Chapter 3

Random Lab Assistant's P.O.V.

"You! Assistant 16!" Professor Hojo's voice startled me out of my deep concentration, making me jump slightly. The professor had been in a terrifically good mood this morning, when the Turks had brought in the last Ancient. But that all changed within the span of the last hour…

"Y-yes, Professor?" I replied, while hastily standing up to face the man. I had been writing a report of the encounter the department just had with AVALANCHE; a bunch of them broke into the building and burst right into the lab! Where I was working! I had never been so frightened as I was when the man with the gun arm appeared… He, a blond man, and a rather attractive woman had set Red XIII free and took off with the Cetra; the lion-creature almost mauled Hojo to death! Luckily it had decided to follow AVALANCHE, and the whole group was caught an apprehended within about 20 minutes.

That had all happened about two hours ago, and my shift was (thankfully) almost over. Although it did occur to me, that if I wasn't safe within the ShinRa Building, then where was I safe? I tried to ignore these negative thoughts however; I certainly did not need any extra stress in addition to the excitement caused by today...

Hojo didn't even look up from his clipboard while he addressed me; I was just a lowly assistant, after all.

"Fetch me Specimen R… be careful not to wake the prisoners. Make sure the guard I requested to watch the prisoners is doing his job…"

"Yes sir!"

I set off at a brisk walk to the elevator, but after I was out of hearing range of the lab, I slowed down to a leisurely pace. I looked out the windows as I passed them, admiring how beautiful Midgar was at night. I had a well-paying job, a family, and my health. I even got a taste of adventure every now and then—just look at what happened earlier! Life was pretty good…

I was whistling unconsciously by the time I got to the holding cells—a habit I was trying to break. Thankfully, I managed to stop myself before the guard came into view.

The guard called down two more security personnel to escort the specimen back to the lab with me. Specimen R was a thirteen or fourteen year-old girl, still dressed in street clothes. I spotted a SOLDIER belt under her jacket though, and saw the notch in her belt where a sword scabbard would usually be. I shuddered at the thought of the sheer power this girl probably possessed, to be able to keep up in SOLDIER, as Sephiroth's apprentice no less!

"Ah, excellent, excellent… the main tank, if you would?" Hojo said as our small party entered the lab. It looked like he had regained his good mood.

The guard threw the specimen in the large main tank, sealed it, and left. The tank was filled with nothing but air. I went and gathered the specimen's file and all the notes accompanying it and brought it with me as I approached the tank to do the preliminary examination for Professor Hojo. Hojo wanted the specimen's records (height and weight and such like) updated, as the girl has been missing for several years. I approached the tank's scanning mech and punched in my security code. I ordered a full body scan before stepping back to ask Professor Hojo if he needed anything else done. More assistants were arriving at the lab for the night shift; I was itching to get home.

"You may leave for the night when the file is updated…" he replied, bent over a computer monitor, scrutinizing the data scrolling down the screen much like a jeweler would a rare gem.

"Thank you, professor." I returned to the tank as I heard the chime that signaled the scan was complete.

I went back over to the scan mech to observe the results, and copied them down into the specimen's file. Her weight was above a normal human girl's due to extra muscle mass… Height slightly below normal, only 5' 3", estimated to be due to heritage rather than experimentations. Respiration efficiency was above normal- normal for SOLDIER candidates.

I looked up briefly from my notes, and almost dropped my papers. A gasp escaped me and my heart seemed to stop for a moment. The girl was awake now and standing right in front of me inside the tank. That wasn't it though—my gaze had gone straight to her eyes. The file, the picture—told me they were supposed to be purple, shining with mako. These eyes—they were a storm of blue and green, with slitted pupils like a cat's.

"P-professor…" I started, trying to regain my grip on the file.

"What?" I heard Hojo reply from across the lab, annoyance and impatience lacing his voice.

I was about to ask him what was happening to the specimen, but I was interrupted by a great cacophony of shattered glass and noise. The specimen had reared back one fist and sent it right through the tank! Which was supposed to be indestructible! I let out a scream and covered my head with my arms to shield myself from the raining glass, and dove behind a nearby console. I heard Hojo make a noise of exclamation followed by swears, as well as a call for security.

I heard the specimen jump down from the now demolished tank, before calmly padding over to the nearest lab assistant (thankfully not me) and grabbing him by the throat. She threw him across the lab and into another console as easily as one would throw a baseball, with the expression on her face unchanged.

There was a commotion as guards arrived—the specimen moved like lightning now, dodging bullets and putting her bare fists through each guards' chest like they were made of paper mache. The amount of blood was horrifying. Great ribbons of it arced across the room, and none of it was the specimen's. After all the lab assistants and guards were either dead or running away, I saw the specimen disappear downstairs via the elevator to where the other subjects (among other things) were kept. Professor Hojo had fled soon after calling for security, and I seemed to have been forgotten.

"Uuuugh this is turning out to be a very very very very bad day for me…" I started to mumble to myself, peeking out from behind the console I was hiding behind. I had been able to see everything in the reflections of the giant windows to my right, as I had not been brave enough to look while the girl was still in the room, lest she notice me and come to finish me off. Now I came out from my hiding place, muttering, "What should-what should I do?" over and over again.

"I have to go alert the building… wait, Hojo's probably already done that… ugh, I can't stay here! What if she comes back? But the only way down is the same way she went.." I decided to go anyway—I resolved to be as sneaky as I could—how hard could it be?

