In the end, only four days after arriving back at Midgar, Sephiroth was forced back into the lab for a 'check up' and whatever else the sadistic scientist felt like doing to him. A sigh escaped his lips as he stared up at the ceiling, the blue-green Mako fluid slowly flowing into his veins though a tube attached to his arm. Elsewhere in the lab, Hojo was making preparations for his next bout of tests and also preparing his newest test subject for genetic transformation. It was a new process he had yet to even test on anything- even real rats.
No, Hojo was never one to follow the natural order of making sure it was safe for humans by testing on animals first. His view of the world was simple. People were on the planet just for him to test on, the loss of a test subject was not something to cry over, he'd simply get a new one. Unless the subject were something like the last Ancient.
The scientist sighed, looking at the readings on one of his various print outs. "No abnormal fluctuations of power," he grumbled, "She appears to be nothing but a human."
A bony hand lifted to his just as bony chin. "I'd like to know where they came from though," his eyes turned toward Sephiroth who still lay stripped to the waist on his usual table. "The remainder of your SOLDIERs were the ones who found them. Near the capital of Wutai, none the less, in some four wheeled contraption."
This was the first Sephiroth had heard about it really, he wasn't surprised. None of the other departments really talked to each other. It was the normal level of distrust in the Tower.
"Sephiroth, I want you to find out about this for me," Hojo lifted his chin, pushing his narrow shoulders back, as if this made him look impressive in some way. "That's an order Sephiroth, so you'd better do it."
The young man's eyes narrowed slightly as he continued to stare at the dull-silver colored ceiling. "Yes," was all he answered.
Katy wasn't sure how long she'd been stuck in the small, and rather cold room, but she knew that she'd been fed at least eight times on a somewhat regular basis. She'd taken the fitted sheet from the cot and wrapped it around herself, there hadn't been a flat sheet or blanket on it. Anything was better than being completely naked, but she felt as if her toes and fingers were going to fall off from being so cold.
Once again, the door swished open, and Katy wondered, since it hadn't been all that long ago that she'd been fed. No, not food this time- and thankfully the stuff was edible, unlike school lunch.
Instead, the figure was very tall, mostly a blob of pale skin color, black, and silver- possibly hair. A male voice spoke something that sounded vaguely like Japanese. A pause. Katy did not move from where she sat curled up beneath the sheet on the very farthest corner of the cot.
A few others had entered before, talked at her, then beaten her for not answering; she was wary of this man as well. He simply looked far more imposing then any of the others had been. When she did not answer for almost a minute, he spoke again, though this time it seemed to actually BE Japanese.
Katy simply shook her head, "I don't understand you," she stated weakly, her jaw swollen from the sock across the face she'd received upon first exiting her car.
The man was silent another moment, then he moved forward. Katy curled up, expecting a beating, but instead, the sheet was yanked from her hands and taken from her completely. He was strong. She pulled her knees against her chest, and put her arms over her head. "Please! I really don't know what you're saying!" she sobbed. How strange it was. In her daydreams she'd always been able to be strong, not cry. In her daydreams she wasn't beaten, and she'd always been able to understand the people. And be able to see. But this was no daydream. The pain had proven that to her.
He reached forward again, grabbing her wrist and pulling her up to her feet on the bed. One handed, he lifted all her one hundred and thirty something pounds, off the bed completely. He spoke again. Katy was now close enough to his face to squint and see somewhat.
Her eyes went wide, shock knocking the air from her. She did not fight his hold, nor when he shook her by the arm held high above her head. Finally, he dropped her back onto the bed, taking firm hold of her face and coming close enough for her to see his eyes quite clearly- in other words, three inches separated their noses. "Gomen nesai?" Katy attempted, using her very limited Japanese, hoping that she'd said 'forgive me' or something to that effect, "Sephiroth," she added, staring at his eyes. They were... beautiful. Just as she'd always known they would be. His bangs were molten silver strands, FAR more beautiful in reality than even in her dreams.
Removing his hand from her face, he slapped her, sending her hard against the cot. Turning, he left, taking the sheet with him.
Sephiroth was highly disturbed, but he didn't show it on his face. Instead, he went to the one who kept the key to her cell, "Where are the things they brought with them?" he asked coldly. The man had already been standing at attention, but somehow he got his back even straighter and turned swiftly, heading to another room in the same area, in fact, it was the room directly next to that in which the strange girl was locked. His right hand dropped the sheet to the floor.
Inside, there were several tables with things just piled on it. Among the stuff was what looked like simple garbage, two strange bags, one blue and white, the other dark green, around five heavy books were stacked on one side, papers and notebooks nearby.
"This was packed inside these, sir," the young SOLDIER said, pointing at the books and papers, then gesturing toward the bags. "That was in the floor of the vehicle," he pointed at the garbage, "We found that in the back of the vehicle," he pointed at some strange object that were long and brightly colored, made of what appeared to be foam... foam noodles. Strange and useless objects to have around. "These are what they were wearing." His gaze was now directed toward two piles of clothes set on another table. "The redhead was wearing these, the brunet was wearing these."
Sephiroth moved forward, going through the redhead's pile first, finally turning toward the man and asking, "Where are her glasses?"
"What?" the young man was taken aback and he belatedly corrected himself, "What do you mean sir?"
