Tifa hesitantly confirmed that she'd been waiting outside back in past Nibelheim while that entire discovery and miniature mental breakdown happened. Sephiroth got the distinct impression that she was hiding something…

Cloud explained that Game Sephiroth confined himself to the inn, refusing to talk to anyone. Then, for the first time, Tifa contributed to the story, talking about how Sephiroth just disappeared. Cloud said they found him inside the 'biggest building in Nibelheim'.

Genesis snorted. "What would that be? The water tower?"

Apparently it was a mansion, owned and abandoned by ShinRa. They'd seen it earlier, but Sephiroth had taken it for apartment housing or the like. Sephiroth couldn't say he was surprised, both about the fact that ShinRa left its mark on the town and the general upkeep (or lack thereof) of the 'unneeded mansion'. Also, the missing infantry man came back as Cloud found him in the house… after a lot of looking around. There wasn't much of actual interest until they got to the top floor. A strange indent in the back wall of one of the rooms practically begged to be inspected. When Angeal had Cloud walk up to the area, it opened to reveal a very rickety-looking ramp spiraling down into…. a tower of some sort? That led to an underground walkway – almost cave like – and ultimately what looked like a combination lab/library.

Once inside, Cloud found Game Sephiroth walking back and forth as he read from a book, talking about how a 2000 year old specimen had been found and how Gast named it Jenova.

Sephiroth stiffened further. Were they honestly implying that this dead organism is somehow his mother?

"What the actual—" the Commander started, echoing Sephiroth's thoughts exactly.

"Genesis," Angeal cut him off, but it seemed half-hearted at best.

Game Sephiroth continued to read 'aloud' that Jenova was confirmed to be an Ancient. Wait… really? But… unlike Aerith (or Aeris or whatever her name was) he couldn't talk to the planet! They'd already had this argument.

Apparently Game Sephiroth hadn't put it all together yet because after more walking around, he asked if the names of his mother and this specimen were just a coincidence… then asked why Gast didn't tell him everything. Much to his consternation, the real Sephiroth agreed. He'd been raised more or less in a lab, and Professor Gast (later, the recordings of the man he'd had access to, addressed specifically to him) had been one of the few highlights of his childhood memories. If Sephiroth had somehow been… grown from that… thing Red called 'the Jenova Specimin', why hadn't he been told? He fully expected Hojo to lie to him, but Gast? Could the man have been under some sort of gag order? Or had he not deemed Sephiroth – at the tender age of three – able to handle it before he'd disappeared, never to return? Sephiroth had heard Hojo bragging about the man's death a couple of years after he'd disappeared…. Had he meant to tell Sephiroth everything? Or had what Sephiroth had access to been doctored? That was… worryingly plausible.

That assumed the game was correct… which, it couldn't be, right? This was going too far… Sephiroth had always suspected there was something strange about his existence, beyond the fact that he was more or less raised as a weapon for the company. He'd always assumed that had been his one and only purpose when it came to ShinRa. This certainly cast doubt on that suspicion.

He grit his teeth, somehow unable to move his eyes away from the screen. Perhaps the phrase 'glutton for punishment' applied to him as well and not just the Puppy.

Angeal moved Cloud to try and talk to Game Sephiroth, but all the pixelated figure said in response was 'let me be'. Apparently they didn't have a choice but to follow those instructions.

The game went into a sort of montage of Sephiroth reading and the books slowly piling up higher and higher.

Then Cloud woke on a bed… and the music turned rather ominous. Sephiroth caught the other two glancing at each other out of the corner of his eye, but couldn't seem to make himself do the same, unable to take his eyes off the screen. After a moment, Angeal moved Cloud out of the room. He wasn't at the Inn. Actually, he seemed to be sleeping in the mansion. An abandoned, dust-covered mansion…. That didn't strike Sephiroth as the best idea, but he brushed the thought aside as the figure on screen moved around the ruined building.

"We should check on S… the general in the game," Angeal said, shooting another glance at Sephiroth judging by the quick turn of his head.

