From the author of
"An Autobiography of Vincent Valentine"
Phoenix Down.
Phantom Wall Devils: A tale of Sephiroth
Part: Omega
Samech
"If there is a transmigration of souls, then I am not yet at the bottom rung.
My life is a hesitation before birth."
(Franz Kafka, [1883-1924] Czech novelist, short-story writer, from his journal entry, Jan 24, 1922. The diaries of Franz Kafka, 1910-1923, ed. Max Brod [1948])
"We have an early start tomorrow. You should get some sleep, soon."
"Yeah, lets get some sleep." Zack agreed with a small yawn.
"I've hired a guide to the mako reactor. I've heard she's young. I hope we can rely on her." Sephiroth said as he slid off his coat.
Cloud was already fast asleep and snoring; Zack was not looking forward to sharing a bed with him.
The following morning started early. Zack woke up before the others, and got himself ready in the serene silence with the stench of mako in the morning air.
The sky seemed lumpy and gray.
He went to a coffee house and ate a bagel and drank black coffee. The others were already outside the Shin-Ra mansion when he finished breakfast.
Sephiroth didn't greet him- when Zack arrived he simply said,
"Once the guide gets here, we are heading out."
Zack noticed that standing beside Sephiroth was Tifa's dad- and beside him was the photographer that stopped him the day before. He dare ask what they were doing there. Cloud sighed, and snapped on his uniform hat.
"Listen to me, Sephiroth, incase something happens-"
When Tifa's father spoke, Zack felt his cheeks fill with blood.
"Trust me." Sephiroth grinned like a fox.
Tifa ran up. She wore a mini skirt, boots, and a brown leather cowboy hat.
She was slightly out of breath.
Zack turned away.
"I'll- I'll be alright, dad! I have two men from SOLDIER with me. By the way, I'm Tifa, nice to meet you." Tifa pouted her lips and held out her hand flirtatiously to Sephiroth- who didn't seem to notice.
"Jesus! Tifa! You're the guide!?" Zack couldn't hold himself in anymore.
He wanted to ignore her, but he couldn't.
"That's right." She snarled, "I just happen to be the number one guide in this town!" A sarcastic, triumphant red smile peeled onto her face.
"It's dangerous! I can't involve you in something like this!"
Sephiroth placed a heavy, black, lead hand onto Zack's shoulder. Somehow, he was amused at the situation between Zack and Tifa that he was aware of- and picked up on.
A weird smile was on his face as he looked down and spoke, "There is no problem if you protect her, now is there. Let's go."
"Uhm... Mr. Sephiroth! Please let me take a picture for a memento! Uh- Tifa- uh- can you ask him for me to-" Awkwardly, the photographer glanced to Tifa as if for reimbursement.
Sephiroth heard him, and simply walked over to stand beside Tifa and Zack.
The photographer looked pleased as he stood back and got his camera ready. He placed it against his face and yelled,
"Cheeeese!"
Click.
"Great! Thank you! I'll give you each a copy once I get it developed!"
Cloud and Karl adjusted the heavy packs of supplies that were strapped to their backs. Zack, Tifa, and Sephiroth lead.
Tifa glanced over her slender shoulder and looked strait at Cloud.
Cloud swallowed hard. There was no way she could see through his uniform SOLDIER mask and recognize him.
Zack and Tifa made forced conversation as they walked up the path to Mt. Nibel where the mako reactor was built far up out of ordinary reach.
The cold air of Mt. Nibel bit their faces and the tips of their fingers.
The path on the mountain was misty, freezing, rocky, and gray.
It winded and spun up hill for hours.
Then, they reached a bridge.
Tifa ran into the middle of it.
Sephiroth followed.
Zack, and Cloud hesitated.
Karl had a very bad feeling about the whole thing, and nearly didn't cross.
"Come on, Karl. We can't wait for you. Either come or don't. If you don't we are not waiting for you." Sephiroth called from the front of the bridge.
"Come on, you guys! It gets harder from here! Follow me!" Tifa yelled as she went ahead on the bridge.
As Karl plucked up his courage, he, Zack, and Cloud began to walk slowly and carefully across the rickety old bridge that had a deep and endless drop bellow it.
The wind and the mist shook the creaking wood and ropes violently as if toying with their very fear of plunging to a grotesque death.
The rope snapped.
Sephiroth braced himself.
Zack, Tifa, Zack, and Karl fell.
Soon, Sephiroth couldn't hold on any longer, and he too, fell.
Zack, and Tifa fell beside each other.
Cloud and Sephiroth fell behind a boulder on the path.
Sephiroth got up immediately, unphased by the whole ordeal- as if it didn't matter at all.
He shook his head; letting pebbles fall from his sleek, silver hair.
"Everyone seems alright. Can we get back to where we were?" He asked as Tifa and Zack regained themselves.
"These... uh, caverns are intertwined... just like an ant farm..." She stood, and brushed herself off. For a moment she thought that she twisted her ankle.
"Oh, and Seph! There seems to be one person missing!" Tifa looked around, and helped Zack to his feet.
"This may sound cold, but we have no time to search for him. We can't go back now, so we must go on. We'll travel together from here."
Cloud nodded in agreement as he shuddered.
He wondered where exactly Karl landed.
From the path that they fell upon, they headed strait up into a cave.
The cave was cool, but not cold- and the walls were slick and mysteriously green and swirled black.
The walls looked like polished malachite.
The air in the cave was thin and pale.
"What's... this?" Zack asked as they walked in. There was little light in the cave. Zack touched the walls. They were cool and glassy.
"A-... mysteriously colored cave?" Tifa looked around in awe. It was beautiful, in a strange, misty way.
"Must be the mako energy. This mountain is abundant in it. That's why the mako reactor was built here." Sephiroth said as he simply walked past the others and out of the cave. Cloud said nothing as he walked by Zack and Tifa.
As they pressed on, they reached a small grove.
Tree roots gnarled into odd, huge, sculptural shapes. Green mako energy polluted the air making the filtered sunlight aqua green.
In the center of a ring of twisting, still but writhing tree roots, was a natural fountain. Bubbling and flowing from it was not water, but liquid, green mako.
Sunlight was falling upon the energy from a hole in the leafy canopy above.
"Wow. What's this?"
The party stopped as they reached the mako fountain. Tifa was the first to run up to it.
"A mako fountain." Sephiroth answered as he walked up close to the bubbling green pool.
"It's so beautiful. If the mako reactor continues to suck up energy, this fountain will dry up, too!"
"Materia. When you condense mako energy, Materia is produced. It's very rare to be able to see Materia in its natural state."
"By the way," Zack interjected. "Why is it that when you use Materia, you can also use magic, too?"
Sephiroth sighed irritated. "You were in SOLDIER and don't even know THAT? The knowledge and wisdom of the Ancients is held in the Materia. Anyone with this knowledge can freely use the powers of the land and the Planet. That knowledge interacts between ourselves and the Planet calling up the magic, or-so-they-say."
"Magic... a mysterious power." Zack smiled secretly as he stared at the fountain.
Sephiroth began to laugh.
"Did I say something funny?" Zack shot his glance to the laughing general.
"A man once told me never to use unscientific terms, such as, 'mysterious power,' It shouldn't even be called, 'magic.' I still remember how angry he was." Sephiroth mused as he thought of his childhood lessoned that prepared him for SOLDIER.
"Who was that?" Zack asked curiously as he itched his ear.
"Hojo of Shin-Ra Inc. An experienced man assigned to take over the works of a great scientist... He was a walking mass of complexes."
"I know who Hojo is." Zack hissed. He hated being talked down to.
