This is where it gets just a bit controversial. I know I'm not the only one out there toying with the idea that Jenova was behind everything and that Sephiroth was only a puppet the whole time, but from what I understand, this idea has caused a handful of silly flamewars out there. I don't follow the fandom in terms of going to newsgroups or bulletin boards or anything; I just look at fanart and read the occasinal fic, so I don't keep up on this stuff. But, this happens to be one of the fics that explores that idea. I'm not saying it's necessarily so, and no, I'm not tyring to whitewash Sephiroth because he's hot. (He's pixels, art at best; "hotness" doesn't enter into it. At the heart of the matter, he's a fascinating character in a fascinating story.) I'm not trying to whitewash him at allI tried to have Reeve make some really good points in this chapter about Sephiroth's behaviorI'm just trying to look at what Sephiroth might be if he were allowed to be human.
This might seem like a bit of a recap of the FF7 story, but I wanted to tell it from a different perspective, so I hope it's at least interesting. Also, I couldn't help referencing what I think is one of the most important lines in the entire game: when Cloud says to Hojo, "I can't believe you're the one who did this... This illusionary crime against Sephiroth."
I suppose it could be an odd translationgoodness knows there were loads of the in the gamebut it's still a meaningful line. Cloud is the only one in the entire game who has the compassion and perspective to acknowledge that Hojo is to blame, and that Sephiroth is just as much a victim of his crimes as anyone else.
Another controversial subject, or so I'm told: How Reeve controls Cait Sith. Psionically? Through magic? Mechanically? I chose what seemed to me the most logical.
And by the way, I am a HUGE Reeve fangirl. Reeve doesn't get enough fanart or fanfic, so I guess I tried to make up for it with huge sections devoted to him. ;)
So, onwards.
Reeve and Sephiroth
Reeve wondered for a moment if he was still buried underneath the rubble of NeoMidgar. It was beyond dark, and everything in his body hurt. Even places of which he hadn't been previously aware were making their presence known. He had rather hoped to meet them under better circumstances.
Reeve realized that he was thinking nonsense again, and that he had better concentrate on what was going on around him. Perhaps the whole thing had been a dream, but he felt so aware of everything that had happenedfrom going to his stupid little arcade to waking up under the gaze of the psychotic, mutant ShinRa generalthat dreaming didn't seem likely.
Sephiroth.
Reeve's eyes snapped open and he tried to sit up hastily, realized that he was lying face down, and felt his hand slip. He fell back down, hitting his nose on the ground. Blast. That had been possibly the one place that didn't hurt until just then.
He rolled over wearily onto his side. He knew that there was a slight chance that Sephiroth would have left for some reason, and it gave him a small window of opportunity to escape. But his body felt too tired to comply. Ahh, he thought resignedly, maybe I can reason with him.
The thought almost made him laugh aloud. In his mind, he heard Sephiroth's cold, empty voice telling Cloud Strife that Aerith was one with the Planet. Reason. No, there would never, ever be any reasoning with Sephiroth. Reeve remembered a time when Sephiroth had been... well, nearly human. He'd never been quite exact in his humanity, and he definitely was not the warmest, fuzziest person Reeve had met. But he'd had a sort of distant nobility, and a cool headed sense of honor. That was more than Reeve could say for the rest of ShinRa. But when Sephiroth had lost that, he had become devoid of any humanity. He was a killing machine. He'd become an entity of self serving vanity, greed and chaos. People didn't come back from something like that.
Reeve shuddered.
"Hey," a soft, yet clipped voice called.
Reeve opened his eyes. Sephiroth sat on the ground, wearing black pants, boots and an ill fitting white shirt that was way too big for him. Reeve wondered where he had gotten the clothes. It was strange seeing him without his SOLDIER First Class uniform. The oversized clothes seemed to make him slightly less menacing, but Reeve knew better than to be fooled.
Sephiroth nodded in his direction, acknowledging that he had Reeve's attention. "Can you get an airship?" he asked.
Reeve frowned and rolled onto his back. After everything that had happened, from the ill fated Nibelheim mission, to Sephiroth finding him nearly dead in NeoMidgar, the only thing Sephiroth could think to do was ask if Reeve could get an airship? He tried to pull his hand over his face and got it tangled up in some kind of heavy material. He pulled the material off of his body and looked at it. It was a heavy black cloak. He looked back at Sephiroth as if to ask where it had come from.
