【SC】Endless Journey

Claude left Jindie in a daze, and got off the tram at Collier.He originally planned to take a car to the Cosmic Canyon, but he couldn't find anyone who wanted to go south in a short time, so he went to the auto repair shop and bought a second-hand car that was left in the shop due to an engine failure. It took a while to get the car back together.

It was late at night, and he was connecting the adjusted circuits one by one with a flashlight in his mouth, when he was in a trance for a moment.

"Claude..."

Sensational gasps sounded in my ears.

Claude palpitated violently and threw a wrench into the air.It wasn't until he heard the crisp landing sound that he realized that the sound only existed in his mind.

Claude squatted down slowly, burying his face deeply between his knees.

Ever since he left Jindie, memories of that night flooded into his mind from time to time.Whenever he thought of how Sephiroth was in and out of him drunkenly, and how he moaned under him, a strong sense of self-loathing would overwhelm him like a tidal wave.

This is not the first time he has had sex with Sephiroth, they have done it several times during their lifetime, sometimes he was simply violated, and sometimes they were half-pushed.But at that time they were two adults, and while Sephiroth had no mercy for him, he would kill each other without hesitation. This kind of thing was at best some insignificant episodes in their long confrontation career, no more than Anything Sephiroth ever did to him is more memorable.

...But this Sephiroth is definitely not good.

Claude clenched his fingers tightly, almost breaking his palm.

They are no longer the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim. He regards this Sephiroth as his own child, even if he doesn't want to admit it, he did have feelings for the little Sephiroth.Now that he's being violated by his own child, he should have stopped it from happening, but he didn't, and just thinking about it makes Claude go mad with pain.

He knew Sephiroth didn't care about human ethics, but he did.

What's worse is that Sephiroth doesn't even do it to humiliate or ridicule him, and the moment he's desperately asking for love, Cloud knows he's screwed up.He could neither kill this Sephiroth nor accept him, so he could only choose to stay away temporarily before things got out of hand.

It took about a week for repairs and custom-made accessories, and Claude finally transformed the locomotive into a long-distance cross-country look.The road was mostly wilderness and plains. He knew that his existing clothes could not withstand the bad weather, so he went to a clothing store to re-order motorcycle clothes and goggles.

Although it was not intentional, when he described the style to the clothing store, a certain outfit he wore before his death automatically popped up in his mind.It wasn't until the day when he got the clothes back that Claude realized that he had made the same black cardigan that he had worn before, and even the gloves and dustproof cloth were of the same style.

Claude changed his clothes in the hotel, walked to the floor-to-ceiling mirror, and saw an extremely familiar self.

——He finally returned to this world completely, but everything around him could never return to the way he was familiar with.

Claude stood silently in front of the mirror for a long time, changed back into the casual clothes he brought from the Chocobo Farm, and sent the new clothes downstairs for cleaning.

In the early morning of the next day, he checked the condition of the locomotive, put the Type [-] and luggage on the trunk to balance the weight, and then started heading towards the direction of the Cosmic Canyon.

Apart from refueling and changing clothes along the way, he hardly stopped in human-inhabited areas.In the evening, he looked for a sheltered place in the field to build a fire, and when the sky was slightly bright, he immediately went on the road again.He hopes to travel through the entire wilderness of the Western Continent before the rainy season arrives, so that the trip will not be delayed due to the weather. What's more, he received the news that Sephiroth has disappeared two weeks ago. He must tell Nana as soon as possible. Qi explained the situation and then discussed the countermeasures together.

On the sixth day of driving, the surrounding scenery finally became familiar.

The land was eroded by the river that dried up tens of thousands of years ago, creating several extended gullies, and huge rocks like hills stood in the middle of the river.The steep rock wall is rust-red in sunlight due to its high iron content, and looks like criss-crossing blood vessels when viewed from above.

This is the Cosmic Canyon, where another ancient race has lived on the planet for thousands of years.

Cloud visited this land several times during his lifetime to prevent Sephiroth from destroying the world.It was in Elder Bukenhagen's observatory that he learned for the first time the nature of the planet, how life and death are endlessly cycled in the planet, and realized that he had become an incompetent person over the long years. Heterogeneous into the loop.

As the locomotive continued to go deeper into the canyon, Claude was gradually able to see the houses built close to the rock wall and the camp at the foot of the mountain.This place used to be the base camp of astronomy, advocating the natural and primitive way of life, and people came here to live in pursuit of the truth. Over time, a settlement mixed with the aborigines formed.

