Final Fantasy VII: Hidden Secrets
It was on a Night of the Harvest. One of the nights where the moon was full and the light radiated from it like makou. The stars were bright in that little town. Not much pollution fogged the sapphire sky from revealing the treasures it held.
The settlement of Nibelheim was a quiet place, from which a quiet boy was born. He never associated with any of the children, or adults. He spent most of his youth dreaming about his future. The boy often wandered off to the makou reactor atop Mount Nibel.
He went to school, as all other boys of his age did. He became the top student, and yet never answered the questions of the professor, his father.
His name was never spoken from the mouths of his classmates, and therefore, never spoken to. As a child he had no one to depend on, excluding himself, that is, so, by the age of 13, became a mature adult.
He tried to convice his father to let him seek his fortune in the real world. The professor refused him and went on with his top-secret studies for President Shin-Ra, or his precious science.
One night, the boy awoke, only to find himself betrayed by his own father. The crazed scientist had secretively drawn out his son's cells and replaced them with a combination of alien cells and makou. From inside his crystalline capsule, he yelled his fury to his lunatic father laughing, joking, and mocking his dazed son.
From that day on he swore vengeance against the one person who had "cared." The young Sephiroth knew now that his whole life had been a lie. He waited until the mad-man had left for the office, where he sloppily recorded his successful experiment into his log.
Sephiroth called on the alien power coursing through his veins, here he felt unnatural strength flow in his body. Again he swore to the man in the basement as the glass shattered around him, freeing him to train with the professionals in SOLDIER. He planned to become the top ranking general, then return to torture his father, Hojo, for stealing his life from him.
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Part 1
Please stop. *thump* Please no. *thump* The beating, please stop! *thump* I can't stand it! *thump* The beating. . . . *thump*
. . . . my heart. . . . *thump* . . . . it circulates that alien blood. *thump*
Why? *thump* Why did he betray me? *thump* I'm his one and only son! *thump* Why did he hurt me? *thump* I TRUSTED him!
*thump* With my LIFE, I trusted him! *thump* And he betrayed me.
*thump* . . . . . . . *thump* . . . . . . . *thump* Wake me.
"Yo!"
A gruff voice. Wake me.
"Oh. . . . my. . . ."
Please.
"Are you OK?"
Wake me from this nightmare.
"Yo, Kid, are you OK? Hey, wake up. Wake up. I said 'WAKE UP!!!!'"
The boy, around Seph's age, (give or take a few months) was fiercely shaking the silver-haired teen.
As Sephiroth opened his foggy eyes he was dropped by the immature punk.
"What the-?!" The gasp awakened the drowsy Seph who agilely jumped to his weak feet and attempted to draw the sword he had strapped onto his back the night before.
The boy had spiked, red-brown hair and dull, aqua eyes that sparkled with glee. He wore a dark brown jacket of leather that was trimmed with fur from the back of a bandersnach. Under the jacket he wore a raven-colored tank top that matched remarkably well with his khaki pants.
In his hand he held the sheathed sword from off of Seph's back. He grinned slyly.
"A skilled member of SOLDIER always unarms an unknown enemy," he threw the sword down onto the grassy ground. "And what's with your eyes?"
". . . . . ."
"What? Aren't you gonna answer me?"
". . . . . ."
" C'mon! Don't be rude! Whether friend or foe, I need a soul to talk to! I can't STAND not having a companion to whom I can tell all my useless trivia!"
". . . . . . . . ."
He sighed and held out his hand warmly. "Hi! I'm Zeki, Zeki, um, well, just Zeki."
Sephiroth was still tense. He did not extend his hand. Never, he told himself, never again will I trust ANYONE. I can only trust myself.
"Please, leave me be." Sephiroth whispered coldly to Zeki.
"Why? By the looks of things, in battle, I would have the advantage. Are ya AFRAID of fighting a mere BOY? Afraid of loosing? Loosing to ME?"
"Why do you say that the advantage in battle is yours?"
"You have no weapon, and I do. Why else?"
Zeki was suddenly held very tightly with a knife's cool steel blade about to slice the skin on his throat. "First lesson: NEVER trust an unknown enemy. ESPECIALLY when you think they are unarmed."
Seph loosened his grip on the sweating teen and let him struggle free. "Watch out Zeki, next time you might not be so lucky. Your apponent might not be as generous as me."
"You call THAT generous?!"
"I let you live, did I not?"
"Barley!"
"A person cannot BARLEY let one live." Seph sat down on the lush grass surrounding him.
Zeki slowly creeped up behind the anti-social young man in an attempt of a surprise attack.
"Stop trying to beat me, Zeki, I hear you sneaking up on me."
Zeki continued sneaking, and telling himself He can't hear me! He's just saying that! What a FOOL!!! He swiftly placed his throwing knife firmly against Seph's neck, slowly pressing down.
"Hello, Zeki. Why are you trying to use my own tricks against me?" His voice was calm and smooth as he said these words, yet his eyes remained fixed on the nothingness before him.
Zeki dropped the knife into Seph's lap and collapsed behind the cold young soldier.
"MAN, I just give up! I GIVE UP!"
"What?"
"My dream. I'll never be as good as anyone in SOLDIER. I'll be sent to the regulars for sure! All I can do is use this stupid scythe blade. I can't wield a SWORD!!!! Now you, you're different. You have potential. You're a natural."
"Excuse me? What did you say?"
"You're a natural?"
"Oh, OK. I thought you called me unnatural."
"Why?"
"That's what I've been called my whole life. I always felt like a specimen in my father's basement. He was the only one who. . . ."
" 'Who' what?"
"Cared. But he betrayed me and I became one of his experiments. That's why I'm like I am."
"What? An anti-social, oh, what's the word? Ass-hole! Yeah! An anti- social, cold hearted, ass-hole! That's what you are!"
"I'm sorry you feel that way, but I don't know how to care. I never had any friends. They all shunned me. I was the outcast, so, I guess that you are right. You are good with people, apparently they liked you. You can talk to a person without feeling insecure. You seem like one who has been cared for, one who knows love. One who can show their feelings without being strangled. You are sarcastic, and people can tell. If I tried to be like you, I would be shot for offending President Shin-Ra." He stood and picked up his sword.
"Zeki?"
"What?"
"Don't give up your dream."
He walked past the depressed staff wielder and headed for the cliff overlooking Midgar. This is where I start my journey.
An agonizing pain tore through Sephiroth's brain. His hands reached for his aching head as he collapsed onto the flowers which had beautifully bloomed. They were crushed and so was Sephiroth's mind. The piercing scream in his brain would not stop. Sorrow, hatred, fear, and loss filled his heart and he felt as if his hands were drenched with blood and caked with dirt. Why did he feel this pain?!
Why did his heart wrench with sorrow for the dead?
Then, in his mind, came a vision. A familiar young man lay on the, now red, sandy, earth. Bullet holes were gushing blood and his spiky black hair was covered with caked redness. His abdomen was sliced and his body lay broken and still. Death approached the blood drenched body of the boy.
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The shaking came again.
"Come ON man!!! Ya GOTTA wake up! Please! Wake up! You won't let me give up, and I won't let you! Kid, PLEASE! Can you hear me? I didn't mean it when I called you an anti-social ass-hole! I'm sorry for what I did, just don't die! I'm your friend, Kid!"
A coughing spasm erupted from Sephiroth's chest. Zeki stopped shaking the, now conscious, Seph.
It was a struggle to squint open his eyes, but once he did he inhaled a long, shaky breath and coughed once before saying: "I don't die easily." Then passed out for the rest of the day.
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*crackle* What? *crackle* Fire? *crackle, pop, pop, crackle* Popcorn? *crackle* A figure? *crackle* Mother? *crackle* No. *pop, pop* Who are you?
" Jenny."
"Jenny?"
The silhouette of a girl nodded. She sat by the fire from which the only light radiated. Darkness surrounded the campsite.
"That's right."
"I've never seen you before."
"No."
"Why not?"
"I don't know, Sephiroth."
"How did you. . . ."
"This is your mind Sephiroth. I am just your imagination run wild. Or, that's what others would say. I've only now met you, but I've been here your whole life."
". . . . My whole. . . . life?"
"Yes."
"How?"
"I don't know everything, Sephiroth."
"Well, you're a spirit, are you not?"
"Sephiroth, don't try to play a game of wits with me!"
"And why not?" he grinned.
"I will always win. I know ALL your tricks."
"Impossible."
"And why not?" she must have smirked, at LEAST.
"Not even I know all of them."
Jenny sighed. "Sephiroth, you need to watch over your friend while training in SOLDIER. He needs more training, and YOU shall be his tutor."
"Why?" His smile faded away.
"Just do as your told makou boy."
He crossed his arms. "Fine."
"Then wake up."
*************************************************************
Sephiroth's eyes flashed open, illuminating the darkness with their green glow. The campsite Zeki had made looked like the dream site. Jenny was gone, and the blackness was no longer so black.
Sephiroth looked above him, only to see the overhanging ledge. How. .
"Unnnnngh"
Seph turned to look at the snoring Zeki, rolled up into his bedroll like sushi. Drool trickled down the side of his chin. For once Seph realized how lonely his life had been.
He had only his looks, wits, talents, and loneliness. Never had he been trusted this far, not even by Hojo. That kid is STUPID, or extremely brave. He has to be one of the two to trust a monster, like me.
"Ha, ha, ha! Tee, hee, ha, ho, heeeeeeeeeee! Slurp! MMMMM, pie."
For the first time in his memorable life, he felt joyful, he smiled and all of his anger drained away to savor the moment of his first REAL friend. The smile turned into snickering as Seph rolled over and went back to sleep.
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*CRASH*
Sephiroh jumped out of his bed roll, startled by the crash of pots and pans. His makou eyes gleamed wildly at Zeki, who had been attempting to cook.
Seph snickered as Zeki scrambled to clean the mess he had made. He kneeled to help the young man.
"Hey, Kid! Go lie down, you should still be resting. I'll take care of this mess."
"Zeki, you really should be more careful."
"Look, Kid, I'm not the one who fell off the cliff. Anyway, you're always dissing the way I do things. Can't I, at least, COOK without help? My GOSH, you're so DEMANDING!"
Seph continued to clean.
"NO, Kid! Go lie DOWN! I know first aid."
Zeki had to drag Seph to his bed roll.
"I hope you don't mind eating dragon."
"Have you gone to the Nibel Makou reactor?"
"No, I bought the meat. Dragon is my favorite!"
Zeki unloaded a pouch at his side. Meat, fresh meat, was placed in a pan over the remains of the fire.
The ground shook and voices seemed to echo in the site. Zeki was going to use magic.
"NO, Zeki!" Seph lunged for Zeki.
"Fire 3"
The dragon meat was set ablaze. It crackled and popped wildly.
"I guess, no breakfast," Seph moaned.
The fire died away to reveal perfectly cooked slabs of meat. Seph's eyes went wide. Zeki smiled humbly.
*rmble, grgle, ush, ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmgrrrrrrrrrr*
Seph's stomach couldn't withstand the torture of seeing the perfect meat slowly placed onto nice, pretty, flowery, plates and see the cranberry juice poured, ever so slowly, into nice, pretty, crystalline, glasses, then served even slower so that by the time it reached Seph, he would have died of starvation.
He pounced on the meal and swiftly ate his half. He stepped away from the scorched wood on which the other slab of meat sat.
But Zeki just stared at Seph and slowly inched towards the camp fire.
Once Zeki finally reached the meat, he placed it onto a napkin. Then he poured the juice into a cardboard cup.
He ate as swiftly as Seph, only he, somehow, was able to have better manners.
Once finished Zeki cast mini on the materials, then stuffed them into the small pouch.
"C'mon! Midgar awaits!"
"Hey, wait. I thought I was not well enough to travel."
"Well, judging by the show you performed at breakfast, I dub thee healthy enough to travel to Midgar and see a REAL doctor."
