Disclaimer: The Final Fantasy VII Compilation belongs rightfully to Square-Enix. This amateur effort at fan-based fiction is in no way making profit off of the licensed characters described therein, nor is it associating any new original characters to Square-Enix either.
Chapter Seven
The team charged with cleaning up the mess Shin-Ra's army made in Banora village brought back samples of evidence that proved Genesis' activities within the past month, one of which being a photograph of Gillian Hewley's charred remains after the company's bombs blew the town apart. The image remained burned into the back of Sephiroth's eyelids, going with him to bed a week after the mission. His mind drifted, going through the motions of subconscious thought processes that were so routine for him that Sephiroth was actually aware that he was dreaming.
He sat with Angeal at Gillian's dinner table for the first time – again. However, unlike the actual day, Angeal was brooding, and Gillian was uncomfortably tense, her lined face conveying some anxiety or worry. She did not insist on Sephiroth taking a second serving. In fact, she confiscated his plate and discarded it into the sink when he asked. There were no seconds. The stew sat empty upon the stove, and Gillian remained with her back turned to Sephiroth and her son for a long time.
"Are you ashamed?" Sephiroth found himself asking, to Angeal and Gillian both. Angeal stared at him with empty eyes, somehow colder than Sephiroth's.
"What happened to honor!" Zack Fair demanded, suddenly appearing on the other side of the room. In a second he was gone, and Sephiroth stood in front of President Shinra's desk. The man's body was slumped rather pathetically over the desk's surface, the hilt of Masamune sticking out of the President's back. Sephiroth stared, aware that he was both puzzled and satisfied by what he had done.
This is not making any sense… Knowing that it was all a dream, Sephiroth concentrated, rationalizing his actions. Yes, the man he killed was obviously an impersonator that had attempted to assassinate the real Shinra. Sephiroth was beginning to speculate that Rufus may have had a hand in it, trying to usurp the position from his father…
Sephiroth, now on the roof of the Shin-Ra building, killed two more assassins. One of the Turks, a brunette female he barely recognized, clapped her hands from the sidelines. Professor Hojo stood with her, taking notes on a clipboard.
"Ten points for each, General!" she chimed in, her voice sounding pleasant.
Hojo glanced up briefly from the clipboard, over his rimless glasses. "Her codename is Cissnei, remember?" he reminded.
Sephiroth nodded. "Ah." Cissnei waved at him before suddenly turning and jumping off the roof.
"Going to try to save the President," Hojo remarked, "before you kill him."
"But she'll fall," Sephiroth answered, not bothering to look over the edge to see if the Turk Cissnei had indeed perished.
"Perhaps she has a parachute?" asked the scientist.
"Tseng will find her then," Sephiroth finished as he turned away, dismissing Hojo from his presence. It was no longer nighttime in Midgar, but daylight back in Banora. Sephiroth was sitting at Gillian's table once more, but Angeal wasn't there.
"Gillian?" he asked. Her back was still turned to him.
Something stirred in the air around her form, everything becoming less vivid. Her hair grew longer, the salt-and-peppered black giving way to silvery-white. She seemed pained somehow, weaker. Sephiroth heard sobbing.
"M-Mother?" Sephiroth reached out, but no matter how far he stretched, she only seemed to fade further and further away.
"Just let me hold him!" she screamed in anguish, and Sephiroth recoiled as she swiftly turned around, what should have been silver hair a brown blur, strangely enough. Jenova's face instantly decayed before he could see it, eye sockets empty and bones blackened by fire – a grotesque fate similar to Gillian's. No… the same.
It was all a dream, and there was a thudding noise annoying him. He needed to get up and make it shut up, because he needed to know what happened next. Rufus was plotting a conspiracy and there were still assassins around. Genesis was keeping points against him, but Sephiroth always won eventually. The thudding was insistent, but he could only focus on Gillian and Jenova.
Sephiroth shot up in his bed – answerdooritsthedoor – his body drenched in cold sweat. The smoky green hue emitted by the Mako reactors bled through the horizontal blinds of the window, making the darkened bedroom appear noxious somehow. Frustrated by the knocking on his door, Sephiroth threw off the covers and trudged heavily into the living room, the blood reluctantly flowing back into his sleep-numbed legs. Even if it was an emergency outside, it didn't seem like a bad idea to crack a couple of this person's ribs.
Dahlia waited on the other side, and somehow Sephiroth wasn't surprised. Both of their stares were smoldering, Sephiroth's alight with hot Mako and Dahlia's heavy with the shadows under her eyes. In her hands was a stack of folders.
"Hollander is messed up."
