Not Easy Being Green

"NO!" A metal tray flew across the laboratory and hit the stark, white wall with a clang. Sharp instruments skittered across the floor. The thin boy struggled to sit up on the examination table. He was in pain, the laboratory assistants could see it written plainly on his face, but he succeeded. The glare he shot them was furious. The green glow in his eyes had only intensified with the last round of treatment.

"No more," the boy grated out the words. "No more!" The break in his voice made it no less terrifying.

The door swung open and Hojo entered with a clipboard and a scowl. "Sephiroth, don't be an ass. Your treatment isn't done yet."

The boy's legs nearly fell out from under him when he tried to stand. His feet had turned to rubber. He gripped the thin mattress for support. Long silver hair spilled over his shoulder and he had to push it back to meet the scientist's gaze. "It's never finished, is it?" His voice broke again halfway through. "You're going to keep me here, you're going to keep sticking me and pumping me full of mako and writing down what happens till the day I die." His foot slipped and he slid to the floor.

Hojo motioned to one of the assistants to move in. All Sephiroth saw was a blur of white as the man picked him up and put him back on the table. "Strap him down properly this time," he heard Hojo say. The bright light above was nearly blinding. Sephiroth felt the tightening leather around his wrists and ankles. His breathing grew heavy. He knew what was coming, knew perfectly well. Knowing did not make it easier.

He felt the needle go in and then the burning began, liquid fire in his veins. The light grew impossibly bright, tinted with green, and the voices began to fade. The boy let himself slide away as far as he could go. Maybe, maybe if he could get far enough, his body would not burn so much. The voices became soft echoes and the lights were not so brilliant, but he could go no further. His body caged him in this state as much as the walls of the laboratory did. He could not move and did not wish to. It hurt too much.

"I'm sorry, sir," Sephiroth heard a woman's voice from outside the shell that was his body. The female lab assistant . . .funny how she never bothered to speak to Sephiroth himself. "The restraints weren't on properly and when the tremors began his arm got loose."

"Hm," Hojo was not pleased. "One more mistake like that and you won't be around to make another one." Sephiroth heard footsteps and then the door slammed shut. Two shadows appeared over him, the man and the woman.

"This is terrible! I don't want to be fired!" The woman was distressed, but Sephiroth had no pity to spare for anyone. He was in agony and she was worried about losing her job? If he could have controlled his body at the moment he would have smirked at her. The last assistant had lost more than a job. One of the scalpels had gotten the man in the neck. Sephiroth had never seen him again, not that he cared. He had simply noted the fact and gone about observing and cataloging the replacement's nuances.

"Don't worry about it," the man said. "The kid's getting stronger by the day. They can't really blame you if the equipment they give you isn't up to dealing with him. Get the last needle ready." It would be a thick one, full of shimmering green mako. Bits and pieces of conversation floated down to the immobile boy.

"Where do you suppose they found this kid, anyway?"

"Heh, I dunno. I supposed somebody screwed a dragon and he popped out!" Laughter. . . Sephiroth would have shivered if he could have.

"They've put so much mako into his system in the past couple of years, it's a wonder he doesn't bleed the stuff!"

"I'm surprised he hasn't gotten sick from it all!"

A chuckle. "Ah, he's used to it. Been here from birth, you know." The voices faded, as did the lights. Sephiroth was left trapped within his gangly, adolescent body. He let himself drift. There was nothing else he could do until the mako illness wore off.

Then it would be time for the testing. They would make him lift weights, run on treadmills, they would check his heart rate and his brainwaves. They would take blood out for the mako they had put in. Maybe they really did want to replace his blood with mako.

Sephiroth felt a sudden chill come over his body. He knew what that meant. His mind was about to spiral out of control and he feared it. There was a darkness, a sensation of utter blindness, and Sephiroth was cast adrift. Impressions came at him from all around. He could not tell if they were images or sounds, touches or even smells. It was disorienting. Fragments came together and flew apart just as quickly.

From deep within, almost inside him, one thing rang out quietly, but it was clearly a voice. "Like this. Like this."

Sephiroth felt as if something actually grabbed his mind and turned it. Then he knew. He suddenly knew how to pull the images together, how to orient himself in the void. He sorted through the intruding images and pulled the pieces together. He could tell which ones fit together now, where they came from. Whole pictures formed. He examined and discarded them at will.

The lab assistants were flirting with each other over coffee in another room . . . a woman with long brown hair pounded on a heavy door and cried . . .in a far-off corridor, a janitor wrung out his mop and kept working as people passed by. . . a large, bearded man in a military uniform signed a report . . . a little girl with blank, green eyes sat on a cold table and shivered . . .Hojo stood before a long conference desk and reported to the President . . .

Sephiroth held on to the last image. His grip was tenuous but he could feel that the matter concerned him.

"The years of waiting have paid off, somewhat, sir," Hojo was saying. "I believe the boy is physically ready for the next step."

"Good. It's not a moment too soon. The arrangements have all been made. I expect that his training will be accelerated, since he already has more mako in him than any SOLDIER." The President grinned.

