Chapter Text
Sephiroth… Sephiroth felt at ease, when he first woke up. There was no constant buzzing in his head, no pulls trying to force him into one direction or the other, and no cry for Reunion.
He was truly free now, wasn’t he?
He was resting against someone’s shoulder, though it didn’t take much thinking to know that it was Angeal’s.
“Hey.” Angeal greets, noticing that he woke up. “How are you feeling?” He asks softly.
“I feel fine.” Sephiroth answered, lifting his head up from his shoulder. “Moth… Jenova is dead, I take it?”
“It is.” Genesis answers, he was leaning against a tree, looking down at him. “There is no hate, only joy, for you are beloved by the Goddess. Hero of the dawn, healer of worlds.”
There was the faint smell of dry blood in the air, he initially thought the scent was coming from Genesis, due to his earlier injury. Though it wasn’t coming from his direction, rather next to him, where Vincent was standing.
Sephiroth was left with Vincent, so that Angeal and Genesis could head up to the reactor without him becoming a risk to them.
“... I’m sorr-”
“It’s fine. I cannot die like this, though Angeal healed the wound.” Vincent says, though he narrowed his eyes at Sephiroth. “How do you do that?”
“... Do what?” Sephiroth asks.
“Summon your blade out of thin air. I’ve never seen anyone else be able to do it.”
“Ah… I am not fully sure why I can do that.” Sephiroth answered, standing up shakily with Angeal’s assistance. His body still felt weak, likely due to her hold. He summons Masamune, showing the blade off. “I believe it’s likely due to Hojo’s experimentation, I’ve been able to summon Masamune for as long as I can remember.”
“We never really did talk about your weird sword, hm?” Genesis starts, a small smirk showing on his face. “Do you think you could summon other things? Like replacing Masamune with a… potion, and putting it wherever you store Masamune?”
“No, I have tried that before and it did not work.” Sephiroth answers.
“Maybe it would’ve worked if you shoved it up your-”
“Genesis.” Angeal hisses, shooting a dissaproving look at the other.
Sephiroth glances over to where Vincent was standing. The man was looking away from the three, awkward tension practically radiating off of him. Sephiroth couldn’t really blame him for feeling that way, he very much felt the same way when he first met Genesis and Angeal.
Genesis huffed, crossing his arms. “I was only joking, Angeal.” He rolled his eyes.
Angeal just sighs in response, still looking on dissaprovingly.
“Whatever, anyways,” Genesis turns to Sephiroth. “Jenova may be dead, but we don’t know if that’s enough to cure the Degradation.”
“Her cells are dead, I can’t feel Reunion anymore.” Sephiroth responds. “That should be the same for the two of you, meaning that there is no longer any Degradation.”
“Yes, well,” Genesis seemed antsy, his heartbeat becoming erratic. “we can’t know that for sure, can we?”
“The cure for Degradation are my cells, correct?” Sephiroth asks. “If it would make you feel better, then we could try and do a blood transfusion.”
“You don’t have to-”
“I want to, Angeal.” Sephiroth answered curtly. “If it would… If it would help my brothers, then I’m fine with doing it.”
He could see the surprise on Genesis’ face at the words, before it was completely hidden away. “Well then! We don’t have a blood transfusion kit, so we’d probably have to get one from a clinic or hospital. We also are criminals wanted by Shinra, so we can’t quite just waltz in there for help.”
“How much gil do we have?” Sephiroth questioned.
“6000.” Genesis answered. “Not enough to buy a kit from a pharmacy if we were to find one. There is a clinic in Nibelheim, though, so I was thinking…”
“We’re not stealing from a clinic.” Angeal groans, burying his face in his hands.
“I didn’t even say that yet! Besides, we are people in need, so-”
“They’ll likely have cameras there. It’s too much of a risk-”
“We’re literally dying because Angeal and I had weird alien cells injected into us when we were infants, and then once again when we became SOLDIERs, Sephiroth. I think a risk has already been taken.”
“Fair… but then comes the risk of strokes.”
“What? What does that have to do with anything?” Genesis questioned, narrowing his eyes.
“I do not know my own blood type. Hojo and the other scientists never told me what it was. If our blood types are incompatible, then that could cause you or Angeal to have a stroke.” Sephiroth said.
“It’s A-.” Vincent says quietly, Sephiroth turned to him, the man was still looking away.
… Alright.
“My blood type? How do you know that?”
“They had you tested before you were born. Mainly to make sure you didn’t have any diseases.” Vincent answers.
That makes sense, I suppose…
“Angeal, Genesis. What are your blood types?”
“B-.” Genesis answered. So then incompatible.
“I’m O+.” Angeal says, which was also incompatible.
“A blood transfusion wouldn’t be a good idea, even if we did have the supplies necessary.” Sephiroth sighed, crossing his arms.
“So what?”
“I thought the whole point of this was to prevent you from dying due to the Degradation, not expedite it.” Sephiroth narrowed his eyes at Genesis. “There are other ways to get another’s DNA aside from blood.”
Genesis raised a brow, a smug smirk on his face. “Oh? What is it you’re suggesting, Sephiroth?”
Without breaking eye contact, Sephiroth plucked off a strand of silver hair from his own head and offered it to Genesis. The other wrinkled his nose, taking a step back.
“Seriously?”
“Yes, seriously. What did you think I was going to suggest?” Sephiroth shot back.
“Not something as gross as that!”
“Ingesting somebody else’s DNA is always going to seem ‘gross’. You could drink my blood if that would be better, though I doubt it, blood doesn’t taste good. You could also take my spit, though I doubt either you or Angeal would like that.”
“Well…” Genesis starts, Sephiroth doesn’t need him to finish his sentence to know what he’s about to say.
“No. I am not going to kiss either of you.”
