Jenova Rebirth
A Final Fantasy VII Fic
by Krista Perry
Summary: A short time after the events of Advent Children, Jenova sets events in motion that will once again draw Cloud and all of his friends and former enemies into battle - not just for survival, but for body, mind and soul.
Chapter 3
It was after midnight at Gold Saucer when Cait Sith finally finished with the last of the repairs to the arcade games at Wonder Square. He crawled out from under the 3-D Battler platform, carefully so as not to destroy the work he had done to fix the game's shaken innards, then stood up on his hind legs and made a show of dusting himself off with his gloved paws.
"Well?" Lewis, the manager of Wonder Square, stood over him. The man was actually wringing his hands, Cait Sith noticed with no small amount of amusement. Then again, it had been a difficult night for Gold Saucer personnel since the quake had shaken up both delicate equipment and customers alike. "Is it fixed?"
"Aye," Cait Sith said, grinning. "Good as new. Better, even, if I do say so myself. Why don't you fire it up and give it a try?"
Lewis complied, using his manager's pass card to bypass the game's 200 gil fee. His face lit with a relieved smile as the game hummed and a holographic Lewis duplicate appeared on the platform, the programmed opponent appearing opposite his avatar. He turned to Cait Sith, delighted. "Thank you so much," he said. "Without your help tonight, we would have had to wait for a specialist to come over from Junon. You've saved us so much in recovery time alone."
"Eh, it's no trouble," Cait Sith said, looking at the game and suppressing a wince as Lewis' unresisting avatar proceeded to get pummeled by its computer-controlled nemesis. "Glad to help. If there's anything else I can do..."
But, thankfully, it seemed as though his usefulness as a conscripted repairman had come to an end. Cait Sith decided to beat a hasty retreat before the manager, or anyone else, for that matter, discovered something else in need of fixing after the quake. He didn't mind helping out, but now he was more than ready to do something a little more... fun.
Accessing the blueprints in his memory that Reeve had given to him on his very first mission, before he had ever even set foot in Gold Saucer, Cait Sith quickly found a small, narrow air vent, far from prying eyes, that would lead him exactly where he wanted to go... but when he got there, he discovered that the vent cover was bolted to the wall. Undeterred, Cait Sith removed the glove from his right front paw, extended one long, thin, diamond-sharp claw, and slipped it between the wall and the flat lip of the cover. The metal wasn't very sturdy, so he was able to slice through the bolts quickly and silently, and soon he was crawling through the small, dark passage to the central control room in the center of the main Gold Saucer pillar. The cover of his exit was bolted to the wall as well, but his little bolt-slicing trick worked just as well from inside the vent. Before he exited the vent, he removed his gloves, boots, cape and crown – a detriment, sadly, to sneaking around unnoticed.
Gold Saucer's central control room was large, and crammed with computers, monitors, and Gold Saucer employees, all absorbed in security and quake damage control. It was easy to slip into shadows and under desks unnoticed. He was always careful to wait until he knew he couldn't be seen even by someone's peripheral vision. Nothing tended to spook humans quite as much as seeing something move out of the corner of their eye, only to turn and see nothing there. And he intended this to be an "in-out-none-the-wiser" jaunt.
It wasn't long before he found the perfect spot to set up shop – a small crawl space under a desk that was up against a wall and right next to one of the main computers. Once there, and once he felt secure that no one had seen him, he touched his chest, felt under his fur for the pressure lock, and opened the small compartment in his chest cavity where he kept his hacking wires. He pulled out the thinnest, strongest cord. Dio, the manager-in-absentia of Gold Saucer, currently holidaying at Costa del Sol and no doubt parading around in his speedo, was proud of making sure his control center computers were always technically up to date. For this, Cait Sith was grateful. It always made things so much easier than trying to thump around inside ancient technology.
Plugging in was always a bit disorienting. One moment, Cait Sith was himself, a small black and white feline artificial life form living inside his own head, and the next, his consciousness was spread out across a virtual network. It only took a moment to adjust – he had essentially been born and raised in digital reality before Reeve finally made him a body, after all. Looking around at the Gold Saucer network, Cait Sith realized that, while Dio might have the best in computer technology, he needed better engineers. The security was laughable, at least compared to Shinra standards, and he slipped through firewalls and dodged tracer and anti-intruder programs with ease.
