Disclaimer: Insert any you so choose, I am tired of writing them for the moment…
Echoes of the Past
Kiv strode briskly through the sparse trees that surrounded her home, no calmer than when she had awoke…she felt her precarious grip on sanity slowly, ever so slowly, melting away like soft mud. A slow tear trickled out of her eye, and she gripped the basket more forcefully. "It has been a long time here…alone. I understand what mother meant when she said age means nothing…one dies when one is ready…soon I will be…" She rounded the last curve in the path home and saw Sephiroth, on his knees and crying silently.
She halted one shadow among many, unwilling to intrude upon healing. "He heals quicker than I thought he would…my final peace may come sooner than I thought." She slowly followed the line of the trees until she could circle around her current, and last, patient.
Inside, she worked, silent and sure, stringing pungent herbs to dry, boiling others down for elixirs…all the while phantom images and twisted memories eroded her ledge even more.
* * * * *
He sat, safe and warm…embraced by something so profound he couldn't speak. Then the other…Hio'La…spoke. "We have made the beginning…but…I am your creation…your outcast weaknesses. I can only return to you if you desire me to…"
He looked up into a face so like his own, trailed shaking fingers down the pale cheeks and tangled them in the masses of silver hair that tangled now with his own. "How could I ever accept…"
Gentle hands stilled his lips "I am you, I am Sephiroth called Hio'La, accepting me is simply accepting yourself."
"You make it sound so incredibly simple. Simply accept the monster I am and was…accept everything I did…and in so doing drag the last uncorrupted part of myself into the quagmire that is my soul!"
"The depths are stirring…she awakens. I suggest you speak to one who has suffered as you have while I pretend to be cowed and chained." Hio'La laid a caressing kiss upon his brow and faded back into the shadowed corner that had until recently been his prison.
Sephiroth opened his outer eyes upon the world that Kiv called Nexus, the light had not changed since he had closed them…then again, he wasn't all that sure that the light ever changed here. He stood and wandered towards the trees, intent on being alone when his mother fully surfaced.
* * * * *
She rose from the darkest depths of her son's mind like the dark goddess she had once been. Her ivory skin was cloaked in the residue of her son's darkest thoughts, his darkest whim. It was…awe inspiring. It sent shivers through Sephiroth as he fought the urge to smile like a sycophant. She strode forward, graceful and baleful as a solar eclipse.
How easy it would be to forget Hio'La…to forget everything but what this, his mother, his birthright represented…
* * * * *
She smiled to see the effect she had, it was after all, for his benefit alone. He was her crowning triumph…his perfection, his grace, his…bloodlust. It had been so easy to twist the idiot scientist into believing Sephiroth was his creation…so deliciously easy. So easy to call him to her, to help him free her…and now this… She sensed his control, his restraint. "That beautiful child must be distracting you if you feel the need to so control yourself even in my presence…am I no longer welcome?"
He shook himself slightly as if coming out of a trance "Of course you are welcome mother, it is as you say…Kiv…is distracting, and not so much a girl…"
"Ah, then even more reason to hasten our plans…" she purred, drawing her black tinted nails down his chest… "Not too much longer until all this is no longer in your head…"
He shivered, in anticipation or dread he did not know.
* * * * *
Kiv blinked as she realized that she no longer had any work to do…the basket was empty, for the first time in a long time her potion stock was full…her wound ached, her eyes felt gummy…but something was nagging at her. Much time had passed, and yet…her patient. Sephiroth had not returned, and that did not bode well.
She stretched her aching back and glanced outside. The fourth ribbon had advanced across a quarter of the void. "More time than I thought…time to retrieve the errant man."
He was not where she had last seen him, but he was no woods man, and definitely not at his best. He left a trail a babe could follow. And she found him, leaning against a tree and breathing heavily. She would have advanced to aid him, but she caught the scent of a dark, permeating presence…besides, he seemed to be enjoying himself. She wrinkled her nose in distaste and walked back to her home.
Around back was the arena her mother had built for her, simple wooden walls reaching a height of eight feet, simple sand under foot. Vines and small flowers climbed the fence and made it seem almost natural, peaceful…Kiv ignored this and advanced straight to the rear wall. There was a silver-wood cupboard, a gift from a grateful patient. Inside were her two swords…four feet of shining blued steel, slim and well balanced with silver hilts.
Resolutely she closed the cupboard doors on the six foot blade it still held. Soon the only sound beyond the wind was that of her even panting and low chanting. This was her "birth" right…her peace…one of the few left to her. Here the phantoms did not intrude…here in the shining moving barrier of steel, she simply existed.
* * * * *
Sephiroth blinked and sagged against the tree…he thought he had seen…a slim silver shadow among the trees. It had left so quickly…had seemed so familiar…he fought the fog around his mind and withdrew a name that was not a name…Kiv. A healer…a target…prey. "No…that isn't right…she is a…guardian! Guardian of the Nexus!"
"Yes, she is the guardian here…guardian of us, our home, and our power…" Figures stood among the trees, old, young, in between. They all looked to be of different races, and yet something shone through them…something that labeled them as the same race. Then one stepped forward. The last time he had seen her was when his own blade had ended her life…the last of her kind, of the ancients…Aeris. "This place is our resting place, our gateway to the other worlds we visited…the ground, the sky, the trees and even the herbs are infused with our being, our wills, our spirits. This is a source of undiluted MAKO you might say. We allow no death here in our peace, we harm none…but we warn you now…we grant the guardians the power of the Nexus, which is beyond your imagining."
"Is this a threat Aeris?"
She smiled, her annoying, ingratiating smile "No, we would not harm a hair on your head, or a being in your head. That is why we chose the current guardian…she can be aggressive where we, and her predecessors could not. Do you not believe us? We can show you…"
The beings parted, forming an opalescent tunnel that lead to the house, and around it. There was a walled enclosure that opened to reveal Kiv…dancing. Only after a moment of scrutiny could one discern she wielded blades…they moved to quickly for a normal to see. It was so controlled…so precise…he started to believe the ancients. Then he started to remember. Hio'La, Kiv…healing…what he almost lost in darkness again.
He felt Hio'La stir and pipe in with acerbic humor "It took a bunch of ghosts to remind you of me? My, perhaps we are not as far along as I thought…"
"Shut up Hio'La" The words dropped into the silence of spinning blades and grace, causing Kiv to freeze, like some wild animal spotting a hunter…or perhaps spotting prey. Her eyes were unfocused, her expression blissful…and then she blinked, and he swore, for just a moment that he saw raw wounds, sadness, and madness akin to his own. Then her mask was in place and swords were sheathed, the moment broke into a thousand shards and disappeared.
* * * * *
Words drifted to her…she couldn't make them out…she slowed, then stopped dead center as she realized Sephiroth was witnessing her sanctuary. She sheathed her swords and stood before him. "I see you found your way back, did you…" Her words trailed off and she cocked her head to the side, then in a blur of movement, she was past him, calling over her shoulder, almost as an afterthought "Someone is here…"
* * * * *
And again, thank you kindly for waiting for my updates. Sorry if the last chapter was a let down…