Chapter Seven : Gemini - Nibelheim Aftermath
He was floating. The glowing green fluid of the lifestream surrounded him, cocooned him, kept him from harm. Curious. Normally the Mako of the lifestream should have poisoned him to the brink of death, he should know, but this time something was protecting him.
#Is that him?#
He tried to turn to the voice, but he'd no control over his body. It was like he was completely caught in a spider's web.
#One of them, yes.#
Another voice.
#He doesn't look so dangerous.#
The first voice stated and if he'd been able to say or do something, he would have proved his dangerous nature to the speaker... not dangerous! Ha! He felt insulted.
#Feel him, he carries the Crisis in his veins. He is a true child of Jenova.#
Jenova?! The Jenova that had been in the Nibelheim reactor? The thing that the girl had claimed to be her Mommy? And the voice had said that he was her child? NO WAY! Yes, he was infused with her cells, but his true mother had been Lucrecia, not some blue-skinned, tentacle waving, alien thing!
Obviously the two voices were able to hear his loud thoughts.
#He can hear us!#
The first voice noticed astonished.
'Hear you? Of course I can hear you' his mind scolded the two voices, 'You are so loud that it won't surprise me if you wake the dead!'
#Sorry.#
The first voice answered chastised.
#We weren't sure you could hear us.#
The second voice was similar meek.
'Obviously I can. And I get the feeling that you two want something from me, correct?'
#Yes, that is true. But we need to know something first. The girl, that attacked you and the others said that you don't hear the voice of Jenova, but your twin. Is that correct?#
'I never heard any other mind-voice, but that of my brother. We communicated with each other since before our birth and our mental bonds made it possible to survive the pains of our youth without going insane, a feat the girl couldn't repeat, I fear.'
#Yes, sadly it is true. Aeris has moved beyond our reach and even the Planet can't speak to her anymore. But what is worse is the fact, that she was the last protector, the last living Cetra and meant to undo the damage Jenova and ShinRa did to the Planet.#
'You must be joking! She's utterly mad and has plans to completely wipe out any life on the Planet!'
#We know that. But what I meant was that she was the last one able to speak with the Planet, she was the last hope of the Cetra people and now she's lost to us.#
'And what does that all have to do with me?'
#Well, since you and your brother already have a mental connection and know how to live with it, we wanted to ask you if we could create a bond between the two of you and the Planet.#
'WHAT??'
#The Planet is dying, Jenovachild. Everyday ShinRa destroys a bit more of it's immunesystem and now, with Jenova awake and Aeris as her avatar, death is getting closer and closer. We saw you two, protecting, fighting for other humans, even if you had only needed to protect your own people. Right now, we are desperate for help. While you and your brother are children of the Crisis of the Skies, you don't follow her ideals. And you are strong enough to stand against her. Please, we are desperate.#
'Let me talk with my brother first.'
*Seph, were you able to listen into the conversation?*
*Yes, Xand.*
*What do you think about it? I need your opinion.*
*Aeris is our enemy. And if I understood correctly, she will appear again one day. Anything that could help us defeat her shouldn't be refused. Accept the offer, Xand.*
*Thank you, Seph.*
'Did you heard, what he'd said?'
#Yes, Alexander, we heard his acceptance.#
'Then go for it. Links us to the planet!'
#Thank you, Alexander.#
That was the last he heard of the voices. The next thing he and his brother felt was the feeling of a mental finger touching them in their brains. And then the colours came... and the songs, the images that went beyond mortal words to describe and the voice, the male, yet female, deep but higher than the highest soprano voice, the voice that consisted out of a coral of millions of voices, but was one voice alone. The voice of the Planet. And it was welcoming his children home.
***
How had it come to this? A rather bedraggled feeling Vincent asked himself. One moment he saw the explosion that started the fires and had transformed into the Galian beast to be able to fight without being recognised, the seemingly next moment he had three children riding on his back, one was pulling at his horns, another at his tail and he was herding several other children away from the fight. He didn't know when he had been declared official babysitter, but now he was... if only that redhead friend of his sons would stop laughing at him!
***
He hadn't spoken a word since they had come to clean up that mess. It was a breach of working protocol, but somehow Rude was very glad that Sephiroth remained silent. His eyes were bad enough. He was quite sure that people would start to die if he opened his mouth right now.
How could a simple mission turn so quickly into disaster? Rude had no idea, but from the snippets he'd heard from the cadets and civilians, the general and his brother had saved the town from a far bigger catastrophe. Distracting the enemy and using every ounce of magic to save their men and the civilian population of Nibelheim. And general Alexander had most likely not survived.
Sephiroth was silent, as he entered the helicopter, only once he leaded to the young Turkcandidate and whispered something into his ear... an order most likely, but otherwise he spoke no word. Neither on their way to the headquarters and his lips remained a thin, sealed line as he entered the ShinRa tower. He was like silent death and he was here to distribute his dark gift to all those that would hear his voice.
Rude wished Tseng back, he wasn't fit for the job of Turkleader, he hated talking and he had the feeling that a big part of Tsengs job was talking to the higher ups at ShinRa. But he was the most senior Turk after Tseng and so he was stuck with the job until a new leader was officially declared.
