Lost in the Shadows

Chapter 6 - Reacquianted: Enemy and Comrade

Disclaimer: I do not own FF7 and its characters, settings or the like. These words, however, are mine.

Almost immediately after Aerith had suggested that she and Sephiroth find her former comrades, they had begun to try and find a way off the continent they were on. They looked in every possible place they could to try and find something useful to use, but they had so far turned up absolutely nothing.

"Oh my goodness. This is really not happening..." Aerith said, falling to the ground. She brought her hands to her face and shook her head.

"There has GOT to be a way off this continent!" She said, exasperated. She looked at the sky and closed her eyes.

Sephiroth looked at her when she stopped complaining and saw her looking up. 'Must be asking the Planet or something...' He thought. He continued to search even thought he knew it was fruitless.

He heard Aerith sigh and he was sure she was going to be hitting her head against a tree soon.

"The Planet said we have everything we need to get away from this horrid place. But it won't tell me what that everything is!" She fell over onto her back, turning her head to look at Sephiroth.

"What do you think, Sephy?" She asked him, seeing his eye twitch yet again at her nickname for him. She smiled.

"I'm not sure. If it's here, we should be able to find it." He looked at her.

"So why don't you continue looking instead of sitting there doing nothing."

She gave him a glare.

"This 'search' we've been doing hasn't given us anything. I don't want to look anymore..." She said, rolling over.

Sephiroth rolled his eyes. Sometimes, he wasn't so sure that she was the same driven flower girl from before. She whined constantly, she complained, she came up with annoying nicknames... Maybe it was just him and his very bad luck or maybe the whole 'lifestream' experience had changed her somehow.

Deciding that Aerith was probably right, he walked over to her and sat down beside her.

"What do you propose we do then, Aerith?"

Shewas startled slightlywhen he said her name. This was a change. She rolled back over to face him slowly and eyed him carefully for a moment but decided that maybe he was just having a 'Sephy' moment.

"I don't know! I wish the Planet wouldn't be so... So... Vague!" She said. She stood up suddenly and stomped her foot. She started walking towards the beach and into the water.

Aerith was staring out at the sea, hair whipping wildly, thought it didn't faze her in the least.

"Would you like to swim across the ocean?" Sephiroth's voice cut through the air like a knife. She rolled her eyes. So what if she didn't want to look anymore? It wasn't helping them.

She turned around to face him.

"Be quiet, Sephy!" She scolded him.

His eyes narrowed slightly before a smirk crept onto his face.

"You know, it's not that bad an idea. It wouldn't take me very long, can't say much for you though." He smirked at her.

"Don't be silly, Sephy. We can't swim in that!" Aerith shot back.

"And why not?" He asked.

"Well.. It's cold for one. And I don't wanna make any new fish friends anytime soon. Besides.." She trailed off.

"Besides?"

"I can't swim.." Aerith mumbled.

"Oh, perfect, now I have something to use against you one day, assuming that day comes." He smirked and walked off to continue his searching.

She watched him walk away for a moment before running to catch up to him.

Sephiroth watched her for a moment. He had heard her right when she'd said she couldn't swim, didn't he? Or maybe he was losing it again. Why would she walk into the water, knowing fully well that she lacked the ability to swim.

'I think too much...' He thought.

She raised her face to the sky again, probably begging for the Planet to tell her what to do. He couldn't agree with her more, actually. Even just the concept of staying shacked up on this continent for days with her, trying to find a way to get off it, was not appealing in the slightest.

His eyes narrowed. 'No. No way in hell.'

Aerith's sudden movement brought him out of her reverie. She had turned so fast he was amazed she stayed perfectly upright.

'Heh... Probably saw a fish that wanted to be friends with her...' He smirked. But when she was almost in front of him, he was a little disappointed to see she was smiling. No bugging the Cetra right now...

"Sephy! The Planet... -pant- Told me how... To get off -pant- the continent!" She managed to say.

He raised an eyebrow, indication that he was listening.

"You can still fly, right?" She looked at him with such hope in her eyes, the thought of saying no was... Well... He wouldn't be able to.

'Wait... Bad thoughts...' He thought.

"I'm not sure..." He said. "But if the Planet is telling you that I can, why are you questioning it?" He asked with a bit of humor.

She blushed. She's always followed the Planet without questioning, he was right.

