Cell Division | By : Savaial Category: Final Fantasy VII > AU - Alternate Universe Views: 2025 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1 |
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy. It belongs to SquareEnix. I do not make any money from these writings, nor do I wish to. The original creators have all my respect, from game designers to voice actors. |
We were in an annex of the bio-lab when Hojo spied the first tattoo. Alison came down to deliver a specialized kit. Her sleeve fell back while reaching for the manual entry switch to the door of the tiny, access lab, exposing her stark black ink. He grabbed her arm just as she set the kit down, and exposed it fully. For a full five seconds he stared at it, his dark eyes seeming to not comprehend.
“Is something wrong, sir?” Alison asked cheekily.
Hojo pulled a wry grin. “No,” he said softly. “Thank you, Alison. Would you have Jean bring me the portable autoclave, please?”
“Yes, sir,” she replied. The moment Hojo turned his attention away, she and I exchanged winks.
Hojo’s mood elevated. He whistled while we waited for Jean, making adjustments to a large machine taking up one wall. I watched him go from station to station in high energy, smiling. Alison’s tattoo cheered him, certainly. I supposed the gesture of devotion gave him a good feeling; he had visual proof of a willing ally in this nest of vipers.
Jean came a few moments later, carrying an autoclave obviously heavy enough for three or four people. He waited patiently in the center of the room for Hojo to notice him. I could see the very top edge of his tattoo just under the base of his windpipe. He shot me a smile which I returned swiftly.
“Oh,” Hojo said, turning with a clipboard. “Put it there, please, Jean, thank you.” He pointed to a corner. “Hook it up for me, will you?”
“Sure thing, sir,” Jean replied amiably.
Jean’s sullen mood had vanished the day Hojo let Cloud Strife and Vincent Valentine go free. I’d yet to see it return.
Hojo made a few notations. As Jean finished and stood, his master’s sharp eyes caught that tiny bit of black. Not saying anything, Hojo reached out and pulled down the neck of his scrub top. A slow grin took his lips. He patted Jean’s shoulder. “That you are, Jean, that you are,” he praised. “You’re my muscle around here.”
Jean ducked his head, smiling bashfully. When he left, Hojo put his clipboard down and just chuckled. “A couple with matching tattoos,” he said. “The ink looks fresh, too.”
I smiled to myself. He thought Jean and Alison had gone as a couple to get their tattoos.
He worked impatiently for the next hour, programming a computer for a certain task. He muttered, smoked, paced, punched buttons and cursed by turns. I picked up his cigarette butts, refilled his coffee, and handed him anything he expressed need of.
I observed how his hair always went from mostly tidy to having four, long locks hang over his left eye. He kept swiping at them, but absently, as if he equated them to an annoying fly or something outside his own equation. He could swat at his hair while smoking, drinking, punching buttons or anything, and all at once. He’d evidently had this rebellious ‘do’ for many years. It endeared him to me.
He began muttering in Wutainian. I’d heard enough of it over the years to understand Wutainian, for many of my clients hadn’t spoken the common language, but this dialect stymied me. I understood only one word in four. “Fuck,” he said in the more modern vernacular.
“What’s wrong?”
He looked at me. “No clone base for the right clone,” he explained, though I still didn’t understand. “I’ll have to use stored tissue samples and build one from scratch.”
“Who are you cloning?”
“The clone,” he said patiently, as if it were obvious.
“The clone won’t breed true, but you will.”
“Cloud Strife?”
“Yes.” Hojo penciled a few more equations and fed his answers into the large computer.
“May I ask, why are you cloning a clone?”
“To confuse and upset certain persons in this organization,” Hojo answered absently.
“You’re going to make doubles of the two in Sector Eight?”
“Of course.” Hojo slid the pencil behind his ear and gave me his full attention. “What better way to frustrate and annoy Baby Shinra?”
“Sir,” I said, coming closer. “Aren’t you afraid that someone might overhear what you say to me? If the president heard you, he’d come down like thunder.”
Hojo smiled slyly. “Everyone that comes in and out of this place goes through me,” he said. “I implant a little chip that takes care of that. I can run my mouth all I want to and only the persons I desire to hear, hear me.” He lit a smoke and blew a big plume toward the ceiling. “Clever of me, isn’t it? There are only four people in this entire compound without chips.”
“Your pets,” I said faintly.
“My pets,” he confirmed.
God, he was a diabolical man. I felt intensely glad I hadn’t ended up on the wrong side of him. How he’d programmed a chip to give everyone the hearing he selected, escaped me. But, it also astounded me.
“Take this as a lesson to never assume anything,” Hojo said, returning to his work. “Never assume you have complete control. Never assume you know more than anyone else. Never assume that your power is inviolate.”
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