What We Used to Be
Chapter 4
A/N: Thank you everyone who reviewed, yes, this is my weekly update, but the REAL A/N is at the end of the story this time.
Disclaimer: I has never owned FF7, although, I am currently working on that issue. *Begins to look through records*
Warnings: Sephiroth is going to be extremely weird this chapter, all shall be explained in good time.
KAM shall be in the second one. Not this one.
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Sephiroth, Genesis and Angeal were following the 40ish year old Turk into the helicopter. Angeal had to straighten out the Buster in order to get the extremely wide blade through the tiny entrance. Genesis merely yawned as he stepped inside. What was curious, however, was Sephiroth's reaction to the vehicle he was supposed to enter. He stared wide-eyed, obviously afraid of the idea of having to go inside it. Long silver hair was swept from side to side in a futile attempt to search for an alternate entrance for the copter. Seeing as there was none, he gripped Masamune's hilt tightly and swallowed his fear. He closed his eyes and ran into the helicopter, literally not stopping until he hit something.
That something was Genesis' chest.
Sephiroth yelped at the sudden stop, and grasped on with his right hand onto Genesis' uniform, His left still tightly grasping Masamune. You see, he never really recovered from being locked inside a 3 foot by 3 foot closet for 4 days at such a young age.
"Sephiroth, what's wrong?" Angeal's voice came first.
"Why the hell is your chest in my face?"
Angeal gave Genesis a glare. Looking back towards the terrified teen, he asked gently, "Could you let go, Sephiroth?" The fourteen year old was almost ripping the durable fabric of the uniform in his right hand, almost breaking sheath with the other.
Sephiroth either wouldn't or couldn't let his friend go, so Angeal had to pull him off, using a lot more energy than he had thought necessary, at that. No sooner than Angeal ripping Sephiroth's grip off Genesis, his right hand quickly joined the other on Masamune. "I'm-m…. c-cla-stro-o-ph-pho-bic-c….." He managed to stutter one of his weaknesses.
"Come on Sephiroth, SOLDIER's aren't afraid of tight or enclosed spaces!" Genesis scoffed at the teen's insecurity and anxiety.
But then, something completely unexpected happened. Sephiroth straightened up, and stopped his shaking. He calmly placed Masamune at his side and shut himself off entirely. Finally, Sephiroth closed his eyes and feigned sleep after getting himself settled down.
Angeal and Genesis then exchanged incredulous looks before whispering rapidly.
"What the hell just happened?"
"I don't know!"
"People just don't get over phobias!"
"Then maybe it's not a phobia."
"You do know…." Sephiroth lazily opened one eye. "That I can hear you perfectly fine?" Neither Genesis nor Angeal said a word towards him. Of course. He sighed a long, dejected sigh before saying, "I know when I'm not wanted…" He stood up and pulled his shirt down, because his earlier stunt had caused it to become wrinkled. He left Masamune because it would not fit in the cock pit, where he would sit so Angeal and Genesis could speak without him there as a distraction. Walking away, he almost let out a third sigh because these people who claimed to want to know him better, didn't make a single move to stop him. He shouldn't have let himself get his hopes up.
Foolish of us to believe otherwise…
But….
No buts, little one.
The only ones we can trust are ourselves. That is why we have each other.
Sephiroth sat down next to Veld, giving a glare towards the Turk so as that he would not interrupt Sephiroth's inner musings. Thankfully, Veld complied with Sephiroth's wish and he was actually able to drift off to sleep.
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Now that Genesis and Angeal were alone, they could speak freely.
Angeal leaned over and smacked his friend with the back of his hand.
"Why didn't you stop him, Genesis?"
"You could have stopped him as well, Angeal- No need to blame it all on me." Genesis deadpanned.
Angeal sighed. Genesis was right, after all.
An uncomfortable silence settled over the two. Genesis once again decided to break it with obvious statements.
"That was extremely disconcerting."
Angeal's bullshit face made its second appearance in the span of 12 hours.
"Well, it was!"
Angeal sighed and leaned back, in obvious thought of the whole situation with the only other third class SOLDIER in the world. So Genesis allowed the silence to incase the two of them once more, and he himself began to ponder Sephiroth's sudden change of demeanor.
That's when it hit him.
Genesis quickly sat up once again and began to speak excitedly about his discovery.
"Geal, didn't we learn in health class, that sometimes, due to psychological trauma that occurred as a child, people might end up with one or more mental disorders?"
"Yes…." Although Genesis was correct, they had touched on it once when they were being schooled by Professor Hollander, but he did not know much about it. They had really only focused on PTS syndrome, because they were going to be SOLDIER's one day.
"Well…. I think Hojo would be trauma enough for one person. Could Sephiroth have some kind of mental disorder?"
Angeal opened his mouth to protest, but he shut up and stared at his best friend. Then he actually began to think about it.
