Disclaimer - I don't own any of 'em. I wish I did.
Chapter 4 - Enter Another
Monday morning found him once again in the shower, scrubbing the living hell out of his hair to get the last vestiges of the dye out of it. He hadn't stepped foot outside his own quarters all damn weekend, thanks to Zack's 'temporary' hair dye . . . which really would have been temporary, as long as you didn't have hair that was nearly white. He was beginning to think his hair would never be it's normal color again . . . he'd spent more time scrubbing his hair this weekend then he'd done anything else.
He stepped out of the shower and approached the mirror, wiping away the steam to look at his reflection.
"Finally . . ." he snorted, as he found no trace of black in his hair. Returning to the shower, he quickly finished washing and turned the water off. As he was stepping out of the shower, he heard the door to his quarters open and close loudly.
"Seph?" Zack shouted from the living area.
"Yes, I'm here, and you are going to be put through hell, you son of a zolem! Do you have any idea how long it took to get that damn dye out of my hair?" He finished toweling off and dressed hurriedly, ignoring the bangs plastered to his cheeks. He'd take care of his hair in a minute. Storming into the living area, he glared at a snickering Zack, who was lounging against his counter top with a cup of coffee firmly in hand. He grabbed the second cup Zack had brought for him, taking a sip before grabbing an air materia off the shelf and summoning a slight wind to dry his hair.
"Well, you made quite an impression at the club Friday night . . ." Zack started. Sephiroth glanced at him curiously. "Everyone's talking about a tall, dark haired SOLDIER who kicked a whole lot of ass . . . and our new recruits are trying to find him so they can thank him." Zack grinned as Sephiroth grimaced in annoyance. "Oh . . .there is also a girl named Lissa looking for you . . . or should I say, looking for Phiro." He chuckled as Sephiroth looked up, intrigued.
"Why the hell would Lissa be looking for me? We barely spoke." Zack shrugged.
"No idea. Maybe she's interested?" Sephiroth snorted.
"Hardly." He shook his head and glared at Zack. "Do I really want to ask what we have on the agenda this morning?"
"Meeting with the president in about twenty minutes . . . then training for the rest of the day. You sure you're up to it?"
"The training, yes . . . the meeting I could happily do without," Sephiroth grumbled as he buckled the Masamune across his back. Unaware of Zack staring at him speculatively, he walked to the window and stared down at the bustling plate below.
Zack eyed his superior curiously from his spot near the counter. Sephiroth seemed a little . . . off, to him today. Like he hadn't quite hit his stride yet. Of course, that could be annoyance at the upcoming meeting. No one enjoyed spending time in President Shin-Ra's presence . . . and Sephiroth hated him more than most, because the President had been the one to back Hojo's experimentation. Zack could see a heated argument coming up already, and they weren't even near to the meeting yet. The president didn't understand Sephiroth's insistence on doing things his own way, and Sephiroth couldn't stand the way the man ordered men about as though their lives were nothing he needed to be concerned about. Actually, there had been several times when Zack had moved to restrain his superior for fear Sephiroth would stride forward and strangle the pompous ass. When one of Sephiroth's rare flashes of public emotion came through, it was nearly always anger that got away from his control . . . and it was always directed at the President or Hojo. Zack wondered sometimes if they even realized the ticking time bomb they had on their hands. Eventually, this man would snap and not turn his anger on himself. Zack really did not want to be there when that happened.
Sephiroth turned from his scrutiny of the plate below, snagged his cup of coffee, and headed for the door. Zack trailed him with his own cup of coffee firmly in hand.
"You know Seph . . . you really aren't a morning person."
"I'm not an anytime person, Zack. All hours of the day are equally annoying," he grumbled as he locked the door to his suite and strode towards the elevators, Zack at his side.
*----------*-----------*-----------*---------*
The door to the President's office crashed open, leaving a dent in the wall behind it as Sephiroth strode out, ignoring the cowering secretary at the desk nearby. Striding to the elevator's, he jabbed the down button, and stood there, glaring at the wall with his hands clenched at his sides. Zack approached him at a more sedate pace, more worried then he'd ever been about his superior.
