The terror General Sephiroth Crescent felt when he came home was beyond words.
He had gone straight back to the village, had only stopped at Lebreau's for a couple of minutes to buy cake for his wife, a tiny make up present, a tiny token of excuse.
But when he reached the beach house it was empty, dark. There were no lights on in the living room. And there were nowhere else.
Claire Farron was gone. And so was her coat. Both of them vanished without trace.
Fumbling for their Jenova connection, the tiny link that made him find her whenever they got seperated, the one that always pointed back to her, that pulled him towards her no matter what, he found that it was gone. Severed.
Shit.
When was the last time he had felt her?
Suddenly he couldn´t remember, suddenly he wasn't sure.
The voices in his head screaming at him in terror, in anticipation, glee and in amused excitement, the silver haired first class had a hard time thinking clear.
It was with horribly shaking fingers that he reached out for their phone, that he dialed Serah's number.
A few minutes later the Villiers pulled up in his driveway in Snow's yellow pickup truck. And so did the remainder of the neighbourhood watch as well as Cloud, who apparently had been with Yuj.
'I thought she was with you!' Serah cried as she jumped out of the car.
'She was supposed to be with you!'
Her yell's sounded accusing, sounded aghast, sounded shrill.
General Sephiroth Crescent only stared at her with big shocked mako eyes.
'Maybe something has happened, maybe the babies are coming...' Cloud suggested from behind her.
'We checked at the hospital.' Serah stated, her voice suddenly empty, devastated.
'She isn't there either.' Snow added somewhat hesitantly.
General Sephiroth Crescent only shook his head.
Of course she wasn´t. Lightning wouldn´t be stupid enough to go to a hospital, would she?
Of course she wouldn't.
Where the fuck was she then?
Why couldn´t he feel her?!
She is dead. One of the voices provided instantly.
She ran away. Another mused.
She left you because she couldn´t put up with your stupid face anymore .The first one snickered.
Enough. A third cut in.
You know exactly where she is. Don´t you?
Sephiroth´s skin prickled.
No. It couldn´t be. He hadn´t been gone that long. Noone and nothing had left the reactor while he´d stood sentry and he hadn´t seen any tracks of movement either. Had someone or something fetched her, there´d be tracks, clues. Something. Anything. Besides, pregnant or not, Lighting wasn´t exactly defenseless either. There would be traces of a fight. There had to be. Unless...
Unless she came willingly.
No that was impossible. She wouldn´t. Would she?!
Concentrating hard on their jenova bond he strained to find her through the link again, felt for her in every crevice of his mind, but to no avail. The woman who had occupied that special part of his brain for so long was gone, was gone for good.
'Maybe she just went out to buy groceries.' Maqui supplied timidly.
Sephiroth pushed him aside with one quick movement of his arm. Stepping closer to the others, Cloud, Yuj, Serah, Snow and Gadhot.
'No. She never left the house. Not in the past few weeks.' he mused, usually strong comanding voice now hollow, empty, weak.
It couldn't be. It just couldn't. And yet...
There was silence for a bit. Then:
'Come on guys. We deploy right now!' Gadhot's voice rang out.
'Cloud, Yuj, you go down the main street. Serah, Snow, check the promenade and the beach, Maqui... We're going to the city square. Make sure to check every nook and cranny. If she's injured she might have taken shelter.'
Suddenly everybody was alert.
'And you, man,' he said looking back at Sephiroth and patting his shoulder. 'You stay here in case she comes back.'
It was a good plan. Was what he would have done back in Shin-Ra had one of his soliders gone missing.
Still, Sephiroth knew it was no use.
Their bond was gone. And it wouldn't if she were still around.
There was only one time this had happened. And there was only one legit explanation.
Claire Crescent was dead. Or as good as.
It was with the others taking off in their designated directions that he slipped back into the woods, readying himself to face his destiny.
It was with his heart racing like crazy and his back wet with sweat, was feeling as thought trapped inside one of his nightmares again, that he finally arrived at the reactor.
It was getting dark already. The sun had almost vanished behind the horizon and there were tiny flecks of stars starting to come out.
General Sephiroth Crescent didn't stop to watch them, did not stop at the treeline either, crossed the designated line of death with one quick determined step. Didn't give it a second thought, really.
It made the voices in his head scream up in anticipation.
He ignored them as best as he could.
Gone were his apprehension, his doubts, his concerns.
