No information was as bad as too much, just in different ways.
During the afternoon of the next day, Zack arrived at the upstairs lab in answer to a request—more like a summons—from Hollander. "Okay, I'm here, Doc," he said with a cockiness he didn't feel. "Whaddaya need from me?"
Hollander's back was to him. The scientist was examining some weird, squiggly readouts on a monitor. "Ah, Fair, you're here. Good. Very prompt of you."
"Call me Zack. Everyone else does." Zack was stuck with these people. Might as well try to get on decent terms with them, even Hollander.
Maybe especially Hollander, considering he was the only one Zack, Sephiroth, and Angeal really needed.
"Fine, fine. Now take the seat over by that equipment." Hollander waved a hand vaguely behind him.
Zack eyed the neat rows of white disks on the counter and the jumble of computers, monitors, and even a few materia. He hadn't bothered with taking a very good look at the testing equipment during yesterday's panic session, but aside from the broken glovebox being gone, it appeared to be the same. It seemed like Hollander had cobbled together his own test equipment from leftover pieces of antiquated tech, magic items like the materia, and a hodgepodge of junky odds and ends. Just like a true mad scientist from the movies.
Zack supposed he was about to experience firsthand the kind of testing that had caused Angeal's trauma the previous day. He gingerly sat in the chair beside the lab bench. "Looks like you want to run tests on me?"
"Yes," Hollander answered, not turning around.
"Why? What are you looking for?"
Hollander sighed and straightened. He finally came over to stand in front of Zack. "I don't know, exactly. Don't get riled, I told Genesis and Sephiroth the same thing this morning when I ran them through these tests. You and Sephiroth have been around Angeal the longest and have had the most psychic experiences, but Genesis already seems to be having rather intense ones, too. I'm looking at anything I can think of to determine what's going on. Even longshots and wild guesses."
Zack relaxed a little at hearing that Sephiroth and Genesis had suffered these same tests. Sephiroth had mentioned Hollander was "investigating" their connections to Angeal, but had also stated that he "wasn't at liberty" to describe exactly what the testing involved. Just that it wasn't anything worrisome.
Of course, Zack had worried. No information was as bad as too much, just in different ways.
"Don't worry, Fa—Zack. It's absolutely painless and non-invasive. I'll also be running these exact same scans on myself, Lazard, and a random selection of the G-copies for comparison purposes." With that, he picked up the first of the sensor disks and pressed it to Zack's temple. "I'll be putting these all over your head. Telepathy is generally associated with cognition, the brain's hormonal, bioelectrical, and mental activity, so that's where we'll start."
"Just the brain?"
"We might move on to full body studies, then check your mako levels and distributions," Hollander admitted. "But not until I have some initial data to study." He placed the rest of the disks, pressing some of them in Zack's hair and at the base of his neck. When Zack squirmed and rubbed one that pinched a little, Hollander reapplied it without complaint. When he finished, he said, "You'll probably want to wash your hair after this. Sometimes the sensor adhesive can leave a bit of residue behind.
"Oh, just so you know, I'm recording today's session for later review." At that point Hollander switched on a console. The monitors lit up, and the materia glowed. It was very strange, but Zack had learned that the site's electricity came from materia and industrial-scale mako batteries that G-copies "scavenged" from all over the continent. Genesis and Hollander had explained that they didn't dare burn coal in the power plant. The smoke from smokestacks would be visible for miles around and reveal that the site was active. Zack assumed at least one of those materia on the lab bench provided power to the weird equipment.
As promised, the scan was completely painless. In fact, Zack wasn't sure it did anything at all, but Hollander grunted at the readouts and seemed happy with the results. He ran Zack through a series of exercises during the scan: talking, being calm and quiet, with his eyes open, with his eyes closed, breathing normally, breathing slowly and deeply, reading a page from a book, adding two plus two, and a lot of other seemingly pointless, random tasks.
After about forty minutes, Hollander shut down his equipment and peeled off all the disks. Zack winced a little when some of them pulled. He put a hand to his head and felt the residue Hollander had mentioned earlier. Definitely needed a shower. Good thing he'd found out where the real showers were, so he wouldn't have to use one of the ice-cold emergency showers.
