A/N: Bit of a longer chapter this time! That tends to happen with Seph, it seems...
Chapter Five
"So what does the second letter say?" Tifa asked.
Sephiroth studied the letter again, reading the instructions. "There is a four number combination to open a safe, which I assume is located somewhere within the manor. However," he added, a bit of contempt creeping into his tone, "We will have to find the numbers. The letter has instructions on how to find them."
"Oh, so it's like…It's a scavenger hunt?" Tifa tapped her chin in thought.
"I suppose that is what is meant by 'game' in the first letter," Sephiroth concluded. He scanned the document for the clues to finding the numbers. By the bottom however, he narrowed his eyes. The first three numbers had silly riddles to explain where they were located. The fourth was blank. He turned the paper over to study the back. Nothing. He turned it back over, rereading for any clues or anything out of place. Tifa leaned forward curiously, but he kept the paper out of the girl's reach.
Hojo would pull something like this, he mused. Give them a problem with no answer. Then again, everything else seemed a bit too thought out to end so simply. His head throbbed lightly as he read the words in the dimly lit manor. He strode over to one of the windows to read it in the light of the afternoon sun.
Why is it that anything involved with this scientist always seems to end in a migraine? He held up the paper once again, reading over the clues. He stopped. Just after the third row was a tiny reflection. The paper was slightly shinier. Sephiroth held the paper up higher and adjusted the angle.
"You find something?" Tifa wandered over to where he was standing and began to tap her foot lightly. Sephiroth realized she was probably getting impatient with his ignoring her questions. Well, she'd have something to do soon enough.
Now at the correct angle, and with a little help from mako-enhanced vision, a fourth line could be spotted. Dial (4) is (Right 97). Sephiroth smirked.
"Alright," he finally handed the letter to Tifa. "The first clue is 'The lid of the box with the most oxygen.' Let's see what we can find." He did a quick look around the room and, finding nothing applicable to the clue, nodded to the door. "Come. We'll move on to the next room."
The pair began their search through the dreary manor, kicking down several locked doors in the process. One room revealed a group of Dorky Faces, which Sephiroth quickly disposed of. Tifa stood to the side as he cut the last of the grinning monsters down.
"You're a First Class, right?"
Sephiroth straightened from his attack position, holding Masamune at his side. "I am."
"Are there a lot of Firsts?" Tifa asked, eyeing his uniform curiously. Sephiroth's eyes flicked away for a moment before answering.
"No." Not anymore.
"Huh…" Tifa turned around, looking for the first number to the safe. Sephiroth relished the silence for a moment until Tifa spoke again. "Do you know anyone named Cloud?"
Again with the 'Cloud' person. Sephiroth thought, trying to remember if he had heard the name before. He knew most of the soldiers by their surnames. He figured he'd notice if he had come across an operative named after condensation. It did ring a bell, though.
"Surname?" he asked.
"Strife. His name's Cloud Strife. He grew up here in Nibelheim," Tifa provided. Sephiroth noted how hopeful she looked. He tried to recall the odd name. Cloud Strife. Unusual, to be sure. He felt it had stuck out to him on some official document. A weapons order, or perhaps a mission briefing…?
That was it.
Strife. The name of the infantryman assigned to accompany him and Zack for this mission. Zack had even mentioned one of his friends lived in this town. But had Cloud been the friend's first name? He couldn't recall. Sephiroth frowned, uneasy. Normally he could remember facts like these with no problem.
He looked to Tifa, who was quiet in anticipation, biting her lower lip.
"I know of a Strife," he said, finally. "However, I do not know if he is the one you're referring to. I haven't met him."
"Is he in SOLDIER?"
"No, he's in the infantry." A thought occurred to him and he added, "He may be working to join SOLDIER." He was certain the information wouldn't be enough to satisfy the endlessly curious girl, but to his surprise Tifa had a knowing smile on her lips.
"That would explain why he hasn't written home." She sighed softly. "That dork, I bet he's too embarrassed because he hasn't made it in yet." She looked up at Sephiroth and smiled at him. "Thanks, his mom and I were getting worried about him. I bet he's disappointed he hasn't met you, though."
