Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Because of a Garden and a Twilight Walk ❯ Of Spilled Coffee and the Confusing Realism Of Memories ( Chapter 4 )

Author's Notes: Oh dear lord, It's been too long since I last did a chapter for B.O.A.G.A.T.W. T.T Gomen? Please forgive? ^_^; I hope people didn't begin to think I abandoned this...
Also, did I get Tifa's last name right? *Hopeful look* [Comment: Thanks Lady Voldemort, for correcting me!]
[Spelling Errors Fixed.]
. . .
"Real...as....me..." - Silence.
. . .

"..." Sephiroth turned and Aeris stretched a hand out towards him.

"Don't go! I apologize for calling you that name--" Her words were cut off as the white haired man turned to her with an almost cold, unearthly expression on his face. His eyes...haunting eyes...they almost seemed to be Mako eyes...but they couldn't, could they? Shinra fell quite a few years ago...

"That," he paused, "is my name."

Aeris Gainsborough stood there with a look mixed with fear and confusion. "You're name is..."

"Sephiroth." The man completed.

But how could that be? The man she had heard of in the legends was dead. "Does that mean you're the Sephiroth...?"

An aggravated sigh was voiced from him. "No. My mother named me after him."

"But why would someone name a child after such a person?"

"...I do not know."

The chestnut haired woman smiled gently to him. "You must be one of the soldiers the mayor hired, am I correct?" As Sephiroth nodded, she gestured to her home. "Perhaps you'd like to stay for a bit? I was just about to make a cup of coffee..."

Sephiroth smiled and the haunting in his eyes seemed to disappear. "That would be nice, if I may intrude."

Emerald eyes sparkled slightly, cheerfully, "You may."

After she had set the table and the two had begun to drink their coffee, little was said. Aeris was trying to fight the voices in her mind, while Sephiroth's blue-green eyes watched her.

--Foolish half cetra!--

--Kill it, before the voice takes it!--

--The Evil One must be stopped!--

--The Evil One...WILL DESTROY YOU!!!-- They chorused. The loudness of it caused her ears to ring and her grip loosening and spilling her cup of coffee on her lap. She let out a small squeal of suprise and the white haired man handed her napkins.

As she dabbed her pink dress that had become her trademark to the people of Kalm, Sephiroth asked, "Where do you keep your towels?"

"Third door to the right, in the right bottom drawer of the cupboard."

The man with haunting eyes nodded and left to get one while she tried to soak up the majority of the hot drink out of her dress. "Please don't be ruined..." she whispered.

When he returned, she had gotten most of it out, bowed to the white haired man, asked him to stay there, and ran upstairs. After a few minutes, she returned wearing an exact replica of the dress, only white.

"I'm sorry for the wait..."

"Next time you should be more careful," Sephiroth remarked and Aeris lowered her head, cheeks red in embarrassment.

Aeris walked past him and began to clean up the rest of the mess. As she did so, white hair fell where he gaze was, and she turned her head to see that the man had begun to help her, wiping up what he could with the towel he had fetched for her. A small smile found it's way to her mouth. He did not seem to be enjoying the task.

As they finished, Aeris put the towel in the laundry room and came back to see Sephiroth standing before the door, about to leave, dressed in all his glory...and still, the haunting eyes seemed to glow in the darkness of the twilight. The emerald eyed girl shook her head. "Are you leaving?"

He nodded.

"Well, I hope to see you again," she said in farewell, and the man left.

The voices died down as soon as he was out of sight, and as the noise of the door closing stopped, a body dressed in white fell to the floor, summoned into a sleep by beings long forgotten, except by few...

"Would you like a flower?"

. . .

A small flower being handed to a blonde man with mako eyes. A small smile almost tinged his lips as he held in his hand. She smiled hopefully before leaving.

The sound of crumbling and the loud smack of a body hitting a soft flower bed. The flower bed...was hers, wasn't it? The blonde man again...she stood and did nothing for a moment...

A man walking into the church...she did not remember his name...but the feeling of foreboding...He stood and watched as she and blonde man talked.

Running, bullets from behind, the blonde man trying to help her....barrels falling...

Laughter, jumping...freedom. A journey home...where was home? A house...a heaven...her precious Materia..Materia? She owned no Materia...did she?

Helping....a talk...SOLDIER...boyfriend...playground...Tifa. Tifa Lockheart. Friend. Love...rival? No, not love rival...but close to it...she was seen as such by Tifa. Who was Tifa? She didn't know a Tifa...

The blond man dressed as a girl...a place owned by a nasty man...three threats and information...trick floor...sewers...train graveyard...

Sector 7. 7th Heaven...a store...Barrett...

Blonde hair and Mako eyes. Cloud.

Turks...helicopter...Shinra...Vice President Rufus Shinra...

"A flower girl from the slums."

...Jenova....

Sephiroth.

Sephiroth. Sephiroth. Sephiroth....

SEPHIROTH!

Prayer...

A sword. Metal slicing into and out of her...White Materia falling...

...The Blonde Man picking her up once she fell...and the blurry images ceased as she heard Cloud call her name.

Emerald eyes snapped open as she let out a scream.

--You remember now, half Cetra.--

--Do you feel fear now?--

--Acknowledge his murder...--

--Bring the Evil One's vessel death...--

"...What?"

--Innocence of a garden...symbol of the half Cetra's heart...beckoning the vessel of the Evil One...the Voice...--

--Because of the garden...the twilight walk...the two have met. Corruption and that which can not be corrupted...--

"..Stop...stop...I don't understand!!!"

--...The half Cetra refuses to understand.--

--Ignorance beckons your death once again, Last One..--

--Or do you wish to stop fate from repeating once more?--

--Earth...we do not understand her...granting it's vessel life again...--

--And rejecting our half Cetra from the promised land, erasing the memories and turning her back into a child to live once more as well.--

"...? You're Cetra, aren't you? All of you..."

--She acknowledges us.--

"Why speak to me again? I'm not...Sephiroth killed me...why...why am I here? Why is he here? ...Why is he so different...?"

--Did we not half answer that already?--

--Enough...Wake up, half Cetra...Aeris Gainsborough. Wake up.--

And with that, she did. More confused, wondering and fearful than she had ever been before.