Chapter 26
"No!" Avatar screamed as the Fenis guardian's sword stopped inches from Relafen's heart, "Don't TOUCH HIM!"
The Fenis guardian turned to Avatar, his blood red eyes filled with amazement. He took a step back from Relafen and then disappeared in a swirl of smoke, leaving a very afraid Shin-Ra commander and a shocked Avatar alone. Avatar sheathed his sword and walked over to Relafen and reached out his hand, "L-Let's just forget this whole th-"
Relafen slapped away Avatar's hand and stood up on his own, slowly. The blood on Avatar's cheek continued to flow copiously as he clenched it with his hand. Phillona stopped in her tracks when she appeared around the corner and saw Avatar bleeding. She rushed over to Avatar and cast a cure spell on him, stopping his bleeding. But a red streak remained across his face as she began to speak, "It's not deep...else...my spell wouldn't have stopped it..."
She took a step back when Relafen sheathed his sword. She realized it was Relafen who had drawn blood but before she could say anything, Avatar cut in, "It wasn't his fault..."
Phillona sighed, "You hurt yourself then, Avatar?"
Avatar didn't reply. He just walked away towards a metal ladder at a corner leading to the chocobo stables, where Trex was taking a peaceful nap. Relafen was quiet too, still trying to cope with what he had seen. But it vanished from his mind, when he saw Phillona look at him. She tilted her head sideways, "You don't look too good either...what h-happened...?"
"Nothing..." Relafen lied, "W-We were just...uh...practicing..."
"Oh..." she said, a relieved tone in her voice, "So you and Avatar are just friends who practiced a bit too hard...and-"
"No..." Relafen replied in a cold manner recalling how the Fenis guardian had looked, "Me and Sifan's buddy along with his pal...are far from friendship, Phillona...far far from it..."
Phillona realized what Relafen had meant, "That's why you went away from them, huh? Found your own way out of the forest that you, Avatar and Seef landed up in...didn't quite want to hang out with them, I guess..."
"Yeah...you get the point..." Relafen said, getting rid of the thought that he might have died a minute ago under the Fenis guardian's blade, "Well, I didn't know we were warped to some other world, jus' thought I'd find my own way back home...I didn't need those two bums..."
"What do you hate about Seef, Relafen?" Phillona said slowly, "He doesn't seem the type that-"
"SEEF, huh?" Relafen hissed, "Cute name ya have for YOUR Leonhart..."
She spoke firmly, "Sifan's not...'mine', ok?"
"Look..." he said straightening up, "I am sorry..."
"............................."
"So..." he said quietly, "Have you...er...thought about what I..."
"I am sorry, Relafen..." she started, "But..."
"But I am in love with Seef..." Relafen snapped, "THAT'S IT. Isn't it?"
"What!?" She cried, "W-Who told you t-that?"
"Fenis..."
"He lied..." she replied, "Avatar loves to play...y-you should know that better than me, you know..."
"..........................."
"Anyway... as far as you and me, Relafen..." she said, "You won't like...a few things about me...and..."
"I like everything about you Phillona!" Relafen cried as the airship hovered over Mideel in the dark night sky, "W-Why cant you just..."
"Sorry..." she cut in, "I appreciate everything you've done but a relationship is ...out of the question..."
"Goodbye...and sorry again..." she said and turned around slowly.
"Don't give me that crap about a relationship with me being out of the question!" Relafen exploded from hurt as she walked away from him, "You were dancing so close to Leonhart! AM I ANY LESSER COMPARED TO HIM, DAMMIT!? AM I?"
"Phillona!" he shouted but she just hurried away towards the airship's exit as the Shin-Ra air vehicle slowly came to rest on the plains outside Mideel.
Relafen hung his head and slowly made his way to his cabin. He banged the door shut behind him and fell on his bed. He thought about how Phillona had closed her eyes and rested her face against Sifan's chest. A newly born hatred for Sifan ignited in him, "Someday dad...I'll put a Leonhart to shame..."