He watched silently, as Sephiroth stepped out of the elevator and stalked to his private rooms. Somehow he doubted that the man would find sleep this night.
tbc
He was floating. The glowing green fluid of the lifestream surrounded him, cocooned him, kept him from harm. Curious. Normally the Mako of the lifestream should have poisoned him to the brink of death, he should know, but this time something was protecting him.
#Is that him?#
He tried to turn to the voice, but he'd no control over his body. It was like he was completely caught in a spider's web.
#One of them, yes.#
Another voice.
#He doesn't look so dangerous.#
The first voice stated and if he'd been able to say or do something, he would have proved his dangerous nature to the speaker... not dangerous! Ha! He felt insulted.
#Feel him, he carries the Crisis in his veins. He is a true child of Jenova.#
Jenova?! The Jenova that had been in the Nibelheim reactor? The thing that the girl had claimed to be her Mommy? And the voice had said that he was her child? NO WAY! Yes, he was infused with her cells, but his true mother had been Lucrecia, not some blue-skinned, tentacle waving, alien thing!
Obviously the two voices were able to hear his loud thoughts.
#He can hear us!#
The first voice noticed astonished.
'Hear you? Of course I can hear you' his mind scolded the two voices, 'You are so loud that it won't surprise me if you wake the dead!'
#Sorry.#
The first voice answered chastised.
#We weren't sure you could hear us.#
The second voice was similar meek.
'Obviously I can. And I get the feeling that you two want something from me, correct?'
#Yes, that is true. But we need to know something first. The girl, that attacked you and the others said that you don't hear the voice of Jenova, but your twin. Is that correct?#
'I never heard any other mind-voice, but that of my brother. We communicated with each other since before our birth and our mental bonds made it possible to survive the pains of our youth without going insane, a feat the girl couldn't repeat, I fear.'
#Yes, sadly it is true. Aeris has moved beyond our reach and even the Planet can't speak to her anymore. But what is worse is the fact, that she was the last protector, the last living Cetra and meant to undo the damage Jenova and ShinRa did to the Planet.#
'You must be joking! She's utterly mad and has plans to completely wipe out any life on the Planet!'
#We know that. But what I meant was that she was the last one able to speak with the Planet, she was the last hope of the Cetra people and now she's lost to us.#
'And what does that all have to do with me?'
#Well, since you and your brother already have a mental connection and know how to live with it, we wanted to ask you if we could create a bond between the two of you and the Planet.#
'WHAT??'
#The Planet is dying, Jenovachild. Everyday ShinRa destroys a bit more of it's immunesystem and now, with Jenova awake and Aeris as her avatar, death is getting closer and closer. We saw you two, protecting, fighting for other humans, even if you had only needed to protect your own people. Right now, we are desperate for help. While you and your brother are children of the Crisis of the Skies, you don't follow her ideals. And you are strong enough to stand against her. Please, we are desperate.#
'Let me talk with my brother first.'
*Seph, were you able to listen into the conversation?*
*Yes, Xand.*
*What do you think about it? I need your opinion.*
*Aeris is our enemy. And if I understood correctly, she will appear again one day. Anything that could help us defeat her shouldn't be refused. Accept the offer, Xand.*
*Thank you, Seph.*
'Did you heard, what he'd said?'
#Yes, Alexander, we heard his acceptance.#
'Then go for it. Links us to the planet!'
#Thank you, Alexander.#
That was the last he heard of the voices. The next thing he and his brother felt was the feeling of a mental finger touching them in their brains. And then the colours came... and the songs, the images that went beyond mortal words to describe and the voice, the male, yet female, deep but higher than the highest soprano voice, the voice that consisted out of a coral of millions of voices, but was one voice alone. The voice of the Planet. And it was welcoming his children home.
***
How had it come to this? A rather bedraggled feeling Vincent asked himself. One moment he saw the explosion that started the fires and had transformed into the Galian beast to be able to fight without being recognised, the seemingly next moment he had three children riding on his back, one was pulling at his horns, another at his tail and he was herding several other children away from the fight. He didn't know when he had been declared official babysitter, but now he was... if only that redhead friend of his sons would stop laughing at him!
***
He hadn't spoken a word since they had come to clean up that mess. It was a breach of working protocol, but somehow Rude was very glad that Sephiroth remained silent. His eyes were bad enough. He was quite sure that people would start to die if he opened his mouth right now.
How could a simple mission turn so quickly into disaster? Rude had no idea, but from the snippets he'd heard from the cadets and civilians, the general and his brother had saved the town from a far bigger catastrophe. Distracting the enemy and using every ounce of magic to save their men and the civilian population of Nibelheim. And general Alexander had most likely not survived.
Sephiroth was silent, as he entered the helicopter, only once he leaded to the young Turkcandidate and whispered something into his ear... an order most likely, but otherwise he spoke no word. Neither on their way to the headquarters and his lips remained a thin, sealed line as he entered the ShinRa tower. He was like silent death and he was here to distribute his dark gift to all those that would hear his voice.
Rude wished Tseng back, he wasn't fit for the job of Turkleader, he hated talking and he had the feeling that a big part of Tsengs job was talking to the higher ups at ShinRa. But he was the most senior Turk after Tseng and so he was stuck with the job until a new leader was officially declared.
He watched silently, as Sephiroth stepped out of the elevator and stalked to his private rooms. Somehow he doubted that the man would find sleep this night.
tbc
