"Transcending Reality" by: Emerald
Eyes
"I know that you've been damaged
and your soul has suffered such abuse. But I am not your savior; I am just as
fucked as you!" –Stabbing Westward
Chapter Eleven: Lab Rat
There was a tiny window set high
on the wall in the prison-like room. If he stretched his feet far enough, he
could see a miniscule amount of the scenery outside. The skies were sometimes
gray, other times bright cerulean, with whipped cream clouds floating by. And
if he was lucky enough, he could sometimes catch a glimpse of a seagull here
and there. But even if he could not see them, he could always hear the birds'
coarse cries. It was a small comfort when he was unable to look out the window;
it was something to keep his mind off the existence he now knew.
Faint memories in his subconscious
mind told him that he was near the ocean, although at this point in time, he
hardly knew what an ocean was anymore. The constant dull roar of waves crashing
onto the shore never ceased. And when the breeze drifted into the window he
could smell the salt in the air. It was the only comfort, the only thing
pleasant in a world of pain, the thing that kept him from going completely mad.
It was dark, both inside and
outside his cell. He sat in a corner, his arms hugging his knees and his khaki
trench coat pulled close to protect him from the cold, saline air. He was
looking out the window again. He could see the stars and the all-too-unfamiliar
moon floating amidst a
He was locked in his prison, his
'home.' It was all he knew now… that, and the man. He knew not of the man's
real name, he only knew him as 'Professor,' the greasy black hair and white lab
coat forever ingrained into his mind. He knew not of his own name; the
Professor knew of it, he was certain, but the vile man only called him his
'Specimen,' as if nothing from his life before had ever mattered.
Before. He knew there was
a 'before.' He had memories of it. Just clips, really, small flashbacks. He
remembered certain faces, certain words, but nothing ever came close to making
sense. One of his more frequent memories was of a smiling girl in a bright
yellow dress. But each day those memories faded more and more… and he feared
the day they would finally be diminished.
The Professor came often enough,
sometimes too often. Several times a day he would visit his prison, either to
bring food and water, to taunt him, or…
The boy shivered, pulling his
trench coat even tighter. Sometimes the Professor would come to him, malevolent
eyes shining behind thick glasses, and smirk at him, saying, "Well, my
Specimen. You know what time it is, don't you?" He
did. The words clawed at his soul like a demon. He didn't exactly know what the
Professor did to him at that time, but he knew the experience was too ghastly
to recall. He knew that when he woke up afterwards, he was in a great deal of
pain.
The boy cringed, remembering the
agony of it all. It seemed as if every time he awoke, something new hurt. He
unconsciously rubbed the sore spot on his left arm, the product of his last
encounter with the Professor.
He saw a light flicker on in the
distance; it blocked out the stars and moon. The Professor was coming. He could
just picture the man walking down the hall, his hands folded behind his back
and a scowl on his face. Soon the Professor was standing at the barred door to
his cell.
"I have to go out and get supplies,"
he said, aloofly, "Mako is harder to come across than it used to be. It's hard
to believe almost every house used it as a power source less than a year ago."
The Professor sighed. The boy looked up at him blankly. This was nothing new.
The Professor sometimes talked to him as if he were sane enough to understand
what he was talking about.
"I used to have the latest
equipment, the most advanced technology, until the ShinRa was destroyed," the
Professor mused as he scrutinized his Specimen. Again, the frightened boy had
no idea what the other was talking about. "I salvaged what I could from the old
ShinRa building, but…" he trailed off, as if he wanted to say something else,
but dismissed the idea. "The Project must continue, no matter what kind of
equipment I have," he finished sharply.
The scowl on his face faded,
replaced by a maddening smile. "But you, my precious Specimen, are fairing a
lot better than I originally expected… certainly a lot better than that failure,
Cloud."
The boy cringed. He had said the
last part of the sentence with such bitter venom in his voice. The Professor
cackled to himself, as if he found the boy's fear amusing, and walked back down
the hall.
The light shut off once more and
the boy continued to look out the window at the nighttime sky.
Outside, the ocean continued to
roar.
^_^_^
Fifty-two gil.
That's it. Fifty-two gil and a level 1 Bolt materia. Trash.
Yuffie sighed irritably, pushing
her neck-length dark hair out of her face. She had expected to fill her pockets
with a lot more than that.
