"Sephiroth!" Cloud whispered. "You're dead!"
"I was," he replied quietly, "But I'm back. And I don't know why."
*****"How is this possible?" Cloud asked in utter stupification.
"Please believe me, I don't know."
"You're alive, " Cloud repeated. Suddenly realization filled his face, followed by alarm. Sitting before him was his nemesis, the one who had destroyed so much without a second thought ... He shouted out for the girl and swiftly slid out of the booth. She came barging through the back door. Upon catching sight of them both, she stopped dead in her tracks, the blood draining from her face.
"Sephiroth ..."
Cloud moved to stand protectively in front of her. He had pulled a small blade from somewhere and was holding it before him. The light glinted off several pieces of materia attached to the pommel. "Why are you here?" He demanded. Anger and fear were playing across his features. The girl seemed to have regained her senses and had grabbed the nearest thing to her for a weapon; a large empty alcohol bottle.
"Please ... I'm not here to harm you ..." He stood slowly, to stand before them.
Cloud snorted, an anguished sound. "What could you possibly be here for, then? All you've ever done is destroy ..."
Sephiroth shook his head. "Listen to me, please. I don't know why I'm back or how -"
"Because you're full of Jenova's taint!" Cloud spat. "Because everything inside you is unnatural and evil!"
He hefted the blade as if to attack, and Sephiroth held his hands out pleadingly before him. "Not anymore ... Look at my eyes ... I have none of that within me anymore. Please ..."
Cloud snarled unintelligbly. The girl laid her hand on his arm, and stepped in front of him, ignoring his protest. She stared at Sephiroth for long moments, her gaze intense. Finally she said, "Cloud ... look at his eyes."
Cloud's grip on his blade tightened, but he complied. Green eyes, normal green without any unusual radiance, stared beseechingly back at him. Emotion was roiling within them, but they were free of malice, free of pride. They were simple human eyes. Degree by degree he lowered his sword until the point rested on the floor.
"Why are you here?" He asked again. "Why have you come back?"
"I awoke in a crater," Sephiroth began, "Without any idea who I was."
He told them his story then, as they stood warily before him. He was beyond relieved that they had listened to him, that they had seen no trace of the man they once knew within him. They listened in silence, not questioning, until he came to the end. An uncomfortable silence fell as his words trailed off.
"I know its hard to believe," he said finally, "But it's true. I don't know why I'm here, and up until a couple of days ago I didn't know who I was."
"The crater you woke up in, " Cloud said heavily, "is the crater where you died. Where I killed you."
Sephiroth looked up sharply at this. "You ... killed me?"
"Yes," Cloud said harshly, "And I'd do it again."
"I cannot blame you for something I don't remember," Sephiroth said. "I know you hate me, and from what I've been able to discern that hatred is well deserved. I cannot prove to you that I am not the person you remember; you must learn that on your own. All I ask is that you tell me everything that you know about me. About Sephiroth."
Cloud was quiet a long time. "Why should I?" He asked finally. "What good can telling you that do?"
"I need to know," Sephiroth whispered.
Cloud made a frustrated sound and abruptly sheathed his blade. "Understand something," he growled, "about who you were. You were ruthless; a murderer. You went to such extreme lengths to achieve power that you endangered the entire planet. And you didn't care. You have no right to be given life again, none. You slaughtered someone very important to me in cold blood. If you think for one minute I will trust you then you are very, very wrong."
Sephiroth said nothing, merely nodded his understanding. Cloud sighed and returned to his seat across from him, and Tifa slid in next to him. "What do you need to know?"
"Everything. About me. About you, and how you know me. Tell me everything."
As Cloud began to speak, Sephiroth lost himself in the words, hanging on to every one. Cloud began by making it clear that the rumors of him being a clone were false; he had indeed been human. He had left Nibelheim at the age of thirteen to join SOLDIER, but failed to get in and instead became a lowly MP officer. Cloud did, however, make friends with a man in SOLDIER named Zack. Zack and Cloud, along with the great Sephiroth, had been sent to Nibelheim to inspect the mako reactor there. Jenova had been inside the reactor, and Sephiroth had gone mad at the realization that he was, in fact, some type of experiment which involved Jenova cells. In a confrontation between Cloud and Sephiroth, Sephiroth was wounded and thrown into the lifestream. Zack and Cloud had then been arrested by Shinra for the murder of their great General; in an attempt to create soldiers as powerful as Sephiroth, whom they presumed dead, they injected both Zack and Cloud with Jenova cells and exposed them to extreme amounts of Mako. Zack didn't react to the treatment, but Cloud did, and shortly after they escaped. Zack was killed, and Cloud made his fallen friend's identity as his own. It was because of the Jenova cells that he had been injected with that Sephiroth could control Cloud.
Five years after that incident, Sephiroth had again been sighted. However, the real Sephiroth was encased in materia in the northern cliffs - very near the crater where he met his demise. The lifestream had carried him that far after Cloud had thrown him in. Because he was within materia that considerably amplified his power, Sephiroth was able to send out a "shadow" copy of himself into the world to do his bidding. It was this "shadow" that had killed President Shinra, and had slain the last surviving Ancient, Aeris, as well.
