What was once a simple "what if" turned into this pandemonium. And not gonna lie, I kinda like it!
The once silent chamber now howled with screams of blood-curdling torture and horror.
In a fit of animalistic rage, Sephiroth pounced on the guard. Without Masamune to call, he began tearing through the man's neck by hand; digging and clawing until scratches turned to slashes. Blood splattered, crimson splotches now shielding the cell's window from view.
"WHAT-WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! STOP! ST-STO-" The man's speech gurgled as blood surged his throat, coughing the liquid right into the face of his rabid attacker
The other guard watched in utter terror, frozen in time as his partner was mauled alive. He tried to join the screams, but only cotton and tears answered.
Finally, the screams came to a bitter halt as the man fell dead. His eyes, frozen as if a deer in the headlights, closed in eternal slumber.
Sephiroth rose from his proud art. He turned, targeting his attention onto the paralyzed guard who sputtered unintelligible swears in return.
Good ... very good. This is the way of a monster.
Quiet sobs choked from his lips as he backed away, incredulous.
"St-stay away away from... I-I-"
Sephiroth's eyes glistened darkly with a certain smugness.
Then, however, they flickered to horror.
He backed away himself, shaking like a leaf until losing his own footing. On the ground he trembled, lifting an afflicted, anguished eye to meet the other's.
"R-Run!" he demanded, spitting out as an unintentional snarl. "Get.. get away from me! Warn the others... GO!"
When the man didn't move, Sephiroth sprang to his feet. He lunged, shoving the guard into a lantern. It sparked and shattered, dimming the chamber and leaving reddened glass to strew. The guard slumped against the wall, unconscious.
It is weakened! Finish it! FINISH IT!
"NO!" Sephiroth roared aloud, keeping one glove to his head and scanning the man's pockets with his pulsating vision.
He dropped to his knees. There, he rummaged through the uniform until prying out a slick, golden key.
IT IS READY! DELIVER ITS END!
Ignoring the invader, Sephiroth slammed the key to the ground. Then, he proceeded to stomp on it. Over and over, until it was nothing more than a shattered disarray of metal. The voice remained silent for the moment, prowling. Her presence lingered still; latching onto his mind like a tick.
Blood from his features drizzled upon the sea of gold and white fragments. Sephiroth panted, practically wheezing out his breath.
You have done well... but you are far too careful. You leave it, leave it to suffer like that. Put it out of its misery.
...She did have a point... The man would die thanks to him. If he could cause one less...
Slowly, his gloves journeyed over to the limp neck, wrapping them securely around. Then the veil was lifted from his eyes.
Sephiroth jolted back, his hands trembling.
"No... you will not... h-harm anyone else!"
As originally intended, Sephiroth bolted back to his cage and slammed the door behind. He nearly made it to the body before buckling once more. Coiled on the ground, Sephiroth seized his splatter-art cloak, pulling it taut around himself in panicked desperation to drive his demon away.
He would not lose this time.
xxxxxxx
As the monitor illuminated the lab, Zack craned his neck to view. Hojo stood by, lacing the aged fingers together. He seemed to be pleased with his captive audience.
"Well, Soldier, I'm very excited to introduce to you, The Jenova Project."
At his click, diagrams of the creature's anatomy were displayed. The same parasite found in the Mako Reactor; a slender, humanistic woman. Silver hair rolled down her shoulders as tentacle-adjacent limbs sprouted from the monster's skull. Her right eye hidden under a piercing, red gleam. The other was emerald. And in the center, a feline slit was carved.
A line traveled from the diagram's arm, leading to a magnified view of her cell structure. They were green, and unlike the disk-shaped blood cells of a human, had a spherical shape. Spikes spurred from them as well.
"Is that... a virus?" Zack's voice was fainter than he remembered.
The professor hummed to himself. "Quite insightful, Soldier. Precisely. You see, my boy, once those cells are implanted within another organism, they create let's say..." Hojo caressed his chin, "an internal tracking device."
