Do you guys know what ersatz means? Well…when your done with the chapter go read the entirety of A Series Of Unfortunate Events until you do….or look it up. Cause I'm not telling you.

Don't own Jack. Or Sephiroth. Or…aw screw it. I don't own the characters or places mentioned below. Now leave me alone…I'm not feeling witty today.

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Angel Memories: Chapter 7

Icy Ersatz

The man leaned nonchalantly against a white pillar. With obviously calculated carelessness he reached upwards and brushed a stray blonde hair from his face. His sneer widened slightly. What is he thinking? The hand that held his shield twisted slightly, causeing light to flash briefly over my eyes and blind me. In spite of the flashing light, I did not blink.

"What….was that?" Why was my voice shaking? Why did I feel so heavy? Did seeing that vision really shake me up so much?

"What was what?" The man rephrased the questioned. Everything about him told me that he wanted to cause me harm. Everything he did was calculated to mess with my head. I remained silent and he let loose a tiny chuckle. "You mean that room you were just in?" He chuckled again and then exploded into raucous laughter. When he finally calmed himself he leered at me and smiled widely. "That was your memory! Couldn't you tell? Didn't you remember Ikusa and Hojo? What about that man? Surely you would remember the man you killed." He paused thoughtfully and then smiled again. "The…first…man, I believe." He smiled widely. "Even though you never did find out his name."

"My memory…" But that wasn't right. My memory of that time was different. Almost all of the actions were the same but…I don't remember that buzzing…that pain and the indecision. "But it was…different…then I remembered it." I paused to reflect on the past. "When we entered that room…he begged and pleaded with me…I never talked…and then…I killed him. I never said a word to him."

"Not a word? He hee…" The man in black spread his arms wide and his eyes glinted crazily in the dim white light. Through his halting laughter he said, "That is your present self trying to change the past." He stopped for a moment to giggle uncontrollably. "But you can't do it! The past can not be changed! Only memories!"

"Then…what did that man mean?"

"What man?"

"The man in the cloak…why did he ask what I would give to change the past?"

"I don't know who you are talking about." A look came over the scientist's eyes and he leaned forward quickly. "Did he have red hair?" He asked urgently.

"No. His head was covered and I couldn't see his face."

"And I can assure you that it wasn't me." A voice sounded from behind me and I turned to find Axel with his back resting against the doorway.

"Axel…" The man let out a low growl directed at the red haired rogue.

"And to think for a moment that you would suspect me of betrayal, Vexen! Oh what a sad day it is."

"Get out of here, Axel. I can handle him." Vexen said with an edge to his voice. Axel's eyes glinted dangerously for a moment before he shrugged nonchalantly.

"Suit yerself, icy," he said with a mocking tone of disinterest. He turned and opened the door behind him, but not before giving me one last look. "I'll see you later." And then, waving one hand over his head in a symbol of his leaving he walked through the doorway. "Check your pocket sometime!"

"Crazy fool," muttered Vexen.

I turned to the irate man and looked at him with what I knew to be dead eyes. "What do you mean by…take care of him?" I asked dryly. Vexen glanced once more at the doorway where Axel had left from and shook his head. Quietly he turned back to me and the leer fell into place on his face once again.

"You're not supposed to be here right now." Vexen looked down at his shield which glinted dangerously in the soft light. "Because of that…a lot of people I know want you dead."

"And you?"

"Me?" Vexen stepped backwards feigning hurt feelings. "Sephiroth…I am not so simple minded as to kill every man who walks into…private property…so to speak." His eyes flashed dangerously. "I am a scientist, and you…are an experiment." His words stung deep. They hurt far worse than I would have expected them too. I though I was over that complex by now. "Naturally," he continued. "I am drawn to you. I want to study you, find out exactly how you…a creature so composed of…was it Mako? Yes. How, though nearly half of you was made up of Mako and foreign cells, you can survive in the travel between worlds when those parts of you clearly died."

Died? Mako and the…Jenova cells…died? Is that why I can't hear her voice anymore? Vexen was watching me with interest, calculating every one of my movements. I thought I was guarding my emotions well but he interrupted my thoughts with a question. "You didn't know that…did you?" I looked at him. He reminded me so much of Hojo in his earlier days. The same sneer of superiority, the same look of intelligence and lust for knowledge at any cost.

"If what I just saw was only a memory…why was it different from what I remembered?"

