Calamity's Reign: Chapter 13 - The 2nd Nibelheim Incident
Tifa understood the necessity of discipline and training, along with the benefits it brought. She had two entire lifetimes of it in her head, to be frank. But THIS training, what Sephiroth was doing, was complete and utter cruelty and torture for her. She had been putting up with it on random intervals over the last week as they traveled after her first 'incident' with Reunion.
"Do you not crave it Lockheart?" asked Sephrioth, holding a whimpering, maimed bird out to her.
Tifa stared at the animal, shaky fists clenched. "N-no."
"Oh? You don't wish to make it yours? To seed it with your cells? Turn it into your child? Have the right to call it 'mine'?" purred Sephiroth.
Tifa gave an involuntary shudder and brief moan. "N...no..."
It was... oh god... it was so hard to resist the urge. She closed her eyes and turned away, trembling.
"I did not say this session was over, Lockheart, you will open your eyes and you will look at...," began Sephiroth
Tifa's eyes snapped open, shining blood red. "MINE!"
Sephiroth was already acting as she dove for the bird, snapping it's neck and killing it before tripping and pinning Tifa to the ground. He kept her down as she bucked and struggled, snarling for a few minutes before she regained control of herself.
Sephiroth cleared his throat and rose to his feet. "Now, this session is over."
Tifa laid there for a moment before releasing a string of curses.
Sephiroth chuckled. "If it's any consolation, you lasted slightly longer than last time."
Tifa pushed herself up and sighed. "It's not. God, I hate Reunion even more now that I know what it's like."
"Hmph. You will be singing its praise the first time you reconstruct yourself from the lifestream," said Sephiroth.
Tifa rolled her eyes. "I'll stick with not dying to begin with, because if i can't stop myself from trying to consume half-dead animals, then I don't even want to think what will happen if I enter the lifestream, or go near mako for that matter."
Sephiroth made a non-committal hum. "Indeed. Restraining yourself around the lifeblood of the planet will be the next lesson in control after Reunion."
Tifa sighed heavily. "I hate my life..."
Sephiroth walked past her. "It's time to go, were already behind schedule because of your training sessions as is."
Tifa rolled her eyes and started walking after him. "Riiiiight. Like you honestly have somewhere you desperately need to be."
"Hmph," was his only response.
She sighed. "It's not like there's anywhere either of us need to be, or can be..."
Sephiroth didn't appear to dignify that a response. Tifa smirked sadly at that. Having these extra training sessions got them to talk more and cut away at some of the silence, but, Tifa was beginning to learn that Sephiroth simply was a quiet man when he wasn't hell bent on destroying the world. It wasn't to say he wouldn't respond when talked to, but he sure as hell wasn't the kind to start a conversation, well, ANY conversation, unless it had a purpose.
Tifa stretched and gave her surroundings a brief glance. They were a bit north of Cosmo Canyon. She had been moderately terrified of encountering Nanaki when they passed through the area, but thankfully, she hadn't seen her old friend. She just... didn't think she could bear to see any of them right now. She was grudgingly and regretfully thankful to her father for giving her a wing. Otherwise she'd have had to go see Cid to get a ride to Wutai, because she kind of doubted Sephiroth would carry her.
Though, it wasn't like they ever flew to begin with. After landing after leaving the Highwind, Sephiroth had not once took to the sky. To have the freedom of the skies, but choose to remain walking on the ground, she didn't quite understand it. Then again, he had that wing of his longer than she had hers, maybe flying lost it's appeal after a time. Who knows... well...
"Hey Sephiroth?" said Tifa.
There was a hum of acknowledgement.
"Why don't you want to fly? We could be to Wutai in hours," she asked.
"Because I wish to take my time and think," he replied.
"Oh," she replied, "About what?"
Sephiroth tilted his head to the skies. "The future and what is yet to come."
Tifa frowned. "What do you mean?"
Sephiroth paused his steps. "Hmm. That's right, you don't know, do you?"
