Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Path of Seduction ❯ Chapter Twenty Two ( Chapter 22 )

Path of Seduction

Chapter Twenty Two

 

Hiking through Wutai was dangerous business. At times the entire narrow strip of the country seemed to be nothing but mountains and steep cliffs that dropped off into the sea. Narrow bridges, their wood half-rotted from frequent damp, spanned dizzying gorges with water churning far below. The way those bridges swayed while travelers crossed did not help matters. Footing was precarious and the wildlife was decidedly hostile.

 

The days dragged on and progress was slow. Without materia, the group could no longer run headlong into confrontation with anything that crossed its path. There was no defense other than what they could maintain with their own weapons, no way to heal beyond Aeris' small herb collection and her own focused efforts. Cloud insisted that they tread more cautiously than ever, observing the tracks in the dirt and the sounds on the wind with an intensity he had not bothered much with before. Their nightly camps were hushed and tightly drawn, always guarded.

 

They passed small towns and simple villages as they went but there was no sign of Yuffie. Each stop was a further disappointment. Either Yuffie really had run straight on to her final destination or the villagers' inborn wariness of foreigners made them keep their silence.

 

Aeris found it thoroughly frustrating. Questions were met with silence everywhere but their money was still good. They could get basic supplies and simple foodstuffs. There was not a materia to be had anywhere though. Taking care of every nick and cut and potential infection for days on end was wearing the Cetra to the bone. The Planet was more than willing to help, but Aeris had never had to channel so much of its energy with such frequency before. She missed her materia.

 

It took no effort to focus the right kind of power once one had the right materia. Even a human could do it. Having to sift through the streams and order the energy herself, then bear the brunt of the force through her own body was a rare necessity. It was exhilarating at times, but this near-constant submersion and openness to the Planet's consciousness was dangerous and exhausting. Sometimes, after the evening's group healing session, she almost swore she could feel herself being flayed away.

 

She curled up in her sleeping bag and tried to gather herself. She had to shut everything outside out and find the quiet of her own mind again. She took a slow breath in, then forced herself to go over the scattered memories of the day and ground herself in reality. The fragments swirled around, disconnected, subsumed by a consciousness larger than her own. She pressed on anyway and the pieces gathered slowly, calling to the missing slivers to make the picture whole.

 

She really had to learn to tell her friends `no' once in a while. The horrible swelling Tifa had experienced from some insect bite had definitely needed attention. Highwind's encounter with some toxic weed did not. He could very well put up with a mild rash for a day or two even if, as he insisted, the grass had attacked him first. She would not have minded helping him if he had bothered to thank her afterwards. Aeris was certain he was just a bit too used to having a woman tend to his every need without question or complaint. The males were not all hopeless, though. When she had treated a gash on Vincent, he had thanked her with a quiet, elegant reserve that once might have made her blush.

 

She was beyond blushing for just any little thing now, she noticed. She quickly grasped meanings that she had not previously caught behind the men's sly remarks to one another. When she turned away from something that had not been meant for her ears now, it was not to hide reddening cheeks. Today, when they had stopped for a brief water break, she had caught Barret's question to Vincent, complete with crude gesture, on the workings of the pale man's metal arm. She had almost choked on her water. Even now, as she rolled onto her back, she had to fight a scandalized giggle. Her mind turned more often now, to naughty, forbidden things and that in itself was funny. Now that she was no longer `innocent', everything was a big, dirty joke.

 

Aeris stretched herself out, pulled the thin cover of her sleeping bag tightly around her and settled in to try to sleep. She wondered what Sephiroth would think of her newfound appreciation for the indecent. She hoped it would not disturb him too much. It probably would not, she reasoned. It was his fault anyway and maybe he would like not having to walk on eggshells around her delicate sensibilities anymore.

 

She missed him. She had not spoken to him since the night by the brook. There had been no chance to get away lately, not with the men keeping watch over the tight circle of tents all night long. Red XIII had even taken to lying across the entrance to her tent during his shift, a fact she learned when she had tripped over him a few nights earlier on her way to genuinely take care of a personal matter. There was no way for her to sneak out. There was no way for Sephiroth to sneak in, as great a soldier as he was.

