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Chapter Text

During the Wutai war every single news outlet in Midgar reported on Sephiroth’s heroic efforts in the war. It had always been Sephiroth and only Sephiroth.

No one mentioned Angeal or Genesis and definitely not Zack. It had always been Sephiroth on this pedestal built out of gold, being held up by the public. His friends and comrades were never mentioned.

The only paper they ever appeared in were the reports they had to hand in to the company every once in a while. To most of the world they were nobodies.

There was barely anyone who recognized the efforts of Angeal and Genesis in leading several squads or how they fought endlessly for a war no one knew the cause of.

Sephiroth was the only one they ever focused on.

After the Wutai war had ended nothing changed. Newspapers and TV shows still only reported on Sephiroth and how he single handedly brought the Wutai war to an end. He got all the glory and the praises.

At events people would try to talk to him only, ignoring all the other SOLDIERs that had fought in the war as well.

In Genesis’ eyes it was as if Sephiroth enjoyed being at the center of attention. How his mouth curled into a soft smile whenever someone praised his efforts or how he held speeches about the war at official Shinra events. He did mention the others whenever he talked about it and sometimes Genesis felt like he read too much into it.

Surely his friend would acknowledge their shared efforts in the war. They had bonded over the shared experience of being forced to participate at a very young age. Sephiroth wasn’t a power-hungry individual like any other person who worked at Shinra, right? He didn’t want all the glory for himself, did he?

At the same though there was this nagging thought at the back of Genesis’ mind that told him the complete opposite. That Sephiroth did this on purpose because he knew that Genesis was watching him. That he did indeed want all the glory for himself.

It was a never-ending cycle of obsessing over the fact that he wanted the glory for himself. But he didn’t notice it before it was too late and there was already a huge rift between him and his former friend.

Sephiroth hated the events Shinra hosted after the Wutai war had ended. Whenever he was forced to interact with one of his “fans” he had to bite back a snarky comment. Smiling decently at them while they showered him in praises wasn’t what he envisioned when Shinra told him he would participate in an event honoring their efforts in the war.

Hell, he had already hated the interviews he had to participate in during the war. They would always twist his words and leave out important details like his comrades helping him. He didn’t fight in the war all alone. But they portrayed it as such.

The newspapers were more interested in portraying him like a powerhouse who could take on an entire army all by himself. Mentioning his comrades, and by extension his friends, was not action packed enough. It was almost as if they thought it was boring.

He was so occupied with everything that Shinra made him do, that he didn’t notice the rift growing between him and Genesis. Of course, he had always been aware of the other’s competitive spirit and slight jealousy over his status at Shinra.

Sephiroth never thought it was this bad though. That he would lose one of his only friends.

Sephiroth pushed the thoughts aside and focused on the matter at hand. They had been searching for Genesis and found some clues in Mako Reactor 5 that lead them straight to Hollander and Genesis.

Seeing his old friend again made Sephiroth feel something that was probably guilt. He couldn’t really tell what he felt, it was an overwhelming mass akin to a whirlpool. There was no way he would be able to make out what exactly he was feeling. Guessing it was his safest bet.

Not that anyone would care about what he felt. Definitely not when he was calm on the outside, unassuming and a mystery.

Genesis talked about how he wanted the glory all for himself and Sephiroth tried his best to extend the olive branch out to him, to show him that it all had most likely been built upon a misunderstanding.

A petty fight that Sephiroth didn’t even know he was participating in. But he couldn’t say that. It would only make matters worse.

Genesis didn’t understand that Sephiroth wanted to share the spotlight, that he wanted the old days back. There was only hatred in his eyes.

Hatred for something that Sephiroth never wanted in the first place. He never wanted all the glory.

All he wanted was a friend he could rely on, not fight.

Chapter Text

Sephiroth laid awake at night and thought about friendship. What is it? Is it the relationship he has with Angeal and Genesis? The little bickering and spending time together in the training room?

Was it them trying to align their missions with each other during busy weeks so they could at least spend some time together? Or listening to Genesis recite phrases from this new book he picked up?

Maybe friendship was a feeling more than anything. A feeling of… safety? Comradeship? Or maybe it was just the feeling to belong. To feel like you were fitting in like the last missing piece of a puzzle.

That felt like a good description of what friendship was. Hojo would scold him right about now for wasting his precious time on pointless thoughts.

