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Darkened Skies	By : Cynthia Category: Final Fantasy VII > AU - Alternate Universe Views: 949 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: Final Fantasy and all characters are the property of Square Enix. I do not profit from this fanfiction, it’s for entertainment purposes only.

Chapter List
- 6
- 7
- 8
"Darkened Skies"
Chapter Seven: Monsters
A Final Fantasy 7 AU fanfiction
~***********************************~

            Zack felt like the underside of his eyelids were made of sandpaper, when he awoke early the next morning. He'd suffered a night of restless sleep, full of nightmares. The alarm on his phone had been going off for a good five minutes by the time he roused from his uneasy slumber. He grimaced and rolled onto his side, reaching for the phone clumsily. He nearly knocked it off the bedside table and he squinted blearily at his wristwatch.
            "Shit. I'd better get out and start doing rounds."
            His position wasn't nearly as important as Reeve's or Sephiroth's, but he was acting as an officer of SOLDIER on this mission and his behavior reflected on that department. He rolled out of bed clumsily and stumbled to the washbowl. They had bathrooms in this building, but they were separate from the bedrooms and Zack frankly didn't have time to indulge in a real bath. He did the best he could with the washcloth and bowl and he changed back into his uniform. He did a round of squats as his morning exercise before leaving the room.
            "Hey," Zack called out to the female MP he found in the hallway, "has the General been out yet this morning?"
            She gave him a shy little smile. "Actually, yes. He left the Inn about an hour ago. He told us he was going to investigate that old condemned mansion at the edge of town and he said not to disturb him."
            Zack's brows drew down severely and he looked out the shuttered window nearby. The town below seemed peaceful. People were moving around on the streets, going about their daily business. Zack envied them.
            "Okay, I'm going to go and see if he needs any help with his investigation. You and the others just keep an eye on things and help Reeve if he needs it, okay?" He winked at her without a second thought and she blushed and saluted him.
            Zack opted to skip breakfast, even when Reeve saw him passing through the lobby and invited him to join him. He left the Inn and made his way across town to path leading up to the huge, abandoned mansion. He paused for a moment to size it up with his eyes, and a chill went down his spine. Zack wasn't a superstitious person, but the eerie atmosphere of the place was nothing to be denied. It was a sad, old ghost of a structure and everything about it appeared to be in mourning.
            Zack checked his sword and his materia bangle uneasily before walking up the path. He felt like something could reach up out of the ground to grasp at his ankles at any moment and he suppressed a shiver. The place could have made a great haunted house attraction and he wondered if the townsfolk ever did anything like that for tourists. The oaken double doors at the entryway were partway open, suggesting someone did pass through them recently. Zack pushed the right one open further as he walked through and he gritted his teeth as it squeaked on its hinges. He stepped into the foyer and looked up at a gigantic, crystal chandelier hanging overhead. It was covered in cobwebs and the morning light coming in through cracks in the boarded windows glittered dully off the crystals.
            Zack felt a sneeze coming on as his steps stirred dust from the moldy old carpet lining the entryway. He pinched his nose and waited for the urge to lessen before moving on. The fall of his boots echoed eerily off the cold, silent walls and the high, domed ceiling; no matter how quietly he tried to move. How anyone could have lived in such a huge building was beyond him. He could see it as a museum, or a place for rich people to throw balls—but he couldn't imagine anyone calling such a place "home".
            "Sephiroth?"
            Zack winced at the sound of his own voice, bouncing off the walls to echo back at him. His call was uncertain and restrained, but it sounded much louder due to the acoustics of his surroundings. There was no answer, but Zack didn't let that deter him. He remembered Sephiroth mentioning that the mansion once served as an away base for ShinRa personnel, and something about a guy named Gast. Obviously, the general thought he might find some answers in this mansion and Zack was determined to locate him and discover what this was all about.
~*********************************~

            After searching the mansion from bottom to top and back down again, Zack was about to give up and try calling Sephiroth's phone for the fifth time. He stopped in one of the upstairs bedrooms and he leaned against the cool stone wall as he pulled out his phone.
            Hunger and frustration was trying his patience and making him unusually cranky. "Come on, dammit. Pick up, this time. I'm getting hungry!"
            Zack lifted the phone to his ear and scowled as he listened to it ring out. Sephiroth's voice mail picked up and he strangled the urge to leave the general a nasty message that would probably earn him a demotion in rank. With a heavy sigh, he ended the call and put his phone away. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned harder against the wall, trying to decide what to do. Angeal had called from an unknown number, so he couldn't try to call him. Maybe this was his final test, to earn his status as an officer of SOLDIER. Sure, he'd made it to First Class, but he still had no more authority than most Seconds. It was time for Zack to stop relying on his superiors and mentors telling him what to do.
            He thought he felt something shift behind him and he frowned. "Must be a loose brick or some—"
            His sentence ended in a startled cry as the wall behind him abruptly gave way and slid to the right, withdrawing its support of his weight. Zack fell backwards...and he kept falling. He quickly tucked his arms and legs in as he tried to stop his tumbling and he realized he was falling down a set of stairs. His awkward journey came to a halt as the stairs took a turn and Zack lay there groaning softly, waiting for the world to stop spinning. He climbed to his feet and braced his hand against the wall as he squinted in the darkness. His enhanced vision allowed him to see better than average and he was able to ascertain that the stairs continued winding down for quite a depth.
            "You're kidding me," huffed Zack, shaking his head.
It was almost a sure thing that Seph was down there somewhere, if he was still in this mansion at all. Given the hidden nature of the cellar entry, Zack could imagine all sorts of mysterious or gruesome things he might find, if he investigated down there. Sephiroth had hinted that they might have put research crap somewhere in this mansion and a hidden cellar seemed like the perfect place for it.
"I am sooo going to regret this," predicted the young Soldier. He considered drawing his sword, but the stairs were kind of creaky and the last thing he needed to do was risk losing his footing and impale himself by accident. Sticking close to the wall, he followed the old wooden stairs down, deep into the ground beneath the ShinRa mansion.
~************************************~

