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Hello, everyone. I'm back with the next section of Oh Gracious Twist of Fate. At the moment, interludes are flashback type sections of the story in that they deal with things that happened before the first chapter. How people got together, background info, the like. *grins* Enjoy.
Chapter One: Escape
1975-1976
Rumors are interesting things. They spread, change, exaggerate, lie, and even mutate completely, the end results rarely resembling the original rumor.
Still, every rumor has a grain of truth, no matter how small or how hard to find. Thus, if someone knows the people around them, they can easily find useful knowledge in the rumors around them.
Well, useful for them, anyway.
///
Even in the hight tech world that was Shinra Electrical Company, there was little, if anything, that could beat out the speed of the rumor mill. Orrin knew that for a fact. He had seen it in motion more than once, and every time it surprised him on how fast everybody knew. The fact that all of his co-workers were lab rats, rarely involved in anything exciting, only seemed to make it worse. They clung to and dissected ever rumor, then passed it along, just to make the entertainment last.
Hellsfire, once someone had bothered to ask him about it, he knew that his personal problems had made the rounds at least twice. that was the absolute minimum required before anyone worked up the courage to speak to a rumor source/victim directly.
But the person who had come to him....
Orrin never expected Professor Hojo. The man was so far above him that even if he did listen to rumors, he shouldn’t have bothered following up on them. But here he was, face to face with the head scientist, the man in charge of all of Shinra’s various labs and the Science Division.
He felt the urge to fidget, but fought it down. The dark blue eyes of his boss seemed to bore right through him, then the Professor turned. “Come with me. I have something I would like to discuss with you.”
Not really having any option, Orrin followed Hojo to the man’s office. He found himself standing before the desk, and feeling much like a bird before a snake as the other man sat down, eyes still fixed on him. The room was quiet, and Hojo let the silence stretch out before he broke it.
“I’ve heard you have found yourself in a delicate situation,” the man said softly, his voice making chills run down Orrin’s back. “And that you’ve had a few ideas on how to deal with said situation.”
Orrin hesitantly nodded. “Yes, Sir.” This man was his boss, and he was sure that there were some rules or another against what he was thinking of doing.
Another pause, a moment of stillness that made the muscles in Orrin’s back twitch as another chill crawled up his spine. Then, Hojo sat back. “Tell me the entire situation. It is much better to hear the truth from the source.”
Feeling the urge to blink rapidly in confusion, Orrin kept from doing it and looking stupid. Still, he felt rather dumbfounded. “Sir?”
“Now. Time is money, and we in science rarely have enough of either.”
So Orrin spoke. “My wife, Sir, Nidara, we’ve been trying to have a child for a while now. Only something isn’t working, and she keeps losing them. The doctors aren’t really sure on why, just that it has something to do with genetics. It’s hard on both of us, and I was looking for a way to get around the problem. So, since I worked here, and we specialize in genetic manipulation and the like, I thought....” Orrin stopped and licked his lips. “I’m sorry, Sir. I should never have even thought about anything of the nature, and I do apologize. I can assure you that....”
He trailed off as Hojo held up a hand. “Quite the contrary. I have had some interesting discussions with the President on something of this nature. He is very interested in it, as you know he only had the one heir, and that was only through tremendous amounts of effort. Your ideas fall along the lines of something I was planning on doing myself. I will tell you that there will be a cost though.”
“Cost, Sir?” Orrin had the feeling that this was going to be bad. Hojo had started more than a few rumors himself over the years.
“There is a very underrated, very quiet lab in the Nibel area. I’ve needed competent people to go out before and repair damage done to the facility by the idiots who tend to work there. I want you to become a full time attendant. Also, I want to be able to do regular checkups and examinations on the child. It does me little good if, for some reason, the genetics go wrong and the child mutates. I need it to develop into adulthood properly.”
Snake with a bird. Snake with a bird. Those words kept running through Orrin’s mind as he found himself unable to look away from Hojo’s eyes. Still, the terms didn’t sound too bad, though he wasn’t sure if he liked how Hojo was talking about the yet unconceived child. Of course, Orrin had heard how the professor treated his own son.
But Hojo wouldn’t be raising Orrin’s child.
