The dinner table in the small house was very old and built of dark brown wood. The matching chairs were equally worn, and it was surprising that they were still intact. I wonder how old this little village is, the visitor thought to himself. The entire place was fairly rundown, but the cozy feel of the home, it seemed, would never fade. The boy, Bobby, and his father must have lived there for a long time, he thought to himself as he looked around. The windows, though dark due to the late hour, were clouded with a smoky gray. The years contained within the smoky glaze provided a safe translucency to the window, but in doing so made it incapable of being seen through clearly. He wondered what the hour was.
"So what do you do for a living, sir? That is, if you do not mind me asking." Sephiroth glanced over to the man a few feet away from him. Harold, though his own formality involuntarily insisted on calling him sir, sat with his elbows on the edge of the table, slowly sipping his cup of black coffee. "I noticed that you don't have much to do with the mining business around here."
"Hmm…I'm surprised you noticed. No, I don't mind though." The man waved his hand causally as he replied. Sephiroth leaned back as he awaited the answer. His muscles ached as if he had just ran a hundred miles. His thoughts were tore away from his own discomfort as Harold spoke. "I live off of Shinra Social Security. I used to be a miner in the Mythril Mines near Zolem Swamp, but after they closed it down because of the mutated beasts I cashed in and retired. I adopted Bobby from an orphanage in Mideel and thought that this place would be a fun and educational experience for him. Ha. All that boy cares about is joining SOLDIER though."
"Hmm, reminds me of myself when I was younger. I attended the Shinra University a few miles outside of the town of Kalm from the age of ten. I eventually joined SOLDIER when I was eighteen. I had finally made it to the highest rank of Top Officer, but by that time…I was just getting back from the war. I think that was when I decided I wanted to take a vacation. I think I was a little too young to be in that kind of a rank," the silver haired man became lost in his thoughts as he remembered things that it seemed he had forgotten. He was sort of lying but, at the same time, he couldn't just say that he had fallen asleep and woken up in a crater. Harold had grown very interested.
"How old were ye?" he asked with a quizzical look.
"I was only twenty one. Most SOLDIERs in my rank were in they're forties." Sephiroth made something similar to a chuckle. The man was surprised.
"You said your name was Sephiroth? I think I remember hearing a lot about you a few years ago. A lot of people considered you to be a war hero. I didn't keep up on the Shinra Wutai War but I heard that your squadron turned the tides for Shinra. I hadn't realized that I'm sitting with a celebrity." The man chuckled at the realization.
"I'm not a celebrity-
"Yeah he is, yeah he is grandpa! He's the great Sephiroth! He's a SOLDIER! I want to be a SOLDIER too, just like him!" Bobby came bounding into the room, trying not to let them know that he had been eavesdropping. His grandpa rolled his eyes.
"So what is it like in SOLDIER man?" the small boy pulled a chair out and intently stared at him, awaiting a strained reply. Sephiroth paused for a moment as he thought about his answer. He knew the father did not want his grandson to go off and get killed being a SOLDIER so he planned his words carefully.
"Well. It's really boring at first. You have to pass a lot of classes at the Shinra University. It's a big crowded school where you aren't allowed to talk to anyone, and you have to wear these stuffy, itchy uniforms. It usually takes SOLDIER candidates about ten years to graduate. After you get passed all that stuff, the worst part comes. You have to train to be the best of the best. If you can't hold you own against the other candidates in your class, you won't have a chance at making it into First Class. After that you have to start working, and Shinra doesn't hardly give you a day off. Sometimes you have to work all through the night, and all through the next day." Sephiroth exaggerated the boring nature of SOLDIER training as much as he could.
"What do you do? Go fight monsters!" The boy cried out, leaping from his chair and slicing with an invisible sword. His father tried to calm him down but he was too excited. Sephiroth chuckled slightly. Cute, he thought. This kid just might have the spunk to be in SOLDIER.
"No, don't get too hasty. You only get to fight monsters when one attacks you, and you never see monsters on the upper plate of Midgar. Work in SOLDIER means standing around guarding doors, and making sure no one breaks into the building. The worst part of all is when a war happens though. If you managed to survive in a war, you'll wish you hadn't. You would probably lose all your friends, any family that served in the military with you, and you might even get hurt so bad that you can't do anything for the rest of your life." All the things he just mentioned were true however, and each one brought a painful memory to him, that is, except for the family part. He never had any family. The boy before him didn't seem to lose any of his extravagance though.
"I don't care what it takes! I'm going to be a First Class SOLDIER one of these days…" Bobby trailed off with his hero worship as his grandfather/father interrupted him. He stroked his short, gray stubble of a beard as he looked over at the tall swordsman across from him. His old calloused fingers forced a grainy sound against the sandpaper texture of his beard.
