Disclaimer: I do not own FF7…any reference or characters used in said game belong to Square Soft. I do own Kiv and the Nexus though.
Restraint
…green eyes…
…Silver hair…
…Delicate, nay, beautiful features…
…gods I am a monster…
He stared at himself and started to shake "No…It was a nightmare wasn't it? A nightmare please?"
"It was your mind stranger, your dream. As to whether it is a truth or a falsehood I cannot say."
"How did I come here? What happened to me?"
"That I do not know…you appeared on a world path that has been closed for close to five hundred years. You were broken, bleeding…you have the scars to prove it, I do not lie. You are lucky I was walking in that area or you may have healed like that, a twisted mass of flesh and bone…you remember nothing?"
"No, nothing. Why is that? What did I do?"
Kiv looked at the man and blinked "I do not know your past, stranger. I do not know your future. I do know that you were in a great fight, that your mind was as splintered as your body. That is something only time can fix. You are welcome to stay until you feel ready to leave here. This room here shall be yours. When you are ready to eat, simply call and I will bring you food."
He watched the strange young woman named Kiv gather up her bedroll, fish some clothing out of her dresser, and leave. "I never meant for you to give up your room…" He said to the closed door. The minute the door closed and Kiv's comforting presence was gone, he felt the tendrils in his mind unfurl.
"How kind of her to offer us a place to stay, we must take her up on it…"
"Yes, she is not the one who locked me away…but she may be useful for …recreation…"
"No…"
"Oh yes…she is quite…exquisite. I wonder what species she is? She may be worthy to bear our children…if she proves biddable."
"And if not…she still has the keys to the power I can feel here…We shall have to cultivate her."
"I will not!"
"You need do nothing. You are outvoted, and we are the stronger, mother and I. Now call for food, it is time to start learning of this place."
"No, I will bring no harm to her."
"Mere questions will not harm her…while trying my patience will! You WILL charm her. You WILL woo her to our side. Or we will kill her. There are no other choices."
"For now you will not remember this…" A place in his mind went dark. He was hungry. "Kiv? May I eat now?"
* * * * *
Kiv closed the door behind herself as she left. The stranger needed more than time to heal his mind, she felt great darkness swelling in that beautiful head of his…but my skill in healing is not great enough to guarantee his safety if I enter his mind, Oh mother of my spirit, if only you were here…a warrior such as me cannot heal like you could…Her keen ears twitched as she heard voices in the room she had left; three voices. That is impossible, I would know if another were in the Nexus…She shrugged and walked to the kitchen.
When he called she had a hearty soup that would help him regain the strength he had lost in recuperating. She walked softly, back into the room that had once been hers and smiled.
* * * * *
He watched Kiv as she sat gracefully next to the clothes stand with a thread and needle, mending the clothes that were his. He was happy just watching her, her voice startled him when she spoke "Do you have a name strange one?"
"I…" Sephiroth! We are Sephiroth! "No, I don't remember"
"Ah, then it is up to me to name you then, for a soul without a name gets lost easily. I shall call you Hio'la, it means "Broken One" on the world I came from."
"World you came from? This is not your world?"
"No this is the Nexus, it is a part, and yet apart from every world. I found my way here much the same way you did. I followed my swords."
"And on your world, what does Kiv stand for?"
"Nothing. It is not a name."
"If it is not a name then why are you called Kiv?"
She sat back on her heels and her alien eyes stared at him. "Do you truly wish to know?"
For a moment, he wished to leave it at that, but some corner of his mind prodded him and out of his mouth poured "Yes, I do"
She nodded and pulled her sleeve off her left shoulder. "On my world, a name is needed to keep one's soul from getting lost, which does not apply if you have no soul." She kneeled with her back to him, her left shoulder bare "The created have no souls."
On her shoulder, ugly black letters and lines were tattooed. Ketral InVitro experiment 19. Feline enhancement Alpha B "I was created to fight and amuse, to be an attractive, mass produced bodyguard. When I refused the man who…owned…me, I was sent to the arenas. There I lost myself for a long time in blood and fighting, nothing existed but my swords and my enemy. When I finally freed myself, I brought down those who created me and my sisters. I went in expecting to die. I remember falling asleep amid the fumes and flames, surrounded by the bodies of my sisters and fathers…and awaking here, with a woman I henceforth called mother leaning over me. She called me Kiv, and since then, that is what people call me." She twitched her sleeve back on and silently went back to her mending.
He was left to reel in shock at what she had revealed…it all sounds so familiar…"I am sorry you were so treated…"
"It matters not. I came here, I learned peace, and I healed, as you will. When my mother passed, I took up her work, though I fear I am not as good a healer as she. I am still too much the fighter I'm afraid" A smile pulled at the corners of her lips for a moment "I suppose that is well. The Nexus needs a protector." And with that cryptic comment she stood up and left, her mending finished.
* * * * *
"Interesting, interesting indeed mother. This shows great potential…"
"Yes, it does"