【SC】Endless Journey

(2) S-side

The next day, good news came from the institute. After a year and four months of sleep, C-11 finally opened its eyes that morning.

After the experiment, Sephiroth also went to visit his little brother who survived because of his mistake.The other party has the same wet blue pupils as his mother, shyly and curiously looking at the world outside the glass, and excitedly choked a few mouthfuls of Moko after seeing him.

The researchers believed that this was a special induction between the clones and became very interested in this phenomenon.Sephiroth can't wait to reach in and knock the brat out, the more unusual behavior in a research facility means more disgusting experiments, he doesn't want C-11 to be so stupid as to be the first of its kind to die on the test bench .

At the same time, C-11's appearance is too similar to the man in the crystal, and the institute directly named him Claude, which annoyed Sephiroth.He had no right to object, and could only comfort himself with "at least his surname is not Strife".

Claude stayed in the training cabin for a few more days before being taken out for cleaning and then moved into his room.

This child is very well-behaved, but he doesn't have the ability to speak when he first comes into contact with people.He was very ignorant of everything around him, and would only run around behind Sephiroth, like a baby bird of imprinting behavior.

Sephiroth was very disappointed.He thought that this younger brother would be as good as himself, but since he had never seen a second living one of his kind besides the other, he re-attributed all this to "only I am special".

The first night they lived together, Claude stayed up all night, sitting on the bed watching him.

Sephiroth doesn't have a sleep disorder, but it's hard to fall asleep being stared at by a pair of shining eyes.He guessed that Claude slept too much in the training cabin, and now he was in a mental state, so he turned over and ordered: "Lie down."

The blond-haired boy blinked and continued to sit in a knee-hugging position.

Well, he probably didn't understand.Sephiroth had to climb out of his own bed, walk to the other side's bed, and lift Claude up and lay him flat. "It's called lying down."

Claude blinked again, this time he probably understood.

Sephiroth was about to turn around when he suddenly realized that the other party's quilt was still folded at the foot of the bed.Claude obviously didn't know that this thing should be used to cover the body, and he didn't want to spend time teaching the child how to cover the quilt, so he pulled it onto Claude.

"Safie."

The little boy suddenly let out a soft cry.

Sephiroth turned his head and saw the other party tightly wrapped in the quilt and looking at him, his eyes full of nostalgia.

It was the first time in his life that he received such a gaze, and he felt a novel feeling.

"Sephiroth." He guided Cloud to call his full name.

"Sephiroth," Cloud repeated, before laughing to himself, "Cloud, Sephiroth, lie down."

It took him a few seconds to understand what the kid was saying, which was supposed to tell him to go to bed too.

Sephiroth raised his hand to cover the other person's eyes, and said in a low voice, "You have to close your eyes when you lie down, so that's called sleep."

Claude got out from under him, his cheeks flushed from the warmth of his palm. "sleep together."

Sephiroth sighed, crawled back into his bed, and soon fell asleep.

On the second day, Sephiroth has no experiments to participate in, but there are courses specially prepared for him by the Institute to learn.These courses include language, mathematics, nature, history, and humanities. A considerable part of it has been directly absorbed by the researchers he has come into contact with, but he is still very active in learning, after all, it is much more interesting than experiments.

When he left in the morning, Claude was still asleep in the room, and when he came back at noon, the room was empty.

Sephiroth had a bad premonition, and immediately rushed out to grab the skirt of a passing female researcher.

"Ms. Rita, have you seen Claude?"

"Oh, it's Sephiroth." The female researcher bent down and touched his silver hair. "The doctor took him for a medical examination, and he should be back soon."

Sephiroth's face darkened.

The physical examination in the institute is not a physical examination in the general sense.Although he doesn't like this immature and stupid younger brother, he doesn't want him to have an accident on the laboratory table.

Sephiroth didn't worry about it until the evening when Claude was sent back. He looked at the other party's whole body and saw nothing except the gauze on the other party's right arm. Then he turned his gaze back to the book with confidence. superior.

According to Sephiroth's experience, the wound at this location should be a minor operation such as chip implantation.But when Claude came back, he sat on the bed with his knees hugged without saying a word, and lay down quietly when the lights were turned off.He could tell from the sound of his breathing that the other party wasn't asleep at all, he just pretended to be asleep because he knew that his sight would disturb him.

This is very abnormal.Sephiroth wanted to ask him which items he had tested during the day, but considering the other party's vocabulary, he decided not to.Anyway, the C-type clone has a strong self-repair ability, as long as the person comes back, it will be fine.

