grabbing another full pitcher from behind the cart.
Cloud's eyes widened before narrowing again. They weren't done with that yet? This old man was trying to kill him!
"You won't drown," Hojo said. "I know what I'm doing."
"Don't blame me for not believing you."
Hojo frowned. "Just for that, we're going longer this time. No music, though, unfortunately. I want to hear your struggling~."
"Sadist—"
Hojo sent him backwards again to the previous angle, slapping the cloth back on his face and holding it in place over his eyes far more firmly than the last time. He was rather quite sick of the boy mouthing off. At first it had some charm, but now it was just a hassle and it gave him a headache. A shiver crawled up his spine as he thought of the end result of his current experiment and he grinned. Sure, Cloud wasn't as perfect as Aerith and her mother on that molecular level, but with a little effort Hojo was certain that Cloud would be a project he was proud of.
Hojo started pouring the water for the second time, switching up his speed randomly. Cloud tried resisting yet again, his chest stilling as he cut off his breathing, but not even his SOLDIER enhancements could let him hold his breath for any extensive amount of time, especially after their previous session. A sick sense of glee raced through Hojo as he watched his experiment writhe and choke, aggravating the scabs on his fingers and toes. This was much better than that horrid "music".
A part of the scientist wanted to know how Cloud would react to real drowning, whether dry or not. Wanted to know what shade his face would turn, how long it'd take, the struggle...but unfortunately that would not be able to occur. Hojo still needed the boy. But that didn't mean he couldn't have his fun~. He tipped the rest of the pitcher's contents onto the cloth, getting a wet gurgle in reply as Cloud tried to breath.
He just needed to break Cloud's will...and maybe a few bones too.
And to Cloud, that point of breaking seemed to be getting closer and closer. Once again he found himself upright, coughing up water, everything burning, everything aching. On one particularly hard cough, bile rose in his throat and unable to keep it down, he leaned as far as he could to the side and threw up. The stench made him gag more, but nothing came up. How long had it been since he had eaten something? It scared him when he found he couldn't remember.
Hojo sidestepped the puddle of bile on the ground, barely giving it a glance as he headed back toward the cart, setting down his tools and of course, grabbing new ones.
Cloud wanted to punt that cart across the room and destroy it with his bare hands. It held everything that was hurting him. He wanted to see both it and Hojo burn. Maybe he could do it himself.
"I'm surprised," Hojo began, busying himself with something Cloud couldn't see. "It's been quite a few hours since we started and normally people either break or die by now. You're a strong one for sure~."
Cloud's brow furrowed. What was the point of this small talk?
Hojo kept on. "What's your favorite hobby, Cloud? A young man such as you must have loads of interests."
When the scientist didn't move on to the next subject, it was apparent that Cloud would have to answer. And answer he did, albeit reluctantly. "Sword fighting...why?" There wasn't anything else for him to do. And his memory was worryingly blank in the chunk between enrolling in SOLDIER and becoming a mercenary.
"You're not allowed to ask questions, but I'll let this time pass. But I was considering to let you train some more under me. Just think of how much you'll be able to learn with my high-tech simulations available to you. Doesn't that sound nice?"
It...did. That day just felt like it was going on forever; Cloud could use a good risk-free fight against some code. And of course his friends. Cloud hated how his brain had stayed more on the training than the others. Avalanche was the whole reason for him staying strong. His whole reason for trying to get himself together. His whole reason for living as well, most likely. Thinking about it, without them he'd probably be wandering around mindlessly through the sectors killing off wererats, miserable and a husk of himself. He couldn't give up on them now. He needed to protect them.
A sharp and sudden shock jolted Cloud out of his thoughts and he let out a swear as his eyes trailed over to the cause.
Hojo held in one hand a bundle of wires and suction cup like things, in the other, yet another simple, unassuming, white remote. One of his eyebrows was raised high on his forehead, mouth drawn into a frown. "I asked you a question, boy."
Cloud glared. "No, it doesn't. Happy now?"
Hojo shook his head sadly. "Let us see if your mind changes with our next test." He switched the remote to the hand with the wires and withdrew a pair of gleaming scissors from his lab coat pocket. He started cutting Cloud's shirt right down the middle.
"Hey!" Cloud protested.
Hojo let the scissors slide against his chest on the next cut, the sharp blade immediately slicing the skin open. "Enough talking."
