It did not occur to Rei to wait for the others once Cid had anchored the ship at the crater. She had been the first to leave the Shera, climbing the rope ladder effortlessly only to drop to the ground and gracefully make her way down to the ledge that would take them further in, a steep decline as far as she should see. She perched at the first ledge that came up, glancing back to see who else had been quick to alight from the ship.
Cid was the first that she saw, having left Rufus in charge of the ship while he took a turn at field work, his well-cared for spear in one hand. He twirled it idly as he sauntered his way down the first incline, pausing to peer over the edge into the depths of the crater. "Not gonna lie. No less creepy than it was back then."
Vincent landed behind him with barely a sound to his metal boots, peering emotionlessly down the far, misty expanse of the crater. The wind whipped up to greet them, digging icy claws into the corners of the gunman's cloak. The aviator's t-shirt. It howled like a warning hound, creeping against their skin with chilled fingertips, scratching whatever it could reach.
But there was a warmth beneath. A strange tingling sensation that lingered like the kiss of a delivered spell, or the touch of a departing lover.
Come closer.
Come deeper.
Come to the sound of my voice.
Lyla touched the ground cautiously behind him, slow to ease her grip on the ladder, releasing it only when she felt the sharp tug from above, caused by Reno beginning his descent. She turned and carefully made her way along the narrow ledge, zipping up the front of her jacket to ward off the chill. A glance into the softly pulsing warmth of the crater caused her to frown.
"He really is here," she remarked softly, more to herself than anything, staff in hand. "I feel his heartbeat."
Vincent glanced at her curiously. And from above her, Cait Sith's voice filtered down.
"Then th'big ol'baddie's alive, is 'e?" The cat frowned. "Cannae say tha's a nice thought. Nae after the one-two Cloud gave 'im."
"Alive," Lyla confirmed, though a note of surprise rose in her voice. "... asleep? He's healing. It's taken him a long time to..." She trailed off and shook her head slightly, causing her hair to fall forward and obscure her face. She left it there as they advanced, Reno reaching to hoist Cait Sith onto his shoulders as they brought up the rear. "I don't know how I know."
"We all hear each other," was the calm reply from the head of the line. Rei leapt effortlessly from the first ledge to the next, leaving Cid to follow, though it took him a moment more to judge the distance and wind up for the jump. "Perhaps you are two halves. Tied together. Even if you don't know."
Rude grimaced as he tugged the ladder behind them, hooking the loose end against the ship as he followed.
"Wouldn' ye know if ye was missin' a half?" Cait Sith frowned, clinging to the Turk as he made the leap.
"Maybe not if you were kept apart," Rei reasoned without looking back.
Lyla moved her staff from one hand to the other, taking her turn with jumping the gap between ledges and finding it far less difficult than she imagined it might be. She frowned slightly as she landed, pausing a moment before continuing after those in front of her. "I wish," she said under her breath, "She didn't talk like that."
"Like what?"
Lyla tensed. "Super-hearing, too?"
"People are more than halves." Vincent's voice came from several steps below them. The alternate path he had taken was not readily apparent, but there he was, far to their right, the wind pulling at the far falls of his hair. "No matter how we are created, or altered. Maybe it's not been long enough for either of you to know that, just yet."
"Listen to you, Vin, gettin' all philosophical again," Cid commented from the ledge above, grunting as he used his spear to vault himself across another pair of gaps. "You listen t'him, little miss. He's had a lotta years to sort this kinda thing out, y'know."
Rei looked to him as they broke even, confused. "I have always been treated as a piece of a whole. I don't understand."
"Why doesn't that surprise me." The dark man glanced back at her. "There's no good way to explain, Rei. Life is something that must be experienced to be understood."
The silver-haired girl looked towards him, puzzled. She stepped off the next ledge she approached and allowed herself to drop through, catching herself midair and moving to catch up with the man in the red cape, hovering alongside him for several beats as he moved before helping herself to a place behind him on the incline, which was beginning to wind downwards more sharply. "You are not surprised," she observed, half-questioning.
At the rear, Reno looked up at Cait Sith, a hand on the robot's leg to steady him as they made their way along the series of jumps and ledges, glancing over his shoulder at Rude a moment later. "I'm not the only one this is all getting a little too weird for, am I?" he asked, oddly earnest.
