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[supersoldier]

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[aremnant]

[ Show me her, he says. Show me your mother.

His mind snaps, quick like lightning, Kadaj reaching around for the blade hung low against his back. Fingers tight. Silver shining as he swings the double-blade around and points it so ANGRILY at the silver-haired man. At Him. At

S E P H I R O T H. ]

No!

[ He shouts it with such conviction! No! He will not take Him to Mother. Even if that's what she would want... but she told him it was ok. That it was fine! That He just doesn't know! Doesn't understand.

Green eyes stare to Sephiroth with an anger that flicks between that and apprehension. A child staring to someone who they aren't so sure they can trust. Aren't so sure they should trust despite some part of them saying otherwise. That he should. Because Mother does. Mother loves Him so.

That trembling hand which grips his blades tightens as he laughs. But it's one which is filled with broken sorrow and his face falls in sadness before he allows that anger to fill his green eyes again. ]

I don't have to listen to you. [ He trembles again, not sure what he wants to say. ] I'm not you! I don't care what they say! I'm not! I'm me! Broken and incomplete and just a puppet. Like big brother called me.

[ He breathes heavy, eyes narrowing as he recalls that word. Still he trembles, still he tries to keep a hold of everything that's so violently swirling around within his head at once.

Sharply, he swings his blade down to his side, a step back. Never letting his gaze leave from Sephiroth as his jaw tightens. As fingers tighten around his blade. ]

I don't want to be you. But you made me. I hate you. I hate that Mother loves you more!

[supersoldier]

[The tension’s snapped, shattered to pieces the moment the words leave his lips. And suddenly, Sephiroth is faced by sharpened steel, almost as cutting as the rage lobbed his way. He doesn’t move, only gazes past the silver tract of the sword’s blade and directly at Kadaj, unyielding and cold.]

A puppet? [Strange wording, oddly resonant. None of it makes sense, but he isn’t expecting it to. Like pieces of a greater whole scattered before him, twisted at wrong angles, and he has to make sense of what little he can grasp at.]

Stop drawing a connection between us if you’re not going to validate it. [Matching green eyes are sharp, calculating. Assessing.] First we share a mother. Now there’s a “big brother” and I’ve “made” you? Which is it?

[aremnant]

Stop looking at me like that!

[ It bothers him. It... really bothers him! To be looked at by The Great Sephiroth with such... contempt! How could he? How dare he! ]

What's wrong with you? You're nothing like you should be! You're everything wrong!

[ He's right... he's the right one! No one but Mother understands him... no one but Mother gets it! But he remembers then. Remembers what Mother said. How they don't know. They don't... know him. Yet! Not yet. But they will... oh they certainly will! Be patient? Be patient with them. But he... can't. It's hard. Mother, it's so hard to. ]

Cloud is my brother! Mother is... here! She's here! I've seen her with my own eyes and I've told her you and big brother don't remember me!

[ He laughs then, stumbling back a bit before he catches his footing. ]

But they will, Mother said. They will come to know me. You will, Sephiroth. Because I never got to meet you before. Not until here. Even though I... always feel you.

[supersoldier]

[Again, the issue of timeline is a problem, obfuscates the truth already presented in fragments by the other. It isn’t news at this point, but it makes it no less frustrating, especially in the presence of someone whose coherence is so erratic, whose emotions are volatile opposed to Sephiroth’s even-keeled coldness.

Cloud’s name makes a brow twitch, adding one more layer of connection between them all, even if the web is too incomprehensibly tangled.]

Cloud? [His brother? Now that is beyond unbelievable. Something sharp escapes Sephiroth — it sounds like a laugh missing all its humor.]

You’re delusional.

[Tilting his chin up, just slightly, he considers Kadaj and how much stock is worth putting into his words. The other’s resemblance to him is uncanny, hard to ignore; but even that only holds up so much in the face of pure ramblings.]

He mentioned you once, briefly. [Referenced only, a subject never lingered on.] He said nothing about you being his brother. I’d say he almost spoke of you with disdain in his eyes. [Another step forward, the space between them far too limited for any real comfort.]

Are you that desperate to cobble a family together that you’d weave anyone into your story? Even if you are from my future, pretending to know so much about me, I’m not under obligation to care.

[If he won’t provide him with a straight answer. If he won’t show him “mother”, or explain any other facets of his wild claims.]

[aremnant]

[ Big brother he... he mentioned him? He mentioned him! Oh, so he does admit it, does he? Does admit that they are- no... disdain? It can't have been that. Just when he thought he might have accepted it...

