Bright Seraphim
Six

He watched her warily as she neared and sat down next to him. She placed herself just out of arm's reach -- she didn't want to make him any more uneasy.

After a moment he looked away, choosing to stare off into space instead. Jaz said nothing, but settled into staring into roughly the same patch of air.

Several minutes later, Sephiroth spoke. "~~I'm... I'm sorry,~~" he said quietly. "~~I didn't mean to... It wasn't you. I didn't know it was you. She uses illusion...~~" He fell silent again, thinking of too many times when Jenova had merely shoved his mind aside and used his body as she willed - or worse, when she had merely suggested his course of action, and he had willingly obeyed.

"That... sounded like an apology," Jaz said slowly. "It's all right. You were hallucinating or something, right? I'm sure it wasn't your fault. I think."

Sephiroth lowered his head. "~~I know that you can't understand me, but... I need to talk. I need to think. I don't think that I'm at all who you thought I was... who I thought I was... On second thought, maybe it's better that you can't understand me, I'm not making much sense right now...~~"

Jaz huddled into a ball, listening to him even though she had no hope of understanding. His voice was a softly lilting tenor, unexpectedly gentle and mesmerizing.

"~~I... lost it, once. Really lost it. I think that's what they boy was telling you about this evening - I heard names.~~" He swallowed. His mouth and throat were far too dry. "~~I was raised - trained - to be a ShinRa Soldier... I never even suspected that I was anything but their greatest warrior, that I could be anything else, anything other than their war hero, their figurehead, their prize... And then I found out that it was all a game, that they controlled both sides, even in the war I won for them. They created the monsters to fight, and I was one of the monsters, a pet...~~"

Jaz watched him, her head tilted to rest on her knees. She focused on his mouth, on the way his lips moved. He was too beautiful to hurt so much.

"~~I thought that they didn't deserve to live. None of them deserved to live. I made up my mind, for half a second, to kill them all - and then Je - my... mother took my mind and told me how to do it, and wouldn't let go...~~" So far, Jenova hadn't appeared to punish him for naming her as his mother again. He wondered if her attempt at Jaz's life had tired her. "~~The boy. Cloud. He almost stopped it then and there, in Nibelheim, but he couldn't kill my mother. He nearly killed me, stabbed me...~~"

He shook his head. "~~ShinRa had been filling me with raw Mako my whole life, so when I fell into the Mako reactor it didn't make much difference. My mother used the Lifestream to keep me alive and heal me, but it was slow... And by the time she was ready to begin her plan, I couldn't fight her anymore.~~"

He thumped his head back against the wall, now staring upward. "~~She's right. I'm weak. Weak in mind, because I couldn't face her. Weak in body, because Cloud was able to destroy me, even after Je - Jenova changed my form...~~

"~~I remember that I fell, and she was screaming because she'd lost her hold on my mind - on the world. She tried to kill Cloud, in his mind, but he still defeated her.~~" He allowed himself to smile a little. "~~She's a shape shifter, all illusions and memories. But she could only assume my form, not my mind - else she would have known better than to try to fight that way, by sword, no matter what plane she chose to do battle on. A duel with Cloud at that point could only end in one way. I think that she was desperate...~~"

He felt a small, sharp pain in his arm and wondered if Jenova was exhausted but listening. She was making no attempt to do more harm at the moment, so he continued.

"~~I think I know what happened, after that. When my body fell into the Lifestream, with both me and Jenova trapped inside, the Lifestream... it... I think it kept my body and healed it, to make a prison for Jenova. I don't know how long it took. I think it's been... a while. A year maybe. Then it cast us out, into this world. This world doesn't have Mako -- the energy here is all different. Jenova can't feed or regenerate here. She's powerless here... almost powerless.~~"

He shifted position, stretching out a little, and again smiled slightly. "~~She's trying to break me again, so that she'll at least have a body of her own here. I think she'll have more of a fight from me this time...~~" The pain in his arm increased; she was listening. He made a fist, forcing the muscles to stretch, lessening the pain.

"~~She's slipped up,~~" he suddenly realized. "~~She told me that so long as I live, she lives.~~"

Jaz wasn't looking at him. Had she been, she might have been frightened - his smile broadened, taking on a slightly less sane aspect. "~~If she tries to gain control, I think I know of a way to stop her,~~" Sephiroth murmured.

The pain in his arm vanished.

"~~After all, I'm the only one left whose body holds any of her genetic material. Other than me, her spirit has nowhere to go.~~"

He could feel a small, cold shell in the back of his mind. Jenova was hiding.

She was afraid.


Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII, its story, and characters (particularly Sephiroth) are the property, copyright and trademark of Square Electronic Arts L.L.C., and no ownership or claim on said property, copyright or trademark is made or implied by their use in the work(s) of fan fiction presented here. This fan fiction constitutes a personal comment on the aforesaid properties pursuant to doctrines of fair use and fair comment. This fan fiction is non-commercial, not for sale or profit, and may not be sold or reproduced for commercial purposes. The same goes for Clock Tower, Tekken 2, Soul Blade, Star Trek, Dark Shadows, Lost in Space, Pepsi, and any other games, television shows, movies, etc. mentioned in this fanfic: all belong to their respective owners. Clock Tower, its story, and characters (particularly Scissorman) are the property, copyright, and trademark of Ascii Entertainment.