Chapter 8

Sephiroth knew the moment Valkyria brought the matter up that she was right. Summoning her for a second time hadn't been the most expedient course of action. He could have easily defeated the Leviathan and kept his men alive until his MP reserves would have recovered enough to summon her to help with the aftermath of the battle – namely, healing the injured. There had been no dire need for her, no need to take the ether.

But he had done it anyway. It hadn't even occurred to him not to.

That's what puzzled him.

He hadn't hesitated even for the briefest of moments before taking the ether and summoning her again. It hadn't even crossed his mind that there might be another course of action.

When he saw the jaws of the giant water serpent close around her, he had already found himself reaching for an ether.

This kind of action without thought, without logic, was entirely unlike him. As was denying it when he knew he had been in the wrong. And yet he hadn't been able to be honest with her and admit it to her that she was right and he shouldn't have summoned her again.

Because he couldn't have done anything but summon her again.

O O O

In the nothingness, I was devoid of anger and fear. There was a distinct lack of emotion, something I hadn't ever really paid attention to, before.

In the state of emotionlessness, I couldn't deny it anymore… I had freaked myself out, out there on the battle field.

That bloodlust, that violence. Where had it come from?

Looking back now, I could see that it had been more of a trend than an exception, and it had started almost as soon as I had started my life in this world.

In my old life, I had never struck anyone, never drawn blood. I had never been a fighter, never needed to, never wanted to.

Here…

I had pinned Rhapsodos to the wall with my hand around his throat, sent Luxiere to the infirmary, been this close to skinning Reno alive for a few careless words and had slaughtered monsters with the kind of sick rapture I would have never thought I could be capable of.

I had thought I hadn't changed all that much in death, in becoming a summon. I was starting to suspect that had been horribly naïve of me.

But I was aware of it now, the monster under my skin, in my blood, in the deepest corners of my mind. I was aware and I wouldn't let myself forget, because there's a difference between violence for a purpose and violence for fun.

I wouldn't let myself forget.

O O O

It was in the early hours of the morning that the attack began. Stealth was a skill many of Wutai's warriors had in abundance, a fact he had learned the last time he had been on these islands to wage war. It came to him as no surprise that the first wave of their grand assault was already near upon them before detected. They had chosen their time of attack perfectly, the dark before dawn aiding them in remaining unseen, the men standing on guard tired and unfocussed despite their best efforts.

Though in his tent, he hadn't slept, know as he did that their proximity to the Wutai village would pressure Lord Kisaragi into swift and brutal action, especially now that they had already made quick work of the monsters sent to slay them. At the first hint of raised voices he grabbed Masamune – his trusty blade – and stepped out of his tent.

One of the sentries ran into the circle of tents and yelled: "We are under attack!"

Trusting the yelled words to have woken everyone, he strode toward where the sentry had come from.

His sword was in motion before the thought even crossed his mind, cutting through black cloth and skin as his opponent barely escaped being cut in half with some expert footwork. His wounded foe retreated, and he saw no need to pursue. No, he strode up the hill that faced toward the Wutai village, and once up there, got a better picture of the force Lord Kisaragi had sent for them.

Truthfully, he would not have guessed there were that many battle-ready men to be sent to face them on such short notice. In fact, this had to be every warrior in the village, bar an exception or two that could not be spared. It seemed the ruler of Wutai had decided to throw everything they had at them, even at the risk of leaving the capital – and himself – entirely unprotected. This was the gamble of a desperate man.

It seemed that they would be finishing this much quicker than he had anticipated.

Oh, how he wished it didn't have to come with the price of the lives of these dozens and dozens of men, and the impact their loss would have on the whole of the Wutai village.

With all of his SOLDIERs gathered behind him, he gave the command: "Go." And they went, dashing forward to face the opposing force like a welcome challenge, leaving him the lone man on the hill as the battle waged down below again, this time between men, and not men and monsters.

