Soliloquy Symphony

By Great Materia Hunter Yuffie

Movement 2: Assistant


"I need another Mako injection."

"How much…?"

"Make if 30 mL."

"Isn't…that a little much?

"Do what she says."

The assistant sighed and prepared the needle. He tried not to look at the strange couple, but when he turned back to them, thick green liquid glowing in his hands, he saw them, and how they looked at each other without eye contact, and unconsciously compared her beauty with his plainness.

She was sitting on a bench with her brown hair cascading in a haze over her face. Hojo stood over her, hands clasped behind his back, but he was not looking at her face; his eyes were focused on the wall, or her dress, or out into space, meditatively.

The assistant handed Lucrecia the bloated hypodermic and saw her grim expression falter when she touched it.

"What's wrong?" asked Hojo, finally glancing at her face.

She shook her head.

"I'll do it. I said I would do it if you needed me to." His voice was slightly irritated, slightly frustrated.

She shook her head again. "No, it's…it's alright. I'll do it."

Lucrecia grasped the syringe and pressed the needle to the inside of her elbow, hesitating.

"You should let me do it," said Hojo, but by his defeatist tone he expected her to refuse as she refused every time.

"It's alright. I want to do it. It hurts more when…someone else does it."

She had paused and the assistant heard the unspoken meaning. It hurts more…when you do it.

Lucrecia broke skin and squeezed, the glowing Mako sucked out of the tube and into her arm. She gasped, curling into a partial fetal position in the chair.

Hojo jerked, his hand twitched, but reacted no more than that. The assistant saw a strange smile form on his face, and behind his thick glasses his eyes were bright.

Lucrecia breathed out for long moments, then, eyes tightly shut, she placed the syringe on a counter. The same smile was on her face. It was strange there, like it was something she had to learn to do.

She grasped her distended pregnant stomach and her smile faded slightly. "I know what's happening," she said, looking at the ground. "You can't hide it from me. I have access to the reports, and I'm not stupid."

The assistant busied himself with cleaning up, trying to ignore that flash of shock that he saw on the professor's face.

"And…what is it that is happening?" Hojo's voice had no inflection.

"I'm dying, of course." And brown hair closed like a curtain, her head bowed.

Hojo and the shocked assistant said nothing.

"I'm not strong enough for this. I'm only a pregnant woman." There was a strange emphasis on woman that the assistant did not understand, but he saw Hojo shift slightly in response. She continued in that hoarse whisper, "I can feel it…something…inside me. It's draining me. I'm getting weaker by the day. I don't know if I can last long enough…"

"You will," Hojo said, in that blank voice.

That strange smile was back on her face, and she lifted her face to look at the wall beside Hojo. "Yes, you are right. This is the most important scientific study…ever undergone. I am…willing to do my part. Sometimes, sacrifice is unavoidable."

The assistant jerked a bottle of Mako and it almost crashed before he caught it deftly. What kind of an attitude is that? How could any study be worth a human life?

He knew better than to speak up. He bowed his head over the bottle, gripping it too tightly. If he spoke against them, against ShinRa, his life would be snuffed out. If I just forget about it…then it'll be okay. It's her decision. She has the choice to stop…

Then, he realized that that was not the case. She was already far into her third trimester. It was too late for an abortion to save her life. She had no choice but to deliver the child. But what had she meant, something was draining her?

"I'm glad…" she said, "That I will die completing a task like this. Many people die from old age, but I will die actually accomplishing something." She sounded like she meant it, but the assistant felt bile rise in his throat from her appalling reasoning.

Hojo nodded. "If that is the case, then you are correct. But I believe that you will feel better when the operation is over. There is a great chance that we will be completely successful."

She nodded too, but not enthusiastically. She obviously did not believe him. "When will the Cesarean be?"

"In five weeks."

She nodded absently, rubbing her stomach. There was something in her eyes, a knowledge that bolstered her without any comfort.

The assistant turned back to throw the syringe away, shrinking away from the cold feel of it.

No experiment is worth a human life…

Only five more weeks left to live…

No wonder they could not look at each other.


A.N. I always wanted to do something that put more blame on Lucrecia than Hojo. Also, I don't think she would have been stupid enough not to find out what was going on. Review if you want.