Meteor had left Midgar in ruins,
making Junon the biggest city in the world. Yuffie had to laugh at that. She
had been in the wretched city all day, and with all the people, she had only
purloined fifty-two gil and a level 1 bolt materia.
She frowned stubbornly at the
dilapidated Junon houses as she walked along the shore. "Stupid city!" she
cursed as she angrily kicked a seashell out of the way.
Yuffie slowly made her way across
the white, sandy beach until she reached the side of the road. It was
completely deserted. I can't believe it, she thought, the biggest
city in the world, and no one's walking the streets! It was late at night,
but the girl still expected someone
to be out.
The thief scanned the vacant
streets dubiously in search of an easy target. Her gaze stopped and held on a
lanky form exiting an old building at the end of the street. Yuffie hastily
scrambled into the shadows so as not to be seen by her unsuspecting victim. She
waited for the figure to pass under the illumination of the streetlamp so she
could get a clear view of where his pockets were.
Yuffie leaned closer as her victim
stepped within the carapace of light… and gasped.
Hojo. For Holy's sake, it's Hojo! She stared at the man whom she
had thought was dead with a mixed feeling of hatred, disbelief, and fear. The
light reflected off of Professor Hojo's thick glasses and black, greasy hair.
There were plenty of pockets to rummage though in that white lab coat,
but the thief would touch nothing on the man.
She
stared after him for a moment as he walked along the sidewalk, unperturbed by
Yuffie's thievery. She looked back and forth, her gaze shifting between the
Professor and the old house he had come out of. She couldn't decide if she
wanted to the man or loot his house.
As it
turned out, fate had decided for her, as she discovered she was shocked enough
that her body refused to move until Hojo was completely out of sight.
Cursing
her fear, Yuffie sprinted in a dead run towards the old house at the end of the
road. Although her feet were moving one way, her eyes scanned the area in the
other direction to confirm that Hojo wasn't returning any time soon. In the
process she tripped over an object that wasn't on the road previously. After
spiraling through the air and landing unceremoniously on the pavement, she let
out a pained groan. "Ouch…"
"Hey!" came the angered reply, the voice sounding vaguely familiar
to the thief, "Watch where you're going! You wouldn't want to kill an innocent little
cat, would you?"
Yuffie
had an acerbic reproach at the tip of her tongue, but it was lost as soon she
recognized the person. Her expression changed from one of anger to one of
bewilderment. "Reeve?"
"No,"
the other responded, insulted, "After Meteor, Reeve took the time to give me a
mind of my own. It's just Cait Sith now."
"Oh,
okay… Cait," Yuffie responded, still shocked at finding the cat in Junon… and
at finding him without his giant mog. "What are you doing here?"
Cait
Sith, formerly controlled by Reeve, brushed off his black and white robotic cat
body. "You know how Reeve's a member of ShinRa? Well, after the Meteor Crisis,
he felt kind of guilty, so he's been all over trying to undo all the wrongs the
company's caused. He's been here in Junon for the past few weeks helping some
other people clean up the ocean." --the cat sighed—"Sometimes I think he pushes
himself too hard. Did you know he was planning to help rebuild Midgar!?"
Yuffie
shook her head and the cat continued. "Anyhow, he had me out in the city
looking for Sephiroth—or, to say it better, any news as to where he may be."
The
last comment caught the ninja unawares. "Whoa, wait a minute, here. Did you
just say 'Sephiroth?' Cait, isn't the guy dead!?"
Cait
Sith tilted his head to the side and looked at her quizzically. "Cloud didn't
call you?" The ninja's expression was still blank so he continued. "He called
all of the Avalanche members a little over a week ago. Sephiroth is alive, and
apparently he's out causing major damage." The cat paused and considered how to
continue. "There seemed to be more to it, something he neglected to mention. He
wanted all of us to meet up at the mansion in Nibelheim. Reeve and I, we
couldn't make it, so he just told us to keep our eyes peeled. He said he's get
back to us later if we've found anything… you mean you didn't know, Yuffie?"
"Whoa,
ouch," the girl said absently as she clutched her head with both hands, "Brain
cramp."
Cait
watched the unusual display of confusion for a few moments before speaking
again. "You haven't seen any sign of Sephiroth anywhere, have you?"
"No,"
Yuffie responded, finally getting over her ambiguousness. Her face then paled.
"But I did see signs of Hojo! In fact, I saw the creep himself! He came
walking out of that house over there!" She pointed dramatically towards the
building she had been running for previously.