Sephiroth shrugged and carelessly flipped his long bangs out of his face. They fell right back into place. "You lost a lot of blood" he said. "You'll probably be all right, as long as you don't do anything too terribly stupid. Are you ready to talk to me?"
Reeve sighed and sat up. "Well what do you want to talk about?" he asked suspiciously, as Sephiroth had the nerve to make eye contact. How could he even look at another person, look as if nothing had happened? Reeve doubted that the Lifestream would erase his memory of what he had done. After all, Sephiroth had recognized him.
"Well," Sephiroth said, and the air of haughty superiority, Reeve noted, had never left his voice, "we could begin with what I don't seem to remember. Your reaction was less than welcoming, and so were those of the Turks when I found them. I have to admit, I don't remember why I... why I was in the Lifestream to begin with. So I'm curious. Was it a war? Something to do with ShinRa?"
Reeve stared at him, dumbfounded for a moment, before roughly pushing the cloak away from him as if it was the dirtiest thing he had ever touched. "How about that little 'Meteor' incident, for starters?" he asked. "Or even before that. Oh, let's see, General Sephiroth," he said, his voice sneering with sarcasm. He knew he was pushing his luck, but he didn't care at this point. He was probably going to die anyway. "See if you can remember a woman...No, let me correct that: a girl, barely more than a child, named Aerith?" His anger made him forget his pain momentarily, and he stood up shakily.
Sephiroth didn't rise to meet him, but remained seated on the ground, staring at him. "Aerith," he whispered vaguely. He looked distant for a few moments. "Aerith. The Ancient?" Reeve didn't answer. "ShinRa wanted her for a very long time. But hadn't they given up on her? At least by the time Wutai..."
Sephiroth was staring into the distance again, while Reeve waited for him to remember. He knew that when he did, it was probably all over for him. And maybe for the Planet, as well, once Sephiroth remembered what he really wanted.
"What about her?" Sephiroth asked Reeve, suddenly snapping to the present.
Reeve sat down heavily on the ground once more and tiredly rubbed his face with both his hands. "Oh, I don't know," he said, his sarcasm growing weak as the memory brought back fresh sadness, "just that little thing with you brutally murdering her while she prayed." He looked up at Sephiroth, not caring that his eyes were probably already wet. "While she prayed." That detail was something that Reeve thought he would never get over. Just talking about it had ripped the scab off and started it flowing again.
Sephiroth stared back at him, lips parted slightly in surprise, his shining eyes wide. "Lies," he whispered. Reeve himself was too stunned to answer. "Lies. I would never... Listen to me, Reeve of ShinRa," he said, his voice turning cold and angry once more. Reeve flinched slightly. "I might be a lot of things. I know that I'm not the most genial person on the Planet. I know that I've done some things that were questionable, morally and otherwise. But I know myself, and I know that my honor never came into quesWait a minute," he said, narrowing his eyes. "Did you see this happen with your own eyes?"
Reeve thought carefully about that. He hadn't seen it with his own eyes, exactly; he had seen it through Cait Sith's. But there was no question it had happened, and damn Sephiroth for even suggesting that. Reeve didn't want to give him that out. This wasn't a trial, this was real, it was true; it was beyond pointless loopholes in what people were pleased to think of as the law. "There were many witnesses," Reeve finally said. "I was only one of them."
"And there's no question that it was me?"
"Of course not. Sephiroth, don't have the absolute gall to try to make me think that what I know happened..."
"Was ShinRa cloning at the time?"
Reeve was caught off guard again. Damnit, of course he would bring that up. And of course the bastard was right: It had been a clone that had actually, physically done it. And he had to admit it. This time he looked into Sephiroth's eyes. "Yes," he said coldly, "it was a clone. There were hundreds. You controlled every single one of them. You said so. Jenova said so."
Sephiroth's eyes flickered for the smallest moment as the name caught him off guard. "Jenova," he said, as if a memory was trying to make its way into his mind. "Jenova was my mother. I've never even met her; she died as I was born. How could she have told anybody anything?"
"Jenova wasn't your mother, Lucrecia was. Jenova was a sick, disgusting project, experimented on by sick, disgusting scientists. Oh yeah, to this day Cloud will tell people that you were just the victim of this 'illusionary crime' as he puts it, that even though you 'turned' evilas if someone could just wake up evil one dayit was really all ShinRa's doing. But that's what Cloud has to tell himself, I guess. Everyone else knows that you had it in you the whole time, just waiting for a catalyst. That was Jenova."
