CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The City of the Ancients
Special Chapter
All love that has not friendship for its base
Is like a mansion built upon sand.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
I was almost afraid, standing beneath the tall, crystalline structure. More beautiful than anything I'd ever seen were the conch shells standing taller than me, and the spiraling almost endless stairs reaching down into the darkness. To think that anyone ever lived there was like imagining that perfection must have existed long before my time. Taking a deep breath, I began walking towards the stairs, turning in circles to look at everything.
Aerith's grave is here, I remembered Zack telling me that. It hadn't been hard to find the place, but getting through the forest had been a bit difficult. The people of Bone Village were a lot of help. But… now that I was here, I wasn't sure what I was doing.
I was running in circles. Afraid to stop running, afraid to run back, so I was just moving about to keep from becoming restless. Eventually, my running away was going to have to stop. But at least I wanted to see the City of the Ancients, before reality set in again.
I was looking down on the beautiful staircase that almost looked like it was made of glass. I was scared to step on it, there was no railing, and it was just so beautiful. But I wanted to explore, so I had to keep going.
Down the stairs, with my stomach in my throat, I sauntered down and came to a lake with a huge shell above it, and steps rising up out of the water. It looked like an altar for praying, which meant it must've been a sort of church, back during its better years.
Not a sound was made but my footsteps when I walked in. Head down, my arms behind my back, I shyly, reverently, stepped into the room. It looked just like it had in the movie, but it was so … otherworldly.
Sitting by the water, a little away so I couldn't look down, I wondered if I did want to see the person who rested beneath. Aerith… the girl in the pink dress. Crystal called her the Flower Girl.
She was really young when she died. Only a child, perhaps five years younger than me.
Clutching my elbows, I set my head between my arms, almost like I was trying to disappear. My silver hair fell over my eyes and sparkled in the light. Silver hair… I felt like a punk rocker. I was never that brave, though.
I didn't think I wanted to see her. Wasn't being here enough?
Suddenly, I heard the small patters of footsteps, so small and light they couldn't be human, it had to be a small animal. A sound hit my ears:
"Meow"
Eyes wide open; I wondered curiously why a cat was in the city. Perhaps it was a threat like that frog had been. Maybe it wasn't. Standing, I looked about for any sign of the animal. I heard it mew again, almost as if it wanted to be found. I recognized that mew.
Glancing up, I saw the cat sitting on the edge of the highest pedestal, looking down at me. It was fluffy, and white.
"Furball?" I laughed, grinning. "Furball? It really is you! I thought … I thought you died in the fire"
My cat just turned its head, looking at me, as I stepped towards the steps leading towards the cat. He watched me, almost wary, did he not recognize me? How in the world did it make it here besides? Just a little cat, making it from one world to the next?
With one foot on the first step, I beckoned Furball. "Come on kitty, it's me, Sam…"
He looked at me, and then down to the water, inching towards the edge. What was he doing? Was Furball preparing to jump? What in the world? "Furball? It's me… don't you remember the hand that fed you? Well, you did always like…"
(would I say his name aloud I hadn't said that name in a while his name)
"… Sephiroth better"
Almost as soon as I said his name the cat leapt off the precipice. I knew for a fact he couldn't swim, the first time I tried to give him a bath, he almost drowned. So, I leapt from the step and towards him, trying to catch him, but almost like he knew I would, the cat slipped through my arms and into the water. I followed after diving down towards Furball.
He had gone down deep really fast, how I didn't know. Furball must've put on some weight; he was almost down to the bottom. Reaching down, I used my new ability to hold my breath to my advantage, trying to swim down to him.
That's when I saw her.
She was lying on the bottom of the lake her arms cross over her chest. Her hair flowed around her, and she looked as she had the day she died. I had always thought peace and death were opposites really, but I knew then what people meant when they spoke of dead bodies, saying they "look so peaceful". Aerith really did.
There was something in her hand, tucked between the fingers, but floating a bit above. It looked like the chain to a necklace. Furball was just above it, flailing, drowning most likely. Wrapping an arm around him, I found my free arm was bending down towards her body – towards the little thing in her hands.
I knew that the muscles became immobile soon after death, so if I wanted the chain I would have to break it to get it out of her hands. That was what I thought. To my great surprise, Aerith's hands gave way, opening to allow the chain to be removed. As soon as it was in my grasp, her hands closed, and I was swimming to the surface with one miserable, wet Furball.
Coughing and hacking, I sat on my knees at the waters edge, and Furball was coughing too, almost like he had a huge hairball. The poor thing was soaked, looking up at me with misery. "Hey, you're the one who jumped in" I told him, still feeling the surprisingly warm chain in my hand, rusted a bit, but somehow not as rusted as it should be. Once I felt all the water had been coughed up, I raised my hand to my face.
