Trust Again
Chapter One
This story is an AU Lightning/Sephiroth, because we´ve all been waiting for more fics of this ship but find with sadness there are still too few of them. Hope you like it.
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The forest is completely enveloped in darkness, only the fainting light of the full moon, occasionally hidden behind heavy clouds, illuminates the earthy roads in the village´s periphery, the stillness of the night broken from time to time with a shy croak of a sleepless toad, or the magnificent howling of a restless wolf; though as beautiful as it may sound for the unused witness, it turns out to be quite a common spectacle in this small, nameless village that a few people once called Nifelheim. Such stillness and such beauty is suddenly injured by the thunderous sounds of multiple horse´s hooves clapping unharmoniously against the fertile ground, at quite a high speed, running as fast as their elegant and powerful legs would allow them to, in a desperate pursue that would make anyone´s heart flutter.
Cloud, a six-year-old, scrawny little boy, gets up from his bed with a start, alerted by the galloping sound. He had been having nightmares the last couple of days, though his mother had told him they were for the large number of fruits he always ate after dinner, which he usually just dismisses; the light sleeping has been a curse for the child, but maybe, this time, a blessing for someone else.
"M-mom…?"
Cloud´s large blue eyes open wide, as he hears the sounds of struggling repeating itself outside his house. He runs as fast as he can towards the window, and sees the shadows of the culprits from all his nightmares.
Five riders are galloping their horses to their tops across the small and muddy main road, destroying tools and small crops on their paths, their dark cloths and hidden faces making them look like dire apparitions that would announce the end of times. The little boy notices that the rider leading, is in reality being pursued, his desperate escape evident for his head turning around from time to time, checking on his pursuers, as they get dangerously nearer. Unnoticed by the rider on the run, though, one of the last riders takes a turn towards the forest, not following their path, and disappears from their sight. Cloud´s heart flutters at recognizing the trail the rider had taken.
"No…"
The kid doesn´t know why, but his heart hammers against his chest, foreseeing the obvious development. He knows he should stay in bed, just like his mother has always told him, never get into people´s business, never step out of his house in the middle of the night… but Seph told him once, that bad people always win because good people doesn´t do anything. Cloud doesn´t know why, but this battle really seems to be bad people trying to hurt good people.
He has to do something.
Making sure he doesn´t produce any noise that would wake up his mother, the little kid gets out of his house, following a hidden trail that traverses from his house to the outskirts of his village, seeking the protection of the shadows. He knows it´s risky business, but something inside his heart tells him it´s the right thing to do.
Following the main path, in his desperate sprint the first rider inclines his body to the side, taking a broom with his hand, and immediately throws it backwards, with such an aim that it hits one of the pursuers straight on the chest, making him unceremoniously fall from the horse. Next, the rider takes a pot, and executes the same movement, hoping luck would still be on his side, but the last rider manages to avoid it, following the pursued without a problem. They finally reach the last houses, the group getting close to leave the small village, and the rider´s crystal clear eyes shine with a tint of hope, as if sensing he has a better opportunity to escape his pursuers in open ground. The rider on the lead is about to take another tool, when the enemy that had disappeared from his sight suddenly appears in front of them and shoots an arrow that hits the pursued rider right on the chest, closer to his shoulder, and that makes him fall from the horse and hard on the ground. Immediately, the rest of the riders surround the fallen one, making a circle that wouldn´t let him escape.
Cloud reaches the group, and witnesses how they interchange slashes with the man on foot, who fights desperately trying to fend the enemies tainting him, swords seeking his demise, and in that moment, when the pale moon moves from a large cloud and illuminates the clearing, the kid notices a few important details.
The fallen rider, the one frantically fighting for his life, has lost his bonnet, allowing the moonlight to shine upon feathery and long strawberry tresses, and the kid can see, too, pink lips tainted with a grimace of pain and anger.
The boy gasps, but manages to slap his mouth shut with both hands to prevent himself from screaming, when he realizes it´s a woman who´s been running for her life all along. And a very beautiful one at that, her face with delicate features of an angel, her eyes being framed with long eyelashes and narrow, expressive eyebrows that give her an air of determination and naivety. He truly likes her features, almost as beautiful as his sister´s. He can see how the riders surround her, sending several strikes with their swords, that she manages to stop or avoid, a sign of skill letting her live a little bit longer in spite of her right shoulder being immobilized by an arrow protruding on her chest, bleeding profusely. Cloud understands she won´t resist much and, brave and determined, doesn´t think twice when he takes a sudden sprint away from the place.
