Cloud threw open the front gates, and pushed the doors of the Shinra mansion open, and was greeted by a thick cloud of dust and cobwebs. A strong smell filled his nose and mouth, as he stepped inside and shut the doors behind him.
Cloud found a dust-covered light switch and flicked it on, causing the chandelier to flicker and spark, sending spiders scurrying for safer ground.
Swallowing nervously, Cloud slowly ascended the curved stairway up to the second floor, his boots making heavy creaking sounds that echoed through the huge, empty house, and even more so in his own head.
The entire mansion was deathly quiet and still.
On the second floor, barely any light streamed in from the huge long-since smashed windows that were set all along the back wall.
Vases of dead flowers sat outside on rickety balconies, and the dead trees that were in back rapped at the windows gently in the soft breeze outside.
The entire house was looming and cold. It was a warm spring day outside, but everything seemed cold, dark and empty inside. Shivering, Cloud went into the small storage room and went to the corner.
A column made up of bricks went from the floor up right through the ceiling, and it had several loose bricks in different places of it.
Removing one of the bricks caused the wall to open up, revealing a hidden stairway inside the column that moved out from the wall and spiralled down to the basement that had been carved straight from the rock underneath the mansion.
The bones of several animals littered the basement hallway, and bats clung to the low ceiling, sleeping peacefully. Huge rats, the size of basketballs, scurried for cover when Cloud passed by, but Cloud tried his best not to be distracted by the morbid sights of the basement.
At the end of the hallway was a thin wooden door, and Cloud could hear somebody pacing behind it. Opening the door a crack, Cloud saw Sephiroth pacing back and forth between a long hallway of bookshelves, and two ancient tubes.
A pile of books was on the desk in front of the tubes, most of them open and covered in cobwebs. Sephiroth held a book in his hands and was reading it aloud to himself while pacing around the room.
He did not look up when Cloud came into the room, even though he was perfectly aware that Cloud had just entered the room. Sephiroth was just far too preoccupied.
"An organism that was apparently dead was found in a 2000 year old geological stratum. Professor Gast named that organism…Jenova. Jenova was confirmed to be an Ancient. The Jenova Project was soon approved. The N0.1 Mako Reactor was approved for use…" said Sephiroth.
He looked up from the book and stared thoughtfully around the room, with both burning curiosity and great sorrow.
"My mother's name is Jenova…Jenova Project…is this all just a coincidence? Professor Gast, why didn't you tell me anything? Why couldn't you give me more answers about my heritage? Why did you have to die?" said Sephiroth, miserably.
Cloud walked up to Sephiroth to try and cheer him up, but Sephiroth turned away from him, his head bowed hopelessly.
"Just leave me alone," muttered Sephiroth, miserably.
Cloud had never heard Sephiroth speak with so much emotion in his usually deep, cold voice before, so he nodded respectfully and obeyed, he just simply couldn't see what else to do, and he left Sephiroth alone, although Cloud was still very worried and anxious indeed, and not just for Sephiroth…
The next few days afterwards seemed to pass as quickly as they came. Sephiroth didn't once come out of the Shinra Mansion at all. He continued to read all day and night, non-stop, as if he were possessed by something.
He read every single book and file in the library of the mansion, reading each and every single page thoroughly as if desperate to find the answers to his existence.
Not once did he ever stop to do anything else at all. And not once did the light in the basement ever go out. Sephiroth had always been a little cold and distant before, but this was very different from how he had ever acted.
Cloud could easily tell that something was horribly wrong.
Cloud constantly got more and more worried, and he went to the back to the mansion, back to the basement, to see what Sephiroth was doing.
As he was walking along the basement, the bats suddenly flew pass him, shrieking, flying straight out of the basement and out of the mansion. Cloud realised that they were completely terrified about something in the basement.
("Is it Sephiroth?") thought Cloud.
Shaking his head wearily, Cloud entered the library, and then he heard Sephiroth laughing.