"A mako fountain... So this is where the knowledge of the Ancients is..." Tifa said quietly. Cloud said nothing, but stared at her.
They soon reached the mako reactor near the summit of Mt. Nibel.
The building looked unnatural amidst its surroundings.
It stood out like something ancient and lonely.
"We finally made it! We sure took the long way, though!" Tifa yelled as she excitedly wiped a sweaty, dirty brow with her arm.
"Tifa, you wait here." Zack said sternly as she approached the stairway leading in.
"I'm going inside! I want to see, too!"
"Only authorized people are aloud in. This place is full of Shin-Ra's industrial secrets." Sephiroth added sternly as he walked up the first of the few steps leading inside. Zack followed him.
"Take care of the lady." He said to Cloud with a smirk.
"Oh, man! You better take REAL good care of me, then!" Tifa stomped her foot as Cloud shook his head.
Sephiroth was far ahead of Zack as they walked inside. Sephiroth wanted to strait into the heart of the reactor.
Zack soon caught up with him. Inside, was a red walled room filled with a dozen pair shaped pods.
A stairway divided the room.
The stairway lead up to a sealed door, and above the door read the word in bold letters, "Jenova."
Sephiroth stood at the top of the stairs with his back to Zack.
"So, this is Jenova, right? The lock won't open?"
Sephiroth turned around with a gray look to his eyes.
He walked down the stairs and approached Zack.
Zack moved aside.
Sephiroth walked up to one of the first pods, and examined it a moment.
"This is the reason for the malfunction. This part is broken, Zack, close the valve..."
Zack nods, looks at Sephiroth oddly, and does what he is told to the pod.
Sephiroth walks across the room, and looks into a porthole on one of the far end pods.
"Why did it break?" He said out loud to himself in a thoughtful tone.
Zack glanced at him again.
"Hojo, even doing this... you will never be put on the same level as professor Gast."
Sephiroth turned to Zack.
"This is a system that condenses and freezes mako energy. That is- when working correctly. Now- what does mako energy become when it is further condensed?"
Zack paused, and folded his arms.
"Uhm, oh, yeah, becomes a Materia."
"Right. Normally. But Hojo put something else in there. Take a look."
Zack walked up to the pod Sephiroth stood near, and paused.
He looked to Sephiroth, and then hoisted himself up to look into one of the pods.
Inside was what looked to be a hideous, once human creature asleep in thick watery fluid.
Zack tumbled back in shock when he saw the monster.
"Wh- what IS this!?"
"Normal members of SOLDIER are humans that have been showered in mako. Your different from the others- but still human. But what are they? They have been exposed to a high degree of mako- far more than you." Sephiroth paused and spoke carefully.
"Is... this some kind of monster...?" Zack asked as he returned to his feet.
"Exactly. And it's Hojo of Shin-Ra that produced these monsters. Mutated living organisms produced by mako energy, that's what these monsters really are."
"Normal members of SOLDIER- you mean your different...? Hey... hey! Seph!"
Sephiroth unsheathed his masamune, and began hitting the pod that stood before him violently. Long scratches scared it's white surface.
His chest heaved, and his face contorted with choking anger.
"No... no... Was I... Was I created this way, too? Am I the same as these- MONSTERS?!"
Sephiroth's shoulder's shook- he felt that he was on the verge of exploding as the thoughts and possibilities of things began to make sense.
All those years that he spent his childhood in a laboratory- maybe he was a fucking science experiment like the rumors that surrounded life whispered.
It was Hojo. Hojo created these- things...
Was he a... "Thing?"
A monster.
A fucking monster and not even human.
"Sephiroth!"
Sephiroth spun around. The tip of his lengthy sword neared Zack's face.
There was a wild, raging fire in his eyes.
"You SAW THEM! All of them were- HUMANS!" Sephiroth screeched. He clutched his face and dropped his sword.
"Human?... No. No fucking way. No." Zack backed away as Sephiroth flew past him and ran up the stairs toward the Jenova room.
"I've... always felt that since I was small, that I was different from the others-special- in some ways... but not like this... Not like this!"
Sephiroth stood on the tall stairway and caught his breath, trying to calm himself. As he began to slowly regain his state of mind and walk back out of the reactor, one of the pods began to violently rock.
Both Zack and the general stopped and stared.
The pod jerked back and forth. One of the creatures awoke and tried to break free.
Steam poured out of the top of the pod.
The monster screeched, much like the sound of Sephiroth's voice when he screeched.
The creature broke free, and fell to the floor in a tiered, weak, and dying broken heap.
Zack, Tifa, and Cloud went back to Nibleheim alone. Sephiroth requested to be left alone in the reactor to clean up the beast that broke free.
Then, he would climb down Mt. Nible alone.
He reached Nibleheim very late that night.
He felt tiered, hungry, and very very lonely.
As he reached town, he didn't feel like returning to the inn- instead he took it upon himself to go into the Shin-Ra mansion- and see for himself the piles of documents that were supposedly locked in the basement that were supposedly related to the Jenova project.
His mother name was Jenova.
The creature inside the reactor was also called, "Jenova."
It couldn't have been a coincidence.
It couldn't have been a FUCKING COINCIDENCE.
It took him only an hour to search the mansion before he found the secret passageway that lead to the basement laboratory.
He lit a few candles to shed light as he crept down the wooden stairway.
He was exhausted. But it didn't matter.
Nothing would matter if he weren't even human.
His whole life would have been a lie- everything he knew- everything that he was supposed to know- the knowledge that was secure and you take for granted- could be false.
How would you feel if you began to find evidence- reason- that the very skin you wore wasn't even human...?
Was he supposed to FEEL human?
He flew down the staircase like a mad raven.
Down the stairs that wound like a coil, he reached a cavern.
Past there, he KNEW was the laboratory.
As he walked down the cold, and purple hued cavern- he suddenly felt a chill as he passed a wooden locked door.
But he pressed on, and reached the lab.
The laboratory was FILLED with notes, files, and books.
He did not sleep that night- nor the night after- he ravaged every bit of paper that he could find that had the words, "Hojo, Gast, Jenova, Cetra, Sephiroth, and Ancient" on them.
The following morning, Zack awoke to find that Sephiroth hadn't returned from the reactor. He searched the city for him to no avail. He asked around- someone said that he saw him enter the mansion last night. Cloud offered to help look.
It took Zack and Cloud nearly two hours to find the secret passage way that lead downstairs.
Cloud didn't dare go down.
Zack did.
"An organism that was apparently dead found in a 200 year old geological stratum. Professor Gast named that organism, Jenova. X year, X month, X day, Jenova confirmed to be an Ancient. X year, X month, X day, Jenova project approved for the use of mako reactor. My mother's name is Jenova... Jenova project, is this just a coincidence?"
Zack walked quietly into the ill lit laboratory.
Sephiroth was muttering to himself, pacing back and forth, writing notes and reading out loud.
He did not look, or seem well.
Black bags hung like heavy tar underneath his green eyes.
His face looked sunken, and his hair was disheveled.
His skin looked like it was glazed in sweat.
Sephiroth did not acknowledge Zack's existence.
He simply continued to walk back and fourth with a book in hand.
"Uh, Sephiroth?" Zack quietly approached the general, and tapped him on the shoulder. His back was to him.
Sephiroth's head fell. He did not respond at first.
Then, he took a deep, raspy, breath and whispered, "Leave me alone."
Zack turned away. As he reached the door, he glanced over his shoulder to Sephiroth.
Then, he walked away.
Zack wandered around the mansion for hours before he found a cold, dusty, and unused bed to sleep upon.
Downstairs, Sephiroth was restless.
"I... I think I see. I think. Yes. I think I understand. I see it all clearly, now." Sephiroth dropped a folder filled with paper.
