Hojo was sitting at the desk in his office, staring down at a report without truly seeing it when a knock on the door captured his attention. "Come in," he called out, his pulse quickening. He'd been waiting for this exact moment all morning. His mood immediately sank, however, when the Shinra operative he'd placed in charge of the mission entered the room—alone. "Where. Is. He?"

"I'm sorry, sir. The boy managed to get away. Once he passed through the city gates he simply . . . vanished."

"Idiot! Outwitted by a mere child? You should be ashamed of yourself," Hojo snarled, clenching his fists. He needed that boy! "Outside the gate you say . . ."

If the soldier wasn't lying to cover up his ineptitude then that could only mean the boy had managed to cross the Barrier a second time. Once was already remarkable enough, but if he had the ability to pass at will . . . It was like a dream come true. Hojo could almost feel the secrets of the Ancients at his fingertips.

The discovery of Mako energy had been his crowning achievement—advancing Midgar decades into the future in only a few short years. Since then, however, he'd felt himself stagnating, unable to come up with any grander accomplishments despite knowing for sure that there had to be so much more he was capable of. Records from the forgotten past described the splendor of the Ancient's cities—their ease of living.

He was consumed by those reports. If their lives had been so easy—their civilization so advanced—all those years ago, then he could only imagine what it must be like now. And, of course, in their self-centered, greedy arrogance, the Ancients kept everything to themselves—wardens to the prison they'd trapped humanity inside of.

It was galling to think his ancestors had been so naive—so stupid—as to agree to be sealed away, trapped in this hellhole. Granted, back then, the land would have been more hospitable at least. To this day, he was still amazed at how well the timing of the Mako reactors had worked out. Without him, without his reactors, Midgar never would have survived when the desertification began shortly afterward.

His current hypothesis was that the Ancients themselves had been the cause of the phenomenon. They were surely more than capable, and magic could explain the shocking speed at which it had occurred. Consumed with jealousy over his remarkable energy source and how it made life so much easier, they'd decided to blight the very ground itself—preventing humanity from breaking free of their shackles.

All of Hojo's efforts were dedicated to that single goal: shattering the confines of the Barrier and bringing true freedom to his people. He would stop at nothing until it had been achieved. Once it was—and he was confident it would only be a matter of time—then everyone would bow before him, recognizing the true might of his superior intellect. Perhaps there was even a world where he replaced the President as the leader of Midgar . . .

"Sir?" the soldier asked hesitantly, dragging Hojo out of his thoughts. "Is there anything more you'd like to know?"

"No, you've proven to be quite incapable," he snapped, restraining himself from hurling his mug of coffee at the fool. "Get out of my sight."

"Yes, sir."

The man turned to leave and was halfway out the door before Hojo realized he did have a use for him. "Wait, no, tell my son I want to see him," he called out. "That should be a simple enough task for even an imbecile like yourself to not screw up."

Returning to staring at the papers in front of him, it was only a few minutes before another knock sounded at his door, immediately followed by Sephiroth stepping inside. "You called?"

Hojo nodded as he rose to his feet and walked around the desk. "Come, we're going to share your tale with the President. Maybe he'll have better luck at getting these buffoons to do their job properly."

"I thought you didn't want to tell him until you had Cloud firmly under control," Sephiroth said, falling in step at his side.

"Yes, well, that was before they failed the simple task of apprehending a child." Hojo came to an abrupt halt, rounding on his son. "I thought you said he wasn't able to cross back over!"

Sephiroth stared back at him, no trace of emotion on his face "He told me he'd tried and wasn't able to. Perhaps that changed."

"Or maybe he lied to you," Hojo hissed.

"That seems unlikely. Cloud looks up to me, not to mention he was ecstatic to have someone who actually believed his claims. Still, if it's true that he managed to cross over a second time, that only raises his value."

Hojo couldn't argue with that as they continued down the hallway. He had wanted to surprise the President with good news about the Barrier, but now thanks to the ineptitude of the soldiers he was going to have to rely on the man instead. It was galling, a position he never enjoyed being placed in. The only reason he was okay with it was because, at the end of the day, it would still fall on his shoulders to devise a solution.

Reaching the doors to the President's office, Hojo strode towards them, only pausing when a woman loudly cleared her throat from behind a desk off to the side. "I'm sorry, but do you have an appointment? You can't just walk in without one."

Hojo spun in place, glaring at her. "Do you not know who I am?"

"Of course I do, Professor Hojo. However, as the President's secretary, I also know that there are no appointments scheduled for the next hour."

"Then he's available to see me!" he snapped. This was a pointless waste of time! The last thing he needed was some useless, unimportant woman trying to boss him around. The fact she seemed to think she had the authority to do so was beyond infuriating.

"I'm afraid that's not how it works, sir," she responded, her tone implying he was too dense to understand which only made his blood boil even hotter. "The President is a busy man. Whenever he's able to carve out time in his schedule like this it's for important work to help the future of the city. He can't just meet with anyone who comes to see him at the drop of a hat."

