Disclaimer: This is a Final Fantasy VII fan fiction. I do not own Final Fantasy VII. Jenova II and her plot are of my own.
The rain poured down the outer windows and walls of the Shinra Corporation. Everyone was at ease on Christmas Eve, yet no one stopped to enjoy the season. Sephiroth sat alone in a room of the Corporation building, leaning against the wall as he watched the rain flow against the window side. Of course he wore something very different from many of the members of SOLDIER: a long black jacket, having his bare chest seen behind two thick belts. There were armored plates on his shoulder in two layers, and long black pants, standing over 6 feet in height, though his size was added by the large black combat boots. His face was expressionless, as always, as his sea green eyes watched the water drip slowly down from behind the long silver bangs in front of his face.
It has been a long time since the company was graced with his presence. Time to time he would show up on rare occasions, but lately he has been visiting quiet often, and leave just as suddenly as he came. The battlefield began to bore him, finding no one capable of calling his "equal." It was distressing and irritating to use his favorite blade against those who were weak, like everyone inside of the building he waited in. The rain continued to fall, and his eyes never left the window, even as the door on the other side of the room opened, two figures walking into the dim lighted room.
"Is it dark enough in here Sephiroth?" A mans voice called out, flicking on the light to reveal Sephiroth in the corner. The warrior's eyes moved away from the window as the lights were turned on, looking to the tall man in the doorway. This man was dressed in a full black suit, his raven like hair draped over his shoulders slightly, and both brown eyes looking directly to Sephiroth.
It was Tseng of course, but the silver haired man could care less, for it wasn't the man he was waiting for inside the room, but for the other that was escorted by him. Sephiroth's eyes slowly descend upon the small girl holding Tseng's hand, a smile upon her shining face. The little one was about 3 1/2 feet tall, almost looking to be around 7 years of age. Her silver hair shined in the light, as her bangs were bent upward and then back down, the same style as Sephiroth's, but messier. Her sea green eyes stared eagerly to the man as her smile brightened, letting go of Tseng's hand and running to Sephiroth.
"Brother Sephy!!!!" The girl screamed out during her quick dash, her long, plain blue dress flowing in the breeze. Sephiroth bent down on one knee as the young girl ran towards him, opening his arms wide for her. She screamed out the nickname for him over and over and over again until finally flying into his arms, Sephiroth embracing her tightly. "Sephy... I'm glad you came and visited me!" The little girl rubbed her face on his chest, brushing the cheeks against his bare skin, as well as the leather belts across his chest in an X formation. She looked up to him as she tried to hold his waist with her small arms, her smile bright and innocent. A smile dawned upon Sephiroth's face as he held the little girl in his strong arms.
"Of course I would visit you Jen..." Sephiroth told her in a soft, yet a low tone, "It's Christmas Eve and I have no orders from SOLDIER so I thought I would take this day off to spend it with you..."
Jen's smile grew wider as she burst from his arms, standing a few inches away from him. She pointed her fingers to her bangs of her long silver locks, pretty long for someone her age. They were sticking upward and then bent over before her face, having the same hairstyle as her brother. "Looky looky Sephy! I did my hair like yours!" Jen smiles again as she pulls on her hair slightly. Sephiroth took one of the bangs from her grip, rolling it between his large fingers, though could not feel its softness with the black gloves on his hands.
"That's very nice Jen..." He told her in a calm voice, "It needs some work but it's nicely done. And it looks very good on you..." Sephiroth let go of her silver hair, rubbing the top of her head as her eyes sparkled from his comment. "And I got you a very special gift... I hope you enjoy it." He stood back up to normal height, walking over to a corner of the room where the light was out. His precious Masamune lay there against the corner walls, but a box of some sort kept it from falling. He laid the blade in it's sheath aside, and picked up the box by the handle on the top, bringing it to the light, showing that it was a cage or pet carrier of some sort. Jen's eyes opened wide as she looked upon the box he carried, though not knowing what was inside the dark box, where the shadows hide the inner present. Sephiroth set it before her and she sat in front of the box, peering inside with such aw that she looked like a curious child. Sephiroth slowly put his hand upon the small lock, unlocking it for her and opening the door.
