***Author's Note: It didn't occur to me that italics would not show up
when I uploaded my chapters to Fanfiction.net. Unfortunetly this makes it
difficult for you, the reader, to understand what is going on at certain
points in the story. There will be times when Sephiroth and KiyoYume have
sort of a mental converstation. Not exactly telepathy, but more of an
understanding of the others thoughts. When you see a thought, by itself
on a new paragraph like so:
Stay.
Its a thought. Seph's thoughts are just plane. KiyoYume's will have ' ' around them. I didn't put " " around either of their thoughts because it isn't exactly conversation. When they comunicate in this way it will pretty much look like this. (KiyoYume's thoughts on the top, Seph's are on the bottom)
'You lied!'
I didn't lie. I apologise for the inconvience, and thank you for understanding. ~Shimensoka Mitsukai
Ch 2
Sephiroth's cold unforgiving eyes bore into the angel. Though KiyoYume's eyes remained half-closed and her gaze was directed away from him, she could feel him. She could feel his very presence in the room, and it made her tremble.
Sephiroth was neither shocked nor surprised to be standing there and speaking with an angel. He learned long ago to ignore such reactions. He continued to study her, his mind already calculating his options and the outcome to each.
Curiosity drew KiyoYume's gaze back to the man before her. He was tall, much taller than she was, though from her position in the air it wasn't obvious. And well built. Years of military life had trimmed the general down to only what was necessary. Raw strength. Not only had it sharpened his muscles, but it had taken his already quick and intelligent mind and trained it in strategy and ruthlessness.
His hair was a long platinum silver, and though hers was far longer it held no were near the splendor his did. His hard mako green eyes continued to pierce her. And then her eyes fell upon his wing... his single black wing.
There were several moments of silence in which the two looked each other over. Sephiroth finished first. He caught her gaze lingering on his wing and snapped it shut, pressing it close to his back, startling the angel.
She forced herself to meet his eyes. As an angel she could feel people; feel what kind of being they were (though KiyoYume was particularly good with this skill), and what she sensed in Sephiroth terrified her. But there was something else, a distinct feeling on top of what she regularly felt. Almost as if she could touch his thoughts...
Get down.
Sephiroth did not like her in the air above him. It was simple as that. She had neither the strength nor the will to resist him and so she landed at his feet, helpless, naked, and trembling.
Sephiroth's thoughts were elsewhere at the moment.
'Ally or Enemy? You don't know yet. So what do you do with her? Leave her? No, you have to take her. Where will you take her? Midgar first. Stop at Shinra's and find out information about her, but you'll have to keep her hidden. She's yours now, not that bastard Hojo's. Learn about her first. But God knows, keep her secret. If Hojo ever found out... and he has enough pull in Shinra to cause problems, even for me. Minor annoyances they might be, it would not be a pretty mess. Ally or Enemy? Once thats answered you can decide what to do.' His mind settled Sephiroth looked down at the angel.
"You are coming with me." He said in Wutaian. He could have made himself clear, could have pressed his point with something like: Don't struggle or you'll regret it, I promise. But he sensed that she knew that. Whether the tone in his voice had given him away or she had derived her understanding though mystical means he didn't care. She understood, and that was all he needed.
Sephiroth turned around and picked up his trench coat, but paused before putting it on, realizing he still bore his wing.
He closed his eyes and concentrated. There was a numbing tingle throughout the wing and then it simply vanished, leaving behind a few feathers to fall through the air. He reached down and collected the Masamune.
KiyoYume gaspt and moved forward to collect his stray feathers, pure horror in her eyes. Having had wings all her life she could not imagine living without them. Why on earth would this man purposely cause his wing to cease to exist? But more importantly, how exactly was he able to preform such a feat? KiyoYume had never known an angel to have such a power before; but even one did, no angel would ever shed its wings!
She was reaching for the last one when his voice stopped her short, her hand hovering inches away from the coal black feather.