The peculiar statement instantly washed the angered expression from his face. "What?" Sephiroth asked, his eyebrows furrowed. Taking clear advantage of his distraction, Dahlia shoved past him and into the apartment where she dumped the files on the coffee table in front of the couch. She sat, immediately sinking into the upholstery with a document in her hands.
"Turn on a light," she commanded. "I have to show you something."
Sephiroth closed the door and with an irritated glare flicked a light on that he had to squint against from the sudden brightness. "Do you have any idea what time it is?"
"No," she answered truthfully, bending towards the table to flip through some pages. Sephiroth took a reluctant seat next to her, pinching the bridge of his nose tiredly.
"You took these from the data rooms," he accused. "When they find the materials missing-,"
"I'll tell them you took them," was her simple reply and Sephiroth rolled his eyes. "It's amazing how little security protects the company's important data at this time… Probably because the real juicy stuff isn't even there, maybe hidden in some more important location."
"More important than Midgar?" Sephiroth replied.
"Maybe Junon," Dahlia suggested.
"What were you going to show me?" asked Sephiroth with a sigh. "I'd like to go back to bed. Can't you show me this in the morning?"
She ignored him, handing him a data sheet. "Here."
Sephiroth stared with heavy eyes at rows and rows of timestamps and subject lines, more than likely for electronic mail. He tried to focus on the tiny print but only found his eyelids falling closed. "I'm not going to read this now," he declared, handing it back to her.
Dahlia scowled and snatched the paper from his fingers. "It was Professor Hollander's, dated back before he abandoned Shin-Ra. He was competing with Hojo for the top position in the Science Department."
"I know that," Sephiroth impatiently said.
"Anyway," she continued, "these messages describe a little of what he was working on at the time, something about organisms and cells that could mimic the exact genetic pattern of other life forms. The company's tax records," she indicated to the thickest stack on the table, "show that the Science Department was approved for funding on a new major project, something that would make a breakthrough in clone technology. Just after Hojo's victory over Hollander, the records indicate that some of the technology went missing, the dates coinciding right with a certain SOLDIER member's disappearance…"
"Genesis!" Sephiroth muttered.
Dahlia nodded. "Yeah. Apparently, the Turks were informed about the stolen technology, and one of their objectives, along with assisting you, was to locate it."
"If Tseng found anything like that in Banora then he neglected to tell me," said Sephiroth.
"Probably under orders not to say anything," Dahlia speculated, "but now it's clear how Genesis was able to copy himself."
"I have to find Hollander." Sephiroth leaned forward on the couch, resting his elbows on his knees in thought.
"Then that was him in the tomb," she announced with certainty. "If I knew then what I know now, you wouldn't have to search for Hollander at all. He would have gone straight to you." Dahlia released a long heavy yawn and stretched her arms, sinking back against the couch. "I wonder though… what did he want you for?"
Sephiroth looked over at her curiously. Dahlia had her eyes closed, also ready to succumb to much-needed sleep. "What prompted you to look into all of this?" he asked.
"I was pissed off," she admitted, not opening her eyes. "I used to get along with Genesis just fine. Sure, I didn't agree with some of his Loveless interpretations, but that was trivial. After knowing him for years through you, it shocked me that he could so easily try to take my life without a second thought."
"He killed his parents," Sephiroth said quietly.
Dahlia's eyes snapped open. "It almost seems out of character of him, doesn't it? Then again, we didn't keep in touch often. Angeal was the one who used to write to me every now and then. If Genesis had some secret vendetta lurking in his heart against Shin-Ra, then perhaps he was just hiding it this whole time. He does like to act, after all. It's Angeal that worries me."
"I'm going back to bed," Sephiroth announced. "Thanks for looking into it, Dahlia."
He could feel her eyes on his backside as he retreated back into the bedroom, and he quickly shut the door behind him before he could invent ideas that probably weren't good ones. It was a recipe for disaster, Sephiroth reminded himself, recalling that during the days he and Dahlia were together she would stay up for most of the night, working while he caught up on sleep for the next assignment. They'd be apart for weeks at a time, she on some expedition at the ends of the earth and he cutting through armies in foreign territory.
Four hours later the sun filtered through the Mako smog and illuminated his room. Sephiroth dressed and found Dahlia asleep on the couch in the living room, the papers and data sheets all over the place. Shaking his head he left the apartment and called for an elevator to the 67th floor. There, amongst the humming of cold machinery he found Hojo.
