Revenge of Sophia (part 12)

Sophia followed the clone up the path, aware that Cloud as following them. Sophia knew exactly what she was going to do, and how she was going to do it. Her plan was going smoothly, the only thing she was worried about was getting the black materia from Barret, who Cloud had given the black materia to. Sadie however, said she had a cunning plan to get get the materia, and it involved tricking Barret into thinking Cloud was in trouble. Sophia liked this idea, and before long, they seemed to be back in Nibelheim, five years previous, when the town was burned to the ground by Sephiroth. At an instant after that, Cloud walked into the scene, where Sophia had hidden herself, and the clone was behind, ready to make his entrance.1

Cloud seemed as though he knew what was going on. It was as though he knew they were trying to mess with him, and yet he seemed disturbed by the whole charade. At this point, the clone walked in with a member of SOLDIER, who Sophia wanted to make Cloud think had attended instead of him. Sophia knew that what they were showing Cloud were the true events of what had happened that day, but Sophia also knew that Cloud would deny this, and eventually try to remember events before hand, which she knew he could not recall. After she had achieved this, the clone then started to make Tifa think about the events of that day. Questioning her about everything, eventually making her admit that Cloud was not at Nibelhem that day. Eventually Cloud wsa so confused he began to think that he was created like a Sephiroth clone, constructed, piece by piece. The clone had told him this, saying that he was a failure, not even given a number. When Cloud actually believed this, Sophia knew her work was done here.2

Next, the clone went back to where Barret was standing, disguised as the girl, Tifa. He told Barret that Cloud was in trouble and that he needed his help. Sadie had known that the party would do anything to help their leader, and of course, she had been right. Barret immediately rushed to the area thet "Tifa" had told him to go to. Sure enough Cloud and Tifa were there, as well as the Shinra president, and Hojo, a mad scientist who liked to experiment on anything that had a particle. Cloud walked over to Barret, and asked him for the black materia. He then apologised to his party, and to Shinra, before asking Hojo to give him a number. As Hojo turned him down, Sophia began to make her way into his mind.3

"Come on up Cloud. Don't forget the black materia. After all, our master needs it for his mission," She said to him, and with that, Cloud began to rise to the next level where he came face to face with Sophia, but most importantly, Sophia moved out of the way, leaving Cloud face to face with his arch enemy, Sephiroth. 4

Cloud handed the black materia to Sephiroth, causing the whole of the area to explode, forcing Cloud out with the concentrated mako energy and the lifestream now gushing from the crater, which had also formed a barrier, protecting Sophia, Sadie, the clone and Sephiroth himself. Sophia was now happy, she had finally come face to face with her master, and now she knew she could help him.5