*****************************
Sifan waited, the clock in his inn room struck two. He was hoping badly that Lyris would barge in to his head like she usually did when he least expected it. However, his thoughts were the only things that were ringing in his head. Lyris' smooth feminine voice was nowhere to be heard.
He felt cold, alone and weary like the way he had in his SeeD field exam. When he was in that ice continent to rescue the stranded white SeeDs. Avatar wasn't beside him either. He didn't like the feeling though he had always wished to be alone. It suddenly wasn't all that easy being unaccompanied...at least, not after he had seen the nightmare that had so easily shook his mind...and for the first time in his new world, Sifan felt anxiety...
The fact that Lyris had told him to accept what she'd tell him that night again pricked his mind.
[If I AM SUPPOSED to accept the nightmare about me dying with a m-masamune through m-my guts...then that's like...asking me to accept...I've been brought here...to...be killed...]
He shuddered at the way he had seen the masamune's blade go through his stomach. It looked so real. And then, the way his mind was numbed with dread when he saw those bright eyes of the masamune wielder...burning fiery green...
{Scary...wasn't he, kiddo?}
[Lyris! Man, am I glad to hear you...]
{Sigh...I guess there's always a first time for everything, huh?}
Sifan chuckled, a feeling of comfort and assurance coming across him.
[Well...There was this nightmare I j-just had-]
{I know...}
[I-Is that what you wanted to tell me...?]
{Well, sort of...}
[That I am gonna die, killed by s-some...]
{No, no...you're not going to die, Sifan...stop jumping to conclusions...}
[T-Then what did all that mean...?]
{Would you believe me if I told you...?}
[I'll do my best...]
{Well, here we go...}
[.....................]
{That blonde-haired warrior who you saw...}
[The one who did those sword slashes...?]
{He was Phillona Strife's father...Cloud Strife...}
[Yeah...it didn't occur to me then...but now I do recall a picture of him back in Mideel...]
{He was as strong as your father Sifan...}
[I kinda figured that out too...and I bet he killed that green-eyed guy...like Dad killed Ultimecia...]
{True...but Cloud's opponent surpasses the strongest form of Ultimecia...}
[What's his name, Lyris? That green-eyed...one's...name...]
{..........................}
[Hey...something wrong?]
{N-No...well, h-his name I-Is....... Sephiroth....}
Sifan felt a twinge of discomfort when Lyris' voice stuttered. What unnerved him even more was that she had stuttered out of plain dread.
[OK...so...about my nightmare now...]
{Well, Sifan...what you saw, actually happened twenty years ago...Sephiroth had wanted to destroy the world and absorb all the life stream and become powerful beyond his wildest dreams...}
[Cloud killed him off before that could happen, huh?]
{Yes...out of personal and other motives...Sephiroth was killed by his, supposedly 'Imperfect' Clone, Cloud...}
[C-Clone...?]
{Yes...Lets just pass the details for now...}
[Ok...]
{Anyway, Sifan...what really pertains in your dream is what happened after cloud killed his enemy...}
[I was drawn...to cloud's body...I floated to the place where he was standing...b-but then...he disappeared...and...my body became real...]
{Now say that a little briefly...}
[Cloud disappeared and I appeared...and then...S-Seph...the green-eyed...man... returned...]
{In other words...Sifan...you TOOK Cloud Strife's place...}
[Cloud died...?]
{Yes...a couple of years later after his wife gave birth to Phillona...he...was a true hero...but even heroes have to die...}
[So...I...am the one called to...to...take cloud's place...and face a reawakened S-Sephiroth...]
{Yes...}
[I am not believing this...ANY OF IT...]
{Well...the 'being drawn' feeling you had in your dream signified...your traveling from your world to this one...you took Cloud's place...Sifan...this is...your destiny....}
[NO...I...I can't...]
{It will take a long time...Sifan. You will have to ready yourself with everything...equip yourself...Physically...mentally...and emotionally.}
[How will I know where to go? How will I know what to do, huh?]
{Things...will work themselves out...and believe me...you'll know...but then...seeing through the future will be in your hands...only.}
Sifan was drowning...it was all too much. There he was...a few days before...sitting in the balamb garden balcony...sipping on his glass of champagne. And now...he was drowning in a pool of unrealistic revelations...
