It was dark and cold when Claire Crescent woke up next.
Fuck. She had to have been out again...
The wound on her belly pulsed and so did the area around it.
Concentrating hard on using her jenova cells to close the wound completely, she found herself incapable as usual.
Shit, if only she'd have practised more...
It was only a moment later that she realised where the wound had come from, that her baby belly had gone and so had her kids, that it was the spot where professor Hojo had cut her unborn children out of her unconscious body that was causing her that pain. It took a few seconds more for the memories of the past day flooding in, of realisation hitting her for real.
She was in an abandoned mako reactor somewhere in the woods. She had encountered professor Hojo who had transfected himself with Jenova cells. He had knocked her out, bound her to a table, had taken her kids and had left with some crazy words about a war and world domintations plans. And he was planning to use her children. Use them to create an army of super soliers he had said.
It made her snap up into a sitting position and look around the room, pain in her abdomen forgotten.
She was not bound anymore, was free. The only thing connecting her to the table were a few IV's.
She ripped them out her arms in no time at all.
The memories of the past few days flooding back to her for real, she found herself inside another room, a much smaller one than the reactor control chamber she had previously been in. One that had no windows, no observation glass panes, one she fortunately found herself in alone.
It was carefully that she got up on her feet. The cut in her abdomen throbbing like mad it was with weakish shaking limbs that she dragged herself over to the cabinets that lined the walls.
There had to be something she could use as patch or some kind of a bandage at least to keep her belly form bursting open and shedding her organs. She couldn't move around with that wound gaping in her body. Those few stitches would not hold forever. Especially not if she would encounter resistance. And encounter resistance, she would. That much she knew for sure.
Rummaging through some of the drawers, she finally dug up a package of adhesive tape.
Well. It had to do. Until she got out of there at least.
Wrapping it around her now significantly leaner body, Lightning could not help but feel a painful kind of loss.
Her children, so long part of her, now suddenly they were gone. Were gone completely. Taken away from her.
She hadn't even been awake to witness their birth, hadn't been there to hold them once after they had arrived.
It made her chest constrict quite painfully.
Her children...
She had to find her children.
Find them and get them out of here. And now.
It really was the only thing that mattered.
Stepping away from the cabinets that lined the walls, she found her legs whobbly and weak.
Still, she was in no position to give up.
There was only forward.
She had to find her kids and save them from whatever cruel fate professor Hojo had in store for them. Because whatever it was, it definitely wasn't anything good.
Trying the handle of the metal door, to her huge surprise it gave way effortlessly.
She hadn't even been locked in.
Focusing on the task at hand Lightning tried not to give it too much thought. There were more important things to do, to think about.
Stepping through the open door she found herself in a dim lit circular corridor, somewhere deep in the reactor.
If she were professor Hojo where would she keep her kids?
Lightning didn't know.
The only thing she knew for sure was the way out lay upwards.
Well. It was better than nothing.
She would just have to try every single door in the reactor then. Try every nook and cranny.
It didn't matter really, all that mattered where her kids.
It was with her palms pressed to her throbbing belly that she set into motion.
She had to find them. Had to find her kids.
It was a few hours later that Claire Crescent tried the handle of another metal door.
It was locked of course. As were so many in this godforsaken place and the pink haired woman found her hope dwindling.
She had combed the whole three lower levels of the complex, had tried every room and every door, had peered through every observation window, but everytime she had come up empty, hadn't found a trace of her precious little babies.
It was hopeless, futile, was driving her insane. The fact that none of this would have happened had she listened to her husband and just stayed at home... It kept driving tiny daggers in her heart, made tiny salty rivulets of tears run down her face, her neck, her cleavage.
She had lost her kids. She had almost lost herself. She had gotten them all trapped in the power of some cruel megalomanic alien obsessed scientist. And now she was exhausted and weak, roaming an abandoned mako reactor for her kidnapped kids, leaving tiny drops of blood on the floor behind her, a trail even a scientist would be able to follow.
It was no use.
She had failed. Had failed dramatically. Had failed her family, her kids, her husband, had even failed herself.
How was she supposed to ever set this right?!
Would Sephiroth ever forgive her?
Sephiroth...