Gone and replaced by a numbing fear that made his boody flood with adrenaline, made his muscles fuel with determination.
He had nothing to loose anymore. Only things to gain.
The woman he loved had been taken, was being kept inside, and so where his kids, his whole family, and there was only one way to get them out again. There was only going in, only pushing forward.
He had crossed the area of destruction, had entered throught the tall metal gates and before he even knew it, he found himself at the bottom of a set of stairs in what once would have been the reactor's control room.
It had been easy, almost too easy. There had been no guards, no alarm, no traps.
Nothing that had delayed him coming. Nothing that had slowed him down.
Maybe... Maybe he would get them all out of this alive after all.
It was with newfound resolve that he stepped into the light.
She was there, right there in front of him.
Lightning.
A lifeless body bound to an operation table.
Naked.
Without baby belly. A freshly stitched up openening where their children should have been, the two poor souls in question nowhere to be seen.
It made Sephiroth's heart freeze, made his blood run cold.
She was dead. She had to be. And so were his children...
Murdered. Brutally.
Then why was she stiched up? Why was she bound to that table?
It was only then that he realized her eyelid's flutter, noticed the subtle rise and falling of her chest.
She was breathing, was alive.
And there was their bond, feebly tugging at his insides, weak, but still there.
It was in the blink of a moment that Sephiroth was next to her, working at her bonds, loosening them one by one as fast as he possibly could.
'Sephiroth...'
There it was. Her voice. So soft, so brittle, so infinitely weak. It made him look up instantly, made him surge forwards to cup her burning cheeks.
She was having a temperature. Her face was burning hot. Still she was awake, was conscious, was fine.
'Sephiroth, you need to leave. Now!' the woman in front of him managed somewhat panickingly.
'Shhh.. It's okay... Don't talk. I'll get you out of here.' the man in question assured, muttering soothing nothings as he made to free her arms.
'You're going to be okay. It's fine.'
He could only hope that it was true.
'No. You have to listen to me.' Lightning urged.
'It´s him, H-'
It was with the last few words there dying on her lips that the woman in front of him fell back unconsious, head lulling at her shoulders, eyes fluttering shut again.
It made Sephiroth work her shackles even faster.
There was no time.
He had to get her out of there, back to the woods, back to Bodhum. Maybe the neighbourhood watch had gone over to searching the forests, maybe he would stumble into them somewhere on the way, if he was lucky.
Maybe they could help them if they were being pursued. Maybe they could at least help her escape.
Removing the bonds from Lightning's legs and arms entirely he finally stopped at the numerous IV's he found going into her body, slowly made to look at them.
He was about to remove the first one when suddenly a voice rang out behind him.
'I wouldn't do that if I were you.' the newcomer informed from his place in the shadows.
Sephiroth felt the blood in his veins turn to ice, to acid.
That voice, he knew it all too well.
It haunted his worst of nightmares, haunted all his memories.
'You never know... One of those tubes might be the one keeping her alive.' the familiar voice cackled and Sephiroth found himself up on his feet and facing his foe, ready to rip him to pieces in merely seconds.
Yes. He'd grown weak. It was true. Had grown weak and whiny and slow. Still, he had skill. And he had anger, rage really. The kind pent up for years. Enough to deal with one single old foolish man at the very least.
'You!' the silver haired first class spat, his body shaking with rage, with wrath, with fury.
'What have you done to her?! What have you done to my children?!'
Professor Hojo only giggled. It was a crazy eerie sound. Made the tiny hair on the back of Sephiroth's neck stand on end.
'Oh... Nothing.' the professor offered somewhat nonchalantly, as he stepped into the light.
'Just a few little tests...'
It made the pulse visible at Sephiroth's temples speed up dangerously.
'You! You get her down from there safely this instant and then I´m going to ponder what I´ll do to you!' the silver haired man bellowed, gesturing at Lightning's operation table.
His voice was deadly, manacing, included both a promise and a threat.
The professor only laughed.
'You? Do something to me? HAHAHA preposterous! You cannot hurt me.' he simpered in his sickly high pitched voice.
It made Sephiroth's remaining composure vanish into thin air.
His eyes narrowing into dangeroulsly glowing slits, for the first time in his life Sephiroth felt that he lost cotrol. That he lost control completely.
For the first time in his entire being the human mask he'd been wearing all his life was crumbling alltogether and beneath it the face of the alien killer broke through.