            Sephiroth sat at the old splintered desk, pouring over the fifth book he'd liberated from the shelves of the secret library. He'd barely begun and he had a lot more to search through, before he was finished. He was scanning through the material, searching for any references to himself, Jenova, Hojo, Gast or the "S-gene". So far, he'd found some notes from Gast but they were unhelpful. His head ached with frustration and the voice of his mother was becoming very distracting. She had gone dormant again—until his discovery in the reactor. Now she was urging him to come and find her...to take her to the Promised Land and claim the planet together.
            Sephiroth shut his eyes and massaged his temples with gloved fingers. He'd found information about the Cetra, and how they sacrificed themselves to stop some nameless disaster, while the humans fled and left them to their fate. Jenova's voice whispered to him all the while, insisting that he had the blood of the Ancients in his veins and this world belonged to him, more than any of the pathetic humans.
"Mother...I know you're close. I need you to be quiet...need to find out what happened to us. I'll come for you when I have some answers."
"Sephiroth?"
The general looked up at the sound of his name being spoken and for a moment, he honestly didn't recognize the voice or the young man it belonged to. He frowned, shaking himself out of his detached daze. Zack's blue-violet gaze was full of concern and he stood in the threshold of the arching entryway uncertainly.
"Leave me be," Sephiroth instructed, fighting off his mother's insidious suggestions. "I have a lot to do here, Zackary. I don't want to be disturbed."
"But...okay, I can see you have a lot on your mind, but what are you looking for? Maybe if you'd tell me, I could help."
Sephiroth ignored his mother's suggestion that he teach the meddlesome boy a lesson. He got out of his chair and approached Zack, feeling the urge to show a bit of kindness, while it was still in him to do so. He laid his hands on the brunet's shoulders and offered him a quiet little smile—the sort he'd only ever given to Angeal and Genesis, before.
"I understand you want to help," Sephiroth murmured, "but you can't. Not with this. I'll remember that you tried, Zackary."
            Zack stood blinking at him as Sephiroth returned to the desk and sat down to continue reading. When seconds ticked by without a whisper of sound, Sephiroth looked back up to see the younger Soldier still standing there, blinking. Sephiroth sighed.
            "Zack."
            "Uh...yeah?"
            Sephiroth felt his mouth twitch. "You're dismissed."
            Zack saluted and practically ran out of the research room, leaving Sephiroth staring after him with a smirk on his lips. The general's amusement faded rapidly as he got stuck back into his investigations, and the sense of detachment returned. He knew that some part of him was going away and in his typically logical way of thinking, he realized he was distancing himself on purpose.
~**************************************~