First things first. He absorbed all the damage and security reports, and was pleased to discover that most of the damage Gold Saucer had sustained would be easily fixed within hours. The chocobos, while initially distressed by the quake, had been calmed by their jockeys, and none of them had been injured. That was a relief. As for the other attractions, only the roller coaster was offline for an indeterminate amount of time. Disappointing to be sure, but also expected.
Also unsurprising – almost two-thirds of Gold Saucer's extended-stay patronage had checked out of the Ghost Hotel early, choosing to leave rather than wait for repairs. Of those that stayed...
If Cait Sith had been in his body at that moment, he would have gaped. Tifa Lockheart and two guests were listed on the hotel registry. Tifa is here, he thought, gleeful. He would definitely have to pay her a visit. The two unnamed guests were most likely Denzel and Marlene. Cait Sith felt practically giddy. He hadn't seen any of his friends in person since parting ways shortly after the whole Sephiroth Remnant mess in Edge months ago. But where is Cloud? he wondered. That boy had better not be off hiding from us again...
Well, hopefully Tifa would have an answer for that. In the meantime, he still had business to attend to.
The satellite network uplink was the most secure thing in the whole system, he discovered. No doubt Dio had made sure that guests would need to pay for their wireless net access instead of hitching a free ride. Cait Sith quickly forged himself a password, slipped through... and now all the networks on the Planet spread before him. All he had to do was pick one and dive in.
It was still a little strange, he mused, having more than one network to deal with. Before Meteor, Shinra had the monopoly on what had been simply the Network. Now, however, the biggest network belonged to the WRO, thanks to Reeve. Shinra had their own network up and running again, but it was a pale shadow of what it used to be. There were also dozens of little private citizen-owned networks springing up through the digital world, and growing like weeds.
Whenever he went out like this, he always saved WRO for last, simply because he knew he was welcome there. It was always more fun to go where you weren't wanted. So he hit the Shinra network first to see if anything new was going on.
He was met with the usual resistance, but he had plenty of practice pretending to be Shinra, so it was easy to make himself seem like he belonged, even if he didn't. That's right, he thought, weaving through the layers of encryption that at first hesitated, then welcomed him like an old friend. You know me, I'm one of you. Just another part of the program.
And now that he was in... wow, it was... boring. Same old same old, as it had been for the past two years. Rufus Shinra was still covertly sending money to various WRO organizations through various non-Shinra companies, big surprise.
This whole money thing between Rufus and Reeve is just downright ludicrous, Cait Sith thought. Rufus sends the WRO his money, pretending that it doesn't come from him, perhaps because he thinks it might be unwelcome, and Reeve accepts it and pretends he doesn't know that it comes from Shinra. And Rufus pretends that he doesn't know that Reeve knows and is pretending not to know. Et cetera, ad nauseam. And in the meantime, Rufus quietly rebuilds Shinra with the help of the Turks and old employees who came back or never left, while Reeve and the WRO keep a suspicious, uneasy eye on their progress, all while trying to stay at least one step ahead.
Cait Sith was disgusted over all the silly pointless games between the two men and their organizations... but not so disgusted that he missed the Shinra probe that suddenly emerged from a user portal and shot past him, leaving the Shinra network and heading for parts unknown.
Not unknown for long, Cait Sith decided, and he followed the Shinra probe, swift as thought, unsurprised when it headed straight for the WRO network.
Much of the WRO network was open, but there were also high security areas protected by Reeve's personal encryption. Cait Sith stayed back and watched as the probe grew tendril-like feelers that poked and prodded at every surface of the encryption, looking for weakness and not finding any. It only took a few moments of this before Cait Sith became bored, and intervened.
He stepped into the probe's path, pleased that the feelers actually shriveled where it made contact with him. That's right, he said, and with a flick of will, he shoved the probe right out of the WRO network. Go back and report that, why don't you.
So, what information was Shinra after? He turned towards Reeve's encryption, the gleaming barrier of black ice glinting as he approached. He reached out and touched it, and it yielded to him, flowing around him like liquid, allowing him entrance.
When he was in, he absorbed everything in moments. All of Reeve's communications, phone calls, emails, buried Shinra documents, voice mails to old friends, all since the quake...
