Chapter 16: The Reverse World& Forgiveness
(This section will focus on Cloud as the speaker) Since my muscles were too weak from the pain caused by level 2 Geostigma, I ended up flying Seffi the rest of the way to Mako Peak on our way to meet up with JENOVA. I managed to calm down shortly after the transformation had completed, but I still couldn’t get the images of that kid with the red eye out of my head—along with everything I saw in that strange world that seemed so familiar. But it couldn’t have been Shinra… there was just no way. It was dark, nothing but stars in the sky, no lifestream—it was a world of perpetual darkness and lifelessness. What was the truth about that place? One thing I did know for sure was I wanted answers about that place. And as Kadaj always said, if no one else knows, then JENOVA always does. Even though I wasn’t sure she would give me the truth about it, I intended to ask anyway. When our destination was in sight, Seffi asked “Cloud, what’s wrong? You seem like youre in a hurry…” I replied “I don’t know, but… I need to ask JENOVA about this world I was sent into during Hojo’s experiment. Somehow, I don’t think he knows where he sent me during the time… it was only a test, after all. I doubt he had any precise intel on what was across the spatial axis. JENOVA knows way more about that stuff than he does. That’s why I’m going to see her.” Seffi asked “Cloud… what did you see in the strange place?” I paused in silence, feeling tears fall from my face “I… cant say… I’m not sure if I even know what happened out there…” I landed at my destination, and gently put Seffi down. As I expected, JENOVA was here sitting in her throne, and took immediate notice to us “Cloud… no, Spike… you failed to contain yourself again. You must learn to control or you will be no match for that vortex.” I grumbled “Ok, I get it… but that’s not why we’re here. I wanted to ask you about the world that Hojo’s last experiment sent me to during testing.” She closed her eye calmly “So you saw it… it seems my intuition is correct once again.” I asked “You know where I was? Tell me about that place. What did you do to Tifa? And what happened to the kids?!” I realized I was quickly growing feisty. Seffi seemed scared “Cloud..!” JENOVA snapped at me, getting out of her throne, and placed her hand under my chin, giving me an angry but firm stare “Do not take that tone with me, young man. Defying your own Mother will only get you hurt!” She quickly released me, and another wracking wave of pain swept through me, my vision flickering in the process “Ungh…!” I grabbed my head, and heard a beeping sound that came from my choker. After I managed to recover, I said “I’m sorry, but please… please tell me about that place, tell me what it was…” She kept her glance firm, but spoke calmly “That world you were sent to… is what we call the Reverse World. That is the rightful home of your young weapon, Seffi, also known as the Reunion Prince. How Hojo managed to breach the lock I placed on that world, I do not know. Its very existence was extremely confidential, only myself, Sephiroth, and JENBU knew of it.” I asked “But why did you lock it so heavily?” JENOVA appeared to calm down, returning to her neutral expression “Because, if anyone else were to enter the place without permission, say one of my younger children learning to use the power to travel through spatial dimensions, and he played around there… something really bad could happen. The Reverse World is what controls and maintains the Infinite Reunion coursing through my lifestream, and what allows new life to be brought into my Planet. However, without the Reunion Prince, this process is heavily hindered to the point where the world we are standing in could be swallowed up by the Divine Vortex you saw that day. That boy standing next to you cannot stay here; he must go back to the Reverse World, or it will disappear from existence.” Seffi began to cry “But Mother, I cant… I cant go back on my own..!” I was confused “What do you mean? How could this child be capable of such a responsibility?” JENOVA approached the boy and tried to comfort him “It’s ok, my child. We’ll find a way to help you go back.” Then she turned back to me after he stopped crying “Spike, this boy has a special type of JENOVA cells inside of him. They’re different from the ones you and Sephiroth have—instead of keeping a single person alive, they release a special energy wave that is designed to supply power to an entire area. In other words, this child is the energy source of the Reverse World. Without him present, it cant last forever. You did notice the place had no lifestream, correct?” I nodded. JENOVA pointed to Seffi “This child is a physical embodiment of Reverse World’s lifestream. If he isn’t sent back, it will burn away and be removed from existence. Without the Reverse World, this Planet cannot live on either; if there is no signal from the Reverse World to power my Infinite Reunion, this world will also be obliterated. None on my Planet can live on without the Infinite Reunion. If this world dies, Cloud… keep in mind that you will die with it. No one wins if that happens; not you, and not myself.” She turned angry, and I felt a rush of fear as I saw her piercing gaze on me “So make up your mind, Cloud. What is it you want? Are you going to continue living in the past and sentence my family to death, or are you going to take action and fight for the life of this Planet instead?” My