Sephiroth gave her a questioning look.
Tifa laughed. "You're his idol. The only reason I recognized you was because Cloud would never stop talking about you."
Oh good, Sephiroth thought disdainfully. A fanboy. He grunted at the notion and moved to go to the next room. Yet another locked door stood in his way, though it made a satisfying crunching sound as he kicked it off its hinges. He and Tifa entered the largely empty room. It contained nothing more than a small round table and a grand piano covered in dust. Tifa ran up to the instrument excitedly.
"Hey, pianos have an open lid. I bet the first number is somewhere around here!" Sephiroth gave her a dubious look as she began to examine the piano and the area surrounding it.
It isn't exactly a box, he thought. The object they were looking for was probably more literal. Hojo wasn't exactly the most creative with his riddles. Then again, Hojo had never been very creative with anything unless it involved several different chemicals and the potential of an interesting outcome from mixing them all together. He didn't bother himself with silly notions like games, at least not the Hojo Sephiroth knew. The professor enjoyed fluffing his own ego by showing off his projects. He wouldn't waste time with something like this unless he wanted to build up suspense.
"Aha!" Tifa shot Sephiroth a grin from behind the piano. "There's a note here that says '(Left 10).' I bet that's the first number." She took out the clue letter again and studied it. "Let's see…Next is 'Behind the Ivory's short of tea and ray.'"
Sephiroth paused. That sounded suspiciously like the object they were standing next to now. "Left 10 must be the second number. That clue points to the piano."
"What? But what about the open lid?" Tifa pouted.
"The number would be on the piano lid, in that case," Sephiroth stated. "The clue you found was behind the piano. Behind the Ivory."
Tifa puffed her cheeks in annoyance, but didn't question the soldier's logic. "Well at least we found a number."
"Indeed." Sephiroth crossed his arms over his chest and looked around the rest of the room. "The last two numbers are likely to be on the second floor." The rest of the first floor had not provided any other clues. Just a plethora of low-level monsters and a room full of chairs. Besides, the next clue explicitly stated it was on the second floor.
"I thought there were four numbers?" Tifa questioned. She reviewed the letter again and started. "There's no fourth clue!"
"It's in invisible ink. The fourth number is Right 97."
Tifa eyed the soldier suspiciously. Sephiroth shrugged briefly and shook his head.
"That's what it says."
She looked at the letter again, squinting at it. Titled the paper up and down. Finding nothing, she pouted again.
"We should find the next number," Sephiroth stated, impatient.
Tifa stood, still carefully examining the letter. "Okay, how about you take the left wing and I'll take the right?" she offered. The soldier nodded curtly and made his way out of the room and up the staircase, leaving her to ponder over the letter's secret writing.
From the third clue from the letter, they should be looking for a creak in the floorboards. As Sephiroth made his way up the deteriorating wooden staircase, he mentally grumbled at the fact that the floorboards probably all creaked by now. He wondered idly why no one had gone looking for this particular Turk after all this time. Turks were few and far between at Shin-Ra, especially now. It took a special set of skills to become one, so a missing Turk was usually treated as rather important. Although, he surmised, it was likely that Hojo simply shrugged it off and claimed the man had been killed in action. It was common enough for Turks and SOLDIERs, so no one would be as suspicious of his sudden disappearance.
Sephiroth approached the end of the left hall, finding three shut doors. He tested the doorknob of the one on the right first. No sense in kicking down doors without attempting to open them civilly first. The door, surprisingly, was unlocked, and opened up into a spacious interior. Impressively filled bookcases lined the walls, and a desk with some of the scientists' old equipment stood by the windows. Between the desk and the bookcases, however, was a hulking safe covering half the wall. Sephiroth gave it a cursory glance, making note of its location and then moving onto the next room.
