Summary: Subject A1 and A2 begin their plan to escape, following the path A1 had planned before them.
Two days prior
Subject A1 was being shuffled through the halls since Doctor Hojo ordered a test to test her body's regeneration speed after the latest mako dose.
A1 glanced at Hojo when the twin bond opened, A2 yelling about successfully setting some of the monstrous experiments loose, the girl's eyes sharpening.
With a heave, the girl used her strength to body the man, slamming the doctor into the wall, his head bashing into the concrete and stunning him.
Kicking at the doctor's legs, the sound of bone giving away could be heard with a crack. In the confusion, A1 made a firm grip on his head, and with all her enhanced strength, twisted, the force snapping the doctor's neck with a sickening crack.
A1's eyes glowed brightly in the darkening hallway; her mouth pulled into a toothy smirk.
On the other side of the mansion, A2 picked up a scalpel from a downturned surgery tray, stabbing the point into the nurse's eye and ramming it through his brain, killing him nearly instantly. He then knelt to pick up another scalpel to arm himself.
A SOLDIER ran in, presumably to stop A2 from going anywhere, before A2 swiped a random materia from the SOLDIER's brace, forcing his mana to react with the condensed ball of Mako.
"Fire!"
Almost immediately, an acrid smell came from the fireball that was created with the materia, catching the SOLDIER on fire.
The man staggered back, taken off guard by the fact that he was burning.
A2 didn't care, releasing more mana and making the fire spread.
There were screams about the wild experiments, and A2 affirmed through his bond with A1 that it was time for their killing spree, and to track down the nurses and doctors that had tested them their whole lives.
The next half hour fell into a blur, experiments mowing down SOLDIERs and the unlucky science staff, goaded by the fear that hung in the air.
A1 had stolen a sword from a murdered SOLDIER, the broadsword basically as tall as she was.
Glowing silver energy streaked through the air, A1 moving at breakneck speeds, decapitating random experiment's heads, and chopping through scrambling medical staff.
With A2, he ripped materia braces off SOLDIERs he came across, channeling mana through the orbs and using them without restraint.
Both twins had done enough to activate their Limit Breaks, A1's speed limit break nicknamed Windrider, and A2's called Mana Burst.
A1 had rejoined A2 when they swept through their parts of the lab, leaving destruction and broken bodies in their wake.
A2 stole a brace off another SOLDIER that was mauled to death by an experiment, the bronze colored holster tied to his left arm. Unfortunately, the other bracers and bangles he had taken were in bad shape, unusable and crumpled.
With all the commotion, the twins were able to fight off any experiments that tried to eat them, forcing through the halls, and killing any people that tried fighting them.
Before long, the twins were the only living beings left in the manor, blood staining their heads and their thin medical scrubs.
"Let's get some proper clothing," A1 advised, her twin nodding along, before they stole a bunch of clothing from the bodies that littered the ground.
A1 took a pair of pants off a man in a blue suit, using the sword to cut the pants while A2 did the same with his own pilfered supplies.
By the end of it, A1 was wearing a bunch of mismatched clothing, the darker pieces only emphasizing how pale her skin was, while A2 had better luck in finding things that wouldn't just fall off.
Barefoot, the mako in them healed whatever wounds they accumulated, pushing out glass and bullets, and healing over in thin scars.
The two left the lab, walking in the cold towards the Reactor that's barely a mile from the manor. They intended to come back after destroying the Reactor. A low buzzing noise filled the twin's ears, both following its call.
Breaking down the door, A1 and A2 used their ill-gotten weapons to kill and subdue the monsters that roamed Reactor 1.
Creeping down towards the lower levels, A2 could feel something prickling at the edge of his mind, whispering of a female sounding voice trying to draw him to them.
"A1…do you hear that?" he asked, bright green meeting bright green, their eyes luminescent in the low light.
"It's telling us to come closer," she said back as they reached the last level.
The voice sounded on the brink of insanity, repeating several words, such as 'children', 'reunion', 'Mother'.
As they went deeper underground, there was a different whisper, soothing, in a way.
It spoke about how long it was waiting to meet them finally, the planet's newest hope in fighting off a parasite.
