Final Fantasy VII

Mesmerized

By Lucky_Ladybug

Notes: The characters are not mine and the story is! This takes place in my Twilight and Dawn verse, right after Where You Are Is Home. They're on Earth, Sephiroth is sane, and he and Cloud are very close.

It was always strange and surreal, to rouse up hearing a strong motor where there should not be a motor. Sephiroth stirred, blinking sleepy eyes to the world as he woke up laying on the couch in the living room. The motor was still just as strong, but as he focused, he realized the source of it.

Lucy the Eevee was curled in a loaf on his chest, purring away.

He reached out, smiling as he petted her. She leaned into his hand and nuzzled it happily.

It never failed to amaze him that anyone could even want to be around him after all he had done, even an innocent animal. Pokemon had human intelligence and Lucy knew and understood how far he had fallen, yet she had never wavered in wanting to be with him.

How was he so blessed?

"Hey Seph!"

He looked up as Zack entered the room. Lucy chirped a greeting.

"Hello," Sephiroth greeted. He pushed himself up a little more on the couch cushions. "How do people seem to be reacting to our press conference?" As promotions director, Zack was always on top of that sort of information. Even though now he co-owned the company with Sephiroth and Cloud, he still wanted to keep that position and Sephiroth had been willing to see how he would handle it along with his other responsibilities. Really, Sephiroth couldn't imagine anyone else filling the position. Zack was full of imagination and had plenty of good ideas for promoting the company.

Zack grinned and sat on a nearby chair, opening a folder. "Stocks are up! They've been down ever since you were gone, Seph, but now they're shooting up again! And there's been some really cool articles about the press conference!" He handed a printout of one of them to Seph and he sat up more to read it, supporting Lucy at the same time.

"Heh. This one's talking about how I've finally admitted to our identities," he remarked. "Not that Cloud didn't already do that."

Zack nodded eagerly. "People are dying to ask more questions about it! The company phones are ringing off the hook!"

"Yes, I suspected they would be." Sephiroth finished looking over the article. "What about the supercomputer's search? Do you know if it's found anything?"

Zack sighed at that. "It found several possible matches, but I looked them over and none of them are right," he said. "I can't figure out where my parents and Aerith's mom are!"

Sephiroth shook his head tiredly. "I'm sorry I inadvertently dragged them into this. I never planned on any of this at all."

"Well . . . Aerith's still optimistic!" Zack told him. "She's sure they're okay and that this'll be a good thing. . . . Once we track them down."

They didn't seem to have a good track record for that, but Sephiroth didn't want to say that. Instead he said, "When we do . . . do you think your parents will accept me?"

"Of course they will!" Zack assured him. "They've always been really accepting of people, even though some others in the village weren't."

". . . How do you mean?" Sephiroth asked.

Zack sighed. "Well, you know how the area's full of monsters that use Frog and stuff," he said. "Some of the people in town, like the village elders, are really sick of it and are always preaching that anything 'unnatural' is wrong." He looked down. "I used to really listen to one of them a lot. My parents tried to tell me that isn't true and that there's beauty in everything. I didn't really listen to them. Good thing Cissnei convinced me later."

"I see," Sephiroth said quietly.

"Anyway, so what I mean is, my parents will be totally cool with your wings and stuff," Zack said. He looked regretful. "I used to think wings on people was just messed-up. But back then, I only had Genesis and his clones as models for that. By the time you trusted me with your secret, Seph, I felt different."

Sephiroth finally smiled. "I'm glad."

Zack leaned back with a sigh. "I'm more worried how they'll think about me," he said. "I mean, I ran away at 13 to join SOLDIER and just left them a note! Never went back or anything!" He grimaced. "I know I was always really impulsive back then, but that's the mother lode! Can't believe I did that. They must have been worried sick for years!"

Sephiroth frowned, pondering. He admittedly had never understood why anyone would give up the normal life he had longed for to join the military. But Shinra had been very persuasive in their recruitment campaigns, and of course, they had used him for the bulk of those. He was likely responsible for Zack deciding to do such an impulsive thing.

"At least you feel differently now," he said at last. "And I'm sure they'll just be overjoyed that you're safe."

"Yeah. . . ." Zack sighed and slumped back in the chair. "I just feel awful for all I've put them through, you know?"

"Yes," Sephiroth said wholeheartedly, understanding and then some. "I know."

Zack stretched. "And it's good we all checked out clean for eye implants and stuff! Dalton's not learning things from any of us!"

"At least not in that way," Sephiroth frowned.

Zack froze. "You really think he's learning in some other way, Seph?" Worry flickered in his eyes.

"I don't know," Sephiroth sighed. "I want to believe it's just Gunju spying, but I feel uneasy to dismiss it as just that."

"Eevee," Lucy said in concern.

