"I'm sorry, what?"

"Reeve, please..." Vincent sighed into the phone. "I need help, and I am not tickled about calling Barret or Cid, and since I was out for so long, I fear Tifa may already be-" Reeve cut him off.

"Tifa's a big girl, Vincent. She'll be alright. I'll call the others and head up there. You just sit tight. Don't go running back into the fray without your back-up, okay?"

"I'll be patient. Wait..." He let the phone drift away his ear, not hearing Reeve's inquiries, as his enhanced senses caught a whiff of someone familiar, and he moved to investigate. After a few seconds, he lifted the phone up again. "Hold on." He dropped the phone from his ear again, stepping through the clinic to see a body- a man, wrapped in bandages on a hospital bed, missing the left leg below the knee and his right arm at the shoulder, with weeping wounds staining through the bandages all over his body. Vincent recoiled a little at the smell- infection. He stepped a little closer, and upon seeing those eyes... those bright, nearly glowing mako blue eyes... he lifted the phone to his ear one more time. "I'll call you back." He hung up, half way through Reeve's protest, before moving much closer.

"Cloud?"

Sephiroth grinned as he saw Cloud falling towards him with a scowl on his face and his sword in his hand. Sephiroth was ready for him, or so he thought, but the puppet... The puppet hit him with what must have been a dozen strikes. Sephiroth parried the first few, but then, hit after hit after hit wracked him with pain. He heard mother screaming at him- Get up! Don't let that puppet defeat you! No! You are my son! You can't die like this!

But still, he fell back, blood pouring from gashes in his flesh, into the glowing green of Lifestream. Swallowed... he was being swallowed! For the first time in years, he felt fear. He was terrified, defeated and tumbling into nothingness. Jenova was screaming in his mind not to give up, but it was too late. It hurt too bad. His heart was crumbling in his chest, heavy with the weight of his failure. Just as panic was beginning to set in, everything faded into the glittering green of the Lifestream, and then there was nothing.

Sephiroth woke with a start. He frowned and straightened himself up, having fallen asleep in a seated position. He tried for a moment to remember the last time he slept naturally and if it was always so unsettling, before his thoughts sped back to the moment. Sea foam green eyes scanned the cave... it was still. Too still. She fled while he slept, and this would not stand. He made an indistinct noise of exasperation before standing up and moving to the mouth of the cave. Her tracks were not old, not entirely covered yet by snow.

Tifa was not dressed for the weather. Light snow was not what made it miserable, but the biting winds. Her socks were damp from the snow, her feet so cold they ached.

Ache is good. Ache means they still feel. Just... just gotta get some distance between me and that cave. Hopefully he sleeps long enough to let my tracks disappear, or that he decides I am not worth a pursuit in this weather.

Her hips, quads and lungs all burned from the pace she was keeping. Six minutes, and she'd cleared almost a mile. She'd slipped once or twice and would be miserable in the morning, but the purpose of this was to have a morning. She had a monster or two chase her a short while, and had no idea which direction she was going, but she had to find something. After a few more minutes, she stumbled breathlessly to a halt, doubling over and resting her hands on her knees. Lifting her gaze as she aimed to stand again, Tifa frowned, offering an incredulous look to the man in front of her.

"You've gotta be kidding me." She couldn't quite wrap her head around how Sephiroth caught up to her. She saw no tracks other than her own. She had a running start of at least a couple of minutes, and she wasn't exactly slow moving. He was scowling darkly at her, and though she was not resigned to death, she was hardly energetic enough to fight. Arching a brow at him while still trying to catch her breath, she thought to buy herself some time.

"What do you-" Her speech was cut off by a hand around her throat that hoisted her off her feet.

"I said I wasn't finished with you. Did you honestly think that I would change my mind?"

"Kinda hoped so." She wheezed out. Don't piss him off. You're not dead. Keep it that way.

"Tch." His grip tightened around her throat, cutting off airflow for just a moment before he dropped her. She fell in an undignified heap at his feet, coughing and gasping for breath.

"Well my dear..." He said in a tone that was deadly calm, "I'm feeling generous, so I will give you a choice. You can walk back with me, or I can drag you back. We can certainly do this the hard way if you like."