The middle door, once again unlocked, revealed a small, circular greenhouse. The plants had been sustaining themselves rather well, for being decades old. Hojo must have been experimenting with materia effects on plants again. Sephiroth ignored the potentially mutant flora in favor of a small gold chest, hidden partially behind some empty flower pots. He knelt and opened it, finding what appeared to be a gun attachment piece. An Enemy Launcher, if he wasn't mistaken with the model. Shin-Ra had a few on their robo-guards in Junon, though he had never seen the gun unattached. He placed the weapon back inside the chest, unable to think of a use for it.
When he went to close the lid of the chest again, a series of light scratch marks in the metal caught his eye. The scratches proved to be just the clue he had been searching for. (Right 36). One more number, then. An open box certainly had the most oxygen, he surmised. The plants cleaning the air may have been a hint as well. Sephiroth shut the lid and made his way to the final room, wondering if Tifa had found the last number yet.
The last room in the left wing ended up being the only one that had been locked. Sephiroth kicked it in without much ado, but the room itself proved to be far more concerning than anything he had discovered so far. It was a bedroom, free of dust and clearly lived in. The beds were made neatly, with military precision, and the room itself was largely clean apart from one aspect. The sight of what was scattered about the room caused his stomach to twist in knots.
Dumbapples.
The unmistakable purple fruits were carelessly placed all over the room, as well as a few cans of Banora dumbapple juice. One of his friends' favorite beverages from home. The memory of Angeal and Genesis enjoying the cans after a training session flashed vividly in Sephiroth's mind. They had still had smiles in their eyes, then. Sephiroth found himself unwilling to step inside the room, though it was empty of threats.
Sephiroth needed no more proof. Genesis had been staying in Nibelheim. Very recently, if the fresh apples were any indication. The townspeople were in far more danger from mutated monsters than they realized. His head ached.
A loud creaking noise emanating from the other wing snapped Sephiroth out of his reverie. Tifa had found the creak described in the letter. He took another glance at the bedroom, his expression darkening. Then with a sharp turn, he headed to the other side of the manor. Fixing the reactor was no longer his first priority.
This time he'd end Genesis himself.
He found Tifa stepping carefully down the hallway, letter in hand. The girl turned in place and muttered, "…up six steps…" She stopped and looked around her feet, only to grin, and then kneel to examine a floorboard. "Aha!"
"Find it?" Sephiroth asked.
"Yep, it says '(Right 59).' Did you have any luck?" Tifa stood up again, adjusting her hat. Sephiroth gave her a curt nod before heading back to the left wing, not offering her any more information. The girl followed quickly in a huff of impatience.
Reaching the room with the safe, Sephiroth approached it. He knelt in front of the lock and set to work, taking care to not overshoot the numbers.
Right 36, the lock clicked.
Left 10, Tifa fidgeted behind him.
Right 59, the girl leaned forward hoping to get a better look at what would be inside.
Right 97. Sephiroth heard the lock completely disengage. As he made to open the safe's door, a thought occurred to him. At most, the safe would have a key for the locked door in the basement.
Then why is the safe so large?
The soldier got his answer when something from inside the safe smashed against the door, sending both he and Tifa falling backwards as the safe swung open. Both quickly jumped to their feet just in time to see a large monster, an obvious pet of Hojo. Half of the being was a bright fiery red, with flaring tentacle protrusions sprouting from its head. The other half was a deep violet that faded to green at its hand and foot. The beast opened its enormous maw and growled at the two before settling into an attacking stance.
"What is that?!" Tifa shouted, raising her fists in a defensive position. Sephiroth summoned Masamune at once, hitting the beast with a long slash across its mid-section. He'd figure out what it was after it was dead.
Tifa, to Sephiroth's surprise, jumped into action shortly after his own attack. The girl got in a few swift punches before rolling out of harm's way, the monster's arm crashing down onto the floor. Tifa yelped as some of the floorboards splintered, creating a small hole to the first level. She jumped toward the set of bookcases, the monster following closely. Sephiroth used the beast's moment of distraction to his advantage, cleaving off the arm entirely. It howled angrily as the appendage fell to the floor, and its purple coloring began to extend to its other half. Soon the beast was entirely violet, and it lost its head protrusions entirely.
