The mighty have fallen

“The mighty have fallen”
Part 12


Tifa sat tensely on the lounge chair closest to the foyer and the front door. She looked like she was ready to bolt at any minute—like a nervous doe. Sephiroth kept his distance from her and deliberately avoided making any sudden moves. While he was mildly amused by her behavior, it wouldn’t be very productive if he scared her away. He considered boiling some coffee and offering her a cup but thought better of it, deciding that she was already on-edge enough without caffeine. Perhaps a less stimulating beverage was in order.

“Do you drink tea?”

Tifa jumped involuntarily when he asked the question. Silently cursing herself for being so obvious with her wariness, she nodded. “Yes, thank you.”

“Any particular preference? I have standard black, mimmet, Curiel and Carob nut, green tea and lemon infusion.”

Tifa blinked up at the man and tried to absorb the fact that the mighty Sephiroth was standing there casually offering her a list of different teas. His slit-pupiled gaze was mild and calm as he looked back at her and waited for an answer. “I never pictured you as a big tea drinker,” Tifa said impulsively. “Or a good host, for that matter,” she added beneath her breath.

“What sort of beverage did you imagine me drinking, Ms. Lockheart? Anti-Freeze, perhaps?” Sephiroth regarded her curiously, a slight smirk on his face.

“I don’t know,” Tifa said honestly, placing her hands on her knees and squeezing to control their trembling. “energy drinks or protein drinks, I guess. Tea is so…domestic and…and…human.”

Sephiroth’s smile broadened with amusement, giving more of a “human” impression to contend with Tifa’s ideals of him being something else. “Those are for overzealous athletes and body builders,” he responded dryly, “the energy drinks are loaded with sugar and the protein drinks are full of junk carbs and fat. Neither of them is good for you unless you favor insomnia and want to rot your teeth or clog your arteries. Tea and coffee are natural antioxidants and the former is soothing. I’ve found it helps me to calm down and focus if I’m feeling…anxious.”

She stared at him speechlessly for a minute. ~He’s a health nut!~ She should have known, though. Having lived his whole life under strict observation and military regulation, it made sense that he was fastidious about a healthy lifestyle. With all of the poison Hojo kept him on it was really no wonder that he avoided consuming artificial chemicals, as well.

Sephiroth began to lose patience, but he kept his demeanor mild and polite to avoid startling her further. “Would you prefer one of Cloud’s soft drinks?”

She noticed the curl to his lip when he offered the soft drinks and she almost smirked. He offered it like he was offering a dead rat or something. “No, tea is fine, thank you. Which would you recommend?”

He studied her for a moment before answering. “The Curiel and Carob nut combination would probably be ideal for you. It’s the best for easing tension.”

~Do I really look as tense as I feel? So much for playing it nonchalant.~ Tifa sighed and nodded. “Then I’ll have that one, please.”

He nodded and went into the kitchen. She sat there for a moment, listening to the sounds coming from the kitchen as he set the kettle to boil and got the cups ready. Tifa frowned as a little voice inside her head reminded her that this man was a known psychopath and it probably wasn’t a good idea to let him prepare a beverage for her out of sight. Swallowing hard, she stood up and walked toward the kitchen, stopping at the threshold to watch what Sephiroth was doing.

Sephiroth looked very out of place, standing there selecting tea bags from the boxes on top of the refrigerator and dropping them into mugs. Tifa couldn’t decide if the sight was unsettling or amusing—the tall, fallen angel performing everyday mundane domestics. She almost squeaked in fright when he spoke to her without looking up from his task.

“Is there something else I can get for you Ms. Lockheart, or are you afraid I’m going to poison you?” He glanced up at her briefly and gave her a humorless half-smile. “You realize of course that poisoning isn’t my style. If I wanted to kill you, it would be quick and direct.”

She instinctively shifted into a defensive stance as a response, not bothering to reply to his casual talk of how he’d kill her.

Sephiroth looked at her again, his green eyes scanning her form. He nodded. “I expect no less of you. However, I should inform you that even if I was interested in harming you I couldn’t. Cloud was very thorough in prohibiting me from harming anyone in any way, except to defend myself.” His eyes flashed with dark amusement. “Now, if you were to attack me, I could do everything short of killing you. In self defense, of course.” He turned his attention back to the task at hand, pouring the hot water into the mugs with the teabags.