He turned to face her. "Lockheart. Both myself, and your 'friends' are under the assumption that more of my Mother's kin will be coming at some point.
Tifa's blood ran cold. "Y-your serious?"
He nodded. "I am. Your Father spoke of a death call my Mother apparently sent out that appears to attract them here."
Tifa scowled. "Even when she's beaten, she's still such a bitch..."
She glanced at him. "No offense of course."
Sephiroth raised an eyebrow at that, the tips of his lips quivering slightly with amusement before he turned and continued on. Tifa followed suit, now doing as much quiet thinking as he appeared to be. More Calamities... more Calamities would be coming...
She narrowed her eyes, she would stop them, she wouldn't let anything like what happened to her happen to the others. "I'm going to kill each and every one of them."
Sephiroth turned his head slightly. "Is that so?"
Tifa nodded, a brief mocking smile on her face. "Monsters killing monsters, it's fitting, and for the record, that goes for killing you if you try anything with Cloud again."
"Hmph," was his response, facing forward and continuing onward.
They walked in silence for a time before the scenery began to change. She barley paid attention to the snow and hilly terrain. Mountains sprang up in the distance, familiar, but for some reason unwelcoming to her. This area seemed... familiar to her...
But it didn't hit her until Sephiroth abruptly stopped and town gates came into her just where she was. "Nibelheim..."
Her face contorted with anger and she turned on him. "The hell did you bring us HERE for?"
Sephiroth scoffed. "We have to purchase a flight from Rocket Town to reach Wutai, our passage through here will be quick."
Tifa turned her glare from him to the town. "We ought to just fly ourselves..."
There were... so many bad memories here. Far more bad than good, even in the 'true' memories she had. Anything good she could remember could be attributed to childlike innocence and ignorance. Even the promise she had gotten Cloud to make was selfish and idiotically childish. To think, Father had used that very promise against her. But... what little 'good' memories there might have once been here...
They were gone...
The only thing that stood where Nibelheim had once been were lies. Tifa walked into the town, eyeing it's 'inhabitant's' with disdain. All of them, Shinra employees, having been paid to live here, just to cover up a tragedy of their own making. They walked, every single day, on-top of a graveyard of sins. Her birth father, Cloud's mother, all the other townsfolk... all of them gone and all of them forgotten except by herself and Cloud.
She...
She hated them...
Her eyes turned to the one thing that did actually remain from old Nibelheim, the Shinra Manor. What she had seen and read within those walls...
"Do you feel anything?" she asked quietly, "To be back here again?"
Sephiroth was silent.
She closed her eyes and clenched her fists tightly. "I hate it. This place..."
She ground her teeth and opened her eyes. "Should never have been 'rebuilt'. I... I..."
A sad, twisted smile played over her face. "I almost wish I could burn it to the ground."
"Hmph," was Sephiroth's reply, "It's more than within your power to do so. Though, I'd advise not drawing the planet's ire if at all possible."
A few of the townsfolk were looking at them uneasily. Tifa shot them a hostile look and they scurried away. Her anger, her rage was ticking higher and higher by the second. She couldn't stay here, not for long, not unless she wanted a repeat of Edge.
"Let's go," she hissed in anger.
She didn't know if it was because of the Calamity coursing through her veins, but, this fury was surreal. She had been shocked and horrified the first time she had came back, and a little angry, but nothing close to this extent. She had never returned to Nibelheim again afterwords. Was this Calamity? Or was this truth? When she wasn't busy chasing Sephiroth, being shocked by the lies standing here, was this rage what she should be feeling? Was it righteous? Or was it murderous?
She stopped at the mountain path, her fists trembling, that question didn't honestly matter, not here. "This place..."
She turned her head to glare back into the town, there was a small gathering of people watching them curiously and with unease. "HEY! Listen up!"
She narrowed her eyes. "This entire place was burned to the ground and rebuilt! Don't even try to deny it, I was there! This place is a lie! And you all know it! You fakes were paid to live here to cover up a lie made by the Shinra Corporation!"