"Ooooh... What is it Sephy...?" Jen asked with such curiosity, her head moving forward as she tried to see what hid in the shadows. As she leaned forward, Sephiroth placed a hand upon her shoulder, pulling her back a bit to not scare whatever was inside. Without even speaking, she already knew that he wanted her to stay back some. With a few small taps on the box's top did something make a small rustling from inside the shadows shakes the box, Jen backing away with the sudden movement. The constant rustling slowly came to a stop, and out from the darkness of it's cadge, crawls out a small baby Chocobo, a large, but young chick, being only a bit smaller than Jen. The little Chocobo shook its body a bit when brought into the light, showing off its bright red feathers, some of the under feathers seeming to be silver. It looks up to Jen with big sea blue eyes, filled with such innocence as hers, yet such fear of the being that was Jen sitting before it. Jen raised a hand a bit, bringing it toward the Chocobo, to only get a fearful reaction as it backed away. With that fearful reaction she pulled her hand back, placing it in her lap as she sat there on her knees, looking to the Chocobo with her own innocent sea green eyes, and a smile on her face. The Chocobo rustled its wings yet again; neither of them moving an inch towards each other while silence filled the room.
With much bravery it began to advance to her, Jen not moving to touch it, sitting like a statue. Its beak moved forward, taking a waif of her scent as she remained still, and then backed away yet again, watching as she lifted her hand ever so slowly. With the look of fear again she retreated her hand and placed it back on her lap, continuing to smile. The little Chocobo moved its neck forward once again, sniffing Jen again and then moving closer and closer, flapping its wings at her small knee. She remained as a statue before lifting her arm from her lap, attempting to pet the Chocobo, who did not retreat yet again. Seeing its bravery her own grew, and placed her own hand on its head, petting it slightly and softly. It's own head began to rub against her hand, eyes closing in happiness of the feeling of her soft hand against its head, Jen also smiling.
"Aww Sephy... it's so cute..." Jen told her brother without moving her sea-green eyes from the Chocobo. Sephiroth smiled as happily as his stern emotion would let him while watching. Jen took the Chocobo into her arms, holding it in a tight hug, almost like it was a doll instead of a living being.
"This is your early Christmas present Jen," Sephiroth told her with a more emotional tone, "I hope you like it." He sat down besides her, raising his gloved hand to pet the Chocobo with his large finger. Jen however, lost her happy face, now replaced by utter confusion.
"Cwistmas?" She asked with confusion and an almost slurring speech. Her head bent over to the side, the Chocobo looking up at her own face, and his head bent over like a following child, mimicking her.
"Yes... It's a day when people of the world join with their families and give gifts to show how much they love each other..." Sephiroth began to explain, "It's one of the few special days I had to spend alone before you were born... I thought this little Chocobo would be a nice gift for your first Christmas, though it's the day before. Someone to spend time with while I'm away."
Jen smiled at his thoughtful comments, the Chocobo still repeating her movements, watching her eyes trail back down to him. She hugged it happily, telling him, "I wuv it Sephy..." Her arms held the little red Chocobo in her arms even tighter, rubbing her cheek against it's own.
"The farmer I bought it from called it 'Shinta.' I believe it knows itself by that name anyway."
"Shinta? Ok!" Jen held the beast tighter as she twisted her hips back and forth, almost shaking the large chick, "Shinta, Shinta, Shinta! I wuv you!"
Sephiroth smiled again to his sister, which was a rare occasion on it's own, but now his eyes expressed softness, a love for her, a need to care and make her happy. His happy expressions and emotions were thought to have been lost long ago, but he still seemed to have them, maybe not in comprehension, but have them. But to their dismay, this rare occasion was to be cut short. Tseng gave a light cough, his presence almost forgotten, but caught the two silver haired people's attention.
"I'm sorry to break up this loving reunion" Tseng began to explain with almost regret in his tone, "but Dr. Hojo was not finished with Jenova II's tests when you arrived... I have to take her back now..." It seemed by the look on his face he did not want to break up the loving scene with Jen and her new Chocobo, also seeing that Sephiroth had lost his smile and returned to the stern emotionless face of a warrior. Jen's however, became very sad, her frown large and her eyes almost dimming with fear.
