The Beginning is the End...

Beta’d by CaseyAnn’sPrecious!

AN: *bows* Ok so, by my mistake in uploading the wrong chapter a couple days ago, some of you have already read this chapter. Chapter 4 is the one that was previously missing. I hope the rest of you can enjoy this XD
To those of who you got confused on what happened in the hospital room, Cloud was just getting a regular old prostate exam… Sephiroth style, which is the same as doctor style only with added humiliation~

Ratings, Disclaimer, and iWarnings! are still the same.

Of Mice and Men
(By: Megadeth)
Chapter 5

*Nibel*

Screams tore throughout the encampment and blood splattered wildly as dagger-like claws shredded through skin. It didn't take long for the sudden attack to come to an end, and ten motionless bodies lay on the ground as the result. Blood seeped from their wounds, but the monster barely had a scratch. It stood upon its hind legs as it let loose a few shrill roars from each of its heads.

An evening breeze swept through the tall wheatgrass and dried the bloodied land while faded warm hues began to appear in the horizon from the sun setting sun. All that was left of the beautiful, melancholy scene was carnage.

-

*Near Junon*

Cloud fought against the waves that had been formed by the passing storm, but each time he took a stroke it felt as if he was pushed back twice as far. Brief glimpses of land were his only proof that he was gaining any ground, and he’d begun to close the distance the others had on him. Most had noticed that they were getting waterlogged during the swim and had stopped to carefully remove a few disposable pieces of gear.

It seemed to take hours… hell, it was taking hours, but they seemed to luck out since the major part of the storm had turned in favor of heading south. Now, there wasn’t a cloud seen for miles; compliments of Junon's bizarre weather. The sun began to sink behind them and its glow turned the water’s surface into glistening ruby sapphires. Though the ocean was still cold from the downpour, it never reached hypothermic levels. Cloud's breathing was becoming labored as his unenhanced body struggled with the laborious activity. He’d long since stopped thinking about how far he still had to swim and focused more on staying active, keeping up his strokes, and whenever any amount of exhaustion was felt he'd start to backstroke.

The sun finally set and turned the ocean into a deep, rich blue, and by the time he reached shore most of the others were already collapsed near the beach. It took a while, but the slower swimmers made it back with the rest of them and looked for their pals. As they joined up together they laughed and gave rounds of high-fives for completing the first of the tests.

"Jason?!" one of the taller boys started calling. "JASON!!" A few others also yelled out for their missing friends. Everyone looked toward the ocean in hopes to maybe spot a head or two coming up with the waves. There was nothing. They made two groups to scout the southern and northern ends of the beach in case a couple drifted away during the swim, but both came back unsuccessful.

A few hours later, they were all either scattered out in clusters or quietly sitting alone on the ground. It seemed as if they were all off in their own little world. Of course, with that type of examination, how were they not prepared to lose someone? Did they think that everything would turn out fine, that only those who backed out were the only ones who wouldn't have come out safe? Cloud shook his head in disapproval. How could Shinra allow such a reckless test to be done on people that were barely adults?

"Congratulations on passing the first of my tests." All heads turned in the direction of the mellow voice coming from behind them. There was only a half moon out, but the Commander had his face in a book and was apparently trying to finish the last chapter before he paid them any attention.

"Wha… what the hell!" the boy from earlier stood up and faced his superior. "What the fuckin' hell is going on?!"

"I see you liked my test," Rhapsodos coldly replied and flipped another page.

"Don't you care?" the guy was on the verge of crying. "You created this fuckin' test to test our limits, right? This wasn't supposed to be something we could fuckin' die over!"

The unresponsive man went on reading while the examinee continued to yell out how immoral and wrong the situation had become. "Are you done?" the Commander asked mid-rant and caused the boy to pause in disbelief. Taking the momentary silence to his advantage, he began his own speech.

"If you are going to cry and throw a fit over every one of your friends that die here then I suggest you start packing your things and head home now. Believe me when I say that it's only going to get worse. Now that this has finally nailed the consequences of what can happen into your heads…" the Commander snapped his book shot and turned to point north, "… there is an old rusted building over there. Go to it and rest for the night, I suggest you get it while you can. Those of you who do not wish to continue may go report to an officer located back at the recruitment building. But remember: as of here on out there will be consequences. If you decide to discontinue then you will not be allowed to retake the SOLDIER 3rd test again!"

The group of examinees watched in silence as the Commander turned on his heel and walked south towards Junon. Cloud was the first one to get up and dust off his pants. Barefoot and drenched like a rat, he walked north to where the rusted building was said to be. One by one the others came to their own decision and followed.