The first whisper tried to override the other whisper's words, hissing that the other whisper was a liar, and that following its lies would only lead to their ruin. Tried to convince them that the first Whisper was their Mother.
The only difference between the two was that the second Whisper came from below their feet, from what they could feel was the planet itself. A1 could remember cold nights, of a whisper that talked to her through feelings.
As the twins went further, the first whisper had increased to a shout, trying to bait them to join in a reunion.
A dim light flickered at the last level, and the twins were in front of a giant glass tube, a mass of a blue woman sitting in it.
The second whisper, the one that A1 knew was the Planet, Gaia, was the one speaking, only grew louder. The feelings swept through the girl's mind, immersing her whole being into it.
Fury burned in the whisper, telling both twins that the being inside the tube was the reason the planet was suffering. That the being was the cause of their suffering in the labs. That the being was the cause of their birth, and of their experimentation at the hands of Hojo.
A1 lifted her sword in a two handed grip, before the metal slammed into the tube, shattering the glass, and cleaving into the body, pulling it out before stabbing the body again, and again, acidic looking blood pooling with every slice.
Liquid from the solution in the tube mixes with the blood, dripping down and soaking into the floor.
A1's green eyes burned with hatred, never stopping, unflinching with each stab and slash.
The yelling-once-whisper cried out with pain, filling their heads with mental screams.
A2 had pulled out two fire materia from his pockets, the orbs a few steps away from being Mastered Materia.
Letting mana pool in his hand, A2 readied a Firaga, waiting for A1 to be done with stabbing the thing with her sword.
Dropping the broadsword and letting it clatter to the ground, A1 reached out, the spilled alien blood mixing with the slight cuts and calluses on her hand. Her mako healed the cuts, sealing the alien blood in her hand, a strange power reaching into her lungs and spreading into her body.
"The Calamity from he Skies. Despicable thing, killer of many Ancients and Gods. My Will is stronger than its own."
A1 then stepped back, making grasping motions with her hand. She took A2's hand, still wet with blue blood. The chilling sensation left her fingers and joined with her brother's as well.
"Yes. But now…Firaga. Burn into nothing, you wretched Calamity," A2 snarled, before the fire engulfed the body, burning hotter than ignited Mako.
"Let's get out of here, A1," he said with the burning smell of cooked flesh and melting metal filling the air, feeling the oppressive first whisper die, a calmness coming over his mind.
Your presence here is not done, came the Planet, now the only one there.
There is a stream of healing water in a cavern hidden by the left wall. Dip your body in it, drink the water, and you will be purified from the Calamity's taint, the whisper instructed.
A1 and A2 shared a glance, before doing what the planet had asked of them, finding a hidden opening behind a false panel.
Just like the planet had said, there was a small stream of running water that was wide enough for a child to bathe themselves in.
A1 made a straight path for it, shedding her bloodied clothing so it wouldn't ruin the water with a dead person's blood.
A2 did the same, both twins not minding how their scars were revealed, and settled in the stream, letting the water wash off the sweat from overexerting themselves. The two gulped down some of the water that ran downstream, their bodies feeling a bit strange once the water went down their throats.
Rolling another materia from his stolen brace, A2 could tell the one in his hand was a Cura materia, and he dipped it in the stream, filtering his mana through it.
"So, what now?" A2 asked his sister, after a few moments in the stream, before getting up to put his clothes back on.
"Wait for Shinra, I guess," A1 answered, "I doubt we'll be undiscovered for too long. We should go back to the manor and read the reports that are laying around until someone comes."
Shinra Manor
A few hours after returning to the manor and poking around the building, in the basement and behind a false wall, A1 found a room after going through an tunnel that was sized for an adult, and spotted what looked like a coffin, yanking at her brother's arm.
"A2, what is that?"
A2 glances over to where A1 is pointing, quirking an eyebrow. "Looks like a coffin, A1. Wonder why we've never seen it before?"
"The entrance was hidden behind the wall, duh. Wanna see what, or who's inside?" A1 proposed, "I mean, we're gonna hit this place with a Firaga when we're done."
The girl walked forward, bright green eyes curiously looking at the lines of dust.
A1 reached out, gripping the edge of the lid, and threw it against the wall with her SOLDIER strength, the wood crashing into the wall and splitting in two.
