NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

I apologise for the long, long, long delay of updates in this fic, but I've been taking a little break in writing this to refuel my passion for it. As in, playing Final Fantasy 7 to get me fired up again, and, um, downloading many theme songs such as 'One Winged Angel' and such. Just one of my little tricks to keep the passion flowing…

Thanks for all the many reviews I have had so far – they are really appreciated! To those who criticise me using the exact game script: I heartily agree that it is a little unoriginal, but I have placed a disclaimer saying I don't claim credit, and since I have started I may as well finish. I mainly write these kinds of fics (novelisations) as practice for my own novels – it's all just practice to me. If ever removed this fic, I would put it up on my website for those of you who do enjoy reading it. I will, however, consider creating a new script when I novelise Final Fantasy 8, 9, 10 and X-2. I'm also trying to add a bit of my own original dialogue, all right?

So, thanks to everyone who has reviewed the fic thus far. Now let's get back to where I left off. Onward with the fic, people!!!


Final Fantasy7

Emerald Princess of Vernea

Chapter Twenty-Nine

"Am I… human? I didn't quite understand what Sephiroth was saying at that time. I was even more surprised by the fact that Shinra was producing monsters."

Cloud paused for a minute and looked around at the faces of the others, examining their reactions. As usual he could see the anger burning in Barret's face as he struggled to contain his anger – this was just more fuel for the fire of his hatred for the Shinra. Aeris was busy looking down at her boots, lost in thought. Red XIII was the same, looking away from Cloud and thinking hard. Lastly there was Tifa. She was still sitting on the bed closest to the window, a silent, sad look in her brown eyes.

"Damn, Shinra!" Barret exploded suddenly, making everyone in the room snap out of their thoughtful trances. They all looked at Barret jumping madly on the floor, the wooden planks shaking beneath his feet. No doubt the people below could hear it, but Barret didn't care. "The more I hear, the more I hate 'em!"

"……Who would have ever thought that the Mako Reactor had a secret like that?" asked Tifa.

"That would certainly seem to explain the increase in the number of monsters recently," Red XIII muttered thoughtfully. His tail gently swished across the floor, curling itself around the leg of a chair. Red XIII didn't seem to notice, and looked up at Barret. "I think we should listen carefully to Cloud. Don't you think so, Barret?"

"(Why you talkin' to me!?)" Barret whispered sharply to Red XIII. He then realised how loudly he had whispered and quickly turned away to hide his blushing face. He folded his arms and tapped the floor heavily with his boot. When he had finished pushing down the burning sensation in his face he turned back. "Yeah, mebbe so," he admitted. He then sighed heavily. "Wanna take a breather here?"

The others all nodded. It had been a long story, and it wasn't finished yet. The group left the inn and separated from each other for a bit, and went to explore the quiet town of Kalm. There wasn't much to explore – Kalm was a very quiet town with very few shops and limited supplies. It wasn't a tourist town like towns from across the continent, just a simple town on the outskirts of Midgar, where people stopped and rested on their way to the city. After about twenty minutes the group reassembled in their room at the inn, ready to continue the story.

Tifa was the last to arrive back at the inn. She had spent all her time sat in the middle of the town by an old well, watching all the people pass her by. Eventually she had become oblivious to the people walking around her, until a full twenty minutes had passed by and she realised that everyone else had already turned to the inn. When she arrived the others were all waiting for her.

"……I get it," Barret was saying as she walked up, finishing off a conversation with Red XIII. They stopped talking as Tifa walked in and stood in her usual spot by the bed, waiting for the story to continue.

"Tifa…" Aeris said suddenly. Tifa looked up. "You were waiting outside then?"

Tifa tilted her head. "……Yes?" she asked.

"We returned to Nibelheim," Cloud began, interrupted Aeris and preventing her from asking her next question. So she sat back on the bed beside Tifa and nodded at Cloud to continue with his story. Her question could wait. "Sephiroth confined himself at the inn. He didn't even try to talk to me."

"Then all of a sudden he just disappeared, right?" asked Tifa.