Ahead of him, Lyla shook her head as she landed from another jump beside Cid, who had been holding a hand out to help her. She was surprised to see that she didn't need it. "No," she admitted, glancing back. "But I think it's only going to be come moreso as we go on."
"Jenova." Rude said darkly.
"Aye," Cait Sith agreed, returning Reno's look with momentarily opened eyes. "Wherever she gets involved, things ge'outta hand before we know what hit us."
Up front, Vincent shook his head, Taking his time with the trek down the mountain side into its heart. "That surprises you." He noted, stealing another glance at her as he jumped. Inviting some small explanation.
"You speak as if you know the men who created us," Rei said simply, looking the caped man over, studying him. "... there is a lot that surprises me," she admitted a moment later. "I know little outside the lab and my brothers. Only what I've seen from the building while protecting Jenova."
The gunman nodded his understanding, taking another leap before he spoke again. "It will come." He said. "You're in good company for learning." And then, as he hit the flat of a lower ledge. "And I did."
Rei looked back towards the rest of their company, most just starting to catch up to the pair that had taken their own respective shortcuts ahead. "Mother is learning, too. Are you like us?" She swiveled her attention back to the dark man just in time to miss Lyla failing to repress a shudder at the name she had been assigned. "You feel the same, but there is something else there. I can't name it."
"I am." He agreed, digging his sharp, metal nails into the ledge in order to lower himself to the next, slightly removed beneath. "And I'm not. You... Sephiroth, and Lyla. You were created. I was made."
"I don't understand," came the blank response, accompanied by a similarly blank look. She glanced to her right as Cid joined then from behind, craning his neck to look past the pair and down into the center of the crater. They were nearing the lower reaches of the northern cave now. There were fewer monsters than he remembered. A few shadows scampering away in the darkness below, but nothing aggressive. He frowned, wondering if something had scared them off.
"A long story, miss. One I can take th'liberties of tellin' you later, when we're done here, alright?"
Vincent said nothing, only unhooked his grip, dropping a few hundred feet with apparent ease.
Cait Sith offered Reno a stricken look. "Yer nae gonna be doin' tha', are ye, laddie?"
Reno looked up at the cat, wide-eyed. "Pretty much couldn't without dying, my friend. So, no. That's a big no."
Cid snorted, stopping to look over the edge. "You're such a damn showoff!" he shouted, his voice echoing just a few times on the way down. Lyla smirked behind him, joining him at the precipice.
"I'm sure if you jumped, he would catch you," she offered.
Rei followed Vincent's example without looking back, dropping out of sight before anyone had a chance to tell her otherwise.
Rude frowned particularly deeply. "...Great." He said flatly.
"An' whae'bout the res'o us, Vin!" Cait Sith shouted after him.
Reno snorted. "Getting left behind again, just because we don't have super-powers. Way to support equality, you guys."
"Maybe Reeve oughtae invest in some rocket boots." the cat observed.
The brunette on the landing ahead of them looked back, drawing in a sharp breath as she did so. "If we jump, are you three going to whine like babies about it?"
"Yes, because even if the adventures are weird and creepy, we're missing all of it," Reno told her pointedly, stopping on the opposite side of the gap. "And what 'we,' and also, are you insane? ... scratch that, clearly yes."
Lyla frowned even as she looked back over the edge. "Considering the turn of events at the Shinra building, I'm pretty sure I'll live. And Cid seems to be a jumper."
"Dragoon," Cid mumbled, "If y'wanna be technical, girl."
Below, concealed in the thick arms of faintly green fog, Vincent turned roving eyes across the flats and peaks surrounding them.
Crystals. Hundreds upon hundreds, piled and sporadic. Jutting from the jagged corners and reaching up from ragged ground. Materia. Condensed and oddly speckled, glowing softly beneath the coat of mist.
"He's here, somewhere," Rei's voice said from somewhere to his left. Her quiet footsteps followed after, pausing nearby as she took in the scenery. "This, what do you call this?"
Behind them a thud sounded, one body landing after another. Lyla straightened up as she released her hold on the arm of a rather surprised-looking Cid. "... materia."
