Reflections from the Life Stream, a final fantasy vii fanfic

This here is KajaKataMaran's second request. The other two are being worked on, but I have no idea when they'll be done. She wanted a fic in which Zack, Aerith, and, depending on the time period, Sephiroth would observe the goings on in FFVII and/or FFVIIAC. So, I give you both. First the two, and then the three, and finally the six. Read, review, and vote!

Zack sat alone in a grassy field. Flowers surrounded him, flowers that were a painful reminder of Aerith, the girlfriend he'd left behind in Midgar when he'd accepted the Nibleheim assignment. The flower seller, with her long brown hair and that pretty pink ribbon. She was always smiling, always saying something nice in her sweet voice. She was still alive. At least…he thought she was. Like he thought Cloud was still alive.

"So what happens next?" he asked the empty silence around him. "Do I just sit here forever? Aren't I supposed to be taken into the Life Stream and turned into energy for something else? Or reincarnated? Or something?"

No one answered him. Irritated, he plucked a blade of grass and shredded it in his fingers. Oddly enough, after he had died, he'd found himself wearing his old uniform. It was comforting and disturbing at the same time: while it had been his dream for years, a dream that he'd achieved, it had seen death and violence he wished he could have stopped but hadn't. Everything, from the heavy boots to the wide leather belt, looked exactly as it had before the mission, clean and well-cared for but battered, broken in and comfortable. He didn't have his sword, though. Not even the sheath. He felt a little nervous without it, though it seemed highly unlikely anyone or anything would be disturbing his peace.

He sat there for a long time, re-learning how to make daisy chains. By the time anything happened, he'd made six yards of perfect chain. Sections of chain in varying stages of completion lay around him, abandoned when he learned how to correct an error that had made the chain deformed.

It happened suddenly, a shockwave that knocked him flat on his back, and then a scream from a thousand throats. It hurt, stabbing pain in his head and burning in his chest. Death. Someone had died. Someone important. Someone powerful.

A haze appeared over the flowers near his feet. As he watched it, it turned into a pair of women's hiking boots. When these were fully formed, the rest of the body appeared as well, the pink dress and jacket, the long brown braid, the pink ribbon, and the long hands with the layered white stone bracelets. She smiled at him.

"Aerith?"

"Hi, Zack."

And then she vanished.

It was some time before Aerith returned to the flower field. When she did, Zack had finished his daisy-chain and lay on his back, mostly covered by loops of chain. She crouched beside him and examined it.

"Where did you learn this?"

"When I was a kid. Trying to impress girls. I can tie bows and braid hair, too."

Aerith smiled and sat down.

"Have you been here long?"

"I have no idea," Zack muttered. "I can't tell if time passes here."

"It does. You just can't see it."

Suddenly, Zack had to know how long it had been.

"Do you know when I died Aerith?"

"A little over three years ago."

"Three years?"

"Mmhm."

"I thought…jeez, I thought it was weeks, or months, but…years? What happened to Cloud? Do you know? Did he make it back to Midgar?"

"He did."

"How was he?"

"Want me to show you?"

"Yes," Zack said, not stopping to wonder how she could show him. They were both quite dead, after all.

A patch of the air before them rippled wetly, then settled into a flat expanse of dark blue. Color began to appear on it, solidifying into an image of Cloud and some strangers.

"He's grown," Zack murmured. "He looks kinda like me…that's weird, I thought he'd grow up totally different. And he looks so sad. So angry. What happened?"

"For awhile, he thought he was you. That's how he found me. He worked as a mercenary, and met up with Avalanche, the rebel group that was just getting its start

when you served ShinRa. An old friend of his is a part of it. They fight for the Planet now, not just the destruction of ShinRa."

"Why the Planet?"

"Sephiroth has returned."

"Seph?" Zack breathed. "He's dead."

