Chapter Eleven: Tragedy of the Great
Sephiroth hung back and watched as Cloud surged forward, bringing down his sword.
With a downwards strike, the huge blade cleaved through a possessed motorcycle. The blow chopped it in half. Turning, Cloud unleashed a wave of lightning that blasted through another as it came at him. However, another one surged at him from behind, only for Cloud to roll away.
Still, he was caught on the shoulder and flung away. Even as the creature turned, shifting to attack, Sephiroth surged past it. Moments later, it shattered into a thousand pieces. As more of them came, Sephiroth slashed them down as well. Meanwhile, Aerith spun her staff and lit one of them up with a wave of flames.
It was the third group of possessed machines they had destroyed today.
"Wow, I never knew fighting could be this hard," said Aerith.
Sephiroth could have killed them all himself, of course. However, he was deliberately fighting below his full ability—all to give Aerith and Cloud a chance for the experience. If any of them got put in a bad position, he'd help them out. Otherwise, they could earn their own stripes.
"Haven't you killed fiends before?" asked Cloud, hiding pain. Sephiroth reached for cure materia and remembered he'd had it stolen from him.
"You don't usually get attacked by fiends, Cloud," said Aerith. "It usually only happens when you're in the worst places, and even that's occasional.
"Most people only see them when they go looking for them. Or, well, if they do something really bad and the Planet goes after them."
"So, most of the Shinra High Command, then?" asked Cloud.
Sephiroth smiled at the idea of Hojo being eaten alive by monsters. It was... comforting.
"Well, that's a bit complicated," said Aerith. "The Planet, and they have a... truce of sorts, I guess you'd call it. Though I'm not sure, that's the right word."
"Truce?" asked Cloud.
"Yes, I..." Aerith paused. "Well, I'm not just being kept on hand because President Shinra believes in fairy tales, you know. Sometimes, President Shinra is planning something big. Then he negotiates with the planet through me."
"What do you mean negotiate?" asked Cloud.
"I sort of convincing him to keep his uh... industry cleaner and stay within certain restrictions," said Aerith. "In return, we don't unleash natural disasters. Or, not many.
"See, in the early days when Reeve first invented Mako Reactors, he started really tapping the power of the Mako Reactors things...
"Well, they got very bad.
"The Planet didn't know what was happening. It just felt like its lifeforce being sapped really quickly. So huge numbers of fiends attacked the workers and earthquakes. They started tearing through all attempts to build them. My mother, my real mother, Ifalna, got asked to talk to the Planet on Shinra's behalf.
"See, she was... close with Professor Gast."
"Who?" asked Cloud.
"One of the most brilliant scientists in history," said Sephiroth. "Hojo and Hollander are poor man's imitations at best. I've read his papers and can't fully understand everything he writes."
"Right, well, Mother explained to it why humans were using the Mako Reactors. As soon as it understood, it stopped attacking them," said Aerith. "After that, she got a well-paid job where she'd negotiate with the Planet. In so doing, she made sure Shinra did as little harm as possible."
"So the planet let them build them?" asked Cloud.
"At the time, they were much smaller then, Cloud," said Aerith. As she spoke, she across the windswept, blackened wastes. For some reason, they seemed a bit less terrible than normal. "The first Mako Reactors didn't even damage the Mako Springs. They just set up the machinery to catch as much energy as they could so none went to waste. The Planet created those springs to benefit us, so it didn't really mind.
"But then the demand for power went up, and Shinra started building them up. It got bigger and bigger, and Shinra demanded more and more. And, well, President Shinra really stopped caring how much damage it did. Short term profits conflicted with sustainable energy sources. And all corporations care about are short term profits.
"Eventually, Mother and I...
"We tried to escape with Professor Gast. But Hojo he..."
"Hojo killed Professor Gast and took his position. I was part of the team sent to retrieve Ifalna," said Sephiroth simply.
"You were?" asked Aerith. "But well... you're the same age as me? Or you can't be much older."
"Genesis, Angeal, and I were fighting since we were very young," said Sephiroth. "And I am older than I look. I was always stronger and faster."
"So why didn't you find us?" asked Aerith.