There were some guilt that she saw, but not nearly enough. "Maybe at the start, but it's our home, we live here now!"
Oh no, oh hell no. This place was not theirs to dwell in.
"Not anymore you don't, leave, and never return, I don't care where you go," she spat, "None of you had best be remaining the next time I return here."
With that, she turned and stormed off into the mountain, furiously stalking its trails, pummeling any monsters to stupid enough to get out of her way into bloody pulps. She wanted to fight a Nibelheim dragon of all things, if only to vent her rage, but they wisely stayed away. The only thing that dared be near here that had any semblance of sentience or intelligence was Sephiroth, and that man feared nothing. She was very tempted to have a go at him just for the sake of it...
She sighed heavily, clenching and unclenching her fists. "Do you... ever just want to kill something?"
There was an audible snort.
Tifa rolled her eyes. "Let me rephrase, do you ever just want to kill something more than usual?"
There was a soft chuckle. "When I do, I usually revive myself and go find Cloud."
It was Tifa's turn to snort. "I'm kind of amused."
Tifa sighed and stretched briefly, trying to work some of the tension out of her body. "Whatever, let's just go."
They continued walking for a time, until Sephiroth suddenly stopped, his gaze narrowing.
"What is it?" asked Tifa.
He didn't respond. She stepped next to him and followed his gaze, sighting...
"Oh," she murmured
The reactor.
Sephiroth started towards it, his motions stiff. Tifa hesitated briefly before following him. Tifa paused briefly, remembering where her father had died. She knelt down and placed a hand on the ground, closing her eyes for a moment. There was a clang of a metal door opening, and with a sigh, she rose to her feet and followed Sephiroth inside the reactor.
She gave a grunt as they entered the red steel stairwell and pod room leading to Jenova's former chambers. "So much for disassembling and destroying the reactors, eh Reeve?"
"Hmph," said Sephiroth, a strangeness in his voice.
Tifa froze. That tone... it sent a chill down her spine...
Sephiroth clenched his fists and drew Masamune, slowly walking up the steps. "Even with Mother gone from this place, there is a power here that no mere human would dare stand against."
Tifa tasted the air. It was... heavy... and not just with the stench of a reactor...
"It lingers," she murmured, "What happened here."
Sephiroth paused before turning down a row of pods, he paused at one in particular and looked inside before slowly shaking his head. "Hmph. Hojo even found a new experiment to replace the one that died during the incident."
She blinked a few times. "It's... not alive, is it?"
Sephiroth looked in again. "It would appear to be."
Tifa's eyes went wide with shock, and then rage. "That man..."
"Man?" inquired Sephiroth sharply, "I hate humans, and yet even I would not insult them to refer to Hojo as a one of their kind."
Tifa raised an eyebrow at him, but he didn't respond. Sephiroth turned and walked back to the stairs, turning and walking down. He took a few steps to the left and paused, tilting his head.
"Poor little Sephiroth. You've never actually met your mother. You've only been told her name, no? I don't know what images you've conjured up in your head, but... Jenova! Was excavated from a 2000-year old rock layer. She's a monster," said Sephiroth in an odd tone, as if he were trying to recreate someone's voice.
"Sephiroth?" she questioned curiously.
Sephiroth blinked a few times and turned to her, frowning. "Hmph. It amuses me that Genesis of all people was the one who ultimately told me the truth, even if I refused to hear it."
She frowned. "That's right, you said Genesis was at Nibelheim..."
He nodded. "He was. He told me the truth, and in my denial, I went in search of what I thought was the truth, only to stumble across Hojo's lies."
He chuckled darkly. "The irony is not lost on me."
Tifa crossed her arms and stared at him, hard. "So wait, the big 'push' towards your madness was him telling you the truth?"
Sephiroth met her gaze steadily. "It was a poorly timed and cruelty laced truth, but yes. Combined with my Mother's presence, it was enough to fracture what stability I had left at that point. What I read in the basement of the Mansion, coupled with Mother's voice, was enough to send me over the edge, I suppose."
