Minerva opened her eyes ever-so-slightly to watch Talya enter the room, closing the door behind her. "You know, this is the first time you've touched that bed your whole life."
The girl sat up, answering flatly, "It would be, considering I have never been in this cell before."
"Actually, we moved it from your old cell, Miss Smart Allec." Talya stood with her hands on her hips, but her voice sounded oddly cheerful.
Standing, Minerva only scoffed in response. "And what are you so happy about this morning?"
The former Turk stretched and leaned against the wall. "No prisoners. 'course, they're expected to come back." She tilted her head. "You didn't have anything to do with Sephiroth's escape, did you? You were out at the time."
The girl shrugged, raising an eyebrow. "How could I have helped them?"
Talya hesitated. "Well, I guess it doesn't matter anyway, right?"
Minerva did not reply. It was quite a thing for Talya to be satisfied with such a vague answer; usually, she only settled for definites, and always told the Professor if Minerva had disobeyed him. What did this mean? Was it just her soft spot for Sephiroth? Even if Minerva had made use of a loophole, it had helped Sephiroth, and that made it all right... Yes, that seemed to be it.
"Anyway... The Professor wants the both of us."
"Oh?"
"Yeah," Talya replied, opening the door again.
"What for?" Minerva asked, standing. "Does he expect Sephiroth to just appear out of nowhere?"
Talya waited for her to step out into the hallway before closing the door and answering, "Well... yeah, to be blunt."
"Alone?"
"Dunno. Maybe, maybe not."
Minerva hesitated. "...it would not be like him to bring Aeris back, would it?"
Her mother shrugged as she turned down the hallway towards Hojo's laboratory. "No, it wouldn't. But it might be like Aeris to insist on tagging along."
The girl did not respond to this, but shook her head slightly as she followed. Aeris was a Cetra, but... there would be three of them to fight Sephiroth and whomever accompanied him. Perhaps Reno would be among them, she thought. Of the humans that had come in an attempt to rescue Sephiroth and kill Hojo, he was the one that stood out the most to her. No one had been as kind to her, or as trusting in her, since... well, there had not been a time before that. Yuffie had been nice as well, but for some reason she remembered Reno first. Perhaps it was the red hair...
She stepped into the lab, closing the door behind her and immediately lowering her gaze. She rarely looked directly at the Professor. As a child, doing so would often earn her a slap, or at least a yell. The message had stuck.
"It's about time," Hojo muttered. "He could be here any minute and the two of you thought you had time to waste?"
"Sorry," Talya said, though she didn't mean it, and leaned against a wall to wait. Minerva remained near the door.
It turned out the Professor was right; they barely had to wait at all before five figures flickered into existance a little ways in from the door. Sephiroth, of course; Aeris, as had been quite probable; Vincent, as she should have considered; Reno, as she had hoped; and the strange, red-orange-furred creature whose name she did not even know.
"I thought you'd be coming back presently..." the Professor said to them, eyes on Sephiroth, anger showing plainly.
"Of course," the swordsman replied, eyes emerald. "I... All of us have a few things to settle with you before we leave."
The Professor scoffed loudly, and gestured to Talya and Minerva "If you can get through these two first."
Minerva moved from her position by the door, standing to one side of the lab. Talya pushed off from her wall. Sephiroth scoffed, but no one in his group replied; instead, they split into two groups-Sephiroth, Aeris, and Reno chose to fight Minerva, while Vincent and Nanaki took their stand against Talya. Minerva herself thought this the most likely way for them to win. And she was glad that she would be fighting Reno as well, though she wasn't certain why.
"Don't hold back," she said simply.
Sephiroth merely smiled in response and flung her against the wall with a sweep of his arm, as she had done to them so many times. But Minerva pushed off the wall and threw several knives back at him, and at Aeris. Sephiroth grabbed the Cetra and dodged the knives.
Aeris blinked at him. "Sephiroth... don't go out of your way to protect me. I can handle this." As if to prove her point, she picked up one of the blades from the floor and threw it back at Minerva, tweaking the air to guide it. The girl stepped out of the way and it only clipped a lock of hair. She turned and grasped it by the hilt as it flew past, then darted forward, the dagger now radiating heat as she slashed at Reno. He dodged it, and the tip of his nightstick grazed her shoulder as he did so.
Minerva jerked back, then flung the knife at him. He was too close to avoid it, and he raised his arm in defense, crying out as the knife buried itself in his flesh. Minerva retrieved her blade from him, shoving him backwards as she did so. Aeris hurried to her friend's aid, while Sephiroth sent spears of ice towards the girl. She leapt back out of the way, farther and farther, until she came to the wall, and there she flung up a barrier. Sephiroth continued his attack, following after her. The shield spell wavered and broke, and several of the spears drove through her, pinning her against the wall. She did not cry out, even as one pierced her abdomen.
