Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII in any way, nor do I own Sephiroth, Jenova, or any other ideas pertaining to the game or movie. However, I do claim rights to Shakura, Dustta, and any other fictual characters I may take into my head to create. Well, enough drathering on, I've a story to tell!

Italics: Indicate a dream-like state.
Bold/Italics: Indicate a character's thoughts.
Just Bold: Jenova

And to Shelby Harty: Cookies and a hug from Sephiroth for you! Thank you so much for your review. I was somewhat molified that out of the 61 people who've read my story, only one chose to give me a review. So thank you again!

CHAPTER 3- GUNSHOTS, MEMORIES, AND THE BLACK CLOAKED MAN

The girl looked very pale, no doubt from the loss of blood. If she died, his entire mission would be over, so it was very simple; he couldn't let her die. At the last moment, after she had pushed him out of the way, he had grabbed her and flung himself out the window, his single coal-black wing unfurled as they flew close to the ground, far away from the ShinRa building. It alarmed him that she had lost so much blood; the wound to her abdomen looked severe, but in his haste, he had forgotten to heal it. I guess Hojo and I are more alike than I could have imagined. he thought ruefully to himself. As his feet touched down, he set her on the ground, gently, and pulled the mastered Restore materia from the depths of his cloak. He gently pulled the end of the bloodied shirt up to expose the wound, and was astonished at the amount of damage he saw there. Cursing himself once more for his ignorance, he pressed the Restore materia to the wound, closed his eyes, summoned as much strength as he could muster... and cast the most powerful Cure spell he had ever produced.

The flesh began to knit itself together and the internal organs began repairing themselves, but her breathing was still so shallow, so fragile. The skin on her face stretched tight at the pain she was experiencing. He knew that he had to find shelter soon; that Cure spell had weakened him more than he thought, and she needed sleep. He gathered her back up in his arms again, and took to the skies.

She was still not awake. It was far past noon, and still she slept a dreamless, pain-filled sleep. He had found an abandoned house far away from Midgar. In fact, he believed that they were in Gongaga, but he wasn't sure. He had flown all night, and when he became too tired, he had touched down in the nearest village he could see. He had then darted into the first abandoned house he had seen.

Her injuries were so numerous, and once again, Sephiroth found himself making a mental note to kill that damn scientist the next time they met, for subjecting such a young girl... no, everybody... to his horrific experiments. He would take "all in the name of science" and strangle Hojo with it. Either way, he would get his revenge, one of these days. Concentrating on the task at hand, however, he realized with mild horror, that his ultra-powerful Cure spell had also healed her back, trapping the glass inside. He had been forced to take a scalpel and a pair of forceps to cut each piece of glass from her body, but in the end he had removed every one of them, and healed her again, though the scars would remain with her for the rest of her life.

Over the next two and a half days, he kept watch by her bedside, becoming slightly more alarmed that she had still not woken up yet, with each passing minute that went by. He realized a second too late that he was very exhausted, and his eyes closed, plunging him into the land of dreams.

--

He found himself standing once more in that blinding white room, naked. He waited for the young girl with the strange voice to appear, but this time, not one, but two people appeared. Both appeared to be blind. One was the young female from before, and the other was a young man. When they spoke, they spoke together, sending shivers traveling up his spine.

"How is she?" they asked in unison. Sephiroth was not surprised to hear that the young man had the same, strange voice. "She is not well; she still sleeps, for the third day in a row. She has suffered a gunshot wound to the abdomen, in an attempt to... " he let the sentence end there, realizing for the first time exactly why she had suffered a gunshot wound. He recalled the image in his mind. There had been seemingly no escape. A young SOLDIER had pulled a gun from its holster and pointed it at him. As the young man pulled the trigger, he was about to laugh when something collided with him, pushing him aside. It was her; she had rushed to save him and took the bullet herself. Didn't she know that he was Sephiroth, that he could have plucked that bullet from the air, and send it speeding back toward its owner all too easily? But he felt strange and unsettled about the thought of somebody risking their life for him. He wasn't the most popular man on the Planet, maybe the strongest, and the most cunning, but not the most popular.

Sensing his thoughts, the two young people spoke once more. "You cannot allow her to die. If you do, it will mean that both of you will be punished for all eternity, for she was given a choice, too, much like you were. If she dies, it will not be the first time, and it will mean that both of you have failed. Do you understand?"