Sephiroth had stood up, and was staring at him as he tried to
piece together the information that Reeve was firing at him. Only this time, he looked startled enough that Reeve thought he was beginning to remember. He went on, relentlessly, his own outrage making him helpless to stop.
"Jenova was supposed to be an Ancient, and that got you started on this 'I am The God' shit, but isn't it too funny, General Sephiroth, that the true Ancient was Aerith Gainsborough, and Jenova was just a slimy space virus who killed most of them off? And that was what you had running in your veins after all, only I don't think you lived to find that out. So think about that when you kill me. Think about it when you're trying to demolish the Planet again. You're not an Ancient, you're not even a human, you're just a project, ShinRa's twisted Jenova project."
"Stop it!" Sephiroth said, and the effect of his voice on Reeve was like a slap in the face. He realized he hadn't even been watching Sephiroth's reaction, but he was now.
Sephiroth had clamped both hands over his ears, and quickly threaded them through his hair, and he was backing up. Reeve had never seen him show any weakness; that pleasure had been reserved for Cloud Strife. And rightly so, he thought. But Strife never seemed to take any pleasure in having watched him die. Reeve had always imagined that he himself would have. But watching Sephiroth now, he realized that his distress wasn't in any way satisfying. It was terrifying. He also realized, a little too late, he noted, that it was this exact discovery that had sent Sephiroth over the edge the first time around, and he had just been the one to start it all over.
"No, don't stop it," Sephiroth said, more softly. He wasn't looking at Reeve. "Say that again. The last part. Say it again."
Reeve faltered for a moment. "ShinRa's Jenova project," he said.
Sephiroth let both his hands drop, and for a tense moment, did nothing. Then he drew a deep breath and sat down again. He looked at Reeve. "The Nibelheim mission," he said. He struggled to come up with more memories. "With...Zack from Gongaga, my second in command. Zack, and..." He looked at Reeve again, asking silently for more information.
Reeve sat down once again. He realized that the only way to deal with this was through logic and facts. He would have to control his emotions and just tell him everything that he knew. Part of him wondered why in the world he would even help him remember. The other part told him that he just didn't have a choice. Sephiroth was going to do what he wanted, and there was only one man on the Planet who had a prayer of ever stopping him, and he was miles away. It would do no good to let Sephiroth try to figure everything out on his own.
"With Zack and Cloud Strife," he said. "And another soldier who died on the way. You were there to investigate a malfunctioning reactor. Your guide was a young girl named Tifa Lockheart."
Sephiroth flinched at the name, but waited silently for Reeve to go on.
"When you got there, you found some of ShinRa's mutants, monsters. And the Jenova Project. You put two and two together and realized that you were one of the projects too. Then you went back to the ShinRa mansion in Nibelheim and read all of Gast's and Hojo's books about Jenova and about yourself. But their studies were wrong, and Jenova wasn't an Ancient as they had thought. Of course, you didn't know that, you just went off your gourd and decided you had to go and find Jenova. On your way, Zack, Tifa and her father all tried to stop you. You killed Tifa's father. And you..."
"And I killed Zack. And...Tifa Lockheart," he said. He let his head drop into his hands. "Go on," he said in a muffled voice.
That wasn't exactly how it had happened, but Reeve didn't think there was time to get into the whole story about Zack's fate. Sephiroth had been responsible for Zack's initial capture, so that was enough for Reeve. He nodded, and calmly continued. "Strife followed you. Tifa was his friend. You ran him through too, but..."
"Wait," Sephiroth said, still not looking at Reeve. "Tifa Lockheart. Did I... did I kill her?"
Reeve closed his eyes in frustration. "No. She lived." He considered jumping ahead and telling him that Tifa was one of the group of people who had finally killed him, but he refrained. It was easier to tell the story chronologically. "You ran Strife through with your sword. Strife managed to not only live through it, but to throw you into the Lifestream as well. You weren't exactly dead, I guess, but you were in the Lifestream."
"And is that it?" Sephiroth asked, his voice sounding weary.
"No, that's hardly it. Your clones, the ones you controlled..."
Sephiroth's head jerked up sharply. "Clones that I controlled?"
