"We finally made it here. I thought it would take forever. We sure took the long way, though," said Tifa.
"Tifa, you wait here," said Cloud, firmly and seriously.
Tifa shook her head.
"No way, I'm going inside too! I want to see inside there too! I've never been in a Reactor before, after all," said Tifa, and she started to go inside when Sephiroth suddenly blocked her entrance and gave her a cold, icy stare.
"Only authorised personnel are allowed in here. This place is full of Shinra's industrial secrets. No one else is to know about any of them. This Reactor is a strictly classified building, only members of Shinra Incorporated may enter it," said Sephiroth, sharply and coldly.
"But…!" protested Tifa, stuttering with indignation.
Sephiroth turned to face the blond-haired Shinra soldier.
"Take care of her. Make sure she doesn't take even one step inside," said Sephiroth.
The Shinra soldier nodded and saluted, though for some reason, he looked rather nervous of being left with Tifa. Tifa looked annoyed, while Cloud turned to face her.
"Listen, Tifa, it's not just the fact that this place is secret, do not forget this is where the apparent source of monsters came from. We do not know what to expect inside. Sephiroth and I have been trained in the ways of combat to an extent that the enemy does not bother us. Zangan said that you are going to be a great martial artist, and I don't want you to lose your life while you are still mastering your art," explained Cloud.
Tifa sighed heavily and nodded.
Without another word, Sephiroth and Cloud both walked up the stairs and entered the Mako Reactor. Tifa still tried to follow, but the blond-haired Shinra soldier quickly blocked her path and refused to let her in, shaking his head.
"Oh, man! Better take real good care of me then! The nerve of some people! Thinking that he can just come around and tell people what they can and can't do!" snapped Tifa, frustrated and disappointed, angry with Sephiroth.
For some reason, the blond-haired Shinra soldier didn't reply, and he continued to block the entrance of the Reactor, looking a little anxious. Having entered the Reactor, Sephiroth turned to face Cloud, impressed by his reasoning with Tifa.
"While your knowledge of Mako energy and Materia is severely limited, you seem to possess great awareness of people. What you said back there was good, it pointed out the fact that she may not be strong enough to face whatever lies in here, while being subtle and disguised enough to come across as a compliment," said Sephiroth.
Cloud saluted gratefully, considering it a great honour to be complimented by Sephiroth himself, and they both continued onwards, along the Mako Reactor.
Inside the small Reactor, Sephiroth was halfway down the catwalk that led to the main chamber before Cloud could get down the ladder that led to the catwalk. From across the bubbling pool of Mako, Sephiroth vanished into a cloud of steam and went into the next room.
Cloud coughed through the smelly steam and blinked, getting the tears out of his eyes. When he could see again, he found himself in a room with several levels of large, tear-shaped pods with thick windows on front, each one numbered and bar-coded. Thick, churning Mako lapped up against the pods, and the sound of heavy machinery was coming from the room at the top of the stairs.
Sephiroth and Cloud were in the Reactor and they had soon came to a room with white metal pods, which were not see-through, and contained only a window to see inside the pods.
There were red stairs leading up to a door.
On top of the door was the name – JENOVA.
Sephiroth stared hard at the name in surprise.
"Cloud, do you see this? Jenova…that was my mother's name. Is this just a coincidence?" said Sephiroth, curiously.
"Sephiroth, what's wrong? Of course it is. This is Jenova, the infamous evil, hideous creature thing that Shinra told us about, right? The lock of the door won't open," said Cloud.
Sephiroth still stared sharply at the name on the door, and then he finally shook his head.
"You're right. Let's just continue the inspection," said Sephiroth, his composure regained.
They walked over to the metal pods, down the red stairs, reaching the bottom of them. They could only see into the pods by looking at a small window at the top of the pod. Sephiroth and Cloud examined the room thoroughly. Cloud looked at the metal pods, surprised.
"Sephiroth, as far as I'm aware, there are no pods of this kind in any Mako Reactor that Shinra has currently built. So what are these, anyway?" asked Cloud.
Sephiroth seemed equally baffled.
"I'm not exactly sure…however, I think that I may have just located the source of the problem. It must have something to do with these pods," said Sephiroth, thoughtfully.