His fingers brushed against the smooth glass-like surface of the red orb of materia on the bangle on his wrist. With how angry she had been the last time they spoke, he was uncertain of how getting summoned again so soon would be received. Would she resent him for summoning her before he had had the time to regain his MP reserves completely? Would she resent him neglecting to summon her for a battle of this magnitude were she to hear of it after the fact?

His eyes darted to the left, drawn by the first yelp of alarm and pain from one of his men, ears tuned to their voices, and he knew this was no place to give even a moment of thought to how she might feel about being called upon. Not when he knew she would aid him regardless of what she thought of his chosen course of action.

He fed his magic into the materia and then she was there, next to him.

There was a hungry gleam in her eyes as she looked upon the quickly escalating carnage. Then she gave her head a slight shake and it was gone. She shot him a searching look, a look that quickly turned almost… sympathetic, and he knew she could see it in his eyes, on his face how very much he hated this.

She nodded to herself, as if coming to a decision, and her eyes turned determined and to the mayhem before us. Three strides forward and then her hands rose, palms up. Her fingers danced in the air, face dipped down for a moment, with her eyes closed, and he could practically hear her slowly breathe in and then out, before opening her eyes again.

Her voice cutting through the sound of battle, she announced: "Retreat in, five…" He could his SOLDIERs shooting glances at her and to each other, their distraction drawing blood from more than one of them, "Four..." A new tension could be seen in their enemies, the fear of the unknown taking hold. "Three…" They were torn about whether they should push forward or pull back, the indecision even more dangerous than either of the two options. "Two…" The SOLDIERs pushed off their opponents and started their quick retreat back up the hill and toward their General. Some of the warriors snapping at their heels, some settling down on defensive postures to face the coming attack.

'One' was never voiced. Instead, a bright light – too bright to be looked at directly, in this dark hour – was quickly forming between Valkyria's hands, and just when the flight instincts of the warriors was taking over, she shot the ball of energy forward, the condensed ball of it scattering all over the whole battle field.

By the time the light vanished and the SOLDIERs could once again look at the threat upon them, they were… gone.

Not one live human remained on the field, only the few that had already received their warrior's death at the wrong end of a sword.

The SOLDIERs stood in stunned silence, trying to understand what their eyes were telling them.

Then there was a 'croak'. And a 'ribbit'. And then a whole choir of them filling the silence.

"Did you just..?" Luxiere started, swallowed thickly, and tried again: "Did you just turn them all into toads?"

Her lack of answer drew Sephiroth's attention from the toads below to her. He reached her in two strides and just in time to catch her from falling as her legs gave out. With an arm around her middle, he pulled her against him while tilting her face up with his free hand. She was pale, and her eyes barely open. Her breath came out in small puffs.

"Just… took a lot… out of me", she said, the effort the few words took more than obvious. "Drained my… reserves." Her hand shook as she lifted it to press against the bared sliver of his chest. "Mind if I..?"

He frowned minutely as he tried to figure out what exactly she was asking, and then realized, she wanted to absorb energy from him. He nodded, and was about to ask what he had to do for her to be able to do it - having only ever seen her absorb energy from attacks on her – when he felt one of the most strangely unsettling sensations he had ever had the displeasure of feeling. It was like this bone-deep chill and crawling under his skin that started from where her hand lay against skin and quickly spread through him. It was only the way he could see color returning to her cheeks that kept him fighting the instinctive urge to push her away.

The moment he felt her start to support her own weight again, instead of relying on his strength to keep her upright, was the moment the energy leeching stopped.

"Unpleasant, eh?" She said, cringing slightly. "Sorry. I've never done that before."

It amazed him, the way she could read him so effortlessly when he was largely considered to be someone about as capable of showing emotion as a stone wall.

"Are you better?" He asked, realizing the question was unnecessary – anyone with eyes could see she was improved – but somehow still feeling the need for verbal confirmation.

"Yes", she replied. "Even more so as soon as someone hits me with something a few times."