Zack reached over to pet her. "But none of us would help Dalton on purpose," he said.

"No, I can't think so either," Sephiroth said. "But there's other ways it could happen against someone's will, such as mind-control."

Zack shuddered. That was a sore spot for Cloud, understandably, as well as for Seph himself. But Seph still wouldn't shy away from mentioning it if it was at all a possibility.

"I didn't think Dalton's crew had access to that kind of thing," Zack frowned. "Unless Gunju outright possesses them."

That was something Sephiroth didn't want to mention around Cloud either. Cloud never spoke of it, but he was no doubt still pierced from when Gunju had done that to him and had made him treat all of them abominably.

"I'm positive that hasn't been done again," Sephiroth said. "No one is behaving abnormally."

"So what could it be then?!" Zack worried.

Sephiroth massaged his forehead. "There's hypnosis," he suggested.

"Wha - ?! But . . . you're not supposed to be able to hypnotize someone to do something they wouldn't ever do, right?!" Zack exclaimed.

Sephiroth sighed. "The problem with that is that there's almost always a loophole to trick someone into believing the situation is something other than what it is, something that would make them do what you want."

Zack tried to work that out in his mind. ". . . You mean like someone could hypnotize me into robbing a store if they said it was a crook's hideout and I was taking back a valuable artifact they stole or something?"

"Yes, exactly," Sephiroth said. "Or worse. In this case, Dalton might be able to hypnotize someone to tell him what's going on here if he convinced them they were talking to someone else." He leaned back with a sad sigh.

". . . And you've got a theory, don't you, Seph?" Zack's stomach knotted. He wasn't going to like whatever it was. Somehow he just knew it.

"I do." Sephiroth hesitated, then sat up straight and turned to fully face Zack. "The first time this happened, as I recall, was after my fight with Kefka. It wasn't reported on the news, yet somehow Dalton knew about it and messaged me to ask if I was alright.

"Angeal was the only one of us who wasn't home when that fight happened. He was out looking for Genesis. What if Dalton caught him and hypnotized him to spy on us and inform Dalton what was happening by telling him he'd be calling Genesis?"

Zack stared at him in horror, the color draining from his face. "No! It can't be that! It's too cruel!"

"Dalton's more than capable of such cruelty," Sephiroth said. "And I'd rather believe this than thinking that anyone is spying fully of their own free will." He sighed wearily. "But I don't have proof, and I hate to confront Angeal with this without any."

"So how are you gonna get proof?" Zack asked.

"The only way I can think of is to check everyone's phones and see what numbers they've called," Sephiroth said, "then match the unknown numbers to see if any are Dalton's. But that might not work either; part of the hypnosis may be to erase the record of the calls."

"The phone company would still have the records, though, right?" Zack said.

Sephiroth smiled a bit at Zack's logical thinking. "Yes, they should. And for anyone on our family plan, the records would be easy to obtain."

Zack's shoulders slumped. "But Angeal isn't on that," he realized.

"No, he isn't," Sephiroth sighed. "He already had a phone when we found him, and he just kept that plan."

"Well . . ." Zack perked up again. "We'll just have to hope the record's still on the phone! I can look at Angeal's call history; it'll be easy! I'll tell him I wanna . . . try out his camera and take some pictures of him with the kitties for him to have or something!"

Sephiroth chuckled. "Yes, that would be perfectly in-character for you."

"I'll just round up a couple of the kitties or so and we'll go play detective and save Angeal!" Zack chirped. He was almost to the doorway into the hall when realization hit and he stopped. "Uh . . . what if I find something?"

"If you see any numbers you don't recognize, take a screenshot and send it to me," Sephiroth said. "Then try to remove the evidence of having done that."

Zack frowned a bit. "Should we really be sneaking around like this instead of just telling Angeal? I feel kinda crummy messing with his phone like that."

Sephiroth sighed. "If it isn't him, I don't want to worry him. But this isn't a definitive method of learning the truth anyway, since as I said, he could have deleted the call history himself. Or he could have called from a phone other than his own. If you don't find anything, we'll regroup and try to decide what to do next."

"Okay," Zack said slowly, but he still didn't look as enthused as before.

Sephiroth got up and went over to him, still holding Lucy. "Zack." He laid a hand on Zack's shoulder. "I don't like to keep things from Angeal or lie to him either. But remember how he couldn't handle having wings? It drove him insane. I'm . . . honestly worried how he might react if we tell him he may be a spy for Dalton. At least if we wait until we can prove it, then we can tell him and find a way to break the hypnotic suggestion on him."

". . . I guess you're right, Seph," Zack said, still frowning. "Okay, I'll go ahead with the plan like you laid it out. But I hope we're wrong about this." He headed off down the hall.

Sephiroth watched him go. "I wonder what our next move should be if we arewrong," he said to Lucy.