The scientist wasn’t right though. To Sephiroth it felt like he used his time well. Trying to understand this newfound feeling brought him joy. It made him feel a bit more like he wasn’t that unnatural like everyone said he was.

The next few weeks Sephiroth spent with Angeal and Genesis. They went to see this new play called LOVELESS and it turned out it was the very same storyline as the one in the book Genesis barely put down.

Sephiroth didn’t really get the point of the story, but it didn’t bother him. He was perfectly content to spend time with his friends and to hear Genesis being excited about something.

Usually, he was focused on his training and how he wanted to get as good as Sephiroth so he could one day take his spot as Shinra’s poster boy. But right now, he was even more focused on LOVELESS and how the ending would play out if they were ever to enact a second part.

It made Sephiroth feel whole to listen to the ramblings of a dear friend. He may not get what Genesis was talking about, but he would try to put in an effort to understand the plotline of LOVELESS.

That’s what friends do, right?

After they had watched LOVELESS it was Angeal’s turn to take them out somewhere nice. He had settled on a huge greenhouse that hosted a variety of plants found on Gaia.

Sephiroth remembered that Angeal’s room was filled with lots of plants and how lovingly he tended to them. There was something endearing about watching him care for his plants with a calm expression.

Moments like these made him feel content and like he was living a completely different life than he actually does.

Sephiroth made a mental note to look up things about plants and how to care for them. He wasn’t that much into plants, but it made him happy to imagine being able to understand what Angeal meant when he told them about how often to water a monstera.

That’s what friends do, right?

When they had their first argument Sephiroth felt like he was suffocating. Like all the feelings inside his body were trying to strangle him. Was he going to lose his two only friends?

His fears quickly subsided when the argument had been talked about and it turned out to be based on a bad misunderstanding. Everyone apologized and things seemed like they were going back to normal.

But ever since then Sephiroth had been plagued with the fear of losing his friends. He enjoyed spending time with them both. If they ever left, they would tell him, right?

That’s what friends do, right?

Chapter Text

It was a clear summer night, the stars were perfectly visible, and a calm breeze blew through the countryside, rustling the leaves in the trees nearby.

Sephiroth sat outside their cottage, enjoying the peace and quiet the night offered him. Moments like these made him reminisce the past, thinking back on old times with a fond expression.

He heard the door behind him open and close softly, alerting him to the presence of someone else. Judging by the soft sounds of shoes touching the grass he could tell it was his daughter. She always tiptoed around when she tried to not disturb someone.

Ever since he came back, she had been glued to his side. Sometimes without even saying anything, just existing next to him. He enjoyed those moments, though he wasn’t sure if she knew that. She was a very hard individual to read.

Not that Sephiroth had ever been good at reading people.

“Dad…?” Her voice was calm and had a hint of curiosity to it. Hearing her call him dad felt… weird. Sephiroth didn’t feel like he was deserving of that title. After all the pain and destruction he had wrought, it wasn’t something he deserved. He was the reason for her suffering and everyone else’s.

And yet she insisted on calling him that.

“What is it?” He tried to conceal the turmoil that was going on inside his head. The emotions running haywire and becoming one big blur.

“Can you tell me about the stars?” She pointed at the sky with a smile on her face. A smile so soft that it could melt his heart. So innocent but at the same time hiding all the pain she had been through.

“What do you want to know? Anything specific?”

She shook her head and sat down next to him. “Tell me anything that comes to your mind. Like… isn’t that constellation called ‘Shiva’?” Once again, she pointed at the clear sky.

Sephiroth nodded. “It is. And that one next to it is ‘Ramuh’. Every summon has their own constellation. But you can only see a few of them at a time.”

She made a hum noise, indicating that she was listening.

“If you look that way-“, he pointed a little bit more to the side of Ramuh. “You can see Alexander and Odin.”

Shinju made a sound of amazement and when he looked over, he could see the starry sky reflect in her eyes. Eyes that looked just like his, piercing and calculating but also full of so much kindness and love.

“Do you think it’s possible to go into outer space and visit other planets? I would love to do that.”

Sephiroth felt like he was choking on the air that had been in his lungs. He tried very hard to not cough but failed terribly.

