Love of the Ancients

Aeris readied herself, took a breath, and made the last jump. She didn't let the breath out until she had walked to the center of the platform, well away from the edges. She reached up and back, touching the materia she wore in her hair, before spinning, a noise having startled her. "Who's there?" She called breathlessly as she looked into the shadows of the large room, trembling just a little. "Show yourself!" She caught a movement, and her jaw fell as a familiar form emerged from the darkness. "You!" /How was he hiding...?/

Cool, faintly-glowing green eyes studied her, taking her measure. "Me." He smirked.

"What are you doing here, Sephiroth?"

"I came to talk to you, Aeris." He held up his gloved hands. "My hands are empty; my sword is sheathed."

"Doesn't mean you're any less dangerous."

His lips curled, and he bowed his head slightly. "Touché. If it makes you feel any better..." He put out his hands and closed his eyes. After a few moments, several materia took shape in his hands, including frigidly black Meteor. He crouched and delicately piled the spherical stones in a neat pyramid, then straightened, gracefully flicking his long silver hair back from his face with practiced motions of his head and shoulders.

Her gaze was, naturally, transfixed by his movements. She doubted she had ever seen a more completely, perfectly beautiful man in all of her life. She didn't move, barely breathed as he stepped onto the graduated pillars, ascending almost effortlessly. However, he misjudged the distance between the top pillar and the edge of the platform and lost his balance; she lunged forward without thinking and grabbed his hand, pulling him to more stable footing. Then she stared at her hand as though she held a dangerous but quiescent serpent, that could, never-the-less, turn and strike her dead.

"You tremble..." He whispered, gazing down at her as she looked up, uncertain. "Do not fear me... not now..." There was something in his slanted green eyes that she couldn't quite identify.

She swallowed and forced herself to release his hand, stepping back; she could still feel his warmth in the tingling of her skin. "What do you... want to talk about?"

"What must happen tomorrow..." There was a sadness in his voice. "... and how it can be prevented."

"What are you talking about?"

She heard him draw in what could only be a steadying breath. "If you pray for Holy, you will die."

She stared at him, a chill racing along her spine. She had known this was coming, but facing it head-on... "... what?"

"I can stop Meteor at any time, but only if there is no interference. From you or from... him." He couldn't bring himself to say the name.

"Then why...?"

"Why would I do *any*thing at this point?" He turned to look beseechingly around the chamber, his voice ringing from the pillars and walls. "Why should I summon the planet-breaker when I could surely destroy the world with my own power?" He turned back to her, his gaze intense. "To give the planet the same rush as any mortal must feel when they stare death in the eye and escape it."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Like adrenaline..."

"Yes. And with the surge of the Lifestream, I will destroy the meteor, crush it into motes of dust and sweep it back out into space, and still ascend, if not to godhood then close to it." He stepped toward her and took her hands gently; she allowed it. "Holy cannot stop Meteor. It can only make its advance worse."

"How do you know this?"

A little of the intensity faded from his face. "The Weapons have tol... ... it has been done before..." He swallowed. "There is a reason for the trench in the sea, and the mountains at the roof of the world... the world has been cracked before."

"How can I be sure if any of that is true?"

He stroked the backs of her hands with his thumbs. "Come *with* me." His clear green eyes met her blue ones, his stare once again intense, but with another emotion. "We belong together..."

She swallowed, trembling, as he lifted one of his hands to cup her cheek. "Sephiroth..."

"We are the only two in this world... please, Aeris..." Their lips were almost touching. "... help me..." Then they met, and melted together.

Sephiroth's mind opened like a flower, embracing hers in tendrils of thought, even as sensation welled in her body. At his touch, she felt as though she were filled with pale green light... but there was a darkness lurking close at hand... "... Jenova..."

"Help me defeat her, Aeris..." He pleaded faintly, rocking against her as one of his hands rose to the buttons of her dress, undoing them slowly. She shivered, trapped, conflicted; he was asking for her help, just as surely as he was asking her to abstain from acting against him, but she was also terrified of the darkness she sensed, which could only be the Crisis from the Sky.

