Life as a SOLDIER

Disclaimer: I suppose that's the beauty of fanfiction.

A/N: It is. I'm loving it so far! Onwards, readers!

Chapter Twenty-Two: A Shocking Secret
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Tseng's group of Turks were in the research room, taking a break. They've been researching for hours now, and it was time they took a break. "We're getting pretty close to the solution," said Tseng, resting his head on his hand thoughtfully. "It appears that Cloud does in fact has something to do with it…"

"Whatever that is, I'd like to find out soon," sighed Elena, slumping onto a sofa. "My eyes burn from too much time staring at a computer screen…"

"Tell me about it," muttered Reno, taking the other sofa. "I shall be blind before I'm 21..."

"Reno, that's two years away," said Rude, sitting down next to Reno. "And I can assure you, your eyesight is just fine."

"This research had better wield good results, I haven't had proper rest since a few weeks ago…" Vincent took the recliner in the corner, staring at the ceiling.

"Come on, you four, you complain way too much," sighed Tseng, sitting up straighter to get a good look at his Turks. "We have no right to complain, we agreed to take this job."

"But Dude, you love looking at a computer screen," said Reno, casting Tseng an annoyed look. "And I'll complain all I like, sir," he added, putting emphasis on the "sir".

"Reno, Reno, calm down, don't start now," said Rude, patting Reno's shoulder. Vincent's hand twitched in the corner, but he didn't say anything.

"Ooh, all beware, Reno's very angry right now," sneered Elena with mock worry. "Hours without staring at himself in the mirror has driven this Turk on the verge of bat temperament!"

"Why you--!" started Reno, standing up.

Tseng sighed, placing his hand in his head. "For the love of… Please, don't start…"

"Go on, let Reno lose his temper," said Elena. "It's always fun to beat him up when he challenges someone to a fight!"

"What! How dare you!" demanded Reno, trying to attack Elena, but Rude quickly jumped up and held Reno down.

"Whoa, Reno, Reno, calm down!" said Rude, struggling to hold the enraged Turk down. "She didn't mean it!" he added reassuringly.

Elena laughed loudly as Reno tried to reach her while Rude held him back. Tseng heaved a sigh wearily and got back to his own research; Vincent watched the argument with mild interest. "Godblarnsit!" seethed Reno after a few minutes of no luck getting through Rude's arms. "Why wouldn't you let me hit her?" demanded Reno angrily, sitting down huffily on the couch.

"Because," started Rude, sitting down, "you have a ferocious temper, and that is no reason to hit anyone. There never is a good reason to hit anyone!"

"But earlier, she called my mommy-" Reno put emphasis on "mommy" by making quotation marks with his fingers "-a slutback whore!"

Rude blinked in surprise. "She did?"

"She was," interjected Elena. "All mothers who live in the slums are!"

"WHAT! HOW DARE YOU?"

Vincent sighed in the corner, looking at the ceiling again. No wonder we're not getting anywhere, he thought.

"Reno, remember what we talked about?" asked Rude, sitting Reno down and making him face him. "About the temper thing?"

Reno's eyes were blue fire, but he sighed angrily and said, "I know, I know, you're a lake stuff."

"Yes, Reno, you are a lake. Elena is but a cloud that casts a shadow upon you. When she is long gone, you'll still be there, and she'll be nothing more then a mere memory."

Reno took a deep breath, and let out a long relaxing breath. "Sigh… you're right, Rude."

"Of course I'm right," replied Rude, putting an arm around Reno. Vincent's hand twitched in the corner again.

"Man, Rude, you always calm me down," said Reno, looking up at Ride with a grateful smile. "Without you, I don't know where I'd be now!" Vincent's hand twitched twice, and he shifted uncomfortably in his recliner.

"Probably dead," said Elena, looking upside-down at Rude and Reno, as she was leaning back-first onto the couch.

"No, not dead," said Rude. "Reno will make it far as a Turk! Maybe one day, he'll take over Tseng's place!" Rude held up Reno's hand. "Together, he and I will rule Shinra one day!" Vincent sat up suddenly, then sat back down.

Tseng shook his head. "That is extremely unlikely, Rude and Reno. I wouldn't get your hopes up."

