Kadaj found me. I was standing at the edge of town looking over the horizon and he found me. I was holding myself gazing over the horizon, the plus side was that my back didn't hurt at all. The down side was the look on his face, the sheer and utter worry that creased his brow. I knew he approached, I knew and I didn't even have to turn around. I felt him, something had happened, something very bad had happened. I turned around still hugging myself and frowned.
"Something's happened," I said softly as I raised my eyes to his. Something was wrong, his pupils were serpentine, and the green had intensified.
"I know," he spoke softly and slowly, "I felt it,… mother… something's wrong," he was looking around, almost like he was conflicted, and then he raised his eyes to meet mine and I saw Sephiroth behind his eyes again. I almost jumped out of my skin.
It was that moment when, something happened. Something bad happened, I felt it first queasiness in the pit of my stomach. Then that black cloud happened again, the cloud of stigma. It was so powerful that it lifted him into the air and he was limp like ragdoll. I swallowed hard and reached out to my faint connection with the cetra, I reached out with the same power I had used before to keep Kadaj alive the first time to do it again. I felt faint as the neon green tendrils of life stream broke out of the ground and swirled about me, I braved the black cloud as I forced my way through towards him as the lifestream around me encircled it, keeping the infection of Jenova from spreading.
Pulling him down was a deep struggle, more of a struggle than containing the great cloud. Tears streaked my face, as my hair, and coat whipped about me as I struggled to pull him down. It took a while but I got a hold on his legs and pulled him down. As I slowly pulled him from the cloud I noticed the reaction between the cloud and the lifestream. It smoked, and as I pulled more and more of Kadaj into my shield of lifestream, I noticed he smoked too, but it was faint, fainter than it had been before with the rain.
The cloud dissipated almost instantly when I had him in my arms inside of my shield of lifestream. He had passed out, and as the shield of lifestream left me I felt myself drift out of consciousness. My body went totally limp, the last thing I saw was Kadaj's eyes almost flutter open.
The good thing was that when I woke up I didn't hurt, in fact I felt more rested and refreshed than I had in a while. However being relaxed and at peace didn't stop me from freaking out when I finally opened my eyes to Kadaj staring at me from inches away. All I saw was those wonderful green eyes, serpent eyes, however not as serpentine as my own. The weird thing was that I didn't freak out; I simply rolled over and looked around. It took a moment for me to realize that this was not the room in North Corel. It also took me a moment to realize that I was in my underwear, and that Kadaj wasn't wearing his normal black leather get up.
"You've been out for days," he said as he sat up, I slowly turned back over and looked at him.
"How many days?"
"Three," I hit the bed beside me.
"Damn!" I got up and walked around, it took a moment but I knew where we were. I knew this room, I looked out of the small window at the town square below. Niebelheim, the site of the biggest Shinra cover-up in history. They replaced an entire town with Shinra employees. I looked back at Kadaj, who was still lying in bed with his head propped up on his hand. It made me think for a moment that maybe just maybe there was more to that cover up then they wanted known.
"Don't worry, you didn't miss anything." He said in his normal playful tone as he sat up. He was wearing only boxer's. Great, just great. I turned away to hide my blushed cheeks. "The other's are here, but there's no sign of Loz or Yazoo, let alone the Shinra," I felt him walk over and pause a few steps behind me "I think they have their hands full with each other," I barely heard him as I stared out of the window, something didn't feel right, I had an urge. The urge was to get dressed and run to the mansion. I shook my head and looked at Kadaj, "You feel her too… Jenova… she's calling us you know," I turned around.
"I thought you were ignoring her" I spoke quickly before I glimpsed my pack in the corner and quickly headed over to it.
"Just because I ignore mother doesn't mean I don't hear her," he smiled and I frowned and walked back over to him quickly. I seized him by his shoulders and looked up into his eyes.
"She is not your mother!" I yelled at him before I pushed him back and went over to my pack looking for my clothes. I started to realize the big difference between myself and everyone else who went through circumstances so similar. I knew my mother wasn't Jenova, I knew I had both a mother and a father who more than likely loved me before Shinra disposed of them.
"Fine, just because I ignore Jenova, doesn't mean I don't hear her," he sounded angry, I grabbed my clothes out of my pack and turned around. He was sitting on the bed and he looked thoroughly pissed off. There was a tension that sat in his powerful shoulders. I dressed quickly as I watched him.
