The Story of Five Years Ago

When we arrived in Kalm it was very late at night. We spent a lot of the journey quiet, trying to conserve out strength since we left Midgar seriously under prepared. Some of us were capable of walking the whole day, others weren't as used to it. There wasn't a whole lot to take in scenery wise; the place was desolate around Midgar. It looked as though the damage from the reactors had really taken its toll, and when we even got past the wasteland the grass looked dull, dry, and really it was sad looking.

Kalm itself was fairly quiet. Big for a town but nowhere near the size of a city. A lot of the buildings were old fashioned looking, the streets were wide and there were still quite a few people about, probably going for drinks or heading home. It was still better getting into town late at night rather than during the day so less people would see us. No doubt Shinra was going to be looking for us.

"We'll find a place to stay the night, get supplies, and head out in the morning," Cloud said as we passed a busy bar. People were talking, cheering, and laughing inside, just going about their regular business.

"You think we can get something to eat?" Aerith asked. Truth was none of us had really ate since leaving Midgar. Actually with all that's been going on I can't remember the last time I properly ate.

"Aerith's right, I'm starving," Tifa agreed. It was then decided that it'd be easier to find a place to spend the night, order food and have it in. Let's face it not many decent places where going to be open this late. I think at this point no one really cared though, food was food.

The first placed we found was just called the Kalm Inn, and our hope was that there was room available, even just one, to avoid us roughing it for the night. There was a woman working at the reception desk, looking fairly awake if a little bored, becoming alert when we opened the door and poured inside. I saw her eyes going over our group but she didn't appear to be shocked, confused, or question it. Instead she gave a bright and welcoming smile.

"Hi, welcome to Kalm Inn, how can I help?" She asked, her eyes going over everyone to see who was the head of the group, settling on Cloud when he stepped forward.

"Do you have any rooms available?" He asked her. She looked over us again, counting us as she did so.

"I won't require a bed, if that's any help to you at all," Nanaki pointed out. The woman smiled and nodded at him, not in the least bit phased by him speaking.

"No problem, so that's six beds in total. Give me a moment," she went to the computer screen and was quiet for a few moments. She bit her bottom lip as she waited on something. Then she looked up at us again. "I have a family room and a twin single, if that's any help at all?"

"We'll take them," Cloud nodded.

"Okay, great. How many nights are you staying?"

"Just tonight?"

"Would you like breakfast included with your stay?"

"No thanks."

"Not a problem. Check out is eleven in the morning at the latest. If you could just fill this out, usual nonsense for our records, and I'll get your keys," she handed Cloud a form and a pen and headed to the back of the desk t get the keys. As Cloud quickly scribbled stuff in she went back to the computer and typed a few things, taking the forms back from Cloud when he was done. "Okay, that's sorted. Now will you pay now or at checkout tomorrow morning?"

"In the morning," Cloud answered.

"Okay, no problem. If you'll just come with me I'll show you to your rooms," she got up from behind the desk and directed us to follow her. "Your rooms are just down the halls from another on the second floor," we went up the flights of stairs and reached the second floor. We passed one door and she took one of the keys and opened the room. "This is the family room. You have your bathroom just through that door, kettle with tea and coffee there. And this," she directed us three doors down and opened the other room, "is the twin single, bathroom through there and kettle with tea and coffee just there." She handed Cloud the keys. "If you need anything else, I'll be on the rest of the night. My name's Nevina."

"Where's the best for ordering food?" I asked. "I didn't think your kitchens would be open this late." Nevina gave a quick smile and brushed a lose strand of hair back behind her ear.

"Anything in particular you've agreed on? Do any of you have dietary requirements?" She asked. We all shook our heads of gave hums to confirm we were fine. She thought for a moment about where to recommend. "Well, I know a few good places: pizza, fish and chips, curry. There is a place that serves kebabs nearby but I'd recommend several pints before going for it."

"Pizza sounds good," Aerith pondered.

"Anything sounds good right now," Barrett added. "Just get us whatever."

"It won't take log; get yourselves settled in and it'll be here in no time. I'll call up to the family room when they're here," Nevina smiled and moved past us, heading back down to the main desk. When she was gone Cloud locked the twin room and we all piled into the family room. I sat on one of the single beds, Angel on the other, Aerith and Tifa on the double, Barrett took one of the seats while Cloud took another, and Nanaki settled himself on the floor.

"Alright spiky, now you going to tell us what Sephiroth's got to do with the crisis of the planet?" Barrett asked. Cloud took a breath in and crossed his arms. "Come on, let's hear it all."

Cloud was silent for a few moments, recollecting his memories of something that had happened. His brows furrowed, then he looked up at all of us.

"I used to want to be like Sephiroth, so I joined Soldier," he started. "You heard a lot about him and his heroics for Shinra years back, how he almost single-handedly won the war with Wutai. Amongst other things. Everyone wanted to be a Soldier... I was one of the lucky ones that got in. Even luckier that I reached First Class, same as Sephiroth. We worked on a couple of missions together. Eventually we sort of became friends."

