Disclaimer: I don't own FF7...or their story would be more like mine! LOL

AN: Before you leave! I DID change stuff! that's why it's a REVISION! see if you can spot the (non-grammatical) changes!(If you do this without out the aid or a personal copy of the old one...you may be paying too much attention to this fic...:p)

Okay, enjoy the next chapter, I try for humor . . . I really do .

BTW . . . Seph and Aeris aren't gonna keep moving their relationship forward as fast as when they first met ... don't worry. . . but that doesn't mean they aren't gonna go anywhere with it, either . . . ( what I mean is, in this chapter, or any near it, they're not ahem gonna do nothin' 'nasty' . . . )

And I still stand by what I said...'Sefiroso' or whatever doesn't count! that's japanese!

SO! I know you all want me to update, but as I am unable to do so, (due to eh..technical difficulties) so let's revise this stuff!


Fate

Chapter 2: Adventures Begin!

Aeris sat at the table in silence, lost in thought,until her mother coughed to get her attention.

"Well? What are you waiting for? Him to rush in with black roses? Don't let that boy get away from you! Not after all I worked for!"

"What?" Aeris coughed, staring at her mother incredulously.

"Go after him! Hurry! He went toward Sector 6!" Elmyra said hurried, pushing Aeris out the door, and shoving her 'Guard Stick' in her hands, before closing the door.

Dazed, Aeris looked down at the staff, then at the slums around her, and touched her lips softly.

I'll risk anything to find him again...even his wrath at me following him...

She ran through the worn and abandoned streets heedless of buildings around her or the leering watchers from the windows, racing in the direction she hoped Sephiroth had went, hoping against hope to catch him again.

As she made it to the sector gateway, she thought she was a flash ofplatinum hair, and quickly turned the corner after it. Sure enough, Sephiroth was walking a short distance from her, unhurried.

Finding that she had no words to explain herself, she followed after him at what she hoped would be a safe distance.

Unfortunately, when he got to an uneven gouge, where anyone normal would climb down the make-shift lader on the other side, Sephiroth merely jumped down. Frustrated, Aeris barely bit off a curse, then only just remembered to drop to the ground before Sephiroth glanced up at the sound.

For a time, it seemed there would be no more troubles as she followed him through the ruined road that once ran through the entirety of the Midgar sectors; until an unexplained accident on the road had taken the life of the eldest son of the President Shinra, and he'd had it shut down. Since that time, vandals, monsters, and the constant shifting of the floating city had broken up the road, making it so that few people came to Sectors 6, 7, or 8 without a train. In fact, most people thought the road was cursed, or even haunted by the souls of the people whose lives it had taken.

It seemed she would be the first to make it to Sector 6 by this route in at least a decade without any dangerous or fatal accidents. Until, that was, they made it to a sheer cliff with a pipe made slippery by the leaking rainwater that pounded down through the cracks in the upper plate, leaning against it...presumably for climbing. Nearby wasa crane with a basket, which most people who actually came through would use to get up the cliff without risking the suspicious pipe.

Of course, Sephirothleapt deftly to the top of the cliff, landing gracefully on his feet andknocking not a pebble from the unstable cliff's edge.

If I follow the normal way, by that noisy crane, I'll be caught instantly...and the explanations will be even more awkward if I get caught 'stalking' him.

Resisting the urge to sigh, she realized the only way up way the pipe, except that her dress made climbing almost impossible and that would be too slow at any rate, there was only one option left to her...walking up to the pipe tight-rope style.

At first, it wasn't as hard as she had thought it would be, though her garden-variety boots did not grip the wet pipe well, and she nearly slipped twice, she had nearly made it to the top when she noticed Sephiroth was getting out of sight. Carelessly, she tried to speed up her pace, but in her hurry she misplaced a foot on an especially slick spot, and slipped off. For a moment, she seemed to be suspended in air, and time seemed to slow. She heard a loud 'crack' and blinding pain shot like lightning up her leg from her right ankle.

