Ch 7
KiyoYume paced, her irritation boiling over. "It cannot be done! He's impossible! He values nothing, depends on nothing, sees beauty in nothing! He's entirely self dependent, self absorbed. He won't even acknowledge me anymore. We'll never get him to join us willingly."
"Patience child, patience."
KiyoYume stopped pacing and looked at the All Father. Her wings jittered and her small hands slowly unclenched. "I've been at it for days now. I've pleaded, begged, tried to bargain, everything! There's nothing he finds pleasure in except destruction. There's nothing out there that he can't obtain if he really wants to. I'm nothing to him."
"Well, what is he planning now?"
"We're going to leave for Cosmo Canyon soon. He's going to prove to me that my information isn't so hard to come by."
The All Father nodded. "Ah,Bugenhagen. No matter there. Bugenhagen does not posses the information you have. Ease yourself."
KiyoYume heaved a sigh.
"Don't worry. We'll think of something."
"In the mean time, what should I do?" KiyoYume said with a great deal more self control.
"Whatever you can. Don't provoke him any further. Give him some distance, let him see that there is value in you, and the information you bear." The All Father placed his hands over KiyoYume's, "Now, Mitsukai, child of my people, go with our blessings." KiyoYume bowed low in response.
The angel opened her eyes. The room was quiet, the mid morning sun streaming in through the window. Sephiroth was not in the building. She could feel his lack of presence immediately. The duffle bags were packed and waiting by the door. Sephiroth had probably just gone out to get some last minute things.
KiyoYume decided, at that moment, what she would do. If Sephiroth wanted distance, he'd get distance. With or without Sephiroth's help she was going to do something. For, at this point, she felt desperate to answer the planet's pleas. She stood, walked the duffle bags and began to rummage through them. When she was certain that only her belongings were contained in the smaller one, she picked it up and tested its weight. Deciding it wasn't too heavy; KiyoYume opened the door and snuck out. A single white feather lay on the floor in the sun.
KiyoYume left town quietly, no one noticing as she slipped through the crowds. KiyoYume followed the train tracks out of Coreal and into the mountains. By mid noon KiyoYume began to notice a peculiar stink in the air. The smell was that of thick black smoke, raw Mako, burning oil, and machinery. It was the smell of a Mako reactor. KiyoYume more determined than ever, followed the tracks further into the mountains and toward the reactor. As she followed the tracks around the side of the mountain the Reactor came into view. KiyoYume cringed at the sight of it, and wondered if there were experiments housed in every reactor; or did Hojo merely favor the reactor at Nibelheim.
KiyoYume set her bag down and stopped to think for a moment. The reactors sucked Mako out of the planet. They were drawing the very life force out of the planet for Shinra. KiyoYume decided that if there was any way to stop the planets destruction, she would have to start with the Mako reactors. The angel stretched, picked up her bag, and continued along the railroad tracks.
The Mako reactor loomed ahead of her. She picked her way through the shadows as carefully as she could manage, keeping her wings pressed close to her. Workers milled about, preparing for the even shift. SOLDIER privates patrolled the entrances and the perimeter of the reactor.
The angel looked around for someplace to hide her duffle bag. She would have to get it on her way back. As she was stuffing the duffle bag under some near by shrubs she heard a soft clinking sound. Confused, she pulled the duffle bag back out and examined it. In one of the internal pockets she hadn't noticed before she found a wide variety of materia. KiyoYume groaned. She'd accidentally taken half of Sephiroth's materia. "So much for not provoking him." She sighed and looked through the materia, determined to make the most of the situation.
It was a purple materia that caught her attention. She pulled it out and held it in her hands, feeling the energy. It was Away materia. She reached out with mind, feeling out the spell inside. Though KiyoYume, being spirit energy herself, didn't need the materia, it'd given her an idea. Her confidence regained, she didn't hesitate. KiyoYume cast and held the spell, placed the materia back into the bag, zipped it up, and stashed it back under the shrubs.
The guards remembered nothing. Their attention seemed to wonder away from the young woman walking toward the door. Certainly she was nothing remarkable or worth worrying about. KiyoYume slipped right past them and in through the front door. Once inside the reactor she released the spell and moved to the shadows to wait for her eyes to adjust to the low lighting.