She wisely relaxed her stance with that information. As much as she was itching to punch that beautiful, arrogant face, Tifa was worldly enough to know that she was no match for Sephiroth on her own. Cloud was the only one that had ever had a chance to best him alone. Still, she was confused over his words. “Tell me something honestly,” she said as calmly as possible, “You said ‘if you were interested in harming me’. If you didn’t have that trigger stopping you, would you do it?”

“Do you really want to know?” Sephiroth asked with a sidelong glance at her.

She nodded, bracing herself. “If it’s all a trick, Cloud would never believe me. He’s…his feelings for you have him convinced you’re a different man. Or at least, he’s convinced that you’re the man you were before you got your hands on the information Hojo left in the mansion. You’ve got nothing to lose by being straight with me.”

Sephiroth mulled over her demand, considering telling her what she clearly wanted to hear just to see her reaction and get revenge at being accused. Doing so would only hinder the purpose he had in inviting her into the house, however. With a sigh, he turned to her and looked her in the eyes. “I think I’ve hurt you quite enough, Tifa.”

There it was. The pain, the broken dreams, the agony of loss…the mirror of her eyes cracked and tears filled them. “An apology?” She scoffed, “From the great Sephiroth? Isn’t that beneath you?”

“I never said it was an apology,” Sephiroth corrected softly, still holding her gaze, “At the time I thought I was justified. I thought I was avenging my mother and doing her will. Apologizing for that would be asking for forgiveness, which I will not do. It’s pointless, it changes nothing, and ultimately I think it would be cowardly. If I knew then what I know now, I would have realized that the whispers in my head were lies and perhaps I could have ignored or fought against Jenova’s influence. I would hope that I would have done things differently, such as taking my rage out on my ‘father’-“ He spat the word, “instead of your town.”

He paused and lowered his eyes, his long silver lashes casting shadows over his cheekbones. “Asking you to forgive my actions would absolve me of responsibility and put the onus of recovery on you. I don’t make excuses for myself and I don’t expect others to fix my errors. I’ll find a more direct way to pay my dues. Until then, feel free to despise me, loathe me, wish me dead—just do yourself a favor and get it out of your system, before you go on this rescue operation.”

He fell silent and watched her, waiting for her to react to his words. She just stared at him with a bewildered expression on her face for a while, tears slowly filling her eyes and trickling down her cheeks. He saw her expression changing as her thoughts raced and he braced himself.

Tifa picked apart Sephiroth’s words mentally and it occurred to her that in his obscure way, he was trying to help her deal with her feelings. It made her angry because it reminded her that beneath everything, he was still human. She wanted him to be a monster, wanted to see him only as the murdering beast that took her friends, her town and her father away from her. All of the repressed misery and anger welled up inside of her and she snapped.

“Stop pretending to be human,” she heard herself say in a raw voice. “You’re nothing but a monster! You took it all away from me and now you’re standing here with the NERVE to tell me I have your PERMISSION to hate you? How DARE you!” She went at him then, too enraged to care whether she died as a result. Tifa punched that angelic face, hard enough to make his head snap to the side and back.

Something inside of her screamed that she was going to die now, as Sephiroth slowly recovered from the hit and looked at her with narrowed, glowing eyes. She’d thrown the first punch and the constraints of the trigger would allow him to attack her now. She trembled with anger and adrenaline, getting ready to launch another attack.

Sephiroth didn’t retaliate. He didn’t even reach up to rub the place on his jaw where she’d struck him. He only stared at her.

“Fight me, you bastard!” Tifa shrieked incoherently. She lost all sense of reason and coordination, swinging blindly at him. He caught both of her wrists and stared into her eyes, his expression unreadable. He released her and stood waiting, still not retaliating against her attacks. Unable to understand why he was doing this but possessed of a sense of honor that wouldn’t allow her to use her martial skills on an unarmed, non-aggressive opponent, Tifa started to pummel his chest in a stereotypically girlish manner, with the soft part of her small fists striking him instead of her knuckles. She occasionally shoved him and slapped him across the face but he still didn’t react except to stand there and let her do it.