[But then...in my dream...I died...]
{Only because you've not yet prepared yourself...trust me, you shouldn't let that affect you...}
[...Lyris...Why me...?]
{Because...the blood of the Lionheart...flows through you...}
[I am nowhere as strong as Dad...]
{Along your journey through this world...you'll find strength, courage, and love...}
[L-Love...?]
{Even the lionheart needed his angel...forgot so soon, Sifan?]
[...............]
{Don't worry...I'll be with you...unless...}
[Unless what?]
{ ...................}
[Fine...don't tell me...]
{Sorry...I'll tell you some day...}
Sifan sighed. A drowsy feeling started to overcome him slowly.
[Good night, Lyris...It's all too much for me...I need to sleep...]
{Yeah...goodnight, kiddo...}
Sifan walked away to his bed...he pulled the bed cover over himself and stared at the ceiling. He closed his eyes and hoped to fade off to sleep though at the back of his mind, he knew, Sephiroth was coming....
************************
Professor Hojo pranced up and down the plains outside Nibelheim. All the merchants chattering and the people babbling about AVALANCHE had driven him insane and he had to come out of town to concentrate. So he stood leaning on a rock, scribbling away on his notepad. He was still angry with President Rufus that he had given two of the three passwords for the JENOVA project to Hamilton. But he let it slip away and pushed his crooked spectacles up his stick-like nose. His round face seemed oddly suited to the ragged ponytail he had made out of his badly kept hair. As far as people were concerned, he was just another scientist who was out of his rocker.
He was about to turn the page on his notepad when a sound behind him made him jump to his feet. He was afraid it would be a hippogriff but he decided to take a look. He turned around and standing on his tiptoe, looked over the rock he had been leaning on. His eyebrows relaxed when he saw it was just a small girl who was lying unconscious. In the shadows behind her were two fully-grown men lying dead with their eyes open. He walked over to her and bent down and touched the girl's wrist...she was still alive. He saw the two men who were lying motionless near her, he easily came to the conclusion that they were dead just by looking at them. He cast an earth spell, which ripped the earth near them apart and caused a pit on the ground. He then kicked the two corpses of the two men in to the pit. He put the girl's body across his shoulder and walked over to a large boulder near the pit and cast another earth spell at the ground under it. The boulder shook and then slowly moved towards the pit and sealed it. Hojo smiled slyly at the sound of the two bodies being flattened by the boulder.
An hour later in a dim lit room, the girl opened her eyes slowly, "M-Mom....?"
And then she realized that her mother was no more alive. She rubbed her childish brown eyes and sat up. She looked at the room around her. It was filled with dark green radiance from what looked like age-old green lamps stuck on the wall. She saw a shelf of books ahead of her on either side of a small pathway that led to another room. She let out a gasp when she saw that, beside her, a few feet away was a large cylindrical glass structure filled with a green liquid. But what really gave her a shudder was the completely naked human body that was floating inside, bobbing up and down with an oxygen mask fit to it's face. She slowly got down from the table on which she woke up and moved closer to the structure, her heart pounding. She had no idea where she was but all she knew was she had been taken somewhere else and the last person she saw was her mother, covered in blood and almost at death. She let another tear drop down her face and pushed her red hair aside. She looked nervously at a small steel plaque fixed at the bottom of the cylinder that contained the human. On it was engraved the words, "Project dark matter 1: Vincent Valentine."
The girl swallowed hard and turned away from what she had just seen. But before she could completely turn away, her eyes fell on another cylinder similar to the one she had seen. However, it was empty and the plaque just read, "Reserved for Project dark matter 2." And then suddenly, she found herself staring at a man with a white coat, a pair of odd spectacles on a round face and a ragged ponytail. He smiled an awkward smile, "Hello, little girl."
She didn't reply anything.
Hojo continued, "I want to help you my child. I found you lying outside town..."
"W-Were there anyone else with me...?" she asked, in a shaky voice.
"No..." Hojo lied and put a hand in his white coat pocket and moved towards the girl, "You're very sick, child, your health is a matter of concern but don't worry, I'll have you fixed in no time."
