-1Chapter Twelve: Truths Beneath

"She walks in Beauty, like the night
Of cloudness climes and starry skies,
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes..."

-Lord Byron

"It's not really Hojo." Sephiroth commented darkly, stepping in front of Tifa and setting a hand on his hilt. "It's a copy, a broken clone similar to those that another researcher at Shinra developed years ago. Likely it's a augmented version of the same technology from then."

"As to be expected of the Prodigal son." The copy laughed, pushing glasses up it's nose before falling into a coughing fit for a moment and then straightening as best it could to continue. "And here you brought something else with you…disappointing but acceptable side effect."

"Be quick to stop speaking in riddles else I start cutting off the extra pieces." Sephiroth commented with his eyes narrowing, he hadn't failed to pick up what hints were dropped but he didn't like the insinuations being made.

"No reason to be so aggressive to me." The fake Hojo commented cheerily, looking him over. "I am so happy to see you back and healthy again my son."

"Son?" Sephiroth paused to raise a brow at him. "You've apparently lost even more of your mind."

"Actually…" Tifa hesitated but she knew he had to find out sometime. "Hojo was parentally your father and a woman named Lucrecia was your mother but she went insane after you were born because of what she agreed to with Hojo. I'm sorry…"

She was watching him carefully and saw him tense dangerously after she said it, he didn't even glance back at her though. He was obviously having issues with the new information, though it wasn't easy to read past a tense stance and the grip of his fingers around the hilt of his new masamune.

"Yes yes, good that you brought her after all." The copy commented, leaning over a dias nearby where he was standing inside. "Perhaps she'll make a good test subject for my next level of the Sephiroth experiments. You must like her if you are bringing her along mmm?"

"What do you want with me?" Sephiroth asked, his lips tight as he resisted the urge to slice the monster in front of him to pieces. "You'll not be laying your hands on Tifa."

"Now now." The clone waggled a finger at him. "I don't have to lay my hands on her at all. Where was…ah there."

He pushed a button that made the floor beneath them transform to a trap door but Tifa pushed herself back before it caught her and Sephiroth didn't move, floating calmly in place as his eyes took on a glow that was more than the norm. He floated across the open space, he'd already heard Tifa save herself, and settled near the clone. "You are getting senile in your old age. Tell me what you want or I end this."

"Now now…no need to be hasty." The clone sounded slightly more worried than before. "Shut down and sleep program one."

Sephiroth faultered as the words were said he could feel a wave of tired curl across his consciousness, blackness forming in front of his eyes, his muscles start to release. He even heard the clang of the replaced masamune on the floor shortly before he hit himself. Then several thumping sounds he could only assume was Tifa following through with the threats he'd given as her muffled yells seemed concerned and angry.

He pushed away the waves of dizziness, pulling himself back to his knees and forcing away the control that had been put on him somehow during his torture. His teeth were gritted with rage he couldn't manage to express in the presence of the woman, he needed the fool alive.

"Stop it…whatever you did turn it off right now." Tifa was demanding shortly before a punch cracked his nose and a kick dug behind him into his kidney and she pinned the freak to the ground. "I mean it."

"I'm fine now." Sephiroth stated, while he appreciated her concern, it was already bad enough that he was forced yet again to rely on her. "You better answer questions though you worthless copy. I won't be nearly as kind as she is being if you give me the slightest reason yet again."

"No no." He was groveling easily now that his backup plan seemed to have failed. "The research you want, some of it is still in the laboratory but I don't know where the pieces of Jenova are. The first wouldn't tell me that…in case I failed."

"The first being Hojo?" Tifa asked, tightening her grip to make the twist of his arm painful enough to bring tears to his eyes.

"No, no, no more pain." He howled a moment and then coughed for a while before he could reply again. "It was a clone of himself he made before the events of the first Cataclysm, before the events that lead up to it. Even before Sephiroth had been taken by Jenova. To replace himself in case something happened. The rest of us didn't turn out well because we were not held by female hosts."

Tifa frowned at the level to which Hojo seemed willing to fall to do what he wanted with the world, playing god had already caused so much suffering but he continued to do so even after his death.

"What did you do to make me hesitate?" Sephiroth demanded, kicking the man hard enough that he set off another coughing fit, it was obvious he was incredibly angry and barely keeping himself from just killing the creature.