"Call him 'Game Sephiroth'," Sephiroth heard himself say. His voice sounded all too tight.

"Go and check on… Game Sephiroth, then," Genesis said, trying and failing to hit that nonchalant tone he'd managed to give out so easily up to this point. Angeal had already moved Cloud down to the tunnels beneath the mansion, heading into the lab/library.

"Oh, and the books have magically disappeared," the red-head snorted.

"Sephiroth… er… Game Sephiroth could have just put them away," Angeal pointed out. "The person he's based off of is rather… meticulous at times."

Sephiroth appreciated his friends trying to lighten the mood. He really did. Even if it didn't work in the slightest. The comment fell into an awkward silence and so Angeal turned back to the screen and moved the game character on.

Game Sephiroth sat, laughing, in a chair behind a large desk, only asking who was there once Cloud came in. Shouldn't he know the footsteps of his own subordinate? His supposed friend?

'Traitor', the Game Sephiroth said.

Sephiroth's hands clenched tighter.

The character on the screen went on to explain how the planet used to belong to the Cetra, who somehow knew how to traverse space, or the like, because they would move around the universe (that was what Sephiroth inferred in any case), supposedly settle planets and then move on, ever in search of the 'Promised Land'. Those who didn't like the journeying would settle. Somehow, he could almost hear the derision in Game Sephiroth's voice when he said that… as if their actions were something disgusting or beneath him.

"Wait a moment," Genesis said, frown evident in his tone. "Cetra are aliens? I thought they were born of the planet…"

The other two didn't answer, much to the red-head's chagrin. He huffed and moved onto a new, if related thought. "If the Cetra were a race that moved from planet to planet in search of the Promised Land, then obviously they didn't find it on this planet. Shouldn't they have moved on?"

"Maybe they did find it?" Angeal said, uncertainly.

"Then why say some wanted to stop searching for it if they'd found it?" Sephiroth asked, not through gritted teeth (he considered that a win). That seems like a rather strange way to phrase the sentence if they achieved their objective."

"If they had the ability to come across the cosmos, quitting the search once they actually reached a new planet seems rather pointless," Genesis said.

"Point," Angeal conceded.

Game Sephiroth went on to accuse those who wanted to stop journeying of taking from the planet and not giving a whit back.

"If they came in and settled the planet, then it wasn't really 'theirs'," Angeal pointed out, deadpan. Then he added on, as if in afterthought, "Unless there was no other sentient race here."

"Even then, an argument could be made," Sephiroth forced himself to say.

The other two didn't seem to want to add anything on to that.

Game Sephiroth went on to say that something hit the planet, and Cloud's ancestors, those who didn't want to journey any longer, hid. The planet was saved by sacrificing the Cetra.

"He's become unhinged," Genesis said. "That's the only reason I can see for his… rather strange logic jumps."

Sephiroth nodded shortly. If Cloud's ancestors were those who didn't want to journey and hid, that didn't mean they weren't still Cetra in origin? Or were they, perhaps, the local sapient species? What were the odds that two species would grow on two different planets to look like the other and be able to interbreed (at least, that's what Aerith being half Ancient implied)? The game character said that the Cetra were sacrificed… were they split into two factions? There was definitely more to the story than they were getting here.

Supposedly, the Cetra had gone extinct. (Although if the Cetra and the Ancients were the same, then that had already been proven wrong with Aeris.) Game Sephiroth claimed that a Cetra's body was found intact, somehow, and her cells had been used to make him.

To produce him. As if he were just some… thing. It wasn't an unheardof opinion about him – about SOLDIERs in general – in the ShinRa higher-ups, but still, this took that rather disgusting ideal to a whole new level. He'd always suspected he was a test-tube baby, but seeing more possible proof for it still hurt. Somehow, at the back of his mind, though, he knew it was true. It just made sense.