            Zack didn't completely leave the mansion as he was told to. He stood in the cavernous corridor leading to the secret lab, wondering what the hell he was supposed to do now. He saw a worn wooden door in the wall across from him and he noticed that the lock had fallen right off in its advanced state of deterioration. Walking over to it, he bent over and picked up the padlock off the floor. He tried to replace the padlock on the door. It wouldn't snap shut and he finally tossed it on the floor with a sigh. Curious as to what might be behind the door, he turned the heavy iron knob and pushed it open. He winced at the way it creaked on its rusty hinges and he took out his cellphone to use it as a flashlight.
            "Hmm, some kind of storage room," guessed Zack aloud as he held the phone up and had a look around by its glow.
He saw a light switch on the wall near the door and he flipped it, not really expecting much. The pendulum light overhead flickered on with a crackle of electricity and it cast the room in a dull, yellow light. Zack found evidence to back his supposition, in the form of a few sacks of long-spoiled grain and a couple of barrels of some unknown liquid.
There were also some coffins lining the walls.
            Zack blinked. "Oo...kay. That's a weird thing to store."
            He counted three of them in all. The two on the left and right were open and empty, but the one in the center was sealed. Casting a wary look around, Zack approached the middle one and considered it. Did he really want to have a look inside, after everything he'd already experienced since arriving in Nibelheim?
            He looked at the closed coffin again curiously, and then looked at the half-opened door he'd come through. Death didn't scare him and the sight of blood and gore didn't trouble him. Maybe he could have a quick peek, just to see if there was actually a body inside. Thinking of Sephiroth's expressed desire to find that guy named Gast, Zack wondered if the answer could be in this coffin. Maybe he'd find the remains of someone they experimented on, down here. He shivered at the thought, but now his curiosity was fully piqued and it did give him something else to focus.
            "Okay...just one quick peek," he muttered to himself. "There's probably nothing in there, anyway."
            Somehow, he doubted that, but he found the thought comforting and he put aside his reservations. He tried to open the lid—gingerly at first—and it didn't budge. Zack put a little more effort into it, but it was still stuck tight and he guessed it was locked from the inside, or maybe the hinges and catches were fused together with age. It came as an odd relief for him to realize he wasn't going to get the coffin open without using substantial force. If there was a body in there, Zack wasn't about to desecrate its resting place by hacking it up.
            "Guess I'm just not meant to see it," he said.
He gave up and he sat down on the coffin, breathing a heavy sigh as he considered what measures he should take to watch the general. He couldn't very well put him under guard; he didn't have the authority to do that and Seph hadn't actually done anything to warrant relieving him of command, yet. Angeal had cautioned him against mentioning to anyone that he and Genesis were on their way, and he supposed drawing more attention to Sephiroth's odd behavior would only make things worse. All he really needed to do what try to prevent Sephiroth from doing anything crazy, until Angeal arrived to show him whatever it was he wanted to show him.
"But how do I do that, without making it too obvious? Seph is going to notice people checking in on him."
Then again, Sephiroth wasn't in his right mind. It was entirely possible that his observation skills were compromised, in his current condition. Either way, Zack knew he couldn't leave the man unwatched. He began to kick the heels of his feet against the side of the coffin unwittingly, as he mulled the problem over in his mind. He heard footsteps lightly approaching outside and he went still, cocking his head to the side. The footsteps stopped outside the door and Zack impulsively reached for his sword, ready to defend himself.
Reeve Tuesti poked his head in through the door. He looked as surprised to see Zack as the Soldier was to see him. "Oh, there you are. I saw the light coming out of the room and I thought...well, never mind. What are you doing in here, Zack?"
"I...was going to ask you the same question," Zack said, suddenly suspicious. He'd stumbled upon the cellar entrance by accident, but he got the feeling Reeve already knew it was there. In no mood to play word games, he got straight to the point. "So how'd you find your way down here?"
"I've been here before."
Just like that. No excuses, no changing the subject, no avoiding the question. Zack was again reminded of why he liked this particular suit. Reeve's honesty was refreshing and he relaxed a little. "You have? When?"
"Oh, my last visit was about a year ago, give or take a couple of months," answered Reeve. His eyes flicked to the coffin Zack sat upon before focusing on the lamp overhead. "My first visit to this town was five years ago, before the mansion was abandoned. I try to come every year, to test for Mako contamination. The company does inspections each year, but I don't quite trust the teams they send to be thorough enough. Sometimes if you want a thing done right, you need to do it yourself."
Zack resumed his impulsive drumming of his heels against the coffin. "Yeah, I get that. I need to keep an eye on the general, but I don't trust the grunts to do it."
Reeve glanced at the door behind him. "Then I take it Sephiroth is in the old laboratory down here?"
Zack nodded.
"That's what I thought. Is he still acting...peculiar?"
"Oh yeah, I'm afraid he's losing it," Zack blurted before he could stop himself.
"Don't you think you should inform the director?" suggested Reeve cautiously. "Far be it from me to stick my nose in SOLDIER affairs, but if you're worried, I'm worried."
"I'm playing it by ear," Zack said cautiously. "I don't want to jump the gun, you know? He's just going through some books in there, researching stuff."
"What kind of 'stuff'?" Reeve looked both intrigued and worried.
"I think he wants to find out more about his mother," Zack admitted. "And some guy named Gast. Any idea who that might be?"
Reeve's dark brows furrowed over his eyes. "Professor Gast? He was once an associate of Hojo's. They worked with Hollander together. Gast went missing years ago and he's been pronounced dead for some time. The general isn't likely to find any useful information about him in there, and he's even less likely to find any details concerning his mother."
"You think so? How can you be sure?"
Reeve sighed and combed his fingers through his dark hair. "Because I know Professor Hojo had that library cleaned out. The man likes to keep his secrets, and anything he left behind is either useless or teasing little hints of what he may have conducted down here. Hojo likes to play games like that...to frustrate anyone attempting to have a peek at his unmentionables, understand?"
Zack grimaced. "As far as I'm concerned, everything about that guy is 'unmentionable'...but I see what you're saying. You sound like someone who speaks from experience, Reeve. Have you tried to do some digging yourself?"
"I may know some people who feel Professor Hojo's work is unethical," admitted the administrator, "and efforts have been made to prove it. I'm afraid that's all I can share with you about that, for now. Maybe some day, I can tell you more." His eyes flicked to the coffin again. "Zack, you may want to stop kicking that."
Zack glanced down at the coffin. "Oh, sorry. So, any idea who's in here?" He knocked on the top of the coffin.
Before Reeve could respond to the question, the coffin knocked back. Zack froze, his eyes dropping to the object again. "H-hey...did you just hear—"
The lid suddenly popped up a bit, just enough to make Zack lose his balance. "Whoa! Holy...Reeve...something alive is in this thing!" He did his best to hold it shut with his weight, intending to give Reeve a chance to scat before it made an appearance.
"I wouldn't exactly put it that way," Reeve muttered, holding his hands out. "Just calm down, Zack. Get off the coffin and—"
The lid was shoved open completely by something inside, defeating Zack's effort to hold it down. He was launched a couple of feet into the air by the force of it and he sprawled on his back on the dirt floor. He vaguely noticed that Reeve wasn't reaching for a weapon of any kind, nor did he look like he was preparing to run. Zack grunted and drew his sword, opening his mouth to yell at the executive to get out for his own safety.
When he saw a man as pale as marble rise from the coffin, Zack's warning lodged in his throat. The guy was remarkably preserved for a corpse, with no sign of flesh decay. Ruby eyes glowed in a face almost as beautifully sculpted as Sephiroth's. Hair as black as midnight tumbled around the man's red cape-clad shoulders, held partially back from his face with a red bandanna.
Zack was no coward and he wasn't superstitious, but the sight of a corpse rising from the coffin he'd just been sitting on was the last straw for him. He was only human and everything he'd been dealing with closed in on him at once. His vision went black around the edges and he heard a ringing sound in his ears, before he passed out.
~**************************************~

