Flip Side of the Mirror

By T'Shael

Chapter 5

Aeris was up before Sephiroth the next morning. She went downstairs to find Elmyra making breakfast. She sat at the table.

"When are you going to give me a chance to cook for you?" she asked. "I'm beginning to think you don't trust me in the kitchen."

"I need to keep busy," her mother said. "It helps me think."

"You're worried about last night aren't you?" asked Aeris. "I'm sorry you had to witness that."

"I agreed with Sephiroth." Elmyra sprinkled salt in a pot and closed the lid. "I didn't see anything wrong with what he said. Cloud is a ruffian. I knew that when I first laid eyes on him."

"Cloud isn't a ruffian," said Aeris. "Cloud and Sephiroth don't get along, so they tend to goad each other into confrontations. I was part of the reason Cloud and Tifa were having problems. They needed time to work them out. They didn't leave those samples in the lab out of carelessness."

"I know what you're saying Aeris, but you don't know what's out there. Cloud should have finished the job."

"Cloud feels bad enough without us beating him over the head," said Aeris. "Please don't blame him Mother. If there's something out there, we'll deal with it when the time comes."

Elmyra put down the spoon she'd been using and sat down at the table with Aeris. "What would Sephiroth have done to Cloud if you hadn't stopped him?"

Aeris cringed inwardly. She'd hoped her mother hadn't noticed that. She formed her answer carefully. "He would have used a stronger spell to retaliate and the fight would have escalated from there."

Elmyra looked into Aeris' eyes. "You're not telling me everything."

"You worry too much Mom," said Aeris. "Sephiroth isn't the same person who called Meteor."

"But he can be dangerous if he wants to be, right?"

"Anyone can be dangerous if they chose to be Mom," replied Aeris.

"What does Sephiroth choose?"

"You're changing your mind again, aren't you?" Aeris kept her face composed. "You think I'm making a mistake."

Her mother shook her head. "I haven't changed my mind."

Aeris breathed a sigh of relief.

Elmyra folded her arms. "It suddenly dawned on me that it might be a good thing if Sephiroth hasn't changed completely,"

Aeris looked surprised. "Why do you say that?"

Elmyra sat back with a smug look on her face. "I have a feeling Sephiroth is going to keep you out of mischief a lot better than I ever could."

Aeris thought about the cellar and grinned. "You're probably right."

The rest of the week was uneventful. Since the confrontation with Cloud, Elmyra's attitude toward Sephiroth changed drastically. Aeris' attempts to get her mother to see Cloud in a different light failed. She resolved to keep working on Elmyra until she forgave Cloud for "luring" Aeris away from home.

On the last day of her visit, Cid came for Elmyra in the Highwind. Aeris and Sephiroth waved as it rose into the air moved away from them.

"I told you, you would get along with Mom," said Aeris. "I was right, wasn't I?"

"I have Cloud to thank for part of that." Sephiroth tightened his arm around her waist.

"I wish you would learn to get along with him," said Aeris. "I'm still trying to convince Mom Cloud isn't the villain she thinks he is."

Sephiroth changed the subject. "Does it feel odd to call Elmyra "Mother" when you know she's not? Does she replace your real mother?"

Aeris shook her head. "I don't remember my birth mother, but I love her just the same. She made a very hard choice under very hard circumstances. She was dying but she trusted Elmyra with my life."

She pointed at the Highwind. "That woman up there is just as much my mother as if I'd been born to her. I'll always love her."

"Aeris?" Sephiroth hesitated, "What if you die before me and go to the Promised Land? Where does that leave me?"

"If my father can go to the Promised Land, so can you," said Aeris. "If I die before you, I want you to go on with your life. I'll wait for you until it's time for you to join me."

"What if I'm an old man by then?"

She ran her fingers through a strand of his hair.

"Maybe I like old men."

He didn't smile.

"What if I die before you?" he asked.

"Don't worry, my people will make sure you're there to wait for me," she answered. "We marry for life Sephiroth. You're stuck with me."

"That sounds like a prison term,"

"You'd better believe it mister," Aeris grinned.

"You go to a different level of existence," mused Sephiroth. "Do the Cetra ever die? I still don't understand that part."