Biting off a scream of pain midway though, she shut her eyes tight, tears leaking out regardless of her efforts to stop them, and cradled her broken ankle in her hands.

She heard a low rumble, Sephiroth, perhaps? Opening her eyes despite the searing pain from her wounded ankle, she saw a huge Hell House--the soul of...well no one knew that, actually--aiming a large rocket at her.

"...You...killed us...you filthy living fiend...you...killed us..." It rasped in a horrible, tortured voice.

Though terror gripped her, she refused to cry for help...if she would die, she would die with dignity.

But...I don't want to die... Frantically, she looked for her staff...it had skittered across the broken pavement when she had dropped it while falling, and stopped several feet away from her...out of reach.

She turned her face back to the Hell House, There is no getting out of this one...no fearless knights to leap in and rescue me...not this time...I am all...alone...and weak...

She closed her eyes to brace herself for the final blow, and turned her head away as the Hell House made a final rasping comment and a hollow laugh.

Instead of the sound of a missle being launched, the feel of heat, and death..she heard a crash and an almost familiar laugh...Sephiroth?

Instantly, she opened her eyes, and saw Sephiroth standing over her with a small smile.

"Do you always hurt yourself? Or do you only do this when staring at men you shouldn't?" he asked cooly, but something in his tone hinted at mirth, and she realized he must have been making a joke. Before she could quite form a reply, he noticed her mangled ankle. "Are you alright? Can you stand?"

Afraid of appearing weak, she nodded.

Sephiroth walked over to her staff and picked it up, inspecting it and tossing it lightly in his hand, as if testing it's weight and grip. "Hm..You really shouldn't drop these."

Aeris gave a weak nod, forcing a faint smile, then tried to get up, causing pain to once again lance up her leg to her heart. Wincing, she realized she wasn't getting anywhere without help...she glanced up at Sephiroth, who was standing above her, seeming to be watching her couriously, as if waiting for her to do something. She certainly couldn't expect help from Sephiroth, so she realized she had better find something else to help her up, and quickly.

A strong hand grabbed hers, and gently pulled her up. Aeris leaned heavily on him and took the offered staff.

What a mistake.

When she grabbed the staff, Sephiroth apparently took it as a sign that she could stand on her own, and let go of her hand. Pain surged through her leg to her chest, causing her to cry out in pain and throw all of her weight onto the staff.

"Let me see that..." Sephiroth said calmly, looking at her ankle, and bent down to study her foot and ankle through her boot. She couldn't help but wince and draw in a sharp breath when he touched it experimentally.

He instantly detected her reaction, and retrieved a materia orb from his pocket. "Cure!" He said firmly, and a warm liquid feeling filled her body a moment, before the pain disappeared.

"Th-thank...you..." She whispered weakly, smiling.

To her pleasant surprise, he smiled back at her, and kissed her hand lightly."Be more careful, and you won't have to thank me so often."

As he stood up, it was all she could do just to continue breathing as she stared speechless into his eyes, a moment later, he seemed to swallow softly, and looked away from her.

"Excuse me, Milady, but what were you doing here?...In this dangerous Sector?"

"I..." She started nervously, she had known this time would come, "I...followed you..."

He glanced up quickly, mild surprise registering on his perfect face. "I...am...ashamed to realize that it was my fault you were in such danger."

It's amazing how his demeanor has changed...

"But...It's alright, you saved me.." She said, Besides...I would have followed him no matter what...butI can't tell him that yet...andso shesaid, "You'd make an awesome bodyguard!"

"But...what would you pay me?" he said, looking at her, then quickly averting his eyes once more.

Surprised, Aeris stood speechless a moment, then remembered that most ex-SOLDIER were mercenaries and such, and he was probably quite serious.

"Well . . . uh . . . I . . . don't have any money . . . but . . . if you'll be my bodyguard, I'll go on a date with you!" she blurted, saying the first thing that came tomind.