"Thank you very much, Vincent. You scared the kid unconscious."
The pale gunman climbed out of his coffin and looked down at the unconscious young man that Reeve was trying to revive. "He woke me up...and I thought it was you. You're the only person who ever comes in here, knocking on my coffin."
The resonant voice predictably made Reeve's spine tingle and he kept fanning Zack's face with his hand as he looked up at his unusual friend. "How was he supposed to know he'd be waking anyone up?" He sighed and looked down at Zack. "I'm not looking forward to explaining this to him."
            "Then don't. Tell him he struck his head on something and imagined it."
            Reeve chuckled helplessly. "I think at this point, telling him he's seeing things would only make things worse." He studied the lean form of the gunman appraisingly. "You look good. You haven't changed a bit."
            "Your hair is longer," observed Vincent. His crimson gaze went to the young man on the floor. "Who is he? He wears SOLDIER tags."
            "Corporal Zack Fair," answered Reeve. "He's here with Sephiroth as my escort."
            Vincent's gaze sharpened. "Sephiroth?"
            "Yes. I've mentioned him to you before during previous visits, haven't I? He's the general of SOLDIER, now."
            "But he's never come here before," mused Vincent softly, his eyes losing focus as if he was seeing something in his mind's eye from the past. "Not since he was taken away. Lucrecia's child."
            Reeve felt a different kind of tingle as he listened to Vincent's strange words. "What are you talking about: 'Lucrecia's child'? His mother's name was Jenova."
            Vincent's red gaze focused on him and his mouth curved in a distasteful way. "Jenova. Is that what Hojo's been telling him?"
            "Is that false?" Reeve pressed. "You never indicated that you knew anything about Sephiroth before. What haven't you told me, Vincent?"
            The gunman sighed, the sound almost lost in the high collar of his cape. "Jenova was the project, but Sephiroth was born to a beautiful woman named Lucrecia Crescent. She worked with my father, Grimoire Valentine. She later got involved with Hojo and when they discovered she was expecting, he convinced her to allow him to experiment on her and the unborn child. He was already involved in the Jenova project with two other scientists, but the results didn't satisfy him. He chose his own son to be his next subject."
            Reeve stared at the other man. "Why didn't you ever tell me any of this before?"
            Vincent shrugged. "I had no reason to and I didn't want to get involved. I failed to protect Lucrecia and she died. Her son was taken away from her. This is my penance." He motioned at the coffin he'd climbed out of.
            Reeve eyed the coffin, and he remembered some of the things Vincent had told him during visits in the past. He'd always been very evasive and mysterious about the circumstances surrounding his self-imposed exile to the basement, but he did say a scientist experimented on him. He also told him he'd failed to save the woman he'd loved, and sleep was the only relief he had from the guilt.
            "You were in love with Sephiroth's mother," guessed Reeve. It made more sense to him, now that Vincent had rattled off a few more details he'd previously left clouded.
            Vincent looked away. "Lucrecia was never mine to love. She gave her heart to Hojo and he took advantage of that fact. That's all I have to say on the matter."
            "But—"
            "Take your young friend and go, Reeve. I'm going to return to sleep and I don't want to be disturbed again." Vincent turned around to face his coffin.
            "Lucrecia's son may be in trouble," Reeve persisted, hoping to coax the gunman out of his shell. "I'm sure you'd like to help him, if that's the case."
            Vincent paused on his way back to his coffin and he half-turned. "From what you've told me of Sephiroth, he can endure. Now please, leave me in peace."
            Reeve sighed as Vincent climbed back into the coffin. "As you wish, friend. I can't force you to rejoin the world of the living."
            "No, you can't," agreed Vincent. He lay down in the coffin and he paused as he was closing the lid up. "It was good to see you, Reeve."
            The coffin shut and Reeve sighed. "Until next year, Valentine." He looked down at Zack and he lightly smacked his cheeks. "Come on, kid. Snap out of it. I can't drag you down the corridor; much less up those stairs."
            Zack groaned after a few moments of effort and he came awake with a hoarse cry. "Reeve! The...the body! Get back!" He made a motion as if to swing his sword and Reeve was thankful that the weapon was lying several feet away.
            "Zack, calm down," Reeve advised, keeping his voice as calm as he could. He followed Zack to his feet and stepped between him and the coffin. "Everything is okay. You just fell and hit your head."
            Zack stared at him blearily and he cautiously started to feel along his scalp. "I did?"
            Hardly believing he was actually taking Vincent's advice, the administrator nodded. "You must be tired. We were having a chat and you fell off the coffin and hit your head on the floor."
            Zack looked suspiciously at the coffin. "I could swear a body inside that thing came to life and shoved the lid open on me."
            Reeve's eyebrows went up and he managed to pull a convincingly ironic face. "Because that's the sort of thing dead bodies typically do, where you come from?"
            "Well no," protested the younger man, "but it seemed so real! I don't feel any bumps or sore spots on my head, either."
            Thinking quickly, Reeve lifted his right arm and pointed out the materia bangle around his wrist. "Cure materia. I cast it immediately, to lower the risk of concussion. Is your vision blurry at all and are you feeling any dizziness?"
            "No...none of that." Zack rubbed his head and gave the coffin one more mistrustful, frowning look. "So, you're sure I just lost my balance and hit my head?"
            Reeve patted Zack's arm. "Zack, you've been under a lot of stress and this place doesn't exactly inspire thoughts of rainbows and puppies. If you really need proof, we could break open that coffin so you can look at the remains inside. I'd rather not do that, but—"
            "No, no," Zack interrupted hastily, his complexion losing some color. He picked up his sword off the floor and secured it to his back. "I'm good. In fact, I think I want to get out of here for a little while and get some fresh air. I've just got to assign someone to watch the mansion for Sephiroth."
            "I think that's a smart idea," agreed Reeve. Inwardly, he felt a surge of relief that Zack hadn't called his bluff. He could just see himself trying to stammer an explanation to both the Soldier AND Vincent, if Zack had chosen to force the coffin open for proof of the lie.
~*****************************************~


