Disclaimer: I don't own FF7 or any of the characters or settings I used from the game!

A/N: Hullo all readers! Glad to be alive and kickin'! I wish I were dead… I have so much homework to finish before school starts (so, so horrible). Instead, I'm here writing this. Ehehe. Yup, that's how it goes.

Thanks to all my reviewers! I love you all! Even the impatient ones! Thank you!

Enjoy.

Wicked Savior

Chapter 4: Unspoken Truce

Aeris's knees buckled, but she managed to stumble back a couple feet before she felt hard into the soft sand. Hiccupping sobs of panic wracked her voice, which shuttered with various mumblings and pleading whimpers. 'What is this? Why is he here?'

Aeris's eyes filled with tears, but she wiped them away hastily to keep a clear view of the comatose man in front of her. He was awkwardly positioned, his right shoulder buried in the sand, face turned the opposite direction, hips twisted carelessly, and legs laying somewhere beneath the surface of the freezing water. He had an impossibly large number of scraps, bruises and cuts, several of which were gaping and appeared to be gorged. The white sand around and on him was stained crimson with his blood, which still seeped out from several of the larger wounds. His hair was washed with the red hue as well, the length of it knotted and sticking to his bloody flesh.

What happened to him? How long has he been here? Is he even alive? Who could've done this to such a powerful man? Cloud? What if Cloud was in the same circumstances? What if Sephiroth had killed him? The flower girl's mind reeled with the abundance of questions in her near state of hysteria. The Planet had done little to calm her flustered form, the voices barely heard above the girl's own conscious.

Aeris blinked rapidly, her throat gurgling in a failed attempt to say something aloud. She cautiously rose to her blistered feet, weary of Sephiroth's unmoving form. Death had never teased her so relentlessly before. Why now? And most importantly, why her? What was she suppose to do about this situation?

Slowly, the voices of the Planet caught up with Aeris's sporadic thoughts. The Cetra listened to their soothing tones, but she reminded herself how deceptive the Planet had been of late. Perhaps there had been a mistake; some sort of misunderstanding. There had to be. The room seemed to dim at the corners, or perhaps Aeris's vision was just faltering as her head swam. She looked again to the monster in the sand. Everything began to fade as she studied him… and her head filled with spite. All she had worked for in life; all she had hoped to accomplish, had been destroyed by this man in the span of a second. She approached him, standing over his stilled body. Her toes dug into the sand by his head, the bloody grains sticking between her toes. His face was hidden behind matted bangs, but she could still imagine every hated curve and his hideous smirk. She caught the slight lift of his torn chest, his life's breaths counting down slowly to their approaching end.

Hope? This was her hope? This creature was her salvation and her strength? Maybe she should just kill him now; let him taste the stale air of her vengeance and contempt.Who cares if he was too close to death's hand to recognize her? Who cares if death should be a welcome relief? Let him look upon her from his fiery prison with jealous eyes. Let him look upon the saved world with resentment.

But Aeris was no murderer and she knew it. Even without the Planet's horrible screams and pleading she wouldn't have killed Sephiroth anyway. The Lifestream built itself off the living beings of the planet, not the sacrifices of revenge. If she was to be the turning point of the Lifestream, it should be better to listen to the Planet's precise instructions, despite the dangerously high probability it would get her killed again. So what, she was already dead. Let her spirit rest in peace, for the Planet's requests would been filled and she would find salvation upon their being pleased.

"What now?" she asked quietly into the crisp air, her eyes still filled with menacing hatred for the man she stared down upon.

"He must live…"

"And what of mine do I have to keep him alive?"

"He is stronger than the mortal men you used to exist beside. He has the blessing of a god and will survive death's invitation if he so wishes."

'What, are you suggesting I just try to convince him to live?' she asked this time in her head, too embarrassed to say the obvious aloud even though there was nobody else to hear it. "That's ridiculous. If he's no 'mortal' man, then it's going to take more than my pleading to change his mind."

"He must live…"

"And what do I care anyway? He was the death of me, I should be the death of him."

"No."

"I know… I will not kill him, but I should have no intentions to help him survive either."

"He must live…"

"Did you say a 'blessing of a god'? What god?"

"He MUST live."

