I do not own Final Fantasy VII or any of the characters.
Found
"Cloud?" one of the two Shinra troops that had stumbled upon Cloud, Barret, and Tifa asked, just as Cody and Jessie were reaching the stairs leading up to the virtual reality trainer. "You're Cloud right? Holy shit!" he laughed and turned to the other troop who had been about to try to arrest Cloud, either for having a sword or for recognizing Barret as AVALANCHE. "It's cool, bro. We went through training together." He turned back to Cloud. "Damn! So you still alive and kicking, huh? Some of the guys heard you got smoked, but I told 'em it was all bullshit. Hey, sit tight man, I'mma go got Kunsel! I'll be right back!"
He and the other troop turned, jogging down the steps and past Cody and Jessie without a sideways glance. Cody and Jessie walked over to the stairs, seeing Cloud holding his head in pain.
"Old buddy?" Barret asked, Cloud shaking his head.
"You okay?" Tifa asked, just as Cloud's episode ended and he lowered his hand.
"Yeah," Cloud said.
"But you were just..." Tifa trailed off as Cody and Jessie walked up to them.
"I'm good," Cloud said irritably before glaring at Cody and Jessie. "What took you so long?"
"Sorry," Cody said. "It took a little longer to get clean than I expected." He glanced back after the two Shinra troops. "We gotta go. If Kunsel gets here before we're gone, there's going to be trouble."
"Who's Kunsel?" Tifa asked.
"He's a SOLDIER," Cody said. "And he's also a master gossip. He knows just about everything about everyone." He made eye contact with Tifa as he said, it, Tifa's eyes widening.
"We should go," Tifa said.
"How do you know Kunsel?" Barret asked as they left and headed for the stairs up to the next level.
"I used to use him as a sort of info broker if a job came up involving someone who worked for Shinra," Cody said. "Also, I was once tasked with finding out if he was a spy for the original AVALANCHE, or for Wutai."
"Oh, that's right," Barret said. "The Turks fought the original AVALANCHE alongside SOLDIER, didn't they?"
"More accurately, we fought them instead of SOLDIER," Cody said. "AVALANCHE had a way to control SOLDIERs, so we Turks were sent to deal with them instead."
"Wait, you fought against AVALANCHE?" Jessie asked.
Cody paused, then sighed. "Yeah. I didn't want to say anything because that would be an even bigger reason not to trust me than just me being a Turk. But yeah, I fought against AVALANCHE. It wasn't like this group, or what that group has become. Back when we Turks were at war with them, the leader of AVALANCHE, Fuhito, was a madman. He didn't want to destroy Shinra. He wanted to wipe all humanity off the face of the planet, that way we'd all be returned to it and replenish what Shinra's used in their reactors, as well as stopping humanity from damaging the planet further. When I left, the others were still trying to stop him."
"And you didn't help!?" Barret demanded.
Cody stared at him for a moment before shaking his head slowly. "I didn't care if the world ceased to exist anymore at the time. If it did, that would have just meant I'd be sent to the Lifestream with Cissnei. But I did keep an ear to the ground. The other Turks defeated Fuhito not long after I met you all."
"You're a real piece of work," Barret growled.
Cody glanced at Jessie, who was staring at the ground as they rode the escalator up to the sixty fourth floor. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner."
She looked up at him for a moment before smiling and slipping her hand into his. "I understand. But after this, I want to know everything. Everything you've done. All your missions. No matter how bad."
He nodded. "Alright."
As they reached the door at the top of the escalators, Cody swiped one of his and the door opened.
"I'm not actually sure where the entrance to Hojo's lab is," Cody admitted.
"It's fine," Cloud said. "I want to eavesdrop on the board meeting. There should be a bathroom here somewhere that we can sneak through a vent over it through."
"The bathroom's this way," Cody said, turning and walking through the hallways, past several small conference rooms to a small side hallway with the bathrooms. "Tifa, Jessie, you two should probably check your makeup."
"Good idea," Tifa said, she and Jessie heading into the girls' bathroom, since the vent was in the boys' bathroom, according to Cloud.
The three men walked into the males' bathroom, checking to see if it was clear before walking to the stall at the end, finding a vent over it. Cody stood on the toilet, pilling the vent cover off, then stepping out of the stall so Cloud could go first.
"I'll stand watch," Barret said.
"Try to be discreet," Cody said. "Maybe just sit in the stall so no one uses it."