The President had just 'informed' his General that Professor Hojo required him in the labs for some 'progress tests', and that he was being ordered to submit to them, each afternoon, for the remainder of the week. Hojo had finally found a way to make it so that Sephiroth couldn't ignore him. Zack grimaced in disgust at the thought. Just as he was really making some progress with his friend, he had to go back to Hojo as a lab rat again.
The elevator arrived, and they stepped inside. Once the door closed, Sephiroth slumped to the floor, his head in his hands. Zack halted the elevator between floors, and turned to face his friend.
"Seph . . ."
"Don't say it. I knew Hojo would find a way to get a hold of me again sometime . . . I just didn't expect it to be so soon. At least now I'm strong enough to fight him if I have to."
"Seph, no one deserves to be that man's lab rat." Sephiroth laughed mockingly.
"You forget, Zack. That's all I am . . . a lab rat. An experiment . . . a freak that should never have come into existence." Zack reached out to his friend, unsure of what to say, only to stop his hand before it touched him. There was nothing he could do or say that would fix this problem. In the space of ten minutes, the President and Hojo had near completely undone everything he had managed to fix in the past two years. He sighed, dropping his hand to fist it on his thigh.
"You know you're more than that, Seph . . . I'm here if you need me," he said finally.
"I know Zack . . . I know." He sighed, raising his head to gaze at the elevator doors. "I'm going to go train for a bit, try to get control of myself before this afternoon. Think you can handle the training today?" Zack nodded.
"Yeah, I should be able to get through it. You'll be in Gym 7?"
"Yes . . . if anyone really needs me they can find me there. But it better be damn important." He sighed, rising to his feet and restarting the elevator in it's downward path. Zack rose to his feet as well, and stared helplessly at the man's back.
*----------*-----------*-----------*---------*
Sephiroth moved through his kata's smoothly, ending one and starting another in a flawless succession of movement. The Masamune leaned against a far wall, along with his trench coat. Inside, his thoughts didn't flow anywhere near as smoothly.
'Hojo . . . once again you'll have me under your needles and instruments . . . but this time I'm no weakling child . . .' he thought. 'Damn you . . . I thought I'd managed to escape you entirely by joining SOLDIER . . . but seems in order to do that, I'd have to leave the continent entirely.' He sighed, pausing in his kata's long enough to wring the sweat out of his hair. Turning to the Masamune, he began his kata's with that, the sword moving in a graceful dance of death as he tried to loose himself in the familiar patterns.
In the gallery above, Cloud watched the display with open admiration. He'd been sent down by the lieutenant to remind the General that he needed to eat sometime, but Cloud found himself completely unable to disturb the man below him.
"No wonder he's the General . . . the man moves like a dancer with that blade," he murmured to himself, watching the muscles ripple across Sephiroth's back as he swung the blade in an intricate pattern. He fingered the handle of his own blade absently. "I wonder if I'll ever be that good." He snorted suddenly. "Yeah, right . . . maybe in my dreams."
He descended the stairs as Sephiroth came to a halt in his kata's and wiped the sweat from his forehead, figuring now would be a good time to approach the man. Sephiroth noted his approach and turned to face him, his face a blank mask, one eyebrow arched in question.
"Lieutenant Zack sent me to . . . ummm . . . remind you that you need to eat, sir," he said carefully, unsure of how to talk to this man who was a legend in his own time. Sephiroth nodded, and turned to retrieve his trench coat, shrugging it on over his sweat soaked skin before turning back to Cloud.
"You are Cloud, right? How is training going?" he asked.
"Fine sir . . ." Sephiroth nodded and walked past him to the exit. Cloud trailed behind him a few steps as he turned towards the elevators.
"You know how to use that blade on your back, Cloud?" the general asked suddenly, catching Cloud off guard.
"Ummm . . . not nearly as well as I'd like, sir, but I suppose I can defend myself well enough."
"Weilding a sword isn't about defense, recruit. It's about ending a battle quickly and decisively," Sephiroth said, punching the down button. "You seem pretty good in hand to hand combat . . . but sword work is much different."
"We'll be doing weapon training this afternoon sir . . ." Cloud was surprised to see the man wince when he mentioned this afternoon. He shrugged it off as muscle soreness and continued. "I'm surprised they allowed us to bring our own weapons, actually sir. I would have thought weaponry would be standard issue."
