Chapter six.. the end of the beginning...
The girls voice was the first thing to break the mutual silence as they reached the building that contained the supposed problem, her words doing little to endear her to him.
"We finally made it. We sure took the long way though. "
He turned, about to comment that if it had not been for her recklessness on the bridge they could have been here hours ago, but something stopped him, he could hear someone... or something... he turned heading towards the door of the reactor, almost at the door when Zack spoke, turning then, amused to see the girl trying to enter the reactor also.
"Tifa, you wait here."
Tifa shook her head, determination in those ruby eyes, her voice sounding almost shrill, reminding Sephiroth again why he was not fond of females.
"I'm going inside too! I wanna see!"
Sephiroth took a few steps downwards looking directly at Tifa, his voice calm, showing he was still in command, even of this girl, she was still only hired help.
"Only authorized people are allowed in. This place is full of Shinra's industrial secrets."
Tifa looked shocked, he was unsure if that was because she had been refused something or because he had put her in her place.
"But.."
She was cut off by Sephiroth who spoke to Cloud as he turned to go back into the reactor,
"Take care of the lady."
He caught the beginning of her voice as he entered inside.
"Better take..."
The rest of it he could guess, still he knew that Cloud would indeed take care of the lady, it was something he had been good at during his time within Sephiroths own troop. He stiffened slightly, that voice... again! He practically ran towards the area that he could hear it coming from, he knew that voice! Green eyes flickered slightly as he was reminded sharply that he was not alone, footsteps behind him, Zack following at a slightly clumsy pace, but not much, the boy had learnt swiftly that silence was the best way in most situations. He forced himself to stop, to rationalise, the first thing to do was to check out the problem, he could find out the source of the voice later...
He looked up at the door at the end of the room, striding up to it, best to check it out, nothing to do with the fact that it seemed to be calling him, at least that is what he told himself. He read the plate on the door and it seemed as though his pulse quickened. Jenova... that was... Her! His mother and saviour, his redeemer! He turned from it swiftly, heading down the stairs again just as Zack reached him, the boy went straight up to the door Sephiroth had been at moments before, pulling hard on it, as though a mere child could open something sealed by science! Sephiroth raised his eyes heavenward in exasperation as Zack turned to him.
"This is... Jenova, right? It won't open... "
Sephiroth turned, something was not right, he knelt down to check, it was so simple, one of the minor components was broken, he ignored Zacks statement rather firing an instruction of his own.
"This is the reason for the malfunction. This part is broken. Zack, close the valve."
Zack walked over to it looking disappointed that he had been ignored, but he knelt down anyway, shutting the valve off. Before walking back to Sephiroth. Sephiroth shook his head, thinking aloud, trying to reason,
"Why did it break?"
He peered through the window of one of the tubes in the room, as though it would give him the answer, he was not expecting the sight that met his eyes though. A creature, more dead than alive, glaring up at him through half witted eyes. A creature?... No. A human, and yet not a human... he took a swift step backwards, not wanting to deal with what he now saw to be the truth. Perhaps in words... the truth would sound less horrifying?
"...Now I see, Hojo. But doing this will never put you on the same level as Professor Gast."
He turned to Zack, the familiar smirk back on his face, curving his lips upwards, time for a quick lesson, seeing as the boy always wanted to learn!
"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 further condensed?"
Zack frowned, thought lines creasing his forehead as he searched for the answer to the unexpected question.
"Uh, umm... Oh yeah! It becomes Materia."
Sephiroth nodded, so the boy had learnt something.. what was his name again? Ahh yes Zack, hard to think with the screaming in his mind, he wanted to scream out loud with what he had discovered, the truth was tearing at him from inside, wounds that would never quite recover. His voice turned colder, he had to make Zack see, had to make him understand, this was important! Zack had to get out of here before... before what? No it did not matter.
"Look through the window."
Zack grabbed hold of the ledge peering through, then fell, his expression filled with horror.
"Wh... what is that!?"
Sephiroth shook his head, did the boy still not understand?!
"Normal members of SOLDIER are humans that have been showered with Mako. You are different from the others but still human. But, what are they? They have been exposed to a far higher degree of Mako than you. "
Zacks voice now contained a tremor, a glimmer of what Sephiroth had already taken on board.
"...Is this some kind of monster? "
Sephiroth nodded curtly, trying to force the thought out of his head, all the while talking about it! This was impossible! Green eyes blazed all the more brightly as he tried to deal with the new circumstances.
"Exactly. And it is Hojo of Shinra that produced these monsters. Mutated living organisms produced by Mako energy. That is what these monsters really are. "
Zack seemed about to understand, but his next question proved that he had grasped perhaps more than Sephiroth had bargained for.
