Sephiroth did actually use the restroom before he walked leisurely back to the living room. To his surprise, as soon as he walked back in, Angeal rose.
"I think I need to use the restroom as well," he said with a wan smile.
"Of course," Sephiroth said, returning to his spot on the couch, nodding as he calmly passed his friend.
One of them had, thankfully, muted the television. Sephiroth had no problem with this, not particularly wanting to listen to the foreboding music. The two remaining SOLDIERS sat there quietly with their own thoughts while they waited, neither willing to break the silence.
But then, Genesis turned to him, looking serious.
"Should we continue?" he asked, voice hushed.
Sephiroth blinked. "You… think we should stop?"
The Commander's lips thinned. "This isn't just about you, anymore. This is about Angeal. He's clearly in denial about that being Zack. You know how protective he gets over the puppy."
The taller SOLDIER tipped his head to one side, "Isn't that all the more reason to continue?"
Genesis huffed. "This will get worse before it gets better. Not only is it part of the narrative, but with what has been hinted at… you know this won't be pretty."
He had a point, but… "We never thought it would be."
"Knowing something and experiencing it, even vicariously like this, are two different things."
It was a good argument. The problem was, what would happen if they didn't continue? Stopping temporarily and returning later would require them to rewatch this all again (not a pleasant thought). The alternative of stopping completely would require they turn the game over to the Turks, now. That was still a necessary action they would eventually have to take, but the thought of doing so without knowing the outcome was… unpalatable. As relieving as it may be to return to normal operations and distract themselves with work or training, it wouldn't make their questions vanish. Leaving now would just let the potential outcome eat at them – all of them, he was sure.
It actually surprised him somewhat that the argumentative and stubbornly persistent Genesis (especially when he got curious), would even consider stopping. But Angeal was his best friend. Perhaps Sephiroth had begun to understand that part of friendship: keeping the wellbeing of the friend in mind. Still, while Genesis knew Angeal better than Sephiroth, the other two had not had any deeper connection to the game before the black-haired stranger appeared where Cloud should have been. But their Zack was involved now, and if Angeal felt anything like Sephiroth did, then that uncertainty and not knowing the eventual outcome would be maddening.
So he shook his head. "Stopping at this point would do more harm than good," he said.
Genesis studied his friend, mako blue eyes searching for something he must have eventually found because he deflated a little, sighed and nodded. "Very well."
Sephiroth had expected more resistance or that he would need to explain his stance. That Genesis trusted his opinion on the matter concerning his- their friend, with no debate, was warming.
It didn't take much longer after that for Angeal to join them again. He looked as if he'd regained some color, so Sephiroth decided to count the interruption as a success.
"Well, Gentlemen," Genesis turned the volume back up (though still lower than before) and held up the claimed controller, "shall we continue?"
As though they hadn't just determined such. Letting Angeal have the final say, perhaps?
Sephiroth looked back to the screen with the burning fire and the three party members just standing there. Then he nodded, seeing Angeal do the same out of the corner of his eye.
Genesis had Cloud speak to Tifa again, asking her why she was so scared and telling her not to worry about him. That he'd never believe what Game Sephiroth said. He admitted that there are many things muddled in his memory, but pointed out that she greeted him, by name, when they met again (Sephiroth assumed, in Midgar). Then he stated that he's Cloud of Nibelheim, that that is the truth and is also why she shouldn't be so scared. That only her opinion counted.
Somehow, him being so firm about it felt like it would be worse when he stopped believing that.
Because he knew it would happen…
Then Tifa turned around and said that wasn't true. (Which completely threw off Sephiroth, because that was… what? She was admitting it outright? But simultaneously denying it?) When Cloud questioned her, she said she didn't know how to say it and that she needed a little more time.
That was when Game Sephiroth appeared on the stairs behind the flames in the back of the screen, telling Cloud not to blame Tifa; that the ability to change one's voice, looks and words is the power of Jenova. Then he claimed that Jenova merged with Tifa's memories, creating him.
