Chapter nine

Another crisp, chilly morning in December. Yeah, I'm actually keeping up with dates now. I stab through the snow with my metal crutches, heading towards the store. I had totally forgotten about the bowl they gave me the other night. Plus, I wanted to help George and his wife out some more. True, I was back on crutches, but that doesn't make me totally useless.

I pause out side the door and rests for a second. Through the little puffs of clouds I was panting, I could see the sun. Why does it seem like the sun burns its brightest during the winter? Well, of course when it's not snowing.

I enter the store. The bell dings from overhead.

"Hey I brought-" I paused. Something felt a little off.

My eyes slowly scan the room. No one was at the desk. I don't think anyone was even there. I was about to take another step forward when I noticed someone was sitting in the chair next to the fireplace. I couldn't quite tell who it was. The back of the chair was facing me. But I could see the person's foot. And I recognize that boot.

I hop over and face the person in the chair, feeling a little worried.

Sephiroth sits somewhat slumped, his green eyes glow eerily in the dim, fire produced light. From his expression I can already tell he was lost in another thought. The bowl slips from my hand, crashing to the floor rather loudly. It rolled awkwardly and hit against his boot. He slowly looks up to me, forcing a smile.

Now I was sure something was wrong.

"What's going on?" I asked him shakily.

Seph looked away, back towards the fire. His gloved fingers slowly began scratching into the fabric of the armrest. Was he nervous?

When he failed to answer, I took the initiative to walk towards the back room. Once inside I quickly looked around. Nothing out the ordinary, everything in place. This upsets me. I storm out and head to the small stairway leading to the second floor.

"Don't go up there." His voice calls out.

I looked over at him, then I proceeded up the stairwell.

This was the first time I've been up there. There was no need to venture around there I guess. I finally reach the top of the stairs. From the look of things, I was standing in a bedroom now. A relatively small one.

The atmosphere was eerily still. Just about as still as the bodies that lay under the covers. This was unusual. They wouldn't be so soundly asleep at this time of day. Unless, something was wrong. Of course that's what my mind tells me.

The sound of my heavy boots connecting with the floors echoed around me.

"George..?"

I faintly called out for him. No reply. I get closer. His face was hidden under the thick blankets.

"…Sir?" My voice crackles a bit. Something is terribly wrong here. I reach out and grab his stiff shoulder; shaking him at first lightly. But when he didn't reply I shook harder.

"Hey!…," I shouted at them both while I walked over to the other side, grabbing and shaking the woman. "Wake up!"

There gone… Not alive at all..

"No!" I insanely shout at myself. Why would they just… die?.. It didn't make sense! …It wasn't fair. Before I knew it, I was racing back down the stairs, back into the main room with the fireplace.

Sephiroth still sat there. Void of any emotions. Did he do it? Was he really back to slaying defenseless people? ..No!.. Right?

I stood for a minute, rattling my scattered brain for some kind of reasoning. Trying to piece together this whole scene. And, of course, he just sat there. What was his deal anyway? Well eventually my mind came up with one semi logical question:

"What the hell did you do?" I all but hissed at him.

Instead of answering me, he finally stood to his feet and sighed deeply.

"Mind explaining why my friends are dead up there?" I walked closer to him. He kept his eyes locked on me. Just in case I decided to attack him or something, at least I'm guessing that. Because leave it to him to explain anything of importance to me.

"…You hardly knew them, Cloud." He whispered coldly, turning away from me again.

"What?" My eyebrows drew together in confused sorrow. "What the hell does that have to do with anything! I-! You were here-! They're dead! Upstairs-!" ..Ok, I lost the ability to make complete statements.

"Just calm yourself."

"Fuck that!" Seemed fitting at the moment.

"Cloud," Seph placed a hand on my trembling shoulder. I was so furious I couldn't even cry. Confusion, rage, depression… Everything was hitting me at once. That little family was all the emotional support I had besides Sephiroth. They took me in when I was in need. They had just lost their son! Now …this? They didn't deserve it. I wouldn't stand for it.

I inhaled deeply "What the hell happened here? Why are they dead, Sephiroth?"

"It's happening. Just as I feared…" The silver haired man replied quietly. I shook my head, frustrated.

"That's not answering my question. Why are they dead!" My hands balled into angry fists.

"The planet," He began as he walked past me and towards the foot of the stairs, "..is trying to redeem itself.. I guess it's time for me to tell you exactly why I brought you here, almost a year ago." He looks over at me, saddened. I blink slowly, still lost. I had almost forgotten about that.