The real Sephiroth felt his heart stutter for a moment. According to the game, this 'Cetra' was his 'mother'? Was Jenova an Ancient after all? That mass of cells they'd seen in Hojo's lab... He would have expected Genesis to say something about how if that was a Cetra, then he'd be just fine remaining human, thank you very much. Fortunately, he was wise enough to keep his mouth shut for once.

Either that or he didn't have anything to say, although Sephiroth doubted it.

Game Sephiroth told Cloud to get out of his way, and that he was going to go see his mother.

The music changed again, adding more onto what had been there before. It didn't improve the atmosphere.

More game insanity applied next because while they followed right behind Sephiroth, apparently he'd vanished, despite him walking and Cloud running.

Before they could continue on, Angeal paused the game, causing Sephiroth to blink and finally turn to look at the brunet sitting next to him.

"Sephiroth, do you want us to continue this alone? You don't have to watch this…"

Was… he implying that Sephiroth was weak?

"I can handle it," he said shortly, turning back to the screen.

"I'm sure you can, but that doesn't mean you have to," the dark-haired man stated firmly.

Sephiroth felt himself relax ever so slightly. So Angeal thought he could handle it but didn't want to force him to? How… considerate. But still, something inside him wouldn't let him quit now. It hadn't gotten to a point where he couldn't handle more. A simple game couldn't reach that point.

So he smiled at his friend, small but real.

"I'll be fine, Angeal."

The other looked uncertain, but finally nodded and picked the controller back up. "If you're sure…"

Genesis, again, didn't say anything. He could be over-confident and arrogant (not to mention beyond annoying and petty) but he wasn't stupid, and he could read an atmosphere. Thank Gaia.

The infantry man was gone when Cloud got back to the top of the stairs. Further investigation of the house revealed that no one else had remained either.

Then Cloud walked outside the mansion and into an inferno. The town was burning.

"What?" Genesis exclaimed, glancing over at Sephiroth again.

Any ease Angeal had helped produce vanished as Cloud ran down the steps leading to the town square.

Then someone named 'Zangan' (whoever that was) asked if Cloud was still sane.

A popping sound had Sephiroth looking down and drew the attention of the other two soldiers. He'd ripped the seam on his glove. His high-quality, soldier-resistant gloves.

He forced himself to relax his hands.

"Sephiroth," Angeal started, but the General cut him off.

"Just play."

The Silver General couldn't read the expression on the larger SOLDIER's face, but it certainly wasn't happy. Honestly, he wasn't completely sure he wanted to know what the other man was feeling. Pity? Fear? Did he really think Sephiroth would do what the game said he would? Or was he, again, just concerned…

Although, even that wasn't something he really wanted right now.

Reluctantly, Angeal did as Sephiroth said.

Cloud dodged around (through? Really? With his stats?) the fire and looked around at the burning town. Sephiroth would have expected a more extreme reaction from seeing one's home-town burning than a slump and shake of the head. More game insanity?

Zangan (they still had no idea who he even was) told Cloud to check for survivors in a house. But when they ran inside, all he did was come back out with another slump and shake of his head.

"Wasn't that his own house?" Genesis asked, voice sounding hesitant, like he didn't want to raise it.

"Yes," Angeal replied, voicing what they all knew.

Then Cloud called it 'terrible'. Called it 'too terrible'… like he was witnessing something he hated but that was not related to him at all.

Then the blond turned to face the way he'd come and saw Game Sephiroth cutting people down with rather clumsy swings of the game equivalent of Masamune.

Then it switched to a far more rendered close up of Game Sephiroth as he looked slowly up at, presumably, Cloud, smirk plainly on his face. He then turned and walked into the fire.

Which, again, made no sense. If the town had done something against ShinRa's wishes, then he needed to explain it to his fellow SOLDIER. If he'd turned (far more likely, at least in the narrative) against ShinRa – and likely humanity itself – then Cloud proved the biggest threat. Leaving him behind was not a sound decision.

Game Sephiroth truly had gone insane.

The real General's fists clenched again.

