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Chapter Five The next day, they continued east, and turned south near sunset, heading for a cave that Sephiroth said lay in the mountains past the swamp. Kit, trying to avoid thinking of the revelations Sephiroth had provided her with last night, remembered from her days in SOLDIER that in that swamp was a giant snake called the Midgar Zolom, which attacked anything that entered it's territory. Anyone with brains knew they needed a Chocobo to run through before the Zolom could catch them, but Sephiroth dismissed it with a wave of his hand, avoiding the Chocobo ranch that lay on the plains near the swamp for that very purpose. She supposed he would simply catch a Chocobo, since there were plenty of the large wild birds running about on the plains.
Therefore, she was quite surprised when they reached the edge of the swamp and he strode right into the muck as if he hadn't noticed the change in terrain. The Midgar Zolom could supposedly sense the vibrations from footsteps anywhere in the swamp and home in on them. "What are you doing?" she asked him. "Shouldn't you fly us over, maybe?"
He looked back at her with a stare which said he had no idea why she was suggesting this. "The Midgar Zolom," she explained. Maybe it hadn't been there when he'd last come this way.
"Oh, that." He smirked. "Don't worry about it." With that, he resumed his quick pace, going further into the swamp. Still a little skeptical, Kit followed close behind, though the swamp made it an effort to keep up. The muddy water was halfway to her knees before she'd gone ten paces. She was glad of the good equipment that Shinra had provided her with, water-resistant clothing and boots which fit close enough that she would get no water into them.
They'd crossed the swamp about halfway when she saw a dark ripple in the water only a hundred yards from them, and closing fast. Looking around, she saw there was no way to get to dry land before it caught up. She grabbed hold of Sephiroth's arm and pointed, expecting him to rise into the air, but instead he stood his ground, watching the ripple approach. Kit involuntarily took a few steps backwards and nearly stumbled into the muck as the long form of the Midgar Zolom reared up out of the water, swaying as it peered down at them. She'd known it was large, but she hadn't realized how much larger the thing was until now, seeing it towering over herself and Sephiroth.
The Zolom lowered its head to strike, and Kit pulled the pistol from her holster. It wouldn't do much, of course - it was designed for use against someone six feet tall, not thirty feet - but if she managed to hit it in a vulnerable place, like the eye...
Before she could fire, a blinding flash flew across her line of sight. Sephiroth was attacking the thing with uncanny speed and accuracy, slicing the Zolom under the chin, down the belly, and finally stabbing it through the head. She only knew where he had struck the Zolom because that's where the wounds were when it toppled over.
It took only a split second for him to dispatch the creature, and then he turned to her with a smile as if he'd just swatted an annoying gnat. Blood dripped from his blade, turning the greenish swamp water red. "I told you not to worry," he said simply as he dipped the Masamune in the clearer water behind him and wiped it off with a cloth from his pocket.
"I should have known better," she agreed, returning the smile, although hers was a little shaky. "So that's the end of the Midgar Zolom."
His smile turned wicked. "Not quite. I just got a very good idea."
She stared at him, horrified and awed at the same time, as he took hold of the dead Zolom's head and began pulling it to the opposite side of the swamp. He is mad, she thought as she followed along after. Still, she couldn't help but be impressed by his strength. Not anyone could drag a thirty foot long serpent through a swamp, but he did it with ease. That, combined with the speed she'd just seen and the powers he possessed, made her see why Shinra had wanted her to just shoot him in the back before he saw her. No one in SOLDIER, or likely anywhere else on the planet, could have gotten past him otherwise.
Of course, she might have that same power within herself, she realized. Something must have changed about her within that capsule in the Nibelheim reactor, otherwise Shinra likely would have just destroyed her. Or at least not let her into SOLDIER.
On the other side of the swamp, there was a small pocket of dry land tucked back into the mountains that was the entrance to the cave. It was there Sephiroth was headed, and as she stepped out of the mud, wiping her boots off with grass as well as she could, he was bending back a tall, slender tree. Not an old thick one, but not a sapling either, by any means. It bent back to the breaking point, and his Masamune severed it from the trunk the rest of the way, then set about chopping the sparse branches from it, making a long thin spear. Kit watched in horrified fascination as he set one end in the ground, then floated up to the top, holding the Zolom's head, and impaled it on the sharper end of the makeshift pike. More blood ran down the length of the pike, and pooled around the base, where its long body was coiled.
"What is the purpose of... doing that?" she asked nervously. "I mean... it's already dead, do you have to make such a disgusting spectacle out of it?"
"We are being followed," he replied. "It will serve nicely as a warning, provided that they even make it across the swamp alive."
"That's not too hard to imagine, now that the Zolom's dead," Kit said, relieved. "Just so long as there's a purpose."
In reply, Sephiroth picked up the pile of branches he'd shorn from the tree and threw them one by one into the swamp. After the second one splashed in, Kit saw a faint ripple on the surface of the water, speeding towards where the branches were landing.
"The Midgar Zolom would not be any large obstacle if there were not more than one," Sephiroth stated. "It's not that intelligent, or that fast. It's just that there's always one nearby."
Kit shivered as a broad head broke the surface where the branches were, and then disappeared again.