It was almost plausible. And the use of what was clearly at least partial truths...
Genesis voiced his own thoughts not a moment later. "How? She obviously escaped Nibelheim. She couldn't have been there for her memories to affect a 'stitched-together puppet'."
"She was in the reactor when Game Sephiroth found Jenova," Angeal pointed out. "We don't know what happened to her after that or when she left."
On the screen, Game Sephiroth commented that a boy named Cloud may have been part of her memories, bluntly insinuating that it wasn't him. That was far more worrying, considering Cadet Strife.
"Hmm," the red-head said, cocking his head to one side. "Perhaps," he said in response to Angeal, "but it seems terribly unlikely at best to me. She hasn't shown the same signs that Cloud has of… instability, mental, physical or otherwise. Wouldn't she have to have Jenova cells inside her to have access to her memories?"
He wasn't wrong.
Although, if the Cloud she 'grew up with' had remained in town but her own memories were altered for her to think he left…
But that still seemed terribly convoluted, and while Hojo could and would come up with something like that, it just seemed a little too coincidental for Sephiroth to fully be on board with the explanation.
"Ifalna said 'it looked like their dead family' in the recording, 'approached like a friend'," he reminded them. "None of the Cetra had had any encounter with Jenova as far as we know…" So Genesis' argument may not be as strong as it initially seemed… although it could be. They just didn't know the details of what had happened back then.
It was clear they still didn't have the entire picture.
Then Tifa asked Cloud not to think. That seemed rather ridiculous to Sephiroth.
Apparently Game Sephiroth agreed because he appeared at the front of the screen, just flashing into existence, laughing and telling Cloud to think. Then he excused himself because 'the puppet' never really had a name.
Cloud told the specter to shut up.
"He's getting to him," Genesis said, voice tense.
Game Sephiroth laughed, saying, 'You still don't understand.'
Then he brought up the picture they'd taken before they went to Mt. Nibel. He approached the man laying off to one side and bent down, picking something up, presumably, then asking, 'is this it?'
He asked if they wanted to see it, commenting that it turned out, 'Pretty good.'
Could he be more condescending?
Tifa, obviously, was against it. Cloud said it didn't matter. He should be in the picture, but even if he wasn't, it was all part of Game Sephiroth's illusion.
He walked over to Sephiroth and the screen faded away, only to show the picture with Cloud and Sephiroth. Except it wasn't Cloud…
And it wasn't Angeal.
Angeal was easily as tall as Sephiroth and broader. The picture wasn't clear, despite what Game Sephiroth said, but even with the low quality there were several things that were. The person in the picture definitely looked shorter, and younger. Genesis had been right, and maybe Sephiroth had been in slight denial as well because he felt his teeth clench at the image.
"It really is Zack," Angeal whispered. "What happened to you? Where are you, pup?"
The screen faded back to the burning town. Cloud exclaimed that it was just as he thought and that his memory is the truth – that five years before, he came back to Nibelheim, when he was sixteen.
Sephiroth felt his eyes widen.
"Cloud is fourteen right now," he said.
Genesis closed his mouth, apparently having been about to say the same thing.
Angeal, though, turned to them, worried and a little green. "So, this," he gestured to the screen, brow furrowed, "or Cloud's memory at least, happens within the next seven years?"
Sephiroth thought about that, wanting to alleviate his friend's discomfort. He said the best thing he could come up with."Eight is possible as an upper end, depending on the season in the game, and accounting for time frame generalization." And yet…
The whole situation seemed far grimmer now than it had before.
On the screen, Cloud continued to speak, going through the memory he'd relayed earlier in the game, talking about how he visited everyone, how the town hadn't changed, how it happened right after he'd been promoted to SOLDIER First…
Sephiroth blinked. How could he possibly have made First in only two years? Even if Game Sephiroth had helped train Game Cloud, that was… nigh unfathomable. Possibly the only realistic, current comparable examples of shooting through the ranks were Sephiroth himself (who was shunted in as he'd been practically bred for the program), Angeal and Genesis (and they'd only just begun to suspect similar circumstances), and Zack (a known prodigy, who had Angeal as a mentor – a better teacher than Sephiroth thought he could be). The boy's current marks did not indicate someone who could move through the ranks like that. Even the short session Sephiroth had with him earlier – that tiny hint of potential – simply wasn't something that could be matured in only two years.
