Chapter Two
They travelled in the Highwind to the grassy fields north of Midgar, a few miles away from the town of Kalm, and spent the night on board ship in preparation for meeting Elena in the morning. The party took it in turns to stay awake and keep an eye on their captive, but Sephiroth seemed content to sleep under a blanket on the observation deck, and made no attempts at escape or sabotage.
In the morning they gathered in the operations room and discussed their plans for the day. It was agreed that Tifa and Yuffie would accompany Cloud to the meeting with Elena in Kalm. The others would stay on the ship and keep an eye on Sephiroth, while Cid spent some time doing a bit of routine maintenance on the Highwind's systems. Barret sat on the observation deck and closely watched Sephiroth, who was standing with his arms folded, surveying the land that surrounded the ship, his long silver hair rippling gently with the breeze. Red XIII and Vincent had remained in the operations room to discuss some scientific matter that interested both of them.
Tifa followed Cloud down the rope ladder, and they waited until Yuffie was beside them before they set off. They estimated it would take an hour or so to reach Kalm, but it was a pleasant, sunny day, and nobody minded the walk. Yuffie walked slightly ahead of the others, her eyes constantly scanning the horizon for anything that looked interesting or dangerous. She still wasn't sure whether or not she wanted to stay with the party. As long as they were fighting battles, she felt useful, she felt as if she was part of the group, but when nothing was happening, she was on her own. Nobody wanted to get close to her or spend time with her. Not that Yuffie particularly wanted to get close to the likes of Cid or Barret, but she hated being alone. Her mother had died when she was very young, and her father had been too busy to spend time with his growing daughter, so Yuffie had left home to seek her fortune. Living a solitary existence, moving from town to town, had been almost as bad. She hadn't had any friends, or any place she could call her own. Nobody had trusted her.
"At least now I have people to be with, even if some of them hate me," she murmured to herself. "I suppose Tifa was right – some of them do like me."
Yuffie had spent most of her life not caring about other people, or what they thought, but now that she was about to turn 17, she realised how miserable and lonely her life had been. Now she just wanted to be liked, to have friends, to have people who cared about her and who she could care for in return. Yuffie wanted to go back and talk with Tifa, but Tifa was locked in conversation with Cloud, and Yuffie didn't want to go near Cloud in case he shouted at her again. She swallowed her miserable feelings and forced herself to think about other things.
Tifa's mind was focussed on more tangible matters. She half-listened to Cloud giving his opinion on the new Sephiroth, while she worried about the Turks situation. If Reno really was planning to re-establish the Shinra empire, they had to stop him at all costs. They'd risked their lives countless times to overthrow the previous incarnation of Shinra, and there was no way they could allow a new one to spring up. Although she felt confident they could easily defeat the Turks in battle, Tifa still wasn't sure what to make of the mysterious object that Reno had in his possession, that had brought on his sudden ambitions. If it was some kind of new weapon, they'd have to tread very carefully and make sure they didn't give him an opportunity to use it on them.
Cloud broke in on her thoughts, "Tifa? Are you listening?"
"Mmm?" she said absently.
"I was just saying that we need to find a safe-house of some kind where we can leave Sephiroth. I don't want to be carrying him around all over the place. Then again, I'm not comfortable letting him out of our sight either."
"I think it's best just to keep him with us until we can think of something else," said Tifa. "Besides, I don't think it's fair to lock him up somewhere, when he might be innocent."
Cloud snorted, showing what he thought of that possibility.
They walked the rest of the way to Kalm in relative silence, each of them locked up in his or her individual thoughts. When they reached the town, Tifa looked around, "I'm not sure exactly where Elena was planning on meeting us. I hope she managed to make it."
"I still think it's a trap," Cloud said. "Reno's using her to lure us into his clutches."
"Maybe so. But I think we have to trust her."
"I dunno. Is it worth the risk?"
"We'll soon know. It's too late to turn back now."
They had a quick look around the town centre, but it soon became obvious that Elena was not there.
