The End is the beginning
Chapter 7 - Rebirth
The last rays of the sun touched the horizon beyond the ocean as Vincent descended from the helicopter that ha dbrought him to Junon. Once under the oppressive rule of Shinra, the city now seemed to be flourishing under the leadership of the WRO, the World Regenesis Organization.
Following the meteor's fall on Midgar, the once-powerful Shinra company had experienced a rapid decline, much to the joy of the planet's inhabitants. Reeve Tuesti, the former Director of Urban Development for Shinra, had founded the WRO and embarked on a remarkable renovation of the coastal city. The lower Junon beach had been purified ; partially demolished platforms now allowed sunlight to bathe this part of the city ; newly planted trees thrived in the streets, and the residents exchanged joyful greetings. Life was resuming its course after years of terror under Shinra's ruthless dictatorship.
Two days earlier, at dawn, the ex-TURK had received an urgent call from Reeve, urging him to come to Junon immediately. His former AVALANCHE companion had provided no real explanation during the call, simply stating :
"I can't tell you more over the phone. Please, hurry to Junon. I'm waiting for you."
Then he had hung up, leaving Vincent with numerous questions.
Vincent had informed Sélène of his departure, explaining that a friend needed his help and that he couldn't stay longer. Seeing Adonis's angelic face, streaked with tears, he had promised to return as soon as possible. Since the revelations of the journal a few weeks earlier, he hadn't found the courage to explain the truth to his new friend, let alone his grandson.
As soon as he boarded the aircraft, he had already missed the child's presence and had vowed to reveal everything to them upon his return.
Consequently, he was heading towards the WRO headquarters, formerly those of Shinra, when he saw the small cat perched on its giant mog rushing towards him :
"I... I'm really sorry, Vincent," it apologized once it reached him. "Reeve sent me to fetch you at the dock, but I left too late!"
"Don't worry about it, Cait, it's fine," reassured the dark-haired man.
"I suppose you're wondering why he called you here?"
"Yes, I am curious," he replied.
"Come, follow me!"
The stuffed toy turned, and Vincent followed in silence. Together, they crossed the threshold of the new WRO Headquarters and navigated several corridors. They took a first elevator to the 17th floor, then a second to the 25th, and finally accessed the 33rd floor using a third and final elevator.
"This part of the building is strictly private," explained the mechanical feline as it inserted its pass into the control machine. "We're almost there."
They continued through a few more hallways and stopped in front of one of the doors. Cait Sith invited Vincent to enter:
"Reeve will be here in a moment."
"His office?" asked Vincent.
"Yes."
"Rather modest for a director's office," judged the ex-TURK.
"Make yourself comfortable, I'll fetch him," declared the robot as it left.
Although the room was spacious, Reeve's office was not extravagant—nothing marked it as the office of the president of a major company. "Simple and functional" were the words that came to mind to describe it.
Vincent remained perplexed by the mystery. Why had his friend called him here, and why hadn't he said anything over the phone?
"Hello, Vincent! Sorry to keep you waiting!" Reeve apologized as he entered suddenly.
After a warm handshake, the young president invited Vincent to sit down.
"Reeve, what's so urgent?" Vincent asked.
His old friend sighed before responding, "I don't even know where to begin."
"Start at the beginning," suggested the pragmatic ex-TURK.
Reeve took a deep breath and began, "Some time ago, I sent troops to various villages in the Northern Hemisphere to assess the damage caused by the meteor. Icicle Lodge was no exception. The team leader contacted me a few days after their arrival, saying the town was intact but that a villager had found a man in the crater and brought him back to the village..."
"A villager ventured into the crater?" Vincent repeated, surprised.
"Yes. Do you remember the old man who lives in the chalet at the foot of the mountains?"
"Of course."
"Well, it was him. He's an experienced mountaineer, as we've seen. Anyway, when the team leader described the man they found..." Reeve hesitated, unsure how Vincent would react to the news.
"Who did they find?" Vincent asked, his heart beginning to race.
"Sephiroth," his friend finally admitted.
Vincent stammered, staring Reeve in the eye. "You're... sure?"
"Yes. At first, I didn't believe it either, but when we brought him here, there was no doubt."
The ex-TURK stood abruptly and paced the room, listening as his friend continued.
"He's still unconscious. The scientist attending to him isn't sure if he'll ever regain consciousness. But physically... he's fine."
"Fine!?" Vincent exclaimed. "We nearly killed him, and you're telling me he's fine!"
Reeve replied calmly, "Look, it's as surprising to me as it is to you. I can't explain it, but those are the facts. Maybe... I don't know, maybe he managed to use a last healing spell before losing consciousness."
