Second Side 14
Chapter 14
Riku, Sora, and Axel all turned nearly as one as a small whimper escaped from Roxas. It was the first indication that he was even alive that they had seen in close to two hours. They had all noticed how withdrawn Roxas was, but none of them could find the courage to bring it up. So when Roxas had accosted the smallest chair in the room no one raised any sort of argument. They had seemed to come to the silent agreement to just allow Roxas to do what ever made him feel better.
They all watched him silently for a moment, but he didn’t make any more noise or even move. Sora let out a quiet sigh.
“Did he say anything last night?”
Axel shook his head, “Not a word.”
“Should we, you know, snap him out of it?” Riku asked after a moment.
“Not unless you want to be sent through the wall,” Cloud replied as he wandered back into the room.
“Oh, please don’t. I hate sheetrocking,” Zack said in a slightly joking tone as he put his phone back into his pocket and dropped back onto his place on the couch.
“Through the wall?” Riku repeated in disbelief, but Sora spoke over him.
“Who was that?”
“Leon, apparently some interesting things have been going on down at the PD,” Zack answered nonchalantly.
“Such as?” Axel asked.
“Such as another Roxas-clone showing up.”
“What?” Sora asked in shock, “How could he have possibly made another so fast?”
Zack paused a moment, “You know, I didn’t even think of that.” Cloud groaned quietly.
“How did you get put on homicide again?”
“Shut up!” Zack said, scowling at him.
Axel rolled his eyes at the two really wondering what the rest of them had been thinking when they didn’t notice they were dating, “Moving on. What’s up with the clone?”
“It’s dead. According to Leon it just started bleeding all over the place for no real reason,” Zack replied.
“…Clones can bleed?” Sora asked, looking faintly disturbed by the thought.
“Eh heh… yeah, about that…” Zack scratched the back of his head nervously, “We pulled a DNA sample from both clones and guess whose blood they have?”
There was a pause before Axel spoke, “You can’t be serious.”
“There’s no way,” Riku agreed, “Roxas would be dead from blood loss.”
“Unless it was replicating,” Cloud offered.
“What?” The room echoed back at him.
“Blood has to replenish itself or else we’d all die of blood loss. So if he had a sample of Roxas’ blood and got the cells to keep replicating…”
“He’d have an unlimited supply of Roxas’ blood,” Sora finished with wide-eyes.
Zack’s eyes slid to Cloud and they had a brief but silent conversation.
“What?” Axel asked, looking a little suspicious.
“…You see… Leon has a bit of a theory…” Zack licked his lips nervously, “He thinks that Hojo might want to make a clone of Roxas so that we won’t notice him missing…”
Axel, Riku, and Sora stared at Zack, absolutely stupefied.
_________________________________
“I knew you’d have a delightful scream.”
“Hey mom we’re going to- mom? Mom!” Cloud shoved the door open and ran to the side of the bed where his mother was lying, unmoving and staring up at the ceiling blankly.
“Cloud? What’s-?”
“Get out of here Sora! Go to school, right now!”
Cloud slammed the door in Sora’s face before running back to his mom. He searched for her pulse and found none. His mouth opened in a silent scream.
“I’m Nanaki.”
“Nanaki? What kind of a name is that?”
“Zack!”
“What?”
“Worry not blonde one, I take no offense to his words. I’ve been listening to the two of you and know his banter is how he hides his fear.”
“Don’t go back to sleep.”
“Common Spike, you have to stay with me here.”
“Cloud, it really would be best if you fought against the pull.”
“I’m just… so tired…”
“The same thing happened to Cloud, but Roxas I’m no Zack. I won’t be able to carry you and fight if we manage to break out!”
“Nanaki, watch my back while I get Cloud out!”
“Of course Zachary.”
“Hang on Cloud, I’ve got ya. No one’s going to hurt you anymore…”
“I’ve also been known as Red.”
Barret scoffed down at Nanaki and nodded his head at the beast’s shoulder, “What’s with the XIII?”
“Old scar,” Nanaki answered.
“What’s your name?” Tifa asked, tilting her head.
“You can call me Red XIII if you like.”
“Awfully odd thing to call yourself,” Cloud said, looking at Nanaki.
