Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy. I'm just obsessed with it. For a reason. Guess what (who) the reason is. Oh, and I don't own the Puma brand either, or the film Hot Rod.

And while Sephiroth pretty much stops moving, Shinra begin moving...

Negotiations

Sephiroth retreated to the guest room without a sound while Paige was making dinner.

After considering homemade pizza (which she didn't make, out of fear that the elf-mastermind-general-strong-person would refuse to eat such unhealthy food), homemade lasagna (which she didn't make because it was too difficult, would take too much time, and was too big and formal and flashy), and cheap salad (which she doubted would fill the stomach of the elf-man), she finally made up her mind and made some sort of pasta-and-salad mix that was hopefully passable. And it was easy enough to make. The real problem was how much she should cook. How much would this... Sephiroth eat?

Making a little more than she thought they would eat, she set the table in the living room. Before serving herself, though, she stole into the office on the same floor and did some internet surfing while waiting for Sephiroth. On the net she quickly found what she looked for: A set of Rubik's Cubes. Eyeing the products with feigned disinterest and fake boredom, she tried deciding whether or not to buy them. They weren't exactly cheap. Perhaps she should only buy the 7x7 cube. Then again, she had worked all summer and had some spending money... And it would be very amusing if Sephiroth didn't manage to solve the most difficult ones. Paige mentally leered – but didn't let it show on her face. And even if Sephiroth did manage to solve all the cubes, the two of them could let themselves be entertained by the faces of the rest of her family when they saw him solve it. If her family would ever meet him, that is.

...But then again, Sephiroth could be gone from here long before the Cube puzzles even arrived.

Still, since she actually wanted some for herself... perhaps she should buy them anyway. For decoration.

Thus, after experiencing the slight pain of shopping-and-thus-loosing-money, she loitered back into the living room and found Sephiroth sitting on the sofa. He was watching news again, his hair damp from the shower she guessed he'd taken. Around his shoulder was a new bandage, and that was probably the case for his waist as well. He wore his leather cloak and his own pants still.

"Say, isn't it dangerous to take a shower with wounds that serious?"

...She sounded like she was reprimanding him. She didn't mean to.

"Showering is strictly not the most dangerous activity I've been engaged in."
"Sorry." It wasn't really a heartfelt apology – Paige was busy telling herself that this man was strong, no matter how she looked at him, so there was no need at all for her to worry. All she had to do was to make food.

And soon, she'd also have to buy new bandages. Would he let her leave?

They ate in silence, Sephiroth watching the news with disinterest, Paige pondering how to make the food taste better next time. At some point she noticed that the Rubik's Cube was still on the table – still solved. Therefore, after eating, she took it and started twisting and turning it until all the colors were mixed up again. Making sure that the mastermind-elf-general-who-was-Sephiroth still watched the international news, she tried solving the Cube in her hands. It took her some minutes just to figure out one of the sides, and once she did, it took about twice as long to finish the first row of squares on the next sides. But that was as far as she got. She had no idea how to finish the rest without messing up the other colors. Perhaps she could do a little internet search to get some clues? Would that be cheating?

Upon hearing a small sigh, she looked up to find Sephiroth smirking. He wasn't looking at her, but he was smirking contently while watching the news (which she doubted was funny enough to smile about). It felt like he was silently mocking her.

And as if he wanted to underline his point, he shook his head and gave a chuckle, at which Paige stared back peevishly – trying her best to keep her face somewhat calm and under control. This person was really straight-forward. And rude. Was he doing it on purpose, to try to break the trivial little mask she put on in front of him?

Should she pay him back?

"I'll take care of the plates and the cutlery when I get back – I need to go buy more food and bandages," she said in the most hearty and cheerful and loving voice she could muster, trying her very best to imagine that Sephiroth was not an arrogant general-elf-man-patient, but a little girl with enormous and watery puppy eyes.

This took him aback; he turned fully and looked at her with something in the middle between amusement, strong contempt and very mild astonishment.

"...Leave your phone here," he said slowly. She was pretty sure that also meant 'don't mention me to anybody, because if you do, a certain parrot will be lacking its wings and its head when you return, because I will be able to tell if you're lying about not having talked to anybody about me', but she couldn't be sure. But she would still obey.