"You were friends with Sephiroth?" Angel asked, her own brows furrowed but she sounded genuinely curious. Cloud paused for a lengthy time again, then shrugged.

"Well, he was older than me and hardly ever talked about himself," he corrected. "So I suppose he was more of a war buddy; we trusted each other. Then one day..." he paused again, looking out the window. "Well, after the war it was Soldier's job to eliminate any resistance against Shinra. It was five years ago. I was sixteen. The mission was to investigate a malfunction at a town's local Reactor. Shinra suspected it was some form of resistance group trying to sabotage the power supply, but the started filling up with mutated monsters from the reactor. Orders were to kill the creatures, locate the source of the problem, and secure the area from any further threats. The town... it was Nibelheim, our hometown," he looked over to Tifa but she remained silent, only nodding to urge him to keep going. "I remember being in the truck to Nibelheim as Sephiroth was briefing me. It was us, and two Shinra grunts on the mission, to keep it quiet but get the job done quick. We ended up getting intercepted by one of the mutated creatures on the road there. Sephiroth just stepped out of the truck and just... destroyed it with his Masamune, the sword only he can wield. Sephiroth's strength is incredible. He's far stronger in reality than any story you may have heard about him."

"So where do you come in?" Aerith asked, leaning forward on the bed in interest. Cloud bashfully rubbed the back of his head.

"Me? I was mesmerised by the way Sephiroth fought," he answered. I furrowed my brow.

"But you'd seen him fight on previous missions, right?" I asked. "Wouldn't you have been used to seeing him fight, or went out to help?" Cloud paused again. His pauses were getting uncomfortably long now.

"You don't get used to seeing Sephiroth fight," was his answer. I just shrugged in response and let him continue. "When we reached Nibelheim, I remember Sephiroth asking me about the place. I hadn't come back at all, not since I left to join Soldier. He asked how it felt to return home; he never had a hometown he could remember. He never knew his father, and his mother, Jenova, died not long after giving birth to him."

"Jenova?" Angel suddenly blurted in surprise. "He told you his mother's name was Jenova?"

"You mean that headless spook back in the Shinra building? That's Sephiroth's mom?" Barret asked.

"Yeah, that's right."

"We can ask questions later," Tifa interrupted hurriedly. "Cloud, keep going."

"The town was pretty quiet when we got there. I don't if people were more afraid of the monsters, or of Shinra," Cloud said. "We were to leave for the reactor in the morning, so Sephiroth gave me leave to visit my family and friends."

"The childhood friends reunite," Aerith smiled.

"I went to Tifa's house... the door was open," Cloud's voice trailed off and another long pause came.

"Cloud... did you go into my house?" Tifa asked.

"Yeah... I thought you might be home," he nodded. "I remember going to your piano... I played something, for a little bit... but no was there, so I left. Then I went to my mom's house." The pause was thick, his brow furrowed, he shook his head. "No... that had nothing to do with five years ago."

"But you visited your family right?" Barrett asked.

"I wouldn't call it a family... my father died when I was still young... so my mother lived alone after I left for Soldier..." Cloud's breaks in thought were getting longer. "She was... a vibrant woman. She hadn't changed at all. But... a few days later she died. She looked fine when I saw her." After a moment he shook his head. "... Let's stop this. It has nothing to do with what happened. Nothing happened the rest of that day, so we went to sleep and prepared to head out the next day. Sephiroth hired a guide to the Reactor, someone who knew the mountain trails. In the morning I saw Tifa again; she was the guide." I took a glance at Tifa, seeing her nod once with her eyes still focused on Cloud, but I ntoiced a quick glimmer change in her eyes. "One of the people in town took our picture before we left. Me, Tifa, and Sephiroth."

"Sorry, can I stop you there?" I asked. When Cloud looked at me I could already see the cogs turning in his head. "You hadn't seen Tifa in years, and you come back as a Soldier and she's your guide. Weren't either of your surprised at seeing each other again?" I could feel Tifa's eyes bore into me but I didn't return the gaze, instead watching Cloud as he recollected the memory.

"Well... of course I was surprised Tifa was the guide, she was only fifteen at the time," he answered. "I knew the mountains were dangerous, and didn't want her in danger if there were more monsters than usual. But you'd started training with Zangan at the time, right Tifa?"

"Yeah..." Tifa nodded, her voice faint. She cleared her throat. "Anyway, when we went to the mountain, remember the bridge?"

"Yeah, we ended up having to go through the mountain caverns," Cloud said. "There's a natural Mako fountain in the caverns, I remember we passed it. It didn't take us long to get to the Reactor, but only Sephiroth and I went inside: we couldn't let anyone see classified Shinra information on accident. I remember hearing Tifa tell the grunt with us to take care of her while we were inside. Turned out the problem was a broken Mako valve. But... there were other things inside that Reactor. One room was sealed off, but it was marked "Jenova"... outside of it were these pods. Hojo was using them to condense Mako into materia... but inside the pod he had put humans in along with the Mako."

"Isn't that dangerous?" Aerith asked after a gasp.

