--It spoke to me in my own voice, letting me believe I was hearing my own conscience. I was losing sight of my own reasons, so I was weak. It just took over, and I let it happen.---I've relinquished control of my insanity.

            --JTHM

--But who would ever suspect that they were no longer the mind behind the other end of their internal conversation...

            --Nail Bunny

The voice howled like an empty wind as once again Sephiroth watched his quarry silently. Watching was all he could do; the Turks had her under surveillance 24/7. Whether it was Tseng's little errand boy, Reno, or Tseng himself with a gaggle of his best men at his side. For her part, the flower girl didn't notice a thing. Her sentinels were there always, keeping to the shadows so the girl could have some semblance of a normal life, and Sephiroth was sure Tseng preferred it that way. The paranoid part of Sephiroth suspected that Tseng wished to keep him away from Aeris. yesssss....stay away from her. The Turk is wise....the voice whispered, slithering with contempt for its avatar and the object of its fear. Shut up, Sephiroth hissed back at it. The voice snarled, She is an abomination...you must kill her! She is an enemy...LIST- Sephiroth closed his eyes and with great effort shut the voice out. Opening his eyes tiredly, he panted in the dark.

 Why they guarded the girl so closely, Sephiroth had some guesses, but not much. If he'd read the documents he stole correctly, they should have been trying to capture her for study. There were whisperings that the Turks intended to invite a new member into their ranks, but who it might be was unknown. It could be the flower girl; Sephiroth had witnessed her little outburst in the alley. Even without such a meager demonstration, there was an aura around her that emanated pure power. She was special; there was no doubt about that. Perhaps that was why they protected her, perhaps not. It was a subject of mild interest, but nothing to sway him from his main objective.

From what little research he had done, he was completely convinced she was the last surviving Cetra. An ancient. But this information helped him little, he wanted to know why she had such an effect on him. Why she quieted the voice within him. Being an Ancient, perhaps she knew what he was, would she be willing to help him find out? To understand why he was whatever he was? More than man, but less than human. Could she drive away the madness he felt beating at his temples? He needed to understand. He had tried to gather more information, but the voice had begun to interfere more as it was now. Making concentration ever so difficult, giving him blinding migraines as punishment for his apparent disobedience. Distracting him with mindless routines and mental errands that kept him from thinking clearly.

His mind was softening slowly, the walls of resistance breaking down under the persistent pressure of that voice. It took every inch of sheer stubborn will power for him to sit like a quiet stone, constantly watching his flower girl from afar. The voice half laughed at that last thought, but he could perceive a note of fear in its mockery.  Though it seemed when he was near her the voice was more silent, reduced to an echo in the back of his skull, reverberating softly. This reprieve was comforting, as he'd found himself quite unable to stop the interior from talking lately. The voice, that interior vision of himself, freed from its bonds. Jenova, yes, that was its name. Jenova, the beginning and the end. His creator. 

At the moment, the flower girl was the only thing keeping him from gutting himself, or gutting someone else. Thoughts, such horrible thoughts and feelings and visions, Jenova....the voice....it showed him whatever it pleased now. He'd always known there was something different about himself, separating whatever he was from the rest of the natural world. But even he knew that voices given names inside one's own head was a single giant step into crazy-ville, and he was even surer that visions of eviscerating someone with a butter knife were far from normal. What really worried him was that he felt oddly pleased whenever such thoughts popped into his mind, as it brought a rare smile to his face.

He had seen the company shrinks about the voice for most of his life, and not one could help him understand what was wrong with him. Lately, he wondered if that voice was his at all. He'd always assumed it was, though it never really sounded like him but he just passed it off. Just a manifestation of his darker desires, yes that's what it was. Now, it seemed like some other, a force that wanted to bend him to its will for it's own darker purposes.  It was more than just the punishment and the unbearable litany of threats and pleadings that came from the voice.

