【SC】Endless Journey

Pete was born in a small village in the countryside of Midgar. He was carefree and energetic since he was a child, and his physical fitness was better than that of adults. When he was not sensible, he once got into the game reserve and killed a pack of wolves with his bare hands.

Worried that his brute force would get him into trouble someday, his parents let him join the army.Pete felt that there was nothing wrong with this. Anyway, with his personality, he could get along with others everywhere, so at the age of 16, he happily packed his bags and went to join the conscription in Midgar, and then became a soldier under Angel.

Except for the war with Junon in the previous two years, which made him go to the battlefield a few times, most of the time his life was peaceful - training, standing guard, patrolling, cleaning up monsters around Midgar, and writing reports.He was promoted on Angel's recommendation and is now Sergeant Grayson.

If there are any unusual things in his life, there are probably only two. One is that in his third year in the army, he once worked with a super soldier from a secret research institute. Nong's presidential palace, directly ended the decades-long conflict between the two countries, and then allegedly massacred the research institute that made him on a certain day, and has since disappeared; the other thing is that he has been doing strange things since he can remember dream.

The protagonist in the dream was not himself, and the scene was not like the current era. The plot was intermittent but extremely detailed, which made him doubt that these things had really happened.

He seems to be serving in the private army of a large company, and he is a special soldier.He also has a boss who, although he looks different, has a very similar temperament to Angel.They once went off to attack a country together, then fought monsters and clone armies, and then his boss grew a wing and merged into strange forms with the monsters they were supposed to clean up, and ended up in his hands Get relief.After a while, he met a blond soldier in a certain mission, and they became good friends.For some reason, they were imprisoned in the magic tank and turned into experimental subjects. After five years of body transformation, he escaped from the magic tank when the researchers were not prepared, and fled with the unconscious young man all the way. Near Midgar, he was forced to the edge of the cliff by endless pursuers...

He has never been able to see the end of this dream, but he guessed that the protagonist in the dream should be dead.

Every time Pete wakes up, he forgets seven or eight percent of the content of the dream, so he has never delved into these strange dreams for so many years.It wasn't until he followed Angel on a mission today and saw the blond boy on the cargo ship—maybe it was a young man that he suddenly realized that a key clue appeared in the dream.

"Have we... met before?" he asked uncertainly.

Judging from Sephiroth's past descriptions, the boy should be his younger brother, but this is very strange, he has never met Sephiroth's younger brother, how could he see someone with such a similar appearance in his dream.

The young man was taken aback when he heard the words, and looked at his face carefully.After a while, those azure blue pupils suddenly narrowed, and the shocked expression seemed to see someone who shouldn't be here.

That is really seen.Pete thought.

He didn't know why the other party was shocked. When he tried to move forward, the boy's first reaction was to jump in a hurry.Pete had to stop and raised his hands at the other party: "Hey, don't be nervous. Are you Claude? Sephiroth mentioned you to us."

Claude turned a deaf ear to his words, stared at him blankly, and whispered a name he had never heard before: "Zacks..."

Almost instantly, Sephiroth cast two sharp knife-like gazes in this direction, causing Pete to shiver.

He silently memorized the name, and then tried to smile at Claude: "My name is Pete Grayson, and I'm Sephiroth's former—er, colleague. Now is not a good time to chat, maybe we can talk about this in the future thing?"

Claude finally turned his eyes back to him, and then looked at Angel in the distance, his face became pale as paper: "What's your boss's name?"

"Angele Cook?" Pete was at a loss.

A trace of panic flashed across the boy's face, and soon he was enveloped by some kind of deep pain that he couldn't understand at all.

The people on the deck still hadn't figured out the current situation, so they all temporarily stopped their actions.Sephiroth rushed to this side at the first time, and was stopped by the boy raising his hand when he was only a few meters away from Claude.

"Don't come here!" Claude yelled, "Let me be quiet."

Sephiroth's footsteps faltered, and his face immediately sank.

After seeing Zack and Angel, Cloud realized a very important problem.

If you come back to this world through the normal cycle of the flow of life, although the soul may be reincarnated intact, the genes of the body come from a completely different mother, so strictly speaking, it is already another person.He and Sephiroth can retain their previous appearances because they were cloned directly from their original bodies. Under normal circumstances, a reincarnated soul will not look too similar to the previous life unless it has a blood relationship with the past self— —The appearance of Zacks and Angel is a good proof of this conclusion. They are completely different from what Claude knew, but Pete reproduced Zacks' temperament and habits. This similarity is in personality. Not genetic, so it makes sense from any angle.

In this case, however, the existence of another person is completely unreasonable, and that is Carter Holm.

Catholm and Hojo look so similar that Cloud didn't recognize Zack but saw Hojo the first time he saw Catholm.That kind of similarity is completely at the genetic level, and it is hard for Claude to believe how there are exactly two people in this world who have the same appearance, personality and interests.If so, the only possibility is——

...Catholm carries Hojo's genes.