Flames surrounded her, melting the ice, but she had no time to heal the wounds before the blade of the Masamune swung towards her. She leapt up above it, pulling out a pair of her longest knives with which to deflect his blows. He was as skilled a swordsman as the stories said, perhaps more so, and she was astonished to discover she was having difficulty keeping his Masamune from harming her.
She was so focused on that single task, that she did not notice the Bolt spell until it was already upon her. Minerva staggered back, the pain in her head crackling to life. Sephiroth only slashed towards her wrist, but she saw soon enough how effective the blow was. She dropped both her blades and held the wrist tightly with her other hand, to keep the blood from spurting out.
Throwing up the strongest barriers she could, she dropped to her knees, trying to heal herself before Sephiroth broke the spells again. She was just in time to block the next lightning attack, and she glanced around to see that Aeris was the one casting them.
She stood, releasing the shield, leaping back from Sephiroth's Masamune as she did so. She retrieved her knives from the floor, flinging one at Reno, then casting her strongest fire spell in Aeris's direction. She ducked as the Masamune sang over her head, then swung out a leg to deliver a harsh kick to Sephiroth's leg. He stumbled, and his blade disappeared, but he swept her across the floor and against the wall with his power.
Minerva narrowed her eyes, rolling out of the way of Aeris's thunderbolt-it appeared she had put up a barrier against the fire-and leapt to her feet. She knocked Reno aside as he tried to attack her, then sent her own blast of energy outward. Reno slammed into the nearby wall with a cry of pain, Aeris fell into one of Hojo's control panels, cutting herself in several places on the sharp metal angles, and Sephiroth staggered back a ways before the wave slammed him into a glass cylindar. The glass shattered, Mako poured out, and soon he was suffering dozens of cuts of various sizes and drenched in the glowing green liquid.
Reno had got hold of her leg and tugged hard; she nearly fell, but kicked him instead, taking a handful of his crimson hair and yanking him upward by it. She spotted his nightstick laying on the floor several feet away, but ignored it. She twisted his arm around, buried one of her knives in his shoulder, then flung him aside.
A bolt of electricity struck her from behind and she cringed, pain throbbing through her, eminating from the device in her head. Minerva recovered, spun to face Sephiroth, and readied her knives. He smiled and the Masamune appeared in his hands. She darted forward, metal clashed with metal, and their blades danced as their bodies leapt and dodged.
One of Minerva's knives grazed his cheek, and his eyes shone brighter. She sensed the lightning this time and broke off the match, darting backward. The bolt struck the tiled floor where she had been standing.
But she did not anticipate Reno's attack. His nightstick struck her along her spine, and her back arched before she tried to pull away. Reno grasped her shoulder though, pulling her closer to him, moving the nightstick farther up her spine. One of her hands reached behind her, as if to grasp the weapon and wrench it from him, but she forced herself to drop it back to her side. The pain coursed through her, as it had when she attempted to pull off the door to her cell... no, when she succeeded in pulling it off.
She tried to ignore the pain, but found it impossible. She squeezed her eyes shut and let herself fall against Reno. It was easier to bear somehow, if someone else was inflicting the pain on her. She felt him stumble backwards, felt the floor beneath her; she was on her side. The nightstick was still against her back, she thought. Pins and needles and knives and... Her consciousness was slipping from her. She struggled for a moment to stay awake, but knew it would be better if she did not. Because then they could leave her and move on to kill Hojo and then...
Something inside her head seemed to crackle even more painfully, to snap and split and she nearly screamed. And then the darkness took her.
Reno switched off the electricity setting on his nightstick and sat back, staring at Minerva's unconscious form. "......never thought I'd be the one to beat her," he muttered.
Aeris walked over and crouched down near him, looking at the silver-haired girl a moment as well. "You didn't beat her. She gave up. Decided to fight Hojo instead."
"I know..."
The Cetra laid a hand on his shoulder. "Are you all right?"
He grunted.
She closed her eyes a moment and he felt the warm sensation of healing pass through him. Aeris smiled a little. "There...!"
"Thanks..."
Aeris glanced up at Sephiroth, then stood. "Don't you look a dreadful mess."
The swordsman shrugged; his eyes were on the battle raging over the other side of the room. Reno followed his gaze. Vincent and Nanaki were both still up and moving, which he guessed was good, but Talya... well, apparantly she had transformed into a dark, winged thing, vaguely like Chaos, only this one was a deep red-brown with fur and feathers.
"What the hell?" Reno asked.
"I thought as much... Hojo experimented on her as he did on Vincent," Sephiroth replied.
"Enough standing here," Aeris said. "Let's go help them!"
Sephiroth nodded and followed Aeris to the battle. Reno watched them, then started to stand when a hand grasped his wrist tightly. He started and looked down; Minerva rolled over and pushed herself up with her other arm.
"They don't need your help," she said, voice strained.
"You don't stay out long, do you?" he asked uncertainly.
She let go of him and sat back. "Nnh... No."
Reno watched her, but she did not move save to turn slightly so she could watch the battle as Aeris and Sephiroth joined it. He shrugged and watched, too.
