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Chapter Thirty Early in the morning, a few days later, Kit awoke to the sound of wind rustling the leaves of the trees. It was a peaceful sound, but she decided she'd better not let it lull her back to sleep. She'd waited for Sephiroth now for a week, and he hadn't come as he said. She was growing worried. AVALANCHE could have killed him...
She shook her head fiercely. He couldn't have died without her knowing it. Somehow she felt his presence in the world; even if she did have no idea where he was, something inside her made her certain he was still out there somewhere. Of course, he might have killed AVALANCHE for all she knew...
She'd thought of that far too many times in the last week, and she wasn't about to let it get to her again. Before she could start really worrying about it, she stood up and stretched, then reached for her outfit, concentrating on other matters. She was supposed to go back to town this morning and see the doctor again to check her progress. The elixir he'd given her did seem to help keep her stomach settled, though not as much as she might have liked. Maybe she'd ask if she could take a higher dose.
There were monsters in the forests between the lodge and Mideel, so when she'd finished dressing, she went to strap her gun's holster on. She was just reaching for it when the door of the lodge swung open with a bang. Years in SOLDIER had trained her well enough so that she didn't scream, or even yelp, but she did jump a foot in the air as she drew her pistol and turned. Standing there in the doorway was Sephiroth, sword drawn. He lowered it after a moment, but didn't put it away either.
Kit shakily put her gun back in the holster, and said a rather impolite word. Sephiroth smiled at this. "I'm glad to see you again too, my foul-mouthed beloved."
"What was the point of you bursting in like that?" Kit demanded, sinking back onto the bed. "You scared me half to death! I could have shot you!"
"But you didn't," Sephiroth replied. "I wanted to test a theory. From what you've told me about the accidental activation of your powers to date, it sounds as if you've been able to turn invisible when you're surprised. I couldn't very well tell you in advance I wanted to test that theory, could I?"
She sighed, and tried to calm down before her heart jumped out of her chest. But it was impossible, considering she had more reason to be frightened out of her wits by him now than ever. He was a far more dangerous man than she'd even realized before, but she had to be strong, if she was going to be able to talk him out of that plan of his. "I guess not."
"It worked, by the way," he added. Kit looked up at him in surprise. "As soon as the door hit the wall, you vanished. And you stayed invisible until you put your gun down. Now if you can only pin down exactly what you did during that instant you were surprised... I could help you practice."
That meant Jenova had been wrong, Kit realized. Any powers given to her by Jenova were not dependant on Jenova's taking control, but on her own will. Despite her fear, Kit laughed a little as she answered. "No thanks," she said. "If you surprise me like that too many more times, I think I'd disappear for good. Right back into the planet."
Sephiroth smirked. "It's too bad - that trick might come in handy." Kit was pleased with the response. He wasn't sounding like a madman now, like he had been at the Temple of the Ancients. "So, tell me what you've learned from AVALANCHE," he said, closing the door and leaning against it casually, still holding the sword. Actually, Kit noticed he was gripping it tight, almost as if it were a lifeline. "I would have been here earlier, but... something came up. I apologize for keeping you waiting here so long."
"No, it's okay." Surprisingly enough, it really was. He was here now, and appeared to be lucid, and that was all that mattered. But what to tell him... Maybe if he learned about the team on a personal level, it would change how he saw ordinary humans, she decided. "AVALANCHE isn't really an organization of rebels anymore, first of all. Barret and Tifa are the only two surviving original members of AVALANCHE, and Cloud only joined forces with them because he knew Tifa from his childhood. Of course, Tifa's a bit worried about him, because he-"
Sephiroth nodded. "I know all about Cloud," he said, with a strange smile. "Go on."
"So Cloud sort of joined, but sort of didn't," Kit continued. "And now he's nearly taken over as the leader of the group. Barret allows it because they have the same objective now, and he thinks Cloud's got the right idea."
"Which is...?"
"To stop you," Kit said reluctantly. "Most of the others seem to be along more for the adventure than anything else."
"It might not be much of an adventure, if they place themselves in my path," Sephiroth said dryly. "What else? Why are they trying to stop me?"
"They say you'll destroy the planet. Aeris says the planet is afraid of you, and they all believe her."
