Lucrecia placed the letter into the mailbox for the outgoing mail with hopes that Gast would receive her correspondence. Never would she know that half of what she sent out would only make it to Hojo's trashcan. Lucrecia had already sent out four and had yet to receive even one letter in return.
Sighing, she looked up at the stairs before her. It she working probably her third month of pregnancy with only mild changes, but it would not be too long before she would begin to show. If the situation was not bad enough, both the monsters now that stalked the outskirts of town as well as the early season snow that had begun to fall had cut off communication outside of the town. Since that one day, Vincent had not spoken to her other then the normal courteousness of "Good morning", "Good evening" and "Is that all, Doctor?" All he seemed to be now was a dark sentry that stood in the darkest corners of the lab and picking off monsters from the mansion walls. It seemed to be bent on keeping himself preoccupied with anything, especially establishing communication outside of town. That much was obvious.
"Dr. Honestas?"
She blinked realizing the innkeeper was addressing her. "Yes?"
The woman leaned over the counter. "Will you going out today by chance?" She took note of Lucrecia's heavy sweater worn under her lab coat.
"I need to go to the mansion to do some work. Will you let Mr. Valentine know that I am there if he drops by?"
"Of course, ma'am. Be careful."
Lucrecia offered a confident smile before opening the door and stepped out into the snow. She made sure that travel was quick not even lingering to watch the snow fall to the ground. The snow fell to the ground in almost a fairy tale fashion, but Lucrecia could not help but the feel the creeping foreboding that rode in with the cold. In the distance she could hear gunshot echo erratically. She could not help but to think about the strange animals the crawled out from the mountain passes and woods around the base of the Nibels. Pulling at her lab coat in the response of the cold, she ran down the path to the mansion.
Focusing the crosshairs of his scope, he waited for the dog to make the next move. It sat silently behind a half-barren bush.
'C'mon mutt. You can't sit there forever.' Suddenly, it burst from its position and began racing toward the Turk. Startled, Vincent pulled the trigger, but his shot only grazed the shoulders of the beast. Cursing, he fumbled with another bullet, trying quickly to reload the gun. Vincent glanced up and found the mutated dog would be on him before he could fire.
Tossing his rifle to the side, he drew out his pistol and began to fire in rapid repetition. It was only after he empty his clip he found the beast was only a foot away from him, now laying in it's own gore. Pitching the empty clip, he quickly reloaded his gun before approaching the canine for further investigation. 'That was too close. They seem to be moving faster and growing more aggressive.'
Vincent posed his gun readied over the dog as he approached and found the animal was very much dead. He found aggression and speed was not the only thing different, the dogs seemed to also to be larger then several weeks before. 'What on earth is going on here?'
Finally, he focused his crosshairs of his rifle on the blue car that sat a distance away. Vincent and senior partner had spent the past two months tracking the contact. It became apparent that someone within Shinra was leaking confidential weapon information to a rival company. Just who that was, Vincent was about to find.
"9 o'clock sharp, Bean sprout." Frank's voice whispered through the earpiece the sniper wore in his ear. Vincent winced at the pet name that Frank favored. Glanced back, he briefly to saw Frank still sitting in the back car, binoculars in hand..
Vincent looked back through the scope and froze. Another car pulled up and a man stepped out. Vincent's eyes went wide when he saw whom it was.
"I have the mole in view." Vincent muttered.
It was none other then one of their own, a Turk. Harris worked specifically in the lab research department. Vincent began to suspect him after catching talking a blonde woman outside of the lounge. Sure, there were classy women that lingered there, but she seemed a little out of place. The clincher was when she slipped something into his breast pocket of his jacket when they kissed.
'Oh this could be some trouble.' Vincent watched the two men converse and then casually, Harris, the man with unmistakable short cut brown hair and black suit gestured toward where Vincent was hidden behind a cluster of trees high on a cliff. Vincent cursed and knew he could not wait a moment more and pulled the trigger.