He started to laugh. "It amuses me to no end, how easily I was played."
He shook his head and started up the stairs again. "How easily I was deceived, even by my so called Mother."
"You went into the lifestream, you knew the truth, why did you go along with what she wanted?" asked Tifa.
Sephiroth scoffed. "I told you before, I had nothing left for me in a world of humans. I embraced Mother's voice, though I did push her will aside, and adopted her crusade as my own. It is one thing to gaze into the abyss, Lockheart, it is another thing entirely to dive into it's madness headfirst willingly."
"And what about now?" she asked softly, "You sound way to logical to honestly be insane."
Sephiroth stopped at the top of the stairs. "I suppose that would depend on your definition of sanity and insanity."
He swung his blade at the nearest Mako pod, but unlike what Cloud had told her happened during the Nibelheim incident, his blade did not glance off. No, it tore through the pod, killing its occupant, rending the pod itself in half. Tainted foul mako poured out of the pod along with the creature's dying screams. Tifa tensed at the sight of Mako, fearing that she'd feel the hunger, but it's stench instead nauseated her.
Sephiroth continued to speak as he began ruthlessly destroying and exterminating each pod and it's inhabitants, "I still hate humans. That they could give rise to Shinra is a sin a thousand WRO's could never fix. To so willingly bleed their own planet dry for the sake of their petty greed and ambition is..."
She couldn't help but smile a bit at his words.
He paused, scowling at her. "Don't give me that look. I personally don't care what happens to this world, but what Shinra did is still contemptible by any standards. If anyone would bleed this world dry, it would be me or Mother. At least that way, it's lifeblood would be put to good use."
Tifa rolled her eyes.
He smiled cruelly at her. "I suppose I could put you on that list as well if you prefer."
Her smile turned into a glare.
Sephiroth resumed destroying the pods and experiments. "To be frank Lockheart, it doesn't honestly mater if I am sane, insane, or somewhere inbetween. I am who I am, no more, no less.
CLEAVE
Sephiroth swept his blade and destroyed and entire row of pods in one go. "Whether I am a human, or a monster like these things, there was a time when that question destroyed Genesis, Angeal, and myself. Now? I don't care, not anymore."
"I am Sephiroth, I am something beyond humanity, beyond monster, beyond Calamity," he said, driving his blade through a pod and ripping it out, mako-monster still pierced on his blade.
He flicked the monster off in Tifa's direction, she spun and drove her foot into the side of it's neck, snapping it and sending it into the wall. "What about me then?"
Sephiroth had his blade ready to destroy the next pod before pausing. "That, Lockheart, is up to you to decide.
SLASH
Tifa watched his tirade and venting, wondering sullenly if she shouldn't be doing the same thing. He had moved on, accepted what he was, she sure as hell hadn't. Every answer he had, was still a question plaguing her...
Not a man, not a monster, not a Calamity, just Sephiroth. Could she ever be 'just' Tifa? It was a thought that troubled her. To cast aside everything that once made you who you were. But... if that everything was a lie, or was a painful past, would it honestly be that bad? To Sephiroth, the choice was obvious. To her? She didn't honestly know... it just made her anxious.
She watched him butcher pod and monster alike, her anxiety and frustration growing the entire time. She saw satisfaction in every move he made. He was slaughtering and destroying his past here, conquering it utterly. That much she could tell. She doubted the reactor itself would be standing when he was done.
When he came to the last pod, she called out. "Wait."
He paused and glanced her way. "What is it?"
"Your not the only one with demons living here," she said, walking up to him and holding out her hand.
He raised an eyebrow before flipping Masamune around and offering her the handle. She took it, flexing her grip, before raising the blade high into the air and bisecting the pod and the monster in it. She watched it fall apart with grim intensity. She didn't know what she felt... if it was satisfaction, it wasn't nearly enough. She sighed, stood up straight, and handed the sword back.
