20: Divine Comedy Chase: The Net

"I laughed. It was a fun revelation. Hope I can do it again sometime." -Drana

-----

"I'm all tingly… Is this what having a body part chopped off feels like?"

I peered questioningly up into Sephiroth's smooth but troubled face. Crazily enough, whenever he looked that way, bothered and distraught, I pegged him as beautiful, in a sad way. Then, he'd put on a mask of menace over concern and my view would go back to seeing him as my captor, evilest in all his masculine wiles. That, in turn, was ugly to me. At least he was able to wear it with ease.

"You stupid, stupid woman," he chanted with quiet fury. "There are just some things you don't do. And get in my way is one, understand? Now I have to fix you…"

He held me dangerously close, crushing me in his embrace.

"You! Hand over the woman!" The guards kept a nervous but heavy vigil on us. More were coming. What would happen then? What would my captor do? Would he fight back, shedding blood with every stroke of his sword? What would he do? I was plagued with mixed feelings. He was, too, I felt it.

"Do you want me to fight them? To kill them?" he asked me, his face so serious it was terrifying. His eyes became too human for a moment, humanly angry and wanting to do something but waiting for my approval, of all things. My approval...

"N-no... No don't, Sephiroth. You can't hurt them…"

"I need to fix you. I can't do that if they take you away... You're mine, and it's what I must do."

"Please…" I lifted a hand to the air, to the security guards. "Let me stay with him. He needs…"

"What? You're not serious?"

"Is she serious?"

The guards were in obvious uproar at my decision, knowing he was the one that hurt me, that I would want to stay with him regardless of that. Crazy.

"It's better this way," I said with half-closed eyes, lowering my only arm down into my lap.

---

We were taken by a larger troupe of guards that had been summoned to take Sephiroth and I into custody. I overheard someone offering to contact their 'chief' and let him know of our trespassing in this building. Another considered it unimportant in light of other matters, but figured it couldn't hurt.

We were placed in a holding cell on a floor I could only assume was the basement of this place. Much of it had the look of rust and disuse, brimming with old crates, barrels, chairs and desks, among other things that occupied this space.

Sephiroth cradled me on the floor, tightly to the point of smashing my face into one of his bullet wounds. His blood was so warm and sticky against my skin, so human. A testament against his demands of being otherwise. So why would what wasn't human bleed human blood? All things bled, yes, I understood that just fine. But, nothing else bled as humans did. So full of emotion, so full of fire.

"Sephiroth," I said into his chest. "You want to fix me... but who'll fix you?"

"I need no such thing," he replied simply. Then, he reached for where my left arm once was, bathing his fingers in the green that still spilled from the gaping hole. He put his tongue to each digit, licking them meticulously. "Your life is all I need."

"Urh…"

"Hmph, you idiot," he sneered down at me. "To come under my blade like that... willingly? You must have a death wish. A death wish I can't allow you to fulfill just to save your gods-forsaken human dregs. No. Mine... mine is what you are, and I plan to keep it that way."

"... why do you think I'm yours like that? Why? Do you love me? Do you even like me? And not because I have some stupid power in me that you want all to yourself? I... I don't understand. Tell me, please..."

Sephiroth's brow furrowed as if some invisible demon suddenly decided to chisel it across his forehead. His hand came to clasp itself around my neck, his thumb creeping up the side of my chin and onto my lips, pinning them closed. I squeaked, unsure of how to respond.

"Love… I don't know the meaning of the word. I don't even want to hear it. I spare love for no one. With Mother gone, there is no one and nothing to love. I can't be harmed if there's nothing like it to be turned against me, don't you think so?"

"But you're changing," I muttered. "She said so. Sooner or later, you won't be able to hide from it anymore."

"My body aches for things, I admit... but even gods can desire the most basic of needs as they transcend species."

"Sir, I got word back from the chief," a guard stated aloud from the next room. "We hit the mother lode. Those two right there…"

"What?!"

"Sephiroth, what are you doing?" I groaned. "Don't do that again, it doesn't feel…"

"The legendary general that tried to destroy the planet?" said the guard captain, gazing warily into the barred window. He winced. "We have him detained. THE man himself. This shit is unbelievable. And… what's going on in there?"

"Sir, what should we do? She said to let her stay with him but-"

"We can't trust a sick fuck like that but we have little choice in the matter. It's her wish; let her suffer it alone..."

Was I suffering? The words of those men, and however careless they were in voicing them, caused my mind to flip over itself. Some part of me wished to scream and curse the loss of my arm, this cruel and unusual abuse, the other yielding to Sephiroth and letting him have his way. As long as he didn't hurt another person or thing.

I pondered how awkward we must have looked. Sephiroth held tight to my body like he would a broken rail, whispering to himself about foolishness and pleasure. I had succumbed. He could have what he wanted as the lesser evil. He could have me in exchange for precious lives saved.

They watched. I could sense the eyes through the bars on the cell door's small, circular window. They could see how he was with me, even in our tattered state, my tattered state.

A mess of blood, rags and glazing ooze.

"Let them look; they mean nothing, nothing at all," Sephiroth lilted into my ear.

"Lu…"

"I won't hurt you, so don't be afraid, little girl," my captor assured, while nipping at the lines of my neck jutting out as I tried to stretch from his mouth. It was to little avail, but I hadn't much of another choice. "I still want to feel you from every part of your body, inside and out. Become you. Consume you. It won't hurt…

"So many things to come, that they might even fix you in the process, making you a perfect treasure again."

The eyes shifted disgustedly, then fell to where I couldn't spy them looking at us anymore.

"Sir, are you sure we can't-"

"We can't touch them until the chief arrives. He sounded urgent about it, too."