"You manipulated them, controlling them from the Lifestream. And you summoned Meteor. Aerith was praying for Holy in the Forgotten Capital, the only thing she knew would stop Meteor's impact. You got Strife to give you the Black Materia, and you came back from the Lifestream in your true form. You stopped Holy from moving to protect the Planet. Strife, Tifa, a group of others, they...They stopped you."
Sephiroth sat staring at Reeve, and for a few moments, he didn't say a word. Finally he sighed. "You're right. You are absolutely right that I did go on that Nibelheim mission and that there, I did lose myself. I killed the man who was possibly my only friend on the Planet. I tried to kill an innocent woman. I don't deny that. It's a vague memory, but it's there. But Strife did throw me into the Lifestream, and there I remained until I woke up in a laboratory most recently. I remember the Lifestream very well. There was no Jenova, and I didn't control any clones. And I did not come back from the Lifestream to fight against the Planet. I was in the Lifestream since Strife put me there the first time," he whispered vehemently. "I swear it."
After having stared at Sephiroth for about an hour, Reeve had to come to the unnerving conclusion that he was sleeping...with his eyes wide open. The idea that Sephiroth even slept was strange, yet he supposed even he had to. But watching him sleep with his eyes glowing into the otherwise black night was nightmare material waiting to happen. Sephiroth hadn't even blinked, unless he had done so every single time Reeve had, and that was unlikely. He wasn't even lying down; he was leaning against a tree trunk, just staring into the sky. A light breeze blew his long hair once in a while, but that was the only movement that Reeve noticed.
This was not something he could allow to dominate Strife and the others once more. He'd taken an almost passive role in Sephiroth's defeat the last time, since ShinRa had found him out and hauled him in. He'd be damned if he'd be passive about it again.
Yes, you'd be damned, he told himself. Literally.
Sephiroth had said he needed to find Cloud, and Avalanche had to be warned. Reeve had denied knowing where they were, but in truth, he knew exactly where they were.
He finally turned his eyes away from Sephiroth and curled up on the cold ground, tingling with the fear that the slightest noise would alert Sephiroth. With excruciating slowness, he reached down to his ankle and felt along the leg of his pants until he felt the familiar shape of a little remote control. His hand was shaking as he drew it out of its holder, as if it were a weapon he kept hidden there.
Once it was in his grip, he held perfectly still, trying to force his body to adopt the relaxed posture of sleep. He couldn't see Sephiroth, so for all he knew, he could be watching his every move. He tried to keep his breathing deep and even, and he even faked a slight sleepy movement to make it more convincing. The remote fit comfortably into his palm as he tried to make his hand look as if it naturally belonged somewhere by his leg. He then feigned a tired grunt as he brought his hand, and the remote, closer to his face. If Sephiroth was watching, he could simply pretend to have woken up. The eerie image of the ex General staring, unblinking, into the night, was imprinted on his eyes, and he didn't exactly want to look at him again. But he wanted to make certain that he was still asleep, or was still doing whatever passed for sleep, before he did what he was about to do. He turned his head back and looked at Sephiroth.
He hadn't moved. He still leaned motionless against the tree stump with an unfocused stare, one knee drawn up, the other leg outstretched, and both arms at his sides. He looked like some sort of creepy toy soldier that had been left propped there by a kid who'd finally gotten fed up with the nightmares it gave him. But then, Reeve had always been slightly obsessed with toys, and he dismissed these thoughts and concentrated on what he had to do.
He tucked his head back down and held onto the little black remote. It had begun to feel like a lifeline. Over the years it had almost served as a sort of security or comfort object. It was his link to Cait Sith and the people he was with. And right now, it was his only link to a world in which Sephiroth was not propped negligently against a tree stump, looking like an evil doll that might spring to life at any second and fix those cool green eyes on him.
Trying to press the remote closer to him, and checking that he had the volume on his side turned all way down, he slowly switched it on. Even the soft, barely audible click sounded loud to him. He wondered desperately if Sephiroth's hearing was as perfect as it had always been. He was obviously still Mako enhanced, so it was possible.
He thought it unlikely that many people in Cosmo Canyon were awake at this hour, so he would have to just keep on talking, in hopes that someone could hear him. He wouldn't be able to use the visuals to see where Cait Sith was going, since that would show light which might wake Sephiroth.
