Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy 7 or Supernatural

This is primarily an adventure story, though it will have a couple slow-building relationships developed over the course of the story and a few already existing pairings. The rating will stay at T throughout.

Warnings: slash/shounen ai, swearing, probably some references to sexytimes (though nothing explicit) and violence.

A word of caution: this story is unbetaed, so I'm bound to have some mistakes here and there.

'Thinking'

"Talking"

It's barely ten in the morning and Mark already regrets getting up. Covered in mud, sweat and grime he wonders what type of person is insane enough to get up at this time and run. Through a forest. For two hours. 'Obviously this crazy bitch'.

He also wonders why it's him who always gets stuck with the bad cases. The type that requires you to stalk a woman because her husband seems so sure she having an affair on her daily run through one of the most notoriously known overgrown forests in the state 'stupid state parks'. It's really not fair. The only saving grace is the fact that he'd actually decided to wear runners today.

Such is the life of a private detective.

"Shit!" he clutches at his poor- recently tree abused- eye "fucking trees." Now it seems even the tree's are against him. 'I've never really liked them anyway. Don't really see the point in trying to save something that just going to turn around and poke you in the eye.'

It's an understatement to say that Mark's happy when his assignment finally decides that 'no, its butt doesn't actually look big in those pants and it can stop trying to kill itself', 'and consequently me as well'.

Feeling rather relived he stops a reasonable distance away from the bitch and flops unceremoniously against a tree. He's way too tired to find a better spot for surveillance, but figures it doesn't really matter anyway; the woman's too caught up in her near death experience to care. Why does he even need to care? It would probably be a good thing if this woman was having an affair, at least that way they would realize how shit their relationship was and then proceed to cut their losses and run for the hills 'or drive for the hills, I'm never running again in my life.'

With a reignited sigh he tilts his head back against the tree. The forest's a mixture of not quite deadly looking plants to what looks like some form of man eating plants. 'It's like I'm back at one of my family reunions, all it needs now is aunt Lilies rabid dog-squirrel thing and someone armed with a machete and it'll feel just like home.'

He breaths in deeply and closes his eyes. He's tired, sticky and currently rethinking his choice on becoming a detective. 'I could probably get a job as an artist of some sort. I've always been good at stabbing paper with a pen' he snorts, 'or maybe a kindergarten teacher; I could hit on all the hot mums.'His musings slowly calm his racing heart. Propped up against a surprisingly soft moss covered tree, his breathing slows down to a tolerable level as his body shuts down from exhaustion. The fact that it's probably not the best idea to sleep on the job when stalking doesn't cross his mind as he drifts off.


Things were calm. The soft breaths from the dozing detective entwined with the natural music of the forest created a peaceful atmosphere. The heat of the day had subsided and in its wake was a soft glow brought by the sun covered by clouds. Animals seemed to be in an almost meditative state as they rested, and soft shadows were thrown about the ground from the light that managed to penetrate the clouds.

The calm was broken as the shadows drifted from their positions and darkened as a new light source was introduced. The light was a bright luminous green and seemed to move with a life of its own. The sounds of the forest stopped as the wildlife froze and the trees held their breath.

Eyes cranked open, disturbed by the sudden quite and the intrusion of the foreign glow. A green light invaded Mark's vision causing him to quickly shut his unaccustomed eyes. He blinked in an attempt to clear his gaze of the green haze. It didn't leave. The fuzziness of sleep fled from his mind to be replaced by alarm.

"What the hell…" the light was swaying this way and that, the wisps of green gently circling around tree trunks. His wide eyes tracked their path to the pool of water up ahead as the wisps spiraled up from the water. Enthralled by the beautiful sight but still wary of danger, Mark kept low and crawled his way towards the water.

The light rose from the water like evaporating smoke. 'Amazing…' he watched as the wisps of green formed into small tendrils, their movements like a slow dance of life. The tendrils gained width and soon enough the area was full of the gently moving currents. 'It's like watching the northern lights.' Mark rose from the ground to reach for the light, but stopped when he felt the sharp aching of his still tired legs. Snapped form his trance, Mark warily stepped back. 'It's always the beautiful things you got to watch out for; I've learnt that lesson well from my ex-girlfriend.'

Mark retreated to a safe vantage point- a fallen tree trunk 15 meters away-. He saw the movements of the currents lose their gentle sway, the slow dance turning into an erratic display of sharp turns and fast violent movements. Thoughtfully freaked out now and not sure what else to do, he pulled out his phone to record the phenomenon. 'This is either going to be a recording of something awesome or a recording of my death. I really hope it's the first.'

The light suddenly merged together over the pool in a surge of vibrant green. A ball of light about as big as his torso formed, swirling with its strange brand of life. The water below the light began to ripple, and much like a whirlpool, circled the glowing orb. The wind picked up speed and a low humming tenor resonated around the forest.

Mark nearly dropped his phone when the light rapidly compressed itself, it's size that of a marble, and then promptly exploded outwards in a flash of bright blinding energy. "Fuck!" his eyes started watering, it felt like he'd just stared into the sun for the past hour. With his eyes squeezed shut, all he could feel was the rush of warm air billowing past his face, he could hear the sound of a high pitch ringing and almost sense the energy released around him. 'And the shit has hit the fan; I really should have high tailed it out of here when I still could. This shits messed up'.