But it was a strange, odd laugh that didn't sound like Sephiroth's usual laughter at all. It sounded deep, sharp, unnervingly cold, horribly cruel and hideously disturbed. It sent a nasty shiver down Cloud's spine.
Cloud stopped walking as he found Sephiroth sitting at a desk in the abandoned library, looking at a pile of books. Sephiroth looked up when he heard Cloud come in, giving him an angry and icy stare. His eyes were full of a terrible madness that Cloud had never seen before.
"Who is it!? Oh…it's you. You traitor," said Sephiroth, coldly, glaring hard at Cloud.
"Traitor…?" said Cloud, confused and bewildered, not having a clue what Sephiroth was talking about.
Sephiroth seemed somehow…different. Unnervingly so.
Cloud suddenly felt edgy, something about Sephiroth was making him very nervous.
No, not just nervous. Downright afraid.
Sephiroth laughed scornfully, and he looked hard at Cloud.
"You ignorant traitor. You truly know nothing, do you? Then I shall tell you the story of the Ancients…or rather, the Cetra, as they called themselves. This Planet originally belonged to the Cetra. They would migrate, settle on the Planet and then move on. At the end of their harsh journey, they would find the Promised Land and supreme happiness. But those who disliked the journey appeared," explained Sephiroth, pausing for a moment before continuing, but in a much more angrier and enraged tone.
"Those who stopped their migrations, built shelters and elected to lead an easier life. They took what the Cetra and the Planet had made without giving anything back in return!! Those are your ancestors," explained Sephiroth, pointing an accusing finger at Cloud, and glaring darkly at him with intense hatred, a raging fire burning in his eyes.
"Sephiroth…" said Cloud, taken aback and taking a step backwards in shock, at how terrifying Sephiroth was now starting to seem.
"Long ago, disaster struck this Planet. Your ancestors escaped. They survived because they hid, like the pathetic, rotten cowards they truly were. Sacrificing the Cetra saved the Planet. The Cetra lost their lives in the battle to save the Planet. The Cetra sacrificed themselves to save you worthless, pathetic creatures!! After that, your ancestors continued to increase and multiply like a virus. Now all that's left of the Cetra is in these reports," explained Sephiroth.
"But, what does that all have to do with you? Where does any of this fit in with what we found out at the Mako Reactor?" asked Cloud, bewildered.
Sephiroth snorted, his expression and tone now full of scorn and angry impatience.
"As well as ignorance, your kind possesses remarkable stupidity. Haven't you already figured it out yet!? An Ancient named Jenova was found in the 2000 year old, geological stratum. The Jenova Project was soon organized after that. The Jenova Project wanted to produce a person with the very powers of Jenova, of the Ancients, no, the Cetra. I am the one that was produced…" explained Sephiroth.
Cloud eyes widened in shock and he stepped backwards in horror and disbelief.
"Produced!?" yelled Cloud, alarmed and thunderstruck.
Sephiroth nodded, a completely serious and firm expression now on his face.
"Yes…Professor Gast, the leader of the Jenova project and genius scientist, produced me. My purpose is nothing more than a mere experiment," said Sephiroth, coldly.
"H-How…? How did he…? S-Sephiroth…?" stammered Cloud, speechless with shock, horror and dumb disbelief.
"I have no idea how they did it, all I know is that Jenova is my only link. Stay out of my way. I'm going to see my mother," said Sephiroth, sharply and coldly, and he suddenly threw Cloud out of the way, sending him flying straight into a section of books in the library.
Cloud crashed headfirst into the books, and the whole shelf of books fell on top of him. Cloud laid there, dazed, for a while, his heart pounding in horror along with a headache as he watched Sephiroth leave the room.
Sephiroth left the basement room. Cloud quickly left the room, but Sephiroth had already vanished and was nowhere to be seen inside the mansion.
Cloud quickly ran out of the mansion, but nothing had prepared him for what he would find outside. A horrible, extremely nasty and very unexpected sight met Cloud's eyes that would haunt him for the rest of his life.