"I think they like you," Aeris observed, a note of amusement in her voice that Sephiroth did not like in the least.
"What?"
"The flowers," she pointed as she explained, "They're creeping closer, don't you think?"
"I haven't been paying attention."
"Well, I have. Look."
He did, though only after she'd shifted her focus from him back to the flora in question. Now that he looked, they did seem to be growing towards him. He frowned at this. It could be explained away, of course – perhaps he had just moved closer to where she was. Of course, that thought was just as suspect and unlikely.
"How long has it been?" he asked, flicking his eyes back up to the back of her head.
"I don't know. How long has it felt like?"
He snorted and looked away. She stood and brushed dirt from her dress for what must have been the millionth time.
"How are you feeling?"
"What?" Sephiroth raised a brow at her back.
"Mm, nevermind."
Aeris spun around and gave him a familiar, friendly smile that nonetheless gave him the distinct impression that her heart really wasn't in it. Sephiroth was acquainted with her enough to know what was coming.
"No," he said firmly.
Aeris looked crestfallen.
"I haven't even—"
"You were going to ask something."
"How did you—"
"Something invasive, most likely."
"What? Why would—"
"And now you're going to get angry and argue it with me. I know how it goes by now. No. I'm not answering."
"Well," she countered, "if you know how it goes then you should know I'll wear you down eventually, and that it's just simpler if you co-operate."
She stared at him as though waiting for him to yield, but he remained determinedly stoic. Instead, she sighed.
"I don't know how you can expect me to ask anything that isn't intrusive. Making more polite conversation is ignoring the fat chocobo in the room, isn't it?"
"You've been ignoring the 'fat chocobo' from the beginning."
"Well… you have too. At least, you agreed to." She was looking uncharacteristically sheepish. Though she avoided any prolonged, direct eye contact, he could tell her eye was lingering, waiting for a response.
He did not oblige her.
"How come?"
"…"
"Just boredom?"
"…"
"Nothing better to do?"
"…"
"… Do you have something better to do?"
"… I might." He frowned.
"What?"
"I was determining that, before you interrupted."
To his delight, she averted her eyes completely and didn't even bother trying to meet his hard stare.
"You didn't think I planned to stay like this?" The pernicious smirk spreading over his lips wasn't visible from her vantage point, but she could hear it in his voice. "Being half-dead is the same as being half-alive, isn't it? I'll remedy that, when my next move is planned. The Lifestream doesn't flow only one way, after all. You've told me I'm stuck for now, but it's just as well - I can plan from here as well as anywhere."
"But you're stuck," she repeated stubbornly.
"I'm sure I'll get around that eventually."
"What, you think I'm going to tell you?" she snapped, correctly reading his amused expression.
Sephiroth's smile grew fractionally wider and exponentially more unpleasant.
"Well, why else would I indulge you?"
Many expressions seemed to cross her face at once, all of them leaving an impression of disappointment, before her gaze settled into something distant and stony. She bent back to her flowers, leaving him feeling slightly puzzled and mysteriously put out at the lack of argument.
"You think 'boredom' is a more acceptable reason?"
"…"
"I suppose," he tilted his head back but watched her carefully out of the corner of his eye, "It's also because you're part Cetra."
"And you're not." She spoke airily enough, but he knew what she meant by it. In the pause before he spoke, his eyes narrowed.
"What does it matter? I'm better than Cetra, now."
"Oh, really."
"What I want to do is only what your people were too weak to do. You've let your birthright be stolen from you, and—"
"You don't know the first thing about about us!" She struggled to control the rage in her voice as she got stiffly but quickly to her feet, rounding on him. "What do you know? Nothing! Just what you read in some old books, half of which were probably made up anyway. You certainly don't know more than I do, and I barely know anything at all! Just enough to know that you're wrong. Not that it will matter, because you'll just change the story however it suits you – if you can't be Cetra, you'll be something else! Anything to avoid admitting the truth."
"I already admitted that Jenova wasn't what I—"
"Who cares what you say about that thing? I meant the truth about what you are. You're so self-important, you probably think I should be thanking you for allowing me to bleed on you."
"And you're so obtuse that you'll happily strike up conversation with your murderer."
"I have my reasons," she muttered, turning and sinking back to her flower bed. Sephiroth waited for elaboration, knowing none would come. Demanding answers likely wouldn't get him anywhere, and he knew better than to try, but the exchange had left him feeling as angry as she had sounded.
"Forget it," she spat, after enough silence had transpired than any person not muddled by anger would be able to tell it was forgotten.
"Are you trying to apologize?"
"No."
"Just as well, I don't have any idea what you were talking about to begin with."
"Of course not."
Sephiroth resented being the first to speak after a pause, but couldn't see how he would get any kind of answer otherwise.
"What secrets of the Cetra do you know, then?" He carefully calibrated his tone to be just mocking enough to prod her out of silence.
"Not many," she answered, taking the bait, "but more than you, anyway. I know what it really means to become one with the planet, for one thing."
"… What, dying? The Lifestream isn't exclusive admittance."
"That's not it. Most people just lose their consciousness when they die, stubborn people like you stay separate. Cetra can join with the planet, conscious but a part of the whole."
"And that's what it means to go to the Promised Land?"
"Ye—how did you know that?"
"I meant to go there. This isn't my first time in the Lifestream. I know more than what I've read in books."
Aeris frowned at him over her shoulder.
"Well, you couldn't get in."
"I wasn't planning on trying – but maybe that would be the best place to go next. You say I could join with the planet there. Perhaps I could use its energy from this side and find a body after." He examined one of his hands, flexing it, trying to determine if it felt any less substantial than what he had been used to in life.
Aeris laughed.
"What?"
"Nothing. You should try it, see how it works."
"What does that mean?"
"You don't think the planet's only defences are physical ones like WEAPON, do you? Only Cetra can bond with the planet like that. If you aren't Cetra, the planet treats you like a virus. It's like your body's immune system – it will attack anything foreign." Again, she looked back at him with a faintly unfriendly smile. "So, you're welcome to try it and see what happens."
"The planet can be subjugated," he insisted quietly, frowning.
"What makes you so sure?"
Sephiroth remained silent. There was nothing in particular that made him certain, but he'd accomplished the impossible before. A single dominant voice should be able to easily drown out a collection of quieter ones. Merging with the planet from within the Lifestream would accomplish mostly the same as merging from outside of it – he'd just have to determine how to go about it. Right now, though, he sensed that he'd extracted as much information from her as he could in one sitting.
"What kind of invasive question were you going to ask me earlier?"
She shot him a suspicious look, which he responded to with pointed indifference.
"What, you're going to indulge me?"
"Perhaps."
"Why?"
"I've decided it doesn't really matter if you know either way. There's no reason not to tell you."
"And when did you decide that?"
That he had no answer seemed to satisfy her far more than anything he could have said. She frowned deeply and lowered her eyes in the way that she tended to before asking what she anticipated would be a difficult question.
"I wanted to know… about Wutai."
A/N: It's been forever since an update, but seeing that people are still reading it sort of prodded me back into action. It can be difficult to write these things not necessarily because they run out of things to talk about, but just because it's difficult to find smooth segways. Anyway, this chapter kind of alludes to where I'm going with this. I hope it's up to snuff.