Lonely, she was so very utterly lonely. For years she had watched over and protected her friends on earth. Watched as they laughed, played, loved, hurt, cried, watched as they lived their lives. Oh how she wished she could be with them, with him.
She had watched him the most. It hurt more than she cared to admit to see them together and so happy. Still, no matter how much it hurt she still protected and helped them in every way she could. No matter how much she longed to be with them, or anyone she was resigned to watch.
Observe and protect the life on the planet. It had been her duty since she first entered this place, no it had been her duty the moment she summoned Holy. How could she have known that the being that summoned Holy was the one destined to be the planet's guardian. Under normal circumstances the guardian would have lived a full life and been content to live in the Lifestream in the complete solitude that she was now living in.
She had had no contact with another being since the elders had told her of her duty. She hadn't even been able to speak to her mother. As for her father since he was human he had already been reborn on the planet. The elders had cut of her communication from the Promised Land so that she would not be "distracted".
No being lasted long enough in the Lifestream before being reborn to find and talk to her. Once when she called on the Lifestream to save the planet from Meteor the people who had died saw her on their way on to being reborn, but the Lifestream would never again get that close to people. So she would never have to chance to say even one word to another living being.
Slowly she got to her feet and stretched out. When a persons mind, or spirit, enters the Lifestream their mind created a sort of imaginary world that they lived in until they were reborn. If they happened to wander near another mind they would leave their world and enter the other's world.
She had eventually learned how to change or adapt her world to how she wanted it. She could look at the real world anytime she wanted but she had created a crystalline pond that she would look into whenever she wished to check up on the world. Reeds grew around the edges of the water before it rose into smooth clean rock. In the rock there was numerous spots where one could lounge while gazing into the pond or at the distant horizon. Eventually the rock gave way to great expanses of fields. The fields were filled with hundreds of flowers. Even the slightest gust of wind would blow delicate petals into the air. The fragrant scent of the flowers could be smelt from a great distance away.
In one direction the fields gave way to Limestone cliffs with many caves honey combed into them. But the caves were not the dominant features of the cliffs. A magnificent waterfall cascaded down the cliffs and into a beautiful shimmering lake below. From the Lake flowed a medium sized river. The river wound through part of the flower fields but mostly through a grand forest. Trees of all sorts grew so high up that it hurt to look at them for too long. Eventually the river flowed into a vast ocean. Shells littered the pure white sand that stretched as far as the eye could see in each direction. Eventually the land at the edge of the sand rose up into sheer cliffs with many places to climb into and sit while gazing out onto the ocean. Dark rocky outcroppings stuck out of the cliffs here and there along the beach. The rocks extended a short way out into the water. The entire place was beautiful. There was not a single slightly browned blade of grass in the entire land, every one of the flowers were perfect and in bloom, the sand was all a clean white, you could see the bottom of each of the deep pure lakes.
There was one thing missing though. No matter how hard you searched you could not find a single living creature. No a fish in the sea, no beatles in the ground, no birds in the sky. There couldn't be. All the living creatures had been reborn onto the planet and you could not put a living, thinking creature into any land without it having some sort of spirit.
So here she was day after day in her beautiful imaginary world without so much as a worm as a friend. She never heard the sounds of life, never heard the chirp of a cricket, nor the rustling of a small bird of rodent, or the powerful roar of one of the planet's powerful creatures. The only sounds she heard were the soft crashing of waves, the sound of the flowers or trees in the wind, or the water crashing down from her waterfall.
Many days she simply lay on her back a few feet away from her pond and gaze up at the clouds in her sky. It was one such day when she was lying on her back and gazing up at the sky without any sense of the time that was passing when the clouds began to darken slightly. That was odd. She almost never had it rain in her small world. The clouds rapidly began to darken and soon she felt a cool drop of water on her arm. She quickly jumped to her feet and began to look around her. A slight breeze began to blow her auburn around her and into her deep emerald eyes. A flurry of petals enveloped her as she raised a hand to brush her hair from her eyes. When she turned and looked off too her side her eyes widened in shock. She didn't notice as her hand slowly fell to her side.
Cold. It was really cold.
"Where am I?"
A pair of glowing green eyes shot open. Flames rose into the sky and went on as far as the eye could see. The surrounding air was thick with smoke and pollution. The ground was littered with sharp rocks and shards of glass, and he was standing right in the center of it all.
"Where is this place?"
Despite the roaring fire he was unbearably cold. As he tried to make sense of the situation he slowly began to trudge through the flames that strangely did not burn him. For a moment he remembered nothing. He stopped dead in his tracks as his memories came flooding back.
His lonely childhood filled with cold experiments. Becoming the most celebrated general in all of Shinra's history, then Nibelheim, Jenova, Meteor, killing the cetra, and finally Cloud killing him. How did his mind become so twisted that he believed a monster was his mother? What had happened that made go so completely out of his mind? Where had he come up with the idea to try to kill so many people, to try and kill the planet? Jenova, somehow she had invaded his mind. That had to be it he could never remember actually coming up with those horrible ideas. She had made him trust her then she twisted his despise for the people who had shunned him into a vile hatred for everything.
All of those horrible things that she made him do. This must be his punishment, surely this place must be hell. He turned and took in his surroundings. All he could do was accept his punishment.
It seemed as though years passed by, maybe they did, but eventually he took a step forward, then another, one after another until he reached a fast walk. He walked and walked and walked and walked. After another unknown stretch of time his boots began to shuffle on the charred earth. He began to stumble, soon he fell to his knees unable to rise he stared hopelessly at the sky.
For years it went on this way walking till he could no longer move. Then a while later rising to his feet again to walk further. What compelled him to walk like this? He really couldn't find any reason. Maybe it was the hope that someday he would find his way out of this, this hell of his. He was sure it was his because in all of his walking he had never encountered another living soul of any kind.
