It had been a few months since they had begun the project. At first, it had been a hard thing to begin because there were no remnants of Sephiroth left. Kadaj had faded, as had Yazoo and Loz. The last known part of Jenova had been her neck, and that had been absorbed by Kadaj.
For someone who had been resurrected more times than anyone would imagine, Sephiroth seemingly did not want to make it easy to get himself revived for the third time, which really pissed everyone off.
Actually, it had been interesting to see everyone progress, because Yuffie was the one most upset about the whole thing not working, and not Cloud. Inwardly, everyone knew that Tifa had been glad.
As time progressed, things became easier. They hadn't picked a theory to stick to, and Cloud had said that they should just give it up, and he was very happy that they had attempted to make him happy. Yuffie, however, was determined. Cid and Barrett said that they wouldn't give up because it would hurt their pride too much. Tifa had managed to convince Johnny to help them with the project, and also realized that his and her relationship was much healthier than hers and Cloud's had been.
Cloud knew that his soul was with him, but he didn't know how to cultivate it. He also was sure that nobody wanted to be possessed by Sephiroth and that try to reanimate dead body cells was a pretty useless thing to do.
Even Aeris and Zack had decided to get involved. It had taken them awhile to be able to communicate with Cloud, because Cloud refused at first to speak to Aeris. If she had never loathed him before, he had mused, she definitely had much more reason to loathe him then.
Still, of the whole crew, none of them had seen Cloud happy. In fact, very few of them had seen Cloud smiling, ever. They had all found themselves and found happiness, or at least a life they were content with. Now, they were all bent on doing the same for their friend, pushing whatever bad feelings they had aside. After all, after the entire thing was finished, they had their lives to fall back on and be happy with. Cloud did not.
Besides, after a few months had gone, they had seen Cloud progress from his solitude and depression. All the friends again were together, in their own little reunion, and it seemed that things had never been closer-knit between them.
Cloud had even been present at the holiday party that Yuffie had thrown, which he had always called in sick to avoid before. Not only that, but he had bought the best gifts for absolutely everyone.
It had been confirmed that Sephiroth was living in purgatory. He had not made it to the afterlife, which actually, was a big white void. However, Jenova had, and that had been confirmed by Cloud. She was therefore, completely out of the picture for the resurrection. Actually, that had been viewed as a good thing, considering that they definitely did not want to refer to her as a last resort.
It also seemed that Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz really hadn't existed, because they never made their presence clear to anyone. Still, there was a possibility that they just didn't want to make themselves known, but all of them were absolutely positive that all three would have wanted to be involved with the resurrection of their beloved oldest brother. After all, he had been their mother's favorite.
The snow was beginning to melt and the weather became warmer when their discussions became less about Sephiroth and more about daily life. Their meetings were less focused on the revival and more about nothing in particular.
In fact, the subject then turned into Tifa and Johnny's engagement. After their marriage, they promised to legally adopt Denzel. They hadn't been allowed to previously, because they hadn't been married. Everyone seemed to have moved on.
But Yuffie told herself not to give up, and one day, she slammed her fist on the table and said that they had gone off on such a tangent that they had completely forgotten what exactly their point and purpose had been in the first place, anyway.
Cloud had wanted to calm her down, quelling her by saying that it really didn't matter anymore because he was truly happy now. No one bought that, and instead, were more determined than ever to revive their once enemy. Even Tifa had put aside her hate wholeheartedly and realized it wasn't a phase, and it was something Cloud really did want, and not just sort-of wanted.
"We're not getting anywhere," Yuffie said. Her voice was disappointed, and she sighed. "We know exactly what we can't do, but we haven't gotten an inkling on some stuff that we can do! That bothers me so much, ugh!"
"I know it does, Yuffie, but the thing is, we don't have any leads. We need a body. I don't think we can sacrifice anyone for the cause, and I don't think it would be appreciated for Sephiroth to be locked inside a random battle monster."
