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holly-fixation · 2 years

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Tainted Child: Chapter 6

Summary so far: Claudia Strife’s son is is overly devoted to her. He only calls her ‘Mother’. And when Cloud speaks of 'The Great Mother’, she has to worry. And now he’s told the girl he claims received a gift from her, and her symptoms match Cloud’s unbelievable story to a T. But Tifa needs the child of The Great Mother to heal. And this is their only chance to convince them.

Based on this prompt by @im-totally-not-an-alien

Please enjoy!

Chapter 6: Eyes

He looked just like the body they found in the reactor: hair, eyes, height, intimidation. He was scanning them, analyzing them, and Claudia saw the hesitation in his eyes. He didn’t trust them. How could he? They were responsible for poisoning the mako the world needed. So much for ‘helping’ the ‘great mother’.

Cloud could almost see the questions turning through the young soldier’s head. Are you really stupid enough to lie to me? Will you actually tell me the truth?

He was holding his blade at the ready, not pointing at them but encouraging them to keep their distance.

Cloud practically jumped forward, completely ignoring the hesitation and the really big sword in the soldier’s hand. Claudia immediately grabbed his arm, pulling him back, and knelt down to match the eye level of her dandelion haired boy.

“Let me explain first, okay, Cloud?”

He gave her a confused and sad look, nearly feeling betrayed, but nodded and took a step back again in respect.

She scanned the soldier, trying to find the best place to start, to be believable. But what did she think would convince the silver soldier himself? She knew who he was: the hero/demon of Wutai. A shredder on the battlefield. She took a breath, took another, tried to steady herself, to steel her fear away. What sounded possible? Did he know anything already? What if he didn't, and this all sounded even more insane? She hesitated, swallowing carefully. She had to start from the beginning, the source, what she found in Shinra Manor. “...Have you ever heard of the Jenova Project?”

Cloud saw a quick snap of confusion hit the soldier’s face.

“...‘Project’?” was all he managed to say, much quicker than they expected.

Claudia nodded, and repeated the phrase simply, “The Jenova Project.”

“But you know ‘Jenova’, right-?” The boy was silenced off by a cut throat motion and a stern look from the woman. He shied down a little, looking away anxiously.

To her dismay, one problem made itself known: was Cloud unaware of the danger if they screwed this up?! Though she was silently cursing her child, the child saw another quick flash on the soldier’s neutral and focused expression, a flash of chastising, like he should have been smarter, compared to what he just revealed.

“What is the Jenova Project?” He did not answer the child’s question and threw the woman one of his own.

Claudia took a breath before answering, however, she noticed his gaze was on the little girl. “The Jenova Project was the project Shinra funded involving the use of Jenova’s cells.”

Now his inhuman eyes snapped to her blue ones with daggers, and she nearly stepped back at the intensity.

But she continued when he did not respond, seemingly analyzing her story. “Jenova was an Ancient, a Cetra, Shinra found in the Northern Crater,” She made sure to pause after each large discovery to let him question her, but she didn’t see any movement or reaction from the silver soldier. “They attempted to make a human-cetra hybrid to lead them to the promised land.” Again, no visible response, though her son tapped her side. She looked down at him, and he only nodded. She guessed it was another sign to continue. “There were...multiple projects I did not read in Shinra Manor.” Wait, did she not mention how she got this information until now? What if he thinks she's lying?! She took one final deep breath before finishing. “I went there to research her disease.” She gestured to the girl with the snake eyes, then returned her hand to her side. “And I'm gonna take a guess and say,” another breath, “you were Project S.” She held up her hand quickly in surrender, but never dropped her sword. “I didn’t read any details, it was just on the cover of some of the reports. I know this sounds insane, but...we might be a part of a project too.”

“And it’s where my disease came from...” The little girl added in a small voice. “My father’s too…”

The soldier’s eyes were cold, icy, barriered, perhaps to protect both them and himself. The tension through the air strangled the three outlaws before he finally opened his mouth. “You’re coming with me, back to Midgar.”