As a result, Claude didn't speak much for the next week, which made Sephiroth suspect that he had a congenital language barrier.

For this reason, Sephiroth consulted Claude's test results, which showed that the other party's physiological indicators were all normal, even if they did not reach his level, they were far superior to ordinary humans.Only in the IQ column, Claude's data is no different from that of an ordinary three-year-old child, which means that he can learn to speak, but it will take some time.

"Claude."

When Sephiroth returned to his room, he saw the boy sitting on his bed with a book in his hand.

"Don't go to other people's bed casually, it's very impolite."

The boy was silent for a few seconds, then climbed out of his bed, but left the book on his bedside.

Sephiroth was a little annoyed by this kind of riddle-like communication, but he could understand the meaning of the other party.

"You don't understand? You want me to read it to you?"

Claude nodded.

"To ask for help is to say 'please.'"

Just as the boy opened his mouth, he suddenly let out a quick sound as if he was choking, then bit his lower lip tightly, and sat up with his knees hugged.

Sephiroth couldn't help raising his eyebrows, maybe his younger brother did have some unknown hidden disease, but it was too annoying, and he didn't want to get used to him.

"Claude, I know you can talk. You make me feel like you are deliberately challenging my bottom line."

Claude shook his head desperately, so anxious that he was about to cry.Sephiroth gave him a cold look, and decided that he would not agree to any of his requests until Cloud spoke properly.

When he came back the next day, he saw a small yellow flower drawn in crayon on the table, with a few letters crookedly written on the side, spelling out the word "sorry".

Sephiroth was about to be annoyed. Learning to write is much more difficult than speaking. Claude's brain circuit was twisted like a rag.

He didn't talk to Claude for the next few days, and the little boy still followed behind him.Once the man tripped over the steps and fell so hard that Sephiroth stopped and waited for him to call for help.As long as Claude is willing to speak, he will reach out to help, but his younger brother just staggered up, wiped the snot and tears from his face vigorously, and followed like no one else.

Sephiroth never knew that a child could be so stubborn, he had no patience for things other than himself, and Cloud was about to consume them all.

He didn't let Claude live to cause trouble for himself, and hoped that the other party would realize this before he was really bored.If he asked the Institute to take this little brother away, the other party might soon disappear from his eyes forever.Claude must learn to be obedient and grateful.

In the third week, Claude was booked for another experiment and left the room early in the morning.At that time, Sephiroth was sitting on the bed reading a book, and the other party tried to say goodbye to him, and he ignored his little roommate as if he was treating the air.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, Claude was sent back with a sickly expression.

Although most of the time the other party is not full of vitality, but today it is particularly obvious.Sephiroth watched for a moment, sighed slightly, and allowed himself to treat him well for the night.

"Want to hear a story?"

A gleam of joy flashed in the wet blue pupils, and soon he was attacked by physical discomfort.

Sephiroth picked up the book that Claude brought him last time, flipped through a few pages, and realized that it was a popular science book on planetary history, no wonder Claude couldn't understand it.

"Our planet is a living planet, and the will of the planet is called Gaia."

The boy blinked, indicating that he was listening.

"Two hundred years ago in 2000, a meteorite hit the Arctic region, creating a large void. This void still exists, and the fountain of life there goes straight to the core of the planet..."

— where the mother was found.Sapphire paused for a second.

"The falling meteor brought disasters from beyond the sky. Settra of the ancient intelligent race gathered the power of the whole family to seal the disasters, and the planet passed 2000 years safely. Until 200 years ago, the disasters woke up again and spread to the planet. revenge.

The planet summoned weapons, but it still couldn't stop the disaster from attacking.Many lives have died as a result, and the world is at stake...

Calamity used the power in the universe to make the meteor hit the planet for the second time.The planet activated holy magic at the last moment and successfully protected all life.The place we live in today is the remains of that disaster. "

After Sephiroth read the last verse, he glanced at Cloud from the corner of his eye.The boy had fallen asleep, so he put the book back on the bed and turned off all the lights in the room.

There have always been different opinions on what the disaster is.Since most of the information has been lost in the war, and witnesses have only seen meteors in the sky, the existence of summoning meteors is very mysterious.

In Sephiroth's imagination, Calamity is probably something like Bahamut, but bigger and more destructive.But my mother must know more about what happened 200 years ago. If he can wait until the day when the other party wakes up, he may be able to ask in person.

That night, Sephiroth woke up accidentally, and suddenly heard a strange noise from another bed.