"Changing the subject are we?" Vexen smiled derisively but shrugged nonchalantly. "I'm ok with that, I suppose." His face darkened and tilted downwards, averting his gaze from me to the tiles at his feet. "This castle is home to a very special individual. She has…powers…very interesting ones. When she comes to this place…she has the ability to show people their memories and even…alter them slightly. She can gradually replace pieces of your memories to suit her or…in this case…another's will."

"And she is altering my memories?" I asked quietly.

"No," he said with a tone of amusement. "You don't pose a high enough threat for us to take advantage of you like that." He looked at me with icy blue eyes. "You are the one messing with your memories. That room you were just in…and whatever card you used to get in it, take on the shape of very important memory to you. Could be your first kiss…the day you made a very important friend…" he smiled dangerously. "The day you killed someone…perhaps?"

Why did this man want to hurt me so much? In fact…why did his words hurt so much? People used to call me a murderer all the time…people a lot closer to me than this man is. Why did his words hurt so much? Was it because I just watched myself in the act? Is reliving my memories this painful?

"But since those times…your beliefs and ways of thinking have both changed drastically. As a result, although the ends of each memory are going to be the same, your newly found conscience will be screaming so loud at your own actions that it can very well change some of the deeds and actions that you committed before you understood all the things you know now. In time, you could very well revert back to your own self and lose your scruples in your own terrible memories." His deep blue eyes shone with insanity. They looked like glaciers, those eyes. Hojo used to look at me the same way. "In esscence…your own mind will tear itself apart…you'll be left a lifeless shell and act as a killing machine once again." Did any glacier ever contain so much hate? "And we won't have to lift a finger to do it."

His malice was suffocating. It filled the hallway and soaked into the walls. Tendrils of it climbed eagerly into my throat and downwards, freezing my words inside me. It's cold in this place. How had it become so cold in here? A strange icy mist began to flow out from Vexen. His hair was flapping slowly and without sound in an invisible wind. It's so hard to move…even if I want to. Slowly I flexed my fingers…something cracked.

I was covered in ice.

A thin layer of water had frozen over my body. The light blue mist swirled wildly over my body, further encasing it in that thin layer of ice, over and over again. In a hurry I shook my arms. They felt frozen solid but as I strained my muscles, tiny shards fell away to the floor and I freed myself. I tried to take a step forward but couldn't. Glancing downwards, I found my feet to be completely encased in ice and frozen to the white tiles. Vexen began to laugh loudly from across the hall.

"Sh-shut up," I stuttered out from my chattering teeth. Swiftly, I drew Masamune and whipped out downwards, cutting the ice away from my feet in seconds. Shivering slightly, I shook each leg to rid it of ice and lowered myself into a more battle ready stance. Vexen smiled widely and raised his shield in front of his body. His other hand rose from his side and the fingers bent in a challenge.

My feet left the ground in an instant. Despite the thick sheet of ice on the ground, my soles found purchase wherever they landed and I soon found myself within striking range of the audacious scientist. Masamune tore forward in a thrust and clashed loudly against the man's blue steel. The sound exploded, echoing loudly off the ice-lined walls and floor. Moving quickly, I spun to the side and made an arcing swipe at the man's heels.

Vexen's feet jumped nimbly over the swinging blade and landed several feet back. Masamune continued its arc and cut deep into the white stone pillar to my left. Vexen's ice blue eyes flashed dangerously and he leapt forward to strike at me while my blade was stuck. From his blue shield burst three large spikes that he now aimed in my direction. He was surprisingly fast. Flipping the shield over, he began his strike as though it were a punch, sending the head spike flying towards my forehead. Masamune seemed to be stuck firmly in the white stone and…ice was growing around it as well, further trapping it inside the pillar. The spiked point of the shield came ever closer until it nearly brushed the tip of my eyelash.

I burst into motion. Almost like liquid, I tore Masamune from the ice and stone and ducked beneath the oncoming metal to flow around Vexen and press the tip of my blade against his backside. It took the man a moment to notice where I had gone and even longer to decide what to do about it. His shield embedded itself in the stone pillar and cracked the ice that had been forming there. His momentum carried him into the very pillar where his head cracked loudly against it.

Following directly behind him, I pressed Masamune into his back and brought my remaining hand upward to grip the man by the hand and press it roughly against the cold pillar. His skin felt as cold as ice, nearly giving something of a freezer burn. For a long time, we stayed suspended in this position. After that extensive pause, Vexen began to laugh loudly.

