Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Path of Seduction ❯ Chapter Nineteen ( Chapter 19 )

Path of Seduction

Chapter Nineteen

 

Aeris let the water beat down in a heavy stream on her back. It was lukewarm and would soon be cold but that hardly mattered. She stood very still, staring at a small chip in the tile. Realization was numbing.

 

She kept replaying the night's events in her head, turning them over in her mind, every word, every gesture. Her mind flitted through the night's memories, unable to settle on any one. Aeris waited for the shock to hit her, but nothing came.

 

That in itself should have been a shock, but it just did not matter. What was done was done and nothing would change that. The lack of regret over the night's events was more of a surprise to her than the events themselves. It just did not seem to be the critical issue she had thought it would be.

 

All her life her foster mother had warned her about the wrong kind of man and told her to save herself, presumably for marriage. Thinking back on it now, the very idea was laughable. The people in her neighborhood had seen her as an abomination or a threat, an other, even if they did not truly know what made her different. The Turks had hunted her everyday. The only one who had ever reached out to warm her heart had left and never returned, torn away from the world. Who would she ever settle down with? What normal person would want her?

 

Maybe that was why she had given Sephiroth a chance. He was different too, not like her but sufficiently not like anyone else for them to have that link between them. And he wanted her so badly. She recalled the stern planes of his face and the way his eyes had narrowed at her with disdain the night before. She had never been a truly violent person but right then she had wanted to smash his face in so badly, claw at him, hold his head down in a sink full of water, anything to get that horrible look off his face and make him see her the way he had at first.

 

She had brought him around, all right. All she had to do was show some leg and he would fall right in line. Her mother had been right about one thing. Men were simple creatures.

 

Aeris breathed out heavily. She began working up a good lather with the soap. It brought more immediate concerns to mind. Her bruises were gone. She had carefully healed all visible evidence, careful to take good care of her neck and shoulders where Sephiroth had marked her. She hoped she had not missed any spots. Bite marks would be so hard to explain.

 

She laughed a little. No regret for last night, no, but there were other things. She was tired and sore. The immediate marks and bruises had been healed, but there were deeper aches in her flesh and a weariness that went almost bone deep. Maybe she had extended herself a bit overmuch last night. And Sephiroth had only been too interested in seeing how much she could take. Before last night, she would not have believed she could bend that way.

 

Certain points on her spine still ached. They twinged sharply when she tried to move. Aeris growled quietly. That man deserved more than a simple smacking for dropping her on the stairs. She briefly recalled the way his face contorted halfway between rage and passion when she scratched him. She smirked as she scrubbed. Hopefully he was feeling the aftereffects too.

 

--------------------------

 

“Mmph,” Sephiroth winced as he buckled his coat. He seemed to have missed some of the claw marks on his shoulders.

 

“Did you say something, son?” Mother asked archly.

 

“It's nothing, Mother.” Sephiroth began to walk towards the basement, focusing on healing the scratches as he went.

 

“I could have sworn I heard a little cry of pain,” Mother was almost whimsical.

 

Sephiroth ground his teeth. “I said it's nothing, Mother.” He refused to groan though his coat chafed his scratches while he walked. He had healed up in the shower for the most part but the water had been cold and numbing and he had not known exactly where to direct his efforts. Aeris did not seem to have particularly long nails but in her rage she had still caused a fair amount of damage. Sephiroth recalled the red trails he had glimpsed on his back in the cloudy old mirror and shook his head. Little scrapes were somehow always more irritating than a proper wound. He would have to think carefully before crossing that girl again. There was no getting away from her now.

 

He still felt a little worn out, unbalanced enough that he had to reach out to the wall for support as he made his way down the wooden spiral staircase. He stumbled blindly down the dark hall and into the library to wait. The journey was more tiring than he had expected. Perhaps he had overextended himself last night.

 

He made his way past the books to the little alcove. It was as good a place to wait as any. He tried to sit on the desk but the added pressure of his weight on some of the lower scratches caused so much sudden stinging that he had to stand up again.

 

“She really got you, didn't she?”

 

Sephiroth crossed his arms and stood stiffly, turning his attention to healing every last scratch, bruise and ache he could find. It was quick business once he put his mind to it. He was not quite as tired and confused as he had been earlier in the morning. At least cold showers were good for something.