"You know, Genesis? That is actually one of the smartest things I have ever heard you say. That actually makes a lot of sense. We'll look into this matter more when we get back."
"Or, ya know, we could, I don't know…. ASK HIM?" Genesis folded his arms.
"Go ahead, my honor won't let me."
Surprisingly, Genesis backed down. "Fine…. We'll wait until we have more proof of criminal insanity before we give the guy more of an inferiority complex than the one he is dealing with as of now."
Angeal almost rolled his eyes before he fully realized what Genesis said and froze in place. "Damn. I didn't notice that. How the heck did you notice it?" Angeal was often surprised by how well Genesis could read people.
Genesis rolled his eyes. "I was raised by a duo of rich snobs whose only talent was really figuring out how to manipulate people. They gave me a first class education in this delicate art. Thus, I have a knack at discovering the weaknesses of other people. However, I never fully learned how to not use their weakness against them. Empathy? I have never heard of such a thing!" Genesis said with mock surprise.
Veld's voice called back to the duo. "We will be landing soon, boys, prepare yourselves. I have to land on the mountain slope."
They called back to acknowledge that they had heard him.
"This shall be discussed later." Angeal glared at his friend for being unable to comment on his sarcasm.
Genesis smiled angelically at his good friend.
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Sephiroth woke from a somewhat pleasant nap to find that he was still in that gods-forsaken helicopter that had tormented one of the others so. He narrowed his eyes at Veld, simply because he had been awakened.
"We are here." Veld told him.
To this new information, he got up and went to collect Masamune, the sword he treated like his very child. All the while mentally rolling his eyes at the Turk who had woken him up from his nap.
Walking back out of the cockpit, he noticed that Angeal and Genesis were joking around.
Those inferior fools! He burned them through with stares of hatred at their easy friendship.
Genesis seemed to notice him. "Hey Seph!"
Seph?
Seph?
SEPH! They dared to basterdize his name in such horrendous, insolent ways! Those foolish, insignificant, and above all, stupid MORTALS!
His anger roused one of the other two personalities. It appeared to be the more paranoid of the two.
The personality that he was coming to call 'paranoia incarnate' sighed and tried to diffuse the situation before he would have to step in the social spotlight. This one hated any social contact whatsoever.
Cool it, o great Sadistic One, Little One likes them, and wishes for us to become 'friends' one day. On top of that, they will notice our several 'issues' should you bite their heads off, and I am pretty certain they have already noticed something was up with us.
Meh. You're just paranoid.
He received a mental glare from the other personality. Sadistic little shit….
Guys! He received a call from the Little One. They are staring at us….
Right. Go ahead little guy.Paranoid one pushed the little one to the front of the mind because obviously he and Paranoia incarnate had a couple of things to discuss.
Little Sephiroth opened his eyes to find Genesis all in his face. "Hello~ Earth to Sephiroth."
"Genesis." He acknowledged the red-head before grabbing Masamune and exiting the helicopter, trying to keep his face calm as he rejoiced his freedom from his claustrophobia. That was before he slipped right on something that was a white-ish clear in color, and of course, he fell straight on his butt into a patch of cold, white fluff.
Genesis laughed at Sephiroth falling into the snow, and attempted to jump over the fallen teen.
Sephiroth however had different ideas. He grabbed Genesis' foot and the momentum that the SOLDIER had gained caused Sephiroth to get pulled out of the hole in the snow, and thus the domino effect began. His momentum aided Genesis'… and things just got worse from there.
They created a giant snow ball whilst tumbling down the mountain slope.
Over Genesis' and his own muffled screams, he heard Genesis scream at him. "IF WE DIE- I AM COMING FOR YOU IN THE LIFESTREAM, MORON!"
Of course, the snowball was broken apart by an incoming tree.
Dazed, Sephiroth lay as if he was going to make a snow angel. He just lay there until he heard Angeal chuckle at the scene that had unfolded in front of him.
He looked up to see Angeal's hand reaching out to help him up.
"Nice going, Snowball."
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A/N: So obviously- Sephiroth has Dissociative Identity Disorder, more commonly known as Multiple Personality Syndrome, but Genny and Geal don't know that just yet.
KAM: So, Ven and I are seriously sorry that we hasn't updated before now, but chapter 5 is written and is already in the makings of typing. It should be up by Tuesday-ish. We got caught up in a new novel idea, so we had taken some time off. We are calling it Marionette; it is graphic and dark fiction about the future.
Ven: Reviews are always welcome, and flames about Seph shall be used to toast s'mores.
BTW: Sequel is in the making, ending for this is planned out, it made KAM and I cry a whole bunch, cuz it ends with Sephiroth's point of view of the Nibelheim issue. Sequel is going to be called 'Here and Now'
Summary of this next fiction: Angeal put his hand on Zack's shoulder. "Even though that is what we used to be, this is the here and now. We have push aside everything, because this is the end of our story."