Cait
Sith turned to look at it.
It was
the last house on the street, located right by the sandy shore. The house was
old, quite possibly built many years before the ShinRa began to occupy Junon.
It was made of dark grey stone, and however uncanny its appearance was, it
somehow remained unsuspicious and well hidden within the throng of the other
Junon homes.
"Come
on, let's check it out!" Cait ordered. He leaped up to the house confidently
and stared up at the old, wooden door.
Yuffie
followed, all the while muttering incoherently about meaning to explore it
before, until she ran into a certain cat.
"How're
we going to get in?" the cat asked.
Yuffie
grinned. "Just leave that part to me."
^_^_^
The boy
sighed. The Professor was finally gone. He knew the man would be back
eventually, but for the moment there was a hiatus from the pain.
He
crouched in the corner of the room, the same corner where he always sat, and
listened to the ocean. The constant roar of the waves lured him into a false
sleep. He hovered in a stare of quasi-consciousness, letting the saline air
fill his lungs, letting the cold breeze caress his face.
In his
pseudo-slumber, the sounds of the sea pulled him into an intense dream, a dream
of 'before.'
He
stood on white sand. It was wet, and constant waves of salty water ebbed and
flowed around his feet. It was the ocean. He knew not how or why he could put a
name to the scene, or remember ever seeing it, but he
knew that was what it was.
In his
hand he held a bottle of some unidentifiable substance. Of the substance, he
could not assign a label, but he remembered how it felt and how it tasted. It
tasted bitter and stung his throat. It made him light-headed and clumsy, but it
felt good.
In his
dream he was laughing and having a good time. Beside him
stood two other people. My friends? He
recognized the faces, but barely. And he couldn't recall at all what they were
like. Of the two boys beside him, he could not remember either of their names.
They
were celebrating. Celebrating what? They had done something important,
he knew that much, but he did not know what he had helped do that was so
significant.
He was
running along the beach, drinking and screaming and having fun. He was running
and running until he spotted a lone female figure silhouetted by the moonlight.
She stood on top of a tall sand dune, her hands placed defiantly on her hips.
She
spoke. She said his name, a name that slid past the surface of his mind as if
it were ice. She wore and angry, obdurate frown as she stepped into the
starlight, although her eyes sparkled with amusement.
The girl in the yellow dress.
Her
green eyes shimmered as her rose lips moved with the words of her sweet voice…
Voice.
Voice.
Voice?
That's right; I can hear
voices… people talking… The voice he heard was not coming from the girl in the yellow dress or
from anyone else on the beach. A wave of panic pushed him out of his reverie,
making him look around the room and the hall outside nervously.
Buts
and pieces of conversation floated to him from somewhere in the house. The
voices echoed off of the plain stone walls, making it all but impossible to
discern where they were coming from.
"…dumb
cat…why…basement…gives me the creeps…"
"…that's
where Professor Hojo…experiments…ShinRa mansion…"
Professor? The boy pushed himself even
farther into the corner.
The two
voices—he knew there were only two because he could hear their footsteps—were
arguing with one another. He could tell by the tone of the voices: the first
one whiney, the second slightly bitter.
"That
is not a good excuse for being in this stupid, spooky basement!"
They
were closer now, perhaps right around the bend. He was certain a run-in with
the two was bound to happen at any moment.
"Well,
you wanted to search the entire house. The basement is part of it. Why
wait until later to search—"
The
boy's breath caught in his throat. They had rounded the corner and had spotted
him. Not knowing of anything better to do, he froze, glaring at them. In the
dark he could make out a short, animal-like silhouette, and a taller feminine
one. They mimicked his action for a brief moment before diving into the
shadows.
"Did
you see 'em? Did you see 'em?"
the tall one asked in a frantic voice.
"Yeah,"
the short one replied, "But do you think it saw us?" The boy was
confused. He wasn't quite sure of what he was, but he knew he wasn't an 'it.'
"I
don't know," the tall one continued, "Doesn't matter now. It's so dark in here…
can't see a damned thing."
Something
was wrong. The two intruders were hiding in the darkest shadows, yet he could
see them clearly. He could see everything clearly, almost as if the
lights were on. And the two voices held their conversation at a whisper, impossible
to hear on the other side of the room where he was hidden. And yet, he heard
them clearly, as if they were speaking directly to him. The boy remembered
seeing things and hearing things in that fashion for as long as he knew he
existed, but… he knew these things weren't in any way normal. He knew he wasn't
supposed to have the special talents that he had. Subconsciously, he tried to
deny it. I'm not supposed to see them because it's nearly
pitch black, but… they can see me. Oh, Hyne,
is it just my imagination? Have I gone completely mad now?