That… didn't speak well of this Cloud's recollection, and Game Sephiroth seemed to know it too. Although…
Sephiroth supposed he might be able to count this as more game insanity…. Except, the instances of game insanity tended to lend themselves to how the characters interacted within the game, not the events themselves (with the exception of maybe some details here and there).
Uneasily, Sephiroth decided he didn't have enough information.
The screen flashed and Cloud asked when he'd entered SOLDIER, how he'd joined and then held his head when he asked why he couldn't remember. He flailed much like he had in the Midgar reactor, so very early in the game.
Then he stood, saying he didn't have to worry about it because he was…
And then it stopped. The entire conversation just cut off. No, continuations, no excuses, no more explanations.
Sephiroth's fists clenched again. "Is it customary to want to throw games like these out of the window?"
Genesis snorted. "I wouldn't know, but I rather want to. Though the window isn't near high enough for the amount of outright audacity of whoever made this game. Perhaps the helicopter landing pad?" It probably said a lot about Sephiroth's current state of mind that he thought it a reasonable suggestion.
Angeal took a deep breath, visibly gathering himself. Then he turned to them.
"Sephiroth, Genesis; No. It isn't our game console."
"Not the console, just the game. Though the console would likely make a far more satisfying impact."
"No."
"I'll replace it," Genesis said.
"Genesis," Angeal warned, apparently not up for banter at the moment.
The Commander snorted. "Fine, fine," he said.
On the screen, which had gone black, Cloud spoke to Tifa, saying he was fine and that they should go .
Unfortunately, when the screen faded back in, it showed Rufus, of all people, walking into what looked like a cave of some kind. The back wall seemed to be made of blue crystal (or ice, perhaps?) with something very large trapped in it. It could have been simply a strange formation, but Sephiroth wouldn't bet on it.
Scarlet came in behind him, in her ridiculous red dress, laughing. She exclaimed that something was 'amazing', then ran up to the ice/crystal wall. It turned out that whatever was in the ice was much larger than Sephiroth had realized as she just kept going, getting smaller and smaller.
Then Hojo came in and the view panned up the ice wall.
He immediately forgot about what had been trapped in the ice as several stories above the ground grew what looked like a tree, except it grew in a circular formation and without a trunk of any kind.
Then Scarlet exclaimed that it was all Materia and Sephiroth heard Genesis' audible gasp.
He agreed. That couldn't all be Materia…
However, Rufus confirmed her exclamation, saying they'd truly found the promised land.
Hojo disagreed, saying that the promised land was an old wive's tale that didn't exist. Sephiroth wondered if the President knew Hojo didn't believe in his vision. It was possible that Hojo did believe it currently, but would change his mind in the next seven years, though that seemed less likely, and the game predicting something like that was… disturbing (not that other things it predicted weren't). Hojo hiding his actual intent seemed far more realistic. It was also something they would not be able to confirm, one way or the other. Not safely and without drawing unwanted attention.
The view panned back down to the three below as Rufus turned to Hojo, saying it was everything he ever imagined.
"It looks plain and barren to me," Angeal muttered.
"Ifalna implied it didn't used to be," Genesis offered, though he didn't sound convinced in the slightest.
Then Rufus insulted Hojo, calling him a second-rate scientist.
Sephiroth, quite suddenly, felt he had finally found a point of agreement with the President's son. How unexpected...
The screen began to shake and Scarlet said something was coming from inside the wall. Then the wall blinked.
What?
Hojo said something about confirming that 'it' did exist, and that he wouldn't have believed it otherwise. (Hojo admitting he was wrong about something? Ha. The man truly had finally lost his mind.) When Rufus asked what was going on, Hojo explained that it was a Weapon – a monster created by the planet to protect it when it was in danger by destroying everything.
