Splintered Dreams

Chapter Fifteen

"Enter Hojo"

They found Zack at the end of the corridor, just outside a pair of elevator double doors, studying what appeared to be a floor directory.

When they were closer, Barret peered over his shoulder."What d'ya got?"

Zack acknowledged the question, but didn't turn, kept his finger trailing the polished brass. "Looking for...ah. Found it." He stepped aside, pressed the elevator's up button, and pulled his gloves out of his back pocket without looking at either of them.

"What floor?" Tifa asked, her voice quiet.

"Sixty-seven." Zack stepped into the elevator and slipped black leather over white knuckles.

Tifa gave the directory a quick look. The sixty-seventh floor had only two listings: Medical Research and the Department for Expendable Resources. She didn't bother to wonder how the two were related; she was sure she didn't want to know. Thoughtful and silent, she stepped into the elevator beside Zack.

It wasn't until the elevator lurched into motion that Barret spoke again. "That Hojo guy... he's the head of Shin-Ra's Science Department, right? So, what's he want with Aerith?"

Zack's reply was frigid. "Nothing good."

The soft ding of the elevator prevented any further commentary and the trio exited.

A quick look around revealed the sixty-seventh floor to be one large, open floor. Dim lit and dreary, with concrete walls and metal grating overhead, it caused an instant shudder in Tifa. There was something unsanitary about the place, despite it being meticulously cleansed, she thought, hugging herself.

A faint,but distinct, odor clung to the air—one that reminded her of the trash behind Seventh Heaven and it turned Tifa's stomach. Or...what had been Seventh. She placed her hand to her mouth and followed Barret along the white painted cement, pushing that thought down. There was no place for that here. She had already made the decision to be there for her friends now. Grief could wait.

She glanced toward Zack, but he didn't notice—or didn't care to acknowledge that he did. With rigid shoulders and tense posture, he looked anything but his usual laid-back self, and Tifa found herself wondering just who this Hojo character was and what had transpired between him and Zack to make Zack coil so tight.

She worried her bottom lip with her teeth as she studied the line of Zack's back. Part of her wanted to stop him, take him aside and ask...or offer comforting words, but she didn't know exactly what it was she would be trying to comfort.

The truth of it was, she still didn't really know a lot about Zack's past. It hadn't really mattered to her when he'd joined them. But it mattered now, she admitted to herself. Because he mattered now. More than she cared to think about, so she shoved the thoughts aside as well and focused on the the area around them.

Empty crates along the walls. Beeping machinery somewhere in the distance. Cool air being pumped in from AC vents overhead. No sign of security. No sign of anyone.

"Wait." Zack held up one hand, then quickly motioned for them to slip in beside some crates. "Someone's coming."

She was really beginning to hate tight spaces, Tifa thought briefly, as she skirted between Barret's chest and Zack's back to press up against packaging crates. She strained on her tiptoes to see over Zack's broad back.

At the far end of the room another elevator—one nearly hidden behind a large glass tube—opened and Hojo stepped out. A pen scratched against paper as he scribbled on the clipboard in his hand and his dark, wing-like brows were drawn down in concentration.

Tifa took a long look at the man and found him unfavorable in more ways than one.

Skinny to the point of gaunt, Hojo had thin, sharp features—elongated even more by the sweep of dark hair that draped over his white lab coat in an unattended ponytail. His spectacles glinted beneath the fluorescent bulbs overhead, making it impossible to see his eyes, but she suspected she'd find them cold and calculating.

There was something uncomfortably familiar about the scientist and she instantly disliked him.

Standing in front of the large glass tube, Hojo placed his bony fingers to the glass, and spoke; his voice almost crooning, "Ah, hello, my precious specimen." He stood there, staring, for a few minutes more before he made some additional notes and re-entered the small elevator he'd emerged from.

Once he was gone, Tifa scooted from behind the crate with Barret. She paused when Zack made no move to follow and raised questioning eyes to his.

Wherever his thoughts had strayed wasn't pleasant, she realized. And when Zack shook his head and finally met her gaze, she drew a sharp breath. Lingering shadows haunted the depths of his expressive eyes and they turned her heart inside out.

This was not the Zack she had come to know. This wasn't even the Zack she recalled from nightmares of so many years ago. There was something so very wrong in him, and she had no idea what it was.

"Zack...?" She stepped forward, gently touched his hand with her own.

He gave her a half smile, a poor imitation of his usual cocky grin, and it only intensified her feeling of wrongness.

"I'm all right," he told her.

No, she thought, you're not. But didn't push.

Together, they moved further into the open area where the over-sized cylindric tube sat surrounded by tables of various size. Laid out on each table were sets of instruments that gleamed with silent malice on white paper.

