Author: Fianna
Title: Prologue: Redeeming Grace
Rating: R
Warning: Non-canon Final Fantasy VII story
Characters: Sephiroth
Disclaimer: Sephiroth belongs to the FFVII franchise but is just too yummy not to write about. Cloud and friends belong to Square Enix… But Anath is mine. No money is made from this story and all characters are written as true to character as possible and used with great respect.
****
The sign flashed overhead, neon glow leaving a hazy afterimage when it blinked out, only to return in a glare of amber that lit up the night. Mako energy flowed through those tubes, mako energy that was the lifeblood of the planet. The sign flashed again, words inconsistent with the lifestream forming them. Peace, long life… the advertisement for Shinra glared brightly. A conglomerate grown far too powerful, they controlled the planet in an iron fist, providing needed energy as well as military might at the cost of life itself. The mako energy, mined from the planet's very core was the essence of the planet, of its inhabitants, the very plants that covered its surface. The lifestream that held the world together was being drained, refined into magic orbs of materia, the planet slowly dying.
But Shinra, hungry for power, and a people hungry for the necessities of life went on. But at a cost they would soon perhaps regret.
Prologue:
The basement file room always gave her the creeps, dark closed spaces, even the elevator made her nervous. She had been lucky to bribe a runner into keeping her company as she ran the file boxes to the storage room. Jaco was not her best choice, the gangly youth wore glasses thicker than her thumb and talked non-stop, but the short notice had given her no choice.
She touched her skirt pocket for her phone, never willing to come down so far without it and then the files on the cart before her. Six boxes to put into the deep storage and then she could return to her miniscule office, which at least had a small window, as well as a door she'd jimmied so it wouldn't close. No, close confines were not in her comfort zone.
Jaco, still muttering suddenly caught her attention.
“Yeah, I'll be in SOLDIER one day, mark my words! As soon as I get out of the dead end job, you'll see me in lights just like Sephiroth!”
Anath looked at the youth in amusement. Of anyone she knew he'd be the least likely candidate for the military arm of Shinra. “Certainly, Jaco. I quiver in my shoes now.”
He didn't catch the sarcasm, only smirked at her, peering through the bottle thick glasses. “That's right. I'll be better than Sephiroth.” He snorted a wheezing laugh and then folded his arms over his chest looking smug.
Anath sighed faintly and was actually glad when the elevator slid open. Sephiroth was Shinra's most elite soldier; ranked as a master in swordsmanship as well as magic he was held as a role model for those who wanted to become a member of Shinra's police force. They crossed the concrete parking area to the far door where Jaco leaned against the wall.
“You're lucky I came down with you. Even for the money, you'd be hard pressed finding someone as good as me to er… protect you.”
Anath smiled warmly, patting his shoulder as she finished punching the code into the door. “I wouldn't want anyone else, Jaco. So why don't you stand guard here, while I put these away. Keep the door open or I can't see very well… these… ah lights are so dim.”
Jaco nodded taking his place in front of the open door. “Just don't take too long, I'm expected up top in a few minutes for an important meeting.”
She pushed the cart into the narrow room and then glanced over her shoulder at the boy. The important meeting was more likely another gossip fest with one of the runners. They seemed to work little and talked a lot. But it wasn't any of her business. She was lucky to have what she did.
She shoved two boxes into place on one of the shelves and then moved around the back for the third. After she slid it into place she peeked around the corner to see Jaco still standing guard and then hurried back to the end of the shelving unit. She pulled out a folder tucked away beside the wall with a sigh. She opened it carefully; the newspaper clippings were thin and fell out easily, the manila folder behind them glaring at her in the yellowed light.
Sephiroth. His life, his file, stolen from Shinra. She'd found it among some other files thrown on her desk, obviously misplaced. How would they know she had it? At any rate, the information inside was shocking and achingly familiar. She had hidden it and then began collecting the articles, anything about him. She touched a yellowed copy, one of her first with a frown. Idolized by the lower classes, he'd become an icon for Shinra, a symbol of their strength and power. Yet what was held in the report in her hands would change that drastically, if he knew, if the world really knew.
