Chapter Two: Prisoners of Guilt

A clock stopped -- not the mantel's
Geneva's farthest skill
Can't put the puppet bowing
That just now dangled still.

-Emily Dickinson ""A Clock Stopped"

People had occasionally mentioned the word cold in some way as they prepared to die, he had never dwelled on such comments. Though as the cold seemed to seep into his body and the companion of numbness it brought began to leech away the horrible flames of the agony, it was a relief welcome.

He was more than delighted to absorb the chill even if it possibly meant his death. For whatever reason he was finally free of the pain that had taken over every thought and filament of his existence.

The fear that it might just be another slight break to add to the pain when it returned was very present.

"Kill me please..."

He didn't realize he'd said it aloud, only that he wished for it to end before the torment could possibly begin again. Never before then had he considered the cold with such gratitude, it was as if the frigid temperature had released him from the burning hell in which he'd been suffering.

It was only slowly that he started to realize that he was moving, though not of his own accord, that someone was carrying him. That he wasn't dead, at least not anymore, though as to what intentions the person might have he couldn't possibly know. He couldn't even open his eyes, more or less manage to lift a finger to stop them.

He didn't know he was even mumbling, twitching, or shivering. The only reason he even knew someone or something else was there was because he could tell he was moving, it was as if for the first time in ages. Though it was definitely still painful anytime he was jarred a bit too much and his feet ached from them being dragged, it was nothing compared to what he'd suffered before they'd come along.

He lost conscienceless at one point while he was being relocated he was certain, for the cold was gone when he started to wake again. The first time he hadn't prayed for sleep to come sooner in a period of time he wasn't even vaguely certain of. There were voices, but they were muffled, his body was still adjusting to being away from whatever had been happening before.

One of them, female, was exceptionally familiar. He knew it wasn't Jenova, that voice he would have known instantly, it was something else...some edge of recognition just beyond his reach.

He continued to lose and gain conscienceless but the world was becoming clearer as time passed, he was beginning to recover from what had been done to him.

Though he wasn't as cold, he could tell was laying out without thrashing, that simple lack of movement was a comfort he rejoiced as his muscles were still sore from how much he had thrashed about when he was being tortured. There was something over him, keeping him warmer than before and much softer than anything he'd felt in what seemed like ages. A folded cloth was moist on his forehead. A load of simple things that he had doubted he'd ever experience again.

Sickness of some kind? It couldn't have been that he'd just been ill, no form of disease he was aware of could cause nearly the amount of agony he'd been experiencing. Now that he was awake, he had to get moving soon, or whatever was happening might end and they might return him to that hellish existence.

He had a ancient creature of destruction on which he had to wreak vengeance for all she'd done to him. Jenova would pay for her betrayal if he had to hunt under every rock and in every crater of the planet, he would see her destroyed for what she'd forced him to do.

That was enough to force his eyes slowly open.

Green, slightly illuminated eyes slid to where they were visable in the darkness of the night in the inn room. The Mako energy infused in his body causing them to light with a deceptively gentle glow. Taking in the simple inn room and the woman laying on the bed not far from where he was recovering beneath a sheet and blankets.

She looked troubled even in sleep, as if something was horribly wrong. Long black hair looked impossibly smooth even in the poor lighting, curling around her slumbering face and falling along her back to finally come to and end near the upper part of her hips.

"Tifa Lockheart." He remembered with slight disbelief. "What is she doing here?"

It wasn't as if he could have forgotten her, the mantra of her hatred for himself and the Shinra company had continued to haunt him for the entirety of the time that he'd finally escaped Jenova's control. He could still remember fairly clearly the way in which his sword had cut through her chest, it was always so incredibly easy to kill others.

"She had to have something to do with bringing me here." He thought with a small frown. "Nibelheim, so I was at the mansion most likely. But I can't know for sure until I'm able to speak with her, as it is it's just a relief to lay here."

It was an exceptionally nice room for the cost but he couldn't imagine they got a lot of visitors so it was best to leave the few they got wanting to return. The beds were nice, it was difficult not to find anything comfortable after his recent experiences though.

He curled his fingers slowly, his muscles were still sore but that meant little compared to what he'd escaped. His head was dizzy when he moved it, pushing himself to sitting up slowly. He heard a chain near the end of the bed and when he went to test his leg motion realized one of his ankles had been attached to the frame via some sort of restraint.

"Should be shocked they didn't try to add more restrictions instead of just that." He thought with a vague insulted mental tone. "Even if being underestimated makes it easier, given what she's witnessed she should be more wary."

He didn't see any armor or weapons that would fit him, there were male clothes that seemed about his size over the back of a chair at the table. She had left her bracers on the table between their beds, another sign she was either unaware of how fast he could recover, or that she'd been exhausted and not thinking when she'd slept. As she was not under her own covers and still wearing most of her armor other than the bracers the later option was looking more likely.