"And what do you plan to do, Sephiroth the Experiment? Kill me?" He let loose a loud cackle. "And what would that prove? I'll tell you what it would prove…that I was right!" His voice rose with insanity and bounced loudly around the hallway. "You're already becoming the mindless killing machine you once were! At this rate it will only be a matter of time before you seek someone to give you purpose for the deaths you cause!" The laughing stopped suddenly and I felt the air become chilly around me. "And besides…from your current position…you couldn't kill me if you wanted to."

"We'll see about that you heartless bastard," I growled in rage.

I drew myself back quickly. Vexen stumbled to the side and whipped around, a blue blur of motion, and struck out at me. With untouchable speed, I pushed the approaching weapon out of the way and drove my fist into Vexen's gut.

He shattered.

His body cracked and exploded into shards of bright blue ice. The ice splayed out in all directions, crashing into the wall and ricocheting down the hallway. Vexen's head retained its shape only to change color and become ice as well. When the face fell to the ground it cracked and shattered as well, sliding shards of ice across the slippery white tiles.

"What…is this?"

Footsteps sounded from the end of the hallway. Two black boots made contact with the raised platform in front of the large doorway. A black trench coat fluttered into place as Vexen stepped through the doorway.

"I must say…I am impressed." Vexen brushed a strand of hair from his face and leered down at me. "It's true that my ice doppelganger is half of my original power…but you took care of it like it was nothing. I commend you on doing such a good job."

"Doppelganger?" I glanced downwards at the now melting ice to see what was left of Vexen's faux eyeball.

"Certainly. What kind of idiot would fight the enemy himself when you can send someone else to do it for you?" He sighed and rubbed his forehead with his thumb and forefinger. "To think that even after you were through such emotional turmoil…you could still so easily dispose of my false body. It will take some time to generate another one."

I was tired of listening to this disgusting man. "What do you want?" Vexen feigned a look of surprise and innocence. He blinked several times and then smiled widely.

"I just want to observe you. Well…observe you and perform some experiments on that boy who looks like you. What was his name again?" Vexen brought his hand to his chin and rubbed it thoughtfully. My heart began to pound stronger in my chest as he continued to think.

"Is he here also?" My voice sounded weak and alarmed. Vexen smiled.

"Well I haven't even said a name yet…but yes…I he's here as well. I think…Riku is his name."

Heart racing, I clenched my hand around Masamune's hilt. "What are you going to do to him?" I growled through gritted teeth. Vexen's eyes glinted dangerously as his smile widened even further.

"Do to him? Why…nothing at all. I'm just going to verify the results of another scientist's experiment." He sighed lustfully. "Oh Hojo…you really outdid yourself with your last one…it would be an honor to repeat your experiment."

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Gyahaha! I'm back into the groove! The only price I had to pay was having Naruto influence the writing of this chapter. Doppelgangers? Come on Ben…you can do better than that.

I think I really like this chapter. A good mix of action and plot development as well as a little bit of character development. Well…Vexen's anyway. I hope this chapter made childhood-Sephiroth seem a little less emo and a little more insane, because that was really what I was going for.

Ahem…Big ol' thank yous for Unita and heartsoblivion for reviewing even though I kinda ranted about xsaturnine for like two paragraphs. I love all of my reviewers very much and all of your opinions matter and I can't stress enough how important every one of you is. I guess I'm just paranoid that I upset someone by putting xsaturnine on a pedestal last chapter. Sorry if anyone is annoyed by that…although I think you should calm down if you are and stop being jealous about silly things. Another thank you for xsaturnine of course. (tries hard not to rant)

Can I put something personal here? Would be yelled at? Meh…so…why is it that all the bands in the world that sing any song solely about nerd culture are inevitably also a Christian rock or Christian ska band? I don't have anything wrong with Christianity but its like…stop trying to convert me…and stay out of my music. I mean…songs called Final Fantasy for the Day are cool but then when you get further down the tracklist and reach stuff like You've Got Jesus In Your Heart…it's disconcerting. I guess it just bothers me cause it feels misleading. And I think that the pope is trying to take over the nerds, geeks and perhaps even otaku's of my generation so he can have a legion of CEO's under his control later.

I'm just kidding. I love you Popey. (heheh…Popey looks an awful lot like Popeye.)