They passed through the cave and camped outside the opposite side that night. Sephiroth was the one who initiated conversation, for once. "Have you remembered anything more of your life before SOLDIER?"
"I haven't exactly been trying," Kit admitted. "But I really don't think it would do any good if I did try."
"You remembered a little, when I prompted you," Sephiroth pointed out. "This journey I'm on will take us all over the planet. If you choose to follow me all the way, perhaps you will find a place that jogs your memory. Maybe even your hometown."
"I said I would follow you, and I will." Kit sighed. "Maybe it would be better if I just didn't try to remember at all. So I have no history. It's not as if it's causing me problems, as if I was forgetting something I need to know. I've survived through SOLDIER knowing less than I do now, so what do I need a past for?"
Sephiroth smirked. "What happened to you throughout your time with SOLDIER, and even your... well, at Nibelheim, none of that will come close to what will happen if you stay this course. You may very well need whatever secret powers you possess, and I think you do possess them."
He never detailed his plans exactly, Kit noticed. But then, she didn't ask him. She was afraid to.
"During the period of time which you do have memory of," he continued, "do you remember ever doing something - anything - which seemed unreal, that you must have imagined it? Your chosen weapon is a pistol, I noticed. Did you ever fire a wild shot at someone which probably should not have hit, but it was more accurate than it would have been if you had aimed? Or perhaps someone shot at you point blank, but still missed?" As Kit pondered this, he continued to throw out more ideas. "Have you ever thought something, and not known where the thought came from, and realized you had been concentrating on someone who would have been thinking that same thought? Or there might have been a time when you were hiding from someone, and though you couldn't find a good place to hide, they still walked right by you?"
Kit opened her mouth indignantly to protest that she never hid from anyone, but then she thought again. "One night we had a water fight in the barracks. Just for fun." She smiled sadly at the memory; she'd had friends there. "Mara and Dale were on the other team, and they were walking by with a barrel of water to throw on me as I was just coming out of an adjacent hallway. I backed up immediately, but even so I was sure Mara had seen me. I got her in the back with a spray gun, and Dale too, but I always wondered how it was that Mara didn't see me. She was first class too, so she was not exactly the type to overlook someone darting into the hall right beside her, and she was even looking for me."
"And I didn't see you hiding on the fire escape right away," Sephiroth said, with a look of satisfaction. "I think this might have something to do with your powers. Don't be offended," he added, mistaking her sudden frown for disappointment. "I am not mocking your skills, just stating that ordinarily I would have noticed something different on that ledge the instant I stepped into the alley, and I did not."
"I wasn't offended. I just..." How could she explain to him that she was afraid of these powers? He'd grown accustomed to them apparently, and even embraced them.
He caught on anyway. "They're a part of you now. Don't fear them. Use them, and don't let them use you. These powers that I have, and most likely you as well, they set us apart, but we're on a higher level than anyone else on this planet. Humans, they're easily used by anyone. Shinra is a prime example of humans being used. Probably eighty percent of the missions I went on after the war were just to prove to people that Shinra was watching them, and they were in charge, as if the people weren't already aware."
He'd drawn closer as he spoke, and the intensity of his emotion made his eyes flare. "I swore I'd not be used again, Kit, and my power insures that I never will. Who could stand against me? Once you learn what power lies within you, and you learn to control it, no one will be able to stand against you either."
She shrugged, dubious, and Sephiroth laid a hand on her shoulder as she was about to turn away. "I will not use you, not unless you allow me to. That I promise. But humanity has no such scruples, you understand. Both of us would be mindless Shinra slaves, if they had their way. They nearly did, in both our cases. They deserve a traitor's death!" His eyes suddenly hardened, and Kit flinched.
"Sephiroth..." It was the first time she'd said his name out loud, she suddenly realized. She liked the way it felt on her tongue. He'd been saying her name a lot, she realized. Maybe he was dealing with the same feeling. "Sephiroth," she repeated, "I understand about Shinra. They had no right to do what they did to us. But the rest of humanity is not so wrong, is it? Suppose someone else had been put into that capsule instead of me? Maybe that person is now a shopkeeper in Costa Del Sol, for all I know, but if not for a chance, I could be that shopkeeper, and that shopkeeper could have shot you in the back without any qualms when he became a member of SOLDIER. Then I would just be part of humanity. If you came upon me without any special power, selling souvenirs in a resort town, would you despise me too?"
"You don't understand, Kit, and neither do I. I am what I am because it was my fate. It is the same for you. We could not be anything other than what we are, and we..." His hand reached out to stroke her cheek. "Are... special."
She started to protest, but Sephiroth's mouth closed over hers as soon as she opened it. It was a surprise - he'd shown no real sign of affection at all since that first night - but very welcome, so she closed her eyes and enjoyed it. She was aware of his arms closing around her, and the muscles in his back tensing beneath her touch. Just as she thought she might allow this to go further, he pulled away and turned his back to her, but not before she saw the look of indecision on his face.
"Good night, Kit," was all he said, his voice carefully cold.
She didn't mind. In fact, she smiled as she lay down on her bed of green grass. Now she was sure of it - Sephiroth loved her. "Good night, Sephiroth."
To Chapter Six. To the intro. That means it's mine, not yours! |
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