Disclaimer: Whatever Squaresoft owns isn't mine, sadly.
A Word From the Author: I really apologize if Sephiroth is a little OOC. During the whole game, there were only a few scenes to gauge his character before he went crazy and went around murdering people, so if you think Seph is acting weird please tell me. Your effort would be appreciated. Now, on to Chapter Three!
Oh yes, there will be NO Seph/OC. It's too tough to write anyway.
WARNING: Chapter may be a little gory in here. I don't know...maybe you wouldn't think so...but I think it's best if I gave a warning anyway. Well, move your eyes downwards and start reading!
Chapter Three: Ghosts of the Far Away Past
He dreamt.
Perching high above, he plotted and waited, his long sword thrumming with hot fury in his grasp. When the spiky-haired puppet failed to kill the Cetra, he scowled, displeased, at Cloud's unexpected resistance.
He let his eldritch senses stretch forth, sinuous tentacles curling around the area surrounding the girl as she knelt, fully engrossed in her fervent prayer to the Planet. She was nearing the end of her plea, and his sensitive sight caught a faint green glow emitting from beneath the pink ribbon in her hair. The Planet was reacting, answering her passionate call.
That could not do. He'd have to finish off the job himself. He should have trusted no one but himself to complete the task. Jenova's shadowy influence twined around his thoughts, whispering words of dark approval. Mother was right. She was always right.
It was now or never. He raised the Masamune high above his head and leapt. Long platinum hair streaming fanning out behind him, his cloak billowing out like the wings of a giant bat, he landed gracefully.
The Masamune's aim was as accurate and deadly as always, and Cloud's cry, ragged with acute grief and anguish, sounded as the tip of the sharp blade penetrated her back, severing her spine and puncturing a few vital organs on the way through her body. The sword skidded to a metallic, screeching halt on the stone floor as it protruded through Aeris' stomach.
The flower girl slumped forward, the spark of life already fading from her rich green orbs. The Masamune was the only thing keeping her up. Weakened from the terrible wound and massive loss of blood, she nevertheless managed a final, sad smile for Cloud and a gaze of supreme sorrow and sympathy at her murderer before she went limp and flaccid.
Dead. Gone to join the other Cetra in the Promised Land.
Blood stained the pink cloth of her dress, tracing its steady, meandering way down her lower thighs, and dripped slowly over the edge of the raised platform into the clear water below. Cloud's horrified gaze, still locked fast on the gory image of Aeris' untimely death, missed the sight of the faintly glowing materia that pinged and bounced from column to column into the pool.
The man that had brought so much death into the lives of countless people retracted his bloody sword and calmly sheathed it. Aeris' lifeless body fell into Cloud's waiting arms as he knelt to catch her. His eyes brimmed with barely contained tears. Sephiroth was faintly puzzled, almost curious. How could a mere, unnumbered clone possess feelings?
It was an enigma that had to wait to be solved another day. He sneered in response to Cloud's bitter, incoherent words and flew off, leaving Jenova- DEATH to deal with AVALANCHE.
(No.)
Sephiroth, the Sephiroth of the present, watched with an aching soull and despairing eyes. Above all his deeds, this was the crime that he deemed the worst of them all. Here was the girl, the one who had been willing to give everything, including her life, for the world and mass of humanity, half of whom didn't even give a damn whether she lived or died another day. So many people hadn't cared, but she had, and she had died gladly for those people's salvation.
So he watched, a helpless spectator in his memory of a time and place and event that had taken place a distant eternity ago. Remembering every excruciating, precise detail. The color of the sky. The breeze of unknown origin that stirred the chestnut strands of Aeris' hair as she fell, her face so serene it was as though she had just closed her eyes and fallen asleep. A single, glistening tear, hugging the smooth curve of her cheek. The glint of light on the Masamune's smooth edge as it hurtled down, claiming yet another innocent life. The blood, leaking profusely from the ragged wound, leaving scarlet webs on her white skin.
(Was there really so much blood? How could there be so much blood within one person?)
He shut his eyes, willing himself out of the nightmare. But the chains of his exhaustion held him fast, imprisoned within the dream. He could not see, but he could still hear Cloud's scream, echoing throughout the whole Cetra city. He stuffed his fingers in his ears, wanting to hear no more, but Aeris' dead, glazed eyes then appeared in the void of his mind, staring directly at him, accusingly.
