Standard disclaimers apply.
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Chapter four; Hidden motives
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They broke open the door. Actually, Mori returned with Yuffie's conformer and the ninja hacked at it until it splintered and broke. A wooden chair was shoved under the handle, and Yuffie pushed past it and into the room.
It took a couple of minutes to get into the room, and when they did, the sight that met their eyes was one of confused chaos. Of three sinks, only one remained. The others had been broken, pieces of hard porcillian lying in gathering puddles of water. In a couple of places, the piped had been cleanly severed, exposing a fountain of gushing water. The walls were gouged with jagged cuts from Sehpiroth's sword. And lying in a growing puddle of water and blood was a blond haired girl.
"Rikku?" Mori called softly as Yuffie ran foreword. She pulled her coppery curls back and watched as Yuffie cast Cure. "Is she going to be all right?"
Yuffie didn't respond. She tried to hoist the Al Bhed girl onto her back, but failed. Instead, she dropped to the floor, ignoring the seeping wetness in the seat of her shorts. There, she buried her face in her hands, body zinging with disbelief even as her mind accepted the fact.
It hadn't been easy. Beating Sephiroth and saving the Planet had been the hardest thing that she had ever done in her life. She had counted herself lucky that she had lived through it. "Sephiroth should have died." It was a statement, something that she knew was true.
"He did," came the surprising answer. "I mean, he's dead, just not.....you know....." It was Rikku's voice and coming meekly from the floor.
"You're alive?" Mori asked. She was hovering by the door, looking from Yuffie to Rikku and back again. "Did you see who attacked you? Was it -"
"Wait!" Yuffie interrupted. "Don't ask her that." She brushed a strand of dark hair behind her ear and took a deep breath. "Rikku, can you describe the person that attacked you. What did he look like?"
Rikku didn't respond. She sat up, looking around the ruined bathroom. "I sure made a mess in here, you know," she said thoughtfully. She got to her feet and started walking around the room slowly.
Yuffie watched her the entire time. "Rikku, I need to know -"
Rikku winced. "I'm still trying to figure out what happened," she said softly. "When I figure that out, I'll let you know."
Yuffie shot to her feet. "NO!" she snapped. "I'm your friend, and I'm worried about you. More then that I want to kick the guy who did this to you - I want to kick him in the ass!"
"Hit him in his 'family jewels'?" Rikku inquired with a slight smile. "Well, that should be interresting to say the least." She reached out and slapped Yuffie casually on the back. "But right now, I think we should be getting on our way home.....or rather, I should go to my home and you should go to yours and we should both sleep and then in the morning - oh, hi Mori. What are you doing just standing there - "
"Are you okay?" Mori asked. "Are you hurt really bad?" She stepped into the room with a quick step. She pulled out a healing potion and held it out to Rikku. "If you're still injured, you can use this."
"You're not sending me home like nothin - " Yuffie began.
"I'm fine," Rikku said firmly.
"No, you're not," Yuffie responded with steal in her voice.
"I just need sleep, coming here tonight was a bad idea, but," she shrugged. "The point is everyone's alive, we tied the game, and...." Rikku's voice trailed off.
Yuffie frowned slightly. She grabbed Rikku by her bicep. "Come on, I'll take you home." She smiled. "But I'm spending the night at your house, just to make sure you're going to be okay, okay?"
Rikku smiled for a moment. "Sure, I don't think he'll be coming back tonight. So you'll have to give it a couple of days before you can kick his rump."
"If he's who I think he is, he'll be back tonight," Yuffie said confidently - and fearfully.
Surprisingly Rikku shook her head. "No, he said that he wasn't coming back....he said that he'd come back when he could beat the alure of........." her voice trailed off and she ran her fingers over her lips. "Or when I surrendered myself to him........"
Yuffie glanced sidelong at her friend. Something wasn't adding up. Maybe it hadn't been Sephiroth's voice she had heard after all. Because it was clear to Yuffie that whoever it had been had kissed Rikku.
"Did he kiss you?" Mori asked, startling both girls. "He didn't force himself on you, did he?"
Rikku readjusted her ponytail slightly. "He kissed me.....but it was almost against even his own will. He didn't want to do it. It was like he was compelled."