The Chaos-like creature was on the ground, slightly hunched, against a wall. Vincent and Nanaki had stepped back slightly and Sephiroth's Masamune was in hand. Aeris stood back a ways and cast an ice spell on the creature. It countered with a spell of its own that knocked her to the ground with some invisible force; it was different from Minerva's power though. Nanaki bounded over to her.
Sephiroth glanced behind him at Aeris, then charged forward to attack the Chaos-like thing. It blocked with its claws and slashed forward with its other arm. The two carried on for some time before they broke off, the creature wounded in several places, while Sephiroth had only the wounds Minerva had given him.
The creature pushed off the ground and into the air, leaving those on the ground behind. Sephiroth flung out his arm, but the thing flew out of the way of the blast; it was amazingly agile in the air, and the ceiling was high.
Reno turned back to Minerva. "Why doesn't Vincent transform?" he asked. "Chaos is good in the air, too, isn't it?"
"Talya can control it. Vincent cannot. I do not think he wants to risk it, especially when Chaos has fought Sephiroth before. It may not realize he is no longer an enemy. The same goes for the two of us, I believe."
"So, what? Hojo can't control you anymore?"
She slowly raised a hand to the back of her head. "...you either damaged the device or it has ceased to function entirely. I am not certain which..."
"Oh... Hey, is that why you told me to give Aeris my nightstick?"
"Yes."
"Heh..."
"Can you give it to me...?" Minerva asked.
He blinked at her, then asked cautiously, "What for?"
She shook her head. "I am not going to hurt you. I can do that quite easily without your weapon."
"But you're going to hurt yourself..."
"I do not see why you have a problem with that. I need to see something... Besides, my recovery time is, as you have seen, quite short."
Still he hesitated, and then a thought occurred to him. "Hey, where's Ho-" A blow to his head knocked him over sideways and sent black dots dancing in his vision.
"What are you doing?" Hojo's voice demanded.
"Ignoring your orders," Minerva replied harshly. "What do you think I am doing?"
Reno started to get up, one hand to his head, the other on his nightstick. Hojo was standing just out of reach, Minerva crouched against the wall before him. The redhead hesitated.
"Get up," Hojo commanded.
The girl did not move, but did not look up at the Professor.
He kicked her harshly; she did not flinch. "I said get up."
"I heard you quite well."
Frowning, Hojo pulled a small remote from his pocket and pushed several of the buttons on it. Minerva cringed, eyes shutting tight, hands going to her head.
"Now are you going to hold out, or will you get up and fight like I told you?"
Eyes narrowing, Reno lunged forward with his nightstick at its highest setting.
Hojo kicked him aside with a strength he certainly did not appear to have and glared at him through his glasses. "What do you think you're doing? You're human. You're a fool for coming here, let alone for trying to attack me."
Reno grunted and started to pick himself up off the floor, reaching for his nightstick only to find that Hojo had knocked it from his hands. He sat up. Minerva had taken one hand from her head to reach for it; the weapon was lying on the floor a few feet in front of her. Hojo pressed another button on the remote and she fell forward, her whole body contorted in pain, but not a single sound escaping her. She pushed herself up with one hand and kept reaching for the nightstick. Before Hojo could kick it away, she grasped the weapon and swung it at him.
Hojo hopped back, easily avoiding the blow, and scoffed. Minerva glared up at him from her position on the floor, then slowly lifted her arm and put the end of the nightstick against her own neck, right on her spine. She nearly fell forward again, but her left hand was still braced against the floor. She shut her eyes tight and clenched her teeth.
"Minerva!" Reno cried out.
"What are you doing?" Hojo demanded of her.
Minerva shuddered from the pain, and the electricity raced through her, but somehow she managed to lift her head and open her eyes to glare at him once more. Her eyes glowed emerald. "I... won't..." she forced out, then her mouth opened in a voiceless scream and she collapsed at Hojo's feet, right hand still tightly grasping the nightstick.
"Minerva!" Reno scuttled over, ignoring Hojo and bending over the girl, taking his weapon from her hand and turning it off. He laid it aside and turned her onto her back, feeling for a pulse. Her heartbeat was fast, but surprisingly steady.
"She won't die that easily," Hojo said contemptuously.
Reno turned slowly, snatching up his nightstick, a growl in his throat. "You bastard!!" he shouted, letting loose a crackling ball of energy at Hojo. It hit him full force, but the scientist only stumbled slightly and frowned at him.
"Moron," he muttered. "You don't know what you're up against."
The redhead climbed to his feet, taking up a wary stance, nighstick ready. "I don't care. You've hurt her enough...!"
"Reno..."
He looked down at Minerva. She had rolled onto her side and was trying to get up. "You should'nt be trying to move," he said. "I'll get rid of this bastard and then--"
"No!" she gasped. "He'll kill you!"
Reno faltered. "You think I can't handle him?"
"You can't... He's..." Wincing, she lay back against the floor.