"He survived. Jenova's power kept him alive and whole through the reactor. He has summoned a thing called Meteor on the Planet. If it is not stopped, the Planet will be destroyed. Cloud and Avalanche fight to get to Sephiroth and force him to stop Meteor before it is too late."

Zack stared at the image. Cloud was there, in armor that looked similar to what Zack wore, a hard, empty look in his eyes. There was no emotion after sorrow written on his face. He carried a monstrous sword in one hand, just like Zack's Buster Sword.

"How did you die?" Zack asked slowly, his throat tight.

"Sephiroth stabbed me."

Zack said nothing for awhile, just sat staring at Cloud. The image began to move when Aerith focused her attention on it, so he could watch the group travel…Cloud had learned to fight wonderfully. His companions were excellent warriors as well, but he had a drive that they didn't. Once, the angle they were viewing from allowed a glimpse of the thing in the sky, a huge mass of rock and fire. Death for the Planet. And Sephiroth had summoned it.

"Do you want to talk?" Aerith asked quietly.

"What about?"

"Everything. Anything. It's been awhile."

"I don't know if I can. I mean, it was easy to accept the whole being dead thing, but….this is a whole lot harder. Cloud was just a kid when I died. Now he's…"

"A man," Aerith finished. "He came to me soon after your death, still terribly sick from the Mako, not even sure of who or what he was, but he knew your body was on the cliff. It was gone when I got there. Only the sword Cloud had stood up remained. When I told him, he collapsed. Upon waking, he knew who I was without my ever telling him.

Not only my name, but what I did in the city, and who I lived with. As though he'd become you. He's learning that he is someone else, but he was my closest, when he returned. I could count on him. It helped him heal and grow, I think."

"Do they have a chance at winning?"

"I think so. But it may come at great cost to the Planet."

"Who is he with, anyway?"

"Barret Wallace, Tifa Lockheart, Yuffie Kisaragi, Vincent Valentine, Red XIII, Cid HighWind, and Cait Sith. They all have their reasons to fight, and they're very good people."

"Tifa…she survived, then. That's good," Zack murmured. To be honest, the thought that she had died in the Reactor had weighed heavily on his conscience and it was a relief to hear that she was alive. "I've heard a couple of those names…Valentine and HighWind, I think."

"They were both with ShinRa at one time," Aerith said. "Vincent was a Turk thirty years ago, and Cid was a pilot. He was part of the Rocket 26 program…a bid for breaking orbit, I think."

"Yeah, I know about Rocket 26. Someone shut it down during the launch sequence because there was someone down near the burners who would have been killed. Then the program was scrapped."

Aerith nodded.

"That was him."

"Okay…so he has an old ShinRa pilot and a Turk who has to be...what, fifty or so?"

"Vincent is 27."

Zack snorted.

"Right. If he was a Turk thirty years ago, he has to be older than that."

"He will always be 27," Aerith sighed. "Hojo saw to that."

"Hojo?"

"Yes."

"What did he do to the guy?"

"Killed him, reanimated him, and grafted the souls of monsters into his body, then sealed him in a coffin under the ShinRa mansion. Cloud found the coffin when he returned to Nibleheim, and woke Vincent from his sleep."

"Damn. What did he do to get Hojo that pissed?"

"He was in love with Sephiroth's mother. He tried to halt the treatments that made him what he is today, and he was killed for impeding the experiment."

Zack stared at her. Someone had tried to keep Sephiroth from becoming what he was. There was another person out there who'd tried to let him be a normal person.

"And…he's okay with helping hunt down and kill Seph now?"

"He is."

They sat and watched Cloud and Avalanche for some time, saying nothing. Whatever Aerith was doing didn't transmit sound, but Zack got the gist of what was being said- or shouted- through lip-reading. That Vincent guy was incredible to watch…he reminded Zack of Tseng, in a way, with his fine-boned face and feline agility. They were all incredible. Cloud had fallen in with an extraordinary crowd, and if Zack hadn't known Sephiroth better than any of them, he might have thought they would win. Well...they had a chance, but it was slim. Very slim.

