Summary: Interrogations are never fun, and more of Project ANGEL's purpose is revealed.
Ariana tensed when she saw a nurse approach, her fingers making the grip around the broadsword turning her hand's knuckles white. The girl didn't react any further when a blood and tissue sample was taken from her free arm, the nurse quickly retreating once the vials were filled.
Angeal had allowed her to use the broadsword as a comforting weight, because she and Aridai were in rooms right next to each other.
Aridai's materia brace was confiscated though, because of the fact he worked so well with fire.
The General had opted to conduct Ariana's intake, while Angeal was going to work on Aridai's case.
"Do you swear to answer my questions to the best of your ability, Ariana?" Sephiroth started, sitting across from the girl, who was sitting on a padded chair.
"I do." Ariana nodded, taking a sneaking glance towards the other Mako-eyed person in the room, before realizing he already caught her doing it.
Instead, she met his eyes head on, with an almost curious air.
"You identified yourself as a…participant of Project ANGEL, along with your fraternal brother Aridai. Were you aware of the basis of the project?"
"I know some," Ariana admitted, "The doctor…he always liked talking about his previous success in creating an enhanced child. He only referred to the child as Subject S, no other identifying traits, other than that he had green eyes the color of mako, like ours. We looked through some of the notes, after everything was done, and we figured out that he was collaborating with another Shinra doctor. Doctor Hollander. I think…he was trying to create the ultimate weapon using three different subjects, and he got me and my brother."
She reached a hand up to play with her bangs, curling the silver and red strands between her fingers.
"I wasn't supposed to survive. The notes mentioned that there wasn't supposed to be a female Subject A, but the money spent would be wasted. Since I was born first, I was given the designation A1, while Aridai was A2. And going by the context, Project ANGEL was supposed to create a being more than human. Divine. Children of the Ancients that roamed Gaia before humans."
Ariana's eyes narrowed, lips peeling back at the thought. "A divine being. As if a bunch of mortals could play master over such a thing. When the war of the beasts brings about the world's end, The Goddess descends from the sky."
She heaved a sigh, head falling back so she could look at the ceiling.
Sephiroth didn't say anything to counter her statement, instead asking, "Who instigated your break out?"
"I did most of the planning. Ari isn't much of a planner, but he's good with manipulating his surroundings, and people. It also helped that I have enhanced strength comparable to a SOLDIER Second Class, while my brother is very…talented with Materia, Firaga in particular. In fact, I'm surprised the SOLDIERs there weren't carrying Blizzaga to counter it in case we broke loose."
"My brother's a manipulative little shit, but I still love him. There were animal experiments also kept in the lab, and he triggered the release mechanisms, putting the whole place in lockdown. In the confusion, I was able to slam the good doctor I was with into the wall and killed him after he was disorientated. Everything was a blur after that."
Sephiroth considered the girl's matter-of-fact tone. "You do not regret your methods of escape."
"Would anyone blame me? Children being tortured day in and day out? My brother and I have a bond that transcends our physical bodies. We're twins, even though we were artificially made. I know exactly where my brother is at all times, if he's happy, if he's sad, if he's hurt. The…separation tolerance was where we were apart for a long period of time, usually in opposite parts of the compound. And he wanted to see how far our bond would go, before it would snap, and we'd be sent into shock."
Ariana was now glaring a hole in the wall, as if it would catch fire if she glared hard enough.
"It wasn't…ugh, forget it. There's no amount of words I can say that changes the facts. But…we were angry. Scared of what the future meant for us, especially because we're going to be thirteen next year. My brother isn't meant for war. He's…too kind. Hero of the dawn, Healer of worlds."
In the other room
Aridai drummed his fingers against his thigh, watching Angeal while he was getting comfortable.
"Why couldn't I keep the materia?" Aridai asked, green eyes peering up at the young adult.
"After you admitted to arson?"
"Uh…" the boy flushed, "But even a Cura would be at least something."
"I'm sorry, but the risk is still there." At least the Commander seemed apologetic.