Unaware of their unwilling spectator, the woman pants heavily, the pain making her move slower, but she still manages to return every slash they send at her. With a turn on her heels, she clashes against a blade and injuries the horse, making it stagger and its rider to fall. She falls upon the man, severing his head with a swift movement, but in retaliation, another arrow is embedded in her flesh, on her abdomen. She doubles over herself, pain exquisite on her side, and when an enemy slashes down to cut her head, she screams to gather her strength and spins, moving to the side to avoid the attack and using the momentum of the blade to sever the man´s arm, and with a second movement, she embeds the blade on the warrior´s torso.
Two down. Two more to go. Her smile grows wide as a feeling of hope invades her chest. It would seem that, after all, she might have a chance against her enemies…
But her smile is violently broken with a desperate scream when a maze hits her leg, breaking her bones in many tiny pieces and exposing it through a ghastly wound. She falls to the ground, her sight covered in a dark hue due to the sudden dizziness that envelops her, and when she manages to look up, notices the two remaining men looming over her, their smiles dirty and triumphant, while the one with the arch readies another arrow, and the massive one makes the maze give a twist, an evident movement to prepare it to smash her head. Gasping for the insufferable pain, the woman closes her eyes and readies herself for the impact. But instead, she hears grunting sounds and screams, and when she opens her eyes, there´s a tall, slender, muscular man with long white hair fighting against the other warriors, defeating them with such ease that, were she not injured this much, she would have her mouth wide open in awe. Once the tall man disposes of the pair, with his naked chest tainted with enemy blood, he reaches her side, and she is met with the most brilliant aquamarine irises she´s ever met.
"Don´t worry, child. You´re safe now."
She manages to nod weakly, but remains silent, as the man kneels in front of her, inspecting her broken leg, then his face gets closer to her, as he inspects the wound on her chest. She had completely forgotten such a painful injury, until she recoils at his hand touching her shoulder.
"It´s okay. I can help you. My name is Sephiroth, what´s yours?"
"M-my… my name is…" but she can´t be sure whether she managed to tell this stranger her name, because suddenly everything goes dark, and she faints.
The man succeeds on holding her head right before she hits the ground, and deposits her softly, while inspecting the injuries.
"Is she dead? Did they kill her, Seph?" Cloud, who had been hiding behind the trees while the battle took hold, places his face very close to the wound in the shoulder, and with a finger he touches the broken arrow, and the man pushes him aside, gently but firmly, as if used to the kid´s recklessness.
"No, she´s not dead. At least not yet. But hurry up, I need you to fetch your sister, we will need all the help we can get."
The kid only nods and, with a last worried look, he obediently runs back towards his house. The man named Sephiroth nods and smiles fondly at his antics, then proceeds to fix the arrow to the chest with a piece of fabric from one of the attackers' clothes, hoping to somewhat stop the bleeding. Cloud returns with his mother, a middle-aged woman with long hair as blond as her son´s, accompanied by a young, beautiful woman with raven hair and eyes with irises of mismatching colors, both arriving the moment Sephiroth is fixing the broken leg with two branches. Both women gasp when they see the bloodied spectacle in front of them.
"Sephiroth… what happened here?" Asks in fear the older woman, while the younger one, without losing any more time, approaches and kneels in front of the injured body that still remains alive.
"It´s okay, Claudia, I promise I´ll explain it to you on the way home, but right now I need your daughter to save this woman´s life."
The young woman nods. "I understand, what do you have for me?"
"Thank you, Yuna. I really don´t understand much, only what you can see, two injuring arrows and a broken leg caused by that maze." He points at the offending object, laying on the ground next to its dead owner. Yuna nods in understanding and her hands work immediately upon the first arrow. Though young, the woman had served in the king´s army as a medic, thus she acquired a lot of experience treating war injuries, even got the opportunity to save Sephiroth´s life once.
Differently from her daughter´s immediate acceptance, Claudia, the mother, kneels besides Sephiroth, her eyes still scanning the corpses, and then her sight falls upon the unconscious woman. "Poor child! Why would they do such a thing?"
"I really don´t know, but I´m sure, once the girl is out of danger, she´ll tell us the story. Hopefully. Now please, help me with her leg. I think the wound on her chest has stopped bleeding."
She eyes the arrow wearily while Yuna´s hands pull at it, effectively drawing it from the flesh and immediately covering the bleeding wound with a cloth she had brought. "We need to see that wound first, it could be bleeding internally."
"We need to see for it, but not here. It´s too exposed." Sephiroth says.
At his words, Claudia turns around, taking the boy by the arm to pull him closer to her, to Cloud´s evident disagreement.
"Mom!"
But the woman dismisses the protest. "Do you think they would come back?"
"I really don´t know, but I don´t think it would be wise to linger and find out."
