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Angeal and Genesis are both waiting by the VR training room.
Waiting for Sephiroth to show up.
He had agreed to meet up with them at 1800, it has been ten minutes past then.
… Sephiroth is nothing if not punctual.
Angeal tries to ignore the feeling of worry he has.
“My friend, the fates are cruel.” Genesis mopes, pocketing his PHS. “He still hasn’t emailed me back about why he’s late!”
“Think you got filed into the spam folder again?” Angeal chuckles.
“I haven’t been spamming him that much.” He rolled his eyes, crossing his arms. “... Do you think that something is wrong? I think there might be.”
“I feel like there might be… though maybe something came up?”
“Then he would’ve said something!”
Angeal sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. He hesitates for a moment, before suggesting, “Maybe we should go check up on him.”
“Just what I was thinking.” Genesis smiles, and without missing a beat he begins walking towards the elevators, Angeal following quickly behind him.
*
The door is unlocked, Angeal notes when they get to Sephiroth’s dorm.
Odd… the worry in his gut only grows as he turns the door handle.
And once he opens the door, he sees Sephiroth on the floor, leaning agains the wall, holding his head in his hands.
He doesn’t even notice the two come in.
What on Gaia…?
“Sephiroth!?” Genesis sounded shocked, Angeal couldn’t blame him for that.
He briskly moved towards Sephiroth, crouching down next to him and resting a hand on his shoulder, feeling him flinch away .
“Sephiroth? Hey, what’s wrong? What happened?” Angeal tries not to sound too worried, though he can’t keep his voice from shaking.
All he gets is a weak groan in response.
“What the hell happened?” Genesis frowned, moving to crouch by Sephiroth’s other side.
“Wh… how’d you get in?” His voice is slurred, and when he looks up, his eyes are glazed over. “G-Go.” He sounded pained.
Despite him telling them to leave, he leans into Angeal’s hand.
“Leave? You want us to leave? Do you even see the state that you’re in?” Genesis is sounding more upset by the second, though Angeal can hear the worry underlining voice.
Angeal moves his other hand up to Sephiroth’s forehead and winces. “You have a fever… it’s not a good idea to leave you alone. It’s probably for the best you go to medbay-”
“No, no , don’t- they’ll jus’ take me back to him -” There was genuine fear in his voice as he pleaded with the two of them.
Angeal’s never heard him sound so afraid.
“ Him ? Who… Who are you talking about?” Angeal questions, slightly tightening his grip on Sephiroth’s shoulder.
“ Don’t take me back, please don’t-”
“Angeal…” Genesis’ voice cracked as he said his name. “Sephiroth, you’ll be fine, we won’t take you to medbay or back to whatever place you’re referring to, I promise. Just let us help you, okay?”
Sephiroth was trembling now, and he rested his forehead against Genesis’ shoulder.
That was as close to an ‘alright’ as they were going to get, it seemed.
“Tell us about how you feel, do you think you might have mako poisoning?” Angeal asks him.
“… don’t get that, can’t.” Sephiroth mutters, closing his eyes. “No mako this time, either.”
‘This time’…? Does this happen to him regularly and we’ve just never noticed until now? How long has he been dealing with this by himself…?
“… Alright. Maybe you just got sick, then.”
“Can’t.” Sephiroth weakly shakes his head.
“Then what’s wrong with you? We can’t help you if you won’t tell us.” Says Angeal.
“Then don’t.” Sephiroth weakly retorted.
“Gaia, we’re not going to leave you!” Genesis sighed in frustration.
The loud shout made Sephiroth wince.
“Let us help you to your bed, alright?” Angeal slings Sephiroth’s arm around his shoulder, helping him up.
Sephiroth clamped his free hand over his mouth, his face turning another shade paler.
Shit.
Angeal quickly walks him towards the bathroom instead. He helps him onto his knees, and Genesis is at his side in an instant, placing a hand on Sephiroth’s back as he vomited.
“Who… Who did this to you?” Angeal doesn’t think that he’s ever heard Genesis sound so lost, yet so furious .
