Chapter 15 - Birth of a Goddess
Four months later...
Sephiroth took his time in polishing the tables of his home. While he viewed the task as menial and beneath him, he would put up with it for the time being. Lockheart was not particularly in a condition as of the moment to be doing housework, as much as she was disgruntled by not being able to something so simple, though it was a matter of allowance rather than physical inability to. His eyes briefly flickered to the door, listening to the creaking of Lockheart in her rocking chair. As much as he could respect her desires, he would allow her no action that risked HIS child.
His eyebrows furrowed in thought. Most infants, from what he had taken the liberty of reading about, gestated for roughly nine months before they were born. His child was into it's tenth month. There were dangers in a pregnancy going beyond roughly forty-two weeks. As much as he found the images of the object he had seen during his research moderately disgusting, the placenta sustaining the child with nutrients from the mother generally would begin to weaken and eventually fail around that time. Or at least it would in humans. Truth be told, it was highly possible that being a Child of Calamity could alter the process. While he was a Child of Calamity, he had been born from a human mother, he could not use her as a base to judge Lockheart's pregnancy. Not that he knew much about it anyway.
Regardless, he kept a careful eye on Lockheart and his child, he had every day after she had told him. He glanced at his reflection in the the polished table, contemplating once more all that had transpired. It had been an... interesting... ten months.
The first few months after Lockheart had burned Nibelheim to the ground had been... curious. To see Lockheart begin to change, it was like a switch had been flicked. Some things at the core of who she was would never change, she still held her normal caring nature at times, but it was no longer freely given. One had to earn the right to her respect, rather than have it given by default. She instead treated strangers with a cautious eye and hidden distrust rather than a friendly greeting. She was a master of masking it of course, but it was easy for him to spot that watchful glint in her eye whenever they had encountered someone on the road or out in the wilderness. She distrusted humans, and rightly so.
They had gone to Wutai, and tracked down the very man who had made Masamune. His lips curled in delight at the memory of the terror that had played across the blacksmith's face when he had walked into the man's workshop. The term 'a ghost from the past' was aptly fitting. The man had readily agreed to make Lockheart a blade, if only out of self-preservation purposes. It amused Sephiroth greatly how humans would put notions in their own head, after all, he had no intentions of harming the man unless he did something extraordinarily stupid. It was the least courtesy he could offer for the man who had crafted his treasured blade. The man had worked day and night until at last, he had presented Lockheart her blade.
Muramasa.
He had seen other swords that bore that name, or used the name as 'type of blade, and if he recalled, there were even old Wutian legends and depictions about the first blade to bear that name. They called the original a cursed sword, a demon's blade. Yet none fit the name as well as the blade when Lockheart first drew it from it's sheath for inspection. Where Masamune was simple in design, but deadly, Muramasa was elegant, and screamed of death. The handle was black, a small dark gray handle-guard separating it and the blade. The flat of the blade was dark red, almost like blood, leaking down to the dark gray sharp of the blade. It was shorter in length than Masamune, to be sure, but still had a far greater reach than the average sword.
Of course, she did not yet have the skill and experience to properly wield such a magnificent blade, oh how he hungered to face her when she reached her prime with that weapon. They had steadily been working on that as they wondered the world, at least until she had confessed her pregnancy to him.
Sephiroth sat down and scowled at his reflection, agitated by the memory. He had stared at her in a blank stupor, confused and baffled by her statement. Up until that point, he had thought having children was impossible for him, the notion never registered in his mind. Hojo had implied to him in the past that his unique existence had made him infertile, and that relationships with the opposite sex would be a pointless waste of time and effort. Of course, when he stopped to think about it, he recognized it as just one of the many ways Hojo had tried to keep him isolated and under his thumb in his days as a SOLDIER. He sorely, once again, wished he had been the one to kill Hojo. The death the man received at AVALANCHE's hands wasn't nearly as slow and painful as it should have been.
Of course, since he had been led to believe he could never father a child, he could admit that he had little to no knowledge on the subject and everything relating to it. But, there was no challenge, and no obstacle that HE could not learn to overcome...