She had dreamed about him, hadn't she?
Yes, she had...
In her dream he'd come to rescue her. Had made to release her from her bonds back on that operation table in the reactor control room.
Well... It had been nothing but a fancy dream. An illusion of her tortured mind...
He had to be mad with worry by now, was probably searching all Bodhom for her. Everybody was probably...
Serah, Zack, Cloud, Genesis, Angeal, all her neighbourhood watch friends...
They all had to be sick with concern at her absence.
Her heart constricted painfully even at the thought of it.
Staggering over to the next door in the wall, it was with her mind occupied by crushing regrets that she tried the handle.
The door pushing open into a high cavernlike room, Claire Crescent found her mind wiped clear, found her pain had ceased from shock.
She was standing in the biggest room she had ever seen. And the room wasn't empty either.
There was a giant kind of apparatus rising up in front of her.
A metallic monstrosity fitted with numerous tanks and cables and tubes.
Lightning didn't have to be a Shin-Ra scientist to realize this was not part of a normal mako reactor's inventory.
No, this was something else entirely.
Stepping a little bit closer Lightning realised the things she'd thought of as tanks weren't really tanks either. They were cribs. Made for future super soldiers. And there were tons of them. Millions maybe.
Hojo really was planning to create himself an army. Or was it Jenova really, we were talking about here?
Lightning didn't know.
Maybe Hojo's experiments had somehow gone wrong, backfired, maybe they had grilled his brains, maybe he had implanted too much of Jenova into his own body, or maybe he was just a lunatic. Lightning couldn't tell.
But this... This definitely was an act of madness. The doings of a monster, a madman, a psychopath.
There was only one thing to do.
Turning back to the machine Lightning walked over to it's control panels, looked at all the gauges, buttons, valves. Her eyes finally coming to rest at a big lit up control screen, the pink haired female stopped to investigate.
'Replication in progress. Genome duplication complete.' it read in giant greenish letters.
For a few moments Claire Crescent could only stare.
That thing was replicating her children.
Surely it could only mean one thing. They had to be here somewhere. Had to still be alive.
It took her another few minutes to mount all those rusty ladders, to climb up to the top but finally there they were.
Two perfectly identic boys. With short soft silver hair and perfect alabaster skin. And slitted turquoise eyes Lightning found she couldn't look away from.
Her kids. She had finally found them. Had found them for real.
They were breathing and awake and alive and well, floating in two tanks of mako, looking at her as though they knew exactly who she was, had been waiting for her to come to them all that time.
Claire Crescent didn't hesitate.
It was with newfound strenght, determination, that she picked up a heavy rusty wrench, was with all her strenght and power that she brought it to the glass, making the mako tanks shatter and shards and liquid flying anywhere, and the wound in her belly ache.
It didn't matter.
The two wriggling tiny bodies, she had them picked up into her arms in almost no time at all.
Her kids, she had found her kids!
She almost couldn't believe it.
It was with an infinite amount of gratefulness, with gratitude, apreciation, with relief, that she pressed them to her upper body, that she kissed their still wet heads.
'It's okay. It's going to be okay.' she muttered somewhat soothingly, if not to the kids then mainly to herself.
The two perfect alabaster babies didn't seem upset at all, not nervous, not afraid.
They were holding on to her dirty clothing tightly, where nestling their heads into her bosom contently.
Claire Crescent couldn't help but cry.
She was relieved. So infinitely relived and happy, to finally hold them in her arms.
Yazoo and Kadaj. That was what she was going to name them.
Suddenly it was as clear as day.
The two babies wriggling in her arms, she felt them reaching out to her throught their shared jenova bond, urging her to hold them close, reaching out to try her tears.
It made her feel better and stronger than she had ever felt before.
Yes. She was responsible for them. Her two children relied on her. They believed in her.
She had to be strong for them now. She would be strong for them.
She would get them all out to safetly.
And she would do it now.
It was carefully getting back onto her legs that Lightning climbed down from the machine again.
The two blankets the boys had been wrapped into still lying on one of the plain work tables, Lightning stopped to wrap them back inside.
It was cool in here and they were wet. She couldn't risk her children catching a cold. She so couldn't.
