Tainted Souls
Chapter XX
Dark Premonitions
Okay, so this chapter is ANOTHER long one, but I just can't bring myself to leave big cliff hangers. But anyway, a little advise, if you have it, put on either Aeris' theme from FF7 or 'Suteki Da Ne' while your reading this chapter, I did and it really…well you'll find out.
Haku shuffled about restlessly in the stales on board the Celsius. Sesshomaru and Aeris moved by multiple times moving random items trying to make more room for Haku, Agahnim, and Yuffie's chocobo, Riki.
"I think they're getting along quite well, don't 'cha think?" Aeris said setting a bag of feed on top of a crate. Sesshomaru nodded in response, he grabbed a large crate of feed, and by habit used only one arm. "Still not used to having two arms again, huh?"
Sesshomaru set down the box and looked down at the arm Aeris had given him.
"Who did it? Your arm I mean." She walked up to him and rubbed his arm, examining the scar from where the arm was cut off.
"It's about time you know I guess." he sat down on the crate he had just set down and motioned for Aeris to do the same, she walked over and sat on his lap, wrapping her arms around him. She felt like a child being told a story by her grandfather. "It all started with a sword, Tetsaiga, the sword of the Earth, it has the power to defeat a hundred demons in a single swing. It was after my father's fight with Reyokotse, we met on a beach, I asked my father for his sword, Sou-unga, The sword of Hell, he refused. He flew across the ocean and went off to save his lover, a mortal, the one who bore my brother. His name was Inuyasha, a half-demon. I despise him, when my father died that night, he chose to place his temple inside one of Inuyasha's eyes. I decided that it was no longer proper for me to slay people with a sword meant to heal, so I decided to look for the sword, Tetsaiga. It was in my father's temple that the sword, Tetsaiga was placed. He meant for that sword to be for Inuyasha, and left me Tensaiga. When I found out where Tetsaiga was, I went after it. Inuyasha and a mortal girl, who is a reincarnated priestess, tried to stand in my way. I would have succeeded in getting the sword if it wasn't for that girl. Inuyasha got the sword and attacked me with it when I was in my transformed state, severing my arm. I ask myself every time I hold Tensaiga. Father, why did you intend for me to wield this sword, a sword meant to heal a hundred mortals?"
"Maybe he didn't want you to hate humans anymore, that's why he gave you a sword that heals them. Maybe he wanted you to be more like your brother, you know, not hate humans." She smiled at him and pressed their faces together, rubbing her cheek against his.
"If that's truly what he wanted, he succeeded." Sesshomaru said placing a hand on Aeris' cheek, he stared into his eyes and realized just how much he had changed. First with Rin, then Aeris, and now everyone else, he was happier now.
"Thank you, Father."
"Your welcome, Son."
The golden claw lay on the table beside Vincent's bed. He lay on his back looking up at his burnt, battered, deathly white hand.
This must be the hand of death.
"Maybe that's a good thing, have ever thought of that. Think about it, why did they do so many experiments on that hand? It had to have a purpose."
I have yet to wonder of the reasons for those experiments. They were my punishment.
"What is up with you, all you care about is atonement, sins, you've suffered enough, equivalent exchange, you've made up for far more then your share of sins…someone's at your door."
A second later Vincent heard a few, soft knocks on the door. He hid his hand inside his cloak and opened the door. Paine was standing in the hall, looking as if something was bothering her.
"Would you like to come in?" Vincent asked worried about her. She nodded and walked inside. Vincent shut the door and sat down beside her on his bed. She saw the claw sitting on the nightstand and looked over at his now exposed hand. She looked down at the tortured appendage and sighed.
My pain is nothing compared to his. instantly she felt better.
"Is something wrong?" he asked.
"No, nothing's wrong." she averted her eyes from Vincent's hand.
He reached over to the nightstand and grabbed the brass claws and began to pull them over his left hand. Paine grabbed the glove and stopped him.
"Wait." she held his mangled hand an ran her fingers across his palm, down to the wrist, she pushed up his sleeve. From the elbow down, the flesh was covered in scars, scorch marks, cuts, and blood veins.
"I'm feeling rather uncomfortable." he said staring as Paine's normal hands examined the abomination attached to his arm.
"Oh, I'm sorry." she pulled the clawed glove of his left hand and patted the icy cold metal. "You know when I touched your hand…I felt…"
"Pain."
"What?"
"Wrong pain. Pain not Paine. Did you feel pain?"
"No, actually the opposite, I felt happy." Paine looked down at Vincent's clawed hand and wondered how something so horrific could make her feel so good.
"What is it you came here for?" Vincent asked, adjusting his clawed glove.
