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The first sign is when the mansion mysteriously burns down over night. No-one goes in there – no-one’s been in there for years. Decades even. Ever since that lot from ShinRa left, none of the townsfolk have taken one step inside.
The mayor says that it must have been an electrical fault, and everyone agrees that that must be right, now you see why we don’t rely on that nonsense, that’s what you get for using that stuff.
The next sign occurs only a few days later, and the only reason anyone from Nibelheim even notices is because a dragon corpse is found on the mountain path up to the reactor. Some of the older folk, the ones who’ve seen many dragons down the years, shake their heads. It bears recent wounds – sword and claw alike, and the killing blow seems to have been a gunshot to the head. Looks as if a monster fought it, but at the same time, looks as if a human took their sword to it.
It’s a bad omen, and well, the only thing along that path is the reactor.
No-one wants to go and investigate, but soon it becomes obvious that something’s happening up there. More and more monsters in the area and the like. The mayor takes a few men up there and finds... well.
Corpses mostly. Of monsters, mostly. Things. The smell is foul. The monsters have obviously been at them; Nibel wolves won’t turn their noses up at carrion, as they all know.
There isn’t much that can be done. The reactor’s creepy enough as it is, even without the bodies. Still, it’s no good having monsters coming near the reactor. Might be tempted down to the village. No-one wants to touch the bodies, what’s left of them, so instead all they do is block up the entrance and cut down the bridge. Those ShinRa people haven’t been up here in years, the mayor says. What chance is there of them coming back now?
The third sign is only really noticed by the people in Rocket Town. One day a stranger comes there. He goes right up to Cid Highwind’s door, ignoring the incredulous stares, and knocks smartly on it. He’s welcomed in – that is to say, Cid doesn’t immediately throw him out on his ass – and by the end of the week seems to be living there.
The man goes by his surname, Valentine. He’s tall and quiet, and wears strange clothes when he goes outside. After a while, Shera moves out of Cid’s house and confesses that, well, it didn’t seem appropriate anymore, and in any case, Valentine preferred his privacy.
She doesn’t leave the town, and still calls regularly, but doesn’t have much to tell about Valentine or Cid.
The most that can be said is that Cid seems a little happier, but really, that isn’t much at all.
There’s an incident in Banora; the Hewley house and the Rhapsodos house both receive a late night visitor. What the visitor says, neither family will say. The next day, they both post bottles of fine Banora cider to Midgar.
Both Genesis Rhapsodos and Angeal Hewley spend a few days locked in their rooms, apparently dealing with the side effects of a bad dose of mako. The medical wing notes that fewer SOLDIERs are reporting nightmares. Several SOLDIERs notice, happily, that their eyes no longer seem to be going green, although they still retain the traditional mako glow.
General Sephiroth sleeps a full eight hours without waking up once, and frowns. He cannot remember the last time that happened.
Wutai does not surrender. However, towards the end of the war there are fewer Wutain casualties and more successful ambushes upon ShinRa supply trains. The President decides, remarkably quickly, that continuing the war further would be unprofitable.
A peace is declared between Wutai and Midgar.
In the slums, a flower girl suddenly finds that people buy a lot more of her flowers. She puts this down to her boyfriend’s influence; many people may not like SOLDIERs here under the plate, but many others respect them and wish to be like them. Besides, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that he’s gone around advertising her flowers.
She giggles to herself, because it’s just the sort of thing he’d do.
The final sign is this; Professor Hojo goes to Nibelheim.
The Turks never find his body.
It is years before anyone from ShinRa next comes to Nibelheim. But at last, a check of the reactor must be done. General Sephiroth volunteers, strangely enough. When his friends ask him about it, he claims that the name sounds familiar. It was where Hojo disappeared, he recalls, but it sounds familiar beyond that.
He takes Zack Fair, a handful of scientists, and two of the regulars with him.
The mayor tells him that the bridge has been out for years, ever since the trouble.
What trouble?