Claude seemed to be strangled by something, and a strong nausea and suffocation rushed into his chest.

The image of himself immersed in the demon quickly flashed through his mind, and the crazy and eerie smiling face on the operating table seemed to appear clearly before his eyes.He saw Nibelheim's underground laboratory in a trance, saw the container containing countless monsters, saw Sephiroth standing in the burning village, and cast a hateful glance at everything in the world——

More than 200 years have passed, and the source of the nightmare seems to have returned to him.

Claude took a sharp breath before regaining his breath.He began to force himself to calm down.

There is currently no evidence that Catholm has Hojo's genes, and he shouldn't think in this direction casually.Moreover, the other party's body had been burned in the fire at the research institute. Even if he wanted to use the other party's cells for DNA testing, he couldn't take a sample—more importantly, he personally destroyed Baojo's body back then, and there was nothing left behind. Material that can be cloned.

But nothing is absolute.Baojo is crazy. He once used distributed storage to upload his personality to the Internet and then re-downloaded the data to piece together his virtual self. If he can even think of such a thing, it cannot be ruled out that he has saved it in other places before. own cell samples.

The more Claude thought about it, the more he felt palpitations, and when Sephiroth ran towards him, he instinctively yelled at him.

Although Carter Holm was dead and the research institute had been destroyed long ago, the resurrection of Sephiroth was not over at all.Thinking about it, it was very strange from the beginning. When he went to the Great Hollow in the North, he didn't tell anyone. It's impossible for anyone to know that he was sleeping there, so who brought the Redeemer's researchers to find his crystal?Since the polished magic spar can drill holes in the crystal, it is not completely impossible to completely break the crystal, so who decided to abandon this route and start his cloning project instead?If Catholm was also created by someone, then there must be someone else behind his and Sephiroth's resurrection, who is this person, and why has he never shown up in the past five years?

After what he's been through for so long, it's back to square one.Sudden exhaustion and pain seized his heart, and Claude buried his face deep in his hands.

When Cloud showed Pete a shocked expression he had never seen before, Sephiroth knew that something beyond his own knowledge had happened to Pete.

Pete knew Claude, and Claude knew Pete, but it was impossible for the two of them to have any intersection other than themselves.If Claude's previous behaviors can be explained by his mother's memory, this matter is simply absurd. There was no such person as Pete Grayson 200 years ago. It is impossible for Claude to know him through his mother, so How much did Claude hide from himself? !

"Zack..."

Cloud even pronounced a name he had never heard before.

A lot of questions flooded into my mind instantly, almost driving Sephiroth crazy.He really wanted to catch Claude now and ask him clearly, but Claude's condition was obviously worse than his, and he seldom yelled at him when he approached, and then curled up into a ball with six poses.

Sephiroth realized that he had to take Claude out of this place before thinking about anything else, so he forcibly suppressed his emotions and walked towards his brother.However, Claude resisted very much, the veins on the back of the hand holding the six styles bulged, like a chocobo entering a state of stress.

Just when the situation on the deck was completely stalemate, Angel suddenly yelled: "Get down! It's bombardment!"

Sephiroth rushed towards Cloud subconsciously, and then a heat source came from a distance, and the dazzling white light almost wiped them and hit the deck.

Everyone was stunned by the accident, and it took a few seconds to realize that it was a concentrated cannon fired from the shore.

Pete quickly pulled Sephiroth and Cloud into the bunker, and a string of containers exploded a few meters behind them.The black-haired young man sneaked up to check the direction of Junong Port, and his eyes widened in surprise: "The cannons of the military port were used, I thought that thing was just a decoration for the scenic spot?! What about Angel, they seem to plan to take us and the ship Let's sink together!"

Angel picked up the binoculars and went to the shore, and found that the iconic cannon in the military port was adjusting its angle to store energy for the second shot, and at the same time, five helicopters carrying anti-ship missiles were flying towards this side.

"The higher-ups want to kill Sephiroth, and they don't care about our lives." Angel's expression became very ugly.

Before carrying out the mission, no one told the soldiers that they would be treated as abandoned children, and there was a sudden panic on the deck.Angel shouted to stop the crowd rushing to the side of the ship, and hurriedly began to organize the soldiers and crew members to help themselves: "Sixth class goes below to find lifeboats. This ship should have at least six standard configurations. Let half of the people go first. Seventh class and eighth class Go secure the control room and keep the ship moving at full speed. Pete, stay on deck with your men and prepare to engage the helicopters!"

Sephiroth stood up from behind the cover to observe the situation, neither the helicopter nor the cannon was far beyond the range of his attack.He unleashed two lightning spells, but the helicopter was moving faster than he could cast them, and the spells had a hard time hitting these small, nimble targets.