"Aerith?"

"Yes?"

"Where are we?"

"The Life Stream, of course," she giggled. "Where did you think we were?"

"Somewhere else."

"Why would you think that?"

"We're the only ones here. And I'm still all in one piece. I thought the Life Stream broke us down and turned us into new life."

"It does."

"Then why aren't I broken down?"

"I wanted you whole."

"How does your wanting it make it happen?"

She told him about being Cetra. About being hunted by ShinRa. About her connection with the Planet. About how she'd wanted him to stay with her, as a companion. She promised that it would get better, now that she was here. It didn't have to be a field of flowers in a blank white world anymore. They could have a sky- and then there was one, clear blue sky like you saw over the grasslands. It was a lot to take in. Zack wound up getting to his feet and pacing in aimless circles until it sank in, which took awhile.

When he came back, he sat beside her on a rock- which hadn't been there before, but he ignored that- to watch Cloud fight again. Time had passed, and they were at the Northern Crater. Sephiroth was there. It hurt too much to watch.

Soon after, Aerith vanished. Her leaving was followed by another shockwave, one that went on and on and on. Zack hung onto handfuls of the grass as if that would anchor him to the ground and gritted his teeth against the pain. He'd thought it had been bad when Aerith died, but this was much worse. This was like being torn apart from the inside out. He could see his body- or his soul, as it were- breaking apart. Apparently, Meteor was fulfilling its purpose. The Planet was dying.

An eternity later, it all stopped. Everything. The pain, the screaming, the shaking. The field and the sky vanished, leaving him hanging in empty white space. Aerith materialized beside him, looking tired.

"What was that?" Zack panted.

"The Planet had to stop Meteor," she said, settling down cross-legged beside him. "I'm sorry that it hurt…it's hard to protect you when Midgar is about to be destroyed. So many people there are sensitive to the Life Stream, and I could hear all of them screaming."

"I survived, didn't I?" Zack reassured her, then laughed at what he'd said. "Well…sort of."

She smiled at that.

"Did it work? Did you stop it?"

"I did…we did. Many people died."

"I'm sorry."

They sat together for hours. Aerith remade the field and the sky, but not the viewing panel thing that they'd used to watch Cloud. "The battle is over," Aerith said when Zack asked. "We don't need to watch them anymore." That was alright. Zack was glad to see that Aerith was back, and largely unhurt by the power the Planet needed to stop Meteor. Night fell, something Aerith had brought on to help Zack feel the passage of time and make him more comfortable.

Days later, while Aerith was away on some errand that Zack had no hope of understanding, a tear opened the sky and a dark shape tumbled through. Zack scrambled to his feet and ran to meet it. Getting there took longer than expected- there was no telling how far something was here unless it was within arm's reach. When he arrived, the dark thing was lying in an awkward tumble of very familiar limbs and black leather. Zack had only seen him in a position like this one a few times, but there was no mistaking who it was.

"Hi, Seph."

"Zack?" The shape shifted, and Sephiroth straightened up, pulling the tails of his coat down so they hung where they should instead of being draped over his head. "Where is this?"

"An offshoot of the Life Stream."

"Why am I here?"

"Good question. We'll find out when Aerith gets back. I'm not in on any secrets around here."

"Aerith?"

"Yup."

Sephiroth groaned.

"You do know that I killed her, don't you?"

"Mmhm."

"You're still smiling. Why are you smiling?"

"She's not mad at you."

"She's not?"

"She's not."

"Why not?"

Zack shrugged.

"I have no idea. She can't –or won't- really explain it to me. It's just the way she works, I guess. To err is human. To forgive…"

"Is divine," Sephiroth finished. "True. She may not be a deity, but this Cetra business puts her right up there with them, doesn't it?"

"She made this, so I guess so." Zack gestured at the field and sky, then plopped down in the grass beside his friend. "So. Whatcha wanna to do?"

"What?"

