【SC】Endless Journey

The moment Sephiroth stepped into the institute, everyone stopped in their tracks, and there was silence in the hall.

Sephiroth didn't want to find out whether the panic on everyone's faces was because he was one year older or he had done something that he couldn't let him know. He walked to a researcher closest to him and asked bluntly, "Where's Claude?"

The researcher looked around nervously. No one dared to tell him whether he should answer, so he raised his finger in despair and pointed behind him: "In...the central area."

"Central District?"

Since the mother's crystal dissipated, only the training cabin and the central control room remained in the central area, and he and Claude would basically only go to the other two areas for training or experiments. Why would Claude be in the central area? ?

Sephiroth ignored the researcher and walked straight to the central area.People along the way automatically avoided him when they saw him, as if they saw some scourge.

Sephiroth didn't figure out what happened until the door of the central area opened.He hadn't seen so many researchers gathered in the central area in two years. There was a working training cabin, and everyone was circling around it, just like they were around their mother's crystal many years ago.

Even though he was far away, he still saw Claude soaked in the demon at a glance.

The blond-haired boy was suspended naked in the fluorescent green fluid, like a doll made of white porcelain, every joint was carefully carved, and butterfly-like eyelashes quietly covered his eyes.His limbs were slender and stretched, and his skin showed a somewhat illusory sense of transparency under the top light in the cultivation cabin, so beautiful, yet so lifeless.

Sephiroth's breath stagnated, and the picture in his dream appeared in his mind——

"help me."

It turned out that it was not only the mother, but also Claude who was asking for help through his dream.

An unprecedented anger swept through his limbs, and it came to him with the pain, injury, and confusion that Sephiroth had suffered in these years.

——Mother is the hero who saved the planet!

He is the savior of all things, and human beings can live to this day thanks to his grace!

But what are they doing?Wantonly playing with the genes of their more noble and powerful mothers, creating clones of him, and treating them like experimental guinea pigs, he and Claude don't even have as many human rights as an ordinary human child in the outside world, what is it? Human beings are given such powers?

The hurricane created huge waves on the sea surface, and rolled up the dark sediment in the deep sea.Many crazy thoughts flooded into his mind - the flames of the town shooting straight into the sky, the townspeople fleeing in panic, the screams amidst the flames and gunshots, and the village rain splitting the bodies of enemies and civilians, blood splashing on their faces Hot to the touch...

It is you who have chosen war and disaster, and you deserve it!

Sephiroth strode towards the training cabin, with Murame out of the sheath in his hand.Seeing this, several researchers stopped in front of him, anxiously explaining something to him, but Sephiroth was too angry, those words were like the buzzing of mosquitoes, he didn't listen to a single word.

Just as he raised Muramaro to destroy the training cabin, Carterholm suddenly walked out from the shadows.

"If you let him out of it now, he might die."

Sephiroth turned his head abruptly, only to see the skinny man looking at him with folded hands, his expression calm as if it had nothing to do with him.

The appearance of Carter Holm was like pouring a bucket of ice water on his head, which made Sephiroth regain his composure.At the same time, a strong killing intent rose from the bottom of my heart.So he slightly turned Murasame's direction, pointing the knife point at Carter Holm's heart: "What did you do to him?"

"Normal minor surgery. But you haven't been back for a long time, so there is no stock of C-cell injections-you know, Claude's own cells can't reproduce too many generations in vitro, and he can't make spare injections for himself. We Using the magic ko soaking method to promote the self-healing of the wound, but I didn’t expect him to be intolerant to the high concentration of magko, and had relatively serious side effects.” The man pushed his glasses, and added slowly: “That’s the so-called Moko is poisoned."

Sephiroth's brows were deeply pressed down, and Muramari cut open Katterholm's front.

The man was not threatened by his killing intent, and shrugged his shoulders without changing his expression: "Don't be so nervous. The person is still alive, and the wound has indeed healed, but there are some sequelae - simply put, it is the loss of self-awareness."