The beast inside him rearing, a feral battle growl escaped his throat and he charged forward, lashed out at the man infront of him.
It was just a moment later that he found his wrist cought in a fist. A surprisingly sturdy fist. One that closed around him like a vice.
It made his mako eyes grow huge in shock and it was before he even knew it that he found himself on the ground a few meters away, his world erupting in pain that started somewhere in his shoulder joint and spread to the entire side of his upper body.
Giving his left arm the order to move to assess the extend of the injury, Sephiroth found it was unable to comply, resulted in a bout of stabbing pain instead.
Great.
For a few seconds Sephiroth couldn't move, couldn't breathe, couldn't think. All he could do was stare up at the man in front of him in surprise, in dawning realisation and in horror.
Hojo had not only just deflected his attack and sent him flying through the air, he had also dislocated his shoulder and had done so easily.
Somehow it was hard to grasp.
A shoulder dislocation was a rather mechanical thing, the upper arm popped out of the shoulder socket. It required mechanical kind of intervention, was nothing he could heal with the help of his jenova cells.
And it was not something he'd be able to pull off alone either.
'Be careful Sephiroth. I have created you. I can destroy you just as easily.' the professor warned him.
The silver haired man cowering on the ground, his useless sword arm dangling at his side, clutching at his shoulder helplessly, it was with a few deliberate steps that professor Hojo aproached.
'My dear boy... You should have killed me when you had the chance.' the professor whispered in his eerie high pitched voice.
'How... How is that even possible...' was all Sephiroth brought out.
Suddenly the rage had left him. Suddenly he was vulnerable, and small and weak. Was the little child he used to be, cowering at the receiving end of Hojo's wrath with shaking useless limbs.
Leaning down towards the trembling form infront him, the man who called himself his father reached out to touch his victim's chest right above it's heart.
It made the silver haired man's eyes widen even further, made his skin erupt in goosebumps.
There. He'd felt it there. The familiar tingle of jenova cells, reaching out for his, craving the reunion.
It almost made him throw up there and then.
Looking up into the professor's strangely colorless eyes he found his pupil's narrow, slitted, catlike, just like his very own.
Hojo had transfected himself with Jenova cells. And more than successfully so.
The realisation of it, it rendered the usually ready witted first class silent, rendered him completely spechless.
He had known the beasts that had roamed the forests had jenova cells, had known for quiet some time now, but this... This easily surpassed his worst of nightmares.
'I worked so hard to stamp it out of you, you know. But there it is. You're biggest weakness.' the professor said, giving his chest a tiny amicable pat.
'Your very human heart.'
It made the silver haired first class swallow.
'How?' Was all that he managed to choke out.
It was the only thing that he could think of.
Shin-Ra had confiscated Jenova's remains after they had discovered what she really was, had stopped all tests all further experiments. They had taken her body away from Hojo and had destroyed it, or so the story went.
Sure. Hojo had managed to secure some samples. Samples he had used on Lightning. He had told him so back when they'd been in Deepground. But this... All those dogsters, all those beasts in the forest not even Cloud or Zack could find a name for, all these things and himself even. Surely Hojo couldn't have had that many samples in his tiny fridge. All those beasts alone, there was no way he could have bred them all from just a few petry dishes, no way he could have generated beasts with jenova cells in such great numbers, it simply wasn't possible, unless of course...
'I have her right here.' the professor disclosed, one of his forboding smiles playing at his narrow lips.
'Do you wish to see her?'
It made Sephiroth's skin prickle, rendered him unable to speak.
She was here.
Right here somewhere.
Jenova.
The calamity that fell from the sky.
The ancient alien lifeform that had come to wipe off the planet entirely two thousand years ago.
His beloved mother.
Come...
Come Closer...
'She had been here all the time. Can you believe it?' Hojo elaborated, taking his silence as a clue to move on.
'Shin-Ra must have brought her here right after they found out about her true origins. I've been looking for her for years, you know, but it was only through you and your little girlfriend that finally I managed to locate her. I really owe you, to be honest.'
Sephiroth gave an astonished gasp.
'You followed us.' he realised with terror, with regret.
'Oh, but of course I did. I cannot let my two most precious experiments run free unchecked, can I?' the professor cackled, the evil smile Sephiroth remembered all too well spreading on his face for real now.