It was hot and humid inside the reactor. KiyoYume's hair clung to her face and arms. The dim light provided enough cover for her to move around with relative safety. She made her way deep into the reactor, picking her way around the machines. As she went a plan began to take shape. Once KiyoYume had reached the core of the reactor she began to search for a safe spot hide herself. Once she found a suitable space, a small control room, she locked herself inside.
She slipped into a deep concentration, picturing the reactor and everyone around it. She felt their life forces and drew herself a mental map. KiyoYume began to chant, her soft voice drown out by the machines. Slowly, the spells effects began to seep out over the reactor.
Slowly spreading from the angel, a strange quiet began to take hold of the place. The rumbling of the machines around her slowed and then stopped. A fly, buzzing haphazardly around, suddenly found itself trying to fly through air that was like molasses. Its wing beats slowed, and then stopped, though the fly remained suspended in air. All throughout the reactor people and machinery alike slowed and then stopped.
KiyoYume while still concentrating on the Stop spell devoted a separate amount of her mental energy to a new spell, choosing the targets very carefully. The Machinery. While still under effect of the Stop spell it could not move, but the effects of the Haste spell still held. The angel was sweating from the effort and her finger's trembled, but she held her concentration. All around her machinery began to age. Rust started to appear around bolts and screws, and eventually it spread. Dust began to gather, and cracks to appear in the weakening gears. The whole reactor was ageing.
Sephiroth walked back to the hotel, his parcel tucked under one arm, his free hand on his Masamune hilt. He nodded to the receptionist at the front desk and informed her that he'd be leaving within the hour. He started up the stairs, his thoughts drifting over the events of the last few days.
KiyoYume had begged and pleaded for help. He'd refused. This morning though, the angel had been unusually quiet; as if he'd finally broken her. His will was law, he needed her to know that. She was his possession, and he was not going to negotiate. Sephiroth unlocked the door and entered the room. He knew at once that KiyoYume was not there. A single white feather lay on the floor. Sephiroth's eyes narrowed. He glanced down and to his right. One of the duffle bags was missing.
Sephiroth tossed his parcel onto the couch and left the room. He informed the receptionist it would be another day or two. Sephiroth left the building and paused in the streets. He looked around carefully. The train tracks caught his eye. He smiled coldly. KiyoYume would not escape him so easily.
Sephiroth followed the train tracks deep into the mountains. He noted this was the direction the North Coreal reactor, and knew he'd guessed correctly. KiyoYume would not be far.
When he rounded the last bend, and saw the reactor he knew something was wrong. It was deathly still. He felt the strong presence of magic radiating from the reactor. He also felt the presence of quite a bit of materia. His Materia. Sephiroth found the duffel bag without much effort, and then went on toward the reactor. As Sephiroth drew close to the reactor he felt the spell wash over him. He chuckled and shrugged off the effects of the spell. KiyoYume, meanwhile, was concentrating too hard to note the presence of a new target within her spell's.
He passed SOLDIER guards, frozen in mid step. Workers were stopped in mid conversation, or work. A wrench hung suspended in mid air, hands out stretched as one worked tossed it to another. Sephiroth saw that even a fly had been victim of the spell. He watched as the machinery and gears aged before his eyes. Rust crept across the metal. Dust gathered on every available surface. Concrete was beginning to crack and crumble. Chains supporting great weight groaned precariously as their links were weakened by time. The people, he noted, remained unchanged by time. They had been carefully calculated out of the spell. This was certainly KiyoYume's work.
Sephiroth followed the spell to the center of the reactor. The decay here was most evident. Gears that had been half an inch thick were now almost paper thin, and speckled with holes. The floor shifted under his weight with each step, no longer stable. Machines were completely caked in rust, ruined beyond repair. This reactor would never run again.
Sephiroth caught a glimpse of white amidst the rust and gathering dirt. He carefully made his way towards the angel. She had locked herself inside a small control room. Sephiroth grasped the door handle, and jerked. The lock, which had mostly eroded, gave way and Sephiroth pulled the door open. She stood, eyes closed, concentrating hard, sweat dripping down her forehead.
The general shook his head and sighed as he approached the angel. She was very deep in concentration. He had to admit though; it was incredibly skillful work on her part.
A sharp slap broke the silence as Sephiroth backhanded KiyoYume. The angel's concentration snapped as she staggered to her right, her hands reaching for her cheek. Her eyes widened as she realized what had happened.