"She's right," Hojo said, smirking. "Heh, heh... You really are a moron if you think you can kill me. Didn't they tell you anything before they brought you here?"
"You mean the part about you experimenting on yourself with Jenova cells?" Reno asked. "Oh, sure, they told me about that. You think I care?"
Minerva pulled herself up to a crouch. "Reno, don't- Wait for the others..."
"But, Minerva-"
"Reno!" Aeris called, running up. "What are you doing?"
Reno whirled around. "Aeris! I'm- Did you-?"
The Cetra stopped and glanced over her shoulder. Talya was slumped against a control panel, breathing heavily. Sephiroth was crouched near her, apparently speaking to her. Nanaki stood by, and Vincent was leaning wearily against a display monitor.
"What happened?" he asked, looking back at Aeris.
"Vincent transformed into Chaos and beat her with Sephiroth's help. But then he wouldn't change back and we had to fight him..."
"Oh..."
She shook her head. "Details later." She turned to Hojo. "We've beaten your 'servants,' Professor. It's your turn. But there are some things we'd like to ask you first..."
He raised an eyebrow at her. "Like what?"
Aeris glanced over at the others. Vincent was making his way over, Nanaki padding after him. Sephiroth stood, head lowered, then turned to follow. Reno hesitated, then took a step back, relaxing just a little.
The Cetra's gaze faltered on Sephiroth's face, but then she nodded and returned it to Hojo. "Right. We want to know... why you treated Lucrecia as you did."
"What, you haven't figured it out already?" Hojo asked, incredulous. "I used her for the Jenova Project. What is there to explain?"
"But why her? And why go through the pretense of courting her and..." Aeris sighed and shook her head. "Why?"
"Because it was the easiest thing to do." He sneered at Vincent. "You know how devoted she was to the project. It was easy to convince her to give herself to it."
"All right..." Aeris said, frowning. "Then why let her die?"
"I had no more use for her."
"But I saw you!" she exclaimed suddenly. "You cared when Vincent told you she was dying. You had no reason to fake that look."
The Professor looked at her sharply. "How did you...!?" He shook his head and smoothed his expression. "No matter. So what if I was a little distressed to lose her? She was, afterall, the first to die for my experiments."
"You're lying," Aeris stated bluntly. "Why care about her death and still let her die? And why experiment on Vincent?"
"Quit asking me why," he snapped.
"We came for answers, not just to kill you."
"Emotion is such a strange thing..." Hojo muttered.
Sephiroth scoffed loudly. "Emotion? You have no claim to emotion."
"All you saw, boy, was anger and impatience. You kept your mouth shut and your eyes down anyway until we brought the Ancients in. Then you decided you were worth something! Ha!" Hojo smiled wickedly. "But you were mine. You were always mine."
"I was never yours!" Sephiroth declared angrily.
Aeris laid a hand on his arm. "Shh... Calm down." He only glanced down at her with a frown, but she ignored it and turned to the Professor. "What are you getting at?"
"You want to know why I got involved with Lucrecia, but you won't believe that I have emotions,"he replied spitefully. "What do you expect from me then?"
"I'll believe it. You were human once."
He snorted. "Why, thank you for reminding me." He turned aside and strode to inspect the broken Mako chamber, frowning. "Messing up my laboratory..." he muttered, then raised his voice. "It may be true that I only intended to use her from the start. I'd had the Project in mind for many years, and it seemed about time I started getting things in place. And there was Lucrecia-sweet, innocent, devoted, terribly gullible. A perfect candidate for Sephiroth's mother."
Hojo began pacing back and forth. Reno watched with incredulity; he was actually responding to their questions. But maybe he'd had these things pent up inside him and he actually wanted to tell someone. Maybe he was just bragging. The redhead crouched down by Minerva; her eyes were filled with anger as she watched the Professor.
"So I decided I would pretend to court her," Hojo went on. "I didn't think that I'd actually come to like the creature." He stopped, head lowered. "Gods, she was beautiful..." He turned suddenly with a snarl, glaring at Vincent. "But YOU... You had to ruin everything. I had it all going according to plan, and then you came and took her away from me. She always loved you more, no matter what she said, no matter what she did."
"Do you mean to say that you loved her?" Aeris asked. Even she, who could believe in and bring out the best in everyone, seemed to find this hard to swallow.
"Yes, I loved her," he snapped. "You can't understand how I could let her die, can you? But it was to get back at him for taking her heart. To get back at her for loving him and not me. You can say I was selfish. I don't care. I knew that if she died, he would be devastated, and that sounded like a good idea at the time..."
"At the time?" Vincent asked, his usually emotionless voice now strained with fury.
Hojo turned to him. "I regret it now, yes. Is that so hard to believe? She would have been useful now. And as for you, giving you those demons inside your head, and allowing you to keep living with them-I know that has proved sufficient punishment for you." He grimaced. "But you just have to keep getting in my way..."
"Lies..." Sephiroth muttered. "He can't be telling the truth." Reno heartily agreed with him.
