Sephiroth frowns. "If this isn't the simulation," he says after a moment, "and we have no reason to believe it is, then the instruments of the simulation likely no longer work. Which means...I expect that Leviathan and Bahamutt and the others are beyond our reach, unless we return to the simulation..."

This is a more distressing thought than he might have expected. But the DTFs...they weren't simply communication devices. They were animals with their own personalities that they'd all come to care for. How often had Sephiroth lounged with Minerva, or had Bahamutt bring him a tray of Angeal's food from the kitchen with careful, impressive balance? How accustomed had he become to having an extension of his mates languidly prowling their house, in arm's reach even when his mates themselves were not? To suddenly not have access to them...it's far more than simply not having an easy way to keep in contact.