Chapter Nine: A New Journey
The slums had changed quite a bit since the last time Sephiroth had seen them.
The buildings were actually a bit better off. People looked like they had more in technology, and some of the trailers were actually painted. Oh, it was still a dreary and unfortunate situation. But it was nice enough.
"So this church," said Sephiroth. "What makes it special?"
"It was originally dedicated to Minerva," said Cloud. "Though no one holds services in it. The Turks murdered a number of mystics when they were sheltering in it.
"No one goes there anymore since. At least not for a service."
"Then why lead me to it?" asked Sephiroth, curious.
Cloud led him on without saying why. Sephiroth followed, reflecting he had nothing better to do at the moment anyway. The church itself was remarkably well maintained. As they came to doors, Sephiroth halted.
Cloud took hold of the double doors and pushed them aside.
As he did, Sephiroth saw a long stone churchyard. But at the very center were broken flagstones and a great deal of dirt. And lying there among them were many flowers with the light pouring down on them. They were crisp and white and, in the contrast of the comparative darkness, beautiful.
There was also a brown-haired girl watering them.
"...Flowers?" asked Sephiroth out loud.
"Yes," said the girl, standing up in surprise.
"Um... Aerith?" said Cloud.
As soon as the girl saw Cloud, she ran forward. "Oh, Cloud, you're back. How did things go in Wutai?"
"Well, my entire battalion got massacred, and all my friends died. Then I got riddled with bullets, died, and then was resurrected by King Arthur," said Cloud. Wait what? "Oh, and there's a conspiracy to assimilate living people using the DNA of Genesis. You know, that nutjob who was quoting Loveless."
That sounded like a perfectly accurate description of who Genesis was, actually.
"...That's a lot of information to take in at once," said Aerith, blinking.
"You don't know the half of it," said Cloud. "Oh, and I forgot that part. My commanding officer, Lazard, set my battalion up to be massacred. But my worthless deadbeat of a father refuses to believe it. All because that would involve admitting his controls failed. So even though I revealed the conspiracy, they are acting as if Genesis is the mastermind.
"And since I insisted on trying to do the right thing, I ended up making an enemy of the entire Shinra command staff."
"All of it?" asked Aerith.
"All of it," said Cloud. "I'm not joking.
"So, what have you been up to?"
Aerith looked around in bemusement. "...Well, I was going to say that the Planet and I were working to convince people to conserve resources. And also sign a petition to have cleaner energy. I even got about six-hundred signatures, but um... that doesn't seem very significant now.
"Who's your friend?"
Sephiroth moved on past Aerith and looked at the flowers in bemusement. They were a specific kind he'd read about in a botany textbook. "Interesting. The Snow White breed. I had thought that breed was extinct." Midgar had taken over their areas of growth.
"Oh, they don't grow anywhere else in the slums, except near my house," said Aerith. "Don't step on the flowers, though. They're very durable because this is a sacred place.
"I've been selling them for a long time to try and bring joy."
"...Why not just join SOLDIER?" asked Sephiroth, remembering the files on her now. Hadn't Hojo mentioned something about breeding him with her? "You were offered a lucrative position by Tseng, were you not. You could take a position as a medical crew and be paid far better. It would also give you the opportunity to leave the slums."
"Tseng told me as much," said Aerith. "But I've heard some awful things about SOLDIER. They say the procedure gets inside your head and twists you into a monster."
"Untrue," said Sephiroth. "The procedure makes you become who you really are without any restraints. I've been there since the program started."
"Like Genesis did?" asked Cloud.
"Genesis was always a detached narcissist. One who saw the world through the lens of fiction," said Sephiroth. "The process thus brought those traits to the forefront."
"And what traits did it bring to the front for you?" asked Aerith.
Sephiroth shrugged. "None of them. I was born this way."
"Really?" asked Cloud.
"Raised by Shinra and engineered to be the ultimate SOLDIER," said Sephiroth. He remembered Hojo's words. "Every SOLDIER with the exception of Genesis is, in a way, my descendant. My DNA was used to enhance them."