Cloud nodded. "We found him inside the biggest building in Nibelheim."

"The villagers used to call it Shinra Mansion," Tifa added.

"Long ago, people from Shinra used to live in that mansion…" said Cloud.


The door to the inn opened as Cloud and the remaining Shinra soldier ran out into the street and looked around. They couldn't believe that no one had seen or heard Sephiroth leave the inn – he had slipped off completely without a trace.

At that time of the morning the streets of Nibelheim were quiet, but the sense of calm that came after the defeat of the dragon had gone. In fact it had intensified since their return from the reactor, and people remained safe inside their homes away from the Shinra. Cloud couldn't really blame them – Sephiroth had been acting very strangely since they returned. He hadn't said a word, and locked himself in his room. That was why Cloud was very worried to find Sephiroth had gone.

The sound of men talking drew Cloud and the soldier towards the Shinra Mansion at the north of the town. There were a number of people standing outside the old, rusty gates of the mansion, blockading it. One of those men was Tifa's dad, which didn't surprise Cloud one bit – he didn't trust the Shinra in the town at all, and trusted Sephiroth even less. He also recognised Zangan, Tifa's martial arts instructor, also guarding the gate.

The group of men all looked up and scowled as Cloud and the soldier ran up, and quickly moved back into position around the gate. As they approached Tifa's dad stepped forward and stood in front of Cloud, a distrusting scowl on his face.

"Until we know that there's no danger, we're not moving," he said simply, and walked back to his comrades and continued to block the gate. The Shinra soldier stepped forward, and the men moved just enough to let him through. They were prepared to let the Shinra through, but no one else. Even so Tifa's dad scowled.

"There's nothing that'll harm this town, right?" Zangan asked Cloud suddenly.

"No way!" Cloud said positively, shaking his head. "It's Sephiroth. He would never do that." There was a quiet chortle from Tifa's father as he said that – he didn't believe a word of it.

Even Zangan didn't look particularly convinced. "…Oh my," he muttered, scratching his head. "You sure do have faith."

Cloud looked down at the ground uncomfortably. He did have faith in Sephiroth, and didn't believe that Sephiroth would harm his hometown. Even so, the grilling looks from the other men guarding the gates of the mansion made him uncomfortable. Shinra was never exactly popular, and even though he was from Nibelheim, it didn't change the fact that in their eyes he was another Shinra soldier. "…Why do you ask?" he asked Zangan.

Now it was Zangan's turn to feel uncomfortable. "The Shinra showed up to eliminate any information that could be an embarrassment to the company…" he explained. He gave Cloud a wink. "You pick these things up when you travel as much as I do."

Slowly Cloud nodded. He couldn't really deny that. It was a sort of 'rule of the business world'. The Shinra never really bothered with anything unless it was to do with money or would cause them embarrassment. To save further embarrassing himself Cloud then headed into the mansion to begin his search for Sephiroth.

The mansion was very quiet – there were no Shinra residents living in Nibelheim at that time, so the mansion was left abandoned. All the curtains were drawn and shutting off the light from the outside, apart from a thin beam of light where the curtains didn't quite meet, and shone onto the old oak floorboards. All in all it was a very eerie old house, and the sense of unease ran all the way through the house.

A loud creak made Cloud jump and turn towards the old stairs at the far end of the main hall. A flash of movement caught his eye, and Cloud saw a silhouette moving on the top balcony. He ran to the stairs and began to run up, but the moment his heavy boots stepped on the stairs they creaked. Cloud froze for a moment or two, his left foot hovering over the next step. He inhaled deeply and slowly lowered his foot onto the step. It still creaked, but not as loudly as before.

Quickly but quietly he proceeded to move up the stairs until he reached the upper tier of the mansion. There were two ways he could go – left towards the bedrooms, or right, where the person he had seen went. Cloud cautiously headed towards the right, keeping his senses alert for any more signs of movement.