"Leave them." She withdrew her hand but silently refused to surrender the others. Sephiroth, eager to leave the reactor, decided it wasn't worth it to use force over a few feathers, so he buckled his sheath back onto his belt and turned toward the door.
He walked back down the hallway followed by KiyoYume. The angel looked back over her shoulder, mourning for the feather left behind. They made their way through the reactor, Sephiroth closing and covering doors behind them to erase traces of their passing.
A draft could be felt flowing in from the entrance, as the evening air was swept in by the mountain breeze. Sephiroth stopped just outside the doorway to observe the sunset. The angel shivered in the crisp air. Glancing down at her, he saw this. Not wanting to waste time nursing a sick angel back to health he dumped his trench coat in her hands. After greatfully wrapping herself up, her shivers subsided.
Sephiroth paused and listened; movement could be heard on the path below. The private whom had driven Sephiroth up came around the corner. He was an older teen with wild blond hair. Sephiroth's eyes narrowed when he saw him.
"Strife? What the hell are you doing up here?"
"You've been gone a day and a half now. I thought maybe something had happened to you...."
Sephiroth hadn't realized it had been that long. A day an a half? It must have taken him much longer than he figured to decode the system and hack through the firewalls, but he was sure that wasn't it. The angel... he forced himself not to turn and look back at her. It had only been a few minutes. Less than twenty words had passed between them and yet... time seemed to have slipped away.
"Who is she?"
The privates eyes had wondered to the girl standing beside and a little behind Sephiroth. She met his gaze mildly, and instantly he found himself transfixed by her lucid blue eyes.
Now Sephiroth did take the time to look back at her before speaking.
"Her... She's a resident of Niblehiem. She was up here hiking and got caught in a storm. She took shelter in the reactor but got lost. Her cloths are torn up pretty bad, a lot of Mako-fume decay... I'm taking her back to the village."
KiyoYume was struggling to hold onto the coat and the black feathers she had picked up earlier.
The private nodded.
One of the feathers finally slipped and the breeze began to blow it away. Panicked, she raced after it, loosing her grip on the heavy coat. The leather felt slippery in her hands. She tried to adjust her grip, but the coat slipped and she tripped. KiyoYume hit the ground and rolled a few times, tumbling out of the coat. She sat up and shook her head to clear it. The coat slid off her shoulders and back revealing her wings. She shook the rest of it off and looked desperately for the feather.
He blinked.
Her eyes fell upon feather, just an arms length away.
"What the hell is that?"
Sephiroth looked at KiyoYume again. Then back to the private.
"Hojo's experiment. One of them anyway."
Strife.
KiyoYume stretched out her hand.
Strife knows.
So close...
By the look on his face Sephiroth knew he couldn't be trusted to stay quiet. He was a loose end.
"What? An experiment? What the hell are you talking about?"
Her finger tips brushed the feather.
Sephiroth saw the man's hand creep toward the hilt of his Buster sword. Faster than the young private could react Sephiroth drew his Masamune and lunged forward, driving it through the man's stomach. There was complete silence.
KiyoYume took hold of the feather and now sat up and looked back to see what had happened. Stunned, she shrank back in disbelief.
Strife's face was a mixture of complete confusion, surprise and pain. Sephiroth showed nothing. He locked eyes with Strife, ignoring the hot blood oozing over his hands and the hilt of his sword. It dripped off his fingers, slowing forming a pool of blood at his feet.
KiyoYume choked back a sob. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She had left heaven to save the planet and its people. Now free, with hope in sight, she was met with this... with death. She laced her fingers together, let her head sink to her knees; her lips moving in silent prayer.
Sephiroth pulled his sword back in a quick, but rough jerk. Strife's eyes took on a clouded, dazed look as he clutched his stomach. He searched for Sephiroth through his darkening vision, his look accusing.
"Why Sephiroth... why would you...?" Sephiroth returned the look with only his icy stare. The private fell back hitting the ground with a loud thud. All movement within him ceased. Strife was dead.