"Oh, pooh!" said Reno, lifting his head arrogantly. "So says you! But I totally agree with Rude!" he switched their hand positions and lifted Rude's hand up. "We'll change the world!" Vincent coughed loudly, and Elena gave him a weird stare.

"Whatever you say," said Tseng in a bored voice, and went back to his research.

"Ooh! Let's eat now, Rude, I brought some lunch today!" said Reno happily, pulling out a colorfully bagged lunch (like Japanese style lunches, the kind wrapped in colorful cloth). Vincent stood up and went to the window, looking unusually frightened, and Elena sat up to have a good look at him.

"You did? Aw, Reno, you shouldn't have," said Rude as he and Reno opened the lunch together. "Gasp! And you even brought my favorite!" Vincent put both hands on the window sill, tying to concentrate on the outside view, while Elena looked between Reno and Rude, then back at Vincent, realizing something.

"I sure did! Anything for you, Rude," said Reno, taking a forkful of rice. "Say 'Ahh'!" Vincent looked back at the two of them, and back at the window.

"Ahh," went Rude, opening his mouth so Reno could feed him some rice.

Vincent seemed to have taken the last straw; he stubbed his toe on the wall in his hurry to leave the room, and he called over his shoulder, "I'll be ri-right back, gotta go somewhere!" he zoomed out of the door, letting the door slam loudly in his wake.

Reno and Rude blinked at the same time. "What's his problem?" asked Reno curiously.

Tseng looked up. "What's going on?" he asked.

"Uh, nothing," laughed Elena nervously. "I'll--uh, I'll go get him!" she hurried after Vincent, calling, "Vince, wait, they didn't mean anything!"

"Did we do something to offend Vince?" asked Rude, scratching his head. Tseng rolled his eyes and went back to his research.

Elena meanwhile had caught up to Vincent, who seemed to be having a panic attack at the end of the hallway somewhere. "Oh my god! Here, Vince, breath into my bag!" she said, whipping out a brown bag for Vince to breath into. He hurriedly grabbed the bag and breathed into it, calming down with each breath. "Jeez, man, what's wrong with you?"

"It--It's them," gasped Vincent, gesturing with the bag to the room he had just left. "Doing… doing the… well, the stuff."

"Stuff? What stuff? You mean the shonen-ai stuff?" asked Elena. Vincent gulped and nodded slowly. "I said they didn't mean it. Reno and Rude are good friends, they've always been doing that."

"But they… the way they look at each other, and so on!" said Vincent, wildly waving his arms around.

"Just because they act it doesn't mean they are," said Elena. "Trust me, Vince, Rude and Reno aren't gay."

"How do you know?"

"If those two were gay, do you really think they each would try to hit on me all the time they see me in the library?" inquired Elena. "Think about it."

"…right," said Vincent, handing Elena her bag back. "It just…freaks me out. You know, gays and lesbians…"

"Homosexual people freak you out?" asked Elena. Vincent nodded and he walked back to the room. Elena raised an eyebrow. "Huh. Learn something new everyday," she muttered as she went back inside with Vincent.

With Cloud and Zack…

"I think the programs ready," said Zack, rereading the program he had typed. "Let me see…"

"Are you sure it'll work?" asked Cloud. Now that the time was coming nearer, he was feeling kinda apprehensive about actually growing wings and flying.

"I'm absolutely sure," said Zack reassuringly. "But I should warn you about a few things first."

"Warn me? About what?"

"Well, when I hit 'enter' on this program, you have to teach yourself how to fly. I'm pretty certain that Sephiroth won't be pleased when he hears about this."

"Okay…"

"We'll go out later this evening before dinner. You need to practice a lot of things. Things like letting this wings out, how to put them back, how to control the molting of feathers, how to lift yourself in the air, how to carry things in the air, how to fight in midair, how to ascend and descend safely, how far you can fly before you get tired, how to not get spotted while flying. The whole enchilada."

"Whoa… you've put a lot of thought into this," said Cloud, writing down all Zack said onto his right arm.

Zack looked at Cloud. "Why are you writing notes down?"

Cloud stopped in mid-note. "Uh…so I know what to do, and so I don't forget anything…"

"Right," said Zack, rereading the program a second time. "I did everything correctly. There's just one other thing… Well, no one should know about this."