Seph sighed deeply and led the way to the City of Gray, Midgar.
Part 2
Midgar. The city that can be identified by only one word: Old.
It was as old as the Antients. The makou reactors had not yet destroyed the inhabitants surrounding the city of metal. It was divided into sectors, which had long forgotten names. The sectors had once been towns, but then turned into cities, their names faded into history, and are now referred to Sectors 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.
During that time of happiness Midgar had been beautiful. Flowers used to bloom and grow in fields and pastures. The city was said to be made of silver.
But as that silver tarnished, the city turned dull and gray. The towns were no longer rich and beautiful. As time went on, they fell into a pit of despair and the beauty was destroyed to reveal the ugly core. The cities fell to the slums and Shin-Ra combined them together to create the city of sadness, Midgar.
This is where we left off.
Seph and Zeki were just about to enter the towering monster.
Zeki's head was lifted up towards the sky. Measuring the arching distance above him he spoke with the silver haired teenager beside him. "Is that. . . ."
A firm hand was placed on the shoulder of Zeki's jacket. Startled at the sudden pressure, he jumped and looked at the young man behind him.
"Yup!" His voice was one of an uplifted heart. It hid something from the world, but the sarcastic tone instantly tore your mind from the secret. "Isn't she a. . . . nevermind." His eyes lifted to the towering city. "Well, she sure is a BIG sucker."
Seph calmly turned to look at the dark haired man. His eyes were brown and specked with gold and green. His spiky, jet colored, hair shone against the silver moon. He wore a black tank top and faded jeans. His opposite hand was shoved into the depths of his pocket. A pack hung loosely on a black belt and the sword that was slung over his taught shoulders was broad and as long as he was tall. His combat boots were brown leather and seemed to fit the kid's style, no matter how badly it clashed with the rest of his wardrobe.
He looked to Sephiroth and smiled. "The name's Zack."
What is it about this boy?! I should be ready to kill him if he makes a threatening move! For some reason, I feel as if. . . .no. It's impossible. I have never met a person named Zack. Seph turned away from the figure of the male.
Zack turned to Zeki. "What's up with him?"
"Awww, don't worry about him. He's always cold."
Seph flinched, then resumed his blank stare into nothing. Cold. I have always been cold. I can't help it. Even Zeki would be cold if he had to go through what I did! Well, I can't control his feelings. If he thinks I'm cold. . . .but Zeki's my friend, not the stupid kids in Nibelheim!
"Look, I'm kinda new to this area, could I hang with you two? Well, just till I find Shin-Ra HQ." Zack shrugged carelessly, then stood with a hand on his hip and his right foot in front of him. "If not, well I guess I'll have to, well, find someone else."
"Well ,Zack, you're in luck!"
"What, do you know how to get there?"
"No. It's my first time here, too, but we're going to Shin-Ra HQ!"
Zack rubbed his sore eyes. "Great, now we can all get lost together."
Seph mumbled to himself.
The two young men looked at Seph.
"What was that?" Zeki said as he crossed his arms across his chest.
Seph turned around. "Do I always have to repeat myself? I said let's just get going."
"Whoa! Kid! Are you OK? You look deathly pale!"
"Egads, you're right!" Zack pulled out a phone from his pack and lifted it to his ear as he looked at the stars. "Hey! Lenoa! I have a friend down here in need of medical treatment! Could you meet us outside Sector 7? How FAST? This kid is ghastly pale and more than likely running a high fever! He's got a gash in his head and it's COLD out here! How fast do you THINK? You need an amount of time? OK. . . .ASAP!!!! Thank you!" He clicked the phone off and sighed.
Sephiroth reached up to his head. To his surprise he felt the gushing blood seep through his cold fingers and the silver hair around it was drenched in the garnet substance. My blood. That's the key! If I drain enough blood, I can kill the alien cells inside of me. . . . That was the last thing he thought before he collapsed on the rocky soil.
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My body. It's frozen. Why is this ice surrounding me? What is happening? Sephiroth's mind reached for the materia floating in front of his torso. The black orb was absorbed through the flesh of the man.
I can't control my mind! My body won't move! Why is my soul burning? Am I fighting back? I'm watching this show from my own eyes, but WHY won't my body listen to my summons? Get me out of this NIGHTMARE!!!!
A needle pierced his flesh, biting into his soul, and smothering the last flicker of fire in the young man's spirit.
"That should calm him down." The female voice was a distant echo in the fading dream.
"And if it doesn't?" Zack's voice was calm and concerned.
"We'll just have to see."
That dream. . . . Zack. . . .
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"That should calm him down." The woman beside Zack said in her soft voice. She was a doctor that Zack knew well. She was a scientist, but she was one of the very few women to be in training for the SOLDIER program. She was mentally and physically fit. Her studies for health were only to help her comrades in battle. Later, she had been asked by Shin-Ra to join the science committee. She had refused and has been working in the regulars ever since. She had silver-violet hair and eyes the color of amethyst. She had a nice figure under the white coat that hung loosely over her small body.
"And if it doesn't?" Zack felt his voice nearly crack as he asked these words. He had no idea why he protected this guy. He was a cold son-of- a-bitch. He didn't care about ANYONE but himself, and he never showed the common courtesy shared between most people.
"We'll just have to see."
"I trust you, Lenoa! I always have, but this guy seems to worry me. He must be very strong considering how much blood he lost before he passed out, but he had no IDEA that the wound was even there. The boy with him didn't notice and apparently he had been the man's partner. It seemed to appear out of nowhere, like it happened in another world and affected him here. I don't get it."
"Any normal scientist would say that it's against all laws of science. But I'm not a normal scientist, so I can speak freely." :p so there!
"So, what do you have to say?"
"Anything's possible."
"And why do you say that?"
"To annoy Shin-Ra, why else?"
Lenoa turned away from the table to look at Zeki. His aqua eyes were staring blankly at the table on which his friend lay. Why didn't I see it before? It was clear as day! One second the kid was stable, and the next, on the ground bleeding to death. If Zack hadn't come along. . . .
Zack snapped his fingers in front of Zeki's face. The boy jolted upright and stared into his brown-green-gold eyes, terrified. Zeki smiled shakily and asked, "Will he be OK?"
The boy's eyes wavered, then softened as he replied, "We'll just have to see."
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The world is so peaceful. What happened to the fire, the ice, what about Zack. Were they all just dreams? If it was a dream, then why did I feel all those emotions? Where am I?
A figure stepped out from the shadows. He wore the uniform of a Shin- Ra general and his makou green eyes illuminated the shadows around him. His long silver hair shimmered as he walked. The sword in his hand was over 6 feet long and his boots clunked on the shadowed ground.
"Who are you?" Sephiroth's voice was cold and soft, like faintly drifting snow.
The man's eyes gleamed crazily. In the words he spoke ice seemed to slice through Sephiroth's being and an aura unfurled around the body, making him seem invulnerable.
"You idiotic mortal. You can't even recognize the form of your future owner. You cower before your own being, cringing in fear. How will you become the general you so long to be?"
Sephiroth sneered and stood from his crouching position. "You, you're the one! The one in my dream! Are you also the one who will destroy the being of Zack?"
"I be that creature."
"I would never do such a thing."
"But you will."
"No one can be that heartless!"
"But you will be."
"I won't be the insane being before me!"
"I am the only one who won't hurt you, Sephiroth."
"You spoke my name." Seph was appalled.
"Of course. I am the only friend you will ever need."
". . . .My friend. . . ."
"Yes. Your one, and only friend."
". . . .Only friend. . . ."
"Yes. If you join me, you will never need them. You will never be weak, and all will belong to you. Including the godhood that your heart screams for."
". . . .godhood. . . ."
"Yes."
". . . .all my dreams. . . ."
"Yes."
". . . .revenge on. . . .Hojo."
"Yes."
"You're. . . ." Sephiroth glared through the being in front of him.". . . .from Hojo! What he injected into me! You woke me by whispering promises of power and fame in my ear!"
"No. I have no idea what you're babbling on about. You're just tired. You need rest. Sleep, Sephiroth. And tomorrow, you'll find me."
"Sorry, your tricks won't work on me again! You may be physically stronger than me, but this is MY mind, not your own! Get out!" Seph smiled
"What?"
"Get out."
"You are speaking to the GENERAL!"
"Yes. GET out."
"I will not listen to such insubordination!"
"I am you, am I not? GET OUT!!!!"
The green makou radiated around him and all his thoughts came crashing down into the no longer peaceful night.
"I'll be back, FRIEND. I'll be back."
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A sudden crash woke Zack from his deep sleep. One of which cannot be broken. But as the feeling of dread descended upon him, his conscious mind forced him to rise to the surface of the gory dreams of death engulfing his thoughts.
As his body jolted out of the wool blankets surrounding him, his thoughts came to rest on the man in the opposite room. Sweat trickled down his face. Why did he fear this man so? Why did the thought of the kid make his blood turn cold at this moment? A dark aura seemed to drift into the room assigned to him. He knew the boy was not evil. He just had a dark past, like himself. . . .But this would have been ridiculous! The unconscious warier could be NOTHING like himself! He was a cold hearted alien. The power from the crash had to have originated in his quarters.
"Oh, my, GOSH!!! What is that bastard DOING? He wouldn't KILL any of the people working so hard on him like that!"
The dark man then rushed out of the room, not believing his own words.
A thunderous roar erupted out of the room Sephiroth occupied. The young warier seemed to have been in a dream state, and yet his glowing eyes were wide open. The rage seemed to make him look like a rabid animal from many years before. The fury in his green eyes had a crazy gleam in them and the fire, oh, the fire in them burned every living beings' soul like a sea of blood.
"YOU'RE FROM HOJO!!! WHAT HE INJECTED INTO ME!!! YOU WOKE ME BY WHISPERING PROMISES OF POWER AND FAME IN MY EAR!"
A soft pause that lasted only a second left dreary reminders of Zack's own past of blood.
"YOUR TRICKS WON'T WORK ON ME THIS TIME! THIS IS MY MIND, NOT YOUR OWN, GET OUT!!!!" An insane smile drifted over his face.
Zack ran over to the raving man and softly placed his hands on his shoulders.
"What? Kid, get a hold of yourself!" Sephiroth pushed the caring hands away and lifted the table above his head.
"Kid, you're not gonna. . . ."
"GET OUT!"
"Are you CRAZY?!"
"Yes, get OUT!"
"I have every right to be here! I'm the one who sent for the doctors to help heal you!"
"I am you, am I not? GET OUT!!!!!"
He threw the table at the young man in the door way.
The force knocked Zack off his feet and blood spilled from his mouth and chest. The sharp corners bit into flesh and muscle, broke the pearly white bones, and the scream of the victim seared the burning air with its blood curdling echo.
"Why? Why did you do this to me? I was your. . . ." Zack head slacked against the wall; he was trapped and unconscious.
Fire lit on the wooden floor and the flames edged closer to Zack every second. The crackling filled the room, tainting the air with the color of dried blood, Zack's blood.
Part 3
Zeki saw the whole thing. Sephiroth screaming about a general in his mind, the kid mumbling about his dreams and his one and only friend, even the beginning of the flames. He felt the faint dark glow of insanity drift from the young warier. He rushed in to keep an eye on him.
Once inside the room, he saw doctors taking samples of his blood. Zeki had fought down the anger burning inside of him. The kid had lost enough blood, he wasn't sure he would survive. Once they thrust the last needle through his pale skin, Sephiroth had screamed his fury, throwing the scientists into walls and pieces of experimental equipment. The ones who managed to escape, well, he didn't know what kind of torture would haunt THEM. Zeki knew why the kid had done that. It was his father.
He had screamed his father's name during the battle, Hojo.
Hojo was the head scientist from Shin-Ra. The kid had also said something about the Nibel reactor. If he was from Nibelheim, shouldn't that be where Hojo had been doing his latest experiments?
