Fall of a Hero

Cloud Strife, Barret Wallace, Tifa Lockhart, Aerith Gainsborough, and Red XIII have made their way to Kalm where Cloud recounts the story of how he went on a mission to Nibelheim five years ago with Sephiroth as a First Class SOLDIER.

Sephiroth briefs the 16-year-old at the truck on their way to their destination after Cloud cannot sit still and laments that he missed his chance of becoming a hero because by the time he made it to First Class, the Wutai War had already ended. Sephiroth is annoyed that the "kids" are acting restless but explains that they have been deployed to Nibelheim to investigate a possibly malfunctioning mako reactor due to new kinds of fiends appearing on the mountains. Cloud is surprised, as Nibelheim is his home town. The truck is stopped by fiends whom Sephiroth easily defeats, leaving Cloud in such awe at Sephiroth's power he fumbles his own attack chance. Back in the present, Cloud explains that Sephiroth was in a league of his own when it came to power.

They make it to Nibelheim and Sephiroth asks how it feels to be back home after two years of absence, revealing that he does not have family or a home town as his mother Jenova died when he was but an infant. Some villagers recognize Cloud and are impressed by his job with M1: Shinra Electric Power Company's military. He visits his mother who fusses over him endlessly, worrying that he has no one looking after him in the big city, and suggests Cloud look for an older girlfriend. Cloud climbs the water tower and visits Tifa's house when no one is home. He finds Sephiroth at the inn looking contemplative due to seemingly recognizing the local landscape though he does not recall ever being here before.

The next day a crowd gathers to see the SOLDIERs and their peace-keeper escorts off to the mako reactor located halfway up the mountain. A 15-year-old Tifa is to be their guide, though her father objects as many years ago Tifa once had a grave accident on the mountain and she has not been so far up the mountain since. Tifa insists to go and gets Cloud to convince Sephiroth to pose for a photograph.

Tifa leads them up the mountain path and through a mako testing facility and a cave where they find a mako fountain that has crystallized into natural materia and Sephiroth explains that materia holds the knowledge of the Ancients allowing those in possession of materia orbs to use magic. A rope bridge collapses from under them, sending them plummeting to the river below where one of the peace keeper escorts is washed away. Tifa no longer knows the way to the reactor from where they landed, but Sephiroth allows her to stay with them for her safety.

They eventually reach the reactor where Sephiroth and Cloud enter while Tifa and the one remaining guard accompanying the team stay outside. They find mako pods intended for materia production, but Sephiroth explains that Professor Hojo of Shinra's R&D (the division that operates this particular reactor) put animals inside instead in an effort to "breed" a new type of monster, leading to the malfunction and mako leaking to the local environment. He begins to destroy the equipment in a rage, and seeing the locked chamber with the label "Jenova", begins to doubt that he was created with something similar to these monsters. Cloud is unable to calm him, and back in town Sephiroth locks himself in the Shinra Manor to learn more about the experiments conducted at Nibelheim by Shinra's science department.

When Cloud confronts him seven days later, Sephiroth has gone mad, incapacitates Cloud and torches Nibelheim, slaying all villagers he comes across, including Cloud's mother. Cloud is injured and devastated, unable to stop Sephiroth's rampage and follows him up the mountain to the reactor where he finds Tifa mourning her father, killed by Sephiroth's sword. She picks up the sword and tries to kill Sephiroth with it, finding him outside the chamber labeled "Jenova". Sephiroth disarms her and slashes her across the chest, sending Tifa plummeting down the stairs before he heads into the chamber.

Cloud sees Tifa's wounds and carries her aside, Tifa sighing that he had promised to come save her if she was ever in trouble before passing out. Cloud rushes into Jenova's chamber only to find Sephiroth exposing a mysterious feminine creature from behind a metal angel sculpture, calling it his mother and how together they are the rightful rulers of the planet, and his rampage earlier meant nothing as he owns every living being as the chosen steward of the planet.

Back in the present, Cloud fails to recall anything more, angering Barret. Everyone agrees that however it happened, Sephiroth is back after five years of absence and Shinra's reports of him having been killed in action were probably propaganda. Everyone retires for the night, but Tifa cannot get to sleep and asks if Aerith knows where Cloud has been these five years after the Nibelheim Incident. Aerith muses that she may have known once, but the Whispers stole that knowledge from her. Tifa wonders if Whispers have messed her memories too, as she does not recall Cloud being in Nibelheim five years ago.

Tifa goes to ask Cloud for a private chat, but on his way to the rooftop, Cloud hallucinates Sephiroth's presence claiming that Cloud's memory of Tifa's unsurvivable injuries is real and that the Tifa he met in Midgar is an imposter. Doubt in his heart, Cloud asks her about it, offending Tifa, who explains that Rashard Zangan, her martial arts instructor, rescued her and brought her to a clinic, even showing him her scar. She wants to know what Cloud was doing for five years and he says he cannot tell her. Tifa is saddened and laments that maybe meeting him again after all these years apart was a mistake after all.