Definitely one of Hojo's. Sephiroth grimaced, readying his sword again. He'd have to observe it carefully now; no telling what a mid-battle mutation could mean for it. He watched as Tifa ducked under the remaining arm, earning another punch to the monster's gut. The monster barely flinched this time. It made to step on the offending girl to put a stop to these lighter attacks, but stopped midway as its foot was impaled on a crystal. Sephiroth let loose the full power of his Ice 3 spell, striking the creature with a barrage of icicles. It fell to the floor and lie there, motionless.
Tifa stood to the side of the corpse, leaning on her knees. "What…" she panted, "Why was that in the safe?!"
Sephiroth studied the monster curiously. He could see no reason to keep it in the safe unless something more valuable than the basement key was inside. Either that, or it was just for Hojo's amusement. A way to make the 'game' more interesting. Sephiroth moved around the girl and made his way to the open safe. He stopped short, spotting something gleaming from behind the monster's leg. He knelt and picked it up.
"Is that the key?" Tifa asked, carefully edging her way around the monster.
"No. Materia." Summon materia, to be exact. Sephiroth examined it closely, using a bit of his magic to probe its type. He shut his eyes, the materia relaying a hazy image in his mind. A figure silhouetted against the full moon. A fully armored knight atop a six-legged horse. The knight raised his blade and charged his horse down the mountain, the sword erupting in flames. Zantetsuken.
Odin.
Sephiroth opened his eyes again to examine the materia. Summons were rare enough, warranting a majority of the Materia Department's studies at Shin-Ra. He pondered why Hojo would hide such a valuable thing, as opposed to studying its power for himself. He turned back to the safe, spotting the basement key in the bottom corner. Pocketing the materia for now, he retrieved the key and stood. He nodded to the door, indicating to Tifa that they should get moving.
The girl spared one more glance at the safe as Sephiroth strode past her. "Wait," she muttered. She knelt and reached into the very back of the depths of the safe.
"The key should have been the only thing in there," Sephiroth started. His attempts to dissuade the girl fell on deaf ears.
"No, I saw something, I—" Tifa smiled as she got a hold of her prize. "Ha! Told you," she pulled her hand back out and paused.
"Well?" Sephiroth questioned, crossing his arms.
"It's a…" Tifa held the object at arm's length. "It's a gun!"
Sephiroth took the weapon from her and examined it. A Quicksilver model, the kind he'd seen in the regular weapon stores at Headquarters. Hardly something Hojo would use. He turned it over in his hand. It looked well taken care of, if a bit dusty. It could belong to the Turk, though why Hojo would hide it brought up even more questions. The more he found in this manor, the less he understood. From what he could piece together, the Turk had somehow gotten in Hojo's way, earning him a one-way ticket to the labs. But, that was as far as he could glean. Why Hojo had hidden the Turk's belongings, or why he'd locked him up in the basement didn't make sense to him.
He stored the gun within his coat, intending to bring it back with him for testing. He toyed with the idea of getting Hojo removed from the company permanently for using an employee as a test subject, though he was certain the President was well aware of the scientist's offenses. Experimenting on a wayward Turk was probably one of the man's lesser evils.
"What was that doing in there?" Tifa asked, standing.
"I wouldn't know."
Tifa frowned at him, visibly getting tired of his uninformative answers. "What are you gonna do with it?"
"None of your business." Sephiroth turned to leave. "Let's get moving."
The girl followed after him eagerly. Moving away from the monster's body seemed the most appealing option. "Guess we should find that basement, then."
"There doesn't seem to be a way to access the basement." Sephiroth approached the stair railing.
"Maybe the way down is on this level," Tifa suggested. "I did find a weird looking spot in the room where I found the squeaky floorboard." At Sephiroth's nod, Tifa led the way to a small bedroom down the hall. The far corner housed a large stone pillar, at odds with the old wood on either side of it. Sephiroth approached it interestedly.