"We die," she said. "We just take a longer time to do it. Come on. Let's go home."

They turned toward the glacier.

"Uh-oh." Aeris froze in place.

Sephiroth stopped and looked at her. "What is it?"

"I just caught a glimpse of something ducking behind that hill up there," said Aeris. "I can't be sure, but I think it was a Bandersnatch."

Sephiroth unsheathed his sword.

Goldie raised his head and snorted.

Aeris raised her Princess Guard.

Goldie began stamp his feet.

Three Bandersnatches appeared on the hill in front of them. They were joined by seven more.

"Sephiroth?" Aeris glanced at him. "I think we're in trouble."

"Get on the chocobo." Sephiroth moved to put Goldie behind him.

"What about you?" she asked.

"Do as I say Aeris!" His tone left no room for argument.

Aeris climbed on Goldie's back.

"I'm on," she said. "Come on Sephiroth."

The Bandersnatches began to growl.

Sephiroth backed up until he was right beside Goldie.

"Come on Sephiroth," pleaded Aeris keeping her eyes on the creatures. "Hurry up!"

The Bandersnatches launched themselves down the glacier. They were coming fast. Three more followed the first ten. Sephiroth whirled around and jumped on Goldie's back behind Aeris. He grabbed the reins and turned the chocobo toward the sea. Goldie didn't need anyone to tell him to go. He charged across the ground as if he'd been fired out of a cannon. The pack was almost on their heels.

The chocobo jumped off the edge of the peninsula and hit the water running. Five of the wolf-like creatures couldn't stop in time. They slid into the water howling. The cold water stiffened their joints and made their wooly coats heavy. They couldn't pull themselves up the sides of the steep bank. Their companions watched as they sank beneath the water.

"Whew! That was close!" said Aeris. "I've never seen such a large pack before."

"They've probably eaten up most of the small monsters," said Sephiroth. "Looks like I'll have to take the mayor up on his offer to kill off the monsters on the glaciers after all."

"That's a good idea," said Aeris. "I'll help you."

"You'll do nothing of the kind," said Sephiroth as he allowed Goldie to trot along the shoreline toward the Icicle Lodge. "You'll stay home where I know you're safe. Maybe I'll send you to your mother until the job is done."

"Don't be silly. It will be a good opportunity for me to use the skills you taught me," said Aeris. "Besides, that, we could get paid twice as much. I'd worry about you if you were out there alone."

"Your mother said you were hardheaded," said Sephiroth. "I'm beginning to see what she meant. First you complain because I won't let you go anywhere without me, now you're complaining because I'm trying to send you some place I won't be. You're already nagging me and we're not even married yet."

"Now you've gone and hurt my feelings," Aeris laughed. "I'm going to stay awake all night feeling sorry for myself."

Sephiroth shook his head. "What am I going to do with you?"

"Marry me?" she suggested.

Sephiroth laughed.

They could see the lights of the Icicle Lodge from the water now. Sephiroth let Goldie come ashore. The shoreline was steep and the chocobo slipped a little, as he climbed up the slope. He lost his footing for a moment and made a powerful jump to get to level ground. The jolt caused Aeris to drop her Princess Guard. Goldie ran a short distance before Sephiroth brought him to a stop.

The staff lay in the snow at the edge of the slope. Sephiroth climbed off Goldie to get it but Aeris hopped off too.

"I'll get it!" she said, running toward the weapon.

Sephiroth shook his head and climbed back on the chocobo. As Aeris leaned over to pick up her weapon, the Planet cried out. A pain shot through Sephiroth's head and an icy chill wrapped its arms around him. He lost control of his limbs. They jerked and twitched with a mind of their own. Goldie warked in alarm and bucked. Sephiroth fell onto face first into the snow.

The cold white powder went up his nose and mouth. He couldn't draw a breath and he couldn't roll over. Just as he felt he would black out. The Planet stopped calling. Quickly he sat up spitting snow out of his mouth. He gasped for breath. He cleared his eyes and nostrils, feeling a rush of anger at AVALANCHE. He turned to make sure Aeris was all right. She was nowhere in sight.