All of this information instantly entered his mind and was thrown into sharp relief against his own knowledge and experience. Memories of visiting that cave, where the earthquake had originated, two years previous; of finding former Shinra scientist Lucrecia Crescent, unable to die because of the Jenova within her, encased in crystal; of her devastating effect on Vincent, not the least of which was awakening Chaos within him...
And then Cait Sith was out, leaving WRO, the satellite connection, flinging himself back into Gold Saucer's computers, and out...
Cait Sith blinked as he once again found himself occupying space in the physical world. He took a breath, because it seemed appropriate, and unplugged himself from the computer. As he put the wires back into his chest compartment, and his mind churned over everything he had just downloaded, one thought held sway.
I have to warn the others.
Tseng stood as Professor Malcome came into his office with a sizable stack of paperwork in his hands. "Is this everything?" he asked.
Malcome nodded. "Blasted inconvenient to have to write it all out by hand," he said irritably.
Tseng raised an eyebrow. "How far did your latest probe attempt make it into WRO's encryption?"
The professor had the decency to look abashed. "Couldn't even scratch it," he said. "It got sent back completely corrupted, and attached was an animated hand shaking its finger at me."
Tseng managed to suppress an amused snort. "This," he said, "is precisely why we are keeping our records on paper at the moment. Until you or one of your colleagues can manage to provide us with network encryption that is stronger than what the WRO is using, we can assume that ours can be easily compromised."
Malcome frowned. Apparently, Tseng surmised from the man's expression, the thought of trying to match and even outpace Reeve's programming was daunting to say the least. He was proved correct when the professor said, "If only Reeve hadn't defected to the other side, we wouldn't be in this mess."
"Reeve is not on 'the other side,' as you put it," Tseng said mildly. "Shinra and the WRO have the same goals, after all. We are both working to save the Planet. Our methods simply... differ slightly."
The professor barked a laugh. "'Slightly.' Right." He slapped the paperwork down on Tseng's desk. "Enjoy," he said, turning to leave. "I need to get back to work."
Tseng let the man go without further comment, and then pulled the paperwork toward him and began to go through it, page by page. Malcome wasn't wrong; it was damned inconvenient to do things this way, especially since most of the people in the Science and Research division had terrible handwriting.
After a half hour of headache-inducing reading, he stood and headed to the President's office.
Rufus Shinra's current accommodations were far more modest than they had been before Meteor, but that wasn't the only thing that had changed. While the President was still as ambitious as ever, he had chosen to channel his energies into less self-aggrandizing causes.
The President looked up as he entered, then leaned forward expectantly. "Yes?"
"I have a report from the S&R division, sir. In the past few hours – since the earthquake, as a matter of fact – the cell samples taken from Jenova's head have shown sudden, measurable growth."
The President's expression barely flickered. "I see," he said. "Is the containment holding?"
"For now," Tseng replied.
"And the WRO?"
"All their latest communications are encrypted, but some of their troops are beginning to mobilize."
Rufus Shinra sat, his face inscrutable. "Reno and Rude are still at the Icicle Inn, I presume?" he said at last.
"Yes, sir."
"I'm afraid they will have to cut their vacation short. It's time to gather the Turks."
"Yes, sir."
"And keep me immediately updated on any further developments."
Tseng bowed slightly. "Yes, sir."
Cid didn't usually mind silence when he took the Shera out flying, but that was when he didn't have any passengers. When Cid had flown to the Forgotten City and had brought Vincent aboard, the taciturn man had thanked him for coming on such short notice and asked him to reach their destination "with all due haste." And he hadn't spoken a word since.
The silence was damn oppressive.
But Cid knew better than to try and engage Vincent in conversation under the circumstances. When a man called you up out of the blue and asked you to take him to investigate the source of the earthquake at the very cave where Sephiroth's Jenova-filled mom had sealed herself in crystal – and when you knew damn well that the guy had feelings for the crazy chick – you didn't start prying even when curiosity was gnawing at you like a starving dog.
The crater was just like he remembered – a ring of precariously steep mountains sloping down into a lake so deep that it connected to the ocean a few hundred miles away through an underwater corridor. And on the northern bank of the lake, the cave gaped, like a black, lipless mouth.