"Redeem what? Talk in a way so that I become LESS confused."

"Aren't you going to help me bury them out back or what? ..Since you cared about them so.." He walked up the stairs, completely over looking my questions.

A shiver ran through me as I stood there, balanced on my crutches; watching him shovel up frozen dirt and snow. We decided to bury them in the back of their beloved home. He stood in the perfectly shaped grave as he drove the tool into the hardened soil, and sharply withdrew a dump load. Throwing it back out the hole, which was now about 5' feet, 7" inches deep. He had already dug and buried the old woman, now he was working on George's. Sephiroth didn't ask for my help, in fact he didn't say anything when we got the bodies outside. Instead he threw off his coat and put on his gloves, then grabbed a shovel and got to work.

"Sephiroth, what's going on with the planet?" I resurrected his statement. God, it was like pulling teeth!

He huffed, tossing out another shovel full of dirt and looked up at me. He was sweating like it was the summer time or something. Digging up frozen earth was hard labor. After wiping some sweat from his brow he hopped out the grave and stabbed the shovel into the snow. Admiring his work

"Simple," He started talking, catching me off guard, as usual. "It's trying to regain strength."

"..Riigghht. Now, how does this explain the death of George and his wife?" He was being difficult.

The ex-general picked up the old man and pretty much dumped him into the deep hole in the ground. I shouted at Seph, cursing at him about being careless. He only snickered a cloud of warm air that formed and faded in the icy cold surrounding. It reminded me just how cold it was. I zipped my coat up.

"Tell me, do you remember what keeps the planet living?" He asked me while tossing dirt back into the hole. My eyes traveled down to the old man as the soil began to cover him up.

"Lifestream."

"Very good." He smiled, still focusing on filling the grave.

"I still don't get it. Explain further." My eyes snapped up to him.

His brow frowns up a little. It's not my fault that he was being too vague. "Okay, what does the Lifestream consists of?"

I refused to be quizzed by him right then.

"It consists of living beings, Cloud. Life energy…or souls.. Whatever you want to call it. And when it's low on energy, it has to 'recharge'." He continued after I made it clear that I wasn't going to play along.

"So what?" I mumbled.

"Look around! Sure this town wasn't the busiest, but it had some townsfolk. Notice anything unusual yet?"

I obeyed, glancing around the fenced area. …He was right. This wasn't a very popular town, but people were still seen from day to day. But…not today… Empty. No. One. Nothing but the wind was heard, nothing but the neglected snow was seen. Since no one was around to shovel any of it.

The sound of his foot stomping the somewhat leveled ground snapped me out my thoughts. I was so busy concentrating on my surroundings that I didn't notice him finishing the grave.

"So you're trying to tell me… That all the people of this town are dead. Except us?" I spoke slowly, almost scared to ask.

Sephiroth tossed the shovel aside and picked up his coat, flinging it over his shoulder. He then sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Put it all together. When Meteor hit, it nearly destroyed the planet. My plan was to catch the planet while it was down and take total control of it. It didn't happen. So instead, the planet is manually trying to reboot itself. It needs life energy and what better way than to get it from the inhabitants?"

"…The planet is killing off people to fuel the Lifestream." It hit me like a speeding bullet.

"And we have a winner.." The older man turned from me and started walking towards the fence.

"How many people are going to die before the planet stops?" I called towards him. He shrugged in the distance. What the hell is with him? He was acting like a total asshole. I hopped after him, through the back and out the front doors of the store of course. Unlike him, I wasn't physically able to hop the fence.

That little bit of information put a lot on my mind. Will the both of us be the next to die? What about Tifa and the others? Have they been killed as well? And what does this have to do with the reason I was brought here in the first place?

I caught up with him back at the mansion. In his room. He's being such a prick today! I've just lost two close friends and God knows how many more and he acts like someone has just pissed HIS Fruit Loops! My mind babbled on angrily. With my crutch, I bust through his door. Sephiroth laid on his back, eyes glued to the ceiling in thought. One would think if someone suddenly came busting into your room, you would at least blink. He must have missed that.

"What the hell is your problem? You would think since two people I care for has just died, you'd at least be sympathetic. And now you tell me this sudden bullshit about the planet killing-!"

"It's not bullshit." He cut me off calmly, still staring into the ceiling.