On one hand, this was the best scientist in Shinra offering to do this. He would be able to get the funding, as well as have the practical experience to do it. On the other hand, the rumors that followed Hojo were not the most comforting when it came to his “test subjects.” Still, to have a child with Nidara....
“Please let me talk to my wife about it, Sir. I should be able to give you an answer by tomorrow.”
Hojo nodded, eyes still locked on Orrin. “That will be fine. Before you go, remind me of your last name so I might have my secretary write you in.”
“Strife, Sir.”
///
Sometimes, Nidara Strife wondered if she and Orrin had made a deal with a demon.
When her husband had first come to her with Professor Hojo’s proposal, she had been leery. A lab tech herself, she had heard her fair share of Hojo rumors. At best he was amoral, at worst a sociopath with a degree.
The siren’s call of a child was too much to ignore though, and she followed it like any good sailor would.
It had been odd finding herself in the lab alone with the good doctor. One of the conditions of the help was that no one was to know of what they were doing, per the order from the President himself. Nidara got the feeling that if this did work, the leader of the company did not want others to know where his new ability to have heirs came from.
Trying to hide anything in the labs was near impossible, though. People saw Hojo’s interest in her and Orrin, and humans being human, thought the worst. Her visits to Hojo’s office and lab after hours was not unseen either. Since nobody knew why she continued to meet with Hojo twice a week, rumors started about them having an affair. Or those were the ones that she knew of, the ones she would hear if she hesitated before entering a room, lurking around the door. People started giving her looks. Some good, some bad, some merely curious as to what was going on. Orrin got a lot of pitying looks, but he completely ignored them.
Her reputation had changed, for better or worse. Before, nobody had really paid any attention to her. Oh, she had her circle of friends and people she would talk to at work, but now it seemed she couldn’t go anywhere without at least one person recognizing her. Then they would start whispering to the others as soon as she started to leave. It was wearing. Apparently, even though Hojo had a son, people had a hard time thinking he was human enough to have a sexual interest. Whether he did or not, she didn’t know, didn’t want to know. But now everyone thought she was said sexual interest.
It only got worse when she started to show.
There were definite sneers directed at her now, and more than a few odd looks at Orrin. Now the rumors changed to she was using Hojo, using him to have a baby. That she had finally, after loosing three of Orrin’s, given up on her husband to chase down Hojo.
Sometimes, Nidara wanted to scream the truth. To rant and rave and howl until people believed her. Even if she did, though, nobody would. That was simply human nature. Instead, her hands would come up to cup her growing stomach, and she would think that eventually, she and Orrin would move to the new lab, and she wouldn’t have to deal with these people any more.
Her bump continued to grow, and Nidara smiled as she would lay her hands there, feeling the curve fit so perfectly against them. Would this be what it felt like when she held their child? The frail curve of the skull, the way the baby would curl in her arms, those were in her dreams. In her dreams, their child, their son, would have Orrin’s eyes and her smile and be bright and cheerful and loving.
Those dreams were what made everything worth it. The testing she had gone through, the time spent with Hojo making her feel as if she was some type of lab rat. All the pokes and pricks and tests done on her to make sure they had gotten all the genetic abnormalities that had claimed her and Orrin’s unborn children, so that this one would be born happy, born safe and healthy. Those dreams were why she put up with the rumors, with the looks and the whispers. None of them knew what she was willing to do in order to keep those dreams alive.
Now, seven months along, she and Orrin were leaving Midgar. Hojo didn’t want the baby born there, and so he had set the transfer to take them to Nibelheim in motion. There were labs there, and he said he would be out soon so that he might keep track of the development of the fetus. Nidara was just happy to be away from the tests for a while. She was ecstatic to be away from the snide commentary of the other people in the labs.
Finally, her life was going to get better.
///
He was just a grunt. A low ranking member of the Shinra military. He and the rest of his squad had the normally easy task of playing watchdogs over Shinra shipments. Kill a monster or two, chase off terrorist wannabes and bandits, and otherwise enjoy life.
This time was supposed to be the same. It was for the bigwigs in the Science department, heading to a place called Nibelheim. The only thing that stood out was the fact that they had a couple of people going with it. And one of them was heavily pregnant.