'Oh there is so much catching up we have to do, I'm sure, but I'm afraid we have no time... Maybe later.' he decided as he turned away and over to his workbench where he started pressing a few buttons.
'Now, say hello to your mother.'
There was the hum of electricity and suddenly the main reactor chamber was lit up with an alien red sheen. Sephiroth could see it through the observation glass pane.
There she was, up in the middle, floating in a mako tank.
Jenova.
A lifeless helpless form. Nothing like the powerful alien woman he had encountered in his dreams.
It made Sephiroth's heart ache for her.
A heartless alien killer she might have been. Still. She was still his mother. And his cells reached out for her, reached out for the reunion, more than he had ever felt them do.
Come...
Come closer.
It made the silver haired warrior carefully get back on his feet, made him approach the glass pane of the observation window on slightly whobbly legs.
'Beautiful, isn't she?' Hojo mused, gesturing at the mako tank in the middle of the room and it was only then that Sephiroth noticed the many tiny tubes and cables that sticked out of his creator's arms, his back, his neck, that ran to the other end of the control room and the entire length of the metal walkway right up to his mother's tank and into straight into her physical remains.
It was the craziest thing he had ever seen. Made him shiver, even at the thought of it.
'You are a monster Hojo... What have you done?' Sephiroth found himself saying as realisation began to dawn on him.
It made the bespectacled man giggle.
'Oh... I told you... Just a few experiments, you know... Been applying some of my latest inventions to my own precious body.' the professor said.
Sephiroth couldn't help but cringe.
Hojo had not only undergone jenova cell treatment, he realized. Hojo had somehow hooked himself up to Jenova, had somehow linked himself with her, was probably drawing his strenght from her.
It made him both feel very upset, aghast really, but also a little bit relieved, made his tortured brain start to form some kind of crazy wicked plan.
What would happen if those tubes and cables were removed?
Was it possible that he could sever the link?
Would Hojo return back to his normal weak scientist self?
Sephiroth had no idea. Still, it was his only chance. The only plan he could possibly think of, the best bet that he had.
Pulling out a few tubes, that was something he could pull off with one arm too. Overpowering Hojo in his good old human form, that would be like child's play. Piece of cake as Zack would say.
If only he could distract Hojo long enough to do so...
Stepping up to the professor he watched him working on some samples.
'What are you planning to do here?' he asked him somewhat curiously, staring blankly at the the professor's hands before him.
He had to keep him talking, had to keep him busy and in a good mood. Had to wait for the right moment , for an opportunity.
'The final stage of my experiment.' Hojo disclosed. 'I will merge with Jenova completely.'
It made Sephiorth look up into his face with shocked mako eyes.
'Shin-Ra is no more.' the professor explained. 'I can do whatever I want now. No more people telling me what to do or restricting my research, no more stupid ethnical commissions to put a stop to all my work.'
It made the silver haired first class stare only harder as finally the professor turned to look at him.
'You weren't the only one set free that day Sephiroth. Now finally after all this time, my experiment will be concluded. And you will not stop me.'
'Hojo! That´s madness!' the silver haired man tried to reason.
But it was no use. The professor had already made up his mind.
'No. This is science. It's evolution. It's the next logical step for mankind.' he explained, presenting his prescious speciman with one of his crazy smiles.
'This is dangerous. You won't be able to control it, to control her. Noone can.' Sephiroth tried to argue.
It made Hojo laugh again.
'Yes. It is.' the bespectacled man said. 'That´s why I need more data first.'
'Data?!'
Giving one of his creepy smiles the professor gestured over at the pink haired woman lying on the table, still unconscious.
'Your charming girlfriend. She will help me do it. You can watch if you want.' he said.
'Unless you want to volunteer in her place?'
It made the silver haired man swallow. Hard.
No of course he didn't want to. But what exactly was he left to do?
The professor had them in their power.
Him, his wife, his kids. Fighting him was useless, at least for now, and he was going to start experimenting again. Experimenting on any of them, if he didn't intervene.
'Okay, okay. Whatever it is, I´ll do it. But promise me to leave her out of this.' the silver haired first class offered. looking up at Hojo with calculating cold green eyes.
What else was he supposed to do?
Sure. Volunteering to participate in Hojo's experiments was crazy. Suicidal really. Still. He needed to buy himself more time. Needed options. More options.
