Sleepwalker

Ultimecia lay in her chambers fully awake. Her hair was let down from its stiff style of horns to fall against her like long platinum rivers that successfully hid her bare form. She lay waiting in a large, opulent bed fit for a queen.

Her heightened senses detected him approaching from his distant lair in Pandemonium, like he had done the previous night and countless other nights before. It had been the same thing over and over again since her last purification.

The door creaked open and her gold eyes watched the Emperor glide into her room. The pale light of the large, imitation moon reflected off his armor, as he moved like an undead zombie in the darkness.

The first night it happened, it surprised and outraged the time witch to where she was forced to attack him. There was not any type of friendship or connection between them to instigate such an act. They had allied themselves for the time being. They could turn against each other at any given moment if it were to their own benefit in this war between the gods.

It shocked her that he would attempt something so vile and expect to get away with it. She knew he probably wasn't above such acts. Things the master of hell wanted, he had no qualms in simply taking. In fact, that is what he is known for, but to try this on her was the work of a fool. She was Ultimecia! The feared sorceress of time from her own home world, not some weak dame easily taken advantage of.

After she attacked and threw the despot off with a low-level ice spell. He snapped out of whatever trance he was bound in and stood staring at her with a disoriented and calculating expression completely oblivious to what happened just seconds before. He could not even remember why or how he had come to be in her domain, or why the femme fatale was hell bent on killing him. It was then the sorceress concluded he had been sleepwalking.

Ultimecia watched silently and with interest as he pulled off his gilded armor and removed the rest of his clothes without ever opening his eyes. His balance would sway every now and then as he moved, causing the time witch to wonder if he would ever just fall to the floor and continue sleeping motionlessly.

Soundlessly and with little effort he found her and descended to her waiting body. She allowed her fingers to skim his muscles and entangle in his hair.

She had long since discovered the Emperor's weak points, and had formulated various methods into coaxing him into subconsciously giving her what she desired. The sorceress silenced her thoughts when his violet lips touched her porcelain skin.

The first few times after the first encounter, she would forcefully wake the despot and send him back to Pandemonium. He would demand an explanation for what had just occurred and why he repeatedly found himself in her domain, but she would supply him with nothing but feigned ignorance.

"You came here, Emperor. Did you forget why?" Ultimecia would often say successfully angering the tyrant who would eventually leave quite annoyed with the time witch.

It was only until a few nights ago, she decided to leave him be and observe what he would do if undisturbed. She expected he would eventually wake on his own. This never occurred and she now engaged in acts with the Palamecian emperor that could permanently damage her reputation as the only female warrior of discord.

By now, the instances were many and almost every night. The sorceress was actually quite surprised no one had noticed by now. If they had, she would certainly be seen as the once proud and terrifying sorceress of time reduced to a pathetic, needy whore. Kefka would have a field day if he were ever to know.

Encircling her arms around his pale shoulders, the witch pressed her garnet lips against his collarbone. She would be sure to leave a mark on him. The thought of him awaking the next morning with countless "mystery bruises" entertained her to no end.

Slowly, he filled her empty core, forcing the time witch to bite down on her lip to stifle any sudden outcry. Even while he slept, he drove her crazy, but in a much different way than when he would annoy her with his arrogant personality.

She could not allow herself to make too much noise or carelessly touch him. It would not bode well for her if he woke in the midst of this. She would attain what she desired and be fully clothed again before his eyes opened.

Her tattooed legs squeezed around his slender hips, pulling him in further, like a serpent coiling around its victim. She had to be careful not to be too harsh or hasty with her actions. The time witch would not have him wake…not yet.

The first time she dared to do this, she had been careless, and he nearly awoke when she became too noisy and animalistic in her desires. The autocrat was so dazed and disoriented, though, that it provided her with just enough time to cast a sleep spell over him and teleport him back to his lair.

A soft whimper escaped her throat as her carefully executed touches goaded his body into naturally giving her own what it craved.

As pleasure built within her, she couldn't keep the thought that she was taking advantage of the Emperor from crossing her mind. Was she? Was the almighty sorceress using his nightly ailment as a means for her own base desires?

A smile graced her prominent features in knowing she had something over the arrogant Emperor that he would never know of. She could use him over and over again and after, he would awake back in Pandemonium never knowing of what took place the night before.

She buried her face in the crook of his neck and surpressed her cry of ecstasy to a soft hum, when she reached the final culmination of her pleasure. She breathed heavily and contently under the collapsed form of the Palamecian king. Her body still shuttering with the aftermath of her releases.

