Chaos Cursed

“Sir? There are two women below. What should we do?” As Tseng heard the pilot’s words in his earpiece, he shot to his feet, glancing quickly to the screen showing what was going on so many miles away from his current location in Midgar.

“Land! Land now!” The short snap in their earpieces made the two men sitting in the passenger seats of the helicopter glance to each other. While the red head merely looked utterly confused, realization dawned in Rude’s mind, quickly unbuckling himself the moment the helicopter landed to throw himself out of the hulking beast and towards the two girls.

“SERAPHINA! SANURA!” He yelled, rushing towards them, only to freeze as he saw them lying as though dead. “No…Reno! Check Sanura!”

“Which one is that?!” Though he received no verbal answer, he assumed Sanura was the one Rude was not currently crouching down beside, and quickly rushed to check her pulse. “She’s alive!”

“Hurry up, we need to get them out of here!” Rude shouted over the roaring of the helicopter nearby, lifting Seraphina in his arms even as Reno did the same with Sanura. When they had reached the safety of the chopper, Reno relaxed - though Rude seemed more tense than ever.

“Are they alive?!” The panicked voice coming from the line to Midgar snapped both out of their focus on the girls, Reno glancing to Rude, who seemed to be trying to recover his usual calm demeanor.

“Yes.” Rude managed, voice rough. “They’re both alive…but Seraphina’s in a bad way…not like before - she seems to be alright as far as her previous problem goes, the crystal on her necklace is still glowing strong, but…”

“But what?! And what about Sanura?!”

“Sanura’s fine. She just seems to be in shock.” Reno informed him calmly. “I’m sure with time to recover she’ll be perfectly okay. Now who the hell are these girls?”

“Shut up, Reno. But WHAT, Rude?!”

“…you’ll see.”

Tseng collapsed into the chair at the command console, staring blankly at the screen even as the vice president stalked into the room, looking agitated.

“What’s going on, Tseng? One of the assistants came to find me and said you’d recalled the second squad before they found the renegades.”

“…they didn’t find Zack and the others. They found the twins.” His voice was quiet, so no others would hear, but the looks on the faces of both men caught the attention of everyone in the room. While Rufus looked shocked and possibly relieved, if only for a second, Tseng’s face was tense, one hand clenched on the arm of his chair.

“What’s this?” As the old doctor made his way across the room, both men turned to face him, Rufus simply staring blankly while Tseng looked confused.

“What do you want, Hojo?” He questioned, frowning as the man began to rub his hands together delightedly.

“I believe you found two of my runaway experiments!” He cackled gleefully. “Are you bringing them back to Midgar? I have a few more experiments to make on the dual-toned eyed one. Unfortunately the other is useless except for observatory purposes, but-”

“If you so much as-” Tseng began, venom in his voice and a promise of death in his eyes, only to be cut off when Rufus raised one hand, silencing him.

“Does this mean you have had both girls recently?” He questioned quietly, no emotion in his face or voice, merely watching the doctor as he seemed confused.

“Why, yes. They were in the labs of ShinRa Mansion for the past four years.”

“…how could you have possibly missed the fact that ShinRa has been searching for those two girls for over four years?” Still deadly quiet, Rufus simply glared at the man. “Keeping information from the company, Dr. Hojo? That hardly looks good for you, in light of certain matters…”

“Wh-what? What do you mean? Those two have been experiments since the day they were born! If one of my stupid underlings had not prevented me from nearing them until they were released from the capsules they were in for thirty years-”

“You’re only digging deeper, Hojo.” Rufus’s tone was getting quieter by the minute, Tseng staring in shock at this fact. While others would have assumed the growing anger came from a betrayal to ShinRa, Tseng realized that Seraphina was the real cause. “…these girls are not to be experimented on. Neither one of them. You will keep them in capsules under observation, no more than that. You’ve lost the right to experiment on them, as you did not notify us of your finding them.”

“But-”

“…get out of my sight.” As opposed to waiting for him to do so, Rufus headed for the helipad at the top of the building, Tseng following closely behind him.

“They’ll be here soon.” He promised quietly, only to blink as Rufus growled at him. “They’re near the building now, sir.”

“…they’re almost here?” Gaze snapping back to his subordinate, he blinked a moment, then burst into a run for the elevator, Tseng close behind him. As the doors opened onto the roof, they were welcomed by the sight of Reno and Rude carrying the two women, Reno looking merely confused, while Rude’s face was grave. Rufus stepped forward, and Rude, recognizing his intent, released Seraphina into his arms without protest. “…Andromeda?”

“…I can only assume it was the name of one of Hojo’s assistants…considering Sera’s disdain for guns, I highly doubt she was the one who pulled the trigger…but it’s certain the woman is dead, from the amount of blood on this coat…”

“…What did you mean when you told me I’d see, Rude?” Tseng’s voice was quiet as they followed Rufus to the lab, the assistants scattering like cockroaches when the lights are turned on, as Rufus ordered them all out of the lab until further notice.

“…set her down for a moment, sir.” Rude said softly. When Rufus did so, Rude closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then opened the lab coat. “…when I was checking for wounds, afraid the bullet had hit her and not this Andromeda person…I found…”

“…what…how…? How did this happen to her?” Tseng questioned, as Rude had opened the dress shirt she wore to reveal the numerous scars all over her body. Rufus began to tremble, hand reaching out to touch the largest scar on her abdomen - a clean line that must have gone clear through her stomach. It was smaller than a normally healed scar would have been, and she likely would have died from it very rapidly, which left him confused.

“…I believe this occurred when Sephiroth attacked Nibelheim, sir.” Rude whispered. “It looks like someone began to Heal her, but was distracted before it was complete…I’m guessing that someone was Sephiroth, in his last moment of sanity…but the others…”

“…Hojo.” Rufus snarled, beginning to button Seraphina’s shirt back up. As he attempted to remove the lab coat, all of the men were shocked to see her eyes snap open, terrified, as her hand reached up to grasp his wrist.

“…no…Please…don’t take it away…it’s all I have left…” The whimper left the men staring, and as Rufus slowly let go of the lab coat, she relaxed, falling back to her previous state.

“…she needs to be protected…” Rufus whispered, carefully lifting her into his arms and carrying her to an adjacent room, placing her within the single capsule within it. “…and she needs time to recover from everything that’s happened.”

“We’ll have to keep the capsules linked to closed systems.” Tseng told him quietly. “She and Sanura can link into the system, and use it to unlock the capsules…Sir…we’d have to keep them both essentially prisoner…”

“…Just for a short time.” Rufus promised him, even as he closed the capsule and allowed it to fill with pure mako, one hand touching the glass as he watched the pain fade from Seraphina’s face. “…a few weeks, at most.”

“…very well. Reno, take Sanura into the room beside this one…Rude, go with him. I’ll follow as soon as I finish closing the system, to do the same for that room.”

“Yes, sir.” The men murmured, leaving the room. In the days that followed, every spare moment they had, the men spent visiting the twins. Rufus spent much of his time sitting with his back against Seraphina’s capsule, while Tseng and Rude visited both girls equally, and Reno occasionally snuck into Sanura’s chamber to sit and talk to her, cracking jokes and telling stories.

The two were never really alone, except in that neither sister could reach the other through their system link, leaving them alone in that most essential manner for them both. They did not have each other.