Disclaimer: KH is not mine. Poo.
In this chapter-
I.Sephy: *stumbles into the room, singing* Nobody lovesh me… Itsh true!
Uh, Sephy…?
I.Sephy: *stumbles up to the computer monitor and hogs it tightly* Not like YOU DOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
Okay, note to self, do not give Sephy sugar and Portishead cd's at the same time..
Anyways, in this chapter, there's great insane Sephy goodness (not as much as I want, but eh, there's always next chapter.) along with some bonding. Awwww. Some. Yeah, sorry, No Riku.
Oooo… while I'm at it, I'm going to thank some reviewers:
Ari:
You were my first reviewer, and you've been reviewing ever since. Thanks for your support, and your pointers. I'll keep all of it in mind.
slinkster sunshine:
Thank you for reviewing. You've also helped. Thank you for your comments. I'll try not to make it a Mary-Sue.
Blue fox:
Thank you for your reviews. I'll try to keep the chapters coming as quick as possible.
So, enjoy…
Chapter 7
"AHHH! I MISSED YOU!!!"
Sasha squealed as soon as she materialized in Limbo. She threw aside her borrowed axe and dove straight for her old, familiar double-blade, hugging it and petting it and reassuring it that she would never leave it behind again.
Sephiroth stood there, a little surprised, a little confused, and a little angry that all this time he'd been worrying about the girl, and here she came, running by and totally ignoring him.
How rude, he thought.
He waited another moment, then cleared his throat loudly. It still took a second for Sasha to snap out of it and look up.
"Oh, Hi Sephiroth! I didn't see you." She grinned at him. She didn't know why, but she felt very, very happy to be back in Limbo.
"So, what happened?" Sephiroth asked, leaning back against a conveniently appearing wall.
"Well, I met this kid named Riku, he looks about my age. He's got silver hair like you, and his eyes are kinda the same as yours, but not quite. Anyway, I met that freaky sorceress Maleficent," Sasha shuddered. "She's icky. I don't like her. Then, though, she sent me and Riku to go hunt down this renegade heartless in some world…"
"What was its name?" Sephiroth found it interesting that Maleficent would send someone she didn't know out to hunt down a renegade.
"Ar… Aou…aw, I don't know, It'll get back to me later. Anyways, we did that. Aaaaannnnd…" Sasha dug around in her pockets, pulled out the red material. "I caught something!"
She held the material up proudly. Sephiroth raised an eyebrow.
"What? A Rabbit?" He smirked.
"Hey! You take that back! This thing was big and scary and had teeth!" Sasha got up, wings bristling. She held the material an inch away from Sephiroth's face. "Why don't you use it and see for yourself?"
Sephiroth was about to push her hand away when something about the material stopped him. He stopped his hand, then reached out and plucked it from Sasha. The girl stood there, a little shocked by the sudden clarity in his eyes as he looked intently and deeply into the stone.
"Arouk." Sephiroth muttered, still looking at the stone.
"Hey, that's the place… how… how'd you know that?" Sasha looked at him quizzically. Sephiroth looked at her for a second, then tossed the material back to her.
"It doesn't matter. Anyway, I'd advise you not to use that summon for a little while. He still needs to get used to his new life." Sephiroth half-turned.
"Ha! I told him it was a he! I was right! Hahaha!!" Sasha cackled, holding the material in both hands and staring at it like a miner who'd just found his lost gold. Sephiroth looked back at her a little scared. She felt his gaze, and looked up, grinning sheepishly.
"I…uh…" Just then her stomach chose to growl. "Er… I'm hungry."
A little later, Sasha wasn't sure just how long, Sephiroth was goading her into another training session. Well, at least he'd let her eat. Although Sasha really didn't want to think about where the food that randomly appeared in Limbo came from. It was just best not to wonder about such things.
"But Sephiroth, I don't wanna…" Sasha tried to whine. Even though she knew from experience it wouldn't work. But, you never know. This might just be the time it DID work. Sephiroth gave her that look, and she sighed. "Fine, fine."