"It's weird, right?" Tifa stood to the side, watching. "I don't remember seeing anything like this in the other rooms." Her eyes widened at a loud clicking noise, caused by Sephiroth pressing down on a brick that was slightly off-color from the others. With a crash, a section of the pillar swung to the side, revealing a long path of wood spiraling into the depths of the manor.
Tifa walked closer to the entrance and peered downward. The bottom was dark, though there was a faint light flickering on and off. The wooden path looked rotten, with pieces missing or having fallen onto lower sections. A chill air wafted up, carrying the sound of low growls from monsters hidden in the depths. The girl turned to Sephiroth and pointed at the walkway.
"You first."
The soldier restrained himself from rolling his eyes. So much for the brashness that had gotten them started on this manhunt. Slowly, carefully, he made his way onto and down the wooden planks. As the two progressed, Sephiroth found himself grasping the outer wall to regain his balance after pieces of the walkway broke off and fell below. Even his SOLDIER enhancements weren't making it any less treacherous.
Safely at the bottom, the pair found themselves in a cavernous hallway. Tifa walked closer to Sephiroth, avoiding the broken, disfigured skeletons littered all over the ground. Some were humanoid in shape while others…Well, it was one of Hojo's playgrounds, after all. Sephiroth ducked around several chains hanging from the ceiling. The sound of growls grew louder.
"This is really creepy…" Tifa muttered, lifting her foot over a particularly large skull. She got as close to Sephiroth as she dared. "Is this some sort of torture chamber?"
"You're the one that wanted to search for the body," Sephiroth reminded her. His comment earned him an annoyed scowl. Ahead, Sephiroth could see the faint glow of an incandescent light. He walked closer, finding a door hanging ajar. He was suspicious at first. The letter had explicitly stated that the Turk was locked in the basement. Supposedly, no one had disturbed this place since then.
Apart from Genesis.
The thought pressed him forward. He reached to push the door open.
"Hey, you walked right past it!" Tifa stood a short distance behind him, next to a door that was tightly shut.
Sephiroth debated a moment. The one she stood next to was clearly the door they were looking for. However, he already knew what they'd find in there. A corpse. Nothing to really tell him what the scientists had been doing here initially. The unlocked door irked him. And, when he considered the state of the place, it was a bit unlikely that Genesis had even discovered the basement. The ex-SOLDIER had only disturbed the bedroom, from the looks of it. He should just unlock the door with the Turk and end this silly game of Hojo's, but the open door nagged at him. Almost like it was taunting him. Even if Genesis hadn't discovered this room, it could still contain items and notes left from the scientists. He stared at the unlocked door.
This room has the answers I'm seeking.
"Sephiroth?"
The soldier started. Tifa was standing next to him now, her features scrunched into a look of concern. Sephiroth stared back down at her in confusion.
"What are you staring off into space for?" she asked. She waved at the locked door. "It's over here. We just need to unlock it."
There's nothing of use in there.
Sephiroth looked from the locked door to the unlocked one again. There wasn't much point in him checking, was there? It hadn't been his idea to search for the dead Turk in the first place. He was in the manor to investigate the reason the scientists had come to Nibelheim, not participate in Hojo's games.
He handed the basement key to Tifa. "You find the Turk. I want to see if there's anything left in this room." He turned away from the girl and pushed the door open completely.
Bookcases.
Bookcases lined the walls, filled to the brim with pages upon pages of texts. To his right, Sephiroth could see several pieces of equipment that the scientists had left behind. Two mako tanks stood in the corner, their instruments covered in a thick layer of dust. The soldier ignored the devices for now in favor of the books.
Picking one off the shelf, he searched for the title. Once again in Hojo's scrawl were two words:
'JENOVA Project'
Sephiroth stared at the words. Jenova?
Mother?
What was his mother's name doing in here? Referencing one of Hojo's projects, no less? Is this just a coincidence? He opened the book, finding a table of contents listing procedures to an experiment. He scanned the contents page. The titles sounded eerily familiar as he read along, the vocabulary reminiscent of some other notes he had read. He flipped to the abstract. The methods. All of it sounded like Project G. But Hojo certainly wouldn't copy a hack like Hollander's experiment. Finding another scientist's name, Sephiroth concluded the notes couldn't possibly refer to G.