He brought the Shera in as close to the bank as he could, then glanced sidelong at where Vincent stood, looking down at the cave through the clear thermoplastic windows of the observation deck. "This is it," he said, chewing at the end of his unlit cigarette, and he jerked his thumb back to the jump door at the back of the craft. "Use the rappelling rope. No jumping out freestyle, not here," he said, leaving it at that and trusting that Vincent had the sense not to argue. The guy might have the ability to jump back into a moving aircraft without aid, but he was going alone into an unknown and potentially dangerous situation. Better safe than sorry, and all that shit.
Vincent nodded once, turned, and walked to the back of the aircraft. Cid felt the blast of air hit his back as the jump door opened, but he held the Shera steady, and watched as Vincent rappelled to the ground below, his red cape and black hair whipping about in the downdraft of the Shera's propellers. Vincent approached the mouth of the cave and stopped just before the entrance, bending on one knee and reaching to touch the ground. Cid frowned. Whatever Vincent was examining, Cid couldn't see it.
Finally, Vincent straightened and entered the cave without hesitation, and Cid felt a little knot of apprehension in the pit of his stomach as his friend disappeared into the darkness. Nothing good had ever happened to that poor bastard when he had gone into that cave, and somehow Cid had the feeling this time would not be the exception.
It seemed like forever before Vincent finally emerged again, apparently none the worse for wear, and Cid let out a breath of relief. He lit a match with a flick of his thumbnail, lit his cigarette, pinched the match out with his fingers, and took a nice, long pull as Vincent made his way back. It wasn't long before he heard the jump door close and felt the pressure of the wind off his back.
Vincent walked up and stood next to him, his pale face unreadable.
"Well?" Cid asked. "What's the verdict?"
"She's gone," Vincent replied.
"Gone?" Cid frowned and looked down at the cave. "What, she just up and left?"
Vincent held out his right hand. A crystal shard lay in his palm. "The crystal is shattered, completely destroyed," he said.
"The earthquake." Cid clenched his teeth on his cig. "Damn. Well, I didn't want to think it, but now we have to, whether we want to or not," he said, deliberately including Vincent in his "we." "The big question now is, when she left that cave, was she still Lucrecia?"
Vincent looked at him sharply, amber eyes blazing, but Cid just glared right back. "Don't tell me it hasn't occurred to you," he said. "Otherwise, what's the big damn hurry to get here?"
Vincent lowered his gaze, then turned and looked down at the cave below. "It... has occurred to me," he conceded. "I have often wondered if she sealed herself in that cave to escape the world... or to protect it."
Cid nodded. "Right." He was glad that Vincent wasn't in denial about the situation, at least. That certainly made things less problematic. "The next big question – where the hell did she go?"
"Wherever she went," Vincent said, "she is not alone."
Cid looked at him, startled. "What?"
"There are footprints approaching the cave. The print and size indicate a man wearing flat soled work shoes. Lucrecia's footprints emerge from the cave, and it seems the two of them walked a short way before disappearing. I presume there was some sort of aircraft waiting, since the prints did not approach the lake."
"Well, shit," Cid said. He took a deep drag from his cig and blew the smoke out his nose. "That complicates things a bit. Someone knew this was going to happen and, what, came to pick her up?"
"It seems so," Vincent agreed, his voice flat and cold.
"Who?"
"I do not know."
"Huh." This was bad, Cid thought, no question about that. "Well," he said, "that brings us back to the question of where the hell she went."
Vincent was silent for a long moment, looking down at the cave. "If she is still Lucrecia," he said finally, "and... perhaps even if she is not... then I can think of only one place she would go." He looked back at Cid. "Nibelheim."
"Damn it all." Cid gripped the airship's helm and guided her back into the open sky, pointing her in a northwesterly direction. "Figured you might say that. That town is as creepy as hell, but it's as good a place to start looking as any." He mashed the stub of his cigarette into the nearby ashtray, and flipped a new one into the corner of his mouth. "You'd better let Reeve know what we found," he said.
Vincent nodded, reached underneath his cloak to retrieve his phone, flipped it open, and made the call.
Nibelheim, Cid thought. Bloody hell.
Reeve was in the second floor bedroom of the Shinra Mansion throwing the last of his clean clothes into a suitcase, and wondering how on earth he was going to coax Klunk into the cat carrier for the helicopter ride to Costa del Sol. The poor feline had made himself scarce the moment he had pulled the carrier out of storage. Reeve was about to try to lure Klunk out with a dried fish treat he had been saving for the occasion, when two things happened almost simultaneously: First, his PHS rang, and second, the perimeter alarm he had set around the outskirts of the mansion grounds went off in the foyer downstairs.
