A/N: A bit of a late update here, sorry (I'm writing a second fanfic too)…but hey, all the drama starts here! I enjoyed writing this chapter – hopefully it'll give you an insight into a change in Yazoo's personality. The rating has gone up by the way – it gets a bit violent so I changed it to be on the safe side.
Ame ni Matte
Wait in the Rain
Chapter 10: Blood
Once again, the morning greeted Yazoo with blinding whiteness and the unwelcoming sound of loose papers being turned. He brought a hand to his face, chewing a knuckle as a piercing, callous voice that belonged to Hojo said, "Awake at last, are you? I was beginning to think I had mistaken you for one of my rodent specimens you know, but the tests have proven otherwise."
Yazoo sat up, suddenly apprehensive, and the nervous, twitching face of Deanes met his eyes. The young researcher was clutching his clipboard as usual, wordlessly injecting Yazoo once again before moving away. Hojo, who had been watching Deanes, got out from his seat to join the two.
"Any questions, Deanes?" the head scientist asked. Yazoo watched as Deanes shook his head, and beckoned for him to follow. Yazoo blinked. The lab door had been opened by Hojo, who was gesturing to it with a lazy hand. Was he actually allowed to leave…?
"…You're undergoing a different schedule today," Hojo explained. Yazoo edged nearer to the door, and waited for the moment for it to swing shut teasingly, but no such moment prevailed. Yazoo passed through the door quickly, and was joined shortly by Deanes and Hojo. What met the clone's eyes was hardly comforting. The corridor was just as white as the lab he had just come out of, and it was virtually empty, save for the occasional employee rushing down the corridor.
"Follow Deanes, he'll be in charge of you today." Hojo leaned down and gave Yazoo what he thought was a reassuring pat on the head. It wasn't reassuring at all. Yazoo winced, restraining his urge to wriggle away from the cold hand and wipe down his head for invisible germs. "Off you go now."
Yazoo knew better than to question the Head of Science, so he followed Deanes down a set of spiralling stairs, and realising that they were out of Hojo's sight, asked interestedly, "Do you enjoy your job?"
"Wh-what?" Deanes was caught off guard momentarily. He gave the clone a wary look before answering tonelessly, "…It pays me well, and I en-enjoy some of the work, so…"
"You enjoy it?" Yazoo's green eyes flashed, but sadly, Deanes had his back turned and was unaware he had touched a nerve. What separated Yazoo from both his brothers though was that his anger could disappear within moments of surfacing, burying itself back under coolness and detachment. And so as soon as Yazoo felt the anger bubbling somewhere inside of him at the thought of Deanes actually enjoying his job, he had long forgotten about it as he reached a large hall that had been tiled a dull grey. Deanes held open one of the large doors.
"After you, Yazoo."
The room was completely empty save for a small table, a metallic cabinet and various coloured circles on the wall at the far end. Yazoo was too absorbed in contemplating innocent ideas about what the circles were used for, that he barely noticed Deanes rummaging through the metallic cabinet and pulling out items. They were put down on the table with loud clangs that echoed round the whole room; Yazoo wasn't exactly comfortable either when he noticed that he and the nervous researcher were the only people in the room.
"I'm not exactly happy about doing this either," Deanes said, evidently noticing Yazoo's sullen face, "but it's on Hojo's schedule for you, so…"
"I thought you said you enjoyed your job." Yazoo rolled his eyes, and with an interest he genuinely had (which never seemed to show on his face), he stood on tiptoe and studied the table, seeing four guns. Deanes stopped looking awkward, and studied his clipboard.
"Your accuracy and reaction time should have increased over these past few days, far better than that of an average being. We'll be testing your ability to…"
Yazoo was only half listening, since he had rather been put off by the fact that he was not the average being. He looked down at his hand. He certainly had normal qualities, but even if he did, it didn't matter – he was merely a shadow of Sephiroth. And even if being normal meant being weak, he'd rather be that than a copy of someone with inhuman strengths.
Deanes tapped his shoulder, and passed him a small gun. "See those circles? Try shooting one of them."
