Cloud carefully slithered down the tiles from the apex of the roof towards Sephiroth. The SOLDIER was sitting with his legs dangling off the edge of the roof, his hands resting in his lap.

Cloud was hardly silent in his approach, but Sephiroth didn't even acknowledge him. He just kept gazing out into the distance, where Cloud realised the mako towers of Midgar were still visible on the horizon. Cloud settled next to the SOLDIER, mimicking his pose.

Eventually Sephiroth spoke.

"I apologise… it is difficult to hear. That everything I known thus far about myself… is not true. That I have been nothing but an experiment since birth, a living embodiment of Hojo's hubris."

Cloud snorted. "You aren't the only one who is a relic of Hojo's messed up mind."

Sephiroth glanced sideways at him. "Whilst it is comforting to know that I am not as alone as I would otherwise be, I cannot help but wish it were different for your sake."

He said nothing further, and Cloud simply sat with him in silence. They remained on the roof for a while longer, before Sephiroth shifted his hands to the roof tiles.

"We should return."

As Cloud pushed through the door to their room in the inn, he was faced with a sea of worried expressions. The cause was made obvious when Sephiroth stepped through behind him.

"Where have you been?" Genesis demanded testily.

Sephiroth looked expressionlessly at him. "I was getting some fresh air."

"We were just worried about you," Angeal soothed. "There were a lot of revelations thrown around earlier, we just didn't think you should be alone."

"I wasn't alone. Cloud was with me."

Genesis noticeably twitched but didn't say anything.

"Well!" Aerith clapped her hands together, already sitting in her previous position on the bed. "Shall we get on with the story?" Cloud appreciated that she was trying to lighten the tone, but given the subject matter her levity was jarring.

Sephiroth moved past Cloud to reclaim his spot on the wall next to the door, his long hair brushing against Cloud's bare arm. Cloud shuffled his feet but stayed where he was with the door at his back instead of returning to the window.

"We returned to Nibelheim, but Sephiroth just shut himself in the inn for the rest of the day. He wouldn't even talk to Zack. I think… I think I was too injured from the fight in the mountains, that for most of the next week I was recovering. Zack bounced between me and Sephiroth, worried about us both."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Zack approached the Shinra mansion carefully. The remaining trooper, who had not accompanied them up the mountain as he was both the driver and mechanic, had told him that Sephiroth had holed himself up in the old Shinra mansion when he'd disappeared from the inn the day before.

There was a small group of people clustered outside the mansion. Tifa and her father were there, alongside a martial artist named Zangan that had also been staying at the inn. They warily let Zack through, but their eyes held suspicion and unease.

The trooper led Zack into the building and up to the second floor, where he paused. "There's no sign of him! But… I saw him go into this room."

Zack looked around the room in confusion, but eventually found a section of wall that didn't quite look right. When he tapped, he realised it was hollow. From there, it took a single kick for him to knock the false wall out of position and reveal a long spiral staircase that led down below the mansion. Cautiously, he descended.

At the bottom was a tunnel that curved away from the mansion, underneath the mountainside. At the end Zack pushed forwards into a room. It was octagonal in shape, a large central desk covered in notes and open books. Around the outside tall bookshelves stretched from the rough stone floor up to a hewn ceiling. Most carried books, although one opposite the door carried a variety of experiment jars. To the right of the door some scientific equipment sat, mako glowing green in tubes and funnels. Zack couldn't even begin to guess what it was. To the left a corridor stretched further into the laboratory, also lined with books.

Sephiroth was pacing, a book held in his hands that he studied intently. He was also muttering, reading the book aloud. "…an apparently dead organism was found in a two thousand year old geological stratum. Professor Gast named that organism Jenova. Jenova was later confirmed to be an Ancient… then the Jenova project was approved and Mako Reactor one approved for use… the Nibelheim reactor."

He paused, completely ignoring Zack. "My mother's name is Jenova… Jenova Project… Is this just a coincidence? If only… if only you could have told me, Professor. Why did you die?"

This was the point at which Zack interrupted, only to be told in no uncertain terms to leave Sephiroth alone.

But Sephiroth didn't come out of the Shinra mansion. In fact, he didn't even leave the basement – not even to eat or sleep. He continued to read and read, devouring all the books and papers available to him in the laboratory. Zack spent his time flitting between the inn, where Cloud was slowly recovering, and the mansion where he checked up on Sephiroth.

Until one fateful morning, exactly one week after they had visited the reactor.