After I was dressed I walked back over to the bed and stood in front of Kadaj. I smiled a small smile and leaned in and kissed his lips softly, at first he didn't kiss me back, however I stood there my lips pressed to his and he eventually kissed back running his tongue over my lips making me shiver like I had sat in a pile of snow. I pulled back and knelt before him between his knees.
"I care for you Kadaj, Jenova uses people, she tries to use anyone who's been infected with her essence to her means, most of the times it drives people insane," I sighed "Sephiroth, and you to a lesser extent, she tries so hard to get into my head, she's the reason why all of the clones were mindless for the most part, mother's are supposed to love you unconditionally Kadaj, they aren't supposed to use you," I put my hand on his chest and kissed his lips quickly before I stood.
"Seraphim, she's the only one who's ever made me feel wanted, until now, until you," his voice was soft and it lost most of his normal playful tone. I looked at him and smiled.
"I never felt warm or wanted before you" I trialed off and went to my pack. I took out my laptop and plugged it into the wall.
"What are you doing?" he stood and walked over to me.
"I am hacking into Shinra files," I spoke as I furiously tapped away at the keyboard, cracking firewalls and security protocol that was two years out dated.
"I thought that Shinra computer files were destroyed with the mako cannon," he stood over my shoulder watching as I typed away.
"No, there are some of their servers that are still online and still functional, they basically abandoned the Shinra building," he didn't say anymore after that and he let me work, watching over my shoulder with a certain curiosity that made me question if he was actually what I thought he was.
Hours passed before I found what I was looking for. Getting into Shinra's old system's was easy, it was finding what you wanted that was hard, especially since so much data had gone corrupt or missing. The good or bad thing was that I did find exactly what I was looking for. I knew what Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo were. They weren't clones, and I didn't know if it was better or worse what they were.
Essentially they were like me almost, with the exception that instead of having their parents being Cetra their parents were kids really, they had broken into the Shinra mansion around the time when Hojo started trying to recreate the experiment. Hojo kept them captive and used their offspring for his experiments. The end result was of course Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz. The surprising thing was that it wasn't that big of a secret, it was one of the lesser hidden files. One file shocked me, fragments of Hojo's diary.
It would seem that my experiments have proven to be fruitful; we do not need living cetra to recreate the Jenova experiment as believed before. In light of the development of the youngest of my private experiments it would seem that I have finally proven that mako radiation is not needed to create another Sephiroth, thus making the Seraphim Project a failure. Specimen three seems to exhibit the speed and strength of Sephiroth, with time perhaps he could surpass Sephiroth.
President Shinra refuses to recognize the validity of my private experiments; he believes that with the success of the Seraphim Project we do not need repeat experiments. He said that I need to move on, that perhaps if I cannot think of other projects then I should consider other means of employment. The seraphim-1 is proving to grow faster and stronger with age, she is quicker than any soldier candidate they have perhaps specimen-3 is a failure.
We have moved into a new facility at the Shinra tower, I have left my lab at Niebelheim and thus abandoned my private experiment. Originator 1 and 2 both have been moved to the reactor, the specimens have been moved to the orphanage. They have been marked a failure but then again you have to fail to succeed this is science after all.
I looked through more files for a moment, I fought so hard to not look behind me at him. When I found what I was looking for I quickly closed my laptop and unplugged it. Shortly after Kadaj's birth Hojo got the bright idea to experiment on them. He thought they were special, so he injected them with Jenova cell's. Like so many other people Hojo had experimented on, they mutated and became monster's, shadow's of their former selves.
"You're not a clone," I said as I put my laptop away "You were one of Hojo's many failed experiments, in fact your experiments inspired Hojo to do mine, you were infected with Jenova cells while still in your mother's womb, also from what I gather you were dumped in an orphanage when you were quite young,"
"Seven," his voice was quiet and distant, "What about my parents?" I turned around.
"I try best not to think about my parents, I was lucky, my mother died in child birth, and my father died during one of Hojo's experiments, both of yours died during an experiment as well from what I could glean," I looked away as I spoke the lie, it was a good lie.
"All I have is Yazoo and Loz," I looked at him and closed the distance between us.
"No, you have me," I smiled and gave him a peck on the cheek, he smiled back at me. "I'm going for a walk, I'm going to find out where Cloud and the others are, it's not too safe at the reactor so we should go in a large group" I left the room without looking back at him. I couldn't bring myself to stare at him too long, I knew if he started crying I was going to cry and then no work would ever get done.
Outside of the door I cursed myself, I was letting him get too close to me. No one was supposed to get close to me, I wasn't supposed to like anyone. And yet I liked him, and I hated myself for it.