"Not satisfied?" he inquired.
"Not really," she murmured.
"Hmph, come," he said, leaving the reactor.
She followed behind, and true to her earlier thought, the moment they were a safe distance, he turned and began lobbing fireballs at the reactor. He blasted chunks out of it until it at last exploded in a mako explosion. Tifa stood next to him in the storm as he raised a barrier around them.
When the blast cleared, she looked at the crater where it had been. "Good riddance."
She turned to look at him, noting that the satisfaction she had seen earlier was gone. "Hmm, perhaps I lied."
She blinked a few times. "About what?"
"Our quickness through the area," he said simply.
His wing exploded out of his shoulder in a rain of feathers and he took to the sky. She followed suit, following him reluctantly back to Nibelheim. She figured out where he was going well before they landed, retracted their wings, and walked in the door: The Shinra Mansion.
She followed him down the hidden stairwell. She noted as he slowly walked down that his fingers brushed the walls, leaving a trail in the dust clinging to them. His eyes seemed distant, lost in a memory. They reached the library a minute later. Sephiroth walked to the desk, sat down, and opened the first book. He read for less than thirty seconds before sighing.
He rubbed his temples. "Not even through the first page and I spotted the first lie."
Tifa watched him read, figuring each annoyed twitch of his eyes was another lie discovered. "Does it bug you that much?"
He briefly looked up at her before returning to the book. "The lies themselves? No. The shear number that I'm seeing that I never noticed? Yes. I don't care about the town I burned down nor the lives I took. But not even spotting a single lie? I'm annoyed with myself, it is inexcusable to have allowed myself to be so blind."
"Well, you didn't know they were all lies at the time, right? How much did you honestly know before you entered the lifestream?" she asked.
He narrowed his eyes. "That is beside the point: I let myself be used by him. If there is one great regret I have during Meteorfall and the period before it, neigh, my entire life, it is that I did not personally kill Hojo. I did not consider him 'worth' my time when I was chasing the black materia and godhood."
He snorted. "Truly I must have been 'mad' to pass up the opportunity."
He ran a hand through his hair, a frustrated sigh escaping his lips. "To have that man as a 'father' is a pain unlike any other."
"Are you sure he is your father?" she asked.
Sephiroth rolled his eyes. "Fairly certain, who else could it be?"
"Well, Vincent was with Lucrecia..." she began.
Sephiroth laughed and waved her off. "So my choices are a madman and a gutless fool who locked himself in a coffin for decades as 'penance' instead of taking action or revenge? No, I'd rather say I spontaneously spawned myself than choose either of them."
Tifa went silent at that, bowing her head. It occurred to her that Sephiroth might actually have a point. That lock on the door would not have held back a Chaos infused Vincient. He had the knowledge, he had the power... if he had just walked out of this damn Haunted House and did something, who knew what the Butterfly Effect would have been? How much would have changed?
"Leave," came a cold, hostile voice.
Tifa blinked and looked up to see Sephiroth practically glaring holes at the book he was reading. "Huh?"
"I wish to be alone for the time being, find something to entertain yourself with," he spat.
Tifa answered quietly. "Okay."
She left, heading back upstairs, outside the manor, and sitting down on its steps. She might not be personally afraid of him that much anymore after her... transformation... and the last few weeks traveling with him, but she was not foolish enough to stay anywhere near him when he was in this mood. Not that he was the only one in a foul mood.
This place... she just wanted to leave... she gave a frustrated sigh and stared at the ground, her silvery hair hanging down below her. "..."
"Hey! There's one of the freaks!" came a loud, angry voice.
Tifa blinked a few times, slowly sitting upright, sighting several angry, and armed, townsfolk coming her way. She took in the sight of their guns and blades, her nostrils flaring. Were they serious? Did they have any clue who they were screwing with right now? And wait, freak?