Barret nodded and Cody followed Cloud into the vent. They moved carefully and slowly, shimmying along as quietly as they could manage until they finally reached a grate over the conference room where President Shinra was sitting at the head of his table, all the other directors present. Heidegger, head of Public Security. Scarlet, head of Weapons Development. Hojo, head of Scientific Research. Palmer, head of the Space Exploration Department that was currently only a part of Shinra in name alone. And finally, Reeve Tuesti, the only person in the room who cared about the people of Midgar at all.
"I'm telling you I saw him!" Palmer, a fat balding man in a brown suit, was shouted. "With my own eyes! Sauntering down the corridor!"
"We don't have time for this nonsense! Heidegger snapped.
Palmer stood, walking past Heidegger. "We was as close to me as you are now!" He stopped, turning back toward Heidegger. "The shock of it made me spill my tea!"
"Enough already!" Heidegger thundered, slamming his hands on the table, startling Palmer, then standing. "If there are intruders in the building, my men will deal with them!"
Cody frowned. Who were they talking about? And clearly Heidegger wasn't entirely correct. If he didn't know Cody was there, that meant that Tseng and the others hadn't said anything when Elena told them she met him and Jessie, although they had never said their names. Still, a Turk with a mask walking out of his old office would have been a dead giveaway. And yet, they had said nothing. Done nothing. What was Tseng playing at? What was he planning?
Tifa glanced at Jessie in the mirror in between times of pretending to be washing off makeup she wasn't wearing. Jessie was applying lipstick, but looked like she was spacing out slightly.
"Is it about what he told us?" Tifa asked.
Jessie glanced at her before frowning and shaking her head. "No. I don't care what happened before. He's more than proven his loyalty since he came to us."
"Then what's wrong?" Tifa asked.
Jessie sighed, putting her lipstick away. "I just...can't tell if he's really moving on from her or not."
"I doubt he is," Tifa said. "I doubt he ever will."
Jessie sighed.
"Do you love him?" Tifa asked.
Jessie looked up at her, eyes wide with surprise for a moment before she frowned thoughtfully. "Ii hadn't really thought about it that much, but...yeah. I do."
"Then what does it matter if he's moved on from Cissnei or not?" Tifa asked. "He's with you now."
"It matters because if he doesn't find something to replace her before this whole thing ends, he's planning to return to the planet to be with Cissnei," Jessie said. "If I can't replace her in his eyes, he's going to kill himself."
"You've got it wrong," Tifa said, wlaking out of the bathroom with her and to a pair of couches nearby where no one was around. "You don't have to replace her. No one can ever replace Cissnei to Cody. He was in love with her, and he always will be. But just because you can't replace her doesn't mean you can't get him to fall in love with you too. He doesn't need someone to replace Cissnei. He just needs someone there to show him that his life is still worth living. And I honestly think he might have already found that someone."
Jessie smiled. "I doubt it. You should see the way he looks when he thinks of her. No matter what he's doing, or where he is, or who he's with, the moment she enters his thoughts, he's gone. If she were alive, and showed up out of the blue, he'd leave with her without a second thought."
Tifa sighed. "I wouldn't be too sure."
Jessie was silent for a moment before grinning. "Alright, enough about me and mine. Time to fess up. What's going on between you and Cloud?"
Tifa's cheeks began to turn pink instantly, and that was all the invitation Jessie needed.
"Reeve," President Shinra said, finally putting an end to Palmer and Heidegger's argument.
"Sir, I have the damage assessment for Sector Seven, and I'm afraid the figures are catastrophic-"
"Spare us the doom and gloom," President Shinra said, Reeve suddenly taken aback. "Was there anything else?"
Reeve's brain did a hard reset for a moment before he spoke again. "Uh...Well sir, I've also drafted a reconstruction-"
"That will no longer be needed," President Shinra said. "Not with the Ancient in our custody once more."
"Uh...With respect, sir," Reeve said. "I don't see-"
"Two words, Reeve," Scarlet said. "Neo-Midgar." She let out a huff of amusement as Reeve sighed heavily.
President Shinra exhaled a long stream of smoke from his cigar. "In their Promised Land, we will build a new mako-powered metropolis."
Reeve stood abruptly. "Mister President! We still don't know for sure that the Promised Land even-"
President Shinra raised a hand, silencing him and making him sit back down, once again sighing. "Professor Hojo."