The chain was silver, and long enough to be a necklace, but there was nothing on it. But it had a few lines on it, scratches, like something had hung on the chain and scratched it; like when you swing a necklace around and the item on the necklace scratches the chain itself. On one part of the necklace, a few of the chain links were bent strangely, like someone had wrestled with the metal to remove whatever was on it. They hadn't broken the metal though.
Looking up to the sky, I began thinking aloud.
"If … If Aerith died here, then… she must've been praying right? Unless she was just looking around. I kind of doubt it though. Why kill somebody for looking around? And who did kill her? No one ever told me that…"
Running a hand through my hair, I sighed. "And the chain… if she was praying, she was holding this necklace in her hand when she prayed… and after she died, whoever killed her must've taken what was on the necklace… unless"
The image of a blonde man flashed in my mind.
"Unless Cloud took it" I wondered, looking down at the necklace as my breathing began to return to normal. "Unless Cloud took it"
Looking down to the cat, which was shaking all the water off out of his fur, I frowned. "And how did you get here? And what was with the suicidal thing a minute ago?"
Furball just mewed.
Sighing, I shook my head and took one last glance at the necklace. With a huff, I placed it around my neck, and collapsed onto the ground.
Nothing made sense anymore.
"Why me?"
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Here is the test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished:
If you're alive, it isn't.
Richard Bach
I left the city a few hours later. I didn't really want to spend the night there, I felt like I was intruding. So I continued out of the city, taking the right road (left if you're walking towards the city) out of the area.
Snow was all I could see once I left the cave tunnels that led away from the City. Sighing, I wished I brought more suitable clothes. But I kept walking.
Walking became more like zombie – ing. I felt dead as I stumbled through the snow. I didn't even know where I was going. I had lost my food in the snow, food that had been kindly given to me by Vincent. I hoped I would see him again.
What was I doing?
I didn't even feel my legs give out under me, I just fell. And when my face fell into the soft down of snow, I was wondering why it reminded me of something. It was soft, and cool… like Sephiroth's hair. If only to brush my hands through his hair again… where was he now? I couldn't feel him. I couldn't feel anything. I was so cold.
I was so cold.
(cold really cold stop laughing at me its so cold where are you stop laughing Jenova)
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
I was in that black void, where Zack and I would rendezvous whenever we wanted to talk, or hang out. He was no where to be seen; I was worried I'd never see him again. What if he'd disappeared for good?
There was someone there though.
My legs gave out when I saw him, but he didn't see me. Was that really him? Was it really him?
(this is only a dream)
Slowly, he turned and his eyes fell on me. They were so dark, piercing, and cold. "What took you so long?"
I blinked. There was no way in hell he was talking to me that way.
"I was held up, all right?"
Blinking, I looked around. That wasn't me but… that was my voice.
I turned around just in time to watch a much younger me walk right through me. She wore a hood, had piercing eyes just like Sephiroth, and had that dark, drab look of someone against the world who doesn't give a damn; the eighteen year old me, three years after my mother's death.
She looked down on him, cracked her neck, and looked around. "So what's the call for?" She… err, I asked. I was stumped; was this a dream? A memory? But… I didn't remember this.
Sephiroth gave a very small sigh that could've been mistaken as an outtake of breath. His arms crossed over his lap as he looked out over the dark abyss.
"The time has come." He spoke, his voice deep and rumbling. I shivered. The girl was not affected. "For years I have awaited this day, preparing, pulling strings. And I have waited here."
"So you have" The girl's voice was bitter, and she was biting her lip like she had more to say. "Gotta go… destroy the world now, huh?"
"Five years ago, Cloud defeated me and I was sent into the crater from which my mother arose. I have slept there since. Soon, Cloud will awaken me. You've known this. From the moment we met, I told you."
"Yeah, I know." Her tone was impatient, borderline bitchy.
Sephiroth looked a bit over his shoulder. The girl's eyes were glaring down at him, almost daring him to say something. He blinked, almost slow motion. Then he spoke.
"You… cannot come with me"
"Why not!?" Her retort was already on her tongue. "I've waited this long with you, haven't I? I've even helped you! When you ran out of power after killing Shinra, who shared their soul with you? When you were trying to lead Cloud along, who helped you? I did! I even told you where Aerith was going when I saw it in my dreams!"
Wait a minute, I thought What does Aerith have to do with Sephiroth? I knew she'd died because of the Meteor and Shinra and all those battles, but… did Sephiroth have a direct link with it?
"If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have been able to kill her, Cloud hurt you so bad!"
My eyes were wide open. Sephiroth… Sephiroth killed Aerith?