"No one? Why not?" asked Cloud.

Zack chuckled nervously. "Well, you see… this is an illegal program. SOLDIERs aren't allowed to have wings."

"They aren't? But, Sephy…?"

"Oh, no Sephiroth's an exception," said Zack with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Cause he's perfect. But you're perfect too, so that's why I agreed to let you do this! But always make sure no one finds out about this, or we're in trouble, okay?"

"Right, I understand."

"Okay, good." Zack hit the 'enter' button.

Cloud closed his eyes and awaited, seeing if he felt any different. After a few minutes, he opened his eyes and said, "I don't feel any different."

"It will, don't worry," said Zack, standing up and closing his laptop. "Come on, let's give those wings a good test run!"

"But won't people think it's suspicious to see us skipping dinner?"

"We'll say we're visiting our Chocobo. We're allowed to skip dinner if we want to see our Chocobo. There are plenty of cliffs and forest falls outside of the garden; we'll go there for your first test flight."

"Okay…" said Cloud slowly, following Zack out of the room, down the stairs and out of the door. On their way out, Cloud spotted a few black feathers on the ground. "…?" he asked, picking one up. Was Sephy nearby? Did he use his own wing…?

"Cloud! Come on, let's not dawdle," called Zack, who looked back to see why Cloud stopped. "Soon we'll see your own feathers like that too!"

"…" Cloud put the feather into his pocket and hurried after Zack. "Are those cliffs safe? Suppose I don't let the wings out in time and I break my neck or something?"

"Nothing bad will happen, and the cliffs aren't that high off the ground."

"How high are we talking?"

"Uh… I think it was about 112 ft high cliff."

"112 ft! But that's a very long way down!" protested Cloud.

"If something goes wrong, I'll just quickly program for you to land safely. For the last time, Cloud, don't worry about anything! Zack has it all under control," promised Zack, smiling at Cloud like a father would to an overly-worried son.

Cloud, however, didn't notice this tone; rather, he took it like advice from one really close friend to another really close friend. He smiled shyly at his feet and said, "Okay, Zack, I trust you…"

"Right then… Please stand at the edge of the cliff, Cloud, so that we may commence the first test flight." Cloud nodded and did as he was told, standing almost at the edge of the cliff. "Right now… FLY!" yowled Zack, pushing Cloud off the cliff.

"AWAAAAAAAaaaaaaa…" Cloud's scream grew fainter as he fell farther down the cliff.

Zack leaned over the cliff cautiously. "Oops… Cloud? Are you dead?"

Sephiroth was standing below the cliff, just chllin', walking. Suddenly, a shadow comes over him. "Hmm?" he asked himself looking upward.

THUMP

"Ouchie… I landed on something quite soft actually," came Cloud's voice from below, albeit faintly as he was 112 feet away from Zack.

"Something soft?" repeated Zack. "Would this something soft happen to be six feet tall?"

Cloud looked down at what he was sitting on, looking it up and down to get a good measurement of it. "Yeah, I'd say it's about six feet tall."

"Is this six-feet-tall something have silver hair?"

Cloud checked the hair of the something he landed on. "Yep, silver hair."

"Is this six-feet-tall silver-haired someone have pale skin?"

Cloud checked the face of the someone. "Yep."

"Is this six-feet-tall silver-haired pale-skinned someone giving you a green-eyed glare?"

Cloud lifted the face of this someone, and indeed they were giving Cloud a green-eyed glare. "Yeah, he sure is!" called Cloud. "Hello, Sephy," he added, giving Sephiroth a smile.

"Get off me!" shouted Sephiroth, shoving Cloud off of him and standing up. "Jeez, what's your problem! Jumping off of a cliff like that!" demanded Sephiroth, dusting himself off.

"Oh, I was…uh…" Cloud shuffled his feet and brightened suddenly. "Oh, yes! I was feeling kinda suicidal!"

Sephiroth narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Were you now?" his eyes trailed to the top of the cliff, where Zack was still watching. He blinked in surprise, and hurriedly hid the laptop, whistling to hide any guilt. "With Zack looking on?"

"…yeah."

"If you were that depressed about seeing death, Cloud, you could've asked me to kill you. I hold no objections to killing you if you want. No need to kill yourself, I'm not a bad guy. I'll do it for you," he added, pulling out Masamune.

