The swordsman stood leaning against a tree, waiting for his unlikely companion to awaken. The sun had come up hours ago, and yet she was still asleep. He supposed that he should not have been surprised; they had walked through much of the night without resting.
But he had been travelling for weeks without sleep. What was he? There was a growing certainty within him that he was this 'Sephiroth' he kept hearing of, but gods, he did not want to be that man. He did not want to remember whoever he had been and whatever he had done.
But what difference did it make? Whatever the truth of the matter was, everyone thought him to be Sephiroth, and so they were terrified of him. Outcast of everyone and everywhere, what could he possibly be good for? What could he do with this life if no one welcomed or trusted him?
Except, strangely, this girl. His gaze returned to where she lay sleeping at the base of a tree. Perhaps she only trusted him because he had saved her life, but he felt somehow that had he simply crossed her path, she would not have reacted much differently. And wouldn't many others have fled even after being saved?
Katrina stirred at last, and he looked away so that she would not wake to find him watching her. She sat up slowly and blinked her pale grey eyes in disorientation. When her gaze focused on him, she gave a start and sprang to her feet, grabbing her bag. She stared at him for a long moment, and then finally relaxed, grinning sheepishly.
"Sorry," she apologized sincerely. "I forgot that you're not... er... I mean... Never mind."
He only shrugged. "Are you ready to move on?"
"I guess so," she said, but there was reluctance in her voice.
Not knowing what to say, he ignored it and turned to continue on towards Snow Village, retracing his earlier journey south. Their passage was largely uneventful; no words passed between them and no monsters interrupted them. They probably sensed a stronger monster than them, the swordsman reflected; whatever he was, he was not human, and it would take a powerful beast indeed to even harm him.
By late afternoon, they had only just started up into the mountains, and the swordsman doubted the girl could cross them this day. He had taken care to walk at a slow enough pace for her to keep up with ease, but nevertheless she was tiring. He wondered how she would fare trudging through snow against the wind. They could probably travel more quickly if he carried her, but he doubted she would consent to that.
Suddenly he came to a dead stop, gripping the Masamune tightly. Something was not right.
"What is it?" Katrina asked uncertainly from behind him.
He only shook his head slightly, his eyes searching the sky.
A moment passed before a dark creature swooped downwards and alighted some paces away from them. Folding its broad scarlet wings across its back, it fixed him with its glowing red gaze.
The swordsman raised the Masamune, and the creature grinned, displaying several rows of deadly fangs.
"Stay back," he told Katrina over his shoulder. If this thing had the courage to face him, then it had to be powerful. He started forward, but suddenly the demon lowered its head, cringing as though in pain. Its wings seemed to shrivel and retreated into its back as it fell to its knees. Its skin turned pale, the horns in its head shrank, and its vicious maw lost its menace. At last the thing looked... almost human.
The strange man crouched there for a moment, then stood, adjusting his dark clothing and vermillion cloak. He fixed the swordsman with a gaze that was still blood red.
The swordsman blinked in startlement and looked him over. He noted the metal claw that took the place of the man's left arm, the long rifle he carried at his side, and the long black hair that barely managed not to obscure that red gaze. He recognized this man, but no name came to mind.
"Who are you?" he asked finally, lowering the Masamune.
"You do not remember me?" the man asked.
He shook his head. "I remember nothing."
"I see." He paused, glancing briefly at Katrina, then looking back at the swordsman. "I suppose that makes it easier for you to grasp this second chance you've been given."
"Who are you?" he repeated, more firmly this time, his grip again tightening on the Masamune.
"I am Vincent Valentine," the other man explained. "I knew you in your previous lives."
"Then tell me: who am I?"
"You are Sephiroth," Vincent said, "and I am surprised that your companion has not told you as much."
He frowned, not wanting it to be true. "But... how can I be? Sephiroth died, didn't he? How could I... have come back from the dead?"
"This is the second time that you have returned from the dead. There is something alien inside of you that heals your wounds and calls you back each time."
Something alien--he could not deny that. The sword, too, he felt to be bonded to him. Then, he was a murderer after all.
"So why are you here?" Sephiroth asked.
"Your mother asked me to look after you, to ensure that you did not repeat your past mistakes."