Then she left for the nearest grocery store. To get there she used her dad's ancient, rusty bike.

After the woman – Paige – left, there existed a very heavy air of vexation in the living room. What annoyed him was not only that she had used that sickly sweet voice earlier, but her face – no matter how she tried (she really had put an effort into it), she hadn't managed to keep her face even nearly as "joyful" as her words. In his opinion, it would have been far better if she had simply tried staring him down or something along those lines, because the face she had given him was one that he had experienced as through-and-through mocking, and not in any way 'sweet'. In comparison, his simple chuckle earlier was practically nothing.

If only he'd had a Restore materia, things would undoubtedly have been different. Many of his materias, along with his own cellphone, had broken when he used the Warp materia to teleport (so to speak) from the Shinra Headquarters in Russia and all the way here, to Canada. He still had a few left, though. As for himself, he still hadn't recovered too much energy. But it would only be a matter of time before Shinra made a move. In other words, it was a race between himself and Shinra – and also the few who opposed (and knew about the existence of) Shinra. Of course, within Shinra, there was one particular person he loathed more than the others by far.

Sephiroth could still recall the shrill, strict words Hojo had spoken the moment before Sephiroth let the Warp magic overtake him and teleport him away:

"What is this? You aren't strong enough to handle the 'truth' you so vigorously claim that those documents speak of?" Hojo had looked so angry – wretched with disappointment and contempt because of Sephiroth's violent reaction to what he had read in the off-limits labs.

"...Let me tell you this – Jenova was never you mother! The one who gave birth to you was a human!" the professor snarled. Sephiroth assumed Hojo said this to coax him (in his own ineffective way) into putting the old, risky-to-use materia back where it belonged. Needless to say his words only made Sephiroth more willing to use it. Yet, he was able to feel that Hojo was not lying – in fact, the old professor had practically forced the words to leave his mouth – as if they were his last chance of keeping Sephiroth from doing anything reckless.

"That Crescent... Lucrecia Crescent..." he had hissed, and Sephiroth had inclined his head in a mock bow and smirked, bleeding from his many injuries and holding Masamune tightly in his left hand.

Then he had shut his eyes and let the magic of the Warp materia in his right hand overwhelm him and carry him to an entirely different part of the world.

"Driftin' away like a feather in air..." spoke the parrot. Sephiroth had ignored it after its useless ramblings the day before. But now it was starting again. Nervous under his strong gaze, the bird tripped a little and rustled its feathers.

"Le-Le-Let the mike fly," the bird stuttered, or rapped, whichever was right. Sephiroth rose to his legs with a weary sigh, holding his ribs over his bandages. What if that Paige went and borrowed a phone from someone, or tried to get someone to help her? To stop her, he would have to be there, right?

Wasting no more time, he left the house and hurried after Paige, still with a hand on one of his wounds.

Paige returned a lot later than she had planned to – it was about eight in the evening. It was still somewhat light outside, though.

The grocery store had everything she needed, except for bandages. Therefore she diligently pedalled around from house to house with shopping bags on the steering wheel of her bike. None of the neighbours had any bandages, and all of them suggested that she should go ask this or that person, because surely one of them would have some. Needless to say, they all asked what she needed it for, and she said she needed it for a handmade project of hers, to which they smiled and said they were happy no one were hurt (though she could have sworn some of them were disappointed that that she had no gossip for them to spread). She raced all over town in the scorching sun, her arms visibly reddening on the way.

In the end she had went to the doctor (who was a grumpy, impatient man, and drunkenly so), and then he too asked what she needed the bandages for.

"A handmade project."
"What project?" the doctor demanded in a quiet, hoarse voice. She guessed he had a hangover.

"A surprise for my father."

Really and truly. Bandages, applied by hand, by and on the elf-man that she was going to surprise her dad with, whether her dad liked it or not.

"What is it?"

"Can't tell you."

"...Damn kids nowadays. Listen... If it hasn't got a thing to do with injuries or stuff like that, I ain't givin' you any," said the man. Paige's father had told her to stay clear of the man, who was apparently an old pilot veteran – or something like that.