"The Weapon Ifalna spoke of?" Genesis asked aloud.
"Yes, though I'm surprised he credited Gast, unless," Hojo was not above stealing other people's research, unless there was too much documentation, "Gast must have published, after that second recording in Icicle." Sephiroth frowned. "It's possible a paper trail was left, maybe that's how Hojo was able to find him and Ifalna.
Apparently Rufus had never seen those videos, because when Rufus asked after Gast's report, Hojo just laughed and pointed to his head, saying it was right there.
"The more I see of this, the more I realize that Hojo is not all there upstairs," Angeal commented uneasily.
Sephiroth nodded in complete agreement. "I suspected as much when they were in Costa del Sol." He suspected as much now. Perhaps not to this extent, but it wasn't an enormous stretch either.
The giant eye in the wall blinked again
Rufus accused Hojo of keeping too much to himself.
Then the screen faded out and back in to the rest of AVALANCHE, wondering if Cloud and the others were alright.
Then Barrett started complaining about how such a small piece of Materia could potentially destroy the world.
"One small piece of materia can also summon multiple versions of the king of dragons," Genesis said dryly.
Sephiroth gave a soft noise somewhere between a chuckle and a scoff.
Then, a green cloud of some kind surrounded Barrett, who understandably seemed taken aback and worried, running around and calling for the others. Then Tifa ran up behind him (on the fast-moving, green blur) saying she was so glad to see him.
"Something's not right," Angeal frowned.
"Is that even Tifa?" Genesis asked.
The thought had gone through Sephiroth's mind too.
The green faded away and the other two looked to be standing on the rocky path again. Barrett ran up to her, explaining that the world had faded to black and everyone had disappeared.
Tifa asked for his help, saying Cloud was in trouble.
Barrett reluctantly agreed.
"Well, at least he's suspicious too," Genesis said. "Perhaps he isn't entirely the idiot I thought of him."
Barrett ran off.
Tifa laughed and told him to remember the black materia, before she blinked out and Game Sephiroth stood in her place.
Then he vanished and the rest of the party appeared, sprawled on the ground at the bottom of the screen. They slowly rose to their feet and the screen faded to black.
"He did say Jenova's power was to change one's form, voice and words," Angeal practically whispered. "And with what Ifalna said…"
The sick feeling from before began to return at his words, but Sephiroth didn't say anything.
What could he say to that?
He could deny it, but… somehow it felt like that would do more harm than good; to everyone there.
The screen faded back in to Scarlet, Rufus and Hojo. Scarlet said she had a bad feeling about the place.
"What do you know, she does have a modicum of common sense," Genesis said after a snort.
Rufus said they needed to return to the ship and 'prepare for inspection'.
"Inspection of what?" he asked.
"The whole place?" Angeal ventured. "They do think it is the Promised Land after all."
The screen flashed white and suddenly Cloud, Tifa and Vincent appeared. Cloud stood with his head bowed, facing the screen.
'Where did you come from?!' Scarlet asked.
Cloud lifted his head. 'Don't know.' Then he turned to face Rufus. 'This place is going to get rough.'
"Seph… Game Sephiroth got to him," Genesis said, shooting his friend an apologetic look… well, for Genesis.
Sephiroth wasn't happy with the slip-up, but he accepted the apology nonetheless.
Then Cloud told everyone to get out and 'leave it to' him. Rufus, naturally, claimed he didn't know what he was talking about.
The former SOLDIER turned back to the screen. 'This is where the Reunion is happening. Where everything begins and ends.'
Sephiroth ignored the twinge in his gut, but he was beginning to really hate that word.
Tifa ran forward, calling to Cloud. Before she could reach him, though, Barrett ran in, saying he was there to help.
Cloud, who kept grabbing his head and shaking it, walked forward, towards Barrett. Then he asked for the Black Materia.
