For the longest time, I was hardly aware of the world around me. Scenery swirled dizzyingly around me, as my body moved quickly around my opponent, not under my control. Dazed and confused, my breathing was quick and labored, totally out of sync with how I was moving lithely through the air, slicing it with my katana. Lips not under my control, I would occasionally spurt out a short mocking statement towards Cloud, with a tilt of my head and a curl of my lip. Not me. I told myself repeatedly. Sephiroth.
"I've thought of a wonderful present for you." My mouth drawled a series of reprimands that I didn't even want to say; Sephiroth taking over me. I hadn't really ever wanted this, but I guess it was what fate had handed me.

Back when I was a kid in Nibelheim, I had an insatiable curiosity- I always wanted to know about the world, find out its mysteries. The Nibelheim wonders were my first attempt at venturing into the unknown, a guy named Zack helping me decipher each one, teaching me the true meanings of them. On the day of the fire, Sephiroth had stormed angrily from the mansion into our town square, where he had opened his fist and shot blasts from a Firaga materia at all our houses. I had been lucky- I had caught a cold that night, and I was awake at the time, labored breathing hindering my sleep, my eyes catching his dramatic movements through the window. I had rushed outside at my first chance, untying the dog as I reached the door to the town square. Mum hadn't been so lucky as to notice, and had died in the fire, despite Zack's attempts to save her.

As the town was blazing, Zack set off for the Nibelheim mansion. I followed after him, but before I could get far, was attacked by monsters. The next thing I knew I had woken up strapped to a table in the mansion, with a strange man possessing an oversized forehead and a creepy laugh bent over me, scalpels and syringes constantly being jammed into my skin. After a few years, I was transported out of town to Midgar, as the last result of the scientist's tests left with a shred of sanity. He deemed me as the single success, paraded me about as a triumph. Tattooed the number '2' on the back of my hand. Trounced me up in hospital garbs nearly every day. To hide what had happened, protect his 'precious test subject', he had even sent out e-mail to all my contacts on my handset that I had escaped Nibelheim and was living a comfortable life in... What was it? Costa de Sol?

After a while, I was tossed onto the streets, wearing nothing but a pair of white pants and a black t-shirt, as Hojo- the scientist's name- moved onto greater things. I migrated to the Slums, where I collapsed in the only shelter I could find. I'm not exactly sure why or when I began to talk about Reunions and Sephiroth, but when I did, people began avoiding me. Less sympathy money and food, and I moved to a large, roomy pipe. Bundled in a bed of hay, surrounded by the discarded possessions of others... I wasn't well.

Flashing in and out of consciousness with every passing second, I felt sick. But then they came- three adventurers, a man with blonde hair and a huge sword, Cloud. A girl with a figure any guy would drool over, Tifa. And the last Ancient, the experiment Hojo had cast me aside for... Aeris. She had bent over me with a placid smile, her emerald eyes shining. She reached out her hand and grabbed mine, examining the tattoo for a moment, then letting go.
"Number two." She had looked at her companions and saying a few hushed words, before beginning to walk away. Whatever heart I had left departed with her.

Months passed; the bridge between me and my old bubbly self slipping. Voices called to me that weren't there, whispering of reunions and JENOVA; the calamity from the sky. Somewhere along the way, the voices left my head and made their way into my speech, my movement, every fragment of me. Always Sephiroth this, Reunion that... It all stopped mattering, everything I used to hold dear. I forgot my mum, my dog... My old, childish playfulness. And that was just before Sephiroth came upon me and my 'brothers'.

Around a year ago, when I was still residing in the Sector 5 slums of the long-abandoned Midgar, Geostigma running its course along my body, a voice had interrupted the usual thought train of Reunions and JENOVA. A deep, smooth voice, almost unearthly. Kadaj... it had told me. Kadaj, you are one of the last of my original Remnants. We need a pied piper for our little gathering, and you're to be him. At that moment, strength renewed, I got to my feet decisively. Strutting out into the street, words flew from my parched lips enthusiastically-
"The Reunion is coming!" Almost elated, I had set to work... Cutting a blazing path across the world, finding the remaining brothers, filled with the spirit of Sephiroth, guiding me from his perch in the heavens. Whispering in my ears commands, assimilating him into myself all the while, changing into a copy. Silver-haired as he once was, the same cat-like green eyes, and the tight black leather reminiscent of him.

And now I find myself here. Mother- JENOVA- is one with me, Sephiroth has risen, and my goals have been achieved. A Reunion. But I don't feel happy, not at all. I never wanted this...

I wanted to be an explorer, not an experiment. I wanted to be myself, not a clone... I wanted to be free, damn it!

A sword pierces my torso, once, twice, thrice- More than I can count, each one pulling me back from my reminiscence into the present. Sephiroth doesn't give up control of my body, though. Instead, he looks scornfully at Cloud, his emerald eyes narrowed.

This is the one part of my fate I do want. To be released from my position as a puppet. I almost regain control of myself, forcing a smile which contorts into a perverse smirk on Sephiroth's smug face. He's won his little war game, and now he's going to throw his toy away, having ruined their life.
"I will never be a memory." He whispers, my bones contorting unnaturally. A single black wing rips through the leather we wear, wrapping around us as Sephiroth's influence leaves me. I will return... Sephiroth's haunting voice disappears with his image, leaving me suspended in midair, free from his burden for the first time in forever. I plummet onto the ground near Cloud.
"S- ... Z- ... Mo..." I stammer and stutter, myself once more. I don't know how to apologize, how to begin. So I charge at him in rage, letting out a short scream. How could he let me suffer like this!? Why could he overcome Sephiroth's will, not me? I feel like crying.
"Brother..." I gasp, a hint of anger still present in my voice. The world freezes, as my wounds suddenly filter through my fear and anger and joy and sorrow. I open my mouth, gulping back air desperately.
"Kadaj." And then through it all, her voice filters in, heavenly and pure. Whispered words remain from Sephiroth, who still lingers in the back of my mind. The Ancient girl!? Memories he and others had showed me come back to me through years of clouded thought; her death, Zack and his briefly mentioned infatuation with her... I lie silent. She was the one who freed me from him, the one who cared for me when I had been tossed carelessly aside... She and Zack had been fighting for me all the way. I extend a hand skyward, tears dripping from my eyes.
"Mother," I whisper the only word that can come to me. Though intended as a question, it comes out differently. I hear her laugh, Zack's voice chuckling gently behind hers.
"You don't have to hold on any longer." Her voice is almost grim, as though foretelling tragedy. I skim my brain for reasons why, shooting a glance at Cloud, puzzled by the way I'm now so relaxed. I begin to lose feeling in my hand, as it fades to mako energy. A brief smile lights my face, as I split into the atmosphere. Cloud gets to his feet, bemused, as I disappear into darkness, now part of the lifestream with her and her smile.

And then the rain began to pour on the old flames of the Nibelheim disaster, washing them away.