Heritage part 2
Aeris and Sephiroth were sitting in the middle of a small, grassy field, deep in the mountains, miles away from civilization. It was cool that day, a welcome change from the heat wave that had been hanging around for the past several weeks since the start of spring.
Other than a few wispy clouds, the sky overhead was clear, so blue that it almost made one eye's hurt. It was one of those rare late spring days where everything was so alive and the weather was perfect to go outside and enjoy nature.
Aeris, the previous day having felt that today was going to be an exceptionally fine day, had already planned to take the day off from work and enjoy herself. What she had not planned on was Sephiroth waking her up at 5am and dragging her off to who knows where. The only reason why she didn't kill him on the spot for waking her up at that ungodly hour was because he had came bearing a fresh cup of her favorite blend of coffee and two hot, steaming pop-tarts fresh from the toaster.
His good morning kiss didn't hurt either, Aeris reflected as she snuggled closer to her boyfriend.
After a thirty minute car ride where Aeris took her time to savor her favorite sinful morning indulgence, Sephiroth pulled their small car that they had bought used (they weren't rich by any stretch of the imagination) up to a secluded, rarely visited pullout that showed a spectacular view of the eastern mountain range.
They had spent a silent, comfortable thirty minutes watching the sun rise and bathe the mountains and valley in soft pinks, yellows and oranges. As the last of the sunrise colors gave way to blue, Sephiroth brought her back to the car and whisked her off to another mystery location.
He must have been planning this for quite sometime, Aeris had mused as the car slowly crawled further up the narrow, winding mountain road.
An hour later, Sephiroth parked the car in a small clearing on the road's shoulder. Aeris stirred from the light nap she had drifted off into and stretched as Sephiroth was pulling something out of the car's small trunk. A delighted smile crossed Aeris' face as Sephiroth held the picnic basket up so she could see it.
Suddenly being pulled out of bed an hour before sunrise didn't seem to be such a horrible thing after all.
The brunette all but leapt out of the car and eagerly followed Sephiroth up the narrow, almost overgrown path that looked like it hadn't seen any use for years. A comfortable silence settled between the two of them as they climbed ever upward. Finally, after about forty minutes of hiking, the trees suddenly parted, revealing a small mountain meadow. The wildflowers were so numerous that they formed a carpet over the entire clearing.
Aeris squealed in delight and hauled Sephiroth down for a rather exuberant kiss. When they finally came up for air, Sephiroth had a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. With a chuckle, he threw his unsuspecting girlfriend over his shoulder and grabbed the picnic basket with his free hand as she let out an indignant shriek.
Then with picnic basket and girlfriend safely in hand, Sephiroth waded his way through the wildflowers to a small bare patch of ground near the center of the clearing, Aeris tugging his hair and demanding to be let down the entire time. Once there, he set the picnic basket on the ground, slung Aeris off of his shoulder, stole her breath away with a long, lingering kiss and finally put her down.
"You're lucky that you are such a good kisser or I would have sent you on a one-way trip to the hospital," Aeris groused.
Sephiroth blew her a kiss as he pulled out a blue and red checkered blanket from the picnic basket. Aeris was tempted to hit him in the kisser.
Aeris by nature was not petty, but as much as she loved him, there were times when she wanted to do nothing more than throttle her deliberately obnoxious boyfriend. And after throwing her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, this certainly was one of those times where this Cetra was feeling quite vengeful.
Aeris saw her opportunity when her beloved boyfriend was leaning over to spread out the picnic blanket. She gracefully lifted one pale, shapely leg and planted her dainty foot right in the middle of her unsuspecting boyfriend's derriere. He let out a startled yelp and fell face-first to the ground, much to Aeris' immense satisfaction. She smiled sweetly as he pushed himself to all fours and glared at her.
He really does look adorable glaring at me like that with a dirt smudge on his nose, Aeris wickedly thought.
"You have dirt on your face," she sweetly pointed out.
"I was well aware of that fact, darling," he wryly responded, "I suggest that we call a truce before the iced-tea gets warm."
Aeris crouched down and kissed Sephiroth on his dirt smudged nose, pulling a flower out of his hair as she got up.
"You really are too adorable for your own good," Aeris stated as she finished spreading out the picnic basket.
"You mean sexy," Sephiroth corrected with a grin.
"That too," Aeris agreed, "but you're too dirty to pull off sexy right now."
"Ever the critic," Sephiroth teased as he sat down next to Aeris on the blanket.
"Only with you honey buns," Aeris cooed batting her eyelashes at him.
"Ugh, that's too mushy for me," Sephiroth groaned, his nose wrinkling slightly in disgust.
Aeris broke out into helpless giggles.
"As I said, too adorable for your own good," Aeris gasped when she got over her giggle fit, "truce, if this keeps up, I'll die of laughter."