There were a couple materia on either of the arm pieces but he wasn't certain of their exact properties without picking them up, and he didn't want to risk waking her just yet. He pushed himself up as much as he could to get a better vantage point of the room, pausing when he noted footsteps outside the door, several sets of them. Likely a half dozen. Whatever happened, he doubted that the people that were torturing him wanted him to be free. He picked up the bracer with green Materia and glanced it over quickly; cure wouldn't do much for him at the moment but Thundaga was a nice thing to see.

He plucked it free of it's slot in the armor and pulled it under the covers where he laid back down to pretend to rest until they made a move. He could hear them whispering but not exactly what and then the doorknob was shifting a little, they were picking the lock.

Stealth then was what they were hoping for.

Tifa didn't budge, again a sign she'd been exhausted whenever she'd slept. That wasn't something that helped the situation. He wasn't even certain he could summon the energy to call on the green orb settled in his palm as it was.

The door opened and they began to shift quickly inside, he couldn't open his eyes more than the smallest bit or the light within would give him away. A dozen or so figures were moving to surround their beds.

"Kill the girl and retrieve the prisoner." The whispered order was one Sephiroth couldn't accept. He gritted his teeth and pointed the orb toward the ones still moving at Tifa's bed.

"Thundaga." He intoned, opening his eyes fully to look at the targets closest to the slumbering girl.

The room lit up in an instant, electricity curling through the bed-sheets and setting them on fire while they were still covering him. A detail he was prepared to suffer when he'd activated the materia. The magic was great within it and half of the dozen that had entered were twitching on the ground even as he turned his illuminated gaze to the rest that were closer to where he was laying.

Tifa wasn't asleep anymore, she'd flipped to her feet in time to see the end of the flashes of lightning cracking the roof and some of the floorboards.

Sephiroth didn't get the chance to turn the materia on the rest of the group before the butt of a gun slammed him squarely in the temple and his vision danced with sparks of light that weren't the result of his spell. His body relaxing as it slumped back into the comfortable mattress.

Tifa was already moving though, she dodged one strike and took a shot to her shoulder that left a lovely quarter sized whole within her flesh. Though she'd taken enough damage during battle through her years that it barely seemed to slow her. A set of punches to one man's kidney's was followed through by a roundhouse kick to the chest of the second attacker.

She was forced on the defensive after the first two fell to the floor to hold themselves, the rest were more prepared for some sort of attack and it was very dark in the room, one wrong step and she could end up not doing very well for herself.

"Hold." The apparent leader paused his troops, though they didn't lower their weapons. "Ms. Lockheart. I was told you don't come to visit Nibelheim very often anymore. Why are you here?"

"None of your damn business." She retorted hotly, eyes switching between the figures as she tried to remember the materia she had on her armor, glad she'd fallen asleep with it on after it helped to block a couple of the shots from the attackers. Her shoulder burned horribly but it was a nice focus to keep her on edge as she was still a little tired. "Get the hell out of here before I beat the rest of you."

"Large words for someone saved by Sephiroth." He returned with a smirk. "Why do you care what happens to him anyway? Didn't he murder your entire family and try to kill you as well? Or at least leave you for dead."

The man was tall, likely even as tall as the soldier laying nearby. He had on armor similar to the 1st class armor Cloud wore. There was a long gun attached to a strap over his shoulder and a long katana at his belt. Blond hair was shaved short and close to the scalp and a scar ran the length of his face from above his left eye all the way down to his neck. The slightly whitened color of that eye hinted that he was blind as a result of whatever had scared him.

"I'm not doing this to help him." Tifa snapped back, wishing she wasn't at the disadvantage of being closer to the window. "I'm not gonna let anyone use him either, it's too dangerous."

"People and their silly morality. Here you ended him being tormented...that was my favorite part of all of this." He smirked and pulled his gun off his shoulder. "I have to put him back I'm afraid, and if you want to argue with us then I'll just kill you and get to it. Let him go and I'll look the other way. I don't have any reason to want to murder those that were harmed by him."

He was still reeling from the sharp strike, but hearing the words about putting him back got through to him even in the dizziness. Sephiroth grit his teeth again, gathering what strength he could and leaping quickly out of the bed to pull the man's katana from his belt. It wasn't nearly the Masumune but it would do given the situation. He stood on one leg, the other still attached to the bed under the covers and his free hand still held the Thundaga materia he'd lifted from her bracers earlier.

"You'd be mistaken to continue to believe that I am not a part of this fight fool." He half-growled with a bravado he didn't completely feel. Mako eyes narrowing dangerously on the man he considered his target.

Tifa to her credit had used the moment to leap back at the other three goons that had accompanied this strange man, he was vaguely familiar but Sephiroth only knew he wouldn't return to that torture short of death. The man stepped a few steps back toward the door to avoid a strike that would have cut him if Sephiroth had been wielding the long blade of the Masumune instead.

He started to say something but didn't get the chance as Sephiroth wasn't a merciful combatant with or without the control of Jenova hanging over him. "Thundaga."

