A/N: Thanks for all the reviews and support you've submitted! I know this is kind of old and out-dated now, especially that Advent Children is going to come out soon, but please keep reading, reviewing, and most of all enjoying:D
-oOo-
: Chapter Two : Junon
They travelled then, for days, listening for any news of Sephiroth. From Kalm they journeyed south to the Mythril Mines, and then the town of Junon. Junon was really three towns under one name - there was Junon Airport, a large complex where the Shinra controlled shipping imports and exports from the New Continent, and from where the Shinra could travel in their custom-made helicopters. The nearby Junon Town, the Shinra's military base, maintained the airport. Cloud himself had trained in the town for a few years before he had reached top-class SOLDIER. It was a drab-looking city, with tall skyscrapers that were drenched in darkness, smoke, pollution and a foreboding greyness. At night the neon lights would signal to the soldiers that it was time to go out and enjoy themselves. Every need was catered for - there were sleazy bars, and sophisticated ones for the Turks; there were brothels, and weaponry stores, and materia stores - all the kinds of things that could keep your average Shinra soldier satisfied.
Down below the town, which resided on a cliff-side overlooking the Eastern Sea, was Junon Harbour, a simple village where the soldiers often went to poke fun at the simple folk. All the waste from the airport was dumped into the beaches round here, so it was not a pleasant place to stay in. Cloud didn't really want to go back up to the town. He couldn't really remember the time he'd spent up there - he'd been too drugged with Mako - and he didn't particularly want to be reminded of the kind of things people got up to up there. So, much to the dissatisfaction of his companions, they stayed for the night in the stinking harbour before the next ship set sail for the New Continent the next morning.
It was evening when Cloud visited the beach. The sand was muddy, brown, and in the distance stood the ugly erection of an electrical cable tower. He sat there, in the sand, bathed in the light of a falling sun, knees hunched to chest, face pensive. He was remembering Sephiroth, the enigmatic figure he could not rightly place in his past. Why did Sephiroth matter?
On the horizon of murky water, Cloud saw the outline of a dolphin, silky-smooth, swimming slowly to shore. Cloud had not seen a dolphin before. He watched it silently for a moment, it's slippery back arched like a rainbow as it frolicked in the water. He could find no way of expressing the sudden feeling inside him, no movement, no sound would come. Here was a creature, half extinct, so beautiful, so forgotten. It was easy to forget Nature. It was easy to ignore the wonder of all existence. There was man, and man belonging to the Planet, not the Planet to man. What are we doing? Cloud thought in the silence, where are we leading ourselves? The Planet symbolises ourselves, our will to live. We may kill it one day, kill our spirit.
That was why Sephiroth mattered. He would kill people, he would kill the dolphin, he would kill the Planet. Who knew where his power would stop?
There was a fan-fare the next morning, one loud enough to wake the whole group up. News was going round that Rufus was holding a parade in honour of his new presidency in the town above, and was moving on to the New Continent to survey Mako Reactors. In that case, Cloud knew that he and the others had to be careful.
They wandered into the airport, immediately lost in the heat of the parade. Rufus looked less than amused at all the pomp and ceremony, which had been organised by a simpering Heidigger. It was obvious that Rufus knew his stuff as President, and things were going to change under his régime. Frivolity was not for him, though his overt campness belied this fact. He boarded the ship without so much as an inkling of gratitude, and the culmination of people prevented him from noticing Cloud and the others from boarding along with him. As they boarded, Cloud caught sight of an airship waiting for take-off, glinting in the sun. Cloud stared up at the wonderful thing in amazement. Never had he seen an aircraft so vast, so imposing on the insignificant forms of mankind. When comparing this machine to the jelly-mould Shinra helicopters, Cloud realised just how much of a masterpiece this airship was, as though its creator had put all his heart and soul into it. It occurred to him that man was just as great a creator as Mother Nature, just as long as they chose not to abuse their powers. The thought touched Cloud in a way indescribable to himself as well as to anyone.
The whole ship was in quite a state of trepidation, as Sephiroth had been spotted in the vicinity, and there were fears for the President's life. For this reason, civilian passengers went largely unnoticed, and so Cloud and the rest of the group were relatively safe - just as long as Red kept himself out of the way.
Cloud slept that night and was not in the least surprised to hear the voice calling to him this time, even though he had not heard it in quite a long time. Its clarity still struck him, but it no longer unsettled him, the way it had at first.
Cloud...
So, he answered knowingly. It is you.
The voice's tone changed. It was laced with a kind of hope, losing its austerity.
You remember. That is good. You are beginning to recognise me.