"So Heidegger assures me. The boy's treatments will continue during his training." Hojo was expressionless. "Not with the same frequency, but his mako tolerance is high enough for him to handle doses that would kill a normal man outright." The President grunted his approval. "Heidegger is currently ensuring that the boy's schedule leaves enough time for him to report to the lab for further testing," Hojo continued.

Sephiroth's focus slipped. The image wavered.

"Further testing? What for?"

Hojo paused before he answered. "The specimen's mental abilities still lag behind the projections for this stage of the project. Even the younger specimen of the Promised Land project shows more psychic aptitude that Specimen One."

The President got up and walked over to the large window that overlooked the city. "Does that have to be a problem, Doctor? The boy can still fight. We'd already determined that he wouldn't be the one to lead us to the Promised Land."

"Nevertheless, Mr. President, I must insist on monitoring the situation. There is the possibility that the boy is simply a 'late-bloomer', to put it in layman's terms."

The President guffawed. "Have it your way, Hojo! It can't hurt to keep an eye on the boy!"

Sephiroth lost his hold completely and the image flew away. His body did not seem so hostile and immobile now. The cold had not subsided and he still shivered on the table. Nobody ever thought to cover him. He lay still -what choice did he have- and let the scene play in his mind again. He had not known that there were other specimens like him, had not known what had been planned for his life. He wondered who this 'Heidegger' person was and just what 'training would be waiting for him.

He had already learned all his tutors could teach him. His physical training had been carefully supervised and he had been taught the basics of self-defense. He wanted to learn more about everything, but most of all, he wanted to get away from this place. He had heard Hojo's plans, assuming that what he had seen was true, not the product of a mako-poisoned imagination. More treatments, more testing. No matter what this new training was, it was no permanent escape from Hojo's grasp. Sephiroth had learned long ago, there was no escape for him.

He smiled weakly. At least he would be away from Hojo for longer stretches. And he was just about due for another of what Hojo called 'Childish, Unscientific Acts of Destruction.' War was war and Sephiroth fought however he could. If he could not stop Hojo from working, he would destroy the means by which Hojo did his work. He grinned, which caused the assistants no small alarm when they came to release him. They always let him wander down the hall to his room on his own since he was more than old enough to find his way.

Sephiroth took a detour instead and walked to the one place he was expressly forbidden to be without supervision. He went to the main laboratory and stared at the blinking machines and sparkling glassware. He was still dizzy, but there was a wicked thrill running through him. He pondered exactly how to give this particular 'tantrum' a signature trait, a name that would forever etch it into the bony old man's wriggling brain.

Sephiroth sat on a stool and smiled at thoughts of glories past. He had contaminated the chemicals before and unplugged the freezers, left incubators wide open and built fine forts out of the man's precious journals. He had already shattered all the glassware, had even slipped fine shards into the coffee pot. Sephiroth had thrown so many things into that coffee pot over the years, acid and mouse-droppings, dead roaches and flies, hell, he'd even urinated in it once or twice... Too bad Hojo had not died. The man never even called in sick.

The last time, he had turned on all the gas and used a striker. The spectacular fireball had almost outdone the look of rage on Hojo's face. The old bag of bones could not decide whether to be angry or not. His lab had been destroyed, the whole building had almost gone up in flames, and the boy had walked out with barely a singe. Stark naked, since his clothes had burned right off his back, but unharmed.

Here lay the difficulty. How could Sephiroth possibly outdo that one? If he truly was getting out of the lab, it was time for a grand finale. He leaned on one elbow and nearly dozed off thinking. He did not know how long it would be before he was sent off for training. It would be soon, he supposed, and Hojo would lose his favorite specimen. Sephiroth sat up. If he was getting out, why should the others have to stay?

He got up, nearly tripped over his own feet, and ran full speed for the animal room. He was nearly breathless by the time he reached the door. He knew the code for the door, had stolen it out of some forgetful lab assistant's pocket years ago. The door swung opened with a click. Sephiroth blocked it from swinging shut with one foot while he dragged a heavy wastepaper basket into place to do the job.

He entered the room. It was long, white, like all the others on this floor, and lined all around with steel shelves, packed tight with shelves and cages that stretched far into the distance. Sephiroth leaped forward and began to pull up the lids. He broke locks and cracked tanks. Everything, baby mice, hoary rats, thin snakes, snails, cats, birds, turtles, bunny rabbits, all forgot their natural adversaries in a hurry to escape out the door. Sephiroth made short work of the large room and his pulse raced the whole time. Hojo was just going to shit his pants when he saw this!

The job was done all too soon, though Sephiroth had not been able do anything about the live sharks. He ran down the hallway to his room, tingling all over with the excitement. What if he ran into someone? What if he ran into Hojo? He heard voices up ahead and his heart nearly flew right out of his chest. He ducked into a corridor and hid behind a wall. He hoped his breathing wasn't too loud.

The footsteps and voices came closer and passed. Sephiroth was thankful that it had been the assistants and not Hojo himself, but still, it would not do to be caught in this part of the lab. He looked down the narrow corridor. It looked vaguely familiar. Perhaps he had once had a room here. The boy carefully peered around the corner. There was no one in sight. If he wanted to explore, there was no time like the present. He faced the corridor again and began to walk, trusting in his sense of direction to lead him back to the main lab.