The repeated word lit the room with light for a second time, flashes of the lightning called by the magic slamming harshly into his chosen opponent several times while Tifa used the extra light to further incapacitate her own enemies.

"This isn't over." The blond man snapped before running out the door.

Tifa grunted from a shot to her hip and punched the offender square in the nose with a crunching noise that was gratifying in the moment. Sephiroth gave a final slash to one of the men readying a larger gun on the woman and then dropped the katana as he collapsed back onto the bed.

She finished off the last two and limped toward the door to make certain the other man had actually retreated. She closed the door and re-locked it to be safe before moving to her bracers to pick up the one still holding the Cure. Healing magic had become a strong point of hers during their trip and it wasn't long before her wounds were closed and she turned her eyes to the still heavily breathing Sephiroth.

He looked awful, he went from being a terror for the guy he'd frightened away moments before to a pale man that seemed close to going into shock. She pulled the materia that he'd been using to toss lightning around away from him and moved the sword he'd stolen off to the table before she returned to check his forehead.

His skin was incredibly warm to the touch, a slight sweat had started to build. He had a fever that was one of the worst she'd ever felt. He couldn't have a temperature that was safe for anyone to possess. There was a large welt forming on his forehead, she'd heard the slam when they'd knocked him out for those few seconds but was surprised that he'd regained consciousness at all.

She leaned down to cast the healing magic over his head, that at least she'd be able to do something about. Jumping when his hand snapped up suddenly to grab her arm. Green eyes narrowed on her for a moment before softening and sliding shut again at the same time as his grip, as if in recognition.

"Sephiroth?" She asked uncertainly, it was incredibly alien to speak his name in anything but hatred. While she still hated needing to help him she couldn't help but recognize that she wouldn't have won that battle without him. "Are you..."

"I'm fine." he commented lightly, his voice also so different. It was as if she'd wandered into another world, it was so hard to believe that he could ever sound so weak. "Just overextended myself."

She was talking to him like a normal person, reacting to his sickness like a normal person. It disgusted her but she couldn't help herself, this broken creature wasn't the same man they'd fought in the northern crater.

"We can't stay here." She commented as she noted his breathing was beginning to even out, even his hand didn't seem as warm as it had moments before. Still holding her arm in a absent brace. "Do you think you can walk?"

"Why are you helping me?" He asked directly, opening his eyes to consider the confused face of his unlikely savior. "I don't deserve anything like this from you after..."

"I know." Tifa replied with a frown, pulling herself away from his touch and straightening her shirt out after the battle. "I can't just let anyone use you though, even if I hate you I can't let that color a decision that could end up hurting so many more people. Whoever these people are that are trying to control you, they aren't any better than you. I'm just keeping the rest of the world safe."

He nodded slowly, it was logical. He didn't deserve anyone that would actually care about his wellbeing - the idea was barely one that he could dream, more or less be able of dealing with in reality. It was admirable of her to do what she had to do for everyone. He could still remember the pain in her voice the day he'd killed her father, the fact that she didn't return him to torment was more than he deserved from her.

"If you start though, if you do anything I think is dangerous to the people around us..." Tifa broke the warning off, she wasn't honestly certain what she would do, but it wouldn't be pleasant for him and it was best to leave it at that.

"I understand." He answered, letting his eyes slide shut again. "I don't want to hurt anyone else...I want to hunt down whoever left me like that and then go and destroy any remaining traces of Jenova."

It was Tifa's turn to blink slowly as she took in what he said, there was an amazing amount of rage and loathing in his tone when he mentioned the name Jenova. She could still remember speaking of the thing reverently as his mother and that meant that something had definitely changed. He was so much more like when she'd first met him before he'd gone mad and destroyed the old Nibelheim. Albeit in a more injured way, but the madness that was constantly present in his own actions and words had vanished into a sort of autocratic melancholy.

"Can you walk?" She repeated the question, it was too much to think that her hatred of him might be somehow unjustified, it wasn't something she could keep talking about now.

"I will try if you will remove the shackles." He answered without moving, seeming the most tired she'd ever seen him.

"Right." She moved and got the key from her belt, unlocking the cuffs to bring with her in the hover truck she'd taken to traveling in. "There we go. I already packed up a bunch of stuff before going to bed so we should hurry in case the guy realizes we aren't following and returns with more men."

"The mansion." Sephiroth commented as he slowly took his feet, he was dizzy and standing made his muscles scream but he could manage to push it away enough that he was capable of moving. "I left extra armor there...if we have time."

She frowned a little at the ungraceful manner of his steps, it was fairly clear that he was risking falling over at any moment. With a sigh she put one of his arms over her shoulder and helped him as they moved for the steps. "After we get you in the truck and check out the city I'll see what I can do as far as that goes. Come on, careful, I don't want to carry you anymore."

End Chapter

So they finally talk and Tifa's just very confused, still hoping she's dreaming to a point. Sephiroth is weak but why? Who is using him? Tune in next time to learn more about the wicked villains and romantic plot unfolding.

-Nera