Vincent stopped in front of the large window behind the desk. His metal claws made a slight scratching sound as they touched the glass.
"It could always be Jenova," he said gravely.
"I know. I hesitated for a long time about what to do," Reeve admitted.
"Why did you call me? And not the others?"
The businessman turned his chair to face his frozen friend just behind him.
"Vincent, there's something I need to tell you. I don't know how to say this..." Reeve suddenly seemed very uncomfortable. He searched for words while scratching his beard.
"When I learned that Sephiroth was alive, I wanted to look at his file, the infamous 'S Project' as Hojo called it. I contacted Tseng. Even though he remains loyal to Rufus, he's always been quite honorable and a good friend of mine. He let me access everything Hojo had on Sephiroth. With the help of my scientific department head here at the WRO, a former AVALANCHE member, we reviewed all his files, all his experiment records, both official and illegal, and..."
Vincent knew perfectly well where his comrade was going with this. Nonetheless, he let him continue without interrupting.
"Hojo... Hojo had conducted a blood test and genetic tests on him at birth... and he discovered that... Listen, I know this will be hard for you to hear, but... he realized that... that..."
Vincent finished the sentence for him. "That I'm his father."
Reeve seemed relieved that his friend already knew the truth. "You knew?"
"Let's say... Lucrecia clarified my doubts recently. It was written in the diary she left at the Nibelheim Mansion, which I came across quite by chance," he acknowledged.
Eyes fixed on the horizon through the window, Vincent continued to listen to his friend.
"At first, I honestly intended to inform Cloud and the others. But when I found out you... that he was your son, I changed my mind. Cloud would have wanted to eliminate him once and for all."
"And you?" Vincent interrupted. "Why didn't you order your men to kill him when you found out he was still alive?"
"We don't know if it's the creature, Jenova, or Sephiroth himself. You know, before the incident at Nibelheim, he was a relatively 'normal' person. I mean, I didn't know him well back then. But I know his reputation as a hero was well-deserved. And maybe I'm a traitor and a spy, but I have my convictions and a certain sense of honor that prevents me from killing a man who is unconscious and can't defend himself... even if he's the most dangerous man on the planet," he finished.
After a few seconds of heavy silence, the TURK turned around and calmly asked, "Can I see him?"
"Of course. Follow me."
Reeve guided Vincent to the scientific section of the building, located on the top floor. They entered a large medical ward with a small enclosed room at its center. Large, supposedly unbreakable windows allowed observation of the patients held in this part of the ward. Currently, it was Sephiroth. A few scientists greeted the president, and one of them approached:
"President Tuesti, good to see you. There have been some developments..."
"Vincent, allow me to introduce you to the head of this department: Professor Berny."
The name immediately caught Vincent's attention. The world was indeed very small! This was the AVALANCHE spy who had once assisted Hojo, the one who had helped Selene's daughter infiltrate SOLDIER and had informed him of her pregnancy.
"Berny, this is Vincent Valentine."
"Hello, nice to meet you," the scientist greeted politely.
Vincent shook his hand courteously and offered a brief smile.
"He's in charge of monitoring Sephiroth," Reeve explained. "You mentioned developments?"
"Yes," the professor confirmed. "According to some tests, I've detected brain activity in the temporal lobe. It responded to a particular stimulus, the nature of which I don't know. Since then, his brain cells seem to accept and react to external stimuli, but not all of them. Physical stimuli provoke no reaction; it's mainly auditory stimuli..."
"Berny," the businessman interrupted.
"Yes, sir?"
"I didn't understand a word you said..."
The scientist nearly fell over at such frankness. Attempting to simplify, he tried again:
"Ah... Well, to simplify, it seems his mind is again aware of certain elements around him, like noise, for example. However, he doesn't react to touch, at least not in a verifiable way on the machines."
"You mean he's conscious, right?"
"In a way, yes, partially."
"What do you mean, partially?"
"Well, only the cells in his temporal lobe are reacting, meaning he is conscious, but not physically. Do you understand?"
"No..."
"Ah... Well, to make it even simpler..."
Vincent turned his attention away from the conversation. He understood the situation. The scientific knowledge Lucrecia had imparted to him wasn't completely erased from his memory. The young man's mind was reacting to something, but it wasn't clear what, probably noise...
Cautiously, he approached the windows of the room where Sephiroth lay. On a small hospital bed, various monitors tracked his heart rate, brain activity, and hormone levels. Multiple IVs ensured his medical treatment.
"Reeve?" Vincent called.