"Who are you?"
At the voice, both twins tensed, suspicious.
"I think we should ask you that, mister," she says first, and from the inside, a black haired, red eyed man is squinting up at her.
"Why are there children here? You should leave this place," the man orders, his strange eyes meeting the twin's pairs.
"And why should we? You're lucky we found you, because A2 is going to Firaga this building when we're done," A1 tutted, and before she could blink, the man was already out of the coffin.
The man was wearing a sort of cloak, a dark red headband pushing his bangs from falling on his face. A golden gauntlet was on his left arm, a sharply clawed contraption armoring his fingers and his forearm.
"A2? A strange name," the man questions, "What are you doing here?"
"It's not a name, it's our Subject title," A2 scoffed, "We don't have names. Doctor Hojo called me A2, and my sister is A1. We're experiments. What's your name, then?"
"…You may call me Gunslinger. And, Doctor Hojo? Are you wards of Shinra?" the man, Gunslinger asks, studying the small forms of the twins.
"We've been here our whole lives. Shinra…technically, we're their property," A1 mused, "But whatever. It doesn't matter now because we killed him. And the scientists and nurses, plus some SOLDIERs."
"Hojo's dead?" Gunslinger looks a little shocked at the revelation, looking at the two in a slightly changed light.
"Yeah. He got it coming to him. Nobody hurts my little brother and gets away with it," A1 bared her teeth in a grin, "Took like five months to plan the breakout. I'd do it again if I could. Dreams of the morrow hath the shattered soul. Pride is lost, Wings stripped away, the end is nigh."
Her green eyes meet Gunslinger's red, and her eyes narrow slightly when an image of him and a brown haired woman flashes in her mind, and then the picture of a tall, furred beast with curling black horns on its head follows after.
"A1's also had it out for him after he destroyed her copy of Loveless," A2 added, aware of his sister twinging their bond, "He said that his Subjects didn't need to know anything about poetry or whatever. Anyway, you should probably leave this place, Mr. Gunslinger. How long were you here, anyway?"
"What year is it?"
"It's about the middle of 1994. I think," A1 said, "Or, that's what the nurses said. Either way, you might as well pick up anything of value. Since the doctor's dead, I bet Shinra's going to be investigating the absences of the SOLDIERs, a dozen infantrymen and a Turk."
"…You killed a Turk?" Gunslinger seemed to zero in on that detail, a slightly puzzled look coming to his face.
A1 grimaced, recalling catching a bullet in her neck before it was healed by her unnaturally high levels of Mako.
"Well, he got me good before I used my Limit Break. Then after that, I was moving too fast for any of them to catch up," the girl admits, "I guess Windrider is good for something."
"A Limit Break? Yet, you are so young…" Gunslinger murmured, and the twins looked at each other.
"My friend, do you fly away now? To a world that abhors you and I?," A1 recited, "Yeah, so what? We're twelve. Plus we've been practically swimming in Mako before we were born. At least, according to the doctor. He liked talking about how I'm a medical marvel because I was born female, which, according to his wacky science, is nearly impossible."
A2 pulled a materia out of his brace, casting a low level Cura towards his sister for reassurance.
"So. Unless you wanna die in a fire, you should probably go, Mr. Gunslinger," A2 recommended, "According to some of the nurses that we killed, the village of Nibelheim is nearby."
"And leave two children, not even fifteen, alone?" Gunslinger quirked an eyebrow, "Will you be retreating to the wilderness?"
"Well…like I said before, Shinra's probably going to be investigating here anyway. After all, we are Shinra's property," A1's eyes narrowed, "It's not like there's a lot of silver haired people on the planet anyway, not to mention our eyes."
"Hm…Have you heard of the name Sephiroth, or Lucrecia before?" Gunslinger took a closer look at the pair of preteens, finding familiar features in A1 and A2's face that reminded him of his own, "It is the name of my son and his mother."
"I…the personnel around here didn't talk much. Doctor Hojo had the biggest mouth, though," A2 admitted, "If there is a Sephiroth out there, we're not aware of them."
