Soda

by Rin and Court

*~*~*

Rin: What should the A/N be?

Court: I dunno... Yay, angsty Zack.

Rin: And mood-swingy Cid. XD THAT'S why he needs his tea, people.

Court: Haw.

Rin: A bit of a twist at the end of this one... muahaha... the darker part of this fic resurfaces...

Court: Yaaaaay.

*~*~*

As I lie tossing in my bed

Lost in my fears remembering what you said

And I try to hide the truth within

The mask of myself shows its face again

Still I lie time and time again

Will you deny me when we meet again?

*~*~*

4: Traffic

*~*~*

The one good thing about the junk room was that it had no windows. This was good for Zack, who actually proved to be a rather light sleeper. There was no light that came to bother him in the morning and wake him up, and so he was usually allowed to sleep in for a bit...

Well, he would have been allowed, anyway, had not some unexpected person opened the door unexpectedly and let some unexpected light in to unexpectedly wake him up.

"Get yer ass up!" Zack could hear Cid's morning-hoarse growl of a voice as he grabbed one of Zack's arms, and with a rather forceful wrench, hoisted him off the bed. Before Zack could even protest, he had dragged the porcupine's leadened feet to the kitchen, where the younger of the two was able to see through fuzzy vision that Cid had breakfast (two bowls of cheap cereal) ready on the table, along with two cups of.... tea?

Giving a few bleary-eyed blinks as he tried to wake himself up, he snatched a spoon from the table and started to stir up his cereal a little, really just playing with it for the moment. "Whuh yoo wey me uh fur..?" he gurgled, closing his eyes, which were obviously wishing for more sleep as much as he was.He was considering diving into his bowl of cereal like he had yesterday, but he just knew he'd regret it. "And I told you I didn't like tea.." He made an attempt to rid himself of that horrid morning taste by stuffing some of the cereal down his throat. It tasted... well, bad, yes, but it would have to do. He sighed softly, letting the spoon fall into the plate with a clatter as he sat back in his seat.

Three bites of that stuff was enough...

"Hhmmpphh." Cid closed his eyes, really growling this time as he heard Zack's complaints. He opened them again, his blue eyes flaring up with annoyance as he glared at his now-official roomate. "Fine then. Don't eat anything." He turned away, grabbing an old, worn, brown briefcase which he tossed backwards towards Zack. Cid didn't seem to care whether the kid would catch it or not, because as soon as he did so, he walked towards the door. "Just don't come cryin' to me on the job just because you didn't have enough caffeine to make up for sleep...."

Zack was still too tired at this point to care if Cid got mad at him for being picky about his eating habits. Heck, he never really cared when Cid got mad...

He managed to catch the briefcase even in his half-asleep daze and he raised two sable eyebrows in question as he examined it. He watched as Cid walked out of the room and pondered over his question as he opened the case.

It was bursting to the seams with paperwork. Tons of it fell all over the floor, scattering around the kitchen tile.

He blinked.. most of it was equations and things that needed to be added up.. busy work, some math that needed to be punched into a calculator. How fun. And judging by the mass amounts of it that Cid had let pile up, this was going to last him for a while..

He turned to his breakfast, eyeing it cautiously. Well, he could try to hold his nose and scarf it down, maybe...

"WELL?!?!" Cid stuck his foul-expressioned face through the doorway, his teeth clenched in exasperation. "You wanna come or you gonna take the train?!"

Looked like he was pretty serious.....

It also looked like Zack would finally figure out what the blonde actually did. He had managed to get the majority of the cereal down his throat without regurgitating it, but the tea was left untouched. He nearly fell out of his chair when Cid burst in once again, clutching at the briefcase. "Gah! W-where are we going..?"

Oh. Duh.. Work. Right. He sighed, standing up and beginning to gather the pieces of paper that had been strewn across the kitchen floor, stuffing them back into the briefcase and then forcing it shut when it had all been gathered.

He walked over to Cid and shoved it into his arms. "Hold this," he instructed as he made a zombie-like trek back to his 'room'. In a matter of moments he was back, now out of his pajamas.. Hair seemed to have been arranged rather hastily, and he gave a sleepy nod. "All right.. let's go," he murmured.

Cid really could have warned him of this...