"Tseng found you; first, I believe," said Sephiroth. "And he and President Shinra made arrangements for your room and board. I gather your stepmother gained quite a bit from her kindness to you."
"That wasn't why she took me in," said Aerith.
"In any case," said Sephiroth. "The Planets 'truce' with Shinra is more of a cold war. I can hardly go two steps without being attacked by fiends in certain places. Both sides hate the other and restrain themselves purely because they need to.
"Shinra cannot destroy the Planet without dying themselves. And the Planet, so far, has no means of stopping them."
"You're wrong," said Aerith. "If the Planet decided to wipe out Shinra, it would. I know it could. It... well, these fiends are more like a warning than an attack. It doesn't want to kill a lot of humans; it would rather they reign themselves in.
"But if Shinra keeps pushing the Planet, it will eventually unleash the Weapons."
"Weapons?" asked Cloud.
"Ultimate Weapon, Diamond Weapon, Ruby Weapon, Sapphire Weapon, and Emerald Weapon," said Aerith. "They were once Sin. Now they serve the Planet."
"How can they have once been Sin?" asked Cloud. "Sin was killed by Summoner Yuna."
"Well, yes," said Aerith. "But Sin was killed many times. Whenever a Summoner defeated Sin, they transformed a guardian into their Final Aeon. Doing so killed the Summoner, and the Final Aeon that killed Sin would become Sin.
"But each Sin would ravage the world and cause untold horrors. For a generation of people, that iteration of Sin was the manifestation of all the troubles of the world. That belief sent ripples through the Lifestream. And those ripples created the Weapons in the image of humanity's Sins.
"Yuna, however, calmed their spirits and sealed them away. And she charged them only to emerge when the Planet as a whole was threatened. Fortunately, we haven't reached that point yet."
"You seem to know a great deal more than I was able to read," noted Sephiroth, interested.
"I talk with the Planet a lot," said Aerith. "So um, why is killing them so easily? I mean... I've seen people hurt before, and it's horrible. But killing these fiends, it's like... breaking a mannequin or something."
"Killing fiends is generally a lot easier than killing humans," said Sephiroth. "Well, killing lesser fiends. The more dangerous kinds are a lot worse."
"Why would you say that is?" asked Cloud, wincing as he moved.
"Cloud, are you hurt?" asked Aerith.
"It's uh... just a scratch," said Cloud.
"Scratches can get infected if they aren't treated, Cloud," said Aerith. She raised her cure materia. "Stop trying to act tough." There was a flash of light, and Cloud rose up, healed. "So what were you saying, Sephiroth?"
"Lesser fiends aren't intelligent; they're not even really animals," said Sephiroth. "Just manifestations of disturbances in the Lifestream. You'd have to be exhausted or suicidal to lose to them.
"The ones you have to worry about are manifestations of deliberate human action.
"I do most of my best work in empty towns that got wiped off the map during a war."
"Well, how did that happen?" asked Cloud.
"It depends," said Sephiroth. "Sometimes Shinra did it. Sometimes the nation we were invading did it in retribution for 'selling out.' It's not really relevant, though; everyone is dead either way.
"My job was making sure the fiends didn't devour other towns."
"That's horrible," said Aerith.
Sephiroth didn't really think so, but no point in disagreeing. "Perhaps.
"However, we should return and get these trophies to Kalm."
Back they went, across the wastes.
They'd been slaughtering fiends in the area around Kalm for a few days. The hunts had proven a good way of training up both Aerith and Cloud. Aerith, in particular, seemed to wield materia as if it were second nature. Though Sephiroth found it odd, there were so many fiends.
Usually, he'd lure the creatures to him in the area around Midgar. But apparently, there were far more of the things in the deeper wastes. He'd gotten complacent without even realizing it.
Whatever the case, they reached the Kalm bounty office and met the guy in charge. Sephiroth could not remember his name. But he'd apparently been here enough to warrant familiarity. Sephiroth hated it when people knew him who he had not bothered to know.
"Another haul, then Sephiroth?" asked the man.
"Yes," said Sephiroth.
He wondered if there was some tactful way to learn his name.