He slowly looked up and raised his arms into the air, spreading them, palm's upward, as he gazed around. "And this perfection, is proof of that."
Perfect architecture, perfect make, perfect positioning, and far enough away from civilization that they would not often be bothered. A place where they could spread their wings and never hide who they were, the few who ventured this far either got over it or left. There was ample wildlife to hunt and fish to catch. Vegetation was everywhere, wild fruits and vegetables could easily be found with a quick walk down the hill and into the woods. Not that they needed that much to eat compared to humans, the superior beings that they were. Their selection of beverages that he had purchased and stored within their wine cellar was extraordinary, and would last them decades, not that they could get drunk, but, it was aside from the point. He had even allowed Lockheart the comfort of a bar to work behind when they did have visitors. He found it curious of how such a simple thing as standing behind a bar and mixing drinks could set the woman at ease. A relic of her old life he supposed, but a relic that he let her have. It was a simple existence and life here, but it made him content. It would be perfect for his child to be raised in.
Lockheart herself was... a curious companion after they had moved here. The brooding silence he had begun to attribute to her faded away, and she began to talk to him, frequently. At times, she reminded him of Zackery, speaking to him in familiar and comfortable tones. Not to mention when she started calling him 'Seph' and teasing him. He allowed it, if only for comforts sake. Not that he minded it too much, it was a reminder of a distant and better past, before Genesis had gone off and dragged Angeal with him in his mad escapades...
"Sephiroth," came Lockheart's voice, a hint of urgency to it.
Sephiroth broke off his thoughts, eyebrows furrowing. She never called him by his full name anymore unless something important was going on. He was out the door and on the porch in an instance. Nothing seemed off...
Lockheart pointed off the porch and into the air, and he followed with his eyes to see two figures flying down towards them...
Sephiroth's lips curled into an almost menacing grin. So, Genesis and Angeal had decided to come at last.
"Looks like your friends have decided to finally come pay you a visit," said Lockheart.
"I'm 'thrilled'," he said dryly, stepping off the porch.
"No damage to the building, please," she called off after him.
Sephiroth made a none-committal hum and strode a bit from the porch, waiting until Genesis and Angeal descended and landed in front of him, withdrawing their wings.
"Sephiroth," said Angeal, giving him a curt nod.
Genesis glanced once at Sephiroth, once at Lockheart, before returning to the silver-haired man, a smug grin on his face. "Who would have thought it, the 'great Sephiroth' settling down with a woman."
Angeal coughed. "Genesis, civil."
Sephiroth eyed the two briefly before walking past them. "Come."
"What? No greetings for old friends?" mocked Genesis lightly.
"Friends would be the questionable term," said Sephiroth.
There was a heavy silence, odd coming from Genesis, as the two followed him around the house. He led them to the generator and turned to face them. He had chosen this place, because while he had come to trust and respect Lockheart, this was a personal matter that he did not want her overhearing or intruding on. There were many choice words and desires running through his mind at the moment, the most desired one being the urge to throttle the two of them. Instead, he merely leaned against the generator and waited, his arms crossed.
Angeal stood a bit from him, an uncertain look on his face.
Genesis, in his usual fashion, leaned against the building, drew his copy of LOVELESS, and started reading. "Infinite in mystery is the gift of the Goddess, we seek it thus, and take to the sky, ripples form on the water's surface, the wandering soul knows no rest."
Sephiroth resisted the urge to sigh and roll his eyes. "Act one."
"You remembered," said Genesis, seeming amused.
Sephiroth went silent, a memory tickling him. Of the last time the three of them had truly stood together in the VR room back in Shinra HQ...
"Are you expecting me to say: 'How can I not after you've beaten into my head'?" he asked dryly, "Drop the dramatics Genesis, I do not live to re-enact the past."
Genesis frowned briefly before closing his book. "Come now Sephiroth, can't indulge me for old times sake?"
"No," he answered.
Genesis rolled his eyes. "Still so serious and to the point, even after all these years."