"I'll pay." The dark-blonde-haired man chewed on his cigar and frowned.

"You... That's not the point. Money isn't the point. The point's that if you ain't going to use it for wounds or other-"

"Okay! I have a badly injured elf general at home who is probably so hooked on good hygiene that he will tear off his old bandages any minute and bleed to death rather than keep his old bandages on." Spoken with perfect composure in a loud voice that was sure to make the doctor's head hurt, Paige's words seemingly got across pretty fast.

"I get it, all right, I get it..."

And after all that, she returned to her tiny cabin-like house, sunburned, drenched in sweat and exhausted. She dropped the few heavy shopping bags in the kitchen without even looking in Sephiroth's direction (afraid he would comment her current appearance). Then she took a shower and put on some sun lotion. Sporting white jeans and a gray, very loose-fitting shirt with short arms, she returned to the kitchen and put all the wares into their respective shelves and cupboards. After finishing, she cleaned up the living room table without even glancing at Sephiroth, who was most likely sitting in the sofa still. The dishes took a while to clean.

"Shake it and move it over there," squeaked John Smoth, the parrot, and she glanced at the bird as he stretched to his full height, which wasn't really that much. He turned his head and cocked it towards the end of the living room, which Sephiroth currently had for himself. Absently she turned and looked as well.

The silver-haired man held his ribs tightly with a hand, where the stab wound was, and watched the currently black TV screen with feigned interest like before, only his head was inclined backwards a little. His eyes were a little unfocused. Even though his breath was even and he seemed calm, he was pale – very pale – with beads of perspiration on his skin. He was sitting at an angle, as if to lessen the pressure on his wound, while at the same time still clutching it. And when she had a closer look, he wasn't watching the black television screen after all, but rather stared at the off-white wall above it.

"...Hey, do you... need to lie down?" she asked quietly, wary.

His jade eyes turned and he watched her through the slits that were his pupils. And even now, when his face was practically devoid of expression, his eyes were burning with malice and annoyance. If only for a very short moment, he held her eyes with a terrible rage, then they shut. The hand at his ribs clenched into a fist.

"You... You think you have an infection?" she asked, observing him through narrowed eyes while feeling her heart pound. He was scaring her to death – she was glad she wasn't standing too close.

The stare he had given her moments before looked positively evil.

His lips turned down in a snarl and he said nothing. She had to do something. Call the doctor. Anyone who knew about infections... But Sephiroth had told her not to tell anyone about him being there. Not even her parents, as they might call others about it. And still, the first thing she did when she realized he might have a wound infection, was to reach for her cellphone on the kitchen counter. It was just a reflex.

But then the tables turned.

Now he wasn't the one who should dial the emergency number. Now Paige was the one who didn't know quite what to do.

The very second she reached for the phone, Sephiroth leapt from the sofa and made his way over to her. By the time she grabbed the offensive-and-dangerous-in-an-indirect-way phone, he had a hand around her neck and was staring her down. His other hand held the edge of the kitchen counter in a death grip to support himself. His breath was growing faster.

Personal space invasion. She was sure her face displayed how shocked and frightened she looked, and now she couldn't hide it.

"Nh," she managed and held the phone away from herself, but was still reluctant to let go of it – it was the best and most available way to contact the outside world. She was still terrified.

"I got my eye on ya!" squealed the parrot, flapping its wings vigorously and then rustling its feathers.

Sephiroth said nothing.

The hand around her neck was pushing her down as if he was using her for support, but other than that it wasn't too tight. She could breathe, but only because he let her. Then his eyes fluttered to the phone and back to her in a wordless warning before his grip tightened. Paige tried swallowing, feeling her pulse throb in her throat. Then she let go of the cellphone and used both hands to try to pry his single hand off.

"I'm sorry!" she almost yelled, though it was a quiet yell.

Then he started coughing, his mouth still shut, and each cough made him hunch forward in pain. Now clinging to his side with one hand, he let the other loosen from her neck and moved it to her shoulder, to support himself. She had a not-so-vague feeling he despised having to do that. But now was her chance.

"Let... Let me at least get you to your room." Oh, how she hated the way her personal space was being intruded. It gave her cold, nasty chills. If it was up to her, she would never let it happen again. He most likely hated being helped, too, though.

