Angel Trapped On Earth

Chapter Seventeen

.+. Just Only the Beginning .+.

"Sephiroth?" Tifa called out softly while they stopped in front a small room.

He turned around to look at her impatiently while she nibbled on her bottom lip. God she was nervous, and the funny thing was, why is she becoming such a shy, blushing, schoolgirl now? Her eyes peered up to meet his and she gave him a small peevish smile.

"About my little escape--" She began, but he moved in front of her and put firm hands on both her shoulders.

"Listen. I don't care. You're fine and that's really all I give a damn about." He said gruffly.

Tears threaten to well up in her eyes, but the sound of someone clapping caught both of their attentions. Sephiroth and Tifa whirled around to find a smug looking Ling-Nhi walking towards them. A low growl-like sound erupted from Sephiroth's throat as he narrowed his eyes at Ling-Nhi. Tifa put a small hand on his broad shoulder to still him.

"Remember. She's mine. You go after Cloud, he could still be lingering in this building." She said, grinning.

Sephiroth gave a curt nod and ran off, but only scowling at Ling-Nhi before he ran off into the other direction, leaving Ling-Nhi and Tifa alone. Tifa gave a false smile at Ling-Nhi. She put her hands up and tugged on her gloves a little more snug in a suggestive way. She was going to enjoy damaging that pretty little powdered face.

"How sentimental." Ling-Nhi mocked.

"Why are you still here? If you knew what was good for you, you would've disappeared long ago."

Ling-Nhi gave a laugh, narrowed her eyes, and replied; "Duty calls."

She brought a hand up to her sable hair and removed an object that looked like a chopstick, and with a flick of her wrists, the chopstick extended into a long stick that looked like a thick wand. Ling-Nhi advanced towards Tifa and now they circled each other; Tifa's fists were ready and Ling-Nhi was in a fighting stance. Ling-Nhi made the first move and the first mistake.

She made a quick slicing-like motion in the air, but with Tifa's quick reflexes, Ling-Nhi didn't stand a chance. Tifa caught the weapon with her right hand, and shoved a fist into Ling-Nhi's left side. Ling-Nhi recoiled in pain, extended a hand, and she casted a fire one spell on Tifa. Tifa's hit points went down a little when she felt like her face had just been burned, but Tifa let that slide. Tifa whirled around, raising a leg high in the air and swinging it towards Ling-Nhi's head.

Ling-Nhi had prepared for that, so she dodged. What she didn't expect was--Tifa had bluffed. Instead, Tifa crouched into a sitting position, and her swinging leg went right for Ling-Nhi's left leg and kicked Ling-Nhi off balance. The Chinese woman fell to the floor soundly and Tifa put a foot on her face and added pressure.

"So tell me. How long have you betrayed Tseng?" Tifa asked, vehemently. Her foot threatened to mash Ling-Nhi's face.

"Fuck you, bitch." Ling-Nhi spat.

"Oh really?" Tifa mocked, pushing a little harder on her foot, "You must've forgotten , you had already told me to go fuck Sephiroth."

When all Tifa met was silence, she added with pleasure, while nudging her foot down harder, "You push my buttons, I push yours. Sound familiar?" Tifa gave a Ling-Nhi a dazzling smile, crouched down, and she raised her fist in the air and punched Ling-Nhi hard in the nose. Ling-Nhi went out in under a second, and Tifa gave a scoff.

"Who's weak now?" Tifa asked with a triumphant huff.

Moments later, Sephiroth's footsteps drew near and Tifa perked her head up in anticipation. She groaned consciously. This was how it was for Cloud and now history is repeating itself. She shook herself out of her thoughts and took great satisfaction in seeing the look on Sephiroth's face as he looked at an unconscious Ling-Nhi; Tifa could be crazy, but it looked like pride.

"Is she dead?" Was the first thing that fell from his lips.

"Well..hello to you too! Couldn't you find Cloud?" Tifa retorted with a grin.

"He's not here anymore. Is she dead?"