“Ease up, I was only joking.” Genesis rolled his eyes. “I didn’t even say that!”
“You were going to.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I’ve known you for several years, Genesis.”
“And?”
“And-”
“Wait to see if the Degradation heals before resorting to any of your ideas.” Vincent interrupted, hiding his mouth behind his cloak. “It likely isn’t going to heal right away, even with Jenova dead. Wait at least a week to see if you feel better.”
“Right, we just killed Jenova, we can’t expect there to be any immediate changes.” Angeal agreed. Sephiroth didn’t say that he had felt an immediate change, that would likely agitate Genesis.
“Fine, we’ll wait! All that awaits you is a somber morrow, no matter where the winds may blow.” Genesis huffs. “Ugh, it’s been too long of a day, let’s just fine somewhere to set up camp.”
… A day. It has only been a day.
He had succumbed to Jenova earlier, he had hurt Genesis, Jenova was killed, all in the same day.
“Sephiroth?” Angeal asks, eyeing him with concern.
“... It has been a long day.” Sephiroth agreed, staring off. “I still do not have a bedroll.”
“With the hunts that were in Nibelheim, we were able to get enough gil to get a tent that should fit the three of us if we squeeze in. We weren’t exactly expecting to pick up a fourth person, sorry.” Angeal sounded… surprisingly cold towards Vincent. Sephiroth wonders if that was intentional, or maybe just because he was tired too.
“I do not require sleep, I can keep watch.” Vincent offers.
“If you don’t require sleep, then-” Angeal cut himself off, his tone sharp. He breathed in deeply, exhaling loudly. “Let’s go ahead and just set up camp.”
*
The tent wasn’t large, though neither was it small. Like Angeal had said, it was good enough to fit the three of them inside.
Speaking of which…
“Angeal.” Sephiroth starts, turning to look at him.
“Yeah?”
“Are you… are you alright? You seem very on edge.”
Angeal sighs. “Been a long week.” Is what he says.
“It has. Are you going to tell me what’s actually bothering you?” He asks.
Angeal let out a quiet and tired chuckle at that. “It’s Vincent, if I’m being honest. Being tired doesn’t help with that.”
Sephiroth couldn’t quite blame him for that, he also felt weird around Vincent, though that was likely because of how quiet the man was. He didn’t quite have the same animosity towards Vincent that Angeal seemed to have, though.
“Why do you dislike him?” Sephiroth questioned.
“It’s just… it’s clear he was there, for your experiments. He just…” Angeal shook his head, trailing off. “Let’s just sleep for now, I can hardly talk.”
“Now who’s constantly changing the subject?” Sephiroth grumbled, making Angeal laugh.
“In my defense, I haven’t had proper sleep for about a week.” Angeal grinned. “I’ll talk more in the morning.”
“That’s fine… I’ll go and sleep later, I have something I wish to ask Vincent.” Sephiroth tells him, leaving the tent to go look for the mentioned man.
He sees him talking with Genesis, though… more like Genesis was talking at him, Vincent barely looking his way throughout their ‘conversation’.
“Oh, Sephiroth,” Genesis broke off into a yawn. “Not going to sleep yet?”
“No, not yet.” Sephiroth says. “You?”
“Just about to, Vincent makes for a horrible conversation partner. Kinda like you did when we first met.”
Sephiroth rolled his eyes. “In my defense, you and Angeal were the only people at the time who actually tried to make conversation with me. Now go to sleep.”
“Already said I was about to.” He sighed, light-heartedly shoving past Sephiroth. Once Sephiroth was sure he was in the tent, he turned his attention towards Vincent.
“I have a question.” He starts.
Vincent just grunted in response, turning to look at him.
“I… It’s about my mother.”
“... What?” Vincent asks, the look in his eyes having softened a bit.
“What was her blood type?”
Vincent looked at him, confusion evident in his eyes. “Why do you want to know that?”
“I was just curious.” Sephiroth could’ve asked plenty more questions about his mother, but not right now. He was too tired for that, could hardly think straight. “We were on the subject earlier.” He offered as an explanation.
Vincent sighed, though answers with, “It was B-. Now go rest, you’re tired.” He says, abruptly ending the conversation.
That was fine, Sephiroth only wanted to ask the one question anyways.
… Though it didn’t quite add up, did it? Hojo was O+, and…
It doesn’t matter, not right now, Sephiroth can think about this later.
“... Thank you.” Sephiroth whispered, turning around to head back into the tent, not bothering to wait for the other man’s response.
Angeal was already out like a light, and he rested his head on the other’s chest, closing his eyes, though he felt so restless.
Being raised in a lab had given Sephiroth extensive amounts of medical knowledge, knowledge that he mostly considered unnecessary since he never needed to actually apply it. Basic on-field first aid was taught to all SOLDIERs and infantryman, that was the only relevant info he needed.
He learned a lot about hereditary traits, something that he never really cared much about since he only knew what his mother looked like, and at the time hadn’t known that Hojo was his father.
… Or maybe Hojo wasn’t his father.
His blood was O-, apparently his mother’s blood type was B-, and then his own blood type was A-.
O and B couldn’t make A, so then… Could it have been from his grandparents? Was he wrong about who his mother was? Did Jenova’s cells somehow interfere with that? Did aliens even have blood types?
Was Hojo not his father? Was his father a different scientist? The only scientist that had ever stayed relevant in his life was Gast and Hojo, and he highly doubts it was Gast, he doesn’t want to think that it could have been Gast.
Sephiroth sighed, hiding his face in Angeal’s chest.
He’ll think about this later, he’ll think about this once he’s had rest.
… Though he finds it awfully hard to fall asleep for the rest of the night.
Sephiroth was just overthinking, that was it. Only overthinking.