"That . . . profits you . . . not me." He said, with a ghost of his naturally cool tone in his voice.

"Oh . . . right . . . I . . . wasn't thinking . . . " Aeris sighed, There is no wayI could ever repay him...HIM for becoming MY bodyguard...I doubt he'll even let me follow him now...

"Well..."He said suddenly. "How is this? If you can keep up with me to where I'm going, I'll be your bodyguard for free--just for a little while?"

She nodded immediately, and then her gaze fell on the slippery pipe.

How will I...

Two strong arms lifted up, and flew her through the air. When she looked up to see the face of her captor, she met Sephiroth's twin aquamarine globes directly.

F/F/7

Sephiroth walked through the beaten road to the Sector 6 slums in graceful silence, trying to clear his mind.

How could I have kissed her like that? What has gotten into me?...and why do I want so badly to turn around?...well...perhapsI will return, once my job here is finished...and...and then what will I do?

The ideas that came into his head were confusing...surprising...but not altogether unpleasant...

"Son!" Came a horrid voice from nowhere...and then, perhaps he would not return.

"Yes, Mother?" Sephiroth replied softly in his mind.

"How can you think such things? You are wasting precious time!"

"I am not wasting time, Mother." Sephiroth started, but his mother cut him off sharply.

"Don't you argue with me! Just get here quickly!"

"Mother..." He began, but she had already cut the connection, and he doubted she would return soon, except, perhaps, to chew him out again.

He did truly 'love' and respect his mother, but there were times he wished she wouldn't vent her frustrations out on him so often...

He heard a rustle behind him, someone was following him. Who?

He hopped down the hole infront of him, to test the follower. Judging by the vile curse that was cut off, he suspected it was a soldier, when he glanced up though, he saw only a flash of brown.

Strange...I'll ignore him for now, though... He thought, then added with a dry sarcasm. Wouldn't want mother to wait forever...

Calmly, he went on, hopping over cliffs and such, knowing that the soldier posed no immediate threat to him. he heard a loud 'crack' and a very feminine by-now-almost-familiar cry of pain.

Aeris!

He turned around in an instant, and walked to the edge of a sheer cliff he had just passed, and looked down.

Six feet below him,he saw a remarkably largeHell House standing over the crumpled form of Aeris.

Is she dead?

Upon further investigation, he noted hat she was quite alive,though judging by the set of her jaw, she was preparing herself for death.

She gets herself into trouble alot, doesn't she?

The creature who was aiming a missle at Aeris, laughed hollowly. "Now...you...get to feel my pain...pitiful human..."

The gall of that undead weakling!

Fury coursing through his veins, Sephiroth drew Masamune, and leapt off of the cliff.

I will not let Aeris come to harm!

Why? Nagged the back of his mind.

A moment was all it took, before the 'undead' house shuddered and collapsed into pieces of burned-out wood. Sephiroth ignored the creature's corpse, however, and instead turned his eyes onto the beautiful woman...

Beautiful? Why do I even care? I must truly be mad... Sephiroth afforded himself a light chuckle at the thought, and the girl instantly opened her eyes. The unshed tears glistening in her eyes made her emerald pools shimmer magnificently, and he had to mentally slap himself at the idea of leaning down and brushing away her tears, just to stop himself from doing so.

Trying to distract himself from her beauty, and perhaps in some secret part of his mind, to make her smile...threw out a joke that his...

No...not a friend.

Before he could decide what to call the mischevious SOLDIER from his memories, he noticed that she was gripping her ankle tightly, wincing from the effort.Without thinking, he asked if she could stand on it.

To his relief, she nodded. A metal gleam caught his eye, and he turned his head to look at it, A Guard Stick...

He picked up the flimsy bit of metal, and made a light comment about it, before walking up to her with it. He did not miss her wince as she tried to stand, and the hopelessness in her eyes as she glanced up at him for help disturbed him.

