Last time, our gang just fled Midgar and decided to make their way to Kalm, to regroup and review the situation. Well, Cloud and the girls arrived at Kalm and met up with Barret and Red XII. Since Sephiroth seems to be the focus and Cloud has a personal history with the guy, he decided to describe what he knows.
A few years back, when Cloud was still a member of Shinra’s SOLDIER program, Sephiroth was his partner on a mission to Nibelheim, Cloud and Tifa’s hometown. The mako reactor there, one of the early models, malfunctioned and started causing monster appearances. Apparently, mako energy can corrupt wildlife, causing horrible mutations. Cloud and Sephiroth were the two SOLDIER members ordered to escort and protect the repair crew and help with the repairs. Tifa was hired as their guide, being familiar with the area and all.
At the reactor, they’ve found a bunch of pods containing horrible creatures. Sephiroth realized they are experiments made by Hojo and used to be human. This made him worry his history might be similar, since he definitely was experimented upon with mako and wasn’t made SOLDIER in the same way the other members were. Upon their return to Nibelheim, he locked himself in the library of a building where Shinra scientists used to work, trying to figure out what he is and where he comes from.
His eventual conclusion was that he was produced by Shinra, cloned from the remains of a Cetra, discovered and exhumed somewhere in the northern continent. Apparently, the Cetra were the previous intelligent beings living on the planet. They went extinct for some reason, long ago and were succeeded by humans soon after. In Sephiroths unbalanced mind, this makes him the last of the Cetra and every human on the planet a traitor to his kind. Of course, back then, he had no knowledge of the existence of Aeris and her mother.
The legendary Nibelheim scene cemented Sephiroth as my favorite villain.
In his rage, he destroyed Nifelheim, killing most of its populace and severely injuring Tifa and Cloud. He went back to the reactor, tore out the remains of the Cetra he was cloned from, called Jenova and was gone, never to be seen since. A few years later, he arrived at the Shinra building while Cloud and the others were imprisoned and killed everyone there, including the president. It seems he was there to take the rest of his “mother” with him. This is all that Cloud and Tifa know, apparently.
With the story out of the way, it was time to make a plan. The gang needs to get to Junon, to see what Shinra is up to and to try and hitch a boat ride to the central continent. In order to do this, they need to traverse the marshlands to the south, which are guarded by the Midgar Zolom. The Midgar Zolom is a huge serpent who attacks anything that ever enters the marshlands.
Because of this, it is recommended to only enter the marshlands on the back of a chocobo, since this riding bird is fast enough to avoid the serpent. For this reason, the gang visited a local chocobo ranch, to try and rent one of the birds. Sadly, none were available, but the rancher gave Cloud advice on how to catch one. A special materia and a large amount of bait would be needed. Since the materia alone would take the party back 2000 gil, Cloud decided to take another approach. He waited for the serpent to be as far away from them as possible and then went for the shortest route through the marshlands he could find. Luckily, this was enough to avoid the serpent and the party managed to reach solid ground before anything bad happened.
With the marshlands behind them, a series of caves also needed to be traversed in order to get to the Junon region. The caves were short enough, but not uneventful. The party encountered a group of Turks also on Sephiroths trail. They were very clear that they did not want Cloud and the gang to get in the way and would do what it takes to make it that way. Luckily, other than a few harsh words, nothing else happened and soon enough, the party was in the Junon region. Before heading to Junon, though, they decided to take a break at a local fort.