"No, I thought maybe Tseng would want her for questioning." Tifa asked, then rolled her eyes, "You didn't actually think I was going to kill her did you?"

Sephiroth nodded his head so earnestly, Tifa wanted to laugh wondering how Sephiroth could ever look earnest. "Great. Now I'm supposed to carry her." Tifa nodded at his deflated statement, a genuine pitiful look upon her face. He winced visibly and looked at Ling-Nhi as if she was a slimy monster with five heads. Not that he could defeat her if she was anyway, Tifa thought wryly, eyeing Sephiroth's physique.

"Couldn't you just kill her and be done with it?" He asked eagerly. Tifa laughed and shook her head.

Sephiroth gave some more mutters and moved towards Ling-Nhi and hefted her on his back, and when he brushed past Tifa, he murmured, "I like it when you laugh. Do it more often."

"What?" Tifa asked, not quite hearing him.

"I said next time not only am I going to lock you up, I'm going to throw away the damn key and tie you up as well." Sephiroth replied.

Tifa laughed again, and Sephiroth secretly smiled while carrying Ling-Nhi to the control room where the others were waiting.

.+.+.

Rufus groaned and rolled his eyes when Tifa walked into the room and he had an I-Knew-It look written all over his face. His eyes however widened in surprise when he saw Sephiroth carrying Ling-Nhi into the room.

"I'll be back. I'm going to check the rest of the building." Sephiroth said and noticed Rufus's suspicious glance before he walked off.

"So it is true." Rufus said and casted a small cure spell on Ling-Nhi to awaken her.

Tifa had bounded her up in the same rope that Ling-Nhi had used on her and so the bitch had one hell of a time squirming this way and that. Tifa gave her a bright smile and waved in a mocking friendly way before looking at Yuffie to receive her friend's wink.

"She's working for them. She tried to take me into the ice room…..are you guys all okay?" Tifa asked with concern in her voice. She was satisfied when all she noticed as a couple of cuts here and there on Simon.

Rufus nodded, swallowed, and with his wary eyes on Ling-Nhi, he replied, "Yeah we're all okay. We managed to shut down the laboratory, but what good does that do when Hojo and Cloud aren't even here?"

"It's okay, I know where they might be." Tifa assured Rufus and he looked at her with a little hope in his eyes.

"You do?"

"Yeah…one of Cloud's men said something about Wutai." Tifa replied, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. It was habit she had whenever she was getting edgy, nervous, or excited.

"Tifa, what exactly happened? Didn't I tell you to stay at the headquarter?" Rufus said, his voice raising and he glanced an accusing look at Yuffie.

Tifa gave Rufus a guilty look before replying, "I felt left out." Tifa then continued to tell everyone in detail what exactly had happened, leaving out the detail of the indignity of being locked up inside Sephiroth's room. Yuffie, however, gave her a knowing look. Ling-Nhi stayed quiet, looking down at the floor with a nasty look on her face. Rufus turned to her finally and eyed her with a disgusted look.

"Spit it out, just exactly what are Hojo's plans and what do you have to do with them?" Rufus asked harshly.

All Rufus met was silence. Rufus was so blind to the woman's true plans, and that was why everything was so meticulously planned and countered in this mission. That's what went wrong; someone had given the mission's information to Hojo. That someone was working in one of the top ranks in the ShinRa. Rufus raised up a hand to slap her face, when a cold voice drawled, "That won't be necessary."

Rufus tilted his head up to meet Sephiroth at the control room's doorway. Sephiroth moved in front of Ling-Nhi and unsheathed his sword. He placed in under her chin and against her neck, letting its blade gleam suggestively.

"Talk." Sephiroth said simply, but the coldness in his voice spoke much more.

She looked up at him and smirked, "Just kill me and get it over with." Was her smart reply.