Other memories came back to him. He was standing in the flames, exulting in the atmosphere of fear and fire that raged about him, feeding the dark fire smoldering within his heart. Bodies lay scattered about him, frozen in gruesome, tortured positions. For once, Sephiroth had not cared about performing his legendary neat killings. Each villager that had died had done so in an even more horrible, spectacular way than the last.
He thought of his latest victim, a pregnant, mousy-haired woman, with perverted pleasure. He'd killed her unborn child first, slashing her swollen belly open with a quick, vertical cut across and spilling the half- formed fetus into the bloodstained dust.
The woman had gazed at him in stricken horror. He hadn't cared, just enjoyed the terrified, powerfully grieved expression on her contorted face. She'd understood. The sword wound he'd given her was deliberately shallow enough to hurt her baby but not the mother herself. He wanted her to suffer before she died.
And die she did, slowly. As slowly and painfully as he could possibly make it. He impaled the still squirming bundle of pitiful humanity with the Masamune and dashed it into her face, letting her see her child up close. She shrieked with maternal pain and sobbed, her tears mingling with the blood of her baby. After he had grown bored with the spectacle, he'd beheaded her with a series of increasingly deeper swings of his sword until her head was totally severed, still bearing an expression of absolute horror.
"You're sick."
Sephiroth turned around at the sound of the familiar voice. Zack stood there, beside one of the guards they'd brought with them to Nibelheim, who lay face down on the ground. Dimly he recalled that Zack had once been his friend, or at least someone he could trust and confide in. But no longer. Mother had told him...it was just him and her, against everyone else. He could trust nobody, now that he knew his great destiny.
"It is nothing worse than what you human scum did to us," he said coldly. Masamune strained in his hand, eager to taste more blood. But something in him was strangely reluctant to kill the other SOLDIER. He lowered his sword slightly.
Zack lifted an eyebrow. "Us?" he echoed. "Whatever you found in that library didn't seem to agree with you. This was a dupe mission, Seph. Hojo sent you here to find that library. He's lying, he always has been. Please, Seph, I don't want to kill you." His voice went steel hard. "Even if you aren't the General I respected, in spirit, anyway."
He lies...see how the humans attempt to trick you? But I'll be here for you...always.
Sephiroth narrowed his eyes at his ex-comrade. "Get the hell out of here, Major, and perhaps I'll be tempted to spare your life." He turned without another word and departed through the flames, their searing heat unable to harm him one bit.
But Zack had followed him...and there, the Masamune had cut him down, just as it had sliced through Tifa and her father...
(Why hadn't you listened to me, Zack? You might still be alive...and both you and Cloud wouldn't have to suffer hell all over and over again in Hojo's lab for five...long...damned...years...)
He wandered his memories, seeking happier times, which came rarely. Professor Gast always had a kind smile and a nice word for him, but one day he had just disappeared with his wife Iflana...the boy had felt so abandoned and betrayed...one year later, he'd heard that Gast was dead...he was left alone again...
"Finally! I've been trying to contact you for ages."
(What?!)
His bleak surroundings faded away to be replaced by the Sleeping Forest that guarded the way to the City of the Ancients. He blinked his jade green eyes in understandable confusion. That voice...it was so familiar...
"Hi!"
(It can't be...)
Smiling cheerily, Aeris Gainsborough, whom he'd killed in cold blood, was standing right in front of him, brilliant green eyes twinkling merrily. The ex-general looked deep into the flawless, open depths of her eyes and, to his considerable astonishment, saw no enmity or hatred there. Why not? He'd condemned her first love, Zack, after all, to a horrible fate and manipulated her second love, Cloud, like a dancing puppet. She had a right, more than some, to hate him with the whole of her soul.
Yet, as he had left to take up his mission in Gaia, she had bid him goodbye with a blessing of goodwill.
"What are you doing here?" he asked abruptly, to cover up his momentary lapse in control. "This is...this is my mind, is it not?"
Aeris nodded in agreement. "The Planet sensed your distress and sent me to soothe it. I hope you do not mind the intrusion."
"Not at all. I am relieved, to tell you the truth. One finds it hard to face his memories when one has done what I have done," Sephiroth confessed freely. Aeris had a unique way of making even strangers feel comfortable instantly in her presence.
The flower girl smiled as she walked through the massive, ancient trees, running smooth hands up and down the trunks. "I hope you do not blame yourself overmuch. It wasn't your fault...or at least, you do not deserve too much of the blame." Her mood suddenly changing, she leaped up and wriggled her way onto a thick trunk, her legs dangling over the side. "I like it here. It's so peaceful. It makes one think."