"It was a system that was still being installed when you were stolen from Nibelheim." The creature finally answered, stuttering nervously only rarely but often still interrupted by coughing. "The only command successfully installed was one to force you to sleep, but even that seems to have not been properly finished as you retained consciousness."

"Where is this first?" He demanded, voice colder than Tifa had heard it sense the days in Nibelhiem years ago when he'd gone made, it made her want to shiver and pull away but she held the clone of Hojo steady.

"I don't know. I don't know." It repeated nervously when Sephiroth leveled the long blade. "He doesn't tell us so we can't give him away. All I know is that he wanted to wipe your memory and return it to the days when you still followed the Shinra willingly so they could use you. I don't know what for, he doesn't tell us that!"

He seemed more than willing to speak now that it was perfectly evident his cooperation and life were neatly tied together.

"Can it be reversed? What about the other problems with his health?" Tifa asked, doing her best to not have to hear Sephiroth keep talking like that…she wanted to be away from here…to make him not sound like he was going to go mad again. Cursing herself for thinking she had better judgment than her friends as to his mental status.

"It'll go away after a while. All of it. The mental control didn't get enough of a grounding so probably it'll be less and less effective over a couple more times before it ceases to work all together with the way he adjusts to his environment." The man was speaking quickly but paused again for a long coughing fit and Tifa was afraid to even look up at Sephiroth, she could feel how much he wanted to slay the thing she was holding. "The health problems are harder to predict because it was devilishly difficult to regenerate him in the nearly disintegrated manner in which he was found. It was thought that for a month or two once he was complete that he would have issues for a time to readjust to his previous capabilities."

"What is the continued project you mentioned, what else than a slave is this Hojo copy after?" Sephiroth demanded, he was at the end of this, he wasn't sure he could last much longer before slaying the monster that had helped torment him for so long.

"He wishes to produce further generations of the project to see how they will react. The plan was to find an acceptable mate and then infuse them with Mako in the same way SOLDIERs were so the child would have the best chance of keeping the power of Jenova with the fewest amount of her cells possible."

He was cut off after that, the single slice was true, clean, the creatures warm blood was against her skin before Tifa had even realized that he'd made the strike, she blinked as it grew slack in her arms and backed away, staring at Sephiroth in surprise. She'd known it would probably half to die, but he'd done it so callously, there was possibly more information they could have gotten from it.

"Sephiroth…" She breathed lightly, staring at his back, the blade was away again and he was facing away from her toward the front doors of the old Shinra building. "…are you…"

"I'm fine." He interjected just as coldly. "We should go up to what's left of the laboratories. The elevators wouldn't be safe even if we could get them online so we'll need to climb."

He just wanted to be away, gone from everything he'd just been told. Hojo had been his true father? He'd had a mother and Jenova had still used him under that false pretense? What a fool he'd been his entire life. He wanted only to destroy not just what was left of Jenova but also any remainders of that madman that was apparently his birth father.

He blinked in surprise at the arms that wrapped around him from behind, the warmth that came from Tifa's body as she pressed against him in a hug from behind. His entire form grew rigid and then relaxed a little at the gesture, he settled a hand over hers. As angry as he was, taking it out on her solved nothing. He couldn't allow himself to be driven to action though a lack of control in any form any longer. If she hadn't been there to reach out a hand he wasn't sure he'd be doing nearly as well.

"I'm sorry." She said softly. "I wanted to tell you somehow, about Hojo and Lucrecia…this was the worst way you could have found out."

He closed his eyes, a small sarcastic smile crossing his face. "Do not be concerned with it Tifa. Though I would like to hear more later if you know more, for now we should accomplish our mission and return. Thank you."

"Yeah…" She blushed and pulled away, stepping next to him awkwardly. "You're right. I just…was a little worried about you there. You are kinda scary when you get that mad you know."

"So I've been told." He commented, smiling despite himself at her attitude. "Ladies first."

"In the dangerous ruin? Yeah thanks." She rolled her eyes at him and moved onto the emergency stairwell ahead of him. It was surprisingly still lit by the emergency power and almost completely clear of the debris in the entryway. Only dust was settled on the floor and railings to show how little the place was used, a good sign that at least there weren't enemies also using this route.