"Understood."
Instead, Aridai leaned back, counting the dust motes that were on the ceiling.
"Let's begin now, shall we?"
Aridai met Angeal's eyes, nodding without breaking eye contact.
"State your name, for the record."
"Aridai Sepia. No surname since they never gave us one."
"How old are you?"
"Twelve."
"How long ago did both of you plan to break out?"
"Ariana thought of it first, about…five months ago. Something like that. I had the idea to set the other experiments loose to create a commotion to make everything stop. Stealing a fire materia was a split second thing, after I stabbed my nurse. I'm not that big on making others suffer, so I did it quickly."
A tinge of regret had filtered into the boy's last sentence, fidgeting in his seat.
"Ariana's better at planning than I am. I manipulated the electronic locks of the cages and distracted the normal handlers, so they were extra hungry. And after that, it was painfully easy to set everything ablaze. Unlike Ariana, who's a sword user, my specialty runs more on magecraft."
An image flashed through his mind, of Ariana being in critical condition, and only a random low level Cura Materia at hand. It was a test to see how fast he could master an artificial Materia, to save his sister's life under stress.
The boy paused, shaking his head a fraction to dislodge the image, the feelings of being so helpless.
The action wasn't unnoticed by Angeal, who's eyes narrowed at the blatant display of PTSD relating to the boy's past experiences in the labs.
"And…whoever wasn't eaten or killed by the other experiments, we just let them die on their own."
Aridai withheld some details, but he could see blood splattering, the noticeable blue suit of a Turk falling under both twin's combined efforts. Streaks of Ariana's silver Limit Break, and his own Mana Burst.
"That doctor should've known his actions would kill him eventually. Ariana…she never accepted that we were supposed to be collared animals. Even though it was all we knew, she could feel that she was meant to be more. And that I was too. My sister is always the optimist."
"Why did you target Doctor Hojo in particular?"
Ariana's jaw clenched, glowering with her eyes beginning to slit with anger.
"Why? Why," she raised one of her hands towards her forehead, fingers twining into her bi-colored hair.
"My friend, the fates are cruel. There are no dreams, no honor remains," the girl muttered quietly, the verse coming easily to her lips, "The arrow has left the bow of the Goddess. My soul, corrupted by vengeance. Hath endured torment, to find the end of the journey. In my own salvation. And your eternal slumber. Act IV. I wanted retribution. For us, and the Subjects that came previously."
In the next room, Aridai twitched, cutting his own sentence off.
"Aridai?" Angeal asked when the boy grimaced.
"I have a feeling that my sister is quoting the whole of Loveless at someone again," he grumbled, "She only does that when she's making a point, and she knows she can get away with it. If there was one thing Hojo hated, it was her spirit. Said Subjects don't need free thought."
Then the younger twin gave a forceful nudge through their twin bond.
"When you look at me, what do you see?" Ariana asked, silver hair threaded between her fingers, "My brother and I are just another victim to the mind of a sick human. I can't even imagine how our predecessors were treated by him. I am glad that he will never do such a thing again."
A smile came to form on her lips, as her pupils rounded again.
Ariana's eyebrows knitted slightly when she felt a poke from her twin bond.
Stop hating on Loveless, Ari! She yelled down the bond.
"Ariana?" asked Sephiroth, noticing that her expression flickered.
"I apologize. My brother is just being a little annoying," she said, "Can you repeat what you said?"
"Have you read through the files you gathered?" the man repeated the question, watching her expression turn bitter.
"Did we? Of course we did," she laughed bitterly, "We're not stupid. I wanted to know everything. Children are naturally curious, don't you know?"
Ariana tapped her knee, "From what we read, we figured out that the ANGEL Project was done discretely. All SOLDIERs and infantrymen assigned to guard the doctor signed NDAs where if they even made a peep about our existence, they and their families would be killed. And not only that, even the Turks were threatened a little bit. Which is absurd, they do Shinra's dirty work. They're not exactly the absolute picture of morality."
