towerofanimus | just this once, everybody lives!

[Veronica had eventually come up to the hidden room, looking in every place she could think of for a weapon of some sort. Now that the monsters had left, it had left her with a severely shortened supply.

She didn't even notice Sephiroth at first. All her focus was on the rest of the room, on notes and maps and other things she could scan briefly before moving on. Of course, she does notice him as he wakes up and asks a question.]

We secured the room. Riki is against us now.

[For a few seconds, Sephiroth seems more occupied in rubbing at that sore spot on the back of his neck even though he's looking right at Veronica. Then he blinks as if registering who it is right there and then for the first time. A frown threatens his forehead already - he still feels very tired, after all.]

You went down there as well. [It's more a statement than a question, Ocelot had told him the plan but not necessarily who was going.]

Has there ever been any doubt?

[To Sephiroth, all the Administration are against him -no, against them. They all work for Ruana in the end. Though Riki-

-Sephiroth has always seen Riki as the one who would work the hardest to restore the Tower. So his question tests the water.]

[She nodded.] A lot of people went down there, and we all made it out safely.

[For once, no one died. It could have probably been described as a miracle, but Veronica likened it to them being lucky enough to have a lot of different people with a lot of different abilities.]

... He said he wanted to help us, but then he tricked us.

[There was a little doubt, sufficed to say.]

[That's something of a first. He thinks, but only to himself. Almost every time Sephiroth has been down there he's ended up dead in one form or another. It stings bitterly that he couldn't have been involved, this time, but at least he's starting to actually feel something like himself again compared to the last time Veronica saw him.

If he thought about it logically -when he's slept more- he'll probably realize that he wouldn't have been much use anyway, let alone the fact that he doesn't agree with a lot of the reasons for the mission in the first place. All there is to do now is to sit and wait for their next move.]

That's not-so surprising. [He comments, though that creeping insecurity is hard to hide.]

So the question still remains, as to what he is hiding.

Whatever it is, it has something to do with the energy we gave him.

[At least, that's how she sees it. Reflecting on it, she really couldn't come up with a better reason for his betrayal and trickery.]

Times are hard, in terms of viable energy sources.

[It's more of a general comment than something directly connected to what happened but Sephiroth at least sees the relevance. He hadn't donated his energy, the idea of using energy that belonged to him was abhorrent. He knows well the power in life energy.]

I'm not sure if he ever explained what it was for either. He escaped and tried to kill us after that.

[She was still surprised they made it out safely.]

[This, is very concerning. For all the group thought they knew going down there, yet again they all come back with -their lives, granted- but nothing more in terms of answers.]

He needs the energy, what does anyone need energy for? Yet, he didn't take it from the already degrading power cores. Why do you suppose that is?

[He knows how he would answer this question, yet he wants to see if Veronica has the same logic; Riki still has an interest in keeping the Tower running, being it's Architect.]

[Maybe they'd get answers eventually. Veronica knew they'd get something out of this mess, whether it was good or not was still open for debate.]

...He wants to keep the tower going, for as long as it can.

[It's likely, mostly because he's the Architect. She'd reasoned that much out. Still, why he needed the energy...]

Whatever he was doing that you interrupted-

[That frown is just getting deeper the more he looks over Veronica.]

-You should know that it seems to have involved siphoning the energy of those that were left up here.

Wha... really?

[That... was not something she had known.]

What happened?

[The tiredness of which is still very much visible in his features, on top of the dark circles he's already developed under eyes from weeks of not sleeping well.]

Exhaustion, nightmares, bleeding into hallucinations. It was a fine line between not sleeping to keep them at bay, and having to sleep in order to be able to think straight.

[Thinking straight didn't last very long, but Sephiroth isn't admitting that.]

There were chips installed on some floors, that were worse than others-

[He pauses, as if stopping his thought processes as to wonder why he's thinking to be so transparent about it to Veronica. Though if she didn't hear it from him she'd probably get it from someone else anyway. There isn't very much point in hiding it.]

[True, she would have probably learned of it later, but it was surprising to hear it from Sephiroth of all people. She could tell he wasn't in the kind of state to lie about something like this so it had to be true.]

Than that means...

[Was there something they were missing? Some part of the plan they didn't see? What could this mean?]

Riki still needs more energy than what he had already taken before. It almost sounds like whatever he was trying to achieve, he was, or probably still is desperate to achieve it.

Yet he doesn't want to shorten the longevity of the Tower in doing so.

[So the question remains, at least to Sephiroth; is Riki really the enemy? Had Jason been? Good and evil really are all relative things.

The countdown running out isn't in any of their best interests, after all.]

He already tried to kill us for trying to get answers. Whatever he's doing, he doesn't care about the rest of us.

[At least that was how she saw it. Good or Evil didn't really matter in cases like this. If someone was trying to kill you, you either die or kill them before that happens.]

Well, the tower is his home, right?

Hm. [A prompt nod in agreement.]

Or he simply doesn't trust you all to know, let alone to then trust in whatever method of restoration he has devised. Killing in this place seems simply the quickest way to remove you from interfering.

[There has always been so much more to it. There again is that bitter notion that Sephiroth is certain he doesn't want to be on either side of the lines drawn in the sand. Yet, he's sat and pondered all of it here on this floor just like everyone else; not that it's out of any loyalty, mind.]

Considering so many have aligned themselves against the Administrators now, I can't say that I blame him for being defensive.

But so many allied themselves against the administrators before. If he does want to do good, he could have allied with Zo and the rest of us.

[She didn't seen why this was so difficult. There were two sides, and you had to pick one. Surely if you wanted to do something good, that would mean you sided with those that wanted to good as well.]

I don't get it.

[He narrows eyes instantly. Allying with Zo and 'the rest of us' does not equate to opposing the Administration. Sephiroth refuses to believe it's so clear cut. He hates, bitterly, the fact that lines have been drawn and the war begun without him even having a good enough reason to put himself on this or the other side of the fence.

And now he's up here on the provided secret-floor as if he were already on the same 'side' when it has never held any interest for him in the first place. Sephiroth won't be consciously doing anything for Zo, not after having his core ripped apart. His opportunity at escape destroyed.]

Define 'do good.'

[The way she saw it, it was. Zo didn't want what the other admins wanted, and neither did Aria. She had to choose a line, and she chose the one with less torture.

Honestly though? She just wanted to get this over with and go home. She was sick of this place. It had taken too many people.]

Help us get out of the tower and fix our homes, instead of keeping us here against our wills.

[The side with the Devil you know or the Devil you don't? The torture has been easier to deal with for Sephiroth since the Glamour drop. What Zo did to him was the worst, far more personal than anything Ruana -or even Jason- had tried before.

He's at least as sick of it as Veronica is, but that's not the say he'd be fighting for something he didn't think was in his interests.]

Everyone says that. Yet no one has any idea of how to achieve it, yet they fight for it all the same. Doesn't that seem odd to you?

just this once, everybody lives!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject