The Future Imperfect
AN – I've been waiting to post this chapter for a little while! It's been the cause of the rating change – although not terrible, I wanted to be safe and I think it may just be a little too descriptive for a teen audience (I'm judging by the game itself, which carefully doesn't show any blood etc – even when Barret gets stabbed through the chest!).
Chapter Seventeen
Angeal rolled to his feet as he hit the walkway, cushioning both girls as much as he could. He lost his grip on both in the process but had managed to dampen their impact with the unforgiving metal significantly. He went straight over to Aerith and offered her a hand.
"Are you ok?"
"I think so," She let him pull her to her feet, dusting down her dress. "Thank you."
Angeal gave her a brief smile and turned to Tifa, finding that she was already stretching to find any injuries after rolling to her feet. She gave Angeal a quick nod to show her thanks too, before looking over the edge of the walkway.
"But where are the others?"
Angeal joined her but couldn't immediately see them. They were standing on a ledge a couple of levels below the one they had fallen from. The broken gantry was above them, but from this angle there was no sign of Sephiroth either.
Tifa looked up and stepped back from the railing and wrapped her arms around her torso. "Hey, you ok?" Aerith asked her gently.
"I… no, not really." She sucked in a deep breath. "I just need a moment. I thought he was dead." Tifa shook her head, eyes troubled. "When we found you three, with Sephiroth alive," Tifa's gaze bore into Angeal. "I thought I had faced my fear and overcome it. But that… that was something worse."
"That wasn't Sephiroth." Angeal stated grimly, face creased in thought. "At least, not the man I know. How he could become that I can't even begin to imagine." He couldn't help the shudder that rippled over him at the lifeless expression in the Sephiroth's eyes. "Every time we find something out about this future it seems to get worse and worse. How did it come to this?"
A gentle hand on his arm brought him out of his introspection. He followed it up to a pair of green eyes that seemed to see into his very soul. "It will become clear in time," Aerith told him. "And it's not all bad, surely? After all, you wouldn't have met Midgar's very own flower girl if you hadn't come here." She posed and smiled mischievously up at him, the expression lighting up her face.
A clatter below turned all their attention over the railing. On a level below them Cloud, Barret and Red had emerged onto the walkway. As they watched, Red skipped over a grating towards the next platform but as soon as he landed he was set upon by some humanoid monsters.
Angeal grabbed his sword, preparing to leap down to support him but a squeeze on his arm stopped him. He turned to Aerith, who gestured to where Tifa was picking up a cylindrical container. She slung it over the edge of the walkway and straight into the side of one of the monsters.
"Nice shot," Angeal commented as he grabbed another to do the same. Angeal's throw managed to knock the monster off the platform completely, Red dispatching the rest easily enough. Red looked up to find where the barrels had come from, flicking his tail when he saw them on the level above.
"Down here," Aerith called, pointing at a set of stairs that took them down to the level below. Unfortunately, the area was separated from the walkway the others were standing on by a forcefield. Providentially, an intercom stood in the corner which allowed them to communicate. It was convenient, Angeal thought to himself. Perhaps too convenient. He was proved correct a moment later when Hojo's voice reverberated around The Drum
"Hello, can you all hear me? So, tell me, how are you finding The Drum? You know it's filled with some of the most advanced technology in Midgar, if not the entire world. You should feel honored to see it first hand. You'll also have the opportunity to take part in a rather ambitious experiment of mine." Angeal felt himself tensing. So that was the scientist's supposed plan, he was going to make them play his ridiculous games in order to earn their freedom. Or, more likely, be handed straight over to the turks or Heidegger at the end of it. He couldn't imagine Hojo actually letting them go free, not after the interest he had already shown in Cloud.
All the more reason to beat whatever sick games the scientist was trying to play.
Which, it turned out, was a long series of pitted battles against a variety of monsters and machines. It was like a horror version of a game show, with them having to work out how to open up various sections of The Drum in order to progress to the next. After the last machine, which was some form of mechanised flying fish thing with a saw for a mouth – and, honest to goddess, who on Gaia designed that and for what conceivable purpose? – Angeal rested his sword on the ground and watched as the final flickers from the explosion it made as it hit the ground finally died out.