"Well, couldn't he just morph back into his original form from it?" Yuffie suggested. "It'd be kinda gross at first, but we could deal with it, right? It'd be kinda like how Vincent sometimes becomes Chaos! Yeah!"
"Yuffie..." Vincent started. "That would involve the help of Jenova, or else, then Sephiroth would only be able to return to his original form when he was extremely angered and hurt."
"Oh. Yeah... never mind then." Yuffie didn't know she was standing up, but she sat back down anyway. "I guess then, that it's time for another plan! Don't worry, we'll eventually narrow down any physically possibly scenarios so that there'd only be one."
"What if we used the planet?" Cid suggested. "We can use the mako energy in lieu to using Jenova's cells. Or, we can just manually change the monster's DNA to fit..." He shrugged. "I dunno, I'm not a scientist."
"Impossible, because you'd have to alter about a gazillion cells, and also because they'd procreate far faster than we could control. So unless you're saying we just chase a soul out of a human zygote and watch Sephiroth grow up... we'd need a surrogate mother, too..." Yuffie trailed off. "Sorry, I'm being pessimistic."
"Well, what about the conservation of matter? Sephiroth obviously existed, and therefore, he couldn't really have disappeared. At least, not physically. Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz were like, three parts of him, right? It had been Jenova who had to tie them all together... so all we need is to find where the body is," Tifa said.
"Yeah, and glue," Johnny added. "Besides, the body, if it still exists and hadn't disintegrated into the lifestream, has been dead for years. Last time I checked, no one but Jenova has ever been successful in resurrecting a truly dead body."
"Dammit," muttered Yuffie. "We're just going around in circles again! And all of them lead back to Jenova... who aside from being really, really dead, is also a real bitch! From now on, anyone who mentions her name... I'll kick your ass!"
With that, everyone fell silent. It was back to the drawing board for all of them, and that was rather annoying. "Well, if Sephiroth's body had been preserved by the lifestream before, do you think that it'll still be that way? Maybe Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz had evaporated like water, but do you think mako ever recycles itself?"
"Even if it did, that would mean that Sephiroth is now a blob of energy," Cid said. "And that is a whole lot of energy to choose from. Besides, it's probably all intermingled with each other already, so therefore, little bits of him are floating around all over the place. Ashes that are spread to different places cannot be rediscovered in whole."
"Unfortunately," Yuffie said, "Cid's right. There's no way we can just randomly find his body washed up in the lifestream. Maybe if we had like, a magnet to get all the ones that belonged to Sephiroth, and those only, and then some way to solidify that and alter it to reform his human body, it's useless."
"I think the only way that we can accomplish this is ter kill someone," Barrett said. "You want someone, you have to give someone else up. Someone alive. The only way is conversion."
Everyone stared at Barrett and he finally got the point. Of course, he tried to make it sound like he was just jesting with them, but it didn't blow over so well with everyone, especially when they had all been so serious.
"Cloud, do you have any ideas?" Yuffie asked. After all, this was all for him and he hadn't spoken for their entire meeting, and she was beginning to worry that he wasn't all that interested anymore. Or at least, outwardly. Then again, he hadn't really been outwardly interested from the start, but she knew it would break his heart if after all this time, it still didn't work.
"I... really don't know. In all these years that scientists have existed, no one's ever brought anyone back from the dead. Not even Hojo could boast that, and he was the closest to playing God as anyone had been." Cloud slightly looked off into the distance, which actually, was his nearest wall. He felt completely helpless that he couldn't come up with anything, or at least try to come up with something.
Yuffie looked disappointed once again. She had hoped that Cloud would miraculously have been thinking it over the whole time and would have come up with the greatest theory of all that no one would dare contest because it was so good, and foolproof. This, of course, was far from happening.
"Well, that's okay, Cloud. You keep thinking, and we'll keep thinking, and eventually we'll come up with something good! And if we don't come up with something good, at least we can come up with something tangible and possible, and then... then... We'll do it!"
"Thank you, Yuffie..." Cloud knew that by now, it was virtually impossible to convince her otherwise, so he decided to not even try. Besides, it would probably save him a lot of pain and suffering in the process.