He climbed to his feet. "Aeris?"

She didn't answer.

Her Princess Guard was laying in the same spot as before. A wave of horror washed over him. He raced to the shore. The slope dropped into the sea. Sephiroth caught a glimpse of golden brown hair sinking beneath the surface of the water.

Crying out in alarm, he slid down the incline. It offered no handholds. He braced himself as best as he could as he dropped to his hands and knees. He plunged his hand into the chilly water. Something curled around his hand. He grabbed it and pulled hard. Aeris' head broke the surface. Sephiroth saw a pale blue face.

He pulled again. Aeris slid out of the water up to her shoulders. He let go of her hair and grabbed at the collar of her coat. He managed to grab a handful of wet material before she could slide back into the water. The wet fabric made her heavier than she really was. He could only pull her another inch out of the water. He didn't have the leverage to move her any further.

If he tried to move his feet he would slip and fall into the water with her. As his mind raced to come up with a solution, Goldie's reins suddenly dropped close to his left hand. Sephiroth looked up. The gold chocobo stood at the top of the slope looking down. He warked softly at Sephiroth.

Sephiroth grabbed the reins hoping he wouldn't pull the chocobo down on top of them. To his surprise, Goldie began to back away from the water. Sephiroth held onto Aeris. Goldie warked when the reins tightened and dug in, pulling harder. To help him, Sephiroth used his feet as much as possible to pull Aeris and himself closer to the top of the slope. Little by little Aeris slid out of the water. When Goldie pulled them far enough for him to find firm footing, he released the reins, reached for Aeris, and pulled her to safety. Her body was ice cold. She wasn't breathing. Sephiroth couldn't find a pulse.

Fighting panic, Sephiroth carried her to level ground and pulled off her heavy wet coat. He tossed it aside. He removed his own and wrapped her in it. Calling on his knowledge from the Shinra military training school he began CPR.

"Breathe Aeris," he gasped breaths. "Breathe!"

She wasn't responding. He kept working on her.

"Please breathe!"

Part of his mind said she was dead and he was fighting a losing battle, but the other part refused to give up. He would breathe for her all night if he had to. Sephiroth massaged Aeris' chest and blew into her mouth again. He'd been at it for almost five minutes when she suddenly coughed. Water bubbled over her lips. Quickly Sephiroth raised her head and turned her body so she could cough it up. The water stopped coming and Aeris gasped for breath. Her lips lost some of their blueness. She began to shiver.

"Can you hear me Aeris?" asked Sephiroth. "Speak to me!"

"I-I-I-I'm s-s-s-s-so c-c-c-c-cold!" Her body shook in the frosty air.

Sephiroth knew he had to get her body temperature up soon, or she would die of exposure. As he wrapped her in his coat, he began to notice the cold through his clothes for the first time. He fought to keep his teeth from chattering. Goldie stood nearby watching him. Sephiroth picked up Aeris and carried her to the chocobo, kicking her staff along in front of him as he went.

"Down Goldie," ordered Sephiroth.

Obediently, the chocobo sat down in the snow. Sephiroth too worried about Aeris to wonder about it. He'd never taught the chocobo to kneel. He climbed aboard with Aeris in his arms. He slid the staff in its holder.

"Up Goldie." The chocobo stood and Sephiroth turned him toward the Icicle Lodge. Aeris wanted to go to sleep but Sephiroth kept asking her questions and demanding that she answer him. Racing at top speed, Goldie made it to the Icicle Lodge in less than ten minutes. Forgetting to tie the chocobo, Sephiroth raced into the Lodge with Aeris in his arms.

"I need a doctor quick!" he shouted at the frightened desk clerk. "This woman is freezing to death!"

A guest was coming downstairs.

"I'm a doctor," he said. He took one look at Aeris and pointed toward a flight of stairs leading down to the basement. "We have to get her downstairs fast!"

Sephiroth carried Aeris downstairs. She was trying to go to sleep again. He shook her awake. He followed the doctor down a short hallway. They entered a large room with an indoor swimming pool and a hot tub.

The doctor pointed to the hot tub. "Take her over there."

Sephiroth carried Aeris to the edge of the tub and laid her down while the doctor checked the temperature of the water.