“Names are unimportant Cloud. I know who I am, what I am called matters not.”
“Experiment C used to give me that look.”
“Experiment C seems to have taken a turn for the worse. Apparent mako poisoning. Outcome of this is unknown.”
“I will kill you once I get out of here. Mark my words Hojo, your head will be mounted on my wall,” Zack hissed as Hojo calmly walked out of the room.
_________________________________
Zexion was rather confused. In fact, the sheer fact that he was confused made him all the more confused. The source of his confusion? The clipboard in his hand that clearly stated that he had ordered a shipment of sedatives. Normally Zexion would not question such a thing since he worked in a hospital and sedatives were often needed.
Except that he could vividly remember signing the same paper the week before.
There was also no possible way for them to be out. Destiny Island Hospital was really not all that large and it wasn’t too often that they needed sedatives for anything outside of surgery. Zexion knew for a fact that there had only been one surgery scheduled between the last time he had signed the paper and now. Therefore they could not possibly be out of sedatives unless someone had stolen them in which case there would be an investigation and he would have heard about it.
The other thing that bothered him was that it was the wrong company. They had one supplier of sedatives and the company logo printed neatly in the upper left hand corner of the paper did not match the one that was normally there.
Remembering rather abruptly that Hojo was on the loose and that he himself was something of a surgeon, if you could call it that, Zexion decided to take immediate action.
Luckily Vincent was on his speed dial.
__________________________________________
“Reeve,” Leon said without looking up as his door opened.
“Leon.”
“You have news.” It wasn’t a question.
“Scarlet has disappeared into thin air.”
“Of course she has.” Again, a statement as though he had expected nothing less.
“She was, however, working at the prison.”
Leon nodded a little, very intent on whatever he was working on.
“New development?”
“A shipment of sedatives for Destiny Island Hospital arrived there without them ordering it and mysteriously disappeared before Vincent could arrive.”
“Oh dear…”
________________________________________
“No, I get it Vince. Thanks for the update.”
Sora looked up at Zack, “What’d Vincent say?”
“Zexion called him,” Zack said, ignoring the surprised look from Sora, “Apparently DIH received a shipment of sedatives that they didn’t order and now they’re missing.”
“That’s… not good…”
“No, no it’s not.”
Zack and Sora had taken over the dinning room that was never actually used for eating. After Leon’s call that morning they decided that even if they weren’t allowed to leave they needed to be working on the case. So they had convinced Leon to bring them copies of all the documents in the case as well as pictures of all their evidence and spread it out all over the dinning room.
The table was no longer visible under the mass of paperwork and they had taped all the pictures to the walls in some obscure order that only they seemed to understand. Axel had passed through a little while ago to procure a water from the fridge and had paused to stare at everything. He’d then blinked in complete confusion and moved on, clearly not understanding their methodology.
But Zack and Sora had worked together long enough to understand the way one another worked. Thus they were able to understand the somewhat organized chaos with ease.
Roxas was still off in his own little world, seeming oblivious to everything around him. Sebastian had tried to get his attention and all attempts were in vain. He had eventually given up and went back to playing with Anastasia under the watchful eye of Riku.
Cloud had claimed a corner of the couch as his and was immersed in some sort of adventure book. Axel had joked that anything those books came up with were nothing compared to the lives they were living. Cloud had agreed and said that was why he liked them; they were a taste of normalcy. Both Axel and Riku had then spent a good five minutes gaping at Cloud for making a joke while Cloud just smiled slightly.
Axel, for the most part, was pouring over his transcript for his next book. He had intended to write a piece about the Hojo incident, but since that was being shoved in his face seemed rather unmotivated to do so. So instead of adding to it he was proof reading and editing the hell out of it. Every now and then he’d shake his head and make a huge slash through the page before writing some note to himself along the margin. He was also paying partial attention to Anastasia and Sebastian as they played near the potentially dangerous coffee table.
Anastasia let out a squeal that made Sora look up before determining that it was a play squeal and turning back to the pages laid out before him, “There’s something I just can’t figure out.”
“Oh, you’re down to one thing? Then please, clue me in cuz I’m still lost,” Zack said with a grin.