"So what are you headed to Midgar for again?" he asked in a sort of nonchalant fashion. It was obvious that the old man was trying to get off the topic of SOLDIER, but in doing so, he also entered the same conversation without realizing it. The man before him flipped his hair back and unsettlingly approached his answer
"Well, I am headed to Midgar so I can rejoin the Shinra Military. I'd like to just stay at Midgar for the rest of my life. That's the only home I have ever really known." Sephiroth replied casually as he untied his katana sheath from his hip. He rested the black handled Masamune and sheath on the table and rubbed his side. The sheath had been rubbing against a slowly healing wound and it brought relief to him to discard it. He usually never went anywhere without his sword. It was just one of those idiosyncrasies about him that people could always identify him with. That was if they could get past his shiny hair first, he thought to himself.
"Hopefully they get done with that Operation Midgar Reconstruction plan soon. Last I heard there wasn't much of a Midgar to go back to." Harold chuckled slightly, but Sephiroth was very serious about this observation.
"What do you mean Midgar Reconstruction?" His query was stern, and rigid. Sephiroth's eyes showed a serious concern, Harold noticed, so he grabbed for the remote control of his television. He paused before he turned it on.
"Well, about a month ago there was this crazy meteor threat. Some crazy bastard had used an ancient materia to, I don't know, summon some big rock from outer space. To make a long story short, this group of Mercenaries called Avalanche set out after the man and apparently killed him. They are practically worshipped now by talk show hosts and propaganda. I think the leader was named Strife…Cloud Strife is what it was, yes. But anyway, bout the time they killed him, that big red rock started coming down on Midgar. I guess a magic spell blocked the rock from landing on Midgar, but it ravaged the city to death. I guess Rufus Shinra survived the ordeal and is now rebuilding Midgar. It's a really great thing what he is doing."
"Rufus Shinra is president now? Why is the top dog's son in charge?"
"Well, Rufus's father was murdered a few months ago and now Rufus is taking over. Apparently he is giving a lot back to the city. I never wanted to live there because those damn Shinra were so corrupt, but now I guess they are coming clean." Harold spoke as he clicked the television on and flipped through the channels. Just as he landed on channel eighteen, the familiar Shinra News logo began to dissipate to a familiar reporter, sitting at a very familiar desk and background. Sephiroth smiled.
"I guess nothing has really changed then." The two sat and watched the remainder of the ten o' clock news with little more conversation. He was looking forward to his leave tomorrow. He would surely meet with Shinra sometime soon, and his life would finally be back in order. His inner excitement was almost too much to contain, but he showed it not.
Everyone was sleeping soundly. Even the pilot snored gently in a sensitive slumber at his controls. The pilot seats were very comfortable, and rarely was it that he would escape to one of the more furnished bunks. The yellow and black seats were insulated with environmental heating and cooling systems. Based on the temperature outside the ship and the inside of it, the on board super computer would generate the perfect comfort zone temperature. The seats were also movement designed so that every button in the two man cockpit could be reached with minimal effort, but countering this was the fact that the incredible degree of comfort would often put the pilot to sleep on long trips. Cid Highwind wasn't a fool though, he designed motion sensors in the cockpit so that if there was no movement for more the five minutes, the ship would go on autopilot at a predestined altitude. There was no way in heaven of hell he was going to wreck his baby, he thought to himself as he rustled to life and looked around. He was startled to see that it was late at night and they were only an hour away from Rocket Town.
"Time to get prepared for the landing," Cid spoke to himself as he pushed several buttons at his control panel. The green radar screen before him was blank aside from the yellow grid lines that divided it. He scratched his five o' clock shadow and headed out of the small cabin. Everyone was asleep, he noticed. There was hardly any noise, only the gentle clank of his combat boots on the metal floors. He headed down into the engine bay and looked around in the shady light. Everything seemed okay, Cid thought to himself as he checked each of the landing gear boxes thoroughly. "Good. I'd better check on Aeris and make sure she's still alive."
Barret, as he expected, was sleeping soundly in the small, cushioned chair beside her bed. He obviously hadn't left her side all night. Cid made a squeamish face as he examined the angle the large dark skinned man was sleeping in. That's going to be a pain in the neck, Cid chuckled to himself inwardly. On the contrary though, Barret had no sense for comfort. Nothing seemed to hurt his huge muscular frame. Cid quietly walked over to Aeris's bed and checked the readings on the portable health monitors. Her heartbeat was perfect, and color had finally returned to her once cold and pale skin. Her pink dress was faded and ravaged and still was stained with blood from Sephiroth's blade. How are we going to explain that one to her, Cid thought to himself. They couldn't tell her she had been dead, because of the psychological damage it could cause. They would just tell her she had been in a coma for a long time.