His eyes were bloodshot red.
He released his bladder upon the back wall of the laboratory.
He smiled to himself.
"Jenova was an ancient. But not just any ancient-" He spoke out loud to himself as he pissed.
"She was a goddess. And... she died. For some reason. Mother died." He zipped up his pants, and choked on a broken laugh.
"And she was buried and forgotten over the centuries, until....." He then strode over to the desk in the lab, and knocked all the papers, books, and files that sat there onto the floor. Then, he pulled himself onto the desk and sat there- then continued on talking out loud to himself.
"Until BRILLIANT professor Gast came around and found her. He thought that by extracting her cells that he could bring a part of her back to life. Of course, that would mean creating a whole new being/organism, I.E.- me. How- fascinating, Gast. Creating a being that is HALF GOD. In fact, I AM a god. I am Jenova's son. Jenova, a goddess, the Planet is rightfully hers, no, ours, isn't it? Isn't it, mom?" Sephiroth could not stop smiling.
He finally knew the truth. No, he wasn't human. He was something more.
Something bigger. So much more important.
It was all in the files, the forgotten papers.
He was a god, an heir to the Planet. A Cetra.
He leaned over off the desk, and picked up a file.
He leaned back, and wickedly guffawed.
He couldn't stop laughing; his eyes began to tear up.
He hadn't eaten or slept in days.
"Then, Gast died, unexpectedly. Hojo resumed the 'project,' I.E, raising me. They did it- created me, because they thought that I would somehow inherit the memories of Jenova from her cells, and lead them to the Promised Land. A place FILLED with mako energy. ... They made me so they could make money. That was the whole point- the whole goal of the project. Mako equals money..." He chuckled into his hand.
"Isn't that FUNNY...? The whole meaning and purpose of my LIFE- was to act as a pig sniffing out truffles?! To find them mako, eh? WELL..."
He fell back and laughed.
It was... ironic.
"What's this?" Sephiroth looked to his side, and found another book.
It was the 'history,' of the Cetra. A file report.
He leaned back, and read- underneath the flicking yellow light of a dying candle.
Zack woke. He was freezing. The room in the abandoned Shin-Ra mansion was like ice. He woke with nightmares still fresh, and slowly fading.
He heard noises all night long. Sleep hadn't come easy.
He swore the mansion was haunted.
Immediately, he rose and headed toward the basement. Near the secret passage to the basement, Cloud stood, and he was pacing and nervous.
"What's wrong?" Zack asked. He noticed the secret passage door was wide open.
"Sephiroth... He seems different..." Cloud muttered. His blue eyes were very pale.
Zack nodded, and ran down the wooden spiraling steps.
He dashed through the laboratory.
It had a foul odor to it.
There, behind a stack of strewn, torn, some burned, books and papers, Sephiroth sat at a desk.
He was reading some papers with a fat smile to his thin face.
He was laughing consistently, and quietly to himself.
His face rose.
He squinted in the dim light to see Zack standing at the door.
"Heh heh heh... hm? Who- who is it... hmph. Oh. Traitor." Sephiroth rose from the desk. He clasped his fingers behind his back.
"Traitor?" The word tasted like acid on his tongue.
"You... IGNORENT traitor. I'll tell you." Sephiroth began to pace two and fro as he spoke. "The planet originally belonged to the Cetra. Cetra was a itinerant race. They would migrate in, settle the planet, then move on. At the end of their harsh, hard journey, they would find the Promised Land and supreme happiness. But those that disliked the journey disappeared, and those who stopped their migrations built shelters and elected to lead an easier life. They took that which the Cetra and the Planet had made without giving back one whit in return." He stopped, turned, and raised a thin, pale finger- and pointed to Zack. His arm casted a heavy shadow against his indented cheeks and uncolored features.
"Those...are your ancestors."
"Sephiroth..." Zack pleaded.
"Long ago, disaster struck this planet. Your ancestors escaped. They survived because they hid. The Planet was saved by sacrificing the Cetra. After that, your ancestors continued to increase." He stopped, lowered his hand, and gestured to the books scattered, broken, and thrown around the floor like trash.
"All that's left of the Cetra is in these reports."
"What does that have to do with you?" Zack walked deeper into Sephiroth's den.
Sephiroth's face furrowed and scowled.
He paused, and rested his forehead on his hand in thought.
Then, he exploded.
"DON'T YOU GET IT!?... An Ancient named Jenova was found in the geological stratum 2000 years ago, the Jenova project. The Jenova project wanted to produce people with the powers of the Ancients- no the Cetra. I am the one that was produced."
Zack took a step back. He couldn't believe this. Impossible. No one would... Sephiroth was his friend, his war buddy; they used to get drunk together.
He was scaring him.
"P-produced?"
"Yes. Professor Gast, leader of the Jenova project and genius scientist produced me."
"I don't... How did he? Sephiroth!?" Zack didn't understand. He didn't believe.
As Zack approached him Sephiroth pushed him aside and headed for the door.
"Out of my way! I am going to see my mother!"
Sephiroth stormed out of the mansion.
As he ran through the mansion, he passed Cloud.
Cloud ran after him.
His masamune, his friend that he created- much in the same way he was created, hung at his side.
It- his friend- was crying for blood- blood of the race that took his mother and made her into an experiment.
It cried for the blood of the people that took his planet, his Earth, his Promised Land- away from his people and his mother.
He would bring them back; he would be their Savior. He, and the Cetra, was the rightful heirs of the planet.
He wanted revenge for everything they had done.
He would start with the Shin-Ra- the company that produced mako energy, which produced the Jenova project, which killed Katrina- that created his life and took it away.
He would kill them all.
Everyone.
Just kill everyone.
They deserved it.
It was for revenge.
As he existed the mansion, he pulled a bright green piece of materia from his pocket.
And then a blue one.
He loaded them onto his blade.
Materia- condensed mako energy.
He took one glance around the small town of Nibleheim.
So quiet, so peaceful, so normal.
He wanted to shake them. Make them feel what he felt.
...
Should...
Should...
He...
Really...
Do...
It?
...They are innocent, and have nothing to do with... anything, really.
Look at them.
Look at them run.
You can make them run.
Make them feel the pain, the chaos, the feelings that you feel.
But you really don't feel anything.
Numb.
Your special.
Your chosen.
You know you are.
Burn them.
Do it.
They deserve it.
Yes.
Raise the blade.
Raise it high.
Then, cast, 'Fire 3-' with your 'All.' Do it.
I know you can.
Yes.
Look at them.
Look at them RUN.
Hear them scream.
It made you feel good, and satisfied...the beginning of your revenge.
Feel happy.
Feel happy that you finally know who your mother is,
And your destiny is much larger, much more important than you ever have anticipated.
Yes.
"Sephiroth!"
He heard his name, and he turned around.
Cloud stood there, un his Shin-Ra uniform.
"Stop! What are you doing!?"
Sephiroth...
Smiled.
He casted, 'Fire 3,' again. Then, physically shoved Cloud to the ground.
He thought it was funny.
The town was in flames.
Cloud began to choke on the smoke; he couldn't get back up.
Zangan, The martial art's master, leapt out of the inn once the flames reached the downstairs level.
He challenged Sephiroth.
Sephiroth thought it was a joke. He knew he was the greatest swords man that ever lived- people came long and far just to have his autograph.
He laughed in Zangan's face, then, in one swift move of his blade, stabbed him in the shoulder.
Zangan's body was stuck at the hilt of the sword.
Sephiroth braced his foot onto his stomach, and kicked him off his bloody- wet sword.
Zangan fell to the ground, held his wound. He didn't care about himself, and he realized that it would be impossible to beat Sephiroth.
