Loveless

Chapter 30

"Eloise! Wait up!"

After her mentor — and former crush — disappeared from sight, Eloise's irritation turned sharp and restless. Zack had to jog to keep up with her, already guessing what was going through her head. Unfortunately, he was probably right.

"Come on, wait for your older brother!"

"Which one?!" she shot back over her shoulder, glaring at him.

Zack winced. "Right. Bad choice of words..."

They hadn't gone far when they heard shouting. Outside the facility, Tifa was struggling against a creature, clearly overwhelmed. Cloud lay on the ground nearby, injured and barely conscious. Zack reacted instantly, rushing in to finish the fight.

Once it was over, Eloise sent Tifa back to town without argument. Zack helped Cloud to their room, supporting most of his weight.

It had been a disastrous day.

Too much had happened in too little time.

That was why, when Sephiroth later summoned Eloise to the Shinra Manor to help him search for information about Jenova, she hesitated — and then chose not to go immediately. One brother needed her more than the other.

The Shinra Manor was in disarray.

Books were scattered across tables and the floor, folders torn open, documents half-read and discarded. Sephiroth stood in the library, surrounded by open volumes, reading one document while glancing at another, his focus fractured but relentless.

"You really want to know who you are, don't you?" Eloise said quietly from the doorway.

He didn't look at her. His eyes stayed fixed on the text.

"Don't you?" Sephiroth asked.

She exhaled slowly and picked up a random document from the mess.

"I was created to... entertain you," she said flatly. "Is there more to it?"

That made him look up. His expression hardened, displeased by the way she had worded it.

"Don't say that." He surprised her by how angry he sounded. "They took everything from you," he continued more quietly. "You have every right to want answers."

For the next few hours, Eloise did nothing but sit and read through scattered documents.

One file in particular caught her attention. It described a man who had been severely wounded during a mission. His injuries were considered fatal, so Hojo and his associate took him in as a test subject. Their goal was to create the perfect weapon. The experiment succeeded in one sense: the man became effectively immortal. However, the side effects were severe. He retained his emotions, which made him unstable and dangerous. The file identified him as Project V, a failed attempt driven by Hojo's obsession with immortality.

Most of the other documents focused on experiments involving Jenova cells. Nearly all of them were marked as failures due to instability. Eloise also found extensive research about the Lifestream. According to the reports, SOLDIERs infused with mako would eventually return to the Lifestream after death. Materia itself was condensed Lifestream energy. Overuse of materia drained a person's own life force and could cause degeneration.

Many of the files were technical and repetitive, focused on weaponization rather than people.

Then Sephiroth returned and placed several documents in front of her.

"Eloise. Read these."

Her eyes widened when she saw the title.

PROJECT E