"I learned long ago that using your own weaponry makes the battle easier. The more familiar and attached you are to your weapon, the more likely you are to be able to use it well," Sephiroth murmured.
"I see, sir." Cloud replied. Sephiroth just shook his head.
"I doubt that you do, recruit. But you will soon enough."
*----------*-----------*-----------*---------*
"Lieutenant! Lieutenant!"
Zack looked up from where he was overseeing weapon training to see a low level SOLDIER running across the floor at him. Heads turned to follow the man in his progress across the floor, blades lowering as curiosity got the better of them.
"Get back to your training, you lazy dogs, or you'll be seeing the side walk tomorrow!" he snapped. Turning his attention to his aide, he signaled the man to take over as he motioned the newcomer into an out of the way corner.
"It's General Sephiroth, sir," the man gasped out. "He's collapsed . . . in Gym 7." Zack barely heard the final part of the sentence. Grabbing the nearest recruit, he raced for Gym 7.
Cloud managed to keep up with the man, looking worriedly as his superior all out dashed for Gym 7. 'What's going on?' he wondered. He stopped wondering as the lieutenant slid to a halt behind a crowd gathered outside the gym door.
"MOVE IT!" he shouted, pushing people roughly out of the way so he could get to the door. "Damn it, why did he come down here instead of going to his office or his suite after Hojo was done with him . . . he has to remember he's usually sick after this shit . . ." He froze as he got to the door, then burst into action, sprinting the length of the gym to where his friend was slumped against a far wall. Cloud stared in horror before following him.
Sephiroth sprawled against the wall in a pool of his own blood, the silver strands of his hair falling haphazardly across his face, which was deathly white.
"Seph . . . god damn it, come on, wake up . . ." he heard Zack mutter as he raised Sephiroth's eye lids. His eyes were rolled back in his head, consciousness completely gone. "Shit," he muttered. Slinging one of the general's arm over his shoulders, he wrapped a second arm around the man's waist and lifted. Cloud quickly raced over and did the same on the other side. Between the two of them, they managed to half-carry, half-drag the man back to his quarters, Zack muttering swear words the whole way.
Not bothering to find a key, Zack kicked open the door, muttering something about "Seph can bill my ass for it later . . . if he lives through this . . ." as the lock splintered and the door swung open. Zack led Cloud to the couch, where they lay their companion down after Zack maneuvered him out of his coat and the Masamune. Moving to the kitchen, he wet a cloth, and came back, laying it over Sephiroth's forehead and moving to check his pulse. Cloud stared at him, puzzled, as Zack leaned back with a sigh of relief.
"His heartbeat is strong, if a little erratic. He'll live . . . this time."
"Sir . . . what's wrong with General Sephiroth?" Zack started in surprise . . . he'd forgotten Cloud was even there.
"You are to speak of this to no one, recruit. If I hear even a word of what I'm about to tell you, you will be out of SOLDIER faster than you can blink," Zack said, moving to sit in a nearby arm chair. Cloud nodded, and sat in a chair opposite him. "You're Cloud right? Seph was saying he thought you had potential." Cloud was stunned that the General had even noticed him, much less deigned to speak of him to his lieutenant. "General Sephiroth has to undergo . . . tests, by Professor Hojo on order of the President. I believe that these tests are what caused this today. Actually, I know the tests are the cause of it. There are things about the General that no one knows, recruit, things that I can't divulge to you now. Let's just say that Shin-Ra is attempting to create the ultimate soldier, and Sephiroth is the guinea pig they are conducting these experiments on." Cloud stared from Zack to the prone figure on the couch in horror.
"They're using him as a lab rat?! The greatest man in the history of the world, and they're trying to kill him with tests?!" Cloud asked, outraged.
"Calm down, recruit. They've just taken the Mako conditioning one step further in him. If it wasn't him, it would be someone else . . . and Sephiroth won't allow his men to face anything he hasn't." Zack sweated slightly at the little lie, but knew Sephiroth would be angry as hell if anyone ever found out the truth. He himself agreed with the boy that what Hojo was doing to his friend was monstrous, but he also knew what the real story and history was too. He looked at the boy thoughtfully. It might help Seph to have someone else he could talk to . . . and maybe if he could convince him to take this recruit under his wing, it would help Sephiroth to deal with his own demons. This boy did have potential . . . Seph was right about that.
