Pater Familias

My first morning back in the labs saw great activity. A giant spider attacked my staff in SL-21, and I had to subdue it myself. Williams, the man responsible for spilling mako on the thing, I busted back down to scrub-tech.

An hour after the spider incident, a vacuum containment on SL-7 failed, pumping the room full of experimental gas. Apparently, the combination of the hallucinogen and the recent immunizations caused a sweep of raging lust. I had techs copulating in corners, fucking behind furnaces, and tilting on tables. Even after pumping the chamber with fresh, clearing oxygen, the fornication continued. I isolated the level, locked them all in and put a man at the window to watch for signs of clear-headedness. “Security’s on you,” I warned. “If you jerk off, do it in a hanky and spare the janitors.”

Then, I had to dose the latest SOLDIER hopefuls, all two hundred of them, to near-toxic levels. This method tended to weed out the ones who weren’t adaptable to the program. At number one hundred and ninety seven, I looked into the worried and brilliant eyes of Sephiroth’s food court friend, the one who’d given him the sugar rainbow and Mako-Mint.

He smiled at me.

I quirked a grin. “You know this is going to be rough?”

“Oh, yeah, I see that.” The man looked around to the men lying about, moaning and writhing on the floor. “That’s okay, Professor Hojo. I guess if I can’t cut it here I shouldn’t be in the program.”

I dosed him and gave him a lolly. “My son liked his Mako-Mint,” I said, bringing a youthful, eager light to his eyes. “Good luck, Jules.”

“Thank you, sir.” He seemed pleased I knew his name, probably because he’d have to realize Sephiroth was the one who told it to me.

I finished off the lot of them, assigned them a few watchdogs, and returned to SL-7. The guard at the door guiltily jerked his hand away from his pants. “Still at it, sir,” he said.

“You or them?” I asked sourly. “Have me paged when they start to calm. I’m going to lunch.”

Of course, lunch was an experience. Garchae’s attempt to re-educate the cook staff and improve food quality seemed to have only confused everyone. We could choose from seven different kinds of salad, but no dressing. They now offered fish and chicken instead of mystery meat, but without seasoning of any kind. My fish seemed half raw but I ate it anyway.

I took a stroll around the compound with my extra time, and before I knew it I stood outside Sakura’s building. Zed waved at me and I waved back.

“Miss Leijanna’s a bit scared of us being around her all the time,” he confided while I drew closer to him. “Ain’t none of us would hurt her.”

“I know.” I patted his shoulder. “Women are easily intimidated by such rapt attention, considering they usually have to fight to be heard,” I explained. “And, she’s had a lot of men to hurt her. Don’t take it personally.”

“Who hurt her?” he demanded, his nostrils flaring.

“Easy,” I chuckled. “Let me take care of that.”

He relaxed. “Well, s’your duty as her man, I s’ppose.”

“It isn’t official, so don’t spread it.”

“Won’t,” he vowed.

I left him and went back to the labs. Garchae intercepted me on my way to my office, drawing alongside me and just following. Once the door shut, he leaned on it and crossed his arms.

“What’s this about a rescue mission?”

I blinked. “I want to liberate Miss Leijanna’s sister.”

“Why?”

“Because it will make her happy.”

Garchae’s lips twitched. “You really have changed, did you know? You’re…kinder.”

“No, I just channel my evil toward worthy subjects instead of spreading myself all over the place.” I lit a smoke and sat down on the edge of my desk. “I know the difference between friends and enemies, too, now.”

Garchae fully smiled. “So, do you want a team or do you want to do this rescue mission on the sly?”

“I want a Turk, an AVALANCHE member, Miss Leijanna, and a guard of my own choosing,” I told him.

Garchae pulled a PDA from his pocket. “Give me names.”

“I want Zed, from security, and Reno of the Turks. The AVALANCHE member is up for debate.”

“Okay.” Garchae’s eyes floated around the room. “Strife’s too high profile, and so is Barret. Lockhart just had a baby a few months ago, so she’s out. You have too much history with Valentine. How about Highwind? He even has an airship to get you there.”

“If I take Highwind, I’ll need another woman to balance out the equation.”

“Equation?” Garchae made a face. “Fine, take Kisaragi and Highwind together.”

“These are monks, Garchae, not ninjas.”

Garchae rolled his eyes. “Hojo, why take a team at all, then?”

“Witnesses.”

“I don’t think you’re examined this from all angles.” Garchae put his PDA away. “You’ll need the airship, but why would you need anyone but Highwind?”

Now I rolled my eyes. “Fine, Garchae,” I said. “Forget it. “Give me Zed and leave it at that.”

“But-.”

“No, really,” I stressed. “I’ll do this on my own, but I want Zed.”

“Fine.” Garchae opened my door. “Unofficially. As far as the paperwork, he’ll be on vacation.”

***********************************************************************************

Home again, I greeted Ink and showed her all the things I’d purchased at Pet Palace. She’d already made use of my floor, but by her amount of interest I knew she’d take to the sandbox quickly. I cleaned up her mess, set out food and water, and added a slab of red meat to her plate. She complained until I cut it into manageable bites.

My goldfish gave me the neutral eyeball, as usual. The barrier between the bigger and smaller fish had fallen. I counted the babies and breathed a sigh of relief that the parents hadn’t eaten them yet. Maybe I should buy another tank. I couldn’t worry as much if I separated them.

“Did Eldon speak with you?”

I shouted in alarm, whirling to see my son looming just behind me. “Holy Ifrit, boy, stop dropping in on me like that! You’re heart-stopping enough without being sneaky.”

“My apologies,” he answered, leaning over to tap on the goldfish tank.

“Stop that.” I smacked his hands away. “How would you have felt if someone had tapped on your tank?”

“Indifferent,” he answered. “Did Eldon speak with you?” he repeated.

“Yes, and he was as helpful as chocobo pox.” I sank onto the couch and snapped my fingers, summoning Ink to my waiting hand. Still licking her chops, she climbed up my arm and settled in the space between my neck and chest, purring loudly. “I’ve half a mind to take the entire AVALANCHE team and to hell with involving Shin-Ra. If Sakura’s parents cause a stink, I could just murder them.”

“You’ve done it before.” Sephiroth scooped up my cat and held her up to his face. She batted his nose and he smiled before putting her back in her proper place. “I have a suggestion, father.”

“Yes?”

“Let me go retrieve the woman by myself. It would take a few hours only. I could leave her with Uncle Syvas until we know how to approach the legalities involved.”

A tempting solution, truly. Sephiroth could be in and out of any place no matter how secure, and he’d be fast. I looked at him, noting with pride his graceful stance, his handsome face and jewel eyes. Shiva, he had so much of his lovely mother.

I should ask Valentine to take him to see her. It might give him that much more perspective.

“I’ve no wish to see her,” he said. “What would be the use, father?”

I sighed heavily. Ink rooted around, pressing her cold nose to my neck. “Honestly, Sephiroth, you’re probably right. There probably isn’t any use to visit her statue-like corpse.”

Sephiroth sat on the floor and looked at me. “You don’t still love her or you’d not pay so much attention to your botanist.”

“True. I just feel like it was a waste.” I patted him on the shoulder. “But, I got you out of it all, for which I’m thankful.”

He left me not long afterward. I petted Ink and drifted off to sleep.