Author's Note: It's true! I'm alive again! And it's only been a few days. Amazing. I'm having a ton of inspiration right now, so here goes another chapter. Hey, maybe you can expect updates for this story weekly? Anyways, on with the story that people seem to like! Thanks again to all of you wonderful reviewers out there! Please, continue telling me what you think! It inspires me so very much!


He lay there on the examination table, staring blankly above at the burning white light. There was no longer any kind of pain…or was there? He was cold, but he could feel a peculiar warmth trickling down his face. Some fell into his mouth, and it tasted coppery. What was it? As he pondered what the substance was, his thoughts weren't completely formed. He couldn't concentrate, and he hated it. The two professors, Professor Hojo and Professor Valentine were still in the room. Professor Hojo was going over results for the last test on young Sephiroth, while Professor Valentine was cleaning up the spilled vials of testing solutions. They were both silent.

Sephiroth felt his stomach rumble. His stomach said he was hungry, yet his mind opposed it. Feeling as though he would vomit with or without eating, he tried to sit up, but the bonds firmly held him in place. He uttered a groan and fell onto his back with a dull thud. He felt like the world was going in slow motion while he remained stationary.

Professor Hojo grabbed yet another needle and prepared to fill it with a dark blue substance. However, Professor Valentine grabbed his colleague's wrist to hold him back. "If you keep pumping those things into him, he will die."

"What's a little pain? I told you before, these substances won't kill Sephiroth," Hojo spat. He ripped his arm away from the younger professor and continued filling the needle.

"Maybe separately they wouldn't do any harm, but all at once, and such short intervals! Even if you don't care how much pain he goes through, at least consider the fact that he might die and your research could be ruined forever."

Professor Hojo raised a thin black brow and gazed at Professor Valentine. "Ruined forever, you say?" He laughed and shook his head. "No, no, I've thought ahead, my dear boy. You see, I've already taken his DNA."

Professor Valentine nodded. "Yes, I know. That was the second thing we did. But that isn't going to bring him back to life if he dies, Professor Hojo!"

The older professor grinned. "Yes, yes, I know. If Sephiroth doesn't make it through the experimentation process, I always have a backup method."

"Backup method, sir?"

"Yes…His DNA. I can construct a model of a human figure and use inject Code One's DNA into the body. He would be exactly the same."

"Not entirely," Professor Valentine argued. "His mind would be different. What if this new constructive body you make thinks differently? What if this…thing…finds a way to escape? What would we do then?"

Professor Hojo glanced at the writhing child on the examination table. "Code One could escape quite easily. If he had the strength and the energy that is. I'm going to help him with that. With these ancient Jenova cells…"

"Jenova!" Professor Valentine gasped, "Professor Hojo, are you serious? You can't inject a five-year-old with Jenova cells! You shouldn't even be giving him half the injections you already are."

Sephiroth merely coughed, and called out, a bit too late, "My name isn't Code One, it's Sephiroth…"

Professor Hojo made his way to the boy, black boots clicking loudly on the metal floor. "I will call you what I want to call you, and right now, I feel like calling you Code One. Is that okay with you, Code One?"

Sephiroth watched him with unfocused green eyes and kept silent.

"I mean, obviously, you have a mind too, your own personality. You don't mind if I call you Code One, do you?"

When Sephiroth made no reply, he brought out the needle filled with blue liquid and pointed it dangerously close to Sephiroth's wrist.

"But it isn't my name," Sephiroth finally announced.

"Do you really think I care?" He inserted the needle into Sephiroth's main artery and grinned gleefully as Sephiroth writhed.

Professor Valentine watched, nearly horrified. He himself couldn't take much more of Professor Hojo torturing the little boy, the son of his own beloved.

"Stop it!"

Professor Hojo slowly and painfully pulled the needle from Sephiroth's sore wrist and turned to face Professor Valentine. "What was that?"

"You can't continue doing what you're doing! I won't let you! You're going far beyond what any of us agreed to do. Even before he was born, you promised you wouldn't hurt him."

