Final Fantasy VII [3rd Instalment]

Emerald Princess of Vernea

Chapter Thirty-Seven

After a few minutes of tiring climbing, the companions finally neared the top of the Sister Ray. By this point the storm had now fully settled over the city and though it was only early evening, the thick, black clouds gave the impression that it was already late in the night. The upper platforms creaked loudly as the storm's strong winds blew fiercely around them. The rain had eased off slightly, but not before it had soaked the companions through almost to the skin.

Cait stood at the top of the stairs, waiting impatiently for the rest of his friends to climb the last few steps. When they finally reached the top Yuffie dropped to her knees, exhausted by the long climb. The others were also tired, for there had been no time to rest following the battle with the Proud Clod. But their task was far from over, and Cait allowed them only a moment's rest to catch their breath before urging them forward once again.

The mainframe was just ahead. They saw Professor Hojo, standing with his back to them, working diligently away even as the wind and the rain buffeted the platform. Cloud and the others ran out onto the mainframe and stopped behind the professor. Though they did not anticipate a battle they drew their weapons anyway, to present a show of force.

"Hojo! Stop right there!"

Hojo paused in his work just long enough to turn his head around and glance over his shoulder. He did not seem particularly surprised to see them there, and also did not seem the least bit perturbed when he saw that they had drawn their weapons. The professor quickly scanned the group, analysing them in a moment, before his eyes finally settled on Cloud. His brow creased and he frowned.

"Oh… the failure," he said after a moment's pause, seemingly reminding himself.

Cloud scowled. "At least remember my name!" he said. "It's Cloud!"

Looking into the professor's face, Cloud got the feeling that something was wrong. Professor Hojo looked a little… off colour. Perhaps it was just the fatigue setting in, or the strange storm clouds overhead, but it made the professor look almost jaundiced. The swordsman dismissed it as his tired mind playing tricks on him.

Hojo waved a hand dismissively and turned back to the mainframe. He stretched out his hand to slowly and carefully twist one of the dials, speaking as he worked.

"Every time I see you," he said, "I… It pains me that I had so little scientific sense… I evaluated you as a failed project. But, you are the only one that succeeded as a Sephiroth-clone. Heh, heh, heh…" The professor chuckled at the bitter memory. "I'm eve beginning to hate myself.

"None of that matters…" said Cloud. "Just stop this nonsense!"

"Nonsense?" repeated Hojo, confused. "Oh, this?"

Hojo finally stopped working and turned around to face the group, folding his hands neatly behind his back. Now that they stood face-to-face, Cloud once again got the feeling that there was something undeniably wrong with him. The professor's face had a distinct yellowish hue and his eyes, behind his glasses, were somewhat glazed. Beads of sweat dotted his brow. Yet Professor Hojo seemed to be completely unaware of all this. Either unaware or no longer cared.

"Sephiroth seems to be counting on the energy," Hojo said, ignoring the gasps of surprise at his face. He turned and waved his hand, gesturing to the five glowing reactors and the two dark ones around the city. "So I'm going to lend him a hand."

"Why!" demanded Cloud angrily. He stepped forward. "Why do that!"

Hojo looked at him and scowled. "Quit asking why, you moron," he snapped fiercely. Then he stopped himself and looked at Cloud appraisingly, pushing his glasses up. "Hmm… actually, you might be cut out to be a scientist," he added thoughtfully.

Still thinking, Hojo turned back to the mainframe and leaned over it to look at one of the readouts. "Energy level is at… 83%," he said to himself. "It's taking too long." He began to work again.

Cloud's hand tightened around the hilt of his sword, and he took a step forward. Tifa quickly caught up to him and placed her fingers gently on his arm. Feeling her touch, Cloud stopped. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. It would do them no good for him to lose his temper here. They had to reason with Hojo… somehow dissuade him from this course of action.

Then Hojo said something that caused the blood in his veins to freeze over.

"My son is in need of power and help. …That's the only reason."

There was a long pause. "…Your son?" asked Cloud, breaking the silence.

A cold, cruel smile touched Hojo's lips. "Although he doesn't know," he added. He laughed to himself, a combination of bitterness and humour. "What will Sephiroth think when he finds out I'm his father? Always looking down on me like that." He laughed again and turned another dial on the console. The top of the No. 7 Reactor slowly opened up, and a faint, greenish glow radiated from inside.

There was another long pause. For a moment no one could really take it in. As the meaning of those words finally sank in, they all gasped in horror, staring at Hojo.

Cloud's eyes widened. "Sephiroth is your son!" he cried.

"…!" Vincent ran forward to stand by Cloud, his red eyes wild.

