Chapter I
Home…
The man floated serenely in the warm embrace of the planet. He did not know how long he had been there. Time did not exist in this place, only the same familiar warmth. Perhaps he had always existed, here, in this vast ocean of life. It didn't matter. Here he felt at peace. He felt at…
Home.
He tried to move his arms, only to find he could not. Did he ever have arms? He tried to recall, but the effort hurt him. Better to lay here in the infinite lifestream. Lifestream? The word sparked something at the back of his mind, something from another lifetime he could not remember. He decided that was what he would call his home. It felt somehow comforting to put a name to the void, it hardly mattered whether that was its true name or not. After all, he was alone here in his lifestream.
"You're not alone. You're never alone"
It came to him not so much as a voice, but as a thought implanted in his head. It took him a moment to realize the thought was not his own, and a few more to respond. Who are you? He said to the being. After a pause that seemed like eternity, and may have been, the voice replied. "I do not know my name. I simply am. But I know your name…Sephiroth."
That name. His name. It brought back a flood of memories, all fractured bits and pieces. Memories of a life, and other people, and a world beyond the seemingly endless lifestream. He tried desperately to put them together and make some sense of it all…and couldn't. How did I get here? He thought at the other being. The voice that came to him seemed to find this amusing, and didn't reply. After a period of silence, it came back to him. "I'm bored. Tell me about yourself"He was about to respond as to how absurd the idea was, when a surge of memories flooded into his conscious thought.
Flash. He was outside the entrance to a cavern. As he prepared to enter, he glanced over his shoulder at the impaled Zolom serpent behind him. Foolish thing had had the nerve to try and make him its next meal. He thought with a smirk at how Cloud and his pathetic following would react when they finally caught up this far. They had to be nearing close, and he would only have to stay one step ahead of them, leading them like mice to cheese…
Flash. He regained control of his consciousness, and he was back in the lifestream. What was that! He demanded of the voice. It replied, "Ooh, you're a fun one…a very exciting life". This response frustrated Sephiroth nearly to the point of flat out rage. He didn't understand anything, the fragments of memory were few enough that he only knew he had once lived, nothing more. He could pick out a few names here and there, Midgar, Cetra, Cloud…the name Cloud stood above all the rest, as if it were of a great importance. He grasped hopelessly at its meaning, only to become even more maddeningly perplexed.
Flash. His name was Jase, and he was cleaning the chocobo stables. He was angry with his father for making him do it, it was his brother's turn this week. It was unfair punishment; he hadn't meant to drive his father's car into the barn. He couldn't wait until he was old enough to leave this farm in the middle of nowhere…the Shinra corporation had just started recruiting young men and women into their SOLDIER program; several of his friends had already joined up and left. Lucky bastards got to go see the world, fight monsters, and become famous, while he was at home cleaning bird dung. It was all so unfair…
Flash. His name was Shanso, and he was at his home in Cosmo Canyon. The elder had sent him to see what old Bugenhagen had discovered that was so important. It was probably just another star or nebula; that old coot spent so much time staring through his telescope that Shanso was quite sure he had lost his mind. But all the other denizens of the Canyon respected him greatly, and said he should do the same, so he figured he would at least try to believe in him. Suddenly he heard lots of shouting from the caves below him. He looked up to see Gi warriors in the distance, and a loosed arrow flying towards him. It looked like it was heading off to one side, if he moved out of the way it wouldn't hit him…
Flash. He was a beggar on the streets of Midgar. Flash. He was a frog in a swamp, catching insects off the water's surface. Flash. He was a scientist working on one of professor Gast's many projects. Flash. Flash. Flash. He spent another eternity like this, living hundreds of different lives through hundreds of different memories. He couldn't tell if some of them were truly his or not. By the time the last memories finally receded, he was having difficulty remembering who he was. Was his name Andrew, or Sarva, or Mary…no, no, he was Sephiroth. He couldn't let go of the little bit of himself he still had, to do so would make all he had found out pointless. He knew he had another purpose, something important he had to continue existing for.
"Idiot. You still don't get it, do you? You're dead. You don't exist. There can't be anything left for you to live for, because you are no longer among the living. All there is left for you is to become a part of me, a part of this lifestream."