Again he was staggering along trying to get in just a few more steps before he lost all of his strength. Once again he collapsed and began to stare at the sky. What he saw puzzled him. There were stars in the sky. Never in his life had he thought something was so beautiful. They were there shimmering above the towering flames in a clear velvet sky.
After gazing at the starts for what seemed like an eternity his felt a renewed sense of strength. He rose to his feet and again began his journey to nowhere. Slowly almost painfully slowly the flames seemed to shrink and the sky began to lighten. After a while the glass began to disappear from the ground. There was even grass, though very dried and obviously dead, there was even a faint glimmer of sunlight!
He froze in place, it felt as though if he took another step he would be back in the fiery hell he had awoken in so long ago. His eyes began to grow heavy and soon he closed his eyes from what he now considered the most beautiful sight in the world.
Oh how wrong he was. Even before he opened his eyes he could smell a sweet floral scent, he could feel the soft lush grass beneath him. As a soft breeze brushed across his face his eyes fluttered open. The sky was filled with soft gray clouds and a light sprinkle of rain had begun to fall.
He sat up and surveyed the area around him. Words could not describe how beautiful it was. Flowers flooded his vision nearly as far as his eyes could see. He could only gaze in wonder at the beauty that now surrounded him. A sudden movement to his right caught his eye. He spun to his right to see what is could have been.
A distance away a figure had suddenly leapt up from the flowers. From where he was he could see that the figure was definitely feminine. Long auburn hair seemed to float around her. He could not see her face for she had her back to him. A gust of wind blew a cloud of petals into the air clouding his vision slightly. She turned to face him while brushing an errant lock of hair from her face. In an instant their eyes locked. Even from where he could feel something almost pulling him to her.
************
It was impossible, there was not a single living thing in the world that could make contact with her. But here, somehow, was a man standing in the middle of her field. At last someone, something, to talk to, someone to relate to! She waved her arm at him to catch his attention in case he wasn't looking at her already. A moment to late she realized who this person was. The long silver hair, the black clothing, the eyes that she knew would be a glowing green. Sephiroth.
A choking fear overwhelmed her. How could he be here he was dead, no so was she. He should have been reborn. He couldn't be here he just couldn't. What was he going to do to her? What could she do? Panicked her eyes shot around searching for some place to hide. All there was were flowers. Gusts of wind brought thousands of petals up to cloud her vision. All she could think to do was run
************
Running? Why was she running from him? She must be like everybody else who has ever met him, ever seen him. But he had to he had to see her he had to talk to somebody. He had endured times of solitude, but never anything like this before. He had to at least touch her and make sure he was not hallucinating.
Running as fast as he could he soon began to gain on her. He was within a few feet of her when they reached the beginning of the lake that was at the base of the waterfall. The spray from the cascading water formed a mist that enveloped them both. She finally whirled around and faced him like a caged animal. Somehow he wasn't shocked at what he saw.
It was her, the Cetra. He could not remember her name but he certainly remembered her. Many days while he walked he had wondered why he had killed such a beautiful creature. She didn't need to die, he really hadn't wanted to kill her. Now she was standing before him. Obviously scared out of her mind. Still, he wasn't convinced she was real.
"Please, tell me you are real,"
His smooth deep voice trembled slightly from misuse. She appeared stunned for a moment but then she spoke.
"What are you going to do to me?"
What are you going to do to me? The words stung much more than he had expected them to. They made sense though, last time she had seem him he had been trying to destroy the world. He had been nothing short of a madman. After years of solitude not a single thought about hurting her had ever crossed his mind from the moment he saw her. He viewed this land as heaven, and it was compared to the place he had been for such a long amount of time.
If this place was heaven then surely she must be an angel. He looked at her now standing at the edge of the water staring at him with deep green eyes wide with fear. Her auburn hair framing her face then cascading down her back in a loose braid. He slightly loose pink dress blowing slightly at her bare ankles.
Suddenly she turned and dashed into the water and tried desperately to escape.
************
She was quickly becoming hysterical. First he had asked if she was real. Then he had begun to look over her with an odd look of admiration. Oh no he is going to rape me! Panicked she tried to think of what she could do. She was cornered against the lake the only way she could escape was through the water. Her mind made up she turned and fled in absolute terror.
As she struggled through the water she felt an arm slip around her waist and pull her back. She screamed in terror. She felt him forcibly grab her shoulder and turn her to face him. Tears began to burn her eyes as she looked up at his face. There was an odd slightly desperate look on his face. The look though, was not that of a rapist but that of a lonely man who just wanted to be near someone.
"Please, please don't run……I…I just want to talk with someone"
Suddenly her own loneliness overwhelmed her. How many nights had she wished for someone to talk to. Someone just to see to confirm that she existed and was not some phantom floating through the Lifestream. Now in some cruel twist of fate someone was here, but that person was a cold blooded killer.
He had let go of her shoulders and had let his hands fall to his sides.
"I….I'm….sorry"
Her eyes widened in shock as she looked at him. What had he just said? He was sorry. Could it be possible he was no longer a cold-blooded killer? Was it even a little bit possible that she could talk to him. That she would finally not be so utterly and completely alone?
She stared at him for a long time as a soft rain fell into the warm water. His shimmering silver hair fell around his face and flowed down around his long muscular body. His beautiful pale green eyes were staring at her without even the faintest glimmer of lust but with the same feeling that was in her eyes, hope. She couldn't help but smile at the thought that she would no longer have to be alone. She sprang forward and threw her arms around his neck. He jerked away for a second but relaxed and eventually gingerly wrapped his arms around her. They stood there like that for a long time with the silent mist enveloping them.