Yes, I know, this took way too long. Sorry, been busy with school and haven't had as much time to wait for the muses to do their magic.
Thank you all for your continued interest and support. With your encouragement, I will finish this story, no matter how long it takes.
Don't own these people, except the ones I made up. No infringement intended, only loving thoughts directed toward Japan.
Allie, if you're still interested in obtaining an autograph slip for my book, email me at amarissia81 , I'll fill you in about it. :)
"The leaves of memory seemed to make
A mournful rustling in the dark."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
THE MEASURE OF MAN
Chapter 4 - Machinations
No one seemed to be stirring yet when Cloud awoke before sunrise, dressed silently and slung First Tsurugi onto his back. Tifa would rise soon, she always got up early to get the bar downstairs ready for customers, but there was no sign of her yet, only the soft sound of steady breathing as Cloud passed her door. He sensed someone as he moved toward the back door, and continued warily. But the sight that greeted him was not a cause for concern, just a surprise.
"Marlene? What are you doing up so early?"
"I couldn't sleep." She said it matter-of-factly, while pushing her empty cereal bowl away and sliding off her chair. "What about you? You're not leaving again, are you?"
"I just have some things to do."
"Usually, when you say that, you don't come back for a long time, or after you fight someone. Are you going to fight?"
"Not this time."
She didn't look relieved. Actually, in her nearly-outgrown nightgown and childishly serious expression, she looked like a small version of Tifa, daring Cloud to try to pull one over on her. Marlene, though shielded as much as possible from the horrors they had faced, had lived most of her life with danger close by. She didn't cry or show fear, even when Denzel did, and obeyed her surrogate mother and uncles almost without question. All she seemed to want in return was to keep her unconventional family together, and Cloud felt sad that he couldn't guarantee even that for her.
"Are you sneaking out because you don't want Tifa to know?"
"No, of course not." It was partly true; after their conversation, Tifa would be expecting him to leave.
"I can tell her where you're going, if you tell me."
"That's okay, Marlene."
"Tell me anyway," she said with a pout. "If you don't have to fight someone, why won't you stay?"
Cloud sank into one of the empty chairs at the table; only then did Marlene sit back down. Her feet could almost touch the floor, Cloud noted absently. She and Denzel were always busy growing up, whether he was around or not.
"It's not as simple as just fighting."
"You said that before, when you and Denzel were sick."
Marlene was referring to the Geostigma, gone for over a year now but not forgotten. At the time, Cloud had stoically been more focused on Denzel's suffering than his own, but it had been terrible. Burning pain, flashes of unfamiliar scenes, the poisonous lull of a dark female voice. Things Cloud hadn't understood until he read Zack's memoir, Zack's gift of restored memory.
"That time...it was about fighting, about the need to fight," Cloud said, hesitating a little. "I told you it wasn't because...I didn't want to admit I was afraid."
"Of what? Did you think you wouldn't be able to protect us?"
Her answer was close enough to the truth to surprise him. "I was afraid I would make a mistake, and lose someone else."
She looked at him solemnly, expecting more. Cloud wondered how he'd let himself get drawn into venting his worries on a child, but knew Marlene wouldn't let him go until he explained. She was very like Tifa and Barret, as though they were natural rather than adoptive parents.
"Marlene, sometimes things happen, awful things, that can't be taken back or changed. I don't want to see any more awful things. I don't want to be the cause of them."
"Aerith said it's not your fault she died. She told me that at the church, when you cured Denzel with her magic water. Anyway, she's part of the planet now, and she's happy. She and the nice man were smiling when they left."
"You-You saw him?"
"Uh-huh. You did too, right?"
"He did look happy, didn't he?"
"Because you were smiling," Marlene said. "You don't smile enough."
"I'm sorry." He tried a smile, for her, but it came out weak. "It's just hard for me to forgive myself. I've made so many mistakes."
"Is that why you fight to protect the planet?"
"I do that because my friends are part of this planet, both the living and the dead."
"But you're not gonna fight this time?"
"This time..." Cloud wasn't sure what to say, how much truth would suffice to relieve both of them. "Marlene, you know how I can't remember a lot of my past?"
"Uh-huh."
"I've started to remember recently. And one of the things I realized is that what I've been fighting actually needs my help."
"Is it the man who makes fire? The one with the long sword?"