The girl didn't feel anything wrong with her health though she felt depressed. Hojo advanced towards her as he took out an injection from his pocket, "Now...stay still..."
The girl was an epitome of innocence and little did she think the man who had 'saved' her would be of any threat to her. She simply nodded as Hojo injected the syringe carefully in to her arm, "Tell your name for me, child."
She told him her name. He smiled as he rubbed her hand with a piece of cotton, "That's a lovely name and how old are you?"
"Twelve." She replied innocently as the man took a nearby diary and started scribbling on it.
"And your mother's name darling...?"
After answering him, she watched his smile grow wider, and then, slowly, her eyesight became obscure and before she knew anything else, she blacked out completely.
Hojo just smiled casually as he continued to scribble in his diary,
'I have finally found a subject for Project dark matter 2. As necessary, the subject is only 12 years old giving the second dark matter project a higher probability of succeeding than the first one. However, it seems to be more advisable to keep the second project running for at least 6 years from now after which, of course...I'll transfer her to liquid nitrogen to stop her further aging.... Vincent valentine will be coffined and stored away as I have decided that I cannot expect further results from him. It is expected he will still have his memory but he will never wake up to recall anything. Or so I believe..."
He lifted the girl up after placing down the clipboard and pressed a button under the vacant cylinder. The top cover slid open. He pulled an oxygen mask from inside the cylinder's wall and placed it on the girl's mouth and nose. He lifted the girl and after ridding her of her clothes slumped her in to the glass cylinder. He closed the cylinder using the button he had pressed to open it. He pressed another switch and a green fluid poured in through the hole and filled the cylinder. Hojo smirked widely and returned to his diary, 'Project dark matter 1 will be ended today and the subject, Valentine will be coffined. Project dark matter 2 is now under way, subject is 12 years old and her name, Keiara, daughter of a certain Ultimecia..."
****************************
From the author: ok guys...remember...PLEASE REVIEW....REVIEW REVIEEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't wanna threaten ya guys again./..i am too chweet... ^_^
"No!" Avatar screamed as the Fenis guardian's sword stopped inches from Relafen's heart, "Don't TOUCH HIM!"
The Fenis guardian turned to Avatar, his blood red eyes filled with amazement. He took a step back from Relafen and then disappeared in a swirl of smoke, leaving a very afraid Shin-Ra commander and a shocked Avatar alone. Avatar sheathed his sword and walked over to Relafen and reached out his hand, "L-Let's just forget this whole th-"
Relafen slapped away Avatar's hand and stood up on his own, slowly. The blood on Avatar's cheek continued to flow copiously as he clenched it with his hand. Phillona stopped in her tracks when she appeared around the corner and saw Avatar bleeding. She rushed over to Avatar and cast a cure spell on him, stopping his bleeding. But a red streak remained across his face as she began to speak, "It's not deep...else...my spell wouldn't have stopped it..."
She took a step back when Relafen sheathed his sword. She realized it was Relafen who had drawn blood but before she could say anything, Avatar cut in, "It wasn't his fault..."
Phillona sighed, "You hurt yourself then, Avatar?"
Avatar didn't reply. He just walked away towards a metal ladder at a corner leading to the chocobo stables, where Trex was taking a peaceful nap. Relafen was quiet too, still trying to cope with what he had seen. But it vanished from his mind, when he saw Phillona look at him. She tilted her head sideways, "You don't look too good either...what h-happened...?"
"Nothing..." Relafen lied, "W-We were just...uh...practicing..."
"Oh..." she said, a relieved tone in her voice, "So you and Avatar are just friends who practiced a bit too hard...and-"
"No..." Relafen replied in a cold manner recalling how the Fenis guardian had looked, "Me and Sifan's buddy along with his pal...are far from friendship, Phillona...far far from it..."
Phillona realized what Relafen had meant, "That's why you went away from them, huh? Found your own way out of the forest that you, Avatar and Seef landed up in...didn't quite want to hang out with them, I guess..."
