Jenova Project K:

Chapter 1: Tainted

Kairi, a young fourteen year old girl with auburn red hair and blue eyes, walked on the sandy beaches of Destiny Islands. She wore a thin white top shirt with a black one barely visible underneath, and purple biker shorts under a purple skirt kept up by a belt. She wore no shoes, having left them by the boat to feel the wet sand underneath her feet. She raised a hand to play with the black choker on her neck, sometimes wondering why she wore it, and the arms bands.

She sighed to herself. It was getting late, the sun was setting, her friends Sora and Riku had left hours ago to go home after preparing their raft to go sail to other worlds. She wanted to go home to rest as well, but, for some reason, she felt as if she were compelled to stay. For the life of her, she couldn't imagine why. It wasn't safe to row back to the mainland at night, yet, she wanted to see nightfall tonight. It was a bizarre sensation.

"This world has been connected."

Kairi froze and spun around. "Whose there?"

"Tied to the darkness."

Kairi looked around, growing confused, not seeing anything. "Who...?"

"Soon to be completely eclipsed."

Kairi turned again and then froze, fear rocketing up her spine. As the sun set in the distance, and darkness rose, a man in a brown cloak started floating towards her across the ocean. Underneath him came hundreds, if not thousands of dancing shadows. Kairi gave a small scream and started running towards the docks, only to see the shadows already there. These shadows rose from the ground, showing a unnatural completely black appearance, the only deviance two yellow eyes.

Kairi fell on her butt and scrambled to get away, deciding to run to the secret place. Her heart started beating wildly as the shadows and the cloaked man followed her. She ran in and began to beat on the closed door without a handle.

"Help! Help! Please!" she screamed.

"There is so very much to learn."

Kairi froze, a shiver rolling down her spine and turned around.

"You understand so little."

The brown cloaked man floated there, darkness rolling in him in waves, shadows starting to crawl along the wall towards her. She backed away as far as she could, pressing against the door.

"A meaningless effort."

The shadows closed in...

"One who knows nothing can understand nothing."

The nearest shadow leaped at her, claws raised. "HELP ME!"

For a moment, time seemed to freeze. In another time, in another place, in another world, perhaps Kairi might have fallen, might have lost her heart to darkness and needed her friends to save her. But in this time, not only did her power as a Princess of Heart awaken, but something 'other' heard her plea...

"Come to me child, I will take you to my bosom, I will protect you."

With a flash of light, Kairi was gone...

Kairi reappeared midair in a flash of light and plummeted, hitting the ground hard and with a sickening thud. "Ohhh..."

Her vision blurred, and some foul stench filled her nose, but she couldn't move...

She caught sight of two people walking towards her, it almost looked like there were in blue suits...

"Veld, you see what I see?" a voice asked.

"I'm not blind," murmured Veld.

"Girl appearing in a flash of light and falling out of the sky in the Midgar slums, don't see that every day," muttered the other man, "I don't think we should leave her here."

"No, I imagine not, perhaps... the professor would be interested in her," said Veld.

"I imagine so, tch, poor girl, kind of cute, ah well," said the other man.

Kairi felt two hands pick her up, she grew dizzy, and passed out...

Kairi rubbed her eyes and groaned. "Where...?"

"Ah, the specimen is awake," said a cruel voice.

Kairi give a start and looked around. She trapped in a cage in a small room with what looked like an operating table in the middle. There were cabinents and shelves full of different sized bottles and liquids. Standing in front of her was a man with glasses, in a white coat, holding a clipboard with paper and a pen, scrutinizing her... wait a second...

Kairi squealed in distress when she realized she had nothing on but her bra and panties. "You PERVERT! Stop looking at me!"

The man gave her a look of distaste. "Perversion has no place in the field of science. I am merely taking notes of my newest specimen."

Kairi glared at him. "My name is Kairi! Not specimen!"

The man made a jot on his paper. "Kairi? Hmph, Specimen K will do. I am professor Hojo."

"I've already taken the liberty of taking a sample of your blood-work and some of your hair to study. I must admit, Specimen K, your DNA is fascinating. You share a majority of the DNA sequence with humans, but, you differ from the everyday rabble of the world to a noticeable degree. At first, I thought you might be an Ancient, but no, you don't match either Jenova or Ifalna. Its curious... you appear to be something, new," said Hojo, pausing to clean his glasses.

Kairi was shivering. The man was staring at her like she was some kind of object to be studied. It was like science class back at school, only, she was the one under the horrifying microscope.

"Where am I?" asked Kairi.

Hojo paused briefly and then waved his hands. "It doesn't matter where you are or where you come from. You are now a specimen in my lab and we will be running a few... experiments... today. Hee hee hee."

That laughter. A horrid chill ran down Kairi's spine. Hojo moved over to a drawer and began to pull two things out. One was a syringe that contained some black liquid. The other looked like a baton with a switch on it. Hojo set down his clipboard and picked up the syringe and the baton.