He couldn't stop it, Jenova, the It had taken something indefinable from him. Whatever It had taken, it was essential to the core of his being but invisible to his conscious mind so that he hadn't noticed when the It had stolen this cog while he slept, unawares. His mind had become an empty vessel, and he could feel bits of himself as they slipped away. Sucked dry by a vortex, its apex where Jenova made its home. He had also become aware that the It had named itself, or perhaps he named it. Remembering little things like that were impossible for him now.

Whatever delicate mental condition he'd been in before had rapidly deteriorated. The only thing his mind could fixate on was the rumblings of Jenova and his need to speak with the flower girl. Surely she could help him, and in the end he felt she was his only hope. So he waited patiently for a slim chance to meet with Aeris.

His chance soon came, he couldn't be sure how many days it had been. She had slipped past the safety net that guarded her. Heading for a little abandoned church she frequented. Sephiroth followed, trying to puzzle out how long he'd been waiting. Perhaps it hadn't been days at all. Maybe it'd been only a few hours, or even a few minutes. Things were so soft. Time had lost all meaning to him. Nothing but disjointed conversations. Was this his mind, or someone else's? It's mine when I want it but it's yours some other times. Red and. Sickness. Writhing. Snakes that curl around my mind like endless spinning envelopes. Gushing. Glistening. Wet and moist. Grab the throat and twist it. How would it look with a great gapping smile? Red and bleeding. Touch the. Skin. Soft. Pink. And when the swallows come. I want to make them pay for that.  Bitch. It's so easy, onetwo. Make them pay. Make her pay. Filthy whore. Of you. I. I am not. What's. I'd like to see those emerald orbs with fear. It's so much better. Kill the toadstool in our garden. Kill the weed that grows in our border. You are the chosen. Kill? She is a flower amongst the weeds. Your feet has snapped the bones and carried swift justice to infidels. Didn't you laugh when it flowed through your feet? Shut up. You rejoiced in the blood you spilt. Kill the little flower. Snap her neck, grind her beneath your boot heel. Find the dripping crimson. See if she's as pretty inside as out. Let your sword drink her blood..... SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! NO! He's ours!! LET HI--

In his most desperate hour while his mind was soft and weak, Sephiroth had almost let go but for the soft humming in the back of his skull. It came to him just as the voice urged him on. A brilliant blue light, so pure that it temporarily drove the sickness from him. He opened his eyes, jubiliant at the hum's return and the voice's quick retreat. A smile curled at his lips, genuine with joy. Quickly fading as he contemplated what his eyes showed him. A vision from his nightmares. His hand wrapped around a slim neck, frightened green orbs gazing at him lazily on the verge of death. Yes, he'd had a dream like this before. His memory being what it was, he rarely remembered once he awoke. But this one had haunted him. He dreamt of killing something so pure that'd stain his soul even until after his death. It would be his everlasting sin and he feared that it would come to pass.

This was no dream. He could feel his hand around her neck, having at some point taken his gloves off. The voice. It....It....Aeris, it had tried to goad him into killing her. Just like in the dream he had over and over and over again. Oh god.....She was gasping for breath, his hand gripping her neck just tightly enough to cut off air but not enough to crush her wind pipe. To kill her slowly. Oh god....Tears stained her face, which was slowly turning blue. Sephiroth went numb, the world stopped and he could feel his body teetering on the edge of collapse. He wanted to throw up but somehow held it at bay. Quickly, he released his hand and she fell limp to the ground, coughing and retching in-between frantic sobs. All he could do was stare in horror. Hand trembling in mid-air. He closed his fist, digging his nails into his skin until it bled. It was the only way to really know if this was reality or a sick dream brought to him by Jenova. His hand throbbed as blood flowed from his wound, slipping between his fingers. Reality. His lip trembled and tears just formed rolled down his pale cheek. Is this human blood? Sephiroth himself collapsed to the ground, and wrapped his arms around his legs. What's wrong with me?