"My mother...?"
"Her name was Lucrecia," Vincent said quietly. He seemed about to say more, but decided against it.
"What did she mean to you?"
"She was the woman I loved, and I was the fool who let her die."
"I suppose you don't age then," Sephiroth concluded hesitantly.
"No."
"So what exactly are you?"
The swordsman blinked and turned to look at Katrina as she came forward to stand beside him. He had nearly forgotten about her entirely.
"I mean, first you were that... that thing, and even now you look less human than Sephiroth here."
"I am an experiment, as is he, but not of the same kind. I apologize for arriving as I did; I would have changed back sooner, but Chaos is difficult to control."
The girl shook her head. "I don't understand. You were experimented on, so now you can change into that monster? Why would someone want to do that to you?"
Vincent shook his head dismissively. "It does not matter." He returned his attention to Sephiroth. "I cannot be certain of what to do. I suppose it is best to tell you of your past, lest you learn of it from someone who will not tell you the truth."
"And how can I be sure that what you tell me is true?"
"All I can say is that I am doing this for your mother's sake, and she would have wanted you to know the truth."
Sephiroth frowned, but nodded. What kind of proof would have meant anything to him anyway? He could not remember anything; all he knew for certain was that he had met this man before. "How did I know you?" he asked.
"I was among the people who killed you," Vincent answered bluntly.
"And yet you have come to help me now?"
"I could not have helped you then. Killing you was something that had to be done; I think you will see that."
Sephiroth turned to Katrina. "Do you mind stopping here?" he asked her. "I... want to hear what he has to say before we go any farther."
"That's fine," she replied. "I kinda want to hear it, too, and I was getting tired anyway."
"Where are the two of you headed?" Vincent inquired.
"Snow Village," Sephiroth answered. "Although she would prefer Cosmo Canyon, she says."
Vincent only nodded slightly and studied the girl speculatively.
She fidgeted under his gaze. "So... I guess you're wondering who I am, huh? My name's Katrina. Sephiroth here saved my life, and... um... yeah."
"I see." There was an awkward pause. "We might as well sit down. This may take a while."
The three of them found places on nearby rocks to sit, though Sephiroth knew it was more for Katrina's comfort than his or Vincent's. He sensed that the other man, like him, needed little rest.
"I suppose it is best to start from the beginning," Vincent sighed. The swordsman guessed that he was normally a man of few words, and that the role of storyteller made him uncomfortable, especially considering the story.
"Thirty-eight years ago, scientists from Shinra, Inc. found a creature frozen in ice in the Knowlespole area to the north of here. It was estimated to be around 2000 years old. Professor Gast, Shinra's head scientist at that time, named the organism Jenova."
The name sent a shudder of recognition through Sephiroth's body, and he tightened his grip on the Masamune. He did not like the sound of that name.
"Gast thought Jenova to be an Ancient, and Shinra soon approved the Jenova Project, which intended to create beings with the powers of the Ancients, or the Cetra. They relocated to Nibelheim, the site of the first working Mako reactor, for the duration of the project. Hojo"--here Sephiroth grimaced--"and Lucrecia, who were working under Gast at the time, conceived a child for the experiment. They injected Jenova's cells into Lucrecia's womb while the child was still growing.
"Nine months later, Lucrecia gave birth to a son, whom she named Sephiroth. She grew weaker and weaker after your birth; Hojo was too indifferent to look in on her, and Gast was too preoccupied. I was a Turk at the time, assigned to protect the group of scientists. I decided to check up on her and found her near death. She wanted to hold you before she died, so I ran to the lab, where I found Hojo. When I told him of Lucrecia's condition, he shot me, used me in some bizarre experiment, and locked me in the basement."
Vincent paused, frowning, before he went on.
"No one knows much, if anything, of your childhood. You joined SOLDIER at a young age and quickly made your way to the highest rank. After leading Shinra's troops against Wutai and winning the war, everyone recognized you as the best swordsman on the Planet, and many called you a hero.
"That changed ten years ago, when Shinra sent you on a simple mission to Nibelheim, accompanied by a lower-ranking member of SOLDIER named Zack and a regular Shinra trooper, Cloud Strife."