He staggered around, and tried to help someone.
Nibleheim was burning... burning... burning.
Zack soon appeared from out of the mansion.
As Zack approached, Sephiroth... turned, and saw three fleeing people.
They didn't have a chance against the masamune.
He cut one woman in half, long pink organs spilling out with huge amounts of thick dark blood.
The sound of the steel blade slicing against her bony spine nearly made Zack fall back and vomit.
He felt nauseated as Sephiroth simply, brutally, hacked and slashed the two other town's people to bits.
Blood splattered all over his face, and dripped down his blade, and caked his hands red.
He then turned, and looked at Zack with a thin... long stare...
He turned, and walked slowly into the flames.
They engulfed him, and held him in their serpent, flaming arms.
Like a lost angel returning to hell.
His footsteps echoed.
He left a trail of blood behind him.
"Hey, hey! You! You are still sane, right!? Then come over here and help me!
I'll check in this house, you check the one over there!" Zangan called to Zack. Zack shook his head, and nodded to the red caped, martial arts man.
"Terrible. Sephiroth. This is too terrible."
It took no time at all for Sephiroth to climb Mt. Nible. He had a new resolve, a new purpose in life.
It wasn't SOLDIER.
It wasn't finding mako for the Shin-Ra Company to make money off of.
He knew his family now, and where he came from.
Revenge.
Revenge for his people's genocide.
Outside the factory, Tifa stood at the steps.
Sephiroth didn't even notice her.
She called to him.
He paid no mind.
Blood followed him in.
As he entered the factory, an older man with dark brown eyes and dark brown hair stood near the door to the red room with the pods.
He seemed to be locking the door.
"OUT of my way!"
"Hm? Seph... Sephiroth, wasn't it?"
Sephiroth raised his blade, and slashed his stomach.
Guts, intestines, and blood fell out.
He staggered. Once he saw his own guts fall, he screamed, then fell into a puddle on the ground.
"Mother!" Sephiroth yelled. He dropped his blade beside Tifa's father, and forced the door open. He ran inside.
Not but a moment later as Sephiroth reached the top of the stairs that lead to the Jenova room, Tifa appeared.
He paid her no mind; he was smiling.
"Mother! I am here to see you! Please, open this door!"
"How... how could you do that to papa, and all the townspeople!?" She hesitantly approached him with the masamune in hand.
Sephiroth turned around.
There was a mad look in his eye- amused, and crazed.
Tifa paused, and raised the blade to strike him down.
Sephiroth grabbed the blade from her.
He out powered her, and she let go.
He struck her in a clean slice.
Her limp body stumbled to the floor.
Sephiroth turned, and went inside the Jenova room.
Zack finally caught up to him.
He was out of breath, and exhausted.
Tifa lay upon the floor.
He looked at her- but there was no time...
He picked up her bloody body, and put her aside.
Then, he went in.
"Sephiroth! Stop!"
Sephiroth turned. He knew who it was.
Sephiroth charged at him, and kicked his body out of the Jenova room.
He sliced him.
He nearly fell in two.
He tossed Zack's carcass out.
Zack fell onto a pod.
Blood was staining the floor.
Cloud then appeared.
He saw Tifa on the floor, and Zack strewn out ontop of a pod.
He approached Tifa.
She gasped; she was still alive. "You... promised. You promised that you would come when I was in trouble."
Cloud stood, and ran to Zack.
Zack gasped, "Cloud, kill Sephiroth..." Cloud took Zack's giant sword that was strapped to his back, and ran inside.
Inside, the Jenova creature was strapped to a wall. She looked like an angel, with tubes and wiring and a metal mask across her face. Sephiroth stood in front of her, with his arms outstretched.
He felt wonderful.
"Mother! Let's take this planet back together! ... I thought of a great idea! Let's go to the Promised Land!"
Cloud was shaking violently. "Sephiroth! My family! My hometown! How could you do this to them!?"
"They have come again, mother! With her superior power, knowledge, and magic, mother was destined to ruler of the Planet."
Sephiroth then reached up to the metal mask that hid the face of the dead goddess. He wanted... for just a moment... to touch his mother. His great mother.
"But... they, those worthless creatures... are stealing the planet from mother..." His face reflected off the shiny metal that hid her face. He unlatched her body from the wall that held her.
"But I'm here now, so don't worry..."
Cloud heard the sadness in Sephiroth's voice.
He seemed so distant.
There must be some sanity there.
Cloud blurted out. He couldn't just watch.
"WHAT about MY sadness! My family, friends, the sadness of having my hometown taken away from me? It's the same as your sadness!"
Sephiroth placed the front have of Jenova down on the floor carefully, and turned to Cloud.
Sephiroth acknowledged him.
"Heh heh heh... my sadness?! What have I to be sad about!? I am the chosen one. I have been chosen to become leader of this planet. I have orders to take this planet back from you stupid people for the Cetra. What have I to be sad about?"
Cloud shook his head as Sephiroth's green, penetrating stare bore down on him from above.
"Sephiroth, I trusted you. Your not the Sephiroth that I used to know!"
Sephiroth laughed loudly. He turned, and ripped the head off of Jenova.
Then, as Cloud raised his sword, he simply walked down and passed him.
Cloud gripped his sweaty sword hard; he wanted to strike as Sephiroth passed him by.
But he couldn't.
Sephiroth simply walked by the pod room, and headed out of the mako factory with Jenova's head and his sword in hand.
He reached the room that was nothing more than a long hallway/bridge.
On either side of the bridge were endless pits that lead to the basement- miles bellow.
Then, Cloud caught up with him as he nearly walked out.
"Stop!" Cloud quivered from behind.
Sephiroth stopped. Without even turning around, he slammed the masamune into Cloud's stomach.
"Don't... push... your... luck." Sephiroth whispered.
Cloud's eyes dilated.
His mouth was dry.
He felt the hot wetness on his hands as he touched the blade that jetted out from the front of his body.
He felt something surge though his mussels. He knew that this wasn't even remotely the end.
He wasn't thinking.
He grabbed the blade, letting the sides of it cut into his hands.
With all the strength that he had, and all the strength that he didn't have, he lifted the sword.
Sephiroth, not knowing what was happening, held on, and tried to out
power Cloud.
Cloud, with the sword sticking out, threw Sephiroth.
The masamune slid out from his body, as Sephiroth held the hilt.
And Sephiroth, his sword, and Jenova's head fell- thrown like a rag doll into the pit- into the basement- under the reactor's bridge.
Cloud staggered, and vomited some blood, and fell to the ground.
Sephiroth fell into the pits and the basement of the reactor.
His body was crushed.
Everything was black.
And silent.
Before him stretched a long, black hallway.
No, it was a tunnel.
There was no light at the end of the tunnel.
But something, someone, was coming.
Sephiroth knew that he was dying.
The creature at the end of the dark hallway...
Looked like an angel.
It looked like mother.
"Sephiroth," cried the blurry angel.
It must have been an angel.
It had two wings.
"Mother..." Sephiroth called out. He reached out into the blackness of the hallway.
"Sephiroth..." She said sadly, airily.
There was something in Sephiroth's hand, still.
It was masamune- his friend.
"Se-"
He didn't know why.
But he took masamune,
And as the angel approached,
He sliced her wing off.
She was the one winged angel.
In that dark, dark hallway,
As he died.
The angel winced in pain.
He couldn't see her, not really.
She still was blurry...
Her wing fell,
Into the blackness.
She lifted him, and flew...
With just one wing...
And took him to the Promised Land...
To let his body rest under the ice...
Then, she kissed him...
And let him become the one winged angel...
Sephiroth.
