The Story of a Dog


No…

Mako poisoning….

Tseng was treated for it in Nibelheim when he was cheating on his wife with Sephiroth but he never said where, and he never said by whom.

Kjata…

Hojo used me as a constant source of study. I remember it…

I remember him taking fluids from me and running an experiment on one of his 'subjects.' I remember it because he was unusually concerned about getting caught when he'd never concerned himself with the possibility before.

And now for the first time, I believe I'm starting to share that concern as I unwillingly curl up to broken shards left by prisons of mako from some other time.

Still, Chaos has control and it seems particularly fond of the prison its chosen while it continuously stares in the direction where the Turk left.

Tseng never looked back and Chaos continues to let out a low sound as if it's mourning a loss while I grow more frustrated with my inability to do anything about it …


"Well… well… well…" comes a voice that partially wakes me. I must have lost consciousness after Tseng left as the sound of heavily armoured boots step closer. They're calm sounding steps, slow and unhurried.

"It took me days," he says. "Then I realized that your symbiotic relationship might have brought you here. Or is it… more like a cancer?

"I've grown rather fond of the sciences and I'm genuinely curious how two entirely separate beings can remain two entirely separate beings when they share the same… Oh… I suppose I'm getting ahead of myself. The last time I saw you, you had a dog with you—one that requires medical attention, provided that it's not too late. Besides your symbiotic relationship, I'm even more curious as to where that dog might be now."

"Dog…?" I question, noting the slur to my own voice as I open my eyes and rapidly blink to clear them out.

I'm still in the cave, lying on my back with my arms outstretched and my back is arched over the uncomfortable mess of demolished mako prisons around me. They're more destroyed than they were before I lost consciousness, and I suddenly wonder… days?

"Yes," he says. "A dog. He's about five-foot-eleven, black hair, and bares a mark on his forehead so that he can openly lie about his devotions without saying a word, and I believe that his master sorely misses him."

"Master," I mutter as something sharply taps me in the centre of the forehead and I look up to see an auburn haired man looking down at me. He's crouched down near the top of my head, clean-shaven and serenely smiling at me as he stabs his finger a couple of times into the same spot where Tseng has his tattoo.

"Yes. His master is concerned about him. The pet that you've stolen is not a healthy pet and attention is promptly required," he tells me. Then he stands and offers to help me up while I refuse. "It is of utmost importance that we find and return him for

immediate treatment, and it is preferable that I persuade you to lend a helping hand."

"What the hell are you talking about?" I ask as I push myself up and rub at my forehead.

I'd ask him who he is but a part of me is afraid that my guess might be right and that he might confirm it, and I'm just not ready for it right now. At least, I don't think I am when I take a quick glance around at the claw marks on the walls of the cave and briefly wonder what in the hell Chaos has been doing before I quickly dismiss the thought and return my attention to the other man.

He has a youthful appearance to him, almost angelic, and he possesses a grace in his stance and his movements as he melodically speaks in a soothing voice. According to Tseng, he was hell, and according to Cloud, he was merciless vengeance, and according to my own dreams, he was a greying man that was falling apart as if he was decaying.

But that's not the case at the moment. He's young in appearance, and if he's as dangerous as I'm led to believe he is, he's doing a damned fine job of hiding it. Even his eyes seem expressive as they regard me with something that looks like genuine empathy.

"I'm talking about the dog," he answers. "He managed to dig his way out of the yard before he could be thoroughly treated, and his master and I both agree that this benefits no one."

At that, he pulls a grey hair from his bang, twirls it between his forefinger and thumb, and drops it while sighing.

"And I'm afraid that I can get quite unpleasant if benefits slip me by."

"You want me to help you…" I surmise, and I almost lose my footing when I stand and a dizzy swoon hits me unexpectedly. "Why would I do that?"

"Because it's in his best interest, and therefore it's in your best interest."

"Why should I trust you?"

"You shouldn't," he honestly answers, almost with a childlike innocence to his tone. "You'd be out of your mind if you trusted me. On the other hand, I highly doubt that you want to condemn your dog to the inevitable if he isn't returned."

He smiles then, full of charm as he looks at the ground and then he quickly darts his eyes to my gauntlet as if something has caught his curious attention.

"You have nothing to gain over the matter but so much to lose if you really do care for the mutt."

For a moment, I consider what he tells me if not silently questioning it before I snort and straighten out my head scarf that's almost covering my right eye.

"Why don't you seek him out and offer to help him directly then… Why all the games?"