She stepped forward, hoisting up her axe on her shoulder and giving Sephiroth a scathing look.
"I know you don't want to do this, but you have to train sometime, otherwise you won't be able to beat any new enemies." Sephiroth said, pulling out the Masamune.
"Yeah, well…" Sasha gulped, watching the half-light shine on the long blade. "Can we try NOT to try to kill Sasha this time?"
Sephiroth gave her a fake-puzzled look; as if he didn't know what she meant and was sure that nothing like that had ever happened. He readied the Masamune and faced her.
"Come on. A quick run." Sephiroth gave her his nice-guy smile. Sasha sighed, she didn't want to, but it was training, and she needed it.
"Fine."
She stepped forward, readied her axe. With an unspoken signal, both of them flew at each other. Not literally, of course. It was more of running than flying. Either way, they attempted to slice the other. Sephiroth, of course, had cut down on his speed and strength, not quite even with Sasha but not high enough to pose a deadly problem. Besides, he was thinking more clearly right then, and knew that accidentally cutting the girl to pieces wasn't in his best interests.
They exchanged some blows, dodging around each other. Sephiroth watched Sasha closely, pleased to see that previous training sessions had improved her footwork and ability to dodge. He struck out with a sword, catching her in the side with the flat of the blade. Sasha stopped suddenly, dropped a hand from the axe, gasping and grabbing her side as if in pain.
Sephiroth stopped, confused, and maybe just a little worried. He hadn't hit her that hard, had he? Just as he was about to step forward, the axe handle was slammed into his stomach, knocking him breathless. He stepped back, growling, as Sasha readied the axe again, laughing.
"You fell for it! Ha! That was great! Oh man, I never thought that YOU, of all people, would fall for the pity trick!" She laughed, silently thanking a friend for telling her about the trick so long ago. She'd never had a chance to use it, but she hadn't thought that it would work against Sephiroth.
"Grrr… that wasn't nice…" Sephiroth growled, glaring at her. How dare she use his petty human weaknesses against him?! He vowed silently never to pity the girl again. With a move that didn't quite seem like a move, he knocked the axe out of her hands and made as if to stab her.
Sasha noticed her lack of weaponry and his stance, and stopped laughing. Instead, she dashed off amazingly fast, ran around him, and, before he realized what she was doing, jumped onto his back and threw her arms around his neck, holding on tightly.
"Hey! That's not fair!" Sephiroth tried grabbing her with his hand, but each time he did, she whacked him on the hand. And then in the head. He would've used the Masamune, but considering the great length of the blade, it wouldn't be too easy. Sasha laughed again.
"Everything's fair in the game of war!" Sasha said, quite pleased that she had grabbed the upper hand in this battle. This was, of course, a second before she was flipped over his back and landed on her back, with scrucnched wings and the Masamune at her neck.
"Eeep!" She exclaimed. Sephiroth paused.
"Did you just say 'eeep'?" He asked, and Sasha nodded. He sighed, shook his head and removed the Masamune. He released the sword back into the darkness where it waited for him, while Sasha slid her way over to her axe. Reaching it, she picked it up and sat on the ground, watching Sephiroth, who wasn't exactly doing anything very interesting at the moment.
"Sephiroth?" she finally ventured. He jerked slightly, as if she had pulled him out of his thoughts suddenly, and turned his head to her, eyes narrowed. "Well, uh, I just… I was just wondering… Do I HAVE to kill the keybearer? I mean, can't I bring him back here when I find him and let you kill him?"
Sephiroth sighed, but then thought about it. True, that might work. Bringing the Keybearer into Limbo, though, was a gamble. Who knows what his power might cause to happen here.
"It would be much easier to defeat him out in the worlds. And besides, we do not know what his power might cause to happen to this place," Sephiroth said, looking off somewhere into Limbo. He saw the shimmer starting in the corner of his eye again, turned away even though he knew he couldn't escape it.
Sasha kept her eyes on him. She would have commented on the 'we' comment, quite sure the other person he referred wasn't her. She was smarter than that by now, though, and kept her mouth shut. At least about that. About other things, she didn't mind opening her mouth.