Sephiroth shook his head and started pulling food out of the wicker picnic basket. Aeris gasped in delight as she saw her boyfriend pull all of her favorite picnic foods. There were fresh cherries and watermelon along with iced-tea and lemonade. He had also packed several turkey and Swiss sandwiches with lettuce, tomato, red onions, pickles, avocado and honey mustard on twelve grain bread. For desert there were apple-kiwi tortes with French vanilla ice cream.
When Aeris spotted the strawberries and peaches with whipped cream and chocolate sauce, she raised her eyebrows and asked whether they were for desert or playtime. Sephiroth replied that they were for both.
The next hour was spent demolishing the food interspersed with friendly, idle conversation.
"So was there any particular reason for all this today?" Aeris idly asked as she leaned back onto the blanket.
"Do I have to have a reason for spoiling my girlfriend absolutely rotten?" he replied.
"No you don't, but I know you all too well. There is most definitely a reason for this outing," Aeris answered.
"Come with me," Sephiroth stated, getting up and holding out a hand to help Aeris up, "I want to show you something."
Wordlessly Aeris accepted his proffered hand and with a tug he pulled her to her feet. Sephiroth lead her back out of the meadow along the same route he carried her in and back into the woods up a small, but brush-free game trail. A few minutes later they emerged from under the trees and a breath-taking, expansive view of the mountains spread out before her.
"Wow," was all that Aeris could say.
Sephiroth gently took her hand and lead her out to the edge of the cliff that the gorgeous view spread out from. He stuck a hand into one of his pants pockets. Aeris held her breath as he sunk to one knee and opened the little black velvet covered box and displayed a dazzling diamond ring to her.
"Aeris, dearheart, love of my life and my best friend, will you make me the happiest man alive and marry me?" Sephiroth asked, his eyes dark with a thousand different emotions swirling all about in those sea green depths.
"Oh Sephiroth," Aeris sighed, "Yes, a thousand times yes! I would love nothing better than to marry you!"
Sephiroth shot her a dazzling smile and lovingly slipped the diamond ring onto her ring finger on her left hand. The ring fit perfectly. Tears of joy ran down her face as Sephiroth hugged Aeris and kissed her senseless.
"I don't want to waste a moment, let's get off this mountain and run away to Costa del Sol to get married," Sephiroth announced.
"You want elope?" Aeris quizzically asked.
Sephiroth nuzzled his nose in her neck and sighed "Uh-huh".
Aeris let out a delighted laugh and planted butterfly kisses all over her fiancée's face.
"Since when did you get so impulsive?" Aeris asked.
"Ever since my darling but vexing girlfriend agreed to marry me," Sephiroth teased as he started lightly tickling her.
"Sephiroth!" Aeris exclaimed, pushing lightly against his chest, "stop that!"
Her playful shove against his chest caused Sephiroth, still laughing, to take a step back.
And then it happened.
Sephiroth took another step back and he placed his foot down on a weak part on the edge of the cliff. The rock crumbled under his feet and Sephiroth lost his balance. Aeris shot out a hand to grab him but she was too late, with arms spiraling, Sephiroth fell over the edge of the cliff, a look of astonishment on his face.
Aeris screamed as she rushed to the edge of the cliff, but she slipped along the way and just as the world started tipping forward alarmingly, everything stopped.
Sephiroth was frozen mid-air, a look of terror just starting to grow on his face, his feet above him he fell backward, his arms outstretched as if pleading for Aeris to rescue him. The rocks that his foot had dislodged hung in the air a few inches below him, the fingertips of Aeris' outstretched hand just inches from the ends of Sephiroth's silver billowing hair that flew above him. Sephiroth was only feet below the cliff's edge, but it was apparent that Aeris would not be able to grab him. By the way her body was leaning forward, she be following him within a matter of seconds once time resumed its normal course.
Awaken the powers sleeping in your blood before it is too late, a thousand voices boomed overhead, stop denying your heritage, your birth-right, daughter of Ilfania or you will loose him and you will perish.
This is your only warning, the voices continued, accept your true nature and your duty to the Council or you both shall loose everything.
And then with a flash, Aeris and Sephiroth reappeared on the top of the cliff and time resumed its normal flow. They watched the rocks that their clumsy actions had dislodged fall to the earth thousands of feet below in silence.
Aeris let out a scream and sat bolt upright, covered in brown leaves and twigs, the dream still fresh in her mind.
"Oh Holy, this can't be happening," Aeris spoke hyperventilating, "it doesn't mean anything, it was just a dream, it wasn't real."
"Seemed damn real to me," Sephiroth groaned as he sat up, leaves and other dead plant matter sticking out of his hair and clothing.
"What? You had that dream too?!" Aeris almost shrieked.
