Guilt’s Cost XVIII

Recognition

Hojo had been just finishing up work on the installation of his new growth accelerator in the Kalm lab when he got the news. One of his assistants handed him a cell phone.

"What?" Hojo demanded of whom ever had the nerve to disturb him at work.

Richter, the man who had taken over Tseng’s position as the head of the Turks was on the other end of the line. "Sir, I have some bad news."

Hojo grew impatient. He was all too often bothered with piss ant problems that the feeble minded couldn’t figure out for themselves. "Get on with it, Richter."

He swallowed hard; preparing himself for the string of profanity that would follow this news. "ASRIO raided the Midgar lab again, Sir."

Instantly thrown into a rage, Hojo picked up a glass vial from a nearby table and hurled it against the wall. "What the fuck? Can’t you guys keep them out of the God Damned lab for five minutes? What did they take?"

Now Richter had to deliver the really awful part. "We’re not really sure. The lab is damaged very badly, and the inventory process is going to take a while."

Hojo narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean the lab is damaged?"

"As the thieves were escaping, one of the guards used a hand grenade to-" Richter found his words cut off.

"Of all the stupid fucking things to do! Doesn’t anyone realize how important that lab is? A grenade? God Damn it! Find out which guard used that grenade and shove one up his ass!" Hojo threw the phone to the ground, shattering it into a dozen small pieces of plastic.

By the time Hojo had returned to Midgar, his anger had boiled over into pure fury. He entered his destroyed lab and looked around. The blast had scorched everything, ruining all that had been exposed.

"I want the tapes." Hojo growled between clenched teeth.

Porter, the Turk that was assigned as Hojo’s personal guard, took a step closer to the scientist. "Excuse me, Sir?"

Hojo fumed, now even more annoyed. "The tapes, you moron! The surveillance tapes! I want to see which of those ASRIO fucks are responsible for this!"

Porter led Hojo straight to the surveillance room. He asked the attendant to bring up the images from the lab.

Hojo sat in front of a monitor and glowered as the film of the raid started to play. He studied each dark figure as they moved through the lab. Tseng, of course, and Reno. Who is this? "Freeze the tape!"

The attendant did as ordered.

"Zoom in here." Hojo pointed to a spot on the screen.

As the image grew larger, Hojo rose from his seat and leaned closer to the monitor. His jaw dropped as he placed the face he was studying. A cruel smile came to his lips as he licked them. He reached out with a gnarled finger and tapped the figure. "Ah, my beautiful Mr. Valentine…is that you? Oh, I have been waiting for you to show up. I’ve been wanting to discuss your contamination of my Jenova Project with you for a long time."

Porter listened as the scientist talked to himself. "Sir, you recognize someone?"

Hojo straightened up and turned to face the young Turk. "Yes, my dear Porter, I do."

Porter shuddered to hear Hojo speak so warmly. It meant that something evil was occupying his mind.

Hojo turned back to the monitor, and again touched Vincent’s image. Not only did he wish to ‘thank’ the ex-Turk for his interference with the Jenova Project, but Vincent himself was an incomplete experiment. Hojo had never gotten the chance to completely test the modifications he had made to Vincent’s body. He had placed him in stasis with the hope of getting the opportunity to finish his work on Vincent at a later time, but thanks to AVALANCHE freeing him, Hojo had never gotten that chance.

Now though, he knew where Vincent was and Hojo planned to do whatever it would take to get him back in that lab.