A/N: In case you didn't know, I update at around...3:00 in the morning, it seems. That is why I'm hoping that the people reading will forgive me for the mean ending of this chapter, since I was too tired to edit some gargantuan piece of literature. I apologize. I was going to orginally include this chapter with the next chapter, and post it as one, but somehow the whole 'smut' bit went overboard (like 8 pages...) so I decided to cut it off where I did so that I could work on the other part, because I'm sitting here thinking how the hell did I write about 6 of those pages as sex? It's a mystery, even to me. Something happens late at night while half asleep...

Sephiroth is still stand-offish in this chapter, just a warning if anyone was hoping he'd leap into Lucifer's arms or something... He will the next chapter! No leaping though...

I snagged the name 'Aristide Torchia' from the film The Ninth Gate. Aristide is the character in the movie who authored a book alongside the Devil (it was a riddle on how to get into Hell to meet Lucifer) and was later burned to death with his works. I thought it was fitting.

CornCob: Yep, I'm a totally sick-minded. Glad to know I'm not the only one ;D

ghost of gene rayburn: Thank you for that correction, I completely missed it!

Sephiroth took a few more steps back, this time more certain, though he was not far enough for the hand to drop from his shoulder. The man's words had cut something, broken down some internal barrier that held back the toxic self hatred that Sephiroth wanted to rid himself of entirely. He felt exposed—weak. Yes, it was true, he did want something.

"Your life has made you so wary, and with good reason. But what I offer, it cannot harm you if it means nothing to you but momentary enjoyment... Unless of course..." The man smiled, somewhat evilly, his penetrating eyes searching green for what he knew was buried somewhere deep.

I need it instead of want it, Sephiroth finished mentally. And he needed, somewhere, he needed. That need was beginning to choke him the longer that tantalizing hand continued to rest on his shoulder, further antagonizing his young, and far too interested body.

The hand again reached for the streaming silver, and began to stroke it covetously between long-nailed white fingers, as Sephiroth's sea-green eyes widened.

"You..." Sephiroth started, still extremely tense from the contact, his face turning away as if to escape the closeness of the hand.

"Want to fuck you, yes," the man said without ceremony.

Sephiroth swallowed, that self disgust coiling inside and squeezing his control hatefully. Why could he not get a hold on himself? It was if the man had drained what little self respect Sephiroth had, exposing the needy, love-starved child beneath.

That defiant gleam flashed in the youth's eyes, making the man chuckle lowly. The boy, as far as he could tell, was not going to make it easy. However, the man had never been one to back down from the so-called 'undoable'.

"You still haven't told me who you are," Sephiroth stated, his facial expression made harsh by his sudden reigning in of his pride.

"Changing the subject? Oh, it's no matter, I won't hold it against you," he added, upon seeing the teen's murderous look. "My name is Aristide Torchia. I'm more of a ruler now than a warrior, but I can assure you that I...did many things to get to such a position."

"I've never heard of you," Sephiroth said rudely, feigning irritation at the hand that was continuing to drive him mad.

Sephiroth knew little of the outside world but what aged textbooks had taught him (he had skipped over many of SOLDIERs preliminary classes), so if there was a ruler named Aristide Torchia, it wouldn't be impossible that he hadn't heard of him. There were many smaller factions throughout Wutai, and even elsewhere, that kept very low key, and consequently out of Shinra's grasp for the time being. Fortunately, Sephiroth knew that the man would not know of his...sterile upbringing and lack of knowledge regarding current world politics.

"No, I suppose you wouldn't have. It's good sign that you haven't, in fact, it means I'm doing my job, and doing it well."

The fingers curled around a strand, flicking it back and forth between thumb and forefinger.

Sephiroth's alertness had not softened, either in his loose uniform pants or in attentiveness to danger.

"You see, not all of us wish to be so known. Sometimes the most rewarding fame is in knowing that you may slip by unnoticed, no one the wiser, as you complete your dreadful deeds without suspicion. I'm guessing you would prefer to be known, yes? After all, being the best generally entails popularity, does it not? Infamy or otherwise..." Aristide seemed amused by his own words, and enjoying the reaction he was getting from the young Sephiroth.

