It was a rainy day when they found him. The clouds were dark and ominous as they cried cold tears down from the heavens. All along, he had been in the Nibelheim reactor, floating in the mako energy. The body was perfectly preserved, and perfectly dead. The smell had overwhelmed them all and Cloud had been the only one who could walk into the liquid.

His skin burned and his nostrils flared with the strong scent that did not seem to be too saturated to go away. It had been a hassle to get back up, especially since Cloud could barely lift the heavy corpse. It struck him as odd how immensely weighted it seemed, because all six parts of his swords together seemed to feel extremely manageable compared to Sephiroth.

Yuffie jumped up and down with cheer, then stopped and thought for a second. "Hey, guys...anou... I wonder how he got here," she commented. "I mean, wasn't he in Midgar the last time we saw him?"

"Yeah, but las time we saw 'him,' he was a bunch of green sparkles," Barrett said. "Mebbe they jes all gathered here." There was no real explanation, but the rest of them decided to celebrate instead of pressing for one. They had worked so hard, and yet their troubles were just beginning.

It was heartbreaking to tell Lucrecia that she would get burnt if she touched the mako that was everywhere on Sephiroth. But Vincent walked over and removed his cape, and Cloud wrapped it around the warrior (being secretively glad that Vincent was only one inch shorter than Sephiroth) and picked him up from the ground to take him to the labs.

They were very thankful for the rain as they ran outside, because none of the civilians would notice them carrying a dead corpse wrapped in nothing but a cloak all the way through town. Also, it somewhat alleviated the mako stench that they were going to have to clean off everyone's clothes and the buggy later.

"I wonder why he didn't tell us where he was," Yuffie started. "I mean, if his soul was with you the whole time, and he couldn't tell us he had a body somewhere, and we had to go through a lot of time scavenger-hunting and everything! You know, for someone who's getting their third chance at life, he's not very helpful in attaining it."

"Maybe... he didn't know," Cloud replied. He brushed hair out of Sephiroth's face and noticed how cold he was. Even without the rain, he could tell that Sephiroth's skin would be slightly bluer than it should, and his lips too purple. His hair, however messy from being damp, had not deteriorated or tangled in any way.

"He's not going to come back to life if you just stare at him," Vincent said. He was leaning against Cid, whose arms were around him to keep him warm. His eyes were distant and staring off into the horizon.

"I know," Cloud replied. "We still need Lucrecia's body cells and DNA to revive his old ones, and we need his soul to inhabit his body. But we will do it; we're so close..." Everyone tried to ignore the fact that Cloud was starting to sound obsessive and nervous.

Soon, they were at the front of the ShinRa building, and they filed in, all soaked to the bone and freezing. "What happened to you guys?" Martha asked. After a while, she had warmed up to them. "You all look like drowned rats! You should all go home and get dried and take showers..."

"No, we're only here to drop him off," Cloud said, referring to Sephiroth. "Please don't tell Rufus we have him here, all right?" He started walking towards the labs. "Then we'll go home and I'll be back here to begin working right after."

"No Cloud, we all will be," Tifa said. "We're just as anxious as you to finally get this whole ordeal over with. We've been with you through the whole thing, remember? We started it; we deserve to finish it."

"Yeah!" Yuffie said. "We'll just take showers here. Could you supply us with towels and run our clothes through the dryer? Actually, could you run them through the washer and then the dryer? Sorry, I know we smell really bad."

"It's no problem," Martha said. "I'm sure Rufus wouldn't mind. Shall I also send in Herald, Ren and Erilew? They'll be very glad, as they haven't been able to work since Rufus assigned them to only this project."

"Oh yes, that would be wonderful," Tifa said. She wrapped her arms around herself and began to shiver, so Martha quickly apologized and directed them towards the showers. The women were allowed to use the staff bathroom, because there were less of them and because the guys didn't mind the SOLDIER showers too much.

