Aerith & Tifa

[Elario Luminus]

Leon walked through the door and stood there in the doorway for a second, searching for Rinoa. Finding her, he silently walked up the steps and looked for an empty room. Finding one, he took of his jacket, shirt, boots and his belts, then lay down on the bed, the back of his right hand on his forehead. Thoughts ran through his head, all of them containing the word "Mako".

Rinoa followed Squall, slipped off her jacket then lay next to him.

Irvine shrugged to Aerith, then tilted his hat down and got comfortable in his chair.
'Y'know...I'm actually alright right here.'

[Tifa Lockhart]

"I can bring you a pillow or a blanket if you like?" Aerith said as she turned to leave.

Zack watched Leon go before he noted Tifa still sitting quietly in a corner, Rinoa having just left her to follow Leon. He approached the dark haired woman and with a kind, friendly smile and offered her a hand up.
"Me 'n' Aerith are crashin' at Aerith's church. It's a bit crowded here and it's nicer for us to leave our guests the beds, wanna come with?"

Tifa regarded Zack for a long moment before she nodded. Despite how many memories the church itself also contained, it was nothing in comparison to this bar.
"Alright, i'll come." She said softly.

[Elario Luminus]

Irvine shook his head beneath his hat.
'Nah, s'okay. Thanks but.'


Irvine, Leon and Rinoa quickly fell asleep.

[Tifa Lockhart]

Once they were sure everyone was settled in 7th Heaven, Zack Aerith and Tifa left for Aerith's church.
They would return in the morning.

[Elario Luminus]

((Next morning.))

Leon woke up randomly and found himself unable to go back to sleep. Groaning shortly and softly because of the time, he got out of bed and dressed fully. He walked down the stairs and out the door for his morning exercise, something he'd struck into his routine because it got the blood pumping. He set off down one of the more enclosed places, down an alley.

[Tifa Lockhart]

From the shadows Leon was being watched. Little did he know that powerful forces had overheard his idol chatter with Zack Fair the day before, and he was now a highly sought after man.
As he went down the alley he could not have realised that behind him they encroached, ready to snare him up the moment his guard was down.

[Elario Luminus]

Leon had been running, and lost in thought, had also forgotten to stretch beforehand. He leaned his back against the wall and rubbed his calf and thigh, frowning against the pain. After rubbing the cramp away, he closed his eyes for what he mentally called a quick second, and settled slightly, forgetting the world around him...

[Tifa Lockhart]

Instantly the shadows set upon him. Two grabbed him from either side, while a third shoved a rag up against his mouth and nose. The rag was doused with Chloroform, and would knock even a Mako enhanced SOLDIDER flat if held there long enough.
Cackling in satisfaction, Hojo walked forward, wanting to watch his newest Guinea Pig go under.

[Elario Luminus]

Leon roared out in anger and surprise, but was swiftly silenced by the chloroform rag. His head dropped loosely and hung there on his shoulders.

[Tifa Lockhart]

Leon was carried discreetly out into the sewers of Edge where no one would find him, Hojo leading the men who carried Leon's unconcious body.
He'd overheard this stranger's conversation with Zack Fair, and decided that a subject who was considering Mako, might show differing results when undergoing to project. He also wondered whether an outsider would react differently to the agent. He grinned and laughed at his own genius, which repeatedly made the men behind him nervous, all of them certain that their boss was less than sane.

After a short walk they reached Hojo's hidden lab, deep beneath the city of Edge. He directed the men to put Leon down on a bench, and then began all manner of scans and tests to check the man's physical and mental structures. Once convinced this subject would not die during implantation he crossed the room to a large vault, which once opened contained rows and rows of syringes, filled with a glowing green liquid. He took one cackling, and checked the dosage. It was higher than the regular SOLDIER members had recieved during their hayday... closer to the booster given when they reached First.
Giving a dose this large to a body not accustomed to the presence of Mako was a risk, but Hojo never cared. It was in the name of scientific development.

He returned to the table where his newest subject lie sleeping and cleaned himself some flesh close to a deep vein, the long needle prepared to penetrate flesh and muscle to reach the desired entry point.

Aerith jerked awake, eyes wide with horror. She'd had a dream, a vivid dream... so horrible in fact that she was certain it was real.
The planet had shrieked in her ears, crying alarm for the life of a visitor.
Before she could even turn to stir Zack, who slept soundly beside her, he was awake.
"What is it Aerith?" He asked, eyes concerned.
"Leon..." She breathed, and she didn't need to say anymore.

Zack was fully armed and racing to 7th Heaven. He threw open the doors and raced upstairs, throwing open the door to the room Leon had slept in.
Only Rinoa was on the bed.
"SHIT!" Zack yelled, wheeling around and thundering down the hallway, rapping his fist on all the doors.
"Wake up! Up, up up!" He yelled.