"Er... Whatever. Stop bugging me!" She shouted.

"Seriously, Sephiroth! Can you?" She asked.

He thought for a moment. Could he? Time to find out.

"I don't know. I guess I'll have to find out." He said.

He stood for a moment, motioning for her to stay out of his way. He concentrated, using the strength of his mind to propel him upwards. He opened an eye and saw that he was looking at the top of the forests' trees. A cruel thought entered his head and he smirked.

"Eeeee! I knew you could!" She said.

"So let's get going?" She looked up at him. He was smirking.

"Oh no no no no you are notttt leaving me HERE!" She screeched.

"I don't know, the idea is rather appealing to me. I wouldn't have your constant babbling, singing, INSANE nicknames… Blissful..." He trailed off. He put heavy emphasis on insane.

"Sephirothhh..." She pleaded with him.

"You really want to go and face Avalanche on your own?"

"I guess that's the price I'll have to pay." He said, chuckling slightly at the look on her face.

"SEPHIROTH! Get down here NOW! Or --"

"Or what?" He asked.

"Oh... I don't know…" She said, falling down to the ground and sighing.

"Fineee... Leave me here you big jerk!" She said.

Sephiroth rolled his eyes. As IF he was going to see the bunch of misfits on his own. No, he wouldn't be able to hold back from killing the lot of them. He began to lower himself down to the ground in front of her.

She was still looking at the ground when he walked up to him.

"Let's go, Cetra. We don't have all day." He clipped.

She still refused to look up and so he knelt down and lifted her head up. He was absolutely shocked to see the tears brimming her eyes.

"I… W-w-what are you... I mean --" He stuttered.

"You were going to leave me here, weren't you? If it weren't for the Planet and your mother, my father, everything, you would leave me here, wouldn't you?" She choked out.

He stared at her in utter disbelief. He always knew he used to hate humans for a reason. Emotions. Especially women. Like Aerith. Always crying.

Aerith looked at him for a second before bursting into laughter. NOW Sephiroth was REALLY shocked, but it only seemed to make her laugh harder.

"Oh my -- gosh -- you actually -- fell for it!" She struggled between breaths just to get those words out of her mouth.

Sephiroth's face went red when he realized what had just happened. He shook with slight anger and looked at Aerith, eyes narrowed.

Aerith saw this and tried her hardest to stifle her laughter.

"Oh, I'm sorry Sephy. Don't be such a baby, I just had to do it!" She said, getting to her feet. She stuck her tongue out at him.

"Come on! Let's go! You're such a turtle, Sephy." She said.

He stood to his feet and took her arm, pulling her over to the shore. He stopped when he was near the water and pulled her towards him. He crushed her into an embrace.

"Try not to move." He said, clearly annoyed.

He felt her nod and closed his eyes. He concentrated again and felt his mind propel him into the air. Opening his eyes, he found himself hovering over the water.

Aerith looked down, only to let out what one could call a squeal before tightening her arms around Sephiroth's neck and burying her head into his shoulder.

"Heheh... Don't look down." He said.

He flew off over the sea, to where, they were both unsure of at the moment.

"What in the &$& hell are we $&$ looking' for! I'm gonna kick Spike's $$# ass all the way to the $&$ moon and back!"

Cid was pissed. He and Barret had been walking around the forest searching for who knows what, a fictional fiend? They hadn't found a thing and Barret was being so &$ annoying...

"Shaddup you foo'!" Barret shot back. He was just as angry as Cid at the moment.

Cid's constant smoking and cursing was getting on his nerves. At that moment, he wished he'd thrown his stupid PHS away so he wouldn't have gotten Yuffie's call. He wouldn't have had to leave his little Marlene alone with Elmyra again.

'Not that she's not good with her,' he thought.

"You not the ony' one with &# problems you nicotine bag!" Barret shot at him.

"What'd you say you mother $&$ &$&!" Cid yelled at him.

"I was saying how you become moody ever since we got to this damn island!" Said Barret, sending him a glare.

"You needa a cig, my $& friend." Cid said to him, throwing a packet at his face. Cid started laughing.

Barret glared daggers at him. He lifted his gun arm and pretended to get read to fire at him. He really didn't need Cid's bad-mouthing right now.

Cid was obviously oblivious to the fact that Barret's gun arm was focused on him because he suddenly did one of the stupidest, yet... Well, whatever, things he'd ever done.