They were all finished and they were all dry. Tifa had taken the longest trying to dry her hair, and in the end, it had taken Tifa, Yuffie, and Johnny, each armed with a blow dryer and a brush, to get her hair to its regular state.

Finally, they all got to the labs to find that Martha had ordered takeout for all of them. In fact, she remembered everyone's favorite dishes from their favorite local restaurants, too. Cid muttered under his breath that he wished Shera was more like Martha.

"Hello," Lucrecia said to one of the scientists. She looked at his name-tag and extended her hand. "Mr. Erilew, I'm Lucrecia. I'd like to say thank you in advance for helping us out.

"No problem. What is it that you would like us to do?" He asked. For a few months of just doing nothing, he was skeptical about the whole project and hoped that Rufus wasn't secretly just planning to fire him.

"Well, I've got the closest DNA to my son, so you'll need to help us take some of my live body cells to merge with his dead ones. That's really all you need to do; we'll take care of the rest," she said.

All three scientists were practically foaming at the lips. "Wow... such a big project as human restoration! We must be really good for Rufus to assign only us to such a project... it is an honor to serve you all," Erilew said.

"Well then, we've got the body, we've got the scientists, let's go extract the cells you'll be needing... is there a way that we don't have to take a sample from every major organ I have?" she asked. She would willingly give up half of her body though, if worse came to worse.

"Actually, yes. If we have a freshly fertilized human zygote, we can program the body cells which yet have not been assigned parts to be," Ren said. "It would be rather simple actually, but even if we are successful in reanimating the body, there would be nothing we could do about the soul..."

"We already took care of that," Yuffie said. "Like we've said, all you need to worry about is what we assigned you. But hey... how the hell are we gonna get a fertilized baby zygote thing? I mean, I know how it works, but... who's gonna be the father? Hojo's dead..."

"I'll be his father," Vincent said. After all, there was still the possibility that he was Sephiroth's actual father. Cid shot him a dirty look. "As long as there is no intercourse involved."

"Of course not. It will be like a surrogate pregnancy. A healthy sperm is selected to fertilize the egg, and then there is a electric shock that tells the zygote to begin life," Herald said. "Very simple procedure, of course."

Everyone, it seemed, was overjoyed at this. Well, maybe it was just everyone trying to conceal their feelings about the look on Cid's face. "Come on Vincent, let's go get them that sperm sample they need," he said, grabbing an empty container and taking Vincent by the wrist into another room.

Erilew tried not to laugh. "Well, that's taken care of. But since sperm can only survive in semen for seventy-two hours, we're going to need to take an egg from your ovaries now, ma'am."

"Not a problem," Lucrecia said. "But I'd feel safer if a doctor was performing the procedure. No offense. I just... have had bad experiences in the past with incompetent scientists."

"No, it's okay. I'm trained for these matters. In fact, it's what I did before I became a scientist," he said. Lucrecia smiled and looked relieved. She linked arms with the scientist then. "Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's go bring back my son."

The others turned their attention to Sephiroth, who had been cleaned and dried off. "I... don't particularly think that he would've liked his resurrection to be attributed to science once again... unfortunately, that's inevitable," Cloud said. "I hope that things work out just as planned."

"Yeah," Yuffie said, starting on Vincent's neglected grilled chicken. "I really hope so too, Cloud. Man, I think it's been kinda nice, having something to work on with you guys. I'm gonna miss those late-night sessions."

"I'm going to miss you all living at my house," Tifa said. "It'll be so empty... there will be no one to clean up after... No hair to clean out of the drain, no dirty laundry to clean, no milk left out on the counter to toss... No stains on the carpet..."

"Man, I thought you'd be happy about that," Barrett said. "Us bein' outta your hair 'n all. I always knew you were a crazy one," he added. He finished his burger and shake and got up. "Anyone got any trash?"

Like always, Yuffie was the first to dump trash into the offerer's hands. "Thanks Barrett-chan! Oh, and when you go to the trash place, could you pick me up some coffee from the Turk's lounge? Thank you!"