Zack had slept over in the Shinra mansion that night. He was woken abruptly by a clamour outside. Stepping out, he gasped at the sight of the flames that reached up towards the lightening sky. The dark smoke hung over the houses, nearly blocking out the dawn altogether. Naturally, Zack rushed headlong into the fire to help where he could.

The whole town was ablaze, not a single building had been spared. A figure in blue that groaned weakly had Zack rushing over. Rolling him over, he wiped at the blood on Cloud's brow.

"Cloud?"

"…mom?" Cloud stretched towards the door of the nearest house. Zack ran over, shielding his face from the heat of the flames. The house was alight, through the open door Zack could see nothing inside had been spared. Including the occupant. Claudia's crumpled body lay on the floor just inside the doorway, the flames beginning to lick at the edges of her clothing. But Zack could see the flames made no difference now, the blood welling below her and trickling out the door to stain the cobbles showed the true cause of her death.

He returned to Cloud with a shake of his head. The trooper's eyes closed in anguish as he gasped out one word, a word that froze Zack. "Sephiroth…"

A man squeezed his shoulder – it was Zangan, an itinerant martial arts trainer that Zack had spent some time talking to in the previous days. "What happened?"

Zack looked up with bewildered eyes. "I… don't know."

Above the roaring flames, Zack heard the sound of drawn steel. He ran back towards the mountain pass but slid to a stop as he saw Sephiroth on front of him. Two of the men from the village were there, brandishing weapons, but it took only a moment for Sephiroth to cut them down. He looked up and locked eyes with Zack, the flames behind him turning his silver hair into tarnished gold, before he turned and walked through the wall of fire up towards the mountain path.

Zack went back to the town to find Zangan tending to Cloud. He told them where he was going, before taking off up the mountain trail. Towards the reactor.

It loomed ominously on the plateau high in the mountains. The silence surrounding it was even more marked when compared to the noisy inferno in the blazing village. Even the monsters seemed to be keeping far away from it today.

Zack leapt up the stairs to the entrance two at a time. He made his way through to the room containing the pods, with the stairs leading up to the inner chamber. But before he got there, by the door into the centre of the reactor, he was surprised to see a figure crying on the ground.

Tifa was still wearing her mountain clothing. She was huddled over something, that Zack realised with horror was the crumpled body of her father. Tears streaked down her cheeks as she clutched at his torso.

"I'm sick of this. I'm sick of all this. Sephiroth, Shinra, SOLDIER… I hate them all!"

She staggered to her feet and stepped towards the door Sephiroth must have travelled through, bending down to grasp something that Zack realised too late was the handle of Masamune. She picked it up despite it being far too long and unwieldy in her hands, striding into the reactor's heart.

He hurried after her, but couldn't catch her in time. Tifa approached the top of the steps to the reactor core, where Sephiroth stood by the previously sealed door. Tifa swung wildly at him, but Sephiroth deflected easily and wrested Masamune from her grip. One sweep of the blade and she arced into the air, bouncing down the steps to land in a limp pile at the bottom of the stairs.

Zack rushed forwards, almost absently noting Sephiroth disappearing into the chamber. He gently picked Tifa up and moved her from the stairs to lay her down on one of the gantries out to the side. She was a mess, her torso covered in blood. Zack didn't think she would pull through but he couldn't do much for her. He was a SOLDIER, he was made for fighting – nothing else. And Sephiroth was still up there. He followed him up the stairs and into the next room, before stopping in shock.

Inside the core of the reactor, on top of a sea of pipework and wiring, was a huge metal torso of a woman. Metallic wings spread out behind her, almost reaching the side of the chamber. Sephiroth stood below her, arms held aloft.

"Mother, let's take the Planet back together."

"Sephiroth!" Zack called out to him. "How could you do this to the town? To the people?! Answer me, Sephiroth!"

"Mother… the traitor is here." Sephiroth said without turning. "Shall we tell him the truth? That in my veins flows the blood of the Ancients… your blood, Mother. You should have ruled this Planet. You were stronger, smarter… but then they came. Those worthless creatures. They came and stole this Planet away from you. But don't be sad Mother, I am with you now." He reached up and took hold of the metal effigy, pulling it and throwing it to the side. Pipes tore and fluid spilt into the chamber.

There was a tank behind the mask, filled with mako. The body of a woman floated in it. Except… she looked like no woman Zack had ever seen. She had no arms but instead had protrusions that emerged just behind her shoulders. Her skin was a deep indigo and she had scales running up her torso. He took an involuntary step backwards.

"Sephiroth… have you completely lost your mind?"