As he turned the corner he saw something moving ahead into another room at the end of the short corridor. Cloud reached behind him and gripped onto his large-bladed sword – he wanted to be ready for anything. He then headed towards the room, and peeked around the door. When he pressed his foot down on the ground it creaked suddenly, surprising both him and the figure that was standing in the room beyond. Hurriedly Cloud drew his sword and swished it in front of him, and the figure spun around, pulling out a gun, and aimed it at Cloud. Cloud stared, before he sighed with relief.

The figure he had seen moving had only been the Shinra soldier who had gone into the mansion before he had. It was him that had been stalking around the mansion, and had scared Cloud half to death. Cloud lowered his sword, almost laughing.

"Don't do that," he said. He was sweating with anxiety. "I thought you were Sephiroth." In front of him the Shinra soldier also lowered his weapon, and sighed.

"I'm sorry," he apologised. He put his gun back in its holster and stood upright. He put one gloved hand underneath the visor shielding his face and wiped it. "There's no sign of Sephiroth, but I know I saw him go into this room…"

Together they looked around at the room they were in. It was merely a small box room, and there wasn't much else in it apart from a cupboard, a chair, and a few other small things. There was a chimney shaft in the corner of the room, but there were no exits. If Sephiroth had indeed entered this room, there was no way he could have gotten out without anyone noticing.

The soldier went over to a nearby wall and began to tap it gently, just in case there was a secret passage hidden. Cloud decided to do the same, and so they took a wall each and began to tap it, listening at any moment for a spot that sounded hollow. They moved slowly round and round, completing one wall and then moving onto the next. Yet everywhere they tapped gave back no hollow sound. Everywhere was secure, with no secret doors anywhere.

Cloud reached the end of his wall and stopped by the chimney shaft. It was half embedded in the wall, joining all the other rooms together. It was built of an old, grey stone, and seemed pretty ordinary. As Cloud looked closer, however, he noticed something odd about the stonework. Some of the stones didn't seem to match the others, and didn't blend in as well. It was something that wouldn't be noticeable to anyone just entering the room, but up close the difference was clear.

Carefully Cloud tapped on the stones that didn't look like they belonged. Just as he expected, a slight echo came back at him – the shaft was indeed hollow. He pushed against the stones, and they moved slowly backwards. Cloud grinned and grasped onto the edge of the wall, pushing it aside to reveal the hidden area beyond the well-concealed chimney shaft.

Inside the chimney was a long spiral staircase, heading down deep into the depths of the house. It made Cloud a little dizzy to look down at how deep it went, and it was so dark he could only just see the bottom. He signalled to the Shinra soldier to stay put, before he stepped into the shaft and onto the first step of the staircase.

The dim lights from the room upstairs gently lit Cloud's path as he headed down slowly into the hidden depths of the building. The Shinra soldier watched him from the top as Cloud descended into the shadows. Once Cloud vanished from view he stepped back into the room, his gun in hand as he prepared to guard the entrance of the shaft.

Cloud eventually reached the bottom of the long spiral staircase and stepped down onto the rocky ground. He was definitely well underneath the Shinra Mansion now, there was no doubt of that. He was standing in the middle of a long rocky tunnel that ran all the way under the house. He could see the end of the tunnel not too far ahead of him, where it ended with a large door blocking the way forward.

Cloud could feel the hair on the back of his neck standing on end as he walked slowly down the tunnel. The tunnel was deadly quiet and very shadowy, but a single light shining through the edges of the door at the end of the tunnel assured him that there was someone else there, and it was probably Sephiroth. After all, he couldn't think of anyone else who would be down here.

He passed another closed door on his way down the tunnel, but one look made him realise that it was locked, and hadn't been opened in many years. He moved on and stopped outside door at the end of the tunnel. It was slightly ajar, and he could hear the sound of muttering inside. It was Sephiroth's voice. Nervously Cloud pushed open the door and slid inside.

The hidden room looked like some kind of mini-laboratory. There was a desk in the middle of the room with a number of old dusty papers and flasks on, and there were two large tubes in the corner. The laboratory was attached to a library, with a corridor lined with books adjoining the two. Sephiroth's voice was coming from there, so Cloud stood in the middle of the laboratory and looked down.