"Sir . . . may I stay and help you care for him?" Cloud asked. If there was anything he could do for the man who was his idol, he would do it in a heartbeat. Zack nodded, and Cloud heaved a sigh of relief. Together, the two moved to the kitchen to chat until their charge awoke.
*----------*-----------*-----------*---------*
'My son . . . soon all will be well. Soon we will take back what is rightfully ours and these humans will pay for what they are doing to you.'
"Who are you?"
'I am Jenova . . . I am your mother, I am your lover . . . I am all you will ever need in this world.'
"My mother? But my mother . . . is dead."
'No my son. I am very much alive. Professor Hojo holds me prisoner, just as he holds you. Together we will punish that man for what he has done. Together, we will punish them all.'
"But, not all of them are bad . . . Zack, that girl Lissa . . . surely there are others . . ."
'NO! THEY ARE ALL HUMANS! THEY USE YOU! THEY MUST PAY!'
*----------*-----------*-----------*---------*
Zack watched, concerned, as Sephiroth moaned and tossed in his sleep. Cloud was out cold in Sephiroth's bed after a hard day of training, which left Zack to worry in silence over Sephiroth's condition. What new horror had Hojo inflicted on him today to cause this severe reaction?
"They're eventually gonna kill you, Seph," he murmured, staring at the sweat-soaked figure of his friend. "What the hell are they doing to you?" He started as Sephiroth suddenly cried out.
"NO! I won't . . . they aren't like that!" His eyes opened wide, staring at the ceiling in terror before confusion filled them. He turned his head to stare at Zack.
"Sephiroth?" Zack asked gently.
"Zack . . . where am I?" Zack heaved a sigh of relief at the question.
"In your quarters, Seph, where I dragged your sorry ass after you collapsed. What the hell were you doing in Gym 7?"
"I needed . . . to work out . . . some of my anger . . .I collapsed?"
"Yes. We found you in a pool of your own damn blood, you fool. You know you end up sick after Hojo's tests."
"I was feeling fine today, other than being mad as hell. Didn't think . . . I was gonna have a reaction this time." He sat up slowly, pulling the cloth from his forehead as he shifted so that he was sitting on the sofa. "Someone had to have helped drag me up here . . . I know you can't handle my weight alone."
"Cloud helped."
"The new recruit?"
"Yeah. He's a good guy. We talked a bit." He watched as Sephiroth stiffened, looking at him solemnly with emerald eyes. "Yes, he knows some of it, but not all. That's your business to pass on if you want to." Zack sighed in relief as his friend relaxed slightly.
"That's fine. I feel I can trust the boy . . . I can't quite explain it. I just do."
"That's good. You need more friends then me, you know." Sephiroth shrugged, and got shakily to his feet. Making his way slowly to the kitchen, he grabbed a glass of water and returned to the couch. "It was bad today, I take it."
"No worse then the usual shit." He took a sip of water.
"They're gonna kill you, you know. Eventually, these tests are gonna do more to you then they think and you're gonna die from it," Zack muttered. Sephiroth shrugged.
"Death, at this point, might be nice." Zack glared at him. "Oh, calm down Zack. I'm not gonna try to kill myself again. Hojo seems to be doing a pretty good job of that on his own." He sighed. "So, at any rate, how did training go today?"
Zack allowed him to change the subject. They discussed the flaws and strengths of the various recruits, ending with their new adoptee, Cloud.
"He's strong and fast, Seph, but his body may not hold up to the Mako conditioning. He's as good with that sword of his as you said he would be though. Once again, I owe you gil. He could be the best recruit we get out of this batch."
"If he holds up through the Mako conditioning." Sephiroth sighed. "I'd hate to lose such a good recruit because of that stuff. When are they scheduled to get it?"
"Next week. They got to make it through a full week of training first. We already had one recruit leave this morning."
"SOLDIER is not for the faint of heart, you know that Zack. It's better that they leave on their own then fall in a battle where people are counting on them."
"Yeah, yeah, I know." Zack waved him off. "Shall we go wake sleeping beauty and grab some food? I noticed your cooler is, as usual, bare. I swear, you wouldn't eat if I wasn't around." Sephiroth chuckled and stood slowly.
"You go wake him up, I'll go get cleaned up."