"Yo, Barret, you wanna play a $$$ game of 'Go $$ Fish'?" Cid asked him, digging in his pockets. To Barret's surprise, he pulled a pack of cards out of his pocket.

"Man, why didn't you just say so?" He said, walking over to Cid.

"I'm gonna kick your $&& ass, man." Cid said, sitting down.

The game of course, did not end as planned.

"You're a &(& cheater, you $$$!" Cid yelled.

"What you talkin' 'bout foo'! I kicked yo' ass fair an' square!" He retaliated.

"You're a $&$ liar and you know it!" Cid said.

"Let's just get back to the $#$ Sierra. I can't put up with this $&$ shit any longer..." Cid said, promptly taking out a cigarette.

"Whateva' man." Barret said, shaking his head.

Nanaki was currently trying to find something to amuse Cait with. It was obvious to him that Cait would be doing nothing whatsoever to help in the search for these fiends and to have him amused would keep him out of Nanaki's way.

He and Cait had decided to stay away from the Ancient Forest considering the fact that they already knew the fiends were there. Instead, they headed off to the Nibel mountains and further onto the forest near Rocket Town. They had come up with nothing so far and Nanaki was beginning to wonder if there were no fiends here at allbecause they had only just shown up altogether.

"Cait, what are you doing?" Nanaki asked him. It looked like... Cait was trying to climb up a tree though he was failing miserably.

"I'm TRYING to climb up the TREE if you really can't tell." Cait said. He jumped on to Nanaki's back after several more tries.

"Why are we still searching, Red? Maybe Yuffie's hanging out with Vincent not only messed her up in the head some more, but it's affected Vincent too!" He said.

"I highly doubt such a thing would ever happen, Cait. Stop touching my nose, please." He answered back.

Just because Cait loved to annoy Red, well, everyone, he kept on touching his nose. When Nanaki growled after six times, he stopped only to start dancing and prancing on his back.

Nanaki suddenly jolted forward and jumped off trees, effectively causing Cait to fall off his back. He sat down and cocked his head to the side.

"What's wrong, Cait?" He asked, an innocent look plasteredon his face.

All he got in response was an incoherent mumble.

Tifa trudged through the piling snow on the Northern Continent. They had traveled through the forest in Bone Village and had turned up nothing but a feet prints in the snow, though it was almost already covered by new snow.

Who or what the prints belonged to, was still a mystery.

They had been walking towards Icicle Inn for the past 30 minutes and had still turned up nothing. No tracks, no mako, no nothing.

Tifa looked forward. They were almost at Icicle Inn. 'Thank god,' she thought. Any more time in the snow and she was sure she'd freeze to death. She was shivering like mad and trying her hardest to keep up with Cloud.

Despite the fact that she had changed her clothes so she was... Better suited for the weather on this continent, the cold was hitting her like she was wearing nothing!

Cloud had obviously noticed she was falling more and more behind because he stopped and looked at her.

"Tif, are you okay?" He asked her, concern seeping through the seriousness.

"Y-y-yea. I'm f-f-fine. D-don't worry." She managed to say. The shivering was starting to increase.

He saw this and walked over to her. Putting and arm around her shoulders, he urged her forward.

"We're almost there, we're almost there." He whispered into her ear, planting a kiss on her cheek.

Her shivering had almost completely stopped which filled him with slight relief. They weren't quite there yet. It would probably take another 20-40 minutes but if she wasn't shivering, it was better than nothing.

She lay her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes slightly. She was so tired... So tired...

"Tif, you have to stay awake." Cloud said, nudging her slightly.

"I'm so tired... And cold..." Tifa trailed off.

Cloud sighed. He scooped her up into his arms and continued to walk, albeit a little faster, toward Icicle Inn with Tifa falling asleep in his arms.

Yuffie and Vincent walked around, constantly on alert. Yuffie stayed close to Vincent, latching onto his arm every now and then, for fear that one of the fiends would jump out at her and take her by surprise.

"Vinnie. What would you do if I got eaten by one of those fiends?" Yuffie asked, finding nothing better to talk about.

Vincent glanced down at Yuffie for a moment before looking forward.

"I don't know, Yuffie." He said.

Yuffie pouted at him. She was obviously not getting any answer out of him THIS way. Time for better tactics...