Shinju turned to look at him, a concerned expression on her face. “I said something wrong, didn’t I?” Her voice had a sad tint to it.

“Don’t worry. You just surprised me, that’s all.” He reached out to pat her little head, but Shinju started pouting, not convinced of his terrible attempt at lying to make her feel better.

She probably felt the tug as well. The aching need to go explore, the want to reunite with their mother. To conquer more planets and sail on them around the cosmos.

“Papa sometimes says that you fought over something very important. Was it the starry sky?” Of course, Cloud had shared some stuff with their daughter. It was only natural to sate her curiosity bit by bit. Keeping her in the dark would do no good.

Sephiroth felt her head lean against his shoulder, her soft hair tickling his bare arm. A sigh left her, and it seemed as if she had fallen asleep.

“Can you tell me a story about the cosmos?”

She was not asleep. Most likely kept awake by the curiosity nagging at her very being. It sometimes felt like she was never satisfied, how she continued asking question after question. He knew it was her right to know everything, to paint her own picture of the world.

But at the same time, he was afraid she would hate him. That her soft expressions would be exchanged for hateful ones. She was like a star, shimmering and beautiful. Ethereal and untainted.

If he could keep that innocence forever, he would, even if it meant fighting the whole world.

Shinju tapped his arm to get his attention again. “Dad? Are you spacing out?”

Her brutal honesty snapped him out of his thoughts and made him chuckle a bit. “I’m sorry, it seems my thoughts occupied me more than I thought they would.”

She smiled at him, though it seemed like she had something on her mind for her smile soon vanished again. “Is mother… out there?”

Sephiroth felt the tug, the yearning. Ever since he came back from the Lifestream Jenova had been an off-limits topic. Mostly because Cloud refused to talk about it, but also because Sephiroth himself wasn’t too keen on sharing this story with their daughter.

Shinju had every right to know of the strange sensations she sometimes felt, why she was so fascinated by other planets and the stars, why her eyes had slit pupils and not normal ones like Cloud.

“She’s not your mother, Shinju.”

“I know but it feels like she is.”

“That’s a lie.”

It took him quite some time to figure that out for himself. But he could say with confidence now that he had been carefully fed a lie his entire time at Shinra. Everything had been planned as part of Hojo’s immoral experiments. Jenova wasn’t his mother, and neither was she Shinju’s or Cloud’s.

“So, these sensations I feel are also just a lie?”

Sephiroth sighed and looked at the sky. Of course, Cloud had to be out on a delivery when Shinju asked the most important questions.

“Should I tell you the story about the cosmos?”

She nodded and closed her eyes, ready to fully immerse herself in the story Sephiroth was going to tell her.

“Thousands of years ago a meteorite hit this planet. It was Jenova. She had sailed the cosmos before and laid waste to several planets, this one would be no different. The ancients were infiltrated by her and one by one they got taken out until there was only one left. Like a parasite she made everything crumble.”

Sephiroth turned to look at Shinju, her eyes were still closed.

“Shinra assumed that Jenova was an ancient and tried to recreate an offspring that would lead them to the Promised Land. That’s how I was born. In turn, that gave life to SOLDIER. It wasn’t until much later that it was discovered that Jenova wasn’t an ancient but instead some sort of alien.”

It reminded him of his plan to sail the cosmos with this planet as his vessel. When he had still been grieving a normal life he never got. Looking at his daughter now with her almost serene expression as she listened to his tale, he couldn’t imagine doing that anymore.

“I had planned to sail the cosmos with this planet as my vessel, just as Jenova did. Cloud stopped me again and again, as you already know by now.”

Shinju laughed. “He told me he gave you a good ‘ass whooping’ and that was enough to change your mind.”

Sephiroth smiled. He had built up this new life with them on the outskirts of Edge, had a little cottage to call their home and a job that made him feel fulfilled. There was no need to sail the cosmos anymore.

Chapter Text

It had been a week since Sephiroth got thrown out of the Lifestream, back into the world of the living. Things had been rather difficult with Cloud trying to convince his friends of Sephiroth being innocent this time around. He would go above and beyond to prove to them that Sephiroth would atone for his mistakes.

At first, he didn’t really understand why Cloud did this. No one probably did.

Cloud never really elaborated much on why he wanted Sephiroth to stick around, the only thing he said continuously was that he was “doing it for their daughter”.