Professor Gast had nothing to do with that project.
Sephiroth pinched the bridge of his nose. His headache was getting worse. His skull throbbed with pressure from the headache that still continued to plague him, but his mind goaded him on to read further. Why would Gast be in Nibelheim? He placed the book back on the shelf and picked up another. Flipping to a random page, he read. 'X Year, X Month, X Day. Jenova confirmed to be an Ancient.'
He flipped through the pages, absorbing what information he could. Then he moved to the next book. Each had details of milestones in the experiment. A seemingly dead organism discovered in a two thousand year old geological stratum. Named JENOVA by Professor Gast. JENOVA confirmed to be an ancient, or Cetra. The Jenova Project approved by Shin-Ra for the creation of a new Cetra.
A chosen one.
Sephiroth made his way down the rows of bookcases, turning pages rapidly. Finding a desk, he idly sat on the edge of it.
Gast…his stomach clenched as he read the man's notes on the finding of the ancient being. Why didn't you tell me anything? …Why did you die? Surely the man would have told him if his mother was an ancient. But two thousand years old? It doesn't make any sense. But… Sephiroth struggled to remember. Who was it who told me my mother's name was Jenova? Was it Gast? He would have known about this. Or was it…
"SE-PHI-ROTH!"
Sephiroth's eyes snapped up from the book. Tifa was standing directly in front of him, hands on her hips. Her brows knitted in an irritated glare. Sephiroth stared at her. How long had she been there?
"I've been calling! Repeatedly!" she explained, thoroughly exasperated. She gestured behind her. "You need to see this."
Sephiroth glanced at the book in his hand. No, he thought. He needed to read these notes. He needed to know what Gast and Hojo had been doing in Nibelheim, and how his mother's name was involved. Why it was the name of an ancient. Why none of these notes were at Shin-Ra. Why he'd never heard about this project, even while combing through everything on Project G.
Why?
His head throbbed.
"Hey." Tifa grabbed a hold of his arm, trying to get his attention. She tugged lightly on his bicep. "Come on, I need your help. You can read later, okay?" He jerked his arm out of her grasp and returned to the book.
"Let me be alone." Sephiroth rested his eyes back on the pages of Gast's notes.
The book flew out of his hands.
Sephiroth watched as it smacked against the shelf and fell open to the floor, pages crumpling under its own weight. He let it lay there for a few moments, simply processing what had just happened. He slowly turned his gaze back to the girl, otherwise unmoving. Tifa stood tall, her red eyes gleaming with fiery determination.
His hands stung slightly from where she had slapped them.
"You," she spoke, her voice hard and angry. "You've been brushing me off since we got here. I was just down the hall, yelling for you, and from the looks of things you didn't budge an inch!" The hand she had slapped him with returned to her side, balling into a fist. "I thought SOLDIERs were supposed to have super hearing. You should've heard me. So basically, you've just been ignoring me in here, reading that stupid book! What if there had been another monster? What if I'd been calling for help?"
Sephiroth sat silently. He hadn't ignored her. He hadn't heard her in the first place. But, she did make a fine point. With his SOLDIER hearing he should have been able to hear her easily. The fact that he hadn't heard her at all worried him. His silence appeared to irritate the girl more as she stomped on the ground.
"Ugh, you're such a jerk! At the very least you should come help me with the guy that got experimented on! After all, that is why we came down here." Tifa held out her hand then, holding it just next to his own. "Come on."
Sephiroth studied the girl in front of him. Even Zack didn't have the guts to slap something out of his hands. He had to admit, Tifa was braver than most of the people he knew. He was so used to the awe and reverence they held around him that her action had caught him completely off-guard. Others wouldn't dare touch his person. And yet, here was this teenage girl from the middle of nowhere with more guts than a majority of his SOLDIERs. And now she expected him to follow her orders.
It was a bit amusing, really.
"Well?" she probed. "Come on, or do I have to drag you over there?"