Sephiroth scowled. "How can you speak like this when it was I who killed you?" he demanded. Aeris flinched a little, but remained silent. He continued passionately, the words pouring out of his mouth as though they had been pent up for a long time.
"Do you know how it is, to live everyday with the ghosts of the dead? They're all here, living inside me, gnawing at my insides! I try to hide it, but when I sleep, they come! In droves, in armies. It's killing me. But I suppose it's my punishment." His voice grew steadily softer and harsher as he spoke.
"You weren't yourself, and you know that," Aeris snapped. "Like I said, it's good that you didn't try to push everything onto Jenova and use her as an excuse, but I think it's time you looked at yourself as a victim rather than the sole cause of all the misery in the world. ShinRa destroyed just as many people as you, physically and mentally, through indirect effects of their actions. The world suffered before you came along, and it will still suffer years after you die. Don't act the martyr and keep heaping every scrap of sadness on your own head and seeing yourself as the root cause of it. You've been bad, but you've seen the light, you've become good, so, in the name of Ifrit's fiery hells why won't you just stop BEATING THE CRAP OUT OF YOURSELF AND GET ON WITH LIFE?!!!!!"
Aeris yelled the last word so loudly that Sephiroth actually took a step backwards out of pure alarm.
The duo stood there for a while as Aeris calmed down, letting out the last of her steam. Then Sephiroth said dryly, "Bravo. I had no idea that you swore so eloquently."
"I had no idea either," the girl replied with a giggle. She quickly became serious again, though. "So, the point I've been trying to get across to your thick skull is that it wasn't ever your doing. It was Jenova who was riding your body and soul. It was your hands that did the dirty work, but the true mastermind would be the thrice-accursed alien blob thing from outer space."
"Harsh."
"Yeah, well. Jenova certainly didn't score much in the looks department."
"True. I don't know what I saw in her." His jesting tone of levity died, becoming more grave. "I think it was the love she offered me."
"The love of a mother," Aeris supplied quietly.
"Which I had never known," Sephiroth agreed sadly. "Lord, what a damned fool I've been!"
"At least you had a noble incentive. Trust Jenova to twist even an innocent thing like love into a weapon," Aeris declared. Her green eyes looked at him with sympathy. "But you know now, right? It was Lucrecia, not Jenova, who was your mother."
"Yes, the brief plunge into the Lifestream before it rejected me told me that much," Sephiroth replied. He looked away from her, staring at some indefinite point into a tree. "I would do whatever Mo...that alien asked, because she would then shower me with praise, and I would feel loved. I would do anything just to gain her favor. Because, in an odd way, she did grant her promises, and I think, in the end, she did care for me a little. But she put world conquest in front of everything else, and that was what destroyed her in the end."
"Did you love Jenova?" Aeris asked.
"Maybe. I don't know. But she was the first in a long time to care, and I guess I was a little mentally unstable at the time after reading the books at the library. That was why I accepted her in the first place."
"Knowing this, can you forgive yourself now?" Aeris queried, a strange note in her voice. Sephiroth glanced at her; she was staring at him intently. Seeing his inquiring haze, she patted the spot beside her and smiled. The silver-haired general shrugged and sprung up in a powerful leap. He heaved himself up and pulled himself into a sitting position beside her.
"What does it matter?" he retorted. "The deal was for the Planet and your Cetra kin to forgive me, not me to forgive myself."
"The Lifestream will not accept a soul that is not completely at rest. It is essential you be at peace with what you have done," Aeris insisted.
"How can I?" Sephiroth snarled bitterly. "My deeds are too heinous. There is too much blood on my hands..."
"Believe what you will, then," Aeris answered, shrugging, but looking vaguely disappointed with his answer. "I am not here to force you to forgive yourself, but to show you the way. But I urge you to forgive yourself, Sephiroth. It is the only way you will ever know peace."
"You make it sound like it's so easy," he said wistfully.
"It's not. But you are strong, Sephiroth, so I'll believe in you. Do not let me down."
Impulsively she leaned forward and brushed her lips against his forehead. He blinked, splashes of color in his pale cheeks and looking very baffled at the unexpected gesture.