It wasn't difficult at all, and hence, Yazoo found himself dozing off as Deanes set him more tasks, including aiming for the centre of the circle and shooting with different types of guns. They kept that this for several hours, during which Deanes would occasionally mutter things like, "Good work" or "Nearly there". But Yazoo didn't care if his work was good or nearly there. Both he and Deanes were doing as they were told to suit the needs of the Head of Science…was Deanes just as helpless as Yazoo was?
No, because he enjoys his work.
Yazoo gripped the gun he was holding tightly, firing at a blue circle and wincing at the deafening noise emitted. The weapon felt heavy and strange in his small hands, but it gave him a sense of foreboding power to have it, like he had found something that wasn't meant to be found. He turned the barrel of the gun towards his face, and peered into the blackness.
"Be careful with what you do with that, we don't want no accidents." Yazoo blinked at the sound of a voice that wasn't Deanes', and turning round, stared up to find a man and woman, both dressed in blue suits, looking down at him.
"You need to stop with the double negatives," the woman addressed her partner uninterestedly, "it's difficult to understand you." She unwrapped some fresh chewing gum, popping it in her mouth and chewing it for a few moments before fixing her sharp gaze on Deanes. "This is the brat Hojo was talking about, eh? Yazoo or something?"
"He's the one." Deanes gestured to Yazoo, who suddenly felt awkward when three pairs of eyes studied him. "Yazoo, Lorna and Marshal here are Turks assigned to watch over you."
"You know, Lorna," the Turk named Marshal said, scratching his head, "he looks a bit like those two silver haired brats from yesterday."
The gun clattered onto the floor immediately, its butt hitting Yazoo's foot, but the pain and the sound of the adults' voices seemed very far away all of a sudden. He felt a bubble of euphoria – a sensation he hadn't felt for a long time – and opened his mouth to question the newly-assigned Turks further.
"Before you say anything," Lorna interrupted, "let me just remind you that Hojo has no intention of letting you leave this place."
Her words stung Yazoo, though not as much as her heartless gaze that seemed to think its mission was to intimidate him as much as possible. Deanes was chewing his pen lid, and Marshal was scowling at the no smoking sign. Lorna was still staring at him. Yazoo shifted from foot to foot as Deanes muttered, "Shall we carry on then, Yazoo? We still need to see how well you do with long range targets, and…"
The gun. Of course. Yazoo bent down, picking up the weapon. It was too good to be true that he was armed, Deanes wasn't, and the security was very low. Perhaps Hojo had planned for it all, but if it was a way to get to his brothers, Yazoo would take it. He turned the gun so that it pointed to Deanes, and immediately, the researcher whimpered, throwing his clipboard and pen to the pristine floor and holding up his arms. The Turks' hands had simultaneously reached for their EMRs, but it was clear they were fighting a losing battle. There was no way they could reach the child before he pulled the trigger.
"Okay, take it easy kid," said Marshal, "we don't want no accidents."
"Put the gun down," Lorna instructed firmly. Yazoo could sense the slight apprehension in her voice though. Being shot obviously hurt a lot, judging by the way the three were suddenly panicking, and he absently wondered whether it was as painful as what he and his brothers went through. He turned the gun towards Marshal, who wasn't flinching and sweating like Deanes, but holding out his rod.
"Where are my brothers?" Yazoo was meant to ask politely, the gentle tone he usually adopted when speaking, but it came out calmly, enunciating each word with a dark threat that he never knew he could do. He was feeling rage more passionately than he had ever felt, almost as though someone was being enraged for him…
"The last time we saw them, they were hanging out by some skip and, "Marshal stammered hurriedly," one of them was crying as well...we were only doing our job, taking them back to where they belonged…"
Loz was crying. Yazoo's stomach squirmed, and the urge to find his brothers intensified. "Can you blame him for crying? You tried to bring them back here…do you know how much it hurts?"
Deanes's eyes were looking round frantically, anywhere but Yazoo's livid gaze. Yazoo ran a tongue over his dry lips, glaring furiously at the trembling researcher. Possibly the best place to shoot him was the heart, where Yazoo felt the most hurt and pain. The researcher deserved the equivalent of Yazoo's mako doses, the three brothers' excruciating experiments, the anguish of being separated…
A strong pair of hands abruptly caught his shoulders midway of Yazoo's thoughts, and in panic, he pulled the trigger. There was a deafening bang, someone yelled, and the sound of something falling to the floor rang all around. He could hear Marshal shouting behind him, and an electrical fizz could only mean that someone had switched on their EMR. Yazoo elbowed Marshal – who was the one gripping him – and swung the gun round aimlessly where coincidentally, was now aimed at Lorna and the flickering EMR in her hand. Deanes was sprawled on the floor, his clipboard stained red. A shaking hand was grabbing onto his upper arm, where the smart white lab coat was now dyed a deep red, the blood dripping onto the floor. Yazoo swallowed when he saw Deanes' face scrunched up in agony, and his breathing became ragged.