"You are not qualified to say that he is still alive."

"Then put it another way, at least he still has a chance to be rescued."

Sephiroth's pupils narrowed tightly, like some kind of frightening cold-blooded animal: "You will pay for this, Catholm."

The other party seemed to have heard something interesting, and laughed a few times exaggeratedly: "Ha, ha - the price? This is all caused by you. If you don't insist on leaving with the military, then Claude's The injections will not be out of stock, we will not use this method to help him maintain his self-healing ability, and he will not be poisoned by demons."

"This is all your fault, Sephiroth."

The moment the words fell, Murasame suddenly moved forward half a centimeter, and blood flowed down the fabric on Katterholm's chest.

Sephiroth's icy anger almost materialized, and there were gasps and exclamations one after another in the research institute.However, Catholm only looked down at his chest before returning to his bored expression.

"Unfortunately, I thought you were going to stab it. Then no one can tell you how to save your little brother."

...Calm down, Sephiroth.It's not time to kill him yet, it's important to save Claude.

He warned himself in his mind, so he took a deep breath, forced Murasame back, and vigorously shook off the blood from the tip of the knife.

"What am I going to do?" he asked coldly.

Carterholm wiped his chest, and wiped the blood from his hands on the lab coat in disgust. "Claude once said that he could hear the voice of the savior, which shows that there is a connection between the C-cell clone and the mother beyond the physical level. Since you are also a clone, and you will be called Claude Strife 'Mother', you can probably hear that voice too, right?"

Sephiroth was noncommittal.

"Then I guess the connection between the C cells is a kind of conscious resonance. Since you can resonate with Cloud Strife, you should be able to do it with each other, so you can try to wake him up."

Although Catholm is an undisputed scumbag, Sephiroth has to admit that his research turned out to be right in the general direction.

Sephiroth weighed the pros and cons, and decided to follow Carter Holm's suggestion for the time being.He walked to the main console, found the screen that controlled the training cabin, and entered a few commands.

"In short, let him out first, don't continue to aggravate the symptoms of Moko poisoning."

This time, Carter Holm didn't object, and let him take off his coat, wrap Claude tightly, and carry him into the disinfection room beside him.

"Claude?"

Hearing his voice, the boy turned his face obediently, with the same bright green vertical pupils in his eyes.

Cutholm hadn't lied to him, the boy had come to his senses since he had taken over Cloud's job.But this awakening was not normal, Sephiroth felt that his younger brother had changed back to the way he followed behind him when he was three years old. Although he could follow his every instruction, he could hardly speak.

This is Claude, but not quite.Sephiroth carefully recalled the eccentric and rebellious younger brother who kept a distance from him, and felt that the boy in front of him was more like a well-behaved little doll, without his own personality, and could only process his orders mechanically.

"Have a meal."

Claude was at a loss for a moment, lowered his head, picked up the spoon, and sent the hot thick soup to his mouth.When the spoon was about to touch his lips, Sephiroth stopped him.

"You can't drink like this, blow on it first."

Claude froze for a moment, and began to eat again according to his request.

In fact, when he first regained consciousness, Claude was in a state of being unable to take care of himself. Every step he took and everything he did required Sephiroth to give him instructions.Gradually, as the number of instructions he receives increases, more and more things he can do independently.

For half a year, Sephiroth even thought it was good. He didn't care if Claude remained in this state for the rest of his life, as long as he lived and kept his mother's part.And this Claude is very obedient, completely under his control, will not create surprises, and will not do anything he doesn't like.

Of course, another reason is that although he can communicate with his mother in his dreams, most of the time it is his mother who comes to him on his own initiative.Perhaps, as Carterholm said, he also has the ability to communicate with other C-cell clones, but he still hasn't mastered it, and he doesn't know when he will.

Claude's situation dragged on for eight months, so the institute gradually regarded it as the norm.