"Don't give it to him," Angeal ordered. Pleaded, really. At a television screen, game console, and hypothetical characters that may or may not exist in the future, if at all, and most certainly couldn't hear him. And yet, Sephiroth found he wanted to do the same.
Tifa kept calling out to Cloud, but neither he nor Barrett seemed to be able to hear her.
'You alright?' Barrett asked.
Cloud nodded.
'Alright then,' Barrett said, commenting that he didn't like all the pressure he felt holding onto it.
Genesis hissed a breath through his teeth. "I take back anything good I ever said about that idiot."
Angeal's fists had clenched and Sephiroth's kept twitching as he mentally talked himself out of summoning Masamune.
"It's… possible he's still caught in the illusion," he said, voice dangerously quiet.
Cloud said he'd take it from there. Tifa called out one last time, and then the screen flashed white again.
'Come on. The Black Materia…' appeared in red lettering.
Then gray lettering across the top. 'Please, wait a little longer!'
The screen faded back into the blue cave. Cloud looked around, thanked everyone… then apologized. Multiple times. Especially to Tifa. He said he never lived up to being 'Cloud' and that maybe one day she can meet the 'real' Cloud!
Angeal stood angrily. "You are Cloud!" he shouted and began pacing behind the couch.
"They're all morons!" Genesis yelled. "Can someone not at least try to stop him!"
Tifa fell to her knees, holding her head…
And then Hojo spoke up, saying this was 'perfect'. That his experiment was a complete success. Then he asked Cloud where his number was. To which the blond replied that he didn't have one. The professor seemed surprised, and rather disgusted if the way he turned his back on Cloud was anything to go by.
'You mean only a failure made it here?' he asked. (Hadn't Hojo addressed Cloud by name in Costa del Sol, though? He distinctly remembered finding that ominous. Though, Hojo asked for a number, and even if he did know Cloud's name…)
'Professor… please, give me a number. Please, Professor.'
Sephiroth closed his eyes slowly, imagining the youth he'd only just found – the bright, forward boy – saying that. Or the man from his dream. Or even the strong, confident character from only a couple of minutes ago… it just… he couldn't… the differences. The dichotomy.
A loud, sudden THUMPcrunchcrumble had them looking over to where Angeal had angrily punched a hole in the wall through to his kitchenette. Sephiroth and Genesis stared in shock. Their friend didn't lose his temper often… and even then, never like this, in sight of others. Not for years, in any case.
He took several deep breaths, then glanced over at them. "Sorry," he said softly. "I'll repair that."
Sephiroth could only nod as Angeal stepped back over, standing behind the open spot on the couch.
He looked back at the screen only to see Hojo telling Cloud to, 'Shut up, miserable failure…'
Cloud shook his head, deflating. There was a sizzling noise, like electricity in a short, and then… Cloud rose into the air. Another illusion?
'Who was that?' Rufus asked.
'...He's a Sephiroth clone I created after the real Sephiroth died five years ago.'
"No! He's not!" Angeal yelled and leaned over the back of the couch as Hojo went on to say that Mako and Jenova cells and his brilliance brought the puppet to life. How his 'Reunion Theory' has been proven, even if it was by a failure. That once Jenova's body is dismembered, it will eventually become one again, and that is what is meant by Jenova's Reunion.
Sephiroth empathized with Angeal, but Hojo rarely, if ever, lied about his experiments. Not directly, in any case… And he had no reason to lie here. How could he possibly have known what Game Sephiroth had told Cloud?
Hojo kept explaining, about how he'd expected this 'Reunion' for five years, how he thought all the clones would gather in Midgar where Jenova had been kept, but how he'd been surprised when Jenova began to move away from the ShinRa building, all while the screen kept flashing between the white with the text and... the cave? From above?
It was… disconcerting.