"This place." The gunman frowned. "It's become a natural mako reactor."
"Just what the planet needed," Lyla remarked, repressing a sigh. "... I've never seen anything like it."
Vincent was quiet, walking the circumference of the small, circular patch they'd landed in. It was after some deliberation that he raised his clawed hand, laying it carefully against the smooth, warm surface of the crystal nearest him.
"Maybe it is." He said quietly.
The brunette approached him from behind, stepping aside to reach out and allow her hand to hover an inch from the glowing surface while Rei stood back, watching from a safe distance, a puzzled look pulling at her striking features. "Maybe," Lyla echoed curiously. "... a scab. Sealing off the wound so that the Lifestream can cleanse and heal itself. It would make sense, if that were the case."
Cid rubbed at the back of his neck, frowning. "Don't like the look of things down here."
"Lyla." Vincent's tone was a warning, soft and removed. His eyes were on the gleaming surface, searching deep into the depths of the glow.
He had seen the world reach up and do this before. Twice, now. If you could call it twice.
His voice drew her attention from the crystalline mass, and though a brief look of question crossed her face, it quickly passed, her hand dropping away from the surface as she took several steps back. "Right."
"None of y'all should be touchin' things," Cid said parentally, giving Vincent a pointed look.
He offered the blond a dry one in return, dutifully removing his mettalic claw. "It isn't my touch that should concern any of us."
Cid smiled wryly in reply. "Gotta set a good example for the kids, Vin."
He took a step towards Lyla, distancing himself from the mass of crystals even as the faint tremor rattled through the ground, knocking free several cultured-sized jags of materia that rained down like glittering hail.
The pilot gestured broadly with his right hand, spear still gripped in the left as he leaned against it. "That," he began, "is all thanks to your touchin' things, son."
Lyla raised her arm to shield her eyes from the crystal raining down from above, watching the crystals shift from beneath it, safely.
A sudden, brilliant glow lit inside the largest of the materia. Twin, rippling points that rippled and faded within a moment. Vincent jerked around, going stiff as a man being shot at.
The shape inside flexed, fingers curling against the restraint of its mineral prison.
Rei's eyes widened as she watched, frozen where she stood. "Father."
"Vincent?" Lyla closed a hand around his upper arm as he stiffened, though her grip went lax as the shade within the crystal began to move. She found her eyes fixed on it, unable to look away even as she doubled over.
Vincent picked her up, unwilling to let her get any head starts, should she decide to take off on her own again in an unknown direction. "Looks like touching or not didn't make a difference." He observed, turning to look up the expanse of the crater speculatively.
She did not resist him, rather made an attempt to help by clasping her hands together behind his neck. She opened her mouth to suggest something, but instead only a pained cry escaped; she buried her face in his shoulder to muffled the sound even as the searing pain shot through her. Rei had begun to stagger towards the glowing prison, one hand outstretched.
"Father. Come out. We've come for you."
"Shit," Cid swore, swinging the Venus Gospel forward. "Girl, if you touch that thing, I swear to whatever higher power there is that I will do my best to try and beat your ass before you stab me to death."
The wind rushed upward from nowhere, biting cold and burning hot at once. On it echoed a thousand whispering voices, those of men and women. Reverberating in the crystalline walls and scattering into the air like frightened birds.
Vincent shook his head as if to clear them, judging the distance to the next ledge up haphazardly before making the leap. "Rei." He hissed. "Cid's right, come away from there."
The girl in black stood her ground, glaring up at their self-appointed leader, a sneer curling her upper lip. "I'm going to wait for him," she said firmly. "He needs me."
The gunman took a breath, glancing down at the woman in his arms, before turning his cool look back onto Rei. "Wait for him from a safe distance. Doesn't your mother need you, too?"
"C'mon, sweetheart, we're goin'," Cid urged her, seizing her by the arm and beginning to tug her towards the incline. She glared at him, green eyes smoldering as she turned them towards Vincent. She jerked her arm back, reclaiming it, but grudgingly began to follow, leaving Cid to bring up the rear. He hoped to make sure she didn't double back as they ascended, though truth be told, if she wanted to, he didn't have the physical prowess it would take to stop her.