"Because he doesn't trust me and you seem like my best bet because he trusts you."

He almost sounds regretful when he says that, and his energy seems to darken at the thought of it as he turns his attention to the broken prisons and gracefully takes a couple of steps toward them as if he finds something alluring about them in a way that seems melancholic.

"I've given him no reason to trust me… Far from any reason…"

"And what's in it for you?" I suspiciously ask.

And to that, he answers, "Satisfaction."

Then he closes his eyes and faces upward as if basking in the glory of the heavens and four black feathers fall from the inside of his coat, almost as gracefully as he moves. They flutter to the dusty ground before he softly adds, "And justice."


His name is Genesis. He says it's in my best interest to help him. He wants me to take Tseng against his will and he claims that it's for his own good. He refers to the Turk as a dog, never refraining from the term and its related synonyms, and I assume it's because it allows him to dissociate Tseng from being human. It also makes me wary about his claims of helping him and that it's in both mine and Tseng's best interest.

He makes no attempt to state that he doesn't like the dog and he makes no attempt to deny anything that I confront him with. He admits that he did something to Tseng, but like Tseng, he won't say what it is. His only response is a serene smile when I pry, and a justification that doesn't sit well with me.

"I saw him first," he says, and he leaves it at that.

After that, he tells me that he felt his attempt to get the 'dog' to go to the Northern Continent was effective. He even makes no attempt to hide the fact that he was amused by the situation. But he claims he's unaware of the 'other' dreams as he calls them, and when I mention that Tseng is often dead in them, he thoughtfully mutters, "Interesting…" as if to himself.

Other than that, the best I can get out of him regarding why he supposedly wants to help Tseng is that it's in his best interest to ensure that the Turk—or dog, as he puts it—remains in good health.

He also claims that it's in the 'dog's' best interest while mimicking the cryptic phrase of, "Some things are worse than death."

And, to top it off, he claims that it amuses him to keep the 'dog' alive.

He enjoys the game and the rewards outweigh the repercussions as he puts it.

However, he's not the only one involved in the 'game.'

There's the 'Master' that he won't explain further than that, and Koerin, the renegade Turk that has been trying to expose Shinra for some time. Genesis claims that Koerin gets in his way more often than not, and that he went through a lot of trouble to cause a distraction back at the Nibelheim mansion while remaining anonymous.

"Of course, I didn't expect the two of you to blow the place up," he adds, and then he smiles at the irony before I accuse him of almost getting us killed in his attempt to 'save' us.

But at the moment, he's more interested in talking about Koerin and jumps right back to the topic while shrugging my accusation away as if I'm overreacting to it.

The man lost his sister during the Meteor disaster and blamed Shinra for it, and when Rufus refused to compensate him and even went so far as to tell the man that it was his own fault for not being there after Rufus specifically gave the man orders to go with Tseng to Junon, things didn't go so well. Koerin turned and he took others with him that underwent similar situations, and during the transition, they attempted to bring down and expose Shinra right then and there.

Only things didn't go as planned. Rufus was too quick to clean up the mess that Shinra left behind and he was also too quick to disappear. He left the public believing he was dead and that he'd died for a noble cause while attempting to save the world from Avalanche, Sephiroth, and Weapon.

Like always, Rufus somehow managed to come out as the hero and the renegade Turks decided that they had to be more creative if they were to bring Shinra down. So they did what they did best. As Turks, they took advantage of their training and investigated everything they could get a lead on, and as a result, Koerin came across incomplete records regarding something that was done to Tseng back in Nibelheim after he single-handedly saved many lives from a Mako reactor that became unstable.

"We were dispatched to handle the situation," he tells me. "But Sephiroth's loyal dog was already there, witnessed the event firsthand, and decided that he'd play the hero, saved as many people as he could, and managed to get himself killed—Sephiroth was devastated."

"Killed?"

"Did I say killed? I meant 'almost' killed. He would have been better off if he remained dead."

Toying…

Genesis doesn't elaborate much further on the topic, except to say that Sephiroth took the 'dog' to the nearby Shinra Mansion in Nibelheim where Hojo conveniently happened to be at the time. He tells me that Sephiroth always trusted Hojo, he looked up to him like a father figure.

Then he tells me after a lengthy pause to savour an amused grin and tells me that Hojo had always wanted to study the phenomenon further and that he'd even come up with full studies and hypotheses that he was hoping he could eventually indulge in. These were the records that the renegade Turks later got their hands on, and suddenly, it was clear to them.