"Well, what if we just sort of found his body?" Cid said. "Then we could... have it absorb his soul, but we'd need for it to be alive. Do you think we could reanimate it using Lucrecia's cells? There's no bond stronger than a mother and child. And then we can prove to him that Jenova wasn't his real mother," he said.
"I like that plan," Yuffie said. "But the problem isn't with Lucrecia, the problem is with the fact that we don't have a dead Sephiroth body to use anyway. Unless when Kadaj and Yazoo and Loz faded into the lifestream, that their bodies couldn't move on and collaborated back into being Sephiroth because they couldn't completely expel Jenova, and then... and then that's why Sephiroth's soul is floating in purgatory, because it can't move on, either!"
"Even if that were true, where would we find his body? You'd think that Sephiroth would have told us now if he did still have a body to use," Tifa said. "Anyway, I don't know... it's the closest thing we've had so far to an actual plan."
"You know, I think that he's had to have left something behind. Last time, I thought he was gone for good, but Kadaj just came out of nowhere... So no matter what, something of him has to exist... right?" Cloud looked thoughtful for a moment.
"Yeah! Something of him has to still be here on The Planet somewhere... and even if it's not alive anymore, we'll find out a way to resurrect it! Finally, we're getting somewhere!"
"I think we should visit Lucrecia first," Vincent suggested. Cid tried very hard not to look jealous, but somewhere inside his head, he was still afraid that he might lose out to her. Even if she couldn't return her affections for Vincent, he was still in love with her, and Cid didn't want to be a third wheel. As much as he tried, it was obvious that Vincent could see the look in his eyes, and so he started playing with Cid's hair in hopes that his public display of affection would somewhat allay his concerns in a more subtle manner than if he were to say: "I'm not going to leave you for her, promise!"
The party moved along and all of them tried to get in the buggy that hadn't been used in ages. Johnny, however, decided to take a chocobo back home to take care of Marlene and Denzel. He said that he didn't need either Tifa or Barrett to come along, and that he'd be fine taking care of them himself.
Sooner than they had anticipated, they were already at the waterfall where Lucrecia had last been seen by them. Unsurprisingly enough, she was still there when they all walked in. "Hello Lucrecia," Yuffie said, in all seriousness. "Remember us?"
The last seven years had been kind to the old woman, who was by now at least sixty years old. She still looked like she was not a day over twenty-four, though. She looked up. "Yes... I do. It's been a long time."
Cloud walked up to her. "We... we sort of need to ask a favor of you. See, we need your body cells in order to go through with the process. And we'll need your DNA." He tried to make it seem like this wasn't just some giant joke.
"...What does Hojo want with me now?" she asked. "To make me more of a monster than I already am? Doesn't that man know when to let up?" She sighed and looked at the ground.
"It's not about Hojo... he's been dead for seven years... This is about your son, and if I could just get what we needed from Hojo, I wouldn't hesitate to. But it couldn't be that simple..." Cloud walked closer and looked down at her.
She looked back up, and he was reminded a little of an older Aeris. "My son? You've heard... you've heard from my son? Did he come with you? Do you know how he is?"
"That's the thing," Cloud started, kneeling down so they could be eye-to-eye. "He's been dead for the last five years, but... I want to bring him back, and I know I can, I just... we need your help to try and do it."
"I'll do anything," she said, "to see my son's face just once before I die. Yes, I will help you. He must have been a great man to have friends who want to revive him even five years after his death."
"Uh... yeah," Cloud replied. He decided that she didn't need to know the truth, because it would probably be less destructive to her mind. He really didn't want to give her a heart attack.
Lucrecia smiled at them, all of them. She even smiled at Vincent when she saw him. He nodded to her and seeing this, Cid reached out for Vincent's flesh wrist. At this, Lucrecia raised a brow, but she decided that it was better if she didn't ask.
"So, um... we should probably all head home before we start work. Shall we set the meeting for next week? We'll need a high-tech lab and... Oh god, I wish I had thought that far," Cloud said.