He wanted very badly to check once more to make sure that Sephiroth hadn't moved, but didn't dare look up at such a crucial moment. Not when he had the remote switched on in his hand. He once again forced his breathing to be deep and even, as if he was asleep, as he began to breathe words into the remote.
"Cait Sith," he breathed, in not even a whisper. It was no more than an exhaled breath with consonants in it, but he knew that the robot would decipher the words. "Don't answer me," he said, and paused as he took another breath. "Find someone."
Then he stopped, hoping that the Mog would carry the robot quickly to anyone in Avalanche. Or anyone in Cosmo Canyon that could tell anyone in Avalanche. Or anyone at all.
After a few minutes of nothing happening, the remote vibrated in his hand. It was Cait Sith's signal that he'd accomplished what he'd been asked. Reeve gripped the remote, trying to drown out the very soft hum it made.
The idea that Sephiroth could be silently watching all of his efforts made him want to scream. He waited a few moments, not moving, and hoping that Sephiroth was still creepily propped against the tree, staring at anything but him.
The remote vibrated again as Cait Sith waited for instructions. It was also the little robot's way of asking if he was all right. With regret, he flicked a tiny button on the bottom of the remote, shutting the robot down so that he could use the voice himself. There was no time to reassure Cait Sith, and no time to once again wonder at how a mechanical creation with A.I. could have gained an actual personality, complete with likes, dislikes, and concerns. He only hoped he would come across clearly enough.
"Sephiroth," he barely whispered. "Sephiroth. Sephiroth." He repeated it over and over, hoping that the one word would be enough. He was sure it would. Coming from someone who had witnessed the near destruction of the Planet, he knew it could only ever come across as a Red Alert warning. He waited silently for the vibration in the remote, telling him that someone had gotten his message.
It didn't come, and Reeve felt cold panic at what he might have to do next. When would he get another chance to warn them? Tomorrow night? By then, Sephiroth might have lost his patience, and would demand to be taken to Cloud. With dread, he realized that if he didn't contact someone this night, he'd have to wait until the next time the inhabited, Mako enhanced, and possibly Jenova injected clone slept again. Reeve didn't think he could fool him for that long. He went back to repeating "Sephiroth" under his breath, into the remote.
In desperation, he allowed Cait Sith to come back. The remote vibrated madly in his hand. "Stop," he commanded it under his breath. "If no one heard me, you have to tell everyone that Sephiroth is back. I'm with him now. I'm fine, but you have to let everyone know."
The image of the stock-still, wide-eyed, evil toy doll propped up against a tree stump haunted him, and he had tohad to make sure he still hadn't moved. The idea of it scared him witless. He wondered wildly what he would see when he next craned his neck to look at Sephiroth. Logic told him that he would not have moved, and that there was no reason for him to have woken up. But logic also told him that there was every chance that Sephiroth was awake and regarding him silently.
He turned his head and looked. Sephiroth was still leaning back against the tree stump, one knee drawn up, one leg outstretched, and both arms at his sides. But his eyes were fixed on Reeve.
Reeve felt his heart stop. Not jump, or skip a beat, but actually stop. He stared blankly for a second, not quite believing that this was happening in any way. No, this was the worst possible scenario. It was the thing you planned for before you did something you knew could get you into trouble, but never happened anyway, and you looked back on your prior panic and found it had been a waste of energy.
Sephiroth continued to stare at him. "What are you doing?" he finally asked.
Reeve felt the remote vibrate in his hand.
Cosmo Canyon
Marlene Wallace slept soundly in her warm bed in the Shildra Inn. She lived there with her Papa and Tifa, who owned and ran the Inn. She didn't have any of her studies tomorrow, and had planned on sleeping late, watching television in the morning, and going outside to hang out with her friends.
She'd been dreaming once more of the flower girl, the woman whom she hardly remembered in her waking hours, but whom she saw frequently in her dreams. Aerith was smiling and telling her not be afraid of what might happen soon, when she was suddenly aware of something touching her arm. It was soft, like fur, but with something heavy, potentially strong, and metal underneath it.
She sprang up, startled to see Cait Sith tugging her sleeve.
"What's the matter, Cait?" she asked in a sleepy mumble. "I don't have to get up early today. Shut down and let me go back to sleep."
"Marlene!" Cait squeaked, bouncing nervously atop the stuffed mog, "I'm supposed to find someone..."