"Well, I still don't understand why you can't go out there, get rid of him, and come back. Come on, I'll track him down, and when I do, I'll come back here, get you, and zoom back. Once you take care of him, we'll flash back here. Whaddya say?" Sasha asked hopefully.
"No." Sephiroth said simply. The shimmer in his eyes was growing, but he knew Sasha couldn't see it. He shook his head.
"Why not? Why are you so scared to go out there?" Sasha was quite perplexed.
"Because…" Sephiroth knocked back the shimmer a little, "Because, Once I go out… I won't be able to come back."
"Oh…" Sasha said. Or rather, she wanted to. All she could do was form the word, but not really say it. This was quite something. It all made sense now. Why Sephiroth had jumped at the opportunity at having someone to run the errands for him, why he pushed her so hard.
Sephiroth, the shimmer starting to take many forms, dropped to the ground, sat with his head in his hands, his hair flowing between his fingers and lacing on the ground. He couldn't hold it back anymore. It was amazing he'd held it back as long as he had, in truth. His wing relaxed slightly, contracted sharply, then relaxed again. He couldn't hold it; he'd just let it go, let it flow through him once more. He hated it, hated everything about it, but he was helpless, helpless against the storm it brought.
"Are…are you ok?" Sasha asked, seeing the sudden change and getting a little worried.
"I'm fine." Sephiroth whispered, his voice hardly louder than a breath, but she heard it anyway. He sat there, struggling against memories and visions, finding himself unable to separate the truth from what his tortured mind had created on its own.
Suddenly, something touched him lightly on the head. The visions pulled back in shock. The blazing light faded slightly. He couldn't quite figure it out just yet, was sure it was just another stage he hadn't entered until now.
"Don't worry, Sephiroth," Sasha said, petting the man gently on the head and talking softly, feeling quite brave in doing so. "I'll help you."
Sephiroth stopped thinking, stopped making excuses for what just happened. It must've been a hallucination, there was no way that the girl would do it… was there? He lifted his head slightly, slowly, just enough to be able to see past the sheer silver of his hair and into the amber eyes that looked back at him.
"And besides, that'll give you someone to rant to." Sasha said helpfully.
Sephiroth looked at her for a moment, and then started laughing. Although it seemed quite random and crazy, it was actually a very relieved sort of laughing. He wasn't going any more insane than he already was, although the girl might've been, considering she had never done anything nice to him before this.
"Um…" Sasha was quite taken aback, and didn't know what to do. For a second, she was afraid she'd caused Sephiroth to go even deeper into insanity, but then his laughs faded, and he looked at her, for once turquoise eyes holding no sign of insanity. For just a moment… he was… sane.
"Thank you." Sephiroth said, then got up. His mind was whirring faster, unhindered, at least for the moment, by any random thoughts.
"Uh… no problem…" Sasha was still in shock over what had just happened. Maybe Sephiroth had went Bi-Polar?
"Oh, and take as much time off as you want this time." Sephiroth said, walking over to a cabinet that had just appeared. He opened it and pulled out an armload of things. Walking back to where Sasha was still sitting, and ignoring the fact that the cabinet had turned into an armoire, he sat down, cross legged and spread out what he had brought over.
There were some pieces of wood, a few sticks, a bag of marshmallows, a box of graham crackers and a bar of chocolate. Sasha looked down at everything for a moment, then looked back up at Sephiroth.
"S'mores." He said, then set about setting up the small bonfire and getting everything ready.
"Heyyy… I could get used to this." Sasha grinned. Sephiroth snorted.
"Don't." He said, smacked her hand with a stick when she tried to sneak a marshmallow.
"You're cruel." Sasha crossed her arms angrily, but couldn't help but think that she had made some headway with the fighter.
Had Sephiroth heard her thoughts, he just might have agreed.
I want to hug Sephy! *Looks around* But I think he's currently sleeping off his sugar high. Anyways, I hoped you guys like this one. Poor Sephy. Insanity is so hard to live with.