Daughter. Their daughter.

It felt weird to call her that. Sephiroth knew of the circumstances and why Cloud referred to her with that word, but it still felt unusual. He didn’t feel like much of a father currently, not while he was trying to ignore her very existence, pretending like she wasn’t there.

Cloud would scold him about it whenever they were alone. Sometimes almost begging him to give her a chance, to see beyond the messy affairs that brought her to life. She deserved to have at least somewhat of a family.

Sephiroth didn’t like that Cloud referred to them as family. It was as if he had forgotten about all the times Sephiroth had tried to kill him. He didn’t want his hatred, but he also didn’t like how much Cloud showered him with love and affection, for giving him a second chance.

Whenever Sephiroth talked to Cloud about that he kept repeating his statement of doing it for their daughter. There was no way he was only doing all of this just for a child.

Sephiroth tried to treat Shinju more like a person after that, but it was still hard to look at her face and to be near her. Which was a problem because apparently, she was a very cuddly pre-teen. She loved to sit on his lap or to spend her time next to him, quite literally.

Sometimes he wondered if she charged her power up like that or if she really enjoyed being in his company. Though she also did this with Cloud.

At the back of his mind, he knew why. Cloud had told him all about it.

Sephiroth decided to ignore it.

It took him another week to look at her face and not see his younger self smiling up at him. That was around the time he noticed she had lost one of her teeth. For some reason it made him feel a certain way, but he couldn’t really pinpoint what it was.

Fatherly love? Maybe.

During that week Sephiroth caught himself thinking more about the Reunion theory Hojo tried to test. As much as it pained him to admit it, maybe that was the reason he had been thrown out of the Lifestream. Because the cells had reacted to the ones Cloud and Shinju carried?

The word Reunion had been so heavily associated with Hojo and Jenova that Sephiroth barely recognized it as a normal word meaning something more peaceful.

His entire world view had been warped by Hojo. He didn’t want to make Shinju suffer the same withdrawal from parental love even though he had been absent for eleven years of her life. Neither of them got to see her grow up, take her first steps, or speak her first word.

And it was all because of a mad scientist and his obsession about testing a theory.

When Sephiroth came home one day Shinju greeted him as usual with a hug. He had gotten used to those by now and patted the back of her head.

Cloud was also home already, which was a bit of a rare sight. Usually, he was still out and about doing deliveries. Probably a slow day.

“Reunion!”

Sephiroth felt like his blood froze. When he looked at Cloud, he had an expression on his face that portrayed equal horror at the word Shinju had just said.

“We’re all reunited!”

Shinju was jumping up and down and had a big smile on her face.

Sephiroth looked at Cloud again and his facial expression looked like he was saying ‘It wasn’t me.’. A sigh left his mouth and Shinju stopped jumping to look at him in surprise.

“Is something wrong?” She turned to look at Cloud who tried his best to smile at her, but it turned into a very lopsided one. Their daughter had no idea about what went on in her parents’ heads and Sephiroth hoped Cloud would keep his mouth shut.

“You just surprised us. That’s all.” This time around Cloud smiled a bit better and got down on his knees to offer Shinju a hug. She took it eagerly and laughed a bit.

“You looked like you had seen a ghost! Hehehe.”

Well, Sephiroth certainly felt like he did.

Later that night when Shinju was sleeping and Sephiroth decided to sit on their couch in the living room to read the newspaper, he got joined by Cloud who plopped down next to him.

“We gotta tell her at some point.”

Sephiroth hummed in response but kept his eyes glued to the newspaper as if it was the most interesting article he had ever read.

“She deserves to know, don’t you think?”

He didn’t know what to respond to that. Shinju definitely deserved to know the truth about her upbringing. But a part of him feared that she would turn out in the same way as he did.

“She does. Though we should be careful about how we tell her.”

Cloud huffed. “Do you really think I’m going to hit her with the raw truth and walk away? I care about her, Sephiroth. I don’t know if you do, but I want only the best for her.”

“I do care about her. She reminds me of myself, that’s all.”

“Then you should tell her about it. Tell her the truth about Jenova.”

“I don’t know if I’m the right person to tell her that.”

“You are.” Cloud spoke with such confidence in his voice that it kinda took him aback. “If anyone would be fit to tell her about it then it would be you. You have been manipulated by this theory the most out of us three.”