"What if she's not even here?" Yuffie wanted to know. "How long do we wait for her to show up?"
"We'll give her half an hour at least. Let's try inside some of the buildings."
They briefly searched the inn, but found nobody other than the innkeeper. After that, they tried the three shops, but the only person other than the storekeepers was a young lad aged maybe 13.
"Let's try the bar," said Cloud. "Best place to find any Turk."
He led the way down the stone steps towards the bar. Inside, seated on a bar-stool near the back wall, was Elena. She was wearing an inconspicuous black ensemble, and Yuffie realised it was the only time they'd seen Elena out of her Turk uniform. The blonde woman noticed them, and waved them over.
"Elena," Tifa greeted her. "What's up?"
"Can we talk outside? Where no-one can listen in."
"OK."
The four of them left the bar and headed for the open grassy fields outside of the town. When they were a sufficient distance from Kalm to be sure that nobody could overhear, Elena began, "All right. First of all, I want to point out that Reno and Rude will notice at some point that I'm gone. I can't go back to them, which is all right, because I don't want to. I want to join your party."
Cloud covered his surprise with a cough, "And why should we trust you?"
"Because I'm risking my life to meet you here?" Elena retorted.
"So you claim, but how do we know it's true?"
Tifa interrupted, "Let's listen to what she has to say. First off, Elena, the thing that's really making me curious: what is it that Reno's discovered that makes him think he can become all-powerful?"
"I told you on the phone: I don't know what it is. I only got a glimpse. I think it was a test tube containing some kind of chemical."
"A chemical – some sort of poison that Hojo developed?"
"Maybe. Reno obviously didn't trust me enough to tell me what it was."
Cloud said, "We have to go after him and stop him before he becomes too powerful."
"You can't stop me," came a voice from behind him.
They whirled round in surprise, to see Reno and Rude standing behind them.
"Where did you come from?" Cloud demanded. "How did you sneak up on us?"
Rude adjusted his sun-glasses and said, "…Turk stealth training, stage 5."
"Really, Elena, you might at least have made yourself a difficult target to follow," Reno said.
He gave them his usual smirk, but this time it was accompanied by something they'd not seen before: something in his eyes, a gleam, a light almost, the look of a driven man, in this case a man driven by his hunger for power.
Cloud unsheathed Ultima Weapon and said, "So what's the deal? You can't possibly defeat us in battle, so you'd better do something to stop us from fighting you."
"Oh, I think I can manage that easily enough," said the red-head, lazily swatting at a fly that was buzzing around his head.
"…show them," said Rude.
"In a minute," said Reno, who then turned his attention to the nervous-looking blonde. "Elena, I am disappointed in you. You betrayed us. I thought you were a Turk. I thought you were one of us."
"I was," she said defiantly. "Until I changed my mind."
"Very disappointing. I won't stand for this, you know. You will suffer for this deception."
Tifa stepped in front of Elena, "She's under our protection. You can't do anything to hurt her."
"That's where you're wrong," said Reno, reaching inside his coat pocket. "All right, you wanted to know what I found in Hojo's office; my little trump card that will bring me all the power I want."
"So are you going to tell us, or waste time making speeches?" Cloud asked impatiently.
Reno held up the object in his hand, "Here it is."
As Elena had said, it was a test-tube filled with a liquid of some kind, thick and red.
"What's that?" asked Tifa.
"This," said Reno. "Is what will give me power over you. It is a sample of the blood of your friend Aeris."
Tifa felt her jaw drop and her eyes widen. Cloud, who been holding his sword at waist height, almost dropped it to the ground in shock and excitement.
"Let me see!" he exclaimed, thrusting out his hand.
Reno pulled the test tube away from him, "No, I'm not going to let you have it. Like I said, it puts me in a position of power. If you do anything – and I mean anything – that interferes with my plans and ambitions, I'll destroy this blood sample. You'll never be able to bring her back."
"Maybe there are other samples of her blood," Yuffie said.