Aeris sighed in defeat. There was simply no reasoning with the Planet these days. She stood quietly, thinking and listening to the echoing sounds of the cavern for quite some time before she moved to kneel beside Sephiroth. Her actions were shaky and unsure; as if she was afraid he'd wake up out of nowhere and kill her on the spot. She pulled her bangs behind her ears and leaned ever so timidly over the man, unconsciously clenching her jaws in fear. 'I can't do this. I can't.' She focused on the constant sound of water dripping into a pool somewhere in the distance. Her breath hitched several times before she paused to regulate the pattern of breathing, her hunched form trembling.

Finally, with dire precision, Aeris reached out a small, pale hand and let it hover inches from Sephiroth's covered face. She was suddenly aware of the male voices coming back to her, touching her hand softly as she held it in perfect stillness. Her state of panic began to rise again, but her mind forced itself to pay attention to the dripping water before she continued any further.

Why was this so hard? The man was nearly dead, it's not like he was going to gobble her up in his current state anyway. Just move him out of the water and go. Aeris nodded her head in agreement to her own reasoning, and then smiled at her foolishness. What a hassle.

Tenderly, still afraid of waking him, Aeris touched her fingertips to his forehead and lazily pulled the bloody bangs away from his face. She caught her breath hastily, nearly all her senses going numb. His ethereal expression had caught her off guard and the hysteria returned full throttle, despite her prior self-determination. She snatched her hand away from him, but stayed in her place hovering above him, her eyes unable to detach themselves.

He appeared at total peace. His eyes were closed, long lashes not even fluttering when the hair was removed. His eyebrows were arched high in an emotion of little pain, if any at all. His lips, though chapped horribly and blood still seeping steadily from one corner, were set in a soft line. If Aeris had not seen his bare chest rising and dropping slightly, she would have easily assumed him dead with such a harmonious expression as well as the severe amount of both running and dry blood.

Aeris let out a long breath. Step one complete. Now how was she supposed to move him? She gently tugged at Sephiroth's left shoulder until he was mostly on his back. Maybe he would prove better awake. Then he could move himself. Aeris almost laughed at the thought of the very awkward and very tense situation both of them would be if Sephiroth were conscious.

The flower girl sat back on her heels and tapped her fingertips to her lips, pondering her next move. She paused and pulled her hand back when she felt something warm and wet hitting her lips. Blood dripped thickly from her fingers. She looked to Sephiroth's shoulder, a frighteningly deep gash running from beside his collarbone all the way through his chest. A sword had done this no doubt. Again, Aeris wondered if it was Cloud who had done it. She immediately regretted thinking of him, for she began to regret the absence of him, no matter how independent she desired herself to be. He would have known exactly what to do in this situation… though that probably meant killing Sephiroth. Aeris glanced down at the man's dying expression and surprisingly felt a pang of guilt in her chest. Who was she to judge him, even if he had killed her? Would Cloud and the others not have killed him if he had not struck first? The situation had been 'kill or be killed'… despite the fact that Aeris proved no real threat to Sephiroth at the time. Her only threat was to his overall plan to use Meteor, which her prayer, had it been completed, would have simply saved all lot of wasted time and wasted lives.

Aeris wiped the blood from her lips with her wrist, watching it smear over her pearl-white skin. She may have no right to judge, but that put her in no circumstances to forgive either. Even mutual terms seemed to be cutting it close to treason against the Planet. Which is exactly the reason Aeris wanted so badly to know why the Planet insist she, the last Cetra, come back from her grave and save the only man that would sacrifice all he knew to destroy all else that existed. The Planet seemed to be as confused as the Lifestream was.

Whatever. The Planet has dragged me this far… I guess I can give it a shot. Death can't be nearly as bad the second time around…

Aeris gathered herself and moved to crouch behind Sephiroth, moving her tiny hands under his shoulders and through his armpits, where she clasped his biceps. She took three long breaths before heaving with all her strength, her feet digging into the sand as she struggled to remove the man's body from the water.

For every five minutes she worked, his form moved about two feet. She assumed his breeches to be waterlogged and she was thankful it was only the lower half that was submerged. About twenty minutes later, she had dragged Sephiroth completely out of the water with a good two feet to spare. She released her sweating hands, falling backward onto the sand, trying to catch her breath. 'Good gods,' she thought with exasperation, 'I never knew people could weigh this much.' She stayed motionless for a moment before standing and patting all the sand from her clothing.

"So will he just heal himself?" Aeris called to the Planet. There was only silence. 'Figures.'

