Chapter Text
DIVINE INTERVENTION
Sephiroth walks stiffly through the hallways of the First Class Soldiers’ apartments. Pain, numb, hurt are words mixed into one as the silver-haired General reaches the metallic door to his room.
Left hand swiftly pulls out a Shinra identification card from one of his coat’s inner pocket, taps it against a scanner on the left of his apartment door, and briskly walks inside as soon as it opens.
The stoic and emotionless act immediately dropped once the entrance seals shut, shielding him from the eyes of security cameras or any Firsts who ‘happens to be around the area’.
Sephiroth’s soft ragged breathing is the only sound in his apartment. Sweat begins to show on his skin; his shaky gloved hand which still clutches his ID card raises slowly to be put back in its place. Leather creaks when he takes a few steps, his vision starts to blur and Sephiroth lets himself fall, no longer trying to hold back against the exhaustion that rules him over.
But, his body doesn’t meet with his apartment’s hard tiled floor.
A soft but solid body of another person saves him from colliding onto them. The light ringing of bell anklets Sephiroth so often hearing are soothing, followed by a pair of wings envelope him like a lover’s embrace. Slender fingers slide easily through his long hair with the occasional soft scratches against his scalp leaves him boneless and weak. A well-earned reward after an entire dreadful day of Hojo’s injections and tests.
Sephiroth unconsciously whimpers out his rescuer’s name, “Cloud…”
“Shh…… Just rest. I’ll take care of you,” his ‘God’ whispers to him like a lullaby. Everytime he speaks, he feels warm, light, and joyful. No other person has the ability to win over the General’s affection, besides his two closest friends, Genesis Rhapsodos and Angeal Hewley. Despite being friends, Sephiroth never opens his heart to them fully. His Cloud however…
His ‘Angel’, Cloud Strife, is far beyond anything he would’ve imagined. The light of his life, literally shines and chased away the darkness that crept into his mind when he was just a five-year-old.
Little Sephiroth had read about myths and legends of Creatures, Gods and Goddesses (a gift from Professor Gast on his birthday) whenever he wasn’t out sword training or strapped to the table to be experiment on. From the moment he turned the pages, he was intrigued by it. He absorbed all he can as he flipped through every single page, each and every detail of magnificent and superior beings as his cat-slit-eyes hungrily scanned across pictures and the stories about them for more.
But he never knew he would meet one, face to face.
Everything about the ‘Angel’ screamed ‘God’. All the gold and white somehow makes the man in front of Sephiroth looks regal, untouchable, and otherworldly. BENEVOLENT.
What the ‘God’ wears look unrealistically soft. Pure white garb covers his form in all the right places to reveal his body structure; slender and yet, muscular enough to identify him as a male. Sleeveless and v-shaped at the front, revealing a bit of his chest and both of his shoulders bare. A thin gold neck bracelet circled his pale white throat. Twin white sleeves swaying gently and brushing against his thighs held by gold armor armbands, while the black fingerless gloves peak underneath them; both triangular-shaped to form golden bands which wrap around his middle fingers. Gold bangles around his wrists; gold bell anklets fitting comfortably below his shins and barefoot. The full garb secured by a thick, elegant black cloth with intricate patterns of golden lotuses around the God’s waist and tied by a long thin golden sash and hangs close to his left hip, dangling a single gold wing pendant. The most majestic about the God most of all, are his golden wings. They flutter a bit before the largest wings in the middle fold themselves behind their owner, the ones on top and the ones below crisscrossing each other in a sense that they almost look like large hands forming a prayer at a church.
Sephiroth remained speechless for quite a while. The God was majestic, yes, but what caught the boy awestruck was the being’s face. Spiky-haired soft like threads of gold decorate his head like a bright halo. Delicate, soft, beautiful… Everything about his feature is ethereal. His plush pink lips. His eyes though… A pair of eyes blue as the ocean, bright as the moon’s glow, soft as a feather’s stroke across his skin.