expression turned hard, and I realized I was sweating badly within seconds. I began having a surge of flashbacks all at once; I saw Kadaj crying over her fallen Brothers, watched helplessly as Sephiroth burned my hometown and murdered my family, I heard Yazoo say What do you know about love? All you were ever good at was stealing everything from us! as I watched him cry with an angry stare on me; I remembered my battle against Kadaj on that tower, watched her weep as she gripped JENOVA’s remains tightly, the day that I almost died. I had so many flashbacks about everything that happened, my head began to ache. There was so much noise in my head, I didn’t realize I was crying until it all stopped. JENOVA kicked me, gazing down at me firmly “Give… your decision…” I couldn’t take my eyes off of her at that time. I was in the toughest spot I’d been in my whole life right now. JENOVA’s metallic wings began shining, and a silver halo appeared above her head. A large circle of thick green and black surrounded us, JENOVA’s expression remaining hard “If you wont talk, then I’ll simply have to make you… even if I must use my own lifestream to do it.” I began to panic “That stuff around us… that’s..?!” I suddenly felt strange, and had a feeling JENOVA was suffering badly right now. She was very angry with me and I knew it. My mind began racing again, and I didn’t know what to do. Part of me said to forget about everything that happened and help save her and her family, and another part of me said to ignore everything. I wanted to just fly away right now, pretend this was all just a dream… but I couldn’t. Where would I go? And what would I do? I didn’t wanna face this reality, but there was no avoiding it now. I felt something sharp and painful inside myself, and realized JENOVA was using the powers of her lifestream on me; I screamed in pain. She said “Give me… your decision…” I yelled “Urrgh!! Stop..!!” She released me but didn’t speak. I was gasping for air, and spat up my own blood. I glanced at Seffi, who appeared to be watching helplessly “Kid, get out of here… I don’t want you to get hurt…” Seffi was crying “I cant….” I was confused “Arent your wielder’s orders absolute?! I don’t want you to get hurt, forget about me and run!” He didn’t answer. I suddenly stopped and remembered Yazoo telling me that Kadaj was a very sweet Sister to him and Loz before we fought at the Meteor Monument, and that she turned angry and violent after that day; that all she would think about was getting the Planet for JENOVA, how she wouldn’t smile anymore. I managed to stand up, and said “JENOVA, I’m so sorry… I didn’t realize what I put you through, what I did to Kadaj… to all of you…” She kept her hardened stare, unblinking. I continued “When I stand here in front of you like this, when youre wielding your most deadly powers and weapons… I feel hurt. You suffered so much, endless struggles, going from life to death and back… all because of me…” I felt tears fall from my face and went on “I misunderstood everything… I thought what you were trying to do would destroy everything on this Planet, but it didn’t. Because if it did, none of those people I saw out there would exist. But forget about that… I scarred you so much, so badly… that youre suffering even now..! I never imagined you would be so nice at all..! JENOVA, no… Mother, I’m so sorry…! I’m a terrible person..!” Then I broke down and fell to my knees, and realized I was weeping heavily “Just please… give me one more chance—one more chance to save you and everyone else!” JENOVA seemed to calm down and knelt down to comfort me “Spike…” I began hearing a beeping pattern that came from my choker, and felt a strong energy surge inside myself that continually grew stronger. JENOVA was shaking me as if trying to get my attention and I forced my weeping to stop and glanced at her “What..?” She seemed worried “Spike, your timer… it overclocked!” I felt concerned but forced my panic away “What does that mean..?” JENOVA answered “If you panic and feel too much emotional stress, your timer will stockpile too much and your choker will enter overclock. If your choker overclocks, it releases a dense and powerful JENOVA cell burst!” I worried “And what does that mean for me..?” She shook her head “You might be alright, but the when your overclock goes off, you’ll have really nasty Geostigma upon returning to your human form… you will be too weak to fight.” I felt bad now “But if the process kills me… how will you get rid of that vortex..? Cant you just stop it somehow?” She shook her head “I might be able to use my cells to block the command on your choker, but if I fail, your body will be flooded with JENOVA cells and you’ll die… its too dangerous…” I apologized “I’m sorry… I should’ve controlled myself better. Then this wouldn’t have happened.” JENOVA added “Don’t take all of the blame, Cloud… I put you on the spot and that is what got you stressed enough to overclock… I should’ve slowed down, but I couldn’t… but hold on!” She took my hand and kept her eyes on me, and smiled faintly at me. The beeping from my choker stopped, and I heard a faint whirring sound come from it. Out of nowhere, I had returned to my normal self and unspeakable pain wracked my entire body; it was impossible not to scream. My vision quickly went dark, and I blacked out before I had a chance to say anything to her. The last thing I heard was her cry my name, before everything went black and stopped.