He shifted the presentation. Now it displayed an impregnate human mother, transparent as to show the developing fetus inside. An arrow pointed to her stomach. "Once implanted, a symbiotic instinct will override the host. They will answer her call, serving her as the bee does to its queen."
Zack's fingers twitched for Buster as he followed the presentation, currently displaying what looked to be a contorted human silhouette. It was bowing, kneeling before a non-preserved Jenova.
"Nonetheless," Hojo continued, "Jenova's instinct is to destroy and kill. No intelligent thoughts, no ambitions. But I…" Hojo emitted a quiet chuckle, "I have great ambitions. All of Gaia will be speechless once they witness what I have created, what I have achieved! They will all witness the beauty of Reunion! The beauty of my ultimate weapon!"
Zack opened his mouth, his throat closing as he tried to digest the sheer, unbridled madness that the monster was spewing. But Hojo hurried on.
"But be it not only an innate bond from the host to Jenova that these cells possess. They stimulate several elements of the body's nervous system, therefore increasing their muscular strength and agility. Key senses are enhanced as well... similar to what you average Soldiers possess." Hojo inclined his head. "But so, so much more..."
Zack was utterly repulsed. No, that was too kind of a word for it. His leg, still continuing to bleed, tensed in hot fury as he mustered all his willpower to keep the fire inside.
"So you... you injected him with it?!" He could hardly control himself. "You made him prey to this... thing? You stripped his free agency away just because you wanted to one-up and make the best Soldier?! Is that what you wanted? Are you HAPPY NOW?!"
By now, Hojo had erupted into a wild storm of laughter. He leaned against the projection screen, unable to hold himself up any other way. Zack's rage only built. Why was he laughing? Does this creep not know what he's done? To Cloud, to Nibelheim, to the heartbroken families, to Seph...?
Hojo finally quelled. He slowed his cackles, needing gulps of oxygen in order to speak. When he was breathing again, the man tuned to Zack with a humored grin.
"Please forgive me, my boy. It is just... never in all my years have I've heard someone become so defensive over... a what? Wild animal?"
"Seph is a living, breathing PERSON!" Zack screamed, the Mako in his eyes shining especially bright. It was a rare sight to see, but it needed to be done.
Hojo shook his head, the amused smile still present. "You gave it a nickname..."
Zack was about to retaliate when a sudden beeping ensued. Satisfied he had driven his playmate into turmoil, Hojo trotted to his computer. There, the deranged smile somehow widened.
"Well, it looks like the queen is calling for her child."
Zack stared at Hojo's turned back. "What 'queen?'"
Hojo didn't answer. Instead, he set down his remote, replacing it with an object blocked from view. Then came the familiar sound of a safety being dismissed.
"Well, my boy, I certainly enjoyed our chat. I appreciate you so kindly letting me present my studies; it is my life's work, you know. But alas..." He spun around, walking over to the helpless Zack, sitting in a puddle of his own blood. His skin had become ghostly pale in their little interaction. "I must be on my way to record some observations. It won't be long before Jenova claims her prize."
"No... you're wrong..." Zack's voice shivered, fighting through the swimming nausea. "He's stronger than it..."
"Blessed is the blind they say," Hojo aimed his barrel at the Soldier's chest. "But I must say, I am quite intrigued. It is clear that you are the variable I hadn't accounted for in the first trial." He lowered his weapon just enough to meet the fading aqua orbs. "How did you do it...?"
His voice held a underlying sincerity to it, even distant awe. It was obvious that he couldn't even fathom what kind of white magic Zack had used to free the other.
So, he gave only a weak, soft smile in reply. "It's a secret..."
Hojo snorted, dissatisfied. He curled his fingers around the trigger. "Very well."
In a movement faster than the human eye to catch, Zack had whipped out Sephiroth's pocket knife, jabbing into the older man's thigh.
Hojo let out a shrill curse, releasing his pistol. He dropped to his knees and tried feverishly to the extract the dagger.
Using this window of distraction, Zack snatched the gun, rolling to his stomach as he dragged himself along the cold, unsanitary floor.
Hojo pried out the knife, launching it furiously against the wall. He turned his inflamed eyes onto the slithering Soldier.