Then, the memories came.
Flashes of past lives flooding into his mind crashing like waves against the cliffs, small feet staggered clumsily while Sephiroth clutches his head with gritted teeth, stubborn enough to keep himself from screaming. His pupil turned into thin slits with a vengeful headache.
JENOVA. REUNION. CALAMITY. METEORFALL. DESTRUCTION. REBIRTH.
He blacks out as he falls into the Golden God’s embrace.
Those memories, were the triggers he needed to reawaken himself. The five-year-old Sephiroth of this world no longer exist. The TRUE Sephiroth had taken his place; his movements hold grace; the way he wields his makeshift nodachi just like the way a skilled warrior danced in a battleground filled with enemies, leaving the scientists and trainers-in-charge shocked and confused.
Of course, Hojo took notice of his abnormal behavior since that day when his colleague gave the boy a useless copy of a book about make-belief creatures and what-not, talking to a non-existent being in his cell a handful of times through multiple surveillance cameras had added more reasons for him to take action into his own hands. After that, Sephiroth was forced to submerge into a tank filled with Mako which the scientist casually implied as a ‘necessary’ act to wash away any tainted thoughts his specimen might have had.
However, everything had gone awry once they’d started the boy’s punishment.
Cloud went on a rampage.
Tubes and cylinders shatter into countless of deadly shards, piercing straight through one of the technicians and assistants within close range. The rest had all but scattered, screaming and running frantically towards the nearest exits under the loud blaring sound of the siren on repeat.
The blonde God managed to get Sephiroth out of the shattered tank, but he stopped in his tracks when he saw Hojo standing in front him as if there is nothing wrong happening to his surroundings.
Cloud did a double-take, ‘Wait… He can see me?!’
Hojo grins as if he read his mind, he raises his hand and adjusts his dark round glasses, and it somehow makes him look foreboding, “Ah! Good to see you again, Specimen C! How exquisite you’ve become! A mere mortal transformed into a being of such radiance and power! You’ve never failed to amaze me, truly.”
“No… No. You’re… You mean you’re…” Cloud stutters, eyes widen in shock.
The madman cackles and responds back, “Yes! Yes! You’re not the only ones with past memories intact. For I too, have surprises up my sleeves! And not to worry about ridding JENOVA’s body, for I had already merge myself with hers!” His chuckling soon became hysterical, another voice soon joins in in-sync with the rhythm of the bone-chilling laughter; a feminine voice mixes with Hojo’s own oily one.
This is when Sephiroth’s small body burst out a single black wing and curls itself covering the boy’s whole body. Cloud steps back, already preparing what is to come.
Black feathers spread out when the wing burst out again, revealing an adult Sephiroth in its wake. Armed in his infamous black leathered long coat, the shoulder guards, the leather buckle crisscrossing his chest, the waist guard underneath the coat, the eye-catching belt buckle with a wing motif in the center of it, complete with his two pairs of belts strapped both the top and below his knees. He stretches out his left hand and Masamune materializes in his grip, the tip of the blade points at Hojo’s smug face.
Cloud can sense Sephiroth’s irritation, anger, hatred boiling just beneath the surface while his facial expression remains cold and aloof. The blonde knows the older male is trying his best to protect him from the abomination, the worst nightmare of all that had followed them even in this life.
A sigh escapes from Cloud’s lips, “I still don’t understand why you’d have to sacrifice your freedom to keep being Hojo’s experiment even till now.”
Sephiroth’s eyes were closed for quite some time when they’d both settled comfortably on the couch with the General’s head laying on top of Cloud’s lap, letting the latter dabs his face for any traces of sweat.
He chooses this moment to open his acid green eyes.
“A diversion, Cloud. I forced you to abandon me because there was no other way. JENOVA can still control me and her Stigma can still hurt you even after you’ve transcended into Godhood.
“The Lifestream now flows through your veins and I was afraid of her tainting you, controlling you like how I-“ Sephiroth cuts off immediately to avoid that certain topic, he shakes his head and move on.
