"No. Time works...strangely in these places. I have been present every time you've fought Jenova, I think...aware, but not in control. What time I was brought from to here...is further in our timeline than I think you have yet experienced." He lifts his shoulders slightly in another helpless shrug. "It's partially because of that, the disparity of the times we come from, that Genesis and I seem to know so much of you. Though Jenova also plays a factor, for me. I may not have been in control of what Jenova did, but...I am tied to it. I bear witness to much of what it does; even within the Lifestream itself, my consciousness persisted after my death." Then, quieter: "I fear I may not be human enough to die."

He glances up at Cloud in some surprise at the remark about Cloud's dragon. Then his brows furrow. "Your dragon is fortunate. Even injured and grieving and - " Not even a SOLDIER - "...far from at your best, you accomplished what entire armies failed to do in killing me. That it wasn't enough to stop Jenova is hardly a failing on your part. And what I have seen of your future - you may be the one truly good thing to have come out of the entirety of anything to do with SOLDIER. You save countless people. You are...much that I wish I could have been, and which I can never be now. Someone the world is better for having. Can you truly sit across from someone with the blood of thousands on his hands and believe you were a poor pick for a dragon?"

As if sensing the gravity of the moment, the chicken on Sephiroth's lap stirs herself, rustling her feathers. Then, with gravitas, she shits on Sephiroth's leg.

Sephiroth looks down. "...really," he says, rather quietly.