He walked up to the second row of the containment pods and pointed to one of them bearing the number 5 on the door.
"So, what exactly is the problem?" asked Cloud.
"This is the reason for the malfunction. The part of this pod is broken. You see that trail of gas? That is releasing Mako vapour, and therefore if the valve is closed, the monsters should cease being generated. Cloud, close the valve," ordered Sephiroth, pointing to a series of wires that were snapped apart for some odd reason.
Cloud obeyed and quickly closed the valve, then turned to face Sephiroth.
"Something so simple like that will stop the tide of monsters?" asked Cloud, surprised.
Sephiroth shook his head.
"No, but it will stop the growth of more monsters. However, there will always be monsters here from now on, the chance is that the monsters already created possess mutated cells and DNA inside them, allowing them to breed. However they will not breed nearly as fast as they have been doing at present, and their life spans may be short, so they might die out quickly," explained Sephiroth, calmly.
But then, Sephiroth frowned slightly and stared thoughtfully at the metal pods, looking around the room.
"Why have these pods been breaking free, though? They should be sturdy enough to withstand even an earthquake. And what exactly are all these pods for in the first place?" asked Sephiroth, deep in thought, frowning, his eyes narrowed.
At this, Sephiroth looked directly through the small window of the pod. Cloud saw his green eyes widen in surprise at what he was seeing through it, and then Sephiroth turned away and looked back at Cloud again, thinking to himself, and when he spoke, he seemed to be talking more to himself than to Cloud.
"I see…now I finally understand, Hojo…so that's your little plan. But even doing this will never put you on the same level as Professor Gast," said Sephiroth, coldly, staring around at the pods, then he turned back to face Cloud, who was clearly puzzled, so Sephiroth, seeing this, quickly explained.
"This is a system that condenses and freezes the Mako energy…that is, when it's working correctly. Now, what does Mako energy become when it's condensed?" asked Sephiroth.
"It becomes a Materia," replied Cloud. Sephiroth nodded.
"Correct, but not in this case. Hojo put something else in there instead. He was clearly planning on doing something completely different then creating Materia for the Shinra army's use. Take a look," said Sephiroth, pointing to one of the pods.
Cloud looked through the window of the pod, and saw something immensely horrifying and shocking.
Floating inside the pod, inside the raw Mako energy filled inside it, was a large, monstrous, thick-skinned humanoid with several tentacles in its body that flopped lifelessly.
The empty eye sockets burned holes into Cloud's usually cool composure, and the dark grin on its fleshy demon-like face made a nasty shiver run up Cloud's back.
Cloud jumped back in shock and stared at the cage, trembling in fright.
"What the heck is this!?" yelled Cloud, shocked and horrified. Sephiroth was just as calm and casual as ever.
"It's a Mako monster, it has been submitted to way too much Mako energy, while you have only been dosed with a slightly high amount. For you see, before this creature was ever submitted to all this Mako Energy, it was once human. Normal members of SOLDIER are humans who have been showered with liquid-formed Mako. You're different from the others, being exposed to a little more Mako, but you are still human. But, what are these creatures? They've been exposed to an alarmingly high degree of Mako. Many more times more Mako than even you," explained Sephiroth.
"Is this…some kind of human turned into a monster?" asked Cloud, stunned. Sephiroth nodded.
"Yes, exactly. And it's Hojo of Shinra Incorporated who produced all these monsters. Mutated living organisms, produced and reborn by Mako energy. Humans infected and mutated by overwhelmingly large amounts of both Mako energy and Jenova cells. That's what all these monsters inside all these pods really are," explained Sephiroth.
Cloud slowly stood up, and he stared hard at Sephiroth, as a thought suddenly just occurred to him.
"Normal members of SOLDIER? Then, what about you? You mean that you're different from them?" asked Cloud.
Sephiroth started to reply, but then he stopped abruptly, and his eyes widened as the full meaning of those words hit him in full force.
At Cloud's words, almost loud enough to hear, something suddenly clicked inside Sephiroth's head. A horrible, burning sensation ripped through his brain and made his temples throb as a terrible, horrifying realization came to him.