"Well, here's your due," said the man, handing over the money. "Though I must ask why it was you decided to start adventuring with kids.
"No offense."
Sephiroth handed over the money to Aerith and Cloud and walked past.
"None taken, we're just trying to make a difference in the world," said Aerith.
"I've become... less enthusiastic about my duties to Shinra of late," said Sephiroth. "I had hoped the Wutai War would be the end of things, and I could focus on my duties here. Instead, they expect me to fight against the Genesis army."
"Um, actually, could I talk to you about something?" asked Aerith, and everyone looked at her.
"What is it?" asked the man.
"Well, see, I've sort of been hoping to raise awareness while I'm out here," said Aerith. "I want to put a permenant stop to all these fiend attacks."
"Well, you're doing the right thing, I guess," said the man. "We haven't had this many kills in the last two months, let alone a week."
"I don't think I'm doing much more than treating the symptom, to be honest," said Aerith. "See, the fiends are coming here in reaction to all the Mako Reactors that Shinra is building. And they are building more as we speak."
"I heard this from some mystics, actually," said the man. "Didn't put any stock in it then, though."
"Haven't you noticed that as they build Mako Reactors, more fiends are showing up?" asked Cloud. "It's particularly bad in the slums of Midgar and in the wastes."
"So what are you proposing we do?" asked the man.
"Well, I was hoping we could hand out some guidebooks on how to reduce the fiends in this region," said Aerith. She drew out a stack of papers. "Sort of what ordinary people can do to help."
"Such as?" asked the man, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, for a start, just taking steps to conserve more energy could go a long way," said Aerith. "Turning off the lights when you're not using them, not leaving the fridge open. I know it all sounds silly, but if a hundred people do it for a year, it'll add up.
"With less demand for power, Shinra will not have as much of a reason to build Mako Reactors.
"And if more people get into the habit of conserving energy, they'll conserve other things. Do you know how much the average person wastes in terms of food? If people just ate their leftovers for another meal, they'd buy less food. And if they bought less food, that means there's more leftover. With more supply and less demand, prices get cheaper.
"That means people will have more money to spend on other things. You could start your own business, and if you do that, Shinra has competition. Competition means that corporations have an incentive to behave responsibly. That and they won't take their customers for granted.
"Also, people throw out things long before they are unusable. If people took the time to completely use up the things they buy, they'd buy less. That would mean they'd be less fixated on worldly things and happier.
"All of this would add up to people being richer, happier, and far less destructive to the environment.
"And if thousands of people across the world all did this, it could make a huge difference.
"I uh... I'm sorry to rant."
The man laughed. "You seem to have thought this through."
"Oh yeah, I've been signing petitions and speaking to people in Midgar for years," said Aerith. She put her hands behind her back and smiled. "I guess I figured I'd done all I can and came here.
"My point is, if we decrease how much we take from the planet, there will be fewer fiends. And that'll make everyone safer."
The man nodded. "...Well, you three have been hunting quite a bit.
"So I suppose it can't hurt to post some information on the bulletin board over there. People generally come here to see current events, so they'll see it.
"I wouldn't make any speeches or anything in public, though. It could attract Shinra's attention."
"I wasn't planning to," said Aerith. She was probably thinking of what happened to the mystics. "I've actually got a cliff notes version of my ideology here if you want to copy it. And also some essays on how taking less from the Planet gives you more in the long run."
"Nobody is going to read them, Aerith," said Sephiroth flatly. "Just put up the cliff notes."
"You don't know that!" said Aerith. "Someone might!"
Sephiroth took the cliff notes from her and began to scan through them. "Most people have better things to do with their time than read your work. You'll never succeed in asking them to overhaul their entire lives overnight.
"Give them something they can easily achieve right now, and maybe they'll make a habit out of it. That's how I created the institution of SOLDIER 1st class. I set short-term, achievable goals. Ones that were attuned to a single overall goal; Perfection.
"As I achieved more and more short term goals, I eventually got closer to my overall goal."
"But I put a lot of work into these essays!" said Aerith.
"Did you put the work in because you expected people to read them?" asked Sephiroth. "Or because you wanted to appease your own ego?"
"The first, obviously," said Aerith, sounding a bit offended.