"Normal members of SOLDIER? You mean you're different? "
Sephiroth visibly trembled, lifting his hand up to his head, for the love of Jenova it hurt! A high pitched scream directly inside his mind, definitely female, possibly human, but possibly... "No.."
He spoke aloud, his fears realising themselves once and for all,
".. Was I?"
He was vaguely aware of Masamune moving through the air almost as if by magic, but it was his own hand that was holding it, he slashed upwards at the air, trying to rid himself of the invisible demon that had him by sheer will power!
"...Was I created this way, too?"
He slashed downwards in rage at one of the pods, no longer even aware of Zack stammering something in the background, all he could think of was.. he had been lied to, the birth, the reason for his creation, his entire life.. it was all a lie! Everything he had lived up until now was a lie!
"Am I the same as all these monsters?"
Zack said something then something caught his attention.
"Sephiroth..."
Sephiroth turned to Zack bitterly, his breathing already faster than normal, his eyes glittering eerily.
"You saw it! All of them... were humans... "
He could see Zack out of the corner of his eyes, mouthing something, shaking his head in disbelief, Sephiroth shook his head too, a terrible awakening for him...
"Ever since I was small I've felt... ...that I was different from the others. Special, in some way. But... not like this. "
He looked at the pods again, could these possibly be.. his brothers? His sisters? Did he after all have relatives he was unaware of?
One of the pods hissed softly, then broke, one of the monsters falling out of the pod, laying there, twitching, unable to breath without the special liquid surrounding it.
He watched unemotionally as the creature slowly suffocated to death, he turned then to Zack, forcing himself to remain calm now, no matter what!
"Come... our job here is finished.. tomorrow we head back."
He turned and headed out of the reactor, followed by a shocked looking Zack. He said nothing as they walked outside, merely walking towards the area that would allow them to get back to Nibelheim, watching in vague amusement as Tifa led them first one way then another, trying to remember the way back without the bridge. It was only vague though, he could still hear the voice in his mind, still feel that pull towards the door with his mothers name on it, and there was still that knowledge that he had lived a lie for his entire life.
Back in Nibelheim he headed straight for the Shin-ra mansion, informing the others that it would be best if they got some rest, tomorrow would be a long day.
The house was as he remembered it, too big for one person, not big enough for two, he strode through the all too familiar hallways up to the bedroom and felt around the wall for the small button that would allow him access to the forbidden quarters. Down the stairs that seemed to wind on forever and along the narrow corridor he opened the door to the library, something told him he would find his answers here, he had to find those answers!
Long into the night he read, the candles burning brightly, still he could not find the book, then.. in the far back shelf, high up, a dusty old book caught his attention.
He began to read, soon losing track of where he was, what he was doing, finally after all these years, the truth! Reading aloud as though to do so would make it so.
"...An apparently dead organism was found in a 2000 year old geological stratum. Professor Gast named that organism, Jenova... X Year, X Month, X Day. Jenova confirmed to be an Ancient... X Year, X Month, X Day. Jenova Project approved. The use of Mako Reactor 1 approved for use... " He lifted his head from the book, his eyes flashing brightly, it all made sense now! The tests, the feeling that he was different somehow, the fact that there had been no pictures or even tests on his mother available.
""My mother's name is Jenova... Jenova Project... Is this just a coincidence?"
It had started with... "Professor Gast... Why did you not tell me anything? ...Why did you die? "
More importantly, he thought to himself, why had he left him in the hands of Hojo? Surely he could not have been that cruel in life as he seemed to be now. He lifted his head at a sound, emerald green narrowing into tiny slits in annoyance.
"Let me be alone."
His voice was curt, hard, he did not want anything to intrude in his new found knowledge, he had to know more! It was like a dam was breaking and suddenly he felt flooded with the new found power he had found in himself, he was more than they were he was the son of an ancient, he smiled lightly to himself, the first thing to do would be to rescue his mother from the capsule they had entrapped her in, then together they would take back what was theirs, destroy the world that existed already and create a new one, one where everyone could be themselves, without expereiemnts or testing.
He laughed softly to himself, genuine happieness taking over him for the first time in his thirty years of life.
Again the door opened, again a head popped round the door, Sephiroth frowned, he knew now what these people were, what they had done to him and his kind, why he was the only one left.
"Who is it?"
He demanded of the blonde who came in, before remembering the mans name, Cloud.. that was it... he shook his head, his voice not becoming any less curt for knowing him.
"Hmph... traitor. "
Cloud looked up, his expression one of total and utter shock, Sephiroth could see the mans slow mind trying to think, knowing what the question would be before it even surfaced.