He followed after, most of his anger diffused now, though he was left with even more things he needed to deal with, it was best to know that he was born of completely mortal parents and just augmented by a mad scientist of a father. It was painful that his mother had vanished, it may have saved him from Jenova, but likely if he'd of discovered the truth then she'd of had one more way to get to him. She'd been the kindest hand ever reached toward him sense his birth…and it was all fake. He glanced up toward the climbing Tifa, wondering silently if she was another siren just calling him in to try to drown him like the other people in his life.

Yet, something told him immediately that it wasn't the case, if anyone was capable of such betrayal, Tifa was the last human he'd met. If she'd wanted him dead she'd of carried it out any of the half-dozen chances she'd already had, yet she still kept with protecting him even the few minutes before where if he had been alone there likely would have been some serum to follow the command with. A tiresome thought, that he would need to subject himself to such things just to be able to fight through them. It sounded so much like Hojo though he had little doubt that the madman was the one pulling the strings, even if it was a mere copy.

"I'm glad you seem okay now." Tifa glanced back as they headed past the tenth floor with dozens to go. "I didn't think you'd go back to….before…but your voice was so cold. The way you killed him was so callous…"

"I apologize that I frightened you." He commented lightly, his voice was mostly neutral but he meant it. "It was not my intention to do so."

"No no…it just…" She paused, still walking up quickly despite the reflective edge of her tone. "…it was so much like then…I could remember it so well even before but that brought it immediately to mind."

"I am sorry Tifa." He commented with a shake of his head. "If I could return him…"

"No no." She shook her head. "No. I don't wanna talk about that. I think he's happy now, wherever he is, with mom. I'm glad that you are okay though, that my faith and forgiveness is well placed. That's what I mean."

She continued to walk, though was growing more nervous as time passed. Afraid she might have treaded upon emotional ground he had no way of responding to. Though stranger still that he'd actually began to use her first name in a kind instead of a mocking way. So much had changed in such a short time for her to feel so protective of him. When the creature made him fall over she'd just jumped, she wanted to fix it…she felt bad for her father but she knew her parents would want her to do the right thing, even if it meant never being able to avenge them. She couldn't kill him now, not when he was trying so much to redeem himself…when she wanted to help him so badly.

She knew it was strange, that her friends still wouldn't come around for a while, if ever in the cases of some of them. But at the same time, she felt so horribly for him after all that had happened, she wasn't sure if she could return to being anything like herself after being forced to slay so many against her will. It wasn't him, and she could see parts of the darkness in him, like just then, but he was much more like the individual she'd met before he'd lost his mind.

"I will do what I can to make up for what I stole…but that isn't possible." Sephiroth commented finally. "I am glad that you at least, if no one else, believes me. It means more than I can express to you."

She grinned a little. "Well, I can always make you work it off at 7th Heaven you know."

"Yes, making up for the attempted destruction of the world by working at a bar." He commented lightly. "I'm sure everyone would agree."

She laughed at the distaste in his voice and on his face when she glanced back. "Might do you well for a while anyway. Learn a little humility at least, assuming you don't kill some of the regulars."

"For the sake of your clientele I'd recommend considering a better form of punishment." He agreed, vaguely amused at the way in which she made general conversation. He could pick up that she was joking with him, it was a rare thing, he'd occasionally gotten it from Zack when he was still a 2nd but rarely from anyone else. It was a refreshing way in which to interact and better than some of the hero-worship or groveling he'd received in the past. She seemed easy with him in a way he rarely managed to find in others.

"Yeah yeah." She rolled her eyes, amused at just how similar he could be to Cloud for as much as her childhood friend hated him. He'd admired him for so long, though it would take time it was possible he could come around sometime if Sephiroth continued to work with them instead of against them. Yuffie was the one she was most worried about. "Well, I guess I could always bring you on as a dancer instead. People keep asking me to pick up strippers. Whew finally, the right floor."

"I think perhaps you are just fishing to see me without my clothes on." He replied glibly, slipping past her to open the door while she stretched after the long climb, smiling as she blushed and floundered for a reply after him.

"…um uh…not what I meant…" she finally managed, pushing away the image of him on top of her that continued to haunt her whenever he mentioned such things. Trying not to think about how much she enjoyed being lost in those catlike eyes of his.