"The levels they were exposed to, yeah," Cloud nodded. "Normally Soliders are exposed to a certain degree of Mako to give us our strength. It's built up gradually to minimise the risk of Mako poisoning. These people... it had went past that stage and into full blown mutation." What the fuck? Mako can do that? Why would you do that to someone? What the actual fuck?

"But why?" Was Aerith's question before I could get it out.

"Hojo was obviously using them as experiments," Angel answered for Cloud. "You all passed through his lab; I'm sure that gave you an idea that he specialises in perverting the laws of nature." We all nodded at Angel's analysis because it was dead on.

"That's when Sephiroth snapped," Cloud continued. "He was different from normal Soldiers, he started drawing parallels between himself and the monsters. He started questioning if he was even human. I didn't really understand what Sephiroth mean then. I was even more surprised that Shinra was producing monsters."

"... Who would have thought the Reactors held such a horrible secret?" Tifa mused aloud.

"Damn Shinra! The more I hear, the more I hate them!" Barret growled.

Some of us jumped when the phone rang. When we answered we remember about the food we requested, and a couple of us went down to the front desk to get it from the woman working there. She said it would just be added onto our bill in the morning. We decided on a quick breather to eat and we'd all been grateful after having nothing for so long. It filled a hole definitely. I was just glad we'd managed to get food at all.

"So Tifa," Aerith asked as we were finishing off. "You were waiting outside the Reactor?" Tifa was silent for a good while.

"... Yes," she finally replied. "I noticed the change in Sephiroth as they left the Reactor. He said nothing as we back into town."

"He confined himself to the inn," Cloud nodded. "He wouldn't speak to anyone."

"Then he just disappeared all of a sudden, right?" Tifa recalled.

"We found him in the biggest building the Nibelheim," Cloud said.

"The Shinra mansion," Tifa nodded. "A long time ago people from Shinra's early days used to live there."

"I searched the entire place for him but only found him through a secret entrance to a hidden lab," Cloud said. "The place was filled with old Shinra research, and Sephiroth was pouring through it, reciting everything aloud but he was oblivious to everything around him. He didn't even notice me or hear me speaking to him. Sephiroth didn't come out of the Shinra mansion... I tried to bring him food but he wouldn't eat or sleep. He continued to read as if he were possessed by something, and not once, did the light in the basement go out..."

"What did he find?" Angel asked.

"It was something called the "Jenova Project"," I watched Angel shift slightly at the answer. "When Jenova was confirmed to be an Ancient they wanted to produce a human with Ancient capabilities; at the time it was believed the Cetra were extinct. Sephiroth was the result of the project." Cloud took a sharp breath and shut his eyes. "One night... that's when he snapped completely. He believed himself to be the true heir to the planet because of what he found in the reports. Then he... wanted to see his mother and..." he shook his head. He clenched his fists. "He just... burned Nibelheim. I ran out to follow him and he'd already set the entire town ablaze. He killed everyone who got in his way of the Reactor. I had to follow him to try and stop him. Tifa's father had followed Sephiroth to do the same... but I found him dead, and Tifa was there... Sephiroth had left Masamune impaled on her dad and... she took it and tried to kill Sephiroth but... he almost killed her. I don't know how you survived." Tifa was completely silent throughout. "I had to get revenge. I followed Sephiroth into the Jenova chamber. He wanted to return the planet to his mother and kill everyone he thought was a traitor to the Ancients and be the leader of the planet... I couldn't let him do it." Cloud took another breath and looked at us as we waited for him to go on. He shrugged. "That's it. That's the end of my story."

We all started giving noises of surprise and general confusion as to such an abrupt ending to this event. Surely there was a fight or something? Anything?

"What a fascinating story," Nanaki commented evenly.

"Wait a damn minute! What happened to Sephiroth?" Barrett asked.

"... I don't remember," Cloud shrugged. "In terms of skill, I couldn't have killed him."

"Shinra officially declared Sephiroth dead not long after..." Tifa pointed out.

"All I know if that I confronted Sephiroth and lived. I don't know why he didn't kill me. I need to know what happened," Cloud said.

"A lot of this... doesn't make sense," Aerith bit her lip and wondered. "What about Jenova? It was in the Shinra building, right?"

"It was shipped from Nibelheim to Midgar," Cloud responded. "And Sephiroth's probably taken it from the building to... wherever it is that's he's going."

"None of this makes any damn sense, spiky!" Barrett's voice was getting really agitated.

"Look guys, it's late, we're all tired, we've only just ate, maybe if we sleep on it this will all make sense in the morning," I interrupted in an attempt to diffuse the situation before it started.

"Christie's right..." Tifa said before looking at Cloud. "But... how bad was I after Sephiroth...?"

"Like I said; I don't know how you survived. A thought you were a goner... I was really sad," Cloud said. "Let's get some sleep, we'll meet up in the morning and plan where to go."

When the guys left we decided it was probably the best idea to get some sleep if we were going to leave early. I gave Tifa a look to see if she was okay. She looked over and gave us a weak smile but said nothing. There were a few more questions that I wanted to ask both her and Cloud about Nibelheim but it would have to wait until tomorrow.