In their mission briefing, they had been told to protect her. That was their main goal. Next up was the supplies, after that the man. There had been a bit of curiosity over that, but he was willing to admit that they would have done it anyway. They were soldiers, and for the most part pretty nice guys. It would have been their first move to protect the pretty blond woman. She was sweet, and kind, and told everyone to call her Nidara. Hell, she even reminded him of his sister when she had been expecting. Tired, but cheerful as hell, and always running her fingers over her belly. The guy with her was almost as bad about the touching, but given that this was their first kid, not surprising. Hard to believe that their name was Strife.
The first part had been normal. Joke around with the family, roughhouse a bit with the rest of the squad. Normal, right?
The mission briefing never mentioned how bad the monsters around Nibelheim were. Or that they were that large. Or that aggressive.
The attack had happened fast. He didn’t know what the hell the things that attacked them were, just that they were smart, fast, and attacked in a pack. He remembered being back to back with one of his friends, and black gore flying everywhere as they tried to stay alive. Somehow, they had managed to survive.
Not everyone had.
About half the squad was gone or going when the things ran off. Seemed the things had poison in their bites, and it scared the shit out of him to watch as his best friend’s leg melted off. Jon, their medic, was trying his best, but they kept losing people.
Like Strife.
He had already been gone when the fighting stopped. Looked like he had died protecting his wife. She was a wreck, but at least she had stopped crying. Now Nidara just held her husband’s hand in one of her’s like it was a lifeline, and stared off into space. The other hand was pressed tight to her stomach, and he prayed that she wasn’t going to go into labor. That would be just what they didn’t need.
Thankfully, it looked like the gods were on their side now, because they were able to patch up a few of the fallen, and didn’t have to help deliver any children. They weren’t even able to take the bodies, and he had the feeling that when they sent people back to retrieve them, they would be gone. Enough things like carrion.
He had never been so happy to see a town in his life. And he couldn’t wait to leave this cursed area. Thank the gods he didn’t have to stay here. Not everyone was that lucky.
He didn’t want to know, though. He was just a grunt.
///
Gene hated this job at times. Oh, he loved being a Turk. You got to go to interesting places and meet interesting people. Sometimes you had to destroy said places or kill said people, but it was interesting none the less. Downside of all that was you had to deal with Shinra and all its shit.
Like now.
As he leaned back in the seat of the helicopter, Gene watched as Professor Hojo fussed with a few things as they were being loaded into the copter. He didn’t know what they were, nor did he want to know. The less he had to do with Hojo, the better he would feel, because he had already been warned of the bad times the man seemed to cause everywhere he went.
Now Gene was having to haul the scientist out to some little back woods town because the man’s little bit on the side had gotten in trouble. Just what he didn’t want to do. The others had been talking about getting a poker game started when the call came in.
The Turks were the assassins and enforcers of the Shinra Company. They all knew that. Even if they hid it under nice terms and the like, they knew what they were. They were not delivery boys.
Tell that to Hojo.
President Shinra himself order the drop, though, so Gene would do what he had to. He wondered idly if anyone would notice if he pushed the ratty little man out of the copter once they hit a nice decent height.
Probably. And there would be at least one party.
///
Hojo muttered under his breath as he felt the helicopter thrum into life around him. Of all the worst timed, horrible events to happen.
He wanted to be there when Strife had her child. It was the effort of many months of hard work and dedication to get it perfect. He had so many things that he had wanted to try, and now this had happened.
It hadn’t been hard to make sure the woman had kept her child this time. The problem before had been connected to the genetic mixture of her husband and herself. He had simply replaced the genetic structure hers was mixed with. Exchanged his subordinate’s contribution with a much finer one. The best one he had been able to. After that, it had been easy for her to keep the fetus.
But if he lost the specimen now, it would be hard to duplicate everything. Oh, he had kept careful notes, details of what he had done and the like. But Nidara Strife’s genetic makeup was a lovely thing to see, and he knew the father’s like the back of his hand, and he would be hard press to find another set that matched as well as these did. Plus, there had been a few times when he thought the specimen would be rejected as he had tweaked and changed things to make it fit what he needed. Like the gender. Much too bothersome for his future plans if the child had been female.