"Yeah...you get the point..." Relafen said, getting rid of the thought that he might have died a minute ago under the Fenis guardian's blade, "Well, I didn't know we were warped to some other world, jus' thought I'd find my own way back home...I didn't need those two bums..."
"What do you hate about Seef, Relafen?" Phillona said slowly, "He doesn't seem the type that-"
"SEEF, huh?" Relafen hissed, "Cute name ya have for YOUR Leonhart..."
She spoke firmly, "Sifan's not...'mine', ok?"
"Look..." he said straightening up, "I am sorry..."
"............................."
"So..." he said quietly, "Have you...er...thought about what I..."
"I am sorry, Relafen..." she started, "But..."
"But I am in love with Seef..." Relafen snapped, "THAT'S IT. Isn't it?"
"What!?" She cried, "W-Who told you t-that?"
"Fenis..."
"He lied..." she replied, "Avatar loves to play...y-you should know that better than me, you know..."
"..........................."
"Anyway... as far as you and me, Relafen..." she said, "You won't like...a few things about me...and..."
"I like everything about you Phillona!" Relafen cried as the airship hovered over Mideel in the dark night sky, "W-Why cant you just..."
"Sorry..." she cut in, "I appreciate everything you've done but a relationship is ...out of the question..."
"Goodbye...and sorry again..." she said and turned around slowly.
"Don't give me that crap about a relationship with me being out of the question!" Relafen exploded from hurt as she walked away from him, "You were dancing so close to Leonhart! AM I ANY LESSER COMPARED TO HIM, DAMMIT!? AM I?"
"Phillona!" he shouted but she just hurried away towards the airship's exit as the Shin-Ra air vehicle slowly came to rest on the plains outside Mideel.
Relafen hung his head and slowly made his way to his cabin. He banged the door shut behind him and fell on his bed. He thought about how Phillona had closed her eyes and rested her face against Sifan's chest. A newly born hatred for Sifan ignited in him, "Someday dad...I'll put a Leonhart to shame..."
*****************************
Sifan waited, the clock in his inn room struck two. He was hoping badly that Lyris would barge in to his head like she usually did when he least expected it. However, his thoughts were the only things that were ringing in his head. Lyris' smooth feminine voice was nowhere to be heard.
He felt cold, alone and weary like the way he had in his SeeD field exam. When he was in that ice continent to rescue the stranded white SeeDs. Avatar wasn't beside him either. He didn't like the feeling though he had always wished to be alone. It suddenly wasn't all that easy being unaccompanied...at least, not after he had seen the nightmare that had so easily shook his mind...and for the first time in his new world, Sifan felt anxiety...
The fact that Lyris had told him to accept what she'd tell him that night again pricked his mind.
[If I AM SUPPOSED to accept the nightmare about me dying with a m-masamune through m-my guts...then that's like...asking me to accept...I've been brought here...to...be killed...]
He shuddered at the way he had seen the masamune's blade go through his stomach. It looked so real. And then, the way his mind was numbed with dread when he saw those bright eyes of the masamune wielder...burning fiery green...
{Scary...wasn't he, kiddo?}
[Lyris! Man, am I glad to hear you...]
{Sigh...I guess there's always a first time for everything, huh?}
Sifan chuckled, a feeling of comfort and assurance coming across him.
[Well...There was this nightmare I j-just had-]
{I know...}
[I-Is that what you wanted to tell me...?]
{Well, sort of...}
[That I am gonna die, killed by s-some...]
{No, no...you're not going to die, Sifan...stop jumping to conclusions...}
[T-Then what did all that mean...?]
{Would you believe me if I told you...?}
[I'll do my best...]
{Well, here we go...}
[.....................]
{That blonde-haired warrior who you saw...}
[The one who did those sword slashes...?]
{He was Phillona Strife's father...Cloud Strife...}
[Yeah...it didn't occur to me then...but now I do recall a picture of him back in Mideel...]
{He was as strong as your father Sifan...}
[I kinda figured that out too...and I bet he killed that green-eyed guy...like Dad killed Ultimecia...]
{True...but Cloud's opponent surpasses the strongest form of Ultimecia...}
[What's his name, Lyris? That green-eyed...one's...name...]