-

*Junon*

Sephiroth's left arm itched. He was currently in a meeting with the war councilors. They brought out maps of Wutai and had sticks to move their small wooden chess pieces across the smooth table. Sephiroth's arm really itched. The dull drone of their voices made him reminisce about yesterday's time in the lab. Hojo claimed he had once again discovered a better form of mako and wasted no time in finding where to stick the needle. The mako seemed like it should have been glowing green, but a brown fog covered up its glow. When Hojo had previously discovered something, it was right before his accident at Shinra's recruiting basement in Midgar. Back then the green mako only had a slight tint of discoloring to it. He remembered feeling a little uncomfortable, but now…

Damn. He folded his arms to inconspicuously rub at the offending itch.

"General." Someone called out and brought him out of his thoughts. All eyes in the room focused on him to await a response…. he had no idea what they just said.

‘The fools shouldn't even be planning. They hardly know what to do.’ He thought and grumbled silently while the silence seemed to drag on, he only hopped that they would mistake his face for a look of pondering.

"Well?" Scarlet spoke in her usual undignified manner, "I think it's a great idea. Moving the forces into Wutai now and bringing down all resistance before they have a chance to counter us seems like the best option." And she flicked back her hair with a hand.

Annoyances. "I think that's a horrible idea," he countered. "For starters, we have no solid supplies or reinforcements in Wutai, it's hurricane season, and our men aren't used to providing shelter in those conditions as the Wutai are. The best time to move into Wutai would be later on in the season. We'll have more men, more supplies, and the watch for disastrous weather is lower."

He sat silently and stopped paying attention as the others fussed over details. It was all things that changed on the spur of the moment anyways. He used to be patient with these meetings and never minded sitting through them before, but now he was grateful when they ended it. He was headed to the sanctuary of his own apartment when the President caught hold of his arm in the hallway.

"General, may I have a moment?" It wasn't a question or a request, and the arm that had the annoying itch was now turning into a dull throb.

"President."

"I'm sure you've heard the news lately, have you not?" the chunky man walked as eloquently as a man his size could, it was still a disturbing sight.

"Are you talking about the television or what's currently being discussed with the board of directors?"

"The TV," the President replied.

"I don't keep up with what the news reporters say," Sephiroth said as he stopped near the elevators. "Is there something I should be aware of?"

"You should be concerned with the rumors that are spreading about you and a cadet," the man did the honors and pressed the button for the doors.

"Rumors?"

"Yes, rumors." The General gave a slight sigh. Of course the company would be worried about rumors. Neither he nor his friends had given a second thought to what other people had said about their relationship when rumors started a few years back. They stayed together and had done what they always did, and the stories were forgotten when something bigger came up. Why should he start caring now? "I believe it would be best for the company if you didn't go near the boy for a while," the President said and slipped in when the doors opened.

Though Sephiroth not much cared for details, he was at a total loss as to what the President was referring to. The short man kept talking as the elevator began moving down.

"I'm sure you are aware of the fact that I have my fair share of mistresses." He gave a mental shudder at the idea of the man trying to procreate again, "as are many others here at Shinra… even my wife, but I make certain that I'm careful enough to not let the media get any wind of it. The scandal that it would create could put my status as President at risk, you see." The President paused for a moment to measure him and ended it with an exaggerated sigh. He just stood there while mentally trying to make the elevator go faster by sheer will. "General Sephiroth, you're a well respected man. I will not question your… choice in sexual preference-"

His frowned deepened as he realized exactly what this bothersome conversation was about.

"-and I will not hold it against you. I must agree that he's quite… beautiful… for a male, but I insist that you break whatever relationship you have with him now! The gossip that could spread about the company's finest General being a homosexual could bring us to ruin. Parents would refuse to send their boys here for military training and those that are already here would leave!"

As the doors opened, Shinra gave a pleased sound and tried to delicately walk out of the shared space. "I'm glad we had this talk. Think about what I said before you decide." And merrily strutted his way out of the building and into his limo.

-

Angeal had just come out of the stairway when silver caught his eye. He grinned and was about to call out to Sephiroth, but froze as an intense killing aura filled the air. His feet stayed grounded while his instincts told him to run. Cat-like eyes were targeting something in the distance, gloved hands twitched, and the eyes suddenly changed focus when a closer target was within range- him.

The elevator shut as it made a soft ding and the aura disappeared with it. The numbers at the top of the closed panels told that it was heading to one of the upper floors.