The attack had come out of nowhere; one minute she was pleasantly weeding her garden, the next she was fighting for her life. Aeris sputtered, praying to the gods that she didn't puke. Her breath came in raggidly and she lifted her head to look at her attacker as she rubbed her neck. As she expected, it was him. Sephiroth. Her mind blearily jabbed at her to run, resting could take a backseat to preserving her life. The mind screamed but the body didn't obey, still too taxed to move. So she sat, wheezing like an asthmatic and wondering why she was still alive. She'd figured that this was the moment. A bit different than her dreams, but in the end it would have been the same. Except it wasn't.

He would be killer sat on the ground, not three feet from her, rocking back and forth with his arms wrapped around him. Looking for all the world like a little boy who'd lost his puppy. The thought was almost funny but for the fact that this little boy had tried to kill her moments ago. Time stretched on, Aeris wasn't sure how long she sat there and watched him rocking like that. There was something oddly hypnotic about the sight of Shinra's great General breaking down in the middle of Midgar's slums. It was almost laughable. Indeed, Aeris caught herself with the wisp of a smile on her face, ready to let loose a small giggle. She paused, feeling suddenly guilty, which led to pity as she looked on him once more.

On hand and knee she crawled closer to him tentatively, grasping her forgotten staff in one hand. Just in case. Sephiroth did nothing, continuing his rocking silently. Sadness and pain emanated off him, nearly drowning her in his sorrow. He had seen so much evil, such callousness. Aeris choked on it, realizing suddenly at how weak in mind he was. Physically, she couldn't compare to him. He could lift twice his weight with one hand, snap her neck in an instant, cast deadly magic so fast that you wouldn't even have time to realize your own doom. While she was frail, and though her magic was more powerful than most; there was no way it'd stand up to his mastery of it. It was her mind that gave her strength, her stubborn will not to give up that gave her advantage over him. She had hope given to her by so many, while all he saw was despair. It weighted him and allowed Jenova to enter him. Aeris could see it, spreading tendrils of ichorous poison through his fragile mind. 

Looking back on it, she had no reason to try and help him. To her dying day she never knew really what compelled her to act the way she did that day. She followed her heart, the Cetra in her blood rising to heal someone in need. His hand was bleeding badly; Aeris bit her lip daring herself to inch closer to him. Quietly and carefully she sidled up to him until she was sitting near enough to touch him. Reaching out, she touched his wounded hand with her own. At her touch he let out an odd sort of keening sound before snatching his hand away. Aeris frowned, that wound needed to be treated. She reached out again, this time more determined and less afraid.

"Don't touch me...." came a husky whisper.

Aeris paused, before grabbing it again, "Your hand is hurt. Please, let me heal it....it'll get infected."

"I heal fast." He snatched it away again, lifting his head up slightly so she could see his face, if only a little.

She frowned again....Now he's just being difficult....Aeris glowered at him, her lip sticking out like a two year old who didn't get her way. He watched her for the next few moments with interest. She had reached up at began to pull at the bow that held her hair in place. Untying it with a certain look of resolve on her flawless face, until her hair cascaded down her shoulders in loose waves. He noticed at once that the scarf held a tiny piece of materia. This interested him even more and he lifted his head from its cradle, revealing more of his face.

"Is...that materia?"

"Yes....of course." She said amiably, thinking to herself what an odd conversation she was having.

"What kind?" He asked, his initial reluctance to her touch disappearing. The lightness of her presence was intoxicating.

"I don't know. It doesn't work. See..." She pulled it off her scarf, holding the empty orb up for inspection. Useable materia was suffused with light and would glow brightly when held. Aeris's materia was dark green, not a speck of light emanating from it. It was as useless as a marble. "It was a gift from my mother."

"I never knew my mother...."

"Neither did I really. She died when I was young.....I don't remember much." Aeris replied sadly, gently stuffing the materia in her pocket before she began to work on his injured hand.

"Why are you being so kind to me?" Sephiroth asked pointedly, "I tried to kill you.....I don't deserve anything from you....."

The question stopped Aeris and it took her a moment to respond, "It's a part of who I am. Something I learned from my real mother and my foster mother....Kindness is its own reward."

