Wutai Town

[Amnesty Lazuli]

Yuffie's eyes never once left the materia pouch, bouncing back and forth as he tossed them from hand to hand. When he tucked them away, his words finally sank in. Her look of shock was priceless. "How dare you! Not a true ninja?! Why, I oughta--"

Shelke and Ami appeared to investigate the noise. "What the deuce is going on now?" Ami demanded.

"Yuffie Kirasagi, we have had many discussions about your reckless temper," Shelke reminded evenly.

"But it wasn't me! It was him--"

"Yuffie, allow our guest to explain himself."

Ami raised an eyebrow. "Well?"

[Kidd Strife]

Kidd gave a slight nod before walking to the back of the truck and jumping into he flat bed. He looked around the scene before putting his head down and hiding his face. Unlike Sin my face still looks the same... dang it!

[Sin]

Sin shrugged. He rubbed his temples from Yuffies screams, and shook his head.

"She blew off in the weaponsmith, calling me uncivilized and ungentlemanly and such, so I told her that when she can act civilized, maybe more ninja like instead of running in circles screaming, I would give her the materia... Anyways, how is Vincent?"

[Amnesty Lazuli]

"Don't change the subject!" Yuffie yelled, her cheeks turning red with impotent rage.

Shelke ignored her and changed the subject. "His condition is stable. The anasthetic should wear off in a matter of hours. His new limb, however, will take more time to get used to. I have given Amnesty instructions on how to help him acclimate." She walked calmly to a drawer, ignoring Yuffie's unceasing attempts to gain her attention. She withdrew a small vial and a plastic pouch of disposable syringes. "Administer this twice daily to reduce swelling."

"What if it starts bleeding?"

"If it does, you have a major problem. Bring him back to me. Modern methods usually ensure bleeding does not occur, even immediately after surgery."

A crash in the other room alerted Ami. She sprinted back ahead of the others, but Shelke quickly overtook her.

Vincent was cringing violently on the cot. His drip line, lying on the floor, was the source of the crash they had heard.

Shelke righted it as Ami tried to get closer and calm him. But her approach was answered by another violent swipe that batted her forcibly away. Dazed, she pulled herself to her feet. "Sin, help me hold him down!"

[Sin]

"Yes Ma'am."

Sin headed for the side of Vincent with the prosthetic, and ducked under a swipe. He came back up and grabbed his arms, before sitting on his knees to keep his legs flailing. It helped, but Vincent was still dangerous. He got free a few times, and before Sin could finally subdue him fully, he had a black eye and a nice bit of bruising going on his cheek and arms.

"Hurry with a sedative or something. He is getting free again."

[Amnesty Lazuli]

Shelke disappeared from the room and returned with a vial full of something, which she injected into the drip. In a few moments, Vincent lay back peacefully again.

Shelke sponged the cold sweat off his face. "This reaction to the procedure is unprecedented." She handed Ami an ice pack. "Fifteen Prime, you will have a very inconvenient welt if you don't use this."

"I go by Ami now," the young clone corrected, taking the pack and placing it on her head. "And he wasn't reacting to the procedure. A demon attacked him not too long ago. He destroyed it, but... well, it left its mark." Ami could almost feel the inner pain radiating from him. "This happens every once in a while. I could help him... but he turned me down." She turned to Sin. "Thanks."

[Sin]

Sin nodded, his eye getting puffy. He sat down by the bed, and used a cure2 on himself. It reduced the swellings and bruisings nicely. He looked at Vincent, and then towards Shelke.

"You are supposed to know almost all of Shinra's doings right? Can you tell me more about what they did to me, and maybe how I know what I know, but fail miserably in things even a child knows?"

[Amnesty Lazuli]

Shelke turned to Ami quietly. "Leave us."

"But--"

"Please."

Ami took one more look at Vincent and went back out.

Shelke settled herself into a chair. "To explain that... I should probably start at the beginning. During your conceptual stage, your design was codenamed Rock Oath. Originally, you were intended to be a bio-constructed fetus using cells from Vincent, Jenova, and Lucrezia. Unfortunately, the genetic material meant to contribute Seraph traits was discovered to be corrupted beyond salvage. The next logical choice for a replacement was Cloud Strife, as the one human being ever able to best a Seraph in battle at the time.