Hollander placed the disks in a box marked "Used" where they jostled with a bunch of others. Probably the ones he'd used on Sephiroth and Genesis that morning. "All right, now I'd like to take some cell samples. I'll just get a cheek swab and some blood for now. Nothing exciting."
Zack stood up, instantly on guard. "Why? You've got your scans and you already have Angeal's cells. Why do you need mine?"
"Oh, for the love of..." Hollander grimaced and cut off what sounded like a nascent rant. "Look, there might be cellular or physiological changes that no one's noticed. I've been assuming you and Sephiroth aren't infected by Angeal's cells because you aren't A-copies, but you both have told me he can control who and what they colonize and overwrite. Are you happy now?"
"Infected—? Bad enough I have Jenova cells infecting me, but now you say I might have Angeal's cells, too, and they just might not be doing anything yet?"
"Technically, G-cells. Though with Angeal's mutations and other changes, perhaps his cells have become unique enough to merit their own designation now. They do produce a different type of copy than Genesis's cells—"
"Who cares about technicalities?" Zack interrupted abruptly.
Hollander crossed his arms. "Do you want to know what's going on with you and Angeal or not?"
"Fine." Zack threw himself back down into his chair. "Whatever." He knew he was being childish and did not care at all.
"Try to keep in mind that we're all going through these tests. You're not being singled out."
Had Hollander actually tried to be considerate of his feelings in his brusque, antisocial way? Zack thought that was both pretty funny and pathetically sad. It was unusual behavior from a Shin-Ra scientist, but Hollander did need everyone's cooperation. Zack still thought it odd. He and Sephiroth were stuck with Hollander for Angeal's sake, but maybe Hollander had also realized they all needed to make the best of their situation.
After Hollander got his blood and cheek samples, he wanted to conduct another interview. He'd already interviewed Zack yesterday after dinner about the different psychic phenomena he'd experienced. It seemed that now he wanted to get even more details. If that was even possible. Hollander had grilled Zack nearly to exhaustion about his dreams and nightmares, hearing Angeal's voice, feeling strange touches on his shoulder, and seeing images of him.
"So tell me about the A-copies," Hollander said, pulling a laptop computer forward so he could type commands on it. "The A-Ahrimans and the Ahriman body you and Sephiroth say Angeal grew."
Zack did not want to talk about that again. The image of that Ahriman body squished and folded inside the specimen container, pushing Angeal's head up against the top, sucking up all the liquid so that the circulation equipment whined in protest... Just thinking about it made him want to vomit. He swallowed hard and protested, "We discussed that last night."
"We only spoke in generalities, what happened, how long it took, etcetera. I want to hear more about the development process Angeal followed. Sephiroth told me you were present for the whole thing, from the formation of the initial progenitor cell population to the stunted Ahriman body. You need to describe everything to me. Sephiroth said he wasn't present for the most important cellular differentiation and growth patterns of the blastema."
"What? Blasto-what?"
Zack could see Hollander grit his teeth, but nonetheless the scientist patiently explained, "Just describe how the Ahriman body formed. I want to hear every stage of the process, from beginning to end. The growth of tissue at the base of Angeal's neck. The formation of the round body. Each limb, each wing, the eye and mouth, the spines, everything. And I want your perspective on what happened when Sephiroth..." He paused and winced, then went on delicately, "...amputated the body from Angeal's head."
Amputated. That was a polite way to say beheaded. Decapitated. Chopped off. It was all the same.
Zack remembered Masamune coming down with a sudden thunk, severing Angeal's head from the Ahriman body, the thrashing tentacles that had erupted from the stumps, the gooey ooze the wounds leaked instead of blood...
Hollander pressed, "You're the only person alive who saw it all."
"Lucky me," Zack muttered, and swallowed bile again. So he was going to have to disgorge—strike that imagery, he thought before it went too far and made him puke—he would have to explain in detail...everything. He had to relive that whole horror show. He blinked rapidly, and hoped he wouldn't start bawling in the middle of it.
It's for Angeal, he told himself. It's so Hollander can guide Angeal in growing a human body.
