This is just a one-shot for now, but I am considering possibly turning this into a longer story. The theme is somewhat dark, so if that bothers you, you probably shouldn't read it.

Also it's my first FFVII fic, so let me know what you think.

Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy or the characters.

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Aeris sat on the edge of her bed, alone in her room at the Gold Saucer. She stared at her feet, thinking about nothing in particular. Suddenly she heard a voice to her right, making her jump.

“Having fun yet?”

Aeris turned towards the voice to find Sephiroth leaning against the wall, a cold smile playing on his lips.

“I knew you were still here,” Aeris said softly, standing up. “If you’re looking for Cloud, he’s not here. Everyone else has gone out.”

“I know,” Sephiroth answered, his voice low and cold as he took a step towards her. “No one will hear your screams.”

He laughed, watching Aeris’ face, her eyes widening as she looked at him. She didn’t answer and remained standing resolutely still as Sephiroth approached her slowly, the familiar sound of rustling leather making a shiver run up her spine. Her eyes met his as he stood in front of her, looking down at her with what could’ve been called a smile if it was on the face of another. On him, it was simply another expression of evil. Sephiroth reached out a hand and placed his fingers lightly around her neck. Aeris suppressed a shudder as the cold leather brushed against her skin, but she forced herself to stand her ground and remained motionless in front of him. Sephiroth smirked slightly, stepping closer so that his body was almost flush with hers.

“Have you been waiting for me?” he said slowly, seductively. Aeris nodded slightly, not taking her eyes off his. With another smirk, Sephiroth tightened his grip on her neck, watching as she struggled to breathe.

Aeris’ lips formed the word “Please”, unable to make any sound save for a slight moan. Sephiroth regarded her silently, his gaze merciless as he saw the color slowly fading from her face. He could feel Aeris’ body begin to weaken and just when she thought she would fall, he pushed her back forcefully, throwing her roughly onto the bed. As she landed on the hard mattress with a quiet groan, she instinctively grabbed the metal bars of the headboard above her head.

“Please what?” Sephiroth hissed as he walked to the side of the bed, taking hold of Aeris’ wrist. Aeris let out a small gasp, shivers running down her body as she watched Sephiroth produce chains out of nowhere and begin securing her wrist to the metal bar.

“Please, Sephiroth…” she whispered, looking up at his with pleading eyes. “I don’t want to die.” He laughed again, cruelly, heartlessly.

“You won’t die until I’m ready,” Sephiroth answered coldly, as he walked around to the other side of the bed to secure her other wrist. Aeris followed him with her eyes, remaining motionless on the bed as he ensured she would have no chance of escape. Her eyes widened as she saw him take a knife out of his coat.

“Please,” she whispered again. “Tell me what you’re going to do with me.”

A cruel smile twisted Sephiroth’s lips as he leaned down towards Aeris. She watched with trepidation as he touched the tip of the knife to her cheek. He let the blade glide down her skin, so light that it left no mark as he withdrew it. He looked into her eyes as he positioned the knife at the collar of her dress.

“You’ll see,” Sephiroth replied with the same icy coldness.

With an effortless motion, he let the knife cut into the fabric. Aeris gasped as he began sliding the knife down her body and cutting open her dress. Sephiroth’s eyes were still on hers, not watching the progress of the knife, careless as it cut too deep, opening jagged lines on Aeris’ body. She whimpered as the blade sliced through her skin, feeling a warm trickle of blood left in the knife’s wake. When her clothes were sliced in half, Sephiroth set aside the knife on the sheets beside her and, without taking his eyes off her face, he ripped away the remnants of the pink fabric, casting it aside on the floor. His eyes glimmered as a cold smile played on his lips, his gloved hand resting on Aeris’ waist.

“Sephiroth…” Aeris said breathlessly. “I don’t want to ever be away from you.”

“You’re just a puppet,” Sephiroth answered indifferently.

A puppet…. She was a puppet all her life. Just like him, she was an experiment before she was even born. Only he would go on to become a god. And she was just a flower girl. None of the others ever knew. She was never given a tattoo, perhaps because Ifalna managed to get her away from Hojo before he had the chance. But Jenova was already inside her. Nothing else mattered.

Except perhaps her meeting with Sephiroth before they escaped. She knew the moment she saw him that the evil inside him was far greater than Jenova. His will would not be bent to her plans. And he in turn knew that from that moment Aeris would be his forever, to do with as he please.

Jenova’s puppet. Sephiroth’s whore.

He came to her often after that day. He never asked her permission. He simply took her, as if she was his rightful possession. No one knew – not Ifalna, not Elmyra, not ShinRa. Sephiroth made sure no one ever found out – even when Aeris was sure her screams could shatter the Planet itself.

Sephiroth was never gentle, even when Aeris was still a girl. He took his pleasures, not caring about the wounds he left behind. In the end, Jenova would always heal her. Aeris was not sure anymore if she had always liked it or if she had simply grown to enjoy it to cope with the pain. She didn’t care. She would do anything for Sephiroth. He had become her world, the meaning of her existence – he made sure that she would have nothing else.