"Tifa told me you dreamed about him. Yes, that's him. Sephiroth."
Surprising him, Marlene smiled. "I knew it! I told Aren the man didn't mean to be bad, but he wouldn't believe me."
"What? How did you know?"
"Because he looks angry, but really he's sad. So how come he did bad things, if he's not bad?"
"A very bad thing is controlling him. If I have to fight anything, I want it to be that. If I can at least free Sephiroth from it, he'll stop trying to hurt the planet."
Marlene brightened, and swung her feet energetically beneath the table. "So he's under a spell, like the princess who went to sleep for a hundred years 'cause a witch cursed her? And you can wake him up?"
Cloud felt a moment of almost giddy lightness at the thought of Sephiroth as a storybook princess. "I'm going to try."
"Can't Tifa and Daddy help? They like to help you fight."
"Not this time. This is something I have to do on my own...do you understand?"
"Because you're the only one who can break the spell? Like the prince?"
"Yeah. Something like that." Cloud got up and adjusted his sword, careful of its size and awkwardness in the relative smallness of the room. "I have to get going, Marlene."
She bolted up, ran and hugged him suddenly. Marlene had only done this a few times, her child's intuition having told her Cloud didn't particularly like being touched. He felt calmed by the gesture now, though, and smoothed her hair and held her little shoulder until she backed away and put on a brave face. He briskly strode to the back door, opened it to let the sunrise in, and paused when Marlene spoke up.
"Cloud? I know you're not a prince, but I think you're a great hero."
Cloud was half a block from the bar before he felt the wetness in his eyes, and lifted his face into the morning wind to dry them.
scscscsc
"Commencing dive."
Dr. Kanawa had grown used to Shelke's emotionless voice. At the beginning of their collaboration, he found it somewhat eerie, and the girl-woman hard to read. He had access to the DeepGround files and so was familiar with her story, and since she had come to New ShinRa of her own free will and proved so helpful, Kanawa had overcome his initial unease. Shelke was an adult woman, though imprisoned in a child's body, and without her, this aspect of his work would be impossible.
This particular room was large, the main work-room of the restricted laboratories, as the doctor liked to have at least samples of all his experiments in one area. Also, although these labs were themselves known only to a handful of people, among those, it was a New ShinRa policy that there be openness. No more secret projects, no more turning a blind eye to the head scientist's doings. Rufus did not have the kind of twisted ambitions his father had, the desire to make better warriors no matter what the human cost. Sephiroth had been born out of such dark dreams, and no one could deny the steep price the planet had paid.
And DeepGround...DeepGround started out as a medical facility for wounded SOLDIERs, Kanawa thought, casting a somber glance at Shelke. Not much documentation had survived, but enough to know that the innocent wounded had been handed over to Hojo by the dozens for his lesser-known areas of study. Few enough to pass unnoticed, covered by lies of death in action or desertion, but their numbers were supplemented by countless civilians...obtained from where, no one seemed to know. (Tseng had answered Kanawa's predictable question with a hard grimace and a murmur that he didn't know what might have been done during his predecessor Veld's term.) Men, women...and children. Shelke alone represented what might have been hundreds.
Not alone. Not technically.
The three large, cylindrical mako tubes that stood in the center of the left wall were impossible for anyone to miss. The three figures immersed in mako solution were inert, not even blinking their open eyes or bobbing languidly within the fluid, but they were alert-looking, so perfectly human, that they seemed like any minute they'd climb out of their tanks, coughing up green sputum and rakishly tossing wet auburn hair. Kanawa and his employees worked each day under the watchful eyes of three Genesis Rhapsodos clones. Kanawa had come to regard them as an outer manifestation of his conscience, a reminder of the oath he had taken as a doctor.
Whenever possible, do no harm.
And so, he had tried. He had inherited many other specimens besides these, many more monster than human, and all clearly suffering in their unnatural existence. These had been mercifully euthanised, and all that remained were subjects that seemed to be unaware of all that happened to and around them. Whether or not one could even call them alive was debatable, but nonetheless they were kept nourished, mako-ed and as comfortable as possible. As for the one who seemed the least conscious...Kanawa cast a brief, wary glance at an isolated door and felt the impulse to shiver.
As long as it remains contained...
"This is amazing," a voice murmured, breaking into Kanawa's reverie. He looked and saw that it was Dr. Lowland, who was monitoring Shelke's progress.