Still deep in animated discussion, Reeve didn't hear him and continued his debate with Berny:
"But is he conscious or not?" he asked.
"Yes and no!" the scientist replied.
"But how can he be and not be?"
"I've already explained this three times, sir!" replied the head, whose patience was wearing thin.
"Reeve?" Vincent tried again.
"Yes, but I don't understand a word of what you're saying each time!" the director replied, exasperated and still not listening.
"His mind is partially conscious!"
"But what do you mean by 'partially'?"
"Reeve?"
"His neurons don't react to all stimuli."
"But what is a stimulus!"
"REEVE!"
The imperious tone finally brought the two men out of their debate.
"Huh?" his friend finally turned.
"Uh..."
"Oh, sorry Vincent! I suppose you want to go see him, right?" the young president offered.
The TURK nodded silently.
"Very well. But be careful. At the slightest change in the monitors, you come out, understood?"
"Understood..."
"Berny, let him in. And make sure he has a keycard for access to the room."
The scientist nodded, pulled a card from his pocket, and opened the sliding door to the ward where Sephiroth lay.
Vincent entered and cautiously approached the warrior. Seeing no change in the monitors' rhythms, he grabbed a small rolling stool and sat next to the young man. Only the regular "beep! beep!" of the machines disrupted the oppressive silence in this part of the lab.
Here, the ex-TURK could take the time to observe the former SOLDIER. Until now, he had never truly had the opportunity to do so. Their encounters had been rare, and the confrontations with Cloud and his team had always been brief, too short to detail his physical appearance. Perhaps during that final battle at the bottom of the crater, but his body had been so altered by Jenova's modifications that it was hard to discern his true appearance.
Lucrecia would have been proud, Vincent thought: her son was truly breathtakingly beautiful. "Their son," he corrected himself. In his features, he could easily discern the aristocratic nobility inherited from his mother, mixed with certain similarities to his own face.
Was this the reason for Hojo's relentless hatred towards the TURK at that time? Jealousy? After all, he had known from the start that he wasn't the child's father. Was that why he hadn't hesitated to shoot him, to torment him, experiment after experiment? To use Sephiroth as a guinea pig? To dispose of his real father, to sideline his mother to the point of driving her to despair? Then to use him throughout his life? What had he subjected him to all these years? How had he raised him? These thoughts made Vincent shiver, and he realized that the suffering his son had endured was a true source of mental torture for him.
Despite the tragic fate that had befallen him, Sephiroth was alive. But what would become of him? Would he ever wake up? Or remain unconscious? And was it really him, and not Jenova?
Recalling the scientist's words about reactions to potential stimuli, Vincent whispered, almost desperately, "Sephiroth, wake up. I swear you will never be afraid again. I swear you will never be alone... my son..."
Not a single eyelid flutter, not a single finger twitched on the beautiful sleeper's body. Before leaving the room, Vincent cast a final glance at the bed, praying for a miracle…
Upon returning to the laboratory, Vincent found Reeve still waiting for him.
"You did confirm that you found all of Hojo's files on him, right?" inquired the former TURK.
Reeve, a bit perplexed about his friend's intentions, replied, "Yes, of course. But why do you want to look at them?"
"There are things I want to understand," Vincent responded.
Reeve hesitated before cautioning him, "I'm not sure that's a good idea."
"Why not?" Vincent asked.
"Well, you see..." Reeve, the former urban development head of Shinra, had a peculiar habit of rubbing his chin when uncomfortable, a habit Vincent had noticed. "The reports Hojo wrote... they show he didn't consider people as humans, but rather as lab animals, as rats. His reports make that very clear."
"I know how Hojo viewed his fellow men; I knew him better than anyone here. You seem to forget that," Vincent said, alluding to his past and the various treatments he had endured under the not-so-regretted deceased director of Shinra's science department.
His friend sighed, "You won't give up, will you?"
"No."
"Why do you want to read those reports?" Reeve pressed. "It will only increase your guilt, Vincent, and it's pointless. What's done is done; the past can't be changed."
"Thank you for worrying, Reeve, but I need to understand. I can't help him if I don't know what he went through... even though I have an idea."
"Alright, follow me," Reeve conceded at last.
The young director led his comrade down two floors to a spacious room filled with tens of thousands of meticulously organized shelves. Each shelf contained a variety of archives, files, reports, and documents. Reeve pulled out three large boxes from the section marked "S."
"Here you go, Vincent. This is everything I gathered from Shinra's offices about Sephiroth. Three-quarters were written by Hojo himself. There are also video recordings. But I sincerely advise against watching them. Vincent, I know I'm being a nuisance, but..."