"Don't worry. We can all rent rooms in Kalm... I think we all want to start work as soon as possible," Yuffie said. "Besides, we can use Rufus's new one... we'd have to make an alliance with ShinRa again, but now they're not trying to kill the planet."
"How are we going to explain to Rufus why we need to use his labs?" Tifa asked. "As soon as we say why, he's going to laugh in our faces and think we've all gone off the deep end, just like you did at first."
"Yeah, but what Rufus don't know won't hurt him," Barrett said. "Anyway, he trusts and respects Cloud after what he's done... Rufus still thinks it's partially his fault that the planet almost died, so he'll be willing to let the people who saved it work in his facilities."
"I guess you're right," Tifa said. "Well then, we're all going to Cloud's, right? You all don't have to rent rooms. Actually, you can all stay at Seventh Heaven again. We've got enough room in the back for everyone! And it's closer to ShinRa so we can ask Rufus first thing tomorrow morning!"
"Ooh, another sleepover!" Yuffie exclaimed. "That'll be fun! Come on everyone, last one in the buggy's a rotten egg!" She took Lucrecia by the wrist. "Don't think that doesn't include you, Lucrecia!"
Cait Sith was the last one in the buggy, and of course, Nanaki had been the first. Things just all worked out for them that way. They had to squeeze the cat in, but he just sat on Nanaki's back after awhile of deciding.
It was dead into the night by the time they got to Seventh Heaven. Lucrecia, Vincent, Barrett and Tifa had already fallen asleep. They nearly all fell, one on top of the other, as the door opened. Nevertheless, the cold air woke everyone up and Tifa opened the door to a very tired and very surprised Johnny. "They're staying with us overnight," Tifa said. "It'll be good use of the house before the construction." She was talking about their plans to put Seventh Heaven and Johnny's heaven on either side of their residential area, so that their work would be close to both of them.
After about an hour, all of them were able to be accommodated for comfortably. It was rather impressive for the time they were given to prepare. Finally, Tifa finished fluffing the pillows for Cait Sith as she yawned and followed Johnny into their bedroom.
---
The next morning, it had taken them all a lot of effort to share two bathrooms. Of course, Tifa had been up early and so, by the time Vincent was done and drying his hair, breakfast was ready for all of them.
"So we're gonna go see Rufus about him letting us use his labs today, right?" Yuffie asked. "I'll go ask him when I'm done; I'm not really hungry." She quickly chugged down her orange juice. "There! I'll let you guys know when I'm done."
"I think we should go as a united front," suggested Lucrecia. "It would be better that way, because then if one of us doesn't know what to say, that we are backed up by the rest of the team."
"I like the way you think," Yuffie said. "All right then, I'll wait for you guys to finish, because if I start racing now, that would sort of be cheating, and I'd be way ahead of you all!"
"Yuffie, can we please not race all the way to the center of Midgar?" asked Tifa. "It's honorable that you're so hyped about this, but I doubt Rufus is going to take us seriously if we're all gasping for breath."
"Fine! But you know, I'm not getting any training done today and I didn't get any training done yesterday, and I'm totally blaming that all on you guys!" She picked up her shuriken and started running in place, passing it from hand to hand.
"There's no need to do any training, Yuffie," Cloud said. "After all, we've lived in a period of relative peace for five years now. There's nothing that can stand in the way of that changing."
"Yeah, well, just in case, I still have to train. Besides, I'm not like you! I don't have mako to keep my girlish figure even after five years of doing no physical labor. All I have are genes that say I'm gonna be fat if I don't work out every single day."
"Good luck with that," Tifa said. She took Yuffie's dish and cup and Red XIII's bowl to the kitchen to wash up. "Anyone else's stuff I can take? Oh, Lucrecia, you haven't eaten a thing... Do you not like my cooking? It's okay, you should've said so; I'll go buy you something..."
"No! No, it's not that I don't like your cooking. I just... I don't really have the need or want to eat." Lucrecia got up from her seat at the table. "It's quite nice, actually, to constantly be satiated." She looked to Vincent for an agreement, but he was too busy getting his hair brushed by Cid.
