Attempting Escape

Aerith had significantly less guards around her than I did. She only had a handful of soldiers whereas I had several alongside a Turk armed with sedatives, not to mention being handcuffed for good measure. We were moved along from the cells to the lab, which wasn't a long walk, and found the place prepared for our arrival. I wasn't comfortable with how it was set up: huge glass containers large enough for humans, chemicals laying out on a tray, I was partially worried about the stretcher set out as well. Even the staff set me ill at ease.

The professor himself was an older man, hair black buy greying, tied back, brows furrowed, beady eyes peering over his glasses, his body hunched over and his hands clasped behind his back. He only turned to us when he heard us approach. He observed us for a few moments before approaching Aerith, eyes narrowing in inspection.

"Unfortunately not the specimen I would have liked, but I suppose we all must make do," he said to her. I noticed Aerith leaning back as far as she could to have distance between herself and him. It didn't take a genius to tell there was history there. The professor gestured to the larger container. "Put her in there," I watched as Aerith was thrown inside the container, two assistant scientists taking place of the guards. The professor then approached me and gave me the same, studying look as he did Aerith. "Now you, you require further testing."

"Grand, looking forward to it," I say, knowing I'm digging my hole deeper. I get hit in the back of the head with a gun, making me dizzy.

"Be careful with my specimen!" The professor snaps, I see him directing to both the soldier that delivered the blow and the Turk.

"I assure you it's necessary," he says. In an instant I'm hurried into a smaller container and thrown in before I can regain my senses. Fuck's sake I knew they felt it necessary but fuck.

I got to my feet and watched as everyone focused on Aerith's container. A red creature, looking like the cross of a lion and a wolf with a dim flame on the end of its tail, appeared in the container alongside her. Aerith had already pushed herself against the glass, as far away as she could from it. It appeared sedated, only just coming round. I had no clue what this professor, this Hojo, had planned.

I balled my hand into a fist an hit the glass hard. It was pretty reinforced but I knew with a bit more force, or even with some life force behind it, I could shatter it. I looked around to check that the assistants weren't near the sedatives or weapons, and if I could hold one hostage for leverage, or if Hojo even cared about them. If I could get to him it would be more practical.

My thoughts were interrupted when the side elevator opened up, spilling for familiar faces. Barrett, Tifa, and Cloud were all there. They hadn't seen me and only spotted Aerith cowering from the creature.

"Aerith!" Cloud yelled. Tifa turned her head and gasped when she saw me. I gave her an okay gesture since I wasn't sure how soundproof this glass was. Hojo didn't seem very annoyed or surprised that they were there. He narrowed his eyes and looked at them.

"Oh. Aerith. Is that her name?" He said in a monotone. "What do you want?"

"We're taking them both back," Cloud said, arming himself with that huge sword. Barrett aimed his gun at Hojo, to which the professor only blinked.

"I'd suggest you be careful of where you point that thing," he said. "I would advise against killing me; all this equipment is very delicate and, if I'm dead, who would operate it?" I started hitting against the glass harder, getting a crack. He heard me banging and glared. "Stop that!"

"What are you doing to them?" Cloud asked when he looked into Aerith's container. That creature was getting more aggressive, growling at Aerith.

"What does it look like? I'm saving their species," Hojo answered. "These two races are on the brink of extinction. I'm merely trying to prevent these animals from disappearing from the face of Gaia."

"Animal? Aerith is a human being!" Tifa yelled, outraged and disgusted. I banged on the glass harder and saw Hojo getting pissed at me.

"Will you stop that? You! Sedate her!" Oh like hell was I getting knocked out.

I took a breath, quickly took a step back, channelled life force in my arm, and forced myself through the glass with a charge. Covered in glass, still focusing, I repeated the action on Aerith's container, and pulling her to her feet, yanking her out the container. Over it all I heard alarms, Hojo yelling at his assistants, the main door opening, then eventually saw the creature launching himself at Hojo, pinning him on the ground and going for his throat. Barrett, Cloud, and Tifa ran over to us.

"Are you two okay?" Tifa asked, checking us over. I had several shards of glass sticking out my arm but that was my own fault. I started pulling them out which was probably not a clever move but they stung like no tomorrow.