 

She murmured his name softly. Sometimes, while they walked, she thought she saw some sign of him, a blur moving quickly out of sight in the distance, or grass bent and broken into the shape of a boot print. She smirked in the darkness. It was a very large boot. If only there were some way to escape the camp, just for a little while.

 

Aeris drifted into half-sleep thinking about it. She did not hear the soft clicks of the zipper to her tent but she did feel the cold blast of air when the covers were ripped from her. She flinched and tried to cry out but a heavy weight settled on her and a gloved hand stopped her scream. Lifestream-colored eyes burned down at her within a curtain of silver hair.

 

She glared up at the man even as she relaxed beneath him. He leered smugly at her as he removed his hand. Aeris tried to sit up but he pressed her back down. “Sephiroth, what are you doing in here?” She remembered to whisper only at the last moment, but it was still harsh and far too loud for comfort.

 

“Shh, hush, dear.” He began pulling his gloves off with his teeth. “We'll have to be quiet.”

 

Aeris watched, spellbound, as he began to work the clasps of his coat. She found her tongue while he was working on his belt buckle. “Seriously, Seph, how did you get in here?”

 

He ran one greedy hand down her body as he answered. “Simple infiltration. Nothing beyond a great SOLDIER.” He gazed down at her form with pure, unadulterated lust in his eyes. “Gods, I need you!”

 

Aeris felt a deep thrill shake her and she met his hungry lips eagerly. He was not the only one with needs. She struggled to get her arms up under his weight. He had not bothered to fully undress and the buckles and straps dug painfully into her skin. It matched the work he was doing with his teeth along the side of her neck. The tent shook a bit as he tried to kick the folds of his coat out of the way and hit the support poles instead.

 

“Careful!” Aeris hissed. “You'll wake everyone up!” She tried to free her hair from under her and only succeeded in jostling the side of the tent some more. There was just not enough space.

 

“No I won't.” Sephiroth moaned and pressed his entire weight along the length of her body. “We just have to be really…” he stopped to settle himself between her legs. “Really…” He gasped and wriggled his pants down just enough. “Quiet.”

 

Aeris felt the heat of him slapping against her inner thigh and shivered. “I can be quiet.” She rolled her hips upward to meet him. He leaned in and attacked her shoulders, clawing at her body and burying his growls in her flesh. Aeris fought to get her legs up. The leather and metal of his coat kept getting in the way.

 

He pressed in closer and his breath was hot in her ear. The things he whispered to her were neither sweet nor soothing. He may have been genteel while winning her, but he was a soldier, accustomed to the ribaldry of a war camp. He told her now exactly what he planned to do to her, and how, in the crudest terms imaginable. Aeris moaned and reached up to lock her limbs around him as he bore down.

 

Her grasp closed on empty air. She sat up, unimpeded and looked around, gasping wildly. There was no one there. The remnants of a restless dream flittered away, leaving her with her body's breathless, aching response to a lover who had not been there. Her hands fisted in the thin sleeping bag and she cried out in frustration.

 

“Aeris! Are you okay?” Cloud's worried voice came from outside her tent. “What's wrong? Did something get in?”

 

Aeris frowned at the zippered flap of her tent. “No,” she grated out and hoped she had not sounded too sullen.

 

There was a rustling all around the camp. Her cry had woken the others. Questions started coming from all sides.

 

“What's the matter?”

 

“Is the girl all right?”

 

“Aeris? Something wrong?”

 

Aeris let go off the sleeping bag and pushed her hair back. “No, nothing's wrong. I just…had an unusual dream.”

 

“Are you scared? Do you need company?” Tifa asked. “Hang on a moment. I'll come in and stay with you.”

 

Aeris scrambled for the covers in alarm. “Wait! I'm naked!”

 

A slow hush descended on the camp. “Uh,” Cloud sounded uncertain and abashed. “You sleep naked?” Aeris rolled her eyes.

 

“When I'm alone, yes.” She did now, at any rate.

 

The silence grew thicker outside. Vincent spoke first, his voice a calm murmur. “If there is no real emergency, I will be returning to rest.” There were general mumbles of agreement and the camp settled down in a flurry of whispers and flapping canvas.

 

Aeris settled back down herself but she was too restless to sleep. The others were probably reeling at her little admission, but it wasn't anything they had a right to comment on. She pulled the covers up to her chest and tried to rest. It was not easy with her body still pulsating with need.