That name sounded agonizingly familiar. He struggled to recall the man, his face, anything, but nothing came.
"You had instructions to inspect the malfunctioning Mako reactor. Once inside, you found that Hojo was using the reactor, which housed Jenova, to produce monsters. You confined yourself to the library in the Shinra mansion, reading all the documents of the experiment that had created you. What you read drove you insane, and you burned the village. You made your way to the reactor, intent on taking Jenova, your 'mother,' to the 'Promised Land.'
"However, Cloud was somehow able to kill you in the reactor, sustaining heavy injuries of his own. Professor Hojo gathered the survivors of the Nibelheim disaster for another experiment involving Jenova.
"Five years later, you returned, this time with the intention of gaining enough power to become a god. Cloud and a motley band of followers, myself included, were intent on stopping you. After several fleeting encounters, we met at the Temple of the Ancients, where you were seeking the Black Materia. Cloud retrieved it from the Temple, hoping that he could keep it from you, but the Jenova in him allowed you to use him as a puppet, and he handed over the materia.
"Aeris, the only true survivor of the Cetra, then left our group on her own mission. She went to the City of the Ancients to summon Holy, and just after she succeeded, you killed her."
Sephiroth flinched involuntarily, and both Katrina and Vincent looked at him with a little more interest.
"You then travelled to the Northern Crater," Vincent continued, "where you summoned Meteor. The Planet unleashed the Weapons, but, unable to stop you, they simply attacked Midgar and Junon, occupying Shinra's attention. Cloud led us into the Crater, where we engaged you in a final battle in order to free Holy. Cloud defeated you once more, but it was too late for Holy. Instead, we think that Aeris guided the Lifestream to stop Meteor.
"It has been five years since that day."
After Vincent had finished, no one spoke. Sephiroth knew his companions were waiting for his reaction, but he did not know what to say. How many had he killed? How many lives had he cut short, and how many more had he ruined?
Who was this Aeris that Vincent had mentioned?
"If Jenova wasn't an Ancient," he said at length, "then what was it?" What am I?
"During the time of the Cetra, something fell from the sky, creating Northern Crater. This was Jenova. It deceived and killed many of the Cetra before they managed to defeat it. They buried it deep in the ice, but the Shinra found it in spite of their efforts to keep it contained."
"Jenova killed the Cetra in her day, and I simply finished the job with Aeris, didn't I?" Sephiroth asked bitterly.
Neither of his companions had a reply to that.
"I would like to visit this Nibelheim. It might make this all seem more... real."
Vincent nodded. "I understand."
"How're we going to get to Nibelheim?" Katrina asked him.
The man hesitated, frowning, then answered, "It seems that I will have to call on Cloud for some assistance."
The swordsman looked at him sharply. "Why would Cloud help us?"
"He won't want to, but I think that I can persuade him."
Sephiroth exchanged dubious glances with Katrina, but neither of them said anything further.
Vincent produced a battered-looking PHS, dialed Cloud's number, and waited.
After several rings, the man picked up, and his voice sounded over the line. "(Hello...?)"
"This is Vincent."
"(Vincent?)"
"Yes."
"(...what do you want?)" Cloud asked warily, as though he did not trust his old companion. Perhaps he did not; somehow it would not surprise Sephiroth.
"I want to borrow some of your chocobos," Vincent said simply.
"(What for?)"
"Sephiroth is with me."
"(Sephiroth?)" Cloud exclaimed in alarm. He seemed to trust Vincent's honesty at least. "(But I thought we--)"
"Calm down, Cloud. He is quite sane now."
"(Calm down? You say Sephiroth is alive, and then tell me to calm down?)"
From the anger in his tone, Sephiroth decided that he must have done more than just burn down a town, kill Aeris, and summon Meteor. What had Vincent left out of the story?
"Yes," Vincent answered calmly. "You remember him before Nibelheim, don't you?"
"(What, you mean now he's a cold-hearted bastard instead of an insane one?)"
"Cloud, please. Can you really blame him for being distant then?"
"(So you want me to pity him now, huh? After what he did? He--)"
"I remember quite well what he did, Cloud. But he doesn't."
A pause. "(He lost his memory?)"