"This ALL is bullshit! My friends could be dead Sephiroth! Then what? Oh, and let's not forget the whole 'why the hell I'm here' case… What does all this have to do with anything? And what's with you?" I could go on and on but the look I suddenly was receiving kind of threw me off a bit.

He was staring at me now. His green eyes locked into mine with such a tormented look.

"There's a way to stop all of this. And it's so simple really…" He dismissed my returning gaze and went back to looking at the ceiling.

"Then do it. Stop the killing before me, you or my friends are next!" He laughed a little, moving his hair from his face.

"You and me are quite similar, anatomically speaking. Though I may have a higher level of Mako and a few Jenova cells, we still are very much alike."

"I don't follow you.." I trailed off, sensing the deepness of his tone.

"I can stop the deaths… With my own." I was stunned for a second. Funny thing was he could tell so he went on.

"Cloud, The amount of Mako particles I have in me would be more than enough to kick-start the planet. All I have to do is be killed and allow the planet to take me."

I swallowed hard. Yet it still felt like my heart was in my throat. "Why…why do you need me then?"

"I am a man of integrity, believe it or not. I can't kill myself.. Yet I knew that this day would come. No matter how I tried to fight it. I thought maybe the planet would be okay. That it wouldn't need me to do this and I could try my best to live on and redeem myself for my past.. I just wanted to be …a normal guy. To belong.." He paused for a second. I blinked and looked around, noticing I was sitting on the edge of his bed now.

"After my brief period of denial, I saw you. You had survived the crash and I knew no other person had more right to slay me than you. So I brought you here. To heal and to see if the planet really needed my sacrifice." He continued and laid his head in my lap. My hand instantly began to stroke his hair. We sat in silence for a moment.

"…So, for the sake of your friends and your future. We must travel to the landing spot of Meteor, where the planet is hurt the most, and you must kill me."

"How can you tell me such a thing?.. I can't kill you, Seph.. There must be another way.." He slowly shook his head in my lap.

"I'm not afraid to die. Actually, I deserve it. I was created to be nothing more than a mindless fighter. To destroy and make Shinra look good. That's no real purpose for a life.."

"No one knows their purpose in life! That might not have been yours."

Sephiroth fell quiet for a few seconds. "…You're the only person that I can truly say was a friend to me. When I first met you, there was something weird about you.. Like, I don't know, a little gravitational pull or something." I laughed a little, feeling a bit embarrassed.

"You were my idol..," I confessed. "…and that's why we'll find another way to stop this."

"I love your permissiveness.." He sits up and strokes the side of my face. My eyes started to water. I understood now. It was either risking me and all my loved ones or losing one very important person. How could I ever make such a choice? Why wasn't I informed about this earlier?

"How? If you truly love me, how can you force me to make such a rushed, serious choice?" My voice came out shaky. This wasn't fair at all.

"This isn't a choice, I'm telling you to kill me. To save… Tifa and the rest. …That's her name right?" He smiled half heartedly, trying to lighten the mood.

"But I can't!" I sobbed enraged.

"Then do you want them all to die? Because that's what you're doing if you don't."

"I can't believe you withheld all this from me! …You selfish bastard. "

"I'm doing this for you! For your own happiness! …I don't want to die, Cloud! I don't want to lose you.. I want to make things up. But I've learned there's some things that can't be forgiven! You need your allies. They need you. I can't stand in the way of that…"

"I…Can't." I turned from him. I could feel him watching me, growing angry at my childishness.

"And I'm the selfish bastard?"

I spun back around and hit him with tremendous force. It only knocked his head in the other direction. But I didn't care, he was being outrageous. A trail of blood trickled down his nose.. he slowly turned back to me. Before I could breathe, he forced me down onto the bed, pinning my arms above my head. I hated him. How could he do this to me? I kicked with my good leg in vain.

The taller one brought his head down to mine and kissed me deeply. I tried to fight it, but I couldn't. Soon I became submissive and returned the kiss with the same amount of passion.

"I love you so much.." He spoke into the kiss and moved down to my neck.

"I love you too.." I groaned at the wonderful feeling he was giving me. He let my hands go and they automatically trailed down his body, stopping at his waist.

Sephiroth moved back up, letting me wipe the crimson liquid from his nose area. Injured or not, he was still unbelievably beautiful. His thin eyebrows slightly came together, displaying the deep unhappiness in his radiant green eyes. It was hard to imagine him causing so much devastation in the past.

"…One last time." He whispered to me. My heart immediately sunk.

"Shut up…Don't say things like that." I looked away from him for a few.

