Rebirth

Chapter 20 - The Conversation

Tifa had fallen into a dreamless sleep. Loz sat in a chair in front of the monitor with his
feet up on the table the next to it. He had watched her come out of the drug-induced
stupor and sit up in the bed to check herself. "Yes its still there" he whispered with a smile
on his face.

But that was two hours ago and he was getting bored. He stretched his arms above his head
and yawned. He looked over at his two brothers who slept on the sofas in the other room.
He got up and walked outside to clear his head in the cold wind.

The day was waning fast. He looked out over the vista before him. A grand sweep of
mountains and valleys, scoured clean of all vegetation by the howling winds that blew
night and day. He walked over to the edge of the plateau and looked down at the valley
below. He unzipped his pants and fished out his penis to take a pee. He stood there
watching the sun set for a while.

He shivered and walked back into the mansion. He wandered through the empty house
back towards the monitor. God he was B O R E D! He was used to more action than this
and his muscles were complaining that they had not had their regular exercise. He sighed
and sat back down at the monitor.

Where was she? She wasn't on the bed. He gripped the joystick and threw it over to the
left to make the camera scan the room. Nothing . . . . He moved the camera around the
room, but still found no sign of Tifa.

"Shit!" he snarled. "Hey, you two, wake up!" he yelled over to his brothers. They both
stirred at his voice and sat up.

"What's wrong," Kadj asked immediately.

"She isn't in the room."

Kadj leapt to his feet and disappeared down to the basement with Yazoo following close
on his heels.

Kadj burst through the open door into the room and stood in the middle of it looking
around in shock.


Tifa had lain in the bed, staring up at the ceiling. Her thoughts became still in the silence
surrounding her. She drifted into a trace-like state, emptying her mind. Her ears picked
up the steady, shallow breathing from the two sleeping brothers upstairs and the deeper
breathing from Loz as he sat at the monitor. She could hear the scurrying feet of the mice
that infested the attic of the mansion three floors above her and the gurgling of the
plumbing all around her. The drug they had given her had enhanced her senses so that
she could extend her mind beyond her physical body.

She turned inward, searching for her daughter. She had to reach her. She had to be sure
the child's mind was untouched by the Others, still whispering to her from a great
distance away.

Her mind reached out to her daughter. She saw her suspended in the warm protective
embrace of her womb, still asleep. She smiled to herself. She was safe, unaware.

She gazed at her baby in awe. This tiny creature was growing inside her. What an
incredible gift this was. She was overcome by a love she had not known was possible. It
was different from the love she felt for Cloud, much more intense. She would give her
life to protect it.

The baby was perfectly formed. Her tiny heart beat through her translucent skin. The
thick umbilical cord was pulsating, taking nutrients from her body to feed her baby. As
she watched, the fetus shuddered suddenly and . . . grew to twice its size.

"What is this?" she asked herself, fear growing in her mind.

She could see the millions of double-helix DNA strands swirling around inside each drop
of blood passing between herself and the baby. But they weren't the normal 23 pairs,
but 46 pairs. Her mind deciphered the code they contained and understood what the drug
had done to them both. The extra proteins changed the rate at which her baby was
growing and switched on long dormant abilities in their minds.

"This is how I can see the things I can see," she thought.

The voices from the Others returned with renewed urgency. Hundreds of voices
whispering to her, telling her of their lives. One voice stood out from the rest, however.
It was a woman's voice, soft, seductive, and malevolent, and it was speaking directly to
her.

"You will give birth to a God," it said to her. "And she will be worshipped."

"But that's not what I want for her," Tifa replied. "She may be capable of great things,
but they will come from her father and me, not you."

The voice chuckled softly. "It's done. There is no choice in the matter. Don't be a fool.
You will be revered as the Mother of a God! You will be a Reverent Mother."

"And what of her father? What will become of Cloud?" she asked the voice

"He was just the sperm donor, nothing more," it replied with a sneer.