Slowly, Sephiroth nodded. "I'll follow." To his surprise, Tifa rolled her eyes and proceeded to grab his hand and drag him along anyway.
"Yeah right, you'll follow," he heard her mutter. As she led him out of the underground library, he wondered what had happened while he'd been reading. How he'd completely zoned out. He should have checked out the other room himself, after all. What had he been thinking, sending a teenage girl to find some experiment of Hojo's? They'd fought that thing from the safe already – he should have expected Hojo to keep some other creature in the basement for a laugh. He shook his head. This room had seemed so much more important.
It is more important.
He narrowed his eyes. Was it? The whole reason we're down here is to find the Turk, he thought. He should have finished that task first. This wasn't like him, abandoning his initial goals just before he completed them. Yes, the information in the library was something he'd have to look into more, but it could wait. The books weren't going anywhere. The feeling of necessity lingered though, threatening to engulf his thoughts again. Like a little whisper in the back of his mind, insisting that he read. Abandon everything else. The books were more important. Sephiroth frowned.
Something was wrong.
Tifa tugged his arm again. They were standing in front of the room where the Turk resided, and he hadn't noticed. "Hey." She peered up into his face, still frowning at him. "What's with you? You're even quieter than before."
Sephiroth removed his hand from her grasp, gently this time. He set his jaw. He wasn't used to saying this, but he figured it was probably appropriate given his behavior.
"My apologies."
Tifa continued to watch his face, openly doubting her own hearing. "…Really?"
"I was…" he tried to find the right words to describe what had happened. The problem was that he wasn't sure himself. "…lost in thought," he decided. "I should have come when you called."
Tifa eyed him suspiciously for a moment, but her frown was soon replaced by a small smile. "Yeah, you should have. You'll pay more attention now?" She held her hands behind her back and rolled back and forth on the balls of her feet. "I don't want you brushing me off again."
Sephiroth gave her a quick nod. "Yes."
"Good!" Tifa beamed and moved to go into the room. "Let's go, then. You really need to see this."
Stepping inside, Sephiroth noted with scorn that the previously locked room was filled with not one but five coffins. The one in the middle was open, its stone lid on the floor, cracked. Tifa clearly hadn't cared about how carefully the lid should have been removed. Sephiroth wondered how he had missed the crashing noise it must have made when Tifa let it fall. Inside the coffin, though, was something he hadn't been expecting to find at all.
A body.
Not a skeleton that had over two decades to decay. A flesh and blood corpse, lying perfectly still as though its occupant were merely sleeping. The man's skin was pale, but still tight around his smooth jawline. Sephiroth couldn't see any signs of decay from the man's face, and his body appeared likewise intact.
This can't be the Turk. He stepped up to the body and then glanced at Tifa. "Did you check the others?"
The girl nodded. "They're all empty..." She began to twist her hair between her fingers nervously as she stared at the body.
Sephiroth returned his gaze to the man in the coffin. A deep red cloak covered most of his thin frame, but the soldier could see that his left arm glinted gold. He moved the cloak over and saw armor running from the man's forearm to his fingertips. Looking closer, it appeared to be a large gauntlet. Then again, if this was the Turk, it was just as likely that Hojo had cut off the man's arm and replaced it with this clawed appendage. Tifa crept closer, watching the still form warily. Sephiroth looked at his face again. Not a twitch of movement. The man didn't appear to be breathing, but just to be sure Sephiroth moved to the other side of the coffin. He removed his glove and reached for the man's wrist to check his pulse, the silence almost deafening.
Both Sephiroth and Tifa jumped as a sharp ringing noise tore through the quiet, echoing eerily against the cavernous walls. After a moment of fright, Tifa pulled a PHS out of her pocket. She laughed awkwardly as she read the name of the caller. Holding to her ear, she answered with a nervous edge to her voice. "Papa?"
Sephiroth huffed. Of all the times for the mayor to call. It was a wonder they even had cell service down here. He turned back to check for a pulse when Tifa spoke again.