Lyla watched over Vincent's shoulder as the glowing mass beneath them continued to shake apart, the shape within becoming more distinct, more defined. She bit at her lower lip to silence herself, unaware of the fact that she had drawn blood.
He put a single, gloved finger against her teeth, his expression somber.
He didn't need her to bite through it, either.
But the shaking was impossible to ignore. He glanced at Cid, as if unsure of how to proceed. They had come here to find Sephiroth. It seemed foolish to run, having accomplished as much.
The whispers howled louder on the increasing wind, cutting sharp trails across exposed skin. The sound of numerous languages, innumerable words. Vincent closed his eyes. Why? What was that sound?
A distant, wailing cry that resonated in something like his bones.
And then the crack pierced through his other thoughts.
Below them the boulder-like chrysalis splintered up its center, finally giving in to the thrashing of the creature it encased.
"He's coming," Rei hissed, looking back in time to see the cocoon begin to fragment at its core. "We came to keep him from Jenova, we cannot leave him. If he follows us will you run again?"
"It's n-not about running from him," Lyla countered, grunting softly as she forced herself to speak through the foreign pain that stabbed with each crack of the chrysalis below. "It won't do anyone any good if we're speared by m-materia."
Reno stopped in his tracks as he saw the four of them approaching rapidly, Cait Sith still mounted on his shoulders. "Don't know why I even bother following. What the hell is going on down there, you guys?"
"Hell is breaking loose." Vincent murmured, turning from his new vantage point to look down at the crumbling mass of condensed energy as it shattered into the writhing fog. "We just have to hope it's on our side, this time."
Below them, a low howl joined the chorus on the wind. It began deep in the throat, erupting from the crater's base as the materia split entirely apart.
Sephiroth staggered as he emerged from the encasing glow, skin still slick with the amniotic fluid of the planet's very life stream, and the faint pulse of Jenova's warm, dark will. He gagged on the first gasp for breath, crumpling forward though he did not fall.
The howl stopped her as though a string had been tugged. Rei jerked backwards as she came to a sudden halt, whirling around to face the path behind them, staring down into the pulsing depths, the entire place aglow with the faint green of the Lifestream. "Father!"
Lyla loosened her hold on her guardian, if only a little, clasping her hands against his shoulder to avoid catching tham against his hair. "Oh, god," she murmured, looking past Cid's silhouette towards the rising glow.
"Well. If it's not, then... I mean, between all of us, we can beat the crap out of a newly hatched Sephiroth, right?" Reno suggested, even as he brandished his nightstick and set it to begin sparking electricity.
"How many times d'we have tae kill 'im before he gets the picture?" Cait Sith said with some dismay, digging out a pair of dice.
The creature below them straightened slowly, lifting his head to stare out at his surroundings searchingly, bright, inhuman eyes roving the immediate area like a hungering beast. They gleamed a brighter green than the life-stained air, vibrant even in the haze. And as they began to focus, Sephiroth squeezed them shut, pressing palms against his ears as he screamed again.
Around them the endless murmurs stilled as though in fright, the voices dying as his own cut into the air.
"No!" The silver-haired girl lurched forward, leaping from the ledge and allowing herself to plummet downwards, remaining upright even as she picked up speed. The mist of the planet's lifeblood rose around her as she descended, landing solidly on her feet at the bottom. She slowly drew herself upwards, righting herself as she turned to face the man with his hands pressed to his ears.
"You don't have to scream. We are here."
Those eyes snapped open again, finding the girl before them after a moment's search to focus. Sephiroth stared at her, impossibly still for what felt like a tiny eternity strung between the planet's fingers.
He stumbled as he drew himself upright, snarling as he reached out, bracing his weight against the discarded shell that had been his coffin and his womb. Wide, calloused hands groped for his bare chest and abdomen, searching for something they could not seem to find.
"Loud." He croaked, the word breaking in a throat raw with long disuse.
"You hear her, too," Rei reasoned, her frame drooping slightly as her demeanor softened. "This place, it can't help being loud. It's screaming. We came to take you away from it. Somewhere you can be well, Father."
He looked at her briefly, the confusion on his features fading as his eyes darted upwards, only to redouble again as they came to rest on the group above. He took a step past her, body seizing in protest as he moved, only to ripple when sheer will power forced it to obey.