"Professor Valentine, are you really so naïve? Haven't all of those years in that coffin done anything for you? Haven't you realized that I don't keep my promises?"

Professor Valentine curled his remaining human hand into a fist. His golden clawed arm merely twitched. "You dirty lowdown…" He shook his head. "No, you're not even worth it." He slid his arms out of the starch white lab coat and threw it to the floor. And in his rage, he kicked the table nearest to him, succeeding in damaging it enough to have all of the chemicals come flying off. "I quit. I quit! I quit this job of torturing people, no one deserves what you put them through! You're just a crazy old man, bent on your delusions of ruling this damned company and all of the evil things kept within."

Professor Hojo merely ran a hand through his hair. "Quit if you like, Vincent, I really don't care. You'll be the one begging for food on the street corner eventually."

"And I don't care about that either." He turned his back to the professor and walked towards the door. But then he stopped, glancing back towards the older man. "I have two final things to say to you."

"Oh? And what would that be?"

"Every rose that grows in the dusty, dry plains of the desert, has half the chance to survive than a garden of roses in protected greenery. But the rose that blooms freely in the desert is found more precious than a thousand roses growing in a garden."

Professor Hojo rose both brows at him at that comment. "And that means…?"

Vincent shook his head. "You're so smart? You figure it out on your own. If you can't, you'll see what I mean later." He took a few more steps, stopping at the doorway. "Oh, and that girl, Aeris? The Centra, Ancient, whatever you wish to call her?"

Professor Hojo leaned closer to the door. "Yes? What about her?"

"She's not in her cell." With that, he walked away, shutting the heavy doors with a soft thud behind himself.

Professor Hojo stood there, speechless. He finally got his hands on the missing experiment, and the last Centra in existence escaped? He ran to the far end of the lab and pressed the 'speaker' button.

"All first-class SOLDIERs, this is a red alert! The Centra, Code A-172 has escaped! I have no idea how long it has been since she managed to get out of her cell, but I have a feeling she may still be in the building! I want her, and I want her alive. Feel free to use any method to catch her, but be sure that she remains living and breathing, or I will see to it that you end up like her in a matter of seconds!" He released the button and heard the thundering sound of the SOLDIERs boots hitting the floor, spreading out in different directions. Well, at least they were quick. He pressed the button again. "All second-class SOLDIERs, listen up. I want you all to get to your dorms and gather your weapons. Then head to the training room. I want you all top-shape for the war that's due to break out any day this week or the next."

The noise of pounding feet was heard once again. Professor Hojo smirked. That was all of the soldiers he would need for now. He glanced down at his desk. There was the letter…

June 15th, '87

President Shinra,

We have discovered a terrorist group in southern Wutai. They plan to sneak into Midgar, Kalm, and any other surround areas. They were not equipped very well, but they still had enough weaponry to cause huge mayhem. Sir, we ask that you send 1500 members of SOLDIER to the Wutai area so we can secure the perimeter. We have taken the Wutai terrorist group into custody as a warning to all other groups that may be hiding in the local area. If something is not done, war will most surely break out. Midgar cannot handle another war. The only place that has any actual funds is Shinra HQ. This is not nearly enough to cover for damage if the building is destroyed. If we loose any sections of Midgar, it will automatically cause a crisis. Any other attacks can be dealt with, but me must keep Midgar in high priority.

General Maximilion Lopez

The staff had urged the president to supply General Lopez with troops. They begged the man to listen to the wise general for once. No one needed another war. Not after the terrible loss they suffered during the last war with Wutai. It started as a small town, and grew into a whole nation. It had taken over the entire continent and then moved onto the edges of the surrounding continents. It was madness. If something wasn't done soon, even Professor Hojo knew that Shinra would fall. And if Shinra fell under Wutai power, the once small, unnoticed town would end up controlling the entire world.

But the Professor only had two things on his mind. Code One and Code A-172.