Sora shook his head a little, “Why is he so intent on Roxas? I mean, the first time he never focused on one person. He jumped from person to person, taking them from everywhere and having more lined up before he even started. So, why Roxas?”
Zack could hear Cloud close his book and stand. He could hear him walk near silently across the living room to where it connected to the dining room. Zack closed his eyes and swallowed hard as Cloud sat himself at the table and let out a quiet sigh.
“Cloud?” Sora asked, clearly confused.
“It’s my fault…” Cloud said quietly.
“What are you talking about?”
There was a pause and Zack risked a glance to see that Cloud was staring emptily at one of the Hojo sketches that Roxas had drawn the year before.
“Because I escaped.”
_______________________________________
“There’s fighting going on upstairs.”
“Common Cloud, you really want to fight me? I thought we were buddies?” Reno asked as he twirled his EMR around his arm.
“Friend or no, ShinRa must be stopped. I don’t want to fight you Reno, but I will.”
“You can’t touch - mako - make you sick.”
“SOLDIER?” Cloud tilted his head at Zack
“Yeah, but first you have to pass all these tests. I guess that it can get pretty intense. If you’re not built right it’ll make you sick.”
“ - voice - familiar!”
“Cloud Strife!”
Cloud turned to see Tifa jogging over to him donning a cowboy hat and boots, “Tifa Lockheart. I thought that voice sounded familiar.”
“Fuck - out of here. Now.”
“Oi, Spiky! The reactor’s gonna blow! We need to get the fuck outta here!”
“You heard him Cloud. Move!”
“ - Cloud?”
“Hey, what’s your name?”
“Cloud.”
“Cloud? Girly name and a girly face.”
“This girly face can shove yours into the ground.”
A deep chuckle, “Not bad Spike. Name’s Zack. Zack Fair.”
“ - Roxas - focus. Please?”
____________________________________________
I blinked for what felt like the first time in eternity. In fact I had to blink a few times since blinking the first time made my eyes water. I looked up and was very confused. What was going on? Where was I?
Better yet, who was I?
Next chapter: http://ashley-reyland.livejournal.com/5452.html
Riku, Sora, and Axel all turned nearly as one as a small whimper escaped from Roxas. It was the first indication that he was even alive that they had seen in close to two hours. They had all noticed how withdrawn Roxas was, but none of them could find the courage to bring it up. So when Roxas had accosted the smallest chair in the room no one raised any sort of argument. They had seemed to come to the silent agreement to just allow Roxas to do what ever made him feel better.
They all watched him silently for a moment, but he didn’t make any more noise or even move. Sora let out a quiet sigh.
“Did he say anything last night?”
Axel shook his head, “Not a word.”
“Should we, you know, snap him out of it?” Riku asked after a moment.
“Not unless you want to be sent through the wall,” Cloud replied as he wandered back into the room.
“Oh, please don’t. I hate sheetrocking,” Zack said in a slightly joking tone as he put his phone back into his pocket and dropped back onto his place on the couch.
“Through the wall?” Riku repeated in disbelief, but Sora spoke over him.
“Who was that?”
“Leon, apparently some interesting things have been going on down at the PD,” Zack answered nonchalantly.
“Such as?” Axel asked.
“Such as another Roxas-clone showing up.”
“What?” Sora asked in shock, “How could he have possibly made another so fast?”
Zack paused a moment, “You know, I didn’t even think of that.” Cloud groaned quietly.
“How did you get put on homicide again?”
“Shut up!” Zack said, scowling at him.
Axel rolled his eyes at the two really wondering what the rest of them had been thinking when they didn’t notice they were dating, “Moving on. What’s up with the clone?”
“It’s dead. According to Leon it just started bleeding all over the place for no real reason,” Zack replied.
“…Clones can bleed?” Sora asked, looking faintly disturbed by the thought.
“Eh heh… yeah, about that…” Zack scratched the back of his head nervously, “We pulled a DNA sample from both clones and guess whose blood they have?”
There was a pause before Axel spoke, “You can’t be serious.”
“There’s no way,” Riku agreed, “Roxas would be dead from blood loss.”
“Unless it was replicating,” Cloud offered.
“What?” The room echoed back at him.