Sephiroth, still eerily calm, reached down and pulled the man's wallet out of his pocket, took the Shinra charge card from it, and put it back. He then picked up the man's arm, drug him back into the reactor and tossed him over the side of the bridge into the mako pit below. KiyoYume followed at a wary distance, watching Sephiroth. She stopped on the bridge to observe his actions from a distance.
He made his way down the the edge of the mako pool and knelt down, placing the Masamune just under the surface of the mako. There was a soft hissing as the Mako began dissolving the blood. Sephiroth then slipped his hands into the mako and washed them. Most SOLDIERS were showered with Mako to enhance their strengths, and it burned. It was a suffering beyond explanation. Sephiroth gave no sign that he was in any pain. He had been dealing with Mako for so long, and had such a high Mako content in his blood that he was simply unaffected; effectively rendering him immune to all forms of Mako poisoning.
Sephiroth stood, pulling his sword from the pool. The Mako dripped off his sword and hands, much the way oil separates from water, and in seconds they were dry. Sephiroth sheathed his sword and headed back up to the bridge where KiyoYume stood, her face white, her hands trembling as they held his feathers and trench coat. He passed without looking at her, pulling his gloves from his pockets and slipping them on his hands and heading out the reactor door and into the evening.
The trek down the mountain was not easy to begin with. But the fading light only made matters worse. KiyoYume, having not actually moved in what could have been ages for all Sephiroth knew, was struggling to keep up.
After stopping to wait for the angel several times, Sephiroth decided it would be faster just to carry her. Without warning he scooped her up, cradling her in his arms, and proceeded down the mountains and a neck breaking pace.
They found themselves on the outskirts of town a short while later. It was just after night fall. Sephiroth paused for a moment debating how on how to get to the truck without attracting any attention.
KiyoYume turned her face away from the lights of the town, her forehead touching Sephiroth's chest. It was the skin to skin contact. Sephiroth was suddenly aware of emotions that were not his. Distress, sorrow, mourning, weariness.
'We need you...' he kept feeling over and over, 'I can't save them alone'
Without willing it, his wing materialized again. What was it that caused this? Sephiroth shook his head and leapt into the air.
He landed softly several hundred feet away, perching on the peak of a roof to get a good view of the town. There was hardly anybody about, good. The truck happened to be on the other side of town, bad. He scanned the streets around him and then flew to the next roof, and the next.
He was almost invisible in the dark, moving faster than the human eye could track. A fleeting shadow in the night. Sephiroth made his way across the city unhindered and undetected. At last he dropped down into an alley way and was still. He still held the angel in his arms, silently urging her to stay completely inert.
Sephiroth listened for a moment then edged his way to the end of the alley and peered around the corner. Clear. There was a blur of movement and then KiyoYume was inside the truck and Sephiroth was quietly closing the door, trench coat in hand. Once he put the trench coat back on, he made a point to meet her curious gaze from the other side of the window.
Stay.
Sephiroth headed to a local clothes shop. Using the former driver's Shinra charge card, he purchased two loose fitting robes, and six womens tunics. The ones he picked out were made of soft, flowing material and had to be wrapped and fastened around ones torso. These he figured the angel could wrap between her wings without hindering them. The robes she could use when they encountered other humans and they needed to be covered. Last, a belt. It was a thin silver chain he found on a stand next to the tunics.
Another shop supplied him with provisions for the trip to the coast. These he purchased on his own money card, a plan already forming on what to tell Shinra when he arrived back at Midgar.
By the time he made it back to the truck, KiyoYume was sleeping soundly in the passenger seat, curled up inside an old army blanket she had found in the back. She was exhausted. She had not moved in years and her muscles were slowly rebuilding themselves. The general however, was showing no signs of fatigue and drove most of the night.
The next morning when the angel at last stirred, stretched, and ruffled her feathers Sephiroth was driving. She regarded the passing country side with quiet indifference. At last she spoke again, still in Wutaian.
"What are you?" She repeated Sephiroth's question back at him.
It was a moment before he was ready to answer.
"Sephiroth."
The answer seemed to satisfy her.