They could blow the whole thing open, expose Shinra for what they really were, and best of all, they could attempt to turn Shinra's most prized asset—the director of the Turks known as the rabid dog named Tseng—into what he inevitably was.

I take note that Genesis doesn't say it's a dog though. In fact, he doesn't say much more than that and it frustrates me to no end.

"You see," he tells me, "if they could show the world that Shinra would do this to their very own—Rufus' own most beloved and idolized sycophant—what would stop them from doing it to anyone else? They could play on the fears of the people and become the new 'Shinra' saints… Under a different name, of course."

"That's enough," I finally say. "You've told me absolutely nothing."

"Hm… really?"

The more time I spend with him, the more my skin crawls. Every fibre of my being is setting off alarms and mixed signals, and with every bit of information he offers, he toys relentlessly with it to the point that I don't know if he has any intention of actually telling me anything at all, except that he's the most informative person I've run into regarding Koerin, whom is the least of my concerns as I turn my back to the man and start to walk out to find the damned Turk in hopes that he hasn't already done something that will hurt him more than he already is.

"Koerin may have already gotten to him," he suddenly says, musically and calmly before I stop in my tracks and he's suddenly at my side and tapping an insanely long sword on my gauntlet. "Without that Materia, he may have nothing to protect him with."

"What do you really want from me?"

"I told you. I need you to find your dog."

"Why can't you do it yourself? You've been following him all this time."

"Yes. But you see…" he starts before he sets his attention on my gauntlet in an obvious way, "His energy is growing weaker. Not even your newly acquired materia…"

He pauses as he taps my gauntlet again and smiles.

"Or the Jenova cells in my own body can sense him right now. I'm afraid it's already starting."

"Jenova…" I hesitantly say before reflecting on the strange glow that Chaos saw on Tseng when he allowed me a passive observation. "He's infected, isn't he?"

"Yes," he promptly answers, "but there's more… You see… I believe that you may be able to sense him as well and that your ability may be a little stronger than mine."

At that, he angelically smiles and looks around the cave before setting his attention on the broken prisons, and I mutter out, "Kjata."

"No… Not Kjata. Hojo was more than desperate to hide what he found, and make no mistake, what he found was not what he intended to find. He had no idea at the time how it was even possible. But being the deceitful and prying little parasite that he was, he eventually put two-and-two together and became even more nervous over the matter.

"In fact, Sephiroth's loyal little bitch was the only thing that did make him nervous because it was never a project that Hojo would have entertained otherwise.

"You see, Shinra's dogs don't interest Hojo, particularly ones that can't be treated by mako due to a mistake that was made by none other than Hojo back when the dog was a mere pup, and Hojo, as luck would have it, happened to be in Wutai at the time."

"Tseng's been an experiment of Hojo's all along…" I conclude.

"No," he corrects, "not exactly. Hojo actually did try to save his life when he was young. It was what was done to the mutt beforehand that became the catalyst.

"Surely, you realize that he was severely beaten after he confessed his preferences to a trusted friend of his, and if I know the dog as well as I believe I do, I'll bet that he never told you that he was left for dead in a puddle of contaminated mako. This happened near the beginning of the Wutian movement to push Shinra as far away from their continent as possible."

"You're talking in circles."

"Surely… you don't want to know the history of the subject?"

"Subject?"

"There was one woman—only one—that Hojo was ever truly sweet on."

"I don't care about Hojo's love life," I tell him before I start walking out again and he jumps in front of me in a way that resembles a graceful dance.

"Yes you do… She was a dancer."

"A dancer…" I repeat, and I put my head down while recalling Tseng's story about his mother.

"Yes. She was the most beautiful woman Hojo had ever laid eyes on and he courted her like he courted no other. He followed her wherever and whenever he could, even to her homeland in Wutai where he finally gathered enough courage to make his presence known. She accepted, and eventually, they became engaged. But I'm sure you can guess that something went wrong."

"Yes. He was crazy."

With an amused chuckle, he sheathes his sword and tilts his head while stating that, "I'm a sucker for sad endings."

"I bet you are."

"Yes. But the fact that Hojo was a self-righteous maniac wasn't the problem. You see, the one and only show that Hojo never followed her to because he was reassigned to start work in Midgar—almost half a year before they planned to get married—something dreadful happened."

"She was raped."

"I see. He told you."

"Yes. But I don't buy the love story for a second."

"Of course you don't. It is Hojo, of course, and after how cruel he was to your beloved Dr. Crescent, and what he did to you, how could he possibly fall in love with the dog's mother? It must be abhorrent for you to even consider the possibility."