"Maybe. Can you afford to take the chance?"
"We can't," Tifa admitted. "Reno – I thought we had an understanding. I thought we were allies!"
"Obviously you thought wrong. Now shut up and listen. If you want me to keep this blood sample intact, these are my terms: first of all, you will turn Elena over to me."
"What will you do to her?"
"Kill her, of course," he said, ignoring the frown that crossed Rude's face. "I will not stand for betrayal."
"No!" Elena cried.
Reno ignored her, "Secondly, no member of your party will ever set foot in Midgar again, except by my express invitation. Thirdly, all of your Materia will be handed over to me – "
"No way!" Yuffie shouted. "Tifa, he's crazy! We can't listen to him!"
"Shut up," Reno snapped. "If you interrupt me again, you'll be sorry. Now, fourthly – "
He was cut off abruptly by a loud rumbling sound, as the ground around them began to shake. Reno lost his footing and fell on to his back. Clumps of earth were thrown up, obscuring him from the view of the heroes.
"What's going on?" Elena screamed.
From underneath the ground in front of them came something enormous: a long, grey, serpentine bulk, burrowing its way to the surface. Their vision was so obscured by flying clouds of earth that they couldn't see a thing. When the dust had cleared, Reno and Rude had vanished, and the heroes found themselves facing a gigantic snake, four or five times the size of the Midgar Zolom. It towered above them, its tiny yellow eyes glaring at them venomously.
"What the hell is that?!" Yuffie shrieked.
The snake struck, its huge hooded head snapping down at them, throwing up clods of mud, forcing them to dive headlong to avoid being flattened. Yuffie rolled over and got to her feet in one fluid movement, and cried out to the others, "Come on! We need to get back to the ship!"
She and Cloud pulled Elena to her feet, and Tifa joined them in a mad rush away from the snake. The giant serpent lashed out with its tail, knocking them to the ground. Cloud slashed blindly with Ultima Weapon, the huge ethereal blade cutting a gash in the snake's side. The gigantic beast recoiled and hissed in pain.
Cloud and the others took advantage of its momentary distraction to get back to their feet and run like mad towards the ship. It was still a mile or two away, but they had a small head-start over the serpent now.
"This way!" Cloud cried, directing the others towards a small gully that ran parallel to the route they wanted to take. "It won't be able to follow us in here."
He hoped that the gully would be too deep and too narrow for the snake to be able to get at them. How they would avoid it when they came out of the other end, he wasn't sure.
The gully ran more or less in a straight line for about a mile. Looking up, they could see the snake keeping pace with them, its huge head above the narrow opening at the top of the ravine, poised to strike at any moment. They reached the end of the gully and knew they would have to make a break for the ship, hoping they could get away from the snake.
"I can see the ship," said Cloud. "It's a little under a mile away. OK, here's what we'll do. I'll run out and get its attention. Once I've drawn it away from the entrance, make a break for the ship."
"No!" Tifa cried. "You can't! You'll be killed!"
Cloud reached inside his tunic pocket and held up the Mastered Knights of the Round Materia, "Not while I have this. Get ready to run."
He slotted the Summon Materia into Ultima Weapon, and emerged from the end of the ravine to face the serpent. With lightning speed it lowered its head to snap at him, its long venomous fangs missing his torso by inches. Cloud swiped the air with his sword to keep the serpent away from him, then, concentrating hard, called on the power of the Knights of the Round, yelling, "ULTIMATE END!!"
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Tifa, Yuffie and Elena fleeing past the distracted snake, towards the ship and safety. Cloud ducked to the ground to avoid another attack from the huge reptile, as the first of the Knights arrived, cutting a huge rent in the serpent's scaly hide. The snake reared up, its fangs pointing at the sky, as it hissed and shrieked in agony. The second Knight appeared and dealt another devastating blow, this time nearer the creature's head. Cloud got to his feet and set off after the others, relying on the Knights to keep the snake busy until he was far enough away.