Sephiroth himself wasn't sure what to focus on – Cloud's utter mental breakdown and giving into Jenova's (or Game Sephiroth's… they seemed rather interchangeable at this point in the game… another sticking point that he did not want to contemplate) control, the insinuation that he himself had less than two years to live, the fact that 'Reunion' meant some sort of gathering of Jenova Cells and the effect it had on anyone who held them in their body, as well as the twinge he felt any time it as mentioned (something he currently had to resist somehow), Hojo's utter callousness, the fact that he'd set it all up as an experiment and cared nothing for the planet's (or his own) well being, the strange powers both Game Sephiroth Cloud had shown, everything that kept coming back to Jenova…
It was all… so much.
They definitely needed a break after this.
The screen faded back in fully, with Cloud standing upside down on the 'mako tree' (for lack of a better term). Below him, they could see the rest of the group, still discussing. Or at least, Hojo was.
Barrett ran up as the scientist continued, saying he figured out it was Game Sephiroth's doing – he was the reason Jenova was called away. How he decided to manipulate the clones himself, basically overriding Jenova in the process.
Sephiroth rose to his feet and began to pace himself, far more slowly than Angeal, more focused on keeping the nausea at bay. He'd never felt sick due to outside, emotional influences before, and now, in one day, he'd had multiple episodes. He wished he could blame it on the food…
Had his game self – his future self – lost his mind so badly that he would do this? To other living beings? He knew he wasn't the most empathetic of people – he'd been raised to not be – but this was a level beyond.
Was he truly capable of such?
Did he really want an honest answer to that question?
On the screen Cloud squatted down, curling into a ball.
And Hojo just. Wouldn't. Shut. UP.
'I wondered where the clones were going, but was never able to figure it out.'
Words appeared on the screen (Cloud's thoughts?) saying he never knew either.
'I know now Sephiroth was at their final destination.'
The dialogue without a box came again. 'I wasn't pursuing Sephiroth. I was summoned by Sephiroth.' He went on about how all the anger and hatred he bore towards Game Sephiroth made it impossible to forget him. That and what Game Sephiroth gave him.
Then he stood (still upside down) and called out (mentally? Likely) that he was here and he had the black materia. Genesis was apparently given control again, so he moved Cloud around, at first off the screen, but then back towards the center. Genesis grit his teeth as he moved Cloud on screen.
Then he just stopped and looked towards the center of the 'mako tree'.
'Sephiroth… so we finally meet again.' Then he walked forward and out of sight. The camera shook again as what looked like a blue or turquoise orb in the center fell down, caught by branches below, sending rocks and debris raining down on the party.
Inside of it…
Sephiroth's breath caught.
It was him. Well… half of him. Below his abdomen, the body faded away, but he recognized his own body – even in the poorly rendered style of the game.
The Sephiroth on screen looked to be asleep, with his hair flowing behind him, suspended in the blue matter. Materia?
Had that been what Scarlet had been talking about earlier? Speaking of, neither she nor Rufus were anywhere to be seen. Had they left earlier? Smart of them in Sephiroth's opinion.
The screen focused back on the people below as the room began to shake again. That tense music was back.
Hojo, elated, exclaimed, 'Did you see it?! It's Sephiroth! So he IS here!' He turned to the group, flailing his arms wildly. 'Both Jenova's reunion and Sephiroth's will! They won't be diffused into the Lifestream, but gathered here!'
It was Sephiroth's turn to realize he'd punched a hole in the wall… Because Hojo had always told him the Lifestream was a fairy tale, not provable by science at all. That… that….
"Sephiroth…?" he heard Angeal speak hesitantly. He whipped his head around to see Genesis had risen from the couch in concern, while Angeal stood straight behind it, hands in front of him as if approaching a wild chocobo. Both wore placating expressions.
It took him another moment to realize he'd also called Masamune to his hands.
He straightened where he stood, facing the hole he'd made and took several, intentionally deep breaths, counting to ten in his head. Then did so again, focusing on controlling his breathing. It took him far too long to dismiss the blade, but eventually he forced himself to be calm and Masamune vanished.
"Shall… I continue?" Genesis asked.
Sephiroth took another breath, then half-turned and nodded. "I'm fine."
"I don't believe you," the red-head returned, his voice level and dry.