It didn't take longer than a few tiny minutes.
It was all she had to spare.
Surely professor Hojo would come back to check, would notice something wasn't right, would come to investigate, would surely be hot at their heels soon.
They had to get out of there and now.
The wound in her belly bleeding onto her clothes and leaving a trail of tiny drops behind, Lightning made over to the door, pulled it open, had almost stepped through, when suddenly from behind her, there came a tiny high pitched wail.
It made the pink haired female freeze midstep.
There it was again. A tiny pittyful wail, a soft high helpless cry, coming from somewhere behind her.
No, it couldn't be.
It simply couldn't.
Turning around on her heels Lightning slowly stepped back to the machine.
No... Please not this...
There it was, at the bottom of the machine. One of the hundred tiny cribs. Placed under some kind of hatch, the flashing overhead display read: 'replication complete'.
Lightning felt cold shivers running down her spine.
She thought she'd put an end to this. Had thought she'd stopped the process as she'd taken out her kids. Had thought it was all over. Over before it even had begun.
She had been mistaken it seemed.
The crib at the bottom of the machine was already occupied.
And the creature in it was crying out again. Crying out for her.
A worried despaired cry of fear.
It didn't sound like one of Hojo's praised super soldiers at all.
Putting her babies down on the table next to her, Claire Crescent picked up a heavy wrench again. Made to approach the tiny monster.
She was going to end this. End this for real. And if it was the last thing that she did.
There was not going to be an army.
Not even a single piece of it. Not even a single member.
She would make sure of that.
And now.
It was slowly that she stepped forward, awkwardly really, was dreading the sight of the abomination she was going to find inside, was bracing herself for whatever evil was going to reveal itself before her very eyes.
And it was with bated breath that finally she made to look over the edge of the little crib, just to find another perfect alabaster baby boy staring up at her.
Taking in his mother's face, the tiny boy broke into a smile, gave a happy little brabble, made him stop crying instantly.
It made Claire Crescent's heart fill with dread, with horror.
The abomination in the crib. It looked exactly like the other babies, was just as cute and pretty, was actually indistinguishable.
Suddenly the air felt hard to breathe.
The tiny little thing looking at her with equally big and slitted turquoise eyes as had the others, it reached out it's chubby hands for her, strained to wriggle towards her as if asking her to pick him up.
Lightning feld her heart ache, felt the wrench in her hand slipping, heard it clatter to the ground.
Reaching out for the tiny hand she touched his little knubbly fingers, felt the familar jenova bond tingle in her skin.
The baby's cells conneting with her, establishing their link, Lightning found a strong sensation of love coming from the tiny boy, a steady current of hope, of joy, of admiration.
It made her eyes tear up again.
What was she supposed to do?
The tiny wriggling mass in front her, Hojo's replication, somehow he was her child too.
She had sworn to put an end to this, this whole twisted experiment. Had sworn to twart the evil professor's plans. But this...
Him...
The tiny child in front of her...
How could she possibly hurt him, put an end to him? A tiny helpless baby boy?!
He was nothing like the other's of course, was not of her. Had been created through a series of unnatural experiements. Still. He looked identical. Identical to the two others. A perfect copy in all the things that mattered. He even shared the bond. Shared their love, their hope, their longing to be close to her. The only difference between him and the others was that this one had never seeen the insides of her belly.
That tiny baby boy...
It was only a moment that she hesitated before she picked him up into her arms. Walked over to find another blanket and wrap him up as well.
Maybe it was wrong. Maybe she should not have taken him. Maybe she really should not.
But how could she possibly leave him here to die or worse? There simply was no way. And there was no way she could end him either.
No. He was her son. Was like the others. Was her son in every way that mattered. And she would leave no son of her's behind.
Once they were all wrapped up and dried she wouldn't even be able to tell the difference between them anymore, noone would. It wasn't his fault that he had not had the pleasure of having grow up in a human womb. Wasn't his fault that the world was cruel.
This way he had a chance for a real future. A happy future. Just like the others. If only they would manage to escape.
And escape they would.
Yes.
Suddenly it all was as clear as day.
Loz. She'd call him Loz.
How could she ever thought about leaving him behind?!
Suddenly she didn't know.