"What is?"
"That she's able to sort through and even catalogue data so quickly." The gleam in Lowland's eyes reminded Kanawa that the man was a history buff. "Even if we don't accomplish the objective, the information we gather about the Cetra will be priceless."
The elder scientist smiled in a paternal manner. "Knowledge of our past can only benefit the future we're building."
"Yes, sir." Lowland looked quickly at the row of floating clones; it was a rare worker who didn't feel his eyes constantly drawn to them. "Sir, do you really think we can bring...him back?"
"I don't know. Hojo was a madman, but I have to admit there's some merit to his Reunion theory. According to the intel we have, every surviving subject injected with S cells was drawn like a magnet to Sephiroth."
"Sir, I fail to see what Hojo was hoping to gain by proving that."
"Maybe nothing more than the knowledge that where Jenova's cells are implanted, the host is connected to and susceptible to her consciousness," Kanawa guessed.
"Correct." Shelke's toneless voice surprised them; they turned to see her lifting the VR helmet from her head. "But Hojo himself was no more than a pawn in the Calamity's workings."
Neither man quite understood, but it wasn't unusual for Shelke to say strange things just after returning from a dive. Her work put her so close to - indeed, inside of - the memories of the dead that she sometimes seemed to momentarily lose herself in their thought processes. Shelke usually dismissed her strange speeches when asked about them, but this time didn't wait for questions, slipping the helmet back on.
"You should take a break," Kanawa suggested.
"I am fine."
It was as he expected. Vincent Valentine had warned them Shelke felt a need to atone for her past and would push herself harder than was necessary or healthy. Of course, in the same breath the mysterious man had said there would be no use trying to stall or dissuade her.
"Commencing dive."
The monitor beside her reclining chair blinked rapidly, its displayed map of the continent shrinking to narrow in on the area of land surrounding Mideel and its nearby villages. Bright green dots on the image indicated the location of stationery pockets of mako, the fruit of much tedious scouting work combined with knowledge the company had obtained long ago. The Lifestream itself was ever-shifting, always moving, reminding Kanawa of the old adage that you can't step into the same river twice. But in those places where the Lifestream became a mako deposit or fountain, the circling mass of energy continued to replenish these spots.
In the old days, ShinRa technicians and adventurers harvested what would become materia from these sources. Now they provided a new advantage, telling Shelke exactly where to look for -
"Outta my way!"
"Sir, please, you need special authorization - "
"Like hell!"
The few scientists who had tried to bar the door timidly slunk back; they were not fighters, and even the most capable among them knew it was a battle already lost. Without needing to look, Kanawa knew the lab security guards would be unconscious but unharmed on the floor outside, incapacitated with an ease and skill that was second nature to any good Turk. They all stood dumbstruck and helpless among the computer panels and petrie dishes - except Shelke who seemed unaware of the disturbance - and watched Reno heave quietly in the doorway with burning eyes. He seemed to be so enraged that he couldn't catch his breath.
"You!" The hot green glare made Kanawa wince. "I trusted you! I thought you were different!"
"Reno, you weren't supposed to see any of this yet, but since you have, let me explain."
"There's no need, doc." Reno spat what formerly had been an affectionate nickname. "It happened again. I saw the samples and injections and the dark man, and I know what you're trying to do."
A faint murmur of surprise went through the room. Reno didn't discuss his visions with many of the lab staff, so few had known from experience how accurate they were.
"Reno," Kanawa said calmly, "when we met, I promised you I would not follow the cruel ways of my predecessor. We're merely - "
"How can you say you're not like Hojo? Are you telling me you aren't raising the dead for your own sense of achievement, that you have some noble reason for it? Intention matters, doc, but it don't mean shit if you're risking the planet for the sake of science."
"I'm trying to save the planet, Reno," the doctor said simply. "Maybe I'm wrong. But I believe this is our best hope for survival."
"Survival? Sephiroth wants to destroy us all! How will you save us by bringing him back?"
Kanawa's mouth dropped open. "Sephiroth? You think we're trying to resurrect Sephiroth?"
Reno's jaw worked uselessly for a few moments as he himself was taken aback. "Y-You're not? But you're trying to pull someone out of the Lifestream, I felt it."
