Chapter 105 - Rot
September, 2002
Sephiroth is bathed in fire.
Genesis' spell curls around his shield, trying to get at him. Their magic hits each other in a flurry of static. The attack jerks Sephiroth away from his thoughts. The plan vanishes. His prepared messages about being cured and wanting to start a new life together are shattered. Sephiroth sees Genesis for what he has become. There is an unsteadiness in him as he lands. A light has caught in his eyes. The whiteness of his hair is shockingly bright.
There is no question.
Degradation has taken his final friend. Sephiroth is alone. This path is his own. There is no one left to walk next to him.
"Sephiroth," Genesis says, drawing out the words so Sephiroth can hear the satisfaction in every syllable. "You were the greatest monster created by the Jenova project."
The nonsense floats over him until the end. Genesis knows his mother's name. That should be an impossibility.
"How the fuck are you alive, man?" Zack groaned from the floor from where he had taken Genesis' hit.
Genesis pulls a white hair to stare at it. "…you call this living? I suppose you can."
"What is the Jenova project, Genesis?" Sephiroth interrupts them.
The way that Genesis smiles drops a rock in his stomach.
It's familiar. When they were in Wutai, when Sephiroth was tired from fighting, this was the look that Genesis had before he pressed him into exasperation. The teasing came, working under his skin with warmth. A trail of touches resurfaces on his arm as Sephiroth remembers how Genesis tapped his fingers up his arm.
He had been trying to bother him into taking his early morning mission for the next day.
Had he said yes?
He couldn't remember now. He hoped he had said yes. He hoped he had said no. He should treasure the memories that he had with the Genesis he knew but all it had ever done was hurt him deeper.
It is all irrelevant.
This is not the same person. This Genesis had accused him of being a monster without hesitation. First Class Genesis dragged him back from thoughts like that. His friend had made him feel different. Instead of something hollow, Sephiroth had become full of something indefinitely light around him.
Genesis shifts. "The Jenova project is the term used for all the experiments relating to the use of Jenova's cells."
Sephiroth feels his heartbeat rise into his ears. "My mother's cells?"
It's the pity in Genesis' eyes that stings the most.
"Poor little Sephiroth," His voice goes mocking. "You've never actually met your mother. You've only been told her name, no? I don't know what images you've conjured up in your head, but Jenova was excavated from a 2,000 year old rock layer."
The smile grows.
"She's a monster." Genesis leans further on his knees. "Like mother, like son, I suppose."
It is the insanity slipping into him. Sephiroth fights the beat of his own heart. Genesis is talking through a filter of degradation. It is cutting through his common sense to the core. Sephiroth cannot remember naming Jenova to Genesis. He must have. Their memories are crossing and lacing across Genesis' memory, knotting it into nonsense.
"Genesis, you are not well."
"You two are the same," he means every word of it. "Can you even see yourself anymore? What you do? What you have become?"
Shinra certainly thinks that they know who he is. The floor plan is sketched into reality somewhere in the Shinra tower.
The floor plan from Shinra rises into his mind like an unwanted dream. He swallows it down, shoving it into a place where he can't feel it.
"Why are you here?"
"Sephiroth, I need your help. My body is continuing to degrade."
Sephiroth turns away. He calls him a monster and then asks for his help. Ridiculous. The pride flares in him. This will only cause him more pain. It might be a mercy to kill Genesis but he promised the man before something that he wouldn't take back.
Instead Sephiroth will walk out of the reactor and reclaim whatever new life is left out there for him.
"First Class SOLDIER Sephiroth," Genesis says it like an order and it hooks into Sephiroth's back, stopping him from leaving. Genesis walks towards him, too close and familiar.
"Jenova Project G gave birth to Angeal and monsters like myself. Jenova Project S used the remains of countless failed experiments to create a perfect monster."
Sephiroth hears the words. He knows that he understands them but the meaning is impossible to him. Sephiroth was a crafted experiment born out of the corpses that surrounded them in this chamber. This is not the truth that he had grown up with. This is not how he was raised. This is not the frame that he views his life.
Yet, he couldn't remember those memories, could he?
There is actually very little factual evidence to show that anything before the Wutai kidnapping even happened.
Shinra isn't known for their truthful nature.
Yet, that would mean that Mariella lied.
Or was lied to.
Genesis lets out a satisfied breath. He can see it. He's ripped into something and he knows it.
"What do you want of me?" Sephiroth asks.
Everyone has wanted something in the end from him. Why would Genesis be any different now? Hojo wanted his blood. Dinand wanted his mind. Rufus wanted his body. The President wanted his sword. This is what interaction boils down to: an exchange. For years, Genesis had not asked anything significant of him. Now comes the bill of services that have been charged to him for the happiest years of his life.
It's nonsense.
Genesis speaks in nonsense. He speaks of genetics and diffusion and lies. He talks about Sephiroth's body like it is something that is not broken. This is ridiculous. Sephiroth is broken. He is sick. This is known. He is sewn back together over and over again. Genesis even knew this before. There have been times when he has broken down on the field. It had been Genesis who had caught him and covered for him.
They may share the same body but this is not the same man asking to share Sephiroth's blood and cells.
"My friend, your desire is the bringer of life, the gift of the goddess."
Genesis offers a dumbapple, the surface shining bright in the artificial lights.
Is the reason Sephiroth is broken is because he is a monster?
A feather falls from Genesis' wing.
He doesn't want to believe it.
It is wrong.
It could be right.
Sephiroth's mind turns, solidifying into his new path. "Whether your words are lies created to deceive me or the truth that I have sought all my life, it makes no difference."
None of this matters.
His friend is gone.
"You will rot, Genesis."
He turns away. He will leave. He ends First Class SOLDIER Sephiroth here. He cuts ties with it. It snaps. A lifetime of work and definition of who he was is gone. The pride filters away.
He's just a man in a costume. His boots click against the metal as he leaves the room. There is no point in staying. There is nothing left for him here.
Zack shouts something but he is no longer someone Sephiroth is responsible for.
He is simply a man.
"A perfect monster, indeed."
The words haunt him like a ghost. Perhaps he would be a monster if they were still friends.
A stinging washed up his throat.
This time, he lets the emotion take over.
Perhaps it would stop the thoughts in his head.
Maybe he would go numb from it.
That would be a true gift from the goddess.