Maybe he was. But none of them were really fit to say anything against it when they always proved the theory right by craving each other’s company.

Chapter Text

One day Shinju came back home with big round tears running down her face. When asked what happened she could only shake her head and more tears would come out.

Sephiroth felt like this was the biggest challenge he had to fear in life. Parenthood as a whole was a challenge for him. And he hadn’t even asked for it in the first place.

But he wanted to try his best anyway because once again, Cloud was not home. It almost felt like he did it on purpose to force Sephiroth into unknown situations that he didn’t know how to navigate. Though Sephiroth knew that he was just busy with his deliveries, it was that time of the year again.

Usually, being alone in a situation like this with Shinju would make him very agitated, but right now he felt like he was going to fine with handling this situation.

Little did he know that it wasn’t that easy.

Once Shinju had eaten something and calmed down, she approached Sephiroth. Her eyes were still red and a bit swollen, indicating that she had been crying for hours.

“Dad, do you think I’m a monster?”

Luckily, Sephiroth hadn’t been drinking something at this very moment or else he would’ve probably spat it out again.

Of course, moments like these had to happen when Cloud wasn’t home to support him with his terrible job at parenting.

“What makes you say that?” It was a stupid question. He knew why she would ask that. There was only one reason why she would ask this in relation to herself.

It reminded him of his childhood. If you could even call that a childhood. Shinju probably felt the same way, he had never tried to ask her about it, too scared to hear about the horrifying things Hojo made her do.

Shinju started fidgeting around with her hands, avoiding eye contact. “Someone at school called me a monster because of my eyes. They said that I should go back to being a soldier.”

Sephiroth knew that it would happen at some point. And yet he felt very unprepared for the situation.

There were a million words running through his mind, but none seemed fit to help her understand that she wasn’t a monster, even if someone had labeled her that growing up.

He knew what it felt like to labeled as a monster. Several higher ups at Shinra had done it and if he had gone to school like Shinju does, he would’ve most likely been targeted there too.

“That’s nonsense. Your eyes are very beautiful and unique. Not to mention that you shouldn’t go back to being a solider. You deserve to have a calm childhood.” Shinju sniffed and looked at him, tears coming up in her eyes again. “You really think so?”

Sephiroth nodded. Part of him wanted to find the parents of the child and scold them for insulting Shinju. And then there was the more violent part that wanted to punish them for making her cry.

He pushed both thoughts aside and tried to focus on helping Shinju through this tough situation. Even though he had no clue how to help her. No one had ever bothered to be at his side and to support him.

“Not everyone can say that they have green eyes. They look good. And every child needs to have a proper childhood, there’s no arguing with that.”

“But that kid said my pupils are scary… and that… that they’re indicating I’m an abomination.”

Maybe it wouldn’t be that bad to go through with his more violent plan.

“Shinju.” Sephiroth turned to look her in the eyes. “You are a wonderful child, not a monster. Your eyes may look different, but that doesn’t change the fact that you are a wonderful human being.”

Oh, how he had wished that someone would’ve said these words to him when he was younger. Now he didn’t need them anymore, but back then he did.

“Papa thinks the same about you, doesn’t he?”

“What makes you think that?”

Shinju tapped her chin in thought. “Well… you have the same eyes as I do, and he isn’t scared of you. And he told me that he really likes you. Wait. That was a secret!”

Sephiroth pretended he didn’t hear the last part of it.

“Maybe if you come to school with me next time around, they’ll realize that I’m not that bad!”

“I don’t think that’s going to be a very good idea…”

Chapter Text

Sephiroth and Cloud had a strange relationship with each other, that much was clear even to outsiders. There was this certain tension surrounding them that kept creeping into every conversation, whether they were alone or not.

The fighting had ceased, and they didn’t count as nemeses anymore. Sephiroth found that particular part surprising and caught himself thinking about it often.

Cloud had immediately accepted him back, as if he knew the Lifestream would throw him out at some point. There had been no hostility on his part, only forgiveness.

Sometimes Sephiroth wondered if it was only because of their daughter or if there was more to it, some tiny detail that he missed. Not that he would find it.

Cloud was very secretive about his feelings, especially the one targeted at Sephiroth. When asked about it he would usually find a way to make it about their daughter again.