“That was why I’d shifted you to The Brothers’ sanctuary, not allowing him to find and capture you should you’d been able to escape from the lab. I admit I did relished the moment when he went ballistic of not been able to obtained you, though the victory was sweet, I had to cut it short.
“So I made a bargain with him. Letting two of your friends go untouched and unharmed as I volunteer myself as their replacement.”
Cloud nods knowingly and whispers, “Nanaki and Vincent.”
“Mm. Hojo scoffed at that, of course. But a man so driven by power and corruption, will never refuse the offer I gave him,” the silver-haired man’s smirk matches with Sephiroth’s tone, such as the ones Cloud saw many, many times when he achieved his goals.
But Cloud just nonchalantly shrugs and replies, “Giving him more of what he wants?”
Now the man with his head on his lap gives him a wide grin.
“You read my mind.”
Cloud scoffs and roll his eyes, “Of course I did. I’m your other half. It’s what we do.”
Sephiroth can’t help but laughs at his lover’s adorable behavior.
‘A feisty partner and a well-respected equal, indeed.’
The General sits up and pretends to not take notice of the blonde’s reddened face while he adjusts himself to sit comfortably next to the latter. His partner’s wings had long vanished since they moved to the couch, he still wears the beautiful long white garb which enticingly reveals his long slender bare legs just beneath a slit below his right hip. It reminds Sephiroth of the garments called kimonos the Wutaians wore during one of their large festivities or at important functions. He wonders if he can contact the Kisaragi girl to help him purchase some-
A loud smack emits loudly in the General’s dim apartment sincerely by Cloud’s back hand. It seems like Cloud isn’t too fond of his ‘fancy’…
“No can do, Sephiroth. One more thought of that and you won’t be seeing me anytime soon.”
The silver-haired man can’t help but hissed softly under his breath and frowns. Now that was a hit on the mark. So, he just silently sits beside him in solemn and watches his lover conjures clear, crystalline water out of thin air and slowly forms into a sphere, much like the size of a materia.
Even after all of that ‘little fight’ they had, the taller man raises his left arm and wraps around Cloud’s shoulder, tilting his head down to give him a gentle kiss on his forehead.
Cloud then moves the sphere of water to glide towards him, coaxes him to drink it.
It is a strange feeling. Without a base to support the liquid, Sephiroth just drinks it like a man floating in a spaceship with no gravity. He finishes swallowing it in seconds.
Cloud wastes no time to wipe his mouth dry by using his bare hand, gloveless.
Sephiroth takes this opportunity to grab the blonde’s wrist and presses a firm kiss on the palm of his pale hand.
Cloud’s bright crystal blue eyes widens, then turns gentle and soft, “Seph……”
Sephiroth responds to him in equal manner, “Whatever happens, know that I will always be by your side. I will protect all those you love, and I will destroy all those that cause you harm. As the Dragon Emperor told me during one of my visits to his sanctuary, ‘If someone could reach into my chest and tear out my heart and turn it into a living, breathing person, YOU would be it.’ The same as you being the God of Life, and I, the God of Death. Neither can exist without the other.”
Cloud can only huff and accepts his lover’s cheesy romantic declaration in defeat. The shorter male grudgingly accepts how easy Sephiroth’s persuasion won him over more than a lifetime ago.
A low, rumble chuckle of amusement from Sephiroth causes Cloud to slap him again. This time, he chooses his target of choice right on his chest out of embarrassment. After he slapped, Cloud lets his head collide against the same spot, unable to raise his head and look at Sephiroth’s reaction.
Fortunately for him, Sephiroth chooses to remain silent, his leather covered arms now wrap themselves around him. The left rests on top of his head, the right secures his waist.
“Aren’t you tired…?”
“No, my heart. Go to sleep. I will still be here when you wake.”
Cloud complies, letting sleep takes over before he felt Sephiroth kisses his lips and murmurs against them, “My everything…”