"I'm bored. I've made miles of daisy chains to pass the time, but that gets really old really fast. Entertain me."

Sephiroth laughed at that. Zack waited patiently for him to stop, wearing his best kicked-puppy look.

"So now you laugh at me," he sniffed. "That's a fine welcome for a friend you haven't seen in years."

"You haven't changed," Sephiroth chuckled. "I thought you might have, after…after Hojo."

"Oh. That. He didn't do all that much to me."

"He didn't? But I thought-"

"He started with me, but Cloud took to the treatments better than I did, so I was just kept as a backup, in case Cloud didn't make it. Most of the time, I was caged or sitting in a tank, existing."

"What was he trying to do to you?"

"He was trying to turn us into you."

"Into…me?" Sephiroth repeated softly. "He thought he could do that?"

"Came pretty close, too," Zack said. "It's a good thing we broke out when we did. I dunno how much more of it Cloud could've taken."

"I'm sorry."

"Aw, don't be. You didn't do anything."

"I existed. And I was nearly perfect. That was enough to get you killed, and Cloud nearly killed. And the planet nearly destroyed, and your girlfriend killed. Nibleheim, too."

"How much of that was actually your fault?"

"What?"

"Aerith and I have done a whole lot of talking since she got here. She says that it wasn't you in there any more, that it was just your body with Jenova controlling it."

Sephiroth nodded, twisting a handful of his hair around his hand.

"She made me watch," he whispered.

"What?"

"It wasn't like she just shoved me out, or blocked me, or killed me, Zack. She kept me at the edge of control, so I could see everything. See it, and hear it. Feel the heat of the fires in Nibleheim, and every strike of Masamune, and smell the smoke and blood. I was there, but I wasn't in control. It was…was a nightmare. And she enjoyed it. Hurting me made her as happy as killing all those people."

Zack shuddered. He'd assumed that Jenova was a crazy bitch, but that was beyond anything he'd even considered. After he'd known that she was behind Nibleheim, he'd assume that it had been her and only her in that body, with Sephiroth thrust into the Life Stream before his body died.

"I had no idea. I thought she'd…damn, I'm sorry."

"Some would say that it was my punishment for killing," Sephiroth said quietly. "A hell of my own, where I got to see what everyone else sees in battle."

"Don't you dare start moping around," Zack growled. "If you're here and Aerith is letting you be here, then you did something good. Beating yourself up about something that already happened and you had no control over isn't going to do anything except get me irritated and you depressed. Okay?"

Sephiroth nodded, obviously not convinced.

"I'm serious. This isn't a bad place- thinking that it's some kind of punishment is just stupid."

"But-"

"We get to hang out and wait for our friends here. It was Aerith's idea- get reincarnated at the same time and hope to find each other. She said she'd pull some strings and let us go straight back as humans, instead of chocobos or some kind of plant or something…the usual way, y'know?"

"She told you that?"

"Yep."

"And you understood it?"

"Mmhm. Even the weird metaphysical technical bits. I was that bored."

It took some convincing to get Aerith to return Zack's Buster Sword and Masamune, but she gave them back, to the delight of their respective owners. Now Zack had something to do, and Sephiroth would never know the horror of endless daisy-chain making. In a place where they didn't get tired, they could spar for days without noting the passage of time. The first time they did so, Zack had no idea how much time had passed until Aerith admitted to stopping the cycle of night that she had made, so Zack and Sephiroth could continue uninterrupted.

"You two looked like you were enjoying yourselves," she said simply.

"How long were we out there?"

"Three days, give or take."

"Three days!?"

"Mmhm."

"You decided to let us spar for three days and didn't tell us how long we'd been at it?"

"Uh-huh. Why?"

"Some of us still like to think time is passing for us, even if it isn't, okay? I thought it had been like…a few hours or so, not three days. Don't do that to me!"

Aerith giggled and promptly made everything dark, the night cycle she'd turned off.