“Blood has to replenish itself or else we’d all die of blood loss. So if he had a sample of Roxas’ blood and got the cells to keep replicating…”
“He’d have an unlimited supply of Roxas’ blood,” Sora finished with wide-eyes.
Zack’s eyes slid to Cloud and they had a brief but silent conversation.
“What?” Axel asked, looking a little suspicious.
“…You see… Leon has a bit of a theory…” Zack licked his lips nervously, “He thinks that Hojo might want to make a clone of Roxas so that we won’t notice him missing…”
Axel, Riku, and Sora stared at Zack, absolutely stupefied.
_________________________________
“I knew you’d have a delightful scream.”
“Hey mom we’re going to- mom? Mom!” Cloud shoved the door open and ran to the side of the bed where his mother was lying, unmoving and staring up at the ceiling blankly.
“Cloud? What’s-?”
“Get out of here Sora! Go to school, right now!”
Cloud slammed the door in Sora’s face before running back to his mom. He searched for her pulse and found none. His mouth opened in a silent scream.
“I’m Nanaki.”
“Nanaki? What kind of a name is that?”
“Zack!”
“What?”
“Worry not blonde one, I take no offense to his words. I’ve been listening to the two of you and know his banter is how he hides his fear.”
“Don’t go back to sleep.”
“Common Spike, you have to stay with me here.”
“Cloud, it really would be best if you fought against the pull.”
“I’m just… so tired…”
“The same thing happened to Cloud, but Roxas I’m no Zack. I won’t be able to carry you and fight if we manage to break out!”
“Nanaki, watch my back while I get Cloud out!”
“Of course Zachary.”
“Hang on Cloud, I’ve got ya. No one’s going to hurt you anymore…”
“I’ve also been known as Red.”
Barret scoffed down at Nanaki and nodded his head at the beast’s shoulder, “What’s with the XIII?”
“Old scar,” Nanaki answered.
“What’s your name?” Tifa asked, tilting her head.
“You can call me Red XIII if you like.”
“Awfully odd thing to call yourself,” Cloud said, looking at Nanaki.
“Names are unimportant Cloud. I know who I am, what I am called matters not.”
“Experiment C used to give me that look.”
“Experiment C seems to have taken a turn for the worse. Apparent mako poisoning. Outcome of this is unknown.”
“I will kill you once I get out of here. Mark my words Hojo, your head will be mounted on my wall,” Zack hissed as Hojo calmly walked out of the room.
_________________________________
Zexion was rather confused. In fact, the sheer fact that he was confused made him all the more confused. The source of his confusion? The clipboard in his hand that clearly stated that he had ordered a shipment of sedatives. Normally Zexion would not question such a thing since he worked in a hospital and sedatives were often needed.
Except that he could vividly remember signing the same paper the week before.
There was also no possible way for them to be out. Destiny Island Hospital was really not all that large and it wasn’t too often that they needed sedatives for anything outside of surgery. Zexion knew for a fact that there had only been one surgery scheduled between the last time he had signed the paper and now. Therefore they could not possibly be out of sedatives unless someone had stolen them in which case there would be an investigation and he would have heard about it.
The other thing that bothered him was that it was the wrong company. They had one supplier of sedatives and the company logo printed neatly in the upper left hand corner of the paper did not match the one that was normally there.
Remembering rather abruptly that Hojo was on the loose and that he himself was something of a surgeon, if you could call it that, Zexion decided to take immediate action.
Luckily Vincent was on his speed dial.
__________________________________________
“Reeve,” Leon said without looking up as his door opened.
“Leon.”
“You have news.” It wasn’t a question.
“Scarlet has disappeared into thin air.”
“Of course she has.” Again, a statement as though he had expected nothing less.
“She was, however, working at the prison.”
Leon nodded a little, very intent on whatever he was working on.
“New development?”
“A shipment of sedatives for Destiny Island Hospital arrived there without them ordering it and mysteriously disappeared before Vincent could arrive.”
“Oh dear…”
________________________________________
“No, I get it Vince. Thanks for the update.”
Sora looked up at Zack, “What’d Vincent say?”