"We have to warm her up slowly or she'll go into shock," he explained.

The desk clerk came running with blankets.

The doctor turned to Sephiroth. "The water is perfect. They haven't turned up the temperature for the day yet. Help me get her into the water. Never mind her clothes!"

Slowly Sephiroth and the doctor eased Aeris into the warm water.

"Keep her head up!" warned the doctor.

A woman reading a magazine nearby saw what was happening and climbed into the water with Aeris to help them keep her head up. The doctor kept Aeris in the tub until he was satisfied with her body temperature.

Aeris was asleep. Sephiroth stood at the window. It was beginning to snow, but he wasn't watching at the twirling snowflakes. He'd almost lost Aeris. He promised himself he would never cry again after he left the Lifestream, but as he turned to gaze at Aeris' peaceful face, he felt the salty sting of tears. Sephiroth closed his eyes and fought for control of his emotions. He would not cry! He brushed at his eyes angrily. She was safe now. That's all that mattered. She was safe. He went on gazing out the window.

Aeris woke up in a king sized bed in an unfamiliar room. Sephiroth was standing with his back to her, looking out the window.

"Sephiroth?"

He turned to look at her, then moved quickly to her side.

"How do you feel?" he asked.

"I'm worn out," she answered. "Where are we? How did we get here?"

"You're in one of the best rooms in the Icicle Lodge, compliments of the management," replied Sephiroth. "You tried to drown in the ocean. When you failed at that, you tried to freeze to death on the glacier."

Aeris looked puzzled for a moment, then her face cleared. "We were attacked."

"We got away from the pack," said Sephiroth. "You fell in the water when you tried to get your staff."

"I remember now," she said. "The planet called. I couldn't stop myself from falling and I couldn't get out of the water when I did."

Sephiroth reached for her hand. "Goldie and I got you out."

"I'm sorry if I frightened you," Aeris said softly. "I should have been more careful."

"You didn't know the Planet would call when it did," replied Sephiroth. "I blame this all on AVALANCHE. If they'd gone back and destroyed those Jenova samples when they should have, none of this would be happening now."

"Don't be too hard on them Sephiroth," said Aeris. "We all make mistakes and some of them had problems couldn't be helped. We got past Hojo and Zephiroth. We'll get through this somehow."

"If anything happens to you, because of their carelessness, I'll kill every last one of them" he said.

Aeris' eyes grew large. "Don't say that. Don't even think that!"

"I'm serious Aeris," he said. "You are the best thing that ever happened in my life. I won't lose you because of them."

"You can't destroy things, or people, just because you get angry Sephiroth," said Aeris. "That was how Jenova got to you before."

"Jenova is dead," said Sephiroth. "Besides, she has nothing to do with this."

"That still doesn't make it right," said Aeris. "When you turned to evil before, it was because of Jenova. If you turn to evil on your own, how long will it be before you start thinking her plan to injure the planet wasn't such a bad idea after all?"

"I won't hurt the Planet again Aeris," he said. "I'm over that."

"Make me a promise," she said.

"If you're going to make me promise not to kill them if anything happens to you, you can forget it," said Sephiroth. "If I lose you, they lose their lives. All of them and I'll start with Cloud first."

"You're free to choose your own path in this world, Sephiroth," said Aeris, "But don't make me the reason for cold blooded murder. I can't live with that. I don't want to be the reason other people die."

Sephiroth closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He opened them and looked at Aeris. "I promise you won't be the reason they die."

"That's not what I asked you to promise Sephiroth," she said.

"At this point," he countered, "That's the best you're going to get out of me."

"Sephiroth," said Aeris, in a steadier voice, "I don't want you to kill my friends."

He was silent for a moment. "What about Cloud?"

"What about him?" she asked.

"Can I beat up him up a little? I owe him for kicking me in the chest."

"Sephiroth . . . " began Aeris.

"What if I slip, accidently of course, and punch him on the way down?" he asked.

"Sephiroth . . ." Aeris frowned.

"If I flail my arms a little, trying to keep my balance, I might even get in two punches."

"SEPHIROTH!"

"What?" He blinked at her with the innocence of a baby.