"Genesis, Reno. We're trying to revive Genesis Rhapsodos."
scscscsc
"Zack..."
Cloud had meant more, so much more, to follow that sacred word, but the name seemed to take his breath with it, escaping into the cliff-high wind. Far below him, the ruins of Midgar were slowly being absorbed into the land around them. If Zack's vision was right, one day the burnt-out shell where Cloud had pursued his childish dreams would become a mass of verdant green life.
"I wish I could see that, like you did. But maybe I've never been close enough to death. Is that it, Zack? Does the Lifestream know when you're close to joining it, and show you something comforting?"
Cloud had approached annihilation himself many times, so many that he no longer feared death, rather thought of it as a comrade who walked patiently by his side. However much Hojo had slowed Cloud's aging process, he knew he was not immortal, felt his own human fragility in the reflective moments between battles. One day he would face a better opponent, or meet an unforeseen accident, or else his body would simply give out. One way or another, the Lifestream and his fallen friends awaited Cloud. Death was a promise as serious and solemn as the one he'd made to Tifa, in that innocent time when they'd both dreamed of heroes.
"Zack..."
The spirit of his best friend and mentor didn't always come when called, and Cloud didn't expect him to now. Location had no bearing on whether he showed up either...Cloud had merely mounted Fenrir and found himself heading this way, to the shrine of two dead men who had passed their hopes on to Cloud. The Buster Sword's blade gleamed dully in the midday sun, the relic of many battles, the symbol of a legacy inherited.
"I am...the proof you existed." It came out nearly as weak and tired as the first time he'd said those words in this place. "Zack, no one person is big enough to carry what you were. But I've tried. I'm trying."
He thought of Zack's face in death, rain washing away the mud and blood, the peace that came over it when he at last went still. It was only natural - Zack had told him recently how he was quickly reunited with Angeal, how he had accepted the end with faith that only good lay beyond it. Cloud's mere brushes with death had brought Zack to him, and Aerith, the lost comrades in whose name he fought, but what about Cloud's true death, when it came? If it came now, there would be no happy ending, no reunion with the missing half of his heart.
Because Sephiroth can't die, unless I kill him.
"I won't kill him," Cloud said with quiet intensity. "I won't fight Jenova again while she wears him as a mask. I promised I'd save him for you, Zack, Angeal. For us. And I will. I'm just not sure how yet."
Faint voices, whispers whipped past him on the desert-dry wind, coming from below the earth as they always did, almost incomprehensible as they always were. Now and then a single voice would say something clearly, and Cloud always listened for it. It was encouraging in battle, unswerving in moments of doubt, and cryptic and vague as it was all-encompassing in its love. It reminded Cloud of his mother; it was the Goddess-mother he'd known since his life's beginning.
Whoever knows love knows Me, it whispered now, and Cloud felt his heart swell like a balloon. Make your intention love alone, and you will not fail.
It wasn't an answer, Gaia didn't give those. She chose her heroes and their successors and let life play out, trusting that they do the best they could. She had chosen Sephiroth, and he had been lost. Now it fell to his heir to set things right, and maybe all the hours of pain and darkness had been necessary, maybe every possible path led to Cloud rescuing Sephiroth. Because only he could do it, and Gaia would keep him alive until it was done.
Cloud's brilliant eyes widened, reflecting the same blue as the sky on the Buster Sword's blade. From a kneeling position he rose with a resigned grace to his feet, and stared out into the distance in awe. How had the answer not come to him sooner? His life was both charmed and cursed, his existence assured until he played the role assigned to him. There was a way to speak to the Cetra directly, and - like so many others - it was a thing Cloud alone could dare attempt.
"And if I'm wrong," Cloud whispered into the golden air, "you'll come for me, right, Zack? Just like you promised."
No spoken answer came, only an infusion of strength into Cloud's heart-weary limbs and a surge of hope in his soul. Cloud made himself go still, feeling gratitude for this, and listened a little longer. Angeal's voice came then, clearer than it had ever been.
Wherever you go, we are with you.
scscscsc
Reno felt like his feet had been fused to the floor, which was just as well since he wasn't certain which he wanted to do - run at the scientist with fists flying or collapse to the ground in laughter.
"Genesis? Genesis Rhapsodos? Are you fuckin' kidding me? Have you even read the fucker's file? He was a fuckin' serial killer!"