"The test results were within expectations," Hojo said. "The specimen is somewhat lacking compared to her pure-blood mother, but for our purposes, she should more than suffice." He sat forward, leaning his arms on the table and clasping his hands.
"So she can lead us to the Promised Land?" President Shinra asked.
"Well Mister President, that remains to be seen," Hojo said. "I would like your permission to secure her cooperation through more...forceful means. Forceful, yet gentle. She is a precious resource that must be handled with care."
"Personally, I've never had a problem with Torture," Scarlet said, as though talking about what she liked to eat for breakfast.
"My armory is at your disposal, should you require anything," Heidegger offered.
"I...had something more...psychological in mind," Hojo said. "Better to scar the psyche, than mar the flesh."
Palmer laughed excitedly, then covered his mouth, trying to restrain himself.
President Shinra stared at Hojo as he let out a cloud of smoke. "Proceed as you see fit." He sat forward. "However, you will not make the same mistake twice. Is that clear?"
"If I may, Mister President," Hojo grinned wickedly. "I have an idea how we might mitigate the risks, at the same time as solving a problem that may arise down the road."
"What problem?" President Shinra asked.
"As I said, she is...less suitable than Ifalna was," Hojo said. "The difference is about eighteen percent. To put that in perspective, using our current specimen, instead of her mother, the project could take decades. Perhaps longer than the specimen's own lifetime."
"What do you suggest?" President Shinra asked.
"Simply put, we could have the ancient...reproduce," Hojo said. "Or, perhaps it would be more accurate to say, 'we could breed her.' Having multiple specimens could allow us to reach our goal faster, as well as ensuring that we will still have something to work with should our current specimen...expire."
"Do it," President Shinra said.
"At once, sir," Hojo grinned, Cloud and Cody quickly backing away. "I've already selected a suitable mate."
After a minute or two of shimmying backward, Cody managed to use an intersection to turn around and returned to their entrance, Cloud following suit. Barret signaled that it was clear and Cody leaned down out of it, gripping the sides of the stall walls before carefully flipping his feet down and dropping to the floor, Cloud following suit. They headed out into the hallway and found Tifa and Jessie a short distance away, sitting on a pair of couches and talking quietly. As they walked over, Tifa looked over at them and quickly whispered something before Jessie turned to them, smiling and walking over.
"So, how was your bathroom break?" Jessie asked.
"We need to go," Cody hissed. "Now!"
"We need to get her out before Hojo gets back to his lab," Cloud agreed.
"No, we'll have to follow him," Cody said. "He's the only one who knows how to get there."
Cloud nodded and they headed back toward the elevators, only to stop at the door as they found Hojo just outside, scanning his ID at a concealed panel in the wall. A door hidded open beside it and Hojo walked through, muttering to himself.
"A simple psychoactive agent should suffice," Hojo muttered. "Nothing likely to cause any long-term damage." He chuckled, then hummed thoughtfully. Perhaps something to make her a little more compliant when we breed her." He hummed again before shaking his head. "No. Better to wait until after before introducing any foreign chemicals. We must ensure the successful acquisition of new specimen samples before all else."
The door began to hiss closed behind him and Cody and the others rushed forward quietly, Barret barely slipping through the door. As the door hissed shut, Tifa glanced at Cody's shoes.
"How are those so quiet?" Tifa whispered.
Cody lifted his foot, revealing a rubber layer over the metal. "I haven't prepped them for combat yet."
Tifa nodded and they followed the hallway their room emptied into, staying close behind Hojo without letting him know they were there. Finally, they stopped at a corner, Cody peeking around it and watching Hojo walk through a room filled with stasis tanks glowing with mako, though all empty. Hojo climbed a stairway at the far side of that room and Cody motioned for everyone to follow, Cody running quietly to the stairs and seeing there was no security lock at the door, which was good, because it closed as soon as he reached the stairs. he walked up the stairs and opened the door, finding the hallway continued to a corner. From the corner, he could see a room filled with computers and people in lab coats. Hojo walked out the far side of it and Cody sighed, stepping back and turning to the others.
"There are people in the next room," Cody said. "We're not sneaking through as is."
"We could always knock 'em out," Barret said.
"No way!" Cody said firmly. "We're about to step into Hojo's private laboratory, where he houses dozens of dangerous experiments and monsters. He most likely has a remote to let them out on command if he wants, and several people on the main floor to let them out for him if he can't."
"Well, what then?" Cloud asked.