He nodded and turned to Luxiere, "I will leave that to you." Then he addressed the rest of his men: "Gather up the toads. Cures for any that seem in need of one. We will be using the lives of these men to negotiate Wutai's surrender so it will be to our benefit that they survive." He paused, and added: "At first light we will start our march to the capital."

O O O

Lord Kisaragi was a hard-looking man, with his midnight black hair and equally dark eyes, sharp features and the proud set of his shoulders. He stood on the stairs of the largest building in the center of the village, the building that I deduced was his 'castle'. He looked down at us with a look of contempt that doubtlessly hid behind it a variety of other emotions. With the SOLDIERs behind us and Sephiroth to my left and a step ahead, we stopped a good dozen feet from the ruler of the nation we had come to conquer.

"Lord Kisaragi", Sephiroth said, tone perfectly balanced between respectful and disrespectful, void of all emotion.

"I see you still live up to the name given to you by my people", Lord Kisaragi said. "Demon of Wutai."

I gestured for one of the SOLDIER 3rds to step forward, and he obediently did, offering me the sack he was carrying. I reached into it and grabbed one of the several toads in it and set it down on the gravel before me. It started its mad escape immediately, and when it was several feet away from me and that much closer to Kisaragi, I shot a quick toad-spell at it, reversing the effect and returning it – him – to his true, human form.

I could see realization flash in the black eyes, and told him: "I counted hundred and twenty-seven toads. We have them all here." I gestured to the SOLDIERs behind me.

For a moment, those eyes bore into me, like he was trying to read me like a book. And then his eyes returned to the General. "I see you brought with you an Angel of Mercy."

Having doubtlessly heard reports of my unusual manner of descent from the Highwind, I could see why he would come up with such a name for me.

I chuckled, drawing both Sephiroth and Kisaragi's eyes to me. "I find it ironic, that's all", I explained, without really explaining at all.

It had not been my mercy that had saved the lives of all these Wutai's warriors. It was not me that was likely to grow wings.

That was all Sephiroth.

Turning his attention back to Lord Kisaragi, the General said: "In exchange for the lives of these men, we demand Wutai's unconditional surrender." When silence was all he received, he continued: "You are overmatched. There need be no more blood-shed."

Silence, and then, instead of responding to the words spoken to him, Kisaragi said: "There is an activated summon materia on your bangle. A beast summoned to wreak destruction on your command, I suppose? An unspoken threat like that… I would have thought that below you, General."

I stepped forward, and offered the man a bow, and a smirk. "Allow me to introduce myself. Valkyria, assistant to and summon of General Sephiroth."

The slightest widening of his eyes in surprise before the reaction was expertly suppressed. "I have heard tales of summons with humanoid forms, but never have I heard of one capable of speech."

"Are you calling me a liar, Lord Kisaragi?" I smoothly asked.

"I am calling you exceptional", he corrected. "Even our guardian deity, Leviathan, has yet to communicate with us." His eyes softened a bit. "It is a travesty that one such as you be bound to the will of dishonorable men like those employed by the embodiment of avarice – President Shinra."

"Make no mistake, Lord Kisaragi, I am not bound to anyone's will. It may be up to my summoner to grant me form, but my actions, once here, are purely for me to decide." Letting a dark look settle over my features, I added: "Disparage my chosen summoner again, and there will be consequences."

"I meant no offense to you, Lady Valkyria", the stoic ruler of Wutai almost hurriedly said.

"No, you only meant to offend the General", I rather coldly said. "You should accept the offer so graciously offered to you before I run out of the little good-will I have left." My eyebrow twitched. "Your worm of a summon bit me." Another twitch. "There was slobber. All over me."

Lord Kisaragi shifted his weight around covertly, the only sign of his sudden discomfort, and then said to Sephiroth: "I am willing to negotiate."

That was a proud man's surrender if I had ever heard one.