"An Autobiography of Vincent Valentine"
Phoenix Down.
Phantom Wall Devils: A tale of Sephiroth
Part: Omega
Samech
"If there is a transmigration of souls, then I am not yet at the bottom rung.
My life is a hesitation before birth."
(Franz Kafka, [1883-1924] Czech novelist, short-story writer, from his journal entry, Jan 24, 1922. The diaries of Franz Kafka, 1910-1923, ed. Max Brod [1948])
"We have an early start tomorrow. You should get some sleep, soon."
"Yeah, lets get some sleep." Zack agreed with a small yawn.
"I've hired a guide to the mako reactor. I've heard she's young. I hope we can rely on her." Sephiroth said as he slid off his coat.
Cloud was already fast asleep and snoring; Zack was not looking forward to sharing a bed with him.
The following morning started early. Zack woke up before the others, and got himself ready in the serene silence with the stench of mako in the morning air.
The sky seemed lumpy and gray.
He went to a coffee house and ate a bagel and drank black coffee. The others were already outside the Shin-Ra mansion when he finished breakfast.
Sephiroth didn't greet him- when Zack arrived he simply said,
"Once the guide gets here, we are heading out."
Zack noticed that standing beside Sephiroth was Tifa's dad- and beside him was the photographer that stopped him the day before. He dare ask what they were doing there. Cloud sighed, and snapped on his uniform hat.
"Listen to me, Sephiroth, incase something happens-"
When Tifa's father spoke, Zack felt his cheeks fill with blood.
"Trust me." Sephiroth grinned like a fox.
Tifa ran up. She wore a mini skirt, boots, and a brown leather cowboy hat.
She was slightly out of breath.
Zack turned away.
"I'll- I'll be alright, dad! I have two men from SOLDIER with me. By the way, I'm Tifa, nice to meet you." Tifa pouted her lips and held out her hand flirtatiously to Sephiroth- who didn't seem to notice.
"Jesus! Tifa! You're the guide!?" Zack couldn't hold himself in anymore.
He wanted to ignore her, but he couldn't.
"That's right." She snarled, "I just happen to be the number one guide in this town!" A sarcastic, triumphant red smile peeled onto her face.
"It's dangerous! I can't involve you in something like this!"
Sephiroth placed a heavy, black, lead hand onto Zack's shoulder. Somehow, he was amused at the situation between Zack and Tifa that he was aware of- and picked up on.
A weird smile was on his face as he looked down and spoke, "There is no problem if you protect her, now is there. Let's go."
"Uhm... Mr. Sephiroth! Please let me take a picture for a memento! Uh- Tifa- uh- can you ask him for me to-" Awkwardly, the photographer glanced to Tifa as if for reimbursement.
Sephiroth heard him, and simply walked over to stand beside Tifa and Zack.
The photographer looked pleased as he stood back and got his camera ready. He placed it against his face and yelled,
"Cheeeese!"
Click.
"Great! Thank you! I'll give you each a copy once I get it developed!"
Cloud and Karl adjusted the heavy packs of supplies that were strapped to their backs. Zack, Tifa, and Sephiroth lead.
Tifa glanced over her slender shoulder and looked strait at Cloud.
Cloud swallowed hard. There was no way she could see through his uniform SOLDIER mask and recognize him.
Zack and Tifa made forced conversation as they walked up the path to Mt. Nibel where the mako reactor was built far up out of ordinary reach.
The cold air of Mt. Nibel bit their faces and the tips of their fingers.
The path on the mountain was misty, freezing, rocky, and gray.
It winded and spun up hill for hours.
Then, they reached a bridge.
Tifa ran into the middle of it.
Sephiroth followed.
Zack, and Cloud hesitated.
Karl had a very bad feeling about the whole thing, and nearly didn't cross.
"Come on, Karl. We can't wait for you. Either come or don't. If you don't we are not waiting for you." Sephiroth called from the front of the bridge.
"Come on, you guys! It gets harder from here! Follow me!" Tifa yelled as she went ahead on the bridge.
As Karl plucked up his courage, he, Zack, and Cloud began to walk slowly and carefully across the rickety old bridge that had a deep and endless drop bellow it.
The wind and the mist shook the creaking wood and ropes violently as if toying with their very fear of plunging to a grotesque death.
The rope snapped.
Sephiroth braced himself.
Zack, Tifa, Zack, and Karl fell.
Soon, Sephiroth couldn't hold on any longer, and he too, fell.
Zack, and Tifa fell beside each other.
Cloud and Sephiroth fell behind a boulder on the path.
Sephiroth got up immediately, unphased by the whole ordeal- as if it didn't matter at all.
He shook his head; letting pebbles fall from his sleek, silver hair.
"Everyone seems alright. Can we get back to where we were?" He asked as Tifa and Zack regained themselves.
"These... uh, caverns are intertwined... just like an ant farm..." She stood, and brushed herself off. For a moment she thought that she twisted her ankle.
"Oh, and Seph! There seems to be one person missing!" Tifa looked around, and helped Zack to his feet.
"This may sound cold, but we have no time to search for him. We can't go back now, so we must go on. We'll travel together from here."
Cloud nodded in agreement as he shuddered.
He wondered where exactly Karl landed.
From the path that they fell upon, they headed strait up into a cave.
The cave was cool, but not cold- and the walls were slick and mysteriously green and swirled black.
The walls looked like polished malachite.
The air in the cave was thin and pale.
"What's... this?" Zack asked as they walked in. There was little light in the cave. Zack touched the walls. They were cool and glassy.
"A-... mysteriously colored cave?" Tifa looked around in awe. It was beautiful, in a strange, misty way.
"Must be the mako energy. This mountain is abundant in it. That's why the mako reactor was built here." Sephiroth said as he simply walked past the others and out of the cave. Cloud said nothing as he walked by Zack and Tifa.
As they pressed on, they reached a small grove.
Tree roots gnarled into odd, huge, sculptural shapes. Green mako energy polluted the air making the filtered sunlight aqua green.
In the center of a ring of twisting, still but writhing tree roots, was a natural fountain. Bubbling and flowing from it was not water, but liquid, green mako.
Sunlight was falling upon the energy from a hole in the leafy canopy above.
"Wow. What's this?"
The party stopped as they reached the mako fountain. Tifa was the first to run up to it.
"A mako fountain." Sephiroth answered as he walked up close to the bubbling green pool.
"It's so beautiful. If the mako reactor continues to suck up energy, this fountain will dry up, too!"
"Materia. When you condense mako energy, Materia is produced. It's very rare to be able to see Materia in its natural state."
"By the way," Zack interjected. "Why is it that when you use Materia, you can also use magic, too?"
Sephiroth sighed irritated. "You were in SOLDIER and don't even know THAT? The knowledge and wisdom of the Ancients is held in the Materia. Anyone with this knowledge can freely use the powers of the land and the Planet. That knowledge interacts between ourselves and the Planet calling up the magic, or-so-they-say."
"Magic... a mysterious power." Zack smiled secretly as he stared at the fountain.
Sephiroth began to laugh.
"Did I say something funny?" Zack shot his glance to the laughing general.
"A man once told me never to use unscientific terms, such as, 'mysterious power,' It shouldn't even be called, 'magic.' I still remember how angry he was." Sephiroth mused as he thought of his childhood lessoned that prepared him for SOLDIER.
"Who was that?" Zack asked curiously as he itched his ear.
"Hojo of Shin-Ra Inc. An experienced man assigned to take over the works of a great scientist... He was a walking mass of complexes."
"I know who Hojo is." Zack hissed. He hated being talked down to.