"That sounds like a sad story," said Aerith.
"I don't care about my past much," admitted Sephiroth. Then he remembered another note in her file. "So, I'm told you can speak with the dead?"
"Not really," admitted Aerith. "I can speak with the Planet. And sometimes the planets tells me things. But it's not a connection I can harness all that well.
"My ancestors could do it at will, though."
Cloud looked confused. He'd obviously heard nothing of this before. Sephiroth decided he was smart enough to pick up the subtext. "Then you can ask it a question for me."
Aerith looked at him strangely. "...I haven't been asked to do that before, but I don't see the harm."
"What happens to those who die," said Sephiroth.
"Well, that's a bit of a hard question," said Aerith after a moment. "Most people naturally remerge with the Lifestream and become one with the planet. Their minds and souls merge with the collective spirits of all who came before. Some, however, who have been wicked or consumed by worldly desires cling to them. They aren't absorbed into the Lifestream. All because of the crimes they committed while alive."
Sephiroth blinked in surprise and wondered if she knew what she said. "So... evil is rewarded then?"
"What?" said Aerith. "No, what could make you say that."
"You just said that those who commit atrocities survive. They maintain their Individuality," said Sephiroth. "While those who do not are devoured."
"They aren't devoured," said Aerith. "It's just... they come home at last."
"Do they retain their individuality?" asked Sephiroth. "Can they make choices? Or laugh or smile?"
"Well, I..." Aerith paused. "No, I guess not."
"Then they are dead," said Sephiroth simply. "What does it matter if their knowledge and memories get turned into materia later. They are no longer a presence in the world. Anyone who was friends with them now isn't; anyone they loved is denied their embrace.
"To become one with the Lifestream is no different than having ones' corpse devoured by worms."
"Why are you asking me all the questions, then?" asked Aerith, looking troubled.
"I never knew my parents," admitted Sephiroth. "My Mother's name was Jenova, and she died giving birth to me. I was hoping to speak to her."
"Well... um..." Aerith paused. "I'm not really sure I have the power to communicate with the dead. But... well... don't you think individuality is really the source of human misery? People, at their most basic want to belong somewhere.
"They want to go home. People choosing themselves over everyone else is the source of most misery."
"Is suffering inherently wrong?" asked Sephiroth. It seemed the obvious question.
"Well, of course," said Aerith.
"Then why not just kill everyone in the entire world?" asked Sephiroth simply.
"What?! How would that be a solution!" said Aerith.
"If I killed everyone, everyone would return to the Planet. All suffering would cease," said Sephiroth. "It is the Maester Seymour solution.
"If free will is completely undesirable, why should we remain in this life at all? Why not simply throw ourselves off the nearest cliff and be done with it?"
"Well, that's a very extreme response," said Aerith uneasily. "And Seymour was the villain of Yuna's story."
"That I do not deny. But it is the logical conclusion of your ideology," said Sephiroth. "Yuna's rejection of Seymour's conclusion was irrational. She had no reasonable grounds to refute his viewpoint. Nothing save a vague idea of friendship to handwave away an inconvenient truth.
"'I don't understand you.' Was her statement. In reality, she did understand. She just refused to accept his conclusion, despite it being the rational one. And she had no alternative theory."
"Sin was defeated without Seymour, though," said Cloud.
"And Spira's suffering continues," said Sephiroth. "We simply killed each other instead of waiting for Sin to do it. These days, the entire continent of Spira is covered in ice. And yet, people continue to fight for one thing or another.
"Individuality is the reason for this endless conflict. And peace is supposedly attained when we lose it.
"But if our individuality is not worth preserving, why have it at all? And if it is, then the Lifestream as you describe it is our enemy."
"Well, how would you fix it then?" asked Aerith.
"I have actually contemplated how to go about doing it," said Sephiroth. "The logical decision would be to assimilate the Lifestream into myself. Not the other way around. To make myself God and therefore restructure the universe as I see fit."
"Well, how would you do that?" asked Aerith, seeing amused.