It was perfect. Plus he was would have his answers on a few other things, such as if JENVOA cells would pass from father to child. If so, what effect would have the cells as part of the genetic makeup since birth have on the specimen. He didn’t have an answer for that, as even Sephiroth, his greatest specimen, had had over a month of gestation pass before being injected with JENOVA.
Everything had been perfect.
Now the man was dead, and Nidara had been through several heavy shocks. She was currently taking care of the Mansion, but Hojo had decided to get there as soon as possible. There was every chance that, if she went into labor, she or the fetus might die. Hojo had no desire to play at raising another child, and he refused to lose such a potential test subject. Just the thought of what he might be able to do....
Hojo was a long term planner. It might be years before he was able to get a hold of the specimen again, but it would be worth it when he did.
Smiling to himself, Hojo settled back. Time would tell.
///
A month had passed.
A month since she had lost her Orrin, since he had died protecting her from that thing. A month since she had started working on the lab in this horrible little town.
She had hoped to escape the whispers, the looks. She hadn’t. Already she had heard comments about how she had come without a husband, without a ring on her finger.
They had both been lab workers. Rings and jewelry got in the way. Neither she nor Orrin had ever thought about actually buying a set. They had simply married and knew that they belonged to one another.
Now she could hear the whispers. The people of the town didn’t know that there had been another person. A man who had helped her life feel full. All they had see was a too pregnant woman alone, and none of the escort squad had even thought to mention it.
She heard new comments, new names. Whore. Slut. Because she was pregnant. Nidara couldn’t believe there were places like this still, where if you were married or not mattered. Bunch of backwoods freaks. Look where they lived. It was full of monsters and the like. Some of them wore human faces and lived in town.
It had gotten a little better when Professor Hojo had arrived. At least he was someone she could talk to, who knew the truth and who could comprehend when she used words with more than three syllables.
Muttering to herself, Nidara wasn’t paying attention to the ache that came and went along her back. It wasn’t until she felt warmth slide down her leg did she realize that she was in labor. Looking down, she saw her belly ripple. There was no pain, no real sensation of the muscles contracting.
She needed to see Hojo. Now.
///
He was a man of science. He was a man of rational thought. He was a man who was able to sit down and work through the problems he faced.
He was a man who wanted to curse.
Hojo growled as he send another assistant for something or another. Strife had stumbled in, face pale, blood streaming down her legs. She had taken two steps in, then collapsed.
Of course, he had immediately had her hooked to the machines, and was dismayed to find out that the child’s heart rate was rapidly approaching two hundred beats a minutes. Not good. If this kept up, he was going to lose the child. That was simply not acceptable. Strife herself was not looking good either, as more of her blood splattered the table she laid on. Mentally cursing at himself, Hojo looked at the others. “Prepare for a removal. Now.”
He pulled the cap off a syringe similar to the ones used for SOLDIER shots. It was filled with thick, purple liquid. Pure JENOVA cells. No mako at all, but he wondered if it would be enough to make the woman survive the birth. Aftereffects would be dealt with later, he decided as he slid the needle into her flesh. Depressing the plunger, his somewhat well trained assistants lunged forward to keep the blond woman pinned as she arched wildly. Moments later, she was still, but the blood between her legs was already stopping, and her own medical readings were reaching acceptable norms. Now, time to operate.
It was a bloody, disgusting mess. Strife had lost conscious before anything could be done, and Hojo had been forced to put his hands into her body in order to remove the infant. Moving to the side with the silent thing in his hands, he had absently told one of the assistance to use materia to heal the woman. He had to look over the child.
The baby was bluish and still, and for a moment, Hojo was furious that he was too late. His hands clamped down on the child’s chest, which drew a startled noise from the still form. As if that was the trigger it needed, the baby choked in a breath and then started to wail.
Hojo blinked at it.
A noise behind him made him look back. Nidara was sitting up, looking dazed. “My baby? I can hear my baby. Where...?”
Wanting to be rid of the squalling thing, Hojo moved to hand it over. The woman’s eyes lit up as she took the child from him. “My baby. My Cloud,” she whispered softly.
“Cloud?”
His voice seemed to make no impression on the dazed woman. “Yes, Cloud. Cloud Strife.”
Nodding, Hojo walked over to the file that sat on a nearby table. Grabbing a pen, he quickly wrote the following on the tab.
