the jenova project

The Jenova Project used to definitely be one of the concepts about Final Fantasy 7 that never really stuck out for me - so it took a few times to play the game to get it right. The Jenova Project was created by two particularily clever scientists; Professor Hojo and Professor Gast - who worked for Shinra at the time.

About 30 or so years priror to the beginning of Final Fantasy 7, these scientists found a dead specimen located inside the Northern Crater. Shocked by their discovery, they took the specimen back with them to study it and run several tests. After finding out what they thought to be a 2000 year old Cetra, they chose to do even more tests, like extracting cells and DNA to find out what made this race so special. During this time, Mako energy had just been discovered and was used for power. Who's brilliant idea it was, I'm not sure (probably Hojo), but it was decided that they would mix Jenova cells with massive amounts of Mako energy and inject them into human beings to make them become a race of very powerful fighters, that would one day make up what is known as "Soldier". Thus, this experiment become known as the "Jenova Project".

Unfortunately, to these scientist's realisation, injecting the formula into grown human beings was causing them to become mutilated and sick - thus their bodies could not handle the change, and rejected the cells, leaving either very messed up - or dead. I think at this point, Professor Gast might have already been getting hesitant to do further testing, but stuck with them anyway. The breaking point was when Hojo got the crazy idea to inpregnate Lucrecia (another scientist who was working along side them), and then inject the cells into their unborn child - which, incidently, worked. This was obviously all that Gast could take, so he up and left Shinra Inc, and planned to never return again.

A few months later, Lucrecia gave birth to Sephiroth, and then died from unknown causes. Sephiroth was then taken by Shinra and trained to become part of Soldier. The only thing they told him of his family, is that his mother was named Jenova, and she died after giving birth to him.

Nearly 25 years later, Sephiroth, being a First Class Soldier now, was sent to the Mako Reactor in Nibelheim because of too much monster activity in that area. Along with him was another First Class Soldier named Zack, and two supporting Thrid Class Soldiers - one being Cloud and the other unknown. Accompanied by Tifa Lockhart, they climed towards the Mount Nibel Reactor, where inside, Sephiroth found a large amount of humans that have been injected with Mako and Jenova cells - but weren't entirely successful; they were like monsters - mutilated and frightening to look at. This upset Sephiroth, and made him wonder if he was just some experiment as well ...

Sephiroth then returned to the Basement of the Shinra Mansion, and spent days reading up on the Jenova Project - featuring a complete documentation by Gast, even a report about how he came to be, and that (because he still thought Jenova was his mother) he was part Cetra. This realisation drove him mad. Sephiroth then returned to the Mount Nibel reactor, and ripped past Tifa's father (who was guarding the entrance) and stabbed him to death, killing him instantly. Shortly after, Tifa came looking for her father only to find his dead body. This enraged her to an extreme and she decided to confront the great Sephiroth. As she entered the core of the Reactor, Sephiroth showed her no mercy, and stabbed her as well, causing her to fall down the stairs. Then, Zack came tearing in, a went right past the unconscious Tifa, but to no avail was killed.

Lastly, Cloud came in (still sporting his Shinra suit), and took Tifa aside to safety. Then he took off his mask, and told Tifa that'd he'd come back. Then he entered the room where Sephiroth was, and found him promising that he would take Jenova to The Promised Land. Then he rips her head off ... why? I really do not know. Being able to take Sephiroth by surprise, Cloud stabbed him, but didn't kill him. Then it shows Sephiroth trying to leave the Reactor, but Cloud shows up again, and finished it once and for all - thrusting Sephiroth into the Mako Lifestream below.

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