Vincent emerged from a dark corner of the bar as Zack came back down from the upstairs.
"What is it?" He said in his cold tone.

"Leon is gone.... Aerith heard trouble." His eyes were like blue fire.

[Elario Luminus]

Rinoa was up sleepily but quickly. She looked to the spot next to her and frowned.
What's all the fuss about? Squall's done this for years...
Then she heard what Zack said, and instantly slipped on her coat and clipped on her Pinwheel, determination blazing through her.

Irvine jerked awake and swung his rifle around to face Zack, but then lowered it.
'Waddya know? Do we know what's happened 'ere or what?'

Quistis' eyes twitched with all the noise, but grew accustomed to it fell back into her deep sleep.

[Tifa Lockhart]

Once everyone was assembled in the bar, Zack paced back and forth in front of them, cursing himself out loud. Aerith watched him, trying to comfort him with her gaze.
"Leon was asking me a lot of questions regarding Mako yesterday... seeing as i trust him i told him... though his interest concerned me..." He paused in his pacing only briefly before he resumed again.
"We shouldn't have been discussing it in the street... there are people out there who would not hesitate to take advantage of this interest..."

The needle sliced through flesh and muscle easily, finding its mark as the glowing green substance was injected slowly and painfully into the subjects body. Already he was rigged to oxygen and monitors, so Hojo would not make a mistake and kill his prized patient.
The progress was annoyingly slow, and Hojo watched the emptying syringe with trembling anticipation.
When finally the last drop was gone the scientist withdrew the long needle and cast it aside carelessly, yelling out for one of his assitants, who raced in.
"Get him in the Mako Atmosphere Chamber immediately." He instructed, leaving the table, cackling madly.

The assistant struggled to lift the dead weight that was Hojo's newest toy. He carried him across the room to an empty tube of glass and machinery that stood waiting in the corner. He heaped the man into it, strapping his arms and legs in place to keep him upright. He then plugged him into the machine with several cords that stabbed directly into his nervous system. All manner of important vital information appeared on screens around him.
Then the assistant closed the door on the chamber and pressed a sequence of buttons, the chamber began to fill with the same glowing green liquid that had been in the syringe.
Nervously, the assistant went to write down the experiment.

[Elario Luminus]

Leon was in a sleep somewhat close to a coma, and dreamed weird things, things not even possibly explicable.

Rinoa frowned as Zack spoke out loud.
'Okay, let's think smart here. Every morning Squall goes for a run. And I mean every morning. Right Irvine?'

The sniper nodded.
'The lady's right. He's done it ever since we got out of time compression. Weird thing, actually...'

Rinoa confirmed this.
'So, let's start with searching the streets and alleys. if we find him,, it's all okay. If not, then we should start worrying.'

[Tifa Lockhart]

Zack didn't even acknowledge what Rinoa and Irvine had said, he was already half way to the door and then out of it.

Vincent and Aerith sighed in unison.
"I'm sorry about this..." Aerith murmured lightly, smiling at them. "He's a bit impulsive... and hard to stop once he gets going... he probably wont even sleep once we start looking."

Vincent meanwhile began hurriedly giving out sections of the city for each person to search and soon, they were all off and searching.

Two days and still they'd found nothing.
Zack hadn't slept at all, just as Aerith had predicted, and all of them were nearly exhausted to collapsing point, but the ex-SOLDIER first class still raced on like he was possessed.
Today was particularly bad.
"No no no no..." He chanted over and over again as he turned down an alleyway that he'd already checked a hundred times. He was near enough to explosion point himself when he spotted something lying in the shadows by the wall.
He raced to it and stooped to pick it up... it was a rag. He sniffed it and caught the horrid stench of Chloroform, his head span briefly.
"This must be where they took him..." He said as he frowned, fingers searching the wall in desperation. Then he noticed something else lying down the end of the alleyway by a manhole.
Upon picking it up he found it to be a hastily scrawled map... his eyes widened.
"This is it!" He began to pull back the cover, he could handle this alone.

((Leon should wake up about now, but he can't get out still, i just want him to be conscious when Zack busts in))

[Elario Luminus]

Rinoa and irvine had simply left the search to Zack after the first full day, and were catching their sleep.

Leon's eyes flickered open, and he was struck by a multitude of things. Weightlessness, glare from the whatever he was in...and a very severe feeling of sickness that seemed to have spread throughout his entire body. His eyes adjusted and he saw what looked like a lab of some sort. He glared, outrage surging through him. He made to punch the glass section of his tube, but found he couldn't move.