He cursed under his breath as he reached for his phone. He hoped the alarm had been set off by a rabbit or something equally innocuous, and not one of the Kyuvilduns that liked to wander down from Mt. Nibel. He had a mastered Fire materia on hand for such incidents, but the giant mosquito-like monsters were still a thorough pain in the ass.
All such thoughts were banished as he saw who was calling. He answered before the phone could ring a second time. "Vincent," he said, "what news?"
He sat down heavily on the bed as he listened to Vincent's report.
So, it was just as he feared.
And then Vincent said something that made his heart stutter in his chest. "Wait," Reeve said. "You think she may be coming here?" He thought of the proximity alarm that was still going off downstairs.
Vincent was silent for a moment on the other end of the line. "Where are you, exactly?" he asked.
"The Shinra Mansion," Reeve said, standing and edging toward the bedroom window. "I've been here for a few months working on a solar battery prototype."
"Do you have WRO personnel with you?"
"I'm alone," he said grimly, reaching for the edge of the curtain, "with my cat."
"Reeve." The dismay he heard in Vincent's voice surprised him. "You need to get out of there immediately."
Reeve pulled back the curtain a crack and peered out at the Shinra Mansion grounds. The window was caked in grime, but he could still see the four people walking past the mansion's wrought iron gate and up the path that led into the mountains. In the lead, a woman, unmistakably Lucrecia Crescent. Even if he hadn't seen her in the cave through Cait Sith's eyes, he recognized her from her old Shinra personnel files. She was followed by a man in a white lab coat, and two young men carrying firearms.
"It's too late," Reeve said, "she's here." And as he spoke, Lucrecia stopped in her tracks, looked over at the mansion and, turning to the man in the lab coat, pointed at his window. Startled, Reeve dropped the curtain and stepped back, but not before the man in the lab coat looked directly at him.
Reeve felt numb with shock. It had been over two years, but he would know that face anywhere.
Immediately, Reeve felt his old Shinra instincts kick in, pushing through the numbness, forcing him into action. He stepped boldly to the window and pulled back the curtain. The jig was up, so he might as well get a good look at exactly what he was dealing with.
Lucrecia was continuing up the mountain path without a backward glance, but Hojo and the two armed young men were coming through the iron gate to the mansion. Hojo looked up and grinned as Reeve locked gazes with him, before Reeve turned away and quickly went to open the passage in the stone wall of the bedroom. If Hojo and his men were going to try to come in right through the front door, the traps he had laid to discourage both human and monster interlopers might buy him some time.
It was only when he went to climb down the ladder to the basement labs that he realized his phone was still in his hand, and that Vincent was calling his name, trying to get a response from him.
"Sorry," Reeve said into his phone, "I'll call you right back." He snapped his phone shut and practically slid down the ladder. As he did, he heard the front doors of the mansion open, and the expulsion hiss of his materia-supported sleep gas, followed by the satisfying thump of bodies hitting the floor.
Reeve paused long enough to hear a lone set of footsteps continue across the floor. Damn. Well, he figured it was too much to hope for, that Hojo would be affected by the gas. Jenova wasn't likely to resurrect someone with such an obvious weakness. He rushed down the long stone corridor, past the old coffin room where he had stashed all of Hojo's equipment, grateful that he had possessed foresight enough to replace the door with something a bit more impenetrable than the old, rotting wood. If Hojo wanted his stuff back, he would be hard pressed to break Reeve's security codes.
Once in the lab, Reeve sealed the door behind him, then went to the monitors for the security cameras he had set up to keep track of the mansion upstairs on the off chance that a wandering monster managed to slip past his security. He didn't want to be taken by surprise after a long day's work, dragging himself to bed only to discover too late that a Ghirofelgo had taken up residence in his room. Well, Hojo was far worse than any pendulum-riding mako monster, and now Reeve could keep track of exactly where he was.
The security cameras showed the foyer where the two men were laid out, unconscious, and found Hojo slowly climbing the stairs, hunched over, his hands clasped behind his back.
Feeling a bit more secure in the sealed lab, Reeve kept his eyes on the monitors, pulled out his PHS and called Vincent.
"Reeve," Vincent said, his voice so devoid of emotion that it somehow perfectly communicated just how upset he was.