Suddenly, a low, groggy moan erupted from the man on top of her.

Ultimecia became petrified at the unexpected sound, confused and disoriented, cutting through the blissful silence like a knife. Her yellow eyes stared up at the despot who gazed back. He still seemed to be in a dream-like state after having awoke from, apparently, a very deep sleep. She couldn't allow him to become anymore alert.

She had no time to utter a spell, for the Emperor would regain more of his consciousness the longer she stalled. The time witch panicked and grabbed the closest object next to her from the nightstand and busted him in the head with it. After the deafening sound of shattering glass, the despot fell back onto her body.

She slipped out from under him and stood hastily donning a loose, ebony robe. Her eyes examined the once again unconscious Emperor with the remains of an expensive vase shattered around his head. Dawn was approaching so she had to work quickly to magic his clothes back on and teleport him to Pandemonium.

It was more than two hours after daybreak, and Garland had summoned the warriors of Chaos to a meeting. As diverse and uncooperative as they all were, each of them showed. Well…all but one.

"Where is the Emperor?" Garland demanded as the whole of the group remained quiet in exception to the obscene snickering of Kefka as he gossiped with one of the Cloud of Darkness' snake-like tentacles.

As if on cue, the Emperor entered the old Chaos shrine looking quite agitated and exhausted.

"Rough night, yer majesty?" Jecht questioned jokingly as the despot moved sluggishly to stand beside him simultaneously rubbing his temples.

"Silence," the Emperor hissed in reply.

Normally, he was quick to engage in a battle of words, but today not even he was in the mood for it. Everyone, including the harlequin, stared at him. It wasn't uncommon for the man to be slightly late, but this was unheard of.

"Now that we have all gathered. Let us commence…," Garland spoke beginning the meeting.

As Garland drawled on, Ultimecia stole a glance at the Emperor. A proud expression conquered her face as she remembered the previous night.

"He will never know…and I will keep using him until I am satisfied…"

Ultimecia schooled her expression when he glanced back at her. The proud witch suddenly found herself frowning when his lips stretched into a knowing smirk, as his long fingernails raised up to rub the spot on his head where she slammed the vase into. His attention was soon drawn back to Garland, who demanded he explain the new strategy to foil Cosmos and her warriors.

The sorceress stared dumbfounded at the Emperor who no longer spared any attention for her, as he busily told the other Chaos minions their place on his chessboard against the warriors of harmony.

"Does he know?" the witch thought anxiously watching the Emperor begin to argue with Kuja.

That night, Ultimecia waited in her castle, pacing the floors of her room nervously. It was already three in the morning and the Emperor had yet to show.

She finally collapsed onto her bed. The sorceress wondered if he figured it out and decided to do something about his strange, nightly habit, but her door suddenly creaking open caused her to sit upright in her bed. She had not even sensed the despot approaching. Was she really so disturbed she couldn't even do that?

"Emperor-" she began before quickly silencing herself when she realized his eyes were, once again, closed.

She watched him wander unconsciously into her room just like the previous nights. She smiled evilly watching as the sleepingwalking tyrant disrobed.

"Hmph…so he still has yet to find a cure for this," Ultimecia thought, pompously, taking the opportunity to shed her own clothes and lay back expectantly against her mound of pillows.

Like a dog obeying its master, the Emperor crawled upon her body and nuzzled against her soft flesh.

Ultimecia frowned when she felt and saw something different in his movements. Instead of the uncoordinated sleep induced fumbling that required her guidance, she felt a more precise dominating touch that completely ignored her ghostly encouragements. Even his approach toward her had been disturbingly balanced and coordinated.

Suddenly, she cried out when the soft kiss on her neck morphed into a ferocious bite, that was hard enough to draw blood. Hissing in pain, she attempted to pull him off only to find her wrists captured and pinned above her head. When her struggling finally died, he relinquished her throat.

The time witch was met with alert and calculating violet irises. Her gold eyes flickered down to the smudge of crimson decorating his smirk. The red seemed to stand out even more on his pale, pristine flesh, illuminated by the glow of the moon.

"I hope you enjoyed it, all those times you used me," he commented in his usual smooth voice. In the dead silence of the night it filled her ears in a way that made her shiver.

Managing to control her surprise at him figuring out that she had already used him on multiple occasions, she returned his egotistical smirk. Her body tensed under his, as he used his weight to hold her captive.

"I've had better, but as you can see, the selection in this world is quite limited. I had to make do with you and your nightly habit," Ultimecia responded, frustrated, as she attempted to free herself once more.

