The lab was dark. This was not unusual. During the day it was bright with humming fluorescent lights, efficiently shining down on the equipment and chemicals. When the lab assistants fled upstairs after he dismissed them, the first thing Professor Hojo did was turn the lights out. While a lab lit by the glow of computer monitors and lit chambers seemed a little cliche even to him, he hated the bright lights enough to overcome his hatred of cliches.
The soft lights in the darkness drew his attention constantly to the most important things in his laboratory. The brightest, eeriest blue glow belonged to his prize specimen, his life’s work. JENOVA. She was without a head now, thanks to his son’s handiwork, but her frame was still impressive. Over 25 years in liquid mako had caused her body to swell limply. While her limbs and torso had become fleshy, treatments allowing the members of the Project to harvest her hormones had caused her breasts to expand as well. The effect was enough to give the Professor’s newer assistants some very unusual wet dreams.
The opposite end of the laboratory held two chambers, each glowing an almost cheerful green. The one on the right was home to a young blonde man. His form was hard to make out due to the thick consistency and brightness of the green fog, but Hojo knew from experience he’d be curled up toward the back of the chamber, his pupils dialated, mumbling to himself. The other chamber held the control subject, a former SOLDIER Hojo had aquired during Sephiroth’s incident. The SOLDIER’s low-level mako exposure throughout his training kept him from properly responding to the more intense treatment the Professor was developing, so he was kept as a control for the more responsive boy. Hojo could make out the control’s form quite clearly, his black hair hanging down his back, uniform sticky from not being washed in weeks. This one was conscious, even coherent, and had developed a nocturnal sleeping schedule when he discovered that the Professor would actually talk to him at night, instead of ignoring him the way the techs did during the day.
“Good evening, Zack, my boy. How are you feeling?” Professor Hojo greeted the dark-haired young man with his usual combination of sarcasm and sincere scientific curiousity. Even though the ex-Soldier was the control half of his experiment, and not as interesting as the blonde boy, Hojo still kept careful tabs on his health and mental state.
Rather than responding, Zack just glared at the Professor. The glow from his tank reflected on Hojo’s glasses, making his eyes appear to glow an eerie green.
“You did a good job scaring that new lad today. He already asked for reassignment. He’s not getting it, of course, but it was amusing to see the look on his face when I turned him down.” Hojo had come to appreciate having the young man around while he worked. It kept him from his old habit of talking to himself. He so rarely had conscious, coherent subjects to work with.
Zack allowed himself a bit of a smile. “They scare really easily. Does that come from spending too much time with a nose in a book?”
“Ah, Zack, my boy, it’s not that simple. They scare because they want to believe that this couldn’t happen to them. However, you prove that you’re a real person, just like they are. You knock away their arrogance and show them the foundation of fear underneath.” Hojo moved to the nearest lab counter as he spoke, beginning to mix the regular dose of concentrated liquid mako and JENOVA’s cells for Zack’s little blonde friend. Instead of one syringe, he filled two, and Zack wondered if he would be getting a dose that would hurt him tonight. Then Hojo prepared the usual placebo shot for Zack as well, which Zack had come to recognize. He knew it meant nothing.
Zack pondered this while the Professor opened the door to the other chamber. The blonde young man gave no protest as his arm was pulled out, the needle inserted, the chemicals injected. He simply sat there, semiconscious and beyond fighting what was being done to him.
“What about you, Professor?” Zack asked at last. “Do you have any fear underneath that arrogance?” He stuck his arm out like a belligerent child taking his cold medicine, knowing it would only be worse if he fought. The Professor administered the placebo shot and closed the second chamber.
“No, my boy. I don’t fear that I’m just like you.” Hojo returned to the counter and picked up the third syringe, smiling at the bluish-green color of the mixture. He adjusted his sleeve, made a fist, and quickly pushed the needle into his arm. After a moment, he pulled it out. Zack could see clearly that it was empty.
“I know I’m just like you.”