At these words, Sephiroth had suddenly buried his face in his hands, trembling, clutching his head tightly with his hands. A sudden, horrible realisation came to him, and he began to shake all over in fear and he was trembling uncontrollably.
He was suddenly very white and pale. Cloud stared at him in complete shock. He had never seen Sephiroth look so…disturbed and horrified.
"H-Hey, S-Sephiroth…?" stuttered Cloud, stunned and shocked to see Sephiroth this way.
"N-No…It…It can't be. Was…was I…? Was...was I created this way too? Was I born like this? Am…am I…am I just the same as all of these monsters?" asked Sephiroth, suddenly getting very angry, and clenched his fists tightly.
Sephiroth got his sword out in a flash and slashed at the pod seven times with his sword, screaming in rage and frustration.
A deep, clean mark was etched into the thick steel, cut by the folded edge of Sephiroth's powerful sword each time he struck it.
His eyes were bulging wildly, his teeth were clenched tightly, and there was a raging fire in his glowing green eyes that Cloud had never seen before. Cloud quickly jumped out of the way, and stared at Sephiroth, alarmed and terrified.
"Sephiroth…" said Cloud, slowly, trying to calm him down.
Sephiroth spun around to face Cloud, a glare of pure fury and cold terror stuck to his face and burning in his now mad eyes, which made Cloud back off, trembling in fear at the very sight of him, seeing Sephiroth's usually calm and handsome face now looking very twisted and demonic indeed.
"YOU SAW IT!! All of them were…were…were humans…" said Sephiroth, trembling in horror, his voice also shaking.
"Human!? No way!" shouted Cloud, starting to regain his composure, but he was nervous all the same.
Sephiroth seemed to have calmed down, but now a hopeless, sorrowful expression was on his face, and he lowered his gaze to the floor, looking unusually sad.
"I've always felt…ever since I was little…that I was different from all other people somehow. Special and maybe even superior in some way…but…but not like this…not like this. I never wanted to be different in this way. Am I…am I even human…?" asked Sephiroth, shaking his head in sadness and complete misery, still trembling uncontrollably.
Suddenly, the same pod that Sephiroth had slashed several times burst open as one of the monsters broke out of the pod, and Sephiroth and Cloud took a few steps backwards in startled surprise. The creature jerked around for a few seconds, crouched forward and breathing slightly, roaring ferociously.
Sephiroth's rage suddenly snapped and burst forth, as he banished the creature to the pits of hell with only one single swipe of his sword, splitting the creature down the very centre of its body, and slicing it cleanly in two, blood splattering everywhere around the room.
But Sephiroth was still filled with murderous rage and continued to slash the creature's remains with his sword, reducing its whole body to dust in a few seconds, while the creature's dark blood splattered all over the floor, and everywhere around the room…
****************************************************************
Cloud's mind flashed back to the present day in the inn at Kalm, as Barret cursed angrily.
"Damn Shinra! The more I hear about them, the more I hate them!" shouted Barret, his fists clenched.
"Who would have ever thought that the Mako Reactor held a secret like that…" said Tifa.
Red XIII stared thoughtfully.
"That would seem to explain the sudden increase in monsters lately. I think we should listen carefully to Cloud, don't you think so too, Barret?" asked Red XIII, sharply.
"Why are you talking to me!? Always blaming me for everything! Poking your damn nose where it doesn't belong! Cloud, why don't you finish that story!?" shouted Barret.
"Tifa, you were waiting outside then?" asked Aeris.
"Yeah…" replied Tifa, shortly, nodding.
"We returned to Nibelheim. Sephiroth confined himself at the inn, and refused to talk to anyone. He didn't even try to talk to me," said Cloud.
"And then, suddenly, he just disappeared from the inn, right?" asked Tifa. Cloud nodded.
"We soon found him inside the big mansion in Nibelheim," said Cloud.
"Long ago, the villagers and townspeople used to call it the Shinra Mansion. But it was vacant for a very long time, even when I was born," said Tifa.
"Long ago, people from Shinra used to leave in that mansion when they visited the town. But it was a long time ago, and that's another story. For now, Sephiroth was soon discovered, alone, inside the mansion," explained Cloud.
His mind flashed back to that scene as he explained it to the others.