"…! Uh, no, no, it's okay, I'm not feeling suicidal anymore!" said Cloud, laughing loudly.

"Hmm…" mumbled Sephiroth, looking between Zack and Cloud. "If you say so…" he sheathed Masamune.

"Uhm--Uhm… We should be heading back for dinner!" said Cloud loudly to Zack. "Don't you agree, Zack?"

"Yes, Cloud, I do agree! Let's go!"

Cloud jumped up the cliff to Zack and the two hurried off to dinner. "Man, I thought Sephy would find out about it!" said Cloud as they hurried to Shinra.

"Tell me about it!" agreed Zack.

Sephiroth, however, seemed to know much about the plan they had. At the ground before him were a few scattered white feathers. He picked one up and examined it. For a moment, Cloud's shadow made it seem like he had wings… he thought, looking at the rest of the feathers. If Cloud had wings spread when he fell, what made him suddenly remove them? Was it fear, or something else…? Whatever it is, I'll find out. With a smirk, Sephiroth tossed the white feather to the winds, and turned heel and continued on his walk.

With the Turks…

The phone rang, and Tseng picked it up. "Yes, this is Tseng…What?" he asked suddenly, stopping in his writing. "Right now?" the rest of the Turks looked over at Tseng curiously. Tseng stood up and paced away from them. "Can't you send someone else to do it?" All the Turks leaned in a bit closer to hear what was going on. "…fine. If you want…" Tseng hung up and turned to the rest of the Turks. "Reno," he said suddenly.

Reno jumped. "Eh… yes, Dude?"

"Hojo-sama was on the phone. He said he wanted to see you."

"Me--me? He wants to see me?"

"Well, yes, Reno. He said he wanted you to bring some coffee for him, Reeve, and Lucrecia. Said it was for important research."

"Oh!" said Reno in relief. "Ok, good, I thought it was for some science project!" He stood up and headed for the coffee table. "No one minds if I take this, do they?"

"I could take the coffee to Hojo-sama," said Vincent.

"Yeah, yeah, you just want to see Lucrecia, don't you?" asked Reno with a teasing tone in his voice. "You like her, don't you?"

"What!" demanded Vincent. "I--I have no idea what you're talking about!" he said hurriedly, turning his head away (to hide the blush!).

"Sure, sure, I believe you," said Reno, taking the coffee pot to the door.

"Will you be all right by yourself?" asked Rude, his voice filled with concern. Vincent stopped suddenly, then shook his head.

Reno stopped at the door, and smiled back at Rude. "I'll be fine, silly! I'm just taking coffee to Hojo-sama and his associates. I'll be back in a flash, don't worry." Vincent muttered under his breath and stalked over to the recliner.

"Do hurry then," said Rude. Vincent slumped onto the recliner with another panic attack, and Elena hurried over to Vincent with a brown bag for Vincent to breath into.

Reno walked out of the door down the hall all the way to Hojo's lab door. Reno knocked on the door with his head and called, "Hojo-sama, I brought your coffee you asked for!"

No answer came, except a few mutterings behind the door.

"Sigh… Hojo-sama, your coffee!" he said louder, hoping to get their attention.

Still no answer; it appeared that they didn't hear Reno.

"Oh, come on, do I have to do everything around here?" asked Reno impatiently, shifting the position of the coffee pot so he could enter the code into Hojo's lab to get inside himself. When the door opened, Reno came inside and announced loudly, "Hojo-sama, I have brought your coffee!"

Hojo looked back at Reno. "Ah, about time," he said, rather then 'thank you'. He strode over to the coffee pot, picked it up, and paused suddenly. "Better yet… why not show them…?" he said quietly to himself.

"What's that?" asked Reno, who was about to turn around to leave.

Hojo placed the coffee pot down thoughtfully, placing a hand on his chin. "Let me see… it might speed the process up a bit more if we… that's a good idea…"

"A good idea?" repeated Reno. "I wish you'd get to the point, Hojo-sama, you're kinda creeping me out…"

"Fine," said Hojo, turning to Reno. "It's about time I showed you Turks what you're actually researching, isn't it? Especially if it speeds up the research process. Reeve," he called to Reeve. "Call the rest of the Turks in here. Tseng, Elena, Rude, and Vincent. They need to see this too."