For Angeal.
Hollander was still talking: "Also, were the A-Ahriman copies present throughout the entire process? Sephiroth thinks their presence contributed, that Angeal's growth patterns were affected by his close connections to them. He may have instinctively used them as templates to follow. As living bio-templates."
This, Zack could discuss without the urge to upchuck his lunch all over Hollander and himself. "Yeah, back in Hojo's lab, Angeal took control of his copies to help us escape. He had six A-Ahrimans fly me out of the building and clear to our truck. I didn't see what happened after that, what Sephiroth did, but he told me about it..."
"Don't bother with second hand information. I'm only interested in what you personally witnessed. Were the copies with you the whole time?"
"No. They stayed with me for a long time while I was driving to our rally point, but after a while they just sort of...flew away. Randomly. Not together. I think that's when they lost their connection to Angeal. It must've been when Sephiroth...when he beheaded..." Zack stopped talking.
"All right. Anything more than that is speculation. When did you first notice Angeal was growing new tissue at the base of his neck? Was it after the A-Ahrimans returned?"
"No, no, I first noticed a lump on his stump, his neck, a few days before the copies showed up. It had already formed into a bag with two creases by the time they arrived. Didn't Sephiroth tell you that? We both saw it."
Hollander scratched at his short beard. "I want you to tell me what you saw. I'll compare the information later."
"The Ahrimans must've been looking for us by then, though. They must've been close, considering how soon they did arrive after that." Zack stared off into space, past Hollander and up at the exposed ductwork around the ceiling. "I hate thinking about it."
"Perhaps their connection to Angeal was never truly lost, only temporarily disrupted."
"Yeah, we talked about that. It was all so weird." Zack scrunched his eyes closed, remembering, as words spilled out of him unbidden. "Sephiroth kept talking to Angeal like they were having real conversations, that never stopped though, he did that from the beginning and still does it, and then the A-Ahrimans showed up, and then, oh, I remember they laughed at Sephiroth's dyed hair and he was mad that they had too much of Angeal in them and then we both cut our hair and the Ahrimans laughed at us some more and then Sephiroth left for a while to go find supplies and Angeal grew more of those Ahriman body parts and kept growing and squished in his container then that big eye in his stomach opened and then—"
"Whoa, whoa, slow down." Hollander leaned forward and touched his shoulder. Zack jumped, startled out of his monologue.
Hollander said soothingly, "Go back to before the A-Ahrimans arrived. Describe to me what the growth on Angeal's neck looked like."
"Yeah, okay." Zack rubbed his arms hard enough to leave red marks.
"Describe the lump on Angeal's neck," Hollander repeated.
There was no escaping the nightmare. So Zack complied. He started with the lump and how quickly it grew into a bag.
Hollander prompted him at different stages when he bogged down in horrible memories, and helped him get through it. Even when he got to the part where Angeal's Ahriman body's eye opened and its tongue lashed out of its fanged mouth. Even when he described how Sephiroth had removed Angeal from the container, how Sephiroth had so gently and carefully laid him down on the ground, and then...
...and then cast strong Sleepels on Angeal...
...and then swung Masamune...
...and then how Angeal's head, freed of the body, had rolled onto one cheek...
...and then how the A-copies had screeched and screamed and flown off, running away, away...
...and then how the goo oozed...and winding, whipping tentacles sprang from the living stumps and tried to drag the pieces back together...
...and then how Sephiroth had kicked the body parts away and incinerated them so Reunion could never draw them back to Angeal's head...
...and then he'd cut off all the tentacles from Angeal's head and burned them to ash...
...and then cauterized the stump at Angeal's neck, so it couldn't make more tentacles...
...and then...
Zack didn't know how he got through it, but at the end he found himself staring blankly at Hollander, who looked...cold. So cold, and thoughtful, too. Analytical. Calculating.
Especially calculating. What was going on in that twisted, mad scientist mind?
Hollander said, "I think that's enough for today. Go get a shower and some food, Fa—Zack. You'll feel better."
Zack nodded numbly, but had enough presence of mind remaining to know a dismissal when he heard one. He fled the lab.