Everything was...brown. There was no color in the world. Things were made of wood, and that was pretty much the base substance of everything. The buildings...well, they were like huts. Small huts with something like plastic tied to poles to form roofs. The streets were made of dirt, dry, cracked hard clay. The street signs were half in the ground, their signs brown with white painted letters on them. The paint was peeling off of the signs. In fact, some signs only had one or two letters left on them. The streets were completely empty, not a sign of any living things. It was dead silent in this New World, and a glimpse of silver in the distance caught Cloud's eye.
Cloud slowly set the little Sephiroth on the ground, running a hand through his spiky blonde hair, his mind racing to figure out what had happened. Where was everyone?
"Hello?" Cloud called. When he got no response, fear began to tug on him. "Did something happen while I was gone...?" There was a soft thumping noise that slowly faded off into the distance. Cloud blinked. Where was that sound coming from? His eyes widened as he realized that Sephiroth had run off, out into the apparently abandoned town.
"Sephiroth!" Cloud called out into the emptiness. "Sephiroth, wait! Come back here!" His voice echoed back to him. He knew Sephiroth wasn't come back, but he had no clue as to which way the boy had run off. He ran off as fast as his legs would carry him down one of the deserted streets.
Cloud kept calling for Sephiroth, and got no response. What the hell was going on? What happened in that short time Cloud was gone?
"Sephiroth! Please!"
He staggered and tripped, falling hard on the ground. The sharp stones in the dirt scraped the skin on his arms, and now he was bleeding. This just wasn't Cloud's day. He pulled himself slowly back to his feet, and his eyes locked on the metal building he had seen in the distance. The steepled roof of the building was made of pure silver and it seemed, and the steps leading up to the front doors were made of gold! There were marble columns; marble that was obviously the best quality.
Cloud's jaw dropped slightly as he read the words glowing in neon letters.
'ShinRa Inc.'
In smaller neon letters, below the name of the corporation, was,
'Here to help you become better people.'
"Better people...?" Cloud mumbled to himself. He saw Sephiroth standing by the doors, trying to reach the handles that were just a few inches to high. Cloud walked over to the silver haired boy and opened the door for him.
Sephiroth glared darkly at Cloud with narrowed eyes, his eyes were venomous and full of hatred, something Cloud never expected such a young boy to have in his expression.
"I didn't need your help," Sephiroth spat.
The blonde stared at Sephiroth. He didn't expect the boy to be so full of hatred already. Just what had Professor Hojo done to him? Surely he hadn't begun his experiments on him, had he?
"Sorry," Cloud responded. He tried to sound as nice as possible. He didn't need the boy getting any more hate filled.
Sephiroth regarded Cloud for a moment. As if he hadn't heard the phrase before. Or at least coming out of some one else's mouth. "Apology accepted," he said quietly, and walked into the fancy building. Cloud followed him, wondering just how much had changed in such a short amount of time.
The inside was all marble.
"Shinra was not this prettied up when I was here last."
As Cloud and Sephiroth walked through the halls that seemed never ending, Cloud noticed that there were more rooms on the first floor than before. In fact, the entire building seemed larger than before. They found the stairs. They were made of gold.
"This is where all of the money was spent. On this building," Sephiroth explained. It seemed it was more to himself than to Cloud. "That's why the place is in poverty."
"You have a huge vocabulary, Seph."
Sephiroth stopped dead. He whipped around and glared up at him. "Don't call me that."
Cloud blinked. Sephiroth didn't even like his old nickname he used to call him?
Sephiroth sighed and continued to walk, up the stairs. Cloud followed behind him., wondering how much Professor Hojo had hurt him. The longer he was with Sephiroth, the more he realized that the way he turned out wasn't his fault the way he turned out.
"Did you know that most people are born with a mental illness? Except most are so hidden away in a person, that they aren't detected unless a thorough test is done?"
Cloud blinked. He was fascinated by Sephiroth's seemingly never ending knowledge.
"I don't even know your name," Sephiroth said suddenly.
Cloud blinked. How stupid of him. He hadn't even introduced himself.
"My name is Cloud. Cloud Strife."
Sephiroth skipped the last step and bounced onto the second floor.
"You already know my name," Sephiroth said, "but nonetheless, my name is Sephiroth. I don't have a last name...I don't know who either of my parents are. But Professor Hojo and Professor Gast take care of me, so I guess they're kind of like my parents."
"Have you been around adults all of your life?"
Sephiroth slowly nodded. "Yes, and it's really boring. I've never met some one else my own age. Sometimes, Professor Gast brings me children books. To be honest, I like those better than the big textbooks Professor Hojo makes me read. I like to use my imagination. I've also come up with a little scheme too. Professor Hojo wants to study me, and see my thoughts and ideas through my drawings and my writings. I do them in watercolor, so when they try to take it from me, I just dump my water on it. I figured out how to disassemble the so-called 'hidden' cameras." He laughed softly. "It's my entertainment, making Professor Hojo angry. But..." he slowly trailed off.
"But what?" Cloud was hanging onto Little Sephiroth's each word. He was so young, so small, and knew so much. Cloud was just intrigued.
"But when I make Professor Hojo too mad...I...He hurts me..."
"He hurts you?"
"Y-yes." Sephiroth's voice was strained, and he was clearly fighting back tears. "He says I d-deserve it. I don't think I do. I don't want to be an experiment. I don't want to be his guinea pig for all of his unstable experiment." He sniffled and rubbed his eyes to rid the tears. He kept his back to Cloud the whole time. Taking a deep breath, he steadied himself and continued to walk down the next hallway.
Cloud was amazed. No wonder Sephiroth had turned out the way he did.
"Hey, Sephiroth, where are you going anyway?"
"I'm going to the lab. Or at least where I think it used to be."
A/N: Hey! Thanks everyone for the reviews! I really appreciate it! -