            Seven days passed without the light in the basement going out even once. Reeve finished his testing procedures by the middle of the week, but when he tried to convince Sephiroth that it was time to go, the General told him with a chilling look in his eyes that he wasn't going anywhere, until he was finished. Zack advised Reeve to go ahead and return to Midgar, while he stayed behind with a couple of MP's to watch over Sephiroth. Because he didn't see the point in arguing, Reeve took the advice and he reported to Lazard when he arrived in Midgar. He didn't mention Vincent and he left the detailed reports of what Sephiroth was up to for Zack to take care of.
            Unbeknownst to Zack, Angeal and Genesis got held up in the process of securing Hollander in custody. It was easier said than done for two wanted fugitives to turn a third one in to authorities, without getting collected themselves. Angeal contacted someone in Junon that he thought he could trust, but the man's greed was greater than his loyalty and he informed Rufus that they were coming. The couple ended up having to fight off ShinRa troops and Turks to escape Junon. They tried Midgar next, but the streets were too heavily policed and there was no way for them to drop off Hollander anywhere without being seen and attacked. Genesis recommended just letting the scientist go, or leaving him locked in a warehouse somewhere, but Angeal insisted he was too dangerous to leave unguarded.
Finally, Angeal came up with a solution. He contacted Zack's friend Kunsel—who had an uncanny knack for pilfering secret information from the company. He told him about their dilemma and he informed him that he needed someone trustworthy to meet up with them and take Hollander into custody, without turning he and Genesis in. Kunsel of course agreed to take Hollander off their hands and give him over to Lazard. Zack's faith in the kid turned out to be well founded. Kunsel was good on his word and by the end of the week, Genesis and Angeal were finally free to journey to Nibelheim and meet up with Zack.
Angeal spared a phone call to his protégé, to let him know they were coming. Zack sounded more stressed than he'd ever heard him before and the big man winced at the thought of what he'd had to handle by himself. When he ended the call, he looked to Genesis with a grim expression and shook his head. According to Zack's report, Sephiroth had almost completely withdrawn within himself and he hardly seemed to recognize anyone that checked in on him. The delay in providing him with the information was proving to be costly, indeed.
~**************************************~

            On the evening of the seventh day, shortly after receiving the call from Angeal, Zack got word from one of the MP's staying behind with him that the light had finally gone out in the basement. For all Zack knew, it meant that the last bulb finally blew...but he decided to check it out, anyway. When he made it to the research lab in the basement and turned the light on, he found the place in total disarray. Books were scattered everywhere and all the shelves were completely empty. Sephiroth sat at the desk with his head bowed and his masamune laying sidelong over the surface of it. Both gloved hands rested on the blade of the weapon and when Zack murmured his name, Sephiroth raised his head to look at him with eyes that didn't seem to recognize him anymore.
            "Oh. The traitor."
            Zack stared at him. "Huh? Seph...I left you down here alone, just like you asked. The only thing I did was bring you food so you wouldn't croak on me. How the hell have I betrayed you?"
            Sephiroth smiled at him, and the expression seemed to leech all the warmth out of the room. "You fool. All of you humans...are fools. Do you know the price my people paid to ensure your continued, miserable existence?"
            Zack couldn't have been more confused if he tried. He cast a suspicious look around the lab for leftover chemicals. "Have you been snorting something down here, man? You're not making any sense! 'Us humans'? What about you?"
            "I'm better than humans. Much better."
            Zack tensed as the taller man stood up and picked up his weapon. Sephiroth wasn't acting like the man he thought he knew. "And I thought Genesis was stuck up. Okay Seph...let's just talk this out rationally. If you aren't human, what are you? What did you find out while you were down here?"
            "I learned what I already knew, deep down," answered Sephiroth cryptically. "Your ancestors abandoned mine to their fate. It should have been the humans to die, not the Cetra. Mother wants me to correct that error and avenge my people."
            It didn't take a rocket scientist to understand what Sephiroth was hinting at doing. Zack shook his head and started to reach for his weapon reluctantly, eyeing his crazed friend with aching desperation. "Sephiroth, listen to yourself. You're talking about killing innocent people over something you read in a few history books! Snap out of it...this isn't you!"
            Sephiroth's eyes flashed and he tensed. There was a rending sound and Zack was beyond the point of being surprised when a single, black wing extended from the right side of the general's back. Sephiroth grimaced briefly as if in pain and then he relaxed again, his gaze fixating on Zack.
            "You're wrong. This is me...as I was meant to be."
            Beyond the breaking point of frustration and anxiety, Zack looked up at the ceiling and threw his hands up. "Are you kidding me?"
            The next thing Zack knew, he was shoved hard against the stony wall of the room and Sephiroth's face was mere inches from his. "For the sake of the time we spent as allies, I won't kill you," Sephiroth informed him in a dead, toneless voice. "You should avoid getting in my way."
            With that said, Sephiroth grabbed a handful of Zack's hair and knocked his head against the wall, stunning him. He dropped the groaning brunet to the floor and left, leaving Zack to struggle to his feet and fight to stay conscious.
            "Sephiroth...goddamn it! Don't do this!" Zack staggered after the general, clumsily drawing his sword in the process.
Sephiroth moved amazingly fast and within moments, he was at the end of the corridor and heading up the stairs. Zack started to run, banging against the walls as he meandered from side to side in his dizzy haste. He dug out his radio transmitter for quick communication to the other MP's in town. Telling them to try and detain Sephiroth could only get them killed, so he chose another approach.
"This is Corporal Fair," Zack gasped, "General Sephiroth is unstable...repeat, Sephiroth is unstable! I'm in pursuit. Avoid contact with him and keep civilians out of his way! Contact Director Lazard for SOLDIER backup to deal with this. Regular militia is to stand down."
Hoping his comrades would have the sense to obey his order, Zack checked his materia and activated a Cure spell to take care of his cranium. He hated to over-rely on healing spells for every little ache and pain, but he needed a clear head to handle this situation.
~***********************************~