She could only hope that he never learned.
The sound of a truck coming down the ramp into the basement had her folding the file quickly and stuffing it back into its slot. The rest of the boxes she slid off the cart into a corner for later.
Jaco was eying the truck suspiciously, arms folded as if he was really a guard. Anath shoved the door shut; making sure it was locked and then pushed the cart back across the drive to the elevator. Jaco followed slowly, still watching the truck with narrowed eyes as she pushed the button for the elevator.
The doors at the back of the truck flew open and Jaco squeaked as two young men leaped out, pushing the doors open wider.
“Soldiers!” Jaco chortled in glee as Anath glanced over her shoulder nervously.
The two young men laughed and one looked up to see them, his gaze brushing Jaco and dismissing him quickly but lingered on Anath. He smiled an easy grin that lit up his face and said something to his friend. The other, dressed as an MP turned, blond hair spiked in disarray with a shrug.
Jaco snorted in disappointment. “Ah he's not a soldier, just an MP.” He bounced on his toes as the dark haired Soldier leaned inside the truck.
The deep voice replying to the young man's question sent a chill down Anath's spine, even as she stared at the elevator door. Jaco's silence beside her made her finally look at him to see his eyes nearly falling out of his head as the third person in the truck stepped out.
Silver hair slid past the man's shoulders as he bent double to climb out, the black leather coat hanging nearly to his ankles. The over-the-knee boots were buckled tight to his thighs and the long sword in his hand slid into the sheath on his back with a sharp metallic hiss.
Jaco was nearly drooling in his excitement. “It's Sephiroth, Anath!”
She knew very well who the tall Soldier was. The dark haired Soldier slammed the doors shut but Anath was not watching, rather facing the elevator resisting the urge to punch the up button again and then again.
“You're soldiers aren't you?” Jaco insisted as the three crossed to the elevator.
‘Yeah, why?” the dark haired young man asked with a grin and a wink at Anath.
Jaco laughed, starting in on his spiel about joining Soldier. She was impressed as the young man, Zack he'd said, listened attentively while he continued to appraise Anath as well. The blond said little, standing back a few steps. Sephiroth appeared beside her just as the doors finally opened.
“The elevators are pretty slow down here,” Zack noted as they stepped inside the narrow box. Jaco for once took the cart, perhaps to look impressive helping her, while grinning enthusiastically. Anath slid into a corner, staring at her feet as the door closed.
Her palms were damp as she drew into the corner, Jaco's voice droning on to Zack. The elevator rose smoothly, yet the tightness in her chest was getting heavier, making breathing normally difficult. The man standing next to her, smelling of leather and something else she couldn't name was silent.
She closed her eyes, attempting to calm the panic rising inside of her and then opened her eyes to stare at the elevator doors. Soon, her floor would come soon and she could flee both the tight confining space as well as the daunting presence at her side. She turned to stare at the metal frame on the doors, realizing that she could see Sephiroth in the reflection, if a bit fuzzy. She gazed at the tall length beside her, the tall boots, the flared leather coat and black gloves hiding long-fingered hands. And then up past a bare chest to the sharp chin and eyes the color of a tropical sea… she felt the blood rush into her cheeks when those eyes met hers in the reflection and a tiny curve appeared at the corner of his mouth.
She looked away instantly, but Zack, leaning against the side of the elevator box caught the tell-tale blush and glanced curiously between the two of them, while Jaco continued unaware. The door finally opened on her floor but Zack moved out first allowing Jaco to exit with the cart. Sephiroth shifted as the doors began to close, holding them open with one hand but forcing her to step around him to get outside. A hand on her elbow caught her from stumbling as her shoe struck the edge of the steel threshold but he said nothing as she pulled it free.
She nodded to Zack who flashed another easy grin and then hurried down the hall after Jaco. She heard the elevator close as she turned into her cubicle and sank down behind her desk with a sigh.
Sephiroth. The newspapers didn't do him justice. She filed her impressions into the back of her mind. It would be something else to think about when she looked inside her folder. The man was supremely confident and self-assured. He was a man who knew what he could do and would without hesitation. She shivered, rubbing her arms. A man to be wary of certainly.