“Zexion called him,” Zack said, ignoring the surprised look from Sora, “Apparently DIH received a shipment of sedatives that they didn’t order and now they’re missing.”
“That’s… not good…”
“No, no it’s not.”
Zack and Sora had taken over the dinning room that was never actually used for eating. After Leon’s call that morning they decided that even if they weren’t allowed to leave they needed to be working on the case. So they had convinced Leon to bring them copies of all the documents in the case as well as pictures of all their evidence and spread it out all over the dinning room.
The table was no longer visible under the mass of paperwork and they had taped all the pictures to the walls in some obscure order that only they seemed to understand. Axel had passed through a little while ago to procure a water from the fridge and had paused to stare at everything. He’d then blinked in complete confusion and moved on, clearly not understanding their methodology.
But Zack and Sora had worked together long enough to understand the way one another worked. Thus they were able to understand the somewhat organized chaos with ease.
Roxas was still off in his own little world, seeming oblivious to everything around him. Sebastian had tried to get his attention and all attempts were in vain. He had eventually given up and went back to playing with Anastasia under the watchful eye of Riku.
Cloud had claimed a corner of the couch as his and was immersed in some sort of adventure book. Axel had joked that anything those books came up with were nothing compared to the lives they were living. Cloud had agreed and said that was why he liked them; they were a taste of normalcy. Both Axel and Riku had then spent a good five minutes gaping at Cloud for making a joke while Cloud just smiled slightly.
Axel, for the most part, was pouring over his transcript for his next book. He had intended to write a piece about the Hojo incident, but since that was being shoved in his face seemed rather unmotivated to do so. So instead of adding to it he was proof reading and editing the hell out of it. Every now and then he’d shake his head and make a huge slash through the page before writing some note to himself along the margin. He was also paying partial attention to Anastasia and Sebastian as they played near the potentially dangerous coffee table.
Anastasia let out a squeal that made Sora look up before determining that it was a play squeal and turning back to the pages laid out before him, “There’s something I just can’t figure out.”
“Oh, you’re down to one thing? Then please, clue me in cuz I’m still lost,” Zack said with a grin.
Sora shook his head a little, “Why is he so intent on Roxas? I mean, the first time he never focused on one person. He jumped from person to person, taking them from everywhere and having more lined up before he even started. So, why Roxas?”
Zack could hear Cloud close his book and stand. He could hear him walk near silently across the living room to where it connected to the dining room. Zack closed his eyes and swallowed hard as Cloud sat himself at the table and let out a quiet sigh.
“Cloud?” Sora asked, clearly confused.
“It’s my fault…” Cloud said quietly.
“What are you talking about?”
There was a pause and Zack risked a glance to see that Cloud was staring emptily at one of the Hojo sketches that Roxas had drawn the year before.
“Because I escaped.”
_______________________________________
“There’s fighting going on upstairs.”
“Common Cloud, you really want to fight me? I thought we were buddies?” Reno asked as he twirled his EMR around his arm.
“Friend or no, ShinRa must be stopped. I don’t want to fight you Reno, but I will.”
“You can’t touch - mako - make you sick.”
“SOLDIER?” Cloud tilted his head at Zack
“Yeah, but first you have to pass all these tests. I guess that it can get pretty intense. If you’re not built right it’ll make you sick.”
“ - voice - familiar!”
“Cloud Strife!”
Cloud turned to see Tifa jogging over to him donning a cowboy hat and boots, “Tifa Lockheart. I thought that voice sounded familiar.”
“Fuck - out of here. Now.”
“Oi, Spiky! The reactor’s gonna blow! We need to get the fuck outta here!”
“You heard him Cloud. Move!”
“ - Cloud?”
“Hey, what’s your name?”
“Cloud.”
“Cloud? Girly name and a girly face.”
“This girly face can shove yours into the ground.”
A deep chuckle, “Not bad Spike. Name’s Zack. Zack Fair.”
“ - Roxas - focus. Please?”
____________________________________________
I blinked for what felt like the first time in eternity. In fact I had to blink a few times since blinking the first time made my eyes water. I looked up and was very confused. What was going on? Where was I?
Better yet, who was I?
Next chapter: http://ashley-reyland.livejournal.com/5452.html