But Aeris was shaking her head in amazement. "But he is..." The others looked at her incredulously. "He is telling the truth," she repeated. "I can feel it..."
Minerva glanced up at the Cetra. "...just kill him. You have what you wanted."
Reno turned to her. "Don't you have anything you wanna ask?"
She raised an eyebrow and shook her head. "No."
"You sure?"
"I do not need any answers from him," she replied.
The redhead shrugged a bit.
Aeris turned to him. "Reno, could you stay out of this? This is our battle... Just look after her and keep out of the way."
He nodded, but Minerva struggled to get to her feet. She managed to stand, but leaned heavily against the wall. Reno stood with her, uncertainly. "I want to fight with you..." the girl said, her voice firm despite her weakness.
The Cetra shook her head. "You fought your battle, and you won it. You shouldn't fight this one... you need to rest and recover."
"But you may need my help..." Minerva protested.
Aeris glanced at Sephiroth, then smiled confidently. "I think we'll be all right."
"...all right," the girl conceded. "I will do as you wish... for now. I may change my mind."
Reno moved over to help her out of the way, but hesitated and decided it was best to ask first. "...need any help?"
She shook her head and began making her way to the far side of the lab, keeping to the wall so that she could lean against it. Reno ran a hand through his hair and followed after her, wondering why exactly he needed to 'look after her.' She seemed quite good at taking care of herself. Once she was as far away from the others as she could be, Minerva sank down to the floor and stared over at them. Reno sat down next to her.
"How are you feeling?"
"...weaker than I ever have before," she replied. "And yet somehow much stronger. It is... strange."
He grinned a little. "A lot of things are gonna seem strange, once we get you outta here."
Minerva glanced at him. "You have great confidence in your friends, don't you?"
"Yeah."
She nodded slightly. "Then I shall believe in them as well."
Reno studied her for a moment, trying to read her expression, but failed miserably and turned to watch the others battle Hojo. The scientist was transforming; even if his human form was considerably stronger than it had been, his other form was likely even more powerful. This Jenova-enhanced form floated some feet in the air, twin tails coiling beneath it, both with sharp, barbed tips. Its skin was a color somewhere between green and tan, and the thing had a smooth, bald head. The arms were thin and wiry, with long claw-tipped fingers. Reno wasn't sure which was uglier-Hojo, or this new monstrosity.
Not surprisingly, Vincent was the first to attack, running forward and slashing at Hojo with his claw. The monster darted back, and his tails swung towards the former Turk. Vincent dodged them, slashing again and failing to do more than pierce the skin, while one of the tails punctured his side and the other raked across his chest. It seemed to Reno that the latter was poison-tipped. Both caught hold of him and tossed him aside, landing him crashing into some testing equipment.
Nanaki bounded up and got a fair score with his claws and the razor-sharp blades in his headress, but Hojo's tails whipped around, catching him in the chest and knocking him aside as well.
Sephiroth sent a blast of raw power towards Hojo, but he put up a barrier, and though he moved backwards slightly, it held. Cursing under his breath, Sephiroth ran forward, Masamune appearing out of nowhere as he slashed with the blade. The tails blocked his blows, and Hojo's claws slashed back at him. The swordsman avoided them and managed to cut through one of the tails with a hard, swift stroke. The remaining tail cut him across the shoulder, but he ignored the blow and attacked again.
Aeris, who had been concentrating for some time, lifted her head to cast a powerful lightning spell on Hojo. It hit him full-force and Sephiroth took the opportunity to cut off one of the monster's hands. Reno realized then what Aeris had been doing-nullifying Hojo's barrier spell.
Recovering from the blows, Hojo sent a blast of energy towards Aeris. She threw up her own barrier spell, but it wavered and broke, the tail end of the spell catching her and throwing her backwards some distance. She landed hard on the floor and did not rise.
Sephiroth's gaze followed her, and then he turned to Hojo with flames bursting from his hands, burning the monster with their intensity. Hojo came out of the smoke and fire to attack the swordsman with a series of quick blows from his remaining hand and tail. Sephiroth could not block them all, and the last few sent him stumbling backwards.
A strong ice spell drew Reno's attention back to Nanaki, who was crouched warily beside Vincent. Vincent himself was on one knee, fighting a losing battle with the monsters in his mind. Wings ripped through his back, horns grew from his head, his skin turned a deep purple, and his eyes glowed pure crimson. Chaos sprang from the ground, flapping its great wings, appearing almost triumphant at this second transformation. It sent a spell toward Hojo, and two slashes criss-crossed Hojo's chest, as from unseen blades.
Waves of energy eminated from Hojo and caught the fighters off-guard, sending each of them slamming back into the nearest wall or piece of equipment. Nanaki did not have far to go, but some of them flew all the way back to the farthest wall. Chaos shot back through the air and caught the top of a Mako chamber, knocking into the wires and tubes that emerged from the top. Hojo then flew to the downed Sephiroth and beat him fiercely with his tail. The swordsman curled up into a ball, a position that appeared somehow familiar to him. Reno wondered briefly if he had recieved such beatings before.