"Sorry about that," Reeve said, "but I have company, and I had to get to a secure location. Hojo is here."
Silence. Then, hoarsely, Vincent said, "Hojo is dead."
"Not any more."
"Cloud and I killed him."
"I know. I saw. But apparently it didn't take, because I'm looking at him right now. He just went into the room with the secret passage to the basement labs, where I am currently holed up."
Okay, so he was being flippant, but if he gave himself any time to really think about it, he would be too scared to function, and that would be bad.
"Where is Lucrecia?" Vincent asked.
"The last I saw, she was headed up the mountain path that leads to the reactor."
There was silence for a moment, and then Vincent said, "Cid says we'll be there in about 20 minutes. Try not to die in the meantime."
Reeve was going to say that he would do his best, but the line had already gone dead.
And Hojo... what was he doing? Not coming down the ladder to the basement, Reeve was surprised to see, but rather, just... looking around. Hojo left the bedroom and walked down the hall, going into the study. He stood there for a moment, tilting his head, almost as if listening. Then he turned, left the room, and headed for the other wing of the mansion with that same, plodding, patient walk.
Reeve felt a chill shiver across his flesh. Somehow, this was worse than just watching Hojo head straight for him. What was he doing? Was it possible that Hojo didn't realize he was in the basement lab?
Hojo went into the atrium and again stood silently before turning and going into the second bedroom. This time, instead of turning and leaving, Hojo went to the bed by the window, knelt down next to it, and suddenly Reeve understood.
"No," he said, more of a pained groan than a word, as he watched Hojo reach under the bed and pull out his cat by the scruff of his neck. Klunk was obviously terrified, hanging stiff in Hojo's grasp, the fur on his back and tail sticking straight out, his wide eyes almost completely black with fear.
Hojo turned and looked directly into the security camera, holding Klunk by the scruff with one hand and wrapping his other hand around the cat's neck. "Reeve," he said, and his smile was oily. "Old friend. Why don't you come out so we can do some catching up, eh? It's been so long."
Reeve felt cold and sick.
I am not really going to put my own life in jeopardy for the sake of an animal, am I? he thought. Even for an animal that has been my companion for over ten years. That would be crazy. Utterly insane.
But apparently he was crazy - genuine Third-Tier Shinra crazy, he thought - because he was already out the lab door and halfway down the stone corridor.
By the time he had climbed the ladder, Hojo was standing in the bedroom doorway, waiting for him, still smiling.
"Well, I'm here," Reeve said, with far more bravado than he actually felt. "Let the cat go and we'll talk."
Hojo laughed and dropped Klunk, who scrambled away as fast as he could. "Oh, Reeve, you never change. So sentiment–"
Reeve threw a third level Fire spell at him.
Hojo staggered back with a cry, and Reeve could smell flesh and hair burning. Threaten my cat, will you? Take that, you son of a bitch.
But there was no time to waste on gloating. Before the flames that engulfed Hojo completely faded, Reeve rushed forward, planted his boot in Hojo's stomach, and pushed. Hojo went sprawling into the hallway. With a speed fueled by desperation, Reeve sprinted past Hojo, heading for the stairs.
Hojo's hand flashed out and grabbed his ankle in a grip so strong that Reeve could have sworn he felt the bones grinding together. He hit the wooden floor of the landing hard and felt the air press out of his lungs with the impact. He lay, gasping, unable to move even when Hojo released his ankle. This, he thought with grim amusement, is why I usually send Cait Sith to fight my battles. He was struggling to get to his hands and knees when he felt Hojo's foot in the small of his back. Hojo stepped down, and Reeve was pinned, his lower spine screaming from the unbelievable pressure.
Hojo heaved a dramatic sigh."Is this what we're reduced to? Here we are, former comrades, both of us scientists, brawling like street thugs." Hojo knelt, his foot still firmly planted in Reeve's back. "She wanted me to kill you, you know," he said softly. "But I couldn't bear it. One of the finest intellects of our generation, extinguished simply because you are an interfering busybody? No. I convinced her, there are so many more practical uses for that fine mind of yours. So she said I could have you. Oh, we're going to have such fun, you and I."
"I'd rather..." Reeve managed, still working to suck air back into his lungs. "...that you killed me."
Hojo threw back his head and laughed, loud and long. "Oh, Reeve," he said, wiping tears from the corners of his eyes. "That's what they all say."