 

The light silvery melody ringing rushing through the back of her mind did not help. The Planet was happy, even mirthful. “Oh, what's your problem?” Aeris growled and pounded the stuffing of her sleeping bag flat. The song grew a bit louder and wilder. Aeris shook her head. The Planet was laughing. “Fine. Make fun of my misery, will you?”

 

The Planet's consciousness brushed against her own and directed her attention to the swirl of life immediately around her. One coil in particular shifted as its owner paced back and forth. The tint of it spoke of a certain degree of embarrassment. A soft, shocked whisper reached Aeris from beyond her tent.

 

“I can't believe she sleeps naked!”

 

Aeris pressed her hand to her mouth to hold the laughter in. Poor, long-suffering Cloud. He would probably never look at her the same way again. Aeris closed her eyes. “I don't suppose you could tell me where he is, could you?”

 

A soft swell of regret touched her mind and faded away. Sephiroth was somewhat cut off from the Planet stream, at the door, but forever outside it. “It's okay,” Aeris murmured soothingly. “I'll catch up to him sooner or later.”

 

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

 

Sephiroth found his way north easily. The terrain was familiar. He had no men to watch out for or direct and there were no spies out to watch his movement. He would have spotted them if there were any, but given the terms of Wutai's surrender it was highly unlikely. The imperial army had been almost annihilated and what was left had been disbanded. Beyond the ceremonial guard in the capital and the proud martial tradition upheld by a significant portion of the population, Wutai had little in the way of force to offer opposition.

 

He took a deep lungful of the morning air as he skirted the edge of a steep cliff. The air was fresh and clean and now free of the stench of gore that tainted many of Sephiroth's memories. Even though the nation had been forced to recognize Shinra sovereignty, there were no mako reactors here. Wutai's mako lay so far beneath the surface that accessing it would not have been profitable enough for Shinra.

 

He paused on a narrow ledge, his back pressed against the bedrock, to get his bearings. A narrow strip of green spread out beyond the mountain. White surf silently washed each shore. The carved face of Mt. DaChao rose up in the distance. Beneath it spread the pagodas and water gardens of the Wutai capital. Sephiroth squinted. The colors really did seem a bit more garish than he remembered.

 

This city had been the crowning jewel of the Lotus Kingdom, the seat of the Great Lord. Stripped of its resources after its defeat, the country had been forced to turn to tourism. Sephiroth had only witnessed the start of the decline of Wutai's understated elegance, when the heritage of refined entertainment began to give way to showboating performance. He really hoped things had not gone too far in the years he had been gone. The Kisaragi girl would be headed here and he had resolved to follow her, if just to make sure that the puppet would not lose track of her. But if following Lord Godo's brat meant being surrounded by tacky two-gil souvenirs, Sephiroth was going to hike away and let the blond deal with his problems alone.

 

“Enjoying the view?” Mother asked.

 

“Of course.” Sephiroth put his attention back to his task, skirting his way across the narrow ledge. “Aren't you?”

 

“It's good enough, I suppose.” She was silent as Sephiroth concentrated on handholds and avoiding rubble. “Oh, why don't you just float down and save yourself all this grief?”

 

Sephiroth hung tightly to the cliff face. “A challenge is good, sometimes.” The end of the ledge was near and there was level ground ahead, if he could just turn the corner. He reached out for another handhold, inching along. There were just a few more feet. “An exercise like this develops concentration. It keeps the mind sharp and focused on what's important.”

 

“Is that so?” Mother went cold. “What's that term these humans use nowadays…ah, yes. You're full of it.”

 

“What?” Sephiroth's hand slipped and he dangled dangerously over the side, clinging with one hand and watching pebbles disappear beneath him. He clawed his already-cramped fingers into the rock and swung a long leg out to reach a foothold. He grunted and pulled himself in.

 

“I said you're full of it, Sephiroth. You could stand to be a bit more focused nowadays but there's no need for you to do it by risking your neck.”

 

Sephiroth concentrated on catching his breath. “No need, maybe, but I felt like it.”

 

Mother seemed interested. “Care to tell me why?”

 

Sephiroth moved another few inches along. “Why what?”