Beside him, Minerva struggled to stand, and he looked at her, alarmed. "What are you doing?"
"It looks as though they need my help afterall." She stood, and Reno leapt to his feet.
"But you can barely stand, how do you expect to fight?"
She steadied herself, gaze fixed on Sephiroth's huddled form; she seemed to be gathering her strength. Without another moment's hesitation, she sprang forward at a run, pulling two knives out of nowhere and sending them flying toward Hojo, accompanied by a narrow blast of energy. The monster slammed backwards into a wall, the knives burying themselves in his abdomen and shoulder. He started to slide down to the floor, but straightened and charged for the girl with a snarl, claws digging into her stomach.
He would have followed up the attack, if Sephiroth's Masamune had not caught him a glancing blow across the back. He whirled around, letting Minerva fall to the floor, and attacked Sephiroth instead.
Reno hurried over to Minerva, crouching down beside her. "What were you thinking?" he whispered sharply.
"It bought Sephiroth enough time to recover, didn't it?" she asked softly.
Shaking his head, the redhead picked her up-she started at this, and tensed-and carried her swifly away from the battle before they got in the way. He looked at her wounds with a grimace. "Shit," he muttered. "You should have let someone else save him."
She shook her head. "I will be fine. But I could not bear to see him suffer so."
"Has Hojo beat you like that before?"
Minerva looked away, back to the battle. Reno frowned slightly, but didn't say anything more. He was somewhat relieved to see that Aeris had climbed to her feet and was preparing to let loose another spell. This one whipped around the entire lab, a fire like that of the phoenix, that healed friends and burned foes. The Cetra seemed a bit drained and sat down on the floor, watching as Nanaki called on Bahamut to come to their aid. The dragon flew down out of nowhere to blast Hojo with its non-elemental fire and was gone as quickly as it had come, leaving Hojo just a little weaker than before.
Chaos had recovered by now and flew closer to the battle, its unnamable magic surrounding Hojo with a shadowy darkness that went through him and out again, taking with it some of his power. Hojo floated over, grasping Chaos around the neck with its tail and squeezing tightly, like some sort of constricting snake. Chaos struggled, limbs flailing and clawed hands and feet catching Hojo's flesh and tearing it to shreds. Hojo was forced to release his grip and fly backwards some distance. Chaos fell to the ground, breathing heavily.
Hojo lifted his hand for another spell, failing to notice that Sephiroth was behind him. The Masamune sang as it severed head from body.
The head bounced once and landed near Chaos, who added a set of clawmarks to the face, sending the head rolling a little farther. The body hovered a moment longer before collapsing to the floor with a thud.
Sephiroth's Masamune did not stop its motion, but continued to slash through Hojo's body, over and over, blood flying and spattering both the sword and its weilder.
Aeris started towards him, worry on her face. "Sephiroth, stop it!"
A slight hesitation, and the attacks continued.
Nanaki walked over, limping slightly, and bumped his head against Aeris's leg. "Let him be, Aeris. He has a lot of hatred to vent."
Reno glanced down at Minerva. Her eyes were emerald, and fixed on the display of violence. He could have sworn that she was enjoying it... Of course, maybe she was; she probably hated Hojo as much as Sephiroth did, maybe even more.
Finally, when Hojo's corpse was an unrecognisable mass of blood and flesh, Sephiroth stopped, breathing heavily, and sank to the floor, letting go of the Masamune. He sat staring at what he had done, bloodied sword lying beside him.
Aeris took a few steps toward him, but stopped at a snarl from Chaos, who had not yet transformed back into Vincent.
Sephiroth's head shot up to look at the creature, and he slowly climbed to his feet, grasping the Masamune again. Chaos hovered a foot above the ground, facing him. He held out his blade and raised one eyebrow. "You want to face me again?"
Chaos growled, but seemed to hesitate.
"You remember the last few times. I killed you before, and I can do it again. Easily."
The monster dropped to the floor once again, one claw clutching its head. The horns retracted, the wings shriveled and withdrew, the skin paled to what seemed a near-white. Vincent crouched there a moment, then stumbled to his feet.
"Are you all right?" Aeris asked.
He nodded silently.
Sephiroth studied him warily, then let the Masamune disappear and looked down at Hojo's corpse.
"How do we keep the Jenova cells from reviving him?" Aeris inquired of the swordsman.
He did not look at her, nor did he speak. He walked over to the head, kicked it scornfully back towards the bloodied remains, and set the pile aflame. Sephiroth turned his back on the fire and strode out of the lab. The others watched him go. Aeris looked as though she wanted to follow, but she walked instead to Minerva.
"How are your wounds?"
The girl started to push herself up. "I am fine."
Aeris shook her head. "Let me heal you..."
Minerva looked at her sharply. "You have used enough of your own energy. You should not tire yourself just for me; I will heal quickly enough."