Specimen C, Male
This section word count comes to 3805.
Chapter Two: Clean Up
Chapter One: Escape
1975-1976
Rumors are interesting things. They spread, change, exaggerate, lie, and even mutate completely, the end results rarely resembling the original rumor.
Still, every rumor has a grain of truth, no matter how small or how hard to find. Thus, if someone knows the people around them, they can easily find useful knowledge in the rumors around them.
Well, useful for them, anyway.
Even in the hight tech world that was Shinra Electrical Company, there was little, if anything, that could beat out the speed of the rumor mill. Orrin knew that for a fact. He had seen it in motion more than once, and every time it surprised him on how fast everybody knew. The fact that all of his co-workers were lab rats, rarely involved in anything exciting, only seemed to make it worse. They clung to and dissected ever rumor, then passed it along, just to make the entertainment last.
Hellsfire, once someone had bothered to ask him about it, he knew that his personal problems had made the rounds at least twice. that was the absolute minimum required before anyone worked up the courage to speak to a rumor source/victim directly.
But the person who had come to him....
Orrin never expected Professor Hojo. The man was so far above him that even if he did listen to rumors, he shouldn’t have bothered following up on them. But here he was, face to face with the head scientist, the man in charge of all of Shinra’s various labs and the Science Division.
He felt the urge to fidget, but fought it down. The dark blue eyes of his boss seemed to bore right through him, then the Professor turned. “Come with me. I have something I would like to discuss with you.”
Not really having any option, Orrin followed Hojo to the man’s office. He found himself standing before the desk, and feeling much like a bird before a snake as the other man sat down, eyes still fixed on him. The room was quiet, and Hojo let the silence stretch out before he broke it.
“I’ve heard you have found yourself in a delicate situation,” the man said softly, his voice making chills run down Orrin’s back. “And that you’ve had a few ideas on how to deal with said situation.”
Orrin hesitantly nodded. “Yes, Sir.” This man was his boss, and he was sure that there were some rules or another against what he was thinking of doing.
Another pause, a moment of stillness that made the muscles in Orrin’s back twitch as another chill crawled up his spine. Then, Hojo sat back. “Tell me the entire situation. It is much better to hear the truth from the source.”
Feeling the urge to blink rapidly in confusion, Orrin kept from doing it and looking stupid. Still, he felt rather dumbfounded. “Sir?”
“Now. Time is money, and we in science rarely have enough of either.”
So Orrin spoke. “My wife, Sir, Nidara, we’ve been trying to have a child for a while now. Only something isn’t working, and she keeps losing them. The doctors aren’t really sure on why, just that it has something to do with genetics. It’s hard on both of us, and I was looking for a way to get around the problem. So, since I worked here, and we specialize in genetic manipulation and the like, I thought....” Orrin stopped and licked his lips. “I’m sorry, Sir. I should never have even thought about anything of the nature, and I do apologize. I can assure you that....”
He trailed off as Hojo held up a hand. “Quite the contrary. I have had some interesting discussions with the President on something of this nature. He is very interested in it, as you know he only had the one heir, and that was only through tremendous amounts of effort. Your ideas fall along the lines of something I was planning on doing myself. I will tell you that there will be a cost though.”
“Cost, Sir?” Orrin had the feeling that this was going to be bad. Hojo had started more than a few rumors himself over the years.
“There is a very underrated, very quiet lab in the Nibel area. I’ve needed competent people to go out before and repair damage done to the facility by the idiots who tend to work there. I want you to become a full time attendant. Also, I want to be able to do regular checkups and examinations on the child. It does me little good if, for some reason, the genetics go wrong and the child mutates. I need it to develop into adulthood properly.”
Snake with a bird. Snake with a bird. Those words kept running through Orrin’s mind as he found himself unable to look away from Hojo’s eyes. Still, the terms didn’t sound too bad, though he wasn’t sure if he liked how Hojo was talking about the yet unconceived child. Of course, Orrin had heard how the professor treated his own son.
But Hojo wouldn’t be raising Orrin’s child.
On one hand, this was the best scientist in Shinra offering to do this. He would be able to get the funding, as well as have the practical experience to do it. On the other hand, the rumors that followed Hojo were not the most comforting when it came to his “test subjects.” Still, to have a child with Nidara....