"Where are you taking me?"
"Midgar." was his flat response.
He cast a glance at her from the corner of his eye. She was still looking out the window, her vivid blue eyes following the scenery as it flew by.
"Do you speak Midgarian?" asked Sephiroth.
"Little."
Sephiroth nodded as he slowed the truck and stopped. He let KiyoYume wander off to attend to herself and dress. She came back a short while later, her white tunic skillfully wrapped between her wings and fastened with the belt, the blanket folded and in hand. With that the two were on their way again.
Sephiroth spent the next few hours reviewing the history and culture of Midgar while speaking Midgarian. When he had finished neither really felt like speaking. So the miles of silence rolled past.
Late in the afternoon Sephiroth stopped again. He and the angel ate a quick lunch. While he refueled the truck from one of large gas cans in the back, the angel walked aways from the truck and stretched, spreading her wings as wide as she could, tensing every muscle; every single feather before she relaxed again.
KiyoYume could feel this man's aura, and it distressed her. He was a killer, she had not only felt this, but seen it first hand. The blood of thousands were on his hands. He was too detached to care, and to cold to want to (As far as she had seen). At least he wouldn't kill her. This the angel was certain of. He hadn't a reason to kill, nor the desire. Not yet. All too soon she felt a tug inside her.
We need to keep moving.
She turned around in time to see Sephiroth finish packing away the gas can and meet his eyes. How odd it was to be able to communicate in such a way. But she could not bring herself to question it. It just seemed right.
Long after sunset they came to a small town where Sephiroth decided to stop for the night. Before entering the inn, Sephiroth draped one of the robes over KiyoYume's shoulders to cover her wings.
He stepped through the door and was met with a dimly lit lobby. It was a cozy place, a little tight, but comfortable none-the-less. Small town people had a tendency to lead toward homey things and atmospheres. There was a middle aged woman sitting behind a desk on the far side of the room. She sat slumped down with her chin resting on her chest as though she were asleep.
"A room." Sephiroth said placing a few gil on the counter. The woman behind the counter started and squinted up to see what sort of traveler had come in so quietly and so late. She started. Tall, dressed in black, silver hair, carried a very long, thin sword, and those eyes... piercing brilliant green that glowed in the dim light of the lobby. She seemed to take no notice of the small angel at his side.
"General Sephiroth? The Great Sephiroth?"
The man placed a few more gil on the counter and slid the whole pile toward her.
"A room." he repeated. Dumbfounded she scooped up the coins and hurried out of the lobby to show them a room.
She lead them to a humble but well kept room near the back of the building. There was a single bed -which at first puzzled Sephiroth, but he soon dismissed it, figuring the innkeeper had assumed them a couple- a dresser, and a nightstand. Candles where placed here and there throughout the room, though they failed to give off much light. After making sure there was nothing else Sephiroth required she stepped out and quietly closed the door behind her.
Sephiroth turned to the angel.
She had already anticipated his question, "I was not looked for, so I was not seen." She shrugged. The matter was simple as that in her eyes.
Sephiroth crossed the room to stand before the window; arms crossed, weight shifted comfortably to one side, eyes searching for something to focus on.
"And tell me, angel, how did you wind up under Hojo's care?"
She shuddered.
"Do not speak his name! 'Tis blasphemy..."
Sephiroth cast a quizical glance in her direction. She slipped back into Wutaian mid sentence and he didn't catch the end. She spoke softly but steadily and he found himself drawn in by the sound of her voice.
"After the evil one was cast down he joined forces with her, with Jenova. Our people's suffering increased as new forces began to govern their realm.
"I am a healer, not a fighter. My gods believed it would take the work of such to amend things in the mortal realm. I was gifted... though by far the youngest among angels and not very well known or exactly well liked.
"Regardless, I listened to the cry of the planet and felt the suffering of its people. And so... I left heaven. Once in the mortal realm I encountered The Fallen.
"I fled and was captured.
