Disclaimer:

I'm sick of writing these. I don't

own Final Fantasy 7. Only the slow of

mind would think otherwise.







Author's Note:

I thought I'd write a Seph/Aeris story for

a change instead of just Yuffie/Vincent.

And uh.. maybe this'll put a new twist on the

plot. See, annoying as it may be, that's one

thing I absolutely LOVE about the Final Fantasy

series lately. All the endings leave themselves

open to countless questionings. Or atleast one or two.

And uh, this story begins when Aeris gets stabbed.

Am I the only one who laughed? Does Aeris have no blood

or something? This should explain the lack of blood as

well.. Oh and this is likely to be a one-shot, one-chapter

songfic-sort of, writers-block-curing thing. So no flames

please.. -_- But feel free to ask either Sephiroth or

Jenova or any other FF7 cast member questions in your

review. If I do continue, it'll be interactive, like many

of my stories =)





[Chapter One: What Really Happened...]

[Place: City of the Ancients]

[Outside at the lake]









A dark-clad figure stared down at his nemesis,

glaring through the branches of the tree he was

crouched in, a hand on his sword. He could easily

slay all three of those pitiful worms now... but

he preferred toying with his prey, and besides, he

thought, he had more pressing matters to attend to.

"Humans can only stay unconscious underwater so long.."

he muttered and, after Cloud and the others had gotten

a safe distance away, lept from his hiding place, landing

beside the lake.



"You poor little flower girl.." he muttered as he walked

into the icey cold waters, towards where Aeris' body had

been laid. ".. tossed aside like worthless garbage by your

allies. Real nice way to show they care."



By the time he finished talking to himself, so it seemed,

he was completely sumbmerged, his hair floating wildly

behind him as he calmy walked to where Aeris lay, picking

up her body and carrying it back out of the lake, lying it

aside to dry. Sephiroth glared down at the motionless girl

before him, laughing a bit madly. "How a girl like you.." he

said, staring down at her face, "could pose such a threat

to my plans.." Sephiroth stared up at Jenova's hideous

form nearby.



"Mother!" he called with an inner grimace, "We're going

back home for now.." And with that, he grabbed up

Jenova with one hand, Aeris' body with another, and

simply.. vanished.









[Many hours later...]











The young flower girl awoke as beams of sunlight

hit her eyes. At first, she wondered where she was,

but wasn't troubled yet as she was quite groggy, but

after a moment she realized something was horribly

wrong.



"I.. I'm alive?" Aeris questioned to no one in

particular, jumping up and staring around at what

appeared to be a normal every-day bedroom. Then she

realized she had been sleeping on satin sheets atop

a very comfy, large bed. "Wh.. where am I..?"



Then she heard footsteps approaching; a slow, long,

powerful stride that was accompanied by the brushing of

a certian type of long garment..



"Wh-Who's there?"







Without knocking or hesitation, a heavy boot kicked the

door open. Aeris was shocked and, at first, horrified,

to see the man that stabbed her standing there with

a smirk on his face. But..

"I see you woke up. How does it feel, being tossed

aside by your only friends?'



.. needless to say, this fear was quickly replaced

by anger and hatred for this heartless fiend that

stood before her. "You.. I thought you killed me..!"



"Oh, yes.." Sephiroth said, striding over to her

cooly, seemingly amused by the confused and slightly

angered look on his captive's face, ".. you would have

loved that, wouldn't you? Unfortunately, I was one

step ahead, as usual."

"Wh.. what are you talking about?"







Sephiroth stopped in front of Aeris, and leaned down

so that his face was inches away from her own. A colder

look fell upon his features as her annoyance quickly

faded back to fear.



"Do you think I'm that stupid?" he muttered, his tone

of voice one of slight amusement. "honestly, to give

my foe such an easy way to foil me would be utter

madness. No, I didn't kill you, otherwise you wouldn't

be here obviously. You'd be in the Lifestream, already

moving to overthrow my plans."





"Then, what did you do?" Aeris asked quietly,

backing away from the menacing terror. Sephiroth

smirked at her reactions and moved closer just to

bother her.

"I merely stunned you with a feigned attack.. it

looked, and to you felt, just like stabbing."

And, with a mad laugh, he stood up straight once

more. "I'm surprised your 'friends' were so

stupid as to not notice the lack of blood that

would normally have poured from your corpse had

you really been stabbed.."





"I thought Jenova wanted me dead.. I thought you--!"

"You got half of it right." Sephiroth chuckled.

"Jenova wanted you dead. But as displeased as it made

her, I could care less. It would have deeply hurt my

plans. That vile creature doesn't use its head.."

"But I thought that you-"

"That I was a puppet of Jenova?" Sephiroth said, before

busting out laughing. "I am using Jenova.. to control

Cloud's mind... to manipulate him.. once I get what

I want from that fool, Jenova will be of no more use

to me than you. So it is quite the opposite."





"You aren't going to get away with any of this.." Aeris

muttered, her voice a bit broken with nervousness. The

platinum haired man seemed to find this amusing as well.

"I already have, precious. I already have.." And with that,

he walked off, slamming the door shut. He felt a certain

sadness for having to keep the girl locked away, but quickly

dismissed it as a weakness. "Come, mother.." he called, grimacing

inwardly as he did so. ".. we have work to do."









[[End Chapter]]