"It's almost morning," she said, drawing back, a playful smile dancing on her lips. "The Promised Land calls me now. Fare thee well, my friend. We shall meet again in the dream world. Call if you are in pain or in need of my guidance. I shall always be watching over you."
She leapt off the branch and took off running down the path leading through the Sleeping Forest. Soon, she was just a pink dot among the leafy boughs.
Then she was gone, and the Sleeping Forest vanished like a mirage in a desert, leaving only darkness.
***
Author's Ending Note: YAY! Two chapters in two days! A record has been reached! Okay, calming down now. I know this chapter is pretty much irrelevant to my storyline, but I went ahead and inserted it anyway to let readers think more about Sephiroth's weird bond with his dear Mother (Jenova, not Lucrecia, DUH). I hope you get my point. I will be adding more SephAeris scenes in later chapters. Feast on that, Aeriroth fans! Again, it's okay to flame me if I have any truly atrocious spelling/grammar mistakes. And the first few chapters will be pretty low on action, but I promise more in the later part of the story. Hope action-loving fans won't mind too much. Have you noticed Aeris is somewhat OOC in this chapter? I mean, I don't think she swears. Not in the game anyway. But, who cares. It's my story, my interpretation.
Lastly, a happy Good Friday to all of you kind readers who haven't nodded off during my long rant!
Uh, yes. I've just added in a poem which I wrote some time ago. I just thought of it and felt it would kinda fit in here. Please tell me what you think of it!
/Ghosts of the Past/
/Haunting us in dreams/
/In wakefulness/
/Filled with fragments/
/Of shattered loneliness/
/To be filled with the despair/
/That nothing could truly last./
/Through our eyes we remember/
/Bright jewels in steady streams/
/Light against dark, surging currents/
/Their smiles so warm, so peaceful/
/Faces bright splashes of blurred color/
/On a faded tapestry./
(You smiled so beautifully that night)
(Would you have done so if you had known)
(What was to be?)
/Ghosts of the Past/
/Their touch cold, searing/
/Yet comforting in their burning warmth/
/They are there./
/Lurking always behind us, hiding/
/In a dream, in a nightmare/
/Ghosts of the Past./
Thanks to:
G. Zan –for being a regular reviewer ~hint, hint!~
Zero-no-uta –for your awesome praise
Oh yeah, and don't forget to—
REVIEW!!!
A Word From the Author: I really apologize if Sephiroth is a little OOC. During the whole game, there were only a few scenes to gauge his character before he went crazy and went around murdering people, so if you think Seph is acting weird please tell me. Your effort would be appreciated. Now, on to Chapter Three!
Oh yes, there will be NO Seph/OC. It's too tough to write anyway.
WARNING: Chapter may be a little gory in here. I don't know...maybe you wouldn't think so...but I think it's best if I gave a warning anyway. Well, move your eyes downwards and start reading!
Chapter Three: Ghosts of the Far Away Past
He dreamt.
Perching high above, he plotted and waited, his long sword thrumming with hot fury in his grasp. When the spiky-haired puppet failed to kill the Cetra, he scowled, displeased, at Cloud's unexpected resistance.
He let his eldritch senses stretch forth, sinuous tentacles curling around the area surrounding the girl as she knelt, fully engrossed in her fervent prayer to the Planet. She was nearing the end of her plea, and his sensitive sight caught a faint green glow emitting from beneath the pink ribbon in her hair. The Planet was reacting, answering her passionate call.
That could not do. He'd have to finish off the job himself. He should have trusted no one but himself to complete the task. Jenova's shadowy influence twined around his thoughts, whispering words of dark approval. Mother was right. She was always right.
It was now or never. He raised the Masamune high above his head and leapt. Long platinum hair streaming fanning out behind him, his cloak billowing out like the wings of a giant bat, he landed gracefully.
The Masamune's aim was as accurate and deadly as always, and Cloud's cry, ragged with acute grief and anguish, sounded as the tip of the sharp blade penetrated her back, severing her spine and puncturing a few vital organs on the way through her body. The sword skidded to a metallic, screeching halt on the stone floor as it protruded through Aeris' stomach.
The flower girl slumped forward, the spark of life already fading from her rich green orbs. The Masamune was the only thing keeping her up. Weakened from the terrible wound and massive loss of blood, she nevertheless managed a final, sad smile for Cloud and a gaze of supreme sorrow and sympathy at her murderer before she went limp and flaccid.
Dead. Gone to join the other Cetra in the Promised Land.
