wright_idea | SEPHIROTH REPORT

SEPHIROTH'S BACKGROUND:

+ Copying from Tifa's text to me:

Jenova: J-E-N-O-V-A: An alien life-form that crash landed on Gaia some 2000 years ago, from the point in time where Cloud and I are from. J-E-N-O-V-A was thought to be what we call an "Ancient", or "Cetra". They are a race of beings which helped to cultivate and care for the planet. They can speak with the planet as if it were a person, listen to what it needs, and so forth. J-E-N-O-V-A attacked the Ancients and tried to take over the planet, but was sealed and later found by the Shin-Ra Electric Co. Thinking that J-E-N-O-V-A was an Ancient, Shin-Ra extracted cells from the sample they uncovered and injected their military elite with them. This lead to the members of SOLDIER becoming more powerful, faster, a leap greater than normal humans.

Sephiroth's Blood:
Unlike other members of SOLDIER, Sephiroth was partially created in a lab from J-E-N-O-V-A cells and a human embryo. After being killed by Cloud some seven years ago, Sephiroth's consciousness roamed what we call the Lifestream, the literal lifeblood of the planet. He still maintains much of his J-E-N-O-V-A makeup, but he's also made up of the Lifestream, if I understand it correctly. Coming into contact with it can cause some serious problems, or so I've been told. That's as much as I currently know.

+ Tifa regarding allies: "I can't say for sure if he is allies with anyone. Sephiroth is usually a one-man show, and he prefers to work alone. Though given the limits of the city, he's like a snake coiled up in the corner of a room. I wouldn't put it past him to try and make some sort of relationship with someone if he stands to gain something from it."

+ Has apparently tried to infect people with J-E-N-O-V-A, but only through exposure to parts of the life form itself. Still, the blood is suspicious.

+ Elena controlled Sephiroth during the Grail War. (This is still an outstanding issue, but I believe I have enough for now to file a full report.)

From Zack, his relation to Sephiroth:

"Sephiroth and I were part of a program called SOLDIER that was conducted by ShinRa. I joined because of him. I wanted to be like him but that's another story. He wasn't always a bad guy. In fact, people looked up to him and idolized him. He was a hero.

Then, as time went on, things started becoming a bit more grim. I'm partly to blame for Sephiroth losing his mind in Nibelheim. He discovered that he was an experiment and viewed me as a traitor. Hell, anyone that worked for ShinRa was his enemy. I should have known that day when he said, "Depending on what happens, I'll remain loyal to ShinRa."

I faced him in the reactor but Cloud finished him off. Or so we thought.

Later, the planet became infected with geo-stigma. Nasty stuff. No cure has been found but the cause was still a mystery. There were several notes about Sephiroth around but nothing that spoke directly about his being. Who his family was, who he knew as a child, just a lot of notes about experiments that tested his ability."

SEPHIROTH'S POWERS:

From Zack:

"I'm telling you know, going toe to toe with him isn't the answer. Those safeguards better be fool proof or we're all in big trouble. He won't attack unless he has a reason. He's a strategic thinker and honestly I was in his way.

His powers have changed. He's faster, stronger and more resilient to anything we throw at him. I don't think he needs to eat, breathe or sleep. He's evolved. If he was considered dead once, I doubt that anything we can do to him will stop him. Something has to happen in order to put a stop to him or at least weaken him to where he won't just attack. I don't know who has the power to do any of that. "

From Xion:

Can apparently utilize something called "darkness corridors" which allow him to cross huge distances in a very short amount of time. Only seems to work within the city. Sounds like if someone else is using them as well, they can run into other people, though.

SEPHIROTH'S BLOOD (THE VAMPIRE BLOOD BANK SITUATION)

+ Has blood that reacts to his presence. Apparently donated some to the vampire blood bank which resulted in the vampiric equivalent of food poisoning for one vampire.

Properties of the blood:

- Both radioactive and electrically charged.
- Not entirely human; probably a result of the J-E-N-O-V-A cells.
- Apparently hates to be split up; attempts to separate it results in a very strong impulse to reunite with itself.

Possible Conclusion: The blood bank donation was an experiment, but with an ideal goal in mind. If vampires absorb the blood into their bloodstream by consuming it, then there's a distinct possibility that Sephiroth was attempting to control the vampires by using his own blood as a method of incorporating them into the J-E-N-O-V-A system that he represents. Any vampires who consumed and retained the blood he donated may already be affected.

Outstanding Questions:
- Why did finding out he was an experiment destabilize him so dramatically? Especially in light of prior testing? There must be something he either knows or was told that clashed so drastically with what he found out that it broke him. The question is what that is, exactly. This, however, may require asking more of him than would be possible given the limitations of this investigation.

- Does anything exist that could weaken him short of the near-Godlike capacities of the city itself? He has proven to be capable of being "sent" in a loose sense, but I doubt that's a permanent solution somehow.

- What's the deal with the crystal?