They were kept informed of Cloud's movements, because Aerith could see into the world without expending any energy. There wasn't much to speak of, just the forming of Cloud's delivery service and the way he drew away from Tifa and the kids as time went on. It was thoroughly disappointing, but neither of them could intervene, and Aerith refused to until Cloud asked for her help. Irritated, they waited for the next bit of news and pounded each other into the grass at every opportunity. If nothing else, it was a way to pass time.

Sephiroth knew about the Remnants before Aerith did. In the middle of a sparring session, he stopped. Zack nearly hit him in the stomach before he deliberately tripped himself to avoid the hit.

"What was that?" Zack sputtered, picking himself and his sword up. He straightened, spitting grass. "You don't just stop when you're fighting someone!"

"It isn't over," Sephiroth murmured

"What? What's not over?"

"The fight?"

"Meaning?"

"Hojo made more. You and Cloud weren't the only tries."

"Shit, Seph, you mean he turned someone else into you?"

Sephiroth turned to face Zack, eyes wide and haunted. The bottom of Zack's stomach dropped out.

"He made clones," he whispered. "Imperfect clones. They're loose, and after Jenova's remains. They want Cloud."

"How many of them?"

"Three. Zack, the youngest…he's like I was as a child. If he finds her, I don't know what they could do."

Zack paled.

"Aerith!" he yelled. She appeared at once.

"Yes?"

"Did you know?"

"Know what? Is something wrong, Zack? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Seph says there are three clones of himself running around looking for Cloud and Jenova."

Aerith shook her head.

"Impossible. Hojo never succeeded at making viable clones. The DNA was too unstable, what with all the Jenova cells and the Mako mutations."

"They're out there," Sephiroth said. "I swear it. Look for Cloud- they'll show up wherever he is."

Aerith hesitated, then summoned the viewing thing she'd used before. Sephiroth and Zack squeezed in on either side of her to watch.

Sure enough, there were three young men tearing across the planet, hijacking transport when they needed to and traveling by motorcycle when they didn't. What they wanted, they took. What they didn't like, they destroyed. They were spoiled by each other and the power they wielded.

"Jenova already has her claws into the little one," Sephiroth said. Aerith was away, trying to heal the damage the Remnants left in their wake. Zack and Sephiroth sat together before the panel, watching the trio bed down around a small fire.

"Are you sure?"

"Watch him sleep."

The older two slept head to head, talking quietly after they had banked the fire. Across from them, the smallest fell asleep at once, his back to the fire and his brothers. It did not look like a restful sleep; he twisted and jerked in his sleep, lips forming words that he never actually said. One of his brothers, the slender one, sat up and peered over the fire at his brother, then ducked down and nudged the brother he slept beside. They sat up together and watched silently until the little one calmed and stopped moving.

"You sure that wasn't just a nightmare or something?" Zack asked.

Sephiroth nodded.

"I did the same thing when I was young. Hojo used to show me the security tapes in the morning and ask what I was dreaming about."

"Did you ever tell him?"

"I could never remember anything exact. Just whispering."

"This isn't good."

They waited in front of the panel, watching as the Remnants tortured Tseng and Elena. Aerith stood away from them, trembling. She'd seen a few minutes, and couldn't handle more than that. Vincent's arrival was late but welcomed. Zack remembered when it had been Elena's sister that served with Tseng and wondered where Reno and Rude were.

Cloud's plea for forgiveness calmed Aerith but left Zack and Sephiroth tense. Even with her help, it had taken Cloud, Avalanche, and the Planet itself to stop Sephiroth the last time. Now, there were three enemies, one just as strong as Sephiroth, the others only marginally weaker, and only Cloud to fight them.

Zack knew without looking when the little one, Kadaj, merged with Jenova and took on Sephiroth's form. He knew because Sephiroth crumpled to the grass in a boneless heap, crying brokenly, clawing at his chest. Zack wrestled his hands away from his skin and pinned him down.

"What are you doing?"