Slowly, he nodded his head. He kind of understood what they were saying. "Good." they said. "Now, awaken and tend to her." He felt slightly lightheaded as he felt his mind struggled to do just that.

--

He woke up to find two deep green eyes staring at him from the darkness of the room, in the direction of the bed. The eyes closed for a moment, before opening once more. Slowly, not wishing to alarm her further, he stood and flicked the light switch on. Her eyes narrowed as they struggled to become accustomed to the bright light. "Good morning" he said in what he hoped was a non-menacing sounding voice. "Did you sleep well?" A smirk crept over his face, unintentionally, which she misinterpreted.

She looked frightened as she nodded her head. It seemed as though she hadn't gotten her voice back yet. Come to think of it, he hadn't ever heard her voice, nor did he know her name. Knowing that if she did attempt to speak, her voice would be raspy, he slowly rose from the chair he had been sitting in and walked in the kitchen, his leather boots making loud thumping noises on the tile. He opened a cupboard, and retrieved a glass from within. Rinsing the glass out, he filled it with cool water from the sink and walked back into the living room. She had moved off the bed, and was attempting to stretch her tight muscles, after being bed-ridden for three days. She seemingly did not notice him, and he watched as she knitted her hands together and bent as low as she could, fingers almost reaching her toes. Moving very slowly, she then moved her arms back up into the air, her fingers nearly reaching the ceiling, standing on the tips of her toes. Suddenly, she moved nearly faster than he could see, her hands clutching her stomach in pain. Obviously, her wound still hurt, and badly.

He was there, standing by her side in the blink of an eye. His hands on her shoulders as he guided her back onto the bed, startling her, as she had not known he was there. Having momentarily forgotten the glass of water in his hand, he offered it to her, and she took a long drink, totally downing the whole glass. He got up and refilled it again. This time she took her time drinking it, and she finally spoke.

"Thank you." she said. It sounded as though she were testing each word carefully before she spoke. "I really appreciate all that you've done for me. I hope you don't mind me asking, but as I do not know, I would like to know your name, and also, how I came to be here."

Eyes widening slightly at hearing the sound of her voice for the first time, he replied. "My name is Sephiroth. You were shot in the abdomen by a member of SOLDIER before we escaped from the ShinRa building." He could see her thinking it over in her mind, the last moments before she was rendered unconcious. Her lips moved, but no sound came out, a quizzical look in her eye.

Finally she spoke again, testing the word in her mouth. "Sephiroth... " she said. "That name seems slightly familiar to me... " at this he tensed visibly, as it seemed she recognized him as the man who had tried to end the lives of everybody on the Planet, a couple of years ago. She continued, "but I just can't tell where I heard it from. And you say I was shot... but how am I healed? Wait, I haven't been sleeping for weeks or something like that, have I?" she looked alarmed at the prospect.

"No, it's only been three days. And I healed you with materia; what else would I use? You were quite injured; it looked like a hand grenade went off inside... " he stopped at seeing her face become slightly green.

She quickly recovered, though, and proceeded to ask him the strangest questions he had ever heard. She didn't know what materia was, and after a somewhat lengthy explanation about the different combinations of materia, which, strangely, she picked up on fairly quickly, she asked about ShinRa; apparently she didn't know about that either. Somewhat incredulous, he explained about the power company, and SOLDIER. At times, she seemed lost in thought, but he knew that she was soaking in the information better than any SOLDIER cadet that he had ever taught. It bothered him slightly, though, that she didn't seem to know about anything. He paused a moment, to rest his voice. He had, after all, been talking all morning and she had listened to every word that he had to say. It was strange...

He looked up abruptly as she gave a sharp gasp, clutching her stomach in pain. He quickly stood, reaching into his pocket for his Restore materia, but she held up her hand, as if to tell him to keep back. "I'm alright." she gasped. "Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. Just let it pass." she looked up at him, and for a brief moment, instead of having round pupils, it looked as though they were slits, almost feline... Like his own... He thought to himself in alarm. He tried to keep his face normal, so as not to alarm her, and when he looked back into her eyes again, they were normal once more. It must have just been a trick of the light. Even so... I must keep an eye on her. Surely... surely it's not happening again?

She appeared to have recovered, and as she sat back up on the bed, he held out his Restore materia once more. It seemed as though she was afraid of it though, and only after some coaxing, she allowed him to use it on her. She gave a sigh of relief, though, when she felt the pain leave her body. He could tell it in her expression; one moment, it had been clenched in pain, her delicate eyebrows knitted together as she tried to conceal the excrutiating pain from him, liquid welling up in her dark green eyes, and the next moment, she seemed to be totally relaxed, all anguish gone from her face.