"I feel like such a queer for watching and letting this happen…"

"It'll be over sooner or later. Grab some snacks; we're in for a long night."

--

The conviction I held being human I wanted gone now, because of moments like these that passed between him and I. Apparently, to be human was to know pains, pleasures, perversions, and sorrows that no other living creature even dared follow. And the body parts I possessed that I never really thought on as to what they were used for, I'd know now, in a way that sent chills down my spine and rakes across my skin. I never would have known that the body was so agonizing to live in until now.

But if I wasn't human, I wouldn't have been able to feel what Sephiroth did. And if I were even less of not being human… I would have just been alive. Floating and free, living the simplest way life could offer. The best way.

Like an animal. But even less.

The air.

The grass.

The sea.

I moaned, determined not to feel what Sephiroth gave and gave and gave. He wouldn't give up, he'd only do it more and more when I resisted or went limp. I was dizzy; I was thirsty, thirsty for sleep, for water, for whatever came to mind that wasn't any of this.

Those guards still stood behind that door, letting this whole thing pass as if it were a play of off-color variety. While still struck with revulsion, their eyes were trapped on us, wrapped around us like a wreck they couldn't miss. I knew.

"The way you taste, like the Lifestream itself... Life itself.

"You feel like the Planet, all sweet and secure in these thighs.

"Tell me how I feel, when I lick you, when I'm inside of you… How does it feel…?

"I want to know."

Sephiroth would have never noticed when I burst wings and flew away. He didn't notice.

I flew away quietly, swiftly, freely. I could almost touch the sun. So bright and warm and loving like the Planet.

But then I…

I came back.

I fell back.

I came back and held him in my arm. Running away wasn't the right option. I had to stay. It was the only way to make sure my captor held true to the path of his second chance. Aerith demanded it. So I demanded it, too, even though I really didn't understand why, even if part of me didn't really want to.

"How you feel to me..." I mouthed at first. "I feel who you were... who you are now, and who you'll be."

"Tell me how I feel inside of-"

"I-I can't," I fumbled, breaking into sweat after sweat, for he still embraced me in that way, pressed between my thighs like a rock made into a human body. Rocking slow, but hard against me. "I don't know what this means, what you're doing, what is it?"

"Ha, of course you wouldn't know, you're still a child-"

"And you know any better..."

"-a hapless little child." He laughed lowly next to my ear, while letting his weight sink further into me. "The Planet should have told you more about the things your precious humans do... that even gods can do, as well."

"What is it…"

"It's… It's desire, plain and simple."

That pause. That pause seemed curious. It was as if Sephiroth had another word in mind but covered it with another. What was the word he'd first thought? But his mind clouded over it and it was lost.

I frowned at the side of his gray head, almost wanting to bore into that ear of his and dig out the things he hid. Or pry open those thin, crazed lips of his as they brushed my cheek and pull them out from there at the root of his tongue. That tongue, a bad thing it was. How did he know to use it that way? Were all humans able to do it?

"Now tell me, tell me now," he hissed from between those menacing, grinning lips and teeth. "How do I feel…"

"You feel like you need help."

--

"Cloud, we have a situation back in Junon!" Reeve exclaimed. He flipped his mobile phone closed and slipped it back into his coat pocket as though he were quickly holstering a gun.

Cloud quirked a blond eyebrow high in the other's direction. "Situation?"

"Some of our officers captured our alleged Sephiroth and his mystery woman just last night!"

"Captured?!" Tifa was all too taken aback for her own good. "No way."

"They're sending footage from the surveillance feeds around the building in due time. Soon enough we'll be sure whether or not this is THE Sephiroth we fought against."

"If it's the real Sephiroth, I doubt he would've been captured," Tifa muttered under her breath. "At least not willingly."

"That sounds off to you, too?" Cloud said. The woman nodded in return.

"This isn't the time for second guessing, guys," Reeve admonished. "In a few hours, we'll know the truth. If it's him or if it isn't."

"Either way," the blond tossed in, "we should haul tail to Junon, shouldn't we?"

Tifa sat down in one of the seats that lined the left side of the room. They were angular and sparsely cushioned so she found them uncomfortable but coped with it. She watched Cloud and Reeve toss around some more concerned thoughts at each other, while she took the time to ponder to herself.

Could we face him again? Gods damn him. It took so much to fight him... I still feel like the whole thing took seven years off my life. Do I have it in me to fight again if I need to? I hope it's not Sephiroth, I hope it's not... She sighed inaudibly, running her gloved palm over the fore and top of her head. She looked back up at the two men as they talked, Cloud occasionally shooting a glance to Tifa as if sensing what she felt.

It was that they both knew what his return would likely entail. More death, more destruction, more loss. It was enough that they had lost their families, Aerith, and so many other people due to Sephiroth's conception, achievement, his purging. But like everyone else who survived Meteorfall, they had to be strong enough to pull through, or be crushed in the gravity of the aftermath. And Cloud and Tifa knew they had no choice but to be shining models for the rest. Even when they were still hurting inside.

"Let's take a break, Reeve," Cloud said to the older man suddenly.

Reeve shuttled a blank glance between him and Tifa across the room, then lightly stroked his goatee.

"I'll go look in on Vincent. See you in a few." He waved a large but gentle hand as he jogged out of their company.

Cloud took a seat next to Tifa, sitting fully against the back of the seat, arms crossed low over his chest.

"You think it'd really be like before?" he asked.

"I dunno... I really don't. I'm hoping not. Could we... could we really handle it all again? With all these new people depending on us, I'm kind of scared to fail."

"We are sort of like guardians of a new generation, aren't we? It's almost too big to think about."

"Scary."

--

From Sixth: I got rid of so much... Stealth editing old crap for the win~