"Thank you...." he said quietly, looking at her shyly with large jade eyes.

As she wrapped his newly healed hand with her scarf she locked into those eyes. Starting when she realized they had changed from when she first saw him. When he attacked her....his eyes were very different. Instead of the gentle sea foam they were now, they were a bright angry green. Pupils slitted like a cat's. Inhuman eyes. It was Jenova then, and not him. It had controlled him so easily, it was worse than she had initially thought. The planet hummed affirmatively, she was too late.

"Yuh-y-you're welcome...." She stammered, looking down to cover her sudden realization of the truth.

Everything seemed to take on a strange sepia tone, like they were walking through an old photo. The late afternoon light pouring in golden tones as it moved on into evening. Dust motes dancing in the streaming sunlight. Both sat there quietly for sometime, the earth seemingly humming around them. The single realization that had hit Aeris moments ago, also hit Sephiroth. That time was limited, and what both wanted to avoid was inevitable. He had come here with a purpose. To find out what was wrong with him. As their minds intertwined with the earth, he knew that though he couldn't pin point the exact cause of his madness, he knew it was too late to turn back now.

"I think there's something wrong with me. I'm afraid of what I might do. I'm going to hurt people....hurt you. I know it. I need to know what's wrong.....what I am. I think...I mean, I had hoped you might know..." He looked guiltily at the red welt on her neck, "I'm sorry....I should go...."

Sephiroth made as if to get up, but Aeris stopped him gently with her hand, "Don't worry about my neck. I heal fast." She closed her eyes, warm green light surrounded her and the wound was gone. Just like that. "So why does the great General Sephiroth think I know anything about anything? I'm just a simple flower girl. I'm sorry to have wasted your time, but I can't help you...." Aeris bowed as she said this, deciding that this was the time to leave.

 She had found out what she needed to know. It was too late. Aeris had finally accepted her fate. Dusting herself off, Aeris stood up, looking down on Sephiroth one more time before she left. With a nod, she turned around and made her way towards the door. He wouldn't make leaving that simple. She knew something. He could feel it, moreover he didn't want her to leave. The voice had quieted and he was terrified that if she left the voice would come back. That had to avoided, at least until he got what he came here for. In a flash he blocked her way, using his unnatural speed to meet her at the large double doors of the church.

"You're lying, Cetra. I need to know what I am....what's happening to me? Please...."

Her eyes became large and frightened again, "I don't know what you're talking about. Please, let me leave."

With this denial he whipped out the papers he had stolen, giving her a chance to read them. She scanned the document, her face reacting to the words on the page. Subject is thought to be an ancient. To determine Subject's status, expose to specimen SEPH-01. Subject Aeris should have strong negative reaction to sample. Aeris had no idea what sample they were talking about, but she was shocked to see they knew so much about what she was. She opened her mouth to answer Sephiroth, but got no further.

"Don't try to deny it." He pulled back the black silk shirt he'd been wearing to reveal the tattooed number on his arm. "SEPH-01. It's my specimen number. Your reaction when you first met me is confirmation enough I think to assume that the Turks are quite right about you. Not to mention the unusually verdant growth within this church. Little natural light, no water source, and earth that's poisoned with mako. Yet you are able to grow flowers here.....interesting." He paused for affect, pleased when she scowled at him. She couldn't refute the evidence. "You are the last Cetra. As the last Cetra you have a closeness to the planet that gives you the knowledge of many things. What am I? If you don't know already, I think you can find out. I need to know...."

"I don't know anything. Why don't you ask the people who created you?"

"Because they would lie to me or kill me if I became too nosey. Their secrets matter more to them than one flawed specimen. Do you still deny you're the last Cetra?"

"No. Since apparently you, the Turks and everyone at Shinra knows. I am the last and I would have liked to keep that fact secret. But I still can't help you."

"Can't or won't?"

"Can't. If I could help you, I would but it's too late. Can I leave?"

"No. Explain."