He turned his head in the direction of the sound, and found that Claude was trembling in a curled up position, causing a slight bump between the edge of the bed and the wall.

Sephiroth immediately got up to check the other party's situation, but encountered a burst of resistance when he lifted the quilt.

"Claude." He was angry.

The boy hesitated slightly, and finally let go of his hand.

The moment he pulled off the quilt, Sephiroth was shocked to see a small face full of tears.

"Claude?? What happened?"

He smelled a very faint, discordant smell of blood, and hastily unbuttoned the boy's pajamas.The gauze on the opponent's right arm was gradually exposed, and red and yellow liquids were faintly oozing out.

If he remembered correctly, it was the wound from the experiment three weeks ago, and it hadn't healed after such a long time.

Sephiroth couldn't help frowning.This is very abnormal. If it were him, this kind of minor injury would only take a few hours to recover. Claude, who is also a clone, should not be much worse, but the other party's wounds are cracking repeatedly, which shows that Claude De's physique is very weak, much weaker than him, and he has no self-healing ability. Such a body cannot participate in the experiment.

Sephiroth immediately realized the seriousness of the matter, and an unknown fire welled up in his heart.

This situation should have been going on for several weeks, and Claude never mentioned it to him.He thought the other party's silence was intentional, but now it looks like the wound is too painful and he doesn't want to annoy him, so the other party has been afraid to speak.

"They know you like this?" He refers to the researcher in the institute.

The boy seemed frightened by his face, and didn't answer for a long time.

That is to know.Sephiroth's heart twitched slightly.

When he was younger, he also cried in the experiment. At that time, no one cared about his feelings, and the experiment would not end because of it. Even his reaction was part of the data. After a long time, he would no longer hold it expect.

Claude is different.He has a biological relative—although the other party doesn’t like him very much, but at least allows him to ask for help—so he should not cry silently under the quilt, but should rely on himself more actively.

Sephiroth sat on the bed, took Cloud into his arms, and carefully avoided the wound.

He wanted to comfort Claude, but the moment his skin touched, an electric current swept through his whole body like a flood.Sephiroth's heart was beating wildly, and mottled noises appeared in front of his eyes. At the same time, a strange voice different from his mother sounded in his mind——

"Reunion."

Another word he had never heard before.

The voice quickly disappeared, as if everything just now was just his hallucination.Sephiroth stared blankly at the air in front of him, felt something move in his arms, and finally came back to his senses.

"Does it hurt?" He hugged Claude tightly.

The boy buried his face in his chest and nodded slightly.

"You have to tell me the pain, so I know you are in pain." Sephiroth was afraid that he would misunderstand, so he added: "I won't be angry because of this."

Claude instinctively wanted to nod, but immediately held back.It took him a century to muster up his courage before he complained softly: "It hurts..."

Sephiroth smiled contentedly.He touched Claude's head encouragingly like an adult, and said softly: "That's right. Good boy."

The blue pupils lit up when he heard the sound, as if the whole world jumped up for this title.

In the second half of the night they hugged and slept together, head to head, legs wrapped around legs like real twin brothers, sharing each other's breath.

For the first time, Sephiroth knew that other children's bodies were soft and warm, which made him feel very novel.

He stroked Claude's blond hair like a small animal. Although most of the animals in the institute were not normal, there were a few chocobos in the shed near the garage, and he had seen them breed young. Cloud's hair looks and feels a lot like that.

After being frightened for half the night, Claude became very sober at this moment.He paid close attention to observing Sephiroth's sleeping face every second, and made no secret of his admiration.

Sephiroth had never explored what his younger brother thought of him, and it was only today that he realized how much he liked him.

He is tall, intelligent, and omnipotent in Claude's heart. The other party cares too much about whether he can perform well in front of him, but dare not get close to him.

He's everything to... Claude.all.center of the world.

Claude belongs to him entirely voluntarily.

Once the idea appeared, it spread like a virus.Sephiroth's breathing quickened unconsciously, as if something had awakened deep in his heart, making him feel the long-lost happiness.

Claude is... my thing.

A voice that looked like him, but not quite him, sounded in his head.

His life, his pain, are under my control.So he won't die until I give my permission.

The experience last night made Sephiroth feel a little sense of responsibility towards Claude, so he reported the other party's situation the next day, and the institute decided to do another cell test on Claude.

He personally sent Claude to the disinfection room, watched his younger brother reluctantly part with him, and then turned to the training area.

If the researcher is efficient enough, he will be able to see the results of Claude's cell test this afternoon.They'd better find out why Claude's wound couldn't heal, if not...