He made her join Cloud’s party to spy on them. But she knew he had another purpose that he was not revealing to her. While Aeris traveled with Cloud, Sephiroth would come to her at night when she was alone. When he wasn’t there, she would lie in bed and dream of him. Aeris promised Sephiroth years ago that she would die for him, and she thought this journey might lead to just that. One day she asked Sephiroth about it, but he merely laughed and did not answer her. Although she was not afraid of dying and she knew that she would not go back on her promise, she could not stop thinking about it since that day.

Then finally she realized that the reason for her dismay was that she was in love with Sephiroth. She didn’t want to die because she didn’t want to be away from him. Aeris did not know when this happened. Perhaps she had always loved Sephiroth. He had told her so many times that she was only a puppet and not capable of feelings that she never considered it possible. But now it all made sense. Yet she was afraid to tell this to Sephiroth – afraid that he would be disappointment to see something so human in her, afraid that he wouldn’t care.

But this time was different. He had been away longer than ever before, and she could not handle the separation. She realized that she needed him. She could not tolerate another moment of imagining existence without him.

Tears sparkled in Aeris’ eyes as she looked at Sephiroth. He paused, considering her silently, his finger absently tracing the wound he had just inflicted on her stomach and making Aeris wince slightly.

“Sephiroth, please,” Aeris said softly. “I don’t want to become a remnant… Drifting somewhere… without you. Sephiroth… can’t you see… I love you.” Aeris broke off on a sob.

Sephiroth looked at her silently, giving no indication of what he was thinking. Then, slowly his lips curled into a cold smile as he continued to look down at Aeris. He reached out and traced his gloved fingers over her cheek.

“I know,” he said finally, with a hint of amusement in his voice. “But I’m afraid your fate is not for you to decide.”

Sephiroth laughed, seeing the look of terror on Aeris’ face. Watching as tears started to trickle down her cheeks, he slid his hand slowly along the length of her body, caressing her skin with the rough leather of his glove.

“I shall tell you this to comfort your fears,” he said with the usual cruelty, smirking slightly. “I will never let you go.”

“Sephiroth…” Aeris whispered, arching up towards him. “Thank you.”

Sephiroth leaned down, his hand sliding up to Aeris’ neck. His lips brushed against hers and she could feel his teeth graze the skin. His fingers tightened gradually around her neck, slowly robbing her of breath. She began to gasp desperately, earning a soft chuckle from Sephiroth. He shifted slowly, moving down to her neck, letting his tongue trail along the line of her vein, before whispering in her ear with the same cold indifference:

“You are mine forever, puppet, in life and in death. You exist only for my pleasure.”

Aeris could feel his lips caress her ear, his warm breath against her skin. Her lips parted in a delicate moan, even as she still struggled for breath. Slowly her vision began to fade, her head swimming with lack of oxygen. She had stopped wondering long ago if one of these times he would kill her doing this, resigned to let him do whatever he wanted – as if she ever had a choice. But as always, before she could slip from consciousness, he released his grip, sitting up and allowing his hand to trace the contour of her wound, staining the leather with blood.

Aeris looked up at him with a trace of an innocent smile on her lips. She knew that was what he liked about her after all these years. She could always remain the very picture of innocence, even as she begged for his touch, her body covered in blood. It made him feel like he was robbing her of her purity every time, no matter how many times he had come to her before, and he always relished in being able to destroy something beautiful. As Aeris’ eyes searched his, for a moment she almost thought that there could be a future there – she could imagine standing by his side as he unraveled his plans for the world, whatever they may be. Perhaps if this was a different world and a different person, she would want to hold Sephiroth and whisper words of love to him. But that moment was gone in a flash, and in her twisted reality all she wanted to do was beg him to make her scream.

Sephiroth’s lips curled into a one-sided grin as he seemed to hear Aeris’ thoughts. He never really needed to speak, he could read her thoughts and make her hear his voice in her head. But he spoke because he knew that even after all these years, the coldness in his voice still terrified her.

“My little whore,” Sephiroth chuckled with amusement. “You’ll endure any torture just to have me touch you.”

Picking up the discarded knife, he leaned down towards Aeris. Her screams echoed off the walls, accompanied by his cold laughter. For one more night she was lost in the arms of the one who would soon destroy her, finding her salvation in seeing the smile on his lips as she screamed his name while he found new ways to make her bleed, taking her body almost beyond its limits.

He left her sobbing on the blood-stained sheets in the morning, pausing only to release her chains so she could continue to follow Cloud. As Aeris stood in the shower, watching ribbons of scarlet pour down the drain as she washed the blood off her body, she felt oddly comforted by Sephiroth’s words. She realized that his answer meant that he was indeed going to kill her, but she was content with her fate, knowing that he would not cast her aside when it was all over.

As she watched her wounds begin to close by the force of Jenova’s regeneration abilities, Aeris wondered vaguely if love was supposed to be so painful.