No Wish to be Alone
Chapter 22
Hours later, down the hall,
Cloud sat bolt upright in his bed. "VALENTINE!
SON! Ugh, how did I totally miss it?"
Tifa stirred beside him.
"Huh?"
Cloud stared into the
darkness. "Sephiroth is Vincent’s son!"
She opened one eye. "You
are just now figuring this out?" she murmured sleepily.
Her words sunk in. "What,
you knew already?"
Groaning, she turned over.
"Cloud, I love you, but you can be so dense sometimes." She pulled
the covers up over her head.
"But—but, you
knew?!"
She sighed. "Who do you think
Vincent meant when he said his son? Someone else?"
"Yes!"
"Go to sleep, Cloud
Strife, before I have to get violent."
He fell silent. When her
breathing finally slowed again, he crept from the bed and carefully left the
room. He descended the stairs to the lobby of the inn, where a different desk
clerk sat at the counter.
"Is the bar open?"
he asked, jerking a thumb toward the restaurant.
"For
another hour or two, yes, sir."
Cloud claimed a stool at the
bar, ordering a beer. He rested his head in his hands, trying to make sense of
everything. So, Aeris married Sephiroth. Sephiroth is Vincent’s son. Vincent
is my friend. Aeris is my friend. Nanaki trusts Sephiroth. Sephiroth kidnapped
Aeris. He kidnapped her!
In the back of his mind, a
small voice said, But you were going to kill
her. Jenova controlled you, just like she did Sephiroth. The difference was
that she only had you for a few moments. She had Sephiroth for years. What
would have happened if it had been you she had taken control over that day?
So Sephiroth saved Aeris!
From me!
Guilt boiled up inside him. I
was going to kill her! He buried his face on his arms, letting out a small
moan. This whole time I’ve been worrying about Sephiroth hurting her, and
all along I was the one he was protecting her from!
In his misery, he failed to
notice another man walk up to the bar. With a sigh, the very person who
dominated Cloud’s thoughts sat beside him and ordered a glass of wine.
"Hello, Strife. Drowning your sorrows?"
Cloud snorted. "What, did
you get kicked out of your room?"
A hint of a
smile. "No, I
have to let her sleep sometime."
The blond tried to ignore the
implications of that statement. It must have shown in his face, for Sephiroth
smirked.
"Get over it, Strife. She
is my wife now. She is happy."
"I find that hard to
believe."
The green eyes narrowed.
"She is safe with me. You, of all people, should know that. Or did you
forget what it was like for Jenova to grab hold of your mind and make you do
her bidding?"
That struck a nerve. "And
how do you know Jenova won’t come back for you? She had you for years!"
"Because I effectively
cut the puppet strings connecting me to her by marrying Aeris." He sipped
the wine, absently enjoying the vintage. "Aeris is...very powerful. I do
not think she quite realizes her potential. You saw her fight Jenova. Even if I
were to focus all my energy, all my skill, I would only have been able to
survive a few minutes under that onslaught. Aeris fought for days." The
memory of how frail she had become caused a fleeting expression of pain.
Cloud saw it, but said
nothing. He took a swig of beer. "So what happens next?"
"First, we get our
personal issues out of the way."
"You mean without the
others?"
"I do not see why we need
to involve them. This is—has always been—between us." Flinging his silver
hair over his shoulder, the General stood and nodded to the bartender.
"Please put our drinks on my account." He looked down at Cloud.
"Coming?"
"Where are we
going?"
"Outside. That way, my wife and your girlfriend
will not hear us, therefore, they can not
interfere." He strode purposefully out of the bar and into the night.
Mystified, Cloud followed,
wondering, Doesn’t he ever just walk
anywhere?
*****
They walked in silence through
the snow. Cloud studied his former idol as they went. His anger was set aside
for a moment, curiosity at what Sephiroth had planned
winning. There was an air of calm about the older man, a sense of being
centered, or something, that wasn’t present before. Sephiroth had always been a
loner, but even beneath his cool exterior, Cloud and his friend Zack had
perceived a seething restlessness. Now, however, that restlessness was gone. It
had Aeris’s signature written all over it.
They stopped at the treeline, in the darkness beyond the edge of town. Cloud
waited impatiently for Sephiroth to speak, crossing and uncrossing his arms,
shifting his weight from foot to foot. The silver-haired man stood with his
back to Cloud, arms at his sides, a perfect counterpoint of stillness to the
younger man’s agitation. At last, he looked over his shoulder with an amused
glance. "Well?"
"Well what? You’re the
one who led us out here! I’m freezing to death!" Cloud’s voice began to
rise in volume. "I don’t get it! Why the hell did she marry you?"
"Strife, you fail to make
any sense. Start from the beginning. Tell me, why do you hate me? And I am not
talking about Nibelheim. I am talking about now. You understood about your
hometown the day Jenova took control of your body. Even your Miss Lockheart has forgiven me for that." He peered at
Cloud, as if he could see into him and understand his soul. "I want to
know, why do you hate me now?"
The question threw Cloud off
guard, and he answered truthfully before he could think. "Because
you got her!" He clapped a hand over his mouth when he realized
what he’d said. Sephiroth regarded him with new interest, knowing that he’d
just received an honest answer. Cloud decided it was too late to take back the
words, so he recklessly continued.