"He attempted to corrupt me, to change me. I resisted and he shattered me..." she paused here, shuddering as if remembering something that she did not want to remember. "And he locked me away until I was ready to submit to his will..."
"And then I found you." Sephiroth finished for her.
The angel nodded. "And then you found me."
Stay.
Its a thought. Seph's thoughts are just plane. KiyoYume's will have ' ' around them. I didn't put " " around either of their thoughts because it isn't exactly conversation. When they comunicate in this way it will pretty much look like this. (KiyoYume's thoughts on the top, Seph's are on the bottom)
'You lied!'
I didn't lie. I apologise for the inconvience, and thank you for understanding. ~Shimensoka Mitsukai
Ch 2
Sephiroth's cold unforgiving eyes bore into the angel. Though KiyoYume's eyes remained half-closed and her gaze was directed away from him, she could feel him. She could feel his very presence in the room, and it made her tremble.
Sephiroth was neither shocked nor surprised to be standing there and speaking with an angel. He learned long ago to ignore such reactions. He continued to study her, his mind already calculating his options and the outcome to each.
Curiosity drew KiyoYume's gaze back to the man before her. He was tall, much taller than she was, though from her position in the air it wasn't obvious. And well built. Years of military life had trimmed the general down to only what was necessary. Raw strength. Not only had it sharpened his muscles, but it had taken his already quick and intelligent mind and trained it in strategy and ruthlessness.
His hair was a long platinum silver, and though hers was far longer it held no were near the splendor his did. His hard mako green eyes continued to pierce her. And then her eyes fell upon his wing... his single black wing.
There were several moments of silence in which the two looked each other over. Sephiroth finished first. He caught her gaze lingering on his wing and snapped it shut, pressing it close to his back, startling the angel.
She forced herself to meet his eyes. As an angel she could feel people; feel what kind of being they were (though KiyoYume was particularly good with this skill), and what she sensed in Sephiroth terrified her. But there was something else, a distinct feeling on top of what she regularly felt. Almost as if she could touch his thoughts...
Get down.
Sephiroth did not like her in the air above him. It was simple as that. She had neither the strength nor the will to resist him and so she landed at his feet, helpless, naked, and trembling.
Sephiroth's thoughts were elsewhere at the moment.
'Ally or Enemy? You don't know yet. So what do you do with her? Leave her? No, you have to take her. Where will you take her? Midgar first. Stop at Shinra's and find out information about her, but you'll have to keep her hidden. She's yours now, not that bastard Hojo's. Learn about her first. But God knows, keep her secret. If Hojo ever found out... and he has enough pull in Shinra to cause problems, even for me. Minor annoyances they might be, it would not be a pretty mess. Ally or Enemy? Once thats answered you can decide what to do.' His mind settled Sephiroth looked down at the angel.
"You are coming with me." He said in Wutaian. He could have made himself clear, could have pressed his point with something like: Don't struggle or you'll regret it, I promise. But he sensed that she knew that. Whether the tone in his voice had given him away or she had derived her understanding though mystical means he didn't care. She understood, and that was all he needed.
Sephiroth turned around and picked up his trench coat, but paused before putting it on, realizing he still bore his wing.
He closed his eyes and concentrated. There was a numbing tingle throughout the wing and then it simply vanished, leaving behind a few feathers to fall through the air. He reached down and collected the Masamune.
KiyoYume gaspt and moved forward to collect his stray feathers, pure horror in her eyes. Having had wings all her life she could not imagine living without them. Why on earth would this man purposely cause his wing to cease to exist? But more importantly, how exactly was he able to preform such a feat? KiyoYume had never known an angel to have such a power before; but even one did, no angel would ever shed its wings!
She was reaching for the last one when his voice stopped her short, her hand hovering inches away from the coal black feather.
"Leave them." She withdrew her hand but silently refused to surrender the others. Sephiroth, eager to leave the reactor, decided it wasn't worth it to use force over a few feathers, so he buckled his sheath back onto his belt and turned toward the door.