Why should it...? As if I would help her...

Despite the voice in nagging him in his mind, he gave into her plea after only a moment, and pulled her up, handing her the staff.

Unfortunantly, the moment he let go of her hand, she cried out in pain and fell heavily on her staff.

He grimaced, I was afraid of that...

Absently, he bent down on one knee to investigate her delicate ankle. It had a jagged cut, and a bump the size of his tumbnail on it. When he touched the wounded ankle experimentally, it drew a sharp hiss from Aeris.

Broken.. Without another thought, he took a Restore materia from his cloak, and chanted quickly to cast Cure.

Aeris gave a weak thanks, and he couldn't help a soft smile.

Why! His mind insisted.

Taking her tiny hand in his, he kissed it lightly, and said, "Try not to get in trouble, and I won't have to help you so often, Aeris..."

Her eyes stared up at his, drawing him into them, beautful emerald jewels...the ideas and thoughts that flooded his mind as he looked into those eyes both scared and angered him.

I am above human beauty..I've seen it all before and I can have whomever I please...innocence means nothing to me...beauty will only betray you later! His mental rant still did not allow him to turn his eyes away from hers.

Squashing his roaming thoughts, he forced himself to look away from her, to ask her what she was doing here...in as civil tone as he could manage.

"I...I followed you..." She whispered, cheeks tinged with shame.

Of course then, she was the one that was following me... He realized. By the way she had stared at him, he knew he was not the only one affected by that strange and spontanious kiss. Meaning it's my fault she was injured.

Feeling a strange, and quite rare, pang of guilt, he apologized as best he could. As he spoke he accidently looked back into her eyes, and had to battle away the darker desires of his mind before he could avert his eyes once more.

She smiled and shrugged it off, before asking absurdly for himto be her bodyguard.

Me? The Great General Sephiroth, a bodyguard to a mere slum girl?...Why am I even considering accepting her plea?

"But you have nothing to pay me with." he said, once more making the mistake of looking at her.

Before he had to fight another battle in a war he was quickly losing, he corrected his mistake, and looked away, trying to erase the picture of her perfect face from his mind.

"I don't understand your problem!" Came the voice of his mother. "I see it is obvious that it has been too long since your last woman...what? 5...6 years?"

"Mother!" He snapped, bewildered. "What does the fact that the last time I allowed myself to stay with a woman--her--was not long after my mission to Nibelhiem, have anything with the situation I am in now?"

"Son...son...son..." His mother sighed. "It is only natural for a human to desire someone like her...but you should not let her distract you so. If she so interests you, wouldn't you please get her out of the way quickly? I don't like sitting around in this tank all day, you know."

"MOTHER!" He snapped back, shocked. "I am having enough difficulty dealing with myself, without your help! What I mean to say is..."

"Fine...but whether you sleep with her or kill her, would you do it quickly and help me!" His mother snapped, and disappeared from his mind.

He realized then that Aeris had offered a form of payment...one that would be far too dangerous for him to accept, a...date...

Oh, no, no, no...that would make me far too vulnerable to such thoughts as Mother expresses, besides..I am above such things!

Quickly, he turned it down, though a part of him hoped she would insist on it.

Her face fell at his words, and she mumbled something with a sigh. Sephiroth found himself biting his lip slightly, in pity.

Pity? Absurd! That's...not it...

"I--if you can keep up, I'll be your bodyguard for as long as you wish.

When she nodded eagerly, he barely held back a wince. Oh, that was...very...bad...wording.

He noticed her staring wistfully at a slanted pipe, apparently the only way up. Without thinking, he scooped her up, bridal-style, and leapt to the top of the cliff. When he glanced down to check on her, his eyes met hers...pure, molten emerald...He could feel himself drawn toward herm and as he stared into her eyes he began to lose the battle withing him. He could not help but imagine her soft, moist lips once more, and her thin...delicate body...quickly he snapped himself out of it, and dropped her.