“No!” The girl yelled, and the woman grabbed her to keep her back. “You’re supposed to help us! Please! I’m sick! My father’s sick! And you’re supposed to be the cure!”

His brows crossed and he seemed to ignore her statements. “What is your name?”

“Tifa Lockhart!”

Claudia facepalmed internally at the child using her real full name.

He almost, almost, hid his sympathetic look. “Your father is nearly dead from that disease.”

Tifa’s heart dropped, and Cloud placed a hand on her back to calm her.

“Before you speak again,” The soldier returned coldly, his gaze back on the blonde adult. “What did you do in that reactor?”

Before she could even process the question, her little boy spoke and tugged at her shirt.

“Mother, I think I know how to answer him.” He gazed at her with eyes of hope, like a piece of him was back in place.

Claudia wanted to protest, but his eyes showed something more than childish excitement. He felt something, more than just knowledge. She nodded to accept his request. “Okay, Cloud. Don’t move and be careful.”

Cloud nodded, and looked at the silver soldier, his natural blue eyes meeting mako enhanced eyes. “We discovered the body of… ‘Jenova’,” calling her by her name felt so strange to him, “in the back of the reactor. And all she wanted was to enter the Lifestream.”

“You threw a corpse into the Lifestream?” He questioned incredulously. “That's what caused the shock?”

They all nodded, but Claudia had an apologetic wince in her eyes.

“Why?”

“She wanted to die,” Cloud explained, watching his expression, the shock, on the soldier’s face.

It took him a few seconds to swallow his emotions. It was taking longer each time to compose himself. The soldier’s brow raised, but before he could ask anything, Cloud continued with his hands in wait in front of him.

“Please let me finish,” He asked wearily, and gained another nod careful in response. “Yes, She wasn't human. But Shinra kept her in a tank of acid. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t die without help.”

The soldier’s lips parted from the dismayed expression he couldn’t stop from forming. He swallowed before returning neutral.

“But even with that… She’s watched us both our entire lives, like a guardian angel. But she couldn’t connect with you as she did us.” He felt her again. She was back. She was back! Cloud couldn’t hide his excitement, his eyes opposingly wide compared to the tense situation. “I think it was distance, you were too far. But she knows everything about you.” He saw the look of disbelief but, nonetheless, continued with the massive, overflowing knowledge running through his mind. “You’re seventeen years old. Your birthday is June 17th. You weren’t raised in a home, but a lab. At Shinra. And they trained you to become their weapon because you couldn’t hear the Planet like the Cetra did. Your first time outside the lab was your deployment to Wutai. It was also the first time you felt rain and saw the stars. Since then you’ve only made two friends...Genesis and Angeal. With them you almost feel normal, but you know you’re special. You’ve always known you have a special existence, even since you were a child. And… you always hoped… that you weren’t a monster...”

All of Sephiroth’s defenses dropped, his heart sank in his chest, his face paled, his grip on his blade loosened with his shoulders. His eyes shone with unknown emotion as he lost his control.

Cloud watched cautiously, tilting his head for a better view. “Is it true?”

Claudia squeezed his shoulder to coax him into silence. If this soldier truly was believing them, he needed time to absorb everything Cloud just handed him: the death of his mother, the truth of their words, the knowledge of his past he did or did not have. They were all quiet, a painful moment slithering to completion throughout the small cave.

The soldier’s heart burned as red as the snake-like eyes that watched him, red eyes with just as much shock and confusion as the blue ones. He hesitated, his words collapsing in his throat before he finally managed a small, powerless voice. “...how…?”

Cloud was the only one who understood what he was asking. “She’s always been able to tell me things. And she’s...” He pursed his lips as he searched for an answer, “always right. Always has been.”

“Then why you…?” He glared weakly at the boy. It wasn’t anger. It was…understandable jealousy.

“Because she couldn’t get to you,” He answered simply before taking a strange breath and holding his hands behind his back. “It was like… You were standing at the edge of a lake, and she was trapped at the bottom… but she was so weak there weren’t enough bubbles to find her by breath… You couldn't find her...” He closed his eyes. “She needed someone who saw the bubbles, and that was me. Then she needed me to find you.”