"A mako fountain... So this is where the knowledge of the Ancients is..." Tifa said quietly. Cloud said nothing, but stared at her.
They soon reached the mako reactor near the summit of Mt. Nibel.
The building looked unnatural amidst its surroundings.
It stood out like something ancient and lonely.
"We finally made it! We sure took the long way, though!" Tifa yelled as she excitedly wiped a sweaty, dirty brow with her arm.
"Tifa, you wait here." Zack said sternly as she approached the stairway leading in.
"I'm going inside! I want to see, too!"
"Only authorized people are aloud in. This place is full of Shin-Ra's industrial secrets." Sephiroth added sternly as he walked up the first of the few steps leading inside. Zack followed him.
"Take care of the lady." He said to Cloud with a smirk.
"Oh, man! You better take REAL good care of me, then!" Tifa stomped her foot as Cloud shook his head.
Sephiroth was far ahead of Zack as they walked inside. Sephiroth wanted to strait into the heart of the reactor.
Zack soon caught up with him. Inside, was a red walled room filled with a dozen pair shaped pods.
A stairway divided the room.
The stairway lead up to a sealed door, and above the door read the word in bold letters, "Jenova."
Sephiroth stood at the top of the stairs with his back to Zack.
"So, this is Jenova, right? The lock won't open?"
Sephiroth turned around with a gray look to his eyes.
He walked down the stairs and approached Zack.
Zack moved aside.
Sephiroth walked up to one of the first pods, and examined it a moment.
"This is the reason for the malfunction. This part is broken, Zack, close the valve..."
Zack nods, looks at Sephiroth oddly, and does what he is told to the pod.
Sephiroth walks across the room, and looks into a porthole on one of the far end pods.
"Why did it break?" He said out loud to himself in a thoughtful tone.
Zack glanced at him again.
"Hojo, even doing this... you will never be put on the same level as professor Gast."
Sephiroth turned to Zack.
"This is a system that condenses and freezes mako energy. That is- when working correctly. Now- what does mako energy become when it is further condensed?"
Zack paused, and folded his arms.
"Uhm, oh, yeah, becomes a Materia."
"Right. Normally. But Hojo put something else in there. Take a look."
Zack walked up to the pod Sephiroth stood near, and paused.
He looked to Sephiroth, and then hoisted himself up to look into one of the pods.
Inside was what looked to be a hideous, once human creature asleep in thick watery fluid.
Zack tumbled back in shock when he saw the monster.
"Wh- what IS this!?"
"Normal members of SOLDIER are humans that have been showered in mako. Your different from the others- but still human. But what are they? They have been exposed to a high degree of mako- far more than you." Sephiroth paused and spoke carefully.
"Is... this some kind of monster...?" Zack asked as he returned to his feet.
"Exactly. And it's Hojo of Shin-Ra that produced these monsters. Mutated living organisms produced by mako energy, that's what these monsters really are."
"Normal members of SOLDIER- you mean your different...? Hey... hey! Seph!"
Sephiroth unsheathed his masamune, and began hitting the pod that stood before him violently. Long scratches scared it's white surface.
His chest heaved, and his face contorted with choking anger.
"No... no... Was I... Was I created this way, too? Am I the same as these- MONSTERS?!"
Sephiroth's shoulder's shook- he felt that he was on the verge of exploding as the thoughts and possibilities of things began to make sense.
All those years that he spent his childhood in a laboratory- maybe he was a fucking science experiment like the rumors that surrounded life whispered.
It was Hojo. Hojo created these- things...
Was he a... "Thing?"
A monster.
A fucking monster and not even human.
"Sephiroth!"
Sephiroth spun around. The tip of his lengthy sword neared Zack's face.
There was a wild, raging fire in his eyes.
"You SAW THEM! All of them were- HUMANS!" Sephiroth screeched. He clutched his face and dropped his sword.
"Human?... No. No fucking way. No." Zack backed away as Sephiroth flew past him and ran up the stairs toward the Jenova room.
"I've... always felt that since I was small, that I was different from the others-special- in some ways... but not like this... Not like this!"
Sephiroth stood on the tall stairway and caught his breath, trying to calm himself. As he began to slowly regain his state of mind and walk back out of the reactor, one of the pods began to violently rock.
Both Zack and the general stopped and stared.
The pod jerked back and forth. One of the creatures awoke and tried to break free.
Steam poured out of the top of the pod.
The monster screeched, much like the sound of Sephiroth's voice when he screeched.
The creature broke free, and fell to the floor in a tiered, weak, and dying broken heap.
Zack, Tifa, and Cloud went back to Nibleheim alone. Sephiroth requested to be left alone in the reactor to clean up the beast that broke free.
Then, he would climb down Mt. Nible alone.
He reached Nibleheim very late that night.
He felt tiered, hungry, and very very lonely.
As he reached town, he didn't feel like returning to the inn- instead he took it upon himself to go into the Shin-Ra mansion- and see for himself the piles of documents that were supposedly locked in the basement that were supposedly related to the Jenova project.
His mother name was Jenova.
The creature inside the reactor was also called, "Jenova."
It couldn't have been a coincidence.
It couldn't have been a FUCKING COINCIDENCE.
It took him only an hour to search the mansion before he found the secret passageway that lead to the basement laboratory.
He lit a few candles to shed light as he crept down the wooden stairway.
He was exhausted. But it didn't matter.
Nothing would matter if he weren't even human.
His whole life would have been a lie- everything he knew- everything that he was supposed to know- the knowledge that was secure and you take for granted- could be false.
How would you feel if you began to find evidence- reason- that the very skin you wore wasn't even human...?
Was he supposed to FEEL human?
He flew down the staircase like a mad raven.
Down the stairs that wound like a coil, he reached a cavern.
Past there, he KNEW was the laboratory.
As he walked down the cold, and purple hued cavern- he suddenly felt a chill as he passed a wooden locked door.
But he pressed on, and reached the lab.
The laboratory was FILLED with notes, files, and books.
He did not sleep that night- nor the night after- he ravaged every bit of paper that he could find that had the words, "Hojo, Gast, Jenova, Cetra, Sephiroth, and Ancient" on them.
The following morning, Zack awoke to find that Sephiroth hadn't returned from the reactor. He searched the city for him to no avail. He asked around- someone said that he saw him enter the mansion last night. Cloud offered to help look.
It took Zack and Cloud nearly two hours to find the secret passage way that lead downstairs.
Cloud didn't dare go down.
Zack did.
"An organism that was apparently dead found in a 200 year old geological stratum. Professor Gast named that organism, Jenova. X year, X month, X day, Jenova confirmed to be an Ancient. X year, X month, X day, Jenova project approved for the use of mako reactor. My mother's name is Jenova... Jenova project, is this just a coincidence?"
Zack walked quietly into the ill lit laboratory.
Sephiroth was muttering to himself, pacing back and forth, writing notes and reading out loud.
He did not look, or seem well.
Black bags hung like heavy tar underneath his green eyes.
His face looked sunken, and his hair was disheveled.
His skin looked like it was glazed in sweat.
Sephiroth did not acknowledge Zack's existence.
He simply continued to walk back and fourth with a book in hand.
"Uh, Sephiroth?" Zack quietly approached the general, and tapped him on the shoulder. His back was to him.
Sephiroth's head fell. He did not respond at first.
Then, he took a deep, raspy, breath and whispered, "Leave me alone."
Zack turned away. As he reached the door, he glanced over his shoulder to Sephiroth.
Then, he walked away.
Zack wandered around the mansion for hours before he found a cold, dusty, and unused bed to sleep upon.
Downstairs, Sephiroth was restless.
"I... I think I see. I think. Yes. I think I understand. I see it all clearly, now." Sephiroth dropped a folder filled with paper.