He stroked my arm in thought. "…Let's fuck?" I tried so hard not to laugh but damn that sounded funny coming from him.

"That's more like it." I smirked while sitting up to remove his shirt. The truth was too hard to face, I didn't want to hear him say that.

Have you ever felt like someone has total dumped the whole world on you at once? Showing no signs of such a huge event in past, yet you're hit with it at the last moment? I'm probably not explaining it well, but it's kind of hard to. Sure, I mean, he had his 'weird' moments now that I look back, but come on… He's not exactly the most normal person out there. But I don't think anyone is exactly normal really.

I had absent mindedly removed his shirt and flung it somewhere. He laid me back down, placing a tease of a kiss on my lips. Then proceeded to undress me. I didn't protest. I was there in spirit but my mind was elsewhere. There was no way I could completely focus on two big things at once. And at the moment, reflecting over my situation was the biggest priority.

I lifted my shaky hands and grabbed at his pants, slowly undoing them. Trying to show my presence in the act.

"Cloud," He called sternly. My head shot up to him, being snatched from my drifting thoughts, "..If you're not up to this, we don't have to…"

"No.. No, I am. It's just that…." My hands fell into my nude lap. He knew where I was heading. I was brought against him and held there for a few minutes. There I go. Ruining the moment. Not this time.

With my weight, I pushed him back unto the bed, landing on top. Sephiroth was caught off guard for a second. Good. Hastily his pants and boxers were removed, showing off his wonderful physique. My head lowered towards his pelvis, lips parted and ready to take him head on… When he stopped me.

"No foreplay."

I looked at him in confusion. "Why not?"

"You agreed to fuck, not make love, correct? So… let's go already." He smiled seductively. My heart skipped a beat. Always so literal…

I was about to lay down submissively, but once again I was stopped. His hands grabbed me by the waist and pulled me back on top, straddling him. Our erections brushed against each other's, sending shockwaves through me. I understood where this was going. He wanted to play by different rules this time.

"Are you sure you want this? …I might not be as gentle as you were." I smiled.

Seph shrugged slowly, showing no interest in my warning. Part of me wanted to go rough just for his nonchalant response. Maybe I would..

Lifting one of his legs and placing it over my shoulder, I entered him.

I'll rock his world for that one... I thought evilly. Leaning forward, I deepened the entrance giving my own self a few chills. My eyes wandered up to his face, to see his expression. His eyes remained closed, I could tell he was gently biting his bottom lip to conceal whatever he wanted to groan out.

"Don't be shy, show me what you're made of…." The other whispered with a grinned. This sent me over the edge.

Instantly I began driving into him, throwing out the idea of being gentle completely. Sephiroth inhaled sharply, as if he was experiencing some sort of pain. Yet his face showed complete ecstasy. His arm shot back, bracing itself against the headboard so he wouldn't slam his head into it from my harsh forcefulness. I loved this. The thought of being the aggressive one over him.

Suddenly, I grabbed his waist and motioned for him to sit up. I withdrew from him.

"Get on your hands and knees…" I commanded darkly. He blinked his shocked look away, yet complied.

He looked over his shoulder briefly, smiling. "Anything else, sir?"

I laughed. "Yeah… I want you to say my name...On my command."

Shifting his long silver hair to his side, I re-entered. We shared a shiver before I returned to thrusting into him, my hands positioned at his sides to guide him. The feeling was indescribable. The sound of his groans and mine… it was like a high or something.

"Say it." I told him huskily.

"…Cloud.." he moaned.

I was determined to make this good. "Louder."

"Cloud.." He repeated deeply.

"Can't…hear you.." I was at the verge of a huge orgasm. And from the looks of it he was as well…

"Cloud!" Seph shouted breathless as I reached around him and stroked his arousal. Making him hit his limit with a whimper.

Before I knew it, I was coming in him and he was doing the same over my hand. I gave him a final thrust and withdrew from him, falling backwards on my back. He collapsed forward, face first into the pillow. Ten points for me. I smiled deeply to myself, reflecting on it all.

My ex general rolled over on his back. His hands covering his face. I sat up, leaning on my elbows. Watching him. Was he laughing?

"Enjoyed yourself?" I chuckled at his laughter.

"..Couldn't say I didn't.." He crawled over to me and placed his head on my chest, kissing it then resting on me Like a well-trained pet.

Then we laid there. Silent and motionless. Just basking in the peace and tranquility of it all.

For our very last time.