Disclaimer: FF VII is not mine and this is done purely for pleasure, nothing more.

Summary: Revived by the Cetra, Sephiroth is thrown back into the real world where the struggle to redeem himself, ward off old enemies and falling in love slowly but surely convince him that he is human after all… (Seph/Ti)

Genre: Romance/Drama

Review Replies:

Carrie88: Heya, aw. Thanks for the compliment on Sephiroth and allow me to return the compliment by saying the same about your Genesis. I really like the way you write him and I found myself wondering if he was going to try to steal Tifa away (!). There's very little Genesis/Tifa *cough* The pairing could do with a contribution.

Dazzling Mage: Thank you for coming back to this story and bothering to wade through from the very start! I'm glad the pace sits well with you. Sometimes I think to myself, 'Five chapters and we are still in Midgar?' Not too much action in this chapter but I hope it suffices. ^_^

Ukirra: Well, Reeve had to tell Rufus something. And that's all I'm saying so nothing gets spoiled. Thanks for reviewing and always being so encouraging!

Sorrow Has a Human Heart: Hey, I'm so glad to hear from you! And I want to thank you for reviewing the other story. It's very dark—it is after all about a very sensitive topic—and I really appreciate you leaving your comments. It's assuring to know I've got Tifa right so far; sometimes she gives me a headache and at least I'm on the right path. Thanks!

Tartar12345: Wah! Firstly, that was an incredible review and barring one other in another fandom, I think it is the longest I've ever received. I'm not complaining though! You put a great deal of thought and time into it and I am so very appreciative of you for doing so. I love reviews that raise questions and make me think because that always helps with the conceptualizing and I've got a lovely image and a chapter partly done in my head and it takes place in Nibelheim, thanks to you and M.M.M. I was daydreaming about it at my desk. I didn't realise I referred to her as 'slender' that much; maybe I'm reacting to all the hype about Tifa's two assets, and they don't mean her fists either; I think it's quite a downer for a girl to be that capable and mostly noticed for those two things, at least it seems that way where fanboys are concerned. As for camouflage, for now they'll do as Yuffie does and sneak around while they can. As for Sephiroth's psychological development, it's a mix of his past, which will come back to him, whatever pieces he can't recall and he'll have to separate them from what Jenova put in his head and the events he saw through her eyes. It's messy and it'll be slow… but hopefully well written. Now about Cloud and the bike, hehe. That's seriously worth considering. But I love Cloud too and I want to be fair to him. So no self-indulgence there; I'd like to excavate the guy's psychology and lay that out…

Mariagoner: Thank you and thank you for commenting on the plot and characterization, which tell me I haven't gone off the far of the Da Chao mountain end and hit rock bottom. I'm thrilled you enjoy this story so much and I hope you continue to have fun with this chapter. ^_^

Strifey Eris: Well, Tifa will have second thoughts and doubts here and there, it'll take some time and some events to happen before Aerith and Sephiroth convince her that this is meant to be and completely right to do. But thank you for pointing that out; I did not want a resolution to totally trust him this early on as it would not be as realistic. As for why he calls her Lockhart, it's just how I see it in my imagination! Call it a Sephiroth quirk.

EVER AFTER

VII. Reprieve

There is blessed reprieve. And just because it will not last does not mean it is not real. The wind is combing through his heavy hair, the leather duster cracks sharply in the breeze even as he moves to tuck it closer to his body, all the while aware of the burning sun above them that warms his skin and melts some of the coldness. He can feel the firm press of Lockhart's body against his fingers as they bank low to the right, circumventing a rocky outcrop in this Mako-created desert. Sephiroth tells himself that he does not have to think, not while Fenrir is still leaping and alive beneath them, the powerful thrumming a seductive lull to mindlessness, to just ride beneath the light into nowhere.

Zack would approve.

The thought impales him with its conviction, the sharpness of emotion refreshingly clear. Where had it come from?

The sun blazes down and melts away the edges of this reality, peeled back and unfurled. He is in an army truck that keeps up an accursed bouncing pace and apart from some miserable bruised recruits whose first trip it is out and who are his responsibility to shepherd, there is also Zackary Fair. SOLDIER, First Class, and he looks nothing like the fearsome warrior type that Shinra keeps touting to the public. Zack of the laughing eyes that Mako cannot taint, with skin whose fairness he is constantly lamenting over, who carries a heavy sword like a feather because of the lightness in his heart, whose enemies always underestimate him until it is too late. Zack Fair who has a mouth that will not stop moving.

