Title: Happily Ever After
Chapter: Malevolent Forest
Author: Raserei Hojo
Summary: FF Crossover. When you die, you're not really gone. In two separate worlds, two young men with different goals died. In the darkness, they meet. But, within a short amount of time, will their souls be erased from time as the law states?
Rating: T
Feedback: Very much so desired!
Story Warnings: Male/Male, shounen-ai
Pairings: Kuja/Sephiroth
Disclaimer: Any recognizable characters of Final Fantasy VII or Final Fantasy IX belong to Squaresoft. Any that are NOT recognizable belong to me. However, feel free to use them in any story you wish.

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Kuja stared down at the food on the dining table, trying his best not to look too disgusted. Although his distaste was perfectly masked on his face, his voice gave himself away. "What is this? Is it...edible?"

Sephiroth laughed and tore a piece of meat from the bone with his teeth. Still snickering, he tried to eat without choking.

Huffing, Kuja gingerly picked the baby Chocobo drumstick up by the bone, watching it dangle around. "How does it taste?"

Sephiroth swallowed and pondered for a few seconds. "Like chicken?"

Kuja raised a brow. "Were you being sarcastic?"

Sephiroth shrugged. "I wasn't trying to be. It's a lot like chicken, but it's tastier and there's much more meat. I suppose someone like you wouldn't enjoy Chocobo, but to me, it's a luxury. When you're out in the wilderness with no food, you have to eat the strangest of things." He set the bare bone on the plate. "Why don't you just try it? If you don't like it, you can eat some salad or some other pansy food."

Kuja set the Chocobo meat on the plate and wrapped his arms around himself. He desperately tried to shove the thought of Sephiroth eating rats out of his head. Kuja looked again at the food on the table, then to the drumstick. "It's greasy though."

"Are we worried about blemishes?"

"No! I don't think I'll be getting a blemish. I wasn't designed like you humans."

Sephiroth raised a brow this time. "You really do think you're perfect, don't you?" He shrugged again. "I don't think you're perfect. Maybe you don't want to get fat but you do have to eat something. Salad, chicken, Chocobo, whatever. Something, preferably with protein."

"Oh, thanks. What do you do in your free time, read about food?"

"...No. I just happen to be informed about a normal diet. Seriously though, I don't care if you're human or not, you have to consume some kind of energy products. It should have plenty of proteins and carbohydrates to give you energy. That is, unless you want to be a blob that can barely fit in a chair like President Shinra, Palmer, and Heidegger…" He ticked them off on his fingers. "Nearly all of the Shinra executives were like that. You look rich, you look like a noble. I hope to the gods you don't end up like them."

Kuja's lip twisted into a scowl. "I'm not going to get fat. But I don't want to eat a Chocobo. It was once a beautiful, living creature. Now… it's cooked and being attacked by hungry…. carnivores!"

"How do you expect people to survive?"

"I don't know. We shouldn't just go around killing innocent animals. We should just eat the plants that grow. That's not really causing any harm."

"But the plant was alive at one time as well. Many of the ordinary things that people use on a daily basis are made out of plants. Corks, some paper, ink."

"I don't care! You just don't get it, do you, Sephiroth? I can't put that thing into my mouth. It was alive at one time—and I know plants were too—but it was a majestic animal with muscles and—and a soul! It had feelings, it had emotions!"

"And yet you've destroyed an entire planet. You've caused wars to kill people and send them to your planet's Lifestream. You're nothing but a hypocrite."

Kuja sighed. "I know. But I'm here, and maybe it I atone-"

"Maybe if you atone, they'll send you back to your world? They'll let you live as if you never died? They'll…" Sephiroth smiled. "They'll forget this ever happened?"

Knowing fully well he was walking straight into the swordsman's trap, he nodded. "Right."

"You won't be sent back. If anything, you'll be reincarnated. You'll face a life harder than the one you're lived before. You'll be tested again and again until you live your life properly. Then maybe they'll let you stay here."

"You don't even know the rules here," Kuja argued.

"There was information on the afterlife back in my world. There were so many books. People who have been supposedly dead before. They were hypnotized and revealed their past life. I don't believe in it, at least I didn't. But now that I'm here, I find it hard not to believe. Maybe I don't believe in the whole 'past afterlife' thing, but I do believe that it is possible to be reincarnated."

Kuja looked aside. "I don't care. I'm still not eating it." He had changed their serious discussion back to something stupid. He didn't want to think about what would happen if he was reincarnated. He would have to ask before his soul was calm, though. That much he knew.

"Excuse me." Michael walked over to them, staring down at the two silver haired men. "You'll have to hurry and finish eating. A meeting is going to be here."

Kuja slammed his fists on the table. "So why did you let us eat here?"

"All new members of Terra-Matra eat their first meal here. While we assign you a home, you should go and explore the town and get used to the mechanics of our world. You should enjoy the time you spend here, because chances are, you won't be here for very long."

