Hojo
An open and shut case.
That's what they're calling it.
Absolute imbeciles.
The SOLDIER—his bloody footprints had been everywhere. His ID logged at all the necessary access points.
Ha.
I pace my quarters—it's impossible—how could he...? Idiots!
I know it was you.
It's all too convenient. The perfect circumstantial storm. I'd checked. The security remodel plans had been on the internal record only. How could some renegade SOLDIER have known? And how could he have understood where to access the codes for her containment area? No, this was thoroughly planned by someone on the inside, someone with motive. If your soft spot for the girl isn't enough then the unspoken leverage it had given me in bartering access to certain sensitive Turk surveillance information certainly is. But, all of this is inadmissible to the board.
I need evidence.
I should have known you were planning something. I should have known that your docile compliance was cover for a conspiracy. I'd been complacent, distracted, so close to a breakthrough. I'd had it—a benign Jenova supplement. It was so elegant. It should have been the perfectly balanced augment, a benign cellular stimulant, longevity and nothing more... but the catalytic reaction was almost instantaneous, as if it had been merely sleeping, the sample came alive, conscious almost, it's malignancy so rapid I had almost expected to lose her... save for the purging agent. At least something had worked.
I pause, mopping at my perspiring brow. It was impossible—I'd taken every precaution, run every available test. How could it have gotten so out of my control. It's the living, breathing Ancient that is the anomalous factor, a pity that she was also a limited factor. How can I progress my research if I cannot take risks?
And now this.
I resume my pacing, my mind hypothesising with infuriated vigour. I move towards my desk, perhaps I should cast my eyes over the Mako-immersion data again. Perhaps, inspiration will strike.
I still. There's an alert flashing from the screen of my desktop console. Someone is accessing the science department achieves from the main lab.
Tseng.
I'd programmed the notification as a precaution. Given everything that was happening, I'd wasted no time fortifying everything that was still under my control. Reaching into the desk drawer for my personal hand gun—a precaution—I make my way to the elevator.
The Jenova isolation unit...
It's been ripped open with a force that is simply impractical.
Gone.
No.
Movement catches my eye. A glimpse of black and silver—a man—a tall man—from what I can tell of the silhouette. It disappears too quickly as the elevator to the main lab ascends.
It can't be.
Why? Why is he here? How?
I pause, rapidly accessing all relevant factors. Should I sound an alarm? There is a computing console in the small conference room to my right... No, if it is him they would be of... limited use... This is a private matter... Smothering the urge to clutch the gun nestled in my lab coat pocket, I've no doubt its functionality will be equally redundant, I make my way to the elevator, following on to the upper level, cocooned in carefully constructed calm.
He's in the middle of the room, back turned. He simply stands there.
Sephiroth.
"How did you get in here?" I approach—keeping my tone casual, non alarmist.
He doesn't turn, doesn't respond.
"You brought it in." An involuntary chill runs down my spine—Where? The voice is clear, level, matter of fact—it's menacing effect merely an artefact of knowing who it was that spoke, and from where. I spin around.
Sephiroth?
I understand in sudden epiphany.
"I wondered if you might show up." He gazes down at me, unblinking.
"fascinating!" I laugh. Confronting him—I knew it would be worthwhile—it's already worthwhile, simply to witness this—extraordinary! "...I've long know of Jenova's ability to transmute it's form, but I admit, I've never seen it in action! "To whom am I speaking? I wonder..."
He doesn't answer, only chuckles humourlessly, lightly shaking his head.
"How did you do it?" I concede. That attitude is identifier enough. Somehow—he's taken control—somehow—he is able to... amazing! But it shouldn't be possible?! How could he have achieved something like this? When I've never even—
"That's the wrong question," he condescends, striding slowly past me to pause next to his frozen doppelganger. "Perhaps you should be asking yourself how I knew it was here," he's glancing absently across at his double. I get the distinct impression that he's thinking about something else, arrogant brat.
"Where is the girl?" he asks, still not deigning to look at me.
