"Angeal said that his own cells could absorb and pass on genetic traits. I guess...that's how they said the copies are made."
Zack had opted to retrieve his laptop and return to the office to wait for Sephiroth and any news of Angeal. He was almost finished with his mission write-up when Sephiroth stalked back in like a barely leashed dragon.
"Lazard isn't anywhere in the building." Sephiroth sounded as cold as a glacier, but his eyes looked positively murderous. "He's not answering calls. I've asked the Turks to find him."
"The Turks?" Zack said. "Isn't that overkill?"
"No one will tell me anything about Angeal, either," Sephiroth added, ignoring the criticism. "I've been to the security section. He's not in any of the cells. I obtained authorization from the officers in charge and looked for myself. The Turks also do not have him in any of their own detention and interrogation blocks. I looked there, too, though they didn't like it." Sephiroth strode closer and stared down at Zack's laptop. "Is that what happened in Modeoheim?"
Zack wondered just what threats had been issued to "obtain authorization" to freely examine the prison and interrogation cells. Whatever Sephiroth had done or said, it had obviously been effective enough to get immediate results. Only a couple hours had passed. "Yeah, but I'm not done yet. Just have to wrap it up with the...the arrests and such."
"Does it cover everything Hollander said?"
"Yes."
"Good." Without another word, Sephiroth snatched the laptop away from Zack and settled behind his desk to read. His expression grew ever colder over the next few minutes. Finally, he pushed the computer aside. "Project G," he muttered, "and the power of Jenova." His sharp gaze fixed on Zack with almost inhuman intensity. "Did Hollander say anything else about Jenova? Anything at all?"
Zack swallowed, taken aback by Sephiroth's vehemence. "Only that 'Jenova's power' had passed to Angeal completely. I thought the whole thing was strange. I think he was talking about how Angeal is a two-way conduit. Angeal said that his own cells could absorb and pass on genetic traits. I guess...that's how they said the copies are made."
"I assumed the copies couldn't be created without additional help from some sort of technology," Sephiroth said, "at least for Genesis copies, but perhaps the cells alone are enough. And Jenova..."
"You think Angeal can do it without technology? I mean, you and I, we found one in a mako pod in Reactor Five." Zack recalled the sight of a monster—a sahagin, not a human, thank goodness—bobbing in green liquid and with Angeal's face growing on it. "If not with technology, how else—?"
Sephiroth's brows knitted together. He looked physically ill. "I don't know. A direct infusion of cells, perhaps. The mako pod may have just been for additional enhancement. The copies would gain Angeal's abilities, strength, and mana from his cells, but they would have also needed mako for additional enhancements to make them even more formidable, just as is done to create a SOLDIER. We need to find Angeal. If what Hollander claimed is true..."
Zack could see how some unethical Wutain or other anti Shin-Ra group might try to weaponize Angeal's cells, like Hollander had done. And that would mean taking control of Angeal himself.
"We need to talk to the Science Department," Zack suggested. "Hollander worked for them. They might be able to investigate this. Maybe there are some secret records somewhere that everyone missed." He and Sephiroth had discovered fragmented information about Project G while Angeal had been missing, but it had all been confusing and appalling. It had been related to the Ancients, too, he recalled. Some records had indicated that Shin-Ra had excavated an Ancient and used it to create—Angeal and Genesis.
At the time, Sephiroth had speculated that Project G stood for Project Genesis, before Zack had learned in Modeoheim that it actually stood for Project Gillian—Angeal's own mother. The Ancient in question had been nameless in the records, but now the puzzle pieces indicated Jenova was the Ancient that Shin-Ra had used.
Jenova's power...
Zack wasn't an idiot. He could put two and two together, and the things Hollander had said in Modeoheim were now making a horrifying kind of sense.
But neither he nor Sephiroth were scientists. He might be wrong. "Maybe Professor Hojo could figure out something?" Zack recalled that Hojo had once mentioned Jenova to him. What had he said, exactly? Zack struggled to remember. It had been something contemptuous.
"Hojo," Sephiroth practically spat. His expression grew calculating. "Yes," he said slowly. "Yes, that's possible. We need to go to the Science Department." Under his breath he muttered, "And Jenova..."
"What about Jenova? What do you know?"
Sephiroth did not answer.