Theme: Spirit
The Tough Questions
He was an odd sight in the clean, cold and precise efficiency that was the scientific research floor ruled by the clammy fist of Hojo. Where all the others here walked around in their perfectly white lab coats carrying clipboards and scurrying near mindlessly to obey the whims of Hojo, he was clad in suit pants and a gray tailored shirt. When all others were clean shaven and wore some form of eye protection or vision enhancing items, he bore the beginnings of what would one day cover the strong jaw of his handsome profile. While everyone else who worked upon these two floors for Hojo either had short cropped hair or pulled longer strains back in ties much like Hojo himself, he let his shoulder length and rather well tamed hair hang free. He wasn't one of them, with eyes so cold you shivered to see them. No, he was alive and free, as much as one could be in a world of Shin-Ra.
Like them though he did carry a large stack of files balanced cautiously in once hand while the other carried a cup of hot coffee. The reports were all destined for Hojo's signature in the bitter end, but would go first through him so he would better come to understand the systems of reactors that kept this city running. Not that he liked the system of course, he was against it wholeheartedly, but one of the requirements for his dream was to understand the vulgar systems. And no one in Midgar knew nearly as much about Mako and the reactors as Professor Hojo did. So a young, early twenties maybe, Reeve Tuesti made his way to the small area in the labs that had been given to him by Hojo for the studying of all that was Mako and Mako Reactors.
It was a light whimpering that caught his attention as he finally reached his door. That was one of the major downsides of being what Reeve was, that is an engineer and architect striving for the highest position one of his qualifications could reach in Midgar, Head of Urban Development, was that as a temporary assistant to Hojo, his office was rather close to some of the areas designated as experiment areas. And as some experiments involved humans and animals, the noises could be quite unnerving. He had nightmares about them every night.
Yet there was something about this whimpering that was different from all of the others. It wasn't a pained whimper, or one of true mourning as he heard from the animals desiring freedom, it was more of one of nervous tears. When the whimper came once more the future executive put down the stacks of reports and the cup of coffee by his office door and went to investigate. Within seconds of wandering towards the experiment area his search revealed that the sound did not come from there, but from the room he was forbidden to be near when Hojo was around. Ever curious, the young man continued his investigation.
When he opened the door he didn't know whether to be horrified or moved to tears as well. The room was sparsely decorated. There were a few monitoring devices scattered about, a bed in one corner and the door to a bathroom nearby. There was even a desk like the one in his own office, stacked with books upon many subjects: math, english, foreign languages, geography, things you would expect to see in a school room. Amid it all was a boy, maybe twelve, probably twelve actually, who had buried his head in his hands. The head was crowned with the most beautiful silver strains that looked more like spun moonbeams than true hair, and the hands were such a light shade that Reeve wondered if they had ever truly seen the sun. Upon his entrance though the head shot up, and the most beautiful pale green eyes, more like a cat's than a humans, caught hold of Reeve's gaze. With eyes like that it could mean this boy could be only one person.
"Sephiroth?" Reeve asked hesitantly, wanting to reach out and brush the tears he could now see running down those elegant features away. "You're Sephiroth correct?"
"Who are you?" the boy demanded, springing quickly to his feet before wiping his tears away. Quickly the youth adopted a cold, uncaring look that Reeve had seen once before in the face of the even younger son of the President. How either child, one twelve and the other maybe seven or eight, have such stony expressions if they knew so little of the outside world.
"My name is Reeve Tuesti," the dark haired male said, finally taking that first nervous step into the hospital quality room.
"You shouldn't be here," Sephiroth pointed out, as if he was stating the obvious. It was evident that both knew quite well that the youth spoke the truth.
"Why were you crying?" Reeve asked, and knew a second later as the boy's expression darkened that it was a mistake to say that.
"I'm NOT crying," the youth growled, fists clenching in anger.