Blood stained the pink cloth of her dress, tracing its steady, meandering way down her lower thighs, and dripped slowly over the edge of the raised platform into the clear water below. Cloud's horrified gaze, still locked fast on the gory image of Aeris' untimely death, missed the sight of the faintly glowing materia that pinged and bounced from column to column into the pool.
The man that had brought so much death into the lives of countless people retracted his bloody sword and calmly sheathed it. Aeris' lifeless body fell into Cloud's waiting arms as he knelt to catch her. His eyes brimmed with barely contained tears. Sephiroth was faintly puzzled, almost curious. How could a mere, unnumbered clone possess feelings?
It was an enigma that had to wait to be solved another day. He sneered in response to Cloud's bitter, incoherent words and flew off, leaving Jenova- DEATH to deal with AVALANCHE.
(No.)
Sephiroth, the Sephiroth of the present, watched with an aching soull and despairing eyes. Above all his deeds, this was the crime that he deemed the worst of them all. Here was the girl, the one who had been willing to give everything, including her life, for the world and mass of humanity, half of whom didn't even give a damn whether she lived or died another day. So many people hadn't cared, but she had, and she had died gladly for those people's salvation.
So he watched, a helpless spectator in his memory of a time and place and event that had taken place a distant eternity ago. Remembering every excruciating, precise detail. The color of the sky. The breeze of unknown origin that stirred the chestnut strands of Aeris' hair as she fell, her face so serene it was as though she had just closed her eyes and fallen asleep. A single, glistening tear, hugging the smooth curve of her cheek. The glint of light on the Masamune's smooth edge as it hurtled down, claiming yet another innocent life. The blood, leaking profusely from the ragged wound, leaving scarlet webs on her white skin.
(Was there really so much blood? How could there be so much blood within one person?)
He shut his eyes, willing himself out of the nightmare. But the chains of his exhaustion held him fast, imprisoned within the dream. He could not see, but he could still hear Cloud's scream, echoing throughout the whole Cetra city. He stuffed his fingers in his ears, wanting to hear no more, but Aeris' dead, glazed eyes then appeared in the void of his mind, staring directly at him, accusingly.
Other memories came back to him. He was standing in the flames, exulting in the atmosphere of fear and fire that raged about him, feeding the dark fire smoldering within his heart. Bodies lay scattered about him, frozen in gruesome, tortured positions. For once, Sephiroth had not cared about performing his legendary neat killings. Each villager that had died had done so in an even more horrible, spectacular way than the last.
He thought of his latest victim, a pregnant, mousy-haired woman, with perverted pleasure. He'd killed her unborn child first, slashing her swollen belly open with a quick, vertical cut across and spilling the half- formed fetus into the bloodstained dust.
The woman had gazed at him in stricken horror. He hadn't cared, just enjoyed the terrified, powerfully grieved expression on her contorted face. She'd understood. The sword wound he'd given her was deliberately shallow enough to hurt her baby but not the mother herself. He wanted her to suffer before she died.
And die she did, slowly. As slowly and painfully as he could possibly make it. He impaled the still squirming bundle of pitiful humanity with the Masamune and dashed it into her face, letting her see her child up close. She shrieked with maternal pain and sobbed, her tears mingling with the blood of her baby. After he had grown bored with the spectacle, he'd beheaded her with a series of increasingly deeper swings of his sword until her head was totally severed, still bearing an expression of absolute horror.
"You're sick."
Sephiroth turned around at the sound of the familiar voice. Zack stood there, beside one of the guards they'd brought with them to Nibelheim, who lay face down on the ground. Dimly he recalled that Zack had once been his friend, or at least someone he could trust and confide in. But no longer. Mother had told him...it was just him and her, against everyone else. He could trust nobody, now that he knew his great destiny.
"It is nothing worse than what you human scum did to us," he said coldly. Masamune strained in his hand, eager to taste more blood. But something in him was strangely reluctant to kill the other SOLDIER. He lowered his sword slightly.
Zack lifted an eyebrow. "Us?" he echoed. "Whatever you found in that library didn't seem to agree with you. This was a dupe mission, Seph. Hojo sent you here to find that library. He's lying, he always has been. Please, Seph, I don't want to kill you." His voice went steel hard. "Even if you aren't the General I respected, in spirit, anyway."
He lies...see how the humans attempt to trick you? But I'll be here for you...always.