"Did he do anything else?" Mori asked, curious in spite of herself.
"Why didn't you fight back?" Yuffie asked. Probably because she'd not a fighter, you dolt, she thought to herself even as the words left her own mouth. Probably because if it was Sephiroth he was everything she wants in a man except compassionate.......she let the thought trail off. "Never mind the answer to that," she said aloud. "Let's just get going."
"I'll see you both later," Mori called hesitantly after them as they left. "I'll talk to the owner of this place and get the bill for the bathroom. I think Key will want the team to pay for the dam-"
"I'll take care of it!" Yuffie and Rikku exclaimed at the same time. Both of them turned and grinned, a smidgeon of their humor returned.
"Where were you going to get the money from?" Yuffie asked almost casually as they slipped out of the restaurant and towards Rikku's house, waving bye to Mori.
Rikku offered a pale ghostly smile. "I thought that would be obvious - fighting monsters. You'd be surprised how much cash they carry around with them...."
"You fight?" Yuffie inquired. For the moment, they both put Sephiroth out of their minds.
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Sephiroth was angry, hurt, and confused. The girl had his Black Materia and instaed of taking it from her, he had kissed her. Instead of killing her, he had deliberately missed every shot. There was something wrong with that. It wasn't right.
"I think that you're forgetting you purpose," he heard a voice behind him announce. He turned slowly, letting his cold green gaze fall onto the man standing fearlessly behind him.
"What do you want, Seymour?" he asked in a soft dangerous voice. Briefly he considered killing the other man once again. It was a fruitless gesture, but he felt satified every time that he did it.
"What do I want?" Seymour murmured. "Well, I want you to be happy and be able to rest in peace." He looked at Sephiroth with sharp blue eyes that weren't even close to being concerned about other people's happiness. He had his own agenda, and Sephiroth knew it.
The man standing slightly behind Sephiroth was shorter then the silver haired man, but still tall. He had periwinkle blue hair, shooting out in almost all directions. Pale blue veins stood out on his forehead, accenting his pale blue eyes. He was dressed in robes - the kind that priests wear - and held a staff in one long fingered hand.
He had the look and feel of a magic user, and Sephiroth had little doubt that he could successufly defeat the man using spells. Fortuentely for the crazed sociopath, he was a physical fighter of unparrelled skill. He could - and had done so in the past - beat the half guado with one shot. But it really couldn't kill him - Seymour was already dead. Just like he was.
Sephiroth didn't speak. He let his eyes - a smodering and glowing green - penetrate the heart - if he had one - and black soul of the man standing before him.
Seymour almost flinched. He took the tiniest step backwards and then stopped. "You're supposed to be retrieving Yuna from Luca," he said in an oily smooth voice. A politicians voice.
"I have my own agenda," Sephiroth said with a suddenly malice filled voice. "I saw the woman you wanted and realized your intentions."
"And you object to my midnight plans for my wife?" Seymour asked with a raised eyebrow. "Why, I didn't realize that you cared for the fate of strangers or allies."
"I don't." Sephiroth let the words fall smoothly and dangerously from his lips. He didn't elaborate further and his selnder fingers began to tap slightly against the handle of his murasame.
Seymour shrugged dismissively. "Of course, you don't care about anyone, do you?" He stepped foreword boldly. "But you are, in fact, at my mercy, Sephiroth. And unless you want to die -"
Sephiroth threw back his head and laughed, letting the sound rain down around him like broken glass. He held up one hand as if to stave Seymour off. "If I don't want to die?" he questioned between his cold hearted laughing. Then as abruptly as it had began, his laughter faded, leaving fearless eyes and a serious face glowering at Seymour. "I'm already dead. Threats of death.......are meaniless...."
Seymour didn't laugh or flinch. He frowned. "Sephiroth I don't think you understand what I mean by death. I'll Send you to the Farplane and your soul will be trapped -"
"In peace?" Sephiroth laughed. Once again he held up a hand in a back-off gesture. "Isn't that what I want, according to you?"
"I know how it feels to be newly dead. You don't know what you want -"
"Don't I?" Sephiroth murmured. "Actually, I do. I want the same thing I've always wanted."