The blonde winced, but shut his mouth, squirming only a little as Hojo finished cutting his shirt and pulled it from behind his back.
"There, now we can begin," the scientist said and he pressed the suction cups firmly around Cloud's chest, even over the shallow cut he made with the scissors.
"What is this?" Cloud asked. He at least wanted to be able to prepare himself.
Hojo had finished his preparations and took a step back, still holding the remote. "Oh you know...just a little bit of a surprise. It may shock you~."
He pressed the button on the remote.
Cloud was not prepared.
He immediately got the pun, but even if he had found it funny, the electricity coursing through his body kept him from moving even the slightest bit. Breathing was hard. His lungs felt like they were about to explode. At least with the waterboarding, he'd been able to move, to writhe, but with the electricity...it was as if all the nerves in his body got fried at once. Several short gasps entered his throat. He wanted to scream. He needed to scream. But what came out was barely a whimper. His whole body was twitching so fast he could barely keep track of all the movements. Dark spots danced across his vision.
"Well," he heard Hojo's distant voice say. It sounded distorted and so so quiet. "I need to pay a visit to some of our dear guests. They're trying to take you, and you need to be here with me to get stronger after all...so I cannot allow them."
That made sense...all this was was strength training.
Static flowed through Cloud's body once more, ebbing and flowing like a furious storm. There was a memory right there, he could almost reach it, could almost recall it, but the harder he tried, the more it slipped through his fingers. He got glimpses of raven hair and thick, green liquid before his thought process cut out and the memory was gone. The air around him was cold, unpleasantly contrasting the burning lightning in his veins.
Hojo had left.
The music was back.
—
Barret and Red had just entered the doors of the 2nd ward as Tifa and Aerith did their own thing. Barret had noticed that the girls had gotten closer during their short time knowing each other and he was happy to give them some time to themselves while he got to know their new teammate better.
"So, Red," Barret began, halting his steps in a large room that was littered with corpses, both alive and robotic.
"Mm?"
"How long've you been stuck with that asshole Hojo?"
Red's tail flicked behind him and he sat. "Who can say? It's been awhile, that's all I know. Being with Hojo...it tends to blend all concept of time."
"Tch. I feel bad for anyone who gotta put up with his bull."
"He really is something else, and not in a good way. He's always looking for new subjects, new information, new ways to get what he wants. And he gets it. Seems this time, what he wanted was Cloud..." Red looked down solemnly at the ground. He didn't know the man for very long, not even a day, but he saw echoes of himself within him. Their bond was shallow, but no matter the case, Red couldn't let somebody else go through what he had if he could stop it. He could only hope the damage Cloud had experience hadn't broken him yet...
"Bastard'll pay for this," Barret seethed. "Do you got any ideas to where he took Cloud? Never imagined I'd miss his stupid face..."
"Hojo probably has him stowed away in a lab somewhere. Somewhere discrete. Soundproof."
Barret almost snorted at the thought of Cloud, one of the quietest people he knew, making enough noise to warrant a soundproof room. But then he realized why...the idea made him sick thinking about what Hojo must be doing to him. It fueled him to get Cloud back as quick as he could. That kid needed one of his biggest hugs after this was all over. They all did.
Barret tinkered with his gun arm, making sure it was ready for any upcoming fights. "Only one way to find out, and if that creep don't wanna talk...well, he will after I'm done with his ass."
Red hummed in agreement. "Come on. Let's keep going."
They headed further in, out the door, through a large hallway, and into yet another large room. As soon as they entered, the metal door at the end of the room closed on its own. "Commencing test," a woman's voice came booming out of the speakers. "All personnel must evacuate area." The shadows in the corners and at the far edges shifted, moving far too much for just a trick of the light. Barret and Red were instantly on guard, eyes glued to the shadows.
"Commencing test."
The shadows pounced.
What emerged was a pair of four-legged monsters with red spikes protruding from their spines, curved limbs, claws, and a matted red mane. Their completely sickly off-white eyes seemed to be trained on everything and nothing simultaneously and their naked tails swirled and curled like snakes attached to their bodies.
As disgusting as they looked, they were far from the toughest thing Barret and Red had faced. They took the monsters down with relative ease, their corpses being riddled with bullets and bite wounds on the floor.
They were just about to head towards the less sealed looking door on the side of the room when Hojo's voice, yet again from the speakers, rang out.