            "Yes, Mother. I hear you. I'm coming for you."
            He walked up the stairs in the restricted chamber of the reactor, his eyes fixated on the door at the top and his mother's name, arching over it. Images of people went through his mind as he went; a powerfully built man with chiseled features, brown hair and sincere blue eyes...another man with collar-length auburn hair, aqua eyes and an arrogant smirk...a younger man in his late teens with spiky raven hair, earnest blue-violet eyes and a friendly smile. He knew them all, but he couldn't recall their names. He couldn't even recall the name of the older man that made a brief appearance in his mind's eye, though he knew he loathed him, with his gaunt face, wire-rimmed glasses and oily black ponytail.
            ~Forget about them,~ coaxed Jenova, ~They no longer matter. Come to me, Sephiroth. I'm the only one who truly cares for you...the only one who can ever understand you.~

            He knew her words to be true, even as a part of him shrank away from them. He knew that going with his mother meant leaving behind the part of him that was human. He would have expected that to come easily...but he was apparently more attached to the first three men he'd envisioned than he realized. Jenova kept coaxing him to let go and the temptation was very strong to obey.
            He made it to the top of the stairs and he readied his masamune. He prepared to slash through the thick steel door, but a shout gave him pause.
            "Sephiroth, stop!"
            He lowered his blade and he felt a smile grow on his lips against his conscious will. "They've come again, mother."
            He turned around to face the intruder, studying him intently. He frowned, again stricken with the realization that even though this young man was familiar to him, he couldn't recall his name. The raven-haired Soldier lowered his blade and held a hand out in a pacifying gesture as he approached. His expression was full of...worry?
            "Sephiroth, this isn't you. I know something's driven you to do this and if you could see yourself now, you'd put a stop to it."
            "That makes utterly no sense," Sephiroth informed him coldly. "I have no intention of stopping myself, and I'm aware of what I'm doing. Mother and I are going to take back this planet together. I've warned you to stay out of my way...boy."
~**************************************~

