Even Professor Hojo found some things distasteful working with his test subjects. Even he could be bothered by the screams, the pleading, the desire they had to go back to old lives.
Not morally, of course. It was simply annoying. And much of the time cutting their tongues out ruined the experiments and made them even less obedient. It also made interrogations impossible. A well as risked death and infection...
No, what he needed was a way to shut subjects up and still be able to pick their brains. And he had a perfect means to that end. Just in time for his most prized subject to be returned. Along with some perfect guinea pigs.
"The terrorist males, we can execute them for Sector Seven. The test subject, though, before I try my new system on her, I would like to test it on the female terrorist"
He noticed Scarlet seemed interested at that. Well, time to shoot her hopes down.
"I could use a lab assistant. If I can get it all to work properly, I can be sure I can make the test subject work to our desires."
The blonde executive frowned.
"Well, I suppose making her into a puppet for you is a more logical idea than that other one. I mean, honestly, when did it ever seem like a good idea to try and cross a human-like Cetra with a... whatever that red thing is?"
Hojo sighed.
"I was actually a bit drunk when I wrote that plan down. If my other scheme wasn't working I was going to to try it to scare her. Gene therapy would have produced the same results anyway."
Aeris had been waiting a long time in a cell. She'd overheard guards speaking of executions, of other test subjects and prisoners.
And now they'd come for her.
"Come quietly." A guard ordered
She found herself pulled into a lab, and was stunned to see a familiar face standing beside Hojo.
"Tifa? Is that you?"
The other woman stared blankly. She was now wearing what looked like a cross between a labcoat and a maid outfit.
"Oh, feel free to answer the subject, assistant."
"Yes, it is me." Tifa said in a monotone.
"What did you do to her?"
Hojo giggled.
"What I'm going to do to you!" He said as the guards began strapping her into a strange chair.
"Quite simply, this machine... With the aid of this injection, you will be docile. Helpless to resist as this machine strips your mind and personality from you. All safely stored where we can look through it... someday. We can't quite translate it propely yet."
"Wh-what does that.. Ow!" Aeris tried to get an explanation, but Tifa had given her an injection.
"It means you'll be blank slate to draw on. None of those pesky memories or selfish desires of freedom. A perfect, sterile, test subject."
The machine activated, and her mind screamed its last as it was torn from her body.