Cautiously, Tifa picked up a hook that appeared to have a large corkscrew remover on one end. "I wonder what this is," she murmured.

"It keeps your intestines from spilling to the floor. Or getting in the way." Zack's voice was flat, distant and so cold that Tifa shivered.

In the way of what? The tool hit the table with a clang and she wiped her hands on her thighs.

"Hey. Look." Barret stood beside the glass tube where Hojo's precious specimen sat, idly licking its front paw and staring back at them with one yellow eye.

Curious, Tifa splayed her fingers against the glass. The creature inside was unlike anything she had ever seen before. Despite its fierce appearance, there was something majestic about the animal. Dark, rust colored fur gleamed beneath the harsh overhead lights and a tail—tipped with flame—flicked up and down. One vibrant, solitary eye followed her movements and the intelligent inquiry in its gaze gave her pause.

"Biological experiment?" she speculated, her own eyes following the strange—almost hypnotic—motion of the tail.

"Probably," Barret replied, distaste coloring his words. "Shin-Ra does all kinds of messed up shit."

Tifa frowned, backed up a step, searched around the tube. "Do you think there's a lever?"

"For what?" Barret demanded, then started to shake his head before she could reply. "No. Uhn-uh, Teef. We ain't letting a wild animal out while we're in here."

"Well, we can't just leave it," she countered.

He huffed a breath. "We've got bigger issues to worry about here."

She shot him a narrow look over her shoulder. "I know that, but that doesn't mean we can't help."

"Damn it." Barret tossed his hand into the air, recognizing her 'stubborn face'. "Princess, talk some sense into her."

Tifa turned away from the glass, intent on giving Zack the same earful she'd have given Barret, but stopped when she saw how still he'd gotten. In front of a metal dome that resembled a steel egg, his normal golden skin had gone a shade beyond pale.

The captured creature momentarily forgotten, Tifa pushed away from the glass. "Zack?"

"Jenova..." His face scrunched into a grimace that was a mixture of pain and revulsion. "They brought it back...its here...still alive."

"What's still alive?" Barret pressed up against the single door, peered through the oval window. "Cripes! Where's it's fuckin' head?" He leaned back, a look of confusion on his face. He shook himself. "This is stupid. Let's keep moving." He stomped back toward the lab tables and the elevator Hojo had disappeared into, his gruff mumble reaching them. "Shin-Ra and their twisted, sick, shit."

Tifa returned her concerned gaze to Zack, who was lost in his own world. Somewhere dark and painful if his eyes were any indication. "Zack...?"

He pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep, labored breath. His entire body language spoke of struggle,and it was a few moments before he was able to look at her."Hey," he said.

"Hey." Where'd you go? She shifted, started to place her hand on the steel so that she could peek inside and see what had both him and Barret so spooked, but Zack moved quick, and gripped her wrist, halting her.

"Don't," he said quietly with a shake of his head. "Just...Don't touch it, okay?"

She met his turbulent blues, saw concern and something else swirling there. Something that had her breath hitching and her heart hammering. "Okay." She lowered her arm slowly, but kept her fingers meshed with his for a heartbeat.

She knew Zack was a tactile person, knew he took comfort in solid reassurances, so she offered what she could. He'd do the same for her.

"You guys comin'?" Barret called to them from the small elevator Hojo had used. His voice cracked with impatience and irritation.

"On our way."

The moment the doors slid open on the sixty-eighth level, Zack felt his stomach knot and his palms began to itch beneath worn leather. This lab, unlike the one below, was pristine white and odorless; yet it elicited the same disturbed response from him.

He felt light headed and sick to his stomach.

Fuck, he hated labs.

The machinery and gadgets beeped and whirred as they calibrated, checked, processed or did whatever it was they were set out to do. In the center of the room, standing in a glass tube—very similar to the one that housed the beast below—Aerith stood, fidgeting with the buttons on her half jacket.

The relief he felt at finding her, not only alive but looking none the worse for her ordeal, made his heart skip. "Aerith!"

Her head snapped up and she stared in shock at all of them. "Zack!" Her palms pressed flat to the glass.

He pushed past Barret, started toward her, but a voice from his past—one that chilled the very blood in his veins—stopped him.

"Aerith. Is that her name?" Hojo barely glanced up from the computer terminal he was bent over. "Interesting. I couldn't recall... anyway, what do you want?" he sounded more irritated by than afraid of their intrusion.

Zack turned slowly, and forcibly swallowed against the bile rising in his throat. Just looking at the man brought back echoes of screams and the stench of blood and antiseptic.

No, he thought angrily when the urge to run seeped along his limbs. I am stronger than this.

"We're taking Aerith back," he spoke through his teeth.

Hojo scoffed, adjusted his glasses."I don't think so. The Cetra is too important to my research. Now begone."