The aforementioned gave a blank stare, shoving the briefcase back into Zack's hands with equal if not substantially more force. He then turned away from him again, jiggling the front door of the apartment open with about as much force as he had used with the briefcase (with all the mechanical junk Cid seemed to be working with, he had never gotten around to repairing it....) and storming out as soon as he had succeeded in unjamming it.

"C'mon," he grumbled, pacing quickly down the hallway towards the stairway. When he noticed Zack give him a look of disbelief as he passed the elevators, Cid called back. "The stairs'll be quicker." Yeah, like Zack hadn't heard that one before.... "We gotta get to the car quick, or else we'll get stuck in the traffic.... Come on, dammit!"

Zack had been narrowing his eyes at the blonde menacingly after re-receiving the briefcase, and was tempted to stick his tongue out at him when his back was turned, but for today he would refrain. Nevertheless, he followed after him as he stalked down the stairs.. stairs, of all things, he still didn't understand that part, looking back at the elevator longingly.

Cid seemed to have done this a lot; he was practically vaulting down the stairs, going down two at a time, sometimes even three, with unexpected agility that Zack could only blink at. The porcupine was a tad bit more cautious, still concerned about the briefcase,which wasn't sure was fully closed, and he did NOT want the papers flying out all through the stairwell. He doubted Cid did, either.

Letting out a sigh of relief as they finally reached the bottom, he waited for Cid to lead him to wherever he was parked. Come to think of it, he had never seen Cid's car... This should be interesting, but he kept his opinions to himself and kept rather silent as he had followed his "commander" down the foggy morning streets, the wind still carrying a bite in it. He didn't feel like saying anything towards Cid's ranting; he was just too tired right now. He just remained clutching to the briefcase (although he was pretty sure that it was secure, now) and followed after, trying to learn how to drone out Cid's incessant insulting....

"There," Cid pointed at a parking lot a block down, breaking into a fast trot. "That's where we wanna go....." When he noticed Zack lagging behind him, still walking tentatively with the briefcase, he gave out a shout that Zack was sure woke up all the people in at least three of the apartment buildings around them.

"God DAMMIT, hurry that sorry ass up!!!! What, you think you're gonna keep on gettin' freebies from ME?!?!" He was entering the parking lot, now. "Things are gonna change from now on, Zack." He had used his name. It was bad if Cid actually used his name.... "You're gonna have to WORK, and pay for your own goddamn soda----" He suddenly broke off as he neared a certain car in a certain dilapidated corner of the lot. "Ah. Yeah, anyway, in we go."

Zack wasn't sure if Cid was joking at first when he heard the jingle of metal-upon-metal as Cid pulled his keys out of his pocket. The car he then advanced towards couldn't have been his; it would have been an ugly canary yellow had its paint not been faded with time, and its seats would have been an even uglier shade of green had they not also been faded and covered with plastic seat-protectors. When Cid caught Zack gaping when the keys did cause one of the car's doors to swing open with a creak, he frowned.

"What were you expectin', some fucking valet...?" He grabbed Zack once more and shoved him in the passenger's side. The black-haired one winced as he was thrown into the vehicle and found himself in one of the saggy seats--How many bruises is that, now?--as Cid slammed the door. The older man then walked around to the driver's side, swinging himself in and starting up the engine with visible force. He looked towards Zack, who had a look of pure shock on his face as he rubbed at the arm that had taken the brunt of the force.

"............" Cid looked away with a grumble. "It's a fixer upper.... haven't had time to work on it yet...."

Zack sniggered ever so softly at the appearance of the car after Cid's explanation, and then just leaned back in the seat as he waited for him to start driving. Now would be a good time to get some more sleep... He was sure Cid didn't want him awake, nor that Cid wanted to talk to him, so he'd be doing them both a favor.

And so, hugging at the briefcase as if for some sort of comfort that he definitely wasn't getting from his landlord, he closed his eyes and tried to doze off, which he managed to do pretty easily. In fact, as soon as he dozed off and found a somewhat comfortable position on the chair, he was waking up again to Cid muttering some curses under his breath as the putt-putt car came to an arubt stop.

Looked like they hadn't missed the traffic after all.