Barrett rolled his eyes as he stepped out, grabbing Cloud's trash along the way as well. He decided to ignore Yuffie's: "And make sure there's a lot of sugar in it and it's cream, not milk!" that was shouted after him.

"So, you must be excited," Johnny said. "After all, the person you love is going to come back from the dead... After all this time. If it were me, I would have been too happy to focus..."

"Don't be so negative, Johnny!" Tifa yelled. "Now Cloud's going to be all unfocused and thinking too far ahead for his own good and Yuffie's going to get all angry and we'll all fail!"

Cloud found Tifa's hysterics rather amusing. "It's all right... I know that I have a goal. And I know that I must reach that goal before thinking of anything else. I'm determined to achieve it, and nothing can stand in that way now that I've gotten this far."

"Oh, good," she said. "I wasn't worried, really. I knew that all along," she added. The she gave Johnny a quick kiss. "I never doubted you for a second, really!" Her apology was naturally accepted. Her alibi, however...

Barrett returned with Yuffie's coffee and she hugged him and thanked him. "Yeah, yeah, I know," he replied roughly. Cid walked out with Vincent behind him, and he had the biggest smile on his face as he held up the container for everyone to see.

Immediately, Barrett turned his head. "I don't need to see that!" Yuffie clapped and went to go get a scientist, Tifa and Cloud just looked on nervously while Johnny excused himself from the room.

Ren put on a pair of latex gloves and took the container before walking into the back room where Erilew and Lucrecia were. Herald followed after him, taking a small glass dish with him.

The party waited outside anxiously for a few minutes until all four walked out and announced that there were cells waiting to become different parts of Sephiroth. The three scientists dismissed the rest of them, saying that when they were finished, all of them would be alerted.

---

It was only two days when the scientists called them all back. "It's been a success," Ren said. "We've been able to make his cells living... however, without a soul, he is in a comatose like state.

"That's fine," Cloud said. "After his soul repossesses his body, he will be able to live like he did before." He walked over and placed his hand in Sephiroth's. "I thought that, because he might be in this state, that his body wouldn't be able to properly attach his soul. Zack said that it'd probably work better if I was the bridge..."

"All right Cloud, you do whatever you need to," Tifa said. "Whatever happens, happens. We're behind you one hundred percent!" she exclaimed. Cait Sith joined her by cheering along.

He sat down and put all his concentration into it, and could feel the attachment. He couldn't have let go if he wanted; the bond was too strong. He knew it would take awhile because he could feel only bits and pieces as opposed to the entire being. He knew it was better that way, but he couldn't help feeling anxious with anticipation.

What were only minutes later, he let go and waited. Yes, there was a heartbeat. Yes, he was beginning to think... But he wasn't waking up. Cloud's eyes widened and grew worried that nothing was changing.

Everybody looked disappointed. Even Nanaki changed from his usually stoic and deadpan expression. "Sorry, Cloud," Yuffie said as she patted him on the shoulder. "Maybe... maybe he'll wake up later? It's just sort of a coma, right?"

"Yeah... that's it... he'll wake up from his coma, right?" Cloud tried to smile. "At least he's alive... that's all that matters. We've done the hard part, now we just have to wait..."

It was in the middle of the night when they had called, but all of them, wearing their pajamas and robes, had come anyway. With that, they all started to leave. "Come on, Cloud, he'll still be there in the morning, and might even wake up!"

"No... you guys, you can go on ahead. I'll stay here with him," Cloud said. He stroked Sephiroth's hair possessively. "Just in case he wakes up during the night... I don't want something bad to happen in that time."

"Whatever you say," Tifa replied halfheartedly. She was too tired to really be listening; she had stayed up late doing her wedding plans and hadn't gotten a chance to get to bed until a few hours previously, only to be waken up again.

With that, they all left Cloud to be with Sephiroth for the night, no one even giving a second thought... But then Cloud wanted to stay with Sephiroth for the next day, and soon that turned into the next week. He wouldn't allow his friends to take shifts for him, either.

