Disclaimer: I don't own ff7...Just Gemma and parts of the plot. If you've played the game, than you know what parts I made up and the parts I didn't.

Experiment in Mako

Chapter 2.

Red XIII woke up when he heard the doors to the elevator open. He looked up and saw a young women dressed in pink being roughly placed in a cell on the floor above him. She didn't struggle with those who held her, she just looked around her surroundings with large green eyes. Gem noticed too, although she couldn't see as well, her vision being blurred by thick glass and greenish-blue liquid mako.

Gem preferred to sit on the floor of her small area, her legs crossed, as floating there made her look more of an experiment. She had been able to get to know Red XIII, from the few times that she was allowed to walk around, like how his real name was Nanaki. She hadn't been able to "talk" to him for a week or so now; Hojo had altered her stomach so that she wouldn't need to eat for weeks at a time now, instead of having to eat at least every three days.

*~* I wonder why she's here....*~* The two other occupants of the lab wondered to themselves. They'd probably find out sooner or later... They didn't know that the girl was an ancient, and had friends that were at the moment climbing the sixty floors of Shinra H.Q to rescue her.

Gem closed her eyes and tried to find the meditative state of mind that she called sleep. "Real" sleep was long gone, her body never needing rest anymore, another mutation that she could thank Hojo and Shinra for. She drifted off into her state of peace, not caring much for the girl at the time. It wasn't any of her concern who she was or why she was there.

Nanaki sighed and paced a circle around his cage before settling himself down in a sleeping position. He didn't know what time of day it was, but he was guessing it was around midnight. There was something about that girl that they brought in...He didn't know what, but he felt it.

~* Grandfather.....*~ He thought before falling asleep.

It was an hour later when Nanaki felt someone tapping on the glass of his cage. He turned his head around to look at who it was with his one eye.

"Poor thing....Kept locked up in there..." It was a young women with brown eyes, and long dark brown hair. She was wearing heavy gloves, the kind that you'd wear if you fought with your fists.

"Come on Tifa, let's go find Aeris and get out of here," A man with spiky yellow hair and a huge sword strapped across his back was headed toward the door after taking a long look at Jenova. A big man with a gun instead of one of his hands took a look at Jenova too.

"$%@! Where's it's head?!" He jerked away from it, surprised. The spiky-headed one just shook his head and motioned to the elevator. The three of them walked to the elevator, past Gem, who looked up at them as they passed her. They apparently didn't notice her.

~* The one who tapped on my cage must have been who they call Tifa...Could Aeris be the one who was brought here earlier? *~

Nanaki would find out soon enough. He jolted fully awake and to an up-right position when the floor under him started moving. When his chamber stopped moving, he was in the same chamber as the girl, Aeris. She looked frightened of him, and had her back against the glass. Gem watched from where she was, but she couldn't see what was happening.

"Aeris!" The three people from before ran into the room. Hojo was there, watching the two in the cage with great interest.

"I wanted to see how they would react to each other...They're both the last of their kind."

"Aeris is a person! Not some animal!" Tifa cried while looking at Aeris.

~* I guess I should do some acting... *~

Nanaki lunged toward Aeris, and she ran the other way right before he came to the spot where she was standing.

"Cloud! Help!" She pounded a fist on the glass.

"Aeris! Barret, can you break the lock?" The spiky-haired one, Cloud, looked over at the gun-armed one, Barret.

"I'll try! Stand back!" Barret aimed his gun at the lock and fired. The chamber was filled with a bright light, and Aeris fell to the ground, dazed. Nanaki blinked, and jumped out of the open chamber to attack Hojo. That much Gem saw, and she silently cheered. Cloud went and got Aeris.

"Get off me!" Hojo was squirming under the weight of Nanaki. He did, once Barret had his gun ready. Everyone's attention was turned to a bigger problem than Hojo though....Apparently someone had let one of his other experiments loose. Tifa grabbed Aeris by the hand and ran to the nearest exit with her, leaving Cloud, Nanaki, and Barret to deal with the new enemy.

The first thing the creature did was emit a poisonous gas, that left them on their knees. Nanaki vicously attacked the main creature, his claws leaving raking tears across the things skin. Barret fired off a round of ammunition into it, while cloud used a fire spell. Using that tactic, the battle was won. With the main creature defeated, that three little ones that were with it skittered off into different parts of the lab.

"I'm sorry for any distress I may have cause your friend. I did not ever mean to cause harm." Nanaki was about to walk off, when Cloud called to him.

"What's your name? At least tell us that..."

"....They named me Red XIII here, but you can call me whatever you wish."

"Alright...Red XIII...Would you come with us to get out of here? I assume we're going to the same place until we get out of here."

Nanaki nodded thankfully. "I have to do something very quick." He ran down to Gem's test tube, and attacked the lock. It broke, and the Mako drained out. Gem ran to Nanaki and hugged him.



"Someone else to take with us?" Cloud asked as he walked over to them. Gem stood up and nodded, along with Nanaki.

"Sorry to break this up, but we gotta get the 'ell outta here before those Shinra get here," Barret moved them along and pointed to the elevator. Cloud led them down the floors until they got to the main elevator. They were caught by Rude and Reno of the Turks as soon as they entered it.