--
She leapt into the air, the faces of the crowd beneath her wide in shock, their mouths open as wings erupted from Dustta's shoulder blades. As the black eagle grew closer and closer, she hung back, not wanting to intrude; only out of curiousity had she taken to the sky to inspect this strange phenoma. With every wingbeat, she could see that the 'black eagle' was in fact a man, who was holding the lifeless body of a woman in his arms. The fact that he had only one wing perturbed her greatly, but she let it pass. It seemed as though no end of strange things happened in this world. Dustta felt something hit her forehead, and reached up to wipe it off, only to find that the crimson substance was blood. Looking up from her hands, she watched as more blood flew toward her. Disgusted, she gained altitude, her fox colored wings growing more tired with each beat they took.

It seemed like hours before the strange one-winged man touched ground. He had landed in a small village, maybe to escape prying eyes. She watched as he ran, hunched over, through the town, seeminly looking for an empty building to spend the night in. Having found one, he rattled the doorknob to find it unlocked, then proceeded to enter the small building. Following suit, she dropped, and decided to question this man, who she seemed drawn to so much. Maybe this is what I was put here to do. Maybe this man has something to do with the person I'm supposed to be protecting. With that, she knelt down in the dust, and the only thing that anybody saw that night was a face-less, fourlegged, black shadow, that darted between the buidings and waited motionless on the doorstep of a long-forgotten home.

--

Whatever was in that glowing green orb was amazing, simply amazing. I didn't know how to react; the pain had been so intense one moment, then it had simply vanished in a burst of green light. However, I knew that it would return, and soon. It wasn't just the gunshot wound that was plaguing me; I felt as if there was something inside me, someone, rather, that was fighting to get out. I had seen it in my dreams, too. It was quite frightening, actually. It seemed to be trapped in a tank, much like the one that I had broken out of back in the ShinRa building. There were tubes coming out of it's body, and it looked like it was female. In my dreams, it kept staring at me and I would hear a voice whispering things to me, but the creature's mouth did not move. I couldn't really understand what it was saying, but there seemed to be one thing that I could understand, that it kept repeating to me. It said that if I listened to it, just gave it an ear for a while, that it would give me back everything that I had lost. But what had I lost? I certainly couldn't think of anything that I had lost, except my memory, and maybe, my mind. I wasn't too sure about the latter, yet, but I knew that I had lost my memory.

Just then, a voice whispered in my ear, and I looked around in alarm. Sephiroth raised an eyebrow at me. And then I remembered something! My name was... Shakura! "See. I told you that I would give you back everything that you had lost. If you do as I say, you'll get more than just your name." the voice whispered to me from the depths of my mind. I tried to push it away, fearing for my sanity, but it just kept coming back. Finally though, it seemed to give up, and I was left in relative peace.

The girl seemed to be deep in thought, as if she were conversing with something or someone in her mind. I would be lying if I said that the prospect of Jenova controlling someone else doesn't have me worried. I'm still trying to recover from the last time she took over. Remembering something, a look of worry crossed his face. When I cut her from her bonds back in the lab, Hojo was busy pumping something into her. Could it have been... Jenova cells? What if her body accepted the Jenova cells? He thought in alarm.

Her voice made him jump. "Are you all right, Sephiroth?" she asked. "I finally remembered something. My name is Shakura. Ever since I woke up outside the ShinRa building, I haven't been able to remember anything, but my name finally came to me." she had a smile on her face. Smiling back at her, he suddenly remembered that neither one of them had had anything to eat in the last three days, he told her that he'd be back, and left her in the house.

--

Dustta had decided to wait for the man, not barging into the house as she had wanted to do in the first place. It had taken all of her will to stop the wolf's instincts from taking over, and controlling her mind. Finally, she had just curled up in a ball on the old rug that adorned the step, and as the first scent of the man reached her nose, she stood erect, waiting for the man. She heard the door slowly creak open, then hid in the shadows of the house as he stepped outside.

--
Well, there's another chapter out for you. This one took me about seven hours to write, so REVIEW! If you review, Sephiroth will give you a hug! Though, if you don't review, I'll send him after you with Masamune and his mastered Bahamut materia, and you will have a problem on your hands. So, REVIEW!