Cid didn't even give Zack a chance to say something before he began blaming everything on him. (He seemed to perpetually be one step ahead of the porcupine this morning.)

"JESUS!" He cried, slamming a fist on the steering wheel and causing a resounding "HOOONNKK" to shake the car. "You know, if you hadn't been so fucking slow, MAYBE we would have avoided this!"

Zack gave him a blurry-eyed look. He was cold, and it didn't seem to help that Cid didn't have a heater in this junkyard on wheels. Maybe he should have brought a sweatshirt.... Shivering slightly, he closed his eyes for a moment as he tried to wake up a bit more and then opened them again as he watched the many cars that were lingering in front of them. Yes, everything seemed to be at a stand-still, and everything also seemed to be his fault. But for whatever reason, he wasn't in the mood to argue, to fight back. "Yeah.. maybe..." was all that he muttered as he leaned his head on his hand and looked out of the passenger seat window with a mild interest. He wasn't going to be able to fall asleep; that had just been established.

"Huh?" Cid blinked at Zack's unexpectedly quiet response. He frowned as he turned his head towards his bent-over form. "Somethin' wrong with you...?" He cocked his head to the side, putting a hand on Zack's back with concern. After a few moments of him not responding, Cid mumbled. "Hey---! You carsick or some shit...?" He felt mildly sorry for berating the kid. Then again, it wasn't his fault they were in so much debt....

'They'...?

When the hell had his debt become 'theirs'...?

With this newfound revelation, Cid jerked his hand away, smacking it back on the steering wheel. His eyes were glued on the road once more, where he noticed the traffic had lightened up a bit---not much, but enough for him to swerve into a faster lane. He smiled wryly as they began to move, shooting Zack an apologetic look.

"Heh... maybe we will be on time, though...."

Zack hadn't answered because he hadn't felt like it. He had seen no reason to... he was in a bad mood, although 'bad mood' might not have been the way to describe it. It was more like... bland. He just felt like there was no reason to really put any effort into anything. Just... blah.

He shook his head just slightly at his question of motion sickness. That was one thing he had never had a problem with; not in a plane (though he'd only been on one once, believe it or not), not on a ship, not in a car. He continued to gaze out the window and watch the cars passing by. He yawned softly, finally letting the briefcase slip out of his grip and fall to his feet, he gave a "Hmph..." as his final response to Cid's statement.

Zack chanced a glance at the bruise that had started to form on his forearm. A strange, sickly blue color, it was. He blinked. Guess there had been no real reason for that, then... It was vaguely surprising that Cid could put that much force into just grabbing someone.... But Zack didn't say anything about it, and of course, Cid didn't say he was sorry for the whole rest of the car ride--not verbally, at least. If there was one thing that Zack had ascertained about Cid thus far it was that he never apologized in words if even at all. He was lucky just to get that look, and Cid let him know it as they finally pulled into the parking lot underneath the Shin-Ra building and the ex-air force buff stopped the car with a squeal of the tires. He then rushed out, bothering to lock the vehicle only as a second thought.

"C'mon," he said, but this time it was more of a prompting than a growl. "I don't want any of those damn staff heads to get on my ass... All stressed out about the cuts as it is..." His voice faded into a disgruntled mutter as he moved farther away.

Zack had opened the door and grabbed the briefcase off of the car's floor, holding it by it's desginated handle with one hand as he followed after Cid. Hey, at least this time he'd get to see what his work was actually like... what he did, all of that.

I'm sure what he does is a lot different from what I experienced in SOLDIER. Zack winced. He didn't even like thinking about that, and now he cursed the fact that he had let the thought leak into his mind. It was better to act like he had never even had anything to do with Shin-Ra, that he had never been involved with them. To just forget it all.

But he knew he never could.

He kept his eyes locked on Cid's back as he followed him; he was getting a bit better at droning out whatever Cid wanted him to respond when he needed to. And right now he needed to.

Headache. He closed his eyes for a moment as he walked. That always made it feel better, even if it only lasted for a few seconds. As an afterthought he rolled down the sleeve of his shirt to cover the fresh bruise as much as he could; seeing it might give the people Cid worked with the wrong thoughts; they might think Cid had hurt him. And he had hurt him, but that wasn't the point. They weren't supposed to know that.

