...It turned into a pretty bad day. I found out the hard way that one of Hojo's assistants was teaching and was behind some disappearances around town. I had to be rescued by Yuffie and Cait; Cait was beside himself because he thought he'd checked out everyone. He fired that teacher by the way.
...The good thing is I also found out another teacher was Professor Gast's assistant. She told me some things I'm still thinking about...
~~From Zidane's journal
Zidane was just leaving Garuda's Wing when it happened. He later would admit he'd been careless since it had been very peaceful. He'd just rode Goldie by an alley when something grabbed him off the bird and placed a cloth over his mouth and nose..one that had something sickly sweet smelling on it. He passed out.
Reeve realized he was running late; usually he'd try to check on Zidane at least once a day using Cait. Cloud knew since he'd seen Cait running around again, and didn't mind so much. He had Cait running by the Garuda's Wing when he saw Goldie running by squawking. He ran and caught the bird. Where's Zidane?, Reeve thought. Just then he saw Madalynn running down looking freaked out.
"What's the matter?" Cait/Reeve asked. (They'd heard him talk to Zidane enough that he felt it was best to drop the usual pretense.)
"I saw Zidane get kidnapped! I hear one of the biology profs is doing some pretty rotten experiments and some folks have been vanishing.."
"Can't be a coincidence, which prof?"
Madalynn told Cait that she'd heard that it was someone called Doctor Roberts. Cait said he'd check it out, and ran away at a dead run, leading Goldie behind him. If there is a prof doing nasty experiments, I'm going to have to deal with it. Can't have that going around, especially with people disappearing. Thank heaven I had a backdoor code hard-wired into the school security system that only I know; figured after the Jenova War you can't be too careful...
Just as he got close to the main campus, Cait/Reeve noticed something moving in the bushes. He picked up a nearby stick and poked. Out jumped Yuffie.
"Yuffie, why are you following me?!"
"To tell the truth..Rufus caught me and asked me to go see how you were doing. Yeah, he stepped down and wants nothing to do with the company anymore because he was ashamed...but he wanted to know." She looked embarrassed.
"Lemme guess, he bribed you didn't he?"
Yuffie nodded. Cait continued, "Look, I got to deal with a humdinger of a problem. Would you be willing to come and back me up?"
"Sure! I got enough to tell Rufus, he doesn't have to hear about this."
They hurried to the school. Luckily Goldie, realizing that she was going to be taken care of, behaved and followed them. Cait explained everything to Yuffie along the way, which made her a bit mad; Cait guessed she would proly cause quite a bit of destruction, which he didn't object to within limits. When they got there, Cait tied Goldie to a tree. He turned to Yuffie.
"Let's go."
"Wait, the school's closed to everyone but professors right now, how are we going to get in?"
Cait chuckled. "I had a little sneaky backdoor code hard-wired into the security system when this was built; did it just in case something happened. Well, something has. I'm the only one who can trigger it, though." He reached into a satchel and brought out a card. They walked up to the door, Cait swiped it. A female voice said, "Please speak the final security code for emergency unlock."
Reeve/Cait made sure that his real voice would come though, then said, "Alpha Omega Forty-Two."
The voice said, "Accepted." The door unlocked.
Cait nodded. "I had this fixed so I could do the voice print code though a phone in case police had to be called. Anyway let's go Yuffie; we got a friend to rescue."
Yuffie nodded, checked a satchel she had over her shoulder, and followed Cait to the elevator. It didn't take them long to get to the right office. Cait proceeded to fix the lock, then they slammed open the door. There on a table, fastened down, was Zidane.
"Time to get nasty and get him out of here!" Yuffie pulled some tack stars out of her satchel and threw them at the PCs; Cait tried to get the cuffs off Zidane. They would not come off.
Just then a strange lady with white hair jumped into the room. "Lady ninja, get that cuff, I'll get the other." She unsheathed a rather large dagger and then slashed the cuff open. Cait noticed she had Mako eyes. Hmm, a lady member of SOLIDER? I think there were only two or three.. Yuffie pulled out her Conformer and slashed the other cuff open; they grabbed Zidane. The lady SOLIDER said, "Better hurry. I put that stupid prof to sleep in the bathroom, but that Sleepel spell will wear off soon. You'd better get him out of here before he gets back."