**
The phone rang several times before she could get inside the door to her apartment. She glanced around in surprise; usually Kia was home before she was. Anath dropped her folders on the couch to grab the phone.
“Hello?”
The voice on the other end was fuzzy and she could just make out the words. Anguish filled her as she slowly dropped the receiver, staring blankly in front of her.
Kia was dead.
An explosion at the reactor had taken five of the Shinra employees working late. Kia, her closest friend, her only friend was gone. Anath sank down on the couch with a sob. They'd met at Shinra when Anath had gone to apply for a job. Alone for most of her life the quick friendship with the tiny girl had filled an empty spot in her heart she'd not known was there. With her aid they'd gotten the apartment, just barely able to afford the rent even in the slums. Kia, bright and cheerful to Anath's melancholy ways was gone.
She stared at the phone for a few minutes, unable to accept the reality and then froze with a horrible sense of dismay.
An explosion?
At the Maco Reactor? Another one?
A memo flashed into her mind, read without thought as she processed the innumerable complaints and statements sent to Shinra. Accusations, threats, detailed reports Shinra kept under lock and key and Anath's job to file.
The memo had been from the intelligence department, noting the rumor of yet another attack by the vigilante group AVALANCHE. The rebels were intent on interfering with Shinra's manufacture of Mako energy and Materia and their tactics were often deadly. Had she but known which reactor they were targeting… could she have kept Kia home?
The thought was useless. Kia was gone, she was alone again.
She sobbed into her arms. She was alone again, and the rent was due in a week.
**
Two months later Anath sat huddled in her chair in the corner of the bar, desperate to find some way to evade the proposition facing her, knowing she had only two choices to make. At this moment prostitution equaled survival. She had been able to avoid it until now, but with cupboards empty for two weeks, hunger drove her to that final dismal step. Yet she hesitated as she faced the oily creature across from her at the table, her heart not in the choice.
How could it be?
The knowledge of just what was being offered to her, staggering against what she earned as a clerk, was a glittering gem just within her reach. She had only to reach out and grasp it. It was an easier life in return for just a little thing, wasn't it?
She only knew she dreaded the choice.
Her customer was growing impatient, narrow face tight with displeasure at her lengthy silence.
“Well?”
She drew in a shallow breath. She really didn't have a choice. Her stomach rumbled painfully, the smells of the food nearby nearly making her faint. She opened her mouth to answer and blinked at what she said.
“No…” She stared at the man, eyes wide with surprise as he shot back in his chair, his face flushing red. She hadn't meant that!
The man's eyes grew hot with fury. “You offered me a bargain!” He rose to his feet, shoving aside the small table between them, grasping her shirt to haul her to her feet angrily. “No? No! What kind of prostitute are you?” he snarled, drawing her forward to spit in her face. “You're not worth my time!”
She flew back as he shoved her away from him violently, fully expecting to land painfully but instead found she was caught tightly around the waist and then put carefully on her feet.
“Trouble, Miko?”
The hand lingered on her waist and Anath turned uneasily to face the man behind her, recognizing the voice; his speech an icy low-pitched drawl, yet the tone held a faint hint of amusement. Miko cringed as his face drained of color, leaving him ashen with fear.
“No, Sephiroth. No problem here at all!”
The tall Soldier lowered his gaze to her as she turned, eyes narrowed as he swept his blue-green gaze over her from head to toe. Did he remember her? She hadn't forgotten him. Sephiroth's reputation was known far and wide. That he was here suddenly in the slums was mind-boggling.
“Indeed?” Sephiroth murmured, shifting his frosty gaze back to Miko. Anath began to move away but his hand tightened on her hip, holding her still. “You did seem angry,” Sephiroth noted dryly.
“It … it's nothing, only a minor inconvenience,” Miko stuttered. “I was just leaving!” He glared at Anath for a moment and then stumbled backwards to run from the bar, leaving the door hanging open in his hurry.
“Indeed,” Sephiroth murmured again, nearly to himself as he stepped away from her.