Luckily for Cid, he didn't seem to notice Zack's little plan, even as they exited the parking lot into the first floor lobby, whereupon Cid headed straight for the elevators on the other side of the large room. Seemed like he knew his way around here pretty well.....

Cid glanced down at his watch as they came to the elevators, pushing past a few other people in the crowded lobby in the process. "Heh. Right on time," he looked back at Zack and grinned, not bothering to punch the "up" button because it had already been lit up by someone else. Zack glanced all around as he strode through the headquarters. He had never actually been inside and it was quite the experience.. well, not really. He didn't have anything to do with Shin-Ra, remember? But that didn't destroy the fact that there was a lot going on in this main hall and he couldn't just refrain from looking around, even if he was in a strange mood. He jumped slightly at the loud 'ding' of the elevator, and then waited for Cid to walk in before following after him. He took a deep breath as the elevator started to ascend, and suddenly wondered which floor they were headed for. He blinked over at Cid, as if to ask: 'Aren't you gonna press the right button?'

Cid looked back, as if to respond, 'Is it any of your goddamn fucking business?.' This caused Zack to wince yet another time that morning. Usually Cid's murderous glares wouldn't bother him in the slightest, none of Cid's usual antics tended to bother him... but today he didn't haver the energy. For any of it.

In any case, Cid ended up doing what Zack had expected him to do anyway; as soon as some people had disembarked and there was room enough for him to worm through the crowd to the controls, Cid managed to make his way towards them and pushed a button too far away for Zack to see. He wormed his way back and closed his eyes, sighing as he smiled dryly at the kid.

"Twenty-seventh floor. Same as my age--that's how you'll remember it." He opened an eye and glared suspiciously at the ex-SOLDIER. "How old are you, anyway? Eighteen, nineteen....?"

So that's how old he is...

Older than Zack had thought, actually. And Cid had thought him younger. He had to give just a faint smile at the question, and then opened his mouth to answer.

Wait.. how old am I? He forced himself to remember, to gather his thoughts properly and work it out. And so after a while he was able to answer.

"...Twenty-one."

Cid noticed that 'while'. He chuckled somewhat, giving Zack an incredulous expression before glancing at what floor they were at. Twenty. He looked back at the younger of the two.

"What...? You forgot or somethin'?"

His head bowed toward the floor, the handle of the briefcase gripped tightly in his right hand, Zack wasn't sure what he should say in answer to his question, but the truth seemed like the worst possible choice. When he couldn't think of anything witty, clever, snappy... he just settled on something mediocre.

"...Maybe."

His eyes shifted up to look at the raising numbers. Twenty-six... twenty-seven. The elevator jolted to a stop, causing him to sway slightly. Giving Cid an apathetic look, he walked out onto the floor.

"Uh?" Cid blinked for a moment and then ran out after him. "Hey, kid---!" He now knew that Zack wasn't that much younger than him, but fuck with it. He caught up to Zack a few paces down the hallway and put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him. "What the hell is wrong with you?! Do you hate workin' that fucking much...?"

Zack frowned. He'd really mis-interpreted, hadn't he? Then again, what did Cid have to base anything off of? What else could he think it was besides him just being grumpy after being forced awake and rushed to work? Maybe that had initiated it or something, but none of that was a big deal anymore. He just wasn't feeling well, because he kept getting lost in unwanted thoughts.

Of course, he couldn't tell Cid any of this. So what did he say? He shook his head for starters as he tried to force something to come out of his mouth. "..Thinking." That was all he could manage, and all he could reveal.

He made an effort to change the subject. "Lead the way?"

"Uh... I guess...." Cid still didn't seem convinced, but he didn't seem like he wanted to pursue Zack's strange mindset either. He walked ahead, finally stopping as he came to a door at the end of the hallway. He opened it, revealing a large office inside--or at least, it WOULD have been large if it hadn't been even more disorganized and full of junk (papers, pieces of machinery, books, pens, pencils, blueprints--all of those sorts of things), than Cid's own apartment.

The aforementioned personage walked inside with a sigh, pointing to a door half-blocked with a box of something or other on the side of the room. "That's yours." He turned back towards Zack, his hands on his hips. "This is mine. Any questions?"