There was never anything remarkable about him. Professor Hojo stood there with a clipboard, looking the same as he had in Sephiroth's dream. For the entirety of Sephiroth's life, the man never changed; long black hair tied in a greasy ponytail with rimless spectacles set under a protruding brow. His lab coat remained stark white at all times, despite the chemicals and fluids he was constantly toying with. Hojo surrounded himself with all kinds of experiments involving Mako and materia so often, that it was amazing he himself didn't bear the mark of SOLDIER yet.
As Sephiroth strode on forward, Hojo looked up from his work and gave him a tight smile. "Ah, you've returned for another debate?" Hojo's voice was high-pitched and a little grainy.
"No," Sephiroth answered, looking down insolently at the scientist. "Tell me about Hollander."
Hojo shrugged. "But you know him as well, don't you? There's not much to tell other than that. Not a creature worth remembering. Not like you."
"Then tell me about the copy technology that was stolen. He was working with it, wasn't he?"
Hojo scowled, pointing his nose up in the air indignantly. "Working with it," he repeated, spatting. "I should have known from the start that the little dreg had been meaning to steal my work."
Sephiroth folded his arms over his chest. "Your work?"
Hojo's eyes bulged and angrily he tossed his clipboard on a nearby workstation. "Who do you think noticed that genetic traits could be copied in the first place? What do you think I do all day here, boy, stand about and doodle on all the printed data? It was I who initiated the project, and it is I who has to correct all of Hollander's failed specimens."
"Specimens!" Sephiroth gave a start. "The Genesis copies you mean."
Hojo held up an index finger in correction. "Genesis."
Sephiroth glared. "What have you and Hollander done to him?" he demanded.
Hojo chuckled. "There's no reason to be upset. You noticed it yourself remember? The day the three of you wrecked the training room."
"Tell me what happened," Sephiroth growled. The tinny ring of his phone went off piercingly, and Sephiroth snatched it from his coat pocket. "What?" he answered irritably.
"Don't 'what' me," answered the female voice on the other end. "When you get a chance, you should look up the energy output of the Mako reactors, particularly number 5." With that she hung up on him, and Sephiroth shoved the mobile back in his pocket.
Hojo removed his glasses to clean them with a handkerchief. "Hollander may have called himself a genius, but he was just a second-rate."
Sephiroth smirked at Hojo cruelly, savoring the abashed look on the scientist's face. "There are those who would say the same of you."
Hojo shook his head in mock reproach. "It's a shame that you have such little faith in me. If only you knew what I know…" he turned his back on Sephiroth, hiding some secret Sephiroth didn't care for, as it was clear that he was going to get no where with Hojo.
"Whatever it is, it's just taken from Gast, I'm sure," Sephiroth decided. "You'd be no where without his fundamental theories."
Hojo turned back around, beaming. "So you have come to debate with me after all!" Hojo clapped his hands together. "Splendid! What should we agree to disagree upon today?"
Sephiroth sighed. Whenever he came across Hojo, that's what the scientist liked to do. He claimed to be 'testing' Sephiroth's intellectual capabilities, and there was nothing more irritating than having to listen to Hojo's half-baked theories and then having to correct them afterwards. Still, Sephiroth had some time now, and he hadn't been able to humiliate Hojo for a while.
"Dahlia Cuddy discovered historical significance to the Loveless epic," Sephiroth began. "According to her translations, there may be ties to the Ancients there."
Hojo waved it off. "Nonsense. That play is no better than a child's fairytale. It means little to us that the Ancients read the story to their children."
"The verses were inscribed in a burial chamber," said Sephiroth. "Obviously it must have some importance to the figures that were entombed there."
"Yes, yes," Hojo quickly replied. "I read her report and translations. Historians think they own all the knowledge in the world, don't they?"
"She makes a valid point," Sephiroth answered.
"You always did take her side," Hojo confirmed. "You still do, don't you? How interesting… worthy of more study even."
Sephiroth took a step forward, his glare bearing down upon Hojo with malice. "And have done to me what you fools have done to Genesis? I think not, Doctor."
Hojo took a step back out of self-preservation but then attempted nonchalance with another shrug. "I was merely observing behavioral patterns. I seem to have received the results I predicted."
Sephiroth considered a more direct approach for information on the clone technology and Genesis, 'direct' being with Masamune involved, but he was sure that Hojo would just whine to the President about it; and while Rufus was right about it being difficult to actually threaten him, Sephiroth truly did not want to stop receiving his hygiene products all on account of the nuisance scientist in front of him. There were more important reasons to have minor privileges stripped away.
The SOLDIER First Class turned back towards the elevator. "We'll see," he replied to the head of the Science Division, leaving Hojo on the 67th floor to chuckle to himself.
