Disclaimer: I do not now or before and most likely not in the future, own Final Fantasy, Square Enix or any of the characters.
A/N: Here is the continuation of the flashback from the previous chapter. With alittle bit of tweaking, the updates should be more regular from now on, thanks to my beta. As long as my schoolwork doesn't suffer, I will work on these chapters to get them ready for you. I thankyou for your patience.
Big thanks to my awesome betaSubZeroChimera!
"Time, which changes people, does not alter the image we have of them." –Marcel Proust
Nexus
Chapter 8
Back at his apartment, Zack started to undress when he noticed he still had Cloud's phone. Knowing that he would need it before he saw the blond again in a couple of days, he would just run it over to him. Getting his shirt back on, he left and got to the barracks building quicker than he thought he would. Straining to try to remember the blonde's room number, he snapped his fingers and quietly said to himself, "Oh yeah, 127."
His mako-enhanced hearing picked up the sounds of a fight as he walked down the hall, but it wasn't usual for guys to get into fights, especially on the weekends when the alcohol seemed to flow freely. However, getting closer to Cloud's room, the noise was getting louder.
Swinging the door open, he saw his young friend on the floor, bloody. Taking notice of one of the other guys' faces, one of them had a few bruises and a split lip and another one was laid out, "What the hell is going on in here?!" Zack demanded.
At the sight of a superior officer, out of habit, the two standing soldiers snapped to attention, "Sir!" Lawrence came around by then and jumped to attention too.
Cloud lifted his head and looked at Zack with one eye already swollen shut, blood dripping from his mouth. As Zack made his way to Cloud, the three guys took off running. Looking after the three escaped assailants, Zack helped Cloud up, "You know you shouldn't party so hard, you look like shit." Cloud held his ribs with one hand and his groin in the other. Zack left him sitting on the bed as he went and got a wet wash cloth, "What was their problem?"
"I don't know," Cloud responded with an angrier tone than intended.
"Well I guess it's a good thing that you left your phone on the table at the diner then," Zack dug Cloud's phone out of his pocket and laid it on the night table.
Taylor walked in and his mouth dropped open, "What the fuck happened?" Seeing Zack there, he snapped to attention.
With rehearsed calmness, Zack returned the salute, "At ease."
Relaxing, Taylor shambled over to toss his jacket on to his own bed, "Was it them again?" Cloud nodded his head negligibly.
"What do you mean again? This has happened before?!" Zack asked angrily.
"He won't say-" Taylor started until he was interrupted.
"S-Shut up Taylor," Cloud said in an aggravated tone.
Taylor started picking up the mess that covered the room and Cloud lifted himself to his feet, winced at the pain in his groin, limped his way to the bathroom and slammed the door. The two brunettes jumped at the sudden explosion. Looking at each other briefly, Taylor returned his attention back to the mess. Zack stood in the middle of the room for a moment in disbelief. When he heard the shower come on, he started out the door, still completely baffled and angry as he went back to his apartment.
Waking up in the lab and already strapped to the tables, Cloud blinked a few times, trying to clear the drowsiness from his head. A groan came out loudly expressing his distaste of being back in the lab. Looking over to Zack, he was slowly moving his head, Cloud's voice was quiet from the dryness in his throat, "Hey. Zack…"
Zack's head jerked with a grimace as his eyes opened slowly. Moving his head, he looked around until he found Cloud, "Shit. Figures we would wake up in here." Zack watched as one of the lab techs approached him with his round of mako shots.
After they received their shots, and fortunately it was only two, Hojo was busy talking to three of his techs and the doctor. Hojo and the doctor seemed to be disagreeing about something until the doctor looked over at Cloud, pointed at him and then turned his eyes back to Hojo. Doctor Chase stormed out of the labs like a whirl-wind. Hojo nodded to his techs and two of them went over to Cloud, they began cutting away his clothing, leaving him in his boxers. All the flailing against the straps that Cloud was doing was pointless.
Zack yelled at Hojo, "What is going on? Answer me you sick son of a bitch? Or are you too much of a coward to look at me? Leave him alone!" Hojo just ignored him. Zack began to struggle against his restraints, but all he could do was sit there and listen to Cloud pleading with the demented scientist.
