Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy, but I have some of the games. I must can has them all.

Ancient Forest - Recovery

As the first explosion came to an end, others immediately followed. Sephiroth dashed out of the room, not wasting time on the Turks, nor caring about the scolding heat following him as he made his way out. Just as he exited the room, he caught a glance of the hurt redhead and the woman helping their co-workers, but then the explosions commenced again. Every new explosion was larger than the one before it, but Sephiroth paid no attention to them. Once he was outside he moved away from the reactor and ran past all the fallen guards.

Mika was still at it, but she was barely standing. Her hand shook as she held the Mako blade in an attempt to block more bullets, and her own gun seemed to be out of ammunition. Sephiroth knew this already, because he still controlled her most of the time, but seeing her like that was still disturbing. She was so tired she was not thinking clearly - through her, he could feel her lungs aching. Countless people were scattered on the ground, some bleeding, others screaming, but none were dead. Needless to say, blood was everywhere, also on her. Upon hearing one final explosion behind him, he knew the reactor was completely destroyed and beyond help.

The people of Shinra who were still standing, stopped attacking and watched the smoke from the reactor as it towered above them, consisting of smoke and blackness and shadows as it climbed towards the sky. Then, as the people saw Sephiroth, they turned and fled - stumbling away. He narrowed his eyes in distaste, but ignored them as he chose to go over to Mika first. Once there, he made her get onto his back again.

But then, right before he rose into the air, he heard a shot and then a strange sensation of pain filled his right shoulder, right below his collar bone.

"...I hit him! Tseng, did you see that, I shot Sephiroth for you!" he heard a frantic voice shout, and turned to see Elena the Turk, covered in soot from the explosion. On the ground next to her, Tseng was unconscious - or dead. Behind them, he could spot Reno supporting the sleeping Rude. They had all made it out. Sephiroth frowned and was about to run forward, but then he felt Mika shifting on his back. Stopping to think twice, he grit his teeth and moved Masamune to his right hand - the injured one - while using his undamaged arm to support Mika.

Then he took off, leaving the soot-covered Turks and their injured subordinates behind. If he had made Mika kill them, this would have been a massacre to remember.

The pain in his shoulder was nothing. The bullet had gone straight through it. Even so, an increasing and unfamiliar feeling kept growing when his control of Mika went beyond his grasp. She was, in a way, absent. The smell of his own blood from his right shoulder did not at all disturb him. But the smell of something else made him rather queasy. He could smell blood different from his own, but did not know for sure whether it was hers or if it belonged to one of those hit by her blade.

"Mika?" he tried, his voice slightly stiff.
"...Hm?" she replied, and he felt himself relax from his previously tense state. He turned to look over his shoulder. Back outside of Gongaga, the reactor was still burning. He could see people helping others to safety, supporting each other as they walked away from the burning remains of the armored building. Then he looked down to his left (uninjured) shoulder, where Mika's head rested. Her eyes were half open, but looked glazed and unfocused, and her gaze moved around randomly in a slow manner. Determined not to be followed by Shinra's helicopters, he sped up and flew towards the mountains. After crossing the river they were very close to Cosmo Canyon. But that was not where he was going. He dove down to the thickest part of the forest, towards the top of the mountain there: The Ancient Forest.

He landed in a forest glade, sheltered from the sunlight by the old, leafy trees towering around them on all sides, and bent down carefully to let Mika stand on her own feet. She landed, but supported herself by grasping his arm. He let go of his Masamune and assisted her as she sat down. Other than being quite pale, she was also completely silent, and seemed more than willing to lie down against the tree trunk behind her. He wondered vaguely whether that was because of exhaustion or if she was damaged. After sitting down, her hands fell to the ground next to her, her palms facing up.

The clothes she wore were covered in dry blood from whoever she had fought, but he could still not tell if she was injured herself. Then, as she opened her mouth in an attempt to speak, she coughed and a small amount of blood slowly ran from it. Mika held her stomach and did not speak a word, as if she was just surprised as him upon finding she was more damaged than first assumed. She used her other hand to search her pockets and found a Restore materia. When she handed it to him, worried and questioning, he was already well aware that it was not a mastered materia. Its cure spells would be weak.