Your mind was implanted with fabricated neural information, detailing the effective utilization of most weapons and fighting styles, as well as the use of most types of materia and instructions on how to control any type of motorized vehicle. Your brain is encoded with advanced semantics programming. This means you should be able to understand any communication, written or verbal, presented to you, with the possible exception of sign language and gestures. This enables you to decode almost any language, cipher, or code based on Lengua, the parent language dating back to this planet's early colonists. Anything else not absolutely essential to your function as a weapon was neglected. Like an electronic computation device, organic brains are also incapable of storing information beyond an established capacity.

There was a period at which the genetic codes became antagonistic and triggered wholesale internal decay. Genetic shocking and DNA recovery, coupled with the Chaos matter already integrated with your system, halted the damage. In fact, your health improved at a rate far higher than anyone expected.

As your cells reconstructed, the geneticists modeled them after Vincent. They believed this would make you still more receptive to Chaos exposure. Accordingly, your codename was reconfigured to Sin. Their hopes were not unfounded; in time, you absorbed an amount of Chaos three times Vincent's average level.

They gave you a field test, but the strain was obviously too much for your system to handle. You slaughtered all your creators, escaping before the survivors could implant a nerve/brain suppliant control chip in the base of your spine. Surveillance was unable to recover your location before my link to the database was severed."

****

Cloud drove from one end of town to the other and didn't see anything looking like an inn... "Looks like things have changed since my last visit." He pulled over on the outskirts. "Kidd, you know anyplace to stay around here? Somewhere... safe?"

[Sin]

Sin was quite as he thought about this. He closed his eyes and pressed his knuckles to the bridge of his nose thinking.

"So I am a weapon plain and simple. Because of that fact, I am unable to learn to cook, or play music, unless it was encoded into my brain for subterfuge. It also entails I can pick up any thing resembling a weapon and make it deadly, as well as use nearly any type of machine that could be used during war, for any type of mission."

He sighed and started pacing the room, every now and then he stopped and looked up, before going back to pacing.

"What you said, does that mean that I am stronger in the Chaos than Vincent?"

[Amnesty Lazuli]

Shelke pondered that. "Chaos proficiency, at least so far as my observations have suggested, depends greatly on experience. But I would hypothesize you have the potential to become more powerful. This power, however, clearly does not come without cost."

[Sin]

"That is an understatement. The cost nerely destroyed my soul and will. "

He sighed one final tmie and stopped pacing. When he looked back up, he heard what sounded like a truck in the distance.

"Is there anyone who comes here with a truck?"

[Amnesty Lazuli]

"All manner of people come to visit us," Shelke replied. "Since my sister died, I have taken it upon myself to fill the vacancy she left. She was once known as a brilliant robotocist, with a specialty in replacing severed or damaged parts of the human body. However... for all that... her own body was fragile. She herself was host to several of her own designs. I was at first guilty that she died attempting to preserve my own existence. But after further consideration, I begin to think perhaps I freed her from her pain. Even so, I cannot help but feel, if I truly wish to express my gratitude, taking her place is the least I can do." Shelke found herself rubbing her right wrist uneasily at this statement.

Strangely enough, Ami, eavesdropping at the door, was doing the same... except she happened to be rubbing her left wrist.

Shelke suddenly looked up and continued. "In any case, I have found following her trade to be surprisingly easy. Though I do not believe in natural predisposition towards a specific purpose, I feel as though I was made to fulfill this duty. There seem to be many who agree with me. I have become the planet's leading name in cybernetics and automail. My projects waiting list, at last estimation, could span the distance between this island and our planet's moon. Add to that the tribal elders and other combat figures who frequently call on Yuffie, and it comes as a shock that we ever find any peace here."

[Sin]

"I see... But... Why can I hear a truck roaring like it is coming straight at us... "

He closed his eyes concentrating, and he started to make out voices, although they were whispered.

"Cloud.... and Kidd.... I think someone else as well.... How can I hear this..."

[Amnesty Lazuli]

Shelke seemed slightly curious, despite her perpetually blank expression. She tilted her head. "There are no records of modifications to your hearing. Are you certain you are not imagining things?"

Vincent stirred slightly. It had almost been long enough for the anaethetic to wear off.

[Sin]

Sin shook his head.
"I am certain. I can hear it very clearly, like it is almost directly on me... Wait, could it have something to do with the demon merging with me?"
He growled lowly and reminiscent of said demon, as the noise became louder and louder.