Aeris sighed and rubbed her brow, with resignation she led him back into the church. Standing in a sunlight spot she turned around, keeping her eyes on him as she sat down in one graceful motion. Kneeling on a patch of grass in the middle of her garden, she extended a hand inviting him to sit. Sephiroth looked at her warily before sitting down near her. Aeris noted with interest that he sat warrior style. Legs tucked neatly behind him, his hands resting authoritatively on his knees.

She waited patiently for him to get settled. It only took a moment before he peered at her somewhat shyly. Aeris gave him a nervous smile, quickly averting her eyes as she began. With her finger she traced forms into a bare patch of earth near her. She did this with deliberate precision, forming the strokes of the runes carefully so that their meaning could not be mistaken. Sephiroth stared at her as she did this, muddled and confused at her actions. The flower girl paid no mind, continuing to draw the runes. After a few minutes, she was done and she leaned back to examine her work. It was perfect, just as her mother had described to her. Sephiroth wanted explanations, then she'd give it to him straight from the planet itself. Aeris glanced up expectantly at Sephiroth, a pleased smile on her face. As if he was supposed to know what he was supposed to do. He looked from the runes to her, not sure what in the hell she expected.

"I don't understand..." Sephiroth said, his voice a deadpan monotone.

"Look....." Aeris replied quietly, pointing at the runes she'd drawn.

"You said that you'd help me. How does this help?"

"Open your eyes and see....if you want answers." This time her voice was less quiet and more annoyed.

Sighing, Sephiroth looked at the runes again, utterly frustrated and feeling quite stupid as he did so. What in the hell does staring at dirt accomplish? He thought, frowning. He was about to give up again, his mind picking out a ready insult at this stupidity he was forced into.....His thoughts were broken by the distant rumbling of the earth. At first he was worried it was an earthquake, or plate collapse. Then he realized the sound came from within in him, not without. As the rumbling got louder, the runes began to glow. Trails of light following the path Aeris had drawn. This process continued slowly, until each drawing was illuminated with life. The forms of the letters picking themselves up off the solid earth, living puzzle pieces that hovered in midair and then began swirling around him in a bizarrely colored kaleidoscope; until he was surrounded entirely by a wall of pure light.

He looked around in astonishment, unable to judge his surroundings or figure out where he was. Momentarily he felt as if he'd gone blind and a part of him panicked. He struggled up, though it was hard and it felt like someone was trying to hold him down, he did it. Stumbling to his feet, he reached his hands towards the wall and attempted to find a way out. To no avail, the force that held him down asserted its power, lifting him off his feet and placing him down gently in the same place he had gotten up from.

The incandescent wall swirled with life, and color gradually inserted itself into the all white world. Twirling and mixing until a hazy picture formed. In a small cradle nestled in the earth lay a body. Outwardly it appeared female, it's naked body in full view, distorted breasts hung limply from its mangled corpse. Its skin was an odd grayish purple from years of lying in cold earth, waiting to be discovered. How long had these mummified remains lay here? Not even the scientists who worked on her knew. They'd tried to carbon date it, but to no avail. Whatever they'd found defied description and every scientific test known to man.

The corpse itself was in bad condition, with the exception of the upper torso. Her extremities had suffered the worst; the skin was nearly black, wrinkled and leathery. Examining samples from her arms, it seemed that the flesh was liquefying upon contact with the air. Within minutes of being exposed, the arms and legs had completely disintegrated. Leaving only her head and upper torso, which were still oddly supple for a corpse. If you closed your eyes and touched it, it would be hard to tell the difference between it and live skin. Except this skin was cold and quite dead.

Scientists gathered around their unique find to preserve it before the rest of it liquefied. They had figured it had failed all tests because it predated all recorded history. Before man walked erect and left the caves for simple hand made huts. Before the last of the true dragons drew its last breath. This woman walked the earth, hundreds of thousands of years ago. It would even have been safe to say, millions of years ago. It was bandied about that perhaps this was some kind of proto-Cetra. A theory quickly dismissed by Professor Gast, the most knowledgeable source on that subject.