 

“Superior focus indeed” Mother sighed. “Why exactly do you feel that you need to focus on climbing a rock?”

 

Sephiroth pressed closer to the rock and rested with his cheek against the cliff face. “You've been telling me for a long time that I spend too much time thinking about things other than the main objective. I thought this would be a good way to clear my head.”

 

“Well, it's worked, as far as I can tell.” Mother rolled in his head. “You haven't thought of her all morning.”

 

All of Sephiroth's reserve went through the window. “Why did you have to bring that up?”

 

“The same reason I bring anything up. I'm curious.”

 

Sephiroth shook his head and resumed edging towards the plateau. As usual, Mother refused to let the matter lie. “Has something gone wrong? Is the fascination just not what it used to be? Why are you avoiding thinking about her?”

 

“Trust me, Mother, you really don't want to know.” He was grateful for the submersion in an intense physical activity. It kept his blood flowing right.

 

“I want to know, Sephiroth,” Mother pried and put the slightest pressure on his mind. “Why don't you want to think about her?”

 

Sephiroth stopped a foot away from the plateau. He really could not afford a headache in this position. “Thinking about her these days keeps…giving me hand cramps. I can't take much more.”

 

There was a brief period of silence. He felt the foreign resignation rolling around his head. “Young men.”

 

Sephiroth reached around the corner of the rock and swung himself onto the plateau. He was not winded, but he appreciated a less precarious place to sit and enjoy the view. If he looked hard enough, he could almost make out the people scurrying through the streets of the city below.

 

There were miniscule spots of red and purple and green in the streets, common Wutai colors. There even seemed to be a few in a shade reminiscent of Turks' blue. Sephiroth kept staring hard down the mountain for a while, but there was no hint of pink and his eyes were beginning to burn.

 

He leaned back, closing his eyes. Now that Mother had brought it up, he could not help thinking of Aeris. It really had been too long since he had seen her.

 

“Too bad you didn't get to scratch the itch that last time. If you'd had your fill you probably wouldn't be feeling the need to hang off a rock now.”

 

“It wasn't a good time or place, Mother.” Sephiroth squirmed inside. “And do we really have to talk about this? There are some things a man is meant to keep to himself!”

 

“I am concerned for the well-being of my spawn,” Mother intoned with a grandiosity intended to feign sincerity. “And if problems with his…relationship…are affecting the rest of his life, I will do my best to help him, no matter what my own feelings on the situation may be.”

 

“That's nice, Mother, but I'm a big boy.” The swordsman laid back and stretched out on the stone with his hands under his head. The sky was a perfect blue overhead. “I can handle my relationship alone.”

 

“Yes, well, you certainly have been doing that.” Mother flitted around, seeming somewhat discomfited.

 

Sephiroth wrinkled his face in distaste. There really was no need for her to bring that up. Just the thought that Mother might be paying attention when she wasn't supposed to would be enough to put a damper on his solitary nighttime activities. At least she still seemed to find it too uncomfortable to stick around much as long as Aeris was present.

 

The man sighed and wondered what his little lover was doing at that very moment. The group had to be getting close to Wutai by now. They should not have had too rough a time of the journey. He had cleared most of the larger beasts as he made his way, though he did not wipe them all out. Their absence would make somebody, if not Strife, suspicious and it would not do to make the puppet even more complacent about matters of security just when he was showing some promise. Aeris had to come to Wutai proper safely so Sephiroth could be with her again.

 

“Barely five minutes without hanging off a cliff and you're already thinking about her again,” Mother put in. “So much for developing focus.”

 

“I developed it,” Sephiroth protested with what he was sure could not be a pout. “I just didn't bother to maintain it.”

 

“You're just looking for any excuse to moon over the girl.”

 

Sephiroth could not deny it. Thinking of Aeris filled him with a lightness he had experienced too rarely in his life. The memory of her face made him calm and relaxed. The breeze was cool. The sun was warm. The sky was bright blue and the clouds were so fluffy. Funny how he had never really noticed that before.

 

“You should have spirited her off when you had the chance,” Mother spat out. “Then you could have had your way with her and worked it out of your system so you wouldn't be throwing those calf-eyed gazes up into the sunshine anymore. Honestly, boy, you're positively sickening!”

