When Eloise opened her eyes, she was back in her room in SOLDIER. She sighed heavily and rubbed her face.
"Am I dead?" She asked feeling someone approach.
"No." He replied. "I didn't bring you here this time,"
"I know. I did," she said and looked at him. "I'm dying. Jenova cells are multiplying too quickly. It's been a long time since I was last stabilized."
"You need me," Sephiroth said almost pleased. "You need my blood. But what can you do, you cannot bring me back." He added his eyes shining brightly.
He was right in front of her and she was sitting on the bed when she suddenly grabbed his arm forcefully.
"You're right. Your return would bring chaos back to the world. After you found out the truth about yourself, you became selfish. I tried to stay as far as possible from you because I knew I had no power to stop you. Nor the will. You are my mentor. I was created out of you," she said and looked straight into his cat-like eyes. Sephiroth was surprised because her eyes were filled with the blue streams of mako. Her grip on him tightened and he felt blue electricity bind them together. "I need you, I don't want to die. So, Sephiroth, you will return to save me."
"How foolish," he said with a smirk but the energy crawled from her hand into his whole body. "What are you doing Eloise?"
"Making sure you won't be able to destroy anything." She said and life stream tentacles wrapped around Sephiroth, pulling him away.
Eloise remained staring ahead, but she could feel it. The wolf. The voice of the life stream.
"Am I making a mistake?"
But the wolf didn't answer, he only looked at her knowingly.
As soon as Genesis brought Eloise into the lab, everyone was chaotic. The cells were too many, her body was breaking and her organs were failing. No matter what they tried, nothing worked.
"What do we do?" Reno asked scared out of his mind
"Se...Se-phiroth," Eloise barely muttered. "Sephi-roth," she repeated making everyone worry.
Genesis was outside when he heard a noise down the hall. He turned towards it and saw him walking. It was easy for him to fight but Genesis could sense it was different this time, more controlled. The two met eyes and they both knew what must be done.
Reno was ready to start crying when he saw a tall man enter the room with so much calm. Reno couldn't believe his eyes.
"No...you're dead,"
Sephiroth narrowed his eyes at the Turk and smirked. His eyes then moved on Eloise and for a second he did feel guilt.
"Take my blood. It's the only way." He said. Those words barely came out when Eloise went into another fit.
"Come with me," the doctor said, ready to take every last drop out of his body.
When Cloud and the rest arrived, Eloise was better, her condition improving every second. But next to her, sitting leisurely on the couch was none other than the man who messed with Cloud's mind, with time, with worlds, the man who killed Aerith and almost killed the world.
It was a normal reaction for Cloud to take out his sword.
"No, no! We can't fight in here! It's a neutral zone!" Reno interfered quickly. "I know how it looks, man. But he saved Eloise."
"Who brought him here? How?" Tifa asked confused and worried.
"She did." He replied with a nod towards Eloise. "My little sister," he added knowing it would annoy them because, at the core, Eloise was Sephiroth's family now.
Eloise was a lot better in a matter of days but she was still intubated. Sephiroth didn't leave the room, he paced around, he looked out the window at the city, and couldn't help but glance at her from time to time. The world...seemed to be thriving which was disappointing.
"Are you thinking of destroying the world again?" Genesis asked walking in. Sephiroth chuckled and took a long look at the redhead.
"Where's the book?"
Genesis laughed and sat on the couch that Reno brought in.
"I know it by heart, want me to recite some verses?" He asked playfully.
"Where have you been, Genesis?" Sephiroth asked sitting next to his friend. "I tried to reach you before,"
"Did you think about me while trying to kill the planet? My, you're making me blush," Genesis said covering one of his cheeks. "I wasn't...dead, but I wasn't alive either. I remember after Banora they took me into another facility and I thought I would either be killed or put aside, like a lab rat. When I woke up, I knew something must have happened because my connection to the life stream was more intense."
Sephiroth nodded, understanding that probably his actions did affect Genesis as well in one way or another.
"You messed up really badly," Genesis said leaning back and getting comfortable. "Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if we were just normal soldiers. We would look our ages, have stable jobs, families...be alive and happy." Genesis said looking at Eloise with a sort of melancholy.
"Why did you leave her behind?"
"Because I was dying. I thought there would be no safer place than with you. The greatest hero Sephiroth." Genesis said with a tinge of irony but that jealousy long has passed. "Why did you?"
"I didn't. I wanted her to fight alongside me, I wanted her to grow stronger and realize that we have been disappointed by the world and that people do nothing but destroy the planet every single time. But she ran and hid."
"She gave up," Genesis said remembering the sadness in her eyes. "She gave up on life, on me, you...she probably did want to die."
Both men sighed as they watched the woman who had done nothing bad and yet still became collateral damage in their endeavours.
"She doesn't want to die now otherwise she wouldn't have forced the life stream to return me," Sephiroth suddenly said making Genesis curious.
"How much mako is in her body to have such power over the life stream?"
Sephiroth knew the answer. From the beginning Eloise's body could not accept mako, it was too fragile for so much energy and to grow her immune system, they injected her with a low level of Jenova cells. But then, her body reacted so well that the cells started to multiply. The more mako, the stronger the multiplication which required more mako to keep up, none could survive without the other. The only way the cells would stabilize was with blood from the original Jenova child. And so...it was a deadly cycle.
"At this point, she's probably already part of the life stream. She spoke of a wolf, remember? It must have been the life stream itself," Sephiroth explained, "That electricity that runs through her blood is probably the life stream as well. She can use strings of it as a weapon."
"You describe her as if she is an anomaly,"
"She is." Sephiroth said crossing his arms in front of his chest.
"Then what are we? Monsters?"
Sephiroth didn't answer but it was obvious what they were. Anomalies was too small of a word.
"Failures," Sephiroth mumbled to himself.
A whole week passed when Eloise finally opened her eyes and could speak and move a little. Her body took great damage and she could still not walk properly. But it was an interesting sight, sitting there with Sephiroth on her right side, looking like he was napping.
"I'm surprised they didn't throw you in a cell," she muttered knowing that he wasn't truly sleeping. "I thought Cloud would try and kill you again,"
"He wanted to," Sephiroth replied calmly. "But you need my blood and I must be alive."
"You're not quite alive," Eloise replied.
"Then what am I?" He asked opening his eyes. Eloise almost forgot how it felt being around him. It was nostalgic, being on a hospital bed with her mentor watching over her.
"You do not have your full power. You can still fight but you cannot hurt anyone, there are heavy chains around you. If you try, you get hurt. Even if Cloud tried to kill you, you wouldn't be able to hurt him." She explained knowing it was the only way to bring him back.
"I recognize this was a surprise."
"You wanted to return anyway."
"Not so soon. I wanted to return in full power," he said, "Your body would have created the best shell for me,"
Eloise frowned as she realized what he implied.
"Through my child? That was your plan? I can't even have a child! And I don't even have a lov- no, were you expecting me and Genesis to have a child?" She asked starting to laugh.
"You can. The excess of cells would also stabilize if you would have a child. Besides, you wouldn't have allowed anyone to hurt me," he said with a chuckle which only baffled Eloise.
"You sound too proud of a plan that is beneath you," she said almost scolding him. "Why would you be so sure that me and Genesis would even meet? Or get together?" She asked but Sephiroth looked at her knowingly. Eloise couldn't help but blush.
"I know you, Eloise." He said with such assurance that it reminded her why she ran and hid from him and the world. He did know her. He taught her everything she knew about fighting.