Cait turned to the strange lady. "Thank thee for thy help, do thee know what he was doing?" He bowed. (Since he figured the lady didn't know he was really Reeve, he decided to bring up the 'Cait' persona a bit more.)
The lady looked disgusted. "Some nasty experiments with people and Mako, I've been sneaking in behind a few professors and found out. He hasn't done anything to your friend tho but drug him, he's lucky."
Cait stomped his feet. "Do not worry thyself overmuch, my lady. That professor's head will roll for this." The lady nodded. "Prithee, could thee tell me thy name, or no time?" He made sure that he was carrying Zidane on his back with the help of the moogle.
The lady shook her head. "No time for that; but we'll meet later I'm sure. I want a word with Cloud but haven't been able to catch him yet." She ran out the door.
Yuffie proceeded to pepper the "bed" with tack stars and skeans, and then they ran out the door and down the hall after Cait relocked the door.
"I'm writing up an order to fire that professor as we speak.", Cait snarled. "No one should do that to other people just for a damn paper!" Just before they headed to the elevator, a voice called.
"What's going on? And why is that boy unconscious?" A plump face poked out an office door.
Yuffie looked up. "Ma'am, we had to rescue him from Doctor Roberts.."
"Oh dearie me, I knew there were some odd things going over there but..kidnapping people? That..is going too far...Is he okay?"
"He's alive; he got drugged but that's about it."
"I'll get Miss Mills from the nursing department up here to have a look to be sure. Come into my office, I'll make sure he won't get your friend back."
Cait looked up. "And you are?"
"I'm Ms. Banks, the other biology teacher."
Cait smiled. "I trust you then; weren't you Professor Gast's assistant?"
Ms. Banks nodded. They carefully sat Zidane in a fluffy chair; it didn't take long for the other professor to get there with a cart from the nursing department. Miss Mills checked Zidane over. "I think I know what drug he used; I'll double check, but I think he stole it from our supplies for when we do practicals. The cad!" She took a small blood sample and ran it though an analyzer; it turned out she was right..and had the antidote right there. She injected a dose, and Zidane began to wake up. He grabbed his stomach. "Uh, I think I'm gonna.." Miss Mills got out a pan in time for Zidane to throw up; luckily he didn't miss the pan.
Cait jumped off the moogle and patted Zidane's arm as he finished. "Ugh...you all right?"
"Th-think so. Still a little queasy though."
Miss Banks then said, "Oh..I'm glad you're okay. Cait, did you.."
"Let me explain so you know what happened, Zidane. Seems one of the teachers was a cad and was doing forbidden experiments, kidnapping people."
"Oh no..I thought that was over.."
Yuffie shook her head sadly. "Guess not..."
Cait patted Zidane's arm again. "Don't worry, I just sent in a notice that he's fired. I also found out something; he was Professor Hojo's assistant." Cait really looked upset. "I thought I checked that; sheesh, I feel responsible since I didn't see that.."
Zidane then said, "Nobody's perfect..at least nothing happened, I hope?"
"At least not to you; I don't know who got hurt by that." Cait smiled sadly.
Miss Banks then reached over and handed Zidane a cup of tea. "It's ginger tea; that ought to settle your stomach." Zidane sipped it, then asked: "What do you teach, ma'am? Just curious."
"Biology and Genetics." At Zidane's puzzled expression, she amended, "Study of life and also of how traits get inherited."
It took Zidane a moment to get up the courage; remembering what the Guardian's letter said, he asked: "Does it matter much, really? When it comes to personalities?"
"You mean about how people act and stuff? Even with all we know about the subject, I swear, you can't figure out someone's personality from their ancestry. I've come to believe there's a random factor involved that no one can predict. I can't say what...but everyone's unique in some way. Not even twins have the same personality, so I'm really not sure."
That gave Zidane something to think about. It took a little while for him to quit feeling sick; then they thanked Miss Banks and Miss Mills and headed down the stairs. Goldie was glad to see Zidane; Yuffie said she'd quit sneaking around so much and see if Cloud wouldn't mind knowing she was around, then went her way.
Cait gladly escorted Zidane back to the house. "I'll keep an eye on that guy." he promised. "Yuffie made a big mess in his office because she was pissed; he prolly won't take that lightly; the notice he was fired prolly won't help his mood either."
Hopefully he'll just go away, Zidane thought. But you never know with that kind of guy. You never know.