"And what might that be?" Seymour said in a humoring fasion.
"Power." The word fell like ice from lips curved up in a deadly smile. "The kind that can only be achieved by complete destruction."
"You want to be Sin." Seymor's voice was flately irritated. "Too bad, I will be the one to revive Sin and bring destruction to Spira. I'll kill everyone and end all suffering. I will save -"
"That's where we differ," Sephiroth said softly. "I don't want to save anyone."
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Rikku's house might have been in a sunny spot during the daylight hours, but after the sun went down it was a shadowy spot. The gardens looked dark and twisted, spooky, in every sense of the word.
"Are you sure that you're not hurt?" Yuffie asked for the millionth time. "I mean, of course you were hurt, but the healing potioins should have taken care of those injuries so-"
"Hey, Yuffie, I'm fine," Rikku said firmly, rumaging around in her belt pouch for the key to her house. Her fingers brushed across the stone she had picked up the day before. "I wonder...." she murmured, pulling it out and staring at it in the light of the moon. "Could this be what he wanted?"
"Did he actually say his name?" Yuffie asked suddenly, racing the last few steps to the door and spinning around abruptly. "Did he actually......kiss you?"
Rikku grimaced, slipping the stone back into her pouch and pulling out the heavy iron key. "He said his name was 'Sephiroth' and yes, he did kiss me."
Yuffie sprang off of the steps. "But you hated it, right? You didn't want him to kiss you, did you?"
Rikku pushed past her and unlocked the door. "Of course I didn't want him to kiss me. I...just couldn't stop him once he started to get all.....intense looking." She reached her hand in and flicked a switch on the wall. Soft yellow light flooded the pourch, illuminating both young girls.
Yuffie followed her into the house. "Did he say what he wanted? Did he attack you physically?" She paused. And did he mention how he was still alive? she thought mentally. Out loud she said, "I suppose you don't really want to talk about it, huh?"
"Actually, I had a question for you, Yuffie," Rikku responded. "I want to know what Materia is. You mentioned something on the first day that I met you -"
"That was yesterday, wasn't it?" Yuffie said, flopping on a bare wooden chair. Her dark gaze filtered around the room, lingering on the scarse furniture. "This place is pretty - " The fine trembling that had been building in her stomach spread throughout her body in a mind bending wave. She pushed the fear aside and tried to look casual as Rikku cut her words off.
"Yeah, I know. But about the materia, what can you tell me?" Rikku prompted.
"Oh, yeah," Yuffie murmured. "Uhhhmmmm, Rikku do you really think that he won't return tonight?" Her voice quivered slightly. And she tried to ignore the trembling feeling in her knees. No matter what she said or did - her cheerful act was just an act. She was scared and didn't know what to do anymore. And it was getting harder and harder to not wimper at the mere thought of Sephiroth.
She heard Rikku sigh. "So...." she said softly a couple of minutes later. "Where did you meet Sephiroth at before?" She was moving around the house turning on lights and making sure that the windows and doors were tightly locked. "And just what did he do to you?"
"He's the Planet's equivelent of Sin," Yuffie said darkly. She slipped off the chair and slumped down against a wall. "He's the one that summoned Meteor, killed Aeris, and nearly destroyed the entire planet. He's crasy, a phycho. Dangerous and powerful."
Rikku sat down beside her. "And?" she promted. "What else?"
Yuffie shook her head mutely, causing Rikku to sigh. "The point isn't that he nearly destroyed the Planet. The point is that he didn't," the Al Bhed girl said firmly. "I mean, in spite of everything, he failed and he lost his life. He's dead -"
Yuffie tried to smile. "You didn't kill him," she murmured. "You weren't able to kill Sephiroth when he attacked you in the bathroom. I don't think.....you even got a chance to hit him once."
"He was already dead when he attacked me," Rikku responded. "So I didn't have to kill him. All that I had to do was -"
"He wasn't a zombie. There would have been a rotting smell in the bathroom and you would be puking your guts out," Yuffie said tightly, trying to keep a cheerful face.
"Why would I be puking?" Rikku said with a slight frown. "I mean....why?"