"Vee," said Lucy.

Angeal was in his home office when Zack appeared, holding two of Fluffy's children. "Hey, Angeal!" Zack chirped. "Let's do a photoshoot with these guys!"

Angeal looked up, quirking an eyebrow. "Right now? I still have a lot of papers to go over."

"It'll just take a few minutes!" Zack said, handing Angeal both cats. "Then you'll have some keepsake pictures for always! I'll just use your phone so you'll already have the pictures there!"

Angeal awkwardly tried to balance both cats, who promptly started climbing on him. "Why don't you use your own phone?" he countered.

"I just wanna see how your camera compares to mine so I know if I should get a phone like yours!" Zack said. He reached for the phone on Angeal's desk.

Angeal sighed and shook his head. "Alright. But make it quick; I really need to get this work done."

"You sound like Seph!" Zack said. He held up the phone, pretending to be readying it for taking a picture as he quickly scanned through the list of Angeal's recent calls. Seeing numbers he really didn't recognize, he surreptitiously snapped a picture and sent it on to Seph, as directed. Then he scrolled further down until he came to the numbers from the night of the fight with Kefka. Another quick snapshot and sending, followed by deleting the pictures and the record of them being sent.

"Zack!"

Zack snapped back to attention. One of the cats had climbed onto Angeal's head. "Oh, perfect shot!" he exclaimed. "Just hold that pose!" He opened the camera and snapped several pictures, followed by a short video as the cats continued to climb.

Angeal gave him a Look. "Don't you have enough yet?"

Zack pulled out his phone and loaded his Photos app, then compared the two devices' pictures for the sake of the show. "You know, I think mine really is the best," he said, and snapped another couple of pictures with his phone. "Okay, we're done now!" He shoved his phone in his pocket and put Angeal's on the desk and reached for the cats.

Angeal watched in exasperation, but an amused smile was tugging on his lips. He couldn't stay annoyed with Zack. "Go bother Cloud now or something," he said.

"Cloud has the same kind of phone as me," Zack said. "But yeah, we should go take pictures with him too! See you, Angeal!" And he hurried out.

Shaking his head in amusement, Angeal turned back to his work.

Sephiroth was looking at his phone by the time Zack returned to him. His frowning expression immediately worried Zack. "Seph?" he asked.

Sephiroth looked up, his eyes sad. "The number matches," he said. "It's the same number Dalton has been texting me from. Angeal has called that number every time something has happened to me, good or bad."

"Oh man." Zack's legs suddenly felt weak. "So what're we going to do, Seph?!"

Sephiroth felt as weary as Zack did, if not more. "Now we'll have to tell Angeal what we've discovered," he said. "We don't know why this is happening; hypnosis was just one guess."

"It has to be that!" Zack insisted. "Or mind-control or possession or something! Angeal would never tell Dalton stuff in his right mind!"

"I don't want to believe he would either," Sephiroth admitted. "I could imagine him calling up Dalton if something bad happens to demand to know if he had any part in it, at least, but if we know he didn't there'd be no reason to call him."

Nearby footsteps startled them both and they turned to see Cloud there, frowning in confused concern. "What are you guys talking about? It's not . . . me, is it?" Fear flashed through his eyes.

"No, it isn't," Sephiroth assured him. "It's Angeal. He's been calling Dalton off and on when things have happened to me and we can't figure out why."

"Angeal?!" Cloud came over closer. "What the heck? That's how Dalton knows to text you?!"

"Yes," Sephiroth said. "Now we need to tell Angeal what we've discovered. We're dreading it. I have no idea how he'll take it."

Cloud gripped his friends' shoulders. "I'll come with you," he said. "Let's talk to him together." He frowned. "How'd you find out anyway?"

"I looked at his phone," Zack said. "It's a long story. But he's been calling the number Dalton's been texting from!"

"Why would he keep that call history?" Cloud said in bewilderment. "The smart thing to do would be to delete it."

"Well, one theory I had is that he's being hypnotized and thinks he's calling someone else, perhaps Genesis," Sephiroth said. "He wouldn't want to delete the number if so, and you know Dalton has a very self-destructive habit of wanting us to know what he's up to. He's been bragging about having someone who's been telling him things. I could see him not giving Angeal a post-hypnotic suggestion to delete the number just because he's prideful enough to want that evidence on there, right under our noses. He would delight in our distress over this very situation, wondering what to do to help Angeal or even how to tell him at all."

Cloud grimaced. "The guy's sick. Okay, let's go find Angeal and talk to him."

"There's no need."

Everyone jumped. Angeal was standing and glowering at them from the hall, phone clutched in his hand.

"Angeal?!" Zack exclaimed.

Angeal held up his phone. "I thought something was funny when I found you hadn't taken any pictures until Bobby got on my head. But I never thought you'd be going through my phone right in front of me."