"There is little left here." He commented, frowning again at the smell on the other side of the door. Many of the experiments had been left for dead after the attack on the tower by weapon. With the relocation of most things to Junon even the computers and other information it seemed they didn't bother sending people to clean things up. Everything had died and been left to rot in the various holding cells, it was aggravating and the playful banter was forgotten as he headed toward the rooms that functioned as the offices and bookkeeping area of the laboratory levels of the headquarters.

"My goodness." Tifa commented with a frown of her own at the smell, realizing the same things her companion had. "I can't believe they just left them…Rufus really is a horrible person."

"You doubted it before?" He asked with a slightly raised brow as he entered a less smelly area and moved toward the part of the room that wasn't caved in, one computer had survived the assault and thankfully the door to the written records had as well.

"Not really, but it is sad when I need to be reminded like this." She answered, looking around and frowning. "Not too much left here. Who would keep a top secret record room on the outside level of a building?"

"Someone that didn't think they'd ever have a mythical creature shooting it down from several miles away." Sephiroth shrugged toward her. "As it is we'll probably have a while with me looking through here and next room. Care to start there?"

"Sure." Tifa agreed, moving and opening the door and then pausing. "Erm, or not. The room is almost gone, the cut got it when the weapon hit the building years ago…there's nothing here unless its on that computer. Do you think the copy lied to us?"

"Doubtful given it's want to live." Sephiroth answered, looking at the screen quietly and typing a bit. "I think then our search might be shorter than I just mentioned. There aren't many files here."

"Anything useful?" Tifa moved over to look over his shoulder, blinking in surprise at the words in front of her. She felt vaguely nauseous at what was written there, the final hiding place of the last vestiges of Jenova's physical body.

"My god…" Tifa breathed, shaking her head at the screen. Apparently during the surgery where they birthed Sephiroth they'd sewn the last hand of Jenova back into the womb of Lucrecia. Likely why she couldn't die even after she'd attempted to kill herself several times. Possibly the reason why she began to see visions and went mad and into isolation long before Sephiroth could become aware of her existence.

It was likely Jenova had used the woman somehow and helped to drive her to the madness she was in. Poor Vincent, she wasn't sure if it was better to tell him or not with the way things were ending up. If they were to destroy the last vestiges of the evil creature then would they have to find and kill Lucrecia? Something didn't sit right there.

"How depraved could they let you become Hojo?" Sephiroth shut the window, turning off the computer and starting to take off the side to take the drive with the information with them. "You said Lucrecia was my mother? She really is still alive?"

"Yes, far as I knew last…though she vanished after the events of the northern crater." She commented lightly, frowning still at the very idea of how awful these people were. "I can't believe Shinra let them do all these things and turned a blind eye."

"We need to find her…" Sephiroth commented without pausing in his work to retrieve the drive. "If we can remove what they placed there…perhaps we can save her…she went mad didn't she?"

"How did you know?" Tifa blinked curiously at the way he stated it so clearly.

"I remember how it happened with me…how the parasite slowly drove me to insanity." Sephiroth answered with a small frown creasing his features. "I imagine with such direct contact it was easy for it to do the same to her. To drive her away from me, I wonder for how long the creature imagined it's take over of the planet."

"I'm sorry Sephiroth…I think I know someone that could have some idea of where Lucrecia is but I'm not sure he would tell us." Tifa answered lightly. "She thinks you died during the war."

"Someone you traveled with?" He picked up the piece he wanted now that he'd disconnected it and glanced back to her. "You only use that tone of voice in reference to your best friends."

"Vincent yeah…he used to love Lucrecia before Hojo convinced her to join the experiment." Tifa explained with a small frown, not sure how to explain it better. "He still loves her I think. That's why if anyone would know her location he would."

"And he hasn't been contacting you." Sephiroth observed, as that had been the one absent member of their group the entire time.

"Right." Tifa nodded with a frown of her own. "We'll need to try to contact him if the group in Junon hasn't already heard something from him."

"It seems the most logical course, I hadn't figured it would become this complicated." Sephiroth admitted, standing and nodding toward the exit. "We should get back before Yuffie attempts to come after us."