"Yes."
"(And this is supposed to make me feel better?)" Cloud demanded, his anger quickly returning.
"Cloud."
"(Yeah?)"
"Give him a chance. He hasn't killed anyone. In fact, he has been travelling with a girl from Bone Village and protecting her. Does he sound dangerous to you?"
"(...no,)" Cloud admitted reluctantly. "(But why are you with him anyway?)"
"It is my obligation to help him."
"(...because of Lucrecia?)"
"Yes," Vincent answered without emotion. "It was her wish."
There was a much longer pause, and at length Cloud sighed. "(Then I'll lend you a couple of chocobos. Where did you say you were?)"
"Near Bone Village."
"(All right. Just bring them straight back as soon as you can. And I don't want to see anything of Sephiroth.)"
"Thank you." Vincent put the PHS away and turned to Sephiroth. "You heard that, I am sure. We will move on once she has rested." He nodded to Katrina.
"...what did I do to Cloud?" Sephiroth asked.
"Nibelheim was his hometown," Vincent explained. "He lost his mother, and you nearly killed his best friend Tifa. Aeris, too, was a very close friend of his."
"I see."
Katrina glanced at him, and the swordsman was surprised to find concern in her gaze. He was the murderer here; why should she show him any compassion?
"You should get some rest," he told her, standing and turning his back to her. He strode some paces away, until he knew he was out of sight, and then he sat down and closed his eyes.
He still could not remember anything. There was only that sense of familiarity, of memory that remained just outside his vision no matter how quickly he turned to look. He doubted he really wanted to remember any of it, but perhaps that was selfish. If he had caused so much pain for so many people, he ought to at least remember what he had done; he deserved that punishment.
There came the faint sound of metal on rock, and Sephiroth looked up to find that Vincent had followed him.
"You seem to be taking this well," the man commented.
"It is no surprise to me," the swordsman said. "I could feel that there was something wrong with me." When his companion offered no reply, he asked, "What was my mother like? Why did she consent to her part in the Jenova Project?"
Vincent looked away. "Your mother... was a good friend of mine. I suppose that says something about her kindness; few care to befriend Turks, especially ones such as myself. She was a brilliant woman, too, and the Jenova Project meant a lot to her. She wasn't interested in Shinra's desire for the perfect soldier. Rather, she knew that the Ancients had had a much closer bond to the Planet than what we have today, and she thought that was a worthy thing to bring back into the world.
"Perhaps she was right, but Jenova wasn't an Ancient, and its cells brought about her death. It was Hojo who persuaded her to be the test subject for the project, I am sure. Of course, I am just as blameworthy for letting her go through with it."
"Was there no way to save her?" Sephiroth asked.
"There may have been, but I failed her, and now it is far too late."
"...how could she have asked you to look after me as she did, if she died so soon after my birth?"
Vincent shook his head slightly. "There is Jenova in her as well, and it fought to keep her alive, but unlike with you, the Jenova is not truly a part of her. Her eventual death was inevitable."
The swordsman studied him carefully, wondering what it was he heard in the man's voice. "Is there no magic that could bring her back for real?" he wondered. "And the others that I have killed?"
At this, the man turned to look at him uncertainly. "There is no magic in the world powerful enough to bring back the dead. I doubt even the Cetra could have; Aeris was a skilled healer, but many things were still beyond her power."
"And what about me?"
"I have never seen you act as a healer," Vincent stated. "It's best not to delude yourself. The dead are gone; there is nothing any of us can do for them now."
"You still love her, don't you?" Sephiroth asked as he realized it. "You're still in love with Lucrecia."
Vincent said nothing, only met Sephiroth's gaze steadily. From the look in those eyes, no reply was necessary.
At length the swordsman looked away, studying the landscape of the mountainside. "Who else was with you when you killed me?" he asked. "You only mentioned Aeris as being part of your group, and apparently I killed her before the end."
"There were eight of us after we lost Aeris." Judging by his tone, this seemed easier for Vincent to talk about. "Cloud was our leader. In addition, there was Tifa Lockheart, whom I have mentioned, Barret Wallace, leader of an anti-Shinra group called AVALANCHE, Nanaki, a brilliant feline from Cosmo Canyon, Cid Highwind, a pilot who once worked for Shinra, Cait Sith, a Shinra spy who eventually switched sides, and Yuffie Kisaragi, a young ninja from Wutai."