Sephiroth stepped forward. "It's my fault, Angeal. Zack didn't want to do it, but I put him up to it. We needed to look at your call history and I didn't want to worry you unless we actually found something."

"And did you?" Angeal frowned. "What are you even talking about? What do you think I've been keeping from you?"

Sephiroth held out his phone with the message thread from Dalton. "Zack found that you've been calling this number whenever something happens to me," he said. "It's Dalton's number. After he hears from you, he contacts me."

Angeal stared at the message thread and then quickly opened his phone, flipping to the list of recent calls. When he found the record of the matching number, he paled. "No. . . ."

"We knew you wouldn't be doing it on purpose, Angeal!" Zack said. "It's hypnosis or something! Now we've gotta figure out how to fix it!"

Angeal backed up, shaking his head. "There won't be a way to fix it," he said. "I must be degrading again and doing things without even knowing I'm doing them!"

"Angeal." Sephiroth stepped forward, grasping his friend's shoulders. "This is exactly the type of reaction I was afraid of and why I didn't want to tell you anything until we were sure you were Dalton's information source. You are not degrading! Most likely, this is something Dalton deliberately did to you. We have to find out what it is and make it stop."

Angeal gave him a skeptical look. "When could Dalton have even done anything to me?"

"I was thinking of when you weren't here right before the fight with Kefka," Sephiroth said. ". . . Or potentially, it could have even been before you left Fragmented Triangle at all."

"Yeah, that's right!" Cloud said. "Dalton only started texting recently, but he was finding out stuff even before that and he was emailing!"

Angeal held a hand to his forehead. This was overwhelming. "So what can we do?"

"I don't know," Sephiroth admitted with a sigh. "We need to find out if it could be hypnosis, but we'd need someone we trust to help us undo it if it is."

"And if it's not hypnosis, then what?" Angeal asked.

"Then it's something else, like Gunju possessing you!" Zack exclaimed. "Whatever it is, we're gonna find out what it is and stop it! Trust us, Angeal! Please! You've gotta let us help you this time!"

Angeal looked to him, staring into those pleading, caring eyes. When sane, he couldn't bear to do anything that would hurt Zack. Even now, Zack was still scarred by Modeoheim.

Finally Angeal nodded, subdued. "Alright," he said quietly. "I don't know how you're going to fix this, but I'll give you the chance to try."

"Thank you," Sephiroth said.

The ringing of the phone was insistent and even ominous in the dimly-lit office. Finally Dalton turned away from his typing and answered. "Hello?"

"What did you do to Angeal?" Sephiroth's voice was dark and dangerous, the outrage and fury clearly boiling under the surface. "And don't try to deny it was you. We have evidence."

Dalton sneered. "On the contrary, good sir; I won't deny it. I've been leading you to it all along. That doesn't mean, however, that I'll tell you what was done."

"You would only be this delighted about it if you were sure we wouldn't be able to fix it."

"It's possible you may. But then again, you may not." A pause. "And may I congratulate you on an excellent press conference? I believe it's been Jenova Corp's—ah, pardon me, Strife-Fair Innovations'—best press conference in some time. Although I was highly entertained by Mr. Strife's emotional breakdown at the conference prior to this one."

Sephiroth made a sound of derision. "You won't be so smug if I take you to court over what you've done to Angeal."

"I highly doubt your 'evidence' would hold up in court, good sir. But if you think you have a case, by all means, let's try it!"

"Watch your mail. You never know when a letter from our company's lawyer will come."

"And if I locate the real Promised Land before that, it's not likely to come at all." Dalton's voice was tinged with madness now. "I'm getting close, good sir."

"Cloud, Zack, and Aerith beat you to two of those fake Promised Lands," Sephiroth countered.

"Ah, but I beat them to two more," Dalton replied. "They weren't even aware we'd found more. It just wasn't any fun letting them know when you weren't here."

Sephiroth grunted in surprised displeasure.

Dalton smugly continued, "So altogether that's five, is it? There surely can't be many more. Once all the items are collected and assembled, they may point the way to the true Promised Land!"

"There's only one problem with that," Sephiroth said flatly. "We're not about to give up the items we've acquired."

"We'll see, good sir." Dalton laughed low. "When it comes right down to it, you may find it's your only choice."

"I find that highly unlikely," Sephiroth snapped.

"Perhaps," Dalton purred. "Perhaps not."

Sephiroth sounded disgusted now. "Goodbye." He hung up.

Smirking to himself, Dalton set his phone aside and leaned back in his chair, lacing his fingers on his chest as the glow from the computer monitor reflected off his glasses.

"Soon, good sir," he said low. "Our final showdown is coming. Will you be ready?"

The mad laugh echoed down the hall.