Anath bowed slightly, gripping her waist with her hands to keep them from trembling. Hip-length silver hair cascaded over a tight black leather coat that flared below his knees, not quite hiding the buckled thigh-high boots that she remembered so well. He was both deadly as well as tantalizing in a way that made her speech nearly incoherent. The thank you she murmured was hoarse as she looked up.
Sephiroth inclined his head slightly with a curve of his lips. She flushed, jerking her gaze from him with a nod and quickly hurried out the door after Miko. It would be foolhardy to press her luck with Shinra's soldiers, especially Sephiroth. What was he doing in Midgar? Keeping the peace was hardly a job for the likes of him, the slums held little use for the upper elite of Shinra. She didn't dwell on the thought, preferring to follow Miko's example and flee as quickly as she could. But she could feel his gaze following her as she rushed out, a sharp glitter that watched her with interest.
Several streets later as she hurried around the corner that led back to her apartments; she chanced a glance over her shoulder feeling certain she was being followed. Darkness shrouded the alleys and the near empty street. She shivered with a sense she was being watched. But then in the slums, you were always watched. She quickened her pace, rushing up the steps to unlock the front door of her building and then fled up the stairs to her apartment, shoving open the door with trembling fingers. She leaned back against the door with a relieved sigh. So close. She winced as her stomach rumbled again. She was a fool to think she could sell her body. There had to be some other way.
She pushed away from the door and walked into the kitchen. The empty cupboards stared back at her almost accusingly. She picked up the tea kettle and filled it with water, lighting the fire to watch it boil. She had a tiny bit of tea left, making not much more than lightly darkened hot water. But it was something. The whistle began to keen on the kettle and she rose from the table to draw the pot off the stove. A knock at her door nearly made her drop the kettle as she gasped nervously.
Miko?
No, she was sure he'd avoid her if at all possible, wanting no association with her or Sephiroth. Then who? And how had they gotten past the first locked door? No one had buzzed her. She shoved the kettle back on the stove and wiped her hands on her skirt. It was a short walk to the door but she waited beside it for a moment, holding her breath. She pressed her hands against the door to look out, but the eyehole was blocked, leaving it black. Someone had their hand over the peep hole.
They didn't want her to know who it was.
They knocked again and she jumped back several steps with a muffled cry. Why knock if they meant her harm? She glanced about nervously, eyeing the windows. Biting her lip she threw open the door, then stumbled back as Sephiroth thrust his way past her, drawing her inside with him and then he slammed the door shut firmly.
She shrank away from him as he turned slowly to study the living room and then sent her an amused glance. A lift of his brow and he strode into the kitchen, the pale light gleaming on his hip length hair as he stopped in the doorway.
“Making tea?”
The blue-green gaze pinned her in place, his lips curved in a faint grin. He tilted his head curiously and moved into the kitchen to take the kettle off the stove again as it began to keen loudly.
“I can make you some?” she offered stiffly. She would have to give him what she had left. It might make a decent cup.
He glanced at the single cup on the table and the tin, thankfully still closed. “No.”
She breathed a faint sigh of relief but it was short-lived.
“How much do you charge?”
She recoiled instantly from him, feeling the blood rush into her cheeks. “I don't do that.”
His lips curved into a chilling smile that never reached his eyes. “No? I think Miko thought otherwise.”
She drew her arms around her shoulders, trying not to shiver beneath that icy gaze. “He was mistaken.”
“Ah,” Sephiroth mused softly. “I see.”
All too well she was sure. She avoided looking at the long sword sheathed against his back, or the leather gloves covering hands well versed in pain.
“I pay well,” he said smoothly and plucked a leather pouch from his hip. What he dropped on her table made her eyes widen in shock.
“I … can't.” That kind of money would buy food for a month, plus much more. She gripped the back of one of the kitchen chairs, fighting temptation. Would it be so bad… with him? She studied him beneath her eyelashes as he turned to open the cupboards. The long black leather coat was tight across his shoulders; the armored shoulder pads made his wide shoulders seem broader yet but then hugged a narrow waist only to flare out at the knee. His sword clanked softly against the counter as he moved, unconsciously adjusting the long blade as he turned.
“A pity they are so empty.”