Angeal fell back against the wall and drew in a breath that he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. Sephiroth never had slit pupils before…

His mind then grasped onto what had just went back up that shaft. Giving a soft curse, he jerked open the door to the stairway and ran back up in hopes to catch Seph before anything… catastrophic happened. He made it to the 37th floor in record time, and whoever rung the elevator back up was long gone, probably taking the one that got there faster. Angeal stood tense as the elevator doors glided open. The killing aura was gone, and Sephiroth appeared to be fine even though his eyes were downcast. If only his vision from before wasn’t so clear, Angeal could almost believe that he’d been seeing things. Both stood there waiting for the other to speak.

"Going down?" Sephiroth asked, cutting the tension.

Angeal nodded and walked into the elevator. "What happened back there?"

Sephiroth looked troubled and his gaze shifted to everything except him. "I don't know." It was an honest answer, but judging from the way the other was moving it was also an attempt at feigning ignorance.

"You don't know?" Angeal scoffed. "There was enough bloodlust in the air to go on a killing spree, and you say you don't know?" When blue eyes locked with green, Sephiroth was the one to turn away first. "Seph, back there… I could feel it, and I don't ever want to sense that from you again."

"It won't happen again. It was a momentary reaction to something that I wasn’t prepared for. It… won't happen again." Angeal eyed the other, studied him. There was something off in the way he was speaking, like Sephiroth was using the words to convince himself.

"What's gotten into you these past few days?"

"It's not any of your business," Sephiroth quickly growled out.

"I'm not the only one who’s noticed these irregularities in you, and what happened isn’t something to be overlooked! Genesis has been worried too! You haven't been acting like yourself since the accident!" The other only continued to look distantly ahead.

"I didn't think too much about it when I first noticed," Angeal confessed. "I thought Genesis was just on another one of his ideas that Shinra's conspiring something bigger than what we already know. I thought I was just amusing him and…” and his inane ideas that Hojo might be messing with you more than he should. Following Sephiroth out as the doors opened, a sudden thought occurred. "Sephiroth, Genesis mentioned that your mako treatments have been increasing lately. Could that be the reason?"

Angeal had to stop in his tracks as to not run into the other.

"Angeal," Sephiroth turned to look him dead in the eye, his tone was void of emotion, "I am your superior officer. I would prefer it if I didn't have to pull rank on one of my friends." It was said as clear as day: don't interfere in my business. The General turned around and went ahead.

Angeal stared ahead at him in silence and thought, ‘You just did.’ He gave a sigh as he walked out of the building and toward his own apartment complex. He took out his phone and dialed up Genesis' number. It was set to voice mail.

"This is Genesis. I'm either busy killing something for some science project or killing something because it was the science project. Leave a message."

"Angeal speaking. I think you're right about Seph. He's…” he gave out a sigh, “just call me back when you can. I think it might be important."

-

Genesis had his phone turned off. It would make him particularly vexed if it rang during one of his speeches, and he didn't want it to interrupt him while he was testing the examinees during their SOLDIER tests.

It was still morning and the people inhabiting the building were out cold. The day before must have tired them greatly. The Commander gave a fond smile at that; they worked hard last night and deserved some restful sleep. The Officers had all said this was the highlight of their day, and he'd wanted to try it for such a long time now. Genesis took a deep breath and…

"WAKE UP, WORMFOOD!" he bellowed out and watched as the examinees were torn from their dreams, thrown into the harsh light that was reality, and scrambled to get out of their beds. He had to force a straight face to hide any of the amusement he might have felt. “Put your pants back on and get outside. Today we'll be continuing on to the next part of the test."

-

It wasn't nearly as hard as Cloud thought it would be. They were tested on their aim with ranged weapons as well as on their precision with swords and hand-to-hand combat. After a while, complaints from the others about being hungry and sore became a regular occurrence, but it seemed that neither the Commander nor SOLDIERs cared about the food situation.

It was getting to be early evening. The examinees were on the ground with nothing to do other then complain about if they were going to get to eat or not. After everyone was tested the SOLDIERs would take one of the examinees and disappear inside the building. Most of the others were already called to go inside and now it was Cloud's turn. He was taken in to where they'd all slept and then brought to one of the solid walls. Pressing a hidden switch panel, an access pad came into view and the SOLDIER typed in the code that opened the door.

‘And that solves the mystery of why it looks bigger from the outside.’ Cloud thought as he silently followed the other man down the halls until they came into a boxed room. Two men were already sitting at a table, a SOLDIER and a Turk.