"If you try to stop me from reaching them," Yazoo panted, "you'll end up like him."
Yazoo kept the gun steady, edging towards the door with Lorna and Marshal staring after him. Then, he turned and fled, down a long corridor with the Turks racing close behind. The weight of the gun was pulling him back, but Yazoo knew he had to keep it. If he were to run into anyone else…
However, that was exactly what was beginning to worry Yazoo. There was no one. He was fleeing down stairs and stumbling through double doors, driven by a mad compulsion to get away. There were no Turks behind him, and where Yazoo was expecting for Hojo to jump out from one of the identical brown doors, no such thing happened. It was like the building wanted him to leave forever.
And when Yazoo did reach the main entrance, the security guard there either didn't notice him (which was hard to believe, since Yazoo was a child running around in pyjamas with a gun), or he had been ordered to ignore him. Yazoo stepped through the doors, racing down the large driveway where the raindrops on cars glistened. Grinning, a feeling of childish rebellion growing inside of him, Yazoo thought happily about shooting a hole in whichever car was Hojo's.
And even though his tatty trainers were soaked already from the large puddles, and that he was cold, hungry and sore, all that mattered was that he was out at last.
Lorna and Marshal had never been in Hojo's office in the evening. The sunset filtered through the blinds, illuminating the large room with an orange light that made it all the more creepy. Marshal wished for nothing more than for the meeting to end, so that he could get out and go downtown to party. It was Friday after all, and he was not a fan of overtime.
He was though, quite curious as to why Hojo called off the attempt to catch Yazoo, and this curiosity was the reason why he had accompanied Lorna to the Head of Science's lab-like office. Hojo was quickly finishing off a bit of paperwork, and Lorna, who was still in shock in seeing a small child wielding a gun, had just put her gum's wrapper in her mouth. She spluttered, taking it back out. At the unladylike noise, Hojo looked up from his work and smiled pleasantly at the two Turks.
"Now, I said that you two would be assigned to look over Yazoo," he said, "and that hasn't changed. Instead, the settings for my experiments have changed. I've turned it into a natural experiment, something you two probably wouldn't understand."
Lorna shook her head in disagreement. "You mean that the experiments will be observed outside of the labs rather than in them. You shouldn't underestimate the Turks, sir."
"You can see why I do though," Hojo said dryly as Marshal lit the wrong end of his cigarette. "Experiments Yazoo, Kadaj and Loz are a lot of trouble, see, and though I would love to see to this project myself, it would be more accurate if they were to be in a natural environment. That's why I let him – Yazoo that is – escape, back to those clones he calls his brothers."
"Sir, it wasn't wise to only have one employee assisting Yazoo with his schedule." Marshal arched his eyebrows, staring through a long brown fringe. "Deanes nearly got killed."
"I was trying to kill two birds with one stone, if you get my drift," Hojo replied smoothly. Marshal did catch Hojo's drift, and took an instinctive step backwards.
"What do we have to do then, Sir?" Lorna asked. "I mean, with the clones out in the open, that means we'll have to…"
"Exactly," smiled Hojo. "I'm not going to go trekking around after them. That's your job. Your boss agrees it's a marvellous idea of mine. You'll send me weekly reports on how they're doing, and ensure for their existence."
He steeped his fingers and rested his chin on them. "Though, to be more accurate, you'd do well to ensure for your own too. Today has proven that even the frail little Yazoo has a vehemence similar to Sephiroth's somewhere underneath that placid exterior of his."
A/N: So Yazoo's out now, which means that next chapter will have all three brothers. I hope my OCs were okay – I really wanted to put in proper Turks like Reno and Rude, but they're too young where this story's set.
Next chapter: Yazoo goes to find Kadaj and Loz!