"I had a strange dream last night, I was going to tell you about it, but Rikku and every one wanted to leave early so I didn't get a chance to talk to you. You were in it again."
"This time you didn't interfere, right?" Chaos inquired.
No.
"It was a nightmare, you transformed again and were fighting a guy with white hair and a long Masemune sword, he kept talking about Geostima and Reunion or something like that. He…he killed us Aeris, then Rikku…Yuna…Red…You and finally Sesshomaru. They fought for a while, but that guy finally killed him. I tried to fight, but I couldn't move…he started walking towards me. I tried to defend myself…but I couldn't even talk…before he could kill me I woke up."
"The white haired man you saw was…Sephiroth."
"So that's him, huh?" Paine noticed Vincent's hands were shaking violently. "Is something wrong?" She placed a hand on his shoulder to try and comfort him.
"He is my sin, if I had only succeeded, Sephiroth wouldn't even exist."
"Don't be so hard on yourself. You messed up, big deal. You're human, mostly anyways, we make mistakes. Stop beating yourself up over it" Paine placed a hand on Vincent's shoulder and leaned against him .
"Perhaps you are right."
"Just promise me two things. One, you'll help us kill Sephiroth, and two, you'll promise me…that you won't leave us." Paine turned away almost as if she was ashamed of herself
"I promise."
"And one more thing, Teach me to shoot like you."
"Deal." Vincent laughed and grabbed a small pistol he kept hidden in his boot for just such an occasion.
"Are you okay, Yuffie?" Rikku asked Yuffie, the spunky ninja had spent most of the trip so far in the bathroom.
"Airsickness." Yuffie managed to say between heavy breaths.
"We'll be landing soon." Rikku looked at the screen in front of her, they were nearing a small island to the east.
"So where are we?" Yuna asked Aeris.
"We are near Wutai, don't worry Yuffie we'll be there soon." Aeris sounded rather sad as she mentioned this.
"What's wrong Aeris?" Yuffie asked. Aeris hadn't been herself lately, ever since they left the Golden Saucer she seemed to be depressed.
"I'm worried about how dangerous things are going to get. You don't have to come with me you know?" she said, looking down at the floor.
"We're coming, all of us, we signed up for this so we're gonna help." Rikku said twirling her daggers around her hands.
"Yeah, Rikku's right." Yuna said patting one of her guns. "We're gonna help."
"We all are." Paine said looking at Red and Vincent. "And I think Sesshomaru goes without saying."
"Speaking of which where is he? I haven't seen him in a while."
A large underground water source filled the underground room. A series of pillars lead to a large platform decorated with Cetra designs. A brilliant light from above covered the only person on the platform in a divine light.
Aeris kneeled in the middle of the platform, praying to holy. Him and the others walked closer to the platform, Sesshomaru motioned for the others to wait. He hopped from pillar to pillar until he had reached the platform. He felt his arms draw the Tokijin, without him doing it. He had lost control of his body. He raised the sword over his head, preparing to swing down on Aeris. The Tokijin cut through the air, heading straight for Aeris. Their was a deafening report and the sound of a heavy lead slug smashing into steel, knocking the Tokijin out of the way. Sesshomaru snapped to his senses to see Vincent wielding a smoking sniper rifle.
After nodding thanks to Vincent, Sesshomaru held his hand out to Aeris, who looked up at the dog demon.
"Aeris, are you okay?" she nodded her head in response. Sesshomaru stared into her beautiful emerald eyes, how could he almost have killed her, who could make him do such a thing.
There was the sound of cloth flapping in the air, followed a second later by the unmistakable sound of metal piercing flesh, A Masemune sword sticking out of Aeris' stomach. The pink ribbon in her hair unraveled, letting both her brown hair and the Holy Materia held by the ribbon in her hair fall. The Materia bounced off the pillars on into the waters below.
"Aeris…This can't be real." Sesshomaru said as Aeris fell into his arms.
"Don't worry soon the girl will become part of the planet's energy. All that is left is to go north. The "Promised Land" waits for me over the snowy fields. There I will become a new being by uniting with the planet. As will this girl…" Sephiroth explained, his arms reaching for the sky, as if he was accepting some unseen power.
"Shut up. The cycle of nature and your stupid plan don't mean a thing. Aeris' gone. Aeris will no longer talk, no longer laugh, cry……or get angry…… what about us……what are WE supposed to do? What about my pain? My fingers are tingling. My mouth is dry. My eyes are burning!"
"What are you saying? Are you trying to tell me you have feelings too?" Sephiroth chuckled.
"Of course! Who do you think I am? I may be a demon but I'm not heartless."