"I do," Sephiroth replied emotionlessly. The hand had released the strand and was beginning to explore the base of his neck through the material of his uniform.

"To pay them back, correct?" The man slipped a finger under the collar of the blue jacket, loving the way the vein on the boy's neck stood out and the cords tightened in discomfort.

"Yes," Sephiroth answered, barely paying attention to what he had just said. The finger was moving slowly, back and forth across the smooth skin. His loose pants were beginning to feel constraining; he hoped it wasn't glaringly obvious.

"I see." Aristide, too, was focusing on the movements of his fingers, starting out feather-light, as he made tiny circles, his sharp, talon-like nails being as gentle as they were capable.

A thunderous 'boom' resounded through the huts, and back toward the west, interrupting the moment and causing both Sephiroth and the man to look in the direction it had come from.

"So easy to get caught up, isn't it?" Aristide said aloud, more of a thought than a question to be answered.

Aristide's hand withdrew, but Sephiroth had already grabbed hold of his sword, instinct taking over and pushing whatever thoughts he had been having entirely aside.

"I have to go," Sephiroth stated. It would have been with reluctance had his attention not been captured by the smoke coming from the brick building. So that had been where the missiles were coming from...

"There's nothing you can do about it; not unless you find out who is controlling it, or just...blow it sky high," Aristide said, walking up behind the retreating Sephiroth.

"What? How do you know?"

"I checked the building myself. All those men you saw, they were there tending to the launcher. Some sort of technical problem or something," the man said offhandedly.

"It's electronically controlled from somewhere else, probably by satelite..." Sephiroth said to himself.

"Yes," Aristide said, walking toward Sephiroth. "Here." His hand disappeared into the pocket of his trenchcoat for a moment, before reappearing with an shining, ebony grenade. A strange symbol was elegantly painted on the outside of it, what appeared to be some sort of coat of arms. It was of two snakes encircling a horned goat that had a sly look about it.

Sephiroth looked at the man with a guarded expression, before reaching to accept the offered weapon. His movement was quick, suspicious, as he took it from the white palm. Sephiroth turned it over in his own hand for a few seconds, examining it, before he looked back at the man.

"Why are you helping me?" Sephiroth asked for the second time, his gut filled with paranoia.

"Quite the contrary, I'm doing precisely what you always assume I'm doing: I'm helping me. I can't have you running off just when this was all starting to get a little more...involved." Aristide grinned, giving full view of his white, pointed teeth. Sephiroth silently wondered if the stranger filed them to give himself a more animal-like appearance.

"Go on now," Aristide encouraged, his hands now clasped behind his back as he waited.

Sephiroth would have shook his head, but instead he turned back to the building. The grenade would blow up the launcher, however, it would also explode the missiles. They wouldn't go off, but they certainly would make quite a 'kaboom' and send shrapnel in every conceivable direction. Standing nearby...it wouldn't be the most intelligent idea.

The window, it was where the missiles were coming from. He would definitely have to stand behind something far away if he wanted to go without his skin being imbedded with small metal splinters (or large splinters, he reflected).

"I wouldn't continue to stand there if I were you," Sephiroth said as he walked past, going toward one of the farther, sturdier-looking huts.

"Don't fret over me now; I might start believing you care," Aristide said in amusement, though he followed behind Sephiroth, walking over the dismembered corpses with little concern, as though they were branches rather than the remains of human beings.

Once they were both safely behind the mud hut, quite a distance from the brick building, Sephiroth popped the pin from the grenade.

"I hate to think what would become of the world if it was in your grasp," the man said jokingly.

"It would die," Sephiroth replied simply, levitating the grenade from his small hand and into the air. It floated steadily, due to Sephiroth's months of honing the skill with various objects in the lab.

The black grenade's speed increased steadily as covered ground and neared the window. It became a black blur. Finally it hurtled directly into the partially hidden launcher that must have cost Shinra as much as feeding and clothing the troops for a few years. Whoever was controlling Shinra's machinery and using it against the SOLDIERs, was about to lose what little leverage they had.