The experiment on the other party still continued, and Sephiroth was still in the army most of the time, but he would come back a few days every month, on the one hand to ensure that the other party's condition did not deteriorate, and on the other hand to provide Cloud An injection for a surgery.

Sephiroth loathed everything around him more and more, including Catholme, including the Institute and the entire Order of the Redeemer.

When performing missions, he often thought that it would be great if the military found out that he was funding a lunatic who was actually conducting anti-human experiments under the guise of a resurrected savior.Sephiroth would be happy to destroy the institute himself, he would cut all the creatures in the institute in half like he did on Junon's battlefield, anyway, that's how the institute has cultivated him for a long time, they should also taste their own results.

At the end of August, Sephiroth returned to the army again. Angel asked at the first sight of him: "How is your brother?"

Sephiroth took the communicator from the other party, filled out several forms, and handed the things back. "It's much better. I can't fully take care of myself now, but I can already take the initiative to do some actions other than orders."

Pete heard their conversation and leaned over excitedly: "So you have a younger brother! What does he look like? Do you have a picture?"

Sephiroth was taken aback for a moment, he had never considered taking pictures of Claude, and of course he hadn't taken pictures of himself either.The two only have video records of the laboratory, which are generally confidential information of the research institute, and cannot be shown to outsiders.

"He is... blond hair, blue eyes. Ten years old, about as tall as my stomach..." He tried to describe his younger brother's features, but found that the expressions of the other two became more and more strange. "how?"

Angel frowned slightly: "Is it your cousin?"

"No, we are clones of the same person."

"Clone! Sounds so handsome?" Pete finished applauding, and then asked: "But shouldn't you look the same?"

Sephiroth was silent.

This question troubled him for a while when he was a child, but later he felt more and more that his mother might be different from ordinary humans, and he guessed that his mother chose Claude instead of him, so he stopped exploring this question later. thing.Now being mentioned by Pete, he once again felt a little confused.

"It's a bit troublesome to explain. Our mother is a very special existence, so anything can happen, but the reason is not clear yet."

"I see, your prototype—er, mom, must be a super strong fighter." Pete echoed sincerely.

Angel cast a warning look at the black-haired soldier, so Pete immediately fell silent.

Claude is an enigma.

Claude knows a lot of things that only his mother knows, but Claude never takes the initiative to share it with him.Claude's spirit is always drifting away from their lives, as if he is indifferent to his own status quo, but he is preoccupied in places that others cannot see.Claude is good at observing words and emotions, he can see through what the people around him are thinking at a glance, but he pretends not to know and accepts all good and bad.Claude cared about him very much, far more than himself, and would make some unimaginable sacrifices for him, and he wasn't sure if it was simply because the other party liked him.Claude...

Sephiroth woke up with a start.He found that he paid too much attention to Claude, so that he could recall every move of the other party with a little recollection.

The quilt beside him moved, a fluffy golden head poked out a little, and Sephiroth subconsciously hugged his brother.

"It's still early, go to sleep."

The head let out a dazed "um", hugged his head back into his arms, and patted his back like comforting a child.

Claude had a little fever last night, which seemed to be a poisoning reaction to the experimental medicine, so Sephiroth stayed with him in bed all night.

I don't know since when, it became the norm for them to sleep in the same bed.Sometimes in Cloud's bed, sometimes in his, for different reasons, but Sephiroth unexpectedly found that he didn't dislike doing it, and even liked it a little.

The living quarters of the research facility are underground, cold and damp all year round.Although his physique is not sensitive to temperature, he prefers warmth over cold, so the heat emitted by Claude's body is particularly attractive to him.This doesn't mean he likes Claude, he just found a way to get along that makes both of them comfortable.

Another point he never mentioned to Claude is that the other party looks more and more like his mother.

Now Claude has been out of the training cabin for two and a half years, his biological age is a little over ten years old, and Sephiroth is close to 14 years old in appearance. The height gap between the two has not narrowed, but has become worse.

