Divine Being

I don't like the fact that I do not know where I am...

Then find a way out!

I'm trying! This place is not like the place I knew. It is devoid of humans.

It is the Planet that you wanted to rule.

This is foolish. I am arguing with myself!

Chapter Two

Yuffie found herself lying on a bed in a room by herself. Every shadow made her start, afraid that Surka had returned. She would have gone to Vinnie to comfort her had he been there... But it was only her and Sephiroth in this strange world. The only two humans... She would have laughed at the thought. Once, she'd said "Even if I was the last woman and he was the last man, I'd never team up with Sephiroth, even for the good of our kind!"

Another shadow made her jump and she stood up, her mind made. She would pace the town and beat up monsters... Oh, wait... "Don't have a weapon," she mumbled. "This is uber-mondo-super-duper sucky! No weapon. No armor. No materia... No friends... I'm stuck here with a bad guy in a world that I know nothing about..."

"Are you hungry?"

She jumped at the sound of his voice. It was less hate-filled than she remembered it. Sometimes, it was even gentle, as if he could never hurt anyone. But she knew how wrong that was. He had murdered hundreds of her people by commanding an army, an entire town just because he was pissed, and countless others in his search for the Promised Land, or whatever.

"Did you find food?" she asked, smiling at him cheerfully. She was hungry all the time! He handed her a bowl of ramen and turned to leave her inn room. "Wait!" He looked back at her, his own bowl in his hands. "Erm... Wanna sit here with me and eat? I mean, I'm a fairly social person and don't always like to be alone, y'know?"

He seemed to think this over before sitting at a table and loking up at her expectantly. She sat down across from him with a grin.

"Let's play Questions, okay? Like, I ask you a question... Then you answer and ask me a question. Any questions that we don't like, we don't answer, okay?" He nodded, having nothing better to do. "Okay, you first!"

"How old are you?"

She grimaced. "Bleh... I hate that question. How old do I look?"

He studied her Wutain features before taking a guess. "Nineteen?"

Her jaw dropped. She'd been expecting twelve or fourteen... Not nineteen! "I'm sixteen," she said with a grin. "So, like, how old are you?"

"I do not know anymore. I spent too long in the Life Stream to remember." He fell silent and they ate for a few minutes before he asked another question. "Why did you team up with Strife?"

She slirped up some ramen before shrugging. "It was for the materia in the beginning. Then, they kinda became like a dysfunctional family, you know? Tifa was my older sister... Cloud was the guy that she had a major crush on, but was like a brother to me. Barret and Cid were like our father figures. Nanaki was the family pet. Vincent was the creepy-ass uncle. Reeve and/or Cait Sith was the family loon. And Aeris... she was everyone's mother-figure." Her eyes misted over and she stared at him hurtfully. "Why did you kill her?"

His eyes went cold again and he finished his meal before standing and beginning to leave. "Because Mother said so," was his only response.

"You were the puppet," she whispered after he was gone. "Jenova used you like you used Cloud... Like Surka is using the two of us..."

Sephiroth placed his bowl in the sink and began washing the pan and other things that he had used. A soft humming jarred him out of whatever thoughts and he turned to see a young woman standing in the doorway, her jaw slack.

"Surka!"

"What?"

He glared at her as she stared at him in confusion. "How the hell do we get out of here?"

She seemed frightened... That was not the Surka that he knew. "I-I-I'm sorry! You're thinking of the wrong Surka! I'm not that divine being lady... I'm the real Surka." She smiled a stunning smile and he noticed the differences. Her hair was a shimmering black, minus the white bangs that he knew. Her eyes were a deep sapphire blue that sparkled majestically. She was definitely not the Surka that he had met, although she must have been the human whose body that the Guardian had taken.

"My name is Sephiroth. The young woman upstairs is Yuffie Kisaragi." He studied her for a moment, realizing that she had no idea who he was. Didn't everyone know his name? He was in the history books, for Planet's sake!

She smiled curiously at him. "Am I supposed to say something right here, because you're looking at me rather oddly." He shook his head and she shrugged. "Anyway, it's really great to finally have other people here. I've been alone for fifty years."