"Come on guys, this isn't rocket science!" Yuffie shouted. "Let's get a move on before we have to stop and eat lunch, too! Hop to it, hop to it!" Cait Sith was now jumping up and down with her. "Let's go!"
Yuffie practically pushed Cid's waffle down his throat. "Eat it, gramps! Come on, you're lagging us down! Come on, my real grandpa eats faster than you, and he's older than you! I don't even remember how old! I just know that he's way old!"
Cid choked on it, but bit off the part that was already in his mouth and ate it. In an effort to help, Vincent took the other half of the waffle and tore it in half, eating part and giving the other to Cid.
"That's more like it! Yeah, kudos to you, Vinny! Come on now, everyone, it's time to depart! That means you too, Johnny!" Just then, Marlene and Denzel stumbled downstairs to get ready for school.
"Good morning, everyone," Marlene started. She kissed Tifa on the cheek, and then she went to kiss Barrett on the cheek too. To her, they would always be her "real" parents. She grabbed a waffle and some bacon from the middle of the table. Because of Yuffie's hammering, both were still hot.
Denzel decided to skip breakfast. Instead, he had a protein bar and a glass of milk. He had gotten the height down pat; now all he needed was muscle. "Yo. I'm gonna go for a workout before school. Is that okay, Tifa?"
"Yeah, just make sure you don't skip again. This is very important to your mental development, you know. And anyway, you know I'm going to take away your game systems if you do! I'm serious this time, Denzel!" She put her hands on her hips in emphasis. "And start calling me mother."
"Fine, mother." He scarfed down the rest of his food, and he ran out on them. Meanwhile, Marlene started sorting out the things she wanted to put in her backpack. She grabbed her lunch and Denzel's as well, and then headed out the door with a smile and a wave.
"Aww, kids are so cute," Yuffie said. "I wish I could have kids someday. That'd be awesome. I'd teach them how to kick ass like I do!" she said, hopeful and determined. "But of course, any man would have to be crazy to marry me, because I'm Yuffie-chan!"
No one dared reply to this. Instead, they all got up and decided to head out the door to get to the ShinRa headquarters. At least they knew one way to get Yuffie's mind of kids and marriage. Besides, they weren't sure if she was joking about that men-having-to-be-crazy thing.
It was a long walk, and they got some stares from the civilians. Few of them knew who they were, even fewer who knew their names. Only one person actually had enough courage to walk up to them to talk in the whole journey over. Of course, that person had been an insane fan.
"Oh my god! It's really you guys! Wow, are you The Cloud Strife? You don't look like anything I'd imagined... I mean, I knew you were allegedly really girly, but... I mean, wow, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to say it like that. Wow, are you Tifa Lockhart? ...Damn! You're so much hotter in real life? Who's this guy?"
"...I would be her fiancé," Johnny said, holding up an embarrassed Tifa's hand for the obsessed fan to see. "You know, as in, we're going to be married? As in, don't tell her she looks hot?"
"Geez, man, chill. Oh wow! Cait Sith does exist! I always thought they made him up to make the whole thing sound more interesting! Wow... do you guys mind if I take a picture of you all? You guys are like, my idols!"
"...I'm sorry, but we've got someplace important to go off to," Cid said. "It's sort of a life or death situation." He thought for a minute, and decided it wasn't exactly a lie, so he wouldn't have to apologize later for it anyway.
"No, Cid, it's okay. We can stop for one photo," Cloud said. He put his arm around the kid and got a random passerby to take his camera phone to get a picture of all of them. It was hard getting them all to fit in one picture, especially since Nanaki and Cait Sith originally were too short to be in the cut.
As soon as they finished, Cloud took his camera phone back and asked the kid for his e-mail. He snapped his phone closed as he said that it was sent, and the kid went off joyfully, muttering nonsensical words of praise after them.
"Why did you have to be so nice? It was just some rabid fan... he wasn't even a very nice one. You know, we don't need rabid fans like him," Cid said. "You know, I think you've gone soft."