After a few hundred yards, he glanced over his shoulder. The seventh or eighth Knight, he couldn't remember exactly which one it was, had just launched its attack. The serpent, in severe pain, was lashing its tail around in a frenzy. Unable to withstand any more attacks, the snake pointed its head towards the ground, and burrowed straight downwards into the loose earth. Cloud watched as it disappeared underground, while the last of the Knights departed the scene, having found nothing to attack. Then Cloud turned and ran after the others.
He caught up with them as they were getting closer to the ship. Elena wasn't a very fast runner, and the other two girls were holding themselves back to keep pace with her.
"What happened?" Tifa shouted to him.
"It's still alive, but it's weakened. It's gone underground," he said.
"What the hell was that?" Yuffie demanded.
Elena panted, "I don't know, but it's not a native of this area. I used to live here."
"Save your breath for running," said Cloud. "We'll talk it over with the others when we get back to the ship. They must have seen what happened. Maybe then we'll get some answers."
They continued towards the ship at full speed, now close enough to be able to make out the people standing on deck. Suddenly the ground began to shake beneath their feet and the rumbling noise filled the air once more. Elena lost her footing and fell on to her face. Tifa helped her up, but the two of them were thrown backwards as the huge snake plunged upwards out of the ground again, blood oozing from various wounds in its body, obviously still in pain, but still utterly determined to destroy them. It lashed out towards Cloud with its tail, but he managed to jump aside, grabbing his sword from its scabbard and slicing through the air to discourage the snake from making further attacks. Instead it turned its attention towards Yuffie, who had hit her head on a rock, and was lying unconscious on the ground.
"Yuffie!" Tifa yelled.
She hurried across to where the ninja lay still, scooping up the girl's body into her arms. The serpent snapped its fanged jaws at them, and Tifa, trying to avoid it, fell backwards with Yuffie's unconscious body landing on top of her. Unable to move, she stared up as the snake's cold yellow eyes looked down at her.
Blood erupted from the snake's head as Vincent, firing from the ground beside the Highwind, shot the animal squarely in the skull. The snake, driven by pain to the point of madness, forgot about Tifa and Yuffie, and turned round to seek retribution against whoever had shot it. Dispassionately, almost as if he was oblivious to the giant, enraged reptile slithering towards him, Vincent reloaded his Death Penalty, cocked it and fired once more. This time the cartridge lodged right in the snake's brain, killing the creature instantly. The huge corpse slumped to the earth, shaking the ground when it hit. Vincent reloaded, as Cid, Barret and Red rushed past him to check that the others were all right.
They found them unharmed. Tifa, supporting a groggy Yuffie, waved to Cid as he approached. Cloud was wiping the snake's blood from his sword on to the grass, and Elena was standing nearby.
"Yo!" Cid yelled. "What the ^$&%'s goin' on?"
The rest of them gathered around him, Vincent's gaze still locked on the carcass of the huge reptile he had just killed.
"I don't know what it was," said Cloud. "But whatever it was, it was sent to kill us."
"How do you know tha'?" asked Barret.
"It's not native to this area," said Elena. "I lived in Kalm until I was 16, and if there had ever been any here before, I'd have heard about it."
"Fair enough," said Tifa. "Do you think it was Reno's doing?"
"Doubt it. He seemed more interested in offering an ultimatum than in trying to finish us off," said Cloud. "He must have got away when the snake was chasing us."
"Then who sent it?" Cid demanded.
"We have one other enemy," Red reminded him.
"Yeah," Barret said. "This flunky of Hojo's, whoever the hell it is. They're still wanderin' around somewhere, probably plannin' to continue Hojo's work!"
Cloud frowned, "You think they sent the snake? Where'd they get it?"
Red shook his head, "I have studied my grandfather's zoology research at length, and know of no species of snake which grow that large."
"Could be a mutant," Elena suggested.
"I think it more likely that the snake is – was – genetically engineered," Red told her.
"What? By Hojo?"