There was important work to be done now. His followers were all gathered here, awaiting his further instructions. If they had been capable of it, he would have told them to go stop the puppet and distract him, but the hooded men, his clones, were no match for one with a true measure of independence. Sephiroth shuddered. The clones' mindless worship disgusted him but Mother insisted on her Reunion, so he led them along for her sake. It helped that she had promised he could do away with them when the time was right. Sephiroth reached for one of the journals. There was not much in here that he did not already know but it had been so long since he had read these books and for some reason, many things were unclear.

 

“You should have been reading these things last night, Sephiroth.”

 

“I was busy, Mother,” Sephiroth murmured, idly flipping through the pages.

 

“Yes, you certainly were that.” Mother's disapproval was clear. Sephiroth shut the book quickly.

 

“Mother! Please, tell me you didn't watch! That's really none of your business!”

 

Mother almost snorted. “Believe me, I would sooner live in a jar than watch you rutting.”

 

Sephiroth hunched down with a stormy look on his face. “There's no need to make it sound so sordid.”

 

“I would not have to deal with this if you could stop thinking about it all the time!” Mother shrieked. “Honestly, with the state your mind is in right now you're no better than an animal during mating season.”

 

The man sighed. He had to agree. He was a mess. He cautiously sat down again. “I don't know what happened,” he confessed. “One minute she was trying to break my face and the next, the bed was moving across the floor.” He actually felt Mother recoil away from his mind.

 

“That's more than I needed to know.”

 

He buried his head in his hands. “I didn't mean for it to turn out this way.”

 

Mother slithered resignedly back into place. “I warned you that this would happen.”

 

“I know,” Sephiroth groaned. “I don't know how things got this far.”

 

“You were the one chasing her!” Mother snapped. “You wouldn't be in this situation if you had left her alone in the first place.”

 

“I know, I know.” Sephiroth slumped forward wearily. “I don't know why I started it.” He remembered the way Aeris had looked asleep under the harsh lighting of the laboratory and the almost instantaneous desire that had brought him to his knees. “She just…smelled so good.”

 

Mother muttered something about him chasing after a bitch in heat. Sephiroth chose to ignore it. He adjusted the heavy book on his lap and hunched over it. He began idly leafing through the pages, not reading a thing. What he really wanted to do was stretch out somewhere cozy and sleep for a while. With Aeris next to him, of course.

 

He caught himself after a few minutes and reigned his jumbled thoughts in. He had to make sure of a few things before the puppet came calling. There were locations to verify, plans of action to consider and clones to direct. The last one irked him.

 

The clones were so bloody dependent on him. He had not even asked for them, but they were there nonetheless, products of mad science. He considered the possible advantages if they had been more like Strife, tied to the central power but capable of functioning without it in a pinch. A little independence was not a bad thing. Then Sephiroth recalled just how slow the blond boy was. “I'm just damned either way,” he murmured.

 

“What was that, Sephiroth?”

 

“Nothing, Mother. You said you would give me more details about your plan. I am ready now.”

 

Sephiroth had to squint against the light that was suddenly too bright when Mother began to flit around, shifting light pressure against his mind. “How much time do we have before the blond puppet arrives?” She asked, finally settling down in one place.

 

The swordsman turned his gaze away from the physical reality, sinking deeper till he was looking out of a pair of blue eyes. There was a mirror before him and a young man glaring back in annoyance. A comb was firmly stuck in the shock of spiky yellow hair. Sephiroth retreated from the sight and returned to the awareness of his own body. “He's trying to comb his hair flat. That should give us a few hours.”

 

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Yuffie tiptoed over the bed where Aeris lay facedown. The flower girl was fully dressed and stretched out full length on the bed with her booted feet hanging slightly off the side. Yuffie gave the girl a light poke on the shoulder.

 

“Aeris? You okay?”

 

Tifa tied off her long hair and approached the bed from the other side. “Is she asleep?”

 

“Mmhmm.” Yuffie nodded. “Got all dressed and fell asleep again.” Tifa grew concerned. She leaned over her prostrate friend and nudged the girl lightly.

 

“Aeris, wake up.”

 

The flower girl twitched awake. She rolled over and sat up in surprise, blinking owlishly until her vision cleared. “Was I asleep?” she asked hoarsely.

 

“Yep.” Yuffie plopped down on the bed. “What's the matter with you this morning? Your buttons are all messed up.”