Well, there were monsters weren’t there? Got into the reactor and made a right mess they did. Didn’t want them coming down here, not with there being children about. And this was just after the old mansion burnt down.
Sephiroth frowns. He had wondered about the slightly charred earth on the hillside.
Zack asks, anyone know another way up there?
The mayor frowns a little and says, you might ask the lad up at Mrs Strife’s house.
At this, one of the regulars twitches and says, someone’s up at Ma’s-
The mayor interrupts and says, yes, ever since her boy left. Don’t see him much. Never did. He comes and he goes that one, but if anyone knows a way up to the reactor it’ll be him.
They find him out chopping wood. Bare chested, even in the cold, his blond hair pulled back into a rough ponytail. Held back by a pink ribbon. He looks up when they approach, and some strange expression goes across his face.
You’ll want to see the reactor, he says.
Sephiroth nods sharply.
The man shrugs, and puts his axe down. He turns to go inside and he calls back, your Ma misses you, so don’t forget to go see her.
The regular jumps again and salutes.
Zack glances between them, frowning. He asks, you know this guy?
The regular shakes his head almost violently, and the man comes outside, more properly dressed for the cold. A sword is slung on his back, only a touch shorter than the Buster Sword Zack carries. He walks past them without saying anything, clearly assuming they’ll just follow.
I’m Zack, Zack tells the man.
I know, the man replies. He doesn’t volunteer his own name.
Zack doesn’t let that stop him. And yours...?
The man shrugs again. They call me Zero around here.
Sephiroth asks, Why?
The man pauses and rolls up his sleeve. Carved into the skin on his forearm is a crude 0 with a line through it. He rolls his sleeve down again and comments, there’s a cliff up ahead. It’s a steep climb.
Zero isn’t out of breath at all when they reach the bottom. The regulars and scientists are shaking. They’ll probably have to be carried up the cliff. Zero doesn’t seem to notice, or care.
The path up to the reactor is more forgiving. Zero stops outside and points to the door. They blocked the entrance, he says, but there’s a broken window round the back.
Aren’t you coming? Zack asks.
No, Zero replies, I’ll wait out here. He looks up and meets Sephiroth’s eyes. His eyes glow unnaturally blue. Mako.
You’re-
I’m not a SOLDIER, Zero interrupts.
There’s silence for a moment, and then Sephiroth says, did you know a man named Hojo?
Zero’s expression goes as hard and cold as the mountain they’re standing on and doesn’t say another word.
The regulars and scientists have to be sick when they see the interior of the reactor. The one from before, the one who lived here, has hair the same colour as Zero’s, but short and spiked. Zack pats him on the back and murmurs soothingly to him.
Deeper in it looks as though there was a fire. A huge glass tube is smashed, and a robotic façade is discarded on the floor. Something happened here. Something important happened here. The bodies in the main hall of the reactor were just a by-product.
I’m thinking that Zero knows something, Zack says.
Sephiroth nods, and asks the regular, he’s living with your mother, correct?
Yes, sir, the regular replies, miserably.
Then we have a lead, Sephiroth continues.
The regular reveals his name as Cloud Strife, and his mother is the kind of person who invites people to dinner. Zero excuses himself beforehand and Mrs Strife comments that he does that often, especially when she has guests.
She also says that he showed up a few years after the trouble, and that he pays her a decent rent. He argues with some of the men around town a bit, isn’t very popular, and often takes excursions down the mountain. To Rocket Town, she’s gathered, but sometimes he could be gone for weeks and weeks and weeks and then he’d return, skin tanned dark and often complaining that wherever he’d been was too hot for his tastes.
She thought he’d come from up north, but sometimes he spoke with a Nibel accent, and he knew the mountain trails like he’d been raised here. He never seems to feel the cold.
He did odd jobs around the town, and kept the monsters down.
He never brought anyone back to her house, which she was very thankful of, and he was a good quiet sort of person. He reminded her of her husband in a way, although of course, Zero was far, far stronger.
