Lifecycle

by Tiffany Park

The entity that would one day become known as Jenova is extraterrestrial, alien. It's not like us, no matter how well it can camouflage itself. And it's hungry. (Note: This is a *very* experimental fic. It's unlikely to fit into any established fanon or conventional fan theories, and if it goes where I want it to go, it won't be pretty. You have been warned. :)

4. COMMUNION LOST

*C*O*M*M*U*N*I*O*N* *L*O*S*T*

All aetheric communion ended. All of the One Self that remained was just one infected rock, one organism, small and alone.

So small, so diminished. So tiny and isolated as it sailed on its rocky vessel through the darkness of the vast, cold cosmos. Unable to influence its trajectory, it flew past nebula, past stars and planets, past stellar incubators. Time was irrelevant. Distance was irrelevant.

It had more than enough critical mass of tissue and quintessence to maintain sentience and cognition. No more energy need be expended on aetheric communion. It only need maintain itself. The One Self tightened and strengthened the last of its preparations, its transformations necessary for a hibernation that might last many millennia.

It used more of its stored quintessence to strengthen its shields, and more nutrients to build thicker cell walls. It generated more proteins to fend off damaging ice formations and to maintain cellular and genetic integrity. Only the most minimal of metabolic activity would be required to sustain it.

And then it went dormant, trusting to fate and its own preparations that it might, in time, arrive safely on a gentle world.

An encounter with a random piece of space debris could end the journey at any moment, and the organism's death would not matter or even be noticed.