Chapter 9 - We're Not the Good Guys.
Dr. Howari stood in her lab over the shoulder of an assistant she hadn't bothered to learn the name of. In front of her, the latest test results were being entered into the computer for future use.
"Kaylynn?" Corin called out, looking for the scientist. Dr Howari let out a sigh and looked down at her companion for the moment.
"Good work. Keep entering the data. I have to go take care of a..." She looked over at the middle-aged man with the broad smile heading her way. "Pest problem."
"I have some good news for you." Alexander paused as he arrived in front of her, waiting for the enthusiastic questioning that was sure to follow. He would wait a few seconds longer. "Well? Aren't you going to ask what?" He questioned.
"No."
"Oh. In that case, I'll just have to tell you, won't I?" The president produced a disk from within his coat pocket. "The information I promised, milady."
Dr. Howari looked at the object being held out to her hesitantly before reaching out and accepting it. "Thank you, Mr. President." She turned her back to him. "It was unnecessary for you to bring this to the lab yourself."
"Always so proper, aren't you Doctor." Strong arms encircled her waist as Alexander pulled himself closer to her. "You know how much I hate that." Corin whispered into Howari's ear. She reached down and wrapped her hands around his. Then, with a sharp pull and two steps, she turned to face him.
"I'm sorry, sir. Perhaps another time. I have business to attend to with this disk."
Alexander winked once before leaving the room. Dr. Howari walked into her office and closed the door behind her before settling down in front of the computer. Before she could place the disk in, a knock came at the door.
"Come in." The door opened and Davis stepped in. "Oh. Hello Davis. What brings you down here?" A genuine smile appeared on the Doctor's pretty Wutain face. Davis was truly one of the few people around the Alexander Electric Company she enjoyed conversing with.
"I just came to chat. Y'know, if you keep that up, he's going to get mad one of these days." The young man in the grey business suit spoke to his friend of their mutual employer's advances on her.
"Let him get mad. It won't matter if I can just finish this project." She idly stared at the disk still in her hand. A moment later, she pushed it into the slot and loaded it up. Davis walked to her for a better view of the screen.
"Will this work?"
"Leviathan, I hope so."
_______________________________________________________
AVALANCHE arrived at Cloud and Tifa's home late in the afternoon, the remaining two Turks in tow. Yuffie and Elena's tears had run dry, but a dark cloud still hung over everybody's head. The group trudged into the quiet living room of the house, where most collapsed into the furniture for some much needed rest. Tifa went into the kitchen to prepare some food for them all.
Elena sat herself down in a nearby chair, distancing herself from her former enemies. Rude stood behind her, eyes closed behind the dark sunglasses. Cloud walked up to the pair.
"Listen, I know we haven't always seen eye-to-eye, but..." Cloud was unsure how to proceed. "Thank you for today. You're welcome in my home until we can sort this all out. And..." Cloud looked at the both of them. "I'm sorry."
A silence settled in the room as Rude and Elena nodded their appreciation.
"I cannot believe Reno's actions this day." Red spoke distantly from his position on the floor."
Barret looked over at Cid. "I just think its damn fitting that he got crushed by a plate."
Elena was restrained by Rude as she jumped up in a rage, hell-bent on attacking the man in front of her. Unfortunately for Barret, nobody thought to restrain Yuffie until her foot collided with the side of his head. The large, black man was sent flying as he toppled over a foot stool, nearly landing on Red. Barret the ground hard, and looked up to find a furious Yuffie standing over top of him, Cid holding her back as she struggled.
"Don't you talk about him like that." She screamed. "Don't you ever fucking talk about him like that." Yuffie calmed down enough to speak in a level voice. "You owe him your life, you ungrateful bastard."
"Yeah, that may be." Barret said as he climbed to his feet. "But I also owe him Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge's deaths. Never mind the rest of Sector 7 and anyone else that bastard might have murdered."
"One good deed cannot redeem someone for a lifetime of evil Yuffie." Vincent spoke from his spot in the corner.
"And you would just know all about that, wouldn't you? At least he didn't wallow in self pity." Yuffie pointed an accusatory finger at the ex- Turk, who was unaffected by the insult. "And what about all of you? You think you're all so damn..." The girl was cut off by a tired-sounding Elena.
"Yuffie, please stop. It isn't worth it."