“Please let me talk to my wife about it, Sir. I should be able to give you an answer by tomorrow.”
Hojo nodded, eyes still locked on Orrin. “That will be fine. Before you go, remind me of your last name so I might have my secretary write you in.”
“Strife, Sir.”
Sometimes, Nidara Strife wondered if she and Orrin had made a deal with a demon.
When her husband had first come to her with Professor Hojo’s proposal, she had been leery. A lab tech herself, she had heard her fair share of Hojo rumors. At best he was amoral, at worst a sociopath with a degree.
The siren’s call of a child was too much to ignore though, and she followed it like any good sailor would.
It had been odd finding herself in the lab alone with the good doctor. One of the conditions of the help was that no one was to know of what they were doing, per the order from the President himself. Nidara got the feeling that if this did work, the leader of the company did not want others to know where his new ability to have heirs came from.
Trying to hide anything in the labs was near impossible, though. People saw Hojo’s interest in her and Orrin, and humans being human, thought the worst. Her visits to Hojo’s office and lab after hours was not unseen either. Since nobody knew why she continued to meet with Hojo twice a week, rumors started about them having an affair. Or those were the ones that she knew of, the ones she would hear if she hesitated before entering a room, lurking around the door. People started giving her looks. Some good, some bad, some merely curious as to what was going on. Orrin got a lot of pitying looks, but he completely ignored them.
Her reputation had changed, for better or worse. Before, nobody had really paid any attention to her. Oh, she had her circle of friends and people she would talk to at work, but now it seemed she couldn’t go anywhere without at least one person recognizing her. Then they would start whispering to the others as soon as she started to leave. It was wearing. Apparently, even though Hojo had a son, people had a hard time thinking he was human enough to have a sexual interest. Whether he did or not, she didn’t know, didn’t want to know. But now everyone thought she was said sexual interest.
It only got worse when she started to show.
There were definite sneers directed at her now, and more than a few odd looks at Orrin. Now the rumors changed to she was using Hojo, using him to have a baby. That she had finally, after loosing three of Orrin’s, given up on her husband to chase down Hojo.
Sometimes, Nidara wanted to scream the truth. To rant and rave and howl until people believed her. Even if she did, though, nobody would. That was simply human nature. Instead, her hands would come up to cup her growing stomach, and she would think that eventually, she and Orrin would move to the new lab, and she wouldn’t have to deal with these people any more.
Her bump continued to grow, and Nidara smiled as she would lay her hands there, feeling the curve fit so perfectly against them. Would this be what it felt like when she held their child? The frail curve of the skull, the way the baby would curl in her arms, those were in her dreams. In her dreams, their child, their son, would have Orrin’s eyes and her smile and be bright and cheerful and loving.
Those dreams were what made everything worth it. The testing she had gone through, the time spent with Hojo making her feel as if she was some type of lab rat. All the pokes and pricks and tests done on her to make sure they had gotten all the genetic abnormalities that had claimed her and Orrin’s unborn children, so that this one would be born happy, born safe and healthy. Those dreams were why she put up with the rumors, with the looks and the whispers. None of them knew what she was willing to do in order to keep those dreams alive.
Now, seven months along, she and Orrin were leaving Midgar. Hojo didn’t want the baby born there, and so he had set the transfer to take them to Nibelheim in motion. There were labs there, and he said he would be out soon so that he might keep track of the development of the fetus. Nidara was just happy to be away from the tests for a while. She was ecstatic to be away from the snide commentary of the other people in the labs.
Finally, her life was going to get better.
He was just a grunt. A low ranking member of the Shinra military. He and the rest of his squad had the normally easy task of playing watchdogs over Shinra shipments. Kill a monster or two, chase off terrorist wannabes and bandits, and otherwise enjoy life.
This time was supposed to be the same. It was for the bigwigs in the Science department, heading to a place called Nibelheim. The only thing that stood out was the fact that they had a couple of people going with it. And one of them was heavily pregnant.