Aeris groaned, laying laid the back of one hand over her eyes. "What am I going to do with you?"

He smiled. "Marry me?"

She uncovered her eyes. "When?"

Sephiroth's smile grew wider. "A week before Cloud Strife's wedding."

Aeris groaned and covered her eyes again.

In the secret cave in Utai, the Tornadu was just a boneless mass of feathers on the floor. The quivering flesh had grown in size almost filling the room. The grey coloring had given away to pink. The tumor was gone. In its place was the being named Jenova.

Her body compressed to fit her surroundings, she hovered in her natural form. Her face was that of a woman with a perfect nose, pink lips, dark eyes and dark hair worn in a hive style. Two white streaks ran from temple to the tip of the hive on both sides of her head. Her chest was bare, revealing a pair of perfect breasts but that's where her humanity ended.

Instead of arms, she had two long thick tentacles tipped with a trio of whip-like fingers. Her body was composed of four spiky plates that curved toward each other like giant petals that didn't quite close or join at the sides in a ball like-shape. The body inside those plates looked very similar to the abdomen of an insect. Huge tubes ran from the abdomen to the gigantic plates. On either side of her human-like torso was a set of four hearts. Two were purple. Two were red. Beneath her hearts were several red spots. Some were used for sensing, other for secreting pheromones.

It wasn't safe to leave to leave the cave now. By stretching a tentacle outside, she'd felt the warmth of the sun. Jenova decided to wait for the cover of darkness. Part of her memory was missing. She examined the memory she had.

Her first attempt to rule a world was not a pleasant memory. She'd raised an army on her home planet with her sights set on murdering the ruling family and reigning in their place. Her plan might have worked except one of her followers had unknowingly brought a spy into their midst. The spy reported her plans to someone associated with the royal family. Jenova and her army were caught off guard in their secret meeting place.

The death penalty was unknown on her world. Her people considered themselves too civilized to resort to anything as distasteful as condemning a living soul to death. Given a choice of rehabilitation or being cast off their world, her army had taken the easy way out. They chose to repent and accept treatment to cure them of their former madness. Sneering at their weakness, Jenova chose exile. As the head of her army, she'd had a taste of power. She had no intention of returning to the life of a common citizen.

A public ceremony was held before the public on the hallowed meeting grounds of the elders. An officer of the court read the list of Jenova's crimes to the populace. A royal judge read the sentence of expulsion from the planet. The emperor himself came forward and voiced the words that revoked Jenova's citizenship. Once the words left his lips, the people turned their backs on her. Jenova eyed them all with disdain. She didn't need any of these weaklings. Holding her head high, she rose into the sky and allowed the winds to carry her as high as they could. As she rose, she stored oxygen inside the giant plates.

It was a natural ability of her race to store air in this way for use during trips to the five planets that made up their solar system. Slowing their metabolism, they rarely used all of their air before they reached the next world.

Those fools think I will use my air up before I find another world with an atmosphere I can breathe, she thought. I have no intention of dying. Someday, they'll pay for what they did to me!

She entered space and went out into the great unknown. It was several days before she found a planet with breathable air. By then, she was on the verge of suffocation. She stayed high in the atmosphere of the new planet and recovered. Before going on, she decided to see what type of creatures lived there.

She found only animal life, but that life had a potential to develop into sentient beings. Jenova amused herself by attacking and killing some of them. She laughed when they tried to hide. While tormenting one of the smaller animals, she discovered it had a taste not unlike a food on her home world. She consumed a few before going on her way.

Jenova wandered through space for many years, stopping at this or that planet. Wherever she went, she left chaos behind. It amused her to find creatures weaker than herself. She toyed with them then went on her way, but whenever she came across stronger beings, she made her exit quietly as she could.

Exhausted from her latest rampage on another planet, Jenova was asleep, drifting through space when she blundered into the middle of an asteroid belt. She awoke when the first projectile slammed into her body. Stirred by the effects of a passing comet, the asteroids moved about erratically. Jenova collided with several before she was able to get out of the way. Bleeding and losing her air supply, she moved toward the only sanctuary she could find, a planet she would not have noticed before. She approached the planet until she was caught in its gravitational field. Unable to control the speed of her descent, she slammed into the ground with tremendous force. Her body left an enormous crater in the ground.