The car was suddenly exploded into a massive fireball and black smoke. Frank charged past him with gun drawn and slip slid down the steep cliff face to the flaming car below. Vincent sighed and began to disassemble his gun and ran over to the car. He quickly slipped into the driver's seat and turned the engine over. It was not long before Frank opened the passenger side door and dropped down into the bucket seat.
"You didn't mention that was Harris." He flopped the man's wallet and id out on the dashboard.
"I suspected it was him for a while." Vincent pressed the gas pedal and began their way back to the road.
"It's too bad. Harris was a bright guy. So much for Secret Agent Cetran man." Frank sat back and relaxed.
It was an on going joke among the departments that because of Harris's unusual talents for information and retention, he seemed nothing more then an ancient, or at least one of the many stereotypes.
"That was too close." Vincent finally muttered, reaching up and brushing his hair back. Fran glanced over at his junior partner and smirked.
"I would have thought you would think to set up a littler further away from the target."
Vincent scowled. "That is not what I meant, sir."
Frank shook his head and crossed his arms. "Ah, loosen up, Bean sprout. You should appreciate the experience. You know, not everyone has the pleasure to work with me."
'And I can see why.' Vincent kept his eyes on the road. If he knew only one thing, he knew that whenever he went out on assignments with Frank, it always meant something was going to explode and they would be getting away by the skin of their teeth.
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"Lucrecia, how much do you wish to perform your own private research?"
She looked up at Hojo who sat across from her. "Why do you ask?"
Hojo smirked. It was one of those smirks that often sent chills down one's spine. The laboratory's florescent lights reflected harshly off his round glasses.
"What if I could promise you that?"
Lucrecia glanced back down at the lab report. 'Promise it?' She looked back up at him.
"How would you do this, sir?"
Hojo leaned forward. "Jenova."
Lucrecia blinked. "What about Jenova? Gast promised me for taking watch over his project, he would give me the recommendation that need to earn my final credentials."
Hojo stood up and moved next to her. "I can give you more then just credentials. What if I could make this project yours?"
Lucrecia frowned and tried to move away. "But this is Gast's..."
Hojo placed a finger on her lips. "His project proposal simply stated it was exploratory research in the possibilities of Jenova being a Cetran and trying to recreate Cetran society." He removed his finger and smile. "But what I purpose is something more tangible instead of that anthropological mumbo jumbo. What if I offered you to help me recreate a Cetran?"
Lucrecia fell silent. 'Recreate a Cetran?' Seeing her skepticism, Hojo shuffled over to where he kept his samples and brought several over to her. "I took some human skin cells and exposed them to Jenova." He first places the human cells under the scope and followed them with the Jenova cell mixture.
"Oh my god." Lucrecia uttered. The two sets of cells had merged, neither looking much different from the other.
"Introduction of Jenova cells would not only make one stronger, but in theory would quickly assimilate human cells into Cetran cells. 'Never mind the more advanced parts of the project require Mako, but I will not mention that now. I cannot afford to jeopardize the project in that way I will play her word games as long as it is necessary and effective.' " How about it, Doctor? You can be the first..." Hojo placed his hand on her arm. "The first to mother a Cetran in two thousand years." He let the silence hang uncomfortably in the air. "That is how I promise you the credentials and the ability to perform your own research. To have you dream after for so long. I can give you that. No one else..."
Lucrecia swallowed. "May I have time to think on this?"
Hojo smiled. "Nnnyes. Have all the time you need, but know that there is only a small window in which we can begin and end the Jenova treatment."
Lucrecia laid on her back with her hands resting casually over his belly. His face haunted her. He showed no emotion, no fear or anger, but just cold acceptance. 'They are trained to be obedient, subordinate Shinra dogs.' Hojo seemed to mutter that a lot every time she gave thought about the Turk.
When Vincent had found out about the project change, he approached her and Hojo. Hojo simply stated that Gast's project was being placed on hold and that what they were doing was separate from that arrangement.