As she looked up at him in surprise, he shrugged and rushed off. His mind was a battlefield, and most ofthe troops of reason lay on the bloody ground, the unknown army that assailed his senses seemed unending...

"Oh would you CUT THE DRAMATICS already! She's just stupid Cetra!" His mother snapped suddenly.

"Cetra?" He replied, courious.

There was a slight hesitation, before, "Wh-what? What are you talking about, Son?...Will you quit playing games with that silly tavern wench and figure out whether to sc--"

"She is no tavern wench, Mother." He said, cutting her off. He did not often do such, as it often infuriated her, but at this moment he was more worried of her words renewing the battle within him, than of her quicksilver wrath. "She has earned my respect, and I will not simply use her."

"Then LEAVE HER!" His mother snapped, and 'slammed' the mental door between the two of them shut. He doubted she would be back for some time.

She has to go pout, after all... He couldn't help but smirk at the image of his mother pouting in a corner. He sighed, I'll have to apologize for being so rude and disrespectful to her...I don't want her to leave me...she is the only one in the world that truly cares about me...even though she has quite a temper...

He smiled slightly, and shrugged. Spare the rod, spoil the child.

"But...is she the only one that cares for you?" A voice in the vack of his mind, his main enemy now, nagged him.

Sephiroth pointedly ignoted the idle thought--arguing with yourself so vehemenantly was a sure sign of insanity--and glanced back to check on Aeris. She was sliding down the side of a white thing made out of stone...some sort of slide, perhaps? Her dress hiked up her legs as she slid, to reveal quite alot of pale flesh...

He slapped himself mentally, in effect he was 'killing' his own 'troops' when he stared at her like that.

Mother is right...there is no way I can win this war raging inside of me...if I truly respect her, I should leave now, lest I do something I regret.

Beauty cuts deeper than swords, perfection decieves darker than serpants. Those were the words his mother had used to comfort him, back in Nibelhiem, when he had just learned his one love had been unfaithful to him.

Oddly, the memory called to mind a picture of her...long, beautiful, green hair...she was also the result of an unfortunate expirement. Her skin had a yellow-orangish tint to it, eyes a brilliant emerald. His mind calledup a time when they were...together...the last time. Disgusted with himself, he tried to throw out the memory of her luscious soft skin, so much like Aeris'...her softvoice...

No!I will notdwell on it! She is dead, by my hand as my mother advised... He could still hear her screams for mercy, her terror-glazed eyes, taste the crimson blood...she never fought back against him, all she would scream was how much she loved him. She was a wonderful fighter...What is wrong with me? I have to snap out of it! I didthe planet a favor by killing her!

Without further thought, he leapt to the top of the Sector 7 wall.

"Goodbye, Aeris! Our travels were indeed...sweet!" he smirked, waving down at the girl. She was glaring up at him in annoyance.

The look she has on her face...so similar to when I would play trick on--NO! She is not that woman, and she will never be that woman! He frowned. Perhaps it is her similarity that attracted me?

Aeris sighed, and gave a weak smile, waving back at him. She is certainly not as persistant... He laughed softly, I can hear Kyoko's voice even now...yelling at me to get down there "right now or I'll have your pretty head!"

His laughter turned to a scowl, as he looked away, Blast it! Why do I keep remembering her now?

He was lost in thought as he walked along the top of the wall, violently trying to rid himself of the beautiful and mysterious woman he had once loved. Once...but no more..

Somehow, impossibly, he heard Kyoko scream from behind him. What? How can she...

And then he realized that the scream hadn't come from Kyoko...

F/F/7

It seemed like an eternity, lost in his eyes...Aeris could almost see a battle of light and darkness raging inside him. His lips were almost on hers when he dropped her to the ground with no warning.

Stunned, she stared up at him in askance. As if in answer, he shrugged and ran off. The similarities between he and Zack were stunning...and yet...he is so different...