His eyes were bloodshot red.
He released his bladder upon the back wall of the laboratory.
He smiled to himself.
"Jenova was an ancient. But not just any ancient-" He spoke out loud to himself as he pissed.
"She was a goddess. And... she died. For some reason. Mother died." He zipped up his pants, and choked on a broken laugh.
"And she was buried and forgotten over the centuries, until....." He then strode over to the desk in the lab, and knocked all the papers, books, and files that sat there onto the floor. Then, he pulled himself onto the desk and sat there- then continued on talking out loud to himself.
"Until BRILLIANT professor Gast came around and found her. He thought that by extracting her cells that he could bring a part of her back to life. Of course, that would mean creating a whole new being/organism, I.E.- me. How- fascinating, Gast. Creating a being that is HALF GOD. In fact, I AM a god. I am Jenova's son. Jenova, a goddess, the Planet is rightfully hers, no, ours, isn't it? Isn't it, mom?" Sephiroth could not stop smiling.
He finally knew the truth. No, he wasn't human. He was something more.
Something bigger. So much more important.
It was all in the files, the forgotten papers.
He was a god, an heir to the Planet. A Cetra.
He leaned over off the desk, and picked up a file.
He leaned back, and wickedly guffawed.
He couldn't stop laughing; his eyes began to tear up.
He hadn't eaten or slept in days.
"Then, Gast died, unexpectedly. Hojo resumed the 'project,' I.E, raising me. They did it- created me, because they thought that I would somehow inherit the memories of Jenova from her cells, and lead them to the Promised Land. A place FILLED with mako energy. ... They made me so they could make money. That was the whole point- the whole goal of the project. Mako equals money..." He chuckled into his hand.
"Isn't that FUNNY...? The whole meaning and purpose of my LIFE- was to act as a pig sniffing out truffles?! To find them mako, eh? WELL..."
He fell back and laughed.
It was... ironic.
"What's this?" Sephiroth looked to his side, and found another book.
It was the 'history,' of the Cetra. A file report.
He leaned back, and read- underneath the flicking yellow light of a dying candle.
Zack woke. He was freezing. The room in the abandoned Shin-Ra mansion was like ice. He woke with nightmares still fresh, and slowly fading.
He heard noises all night long. Sleep hadn't come easy.
He swore the mansion was haunted.
Immediately, he rose and headed toward the basement. Near the secret passage to the basement, Cloud stood, and he was pacing and nervous.
"What's wrong?" Zack asked. He noticed the secret passage door was wide open.
"Sephiroth... He seems different..." Cloud muttered. His blue eyes were very pale.
Zack nodded, and ran down the wooden spiraling steps.
He dashed through the laboratory.
It had a foul odor to it.
There, behind a stack of strewn, torn, some burned, books and papers, Sephiroth sat at a desk.
He was reading some papers with a fat smile to his thin face.
He was laughing consistently, and quietly to himself.
His face rose.
He squinted in the dim light to see Zack standing at the door.
"Heh heh heh... hm? Who- who is it... hmph. Oh. Traitor." Sephiroth rose from the desk. He clasped his fingers behind his back.
"Traitor?" The word tasted like acid on his tongue.
"You... IGNORENT traitor. I'll tell you." Sephiroth began to pace two and fro as he spoke. "The planet originally belonged to the Cetra. Cetra was a itinerant race. They would migrate in, settle the planet, then move on. At the end of their harsh, hard journey, they would find the Promised Land and supreme happiness. But those that disliked the journey disappeared, and those who stopped their migrations built shelters and elected to lead an easier life. They took that which the Cetra and the Planet had made without giving back one whit in return." He stopped, turned, and raised a thin, pale finger- and pointed to Zack. His arm casted a heavy shadow against his indented cheeks and uncolored features.
"Those...are your ancestors."
"Sephiroth..." Zack pleaded.
"Long ago, disaster struck this planet. Your ancestors escaped. They survived because they hid. The Planet was saved by sacrificing the Cetra. After that, your ancestors continued to increase." He stopped, lowered his hand, and gestured to the books scattered, broken, and thrown around the floor like trash.
"All that's left of the Cetra is in these reports."
"What does that have to do with you?" Zack walked deeper into Sephiroth's den.
Sephiroth's face furrowed and scowled.
He paused, and rested his forehead on his hand in thought.
Then, he exploded.
"DON'T YOU GET IT!?... An Ancient named Jenova was found in the geological stratum 2000 years ago, the Jenova project. The Jenova project wanted to produce people with the powers of the Ancients- no the Cetra. I am the one that was produced."
Zack took a step back. He couldn't believe this. Impossible. No one would... Sephiroth was his friend, his war buddy; they used to get drunk together.
He was scaring him.
"P-produced?"
"Yes. Professor Gast, leader of the Jenova project and genius scientist produced me."
"I don't... How did he? Sephiroth!?" Zack didn't understand. He didn't believe.
As Zack approached him Sephiroth pushed him aside and headed for the door.
"Out of my way! I am going to see my mother!"
Sephiroth stormed out of the mansion.
As he ran through the mansion, he passed Cloud.
Cloud ran after him.
His masamune, his friend that he created- much in the same way he was created, hung at his side.
It- his friend- was crying for blood- blood of the race that took his mother and made her into an experiment.
It cried for the blood of the people that took his planet, his Earth, his Promised Land- away from his people and his mother.
He would bring them back; he would be their Savior. He, and the Cetra, was the rightful heirs of the planet.
He wanted revenge for everything they had done.
He would start with the Shin-Ra- the company that produced mako energy, which produced the Jenova project, which killed Katrina- that created his life and took it away.
He would kill them all.
Everyone.
Just kill everyone.
They deserved it.
It was for revenge.
As he existed the mansion, he pulled a bright green piece of materia from his pocket.
And then a blue one.
He loaded them onto his blade.
Materia- condensed mako energy.
He took one glance around the small town of Nibleheim.
So quiet, so peaceful, so normal.
He wanted to shake them. Make them feel what he felt.
...
Should...
Should...
He...
Really...
Do...
It?
...They are innocent, and have nothing to do with... anything, really.
Look at them.
Look at them run.
You can make them run.
Make them feel the pain, the chaos, the feelings that you feel.
But you really don't feel anything.
Numb.
Your special.
Your chosen.
You know you are.
Burn them.
Do it.
They deserve it.
Yes.
Raise the blade.
Raise it high.
Then, cast, 'Fire 3-' with your 'All.' Do it.
I know you can.
Yes.
Look at them.
Look at them RUN.
Hear them scream.
It made you feel good, and satisfied...the beginning of your revenge.
Feel happy.
Feel happy that you finally know who your mother is,
And your destiny is much larger, much more important than you ever have anticipated.
Yes.
"Sephiroth!"
He heard his name, and he turned around.
Cloud stood there, un his Shin-Ra uniform.
"Stop! What are you doing!?"
Sephiroth...
Smiled.
He casted, 'Fire 3,' again. Then, physically shoved Cloud to the ground.
He thought it was funny.
The town was in flames.
Cloud began to choke on the smoke; he couldn't get back up.
Zangan, The martial art's master, leapt out of the inn once the flames reached the downstairs level.
He challenged Sephiroth.
Sephiroth thought it was a joke. He knew he was the greatest swords man that ever lived- people came long and far just to have his autograph.
He laughed in Zangan's face, then, in one swift move of his blade, stabbed him in the shoulder.
Zangan's body was stuck at the hilt of the sword.
Sephiroth braced his foot onto his stomach, and kicked him off his bloody- wet sword.
Zangan fell to the ground, held his wound. He didn't care about himself, and he realized that it would be impossible to beat Sephiroth.