That name hit a chord. She could remember Cloud being called that, among other things, by the other children. The bitterness those words left in her... was that how Cloud always felt? Being singled out for abuse? Being outcast? Guilt welled up in her for having any hand to play in that, if only she hadn't kept her mouth shut about the bridge incident... had told the truth...
"Hey! Freak! We don't appreciate you coming around here and telling us to get lost! Ya ain't got no right!" one of the townsfolk said, pointing a gun in her face.
Tifa narrowed her eyes. They might have been hired to cover up a lie, but they sure as hell would have fit in back in old Nibelheim. Inconsiderate assholes who hated outsiders and anything different. And where the hell did they get off telling HER that she had no RIGHT telling them not to leave? Aside from Cloud, she was the ONLY left one that had a right! This had been HER home! Hers! HERS! MINE!
Tifa felt possessiveness for this place and her hate boiling over. If not for the training she had gone through with Sephiroth, she might not have caught herself in time. It wasn't the same kind of possessiveness as with Reunion, but it was damn close. It sent chills down her spine, feeling bloodlust screaming at her to be quenched. This place... it... it was to much... she had to get out of here...
She abruptly stood up, ignoring the startled cry and clicking of the safety of the gun in front of her and released her wing, the townsfolk crying out in surprise and fear as she did. She had to go, had to go, had to GO! Had to leave before this got out of control...
"She's a monster!" cried out the man infront of her.
Tifa froze at those words, mortified and shaken at them. It was one thing to think it of herself, it was another, horrifying thing to hear it from the words of another...
BANG!
Tifa recoiled as a gunshot blew through her chest, sending her staggering. Eyes going wide in shock. She grimaced, falling to a knee, hand going to her chest, feeling the blood soaking through them as the bullet hole slowly healed. She held up her hand, looking at the blood in a daze.
Thump thump...
The townsfolk backed away as she shakily stood up, shaking not out of pain, but rage... mind numbing rage... and...
Thump thump...
Hate... was this what Sephiroth had felt? Was this... why he hated humans? Yes... they... they were the true monsters... inconsiderate... selfish... cruel...
Thump thump...
The slits of her eye tightened, the mako in them shinning a heavy blood red. Thoughts began to leave her mind rapidly, shoved aside by hate on a level she hadn't felt since Edge...
Thump thump...
She smiled cruelly at them, a red glow of energy surrounding her. "I warned you all to leave Nibelheim... you had your chance..."
Sephiroth tossed aside his current book, aggravated. "Fifteen lies in one book alone. Pitiful. I'm going to be in a state of perpetual chagrin before I'm through with..."
BANG
Sephiroth paused, catching the sound of gunfire off in the distance. He frowned and shrugged it off, passing it off as something hunting related and moved to take the next book...
Only to pause as a familiar chill ran down his spine. "Lockheart..."
He rose to his feet and made for the door of the library, pausing only to shoot a fireball back into it and set the whole place aflame. He started hearing screams, and them abruptly being cut off one by one as he ascended the staircase and strode through the house. He smelt smoke and frowned intently before coming to a window...
He stared out with a sense of wonder...
Nibelheim was burning.
Again.
With a double sense of deja vu from his own time in Nibelheim and from watching Lockheart's memory of Edge, he watched as Lockheart slaughtered the townsfolk. Unlike Edge, she wasn't quick or efficient, she was brutal, and already covered in generous amounts of blood. One punch broke a hip, one kick snapped a spine, one foot ground in and shattered a knee before she finally drove a fist completely through someone's skull. Then, she was onto the next. Even from here he could feel the hate radiating off her in waves, whatever had happened had truly sent her over the edge to do this without her Father's manipulation involved.
He contemplated, briefly, intervening, but decided against it. He didn't care for this town or it's humans. He did not feel Gaia's presence watching them. Tifa was not enacting Reunion, so it did not appear to care if it knew at all what was happening. His lips curled into a grin, perhaps it appreciated the return of the lifestream within the humans?