It was then that Reeve realized he had seen something that no one was ever intended to see, save maybe Hojo… The weakness of Hojo's 'perfect' son. Rumor had it that the boy would be enrolled into the SOLDIER program soon. Wait, maybe that was it.
"I heard you're going to be in SOLDIER soon. You'd be the youngest member ever. I bet you're proud of that."
The grimace, for that was what Reeve realized now that it was, that had been upon the boy's face when Reeve first entered returned. "I'm not. I don't wanna be in SOLDIER." With that the boy moved to sit upon his bed and glare at the floor.
Reeve let the silence hang, broken only by the sound of his shoes on the white tile as he moved to the side of the youth. After a moment he sat by the future General. "You don't? Then why are you joining?"
"Because the Professor said I had to."
"Your father is forcing you to go into SOLDIER?"
"Don't call him that," Sephiroth hissed. "He won't let me call him that so you can't call him that either!"
Reeve blinked in shock. He'd heard of families with problems before, but not being allowed to call your own dad 'father'? Even Rufus had that privilege, if you could call it that.
"But yeah, he's forcing me," the youth finally continued. "I don't want to go."
"Why?" Reeve asked. He couldn't help it. Ever since he'd started to learn under Hojo he'd been asking that question a lot more lately.
"SOLDIERs kill people," Sephiroth said, close to tears again. "They take away people's parents, parents that love them. They aren't nice to me either. All they do is blindly follow orders, and Hojo puts Mako in them. It hurts, Mako. You hear all these screams in your head and they won't go away for hours. Except they don't go away for me. They are always there, as if being near me makes them worse. I just want them to stop."
With this the youth grabbed Reeve around his waist with strong young arms and pressed his head against Reeve's chest as he cried more. In shock the male sought to comfort the child, a hand brushing through Sephiroth's hair as Reeve's own mother used to do when Reeve would cry as a child. The other arm of the man wrapped around Sephiroth, trying to impart some sense of protection for the youth. And, beyond all odds, it seemed to work.
"I know what you mean Sephiroth. I've heard of it," the man said softly. The youth looked up at him with those all too bright and amazingly beautiful eyes of brilliant mako green.
"Really?" the youth asked in disbelief. "Tell me please. Hojo never tells me."
Reeve nodded and pulled the youth closer, almost enjoying the contact, but pushing it out of his mind. "They say that mako is actually the lifeblood of the planet. When someone dies their spirit turns into something like mako and returns to the Lifestream. In it is all the knowledge of the world and the ancients and the very planet itself. They say the screams people hear when they come in contact is the pain of the planet, the voice of the world. It's kinda like the ability of the Cetra to hear the planet talking to them, but since we humans aren't used to it, we can't block out all the pain we hear…"
"Really? So when people die they go back to the Lifestream?"
Reeve nodded, "Yes. Everyone."
"That means I'll be with my mommy someday?" Sephiroth asked with a smile touching that young face.
At the sight of the smile, Reeve smiled as well, "Yes. I promise."
"Will you be there too? And Doctor Gast? He was nice to me."
Reeve smiled, and fulfilled the urge to kiss the forehead of the youth. "Yep, I'll be there too. I promise. Everyone will be there and you will never have to be sad again. And there will be no pain, and only happiness."
"Really?"
Reeve nodded with a smile and Sephiroth cuddled against the new friend very readily at that point. It wasn't until they heard a throat cleared that the two pulled apart with shock.
"Mister Tuesti, might I ask what you are doing in Sephiroth's room?" that most dreaded of voices asked before Reeve could even pull away from the youth.
"Professor," Reeve finally choked out, pulling sadly away from the child and rising. "I… I heard a voice so I came to investigate."
From the glare he could tell that Hojo was dismissing him. "I will deal with you later Mister Tuesti."
Reeve fled the room but paused down the hallway when he heard the door shut. The man tiptoed back to the door to listen in.
"Sephiroth, you should not listen to that foolish young man. He will get no where in life and you have great things before you."