"So much light..." She whispered as he ran his lips over her neck, making her shiver. She gasped as cool air hit her skin, her dress and jacket pooling around her feet; he drew her against him under his long coat, surrounding her in the ebon folds even as her mind was surrounded by his light. She trembled as he raked his teeth over the sensitive skin at the juncture of her neck and shoulder, and gasped as one of his fingers wandered into the cleft of her rear.

"Let me love you, Aeris," he breathed as the finger slid forward, probing gently. In answer, her hands found the lapels of his long coat and slid it down his shoulders, baring the harness he wore underneath, and he sighed at her touch on his smooth skin. He finished removing the coat, and his gloves, then his harness, and pulled her close, kissing her passionately. Her fingers threaded in his silver mane, pulling lightly as she whimpered. One of his hands cupped her virgin mound and stroked gently, making her pant delicately as his tongue entered her mouth. She all but cried out as one of his fingers entered her, and he held her closely as her knees buckled. "Mmmm, so hot inside..." He smiled at her as the finger thrust, joined by a second, making her whimper delicately.

He drew her down and laid her on his coat, which still bore much of his body warmth, and kissed the firm, begging mounds of her breasts, nipping softly on the hardening points. She shuddered, hugging his head firmly. "Oh god... I want..." She gasped out hotly, then cried out as his fingertips found the spongy shelf, laden with nerves.

He grinned as her sheath shuddered around his fingers, still massaging that sensitive spot firmly. He sat back on his heels, withdrawing his fingers and licking them. "Sweeeeeet..." He purred, then stood to finish undressing. She watched, cheeks flushed and eyes glazed, then gasped quietly as he knelt beside her head. His shaft was slender and long, and quiveringly hard, throbbing as she watched. He drew in a breath as she reached up and touched it shyly, then moaned as she stroked it with more confidence. He groaned as she licked the underside of the head, then sucked it into her mouth. "Where did you learn that?"

She blinked up at him, then flushed as she released him. "I s-s-spied on Tifa and Cloud once..."

He chuckled quietly. "And I thought you were so pure..." He teased gently as he slid back, then laid over her. "Ready, love?"

"Y-y-yes... oh GOD!" She cried out as he thrust into her. It hurt, a little, but not as badly as she had been fearing it would. He watched her face and stroked her hair as he held her, then fluttered delicate kisses across her flushed cheeks and forehead. He arched his body, withdrawing slowly, then thrusting into her again, drawing a moan of pleasure from her.

He smiled, then closed his eyes with a groan of his own. "You're so tight..."

"So deep..." She breathed delicately.

Their minds were melting together, joining, all sense of self vanishing as he moved inside her. In those few moments of thought she had left to her, she understood Sephiroth, more completely than she had ever thought possible. Then her world was awash with light and warmth and pleasure and *him*, and she thought not at all...

***

Her eyes opened, and she blinked as she sat up. Sephiroth stirred and awoke, then sat up beside her, holding her warmly. "Sephiroth, I..."

"Shhh, I know." He breathed, his arms tightening around her gently. "All I ask... is that you forgive me when the time comes." He stared into her eyes.

A bond had been forged between them that night, and through that bond, each knew what the other would do, and why. She smiled, somewhat sadly, and nodded. "Of course..." She leaned up and kissed him softly. "I love you."

"And I, you. Forever. I will find you in the Lifestream when all is said and done." He took her hand and brought it to his chest, resting over his strongly-beating heart. Then he leaned back, drawing her down on top of him, and they loved eachother as only those descended from the Ancients can.

And so it was, the next day, when Masamune pierced her flesh, the only thing that surprised her was that it hurt... but only a little. His voice whispered into her mind as she fled her wounded body, "I'm sorry... I love you..."

"... forever..." And she was gone... and her vision came to pass...