"Hypothetically?" asked Sephiroth. "I'd probably cause the Mako reactors in Midgar to self-destruct. The resulting explosion would cause an immense injury to the Planet. Much like the Northern Crater. The Lifestream would send energies to repair it, and I could then absorb them to become a God."
"Wouldn't that kill immense numbers of people?" asked Aerith, voice concerned.
"Perhaps, but once I was God, I could simply bring them back anyway," said Sephiroth. "So there would be no stakes."
"...When did you come up with this idea again?" asked Aerith.
"I was reading Bugenhagen's theories. And I was comparing it to the scientific theories of Hojo and Professor Gast," said Sephiroth. "Since my dinner was taking longer than usual to cook that day, I thought I'd outline a theoretical plan. One to utilize them to become God."
"You're not planning to act on it, are you?" asked Aerith.
"Not unless I get very, very, bored," admitted Sephiroth. "Becoming God would be the ultimate achievement. It would therefore render all other avenues for improvement moot."
"Ever consider learning to play a musical instrument?" asked Aerith in a panicked tone.
"Actually, I've recorded an entire theme song. I hired a chorus to sing my name dramatically," said Sephiroth. "And I recorded it on a Materia for my hypothetical day of ascension." He drew out a white materia. "It's here if you want to listen."
And he played them he had dubbed. The scare chord of a horror movie played. Ominous chanting resounded throughout the church. Trumpets flared, even as the song began in full with a dramatic choir.
Eventually, he cut it off. "I call it One-Winged Angel."
"...Huh, that is a cool theme song," said Cloud.
"Um, Mr. Sephiroth, sir, what exactly are you doing here?" asked Aerith.
"I'm here to admire the flowers, in truth," said Sephiroth. "What are you doing here?"
"Trying to encourage people to become more eco-friendly. I'm trying to help save the Planet," said Aerith.
"Well, what are you doing in Midgar, then?" asked Sephiroth.
"Um, well I..." Aerith paused. "Where else am I supposed to go?"
"The people of Midgar are completely reliant on technology," said Sephiroth. "Any attempt to decrease their usage would only be a drop in the bucket. And with Shinra focusing its full might on corrupting them, you won't make much headway."
"So where do you think I should go?" asked Aerith.
"If it were me, you mean?" asked Sephiroth thoughtfully. "I would go to places where Shinra is building reactors. If people there decrease their use of power, it removes the incentive to use reactors in the first place.
"That, in turn, stops Shinra's modernization efforts cold.
"Gongaga, for instance. Or, the towns outside Midgar for a change."
"Well, why haven't you done those things?" asked Aerith.
"I've no interest," admitted Sephiroth.
"Well, what does interest you?" asked Aerith.
"Very little," said Sephiroth. "Do you intend to do something about it?"
"Well, I..." Aerith paused as if listening to something. "Really? And you're sure?" She stopped. "Alright, well, I think I'd better get ready for a journey then."
"Just like that?" asked Cloud.
"The Planet likes Sephiroth's idea," said Aerith with a shrug. "I've already done all I can here. Cloud..."
"Yes?" asked Cloud.
"Could you act as my bodyguard?" asked Aerith. "I know it's a terrible inconvenience, but I'm not sure I can survive on my own out there."
"Of course," said Cloud. "I've been thinking about heading home for a while anyway."
"Well, this sounds interesting," said Sephiroth. "I will accompany you, as well."
"What, really?" asked Cloud.
"Why not?" asked Sephiroth. "I've been considering cutting ties with Shinra for years. The only reason I've stayed this long was for fear of losing what I had. Now, Genesis and Angeal are gone anyway.
"If I go with you, I won't have to kill them at all."
"Right," said Aerith. "But, um, first I have to go talk to my mother about this. She'll be upset if I leave without saying goodbye."
"You're really just going to drop everything now just because the planet told you to?" asked Cloud.
"The flowers can take care of themselves for a bit," said Aerith. "And where do I have to be?"
It was the strangest way Sephiroth had ever begun a mission. But he was less than interested in the alternative. Oh well, he could put 'becoming God' a bit further back on the schedule.