The Emperor laughed at her excuse, taking pleasure in her struggling. With one hand still wrapped around both of the sorceress' slender wrists, he began to use his other to toy with her.

The time witch supressed another shiver, as the long nails of his roaming fingers lightly scraped her skin. Nussling her neck, once more, he kissed the bitemark, he had just gifted her, before gently carressing it with his tongue. The pleasure-tinged pain drew a moan from her lips.

Beneath the resentment of feeling helpless, as he teased her body, the time witch knew she had all but asked for this, after the countless times she had taken advantage of him, but she had no plans to continue to allow him to dominate her. She had never been a submissive partner for anyone, and she wasn't about to become one for the likes of him.

Surprising the Emperor, she ripped her wrists from his grasp and flipped him on his back. His poison purple lips stretched into a smile, as the sorceress held his forearms down with her slender hands. She was far stronger than she appeared, but that was of no surprise to the despot. He had watched her in battle, and she had proven to be a relliable ally, even though it be temporary.

"Well," the tyrant purred with a smile while gazing up at her, "Are you going to use me, again?"

Straddling him, she reached a hand beneath her body, taking pleasure when she heard his breath hitch, as she touched him, bringing him to her before joining their bodies in a dance as old as time.

Gold orbs fluttering as she relished in the familiar sensation, Ultimecia did not even bother to control the sounds that escaped her ruby lips, as she began to move, deliberately slow. For so many nights, she had been forced to restrain herself, but that fear was behind her, now. Never had she been with a man that fit her body more perfectly, but what was even more satisfying was to witness the Emperor's arrogant smile fade, replaced by a look of need, an expression of primal hunger.

No longer caring to restrain the man, she had taken advantage of for so long, she released him before coming to feel his hands on her tattooed thighs, his long nails scraping her flesh, as he carressed her. His breathing was heavy, his muscles tense, and his amethyst orbs had become hazy with lust. The sorceress could sense his desire to take control and smiled a small, wicked grin.

"Perhaps I should let him. After all, I have dominated him for countless nights on end," Ultimecia thought before gasping as her back collided with the mattress. The despot must have read her mind.

"See? Isn't it better this way?" the Emperor breathed. Ultimecia couldn't decide if he was referring to his state of consciousness or taking control of their tryst, but in the end, she decided she no longer cared. She was getting what she wanted, and that's what mattered.

Never had she gleaned such pleasure from him during his sleep-induced visits. Awake, he definitely knew what he was doing, and it was beginning to make her regret not being caught by him sooner. Breath quickening, she scraped her nails against his back, as he read her body like an open book. The end was in sight for both of them, and it wasn't long before their dance found its conclusion.

Body trembling, Ultimecia rode out the last intense waves of her release, as they soon faded into the mellow ripples of afterglow. Feeling his claws caress the flushed skin of her cheek, she tiredly met his amethyst gaze, before he caught her lips in a slow kiss. Rolling onto his side beside her, he pulled the time witch tightly against him. Sweat dusted their bodies like glitter in the moonlight, as they laid encircled in each other's arms.

For one night the veil of lies had been lifted, their guards torn asunder, as they laid together, with their bodes entwined like yarn. She could feel his fingers in her long silver hair, gently combing through the silky strands, as she pressed her head against his bare chest, listening to the calm thudding of his heartbeat.

"Surprising, he actually has one," the sorceress thought, enjoying the warmth of his body, his touch, his scent. Tomorrow, they would go on about their business like nothing ever happened, so she would allow herself to enjoy this while she still could. No facade. No restraint.

The tyrant from another world stayed with her until the first light of dawn broke over the wartorn world of imitations. When the time sorceress awoke, he was already gone leaving no trace that he was ever even there to begin with.

Never did he return to her chambers at night, and during the day, they resumed their business-like behavior while assisting each other or scheming against the warriors of harmony. The time witch concluded he must have found a remedy for his sleepwalking.

Ultimecia stood in the Chaos Shrine with a few of the other warriors of discord. She glanced once more at the Emperor, consumed in thinking up more plots and traps for Cosmos and her minions.

Never would she say it, but she missed how he made her body come to life and then, the way he held her, afterwards. The time witch moved her eyes away to continue her conversation with the void-obsessed Cloud of Darkness.

Busy in another quarell with the silver-haired drama queen, Kuja, the Emperor stole another look at the crimson sorceress talking with the underdressed wraith. As much as his body would crave hers through every dull, passing night, never would he admit that he missed waking up tired.

End…