The game jumped to the Nibel Reactor and Cloud ran up the steps, presumably following Sephiroth again. Which did actually make sense, because that's where Jenova supposedly was (how did she get to Hojo's lab then?), but somehow a walking Sephiroth was still faster than a running Cloud. Unless he, a native of the region, had somehow gotten lost when Sephiroth hadn't.

If he'd been in a better mood, he may have shaken his head and sighed. Instead, he just glared at the screen.

Cloud ran into Tifa, who knelt over a sprawled form, presumably her dead father, seeing as Masamune lay behind her on the floor of the reactor. Sephiroth would never leave his sword laying anywhere like that. It was one of the few things he considered truly his. That did explain the previous flash the game had given of this scene. Well, it made sense in terms of the game and not real life.

"What were they even doing in the reactor?" Angeal asked. "They shouldn't have been able to get in."

"Unless they were following S – Game Sephiroth," Genesis stated.

"Why would someone follow him after what they'd seen in the town? Did Game Sephiroth drag the man up there?"

The Commander shook his head. "It makes more sense if they were already up there…" he said with a frown. "But what for?"

"Sabotage?" Angeal put forth.

"Hmm," Genesis responded, not sounding like he was confirming or denying it.

Sephiroth didn't say anything.

Tifa expressed her hatred of all things ShinRa (which really did explain current Tifa's attitude) before turning around, picking up the sword and running into the next room. Or at least he assumed she picked up the swords seeing as it vanished as she ran by it.

Cloud ran into the room after her, only to see Sephiroth talking to the door asking 'mother' to open it.

"He's asking a dead thing to open a door?" Genesis asked, a little incredulous.

"He's insane and obviously not thinking straight," Sephiroth said, mentally congratulating himself for not growling, even if it was a near thing.

Tifa yelled at the game general and then ran towards him with the sword raised.

"She's just as mad as he is!" Genesis claimed. "Even an insane Sephiroth is still a deadly Sephiroth!"

The General wasn't sure if he should feel honored at the rather back-handed compliment. Instead he just said, "Game Sephiroth."

"Yes, yes," Genesis responded, waving his hand flippantly.

Sephiroth didn't want to start something over it, so he – with a will of iron – let it go.

Just in time to see Game Sephiroth wrench the sword away from the girl and slice her with it. At that close range…

"How is she alive?" Genesis asked. "She was sliced in half by a SOLDIER and then fell back down a flight of stairs on her back! She should be dead – or paralyzed at best!"

"Game insanity," Sephiroth said.

"Truly," Genesis agreed, shaking his head.

Sephiroth walked into the room, through the supposedly locked door… could Jenova somehow open the door? The… dead Cetra… surely not…

Cloud ran up to Tifa, who was somehow still alive, saying things like 'you promise you'd come when I was in trouble.'

Then Cloud picked her up…

"Does he have no training in field medicine?" Genesis practically yelled at the screen just as Angeal said, "Don't move her!"

They paused and looked at each other, both letting out thin chuckles before moving on.

Angeal had Cloud run into the Jenova room after Game Sephiroth.

"You're just leaving her there? She's still alive!" Genesis shouted.

"It's more important to confront ShinRa's enemy," Sephiroth said, drawing the others' attention. "It's what we're taught. The mission comes first."

"She's his childhood friend!"

"I don't think that's Cloud," Sephiroth said.

The other two blinked at him.

"He's been detached the entire time, like it wasn't his home burning."

"Then how does Cloud remember it enough to tell it in the future?"

Sephiroth frowned. "Game insanity."

The other two stared at him before Genesis shrugged his shoulders and Angeal sighed.

"Moving on, then," Angeal said.

The scene cut to some sort of twisted, mechanical angel. Or, at least, what looked like the bust of a woman with tubes coming out of the side of it like wings. The whole thing was strangely industrial and nothing like the headless body they'd seen in Hojo's lab.

Game Sephiroth spoke of how he had a great idea – to take the planet together and use it to find the Promised Land. Then Cloud came up behind him and, for the first time, seemed personally involved as he asked how Game Sephiroth could do that to his home town and his family. Game Sephiroth didn't even answer him directly, instead laughing at and talking to 'Mother' about how 'they've come again'.