"Welcome, Mr. Strife," the SOLDIER said as he picked up a file and gestured to a chair in front of them, "take a seat. We're just going to perform one of our psychological evaluations on you. First, we'll do the Rorschach test."

"Okay." He nervously sat down in the small chair.

"I'm going to hold up some slides and you're going to tell us what you see in them. There are no right or wrong answers, so just say the first thing that comes to your mind." The man held up a slide with a black ink blob on it. "Now, what do you see here?"

Cloud tilted his head and took a moment to contemplate. "A girl holding flowers."

The man put the slide down and picked up another as the Turk wrote notes on a piece of paper. "Here?"

Again, Cloud took his time to look at it and replied, "A wing."

"How about this one?" the man asked and held up a particularly messy one. The blobs on it were chaotically done around near the base of the bigger blob. Almost like how Sephiroth had looked after he'd…

"A city," he answered with the first other thing that came to his mind. The Turk gave him a longer look before going back to the papers.

"This one?" Another slide was held up.

Sephiroth was in the air, his hair flying behind him, and the six foot sword seemed to be coming toward the viewer with the promise of death.

"… a heard of chocobos." He coughed in attempt to relieve the dryness in his throat, and another slide was shown.

The blob resembled burning buildings surrounded by destruction, and Sephiroth was off to the side watching the chaos.

"Trees."

The SOLDIER put his slides away and they started on other tests and questions, most of which he had to tell a story about what was happening within the picture. He didn’t think too much on it and just visualized about what he and Zack talked about during their training breaks.

"Just a few more questions and then you can go,” the man put the papers into a folder and handed them to the Turk. "If red is fire then blue is…"

Cloud looked at them. That was… a really dumb question, but they seemed completely serious. "… ice," he finally answered.

"Good! Now, Mr. Strife, mother is a woman and father is a…"

"Man." Where they seriously asking questions that were used on kindergarteners?

"Great! Now, you get eggs from a chicken and you get milk from…"

"A cow." Cloud tried to voice his distaste when giving his answer. This had to have been some kind of joke.

"How much dirt is in a hole 3 feet by 6 feet by 6 feet?"

"There'd be 108 cubic feet of absolutely nothing." He glared at them.

"Name three things that you'd see in a forest."

"Gagighandi, touch mes, and g-"he paused midsentence. He was going to say goblins, but those were on a small secluded island far to the east and weren't generally known by the public, "valrons."

"Good. Alright, Mr. Strife, if you're not alive you're dead, and if you're not asleep you're…"

"Awake." And working to get paid to be a Shinra dog.

"Ok, Mr. Strife, the universe is-"

"Limitless and lacking temporal or spatial restraint, and seemingly categorized by our genetic inability to elevate to the quantum scale.” His could feel his face turning red. Not only did he interrupt the question in his momentary lapse of maturity, but he actually blurted out something that some bookworm would say. He didn’t want people getting the idea that he might want to go into the Science Department. ‘Thank you, Reeve.’ He thought and made a mental note to never quote the man again. These bursts of childishness were getting the better of him, and it was all because of habitual reactions that he hadn’t previously learned to control.

The Turk looked shocked and the SOLDIER burst out laughing. "That was the best answer I've heard all day!"

"I think we can stop with the questions," the Turk declared. "I have finished my evaluation of him."

He didn't know if that was a good thing or bad thing...

-

Genesis was waiting in the room with the others that had finished. Stomachs were growling in hunger. He almost felt a small pang of pity for them. No, wait… that was amusement, never mind. The blond was brought into the room and took a seat. It was a while before the last examinee entered the room, and the SOLDIER who followed called a few of the boys outside. The door shut and the ones still in the room were left with Commander Rhapsodos.

"Those of you who are still here: I congratulate you on passing the second part of this test." He turned around to leave and someone in the group spoke up.

"Wait, Sir! When do we get to eat?!"

He gave a sly grin. "Follow me down if you don't know the way. You'll be sleeping in this building again." And out the door he went. A few gave soft curses as they got up on shaky legs and followed.

-

Cloud could hear soft whispers coming from behind him. It seemed that the one who had gotten angry last night was talking to a few others about the tests.

"He's probably planning to starve us all! You saw the way he acted when he heard about the guys that drowned and by his own test, no less! He doesn't care!"

The Commander was still a ways in front of them, but if Cloud could hear them in this hallway then he was sure that Rhapsodos could hear it as well, especially since his hearing was enhanced. They were finally in the first room and were told to stay there for the night. No food was given, and their superiors left.