Sighing, Aeris straightened and looked toward the doorway. Nanaki nudged her leg. "Perhaps you should catch him up and speak with him..."
"Yes, I think you're right," she replied, starting at a walk, but soon quickening her step. She left the lab at a run.
Nanaki looked around the laboratory. "What are we going to do with this place?"
"Blow it up?" Reno suggested.
The others looked at him. "We would need explosives..." Nanaki said doubtfully.
"AVALANCHE blew up reactors before, didn't they? I'm sure you guys can come up with something."
Vincent had strode off, towards Talya's forgotten body. Reno got to his feet, then bent to offer Minerva a hand up. She refused, and pushed herself up, leaning against the wall, looking over towards Talya.
"Come on," Reno said gently. "Needing a little help is nothing to be ashamed of."
She closed her eyes, but he sensed in her expression an indifferent consent. He lifted her arm up over his shoulder, and put one of his own around her. She leaned on him as he helped her over to where Vincent stood, although she seemed to be trying not to.
Minerva broke away from him when they reached Talya's body and stood on her own, looking down at it silently, eyes unflinching. Reno watched her uncertainly.
Finally, she scoffed and murmured softly, "You are gone, and so is the Professor. There will be no more lies." She turned to Reno, blue eyes icy cold. "Let us go."
He nodded silently and helped her out of the room. Vincent and Nanaki trailed after them.
Sephiroth slowed to a stop, leaning against one side of the hallway. I can't believe I... And Aeris... Aeris saw it...
What will she think of you now, I wonder. She hasn't come to comfort you yet. Tell me, why not?
She has... more important things to attend to...
Oh? And I thought you were so important to her.
Shut up. I want to think in peace.
Oh, but I like what you did to Hojo. I thought you might be a bit more willing to do something similar to the humans.
"No..." he whispered. "I didn't mean to..."
But you wanted to! You've wanted to for so long, to tear him apart, to slice him into tiny pieces and feel the blood splash on your face. Don't tell me you didn't mean to. I know you loved it.
Sephiroth put a hand to his face and pulled it back, staring at the blood on his fingers. "But no one else. I wouldn't wish that on anyone but him..."
Killing him did not rid you of your hatred. You still have much more inside of you. If you do not vent it, you may burst out in anger when you do not wish to... say... against Aeris.
He closed his eyes. "Stop trying to convince me to kill for you. It won't work, and I am going to find you, and do worse to you than I did to Hojo."
And what would Aeris think of that?
"I don't care."
Footsteps sounded, coming down the hall, but he did not turn to face her, nor lift his head, nor even open his eyes. Here she is now... Do you think she came to comfort you, or to tell you how much she hates you for doing that to a corpse?
Shut up.
The footsteps stopped some feet behind him, and Aeris's worried, uncertain voice called softly, "...Sephiroth?"
"What are you here for?" he asked.
"What do you mean?" Surprise threaded in her voice.
"You saw what I did. Aren't you disgusted? Afraid? Angry? What do you want to talk to me for?"
He felt her light touch on his arm and flinched. "No, I'm not angry with you. Or afraid. Or disgusted. I just wanted to make sure you were all right..."
"I am fine. I did not sustain any considerable injuries."
She fingered the scratches and gouges in his back. "...it doesn't look that way."
"Don't bother healing me. It would be a waste of your energy."
But he felt the warm sensation of healing a moment later, and Aeris leaned against him from behind. "What else do I need it for? We've beaten our enemy, and we have time to rest up before we defeat Jenova."
Sephiroth turned to glance at her over his shoulder. "What do you mean 'we'? It is my duty to fight Jenova, not yours. You said so yourself, that I was the only one who could kill her."
Aeris straightened and walked around to stand in front of him, smiling. "I never said you had to do it alone. And you're not going to either." She poked him playfully in the chest, but her eyes seemed anxious. "Don't you dare leave without me."
He sighed and looked away. "I won't. I need time to rest as well..." he admitted. He turned slightly, seeing Minerva limping down the hall, leaning against Reno, with Vincent and Nanaki behind them.
The Cetra moved to stand beside him, looking up at him. "Can you take us back to the airship?"
Sephiroth nodded silently. He concentrated, and the hallway around them shifted into nothingness for a moment, then returned them to the bridge of the Highwind. Seven pairs of startled eyes fixed on the group as they appeared out of nowhere.
"Hey, welcome back!" Cid exclaimed, the first to recover from the shock.
"Thank you, Cid," Aeris replied, smiling.
"Looks like you guys had some fight," Cait Sith noted, studying their ragged, bloodstained appearances. Sephiroth ignored the comment, though he knew he was probably the worst-off of them all, with blood and Mako caking his normally beautiful silver hair, and the back of his trench coat practically shredded.
"Yes, we did," Aeris agreed. "But we're all right," she added, catching Cloud's worried gaze.
He nodded slightly. "What did you do with Hojo's body...?"
"Chopped it up into tiny little pieces and burned it to a crisp," Reno said.