"Is it over?" Tifa asked, panting as she tried to regain her breath.
"I think so," Aerith replied, looking over the rail. "Look!" A metal walkway was extending towards them and on the far side an elevator lay beckoning, the little white light on the call button blinking invitingly. "Let's find the others and get out of here."
Angeal grunted as he swung the sword back into its holster. He couldn't wait to see the back of the labs, but at the same time… it couldn't really be this easy, could it?
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Genesis and Sephiroth made their way down the corridors of the labs, towards Hojo's main offices. The place seemed deserted, causing the hairs on Genesis's arms to stand on end. The laboratories weren't fun places at the best of times, but in the middle of the night without another soul around they were enough to even cause Genesis to reconsider what they were doing there. Sephiroth was tense, his strides rigid as he paced alongside. Genesis understood why, this place wasn't somewhere he associated with good memories. Although, the place seemed even more sinister than in Genesis's past experience.
Soon enough, they reached the door that led to Hojo's office. It slid open as they approached, beckoning them into the space beyond. Genesis entered first, snapping a salute and then immediately dropping it when he realised Hojo wasn't paying them the slightest bit of attention. The Professor, looking exactly the same as he ever had, was hunched over a series of monitors and didn't register that they had arrived at all. Instead, he was muttering to himself as he watched something closely on one of the screens
Genesis walked further into the room, approaching Hojo's chair. He was about to speak up when Hojo spun around, cackling madly. Genesis would forever deny that he had been startled, but he practically leapt back into Sephiroth as the professor spun towards him.
"Ah! Again you triumph! Haha I'd be disappointed if you didn't. But I believe I have just about all the data I require. Just time for one more experiment."
He leant forwards and pressed some buttons, giggling gleefully to himself.
"Yes… yes! Such potential! Such power. And the boy too! To think I labelled him a failure."
"Excuse me?" Genesis asked sharply, looking closely at the figures on the screen and not liking what he was seeing. One screen showed Cloud and Barret in a chamber, hammering against a closed metal door. A second showed Angeal, Aerith and Tifa standing with a russet-coloured dog-like animal on some form of circular metal walkway. All of them looked slightly worse for wear and had their weapons drawn and ready. The professor didn't even seem to notice he had spoken, as he continued to watch the monitors gleefully.
"Incredible to think that he's made it this far, and his little SOLDIER friend too! Though that one won't work, no, no. It must be the boy. He will be the perfect specimen to test my reunion theory." The professor cackled and pushed his glasses up his nose as he peered at the screen showing Cloud and Barret. "When he is back in my care we will be able to progress beautifully."
"You intend to bring him back into your care?" Sephiroth spoke up for the first time since they entered the laboratories. He had a strange tone in his voice, one that Genesis could not place. Hojo froze in position, before very slowly turning and looking at Sephiroth.
"Impossible." The scientist breathed almost reverently after a few moments. "You must tell me, what is your number? This is a most unexpected but welcome development! I must investigate – how is it possible that after all this time the procedure has worked? Will the others similarly transmute into functional clones?"
Genesis's eyes widened in concern. Of course Hojo recognised Sephiroth, he raised Sephiroth and knew him better than anyone else. Although, he seemed to believe Sephiroth was a clone… of himself? What on earth had the scientist been doing?
He turned to Sephiroth, but beneath the helmet his friend was giving nothing away. Hojo was still muttering to himself excitedly. "But what if you and the boy interact? What might we see then? Oh, the possibilities are almost endless… was it perhaps contact with the boy that brought this change about in the first place?"
The cold sound of Sephiroth's voice cut off Hojo's rambling.
"The boy? You refer to Cloud?" He almost sounded as though he was trying to get confirmation of something, but Genesis was completely lost.
"What do I care for his name? He is a Subject. Subject C." Hojo rubbed his hands together. "I didn't give him a number, an oversight I can admit to now. One that will be rectified soon enough."