"What do you mean?" Kuja stood and went over to Michael, who waved the question aside.

"You should go. Kuja, take a bowl of salad with you, I don't mind."

Blue-black eyes glared angrily, but Kuja soon calmed himself down. He took a bowl, filled it with fruits and vegetables, and headed out. Sephiroth shook his head and followed the Genome.

"Auf wiedersehen!" Michael called out to them.

"Whatever," the two silver-haired men called back.

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"So, what do you think we should do?" Kuja asked. He looked down at the salad he found delicious, pleased that he hadn't been the cause of another thing's death. Even if he wasn't the one who killed it, he didn't consume its corpse.

Sephiroth just shrugged like he always did. "I don't know. We've been walking around this town for a while."

"When do you think that Sage Michael man will call us back?"

Sephiroth tilted his head. "I don't know. Maybe he won't call us back at all."

"There you go again, Sephiroth." Kuja rolled his eyes. "Complain, spout your negativity, deplore everything." Kuja looked around the town.

Stone buildings were cramped closely together. They all looked the same to Kuja. However, as they walked by, he had peered through some of the windows that were open and had seen distinct differences. In some houses, the furniture looked expensive and fit for a king. In other homes, it was nearly bare, perhaps a chair in the corner of the room. Everything towered over Kuja and he felt like a needle in a haystack. He is silver hair made him stick out, as did his attire, and he hated the way that people's eyes seemed to follow him, staring at his back until he turned the corner with Sephiroth. He wondered if Sephiroth felt the same way.

As they walked through the town, they eventually found the border of it. At least, they assumed it was a border. The dirt road simply cut off and tall tufts of green grass stood erect like little soldiers. The buildings had stopped appearing a while ago, and along the dirt road were patches of golden colored dirt. Along those patches the two men saw farmers toiling at their work. How awful it would be to have a job like that, Kuja thought.

"We should head back, Kuja. All that's out there is grass, and it looks like a gloomy forest there as well. There's no more civilization."

"I thought you didn't mind being out in the wilderness, eh?"

"I don't. I would just rather head back now, that's all."

Kuja smirked and continued forward. "Oh, does a tiny little forest in the distance scare you?"

Sephiroth growled and followed the Genome. "I told you, I just want to head back and see if that old man has everything ready. I wouldn't mind sleeping in a bed for once. Floating around in absolutely nothing is very, very awkward. I'm looking forward to sleeping in a bed.

"Awkward it may be, but rest can wait. I want to see what's in that forest." Kuja pondered what could be held in the forest. "Maybe there's an exit to this horrid place. That would be wonderful!"

"Or maybe there's a death trap that locks us in there forever," Sephiroth muttered.

It took them another hour to reach the forest. Kuja and Sephiroth both noted that despite the mind's calculation of distance, it was a trick. They also realized that it would take them at least four hours to get back.

"Damn you and your thirst for adventure," Sephiroth muttered. "We're in the forest. There's trees, there's leaves, there's bushes—" he swatted at a mosquito, "—there's bugs. Yeah, I'd say this is the wilderness, all right. Can we go back now?"

Kuja defiantly shook his head and reached up, gripping a large rock with his hands. He then proceeded to pull himself up onto the rock, carefully climbing it. After a few quick minutes, Kuja victoriously stood on top of the rock and glanced around. "Hmm..."

Sephiroth clapped his hands together mockingly. "Bravo, bravo." He smirked. "Do you do evenings as well?"

Kuja ripped a frail limb from the above tree and hurled it at Sephiroth. "Shut up. I don't need you evaluating me. I climbed the rock, didn't I? It's three times my size."

Sephiroth rolled his eyes and walked forward. He placed his foot on one of the many grooves of the rock and gained leverage quickly. Within seconds he was on top of the rock, towering over Kuja with a cynical smirk. "I didn't realize that climbing this big old boulder was such a task. I commemorate you on your bravery! Your wit! Your brawn, your prowess!" He laughed, and it echoed throughout the empty forest. "Really."

Scowling, Kuja jumped down from the rock. He landed catlike and continued further into the depths of the forest. "I don't need you mocking me every five seconds."

Sephiroth smirked again and followed the Genome. "Am I bothering you?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, you are." I'm not like him, am I? I'm not sarcastic and I don't annoy the hell out of people, right? Kuja waved a hand, gesturing for Sephiroth to stop following. "Why don't you go away?"

"Because you wouldn't go away. So you're stuck with me. I intend to make you suffer the entire time we're here."

"I didn't ask you to come with me. You volunteered. You could have went back to the main castle as soon as you wanted! But what did you do? You followed me in here!"

Laughing again, Sephiroth shook his head. "You've got such a temper."

"Yeah, and if I had my magic—"

"I know, I know, you'd magick me until I—...What was that?"