"Keep it down!" Sephiroth hissed rubbing his eyes, "do you want the Turks to find us?"
"Sorry," Aeris muttered.
There was something wrong with Sephiroth's eyes, Aeris noticed, he keeps on rubbing them.
"Are you alright?" Aeris asked concerned, "that gas bomb exploded right in front of you, I heard your scream before you passed out."
"Other than this massive headache that is cheerfully pounding away in my skull, the injuries I had have already healed," Sephiroth observed, still rubbing at his eyes.
"Sephiroth look at me," Aeris ordered.
His head instinctively swung around towards the source of her voice, but his glowing sea green eyes were curiously blank and unfocused as he faced her.
"Sephiroth, your eyes," Aeris gasped.
"They keep on itching and I am having a hard time seeing anything," Sephiroth commented with a frown.
"Sephiroth, can you even see me at all? The moon is not that bright, but with your mako-enhanced eyesight, you should be able to see me just fine," Aeris rambled nervously.
"I can't make out anything, everything is black," Sephiroth admitted.
"Oh Holy," Aeris faintly murmured, "Sephiroth, you're blind."
They had been traveling for hours, Aeris was carefully picking her way down as they followed the gulley downhill, leading Sephiroth by the hand to prevent him from falling or crashing into any rocks or vegetation. Dawn was a few hours off and the words that the voices thundered down upon them in his dream kept on coming back to Sephiroth.
Awaken the powers sleeping in your blood before it is too late.
The message the voices delivered had been heard by them both, but the words had been directed towards Aeris. Sephiroth remembered Aeris' scream as she was jerked awake, it was plainly evident that she had been terrified by what they had both had heard. It was rather obvious that the dream had meant to frighten her, but Sephiroth couldn't shake the feeling that the warning the voices had delivered was really a threat, one that would carry out if the voices didn't get their way.
This is your only warning, accept your true nature and your duty to the Council or you both shall loose everything.
The parting words of the voices also left Sephiroth suspicious that they weren't interested in Aeris alone, that threat had been directed at them both. Was the purpose of including him in their warning meant to induce him to start pressuring Aeris into giving into the voices' demands? Or did they have other plans for him whether or not Aeris awakened her sleeping powers?
All this speculation wasn't getting Sephiroth anywhere and was only aggravating his headache. He was cranky from having to be lead about as if he was a child or an invalid by Aeris. Sephiroth wanted something to distract him from the panic that was building up at the thought of his blindness rendering him practically helpless.
"Aeris, why did that dream freak you out so much?" Sephiroth asked.
"We don't have time to talk about it," Aeris answered avoiding the topic, "we have got to find a place to hole up before the sun rises."
"Aeris, this involves me as well," Sephiroth growled.
"I don't want to talk about it!" Aeris yelled.
"Well I do!" Sephiroth almost roared as forced Aeris to come to a halt.
"But-" Aeris tried.
"No buts, I want the truth!" Sephiroth insisted.
"Seph, this really isn't the time…" she trailed off taking a good look at the serious expression on his face.
"Just what the hell did those voices mean by accepting your heritage, your duty?" Sephiroth demanded, "I think that you have some explaining to do."
"I didn't think that you needed to know," she explained, "I didn't want to cause you unnecessary worry."
"I think that I have a right to know about something that could send both of us such a powerful, realistic dream," Sephiroth angrily stated, crossing his arms.
Aeris sighed miserably.
"I have already told you about how my parents hid me from Shin-Ra's knowledge and why they would come after me if they knew that I was a Cetra," Aeris began, "but being a Cetra isn't as much as its cracked up to be, especially with the bloodline that I descend from. As a Cetra, I can talk to the planet, the souls in the Lifestream and the spirits of the Cetra that have already gone to the Promised Land. I also have some minor healing and supportive magicks, but they are nothing like the materia that Shin-Ra is developing."
"Those are the normal abilities that all Cetra before me possessed, but there were certain bloodlines that produced individuals with extremely powerful, even uncontrollable at times, gifts in not only healing and supporting magicks, but also offensive and defensive magicks as well as physic and manipulative abilities. The Council of the Elders was created to be able to control such gifted individuals, to guide them and help keep them from causing destruction."
"At first, they did exactly what they were supposed to do, but as time wore on, some of the members of the Council grew power hungry and used the gifted Cetra from the special bloodlines to slowly expand their realm of influence. Eventually they gained control of the entire Cetra race. They would have continued to grow more powerful, but the Plague hit, reducing the population of Cetra across the planet to a few dozen individuals.
"Finally free of the Council's influence the remaining Cetra were content to settle down and live peacefully with the primitive humans that were starting to spread out of the forests near what is now Gonga. But only a few decades had passed before the Council came back and regained some of their influence over the remaining Cetra and their children."
