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« on: 2016-10-16 05:23:38 »
Sorry for jumping in relatively late but I really just wanted to post here because this is one of the worst explained things in the game even though it's HUGELY important.
As said, the voice is Cloud. The game points out a couple things to you but in a crappy way: SOLDIERs have to be mentally fit to undergo the Mako showering otherwise they lose their own ego in the well of information it brings on. Also, JENOVA even in cellular form reads the memory of others and adapts to them.
So, we know Cloud is taken in by Hojo for experimentation and basically overdoses on Mako for 5 years. He's also injected with JENOVA cells during his time. This is also important: during this time Zack is wearing his SOLDIER uniform and Cloud is still in his standard military outfit.
Cloud loses his own ego and becomes catatonic. Hojo suspects Sephiroth is still around somehow and wants to make remotes for him he can basically use (the game mistakenly calls them "clones") which is what he's trying to do. Since Zack is already a resilient member of SOLDIER the experiments don't have much impact on him. Cloud however succumbs easily and thus Hojo is successful on him.
Zack escapes and takes Cloud with him so they can escape to Midgar. Zack stuffs Cloud into a spare SOLDIER uniform at this point before they are attacked and he dies, giving Cloud his buster sword. Cloud's JENOVA cells start to pick up on Zack's memories and coupled with their convos and what Zack has shown him, Cloud at this point genuinely thinks he is a former member of SOLDIER going to Midgar to be a mercenary because that's what Zack was going to do. When he sees Tifa, his JENOVA cells tweak out again for a bit and he gets her memories of him which conveniently just reinforce the idea that he went to become a member of SOLDIER and that his name is Cloud. So everything makes it seem like he really was a member of SOLDIER, he wasn't lying or having a traditional mental breakdown, he was under the influence of Mako poisoning and JENOVA cells.
His flashes and the voices in his head, as explained, are from his real memories trying to emerge. Other than that, it's all JENOVA cobbled memory.
Finally, when he finds Hojo, Hojo calls him "the failure". He calls him that because he mistakes him for Zack whom his procedure didn't work on. In fact, Cloud was the successful one and the procedure did work. And regardless of his reasons he thought he may have had, he ultimately reunited with JENOVA and Sephiroth as his cells subtly commanded him to do.
It's a shame this detail isn't better hinted at in the story because it makes it so much more intriguing and still to this day is one of the most misunderstood parts of the storyline.
EDIT - Also, the Ultimania spells out far more plainly the details in how JENOVA cells read memories.