It was easy to use an innocent child as your reason for inviting your ex-nemesis to live with you instead of admitting that you were still attracted to said person. That was no secret to Sephiroth.

Even though they had been fighting several times he could always see the longing in Cloud’s eyes. It was subtle, but it was there.

Sephiroth didn’t really care about it back then. There was no room for a relationship in his plans and letting someone that close to him was practically a death sentence.

He had vowed to never let anyone near him again. And yet here he was, playing house with his ex-nemesis.

Or perhaps it wasn’t playing anymore. Sephiroth wouldn’t know.

It was dinner time again and Sephiroth thought back to how had always dreaded those in the beginning. He wasn’t used to spending time with a family or eat dinner together.

Hojo never did that.

Sephiroth would’ve declined anyway. That man wasn’t his father, nor was his mother any better.

Cooking together was also another sore spot for him. He enjoyed it, especially because Cloud was apparently very bad at it. But every time all three of them got together to make something nice he felt like something inside him was hurting.

Maybe he had cooked together with Angeal and Genesis? Sephiroth didn’t remember the time before the Nibelheim incident that well. Everything had become a blur after he shed all the memories.

The few memories he got back or retained for some reason were few. And most of them weren’t that nice anyway.

Cloud always pointed out how they could make new memories. Sephiroth had never noticed how much Cloud talked about spending time with Sephiroth. He knew that there was some sort of relationship developing between them.

A smirk made its way onto Sephiroth’s face as he thought about the possibility of dating Cloud at some point. Wouldn’t that be funny, dating his ex-nemesis?

“What are you smiling about?” Cloud pulled him out of his thoughts with a tap on his shoulder.

“Oh nothing. Just remembered something.”

Cloud gave him a hum as a response and dropped the subject.

Sephiroth made a mental note to talk to Cloud about his feelings at some point. Perhaps he was reading too much into it because of the tiny part inside himself that yearned to have someone love him back.

At first, they ate dinner in silence, it didn’t bother Sephiroth that much. He was content with spending his time in peaceful silence.

“I like spending time together like this.” Shinju smiled at both of them. “It makes me very happy.”

Sephiroth partially picked Cloud’s response up, but his brain was already detaching himself from the situation, thinking about a lot of things again.

There was something humorous about the situation he was in. Eating dinner with his ex-nemesis and their daughter? Who would’ve thought that he’d end up in a situation like this?

Not him.

Though of course there had always been that part inside him, yearning to be in this position. Even though he was aware of the pain it brought.

After all, he had never been raised in a proper family.

Chapter Text

When Sephiroth felt his body touch a soft surface he immediately knew that he was no longer in the Lifestream. For whatever reason he had been thrown out of it, back into the world of the living.

Part of him suspected this was the doing of the flower girl. What was her name again?

He didn’t remember.

Everything was a blur of emotions and memories flowing back into his corporeal form, it was a bit overwhelming to say the least. Sephiroth groaned and finally opened his eyes, taking in his surroundings.

The location he was currently in was unknown to him. That everything was in ruins didn’t help either to pinpoint where on Gaia he was.

Before he could investigate this mysterious place, he got hit by a fire spell, alerting him to the presence of someone else. Summoning Masamune was no problem, it just appeared in his hand when he felt his body working on reflex to hold of another stream of red magic.

The person standing in front of him had a hood covering their face, the form was very lithe, and the weapon of choice indicated they were a red mage. It wasn’t Cloud at least.

“Finally, you dare to show yourself!” The voice confirmed the person to be a teenage girl or at least close to that age.

Without warning she surged forward and clashed her sword with Sephiroth’s. The wind that whirled up made her hood fly back, revealing her face.

Sephiroth felt his breath get stuck in his throat.

She had his eyes. No one except him had those eyes.

“Who are you?”

She laughed. “Shouldn’t you know?”

Sephiroth seized this opportunity to throw her back. With a groan she got up from the rubble, ready to strike again.

“I was trained for this very purpose… I won’t lose to you!” She grabbed her rapier and got ready to lunge at Sephiroth again when a familiar voice stopped her in her tracks.

“Shinju stop!”

He knew that voice. That was Cloud.

Sephiroth watched him come into view, Fusion Sword in one hand.

“Cloud.”

“Sephiroth.”