"Still prone to dramatics, even with so small an audience," said Sephiroth before jabbing, "Or is that because you turned most of your 'audience' into clones and sent them off to die?"
Genesis scoffed. "Says the man who had clones created sent to 'reunite' with him."
Well played.
Sephiroth's lips curled into a grin. "That was Hojo's doing, for the most part. I merely discovered the clones and pulled them in."
He reflected briefly. "Or rather, Mother did. I was resting within the Northern Crater for most of the time up to the end of Meteorfall."
Genesis raised an eyebrow. "Feigning innocence are we?"
"Nothing of the sort Genesis, anything and everything that I did, or Mother did at my behest, I will readily admit to," countered Sephiroth, "I am no innocent."
His eyes shined cruel as they flickered to Angeal. "The only innocent here in regards to turning those who had once trusted them into clones I suppose would be Angeal. Instead, his sin was abandoning his apprentice in the middle of a war zone and eventually forcing him to murder him."
Angeal flinched at that, and that was Sephiroth's cue to pounce.
He uncrossed his arms, strode up to Angeal in two long and swift steps, narrowed his eyes, and spoke one word with a tone of pure ice, "Coward."
"Sephiroth I...," began Angeal.
"Genesis was degrading and going mad, I was driven insane by someone supposed to be my friend, by my mother, and by Hojo's lies. What was your excuse Angeal?" asked Sephiroth, "Out of the three of us, you, should have remained the most in control. Instead, you commit an act so cruel, forced someone who loved you to kill you."
He smiled cruelly. "I admit, I'm impressed. You destroyed your apprentice. If not for the Ancient comforting him, I wonder how well he would have taken that blow. Would he have followed you, I wonder, into death's embrace? I trust Zackery would have at least had the honor and pride to do it himself rather than force another to do it for him."
"Your point's been made Sephiroth," said Angeal, his voice coarse.
"Has it? I don't see you on the ground begging for forgiveness yet," taunted Sephiroth.
Angeal went silent for a moment before he forced out, "Nor will you."
"Hmph," said Sephiroth before turning his attention to Genesis.
"So, what choice words do you have for me, old friend?" inquired Genesis nonchalantly.
Sephiroth stared at him for a time, choosing his words carefully, before he spoke them, "Genesis. You were always an infuriating and insufferable man. Quoting LOVELESS every chance you got, questioning me constantly, aggravating beyond belief. Yet, you were still one of the very few people I ever chose to call a friend, so I ask: Why?"
"Why what?" asked Genesis.
"Why did you not come to me?" said Sephiroth coldly, "Why did you go to Hollander of all people?"
Genesis shrugged and flapped a hand in the air. "Wounded pride and bitterness, both towards you I suppose."
"Even with your body destroying you from the inside?" demanded Sephiroth.
"Especially with that," answered Genesis.
Sephiroth slowly shook his head. "Why am I not surprised? You could be bleeding out before me, and I could have a Full Cure in my hands, and you'd refuse my help."
Genesis smirked. "Would you have me any other way?"
"Dangling off of Masamune is a tempting answer to that question," said Sephiroth, forcing his tone to be dead serious and not show a hint of amusement on his face.
As expected, there was a hesitance that entered Genesis's face. Good. The man deserved to squirm.
Sephiroth narrowed his eyes. "Genesis. I expect an honest answer. At what point in your mad venture did you learn of Jenova? Of Project S?"
Genesis shrugged. "Fairly early on."
"And you did not think to enlighten me on that subject until it came to the point where such information only served to help drive me mad?" demanded Sephiroth.
Genesis scowled. "In-case you didn't realize it, Sephiroth, I hadn't come to you in Nibelheim to drive you insane. I had sucked in my pride enough to come seeking your help."
"A rather curious way to go about asking for it," answered Sephiroth.
"Yes, well your 'you will rot' answer to my request proved that point didn't it?" said Genesis bitingly.
"What did you exactly expect?" demanded Sephiroth, "Greeting me and Zackery with an attack. Accusing me and Mother of being monsters, regardless of the validity of that statement, mocking me the entire time, and having the audacity to ask for my help afterwords?"