Cloud was conscious of looking around, searching in the blackness for the owner of the voice. No, he replied soberly. I do not know you. Tell me who are. I need to know. I need to know what you want from me.
There is no need to trouble yourself with that now, the voice replied softly. But let me ask you a question Cloud. Five years ago, you met Tifa again, didn't you? Why did you not get to speak to her, by yourself?
Cloud thought hard. He thought desperately. Why hadn't he? He did not know. I don't know, he answered.
The voice seemed prepared for this reply.
Then why don't you ask? it demanded, Ask her tomorrow.
Cloud nodded in the darkness.
Yes. I will ask her tomorrow.
Cloud had hardly made his promise when he suddenly awoke. It was the same sort of awakening he had experienced in the Shinra cells, the feeling of foreboding, of dread. There was that compulsion too, the one that had led him towards the dead guard before. Trembling now, he got out of bed, pulled on his trousers. He could feel murder in the place now, blood. And the feeling of Sephiroth. So he really was here, on the ship with them?
No sooner had Cloud got out the door than he saw Aeris standing outside her door, her face thoughtful. He gazed at her in some surprise.
"What are you doing out here?" he asked her incredulously. She turned to him, not showing any signs of surprise at his presence.
"I felt it too. He's here isn't he."
"How should I know?" Cloud replied, feeling a bit touchy about it, for some reason. He didn't like to admit that he'd felt something out of the ordinary, something that told him that someone he hated was nearby. "I just woke up and thought..."
He faltered off, feeling stupid. Aeris simply nodded, as though she had known his thoughts.
"Shall we see if it really is Sephiroth?" she asked in a near whisper. Cloud hesitated. He didn't really like the thought of that, of seeing the things he had at the Shinra Tower. There was something that told him that he was falling out of his depth here, but he could not help himself from being drawn to that irresistible force.
"There's nothing there," he said as firmly as he could. "Sephiroth can't be on this boat, it'd be ridiculous. Why would he have kept himself hidden so long?"
"I don't know, but I'm going to find out," Aeris replied with a note of finality, and without bothering to speak any more to Cloud, she turned and walked down the corridor.
"Hey, Aeris...!" Cloud found himself following her, though his senses told him better. "Aeris, what are you doing!" He reached out a hand, and caught her by the shoulder. "What the hell are you doing? You do know that Sephiroth could kill you just like that, don't you?"
"I thought you said Sephiroth wasn't round here," she replied slyly.
Cloud sighed.
"Okay, so I did think Sephiroth was out there," he admitted breathlessly. "But you can't go after him yourself Aeris."
"Why not?" She looked suddenly depressed. "Sephiroth and I are the same. It means a lot to me, that I'm not the only one."
"Yes, but Sephiroth's insane," Cloud replied wryly. "You can't trust him to see things your way."
"Who says I have a way?" she shrugged, and then her face turned pleading. "Cloud, come with me, please? You'll be able to protect me."
"All this from a potential SOLDIER candidate," Cloud retorted jokingly, but he agreed anyway.
They began to search the ship together in the silence. At first there seemed to be nothing suspicious happening, but as they travelled down to the hull of the boat, there was a noticeable air of quiet. At the end of a passageway, there was a room with double doors, with the soldiers who had once guarded it sprawled across the floor, dead.
"Well, I guess Sephiroth is beyond these doors," Cloud joked, but it came out sounding macabre. "Are you sure you want to go through with this?" he asked Aeris. She hesitated, her eyes looking over the dead guards with a timorous expression.
"Yes. I've got to know," she stated finally, after a moment.
They walked through the doors, tactfully stepping over the soldiers, and into a new corridor. Almost immediately a horrifically familiar sort of atmosphere surrounded them. As soon as Cloud felt it, he knew that Sephiroth was near them.
"He's here," he murmured, as they turned a corner into what appeared to be the operational room. "Sephiroth's here."
As they entered the chamber, the evidence of his presence became apparent. Every single one of the crew that had patrolled the area lay scattered about the floor, dead. They had been killed in much the same fashion as the people in the Shinra Headquarters. At the back of the room stood a single man, dressed in the clothes of the Captain, his back to them. Cloud moved forward, stepping in and out of the dead bodies and their contorted faces. He stopped when he got halfway toward the man, and realised, instinctively, that he was shaking.
"Sephiroth?" he called out, his voice trembling.
The man turned, slowly. Aeris gasped in horror.
It was not Sephiroth. It was the Captain that was facing them. His face was tinged in a green sort of shade, and his features were frozen as though in petrification. He looked as if he was trying to say something, but his lips were too numb to move. Then he gave a choking, rasping sound in the back of his throat and collapsed to the floor, dead.