"A motley group indeed," Sephiroth remarked, struggling to call up a face for any of these names.
It surprised him when a face did surface from the depths of his mind. He could recall the figure of a young woman kneeling below him on a stone dais. Her slender form was clothed in a pale pink dress that accented at once her beauty and her innocence. Her hair, a chestnut brown, was pulled back into a thick braid, though long bangs still fell to frame her face.
Pinned to the ribbon that held her hair was a small white orb, and it began to glow a pale green in the same moment that she lifted her head, opened her deep green eyes, and smiled.
This was Aeris, the Cetra whom he had killed only seconds later, and any pleasure that came with the memory of her beauty was dimmed by the knowledge that he had murdered her. The vague pain that he had felt before now sharpened into a keen guilt; he now had a face to haunt him.
Sephiroth shook his head and tried to think of something else.
Nearby, Vincent stood and looked back eastward. "Stay here with the girl," he said. "I will go to Bone Village to fetch the chocobos and return with them tomorrow."
The swordsman nodded, though some part of him felt a strong aversion to taking orders, even if they made perfect sense. Someone had to stay with Katrina, and as strange as it seemed, Sephiroth knew she trusted him more than this crimson-eyed ex-Turk.
He watched Vincent leave, then got up and returned to Katrina, finding her already asleep with her bag tucked under her head like a pillow. He sat down near her to keep watch, wondering all the while what he was supposed to do with this so-called second chance.
Vincent arrived with a pair of chocobos at dawn, surprising the swordsman with his speed. He wondered for a moment if the man had used that Chaos creature to fly to Bone Village, but at his questioning glance, Vincent only shook his head. In that case he had traveled as quickly as he could on foot, and the passage seemed to have fatigued him.
Sephiroth woke Katrina; she grumbled at first, but when she caught sight of the two golden birds, her eyes lit up in wonder. She quickly gathered her things and went to greet the pair, murmuring praises as she stroked their brilliant plumage.
Vincent turned his bird away from the girl. "We'd best leave now if you want to reach Nibelheim before nightfall," he stated.
"Right," the swordsman agreed. He went to the other bird, hesitating a moment before releasing his hold on the Masamune. It simply disappeared, but this did not worry him; somehow he knew that he could call it back if he needed it. With that taken care of, he swiftly mounted the chocobo and held out a hand to Katrina.
She blinked and looked back and forth between the birds, just now registering that there were only two, and that she would have to ride with one of them. A faint blush spread across her cheeks as she took the proffered hand and let Sephiroth pull her up to sit in front of him.
As soon as she was up, Vincent heeled his chocobo forward. Sephiroth was quick to follow, and they raced southward towards Nibelheim. The two golden birds bore them across ocean and mountains with impossible speed, and they arrived at the village in Mt. Nibel's shadow just as the sun was setting. The chocobos slowed to a walk, stretched their wings, and refolded them. They strutted into Nibelheim, passing under the iron gate with a regal air.
The three dismounted there and stood surveying the town.
The little dirt road that entered the town opened up into a sort of square, in the center of which was a large wooden well. Around the square were a number of plain and lonely-looking houses, as well as a general store and an inn. The streets were empty, and the town was silent. Sephiroth doubted the forlorn feel to this place had anything to do with the late hour. There was not even a curious face at the window.
Vincent started down the street, leaving his chocobo behind and motioning for the others to follow. He led them to the far side of the main street, where a large building stood out of place at the roots of the mountain. A tall wooden fence, broken only by an iron gate, surrounded the mansion, forbidding entrance.
It was with a heavy reluctance that Sephiroth followed Vincent through that gate and up the path to the mansion. Its foreboding appearance would have been enough to frighten off most, he knew, but he was sure that appearances had little to do with his own reservations.
Vincent stopped and stood aside to let Sephiroth enter first. A part of him wanted to turn away; he did not want to revisit this place. But, despite what horrors his mind might hold, he wanted his memory back. If this place could do anything to jar it, then he would enter.