            "'Boy'?" Zack repeated. "Wow, that's a little insulting, Seph. I've got a name, you know."
            Sephiroth frowned oddly at him. "Puppy."
            Usually he got annoyed when his mentors called him by that nickname, but under the circumstances, Zack found it encouraging. He nodded, keeping his gaze steady on the powerful general. "Yeah, that's the nickname Angeal came up with for me when he started training me. You picked up on it when you took over for him and I've been stuck with it every since. Why don't you come away from there and tell me what's going on, Sephiroth. Please?"
            For a moment, Zack thought the other man might listen to him. Sephiroth seemed to waver and he really looked like he wanted to join him at the foot of the steps...but then something seemed to click in his mind and he turned abruptly around. Before Zack could do or say anything, Sephiroth's masamune was slicing the air, singing as it went. It cut into the heavy door with a terrible screeching sound and Sephiroth followed up with a second cut, aimed at the hinges. The general planted a boot against the door and shoved, easily toppling it inwards. The resulting crash vibrated through the floor and Zack ran up the stairs to try and stop Sephiroth from doing something terrible—though he had no idea what that something could be.
            "Seph—" He managed to touch the taller man's shoulder before Sephiroth turned smoothly and slapped him away with his wing. It wasn't a gentle nudge or shove...it sent Zack flying through the air and the impact when he landed on the hard grating at the foot of the stairs would have broken bones, if he'd been an average man.
            "Unh...S-Sephiroth," Zack moaned, trying to crawl to his feet again.
His right arm wasn't working properly and it dawned on him that his shoulder was dislocated. The pain when he tried to reach for his sword was excruciating and he wondered how one hit from the man could have damaged him so badly. This definitely wasn't his starring week as a fighter. Still, he remembered Sephiroth's ominous words and for the safety of the people of Nibelheim, he needed to pull it together. He could use his Cure materia again after he got his weapon.
A black SOLDIER boot came into his vision as he reached for his sword and Zack looked up to see Angeal Hewley looking down at him. He felt such a burst of relief that he hugged the big man around the leg with his good arm—incidentally losing his balance and plopping flat on his face.
"Angeal! Where the hell have you been?"
            "Watch your tone, Puppy," Genesis said as he came up beside Angeal. "We had some complications of our own." He started to reach down and help Zack to his feet but when the younger man yelped in pain, he released his arm and frowned.
            "Shoulder," panted Zack, trying to roll into a sitting position. "It's...dislocated."
            Angeal immediately reached down and started to activate the materia he'd had with him since his defection, but Genesis caught his wrist and stopped him with a shake of his head.
            "Save it for after we've set it," advised the redhead, "Otherwise, you're wasting the magic charges just to cause him more pain later."
            Angeal looked at Zack questioningly. Zack firmed his jaw and sat up, nodding. "I'll be okay. Just help me up, so I can help you guys handle Sephiroth. He's totally off his nut."
            Genesis looked up at that moment and his eyebrows went up. "I can see that."
            The other two followed his gaze to see Sephiroth stepping out of the once-sealed room he'd broken into. In his right hand, he held a dead woman's head by its long, dull silver hair. Her eyes were open and blank, and one of them glowed with an eerie pinkish light. Sephiroth hadn't even bothered to sever it neatly with his masamune; it appeared as though he simply ripped it off of her shoulders with his own hands. Bright green fluid dripped from the torn flesh at the base of the neck and part of the spinal cord was hanging down amongst arteries and tendons.
            Zack leaned over and promptly vomited all over Genesis' boot. The red-clad Solder grimaced down at him and nudged him away with a low curse, while Angeal approached the foot of the stairs.
            "Sephiroth, listen to me."
~***********************************~

            The face of the woman floating in the tank might have been his own, if Sephiroth had been born female. He would have preferred to liberate her entire body from the capsule imprisoning it, but Jenova's voice warned that there was no time for that. She told him that as long as he took a part of her with him, she could eventually make herself whole again. He naturally took the part housing her brain, feeling it was most important. He had forgotten all about the boy he'd knocked away moments ago and he wasn't expecting to see the other two men from his mind's eye waiting there with him. The youngest one was throwing up on the floor and the red-clad one was shaking his foot with a disgusted look on his face.
            "Sephiroth, listen to me." The big one stood at the foot of the stairs, blocking Sephiroth's way out. He had an enormous white wing and a smaller one beneath it, on his right side. Attempting to fly over his head clearly wasn't an option.
            "There's nothing you can say that will change anything," Sephiroth informed them all, his serpentine gaze sweeping them. He lifted his mother's head to display her greatness. "She's with me now, and we're going to the Promised Land together."
            "I believe I've read a play that started this way before," murmured the redhead.
            "Genesis," the big man said in a warning tone, glancing over his shoulder at him.
The redhead subsided and watched Sephiroth with aqua eyes that held a spark of something that might have been empathy. The big man turned back to Sephiroth and he held up a thick leather binder. "Sephiroth, that isn't your mother. It's no Cetra, either. Hojo was wrong about Jenova and I have the proof right here. Dr. Gast found the last real Cetra and she vanished with him. The truth is all here, in these documents. We were all lied to and you need to know the facts, before you do anything."
"You'd be wise to listen to him," Genesis advised. "Vengeance has a sour flavor when directed against the wrong party."
Sephiroth hesitated, trying to shut out Jenova's voice so that he could think. Some of the fog cleared from his mind and he was able to place names with these men's faces again. He remembered why Angeal and Genesis had left. The sight of the big man's wings was a poignant reminder that he was no mere human, himself.
It would have been so much easier to believe that Jenova was an Ancient, as he had concluded from the snatches of information he was able to find and her insistent whispers. He couldn't deny the appeal in becoming a sort of god, above question or reproach. However, part of him always knew something wasn't right about the things Jenova said. Her influence was forceful...dominating. He'd given up on fighting it when he saw the failed experiments in this room, but what if Angeal's claims were true?
~******************************~


            It looked like Sephiroth was reconsidering. Angeal tried not to look at the decapitated head still clutched in the general's right hand and he was very much aware of the deadly blade still firmly gripped in his left one.
            "Sephiroth, whatever you've read or heard, it can't be worth all this. Just look at what we have to show you...for the sake of our friendship and your honor, if nothing else."
            Sephiroth's gaze flicked to Zack, who had stopped vomiting and was holding his injured arm with his other hand. An expression flickered over the general's marble features, so fast that Angeal had to wonder if he'd imagined it. The last time he'd seen a glimpse of that look in Sephiroth's eyes was the day he'd accidentally nicked Genesis during their sparring session. Guilt was always a strange look on Sephiroth.
            Sephiroth lifted Jenova's head and stared at it with an expression of a dreamer trying to wake from a nightmare. He slowly looked back at Angeal, Zack and Genesis. "Give me the documents."
~*********************************~