"But... But I don't wanna go back... I wanna stay with Sephy and Shinta!" Jen cried out, picking up Shinta and making a dash towards her brother where she hid her face and her Chocobo within his arms, not wanting to leave at all.
"I'm sorry..." Tseng tried to explain, his hand brushing through his black hair, "But I have no choice in the matter... He told me to bring you right after Sephiroth had finished whatever he came here for..." Tseng walked over towards the two with regret in his face, bending down to her to take her into his arms, only causing the little girl to back up into her brother's chest. He pulled back seeing her fear and anger, trying to think of an excuse. "But... I don't think he will argue if Shinta and Sephiroth joined you, now would he?"
Jen nodded slightly to Tseng, smiling through her saddened expression as if to say that she was all right with that. Sephiroth rose to his feet again, but his own emotions had seemed to turn to anger and hatred at the sound of seeing Hojo. Not once did he ever want to see that old fool who called himself the 'genius' in this crummy dup they called Shinra Corporation. He hated him more than he hated the business itself. But unfortunately, this ordeal was out of his control, unless he wanted to endanger Jen of Hojo's sadistic mind. He only nodded to Tseng as well, showing his agreement as Tseng bent down to take Jen's hand, though she refused to take it. Instead she grabbed hold of Sephiroth's hand, placing Shinta down and held onto his feathery wing.
Tseng lead the group to Hojo's lab, the scientist working with some data on the computer while he waited impatiently for Tseng to finally arrive back with Jenova II. The sound of the mechanical door slide open from the side of the room caught his attention as he rose from his seat, walking over to see Jen, Tseng, and Sephiroth enter the lab. Hojo's eyes narrowed at the sight of Sephiroth entering as well, holding Jen's little hand tightly.
"Well, well Sephiroth..." Hojo said in a low tone as he made his way over to Sephiroth and Jen, "It has been such a long time since you've actually visited lab..." The two made eye contact with each other, no longer speaking while Jen looked back and forth quickly between the two. It was if they were speaking with angry motions to one another with only the bolts flying between the pairs of pupils.
"I see..." Hojo said suddenly, taking his eyes off of Sephiroth and moving to look to Jen, her body shaking to see cold eyes, covered by the glasses on her. He stood before her with a smile on his face, the ends of his lips curled to a smirk as he bent himself down, kneeling before her with that demonic smirk. "Well Jenova II, we were interrupted from your data reading. We'll have to continue if either of us want to eat dinner tonight." His smile grew as he watched her cower behind her brother's legs, as if feeding off of her fear in pleasing delight. But his smile faded when his eyes looked to little Shinta, who was cowering behind Jen, who was cowering behind Sephiroth. Hojo's eyes were almost filled with disgust, standing back up tall again.
"Jenova II... who gave you this creature...?" Hojo asked with his eyes still on the red Chocobo, his tone very low, almost demanding.
Young Jen gulped at the sound of his voice, digging into her mind and skin like claws. She took Shinta back into her arms, holding him tightly. "Sephy did... he gave it to me for Cwismas...."
"He did, did he...?" Hojo asked with a smirk forming back on his face, walking back over towards the controls. Behind the controls a bit was a large test tube like structure, a round glass about a metallic bed or desk, having lights and wire extending from each direction, large enough to hold an adult man. "Tseng, put Jenova II in her testing tube, and get that horrible thing out of here... You may leave now Sephiroth." Hojo sat at his computer again, typing in a few things as his glasses gleamed in the light.
Tseng sighed softly, regret still in his facial expression as he turned towards Jen and picked her up, pulling her away from Shinta and Sephiroth. Her small arms reached outward, struggling to get free of his arms but her little body was to weak compared to his own, helpless to Hojo's orders. The raven-haired man placed her inside the tube on the table, hitting a few numbers to the console to close the glass door tightly. The girl cried out to Shinta and Sephiroth, her fists banging on the glass and her voice muffled by the tube. Shinta ran from Sephiroth, his eyes seeming serious and ready for battle as he dashed to the tube to aid Jen, only to be caught by Tseng as the Chocobo tried to make his way through the mans legs. He warks and squawks and struggles to get down, but like Jen, being too small and weak to break free from the man as he carried him away from the tube.