Sephiroth sighed in annoyance and started muttering the word 'Cure' silently under his breath several times consecutively. Every time he said it, a weak light glowed and started healing Mika. He was amused to see that she had an incredulous look on her face as she observed the weakness of her materia. Even though it was rather weak, Mika was healed within minutes. Then he started healing his own shoulder and Mika shifted.

"...You... You healed me first when you-" she started, then her complaining stopped as she started coughing instead. Though her injury was cured, the blood was still there and it kept leaving her mouth, little by little, as she continued coughing.

"That was merely due to the fact that your injury was more severe," he replied, barely audible. He had not looked into her eyes once since they arrived, and avoided doing it as well. Even after his own wound was healed, he found that he could still not rid himself of that uneasy feeling that lingered inside him. It made him frown, and that frown remained on his face until Mika spoke again.

"Okay. Sorry for getting hurt. And thank you for helping," she said, slightly sulky and guilty at the same time, looking at him. The scene was strange, especially since she was still covered in blood. He still avoided to look back, and only listened to her words.

The two of them just sat there, listening to the occasional sounds and cries of nearby fiends. After a while, the mood became so tense that he rose to his feet and simply left. Mika did not say a thing as he did and he could not decide whether that was a good thing or not. Eventually, his little 'walk' turned into a small journey during which he completed various small tasks and attended to things. First, he was lucky enough to find a hot spring. This surprised him, as he did not know these could be found up here, in the Ancient Forest. This particular spring was probably kept warm by the Mako surplus of the old forest. The moss-covered trees and heavy branches functioned as curtains, and the sounds they made upon shifting in the wind was quite soothing.

He took a quick bath and cleaned his clothes in a somewhat sloppy manner before he went back. On his way there he found some fruits. Satisfied at having found food, he picked as much as he could carry before once again starting to walk back. They already had water; The weapon seller had given them some drinking water for them to fill their bottles, knowing they would need it.

As the sound of helicopters suddenly approached, Sephiroth stopped and watched the sky through the thick layer of branches, trees and leaves. The Shinra helicopters passed him and continued in the direction of Cosmo Canyon. Suddenly wanting to go get moving, his instincts led way as he strode back to where he left Mika.

Mika felt completely fine. In fact, she had never felt better. Even after Sephiroth was done healing her, her stomach had kept squirming. Not in a bad way, but in a way that made her want to get to her feet and just walk or something. After he left she even tried, but her loss of blood made her dizzy and she lay down on the ground before she fell down. But despite her situation, she felt good. The only things that could've been better was her 'hygienic situation'. Being covered in blood as she was, she was in desperate need of a bath. To add to that, it had been days since the last time she'd had a shower, and considering the fact that she was currently bloody and sweaty from the fight, she was now officially dirty. At least Sephiroth hadn't taken a bath recently either. That made it easier. Not that she even noticed; he was always clean, somehow.

Upon seeing belted boots coming into her view, she tilted her head up to see something that looked vaguely like a walking tree. She knew it was Sephiroth, but couldn't help wanting to comment the scene, as he held so much fruit in his arms that she couldn't see his face from her position on the ground.

"Sephitree? Since when did carry fruits?" she asked and a crooked grin appeared on her face. At this comment, he did nothing at first. But then, to her great horror, he dropped all the fruit to the ground. A whole lot of it landed on top of her. As he said nothing and silence ensued, Mika found herself unable to avoid giving yet another comment from under the load of colorful fruit.

"... Sephitrees sure ripen fast..." she mumbled, her comment muffled. She supported herself on her hands and rose her head just enough to free herself from the grasp of the fruit pile. To her surprise, Sephiroth was right in front of her. He faced her and was only inches away. His hair seemed to be wet and clean, and his jade eyes stared into her own ones, making her cheeks redden.

"Sorry! Didn't mean to say that!" she exclaimed, but he kept staring. Then, not wanting to seem weak, Mika slowly frowned and stared back. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she searched for her own reflection in his eyes. In the beginning, she only saw what resembled a sea of burning jade, and that sea seemed to grow as she kept watching it. But behind that, when she looked into his black pupils, she saw her own reflection. She looked odd, bathed in fruits as she was. And she still had dry blood in her face.

Then, suddenly intensely aware of how close they were, she jerked her head back and got to her feet. The fast movement made her go dizzy, again due to blood loss, and she had to sit down once more. Sephiroth remained where he was.