O O O

It had taken us less than two days to finish the war we had boldly promised to end in two weeks. Frankly, we had surpassed even my wildest imaginings. I doubted the General could have expected an outcome like this either.

It was early afternoon when the 'negotiations' were brought to completion and we called for the Highwind for a pick up. We were in luck. The Highwind had stopped to refuel at a small town – a Shinra outpost with an additional focus on technological research – on this side of Mount Nibel and had yet to continue on its way back to Midgar. It seemed the town hadn't had enough fuel in stock to fill the tanks of the exceptionally massive aircraft, so the Highwind and its crew had stayed there to wait for a new shipment of fuel from Costa del Sol. It only took a few hours for the Highwind to come pick us up from the Wutai village and then a few more for it to fly back to the town – fondly called 'Rocket Town' after its most ambitious research project – to pick up the newly arrived tanks of fuel, this time with us aboard.

The flight over the sea was much less turbulent than I had expected and I found myself appreciating the fine workmanship of the Shinra's number one aircraft. The SOLDIERs were spread around, resting peacefully in whatever corners they had found and claimed. The crew kept their voices down, careful to try and not disturb the SOLDIERs' rest.

It was due to this serene silence that I almost missed it.

The General was staring into the distance, seeming utterly unaware of how we were nearing Rocket Town and the crew around us was preparing to anchor the Highwind.

It was… unlike him, and it had me staring, but I saw no reason for concern at first. Then I realized he wasn't staring at nothing, no, his head was ever so slightly turning as we moved forward, as if he was gazing toward something specific. A glance to the large, partly decorative map on the back wall of the bridge and I suddenly had a rather frightening guess about what exactly could be holding the General's attention.

In the direction he was staring toward happened to lie Nibelheim and it was close, though on the other side of a wide spread mountain range. One of the mountains – Mt. Nibel, to be precise – held Shinra's first Mako reactor.

And more importantly… Jenova.

His arms rested upon the railing by the large window we were facing, and I laid my hand on the one closer to me. He twitched, like snapping out of a trance, and turned to look at me in question.

"You shouldn't go where I can't follow", I softly said.

His eyebrow rose. "I don't think that is possible."

I gave him a mock look of offense. "Are you calling me clingy?"

The corner of his mouth quirked, but the hint of a smile was quick to die as his eye returned to the horizon. Almost absently, he asked me: "Where would I go?"

I raised my hand and pointed to the direction his eyes were so drawn to. "There."

The barest hint of a frown settled upon his brow and it seemed, he finally realized something was subtly, but insistently pulling him to that direction. "What is it?" He asked, his usual sharp focus returning to his eyes.

"Something you should stay far away from, Sephiroth", I told him, warning clear in every word I spoke. "What you are feeling now… The moment you start feeling it, you should turn away and start running, lest it swallow everything that you are, leaving behind nothing but an empty puppet." There was a look in his eyes that practically screamed his desperate need to know what it was, and it scared the Hell out of me, so I grabbed the front of his coat and yanked with enhanced strength so that he was faced toward me and bent slightly forward, his face close to mine so that I could force him to look at me, focus only on me. "Sephiroth. Swear to me you'll stay away from Nibelheim."

The silence was telling, as he was no liar, and refused to give me his word when he wasn't certain he wanted to keep it.

I knew my desperation was quickly becoming obvious, and I knew it was better he see it, see how much this meant to me. "Sephiroth, please! You will find no answers there, only lies."

"Where will I find my answers then?" He asked, tone deceptively calm and collected when I knew inside him there had to be turmoil. He straightened his back and I let my hand drop. "Where will I find truth?"

"I'll help you find it", I promised. "I swear, I will."

"But not now", he said, with obvious displeasure. "Not yet."

He looked so bitter, that for a moment, I feared he would refuse my touch, but when I pressed my hand to his cheek, he remained still as a statue and almost as untouchable as one. "There is no one in this world, or any other, that I value more than you." I willed him to believe me, but then he turned to face the window again, the movement forcing both my hand to leave him and his eyes to leave mine, and I was left clueless about whether my words had made any impact at all.