"Yes Professor," Sephiroth said, voice cold again.
"Do not worry, tomorrow you will be thirteen and we will enroll you in SOLDIER. You won't have to worry about hearing his lies again."
"No Professor."
At this point Reeve tiptoed away, and swore to himself that no matter what, he'd find a way someday to free the youth from Hojo's influence.
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He was an odd sight in the gentle, warm, and overpoweringly natural sight that was this oddly radiant field. It didn't make sense that he was here. A minute ago he'd been in his bedroom, heading off to sleep, even though he knew that it might be one of the last times he slept after seventy long years, and now he was here, in a field of flowers with a beautifully clear stream maybe a car length away. Hesitantly he moved towards that creek, looking around in wonder at all the beauty, a natural thing he had not seen the like of since his last vacation in Mideel. When he came to the water that seemed so clear that it was impossible, he looked down and jumped back a step.
When he'd gone to sleep his hair had been gray and his skin wrinkled. He had looked every bit his frail age, and more. His eye-sight had been going and he had looked like a stiff breeze could do him in. Yet, at this moment it was a strange, but familiar face that looked out at him. Dark, wavy hair that fell to his shoulders but was cut perfectly back and accented his carefully trimmed facial hair. His skin was smoother than he could ever remember, except maybe for those first few months training under Hojo before his life had turned to hell. His eyes were no longer cold and dying, but bright and so alive. It was like he was once more in his twenties, an impressionable youth who had found his life's work and maybe his heart's greatest desire all in once glorious year before Hojo delayed one and stole the other away.
"It doesn't matter how long you stare, it isn't going to change," a gentle tenor voice said from the other side of the stream. It was a voice he could almost remember, almost recognize, but was just different enough to send him for a loop. It was like the gentle, childlike voice he had heard from a pre-SOLDIER Sephiroth, mixed with the smooth, lust-inflicting tones of the legendary General.
Reeve couldn't find it in himself to look up, almost afraid of what he might find to be just another dream of an old dreamer.
"You going to sit there all day or what Reeve?"
He did look up, and emotions he hadn't known had melted away rushed back to him, filled him with a hope he had dared not have. There he was, the silver haired, one winged angel of both legend and great fear back in the world of the living, for he knew he could no longer be there. Death truly had taken him, and this surely was the Promised Land assured not only to the Cetra, but to the worthy amid the humans. This was the paradise of the Lifestream.
"Sephiroth," he choked out in a voice he hadn't heard in years. His own had been, right before his death, slow and crackling, while this was a strong and confident bass.
"You're late Reeve," Sephiroth pointed out. "I thought you'd never keep that promise."
The eyes of brown brightened even further as Reeve heard those words. "You… You waited for me? How long?"
"Hard to tell. Time doesn't really pass here. From your own shock I'd guess maybe I've been waiting a long time. Vincent and Cid already passed this way, Barret too. They all asked me why I was waiting to move on…"
"Move on? This isn't the Lifestream then?"
Sephiroth shook his head, "Nope, just the land you come to before you pass into it. I've been waiting to pass on, waiting for you."
The former executive almost blushed.
"Why?"
"I should ask you the same thing Reeve. Why did you fight to free me? Why did you comfort me as a child? Why do you love me?"
"Sephiroth…" Reeve said, finally reaching out across the stream to take the offered hand. "Why must you always ask the tough questions?"
"Because they are the only ones worth answering," the silver haired angel said before guiding the executive onto the path many had taken before, taking him to the new life awaiting them.
Author's Ending Notes: I didn't intend for it to become a ReevexSephiroth until the very end really. About half way through I decided Reeve would love Sephiroth. I decided at the end that Sephiroth just might love him back. Sweet, maybe OOC, we shall never know since we don't know how such a conversation with Reeve so early in his life would have affected him, but still beautiful to me. If you don't like it, keep it to yourself please or else flame me so I can make smores. Apparently Sephy has never had smores and I think he deserves to try one.