But, I'm from Nibelheim, shouldn't I know this kid? Especially if he's Hojo's son. Shin-Ra had placed Hojo in the Shin-Ra mansion for his studies. It had enough room to spare! All those experiments, the poor kid! Then HE became one of them. WHY don't I know his name?!!! No one could miss someone entering that giant monster! He should be about MY age! He SHOULD have been in MY classes! So WHY don't I know ANYTHING about him?! These thoughts haunted Zeki as he rushed into the room to try to help the fallen Zack.
He strained his muscles, trying to free the dark man. As he did, he tried to talk to him, but his voice faded as the flames grew brighter and the heat more intense. He had reached his limit. He realized, with much pain, that alone, he could not save the man who had helped his partner.
"The kid. . ."
Over the roaring of the flames he heard a rumble, not just a rumble, but the scream of one who's anger had taken control. The ground shook with such ferocity that Zeki fell into the flames around him. The heat seared his flesh and ate at his soul. The pain tore him from the inside out and he felt like he was spinning into oblivion. His breath was smothered by the black smoke, and the little fiery tongues licked at his gushing blood. The darkness around his burning form grew and pulsated until it devoured the whole world he knew.
He was left in a stage of turmoil. Floating in the blackness around him, wondering what became of his friends, for all he knew now was pain. The pain that destroys who you are, the kind of pain that gives you the need to look back on your life to see what good you have done. The kind of pain that hurts your whole being, the kind that kills. So why wasn't he dying?
Through the darkness he saw a flash of blue. An ice blue that made the pain disappear. It healed the physical damage that would have killed him, but the spiritual ache lingered, yet fainter than before. The blue flames seemed as cold as ice, like Sephiroth. But the longer the cold went the warmer it became, healing all the wounds on Zeki's body, and smothering the fire. His vision came so suddenly that he was sure it was a dream, but there in front of him was Sephiroth, his silver hair blowing in an unfelt breeze and from his outstretched hand poured the blue liquid flame.
Zeki's eyes regained the color that they once bore, as a child. The dull aqua had filmed over to hide the tragedies of his child hood. In his bright eyes shone the innocence of a small boy, yet the pain showed Sephiroth why the cheerful young man wanted to be in SOLDIER.
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The flames had engulfed him once he regained consciousness. How the fire started was a mystery to him, but somehow he knew that it was his fault.
He looked in front of him to see a hospital table crushing Zack in his own puddle of blood surrounding him. Over the motionless figure hovered a shadow. The silhouette looked vaguely familiar, but in a groggy haze, seemed to be another. From the direction of the men came a low mumbling.
The figure dropped the slightly lifted table onto Zack and the fury in him grew to maximum level. He had never been considered a friend, but now that he was, he was determined to do whatever he could for them, even give his own life.
The scream of rage erupted from his lips and the room shook like the world was going to fall to pieces, as Sephiroth believed his heart did long ago. The scream seemed to last for ages, but only seconds had passed when the figure dropped into the fire with an agonizing cry.
His body caught the flame instantly, the fur on his leather jacket smoldering. His flesh burned to black and his hair seemed to be the fire, the orange tint faded in with the inferno around him. Blood seeped from the parched, cracked skin and a lake of crimson encompassed his twitching frame. The dull aqua eyes held so much pain and agony that Sephiroth believed that the boy's soul would soon collapse, but it was those, now blind, eyes that told the story of his past. In the depths of them Seph saw Nibelheim enveloped in a bonfire much like this one. Bodies in flames miles high and houses burning all life.
A faint, crazed, voice in his mind whispered, "This is what you want to do to those little brats who made your past so unbearable."
Seph ignored those words, but they seemed to embed themselves into the back of his mind.
The figure in the fire moved once more, then went still as the pool of garnet around him boiled in the flames. The mind of the young boy still seemed to call to him through the crackling flames.
The pain that kills. The pain will kill me Kid, why do you want to hurt us?
Kid? The voice hit a nerve in his soul. He had heard it before.
Come ON, man! Ya GOTTA wake up! Please! Wake up! You won't let me give up, and I won't let you! Kid, PLEASE! Can you hear me?
That voice. . . .
I'm sorry for what I did, just don't die! I'm your friend, Kid!
"ZEKI!" The shout broke through the flames and he walked towards the boy with an out stretched hand, and through his hand poured the legendary Blue Flame of Healing. This comes straight from the heart to help one you truly care for. The call of need must be pouring from the soul of the hurting. A memory must connect the two in friendship. This memory must be able to break through all things, even death.
As the fire poured out of Sephiroth the orange and yellow flames were smothered out and every one it touched was completely healed, physically. Zeki's skin slowly turned pink, then peach, and finally to the normal pale color. His eyes were still open in death, but as all else healed, the soul returned to the body and Zeki's eyes brightened to the color of a newborn's and with that showed Sephiroth the hidden and dark past of the boy.
*****************************************************************
A small boy sat outside Nibelheim, tears streaming down his pink face. Newcomers entered the gates of the town with a boy around his own age. His silver hair was long and blew in the wind, shimmering as a swan's feathers would in the early morning breeze. Even then the boy's eyes had the bright makou glow of a SOLDIER. His pale skin looked like a ghost's and the glowing green anger in his face made him seem even more unnatural. As the truck drove through the child just looked at the young boy on the side of the road, crying.
Zeki sniffed a couple times as he watched the truck drive up to the Shin-Ra mansion. He occasionally saw the boy and the color of his eyes was forever tattooed into his mind. Every time he saw that unnerving color, he shuddered.
As time went on, the memory of this had been hidden in the boy's memory. A few years later, some men from Shin-Ra came into town and wanted some rooms in the hotel his family owned. Zeki knew that something was up, because no one from Shin-Ra ever came by, anyway the men looked more like muggers than soldiers, but his parents lent them the room against Zeki's protests. The next day the six-year-old awoke to find the men hovering over his parents' corpses, blood smeared over their faces and knives in their hands. Zeki screamed at the sight of his parents.
The men looked up at him, their eyes gleaming like killers. The small child ran back up the stairs and the men followed as the sky outside became dark.
Why they persued the boy was unknown, but as they caught him, they whispered words of death to all Nibelheim. All, but him. So he could live with his guilt for all of his life. If he told about the murder, he would be tortured for months, of even years on end with only enough food to be kept alive, but no more. They would first gouge out his eyes, then stuff shards of glass into his ears, and finally slice off his tongue, inch by inch, letting it bleed down his face and drip onto the floor.
For the child, the nightmare never ended. Each night he would dream this sequence over and over until daybreak.
*************************************************************
Sephiroth jumped back in shock. So, he WAS one of the brat kids from Nibelheim. One of the people who had made his life so miserable. One of THEM.
He's not like the others. He cares about me. He was the first to trust a monster like me. A monster who knows no love. A monster who can only hate the world. Everything about me scares most, but only once did he flinch. But it was a hidden secret in his soul that was forced out when the site of the glowing makou came into play. I freed him of the curse, for now he remembers the little boy who moved to Nibelheim so long ago. I do not blame him for my pain, he did not know. I have no one to blame except Hojo. I will not punish Zeki for my father's folly.
Zeki's eyes focused on the man in front of him. The blue flow had stopped, but the pale glow still rippled around the boy, making him look like an angel.
He coughed a little, exhaustion covering him like a blanket, and asked, "Are you all right, Kid?"
Sephiroth nodded and smiled sadly, realizing that Zack might have already left on his long trip to heaven. As Zeki slowly placed his head down onto the cold floor, Sephiroth strode over and moved him to the couch in the corner of the room.
The warier drifted towards the debris in the doorway. He dreamily hoisted the remains over his head to see a crushed figure. His black hair disheveled and his skin torn. Bone was revealed under burnt flesh and his chest did not move with the breath of life. Zack's face looked eerily peaceful, but the look of pain still lingered.
Tears trickled down Seph's face as he placed the table on the floor beside the body. Hunched over in searing pain, Sephiroth grieved for his partner.
***************************************************************
"He had done so much for me, why did I even. . . . It was YOU!"
The man in the corner of Sephiroth's mind shrugged.
"It was your own doing. I cannot control your body."
"Why should I believe you? You lied to me before, why not now?"
"The boy is not lost."
"You lie again!"
"I do not."
"How? He has stopped breathing, and his heart no longer beats."
"As Zeki's had. But the soul has not left for the Lifestream."
"Livestream? Isn't that the place where all spirits merge and become new souls?"
"You've been keeping up with your studies." He smiled, his makou eyes gleaming with crazy joy. "You still carry a trace of the fire that healed the unconscious scientists, and Zeki. Use your tears to bring forth the memory, then heal your friend with the fire around you."
Sephiroth nodded and brought himself out of his mind of ice to bring back his dead friend.
*************************************************************
Part 4
Sephiroth walked up to his deceased friend and lifted him into his arms. Here he let the blue of the fire gather into a single tear. Onto Zack's torn chest it fell. His body glowed the color of the flames and slowly healed. His wounds closed and sealed shut. Only one remained, this turned pink and then the dull salmon of a scar. There was enough of the Flame of Life to bring him back, but not enough to completely heal his body.
His eyelids flickered and, slowly, opened to reveal the clear hazel eyes of the child that Sephiroth never met. But, unlike Zeki's, did not reveal his past. The scar seemed to glow with his awakening. It ranged from his ear to his cheekbone. From there it faded into the pale peach flesh covering his being.
Sephiroth smiled and joy filled his heart. In showing his true emotions, Zack saw that the teenager wasn't at all what he seemed. He was just lonely and had never been taught or shown true emotions. Zack understood him now. He was a boy just like himself. A lonely child with only his parents. The young man in front of him might have not even had that. Now that he had met real people, he knew what true feelings were like. Joy was suddenly not just a mask covering up a horrible past, but a warm, comforting feeling. One that soothed you, body and soul.
Zack smiled and felt a sharp sting in his jaw. It felt stiff and rigid, but he continued smiling at the silver-haired youth whose eyes were filling with warm tears of joy.
"Hey, Kid. I'm OK. There's no reason to cry."
"Zack, I'm the one who did it, I feel guilt, and another feeling, covering my soul. I have felt it many times on this night."
"That feeling, is Joy, my friend. And this emotion should go with you all your life."
"Joy, I've heard of that." He laughed quietly with Zack as the boy drifted into sleep in his arms.
***********************************************************
"What's that smell? Fire! Burning! HERE!"
Lenoa looked up from the manuscript she had been scribbling. She shot out of her chair and ran out to the laboratory.
The last bit of the flames was being smothered by a blue smoke that was rising from small tongues of blue fire. From out of this smoke walked a tall, thin figure of a young man. He carried a bundle in his arms and as he drew closer, she could make out his features. He had long silver hair and eyes that had shone through the smog first. They were an amazing green, that of a cat's and his pupils were drawn into slits. He wore a black dress shirt and charcoal slacks. His boots were dusty, but you could still see the ebony peeking out from under the soil. He was the man she had picked up for Zack!
The bundle became clearer as well, and Lenoa could see that it was not a bundle, but a human. The spiky black hair gave away his identity at once. It was the boy that had been her best friend for years. She could see why he had cared so much about this young man. He was loyal, and would do anything to help one of his companions.
He stopped in front of the scientist and sneered. Sephiroth turned from her and placed Zack in the chair beside him. He then walked back into the smoke and flames. Lenoa's jewel-like eyes widened at the scar along Zack's face. She kneeled and was reaching for Zack's shoulders to shake him when a cold voice cut her off.
"Let him sleep. Yes, I am the one who did this to him."
Lenoa turned to see Sephiroth place Zeki gently into the chair across from Zack.
"If you wish so interrogate me, you may. Before you do, let me say that I was not conscious when I did it, so I cannot answer many of the questions you will ask, scientist."
"Why do you say it like that?"
"What?"
"Why do you say scientist as if it was a bad thing?"
"My father. . . .no, I should not trouble you with my past."
"I have dealt with people much worse off. Please, I am not a scientist, I am a doctor, and only that because I wish to help my comrades in battle."