There was not much to see. The walls were pale and the doors were steel. There was a keypad on each lock. The paint had worn off the numbers of a few and Sephiroth could easily guess what the combinations might be. The only thing out of place was the complete lack of sound.

No, not complete. There was something like crying off to the side from one of the rooms. Sephiroth stopped in front of it and pressed his ear to the door. As soon as he did so, the sound stopped. He listened hard, but there was nothing. His exhaustion from the day's procedure caught up with him and he almost fell asleep right there. Instead, his mind slipped down as it had before.

The descent was more controlled this time. Was this what Hojo had been hoping Sephiroth would learn to do? The boy resolved to hide it from the man as long as possible. Images and sounds began to flit through Sephiroth's mind once more.

Hojo got into an elevator . . .A trooper ran down a hallway with an important message… A small, blond boy in a suit threw a paper plane at his teacher's head…The long-haired woman with tears in her eyes held the little girl close in her arms and motioned for her to be silent…the President lit a cigar as he surveyed his empire…Down the hallway and around the corridor, the lab assistants held hands and snuck away from their desks.

Sephiroth returned to himself. That last image had been a bit much. If it was not his imagination, then those idiots were running off for a make-out session. But they had left their computers on and unguarded. The boy grinned. Let the lackeys hump in a closet. Hojo would have their heads afterwards. He fled down the corridor past the labs and offices. He knew the maze quite well. Every now and then an escaped animal crossed his path. He knew that they might never make it out of the building, but at least they might be free from Hojo's plans for a while. The mako exposure hurt him badly enough. How much torture it was for a smaller creature, he could not guess.

Sephiroth soon reached the tiny office he had sought and sure enough, as he had seen it was empty. There was one computer and it was on. Sephiroth had never been allowed to use one unsupervised, and then, only for studies. Still, he knew his way around the things. He fiddled with the mouse and helped himself to a donut from the box on the table. He'd missed sweet things since Gast's passing.

Areas of the network that he had never been allowed to see were clearly laid out on this machine. Hojo was going to crucify those fools for logging into the system and leaving it for anyone to access. Anyone like Sephiroth, Agent of Destruction. The boy grinned and got to work.

Environmental controls, access locks, the settings were all there. Changing them was almost effortless. Wait till Hojo tried to get into the bathroom tomorrow. How long could that dried up old stick hold it? Sephiroth knew he would have to hurry. Hojo would be getting off the elevator right at that very moment. Just a few more things, change a few more settings, pop a few more locks.

Sephiroth heard a series of sharp clicks from far away. The locks in that direction had all sprung open at once. The boy grinned and bit into another donut in satisfaction. There was little time for it. He got up and ran. He had to be in his room, studying or at least pretending to, by the time Hojo got back.

__________________________

Hojo did not come to collect him for testing that day. Sephiroth had begun to wonder if the old man would come at all. A long wait usually meant that there was a problem or that Hojo was angry. After the little stunt with the lab animals, Sephiroth supposed it would be both.

There had been a lot of yelling after Sephiroth locked himself up in his room. There had been screams amidst the angry shouting and something that Sephiroth had even thought might have been gunshots. The commotion had grown distant and the lab had been very silent after that. Maybe they had resorted to hunting down the escaped specimens. Sephiroth had not considered that possibility before he freed them, but it did not matter. In this place, death would be a blessing.

When Hojo did come in, he seemed tired. Sephiroth had never seen the man look that way before. The two stared each other down. For the first time ever, Hojo looked away first. Sephiroth was ecstatic, but he was careful not to let his mouth twitch. He hoped his mako green eyes did not glow with his joy. He knew their intensity shifted with his mood and he hated it. He had grown his hair just past his shoulders specifically so he could hide behind it and now his eyes were proclaiming his emotion for all to see.

Hojo spoke. "You've caused a lot of damage today, boy." Sephiroth said nothing. "All my specimens, gone, my experiments ruined, including," the man's voice grew sharp, but weak, "Including one that can never be repaired." Sephiroth maintained his silence. "There's been a project, boy, one as big as yours, and today, you ruined it completely. One of the specimens was killed and the other, well, it's gone now, probably for good."

The man rubbed his temples in frustration. "It won't survive long out there on its own. Now our only chance to get the information we need is by dissecting the dead specimen. That's barely anything at all compared to what we had hoped to learn." If Hojo had ever shown one ounce of mercy towards Sephiroth, if the boy did not know what it meant to be Specimen One, then Sephiroth might have felt some slight remorse for his actions. There was no guilt in the boy's heart and no pity for the gaunt monster in the doorway. Hojo's head snapped up as if he could sense the boy's feelings.

"You will not be doing this again, Sephiroth," he said. "Start packing your things, if you care to. Next week you'll be joining the army. Maybe the military can straighten you out." The door slammed shut. Sephiroth was left in a darkness broken only by the green glow of his own eyes. He smiled.

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Time: 3hrs 12mins

Assessment: Events feel a bit disjointed, emotional transitions might not flow smoothly. Props to Henson and his frog for the title.

Mission: 50% complete