As Sephiroth steps closer, Kadaj steps back. Eyes narrowed. Filled with a cold anger that flickers with confusion. Confusion over Him. Mother said he doesn't understand. That they don't know. To be patient with them. How, Mother? How can he be patient with Him? Fingers tighten around the hilt of his blade. He won't... he won't runaway. ]

You should care. Because big brother is going to kill you.

[supersoldier]

[Kill him? The arrogance that sleeps in Sephiroth, usually not so easily jolted to the surface, absolutely flares hot in disbelief. That is a very hard sell — given how much he trusts Kadaj in this moment (not an ample amount, no, hardly any at all) makes it even more impossible to consider.

Cloud may have grown capable over the years, might be able to fight more confidently than what he recalls from the past, but none have ever been able to match him. Even disregarding Shinra’s propensity to paint him as an untouchable war hero, he knows intrinsically that it’s true. None have proven to him otherwise.

He doesn’t believe it. Even though Cloud had looked upon him with antagonistic eyes when they met in that hazy dream, it is simply not probable, not possible, in the construct of his mind and who he believes himself to be.]

You’re lying.

[aremnant]

Am I?!

[ He snaps back with a cold fierceness that easily matches Sephiroth's and he just... laughs. Softly. To himself. There. There it is! In those eyes that are so much like his own. There he sees the arrogance. There he sees Him and it makes Kadaj smile. So he's not entirely lost after all. Just... sleeping. He's sleeping, Mother! Sleeping.

But that amusement quickly fizzles out to frustration once more and he swings his blade to the side, leaning in to Sephiroth from where he stands. ]

That's the whole reason why I'm here. Why you ripped me out of you! To bring you back! For Mother! Because you died... You weren't supposed to. You weren't done yet.

[ His gaze drifts and strands of silver fall in front of his face as he stares off to the side. ]

And then I died. Big brother... killed us both. [ Softly, he laughs. ] But at least I got to die in his arms. I guess he cares after all!

[ A glorious shout and a spin on his heel, he stumbles back and glares to Sephiroth. ]

Why do you think I've never met you before? Because I couldn't... but I could... still feel you. All around me. Your presence... [ he laughs a little ] ...I'm you but I'm not! Because I'm only one piece of you. The other two... that makes us three.

[supersoldier]

[He is aware of that blade, in a way that every trained, military man is cognizant of a threat so near. But Sephiroth doesn’t so much as acknowledge it, eyes never moving from the young man even as he leans in closer.

What is he claiming now? Death, followed by— what? Pieces of himself removed? Even if this is supposed to be framed as figurative rather than literal, all Kadaj is doing is cementing the fact that he speaks in incomplete fragments, half-ideas that are never fully birthed by way of being tempted by another severed thought.

And so he focuses only on those pieces. There’s one thing that cannot be denied, as easy as it would be to dismiss it all as the ravings of a madman — he can feel Kadaj’s presence, too, like something deeply written into his veins. The connection exists, it is only a matter of discovering it in a more illuminating way.

If such a thing is even possible.

Sephiroth leans into specificity—]

“For Mother”. Doing what for her?

[And a second time—] And what about the other two “pieces” you’ve mentioned?

[Has Sephiroth ever aggressively air-quoted vocally this much in his entire life? Probably not.]

[aremnant]

You know... so little, don't you? [ And as he laughs yet again, his words quicken then. It's really so annoying how little you know! Expecting me to explain it all when really, you should just know!

[ It's frustrating- M A D D E N I N G really! To think that this was all His will to begin with... and now he just... doesn't know. At all. Mother, it's just so... annoying. ]

Mother said she would speak with you. That she would make you understand... and maybe I should have let her do that! Should have let her be the one to talk to you but I...

[ But what? What does he want to say to him? ]

...I wanted to speak with you. Myself. [ a chipper beat ] I never got to before and you're just so you!

[ Again he laughs, stepping back a couple more steps, green eyes staring to those which look so familiar to him. ]

I'm going to tell Mother. Tell her that I spoke with you and then... then she can make this all better. Make you understand.

[supersoldier]

[This time, he doesn’t follow. And this time, he doesn’t fish, either, seeing that his previous attempt was utterly fruitless.

The smallest flicker of frustration, barely-there, in his otherwise cold tone.]

And you’re going to leave me without a name a second time?

[aremnant]

Kadaj.

[ And he says his name... so proudly! A smile on his lips which speaks of sinister thoughts and childlike curiosity.

But he's bored now and The Great Sephiroth just doesn't understand, so he will take his leave. But not before he spins to look back to the silver-haired man and smile so bright and cheery! ]

Tell big brother I send him my love.