Cody looked around the corner again, eyes carefully inspecting the room. Just as he was about to decide that maybe Barret's plan was the best one, Hojo's voice announced the beginning of an experiment and everyone moved to the computers at the front. Cody looked to the right, seeing a supply closet and quickly darted inside, returning with a lab coat for each of them, including one that would actually fit Barret.
"Put these on, stay quiet, and follow me," Cody said. "Barret, keep the gun hidden. Do not look around, do not speak."
Everyone nodded, pulling their coats on before they all walked quickly toward the lab. Everyone was too busy to pay attention to the five people in lab coats speed-walking through the back of the room to the door. Once through, there was another staircase to the lab's sublevel. It was a wide, crescent-shaped room with storage crates in the corners and hear and there along the walls, more mako tanks, some machines exposed behind railings that Cody didn't even care to identify, along with large pipes running into and out of them, a glass tube of a holding cell to their left, at the middle of the room's outer curve, a large structure with a window in the front that glowed light blue on the right, taking up a huge portion of the room and giving it its crescent shape, and a cargo elevator on the far side. Cody turned and walked over to the glass tube, staring at the creature inside, which glared right back. It was a monster of some kind he'd never even heard of. It looked like a Great Dane mixed with some kind of large cat, like a cheeta, or a small lion, but with dark orange fur, dark hair running in messy spikes from between his ears to the base of his neck, tattoos over his legs in tribal designs, then a brand of the roman numeral for thirteen on his left shoulder, a feather standing up from the left side of his hair next to his ear, and a small flame at the tip of its tail. His green eyes had slit pupils and contained an intelligence that made Cody suspect it might actually understand him if he spoke, assuming it could even hear him.
"Cloud!?" Tifa asked worriedly, suddenly.
Cody turned, seeing him stagger back from the metal object opposite the dog's glass cell, clutching his head. After a moment, he fell to his knees, panting but releasing his head.
"Jenova," Cloud said. "So, they brought it here."
"Jenova?" Cody asked, looking into the tank, seeing a feminine monster body with its feet fused to a massive heart bigger than his torso below it, an artery attached to the feminine body's abdomen like an umbilical cord, and its head having been removed. "Gross."
Just then, there was a mechanical whirring behind them and they spun, seeing the floor of the dog's cell beginning to rise, a hole opening in the ceiling above it as the dog stood. Cody's gut dropped instantly.
"Breed," he said, suddenly feeling sick. "He said breed."
"No way!" Cloud said, eyes widening. "Would he?"
He and Cody looked at each other, both knowing the answer, before both sprinted for the cargo elevator, everyone else following. They all crammed in and Cloud jammed his thumb into the up arrow. The gate rattled closed and the elevator began to drift upward. Finally, it stopped and the gate rattled open, all of them sprinting out into the main lab, a massive, open room with a glass round specimen tank taking up the center of the room, then a ramp running from the tank up to the observation room Hojo was in, a blue barrier around the room which deflected Barret's bullets harmlessly when he shot at it.
"Oh, so there are intruders in the building," Hojo said. "No matter. You won't interrupt my experiment."
They all looked to the specimen tank where the dog was standing in front of Aerith, snarling, and Aerith had herself pressed back against the glass. However, as soon as they walked in, Aerith turned to press her hands to the glass.
"Cloud!" she shrieked. "Help me!"
The dog lunged instantly, slamming into her and knocking her to the ground. She landed on her knees and it mounted her instantly, its forepaws pressing on the backs of her shoulders to pin her to the ground and its head positioned beside her ears. Except, for a brief moment between pinning her and beginning to snarl possessively, Cody could swear he saw its mouth and jowls move as though it were speaking to her. Then it began to growl and Aerith began to shriek plead for them to save her.
Cody reacted fastest, sprinting to the tank and pulling up his watch's screen before pressing its face. A wire suddenly extended from one of the arms and he attached the magnet at the end to the panel, allowing his watch to instantly hack into the panel. A half second later, he pressed a big button on his screen that read "OPEN," which was positioned above one that read "CLOSE," and the door slid open. The switch was instant. The dog was off of Aerith instantly and out of the cage, standing in front of the barrer and growling at Hojo. Aerith stood, dusting herself off and taking a deep breath before walking out as Cody pulled the magnet off the panel and let go, the wire retracting back into the watch's arm again.
"Thank you, Cody," Aerith smiled.