Sephiroth actually had a vague guess.

He finished today's training absent-mindedly, stepped over the corpses of sickle-footed worms strewn about on the ground, and threw the broken long sword at the door of the training room.

Since being allowed to carry a weapon, he has rarely let a fight last longer than 10 minutes.He doesn't use firearms, except that the design of firearms is not friendly to the arms of seven or eight-year-old children, the most important thing is that they don't have the sense of taking life.He prefers swords, especially the slender and long ones, like an extended part of an arm, the vibration of every chop can be transmitted to the whole body.

Sephiroth's arm strength can easily split a one-meter-thick cement slab. All the shells of machines and monsters are vulnerable to him, but most of the slender knives are not strong enough, so the scrap rate of weapons during his training is very high. high.Some time ago, he put forward his needs to the research institute, and the institute was looking for a sword with sufficient strength for him. Unfortunately, most of the swordsmiths are far away in Wutai in the Western Continent, and this process may take several months or longer.

Sephiroth washed off the Mako, put on clean casual clothes, and went to visit his mother at the crystal.

He hadn't heard his mother's voice for nearly half a year, and he missed her calling very much.

The dissolution process in the crystal is still going on, the man's lower body has melted into a Mako, but the head is still intact.Sephiroth is no longer as worried about the disappearance of his mother as he was at first. As long as the brain is still there, even if the body is useless, there are ways to find a substitute.

The only question is... when will mother wake up.

Sephiroth pressed his face against the glass wall and sighed melancholy.

His mother told him to wait, and she would come to him, and he has always believed in this sentence.He worked hard to participate in experiments and training, hoping that when he grows up, he can take his mother away from the research institute-and now maybe add a Claude.He believes that they can form a family and live happily together like thousands of ordinary human beings.If he can do more, he wants to fight against the disaster of the planet together with his mother and become the destined hero.

But every day his mother can't wake up, his plan is just a vain.

In the afternoon, Sephiroth got the results of Claude's cell test.He roughly scanned the data on the report, and found that his guess was basically verified: Claude's cell division was inhibited by something, and the activity was much lower than that of his mother and him.

In other words, the boy could not produce enough cells to repair the experimental wounds, and the only way was to reinject the same type of cells from the outside world to supplement.Since it is impossible to extract cells from his mother, Sephiroth can only be used as his cell donor.

Sephiroth breathed a sigh of relief when he got the test results.He had a vague feeling before that Claude's poor physique might be the sequelae left when he tried to kill him with his mind.Although he still doesn't think that the decision at that time was wrong, he still has the obligation to deal with the aftermath of what he has done.

Sephiroth readily agreed to take his own body tissue to treat his brother's illness. In the afternoon, he cooperated with the researcher to complete the operation, and the first injection was ready in the evening.

Just when he thought that all the problems had been properly resolved and his future planning was about to be on the right track, an accident happened.

After Claude injected the injection, he was still in the observation period, and there was a sudden change in the crystal.Claude Strife's body melted at a speed visible to the naked eye, and even the surrounding substances emitted a glistening green light. The inside of the crystal turned into a sea of ​​demons, and the thin shell couldn't bear the pressure and cracked. trace.

No one knew what happened, and everyone watched the crystal change dumbfounded.With a loud noise, the crystal iceberg collapsed, and the flow of life washed away the entire research facility like a flood, and then all escaped into the bright galaxy.The whole process only lasted 5 minutes, and when the light faded, the center of the institute was empty, leaving nothing behind.

Sephiroth rushed into the central area at the first time and witnessed the crystal dissipate.

"No—!" He yelled heart-piercingly, ignoring the obstacles and flipping into the crystal base.He groped around inside, but in the end he couldn't find any fragments, so he knelt on the spot in a daze.

Impossible...impossible.impossible!

Mother promised to come to me!He can't lie to me!

A strong despair hit his heart, Safiro slammed the base under his body, and the steel plate was hit with deep grooves.

The next second, he suddenly thought of something, and immediately jumped up and rushed to the experimental area.

He didn't see Claude in the experimental area. The researcher said that the boy had returned to the room, so he turned around and ran to the other side.

The moment the door was opened, Sephiroth's heart beat wildly.It wasn't until he saw Claude sitting upright on the bed that he calmed down a little.

However, this mood didn't last long, because he soon found that his younger brother was looking at him with a complicated look that he had never seen before, and pronounced his name clearly——

"Sephiroth."

In that moment, Sephiroth knew something had changed forever.