"Fine. My father was a scientist, I will not state his name so do not ask. He had been the only one who 'loved' me, for my mother is dead and I had no friends. I trusted him with my life, and he knew it. One night, I found myself in a capsule surrounded by a glowing chemical with a needle up my arm. My father had turned on me and I became an experiment. I knew that I had to get away, but the only way I could learn to care for myself, would be in SOLDIER. So, I cursed many a time, and finally left my home town of Nibelheim."
"I see why you would hate them, but I hate Shin-Ra, too. You aren't alone. Now, how did you meet Zeki?"
"Well, he found me."
"All right, how did he find you?"
"I was asleep. I had stopped to rest for the night and had fallen asleep. Zeki found me the next morning. I was having a nightmare and, apparently, found me tossing and turning. He then un-armed me and woke me by shaking me as you were going to do to Zack. I might as well go on and answer your next question.
"We talked for a while, fought a little, then I sat down. I had a really strange dream and woke up on a bed roll in camp. Zeki was asleep and mumbling about pie. . . ."
A slight laugh interrupted the story.
"Mmmmmmmmmm. . . . he, he. . . .slurp. . . . pie. . . .heeeeeeee. . . .he he. . . ."
"Just like that. Any way, I went back to sleep. The next morning, Zeki had been attempting to cook. He dropped a pan and that woke me up. We ate drank, talked, and fought some more. Then we left for Midgar.
"Zeki had been ogling over the city and Zack came along and nearly scared the $#!^ out of him. They talked a while. . . ."
"Let me guess, and fought?"
"No. Zeki then made the comment that I looked deathly pale. That's when Zack called a friend of his. I felt the blood on my head, then collapsed."
"What about the fire?"
"I don't know, you'd have to ask Zack or Zeki."
"The scar?"
"I, somehow, crushed Zack with the hospital table."
"A hospital table?!"
"Yes."
"No human could lift that!"
Sephiroth glared at her. "Maybe I'm not human."
"What? You couldn't POSSIBLY be in the SOLDIER program at your age yet."
"That was my father's experiment."
"The only person, er, scientist with that authority is that creep Hojo. . . . you're saying that. . . . oh my GOSH. I didn't think that he had enough love and or patience to have a kid!"
"He didn't."
"What do you mean?"
"I raised myself with his food and drink. I hardly ever saw him, except at school. He was my professor as well. The rest of his time he spent in the lab downstairs."
"Um, go on with the story."
"Well, I saw a figure once I gained consciousness. I thought he was bringing Zack harm, so I yelled and the whole room shook. The figure fell into the fire, and I stood there watching it burn, until I found that it was Zeki. He was dead by then and a memory called to me. When I had fallen, after my first dream, he had said 'Come ON man!!! Ya GOTTA wake up! Please! Wake up! You won't let me give up, and I won't let you! Kid, PLEASE! Can you hear me?! I'm sorry for what I did, just don't die! I'm your friend, Kid!'" He sighed. "That is what I heard. After he had called to me, asking why I would want to hurt them. Of course, I didn't remember killing Zack."
Lenoa looked shocked. Sephiroth gazed at her. He hadn't realized that he just admitted that Zack had died.
His eyebrows raised and he shook his hands at her. "Don't be led the wrong way!" His expression returned to memory. "Then I yelled, as anyone would, knowing that he had killed his friends. Out of the depths of my soul, a blue fire came. It flowed over the scientists, whom I had injured, then passed over Zeki, completely healing him, other than exhaustion. Zack, however, was under the table, dead. I placed Zeki on the couch in the room, and left to dig Zack out. I hoisted the table above my head so that I could examine his injuries, for he was lying in a puddle of his own blood. He was cut, torn, burned, and no breath passed through his breast. I for a while I could only feel sorrow, then. . .I realized that if the fire had brought Zeki back from the depths of death. So I lifted him into my arms, after I had set the table aside, and let the fire gather into one tear. It saved him from death, but could not heal the wound on his cheek, completely. That is what happened."
"You are, probably the most interesting speci. . . .er, person I have ever met. No one I know has had a past like that!"
"More less a future, eh?"
"I don't understand. You know your future?"
"A little. In there, I saw Nibelheim, my hometown, burning. Someone, I do not know who, said that I would become a great General in SOLDIER. In a dream, I was frozen, and a piece of materia was pushed through me by a boy with the same spiritual feeling as Zack. The ice never cracked, and I couldn't open my eyes. I could feel everything, though. I was. . . .missing, you could say, the lower half of my being."
"Oh, yeah, that's a nice thing to look forward to. Being sliced in half!"
"No sarcasm, please. This is really my life."
"I wonder if there is a logical way to prevent it."
"Well, we might as well ponder it later. Dawn is approaching, and we all need our rest."
**********************************************************
The fire. "Jenny?"
The girl looked up from the shadows. It was no longer dark, but the camp site was the same as before. The girl had silver hair, like Sephiroth. Her eyes were a magnificent silver-blue and her skin was light, nearly white. The base color of it was sky blue and made her eyes stand out against her black outfit. The jacket she wore was only down to her waist, and her black slacks were wrinkle-less. She stood with her hands in her pockets and her feet were planted firmly in the red soil.
"Sephiroth! I haven't seen you in a while. Is that guy still bothering you?"
"What? Oh, him. Yeah, every so often. Mainly it's my life bothering me."
"How so?"
"Killed my best friends, got knocked out by unknown forces, nothing out of the ordinary."
She smiled. "No, I suppose not."
"So, what is my company to do tomorrow. We would like to sign up for the military forces, but I want to avoid my father at all costs. I hear that we must go to the headquarters, but there is no hope of avoiding Hojo there."
She laughed. "You have been listening to roumors, huh? Well, to sign up, you need to go to the Wall Market in sector 6."
"The Wall Market? Isn't that a ways away?"
"You're in sector 5."
"Really. . . . I hear that on the edge of Sector 5 flowers bloom in abundance along side a waterfall. Is that true?"
"Yes. That is a garden. A garden for the priests of a near by church."
"Well, I'd rather not get into a history lesson. I know a lot about Midgar already."
"Oh, noon, ALREADY?!"
"Noon, huh? I had better wake up. See ya!"
Sephiroth turned and walked away.
*********************************************************
Sephiroth's eyes opened slowly. Light streamed in through an open window. The young man groaned and sat up. His new room was cozy. It was small, but nice. It had a desk and chair made of polished oak and a bed, on which the teenager sat. Above the desk was a mirror with a silver rim. This rim was designed into leaves and vines. He stood, pulling on his slacks and boots. He combed out his silver hair and blinked his groggy, green, eyes were reflected clearly through the beautifully designed mirror. He sauntered over to the door then opened it. He slowly walked into the main room to check on his companions.
As he walked into the room, the first thing he noticed was that Zeki was still asleep, drool dripping off the side of his mouth. Sephiroth then looked around. His eyes wandered over to the chair Zack had been on. It was EMPTY!
Through a doorway on the opposite end of the room the warier saw a spiky-haired figure stretch, yawn, then wince as pain shot through his face. The boy attempted to smile, but it came out lop-sided.
Seph relaxed. Zeki blinked. He then wiped his wet cheek and smiled groggily at his companions. Wrapping his jacket around himself, he stood.
Lenoa walked up behind the darkly dressed youth and slipped past him
"I was wondering when you would wake up. You are just in time for lunch."
Zack winced at the thought of Lenoa's food.
"And what's THAT supposed to mean?" She became suddenly cross as she placed her hands on her hips.
Zack carelessly shrugged. "Absolutely nothing."
Zeki closed his eyes. "Other than he's afraid of your cooking."
The scientist was shocked. "I would love to see you do better!"
Zack squinted and held up his finger. "You know very well that I can't let people eat my food, safely. They would die before they found out how horrible it tastes."
"So don't dis my cooking. You should be lucky to get anything at all."
They ate in complete silence, for fear of upsetting Lenoa. Then they gathered around the door.
"So, I guess that we're off to Shin-Ra HQ." Zack smiled.
"Wait," for once Sephiroth spoke without being spoken to. "You can't sign up for the military forces at the head quarters. There was a riot and they transferred the post to the Wall market in sector 6."
Zeki looked up from packing. "Do you know how to get there?"
"All we need to do is head through this sector, heading south. We should come across it."
Lenoa held something out to Sephiroth. She smiled.
"Here, it's a map of Midgar. I hope that it will help you on your journey."
Zack looked at the scientist. "So, you're not going with us?"
The youth shook her head sadly. "I wish I could, but I must finish this manuscript. But I'll meet you there. It's about time that I persue my dream!"
Zeki smiled and nodded. Even though he had only known her for a short while, he felt as if he would be seeing her a lot in the future. "We all should. Dreams are an important part of ourselves. I learned that when I was wandering between li. . . .Er, I mean, Between Nibelheim and Costa Del Sol. . . .Heh, heh, heh. . . ." The boy scratched his head and shrugged. He then sighed.
"Well, we need to go. See ya in Wall Market!"
Zack then walked out the door, hands in pockets. His sword had been carelessly buckled against his back once more. His wardrobe had been replaced with a spare set. This one consisted of a pair of black slacks and a, tight, charcoal-colored, T-shirt. His brown combat boots had been buckled onto the owners feet once more.
He then realized that no one was following. He placed his hands behind his head and sighed. "C'mon! Let's mosey!"
Sephiroth nearly fell over in amazement. "'Let's mosey'?!?!?!?!? Who says THAT anymore?!"
"Er, um, well. . . .Let's go!"
Zeki heaved another deep sigh and grabbed the Scythe of Truth (his staff) and followed.
*********************************************************
A few hours later, they found themselves in the Wall Market. From every corner the sound of bids and drunken laughter came. Music radiated from every store to create the loud hub of Midgar, the Wall Market.
Zack covered his nose to block out the horrible stench of beer and sweat. He sneered in distaste. Sephiroth rubbed his sore eyes and sighed. Zeki, on the other hand, was acting as a small child would at a fair. At times like these Seph wondered if Zeki was no more than a small child in an teenager's body.
Zack grabbed a hold of the collar of Zeki's jacket and dragged him away from the Honey-Bee Inn. Seph walked towards the two.
"Zeki, that's not what we are here for. We want to sign up for the armed forces so that someday we might be accepted into SOLDIER. The post is right over there." Seph jerked his head in the direction of the sign-up area. "It's either now or never. Make up your mind, because soon, you will belong to Shin-Ra."
Zeki stopped struggling to listen to the speech. "Whoa. . . Kid, that's the most you've ever said to us."
Zack carelessly shrugged. "Well, other than telling your story, that is."
Seph heaved a deep sigh. "That isn't the point. We need to sign up, and I mean now!"
Zeki's eyes widened, "He has the attitude for a General already."
After he had said his last comment, Seph had turned to head for the booth. Once he heard Zeki, he stopped dead in his tracks. General. . . .
Note: heheheheheheheheheheheheheh. . . . This story is a blast to write! The only problem with the future part of the series is that, I don't know anything about the War of Wutai! If any one knows anything about it Please E-mail me at zekirocks@yahoo.com I would greatly appreciate it! I hope that I will have many fans in the future! Oh, I will not have a link to a page about me because I would rather not put my name out on the net. So I will tell a couple things now. I am not yet in high school and I use my cousin Rashell as a prop to see how blood spurts out of a wound. (j/k) My fave chara is not Seph, but Clod-boy. (Cloud) Poor Seph. . . Anywayz, the reason that I began writing this story is I would like to inform people of the past of FF7. I do not think that either Tifa or Aeris could be paired with dear ol' Clod. Do not push me on that one, because I will give a long list why. I also do not pair him up with Yuffie. That would be plain wrong! Um, I have many pictures that I have drawn and I plan to get them up soon. If anyone wants to send fan art, E-mail me, and please put it as an attachment. Well, that's about it! I guess I had better let you go so, jaa ne!