"Oh no, woman. You get me all wrong. I don't just kill. I'm Sephiroth remember? Surely, you've read of me, " Sephiroth drawled and Tifa rolled her eyes at his egotistic speech, "I torture. I'll slid this sword slowly across your neck and revel in the blood that trickles upon it. In other words, I'll cut you slowly and let you bleed to death. Now talk." He finished, his eyes narrowing in a promising way.

Ling-Nhi flinched in fear before replying, "They're deep in the Wutain Mountains. That's their hideout. As for their plans, I don't know."

Sephiroth gave her a threatening grin. "Oh, I think you do." With that, he let the blade slide a little and it cut into her neck just a little, and Ling-Nhi winced in pain.

"Cloud has this sick obsession for Tifa," Ling-Nhi said and a sickening feeling fluttered in his stomach, "He wants to suck her life into this..mirror like thing! Hojo wants…he wants.." Ling-Nhi stammered, avoiding Sephiroth's gaze.

"What. Does. He. WANT?" Sephiroth grounded out.

"I've overheard him say it. He wants…he wants you." Ling-Nhi said, her voice barely above a whisper.

Sephiroth raised his eyebrow in curiosity. Hojo wants him? Hatred consumed in his veins and it flowed richly into his heart as the memory of Hojo slowly traveled inside his mind, his hands itched for release. He brought a large hand up and slapped Ling-Nhi hard. Everyone seemed unsympathetic. Ling-Nhi was unconscious again from the sheer force of it.

"He'll have me all right." Sephiroth seethed, his eyes glinting with deep hatred.

.+.+.

Tifa hesitated before raising her hand up to knock on Sephiroth's door. They were back at the ShinRa headquarter and Ling-Nhi has been kept for further questioning by Tseng himself. What Tifa was really worried about was the condition in which Sephiroth was in. He seemed different. No, he seemed as if he was now revealing his true nature. Tifa shook her head again. That was wrong too. Tifa knew that deep down, Sephiroth was capable of love and caring just like anyone else. She had seen that in Reeves and Tseng, surely there had to be goodness in Sephiroth's. There was, Tifa assured himself as she remembered the past few weeks, he was good.

Now, it was different. On the flight back from Hojo's laboratory, which they had destroyed ultimately, Sephiroth had been quiet and brooding. Tifa understood that he had much to think about now that the realization that Hojo was after him had took over, but she had been greatly shocked when he had walked past her without so much as a glance.

Tifa understood that she did indeed piss him off at times, but damn it, so did he! Tifa sighed and realized that a whole five minutes had passed by with her standing in front of his door. She knew that in the beginning all she really wanted to do was push Sephiroth out of her mind and out of her life as quickly as possible, and she didn't even know why she bothered to nurse him back to health in the first place.

Her father's words took rein of her thoughts. He had told her that everything happens for a reason, and those reasons are always good. She smiled ruefully and wondered if Sephiroth had been something "good." If her father had been alive, he definitely wouldn't say that anymore. Tears prickled in Tifa's eyes and she scolded herself for being so teary nowadays. Then a bitter reminder whispered through her mind darkly. Sephiroth was the man that killed her father.

She lowered her hands and turned around to walk away. Just then, the door swung open to reveal a weary looking Sephiroth. The sound of a door opening suddenly caught Tifa's attention and she whirled around to meet pools of deep malachite mixed with the essence of mako. It seemed as though the world had been stopped by time and yet it was whirling around her in a haze.

They stood there like so for a few moments, until finally, Tifa's tears were no longer in control.

"I'm so sorry." Tifa sobbed and she flung herself into his arms.

He was caught in surprise as Tifa wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face into his chest and there he felt the wet, moisture of her tears. He hesitated before slowly moving one of his arm to wrap it around her shaking shoulders. He then wrapped another arm around her waist and held her tightly to him, burrowing his face into her neck.

.+.+.

Author's Note : I hope you liked this chapter, although I personally think it wasn't that great. Well, I hope it was good and hope that you guys had a great new years, and I'm sorry I couldn't wish you one. I had some difficult logging in to FF.Net, but all that is fixed now! =) bye bye!!

Disclaimer : Squaresoft owns =)