He watched her work, a pleased smile on his face. There was utter cruelty in her every move, she fired a fireball at a little girl, watching briefly as the human screamed, her flesh melting, before she turned to the next person trying to flee. Hmph, not even the children were spared her wrath. Truly a magnificent sight... though, the humans fleeing towards the mansion detracted from his view. He chuckled darkly to himself, why should Lockheart have all the pleasure?
He stepped from the window and made his way downstairs. His sword was out and impaling through both the door and the human opening it by the time the doorknob started to move. He kicked open the door and surged out, Masamune singing through the air. The fools who had sought safety in the Shinra Mansion were shown the error of putting faith into anything built by that company.
He breathed in deep the stench of fire and death, listening to the cackle of the flames along with the screams. He sheathed Masamune and walked through the flames, drawing closer, but still keeping distance from Lockheart, simply wanting a closer view. It took his breath away to see that utter contempt and hate in her eyes. Everything she touched bleed and died, every place she aimed her fiery glowing hands was reduced to ash... she was a beautiful angel of death...
She stood alone in the flames, her eyes sweeping around, searching for another source of her hatred. Her gaze fell on him and locked onto his eyes. He did not tense, he did not act, he merely waited, wondering if he would get a good fight out of this to boot. Instead, to his surprise, her eyes softened, and the red glow of hate surrounding her faded a bit. She blinked a few times, coming out of whatever blood-haze she had been in, and slowly looked around over her handiwork. He sighed and mentally counted down the seconds till her breakdown...
It never came. She merely continued to look around, a sad look on her face, frustration and resentment in her eyes. How curious...
He strode up to her, desiring an answer to sate his curiosity, stopping a mere step away.
She looked up at him. "..."
He raised an eyebrow. "..."
She spoke quietly, the cackling of flames and crumpling structures almost defeating his enhanced hearing, "They're the real monsters... not me..."
He tilted his head, studying her. He searched her face, looking for the telltale signs of someone offering an excuse for being caught in an act. There were none. She simply spoke what she thought was a truth, a truth he had come to himself a long time ago, for some reason it seemed to pain her.
"I... just wanted them to leave... wanted them to leave my memories alone... they didn't belong here... no one does... Nibelheim never should have been rebuilt," she said quietly, "It should have remained a memory, a graveyard... a reminder..."
She gave a short, brief, laugh of despair. "I was going to spare them... but... they called me a monster... shot me... when I wasn't even going to attack them, I was going to fly away..."
My friend, do you fly away now?
To a world that abhors you and I?
All that awaits you is a somber morrow.
No matter where the winds may blow.
Genesis's words rang in his mind, triggered by Lockheart's own, how true they were. "And where would you have gone Lockheart... where would you have gone, Tifa?"
He tasted her name on his lips. "There isn't a place in this world that would welcome you anymore than it does me."
She closed her eyes. "I know..."
He reached a hand up to grasp a lock of her hair, twiddling it between his thumbs.
"Your... the only one who doesn't judge...," she murmured.
Hmph... did not judge? He did judge, and he approved of what she had done, but, that probably wasn't what she meant. He stared at her, lost in her power, and her defenselessness at the moment. Such a conundrum and contradiction Tifa was...
"Your wrong...," she murmured.
"About what?" he asked.
"I... think there's one place... I wouldn't be turned away...," she said softly, before giving a despairing chuckle.
"Oh?" he asked, honestly curious, even the Puppet and the Ancient would have a hard time looking past this.
To his surprise, she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him tightly, burying her head into his chest. He stared down at her, a bit baffled, before the understanding of her words hit him. How ironic that she would find with him of all people being the one place she wouldn't be shunned and rejected. He smiled softly at that, she was right he supposed. He reached up a hand to comb through her hair possessively. He would not turn away what was essentially a reflection of himself. Perhaps that was the source of her despair, her realization of that fact.
He felt... a oh so mortal urge, one he hadn't had since he had been inside Tifa's head. He looked down at her and smirked, deciding to indulge it once more, only to find he was beaten to it. She wrapped her hands around his head and pulled his lips down to hers. He tasted the desperation and despair, a... exquisite mix. He tasted it for a moment longer before beginning to pull back, such delicacies should be savored sparingly.