"You should not strain yourself," he said in an oddly quiet voice. It was beautiful to listen to.

...Wait.

What?

Mika frowned and shook her head.

"Strain myself? I would never do that," she said, but then she remembered the events earlier that day.
"...And besides, I'm not as weak as you think I am. I bet I'll be able to waste the first fiend that comes in my way the next two minutes," she added confidently.

As if on cue, a frog appeared not too far away. It wasn't as large as she had hoped, but it would do. She got to her feet again, slowly this time, and walked towards the poor frog.

"Do not underestimate it," she heard Sephiroth say, barely audible. Was he mocking her?
Just as she was bout to find her materia and cast a spell, the frog attacked her.

And then, upon impact, she understood why Sephiroth had said what he just said. Because she turned into a frog herself.

Mika watched the suddenly immensely large frog in front of her being burnt to a crisp as Sephiroth used an incredibly small Fire spell. When she turned to watch him, her pride pawned by the almighty frog, he already had a quite visible smirk caressing his perfect features. He watched her toad form for some long seconds in amusement before the frog spell wore off. The humiliation was almost physical – Mika turned into herself again with a thoroughly pained expression on her face. To her chagrin, yet also to her pleasure, Sephiroth was still smirking.

"I... I got the Midgar Zolom, remember...?" she tried and was rewarded with one single, short laugh from Sephiroth. Mika smiled awkwardly, desperate for a change of subject.

"So... Where have you been? Where did you wash your hair?" she asked.
"...In that direction," he said and nodded to his left, still watching her.

"...In that direction," he informed, giving a short nod to his left while still observing her.
"Okay... I'll go wash myself and my clothes. This dry blood is getting to me," she said, her voice faint and quiet, then she turned to look in the direction he had showed her. She was right; her skin and clothes truly were rather bloody.

It fits her. Too bad she is able to move. Those were the thoughts of Jenova, and Sephiroth slowly averted his gaze from Mika.

She walked off slowly, leaving Sephiroth behind with all the fruit. After she left him he started eating a little. He did not bother waiting. Slowly eating one small fruit by another, he came to know the tastes of a few of them. Some were sweet, others not so sweet, and one or two even tasted like chilli, only stronger. He liked them. Perhaps he could give one of them to Mika to see her reaction?

Placing the dark red fruit on the ground, he looked up. It was already quite late in the evening and the surroundings were getting darker by the minute.

Where was she?

Only barely starting to wonder what took her so long, he pondered whether he should go look for her or not. Perhaps she had been ambushed by many frogs at once. That would be quite something. Sephiroth sighed and got to his feet and absently walked deeper into the forest.

The first thing he noticed as he got close to the springs was the faint light coming from the place. Then he stopped as he saw the back of Mika's head. She sat in the spring, facing away from him, and the glowing water almost came up to her shoulders. Her hands ran through her long hair in an attempt to comb it, but the wet hair stuck to her damp neck and back reluctantly. While wet, her hair looked much darker; nearly black. Tiny drops of water covered her skin like a web, giving it an eerie look. The light from the spring made her glow in a way that was somehow gentle, as if it were all an illusion.

Sephiroth scowled darkly and turned on the spot, then strode back to their 'camp' with swift steps, numb anger building inside him. Once there, he sat down in a rather disturbed fashion and grabbed a random fruit. With a frown still on his face, he slowly started eating again. The fruit was sweet, and its taste reminded him of something he could not quite place.

When Mika came back a while later, he was still frowning. Mika sat down across from him and grabbed a fruit.

"Sorry I took so long, my clothes took forever to dry," she explained, then she picked a fruit. It was pink; one of the sweet fruits. She seemed to enjoy it. "...Nice," she remarked after eating for a while. It was getting fairly dark now. Soon it would be even darker.

"We can't make a fire or anything like that, right? Because Shinra is still looking for us?" she asked.
"Correct," he informed absently, and listened to her sigh.

"...Do you have a plan for the next reactor?" she asked quietly, sounding tired.
"I am working on it," he said, which was not entirely true. That is, he did have a plan, but she would not like it.

The next reactor was the second last one. It was positioned close to Wutai, much to the dislike of the people there. They were some of the people who disliked Shinra the most, which was understandable after the war they had fought against Midgar so long ago. Wutai lost the war and later, Shinra came back to take the little piece of peace they had left by building a Mako reactor right next to their village.