Lazard called him in just when most of the building was beginning to come alive with hundreds of Shin-Ra employees rushing out of their offices in the evening to return to their homes. The elevators were packed with impatient bureaucrats and researchers, and to avoid the masses Sephiroth took the emergency stairwell once he laid eyes upon the chaotic recreational floor. No one took the stairs, as no one in their right mind or average physical ability could bear the thought of climbing even a fraction of the Shin-Ra building's seventy-some-odd floors to their destination. Sephiroth sometimes preferred it to the elevators, as he could usually run up the steps faster than the elevator could be called without expending much energy. A while ago, he taught Angeal and Genesis his trick, and they would spend some spare time racing up and down the stairs when the training room was occupied. They would even have duels on them when the building was empty enough for no one to notice.
He could hear the angry grunts of Heideggar, head of Shin-Ra's security forces, just outside the SOLDIER Director's office. Heideggar and Lazard often clashed with opposing views on policy, but the rivalry between SOLDIER and Shin-Ra's military police was said to be ages in the making. Sephiroth stepped aside as Heideggar came storming out of Lazard's office, huffing and puffing and looking like a plump chocobo decorated with too many medals. He barely even noticed Sephiroth as he passed.
"Budget meeting gone wrong?" Sephiroth asked as he entered. Lazard straightened his reading glasses and leaned back in his chair.
"That's a pretty good guess," complimented the Director. "He's enraged that we've been approved for more funding, despite the apparent failure in Banora."
Sephiroth opted to lean against one of the workstations to the right side of the room. "I see. What does he want then?"
Lazard sighed, his head hanging low. "The President has given him the go-ahead to initiate a massive man-hunt for Genesis and Angeal. I tried to warn them that it would be a mistake, a repeat of the destruction caused at Banora. They want to shoot first and ask questions later. President Shinra's patience with Genesis and Angeal has run too thin too quickly, I'm afraid."
Sephiroth crossed his arms and looked at the floor. "Damn it," he muttered after a long moment.
Lazard's expression was understanding. "I had hoped that sending Zack again for a more diplomatic approach to the matter would convince them otherwise, but unfortunately there's a unanimous call on the Board for your sword."
Sephiroth fought the frown, forced his face to remain impassive. "I… see." His time to delay had run out. His friends had made their decisions, and now it was time for him to act upon them.
"I really am sorry about this, Sephiroth," Lazard consoled. "Only Reeve Tuesti seemed to share my opinion on the matter, but the other members of the Board care little for what the head of Urban Development has to say on military concerns."
"I need more time," Sephiroth stated, though unnecessarily. "The army won't be able to destroy them, and Genesis' retaliation will surely be a waste of valuable men on our side. There are still Wutaian remnants that need to be dealt with, after all."
Lazard's white-gloved hand touched his chin in thought. "Perhaps… perhaps there is a way to compromise? Make Shinra happy and go after those two, but take Zack with you as well."
Sephiroth looked up, raising a silver eyebrow in slight surprise. "You mean-,"
Lazard looked triumphant. "I'll promote him, and then report that the two SOLDIER First Classes have been sent to assassinate the defectors."
Sephiroth confidently smiled and then pulled out his phone, dialing for the appropriate number.
"Zack here." The younger man's voice sounded both dejected and irritated.
"It's been a while, Zack," Sephiroth greeted, his currently better mood enhancing the amiable tone of voice he had been hoping for with the phone call.
"Sephiroth?" Zack exclaimed, clearly surprised that the Shin-Ra hero had suddenly called after their very first meeting over a month ago.
"Come to Lazard's room."
"A-Alright," Zack replied. Sephiroth hung up and turned to the computer behind him, ready to access whatever he could on Mako reactor 5.
Author's Note: I've surrendered. Without a Crisis Core Ultimania guide there is no way to tell how much time passes in between missions. Therefore, I've decided to come up with the damn time frames myself! *shakes fist at Square-Enix* If I learn later that it's different, oh well. I'll do my utmost best to make the next two years of Sephiroth's life in accordance with what happens in Crisis Core.
Shinz - I had almost forgotten that the norm was to make Sephiroth's apartment black! xD I'm glad you find it all refreshing, and it's a surprise to be reminded that there are certain fanfiction cliches that are still around. One that would irk me would be Sephiroth's black chocobo... would he even own a chocobo??? If I had an army to fly or drive me around wherever I wanted, or a huge wing to fly myself, I certainly wouldn't. Besides, where in Midgar is there even a stable for chocobos? Ha, ha, anyway, enough about that. Glad you enjoyed the chapter!