"I see," Gunslinger sounded a little disappointed that the twins didn't recognize his son's name, "Regardless, the both of you should leave me here. I have yet to atone for my sins," he made to go back into the coffin, only to be stopped by A1's hand darting out to grab his left hand.
"Atone? You think sleeping here will make your mistakes go away?!" the girl snarled, anger reflecting in both her voice and face, her fingers tightening around his, "Staying here does nothing. If it's something you regret, you need to try to fix it! The fates are cruel. There are no dreams, no honor remains. You should atone with action, not stagnation! A responsible person would say 'Even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return.'"
A1's hand then let go of Gunslinger's.
"It's harder to do what's right than what's easy. Just staying here, sleeping, that solves nothing. That won't absolve you of your sins. How're you going to know if the world's a better place if you're just sleeping in the dark? How's it going to erase your guilt?"
She let the questions hang in the air, meeting Gunslinger's crimson eyes without a hint of fear.
"…" Gunslinger looked at her like he didn't quite believe a pipsqueak was telling a grown man about morals.
"A1's right," A2 said quietly, "You said you need to atone, but there's clear signs you haven't been acting to correct your misdeeds. Has sleeping here made you feel less guilty?"
"Just do something good. Help people, kill monsters, protect the innocent," A1 continued, "Even when your eyes are closed, life goes on. Suffering, despair, happiness, joy…they still happen to good and bad people."
Gunslinger finally broke his gaze away from the small girl, coming to a decision.
"I suppose that children are more upfront with their ideals," he heaved a sigh, "To think young ones can be so wise…"
"It's because we don't believe in unattainable goals," A1 shrugged, "And we're too jaded to believe that denying everything bad does any good."
"Very well. I shall leave, and attempt to atone for my sins elsewhere…and what of yourselves?" Gunslinger asked.
"Eh, we'll be fine. We've been killing monsters since we were five," A2 said, turning his head to look at A1.
"Yeah, Mister. We know how to take care of ourselves," A1 agreed.
"Hm…If you truly feel that you do not need assistance, I will not force you to come with me," the red eyed man sounded almost resigned, "I will be leaving."
"Don't worry about us, Mr. Gunslinger," A1 said, before reciting, "The only lines I can think of are, 'My friend, your desire, Is the bringer of life, the gift of the Goddess. Even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return. Act III, and Legend shall speak of sacrifice at world's end. The wind sails over the water's surface, quietly, but surely. Act IV."
"A1, stop with the Loveless, please," A2 groaned, holding a hand to his head, "It was bad enough you were repeating it in my head in the middle of our tests. I bet I can say the whole thing by heart."
"A2, you need to stop complaining," A1 shot a glare at her brother.
"Good luck, A1, and you as well, A2," Gunslinger interrupted the bickering twins before he got a headache, "Farewell."
Gunslinger disappeared with a swish of his cloak, a streak of red leaving the coffin room, and presumably, to the forest.
A1 and A2 glanced at each other, before the boy spoke up.
"Do you think we're going to see him again?" he asked, and A1 tilted her head.
"He's important. We'll meet again, I'm sure," she nodded, before they left the room behind.
A night later
The twins, back at the floor just below ground level, puttered around, snatching paper files while also kicking around dismembered body parts that they came across.
"JENOVA," A2 read out slowly, "…Calamity…"
"Bad things. Probably that body we found down there," A1 commented.
"Let's take the files that are related to us, and we'll burn this place to the ground," A2 got to his feet, his pockets full of materia he could get his hands on from the corpses.
"Yeah. It's time to set this place on fire," A1 nodded, before darting out to grab any files that had their Subject and Project name on them. She also glanced over what appeared to be an archival folder with nearly a ream of paper in it.
"The JENOVA Project…" the girl read, before a piercing vision swam in front of her eyes, an image of a brown haired woman with green eyes flashing for a split second. She hissed, drawing the attention of A2, who glanced at his sister quickly.
I'm sorry, that this world is so cruel, echoed in their mind, the planet, Gaia lamented, Burn, burn this place away for me.
"Yeah. We'll…we'll talk to you later, Gaia," muttered A2, before he rolled two fire materia in his hands, the Mastered orbs heating up in his palms.
"Firaga."
The two walked out of the building, flames crackling over old wood.
They didn't look back.