It wasn't until his body size surpassed that of his mother that Sephiroth realized that the difference between himself and his mother was not a matter of genetic mutation.There is no similarity between him and his mother, which cannot be explained genetically at all.Claude, on the other hand, is exactly the same as his mother if age is not considered.

Pete's question reminded Sephiroth again that day, are he, his mother, and Claude the same individual?How much ability has the mother inherited?How much did Claude inherit?

There is also a question that he has skipped intentionally or unintentionally over the years. Since Claude has learned so much information from his mother, what is his attitude towards himself?

He buried his face deeper in his younger brother's arms.He still remembered that when he had the first large-scale physical contact with Claude, a strange voice in his head told him a new word: Reunion.Later he looked up the word, which literally meant recombination, but it sounded ambiguous.

If Claude goes on like this forever, he will take good care of him, but it means that he will no longer have the opportunity to know the answers to these questions.

Sephiroth began to miss his exuberant and rebellious brother a little bit.

The war between Midgar and Junon has been fought tepidly for more than a year, and the cabinet finally feels that it can no longer be consumed like this, and plans to launch a general offensive directly.

Half a century ago, Zhu Nong was the largest arms manufacturing base on this continent. At that time, the supreme military commander of the Grand Duchy led troops to rebel because of a failed coup, and directly turned Zhu Nong, which was originally operating as a military port, into a new country.Therefore, although it is slightly behind in food production and economic development, Junon has always had more arms reserves than the Pan-Midgar Duchy. Sephiroth guessed that this may also be the reason why the Grand Duchy funded the Redeemer's research and development of biological weapons.

At the same time, Catholme's objection to his going to the battlefield with the military also confirmed Claude's statement. The man was very fanatical about the savior himself, and they were not made for the purpose of tools. However, the military took a fancy to his data. Only then was he forced to enlist him.

Facts have proved that Claude's guess is correct. Although his younger brother has never left the institute, he has a very thorough view of the outside world.

After receiving the latest mission, Sephiroth read the content carefully several times before raising his head suspiciously: "Go directly to attack Junong Military Port by sea? The higher-ups don't plan to occupy the neutral zone?"

"There will be a large-scale feint over there. Your task is to attack the capital at night and control the presidential palace." Angel pulled out a map on the electronic whiteboard and delineated an area, "This is it."

Sephiroth pondered for a moment, then asked again: "What about the deployment of troops near the capital and the presidential palace? Is there any information?"

Angel shook his head regretfully: "It all depends on your on-the-spot judgment."

He immediately understood that this meant that the scene was completely up to him to decide how to deal with it, including the question of whether to keep alive.

Sephiroth didn't love or hate the job, he just gradually realized that the outside world was also stupid.He can't see any benefits of this war of aggression other than consuming more resources, providing more jobs for the army, and fulfilling the long-cherished wishes of some high-level duchies, but it is clear that humans are very good at blaming external factors for what they don't do well , as it is with Midgar, so it is with the Redeemer.Disasters on the planet may not be able to destroy human beings for a while, but human beings themselves may not be able to.

— So how did such a creature gain dominion over the planet?

Sephiroth sneered, causing Angel to look back at him inexplicably.

That night, the northern battlefield was in full swing, and even the capital could see the flames of rocket barrages. Sephiroth took this opportunity to approach the Junon military port on Midgar's submarine.

He saw the 200-year-old iconic cannon in Junong Military Port two nautical miles away, and then the submarine floated up and slowly approached the coast outside the military port.Sephiroth led about two companies of soldiers to land quietly in a kayak, and then signaled these people to disperse into four teams, bypassing Junon's traffic arteries, and surrounded the presidential palace from four directions: east, west, north, south, and himself. To invade alone from above the city alone.

Just when Sephiroth silently beheaded the guards in the garden of the presidential palace under the cover of night, an explosion occurred on a street next to the presidential palace.