A discussion was on hand, which apparently Sephiroth was not privy to. Their mouths moved, but the sound was kept from him. So he watched on, disturbed that he couldn't understand what they were saying. Though it did comfort him that even if he could hear, he wouldn't understand. Finally they immersed the remains in a vat of what looked to be pure mako in liquid form. The images suddenly speed up, people moving in and out like the swiftly fluttering wings of a humming bird.

The corpse was moved, to a larger tank normally used for immersing future members of SOLDIER. Sephiroth recognized it, as he'd been dunked in more than once for a not-so-pleasant mako bath. Scientists rushed past in fast motion, angry little bees performing their mindless repetitive tasks. Checking the fluid levels, making little notations, taking blood samples from the corpse in the tank. Incredibly it seemed the corpse thrived in the tank, almost as if it was alive and feeding off the mako provided to it by the helpful scientists. The images flew faster and Sephiroth had a hard time keeping up with it. They flooded his mind, with thoughts and pictures so fast that he was nearly unable to bear it. Just when he thought he'd loose it if didn't stop, the images slowed down and returned to a more normal speed.

The same corpse encapsulated in a tankful of mako, but now he could see more of it. He gasped inwardly; he recognized the lab the corpse had been put in. It was Shinra's main lab, the very place where he'd been tortured and tested over and over and over again. A gurney was rolled into in limited view, so that the young woman who was strapped to it could view the corpse. Sephiroth narrowed his eyes. She looked very much like Aeris, and he guessed that this might have been her mother or some other relative. The resemblance between their faces, the too-green eyes, right down to the curve of her lips. It was too much; she looked almost exactly like Aeris, only older and with dark hair.

The woman seemed quite serene, until her eyes lighted on the tank and what was inside it. For a lack of a better word, she freaked out. Though Sephiroth could see why she might, most people aren't ceremoniously wheeled in front of a torso floating in mako. Still, her reaction was a little over the top. She seemed terrified beyond rational thought, pulling at her restraints with such force that she was in danger of toppling the gurney. She screamed at an unseen person, seemingly behind her. The sound was once again muted and all he caught was her mouthing the word Jenova. Which startled him, because that had been the name the voice used, it had been his mother's name...at least according to Hojo.

The woman had stopped screaming and merely trembled as she had realized fighting accomplished nothing. Another figure entered the vision, coming up from behind, the apparent driver of the gurney. He kept his back to the vision; the only distinguishing feature was his lank, greasy black hair. Another man burst in from an adjacent door, his fine features contorted in anger. He was handsome in a rather geeky way. His hair was unkempt, but somehow fell in the right manner over his bespectacled eyes to make him attractive rather than repulsive. He pushed his heavy glasses up, continuing his silent diatribe, jabbing his finger at the other scientist for emphasis on whatever point he was trying to make. Enraged he pointed to the woman on the gurney, her being there seemed to upset him. His reaction seemed not that of subject and researcher, but as one lover to another. The unprofessional kind of upset, at least in the scientific community.

The black haired figure turned around, as if to ignore him. Giving Sephiroth his first look at this mysterious figure. Hojo, it was Hojo, though much younger than Sephiroth remembered him looking. There was no mistaking that man. Sephiroth suddenly paid more attention to the man still screaming at Hojo's turned back. The I.D. tag on his lab coat said Gast, boldly printed in large letters that set next to a rather awful I.D. quality photo. Sephiroth had heard the name, who hadn't? Gast was the man responsible for materia, he had invented the mako refining process. Allowing Shinra and the world to use mako to power just about everything. With that, he also developed the process that created materia, enabling normal people to use magic. It had revolutionized the way the world worked. Though there were many who protested, worried that bleeding the very lifeblood of the earth was slowly killing the planet.

