Faded Dreams, Falling Like Rain
A Final Fantasy VII Fan Fiction by Sarah Digna Yudlowitz
Dream . . .
Dream of death . . .
Dream of moonlight . . .
Legal Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII and all of its characters belong to the company of Squaresoft. I do not claim these
characters or the concept of the game for my own. This work is not to be distributed, sold, or posted anywhere without the
consent of its author. Comments and encouragements are always welcomed, as they are a part of the enjoyment of writing
Fan fiction. Please take this into consideration while you read the following fiction.
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Chapter Seven
"So, how's your new life treating you, Cloud?" Sephiroth asked nonchalantly, nestled,
standing between the womb of Shinra Mansion's library's shelves, like some obscene marble
infant. He stared at me as if he were looking right through me, and he started to chuckle, his
eyes closing delicately as he tipped his head back to let the laugh ripple through him, and then
once again he stared, transfixed, now at the ceiling. "It's so ironic we should meet here, Cloud.
Do you remember the first time you were here? How I scared you?" And then he leaned
forward, a smile like a shark's across his face. "Do you think it's an improvement from being a
scared little boy to being a scared little boy trying to act tough? I smell the fear on you both
ways, you know."
***
Lilith looked up from the cavernous nothing that surrounded her that was her surroundings, her
home, and wished that these memories that were not her own would cease to play in her mind's
eye. Here she had a dying Garden of Eden, the snake that ruined god's gift dead and gone,
rotting like its slow starvation. And where was Adam? Adam had long since fled this plane,
apple in hand, under the watchful eyes of his angry god who left her rotting here with the snake.
"And god said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all of
the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."
And a smile came over Lilith's face, satisfaction that god didn't exist to her, not in this
cavernous nothing, disfigured and wounded. There was beautiful death all around her: Beautiful
white expanses of virgin snow, for there was no living thing in the Northern Crater save she that
would tread this poisonous beautiful earth. And she saw, as she closed her eyes, the healing
touch of Holy, that seared her flesh and burned her eyes; yet she was alive , horribly so, and so
she would celebrate her misfortune. Her punishment was not begetting infant upon infant, nor a
longevity. Her punishment was the company of her visions, her utter aloneness.
"Requiem," her lips grinned, and she felt the memories of others at her fingertips. She
saw children in mother's arms, she saw mothers discard the life in their wombs, and she saw
Lucrecia.
"Mother," she smiled. "Oh, how Eve suffers," and a man walked down a long corridor in
her mind's eye, silken black hair, dark blue eyes that flickered burgundy, drying blood. The
Adam that should have been.
"Cloud, do you know what love is? Do you see it when you look at the flower girl? Oh
no," Sephiroth asked, "Of course you don't. How silly of me." Everything in the abandoned City
of the Ancients was muted, tranquil, yet hearts felt sorrow in the center of it, in the womb.
Sephiroth was always in the womb, Jenova's sickly song driving him forward, wrapping him in
bliss.
"A church full of flowers, a heart full of love and so-called god. Mother is of a higher
power and therefore I am too! I am god, and I crush all things beautiful simply because I can.
Will it hurt you when Aerith starts her death throes? Will she blame you in death? It's your fault,
you know. Why are you just standing there, Cloud? Maybe you want to become part of the
creation of my godhood, but I won't let you. Mother doesn't accept you, Cloud. You are too
ignorant, too beautiful. Who ever said there was ignorance in bliss! I see you writhe in pain just
to know what I know! Do you wish you could get into my head? Do you want to know how I
think?"
. . . . . .What difference does it make, Cloud?
I am your mind.
Ignorance is savagery.
Mother is god.
I will be god.
And Lilith shut her eyes and dreamed of Gast. Gast who was her savior. Gast who was the father
Sephiroth never had.
Hojo's eyes hovered above his head, dead and careless. He injected another needle into his
specimen's arm, which was bruised from the amount of times he had felt it in his veins, and the
restraints held him back from moving, even when he convulsed from the involuntary reaction to
the strange thing entering his body and mind, and he felt choked against the world, only having
those eyes to look at, until Gast stormed into the laboratory of the Shinra building.
"The Jenova Project is over, Hojo!" Gast yelled as he came through the steel doors of
the musky, harshly-lighted room. "I've got an official letter from the president that you at once
discontinue the experimentation of Jenova cells on Sephiroth and Lilith!" The anger on the
man's face made Sephiroth calm, but he dared not to say a word, only smiled up at the ceiling,
giving Hojo's eyes his most hostile stare.
"Have you spoken to Lucrecia lately, Gast?" Hojo asked nonchalantly, his smile
flowering. "She parted with Sephiroth and left him in my care, fully aware that this was
happening to him. You can ask Vincent," he concluded this very nastily. Hojo despised the Turk.
"The Jenova Project will cease to take place, Hojo. This is too risky. You're putting both
Sephiroth and Lilith in danger."
"I personally find it sickening that you've established a relationship with the specimens.
Humanity, I've said, Gast, would be your downfal," Hojo chuckled, dropping a set of keys and
the needle he'd used on Sephiroth into his lab coat's pocket. "Lilith, you will find, is quite
asleep in my office. Heavily guarded, I assure you."
"Read this file,"Gast commanded, dropping it into Hojo's hands. "And find your
humanity. Now, release Sephiroth from this contraption, and let me take him to meet this
monster, to see what he has become a part of."
"The childe knows what it has become a part of. Its mother, Jenova, who draws from
manna. Now Gast, do not be foolish . . ."
"I'm leaving Shinra, Hojo. Where Jenova cannot plague my dreams, and I will take
Sephiroth and Lilith if I must," Gast proclaimed.
"They belong to Shinra, Gast. Lucrecia gave them to Shinra, and without Jenova's cells,
Sephiroth and Lilith will die.They cannot leave with you, but if you wish to go, then so be it, but
don't you dare come back."
"I don't intend to," Gast said harshly, holding out his han. Hojo reluctantly gave him the
keys to the Jenova chamber, and undid the straps retraining Sephiroth.
***
"Sephiroth, you must understand why I'm leaving," Gast said as he closed the doors.
Two Shinra guards stood attentive, those who would drive the truck to Mt. Nibel, where
Jenova's chamber lay, hidden in the heart of a Shinra reactor. Sephiroth looked at them with
disgust, then turned away, not even looking at professor Gast.
"I understand quite well, I'm sure you know," Sephiroth snorted.
"No, Sephiroth, you don't," Gast shook his head sadly. "You don't know anything about
this at all."
"What are you taking me to see?" Sephiroth asked, looking back at the man, surprise on
his face. Gast smiled, bittersweet.
"Your mother, so to speak."