 

“I am, aren't I?” Sephiroth's voice was dreamy. “It wasn't a good time to make off with her, Mother,” he said slowly, soaking up the sun with a smile. “And I don't need to work anything out of my system. If I did, it would have been gone already.”

 

“So you mean,” Mother twitched, “this…situation…is permanent?”

 

Sephiroth considered it for a while. “It might be. I suppose in the back of my head I might have always meant for something of a very long-term nature. I never expected it to go this far or this deep, but it's not bad, actually. Not bad at all.” He sat up and stretched his arms. It was time to move in closer to seek his lady. “It's not just that, either. Just talking to her is nice too.”

 

“Talking.”

 

“Yes, Mother, this thing you and I are doing now.” He stood, grinning. “Though if you don't mind me saying, she's the more pleasant conversationalist.” He felt Mother's light seething, but he was too high-spirited at the moment for it to touch him.

 

“You're just saying that because she lets you do all the talking.”

 

“But she likes to listen, Mother,” Sephiroth protested lightly. “She keeps asking me to talk. And it feels good to make her smile. And laugh. It's wonderful to make her laugh”

 

“Even if what she's laughing at is you?” Mother asked wryly.

 

Sephiroth laughed himself. “Even so.” He walked to the edge of the small plateau and began searching for footing to make his way down the steep slope. He wanted to be just outside the city by nightfall.

 

Mother sighed. “The problem's worse than I'd feared.”

 

“What problem?” Sephiroth asked blithely, picking his way through loose rock and gravel.

 

“You're a big boy, Sephiroth,” Mother said, drifting away. “Figure it out yourself.”

 

Sephiroth raised one eyebrow as she left him. Figure it out, he would. He loved a challenge. He continued walking carefully down the mountain, leaning backwards a bit to keep from toppling forward but otherwise paying little attention to his descent. Every step sent loose rubble skittering down the slope.

 

Obviously, this `problem' Mother spoke of had something to do with Aeris. Mother had not been as insistent that he get rid of the girl as she had been at first, lately. Sephiroth supposed that was because she had seen there was no stopping him in this matter. She had once said something about letting his `madness' run its course. If this was madness, Sephiroth could not see it ending soon. He did not want it to end.

 

There really was no problem that he could see. There was nothing wrong with enjoying the company of a beautiful woman. As avoidant as he had been out of necessity years before, there was something to be said for feminine charms. Aeris had those charms in spades.

 

Well, not in the very common sense, he supposed. She was not the especially curvy type revered in a barrack yard, or the stick-thin kind worshiped by the camera, but he adored her figure all the same. She was not tall, but her legs were beautiful, even more so when wrapped around him. She had a sharp, eager mind and a sharp tongue to match, when it came down to it. She was willing to actually listen to what he said and she was not afraid to comment on it either. Other women had gotten him talking only so they would have time to demonstrate the obscene things they could do to cherry stems.

 

His mind's eye flitted past images of women he had seen and known, who had been considered beautiful. They did not raise a flicker of interest. Only Aeris, with her quiet, almost innocent grace and that mischief in her lips could hold his attention now. He remembered vaguely that there had been some larger purpose to bedding her, but he could not remember what it was now. No matter. It would come back to him eventually if it was really important. He sighed happily. He had her and that was good.

 

Old memories, half-fragmented, floated up and away, stirred by his dredging. None of them mattered now. He would see Aeris soon and he could not ask for more. Just the thought of it flooded him with anticipation. His heart fluttered as if seeking release from his chest. He almost thought that it wanted to fly away. He could not blame it. He wanted to fly away too, up into the bright sky with Aeris, away from everything else.

 

One drifting memory surfaced close: a fellow SOLDIER, that damned Zachary in fact, smiling and doing what he did best, talking, waxing philosophical, his hazy eyes seeing only a dream. “You'll do anything for her, anything! She's in your head all the time and you don't even want to get rid of her. Nobody else matters. And when you feel like flying, man, that's when you really know.”

 

“Oh no!” Sephiroth felt his heart thud with the shock. “I'm in love!” His next step sent him tumbling on a slide of loose shale. Too surprised to bother regaining his footing, he rolled all the way down the mountain.

 

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

 

A.N: Oh, the evil…XD