"Fine, whatever," said Sephiroth. "By writing those essays, you have formed your ideology. If you become an influential speaker later, perhaps someone will read them. For now, focus on putting up the bullet points." He finished the cliff notes and found his eyes glazing over. "These are too long."
"What?" said Aerith.
"Three sentences at a maximum for each point. Preferably only one," said Sephiroth. "Nobody in this town is being paid to read your documents, and you have no credibility. You need to put out content they can read and comprehend in a spare moment. If you lose their attention for a moment, you've lost it for good."
Aerith looked downcast, then looked to the man. "I um...
"Do you have a typewriter in here, Mr. Akka?"
"I suppose I could let you borrow it," said the man. "But you'll have to pay for the paper and ink."
Aerith sighed. "Well, so much for that idea. How much?"
Aerith was escorted back to type up her bullet points. Meanwhile, Cloud looked to Sephiroth somewhat accusingly. "Don't you think you were a little hard on her, Sephiroth? I mean, Aerith worked hard on those essays, and she's probably really disappointed."
"She's trying to achieve greatness, Cloud," said Sephiroth flatly. "Disappointment is an integral part of the process. The weak give up when they don't get what they want right away. The strong keep going and still don't get what they want. Some of them break off and live humble lives in contentment. Others, such as myself, continue past one disappointment after another. We get to live long enough to succeed and be disappointed.
"If you want to achieve your dreams, you must give them the cold shoulder. Speak with them now and then, but remain focused on more important matters. Focus on mastery of the skills and abilities you will need to make those dreams come true. And, eventually, that dream may come to you of its own volition."
"How can you be sure?" asked Cloud.
"Did you end up working with me by obsessing over me, Cloud?" asked Sephiroth.
"No," said Cloud. "I had a lot more important things to deal with."
"Correct," said Sephiroth. "You focused on the task at hand, doing what needed to be done, and carved your own path. Now you and I are traveling companions. Despite my initial disregard for you, you have gained my attention.
"Believe me, you've done a better job of it than any of my fangirls ever did.
"Now come on, I've detected a number of weaknesses in your fighting style, and I think they need correcting."
"Yes, sir," said Cloud quickly.
"Don't call me that," said Sephiroth.
They went to a lake where Sephiroth had often trained with Angeal and Genesis. It stood at the bottom of a valley surrounded by cliffs. Here, they drew their swords and began to train.
Cloud turned out to be a slow learner.
He tended to overcompensate for failings. So when Sephiroth pointed out one problem, he ended with the opposite weakness. The holes in his fighting style were fairly small; of course, a recruit could see them. But he needed a lot of improvement before he was anywhere near SOLDIER level.
How had he survived his fight with Lightning? She must have genuinely cared about him.
"No, no, you're being too aggressive," said Sephiroth. "Hitting hard with a huge sword is all well and good when fighting fiends. But with swordplay, you're own momentum can be used against you.
"You've got to learn to control your aggression, so each move you make plays into your next move. You waste energy with uncontrolled movements; efficiency is key."
On it went.
"Good, one, clean, strike," said Sephiroth, enjoying the process of teaching. "Who taught you anyway?"
"Oh um, I learned the basics in the Shinra military," said Cloud. "Dad... President Shinra had me trained to use a sword. I think he was hoping to use me as an icon.
"I used to think he cared."
"Corporations are never your friend," said Sephiroth. "Especially the ones that claim to be. Believe me, I had one for a father."
"But Shinra Electric Power and President Shinra are two different people, aren't they?" asked Cloud.
"Yes," said Sephiroth. "But one must control the other. If President Shinra was in control of his corporation, he wouldn't be a billionaire. He'd have made as much money as he wanted to and focused on raising a family or doing great charitable deeds.
"But he didn't.
"His corporation controls him. Everything must be about profits. He must continually expand it, at his own expense. Maybe he's rich and is praised for his vision at parties, but his own children are trying to kill him. And he's willing to have them killed in turn."
"Was he always like that?" asked Cloud.
"Not always," said Sephiroth. "Once I met him during training. He told me that life was about constantly improving and surpassing our limits, and achieving our dreams, no matter the cost.
