This Bitter Earth
Sephiroth stood outside the gates of the Number Three reactor. He clutched his sword in his left hand, and his eyes blazed with green fire. He stood straight and tall, ready to strike down the first person to annoy him.
Sephiroth wasn't much of a people-person, so he sent Zack and two other SOLDIERs to question the witnesses. He sent the remaining five SOLDIERs inside the reactor with a team of scientists, which included Hojo, a man he hated more than anything. The troops, aware of Sephiroth's foul mood, obediently and quickly complied with the orders.
Sephiroth knew that if he went inside the reactor with the crazed scientist, he would definitely sever Hojo's head from his body. Sephiroth leaned against the tall, metal gate that enclosed the reactor. He felt the coolness of the steel through his leather, trench coat. His body was loosing some of tenseness, and before he knew, he had already relaxed.
"Excuse me sir."
Sephiroth eyes snapped open. A frail looking girl stood about foot away from him. She held a poorly made staff in her right hand and a dark brown wicker basket in her left. Her eyes were green like his own, but without the glow of Mako and emptiness. Also, he noted, her eyes were calm but wise. She smiled politely as stared up at him without any trace of fear. Her hair was dark brown with blonde highlights. Her ponytail, secured by a light pink ribbon, fell below her waist in a braid. She had bangs falling down each side of her face that enhanced her seemingly innocent aura. She wore a spaghetti strapped, pink dress with buttons all the way down the front. The dress clung to her slender figure, and a few buttons at the bottom were left undone, revealing the creamy whiteness of her long legs. On her feet, she wore heavy, dark brown hiking boots. She wore gold colored, metal gauntlets on her wrists and a black choker around her neck.
"Who are you?" Sephiroth asked.
"A flower girl. Would care to buy a flower? It's only a gil."
Sephiroth, though his face remained indifferent, frowned mentally. The girl looked to young and naïve to be in the slums of Midgar selling flowers. The flower girl stood there, staring at him with a gentle smile. It made him nausea for some reason. "No. Go away."
"Oh," she said. Her eyes began to water a bit and she nodded. "Okay. I'm sorry for bothering you."
It was this particular moment that Hojo came walking out. The gates slid open and the old man, walking slightly hunched over, stepped out. His oily, ebony hair was slicked back into a tight ponytail. He wore his white lab coat over a white, collared shirt and black dress pants. He lowered his thick glasses and glanced at the girl. Then he looked at Sephiroth. "Interesting," he muttered. "Could this be because of its cells? Has she willed this?"
Sephiroth's anger returned immediately upon seeing Hojo. "Are you done yet?"
"Oh dear," the girl whispered, her eyes widening with fright. As she turned around to run, she found her path blocked. Looking up into playful brown eyes, the girl yelled, "Zack!"
"Aeris?" Zack asked, clearly surprised, "What are you doing here?"
"Take me home, please, Zack!" she begged, dropping everything in her hands and then throwing her arms around Zack's neck. She held onto him as if her life depended on it, and Zack threw one arm around her waist protectively, looking around in confusion.
Sephiroth looked at Zack with a frown of disapproval, but then he glanced over at Hojo, who was staring at the girl with a lecherous smile. "What's going on?"
"My precious experiment," Hojo replied, "Sephiroth, take this girl into custody and report to my lab when you return. She is wanted by Shinra."
Sephiroth took a step forward and reached out to grab her arm, but the thought of taking orders from Hojo made him freeze. "Report to your lab? I think not. What has this girl done anyway?"
Hojo frowned distastefully at Sephiroth. "What? You foolish boy. Still the clueless idiot I see."
"What crimes has she committed against Shinra?" Sephiroth asked forcefully, folding his arms across his chest, which was bare aside from two criss-crossed, leather straps that appeared to be holding his leather pants up. He chose to ignore the insult. For now anyway.
"Nothing. Not that it's any of your business, but she is supposed to be part of a very important and lifelong research. She's managed to escape, and I would like her returned to my laboratory now."
"Oh," Sephiroth replied, "In that case, Zack, see it to that Professor Hojo and the others make it safely back to Headquarters. I'll escort this young lady home."
"What!?" shouted Zack and Hojo simultaneously.
Sephiroth pushed his bangs out his eyes. He seemed oblivious to the fact that they fell right back in place. "We are SOLDIERs of the Shinra army. We take into custody people who violently lash out at Shinra, and protect the citizens of this Planet from deadly monsters. I will not place anyone innocent of such crimes under arrest."
"But…but…" Hojo stuttered.
"Any problems you have with that, take it up with the President."
Hojo was fuming. His sickly, pale skin turned red with anger. "Listen here you arrogant, son of a…"
Whatever Hojo had been about to say was cut off as Sephiroth placed the tip of his sword against Hojo's throat, applying just enough pressure to draw blood. His eyes glowed fiercely with barely controlled anger. Through clenched teeth, Sephiroth muttered coldly, "I am no longer a child."
"General, sir," Zack said, biting his lower lip. If Sephiroth decided to kill Hojo, there was nothing no one could do about it, not even an army. Killing Hojo would upset President Shinra. And when President Shinra got upset, everyone got upset. "Calm down."
Aeris suddenly let go of Zack and latched onto Sephiroth's arm. "Please, don't."
Everything suddenly stopped.