"Is there an option 'C'?" Idiot. He shrugged, grabbed her hair close to her scalp firmly, and dragged her off balance, only taking a few steps before she piped up again. "Stop! I'll walk, I'll walk!" He did stop, releasing her on her ass in the snow. She rubbed the back of her head a moment, glaring daggers at him as she got to her feet, dusting the snow off of her. After a few meters she decided to finish her initial question.

"What do you want with me?"

"Honest answers to my questions." He replied honestly as he shifted to walk behind her. She rubbed the back of her head again. She frowned, not expecting his answer.

"This isn't about Cloud?" She asked, looking back at him.

"No." He maintained a lack of expression, gesturing for her to keep her eyes forward. "I'm a little curious as to his whereabouts, but I can't say that any of my current goals feature him." She blinked a few times, glancing back again, only to get the 'eyes front' gesture again.

"Oh... kay... Uhm..." She swallowed reflexively. "Ask away?" She didn't know it was possible for her to become more suspicious than before, but here she was, more suspicious than before.

"How long has it been since your group felled me in the Northern Crater?" Her pace slowed and he offered a shove to keep her moving while she pondered the answer.

"In the Northern Crater? Oh.. um... That was just a little over ten years ago."

"Hmm. Is there some sort of world crisis occurring now?"

She looked over her shoulder again, arching a brow before looking forward.

"Not that I know of. Why-" She stopped, finding it likely unwise to ask. He was feeling generous. He was not irritated with her, as he expected to be.

"I am awake, after ten years in the Lifestream. There has to be a reason." She pondered a minute.

"Do you not remember manifesting through your remnant in Edge?"

"Edge?" He questioned, the name not ringing a bell.

"Eight years ago, you attacked Cloud in Edge." She clarified, feeling a little strange doing so.

"Tell me of this."

"But you-"

"Indulge me." And so, she did, nervously telling him the tale of Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo attacking Edge, the conflict, the events. He mulled it over as she told and after she finished, slightly offended that it was thought that he could not be without Jenova, that the remnants he made believed they could ever amount to him. Most of his life, before madness gripped him in Nibelheim- before Jenova gripped him in Nibelheim, he gained fame and power and renown the world over by his own merit. Jenova was not the Demon of Wutai. He remembered being angry after his fall in the Northern Crater. He remembered the Meteor Crisis, as it was now called, with excellent clarity. He remembered feeling spiteful, not wanting to disperse into the Lifestream. He remembered his enmity, his desire to seek revenge, but more like remembering a dream.

He mused a while.

I had forgotten everything. I know I had. I had given up my name, my face, so that I could remain. So that I could seek revenge. I had forgotten my mother- my real mother. I had forgotten Hojo, forgotten being a boy- forgotten where I honed my skills, and whom I honed them with.

He felt a little ashamed for a moment. He had friends who had been close to him... who had been good to him for years. They had been dear to him at one point, and he had been so wrapped up in his anger that he was willing to forget them.

Did Mother... did Jenova mean so much to me that her will, her anger superseded even my own desires? Did I even have desires of my own then? I was so willing to accept her goals... If everything is destroyed, then I have no power. I have superiority over nothing if all that exists is me. How did I rationalize destroying everything? I never wanted a lot of attention, and I used to be content defending the people against what would do them harm. I had friends.

Cloud said that his strength came from his friends.

Sephiroth studied the woman walking in front of him, pondering this idea.

That he could beat be because he wasn't alone. I wonder... I wonder how much this girl had to do with it? If I had never turned my back on my friends, then I probably would be in a place more to my liking. Was it Mother that made me change so? I... I need time. I need to know that my mind is my own. I need to know that my ambitions are my own. I need to know that I am not being manipulated. Perhaps this girl knows something... or is something that can help me. If it turns out that my ambition is still revenge then she gives me a running start anyway. I suppose I will just have to see how this turns out. Either way, I will glean benefit from this situation.

A smirk crossed his lips as he shoved her along, causing her to stumble a little in the snow. When they reached the mouth of the cave, she chanced a look at him and was immediately unsettled by his expression. He offered a gesture of invitation to the cave, a dark smile gracing his features. Something flashed in his eyes when she hesitated, some sort of wordless threat, and she shuffled inside, glad to be out of the wind, but mortified at her company. He shooed her deeper into the cave and gestured for her to sit. Taking a seat himself in a position to block any possible retreat, he finally spoke.

"One way or another, you will teach me what you are, and you will teach me of the power you gave to Cloud."