"I'm okay," Aerith nodded and turned to me. "Do you still have that cure materia?"

"Uh, maybe this pocket?" I checked and, oddly, I still had it. Maybe they didn't confiscate it because it wasn't an aggressive magic? Doesn't matter I finished taking out the glass and managed to cast a weak healing spell. Aerith took it from me and her spell was stronger, sealing all the cuts I'd gotten. "Never been good with magic."

"It's practice," she said and handed it back to me. Probably was better if maybe she had the materia with healing spells but I took it anyway.

"Release Specimen HO-512!" We heard Hojo yell. The elevator inside the main container started moving and the creature stopped attacking Hojo and turned to us.

"It's rather strong, I'll help you fight," he said. Everyone was taken a little aback by the sudden speech.

"It talked?" Tifa managed to get out.

"I'll talk as much as you want later, miss," he said. "We must focus on stopping the specimen."

"He's right," I nodded and watched the elevator bring up some... fucking ghastly shit of an experiment. And I've fully confirmed Hojo is fucking mental. The cockatrice like monster reared up and ran towards us and we spread out.

The creature started casting fire spells from a materia it had in its person, firing the pellets of flame at the beast. Barrett unloaded his gun onto it as it rampaged through the lab. Tifa and Cloud went around from behind and attacked it, damaging the back and making it stumble. I ran at it head on and tackled it, knocking it into Cloud's sword and making it howl out. The beast's arm started glowing and blue orbs formed in its claw, firing out and homing in on me and sending me flying back. Aerith ran at me and started to cast a healing spell that threw me off because I knew she didn't have any materia.

"It has a command materia, be careful!" The creature warned to the others as the beast charged its hand again, this time firing lasers around the lab that everyone was trying to avoid.

"I'll take care of it!" Cloud said, leaping into the air and raising his sword above his head, severing the beast's arm clean off. The materia was still lodged in its arm as it flopped to the ground, blood pooling around it.

I got back up and charged at it, ducking under its other arm as it swiped over me, then punched its leg and made it buckle, giving way for Barrett for fire off another round into its face. It collapsed onto the ground and convulsed in its last moments. We all caught our breath and the creature went over to the experiment's arm.

"Perhaps we should take this? I'd rather Shinra not have its hands on it," he said. I looked around and sighed, opting to be the one to take the materia out. I picked up a scalpel that had fallen onto the floor and cut it out pretty easy. It was covered in blood and weird goo but I gave it a quick wipe and pocketed it.

"Everyone okay?" Cloud asked.

"I'm fine," Aerith said amongst everyone's answers.

"In many ways," Tifa added and crossed her arms.

"I have a choice too, I'm not interested in bi-pedal beings," the creature scoffed, giving Tifa a little side-eye. He looked over the Aerith. "I apologise for what happened back there, but I had to keep up an act to throw Hojo off guard."

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Well, Hojo branded me with my experiment label Red XIII," he said. "The name has absolutely no meaning to me whatsoever."

"So what's your name then?"

"You may call me Nanaki," he answered.

"Right, then let's say we get out of here," I said and looked over to Cloud, Barrett, and Tifa. "Any plans?"

"Only way down is in the elevator to the main lobby," Barrett said. "And Shinra's probably on their way now so buckle up." I nodded. I wasn't in the mood to get captured again.

The lab floors didn't have any of the main elevators to the rest of the building, so the closest one was on the sixty-sixth floor. The floors had been cleared out of employees, and no guards were to be seen. It was a short run down the stairs to the elevator but I already had the bad feeling that they'd ambush us somehow.

The six of us loaded into the elevator and Cloud pressed the button to head down to the main lobby. The doors closed and it seemed to be going down at a steady pace as though nothing was wrong but it stopped at floor sixty.

"Get away from the doors!" I ordered and pushed myself against the wall. Everyone followed suit and the doors opened. I looked in the reflection of the glass and saw Shinra soldiers as the bald Turk from before threw in a cannister of tear gas. We all started to choke and splutter, forced to come out from the elevator and I, for one, was immediately pinned down and handcuffed. I could barely see from my eyes stinging so much but I heard the others being taken down as well.

"This must have been a real thrill for you," I heard Tseng say, standing over me. "Did you enjoy it?"