Sephiorth flickered from view as he moved, the wind catching his hair for a moment before he was gone.
He reappeared square between the Turks, seizing them one each by the collar.
"Cloud." He said again, between clenched teeth. "Wh-ere. Is he."
"Wh-whoa, hey hey hey hey hey!" Reno struggled to break free of his grasp, grunting softly. In another situation he would have jolted his assailant into letting go, but a knee-jerk reaction would likely be frowned upon here. ... a thirty-second head start, then he was going to start electrocuting people. "He's not here, he didn't come along! We brought your kid, that's all!"
The large man dropped both Turks, looking wild-eyed over his shoulder.
Rude, who had roughly a foot on Reno, and consequently much less distance to drop, offered his friend a hand up.
Sephiroth took two steps away, and then one back, his expression flickering between panic, confusion and rage. "Nibelheim." He muttered, searching the faces again. "Meteor..." He turned, fixing his hard look on Vincent and Cid in turn. "I know you." He growled, taking a step away. Grabbing for his head again. "No... no I don't. Mother... and. Don't... cry, Loz?" The naked SOLDIER winced, shaking his head. "Who?" He asked aloud, angry.
Too many memories collided against themselves at once, and not all of them- no none of them. Were any of them his own?
Cid edged a step backwards, unaware of the body that had planted itself behind him as he did so. "Yeah, I'm sure you got a lotta questions. A lot's been goin' on and Jenova's been usin' your face to do most of it. Gonna be a lot to sort through," he said evenly.
"Father, be calm," Rei instructed from behind the pilot. "The screaming will stop. There is always confusion, when you are new."
Lyla grimaced, forcing herself to tighten her hold on Vincent's shoulders even as her legs fought to rebel, wanting so badly to lower themselves to the ground and approach the silver-haired man, hands desperate to reach out and touch, a much stronger pull than the gentle tug that had tempted her to touch the chrysalis below. She went rigid, refusing to move, pressing her forehead against Vincent's shoulder once more. "Don't let me get down," she murmured, voice barely above a whisper. "Oh god, don't let me get down."
He said nothing in response, only tightened his arms with a reassuring weight.
And then Sephiroth's roving eyes found her. And for one moment, every cell in him went very still.
It was as if something clicked into place, and the terror and fury leaked away, replaced with some strange shade of dawning comprehension. He blinked again, slowly, turning to search the assembled forms for the girl who shared his face.
Father. Was that another memory that should have been his, but was not? Or one of too many clamoring in his mind that was not his own?
"I don't understand." He said at last, unevenly.
"It's gonna be a long story," Cid explained, as calmly and evenly as any of those assembled had ever heard him. "An' it's not a pretty one. But it's all gonna be explained, y'just gotta stay calm. Everyone be calm. All we want is for everyone here to be safe, right?"
Rei surveyed the pilot warily. "There is also a lot that I don't understand," she said finally, moving forward. "Everything is loud and nothing is clear. I knew to find you. That is all. We are safer together."
Reno rubbed at his neck where his collar had been pulled against it. "It's not that long. You died, buddy. A crackpot at Shinra made a bunch of clones, Jenova got into 'em and started wreaking havoc. They got put down, most of them. But you, you're the real deal. And your girl here," he went on, nodding towards Rei, "among others, wants to see that Jenova doesn't get at you again. Give you a chance, I think."
Sephiroth frowned down at himself, the long, tapered fingers of one hand curling open as he searched them for some answer. "The reactor." he said slowly, uncertainly. "We were sent to deal... with the reactor, in Nibelheim. The soldiers there... I don't know why I..."
The fingers clenched. "No." His voice was firmer. Flatter, suddenly. He closed his eyes. "I do. It seemed right. So perfectly just. I wanted..."
"Been through a rough time," Cid began. "We know."
Lyla's grip tightened slightly, nails pressed against Vincent's back, biting into the cloth of his cape, wordless.
He doubled over, the growl pulling free of hi throat in another ragged cry. "G-get out." He hissed, taking a step away. "Get out. Get -out.- You've done ENOUGH."