"How do you know my name?" Cody asked.
"Well, this is a very unfortunate turn of events," Hojo said. "Very well. I suppose I'll have to allow one of my test subjects to deal with you all. I wonder how you'll do. Don't worry. I won't allow it to harm the Ancient. But the rest of you..." he began to laugh as the floor of the tank sank to the floor below.
There was a loud zap and a roar, then a mechanical whirring as the floor began to rise again. Cody swallowed hard, summing his gunblade and readying himself, Cloud drawing his sword as Barret raised his Gatling gun.
"Jessie, get Aerith somewhere safe," Cody ordered.
"I don't think so," Aerith said, picking up a metal rod from the floor beside her. "I can take care of myself."
"Then why'd you hire me?" Cloud asked.
"So you'd feel useful," Aerith said teasingly.
"Time's up!" Barret warned as the creature they'd heard rose into the tank.
It had a massive upper body, with its entire body covered in some kind of purple insect-like carapace. Its legs were about chest height to Cody, and its upper body towered over them at easily double the height. Its legs were somewhat of a cross between being bent like a dog's but with elephant feet, its left arm was enormous with a spike sticking up from the shoulder and swollen into a massive ball below where the elbow would be, an opening where the hand had once been surrounded by four small flaps that moved like they were cartilage. Its head was deformed with three massive tentacles reaching backward off of it and a dozen hanging from around where the mouth should be, and its eyes glowed mako green. its right hand had three arm-length tentacles with claws on the end in place of fingers, and there was a clam-shaped mouth on its right shoulder with a row of pointed teeth along the edges of it.
As soon as it arrived, the mouth opened and spat out four small insect-like creatures each with four pointed, sickle-shaped legs, a round body, and a single, enormous eye on the front of their bodies with a green iris and a slit pupil. Cody growled in annoyance, crouching a little lower and gripping his sword tighter.
"It's always fucking bugs," he growled.
"Allow me to introduce you all to experiment H-Zero-Five-Two," Hojo introduced. "Feel free to play with your food."
The creature roared and the four tiny things all scurried forward. Cody slashed one as it leapt at him, Cloud slashing another and Barret shot two. The massive creature shrieked angrily, charging directly toward them, exploding through the glass of its tank instantly, bringing up its massive left arm and swiping downward at Cody and Cloud, who dove in either direction, the impact shaking the ground. The creature roared angrily when it raised its arm and found that they hadn't been crushed. He turned after them just as they both passed it, Cody in front and Cloud behind, slashing it. Thick black blood began to run down its body instantly and it roared, its shoulder mouth opening again and spitting out more of the tiny monsters. Cody slashed two before the creature's left arm crashed into him, hurling him aside. He bounced and rolled to a stop before beginning to stand, only for one of the creatures to suddenly crash into his chest, knocking him to the ground again, its legs locking around him, pinning his arms.
"Hey, easy on the suit!" Cody shouted, struggling to free his arms.
Suddenly, Jessie shrieked in surprise and fear and he looked over, seeing a creature clinging to her legs, keeping her from being able to run as the massive creature reached her. Cody sprinted forward, slamming a kick into one of the creatures when it went for his legs, bouncing it off the bigger creature. Then, just as it swung its arm downward, Cody dove forward, crashing into the back of its legs and making them buckle. The creature's massive arm crashed down beside Jessie just as she managed to yank her gun out from under the creature, jamming it into the creature's eye and firing, killing it. She threw it off as Cody shoved himself out from under the massive creature, the one clinging to him having been crushed by its mother, or father. He looked around and snapped an arm up, catching his gunblade's hilt in time to instantly squeeze the trigger, sending his gunblade into a downward slash, splitting the last small creature in half, then slashing the massive creature's right arm's tentacles, slicing them off before they could stab him. The creature roared, standing before Cody jumped, squeezing his trigger and buzz-sawing backward, splitting the creature up the front before kicking off its head and leaping away from it, Cloud slamming his glowing green sword into the ground and sending a wave of mako energy tearing through the creature just before Jessie and Barret suddenly began to spray the creature. At the same time, Aerith began to swipe and twirl the rod she was holding, small blasts of shining white energy flashing from the ends of the staff into the massive creature, bursting into small white explosions that left charred skin behind when they hit it.