Zack shook his head. "No." His first instinct was to head into the room, through the door designated as his, where he expected a makeshift office to wait for him, but he suddenly realized that Cid might have other plans for him first. "What now?" he asked softly, tone passive. He didn't want to anger the pilot anymore than he already had this morning, and he hoped that the quieter tone might help with that.

Cid was still a bit distrustful of Zack's unlikely mood, but he answered as calmly as he could: "...You..... do this paperwork." He walked over to his desk and rummaged through one of the many piles; Zack's strangely colored eyes watched carefully as he grabbed what looked to be a random folder and gave it to him. Taking it slowly, he took a quick look at it before Cid grabbed him. Almost flinching back from instinct, he then realized that the grip wasn't tight and relaxed just slightly. Cid was just holding Zack's arm to make sure the dazed ex-SOLDIER was paying attention, it seemed...

"Add up the figures and include a 7.5% tax," Zack distantly heard Cid say, "then take your numbers to Bill down the hall--"

A soft knock came from the door, interrupting his instructions. He rolled his eyes, then growled, "who is it?!"

"Umm...." A feminine voice even softer than the knock came slowly, muffled by the wall in between them. "One of the new researcher's, Sir---they told me to check in with you."

"Eh?" Cid looked from the door to Zack and then to the door again. He closed his eyes in exasperation and then reopened them, this time with an extremely tired expression. "Yeah, yeah, come on in...." He let go of Zack and turned around towards the wall opposite the door, holding a hand to face and rubbing his eyelids.

Canting his head to the side as Zack listened quietly to the conversation between the two, he watched with slight curiosity as the door was creaked open and a girl walked in.

Wait.

Not just any girl.

It was her. The girl from the supermarket; the one that he had cut Cid in line in order to see. His eyes widened in shock as he gaped at her, and he took a few steps forward, staring her straight in the eyes. "It's you," he breathed. "I saw you in a supermarket a week or so ago. What's your name? Hmm, I bet it starts with a T.." His manner was still slightly timid, but a bit of himself had returned for a moment.

"Unh......!" The girl exclaimed in surprise, bringing a hand to her mouth. She had brown eyes, innocent ones, Zack thought, and her manner was quiet, meek, almost frightened. Zack wondered if that was the way she was all the time.... No, she was probably just nervous because this was her first day on the job. What he had said seemed to register in her mind a moment later, when she looked away from Zack's eyes for a moment, shyly, and fixed her gaze on the floor.

"Um...." She wrung her hands together behind her back, where they intertwined with her long brown hair. She finally looked up again with a ghost of a smile.

"Actually...." she said softly, "my name.... my name is Shera..."

*~*~*

Somewhere not so far away....

"It's an escaped specimen, one of our first. Number---" A glance down at a packet of papers. "....Number J-V. That's a five in roman numerals---a FIVE, not a V. Very valuable to us----very----" he repeated dangerously, a cold glint in his dark green eyes, "----valuable, so I suggest you pursue this with the utmost caution, Colonel.... Rigdon.... was it...?"

The Shin-Ra colonel in question nodded at the man in the white labcoat, curling his lip slightly at the condescending tone he was being spoken to in. He wasn't a child, not like those inexperienced privates Shin-Ra was giving him on this mission. He felt used, almost inexpreinced himself with all this bullshit they were feeding him about CONFIDENTIALITY and TOP SECRECY--the noun versions of the letters in red ink that had been stamped upon all the folders he'd been handed over this same desk the last couple of weeks or so. If it had been his choice, he would have asked for a way out---no employee of Shin-Ra should have to endure all this just for the stupid Science Department, let alone the living psycho ward who ran it.

The same psycho ward that was peering into his face right now.

"Well...?" The pale face of Professor Hojo was bent into the shape of an exasperated frown. "Did you get all that or not?"

Yes, yes he had, Rigdon thought to himself. Out loud, he said, "Yes, sir."

"Heh...." Hojo's frown upturned into what Rigdon thought was an exceptionally perturbed smile. "I'm sure." He turned away, the thin slits between the blinds that covered his only window causing bars of light to shine upon him almost eerily. "My confidence is easily swayed, however, so I will repeat this all again."

Oh, joy, Rigdon thought.