He didn't know which team had exposed their position. The security booth immediately sounded the alarm, the searchlights of the entire presidential palace were turned on, and there was a fierce exchange of fire nearby.

The abnormality in the garden has also been exposed. The huge shield is centered on the dome of the Presidential Palace, covering the entire mansion.Sephiroth turned around and swung a knife, the sword energy hit the shield without leaving a trace, so he immediately realized that it was a powerful magic shield, and he couldn't get out of it until he found the magic crystal that activated the shield Here to go out, can only continue to fight.

Just as Sephiroth was about to turn around, he felt a heat source appearing in the distance.He dodged to the side suddenly, only to see a light cannon hit the ground where he was standing half a second ago, the violent explosion melted the ground, and the light smoke even scorched the ends of his hair.

He managed to gain a foothold in the scorching wind, and when he turned around, he saw two giant guard machines rushing towards him.

This is the core of Junong's military technology. Each machine is equipped with a shield magic stone of the same level as the presidential palace shield. Sephiroth has only seen one on the previous battlefield.When they encountered this killing weapon for the first time, they sacrificed about half a battalion of troops to barely handle it. Now he only has one person but has to deal with two of them. The situation is very critical.

...that's weird.

Sephiroth lowered his eyebrows, an ominous smile appeared on his lips.

Angel said not to let the higher-ups know how far he can do it, and he did keep his secret in the past year.But now that there is no one from Midgar in the entire mansion, he can let go as much as he wants, without having to worry about those weak but suspicious humans.

"Move the ground."

Sephiroth bowed slightly, ejected at a speed that the mechanical scanner could not capture, and swung two knives horizontally.The shield of the guard machine was hit a few times, and it glowed with an overheated orange light.

"For a while."

Lift up, settle down, pick the air with a backhand, and then chop down heavily.The shield shattered like glass, fragments of magic flew in all directions, and one of them grazed his cheek, leaving a thin line of blood behind.

The machine that lost its shield was still rushing towards him, and the light cannon bombarded wantonly in the garden, even hitting a corner of the presidential palace building.He lifted the village rain among the collapsing stones and put it over his shoulders in front of him.

Counter stance.

This is a move he learned from Claude. The machine that stepped forward was directly thrown away by Murasame with the help of inertia, knocking down the machine behind, and the shells of the two machines were damaged to varying degrees under the impact. , the partially exposed wiring started sparking.

"Big thunder and lightning."

The dazzling white light illuminated the entire garden, and the two machines temporarily fell into a state of being unable to work.

Sephiroth jumped into the air at last, slamming the ground at a very high position, the huge momentum caused the ground to rise layer by layer like waves, piercing through the machine that lost its shield.

With a loud bang, the exploding machinery produced two tiny mushroom clouds, and the shock wave shattered the wall of the presidential palace, causing the entire building to collapse.

"...the prison gate."

Standing in the flames soaring into the sky, Sephiroth turned towards the family members and staff of the president who just took the opportunity to escape, with a naive and cruel smile on his face.

"The world is hell." Sephiroth tilted his head, shaking off the dust on the village rain, "From my personal experience, it may be better for you to be sent away here than to fall into the hands of the Midgar military For example, is it better to die completely as a human being than to live humiliatingly as a human experiment monster?"

Everyone's expressions were shrouded in despair. Several men pulled out their pistols, and pulled the trigger because they were too frightened to even aim at him.

Sephiroth easily swung his knife to block the bullet, and approached the opposite side step by step.

...that's what it feels like.

The feeling of being hated and feared.The feeling of not knowing who to call for help, and not being able to get a response when calling for help.The feeling of being a supreme being, controlling other beings.

Everything he experienced in the research institute was finally perfectly integrated with the life experience of the outside world, forming a new perspective.

Selfish, arrogant, and fragile human beings can inflict pain on others without any psychological burden, but when the pain is returned to themselves, they are terrified to death.This is really... very human.

Sephiroth raised the village rain, smiled at the crying crowd, and drew two silver arcs.