"What?" Yuffie turned around in shock and stared at the Turks. "How can you possibly say that?"
"Because they're right." This time it was Rude who spoke.
"Are you serious?" The ninja asked, still shocked.
Elena stood up. "We're Turks, Yuffie. We're not the good guys. We're some of the worst bad guys. You've forgotten that. We may deserve everything that we get, but we will always keep our pride." And with that, she and Rude walked out onto the deck in front of the large Kalm house, leaving a dumbstruck AVALANCHE behind. Tifa spoke up as she came out of the kitchen, looking as surprised as the rest of her friends.
"Dinner's ready. I think we should eat first, and then find out what's on that disk."
Cloud walked to the kitchen. "Good idea, Teef. I'll go bring Rude and Elena some food."
______________________________________________________________
No more than half an hour later, the Turks and AVALANCHE found themselves once again assembled in the living room.
"Elena, Rude? Can either of you tell us what's going on?" Cloud asked, determined to diffuse the situation quickly.
"Yeah, why the hell did those guys try to kill us?" Cid tossed in his own question.
"Well it's pretty obvious they were after that disk they gave them, idiot." Yuffie playfully punched Cid in the arm from her seat beside him. He raised his middle finger without looking at her. "What is on that disk anyway?"
"I'm not sure yet, I haven't had the opportunity to look at it." Elena answered. "Give me a little time and I can tell you whatever you want to know."
"Who was the information for?"
"Alexander Electric Company." Elena gave Cloud his answer. "Now if you'll give me a second..." Elena retrieved the laptop Tifa had provided them with and inserted the disk. For the next couple minutes Elena read over the acquired information while AVALACHE idly chatted in waiting. The blond Turk looked up from the computer, slight concern on her face. "Vincent. Red. Can I have you two take a look at this with me?" The two heroes walked over silently. Elena turned to her partner. "I don't think we would have sold this disk Rude."
"What?" Cloud looked up surprised.
"Reno wanted to make sure what we were doing wasn't going to end the world, so he wanted me to look over this before we decided to sell it or not. That's also why we made the two copies, for a situation like this."
"Bullshit, you woulda sold it anyway." Barret spoke up. Rude looked over at him impartially.
"Believe what you want."
Vincent and Red completed their own reading and conferred with Elena for a moment. Red began to explain what they had found.
"The files that the Turks were to download contained information on three processes that Hojo had developed for Shin-ra: Mako Regeneration, Mako Enhancement and..."
_____________________________________________________________
"...Mental Dampening." Howari finished reading the list to Davis, who nodded once to show that she had his attention.
"So what's Mako Regeneration?" He tapped the file on the screen in front of him.
"Mako Regeneration is a procedure Hojo never quite had the time to test. The process is quite experimental, and definitely unstable. As a basic reference for you, it was originally no more than cloning. Hojo developed a method of storing DNA for the best of Shin-ra's warriors so they could never truly die. The idea was shelved by the Science department after it was discovered that the DNA could be presented in an unborn child, but to avoid any deformations, the aging process must be natural."
"So basically, they would have to wait until the child matured to be useful."
"Exactly. And president Shin-ra never was one for waiting around." The Doctor continued. "But Hojo kept working on it while he had the time. After re-evaluating his initial ideas, he found that if he used a corpse of relatively the same height, build and age as the original DNA's host, he could literally regenerate the first subject through meticulous bonding of the corpses' DNA with the hosts'."
___________________________________________________________
"How?" The question came from Tifa.
"It seems that with an intense application of mako added to the DNA strands of the host, the DNA would literally take over and apply itself instead." Red stopped.
"It is very similar to the procedures involving the introduction of Jenova, or any of the demons within me." Vincent added.
"So what you're saying is whoever has that disk now, provided they've got the right equipment, can bring back anyone they want?" Cloud's face paled at the prospect, as a name fluttered through his mind. "Oh, God."
Elena clicked on a particular file and reviewed it quickly. "Basically, but it's not that simple. The DNA can regenerate the bodies' form in its entirety, but only concepts or memories that were completely engraved into the brain's structure should be retained." The majority of the people around her stared at the Turk, confused. "That means the actions that you've performed so much that you don't even think about them any more, which boils down to language for some people." She paused. "But in well-trained individuals, fighting styles, weapon knowledge and skills like that have become second nature. They would be part of the new person, but that person would not have any of their original memories left."