The rise and fall of the sweet girl's chest was an amazing sight. It still hadn't quite registered in his mind that they had actually restored her life to her body. He hadn't actually thought it was possible, but now… Many things had happened over the past few months. There were things he had seen that he never imagined seeing in his wildest dreams. This was just another one of those things that he never thought he would witness. He really owed a lot to Avalanche for giving him this opportunity, Cid Highwind thought as he walked out of the room. He was met with the cold gaze of Cloud as he made his retreat. He leapt slightly at the site of the younger man. "Damn Cloud! Don't sneak up on people like that!"
Barret stumbled awake at the sound of Cid's cursing. It wasn't exactly a pleasant awakening. Cloud paid no mind, he just walked in a stared at Aeris, laying so innocently on the bed. "How is she doing?"
"Perfect, but there is no sign of consciousness yet. And by the way, we are an hour from Rocket Town so get ready to help me transport her to the house. You and Tifa and Barret will need to stay at the Inn down the road cuz' there ain't enough damn room in my house. Plus…he, he, I'm sure Shera and I will be up all night if you know what I mean."
Cloud and Barret chuckled and gave Cid a sly look. It would be something new to see Cid and Shera 'together'. Shera was nearly six years younger than the blonde haired pilot, and of course they couldn't forget how horrible Cid used to treat her. It was a miracle that they even lived with each other for so long, much less become engaged. Cid left the room and headed down the hall back to his pilot seat. He was flushed with excitement of actually getting to be home.
Dark eyelashes flickered open as a deep horn bellowed in the distance. The sound was so loud that it managed to penetrate the walls of the house. Over the night, the mako in his body had fully healed all of his wounds and he felt good in contrast to the soreness of day before. The bandersnatch scratches were gone and his muscular frame was back to its perfect state. Well you sure took long enough, Sephiroth thought to himself as he examined his body in the wall mirror by the spare bed. He pulled the white dress shirt he had been loaned over his shoulders and inserted his arms into each of the sleeves. The shirt was a little too large for him but it would suffice until he managed to get a new coat.
"Mr. Sephiroth, the ship will be arriving in a few minutes. You can get to the bay if you just head south. You can't miss it, plus there will be a few people going with you." Harold stepped into the room, holding a kerosene lantern to illuminate the darkness of the early morning. The small flame inside the glass tube burned like the cosmo candle. After Sephiroth had composed himself, neatly made the spare bed, and tied his sword sheath to his hip, the older man stretched his hand out with a warm- hearted smile. "It's been a pleasure knowin ye sir. I wish you best in your travels."
"Thank you so much for your kindness sir. And thank you for the shirt. Give Bobby my farewells." Sephiroth shook the old mans work worn hand and walked to the door. The man and his son didn't understand how deeply and thoroughly he enjoyed staying with them. It had almost been like a real family. He gently flipped his hair behind his shoulder and opened the door to the breezy chill of Bone Village. The familiar aroma of dynamite, smoke, and freshly tilled dirt greeted him as he stepped outside. There were few lights to guide his way but he needn't them. In his SOLDIER training he had trained the mako- enhanced acuity of his senses to an extreme level. He no longer needed the aid of a night vision lens to see through darkness. It has its advantages, he thought to himself. At least I don't have to worry about running into walls, he smirked inwardly but his attention was diverted as Harold patted him on the back.
"Be careful out there. If you ever get into a bind, you're welcome back here."
"Thanks a lot. If I ever pass through again I will be sure to stop in and say hello. Goodbye Harold." Sephiroth walked off as the firelight gently faded with the closing of the door. He began walking towards the bay area just outside the village. As he thought about it, there really were no boundaries to Bone Village. The people just seemed to expand with they're excavations. Generally they kept to the shelter of the giant skeletons though. The darkness was thick, but he made his way easily. "I hope I don't run into any monsters out here. I really don't feel like fighting this early."
The grass began to crunch under his feet as he left the dirt paths of the small village. The thick morning dew quickly soaked his legs, but the waterproof SOLDIER uniform prevented him from chilling to the bone with wetness. This would be interesting, he thought inwardly. I wonder how people will react to my sudden reappearance. I wonder how Shinra will react. They declared me missing in action, even taking the time to make up a fake obituary. What if it wasn't so fake though? What if I really died? "Just get to the boat Seph…just stop thinking…"
As he made it to the dock he noticed several others awaiting passage onto the cargo ship. A few people had already exited and were making they're way down the ramp and towards Bone Village. He did his best to stay in the shadows as people boarded the ship. Luckily there was no boarding sailor, so he didn't have to show his face to anyone that might recognize him. The ship wasn't very large but there were easily enough accommodations for the small number of travelers and himself. The white paint on the outside of the cargo ship peeled with age but the bright red logo of the Shinra Corporation still glowed flamboyantly. As he boarded he could feel the wooden boards creak under his feet ominously. This boat seemed familiar, yet he didn't understand why. He discarded the thought and headed to the nearest vacant room to sort out his other, more important thoughts.