CHAPTER 10:
THE TRUTH ABOUT JENOVA
Their little expedition had grown, though whether that was a good thing or not, Vert didn't know. They were currently camping just near a ford between the Golden Saucer and Gongaga. Vert was currently sitting by himself, on the edge of a cliff near the ford, and he was currently contemplating what he had learned, that some of his friends were still alive. But at the cost of many others.
Snape was certainly not a friend. The scowling son of a bitch had opted to head back to Nibelheim for now via Apparition, deciding that he wanted nothing to do with Vert or Shelke for the time being. Vert was glad of it: he was sorely tempted to torture the greasy-haired fucker for what he had done. Neville and Hermione were going to accompany them as far as Cosmo Canyon, where the two had drawn the attention of Cosmo Canyon's de facto leader, a former Shinra researcher called Bugenhagen. Red XIII had heard that, and Vert learned that Red XIII had originally come from the area, and that Bugenhagen was his adoptive grandfather. Red XIII's real name, upon prompting, turned out to be Nanaki, and now, they were referring to him as such.
Cait Sith's status as a spy was outed to the others, and it was decided that it was better the spy they knew than one they didn't, though Barrett looked like he wanted nothing more than to tear Cait Sith apart. Luna, meanwhile, hung around Jenova, and Vert thought it hilarious that when Jenova first came back to them, Luna in tow, Jenova had this bemused look on her face, even more bemused than anyone normally did when near Luna. Sirius, meanwhile, intended to accompany them at least as far as Nibelheim, if not further.
As he looked at the Moon in the sky, he sensed someone walking up next to him, and then sitting down next to him. He knew it was Hermione. "Harry…I mean, Vert…are you all right?"
Vert snorted. "Ask a stupid question. No, I'm not. I haven't been for a long time. I don't think I was, even before I fell through the Veil. But…I'm glad you're still alive, Hermione. I'm glad some of you survived. Wish it was more of you. Just don't ask me to come back."
"I don't intend to," Hermione said. "If anything, I don't want to go back either. Too many memories, and too many of them bad. My parents were murdered by the Death Eaters before I could send them into hiding. Ron and I had some pretty big arguments about our families dying. And, well, Neville comforted me. We're married now. I'm actually Hermione Longbottom."
Vert chuckled. "Congratulations. You two deserve a happy ending."
"So do you. Shelke, while we were setting up camp, told me a bit about what you went through in Deepground, Vert. You're still Harry to me, you've still got your 'saving people thing'."
"Saving people? I murdered hundreds in Deepground," Vert scoffed bitterly.
"You snapped."
"Not really. I just could sense their thoughts. Not many of them had anything good, save for a lust for battle. Shinra's brainwashing was too good. Out of the Tsviets, I only liked three. Shelke, Nero, and Argento, our quartermaster. Argento died trying to stop Weiss from killing me, and Nero died sealing me away for killing his brother. Nero was a bit dark and broody, not to mention disturbingly enamoured with his brother, but…he was nice enough to me. I wish I didn't have to kill him."
"But…you feel guilt over those deaths, don't you?"
"Not really. That disturbs me. Maybe I've detached myself too much from their deaths, because to think about it too much…I'm already half-mad, Hermione. I might just end up even worse."
"…You're still my Harry. Battered and twisted, but you're still the guy I knew."
"You're wrong…but I appreciate the sentiment, Hermione," Vert said. Opting to change the subject, he said, "What's with Luna? Why does she seem like a Jenova hybrid?"
"That's because she is one," Hermione said. "Apparently, when the mages of this world fled to Earth, some of them were infected by Jenova. After a period of persecution, they went into hiding from the other mages. Eventually, they opted to renounce the rapacious attitude of Jenova. Luna was an attempt to create something not unlike Sephiroth. We know about his creation from what documents we found at Nibelheim, Vert. Luna, however, was aware of her mission from the start, but treated with love. She was created in case Voldemort came back."
"So, all her being odd was…because she was a Jenova hybrid?"
"Partly, yes. Many of those creatures she talked about were native organisms of the world Jenova originally came from," Hermione said. "And she was sensitive to the lifeforce of everything around her. But, there's more to it than that…"
Jenova looked at the young woman sitting across from her, like her, and yet, so unlike her. The one who had such an odd past. The one who was disturbing her just by existing. "More? How can there be more?"
"You forgot your true self, Mother," Luna said quietly. "When I was young, my mother died in an accident. The trauma…unlocked memories from your past. Our past. You weren't always a monster."
Jenova wanted to scoff, to retort sharply…but found herself not doing those things. A curiosity had crept over her. Her memories were so dim and dark, especially before she was exhumed by Shinra, she wanted to know. "What do you mean?"
"We can share memories, Mother," Luna said. "Let me show you what I remembered. Just some warning, though…it will be painful."