{..........................}
[Hey...something wrong?]
{N-No...well, h-his name I-Is....... Sephiroth....}
Sifan felt a twinge of discomfort when Lyris' voice stuttered. What unnerved him even more was that she had stuttered out of plain dread.
[OK...so...about my nightmare now...]
{Well, Sifan...what you saw, actually happened twenty years ago...Sephiroth had wanted to destroy the world and absorb all the life stream and become powerful beyond his wildest dreams...}
[Cloud killed him off before that could happen, huh?]
{Yes...out of personal and other motives...Sephiroth was killed by his, supposedly 'Imperfect' Clone, Cloud...}
[C-Clone...?]
{Yes...Lets just pass the details for now...}
[Ok...]
{Anyway, Sifan...what really pertains in your dream is what happened after cloud killed his enemy...}
[I was drawn...to cloud's body...I floated to the place where he was standing...b-but then...he disappeared...and...my body became real...]
{Now say that a little briefly...}
[Cloud disappeared and I appeared...and then...S-Seph...the green-eyed...man... returned...]
{In other words...Sifan...you TOOK Cloud Strife's place...}
[Cloud died...?]
{Yes...a couple of years later after his wife gave birth to Phillona...he...was a true hero...but even heroes have to die...}
[So...I...am the one called to...to...take cloud's place...and face a reawakened S-Sephiroth...]
{Yes...}
[I am not believing this...ANY OF IT...]
{Well...the 'being drawn' feeling you had in your dream signified...your traveling from your world to this one...you took Cloud's place...Sifan...this is...your destiny....}
[NO...I...I can't...]
{It will take a long time...Sifan. You will have to ready yourself with everything...equip yourself...Physically...mentally...and emotionally.}
[How will I know where to go? How will I know what to do, huh?]
{Things...will work themselves out...and believe me...you'll know...but then...seeing through the future will be in your hands...only.}
Sifan was drowning...it was all too much. There he was...a few days before...sitting in the balamb garden balcony...sipping on his glass of champagne. And now...he was drowning in a pool of unrealistic revelations...
[But then...in my dream...I died...]
{Only because you've not yet prepared yourself...trust me, you shouldn't let that affect you...}
[...Lyris...Why me...?]
{Because...the blood of the Lionheart...flows through you...}
[I am nowhere as strong as Dad...]
{Along your journey through this world...you'll find strength, courage, and love...}
[L-Love...?]
{Even the lionheart needed his angel...forgot so soon, Sifan?]
[...............]
{Don't worry...I'll be with you...unless...}
[Unless what?]
{ ...................}
[Fine...don't tell me...]
{Sorry...I'll tell you some day...}
Sifan sighed. A drowsy feeling started to overcome him slowly.
[Good night, Lyris...It's all too much for me...I need to sleep...]
{Yeah...goodnight, kiddo...}
Sifan walked away to his bed...he pulled the bed cover over himself and stared at the ceiling. He closed his eyes and hoped to fade off to sleep though at the back of his mind, he knew, Sephiroth was coming....
************************
Professor Hojo pranced up and down the plains outside Nibelheim. All the merchants chattering and the people babbling about AVALANCHE had driven him insane and he had to come out of town to concentrate. So he stood leaning on a rock, scribbling away on his notepad. He was still angry with President Rufus that he had given two of the three passwords for the JENOVA project to Hamilton. But he let it slip away and pushed his crooked spectacles up his stick-like nose. His round face seemed oddly suited to the ragged ponytail he had made out of his badly kept hair. As far as people were concerned, he was just another scientist who was out of his rocker.
He was about to turn the page on his notepad when a sound behind him made him jump to his feet. He was afraid it would be a hippogriff but he decided to take a look. He turned around and standing on his tiptoe, looked over the rock he had been leaning on. His eyebrows relaxed when he saw it was just a small girl who was lying unconscious. In the shadows behind her were two fully-grown men lying dead with their eyes open. He walked over to her and bent down and touched the girl's wrist...she was still alive. He saw the two men who were lying motionless near her, he easily came to the conclusion that they were dead just by looking at them. He cast an earth spell, which ripped the earth near them apart and caused a pit on the ground. He then kicked the two corpses of the two men in to the pit. He put the girl's body across his shoulder and walked over to a large boulder near the pit and cast another earth spell at the ground under it. The boulder shook and then slowly moved towards the pit and sealed it. Hojo smiled slyly at the sound of the two bodies being flattened by the boulder.