"As well they should," Sephiroth muttered. "She is an Ancient, and can speak to the planet, though she never knew her true potential."
Kit noticed that his grip on the sword tightened at the mention of Aeris. "Are you afraid of her?"
Sephiroth laughed at this. "Not in the least. What else have you learned?"
"Not a whole lot. Oh, one of them knows your mother."
Sephiroth's laugh vanished. "Jenova?"
"No, your birth mother," Kit explained. She hoped he didn't notice her shiver at the name. "Vincent was a Turk, back before you were born, and he says your real mother was working for the Shinra-"
"Ah," Sephiroth interrupted with a smirk. "Lucrecia."
Kit was startled. "You know her?"
"I know of her," he corrected her. "I'd hardly call her my real mother - I never saw her as I grew up, but now that I know what I am, I can feel her... she is weak, useless. Jenova is the only mother I will acknowledge."
Kit hadn't expected him to know of Lucrecia's relationship to him... and also from what Vincent had said, she'd gotten the impression the woman was dead.
"So... Vincent was a Turk once," Sephiroth mused. "Is there anything else I should know about the members of AVALANCHE?"
Kit wasn't sure how much she should tell him, so she summarized. "Cait Sith is a strange one. He's a fortunetelling machine we met at the Gold Saucer who decided to join us, and then we found out he was spying on AVALANCHE for Shinra. He's still with the group though, as far as I know, because he took Barret's daughter hostage."
Sephiroth burst out laughing again. "Those cowards! It would be just like Shinra to take children hostage, wouldn't it? Who else has joined them that might be a threat?"
"Well, there's Cid Highwind," Kit began, and Sephiroth nodded.
"I remember Captain Highwind," he commented. "He was to Shinra's aerial division what I was to their military division - a prodigy. Still, he shouldn't be a problem." Sephiroth shook his head in amazement. "What an strange assortment of characters. What could they possibly have in common?"
"Judging by the way they bicker, not very much," Kit conceded. "Except that they're very sure what they do is best for the planet." She had to find a way to tell him what she thought about that. But how could she tell the man she loved that even she thought he was mad, that he was the one in the wrong? She felt her pulse quicken as she wondered how on earth she'd ever be able to approach the subject with him.
"It's always for the planet, isn't it?" he said with a sneer. "I'm not the least bit interested in the planet." Then he looked back at her, and his face softened. "What else is on your heart, Kit? You're very anxious about something, I can feel it emanating from you. What is it?"
"Well..." Kit took a deep breath to steady herself. And then another. There were really two things troubling her, but maybe telling him the one would make the other easier. Maybe it would be enough to stop his scheming. Or maybe it wouldn't.
"What's wrong?" Sephiroth asked again, reaching up to sheathe his sword as he approached her.
"I'm carrying your son."
Kit then got to see something she was sure no one else on the planet was likely to have seen before - Sephiroth's hand fumbled on the sword's hilt, and the Masamune clattered to the floor, forgotten. His eyes were startling, wide and staring in shock.
"Aeris figured it out," Kit continued, to fill the silence. "The planet told her, she said. I'm going to have a baby boy. And then the doctor in Mideel confirmed it, when I got here." Sephiroth still did not say a word, instead just staring at her. "Sephiroth?" she asked hesitantly. "What are you thinking?"
Slowly, he sat down beside her on the bed. "I had no idea, Kit," he said, his eyes still fixed on her. "No idea at all this would happen. But..." In a sudden movement Kit could hardly see, he gathered her into his arms, nearly crushing her against his chest. "Oh, Kit - first you give me yourself, and now you're giving me a son..." She looked up into his eyes, and saw the happiness reflected there. It was a profound relief, and she let herself relax a little, leaning her head against his shoulder. "How have you been feeling?" he asked gently.
"Sick," she said with an embarrassed grin. "Sick and afraid. Vincent, the Turk who knew your - er, Lucrecia... he said she was this sick during her pregnancy too, and... he thought it killed her, during your birth. Apparently he was wrong, though. I'm glad, I worried the same fate might come to me..."