"Traitor?"
Sephiroth smirked then, standing up, speaking slowly as though to an idiot, to a person who had difficulty in understanding the most simple of things.
"You ignorant traitor. I'll tell you. This Planet orignally belonged to the Cetra. Cetra was an itinerant race. They would migrate in, settle the Planet, then move on... At the end of their hard, long journey, it was said they would find the Promised Land and supreme happiness. But, those who disliked journeying appeared. They stopped their migrations, built shelters and elected to lead an easier life. They took that which the Cetra and the Planet had made without giving back one whit in return! Those are your ancestors.
Cloud shook his head, still confused even now, trying to interrupt.
"Sephiroth..."
Sephiroth raised an eyebrow in exasperation then continued, especially for the mans benefit
"Long ago, disaster struck the Planet. Your ancestors escaped... They survived because they hid. The Planet was saved by sacrificing the Cetra. After that, your ancestors continued to multiply. Now all that's left of the Cetra is in these reports."
Cloud shook his head again, much to Sephiroths annoyance, he was sure the man had not been this ignorant before, but now he seemed to have the mental capacity of a mentally unstable vegetable!
"What does that have to do with me?"
The mans voice was quickly becoming an irratant, Sephiroth wanted to get back to the books, to learn more about his life, about the truth.
"Don't you see? An Ancient named Jenova was found in a 2000 year-old geological stratum. The Jenova Project. The Jenova Project wanted to produce people with the powers of the Ancients... Or, the Cetra. I am what was produced. "
Light seemed to dawn in the blonde mans eyes for a moment, then all hope that he had been understood finally vanished as his next words broke the spell of comprehension.
"pr..produced?"
Sephiroth nodded slowly, enough was enough, he was tired of the chatting, he needed some action, preferably soon.
"Yes. Professor Gast, leader of the Jenova Project and genius scientist, produced me. "
Still the man was not done! His next question coming much faster, he was getting as bad as Zack!
"how.. did he?"
Sephiroth shook his head, obviously the man was not going to understand how ever many times he rehashed over the subject, he headed towards the door, Cloud moving quickly getting in front of him.
"Se... Sephiroth?"
Sephiroth pushed past the boy, his voice no longer hard, just impatient.
"Out of my way. I am going to see my mother."
The girls voice was the first thing to break the mutual silence as they reached the building that contained the supposed problem, her words doing little to endear her to him.
"We finally made it. We sure took the long way though. "
He turned, about to comment that if it had not been for her recklessness on the bridge they could have been here hours ago, but something stopped him, he could hear someone... or something... he turned heading towards the door of the reactor, almost at the door when Zack spoke, turning then, amused to see the girl trying to enter the reactor also.
"Tifa, you wait here."
Tifa shook her head, determination in those ruby eyes, her voice sounding almost shrill, reminding Sephiroth again why he was not fond of females.
"I'm going inside too! I wanna see!"
Sephiroth took a few steps downwards looking directly at Tifa, his voice calm, showing he was still in command, even of this girl, she was still only hired help.
"Only authorized people are allowed in. This place is full of Shinra's industrial secrets."
Tifa looked shocked, he was unsure if that was because she had been refused something or because he had put her in her place.
"But.."
She was cut off by Sephiroth who spoke to Cloud as he turned to go back into the reactor,
"Take care of the lady."
He caught the beginning of her voice as he entered inside.
"Better take..."
The rest of it he could guess, still he knew that Cloud would indeed take care of the lady, it was something he had been good at during his time within Sephiroths own troop. He stiffened slightly, that voice... again! He practically ran towards the area that he could hear it coming from, he knew that voice! Green eyes flickered slightly as he was reminded sharply that he was not alone, footsteps behind him, Zack following at a slightly clumsy pace, but not much, the boy had learnt swiftly that silence was the best way in most situations. He forced himself to stop, to rationalise, the first thing to do was to check out the problem, he could find out the source of the voice later...
He looked up at the door at the end of the room, striding up to it, best to check it out, nothing to do with the fact that it seemed to be calling him, at least that is what he told himself. He read the plate on the door and it seemed as though his pulse quickened. Jenova... that was... Her! His mother and saviour, his redeemer! He turned from it swiftly, heading down the stairs again just as Zack reached him, the boy went straight up to the door Sephiroth had been at moments before, pulling hard on it, as though a mere child could open something sealed by science! Sephiroth raised his eyes heavenward in exasperation as Zack turned to him.
"This is... Jenova, right? It won't open... "
Sephiroth turned, something was not right, he knelt down to check, it was so simple, one of the minor components was broken, he ignored Zacks statement rather firing an instruction of his own.