"I hope you're enjoying your experience," he said.
Barret's head snapped towards the front of the room. There, in his safe little box of see-through barrier at the top of the far wall, was Hojo. Just the sight of that man filled Barret with rage. "Why don'tcha come down here and ask me?" He fired multiple shots in quick succession, aimed right at Hojo's face, but the barrier absorbed them all.
"Before you get any ideas, you should know this glass is bulletproof."
Of course it was. Barret gritted his teeth.
"No discernable changes after contact," Hojo pondered. "Most fascinating. Hmm..."
"Shut up with your sciencey BS; where's Cloud?!"
Instead of replying, Hojo calmly walked away, hands in his lab coat pockets.
"Hey! We ain't done yet!"
But Hojo just kept walking.
"It seems we have no choice," Red said. And they headed through the open door and through another hallway and into another room. The same message played as an identical door closed. Hojo sat above it in another box, watching.
The only thing that was different was the monster they had to fight. This time it was another M.O.T.H. Unit like the one they had to fight back at the start of their Drum adventures. This fight was a bit harder than the last one, Barret getting a nasty cut on his chest that Red had to heal, but with awhile of playing it safe and long range, the robot was out of commission.
"How'd ya like watchin' your precious toys get torn to shreds?" Barret yelled up to Hojo. He had hoped to get at least a little irritation from the scientist, but to his dismay, Hojo didn't look one bit bothered over it.
"I never grow tired of watching my toys be broken, no matter how many times I've seen it happen. Such is the case when you truly enjoy your work."
Red's face contorted into a grimace. He knew firsthand that Hojo's toys weren't just his robots and monsters, but SOLDIERs, civilians, anyone he could get his hands on. He had no doubt that that was his mindset dealing with Cloud as well. A small bundle of rage was building in Red's stomach, as bright as the flame on his tail. Hojo thought of himself as above everyone else...he needed to be knocked down from his pedestal.
"Now, for the next step..." Hojo walked out of view once again and Barret and Red followed wordlessly through an identical path as they had gone through prior.
They entered yet another room. But instead of any visible enemies, there were only thick, metal rings surrounding holes in the ground, wires traveling between them. But they were ignored in favor of Hojo, yet again behind his little barrier. But this time he was distracted. The door at the far end of the room was still wide open.
"Look!" Barret pointed towards the man in question. "Now's our chance to kill the bastard! Time for you to pay the piper!" Immediately, he started firing at the barrier, the sound of the bullets smacking against it snapping Hojo out of his thoughts.
Hojo sighed and shook his head, hands up in a careless shrug. "They never learn."
That was when Red saw his opportunity. Hojo had started closing the door, the robotic voice flitting through the speakers, but his main focus was on Barret still firing away. Red bolted towards the door, heart thudding in his chest as the door slipped lower and lower. He thought he wouldn't make it, and then a piece of rubble lodged itself nicely into the crack between the door and the floor, stopping its decent. Must've been Barret. Red would make it a point to thank the man later. He slid through the opening and launched himself up the walls and into the area that Hojo was in.
A growl rumbled deep in Red's chest, teeth bared, tail snapping harshly behind him. He was ready to tear Hojo's throat out. His back legs sprung him forward at Hojo's face and he fully expected to sink his claws into wrinkly flesh, but instead his whole body froze inches away from his target. His limbs twitched with tiny shocks as he stayed airborne and his jaw was unable to shut from how it had been prepared to bite. A round robot appeared over Hojo's shoulder. It obviously being the one causing Red's frozen suspension. No, he was so close! He had been waiting for this moment for years! Only to be stopped now? Argh!
"Be a good boy and keep the other pets company," Hojo said, smirking. He gave Red's nose a quick condescending poke before walking away down the corridor ahead. The robot stayed.
Below him, he heard Barret curse and the sound of metal sliding against metal and then gunshots and electricity. A fight. Unseen to Red, a bunch of metal worm-like creatures had popped from the holes in the ground.
Red hoped that Barret would hurry. The small shocks of his confinement were making his limbs go numb. This was nothing compared to his punishments when he misbehaved in the beginning, but he wished to be out of there already.
Luckily, the fight was over rather quickly and Barret hurried up to where Red was, shooting at the robot and making it flee in the same direction as its master. Red dropped to the ground. "Sorry, Hojo got away."
"Don't let it eat ya, man, we'll get him soon."
They had to.