In the beginning, Vincent appeared to be very upset. Though she could not help but to understand. That was the first time he learned of her pregnancy. It was something she never got to tell him. Lucrecia could still hear that she had hurt him a great deal in his voice when he protested. Now why he did not do what he had been trained as a Turk, she did not know. Maybe this is what he meant by getting too close to her. Not following through with his assignment carried a weightier consequence if she were to err. Lucrecia could not help but the see the image of a bucket of cement being filled with Vincent's feet in it. 'But that is the stuff of movies, not of fact. Or is it?'
That however did not satisfy the question of why if he could not dispose of her why not dispose of Hojo?
'I'm against it! Why experiments on humans?' He demanded. She had kept her eyes down the entire time. Somehow, she could not help but to feel ashamed of the sacrifice she was willing to make to steady her career. She also felt scared. Hojo on the other hand was more then willing to defend his precious project.
'She and I are both scientists!'
Despite the lame excuse Hojo gave, Vincent merely nodded his face suddenly vacant of the emotion that only there moments previously. She had looked up in time to catch a brief flicker of Vincent's dark eyes just as he turned and left the lab. That was end of the issue.
Despite Hojo's reassurance that he was only trying to help, she could not help but to feel she had been led blindly into the witch's oven.
Lying with her head still reeling for the day, her hand unconscious began to rub at her belly. 'Did I make the right choice? It's too late now, I suppose.' She could still feel the sting of the beginning injection. ' Only if Gast were here...'
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"By the way, have you heard back from your assistant?" Ifalna asked as she refilled Gast's cup. He sighed and shook his head. It had seemed like eons since he had last spoken to his assistant. In reality it was only a few months. Months long then had initially intended. Gast however did know of the risks of coming up to the Northern Continent so late in the season.
Yet, the greatest thing he had seen was not the artifacts, but what Ifalna had brought with her. It about the size of a large glass marble, white with Cetran hieroglyphics carved into the crystalline surface. She claimed it was passed down through her mother and her mother's mother and so on. Gast could not help but to get excited by the prospect that there were Cetrans living past the initial impact. Then again, it could have been found and somehow fallen into Ifalna's family hands. Realizing Ifalna had asked a question, he shook away his thoughts.
"Normally Dr. Honestas is very punctual about her reports."
She filled her teacup and placed the metal kettle down. "I am sure she is fine. Once the winter storms set in up here, we loose most if not all of our communication with the rest of the world."
Gast poured some cream into the cup. "Of course." 'At least the Turk is there to keep things in line.' "Some cream?"
"That would be lovely, Gast." Ifalna watched as the white liquid swirled around in the black tea. Despite the gas heater in the tent and the warm of the drink, their breaths came out in cold vapors. Taking a deep breath, Ifalna relaxed and enjoyed her company.
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"Just take a deep breathe, it will only hurt for a moment."
Lucrecia swallowed as Hojo prepared the hypodermic needle. She squinted trying to see how many cc's of the Jenova cell solution he was preparing to inject. Hojo placed the needle down on the metal surgical tray and picked up a small tape recorder.
"This is week 4, 3pm, second injection. I will be injecting 40 cc's into spec...patient 001." Pressing the red stop button, he placed the machine down and swept up the needle. Even though this was only the second injection, Lucrecia already had enough. Hojo glanced past her toward the entrance of the lab as the Turk was leaving the room. Smiling, he returned his attention back to his "patient".
Lucrecia forced herself to look away while he pressed the needle into her abdomen. Her hands clenched the chair arms in a passive effort to deal with the sharp pain.
"You are not breathing. I told you if you don't breath during this, you will pass out. Mmmkay?"
All she saw was the reflective glint of light of his glasses. She forced herself to exhale. Hojo merely snorted in response. Once the he emptied the needle, he withdrew and stood back. Lucrecia laid still forcing herself to take steady breathes; she knew what to expect this time.
The once sharp pain faded became a painful spot of heat. It then quickly spread to her legs and then to her feet. Before long it was rushing to her arms and face. And then it came. A series of cramps seized her body causing her to ball up into a fetal position in the chair.
Hojo picked up his recorded. "Specimen 001 is responding well to solution treatment. The side affects appear to be weaker then with the initial injection."