He smiled down at her almost sympathetically. "I would never let you die, Kit. And perhaps I can do something about the sickness," he told her as he pulled off his left glove, revealing a simple silver band on his ring finger. She regarded him with curiosity. "Shinra gave these rings to their generals during the war," he explained. "It was one of their experiments with Mako, creating items that would give the bearer a magical boost. This particular ring enhances stamina," he said as he removed it from his hand. He took her smaller hand in his and slipped the ring onto her finger. "I think it will help."
Kit felt a tingle of energy run through her as the metal, still warm from his hand, touched her skin. It was true - she already did feel stronger and healthier than she had for the past several weeks. And it wasn't just the ring's powers. He'd given her a ring... Though once she would have laughed at such romantic notions, Kit smiled with genuine pleasure. "Sephiroth... thank you," she began, almost speechless. "You're right, I feel better already." She kept running her fingers over the smooth metal, and vaguely wondered how it was that the same ring that fit perfectly on her small finger could have fit on his larger one. Must have been something to do with the Mako, she decided. "You're still my angel, aren't you?" she said impulsively. "You're watching over me..."
He smiled at the word. "Always," he assured her, squeezing her hands in his. "You're not still afraid now, are you? You trust me to take care of you and our son?"
"Well, I wouldn't say I'm not afraid," she admitted. "Dying wasn't all I worried about. Becoming a mother was something I never even thought about before. It's not that I'd said no, I definitely do not want children, but I'd just never considered it might happen. And also..." She smiled up at him apologetically. "I didn't know how you'd take it. I was afraid you'd be angry."
"No! Never angry at you," he said vehemently. "Think of it - all those failed experiments of Professor Gast and Hojo, all the mistakes they made out of greed and spite produced us. We are the misbegotten ones, they didn't know they were making us what we are. But-" He stopped his bitter tirade and began to laugh. "Our son will be what they were striving all along to produce, and he won't belong to them. Think now, just how ironic it is that the two of us, in a moment of pleasure, could produce out of love what the best scientists in history could not accomplish with all their cold knowledge!"
"That's how life is," Kit replied softly, curling up in his lap. "The only true miracles are those that happen without effort. How could we call them miracles otherwise?" The truest miracle she could hope for was for this to make him realize how precious life was, and rethink his plans. Maybe what he'd just said was an indicator he was coming around...
"Your words are beautiful," he said, stroking her hair. "But you must realize everything happens for a reason, yet not as we will, but as destiny dictates."
"Maybe now is the time for the old blood to return," Kit suggested. "You were born with Jenova's power, and showered in Mako, the wisdom of the Ancients, when you joined SOLDIER. I was soaked in both Mako and Jenova's energy inside the capsule. The powers of the Ancients and Jenova will be born together in our son, and maybe Hojo and Gast, with their experiments, were unknowingly helping it along."
"They were," Sephiroth agreed grimly, "but that does not excuse them." Abruptly his fists clenched, and Kit pulled away, surprised. "They made us to be controlled, not to flourish as our son will. I will not let them recreate our child as just another misbegotten son like I. Do you hear me, Hojo?" he bellowed suddenly, and Kit flinched. "You will not use us anymore!"
"Sephiroth..." He'd seemed so lucid a moment ago, but now that peace was shattered, reminding Kit just how mentally unstable he really was. "No one can take him from us," she reassured him. "If they tried, well, between you and I, they wouldn't stand a chance."
"They will never get a chance," said Sephiroth, his face hard. "With you beside me, now it is time to do what I must." Out of his coat, he produced something small and round, so dark that it seemed to absorb the light around it.
Kit's heart froze. "The Black Materia," she whispered. "So you did get it after all."
"It did me no good at first," he said coldly. "No one person can harness the full destructive force of the Black Materia without aid..." His lips curled into an arrogant smile as his eyes met Kit's. "I've found the Promised Land, Kit."
"What?" Her thoughts went back to what Jenova had said to her, when she'd been struggling for self-control. If she'd been drawn to the Promised Land by Jenova, of course that creature would have told her "son".
"I found it," he repeated. "The Promised Land, full of boundless spirit energy. A place where a vein of the planet's lifeblood has burst to the surface, and now it is mine." For an instant, he began to flicker before Kit's eyes, as if he was a hologram, and she clutched at his arm. It seemed solid enough... "All that energy is mine for the taking," he continued. "Enough to summon the ultimate destructive magic..."