"Genesis, Sephiroth," said Angeal in a warning tone.
Sephiroth waved him off. "Stand down Angeal, you're not silencing this argument, not this time."
Angeal took a hesitant step back.
Genesis looked a bit ruffled. "I wasn't in the right mind, my body was tearing itself apart. You have no concept of the agony that was."
"I'm fairly certain Genesis, that dying several times, the lifestream trying to force me to give up my sense of self and fade away, and forcing myself to reform out of the lifestream each time, is a comparable experience," said Sephiroth dryly.
"That, was ultimately your choice, my degradation was nothing I ever chose for myself," huffed Genesis.
"How you dealt with it was," countered Sephiroth.
"What do you want me to say Sephiroth?" demanded Genesis before flapping his hands dramatically in the air, "That I'm 'sorry'? Fine, you have my apologies. I screwed everything up. Does that make you content?"
Sephiroth scoffed. "If I wanted an apology out of you Genesis, I would extract it with Masamune's edge. What I want, is 'why'."
Genesis looked incredulous. "That's it? I already spelled it out, did I not?
"Was pride, madness, degradation, and desperation all that truly drove you Genesis?" asked Sephiroth.
Genesis snorted. "You forgot to mention knowledge of the good professors' pet projects."
"And the Jenova Project," added in Sephiroth dryly.
Genesis leaned his head back in thought before nodding. "I suppose that's as good a list as any. Revenge against Shinra could be added, but then we're just 'nit picking'."
Sephiroth stared at Genesis, not betraying a hint of his thoughts anywhere on his face; slowly, he turned to face Angeal, awaiting the other half of the answer. "And you?"
Angeal closed his eyes and sighed. "I suppose... my inability to come to terms with what had been done to me, what I was. I saw myself as a monster, and I couldn't bear to live as such."
Sephiroth gave him a hard stare. "Out of the three of us, you are the only one, that I can recall, who never so much as committed a truly monstrous act, save for your final one."
Angeal's wing burst out of his back, extending upwards.
Sephiroth scoffed and extended his own. "If you're expecting that to be a compelling argument Angeal, you are mistaken. It's not an argument, it's an excuse, and I would have expected better of you."
"Could you handle your own mother using you as an experiment? Someone who had raised you and was supposed to have loved and protected you?" demanded Angeal.
Sephiroth deadpanned. "Lucrecia?"
"Did not raise you," countered Angeal.
"No, she did something far worse, leaving me to Hojo," said Sephiroth with distaste.
Angeal went silent for a moment before offering, "A fair enough statement."
"So, was it simple cowardice and fear that drove you Angeal?" mocked Sephiroth, "Frightened of what you were, what you could be?"
Angeal frowned, but said nothing.
"Yet, as with Genesis, not once did you come to me," said Sephiroth, a hint of anger in his voice, "Not once did you seek my aid nor my counsel. Genesis? He I could grudgingly accept going alone, but you? You Angeal? That you would turn your back on me as well without so much as a word?"
"Sephiroth...," began Angeal quietly.
"I am not finished Angeal," Sephiroth all but hissed out, "Genesis never so much as gave me a hint of hope after he left. But you? When you worked with us briefly during the Midgar Raid? I had hopes that you might see reason, that you might return to us, return to me, only for you to go off to Modeoheim and die."
"And on that note," said Sephiroth with a deadly tone, taking a step forward, his eyes narrowing dangerously, "Were you truly so honorless and gutless by that point that you forced Zackery to kill you? That you turned yourself into the monster you feared yourself becoming to force him to do so?"
Angeal said nothing, his face a bit pale.
"You could have at least had the courtesy to run yourself through with the Buster Sword and left it at that," snarled Sephiroth, "I would have been less disappointed if that had been the case. For when I read the report, when I heard what happened, I was more angry and disappointed by what you had done, then saddened by your death."
Angeal bowed his head. "Sephiroth..."
"You will look me in the eye when you speak to me, SOLDIER," growled Sephiroth.