That, more than anything else, brought Sephiroth up short. Angeal and Genesis stood together – offense and defense. As a team, they could give him a run for his money, and they did not look like they would back down on this.
But he really didn't want to talk about everything that Hojo had done…
"I just… particularly hate that man right now," he said.
Genesis snorted and Angeal nodded sympathetically.
"I told you it would get worse," the red-head said, his voice even but grim.
Sephiroth sighed. "Yes. You did."
"And we aren't done."
A pause. "No, we're not," the sliver-haired man replied, feeling utterly tired all of a sudden. "Please, go on. I can handle it." And he meant it.
Genesis must have seen that because he nodded once and sat back down, controller still in hand. Angeal looked troubled, but didn't say anything. He didn't sit down either.
On the television, Tifa asked what he was so happy about. Didn't he know that it meant the world might be destroyed? That every single person on the planet could die?
Before he could respond, Rufus walked up behind Barrett and said it didn't matter. They had to evacuate and he still had questions he wanted answers to. He asked them to come with them… out of the goodness of his own heart? Yes, there was something off about that, but Sephiroth didn't think on it much as the screen panned up to Cloud, hovering in midair in front of the stone.
Barrett yelled out for him to stop. It didn't do any good. Cloud looked to be struggling, floating all over the screen, shaking his head, grabbing his arms… It was like the rope pulling challenge the troops sometimes did as an exercise, shifting back and forth.
Then he stuck his hand through whatever was holding Game Sephiroth in place, the black materia in hand. It floated away from Cloud and towards the still sleeping Game Sephiroth.
Everyone below ran. The eye in the background opened and stayed open. The room shook as the entombed Game Sephiroth fell down, followed by debris pouring into the space, destroying the 'mako tree' and everything else. The scene cut to the sky above the crater, and what looked like a pillar of mako shot out of the vortex and expanded. Next to it, the airship turned, obviously trying to make a run for it.
Next, it showed the Weapon – what looked like a giant, blue suit of armor with claws, flying up, then crawling out of the crater as the land around the hole began to fall inward. On the deck of the airship, everyone (yes, the whole group, even though Sephiroth had no idea how they all got there) turned around as a shadow fell over them. What looked like a giant dragon (larger than even Bahamut) loomed over them.
"The Weapon didn't look like that a second ago," Genesis said, frowning. "Can it change shape?"
"No," Angeal spoke, drawing his friends' attention, voice tight. "There are multiple Weapons."
Oh.
That… made a strange, if terrifying, amount of sense.
"Perhaps… this is one thing we should not try to verify," Sephiroth said, voice shaking ever so slightly. He couldn't help but be grateful that Hojo wasn't there. Sephiroth would have been punished for that…
It flew by the ship, causing it to jostle in its wake. The camera honed in on Tifa, especially, as she was thrown to the deck. Barrett rushed forward, as if to help, but was distracted by the Northern Crater in the distance. It seemed Angeal was right as several streams of light – likely the Weapons – shot out of the hole in different directions.
Then the airship rose into the sky as the screen faded, once again, to black.
The three of them stared at it, waiting for something else to happen, but nothing did immediately.
It felt as if the world had frozen along with the game.
Then Angeal's voice broke the silence. "Maybe we should sit back down," he suggested as the black persisted, though he didn't move to do so…
They stood in a tense silence for another couple of seconds before Sephiroth nodded firmly and went to join Genesis back on the couch. Angeal followed, shoulders relaxing, not so much in relief as apparent exhaustion. No one spoke as they all moved, silently contemplating what else the game might have in store for them.
xXx
AN: Firstly, thank you to Imagination7413 for being such an amazing beta reader. She goes through these chapters more than I do, I swear. In any case, she really helps me to keep the quality high, so please thank her. :)
Also, thank you all for your well wishes. It's been... a hard month, but things seem to be looking up for now despite our loss. I will be going back to updating this once every two months at least. :)
Also, I ask for advice, thoughts and give polls regarding the fic on my discord if you're interested: discord. gg/ezzFnGJ (no spaces)