Sephiroth narrowed his eyes at his ex-comrade. "Get the hell out of here, Major, and perhaps I'll be tempted to spare your life." He turned without another word and departed through the flames, their searing heat unable to harm him one bit.
But Zack had followed him...and there, the Masamune had cut him down, just as it had sliced through Tifa and her father...
(Why hadn't you listened to me, Zack? You might still be alive...and both you and Cloud wouldn't have to suffer hell all over and over again in Hojo's lab for five...long...damned...years...)
He wandered his memories, seeking happier times, which came rarely. Professor Gast always had a kind smile and a nice word for him, but one day he had just disappeared with his wife Iflana...the boy had felt so abandoned and betrayed...one year later, he'd heard that Gast was dead...he was left alone again...
"Finally! I've been trying to contact you for ages."
(What?!)
His bleak surroundings faded away to be replaced by the Sleeping Forest that guarded the way to the City of the Ancients. He blinked his jade green eyes in understandable confusion. That voice...it was so familiar...
"Hi!"
(It can't be...)
Smiling cheerily, Aeris Gainsborough, whom he'd killed in cold blood, was standing right in front of him, brilliant green eyes twinkling merrily. The ex-general looked deep into the flawless, open depths of her eyes and, to his considerable astonishment, saw no enmity or hatred there. Why not? He'd condemned her first love, Zack, after all, to a horrible fate and manipulated her second love, Cloud, like a dancing puppet. She had a right, more than some, to hate him with the whole of her soul.
Yet, as he had left to take up his mission in Gaia, she had bid him goodbye with a blessing of goodwill.
"What are you doing here?" he asked abruptly, to cover up his momentary lapse in control. "This is...this is my mind, is it not?"
Aeris nodded in agreement. "The Planet sensed your distress and sent me to soothe it. I hope you do not mind the intrusion."
"Not at all. I am relieved, to tell you the truth. One finds it hard to face his memories when one has done what I have done," Sephiroth confessed freely. Aeris had a unique way of making even strangers feel comfortable instantly in her presence.
The flower girl smiled as she walked through the massive, ancient trees, running smooth hands up and down the trunks. "I hope you do not blame yourself overmuch. It wasn't your fault...or at least, you do not deserve too much of the blame." Her mood suddenly changing, she leaped up and wriggled her way onto a thick trunk, her legs dangling over the side. "I like it here. It's so peaceful. It makes one think."
Sephiroth scowled. "How can you speak like this when it was I who killed you?" he demanded. Aeris flinched a little, but remained silent. He continued passionately, the words pouring out of his mouth as though they had been pent up for a long time.
"Do you know how it is, to live everyday with the ghosts of the dead? They're all here, living inside me, gnawing at my insides! I try to hide it, but when I sleep, they come! In droves, in armies. It's killing me. But I suppose it's my punishment." His voice grew steadily softer and harsher as he spoke.
"You weren't yourself, and you know that," Aeris snapped. "Like I said, it's good that you didn't try to push everything onto Jenova and use her as an excuse, but I think it's time you looked at yourself as a victim rather than the sole cause of all the misery in the world. ShinRa destroyed just as many people as you, physically and mentally, through indirect effects of their actions. The world suffered before you came along, and it will still suffer years after you die. Don't act the martyr and keep heaping every scrap of sadness on your own head and seeing yourself as the root cause of it. You've been bad, but you've seen the light, you've become good, so, in the name of Ifrit's fiery hells why won't you just stop BEATING THE CRAP OUT OF YOURSELF AND GET ON WITH LIFE?!!!!!"
Aeris yelled the last word so loudly that Sephiroth actually took a step backwards out of pure alarm.
The duo stood there for a while as Aeris calmed down, letting out the last of her steam. Then Sephiroth said dryly, "Bravo. I had no idea that you swore so eloquently."
"I had no idea either," the girl replied with a giggle. She quickly became serious again, though. "So, the point I've been trying to get across to your thick skull is that it wasn't ever your doing. It was Jenova who was riding your body and soul. It was your hands that did the dirty work, but the true mastermind would be the thrice-accursed alien blob thing from outer space."
"Harsh."
"Yeah, well. Jenova certainly didn't score much in the looks department."
"True. I don't know what I saw in her." His jesting tone of levity died, becoming more grave. "I think it was the love she offered me."
"The love of a mother," Aeris supplied quietly.
"Which I had never known," Sephiroth agreed sadly. "Lord, what a damned fool I've been!"