Jenova, wondering whether she would regret this, nodded. She then felt Luna's presence in her mind, gentle, unlike Sephiroth's crushing grip on her mind. It felt almost like she was scraping, gently, a thin veneer off something. Then, suddenly…
I am curled up alone in my prison. It's so dark in here, so very, very dark. I am alone. I will always be alone.
I remember screams. A green light. Pain. A pain that sears at my soul. Faces of all kinds. Cold night. And now, this. This eternity of misery.
I have been here for a very long time. Almost an eternity in the cold and the dark. I don't even know my name any more.
Suddenly, the prison shakes. Everything around me begins to heat up. I begin screaming, but there is nobody to hear. And then, suddenly, oblivion.
But not for long.
I emerge from my prison, a womb of rock and stone. I find myself assuming a strange shape, but one suited to my grandeur. But something is wrong with the air. The Lifestream here, as it curls around the wound created by my arrival…it is so alien…so different.
No, it's not fair! I saved them! I undertook the Last Sanction, I unleashed the Gatherer and his Herald to harvest the survivors, make them become one with me so that we may find another world to continue…a shining future, where there had been none at all. And I arrived here, where there's already life?
I couldn't do it again. Even if I was physically able to make the long trek across the dark, I couldn't do it again. My sanity was hanging by threads. In truth, it had already snapped.
I had made hard decisions before. I will again. As the native people approach, I know what I must do. In life, there is always the consumed and the consumer. The food and the eater.
The prey, and the predator.
First, I am subtle, entrancing them with illusions, before infecting them with my cells. Then, when they begin to fight back, I turn them and animals into my warriors. They had no right to resist! I had earned the right to survive! I must survive! Or else it meant nothing!
Battles waged. Battles won. Battles lost. The Cetra manage to stop me, my main mass, even when so many of my cells are scattered across the world in the form of monsters. They named me Jeh-Nohva, Calamity from the Skies. And their punishment was to be the cruellest of them all.
They wanted to entomb me, once more, in a prison of stone.
I screamed and struggled, as, without remorse, they sealed me into the rock. And in the darkness, time and isolation erodes at my sanity and memories until all that's left is I, and the desire to consume.
Then, after what felt like an eternity, the light of day once more. I exchanged one prison for another, rock and stone for glass and drugged oxygenated liquid. They take parts of me piecemeal, while I stare at them. Eventually, I learn the language of a new world, separated from that of the Cetra not by distance but by time. Of scientists, of electricity, of Shinra. I learn the names of my tormentors: Hojo, Gast, Lucrezia…
And then, they give me new children. Genesis, Angeal…Sephiroth…
I feel Nibelheim burn from a distance, and find it good. I meet my son, properly, for the first time. But he believes me to be an Ancient, a Cetra. I am so much more than they are.
I watch him being attacked by a boy with spiky blond hair. I feel the strange sensation of having my head removed by Sephiroth. During another confrontation with the boy, we fall into the depths of the Mako Reactor…
…And there, I try to take control. Only to find that, in his madness, Sephiroth has a strength far beyond anything I have encountered. And I am so much less than I once was…
Jenova flinched back when the recollection ended, her eyes wide. "What…what did I see? What the hell am I?!"
"Apparently she was once some sort of guiding consciousness of another world," Hermione said.
"Like Minerva? She's the guiding consciousness of this world. Most people just call her the Goddess," Vert said.
"Yes. But a disaster befell her world, and she gathered the Lifestream of that world into a vessel, along with her consciousness," Hermione said.
"The Omega Sanction," Vert murmured. "Jenova must be a hybrid of Omega Weapon and the Goddess of her world. She intended to resettle on a new world. But there was already life here…"
"And the madness of millennia of isolation had taken their toll, reducing you to more of a creature of base predatory instinct than the Goddess you once were," Luna said quietly. "You were so determined to ensure your transplanted life survived, you attacked the Cetra, and anyone else who came near. First by infiltration, and then, outright war."
Jenova stared at her 'child' in horror. She was once a Goddess, like Minerva? And yet, she couldn't deny it. She couldn't denounce Luna as a liar. Because she knew these weren't implanted memories. She was a creature that knew memory more than perhaps every living thing on this Planet. They were forgotten memories, not implanted ones.
Tears began to well up in her eyes, and then, began trickling down her face. After a moment, she said, with considerable understatement, "I've fallen far."
"Yes, you have," came a voice from behind them, near a tree. Standing next to it, as if having just emerged from behind it, was Aerith. There was a look of pity and horror in her eyes. "I heard everything."
Jenova scowled, getting to her feet. "This changes nothing, Cetra," she said coldly. "Our goal is the same as ever, to stop Sephiroth. After that, I see no reason to cooperate with you." She then stormed away.
Aerith watched the form of Jenova stride away into the night, tears running down her face. She was disturbed at what she heard, she had to admit that. She barely noticed Luna getting to her feet, and skipping over to Aerith. "Don't mind Mother. She's got too many Wrackspurts."