Sephiroth's only answer was to bring his sword up, attacking Zack abruptly. Zack met his blow with his sword, knocked backwards to the floor of the chamber.

"… I trusted you."

Sephiroth knocked him back again, out and down the steps of the room containing the pods. Tifa's inert form lay to one side but Zack had no time to see if she was ok, as Sephiroth was now upon him. He very soon realised this was a fight for his life, and one that he would not win.

Eventually, Sephiroth knocked the sword from his hands and left him in for dead on the floor of the room. He climbed the stairs towards Jenova's chamber.

Movement caught Zack's eye, as the blue uniform of a trooper dashed past him to Tifa's side. For the first time, the girl stirred slightly as Cloud removed his helmet, revealing his bright blond hair underneath. "You remembered… our promise…" her head lolled back as she lost consciousness again.

Cloud ran up the staircase, grabbed hold of Zack's sword with both hands and turned it on Sephiroth, catching him deep in the abdomen. The SOLDIER fell to his knees, clutching at the glass of Jenova's tank. Cloud backed away unsteadily as Sephiroth turned on him.

"How… how dare you." He sent a shockwave towards Cloud that knocked him backwards and away from Jenova. "Can you not feel Mother's pain?"

"What about my pain! My friends, my family! The pain of having my home taken away from me!?" Cloud shook his head. "I had… so much respect for you. I admired you."

Sephiroth slumped by the mako reactor, blood pouring from his wound. Cloud left him, running back into the first chamber to check on Tifa. After a few moments, Sephiroth staggered past. He still carried his blade in his left hand, but his right clutched something else – the head of the woman in the chamber. Jenova.

"Cloud," Zack gasped. "You have to… stop Sephiroth."

Cloud nodded grimly, picking up the sword and following the SOLDIER out into the first chamber of the reactor. Here, a metal gantry led between the inner rooms and the entrance, a sole walkway high above a store of pure mako. Cloud readied the sword and ran up to him, but with a deft twist Sephiroth disarmed him. Even gravely injured, the SOLDIER was more than strong enough to defeat one unenhanced trooper. The sword flew out of Cloud's reach and clattered to the floor behind him.

Then there was pain, as Masamune speared through his torso and pierced his right lung. Cloud clawed at the blade, aware that Sephiroth was talking but not paying attention to what was said as he braced his feet. With an inhuman effort, he used the leverage the long length of the Masamune provided to swing Sephiroth off the gantry and into the mako pit below.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

A stunned silence fell. Cloud looked around the room. If he thought the expressions were horrified before, it was nothing on how they looked now.

"Well shit." Barret eventually said.

"I think that adequately sums it up." Genesis added, using the wall to climb to his feet. At some point in the retelling he had slid down until he was sitting on the floor, one leg bent at the knee with the other straight out in front of him.

Sephiroth suddenly moved. Unlike before, he didn't leave through the door Cloud was standing in front of. Instead, he pushed roughly past Angeal into the other half of the connected bedroom. The bathroom door slamming and the sound of retching made Cloud wince and Genesis turn in alarm.

Barret looked around with a frown. "He gonna be alright?"

"He probably needs a bit of time to process." Aerith said delicately. "What happened to the other Sephiroth?"

Cloud shook his head. "I don't remember any more than that. I thought I had killed him. But then… I also thought I was Zack, so…"

"Official records state Sephiroth is dead," Tifa murmured. "I read about it afterwards."

"Though Shinra owns the newspapers…" Aerith trailed off.

"I want to know the truth." Cloud said quietly. "I want to know how I'm still alive – by all rights Sephiroth should have killed me. I want to know how he is still alive after falling into the mako."

"Frankly, it's remarkable that either of you survived." Genesis stated. "You were unenhanced, going against the strongest SOLDIER that has ever lived. One that also managed to take out the only other SOLDIER with you, one trained by the best." He waved a hand at Angeal.

Cloud looked over at Tifa. "How did you survive? It was… it looked pretty bad."

"Master Zangan." She replied. "I was his student and he happened to be in town to teach me at the time. He came in and got me out, took me to safety. He said… he said he went back, afterwards, but the town and reactor were crawling with Shinra. I guess they were there to find out what happened to their best SOLDIER."

Cloud winced as static burst into his head, followed by images of Zack on a stretcher, him on a stretcher… yes, to find out what happened to Sephiroth and to clean up loose ends.

"They must have moved Jenova to Midgar." Aerith mused.

"Well at least we know why that insane one wanted it now." Barret grunted. "He was still thinkin' it was his dear ole ma."