Surely he'd survive somehow, he had always managed to survive. He'd taken Hojo's shit for years. Decades actually. Surely he could stomach one more treatment. One more tiny experiment.
He could question Hojo more, could gather more intel.
And what was more important, he needed to get Lightning out of this. And his two kids. If they were still alive that was... He hadn't even found out where Hojo kept them, hadn't seen what he had done to them.
Was there still a chance to get them all out safely?
Sephiroth didn't know. It was what he was trying to find out.
'Let her go and I'll do whatever you want.' he offered, maybe he could negotiate some kind of bargain.
Hojo had always had only eyes for him. He was what he wanted. Him. His precious experiement. His breakthough, his one big achievement. He had let Lightning off the hook before in exchange for his cooperation.
Maybe he was going to do it again.
'Oh...But of course you will. Of that I'm sure.' the professor muttered with a crazy sneer as he made to draw something up into a syringe.
The contents where transparent, didn't look very intimidating, harmless almost. Still, Sephiroth didn't allow himself to be fooled. It could be a strong sedativum of course. Hojo had pulled one of these on him before.
Well. It definitely was not a multivitamin. That much was for sure.
If only he could get himself a mako shot...
'Anyways, it was nice of you to stop by and volunteer. Now please lay down.' the professor announced gesturing at an unoccupied operation table.
For a few seconds the silver haired first class only stared.
Then it happened. It happened suddenly. Before Sephiroth even knew it, there was the weird foreign sensation of someone else reaching out into his mind and suddenly his legs started to move on their own accord, moved him over to the table.
The whole thing taking him by surprise entirely, it was with big shocked mako eyes that he tried to fight against it, made to force his legs to still, tried to make his body fall even, to make it stop from moving towards it's destination.
But it was no use, was futile.
The weird foreign entity in his head was moving him like a marionette. No matter how much he tried to fight it, he was closing in on the table regardless.
It made the silver haired man panick.
'What are you doing to me?!' he yelled at the man over at the workbench.
'Is this one of your new tricks?'
It made the former head of the science department smirk.
'Lay down on that table.'
His body obeyed.
There was nothing he could do.
He had reached the damn thing before he even knew it, had lifted himself up onto it's steely cold surface.
'You will let her go!' Sephiroth yelled at the man in front of him, his mako eyes ablaze with rage, with fury, with fear.
'On your back.' the professor ordered coolly.
There was nothing he could do.
His muscles moving of their own accord he was bringing his legs onto the tabletop, made to stretch them out.
'Promise it.' the silver haired first class urged, fear now leaking into his voice, his tone, his every sillable.
Professor Hojo began to laugh.
It was impossible to overhear the fear now in his precious specimen's voice, the dread, the horror.
It amused the bespectacled man to no end.
'Or what... You will stare me to death?' he laughed. 'Oh my boy... You are not in a position to bargain as you soon will realize... You never were.'
It made Sephiorth's chest constrict with fear, with shock, with terror.
'Please it's me you want, isn't it? Let her go. I'll do everything you want. Everything.'
The words were out before he realised he'd been begging, pleading. Something he had not done in years. At least not in front of Hojo.
Suddenly he didn't care. There were more important things at stake now than his pride, his dignity.
'Of course you will.' the professor said again. 'Now lie back and relax.'
It was then that Sephiroth found his body arch backwards, found his spine spasm and bend to knock him back onto the steely cold surface.
It was the scariest thing he'd ever experienced in his entire life. The scariest thing he'd ever felt.
He was not master of his body anymore. Not even a little bit. All he had still control of where his thoughts, his words, his breath.
The realisation of it, it left him gasping for air, made the blood in his veins run cold.
'No... What... How...' he choked, unable to grasp what was going on, what had been happening with him, to him really.
The panicked look in his eyes made the professor shiver.
Oh, how much he had missed this.
The silver haired first class unable to get up again no matter how much he tried, he watched with devastated mako eyes as the profossor approached with the freshly drawn syringe clutched inside his hand.
Looking up at the shackles that were attached to the table Sephiroth found his heart race.
He knew what was coming, knew what was expected of him next. He had experienced it on oh so many of occassions.
There was no way out of it.
It was with slightly shaking movements that he placed his hands inside those shackles, used the aid of his right one to put the aching left in place.
It was still throbbing like crazy. His shoulder, his back, his arm all the way down to his hand. They were completely useless. Were torture actually.