Sephiroth took her tantrum stoically, knowing that Tifa was more than capable of putting the hurt to him if she chose to use her skills. Instead, she was venting all of her rage in a way that would give her the satisfaction of hitting him without provoking a serious fight. As it was, he couldn’t stop himself from wincing a bit. Tifa was much stronger than other women of her size and her slaps and soft-fisted punches were affectively painful. He knew he’d have bruises and welts from the abuse but his calculating mind told him this was the most logical and least harmful way to handle the situation. He half expected her to start with the hair pulling and scratching but Tifa was a tomboy at heart and slapping was as far as she allowed her feminine delicacy to slide.

After a few minutes she began to sob. Sephiroth really wasn’t expecting a cliché with the brunette, but she surprised him by sagging against him and crying raggedly. He frowned and tried to think of what to do next. Her hands were pressed against his chest and so was her face. She wasn’t embracing him, thank Gaia, but it was still awkward. Giving comfort was an alien thing to Sephiroth, particularly when the person who needed it had just finished slapping, pushing and punching him.

~I should have expected this but somehow I thought Lockheart would sooner kiss a snake than touch me. Where the hell are you Cloud? You’re the one that should be taking care of this part!~

Trapped in the situation, he had two choices. The first one was to pull away from her and tell her to pull herself together. While that was highly tempting, it wasn’t conductive to helping her deal with her resentment and might make the situation worse. The second option was to…to…hold…her.

~For fuck’s sake…why couldn’t she just get her licks in and be done with it?~

Another voice that sounded suspiciously like Zackary’s broke into his thoughts.

~You owe her this much, man. The least you can do is give her a little comfort and maybe a pat on the back or two. Suck it up, Pal.~

“Shut up, Zackary,” Sephiroth muttered. He hadn’t meant to say it aloud but evidently he did.

“What?” Tifa sniffled against his chest.

“Nothing,” Sephiroth answered quickly. He gingerly put his arms around her and waited for her to cry it out.

~******************************~

Cloud returned home eagerly, wanting to apologize to Sephiroth for being so dramatic that morning and taking off without saying goodbye. After pulling into the garage and locking it up, he went into the house without even taking his goggles off, hungry for the sight, feel and scent of his lover. The first thing he noticed when he walked through the door leading into the house was the sound of Tifa’s voice, coming from the living room. He couldn’t imagine her willingly coming into the house to be alone with Sephiroth, so his first reaction was to charge into the living room to make sure she was okay. He stopped himself when he realized that her voice was calm. She was saying something about Midgar and defense.

Confused as to why she was here when he knew damned well she could hardly stand the sight of Sephiroth, Cloud hurried into the living room—though at a less brisk pace than he originally planned. He stopped when he passed through the hallway entrance and found Tifa calmly sitting on the recliner, taking a cup of tea from Sephiroth, who stood over her. Cloud tore his goggles off of his head and blinked at the two of them. Sephiroth looked like he had a faint bruise on the right side of his jaw and Tifa’s eyes were swollen as if she’d been crying. They both stopped their conversation and looked at him when he passed the threshold into the living room.

“Uh…hey Tifa. Is…is everything okay?” Cloud asked with trepidation.

“Not really. Everyone’s been trying to reach you all day long. Cid’s picking everyone up on the Highwind and coming here to get us, if you’ll come with.”

“What’s going on?” Cloud demanded, crossing the room to kneel before her. “Are you okay?” He looked up at Sephiroth. “Did you hurt her?!”

Sephiroth parted his lips to answer but Tifa beat him to it. “Actually it’s more like the other way around,” she explained. “I…I kind of slapped him around a little. He never touched me.”

Cloud’s eyes went round. “You slapped Sephiroth around?” He looked from her to his lover and back again. “You let her?”

“We can discuss that later,” Sephiroth said with a shrug. “Don’t you want to know why your friends are on their way, Cloud?”

Cloud groaned and put his gloved hands over his eyes, rubbing with futility as he felt a headache coming on. “Yeah, someone please tell me what the hell’s going on.”

Tifa explained what had happened in Midgar. “So are you with us, Cloud?”