"All of the members on the Council of Elders perished during the Plague, but somehow, they were able to take over the ruling body of the Cetra in the Promised Land and found a way to contact and regain control of the one or two individuals that had one of the special bloodlines in them. Only two of the twenty special bloodlines survived the Plague, but once the Council was able to contact the living Cetra, they ruthlessly took control of those individuals bearing the bloodlines."
"The Council was never able to regain the amount of influence they had over the planet before the Plague, but that didn't stop the members of the Council that made it to the Promised Land from hungering after the power that they had lost."
Aeris looked sounded miserable at this point, but Sephiroth refrained from comforting her until she was done explaining her special bloodline gifts and the Council of the Elders.
"Now, as the last Cetra living and as the last descendant of the bloodline that flowed through my mother, her mother, and her mother's mother, and so on, the Council is desperate to have me awaken my gifts," Aeris continued, "ever since I could talk, the Council has been demanding me to accept my bloodline, my heritage but I have no intention of ever giving in to them. I want to be able to live my life free of their influence."
Aeris took a moment to catch her breath.
"They must fear that I'm going to get myself killed since I am on the run with you. That is probably why they sent us that dream," Aeris concluded.
"That is a lot to take in," Sephiroth murmured, "but why did they, or even better, how were they able to send me the dream as well?"
"I remember that you told me that you don't know who your parents were," Aeris recalled, "perhaps one of them had a trace of Cetra blood in them and, as much as I hate to suggest it, Hojo's experiments on you may have enhanced what little Cetra blood you have."
"Or perhaps Hojo inserted as much Cetra DNA into my genetic make up as he could get his hands on," Sephiroth countered.
"That is possible as well," Aeris muttered, "but I don't like the implications of what the Council of Elders told us in the dream might mean for you."
"Such as?" Sephiroth prompted.
"Such as the fact that if I am forced to awaken the dormant powers in my blood, the Council would gain great influence over my actions," Aeris stated, "accepting my heritage would in effect make me a slave to the Council of Elders. I could be a danger to any around me if they gain any measure of control over my powers. They might also try to control you using my powers."
"Just what kind of powers are we talking about here?" Sephiroth cut in, "thanks to Hojo's treatments, I am ten times as strong, agile, and fast as a normal human male. My stamina and reflexes are also greatly enhanced as well as my other senses. I can also heal from near-fatal wounds in little under a week."
"Incredible healing powers for one, for both others and myself," Aeris started listing after Sephiroth had finished, "strong defensive and supporting magicks and a moderate ability for offensive magicks. No types of physic abilities or powers to subvert another's will that I know of, thank Gaia."
A silence stretched between the two of them as Sephiroth absorbed all the information that Aeris had just told him.
"If I possess any sort of magical abilities, I have yet to discover them," Sephiroth murmured, "I was created to be a weapon, a warrior, not a magician or a sorcerer."
"Then I guess we compliment each other nicely," Aeris weakly joked.
"In more ways than one," Sephiroth agreed.
Their stomachs took the opportunity to remind Sephiroth and Aeris that they hadn't eaten since they left the hotel. Aeris looked around for the backpack full of their supplies and sighed. It was no where to be seen.
"All I have is two smashed energy bars in my pocket," Aeris spoke up, taking them out and handing one to her boyfriend.
"It will have to do," Sephiroth replied as he took the energy bar that she gave to him, "we'll have to get going as soon as we finish eating."
"It was you who made us stop in the first place," Aeris tartly reminded him.
Sephiroth chose to ignore her.
Somehow, not only did they manage to find a good hiding place before dawn that first evening, but they successfully managed to avoid the Turks and any other people from Shin-Ra sent to find Sephiroth for several days afterwards. Halfway through the second night, they stumbled upon a weatherworn cabin that belonged to an old lady who rarely got any company this deep in the wilderness where she lived.
Living out there all alone for forty some years must have honed the woman's sixth sense for she met Aeris and Sephiroth in the woods and hustled them into her home just as Aeris spotted the distant light coming form the lantern in the old woman's cabin. Aeris' protests were quickly overruled by the old woman's no-nonsense air and welcoming attitude.
They both ate a hearty, replenishing meal of deer and wild vegetable stew and chilled apple cider before their hostess literally pushed the both of them into her bathroom ordering them to get a bath to remove the stink that clung to Aeris and Sephiroth. The water that filled the old-fashioned ceramic tub that rested on clawed brass feet was heated by the woman's cast-iron stove and the fire in her fireplace. After the relaxing bath, they both tumbled onto an ancient feather down mattress in the old lady's rarely used guestroom and promptly fell asleep.