"See what?" asked Reno, now quite confused as he watched Reeve nod and head for the phone.

"Come with me," said Hojo, motioning for Reno to follow him. "Lucrecia, we're going to show the Turks who and what Jenova really is."

Lucrecia looked up in surprise from her notes. "We are? But Hojo-sama, are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Of course I'm sure," said Hojo. He pointed up at the woman who was in the tube. "Reno, can you tell me what that is?"

"Huh…? Uh, sure…" said Reno, looking up at the woman. "So…that's the Jenova we've been researching… I guess seeing her makes her easier to research what's wrong…" he tilted his head side to side. "But she looks kinda familiar."

"I know, she should," said Hojo with something like an evil smile.

Reno gave Hojo a curious stare, and looked back up at the woman, and realized where he had seen her before. He gasped out loud and looked at Hojo in shock this time. "You--you mean…? Jenova is…?"

Hojo nodded slowly. "That's right, Reno… Jenova was put into… Miss Shinra."

"Miss Shinra…? Isn't she… I mean, wasn't she shachoo's wife?"

"Yes, she was," said Hojo, looking up at Jenova. "You all thought she died a long time ago, but why? You never even met her until tonight. I'll tell you the whole story…"

Flashback…about 25 years ago…

It was back in the glory days of Shinra Company, back when it was on it's fifth year running. The board meeting had just begun, and Hojo (who was about 20 years old at the time) had excellent news. "Before we begin the board meeting, Hojo said he has a special announcement."

Hojo stood up and said, "The Jenova Project is nearly completed. We've been researching her for five years, and she seems to have many strong attributes about her. Once we can fully control her, we can finally realize our dreams of SOLDIER."

"The only problem is, Jenova has no stable form she can come into," said another scientist. "We can't keep her in one spot as she is, and if she spoils, then she'll be useless."

"So you need a body for her to stay into?" asked shachoo.

"Yes, sir, that's exactly it," said the scientist.

"But we don't know who to use," finished Hojo. "We're in a bit in a bind with that one…"

Shachoo was about to answer when the phone rang. Shachoo sighed and picked the phone up. "Yes, what is it?"

"Shachoo, your wife is here to see you. She says that she's perfectly fine, and that your year-old son is ready to see you as well."

Shachoo sighed in mild disgust. "Can't she wait a couple of minutes?"

"No, sir, I'm afraid not, she seems kinda impatient as well… Shall I send her up?

Shachoo was about to disagree when Hojo nodded suddenly. "Yes, shachoo, bring her in! We'll need her!" he hissed suddenly.

"…" shachoo narrowed his eyes suspiciously, but he said, "Fine, send her in."

"Yes, sir."

"Hojo, why do you think we need my wife? She's completely worthless, how can she be of use in a science project?"

"You'll see, shachoo," said Hojo as the door opened.

A fair woman of about eighteen years came running in. "Oh, darling!" she called happily, waving to shachoo with one arm. In her other arm, she held a little baby all wrapped up in a blanket.

Shachoo shook his head, faked a smile. "Hello, honey," he said back.

"They let me out of the hospital today!" she said happily, taking a seat near shachoo. "They said it'll take a bit of work, but I'll be just fine! Your son is healthy too!" she said, showing shachoo the little baby.

"Charming," said shachoo, still wearing the fake smile. "What did you name him?"

"Oh, I don't know, I couldn't think of one," said Miss Shinra. "I thought about many different names, but none came to mind… So I decided that YOU could name him, darling!"

Shachoo stood up suddenly. "Goodness!" he cried. "I name the baby? Oh, no, darling, you should."

Miss Shinra made a sad face, twisting her hair around her finger. "But nothing I can come up with will be better then yours, darling. I really can't do anything…"

Blondes… thought shachoo, forgetting for a moment that he too was blonde. "Fine… I'll, uh, come up with something later. Right now, I'm in a board meeting."

"No, we need a name NOW!" said Miss Shinra in a whiny shrilly voice.

"Okay, okay, darling!" said shachoo, covering his ears.

Hojo stood up and turned to Miss Shinra. "You know, I could help your husband come up with a name for your little baby."