Cloud shrugged. "He kind of reminded me of me... I thought I could at least offer him something to remember us by. He seemed like a decent enough kid. Besides, what's he going to do? Sell it online?"
"You never know Cloud, he might," Yuffie said. "And then he really wouldn't be a fan of ours, but some freeloader. Man, what if you just got him his next paycheck? What if we find ourselves all over the tabloids?"
"We won't. He's in the picture. No one would buy it, especially not magazines. Remember, we're not all that popular anyway, and it's been five years. We're nothing special to them; we never really were," Cloud said.
"You're always so pessimistic about these subjects, Cloud," Yuffie said. "Actually, I lied. You're always so pessimistic about everything! Can't you for once learn to be like, nice and happy and optimistic? Look on the bright side for a change!"
"That all depends on if Rufus lets us use his labs," he said. With that, he started walking again to the ShinRa headquarters, and all of them followed after him. Soon, he was at the front door of ShinRa, and he walked right in.
"Stop! Civilians can't come here!" said a secretary, who ran in front of them to stop them. "I'll have to call security on you unless you have an appointment with President Rufus, which you don't, because I know he doesn't have an appointment today!"
Vincent stepped forward to take care of this one. "My name is Vincent Valentine, Turk. You can look up my file... I'm three-four-seven-nine-eight-b-four-x." He wasn't entirely sure why he still remembered his old ID. He assumed it was because he had been so proud when he got his Turk Identification card.
The secretary went to type it in, and she did find him. "Wait, but it says that you've been missing in action for the last thirty-seven years!" She looked at him with her mouth gaping. "You're not wearing your uniform, either!"
"Yeah, well, I don't think I'd fit into my Turk uniform from thirty-seven years ago. But obviously I'm not missing in action, and I have to report that to The President, if you don't mind."
"Fine," she said. But she was still wary. "Who are they, though? They can't all be Turks that were missing for thirty-seven years... and you can't be, either! Vincent Valentine must be your father or something, unless you haven't aged in thirty-seven years!"
"...That's a long story," he started, but he knew he couldn't go on with that for much longer. She had seen through his story, which was rather pathetic... But he had only underestimated her knowledge because in his time, the lady who had her position was a complete bucket of bolts.
However, miraculously, Rufus walked down into his lobby. He was just about to go out to have lunch. "Well, well, what brings you all here?" he asked. "If it's about mako, we're not doing that whole thing anymore..."
"Sir, don't mean to tell me that you actually know these people! One of them claims to be a Turk who's been missing in action for thirty-seven years and he hasn't aged a day since then!" She tried to sound calm, and failed miserably.
"...Yes, actually, I do know these people, and Valentine wasn't lying. Why didn't you tell me they were here? I don't pay you to stand around and accuse people of importance of lying! I want you to look each and every one of them in the eye, apologize, and memorize their faces for future references!"
"That won't be necessary," Cloud said. "We're just here to ask you if we can borrow one of your new labs to do a project we've been working on." He was collected and he sounded genuinely sangfroid.
"Oh, yes, of course. You who call yourself an ex-SOLDIER has nonetheless done much for the planet, if not ShinRa company." Rufus thought that maybe, just maybe, his generosity would have Cloud forgiving and maybe even lend a hand to help the reconstruction of ShinRa. "You may use any of my facilities... Would you like some scientists, too?"
"Oh, yes, that would be most helpful," Cloud said. He smiled to Rufus, and inwardly, Rufus smiled too. "Thank you very much for doing us such a big favor, Rufus," he added.
"It is not a problem. Martha, write and send out a memo that lab five is to be used by them for as long as they need, and no one else will be allowed to disturb them on penalty of probation. Also, send Professors Herald, Ren, and Erilew to help them."
The entire party was impressed with their good fortune, as Rufus directed them toward where they were supposed to go, and said he would accompany them, but that he was absolutely starved. Cloud only apologized on behalf of what a bad time they came at, and then they headed off to begin their work.