O O O

It was late evening when we reached Midgar and the Shinra Headquarters. There was a welcoming committee consisting of the higher-ups of the company, including the President, waiting for our arrival.

I did my best to tune out the rambling of the President as he practically glowed with pride, as if he had single-handedly won the war himself. It was the tail-end of the little speech that had me tuning back in.

There was to be a victory banquet the following evening to honor the brave SOLDIERs and to celebrate the end of the war. Sephiroth was required to attend, and so was I.

O O O

He had put off summoning her until it was already a few hours into the afternoon, telling himself it was because he needed to conserve his MP since he would likely need to keep her summoned all evening. He wasn't sure he believed the excuse his mind had so conveniently supplied to justify his actions. The ethers he had taken to carrying with him were like a constant itch at the edge of his conscience.

"I was told we are expected at the banquet tonight no later than 7 pm", Sephiroth said. "That is three hours from now."

Her expression was unreadable, and after a few moments of silence, she asked: "I don't suppose you have anything more appropriate for me to wear?"

He blinked. Truthfully, it hadn't even occurred to him that she might need clothes other than the ones she always wore. Or that she might even be capable of changing her attire. In hindsight, that had been rather narrow-minded of him. After all, hadn't she time and time again proven to be more human-like than anyone could possibly expect of a summon. To be fair, no one else had realized this oversight either, definitely not the President or Director Lazard, or they would have arranged for someone to make sure the exceptional summon they were showing was dressed to the nines.

He was spared from having to admit his mistake when she said: "If you give me some gil, I can go buy something that will do." Deciding it was as solid a plan as any, he handed her his wallet, ignoring the raised eyebrow. Honestly, how was he to know how much gil she might need? It was much simpler to just give her all the gil he kept on him. But she didn't comment, and so there was no need to explain himself.

She left his office, leaving him alone with the pile of paperwork Genesis had so cheerfully brought to him the moment he had come in that morning. There were still some rather time-sensitive forms and reports to be gone through, but if he was quick about it, he should have just enough time before he had to go home to get changed.

O O O

Sephiroth was not a fan of the formal wear he was provided every year – forcibly so – for events like this. Frankly, the only saving grace of the outfit was that it was mainly black, with only the shirt under the jacket and the handkerchief in the breast pocket white. The clothes were inconveniently restricting and stiff and form-fitting. The sleeves of the jacket and the shirt under it were bunched up because of the bangle he needed to wear and it was uncomfortable and irritating. The shoes were clearly not meant to be either durable or comfortable and he refused to even think about the uncomfortable tightness around his throat, a sensation he was most definitely not used to.

He felt naked without the familiar weight of the pauldrons on his shoulders.

It was not quite half past six when he found himself at his office waiting for Valkyria to arrive. He hadn't precisely instructed her to meet him there but he knew she would find him wherever he chose to wait for her. Of course, having also failed to inform her of a precise time when he expected her to return to him, he was prepared to wait for a while. But as she so often did, she seemed to have the perfect timing, and walked into his office less than a minute after he himself had done.

He lifted his eyes of the less than urgent paperwork he had been looking through as he heard the click-clack of high-heeled shoes approaching. The sound was somewhat different than what he had gotten used to, but the rhythm was familiar enough.

He took a moment to take in the changes in her appearance.

Her usual leather top and trousers had been replaced with a simple black dress that showed little cleavage and reached mid-thigh but hugged every curve. The high-heeled leather boots had been disregarded in favor of equally high sandal type of shoes that showed both the tips of her toes – and toenails painted the same deep purple color as her fingernails were – and her heels. There was still a wing-pendant made of bronze around her neck and beads of bronze and black feathers in her black and purple hair, though it seemed the usually rather messy curls had been touched to make them a little less unruly. Red-painted lips smiled slightly as she asked from the doorway: "Shall we?"

Posted on April 8th, 2017.