Sure enough, Sephiroth was standing in the middle of the tunnel, holding one of the many books open in his hands. There were already a number of books lying scattered across the floor that Sephiroth had flung down in his search, although who knew what he was looking for. He didn't even notice Cloud standing nearby, and continued to read the contents of the book aloud to himself.

"…An organism that was apparently dead, was found in a 2000 year old geological stratum," he read. "Professor Gast named that organism Jenova…" He turned the page over, his eyes focused only the book, and continued to read. "X Year, X Month, X Day. Jenova project approved. The use of Mako Reactor 1 approved for use…" He lowered his arm, letting the pages fall over his hand as he looked up at the ceiling. His green eyes seemed sad. "My mother's name is Jenova… Jenova Project… Is this just a coincidence?" He looked down at the ground, towards the books around him. "Professor Gast… Why didn't you tell me anything? Why did you die?" He blinked and turned his head a little, finally noticing Cloud nearby. The sad look in his eyes was still there. "Let me be alone," he said to Cloud, before turning away.

Cloud stared as Sephiroth walked down towards the main part of the library, going back to his obsessive reading. There was nothing Cloud could do for him, so he turned and headed out of the room, leaving Sephiroth behind in the library.


"Sephiroth didn't come out of the Shinra Mansion…" Cloud said. He closed his eyes again, remembering. "He continued to read as if he were possessed by something, and not once, did the light in the basement go out…"
A few days passed by, and Cloud stared up at the ceiling of his new room. Thanks to the men of Nibelheim growing more concerned over the welfare of their town, not even Cloud and the remaining Shinra soldier had been allowed out of the mansion, just as no one else was allowed in.

He had been down to the basement a number of times since he had entered the mansion, but each time Sephiroth had barely even noticed he was there. One thing Cloud did notice, however, was that the sense of unease and anxiety that ran through the house grew in intensity as the days went by, and the pile of books that Sephiroth left behind in his search grew ever larger.

Eventually Cloud sat up on his bed, bored. He decided he'd try to talk to Sephiroth again, although he knew it was probably a waste of time. Sephiroth had been acting very strangely, and even he was beginning to get concerned.

As he headed over to the room where the secret entrance lay, he found the Shinra soldier still waiting inside, sat on a chair as he continued to guard the room. The soldier looked up as Cloud entered, before he relaxed in his chair.

"Sephiroth seems different," he commented. He shuffled about with his visor, but didn't take off his helmet. "Hey," he said suddenly, looking up at Cloud. "You don't think that he will… you know…"

Cloud shook his head, although he was unsure of who he was trying to convince. The soldier seemed a little at ease though, and relaxed again in his chair. It didn't look like they'd be going anywhere for a while.

As before Cloud headed down towards the basement and into the library. He expected to see Sephiroth pacing back and forth as usual, with his pile of read books even larger than before. He expected to hear Sephiroth muttering quietly to himself as he read the contents of those books, and saying he wanted to be left alone.

Yet as he walked into the library he was surprised to find that Sephiroth was not pacing around, and he couldn't hear Sephiroth's voice. Cloud walked fully into the room and looked around. The sound of a laugh made Cloud jump and turn to the corridor. He could see Sephiroth faintly at the desk in the library, but he wasn't reading. He was just sitting there silently, staring blankly into space.

Cloud began to walk down the corridor towards Sephiroth. The sense of unease and panic suddenly began to rise in him as he walked, and with each step he took the hair on his neck froze, and the blood in his veins seemed to run cold. His heart thumped in his chest as he entered the library office and looked at Sephiroth.

"Who is it!?" Sephiroth demanded angrily. He looked up at Cloud, and Cloud's heart skipped a beat. There was something seriously wrong – Cloud could feel it in the air around him. Sephiroth's green eyes that were sad before were now angry, and seemed to get even angrier as they connected with Cloud's eyes. A scowl spread on Sephiroth's face. "Hmph… traitor."

