Chapter 6

Cloud and Aeris looked at the stranger with their eyes wide opened. Cloud was so shocked that his mouth was wide opened too, with his jaws hanging, as if there were no muscles to pull it up. The stranger just stared back at them, and stared at them coldly.

A father? Cloud didn’t remember having one. Ever since he was a small boy, every time he asked his mother about his father his mother turned away and avoid him. When he was elder, his mother told him that his father went to fight in a war and will one day come back.

But Cloud never saw him did.

To Cloud, he never had a father. All he had was his caring mother, who died painfully under the merciless sword of Sephiroth’s.

Now, after he finally found someone who cared about him—his wife, out sprung a stranger, claiming he was his father. Why in the world must his life be so complicated?

“Why? After all these years? After all those nights where mum cried silently at nights, still believing that you will come back, and kept on believing that until her death? Why now?”

Cloud asked with a touch of anger. Cloud loved him mum very much. He would never let anybody hurt her. But he knew...he knew the person who hurt her the most was his father, a stranger who he never knew, made his mum suffer and plunged into grief and sorrow.

‘Father’ is just what every other kid in Nibelhelm had which he didn’t.

“I have reasons. Your mother knew why.”

The stranger answered. Cloud ignored the answer and turned away. Reasons. Yea, right. What in the world could make him dump mum for over twenty years?

“I know what happened in Nibelhelm. I too felt the pain.”

The man expressed his condolence but with an extremely cold tone.

Pain? He remembered vividly. Cloud remembered seeing his house on fire, he rushed into it, with flames surrounding him, the extreme heat melting him and the thick smoke choking his lungs. But that was nothing compared to what he felt.

He saw a black mass, with the figure of a human, on flames. He remembered the flickering thing on the mass’s neck. It was his mother’s necklace. His mother is gone. Forever. Never again will he see her again.

Those feelings are real, so real. He can never forget it for the rest of his life. So, all this stranger who claim to be his father can say that, is he felt the pain too?

“Cloud...”

Aeris rubbed Cloud’s hands, trying to comfort him and sooth his anger. But she couldn’t. Cloud was so filled with anger, that it couldn’t be released for quite some time.

“And you...Aeris. This man revived you...why didn’t you tell me this before?”

Cloud asked Aeris and stared at her with a mean look. Aeris looked down and stared at the floor. She didn’t know how to answer.

“If I didn’t revive her you all would be death by now.”

The man interrupted. Cloud tilted up Aeris head and stared her in the eyes. Aeris slowly nodded.

“I guess I have a lot of explanation to do.”

The man interrupted again and the couple looked at him. At the same moment a click was heard. Tifa walked out of the room, still rubbing her eyes, saw Cloud and Aeris, and was immediately fully awoke.

“Hey guys! Cloud and Aeris’s back!”

Soon, the others came rushing out of their rooms and saw the three standing at the door, staring at each other, waiting for the next move. After such a long time of waiting and patience, finally something had come around.

“Just about time.”

Cloud said and walked into the house with anger still clouded his mind, pushing the man to the side while he walked past him.

In just a short moment, everyone was sitting around the stranger, waiting patiently for the stranger to speak. At first the stranger kept quiet, recalling things from the past, then he slowly opened his mouth.

“Where should I start? Ask me a question.”

The stranger said. The team exchanged glances and got the same idea. The meteor.

“Wat da hell is it wit dat meteor thin’ crashin’ right into the marsh?” Barret fired a question.

“I have people calling from the observatory saying it suddenly appeared on top of Costa de Sol and then disappeared. Cloud...you are in Costa de Sol, did you see it?”

Red XIII added and questioned Cloud. Cloud nodded silently as a yes.

“It was the Jenovian Conjurers. They summoned a small meteor to smash Costa de Sol, destroying it once and for all.”

The stranger answered. Everyone looked at each other again. Jenovians? Conjurers? What the hell is that?

“It was the highly-trained magicians of the Jenovian army, the race of your so called Jenova.”

The stranger replied the moment he saw the idealess look on the other’s faces. The others were even more shocked now. First Sephiroth, then Jenova, after that Sephiroth again, and again, then the Ancients, now...Jenova again?

“You will find that out later. There are more important things that you all should know. Cloud, want to know how the meteor that came striking towards Costa de Sol ended up in the marsh?”

Cloud remained silent the whole time. The stranger continued without waiting for Cloud’s reply.

“There is a spell called warp. It is used by spell casters to escape a battle instantly and be transported the a place where it is safe. Apparently, the warp spell contained in Aeris herself is so powerful that not only she teleported herself and Cloud to safety, but also warped the meteor far away from Costa de Sol, crashing into the marsh.”