Kanawa let the barrage of angry swears pass over him with hardly a blink. "I am familiar with all the files ShinRa kept on Genesis."
"And you want to bring him back?"
"Reno, please sit down and I'll explain." The Turk made no move to sit, and Kanawa sighed. "How much do you know about Project G and Genesis's origins?"
"I dunno, Project G was the experiment Genesis was a product of and he grew up in Banora with Commander Hewley."
"Yes, essentially, but when you look at all the information we have on Genesis, especially the classified files we uncovered after DeepGround's defeat, a very sad picture emerges."
"I read Zack's memoir too, doc. A lot of us begin our lives with crappy home situations," Reno said coldly, "and we don't all become psychos."
"Mayor Rhapsodos and his wife were friends of Dr. Hollander's," Kanawa said, as placidly as if Reno'd said nothing. "They were approached by ShinRa's science department to take part in Project G, and agreed because the prospect of having a famous warrior son might bring them acclaim as well. The first fetus conceived by Eva Rhapsodos was female, and thus judged a mistake. An abortion was performed, and I don't think the woman's mind ever recovered."
Reno went very still, though not - as the scientist thought - because he was so affected by the story. He was remembering another baby girl, with red hair like her brother, giggling one day and only a memory the next.
"The second fetus, a male, was injected with mako and Jenova-infused blood cells donated by Gillian Hewley, the original subject of Project G. These cells multiplied alongside his own, and passed on to Genesis a blood deficiency dormant in Gillian, inherited from her distant Wutaian ancestors. Genesis's delivery and vital readings at birth are recorded as normal, and he was sent home with his parents to Banora. Our records of his life there are scant, but we do have intel that the mother was abused by the father, and the child may have been also."
Reno's shoulders slumped, and he shook his head as if to say 'No more'.
"When Genesis reached age thirteen Dr. Hollander, concerned about the boy's home life, successfully petitioned ShinRa to move Genesis to Midgar to begin his formal SOLDIER training. Angeal Hewley was relocated at the same time. The two friends, alongside Sephiroth, underwent advanced training that made the elder two 2nd Class and the youngest 1st in one year. Due to ShinRa's heavy promotional campaign and the efforts of Veld's Turks, the SOLDIER program was flooded with new recruits. Under the leadership of the famous three and ShinRa's watchful eye, the program grew and became more structured over time."
"Just one problem," Reno scoffed. "Genesis was in love with Sephiroth and insanely jealous of him at the same time."
Kanawa nodded. "There are status reports which indicate a deep-seated resentment in Genesis that caused conflict in the group. A routine duel between the three of them ended with Genesis injured, and the wound did not respond to potions or healing magic. Hollander, thinking the problem might lay in an inherited deficiency in blood-producing cells, decided to try a blood transfusion. Angeal was the ideal donor, being of the same type and mako level."
"Was Angeal right? Is that when Genesis started to crave blood?"
"The timeline suggests it was, the reports of Genesis drinking from animals begin at this time. My opinion - and this is only a theory, mind you - is that Hollander believed Angeal to be a safe donor since his tests showed no sign of blood deficiency. But such a condition can exist silently and without a trace in a person's system. When Angeal's blood was introduced to Genesis, the condition awoke somehow. And..."
"And what? Jenova did the rest?"
"Legend tells us that many of the Cetra were infected by her with a virus that made them feed on the blood of their own kind. I don't believe in coincidences."
Reno shook his head so hard, his ponytail nearly whipped his face. "No way. Maybe the alien bitch egged him on, but Genesis made the choice to kill people for blood. He murdered ShinRa employees to torment Commander Hewley, and he hurt Zack!"
"I read Fair's story too, Reno. Do you have no words of condemnation for Commander Hewley's behavior?"
Reno's face flushed. "He was a good man. I didn't need my extra sense to know that."
"A good man, yes, all intel points to that. But Genesis might have been too, if Jenova had not twisted his loves and his illness into madness and savagery."
"So who's to say he'd be any less crazy if you resurrected him?"
"It is based on first-hand information of Genesis Rhapsodos that we assume so." The girl-woman, Shelke, spoke as she took off her helmet, revealing a moon-pale face softened by mako eyes. "When Genesis Rhapsodos was defeated by Zack Fair, Nero the Sable and Weiss the Immaculate of DeepGround were sent to retrieve him. Genesis Rhapsodos refused to join them, and stated that he would seal himself off from the world until the Goddess called upon him to make reparation for his crimes. By the time Nero and Weiss had reported this to DeepGround and returned to Genesis Rhapsodos's location, he was gone."