"He kissed you!" Yuffie said sharply. "And if he were a zombie then you'd have been kissed by a corpse -"
"Ew, you're right," Rikku muttered. Then her face brightened. "But he wasn't a zombie. He's not a fiend.....not exactelly. He's got a lot of willpower so I don't know when his spirit energy would downgrade to an actual fiend. I mean, look at Auron, he was dead for ten years and -"
Curiousity temporairly overrode Yuffie's fear. "You lost me," she announced. "Start over at the part where Sephiroth is dead. Then tell me how dead people can walk around and then-"
Rikku smiled inside and out. She had distracted her friend from the fear that had been raging through her body. Now all that she had to do was make sure that Yuffie stayed distracted. "In Spira, one of two things happen to people who die. The most desired and common event is a Sending. The spirits of the dead are Sent - via a Summoner - to the Farplane where they're able to rest in peace." She paused a moment before continueing. "However, sometimes they aren't Sent. The spirits become bitter with the living and become fiends, preying on any that live - trying to kill them, really...."
"So Sephiroth is....a fiend?" Yuffie questioned, her forehead creased in confusion.
"Not exactelly. There are exceptions to everything. Some people who die just except their death. They move to the Farplane on their own."
Yuffie snorted. "I don't think that Sephiroth moved to the 'Farplane' on his own."
"You're right, he's an Unsent," Rikku said with a shrug. Then, upon seeing the unenlightened look on Yuffie's face, she elaborated. "That is, he's a strong spirit that continues on in death. He's just like he was before, only..." her voice trailed off as words failed her. "I guess I can't really explain it."
"If he's just like before, I think I'll go back to being scared," Yuffie whispered in a half-serious manner.
"No, he's dead. That means all we have to do is Send him," Rikku announced.
"Oh, so throw something like Holy Water on him and -"
Rikku shook her head slightly. "Actually, we'll need a Summoner." She paused and then smiled. "I think that it's time to pay my cousin, Yuna a visit. She was against me coming to the Planet in the first place and insisted that I visit her often." Her grin widened. "And she just happens to be a Summoner."
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Author's notes;
Thanks for reading,
Kissa-chan
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Chapter four; Hidden motives
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They broke open the door. Actually, Mori returned with Yuffie's conformer and the ninja hacked at it until it splintered and broke. A wooden chair was shoved under the handle, and Yuffie pushed past it and into the room.
It took a couple of minutes to get into the room, and when they did, the sight that met their eyes was one of confused chaos. Of three sinks, only one remained. The others had been broken, pieces of hard porcillian lying in gathering puddles of water. In a couple of places, the piped had been cleanly severed, exposing a fountain of gushing water. The walls were gouged with jagged cuts from Sehpiroth's sword. And lying in a growing puddle of water and blood was a blond haired girl.
"Rikku?" Mori called softly as Yuffie ran foreword. She pulled her coppery curls back and watched as Yuffie cast Cure. "Is she going to be all right?"
Yuffie didn't respond. She tried to hoist the Al Bhed girl onto her back, but failed. Instead, she dropped to the floor, ignoring the seeping wetness in the seat of her shorts. There, she buried her face in her hands, body zinging with disbelief even as her mind accepted the fact.
It hadn't been easy. Beating Sephiroth and saving the Planet had been the hardest thing that she had ever done in her life. She had counted herself lucky that she had lived through it. "Sephiroth should have died." It was a statement, something that she knew was true.
"He did," came the surprising answer. "I mean, he's dead, just not.....you know....." It was Rikku's voice and coming meekly from the floor.
"You're alive?" Mori asked. She was hovering by the door, looking from Yuffie to Rikku and back again. "Did you see who attacked you? Was it -"
"Wait!" Yuffie interrupted. "Don't ask her that." She brushed a strand of dark hair behind her ear and took a deep breath. "Rikku, can you describe the person that attacked you. What did he look like?"
Rikku didn't respond. She sat up, looking around the ruined bathroom. "I sure made a mess in here, you know," she said thoughtfully. She got to her feet and started walking around the room slowly.
Yuffie watched her the entire time. "Rikku, I need to know -"
Rikku winced. "I'm still trying to figure out what happened," she said softly. "When I figure that out, I'll let you know."