In their mission briefing, they had been told to protect her. That was their main goal. Next up was the supplies, after that the man. There had been a bit of curiosity over that, but he was willing to admit that they would have done it anyway. They were soldiers, and for the most part pretty nice guys. It would have been their first move to protect the pretty blond woman. She was sweet, and kind, and told everyone to call her Nidara. Hell, she even reminded him of his sister when she had been expecting. Tired, but cheerful as hell, and always running her fingers over her belly. The guy with her was almost as bad about the touching, but given that this was their first kid, not surprising. Hard to believe that their name was Strife.
The first part had been normal. Joke around with the family, roughhouse a bit with the rest of the squad. Normal, right?
The mission briefing never mentioned how bad the monsters around Nibelheim were. Or that they were that large. Or that aggressive.
The attack had happened fast. He didn’t know what the hell the things that attacked them were, just that they were smart, fast, and attacked in a pack. He remembered being back to back with one of his friends, and black gore flying everywhere as they tried to stay alive. Somehow, they had managed to survive.
Not everyone had.
About half the squad was gone or going when the things ran off. Seemed the things had poison in their bites, and it scared the shit out of him to watch as his best friend’s leg melted off. Jon, their medic, was trying his best, but they kept losing people.
Like Strife.
He had already been gone when the fighting stopped. Looked like he had died protecting his wife. She was a wreck, but at least she had stopped crying. Now Nidara just held her husband’s hand in one of her’s like it was a lifeline, and stared off into space. The other hand was pressed tight to her stomach, and he prayed that she wasn’t going to go into labor. That would be just what they didn’t need.
Thankfully, it looked like the gods were on their side now, because they were able to patch up a few of the fallen, and didn’t have to help deliver any children. They weren’t even able to take the bodies, and he had the feeling that when they sent people back to retrieve them, they would be gone. Enough things like carrion.
He had never been so happy to see a town in his life. And he couldn’t wait to leave this cursed area. Thank the gods he didn’t have to stay here. Not everyone was that lucky.
He didn’t want to know, though. He was just a grunt.
Gene hated this job at times. Oh, he loved being a Turk. You got to go to interesting places and meet interesting people. Sometimes you had to destroy said places or kill said people, but it was interesting none the less. Downside of all that was you had to deal with Shinra and all its shit.
Like now.
As he leaned back in the seat of the helicopter, Gene watched as Professor Hojo fussed with a few things as they were being loaded into the copter. He didn’t know what they were, nor did he want to know. The less he had to do with Hojo, the better he would feel, because he had already been warned of the bad times the man seemed to cause everywhere he went.
Now Gene was having to haul the scientist out to some little back woods town because the man’s little bit on the side had gotten in trouble. Just what he didn’t want to do. The others had been talking about getting a poker game started when the call came in.
The Turks were the assassins and enforcers of the Shinra Company. They all knew that. Even if they hid it under nice terms and the like, they knew what they were. They were not delivery boys.
Tell that to Hojo.
President Shinra himself order the drop, though, so Gene would do what he had to. He wondered idly if anyone would notice if he pushed the ratty little man out of the copter once they hit a nice decent height.
Probably. And there would be at least one party.
Hojo muttered under his breath as he felt the helicopter thrum into life around him. Of all the worst timed, horrible events to happen.
He wanted to be there when Strife had her child. It was the effort of many months of hard work and dedication to get it perfect. He had so many things that he had wanted to try, and now this had happened.
It hadn’t been hard to make sure the woman had kept her child this time. The problem before had been connected to the genetic mixture of her husband and herself. He had simply replaced the genetic structure hers was mixed with. Exchanged his subordinate’s contribution with a much finer one. The best one he had been able to. After that, it had been easy for her to keep the fetus.
But if he lost the specimen now, it would be hard to duplicate everything. Oh, he had kept careful notes, details of what he had done and the like. But Nidara Strife’s genetic makeup was a lovely thing to see, and he knew the father’s like the back of his hand, and he would be hard press to find another set that matched as well as these did. Plus, there had been a few times when he thought the specimen would be rejected as he had tweaked and changed things to make it fit what he needed. Like the gender. Much too bothersome for his future plans if the child had been female.
It was perfect. Plus he was would have his answers on a few other things, such as if JENVOA cells would pass from father to child. If so, what effect would have the cells as part of the genetic makeup since birth have on the specimen. He didn’t have an answer for that, as even Sephiroth, his greatest specimen, had had over a month of gestation pass before being injected with JENOVA.
