Far off, I heard a scream. A scream of agony, pain, someone was begging for mercy, begging for their life. It was a comforting sound...
I felt a weight in my hands and noticed I was holding my Ultima Weapon, it's blue glow covered with specks and streaks of blood, more blood stained it with each second. But the blade didn't seem like just a weapon, it felt like an extension of myself, forever attached, forever mine.
More screams and several shouts of terror. I felt nothing and everything around me was black, I was in one big dark room. My hands were coated in a silky layer of blood rippling to the floor. It was beautiful. The blood rippling from my arm followed a crimson stream that emptied into a large pool of bubbling blood.
Entranced by the lake of blood, I went closer, all along hearing screams becoming closer and closer to me, and my Ultima Weapon was now covered in blood so thick you couldn't see it's faint glow. But I didn't care, in fact, I liked it.
The lake highly resembled the blue lake in the Forgotten City. ...I remember the blue lake filled with cool sapphire waters-Aeris's final resting place ... This blood lake looked so much like that blue lake it was scary.
As I neared it, I saw a body floating harmoniously in the center; the blood seemed to swirl around it, in praise almost. Static was getting loud in my mind again.
A bright flash of light blinded me and when I looked again, I was in the Forgotten City by the lake where Aeris lay. Her body was floating in the center of the swirling waters, her face in a perpetual smile, brown hair flowing around her like angel's wings.
I waded through the waters over to her body, but I couldn't quite reach her... All of a sudden red began billowing into the blue waters, tainting its pure color.
Blood began spreading from her body, diffusing through the water. Blood rising from the ground, blood falling from the sky, everywhere blood rushed towards me and when I looked back to Aeris's body, it was no longer her, but Sephiroth!
Another bright light flashed, and I was standing in the center of the Blood Lake, Sephiroth's body floating near me and the blood singing its praise to him, growing hot. Voices rose from the lake, filling the air, deafening me and I stared around in horror as the static grew louder, trying to overtake the voices screaming in my ear.
Sephiroth's eyes suddenly snapped open, green light flooding from his emerald eyes, staring straight at me. I screamed as fear suddenly flew through my body, urging me to get away, commanding me to leave!
I struggled against the swirling current of the blood growing hotter and hotter, swimming away from his blinding stare, but the blood grew thick, holding me in place.
"NO! Sephiroth, please no!" I cried, wrestling through the blood, pleading for escape. His eyes held no mercy, no sympathy for my cries and he neared me, smiling.
I snapped out of the dream, breathing heavy, sweat beaded around my temple.
Everything was blurry, but at least the screams were silenced. My heart was pumping wildly and I realized I was sitting upright in a chair, my arms wrapped around me in a straightjacket. My chest heaved with each breath I took, as if it were to be my last.
I heard footsteps and I shifted my gaze from the floor to the doorway. I was still in the medical wing, except I was in the corner of the far wall. Three guards were watching me, looking very upset and a fourth had just entered the room.
"Strife's awake," one commented softly.
"Alright, my watch time is done. I'm headin' home," another told the fourth, getting ready to leave.
"W...what happened here?" the newcomer asked, some fear masked in his voice.
Their voices suddenly dropped low, as if they didn't want me to hear, but I still could. I had a hard time focusing my eyes on anything and the figures in white looked blurry.
"The patient is extremely hostile with suicidal tendencies. We have to use severe caution when we're around him now since what happened," the first answered.
"He got very violent and killed 4 of the nursing assistants, wounding another three in the process! It took 6 of us to finally hold him down long enough so the doctor could sedate him," I strained to hear this last part said by the second nursing assistant.
"It was luck that we managed to stop him, I feared for my life!" another whispered softly.
"But he should be fine now that he's in restraints and sedated. All the ambulances just left, rushing the wounded to the medical hospital on the West Side of Junon. I'm surprised Strife isn't in prison by now, but I guess he's here for security reasons and for treatment. I'm not sure if even the psychiatrist wants to be around him after what happened," the first one replied.
They kept on talking, but that was all I wanted to hear. I killed 4 people without even knowing it? What happened? I shut my eyes... no, it wasn't me! It couldn't have been me! Why would I do that?
"Because you're obeying Jenova," Sephiroth's voice pierced my thoughts and I opened my eyes to find him leaning against the wall close to me.
"No...not you, you're not real. Leave me alone!" I hissed through clenched teeth. Sephiroth was the last person I wanted to talk to.
"Tifa is a threat to us. You are the only one with remaining Jenova and Tifa is your only weakness..." He curled his lips into a cruel smile and walked across the room.
The guards were playing cards around a table now, and one looked over at me.