Kit couldn't believe her ears. "That... it's wrong, you can't do that," she told him fearfully. "We talked to the elders at Cosmo Canyon - spirit energy is for creating, not destroying." He began to walk towards the door, and she threw her arms around him to stop him. "Don't do this, Sephiroth!"
He looked down at her, and smiled simply. "I do what I have to do." He flickered again, and suddenly was stalking out the door, leaving his Masamune still lying where he'd dropped it. She nearly tripped over it in her frantic dash after him.
When she got outside, he was already holding the Black Materia aloft in one hand, concentrating on it as dark energy pulsed around it. "No!" she pleaded, clutching at his arms. "Stop it! Sephiroth, please! Don't do this! Please!" She couldn't reach the Materia to take it away from him. Oh, why did she have to be so much shorter than he was?
Never looking away from the Materia, he smiled and put an arm around her. "Don't worry, I am controlling it. You will not come to harm. Now, when it's built up a little more power... almost there..."
"No, don't!" All Kit's fear went into one last wild jump for the Materia, but it wasn't enough.
"Meteor." His voice was as calm ordering the destruction of the planet as it would have been asking for a glass of water.
Kit closed her eyes, expecting an explosion of blinding light and deafening noise, but nothing happened. Had it failed? She dared to open her eyes again, and looked up to see him smiling in satisfaction. She followed his gaze to the northern sky, and gasped.
The sky was growing lighter, and the stars were gone, but one tiny dot in the sky glowed red, growing larger each second as she watched. Soon it had grown nearly as large as the moon.
The planet was doomed, she realized, unless she could somehow stop him. But was it possible? If the meteor continued on it's present course, it would hit the planet even if she were to kill him somehow. She wasn't going to take the small chance that it might just vanish. The only real chance she had was...
"Sephiroth, listen to me!" she demanded. "If you care about me at all, or your son, listen to me!"
He looked down at her, puzzled. "What is it? Soon I will be a god, I will be one with the planet. Humanity will have paid for its arrogance. We'll be together in the Promised Land. Don't you want that, Kit?"
"Not like this! Listen - there are others out there who have been betrayed, to just as great a magnitude as you or I, or Jenova, or the Ancients. Barret, the leader of AVALANCHE, for example. Shinra wanted to build a Mako reactor in his hometown, and made the people all kinds of promises, but then the reactor malfunctioned. Shinra blamed it on the townspeople, and burned their village. That wasn't fair, was it?"
Sephiroth said nothing, just stared at her. The Black Materia still pulsed in his hand, and the meteor was now a fiery red circle no one could have missed. But it seemed to be slowing, just a little.
"And then there's Cid, Captain Highwind," she continued. "Shinra was providing funding for his dream, to build a rocket and go into space. It had one little problem, easily fixed, and he had to stop the launch. Shinra cut funding that instant. Was that fair? He had a destiny too, to go into space, and Shinra took it away."
Sephiroth lowered his hand, and the Materia pulsed one final time before falling still. Kit breathed a sigh of relief. "Why did he stop the launch?" Sephiroth asked.
"One of his technicians was down below, trying to fix the malfunction," she answered. "If he'd ignited the engines, she would have been burned to a crisp."
A smile crept across Sephiroth's face. "And Shinra, knowing this, cut the funding?"
"Yes."
Finally Sephiroth laughed. "Don't you see, Kit, that was his reward for being merciful, compassionate. I'm a single step away from truly becoming one with the planet, so now I know the truth. This world is cold, it has no place for mercy. Justice must be swift and thorough. That's what my goal has been all along."
"But Sephiroth..." Kit was becoming so frustrated she could have screamed. "The people living in the world have done nothing to you. I don't know what was done to Jenova or the Ancients, but the people who do know died long ago. The people who are alive have nothing to do with it. They work for a living, they get hurt, just like we have. They have children, like we will." Not a flicker of understanding crossed his face. "Please, Sephiroth," she pleaded. "The people of this world have done nothing. If you want justice, I'll gladly stand beside you as you destroy Shinra, but I can't be a part of genocide."
That got his attention. The smile slipped from his lips and his eyes narrowed. "What are you saying?"