The heavy door moaned in loud protest as he pushed it open and stepped into the mansion.
The entry hall took up both floors, and a cobwebbed chandelier hung from that high ceiling. Two doors on either side of the room and one straight ahead led to dustier chambers, and a curving staircase led upwards.
"Shinra mansion," Sephiroth nearly spat. Though he could recall nothing more than its name, a strong feeling of resentment filled him at simply standing here. He turned to Vincent. "The basement here--that is where I... snapped, is it not? And also where Hojo locked you away."
Vincent nodded. "I will show you the way." He strode for the staircase.
Sephiroth started to follow, but hesitated and turned to Katrina. "You don't have to follow us here. Surely this place does not interest you."
She shook her head. "No, I want to see this. In case you remember something."
He studied her with some confusion, then turned to follow Vincent up the stairs and into the bedroom that held the entrance to the basement stairs. Sephiroth pushed open that door himself and paused in the entryway, listening to the grating sound echo in the cavernous space beyond.
"I am... beginning to remember," he said softly, mostly to himself. "Finding this door, going down into the library, and reading..." Reading that same spidery hand for days on end... He took a tentative step down, and then another, and continued downward into the darkness of the basement. The others followed behind him.
The rock tunnel at the base of the stairs was lit, if dimly, and even Katrina walked along it without much difficulty. Sephiroth paused briefly near a broad wooden door set into the wall. "This was the chamber in which you slept," he said to Vincent. "In a coffin, yes?"
"Yes," the man answered, eyeing him uncertainly. "But I did not tell you that."
"Haven't I... been in this room?"
"Not to my knowledge."
Sephiroth frowned; he could recall what it looked like, could see the five coffins clearly in his mind. And he had come with... No, no, that memory was not his. Why did he have memories belonging to someone else?
Shaking his head, he moved on to the library, recognizing the place as soon as he opened the door and recoiling. Images flashed through his mind, painful recollections passing too quickly for him to grasp, days spent here on that examining table under the cold gaze of the Prof--
He shut the door quickly, trying to block out those memories, but once triggered, they could not be stopped.
He could recall the Professor, a short, aging Wutain man with thin black hair that never looked clean. Cold black eyes set back beneath his brow and only half-hidden by thick-rimmed glasses. Cold knobby, long-fingered hands that probed where they were not wanted. Cold lips that by turns twitched into a cruel little grin or a harsh and unforgiving frown.
This was Hojo of Shinra, Inc. His father.
Sephiroth grimaced and shoved the image out of his mind.
"Are you all right?" he heard Katrina ask.
"Fine," he clipped, wrenching open the door again and striding into the library. Long ago, this had been a place of fear and dread, but the Professor no longer resided here. There was nothing to fear.
In the center of the room, of course, was the examining table, a glare on its surface from the bright lights above it. In the far corner beyond it stood two Mako chambers, now empty. Their labels marked them as equipment for the 'C Project,' whatever that may have been. Specimen codes C and Z... Sephiroth frowned, feeling that he should have known what this was all about, but nothing came to him and he had to move on.
Shelving claimed the rest of the available space, though most of the volumes no longer stood neatly in rows. Piles of books lay where he had discarded them ages ago. Most were shut, but many lay open, face-down with pages crumpled or on their spines with pages torn and trampled.
He turned his gaze to the books that remained on the shelves and scanned the titles. Nearly all of them related to Jenova. He stopped upon finding one that seemed out of place, some narrow volume concerning 'specimen VV-01.' Curious, he reached for it, but Vincent's hand stopped him.
"You should not read any of these," he said softly but firmly.
Sephiroth nodded, lowering his hand as the man released it, but he continued to look at the title. "That book has nothing to do with me," he stated.
"Perhaps not," Vincent conceded, "but there is no need for you to read Hojo's records of my... abnormalities." He paused. "You have seen enough. We should go."
The swordsman met his gaze and nodded again.
Vincent turned and led them back out of the library and the basement. They took the staircase down to the entry hall, but here Sephiroth hesitated and strode for one of the doors. It led down a short hallway, and beyond there was a large room with a broad stained-glass window taking up most of the far wall. There was not enough light, however, for it to cast its pattern across the floor. A small table occupied a recess on one side, a tea set sitting atop it frozen in a tangle of cobwebs.