Hojo laughed, amused at their surprise. "I offered the woman with my child to Professor Gast's Jenova Project," he told them. He paused and looked up at the dark sky. A beat of sweat trickled down his face. "When Sephiroth was still in the womb, we took the cells of Jenova…" He let the sentence hang, and he laughed.

Vincent, hearing this, shook his head. This… this… he had never known. He tried to find words—words that were strong enough to convey the pain and anguish that he felt right then. All these years he had waited. And now, at the crucial moment, words escaped him. "You…!" was all he could say.

Lucrecia, he knew, was Sephiroth's mother—his biological mother. Though, as far as Sephiroth was concerned, his mother was Jenova. The father… Vincent had never considered. He had assumed a donor had been found to participate in the Jenova Project. Not once did it occur to him that Lucrecia might have…

Pain gripped Vincent's heart so tightly that he feared he might collapse. Had he inadvertently driven Lucrecia so far that she would willingly bear this man's child, to be used in a scientific experiment! And through that experiment, Lucrecia herself had been injected with Jenova's cells.

Guilt and shame swelled inside him. Oh, those familiar feelings; they were second nature to him now. Yet now those feelings were tinged with another feeling: anger. Anger directed at the man who stood before him now. Hojo was actually laughing… laughing! After all the pain he had caused… not only to Lucrecia, but to himself, Cloud… in fact everyone who had ever come into contact with this deranged man. His hand went to his gun, his fingers twitching.

"I can't believe you're the one who did this…" said Cloud, cutting into Vincent's thoughts. "The illusionary crime against Sephiroth…"

Hojo stopped his work and turned to face the companions again. He was still laughing. "No, you're wrong!" he said. "It's my desire as a scientist!"

And he laughed again. And again. It was a horrible, cackling laugh. Its sound pierced through the falling rain and even the rolling thunder, like something out of a horror film. A bolt of lightning lit the sky, almost immediately followed by a clap of thunder so loud it deafened them. The wind picked up, blowing the long lengths of Hojo's lab coat around his rain-soaked body. All the while, Hojo laughed uncontrollably.

A dark realisation dawned in Vincent's eyes. For thirty years he had slept in that coffin in Shinra Mansion, dreaming of his sins and his shame, believing that he alone was responsible for what happened to Lucrecia. He had not been strong enough to stop her from taking part in the Jenova Project… he who had driven her into this man's arms. Now she slept an eternal sleep in a case of crystal, waiting for the Jenova cells that kept her alive to finally allow her to die.

But here before him, he realised now, was the real perpetrator of Lucrecia's suffering. It was Hojo who had succeeded where Vincent had failed, persuading Lucrecia to bear the child that would be used in the experiment. Vincent's shame was that he could not stop her, but this man's sin was far greater!

"…I was… wrong," said Vincent softly. He closed his eyes. Lucrecia's image came to him, as it always did, though now her image was encased in crystal. Once more he apologised and slowly drew his gun. "The one who should have slept was…" His eyes flared open. "…You, Hojo!"

Hojo's laughter finally stopped. His smile—that cold, cruel, insane smile—continued to twist his face. Sweat, mixed with raindrops, rolled down his jaundiced face until they rolled off the point of his chin. His eyes, gazed with a burning fear, gazed at the group in bitterness and loathing.

"I… was defeated by my desire to become a scientist," he admitted finally. "I lost the last time as well." He took a few steps forward. His smile widened and he chuckled once again. His chuckle grew in volume until it became a manic, cackling laugh. "I've injected Jenova cells into my own body!" he announced gleefully. "Hee, hee, hee! Here are… Heee, hee, hee! …My results!"

The professor stretched out his hands. To the companions' horror, they saw that the skin of his hands was bubbling, as though dipped in acid. Droplets of green-yellow ooze dripped from his fingertips and onto the floor. There it bubbled and thickened, congealing into a thick, gooey mass at the professor's feet.

A foul, acrid stench filled the air. The companions covered their noses and watched in growing revulsion as the ooze began to swell and rise from the ground, forming into a shapeless, gelatinous mass. The mass stretched and split into two before finally taking shape, into the form of two monsters of Hojo's own design.

The first monster, on Hojo's left, was a Poodler Sample. The monster resembled the crustacean monsters that patrolled the shores of the Costa Plains, with a hard shell and three long, thick tentacles that waved about tentatively in search of food. On Hojo's right was the second monster, known as a Bad Rap. The Bad Rap could only be described as a large, inflated octopus that hovered six inches off the ground. Its own tentacles waved about beneath its inflated body, endlessly searching for prey.

Ooze dripped slowly off the monsters' bodies, and as they watched the ooze gradually thinned and evaporated. The beady eyes of the Bad Rap flickered this way and that, and the Poodler, sensing prey, stretched its three tentacles eagerly in their direction. Neither moved, however, as Hojo held them in thrall. The professor snapped his now normal fingers, and the two monsters surged forward.