"When I get back to Midgar, I'm going to sleep for two days and then find me a girl to occupy me for the next three."

Coming from any other man, it would have been a callous statement. But Sephiroth has encountered Zack's girls, once unfortunately, and he has sized them up accurately. They only want a good time and they do not ask for more. A fair exchange, Sephiroth decides.

"What are you gonna do with your week off?"

Maybe if he keeps his eyes closed and his breathing light, Zack will think he is asleep.

"Sephiroth," he complains, because best friend or not, no one ever calls him 'Seph', "I know you are not asleep. I could hear you cursing the driver."

Exasperated green eyes slowly open to meet a grinning Zackary. What a puppy, he thinks to himself. "I haven't spoken in the last thirty minutes."

"Telepathy. Great minds and all that jazz," the younger man taps his temple. "Do you want me to…ah… introduce you to someone?"

Planet help him. He still had shudders just thinking about the last time his friend had tried to 'assist' him in that department. And Hojo had been spitting mad when he had found out about it.

The last thing I need is your little bastards running about Midgar with unmonitored experimental genes in their veins!

He had then threatened to have Zack dealt with and that was when he realized he had overstepped boundaries and that Sephiroth was no longer a terrified, sullen child confined to laboratories.

Thinking about Hojo raised a host of dark thoughts so he retreated from them for now and focused on the memory, followed the path laid down before him before it vanished.

"No, thank you," he had said firmly.

"Sephiroth, you really need to loosen up. You need to get a social life."

"Zackary, saying the same thing repeatedly tends to make you a boring person."

"You wound me," Zack shot back dryly. "But it doesn't make it any less true. You need to do something spontaneously and that means not bringing Masamune around, for once."

Resigning himself to listening to his friend's monologue, Sephiroth sighed imperceptibly, tightened his grip on the katana when the truck goes over a particularly high bump and this time he does curse the driver, audibly enough to interrupt Zack and make him laugh. Then he listens, with one ear and most of it going out the other but snatches of it draw his attention. Something about a hot summer day and racing the wind and a gorgeous girl by his side…

Years later, this is what he has but it is not what Zackary Fair would have had in mind. Still, he would approve, even if Sephiroth has to take the backseat. And it finally occurs to the latter that it has been a very long time since he has thought of Zackary Fair.

He is glad to have him back, no matter where in his mind this friend leads.

Unfortunately, Sephiroth had plenty of questions about exactly where Tifa Lockhart was leading him. "Kalm? We are heading to Kalm?"

She had stopped the bike some distance from the village and was waiting for Sephiroth to get off. He was not moving. "We'll hide Fenrir, sneak into the town and find an empty inn. Warm food, acceptable beds and I'll leave some gil in a discreet place that will be found a couple of days after we leave."

"Kalm?"

She could practically hear the unspoken invectives flying over her head. "Do you mind?" she said pointedly, turning back to glare at his leg which was still pressed against the bottom of her thigh.

"Of course I do. Reeve Tuesti and the Turks are going to hunt us down in less than two hours and will probably die of laughter while they are at it." With fluid speed, he dismounted the bike. "Get off. I'm driving this time."

Tifa sighed, gave him a look that made it clear she thought he was behaving like a child and did as he ordered. Except that she took the keys out of the ignition and slipped them into a back pocket of her skirt. One silver brow arched.

"Don't think I won't use force to get those keys." Doing that would mean squeezing his hand into that tiny snug scrap of material she called a pocket. That would not necessarily be a bad thing. He could almost picture Zackary's leer and resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose.

Pale green grass brushed against her ankles and calves, a mild wind brought the sweet scent of green and salt with it. "Just hear me out. I left Reeve a note—"

"Which he will read after he wakes up to find himself bound hand and foot. That will give him a great deal of incentive to listen to what you have to say."

Tifa counted to five before continuing. "He might actually. If that had been Cid, Barret or Yuffie we would be running for the hills now but Reeve can be very logical even under trying circumstances. Besides, I did tell you not to tie him up."

"If it had been any of those three, I assure you that I would have done more than tie them up."

"Has anyone told you that your sense of humour can be a tad creepy at times?"

"You're only the second person to say that I actually have one."

That surprised her enough for a second or two of silence to settle between them. Who had been the first person? She remembered a blue-eyed, laughing dark-haired man, the only one who had been able to get a smile out of the tall, stoic General. 'Lieutenant Zack Fair, SOLDIER First Class.' He had tried to stop Sephiroth and had paid dearly for it.