"Cloud, this is insane and unhealthy!" Tifa said. "I want you to stop this madness! I'm sure he'll be fine when he wakes up! And even if he isn't, we can look after him for you! You're going to be dead-tired when you see him, anyway!"

"But, I want to be the first to see him," he answered. "I want to be the first one to witness him opening his eyes. If you were doing this for someone you truly loved, you'd act the same way."

"Cloud, but you're being too obsessive! Don't you want to rest up? Maybe Sephiroth's thinking that he wants to wake up for you when you're ready. Remember, his soul was with you..." She tried. Thankfully, it worked.

He nodded. "You may be right," he said. Giving Sephiroth's hand one last squeeze, he got up from the chair that he had been sitting on. "I... I just need a good night's sleep, and a shower," he said. "Then I can be back, okay?"

"Deal," she said. "Come on, let's go." She took him by the wrist and led him to the bottom floor of the ShinRa building. There weren't any windows in headquarters because it had been modeled after the previous one, and Cloud's eyes did not take well to adjusting to the light contrast.

As soon as he got to his room in Seventh Heaven, he crashed on his bed and Tifa went upstairs to go to hers. It was a little early for bed, but it had already been dark for a long time, and she thought it would be good for everyone to sleep in.

Since the week had past, everyone had returned to their own homes except Lucrecia, who was determined to see her son alive again. She was not quite as obsessive as Cloud was, however. She only visited periodically, and also to bring Cloud his meals.

She sat in the living room, and she was looking at nothing in particular, lost in thought. At first, they had run into some troubles because Tifa kept calling Lucrecia Aeris, but that stopped after awhile. Lucrecia smiled a little in remembering this. She also remembered Tifa's many apologies. No one else had much of a problem remembering that she wasn't Aeris though, but she often wondered why just Tifa did. Of course, they had probably been close like sisters from the journey, having been the only girls until Yuffie came along.

She closed her eyelids over the eyes her son had inherited from her. She didn't even know that... she had never seen the color of his eyes. She wondered why his hair was silver for a moment, but she knew it was him anyway. His hair was naturally like hers, and he had her mouth.

Deciding it was useless until he awoke, she got up to go to her bed as well. She looked at the clock that hung in the kitchen. It was only eight, but the entire house was dark and deathly quiet.

When Cloud awoke, the sun outside was shining brightly into his room. He thought that, because of the time, it was already pretty late, so he quickly bolted out of bed and into the bathroom. He knew he was late because there was no sign of Marlene or Denzel, which means that they had already left for school.

Rather upset at this, he jumped into the cold shower. The plastic comb he had taken from the sink was blue and nearly toothless by the time he was finished pulling it through the tangles that he hadn't bothered fixing for a week. He figured that he would just explain his hurry to Tifa later and reimburse her for the comb. He didn't really care how much his skull tingled with pain.

The shower walls were covered in steam. He didn't turn the water down at all, and actually wondered if it could go any hotter. Nevertheless, he grabbed the soap and started scraping away at his body. Even though he hadn't done anything for a week, he seemed to be caked in something. And he had the sterilized smell of laboratory all around him.

Then he smelled like flowers and fruit, but he didn't mind. It was better to smell strongly of a girly soap then to smell like an insane asylum. His skin was scrubbed red and raw, if not from that then from the heat, before he was satisfied.

He put a giant glob of shampoo in his hands. Without that much, he never had enough to properly clean his hair. For a cut that looked rather short, it was very long when wet. At least, he thought it was. He realized that he picked up Marlene's shampoo, because he smelled like strawberry bubblegum and honey.

Still, he practically kneaded it into his skull until he looked like he had a white afro of bubbles before he rinsed it out and watched it all slide down the drain. He seemed to enjoy the little white foamy suds dance down and down.

He argued with himself for a minute or two on whether or not he should apply conditioner, and whether that would take too long. Then he thought he was being completely silly because his arguing with himself about it was taking longer than if he had just used it. So he did.