Sephiroth just shook his head, trembling harder.
“ Please , let us help you.” Angeal says, resting a hand on Sephiroth’s shoulder.
Sephiroth just shakes his head again. “Can’t, won’t be able to… nothing’ll change.” His voice becomes choked, breaking off into a whimper. He rests his head against Angeal’s shoulder, heavily leaning against him.
“But you can’t know that for sure, right?” Angeal tries to keep his voice from shaking, though he knows he fails. He puts his free hand onto Sephiroth’s forehead, he’s no longer running a fever, though his eyes remain glazed and he’s still trembling. “We… We can’t help you if we don’t know.”
He knows that Sephiroth might just refuse to answer them again, though… there’s nothing else we can do for him right now….
Sephiroth turned around, now pressing his face against Angeal’s shoulder, letting Angeal hug him. “H-Hojo… it was him.”
Angeal can feel his blood run cold.
“D-Did… did some tests, put… h-had more tests after…” His voice trails off, and he weakly clings onto the front of Angeal’s shirt.
“ What did he do .” Genesis sounded furious, his eyes were narrowed into a glare.
It only made Sephiroth tense up and try to shuffle closer to Angeal.
This isn’t right.
None of this is right.
Why is any of this happening?
This… Sephiroth… he… he shouldn’t be acting like this, this isn’t like him.
The weight of the situation seems to finally hit Angeal, and he can feel his eyes begin to sting.
“You’re fine, Sephiroth… Genesis, he isn’t upset at you. Let’s just…. help you to your bed, alright?” The boy just nods as a response, letting Angeal and Genesis help him to the bed.
“You don’t have a fever anymore, so whatever it is that Hojo put in you is likely clearing up.” Angeal tried to sound assuring.
He feels Sephiroth reach out weakly to grab onto both Genesis’ and Angeal’s arms.
“Stay… please .”
It’s quite the change from earlier, when Sephiroth was trying to get the two of them to leave. Somehow, this causes Angeal to feel even more worry.
He’s hardly ever this open with his emotions, he’s barely ever this touchy, all of this is wrong .
“Of course we’ll stay, it’s what we’ve been trying to tell you this whole time.” Genesis scoffed, settling down next to him, Angeal on his other side.
He’s still trembling, even as they both hold him.
He curled up in both their arms, and Angeal can feel tears begin to stain the front of his shirt.
Gaia… why is this happening?
He moves his hand to rest on the back of Sephiroth’s head, moving it through his hair in what he hopes is a calming motion.
Why is any of this happening?
He sees Genesis tighten his grip around Sephiroth as the boy’s trembling grows harder, his body shaking with stifled sobs.
He’s just twelve, he shouldn’t even be in SOLDIER.
The trembling begins to ease, though only slightly.
All the SOLDIER stuff about him has been coming out since, what, one to two years ago? Why… Why was he allowed to…
Sephiroth’s breathing slowly begins to even out.
Why is he even allowed to fight? To go on missions, to have this happen to him….
He squeezes his own eyes shut, trying to ignore the tears threatening to spill.
Did he even join SOLDIER willingly? Were the rumors about him coming from the labs true…?
He curled around Sephiroth protectively.
… If they were, then it would explain some things about him. His eyes, his hair, his mannerisms… though why would Shinra do something like this? Is there truly no honor to be found in Shinra?
Sephiorth’s breathing finally evened out, he’s asleep.
There… is still SOLDIER honor.
Even if they allow something like this to happen to a
child.
Maybe… Lazard and whoever else is in charge are unaware of this happening.
Even if Hojo already get’s funding for whatever fucked up experiment he plans on doing next.
The rumors are just that, rumors. It… It wouldn’t make full sense You can’t create someone in a lab.
Even if-
He sighs, trying to clear his mind, trying not to spiral too much even if it’s too late for that-
What matters now is the situation at hand.
What matters now is helping Sephiroth, even if he’s going to be resistant to getting helped in the morning.
It’ll be fine, it’ll all work out, everything works out eventually.
… Right?