The flower girl kneeled beside Sephiroth again, giving him a scrutinizing, yet almost humorous glare. "You need to lose some weight," she criticized. She sat fully down and rested her chin in her palm, studying him. 'Moron.' She rolled her eyes at her own sense of dignity and her refusal to call Jenova's son anything more vulgar, no matter how much he deserved it. Her attention was brought back to the deeper wounds on his body. If the infection was cleared from some of them, she was sure they must've been down to the bone at least. How could someone survive after an assault like that? And for how long? If Meteor was summoned about eight days ago and Aeris had been brought back about six… he had to have been in this state for a week at least. How had he gotten here then? The Lifestream? Maybe it had carried him from the battle…

'What do I know? Why don't I just wake him up and ask him myself?' Aeris grinned, supposing that her blithe attitude was a result of some sort of denial and she was just waiting for the moment she would awaken. Well, while she was waiting, she had better make use of her time. The wounds on Sephiroth must've reopened in the water, for even a creature not quite mortal couldn't survive a week straight of bleeding. 'So what does that mean?' she mused. 'He welcomes death?'

"He must live. You must expurgate."

Aeris jumped at the voice of the Planet, unexpectedly close to her ear. "I know, I know. But it makes no sense nonetheless. Not that any of the questions I need get answered…"

She moved closer to Sephiroth, amazed at her own brazen actions. "Well, if you aren't going to save yourself, I guess I'm going to have to do it for you. I'm not skilled in the arts of healing for show, you know," she mused, happily distracting herself from the dirty and miserable task ahead. She had better make jest of the situation while the man was still far from awakening. In all honesty, she had no idea what to expect when he rose. She didn't want to fathom the thoughts of his anger, confusion, or outright malice. Sephiroth was not a person she knew on a personal level, but she had to expect some of the legends of him were a bit exaggerated. She knew little actual knowledge of him, save what Cloud had explained when she was alive… which proved to be of little use at the moment. He wasn't a person of delectable decisions in Aeris's opinion, as proved by her desperate attempts to stop his mission when she still breathed from her original lungs. The thoughts of those moments; her last moments, filled the Cetra with newborn anger for the silver-haired menace. She growled at her task to 'save' him, but found herself more angered at the Planet's lack of response for the reasons she was to save Sephiroth in the first place. How could he be the 'hope' gifted to her as the explanation to her task and fate as a reincarnation?

Aeris coughed lightly and brought full attention to the first step of finding answers: keeping Sephiroth alive. And from the looks of it… she wasn't completing that task very well. The Cetra delicately placed her hand on the largest wound, the slash from his shoulder to the opposite side of his chest and under his ribcage. She chewed her bottom lip when she pulled at the edges, revealing a mass of torn tissues, infection, and clumps of outside materials, such as gravel and the sand from the shore. The gash made a sickening suction-popping when Aeris pulled the skin farther apart, as if the frothy puss had built a barrier that held the wound together. This was by far one of the worst injuries Aeris had dealt with. She could have easily measured the slit to be two inches deep at some points. "Good thing you're out cold, otherwise this might hurt…"

Aeris hesitantly reached into the cut, pulling out several handfuls of clotted blood, puss, stringy tissues, and other various causes of the infection. When it was semi-cleaned, she made three short runs from the water back to Sephiroth, quickly pouring dripping handfuls of the chilled liquid into the cut. The bleeding had started again rather heavily, so Aeris decided the wound would be cleaned enough to close it. With hast, yet astounding skill and accuracy, Aeris brought her hands together, called upon the Planet's aura, and spilled the warm, green essence that had formed between her palms directly onto the wound. The spell's airy-liquid shifted to fit within the shape of the cut and hissed against the infection, wisps tenderly gripping at the edges of the split skin and pulling them together. When the borders barely touched, the Cetra put her index and middle finger together and pressed them to the corner of the wound. She then called out the chant again and dragged her fingers over the length of the cut, watching the flesh seal and swell slightly in the wake of the green wisps along her fingers. The scar was red and still tender, but the injury was safely healed. Aeris smiled at her own work, having never doubted her abilities in this area of magics. A simple spell like this could be performed from a quite a distance as well, so the close proximity only further guaranteed its success.

"All right," she clapped her hands together, "that wasn't too bad, now was it?" She listened politely, as if he would respond. "Since I hear no complaints, I'll move on…" Aeris found herself rather enjoying the company of another living being, whether that being was her former assassin or not. As long as he stayed out of it… then things should run smoothly.