Aeris? Spell contained in herself? What do you mean? Like Cloud?

“Aeris’s magical ability is far more powerful than anything you ever seen. She can do more than casting invulnerable spells and casting healing you guys. She is the only one that could summon holy, and protect all of you from being smashed into smattering in the first meteor incident. Right, Aeris?”

The others looked at Aeris. Aeris just kept quiet but there was a puzzled look on her face too. Even she didn’t know that she possessed such powers.

“So, Aeris didn’t tell you all why she was revived?”

The others shook their heads. Aeris told them that the planet was grateful for her and revived her. Nobody buy that story.

“Why do you revive Aeris? I don’t think its because of me.”

Cloud spoke for the first time since the gathering started. Everyone looked at Cloud. The stranger revived Aeris? That’s fresh.

“I did it not only for you, but for the entire human population on this planet.”

The man answered. Now, things started to get interesting.

“When meteor came, there was nobody in the whole planet that could defend the planet against it. The only person that could summon holy and block the meteor away is Aeris and I have to break the laws of the lifestream to defend this entire planet, although the lifestream will be badly unbalanced.”

The stranger paused for moment.

“You see, a living thing is supported by an invisible force that was generated in the planet called the lifestream. Once the living thing is dead the link is cut off and the invisible force will look for another new living thing to link. But there’s a Jenovian artifact that could revive a person. It generates that force that a person needed to live without sucking the planet’s lifestream. So, using that, I revived Aeris in a different body, but with the same ability and mind she possessed. Then, I demanded her to summon holy, knock off the meteor, and you know the rest.”

Everyone looked at him. So, this stranger knew how to revive a person. Cool.

“After the meteor incident, Aeris told me that she wanted to look for a person. Never in my life I expected the person to be you, Cloud.”

The stranger finished and looked at Cloud. Cloud looked back coldly. There are so much things he didn’t know.

“I am a bit confused with Aeris’s ability all in a sudden. What was that thing about the Jenovian Conjurers?”

Tifa suddenly asked. The man looked at her and then the others. Apparently, they didn’t know much about their planet. The man took a deep breath, and started talking.

“Then, I would have to start from a thousand years ago.”

For more than a thousand years ago, there was two big races that roamed the galaxy. The Cetra and the Jenovians.

The Cetras are elite spell casters and were born with the ability to cast spells for both healing and destruction. The Jenovians, on the other hand, have weaker spells but have the most unique genes among the various creatures of the galaxy. Their cells can morph or be enhanced biologically.

Then, one day, an group of ancient travelers stumbled upon a very special race, called the humans which dwelled in Earth.

The humans are different from any of the other races. There’s something inside them called emotions. It is such an abstract thing and the Cetras took a long time to figure out or understand what it was. It might be hard for a human to imagine how is it without emotions, but not knowing that they are the only one that bear that kind of unique way of life. All the other races in the galaxy lived with logic and rationality, knowing what was right, what was wrong, stick to rules and do whatever is needed. To the other races, emotions is a weakness. Emotions could cripple a person’s thinking, reduce efficiency and reject orders from superiors. It is considered bad.

But, the curious Cetras towards this emotion thing led them into a new path. The Cetras wanted to experience what emotions feel like. Soon, the Cetras assimilate with the humans and a new generation was born, a new breed of Cetras, with emotions of a human. They are the one that are reluctant to leave the planet and dwelled there permanently. The humans, amazed with their magic and advanced knowledge, called them the ancients.

The Ancients started to multiply and built cities of their selves. They lived in harmony with the humans and taught them some magic and the use of materia, since humans can’t cast spells without any aid of the planet’s force. Then came the day, where the Jenovians arrived to Earth, and found the Ancients and the humans that co-exist peacefully, an easy target for conquest.

The Jenovians soon dispatched two of their finest warriors to Earth for reconnaissance purpose. The first one, which carries the duty of a diplomat, is a large, spell-casting, advanced breed of the morphing genus creature which the humans then called ‘Jenova’. The second one, which was seldom seen, was a Jenovian that took over a human body and serves as the scout and the bodyguard of ‘Jenova’. Their purpose here wasn’t to make war first, since the Ancients here had already established a strong foothold and won’t be defeated easily. All they need is more information and intelligence about the interest of this planet.

The arrival of Jenova and it’s bodyguard was soon welcomed by some of the humans who dwelled there. The ancients, who was aware of the power of the Jenovians in the galaxy, warned the humans against the Jenovians. The two new comers soon interact with the humans. They found out that this planet was a rich source of pure life energy, which humans now call ‘mako’ that can be mined for a long, long time. Then, during their stay, they also realized the local’s weakness—emotions.