She knew this wasn't true. If it were not for the changes Jenova had made to his DNA,
their baby would be developing normally inside her and she would not be having this
conversation.

"No, you did this to him . . . Jenova!"

Jenova cackled softly in her mind. The sound sliced through her mind sounding like
fingernails on a blackboard.

"What do they want?" Tifa asked, referring to Kadj and his brothers. "And who are the
Others? Their incessant babbling is giving me a headache."

"Kadj will take care of you. He will be your consort after the child is born. The Others .
. . well . . . they are here to inform you."

"Inform me . . ," she repeated the words in her mind. "Inform me of what?"

"Listen to them, Tifa. They will tell you"

As she heard these words, the babble from the Others grew louder and more insistent.
She fought to keep them at bay, not wanting to hear what they had to tell her. Tales of
battles and great wars waged over time and space with whole worlds locked in struggle,
destroyed and left barren. She turned her back to them and embraced her daughter in the
calm silence of her mind. She refused to let them wake her baby.

Jenova cackled at her attempts to protect the child. Her cold laugh fading into the
background against the press of the Others' thoughts.

Tifa knew she was going mad. She heard a scream, faint at first, but getting louder and
closer, until she realized the scream was coming from her own lips. It banished the
voices and brought her to the surface, ripping her away from her baby.

She sat up in bed, gulping for air, sweating profusely, head pounding, every limb
shaking. She tried to concentrate on her breathing, slowly bringing it back down to a
normal rate. She put her hand to her heart and felt it pounding in her chest. She slowly
became aware of the dark cold room around her and knew that she was back in the
present. The knowledge of the Others lives, the worlds they lived on, the battles they had
fought, receding in her memory to lodge deep in her subconscious.

Her hand went to her stomach unconsciously to feel her baby. She looked down at
herself in shock as she realized that her belly had swollen to three times its normal size.
She guessed that she looked at least five months pregnant. She slowly moved her legs
over the side of the bed and tried to stand. She was felt heavy and off balance as she
stood, holding on to the wall next to her.

The muscles in her abdomen cramped, being unused to the stretch of such a heavy
burden, and she gasped in pain and sat back down, holding her belly with both arms. She
sat on the bed, massaging her stomach until the cramps subsided, and tried to stand again,
this time more successfully. Her body was changing, getting ready to give birth and care
for her newborn. She smiled as she peeked inside her thin top to see her swollen breasts.
"Well it wasn't all bad," she said to herself. "Cloud would like this."

His face swam into her field of vision as she thought of Cloud. Looking at him calmed
her and gave her strength. She could feel his touch, the weight of him as he lay on top of
her. It gave her the resolve she needed. She had to get out of here. With her pregnancy
advancing so fast, she knew she couldn't wait for rescue. She had to rescue herself and
her baby.

She took a first tentative step away from the bed and stood up unsupported. "Well that
went ok," she thought. "Now for another one," and she took another step further away
from the wall. She felt her strength returning with each second that passed. She
suspected this newfound strength came from her altered genes, but at this point, she
would take whatever help she could get.

Barefooted, she walked over to the door and looked at it. She felt around the edges of the
door and pushed slightly at it. It didn't budge. She rapped softly on the center of the
door, her ear pressed up to it, trying to determine how strong it was.

Her face set with determination, she stepped back with one foot planted behind her and
brought her bare fists up to her chest. She knew this was going to hurt as she didn't have
her gloves, but she had to do it. She closed her eyes and slowed her breathing, pushing
out all the voices competing for attention inside her mind. She could feel the strength of
her body focus in her fists and waited as it gathered to a critical mass. With a yell she
threw her fist into the door and felt it give way before her. She opened her eyes and
stood up straight, looking at the damage she had done. The door lay in splinters around
her, leaving a gaping hole where it stood just moments before.

She leapt through the door and looked around her wildly for a way out. She saw the
stairs and guessed that they led up to Kadj and his brothers above her. She couldn't go
that way, so she turned and ran down the hall in the opposite direction.