"Mr. Wolfe, start the IV," The Professor ordered as he looked over some notes and some sort of metal looking object shrink wrapped in plastic, then he went over to a large sink and washed his hands vigorously. One of the techs brought a mask and gloves that Hojo was going to put on as soon as he was done.
Zack looked back to an overly panicked Cloud, "Spiky…Spiky look at me," Cloud turned his head to face him, "Just keep your eyes on me."
"O…Okay, I'm scared," The tears that filled his eyes fell to the top of the table.
"I know buddy, but I'm right here with you. Okay. Just keep your eyes on me."
Once the other tech, had everything gathered on the side table, he wheeled it over to the table. Picking up a syringe the same size as the mako ones; however the contents were a purple color instead of green. The tech took hold of the IV port and inserted the needle pushing the contents. Ice filled his veins as the substance flowed throughout his now shivering body. Breaking out in a cold sweat he held back a scream as he closed his eyes.
"Spiky, I'm right here with you," Zack managed a small reassuring tone.
Hojo came over and picked up a different syringe; Cloud looked at Hojo, then the syringe, while stifling another scream. Zack maintained a calm voice, even though he raged inside, "Spiky look at me! Don't look there; just keep your eyes on me," Hojo injected the contents into Cloud's IV port.
Cloud was still looking at Zack as a weak voice trailed out, "Zac...k…" Slowly closing eyes, his face and body fully relaxed. When Hojo picked up the next item, Zack's eyes unconsciously widened.
Hojo wiped alcohol and betadine on the surgical site, then placed his gloved hands on the blond's abdomen right below the left side of his ribcage. Making an incision, blood trickled out of the incision onto the table.
One of the techs opened the plastic and Hojo reached for the square metal object. It was about the size of a deck of cards. Implanting the device in Cloud's abdomen took him forever and Zack got to watch the entire show. Apparently, getting the object established and seated in his abdomen was a little difficult to get everything hooked up to allow it to work properly, or so Hojo bitched quietly under his breath.
When he finished stitching up that incision, he picked up a scalpel again. Making a second incision on his abdomen closer to his hip, this time the tech handed him something that looked to be about the size of a walnut. It was crimson in color and looked to Zack like it could be flesh. Hojo took his time in implanting the second item and then he finally stitched him up.
"You're going to burn in hell for all this, you know that?" Zack stated slowly.
"You might want to keep that tongue of yours under control Z. For my project, you actually don't need one," Hojo stated without any inflection of emotion as he turned back to his assistants.
Hojo stepped out into the hallway and called to Davis, Drake and Charles, "take both specimens over to Lab 2." Lifting the limp young man over to the gurney, they wheeled him across the hall. Releasing Zack's restraints, Drake followed the others across the hall.
Lab 2 was where their nightmare had begun when they had woken up in the tanks. It still held the two tanks and one metal operating table. The lab techs were busy getting things together and pushing buttons. The female technician came over and added another bag to Cloud's IV, glowing green mako. Hojo came over with an intubation tube and proceeded to intubate him. They placed electrodes to his chest, abdomen and temples and carried him to one of the tanks and anchored him to the bottom, just like when they had woken up the first time.
Then it was Zack's turn. Getting him down to his underwear and on the table, they started his IV. Drake stood there next to him and Zack finally made himself calm down. As the electrodes were placed on his chest, abdomen and temples, the former Soldier glared at Hojo without blinking. Another technician headed for his IV tubes with a bag of mako. The female technician inserted a sedative into his IV and Zack fought it, but he eventually succumbed to it. The technicians and guards got him settled in his tank and filled it up.
Cloud floated and drifted through an abyss of darkness and flickers of light, "Where am I?" He screamed out and the darkness just swallowed his voice. He put his hands to sides of his head and screamed in frustration and fright. When he heard a voice very quietly call his name, he lowered his hands slowly and looked around at a strange type of library. It had rows and rows of nameless books and boxes and one single table in the middle of the tall shelves. A woman with long silver hair and piercing green eyes wearing a white flowing dress sat silently, fingering a few of the browning pages with her delicate hands, she was oddly beautiful. Standing up, she moved her arms out, ready to embrace him, reluctantly he walked closer to her.