They awoke the next day about an hour before dusk. They ate an early supper with the old woman before leaving with a sturdy, well-used leather backpack full of food, medical supplies, a thin but warm wool blanket and a small plastic tarp. The backpack was bulging by the time the old woman finished stuffing supplies into it. This unexpected gesture of generosity was met with strong protest from Aeris, but like the previous night when the old woman had taken them into her home, the Cetra's protests were quickly cut off.
"Look, it doesn't take an idiot to tell that you two are neck deep in trouble," the old woman snapped, "you and your man are good, decent folk and there ain't many of your kind in the younger generation nowadays. I've been in this cabin that my late husband built himself for forty-seven years. I've survived countless blizzards, two famines, three forest fires and raising five wild, trouble-making children, I won't perish from helping the two of you."
"But there is nothing that we can possibly offer in return," Aeris objected.
"Humor this old woman," she insisted.
Aeris sighed, she knew when she was beat.
"We can not thank you enough for your help," Sephiroth spoke as he shouldered the heavy backpack.
"Just make sure that you get yourselves out of this mess in one piece," the old woman groused, "that's all the thanks I need."
With those words, the old lady turned around and went back into her cabin, closing the heavy wood door behind her. Aeris and Sephiroth took that as their cue to head off and get as far away from the old woman's cabin so the Turks wouldn't find and question her about the fugitives' whereabouts.
The next two weeks was spent in a desperate race for survival and from the Turks and the reach of Shin-Ra. Aeris was able to make the food that the old lady gave them last eleven days, but eventually they had to resort to whatever Aeris could scrounge up as they continued to flee from their pursuers.
They lived in a constant state of stressful hyper-awareness and often lost their patience at the slightest mishap, but a bond of comradeship was growing between the two and they came to trust the what other's instincts and senses told them unwaveringly.
If they survived through this, their relationship would be able to survive anything. Neither of them was given the chance to be able to enjoy each other's company or be romantic in any sense of the word, their thoughts were focused solely on finding the next meal, water source or hiding spot.
The slight weight that Sephiroth had managed to put on when he was living with Aeris melted away and he now looked as lean as the first time she saw him. Aeris, never being a fitness freak, had quickly lost the slight rounded look that she had to her face and limbs, and was the most tan she had been in her life. Her hair once smooth and lustrous was now was now dirty and the ends were looking quite ratty. Of course Sephiroth never knew about the changes in Aeris' physique, since his vision had not recovered at all since the gas bomb had blinded him.
Their good luck had held up through now, but that was about to change, for Shin-Ra's forces lead by the Turks was closing in on them and they had no clue. At the rate that things were going, their desperate flight from Shin-Ra would end in tragedy.
The second ambush was planned more carefully than the first one that had ultimately ended in a gas bomb explosion that had blinded Sephiroth. By the time that the trap was sprung on them, Aeris and Sephiroth were in far too deep to get out. The only warning they got that they were surrounded by Shin-Ra's forces was the low hiss coming from something that had been thrown at them.
Aeris saw the metal canister hurtling at them, slipped on the wet leaf litter below her feet and fell hard on her back. She barely had time to close her eyes and cross her arms over her face before the flash bomb went off. Even with her eyes closed and her arms protecting her face, she could see the explosion of light behind her eyelids that the flash bomb let off. The light of the flash bomb didn't affect Sephiroth, but the loud bang that it let off caused him to jerk into a defensive fighting stance.
After about a minute, Aeris groaned and climbed to her feet, not able to make out her surroundings since the flash bomb had ruined her night vision. She was barely able to make out the blurry smudges of the Shin-Ra forces against the bright moonlight charging at them.
The Cetra didn't even think, she grabbed her companion's hand, jerked him out of his battle stance and took off running, dragging him behind her. Rocks and sticks caught at their feet as they ran away, barely dodging the dark pillars that were trees as they barreled on. Miraculously, after the first time, neither of them tripped or fell after the first time that had sent Aeris crashing to the forest floor.
More flash bombs as well as smoke bombs and regular grenades exploded behind them at a regular basis, the Shin-Ra forces throwing them to slow the fugitives' flight as they closed in on them. The noise was deafening, but Aeris gritted her teeth and plowed on, Sephiroth stumbling and cursing behind her.
By now Aeris had recovered her night vision sufficiently to avoid low hanging branches and trees with not much trouble. Unfortunately the next thing she saw was a half dozen Shin-Ra Soldiers jump out from behind the trees, cutting off their escape route. Whirling about, Aeris started running toward the first opening in the loose circle of MPs and Soldiers that was closing in on them, dragging Sephiroth behind her.
It never occurred to her that that was the Soldiers' intent all along. If Sephiroth had his sight, he would have seen that they were being chased towards a specific location and would have been able to evade the trap. But he had been blinded in their previous encounter with Shin-Ra and Aeris who knew nothing about battle or fighting tactics had no idea what she was leading them into.