"Who the hell's he talking to? And what the hell's he looking at?" one asked.
"I don't know. He's probably having some hallucination of some sort. Just leave him be," another said.
"They don't know your true power- the power of Jenova," Sephiroth smirked at the guards. "With my body dead, Jenova cannot channel herself through me. You thought she was dead? No, the threat never dies if the pieces live on. And you are one of the pieces," He stated.
"You're a liar," I hissed, staring at the ground.
"You carry Jenova within you, that's a fact. You want to kill Tifa, though. She is the only weakness you have. She is perfect, everything that you will never be. You're nothing," his lips spat every syllable.
My breathing became heavy as I began fighting the voice in my head. The man standing next to me was just an illusion, created by my mind, yet he seemed so real.
"Get out of my head! Get out of my thoughts!" I yelled to Sephiroth, but he didn't move.
"But only you can do that. I cannot disappear unless you make me disappear! But you're too weak to accomplish a simple feat like that! Jenova has already grasped your mind. You are her sole survivor and she must live on! Don't try to fight it, Cloud," Sephiroth advised, letting out a laugh.
"Why Tifa?" I weakly spoke, my mind tired. "I'm tired, so tired..." I shook my head, a pounding sound splicing through me. I was exhausted, but I couldn't fall asleep no matter how I tried.
"Tifa is your weakness and a threat to Jenova's life. If Tifa is gone, then the conflict is gone and Jenova can have full control over you, like she did with me," Sephiroth instructed me.
"You're lying. How do I know if you're telling the truth or not?" My breath was strained in my lungs.
"You're the one making me say these things. Or is it Jenova speaking through me using your mind to display a projection of someone you knew to mask her true appearance? Hmm...?" he raised an eyebrow and started laughing, knowing he was confusing me.
"Get outta my head..." I cried softly. "I'm not listening to you..."
"You will," Sephiroth narrowed his green eyes at me. I noticed how closely they resembled Aeris's green eyes. "You will learn to bend to Jenova's will." He leaned forward, suddenly glowering with a new rage.
"No... Tifa is perfect...And I love her," I admitted, forcing my eyes away from his.
"But she is too perfect for you. Remember how wonderful the feeling was when you sliced open her flesh with the knife? Remember how you were so jealous of her perfect life, when yours had been so messed up?" Sephiroth reminded me.
"Remember how you wanted to destroy something beautiful? You wanted to mar her perfection...remember that all?" his words twisted with anger.
"I...I do..." I spoke carefully, fighting this strange feeling overtaking my mind.
I DID remember how wonderful it was to cut her perfect skin...the adrenaline rush, the absence of fear, the weightless feeling of freedom, and my feelings were so unsure of what my true intentions were.
Half of me wanted to kill her, half of me wanted to save her and I was trapped in between the two emotions, unable to decide which is true of me.
"Get out of my mind!!" I screamed at him again. He knew I was struggling with this inner-conflict and he liked seeing me so torn emotionally.
"You are at your weakest point now. Your mind is exhausted from this inner-struggle and you are ripe for Jenova's picking," Sephiroth growled, although my mind was so clouded with static I could barely hear him.
Then I gave in, my mind collapsed to the invisible demanding force which was constantly beating down on me. Was it Jenova like Sephiroth said?
Suddenly, everything turned red and an intense pain crippled my body, igniting through my limbs like flames lapping through oil. I felt that strange weightless feeling overtake me like when I was holding the knife before but more severe this time, and everything turned dim and blurry.
The guards still sat at the table, playing cards, oblivious to my crisis. Little did they know I had just surrendered my mind to my hated and evil Jenova. They would never know the true struggle I was going through with my own intentions, the struggle for power over myself. They had no idea that their lived were now in danger.
But I was too weak to fend it off this time and I knew what it was now. The power of Jenova...
"What the fuck??" A heard someone yell, followed by a strange snapping sound.
/Good boy.../ a voice soothed me in my mind.
Everything was dim and I felt the warm spray of blood across my cheek. No, I didn't want to kill anymore...But what I wanted no longer mattered to Jenova.
/My control over you can only remain firm if we eliminate your main emotional weakness.../
I gave into the melodic voice empowering me and accepted this as my fate. I couldn't stop it now, I was powerless in every aspect. I wanted to curl up in a corner and cry against this pain invading my mind, commanding me against my will.
It was a distinctly familiar feeling of manipulation that I had previously experienced when Sephiroth would control my mind. It was the worst feeling in the world and I could not stop it...There was nothing I could do now. Resistance no longer mattered.
/Kill Tifa/ Jenova ordered me.