 

Aeris looked down the front of her dress and found it severely misaligned. “Oh no,” she said with a tired expression on her face. “I don't know what happened this morning. I was up and then…” she sighed. “I was just so tired.”

 

Tifa sat down on the other side of the bed. “Are you feeling all right?” She put a hand to Aeris' forehead. “You're a little bit warm, Aeris. Are you coming down with something? Maybe you're getting a cold.”

 

“Or the flu,” Yuffie put in.

 

Aeris shook her head wearily and hoped that she could keep her secrets to herself. “I don't think so.”

 

“Any headaches?” Tifa continued. Aeris shook her head again, distinctly uncomfortable under the scrutiny. “Sore throat? Fatigue? Muscle aches?”

 

Aeris blinked. She was tired. There was no denying that. Her throat was a bit sore from all the shrieking and she did ache in certain places. Perhaps this was a way out. She nodded to Tifa. “I am a little achy.”

 

Tifa nodded to herself. “I thought you looked a little flushed.” She went around to get her pack to see if there was anything in there that could help. “Oh, what to do, what to do when the healer gets sick.”

 

Aeris smiled weakly and stifled the tightness inside. Last night had been one thing, but keeping up this pretense, this utter, outright lie to her friends was another. She sat up and began to single-mindedly fix her dress.

 

It should have been wonderful. She had someone she shared something special with. Keeping that secret weighed heavily on her. She should have been shouting it from the mountain tops or at the very least giggling about it with Tifa. Yuffie was too young for some of the details.

 

Aeris shook her head. Instead she was tangled up with the alleged stark raving lunatic. It was easy to forget that part when he was with her, talking with her, laughing with her, touching her all over. Today, though, Cloud was going to confront the monster who had destroyed his life. Aeris had no idea what would happen. An image of Sephiroth bleeding under Cloud's sword rushed through her and she shivered. She did not want to lose Sephiroth, not even if he was murderous and supposedly insane.

 

Tifa came over and handed her a small bottle of an herbal pain reliever, the only thing the woman had been able to find at the moment. Aeris took it with a grateful smile. She caught Tifa's honest eyes for a moment. The urge to reveal everything bubbled up in the face of that open trust. Aeris' tongue froze, uncertain of its next move. There was no devil-may-care recklessness this morning. The rage that had fueled it had fortunately burned out. It had no place here.

 

The moment stretched overlong and discomfort touched Tifa's eyes. Aeris looked away quickly and maintained her silence. She leaned against the headboard in relief and her concerns were soon muted by the Planet's oddly joyful song.

 

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It was midmorning by the time Avalanche made its way out of the inn, but the sun lacked its normal strength. The entire town was oddly quiet. There was no real life here. This cardboard Nibelheim was a gloomy place. Cloud led the group through the town as quickly as possible. The Shinra mansion was the only thing that had survived the fire, but there had never been any warmth to it.

 

Aeris noticed that the door did not give as much trouble as it had the night before. She rolled her eyes at the melodramatic, manly grunt Cloud made. Lucky for him she had loosened it up.

 

The great hall seemed gloomier in the day, now that she took the time to look around. She had to check herself to keep from walking ahead of Cloud. Sooner or later, quite likely sooner, she would have to tell her friends something, but for now, she did not want to let anything slip. They could not guess she had been here before.

 

Cloud stopped in the middle and cocked his head as if listening to a distant call. “He's in here,” he muttered. “Somewhere.” He looked around thoughtfully and then waved the group to the left. Systematic searches were best.

 

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“I'm right down hear, puppet,” Sephiroth growled half-heartedly at the ceiling.

 

“He still can't hear you as well as the others, I see.” Mother's presence expanded and seemed to fill the room. “Such a waste of time, that one.”

 

“At least he doesn't need me to tell him how to walk around a rock.” Sephiroth settled back into the chair. “I still hope to actually get some use out of him.”

 

“And what are your plans for him afterward, Sephiroth?”

 

The swordsman stretched a bit and locked his arms behind his head. “Something with no further use is garbage and should be disposed of accordingly.”

 

Mother seemed pleased and slithered comfortably into place to watch.

 

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Aeris let her hand trail on the banister as she followed her friends up the stairs. The mansion was much larger than she had realized, with so many rooms and hallways. It would have been a beautiful place if it had maintained, if it did not have the shadowed past hinted at in the worn note Cloud held, or the strange numbers carved in hidden places. Something dark and heavy haunted this place. She could feel it now, something terrible. There were secrets here beyond what little Cloud had been able to tell them. The worst part was that some of those secrets were hers.