Just
like everything else, the word 'Hyne' was pulled out
of his repressed memories of 'before.' The intruders caught his attention again
as their conversation continued.
"What
if he's one of those experiments? You know, one of those Sephiroth clone lab
rats? We can't just leave him here!" the tall one said. The boy intriguingly
watched the two as he absently rubbed the sore, itchy spot on his left arm, a
product of a recent encounter with the Professor.
"Why not?"
the short one argued, "It hasn't seen us yet. We can just walk away and it'll
never know we were here."
With
his enhanced vision the boy saw the tall one turn to stare directly at him and
gasp. "Oh, he sees us all right," she said with certainty.
"How do
you know?"
The
tall one, the girl, turned back around to glare at the animal. She waved her
hands wildly in the air. "Well, isn't it blindingly obvious!?" she scolded,
pointing in the boy's direction, "Now do you see?"
The
animal turned to stare at him as well. "Oh yeah," it finished up lamely. The
boy knew they could see him, he just didn't know how it was possible. Maybe he
really was crazier than he had previously thought.
The
tall one moved along the wall until she reached the base of his cell, the short
one carefully following her example. She stopped at the door to examine the
lock in the dark-but-not-so-dark room. She frowned at it for a moment, squinting her eyes, and pulled something tiny from her hair.
She bent down and hastily inserted the object into the lock, and after a few
minutes, the door opened with a 'click.'
The boy
held his breath uncertainly. Anything's better than the Professor, right?
The
girl muttered something under her breath: "A bobby-pin works miracles." He was
sure he was the only one to hear her comment.
She
smiled triumphantly, and then directed her grin towards him, softening it to
show she meant no harm. He stared back at her dubiously.
The
cage door screeched in protest as she opened it wide. Once inside the cell, she
stared at him thoughtfully before averting her gaze sadly to the floor. "Poor
guy," she mumbled.
The
animal stared at him with pity. "Gee, he's only a kid. How could Hojo do
something this horrible?"
The
girl sighed and reached down to grab his arm. He reflexively drew back,
instinctively remembering the cruel things done to him. She smiled at him again
and spoke in a gentle, comforting voice. "It's okay. I won't hurt you."
Before
long, the boy had himself trusting the two enough to let them touch him.
"Cait, go get Reeve. Call someone on their PHS. I don't care as long as you can find
someone," the girl ordered, "I can't drag him across all of Junon by myself!"
The animal bounded up the steps at the end of the hallway in a flash.
Before
he knew it, the boy found the girl's arms around his waist. She slowly made her
way down the hall, dragging the boy, too heavy for her to carry, across the
stone floor.
He
stared up at her with confidence now, with a single thought floating through
his mind as he drifted back to sleep: Anything is better than the Professor.
^_^_^
He
drifted in the darkness, his thoughts ceased to exist in the dreamless void. He
was nothing, and nothing mattered. Nothing existed in the vacancy of sleep. He
wanted to stay there forever, wanted nothing to do with the world outside, but
sleep could not last forever.
Voices
drifted into the emptiness of his sleep like sounds carried on a breeze through
an open window. They gradually lured him out of the dark nothingness.
He
became dimly aware of more noise, mainly the roar of the ocean, although the
onslaught of voices made it very hard to distinguish.
He felt
something warm and soft under him, a sharp contrast to the cold stone floor he
was used to. It felt like he was snuggled up in his bed at home in Galbadia, or in his dorm in
The
room was tiny, but cozy. He occupied one of the two beds. From what the boy
could see, he reasoned that he was at an inn. A glass sliding door stood open
on the opposite side of the room, letting in morning sunlight and the sounds of
a beachside town. A place near the ocean. It
could be Balamb… maybe.
The
thought was discarded when his eyes fell upon the other occupants of the room.
They didn't look like anyone he'd ever seen in the small town, but at least
they weren't the Professor. With a feeling somewhere between relief and
disappointment, he focused his thoughts on the people before him.
There
were three of them, four if he counted the
weird-looking cat perched on the shoulder of the one. He recognized the cat. He
was there last night. The girl that stood next to his bed was probably the one
from the previous night also.