Quickly Cloud raised his sword and slashed it down in front of him as the Poodler pulled ahead of its slower compatriot and threw itself into a powerful body slam. The monster's hard outer shell smashed into the flat side of the Buster Sword's blade. Cloud winced as pain shot up his arm to his shoulder, almost wrenching it out of the socket. He gritted his teeth against the pain and pushed against the blade, keeping the monster at bay.

There was a flash of green as the Bad Rap moved right past him and headed towards Yuffie, who was nearest. Its tentacles moved about fervently, reaching for her. The ninja leaped out of the way of the roaming tentacles and threw her shuriken, but it missed and zipped soundly past. Barret raised his gun to take it down but Red XIII ran in front of the monster, blocking his aim. Red XIII snarled and leaped at the monster, jaws open, ready to tear it apart.

The Bad Rap flicked one of its tentacles and caught the hound on the shoulder. Red XIII yelped in pain and fell onto the floor. He tried to stand, but his legs buckled beneath him. He began to shudder violently as the poison spread quickly throughout his body.

Cait saw Red XIII fall. The cat quickly turned and rummaged about in the storage compartment in the Mog's back. Potion, Elixir… Aha! Cait found the bottle he was looking for. There came the heavy drone of gunfire as Barret opened fire upon the advancing Bad Rap, roaring in anger as he did so. Cait grasped the Antidote bottle firmly in one hand before he jumped off the Mog and hurried toward Red XIII.

Cloud, meanwhile, was still struggling with the Poodler. After realising that it could not smash its way through the Buster Sword, it wrapped two of its tentacles tightly around the blade and refused to let go. The third tentacle snaked along Cloud's arm, dripping ooze and heading for Cloud's unprotected neck. Cloud tried to use the Lightning materia to halt the monster in its tracks, but nothing happened. Then he remembered: he had thrown the materia to Cait during the previous battle. For a moment he wondered if he should let go of the sword to defend himself, but that meant giving up his weapon… and he could not do that.

Beside the mainframe, Hojo watched with absolute glee as the Poodler's tentacle wound its way around Cloud's neck. The Poodler began to squeeze, and Cloud gasped. He put all his strength into his arms as he tried to push the monster away from him, but the Poodler had a very strong grip and would not budge. In the end Cloud reluctantly let go of the Buster Sword and attempted to pry the tentacle from his neck. Seeing that he had released his sword, the Poodler also let go and began to wind its two tentacles around Cloud's arms, tightening around his wrists and pulling them free.

"Cloud!"

Tifa ran up behind the Poodler. She grabbed onto the edge of its ribbed shell and pulled. The Poodler screeched in protest. It released its hold on Cloud's wrists and instead wrapped them right around the swordsman's neck. The swordsman pulled on the tentacles, but the ooze made the flesh slippery—he could not get a grip.

Tifa was getting nowhere either. She let go of the shell and moved around to Cloud's side. The Poodler's tiny head, just beneath the shell, turned to look at her. Tifa met the monster's gaze, scowled, and then drew back her fist. She punched, and her fist smashed right through the shell and into the squishy contents inside. The Poodler screeched and its whole body shuddered in pain. More ooze and black blood spurted out of the hole Tifa made, spilling over her hands and arms.

The Poodler gave another violent shudder; its body stiffened like a stick. Its eyes then rolled back into its head and it fell limp. The tentacles around Cloud's neck slackened, and the swordsman shoved them away.

Behind them the Bad Rap lunged at Yuffie once more, waving its numerous, poison-tipped tentacles. And once again Yuffie leaped backwards. Her shuriken, after completing its circuit of the upper level, had returned to her hand and now she threw it again in a more concise arc towards the monster. The crystal-tipped edges sliced through three of the monster's tentacles; these dropped to the floor and flapped about like fish out of water.

The Bad Rap, however, seemed completely unfazed by the loss of its limbs. It also did not seem bothered by the bullet wounds that covered its body. It continued to make its way steadily towards her, its tiny eyes fixed upon her. A small slit—its mouth—appeared in the middle of its face. The slit grew wider, taking up almost all of its face. When it opened its mouth Yuffie saw row upon row of tiny, jagged teeth, dripping with saliva and chomping hungrily.

The Bad Rap lunged again, its mouth open wide. At the same time Barret finished clearing a jam in his gun-arm and fired a test round at the Bad Rap. The shot ripped open a large, bloody wound in the Bad Rap's flesh, leaking green-black blood. The monster gave a jolt and temporarily paused, its eyes darting left and right. Its mouth closed. The monster then slowly turned around to face Barret. It stared at him for a moment, and then suddenly lurched at him.