"Or his accomplice. Cloud, you told me that just before you killed Hojo, he mentioned something about his 'most secret facility'. Perhaps his agent is operating from there."
"Where is that, exactly?" asked Vincent.
"I do not know. We must find out."
"What about her?" Barret asked none too subtly, pointing towards Elena.
"I want to join your party," she said.
Barret snorted with laughter, "Yeah, right! You're a Turk, woman!"
"Not any more. Reno has betrayed you and I've parted company with him. I want to join you."
"Not likely," said Cid. "You – "
Tifa interjected, "Can we save the arguments for later, when we can afford to waste time? We'll let Elena travel with us just now, but we'll decide later on whether or not she can be trusted."
"Hold on," said Cloud, a look of horror crossing his face. "If we're all down here – where's Sephiroth?"
Cid swore. Barret smacked himself in the head, "DAMMIT! We were in such a hurry to get down here and help you, we clean forgot about him! We left him on deck!"
"If he has run, he will be long gone by now," said Red.
"Or worse, trying to sabotage the ship," said Vincent.
Cid gave a roar of fury, and turned to run at full speed towards the Highwind. The others followed him at a slightly more sedate pace. Elena said in a confused tone, "What are you all talking about? Sephiroth's dead, isn't he? I thought you killed him!"
"We'll tell you later," Tifa said, as they reached the ship and began ascending the rope ladder.
Once they were up on deck, Cid headed for the stairs, yelling, "If I find that son of a ^%&$* messin' with my ship – "
"Are you referring to me?" came a voice from the far end of the observation deck.
They turned in surprise to see Sephiroth, standing upright, his arms folded and his face emotionless as usual.
"You're still here!" Tifa exclaimed. "Why didn't you run?"
The silver-haired man raised an eyebrow, then shrugged, "I had no desire to be hunted down by you. I would rather convince you to grant me my freedom."
"He's lying. Don't listen to a word he says!" Cloud snapped.
He narrowed his eyes and glared with hatred at Sephiroth, who returned his gaze through those unblinking emerald-green Mako eyes. Then he looked at the others.
"I can tell you who sent the snake after you," Sephiroth offered. "I can tell you exactly who they are and why they're doing it. All I ask in return is that I be allowed to go free."
Cloud started, "Oh no. Not a chance. Forget it!"
There was silence for a moment, then Tifa said, "Sephiroth…if we were to set you free, what would you do?"
"A fair question," he said. "I'd like to travel, to explore the world, something I never got the chance to do when I was working with Shinra. I'd need to make a living as well, so I suppose I'd become a mercenary."
"I see. You do realise, don't you, why we're reluctant to let you go? After everything you did."
"I don't remember any of what you're talking about," Sephiroth insisted.
"I think you do," Cloud snarled. "You're just playing innocent to try and fool us."
"Well, here's a brief summary," Tifa said. "Five years ago, you and Cloud went on a mission to Nibelheim. You discovered the experimentation that had been done on you and your mother Jenova – "
"Jenova?" Sephiroth repeated. "My mother was a scientist named Lucrecia."
Vincent stirred at the mention of Lucrecia's name, but said nothing. Tifa hesitated slightly, "This…it's complicated. Jenova was an Ancient. Professor Hojo wanted to create a race of beings with the power of the Ancients, and he used Jenova's cells, along with his knowledge of genetics, to do so. You – um, you were one of his experiments…"
Sephiroth's eyes narrowed, "This is pure fiction."
He looked at each of the party in turn, searching their faces for some indication that Tifa was lying to him. He saw nothing; only grim, hostile expressions that told him they were being deadly serious.
"This can't be true," he said, a little hurriedly, but his voice now lacked conviction.
"I'm afraid it is," said Tifa. "Like I said, you and Cloud were sent on a mission to Nibelheim. Hojo's experiments were being done in the reactor there. You discovered them, and found out the truth."
"I don't remember any of that. It never happened!"