Aeris, Sephiroth following her lead, scrambled up the gentle leaf strewn incline, climbed over the pile of moss-covered boulders at the top of the hill, plunged down the other side and followed the dry, rocky streambed after that. The Shin-Ra forces ran after them, the circle formation they had been in reforming into a half-oval to make sure that their quarry continued on in their present direction.
Their feet kept on banging into the rocks that lined the dry streambed as Sephiroth and Aeris kept running downstream. They made no pretense about reducing the noise of their footfalls, it just wasted time and energy that was better spent in trying to outrun the Shin-Ra hunting party.
Eventually the streambed joined a waterway, and they continued running down that, their feet splashing in the thin trickle of water that flowed down the middle of the waterway. The further downstream they ran, the more tributaries joined the stream and the water flowing faster and deeper as they went. The spruce and ponderosa pine trees gave way to white birch and maple as they steadily dropped in elevation.
Aeris was almost dead on her feet and even Sephiroth was starting to breathe harshly, but they dare not stop lest the Soldiers catch up with them. The grey light of false dawn was growing in the sky when the stray though that they were being lead into a trap sluggishly crossed Aeris' exhausted mind. By then it was too late to try and alter their course since the Soldiers were less than fifty feet on either side of them up ahead and any attempt to change direction would put them within reach of their pursuers.
When Aeris saw the line of Soldiers and Mps a half-mile in front of them, forming a barricade across the stream, Aeris knew that she had to do something fast. She started chanting softly and half a minute later a dim red glow surrounded both Aeris and Sephiroth and their speed doubled. To her perception, the world around them slowed, the movements of the MPs as they readied their guns moving at a snail's speed. To the Shin-Ra forces, it appeared as if Aeris and Sephiroth became a black, sliver and brown streak that moved faster than physically possible.
"What the fuck?!" one of the Soldiers exclaimed.
"Idiot, what the hell did they teach you in training? That's a high power Haste spell that one of them cast!" the group leader shouted at the other Soldier, "What the hell are you waiting for, the grass to grow? They're getting away! Open Fire!"
By now Aeris and Sephiroth had gotten a thirty yard lead on the Soldiers and MPs that had been flanking them fifty feet away. Aeris spotted an opening in the vegetation that lined the stream, veered off the left sharply and dashed through it, leaping over the upraised roots of a cottonwood as Aeris yelled "Jump" so that Sephiroth wouldn't tangle his feet in the roots.
Pain exploded in her shoulder as the MPs opened fire, splaying bullets everywhere from their machine guns. The pain caused her concentration on maintaining the Haste spell to falter, the world around them resumed its normal speed as the spell fell apart. Another bullet struck her, this time in her lower abdomen, her blood splattering on the damp leaves as the bullet ripped through her stomach.
Time seemed to slow as Aeris gasped, covered the hole in her stomach with her injured arm and collapsed to the ground.
"Aeris!" Sephiroth screamed, the scent of her blood hitting him as Aeris' fall wrenched her hand out of his.
An overzealous MP caught in the heat of the moment threw a grenade at the fleeing fugitives. It exploded thirty feet away from them. Sephiroth took the brunt of the blast, the explosion sending him flying though the air until he hit an ancient, huge and gnarled oak tree and crumpled to the ground. The force of the explosion caused Aeris to roll fifteen feet away. She finally came to a stop on her left side next to a thorny bush. One arm was pinned under her body, the other lay on her right side and was bent at an unnatural angle.
Aeris struggled to remain conscious as the blood continued to flow out of her wounds. Someone approached the fallen Cetra, the dead leaves crunching under the person's feet.
"Such a pity that we have to off the broad, she's quite a looker," a familiar voice to Sephiroth drawled.
"No! Damn you Reno, don't you dare kill Aeris you bastard! She poses no threat to Shin-Ra" Sephiroth yelled.
"She knows of your existence and of your connection to Shin-Ra, SV01," Reno said as he cocked his gun, "that fact is enough to make sure that she is silenced."
"Let her go and I'll go back peacefully!" Sephiroth pleaded.
"You are in no condition to bargain SV01, I'd wager that most of your ribs are broken along with your left leg, you aren't going anywhere until I silence the witness," Reno coolly replied as her pointed the gun at Aeris.
All this was distantly heard by Aeris as thoughts whirled around her fading mind.
It doesn't matter if he shoots me or not, I'm already dying, Aeris thought, there is nothing that can save us now, the dream that the Council sent was right, I'm going to loose him and then I will die, all alone, left to rot where I lay.
A jolt went through her body as she struggled to breathe. The numbness was spreading from the wounds in her shoulder and stomach. At this rate, she would be dead before the Turk shot her.
Sephiroth, I'm so sorry, Aeris thought as her body started to shut down, I've failed you… I can do nothing, my magic is useless. Looks like Shin-Ra will win after all…
"Aeris! Get up, move do something!" Sephiroth cried out, "just don't sit there and let him murder you!"