But Cait Sith stopped in mid sentence and slumped over the Mog, in his shut down position. Cait Sith had never simply shut down like that, and Marlene was startled. What if there was something wrong with him? She would have to ask Tifa to look at him tomorrow.
Suddenly the robot jerked back up, making Marlene jump backwards in fright. He didn't look very much like Cait Sith, either. He looks like a regular robot, Marlene thought. She had never seen him looking so vacant. Nanaki had called it being "uninhabited," but she had thought that word only had to do with clones.
"Cait?" she said, apprehensively reaching her hand out to touch him. She pulled her hand back and uttered a little scream when she heard a different voice coming from him. It was very, very low, so that she could hardly hear it, but she knew for certain that it wasn't the voice of the robot cat. Cait's volume was turned all the way up, so that she could hear static hissing under the strange voice. She could sense fear in the voice, too, and that made her feel afraid. She was suddenly very aware of another presence in the room with her.
She edged out of her bed and toward the door, and the mog turned slowly, following the direction of her movement, as if to keep her in sight while the whispering continued. She knew she had to get Papa, or Tifa, but was afraid that if she made any sudden movements, Cait Sith and the mog might follow suit. She had never had anything to fear from the robot or the mog, but she also knew that the robot and the mog were gone, and something else was now in its place.
"Reeve," she whispered to herself in relief, recalling the man who sometimes controlled Cait Sith. She had seen Tifa talking to him through Cait. "Hey, Reeve, is that you in there?" She leaned a little closer, listening for the faint response.
The response was the same almost inaudible whisper. "Sephiroth."
Sephiroth. Marlene knew that legendary name from her studies, and from the stories she sometimes heard from Papa, Tifa, Nanaki and a few others. She associated the name with nothing more than a tremendous, orange glow in the sky. The image put a knot of fear in her stomach. This was not something she could handle alone.
"PAPA!" she called, running barefoot out of her room.
Reeve and Sephiroth
"Reeve? What are you doing?" Sephiroth had stood up and walked over to the where Reeve was still curled up on the ground.
With a resigned sigh, Reeve switched off the remote. There was nothing to gain by lying about it now. Sephiroth would only find out the truth one way or another. Reeve sat up stiffly, meeting Sephiroth's eyes, for what it might be worth. Then he glanced somewhat sadly at the pathetic little black remote in his palm.
"I was trying to contact Cloud Strife," he sighed. "To tell him that
you're looking for him, and that you're on your way."
Sephiroth was quiet for a moment, his expression unreadable. Then, to Reeve's utter surprise, he nodded in apparent consent. "Yes, that's a good idea," he said. "I suppose it's not wise, or fair, even, to take him by surprise. Have you gotten through?" He sat down casually next to Reeve.
Reeve blinked rapidly a few times, and tried to make his mouth work. Then it occurred to him to make his brain work first. "Yes," was all he managed. "I mean, no, I haven't gotten through to Strife. I ahh...I don't know who's on the other end."
Sephiroth nodded towards the remote. "Is that a PHS?" he asked.
Reeve fumbled with it for a second before it slipped out of his hand. He realized his hands were shaking very badly. "Uh, no," he said, picking it up hurriedly. "It's more of a...a remote audio-visual sensor and control, for...It's hard to explain."
"May I see it?" Sephiroth held out his hand.
"Uh, yeah," Reeve said, and dropped it into Sephiroth's palm.
"What does it control?"
"That's the part that's hard to explain. In barest terms, it's a robot of my invention, with A.I. I can shut him down when I need to and use him to talk to others."
Sephiroth silently looked it over. He switched it on, and the visual screen lit up for a second. He looked at it with interest and switched it off before handing it back to Reeve. "That's interesting," he said. "Please let me know if you reach Strife."
Then he lay down on the ground and stretched his arms over his head, idly wrapping his hands around the handle of the broadsword behind him and flexing them. It was a casual gesture, but it made Reeve want to back away from him. "It's strange," Sephiroth mused, almost under his breath.
Reeve wasn't sure if he should ask exactly what was strange, or if he should keep his mouth shut. His heart was still beating wildly. The word "strange" seemed puny and trite when he thought of his own circumstance.
"It's strange to be alive," Sephiroth continued, more to himself than to Reeve. "To feel cold again and to have a body with which to feel it. Strange to have mass, and blood, and veins, and skin. Skin is certainly bizarre, all those nerve endings. Everything feels...a bit overwhelming, to tell you the truth."