Vincent cut him off with a grateful smile, touched by his friend's sincere concern. "Thank you for your concern, Reeve, truly. But I must know."
"Alright," Reeve resigned. "I'll help you carry these to an unused office near mine. You can use it as you see fit. It's also equipped with a multimedia device."
A few hours later, after reviewing numerous analytical reports, Vincent finally inserted the first disc into the video player :
"Everything is ready, Professor. The subject is in place."
A woman, clad in the emblematic white lab coat, stepped out of the camera's view, revealing the "subject" prepared for a new experiment, the brainchild of her mentor. The camera, placed several meters above, likely on the control room ledge, was about to witness a scene more akin to torture than scientific experimentation, two concepts so often conflated.
"Very well, let us begin. Activate the mechanism!" Vincent recognized the detested voice of the mad scientist.
"Yes, Professor."
"Experiment EXO78A17-167J. Time: 9:07 A.M."
"The substances are ready to be injected, Professor..."
"Perfect. Proceed."
Suddenly, a dull machine noise echoed. On screen, the subject lay on an operating table, shirtless. Thick leather straps tightly secured his wrists, ankles, torso, and arms. An IV ran through his forearm, connected to several bags of oddly colored liquids. Fully conscious, his vacant gaze masked the anxiety etched on his features. According to the date, he was only twelve.
Gradually, a fluorescent green liquid seeped into his veins, spreading throughout his body, into every organ. Soon, a second reddish liquid joined the mix, then a third...
The subject's breathing became increasingly erratic. He clenched his fists convulsively, his features contorted with the pain inflicted by the injections. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead, his breathing grew labored, and he bit his lower lip to stifle a scream.
"Increase the flow rate," Hojo's nasal voice ordered.
"But Professor..."
A brief silence, then, "Yes, Professor," the individual resignedly articulated.
Moments later, another voice, tinged with concern, spoke, "Professor, don't you fear killing him? Such a dose of poisons would have already killed a normal human..."
"I want to see how far he can go," Hojo replied, devoid of empathy.
An involuntary groan escaped the child's lips as he began to struggle. His breathing grew more labored, his heart pounded frenetically, threatening to burst from his chest. A bloodstream saturated with the planet's worst substances coursed through his nervous system, intensifying his suffering.
"Endure the pain, Sephiroth," the scientist intervened. "You haven't reached your limits yet. The more you resist, the stronger you will become! Eh! Eh! Eh!"
The maniacal laugh echoed cruelly. The boy struggled harder. Never before had it hurt so much.
Soon, the straps started cutting into his flesh. One of them, on his left wrist, snapped suddenly. A first scream echoed in the laboratory:
"AAaaaaaAAaAAAAAaaaAAhhhHHHHh!"
One of the scientists bellowed, "Professor! The monitors are going haywire!"
"His heart rate won't last more than a few minutes if we continue!"
"Professor!"
A few seconds passed before Hojo's voice commanded, "Stop the machines."
"Yes, Professor."
"Perfect..."
Hojo's tone suggested the malevolent grin twisting his face at that moment.
The flow of injections slowed gradually. Sephiroth was covered in sweat. Exhausted, his gaze seemed lost in the void. Suddenly, his eyes rolled back. He passed out, lying lifeless on the lab table, his wrists, ankles, arms, and torso bloodied.
"Experiment EXO78A17-167J successful," Hojo concluded.
The screen went black.
A new sequence began. The video indicated 11:03, barely two hours after the previous experiment.
The scene took place in one of the tower's lab cells, fitted as a room devoid of any comfort. A single bed occupied a corner, accompanied by a small desk, a wardrobe, and a katana rack. Nothing here could offer any solace. The boy had grown up in this cold, impersonal environment. Raised to be the ultimate weapon of a destructive corporation, he had received no attention or affection.
The teenager entered the room. He removed his trench coat, then his blood-stained tunic. His movements were clumsy; he trembled on his legs. Suddenly, he collapsed to the floor. With great difficulty, he tried to get up, groaning, and painfully made his way to an adjoining room, probably the bathroom. A few minutes later, he reappeared, even paler and more exhausted. On his knees, holding his head, he groaned again before collapsing with a final gasp, unconscious.
Vincent, overwhelmed and deeply shaken, pressed the stop button on the video system with a trembling hand. More than six hours had passed since he locked himself in the office, immersing himself in videos, reading reports, and studying the files on specimen J001S, as Hojo had affectionately named him.
Frustration... Anger... Pain... Humiliation... Madness... Anxiety... Solitude...
