Author's Note: Thanks for the nice reviews! Hope this chapter doesn't let you down!

Chapter 17 – Flowering Judas

If you can tell me anything, Surrender, please do so.

Can I have all of your heart?

Whatever it takes.

You're lying. You could never give all your heart to me.

"Lockheart!" Sephiroth shouted at her impatiently, "Were you even listening?" She shook her head wearily. They had been walking for a couple of days it seemed, but sense told her it hadn't been that long.

"Will you even tell me the location of this place?" she asked cautiously. He smirked.

"You don't trust me?" he challenged. She scowled, her whole body tensing with her face.

"No."

He grinned, a grin that often made her skin crawl. She may have to be his ally, but she would never truly like being in his company. He then walked closer to her, stopping her trek with a firm hand.

"You know, Lockheart," he began, his voice carrying oddly humane sounds, "I can tell you what he thought about..." She opened her eyes wide.

What are you saying?

"...when he died." His eyes were so catlike now, and she shivered at the horrifying proximity to him.

"What?" she breathed, wanting to pry the words from his throat. He grinned wider.

"He told me something," he continued, watching and reveling in the delicacy of her emotional state, "He said, 'Just make sure she knows...that...'" He paused, knowing he had her attentions in the palm of his hand.

"'...I love her. It was always her.'" He had a hard time controlling the laugh that wanted to escape his lips...but his will was harder than most metals.

"Did you kill him then?" she whispered, ignoring her tears, and ignoring her body's natural response, for she wanted to smash his face in.

"Of course not," he said casually, flicking back some of his bangs, "I was dead, remember?"

How does he know? Is he lying?

I'm afraid not, my dear.

"...then how?" she asked, wanting to destroy, wanting to feel the pain in her fists as she laid a fatal blow.

"I needed a body, if I was going to be resurrected," he said, catching on of her tears on his gloved finger, "...if I was ever going to make you all...suffer." She stared coldly into his inhuman eyes.

"You are a monster," she hissed, staring him down. He laughed.

"Not as much as Valentine..." he said confidently, "I'm not even half the monster that Strife is, either."

Is?

"What...do you mean?" she asked, her stern expression softening. He leaned in for emphasis.

"Isn't it unusual that he showed up after you ran away?" he purred, "That he looks like him, sounds like him? Almost fooled you didn't it?" Her breath caught in her throat.

Cloud? Is that you?

Sometimes, I am weak, my other half is stronger... I'm sorry, Tifa.

He gave her a wisp of a kiss on the cheek, but she was too numb to respond.

"You can take her now," he said commandingly to someone outside of the small sphere they had formed with their words.

Then, she heard a mechanical sound, one that she hoped to never hear again.

"You thought you could evade me forever?" the musical tones of his voice jarring the thoughts in her head.

He stepped out of the trees, into the light, his body sleek and shining in the sun. The bulky and almost horrific appearance of his last form was replaced with something a little more human; more artistic. The dark metal remained, but there were no more exposed wires, all was covered in smooth liquid finished metal. The most startling feature was grinning at her.

"You...have a face..." she whispered, staring into its depths. His glowing green eyes were studying her expression, unyielding and steady. A glimmer of multivariate hue pulsed across his face, and flowed down through the rest of his body; such was the effect of sunlight. She couldn't help but find him strangely beautiful.

"You would have been the instrument," he crooned, a lovely and terrible sound, "The final reason for human existence. Yet, you are tarnished by demons."

How arrogant of you.

"I have been working on you since before your grandmother," he said carefully, waiting for a response, "In the days before your bloodline split. But I am getting carried away...I must get back to my duties..." She stifled a cry in her throat.

"TIFA!" she heard a gruff yell, somewhere out of her vision. Then movement caught the corner of her eye.

Tiveph was momentarily distracted by the voice. Tifa saw an opening, and slammed a roundhouse into his now turned back. He was knocked to the ground, if only because of the surprise. She started running, running towards whoever was calling her name. Her instincts screamed for her to survive this...to get out of here.

But she heard footsteps that were getting louder behind her; humanly inhumane footsteps.

Sephiroth. Run harder, Tifa.

Then she saw him. Cid was standing near his newest flying machine in a clearing, and he couldn't have looked more welcoming. He saw her, a look of relief on his face, but it soon turned to a determined grimace when he saw who was chasing her.

"C'mon girl!" he shouted, darting to where his harpoon lay, "Get your ass inside!"

She was near now, the ship looming before her. Her lungs burned, and her legs felt like jelly. Relief was still too far for her to embrace it fully. Her boots hit the metal of the deck, and Cid was still outside, awaiting Sephiroth.

But he stopped just outside the clearing, not coming near them. He smirked at Cid.

"Love to chat, Highwind," he said mockingly, "But I've got more interesting plans..." And with that, he disappeared into the trees.

"Fucking freak," Cid whispered, but being who he was, decided that he'd better get Tifa away before thinking too hard on it. So he went, harpoon in hand, into his ship.

"Better get you back to New Midgar, Tifa," he said quietly, watching as she was huddled on the floor with Nanaki, who had calmed her down somewhat. She looked up at him with steely eyes.

"No."

He stared at her, confused and almost hurt by her harsh tone. But her face softened.

"I know where to go," she said boldly, "I can't go back to New Midgar. Vincent is about to meet..." She couldn't continue. Cid nodded, and made his way to the cockpit.

"You'd better get yer ass up here to give me some bearings!" he yelled, allowing the uncertainty show in his face.

For any of you confused by that little "kiss" of Sephiroth's...it's an allusion to Judas's betrayal of Jesus in the garden...not that I'm making Tifa into some sort of Jesus...just thought that betrayal image was a powerful one. Since Sephiroth just betrayed Tifa...I found it appropriate.

Why was Cid around? Nanaki. He didn't trust Sephiroth...and needed some help to go look for Tifa...enter Cid. Make sense?