Aerith, despite knowing that Luna was a Jenova hybrid, actually liked her. It was probably because she was funny, even if she was strange. There was something likeable about her, loopy though she was. "I think it's more than that, Luna. Am I supposed to forgive the being who wiped out most of my people, or forced them to flee this world?"
"You seem to be okay being around Barrett or Vert. Barrett headed AVALANCHE, and you know what they did in Midgar. Dozens died in their attacks. And Vert…he wiped out Deepground."
"Even so, I know they're good people, deep down. I certainly know Vert is. I know that, as much as he'd like to deny it, I think he is still Harry Potter. When he taught me about my heritage, my powers…I think it's because he wanted to make up for that. And Barrett stormed Shinra HQ with Cloud and Tifa to save me. And from what Yuffie told me, he and Jenova fought to stop Dyne from killing those people at the Golden Saucer."
Luna looked at her with her wide, pale eyes, before she said, "There's a bond between you two, you know. More than that of being Cetra, or of working to stop Sephiroth. I think he chose you because you reminded him of his friends. Not of any particular friend, but…when he thought we died, I think it left a void in his heart he couldn't fill. And with Cloud regaining his friendship with Tifa…I think Cloud likes you as a friend, but his heart belongs to Tifa. Vert, though…you accept him as what he is. It helps that you never knew of the Boy Who Lived. Look after him, Aerith. And I guarantee, he will look after you. You are the glue that holds his mind and soul together now, along with Shelke…and he is the doorway into your realising the full nature of your Cetra Heritage. Aerith…he needs you."
"Are you saying he's in love with me? I certainly don't feel the same way," Aerith said. Not yet, a little voice whispered in the back of her mind. It could have been her own voice, or her mother's. She had to admit, there was something attractive about Vert. It had been rather like how she had been attracted to Cloud, she realised. This sense of a fractured soul, needing nurturing and healing. And he had helped her in a way nobody else, not even her mother, had.
"I think it may become love, even if it isn't yet. And even if it doesn't, you heal his mind and soul just by being there. Maybe one day, he will allow you to call him Harry again. And Deepground only continued a process already started by Dumbledore. With the best of intentions, but you know what the road to hell is paved with. In a way, Dumbledore wanted someone like Sephiroth or Genesis, a good little soldier to fight."
"How do you know about Sephiroth and Genesis?" Aerith asked.
"I'm part-Cetra, Aerith, even if a lot of me is Jenova. I listen to the Planet. Minerva's…not happy with my being here. It wasn't until shortly before we came to Golden Saucer that we spoke about Vert. Minerva's accepted me now. Especially as we need to stop Sephiroth. Once she got over me having Jenova cells, she's actually quite nice." She looked over at where Jenova had stormed to with a rueful expression. "Maybe one day, so can Mother." After a moment, Luna said, "Aerith…I won't be travelling with you guys for a while. I'll tell Vert before I leave, but…Sephiroth's puppets are all over this continent, and indeed, this world. I need to stop them before they can do his will in earnest. There will be a Reunion…but not with Sephiroth or Jenova. Before I leave, I'll remove the Jenova cells from Cloud. Otherwise, he's a cuckoo in the nest. A Manchurian Candidate, only awaiting the right command from Sephiroth to strike." Luna smiled. "Don't worry, I won't let that happen. Now, if you'll excuse me, there's a pudding with my name on it in my bag."
As she skipped merrily away, Aerith found herself struck by the night's events, and what she had learned. Jenova, being an object of pity as well as horror and hatred. And Luna…one of Vert's friends, between two worlds. No, three. That of the Planet, of Earth, and of Jenova's cells.
She wondered about what Luna had said. Maybe one day, he will allow you to call him Harry. Did Luna think Aerith had a chance of bringing what was left of Harry Potter from out of Vert the Emerald? She didn't know.
But Aerith liked helping people. Vert wasn't the only one with a 'saving people thing'. Maybe one day, she could save what was left of Harry Potter before he sunk into darkness forever…
CHAPTER 10 ANNOTATIONS:
So, there you have it. The Jenova memories will be familiar to anyone who has read Harry Potter and the Cetra Heritage, or The New Cetra Heritage: Imago. The latter, incidentally, has recently been archived in The Cauldron, and the story itself will be deleted before long as of writing, so if you haven't updated your favourites to The Cauldron, I suggest you hurry up. You only have a couple of weeks left at most.
Now, while Vert and the main Final Fantasy VII party will be doing the canon journey, the others from Earth will be doing other things, especially Luna. And the story may get derailed sooner than you'd think. You'll see.
Review-answering time! Fireofargentis: No, we're not having anything other than fragmentary flashbacks at best to Harry/Vert's time in Deepground. This story is about Harry picking up the pieces.
No numbered annotations.