And realized he had made a mistake because he couldn't wait the minute to rinse it all out. But he had to; and he thought of it as a challenge to his willpower. He crossed his arms and tapped his foot in the shower as he waited impatiently.

"Count to ten," he remembered Mukki saying. If he had said to count to sixty, Cloud would have skipped more numbers than there were even to begin with. But those were for entirely different purposes, and he couldn't... he wouldn't do it. He wouldn't let himself just rinse it all out and jump out of the shower and blow-dry... He still had to blow dry his hair after all was cleaned.

"No," he told himself firmly. He had to prove to himself that he could do it. It was only sixty seconds... only sixty seconds and another three to dry his hair and another one to get dressed and five, if he ran fast enough, to get to the ShinRa building, one to get all the way to the top and open up the door...

He could manage that, right? Fifty-nine, sixty! He stuck his head under the pouring water and nearly pulled out all his hair trying to rinse it out. Then he jumped out and grabbed a towel from the closet, wrapping it around himself and getting the hair-dryer. Three minutes went by so slowly.

It was dry... most of it was dry. The ends were still damp, but he decided against staying any longer and bolted out the door to the ShinRa building. Down the street, towards the left, then a right, five blocks down, make a turn... Martha barely saw him as he sped past her and up the elevator.

When he walked through the doors, he could see the back of Lucrecia's head. She was wearing pink that day, and immediately he thought of Aeris. But he pushed that thought out of his head in remembrance that she was dead and her soul wasn't floating around purgatory, so no matter what, she wasn't coming back.

Neither was Zack. But still, he could feel both their spirits faintly. They were always with him, and sometimes he took it for granted that they were there to help him through everything. Sometimes he forgot that they were even there, because he had grown so accustomed to their presences.

"Good morning, Cloud," Lucrecia said as she got up. "Your breakfast is cold; I'm sorry. He hasn't shown any signs of waking up... but I think there's some increase in activity that's going on with his brain... or something. I used to know all this terminology to describe it... It's funny how much you forget in old age."

"I don't mind it cold, and you're not old." He smiled at her. "Thank you for watching over him... I know I don't even know you that well, but I think that if he woke up and anyone was to see him before me, I'd want it to be you."

"Thank you Cloud... coming from you, that means a lot to me," she said. "I know I haven't been a good mother... I didn't even know what my child looked like... But I, I'm just happy that it's not too late for me to be a part of his life."

"It's never too late to step into your child's life... As long as you don't leave him again, I'm sure he'll appreciate your presence. You know, when he thought Jenova was his mother, he literally wanted to give her the world. I'm sure he will feel just as strongly about you."

"Thank you... I don't think it will be that way... I know that Hojo would have told him that Jenova was his mother all his life, and not me... So he already thought that Jenova was his mother all the time... I don't exactly have that advantage."

"No... but you're not a blue alien who manipulates people and uses her son to try and destroy an entire race," he replied. "So you have some advantage... And we like you far better than we liked Jenova."

Lucrecia laughed. "Yes, I really should hope so," she said. "But it's okay with me if he never accepts me as his mother, because I finally can accept him as my son... And as long as I can, I won't hate myself as much anymore. I just hope he can forgive me..."

"I'm sure he will. It's always easier to forgive other people than to forgive yourself, so if you forgive yourself, I'm sure he will, too. Besides, when he wakes up, he will be the Sephiroth I've always admired."

"He is lucky to have someone to love him as much as you do. Though, I'd always hoped I'd have grandchildren... But I think just happiness is enough for this lifetime. I'm sure that no one could love him like you do, anyway."

"You have no idea," Cloud replied.

"Actually, I know the whole story," she said. "I... I had everyone tell me. I had to; I'm sorry. I know that some of what he's done is not something that a mother should agree with, and I don't... But that doesn't change the fact that he is my son, and no matter what he is like, I will love him."

"Spoken like a true mother," he said, smiling. "And I apologize if you ever thought we were to deceive you into giving yourself to science again before we could tell you about Sephiroth's past," he said.