I replied to the voice softly in my mind, knowing it was not my own thoughts responding:
'Yes, mother...'
I felt a weight in my hands and noticed I was holding my Ultima Weapon, it's blue glow covered with specks and streaks of blood, more blood stained it with each second. But the blade didn't seem like just a weapon, it felt like an extension of myself, forever attached, forever mine.
More screams and several shouts of terror. I felt nothing and everything around me was black, I was in one big dark room. My hands were coated in a silky layer of blood rippling to the floor. It was beautiful. The blood rippling from my arm followed a crimson stream that emptied into a large pool of bubbling blood.
Entranced by the lake of blood, I went closer, all along hearing screams becoming closer and closer to me, and my Ultima Weapon was now covered in blood so thick you couldn't see it's faint glow. But I didn't care, in fact, I liked it.
The lake highly resembled the blue lake in the Forgotten City. ...I remember the blue lake filled with cool sapphire waters-Aeris's final resting place ... This blood lake looked so much like that blue lake it was scary.
As I neared it, I saw a body floating harmoniously in the center; the blood seemed to swirl around it, in praise almost. Static was getting loud in my mind again.
A bright flash of light blinded me and when I looked again, I was in the Forgotten City by the lake where Aeris lay. Her body was floating in the center of the swirling waters, her face in a perpetual smile, brown hair flowing around her like angel's wings.
I waded through the waters over to her body, but I couldn't quite reach her... All of a sudden red began billowing into the blue waters, tainting its pure color.
Blood began spreading from her body, diffusing through the water. Blood rising from the ground, blood falling from the sky, everywhere blood rushed towards me and when I looked back to Aeris's body, it was no longer her, but Sephiroth!
Another bright light flashed, and I was standing in the center of the Blood Lake, Sephiroth's body floating near me and the blood singing its praise to him, growing hot. Voices rose from the lake, filling the air, deafening me and I stared around in horror as the static grew louder, trying to overtake the voices screaming in my ear.
Sephiroth's eyes suddenly snapped open, green light flooding from his emerald eyes, staring straight at me. I screamed as fear suddenly flew through my body, urging me to get away, commanding me to leave!
I struggled against the swirling current of the blood growing hotter and hotter, swimming away from his blinding stare, but the blood grew thick, holding me in place.
"NO! Sephiroth, please no!" I cried, wrestling through the blood, pleading for escape. His eyes held no mercy, no sympathy for my cries and he neared me, smiling.
I snapped out of the dream, breathing heavy, sweat beaded around my temple.
Everything was blurry, but at least the screams were silenced. My heart was pumping wildly and I realized I was sitting upright in a chair, my arms wrapped around me in a straightjacket. My chest heaved with each breath I took, as if it were to be my last.
I heard footsteps and I shifted my gaze from the floor to the doorway. I was still in the medical wing, except I was in the corner of the far wall. Three guards were watching me, looking very upset and a fourth had just entered the room.
"Strife's awake," one commented softly.
"Alright, my watch time is done. I'm headin' home," another told the fourth, getting ready to leave.
"W...what happened here?" the newcomer asked, some fear masked in his voice.
Their voices suddenly dropped low, as if they didn't want me to hear, but I still could. I had a hard time focusing my eyes on anything and the figures in white looked blurry.
"The patient is extremely hostile with suicidal tendencies. We have to use severe caution when we're around him now since what happened," the first answered.
"He got very violent and killed 4 of the nursing assistants, wounding another three in the process! It took 6 of us to finally hold him down long enough so the doctor could sedate him," I strained to hear this last part said by the second nursing assistant.
"It was luck that we managed to stop him, I feared for my life!" another whispered softly.
"But he should be fine now that he's in restraints and sedated. All the ambulances just left, rushing the wounded to the medical hospital on the West Side of Junon. I'm surprised Strife isn't in prison by now, but I guess he's here for security reasons and for treatment. I'm not sure if even the psychiatrist wants to be around him after what happened," the first one replied.
They kept on talking, but that was all I wanted to hear. I killed 4 people without even knowing it? What happened? I shut my eyes... no, it wasn't me! It couldn't have been me! Why would I do that?
"Because you're obeying Jenova," Sephiroth's voice pierced my thoughts and I opened my eyes to find him leaning against the wall close to me.
"No...not you, you're not real. Leave me alone!" I hissed through clenched teeth. Sephiroth was the last person I wanted to talk to.
"Tifa is a threat to us. You are the only one with remaining Jenova and Tifa is your only weakness..." He curled his lips into a cruel smile and walked across the room.
The guards were playing cards around a table now, and one looked over at me.
"Who the hell's he talking to? And what the hell's he looking at?" one asked.