Reeve fought the insane urge to laugh. Sephiroth had been brought back to life, and he found it a bit overwhelming.
He sat up suddenly and addressed Reeve. "I don't expect you to understand that, never having been in the Lifestream. But, it's the closest you can come to not being conscious of anything, while at the same time being conscious of everything. Only, in the Lifestream you can make sense of it, whereas on the Planet, you...can't.
"And when you're there, and you're aware of the people you knew, you think of them as a part of the whole, not so much remembering your feelings toward them in life. At least, that's how it was for me. And it's very, very quiet.
"But the more I'm here, the more I remember what it was like to be alive. And the memories come back little by little, sometimes slowly, sometimes suddenly." He furrowed his dark eyebrows and looked towards the ground, casting two pools of dim green light on it. "I'm only telling you this because while I was sleeping, I remembered you. I remembered you as..." he trailed off and laughed a little. "As someone in ShinRa that I could tolerate, especially near the end."
Reeve sat in front of Sephiroth, stunned by his sudden outpouring. A moment ago, he'd thought Sephiroth was going to simply cut him in half with the giant broadsword. But now, it almost seemed as if Reeve were talking to the person he had known more than ten years ago. He realized Sephiroth was probably waiting for a response. "Uh, yeah, that's me," he said, trying to sound casual. "The Tolerable Guy. That's the amazing power I have over people."
Sephiroth stared at him for a second and blinked slowly. At first Reeve wasn't sure what he was seeing, then it occurred to him that Sephiroth was smilingno, not just smiling, he was laughing. It was a dry, cold sound, but still an honest laugh. "I didn't mean it the way it sounded," he said.
Reeve made a nervous sound that he hoped passed for a laugh. He wasn't ready to give up the idea that he could still be in mortal danger; it just wasn't the wise thing to do. He suddenly remembered how Reno had always handled every intense or troublesome situation, which was something that Reeve used to find funny. When in trouble, or caught in a compromising situation, Reno would say, "Quick, act casual." Reeve used to laugh, but he could see the reason in it. If he was to at very least stay alive, and at best, find out what Sephiroth truly wanted, the best thing he could do was act casual. And he would have to try to stop cowering every time Sephiroth made a move. It wouldn't be helpful to show fear. Logically, he knew that someone like Sephiroth would look down on it; and it might even make him angry. And another, deeper part of him knew that Sephiroth could sense fear the same way animals could.
Reeve shrugged, very casually, he hoped. "I'd really like to find out what happened to my city," he said. It was partly to change the subject, so that he wouldn't have to get into personal memories with Sephiroth, but mostly because he truly did need to know.
"Your city?" Sephiroth asked, looking mildly surprised.
"Yes, Midgar," Reeve said. "I run it these days. Or at least, I did run it until someone blew it up. Again. I know it wasn't an earthquake; I heard the blasts. You hear that once, you don't forget what it sounds like." He hastily looked away, as if he was trying to scan the horizon to see how far from Midgar they had gone. He couldn't see any trace of it, and wondered where the hell he was.
"The Turks," Sephiroth said.
Reeve looked back at him slowly. "What about them?" he asked.
"The Turks blew up Midgar. They were on a mission. I know because I followed them there."
Reeve found that his head was shaking "no" of its own accord. "That'sthat's not true," he said, feeling as though his mind was simply spinning in confusion. "I mean, yes, they did have a mission. I was the one who approached them with it, in fact. But it had nothing to do with Midgar; the mission was on the Northern Continent. To check out a cloning facility..."
"The cloning facility they destroyed was under Midgar," Sephiroth said. "And I know that's true because that's where I came from when I left the lab."
"But that just can't be. There's no way that the Turks would do that. Not to Midgar. Especially Reno, he would never, ever accept that mission. Besides, seeing as how I was the one who was approached about finding the Turks for this in the first place, I know it wasn't anywhere near Midgar."
Sephiroth gave him a penetrating look. "It was under Midgar," he said, and there was no need for him to add the words "case closed." "But," he went on, "you might want to consider who the Turks really are and what their jobs are. And what they will do for gil."
"That's just not poss"
"Reeve, don't be a fool. Naiveté might be a very endearing and charming quality, but it has no place in this world anymore. I might have been gone for a very long time, but I know the Turks. They do what they have to do."