Once, young Tifa the mayor’s daughter had tried to ask him out. He’d shut her down and then disappeared off for well over a week.
All in all, Mrs Strife says, Zero’s just as much a mystery to her as he is to anyone.
Oh, and one other thing. When he’d first arrived she’d almost thought it was Cloud, they looked so similar. But her Cloud was only young and here was a man well into his twenties, and yes, the resemblance was uncanny almost, but Zero had never said anything about it. It was possible they were related after all, but how would she know? He never particularly offered information about himself.
Still, he was a nice young man, and he kept the house in good shape and they never wanted for firewood when he was around.
Before they leave, Zero comes up to them. He says, if you ever go to Rocket Town ask after a man named Valentine.
He turns and walks away.
Sephiroth returns a few months later, this time with a bevy of SOLDIERs and workmen. President ShinRa has decided, in his infinite wisdom, that the Nibelheim reactor should be brought up to scratch, especially given the events there. A greater ShinRa presence should hopefully prevent any further, ahem, disappearances, such as that of Hojo’s.
Sephiroth volunteers again – more because of the mystery that is Zero than anything else. The man has his secrets. Sephiroth intends to discover what they are.
You’re back then, the mayor comments, unhappily.
Sephiroth inclines his head and says, we may be here for a while. I intend to have the manor restored, he continues, and the mayor looks fairly furious about that.
Genesis and Angeal hadn’t understood either, but then, neither of them had ever lacked a place to call their home. Nibelheim will do for Sephiroth. Nibelheim will be enough.
The work continues rapidly – a new bridge first, and then the cleaning of the reactor. New machinery is brought in, old walkways ripped out and replaced.
As for the manor, well, work gets done. Slowly. Smaller than before, and with no basement, but Sephiroth doesn’t plan to be here often. Even so he gets glares from the townsfolk.
Zero keeps his own counsel. He disappears for long stretches of time. Days, even weeks go by without sight of him. Mrs Strife assures Sephiroth that this is normal, and that Zero will return sooner or later.
He does, but- different.
Quieter even than usual, and Zero is not a man of many words at the best of times.
When the manor begins to take shape, Zero approaches Sephiroth.
The dimensions are wrong, he says.
I was given to understand that you had never seen the mansion, Sephiroth replies, coolly.
Zero’s face twists. I knew the mansion. Better than anyone else here. I knew it.
And the reactor, Sephiroth continues.
Zero doesn’t answer.
Your eyes glow, Sephiroth comments. They glow with mako.
I’m not a SOLDIER, Zero repeats.
You knew Hojo, Sephiroth counters.
Zero’s hands flex. We all knew Hojo, he says, softly. No matter what Sephiroth says, Zero does not expand upon his meaning.
Zack visits with his girlfriend. He brings the Strife boy with him, and they all have dinner at Mrs Strife’s house. Zero enters halfway through, snow dusting his hair. He freezes in the doorway, staring at Zack’s girlfriend as if she’s a ghost.
Then he turns and disappears back outside.
They don’t see him again for the rest of the visit; Zack takes offence at that, and manages to get Sephiroth to promise to drag an apology from Zero as soon as he can.
The girlfriend, Aerith, says she doesn’t mind at all.
A stranger comes to Nibelheim the day before Sephiroth is due to leave. He names himself Valentine, and though he looks no older than Sephiroth, he says, I knew your mother.
He says her name was Lucrecia, and then he says he can take Sephiroth to see her.
Zero is back by the time Sephiroth returns. He nods to Valentine, and then Valentine continues on his way back down the mountain. Zero only spares Sephiroth a brief glance and then turns to carry on his way.
Sephiroth asks, did Hojo do to you what he did to Valentine?
Zero pauses and looks back. His eyes are hard as steel.
Sephiroth continues, did you kill Hojo?
A sigh escapes Zero’s lips. You know the answer to that, he says.
Life goes on.