He rolled his eyes. “That’s a stupid question. Of course I am.” He looked at Sephiroth hesitantly. “With any luck, he is too. What do you say, Sephiroth?”

“I could use the exercise,” the silver-haired man said casually. “You may find it difficult to convince your friends to work with me, however.”

“I’ve told them all about the clones and they know you’re the real Sephiroth,” Cloud answered.

“Which doesn’t change the fact that I still have a history,” Sephiroth reminded calmly.

“They’ll cope,” Tifa said with confidence, drawing an amazed look from Cloud. “If I can do it, they can too.”

Cloud was full of questions, but he didn’t know how to ask them yet. “I’ll go and get Fenrir ready. Tifa, if there’s anything you need you should go home and get it, then meet us back here. I’ll try to get in touch with Cid to let him know we’ll be waiting at my place.”

She nodded in compliance and downed her tea before standing up to leave. She paused on her way out the door and exchanged a look of understanding with Sephiroth. Then she left, leaving poor Cloud wondering what went on during his delivery.

When she was gone, Cloud turned to look at Sephiroth. “She hit you?” He asked, knowing that Sephiroth couldn’t have initiated a fight. When the other man nodded, he followed up with; “And you didn’t do anything in retaliation?”

“Correct.” Sephiroth answered evenly.

Cloud stepped closer, holding the other man in his sapphire gaze. “You could have. I made sure you could at least defend yourself, even if you can’t kill someone to do it. So why didn’t I come home to find Tifa beaten half to death on the floor?”

Sephiroth returned his level stare. “It didn’t suit my purpose.”

Cloud closed the rest of the distance between them and stared searchingly up at him. “Why not? What’s your purpose?”

“Maybe it’s to gain your trust and lead you all to believe you have me sufficiently tamed,” Sephiroth said in a bored tone. In truth, he wasn’t comfortable with these questions and there was an odd feeling of hurt lurking somewhere inside of him that he couldn’t understand. The way Cloud had immediately accused him of harming his friend when he came into the house made it clear that he didn’t trust him. It shouldn’t have bothered Sephiroth but for some reason it did. He was being deliberately cold to conceal the disappointment he felt. Being feared and mistrusted was nothing new to him, after all.

Cloud stared at him for a moment, then smiled slowly. “What, afraid someone’s going to see your compassionate side, Sephiroth?”

Sephiroth snorted and averted his eyes. “Think what you like.”

“Something tells me I’m getting warm,” Cloud teased.

Sephiroth glared at him. “It wasn’t practical to leave her floundering in her rage. I simply offered her a way to climb out and move on. It wasn’t out of charity, if that’s what you believe.”

Cloud nodded but his eyes were twinkling, silently telling Sephiroth that he knew better. “Right. No charity, no compassion. It’s totally logical for a man like you to stand there and take hits when he doesn’t have to, especially when you don’t give a damn about that person’s feelings or reasons.”

Cloud started to turn away to get Fenrir ready for the trip, but he paused and threw over his shoulder, “Sephiroth, being human isn’t as bad as you might think. You aren’t a monster.”

Sephiroth watched him leave the room with narrowed eyes, wondering how in the hell Strife managed to pick up on things that nobody else could.

~******************************~

Tifa returned approximately fifteen minutes later, armed with her best fighting gloves and carrying a duffle bag full of supplies. “Okay, I’ve got first aid supplies, some food and drink, extra clothes and some alcohol.”

Both Cloud and Sephiroth looked at her strangely.

“Clothes?” Cloud asked.

“Alcohol?” Sephiroth queried at the same time.

She rolled her eyes. “Yes, clothes and alcohol! We don’t know how long this is going to take so the change of clothes is just a precaution. The whiskey is supposed to be for medicinal purposes, since the only pain medicine I had was aspirin and we don’t know what the WRO is supplied with. We also don’t know how many wounded we’ll find and we may need more antiseptic than we’ve got available.”

“Just make sure Barret and Cid don’t find it,” Cloud said wryly.

“It’s in a hidden pocket,” Tifa informed him with a grin. “Do you boys already have everything you need packed?”

Sephiroth raised and eyebrow at her. Tifa sighed. “Fine; you big, strong, manly-man-men. Whatever.”