"You were in the Wutaian war-----you know what Shin-Ra does behind its facade. You were hired before for a mission and we're hiring you again. The game may be the same, Colonel, but the rules are somewhat different." A pause. "There are some experiments.... some experiments that neither Shin-Ra, I, nor the public---" he strained that last word, "--would like to remember. However, in order to help us forget the past, we must put its manifestations under control." He turned back towards Rigdon. "One such of these manifestations is subject number J-V."

Hojo began to walk towards Rigdon, making his way around the far side of his desk slowly, pointedly. "However, that does not mean that we would like these.... how shall we say it...? Memories....?" He seemed to decide that 'memories' was a good word and continued. "Yes, it does not mean that we would like these memories removed altogether. Just... contained. In fact......" Through the dim light of the room, one of the yellow bars hit the lower portion of Hojo's. Rigdon was able to discern a slight smile. ".....If we were to regain control over these memories, if we were to enhance them, protect them from human influences, if we were to harness their potential fully and not allow them freedom that might end up in disaster...." A bar of light landed on Hojo's hand as he raised it. Rigdon could see it was clenched in a fist. "Then, Colonel...... then Shin-Ra will have only its own ambitions to fear."

"I..... see..... Sir," Rigdon said slowly. Hojo's self-righteous tirades were famous throughout the company, but this had been his first time to actually experience one.

"So then, do you also see why this---" Hojo raised the packet of papers he was holding, tapping one of this slender fingers on the red ink that resembled dried blood. "----has to be divulged to only certain personnel....? You must follow the rules concerning those who work under you.... that is until, of course, the specimen has been safely apprehended." Hojo's voice suddenly turned deeper, the death toll of a churchbell.

"I think you know exactly why you were chosen, Colonel...." Hojo smiled contentedly, a cat enjoying the meaningless chase of a mouse round dusty, best-left-forgotten corners of its mind. "We thought you might like a way to redeem yourself for past actions... maybe feel a little better about past deeds if you make us feel a little better about ours, seeing as they're all quite conveniently connected.... Maybe we'll even let you confront the madman if you fulfill your orders to our satisfaction."

Rigdon nodded, stiffly. These provocations and rewards had already been used so many times on him that they had lost nearly all meaning.

"Good," Hojo said lightly, his misleadingly soft purr of voice suddenly losing all menace as he gave a warm smile and paced back to his chair, where he neatly sat down. He outstretched the packet towards Rigdon, who snatched it up untrustingly, holding it under his arm and saluting curtly as Hojo leaned back and folded his hands.

"Best of luck, Colonel Rigdon."

"Thank you, Professor."

The army man turned on his heel and left the room.

Hojo's smile dropped off his face. He sighed, closing his eyes, then opened them again, aiming his gaze down at the scattered illustrations and diagrams that laid upon his desk, the ones he had collected from as many files as he could. However, from behind his round glasses, his eyes wandered from the diagrams to one of the doors of his desks, which, after a moment of hesitation, he opened it, submerging one of his whitish hands inside. After a while, the hand came up victorious; in its grasp was the photo of a young man in his early twenties in a Shin-Ra uniform, a foolhardy grin on his face and an arm over the shoulders of a comrade about the same age and in similar uniform. This was one of the most classified of the classified----the specimen wasn't even supposed to exist, let alone have been in the Shin-Ra ranks....

The conspiracy had roots that were lain deeper even than Rigdon knew... Deeper than anyone knew, anyone.... except for Professor Edward Hojo.

The scientist smiled, but it was different from that of the man in the picture. His own smile was twisted, pursed, filled with anticipation and the ambition of one awaiting his surpassal of the one who had trained him.

Hojo knew that specimen J-V was right under his nose---was right under everyone's noses. He had watched the damn thing walk into the lobby this morning from his own video security system, for heaven's sakes.

But that wasn't what mattered to him.

To him, it was all about the game... And he would laugh at those sniveling executives the whole way.

How.... wonderful.

He raised his chin, looked towards the stuccoed ceiling, and let out a hearty laugh.

"Oh, Gast..." He shook his head slowly, sadly, closing his eyes and mumuring something to someone far, far away. "If only you could see me now...."

*~*~*

....Can't you just hear the plot thickening....?

More Soda: Coming soon to a dot net near you.