He walked back down the hallway followed by KiyoYume. The angel looked back over her shoulder, mourning for the feather left behind. They made their way through the reactor, Sephiroth closing and covering doors behind them to erase traces of their passing.
A draft could be felt flowing in from the entrance, as the evening air was swept in by the mountain breeze. Sephiroth stopped just outside the doorway to observe the sunset. The angel shivered in the crisp air. Glancing down at her, he saw this. Not wanting to waste time nursing a sick angel back to health he dumped his trench coat in her hands. After greatfully wrapping herself up, her shivers subsided.
Sephiroth paused and listened; movement could be heard on the path below. The private whom had driven Sephiroth up came around the corner. He was an older teen with wild blond hair. Sephiroth's eyes narrowed when he saw him.
"Strife? What the hell are you doing up here?"
"You've been gone a day and a half now. I thought maybe something had happened to you...."
Sephiroth hadn't realized it had been that long. A day an a half? It must have taken him much longer than he figured to decode the system and hack through the firewalls, but he was sure that wasn't it. The angel... he forced himself not to turn and look back at her. It had only been a few minutes. Less than twenty words had passed between them and yet... time seemed to have slipped away.
"Who is she?"
The privates eyes had wondered to the girl standing beside and a little behind Sephiroth. She met his gaze mildly, and instantly he found himself transfixed by her lucid blue eyes.
Now Sephiroth did take the time to look back at her before speaking.
"Her... She's a resident of Niblehiem. She was up here hiking and got caught in a storm. She took shelter in the reactor but got lost. Her cloths are torn up pretty bad, a lot of Mako-fume decay... I'm taking her back to the village."
KiyoYume was struggling to hold onto the coat and the black feathers she had picked up earlier.
The private nodded.
One of the feathers finally slipped and the breeze began to blow it away. Panicked, she raced after it, loosing her grip on the heavy coat. The leather felt slippery in her hands. She tried to adjust her grip, but the coat slipped and she tripped. KiyoYume hit the ground and rolled a few times, tumbling out of the coat. She sat up and shook her head to clear it. The coat slid off her shoulders and back revealing her wings. She shook the rest of it off and looked desperately for the feather.
He blinked.
Her eyes fell upon feather, just an arms length away.
"What the hell is that?"
Sephiroth looked at KiyoYume again. Then back to the private.
"Hojo's experiment. One of them anyway."
Strife.
KiyoYume stretched out her hand.
Strife knows.
So close...
By the look on his face Sephiroth knew he couldn't be trusted to stay quiet. He was a loose end.
"What? An experiment? What the hell are you talking about?"
Her finger tips brushed the feather.
Sephiroth saw the man's hand creep toward the hilt of his Buster sword. Faster than the young private could react Sephiroth drew his Masamune and lunged forward, driving it through the man's stomach. There was complete silence.
KiyoYume took hold of the feather and now sat up and looked back to see what had happened. Stunned, she shrank back in disbelief.
Strife's face was a mixture of complete confusion, surprise and pain. Sephiroth showed nothing. He locked eyes with Strife, ignoring the hot blood oozing over his hands and the hilt of his sword. It dripped off his fingers, slowing forming a pool of blood at his feet.
KiyoYume choked back a sob. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She had left heaven to save the planet and its people. Now free, with hope in sight, she was met with this... with death. She laced her fingers together, let her head sink to her knees; her lips moving in silent prayer.
Sephiroth pulled his sword back in a quick, but rough jerk. Strife's eyes took on a clouded, dazed look as he clutched his stomach. He searched for Sephiroth through his darkening vision, his look accusing.
"Why Sephiroth... why would you...?" Sephiroth returned the look with only his icy stare. The private fell back hitting the ground with a loud thud. All movement within him ceased. Strife was dead.
Sephiroth, still eerily calm, reached down and pulled the man's wallet out of his pocket, took the Shinra charge card from it, and put it back. He then picked up the man's arm, drug him back into the reactor and tossed him over the side of the bridge into the mako pit below. KiyoYume followed at a wary distance, watching Sephiroth. She stopped on the bridge to observe his actions from a distance.