Apparently Tifa didn't agree. She pulled him back, kissed him again, passion emanating from her, and her scent changing, before she slowly took him to the ground. He broke her kiss for a moment, studying her face and eyes intently. Seeing her emotions so laid bare, he contemplated her intentions for the briefest of moments, knowing where this was leading, and more than surprised this was her desire. Was she simply lost in herself and desperate? Or was this her new truth? Whatever it was, he supposed it didn't mater at the moment, he pushed her down, if this was what she wanted, so be it, but he was not one to be led, he was one to lead...
If Jenova had a body or a face aside from the few cells hiding away in Lockheart's body, she would have smiled. What a dutiful son, and what the perfect place for this... Reunion of sorts. The First Nibelheim Incident had given her her son...
The Second Nibelheim Incident would give her a new... unprecedented... host body. When two Calamities met and consumed one another in how it naturally happened, the cells absorbed were converted. This would be a mixture of two separate Calamity bloodlines... even she could not envision the power and potential her soon-to-be host would have once born and fully grown. If she had a mouth, it would be watering with anticipation and hunger.
She waited, patiently, for the strands of life to take root. It wouldn't take much effort to subvert and contaminate the soul of a newborn once it arrived to begin stimulating the growth of the tiny life. She waited... and waited... except...
No soul entered.
She studied the tiny soulless vessel for a moment, perplexed, before it dawned on her...
Oh Minerva, you foolish little goddess...
This was even more perfect then she could have imagined. If a soul was denied to one who was unborn... it would simply die and be re-absorbed into it's mother's body within hours. What a clever way to keep the Children of Calamity from multiplying, to simply deny them access to the cycle of souls. Neither her son nor Lockheart would have been able to conceive children, together or with a human, and they would never know why. They'd probably just assume it was a side effect of being born a Child of Calamity.
But what that foolish little goddess had not counted on was her... she could simply preserve the body until it was born... and thinking of the future, even when her son and Lockheart eventually found out, they wouldn't turn on her, not when she revealed what Minerva was denying them. She was going to have the last laugh before this was through, one way or another...
She eagerly probed the vessel, thinking. If there was no soul... then it was an empty vessel... one she could control uncontested...
But...
If she could have frowned, she would have. This also provided another... unusual option. If there was no other soul to fight with... then this body was unclaimed... there was no soul it was bound with... there was a... possibility she had never had before...
She could fully bind herself to this unborn body... make it her truthfully her own by seeding it with her own soul in-place of a Gaia one, rather than simply possessing it and controlling it like a puppet. It would be a new existence for her, unlike anything she had ever been through before.
While she was loath to change what she was... she had very little options at the moment, she was forced to adapt or die. What very little of her cells remaining outside of Lockheart were being purged as time passed by. By the time this body was born, let alone matured, not enough would remain for any kind of Reunion. If she only puppeted this body, and it failed, she'd have nothing left... but... if she took on this new existence...
What would she gain?
What would she lose?
What would she become?
There was only one way to find out...
Author's Notes:
To be fair... they townsfolks kind of brought it on themselves... Tifa didn't want to do it initially, buuuuut, you don't shoot an unstable Child of Calamity without extreme consequences. I also want you to envision, and cringe a bit, at exactly where Sephiroth and Tifa are doing it, after all, the town is literally still burning around them.
Also, Jenova's getting her own true body, rather than being a 'sentient cellular disease' if you will, a body born of two different Calamity bloodlines, from powerful beings; Sephiroth and Tifa. I want you all to think just how potentially bad this is...
Minerva goofed, big time.
I also may have made a not-so-subtle hint towards two Fanfictions where Vincent did in fact get out of that basement coffin of his. Haunted House, which is a highly recommended personal favorite of mine, and Butterfly Effect, which is good, but, watch out for the Yaoi/Yuri stuff.