"I can feel it. I can feel him fighting, and I can feel her pulling the strings. It's just like Nibleheim, Zack, he's only a puppet now, and he's scared."

"Feel it?"

"It's still my body, no matter how she's perverted it for her own uses. I'm going to hurt him. Again."

They sat together in the grass, Zack cradling Sephiroth against his chest, watching the fight coming to its conclusion. Zack hid his face when the Sephiroth/Kadaj/Jenova thing pinned Cloud to the wall like a bug and Sephiroth had to

elbow him in the gut to get his attention for the last strike. And Cloud won, through some unfeasible outpouring of power.

"It's over," Zack breathed, watching Kadaj fade away. "Really, truly over."

"Not yet."

Before Zack could ask what Sephiroth meant, the sound of a gunshot echoed though the Life Stream. Somehow, the panel was giving them sound now, even though Aerith had said it couldn't. Somewhere, Aerith screamed. Both Zack and Sephiroth turned to see where she was, then looked back at the panel in time to see Cloud stagger to his feet, take a slow step, then charge the two Remnants standing behind him. They powered up every Materia they had on them. Cloud poured power into his sword. The roof of the building went up in an explosion of blue fire.

The panel vanished.

Sephiroth stood a little apart from Aerith and Zack, eyeing the three bodies lying in midair before him. Funny how they looked so much like him, but were so different at the same time, as if they each represented a part of him and the rest had been new, just for them. Like Kadaj. The little trouble maker was his ambition, his arrogance, and his bloodlust. There hadn't been much left for change, as far as personality went, but he was young enough to be rash and immature, something Sephiroth had never been allowed to be.

"Seph?"

"Hmmm?"

"What do you think should be done with them?"

"Why are you asking me?"

"They are a part of you," Aerith said gently. "Like brothers, or sons, whichever you prefer. It's only right that you have a say in their fate."

"They're already dead," he answered bitterly. "If I could have intervened when they were alive, I would have, but nothing can be done now."

"Not true. They can be reincarnated to learn their lesson, or changed into something like Materia, where their strength will be channeled into magic and their personality will fade, or they can be reintroduced into the Life Stream like all other people and allowed to spread and blend to become part of other things."

Sephiroth stared thoughtfully at the teenagers before him. Hesitantly, he reached out and touched the hair of Yazoo, the tall, slender one who had his intelligence and his modesty. It was softer than his, fine and well cared for. He stepped to the side, his hand trailing over open space to the bigger, bulkier Remnant, Loz. He had to be the physical strength and intimidating presence Sephiroth had been so good at using to his advantage.

They were different. He could see himself in them, but there were many aspects that he knew had never come from him. The physical differences were the most obvious, but watching them had taught him more than that. Yazoo was authoritative and clever- his quick mind brought Kadaj's plans to life, working out all the crucial details. Loz was at his back, strong enough to remove their obstacles with ease. He had a heart like Zack's, perpetually young and playful. If he'd been born to a normal family, he'd have made a perfect big brother. As it was, he did his best to protect his smaller, younger brothers and any small, defenseless creature he managed to hide from Kadaj long enough to call it a pet. And then there was Kadaj. He was still young, still with a whole lot of growing to do, but he could be brilliant.

"Is there any chance of keeping them here, as you've done with Zack and me?"

Aerith gave him a quizzical look.

"You want them?"

Sephiroth nodded, thinking about everything he'd seen before the Remnants had found Cloud, ShinRa, and Jenova:

…All three of them huddled in a back alley, coats flung open over a litter of kittens in the middle of a cloud burst…

…Loz chasing wild chocobo, waving a fistful of greens and shouting while Yazoo watched and laughed…

…Kadaj and Yazoo hanging over the deck rail on a small ship, miserably seasick, with Loz standing behind them, looking sympathetic…

…Kadaj stamping gleefully through every puddle he came to, getting thoroughly spattered with mud and not caring…