"Ha, ha, ha…… Stop acting as if you were sad. There's no need to act as though you're angry either. Because, Sesshomaru. You are…a puppet." He rose into the light above the platform and vanished.
Aeris lay in Sesshomaru's arms, dying. Her tear filled eyes staring up at him through the thick fog of the temple. He placed a hand on her head and ran his fingers through her hair soft brown hair. If only he had foreseen this. Sesshomaru held her close in her final moments. He was afraid for her.
"I'm afraid, Sesshomaru." Aeris stared at her lover, every second she felt her life slip a little more into the darkness before her. She reached up, resting her hand on Sesshomaru's cheek. "I wanted to… be…strong…but, I don't want you to be afraid. I'll always be with you…I want you to know that I…loved you…always. " she turned cold.
She would never laugh, never cry, never get angry or sad, ever again. Sesshomaru bowed his head over the corpse of the only woman he ever loved. Her kind face could no longer have those expressions that were full of such energy. The feelings of joy and fun that would spread to everyone around her and the endless tears she had in sorrow... None of them were going to be seen again. Sesshomaru's eyes began to water as he drew closer to her lifeless body. His forehead touched hers, tears now flowing down the sides of his noble countenance.
Rikku rushed into Yuna's arms, hugging her cousin hard, they were both crying. Paine fell into Vincent's arms, seeking his support, she looked up at her lover to she what she had least expected, tear filled crimson eyes. Red XIII's tail was between his legs, he whimpered from time to time, he was more sad and afraid then anything else, save for Sesshomaru. None of them knew what to say, how to comfort Sesshomaru.
Sesshomaru reached for Aeris' face, he took one last look at her beautiful emerald eyes before closing the lids. His teeth were gritting together trying to hold back the sudden flow of emotion that was awoken by staring into Aeris' dead eyes. He finally broke down, he fell to the ground and slammed his fists into the cold stone floor as he screamed her name over and over again, hoping that she wasn't dead. He reached for her cold hand slowly. Hoping that this was all some horrible nightmare.
"Aeris…Aeris, Wake up…please, I can't live without you! Please, don't leave me." he squeezed her hand tighter hoping for some kind of response in vain. She was really gone.
Rikku was devastated, she was extremely close to Aeris, though there was no way she could understand how Sesshomaru was feeling. She looked back at Yuna, her cousins blue and green eyes filled with tears as she looked upon the tragedy unfolding in front of her. She held her tighter, hiding her face from her cousin. She didn't want her to see her like this, it would only make things worse.
"This never should have happened. She didn't deserve this, no one did." Vincent said looking down at Paine, he wiped the tears from her eyes. She collapsed into his arms once more, crying harder then before.
Red XIII walked over to Yuna and rubbed his head along the ex-summoner's leg. Rikku fell to her knees and hugged Red XIII tight, both of them crying. Vincent looked on as they all let it out. He walked over to Sesshomaru who, in vain, was trying to stop crying. He placed a hand on the weeping demons shoulder to try and ease the pain.
"I know how you feel. It must be awful, losing the only one you loved and seeing it happen right in front of you, knowing that there was more you could have done." He looked down at the once emotionless demon, who was now crying harder then anyone in the group. Sesshomaru clenched his fits so hard that blood trickled from his hands and onto the cold stone floor. "I want you to know that we are here for you Sesshomaru, always."
They left the temple, Sesshomaru carried Aeris the entire way, it hurt him more then anything he'd ever felt before, to be carrying the only person he ever loved to her grave. He wadded out to into the waters in front of the temple.
"She'll like it here, buried amongst her people." he let her go, she sank into the crystal clear waters. The streams of light scattered by the ripples of the surface danced upon her motionless body. It was as if it was trying to tie into her.
Sesshomaru awoke from his dream, covered in sweat. He looked around the stables, Haku was asleep under Sesshomaru's head. Riki and Agahnim were asleep as well. He patted Haku's feathery head, who cooed in response, before getting up. Aeris stood outside the stables, hand clasped over her chest, just like in his dream, staring at him worried. Vincent was beside her.
"I'm sorry." she said looking away from both of them.
"For what reason?"
"She asked me to invade your dreams to see why you looked so afraid. Should I tell her what I saw, Sesshomaru?" Vincent asked unsure if what he did, and how Sesshomaru would respond to having his mind probed.
"I'll tell her, could you leave the room." Vincent nodded and left, Sesshomaru sat down on the same crate on which he rested on when he told Aeris about his brother. She once again sat on his lap this time she was worried and held on to him like he was leaving and she didn't want him to go. He told her everything.