Sephiroth's fingertips were in his ears, but he knew it would do little good. The sound was going to be hell on his sensitive hearing.

To Sephiroth's shock, just as the explosion began, Aristide grabbed him, his arms tightly wrapping around Sephiroth's head and shoulders, and bringing the silver-haired head protectively to his chest.

The initial sound was like nothing the youth had ever heard, overpowering in a way that made his mind blank for several seconds. The ground shook, things creaked, and glass fractured and was propelled outwards. Bricks were cast aside like minuscule stones, and the metal of the launcher ripped like a tattered shirt would, from the sheer power and force.

The arms tightened around him, for some reason making him feel protected and somewhat needy when he wasn't even frightened. That animal smell of the man's breath was closer than ever, billowing down on his hair and eyelashes. He felt as though he was held in the grasp of some sort of beast.

Warmth radiated from the larger body, a sensation that Sephiroth had never felt. No one had ever bothered to hug him (it was hardly a hug though, he reasoned), or had ever had overcome their fear of him enough to think to do such a thing. He did his best to not allow his lower body to come into contact with Aristide's.

The explosion ended quickly, though its aftereffects would likely last for awhile.

Aristide released him when the danger was gone, his hands venturing to run through the light, soft hair that he couldn't seem to keep himself from touching. Sephiroth didn't make a show of being uncomfortable as he had before, instead saying and doing nothing as the man in front of him brushed the strands out of the way of his green cat-like eyes and pushed them behind his ears.

Sephiroth's ears were ringing from the horrendous noise from the blast, but he hardly noticed. He was bathing in the attention Aristide was offering up so easily. One of the clawed fingers traced along the bottom of Sephiroth's jaw, the gesture somehow feeling as though it were in reverence.

"We're going to the woods," he said abruptly, abandoning his ministrations as he apparently had little patience left. Aristide snatched up Sephiroth's hand before even allowing him to make a response.

"Why?" Sephiroth said cooly, though he very well knew why. He did not move from his spot to follow, though he did not try to get away either. He was put off by the man's suddenness, and he had still not come to any sort of conclusion about how he felt about the entire idea. His body felt one way, where as his instinct and mind felt another... Sephiroth's chest clenched painfully, a clear warning that he was not going to entirely ignore.

The man openly laughed and shook his head, his mane of black hair glistening in the sunlight like the scales of a black snake.

"My silver-haired angel, how coy of you! You continue to deny what you want, why? There is nothing to fear with me, have I not proven that yet?"

It was true, he had proven himself in a way, Sephiroth thought. As always, there was still that reluctance.

"Fine," Sephiroth said, finally, just as surprised by his own words as Aristide was.

A fine black eyebrow arched in response, and maroon eyes filled with a mischievous sparkle that rivaled any Sephiroth had ever seen.

"You mean it?" Aristide pressed, his grip already tightening on the smaller hand in his.

Sephiroth looked to the ground. Instinct hissed in protest, but at the same time the animal within seemed to be considering the idea. What would it mean? It was just something people did, wasn't it? He felt like he needed it, but desire, from what he had seen at least, was a powerful thing. Need and want could so easily blur together...

Something in Sephiroth was curious to discover what sort of feelings he would have after he did such a thing. Would he feel attached to the man? Would he want Aristide more than just in body? Would that weakness finally get a strong hold on him and tear him from the path he had already begun to tread? So many questions seemed to stem from just the idea of the act, all to do with doubts of his own will.

The voice of logic finally made the choice for him: how would he know at all if he never tried it? And besides...no one would ever have to know...

"Yes, I mean it," Sephiroth answered quietly, gauging Aristide's reaction.

Those eyes positively gleamed. There was something wicked in them, an edge of something that could only be described as barely contained insanity. It was in his happiness that Aristide's true animal clawed its way up into his skull and peered out through his eyes...

If only Sephiroth knew who he was making the deal with...

Aristide licked his lips, staring down at the teen predatorily. "Good."