"I can't consider it because it never happened. You're just wasting time for whatever twisted reason you can come up with."

"He always looked at Tseng as the son that should have been his own. Well, that was until Sephiroth came along and filled him with twisted glee as his intentions became more warped."

"You're insane…" I mutter, feeling like I don't need to hear any more and I walk away before he lunges at me and grips into the back of my shoulders hard enough to make me grunt.

Then he pulls me backwards with unnerving ease and hisses into my ear that, "I'm not insane," and he grazes his lips against my cheek, laughs, and pushes me forward, hard enough to make me go flying into the ground in a cloud of dust while he calmly adds, "I'm just desperate."

After that, he delivers a swift kick to my ribs and then crouches beside me after I painfully grunt when he holds me down with one arm.

"Are you familiar with Loveless?" he asks in a conversational way. "No? It's a tragic tale that involves transformation and death… Oh… and I don't like it when people walk out on me… Did I mention that?"

"It must have slipped your mind," I grunt out as he pushes me farther into the dirt and I wind up with a mouth full of it.

Then he climbs over me while turning me onto my back so he can position himself in a crouching position over my hips while looking down at me and serenely smiles before his angelic appearance turns hard and he quickly grips my bangs to pull them from my eyes and leans uncomfortably close.

"We can do this the civil way," he says and gently taps on the side of my face, "and you can humour me along the way. Or we can do this the difficult way. It's up to you."

"Do what?" I ask as he smacks me on the face and stands, and I note a few more black feathers that fall from under his coat as one of them lands on my mouth and I pick it off and study it for a moment. It's like the ones that fell from Sephiroth's wing, smooth and so black that it's almost too black. There's no shine, no sense of depth, no… nothing….

"Find your dog," he musically answers and adjusts his gloves before looking down at me through the corner of his eye.

"And if I refuse?"

"Even Chaos is no match for me, poor, victimized, Valentine. However, as I've mentioned, what I can do to you should be the least of your concerns."

"Right."

"It's what I can do to help your dog that should be of interest to you."

"And you want to help him for your own gain…" I conclude while curiously asking, "Which would be…?"

"I'm not well," Genesis flatly answers. "I will never be well, and the same goes for Tseng."

"Tseng," I repeat, realizing that Genesis didn't call him a dog this time.

"Don't read too much into it. You were a faithful dog once too, but you woke up one day and realized that you were just as disposable as the next person.

"We have much in common, and to answer your question, I did something to your lover that I shouldn't have done, and according to the research I've done on that 'Tonberry,' as Sephiroth so rightfully labelled him, I'm unable to undo it. However, with much effort it can remain stabilized and hidden."

"What did you do?"

"I'd rather not tell you that right now—We're just getting to know each other.

"What I will tell you though, is that Tseng and I are tied together whether either of us likes it or not, and if it wasn't for Sephiroth, Tseng wouldn't be the cure I need, and if it wasn't for me, I wouldn't be the cure he needs. We are not free men, Valentine, and whether you like it or not, you are also an integral part of this web. Albeit, for different reasons."

"Why's that?"

"You haven't figured it out yet?" he asks as I sit up and brush the other feathers from my abdominal area and stand without concerning him. Then he turns around to fully regard me before looking over at the prisons and smiling.

"If you wouldn't have been so quick to cut me off while trying to tell you what's going on, perhaps you'd already have your answer… It's no wonder your dog doesn't tell you anything. You don't let anyone finish speaking before interrupting them in discouraging ways."

"No," I contradict, "I cut them off when they're not making sense."

"Really? How many times have you jumped to the wrong conclusion and voiced it whenever your dog tried to tell you something. How many times did he clam up over the matter?

"I'm afraid that I just don't see what it is that he sees in you… you or Sephiroth…" he says before he slowly sweeps his eyes over me as if the concept genuinely confuses him. "Are you aware of how difficult it is for your lover? One would think that if you really cared about him that you would have noticed the subtle cracks in his shell and made more of an effort to help him mend."

"You seem to have noticed," I suspiciously observe.

In fact, he seems to be unhealthily obsessed while he dismissively shrugs and comments that, "You remind me of a character from Loveless. He's a dark character that chooses to close himself off due to his inability to deal with life… Is that what your problem is, Valentine? You can't deal with life so you choose not to try? Did Hojo and Lucrecia bury their deceit so deep within your prison of flesh?"