"Why is he doing this?" Aeris cried into the stillness of the room. "Why is Sephiroth doing this?"
Cloud shook his head, shocked. He would have said he didn't know, had it not been for the sound of abrupt and searing laughter suddenly tearing through his mind, right through his brain. He buckled in fear and repulsion, the sound grating against his entire being. It was consuming his head. No, it wasn't: it was in the room, it was echoing all around him, and everyone else could hear it too.
"Sephiroth!"
From the ground that the Captain's corpse was lying on, a figure started to appear, head first, through the metal floor. Cloud blinked once or twice. It was Sephiroth, Sephiroth's form that was sliding through the metal like a ghost. And the laugh, it was exuding from his mouth, it was all real and solid as though he had been there all the time.
"Sephiroth!" Cloud stared at the stately, intimidating figure of the man he had not seen in five years. "Sephiroth, you're alive!"
Sephiroth advanced a step forward, the low cackle still vibrating in his throat. He looked the same as he always had done. Except this time, there was a sinister, evil twist to his elegant features, an element that was almost intensely frightening.
"Who are you?" He addressed Cloud only, neither seeming to see or sense Aeris behind him. "I remember you...from somewhere."
"I'm Cloud! Cloud!" Cloud was desperate for Sephiroth to remember him, though he did not know why it held such great importance to him. "Don't you remember me!"
Sephiroth laughed manically, causing everyone to fall into an immediate unease.
"Cloud. Yes, I remember you."
Cloud felt an odd sense of relief flood through him.
"Sephiroth, there is something I have to ask you," he begged, but Sephiroth took no notice.
"I have no time for your infantile blabbering," he uttered coldly. "My mother and I have a meeting with fate, with destiny. Together, we will rule the Planet. It is our throne, and our inheritance. We are the last of the Cetra."
"No!" Aeris suddenly spoke, stepping up beside Cloud. "You're not the last! I am of the Cetra too!"
Sephiroth stared at her with contempt flooding his face.
"You? There is no one else. I am the last."
"No, it's true," Cloud cut in. "She is from the Cetra too. You're not the only one left."
Sephiroth glared at her again, and his eyes narrowed coldly.
"Yes - you're right," he finally mused, his voice thin, brittle on the air. "She is of the Cetra. I can see it in her eyes." He addressed her with the softness of some stealthy serpent. "We seem to have met before, lady."
"No," Aeris shook her head. "I've never met you before. But I know who you are."
"Is that so?" he answered, a slow smile playing across his face.
"Yes. And I know that if we are of the same kind, we must help each other."
"Help? What could you possibly do to help me?" He looked on her with disdain, but she replied unflinchingly.
"We can help each other to find the Promised Land, as was ordained by our forefathers. And...we can create more of our own kind, in order to restore peace to this world."
"Aeris!" Cloud exclaimed, but she silenced him.
"No, it would be my duty. I'd be willing to sacrifice my life for the future of the Planet."
Sephiroth stared at her unshrinkingly, then he unexpectedly erupted into a bout of laughter that echoed around the lifeless room.
"If you're so willing to die then maybe I should just kill you now." He unsheathed his sword and pointed it menacingly towards her, still laughing. "What do you think, should I?"
Cloud listened, boiling with anger at Sephiroth's mirth. When he could bear it no longer he stepped forward and thrust aside Sephiroth's sword with his hand.
"I don't know what you're playing at Sephiroth, but I know that if you are all of the Cetra, why can't you just live together in peace and rule this Planet? Why all this bloodshed? Why don't all of you - you, Jenova, Aeris - why don't you set order and harmony through this land? Isn't that what the Cetra are for?"
Sephiroth was still laughing.
"But can't you see the humour of it?" He pointed to Aeris once again with his sword. "What makes this lowly slum-girl think that I would want to commune with her! I, who am soon to be God!" He sneered. "You just can't comprehend it, can you? You poor fools - you can never possibly hope to understand. And you..." he was addressing Aeris, "Why don't you languish in the ignorant misery that our kind reverted to all those years ago? The Planet no longer needs you anymore. The Planet has me."
He glared at Cloud, and the eyes were boring into him, like magnets, pulling him in...
WAKE UP!
Cloud started. His mind was in a whirl; he did not understand, but words, emotions, thoughts and nerves were singing, in conjunction: black voids, starless; no direction, no ending or beginning, just Sephiroth. He did not, could not, understand.
It was just that unholy command.
Wake up!
The feeling left him, and Cloud was almost astonished to realise that he was still standing there, with Sephiroth, a secretly smiling Sephiroth, in front of him.
And then he was gone, as he had come.
-oOo-
Next: Cloud gets to question Hojo about the Ancients and Sephiroth...