A fly buzzed harmlessly through the air. A worker caught a wrench and found it mostly rusted over. He scratched his head in confusion. Everywhere people found themselves able to walk again, move again, talk again; but… how their surroundings had changed. Shouts of panic and confusion began to reach Sephiroth's ears.
"This is ridiculous! It has got to stop. Let's go." Sephiroth turned to exit the room. KiyoYume made no move to follow him, "No."
Sephiroth paused, and turned around to look at her. "Excuse me?"
KiyoYume stood, her hands clenched and her wings shaking. "I'm not going with you. You won't help me, so I see no reason to offer you any assistance. I'm going to do this on my own."
"How very sentimental of you." Sephiroth chuckled, mildly amused at her statement. "However, you have no choice in the matter."
KiyoYume suddenly fired a burst of mental energy at him. Sephiroth casually redirected the energy with a slight wave of his hand. He then launched himself at her, closing the distance between them faster than KiyoYume could track. His strike sent her into the wall, where she left a large dent the weakened metal. The angel slid to the floor and groaned. She tried to gather her strength and attain a standing position, but mental exhaustion won over. She lay on the floor unconscious.
Sephiroth picked up her body, flung it over his shoulder and left. He used his Enemy Away materia to keep attention away from himself. Things had definitely gotten out of hand with the angel. Something he would soon have to remedy.
Once they were back at the hotel Sephiroth set to work. He left KiyoYume on the couch and began to rummage through his materia. He picked out three glowing orbs, two green and one yellow. He then sat down at the desk with the materia. One at a time, he picked the orbs up, held them gently between his fingers and focused his mental energy into them. His fingers moved about the surfaces of the orb, rearranging the focus of the energy inside.
KiyoYume moaned as she struggled back to consciousness. Sephiroth brushed the hair out of her forehead in attempts to sooth her back into sleep. He then gently unwound the layers of her robe. KiyoYume shivered in her sleep as the cool air moved across her exposed skin. Sephiroth brushed the smooth skin above her breast bone with his fingertips. He moved them slowly downward until he found the place where her pulse was the strongest.
Sephiroth then held one of the materia orbs above her heart, letting the other two rest on her stomach. The materia began to glow of its own accord, reacting to all of the pure spirit energy inside KiyoYume. Sephiroth then carefully placed his left hand over KiyoYume's mouth and his right hand on top of the materia, pressing it to her chest. He barely noticed the sensation of his wing coming into existence.
KiyoYume's eyes fluttered open. Her gasp was muffled by Sephiroth's hand. His eyes flashed to her face, and he applied more pressure to the hand over her mouth to stifle her rising scream. He concentrated on the materia under his other hand and began to push. The materia didn't resist and as Sephiroth slowly, but steadily pushed, the materia slipped into KiyoYume's body.
The angel screamed and thrashed, striking at him with her small fists. Sephiroth paid her no attention and began to push the second orb of materia into her; then the third. He used his now free hand to catch one of her fists and squeeze while directing it away from him. KiyoYume stopped struggling, her eyes filled with terror. Sephiroth put his face very close to the angel's, his eyes intense.
"Listen well, angel. I have just embedded three materia into your heart. I can't have you running off anymore and drawing attention to our ware a bouts. This will ensure you stay close to me from now on, and maintain your best behavior. If you try to run away, the Gravity materia will draw you back to me, if you try to phase over into the ethereal, the Manipulate materia will disrupt you, and if you try to remove the materia, the Fire materia will explode and you will die. Understand?"
KiyoYume nodded her head slowly.
"Good." Sephiroth let go of her fist and uncovered her mouth. He stood up and looked down her, his eyes completely unforgiving. "We're leaving tonight. We'll be going by motorcycle, so dress appropriately. You have five minutes."
KiyoYume watched Sephiroth go, completely stunned. One hand strayed to her chest. She could feel the warmth of the materia under her skin, and the new strength of her pulse. Three small circular white marks could be seen on her chest where they had been pushed through her flesh. She ran her fingers over them. It didn't hurt at least.
KiyoYume changed quickly and decided to see just how far the Gravity materia would allow her to go. She walked to the other side the room; nothing yet. She opened the door and walked into the Bathroom. An uncomfortable sensation started to develop in her chest. Her fingers and toes tingled. She walked to the other side of the bathroom. The sensation grew. The angel sighed and walked back through the rooms to the front door where Sephiroth was waiting. He cast her an amused glace, as if he knew what she had been doing. KiyoYume crossed her arms and looked away.