Kuja placed his hands on his hips and glared up at Sephiroth. "You're making fun of me again!"

Sephiroth shook his head, slowly turning his head, trying to pick up the slight sound he heard. "No, I heard something." He turned his head the other way, straining to hear the noise again. "It was like a rustling of leaves..."

Groaning and rolling his eyes, Kuja shook his head. "Have you ever heard of the wind?"

"Shut up!" Sephiroth raised his voice, silencing Kuja and leaving a uneasy silence in the forest. It was quiet enough to hear Sephiroth's quickened breaths of air. Whatever made the noise, he his senses told him it was powerful.

Realizing Sephiroth was serious for once, Kuja looked around as well. "Maybe you scared it off?" he whispered quietly.

Sephiroth cautiously took a few steps forward. When he stopped, he heard the noise again to his right. "No. It's here."

Kuja climbed another boulder to get a better view of the area. Nothing seemed very peculiar, and Kuja began to think that maybe Sephiroth was just going insane. No, wait, he's already insane. Assuming that if Sephiroth still had sanity left, he jumped and clung to a tree branch. This time he easily climbed the branch. He proudly stood on the branch. It seemed sturdy, and Kuja felt confident that his lack of weight would not break the branch.

"I wonder what it is..." Sephiroth carefully reached into the bushes and felt around. Nothing. "Or maybe who?"

"I don't see anything from up here."

Sephiroth blinked and looked up at Kuja. "Why the hell are you all the way up there?"

"I thought maybe, whatever it was, it could be seen from a distance." Kuja jumped down from the branch and landed perfectly. He stretched and looked at Sephiroth who seemed to be hiding his astonishment. Kuja merely smirked and asked in a cocky tone, "What?"

"Nothing." Sephiroth shrugged. "We should go back to the town. I don't like the eerie feeling of this place." He turned around and stared. "What the...hell...?"

"Hm?" Kuja peered around the older man. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "It's... I've been in this forest before. It was in my world!" He stared vividly at the petrified land in front of himself. "When my brother killed the leader of this forest, it turned to stone."

"So why is it turning to stone now?"

Kuja shook his head. "I have no idea, but we had best get out of here, fast."

Sephiroth nodded in agreement.

After only a few steps, the two found they were going to have some difficulty returning. Huge red spiders stood in their way. They screamed wildly and rushed at the two men.

"What do we do, Sephiroth?"

Sephiroth quickly scanned the mass of spiders. He couldn't take them all out with what little time he had. The forest was slowly petrifying, and eventually they would all be locked inside of it. "We'll have to run for it."

For once, Kuja didn't give a sarcastic remark. He rushed off in the opposite direction of the spiders, doing his best to avoid the petrifying forest. "Come on! Hurry!"

Sephiroth placed his left hand over the hilt of his sword and followed Kuja. He unsheathed the Masamune, ready to slash at any spider that dared get too close. "The amount of spiders here is ridiculous!"

"I know," Kuja called from ahead. "Something must have triggered the forest to petrify though." He skid to a sudden halt. "The forest ahead of us. It's already petrified." He quickly glanced around. "There's barely any room left."

Sephiroth grabbed Kuja's arm with his free hand and bolted off through the still green part of the forest. "Keep up with me. We'll get out of here."

Kuja didn't exactly appreciate being dragged through a forest like a doll, but he didn't have time to register anything at the moment. In his dazed state, his foot caught on a rock and he staggered. Sephiroth didn't catch him, and Kuja angrily fell on his hands and knees. "Thanks a lot, Sephiroth." He blinked. "Sephiroth?" Did he let go of my arm as I fell? He quickly stood and looked around. No inhumanly tall swordsman in sight.

"Dammit." He took a deep breath. Magic has to work. It has to. He gathered his energy, feeling it pulse through his arms like warm blood. His fingertips surged with energy, the sparks of fire shot out. He released the energy into the air in the direction of the spiders.

And to his amazement, several hundred of them fell dead. "It worked!" He cheered. Kuja remembered the Sage telling him about how their 'needs return in full' once you enter the city of Terra-Matra. Perhaps since we're out of the darkness, my magic works? Renewed and full of energy, he sent Flares and Firagas and Flarestars at the spiders, grinning as they fell one by one.

But their numbers seemed unlimited. Kuja was breathing heavily after the fiftieth spell, and the spiders were still coming. "How many...are there?" he gasped. "And where the hell is Sephiroth?" What if...he's petrified? I'm stuck here alone!

The spiders had managed to overrun Kuja. They shoved him to the ground. He couldn't breathe; he couldn't even move. They were suffocating him! Hoping that it would be enough, he summoned the last of his magic. He concentrated and felt the warmth rush through his arm again. With a shaky breath, he released his most powerful attack: Ultima.

I hope, Kuja thought, his conscious slipping away, I hope that Sephiroth got out okay.