Yuffie shot to her feet. "NO!" she snapped. "I'm your friend, and I'm worried about you. More then that I want to kick the guy who did this to you - I want to kick him in the ass!"
"Hit him in his 'family jewels'?" Rikku inquired with a slight smile. "Well, that should be interresting to say the least." She reached out and slapped Yuffie casually on the back. "But right now, I think we should be getting on our way home.....or rather, I should go to my home and you should go to yours and we should both sleep and then in the morning - oh, hi Mori. What are you doing just standing there - "
"Are you okay?" Mori asked. "Are you hurt really bad?" She stepped into the room with a quick step. She pulled out a healing potion and held it out to Rikku. "If you're still injured, you can use this."
"You're not sending me home like nothin - " Yuffie began.
"I'm fine," Rikku said firmly.
"No, you're not," Yuffie responded with steal in her voice.
"I just need sleep, coming here tonight was a bad idea, but," she shrugged. "The point is everyone's alive, we tied the game, and...." Rikku's voice trailed off.
Yuffie frowned slightly. She grabbed Rikku by her bicep. "Come on, I'll take you home." She smiled. "But I'm spending the night at your house, just to make sure you're going to be okay, okay?"
Rikku smiled for a moment. "Sure, I don't think he'll be coming back tonight. So you'll have to give it a couple of days before you can kick his rump."
"If he's who I think he is, he'll be back tonight," Yuffie said confidently - and fearfully.
Surprisingly Rikku shook her head. "No, he said that he wasn't coming back....he said that he'd come back when he could beat the alure of........." her voice trailed off and she ran her fingers over her lips. "Or when I surrendered myself to him........"
Yuffie glanced sidelong at her friend. Something wasn't adding up. Maybe it hadn't been Sephiroth's voice she had heard after all. Because it was clear to Yuffie that whoever it had been had kissed Rikku.
"Did he kiss you?" Mori asked, startling both girls. "He didn't force himself on you, did he?"
Rikku readjusted her ponytail slightly. "He kissed me.....but it was almost against even his own will. He didn't want to do it. It was like he was compelled."
"Did he do anything else?" Mori asked, curious in spite of herself.
"Why didn't you fight back?" Yuffie asked. Probably because she'd not a fighter, you dolt, she thought to herself even as the words left her own mouth. Probably because if it was Sephiroth he was everything she wants in a man except compassionate.......she let the thought trail off. "Never mind the answer to that," she said aloud. "Let's just get going."
"I'll see you both later," Mori called hesitantly after them as they left. "I'll talk to the owner of this place and get the bill for the bathroom. I think Key will want the team to pay for the dam-"
"I'll take care of it!" Yuffie and Rikku exclaimed at the same time. Both of them turned and grinned, a smidgeon of their humor returned.
"Where were you going to get the money from?" Yuffie asked almost casually as they slipped out of the restaurant and towards Rikku's house, waving bye to Mori.
Rikku offered a pale ghostly smile. "I thought that would be obvious - fighting monsters. You'd be surprised how much cash they carry around with them...."
"You fight?" Yuffie inquired. For the moment, they both put Sephiroth out of their minds.
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Sephiroth was angry, hurt, and confused. The girl had his Black Materia and instaed of taking it from her, he had kissed her. Instead of killing her, he had deliberately missed every shot. There was something wrong with that. It wasn't right.
"I think that you're forgetting you purpose," he heard a voice behind him announce. He turned slowly, letting his cold green gaze fall onto the man standing fearlessly behind him.
"What do you want, Seymour?" he asked in a soft dangerous voice. Briefly he considered killing the other man once again. It was a fruitless gesture, but he felt satified every time that he did it.
"What do I want?" Seymour murmured. "Well, I want you to be happy and be able to rest in peace." He looked at Sephiroth with sharp blue eyes that weren't even close to being concerned about other people's happiness. He had his own agenda, and Sephiroth knew it.
The man standing slightly behind Sephiroth was shorter then the silver haired man, but still tall. He had periwinkle blue hair, shooting out in almost all directions. Pale blue veins stood out on his forehead, accenting his pale blue eyes. He was dressed in robes - the kind that priests wear - and held a staff in one long fingered hand.