"I don't know. He's probably having some hallucination of some sort. Just leave him be," another said.
"They don't know your true power- the power of Jenova," Sephiroth smirked at the guards. "With my body dead, Jenova cannot channel herself through me. You thought she was dead? No, the threat never dies if the pieces live on. And you are one of the pieces," He stated.
"You're a liar," I hissed, staring at the ground.
"You carry Jenova within you, that's a fact. You want to kill Tifa, though. She is the only weakness you have. She is perfect, everything that you will never be. You're nothing," his lips spat every syllable.
My breathing became heavy as I began fighting the voice in my head. The man standing next to me was just an illusion, created by my mind, yet he seemed so real.
"Get out of my head! Get out of my thoughts!" I yelled to Sephiroth, but he didn't move.
"But only you can do that. I cannot disappear unless you make me disappear! But you're too weak to accomplish a simple feat like that! Jenova has already grasped your mind. You are her sole survivor and she must live on! Don't try to fight it, Cloud," Sephiroth advised, letting out a laugh.
"Why Tifa?" I weakly spoke, my mind tired. "I'm tired, so tired..." I shook my head, a pounding sound splicing through me. I was exhausted, but I couldn't fall asleep no matter how I tried.
"Tifa is your weakness and a threat to Jenova's life. If Tifa is gone, then the conflict is gone and Jenova can have full control over you, like she did with me," Sephiroth instructed me.
"You're lying. How do I know if you're telling the truth or not?" My breath was strained in my lungs.
"You're the one making me say these things. Or is it Jenova speaking through me using your mind to display a projection of someone you knew to mask her true appearance? Hmm...?" he raised an eyebrow and started laughing, knowing he was confusing me.
"Get outta my head..." I cried softly. "I'm not listening to you..."
"You will," Sephiroth narrowed his green eyes at me. I noticed how closely they resembled Aeris's green eyes. "You will learn to bend to Jenova's will." He leaned forward, suddenly glowering with a new rage.
"No... Tifa is perfect...And I love her," I admitted, forcing my eyes away from his.
"But she is too perfect for you. Remember how wonderful the feeling was when you sliced open her flesh with the knife? Remember how you were so jealous of her perfect life, when yours had been so messed up?" Sephiroth reminded me.
"Remember how you wanted to destroy something beautiful? You wanted to mar her perfection...remember that all?" his words twisted with anger.
"I...I do..." I spoke carefully, fighting this strange feeling overtaking my mind.
I DID remember how wonderful it was to cut her perfect skin...the adrenaline rush, the absence of fear, the weightless feeling of freedom, and my feelings were so unsure of what my true intentions were.
Half of me wanted to kill her, half of me wanted to save her and I was trapped in between the two emotions, unable to decide which is true of me.
"Get out of my mind!!" I screamed at him again. He knew I was struggling with this inner-conflict and he liked seeing me so torn emotionally.
"You are at your weakest point now. Your mind is exhausted from this inner-struggle and you are ripe for Jenova's picking," Sephiroth growled, although my mind was so clouded with static I could barely hear him.
Then I gave in, my mind collapsed to the invisible demanding force which was constantly beating down on me. Was it Jenova like Sephiroth said?
Suddenly, everything turned red and an intense pain crippled my body, igniting through my limbs like flames lapping through oil. I felt that strange weightless feeling overtake me like when I was holding the knife before but more severe this time, and everything turned dim and blurry.
The guards still sat at the table, playing cards, oblivious to my crisis. Little did they know I had just surrendered my mind to my hated and evil Jenova. They would never know the true struggle I was going through with my own intentions, the struggle for power over myself. They had no idea that their lived were now in danger.
But I was too weak to fend it off this time and I knew what it was now. The power of Jenova...
"What the fuck??" A heard someone yell, followed by a strange snapping sound.
/Good boy.../ a voice soothed me in my mind.
Everything was dim and I felt the warm spray of blood across my cheek. No, I didn't want to kill anymore...But what I wanted no longer mattered to Jenova.
/My control over you can only remain firm if we eliminate your main emotional weakness.../
I gave into the melodic voice empowering me and accepted this as my fate. I couldn't stop it now, I was powerless in every aspect. I wanted to curl up in a corner and cry against this pain invading my mind, commanding me against my will.
It was a distinctly familiar feeling of manipulation that I had previously experienced when Sephiroth would control my mind. It was the worst feeling in the world and I could not stop it...There was nothing I could do now. Resistance no longer mattered.
/Kill Tifa/ Jenova ordered me.
I replied to the voice softly in my mind, knowing it was not my own thoughts responding:
'Yes, mother...'