Chapter One: Gemini - Childhood Years

*Seph?*

*Xand?*

*It hurts, Seph.*

*I know Xand. But if you can take it for a little bit longer, Gast will be here and we will be rid of Hojo for at last one week.*

A wave of warmth flooded Sephiroth's mind, the wordless gratitude of his brother. It was always like this, one of them would be hurt by the countless injections, drugs, tests and other experiments and the other would mentally hold him, talking him through all of this. Thankfully Hojo liked to concentrate completely on his tests and so the times when both of them were suffering at the same time were pretty rare.

Yesterday Alexander had been the strong one, the one to hold his battered mind as the Mako had ripped through his body, boiling in his veins. Today Xand was the one that was suffering and Sephiroth was the one to try and soothe his pain.

And tomorrow? Tomorrow hopefully would be painless, for tomorrow Professor Gast was coming.

The twins liked Professor Gast, at least he was treating them like children and not like numbers or labrats. Sometimes even, as an extraspecial treat, he would take them outside! Both Sephiroth and Alexander fondly remembered the last occasion. It has been two months ago, their fourth birthday and he had introduced them to the wonder that was ice-cream. A small smile fluttered over Sephiroth's face as he recalled that wonderfull day. For a few sweet hours he and Alexander had been normal children, celebrating their birthday with their guardian... until the time had come to go back to the ShinRa Mansion. Hojo had come and dragged him away to a new series of tests and he hadn't seen his brother for an entire week. If it hadn't been for the constant mindlink he had with Alexander, he would have gone mad with loneliness.

The mindlink... it was their most guarded secret, not even Gast knew about it. The scientists could poke them with needles and pump them full with Mako or other, creepy stuff, but they would never learn about the conection the twins shared. No doubt Hojo would try to experiment with it, if he ever found out and the twins feared nothing as much as permanet separation from each other. They only had each other and should they ever loose their special conection, both knew without doubt that they wouldn't survive... at least not sane.

Sephiroth looked up from his position on his bed when he heard footsteps, footsteps that were rapidly coming closer. That could only mean one thing... Hojo was finished for today, Alexander was coming back to him. The door of their room was opened abruptly and Alexander was shoved into the room, still weak and shivering from Hojo's injections. He frowned as he lead his brother to his bed. For Xand to be in such a state, Hojo had to at least double the dosis of Mako... which meant that he had to go through that soon as well. But not today and maybe not tomorrow.

Seph sighed and curled up next to his brother. 'At least' that was his last thought before he subcumbed to sleep, 'at least I am not alone.'

***

He grinned as he hugged the book to his chest.

*We've done it!*

The thought he send to his brother was smug and yet innocently happy. Happy, because now they would be able to read whatever they wanted and smug because they had managed to outlogic Hojo. Not a very simple feat, but together the brothers had managed to do it.

*Yes, Seph. We've done it! I just wish Gast would be here to see us now.*

The thought was heavily tinted by sadness and why shouldn't it, both twins were still terribly shaken by professor Gast's sudden death. Hojo had told them that it had been an accident, but neither twin trusted the mad scientist to tell them the truth. They both thought that it was far more possible that professor Gast had been taken out by Hojo himself.

There had been many arguments between the scientists in the last months before Gast's death, about the way how to work with the brothers. Professor Gast, despite doing less experiments on the twins, was having the better results, because the twins cooperated with him. He liked to tell them what he did and how he did it before his test and the brothers obeyed him if he ordered them to do something during his tests, because they trusted him. Hojo on the other side just jabbed them full with needles and never told them why he was doing the stuff he was doing and the brothers suspected that he was trying extra stuff with them whenever he could.

Also Gast had treatened them like children, terribly gifted children, but children none the less, while they where only speciems to Hojo.

And now Gast would never come back. He would never tell them stories or take them outside anymore, would never smuggle in sweets or books for them. Now only Hojo remained and they had noticed that the test had drastically increased in numbers. They had barley time to heal all the damage before being dragged out again. The assistants Gast had used, that had taken care of the twins in their testfree phases, had been replaced by people that were to Hojo's liking. Uncaring and unsuitable for rising children.

The twins hated it. They hated the tests, the uncaring assistants, that never even blinked an eyelash at their pain, the caretakers, who didn't showed them love or even the slightests ounce of respect, but most of all they hated Hojo, for they were only objects to him. Precious speciems, but yet only objects.

Together they swore an oath, to get free of him, to gain the respect they deserved and they swore to avenge themselves for all the pain he'd subjected them too.

***

Laughter was sounding through the gym and a small crowd was forming to watch the spectacle in the training hall. Two teenagers were facing against each other, one with a incredibly long sword, the other with twin katanas. Both were displaying swordwork that should have been impossible for boys of their age. It was like watching a dance, fluid and gracefull, like a force of nature did the boys fight each other through the room. None of the two were noticing the crowd they were drawing, they were too deeply imersed into their deadly dance. Their skills were evenly matched and both knew the advatagences and disadvatagences of their choosen weapons very well and so neither was able to overpower the other. The match ended in a draw and both contrabands stepped back and bowed to each other. The crowd stared to applaud. Then the boys stepped towards each other and to the big surprise of the spectators the black haired youth handed the long sword to his silver haired sparring partner, who in turn handed the twin katanas to him.

"It is a very well balanced weapon, Sephiroth, but I still prefere my twins."

The dark haired patted the twin katanas lovingly, before he placed them into their scabbards attached to his back.

"That's ok, Alexander. Your twins are great weapons, but I like my Masamune better." Silver hair was sweeped aside and the sword attached to special made clips that allowed him to carry the large weapon on his back.

The brothers shook hands and together they walked out of the room leaving behind a stunned crowd of cadets and SOLDIERs.

***

The cadets and other workers of ShinRa at the SOLDIER academy parted before them like the Red Sea. No one wanted to step into the way of the two highest ranking members of SOLDIER.

They made a rather striking picture, Sephiroth walking at the left side, his long flowing silver hair a sharp contrast against the black of his coat, the Masamune, famous, feared weapon that it was, clipped on his back. To his right, Alexander was striding, completely in sync with his brother. His purplish black hair was as long as Sephiroth's, but he kept it in a strict, long braid, that was decorated with three hairclasps, each carrier for several mastered materia.

Alexander's coat was of the same cut as that of his brother, but his was a brilliant white color. The twins had adopted the color sheme rather quickly at the beginning of the Wutai war, to optimize their visibility on the battlefield and then they had stuck with it. On his back he wore his weapons of choice, the twin katanas called Hikari and Yami after the decorations on their hilts. These two weapons were as famous and feared as his brothers Masamune and like the Masamune, only he and his brother where able to wield them.

The twins were walking in silence, which didn't mean that they weren't talking. They were using their twinlink to communicate, spectacualating about the next mission they were going to be sent on.

They didn't know it yet, but that mission would change their lives completely, for this mission sent them... to Nibelheim.

tbc