The girl then bit her lip, talking quieter, "We were supposed to be the Plan B. In case Subject S died or had to be put down. And I hate when subjects like us are treated like we're less than human." Ariana's eyes glowed a menacing green, "It makes my stomach turn."
Aridai barely managed to stop rolling his eyes at his sister's mental yell, playing with a loose thread of his pants.
"Hey…is Sephiroth really that guy's name?" he asked, recalling he and Ariana's discovery of Gunslinger.
"It is," Angeal answered, his eyes turning curious, "Why do you ask?"
"Well…after we were done destroying pretty much everything, we came across a man who was sleeping in a literal coffin in the basement. Like a vampire," A2 began, "He introduced himself as Gunslinger. And he wanted to know if we heard the name Sephiroth before because that's his kid's name."
There was a slight commotion that Aridai could pick up coming from outside the room.
"Is that so? Can you describe him for me?"
"Let me think," Aridai's eyes unfocused for a bit, running back to the last few days. "Can I use a sheet of paper, and a pen? A visual aid should explain more."
Angeal nodded and tore a blank sheet off his notepad, handing it to the boy along with a pen. Aridai thanked him, putting the sheet on the table so he could draw.
"He had…black hair. Red eyes. About six feet tall, a little like Sephiroth's height. Reassuring. He knew about Doctor Hojo. He wanted us to leave the manor. Didn't know what year it was. Knew about Turks, wasn't happy to know we were experiments, and Limit Breaks. Looked around his mid to late twenties. He also wanted to know if we heard about someone named Lucrecia, his kid's mother."
When Aridai was done, he had a full body view of what looked really similar to the man he met, down to the strange, clawed gauntlet over his left arm he'd noticed. He wrote in the colors of the eyes and hair, noting down the man's strange way of speaking.
"We told him to leave before we burnt down the manor and the reactor, so I'm not sure where he went. Only the wind knows."
Sliding the drawing forward, Angeal had to stop himself from reacting fiercely.
Aridai had drawn a familiar face, so similar to Sephiroth that the man could almost see an older Sephiroth staring out at him.
"That damned doctor," Angeal breathed instead, "One moment, Aridai."
The man walked over to the door, cracking it open and finding Reno, the red haired teen speechless.
"Get this to Veld. I have a feeling he'd want to know," whispered the SOLDIER, handing the drawing over to the young Turk.
"Of course, man," Reno nodded, and shared a glance with Rude, "This has to go to the boss man."
Satisfied, Angeal came back into the room, Aridai catching part of the exchange.
"I guess the doctor was keeping a lot of secrets. Pity, that Ana already killed him," Aridai just knew that many heads were turned at the news, "We were only concerned with Project ANGEL, but I bet that half his documents are just lies. No one should take the ramblings of a mad man seriously."
He took a deep breath, for once speaking a line of Loveless.
"Legend shall speak of sacrifice at world's end. The wind sails over the water's surface. Quietly, but surely. Even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return. Act IV and III. After everything is said and done, with our hands stained with blood, and the sacrifice of our innocence, there will be a brighter future."
In that instant, Aridai looks older than twelve, his eyes so worn, and so reminiscent of a young Sephiroth, worn down by pain and suffering. Something curls in Angeal's chest, an air of sorrow and anger, cursing Hojo to the depths of hell.
"I don't feel so good," Aridai muttered, before fainting, collapsing on the table.
In the next room, Ariana cuts herself off before she also faints, startling Sephiroth into action.
Deep beneath the soil, the Planet is awake.
Learn from humanity, Gaia sings in a wordless song, My little ones, forsaken by the world. Grandchildren of the Calamity, I bless you to bring forth light, and heal the impurities that darken mortal hearts. The winds may change its course and will someday blow towards a brighter future.
End Notes: I'm not really sure how interrogation usually works, but it's also because the twins are minors and they've already killed people, so...congrats on still being here!
And yes, Loveless was memorized so I can inject nearly all of it into this chapter. Genesis would be proud, I think.