It roared in pain, staggering away, raising its left arm to block Barret and Jessie's bullets as its shoulder mouth spat out a half dozen more bugs. Cody lunged forward, slashing downward and taking off the left arm above its massive portion, then spun, slashing the creature across the side before diving out of the way of one of the small creatures. The massive creature roared angrily as one of Aerith's blasts hit its face, and the small creatures all swarmed toward her. Cody turned to help, only for Tifa to bounce on her feet twice before taking off, darting back and forth, knocking the creatures away and moving in a near blur before leaping into the air and bringing a fist down on the last one, punching it so hard its insides exploded out all the way around it at once. He nodded approvingly, turning back to the massive creature just as it roared so loud the floor vibrated, its wounds all sealing suddenly before glowing green fluid began to spray out of its severed arm and tentacles. Suddenly a new left arm burst out of its body, dripping that same glowing fluid, which dulled into a dark goo after. However, in place of tentacles, three bone fingers burst out of its right hand, all of them sharp along the entire inside and outside.
It roared instantly, pushing off the ground and streaking at Cody, who shouted in surprise, bringing his gunblade up just in time for its claws to crash into it with a loud, grating screech, hurling him backward into a metal pipe and denting the pipe, before he fell to the ground, groaning. He pushed himself up, his Chakra materia glowing and healing him partially as he glanced at his gunblade, relieved to see it wasn't damaged. He looked back at the creature just as it slammed the opening on the end of its left hand into a gigantic mako tank. Instantly, the mako inside began to be drawn toward the hand, seeming to pass through the glass into the creature, a bright mako-green glow spreading from inside the creature's flesh in a wave reaching up along the creature's arm, then over the rest of its body. Finally, it released the tank and turned, roaring as its shoulder mouth spat out a dozen bugs. Then, the creature slowly swept his left arm toward the bugs, the opening spewing a stream of mako gas onto the bugs, all of their eyes suddenly glowing with mako energy.
The bugs shrieked, scrambling across the floor at Cody and the others. Jessie and Barret both shot one and both suddenly glowed blindingly before erupting into a small green explosion. Cody swore as two leapt at him, diving aside and allowing both to explode somewhere behind him. Tifa and Aerith both knocked one away, Tifa with a kick and Aerith with her metal rod, and both exploded a moment later, Tifa's taking another small creature with it. Cloud, however, was grabbed by two. He swore loudly and Cody's arm snapped up, a Manawall barrier shining over Cloud's body a second before the two bugs exploded, sending Cloud bouncing off a machine against one wall, which crumpled like tinfoil. However, Cloud shoved himself back up instantly, staggering for a moment before shaking his head and gripping his sword with both hands again. Cody turned back to the monster just as its left hand swung upward and crashed into him, hurling him. He groaned, but it occurred to him that it hadn't hurt as much as the last time. He looked down as he began to fall, seeing a Barrier fading from his body. He smiled. Jessie.
He flipped, landing on his feet and looked to her, seeing her relieved smile. He nodded, then shifted his eyes back to he creature just as Cloud slashed it across the front first one way, then back the other before leaping away from its right arm's attempt to catch him. Cody took off instantly, firing three blasts from his sword and sending himself streaking through the air at the creature before spinning himself like a buzz-saw, ripping its front open on the way by before using a pair of blasts to stop and launch himself at it again. As he reached it, he used a blast to force himself to the ground as it swung its left arm at him, landing in a low crouch at the same time as slashing it down the front just before its arm swiped over him. He slashed back up the other way across the creature's side and back, then stepped to his right after his blade, clearing the way for the wave of mako energy Cloud sent at the creature to take its left arm off a second time. The monster roared in pain and annoyance, its shoulder mouth spitting out a half-dozen bug creatures, only for them to meet a stream of Barret's bullets just barely out of the mouth, the resulting explosion engulfing its head and shoulders, knocking it back several steps. Then, Cody shot under it, slashing both legs off at the knee just before he passed, dropping the creature onto its back. Then, Cloud's glowing orange sword crashed down on the creature's shoulder mouth, pinning it closed. Cloud leapt away, leaving it there as Jessie, Tifa, and Aerith all raised a hand, three Thundaga spells exploding down on the creature at the same time, blasting its body wide open in a spray of thick, glowing, mako-infused blood and bits of monster flesh. The monster roared, forcing itself up, Cloud's sword remaining where it was and tearing up out through the shoulder mouth at the same time as the creature regrew its legs. However, just as it regained its feet, Cody jumped in front of it, several blasts from his gunblade buzz-sawing him up through the creature just left of center, splitting it fully this time, then stopped and reversed himself with his gunblade, splitting it just right of center this time.