Angeal forced himself to do so. "There is nothing that I can say or do that will excuse what I did Sephiroth, I'm not even going to try. It would only be poor excuses that I could offer. I wont ever ask forgiveness for what I've done, not from you, and not from Zack, I don't deserve it."
Sephiroth eyed him critically, hunting for lies or avoidance, before he relaxed and returned to his original position by the generator, satisfied.
"And what of you, oh mighty Sephiroth?" mocked Genesis, "We two are guilty, yes, but what of you?"
Sephiroth glanced at him, frowning. "Me?"
"Yes, you were...," began Genesis before a distasteful look crossed his face, "You were always the 'strongest' of us. How could you fall to Jenova's will and madness?"
Sephiroth scoffed. "Even the greatest of buildings falls without the proper support. You two left me with nothing and no one."
He shot Angeal a look. "And don't you dare suggest that Zackery could stand in for either of you. He did not train with me, grow in SOLDIER with me, fight at my side and cover my back during early Wutai. Did not spend alongside me all those hours in our offices, giving one another company."
"If you two did not realize what you used to mean to me, then you are both blind, and are fools," said Sephiroth, "When I first died and dove into the lifestream, absorbing it's knowledge, discovering the truth about myself. I could have returned as I was, tried to retake my original life, but I had nothing waiting for me save for Hojo's insanity and Shinra's greed. So I willingly dove into that madness, and adopted Mother's crusade as my own."
"I will not however offer excuses or try to pass over what I did," said Sephiroth, "I murdered a great deal of people, caused immense suffering, and nearly led the world to ruin."
A cruel smile played across his face. "And I took great delight in what I did."
Genesis and Angeal were silent.
"So if you are expecting me to be repentant, you are sorely mistaken," said Sephiroth.
The three of them stood at a stand off, all of them tense. The confessions had all been made, the reasons given, their reactions to what they did laid bear. Where it would go from here, he did not know. Sephiroth wondered which of the three of them would be the first to break the silence.
It turned out that none of them would be the answer.
He went still as a pained cry suddenly filled the air, emanating from the front of the house. He registered Lockheart's voice before he took off, Angeal and Genesis on his heels. He found her kneeling on the floor of the porch, her hands out for support, a pained look on her face, water or some other fluid coating the floor around her. His mind registered what happened and the implications of it within seconds. Her 'water broke'. She would be going into labor. It was time.
His child was about to be born.
He had her picked up and in his arms in second. "Angeal, Genesis, make yourselves useful. There are towels in the kitchen in the back, and blankets upstairs. Go."
The two men obeyed without word or complaint and went inside. Years of obeying commands in serious situations would do that to someone, he was oddly glad they hadn't lost that for the moment.
"S-seph...," whispered Lockheart, "I can feel her..."
Sephiroth paused briefly, cocking his head. It took him a second to understand and register what she was saying. The second presence, that of his child, that emanated from her was stiring. It was waking up. It was ready.
He walked into their home and waited until Genesis and Angeal had made a bed of blankets and towels before setting her down. He stripped off her lower clothes and shot the two other men a warning look to allow Lockheart her modesty. They re-positioned themselves behind her and waited.
"Loc... 'Tifa'," he began, correcting himself since he was in her presence, "Relax and ready yourself."
She shot him a hostile look. "Lets see you 'ready yourself' when you..."
She cringed, her entire body tensed. "Oh god... fuck fuck fuck!"
Sephiroth raised an eyebrow as she had her first contraction and began unleashing a string of curses that would have made her gun-armed friend proud. "Does it truly hurt more than Masamune's edge?"
She shot him a hostile look. "YES!"
He made a none-committal hum as a response, not pleased to be beaten out by something so natural as childbirth, but said nothing else. He watched her carefully, noting how tense her shoulders were.
"Angeal, shoulders," ordered Sephiroth.
Angeal hesitated before kneeling down behind her and putting his hands on her shoulders, attempting a light massage to relax her. Lockheart tensed even more for a second before shivering and trying to relax. She licked her lips and took in a ragged breath...
"Genesis, get her water," ordered Sephiroth.
"Yes General Midwife sir," mocked Genesis with a grin.