…The three of them sleeping in a heap of limbs on a single bed in a cheap motel…

…Yazoo browsing through a used book store, several dusty volumes balanced in one hand, surrounded by an aura of absolute contentment…

…Loz, covered in grease, dirt, and grime, welding scrap metal together into mess kits for himself and his brothers…

…A nearly empty box of doughnuts sitting in the grass, and three teenagers sprawled around it, licking the remains of icing and sugar from their fingers…

…A nearly unidentifiable huddle of black leather that turned out to be Yazoo holding Loz, who was crying, and Kadaj, sitting with his back to Yazoo's, not actively comforting but still there…

"Yes."

Aerith smiled at him, as if she'd known what he was going to say.

"Alright, then. You have to take care of them, though. Teach them everything no one taught them when they were alive. You understand?"

Sephiroth nodded.

"Take them, then. Zack and I have something to take care of first."

Through the panel, Sephiroth watched Cloud healing the children. Beside him, the Remnants began to stir. He patted the nearest leather-clad shoulder reassuringly, and waited. He was a little jealous of Zack, getting to go and appear to Cloud, but he let it go.

"Brother?" Loz was fully awake first, lifting himself up with one arm and looking around.

"I'm here."

Loz looked up at him, the color draining from his face.

"Sephiroth."

"Yes."

Loz scooted back from him, pressing into Yazoo's side. The contact woke Yazoo, he yawned and stretched.

"Loz?"

"He's here," Loz breathed.

"Who?"

"Him."

Yazoo jerked upright, meeting Sephiroth's eyes for an instant before flattening himself into the grass in a position somewhere between a bow and a sniper's bellying down.

"Where is Kadaj?" he asked.

"Behind you. He hasn't woken yet."

Yazoo kept his position, but Loz went to Kadaj, gathering him up like a child and setting him down beside Yazoo before kneling and refusing to meet Sephirth's eyes.

"Why won't you look at me?" Sephiroth asked softly.

"Mother said…" Loz murmured.

"Said what?"

"She said you were a god," Yazoo answered. His voice was slightly muffled by the grass.

"A god?" Sephiroth repeated. "She told you that?"

"She told us you'd punish us if we didn't do what she said, that you'd know we weren't being good sons. Not that she needed help."

"Don't talk about Mother that way,"Yazoo hissed. Loz flinched.

"Jenova was never your mother."

"What?" Loz and Yazoo said together.

"She was never your mother. My mother's name was Lucrecia Crescent. My father was Hojo. Jenova was simply a monster that Hojo introduced to my body andlet grow there. She couldn't have been a mother to anything."

"But she said-" Sephiroth shook his head, and Loz quieted.

"Shehas never told the truth. Ever. Her lies drove me insane, so she could take over my body and use it to kill. She did the same with Kadaj. If she could have, she would havwe done it to you."

Yazoo looked up, Loz following him.

"We heard her calling us," he said softly. "When Big Brother charged us."

"That was Aerith, the last Cetra. She exists here, in the Life Stream, and she called you back."

"Why?"

"It was your time to die. She was also the one who allowed me to keep you."

"Keep us?"

"In time, you'll be reincarnated. For now, you'll stay with me. There are things we need to talk about."

Beside Yazoo, Kadaj moaned and shifted.

"Why hasn't he woken up yet?" Loz asked, prodding Kadaj in the ribs.

"Possession is exhausting. Jenova never understood how fragile thehuman body can be. Kadaj will never be as big as me, or even as big as you, but she forced him into my shape. That takes a lot of energy."

"Do you want us to stay?"

"Of course. I asked for it."

"What do we call you?"

"Sephiroth is fine."

"Can we call you brother?"

"Yes."

Zack returned from his trip to see Cloud to find Sephiroth asleep in the grass, surrounded by all three of the Remnants. They were sprawled every which way, but they were all touching Sephiroth. The ex-General looked at peace. Zack grinned and flopped down in the nearest patch of empty grass. They'd do better the next time around.