A lesser creature would have been killed but Jenova was tougher than she looked. Even so, she was injured. Unable to hold her shape, she compressed her mass to minimize the damage until she was the size and shape of a female humanoid, those amusing little creatures, she'd tormented from time to time on other worlds. It was the right choice. Shortly after she took her new form, she was found by humanoid creatures who called themselves the Cetra.

They took her to their city and treated her wounds which appeared as cuts, abrasions and punctures on her new body. Jenova was intrigued by the Cetra. Sensing they were not the original inhabitants of this world, she told them she'd been kidnaped from her world by an alien being. She claimed this being was a living probe of some type that was taking her back to its world for observation and experimentation. When injured by an asteroid, the mysterious being had collided with the planet and disintegrated almost immediately after impact, it's gelatinous like body shielding her from serious harm. The Cetra knew of such a creature and it's habits of kidnaping beings from other words. They believed her.

With tears streaming from her eyes, the only true thing Jenova ever told them was that she couldn't go back home. Touched by her story, the Cetra took pity on Jenova and comforted her. Inwardly, she laughed at their gullibility.

They introduced her to the human race. Jenova lived among both races for a while learning how they lived. In her guise as a beautiful woman, she was courted by both human and Cetra men. She found their attempts to win her favor comical. She had no intention of living the rest of her life as just another human. She had bigger things in mind. She wanted to take over and control the planet. From her observations, the only obstacles in her path were the Cetra. Without them, the human race didn't have the means to stop her. The Cetra had to go . . .

The last of the light faded from the sky, Jenova was ready to leave her hiding place. Because Hojo made his clone and Zephiroth from cells taken from Jenova after her body was uncovered, her current memories stopped at the point where she had been imprisoned by the Cetra. The only way she could learn more about herself since then was to find more of the cells that had been taken from her. There was only one way to find out.

Compressing her bulk even more, Jenova squeezed through the cave door and activated her sensors. She felt the call immediately. Rising high in the sky, she propelled herself toward the source of that call.

Jenova didn't need a map. She knew exactly where she was going. The closer she came to the northern crater, the stronger the call became. By the time she reached the crater, the cry in her head was a scream. Jenova hovered over the crater for a moment, then slowly lowered herself below the rim.

She found what she was looking for near the crater floor. A tiny bit of flesh lay frozen between two stones. This was all that was left after a battle with the Knights of the Round. A quick slash of a sword had nipped this one little bit of flesh from a tentacle. Unnoticed, by her conquerors, it went into a dormant state in the freezing air while the rest of her body perished. Each cell in that bit of flesh carried memories of Jenova's life or the ability to recreate it.

Jenova picked it up. She cradled the severed flesh against her right tentacle until it began to thaw out. When it was supple again, tiny anchors erupted from it and attached themselves to her skin. Jenova picked up a sharp stone with her left tentacle and used it to make a slash in the right tentacle next to the anchored flesh. Sensing the blood within the wound, the anchored flesh flattened and liquefied. The jellied liquid flowed toward the wound and wiggled inside. Once there, it seeped through the wall of the nearest bloodstream where other cells waited to escort the cells in the liquid to Jenova's brain. She waited.

These were her own cells. They were not mixed with the blood of another creature. Jenova was able to decipher the information in the new cells much faster than she had been able to process the information in Hojo's blood. A few minutes after processing the new cells, Jenova remembered everything.

She remembered being discovered by Shinra, placed in the Nibel reactor, "rescued" by Sephiroth and killed in a battle with Cloud, Cid and Red XIII. Jenova felt a touch of anger. She'd been amused by Cloud at first. He was easy to use, but later, on she'd been annoyed by his constant meddling in her affairs. She wasn't surprised when she sensed he was still alive, but sensing Sephiroth was something of a shock.

She had learned about the hidden cave from Hojo's blood, but information about Sephiroth was sketchy. Hojo's cells carried the same madness as his brain. His thoughts on Sephiroth were unreliable and incomplete. The most she could learn was that Sephiroth had been destroyed a second time but had returned somehow. How much of her ability to regenerate did Sephiroth possess?