The red-headed Turk slowly stepped next to Aeris and put the cold muzzle of his handgun against the back of her head.
"No hard feelings, hey? I'm just doing my job," Reno said as he started to pull the trigger.
"Aeris, accept your heritage!" Sephiroth screamed.
The next two events happen simultaneously.
Reno pulled the trigger, causing the bullet to explode from his gun with a supernaturally loud bang.
Sephiroth's desperate words triggered a sub-conscious reaction in her dim mind, the urgency of his command causing her to reach for the softly glowing line in her heart and connect it to her soul. The moment the line melded into her soul, power flooded her body, her blood almost boiling as the gifts of her bloodline awakened and consumed her mind in a white-hot light. Aeris' body jerked wildly and her mouth opened in a silent scream. The female Cetra's aura glowed around her brightly, signifying the completion of the awakening of the magic of her heritage.
The seizure that seized Aeris' body caused her head to jerk to the side, the bullet missing her head by millimeters.
"What the Holy fuck?!!!" Reno exclaimed as Aeris wounds closed up in a matter of seconds.
Aeris eyes snapped open, emerald sparks of light escaping from her brightly glowing eyes, a sign of the amount of magic coursing through her at the moment.
"Pitiful human, you dare to threaten the Heir to the bloodline of Izaka!" a low, powerful voice yelled, the earth shaking with every word that escaped the possessed Cetra's lips, "you shall perish for your imputence!"
"No!" Aeris cried in her own voice as she battled to regain control of her body, "I will not kill, not to satisfy the whims of the Council!"
Soft pale green wisps of energy rose up from the ground and embraced Aeris as she staggered about, giving her strength to fight off the power of the Council that was trying to control her. The planet itself was protecting its' last Heir from the ones that betrayed it a thousand years ago.
Slowly, bit by bit, Aeris and the Planet pushed the presence of the Council out of her body and her mind. The awakened Cetra visibly relaxed when she was fully in control of her body and her magic once again and the wisps of Lifestream that the planet had embraced Aeris with sunk back into the ground.
The magic was still singing in her veins, so sweet and enticing. The power whispered, begged to be used and Aeris was almost helpless to resist its call. Her glowing aura, if anything, grew brighter as the magic kept on building up in her body. Two miniature green fires burned in her eye sockets, the energy totally blocking her eyes from sight.
I must use this magic before it totally consumes me, Aeris frantically thought, casting about for some outlet on which to spend the energy generated by awakening her special bloodline gifts that was running through her body like lightning.
Her eyes landed upon her blind and injured boyfriend and before the thought even crossed her mind, she had vanished from her spot and reappeared next to Sephiroth. She laid a single finger upon his brow and the energy poured out of her, her finger acting like a conduit for the healing magic being transferred from Aeris to Sephiroth.
The process of his healing was very vivid. Aeris could hear each of Sephiroth's broken bones snap back into its proper place, could see them shifting beneath his skin. Through the connection that her light touch provided, she could feel the echoes of pain that the forced healing caused Sephiroth. But none of that mattered, Aeris had to dispel enough of the magic that her awakening of her heritage generated so that she won't burn out.
Sephiroth was gasping and covered in sweat by the time Aeris finally withdrew her light touch. Opening his eyes that had been tightly clenched closed when Aeris had been healing him, the forest around them was revealed in sharp clarity. Sephiroth was astounded, even his own impressive healing abilities had not been able to cure his blindness, but Aeris' impossibly powerful healing magic had.
Healing Sephiroth had been a good start, but the amount of magical energy in her body was still too high and unstable. She had already used up her only idea to dispel all the energy in her body, but it still wasn't enough. The sound of the red-headed Turk putting a new sleeve of bullets into his handgun not only caught the attention of her mind, but her magic as well. Both her mind and her magic instinctively reacted in unison as Reno pointed his gun at her and started firing rapidly.
A glowing yellow shield sprung up and enclosed Aeris and Sephiroth, the bullets from the Turk's gun bouncing off harmlessly. Seeing the effect the bullets had on Aeris' shield, Reno lowered his gun and scowled, opting to conserve his bullets.
"How the hell is the chick doing it? Even the Materia that the weapons department is developing can't produce spells of that strength," Reno grumbled irritated.
"More firepower," Rude suggested as he finally caught off with his partner.
"Oy, you heard the man, throw everything you got at the barrier!" Reno bellowed at the Soldiers and MPs around them.