"You´re right. Cloud, take out the spare sheets we have, and prepare a bed in your sister´s room…"
But before the diligent child gets another step forward, Sephiroth stops him with one hand upon his shoulder, though his eyes are fixed on her mother´s.
"No. This girl goes to my house, none other´s."
Scandalized, Claudia won´t get any of it, and even Yuna raises her eyes from her the girl´s leg at his words.
"No can´t do." The mother protests. "Sephiroth, she´s a girl, most probably a maiden, it´s unproper that a maiden would live in your house, the two of you all alone."
The man dismisses her words with a wave of his hand.
"Nonsense, besides, I´m sure she´s not a maiden, she has the face of someone tough."
But the woman straightens, offended.
"I think you´re seeing only what you want to see. Her face is that of an angel, it´s obvious she doesn´t know of a man´s touch!"
"I think on the contrary. Do you want to make the exam right here?"
The man takes the leather buckle that surround the girl´s waist, doing as if to uncover the tender flesh, but the woman slaps his hand away.
"Stop it, Sephiroth! If you think this is funny, let me tell you you´re dead wrong!"
The man sighs at the woman´s stubbornness.
"Look, Claudia, if they do return to finish the job, the girl, and all the town, will be safer if she stays hidden inside my hut, and you know I speak the truth."
"But, Sephiroth…"
"Just look at them, Claudia! And look at her! Is this what you want for your children?"
His words hit a sensitive part, and Claudia takes the boy´s hand, but she still hesitates, still feels unsure. Before she opens her mouth again, though, he beats her to it.
"You have my word of honor I won´t touch her in any improper way. The only thing I´ll do is keep her protected. Does that make you feel better?"
The woman is nonetheless weary, but finally gives in to his reasoning. After all, her first and foremost concern has to be Yuna and Cloud´s safety, before anyone else´s.
"Do you promise? For your honor?"
"For my honor."
She sighs and looks at her daughter, who only nods, and they in unison return their attention to the girl´s injured leg.
"Fine, I´ll believe you. You better behave!"
"I will, ma´am."
"Oh, mom…" Yuna exclaims, passing the back of her hand over her forehead, in a sign of distress. "If having an unknown girl over Sephiroth´s house has you this reeled up, what will happen when I confess you that I need to spend the night in his hut?"
"What?!" Both grownups spat at the young woman, making the two youngest of the group jump up in surprise, as a pair of eyes open wide at her declaration.
"What? Why do you scream? I mean it to tend for her wounds!" The brunette clarifies, secretly entertained at drawing such reaction from them both. "If I don´t stay, she must surely won´t live to see tomorrow, her injuries are serious. What did you think I wanted to spend the night for?"
The older woman sighs, one hand over her chest. "N-nothing, child. O-okay, if you think it´s necessary, I think you can stay at his hut. But you´ll have to behave. Both of you."
Obviously, this permission wouldn´t pass unnoticed by the youngest of their group, who had been staying behind the three adults, but attentive to every word that had transpired in between them.
"Mom! may I stay with them too?"
"You certainly may not, young man!"
"But mom! I helped to save the girl, too! I can help Yuna!"
"And that´s a very good deed you just did, but you´ll be a lot more helpful if you stay at your own house where you won´t be a nuisance."
"But mom!" the boy hits the ground to reinforce his pleading, but the woman won´t give any single inch.
"Cloud Strife! Stop this tantrum at once and obey your mother! Go back to sleep, for in a couple of hours it will be your turn to wake up the cow!"
"Oh, mom!" The boy gives a few kicks on the ground, but does as he´s ordered to, his head hanging low. Yuna scoffs, pleased her little brother has been scolded, and Sephiroth only chuckles at their exchange, while the three adults fight to stabilize the girl and transport her to a safer place, hoping it´s still not too late.
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Author´s Note: Wow… have you noticed that many of my fics start with Lightning facing a strong enemy that injuries her quite badly? No? well, I´m quite pensive over this… what would my Psychiatrist say!?... if I ever had any XDDDD.
Well, this is my attempt at a second Light/Sephiroth ship. This time, I´ll try not to give you too much violence, and instead a little bit more fluff. In this story we have a Sephiroth who didn´t lose his mind, and though it´s completely AU, there are a few things that will remain:
- Sephiroth is an ex-SOLDIER and was exposed to GENOVA´s cells.
- Serah remains as Lightning´s sister. I think she´s a very important part of her motives, thus, she will be present here.
- Lightning is a sergeant.
- Their parents are dead.
- In general, I wanted to keep Lightning´s Savior, more mature attitude, not her l´Cie one, even when she´s a lot younger than the 1,000 years she lived in LR.
Well, hope you like this fic.
Final fantasy doesn´t belong to me, I write this only for fun.