As abruptly as it had happened the commotion stopped. He breathed in deeply to stop his trembling. He was relieved that whatever was happening had stopped, but too scared to open his eyes. 'Fuck! There better be some fucker from scare tactics out there!' After a few moments of a mental pump up session he worked up the courage to look.

He was granted with a very blurry scene for his efforts. With a frustrated grunt he quickly rubbed at his still watering eyes. When he opened his eyes again they focused on the fuzzy silhouette of a man. 'Stupid scare tactics asshole'. He opened his mouth to give the guy the scolding of his life but when his vision cleared the words died in his mouth. 'That's…'

An angel stood in front of him, a beautiful one winged angel -'is that how it fell?'- With long, flowing moonlight silver hair. It was tall, nearly 6'6", clothed in black leather and holding a very sharp looking 7 foot long sword.

'Oh shit, it looks mean'.

As the bright green catlike eyes -green like the wisps and 'are they glowing'- rose to meet his own in a glare, he broke his own promise to himself and ran for the hills.


Sephiroth watched as the human fled from his presence. He briefly considered the idea of pursuing the man but thought better of it; his own condition was unknown to him, but the fact the he could barely stand just reinforced the fact that he was in no state to do anything drastic.

With slow painfully drawn out movements he sheathed the Masamune in its scabbard. He'd drawn his sword when he'd found himself in an unfamiliar, possibly dangerous environment. He had though the human would have stayed to confront him, but it was just like all the rest, pathetic. The man had fled, and his senses informed him that there was no danger in the immediate area. Though that didn't stop him from keeping his hand in close range of his weapon, he'd been caught unaware before; the Nibelheim incident with Cloud came to mind.

'Cloud…you wouldn't have run from me.'

A wave of dizziness rushed through his head. He staggered forward through the shallow pool of water, one hand flying forward to steady himself against a nearby tree. His nails dung into the bark as agony laced through his body. He gritted his teeth through the pain as his muscles started to spasm. When the pain relinquished its hold on his body he breathed out a sigh of relief and rested his forehead against the cool wood, eyes sliding closed in his exhaustion.

He couldn't remember the last time he'd been in so much pain; in fact he could barely remember anything at all. Everything after the Nibelheim incident seemed to be a blurred mix of sights, sounds and feelings. Always anger, always a need for revenge, even now he could still remember the all-out frenzy of negative emotions that had churned inside his head. But why had he felt like that? Was it because he had been angry at his death? No, that had just added to his rage but it was not the starting point.

He remembered his disbelief after having just discovered the secret of his birth, being confused, frustrated, tired and completely alone 'Always alone'. And then Mother. Mother had shown him the truth. She'd shown him what traitors they all were. Betrayed, because of… what they had done. What had they done? He racked his brain for the answer and came up blank. Why? Was it Shinra that had started his rage, his Hate? That he could almost understand, Shinra had taken away his freedom, taken away his Mother, had forced him through pain and suffering and war and…and he had been so angry. But it hadn't been just Shinra he had been angry at, it had been everyone, everything, every life ever lived and every life not yet lived. Just life. He didn't understand. He'd relatively content with his life before that incident, he'd known that he was different, he was no idiot, and he'd long ago come to terms with the fact that he had no hope of ever being normal. And it hurt to realize that but that was his life. Finding out that they'd kept his Mother restrained in much the same way they'd done to him shouldn't have made that much of a difference, nor should have finding out the full extent of the experiments. And yet, he'd been angry enough to try and destroy the world. Why?!

He let out a frustrate growl at his lack of knowledge. 'Mother would know'. His eyes snapped open as a new though came to him. Where was Mother? She was always there and yet he couldn't feel her. 'She promised she'd always be there, that I'd never be alone.' His eyes closed in concentration as he tried to feel for her presence. Gone. 'I'm always alone'. Why? Had she lied to him? Did he mean nothing to her? He closed his eyes again to shut out the world, growing increasingly more frustrated the more he searched. There was nothing, no sign or message for him to follow. 'She lied to me.' He snarled in rage and swung at the tree, barely noticing as the tree was uprooted and propelled into another.

Reining in his rage he stood ridged in amongst the trees, staring at the tree he had felled. Was everything she had said a lie. Who should be named the traitor if not her? She had betrayed his trust in a way not even Shinra had; no, he had never trusted Shinra. But her, he had relied on her in a way he never had Shinra, believed her in a way he never had before, and she had deserted him.

'Is this the curse of a monster, to always be alone?' he clenched his fists at the thought, the leather creaking from the pressure. Ironically enough this was the first time in his life he had ever been truly free, and all it brought him was a feeling of emptiness. 'Is this the price for freedom? Do I even want freedom if it means this?' no, no he didn't want this, there had to be something else. He closed his eyes in a last ditch attempt.

He almost sighed in relief when he sensed something. Something that had always been there reluctantly or not. Its presence was small and fragile, but still it always managed to surprise him.

'Cloud…'

Cloud was here. Sephiroths' eyes snapped open, their green colour flaring with life. This time he wouldn't just be a memory. 'This time I wouldn't be alone.' He'd make sure of it.