Chapter Five A Devil's Trial
Aya groaned and turned in her hospital bed as her colleagues watched. It had been quite the ordeal to get Aya to the hospital in the first place. Somehow whenever she convulsed she created a sort of field that caused anything within it to burst into flames. MIST had to wait an hour before the odd activity calmed down but Aya still seemed to be very ill. Her temperature was highly irregular at one-hundred-ten degrees Fahrenheit and she seemed to be mumbling a language no one understood. Pierce ran his hands through his untied blond hair and kept tapping his foot on the floor.
"You oughta go home." Rupert said.
"You're one to talk."
"I don't got anybody waiting for me. Jodie and your kid are waiting for you."
"I guess Jodie might be worrying about me. I called her though."
The men heard footsteps down the hallway and then saw Eve rushing with Daniel behind her.
"Dammit, slow down!" Daniel yelled.
Eve skidded to a halt and was breathing rapidly.
"Is she alright?" she asked Pierce.
"It's like she's got a fever, but the doctor's don't know what's causing it."
"What do you mean?"
"No viral activity or anything related to it. It's like her body just started acting this way."
"That's not possible."
"Then Aya has an impossible condition."
"That's not funny Pierce. My sister could die."
"Hey, we don't know that."
"She could or couldn't. You don't know either one."
Eve felt a large hand on her shoulder. She looked up and saw Daniel.
"Eve," he said "I know your sister better than most people. Believe me, she ain't gonna let some stupid shit like this kill her. She's too stubborn for that."
Eve gave a smile.
"Thanks, you're right."
If only Aya knew what was happening as she slept and battled with her condition.
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Aya opened her eyes and saw nothing but white around her. There weren't even shadows. Nothing but endless white stretching into infinity.
"Where am I?" she said to nothing.
"Wouldn't you like to know?"
Aya turned around and saw a certain silver-haired man.
"You again." she said.
"Something wrong?"
"Why are you here? You're the person I least want to see."
"Am I Sephiroth? Or am I merely how you perceive the man known as Sephiroth?"
"I don't know."
"The answer would be the second one. Although, I might be how you wish I was."
"You're just a depiction?"
"Correct."
Aya took a moment to examine Sephiroth. His entire body was pale and thin though extremely muscular. Aya then noticed that there a single, black wing coming from Sephiroth's lower back on his right side. Then Aya looked a bit lower and noticed that Sephiroth wasn't wearing anything. Aya turned her head slightly.
"Maybe I should think you up some clothes." she said.
"Why is that of importance?"
"I don't like looking at naked men."
"Well, you're in no better condition than I."
Aya wondered what Sephiroth meant until she looked at her body. She too was completely naked. Though, she could what Sephiroth's point with being naked was. Her breasts were merely curves and her entire body was smooth with no definition.
"See what I mean?" Sephiroth asked.
Aya noticed that Aya was looking into Sephiroth's eyes as he was hanging upside-down.
"And what's your condition?" Aya asked.
"Not unlike you. My unique parts are also merely smoothed over."
Sephiroth gave a smirk.
"Were you hoping to see something?" he asked.
"Don't flatter yourself."
"Though I flatter you quite a bit."
Sephiroth righted himself to he was in an upright position. Aya felt his large hands cup her face. Sephiroth gave a thin smile.
"Odd, you don't flinch." he commented.
"Why? If you're a figment of my imagination and not real then why should I get upset?"
"True. Though what if I do this?"
Sephiroth's lips touched Aya's in a silent kiss. Aya didn't seem to be annoyed, nor did she seem to enjoy the contact in the slightest. Sephiroth looked down at Aya.
"You didn't seem to be enraged." he said.
"As I said, this is my imagination."
"Though with a bit of help from me."
"Is that what caused that sudden spasm?"
"Yes."
Sephiroth showed Aya his palm.
"You cut me here, if I am correct." he said.
"Yeah, and I scraped my knuckles when I hit an NMC."
Sephiroth glided to Aya's back and placed his hands on her shoulders.
"I put my cut on that wound." he said into her ear. "Our blood mingled for a moment."
"Did you get any side effects?"
"No, not at all."
"How can your blood cause this kind of reaction with my body?"
"Mako."
"What?"
Sephiroth was in front of Aya again.
"I'm from a different world, Aya." he said.
"Now I know you're crazy."
"As I said, I am no liar."
"What's your world like?"
"There are humans, people, countries, cultures. The technology was more advanced yet there was still an extreme spirituality to the place."
Sephiroth glided upward and stared upward.
"There were many beasts and monsters in it." he said "I suppose that's why I arrived in your world."
Aya cocked her head to one side.
"That's it?" she said.
"Well, until I met you."
"What does that mean?"
"As I said before, you and I are very much alike."
"We're nothing alike."
"Though that's the only difference."
"What is?"
Sephiroth glided down and looked into Aya's eyes.
"Unlike you, I accepted what I was a long time ago." he said.
"I'm not a monster."
"Is that so?"
Sephiroth then reached behind Aya, grabbing something. The man then had a few long, white feathers between his fingers.
