Crisis Core: The Female SOLDIER

17

"I remember," Sera spoke up. "When I came looking for you all for my next training session, Genesis wasn't there with the two of you. So that's what happened."

"That's right," Sephiroth replied.

"So, was everything alright?" Zack asked, leaning against the railing.

"Yes, as far as Genesis was concerned. But as for Angeal..."

"Angeal?" Zack turned to look at Sephiroth. "What happened?"

Sephiroth let out a soft sigh. "Later, I received one of his famous lectures."

"About what?"

"Always the same. Discipline, dreams, honor, et cetera." Sera made a face, remembering those lectures Angeal used to give her as well whenever she did something reckless.

"Ah, one of those, huh?" Zack chuckled. It seemed Zack was subjected to those as well.

Sephiroth remained silent, walking back to the dead creature that held Angeal's face and looked down at it.

"So, it's true... they're in league with Hollander."

'Sephiroth...' Sera looked at her mentor sadly.

"How could this happen?" Zack wondered out loud, gripping the railing tightly. Sera agreed with him. Just where did everything go wrong?

"Shinra," Angeal pulled away from her touch as he answered. "It was Shinra that did this. That's why you two need to get out of there as soon as you can. Before you both become what Genesis and I are now... Monsters."

'Shinra...' Sera clenched her fist. Shinra started this whole mess. All because they and their stupid scientists just cannot let things be. All for the sake of fame, knowledge, and power. Just when would they ever stop?

Sephiroth turned so that he was now facing the both of them. "Hollander's secret laboratory is down this way, apparently," he informed the two. "Perhaps we can find some information about Angeal's whereabouts there."

Zack and Sera nodded, their attention going back to the matter at hand. "Alright, let's go."

The three of them continued to walk deeper into the reactor, taking down any mutated monsters coming their way and they stood before a thick metal door with bolts framing it with a number 6 in the center.

"It seems that this door isn't powered," Sephiroth stated, as either of the two bulbs above were not lighted. He turned to Zack and Sera, "The power source is...Mako."

'The same thing that was injected into us, giving us our enhancements, and our Mako eyes,' Sera thought.

Sephiroth went to look over the railing, below, and the two promoted SOLDIER 1st Class followed his gaze to look down below to see a control panel at the lower level.

"Zack, go open the valve on the lowest level," Sephiroth ordered. "That should restore the power flow." Zack nodded and he went off. Sera stayed behind with Sephiroth, she felt he should know this.

"Sephiroth," The man in question glanced back at his student. "Earlier at Banora, when Zack wasn't around, I met Angeal, just before the air strike commenced."

At this, the older SOLDIER 1st Class turned to her fully. He had read reports about what had happened in the mission at Banora. How they had encountered Genesis and Angeal and about the air strike that neutralized the town. But it seemed that not all of it was fully reported, hearing what his student told him. He stayed silent, indicating her to continue.

"Angeal wished to speak to me, and only me, for some reason," Sera continued. "He told me the reason for his desertion, as well as Genesis's. And he told me that Shinra, the company, they did something, Sephiroth. They did something to both Angeal and Genesis that caused them to defect. He showed them to me."

"What did he show you?"

"A wing."

"A wing?"

Sera nodded. "Yes, there was a wing coming out from Angeal's back. He said this was what had been done to him. And if he has it, I believed Genesis may have one as well."

"...I see..."

"Sephiroth, just what the hell are the scientists doing?! Genesis and Angeal have wings now and it's because of those meddlesome idiots! What if they did something to you, too?! What if I as well-"

"They have done nothing to you," Sephiroth spoke up, cutting her off. "As you are my protege, I have refused all forms of experiments or examinations the scientists have requested to be done to you. And the ones that must be taken, like the Mako treatments that must be given to all in SOLDIER, were undergone with my, Angeal's, or Genesis's supervision so as to make sure that there was nothing out of place. We would know of it if something had gone out of order."

Sera relaxed slightly, feeling a bit reassured now but she was still not entirely convinced. The scientists, when they want to know something, would stop at nothing to find out, even going so far as to experiment on live beings to get what they want. And she could sometimes remember the periods when she had to remain unconscious during some examinations even when one of her three teachers was around. What if the scientists had slipped something into her without their notice? But she didn't feel any different after any of them. The scientists have caused her to become paranoid at their every action. Hojo being the worst of them. And her mentor had yet to reply to her other question. What if they had done something to him too? And he was just not aware of it?

As she was about to ask once more, one of the light bulbs above the door lit up in a green color and the sound of something being unlocked was heard. Zack came up a moment later and she kept silent, deciding to ask this at another time.

But when?

"The power has been restored. Let's go."