 

She stopped two steps short of the landing, unable to move her eyes from the wall. Sephiroth had held her there last night. She could almost feel his hands roaming over her skin again. Aeris reached out to the wall. She needed to feel how solid it was and know that it was real, that her body had the power to drive a man to that kind of madness. It was hard to believe that she'd had her back pressed against that particular spot just a few hours ago. She swore she could see the faint outline of herself there. She glanced ahead. The others had walked right by it and had seen nothing amiss.

 

Cloud was leading the way up the stairs. Cold light fanned out around the dark shadow of his retreating form. Aeris watched the way his feet moved as he stepped where she had fallen. The points on her back flared up again. She took a step forward and tripped on the stair, stumbling into the wall. She put her hands up to brace herself and only barely managed to keep from falling.

 

Everyone turned and Tifa rushed over. “Aeris, are you okay?”

 

“Something wrong?” Cloud asked, poised at the top of the stairs. Aeris shook her head.

 

“It's nothing. I tripped.”

 

Tifa pressed her hand to the flower girl's forehead. “You don't feel so warm but you might still be down with something.” Aeris straightened up quickly. She did not have the nerve to voice the truth but she refused to hide behind feigned illness anymore.

 

“I'm okay,” she insisted more sharply than she intended. “It's nothing.” Cloud nodded and looked ahead, contemplating his direction.

 

“Girl, if it's just nerves about meeting Sephiroth face to face, don't you worry about a thing. We'll take care of ya!” Yuffie bounced up and down. “If he tries anything funny, I'll just grab me a big kitchen knife and HIYA!” She lunged out and murdered the empty space in front of her. Aeris had to smile at the girl's enthusiasm.

 

“What the hell you talking `bout, child?” Barret scolded from up the stairs. “Going after a psychopath with a kitchen knife.”

 

“Hey, it could work!” Yuffie spun around with her hands on her hips.

 

“Yeah and I'll be pissing blue tomorrow,” Barret turned away and went after Cloud.

 

Yuffie scuffed her shoes against the ground and followed, grumbling quietly. “Gawd, it's not that ridiculous. It could work.” She glanced back down the stairs. “Should have grabbed a kitchen knife while I was down there.” She hesitated, as if considering running back for one, but decided otherwise. She hefted her shuriken higher on her back and kept walking with the others.

 

Tifa looked at Aeris again as if to reassure herself that her friend truly was all right. There was a strange determination on her face.

 

“Hey!” Cloud called out from around the corner. “Hurry up! I found another one of those number thingies!”

 

“I'm okay, Tifa,” Aeris said firmly and began walking. Tifa nodded and followed. Aeris certainly sounded fine, but it was strange how she would not look anyone in the eye today.

 

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“What in the world is that boy doing?” Sephiroth slammed his book shut.

 

“He seems to be on some kind of treasure hunt. Nosy, isn't he?”

 

Sephiroth sighed wearily. “Leave it to him to find someway to make something take forever. `Come down to the basement to get your instructions.' It's that simple.” He eavesdropped on his puppet's inane conversation for a moment. “Do you think it's possible he forgot where the basement is?”

 

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Cloud entered the large bedroom and looked around. The others filed in quietly behind him. The place was spotless and tidy. Cloud let out a deep breath. He really had thought Sephiroth would be here. The dark pull he associated with his former general was strong in this place. Cloud scratched his head and looked at the neatly made bed. The corners were perfect and the sheets were so tight Cloud suspected that a one-gil coin would bounce at least three feet in the air. Sephiroth was not here now, but it seemed he must have spent the night.

 

Red XIII sneezed loudly, breaking Cloud's train of thought. “Bless you,” he mumbled automatically.

 

“Shank you,” Red mumbled and sneezed again. Cait Sith poked the big cat gently with his megaphone.

 

“What's the matter with you? Allergic to dust or something?”

 

Red sniffled. “It smells funny in here. Kind of like human but not really.” He sneezed loudly again.

 

“Damn it, cat! You're spraying!” Barret howled and hopped out of the way.

 

“Shorry,” Red pawed at his sensitive nose as best he could. “I can't really cover my nose. I'll just wait outside.” He padded outside, sniffling all the while.