The Cetra moved to repeat the process with the rest of the wounds along Sephiroth's broken body. The task took her many hours to complete, and that along with the magic draining her, Aeris felt she would collapse when she finished. He wasn't exactly 'good as new' when the cuts had all been sealed, for many could not heal themselves beyond scars, plus there were many former injuries that had not been tended to and had formed distinct markings on his flesh without proper healing.

Aeris stood up, her knees bending painfully from the continuous kneeling. She left Sephiroth and strode down to the water, where she proceeded to quench her thirst and wash most of the blood stains from her hands. She watched the crimson drift away from her fingers, smoothing out over the ripples until they no longer became distinct. What happened to the blood in this holy water? Did it just spread like it does in all water, or does it become purified? What happened to Aeris's blood all those months ago? 'It shouldn't matter anymore.' She grabbed a corner of her dirty dress and ripped a tiny square away from it. The fabric tore easily from the years of wear. She soaked the cloth in the water until it appeared to be as clean as it would ever become.

With one more drink she walked back up to the unconscious man. He still lay with no indications of even being alive, save the breathing. Aeris sat by him and pulled the rest of his still-bloodied hair out of his face. There were no apparent cuts on that could be seen, just a few ugly bruises here and there and some blood splatters. Aeris took the damp cloth and mildly began dabbing away at the blood, studying his face while she worked. Besides his reputation and obvious quarry, Sephiroth was not in any sense unattractive. His silver eyebrows were delicately arched above slightly slanted eyes, of which Aeris was much happier with when closed. His lips were softly curved under a straight nose. His chin was sharp and sloped into a strong jaw attached to high cheekbones. "Talk about hell's angel," Aeris mumbled, not at all shocked by her acknowledge of his beauty. Plenty of his 'legendary' stories were accompanied by the lengthy explanation of his perfection and natural seduction, mostly told by the women of the cities who were so 'lucky' to be in his company for a night. Most of this, of course, had been before the Meteor incident and the prior attacks. The same stories had continued, but the more popular among the public had turned to his slaughters rather than his lovemaking. 'Why am I thinking about this?' Aeris grumbled several curses. 'It's not making me feel any safer.'

BBBBBBB

Sephiroth had not woken as Aeris had suspected after hours from her tending to him. She had almost fallen asleep several times, too afraid to lay back and relax while there was a good chance of Sephiroth reviving. Instead she had waited hours some distance from him, thinking about the Lifestream, all the while keeping a careful eye on him.

Finally, too exhausted to care if the man woke and killed her, Aeris made ready to find sleep. She closed her eyes lazily, falling into slumber almost instantly. However, she was awakened almost as immediately. A chill ran through her body and the flower girl rubbed her hands frivolously against her arms, doing little to fend off the chill. 'Great,' she thought, 'get the chance to relax and I start to go cold…' She looked around for something to drape over her, but there was nothing. If Sephiroth had been clothed in more than just his breeches, she would have considered stealing something, but she wasn't even close to resolving to take his only article of clothing. Finally, Aeris came to her last option: make another fire. She had only slight fears of her ability now that she had already performed the spell once; it was the significantly low amount of energy left in her body that scared her.

One more couldn't hurt.

Aeris shifted closer to Sephiroth, feeling that perhaps he should need the heat as well. As long as the flame burned between them and in Sephiroth's direct path to her, Aeris would feel slightly better. Calling the Planet, which was unusually quick to answer, Aeris asked for the flame and welcomed the warmth that tunneled through her being. She grinned when the orb of fire glowed patiently between her palms, awaiting its command. This wasn't so hard.

Then she set the flame down.

Exhaustion immediately fell atop Aeris like a stack of bricks. She was almost wiped unconscious as the flame belched angrily from lack of control. The Cetra fell back onto the sand and struggled to turn onto her side. She glowered at the flame, demanding; desiring it to calm itself, though she was rather enjoying the heat it emanated. The fire cracked again then slowly lowered itself to a safer size, snapping as if fed off of nothing. Aeries, drained now more than ever, watched in satisfaction. But before she could close her eyes, she caught the brilliance of two green eyes staring at her from in between the flickering of flames. Fear swallowed Aeris just as fast as darkness did.

BBBBBBBBB

A/N: Thank you readers! I hope this chapter wasn't weird or too fast or anything… you know, all the things an author worries about. Give me your reviews please! XD