"The Lifestream must have absorbed him," Kanawa broke in, briefly looking feverish with excitement before reutrning to his usual calm. "Perhaps the Goddess, in Her great mercy, hid him away in the Lifestream. That's where we are searching for him."
"What?" Reno managed to whisper. "How?"
"The Lifestream exists not only as a great, circling mass but, as you know, also in countless pockets where mako pools, underground streams and fountains form. Shelke - " Her he gestured, beaming, to the expressionless girl - "has used our technology to adapt her synaptic net dive to what is, as it turns out, a matrix similar to that of the Worldwide Network."
"...the Lifestream is like the web?" Reno felt like they were speaking an entirely foreign tongue; at the same time he knew they were simplifying the explanation for him. "So she can...like...surf it?"
"Information stored on the Network falls into recognizable patterns and pathways, and as such, the information can be located with relative speed and ease. The Lifestream is much more randomized, but if I confine my searches to small enough, concentrated areas, I can look for memories and individuals that are within my search parameters."
Okay, Reno thought, this chick is creepy. No wonder Valentine gets along with her.
"So...you're looking for Genesis in the Lifestream?"
"Yes, and building an extensive database of historical knowledge while we're at it."
"Then what the hell are those?"
Kanawa followed Reno's gesturing hand to the three Genesis clones. "The only viable specimens of Genesis left to us from DeepGround. If Genesis is in the Lifestream, he may need to be provided with a physical body. I promise you, they are well cared for."
Reno didn't look at all convinced. "And the dark man?"
Kanawa's sudden pallor made it clear he knew what Reno was talking about. He indicated a heavy steel door, locked and barred several times over, with a plate of heavy glass centered within its top. The Turk went to the window and found himself facing an unmoving but heavily restrained human figure. The man was handsome in a default, plain sort of way, and his eyes, even closed, suggested a sleeping but keen intelligence. His jet-black hair fell just past his chin, the same color as his leather clothing and two lightning-bolt tattoos on either side of his face. This was indeed the unconscious man from his vision, but with recognition, Reno felt a powerful uneasiness. He found himself stepping away from the door very quickly.
"What is it?" It didn't occur to Reno to refer to the creature as 'he'.
"Another of our inheritances from DeepGround," Kanawa said, looking troubled. "He has not stirred at all, but since we know nothing of his abilities or motives, we keep him locked up. The only information on him we have is a name."
"Null, the Obsidian." Shelke's voice betrayed nothing.
"Reno, what did you see him doing in your vision?"
"Nothing. It was just a flash. Is it a Tsviet?"
"The name appears to imply so," Shelke said, "but he was not active during my time with them."
"You should destroy it," Reno said without thinking, prompted by the discomfort the dark man made him feel.
Kanawa shook his head. "He, too, may be a force for good. Until we know for sure, all we can do is keep him secured. Perhaps his soul, like Genesis's, waits to be called upon."
"Fine, doc, let's say Genesis is a good guy guy now. Even so, why call him back? Why not leave him alone?"
Kanawa's hand moved to adjust his glasses, a gesture left over from before he'd switched to contacts. It was one of the things - the other being a haircut - he had done to look less like Hojo upon being employed with ShinRa.
"As you know, Sepiroth may return at any time. As long as he is Jenova's avatar, Sephiroth is the greatest threat to our planet. Genesis was, is, a man with skills nearly on par with Sephiroth. With Cloud Strife unavailable, we will need a back-up hero."
"Doc, what do you mean, with Cloud unavailable? Why can't Cloud do it?"
Kanawa's mouth slowly fell open to form an almost comical 'O', which he covered with one hand. As awkward silence dragged on, Reno made up his mind to shake an explanation from the man at the same time a familiar voice spoke up behind him.
"It's all right, Doctor. He had to find out."
"Find out what, Rufus," Reno hissed. He didn't turn around, not trusting his anger to hold at the sight of his lover, but nor did he react to the hands that touched his shoulders.
"Like you said, Reno. Cloud is what keeps drawing Sephiroth back. And I can't let it happen again."
To be continued.