Several times, the TURK had to stop. Now, he knew. And it was worse than anything he had imagined. The experiments were all more painful and humiliating than the last. The first dated back to Sephiroth's four years, after Professor Gast's departure. How could he not have gone mad? Most humans would have taken their own lives after enduring such treatments. Due to his corrupted genes, even this ultimate option had been denied to him.
Vincent stood up, grabbed several files, threw them into the stainless steel office trash can, and cast a small fire spell. The flames consumed the past. He did the same with all the files and video recordings.
Suddenly, someone knocked on the door.
"Come in," he called.
Reeve entered the room, "Are you alright, Vincent? You've been here for hours, and..."
"You didn't install any fire detectors here, did you?" Vincent asked, indicating the flames spreading over the paper.
"No, not here. Apparently, I made the right call..."
"I thought it was cold..."
Reeve approached his friend and placed a compassionate hand on his shoulder. From Vincent's pale face, he could easily discern the deep torment the files had plunged him into. Though he himself had no children, he could imagine the emotional state such revelations about the tortures and treatments inflicted on one's own son could provoke.
"I'm not sure it's that simple to erase one's past, in case he wakes up," Reeve said, pointing to the burning documents.
"I know..."
The director scratched his chin again. Vincent looked up at him wearily. What was he going to announce now?
"Vincent, there's one last thing you need to know," he added. "My scientific advisor, the one you met, Berny... Well, as I mentioned, he had been working for Shinra for several years. In reality, he was a member of AVALANCHE. The news surprised me, but let's move on. When we were reviewing the files on Sephiroth, he told me something interesting: before the incident in Nibelheim, a young woman, also a member of AVALANCHE, infiltrated SOLDIER under a different identity. Her mission was to obtain the reactor plans, and Berny was one of her collaborators. According to him, Sephiroth and she were involved. And apparently... they had a child. According to his information, the mother died in childbirth, but the child survived. His grandmother supposedly became his guardian, but Berny lost track of them a few months ago, after the meteor fall..."
Vincent didn't seem to react. He was staring distractedly at the remaining embers in the small trash can, the last traces of an indelible past.
"Vincent, are you listening to me?" exclaimed Reeve. "Sephiroth had a child!"
"I know..."
"How... How do you know?"
"I know, Reeve," repeated the TURK.
"But... Explain yourself! "
"I met them some time ago. They live in Nibelheim, in the old manor."
"And... the child?" pressed Reeve.
Vincent paused briefly before responding:
"His name is Adonis. Aside from his appearance, which he clearly inherited from his father, he's a completely normal child."
"So you already knew all of this. That's typical! I'm always a step behind! It's exhausting!" grumbled Reeve, in a tone that made Vincent smile.
"Do they know what Sephiroth did?" Reeve continued more seriously.
"No, how could they know anything? To the grandmother, he died five years ago in the Nibelheim reactor explosion. And the boy barely knows who his father is."
"Did she hide it from him?"
"Without hiding it, let's say she avoids talking about it. His mother knew it was better for Hojo to learn nothing. She told her own mother before she died. The latter then arranged to keep the boy safe. And that safety partly came through ignorance..."
"Do you think Sephiroth knew he was going to have a child?"
"From what the girl's mother could understand, yes, he knew perfectly well. But he didn't want him, which is why they broke up shortly before his death..."
Reeve pondered for a moment before declaring:
"If he wakes up from his coma, and if it really is him, maybe he will change his mind about the child..."
"Maybe. If he regains consciousness..."
"Sephiroth, wake up. I swear you'll never be afraid again. I swear you'll never be alone again... my son..."
The distant echo of this soothing voice reached him even here. But where was this "here"? Everything was blurry, as if his senses were numb, plunging his mind into a mysterious fog. The voice seemed like a warm light in this darkness, a beacon in the unknown trying to guide him towards clarity.
"Sephiroth..."
Another voice, a male one, he recognized without difficulty.
"Sephiroth!"
"Angeal?"
"It's time, Sephiroth..."
"It's time? For what?"
"To go back..."
"I don't want to..."
"Don't you want to know whose voice you heard?"
"I don't..."
"It's time. You have to go back. Your place isn't here yet. And she's counting on you to take care of him..."
"She? Him?"
"Don't worry. You'll understand once you're there..." assured Angeal, leaving the future shrouded in mystery.
The office door suddenly burst open, slamming against the wall, revealing one of the scientists.
"Sir, he's regained consciousness!" he exclaimed, breathless from his run down the corridors.
Vincent and Reeve exchanged a look before rushing hastily towards the laboratory...
End of Chapter