            They left Sephiroth alone in the chamber with the documents, giving him time to read through them and settle his state of mind.
            "You do realize that if this backfires on us, this town is going to be decimated and Midgar will soon follow." Genesis paused in his preparations to set Zack's injured shoulder and he gazed into Angeal's eyes seriously.
            The big man was bracing Zack for the ordeal and he nodded grimly. "I know."
            Zack didn't find their attitudes comforting. "So what are you guys saying? You don't think the two of you can stop him if he goes off?"
            Angeal and Genesis looked at each other again and the former spoke in a low, resolved voice. "Zack, Sephiroth is the best SOLDIER has to offer. Genesis is the only one I've ever seen match him in a fight, and that was when Sephiroth was level-headed. He may have even been holding back. The truth is, nobody knows just how powerful Sephiroth's fighting skills really are, but everyone agrees that he hasn't shown the world all that he has to offer, yet."
            Zack looked at Genesis for confirmation and the normally cocky redhead lowered his troubled gaze and shrugged. "I believe I could defeat a sane Sephiroth in a fair fight," sighed Genesis, "but in his current state of mind, it's another matter. I've unfortunately recovered from my insanity over these past months, more or less. I don't think I can match his madness."
            Zack groaned—more because of the implications of that ominous statement than because of pain. "Then we'd better find a tranquilizer gun or something, fast."
            Genesis lifted an intrigued brow and looked to Angeal. "The pup actually has a practical idea, Angeal. I could challenge him, while you shoot him."
            Angeal scowled. "You want me to shoot him in the back?"
            Genesis shrugged. "Or, you could just let him go on a murderous killing spree. I'm still trying to find it in me to give a damn, but I know you would hold yourself personally responsible."
            Angeal winced and Zack came to his defense. "Hey, don't put this off on him. I'll shoot Sephiroth with the dart, if I have to."
            "I've seen your shooting records," Genesis said dryly. "You're a suck shot, Fair."
            Zack grumbled. "Then let me distract him and you shoot him. You don't seem to have any problem with it."
            "I think you've done enough distracting this week," Angeal said sternly. "Leave this to us now, Zack."
            "Hey, I can deal," insisted the younger Soldier. "Just set my shoulder, heal me and go get some tranquilizers from the MP's that came with us. I know they brought some with them in case Reeve needed a creature specimen to test for contamination. Check at the Inn...that's where they ought to be."
            The three of them were so occupied with making their plans to ambush Sephiroth before he could go on a rampage that they failed to notice that the object of their discussion had come out of the chamber and was standing behind them. They were understandably startled when Sephiroth's voice spoke up.
            "Or, instead of conspiring to shoot me when my back is turned, you could give me the benefit of the doubt and assume I still possess enough sense to control my own actions."
            All three of them looked up at the general with wide eyes. He looked haggard and he had the file folder tucked safely under his right arm. Jenova's head was no longer with him—though the splatters of fluid from the tank and body still coated his outfit.
Angeal was the first to speak, once he recovered from his shock. "Sephiroth, you must understand that we have good reason to worry. The way you've been talking and acting has been—"
            "Disturbing," interrupted Sephiroth, "I know." He shuddered faintly and he reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger, leaving the point of his sword lowered in a neutral manner.
            "I...can't explain," he finally said. "These feelings...these thoughts...they aren't all mine. Hojo gives me treatments that help manage it. Without them...I...this was the worst it's ever been. When I saw those creatures, I knew they had undergone something similar to what was done to me, even though I had no factual evidence."
            "So...you're not going to go on a big genocide mission now?" Zack hedged, wincing as he got to his feet.
            "I don't recall even saying that I would," answered the general with a frown. "I slipped away."
            "At the risk of asking a grisly question," Genesis said, "what did you do with the head?"
            "I put it back."
            "In the specimen tank?" pressed Angeal.
            Sephiroth nodded. "Its proximity only cripples my concentration further."
            Zack looked around at the other men uncertainly. "What happens now, then?"
            "We seal the room back up," Sephiroth said, slipping back into his commanding attitude despite the exhaustion evident on his face and the way his left hand trembled as it gripped the hilt of his sword. He offered the blade to Angeal. "Take it. I can't be trusted with it."
            Angeal took the blade without argument, frowning at Sephiroth. "What can we do for you, Sephiroth?"
            "You can take me into custody," answered the general. "See to Zackary's arm first and then arrange for transport out of here to Midgar. I'm to be taken off active duty and the two of you should work with Director Lazard to clear your fugitive status."
            Genesis stared at him and for a moment, Angeal thought he'd have to remind the redhead that he'd already agreed to cooperate with authorities to earn his pardon. Genesis evidently had a different bone to pick, though.
"That's it? You aren't even going to consider the possibility of killing Hojo?"
            Angeal and Zack both gave the redhead an incredulous look, prompting Genesis to shrug. "I just find it a bit odd, considering everything he's done. Then again, we all know how I dealt with my little disclosure."
            "Hojo is still needed." Sephiroth's complexion was ashen. "Any personal satisfaction I might derive from slashing him in two would only be temporary. My...condition...requires his treatment. He's safe from my blade...for now."
            Angeal nodded in understanding. Sephiroth was a closed book in most cases, but the one personality trait he'd learned to predict from the other man was an unfailing sense of practicality and logic. He was relieved that those traits were now shining through enough to overpower the personal demons Sephiroth was battling.
~**************************************~


-To be continued
- 6
- 7
- 8
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