Chapter 1.

In the beginning,

This was never supposed to have happened. It was never even thought of as a something even remotely possible. But sure enough it had. He berated himself for not having thought of this unfortunate possibility. He was the force behind Shin-Ra's amazing rise to power, he alone was responsible for the billions of gill generated from the Mako, so why , when all his other projects had been so very carefully researched, taking every possibility into consideration, had he not even thought of this event? Sure he never expected to fall in love, Gods knew he had no time in his life for anything, save his research, but it had happened. So unexpectedly, but something he could not fight, not when he finally felt like a man, how delicious it felt, that feeling inside him. Nothing had ever made him feel that way, not even the Mako. After his first taste of love he realized that the Mako was just something he used to try to make him feel whole, only after her did he realize that it didn't even come close.

Three years ago, when the project had first began, He first noticed the enhancing ability the Mako seemed to have on life forms. It wasn't to long afterwards that he took the first injection. It was something that he had to do, he needed to see the effects first hand.. of course, he told no one. Oh how it felt, first as the green fluid

entered his vein it stung like fire, he could feel the acid burning through his body. He screamed with the agony of it. But after the first few minutes he subdued into bliss. He felt like he could do anything. All the little pains in his body that he'd grown so used too disappeared , He felt like never before in his life. He knows now that he was no better than the worst junkie, but at that time he believed he'd stumbled on something truly miraculous.

Time went on, and so did his experimentation. By now he needed the Mako, without it he was in pain, more often he injected it. The rest of his legitimate experiments using the Mako for energy were a complete success, more than anyone could have ever dreamed. But he knew first hand the negative effects of trying to use the toxic fluid for enhancing genetics. He realized that it was killing him, hair would fall out in clumps, his body developed a painful rash, constant coughing fits would plague him where he would spit up a sickly green phlegm, a possible mix of the Mako in his bloodstream.

Towards the end, before "she" came into his life, he was busy in his lab so busy, he never realized that he was no longer alone. He started feeling the usual sickness that meant it was time for him to get another fix, this time it seemed like it was going to be really bad. He had not wanted to inject himself so soon, it had been only five hours since his last injection, but there was no reason to the maddening pull of the Mako. " No! "He thought bitterly, "Not now!" "I'm so close to completion!" But there was no ignoring the horrible feelings racing through his body. He thought that if he couldn't get his fix NOW, their wouldn't be a project to finish for him at all. So He did what he had to, what he had been doing for so long. It was done, he fell back into his chair feeling the familiar bliss once the fluid in his veins reached his brain. He never noticed the assistant, Hojo behind

him, who as silently as the rat he resembled, stepped up to confront the professor. "So I see now how you have such intimate knowledge of the Mako" "I have always wondered why you have been so secretive with your research" Hojo smirked. The Professor had always disliked this man, he thought of him as a vile creature who's only interest was in himself. He was young, only around nineteen or so, but brilliant. Brilliant and cold, colder than ice. It was as if the man was empty inside. Worse than that, he seemed to have something evil growing in him. He seemed to get a sadistic joy in the gruesome experiments that caused all the rest of the researchers to feel uncomfortable, sometimes things had to be done in the name of science, that most people would like to pretend were humane, but in reality they knew it was far from the truth. But those very things were what Hojo seemed to thrive on. It helped him get to where he was now, the professor knew. Shin-Ra liked that in an employee. How things had changed since he first began working for Shin-Ra! It all started with the Mako, then the experiments, and who could forget the "Turks" Shin-Ra's new mercenary force of trained assassins. How did it get to all this. They was no one anymore to stop Shin-Ra. Either they were bought off or simply "disappeared" complements of the "Turks" of course. Yes, he thought, Hojo fits perfectly, and now that he knows my "secret" I will become one of those unfortunate experiments. "I know what your thinking, but I wont tell a soul, this can be our secret" Hojo mused. "If, you will just do one little thing for me." "Ive been wanting to get in on the Jenova project you head, maybe you have a need for a new assistant." A look of pure anguish crossed the professors face when he thought about Hojo being on the project. But that was nothing compared to thinking about what would become of him if anyone found out about his little "secret". "O.K, I will put the paper work in tomorrow, just please, please, don't tell anyone what you saw here!" he pleaded. Hojo responded " I will so enjoy working with you" he laughed as he walked out of the lab.

Things continued as normal except for the fact that he had a psychotic lab assistant that wanted to kill and dissect all the subjects. His Idea of research was to see how much Mako a subject's body could handle before sub coming to death, then cutting it open to find out what organs were the most damaged. He also found a liking in trying to splice genes from different subjects and trying to fuse them together with Mako. The lab was turning into a morgue, and the project was having trouble finding new test subjects. In short they were just dying to fast to be replaced. But Hojo was making discoveries. Ones that kept Shin-Ra interested. No one was interested in Mako as fuel anymore, now it was improving humanity, and creating the perfect soldier. That was something that after having experimented on himself, he could not do to anyone else. He decided it was time he left Shin-Ra.

He decided to go back to his family home in Kalm. He had no more family, but they had left him the house. He would go there and live out the rest of his days. Hopefully he could forget about Shinra, and hopefully they will forget about him. Sometimes he worried that late one night he would get a knock on the door only to open it and find some men dressed in blue, waiting to deliver his death to him. Stupid he thought, they wouldn't bother waiting till the middle of the night or knocking! They would just shoot him on the spot. They were "Turks " after all, and known for much worse. He figured they had better things to do and more important people to kill, not some washed up scientist.