"We have to go back. Papa needs to talk to you." The girl placed the device back in the pocket of her skirt. When Sephiroth made no sign of moving, she gestured to the door. "I really doubt that guy's going anywhere."
Sephiroth frowned, but complied. The Turk would have been here for years. The lack of decay may only mean that the man in the coffin wasn't the one they had been looking for.
"We can check this place out again tomorrow after you've checked the reactor." Tifa waited by the door, simpering. "About my dad…Sorry, Sephiroth."
Sephiroth spared a final glance at the body before walking past her. "It's fine," he muttered. This mission wasn't turning out the way he expected with all he'd found in the mansion. He'd get his answers soon enough. Starting with the mayor's demand to see him.
"I want you to give me your word." Mayor Lockhart stood imposingly in front of the door to his home. "You keep Tifa safe."
Sephiroth stared at the man impassively. This is what had been so important to call him back for? The girl in question had already been ordered up to her room to get some sleep for tomorrow's hike. The pair had rushed back, thinking the mutated monsters had managed to get inside the town somehow. Instead it was this. Demands. Pointless demands. Sephiroth tightened his arms across his chest.
"Well?" the mayor pressed, his hands on his hips, very much resembling the way Tifa had stood when she had lectured Sephiroth earlier.
I see where she gets her stubborn streak, Sephiroth observed. He tilted his head slightly, expression unchanging. "…Fine."
"That's all you have to say? 'Fine?'" Lockhart glowered at the soldier. "I'm entrusting my only daughter to you, you damn well better bring her back safe and sound, you hear me?"
Sephiroth narrowed his eyes. He'd never understand people like this. So worried about their capable child's well-being. Tifa could handle the monsters on the mountain. From her admittance that she'd gone to see them in the first place, he was confident she could handle herself. He'd witnessed as much in the manor.
"I would have protected her to the best of my abilities regardless," Sephiroth stated flatly. "However, if you are so concerned, then…" He restrained himself from glaring at the man outright. "…You have my word. I will keep her safe."
Lockhart visibly relaxed. "Good," he nodded to the soldier. "Just so we're clear." He turned to head inside. "See you tomorrow, then." With that, the mayor closed the door. The light filtering out from the window was extinguished.
Sephiroth turned on his heel and walked back toward the inn. That conversation had been a complete waste of time. He debated going back to the manor to check on the mystery man in the basement, but the stars peeking out from behind the clouds convinced him that sleep might be a better plan. After all, as Tifa had said, the man leaving the manor was rather unlikely.
Although, if Hojo was involved, one could never be certain.
Sephiroth brushed off the nagging concern for the moment and entered the inn. He wordlessly passed the innkeeper and went upstairs. The manor was something he'd have to investigate further once he was done with his current mission. He sighed as he entered his room. His mission. Originally, Zack was supposed to be here with him. He couldn't begrudge the man for refusing the mission, but it would probably easier if he had some backup. As he got ready for bed, he mused on how he'd be free to check out the manor if Zack were here. He could have had Zack investigate out the reactor while he stayed in town and found out what Hojo had been doing. Why there was a man in the coffin where just bones should be.
Why he lost his focus around those books.
Sephiroth lay on the stiff mattress, staring at the ceiling. Something drew him to those books, but he couldn't say what. From what he could piece together, Hojo and Gast had worked on a project extremely similar to Hollander's. That would mean there was another experimental SOLDIER in Shin-Ra. He huffed. With all the records he set and Hojo's obsessive check-ups, he wouldn't be surprised if the notes referred to himself. That wouldn't explain his mother's involvement, though. Was she just a necessary part of the experiment, like Angeal's mother?
That doesn't account for the ancient, though. He frowned. An ancient named JENOVA. His mother, Jenova. It was possible they named the ancient after her, though he couldn't imagine any instance that either Hojo or Gast would be so…sentimental with their work. She wouldn't have been named after the ancient either. The matter perplexed him. JENOVA the ancient, or Jenova his mother? Although, he thought as his eyes drifted shut for the night, perhaps there was no difference.
Perhaps they were one and the same.