 

He found Aeris leaning against the wall just outside the door. “Didn't you go in?” he asked. Aeris shook her head. She seemed far away. Red rubbed his head against her leg and managed to get a smile out of her.

 

“Why did you come out?” She patted him lightly on the head.

 

“There's a strange smell in there and it's making me sneeze.” Aeris' eyes grew wide. She remembered how she had left that room, with a rumpled bed that was not quite lined up with the wall anymore, sheets half on the floor and the musk of two writhing bodies filling the air. She still was not used to it herself. She swallowed nervously as Red nuzzled her leg again. “It's not so bad out here. You smell better. Like lots of good, clean soap.”

 

Aeris rubbed his fur and silently thanked the Planet for small mercies.

 

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“It's a good thing you made the bed. Maybe you should have aired the room out a bit more though.”

 

“Oh, come off it, Mother!”

 

--------------------------

 

“There's more stuff in this house than I remember.” Cloud fiddled with the large safe. Tifa put one hand on his shoulder.

 

“Maybe you shouldn't interfere too much, Cloud. Shinra kept some strange things in here.”

 

Cloud looked at the note again and weighed his options. “Shinra leaves strange things everywhere. Maybe there's something in here that can help us.” He glanced at the note on the floor beside him and grinned. “It's probably nothing anyway but it can't hurt to look.”

 

He set the dial at the last hidden number on the note and the door exploded outward.

 

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“What in the nine hells is he doing?” Sephiroth shrieked. “He's going to get her killed.”

 

“Her?” Mother asked coldly. Sephiroth was too distressed to pay any mind. He reached for the sword at his side and prepared to run. “Sephiroth, STOP!”

 

“I have to go! She's up there! She can't fight well! I have t-.”

 

“You have to do nothing! The puppet keeps her at the back, doesn't he? That thing they are fighting will have to go through quite a few of them to get to her. Wait here for now.”

 

Sephiroth's grip tightened on his sword. He paced blindly back and forth in the corridor, keeping his sight on the beast that raged before his puppet. Fire raced through him as he pushed the boy's body to perform, maneuver and destroy.

 

He saw hands swing out before `his' eyes. A broad sword glinted above a great, bulbous head. The sharp point sank in and dragged through the sickly-colored flesh, releasing vile fluid along the way. Sephiroth's arms twitched in response. The sword he controlled was more awkward than the one he held but he did not let that stop him. He growled and floors above him, Strife echoed the sound, lunging out to evade a tentacle and sink bloodied metal into the creature's third heart. The thing roared and twitched and was still.

 

Sephiroth returned to his body shivering and breathless, but relieved. “It is finished. The elements of the plan remain secure.”

 

“Plan?” Mother snapped. “Don't even pretend that this was about the plan. It was about HER!” Sephiroth said nothing. Mother calmed in his mind at his guilty silence. “You're a bit old to be thinking with your pants so often, son.”

 

“I know.” Sephiroth nodded and slunk back to his seat.

 

--------------------------

 

“A key?” Barret waved his arms furiously. “We went through all that for a goddamned key? Shoulda at least been some fancy ray gun that we could actually use!”

 

“I can still go get that kitchen knife,” Yuffie offered.

 

“Girl, don't start that nonsense again.”

 

Red sneezed. “Hmph. Monster blood.” He picked his way past the monster's charred and steaming remains to the hallway outside. Aeris looked up from healing a cut on Tifa's arm.

 

“What now, Cloud?”

 

The blond blinked as if waking from a dream. He swung his sword out quickly to flick off the worst of the gore, then straightened himself. “We find Sephiroth. No more games.” He barely gave the group a minute to get themselves together before he marched out the door. The others scrambled after him.

 

Nothing had changed in the small room that held the hidden door to the basement. Cloud only took a moment to activate the mechanism. The wall slid away to reveal the shaky wooden spiral of steps. Cloud went down without a moment's hesitation. The others hung back a bit.

 

Barret looked down the well, maintaining a death grip on the edge of the wall. “He never said the stairs were that rickety.” Tifa nodded but took a step anyway. She leaned heavily against the wall as she worked her way down. The others followed her example. Cloud was not waiting for any of them.