Barret made to raise his gun-arm, but the Bad Rap moved with such surprising swiftness that he could not raise it fast enough. The monster's mouth opened and it clamped its jaws around Barret's good arm. Barret gave a pained cry as dozens of tiny teeth sank into his flesh. He felt the hot trickle of blood down his arm.

Through the hazy pain Barret saw the monster's tentacles reaching for him. Barret gritted his teeth and thrust out his arm, keeping the monster at arm's length. Then he raised his gun-arm, took aim, and fired a single shot at the monster's head, right between its eyes.

The bullet struck home. The Bad Rap gave a gargled cry as it was thrown back, leaving more than one of its teeth embedded in Barret's blood-soaked arm. Though the shot should have killed it outright the monster continued to live, although its movements were jerky and strained.

Barret was about to open fire on it again when Cid brushed him aside with a casual remark about him hogging all the fun. The pilot walked just as casually up to the struggling creature and, with a flick of his wrist, thrust the broken ends of spear into the creature's head. The jagged edges cut through the flesh easily and the Bad Rap shrieked in pain. It fell to the floor, still writhing. Cid placed one boot gently on its wriggling body and pushed down on the spear until it touched metal on the other side. The Bad Rap's blood-filled mouth quivered and then fell still. A second later the monster began to dissolve, turning back into yellowish ooze that sank through the grating and out of sight. Cid lifted his spear, wrinkling his nose in disgust.

Hojo watched the skirmish with interest. The smile on his face widened. Sweat was dripping profusely down his yellowish face; his shirt and trousers were damp with it. He laughed gleefully as he saw Cid wipe his spear clean, Red XIII slowly stagger to his feet with Cait Sith's help, and as Cloud and Tifa lifted the Poodler's corpse and toss it unceremoniously over the side of the railings.

Yes… he thought, as he saw the ease with which the rebels had dispatched the monsters he had summoned. Yes… this was just what he expected of them!

His eyes were then drawn to Vincent, who stepped forward to stand before him. The gunman had made no move during the course of the battle, and had instead spent the time staring closely at Hojo.

Their eyes met. Vincent's face was partially hidden behind the tall collar of his cloak, and the long lengths of his dark hair framed his face. His eyes, however, were clearly visible. Those eyes… Hojo remembered those eyes clearly. They had glared at him back then, too… That same angry, defiant glare… Here was another failed experiment…

Just as Hojo was thinking this, Vincent's body glowed brightly, as he began to transform into one of the many beasts that had had heir DNA infused with his. The professor raised an arm to shield his eyes. When the light faded he lowered his arm and peered out. When he did, he almost gasped.

The beast that Vincent had chosen… was Chaos.

Hojo's eyes widened… and then his look of shock twisted into a cruel and evil grin. A dozen thoughts and memories flashed through his mind at once. A bead of sweat trickled down his nose and dripped off the end as the professor made up his mind. So be it.

The rest of the rebels gathered around Chaos and stood facing Hojo. Each of them had the same defiant look in their eyes, strong and unwavering. The professor, chuckling, removed his glasses.

"Haw…" he laughed, "now let's see how the Mako Juice is reacting?"

The professor spread his arms wide. Steam rose from his hands, his arms, and his face. The skin bubbled and began to melt into a sickening, foul-smelling ooze. The professor threw back his head and laughed manically as his body began to twist and bend, warping into something hideous and inhuman. Bones cracked and reshaped. Skin was stretched and twisted, splitting and shredding to reveal the muscles growing underneath. The professor's lab clothes were ripped apart by his rapidly deforming body, falling in loose shreds at his feet. Those same feet quickly vanished, melting into the rest of his body.

All the while the professor laughed, even as his body twisted and stretched, and blood slicked through the open wounds caused by his splitting skin. Eventually even his face became deformed as his lower jaw was stretched wide open, until his face became a grotesque mask of horror. His eyes became hollow and dead. Folds of flesh hit the floor, and the newly created Heletic Hojo leaned heavily to one side. His two arms, massive and heavy, dragged against the floor.

The companions could only watch in terror as Hojo's transformation was completed. The elongated head, thrown back in laughter, slowly raised and settled its dark gaze upon them. They each felt a cold chill down their spines as the hollowed, empty eyes fell on them, but they stood firm, refusing to waver now.

Chaos reached into his holster and drew out his gun. The barrel clicked as it loaded.

In a deep voice, he said: "Let's finish this."

A Note from the Authoress

And that's another chapter done. I fear I may not finish the fic in time to meet the deadline (six weeks left!) but I should be pretty damn close. Of course I will do my very best to meet the target, but I fear I may fall a bit short. It all depends on how long the battles stretch out.