"No, I don't blame you. Besides, I have made peace with it and know that it was all Jenova's doing that drove him to madness... Hers and Hojo's. I just wish I had been in his life then to stop him. But what's done is done, I suppose... There's no going back now."

"You're taking this very well... Better than all of us had, at least. You're not mad at me that I was the one who killed him?" Cloud walked over and was prepared to make any explanation he needed to back himself up.

"No, not at all. It was perhaps the only way... Even if you did kill him, even if you did wait five years to revive him, you're still here... And I know that your love isn't something that just will flicker and fade with time. I feel safe entrusting my son with you when he wakes up."

"Thank you, Lucrecia," Cloud replied. He was very glad with how level-headed Lucrecia was the whole time, kind of wishing that his mother had been like that... before she died, anyway. And he was sure that if she found out he was reviving her killer, she'd scold him... But he also knew in the pit of his heart that she would be genuinely happy for him afterwards.

"You haven't touched your food yet, Cloud," Lucrecia commented. She picked up the plate and got up with it. "I'll go to the lounge and heat it up for you, okay? It's freezing cold..."

"Oh no, that's really not necessary," he said. He took the plate from her and scarfed it down. "See? Nothing wrong with it. Thank you, that was a great meal," he added. She giggled at how fast he had eaten. Her laugh had been youthful, and for a second, her eyes had been, too.

Cloud rushed out to go take the dish away, and also Lucrecia's from earlier that morning that was still sitting there. He ran all the way to the Turk's lounge, which he noted, was in the exact same spot as it had been before, but he was sure that was because it had been in a very convenient part of the building and Reno would not have had it any other way.

When he got back in the room, it seemed that something had went horribly wrong because all three scientists were crowded around a large computer and Lucrecia looked worried. "What's wrong!" he asked, as he rushed over.

"It seems that his brain is deteriorating," said Ren. "He's consciously deleting parts of his mind... I think all of them are memories." He looked back as Erilew confirmed that everything that had been deleted were memories.

"Why would he want to delete all his memories?" Cloud asked. Ren shrugged. "Why... why would he do that! It just... it just doesn't make any sense!" He didn't hear Lucrecia trying to get him to calm down. "After all this work, and he wants to erase everything... I don't want him to erase everything! I don't want him to wake up confused... I don't want him to do to himself what he had done to me!"

"No, I think he's stopped," Herald said. "And I don't think any of those memories were very important... maybe they were just the painful ones," he said. "But I think that he did take away a good bit of memories... and he definitely did it by himself, too... there is no way an outside host could do such a clean job."

"Why is this what he wants!" Cloud asked. "Why does he want to erase anything? What is he thinking!" He walked over to Sephiroth and stared down at his face. "What are you erasing? Please, please just wake up and remember..."

There was silence. Nothing.

Cloud fell to his knees, hand still clutching Sephiroth's. "I can't believe... you wanted to forget... and you can... and you still can't wake up. Why do you get to forget your guilt? Why can't I? Please..."

Still nothing. Cloud sighed. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry... erase what you want, just please... please don't forget me... Wake up, please... please..." He waited, and he thought he felt Sephiroth's hand twitch. "Yes, please... please wake up."

Finally, as if on the command, Sephiroth's eyes fluttered open. "C...Cloud? Where am I?" Sephiroth reached for his head with his other hand and sat up. "Ugh, I feel awful... is this lab new?" He looked over to Cloud before waiting for an answer. "Cloud, what are you wearing? Is Zack okay?"

"...What? Sephiroth... Zack's been..." Cloud looked at Sephiroth in confusion. "How... How old do you think you are?" Cloud asked as he looked into those mako green eyes.

"...Cloud, don't be silly. I'm twenty-three, I don't remember how old you said you were, but I think fourteen, and Zack... I'm pretty sure he just turned sixteen... Yeah, he just turned sixteen."

Cloud looked at him, and there was a little bit of silence. "You've got to be kidding me."