They continued to stare at each other in silence. Shinju sheathed her rapier, looking content to stop fighting.

Sephiroth motioned to Shinju. “Who is she?”

“Your daughter. Or more like, she’s related to both of us.” Cloud avoided his eye contact and it made Sephiroth feel very itchy.

It didn’t make any sense to him that this girl would be related to both of them. Though some part of him already knew that it would make sense under one particular circumstance.

Cloud turned to Shinju and motioned towards the entryway of the building they were in. “Wait outside. I’ll come get you when I’m done, okay?”

She nodded and made her way outside, looking over her shoulder one last time with a smile on her face.

To say that Sephiroth was confused was an understatement. For once he felt like he wasn’t in control of the things happening around him. That alone already made him feel very uncomfortable. Cloud behaving out of the ordinary and their supposed daughter being with him made everything even more confusing.

They sat down on a bench that was still in relatively good shape. Cloud had one hand on his sword still, but it was sheathed by now.

Sephiroth had no need to keep Masamune on his hands at all times and had decided to lean it next to him against the bench.

“So, you’ve been reborn.”

“So it seems.”

Cloud was very calm, and it irritated him. By now they would’ve started fighting again.

Yet here they were, sitting next to each other in the ruins of some church while their supposed daughter was waiting outside.

“Who is she?” Sephiroth pointed towards the entrance.

Cloud sighed. “As I said before, our daughter. Her name is Shinju.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.” Sephiroth felt like that sentence described the current situation pretty well. Most likely everything that had happened until now could be described with that too.

“Believe me, when I met her and she greeted me with ‘Papa’ I was very taken aback. But she’s really related to us, I’ve read the reports.”

He felt like his blood went cold. Reports could only mean one thing and Sephiroth didn’t like the implication behind it.

“Hojo?”

Cloud nodded. “Apparently he took my cells when I tried to audition for SOLDIER and just kept them around. Merging them together with your and Jenova’s cells as well as mako gave birth to her.”

Sephiroth had always known that Hojo performed immoral experiments. He himself was proof of that. But that he would do the very same thing again was disgusting.

“She was supposed to test the Reunion theory. Didn’t quite work out like he wanted it to, so he made her suffer through more experiments in order to hone her skills. The end goal was to make both of you fight in order to see what would happen.”

It didn’t surprise him at all that Hojo had been so hell bent on testing his Reunion theory. By now Sephiroth suspected that a lot of things had been done on purpose to test the very same with him. His time in the Lifestream gave him plenty of opportunities to think about his past mistakes.

“How old was she when you found her?”

“She was six. Very traumatized by what had happened to her by then. Hojo had forced her to fight against an AI version of you almost daily until she finally beat it at some point.”

Was that why she had commented on being trained for this very purpose?

“Another question.”

Cloud hummed. “Go for it.”

“Why are you so calm in spite of all of this? After all I was just thrown out of the Lifestream. By now you would’ve tried to get my head for just appearing again.”

“I don’t want to fight anymore. When you try to raise a child that is somehow yours, you start to view things differently. She deserves a world without pain and constant fighting. As do you.”

Sephiroth wasn’t sure if Cloud was just pretending to be nice in order to get him to let his guard down. Or perhaps he was genuinely meaning everything he said.

“Does she know what I’ve done?”

“Of course she does. She was either there to see it herself or got the story afterwards.”

Was that why she was so angry?

“Seems like she doesn’t like me though.”

Cloud shook his head.

“Shinju thinks you can decide to be reborn whenever you want. She met the Remnants and mistook them for you at first. So you not appearing for two years made her feel like you abandoned her on purpose because she couldn’t positively have beaten you the last time we fought.”

“I don’t think I could stick around now anyway, everyone knows what I have done. There’s no atoning for that. Better to send me back to the Lifestream again.”

“Obviously I can’t force you to come with us because it’s your decision in the end. But I think she would enjoy having a family. You were reborn for a reason.”

Sephiroth raised an eyebrow at Cloud who just shrugged.

“Aerith told me that your presence in the Lifestream tainted it, so you had to be either kicked out of it or she would have to exhaust her powers even further.”

Aerith… Wasn’t that the name of the flower girl? The one he killed in front of Cloud.

“I’m sorry for killing her.”

Cloud got up and turned his back to him.

“Don’t apologize to me.” Apologize to her.