To be Continued…
(This section will focus on Cloud as the speaker) Since my muscles were too weak from the pain caused by level 2 Geostigma, I ended up flying Seffi the rest of the way to Mako Peak on our way to meet up with JENOVA. I managed to calm down shortly after the transformation had completed, but I still couldn’t get the images of that kid with the red eye out of my head—along with everything I saw in that strange world that seemed so familiar. But it couldn’t have been Shinra… there was just no way. It was dark, nothing but stars in the sky, no lifestream—it was a world of perpetual darkness and lifelessness. What was the truth about that place? One thing I did know for sure was I wanted answers about that place. And as Kadaj always said, if no one else knows, then JENOVA always does. Even though I wasn’t sure she would give me the truth about it, I intended to ask anyway. When our destination was in sight, Seffi asked “Cloud, what’s wrong? You seem like youre in a hurry…” I replied “I don’t know, but… I need to ask JENOVA about this world I was sent into during Hojo’s experiment. Somehow, I don’t think he knows where he sent me during the time… it was only a test, after all. I doubt he had any precise intel on what was across the spatial axis. JENOVA knows way more about that stuff than he does. That’s why I’m going to see her.” Seffi asked “Cloud… what did you see in the strange place?” I paused in silence, feeling tears fall from my face “I… cant say… I’m not sure if I even know what happened out there…” I landed at my destination, and gently put Seffi down. As I expected, JENOVA was here sitting in her throne, and took immediate notice to us “Cloud… no, Spike… you failed to contain yourself again. You must learn to control or you will be no match for that vortex.” I grumbled “Ok, I get it… but that’s not why we’re here. I wanted to ask you about the world that Hojo’s last experiment sent me to during testing.” She closed her eye calmly “So you saw it… it seems my intuition is correct once again.” I asked “You know where I was? Tell me about that place. What did you do to Tifa? And what happened to the kids?!” I realized I was quickly growing feisty. Seffi seemed scared “Cloud..!” JENOVA snapped at me, getting out of her throne, and placed her hand under my chin, giving me an angry but firm stare “Do not take that tone with me, young man. Defying your own Mother will only get you hurt!” She quickly released me, and another wracking wave of pain swept through me, my vision flickering in the process “Ungh…!” I grabbed my head, and heard a beeping sound that came from my choker. After I managed to recover, I said “I’m sorry, but please… please tell me about that place, tell me what it was…” She kept her glance firm, but spoke calmly “That world you were sent to… is what we call the Reverse World. That is the rightful home of your young weapon, Seffi, also known as the Reunion Prince. How Hojo managed to breach the lock I placed on that world, I do not know. Its very existence was extremely confidential, only myself, Sephiroth, and JENBU knew of it.” I asked “But why did you lock it so heavily?” JENOVA appeared to calm down, returning to her neutral expression “Because, if anyone else were to enter the place without permission, say one of my younger children learning to use the power to travel through spatial dimensions, and he played around there… something really bad could happen. The Reverse World is what controls and maintains the Infinite Reunion coursing through my lifestream, and what allows new life to be brought into my Planet. However, without the Reunion Prince, this process is heavily hindered to the point where the world we are standing in could be swallowed up by the Divine Vortex you saw that day. That boy standing next to you cannot stay here; he must go back to the Reverse World, or it will disappear from existence.” Seffi began to cry “But Mother, I cant… I cant go back on my own..!” I was confused “What do you mean? How could this child be capable of such a responsibility?” JENOVA approached the boy and tried to comfort him “It’s ok, my child. We’ll find a way to help you go back.” Then she turned back to me after he stopped crying “Spike, this boy has a special type of JENOVA cells inside of him. They’re different from the ones you and Sephiroth have—instead of keeping a single person alive, they release a special energy wave that is designed to supply power to an entire area. In other words, this child is the energy source of the Reverse World. Without him present, it cant last forever. You did notice the place had no lifestream, correct?” I nodded. JENOVA pointed to Seffi “This child is a physical embodiment of Reverse World’s lifestream. If he isn’t sent back, it will burn away and be removed from existence. Without the Reverse World, this Planet cannot live on either; if there is no signal from the Reverse World to power my Infinite Reunion, this world will also be obliterated. None on my Planet can live on without the Infinite Reunion. If this world dies, Cloud… keep in mind that you will die with it. No one wins if that happens; not you, and not myself.” She turned angry, and I felt a rush of fear as I saw her piercing gaze on me “So make up your mind, Cloud. What is it you want? Are you going to continue living in the past and sentence my family to death, or are you going to take action and fight for the life of this Planet instead?” My expression turned