"I think he believed it back then.
"But as he got richer and more powerful, he became less and less... human. It was when Gast left that everyone began to unravel, really. Hojo replaced him, and Hollander picked up the slack. SOLDIER when from a PMC to conquerers and...
"Well, everything changed.
"Once, Shinra had a vision.
"A vision of one world order where petty Kings weren't always making war on one another. Of a place where no one went hungry, where all lived in luxury."
"So, what happened to it?" asked Cloud.
"The vision came true," said Sephiroth. "You see it all around you.
"Wars are no longer waged for friendship, love, or honor. Instead, they are perpetrated for profit, economic dominance, and irreconcilable differences. I suppose fighting for such a pragmatic concept makes more sense, after a fashion.
"And if you look at that village, the lifestyle of the average person is... amazing. These people live as kings did when Shinra was founded. President Shinra got everything he could have ever wanted and more. He even extended his youth and life with Mako experiments.
"He had nowhere to go but down.
"What is left when you have made the ultimate achievement and conquered the world?"
"I guess you need to find a new dream," said Cloud.
"Unfortunately, as you get more powerful, your opportunities decrease," said Sephiroth. "President Shinra can't walk the streets freely; there are men who would kill him. He can't meet ordinary people and have them talk to him honestly. His family is far away, alienated by his obsession with his corporation.
"His friends are all as bad as him, or worse. And all of them have been getting worse over the years. No one starts like Hojo or Scarlet. But he can't cut them out of his life as you did. To do so would invite them to destroy him, as they wanted to do to you.
"He does not realize what he has become, and if he ever did... there would be nothing he could do. Shinra is a prisoner, Cloud, a prisoner of his own sins.
"What good does it do a man to gain the world but forfeit his soul?"
"But you walked away from it all," said Cloud.
"I'm different," said Sephiroth. "I never ate dinner with Scarlett. I never associated with Hojo anymore than I had to. I performed my duty without ever once working with them any more than I had to.
"That means I don't have any obligation to them. They have no hold over me.
"I could quit at any time. I might have problems later, but they would be made by outside forces.
"President Shinra can't quit. He owns the entire company. If he leaves without a proper heir, the parasites that feed off him will consume the world. There will be another civil war. Only it would be fought between men like Hojo, and Heidegger, men with even fewer scruples and no vision.
"Such a war would be far worse. That's why he needs Rufus. Rufus is the person Shinra needs to survive as an organization. President Shinra is smart and good at socializing. But he no longer has the iron necessary to put the animals down. Only a full-scale purge can save Shinra now."
Silence reigned.
"...Your friends with Genesis, right?" asked Cloud. "I mean, you were close."
Sephiroth looked at the serene water and paused. "I was.
"Not anymore, though."
"What makes you say that?" asked Cloud.
"They never offered me a chance to join them, Cloud," said Sephiroth. "Angeal and Genesis were important to me. They were rivals, yes, but they were also, I thought, my friends. I trusted them, loved them, and...
"If they had asked me to turn on Shinra for them, I'd have done it in a heartbeat. They must have known that. If they'd just asked, I'd have wiped out the Shinra High Command in an afternoon, no one could have stopped.
"But they didn't."
"Why not?" asked Cloud.
"I..." Sephiroth paused. "I think that Genesis and Angeal want to beat me. If I were to help them win, it would be easy. But then, they'd still be my team, my friends, my subordinates.
"They want to be able to claim full credit for destroying Shinra.
"Even if it means killing me in the process."
"They might have thought you were more loyal than you actually were, Sephiroth," said Cloud. "Maybe they are hoping to take you alive."
Sephiroth sighed and moved toward the lake. The water appeared so serene beneath the cliffs here. "No.
"Genesis would kill me if he had a chance. I know it." And then he sensed him. Looking up, he saw Genesis standing on the clifftop, sword in hand. His long crimson coat flowed around him, and his brown hair was windswept. "Wouldn't you agree, old friend?"
"Even if the morrow is barren of promises," said Genesis. "Nothing shall forestall my return."
Sephiroth drew his sword.
So it would seem they'd be fulfilling their rivalry earlier than expected.