He made his way down the the edge of the mako pool and knelt down, placing the Masamune just under the surface of the mako. There was a soft hissing as the Mako began dissolving the blood. Sephiroth then slipped his hands into the mako and washed them. Most SOLDIERS were showered with Mako to enhance their strengths, and it burned. It was a suffering beyond explanation. Sephiroth gave no sign that he was in any pain. He had been dealing with Mako for so long, and had such a high Mako content in his blood that he was simply unaffected; effectively rendering him immune to all forms of Mako poisoning.
Sephiroth stood, pulling his sword from the pool. The Mako dripped off his sword and hands, much the way oil separates from water, and in seconds they were dry. Sephiroth sheathed his sword and headed back up to the bridge where KiyoYume stood, her face white, her hands trembling as they held his feathers and trench coat. He passed without looking at her, pulling his gloves from his pockets and slipping them on his hands and heading out the reactor door and into the evening.
The trek down the mountain was not easy to begin with. But the fading light only made matters worse. KiyoYume, having not actually moved in what could have been ages for all Sephiroth knew, was struggling to keep up.
After stopping to wait for the angel several times, Sephiroth decided it would be faster just to carry her. Without warning he scooped her up, cradling her in his arms, and proceeded down the mountains and a neck breaking pace.
They found themselves on the outskirts of town a short while later. It was just after night fall. Sephiroth paused for a moment debating how on how to get to the truck without attracting any attention.
KiyoYume turned her face away from the lights of the town, her forehead touching Sephiroth's chest. It was the skin to skin contact. Sephiroth was suddenly aware of emotions that were not his. Distress, sorrow, mourning, weariness.
'We need you...' he kept feeling over and over, 'I can't save them alone'
Without willing it, his wing materialized again. What was it that caused this? Sephiroth shook his head and leapt into the air.
He landed softly several hundred feet away, perching on the peak of a roof to get a good view of the town. There was hardly anybody about, good. The truck happened to be on the other side of town, bad. He scanned the streets around him and then flew to the next roof, and the next.
He was almost invisible in the dark, moving faster than the human eye could track. A fleeting shadow in the night. Sephiroth made his way across the city unhindered and undetected. At last he dropped down into an alley way and was still. He still held the angel in his arms, silently urging her to stay completely inert.
Sephiroth listened for a moment then edged his way to the end of the alley and peered around the corner. Clear. There was a blur of movement and then KiyoYume was inside the truck and Sephiroth was quietly closing the door, trench coat in hand. Once he put the trench coat back on, he made a point to meet her curious gaze from the other side of the window.
Stay.
Sephiroth headed to a local clothes shop. Using the former driver's Shinra charge card, he purchased two loose fitting robes, and six womens tunics. The ones he picked out were made of soft, flowing material and had to be wrapped and fastened around ones torso. These he figured the angel could wrap between her wings without hindering them. The robes she could use when they encountered other humans and they needed to be covered. Last, a belt. It was a thin silver chain he found on a stand next to the tunics.
Another shop supplied him with provisions for the trip to the coast. These he purchased on his own money card, a plan already forming on what to tell Shinra when he arrived back at Midgar.
By the time he made it back to the truck, KiyoYume was sleeping soundly in the passenger seat, curled up inside an old army blanket she had found in the back. She was exhausted. She had not moved in years and her muscles were slowly rebuilding themselves. The general however, was showing no signs of fatigue and drove most of the night.
The next morning when the angel at last stirred, stretched, and ruffled her feathers Sephiroth was driving. She regarded the passing country side with quiet indifference. At last she spoke again, still in Wutaian.
"What are you?" She repeated Sephiroth's question back at him.
It was a moment before he was ready to answer.
"Sephiroth."
The answer seemed to satisfy her.
"Where are you taking me?"
"Midgar." was his flat response.
He cast a glance at her from the corner of his eye. She was still looking out the window, her vivid blue eyes following the scenery as it flew by.