Her cells were in his body but Sephiroth was still a mystery to her. Because he shared her cells, Jenova was able to communicate with him. She had taken control of him when he slipped into madness, but sometimes Sephiroth fought her. More than once, he'd demonstrated the ability to overrule some of her commands in favor of his own. Jenova found that disturbing. When Hojo injected her cells into his infant son, she should have been able to have complete control of him from the start, but something had gone wrong. Maybe it was because of other chemicals Hojo mixed into the injections or because Sephiroth's body had mutated her cells somehow. Whatever the reason, he obeyed her most of the time, but sometimes he refused.

When she'd ordered him to kill the Cetra, he'd hesitated. If she hadn't increased her mental coaxing, he wouldn't have followed through. At the reunion, Jenova had planed to call the clones to herself so that she could absorb them into her body, reclaiming her cells, but Sephiroth defied her again and called the clones to himself instead. Once they arrived, instead of sending them to Jenova, he'd killed them all.

If his mutated cells were not deadly to her, she would have absorbed him. It was difficult to swallow her rage. She needed him as he was. He had her powers and his own. Jenova wasn't exactly sure what powers Sephiroth had, but she knew they were growing. She had to harness that power for her use. Combining their powers could give her more than just control of this world. She could go on and conquer others.

Sephiroth was stronger than Cloud or his party had ever suspected, but Jenova kept him from discovering just how strong he was. While his madness brought her closer to him, she didn't want him to get ideas about taking over for himself. Once she had control of this world, she intended to use him as her enforcer. With Sephiroth in her power, no one would dare rebel against her. She smiled and reached out her mind to call Sephiroth.

"Sephiroth. Sephiroth. Come to me."

She waited for his reply. To her surprise, he did not answer. She tried again.

"Sephiroth my son, please answer your mother."

Nothing. She increased the power of her thought transmission.

"Sephiroth! Answer me!"

She gnashed her teeth in anger. Why didn't he answer? After trying for several minutes without success, Jenova made a decision. She would find him herself.

She knew what she had to do. She'd done it before. Jenova stayed in the crater all night. The monsters gave her a wide berth. When the morning sun brushed the top of the crater, Jenova emerged and rose high in the sky. A few miles away, she saw a man in a chocobo drawn sleigh being pursued by a Bandersnatch.

She sped toward them. A flick of one tentacle sent the Bandersnatch flying. The man looked up at Jenova and started screaming. He urged his chocobo to go faster. Another flick of her tentacle sent the sleigh tumbling across the snow. The chocobo was killed when the sleigh crushed its head. The man was thrown into a snow bank.

He struggled to stand up. Jenova dropped low and hovered over him. He looked up and started screaming again. Ignoring his cries, she picked him up and examined him. She didn't have any use for the man but his coat was something she could use. Jenova struck him on the head, hearing the sharp crack of his skull caving in. Fumbling a little, she pulled off his coat and dropped it on the snow. She searched his body, finding change and a small wad of gil. She dropped the money on the coat. She found a small suitcase and looked inside.

The Man had been carrying a change of clothes. Jenova left them in the bag and sat the suitcase next to the coat. Satisfied that there was nothing further to be gained from her search, she tossed his body away like a discarded toy. She picked up the items she'd dropped and flew above the snow, scanning the area as she went. Over the next rise, she saw the lights of the Icicle Lodge in the distance. Sephiroth was near. It was the perfect place to make her first appearance.

Jenova dropped the coat in the snow and began to compress her body into another shape. A few minutes later, an attractive dark-eyed woman with long brown hair stood where an alien had been before. Jenova was pleased with her human form. She had the ability to generate the clothing she wore. Dark blue pants, black boots and a white turtle necked sweater with long sleeves. A similar disguise had fooled the Cetra long ago. It would fool Sephiroth now.

She put on the coat. The gil and the coins went into a pocket. Fastening the buttons, she ran her fingers through her hair and smiled.

"Ready or not Sephiroth," she smiled. "Here I come!"

Jenova picked up the suitcase and started walking toward the Icicle Lodge.