"Come... come to me," She smiled gently.
Approaching her cautiously, he asked, "Who are you?"
"Do you not recognize your mother?"
Taking a step back, he angrily said, "You are not my mother!"
"That is not true, deep down you know the truth."
Hearing footsteps behind him, he turned to see the woman he grew up knowing was his mother. She passed him and walked over to where the other woman stood, "You know why you never knew your father?"
"No, don't do this mom!" Shaking his head, he begged, "Please…don't."
Her face twisted in anger, "I hated the idea of YOU."
"No…"
"I was stuck with YOU. My reminder of him, day after day… everyday… All alone."
"I can't listen to this," He said, shaking his head again.
She waved her hand and passively said, "I tried to find someone to take you but no one wanted you."
Putting his face in his hands, he screamed, "No! It can't be true, I love you mom and you love me! That's what you told me!"
"No one would take you…" Her voice sounded far away, drifting through the air.
When he lowered his hands he stood in a bright white room with a very large window that looked out over Mt. Nibel. The woman from the library was standing in the middle of the white floor wearing a blood red dress that moved and flowed on its own, "They didn't want you, but I do. I love you Cloud." She wrapped her arms around him as well as her dress, warm and inviting, "Let me love you Cloud, I will never lie you," Softly, she stroked his hair.
Standing stiffly, he kept his hands down at his sides, "I don't understand." When her dress unwrapped from him, he was stunned to be standing alone in the Nibelheim reactor. From behind him he heard a cough, a familiar sound and turning around he saw Tifa, lying on the ground, bleeding. Gently picking up her head, he whispered, "I'm sorry Tifa. I said I would protect you, but I let this happen."
Reaching up, she touched his face gently and softly. When her eyes closed she said, "I love you, I have always loved you. Tell me you love me too, please," Opening her eyes, they were the brilliantly dark brown that he could never forget.
"Tifa… I don't understand what's happening. Help me to understand, please!"
Taking his face in her hands, her lips brushed his gently at first. Pulling her closer, he kissed her back, but then he pulled back, just a little. Closing his eyes, he exhaled and opened his eyes again to see the woman in red. Shaking his head he asked, "Why this is happening?"
"Let me show you. All you have to do is just take me as yours. Then you will have all the answers you need," She held her arms out to him again.
"I can't…I just can't!"
The woman disappeared, but her voice echoed all around him, "I will be right here with you. When you are ready to take me into your arms, and accept my love, come to me. I will take the pain, heartache, and frustration away."
"Who are you?"
"I am the one, the only one, who will love you, I am Jenova."
Hojo entered the clinic and addressed the doctor, "Doctor Chase, I feel that with your current duties, you are being stretched too thin. I have decided to take on a new doctor. He is fresh out of medical school and graduated at the top of his class."
Doctor Chase looked at Hojo and shook his head, "Do you think I can't handle the workload?" He was visibly annoyed.
"It isn't that. I just want a doctor around the clock, available in the labs. We have many specimens and more are to come." Hojo moved toward the door and then turned, "Are you coming?"
In Lab 1, Hojo, Wolfe, Burton and Dr. Chase got busy with their duties. Dr. Chase was looking at the monitor that held the readouts from the leads. The monitor that was wired to the electrodes on Sephiroth's temples started showing some activity, "Professor Hojo, we have some activity here."
Hojo looked at the monitor and he almost bounced in place with excitement, "Do you know what this means Dr. Chase?"
"Yes sir," Chase said somewhat annoyed.
The phone rang and Burton picked it up, "Professor. There is strange activity happening with specimen C."
"I will be right back, get a print out of those readings," Hojo said walking out the door heading to Lab 2. As he entered, the female tech had already printed out the EEG activity from specimen C. She handed it to him as he looked over at his blond subject, as he twitched slightly, like he was dreaming, "Interesting." Heading back to Lab 1 he looked at the two printouts and new information something struck him, "Both specimen's EEG readouts are identical, very interesting indeed!"
A/N: Thanks to everyone who reads, favorites, subscribes and/or reviews, I appreciate your time and I dedicate all of this to you. To quote another author, "Getting reviews makes me feel all warm and squishy."
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