He took a strangled breath as he tried to understand. “Then she… tainted the Lifestream, mako, to bring me to you?”

Both companions stared at the boy, and the boy nodded. “To help you. To help us and herself.”

To every one of their surprise, Sephiroth sheathed his sword. However, Claudia was still cautious. She would not let the children move unless the soldier allowed it.

Now he was looking away, his bangs blocking his eyes, protecting his soul. “...How do I cure your disease?”

A method to physically prove their explanations, Cloud knew why he would test this so early. “Let Tifa put her hand over your heart. Then I cast cure through her hand to you. The spell loops through your chest and heals on return.”

That was a big risk, for both of them. Close proximity, use of green materia, it was too easy for this to be a trap. However, the silver soldier felt himself nodding. “Okay. Drop your weapons. Only approach with the healing materia. Understood?”

But he would keep his weapons. Would he be loyal enough to kill the children? None of them knew his orders. Would he have listened to them if his orders were to kill on sight? They didn’t know. Both Cloud and Tifa obeyed, dropping their armor and weapons, leaving only the green materia in Cloud’s hand. Claudia did not, keeping her weapons and following a few feet behind the children in caution. If anything happened to them, she would never forgive herself.

Sephiroth stepped into the cave slowly, to prevent the chances of monsters sighting them, testing their ability to harm. They stopped a foot away from each other. He looked to the blonde child who seemed to know what to do.

Cloud nodded and carefully grabbed Tifa’s hand. He slowly raised it to the center of the soldier’s crossed suspenders and shirt. Then with another consenting look, he pressed the hands to the soldier, and his hand glowed with the healing magic, acting exactly as he warned. The glow swirled through Tifa’s hand, through each lung, vein, and artery, then back into Tifa. It felt odd.

And as she healed before his inhuman eyes, her crimson ones returned to the round pupils she was born with. The breath of relief from her lips only confirmed that fact.

“Thank you…” Tifa spoke kindly as she removed herself from the soldier.

He nodded solemnly, but his gaze portrayed his thoughts. Since the cure worked, was everything they said true? He’s an experiment? A Cetra? Has he been deaf? Has his mother really been calling out to him and he didn’t know, because he couldn’t hear the planet? Was he insane? Was he… the worst son on this planet…when all he ever wanted was…

Claudia saw the look in his eyes and dropped her sword, both kids parting away from the soldier. She spread her arms in offering. “I don’t know what you’ve been through…” She spoke in a small voice, “but would this help?”

Seventeen years old. Raised in a lab to be a killing machine. And for the first time in his life, someone was truly offering him a hug. Not the tackling grabs of his red haired friend or the surprisingly casual headlocks from the other. Someone offered him comfort for his sake. They gave him the choice. They didn’t make it for him. It wasn’t on a schedule or a warning for the day’s terrain. He should view them as enemies, as threats to the world. Shinra ordered him to bring them back, to fix the Lifestream. Yet they knew thoughts he never told anyone…

None of them expected him to be that quick, like that second was the only opportunity and it was already ticking away. In less than an instant, he practically teleported into her arms, caution to the wind as the anxious child in his heart screamed at him to take the chance. He felt her shock when his arms wrapped around her, and he did not speak a word, only his body shaking in defeat.

She returned the hug as soon as she got her bearings, and spoke softly to try to soothe the soldier. “It’s okay… It’s okay…”

His grip only tightened, not painfully, but desperately.

“You look like her, you know.” She didn’t know why she was still speaking. “Your hair, and your eyes…”

Then she waited for a response, refusing to continue unless he gave one. He didn’t. A few more seconds of silence passed when he let go of her and took a step back.

He snapped his feet together, standing at attention. “My orders are to take you three back to Midgar to stop the over-reactivity of mako.” His eyes looked through her, clearly bottling something before he finally met her gaze. “I see no reason not to cure the citizens of your village before the transport.”

All of their eyes went wide, each with completely different emotions: excitement, hopefulness, bewilderment.