Beside him, Barret blinked at Tifa. "Did he just dismiss us?"

She tightened the strap on her glove. "I think he did."

Zack stepped forward, his fingers curling around the hilt of his sword, his eyes gleaming eerily blue. Seeing the scientist now stirred horrific memories within him and caused his stomach to protest and his knees to tremble in a manner that enraged him. This monster—this sick fuck—took everything from him...from Cloud. No way was Zack walking away without his head.

"Let her out and I'll make sure you die quickly." He spoke clearly, and as calmly as his shaken nerves would allow. He felt, rather than saw, Tifa's surprise at his words; knew she recognized that he wasn't making an idle threat.

Hojo apparently had enough sense to recognize it as legitimate as well, because he straightened away from the monitor and finally looked at them. His mouth twisted into what could have been a condescending smirk and he directed his response to Zack, "You're going to kill me, boy? I don't think so. The equipment in here is very delicate. Wouldn't want anything unfortunate to happen, now would we?" Hojo's hand hovered over the control panel.

The rebuttal threat had its desired effect, and Zack froze.

"Good. It's always best to think things out logically before making rash actions." Hojo's smile turned Zack's stomach. The scientist bent to the microphone on the panel. "Now bring the specimen."

"Zack!"

The terrified cry had all of them swinging around to face Aerith. The beast from below was being elevated into her containment tube and she was backed up against the glass, fumbling futilely for a way out. The creature flicked its tail up and down, bared its fangs and let out a bloodthirsty roar.

Aerith screamed.

Shit.

"What the hell are you doing?" Zack demanded.

"Lending a hand to the endangered species. Both are on the brink of extinction."

"You can't mean..." Tifa shook her head, clearly disturbed. "Aerith is a human being!"

"A relative term," Hojo muttered. "Human is only a species. People get so worked up over such frivolous things. Consider the beneficial nature of this union—"

They didn't have time for this shit, Zack thought, tuning the Professor out. He turned to Barret, determination tightening his jaw. If they were going to save Aerith they needed to act now. "Take out the glass," he ordered.

Barret's eyes flashed wide. "But Aerith—"

"Show me you're as good as you say you are." Zack closed his hand over Tifa's, pulled her a step back and maneuvered her into the shelter of his arms. He turned them away from Barret, and said, "Go for it."

"All right." Steely eyed, Barret leveled his gun-arm at the containment unit and, after a quick assessment, opened fire. The unit flashed bright white and shards of reinforced glass chinked and began to fall to the laboratory floor.

"Stop!" Hojo scrambled away from the monitors and raced toward the broken tube. "My precious experiments! You fools! What have you done?" His eyes bulged behind his lenses. Anything else he wanted to say was cut short when the creature from inside lunged through the shattered glass with a snarl and knocked him back.

Behind the animal, Aerith stumbled forward. "Zack!"

"Right here." He released Tifa and caught Aerith quickly, lowered her to the ground. He gave her a searching look, content that she was indeed all right.

"Thank you," she said, her green gaze taking in all three.

Zack nodded at her but a soft whir and thrum of vibration snagged his attention. He pressed Aerith behind him with one arm, his other hand moving toward the hilt of his sword.

"What is it?" Tifa asked, alert.

"The elevator." He gestured toward the small one Hojo had used. "Something big is coming."

"Perhaps it would be best if we were to leave now."

The voice, so smooth and calm, seemed out of place amongst the chaos, and even more so when the group realized where it was coming from.

Tifa's eyes widened and she stared open mouthed at the red beast, her stunned expression very much reflecting what Zack was feeling. "It...it talked?"

"I will gladly talk as much as you wish, later, miss. For now, may I suggest a hasty departure?"

Zack glanced to where Hojo lay, unconscious. "He dead?" he asked the beast.

The large animal shook its head. "No. Merely incapacitated."

Zack's hands balled into fists. There was an easy enough remedy for that, he thought with a sneer. He jumped slightly when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Not while he's defenseless," Tifa murmured. "That's not you."

Zack kept his face averted. He could do it, he thought, grimly. And without remorse. He, of all people, knew what Hojo was capable of while someone lay defenseless. It would only serve the monster right to be done in while he was the same. But Zack knew he wouldn't do it in front of Tifa—or Aerith—so he nodded and relaxed his stance.

"Too late to run now! We got company!" Barret shouted as the elevator doors parted and a hulking mass of monstrosity lumbered out.

With abnormally large teeth and hulking claw-like arms the monster that approached was well equipped to deliver a significant amount of damage to them, should they give it a chance. It shrieked at them, spraying spittle across the laboratory floor.

Zack swore. When they broke the containment tube they must have triggered some sort of alarm. Hojo was known for using monsters as his personal attack dogs, and apparently that hadn't changed over the years.