...Standing in the black shadows of the surveillance room, with the screens before them as their only source of light, a number of scientists were assessing their current situation somewhat hesitatingly. All of them were feeling like they had to speak, simply say something to keep the atmosphere up. They were afraid that if they didn't, Hojo would scold them for their ignorance and uselessness. At the moment they were all in the monitoring room with the experienced professor, watching the monitoring screens with more or less pretended interest. The screens showed a number of small prison-like cells. Each cell held a seemingly normal person, all of them adults. They didn't look awfully healthy, to say the least, yet they had all been dressed up to prepare them for the journey they would soon be undertaking.

"Excuse me, professor Hojo? May I ask again why these... remnants... are to be taken for... a trip?" asked one of the younger scientists, a tall, thin man with glasses.

"Somebody explain it to him," Hojo said exasperatedly while concentrating on the papers he tried reading – it was not an easy thing to do, reading in such a dark room. If he turned on the lights, however, the others' focus would move elsewhere; to any other place than the screens.

"I can do it – I was briefed about it," said another man, stepping closer to the only screen showing a map.

On the map were several red spots.

"The main idea is to use remnants to locate Sephiroth, because they all feel pulled to him. Their instinct makes them able to track him."
"But why so many? Why not just one?" the tall one interrupted.
"Listen, I'll explain. First of all, with only one remnant it will be difficult to pinpoint Sephiroth's exact location. Let me give you an example," the other said, and proceeded by pointing at Mexico on the map.

"If we place one remnant in Mexico, who then goes north, and one remnant in Canada, who then goes south, and one remnant in New York, who heads west, and one in sunny San Francisco, who heads east, what does that mean?"

"...That they are all heading for some place in the middle of the USA. That means Sephiroth is somewhere close to wherever they're all heading," replied the tall man in an important voice.

"Exactly. This method involves many remnants, so we will be able pinpoint Sephiroth's location at a much earlier stage. That way we can find Sephiroth before he has healed completely. He was injured when he left here, do you recall?"

"Yes, and that's why Shinra has been working around the clock, right?"

"We will find him, even if he is dead," interjected Hojo in a monotonous, yet shrill voice.

In some unexplainable way, she had managed to talk him into getting up to the guest room, where she was now trying to keep him from falling asleep. If he had an infection, it was probably going to be troublesome for her to do anything at all. She was sitting on the small stool by the bed with her arms crossed, wearing a dull expression – not because she was annoyed or afraid of what might happen, but because she was at loss of what to do and what would be the most appropriate emotion to show an elf-man who obviously didn't want to be pitied. That said, though, she felt she needed to say something. Just to get it over with.

"Your wounds... They're a lot more serious than you made me think," she said quietly.

And still, Paige felt like she couldn't tell anyone about him at all, because then Sephiroth would be taken to hospital and then recover, only to return someday and have his revenge for exposing him. And from what she had gathered, he was hiding from somebody who could find him no matter where he was, if only someone registered Sephiroth (or his looks or identity) in a random database. At all costs, he wanted to stay hidden – at least until he recovered.

But this Shinra he spoke of, were they really evil?

From what she had experienced so far, Sephiroth was the one who flashed evil glares and gave impatient comments at everything. If he was the bad guy, she would be in trouble (whether it was one day or ten years from now). If she contacted others and told them about him, he would come for her. The elf-who-was-not-an-elf-but-rather-a-big-and-strong-looking-man hadn't uttered a word or a sound of pain ever since she found him, in spite of his stab wound and bullet wound. Even now, when his stab wound was infected, he suppressed the pain (which he had explained it to her very briefly through teeth gritted in annoyance).

Then again, if it was Shinra who had made him this strong and cold and rude (and elf-like, if his hair was really silver and the thin pupils of his eyes were not contacts), there was a good chance everything he had told her so far was true. Shinra was evil – an evil organisation experimenting with humans.

"...Don't fall asleep," she muttered, barely audible. If she said it like that, would he fall asleep just to defy her, or would he stay awake only to show her that he could? In any case, if he fell asleep, he might not wake up again.

R.R.

Is... Sephiroth... in-character?