"That’s right, you evil
bastard. Of all the people in the world, it had to be you." The young
man’s voice shook with emotion. "I knew she wasn’t mine. I knew it even
before she left. But when I was being used by Jenova, it was you who got to
save her. It’s not fair!" He cried out in agony. "Goddamn it, I hate
you! You’re my worst enemy! My whole existence for the past five years has been
built around stopping you. And now, you’re f-cking
married to Aeris! Where’s the justice in that? She deserved a saint, someone
who was worthy of her love. Instead she gets the devil himself, the man who
wanted to be a god!"
Sephiroth merely waited,
betraying no emotion. Cloud couldn’t stop the words from leaping from his
mouth, taking his shredded heart with them.
"It should have been the
other way around. I was supposed to protect her from you!" He let out an
inarticulate scream of frustration. "Why did I have to be the bad guy? Why
was I the one she had to be saved from? I love her! Gods, it makes me sick to
think about you two together!"
The armor of calm about Sephiroth
cracked a bit. "Jenova believes herself a poet. In her eyes, it was the
most fitting thing to have you kill the very thing you loved most. It would
have worked, too, except the Planet intervened."
"Right! I keep forgetting that you and the
Planet are friends now! How nice!" Cloud spat.
"So not only do you make me look bad by saving Aeris, you now have the
Planet singing your praises!"
"Cloud, I am sorry.
There’s nothing I can do to change your mind. If you want to hate me, go ahead.
Aeris disagrees, and whether you believe me or not, I love her, too. You do not
have to protect her any more. That is my job now."
Cloud stood toe-to-toe with
him. "I don’t want you to protect Aeris! I want you to die!" He drew
himself up to his full five feet, nine inches, staring furiously into
Sephiroth’s eyes. Desperately, he screamed, "Why did it have to be
you?"
Sephiroth took a deep breath,
closing his eyes. I will not kill him. I will not kill him.
The Planet’s voices spoke. Open
eyes. Look.
He obeyed.
A green whirlwind had
surrounded the two of them, rising from the snow at their feet. Cloud was
alarmed for a moment, then comprehension dawned. He
looked at Sephiroth, who seemed unworried to be caught in the middle of the
swirling Lifestream. Then the images began.
*****
Sephiroth descending,
Masamune in hand, to kill Aeris as she prays. A command from nowhere,
and his face changes from insane delight to horror. Cloud’s sword raises to strike down the young woman. Sephiroth lands, left
arm sweeping Masamune up in a short arc to intercept the wide blade, right arm
surrounding Aeris’s waist and pulling her out of
harm’s way. Then running, fast as an airship, running away
with the cries of her friends echoing in his ears, with the beautiful girl
cradled carefully in his arms.
Aeris looking up at
Sephiroth as he sleeps, blushing when he wakes. Aeris
brushing her hair. Sephiroth leaning forward and
whispering in her ear. Sephiroth pulling her into his
embrace, seizing her mouth, Aeris responding. A nosy innkeeper, an
expression of fury in Sephiroth’s eyes, a flash of desperation and desire.
Aeris and
Sephiroth in a stream, arms about each other, green Lifestream surrounding
them.
Sephiroth kneeling,
clutching his head, horrified, guilt-ridden. Masamune beside him, forgotten. Faces of victims pressing in at him, taunting him. Red despair. Terror. Repentance. Then Aeris, hair aflame in the
sun, red-brown wings arching over him as she whispers to him. Peace.
Aeris in pain, her mind
being torn apart by Jenova. Sephiroth watching helplessly,
then running with her again, this time across snow with Vincent and Nanaki.
The four of them striding into a church, an indignant cleric
performing a marriage ceremony. Jenova fighting harder, then reeling back at the final kiss. A
golden shell surrounding Aeris and Sephiroth. Wings of
brown and red springing from Aeris, a single, silvery white wing from
Sephiroth. Light of different colors dancing in the
air.
Sephiroth smiling tenderly
down at Aeris, holding her close in his arms in bed, in a dark room lit only by
a fire. She wakes, happily curling closer to him. He strokes her hair, a
strange combination of love, desire, and disbelief at his fortune written
across his face.
*****
The visions ended, leaving the
two men breathless. The Lifestream spun back into the ground without a sound.
There, said the Planet, Should help
convince him. Rest is up to you.
Thank you, my friend, Sephiroth thought gratefully. He looked at
Cloud. "Well?"
The younger man looked
ruefully at him. "Are we back at the beginning
with this ‘well’ stuff?" He was bent double, catching his breath, hands on
his knees as though he’d just run twenty miles. "Because
I don’t want to go through all that again."
"Fair enough. What do you think now? Though I think
the Planet showed you more than I would have."
Cloud straightened. "I
still don’t like you, but…,"
"But
what?"
"I…okay. Fine. You were chosen by the Planet. I can’t change that.
Aeris loves you, it’s pretty obvious that you love
her. But I don’t have to like it. I’m keeping an eye on you, General."
Sephiroth sighed. "Whatever you want. Just leave us in peace." He
looked up at the stars again, noting that false dawn was near. "We had
better get back inside. I am starting to get cold."
Cloud waited a moment as
Sephiroth began walking away. "I’m still going to protect her!" he
called.
"Do whatever you want,
Strife," Sephiroth repeated, "So long as you
do not interfere with my marriage. Keep reminding yourself that she is my wife,
not yours. Do that, and we will be able to coexist." The silver-haired man
sounded weary. "Now, are you coming back to the inn or not? The others
will wonder where we are if we are gone much longer."
"I’m coming,"
replied Cloud Strife, thinking, Just watch
yourself, General Sephiroth. This isn’t finished between us. If Aeris gets
hurt, you will pay with your life.
I’ll see to it personally.