'You will let them go.' Sephiroth stuttered. 'All of them.'
It was more a prayer than a plea.
Hojo only chuckled, removed the shackles from his hands.
'Don't worry, pet, we will not need these this time.' he said. 'And don't worry about your arm either... we will have that fixed up in no time.'
The needle decending towards him, General Sephiroth Crescent found himself unable to move, unable to push the man in front of him away.
'What the... How... How are you doing it?'
Despite the familiar bonds dangling from the table empty, there was no way for him to withdraw his good arm. His body bound as though by invisible chains, no matter how much he tried and thought, somehow it was impossible to regain control.
The only thing he could still move his eyes, he made to look at the man above him with devastated mako eyes.
It made Hojo only laugh again. That crazy high pitched laugh that haunted all of Sepihroth's childhood memories. Would surely haunt him for the remainder of his short cursed life.
'Control chip.' the professor revealed, pointing at his forhead. 'Fancy isn't it?'
'I implanted one into your motor cortex back on your jolly Deepgorund visit. They can come in pretty handy.' he simpered as some kind of explanation.
'They were actually designed as a killswitch. Shin-Ra technology. You know. To incapacitate the likes of you, should you decide to go rogue.'
'You're bluffing.' Sephiroth muttered, hoping it was true.
'Am I?' the profossor chirped, daring him to find out.
It made Sephiroth swallow.
Pushing against his invisible bonds he found himself still completely motionless, useless, found he hadn't moved an inch.
'It's how I control the monsters too. This and the Jenova cells.' Hojo revealed at an afterthought.
'Genius isn't it?'
It was then that the cruel man leaned forward and the needle pierced his skin.
There was nothing he could do.
His mako eyes shut tightly, bracing himself for the inevitable burst of pain, there was the short prickle of the needle piercing his skin and then. Nothing.
The anticipated torture never came.
It was with deep drawn relieved calming breaths that he looked around, took in his environment.
Professor Hojo was back at his workbench and working at something he couldn't see.
No time seemed to have passed.
Nothing seemed to have happened.
'What...?' he muttered somewhat confusedly.
'Oh don't worry, this was just a little warm up to get yourself prepared, you know.' the professor informed kindly.
'Prepared for what?' Sephiroth wondered.
Professor Hojo only giggled.
The man from his nightmares busy with his workbench, the general knew he had to keep him talking, had to play for time. And he had to gather more information. More information about Hojo's research, more information about his current situation, his condition.
'So these control chips...' he began somewhat carfully. 'Those beasts out there... You are controlling them via those to?'
'Glad you asked.' the professor answered. 'But I'm afraid it's a little bit more complicated than that. Much too complicated for soemone like you to understand, I fear. Let's say I have managed to pair the workings of the control chips with the jenova cells drive for reunion, giving me direct control over my creations with my thoughts alone.'
'You are using the jenova cells to control them?' Sephiroth asked somewhat perplexedly.
'Yes I do. It's funny that you ask. It actually works over a connection not unlike the bond you share with your precious girlfriend. It was infact the two of you who inspired my invention.'
It made the general emit a gasp.
He had thought he'd kept this secret, had thought Hojo had never found out. He had been wrong of course.
Had been wrong from the beginning.
Hojo knew everything about him. Knew him inside out. Knew him better than himself. Was this part of that control chip too?
Somehow he wasn't sure.
'You knew?' was all the silver haired man managed to get out.
If only he could keep Hojo talking...
'Of course I knew... I watched you trying to use your connection to heal her, to mend her pain, her spasms. Heartwarming, wasn't it.'
Sephiroth could only stare.
'Oh come on. You have to see it from my point of view. It would have been crazy not to have a killswitch. Not to have a way to control you. Especially since you'd become so unstable and disobedient. Those were long due updates, honestly.' the professor explained.
'A tiny cut at the side of your head and straight into your cerebral cortex. Didn't take longer than an hour. You didn't even realize.'
His head slightly spinning, mind reeling, it was with bile rising in his stomach that Sephiroth looked over toward Lightning.
'Is that how you got her?' he asked somewhat defeatedly.
'Does she have one too? Did you make her come?'
Professor Hojo only shook his head. Looked at him secretively.
'No.' he disclosed. 'This one came willingly.'
It made Sephiroth furrow his silver brow.
That last sentence of his, it had been disturbing, had been unsettling. Still it carried hope.