~Haily
It was on a Night of the Harvest. One of the nights where the moon was full and the light radiated from it like makou. The stars were bright in that little town. Not much pollution fogged the sapphire sky from revealing the treasures it held.
The settlement of Nibelheim was a quiet place, from which a quiet boy was born. He never associated with any of the children, or adults. He spent most of his youth dreaming about his future. The boy often wandered off to the makou reactor atop Mount Nibel.
He went to school, as all other boys of his age did. He became the top student, and yet never answered the questions of the professor, his father.
His name was never spoken from the mouths of his classmates, and therefore, never spoken to. As a child he had no one to depend on, excluding himself, that is, so, by the age of 13, became a mature adult.
He tried to convice his father to let him seek his fortune in the real world. The professor refused him and went on with his top-secret studies for President Shin-Ra, or his precious science.
One night, the boy awoke, only to find himself betrayed by his own father. The crazed scientist had secretively drawn out his son's cells and replaced them with a combination of alien cells and makou. From inside his crystalline capsule, he yelled his fury to his lunatic father laughing, joking, and mocking his dazed son.
From that day on he swore vengeance against the one person who had "cared." The young Sephiroth knew now that his whole life had been a lie. He waited until the mad-man had left for the office, where he sloppily recorded his successful experiment into his log.
Sephiroth called on the alien power coursing through his veins, here he felt unnatural strength flow in his body. Again he swore to the man in the basement as the glass shattered around him, freeing him to train with the professionals in SOLDIER. He planned to become the top ranking general, then return to torture his father, Hojo, for stealing his life from him.
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Part 1
Please stop. *thump* Please no. *thump* The beating, please stop! *thump* I can't stand it! *thump* The beating. . . . *thump*
. . . . my heart. . . . *thump* . . . . it circulates that alien blood. *thump*
Why? *thump* Why did he betray me? *thump* I'm his one and only son! *thump* Why did he hurt me? *thump* I TRUSTED him!
*thump* With my LIFE, I trusted him! *thump* And he betrayed me.
*thump* . . . . . . . *thump* . . . . . . . *thump* Wake me.
"Yo!"
A gruff voice. Wake me.
"Oh. . . . my. . . ."
Please.
"Are you OK?"
Wake me from this nightmare.
"Yo, Kid, are you OK? Hey, wake up. Wake up. I said 'WAKE UP!!!!'"
The boy, around Seph's age, (give or take a few months) was fiercely shaking the silver-haired teen.
As Sephiroth opened his foggy eyes he was dropped by the immature punk.
"What the-?!" The gasp awakened the drowsy Seph who agilely jumped to his weak feet and attempted to draw the sword he had strapped onto his back the night before.
The boy had spiked, red-brown hair and dull, aqua eyes that sparkled with glee. He wore a dark brown jacket of leather that was trimmed with fur from the back of a bandersnach. Under the jacket he wore a raven-colored tank top that matched remarkably well with his khaki pants.
In his hand he held the sheathed sword from off of Seph's back. He grinned slyly.
"A skilled member of SOLDIER always unarms an unknown enemy," he threw the sword down onto the grassy ground. "And what's with your eyes?"
". . . . . ."
"What? Aren't you gonna answer me?"
". . . . . ."
" C'mon! Don't be rude! Whether friend or foe, I need a soul to talk to! I can't STAND not having a companion to whom I can tell all my useless trivia!"
". . . . . . . . ."
He sighed and held out his hand warmly. "Hi! I'm Zeki, Zeki, um, well, just Zeki."
Sephiroth was still tense. He did not extend his hand. Never, he told himself, never again will I trust ANYONE. I can only trust myself.
"Please, leave me be." Sephiroth whispered coldly to Zeki.
"Why? By the looks of things, in battle, I would have the advantage. Are ya AFRAID of fighting a mere BOY? Afraid of loosing? Loosing to ME?"
"Why do you say that the advantage in battle is yours?"
"You have no weapon, and I do. Why else?"
Zeki was suddenly held very tightly with a knife's cool steel blade about to slice the skin on his throat. "First lesson: NEVER trust an unknown enemy. ESPECIALLY when you think they are unarmed."
Seph loosened his grip on the sweating teen and let him struggle free. "Watch out Zeki, next time you might not be so lucky. Your apponent might not be as generous as me."
"You call THAT generous?!"
"I let you live, did I not?"
"Barley!"
"A person cannot BARLEY let one live." Seph sat down on the lush grass surrounding him.
Zeki slowly creeped up behind the anti-social young man in an attempt of a surprise attack.
"Stop trying to beat me, Zeki, I hear you sneaking up on me."
Zeki continued sneaking, and telling himself He can't hear me! He's just saying that! What a FOOL!!! He swiftly placed his throwing knife firmly against Seph's neck, slowly pressing down.
"Hello, Zeki. Why are you trying to use my own tricks against me?" His voice was calm and smooth as he said these words, yet his eyes remained fixed on the nothingness before him.
Zeki dropped the knife into Seph's lap and collapsed behind the cold young soldier.
"MAN, I just give up! I GIVE UP!"
"What?"
"My dream. I'll never be as good as anyone in SOLDIER. I'll be sent to the regulars for sure! All I can do is use this stupid scythe blade. I can't wield a SWORD!!!! Now you, you're different. You have potential. You're a natural."
"Excuse me? What did you say?"
"You're a natural?"
"Oh, OK. I thought you called me unnatural."
"Why?"
"That's what I've been called my whole life. I always felt like a specimen in my father's basement. He was the only one who. . . ."
" 'Who' what?"
"Cared. But he betrayed me and I became one of his experiments. That's why I'm like I am."
"What? An anti-social, oh, what's the word? Ass-hole! Yeah! An anti- social, cold hearted, ass-hole! That's what you are!"
"I'm sorry you feel that way, but I don't know how to care. I never had any friends. They all shunned me. I was the outcast, so, I guess that you are right. You are good with people, apparently they liked you. You can talk to a person without feeling insecure. You seem like one who has been cared for, one who knows love. One who can show their feelings without being strangled. You are sarcastic, and people can tell. If I tried to be like you, I would be shot for offending President Shin-Ra." He stood and picked up his sword.
"Zeki?"
"What?"
"Don't give up your dream."
He walked past the depressed staff wielder and headed for the cliff overlooking Midgar. This is where I start my journey.
An agonizing pain tore through Sephiroth's brain. His hands reached for his aching head as he collapsed onto the flowers which had beautifully bloomed. They were crushed and so was Sephiroth's mind. The piercing scream in his brain would not stop. Sorrow, hatred, fear, and loss filled his heart and he felt as if his hands were drenched with blood and caked with dirt. Why did he feel this pain?!
Why did his heart wrench with sorrow for the dead?
Then, in his mind, came a vision. A familiar young man lay on the, now red, sandy, earth. Bullet holes were gushing blood and his spiky black hair was covered with caked redness. His abdomen was sliced and his body lay broken and still. Death approached the blood drenched body of the boy.
*****************************************************************
The shaking came again.
"Come ON man!!! Ya GOTTA wake up! Please! Wake up! You won't let me give up, and I won't let you! Kid, PLEASE! Can you hear me? I didn't mean it when I called you an anti-social ass-hole! I'm sorry for what I did, just don't die! I'm your friend, Kid!"
A coughing spasm erupted from Sephiroth's chest. Zeki stopped shaking the, now conscious, Seph.
It was a struggle to squint open his eyes, but once he did he inhaled a long, shaky breath and coughed once before saying: "I don't die easily." Then passed out for the rest of the day.
*****************************************************************
*crackle* What? *crackle* Fire? *crackle, pop, pop, crackle* Popcorn? *crackle* A figure? *crackle* Mother? *crackle* No. *pop, pop* Who are you?
" Jenny."
"Jenny?"
The silhouette of a girl nodded. She sat by the fire from which the only light radiated. Darkness surrounded the campsite.
"That's right."
"I've never seen you before."
"No."
"Why not?"
"I don't know, Sephiroth."
"How did you. . . ."
"This is your mind Sephiroth. I am just your imagination run wild. Or, that's what others would say. I've only now met you, but I've been here your whole life."
". . . . My whole. . . . life?"
"Yes."
"How?"
"I don't know everything, Sephiroth."
"Well, you're a spirit, are you not?"
"Sephiroth, don't try to play a game of wits with me!"
"And why not?" he grinned.
"I will always win. I know ALL your tricks."
"Impossible."
"And why not?" she must have smirked, at LEAST.
"Not even I know all of them."
Jenny sighed. "Sephiroth, you need to watch over your friend while training in SOLDIER. He needs more training, and YOU shall be his tutor."
"Why?" His smile faded away.
"Just do as your told makou boy."
He crossed his arms. "Fine."
"Then wake up."
*************************************************************
Sephiroth's eyes flashed open, illuminating the darkness with their green glow. The campsite Zeki had made looked like the dream site. Jenny was gone, and the blackness was no longer so black.
Sephiroth looked above him, only to see the overhanging ledge. How. .
"Unnnnngh"
Seph turned to look at the snoring Zeki, rolled up into his bedroll like sushi. Drool trickled down the side of his chin. For once Seph realized how lonely his life had been.
He had only his looks, wits, talents, and loneliness. Never had he been trusted this far, not even by Hojo. That kid is STUPID, or extremely brave. He has to be one of the two to trust a monster, like me.
"Ha, ha, ha! Tee, hee, ha, ho, heeeeeeeeeee! Slurp! MMMMM, pie."
For the first time in his memorable life, he felt joyful, he smiled and all of his anger drained away to savor the moment of his first REAL friend. The smile turned into snickering as Seph rolled over and went back to sleep.
*****************************************************************
*CRASH*
Sephiroh jumped out of his bed roll, startled by the crash of pots and pans. His makou eyes gleamed wildly at Zeki, who had been attempting to cook.
Seph snickered as Zeki scrambled to clean the mess he had made. He kneeled to help the young man.
"Hey, Kid! Go lie down, you should still be resting. I'll take care of this mess."
"Zeki, you really should be more careful."
"Look, Kid, I'm not the one who fell off the cliff. Anyway, you're always dissing the way I do things. Can't I, at least, COOK without help? My GOSH, you're so DEMANDING!"
Seph continued to clean.
"NO, Kid! Go lie DOWN! I know first aid."
Zeki had to drag Seph to his bed roll.
"I hope you don't mind eating dragon."
"Have you gone to the Nibel Makou reactor?"
"No, I bought the meat. Dragon is my favorite!"
Zeki unloaded a pouch at his side. Meat, fresh meat, was placed in a pan over the remains of the fire.
The ground shook and voices seemed to echo in the site. Zeki was going to use magic.
"NO, Zeki!" Seph lunged for Zeki.
"Fire 3"
The dragon meat was set ablaze. It crackled and popped wildly.
"I guess, no breakfast," Seph moaned.
The fire died away to reveal perfectly cooked slabs of meat. Seph's eyes went wide. Zeki smiled humbly.
*rmble, grgle, ush, ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmgrrrrrrrrrr*
Seph's stomach couldn't withstand the torture of seeing the perfect meat slowly placed onto nice, pretty, flowery, plates and see the cranberry juice poured, ever so slowly, into nice, pretty, crystalline, glasses, then served even slower so that by the time it reached Seph, he would have died of starvation.
He pounced on the meal and swiftly ate his half. He stepped away from the scorched wood on which the other slab of meat sat.
But Zeki just stared at Seph and slowly inched towards the camp fire.
Once Zeki finally reached the meat, he placed it onto a napkin. Then he poured the juice into a cardboard cup.
He ate as swiftly as Seph, only he, somehow, was able to have better manners.
Once finished Zeki cast mini on the materials, then stuffed them into the small pouch.
"C'mon! Midgar awaits!"
"Hey, wait. I thought I was not well enough to travel."
"Well, judging by the show you performed at breakfast, I dub thee healthy enough to travel to Midgar and see a REAL doctor."