____________________________________________________________
"He won't?" Davis asked suddenly. "But wasn't that..." Howari cut him off.
"I believe that given enough time and cues, the lost memories can be rediscovered..." Dr. Howari looked down. "They have to be."
____________________________________________________________
"No, it says here it isn't possible for those memories to be recovered." Elena answered Cloud's question.
"You said 'Mako Enhancement' too didn't you?" Tifa asked. "Like what they did with SOLDIERS?"
"Almost, but not quite." Red began speaking again. "This seems to be a more developed process than what we've heard of. Instead of showering or immersing the subject in mako, a miniscule amount is injected directly into muscle groups, where it would spread. It seems Hojo found it was a more effective method as the only test subject gained extraordinary strength, speed and intelligence, even compared to the 1st class SOLDIERS. This procedure could be applied to somebody with or without previous enhancement with no ill effects."
"Wait. You said only subject right? Who the hell was that?" Cid played with his lighter on the couch, focusing on it, instead of those he directed the question at.
"Uhhh." Elena scrolled down the screen. "It doesn't say. Just the initials. J.K.?" Everybody in the room shook their heads, nobody able to identify the person.
_____________________________________________________________
"Him? Really? I guess that explains a lot."
"Yes, it does." Howari kept explaining Hojo's notes to Davis. "The procedure is more than simple enough. After it's completed, 'the subject'..." Kaylynn said in disgust. "As Alexander likes to call him, will be even more powerful than ever before."
"Corin will be happy with that. What about this 'Mako Dampening' you mentioned."
Kaylynn looked angry again for a moment. "That is the one part of the procedure I do not agree with, despite its obvious necessity. It was developed in order to completely control all of Shin-ra's more... dangerous employees."
____________________________________________________________
When Yuffie asked about the Mako Dampening, Elena and Rude's faces both became very dark. Vincent looked over at them. "I believe this is the Turks place to tell. They would have the most experience in this situation."
"Rude more-so than I." Elena kept her head down.
Rude adjusted his sunglasses. "Hojo perfected his formula on us, the Turks. Or more specifically, on Reno."
Dr. Howari stood in her lab over the shoulder of an assistant she hadn't bothered to learn the name of. In front of her, the latest test results were being entered into the computer for future use.
"Kaylynn?" Corin called out, looking for the scientist. Dr Howari let out a sigh and looked down at her companion for the moment.
"Good work. Keep entering the data. I have to go take care of a..." She looked over at the middle-aged man with the broad smile heading her way. "Pest problem."
"I have some good news for you." Alexander paused as he arrived in front of her, waiting for the enthusiastic questioning that was sure to follow. He would wait a few seconds longer. "Well? Aren't you going to ask what?" He questioned.
"No."
"Oh. In that case, I'll just have to tell you, won't I?" The president produced a disk from within his coat pocket. "The information I promised, milady."
Dr. Howari looked at the object being held out to her hesitantly before reaching out and accepting it. "Thank you, Mr. President." She turned her back to him. "It was unnecessary for you to bring this to the lab yourself."
"Always so proper, aren't you Doctor." Strong arms encircled her waist as Alexander pulled himself closer to her. "You know how much I hate that." Corin whispered into Howari's ear. She reached down and wrapped her hands around his. Then, with a sharp pull and two steps, she turned to face him.
"I'm sorry, sir. Perhaps another time. I have business to attend to with this disk."
Alexander winked once before leaving the room. Dr. Howari walked into her office and closed the door behind her before settling down in front of the computer. Before she could place the disk in, a knock came at the door.
"Come in." The door opened and Davis stepped in. "Oh. Hello Davis. What brings you down here?" A genuine smile appeared on the Doctor's pretty Wutain face. Davis was truly one of the few people around the Alexander Electric Company she enjoyed conversing with.
"I just came to chat. Y'know, if you keep that up, he's going to get mad one of these days." The young man in the grey business suit spoke to his friend of their mutual employer's advances on her.
"Let him get mad. It won't matter if I can just finish this project." She idly stared at the disk still in her hand. A moment later, she pushed it into the slot and loaded it up. Davis walked to her for a better view of the screen.
"Will this work?"
"Leviathan, I hope so."