"See what I mean?!" the guy from earlier raised his voice after a while of silence. "That Commander doesn't care about us. He doesn't care if we die
here and he sure won't give a damn if we die out on the field. We're just a bunch of pawns to him! To be used by Shinra, and if we don't make it 'Oh, they're just useless individuals, just get rid of them'!"

The other examinees paid rapt attention, and some were even nodding and throwing their own comments in.

Cloud was getting tired of all this complaining.

"And another thing-"

"Enough." He finally cracked. "If you have so much energy to waste then you can't be nearly as hungry as you claim to be." Many glares were sent his way, and he realized that he probably made himself into a scapegoat. Shit.

"Well, looky here mister 'I follow orders and do as I'm told'," the guy growled out. "Do you have any room to talk? We all saw you walk right to this building after the exam. You looked as if you didn't care either! I bet you're just some brown nose!"

"Shut the hell up!" Cloud got up and in the other’s face, but damn… the guy was a good foot taller than him. "I know you're mad about losing your friend, but you need to focus more on the task at hand! Do you want to get into SOLDIER or not?"

"I do, but not under the authority of a guy like Commander Douche! I'd rather die in combat as a foot soldier under a respected officer than die as a SOLDIER under the command of someone who doesn't give two shits about his subordinates!"

"Then why is he personally taking care of the test? Why is he making sure that only those who are qualified to become SOLDIERs are passing? He may not care about us right now, but I can see why. As foot soldiers all we are is cannon fodder. We have no enhancements, no special skills, and all we do is go around carrying a gun and pray we hit something! So is it really so shocking that he's separating the strong from the weak?"

The other had his brows furrowed in anger. "That's exactly my point! He doesn't care about the weak! I'd rather die then follow someone like him! I'd rather quit this test! I can do just as well as a foot soldier. There's no law against giving us mako enhancements!"

"Then why don't you?" Cloud voiced his distaste, and it seemed to set the other off. A punch was thrown at him just as he began to walk away, and his battle instinct screamed at him to duck. They fought and struggled on the ground until Cloud got the other in a headlock.

"Don't ever attack me again," he warned. The taller boy looked up in astonishment and nodded. Cloud let him loose and went outside.

"Wait," one of the other boys in the room called, "where are you going?"

"I'm checking to see if they left any of the weapons," he answered.

"Why?"

Cloud sighed, "They didn't say that we couldn't leave the building, and I'm starving."

--

*Junon*

The black light was the only source of illumination in the dark room. Steady drops of water echoed in the stillness and the only other noise was that of irregular footsteps.

It was amazing, truly amazing, the effect that Specimen J's DNA had with the mako as it merged with the watery life. Its contrast of dark red swirling with bright green was hypnotizing, and it mixed to form a smooth brown tone. It was the same consistency as the last dose he'd given himself and his second greatest research specimen.

~More… add more…~

He attached another set of tubes to add more of the dark red liquid. The research would do wonders if he added… just a bit more…

The shimmering brown swirled with more of the dark red. He couldn't help but feel almost giddy about the results. He could feel it within himself. Something was going to happen. Something was going to happen and it would be because of this! This feeling… this was… it was…

"Professor Hojo?" a male voice broke in from behind.

"Professor Hollander, to do I owe the displeasure?" he replied.

"Sorry if I interrupted, I came down to make sure everything was turned off… what are you doing?" Hollander asked and walked around to look as his curious nature got the best of him.

~Do it now!~

A sudden urge came over Hojo as he grabbed one of the syringes filled with Specimen J's DNA and promptly stabbed the other in the back. Giving a surprised shout, Hollander collapsed to the ground and began to twitch. The cells worked surprisingly fast because blood seeped from the orifices of the fallen man only moments later.

Hojo didn’t take his eyes off of the reaction; it was Science at its finest. This feeling, the word for it… was on the tip of his tongue.

The body below him gave a sudden intake of choked breaths. Bloodshot eyes were wide and panicked, and the body jerked in ways that hinted at excruciating pain. Hojo stood by in silent fascination as the man’s breathing began to even.

~Reunion.~

He smiled as a sudden epiphany came over him. He'd call it… Reunion.

To be continued…

AN: Like it? I tried my best to keep it entertaining for you! Next will be the end of Cloud’s tests, and I hope it’s a nice surprise.
Why is Hojo in there, you ask?
Plot device, Mr. Frodo… plot device.

Have any questions? I might have matching answers!

Please review! (Criticism accepted as long as it’s constructive…)