"I'm curious, so very curious. I did an initial test with a small tissue sample, and your DNA has a very... interesting... reaction with Jenova cells. I have a new hypothesis born out of this reaction that I wish to test," said Hojo calmly.

"W-what hypothesis?" asked Kairi fearfully.

"A hypothesis that reacts counter to the Reunion Theory I've been developing. Its very odd, I will admit. I was so sure of my budding theory, then, you come along. Your cells 'awaken' the Jenova cells in such a manner that I've never seen before," explained Hojo.

"Your cells, once infused, do not seek Reunion, instead, they seek Replication, as if wanting to become their own organism. Rather than condensing and become whole, they wish to spread," explained Hojo.

Kairi had absolutely no clue what he was talking about.

"I've decided that I'm going to go ahead and start a new Jenova Project with you as the primary specimen, I thus call it Jenova Project K. The S project, and the G project, as much as I loath Hollander's work, shall serve as the control groups for this experiment. While this should have been started while you were a fetus in the womb, I am forced to... improvise. I shall inject you with a full syringe of Jenova Cells, directly into your heart, and observe the results," said Hojo, starting forward.

Kairi moved to the back of her cage. "S-stay back! Don't touch me!"

Hojo looked displeased. "Resisting experimentation results in a disciplinary action to instill obedience. Will you come forward?"

Kairi shook her head, and Hojo walked up to her cage, peering in at her.

"A pity," he said, before flicking the switch on his baton.

Electricity ran down the baton before he jabbed Kairi with it. She screamed in pain as he shocked her left leg and fell to her knees, losing the feeling in that leg. She screamed again, a third time, and a forth time as he jabbed her limbs. She lost the ability to move, and laid there, moaning in pain.

Hojo grabbed a leg and pulled her towards the front of the cage and readied the syringe. "Let us proceed."

Hojo placed a hand on her stomach and aimed the syringe, a thin needle sticking out of it. Kairi winced as it puncture into her body and he began to squeeze out the black liquid, the Jenova Cells. She felt immense pressure in her chest, her heart started beating wildly. For a moment nothing happened after he finished and pulled it out.

Then...

Kairi began to scream. "AHHHHH! GET IT OUT! GET IT OUT!"

She screamed again and clawed at her chest, crying uncontrollably. Oh god, oh god, she could FEEL IT! She could FEEL IT! Something was moving through her body, it was spreading, it felt awful. It felt WRONG! She cried, shivering uncontrollably and started moaning weakly.

"Interesting, Specimen K has shown a negative reaction, and what appears to be black spots forming on her skin," said Hojo, jotting down a note on his clipboard.

Kairi lost her ability to scream and cry moments later, collapsing to the floor of the cage and convulsing. She could see black spots in her eyes, feel the... the taint spreading through her body. No... no...

"S-stop... please...," begged Kairi.

Hojo didn't react, he merely continued to jot down notes.

Kairi puked, spitting up black liquid. But it didn't stay outside her body for long, the black goop seemed to slither back to her and pass through her skin. She shook uncontrollably as the taint began to reach the last pure bastions of her body. She gave one last horrid scream as she felt it pass into her head, oh god, it felt like her enter body was dying...

Then...

She convulsed. Memories started flashing through her head uncontrollably. She felt... something else in her mind with her. It was studying her memories, almost like it was devouring the information within them. It especially focused on her schooling for some reason, then turned to watch how she interacted with people. Focusing on speech...

She had another convulsion, crying black tears down her face...

Then...

It was as if a gentle hand brushed her face, but there was not one there.

"Hush my child."

Who...?

"Everything will be alright."

Did... did the voice mean that? Everything hurt so much...

"The pain is fleeting my daughter..."

D-daughter? But... Kairi had no mom... she had just washed up on Destiny Islands one day...

There was a soft chuckle. "You are my daughter now, dear child, and we shall do great things together, you and I."

Great things? Kairi winced and whimpered in pain. They'd do no great things if she died...

"Ah, the discomfort bothers you. Come, let me tend to you my child, let me, in. Yes, let me in, don't you want the pain to stop? Let me in..."

Kairi shivered and nodded feverishly. "Y-yes... make it... make it stop..."

And just like that, she convulsed one more time, and the pain was gone. The black spots on her body faded away moments later. She laid there, crying with relief.

"As I promised my daughter, you let me in, and the pain stopped. Now, we will do great things together, you and I, once you unite with your brother."

Brother...? Kairi frowned and thought, "Who, who are you?"

"I would prefer the word, mother, but, the name the humans call me by, is Jenova."

Welcome to Jenova Project K.

Consider this the story proposal. You, good sirs and ma'ams, will tell me if it interests you. I am currently working on another Fanfiction project at the moment, but, when the idea for this struck me, I decided to leave this here to see if it gathers interest. If it does, I may start devoting more time to it before my other Fanfiction completes.