Sounds of gunfire and exploding grenades filled the forest as the Turks, Soldiers and MPs unloaded all their weapons to try and overpower Aeris' Shield spell. The barrage lasted a good five minutes and the sight when the dust finally cleared left many with their mouth's hanging open and Reno cursing fluently. The red-headed Turk had expected to see the bullet ridden bodies of Aeris and Sephiroth or even to see barrier still standing. He had not expected to see bare ground where Hojo's escaped lab specimen and his obviously less then human girlfriend had been occupying.
"Fuck, they pulled a vanishing act," Reno muttered as he jerked a cigarette out of his jacket and lit it up, "Bossman won't be happy to hear about this."
Rude grunted noncommittally.
"What a big help you are," Reno griped as he took a long drag from his cigarette and pulled out his PHS to dial up Tseng, leader of the Turks.
Thousands of images swam by them. Sephiroth and Aeris floated sea of rainbow colored mist, a warm and welcoming feeling surrounded the two. Millions of whispering voices murmured around them, creating an oddly beautiful melody. It took a moment for Aeris to realize it, but they were in the heart of the planet's soul.
"Where are we?" Sephiroth asked, his voice echoing around them, eventually blending into the background melody of voices.
"In the place where everything begins and comes back to be reborn," Aeris mysteriously replied, "we are in the presence of the Gaia herself, the planet must have brought us here when I tried transporting us through the Lifestream to a safe place."
Rest beloved children, a rich, vibrant and powerful voice spoke in a soothing tone, rest and recover from your tiring ordeal. None shall harm you here, sleep and dream peacefully.
"Gaia?" Aeris sleepily asked, "I don't understand, why are we here?"
You both have been through much, the planet replied, the awakening of your heritage was just the start of your long journey. There is much to be done and so much you and your mate have to learn before you will finally find the place you can call home.
"Mate?" Sephiroth echoed.
Wild Mountain Rose, has chosen you, One Winged Angel, as her mate, her lover and father of her children, the planet answered, the bond between you two has already been completed. Two souls linked for eternity, never to desire or have romantic love for someone else other than their mate. Belonging only to each other, the soul bond even surpasses death. Such is the nature of Cetran mates.
"So my suspicions were true," Aeris murmured as the palnet's lullaby started working its magic on her.
Yes, Wild Mountain Rose, your mate does indeed have traces of Cetra blood in his veins from five generations back, the planet informed Aeris, the one who plays god, tampering with what he has no right, found the One Winged Angel's recessive Cetran DNA and enhanced it while still in his mother's womb. Due to his treatments, your mate is roughly one third Cetra, enough to be able to complete the soul bond of Cetra mates.
"I have a mother?!" Sephiroth asked shocked, "I had always though that I had no parents, that Hojo had created me in a test tube."
Of course you have parents silly child! the planet scolded Sephiroth, all living things must come from individuals of their same kind. The meddling one has not found a way to create life without using the natural processes of reproduction.
Sephiroth was stunned by this revelation.
"Please, tell me who my parents are," he begged, "I feel so incomplete not knowing."
That is something you must find out for yourself, the planet replied, I have told you as much as I can. The rest of your past you have to find on your own. Even that is just a small part of what the two of you must learn to complete your destiny. I can do no more for you. Now sleep, sleep and dream to prepare for what lies ahead.
"But-" Sephiroth tried.
"Let it go," Aeris interrupted him, "the planet is right, and I am so weary. Rest and recover beloved, surely we deserve at least that."
And then she was asleep, cradled by the planet's warm energies and soothing lullaby. Sephiroth too felt the bone-deep exhaustion of the past several weeks and drifted off not long after.
For how long they slept neither would ever really know. They woke up in the wildflower covered meadow from their dream refreshed and ready to face the world.
Their future would be filled with danger and deadly struggles. They would not only have to continue to evade the efforts of Shin-Ra to capture them but the manipulations of the Council of Elders as well. They would suffer and experience great losses, but in the end, Aeris and Sephiroth would help create a peaceful world along with others who saw the planet's plight and fought to protect it.
They would meet and fight by the side of dear friends and encounter bitter rivals and deadly enemies that would stop at nothing to either use Sephiroth and Aeris to their own ends or to see them totally destroyed. But from the ashes of the final battle shall emerge a new world where Aeris and Sephiroth can live in peace, without fear of being hunted or hated for what they are. A place that they can raise a family in love and safety, a place to call home.
Gah! I finally finished this monstrously long one-shot. Forty-four pages, I can hardly believe it. Heritage is by far the longest single installment of fan fiction I have ever written. The bloody thing was too big to be able to be uploaded so I had to split in into tow pieces.
This probably wasn't what you were expecting at all Silvara when you gave me the challenge to do a story with a blind Sephiroth and a dying Aeris that had a happy ending.
I meant to finish this piece a week ago, but I could not find the motivation to do so. Hope that this was worth the wait.
Reviews are the food of fan fiction authors, without them our stories will starve, so please leave a review and tell me your thoughts about Heritage.