"Oh, could you?" asked Miss Shinra. "Oh, that's so nice of you, Mr…?"

"Oh, you can just call me Hojo," said Hojo kindly, holding out a hand. "If I may see your son for a couple of minutes?" If she is as foolish as she looks, this'll be a piece of cake, thought Hojo evilly.

Miss Shinra stood still for a few seconds, giving shachoo an unsure glance. "Darling, don't worry," said shachoo, walking behind Miss Shinra and giving her shoulders a comforting rub. "Hojo is my trusted friend; I'm sure he won't mind baby sitting the baby while we come up with a name for him."

"Oh… All right," said Miss Shinra graciously, handing over her baby boy to Hojo. "You're a great help, Hojo! I thank you!"

"It's no trouble at all," said Hojo with a nod to his head. He exchanged glances with shachoo, gave another nod, and left the room. When he calls, I'll make sure Jenova is ready, he thought, looking down at the baby he was taking to his lab. "Gast, help me with this, will you?" he addressed to the other scientist in the room.

The man named Gast looked back. "Ah! I see you've brought us a test subject. Do you think this'll actually work?"

Hojo set the baby onto the table. "Of course it'll work… This little baby will be our first SOLDIER. We're going to infuse him with Jenova's cells, and see what happens."

"This little baby, our first SOLDIER?" repeated Gast, casting an uncertain glance at the baby. "If you say so. What'll we call him then? For the sake of the project?"

"Hmm… I'm pretty sure Jenova will think of a name for her own son, don't you think?" asked Hojo with a cruel simper, picking the baby up and heading for the test tubes. "Start her up when I say so, and afterward, bring Miss Shinra in here. Her body will be used as some sort of avatar for Jenova."

"Miss Shinra's body?" asked Gast. "Why hers?"

"If we can keep Jenova alive by infusing her within a young body, neither of the two will ever age. She'll be at a young age forever when we succeed with this program. This way we can keep on engineering SOLDIERs here, natural or unnatural. Whoever has her cells will be extremely powerful."

"I see…" said Gast quietly.

"Besides, Jenova needs a physical form is she is to survive on this planet. And if I can get shachoo's wife out of his hair, he'll be sure to promote me to the highest ranking scientist here. I'll be world renowned when I succeed in this project!"

"When we succeed in this project," corrected Gast sharply.

Hojo rolled his eyes. "Aye, fine. When we succeed on this project." he looked down at the little baby for the last time. "When we succeed…"

End of flashback…

By now, the rest of the Turks had gathered and heard this story. Reno, Rude, Elena, and Vincent all showed signs of shock, but Tseng had listened almost vaguely, as if he had heard this story before. "You're kidding…" breathed Elena. "You used Miss Shinra on… as a body for Jenova…?"

Hojo nodded. "That's right. Now that you've seen her, and know where she came from, can you research her faults more diligently now?"

"That's not right!" cried Reno. "How could you have done such a thing!"

"It was easy," said Hojo with a carefree shrug. "But if you think it so awful, I could easily switch her with you, or someone else. It's all the same to me."

Reno growled and Rude hurriedly put in, "S-So, we'll go get started on our research now!"

Vincent looked over at Tseng. "You knew this story, don't you?"

"Yes, I heard this story before," answered Tseng calmly. "But that's not the point of our research. Miss Shinra can't be awakened; if Cloud has something to do with it, we'll find out how and why in our research."

"So I'd suggest you get going," said Hojo pointedly. "On your way."

Lucrecia saddened slightly as she watched the Turks shuffle out. "Hojo-sama, I know the Jenova project was your pride and joy… But I never knew that Jenova was put into Miss Shinra…"

"Lucrecia, what's done is done, there's no point in thinking about it," said Reeve before Hojo could respond. "For now, we must strive with what we do best. And that is science."

"Reeve is right, Lucrecia," said Hojo. "Let's not worry about it for now."

"But I…" started Lucrecia, then nodded slowly. "If you say so, Hojo-sama…"

"That's right," agreed Hojo, looking up at Jenova. "If I say so."
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Well! That was a nice dramatic-comedy. I always love those, things that are a mix of drama and humor… Although I much prefer the drama. Oh, well. Keep eyes peeled for chapter 23! See you later!