Duality
In early June Angeal returned to Midgar looking tired but more at peace with himself than he'd been in over a month. The Dark General immediately dragged Zack to the Simulation room for a training exercise to check that the second-class hadn't been slacking off while his mentor was away.
Sephiroth knew that Angeal's return meant that it would soon be his turn to go for treatment, so he attacked his paperwork with renewed vigour and let Cloud out early to hunt monsters under the Plate. The petit blond had won himself a permanent place in the Silver General's heart with his cheerful fearlessness and gentle irreverence; Angeal, Genesis, Zack and Rude were Sephiroth's friends, but Cloud was by far his best friend. At times -like when they were brainstorming with Rude for new prank ideas- Sephiroth wondered if this was what it was like to have a younger brother.
The Silver General finished up early and went home to his spacious apartment in Sector One, where all of the SOLDIERs, Turks and other valuable ShinRa employees were offered low-cost housing by the company. Letting himself in and locking the door behind him, Sephiroth turned around to see Valentine waiting for him on the couch. Mere moments later his mother blurred over to him and hugged him close.
"My Sephiroth," she murmured into his hair. Sephiroth hugged her back just as hard, silently glad that she was enhanced enough for him not to need to watch his strength. He'd missed her terribly despite barely knowing her and while Cloud had done wonders in staving off his loneliness it hadn't been quite the same.
"Book a month off, my silver dragon," his mother told him when she eventually let go of him. "I'm taking you on a camping trip before I put you through the necessary medical hell. You've never had a proper holiday before so that state of affairs needs remedying first."
"Can Cloud come?" Sephiroth asked. His request had nothing to do with the way Genesis watched his chocobo-crested aide. Nothing at all. Cloud just happened to be his best friend and Valentine's apprentice, so a joint holiday would be more fun. Cloud could introduce him to more amusing and relaxing ways to pass the time, like when he'd shown Sephiroth what happened when you added uncooked popcorn to the heating generators in the Urban Development Department. That had been hilarious...
"Of course, if that's what you want," Valentine said promptly. "It's your holiday after all, my hatchling." Sephiroth didn't even try to stop the happy smile curving his lips. A whole month with his mother and Cloud with no work in sight sounded wonderful.
A week into their camping trip Sephiroth was wearing the standard first-class SOLDIER jumper and a pair of touch canvas trousers tucked into calf boots and lying sprawled across the grass with his hair in a braid, totally unarmed and staring at the stars. Next to him lay Cloud, dressed in his habitual SOLDIER-style green, pointing out the various constellations in the night sky above them and telling the strangely wonderful stories and legends connected to them. Sephiroth had never been taught anything that wasn't strictly practical while in Hojo's labs, which was part of why he clashed with Genesis so often. The redhead was too much of a poet and art-lover to not clash with someone raised to be utterly pragmatic. Hearing the old myths in Cloud's high, musical voice however gave him an increased insight into the contradictory and impulsive nature of the human heart; those stories told of how it was impossible to control anything other than yourself, and to even attempt it was folly. They also spoke of the dangers of acting out of rage or thoughtless passion and the importance of honesty.
Valentine had taken him and Cloud out to the Chocobo Farm, then led them out into the hills and set up camp in the middle of nowhere with a half-grown gold chocobo called Sunshine. Sephiroth had then been introduced to the wonders of hunting you own food -with one of his mother's rifles since Cloud insisted that swords were not hunting tools- cooking over a camp fire, climbing trees, messing about in rivers and training chocobos for racing. Seeing Cloud fuss over a leggy bird with his exact same hairstyle had been supremely entertaining in a warm and fuzzy kind of way; the gold chocobo seemed convinced that the young teen was its long-lost parent, a fact that the blond was quick to exploit in order to speed up Sunshine's training. Sephiroth was also adopted by the bright bird and after a few false starts the Silver General was able to get the bird to do what he wanted and care for its needs without much fuss.
The first thing his mother had done after they set up camp was call up the metamorphosis-type limit break Sephiroth recognised from the notes on the V disk he'd read over a month ago as being the Galian Beast. It looked like a bipedal behemoth without the spikes on the tail and had a gleam in its eye that indicated greater intelligence than behemoths usually commanded. He had made an effort not to automatically threaten the beast and been -dubiously- rewarded when the creature had gently knocked him over and started grooming him. Valentine had resurfaced five minutes later, by which point Sephiroth's face and upper body were sticky from saliva and red from Galian Beast's rough tongue.
Valentine's acute embarrassment at the situation tempered the Silver General's own confused mortification and when Cloud got over his silent hysterics the blond shakily led Sephiroth over to a nearby spring to wash off. During the bath Cloud explained that Galian Beast had recognised Sephiroth as its -her?- cub, so it wouldn't attack him if it emerged in a fight. Well, unless the General challenged it, but that was not something he was planning on doing. The behemoth-like creature was a part of his mother so he would never attack it out of hand.
Since then however Sephiroth had taken to wearing the SOLDIER jumper; he did not want to get licked like that again.
When Sephiroth woke at dawn, having dozed off out in the open, Valentine was standing over him.
"I put Cloud to bed; he would have caught a chill sleeping out here, even if it is summer," she said quietly. "I need to start your treatment soon, so I thought I should introduce you to my... tenant beforehand."
"Tenant?" Sephiroth repeated, resettling himself into a sitting position. This sounded ominous.
"When your birth-mother Lucretia Crescent experimented on me with tainted Mako in am attempt to save my life, she infused me with one of the Guardian Spirits of the Planet. Specifically Chaos, herald of the WEAPON OMEGA, also known as 'he who will purge the Lifestream of impurity' and the 'harbinger of the ultimate fate'," Valentine said flatly, dropping down opposite her son and staring at her gold-gauntleted left hand. "He is something akin to a summon, is Chaos, but fully independent of my will once released. I can prevent him from emerging or call him back within myself, but beyond that his actions are no more under my control than yours are. I can ask, but not force. He is his own." She paused. "The power to overcome the JENOVA virus is his and he offered to destroy it within you and the other two Generals. He calls it 'the Calamity' which leads me to suspect JENOVA may be part of the impurity he is supposed to purge."
Sephiroth carefully went over his mother's words in his mind. She seemed to be expecting fear or rejection, much like he himself often did when his actions forced other SOLDIERs to notice how far above their level he was. "Can I meet him?" the silver-haired General asked. "You are still my mother Valentine; nothing will ever change that nor would I want that to change."
Valentine's mouth twitched up into a slight smile, then her eyes filled with luminous gold as her body and clothing writhed and changed.
"Greetings, little dragon. I see you are very much you mother the paradox's child despite the Calamity infesting you."
"Chaos," Sephiroth said with a polite nod. "What are my chances of surviving this?"
The being smiled as the red wrappings around its face fluttered. "Survival is all but guaranteed, little dragon; your body will however be forever changed. Degradation was never a risk for you as you are unable to imprint yourself on others, so the changes the little paladin faced will never trouble you. The Calamity is however deeply entrenched in both flesh and bone, so the pain may briefly drive you mad. You are too much your mother's child for that state to be permanent, but you may find the evolution you undergo as distressing as my vessel once did. You will see little of you mother and much of me in the next two weeks, little dragon: the battle will be long and hard before we prevail."
Seph goes camping with Cloud and his mother, meets Galian Beast and learns how to care for chocobos. Oh, and is introduced to Chaos.
As with all family holidays these are embarrassing and blackmail-worthy moments, but that's normal.