"Father!" His feminine mirror staggered forward, one hand outstretched. "No, no. Don't listen. Don't listen to her voice, listen to me. Let me help!"
Sephiroth, the master swordsman and near destroyer of worlds, looked up at Rei between clenched fingers. His mako-gaze was pulled wide and wild through the damp, ruffled curtain of his hair.
"No." He said after a breath's hesitation. "Rei- why do I know you. No- get away from me. All of you. While there's time to do it."
"You know me because she knows me," Rei tried to explain, her tone very much the one of a child who had been chastised. "Jenova connects us all. All that you slept through, are you remembering it? Remembering in pieces?"
"Rei," Cid warned, stepping forward to seize her by the arm yet again. She didn't fight this time, only looked back at him, hurt, lost. "It's too much at once, y'know. Yer gonna overload 'im at this rate."
The crouching man straightened enough to reach out for the girl, taking her by a shoulder. Laying a hand, spread-fingered, against the flat of her face. The shake in him was barely a tremble, something faint and strung with nervous tension, like the hum of a rope about to snap.
"Run." He said hoarsely, releasing her too abruptly. "Run from me."
"No," came the stubborn reply, plaintive. Rei tugged her arm free to lurch forward, laying a hand over his against her face. "You need me, you need us. Take me with you."
"Rei," Lyla's voice sounded from somewhere behind her. The brunette had turned her head slightly to watch the scene, peeking out around the edge of Vincent's cowl as though afraid to let herself see any more than that. "Please... please do as he says."
He took his hand back with some strange hesitation he couldn't account for. For a moment, something flickered across his face. Dark and malicious, something so pure and hateful and full of joy that Vincent took a step away.
And then it was gone. He retracted his touch as though Rei's pale skin had burned.
There was nothing to leave behind, his departure instant and complete- as though he had merely ceased to be.
The silver-haired girl stared after him, impossibly green eyes wide as she looked, frantically, for any trace. But he was simply gone, left without a trace. Setting her jaw, she turned to face Vincent, eyes narrowed sharply, determined. "Take care of Mother. I will find him and bring him to you." She turned on her heel, every movement sharp, sudden, and though it wasn't as instantaneous as her predecessor's departure had been, she seemed to vanish once she had pushed off the ground, leaving the rest to their own devices.
"Shit," Reno hissed, looking up as though he might find some trace of them in the sky. "It was going pretty well for a minute there, too."
Lyla slowly eased her hold on her guardian, carefully easing her feet to the ground, though there was a noticeable tremble to her movement. She was reluctant to free herself completely, arms still loosely clasped around his shoulders, using him as her support. "... gone. Just gone."
The gunman didn't let go, as though she might leave with them should he retract his hand. He frowned after them, eyes turned distinctly downward. "We have to go after her." He said with a frown.
"Yeah, yer right," Cid conceded, swinging his spear back to slide it into its harness. "And we will. But I'm thinkin' right now, everyone needs a little rest. Somethin' t'eat, good night's sleep, maybe two if we're feelin' real wacky. Been at this for a couple days now, an' we got no idea where those two are gone to. Time to regroup."
Vincent's frown deepened a notch as he turned to catch a glimpse of the blond somewhere to his right. But he nodded, at last loosening his hold on the scientist to search overhead for the beat of the Shera.
"Alright." He said quietly.
Lyla resisted the urge to pull back and hug herself; whether it was to ward off the cold or something else entirely, she couldn't say. She frowned, averting her eyes from the group, peering past the ledge towards the bright glow that marked the outer ring of the cave's bottom layer, one arm still draped carefully around the caped man.
"I know you can go on forever," Cid grumped, punching a series of keys on his phone to alert his crew of their return before pocketing the device, "But the rest of us are human bein's, mostly."
Vincent offered him a long, cool look. Something almost like a smile at the corner of his mouth. "I said alright." He pointed out too reasonably.
Cid looked slightly taken aback, then smiled, wearily, as he began to trudge back towards the ship. "Yeah, think I was expectin' you to argue like usual. You're sure bein' reasonable."
"I'm also outnumbered."
Vincent didn't ask Lyla if she needed a hand up. He just picked her up as he turned to head up the mountainside. No reason, he figured, not to finish what he'd begun.