When Claude parked the car at the gate of the settlement, he saw Nanaki squatting on the stone steps from a distance.The ancient race with beautiful fur jumped down from the high platform, circled him slowly, and then arched its wet nose into his palm, allowing him to stroke his mane.

"Long time no see, Nanaki." Claude bowed and hugged his friend's neck, burying his face in the fluffy mane.

The other party turned his head slightly and licked his face: "I am also very happy to see you again, Claude."

They hugged briefly for a while, and Claude let go of his hand, noticing that there were a lot of onlookers gathered around.

"Outsiders are not welcome here?"

Claude pushed the car to an out-of-the-way place, and unloaded Type Six and luggage.Nanaki waited patiently for a while before leading him up the mountain.

"It doesn't matter, they are just curious. But there is another person waiting for you here, I will take you to meet him first."

Claude nodded and followed him with his luggage.

Neither of them is a talkative personality, and almost no one spoke along the way.During the period, Nanaki looked back at him several times, with a somewhat hesitant expression on his face.

Claude knew that he was waiting for him to explain the situation, so he took the initiative to take the topic: "You know I will come to you?"

"Well, that's what the astrology says."

Claude remembered the observatory in Bukenhagen: "You still live with grandpa?"

"The house was left to me after he passed away, and now the inside is similar to what you saw back then. Here we are."

Nanaki shook the flame at the tail lightly and knocked on the closed wooden door.After a few seconds, there was a slight clicking sound from the handle, and someone opened the lock from the inside and turned back.

This cautious habit is somewhat familiar.Claude guessed that it might be that Zacks and Angel came to the Universe Canyon to meet him in advance, so he opened the door casually.However, the moment he saw the man standing in the room clearly, he froze in place.

"Claude." The man with black hair and red eyes lifted his cloak and turned his gaze to him calmly, "I've been waiting for you for a long time."

"...Vincent." Claude stood at the door in a daze, his joy was fleeting, followed by an overwhelming sense of guilt.

Nanaki took Claude to the guest room and helped him put his luggage and mattress.After the other party left, Claude cleaned up, changed into clean clothes, and then returned to the living room to dine with the two of them.

Vincent has been observing him from the moment he entered the door, until Claude put down the knife and fork, and said lightly: "We have been looking for you for nine years, and there is no trace of you during this period, and Alice can't sense you existence. Claude, where have you been all these years?"

Claude was slightly taken aback: "Nine years?" Then he realized, "You know I'm in the Big Hollow?"

"Well." Vincent refilled his coffee and pushed the completely untouched cookie to the middle of the dining table, "During your sleep, I will check the condition of the crystal every five years, the last time I checked At that time, it disappeared. At first I thought you had left the big void by yourself after waking up, but Alice said that you had been unable to contact me before waking up, and that’s when I realized you were missing and started looking for you everywhere.”

Nine years ago, it was the time when the Order of the Redeemer unearthed his crystal from the Great Northern Cavity.

Claude carefully recalled the whole incident. Since he could hear Sephiroth's voice, his connection with the planet and Alice was completely cut off, and he still doesn't know what caused it.

But in the nine years since he disappeared, he lived with Sephiroth for five full years.He neither killed Sephiroth, nor tried to tell the planet about it, and even concealed his true identity and brought him up. It wasn't until Sephiroth began to recover his ability and memory that he made up his mind to come to Vincent and the others for help.He betrayed the planet, his past, and his companions who fought bloody battles with him back then. He really didn't know how to tell Vincent and Nanaki about all this.

The sudden guilt gripped Claude's heart tightly, and he began to feel difficult to breathe, and unconsciously grabbed the fabric on his knee.

Nanaki noticed his abnormality and immediately cast a worried look: "Claude, are you okay?"

Vincent didn't speak, but looked at him with the same concern.

Claude closed his eyes, tried to calm his breathing, and finally decided to tell the whole truth.

"It's a long story." His voice trembled slightly.He is about to tear his wounds bloody to his friends, including everything he has done in five years, including the relationship between him and Sephiroth that is far beyond the line, if Vincent and Nanaki can't forgive him It's his own fault, but he really can't bear it alone.

"Anyway, Sephiroth and I...resurrected together."

After that, Claude talked about what happened between waking up and going to the Cosmic Canyon throughout the night, and collapsed several times to the point where he couldn't continue.He thought he would be condemned by at least one of them, but in fact the two friends just listened quietly, patting him on the shoulder from time to time to calm him when he was out of control.

