Cloud impulsively turned the crystal knob of the door and forced it open. It wasn't even locked. Cloud's mind quickly reviewed the surroundings.

There were machines everywhere, much like in the lab from the past, only this room was much smaller. It was just as cold as well, and Cloud assumed it was so the computers wouldn't overheat. There were florescent lights overhead, which accomplished its purpose and brightened the room considerably. There was a glass cage in the corner, where a woman was hunched up as far away from the man as she could. The man held Sephiroth roughly by the arm, and held a thick whip, probably made of dragon hide.

The man was around five feet seven inches, and seemed much stronger than he should have been. His shoes were shiny and black, very dressy, and his pants were black as well, seemingly made of some extremely expensive material. His shirt was black silk, and the top two buttons weren't done. He wore a white lab coat, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, a few acid stains here and there. Jet-black seemingly oily hair rested on the man's shoulders, wavy where it was once in its ponytail. Cloud soon realized that there were a few strands of gray in the hair. The man's skin was pale, and seemed even paler than it normally would have been in the florescent light, so pale that Cloud could easily pick out the veins. A pair of thick-lens glasses rested upon his nose, which was scrunched up in disgust, the eyes behind the glasses dark, like bottomless pits, maddened, and merciless. A cocky grin was what he wore, and it fit him perfectly. A little nametag was sewn into the right breast pocket.

Professor R. Hojo.

Cloud's eyes moved to the woman, who was still trying to attempt to back out of the glass cage. Her back was against the glass though, and it was much too thick to break on her own.

The woman was wearing such a lovely, pretty pink dress, a lovely shade of pink it was. Cloud could see the wonderful curved of her body, but took no notice of that. Her long legs were pulled close to her chest, and her arms were wrapped around her knees. Her skin seemed as pale as the Professor's was, but her veins were not visible. She wore a small jacket of a much darker pink, the sleeves short, the jacket only for fashion; it wouldn't keep her warm at all. Her face was also pretty, even though it was stained with tears, even though there were bruises and a fresh bloody wound from the whip. Her green eyes were fearful, and mostly covered up by her silky bangs, her brown hair cascading down her shoulders and down her back. Her hair was still in a ponytail, and the White Materia was still in there. There was a label on it cage, and it read:

Project 17 : Centra : Subject C : Specimen A : Aeris :

Sephiroth tried to pull free from Professor Hojo. The older man had Sephiroth is much too firm of a grip to let go. Sephiroth instead looked to Cloud, his eyes not pleading for help, but were glaring, which surprised Cloud. The little boy continued to fight to be free, but was slowly loosing his energy, and eventually had to give up.

The Professor slowly turned and looked at Cloud, and for a brief instant, there was fear in those merciless black eyes of his.

"Who are you," Hojo demanded. His voice was low and harsh.

Cloud blinked, and then he smirked. Hojo had no clue who he was, because he was never able to do anything to him. But then another thought came to his mind.

If Hojo never created me or whatever the hell he did to me, then...How am I here?

"Who are you," Hojo repeated, this time, his voice taking a rather deadly tone.

Cloud remained silent and still, his brain unable to register anything. He had to come up with a name. He could also just snatch Sephiroth and run, but he wouldn't leave Aeris there alone. Not with this madman. He racked his brain, searching for any name, but the Professor soon interrupted his train of thought.

"You! You're that man! You're the one that stole my experiment!" Hojo hissed. He held up Sephiroth with one arm, the boy dangling a few feet off the floor, for emphasis. Hojo laughed for a moment. "Aha, you thought I wouldn't notice you, eh? Well the security cameras caught you! I wouldn't forget your face, you stole my experiment, and you almost lost me my job!" He continued to rave, "And here, you have returned, returned again with my experiment, and neither of you has aged a bit! It was as if you had come from that very day! Tell me, was it time travel? Is that how you did it? Why did you steal my experiment? Nevermind, I have no time for you answers, I have no need for them. I can just pry the information out of my experiment."

"I'm not your experiment," Sephiroth protested. His hand curled up into tiny fists, and he wanted to beat on this man, this man who had raised him for five years, and made sure that he was in his own private little hell in each moment of it. "So stop calling me that. I have a name, and you know it, and it's not Code 1, it's Sephiroth!"

Professor Hojo was paying no attention to the boy. "I'm going to take you to Jenova," he said simply, as if it were daily routine. In fact, it probably had been in the past. Professor Hojo grinned almost insanely as the little boy's eyes widened in terror.

"No! I don't want to go see her! I don't want anything else in my body! It's bad!"

Cloud's own hands curled into fists, and he had to resist the urge to punch the crazy old man. It could put Sephiroth in danger, or maybe even Aeris. His arms were shaking, and his brain was telling his arms to do it, as if it didn't matter.

I have to remain calm, he reminded himself.

Aeris watched quietly from her cage, wanting to help, but unable to do a thing about the situation.

Hojo pressed a button on one of the computers.

"Attention all Shinra Employees, and Personal, report to the main laboratory, I have a special experiment to show you." Hojo smirked at Cloud, walked out, and the door slammed shut. An automatic door. Cloud knew it was locked, he heard the noise, and he saw the metal bars rush down to the floor from the ceiling. He hated himself for not acting out his plan of punching the Professor.

Cloud quickly ran over to Aeris, and said quietly, "Are you okay?"

Aeris slowly nodded. "Are you going to help me escape?"

"You mean there's a way out of this room besides that door?"

Aeris nodded and pointed to the main control panel. Cloud went over to it, and was tempted to just bring his fists down on it and smash it to bits. He resisted however.

"Press the small green button with a yellow dot in the center."

Oh yeah, Cloud sarcastically thought, I'm actually going to find that one particular button in this sea of controls!

He searched for a full fifteen minutes before he finally pressed the right one. The glass lifted from Aeris' cage, and she slowly and shakily walked out and moved over to Cloud.

"My name is Aeris," she said quietly, "and thank you for helping me out of that cage."

So Aeris doesn't remember me. Just fantastic.

He gave a mental sigh, and looked around the room. "My name is Cloud, but we really have to get out of here."

"Yes," Aeris replied, nodding, "there's a vent in the ceiling we can use." She made her way over to a chair and pulled it over to the vent. Cloud climbed onto the chair and pulled off the cover, the metal clacking to the floor loudly. Aeris was busy redirecting the camera without allowing herself to be seen. When she was finished, she went over to Cloud who had climbed up into the vent. He held out a hand for Aeris. She climbed onto the chair and took Cloud's hand, and he hoisted the woman into the space with him. Cloud then reached down, grabbed the chair, and tossed it over to the computers.

"So which way do we go?"


A/N: Wow. I never would have thought I would get so many positive reviews! You guys were so nice and you guys inspired me! Therefore, I present you with this chapter! Thank you so much for all of your reviews!