"You're going to regret this Hojo..." Sephiroth says quietly to himself, his arms crossed as he watched from where he stood. He still looked very serious, except for that of his lips, the corner of one side curling to a smirk. It was to small to be noticed from afar, but up close you could see it on his face, watching Tseng walk past him with the Chocobo under his arm, still kicking, flapping, and struggling for his release. Hojo did not react to Sephiroth's warming, finding it false in every way possible. His finger still pressed a button on the keyboard to switch screens, seeing the rising levels of many bars on the screen from measurements inside the tube. Jen had stopped her banging with her palms now on the table with her head bowed, her silver locks blocking her face from sight, though the tips of her hair was floating slightly on a breeze that couldn't possibly exist.
"What the...?" Hojo said silently to himself, baffled by the strange readings from Jenova II. His eyes moved back to the tube, watching as a slight ora surrounded her body. A black light whirling up her body like a twister of power. The tube began to crack under stress, black bolts dashing around the glass, the control panel exploding as with the tubes and wires exploding from the mainframe. Hojo's face was in complete confusion, looking back over to Sephiroth who stood there unfazed by the events. As the power grew the glass tube with Jen inside shattered, sending the glass flying everywhere, a piece of glass hitting Sephiroth's cheek, making a large cut as blood dripped down the skin, though was unmoving. Hojo, however, was hit hard with a larger piece, slicing into his left arm and leaving a deep gash, the blood beginning to turn the sleeve of his white lab coat a crimson red.
Jen walked from the broken tube, the glass spread across the ground cutting into her feet, but marched on without screams or tears of pain. Her head rose to look to Tseng, who stopped with Shinta in his arm still, looking in surprise and almost fear to the little girl. Her eyes no longer had the green Mako glow to them, the sea green replaced by dark pits of nothing that turned her eye color gray. Both her small pupils almost had vanished inside the darkness and emptiness in her eyes and expressions. She raised one small hand, pointing it strait to him as she continued to march over the broken glass.
"Burn forest greenery... dark magic burn with intense red light..." Jen began to chant softly. However, her voice was no longer the high-pitched sound of a happy child, but the low tone of an older woman overshadowing her normal voice. It seemed a bit disturbing, static like, as if something was disrupting a connection in her voice, like an air disturbance in radio waves as you listen to it, her voice breaking up. "Fire..."
She stopped for a moment as her hand continued to glow with a dark purple, then changing to a bright, reddish orange, the glow then vanishing. All sound seemed to fade from existence as Tseng's body began to glow slightly. With a confused look he dropped Shinta who ran from him as quickly as it could. The glow slowly vanished again, before a large flame ball formed by his right side, exploding with energy, burning his arm and side of his leg while his body was thrown across the floor, hitting a metal plated wall. Blood smearing against the metallic surface from the head impact as his body slumped, more crimson liquid dripping down an open crack in his lips while his eyes were shut in an unconscious state.
Hojo held his bleeding arm as he looked to Jen in fear, his whole shaking from the small portion of her power he had just learned. He quickly picked up a phone, screaming into the mouthpiece for medical attention as he tried to slow the bleeding. But he stopped screaming as he saw Sephiroth slowly walk over to Jen, showing no fear as he bent before her, the girl looking up with expressionless gray eyes. He placed his hand upon her head, closing his own eyes in almost concentration as her head snapped back to reality, blinking widely with a few tears dripping from her eyes, glowing with the same sea green color.
"It's alright Jen... you don't have to hurt anyone anymore..." Sephiroth told her in a calm and kind tone, "Shinta is alright..." Jen took no time to jump into her brother's arms, her eyes swelling with even more tears as she cried onto his bare chest. He held right tightly in his arms, rubbing his large hand against her back to try and calm her tears, giving out soft 'shhh's' to help her relax.