It wasn't until Claude finished telling all his experiences and began to liquidate his mistakes that Vincent interrupted him calmly.

"It's not your fault, Claude. You can't keep it a secret. He will know sooner or later, so all this is inevitable." The other party comforted.

"I know...I know. But I—" Claude buried his face in his hands in pain, and took a deep breath before he had the courage to continue, "I want to give him a chance. Vincent, You know, I never thought he was so promising to be a normal person."

As soon as the voice fell, the three of them fell into silence together.

It's a nice wish, but they both know it's impossible.

After a while, Nanaki nuzzled Claude's palm lightly with his nose, and lay on his knees, allowing him to stroke his fur like other animals.

"I know you might feel bad, but you're not to blame for this, Cloud. Sephiroth took advantage of your kindness, it was his problem, not yours, you just did a kind Choose." Nanaki licked the back of his hand.

"No... I know the possible consequences, but I indulged him. It's all my fault." Claude nodded sadly.

Vincent and Nanaki looked at each other, realizing that they could not relieve Claude's psychological trauma for the time being, and could only wait for time to slowly repair it.So he thought about it a little, and decided to bring the topic to other things that Claude might care about.

"Actually, there are other reasons why we are looking for you this time."

Claude raised his head again, only to see that the other party's expression became very dignified.

"Actually, as early as six years ago, Alice had already informed Nanaki about the resurrection of Sephiroth. All these years, I thought he was in the big void, so I wanted to ask you what happened after the crystal disappeared. What happened. But if everything you said is true, that Sephiroth has been with you for almost five years and has never been away for a long time...then what is the one in the big hole?"

"Big hole?" Claude was slightly stunned, "What happened there?"

Nanaki rose from his lap and shook his mane.

"It's a long story."

Seeing the black wing, Sephiroth withdrew a certain distance, and at the same time spread his own wings.

He noticed that the aura that attacked him before quickly dissipated after he noticed the man approaching, so he turned the broken blade at the new uninvited guest.

"Who are you?" Sephiroth asked.

The other party knew his name, seemed to know him - or had him.But he had no memory of the man, as if a few pieces were missing in the jigsaw puzzle of memory.

"'The creation of karma, together with dreams and honor, lost everything. The soul imprisoned for revenge, the desire to be fulfilled at the end of distress.'" The man shook his head, motioning for him to move the knife away, but Sephiroth remained motionless. "Is it bad manners to point a knife at an acquaintance, Sephiroth, or do you really not remember anything?"

——It’s the same kind.Sephiroth judged by the man's wings.However, he could neither feel the resonance of Claude from the other party, nor had he seen the other party in his dream.

Seeing this, the man shrugged in disappointment: "Genesis Lapsodous, my name. If you still can't remember it, why not let your body remember it."

The opponent's finger slid across the blade, and the red sword began to glow with a burning red light.In the next second, the man suddenly made an attack, and the long sword suddenly rushed in front of him.

Sephiroth dodged instinctively, and spread his wings to retreat to high altitude.The man also flew into the air, and stabbed after him.The half-shortened Murasame put Sephiroth at a very disadvantageous position in melee combat, so he swung a dense arc of light with his backhand, forcing the man to raise his knife to block.Taking advantage of this period, he opened the distance between the two of them again, and released the strong wind magic on the man, who was immediately trapped in the frenzied air current.

"Oh? It's really novel to start to pay attention to tactics after losing the weapon at hand, Sephiroth." The man was half teasing and half sarcasm, and quickly pushed himself out of the air current with a burst of flames.

Sephiroth raised his eyebrows coldly. Although he is currently limited to incomplete weapons, this does not mean that people other than Claude are qualified to point out his strength.So he fell back to the ground again, holding the knife flat into a strange posture, as if he decided to take over the man's hand-to-hand combat after being provoked.

The man didn't understand that gesture, he snorted lightly indifferently, let the sword ignite red again, and then swooped straight down towards him.

The moment the blades met, the man's arm holding the knife suddenly felt a strange pulling sensation, as if his momentum was being directed in another direction by the broken blade.Before he could react, he was violently thrown out by inertia, hurriedly adjusted his balance in the air, and when he turned around, he saw Sephiroth posing in that pose again.

Counter stance.

Genesis remembered that the reason why this posture looked very strange on Sephiroth was because the original owner of the move used a door-wide heavy sword.

"It's unbelievable. After fighting Cloud Strife for so many years, you only learned this?" Genesis flapped his wings twice and fell back to the ground.He noticed that the moment he said the name, the pupils of the other party suddenly shrank into a slit.