I halted my muttering and approached the hidden stairs that led to the lower floor that held the specimen tanks and prisoner cells. Taking the elevator would be suicide. Thankfully the steps were not creaky, as I could see the escaped specimen as I partially emerged from the hidden stairwell.

I went to gasp, but held it in. The escaped specimen had broken the casing around the tank holding the prized J.E.N.O.V.A. specimen, and was reaching inside. She brought out the headless, blue, and vaguely human-like mass, of which I had seen only once before when Hojo had ordered me to retrieve some more Jenova cells. The girl hugged the form, burying her face into it. Then, a strange shroud came over both her and the Jenova mass. After a sudden flash, both the girl and Jenova were gone. In their place, kneeling but otherwise perfect, was none other than General Sephiroth.

Slowly, and with unnatural grace, Sephiroth rose to his full height. His back was to me, so all I could really see of him was his long, silver hair. He raised his left hand, and a giant sword materialized in his fist from nowhere. It was his Masamune, the seven-foot long katana that had brought Wutai to its knees. The former general then proceeded down the hall, pausing only once to make robot sushi out of the pathetic mechanical guards that appeared.

I stayed frozen in place. I heard screams from further down the hallway, no doubt from more guards and random personnel that happened to be around. It was then that I decided to make a mad dash for the main elevators, in an effort to reach the president's floor. I had to alert the President; no one else could because anyone else who saw Sephiroth will be killed by Sephiroth. Steeling myself, I tip-toed as quickly as I could down the hall and to the main stairwell, as the main elevators did not stop on this floor. I reached the stairwell safely, and went downstairs to the 66th floor.

Now free to run like a madperson, I sprinted to the elevators and pressed 'up'. There was a chime as the doors slide open; I got in and selected the 70th floor. I had to scan my I.D. though, as these top floors were restricted to normal employees. I stared hollowly out of the glass elevator as it lurched upward, into the never-ending black abyss of the night sky. It seemed like hours before the elevator finally chimed and reached the top floor. As I burst out of the glass box, I was intercepted by a SOLDIER.

"Excuse me, but this floor is on lock-down at the moment, you're going to have to go back downstairs…" he said, gently pushing me back towards the elevator.

"No! Sephiroth is loose down there; I have to see the president!" I exclaimed, panicking. "Sephiroth! Sephiroth, you hear?" I grabbed the front of his uniform and started shaking him to emphasize my point.

Five minutes later I found myself back on the 66th floor, deprived of my 70th floor privileges for a month, and very scared for my life. Needless to say, the guard did not believe me, and claimed all the security cameras had been knocked out by the escaped specimen. Slowly, I retreated back to the 67th floor, where all was silent. At this point I didn't care if I ran into Sephiroth or not, I'd just beg or play dead or die. I didn't really care anymore. I saw a dead guard lying near the end of the hallway leading to the prisoner cells, so I decided not to go that way. I continued to the storage room, where I was met with a trail of fresh blood leading to the specimen elevator. It started in front of the Jenova tank, where there was a large pool caused by a dead employee in a grey suit. It led upstairs, where it continued to another body, fresh among the ones that had been killed by young girl specimen. On it went, through the hall beyond and up the main stairwell to the 69th floor. Now blood was smeared on the walls, with random body parts littering the ground as I went along in a stupor. I encountered more bodies as I found the large twin staircases that led to the president's floor. The blood trail went up the one on the left, so I went up the right one, careful not to step on the poor grey-suit who lay there with his limbs mangled and missing…

I emerged on the 70th floor to find the guard I had been previously arguing with dead.

"N-no, pleaaase don't kill me!" that was the President's voice, hysterically high and pleading. "I don't know how you're alive, but—"

"You will not have the Promised Land."

My view of the President was blocked by Sephiroth, his sword long and bloody in his hand. There was a gurgling sound, followed by a loud thump that sounded like something heavy hitting a hard surface. Then there was an "E-eep!", that could not have come from either of the two other people in the room, accompanied by the sound of someone fainting and falling to the floor. I found myself unable to breathe as Sephiroth turned to face me, raised his sword, and lunged. For a moment I could see clearly into his eyes—they were the same vertex of mako blue and green as the girl's was. I was pinned to the wall, and when I let my head fall forward, I saw the Masamune's blade embedded into my chest. As quickly as he struck, he withdrew, sending a spray of red everywhere and leaving me to slide pathetically down to the floor. Gasping for breath that wouldn't come, I saw him impale the dead president once more, this time vertically so his sword stuck straight up. Then he faltered, and clutched his head as he backed up blindly toward one of the pillars that adorned the room. A black shroud appeared around him, the same as the one that had appeared around the girl. After the flash, he was gone, leaving the girl specimen and a big ball of blue light that crashed though one of the side windows after circling the prone child.

Darkness overtook my vision after that, as adrenaline left my system. I knew I was dying. I could feel the lifeblood seeping out of me, saw it on the floor in front of me and felt it pool beneath me. I entered the abyss.

And out of the darkness, there was the Lifestream. Despite the fact that I worked for ShinRa, the ones who were killing the planet, the Lifestream reached out to me all the same. I walked among it until I reached the light; that perfect star, perched atop the spear of Minerva…

Author's note: I'm not gonna lie, writing in random P.O.V.s is very fun. But if you guys don't like it, then just tell me... the next one will be in Rin's, but I just thought this moment could only be captured properly from an outside view.