"Vinnie? Vin? Vince? Vincy. Vinnnniiiiieeee!" She whined.

He sighed. Yuffie did an internal victory dance.

"So? What would you do?" She pressed.

"The situation isn't going to present itself. So, nothing." He said, and walked onwards without her. She stood there gaping at him. She put on a determined face and stomped after him.

"Hey! That doesn't count Vin-Vin!" She said.

"Yes. I believe it does. You wished for an answer. I gave you one." He said, wondering how many nicknames she had given him.

"NO! YOU GAVE ME A STUPID NON-RHETORICAL THINGY! Whatever the hell you say!" She said, trying her best to imitate his 'stupid', as she thought it to be, vocabulary.

He regarded her for a moment with what looked like amusement in his eyes before a thought popped into his head.

"Okay. Yuffie. Assuming I let it happen, though not intentionally, I would cry, never go on with my life, stay locked up in our house and attone for my greatest sin. Letting you die, be eaten."

He resisted the urge to roll his eyes at her shocked face.

-w00t! Go Vin-Vin!-

'...'

"Aw... Vinnie you're so sweet!" She gave him a long, tight, almost too tight, hug and then looked up at him.

"Okay monster-man. We aren't going to find anything down here so… Let's head back." She said. Latching onto his arm again, she dragged him all the way back out of the forest they were in, toward the town of Kalm.

When Sephiroth had finally descended and put Aerith back on the ground, she was... Well, overjoyed would be an understatement.

"Oh. My. God. THE DIRT!" Aerith squealed. She fell to the ground and put her hands out on the dirt, closing her eyes.

"The Planet seems a bit... Better?" She mumbled.

Standing up, she looked around.

"So Seph, where are we?" She asked him.

He scanned the area. There weren't any towns nearby, just endless fields so he had nothing to go by. He hadn't really been watching where they had been going, which direction he had been flying in. He just... Flew. First sight of land, he... Landed.

Sighing, he motioned for her to move back. She did. He closed his eyes and concentrated and he was, once again, propelled into the air. He rose higher and higher after he opened his eyes, high enough to see far across whatever continent they were on. They were on the Eastern continent. He saw Kalm not too far away, as well as Midgar. Or what was left of it, anyway.

He grimaced when he saw it. Midgar Ruins. The city of ultimate destruction.

He descended and motioned for her to come near him. She did, though reluctantly. He could tell she either didn't like heights, or the thought of flying over water, lest he drop her -heheh- or something go wrong, simply wasn't very appealing.

"We're going to Kalm. It's not that far." He said.

She nodded.

It had taken a bit, but the finally made it to the unusually crowded town.

"Finally. Now we can go to an Inn! With a bath and food and beds and..." Aerith exclaimed, turning to face him.

He regarded her for a moment before looking at their surroundings. Kalm had grown quite a bit over the span of 6 months. It had become a bigger town --no, not a town --a city. There were plenty more shops and definitely more people. He figured that it was due to Midgar's refugees being scattered over Gaia.

"Straight to the Inn then?" He asked Aerith.

She looked to the side.

"Well... I was kind of wondering if we could get... Something to eat?" She asked.

"Fine... How, without alerting so many people, is beyond me though." He said, leading her towards the shops.

"This place sure has grown Sephy. Go figure, 6 months. And before, even after being here for so long..." She trailed off, clearly ignoring his previous words.

Suddenly, her face brightened.

She turned around to face Sephiroth.

"Hey! Do you think we could try to find my mom? She was here with Barret's little girl, Marlene, last time I had spoken with anyone or watched them from the Lifestream. I think she's probably still here." She queried, pleading.

He looked at her.

She looked at him.

He blinked.

She blinked.

Sephiroth let out a sigh.

"Yes! But, of course..." Aerith started.

"One. Thing. At. A. Time. Cetra." He said, pronouncing each word clearly.

She gave him a quick smile and turned to walk into the shop when something unexpected happened. Two figures were walking out of the shop she had been about to walk into.

Those two figures, happened to be Yuffie and Vincent.

Aerith tensed and she was sure Sephiroth had as well.

Yuffie and Vincent saw both of them and stopped dumbfounded in their tracks. They stared for a moment and looked at each other before quickly looking back. They knew no other person to have those eyes. It couldn't be anyone else.

The four stood there in impeccable silence.