[She says that she had been afraid of him, and this should be nothing new to his ears. Sephiroth is used to casting a shade of intimidation over others back home without even trying, instilling tension in infantrymen’s shoulders simply by walking by. But Aerith speaks of a different kind of fear, and he can comprehend the degree of it in her tone now stripped bare of consideration. The sort that matched the measure of a man who almost destroyed a world, hurt so many people. A killer, a monster in a way that was far beyond the form his body was taking on this planet.
And he, too, thinks it’s hardly fair. That he has not yet wrought any of those atrocities by his own hands — the burning of a village; the destruction of his own Planet? — but the pall of judgment hangs over his head regardless. Is everyone so certain of his abhorrent nature that they would rather keep the truth far from him? Did they have no faith that he would handle the revelations better when offered to him kindly, carefully? He is not that desperately weak, so unsteady that his mind would fall to pieces over and over and over, no matter the circumstances— is he?
For all the questions bruising the inside of his head, only one rises to the forefront.]
And now?
[Now, his mind is weighted with knowledge of Nibelheim and Jenova, yet still burdened with the need to know more. To share in the same one she carries.]
no subject
And he, too, thinks it’s hardly fair. That he has not yet wrought any of those atrocities by his own hands — the burning of a village; the destruction of his own Planet? — but the pall of judgment hangs over his head regardless. Is everyone so certain of his abhorrent nature that they would rather keep the truth far from him? Did they have no faith that he would handle the revelations better when offered to him kindly, carefully? He is not that desperately weak, so unsteady that his mind would fall to pieces over and over and over, no matter the circumstances— is he?
For all the questions bruising the inside of his head, only one rises to the forefront.]
And now?
[Now, his mind is weighted with knowledge of Nibelheim and Jenova, yet still burdened with the need to know more. To share in the same one she carries.]
Are you still afraid?