He
gaped at her cheery, exuberant face. She reminded him of the girl in the yellow
dress. Selphie, he told himself stubbornly,
content with the return of his memories. Her name is Selphie.
The
other two, he had never seen before.
The one
with the cat on his shoulder was short for a man, with dark, slicked back hair
and tanned skin. He noted that the man was also wearing an expensive looking
suit.
The
other man in the room was older than the other, with short, unruly blonde hair.
He was wearing a green jumpsuit, and a worn and faded jean jacket. A pair of goggles were perched on the top of his head, a
pack of cigarettes secured under the strap. The man's mouth was twisted into a contemptuous
scowl, a cigarette hanging limply from his mouth.
The
strange people stopped talking amongst themselves once they noticed the boy's
scrutiny. They stared at him with expressions anywhere from fear to sympathy.
The girl, however, smiled at him. "Hey, you're finally awake!"
"Yeah,"
the boy responded, fidgeting nervously from all the attention, "I guess I am."
"I'm
the one that found you in Hojo's lab last night," the girl continued arrogantly,
"I'm also the one who saved the planet from Meteor and Sephiroth! I'm a
ninja, one of the descendents of Shinobi, and one of
the best! I'm Yuffie Kisaragi from the mighty
"Um…
no," he answered slowly, not knowing exactly what materia was, "I'm…
"Oh
yeah"—the ninja was cut off by the cat.
"Hey!"
he protested, "I helped destroy Meteor too. It wasn't just you!"
"Oh,
yeah!" she informed, "That's Cait Sith. He's a robot. He used to be controlled by
Reeve—the short guy in the expensive getup…" Reeve waved to him and mumbled a
greeting. "…but the cat's got a mind of his own now."
"My
name's Cid Highwind, boy! Don't you fucking forget that!" The jumpsuit and flight goggles couldn't escape his
curiosity. It seemed to fit the man well: he couldn't picture him wearing
anything else. But the name 'Cid' just didn't fit him. It reminded him too much
of Headmaster Cid from Garden. "What's up with the jumpsuit?" he asked, "Are
you a mechanic or something?"
Cid
laughed. "Hell, yeah! I'm the one who designed the Highwind—the only airship around—as well as some of the
planet's fastest planes. You're lucky, Kinneas. I
just finished repairing the Tiny Bronco yesterday. I flew here as soon as I
heard about Hojo. Where there's Hojo, there's Sephiroth… and I can't wait to
kick his ass. The fucker nearly demolished my airship when Meteor hit!"
"Um,
okay."
"You're
in Junon," Reeve said, looking quite unnerved about
"Oh,"
"Yeah,"
Yuffie added insolently, "I wouldn't want to go anywhere looking like
you do at the moment. The Professor can really mess people up, you know? Plus,
I think you're still a little bit loopy from wherever kind of drugs he was
giving you. For Holy's sake, anyone would think
you're crazy with the way you've been talking, raving on about sorceresses and
that Time Compression junk!"
"What
the hell is goi"—He stopped his query as soon as he
spotted the fairly large bandage on his left arm. His mind a mix of curiosity
and fear,
There
was a tattoo on the bandaged spot. Roman numerals scrawled across his arm read,
'XVI,' the number sixteen. Confusion quickly turned to anger as he realized it
must have been the Professor's work. He branded me! The mother fucker
branded me! Instead of voicing his thoughts, he let out a deep breath that
he had been holding.
"Aw,
fuck," Cid cursed, "Another clone?"
"What?"
Cait,
his ears drooping sadly, gestured towards the mirror. "Look for yourself."
He
turned to the four. "What the fuck is this?" he demanded angrily.
Yuffie
looked around the group nervously. "Um, I thing we got to explain some things
to you. Maybe Cloud knows about you. I don't know. Cait said he'd call soon,
right Cait?"
"Yes,"
the cat nodded, "He seemed to know a lot about what's been going on. Hopefully
he'll call and we'll set things straight."
Cid
took a puff from his cigarette. "In the meantime, sit your ass back down on
that bed, because explaining all of this'll take a while."
End Ch.
11 at 08.19.01.
Emerald's Stoopid Rant: Hey, you KNOW I had
to put Cid in, right? There's no possible way I was gonna
leave him outta the fic! Anyhow, since FF.net was down for so long, I took my
time. If it ever goes down again and you wanna read
more chapters, check out my webpage. Yes, I have one now. Just follow the link
at my profile page!