"Sephy... I... I hurt Tseng... didn't I...?" Jen stopped her crying for a few moments, trying to hold back the tears of what she just did, as well as the horrid burning pain from her bleeding feet. Sephiroth picked her up slowly, still holding her in his arms and walked from the room with her, the red Chocobo following suit. Hojo screamed to them to stop, but the silver haired warrior only ignored him of course, and continued walking.
The two of them arrived downstairs in Jen's room again, her brother had bandaged the girl's small feet, and her tears had finally come to a stop. Jen sat on her white bed with him, holding onto a small rag doll, the only possession Hojo really allowed her to keep. The doll was torn in many places, cotton falling from the foot, a beaded eye missing, and stains of colors in the fabric for never being washed. Sephiroth kept a hand on his little sisters head as she rested her head against his leg, still sniffling in sadness a few times with her body still shivering in fear under his hand. Shinta sat by the side of her bed, looking up to the sad expression on Jen's face, having almost the same dark tone to his own facial features.
"Jen... tell me...if you want to of course," Sephiroth spoke with a concerned, but soft voice, still petting her small head, "How did you summon that power to create a flame attack...? Especially one that was set off the way it had did... That is a very difficult magic to summon for that use...."
"Mommy... told me... how to do it..." Jen said with a sniffle, burring her face in his black pants. Sephiroth's eyes, however, opened in surprise. Mommy? How could he hear the voice of her mother? He was told by many of the doctors that her mother had died during her birth, as did he. The only reason they were declared siblings was for they had almost identical facial features, and supposedly the same father. "She told me... to look inside for my hate of Hojo... for the hate of Tseng as he took Shinta away from me..." Her voice was still cracking with dry tears, whipping her face every so often against his pants, "She told me... what to say... to cast the power she would give me... and all I would have to do is get angry... and my want for Shinta... and she would help... I don't like the doctor... I don't like Tseng... I hate it here.... I want to stay with you Sephy..."
Sephiroth shook his head to her comment, looking away from her pleading eyes. There was no way he could bring her with him without endangering her life. She was powerful, especially in her use of magic, but she often lost control. She was a fragile little girl, and he had no way to go against SOLDIER, or escape. He was afraid of hurting the only living thing that actually cared for him, the only thing he cared for away from SOLDIER, his little sister. Ever since Doctor Gustav had died, he had felt almost always alone. His mother was dead, he had no known father, and most of his childhood was taken when Hojo took over the science department and he was left alone with noting to do but be alone. There were no holidays, there were no birthdays, and there were nothing but experimental days of Hell. He spent time with Jen so that she would not become as sad and as lonely as he was so long ago during his own childhood.
"I cannot take you with me Jen...." Sephiroth said regretfully, "The SOLDIER would hunt you down and hurt anyway in their way to get you back... It's too risky on the battlefield to keep you with me... Not only would that put me in danger... But that would put you in much more danger..." Sephiroth lifted Jen from lying against his lap and placed her flat on the bed, pulling up the covers to her neck. Little Shinta hopped up onto the bed, dashing across the fabric and inside, crawling up under the covers. He had trouble at first, his legs swinging widely as he tried to push himself under, but he finally got under the covers and crawled beside Jen, curling up into a little ball next to her. She smiled slightly while placing the doll between the two of them, reaching out and taking both the Chocobo and the doll in one arm while lying on her side. But her eyes did not close, only staring up at Sephiroth.
"Sephy...? Can you stay with me tonight...?" Jen's large eyes pleaded for him to do so, the large frown on her face almost irresistible. But he would not, smiling slightly by her pleading actions and leaned forward, kissing her forehead.
"Yes... I will stay with you tonight... I'll sleep beside your bed.... I'm used to sleep without one," Sephiroth told her with a soft voice, getting up from his seat and walking over to the door, clicking a few buttons on the control panel beside her door as the lights turned off. He walked through the darkness, his eyes giving off almost a faint green glow as he made his way over to a wall beside the bed, smiling as he heard the deep breathing of her restful sleep. "Goodnight dear sister...." He looked out the window that the bed sat beside, watching the rain still continue to pour against the glass while the lights of the dim, polluted city flickered across the skyline. His eyes slowly became heavy as the rain continued to pitter-patter against the window till sleep took hold of him as well.