The general glowered in slight annoyance, of course, he was never in a good mood after visiting Hojo. "She's obviously nearsighted, where are her glasses?"
Under Sephiroth's intense gaze, the SOLDIER shifted nervously, "Uh- I- I don't know sir."
"Who found them?" the general snapped, his hand snaking out and grabbing the young man's collar.
"Lt. Kresh and his company, sir!" the man blurted, his brown eyes wide in horror. Sephiroth shoved him away in favor of looking at the fabrics the clothing was made out of. It was obviously something natural- cotton, or wool, probably cotton though- and it was manufactured. Even the rich of Midgar didn't have much real plant or animal material in their clothing. The make was very strange as well.
Lifting what was apparently a jacket of deep green fuzzy cloth, he noted that it was slightly heavy in the areas of the pockets. Reaching into one, he pulled out a wad of tissues, some used, some not. There was an inside pocket as well, in this was a strange leather book with pieces of paper in it and a pair of black gloves.
The other outside pocket contained a bunch of papers, a mechanical pencil, pen, and eraser. The inside pocket had nothing.
The SOLDIER had finally picked up the courage to speak again after straightening his shirt and watching Sephiroth inspect the contents of the jacket. "The vehicle is being shipped from Wutai, sir, it should arrive in the next week. Sir." Sephiroth listened, but his hands were busy opening the various papers. One seemed to be a list of some sort, but the writing was messy and the symbols were definitely not in the Wutain language. Another paper contained sketches in graphite, a few in pen, with more things written here and there. They were stick figures, a few actually had work put into them, but otherwise they were doodles. Two other papers were typed, one appeared to be important, having been printed on slightly green tinted paper with writing on the background. The other paper was filled with tiny printed words that he could not decipher. More was handwritten on the back, there were marks here and there among the printed words, circles with graphite, a word rewritten above the word circled, an entire line marked out.
"What do you think it is, sir?" the SOLDIER asked, having noticed Sephiroth's close scrutiny of this new paper.
The general was silent for a long moment, "Something in the process of being revised," he stated finally, "And added to."
Taking the paper, he headed toward the door, intent on going back to the redhead. He paused, though, grabbed up the pencil, pen, and eraser, as well as another piece of paper- which seemed to be the standard issue, for both bags had contained it, slightly off white with blue lines at regular intervals, though it was much better quality paper than even Sephiroth was given for important things.
"Sir?" the man began to ask, but the general paused in the door again, tossing a vague smirk at the underling, but did not answer his question.
Sephiroth was in a slightly better mood now that he had something to occupy his mind: the learning of a new language. And Hojo could say nothing about this new amusement, he was still following his order to find out where these strange young women came from.
She was curled in the very far corner of the cot again, her fingers tucked into the fold of her knees, her toes atop each other. Her eyes lifted to look at him, though she was squinting. Her hair was matted, having dried without being brushed, a pink loop of stretchy material holding it back from her face. She curled tighter as he entered, but her expression was curious.
Immediately, he sat on the cot, pulling his own knees up and into lotus style, holding out the papers and writing implements to her. She stared at them for the longest time, apparently recognizing them, but not understanding what she was supposed to do with them. She made no move to take them from him. Sephiroth's brows lowered faintly and he reached out, grabbing one hand from where she had it tucked into the pit of her knee and pressing the paper and pencils into it. Her fingers were shockingly cold. Only the bruises on her pale face gave any indication that she had blood at all.
"Write," he stated, making a motion with his hand as if he were writing. She stared at him a moment longer before pulling her other hand out of its warm spot, and she did this rather reluctantly. Bringing the paper two inches from her face, she squinted at the writing on it, then looked back at him in confusion.
With a growl, Sephiroth took the blank paper and the pen from her once more and wrote a kanji on the paper, speaking its sound as he showed it to her. Then he pointed firmly at the paper filled with the typed letters of her language. Understanding dawned on her face and she retrieved the paper from him, turning towards the wall and quickly writing out twenty-six symbols. Then under them, she wrote another set that looked similar to the first set but not quite the same. As she spoke the sounds for each, Sephiroth guessed that the smaller letters were different versions of the same sound. Then she wrote sets of letters a bit further down the page, new sounds were for these. Then she handed the paper back. As if she expected that he'd already memorized them. He had, but it was slightly disconcerting how she looked at him. As if she knew him somehow.
Taking the papers and writing implements from her frigid fingers, he got up and left. "Give her some clothes," he stated absently to the SOLDIER, "Her hands feel like ice." He drifted out of the prisoner block, still studying the two papers, remembering the sounds for the strange kanji and putting them into the words on the typed page.
Katy sighed faintly. "Sephiroth... that... was Sephiroth," she couldn't help but smile, despite the fact that he'd slapped her fairly hard. Soon she would be able to talk to him, maybe even find out where Michelle was. Hopefully her friend was alright. Another thing worried her. Hojo. If Sephiroth was here than Hojo would likely be here as well. "Fricken crazy," she muttered to herself. "More than likely I'm currently trapped in the Shinra Tower in Midgar, though not only do I not know how I got HERE, but I don't know how I even got into this WORLD! Maybe this won't be as bad as I thought at first." She tucked her icy fingers into the pits of her knees once more and put her other foot on top, hoping to warm up her toes in some small way. "If I can get him to trust me, then get him to help me, it'll be my deepest wish come true!"