"This is the reason for the malfunction. This part is broken. Zack, close the valve."
Zack walked over to it looking disappointed that he had been ignored, but he knelt down anyway, shutting the valve off. Before walking back to Sephiroth. Sephiroth shook his head, thinking aloud, trying to reason,
"Why did it break?"
He peered through the window of one of the tubes in the room, as though it would give him the answer, he was not expecting the sight that met his eyes though. A creature, more dead than alive, glaring up at him through half witted eyes. A creature?... No. A human, and yet not a human... he took a swift step backwards, not wanting to deal with what he now saw to be the truth. Perhaps in words... the truth would sound less horrifying?
"...Now I see, Hojo. But doing this will never put you on the same level as Professor Gast."
He turned to Zack, the familiar smirk back on his face, curving his lips upwards, time for a quick lesson, seeing as the boy always wanted to learn!
"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 further condensed?"
Zack frowned, thought lines creasing his forehead as he searched for the answer to the unexpected question.
"Uh, umm... Oh yeah! It becomes Materia."
Sephiroth nodded, so the boy had learnt something.. what was his name again? Ahh yes Zack, hard to think with the screaming in his mind, he wanted to scream out loud with what he had discovered, the truth was tearing at him from inside, wounds that would never quite recover. His voice turned colder, he had to make Zack see, had to make him understand, this was important! Zack had to get out of here before... before what? No it did not matter.
"Look through the window."
Zack grabbed hold of the ledge peering through, then fell, his expression filled with horror.
"Wh... what is that!?"
Sephiroth shook his head, did the boy still not understand?!
"Normal members of SOLDIER are humans that have been showered with Mako. You are different from the others but still human. But, what are they? They have been exposed to a far higher degree of Mako than you. "
Zacks voice now contained a tremor, a glimmer of what Sephiroth had already taken on board.
"...Is this some kind of monster? "
Sephiroth nodded curtly, trying to force the thought out of his head, all the while talking about it! This was impossible! Green eyes blazed all the more brightly as he tried to deal with the new circumstances.
"Exactly. And it is Hojo of Shinra that produced these monsters. Mutated living organisms produced by Mako energy. That is what these monsters really are. "
Zack seemed about to understand, but his next question proved that he had grasped perhaps more than Sephiroth had bargained for.
"Normal members of SOLDIER? You mean you're different? "
Sephiroth visibly trembled, lifting his hand up to his head, for the love of Jenova it hurt! A high pitched scream directly inside his mind, definitely female, possibly human, but possibly... "No.."
He spoke aloud, his fears realising themselves once and for all,
".. Was I?"
He was vaguely aware of Masamune moving through the air almost as if by magic, but it was his own hand that was holding it, he slashed upwards at the air, trying to rid himself of the invisible demon that had him by sheer will power!
"...Was I created this way, too?"
He slashed downwards in rage at one of the pods, no longer even aware of Zack stammering something in the background, all he could think of was.. he had been lied to, the birth, the reason for his creation, his entire life.. it was all a lie! Everything he had lived up until now was a lie!
"Am I the same as all these monsters?"
Zack said something then something caught his attention.
"Sephiroth..."
Sephiroth turned to Zack bitterly, his breathing already faster than normal, his eyes glittering eerily.
"You saw it! All of them... were humans... "
He could see Zack out of the corner of his eyes, mouthing something, shaking his head in disbelief, Sephiroth shook his head too, a terrible awakening for him...
"Ever since I was small I've felt... ...that I was different from the others. Special, in some way. But... not like this. "
He looked at the pods again, could these possibly be.. his brothers? His sisters? Did he after all have relatives he was unaware of?
One of the pods hissed softly, then broke, one of the monsters falling out of the pod, laying there, twitching, unable to breath without the special liquid surrounding it.
He watched unemotionally as the creature slowly suffocated to death, he turned then to Zack, forcing himself to remain calm now, no matter what!
"Come... our job here is finished.. tomorrow we head back."
He turned and headed out of the reactor, followed by a shocked looking Zack. He said nothing as they walked outside, merely walking towards the area that would allow them to get back to Nibelheim, watching in vague amusement as Tifa led them first one way then another, trying to remember the way back without the bridge. It was only vague though, he could still hear the voice in his mind, still feel that pull towards the door with his mothers name on it, and there was still that knowledge that he had lived a lie for his entire life.
Back in Nibelheim he headed straight for the Shin-ra mansion, informing the others that it would be best if they got some rest, tomorrow would be a long day.