Sephiroth seemed to step outside his body. He saw the green fire in his eyes, the blood trickling down Hojo's neck, the fear in Zack's eyes, and the ever-present gentleness of the flower girl.
"It's weird, huh?"
Sephiroth spun around, his long silver hair fanning out behind him before falling gently against his back. "Aeris?"
"That's me in a weird sort of way," the girl giggled.
The sound of her laughter was very heart-warming, Sephiroth thought. He stared at the girl and then noticed a small rip in her dress, right where her heart would be. "What's going on?"
Aeris walked over to her frozen body. She examined it carefully, smiling wistfully. "That's me. But it's not me. Get it?"
Sephiroth tilted his head to the side. "This isn't real."
"I'm as real as you are, but are you even real? Do you even exist?"
"Why do I keep getting asked that question? Of course I'm real! I know I exist!"
Aeris smiled knowingly at the confused warrior. "Oh, you know you exist? Are sure? And in what dimension of reality do you exist?"
"What on Earth are you talking about? Of course I'm sure I exist! You know, I don't like you!" Sephiroth shouted, "I ought to let Hojo just take you!"
Aeris looked at her body, frozen in time, and at Hojo. "It's a choice you will have to make. Life, is after all, about choice. And if you choose to do something, you must take responsibility and accountability for your actions, whether they be good or bad."
There is no such thing as good or bad. Right or wrong. To us, are not our actions always justified? It is only others who disagree, but just because they disagree, does it make you wrong or bad?
Sephiroth froze as he heard that sickeningly sweet voice that haunted him throughout his whole life. It comforted him and chilled him to the bone. "Who are you?"
I am your true mother - the one who will guide you to god hood.
Sephiroth looked towards Aeris, but his mouth dropped open in surprise. She was floating above him with angel wings that kept fading in and out. "What is going on?"
"I'm forgetting everything, you know. Even the future," Aeris sighed, eyes looking downward with sadness, "The future is not yet determined though. It is constantly fluctuating, directed by the present. One thing is for certain about the future. You will be the one who changes it. If you find me, The Destruction can be stopped. I think. I don't really know. I don't know anything anymore. But I know that I know that I don't know, so I guess it doesn't matter."
Aeris floated back down to the ground and kneeled as if in silent prayer. He looked up and watched with dispassionate eyes as a mirror image of himself appeared above Aeris with a replica of Masamune poised elegantly towards Aeris' back. He knew that he should perhaps warn her, but he couldn't bring himself to call out to her.
Everything suddenly went into slow motion. Sephiroth watched the mirror image of himself float down from the black Heavens above as if to deliver divine punishment. The sword entered Aeris' chest, right where the dress was ripped, before the mirror image's feet ever touched the ground.
"Beautiful," Sephiroth murmured to himself, as he watched the life fade from the girl's eyes, and the mirror image of himself disappear.
"General, sir! Please, calm down!"
Sephiroth looked at the young flower girl hanging onto his arm. He searched her eyes for any sign that she remembered what had happened. There was none. Sephiroth dropped the sword from Hojo's throat and shoved the girl off of him. She would have fallen had not Zack caught her in time.
"This mission was a complete waste of my time," Sephiroth replied calmly. "I'll be leaving. Zack, you are in charge until I return."
"Yes sir," Zack said. He would have saluted his General, but at the moment, he could see that Sephiroth didn't care if he did or didn't, as he had started walking off in some random direction.
Aeris frowned. She tried to run after him, but Zack held her back. Knowing that Zack wasn't about to let her go, she called out, "Sephiroth! I thought you were walking me home."
He paused mid-stride and turned towards the girl, who at that moment was desperately trying to break free from Zack's grasp. The very sight of the flower girl made him sick. He hated her, but he didn't know why.
"Sephiroth, are you okay?" she asked, sounding as if she was truly concerned. And this angered him more than her mere existence.
The glow in Sephiroth's eyes became so bright that everyone took a step back. Sephiroth smirked. He could see their fear radiating off them. "I don't know who you are, flower girl, but if I ever see you again, I will run you through with my sword and let Hojo experiment on your lifeless body."
Aeris gasped and suddenly clung to Zack for dear life. She was shocked. One minute he seemed determined to protect her, and the next he was threatening to kill her. He's such a mystery, she thought.
"I… don't know what to say. What got into him?" Zack wondered aloud as Sephiroth turned on one foot and stormed off. He glanced at Hojo, who was staring at Aeris. "You heard the General's orders, Professor Hojo. He outranks you and if you value your life at all, you won't disobey him. Especially, when he's this upset."
Hojo snorted and walked back into the reactor. Absent-mindedly, however, Hojo wondered if Sephiroth was really going to be okay. True, he cared for very little besides his experiments, but over the years, watching Sephiroth grow sparked something in him, possibly pride or adoration.
Of course, Hojo would sooner die than admit it, especially to Sephiroth. It was vital to his plans that Sephiroth never became attached to anyone.
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A/N: Okay, this chapter wasn't too good, but I don't think it was totally bad. Sorry about that. And to Jack of Spades, thanks for the tip. It gave me an idea of how I plan to write Sephiroth. I plan on having all the main characters play an important role, or at least make an appearance. So, Tifa will be making an appearance in the next part. Thanks to everyone for reviewing. I feel so special now! ^_^