“I've been busy.”
He ran a finger down the countertop, moving slowly around the room. She moved away, to another chair, keeping the table between them. She was trembling, but not from fear. Somehow her fear had evaporated, leaving her nervous certainly, but more than that. She knew what he was, his reputation was well known in the slums. Rather, he intrigued her, something about him tugged at her, generating flooding warmth that heated her blood.
He picked up the tea canister, shaking it. With a grunt he frowned and then set it back on the table. “It seems secretary work does not pay well, Anath.”
How did he know her name? They'd only met face to face the one time at the elevator. She assumed he would not remember she was nothing to write home about. That he knew her and what she did sent a chill down her spine. What else did he know? He stared at her for a moment and she held her place nervously. Finally he moved around the table, his gaze fixed on her. Did he expect her to flee? She tightened her grip on the chair, forcing herself to stand still as he moved closer, trailing his fingers on the table until he stood just behind her. His breath was warm against her neck as he leaned closer.
“Are you sure?”
Her fingers were tingling, her breath suddenly non existent as he drew her hair back from her neck. He smelled … cold. But his lips when they touched her shoulder ignited flames that raced down her nerve endings to her fingers. She couldn't avoid the gasp, or the shiver that followed his kiss. His soft laugh echoed in the kitchen.
“Come with me.”
The invitation was heady, mesmerizing as he caught her hand, his eyes locked with hers as he stepped backwards, pulling her across the room. She couldn't say no, her thoughts in disarray, but his eyes drew her along without fear. They moved past the door into the living room, his fingers barely gripping hers. She followed, drawn as much by his confidence as she was by the heated desire that she saw in his eyes. He drew back into her bedroom, dark except for the faint light from the street lamps shining through the tattered curtain. He was smiling, she thought if faintly; his fingers guiding her forward gently. She stopped as he neared the bed, pulling her hand free.
“I don't want your money.”
He began to peel off his gloves, slowly. She couldn't take her eyes off his hands. The gloves fell to the floor. “What do you want then, Anath?”
The sound of his voice skittered across her nerves like a bow on a violin string, drawing out her breath in a quivering sigh. “You.”
Sephiroth's eyes narrowed slightly, blue-green fire gleaming as he moved to stand next to her. “Then we want the same thing.” He drew the edges of her sweater over her shoulders while his eyes held hers, a sultry glitter that she could not shake free of. His fingers were flames where they touched her skin, her thoughts dissolving into nothing as he lowered his lips to hers.
She woke entangled in the bed, empty but for her.
What had she done? She ran a shaking hand over her face, covering her eyes for a moment as she groaned. She was a fool, to take someone like Sephiroth to her bed. He was notorious and cruel. That he found interest in her was surprising, but the loneliness she'd been feeling had overwhelmed her, the loss of Kia and worse the struggle to keep her job and the apartment had drained her. The chance last night to be close to someone like him, as vibrant and alive as he was, had been too tempting to pass up, reputation or not. She rolled over onto her stomach, clutching a pillow against her chest. A fool perhaps, but she'd do it again.
A little while later she forced herself to get up, dragging the sheet around her to totter into the kitchen, hoping the little bit of tea she'd had was still there. She sighed as she sat down; finding the cup waiting where she'd left it, the tea still in the canister. She rose to turn on the stove to heat the kettle and froze, staring at the counter.
A glistening black rose was lying where Sephiroth had dropped his money.
She picked it up gingerly, the thorns very long as she held it up against the dim light. He was definitely a dangerous man. She tucked the rose into a small glass, setting it on the windowsill. The tea would do for now.
The next morning as she dressed for work the door chimed again, no knock just the lower hall doorbell announcing someone coming inside. She went to the door, opening it curiously and then quickly stepped aside as two men marched through both carrying a large box.
“We have a delivery for you, Anath. We were told to make sure you were here to receive it.”
She nodded and watched them set the box on the table. They grinned and then left leaving her to stare after them curiously. She reached out and carefully opened the lid, her eyes widening at what was in inside.
The box was filled with food; enough to last several months, and resting on top, a canister of tea. And beside it a cup and another black rose.