The house was as he remembered it, too big for one person, not big enough for two, he strode through the all too familiar hallways up to the bedroom and felt around the wall for the small button that would allow him access to the forbidden quarters. Down the stairs that seemed to wind on forever and along the narrow corridor he opened the door to the library, something told him he would find his answers here, he had to find those answers!
Long into the night he read, the candles burning brightly, still he could not find the book, then.. in the far back shelf, high up, a dusty old book caught his attention.
He began to read, soon losing track of where he was, what he was doing, finally after all these years, the truth! Reading aloud as though to do so would make it so.
"...An apparently dead organism was found in a 2000 year old geological stratum. Professor Gast named that organism, Jenova... X Year, X Month, X Day. Jenova confirmed to be an Ancient... X Year, X Month, X Day. Jenova Project approved. The use of Mako Reactor 1 approved for use... " He lifted his head from the book, his eyes flashing brightly, it all made sense now! The tests, the feeling that he was different somehow, the fact that there had been no pictures or even tests on his mother available.
""My mother's name is Jenova... Jenova Project... Is this just a coincidence?"
It had started with... "Professor Gast... Why did you not tell me anything? ...Why did you die? "
More importantly, he thought to himself, why had he left him in the hands of Hojo? Surely he could not have been that cruel in life as he seemed to be now. He lifted his head at a sound, emerald green narrowing into tiny slits in annoyance.
"Let me be alone."
His voice was curt, hard, he did not want anything to intrude in his new found knowledge, he had to know more! It was like a dam was breaking and suddenly he felt flooded with the new found power he had found in himself, he was more than they were he was the son of an ancient, he smiled lightly to himself, the first thing to do would be to rescue his mother from the capsule they had entrapped her in, then together they would take back what was theirs, destroy the world that existed already and create a new one, one where everyone could be themselves, without expereiemnts or testing.
He laughed softly to himself, genuine happieness taking over him for the first time in his thirty years of life.
Again the door opened, again a head popped round the door, Sephiroth frowned, he knew now what these people were, what they had done to him and his kind, why he was the only one left.
"Who is it?"
He demanded of the blonde who came in, before remembering the mans name, Cloud.. that was it... he shook his head, his voice not becoming any less curt for knowing him.
"Hmph... traitor. "
Cloud looked up, his expression one of total and utter shock, Sephiroth could see the mans slow mind trying to think, knowing what the question would be before it even surfaced.
"Traitor?"
Sephiroth smirked then, standing up, speaking slowly as though to an idiot, to a person who had difficulty in understanding the most simple of things.
"You ignorant traitor. I'll tell you. This Planet orignally belonged to the Cetra. Cetra was an itinerant race. They would migrate in, settle the Planet, then move on... At the end of their hard, long journey, it was said they would find the Promised Land and supreme happiness. But, those who disliked journeying appeared. They stopped their migrations, built shelters and elected to lead an easier life. They took that which the Cetra and the Planet had made without giving back one whit in return! Those are your ancestors.
Cloud shook his head, still confused even now, trying to interrupt.
"Sephiroth..."
Sephiroth raised an eyebrow in exasperation then continued, especially for the mans benefit
"Long ago, disaster struck the Planet. Your ancestors escaped... They survived because they hid. The Planet was saved by sacrificing the Cetra. After that, your ancestors continued to multiply. Now all that's left of the Cetra is in these reports."
Cloud shook his head again, much to Sephiroths annoyance, he was sure the man had not been this ignorant before, but now he seemed to have the mental capacity of a mentally unstable vegetable!
"What does that have to do with me?"
The mans voice was quickly becoming an irratant, Sephiroth wanted to get back to the books, to learn more about his life, about the truth.
"Don't you see? An Ancient named Jenova was found in a 2000 year-old geological stratum. The Jenova Project. The Jenova Project wanted to produce people with the powers of the Ancients... Or, the Cetra. I am what was produced. "
Light seemed to dawn in the blonde mans eyes for a moment, then all hope that he had been understood finally vanished as his next words broke the spell of comprehension.
"pr..produced?"
Sephiroth nodded slowly, enough was enough, he was tired of the chatting, he needed some action, preferably soon.
"Yes. Professor Gast, leader of the Jenova Project and genius scientist, produced me. "
Still the man was not done! His next question coming much faster, he was getting as bad as Zack!
"how.. did he?"
Sephiroth shook his head, obviously the man was not going to understand how ever many times he rehashed over the subject, he headed towards the door, Cloud moving quickly getting in front of him.
"Se... Sephiroth?"
Sephiroth pushed past the boy, his voice no longer hard, just impatient.
"Out of my way. I am going to see my mother."