Seph sighed deeply and led the way to the City of Gray, Midgar.
Part 2
Midgar. The city that can be identified by only one word: Old.
It was as old as the Antients. The makou reactors had not yet destroyed the inhabitants surrounding the city of metal. It was divided into sectors, which had long forgotten names. The sectors had once been towns, but then turned into cities, their names faded into history, and are now referred to Sectors 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.
During that time of happiness Midgar had been beautiful. Flowers used to bloom and grow in fields and pastures. The city was said to be made of silver.
But as that silver tarnished, the city turned dull and gray. The towns were no longer rich and beautiful. As time went on, they fell into a pit of despair and the beauty was destroyed to reveal the ugly core. The cities fell to the slums and Shin-Ra combined them together to create the city of sadness, Midgar.
This is where we left off.
Seph and Zeki were just about to enter the towering monster.
Zeki's head was lifted up towards the sky. Measuring the arching distance above him he spoke with the silver haired teenager beside him. "Is that. . . ."
A firm hand was placed on the shoulder of Zeki's jacket. Startled at the sudden pressure, he jumped and looked at the young man behind him.
"Yup!" His voice was one of an uplifted heart. It hid something from the world, but the sarcastic tone instantly tore your mind from the secret. "Isn't she a. . . . nevermind." His eyes lifted to the towering city. "Well, she sure is a BIG sucker."
Seph calmly turned to look at the dark haired man. His eyes were brown and specked with gold and green. His spiky, jet colored, hair shone against the silver moon. He wore a black tank top and faded jeans. His opposite hand was shoved into the depths of his pocket. A pack hung loosely on a black belt and the sword that was slung over his taught shoulders was broad and as long as he was tall. His combat boots were brown leather and seemed to fit the kid's style, no matter how badly it clashed with the rest of his wardrobe.
He looked to Sephiroth and smiled. "The name's Zack."
What is it about this boy?! I should be ready to kill him if he makes a threatening move! For some reason, I feel as if. . . .no. It's impossible. I have never met a person named Zack. Seph turned away from the figure of the male.
Zack turned to Zeki. "What's up with him?"
"Awww, don't worry about him. He's always cold."
Seph flinched, then resumed his blank stare into nothing. Cold. I have always been cold. I can't help it. Even Zeki would be cold if he had to go through what I did! Well, I can't control his feelings. If he thinks I'm cold. . . .but Zeki's my friend, not the stupid kids in Nibelheim!
"Look, I'm kinda new to this area, could I hang with you two? Well, just till I find Shin-Ra HQ." Zack shrugged carelessly, then stood with a hand on his hip and his right foot in front of him. "If not, well I guess I'll have to, well, find someone else."
"Well ,Zack, you're in luck!"
"What, do you know how to get there?"
"No. It's my first time here, too, but we're going to Shin-Ra HQ!"
Zack rubbed his sore eyes. "Great, now we can all get lost together."
Seph mumbled to himself.
The two young men looked at Seph.
"What was that?" Zeki said as he crossed his arms across his chest.
Seph turned around. "Do I always have to repeat myself? I said let's just get going."
"Whoa! Kid! Are you OK? You look deathly pale!"
"Egads, you're right!" Zack pulled out a phone from his pack and lifted it to his ear as he looked at the stars. "Hey! Lenoa! I have a friend down here in need of medical treatment! Could you meet us outside Sector 7? How FAST? This kid is ghastly pale and more than likely running a high fever! He's got a gash in his head and it's COLD out here! How fast do you THINK? You need an amount of time? OK. . . .ASAP!!!! Thank you!" He clicked the phone off and sighed.
Sephiroth reached up to his head. To his surprise he felt the gushing blood seep through his cold fingers and the silver hair around it was drenched in the garnet substance. My blood. That's the key! If I drain enough blood, I can kill the alien cells inside of me. . . . That was the last thing he thought before he collapsed on the rocky soil.
*****************************************************************
My body. It's frozen. Why is this ice surrounding me? What is happening? Sephiroth's mind reached for the materia floating in front of his torso. The black orb was absorbed through the flesh of the man.
I can't control my mind! My body won't move! Why is my soul burning? Am I fighting back? I'm watching this show from my own eyes, but WHY won't my body listen to my summons? Get me out of this NIGHTMARE!!!!
A needle pierced his flesh, biting into his soul, and smothering the last flicker of fire in the young man's spirit.
"That should calm him down." The female voice was a distant echo in the fading dream.
"And if it doesn't?" Zack's voice was calm and concerned.
"We'll just have to see."
That dream. . . . Zack. . . .
*************************************************************
"That should calm him down." The woman beside Zack said in her soft voice. She was a doctor that Zack knew well. She was a scientist, but she was one of the very few women to be in training for the SOLDIER program. She was mentally and physically fit. Her studies for health were only to help her comrades in battle. Later, she had been asked by Shin-Ra to join the science committee. She had refused and has been working in the regulars ever since. She had silver-violet hair and eyes the color of amethyst. She had a nice figure under the white coat that hung loosely over her small body.
"And if it doesn't?" Zack felt his voice nearly crack as he asked these words. He had no idea why he protected this guy. He was a cold son-of- a-bitch. He didn't care about ANYONE but himself, and he never showed the common courtesy shared between most people.
"We'll just have to see."
"I trust you, Lenoa! I always have, but this guy seems to worry me. He must be very strong considering how much blood he lost before he passed out, but he had no IDEA that the wound was even there. The boy with him didn't notice and apparently he had been the man's partner. It seemed to appear out of nowhere, like it happened in another world and affected him here. I don't get it."
"Any normal scientist would say that it's against all laws of science. But I'm not a normal scientist, so I can speak freely." :p so there!
"So, what do you have to say?"
"Anything's possible."
"And why do you say that?"
"To annoy Shin-Ra, why else?"
Lenoa turned away from the table to look at Zeki. His aqua eyes were staring blankly at the table on which his friend lay. Why didn't I see it before? It was clear as day! One second the kid was stable, and the next, on the ground bleeding to death. If Zack hadn't come along. . . .
Zack snapped his fingers in front of Zeki's face. The boy jolted upright and stared into his brown-green-gold eyes, terrified. Zeki smiled shakily and asked, "Will he be OK?"
The boy's eyes wavered, then softened as he replied, "We'll just have to see."
*****************************************************************
The world is so peaceful. What happened to the fire, the ice, what about Zack. Were they all just dreams? If it was a dream, then why did I feel all those emotions? Where am I?
A figure stepped out from the shadows. He wore the uniform of a Shin- Ra general and his makou green eyes illuminated the shadows around him. His long silver hair shimmered as he walked. The sword in his hand was over 6 feet long and his boots clunked on the shadowed ground.
"Who are you?" Sephiroth's voice was cold and soft, like faintly drifting snow.
The man's eyes gleamed crazily. In the words he spoke ice seemed to slice through Sephiroth's being and an aura unfurled around the body, making him seem invulnerable.
"You idiotic mortal. You can't even recognize the form of your future owner. You cower before your own being, cringing in fear. How will you become the general you so long to be?"
Sephiroth sneered and stood from his crouching position. "You, you're the one! The one in my dream! Are you also the one who will destroy the being of Zack?"
"I be that creature."
"I would never do such a thing."
"But you will."
"No one can be that heartless!"
"But you will be."
"I won't be the insane being before me!"
"I am the only one who won't hurt you, Sephiroth."
"You spoke my name." Seph was appalled.
"Of course. I am the only friend you will ever need."
". . . .My friend. . . ."
"Yes. Your one, and only friend."
". . . .Only friend. . . ."
"Yes. If you join me, you will never need them. You will never be weak, and all will belong to you. Including the godhood that your heart screams for."
". . . .godhood. . . ."
"Yes."
". . . .all my dreams. . . ."
"Yes."
". . . .revenge on. . . .Hojo."
"Yes."
"You're. . . ." Sephiroth glared through the being in front of him.". . . .from Hojo! What he injected into me! You woke me by whispering promises of power and fame in my ear!"
"No. I have no idea what you're babbling on about. You're just tired. You need rest. Sleep, Sephiroth. And tomorrow, you'll find me."
"Sorry, your tricks won't work on me again! You may be physically stronger than me, but this is MY mind, not your own! Get out!" Seph smiled
"What?"
"Get out."
"You are speaking to the GENERAL!"
"Yes. GET out."
"I will not listen to such insubordination!"
"I am you, am I not? GET OUT!!!!"
The green makou radiated around him and all his thoughts came crashing down into the no longer peaceful night.
"I'll be back, FRIEND. I'll be back."
*************************************************************
A sudden crash woke Zack from his deep sleep. One of which cannot be broken. But as the feeling of dread descended upon him, his conscious mind forced him to rise to the surface of the gory dreams of death engulfing his thoughts.
As his body jolted out of the wool blankets surrounding him, his thoughts came to rest on the man in the opposite room. Sweat trickled down his face. Why did he fear this man so? Why did the thought of the kid make his blood turn cold at this moment? A dark aura seemed to drift into the room assigned to him. He knew the boy was not evil. He just had a dark past, like himself. . . .But this would have been ridiculous! The unconscious warier could be NOTHING like himself! He was a cold hearted alien. The power from the crash had to have originated in his quarters.
"Oh, my, GOSH!!! What is that bastard DOING? He wouldn't KILL any of the people working so hard on him like that!"
The dark man then rushed out of the room, not believing his own words.
A thunderous roar erupted out of the room Sephiroth occupied. The young warier seemed to have been in a dream state, and yet his glowing eyes were wide open. The rage seemed to make him look like a rabid animal from many years before. The fury in his green eyes had a crazy gleam in them and the fire, oh, the fire in them burned every living beings' soul like a sea of blood.
"YOU'RE FROM HOJO!!! WHAT HE INJECTED INTO ME!!! YOU WOKE ME BY WHISPERING PROMISES OF POWER AND FAME IN MY EAR!"
A soft pause that lasted only a second left dreary reminders of Zack's own past of blood.
"YOUR TRICKS WON'T WORK ON ME THIS TIME! THIS IS MY MIND, NOT YOUR OWN, GET OUT!!!!" An insane smile drifted over his face.
Zack ran over to the raving man and softly placed his hands on his shoulders.
"What? Kid, get a hold of yourself!" Sephiroth pushed the caring hands away and lifted the table above his head.
"Kid, you're not gonna. . . ."
"GET OUT!"
"Are you CRAZY?!"
"Yes, get OUT!"
"I have every right to be here! I'm the one who sent for the doctors to help heal you!"
"I am you, am I not? GET OUT!!!!!"
He threw the table at the young man in the door way.
The force knocked Zack off his feet and blood spilled from his mouth and chest. The sharp corners bit into flesh and muscle, broke the pearly white bones, and the scream of the victim seared the burning air with its blood curdling echo.
"Why? Why did you do this to me? I was your. . . ." Zack head slacked against the wall; he was trapped and unconscious.
Fire lit on the wooden floor and the flames edged closer to Zack every second. The crackling filled the room, tainting the air with the color of dried blood, Zack's blood.
Part 3
Zeki saw the whole thing. Sephiroth screaming about a general in his mind, the kid mumbling about his dreams and his one and only friend, even the beginning of the flames. He felt the faint dark glow of insanity drift from the young warier. He rushed in to keep an eye on him.
Once inside the room, he saw doctors taking samples of his blood. Zeki had fought down the anger burning inside of him. The kid had lost enough blood, he wasn't sure he would survive. Once they thrust the last needle through his pale skin, Sephiroth had screamed his fury, throwing the scientists into walls and pieces of experimental equipment. The ones who managed to escape, well, he didn't know what kind of torture would haunt THEM. Zeki knew why the kid had done that. It was his father.
He had screamed his father's name during the battle, Hojo.
Hojo was the head scientist from Shin-Ra. The kid had also said something about the Nibel reactor. If he was from Nibelheim, shouldn't that be where Hojo had been doing his latest experiments?
