Aside From Jenova
My mother is Jenova. She died right after she gave birth to me. My father…Sephiroth leaned against the windowsill in one of the southern rooms located in the nearby inn, gazing intently out into the horizon, out into the sharp and jagged cliffside of Mt. Nibel; his destination. He pondered on those words that escaped him when they entered the town. Zack, worried about his general, wandered until he found the silver-haired one lost in thoughts. They distorted his usually calm, stoic disposition. He seemed distraught.
"What are you looking at?" The brunette decided to try and pull his superior out of his trance with a direct question. It did receive a reply, yet broke through nothing. Sephiroth thoughtlessly and almost subconsciously answered:
"This scenery…" He almost sounded wistful, Zack noted.
"I feel like I know this place…"
An awkward silence ensued. The SOLDIER warrior tiled his head.
"…We have an early start tomorrow. You should get some sleep."
"Yeah, let's get some sleep." He was hoping the third person hint would reach him, and stopped in mid step from exiting as he heard more words.
"I've hired a guide to the Mako reactor. I've heard she's young, I hope we can rely on her…"
Zack nodded in agreement and continued on his way.
My father…No, he was Hojo. There is no other possible explanation…yet, I don't seem to remember being held by anyone, much less him…
This isn't the time to be thinking otherwise. I am so close to my goal…to my mother…
Why is it bothering me like this? And now? I have come this far without any thoughts about my father…Have I been led to believe Hojo was…?
I only remember he was unkind to me. Was that how a father is supposed to treat a son? As a medium for research and abuse?
…Lucrecia. I remember hearing that name around the laboratory. He treated her poorly as well. He never allowed her to come near me for some odd, yet unknown reason. How was she related to me? What could've happened if she did hold me?
I know none of this…But why?
Sephiroth yawned before stretching and turning to face the door leading out into the hallway.
What am I'm I thinking? Whether Hojo was my real father or not, I'll acquire Jenova regardless.
As the general followed Zack out of the room, he couldn't help but continue to mentally fight back the onslaught of unanswered questions. Sleep was virtually impossible.
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The team consisting of Sephiroth, Zack, and the extra bodyguard arrived at the Reactor, thankfully in one piece after the nasty incident with the bridge. It fell, and Sephiroth and co. lost a bodyguard.
"We finally made it. We sure took the long way through." Tifa, their guide commented. Sephiroth only grunted with impatience as Zack turned to her. Would he really find his answers in the reactor?
"Tifa, you wait here."
"I'm going inside too! I wanna see!"
"Only authorized people are allowed in. This place is full of
Shinra's industrial secrets." Sephiroth felt his say would have more of an affect.
"But!"
The persistence angered him. He turned to the SOLDIER standing idly by.
"Take care of the lady."
The recruit nodded once in understanding.
"Mm, man! Better take real good care of me then!"
She sat at the stairs as Sephiroth ascended them with Zack following closely behind.
He couldn't believe what he saw before him. Inside the reactor, lay rows of pods on either side of a stairwell leading into the chamber of Jenova. Zack paused in his steps, eyeing one of the creatures. It was deformed and mutated as a result of experimenting.
In anger Sephiroth slashed at the pods.
"Was I created this way too? …Am I the same as all these monsters?"
"Sephiroth…"
Immediately after the realization and his self-confinement in the inn for a few hours, Sephiroth decided to really try and get to the bottom of what he was…Who his parents were.
He descended the spiraling stairs, and after reaching the bottom, nearly tripped over what seemed to be…
"A coffin?" One of Sephiroth's silver eyebrows rose with inquiry and curiosity. It was in the same direction and on the same floor. It was bit bigger than him; it was bulky, and carved from red wood.
"What in the hell?" He gave it a knock. Nothing. His eyes then caught a very large padlock with a keyhole imbedded into it's metal with silver. With a pass of his hand, the lock shattered. He cringed with the impediment it had on the silence, even though he had no real reason to keep the noise down. He reached for an edge to open the cover, and then froze as he heard a groan. A metal arm with claws in the place of fingers embossed in gold was what lifted the cover. Deep crimson met eerie turquoise. Sephiroth only swallowed the saliva that collected in his mouth and scowled. He knew no fear, or so he thought.
"Why did you wake me?"
Seph's eyes widened.
"You don't seem sheepish. Stop acting as such. You have halted my sentence for the sin I committed long ago."
"You're…Locked in a coffin? And what sin? What are you talking about?"
"I have already said too much. Please, allow me to sleep."
"Who are you?"
"You wouldn't believe me if looked you in the eyes when I told you."
"Can you give me a name?" Sephiroth clenched his hands into fists, a strange fear consuming his resolve.
"My name is Vincent." The cloaked figure sat up, his shoulder-length black hair then obscuring his eyes. Both heard bones snap and crack as he did so, the years he had been dormant becoming apparent.
"I would rather not explain anything to you as things are. You already seem like your morale is about to crumble before you."
"What?" The younger man was jolted out of concentration.
"How dare you!? Do you even know who I am?"
"Yes, I do, Sephiroth. Now leave me be." After a small, yet awkward silence, and a momentary drop in Vincent's expressionless face revealing a fathomless sadness, the brunette clasped onto the cover of the coffin and lowered it all in one noiseless movement. Sephiroth was left alone with his thoughts once again. This time only intensified after the encounter. He began to feel whatever hold he had on sanity slip through his fingers.
That was weird…And how did he know my name? Had he not been sleeping there for a long time?
Sephiroth turned from the coffin and continued on his way to the library in a stride, albeit a bit shaken. He finally arrived at his destination and browsed through the titles on the dusty book spines. One caught his eyes. It was simply named "The Jenova Files". The former general pulled it out of the shelf, sat on the chair that had been tucked into a crowded desk cluttered with papers. He made a mental note to glance through them later. He propped his heavily booted feet up onto the same desk and flipped through the book, catching a certain paragraph. He sat up in interest.
" '...an organism that was apparently dead, was found in a 2000 year old geological stratum. Professor Gast named that organism, Jenova... X Year, X Month, X Day. Jenova confirmed to be an Ancient ...X Year, X Month, X Day. Jenova Project approved. The use of Mako Reactor I approved for use...' My mother's name is Jenova...Jenova Project... Is this just a coincidence? Professor Gast... Why didn't you tell me anything? ...Why did you die?"
Instead of the answers he so desperately desired, the book only provided a medium to send him, finally, of the brink of insanity.
He turned to a shocked Zack that paused in the doorway and rose, flinging the book aside.
"Out of my way. I'm going to see my mother."
Vincent fought back tears. He knew the consequences of his son finding that very file.
I am so sorry…