"At least you had a noble incentive. Trust Jenova to twist even an innocent thing like love into a weapon," Aeris declared. Her green eyes looked at him with sympathy. "But you know now, right? It was Lucrecia, not Jenova, who was your mother."
"Yes, the brief plunge into the Lifestream before it rejected me told me that much," Sephiroth replied. He looked away from her, staring at some indefinite point into a tree. "I would do whatever Mo...that alien asked, because she would then shower me with praise, and I would feel loved. I would do anything just to gain her favor. Because, in an odd way, she did grant her promises, and I think, in the end, she did care for me a little. But she put world conquest in front of everything else, and that was what destroyed her in the end."
"Did you love Jenova?" Aeris asked.
"Maybe. I don't know. But she was the first in a long time to care, and I guess I was a little mentally unstable at the time after reading the books at the library. That was why I accepted her in the first place."
"Knowing this, can you forgive yourself now?" Aeris queried, a strange note in her voice. Sephiroth glanced at her; she was staring at him intently. Seeing his inquiring haze, she patted the spot beside her and smiled. The silver-haired general shrugged and sprung up in a powerful leap. He heaved himself up and pulled himself into a sitting position beside her.
"What does it matter?" he retorted. "The deal was for the Planet and your Cetra kin to forgive me, not me to forgive myself."
"The Lifestream will not accept a soul that is not completely at rest. It is essential you be at peace with what you have done," Aeris insisted.
"How can I?" Sephiroth snarled bitterly. "My deeds are too heinous. There is too much blood on my hands..."
"Believe what you will, then," Aeris answered, shrugging, but looking vaguely disappointed with his answer. "I am not here to force you to forgive yourself, but to show you the way. But I urge you to forgive yourself, Sephiroth. It is the only way you will ever know peace."
"You make it sound like it's so easy," he said wistfully.
"It's not. But you are strong, Sephiroth, so I'll believe in you. Do not let me down."
Impulsively she leaned forward and brushed her lips against his forehead. He blinked, splashes of color in his pale cheeks and looking very baffled at the unexpected gesture.
"It's almost morning," she said, drawing back, a playful smile dancing on her lips. "The Promised Land calls me now. Fare thee well, my friend. We shall meet again in the dream world. Call if you are in pain or in need of my guidance. I shall always be watching over you."
She leapt off the branch and took off running down the path leading through the Sleeping Forest. Soon, she was just a pink dot among the leafy boughs.
Then she was gone, and the Sleeping Forest vanished like a mirage in a desert, leaving only darkness.
***
Author's Ending Note: YAY! Two chapters in two days! A record has been reached! Okay, calming down now. I know this chapter is pretty much irrelevant to my storyline, but I went ahead and inserted it anyway to let readers think more about Sephiroth's weird bond with his dear Mother (Jenova, not Lucrecia, DUH). I hope you get my point. I will be adding more SephAeris scenes in later chapters. Feast on that, Aeriroth fans! Again, it's okay to flame me if I have any truly atrocious spelling/grammar mistakes. And the first few chapters will be pretty low on action, but I promise more in the later part of the story. Hope action-loving fans won't mind too much. Have you noticed Aeris is somewhat OOC in this chapter? I mean, I don't think she swears. Not in the game anyway. But, who cares. It's my story, my interpretation.
Lastly, a happy Good Friday to all of you kind readers who haven't nodded off during my long rant!
Uh, yes. I've just added in a poem which I wrote some time ago. I just thought of it and felt it would kinda fit in here. Please tell me what you think of it!
/Ghosts of the Past/
/Haunting us in dreams/
/In wakefulness/
/Filled with fragments/
/Of shattered loneliness/
/To be filled with the despair/
/That nothing could truly last./
/Through our eyes we remember/
/Bright jewels in steady streams/
/Light against dark, surging currents/
/Their smiles so warm, so peaceful/
/Faces bright splashes of blurred color/
/On a faded tapestry./
(You smiled so beautifully that night)
(Would you have done so if you had known)
(What was to be?)
/Ghosts of the Past/
/Their touch cold, searing/
/Yet comforting in their burning warmth/
/They are there./
/Lurking always behind us, hiding/
/In a dream, in a nightmare/
/Ghosts of the Past./
Thanks to:
G. Zan –for being a regular reviewer ~hint, hint!~
Zero-no-uta –for your awesome praise
Oh yeah, and don't forget to—
REVIEW!!!
