Chapter Three
Hojo paced back and forth across the bedroom floor, clenching his teeth and trying to keep his hands from balling into fists. He had changed into his pajamas, but in his agitation had for some reason put his labcoat back on over them. He paused for a moment near the window, removing his glasses and rubbing his forehead in an attempt to fight off the headache growing there.
"Head of the Scientific Research Department…can you believe that?" he asked incredulously, though it was a rhetorical question. Behind him, Lucrecia sighed and closed the book she had been reading, marking her place with one finger.
"Hojo, you're getting all riled up over nothing. Come to bed."
"An Ancient! Of all things, he's discovered an actual Ancient! There will be no topping him after this…" Hojo already knew that nearly everyone considered him inferior compared to Gast, and why wouldn't they? Discovering an Ancient…all that funding, all that promise! He'll just waste it running stupid tests, he has no vision, Hojo thought bitterly. He remembered how scarcely two months ago, Faremis Gast had been a low man on the totem pole, assigned to pointless digs in the frozen north. No one had known his name. But ever since he had managed to prove to President Shin-Ra that Jenova was an Ancient, he was the biggest thing since Mako, promoted to head of the department when the position could have easily gone to him! "If I were running this project Lucrecia, oh, the things I could do!"
"But Hojo, we're still going to be involved in the project after all—"
"Oh, yes, as the great Professor Gast's assistants!" He snapped, turning abruptly and beginning to pace again as he placed his glasses back upon his face, which was red with anger. "I'm telling you Lucrecia, if it weren't for the fact that Gast caught a lucky break in discovering Jenova, he'd be nowhere right now! You know, one of us could have been on the fast track to head of the department, your Omega and Chaos Theory-" This time it was Lucrecia who interrupted.
"Hojo, you know for a fact that my theory received a rather negative reception."
"That's because Shin-Ra and all the others are blind fools! You and I Lucrecia, we could take the JENOVA Project so much further than Gast can…"
"Either way dear, you know these initial tests would have to be performed, no matter who was in charge." She reasoned. Hojo sighed heavily, then caught his reflection in the window and removed his labcoat, letting it fall to the floor in a heap and not bothering to meticulously hang it up as he usually did. Instead he shuffled over to the bed, burying himself in the warm covers before turning to look at his fiancée. What she was doing with him, he never had quite figured out.
"I know, but I'm talking about after the initial research is done. What will Gast do with her then? We're supposed to try and use the Ancient to find their so-called 'Promised Land', but if you ask me such fairy-tale nonsense has no place in science!"
"Well, what would you have us do then?" Lucrecia asked, setting her book down on the nightstand.
"Think about it Lucrecia! What couldn't we do with an actual, preserved Ancient! Why, we've already seen the way in which it can rapidly heal itself…through simple processes of Mako infusions and gene therapy using Jenova's DNA, we could escalate the SOLDIER program to whole new levels of performance!"
"Human testing? But Hojo, is that ethical?"
"Why not? Shin-Ra is already testing the effects of Mako on humans and the SOLDIER project is barely a year old! We could possibly even create a whole new race of Ancients—just imagine! Reviving a long-extinct species—it would be a miracle of science!"
"Yes, I hadn't thought of that before. It would truly be amazing."
"Gast wouldn't dream of it himself though, he's too busy buying into the President's obsession with an Ancient myth. We could waste our whole lives looking for this 'Promised Land' of Mako while Jenova sits in her tank, her potential wasted."
"Well, perhaps we could discuss these things with him. I'm sure he wants to do great things with the project as much as we do."
Yes, but then he would get all the credit, Hojo thought bitterly, though he dared not voice such an avaricious thought aloud. Instead he brushed such selfish thoughts from his mind, as much as he could anyway, and rubbed at his forehead once again before letting out another sigh.
"You're right, I'm getting too caught up in all this. It's just such an amazing discovery—"
"I know, you wish you had made it. I'm sure everyone in the Scientific Research Department is thinking the same thing. But unlike them, at least we can still have a hand in it." Lucrecia leaned over and removed Hojo's glasses, setting them on his nightstand before giving him a soft kiss on the cheek, which elicited a small smile from the man. "Now, turn off the light, and let's try to get some sleep."
Hojo complied, but he lay awake for a long time afterward, dreaming of all that he and Lucrecia could do…them, and Jenova.