Sephiroth shifted uncomfortably, and Aeris looked at Reno sternly. Cloud looked at Sephiroth with a frown.
"What about the lab?" Tifa continued with a glance at her husband.
"We were considering blowing it up," Nanaki said, "but we lacked the explosives and decided we had best return here first."
"And Talya?" Reeve inquired.
"Dead," Minerva responded, voice just a little too sharp. Everyone looked at her, and silence reigned for a moment.
"Anyway," Aeris said finally. "I think we're all in need of some rest, so if you don't mind, we'll answer any other questions later."
Cloud nodded. "Go ahead and use whatever rooms you like."
She smiled and turned down the hallway towards the ship's quarters. Reno glanced at Minerva, and the two started after her. Sephiroth sighed and turned to make his way to the deck, where he hoped no one would bother him. He was surprised to find Yuffie there, leaning on the railing; of course, she had been missing from the bridge.
He turned to leave and find some other quiet spot, but she looked up. "Oh, hey, don't mind me."
Pausing, he glanced back at her questioningly.
She raised her eyebrows. "Gawd, aren't you a mess..."
"So I've been told," he muttered dryly.
"Oh," she said. She paused, then waved him over. "What are you standing over there for? I don't bite! Honest!"
Hesitantly, he walked to the railing, still keeping more distance than necessary or polite between them. He looked out toward Midgar, and said nothing.
"So, um... I guess you made it back all right, huh?"
He nodded, then added as an afterthought, "The others are fine as well."
Yuffie looked him over. "You don't exactly look fine, but I'll take your word for it. Didja have to fight Minerva and Talya, too?"
"We killed Talya, but Minerva fought Hojo's control and returned with us."
"...oh." Sephiroth shifted uncomfortably; the ninja had not taken her gaze off of him. "So, what're you gonna do now?"
"Rest, and then find Jenova."
"Jenova?" Yuffie asked, with some alarm.
Look, she thinks you want to join me. No matter what the humans do or say, they still won't trust you.
I would rather have them mistrust me than for their fears to be correct. He glanced at her. "Yes. To kill her."
She nodded, looking out at the ruins of Midgar. "Oh, okay. You had me worried for a second." After a moment, she said more softly, "Sorry."
"What for?"
"You know, for thinking you'd still wanna do mass slaughter and all." Yuffie looked back at him. "Aeris trusts you, and you know, I'll go by her judgement any day. She's reckless sometimes, but she knows people."
Sephiroth avoided her gaze. "I hope she is right."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I don't trust myself."
"That's encouraging."
He said nothing for a time, then asked, "...what do you plan on doing from here?"
Yuffie looked surprised that he had bothered to ask. "I think I'll stick around for a while... I want to see Jenova dead for good. And then I'll go back to Wutai and get to work rebuilding."
"Rebuilding?" he asked.
"You led the attacks on our town, and you have to ask that? It never got back to normal, if that's what you thought." She sighed. "Nobody wanted to go up against the Shinra again."
"I take it they still are not eager to help you with the reconstruction."
Yuffie shook her head. "Hardly anyone is. I got some of the merchants motivated, since their business has been way down ever since the war, but everyone else is just... dead. They don't care anymore."
Sephiroth looked down. Dead... I don't care anymore either. What about Aeris?
Is that Cetra brat your only reason for living?
For the moment, yes. And you. I want you dead.
Isn't that a lovely thing to hear?
He scoffed quietly and did not reply.
The ninja glanced at him. "What?"
He blinked. "...I didn't say anything."
"Oh..." She hesitated, then asked suddenly, "What's going on with you and Aeris anyway?"
Sephiroth turned to her sharply. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, why were you two holding hands last night? And you spent the whole night together out here, didn't you? What were you doing, just talking?"
"Yes," he replied coldly. "And nothing more."
"Really?" Yuffie asked, eyeing him carefully.
"Yes," he repeated, forcing himself to meet her gaze. She stared back at him until he finally looked away, back towards Midgar.
"You know," she commented, "you seem awfully shy and unsure for someone who used to be a world-famous general and tried to destroy the world."
"...that is because I used to believe in myself," he murmured. "I no longer do."
Yuffie did not reply, and he nearly sighed in relief. He leaned against the railing, absently studying the shattered buildings of Midgar. She said she wasn't angry, he told himself. Or afraid, or repulsed. What are you so worried about?
And a heartbeat later he answered his own question. ...because I am angry with myself, and afraid, and disgusted. She deserves the company of her friends, not me. She has done for me what I needed, and I should be able to do the rest, and stand on my own... shouldn't I? In any case... leave her be, so she can be with her friends, unless she chooses to be with you.
But what if you hurt her?
Best to stay away entirely then. Even if she tries to seek you out, stay with her no longer than you must...
Sephiroth frowned minutely, lowering his head. ...but I want to see her again. I want to be with her.
Why? If you truly care about her, wouldn't it be best to keep her safe by staying away?
But... what if she cares about you?