“We shouldn’t-” Claudia began before he cut her off.

“It’s too dark to go back now, especially without the bridge.” The bridge was out? “We stay here until day break, then we make our way to Nibelhiem.”

She nodded to the soldier in agreement. “And we will help with all we can. We just gave you a lot of information. Please don’t trap it all inside. It’s bad for your health.”

But carefully, suddenly, thankfully, the little girl tugged at his coat, distracting him from the motherly request. “What’s your name?”

He gave her a perplexed look, genuinely surprised she didn’t know who he was already. He couldn’t remember the last time he had to introduce himself. If he ever introduced himself. “I’m Sephiroth.”

“No last name?” Tifa asked quickly.

Sephiroth shook his head. “Just Sephiroth.”

* * *

Despite being trapped in a cave in the middle of monster-infected mountains during the night with very little food, this was a much better outcome than being dragged to Midgar for ecoterrorism. Though they would have to deal with those consequences later. Claudia and Sephiroth stayed at the entrance, with Tifa in the middle, and Cloud further back. Tifa’s previously temporary cure came with temporary strength, so they learned. She was already reverting back to her natural strength, so the center was the safest place for her. The children split one of the protein bars Claudia had brought with her for a late meal. The mother and soldier chose to save their remaining resources for the morning. She tried, god willing she tried, to speak with him. It was all too much for just a boy. She tried to learn of his past while explaining her own and Cloud’s as well. She wasn’t sure if his silence or short answers were a result of being cautious, technically she did have the possibility to be a spy in his eyes, or that he was naturally this way. Probably a bit of both.

Still, despite the attempted prying and any information Claudia could offer on the topic of Jenova, they needed rest. At very least, the children did, so the two older members hesitantly agreed on sleeping shifts. He was still aloof, but it didn’t completely seem like he would slit their throats or chain them up in their sleep. The children were already gone into their rest when Claudia chose to lower her guard and lay against the wall near them. Sephiroth stayed at the entrance, as agreed, and scanned for monsters. The last thing she remembered was his silver hair flowing in the wind as her eyes finally closed.

Though she knew she was dreaming, she felt a push. The same push from the reactor, crushing her to the ground. She couldn’t speak. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t see. It kept growing, like she was in a hydraulic press, each second more compressed, each moment more panicked, pushing, and pushing, and Pushing.

He is my son.

The same voice from the reactor. Jenova? Breathing was limited, only small breaths possible from her lungs through her bending ribcage, every bone in her body on the verge of cracking.

Mine.

Her eyes shot open, her breathing scattered and her heart rate flaring. She held her arms and consciously stopped herself from rocking back and forth like a child. It felt like a minute. Only a minute. Her gaze, once clear, immediately landed on the silver soldier, who watched her with a tilted head. It was almost…cute, in a childlike way.

“Are you okay?” Sephiroth asked smoothly.

She nodded as her eyebrows furrowed and her eyes closed. So Jenova was perfectly fine controlling her son, but when she tries to help Sephiroth, that’s crossing a line?

“Here.” He stood, wiping off the dust on his pants. “It’s your turn.”

Claudia nodded again before opening her blue eyes to meet his. They silently changed positions. He was sitting up against the wall with one knee bent and one arm resting on the knee. Within seconds, he was asleep, must be a military thing. She turned to the mountains, to the stars. Oh gods, he was right. It had been three hours already, judging by the placement of the moon. That dream… She could only hope this was the right decision. For all of their sakes.

Thanks for reading!

Author's notes: What are the chances that 2 of my fics are both at the "Sephiroth needs explanation" section? And both end with hugs? If you read my other fics, This hug was planned and the other one wasn't lol (check tags for more notes)

#ff7 #final fantasy vii #ffvii #sephiroth #cloud strife #jenova #final fantasy 7 #tifa lockhart #claudia strife #this is looking to be less than 10 chapters #but these chapters usually have a LOT of content #or at least I tried #or will try because the moment a chapter is finished I post it #three cheers for lack of self control #thanks for reading!! hope you enjoy!!#tainted child

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