The only response was the sound of sliding steel as Masamune was withdrawn from its sheath.
"What do you think you are-?"
Hojo was cut off, literally, as Masamune sang through the air and detached his head from his body. Genesis, in his shock, didn't move out of the way in time and was hit by an arc of blood and gore.
Silence fell in the room, broken only by the sound of a head rolling underneath one of the desks. Genesis gaped at Sephiroth, who stood gazing impassively at the corpse of the only father figure he had ever known. And possibly his actual father, if you could believe anything that came out of Hojo's mouth.
There were many things about the last few minutes that were bothering Genesis. But the biggest that Genesis was struggling to get his head around was… why now? Hojo had ruled over Sephiroth's life with an iron fist for as long as they had known him, ever since he and Angeal were introduced to a young, silver haired SOLDIER when they were first admitted into the programme. But for some reason, now and only now Sephiroth had finally decided to act.
Finally, Sephiroth moved out of his trance. He wiped his sword disdainfully on the bottom of the formerly white lab coat before sliding it back in its sheath.
"Sephiroth," Genesis started, but then paused. Sephiroth turned towards him, the helmet giving him a colder expression than usual and not allowing Genesis even the slightest insight into what he was thinking. "Are you ok?" Genesis settled on eventually.
Sephiroth looked down at Hojo's body again before returning his attention to Genesis. "That was… liberating."
"Liberating, right." Genesis fought the urge to drag his hand down his face as he had often seen Angeal do when faced with himself and Sephiroth. For one of the first times in his life, Genesis felt some sympathy for his stoic friend. To grasp at something else, Genesis instead focussed on the display screen. He immediately spotted the one showing their friends, back together in one cluster. Genesis had no idea where they had found the creature tag-along, but it seemed to be tame enough. They were standing inside an elevator, pushing the buttons to no avail.
"Well now, what do we have here?" Genesis murmured. He studied the keyboard for a moment, recoiling from touching the soiled buttons that also hadn't escaped the fallout from decapitation. A piece of white fabric appeared in his vision, he thanked Sephiroth and began to wipe down the keys. He handed the rag back, only then realising that it was a piece of torn lab coat. Genesis grimaced as Sephiroth dropped it back onto the body.
Returning to the screens, he played around with the keys until he managed to unlock the elevator controls. He programmed the elevator to come down to their floor, bringing their companions to them. "I think it's time to go and see what we've missed."
Genesis frowned as he realised Sephiroth wasn't paying attention to him, but was peering intently at one of the screens. Curious, Genesis leaned forwards in time to make out a very familiar figure striding across a gantry. The other Sephiroth's hair was drifting lazily behind him, his arms occupied with some form of bundle that was wrapped in a cloth. On closer inspection, Genesis could see what looked like legs hanging out from below the wrappings.
"How is that possible?" He asked, trying to understand how the current Sephiroth could be here. "We saw that you've been MIA for five years… what are you doing now?"
"It's not me," Sephiroth hissed angrily. "Whatever it is, it is not something I recognise as myself."
"OK then…" Genesis stood up straight, tapping his finger against his lips. Scanning the other monitors, he could see that the others had reached their floor and were now walking slowly down through the laboratory towards their position. "It's now definitely time to move." He gave one last glance towards the body of the former Director of Science and Research. "Let us leave the filth in here and find some fresher air."
With a curt nod of agreement from Sephiroth, they stepped casually over Hojo's body and out of his office. If Genesis aimed a swift kick at the head, sending it spinning further underneath one of the consoles, well nobody would tell.
AN – Hojo: Basically takes away any childhood Sephiroth has, sends him to fight a war as a teenager, runs experiments on him.
Sephiroth: *shrugs*
Hojo: Threatens Cloud once, with more 'personal care'.
Sephiroth: *Stabby stabby*.
But really, in my headcanon Hojo doesn't publicly show his true colours until nearer the OG timelines – in CC he was actually depicted as a *kind of* victim at one point. So I am going with the idea that Sephiroth doesn't realise quite how depraved Hojo is until now.