"Well, don't be rude," Zack turned to Barret as he removed his Buster Sword from its holster. "Go say hello."

Barret's deep chuckle was half amused and half anticipatory. "You first."

"That is one ugly...what the hell is that thing, anyway?"

"Experiment," came the low reply.

Zack tossed their new ally a questioning glance. "You have a name?"

"Hojo has named me Red XIII. It is a name with no meaning whatsoever to me. Call me whatever you wish."

"Red works," Zack acknowledged and spun his sword in hand. "You in or out?"

The flame tipped tail swished back and forth and white fang gleamed bright. "Most definitely in."

"Tifa." Zack glanced over at her, but she was already backing Aerith away from the elevators and placing herself in front of the other girl.

"I've got her," she told him. "You just kick some ass."

Zack nodded. It felt good, he realized, to know that she trusted him enough to handle things. He turned back to the spittle roaring monster and shrugged. "It won't take long."

And it didn't. A few dead-center rounds from Barret and some well placed slashes from Zack and the monster was swaying. Newly anointed Red plowed through the other creature with extreme ferocity and left it writhing on the floor in its death throes.

Barret gave Red a hard look. "What are you?" he finally asked.

"That is an informed question, but difficult to answer," Red replied sagely. "I am what you see." He turned, his single eyed gaze resting on Aerith who was still half behind Tifa. "My sincerest apologies for my behavior back there. I was merely putting on a show."

"I understand," she nodded slowly, stepping out.

Zack studied her face and knew she was shaken, but not traumatized.

Sensing his scrutiny, she lifted her green eyes to his. "I knew you'd come for me," she told him with a soft smile.

He moved forward, folded her into a quick hug. Her hair tickled his nose and he inhaled her sweet scent and gave thanks that he had made it to her on time. The thought of her in Hojo's hands...it still chilled him, but he shook it off and grinned against her auburn hair.

Watching the exchange between Zack and Aerith was double edged for Tifa.

Part of her, the part she liked to keep hidden away, felt a pang of...jealousy? Which was ridiculous, she thought with a subtle shake of her head, because she had no right to feel that way. She and Zack were no more than friends...despite the kisses shared at Wall Market, and she had no claim to him. Not that she even wanted one...

And of course, she was thrilled to have found Aerith and found her unharmed. She owed the other woman a rather large debt, after all. Thanks to her Marlene was safe. She had risked everything and traded herself for a stranger. Tifa couldn't think of anyone else that would be so selfless.

Barret thumped Zack on the back, startling him and Tifa. "Look, we can do this touchy feely shit later, okay? But for right now I suggest we get the fuck outta this buildin'."

Zack nodded. He stepped away from Aerith, but kept one hand protectively on her forearm. "We'll need to move quickly."

"I ain't taking those damn stairs again," Barret stated.

"Oh yeah? And what's your plan? Take the elevator and walk right out the front door?"

"They'll never see it coming."

"Were you dropped a lot as a child?"

Tifa rolled her eyes at the back and forth between the two. No matter what the situation, leave it to Zack and Barret to find ways to pick at each other.

"Whatever is decided, we must act quickly. They will most likely be coming for us soon," Red informed them."The Professor has many fail-safes in order to prevent escape."

As if triggered by Red's words the lights overhead began flashing and a siren started to whine. The main doors to the laboratory swung apart and several armed guards positioned themselves between the group and the exit.

"Great." Barret shook his head. "What's the plan now, Princess?"

Zack shot Tifa a look and she nodded. The plan had been, and still was, to get Aerith to safety.

"The elevator!" Red motioned with his muzzle. "You can use that."

"Go," Zack told them. "We'll hold them off."

Reluctant, but knowing their options were limited, Tifa nodded. But before she could step away, his hand—warm and solid—wrapped around hers and Zack lifted her palm to his lips and placed a kiss against the leather. One that scorched through and sent her eyes skittering to his, flecked with questions that she wouldn't ask.

His lips quirked slightly at the corners and he said simply, "Be careful," before letting her go.

"Come on." Tifa shook herself, grabbed Aerith's hand, and tugged her toward Hojo's elevator. "We've got to get you away."

"But Zack..." Aerith protested, looking back over her shoulder to where Barret and Zack were preparing to defend.

"Zack can take care of himself. Come on." Despite her confident tone, Tifa found herself saying a silent prayer as the doors slid shut and the first gunshot rang out. Be careful, Zack.

AN: I'm not overly thrilled with this chapter over all, but it was needed to get me where I'm going in the next chapter. I do hope it was enjoyable, however, and I appreciate so much all the feedback I'm getting. Your patience and continued encouragement is so awesome! Thank you! Thank you!