"Fifty years? But you only look-"

"I was twenty-three when Guardian of the Gates, her name then was Reina, took my body. I was a Turk... The first Turk. We mainly used magic back then... It's probably really changed, huh? I mean, ShinRa is probably demolished and has been taken over by someone else. My job was to protect the president of the company, Mr. Rufus ShinRa."

Sephiroth pondered this new revelation. ShinRa was older than he thought. Then again, he was - best as he could figure - thirty or so... Fifty years was not quite as long if he thought about it that way. "ShinRa has just recently been destroyed..." he said. "Your name is... Surka?" She nodded, tucking a stray strand of obsidian behind her ear. "Then she stole your name as well as your body?"

Surka shrugged. "I know nothing of what has happened. I only know that I've been twenty-three for fifty years... I long for normalcy any more. You have no idea what it is like to be trapped within a world that is foreign, having shadows to be afraid of and longing for someone to pinch you and wake you up from some evil nightmare that has claimed your life."

The silver-haired man studied her for a moment, realizing how old her eyes looked. They held wisdom that many could only wish for, held an intelligence that was oh-so rare... He had only met one person who seemed to know as much as this woman while still remaining somewhat happy. She reminded him of Professor Gast.

"Hey, Sephiroth?" a voice asked, followed by the thudding of sneakers upon the wooden steps. Yuffie burst into the kitchen, then reeled back in surprise. "Holy, Meteor, and random flying objects! It's HER!"

Sephiroth soon calmed the young woman and they moved to sit at the dining table. The general explained who this new-comer was and why she was there with them. "The only thing that I am sure of is that there must be someone else here as well," he concluded. "Remember the white bangs and nearly white eyes that she possessed? I am sure that she adds the bodies to the body she has, resulting in a transformation that adds something to her. I do not even want to think about what she looks like with my body." He shuddered, causing both Surka and Yuffie to giggle a little.

"So, did you tell her that there might be a way out?" Yuffie asked, looking at her nails.

Surka cocked her head to the side, and the two began explaining about their theories upon the Life Stream.

An elegant hand wrapped around the hilt of a sword and she swung it once for a practice swing. Sephiroth watched her intently. She seemed so confident in her skills, so precise with her swings. He watched as she battled imaginary enemies with the grace of a ninja, but the might of a warrior. Flips set off her own fighting style and she moved quickly, like the Turks had originally been taught. She was calm, never once straining herself, even while doing a fairly difficult move. She had been training for fifty years within the body of an eternal twenty-three-year-old. She knew her limits and did not get remotely close to them as she danced a morbid dance, fighting her false enemies.

"Damn... It's not as good as my Conformer, but it will do..."

Sephiroth looked back over his shoulder to see Yuffie practicing with a weapon similar to the first that she had ever used; the Shuriken. She held it with ease, ready to take on anything, but seemed upset that the weapon was not as good as her normal weapon of choice. He remembered the Conformer well... It had caused a few wounds and had left scars. His hand fluttered to his rippling abdomen as the streak of pain arose from his memory. She had been quite capable with that weapon, one of the stronger people in Strife's ragtag band of misfits. He knew why Reina - as he had decided to call the Guardian - chose to take the young woman.

He withdrew his own Mesamune and stood in front of Yuffie. "Shall we?"

She stared at him with wide eyes, obviously not trusting him. "Uhm..."

"I will not hurt you. We shall merely fight for practice. If you do not trust me now, how will we be able to make it Mideel with each other?"

She fell into her defensive position and nodded resolutely. She knew that he had the upper-hand of strength, but if she remembered correctly, then he also had the weakness of dexterity. If she could get behind him, she would win. "Let's do this."

They both rushed forward, blocking and fighting. Surka stopped her own practice to watch the two fly at each other. Their emotions were wild, easily sensed by one who had been alone for fifty years. The ninja flew at him with hatred, fear, and... something else. Infatuation, perhaps? Surka could see why the young woman would be infatuated with the silver-haired general. He was handsome, but something was a little off about him... He seemed to have done something horrible in his life, although Surka did not know what.