Sephiroth couldn't quite recall the last time he wanted to gut Genesis as much as he did now, shooting the man a hostile look before he went to the kitchen. Genesis returned a moment later and positioned a glass of water for Lockheart to drink. She offered no thanks, her entire focus on her stomach. She cringed, her face contorting with pain.
"Tifa, you need to pu...," began Sephiroth.
"Tell me to push, and I'll knock you through the wall!" she hissed out at him, "I fucking know!"
He went silent, a bit amused by her skyrocketing temper. "Very well. Do what you know to do then."
She glared at him before closing her eyes and cringing again, trying to push. "Gnnnnaaah."
Sephiroth waited patiently as Lockheart struggled with herself, watching her take quick and deep ragged breaths between her attempts to deliver... and what was Angeal doing?
He watched as behind the woman, Angeal kept shooting him looks and then turning his head to stare at her knees. Sephiroth stared at him, confused, before Angeal briefly took his hands off her shoulder and clasped them over one another.
Ah, he understood, as much as he found the notion distasteful.
He hesitated for a second, not quite sure how to go about it, before he put a hand on her knee, and 'attempted' to be comforting. "If you could survive fighting Cloud, myself, and all his friends, you can survive giving birth."
Angeal and Genesis both cringed.
Lockheart glared at him. "Sephiroth. Shut. Up."
Hrm... he thought that would have been encouraging, but apparently not. His skills in such regards he could admit weren't the greatest.
He froze briefly when Lockheart brought her arms to her stomach and screamed. Sephiroth swore he could hear tearing with his enhanced hearing. She screamed and cried, blood starting to leak out of her, as she pushed, paused to take deep breaths, and pushed more, repeating the process over and over again as minutes passed by. He would have thought just getting it over with and pushing the child out at once would have been easier that these constant bouts, but he could admit he wasn't a woman, he didn't truly know. He waited patiently as she struggled through it, ten minutes... twenty minutes... thirty minutes... and then...
With a strangled cry, Lockheart gave her deepest contraction yet, and loudest scream. Sephiroth's heart skipped a beat as he saw a tuft of silvery hair begin to push out of her. It was coming.
He was there, his arms as a bed, as Lockheart finally pushed the child out. Again, as he stared at his blood and goop covered child, he felt his heart skip a beat in a way he didn't think it ever had before. The child took a gasp of breath and let out a fitful cry.
Sephiroth turned his head to glance at a towel under Lockheart. "Give me one."
Genesis knelt down to toss him a towel. Sephiroth cradled the child against himself with one arm, and began cleaning off the child, desperate to get a better look at her. She was decently large and more developed for a newborn, to his knowledge, he could see why Lockheart screamed as she did. Perhaps... what did the humans call it, 'C-Section?' would have been a better route and less dangerous, not that they were near a civilized hospital, Junon having the only one he could think of. The infant had on her a tuft of silvery hair, her catlike eyes a mixture of green on the outside like his, and crimson red near the irises like her mother's. To his curiosity, the infant was born with a small black and red feathery wing, rather than drawing it out later in life.
"Uh, Sephiroth," said Angeal.
He paid him no mind, continuing to study the child, analyzing her every nook and cranny. Poking her arms, examining her fingers and toes. He had never before found himself to curious and interested in something before. Yet, how could he not? She was HIS, something born of him, and Lockheart too he supposed. He had allowed her to name the child after all. Jen if he recalled correctly.
"Sephiroth," said Angeal sternly, "Do you two have potions anywhere?"
Sephiroth glanced at him briefly. "In a storeroom in the cellar, why?"
Genesis coughed. "Because, your wife looks like she's bleeding out at the moment, in-case you didn't notice."
Sephiroth glanced down at Lockheart, noting how dazed she seemed, quietly sobbing to herself; he could admit, there was quite a bit of blood pooled underneath her. "For one, we're not married. For two, she's more than capable of healing on her own. We've both bled more when we fought at Mideel."
Angeal raised an eyebrow. "Sephiroth, your lucky she's out of it, otherwise I'm fairly certain she'd hit you through the wall for that comment."
