The you that was embraced by fate
Blooms in season like an ephemeral flower,
Leaving behind the scent of hope on your chest
Scattering hurriedly in splendid form...
When eyes are closed as if in prayer,
The world simply disappears there into the darkness...
Even so, my heartbeat starts again,
Looking for a bounded eternity...
Neon Genesis Evangelion- "Tamashii no Rufuran" (Soul's Refrain)
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He was dreaming again.
Was he dreaming?
Was it...real?
Sephiroth looked around him. He stood in the center of the Ancient City, near a lake...
Help me, Sephiroth...
Sephiroth walked to the shoreline, looking out across the crystal clear waters. Warily, he ventured into the water, walking across the sloping cliff until the water reached his waistline. He looked down into the water, and there it was.
Aerith's corpse, in perfect condition. Her brown hair pillowed around her, bits of sand entwined in the strands. The hem of her dress wafted in the soft current, as did her hair. Her arms lay at her sides, held out like an angel...
Sephiroth heard thunder in the distance, but paid it no mind. He looked at her face. Her features were so peaceful... so serene, as if she were sleeping... her eyelids so gently shut in her eternal slumber...
The water began to swirl around him, ever so softly.
Thunder boomed overhead once more, followed by violent bursts of lightning. He looked up into the sky.
Black clouds swirled above the trees, above the coral. The water began to rise around him, and it swirled with more force now.
Sephiroth gasped when the current swept him off the cliff and dragged him underneath the surface. He flailed his arms, reaching upwards, trying to grab onto something, anything! His fingers grazed the edge of the cliff before he was sucked under, brought down to the bottom of the lake, the crystal clear all around him.
He saw Aerith's corpse. It began to change before his eyes. Blood spewed forth from her lower stomach, where he had stabbed her, and dissipated into the water around him.
The whole lake turned a shocking shade of red. Aerith's eyes shot open, empty, transparent emerald eyes staring into his, penetrating his very soul. She screamed!
SEPHIROTH!!!!
Her body crumbled and was absorbed in the water.
------
Sephiroth's vision faded to black, and all was nothing again. He was floating, and then he heard it again. He heard her voice.
Please hear my cries, Sephiroth.
I need you.
Save...me... so we may have our revenge.
"How can I save you?"
There was no answer.
"How do you expect me to raise you when you don't tell me how?"
Jenova...
"What? What about Jenova?"
Silence once more.
Sephiroth awoke, in a cold sweat, gasping for air.