"Yeah." Tifa nodded a little, heading back toward the long set of steps quietly. Just how much did Shinra's sins need to continue to cause harm to the people that were helpless to do anything about it. It bothered her that even Sephiroth had been more or less a casualty of the travesty's the company had allowed to happen for so long. If they hadn't allowed Hojo so much freedom in his madness then so much of the world would be better now than it was.

"I apologize that I drug you into this." Sephiroth commented as he followed, watching the chance of her demeanor. It wasn't difficult to guess that the information had disturbed her, it certainly had him.

"I don't blame you." She answered honestly with a shrug. "If anything I feel like I hated you unjustly for years. Shinra is to blame for all of both of our losses, it's incredibly sad."

"I am still partly to blame. I served them willingly without really questioning their views and lack of morality." Sephiroth stated darkly, going into brood mode as they walked. "Perhaps if I had…"

"Hey don't." He blinked at her as she rounded on him and pointed a finger at his face. "We can't change any of it. It's sad but we gotta deal with what we have now. Don't go getting all depressed on me."

Women had always confused him, their emotions jumped around so freely. He just nodded a little, not certain how to reply to her. She was right, regretting the past wasn't bad but dwelling only on it would do them no good now. "If you'd prefer."

"Good." She nodded cheerfully and turned back around, it was obvious she was putting on a brave face but he didn't have the heart to point it out that he'd noticed the ruse. She seemed at least somewhat genuine in happiness of keeping him from being sad.

Just all the more confusing for him now. Asking her why didn't seem wise as he'd already done so, so instead they walked in a somewhat muffled comfortable silence down and out of the building and began the more dangerous climb back into the slums.

"What will you do if we can't safely remove the piece of Jenova from Lucrecia?" Tifa asked finally, it was difficult not to think about it with how animate he'd been about seeing her destroyed.

"I'll wait." Sephiroth replied almost immediately, as if he'd decided it long before she posed the question. "There is little use in killing her though I wish to see Jenova destroyed. I can wait until she dies and see the remains set alight instead."

"What if she doesn't?" Tifa couldn't help but ask, Lucrecia didn't seem to age when they'd seen her in the crystalline cave with Vincent.

"We'll deal with it when the problem arises." Sephiroth answered, it wasn't a course he wanted to consider. Murder of her seemed awful but allowing Jenova to live at all was a dangerous course. He himself was having problems justifying his own existence past an attempt to redeem the evils he committed. But if they were trying to use him, if they were able to control him with such ease as a few words…

"STOP BROODING!" The scream caught him off guard, he didn't jump but he did flicker his eyes immediately down to where Tifa was climbing below him. He couldn't help but smirk a little at the command.

"Demanding you women are." He observed as he continued to follow her down at a lazy pace for him. "I will do my best."

"You better, you keep brooding and I'll have to punish you." Tifa commented with a matter of fact nod. "It doesn't do any good, men always want to brood so women have to keep you in line."

"I see. And when the women are the source of the brooding?" He returned to playing along with the banter, it made the climb move faster.

"Then you usually deserve it." Tifa answered with a smirk of her own. It was nice to be able to just relax for a bit and do her best to forget about the horrific things at least temporarily.

"Ah I see." He shook his head a little. "So when you are angry at me you don't mind if I brood?"

"As long as it's about the thing I'm angry at you with. Gotta figure out how to not do it again." She commented with a grin, sliding down to the bottom of the climb and shaking her head at the fact that they'd still left these wires up to the main city just hanging here.

"Hey look at that, a couple of people looking around the main city must have slipped by while we were getting lunch." A man laughed from nearby, with a group of thug-like men around him eyeing them in predatory amusement. "Even got a pretty one today boys. The guy can move on if you'll stay with us honey, for your company he won't even have to pay the toll."

Tifa blinked at them quietly, sighing aloud, and knowing that this wasn't going to end well.

End Chapter

Bwahaha cliffhanger, sort of... I'm a little mean. Updating like crazy even though I'm on vacation. Moving along plot as well as relationship status. This was a big part in moving on to further romantic stuff, they had to accept each other on a deeper level than they had thus far. Now to get to the funner things like having Seph beat on people!

-Nera

To my reviewers:

TornAngelWings - Whew, me too!

broken maelstrom - Yeah, I was glad he dropped her too. I like the character but she's good at being annoying and not realizing what she's saying. Yeah, they'll get to the kissing sometime.