He had the look and feel of a magic user, and Sephiroth had little doubt that he could successufly defeat the man using spells. Fortuentely for the crazed sociopath, he was a physical fighter of unparrelled skill. He could - and had done so in the past - beat the half guado with one shot. But it really couldn't kill him - Seymour was already dead. Just like he was.
Sephiroth didn't speak. He let his eyes - a smodering and glowing green - penetrate the heart - if he had one - and black soul of the man standing before him.
Seymour almost flinched. He took the tiniest step backwards and then stopped. "You're supposed to be retrieving Yuna from Luca," he said in an oily smooth voice. A politicians voice.
"I have my own agenda," Sephiroth said with a suddenly malice filled voice. "I saw the woman you wanted and realized your intentions."
"And you object to my midnight plans for my wife?" Seymour asked with a raised eyebrow. "Why, I didn't realize that you cared for the fate of strangers or allies."
"I don't." Sephiroth let the words fall smoothly and dangerously from his lips. He didn't elaborate further and his selnder fingers began to tap slightly against the handle of his murasame.
Seymour shrugged dismissively. "Of course, you don't care about anyone, do you?" He stepped foreword boldly. "But you are, in fact, at my mercy, Sephiroth. And unless you want to die -"
Sephiroth threw back his head and laughed, letting the sound rain down around him like broken glass. He held up one hand as if to stave Seymour off. "If I don't want to die?" he questioned between his cold hearted laughing. Then as abruptly as it had began, his laughter faded, leaving fearless eyes and a serious face glowering at Seymour. "I'm already dead. Threats of death.......are meaniless...."
Seymour didn't laugh or flinch. He frowned. "Sephiroth I don't think you understand what I mean by death. I'll Send you to the Farplane and your soul will be trapped -"
"In peace?" Sephiroth laughed. Once again he held up a hand in a back-off gesture. "Isn't that what I want, according to you?"
"I know how it feels to be newly dead. You don't know what you want -"
"Don't I?" Sephiroth murmured. "Actually, I do. I want the same thing I've always wanted."
"And what might that be?" Seymour said in a humoring fasion.
"Power." The word fell like ice from lips curved up in a deadly smile. "The kind that can only be achieved by complete destruction."
"You want to be Sin." Seymor's voice was flately irritated. "Too bad, I will be the one to revive Sin and bring destruction to Spira. I'll kill everyone and end all suffering. I will save -"
"That's where we differ," Sephiroth said softly. "I don't want to save anyone."
************************************************************************
Rikku's house might have been in a sunny spot during the daylight hours, but after the sun went down it was a shadowy spot. The gardens looked dark and twisted, spooky, in every sense of the word.
"Are you sure that you're not hurt?" Yuffie asked for the millionth time. "I mean, of course you were hurt, but the healing potioins should have taken care of those injuries so-"
"Hey, Yuffie, I'm fine," Rikku said firmly, rumaging around in her belt pouch for the key to her house. Her fingers brushed across the stone she had picked up the day before. "I wonder...." she murmured, pulling it out and staring at it in the light of the moon. "Could this be what he wanted?"
"Did he actually say his name?" Yuffie asked suddenly, racing the last few steps to the door and spinning around abruptly. "Did he actually......kiss you?"
Rikku grimaced, slipping the stone back into her pouch and pulling out the heavy iron key. "He said his name was 'Sephiroth' and yes, he did kiss me."
Yuffie sprang off of the steps. "But you hated it, right? You didn't want him to kiss you, did you?"
Rikku pushed past her and unlocked the door. "Of course I didn't want him to kiss me. I...just couldn't stop him once he started to get all.....intense looking." She reached her hand in and flicked a switch on the wall. Soft yellow light flooded the pourch, illuminating both young girls.
Yuffie followed her into the house. "Did he say what he wanted? Did he attack you physically?" She paused. And did he mention how he was still alive? she thought mentally. Out loud she said, "I suppose you don't really want to talk about it, huh?"