Jenova and the bodyguard soon planned to go back to their planet to report about this potential target which can be a potential new Jenovian Colony. By getting rid of the Ancient and the Humans, the Jenovians not only can obtain the precious mako, but can also capture magic used by the Ancients and a potential field, discovered by the human mind, a field called ‘science’. Yes, ‘science’. The humans are capable of moving large objects, build huge buildings without the help of magic, which is impossible for the other races. They created machines, which was used for construction, communication and also, war.

The plot was soon realized by Ancients mind-readers and then the Ancient took a move before the Jenovians. The Ancients found Jenova and banished it into the foot of a mountain which seal and earth spell, preventing Jenova from seeing the daylight again. But this action cost the Ancients their entire race on the planet. Jenova launched a part of itself into the sky before it was banished, and that part exploded and released deadly Jenovian cells that could suffocate all Ancients that breath the air. Soon, almost the entire Ancient population was killed and the remaining ones survived because they had a rare natural immune in them. The humans that were not affected, soon stood up on their own and developed their science. No one knew about the bodyguard that came with Jenova.

The survivors of that mass Ancient killing was scattered all around the world, locating each other. Their population soon sore because their numbers were too little and multiplying was a big problem. For many generations the Ancients continued to live but then realized that they couldn’t sustain it anymore. The Ancients soon give up their selves and lived among many of the humans, with some Cetra cells in them.

But thanks to the Ancients, the Jenovians in the other side of the galaxy didn’t found out about this planet, and the humans in it. So, the planet never suffered any attacks from the Jenovian army, and the humans in it lived and grow into what you see now.

After a thousands years had past, there was a disturbance in the center of the earth. Humans, found a new source of power, mako, and used to power their machines. They used huge machines and to dig it and use it for their own purpose, not bothering what it will do to the planet. They started hunting for potential mako mines and then they stumbled upon the sealed body of Jenova, in a mountain not far from a place called Nibelhelm.

Astonished at first, the humans can’t overcome their curiosity and done some tests onto it, not knowing that it was much, much alive. They then used it’s cells and experimented onto a few species of animals. Those animals soon turned into fearful monsters, as a result of the special ability the Jenovian cells have. Soon, the humans started to experiment on a more daring planning, infusing humans with Jenova cells.

Their attempts failed badly and many test subjects were killed in the process. The Jenovian cells were too advanced for a weak human body and they couldn’t coexist in the same body. But then, one of them succeeded. A man infused Jenovian cells into his lover’s womb and soon, the new breed of Jenova existed. The outcome of the experiment is nobody other than the dreaded Sephiroth.

Soon, the humans started to clone Sephiroth. There seemed to be no successful attempts but rumors are that there is an exact Sephiroth clone out there.(See “Would you like a Flower”) Then, the cloning attempts stopped. They had even more dreadful plans. They take cells from Sephiroth while he was a child, multiply them and infused them into humans soldiers, creating a super army that was soon used to wage war. It was that time, without the humans knowing, Jenovian cells had already spread and many people had the potential of being under direct control of Jenova itself, thus explaining why there are gatherings of humans that had been infused with Jenovian cells.

Sephiroth wasn’t a bad person actually. But he was a victim of a plan Jenova plotted. Among all the humans that had Jenovian cells in their body, Sephiroth had the most Jenovian cells. Under the control of Jenova, his mind was altered and he soon became a bloodthirsty killer and seek endlessly for power even though Jenova didn’t instruct him to do so. Then he, with the guidance of Jenova, started to execute his plan to rule the world.

Now, after you people defeated Jenova, the effects of Jenovian cells in humans had decreased dramatically. People were not longer commanded by Jenova because it was already dead and the Jenovian cells stay passive. The chapter of Jenovians in this planet finally ended. This is all I can tell you about Jenova.

The others that surrounded the stranger listened his story the whole time carefully. That is a hell lot of things to accept for such a short time. But their questions are still unanswered. What about Aeris’s power? Who actually are the two person that attacked Cloud and Aeris in Costa de Sol?

“I don’t think you answered any of our questions...” Tifa spoke, not knowing why the stranger babbled history dated a thousand years ago. There must be a reason for that.

“To answer your questions, I have to continue on another story. But I doubt that you all would like to listen.”

The stranger said and looked at Barret. Barret was obviously starting to bore and he really needed a break from all this stories. But Tifa looked at him straight in the eyes and Barret kept quiet.

“Continue.” Tifa told the stranger.

“Well, then, I shall continue.” The man took a deep breath, and started again.