"Now we can be twins," Zack lips quirked up in a smirk. Thanks, bud he added to himself.
Hojo was not amused. He hobbled to an uneasy stand, limping past the monitor and around his desk. Zack waited patiently, elevating his limb for the time being as he watched Hojo throw open a cabinet. Lined along the upper shelves, were various Materia. Illuminating orbs radiated their multicolored light along the artificially lit room, bouncing off screens, beakers and blood.
Zack was only focused on one of the spheres, however: the violet orb.
Hojo reached for that very jewel, bringing it over his thigh. Showing how many years it's been since Seph had touched the thing, it wouldn't be unwise for the man to cast Poisona as to cleanse out any bacteria or toxins. Not that Hojo knew it was an eighteen-year old weapon.
Oh well.
"Mind if I borrow that?"
Suddenly, Hojo found himself sprawled atop the floor, shrouded in the sharp scent of gunfire as crimson seeped through the unwashed lab coat. Cure Materia spilled from his now open palm, bowling through liquid until clanking against Zack's boot. He immediately scooped it up.
"Thank you!" the brunet smiled. And without any time to waste, casted Cure upon himself.
Kind, green light emanated from the orb, ribboning around his body in a welcoming embrace. Zack relaxed into its greeting, letting its warmth consume him. Strips of light navigated to his wounds, gently hugging the skin around it. First tending to his thigh, the spell moved on to his stitched stomach when finished. His forehead was next, followed by his plastered leg. Inside he felt his bone realign, slowly retracted out of its fixed position as his cast slipped off. Finally, was his back, nursing each gash and blemish under the stitches with care.
Once the viridescent light faded, a spotless Zack Fair emerged.
"Now that's more like it!" he chirped, wiggling his toes and flailing his liberated legs. "Good as new!"
Hojo, neglected on the floor, hawked out the pungent taste of blood from his lips. He rolled to the side, eyeing the Soldier with intense yet distancing contempt.
"Y-you are willing... to go so far... f-for an..." Hojo spat out the word, "experiment?"
Zack simply grinned, undaunted. "You bet I am." Keeping the gun in-hand, Zack approached the nonplussed professor. "Y'know, genetics don't define anything, pal. I'd never think I get to see a real monster up close. Sure I've taken on some nasty things in the slums and sewers, but wow! I was really missin' out on something!"
The beeping intensified, now blaring like an alarm. Zack headed for Hojo's desk, observing the screen himself. All the data and statistics were a foreign language, but he did make out what looked to be a radar. It indicated the subject's location -- Nibelheim -- while blinking violently. Bars on the side were shooting up and down, leaving the monitor to deduce its fit as "unstable control."
"He can... only resist his fate... f-for so long..." Hojo croaked, the sneer returning. "Kill me now, Soldier... Carry on my l-legacy and see for yourself how Jenova's beautiful cycle is complete..."
Zack's heart twisted taut. He shifted panicked eyes from the monitor to Hojo, the monitor to Hojo. He was running out of time.
Suddenly, a public execution wasn't a threat anymore.
"Do it, Soldier..."
Zack gritted his teeth.
"Do it..." Hojo was laughing now.
Zack balled his gloves.
"DO IT!"
"SHUT UP!"
And then, there was silence. A hole pierced the man's forehead, trickling blood down to the bridge of his nose and glasses. The wide, monstrous grin never faded, even as his sprit did.
Hojo was dead.
Zack caught his breath, letting the gun slip from his grasp. For a ten seconds or ten minutes he could only gape at the result of his actions; he had uncaged his anger. He couldn't help the pang that struck his heart then.
But.. had he done a good thing? Several others could have been unwittingly subjected to these cruel experiments, falling under the submission of parasites. What could have happened to other Soldiers...?
Seph... Dear Gaia.
Zack returned to the monitor, heart storming as the bars representing Jenova and Seph fought for dominance.
In an instant he was punching numbers on his phone, scheduling an immediate flight to Nibelheim.
Hang in there just a bit longer, bud. I'm coming.
He didn't know if he could relive that Hell again.