“Yes Mother,” Cloud chuckled. “We’ve got everything we need. Now we’re just waiting for Cid to show up.”

“Well, maybe we could check the news while we wait, to see how it’s going so far?” Tifa suggested.

“Good idea,” Cloud agreed.

Sephiroth declined to join them, choosing instead to change into his standard fighting uniform and go upstairs to warm up for what was to come. Cloud watched him go with a frown, hoping that he hadn’t overstepped himself earlier.

He found it difficult to follow the news broadcast because he was distracted. It wasn’t that he didn’t care about what was currently happening in Midgar, but so far nothing particularly interesting had happened by way of progress or further damage. The screen showed an aerial view of the city, where a geyser of green Mako could be seen shooting out from the ground close to the northern walls.

The pressure caused by the geyser pushing to the surface had caused an earthquake strong enough to put several cracks in the outer walls of the city. It was through those cracks that the invading creatures were able to get in and the WRO had its hands full preventing more from entering. Incidentally this meant they could only spare so much manpower to move into the city and clear out the monsters that were already there, as well as rescue any trapped citizens. That was where Cloud and his friends would come in.

After a while, Cloud was getting restless and he was just about to go upstairs and check on Sephiroth when impatient banging on his front door signaled the arrival of Cid.

“You in there, Cloud? Hurry the hell up, would ya? Everyone’s waiting!”

Cloud hurried to the door and opened it. Cid hadn’t changed much, though his hair was a little longer in the back than usual. He held a cigar in one hand and a cell phone in the other. “Looking good, kid,” he said to the blonde as he eyed him. “Where’s your pet psycho?”

“Do me a favor and don’t call him that,” Cloud sighed. “Things will go a lot easier if you don’t offend him, trust me.”

Cid shrugged. “If you say so. The Highwind is just outside town. I’ve got a truck here to take Tifa and me to it. I guess you and psycho are taking your bike?”

Tifa came up behind Cloud. “Seriously Cid…don’t call him that. He’s unpredictable as it is and I’d rather not test the restraints.”

Cid smiled at the brunette. “There she is. How are ya, darlin’? Still as cute as a bug’s ear, I see.”

Cloud stepped aside so that Tifa could hug the pilot. “Not bad,” she smiled. “How’s Shera?”

“She’s coming with,” Cid grumbled. “She’s got her damned gadgets with her and she wants to get readings…says she thinks she can find a way to purify the geyser and set the flow back to how it should be, or some shit like that. We’d better hurry.”

“I’ll start loading everything while Cloud gets Psycho…er…I mean Sephiroth from upstairs,” Tifa said, shooting an apologetic look to Cloud for her slip of the tongue.

Cloud groaned softly. He was starting to get a bad feeling about all of this.

~**************************~

“What’s HE doing here?” Yuffie said as soon she saw Sephiroth. Cloud had just finished securing Fenrir in the cargo hold with his lover’s help and his fears were confirmed as soon as they set foot on the upper deck with everyone else.

“He’s here to help,” Cloud said crossly. “Hello to you too.”

Yuffie gave him a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Come on, you know I’m glad YOU’RE here. I just want to know why you brought HIM. We don’t need help from the likes of him.” She pointed at Sephiroth rudely, glaring at him.

“I’m with the pipsqueak,” Barret rumbled. “Just send him home, Spiky!”

“His abilities could prove an asset,” Nanaki cut in. “I think that for the sake of the people of Midgar, we should put our differences aside.”

Yuffie gave the lion an incredulous look. “After what he did? Midgar’s in such horrible shape in the first place because of him!” Evidently she’d forgotten that Sephiroth wasn’t actually responsible for Meteor or the resulting destruction caused by it and the rampaging Weapons.

Barret added his glare to Yuffie’s, not bothering to correct her.

Sephiroth frowned right back at them. “I’ve never seen any of you people before in my life,” he stated calmly. Then his eyes narrowed on Yuffie and a spark of recognition lit them. “Except you. You were just a kid the last time I saw you. Godo’s daughter, correct?”

“That’s right,” Yuffie answered.

“You threw rocks at my men and I,” Sephiroth murmured.

“Well, you were invading my country,” Yuffie countered. “So what?”

Sephiroth shrugged. “Fair enough. What’s done is done. The rest of you I’ve never seen before.”