_______________________________________________________
AVALANCHE arrived at Cloud and Tifa's home late in the afternoon, the remaining two Turks in tow. Yuffie and Elena's tears had run dry, but a dark cloud still hung over everybody's head. The group trudged into the quiet living room of the house, where most collapsed into the furniture for some much needed rest. Tifa went into the kitchen to prepare some food for them all.
Elena sat herself down in a nearby chair, distancing herself from her former enemies. Rude stood behind her, eyes closed behind the dark sunglasses. Cloud walked up to the pair.
"Listen, I know we haven't always seen eye-to-eye, but..." Cloud was unsure how to proceed. "Thank you for today. You're welcome in my home until we can sort this all out. And..." Cloud looked at the both of them. "I'm sorry."
A silence settled in the room as Rude and Elena nodded their appreciation.
"I cannot believe Reno's actions this day." Red spoke distantly from his position on the floor."
Barret looked over at Cid. "I just think its damn fitting that he got crushed by a plate."
Elena was restrained by Rude as she jumped up in a rage, hell-bent on attacking the man in front of her. Unfortunately for Barret, nobody thought to restrain Yuffie until her foot collided with the side of his head. The large, black man was sent flying as he toppled over a foot stool, nearly landing on Red. Barret the ground hard, and looked up to find a furious Yuffie standing over top of him, Cid holding her back as she struggled.
"Don't you talk about him like that." She screamed. "Don't you ever fucking talk about him like that." Yuffie calmed down enough to speak in a level voice. "You owe him your life, you ungrateful bastard."
"Yeah, that may be." Barret said as he climbed to his feet. "But I also owe him Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge's deaths. Never mind the rest of Sector 7 and anyone else that bastard might have murdered."
"One good deed cannot redeem someone for a lifetime of evil Yuffie." Vincent spoke from his spot in the corner.
"And you would just know all about that, wouldn't you? At least he didn't wallow in self pity." Yuffie pointed an accusatory finger at the ex- Turk, who was unaffected by the insult. "And what about all of you? You think you're all so damn..." The girl was cut off by a tired-sounding Elena.
"Yuffie, please stop. It isn't worth it."
"What?" Yuffie turned around in shock and stared at the Turks. "How can you possibly say that?"
"Because they're right." This time it was Rude who spoke.
"Are you serious?" The ninja asked, still shocked.
Elena stood up. "We're Turks, Yuffie. We're not the good guys. We're some of the worst bad guys. You've forgotten that. We may deserve everything that we get, but we will always keep our pride." And with that, she and Rude walked out onto the deck in front of the large Kalm house, leaving a dumbstruck AVALANCHE behind. Tifa spoke up as she came out of the kitchen, looking as surprised as the rest of her friends.
"Dinner's ready. I think we should eat first, and then find out what's on that disk."
Cloud walked to the kitchen. "Good idea, Teef. I'll go bring Rude and Elena some food."
______________________________________________________________
No more than half an hour later, the Turks and AVALANCHE found themselves once again assembled in the living room.
"Elena, Rude? Can either of you tell us what's going on?" Cloud asked, determined to diffuse the situation quickly.
"Yeah, why the hell did those guys try to kill us?" Cid tossed in his own question.
"Well it's pretty obvious they were after that disk they gave them, idiot." Yuffie playfully punched Cid in the arm from her seat beside him. He raised his middle finger without looking at her. "What is on that disk anyway?"
"I'm not sure yet, I haven't had the opportunity to look at it." Elena answered. "Give me a little time and I can tell you whatever you want to know."
"Who was the information for?"
"Alexander Electric Company." Elena gave Cloud his answer. "Now if you'll give me a second..." Elena retrieved the laptop Tifa had provided them with and inserted the disk. For the next couple minutes Elena read over the acquired information while AVALACHE idly chatted in waiting. The blond Turk looked up from the computer, slight concern on her face. "Vincent. Red. Can I have you two take a look at this with me?" The two heroes walked over silently. Elena turned to her partner. "I don't think we would have sold this disk Rude."
"What?" Cloud looked up surprised.
"Reno wanted to make sure what we were doing wasn't going to end the world, so he wanted me to look over this before we decided to sell it or not. That's also why we made the two copies, for a situation like this."
"Bullshit, you woulda sold it anyway." Barret spoke up. Rude looked over at him impartially.