None of these things held his attention, for the room was dominated by a grand piano, large and black and covered in dust. Drawn to the ancient instrument, Sephiroth ran his fingers lightly along the keys, picking up dust. He played a few notes at random, and at first it did not sound so bad, but one broken key screeched loudly, breaking the silence so jarringly that Katrina jumped.
As the noise slowly faded, Sephiroth brushed the dust from his hands and strode from the room without a backwards glance.
Leaving the mansion was liberating, despite the descending darkness and the town's deserted air. He glanced at his companions, noting that the both of them looked tired; certainly they could not want to leave Nibelheim this night.
"This one house is abandoned, correct?" Sephiroth asked, his gaze finding a two-story building across from the inn.
"I believe so," Vincent replied.
"Then we will spend the night there," the swordsman decided. He did not want to try dealing with another innkeeper.
Katrina looked confused. "But there's an inn right here. Or do you not want to pay?"
"Do you think that we would be welcome there?" he asked her sharply.
"A-ah... no, I guess not."
He studied her for a moment. "You'll probably want to fetch a meal there, however; they won't mind you."
She nodded and turned hesitantly for the inn, as though reluctant to separate from her strange companions.
"You had something else that you wanted to see," Vincent stated once she had disappeared inside. There was no question in his tone.
"I want to see the reactor as well," Sephiroth answered, "but you need not accompany me."
The man made no reply.
"You don't trust me," the swordsman said.
"Admittedly, I do not, but if you wish to see the reactor, I will not stop you."
"I suppose that's something." He started towards Mt. Nibel, saying over his shoulder, "I will be back later tonight. Get some rest."
He passed beyond the imposing mansion and out of the town, headed for Mt. Nibel. His feet carried him across a valley starved even of the sun's last remnants and up into a twisted mountain on which only mist took root. The reactor had sucked this rocky earth dry of life, and now not even a single withered tree marked the passing of the once-existent vegetation.
Hours had passed since the sun's disappearance by the time he reached the reactor, which nearly rendered Mt. Nibel's lifeless summit beautiful by comparison. The reactor stood enormous, its pipes clutching the mountainside in awkward grasps, moonlight glinting at odd angles off its rusting metal casing, and above all the gaudy red Shinra logo emblazoned on its front.
Sephiroth strode up the metal staircase and through the door. Inside, the sounds of machinery and the stench of raw Mako assaulted his senses. He made his way warily across the glowing Mako pit, and after a moment he recalled a fragment of what had happened there:
A boy with unruly blond hair, the Masamune thrust through him; the boy grasping the blade and with the last of his strength throwing Sephiroth off-balance; falling from the narrow walkway to the glowing pit below, bloodied Masamune in one hand and Jenova's head in the other; life bleeding out of him as his lungs slowly starved and Mako invaded his mind.
Sephiroth wrenched his gaze away from the churning blue-green and continued on into the next room. Here, incubation pods filled the room, organic-looking metal tubes running from each up towards the far wall, where they disappeared into the next room. Metal steps led upwards, where a door marked 'Jenova' stood, locked and inscrutable.
He stared at this for a moment, and then turned away. He remembered what had happened here now; there was no need to see the broken glass and the snapped wires from when he had taken her head.
Instead he searched his memory for the way to shut this damnable thing down before he returned to join his two companions in sleep.
Author's Notes
And Vincent explains Sephiroth's past to him. Hooray! Well, not so much for Seph. Initially Vincent lost control of Chaos here and Sephiroth had to fight him, but I decided that wasn't really necessary, even if it did make sense. What didn't make sense, however, was that in the original they travelled all the way back to Snow Village to talk. Which is really just out of the way. Another oddity, Vincent's story was originally delivered in third person, rather than directed towards Sephiroth. >>
This chapter as a whole is just so much better than the original, I must say. Sephiroth's characterization, especially. The original had a lot of descriptions of Nibelheim but very little detailing what Sephiroth actually thought. Nor did he show any reaction to being told he'd killed Aeris. Having him flinch there may not seem like a big change, but I think details can be very telling.