"You know him." Although it was a question, Sephiroth's tone was firm.

"Guess." Genesis put down the red sword in his hand and smiled provocatively at the other party.

Sephiroth looked at him for a moment, put Murame back into the scabbard, turned around and walked in the direction he came from.Genesis didn't expect the other party to react like this, and hurriedly caught up with Sephiroth to stop him.

"Aren't you curious at all about who I am and what I'm here for?" Genesis asked suspiciously.

"Get out of the way." Sephiroth was really not interested, he only cared about what happened to him and when Claude would calm down.

Genesis seemed to be choked, and the expression on his face instantly became very exciting.

Sephiroth walked around him and continued, and Genesis had to stop him again with his wings.He looked at Sephiroth for a while, and suddenly realized an important question.

"It looks like you've forgotten quite a bit about yourself and Strife, too."

Sephiroth stopped abruptly and turned to him.

Genesis observed his reaction, knew that he had guessed right, and couldn't help crossing his arms: "This is really interesting..."

If Sephiroth doesn't remember, it can also explain why he is holding Murasame instead of authentic.Genesis pondered for a moment, then shrugged at Sephiroth.

"Come with me if you want to know about yourself and Strife. I'm not your enemy, and before you lost your memory we were kind of—" He paused, wondering if he should use "friend" But after seeing Sephiroth's cold eyes, he changed his words, "—comrades. So I know everything about you."

Sephiroth just looked at him coldly, noncommittal.So Genesis didn't continue to wait for him to express his opinion, and spread his wings and flew in the direction of Ice and Snow Village.

Sephiroth stared at his back meaninglessly, thought for a moment, and finally followed him into the clouds.

The traveling efficiency of the two flying creatures was extraordinary, and before evening they had arrived at a cabin not far from the Ice and Snow Village.Genesis pushed the door open and walked in as if no one was there, lit the firewood in the fireplace casually, and the room was immediately illuminated by the warm fire.

"This is a wooden house for travelers. It has everything in it, and you can do whatever you want."

Sephiroth stood the luggage in the corner, shook off the snowflakes all over his body, and sat in front of the fireplace to dry the drenched cloth.During this period, Genesis kept looking at him with a strange look, so Sephiroth endured it for 10 minutes, then turned his head to look at him displeasedly: "What's the matter?"

Genesis gasped: "I thought it was you and not me who lost the memory? Shouldn't you be the one to ask the things you want to know?"

"Then let's start with what you want to say." Sephiroth made the decision for him naturally, as if he was the chief interrogator here, "For example, who are you and what are you looking for me for?"

"Genesis Lapsodos, once worked with you in the Shinra Company in the old Shinra era, and was a first-class special soldier. I hope you can call me by my name in the future." Genesis rubbed Rubbing between his brows, he realized that he could not follow the logic of the other party, so he regained the dominance of the topic: "I do have something to do with you, but it depends on your current situation. What happened during the nine years when the husband's crystal disappeared, why did you come back to life, and you seem to be much younger now, what is going on?"

"You know mother——" Sephiroth was about to ask, but realized that he used the wrong title habitually, and hurriedly changed his words: "—Claude's crystal?"

"You call Strife your mother?" Genesis seemed to have heard some star-level joke, and suddenly laughed wildly without image.

Sephiroth's face darkened immediately.

Genesis was out of breath from laughing, and finally stopped laughing before he crushed the handle of the knife: "Does Strife know about this?" The other party glanced at his expression and immediately understood : "Oh, he does. So what's his reaction?"

A desperate and heartbroken face flashed across Sephiroth's mind, and a strange pain rose in his chest for some reason.

As if noticing his abnormality, Genesis' expression became a little more serious.He leaned back into the sofa and took out a book of poetry from his arms.

"As you can see, we're sort of the same kind, but Strife and I are on the side of the planet, at least for now. What the future relationship between you and me, and Strife will be depends on I don’t know what Strife thinks about what position you will choose after all your memories are restored. Personally, I tend to let you restore your memories as soon as possible to make a decision, so that I can plan what to do in the next stage. So—— Genesis turned one of the pages and looked up at him again, "Are you willing to cooperate with me now?"

There was a moment of silence in the room, the only sound left in the air was the crackling of firewood.

The dancing flames illuminated the man's face, and Sephiroth nodded slightly as he looked at the pair of blue pupils that were very similar to Claude.

"...do you know of a cult called 'The Redeemers'?"