But, I'm from Nibelheim, shouldn't I know this kid? Especially if he's Hojo's son. Shin-Ra had placed Hojo in the Shin-Ra mansion for his studies. It had enough room to spare! All those experiments, the poor kid! Then HE became one of them. WHY don't I know his name?!!! No one could miss someone entering that giant monster! He should be about MY age! He SHOULD have been in MY classes! So WHY don't I know ANYTHING about him?! These thoughts haunted Zeki as he rushed into the room to try to help the fallen Zack.
He strained his muscles, trying to free the dark man. As he did, he tried to talk to him, but his voice faded as the flames grew brighter and the heat more intense. He had reached his limit. He realized, with much pain, that alone, he could not save the man who had helped his partner.
"The kid. . ."
Over the roaring of the flames he heard a rumble, not just a rumble, but the scream of one who's anger had taken control. The ground shook with such ferocity that Zeki fell into the flames around him. The heat seared his flesh and ate at his soul. The pain tore him from the inside out and he felt like he was spinning into oblivion. His breath was smothered by the black smoke, and the little fiery tongues licked at his gushing blood. The darkness around his burning form grew and pulsated until it devoured the whole world he knew.
He was left in a stage of turmoil. Floating in the blackness around him, wondering what became of his friends, for all he knew now was pain. The pain that destroys who you are, the kind of pain that gives you the need to look back on your life to see what good you have done. The kind of pain that hurts your whole being, the kind that kills. So why wasn't he dying?
Through the darkness he saw a flash of blue. An ice blue that made the pain disappear. It healed the physical damage that would have killed him, but the spiritual ache lingered, yet fainter than before. The blue flames seemed as cold as ice, like Sephiroth. But the longer the cold went the warmer it became, healing all the wounds on Zeki's body, and smothering the fire. His vision came so suddenly that he was sure it was a dream, but there in front of him was Sephiroth, his silver hair blowing in an unfelt breeze and from his outstretched hand poured the blue liquid flame.
Zeki's eyes regained the color that they once bore, as a child. The dull aqua had filmed over to hide the tragedies of his child hood. In his bright eyes shone the innocence of a small boy, yet the pain showed Sephiroth why the cheerful young man wanted to be in SOLDIER.
*****************************************************************
The flames had engulfed him once he regained consciousness. How the fire started was a mystery to him, but somehow he knew that it was his fault.
He looked in front of him to see a hospital table crushing Zack in his own puddle of blood surrounding him. Over the motionless figure hovered a shadow. The silhouette looked vaguely familiar, but in a groggy haze, seemed to be another. From the direction of the men came a low mumbling.
The figure dropped the slightly lifted table onto Zack and the fury in him grew to maximum level. He had never been considered a friend, but now that he was, he was determined to do whatever he could for them, even give his own life.
The scream of rage erupted from his lips and the room shook like the world was going to fall to pieces, as Sephiroth believed his heart did long ago. The scream seemed to last for ages, but only seconds had passed when the figure dropped into the fire with an agonizing cry.
His body caught the flame instantly, the fur on his leather jacket smoldering. His flesh burned to black and his hair seemed to be the fire, the orange tint faded in with the inferno around him. Blood seeped from the parched, cracked skin and a lake of crimson encompassed his twitching frame. The dull aqua eyes held so much pain and agony that Sephiroth believed that the boy's soul would soon collapse, but it was those, now blind, eyes that told the story of his past. In the depths of them Seph saw Nibelheim enveloped in a bonfire much like this one. Bodies in flames miles high and houses burning all life.
A faint, crazed, voice in his mind whispered, "This is what you want to do to those little brats who made your past so unbearable."
Seph ignored those words, but they seemed to embed themselves into the back of his mind.
The figure in the fire moved once more, then went still as the pool of garnet around him boiled in the flames. The mind of the young boy still seemed to call to him through the crackling flames.
The pain that kills. The pain will kill me Kid, why do you want to hurt us?
Kid? The voice hit a nerve in his soul. He had heard it before.
Come ON, man! Ya GOTTA wake up! Please! Wake up! You won't let me give up, and I won't let you! Kid, PLEASE! Can you hear me?
That voice. . . .
I'm sorry for what I did, just don't die! I'm your friend, Kid!
"ZEKI!" The shout broke through the flames and he walked towards the boy with an out stretched hand, and through his hand poured the legendary Blue Flame of Healing. This comes straight from the heart to help one you truly care for. The call of need must be pouring from the soul of the hurting. A memory must connect the two in friendship. This memory must be able to break through all things, even death.
As the fire poured out of Sephiroth the orange and yellow flames were smothered out and every one it touched was completely healed, physically. Zeki's skin slowly turned pink, then peach, and finally to the normal pale color. His eyes were still open in death, but as all else healed, the soul returned to the body and Zeki's eyes brightened to the color of a newborn's and with that showed Sephiroth the hidden and dark past of the boy.
*****************************************************************
A small boy sat outside Nibelheim, tears streaming down his pink face. Newcomers entered the gates of the town with a boy around his own age. His silver hair was long and blew in the wind, shimmering as a swan's feathers would in the early morning breeze. Even then the boy's eyes had the bright makou glow of a SOLDIER. His pale skin looked like a ghost's and the glowing green anger in his face made him seem even more unnatural. As the truck drove through the child just looked at the young boy on the side of the road, crying.
Zeki sniffed a couple times as he watched the truck drive up to the Shin-Ra mansion. He occasionally saw the boy and the color of his eyes was forever tattooed into his mind. Every time he saw that unnerving color, he shuddered.
As time went on, the memory of this had been hidden in the boy's memory. A few years later, some men from Shin-Ra came into town and wanted some rooms in the hotel his family owned. Zeki knew that something was up, because no one from Shin-Ra ever came by, anyway the men looked more like muggers than soldiers, but his parents lent them the room against Zeki's protests. The next day the six-year-old awoke to find the men hovering over his parents' corpses, blood smeared over their faces and knives in their hands. Zeki screamed at the sight of his parents.
The men looked up at him, their eyes gleaming like killers. The small child ran back up the stairs and the men followed as the sky outside became dark.
Why they persued the boy was unknown, but as they caught him, they whispered words of death to all Nibelheim. All, but him. So he could live with his guilt for all of his life. If he told about the murder, he would be tortured for months, of even years on end with only enough food to be kept alive, but no more. They would first gouge out his eyes, then stuff shards of glass into his ears, and finally slice off his tongue, inch by inch, letting it bleed down his face and drip onto the floor.
For the child, the nightmare never ended. Each night he would dream this sequence over and over until daybreak.
*************************************************************
Sephiroth jumped back in shock. So, he WAS one of the brat kids from Nibelheim. One of the people who had made his life so miserable. One of THEM.
He's not like the others. He cares about me. He was the first to trust a monster like me. A monster who knows no love. A monster who can only hate the world. Everything about me scares most, but only once did he flinch. But it was a hidden secret in his soul that was forced out when the site of the glowing makou came into play. I freed him of the curse, for now he remembers the little boy who moved to Nibelheim so long ago. I do not blame him for my pain, he did not know. I have no one to blame except Hojo. I will not punish Zeki for my father's folly.
Zeki's eyes focused on the man in front of him. The blue flow had stopped, but the pale glow still rippled around the boy, making him look like an angel.
He coughed a little, exhaustion covering him like a blanket, and asked, "Are you all right, Kid?"
Sephiroth nodded and smiled sadly, realizing that Zack might have already left on his long trip to heaven. As Zeki slowly placed his head down onto the cold floor, Sephiroth strode over and moved him to the couch in the corner of the room.
The warier drifted towards the debris in the doorway. He dreamily hoisted the remains over his head to see a crushed figure. His black hair disheveled and his skin torn. Bone was revealed under burnt flesh and his chest did not move with the breath of life. Zack's face looked eerily peaceful, but the look of pain still lingered.
Tears trickled down Seph's face as he placed the table on the floor beside the body. Hunched over in searing pain, Sephiroth grieved for his partner.
***************************************************************
"He had done so much for me, why did I even. . . . It was YOU!"
The man in the corner of Sephiroth's mind shrugged.
"It was your own doing. I cannot control your body."
"Why should I believe you? You lied to me before, why not now?"
"The boy is not lost."
"You lie again!"
"I do not."
"How? He has stopped breathing, and his heart no longer beats."
"As Zeki's had. But the soul has not left for the Lifestream."
"Livestream? Isn't that the place where all spirits merge and become new souls?"
"You've been keeping up with your studies." He smiled, his makou eyes gleaming with crazy joy. "You still carry a trace of the fire that healed the unconscious scientists, and Zeki. Use your tears to bring forth the memory, then heal your friend with the fire around you."
Sephiroth nodded and brought himself out of his mind of ice to bring back his dead friend.
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Part 4
Sephiroth walked up to his deceased friend and lifted him into his arms. Here he let the blue of the fire gather into a single tear. Onto Zack's torn chest it fell. His body glowed the color of the flames and slowly healed. His wounds closed and sealed shut. Only one remained, this turned pink and then the dull salmon of a scar. There was enough of the Flame of Life to bring him back, but not enough to completely heal his body.
His eyelids flickered and, slowly, opened to reveal the clear hazel eyes of the child that Sephiroth never met. But, unlike Zeki's, did not reveal his past. The scar seemed to glow with his awakening. It ranged from his ear to his cheekbone. From there it faded into the pale peach flesh covering his being.
Sephiroth smiled and joy filled his heart. In showing his true emotions, Zack saw that the teenager wasn't at all what he seemed. He was just lonely and had never been taught or shown true emotions. Zack understood him now. He was a boy just like himself. A lonely child with only his parents. The young man in front of him might have not even had that. Now that he had met real people, he knew what true feelings were like. Joy was suddenly not just a mask covering up a horrible past, but a warm, comforting feeling. One that soothed you, body and soul.
Zack smiled and felt a sharp sting in his jaw. It felt stiff and rigid, but he continued smiling at the silver-haired youth whose eyes were filling with warm tears of joy.
"Hey, Kid. I'm OK. There's no reason to cry."
"Zack, I'm the one who did it, I feel guilt, and another feeling, covering my soul. I have felt it many times on this night."
"That feeling, is Joy, my friend. And this emotion should go with you all your life."
"Joy, I've heard of that." He laughed quietly with Zack as the boy drifted into sleep in his arms.
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"What's that smell? Fire! Burning! HERE!"
Lenoa looked up from the manuscript she had been scribbling. She shot out of her chair and ran out to the laboratory.
The last bit of the flames was being smothered by a blue smoke that was rising from small tongues of blue fire. From out of this smoke walked a tall, thin figure of a young man. He carried a bundle in his arms and as he drew closer, she could make out his features. He had long silver hair and eyes that had shone through the smog first. They were an amazing green, that of a cat's and his pupils were drawn into slits. He wore a black dress shirt and charcoal slacks. His boots were dusty, but you could still see the ebony peeking out from under the soil. He was the man she had picked up for Zack!
The bundle became clearer as well, and Lenoa could see that it was not a bundle, but a human. The spiky black hair gave away his identity at once. It was the boy that had been her best friend for years. She could see why he had cared so much about this young man. He was loyal, and would do anything to help one of his companions.
He stopped in front of the scientist and sneered. Sephiroth turned from her and placed Zack in the chair beside him. He then walked back into the smoke and flames. Lenoa's jewel-like eyes widened at the scar along Zack's face. She kneeled and was reaching for Zack's shoulders to shake him when a cold voice cut her off.
"Let him sleep. Yes, I am the one who did this to him."
Lenoa turned to see Sephiroth place Zeki gently into the chair across from Zack.
"If you wish so interrogate me, you may. Before you do, let me say that I was not conscious when I did it, so I cannot answer many of the questions you will ask, scientist."
"Why do you say it like that?"
"What?"
"Why do you say scientist as if it was a bad thing?"
"My father. . . .no, I should not trouble you with my past."