"Why? What significance could it possibly hold for you?"

Sephiroth took a deep breath, more to choose his words than to calm himself. He decided to give her an honest answer.

"My memories are more... dreamlike than real to me. I am not sure if they will return in earnest or if they will stay muddy as they are. I remember my enmity. My disdain for Cloud- more so my disdain for how he interrupted Mother's ambitions. I search to discover how much of that enmity is my own, and what changed in me from when I was younger. I had people I cared about before I fell to the grip of madness, but their names are just out of my reach. I allowed nearly all my memories to depart from me while I was in the Lifestream..." he started to trail off. He glanced up at Tifa, who looked a little nervous, and a bit confused. "Do you want to know what I recall?"

Tifa worried her lower lip while she decided whether she wanted to know or not. His tone did not suggest relaxation, it was not particularly inviting, and she was ill at ease to know why he was even willing to tell her in the first place.

"Sure..." She said unsteadily.

"I have a clear memory of a young girl in brown leather with a matching hat to keep the sun from her eyes. I remember her nervous smile and her politeness when we first met. I remember her manner as she guided me and people I don't recall up a winding mountain trail to a reactor. I don't recall what I saw there, but I left unsettled. Hazy and a little unreal, I remember rage and sadness and something else broiling inside of me... I remember fire, I remember the path to the reactor. I remember turning at the top of the stairs at the sound of her calling my name, and running at me with my own sword in her hands. I cut her down. I was sure she was dead, and I moved on. I know that when I laid eyes on Mother... JENOVA... for the first time, it was not love or admiration I felt. I don't recall her face, or exactly what was in my heart at the time. I have vague annoyance at an interruption, and then another interruption. I fell, I think, thrown into the heart of the reactor by Cloud."

Tifa paled a little as he continued, her heart sinking at the memories of Nibelheim.

"I remember exposing Cloud's lies about his past to his friends, who I do not recall... and asking that same girl to confirm what I remembered. I remember a few skirmishes between me and Cloud and that girl and the others whose faces I cannot recall. I remember Cloud and that girl again and the others at the Northern Cave. She seemed so resolved there. My focus was not on her then, nor really was it ever. It was always on Cloud. I was pretty mad at him, and the details as to why are lost to me now, but I remember his face and his voice, and how he fought. I remember that he was angry at me, and I thought it was funny. I remember my defeat in the Northern Cave, and I remember being so angry... using that anger to hold on to some semblance of individuality in the Lifestream. I tried so hard to return and seek revenge... I remember being sure that Cloud's enmity for me would restore me, and I think it let me manifest, but I was defeated again... I never really got out of the Lifestream... until I woke in the Northern Cave as I am now. I know the Lifestream spoke to me. I know there is a reason that I live now, but it too seems just out of reach."

Tifa's skin was crawling now at his statement of recollections, silently wishing that she had said that she didn't want to know.

"Of all the people in my life, I remember you. I made no effort to do so, but when I saw you again in the Forgotten Capital, I recognized you. You were not the first person I saw who I recognized, but I knew you just the same."

The gears were visibly turning in Tifa's head, when questions began to appear.

"Wait... the Northern-... who was the first person you recognized?"

"Hojo." Sephiroth could not recall exactly who Hojo was to him, but the name and face existed in his memory.

"Hojo?" Tifa echoed, before her eyes widened and a hand went to her mouth. She felt sudden worry for Vincent. "Oh no... I left him behind..." Tifa stood, forgetting entirely about her surroundings and moved to pass Sephiroth for the exit. He rose to his feet and caught her by the elbow, shaking his head.

"Let me go. He'll do something horrible to Vincent, I just know it. I have to help him."

"Vincent...?"

"One of those faces you don't recall. He was with me in the Forgotten Capital. We got separated by monsters."

"My generosity has limits. I'm in no mood to cross paths with Hojo again, and I don't intend to just release you. It's been hours. I'm sure any fight they might have had is long over. I know I heard gunshots as we were leaving the city."

"But I can't just-"

"You can and you will. You'll stay put or I'll make you stay put. I'd rather not resort to violence to keep you here. I'm disinclined to kill you for the time being, but don't believe that I won't hurt you because I wish to learn things from you."

Tifa's blood ran cold as her eyes scanned his face, seeing the sincerity of the threat in his eyes. He steered her back to her prior position, with her back to a wall and him between her and the exit.