The faint smile fades. There's no love lost between the scientist and his greatest creation.

"An escaped specimen, not a deserter." The correction is still soft, but easily picked up over the Dramatic Heroic Speech not!Zack in the movie is giving. Something about friendship and honor; he'll review later. He knows exactly what sorts of things Zack means, exactly how Hojo saw his subjects and how he treated them. All of them. Even himself. "It's best you .. 'quit', if you weren't there willingly."

All he'd endured had nearly broken him, and he had been a willing participant in trying to extinguish the weakness in his mind and heart. How much worse would it be for someone who didn't want to be there? "Are you a wanted man, or have you disappeared off Shinra's radar?"