Everything had been perfect.
Now the man was dead, and Nidara had been through several heavy shocks. She was currently taking care of the Mansion, but Hojo had decided to get there as soon as possible. There was every chance that, if she went into labor, she or the fetus might die. Hojo had no desire to play at raising another child, and he refused to lose such a potential test subject. Just the thought of what he might be able to do....
Hojo was a long term planner. It might be years before he was able to get a hold of the specimen again, but it would be worth it when he did.
Smiling to himself, Hojo settled back. Time would tell.
A month had passed.
A month since she had lost her Orrin, since he had died protecting her from that thing. A month since she had started working on the lab in this horrible little town.
She had hoped to escape the whispers, the looks. She hadn’t. Already she had heard comments about how she had come without a husband, without a ring on her finger.
They had both been lab workers. Rings and jewelry got in the way. Neither she nor Orrin had ever thought about actually buying a set. They had simply married and knew that they belonged to one another.
Now she could hear the whispers. The people of the town didn’t know that there had been another person. A man who had helped her life feel full. All they had see was a too pregnant woman alone, and none of the escort squad had even thought to mention it.
She heard new comments, new names. Whore. Slut. Because she was pregnant. Nidara couldn’t believe there were places like this still, where if you were married or not mattered. Bunch of backwoods freaks. Look where they lived. It was full of monsters and the like. Some of them wore human faces and lived in town.
It had gotten a little better when Professor Hojo had arrived. At least he was someone she could talk to, who knew the truth and who could comprehend when she used words with more than three syllables.
Muttering to herself, Nidara wasn’t paying attention to the ache that came and went along her back. It wasn’t until she felt warmth slide down her leg did she realize that she was in labor. Looking down, she saw her belly ripple. There was no pain, no real sensation of the muscles contracting.
She needed to see Hojo. Now.
He was a man of science. He was a man of rational thought. He was a man who was able to sit down and work through the problems he faced.
He was a man who wanted to curse.
Hojo growled as he send another assistant for something or another. Strife had stumbled in, face pale, blood streaming down her legs. She had taken two steps in, then collapsed.
Of course, he had immediately had her hooked to the machines, and was dismayed to find out that the child’s heart rate was rapidly approaching two hundred beats a minutes. Not good. If this kept up, he was going to lose the child. That was simply not acceptable. Strife herself was not looking good either, as more of her blood splattered the table she laid on. Mentally cursing at himself, Hojo looked at the others. “Prepare for a removal. Now.”
He pulled the cap off a syringe similar to the ones used for SOLDIER shots. It was filled with thick, purple liquid. Pure JENOVA cells. No mako at all, but he wondered if it would be enough to make the woman survive the birth. Aftereffects would be dealt with later, he decided as he slid the needle into her flesh. Depressing the plunger, his somewhat well trained assistants lunged forward to keep the blond woman pinned as she arched wildly. Moments later, she was still, but the blood between her legs was already stopping, and her own medical readings were reaching acceptable norms. Now, time to operate.
It was a bloody, disgusting mess. Strife had lost conscious before anything could be done, and Hojo had been forced to put his hands into her body in order to remove the infant. Moving to the side with the silent thing in his hands, he had absently told one of the assistance to use materia to heal the woman. He had to look over the child.
The baby was bluish and still, and for a moment, Hojo was furious that he was too late. His hands clamped down on the child’s chest, which drew a startled noise from the still form. As if that was the trigger it needed, the baby choked in a breath and then started to wail.
Hojo blinked at it.
A noise behind him made him look back. Nidara was sitting up, looking dazed. “My baby? I can hear my baby. Where...?”
Wanting to be rid of the squalling thing, Hojo moved to hand it over. The woman’s eyes lit up as she took the child from him. “My baby. My Cloud,” she whispered softly.
“Cloud?”
His voice seemed to make no impression on the dazed woman. “Yes, Cloud. Cloud Strife.”
Nodding, Hojo walked over to the file that sat on a nearby table. Grabbing a pen, he quickly wrote the following on the tab.
Specimen C, Male
This section word count comes to 3805.
Chapter Two: Clean Up