What? "How did—"
"You were controlling it. You must have audited every area of access to Shinra records that we had. Otherwise, I would have known sooner... that you'd recovered Crisis, brought it here..." He looks at me—His eyes still have that uncomfortably focused quality. "You wanted Gast to think she was dead," he glances back towards the console where, presumably, he'd been so recently accessing the archives. "You've been busy..."
"You can sense the location of Jenova biomaterial. Is that it?" If he can manipulate her organism, then it's only one logical step to assume as much. I nod to myself, I don't need his confirmation. "Intriguing..." I chuckle, thinking of his scientifically cowardly companion. "Tell me, what does Professor Gast think of all this? I can't imagine he approves."
He turns to look at me once more. Everything should always be assessed in context—He may appear apathetic, but his movement had been slightly quicker, his gaze slightly sharper. Careful, part of me warns—a small part.
I laugh.
"I see! It's unsurprising... I hope you can perceive now that your faith in him was always misplaced. Gast has a distinct lack of fortitude for truth seeking. I won't ask what research of mine you were attempting to purloin... but since you seem to have taken an interest in the field... perhaps... I might assist you. Tell me, do you not only sense her presence but also experience a... compulsion, to reunite with your Mother—in perfect completion?"
He chuckles, slowly, it builds into a laugh, clear and cavalier.
"We both know Jenova is not my Mother," he's still chuckling—and the way he says it, it's as if the whole matter were simply vaguely amusing to him.
I will my scowl into submission. So Gast has told him then... An interesting choice, not unexpected. But, if he knows about Lucrecia then he also knows...
"Hmm... I hope you're not too disappointed son," I sneer. I truly hope that he is, always looking down on me like that... even now, with that same apparent indifference.
"It seems you've lost a lot today," he ponders, unhurried, "perhaps it's pointless to ask you about the girl, you don't know anything do you." His tone is definitive, casually belittling.
"Gast is still filling your head with nonsense I see." I grit my teeth. What a presumptive fool he is. "Well, you'd do well to listen to me. Jenova is your Mother, she exists at the core of all, that matters, about you. Your strength, your speed, your abilities, your... instincts. She birthed them all—not that woman. I trust Gast also told you what happened to her? Why she's no longer with us...?" My lips curl upwards. I'm not quite finished.
"Well, here is my lesson to you, Father to son—such as it stands. In this world there is only knowledge, power and those possessing the will to use them. Lucrecia was weak, so frail she chose to throw herself away."
His eyes are locked onto me, flickering with frozen furore—hatred even. Good, I cannot stand his aloof stupor.
When he speaks, his words are laden with control, weighted by design. "I am removing Jenova from your influence... I've already taken care of the various experimental samples you were developing, almost completely..." The rest of him remains eerily still as he reaches into his cloak—removing what looks to be a syringe filled with blood. "...I have something for you, should you have the will to use it."
He extends it in offering. He doesn't mean for me to...
"Why would you hesitate? Don't tell me that was all just hot air?" he laughs, his amusement scathing. As he quiets, his eyes resettle on me—burning. "You think you're noble, a truth seeker." He moves closer, slow and deliberate. "But you've always been more of a walking mass of complexes than a man. You're craven, cowering from the world from behind a desk. Standing on the shoulders of better men. You can't even admit it to yourself."
I feel myself shaking. How Dare he—Ignorant—spoiled—grunt!
My gaze alights on Masamune, gripped comfortably in his other hand. It's difficult not to be drawn to the sight, he's so close. He may be intending to kill me... Is this a choice between the two? And what sample is that? Chances of it being the longevity augment are slim but... perhaps better odds than the alternative... A gamble then.
I laugh, long and hard, it pours out of me in a wave of incensed release.
Why not? You know nothing brat.
I snatch the needle from his hand, rolling up my sleeve, I find a vein with fluid competence. It takes a moment. The shock of it brings me abruptly to my knees.
No.
I must survive this.
There is so much more I need to do.
He looks down at me, his lips forming a slow smile, eyes lit with cold loathing.
"It is good to see you finally committing to your work Professor Hojo."