 

They caught up with him at the foot of the stairs. He was peering down the dark tunnel. Aeris assumed that with the mako in his system he had no trouble seeing in the dark. She knew there was supposed to be a door at the end of the rough passageway but she could not see it.

 

“He's down here,” Cloud said quietly.

 

Red edged forward, staying close to the wall. “In there?” He pointed with a toss of his head. Cloud's eyes narrowed in the darkness. Aeris leaned forward and looked hard but she could not see anything.

 

“What is it?”

 

Cloud turned back to the group. “Who's got that key? I think we may have found our lock.”

 

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“Oh, for the love of corn, what's he doing now?” Sephiroth thumped his head against the nearest shelf.

 

“It is a bit much, isn't it?” For once, Sephiroth did not mind Mother's impatience. The frustration of waiting was getting to him. “I think it's time to consider just killing him.”

 

Sephiroth frowned. “That might make some things more difficult. Although…” He brightened. “If I got him out of the way, Aeris would have to come with me.”

 

“Sephiroth,” Mother warned. “Don't do anything rash.”

 

“You're the one who brought it up, Mother. I'm only considering the possible outcome.” The man smirked a little at his Mother's rare flustered moment.

 

“If you took her with you now, chances are you would be too busy to get anything more done,” Mother remarked snidely. Sephiroth had to admit that she was right but truthfully the prospect did not seem bad at all. From the way things were going, he actually might be safer with Aeris right beside him where he could keep an eye on her. For now though, there were a few more things that needed to be done.

 

“There's no sense wasting more time. I will order the followers to the next Planetary node while Strife gets his act together.” Sephiroth reached out and sank himself fully into pulling all the necessary strings.

 

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Of all the things Aeris had seen since joining Avalanche, the young man perched on the edge of the coffin in front of her had to be the strangest. The whole group had nearly died of fright when he first flipped out of the casket. Aeris' heart still could not slow down. She could barely even hear what the man was saying. The only thing that stayed with her was that he seemed familiar with Sephiroth.

 

She had been tempted at first to think that the man in red was not human. No human could almost fly like that. She checked that thought quickly enough. Sephiroth could do that and more and he was human looking enough for her. That realization brought a flood of other things she had not even bothered to consider before. She stood very still in the middle of the group, careful to keep her expression neutral as she tried to sort out her thoughts above Cloud's attempt to keep the strange man talking. She had heard this story before, in Kalm. It made less sense to her now than it had before.

 

Cloud had said that Sephiroth claimed to be a Cetra. Sephiroth himself had never said such a thing to her and she had never bothered to ask him. He did not feel like a Cetra would, or at least he did not resonate in the Planet's consciousness the way Aeris did herself. He had never spoken to her of his mother, Jenova. Aeris bit the inside of her cheek to restrain herself. She could feel something strange building in her gut and feared an outburst.

 

That thing, Jenova, she remembered it from the ship and from dark, gaping voids in the Planet's sense when she had been in the Shinra lab. It was nothing like her. Jenova was only fragments of something that resembled no other living being. It certainly did not seem Cetran. And Sephiroth was that thing's son?

 

“So Sephiroth knows he was created…,” the strange man was saying.

 

That was it. Created. Sephiroth was some kind of tube child, a tank baby. Maybe that was why the Planet could not reach him. Aeris swallowed. She knew so little about her lover and yet she was sure she knew much more about him than anyone else.

 

“Hearing your stories has added upon me yet another sin.” The man's blood red eyes grew haunted and Aeris sensed something dark and unspeakably sad. “More nightmares will come to me now.” He shot sharply upwards again. Aeris' stomach lurched just looking at him. He settled back into his coffin and shut it sharply with a curt order for them to leave.

 

Cloud was not having any of that. The man had information. Cloud rapped the coffin lid until it creaked open again. Crimson eyes peered out in heavily evident annoyance.

 

“You're still here.” The man sounded so disappointed.

 

Cloud brushed the man's curt demeanor off. “At least give us a name.”

 

The man emerged again with a sigh. “I was with…the Turks. Vincent. I am Vincent.” Cloud blinked.

 

“You're with the Turks?”

 

The man looked aside for a moment. “I have no affiliation with Shinra now. Do you?” Aeris saw something like hope enter the burning red eyes upon hearing that Cloud was from SOLDIER. “Do you know Lucrecia?” Something in his tone touched Aeris' heart.

 

“Who?” Cloud asked gruffly. Aeris winced inside.