"Exactly what I just said," she replied, mustering up all the self-control she'd learned in SOLDIER. She hoped she sounded as cold as he did. "I love you, and I'll help you fight Shinra, but I will not go along with this idea of destroying the planet."
His eyes narrowed further still, glowing with rage. "So this is what it comes to," he snarled, and she could barely resist the urge to take a step back, away from him. "I should have known better than to think it would work."
"What would work?" Kit asked, her voice quivering. Even that first instant when he'd turned and looked up at her on the fire escape, she'd never been this afraid of him.
"Love," he spat. "Cloud and his friends think me arrogant, don't they, for considering myself heir to the planet? That's not arrogance. My arrogance was to think that if I were to love someone, they might love me back, despite all the evidence I've seen to the contrary. My arrogance was to hope."
Hearing him say these things was the most painful thing Kit had ever experienced. "Sephiroth, I do love you... but I'm not blind, either." Kit almost choked as he suddenly drew his sword and raised it to strike. She'd known this was a possibility, and so all she did was close her eyes and wait for the Masamune to pierce her body in a hundred places.
The blows didn't come. She opened her eyes to see that he'd turned away, clutching the sword as he had been earlier, as if it were a lifeline, trembling slightly.
"What do you think?" he asked, too gently. "That I'm a madman? A monster?"
"No, that's not it," she said tenderly, approaching him. "You're sick, you need help, my love, my angel..."
He did lash out with the sword then, but at the massive oak tree that stood before them. Kit jumped back out of range as he lay about him with all his anger. By the time he stopped, the tree looked as if it might topple over at any moment, and his shoulders heaved as he took deep breaths. Then he turned to her.
"Angel..." he muttered, chuckling bitterly under his breath. "I have a destiny, Kit. I wanted you to be a part of it." He spoke all in a rush, almost desperate. "I'm floating above the planet like the angel you named me, but you've become a part of me - I'd be like an angel with only one wing without you."
"Then just-" Kit began, but he shook his head.
"I told you, I will not give up my destiny. Not for you, not for our son. And if you stand in my way, I will destroy you as I will AVALANCHE." He stuck the sword into the ground and took hold of her arms. Suddenly Kit remembered he'd left his sword on the floor in the house. How did he do that?
"We're lost, Kit," he said gently. We have no place in this world, you and I - as you said once, we have no history. Wouldn't it be nice to make history together?"
He looked so sincere, Kit could hardly make herself take a step backwards, out of his grip. "We have made history already," she said softly, placing her hands over her still flat stomach. "What you're doing will only destroy it."
This time when he turned away, he looked like a sullen little boy. "Then that is the way it will be," he said bitterly. "You have to know this planet will be destroyed no matter what you do. It is inevitable. Am I so vile that you would rather die than be by my side as we watch it burn?"
"Not vile," Kit said, trying to remain firm. The problem was, he could be right. Maybe there was nothing anyone could do to stop him. In that case, what would it matter if she... She shook her head angrily. She'd never be able to live with herself. But the thought of him leaving, destroying the world and her with it, would that be worse? "What you're doing isn't right," she told him.
He turned back to her with those burning eyes. "I hear the indecision in your voice," he said, pulling the sword from the ground. "I will give you a choice. You can be by my side, or you can die." Suddenly he chuckled mirthlessly. "I would not think it would be a hard decision to make. I will be at the crater in the north, where Mother waits for me. When you make up your mind once and for all whether you stand for or against me, come to me, and the meteor will fall."
He began to rise into the air, and Kit's resolve faltered. "Sephiroth!" she called desperately.
His ascent stopped, and he looked back at her. "Kit," he said, his voice cold and hard.
She took a step towards him, and suddenly couldn't move. It was as if her limbs had turned to stone. "What are you doing?" she asked him, frightened.
"You would kiss me goodbye, wouldn't you?" he stated. "But no. I will not allow you to tempt me again."
She was released as soon as he had vanished into the sky. His handiwork still hung in the north, a glaring red sore on the otherwise beautiful early morning sky. Kit could only imagine the panic that must already have taken hold of the world.
But this time, she couldn't cry. All she could do was sit and stare at the meteor in a daze.
To Chapter ThirtyOne. To the intro. That means it's mine, not yours! |
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