As soon as he landed, her stabbed the creature in the exposed ribs, about where he though the heart should be, then squeezed his trigger again, the blast hurling him away from it at the same time as blasting a gaping hole through the creature's chest and hurling its center section backward, and the other two thirds Cody had cut off out to either side. He skidded to a stop and sighed, looking down at his ripped suit, now stained with thick black blood.
"It had to be fucking bugs," Cody grumbled.
"That sword," Hojo's voice said suddenly, everyone turning to look at him, as well as at the dog that had been attacking Aerith before, now seated in front of the barrier, watching the six of them calmly. "I see, so then you're his son."
Cody forgot how to breathe for a moment. There was no way Hojo knew him by his father. His father who had been killed for working from home. Right? His father hadn't actually stolen anything. Right?
"You know who I am?" Cody asked.
"You're a former Turk," Hojo said. "You went by the name Cody for most of your time as a Turk, I believe. A name chosen by your former partner, if I'm not mistaken. You submitted designs and schematics for that weapon you hold, but they were rejected as fruitless and a waste of resources. However, Scarlet decided to take a second look after seeing you during one training simulation while you were using that."
"How does Hojo know you so well?" Cloud asked. "He doesn't take an interest in anything but his experiments."
Cody swallowed hard. That fact had crossed his mind as well.
"Your father used to work for me," Hojo said. "That is, until he was caught stealing information. Project data, test results. Most of it was related to mako, and I didn't care about that. I allowed it. He was a productive worker, while trying to find a cure for your allergy."
"If you knew and you allowed it, then why?" Cody asked. "Why was he killed?"
Hojo laughed. "So you never knew? Well, I suppose you are still wearing the mask. Perhaps he never got to try to cure you. When his interests shifted, I had assumed he had finally found what he needed."
"Shifted to what?" Cody asked. "What did he steal?"
"We don't have time," Cloud said. "We need to get out."
"We'll never get out through the front," Cody said. "Hojo will have already alerted everyone."
That's right," Hojo said. "Oh, and will you look at that. It's just about time."
"Time for what?" Cody growled, gripping his sword tighter.
"You should begin to feel it any second," Hojo said.
Cody narrowed his eyes before his vision began to blur. He blinked several times before staggering to the side slightly before catching himself. He looked around but the others were all unconscious already.
"What is this!?" Cody demanded.
"A simple nerve agent that causes paralysis and loss of consciousness," Hojo said. "The small pipes running along the ceiling have been filling the room with both a gaseous form and a fine mist form since before I released that creature. I couldn't allow it to kill the Ancient, you see, and I would have prefered to keep it undamaged had you been killed by it, rather than detonating the small explosive device I implanted in its brain as an insurance device. Thanks to your mask, you're immune to the gas, but the mist itself is absorbed by the skin, allowing the drug to work on you as well, albeit slower."
Just then, the elevator's gate rattled open and Tseng, Rude, and Reno all walked in.
"Hey, we're not going to get drugged too, right?" Reno asked.
"No, you're fine," Hojo said. "As soon as I saw it taking effect, I turned it off and vented whatever was left from the room. Too much could have a detrimental effect on my precious specimen."
"The President has ordered her to be locked up under Heidegger's watch, along with them, and with us guarding the cells," Tseng said.
Hojo sighed irritably. "Yes fine, whatever. So long as she isn't late for any of her tests, that won't be a problem."
"Hojo!" Cody snarled, leaning heavily on his gunblade now. "What...What did my father...do?"
Hojo regarded him silently for a moment before turning to a computer and pressing several buttons. "I'll be sure to have the files comprised on both of your parents delivered to your cell."
"Just tell me now!" Cody snapped.
Hojo hummed thoughtfully before shrugging. "Very well."
Cody felt his strength leave him as Hojo's words echoed through his brain. They sounded like normal words, but his brain was struggling to process them. They didn't make any sense. His head began to spin from the information as much as the drugs. Hojo was lying. Hojo was insane and he was just trying to see if he could break Cody. There was no way what Hojo was saying was true. Cody's gunblade crashed to the ground as he fell to his knees, hi sbreathing coming in wheezy gasps suddenly and his head spinning like a top. Then, finally, he pitched forward and was swallowed up by darkness before he even hit the ground.
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