Five years after he'd done all that, Gast had disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The official story was he'd been kidnapped and more than likely killed by a Pro-planet faction. Though no body was ever found, nor any evidence to back the story up. But Shinra ruled the world, and no one dared question them. It left Sephiroth wondering what Aeris wanted him to see. How did Gast fit in to this puzzle that seemed to become more and more complex with every moment? Sephiroth paused, understanding. The woman looked like Aeris, because she was related to her. More than likely her mother, and Gast was probably her father. Another pair of pawns in Shinra's twisted game, playing with life like a careless child.

In the vision, Gast quieted when he realized Hojo wasn't listening. He approached the woman on the gurney and began to work at her restraints. Releasing one arm, for which the woman was visibly grateful. She reached up and touched his cheek gently. Gast smiled and titled his head in acceptance of the gesture. Hojo only smiled, craggy, yellowed teeth poking out from underneath his twisted lips. He made a gesture with one of his hands and four armored guards stepped from the shadows with guns raised. They pointed them at Gast, and he immediately stopped what he was doing. Gast looked at Hojo's back with utter contempt, holding his hands up in surrender. Two of the guards grabbed Gast by his arms and dragged him out of the room. Hojo was now alone with the woman.

He approached the Aeris doppelganger; the same cruel smile on his face. She backed away from him, eyeing his hand, which had slipped into his pocket. He pulled out a syringe, his smile becoming orgasmic at the fear in her eyes. Hojo tried to grab onto one of her wrists, but the woman fought him. Slapping and scratching him as he tried to get a hold of her, all the while a translucent stream of tears cascaded down her cheeks. He finally was able to restrain her, wrapping one bony hand around her wrist. Holding her down, he stuck the needle in the arm with little regard for her comfort. The woman wept, and the powers that be focused in on the cruel instrument that drew out her blood. It stayed there, as the quality of the vision began to blur.

Colors ran together, the light transforming and clearing upon a new vision. Once more, he saw Hojo in a lab he'd never see before. It didn't look like one of Shinra's standard work spaces, it was a personal one. Sephiroth was a warrior not a scientist, but even he could identify the tools used in genetic research. The black blood from Jenova being injected into another victim. Some nameless assistant to Hojo, a poor woman who he raped, impregnated and now used as another test subject for an experiment. The blood continued to pour over all else. Black and dark red overwhelming all sight, until the next vision came. The same assistant lying in the same unfamiliar lab, screaming as doctors ripped the child she'd carried for nine months from her belly. It was a boy, a white haired boy. Created from the blood of an unknown specimen. No, not unknown. Jenova. That was its name.

Before his eyes, the baby grew into a child and the child into a teenager and that teenager into a young man. Sephiroth looked at a mirror image. His future self, seemingly only five or so years older than he was now. And behind his older self, Jenova's serpentine eyes glared and he could feel her smirking. Blood gushed forward, and before his eyes, he saw a town in flames. At first he thought it might be memories from Wutai, but then he looked closer. It was a town he didn't recognize. The buildings were unfamiliar, at least from what he could see through the smoke. It cleared a bit, and he could see the faint form of mountains behind the smoke and flame. 

Bodies littered the ground, men, women and children. All together in piles, under his feet a mountain of bodies. This mountain town, this place of death and suffering. With every step he brought death, the blood of those he killed spreading until it covered all he could see. The blood receded and all was white again, the only thing in this vast field of nothingness was Aeris. She knelt in prayer, her hands clasped tightly as she recited a mantra. Her eyes opened and the vision Aeris looked right into Sephiroth's eyes. The scene skipped and Aeris fell forward seemingly for no reason. Time flipped back, she was praying again but this time in an actual temple. A shadow crashed from above, as if to engulf the young flower girl. The shadow was him, but it's eyes were Jenova's. Sephiroth watched himself gut Aeris, sliding the masamune through her back. Smiling as it tore through her guts, impaling her. Oh, god.....from there he saw the millions he would kill. Their souls reaching out to damn him.

He woke up screaming and retching, curled up on the cold ground inside the abandoned church. Sephiroth looked up, expecting to see Aeris still standing in front of him. But she was gone. He looked around desperately, shaking with fear of himself and what the vision told him he'd become. Now he knew what he was.