Several missiles were launched towards their cargo ship, and Sephiroth hastily released the shield magic to block the first attack.The soldiers in charge of the attack tried their best to fire grenades at the helicopter, but the range was completely out of reach.Soon two more missiles flew towards the control room. Sephiroth swung two knives swiftly. The sword wind cut the missiles in two in the air. The huge blast overturned the soldiers on the deck. Many wounded.

Sephiroth was thinking about what to do with the helicopter when a golden shadow suddenly came to him.

"Help me, I'll deal with the helicopter. The cannon in the military port will be fully charged in about 10 minutes. We must find a way to stop the second shot."

Claude's voice revealed that his current mental state is still very unstable, but Sephiroth had no other choice, so he had to hold up Murasame when Claude retreated for a run-up, and then put the The other party sends it out.

Claude stopped a missile in the air, and the shock wave of the explosion pushed him a little further, allowing him to successfully approach the first helicopter.He cut off the propeller with the six-style, and then jumped onto another helicopter closest to him on the falling helicopter, opened the hatch and kicked the person in the driver's seat into the sea.Claude sat in the main driver's seat, trying to recall the operation of the Turks he had seen in the old Shinra era, and quickly figured out a few key buttons.He turned around and fired at the helicopter's missiles at the other helicopters, then pulled the joystick toward the cargo ship's side.

"Claude, get out of the way, the second round is coming soon!" Angel shouted at Claude.

Sephiroth looked in Claude's direction in response, realizing that the other party could not safely jump onto the deck while controlling the helicopter.In order to ensure that Cloud can land when the second concentrated cannon is fired, Sephiroth took out Bahamut's summoning magic stone and decided to let the black dragon completely solve all the air attack problems.

He poured a lot of magic power into the Materia, and Bahamut quickly responded to him.With a burst of dazzling light, the ancient black dragon appeared in the air, and the dark clouds that covered the sky covered the entire sea area in a few seconds.

At that time, Sephiroth only felt a slight sense of disobedience, but he didn't turn his attention to this matter.It wasn't until the white light in the distance broke through the sky, and Bahamut spit out the purple dragon's breath to offset the ray, that Sephiroth suddenly realized that his magic power had not been mobilized at all.

——Bahamut completely returned his magic power, and its magic power had another donor.

As if he had heard his inner question, Bahamut also answered in his mind: "This is the power he once gave me in advance, so he is paying the 'price' for it."

At the same time, Claude, who was standing on the edge of the helicopter hatch, froze suddenly, and then spit out a big mouthful of blood, and fell straight into the sea like a kite with a broken string.

"Claude!—"

Sephiroth's mind went blank.In any case, he never imagined that the price of summoning Bahamut would be to consume Cloud's own magic power, and this time, he paid the magic power of the summoning two years ago with interest, and took time out of Cloud's time. body of.

This will kill Cloud!

Sephiroth's heart was full of overwhelming fear, and the bright red blood on Cloud's chest before he fell into the sea stabbed his pupil deeply.He thought of the authentic scenes that ran through his mother, and the countless faces that were similar to Claude but were in pain. He witnessed every scene of his mother's near-death in his dream, but he never thought that they would happen in Claude one day. on Lauder.

"I'm his everything. All. The center of the world."

"His life, his pain, are under my control. So he won't die until I give my permission."

For some reason, childhood memories suddenly appeared in his mind at this moment.

Sephiroth remembered that at that time he had heard a voice like him, but not quite him, that voice said to him when he first accepted the existence of Claude, and now he finally Know who the owner of the voice is.

The moment he figured this out, a black wing spread out from his back, and he flew into the air without a teacher, catching Claude before he fell into the sea.

Claude experienced a long dream.

He dreamed of Sephiroth—the one from more than 140 years ago, wearing a long armor that had never been replaced, trapping him in front of him with black wings.

Maybe it's because he spent too long with the boy and young Sephiroth, even though the distance between them is very dangerous, Claude is no longer as nervous as before.He just felt a little strangeness in the familiar fear and anger. That kind of strangeness seemed to be that after a long life together, this person who had known him all his life had changed a little in his eyes.

"That's right, you've become more in love with me." As if hearing his inner thoughts, Sephiroth leaned down and rubbed the pinna of his ear ambiguously with the tip of his nose.

"I don't." Claude pushed him hard, "And you are not him, I don't have that extra emotion for you."

"Oh?" Sephiroth retreated a little bit, showing an ambiguous smile, "Since you know he can't appear here, it's only because you want to see me that I appear in your consciousness. "

"I do not--"

The man's index finger pressed his lips, and he gave a low "shush".

"Don't lie to yourself. You know who I am. I'm not him, but you miss him." The man's breath brushed his eyelashes, making him tense instantly, "You see me because You are afraid, your fear of him has pulled me out of the depths of your consciousness, and you want me to hear your confession."

