Chapter Twenty-Six: Anger

It didn't take much for Gast to see that something was very wrong with Sephiroth. The boy's face was flushed and set in a scowl, and his fists were clenched so tightly that his knuckles were white. The nurse that had attended to him said that he was exceptionally on-edge and snappy.

"Good morning, Sephiroth," Gast said. "How are you today?"

Sephiroth muttered something, but Gast couldn't hear it. The boy was kicking his legs into the air as they dangled from the edge of the examination table.

Gast shook his head. If Sephiroth would not talk, then he would not talk.

He picked up the clipboard and observed the notes the nurse had recorded. He frowned. "Abnormal behavior" was bound to draw Hojo's attention. He turned back a page to find that yesterday's notes had been similar. This did not sit well with him – whether the boy knew it or not, his sulking was only going to get him more time under Hojo's scrutiny.

"Sephiroth, has something happened?"

The boy started to bang his heels against the metal table. Gast took off his glasses, setting them on the table, and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Then how would you like your mako today, Sephiroth?"

"When are you going to let me go?" Sephiroth screamed. "I don't want mako, I don't want any more tests, and I don't want Aralyn! When will you just leave me alone?"

Gast listened calmly, not reacting even though he heard Sephiroth throw something. He waited silently until Sephiroth stilled.

"You've had a fight with Aralyn," Gast said softly, drawing his conclusion from how the girl's name had been thrown in the list. "And you're upset."

"Just give me my mako and get it over with," Sephiroth seethed. "I don't want to talk to you."

"I see. As you wish, then."

Normally Sephiroth received his mako by injection, but today Gast prepared an IV. He wanted Sephiroth where he was until he could sort this out with him.

Sephiroth noticed the change in routine, and his face fell from anger to betrayal, but he did not protest. Gast felt bad prolonging the treatment – he knew how uncomfortable it was for Sephiroth – but it was becoming clear to him that he was incapable of handling this situation on his own, and the only way to get the stubborn boy to listen was to physically make him. Sephiroth waited until the IV was in and then curled up on his side on the table, his back toward Gast.

The Professor looked at his watch. "I am going to leave for five minutes, during which time I want you to think about your misbehavior. When I come back, I expect you to be clear headed. You will apologize, and then you will clean up the mess. Am I understood?"

Sephiroth scoffed. "I didn't do anything wrong," he murmured. Gast got the feeling that he wasn't only talking about the broken beaker.

"Am I understood, Sephiroth?"

Sephiroth curled tighter into himself. Gast did not press him further.

Gast waited just outside the door of the examination room, listening, in case Sephiroth's rage acted up again. At first, there were heavy thumps; it sounded like Sephiroth was hitting the wall. But as time went on the hits became softer and less frequent, and from then on it was oddly quiet. The ticking of the second hand of the clock was loud and clear.

When Gast reentered, Sephiroth was sitting up, his hands fidgeting in his lap, his head down, silver hair obscuring his eyes and much of his expression.

"Sorry," he muttered. "I won't do it again."

Gast waited for a moment for more, but nothing came.

"Is there anything else you need to apologize for, Sephiroth?"

Sephiroth bowed his head deeper in shame. "I hit Aralyn." His voice was so low that Gast had to think over the utterance for several seconds before he could understand it.

"You hit Aralyn," Gast repeated.

"And I said…mean things to her. I said I hated her."

"Why did you do that?"

"I was angry."

"About what?"

"Because of her, I'll never know anything about my parents!"

Gast was stunned by how quickly the boy's rage had resurfaced, and even more surprised at how quickly the boy was able to choke it down. Sephiroth kicked his feet, looking intently at his toes.

Gast set down the clipboard. Walking over to Sephiroth, he took the slender arm and slid the needle of the IV out, even though less than one quarter of the day's dosage of mako had dripped into the boy's veins.

"Why do you say that, Sephiroth?" Gast asked.

"No one will tell me anything. Not even you."

Seconds ticked by, marked by the clock. "Sephiroth," Gast started slowly. "I'll make you a deal. First, you tell me everything that happened."

Seething, venom eyes peered through the veil of his silver bangs. "In exchange for what?"

"You'll just have to trust me."

Sephiroth folded his arms and sulked for a moment, but then began to talk. He quietly told Gast everything that had happened; how Lucrecia had left Aralyn with a clue before she died, how they had gone to search the records, and how Aralyn had literally thrown the precious, hard-earned file at Hojo's feet.

Gast listened in silence, letting the boy speak his mind as he would, even when his voice rose and he slammed his fists into the table as he told him of what Aralyn had done.

"And so you hit her."

The fire went out of the boy as soon as Gast said those words. "Yes," he admitted.

"Do you feel guilty about the way you treated her?"

The boy blinked, thinking it over carefully.

"I'm glad," Gast said. "It means you don't need me to tell you that the way you reacted was inappropriate."

Sephiroth hung his head.

"I know that it must have hurt, Sephiroth. You know how you feel. But look at it from her point of view. What do you think she saw?"

Sephiroth thought for a moment. "Hojo scares her…makes her cry, even. So she was just trying to…protect me." The final words were whispered. Gast let the silence ring, letting the boy take in what he had just said.

"But I told her!" he started again, not angry this time, but desperate. "I told her I didn't care. I would have let Hojo do anything to me for that file!"

"I think she knew that, Sephiroth. How has she been these past few days?"

Sephiroth blinked. "I don't know. I didn't want to see her."

"You haven't seen her. So she's been in her room. Alone. Is it too much of a stretch to say that she feels as badly about what she did as you do?"

Sephiroth thought long and hard about this, and the longer he did, the less angry and more melancholy his expression became.

"Does that make you feel any better, knowing the way she feels?"

"No," Sephiroth said. "It makes me feel worse." He started kicking his legs again, slowly this time.

"You owe her an apology," Gast said.

Sephiroth nodded his hanging head.

Gast sighed deeply and sat down on the table beside the boy.

"Sephiroth," he said. "It's time for my end of the deal."

The boy looked up at him.

"Your mother's name is…Jenova."