"Where'd you get those?" Aya asked.
"You should know, they're yours."
Aya looked out of the corner of her eye and saw a white wing coming from her back.
"What the…?" she wondered.
Aya looked to her other side and saw wings.
"You have six." Sephiroth said "Like a seraphim."
Aya's blue eyes met Sephiroth's green ones.
"What caused this?" she asked.
"You've always had them. You've merely refused to acknowledge it."
"How can I not notice wings?"
"You'd be surprised what sorts of things you can believe not exist. Some people fool themselves into believing that they have siblings or friends and even more grandiose things."
Sephiroth smirked.
"Though, does that make it the truth?" he said "Does that make it the truth to anyone else? Is it merely for you? Deny all you want and convince yourself, the truth is never changed."
"Can I be sure you're not fooling me?"
"As I've said before, I'm not a liar."
"That's about the only thing I can trust you with, I guess."
"Call it woman's intuition."
Sephiroth chuckled. Aya looked at Sephiroth's black wing.
"Why do you only have one?" she asked.
"It's a symbol of irony."
"Irony of what?"
"That's a story for another day."
Aya looked at her knuckles, examining them slowly.
"You and I share blood now." she said.
"Yes, we do."
"Why?"
"This is a trial I made."
"How do I pass?"
Sephiroth's eyes turned serious.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"You know who I am."
"But do you know?"
"I'm an FBI agent for MIST and Eve's adoptive sister."
"That's what you are not who."
"Then who am I?"
"You've known that for a very long time. Ever since you were a small child."
Aya thought for a moment. Who was she? She was a sister and a daughter but that couldn't be it. Was there some underlying meaning? A cryptic answer?
"You're overcomplicating things." Sephiroth commented.
"And you know who I am?"
"Yes."
"Tch, as if."
"Oh?"
Sephiroth continued floating through the white space.
"You continue to distance yourself." he said "Why is that?"
"What are you talking about?"
"If it hadn't been for Eve coming into your life then you would have isolated yourself completely from human contact."
Sephiroth looked down at the woman.
"Your fears will destroy you, if you let them control you." he said.
"I don't fear anything."
"Every person fears something, you are no different."
"I suppose that someone like you who's not human fears nothing."
"I never said human, I said person."
Sephiroth floated down to Aya and looked her in the eyes.
"What you fear is what you are." he said.
"What I am?"
"Yes, you fear that you will become those monsters someday."
"You shouldn't know that."
"I've told you, I'm of your mind but I manifested due to the exchange of blood."
"Then why are you telling me I'm afraid?"
"Because you are, you know that."
"Shut up!"
Aya turned away from Sephiroth and covered her ears with her hands and shutting her eyes. However, she felt Sephiroth's hands rip her hands from her ears.
"Tch, your first reaction is to shut yourself off from my words and sight?" he said "You're such a child."
"I'm not a child!"
"Then open your eyes and look."
Sephiroth spun Aya around so she faced him and placed his hands firmly on her arms.
"Think of yourself as a monster and you truly will become that thing from seven years ago." he said to her.
"I am not that fucking monster!"
"Then stop telling yourself that you are!"
Aya opened her eyes, feeling tear streaks.
"Why?" she asked.
"I beg your pardon?"
"Why are you concerned about me? What about me bring you to me?"
Aya looked into Sephiroth's aquamarine orbs.
"Is it my body?" she asked "Or is it what I am?"
"I suppose we are cut from the same cloth. Though you are a protector, I am merely a destroyer. We have many things alike, though who we are is unique."
"What do you mean?"
Sephiroth cupped Aya's face in his large hand.
"No matter how many times you say you're that monster, you'll always be you." he said.
"I'm me?"
"Yes, you're Aya Brea, you always have been."
Aya looked at Sephiroth. What did she see in those gems of eyes? Love? Lust? Passion? Sadness? Sorrow? Or was it sympathy?
"Why are you helping me?" she asked.
Sephiroth chuckled.
"I told you before," he said "this isn't me, this is merely a depiction."
Sephiroth snapped his fingers, and Aya saw flames of crimson behind him.
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Aya woke in darkness and on sheets of white.
"What the…?" she wondered.
Aya looked around, noticing the walls of a typical hospital. She heard a groan and saw Daniel in a chair, fast asleep. Aya smirked, not surprised about the older man. She looked at a clock and read 4:13.
"Well, might as well get some sleep, even though I've been out for awhile." she thought.
Aya turned on her side, getting comfortable.
"I wonder if I should thank him or kill him when I see him next?" she mumbled to herself.
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The person in question was on the top of a building, slaying an NMC with a flick of his sword. Unexpectedly, he felt an odd sensation in his hand. Looking at it, he saw the area he was cut begin to glow.
"Well, it seems you are fighting for dominance to the very end." he said as though he was having a conversation with a person "Tenacity, I enjoy that."
The man cackled and thought about a certain blond.
"Yes, I love tenacity." he said "She shows it all the time."
Sephiroth smirked.
"I wonder how the trial went. Perhaps she'll see how much we're alike now"