"It did. But if you're telling the truth, it was a different Sephiroth. We don't know exactly what caused him to go over the edge, but he lost his mind that day. He abandoned SOLDIER and everything else, and tried to use his awesome power to harness the Planet's spirit energy for his own ends."
Sephiroth said nothing; he merely looked at her, waiting for her to go on. Tifa continued, "You – I mean he – found the remains of Jenova in the Nibel reactor. Part of her was still alive, and it may have been her influence that caused the other Sephiroth to lose his mind. We don't know for sure, and maybe we never will."
"So what happened to the other Sephiroth?"
"He died. He almost succeeded in stealing the spirit energy, but we managed to stop him. We killed him in battle."
"And I'm here…because you cloned me from his DNA?"
Cloud interrupted, "Can't you get it into your head; we had no intention of bringing you back!! We wanted Aeris! But now Reno has the only known sample of her blood. We've got to think of some way to get it off him!"
"We don't even know where he is," said Yuffie.
Tifa thought for a moment, then said, "He must be in Midgar. One of the items on his ultimatum was that we stayed out of Midgar. That must be where he's making his bid for power."
"The Shinra building? Or is that too obvious?"
"Why don't we go and find out?" said Elena. "If he's there, you can defeat him easily enough, right?"
Tifa shook her head, "No. Not while he has that blood sample. Reno was right, you know. He can hold that over us. We can't go after him directly. I…I don't know what we ought to do."
"We gotta do somethin'!" Barret snapped. "I'm not dancin' to the tune of some damn Turk!!"
"Perhaps we can find more samples of Aeris' DNA," Red suggested. "I do not know where we might look, but it is a worthwhile idea."
Vincent nodded. Cid said impatiently, "Enough yappin'! What's our first move?"
Everyone looked at Tifa and Cloud. Cloud was still glaring at Sephiroth as if he wanted to tear him apart with his bare hands. Sephiroth wasn't paying any attention to them; he was clearly still having trouble digesting what Tifa had just told him. Tifa said, "I think we've got to deal with Reno first, before he becomes too powerful or does anything stupid. We've no way of knowing what he might try."
"What about this friend of Hojo's? What if another one of these snakes shows up?" Elena asked.
Tifa looked at Sephiroth, and he broke out of his reverie to return her gaze. She chose her words carefully, "You said you knew who this person was, the one who sent the snake after us, the one who's trying to carry on Hojo's work."
"That's correct."
"And you will only tell us in exchange for being allowed to go free?"
"Yes."
Cloud shook his head, "Don't even think about it, Tifa. He's putting crazy ideas in your head and you're listening to him!"
"I can't help it," she said. "I'm not like you, Cloud. I always try to see the best in people. He might be telling the truth."
"No way!"
But Tifa was sure that Sephiroth was not lying. She'd seen the way he had reacted to being told about Jenova and Hojo's experiments. Nobody could have faked that kind of reaction. Or could they? Sephiroth was capable of great deception and trickery – was this a clever attempt to fool them into letting him go? It was impossible to tell. Keeping an innocent man in captivity like this was wrong. It went against every fibre of Tifa's being. At the same time though, was it not better that one innocent man suffer, rather than a guilty man be allowed to go free, to cause the suffering of countless innocents? It was a terrible dilemma. It was a decision she didn't want to make. There had to be some way to test Sephiroth, so they could tell for sure whether he was what he said he was.
"Sephiroth…" she said uncertainly. "We can't trust you easily. You have to understand that. From what we've told you, the reason why should be obvious. I believe you are telling the truth, but some of the others don't. We can't let you go until we're sure."
If he was disappointed or angry, it didn't show on his face. He remained outwardly impassive, and said, "If you want the information, you know where you can find it."
At this Cloud lost his patience, and snapped, "I've got a better idea! How about you tell us and we let you live?"
He had Ultima Weapon in his hand, its tip pointing menacingly at the silver-haired man.
"If you kill me, you may never find out," replied Sephiroth.