"How about you go ask him instead of telling me no? Let him know it's important news about the Barrier and that it's something that absolutely cannot wait."

The woman hesitated before rolling her eyes and slipping through the door, closing it firmly behind her. As tempting as it was to just follow after her, there was always the small possibility the President would actually get upset with him. As unlikely of a scenario as that seemed, it was enough of a risk to hold him back. Instead, he began to pace in front of the door, hoping she wouldn't take her sweet time.

"You know," Sephiroth said, "even if the President is somehow able to capture Cloud, we need him to still trust us which seems unlikely in that case. The failed attempt today has probably caused more harm than good already. Why don't I just talk with him and ask him to meet with you? Knowing Cloud, and if I were to phrase it correctly, I'm sure he'd go along with it."

Hojo froze, struggling not to grind his teeth. It was so simple, so painfully obvious, and yet it had completely slipped his mind. "Why couldn't you have mentioned this back in my office instead of right now?!"

Before Sephiroth could respond, the woman reappeared through the doors, looking slightly frazzled. "The President will see you immediately."

Too distracted by this latest development to mock her for being wrong, Hojo stormed past the secretary and into the office, trying to figure out how best to turn the situation in his favor. Mentioning the boy was out of the question now, but he'd still have to explain something since he'd already tipped his hand. Keeping the President focused on what they'd learned and not how was going to be the trick.

"Hojo! News about the Barrier I'm told, hopefully good?" The President was seated at his desk as always, an out-of-place gleam of eager excitement in his usually dead eyes.

"Good news indeed, sir. I've obtained detailed information of what it's like on the other side."

The President's brow shot upward. "What?! How is that possible? What have you learned?"

"Go ahead and tell the President what you told me about your unexpected trip," he said, looking over at Sephiroth and hoping his son was smart enough to grasp what he was asking.

Sephiroth blinked once slowly before turning to face the President and ever so slightly inclining his head. "I was out inspecting one of the gates when somehow I found myself on the other side of the Barrier. I don't understand how it happened, but I was able to learn a few things before I ended up back here."

"Tell me." The President was on his feet now, arms braced against his desk as he leaned forward and stared at Sephiroth with rapt attention.

"It's a completely different world there. Green, as far as the eye can see with trees and strange animals everywhere. There was no desert, and the weather was mild and quite comfortable. I made sure to stay hidden, but there were no traces of poverty and magic was being used freely. It is a paradise, sir."

"I knew it!" the President shouted angrily. "I knew they would have kept the best for themselves and screwed us over!" He slammed one of his fists down against his desk, a scowl on his face.

"I always knew you were right," Hojo said, glad his son had properly played his role. "We're still working on figuring out how to cross back over, but now that we've done it once, I can assure you that we're closer than ever to our goal."

"Excellent. Truly excellent work, Hojo. I shall make sure to divert even more funds to your research. Nothing is more important than this, nothing! I'm looking forward to more good news in the near future."

Extra funding was a nice bonus he hadn't expected. That would greatly help, not necessarily with this project perhaps, but certainly some of his other more . . . secret experiments. It seemed like this meeting had borne even more fruit than he'd anticipated.

"Of course, sir. I'll keep you closely informed of every development. One thing. If you could possibly remove the guard posted at the exit of the Seventh District it would allow us a bit more freedom to investigate without any unwanted attention."

"Consider it done. Now, if that's everything, I need to get back to this report. The doctors are calling this new illness "mako poisoning" which won't do at all. Mako provides life, it doesn't take it away, the fools."

Hojo was disturbed by the name, considering it besmirched his legacy, although it sounded like the President had the situation under control for the time being. It was always possible he would need to get involved as well, figure out whoever was trying to point blame where it didn't belong. More likely than not it was some new upstart who thought they could take his place. He'd dealt with their kind before.

Turning, he left the way they'd come—Sephiroth his silent shadow. "The next time you see your friend, do whatever it takes to convince him to meet with me, you understand?"

"Yes, father."

I have to imagine everyone was looking forward to more Cloud and Aerith with how the last chapter ended, and we now have everyone's favorite scientist instead... My bad. This is exactly why I decided to put these smaller, alternate PoV chapters out separately from the main weekly updates though.

Turns out that the people chasing Cloud were in fact sent by Hojo after he learned about the trip from Sephiroth. I've written Hojo several times in the past, and while he's always an awful human being, this is the first time I've ever actually done a Hojo PoV and WOW is it so much worse. Unfortunately, Hojo serves as the main Shinra PoV, just like Vincent is our primary Cetra PoV so he'll be showing up again in the future. That aside we also get a little snippet at the end about a new sickness that's shown up... On a more positive note, I can promise you that the next chapter will be full of loads of happy Clerith moments, so I hope you'll look forward to that!

Next Chapter: Hideout