Sephiroth attacked with the might of a god, but his emotions had little to do with it. He seemed to regret every swing toward the ninja, his green eyes watched her with a fascination that Surka had only seen once in her lifetime... the fascination of a broken man when someone wishes to give him another chance. He had done something to Yuffie Kisaragi, but she was still willing to trust him for the time being.

"They are good," a voice whispered to her and she shivered, looking back to see no one there.

She bowed her head, sword slipping from numb fingers. "I'm still alone," she whispered to herself. The sword clanged on the brick walkway, drawing no attention from the fighters. They continued their age-old dance, trying not to actually hurt each other, but make the point that somewhere was left open for them to do so. Yuffie back-flipped away from him, falling into her defensive position again and he rushed forward. The fight ended with Yuffie kneeling, her Shuriken against his abdomen, his Mesamune against her throat. Neither moved for fear that the other would break their temporary truce. Surka smirked. They wanted to trust each other so badly, but did not.

"Not my place to interfere," she told herself, then picked up her sword and walked back to the inn, leaving the two fighters locked in their positions.

Yuffie's lilac eyes held his MAKO green. (A/N: EW! Cheesy line!) They both panted for breath, having just had the work out of a life time. Sephiroth noticed that she was quicker than he was, which was not normal. Had the Jenova cells worked their way from his system being in the Life Stream? They remained as they were, Sephiroth standing, Yuffie kneeling, their weapons ready to cut the other at a false move. Slowly, Yuffie stood, keeping her Shuriken where it was, unwittingly poised over the scar she had given him. He kept his sword at her throat, their eyes never separating.

She withdrew her weapon and he did the same, but they could not pull away from each other. Slowly, he brought his face down to her's, kissing her gently. Their lips met with a spark and they both pulled away slowly, in a dream-like state, before she ran toward the inn. He shook himself to get rid of the feeling in his stomach. He had just kissed the enemy... He had just allowed himself to give into a weakness. But something was worse than those two things...

He had liked it...

End of Chapter Two

R: Eh heh... Did I mention that there was going to be an un-needed and somewhat un-wanted romance in this? Oh, the "divine being" is now Reina, in case you didn't catch that. LOOKIT! MY MUSE IS IN THERE! Anywho, please review!

Banana Peel - I thought so! Lol. Your story's are splenda! Story's? Bleh, BAD TYPO GREMLINS! Stories, if you will. Next chap's here! Hope it was all that you expected! (You didn't expect much, right?) -hands out a Sephy plushie and a Vinnie plushie just for good measure-

DemonSurfer - I recognize you too! Oreo? Surka's been with me from the very beginning. She is to me as Chaos is to Vinnie (Even in the perverse sense!) Hope you enjoyed! -Hands out a random muse plushie- ... Oh, okay! -and a Sephy plushie-

pingpong867 - I so desperately wanted to put 5309 after your name, but I resisted the urge... Do you know how awesome it is to get reviews from you? You're one of my fave authors! Your stories are awesome, man! Romance? Do I sound like a hopeless romantic? (Looks at previous stories and at this chapter) Eh heh... Read onward! -Gives a Sephy plushie with magnets in his lips- I know you like this pairing, so... -And a matching Yuffie plushie-

ShadowCelest117 - Okay, that's two reviewers confuzzled... - scratches head in confusion- I need to have someone read me fics before I post 'em, eh? Okay, here ya go... "Surka" AKA Reina is a divine being, or a demi-goddess, if you will. She healed Sephiroth and promised him the chance to become a god, but only to get him to trust her enough so she could lead him to this alt. dimension, where she also led Yuffie. She back-stabbed him. Kay? Hope that cleared it up. (I'm horrible at summaries, so that was a long shot without revealing the ending and all). Please read onward! -Hands a Sephy plushy and a Vinnie plushy (Cuz everyone hearts Vinnie)-

DarkSpades - Heh... I think I'm gonna declare October 13 and international holiday... Just for Vinnie-kuns! -Hands a Vinnie and a Sephy plushie-

plumbob - Glad you liked the truce? Lol. Here, have a Sephy plushie.. -Hands out her last Sephy plushie- Uh...oh,.. -Runs from rabid Sephy fan girls who want more Sephy plushies- GAHH!