A tall man with raven hair, wearing a mixture of black leather and tattered red clothing, stepped forward. “Jenova orchestrated those occurrences, using replicas of Sephiroth to do her will,” he reminded Yuffie and Barret. “He was who she intended to be her harbinger…her dark angel. She couldn’t use the real Sephiroth to do it, so she created copies of him.”

Sephiroth stared into the man’s ruby eyes, feeling a strange sense of familiarity from him but unable to recall ever seeing him before. “And you are?” he questioned.

“Vincent Valentine. I provided Cloud with the documents containing the truth of your origins.”

“Interesting,” Sephiroth muttered. Aloud, he inquired; “How is it that you had access to them?”

Vincent almost smiled, but his eyes were cold. “I have…connections…to your true mother and your father. I knew where to look, having been an experiment of Hojo’s myself.”

Sephiroth’s fists clenched. He noticed that the lion creature had a number tattoo on his rump and it occurred to him that half of the people on this ship had experienced his “father’s” loving care.

“He’s gone,” Vincent said softly, as if reading Sephiroth’s thoughts. “Focus on something productive.”

Sephiroth was about to make a sarcastic response to that, but his eyes caught sight of something that had him immediately puzzled and confused. There was a giant pink mog hopping toward their group from the opposite side of the deck, and on its back was a little black and white cat wearing a crown and a red cape.

Sephiroth kept his eyes fixated on the approaching creatures and leaned over to whisper; “Strife, what in the hell are those things?”

His amazement doubled when the cat spoke. “Time’s runnin’ short, folks! Why aren’t we airborne yet?”

Cloud laughed, having never seen an expression of open amazement and caution on the other man’s face before. “That’s Cait Sith. The mog is just his ride because he’s too small to keep up with us on his own. He’s…well…he’s a mechanical cat. He’s also Reeve.”

Sephiroth’s frown deepened and he flicked his eyes from Cait Sith to Cloud. “You’re telling me that thing is Reeve?”

“Well, sort of. Reeve made him and he controls him. He sends him out to help when he can’t get away to do it himself. Honestly the cat does a better job than the man, but don’t tell him I said that.”

Sephiroth straightened up and regarded the cat, which was slapping Cid on the back and hollering at him to get a move on. “I’m beginning to wonder if I ever truly woke up,” Sephiroth muttered. “I’ve heard of Nanaki’s tribe but the talking stuffed cat is hard to swallow.”

“You’ll get used to it,” Cloud said with a grin.

Sephiroth smirked at him. “So you say. You surround yourself with interesting allies, Cloud.”

“Um, HELLO,” Yuffie cried, “Are we seriously taking Sephiroth with us?” Of all of them, she at least had as much reason to hate Sephiroth as Cloud and Tifa did. Unfortunately for her neither of the latter two were still holding a grudge.

Sephiroth glared at her and Cloud stepped in front of the tall swordsman to shush his petite friend. “Yeah, we’re taking him with us and you can stop arguing about it. People are hurt and in danger and Sephiroth has the experience and skills to help us save them faster.”

“Come, Yuffie,” Vincent said, putting an arm around the fuming girl’s shoulders. “Shera has some refreshments below deck. You should abide by Cloud’s decision and settle down before we reach Midgar.”

Grumbling under her breath, the young ninja allowed Vincent to guide her away. Cloud sighed with relief, thankful that Vincent had such an influence on Yuffie. He never would have imagined the two of them making such a good team but somehow it worked and the former Turk always managed to curb Yuffie’s reckless nature.

“Anyone else object?” Cloud asked his friends, eyeing each of them in turn except for Nanaki—who had been in favor of including Sephiroth from the beginning.

“I don’t like it,” Barret complained, “but maybe he’ll come in handy after all.”

Tifa didn’t say anything, she only nodded at both Cloud and Sephiroth before going below deck to join Vincent and Yuffie. Nanaki was indifferently licking his fur, bathing himself like a normal feline. Cait Sith was busy trying to back seat fly while Cid impatiently swatted at him and cursed while alternately working the controls.

“Cloud, come get this fucking cat off my back!” Cid shouted when he got the engine going.

~********************************~

-To be continued