And I helped him do it.
Sephiroth was taking this silently.
"I've had to give my soul for you to be able to pull some of the crap you've pulled. And Jenova spits in your face for it."
"Don't talk about mother" He became fierce, as I knew he would. Knowing the old me, I would to.
"I will! She's using you, and you know she thinks less of you because of me" The girl was breathing hard, angry, and I think a little sad too.
"You know that you'll lose if Jenova takes over"
Sephiroth's eyes were hidden by his eyelids. Seething, the girl glared down at him, waiting for some sort of response.
"She already… has"
Looking up to her Sephiroth eyes seem to be for the first time clear of darkness. "She is taking over. She has been, since that first day in Nibelheim. If you stay with me, she will kill you. I can't let her do that"
The girl was crying by now.
"You're all I have" She whispered, fighting back the tears by angrily wiping them away. Sephiroth stood and gently took hold of her wrists.
"I'm… I wish I never had to do any of this. My memories are as clouded as Cloud's… if Zack could see me now."
"Zack?" She whispered. "You've never talked about him. Not to me"
"Remember? The presence you spoke of" He told her. "He's been watching over you. I don't know why. I don't know why you and I have met here. Why do your dreams bring you here to me every night? I don't know why. Why are you involved in this?"
Eyes down and shoulders shaking the girl cried as Sephiroth held her. "Why is it, as much of your soul as you've offered to me, why have you not died? So much of your soul has been taking, and yet so much abundance is left. What are you really?"
"S – Sephiroth?" Red eyes looked up between her hair, miserable and looking for hope. Sephiroth had none. I think, even then, Sephiroth knew he was going to die, whether or not by Cloud or Jenova's hands. Why then was he moving forward? Was it because Jenova was within, as she was with me now? Was she there in him now? If only… I could reach into the dream Sephiroth and rip her away… and save so many…
"Sephiroth"
"Sephiroth"
The young me and I spoke at the same time. Sephiroth looked up over her shoulder. Could he see me? His eyes fell back down on her.
"You… have taught me things. Made me remember things though I still forget so much. And you are so good, for all the deeds you've helped me do, you are a good person. I am not. We cannot …"
He didn't finish the sentence. I knew then that back during this time, when I was eighteen, that he and I…
We have met before.
That was what Sephiroth meant. Somehow, I kept going to him in my dreams when I was younger. But… why can't I remember? How did it start?
"When I lost my mom, I gave up on everything. I was nothing but a ghost. Just like you" She smiled a little. "When you found out the truth, you gave up on everything, everyone… became a ghost. But when we're together I feel… so real…"
"I didn't want to do those things. But I didn't want to lose you. I didn't want to be a ghost. Watching Aerith die… knowing that I had as good as killed her myself…"
My heart was hammering hard and fast in my chest.
"My soul is as good as yours"
"My soul belongs to her" Sephiroth muttered, backing away a bit. She followed him.
"I won't leave you"
"Sam –"
"I can't, you're all I have"
"Sam you can't come –"
"I have too, where else can I go?"
Sobbing loudly, she dropped to her knees, head in her hands. Sephiroth was looking down in horror, almost unable to do anything. Slowly, he looked down on her and kneeled next to her.
"I can make you forget" He whispered. She looked up, a little bit of hope in her eyes. "You'll forget me"
When you walk away
"But I –"
"It's for the best. I'll always remember you" Sephiroth brushed a hand through her hair. "I'll remember you the only human I would spare. How I came to hold you in this regard, I shall never understand." She chuckled a little, holding his wrist, and he smirked… she was lost in his eyes. I could tell; she was lost, just like I was all the time when I looked at him.
"I – okay. I – I'd rather be completely alone" She whispered looking down. "Than alone and know I didn't have to … be"
You don't hear me say
Sephiroth actually had a pained look on his face. His palm slid to the younger me's forehead. She was no longer crying but just looking at him.
"Don't let her kill you" She whispered, biting her lip.
Please oh baby don't go
Sephiroth looked away, but his eyes drifted back to her.
"Good bye… Samantha.
Simple and clean is the way that you're making me feel tonight
It's hard to let it go
In a flash, the dream was gone… and so where the young me's memories. He wiped my memories… so I wouldn't feel the pain of having lost him. But how had we come together in the first place?
I couldn't believe it. I had helped him; I had the audacity to go to Aerith's grave when I … I …
How had I helped him? Sharing my soul with him? Could he not work on his own? What had Cloud done to him?
What…
What had I done?
Hold me
Whatever lies beyond this morning
Is a little later on
Regardless of warnings the future doesn't scare me at all
Nothing's like before
- Simple and Clean Utada Hikaru