Why the fuck would Lightning have come of her own accord? None of it made sense.
Still, he had gathered vital information there. Information that would come in useful.
Lightning had not been subject to that treatment, had no control chip as Hojo called it.
She still had her freewill! It was more than Sephiroth had dared to hope.
If she still had control of her body there still was a chance. A chance for her to escape. With their two children. If they were still alive that was.
His eyes darting around the room, eagerly observing all the details, willing something useful to come up, Sephiroth's eyes finally fell on a set of ampullae containing a slurry soft green glowing liquid.
Could those contain mako shots?
Suddenly he wasn't sure.
Still. He found his pulse speed up, felt his senses sharpen, felt his pupils dilate even at the thought of it.
Professor Hojo caught on instantly.
'Still craving for my mako are you?' he noted as he rolled over with his office chair and set a collecion of assorted needles, tubes and vials on the table next to him.
It was true of course.
Sephiroth was craving the mako. Was craving it with every fiber of his being. Was craving the surge of energy, of power, the increase of his stamina, the sharpening of his senses, the sickening feeling of relief as the mako burned through his veins, his body, the unbearable pain of the poison forced into his flesh even.
'No.' he answered calmy. Or rather as calmly as he could.
Professor Hojo was not to be fooled though.
'Liar.' he stated knowingly.
'You've been running low for months. You'd probably kill for one of these right now.'
The professor cackled.
'Don't worry. You will not need them anymore. I cannot afford my most priced creation to struggle with such petty weekness.'
Sephiroth pricked his ears at that.
Had he really heard correctly?
Could Hojo really free him? Free him of his mako addiction for good?
It sounded too good to be true.
'Degenerative cell treatment.' the professor disclosed, reaching out for one of the transfusion bags he had brought and holding it up for his patient to see.
'You will not need a mako shot to be strong.'
It made Sepiroth's heart beat faster. Could it really be that something good came out of that? Would Hojo really make him strong again? Stronger maybe than before? Could he really be such a fool? Could he really be so stupid?
'You are my most precious creation Sephiroth. I cannot let you be controlled by such pitty things as mako addictions.' the professor reasoned. 'Or any other weaknesses that is...'
Looking up into the professor's face, Sephiroth found Hojo gesuring at Lightning.
It made the silver haired man's skin erupt in goosebumps.
What was it that the professor had in mind? What was he insinuating?
'Well... This was actually meant for her.' the mad scientist cackled. 'But never mind.'
And it was only a moment later that Hojo was over him, long dark greasy strands of hair falling down into his face.
Sephiroth didn't see the madman's face when he felt the first needle rammed into his neck, almost didn't feel the second and the third.
The jab Hojo had given him knocked im out cold before he even knew it.
It was defnitely more than he deserved. At least that was what professor Hojo thought.
Looking down at the pittyful unconscious being right in front of him, he couldn't help but feel regret.
Ohw how much he would have enjoyed to see him scream, to see him trashing and writhing in those good old shackles again. To see the terror in those sparkling mako eyes.
Oh yes he would have revelled in it, would have feasted on it really. Had been looking forward to it for years now.
But sadly there was no time.
More important things lay before him.
Greater things.
Much more glorious things indeed.
Come...
Come to me...
Yes, there was no time to loose.
His purpose was calling, his fate, his destiny. And he couldn't get himself sidetracked by some petty mortal enjoyments.
No. Impossible. Preposterous.
There were more important things than that.
He still had some tests to run after all, still had some work to do.
It was with newfound vigor that he made to draw some blood samples.
Oh his precious little specimen. How much he had missed him. How useful he would be again.
The silver haired first class, he had always been his most favourite plaything, his one successful experiemnt, his greatest scientific achievement, his perfect little killer machine... Gone rogue.
Well it didn't matter really. Not anymore.
Soon he would stand beside him again. As firm and obedient as ever. His little faithful super warrior.
This time he'd make no mistakes. This time he would succeed for real.
Let me see him...
Busy measuring liquids and mixing up concoctions, professor Hojo looked up through the observation glass pane and to the raised platform in the middle of the main reactor chamber.
Bring him here...
The alien voice inside his head commanded.
And come...
Come closer...
It made the bespectacled gaunt man speed up.
'Don't worry Mother.' he whispered as if to himself.
'We're coming soon.'
'AHAHHAHHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!'