Disclaimer: Square pwns all.
Hojo stood in front of the tubes, glaring angrily at the two young men contained within. The dark-haired one on the left merely sat on the bottom, back braced against the smooth glass, arms folded defensively over his chest, and glared right back. The light-haired one on the right was standing, leaned forward against the glass, pounding one fist slowly. He too was glaring, though not at anything in particular. His eyes were vacant.
What made him mad, was that neither were really the successes he thought they might be. He hadn't bothered to learn their names, the names weren't important. The dark-haired one was simply labelled "A" in his files, while the blond was "B". A was a first-class Soldier, and had already been receiving treatments since his initiation as a third-class Soldier. He seemed to have reached his limitation on how far he could be improved with the treatments.
B, however, was just a regular army grunt. No one of importance. Though here, his name had been important. His file listed him as having great potential for becoming a successful product on par with Sephiroth. But so far, he was a complete failure. He'd had the usual responses to the treatments - nausea, nightmares, a host of others - perhaps more than any other single person did, but nothing unusual.
He had no idea what else he could possibly do to achieve the results he wanted. He wanted to have another great success like Sephiroth, something that would shut up all those stupid people who thought they knew what to do better than he did. Something spectacular.
So far, all the Soldiers who'd had treatments had had the same results. Improved speed, agility, hearing, smell, eyesight. But all of them, that's where their similarities to the one, great, achievement ended.
His eyes narrowed in thought. Inspiration. There was one factor that he'd been missing this whole time, nearly 10 years of experiments. Yes, the mako injections were one factor. But the other... the other. Sephiroth had unusual... cells.
A smile twisted his lips, and he turned from the subjects. He still had some of those cells available. Yes, that just might be the missing part of the equation. A would be the control subject, as he was a fine specimen of the current limitations of the experiment. B, with a combination of mako and these cells, would be the experiment now.
He retrieved what he wanted and returned to the subjects. A had moved, attempting to reach B through words. B hadn't moved, or indicated that he was even hearing A. A flung himself back when Hojo approached B's tube, once again glaring daggers at the scientist. He was easily ignored as he opened B's tube with a key, and the subject was too disoriented to do much more than stare at him as he pulled his arm out and jabbed the needle into the enlarged vein displayed on the inside of his elbow. He pressed the syringe down all way and closed the door again, re-locking it.
He'd even started to walk away, knowing that any results wouldn't be visible for at least a couple of hours, before B started screaming. Not the kind of screaming he didn't even hear anymore during the regular treatments. No, this was blood-curdling, a scream filled with so much pain, it would likely continue for hours, and could not ever be described in words. A scream from deep within one's soul, from one who simply felt.. too much.
He smiled. Today was going to be a good day.