"Do you speak Midgarian?" asked Sephiroth.
"Little."
Sephiroth nodded as he slowed the truck and stopped. He let KiyoYume wander off to attend to herself and dress. She came back a short while later, her white tunic skillfully wrapped between her wings and fastened with the belt, the blanket folded and in hand. With that the two were on their way again.
Sephiroth spent the next few hours reviewing the history and culture of Midgar while speaking Midgarian. When he had finished neither really felt like speaking. So the miles of silence rolled past.
Late in the afternoon Sephiroth stopped again. He and the angel ate a quick lunch. While he refueled the truck from one of large gas cans in the back, the angel walked aways from the truck and stretched, spreading her wings as wide as she could, tensing every muscle; every single feather before she relaxed again.
KiyoYume could feel this man's aura, and it distressed her. He was a killer, she had not only felt this, but seen it first hand. The blood of thousands were on his hands. He was too detached to care, and to cold to want to (As far as she had seen). At least he wouldn't kill her. This the angel was certain of. He hadn't a reason to kill, nor the desire. Not yet. All too soon she felt a tug inside her.
We need to keep moving.
She turned around in time to see Sephiroth finish packing away the gas can and meet his eyes. How odd it was to be able to communicate in such a way. But she could not bring herself to question it. It just seemed right.
Long after sunset they came to a small town where Sephiroth decided to stop for the night. Before entering the inn, Sephiroth draped one of the robes over KiyoYume's shoulders to cover her wings.
He stepped through the door and was met with a dimly lit lobby. It was a cozy place, a little tight, but comfortable none-the-less. Small town people had a tendency to lead toward homey things and atmospheres. There was a middle aged woman sitting behind a desk on the far side of the room. She sat slumped down with her chin resting on her chest as though she were asleep.
"A room." Sephiroth said placing a few gil on the counter. The woman behind the counter started and squinted up to see what sort of traveler had come in so quietly and so late. She started. Tall, dressed in black, silver hair, carried a very long, thin sword, and those eyes... piercing brilliant green that glowed in the dim light of the lobby. She seemed to take no notice of the small angel at his side.
"General Sephiroth? The Great Sephiroth?"
The man placed a few more gil on the counter and slid the whole pile toward her.
"A room." he repeated. Dumbfounded she scooped up the coins and hurried out of the lobby to show them a room.
She lead them to a humble but well kept room near the back of the building. There was a single bed -which at first puzzled Sephiroth, but he soon dismissed it, figuring the innkeeper had assumed them a couple- a dresser, and a nightstand. Candles where placed here and there throughout the room, though they failed to give off much light. After making sure there was nothing else Sephiroth required she stepped out and quietly closed the door behind her.
Sephiroth turned to the angel.
She had already anticipated his question, "I was not looked for, so I was not seen." She shrugged. The matter was simple as that in her eyes.
Sephiroth crossed the room to stand before the window; arms crossed, weight shifted comfortably to one side, eyes searching for something to focus on.
"And tell me, angel, how did you wind up under Hojo's care?"
She shuddered.
"Do not speak his name! 'Tis blasphemy..."
Sephiroth cast a quizical glance in her direction. She slipped back into Wutaian mid sentence and he didn't catch the end. She spoke softly but steadily and he found himself drawn in by the sound of her voice.
"After the evil one was cast down he joined forces with her, with Jenova. Our people's suffering increased as new forces began to govern their realm.
"I am a healer, not a fighter. My gods believed it would take the work of such to amend things in the mortal realm. I was gifted... though by far the youngest among angels and not very well known or exactly well liked.
"Regardless, I listened to the cry of the planet and felt the suffering of its people. And so... I left heaven. Once in the mortal realm I encountered The Fallen.
"I fled and was captured.
"He attempted to corrupt me, to change me. I resisted and he shattered me..." she paused here, shuddering as if remembering something that she did not want to remember. "And he locked me away until I was ready to submit to his will..."
"And then I found you." Sephiroth finished for her.
The angel nodded. "And then you found me."