Claude was silent for a long time before he broke free from the man's confinement: "He is different from you, maybe he won't be the second you."

"You've always had unrealistic expectations of him, so when you find out that he's more and more likely to be the next me, it's more painful and disappointing."

"I don't expect to change him. He is Sephiroth. No one can control his thoughts on the planet. It is a very arrogant behavior." Claude thought of the past, and couldn't help closing his eyes. "I just To give him some experience of what he should have before things got out of hand, and then stop him from getting worse."

"That's where your fear comes from. You don't think you can change him, but you're doing things that contradict that. You've given everything for him, you're trying to influence his mind, so whenever you see him showing signs of waking up At that time, you will be afraid that all your previous efforts will be wasted." The man pulled him into his arms again and kissed his lips lightly, "You want to kill me, but at the same time you love him. One day you will be in this Make trade-offs."

Claude opened his eyes again, looking at a completely unfamiliar ceiling.

He tried to sit up from the bed, but his whole body looked like he had been run over by a truck.The person sitting by the bed heard him and hurried over to hold his arm.

"Don't worry, you have been sleeping for a week, it may take some time to get used to it." A black-haired young man appeared in his vision.

Claude reacted for a while before he remembered that this was the reborn Zacks.

"...Where is this place? Where is Sephiroth?" He rubbed his brows and asked.

"This is a hotel in Gold Plate. Sephiroth went to the pharmacy, and he should still be on his way. When he comes back, I'll let him—"

"No. I want to talk to you alone."

Pete couldn't help but froze.Although he also has many things he wants to ask Claude, but the blond... young man, now he has basically confirmed the other party's age, has been unconscious for the past week, and Sephiroth has been by his brother's side for almost 24 hours, he doesn't understand Why is the attitude of the other party so cold after waking up.

But there was an indescribable familiarity and nostalgia in the eyes of Claude looking at him, which reminded him of the young man trapped on the edge of the cliff with him in his dream, so he couldn't help but nodded.

"Thank you." Claude lowered his eyes, exuding a bit of exhaustion that shouldn't belong to his age, "I know you have a lot of things to ask me, and I will try to answer you as much as I can... But here Before, I wondered what happened after I passed out?"

Pete recalled it carefully and decided to start with the follow-up on the deck.

"Sephiroth called Bahamut, neutralized the second shelling, then you suddenly started vomiting blood and fell from the helicopter, Sephiroth saved you. Then he let Bahamut destroy Junon The cannons at the port shot down all the chasing ships and helicopters, so some people left the cargo ship in lifeboats. Angel, I, and the crew of the cargo ship insisted on driving the cargo ship to the nearest port in the western mainland. After talking about the situation of this cargo ship, we agreed to take you to Jindie to find a doctor in their car. Later, we stayed in this hotel near Jindie, and we have been looking for a way to revive you. You have been in a coma for a long time. I can’t eat, so we made some liquid food for you to feed your nose. Originally, Sephiroth would accompany you every step of the way, and Angel and I would do things like go shopping, but we think he should go out for some activities, so today let He goes to the pharmacy to buy you a new set of catheters ... and then you wake up all of a sudden."

After hearing this, Claude fell into deep thought.Soon Pete saw him look up again, staring at himself with an inexplicable gaze, as if he had seen through his mind.

"Actually, you saw it at the time."

"...What?" Pete vaguely knew what he was going to ask, with cold sweat dripping from his palm.

"The Wings of Sephiroth."

Pete's fingers clenched tightly.

Sephiroth had asked him not to mention this matter with Claude, and he could also feel that the wing was different, but they both thought that Claude had passed out at that time, but they did not expect that the other party still saw the last scene.

"I..." Pete was hesitating. On the one hand was his past colleagues and comrades-in-arms, and on the other was the person who had appeared in his dream. He might know the important truth about his dream. When the demands of the two contradicted, he didn't know. Should I tell the truth.

At this moment, there was a sound of footsteps in the corridor.A moment of tension flashed across Claude's face, he quickly grabbed Pete's arm, and said in a low voice, "Don't tell him what we just talked about."

Pete nodded in confusion, but it was too late for the other party's hand to be withdrawn. The moment Sephiroth pushed the door in, what he saw was the scene of them pulling slightly.

"Oh, Sephiroth! It's great that you're back!" Pete glanced at Claude's terrified expression from the corner of his eye, and immediately put on his usual standard smile, "Claude just woke up not long ago and was about to go Looking for you."

Sephiroth's eyes did not fall on him, but looked at Claude suspiciously.The blond young man pursed his lips, motioning Pete to go out first, so he carefully walked around the gap beside Sephiroth to the door.

"...Speak well if you have something to say." Pete finally reminded, and closed the door for them.