"Believe what you want."
Vincent and Red completed their own reading and conferred with Elena for a moment. Red began to explain what they had found.
"The files that the Turks were to download contained information on three processes that Hojo had developed for Shin-ra: Mako Regeneration, Mako Enhancement and..."
_____________________________________________________________
"...Mental Dampening." Howari finished reading the list to Davis, who nodded once to show that she had his attention.
"So what's Mako Regeneration?" He tapped the file on the screen in front of him.
"Mako Regeneration is a procedure Hojo never quite had the time to test. The process is quite experimental, and definitely unstable. As a basic reference for you, it was originally no more than cloning. Hojo developed a method of storing DNA for the best of Shin-ra's warriors so they could never truly die. The idea was shelved by the Science department after it was discovered that the DNA could be presented in an unborn child, but to avoid any deformations, the aging process must be natural."
"So basically, they would have to wait until the child matured to be useful."
"Exactly. And president Shin-ra never was one for waiting around." The Doctor continued. "But Hojo kept working on it while he had the time. After re-evaluating his initial ideas, he found that if he used a corpse of relatively the same height, build and age as the original DNA's host, he could literally regenerate the first subject through meticulous bonding of the corpses' DNA with the hosts'."
___________________________________________________________
"How?" The question came from Tifa.
"It seems that with an intense application of mako added to the DNA strands of the host, the DNA would literally take over and apply itself instead." Red stopped.
"It is very similar to the procedures involving the introduction of Jenova, or any of the demons within me." Vincent added.
"So what you're saying is whoever has that disk now, provided they've got the right equipment, can bring back anyone they want?" Cloud's face paled at the prospect, as a name fluttered through his mind. "Oh, God."
Elena clicked on a particular file and reviewed it quickly. "Basically, but it's not that simple. The DNA can regenerate the bodies' form in its entirety, but only concepts or memories that were completely engraved into the brain's structure should be retained." The majority of the people around her stared at the Turk, confused. "That means the actions that you've performed so much that you don't even think about them any more, which boils down to language for some people." She paused. "But in well-trained individuals, fighting styles, weapon knowledge and skills like that have become second nature. They would be part of the new person, but that person would not have any of their original memories left."
____________________________________________________________
"He won't?" Davis asked suddenly. "But wasn't that..." Howari cut him off.
"I believe that given enough time and cues, the lost memories can be rediscovered..." Dr. Howari looked down. "They have to be."
____________________________________________________________
"No, it says here it isn't possible for those memories to be recovered." Elena answered Cloud's question.
"You said 'Mako Enhancement' too didn't you?" Tifa asked. "Like what they did with SOLDIERS?"
"Almost, but not quite." Red began speaking again. "This seems to be a more developed process than what we've heard of. Instead of showering or immersing the subject in mako, a miniscule amount is injected directly into muscle groups, where it would spread. It seems Hojo found it was a more effective method as the only test subject gained extraordinary strength, speed and intelligence, even compared to the 1st class SOLDIERS. This procedure could be applied to somebody with or without previous enhancement with no ill effects."
"Wait. You said only subject right? Who the hell was that?" Cid played with his lighter on the couch, focusing on it, instead of those he directed the question at.
"Uhhh." Elena scrolled down the screen. "It doesn't say. Just the initials. J.K.?" Everybody in the room shook their heads, nobody able to identify the person.
_____________________________________________________________
"Him? Really? I guess that explains a lot."
"Yes, it does." Howari kept explaining Hojo's notes to Davis. "The procedure is more than simple enough. After it's completed, 'the subject'..." Kaylynn said in disgust. "As Alexander likes to call him, will be even more powerful than ever before."
"Corin will be happy with that. What about this 'Mako Dampening' you mentioned."
Kaylynn looked angry again for a moment. "That is the one part of the procedure I do not agree with, despite its obvious necessity. It was developed in order to completely control all of Shin-ra's more... dangerous employees."
____________________________________________________________
When Yuffie asked about the Mako Dampening, Elena and Rude's faces both became very dark. Vincent looked over at them. "I believe this is the Turks place to tell. They would have the most experience in this situation."
"Rude more-so than I." Elena kept her head down.
Rude adjusted his sunglasses. "Hojo perfected his formula on us, the Turks. Or more specifically, on Reno."