"Back to the point," she said reprovingly. "There's a good chance Reeve will do as I ask and I'll need to be in Kalm to find that out. In any case, even if he doesn't, the Turks will not think of Kalm. They might be waiting in all the likely places, the North Crater for one, or Professor Gast's laboratory at Icicle Inn, maybe even the Temple of the Ancients but Kalm is not likely to be on their list because it is unimportant and so close to Midgar."

Maybe she did have a point, Sephiroth conceded. He watched as she brushed a stray strand of hair behind her ears, noted the way her eyes trailed off into the horizon, towards the smell of the sea. "And if they do show up, I'll turn myself in while you make a run for it."

"You want me to leave you behind in the hands of Rufus Shinra and his Turks?"

Tifa was somewhat mollified by his tone which was flat and a different way of saying 'Hell no'. "Rufus Shinra won't hurt me; Reeve won't let him and I seriously doubt he wants my friends showing up to demand my release. And when you do escape, it's highly unlikely that they will launch a massive manhunt for you. It's been two years since you…died…and people are rebuilding from the fallout. He cannot afford to incite mass panic. So everything will have to be done in secret and if you are as good as you say you are, avoiding the Turks won't be an issue."

"It is not the Turks I'm worried about; it is your friends. Once they know I am alive…"

Biting her lip, she pondered the wisdom of what she was about to suggest and decided to go ahead anyway. "If the Turks come for us, I'll pass you my PHS. There are two people I would call, if I were you. You can call Vincent Valentine. You can also call Cloud." She would have laughed at the look of incredulity on his face, except that that this was no laughing matter. "Cloud will understand, as will Vincent. At least they'll talk first and reach for their weapons later. I wouldn't bet on the others, as much as I respect them. Cloud or Vincent will help you find what it is you are looking for."

Her affection for Strife was clearly impairing her judgment. He didn't want to say so though and pretended to accept what she said. "Very well. But I do not like the idea of leaving you behind. I fail to see why we cannot leave together." He needed her to stay. The Ancient had said so and though he did not express it, he did not trust himself, not entirely. Having Tifa there would be a sort of safety measure, a net to stop him from crashing and taking everything down with him. She would talk to him, tell him difficult truths, nag at and fight with him.

She smiled weakly then. "Sephiroth, I'm willing to make this journey with you. But if Reeve reports me, the Turks find us and I run without turning myself in, then Shinra will—" Guilt gnawed at her and behind Sephiroth, she could almost see a disapproving Aerith shaking her head. A long time ago, she had lost everything because of this man. She finally had a place to call home again, the bar had been making money for the past year now and she could not bear the thought of Reeve breaking the news that she had gone rogue, not to the others who had become her makeshift family. It was too much, too fast to ask her to give up that much for him. In spite of Aerith, she was still scared and to be honest, somewhat resentful.

"Enough," he cut in, almost roughly. "I understand." She was risking a great deal for him. That in itself was a miracle. He could not expect her to outrightly defy Shinra; she would lose her home and be officially declared an enemy and traitor for helping him. Even if Tuesti tried to cover for her, it would be useless if she fought the Turks for his sake. If she turned herself in, she could at least lie that he had forced her into aiding him. Suddenly, the shadows that smudged the undersides of those vivid cinnamon eyes became prominent, as did the pallor of her skin. She had not slept in almost twenty-four hours. "Kalm it is then."

Tifa wondered if she should thank him, felt she ought to and decided it would be ridiculous to. After all, she had more to lose. He got on the bike behind her and she felt his hands on her waist again, something that was rapidly becoming familiar. 'Please Reeve,' she begged silently, prayed even. 'Please do as I ask.' If she was truly meant see this through to its end, things would just have to work themselves out. Somehow.

Rufus Shinra was a hell of a lot smarter than President Shinra had ever been. There was also, surprisingly, a core of morality and softness inside the man. It was well hidden, protected by layers of ruthlessness and cunning but there all the same. Unfortunately, it was not a quality that Reeve could count on at the moment. He remembered Tifa's words from her letter that was now a small pile of water logged ashes floating in the sewer pipes below the city. Then, the lift doors opened and he walked to Rufus' office, aware of the dark suited figures of two Turks in the waiting area. He had probably missed the other three or four who were hidden somewhere in this plush yet pristine island of stylish minimalism. The secretary smiled and ushered him in. He was one of the few who could walk in and see the President even without an appointment. When he stepped in, Rufus Shinra was looking out of the huge floor to ceiling window, staring down at the city that was slowly but surely coming back to life. It was a bad sign. Usually the workaholic President would be fielding calls and signing his way through a mountain of documents that had already been carefully read. Rufus Shinra had never been exposed to Mako in his life but he worked as though he was powered by it.