Then he seemed to speak to Cloud, talking about how superior 'Mother' was and how she was always destined to rule the planet.

What.

"Where did that come from?" Angeal asked, sounding confused.

It switched to another, more highly rendered scene of Sephiroth somehow ascending (was he walking or gliding?) and reaching forward all the while going on about how the 'worthless beings' were 'stealing the planet' from 'Mother'.

It struck Sephiroth then.

"She's controlling him."

The other two jumped and Angeal paused the game.

"What?" Genesis asked.

"Sephiroth, she's a 2000 year old being. She has to be dead," the brunet said a little slowly, as if he were trying to piece together how Sephiroth had come up with what he had.

The General shook his head. "I don't think she's dead… or perhaps she wasn't alive to begin with. And I don't think she's an Ancient. But it explains everything – his changing moods, his leaps in logic. Somehow, she's controlling him or at least putting thoughts into… his…" he faded off as the implications fully sank in and he looked down at himself, unable to keep horror off his face.

Could it happen to him then? If whatever that thing was got near him, could it somehow call out to him? Play with his mind… take him over…

"That… would explain a lot," Genesis agreed, looking back at the screen, troubled. "Dreams of the morrow hath the shattered soul. Pride is lost, Wings stripped away." Angeal had gone far beyond troubled, looking about as horrified as Sephiroth felt and so had likely come to a similar conclusion as the Silver General.

If that thing existed, it needed to be destroyed.

Yesterday.

He met Angeal's eyes and the other man nodded slowly. He had Sephiroth's back. They could make plans for either him or Genesis going to check the Nibel reactor because there was no possible chance Sephiroth would give himself up to something like that.

Then another thought occurred to him… did Hojo know?

If he found out the man did… if this was all true and Hojo did this to him… could he hold himself back from storming the Science department and slaughtering the man where he stood? He wasn't sure.

Something touching his arm brought him back to the present, and he saw Angeal's hand resting on him. The man looked like he was about to call a medic or something… which was probably the last thing he should do right now.

"Play on," he said.

"But," Angeal started.

Sephiroth shook his head harshly. "Play. On."

Angeal's brow furrowed even further. "I don't like this," he said.

"None of us do, I think," Genesis muttered, looking a little pale. So he'd likely caught on too.

The larger SOLDIER unpaused the game and they watched as Game Sephiroth tore the metallic, bust-like covering (why would anyone have something like that – and yet, it seemed like something Hojo would do just to take pleasure in people's reactions) to reveal a tank as lights brightened behind it.

Game Sephiroth looked elated.

The thing inside had the basic form of a woman, but also what looked like eyes poking out from her body in strange places, not counting the glowing eyes on her very much there head.

"So, it does have a head," Genesis muttered.

Sephiroth's gloves creaked as he tightened his fists again.

So that was 'Mother'.

That was supposedly what had given him his inhuman strength.

He could see why Game Sephiroth thought of himself as a monster if he had that inside of him.

Then what did that make Sephiroth?

A monster, like the game said?

Did he really have that thing inside of him.

Was he really…

And as much as he'd told Angeal to play on, that thought was the straw that broke the chocobo's back.

He moved before he realized what he'd done, picking up the remote and turning the screen off. The room fell into an unnatural silence after that, with the other two watching him.

They didn't say a word. If they were anything like him, they didn't know what to say. All he knew was how disgusted he felt about himself and the game producers and Hojo and ShinRa and…

And he understood Tifa's shout about how she hated everything ShinRa.

Finally Angeal ventured to say something.

"Seph—"

He didn't get any further before the Silver General stood.

"No," was all he said before he walked stiffly back into his bedroom, not even bothering to hide his intentions.

xXx

AN: Some of you thought the last chapter was a cliffie... heh... sorry? *ahem* I'll... um... go this way now.

Very, VERY fast.

Come scream at me on discord: discord (period) gg (forward slash aka /) zJQSDa8 (but please be nice about it).