Sephiroth frowned, a bit confused, he had only stated the obvious. "Why?"
"Married or not, showing a bit of concern for your significant other is kind of an important thing," said Angeal, "Especially after they just gave birth."
Sephiroth made a none-committal hum and resumed studying the infant in his arms. "There should be an elixir or two in the storeroom."
Sephiroth paused his examination when he noted a peculiarity. Infants were said to cry a lot when they were born. It was, he had read, to take air into their lungs for the first time. It was also used to get attention, to alert the parent when they were hungry, or needed something, or to express discontent. To be frank, crying was one of the only ways an infant could communicate. He had mentally prepared himself up until this point to have to listen to day in and out for years to come.
Yet Jen hadn't cried or made any other noise after her first initial breath. Nor had the infant fallen asleep. Her eyes were wide open and, to his surprise, trying to examine herself just as he had been. He watched, curiously, as the infant tried to move her hands and feet, small little flinches all she was able to do. Her eyes narrowed slightly, and she made a discontent gurgle. He reached his free hand up and brushed a bit of her hair, twiddling it between his fingers. That caught her attention, and the infant's eyes turned up to meet his. For a moment, Sephiroth froze. Her eyes seemed far to aware and focused for an infant, an intelligence there that did not belong in something so newly born.
How curious.
He broke eye contact with his offspring and glanced over as Angeal returned from the basement, popped open an elixir, and helped Lockheart down it. The woman cringed and coughed repentantly, a distasteful look on her face. He knew from experience those things did not taste the best. Amusing.
The woman cringed and started contacting again. It took him a moment to recall way, sighting the cord like appendix still connected to his child's belly from within Lockheart. He wrinkled his nose in distaste as she pushed the placenta out of her and took a heavy sigh of relief, leaning back to rest on the blankets, panting with exertion. Sephiroth took the initiative afterwords and squeezed the cord near his child's stomach, pinching it off and disconnecting it. The rest would wither and fall off at some point.
Hmm... he supposed he ought to offer Lockheart something. "Well done Tifa."
Lockheart took in a deep breath and slowly forced herself to sit up, first to glare at him, and then, her face softening immensely as she looked at her child and held out her hands. "Giver her... to me..."
Sephiroth studied Lockheart critically for a moment, wondering if she should be doing anything but resting so soon after birth, even with an elixir. He grudgingly decided to obey, slowly and carefully passing Jen over to her. He supposed it was a mother's right to hold their child. He would have time, unmeasured time yet to come, to hold, raise, and mold that child as he so pleased.
Despite having been screaming her head off mere minutes ago, the moment Lockheart held the child close to her, a deep smile played across her face. He wasn't sure he had ever seen her smile like this since... ever...? At least before he had known her anyway. He watched, as Lockheart brought a finger up to brush against the child's face before playing with Jen's lips, making a cooing sound. The infant blinked, looking confused by the gesture. Lockheart merely smiled in response.
Satisfied that she wouldn't pass out or drop the infant on accident in a weakened state, her turned to the other matter at hand. The mess. He glanced down with distaste at the 'afterbirth' before a rather cruel idea hit him.
"Genesis, take care of that," he ordered.
Genesis made a disgruntled noise in the back of his throat. "Me?!"
"Yes, you, make yourself useful and dispose of it, fire is your specialty, isn't it?" Sephiroth inquired.
Genesis scoffed. "Your child, you deal with it."
"You're both children," said Angeal before giving a sigh, grabbing a towel, wrapping the thing up, and taking it outside.
"I suppose that leaves you to mop then," said Sephiroth, giving Genesis an utterly cruel smile.
Genesis scowled. "This wasn't what I came here to do."
"I believe the term is 'life happens'?" said Sephiroth, "The mop is in a closet in the kitchen."
He could not help but feel smugly satisfied as the man muttered under his breath and left for the kitchen. He refocused and watched as Lockheart continued to examine and lightly play with her child. He might have been content to let her continue, save for the smudge of blood she had just put on his child's cheek.