"Why did she want those documents?"

Behind him, Reeve felt a presence materialize and he did not have to look to know who it was. Tseng. There was hardly any point in feeling outraged about or demanding an explanation as to why the President had been eavesdropping on what—until now—had been Reeve's secure line.

"Cloud called."

"She did this for Strife?" Disbelief laced Rufus' voice. Finally, he swiveled his chair around to face Reeve from behind that massive mahogany desk. "Hasn't he been missing for months now?"

Reeve nodded. "The only way she agreed to help him was to force him to meet her if he wanted those files. She left Midgar this morning."

"I know that. I'm just curious as to why it took you so long to report to me."

Apparently the Turks were slipping. They had missed Sephiroth. Reeve could not stop the consternation that flashed across his face so he passed it off as outrage. "You spied on me? Of course I searched her house after she left. There wasn't anything useful."

Rufus' mouth stretched into a mirthless smile. "I was concerned for you." And then he dropped the act, no longer finding it amusing. "Is Strife unstable in some way?" So Cloud Strife had defeated Sephiroth. But he still bore Jenova cells in his genetic makeup and he had handed the Black Materia to Sephiroth. Rufus was not one to forget anyone's weakness.

Reeve sighed. "I don't know, she would not say. But if it really is something of significance, she will undoubtedly let us know."

"Us?"

It was Reeve's turn. "Whatever I know, you know," he said, taking a jab at his President.

This time, Rufus' smile was somewhat more sincere. "It's good you remember. You may leave."

As soon as Tuesti had left, Rufus turned to Tseng. "What do you think?"

"He is lying for Tifa Lockhart. I'm not sure about what though. It was hard to pick out."

"I'm not surprised." It was his way of letting Tseng knew he did not blame him. "He's had practice with my father and his two sycophants. Anyone who survived them would be an accomplished actor."

"Shall I track down Cloud?"

Rufus thought about it for a second before nodding. "Just observe him for the moment, when you do find him. If Strife is acting on behalf of Sephiroth," and even that was sufficient to draw a slight shudder from the President, "there's no chance of your men taking him down."

A lesser leader would have felt insulted by this accurate assessment of his men. Tseng was not the former; leaders like Rufus Shinra would prevent the unnecessary loss of bloodshed with their intelligence. "As you wish."

"If Lockhart is not with him or if it is apparent she has never contacted him, find Tuesti and do whatever you need to. I want the truth. If it's not too late by then."

That startled Tseng, just a fraction. After all, Reeve Tuesti was a good man. But Rufus had far more appreciation for men who fell in line with his agenda. With a slight bow, the leader of the Turks took his leave. Reno and Rude were going to be pissed but vacation time was over.

Back in the privacy of his apartment, and by now Reeve was understandably paranoid about how private it really was, he headed for the bathroom and turned on the faucets at full blast and maximum heat. When the bathroom was sufficiently covered with rolling white steam, he took out his phone and with grim satisfaction, took out the tiny card, which enabled him to hook up to Shinra's network, and slotted in a nondescript white one. A long time ago, AVALANCHE had set up their own pirate networks to evade the then President and some of these lines remained, undetected and largely unused. These were only limited to the areas of Midgar and Kalm. By putting this together with the letter, she was telling him where she would be headed next.

That in itself was a message that Reeve, no matter how hard he tried, could not ignore. It went to the heart of a friendship forged by facing calamities and he could not turn his back on her when she left hers open to him, trusting him to protect it yet willing to accept his decision, whatever it would be.

When the network signal came to life, he keyed in a number and typed out a message. Pressing hard on the 'send' button, he waited until the message was on its way before taking out the card. He would have to think very carefully about where he could hide this. Tseng was part bloodhound and his Turks very well trained. He could not afford to take any chances.

'Two months, Tifa. You'll get that or less, depending on how fast Tseng and his Turks work. And then by Gaia, you had better bring in Sephiroth or there will be hell to pay for.' If she did not, Rufus Shinra would personally string him up. What he would do before that though… that was not something Reeve wanted to think about at all.