"Actually, I had a question for you, Yuffie," Rikku responded. "I want to know what Materia is. You mentioned something on the first day that I met you -"
"That was yesterday, wasn't it?" Yuffie said, flopping on a bare wooden chair. Her dark gaze filtered around the room, lingering on the scarse furniture. "This place is pretty - " The fine trembling that had been building in her stomach spread throughout her body in a mind bending wave. She pushed the fear aside and tried to look casual as Rikku cut her words off.
"Yeah, I know. But about the materia, what can you tell me?" Rikku prompted.
"Oh, yeah," Yuffie murmured. "Uhhhmmmm, Rikku do you really think that he won't return tonight?" Her voice quivered slightly. And she tried to ignore the trembling feeling in her knees. No matter what she said or did - her cheerful act was just an act. She was scared and didn't know what to do anymore. And it was getting harder and harder to not wimper at the mere thought of Sephiroth.
She heard Rikku sigh. "So...." she said softly a couple of minutes later. "Where did you meet Sephiroth at before?" She was moving around the house turning on lights and making sure that the windows and doors were tightly locked. "And just what did he do to you?"
"He's the Planet's equivelent of Sin," Yuffie said darkly. She slipped off the chair and slumped down against a wall. "He's the one that summoned Meteor, killed Aeris, and nearly destroyed the entire planet. He's crasy, a phycho. Dangerous and powerful."
Rikku sat down beside her. "And?" she promted. "What else?"
Yuffie shook her head mutely, causing Rikku to sigh. "The point isn't that he nearly destroyed the Planet. The point is that he didn't," the Al Bhed girl said firmly. "I mean, in spite of everything, he failed and he lost his life. He's dead -"
Yuffie tried to smile. "You didn't kill him," she murmured. "You weren't able to kill Sephiroth when he attacked you in the bathroom. I don't think.....you even got a chance to hit him once."
"He was already dead when he attacked me," Rikku responded. "So I didn't have to kill him. All that I had to do was -"
"He wasn't a zombie. There would have been a rotting smell in the bathroom and you would be puking your guts out," Yuffie said tightly, trying to keep a cheerful face.
"Why would I be puking?" Rikku said with a slight frown. "I mean....why?"
"He kissed you!" Yuffie said sharply. "And if he were a zombie then you'd have been kissed by a corpse -"
"Ew, you're right," Rikku muttered. Then her face brightened. "But he wasn't a zombie. He's not a fiend.....not exactelly. He's got a lot of willpower so I don't know when his spirit energy would downgrade to an actual fiend. I mean, look at Auron, he was dead for ten years and -"
Curiousity temporairly overrode Yuffie's fear. "You lost me," she announced. "Start over at the part where Sephiroth is dead. Then tell me how dead people can walk around and then-"
Rikku smiled inside and out. She had distracted her friend from the fear that had been raging through her body. Now all that she had to do was make sure that Yuffie stayed distracted. "In Spira, one of two things happen to people who die. The most desired and common event is a Sending. The spirits of the dead are Sent - via a Summoner - to the Farplane where they're able to rest in peace." She paused a moment before continueing. "However, sometimes they aren't Sent. The spirits become bitter with the living and become fiends, preying on any that live - trying to kill them, really...."
"So Sephiroth is....a fiend?" Yuffie questioned, her forehead creased in confusion.
"Not exactelly. There are exceptions to everything. Some people who die just except their death. They move to the Farplane on their own."
Yuffie snorted. "I don't think that Sephiroth moved to the 'Farplane' on his own."
"You're right, he's an Unsent," Rikku said with a shrug. Then, upon seeing the unenlightened look on Yuffie's face, she elaborated. "That is, he's a strong spirit that continues on in death. He's just like he was before, only..." her voice trailed off as words failed her. "I guess I can't really explain it."
"If he's just like before, I think I'll go back to being scared," Yuffie whispered in a half-serious manner.
"No, he's dead. That means all we have to do is Send him," Rikku announced.
"Oh, so throw something like Holy Water on him and -"
Rikku shook her head slightly. "Actually, we'll need a Summoner." She paused and then smiled. "I think that it's time to pay my cousin, Yuna a visit. She was against me coming to the Planet in the first place and insisted that I visit her often." Her grin widened. "And she just happens to be a Summoner."
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Author's notes;
Thanks for reading,
Kissa-chan