He staggered around, and tried to help someone.
Nibleheim was burning... burning... burning.
Zack soon appeared from out of the mansion.
As Zack approached, Sephiroth... turned, and saw three fleeing people.
They didn't have a chance against the masamune.
He cut one woman in half, long pink organs spilling out with huge amounts of thick dark blood.
The sound of the steel blade slicing against her bony spine nearly made Zack fall back and vomit.
He felt nauseated as Sephiroth simply, brutally, hacked and slashed the two other town's people to bits.
Blood splattered all over his face, and dripped down his blade, and caked his hands red.
He then turned, and looked at Zack with a thin... long stare...
He turned, and walked slowly into the flames.
They engulfed him, and held him in their serpent, flaming arms.
Like a lost angel returning to hell.
His footsteps echoed.
He left a trail of blood behind him.
"Hey, hey! You! You are still sane, right!? Then come over here and help me!
I'll check in this house, you check the one over there!" Zangan called to Zack. Zack shook his head, and nodded to the red caped, martial arts man.
"Terrible. Sephiroth. This is too terrible."
It took no time at all for Sephiroth to climb Mt. Nible. He had a new resolve, a new purpose in life.
It wasn't SOLDIER.
It wasn't finding mako for the Shin-Ra Company to make money off of.
He knew his family now, and where he came from.
Revenge.
Revenge for his people's genocide.
Outside the factory, Tifa stood at the steps.
Sephiroth didn't even notice her.
She called to him.
He paid no mind.
Blood followed him in.
As he entered the factory, an older man with dark brown eyes and dark brown hair stood near the door to the red room with the pods.
He seemed to be locking the door.
"OUT of my way!"
"Hm? Seph... Sephiroth, wasn't it?"
Sephiroth raised his blade, and slashed his stomach.
Guts, intestines, and blood fell out.
He staggered. Once he saw his own guts fall, he screamed, then fell into a puddle on the ground.
"Mother!" Sephiroth yelled. He dropped his blade beside Tifa's father, and forced the door open. He ran inside.
Not but a moment later as Sephiroth reached the top of the stairs that lead to the Jenova room, Tifa appeared.
He paid her no mind; he was smiling.
"Mother! I am here to see you! Please, open this door!"
"How... how could you do that to papa, and all the townspeople!?" She hesitantly approached him with the masamune in hand.
Sephiroth turned around.
There was a mad look in his eye- amused, and crazed.
Tifa paused, and raised the blade to strike him down.
Sephiroth grabbed the blade from her.
He out powered her, and she let go.
He struck her in a clean slice.
Her limp body stumbled to the floor.
Sephiroth turned, and went inside the Jenova room.
Zack finally caught up to him.
He was out of breath, and exhausted.
Tifa lay upon the floor.
He looked at her- but there was no time...
He picked up her bloody body, and put her aside.
Then, he went in.
"Sephiroth! Stop!"
Sephiroth turned. He knew who it was.
Sephiroth charged at him, and kicked his body out of the Jenova room.
He sliced him.
He nearly fell in two.
He tossed Zack's carcass out.
Zack fell onto a pod.
Blood was staining the floor.
Cloud then appeared.
He saw Tifa on the floor, and Zack strewn out ontop of a pod.
He approached Tifa.
She gasped; she was still alive. "You... promised. You promised that you would come when I was in trouble."
Cloud stood, and ran to Zack.
Zack gasped, "Cloud, kill Sephiroth..." Cloud took Zack's giant sword that was strapped to his back, and ran inside.
Inside, the Jenova creature was strapped to a wall. She looked like an angel, with tubes and wiring and a metal mask across her face. Sephiroth stood in front of her, with his arms outstretched.
He felt wonderful.
"Mother! Let's take this planet back together! ... I thought of a great idea! Let's go to the Promised Land!"
Cloud was shaking violently. "Sephiroth! My family! My hometown! How could you do this to them!?"
"They have come again, mother! With her superior power, knowledge, and magic, mother was destined to ruler of the Planet."
Sephiroth then reached up to the metal mask that hid the face of the dead goddess. He wanted... for just a moment... to touch his mother. His great mother.
"But... they, those worthless creatures... are stealing the planet from mother..." His face reflected off the shiny metal that hid her face. He unlatched her body from the wall that held her.
"But I'm here now, so don't worry..."
Cloud heard the sadness in Sephiroth's voice.
He seemed so distant.
There must be some sanity there.
Cloud blurted out. He couldn't just watch.
"WHAT about MY sadness! My family, friends, the sadness of having my hometown taken away from me? It's the same as your sadness!"
Sephiroth placed the front have of Jenova down on the floor carefully, and turned to Cloud.
Sephiroth acknowledged him.
"Heh heh heh... my sadness?! What have I to be sad about!? I am the chosen one. I have been chosen to become leader of this planet. I have orders to take this planet back from you stupid people for the Cetra. What have I to be sad about?"
Cloud shook his head as Sephiroth's green, penetrating stare bore down on him from above.
"Sephiroth, I trusted you. Your not the Sephiroth that I used to know!"
Sephiroth laughed loudly. He turned, and ripped the head off of Jenova.
Then, as Cloud raised his sword, he simply walked down and passed him.
Cloud gripped his sweaty sword hard; he wanted to strike as Sephiroth passed him by.
But he couldn't.
Sephiroth simply walked by the pod room, and headed out of the mako factory with Jenova's head and his sword in hand.
He reached the room that was nothing more than a long hallway/bridge.
On either side of the bridge were endless pits that lead to the basement- miles bellow.
Then, Cloud caught up with him as he nearly walked out.
"Stop!" Cloud quivered from behind.
Sephiroth stopped. Without even turning around, he slammed the masamune into Cloud's stomach.
"Don't... push... your... luck." Sephiroth whispered.
Cloud's eyes dilated.
His mouth was dry.
He felt the hot wetness on his hands as he touched the blade that jetted out from the front of his body.
He felt something surge though his mussels. He knew that this wasn't even remotely the end.
He wasn't thinking.
He grabbed the blade, letting the sides of it cut into his hands.
With all the strength that he had, and all the strength that he didn't have, he lifted the sword.
Sephiroth, not knowing what was happening, held on, and tried to out
power Cloud.
Cloud, with the sword sticking out, threw Sephiroth.
The masamune slid out from his body, as Sephiroth held the hilt.
And Sephiroth, his sword, and Jenova's head fell- thrown like a rag doll into the pit- into the basement- under the reactor's bridge.
Cloud staggered, and vomited some blood, and fell to the ground.
Sephiroth fell into the pits and the basement of the reactor.
His body was crushed.
Everything was black.
And silent.
Before him stretched a long, black hallway.
No, it was a tunnel.
There was no light at the end of the tunnel.
But something, someone, was coming.
Sephiroth knew that he was dying.
The creature at the end of the dark hallway...
Looked like an angel.
It looked like mother.
"Sephiroth," cried the blurry angel.
It must have been an angel.
It had two wings.
"Mother..." Sephiroth called out. He reached out into the blackness of the hallway.
"Sephiroth..." She said sadly, airily.
There was something in Sephiroth's hand, still.
It was masamune- his friend.
"Se-"
He didn't know why.
But he took masamune,
And as the angel approached,
He sliced her wing off.
She was the one winged angel.
In that dark, dark hallway,
As he died.
The angel winced in pain.
He couldn't see her, not really.
She still was blurry...
Her wing fell,
Into the blackness.
She lifted him, and flew...
With just one wing...
And took him to the Promised Land...
To let his body rest under the ice...
Then, she kissed him...
And let him become the one winged angel...
Sephiroth.