Genesis was frowning. "But much of the tale was told secondhand, from Zack's viewpoint. How can we trust its accuracy?"

"I remember the same things." Tifa told him.

"Well yes, those parts." He waved dismissively. "But the rest? Where supposedly it was only Fair and Sephiroth together? The story must have come second hand. How accurate can it truly be?"

"Very." Cloud muttered, not sure how to explain that he remembered Zack's life as well as, if not better, than his own.

"What happened to Zack? Did he… die there? How did you survive?"

It was the first time Angeal spoke. He was frowning at the floor, arms crossed across his chest. Cloud looked up hesitantly.

"Not there… he didn't die there."

"But he is dead?"

Cloud closed his eyes briefly. Angeal nodded curtly. "Can you tell me… how?"

"Please?" Aerith had clasped Tifa's hand again and was looking entreatingly at him. "I knew… I knew he had passed." She said haltingly. "I felt him… return to the Planet. A couple of months ago, now. But I don't know…"

Cloud looked up at the ceiling, crossing his arms as he thought. His memories were even more fractured here and he struggled to pull them together.

"We were… taken."

…greenpainmother…

"I don't know… where…"

…glasstanksZack…

Cloud clutched at his head, an image of himself bobbing in a mako tank flying through his brain. A fleeting figure… grey. Winged. Nibelheim.

"Zack eventually… got us out. I was in a coma. I had been… most of the time."

A bike… why a bike? An apple. And something about eating Zack's hair… but that couldn't be right.

"I just remember…" so many troopers, so many guns… "I think Shinra were after us." Escaped experiments. "I was a dead weight." When we get to Midgar, we'll be mercenaries Cloud. Just you and me, against the world."Zack… he took them on. But there were too many." Cloud nearly bent double, the static filling his brain.

Zack's face, wet with the rain that poured from the sky, washing the blood away from his body into a pool on the rock. 'My honour, my dreams, they are yours now.'

"Hey." Tifa took hold of his hand carefully and pulled him towards her. "Don't hurt yourself."

"Excuse me." Angeal stood and opened the door, striding into the hallway.

"I think… we might all need some space to think about things." Aerith said, staring after him.

Red stretched out. "It has been an interesting recounting, but it has taken most of the day. It is time we found sustenance."

"Yeah, right. I'll come with ya." Barret stood and stretched out. Cloud moved to the arch as they headed out.

"We should go… freshen up." Aerith pulled at Tifa's arm.

Tifa hesitated. "Are you… ok?" She asked Cloud, eyes flickering to the closed bathroom door. He nodded so she turned to Genesis. "And Angeal?"

Genesis sighed and strode to the door. "I will go and find him." He turned to Cloud and narrowed his eyes. "Do not let him brood for too long." With a swirl of his red coat, Genesis was gone and the girls followed shortly after.

Alone in the room now, Cloud allowed himself to grimace at the pain in his aching head. He rubbed at his temple before leaning against the arch that partitioned the two rooms and closing his eyes, revelling in the silence.

A few minutes had passed, before the bathroom door opened. Sephiroth looked pale as he stepped out, evidently surprised that Cloud was still there. Cloud did nothing except open his eyes and watch as Sephiroth sat down on the edge of the bed. He sat with his knees apart and his forearms resting on his thighs. His torso slumped forwards and his head bowed, his distinctive silver hair cascading forwards and almost completely hiding his face from view.

"I do not understand how you can stand to be in the room with me."

Cloud started when Sephiroth actually began to speak. He looked over at the SOLDIER, but Sephiroth's position didn't change. Cloud shrugged. "I told you most of that already."

"You left out a few significant details." Sephiroth's tone was bland, but everything about him was strung taught, brittle. As though he could shatter at any moment.

"I didn't remember." Cloud said with a sigh. "I don't know how I managed to piece enough together to tell you what happened just now."

Sephiroth fell silent at that, for a few moments at least. "It is not that I could raze a town from existence which shocks me…" he started, uncharacteristic hesitation in his tone. "That happened in Wutai, more than once. Death and destruction is all I have known. But to lose myself in such a way, the fall into insanity… that is what I find most disturbing." He shuddered. "It is an aspect of myself I do not recognise."

Cloud hummed in agreement, knowing that nothing he said would be able to comfort the other man. Still, he could try. "You know better now, though. You know that Jenova was not your mother, or a Cetra. It won't happen again."

Sephiroth finally looked up towards Cloud. "I believe I had the right of it before, when I thought to train you. It is even more imperative now. I need to know that if I ever act thus again, you are strong enough to ensure it ends the same way."