This body, while not yet fully hers, was now far more hers than it was the woman's whose mind she had inexorably pulled down into the abyss. The body was hers, and soon, she would shed the last of the human taint and be whole once again.
The way to Mount Nibel was familiar to her. She had seen it through the eyes of her first true son of this world, just over seven years ago, as she had beckoned him to her. When Sephiroth had traversed this path that final time, eagerly following the call of her summons, the teeming masses of mako-mutated monsters had stayed well away, sensing the power within him. Her power.
The monsters stayed away now, as she crossed the swaying suspension bridge and made her way through the natural caverns of raw mako.
When Sephiroth had finally reached her and he ripped away the containment that held her prisoner for far too long, she had Sephiroth take her head. During her captivity in the reactor, her body had been stripped of cells and processed with Mako to help Hojo further her work, and she had planned for this moment. She would have had Sephiroth remove the cursed headgear that dampened her power… but then Cloud interfered. Something he would do far too often in the future.
The reactor was dark as she approached; shut down, but not dismantled. She knew that Reeve had kept this last Mako reactor functional for the sake of his alternate energy source research. As she grew close, lights flickered on, generators groaned and hummed to life.
Once her prison, this was now her place, where her power would be restored; supplemented and increased by the processed lifeblood of the planet.
She walked past steel pipes and tubes; crossed the catwalk where seven years ago, sixteen-year-old Cloud, skewered straight through with Masamune, still managed to find the strength to get to his feet, lift Sephiroth by the very sword that had him pinned, and fling both her son and her severed head into the Mako below. Suitable then that, out of all the surviving inhabitants of Nibelheim that Hojo had used in his experiments, only Cloud turned out to be worthy enough to endure her symbiotic presence.
At the time, however, she had ignored him, for Sephiroth had been hers, and she needed no other. He was strong; strong enough to take possession of her headless body and reshape it in his form, then lead Cloud on a chase across the planet. She let Sephiroth play with the boy for a while, since it seemed to amuse him, and it lent him the treasured illusion of control; but in the end, her indulgence cost Sephiroth his life. Cloud was not as easily controlled. He destroyed Sephiroth's borrowed flesh, piece by piece. He broke free from her illusions and finished Sephiroth in the depths of the Lifestream.
But soon, even that miscalculation would at last be rectified.
She entered the adjacent room, still painted blood red, still full of Hojo's containment pods, where he conducted mako experiments on human subjects. And up the stairs through the pods, her scarlet door. It swung open as she approached, and closed behind her as she walked through.
She stepped over the shattered glass and twisted metal of her former prison, shedding her clothes as she went, until she stood naked in the center of the broken cylinder.
Deep within the reactor, engines rumbled. The hiss and gurgle of viscous liquid moving through long-empty tubes announced the arrival of the Mako, and it began burbling up through the holes in the cylinder floor, lapping around her bare feet. Without the cylinder to contain it, the glowing green fluid spilled out across the floor. She waited, standing still, feeling the burn of it against her skin as it quickly filled the room, rising up to her knees, her thighs, her waist... She withstood the temptation to sit and submerge herself. She had waited two thousand years for this; she could wait a few minutes more and do it without lowering herself to such a human impulse.
When the Mako rose over her head, she opened her mouth and breathed it in, filling her lungs, welcoming the burning within as well as without. As the Mako filled the sealed room, and the holes in the cylinder floor closed, she raised her arms above her head, and began the process. The Mako was power, and she knew how to use it.
Her body flared with blinding blue light, and she rose from the floor. The Mako that surrounded her vanished in a flash as she pulled it into her, made it part of her. And with that power, she purged the last bit of humanity from the flesh.
Light still blazing from her skin, she hung suspended in mid-air, back arched, and voiced a cry, high and in her own old language - words she hadn't spoken since before she came to this world. Straightening and crossing her arms over her chest, she then bowed forward. The muscle and skin of her back seemed to ripple and bulge before great silvered wings burst from her back, the feathers damp with blood and membrane. The wings flexed, stretched... and slowly, she settled to the floor. The light faded from her skin, revealing blue-toned flesh. Long silver hair fell to her waist. Her eyes blazed like two stars set in a face that was beautiful, yet bore little resemblance to the human woman whose body this once was.
And, for the first time in two millennia... Jenova smiled.