"I have dealt with people much worse off. Please, I am not a scientist, I am a doctor, and only that because I wish to help my comrades in battle."
"Fine. My father was a scientist, I will not state his name so do not ask. He had been the only one who 'loved' me, for my mother is dead and I had no friends. I trusted him with my life, and he knew it. One night, I found myself in a capsule surrounded by a glowing chemical with a needle up my arm. My father had turned on me and I became an experiment. I knew that I had to get away, but the only way I could learn to care for myself, would be in SOLDIER. So, I cursed many a time, and finally left my home town of Nibelheim."
"I see why you would hate them, but I hate Shin-Ra, too. You aren't alone. Now, how did you meet Zeki?"
"Well, he found me."
"All right, how did he find you?"
"I was asleep. I had stopped to rest for the night and had fallen asleep. Zeki found me the next morning. I was having a nightmare and, apparently, found me tossing and turning. He then un-armed me and woke me by shaking me as you were going to do to Zack. I might as well go on and answer your next question.
"We talked for a while, fought a little, then I sat down. I had a really strange dream and woke up on a bed roll in camp. Zeki was asleep and mumbling about pie. . . ."
A slight laugh interrupted the story.
"Mmmmmmmmmm. . . . he, he. . . .slurp. . . . pie. . . .heeeeeeee. . . .he he. . . ."
"Just like that. Any way, I went back to sleep. The next morning, Zeki had been attempting to cook. He dropped a pan and that woke me up. We ate drank, talked, and fought some more. Then we left for Midgar.
"Zeki had been ogling over the city and Zack came along and nearly scared the $#!^ out of him. They talked a while. . . ."
"Let me guess, and fought?"
"No. Zeki then made the comment that I looked deathly pale. That's when Zack called a friend of his. I felt the blood on my head, then collapsed."
"What about the fire?"
"I don't know, you'd have to ask Zack or Zeki."
"The scar?"
"I, somehow, crushed Zack with the hospital table."
"A hospital table?!"
"Yes."
"No human could lift that!"
Sephiroth glared at her. "Maybe I'm not human."
"What? You couldn't POSSIBLY be in the SOLDIER program at your age yet."
"That was my father's experiment."
"The only person, er, scientist with that authority is that creep Hojo. . . . you're saying that. . . . oh my GOSH. I didn't think that he had enough love and or patience to have a kid!"
"He didn't."
"What do you mean?"
"I raised myself with his food and drink. I hardly ever saw him, except at school. He was my professor as well. The rest of his time he spent in the lab downstairs."
"Um, go on with the story."
"Well, I saw a figure once I gained consciousness. I thought he was bringing Zack harm, so I yelled and the whole room shook. The figure fell into the fire, and I stood there watching it burn, until I found that it was Zeki. He was dead by then and a memory called to me. When I had fallen, after my first dream, he had said 'Come ON man!!! Ya GOTTA wake up! Please! Wake up! You won't let me give up, and I won't let you! Kid, PLEASE! Can you hear me?! I'm sorry for what I did, just don't die! I'm your friend, Kid!'" He sighed. "That is what I heard. After he had called to me, asking why I would want to hurt them. Of course, I didn't remember killing Zack."
Lenoa looked shocked. Sephiroth gazed at her. He hadn't realized that he just admitted that Zack had died.
His eyebrows raised and he shook his hands at her. "Don't be led the wrong way!" His expression returned to memory. "Then I yelled, as anyone would, knowing that he had killed his friends. Out of the depths of my soul, a blue fire came. It flowed over the scientists, whom I had injured, then passed over Zeki, completely healing him, other than exhaustion. Zack, however, was under the table, dead. I placed Zeki on the couch in the room, and left to dig Zack out. I hoisted the table above my head so that I could examine his injuries, for he was lying in a puddle of his own blood. He was cut, torn, burned, and no breath passed through his breast. I for a while I could only feel sorrow, then. . .I realized that if the fire had brought Zeki back from the depths of death. So I lifted him into my arms, after I had set the table aside, and let the fire gather into one tear. It saved him from death, but could not heal the wound on his cheek, completely. That is what happened."
"You are, probably the most interesting speci. . . .er, person I have ever met. No one I know has had a past like that!"
"More less a future, eh?"
"I don't understand. You know your future?"
"A little. In there, I saw Nibelheim, my hometown, burning. Someone, I do not know who, said that I would become a great General in SOLDIER. In a dream, I was frozen, and a piece of materia was pushed through me by a boy with the same spiritual feeling as Zack. The ice never cracked, and I couldn't open my eyes. I could feel everything, though. I was. . . .missing, you could say, the lower half of my being."
"Oh, yeah, that's a nice thing to look forward to. Being sliced in half!"
"No sarcasm, please. This is really my life."
"I wonder if there is a logical way to prevent it."
"Well, we might as well ponder it later. Dawn is approaching, and we all need our rest."
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The fire. "Jenny?"
The girl looked up from the shadows. It was no longer dark, but the camp site was the same as before. The girl had silver hair, like Sephiroth. Her eyes were a magnificent silver-blue and her skin was light, nearly white. The base color of it was sky blue and made her eyes stand out against her black outfit. The jacket she wore was only down to her waist, and her black slacks were wrinkle-less. She stood with her hands in her pockets and her feet were planted firmly in the red soil.
"Sephiroth! I haven't seen you in a while. Is that guy still bothering you?"
"What? Oh, him. Yeah, every so often. Mainly it's my life bothering me."
"How so?"
"Killed my best friends, got knocked out by unknown forces, nothing out of the ordinary."
She smiled. "No, I suppose not."
"So, what is my company to do tomorrow. We would like to sign up for the military forces, but I want to avoid my father at all costs. I hear that we must go to the headquarters, but there is no hope of avoiding Hojo there."
She laughed. "You have been listening to roumors, huh? Well, to sign up, you need to go to the Wall Market in sector 6."
"The Wall Market? Isn't that a ways away?"
"You're in sector 5."
"Really. . . . I hear that on the edge of Sector 5 flowers bloom in abundance along side a waterfall. Is that true?"
"Yes. That is a garden. A garden for the priests of a near by church."
"Well, I'd rather not get into a history lesson. I know a lot about Midgar already."
"Oh, noon, ALREADY?!"
"Noon, huh? I had better wake up. See ya!"
Sephiroth turned and walked away.
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Sephiroth's eyes opened slowly. Light streamed in through an open window. The young man groaned and sat up. His new room was cozy. It was small, but nice. It had a desk and chair made of polished oak and a bed, on which the teenager sat. Above the desk was a mirror with a silver rim. This rim was designed into leaves and vines. He stood, pulling on his slacks and boots. He combed out his silver hair and blinked his groggy, green, eyes were reflected clearly through the beautifully designed mirror. He sauntered over to the door then opened it. He slowly walked into the main room to check on his companions.
As he walked into the room, the first thing he noticed was that Zeki was still asleep, drool dripping off the side of his mouth. Sephiroth then looked around. His eyes wandered over to the chair Zack had been on. It was EMPTY!
Through a doorway on the opposite end of the room the warier saw a spiky-haired figure stretch, yawn, then wince as pain shot through his face. The boy attempted to smile, but it came out lop-sided.
Seph relaxed. Zeki blinked. He then wiped his wet cheek and smiled groggily at his companions. Wrapping his jacket around himself, he stood.
Lenoa walked up behind the darkly dressed youth and slipped past him
"I was wondering when you would wake up. You are just in time for lunch."
Zack winced at the thought of Lenoa's food.
"And what's THAT supposed to mean?" She became suddenly cross as she placed her hands on her hips.
Zack carelessly shrugged. "Absolutely nothing."
Zeki closed his eyes. "Other than he's afraid of your cooking."
The scientist was shocked. "I would love to see you do better!"
Zack squinted and held up his finger. "You know very well that I can't let people eat my food, safely. They would die before they found out how horrible it tastes."
"So don't dis my cooking. You should be lucky to get anything at all."
They ate in complete silence, for fear of upsetting Lenoa. Then they gathered around the door.
"So, I guess that we're off to Shin-Ra HQ." Zack smiled.
"Wait," for once Sephiroth spoke without being spoken to. "You can't sign up for the military forces at the head quarters. There was a riot and they transferred the post to the Wall market in sector 6."
Zeki looked up from packing. "Do you know how to get there?"
"All we need to do is head through this sector, heading south. We should come across it."
Lenoa held something out to Sephiroth. She smiled.
"Here, it's a map of Midgar. I hope that it will help you on your journey."
Zack looked at the scientist. "So, you're not going with us?"
The youth shook her head sadly. "I wish I could, but I must finish this manuscript. But I'll meet you there. It's about time that I persue my dream!"
Zeki smiled and nodded. Even though he had only known her for a short while, he felt as if he would be seeing her a lot in the future. "We all should. Dreams are an important part of ourselves. I learned that when I was wandering between li. . . .Er, I mean, Between Nibelheim and Costa Del Sol. . . .Heh, heh, heh. . . ." The boy scratched his head and shrugged. He then sighed.
"Well, we need to go. See ya in Wall Market!"
Zack then walked out the door, hands in pockets. His sword had been carelessly buckled against his back once more. His wardrobe had been replaced with a spare set. This one consisted of a pair of black slacks and a, tight, charcoal-colored, T-shirt. His brown combat boots had been buckled onto the owners feet once more.
He then realized that no one was following. He placed his hands behind his head and sighed. "C'mon! Let's mosey!"
Sephiroth nearly fell over in amazement. "'Let's mosey'?!?!?!?!? Who says THAT anymore?!"
"Er, um, well. . . .Let's go!"
Zeki heaved another deep sigh and grabbed the Scythe of Truth (his staff) and followed.
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A few hours later, they found themselves in the Wall Market. From every corner the sound of bids and drunken laughter came. Music radiated from every store to create the loud hub of Midgar, the Wall Market.
Zack covered his nose to block out the horrible stench of beer and sweat. He sneered in distaste. Sephiroth rubbed his sore eyes and sighed. Zeki, on the other hand, was acting as a small child would at a fair. At times like these Seph wondered if Zeki was no more than a small child in an teenager's body.
Zack grabbed a hold of the collar of Zeki's jacket and dragged him away from the Honey-Bee Inn. Seph walked towards the two.
"Zeki, that's not what we are here for. We want to sign up for the armed forces so that someday we might be accepted into SOLDIER. The post is right over there." Seph jerked his head in the direction of the sign-up area. "It's either now or never. Make up your mind, because soon, you will belong to Shin-Ra."
Zeki stopped struggling to listen to the speech. "Whoa. . . Kid, that's the most you've ever said to us."
Zack carelessly shrugged. "Well, other than telling your story, that is."
Seph heaved a deep sigh. "That isn't the point. We need to sign up, and I mean now!"
Zeki's eyes widened, "He has the attitude for a General already."
After he had said his last comment, Seph had turned to head for the booth. Once he heard Zeki, he stopped dead in his tracks. General. . . .
Note: heheheheheheheheheheheheheh. . . . This story is a blast to write! The only problem with the future part of the series is that, I don't know anything about the War of Wutai! If any one knows anything about it Please E-mail me at zekirocks@yahoo.com I would greatly appreciate it! I hope that I will have many fans in the future! Oh, I will not have a link to a page about me because I would rather not put my name out on the net. So I will tell a couple things now. I am not yet in high school and I use my cousin Rashell as a prop to see how blood spurts out of a wound. (j/k) My fave chara is not Seph, but Clod-boy. (Cloud) Poor Seph. . . Anywayz, the reason that I began writing this story is I would like to inform people of the past of FF7. I do not think that either Tifa or Aeris could be paired with dear ol' Clod. Do not push me on that one, because I will give a long list why. I also do not pair him up with Yuffie. That would be plain wrong! Um, I have many pictures that I have drawn and I plan to get them up soon. If anyone wants to send fan art, E-mail me, and please put it as an attachment. Well, that's about it! I guess I had better let you go so, jaa ne!
~Haily