As Cloud mentioned Aeris, his eyes became clouded, and his voice held great sorrow. He paused for a moment, reflecting, before continuing his tale.
It had been the Jenova Project, headed first by Professor Gast and later by Hojo, that had been the ultimate catalyst for the events that became known as the Meteor Incident. Gast had discovered Jenova in a 2000 year old geological stratum and had wrongly assumed she was an Ancient. Jenova was, in fact, an alien life form that, upon impact with the planet, had infected all the Cetra, or Ancients, with a virus that eventually transformed them into monsters. Gast injected Jenova cells into the unborn child of Hojo and his wife Lucrezia, and ultimately Sephiroth was thus born. Gast also used the Jenova cells to create the elite faction of SOLDIER; injecting the members to increase their power.
Sending his shadow self to liberate Jenova from the Shinra laboratories, Sephiroth set about gathering all he needed to summon Meteor. His reason for doing this was simple; he would be at the point of impact between the planet and Meteor. The planet would gather all its healing energy to that point, and Sephiroth would reap the benefits. The only way to stop Meteor was an Ancient power called Holy and the White materia. Knowing that she was the only one able to summon Holy, the one called Aeris left her comrades behind to journey to the forgotten City of the Ancients. Unbeknownst to her, Sephiroth knew of her intentions and dispatched his shadow. Aeris was slain in the center of the City of the Ancients, and was laid to rest by Cloud in a pure lake infused with the lifestream within the center of the city. Manipulating the Jenova cells in Cloud's body, Sephiroth took from him the tool to summon Meteor, the Black Materia. As he began his summons, the planet dispatched its own guardians, enormously powerful creatures called Weapons, to try and deal with the threat. However, Sephiroth sank deep beneath the surface, into the very bowels of the crater.
With Meteor summoned it seemed that nothing could be done. It was discovered, however, that Aeris had managed to summon Holy, but Sephiroth was somehow blocking it from destroying Meteor. Cloud and his small group of companions took it upon themselves to descend into the crater and confront Sephiroth there. Jenova confronted them first, and upon her destruction they battled with Sephiroth. He had grown immensely more powerful, and the Jenova cells within his body had caused certain mutations. In the end, however, Sephiroth faced Cloud in his human form, and was struck down. As he died the lifestream erupted, and he was lost within it. Holy was freed and destroyed Meteor, but the aftermath of the battle had left it's scars on both the planet and the people.
"That's where it ended," Cloud concluded. "Up there, in the crater, we destroyed you."
Sephiroth remained quiet, absorbing what he had just been told.
"Do you remember anything?" Tifa ventured to ask, "Anything before the crater?"
He shook his head, "No, nothing. But there's a dream I have -" He stopped abruptly, the pieces falling into place.
He had been absorbed into the lifestream as he died.
In his dream he was floating, weightless, in some unrecognizable limbo. And the voices -
The lifestream was the blood of the planet. It held the voices of the planet.
He felt the blood drain from his face. The voices, telling him he belonged there, that he had damned himself; it had been the planet speaking to him, condemning him to an eternity in the essence of its life. That had been his punishment, as meted out by the planet, for attempting what he had.
But he had been set free.
He told them then of the dream, of the voices, of his realization. "But why?" Cloud demanded again.
"Perhaps I have been forgiven ..." Sephiroth said, but even as he said it knew it to be untrue. The screams in his nightmare held no room for forgiveness.
"Has any of this," Tifa waved her hand to indicate their discussion, "jogged any memories of before?"
"No. Nothing. I recollect nothing."
"Then it's for the best," Cloud said.
"Was I despicable," Sephiroth asked suddenly, curiously, "Before I knew of Jenova? Before Nibelheim?"
Cloud slowly shook his head. "No. You were proud, and arrogant, but you were human, and you acted human. You were almost," he said with some wistfulness, "my friend."
"Then why," Sephiroth asked earnestly, "Can I not be that now?"
Cloud regarded him thoughtfully. "I don't know," He said finally, "I think because I can never forget what you have done. If it even was you."
"I could not do those things."
"No," Cloud agreed, surprising him, "I don't think you could."
"Maybe there is some way for us to help him remember," Tifa suggested, resting her chin in her hand, " Some place we could take him, some sight we show him."
Cloud closed his eyes. Visions of Aeris crumpling before him raced through his head. Aeris he called silently, as he often did when lost, or unsure. Her beauty, the beauty of the Ancients themselves, all lost because of the man sitting before him; the man who wore the face of an enemy but held the soul of a stranger.
It came to him then, unbidden. He opened his eyes. "Tomorrow, Sephiroth, you and I are going on a journey. Someplace I am sure you will remember."
"Cloud," Tifa frowned, "Where ... ?"
"The City of the Ancients," he said. "Perhaps there we can find something, some enlightenment as to why he walks among us again."
Sephiroth sat back, pondering.
The City of the Ancients.
He had now the knowledge of who he had been. He would go now in search of who he was to be, and why he had returned.
*****I've been playing through the game again on my spare time. The reason I included the summary type speech about the events of the game is because for the longest time I didn't fully understand the entire story line. I found a website that lays the whole plot out in great detail, though, and decided to make use of my new found knowledge.