⅋‎ ‎ 𝒮mite‎ ‎ 𝔱𝔥𝔢‎ ‎ EARTH.

.. ( 𝚃𝔥𝔢 ᴼᴺᴱ - 𝓦𝙸𝙽𝙶𝙴𝙳 ANGEL. ]

“ to think that they're only becoming more audacious, ” she says, easing her body upright; the ōdachi, far too large for normal sheathes, dissipates with the incant of a simple spell. vertical ellipses surrounding a mako green leer meets her companion's gaze, observing her dexterity through the thick tresses of moon-silver hair. “ it's certainly become a hazard for the townsfolk... and a vexing distraction for us. they must have formed a nest nearby—shall you accompany me in search? ”

“ you've come again... ”  a voice which isn't quite there with lips in arc like that of a serpent; she presses her body along the edges of materiality, sinking within the liminal space by which they both stand upon. her head tilts, her eyes led elsewhere. dreaming—always dreaming. “ ... and all alone. do you really think you can do this by yourself? ”

fiends have become more frequent just outside of the slums, menacing the good people who reside just inside its borders; even the winding pathway to the church had been one requiring decent struggle to clear. “ you'd been away for a while, so we became concerned. now i see that it was for good reason, ”  she murmurs. despite her tone of voice, sephiroth's expression is gentle. “ it's getting late; we should head back. dinner may get cold if we wait for too long. ”

perhaps she was lucky that it was reno who'd been assigned to watch over her. it was vexing at first; she didn't quite like him, despite being aware that he's performing a job. work is work; when shinra's steely gaze overlooks the entirety of their lives like the eyes of God, one's assimilation denotes their survival. reno, however eccentric he may be, has been a source of growing interest from sephiroth. when her eyes behold him weaved in low-light, she does so gently: tepid amusement overrun on her expression, lips only slightly bowed. “ at least, not to me. it's late—shouldn't you be debriefing at the office? ”

“ you're too late. ”  shivering the plains-grass rises a voice from a body that is not quite their own; it collides with the thick gales effortlessly whipping tresses of steely hair from her body. her whetted gaze heels only to a growing expression of vague pomposity, flicking vertical pupils downward to meet aerith's frame. “ denying causality will only deny the will of the planet herself. her rapture has already begun. ”

“ are you sure? ”  she asks abruptly, surprising even herself. her body shifts, vaguely humiliated by her insecurity breaching the surface, and she adds, “ i wouldn't want to disappoint you... on seeming one way, but behaving another. ”

“ we kept you busy far longer than intended, ”  he murmurs, his barely-there voice melding with the tepid atmosphere, whisked away by a light breeze. “ for that, i apologize; this was initially meant to be a routine investigation. ”

her gloves are still stained with thick ichor, the lifeblood of fiends who took their chances on the second- and third-class SOLDIERs who follow just behind. sephiroth casts his gaze towards his company, dulling her expression into something gentler; leitha hardly seems unused to long nights, and by the way they hold themself, sephiroth would imagine that there'd be more in her future. a wry angling of his lips usher the corners of his mouth upward. something so discreet that if one weren't to expend effort looking, the thick shadowfall would obscure all but the faintly-glowing irises of mako infusion, exaggerated beneath the silver cascades of the moon. “ though you've been quite the help today—far more than you likely realize. now, how much farther do we have to trek until we return to town? ”

“ good work today, ” she murmurs, her arms wound over her chest, folded neatly behind thick tresses of moonlit hair. the natural satellite breaches thickly-packed clouds, an exhibition of rare tranquility found only outside of midgar, where the endless sky can be seen without smog or smoke veiling its breadth. with her eyes fixed on zack, their brows vaguely relax from its focused furrow, beholding his unpretentious nature with what could nearly be a subtle countenance of relief. “ you ought to get some rest, zack. tomorrow will be just as eventful, if not more—you'll need all the energy you can get. ”

☄️ .. the falling stars. You are the final beauty. A meteor shower that rains down like a barrage of bullets, fatally stunning. The last curtain call before everything goes dark, a reminder to humanity that it's not just them. That they may have conquered Earth, but they will never conquer Space.

“ i was told of your return, ”  she begins, breaching with a soft-spoken murmur careful enough as not to disturb the tranquility of the evening. beyond the threshold, silhouettes give shape to unmarked entities standing sentinel to their reunion; she feels watched even from their pitless eyes. dexterous limbs are brought forward, her eyes never once parting from angeal. angeal. angeal. “ welcome back. though we won't be here for long. ”