Sephiroth cleared his throat. "Lockheart, you should clean yourself up."
She paused to glare at him. "I'm busy with my child, I can do that later."
"Oh, so you prefer being half-dressed when we have guests about? Stained with blood, which you happen to be getting on the child?" he inquired.
Deep red embarrassment played across her face before she scowled at him. "Fine, hold her, I'll go take a quick shower."
Lockheart wearily got to her feet and handed Jen off to him, shakily making for the stairs. She took one last fleeting look back, before going up. The shower was on a minute later. Sephiroth could admit, he had been led to believe based on his readings most woman wouldn't be moving on their own for the first day after giving birth. His eyes flickered to the floor. Especially after such blood loss. Then again, Lockheart wasn't exactly human anymore, and was a particularly strong and powerful female regardless.
He deeply frowned as he registered a mistake he had made. He glanced at the pile of towels before leaning down and grabbing one of the few clean ones, picking it up and carefully wrapping Jen in it for warmth. It should have been one of the first few things he had done. He mentally scolded himself for it before moving to sit at the bar. Nourishment would be the next thing she would need, and that would require Lockheart. Sleep would be next, as birth could be just as trying as an experience for the child as the mother, moving into a new existence.
Curiously though, the infant showed no signs of being tired, discomforted, or well... anything. She merely laid in his arms, her eyes flickering to study her surroundings.
"Hmm... do you wish to see your home?" he inquired.
Jen's eyes flickered briefly up to his before she made a gurgling sound. He took that as a 'yes', not that an infant would understand him, and rose. He went into the kitchen, pausing briefly to allow Genesis to pass with a bucket and a mop. He noticed an oddity, as the infant's eyes landed on Genesis. There was almost a distasteful look in her eyes, and a disquieted gurgle in his general direction. Curious.
He walked around slowly, allowing the child's eyes to linger on anything she so desired. When he finished, he took her back into the dining area, and walked along it's outskirts, giving Genesis a wide birth. The child's eyes roamed the room, not displaying any wonder at what she saw, simply taking it in. He moved to a window and shifted her to allow her to peer out. She did so silently.
Thud thud thud.
He turned his head to see Lockheart coming down the stairs in a hurry, moderately cleaned up and wearing a spare set of her leather clothing. She paused briefly to study him and Jen, a soft smile on her face, before she walked over.
He handed her over without needing a request and without complaint. "I suppose she ought to be fed and put to rest."
Lockheart nodded, cradled the child and moved to sit at the counter before pausing and shooting Genesis a look. "No peaking!"
The man righted from his mopping and gave her an indignified look. "Fair lady, I may have been a deranged degrading madman in the past, but I was never a pervert."
She merely smirked in response and attended to the child.
Angeal walked in a moment later and grabbed the pile of bloody blankets and towels before taking them downstairs. Must have seen the washing room when he was looking for an elixir. Genesis finished his mopping as Angeal walked back up and put the mop away. The two of them moved to stand a bit aways from Sephiroth on either side, quietly watching him watch his child.
He could not help but have a soft, content smile on his face. "You two may stay for dinner if you so wish, as my 'thanks'."
"We don't wish to intrude anymore than we have," offered Angeal.
Sephiroth made a none-committal hum. He did not particularly care either way. What the two of them became to him here on out made little difference compared to what he had attained here, and what had just entered into his life. He stood there as time ticketed by, his eyes locked onto Lockheart holding his child...
Author's Notes:
Sephiroth had some alone contemplation time. He's rather possessive of 'his' child. Also had his first confrontation with Genesis/Angeal, and...
Well...
Jen's (Jenova's) been (re)born. The 'countdown' has begun... T-Minus 12-15 years or so to go before all hell breaks loose... (in story of course)
Poor Tifa. She has no idea what she's holding in her hands. She thinks it's her child, but when that truth comes crashing down on her...
Oh boy.
I'm a bastard to put her through something like that, I truly am.
On a separate note...
I need baby names for Aerith/Zack's baby. Haven't decided if it's a boy or a girl yet, so offer away and if it catches my eye, I might use it.