An hour later in a dim lit room, the girl opened her eyes slowly, "M-Mom....?"
And then she realized that her mother was no more alive. She rubbed her childish brown eyes and sat up. She looked at the room around her. It was filled with dark green radiance from what looked like age-old green lamps stuck on the wall. She saw a shelf of books ahead of her on either side of a small pathway that led to another room. She let out a gasp when she saw that, beside her, a few feet away was a large cylindrical glass structure filled with a green liquid. But what really gave her a shudder was the completely naked human body that was floating inside, bobbing up and down with an oxygen mask fit to it's face. She slowly got down from the table on which she woke up and moved closer to the structure, her heart pounding. She had no idea where she was but all she knew was she had been taken somewhere else and the last person she saw was her mother, covered in blood and almost at death. She let another tear drop down her face and pushed her red hair aside. She looked nervously at a small steel plaque fixed at the bottom of the cylinder that contained the human. On it was engraved the words, "Project dark matter 1: Vincent Valentine."
The girl swallowed hard and turned away from what she had just seen. But before she could completely turn away, her eyes fell on another cylinder similar to the one she had seen. However, it was empty and the plaque just read, "Reserved for Project dark matter 2." And then suddenly, she found herself staring at a man with a white coat, a pair of odd spectacles on a round face and a ragged ponytail. He smiled an awkward smile, "Hello, little girl."
She didn't reply anything.
Hojo continued, "I want to help you my child. I found you lying outside town..."
"W-Were there anyone else with me...?" she asked, in a shaky voice.
"No..." Hojo lied and put a hand in his white coat pocket and moved towards the girl, "You're very sick, child, your health is a matter of concern but don't worry, I'll have you fixed in no time."
The girl didn't feel anything wrong with her health though she felt depressed. Hojo advanced towards her as he took out an injection from his pocket, "Now...stay still..."
The girl was an epitome of innocence and little did she think the man who had 'saved' her would be of any threat to her. She simply nodded as Hojo injected the syringe carefully in to her arm, "Tell your name for me, child."
She told him her name. He smiled as he rubbed her hand with a piece of cotton, "That's a lovely name and how old are you?"
"Twelve." She replied innocently as the man took a nearby diary and started scribbling on it.
"And your mother's name darling...?"
After answering him, she watched his smile grow wider, and then, slowly, her eyesight became obscure and before she knew anything else, she blacked out completely.
Hojo just smiled casually as he continued to scribble in his diary,
'I have finally found a subject for Project dark matter 2. As necessary, the subject is only 12 years old giving the second dark matter project a higher probability of succeeding than the first one. However, it seems to be more advisable to keep the second project running for at least 6 years from now after which, of course...I'll transfer her to liquid nitrogen to stop her further aging.... Vincent valentine will be coffined and stored away as I have decided that I cannot expect further results from him. It is expected he will still have his memory but he will never wake up to recall anything. Or so I believe..."
He lifted the girl up after placing down the clipboard and pressed a button under the vacant cylinder. The top cover slid open. He pulled an oxygen mask from inside the cylinder's wall and placed it on the girl's mouth and nose. He lifted the girl and after ridding her of her clothes slumped her in to the glass cylinder. He closed the cylinder using the button he had pressed to open it. He pressed another switch and a green fluid poured in through the hole and filled the cylinder. Hojo smirked widely and returned to his diary, 'Project dark matter 1 will be ended today and the subject, Valentine will be coffined. Project dark matter 2 is now under way, subject is 12 years old and her name, Keiara, daughter of a certain Ultimecia..."
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From the author: ok guys...remember...PLEASE REVIEW....REVIEW REVIEEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't wanna threaten ya guys again./..i am too chweet... ^_^