 

“Lucrecia,” the man, Vincent, repeated. “The woman who gave birth to Sephiroth.”

 

Aeris listened in earnest at what came next. Sephiroth was not Jenova's son? She listened, awestruck at Vincent's dark tale. It was no wonder he wore such a cloud of guilt and gloom around him. He spoke very little of his feelings on the matter, but it was clear enough. To lose his love like that…

 

“And that's why you started sleeping in a box?” Barret yelled. “Gimme a break!” Vincent threw the large man a sour look and settled into his casket again.

 

“Let me sleep.” The lid snapped shut and no amount of knocking could get the man to reopen it.

 

“Gawd, let's give it up!” Yuffie hollered. “If he wants to stay in a box who are we to yank him out of it.”

 

Aeris nodded but she could not speak. Jenova was not Sephiroth's mother. If Vincent had spoken the truth, everything Sephiroth thought he knew was a lie, still a lie. There was no need for him to do Jenova's bidding. She was not his mother.

 

That one important bit of information kept rolling through her. If only he knew, then this whole mess would be over. It would not bring Nibelheim back. The lost souls could not return. But still, whatever he was doing, it would stop. Sephiroth was human, no matter what had been done to him. He was human and he needed to know that. He could stop running. Avalanche could stop chasing him. And then they could be together.

 

It sounded like the perfect dream. Aeris wrapped her arms around herself. She knew better than to trust in dreams by now. She followed closely behind the others as they filed out of the crypt. Nobody wanted to be left behind in Shinra's dark basement. Aeris gave Vincent's coffin one brief backward glance but did not stop to wonder long. He had made his decision. She had some of her own to make now.

 

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Cloud's fingers twitched for his sword when he entered the library. His friends pressed in close behind him but he waved them back. “Don't get too close. This is between Sephiroth and me.” Tifa looked as if she might say something, but she held her tongue and let Cloud walk forward alone.

 

She backed up, afraid to see what would happen. She jumped when she bumped into the strange table. The entire room was full of strange, frightening equipment. She tried not to get too close to anything.

 

“Creepy, huh?” Yuffie met her eyes. “I could so see somebody going nuts down here.”

 

Tifa agreed with the girl but she was wound too tight to appreciate the attempt to lighten the situation. She only barely managed to keep from snapping at the girl to shut up. Instead, she turned around to face the corridor. She could see Cloud's blue-clad back and hear his voice. He was right there, just a few feet away, conversing with a madman.

 

She glanced around the room again. The others were poised, on edge, just like her, waiting for the first sign that something had gone wrong. Aeris was the only one who did not have a hint of defensive posture, though she still looked nervous. As if sensing the eyes on her, Aeris glanced straight at Tifa, expressionless, and looked away again.

 

The flowergirl stayed close to the door and weighed her options. Sephiroth was just a short walk away. He had to know she was there. She could walk in right now and put a stop to anything before it escalated. From the sound of things, Sephiroth did not seem to be giving Cloud much of a chance to say anything. Or Cloud was being rather inept about the whole thing. The whole situation could easily dissolve into a terrible fight. She considered just walking up to the two men in question and blurting out the truth, telling Cloud she had a lover, telling Sephiroth that he did not have to do whatever he was doing anymore.

 

It took more nerve than she possessed. Her secrets were still too new and fresh for her to tell the world. She did not know all she needed to know of Sephiroth's story yet. She had half an urge to run back down the hallway and interrogate Vincent, to hell with his selfish wallowing. She was sure she could come up with some way to wring more information out of him.

 

A loud cry of pain got her attention. Cloud came flying backwards into the laboratory, clutching his midsection. Everyone tensed noticeably as Sephiroth flew out the hallway and headed for the door. He was too fast for anyone to stop him.

 

Aeris took a breath to call out to him. He seemed to slow down a little as he passed the door. Aeris tried to remember what she had wanted to say. Sephiroth's head turned as he flew and their eyes met. There was something like pain there, from a longing so intense, so close to fulfillment and denied.

 

He was through the door in a blur of black and Aeris was left to catch her breath like all the rest.

 

 

A.N: Here it is, finally. I did not mean to take this long, but I had a lot of work to do and deadlines to deal with. I could not give the story the kind of attention I like to. I tried to get it done during the holidays but I got drafted into kitchen duty instead. Fortunately there were no casualties.