hard, and I realized I was sweating badly within seconds. I began having a surge of flashbacks all at once; I saw Kadaj crying over her fallen Brothers, watched helplessly as Sephiroth burned my hometown and murdered my family, I heard Yazoo say What do you know about love? All you were ever good at was stealing everything from us! as I watched him cry with an angry stare on me; I remembered my battle against Kadaj on that tower, watched her weep as she gripped JENOVA’s remains tightly, the day that I almost died. I had so many flashbacks about everything that happened, my head began to ache. There was so much noise in my head, I didn’t realize I was crying until it all stopped. JENOVA kicked me, gazing down at me firmly “Give… your decision…” I couldn’t take my eyes off of her at that time. I was in the toughest spot I’d been in my whole life right now. JENOVA’s metallic wings began shining, and a silver halo appeared above her head. A large circle of thick green and black surrounded us, JENOVA’s expression remaining hard “If you wont talk, then I’ll simply have to make you… even if I must use my own lifestream to do it.” I began to panic “That stuff around us… that’s..?!” I suddenly felt strange, and had a feeling JENOVA was suffering badly right now. She was very angry with me and I knew it. My mind began racing again, and I didn’t know what to do. Part of me said to forget about everything that happened and help save her and her family, and another part of me said to ignore everything. I wanted to just fly away right now, pretend this was all just a dream… but I couldn’t. Where would I go? And what would I do? I didn’t wanna face this reality, but there was no avoiding it now. I felt something sharp and painful inside myself, and realized JENOVA was using the powers of her lifestream on me; I screamed in pain. She said “Give me… your decision…” I yelled “Urrgh!! Stop..!!” She released me but didn’t speak. I was gasping for air, and spat up my own blood. I glanced at Seffi, who appeared to be watching helplessly “Kid, get out of here… I don’t want you to get hurt…” Seffi was crying “I cant….” I was confused “Arent your wielder’s orders absolute?! I don’t want you to get hurt, forget about me and run!” He didn’t answer. I suddenly stopped and remembered Yazoo telling me that Kadaj was a very sweet Sister to him and Loz before we fought at the Meteor Monument, and that she turned angry and violent after that day; that all she would think about was getting the Planet for JENOVA, how she wouldn’t smile anymore. I managed to stand up, and said “JENOVA, I’m so sorry… I didn’t realize what I put you through, what I did to Kadaj… to all of you…” She kept her hardened stare, unblinking. I continued “When I stand here in front of you like this, when youre wielding your most deadly powers and weapons… I feel hurt. You suffered so much, endless struggles, going from life to death and back… all because of me…” I felt tears fall from my face and went on “I misunderstood everything… I thought what you were trying to do would destroy everything on this Planet, but it didn’t. Because if it did, none of those people I saw out there would exist. But forget about that… I scarred you so much, so badly… that youre suffering even now..! I never imagined you would be so nice at all..! JENOVA, no… Mother, I’m so sorry…! I’m a terrible person..!” Then I broke down and fell to my knees, and realized I was weeping heavily “Just please… give me one more chance—one more chance to save you and everyone else!” JENOVA seemed to calm down and knelt down to comfort me “Spike…” I began hearing a beeping pattern that came from my choker, and felt a strong energy surge inside myself that continually grew stronger. JENOVA was shaking me as if trying to get my attention and I forced my weeping to stop and glanced at her “What..?” She seemed worried “Spike, your timer… it overclocked!” I felt concerned but forced my panic away “What does that mean..?” JENOVA answered “If you panic and feel too much emotional stress, your timer will stockpile too much and your choker will enter overclock. If your choker overclocks, it releases a dense and powerful JENOVA cell burst!” I worried “And what does that mean for me..?” She shook her head “You might be alright, but the when your overclock goes off, you’ll have really nasty Geostigma upon returning to your human form… you will be too weak to fight.” I felt bad now “But if the process kills me… how will you get rid of that vortex..? Cant you just stop it somehow?” She shook her head “I might be able to use my cells to block the command on your choker, but if I fail, your body will be flooded with JENOVA cells and you’ll die… its too dangerous…” I apologized “I’m sorry… I should’ve controlled myself better. Then this wouldn’t have happened.” JENOVA added “Don’t take all of the blame, Cloud… I put you on the spot and that is what got you stressed enough to overclock… I should’ve slowed down, but I couldn’t… but hold on!” She took my hand and kept her eyes on me, and smiled faintly at me. The beeping from my choker stopped, and I heard a faint whirring sound come from it. Out of nowhere, I had returned to my normal self and unspeakable pain wracked my entire body; it was impossible not to scream. My vision quickly went dark, and I blacked out before I had a chance to say anything to her. The last thing I heard was her cry my name, before everything went black and stopped.
To be Continued…