Reeve was silent, refusing to look at Sephiroth. Let the arrogant bastard think what he wanted, Reeve knew that the Turks would not destroy Midgar.
"Or, if the Turks honestly didn't know what they were doing," Sephiroth said, "and I'm still not saying that they wouldn't do such a thing, but since you do have to look at it from all angles, you also might want to consider who approached you about the mission."
Reeve looked up at Sephiroth, frowning. And then he thought of Bradburn. The skeevy, weasely little guy in a business suit.
Sephiroth smiled. "Looks like you might already have your answer," he said softly. "And now that you have one of your answers, you might be so kind as to help me with a few more of my own."
Reeve, by this time, could not have cared less what Sephiroth needed to know. He was still trying to piece it all together in his mind. Who was Bradburn, and where had he come from? What could his motivation have been? Where had he gotten his orders? Someone wanted the cloning facility eliminated secretly, badly enough that they didn't mind destroying much of Midgar in the process.
Most of all, he needed to get in touch with his employees, let them know he was alive, and begin evacuation and think about funding for trying to salvage what was left of his city. Funding? No, more like begging. He reached into the pocket of what was left of his jacket for his real PHS and switched it on.
"Reeve," Sephiroth said sharply.
Reeve jumped. He had nearly forgotten that Sephiroth was even
there.
"I'm sure you want to get help for Midgar," he said, "and that's fine; I understand you have a job to do and I won't interfere with that. But first, I'm requesting your help. I won't stop you from calling whomever you need to call, but I would ask that you help me get to where I need to go."
"I need to get back to my office!" Reeve said.
"You don't have an office," Sephiroth said.
The shock of that statement knocked Reeve back and made him have to shake his head to clear it. The cold practicality of Sephiroth's words took his breath away. Not only was his office in Midgar probably in ruins, but so was the entire building. And those around it. And, what had not occurred to him earlier, probably due to the fact that he was lying in a pool of his own congealing blood, was that the little amusement park was in ruins too. He found he was pulling his own hair in frustration. "I have an office in Junon," he said hurriedly. "I need to get back to..."
Sephiroth almost gently took the PHS out of his hand and switched it off. "You can just as easily get someone else to take care of the technical things. Midgar is in a state of emergency; the authorities realize that. I'm sure you're not the only one running it. You need to get us both to Cosmo Canyon to see Cloud Strife. You should go in before me, to tell Strife that I need to see him. I'm not going to stop you from contacting your people, but I think that right now your priority should be Cosmo Canyon. You do want to figure out exactly why this happened, don't you? I came out of that laboratory and walked right into Midgar. There was something very wrong going on there even before this mission of the Turks'. I only know it has to do with ShinRa's old work, and with Mako; and I can only assume from what you've told me that this also has to do with me, and somehow with Strife as well. It makes more sense for you to get us both to Cosmo Canyon first."
It took Reeve a moment to find his voice. "How did you know...I mean, what makes you say that Cloud Strife is in, or anywhere near Cosmo Canyon? All right," he said harshly, relenting. "How did you know?"
Sephiroth nodded towards the remote that now lay on the ground next to Reeve. "I switched it on before, and your little robot gave me a visual. There was a windmill in the background, and that would suggest Cosmo Canyon."
Reeve sighed. This was absolutely the most dismal night of his life since Meteor. He forced himself to think clearly. He had gone the executive route the last time. He'd stayed in his office doing businessman things while living vicariously through a robotic cat, and eventually ended up in a ShinRa prison cell. Certainly he had done all he could as Cait Sith, but Midgar had been destroyed anyway, time and again.
And now he was being presented with the opportunity to actively help the people of Avalanche. If Sephiroth was right, which he seemed to be, and there was some connection to this whole fiasco with ShinRa, Mako and Cloud Strife, then the best thing he could do was try to solve it from its core. Not by begging for gil from an office in Junon.
Reeve held out his hand towards Sephiroth, silently asking for the PHS. "I need to get us an airship," he whispered. "But you'll have to stay out of sight when my assistants bring them and when they fly the extra one back. And you'll have to pilot it. They won't ask questions."
Sephiroth nodded and handed the PHS back to Reeve. "Oh yes," he added, "the next time you want to contact Strife, or anyone for that matter, you don't need to pretend you're asleep to do it."
Reeve stopped dialing and looked up, wide eyed, at Sephiroth, who was smiling in the pre-dawn light.