"Don't analyze me."

"It's a wonder that you've allowed yourself to feel anything for a dog as deceitful as Shinra's very own, or perhaps he's the epitome of the darkness inside, and you cling to it because without it, you'd have nothing. Perhaps that's it… Why be happy when you can be forever miserable in the comfort of your own self-loathing? Even better if someone shares that loathing. I suppose it makes sense to seek something out that constantly reminds you of what you're not, provided that that's what you want."

It's no wonder that Tseng said all he ever wanted was for Genesis to shut up once he started talking, and like him, I believe I'm in a situation that I can't easily walk away from while he drops hints that make my head hurt over what's true and what's just part of the 'game.'

I get what he's hinting at with the prisons. I understand that he's toying with me by not telling me that Tseng is a hybrid of sorts. Not only is he infected with Jenova and whatever else, but there's an off-chance that he's also harbouring a possible acquaintance of Chaos' if not a part of Chaos itself, or possibly even me. Though I'm not exactly sure of what the full story is as he continues to analyze me with a song and dance regarding why I am the way I am, not that it should make any difference concerning anything he's saying.

But I suppose if someone wants to waste time like I suspect he's doing, it would be a good way to go about it, and I emptily sigh in frustration while knowing that I can't walk out without him overpowering me again. He did it a little too easily and it unnerves me. It unnerves me even more when I think that this is what's after Tseng and that it's also the key to Tseng's mystery.

Yet I get the odd feeling that he's not really interested in hurting me or even Tseng. At least, not in a physical way, and then again, there's the off-chance that there's some truth to his bizarre stories and it's the only thing that stops me from arming myself.

"Oh, by the way, when he slept with you, did he ejaculate inside of you?"

Of course, there's only so much I can take before reason gets thrown out the window and my gun is suddenly in my hand and aptly aimed at what might be the most inappropriate being I've ever run into. For some reason, Cid suddenly seems pristine to me.

"Yes?" he presses and playfully adds, "No?" He's not threatened in the least and his self-assured smile is really starting to get on my nerves as I attempt to stop myself from slowly squeezing the trigger.

"It's hard, isn't it? Fighting with what you really are? You despise it and at the same time you so desperately want to pull that trigger. Yet you know, deep down inside, that the only reason you really want to do it is because it's what you're inevitably designed to do… conditioned… trained… enhanced… and… not human… One bullet… and you can make it all go away… Sadly, that one bullet also reinforces what you really are, which is nothing more than another man's tool in the shell of what used to be a man."

I think it's a mistake before it even happens. But the sad fact is that he's right. I don't have the control that I want or yearn or ache for as he so eloquently puts it after he moves faster than lightening to dodge the bullet and slams my back hard enough into the cavern's wall that loose rocks crumble from above us. He's relentless as he purrs my desires into my ear the way a seducer would before he grips into my jaw to hold my head still and invades my mouth with his own.

But it's not a kiss. Something is literally invading my mouth and crawling down my throat while he keeps our mouths sealed and holds me still, completely unaffected by my struggling to get away. It crawls deeper and never detaches from him as if a part of him is reaching out to find something, and when I think about what the hell it might be—his tongue, another part of him or Jenova—I find myself panicked beyond reason.

What makes it even worse is the fact that I don't need air to survive, allowing him to take his time as he violates my insides with no regard to my comfort while I try to claw at him and away from him and uncontrollably gag in an attempt to break free.

"Oh," he finally says as he quickly pulls away and hangs onto me as I double over and fight with an uncontrollable gagging reflex. "He didn't… Smart dog… very… smart dog…"

Then he grips my jaw and pulls me back up so he can study me while my eyes uncontrollably roll into the back of my head from the pain inside, and he whispers into my ear, "He must have figured it out."

After that, he roughly pushes me back and lets me go so I can fall to the ground and freely writhe while fluid runs from my mouth as I continue to gag.

"What… did you…do…to me?"

"Just a search… I concluded that you weren't going to answer my question," he tells me while I cough up more clear liquid, gag again, struggle to get up, and he casually wipes at his tongue with gloved fingers as if he's not fond of the taste of something. "He's left no trace of himself inside of you. That's good news… for you.

"Now," he says, and he pulls me up by the arm and roughly pinches me at the same time as he helps me to my feet and I continue to sporadically gag and convulse.

His touch almost feels like it's controlling me as if my movements will only respond to his will and not my own, and without giving me the freedom of choice, he melodically says, "Let's find that dog of yours. The master's patience wears thin."