Scrambling to her feet, she hurried after him, scurrying over hills and leaping over pitfalls, all in a desperate attempt to keep up with an impossible dream.

It seemed all too soon when they made it to the barrier of Sector 7, the now abandoned 'playground'--last remnant of a road-side rest area. Sephiroth deftly hopped from the swingset to the slide, the slide to a pile of trash, and then to the door of Sector 7 before her finally paused, lost in thought.

Seizing the opportunity, she scrambled up the white boar-slide and slid down the other side to save time. Too late, she realized her dress was too loose for such an activity, and to her embarrassment Sephiroth turned toward her just in time to catch an eye-full of thighs.

Ohhh...he had to look then, didn't he? Not even once before! Aeris chuckled softly to herself, He has the 'best' of luck, doesn't he?

Without warning, he growled under his breath, and leapt up the 60-foot wall dividing the sectors. He smirked down at her as her mouth fell open, and waved a cheeryfarewell.

She couldn't help frowning at his mischevious smirk. That is not playing fair!

Her frown faded as he walked away, and she gave a half-hearted wave. I should have made him come back...Elmyra will never let it lie...

To her utter shock, as she turned around she found herself staring into the eyes of several soldiers.

"Now, Ancient...we have you cornered now, no one will be hurt if you come quietly..."

Quiet is the last thing I'm going to be!

Taking a breath, she tried to scream, but a soldier pounced her, and knocked the wind out of her. Before she could react, the other soldiers swarmed her, stealing her staff and struggling to tie her up.

"Help me! Someone! Sephiroth!"

The captain laughed at her words. "Are you crazy? Sephiroth? Why would he help you?"

Still laughing, he brought the butt of his rifle down over her head, and everything went black.

F/F/7

Sephiroth spun around as soon as he heard the scream, hurrying to the edge of the wall.

"Help me! Someone! Sephiroth!" Aeris screamed.

Kyoko...? There she was, caught in a circle of ShinRa soldiers..Kyoko is alive..? No...wait...that's Aeris! What could they want with her?

One of the men hit her, and she fell like a rock, instantly swallowed by the sea of soldiers.

"Aeris!" Before the words were fully out of his mouth, he was falling through the air, unsheathing Masamune.

One of the men looked up and paled, "My god! The Ancient wasn't lying!"

"Run!"

"N-no! I have a family!" One cried, backing away.

In the end, hero or craven, family or no, Masamune struck them all down just as surely as it had any other foe that had dared to meet it's blade. Except...no! He is not a memory to dwell on, either!

Walking through the mangled corpses, he squatted down next to Aeris. She had numerous bumps and bruises, and a split lip, but she was still breathing--barely.

Without thought, he took his Restore materia, and chanted a Cure 2, Dark blue sparkles enveloped her, surgin like wind, sweeping away her cuts, and cleansing her bruises...leaving her looking as if nothing had harmed her at all.

But she still did not wake.

F/F/7

"Back then...you could get away with skinned knees..."

What do you mean, 'back then'? who are you?

"Aren't you getting up?"

What?

"GET UP!"

His eyes flew open to a world of pain, he was lying in a desolate church, there was a hole in the roof above him, and an odd light filtered down onto him from it.

He turned his head, and the world swam as spikes of pain stabbed through him. As his vision stabilized, he found himself lying on a bed of flowers. Flowers? In Midgar? How?

Mentally, he checked to make sure no bones were broken...Good...everything seems fine...sore, but fine.. I guess the roof broke my fall...

Stumbling up to his feet, he made his way out of the church and into the abandoned sector, trying to find his bearings.

Ch end


AN: Poor Aeris...she got a boo-boo...

Soooo...who's this secret ex-girlfriend? Think she had the gall to cheat on him?

Well...when I write my Kyoko side-story, you'll find out, won't you?

I hate Jenova...

-Yusagi Sombermoon