Sephiroth was planning to go there on his own. That way, he could just fly over the reactor and attack from above. The reactor was not as strong as the other ones because it did not give as much profit. Therefore, it would be an easy task for him to accomplish alone. But once again Shinra would most likely be there. Somehow he doubted the security would be too high, because bringing lots of Shinra guards over there would take time – it would make more sense to send them to the last reactor of them all. However, he would not be surprised if he met the Turks there, nor would he be taken aback if they tried to follow him by helicopter when he left after destroying the reactor.

And that was the part of his plan which Mika would not be too fond of; if anyone followed him by helicopter, he would use a summon to make them crash. They would, without a doubt, die.

If she insisted on coming he could refuse, but if she happened to have a good argument, he could consider taking her with him. If that were the case, she had to be able to handle watching him kill people when they escaped.

He glanced at Mika - and was surprised to find her asleep. For once he would not have to cast Sleep. He lay down on the ground himself and looked up. The plants and trees hid the dark sky from him, and his gaze wandered from leaf to leaf absently. Flowers in all shapes and fashions kept his eyes busy and the sounds of fiends and insects were there, but he did not quite register them. The soft sound of Mika breathing was far more interesting; occasionally she sighed or shifted, which made him wonder if she was dreaming.

Before he realized it, after a very long time of not sleeping and only resting, Sephiroth felt as though his thoughts slid away and his mind was put on hold.
And then he fell asleep himself.

Hours later he was awakened by the sun peeking through the leaves above. At first he was unable to grasp what had happened. Everything had been dark and after he blinked, it was already morning. Had he slept? Sephiroth felt uneasy at first, but a strange feeling of relief and calm soon filled him, which were both rather unfamiliar to him. He did, in a way, feel oddly content. Then he noticed something warm next to him and turned to see Mika.

Upon seeing her, he jerked away into a sitting position. For the next few seconds he remained still, but relaxed again somewhat when he realized she could not have done that on purpose. She must have rolled over to him in her sleep.

Speaking of sleep, how long had he been sleeping? His gaze rose to search for the sun. Judging from its position on the sky, he guessed it was almost noon. His jade gaze lowered to Mika. They should get moving soon if they wanted to pass Cosmo Canyon without being seen. Even so, it could not hurt to let her wake up on her own. It could not take too long, considering the fact that he had not used the Sleep spell.

Sephiroth averted his eyes from her and looked deeper into the forest. He only barely registered a faint, sweet scent coming from somewhere. After sitting still for a long moment, he raised his hand and the scent became slightly stronger. That was the arm Mika had slept next to. His arm smelt like Mika. He frowned as he lowered his arm. Deciding to ignore the faint scent for now, he moved his focus to the fruits next to him. Though he had picked them yesterday, most of them still looked fine. However, after he grabbed a random fruit and took a bite, he recalled the last fruit he had eaten last night. It was the same kind of fruit he was eating now, with the same taste. Only this time he knew what the taste had reminded him of. The light red fruit tasted the same way Mika smelled. He swallowed the bit of fruit slowly. Then he threw the rest of the fruit away. It tasted good, yes, but too much of the good was not good, especially not if it reminded him of Mika.

Mika shifted once and groaned as she came to. Then she blinked sleepily before sitting up with a tired look on her face. Though she did not know it herself, she had been annoying him very much these last few minutes. And therefore, he had something to tell her.

"...Those who snore always fall into slumber before those who do not," he muttered, his voice dark and low, and then he waited for her response. Many long seconds passed before the sleepy Mika managed to process and understand what he said.
"What?! ...I snored?!" she asked loudly, more awake than he had ever seen her before. Then he picked up a fruit similar to the one he had just gotten rid of and threw it to Mika, who barely caught it.

"...No. I just thought I would say so to wake you up," he said, and Mika's shoulders fell as she sighed in relief. Then she flashed him a glare.
"We shall take our leave shortly. Get ready," he informed.

R.R.
'Sephitree' is glad to announce that this is a non-cliffy chapter. And technically, it's 100% possible to click the "Next Chapter" button thing after you've finished reading this sentence, but I'd love you if you leave a review for this chapter anyway... :3