Cloud blinked in surprise. "Traitor?" he asked.

Sephiroth slammed his hands furiously onto the desk, directly on top of a pile of old reports that he had been reading over the past few hours. The fear in Cloud began to rise as Sephiroth stood up, pushing the chair back against the wall. Cloud swallowed hard, trying to push down the fear, but it was hard to contain.

"You ignorant traitor," Sephiroth growled. "I'll tell you." He lifted his head up and glared at Cloud with his furious green eyes, and Cloud could almost see the anger welling inside. "This Planet originally belonged to the Cetra. Cetra was an itinerant race. They would migrate in, settle the Planet, then move on… At the end of their harsh, hard journey, they would find the Promised Land and supreme happiness."

Cloud watched in surprise as Sephiroth looked around the room at the many reports that had been scattered across the room, and the many books lying open on the floor around them.

"But, those that disliked the journey appeared," Sephiroth continued. "Those who stopped their migrations, built shelters and elected to lead an easier life. They took that which the Cetra had made without giving back one whit in return." He stood upright and pointed straight at Cloud. "Those are your ancestors."

"Sephiroth…" Cloud whispered, but he stopped there. He didn't know what to say.

Sephiroth continued to rant. "Long ago, disaster struck this planet. Your ancestors escaped… They survived because they hid. The Planet was saved by sacrificing the Cetra. After that, your ancestors continued to increase. Now all that's left of the Cetra is in these reports."

"What does that have to do with you?" Cloud asked, confused.

"Don't you get it?" Sephiroth asked angrily, and Cloud jumped an inch back towards the wall. His nervousness only increased as Sephiroth began to slowly walk around the desk towards him. "An Ancient named Jenova was found in the geological stratum of 2000 years ago. The Jenova Project. The Jenova Project wanted to produce people with the powers of the Ancients. ……No, the Cetra. …I am the one that was produced."

Cloud stared in horror. "Pr…produced!?" he exclaimed. He shook his head fiercely, not wanting to hear any more of Sephiroth's story. It was all too freaky to grasp.

Sephiroth nodded, a strange grin spreading on his face. "Yes," he confirmed. "Professor Gast, leader of the Jenova Project and genius scientist, produced me."

"How… How did he…?" Cloud asked, although he was just as sure he didn't want to hear the answer. It was then that some of Sephiroth's actions began to fit into place. The way Sephiroth had attacked the monster capsules in the reactor – they had been produced as well. The 'Jenova' nameplate above the door in the reactor. How Sephiroth had laughed when Cloud asked about his father. How could he possibly know who his father was, when there was no father?

He was broken from his thoughts as Sephiroth suddenly moved past him and towards the door. There was something strange about the way Sephiroth moved – something very ominous and threatening. As he passed by Cloud he could feel another sharp chill run down his spine, and his blood ran cold again.

"Se… Sephiroth?"

Sephiroth paused at the entrance to the corridor. He didn't look back at Cloud, but Cloud could feel the cold chill of Sephiroth's eyes almost glaring at him.

"Out of my way," he said. "I'm going to see my mother."

With that Sephiroth began to move again, heading down the corridor and out of the underground basement. Cloud remained stationary for a moment or two after Sephiroth left, unsure of what to make of the strange story. Sephiroth seemed to have completely changed in the space of a few days, and that thought scared Cloud. He suddenly shook his head and ran out of the basement, heading towards the man part of the house again.

The Shinra soldier was not there when he emerged from the hidden staircase, although his gun was left lying on the floor. Cloud quickly ran out of that room and headed towards the main hall, when he heard a loud explosion from outside of the mansion. Cloud skidded to a stop, and prayed that what he saw from the dusty windows was not real. He tore down the stairs and towards the doors, pushing them open with all his might.

Then he stopped as his eyes opened wide.


EMERALD: Again, I apologise for the delay. Also, if I have accidentally repeated any description from previous chapters. I only wrote this chapter today and haven't had a chance to read previous chapters to make sure I didn't repeat anything.