When Sephiroth woke up again, Aeris was rolling up her sleeping bag. He was surprised to see her wearing the same pink dress and red jacket she was wearing when he killed her. As she moved about, he could see the ragged tear where his masamune had gone through the material. The skin beneath the torn material was unmarred. He felt a pang of guilt. Glancing down at himself, he saw he was wearing his usual black battle wear. He sat up and watched Aeris.

"Hello sleepyhead," she greeted him brightly. "Are you ready to get started on our mission?"

"OUR mission," he repeated. "An interesting choice of words."

Aeris smiled at him. He crawled out of his sleeping bag and started to roll it up. A thought occurred to him.

"My masamune," he said. "What happened to my sword?"

"Oh!" Aeris jumped up and hurried to the corner of the basement, where the chocobo sat on its nest of leaves. She pushed the sleepy bird aside, reaching between it and the wall. The large bird gave an indignant squawk and shifted its body.

Aeris fumbled around a bit, then her face brightened. She pulled a long black sheath out of its hiding place and stood up. She carried it to Sephiroth. He took it from her hands and examined it.

"Where was this?" he asked. "I didn't see it in the Lifestream."

"Yeah, well-" Aeris blushed. "I didn't want you to have it before we had a chance to talk to you."

He stared at her a moment, then lowered his head.

"You mean you didn't want me to use it on you again," he said quietly.

Aeris shrugged her shoulders. "It did hurt, you know."

He raised his eyes to her again. "You were wise to keep it away from me. When you helped me get my memory back, I wanted to kill you. I thought I should kill you because that was my last memory of you from my previous life. I probably would have acted on that impulse if my sword had been available."

"I know," she said. "You did try to strangle me, but you couldn't have hurt me much in the Lifestream. The Cetra would have stopped you if you didn't stop yourself."

Sephiroth nodded and rose to his feet. "What other supplies do we have?" he asked.

Aeris stood up. "Our sleeping bags, a change of clothes and the chocobo," she said.

"No food?"

Aeris shook her head. "We're going to have to rough it. We can find edible plants in the Sleeping Forest, but it will be dangerous. There are still plenty of Hojo's experiments running around."

"I'm not afraid of Hojo's monsters," said Sephiroth hanging the sheath from his belt.

"I know," said Aeris. "That why I feel safer with you here."

He gave her an odd look and Aeris blushed. She walked over to the stack of clothing Sephiroth had noticed before and removed a few items. "I'm going upstairs for a few minutes, okay?"

"Why?" he asked suspiciously.

"Well, I need to change clothes," she said embarrassed. "I can't wear this dress any more and we really don't have any privacy here."

"Oh." Sephiroth looked away. "Go change clothes. I'll wait for you here."

"But there's a change of clothes for you too," ventured Aeris. "They're right here. You can change while I'm getting dressed."

Sephiroth turned to her annoyed. "Why would I want to change clothes?"

"For one thing," said Aeris, "You won't look so menacing."

He just looked at her.

"C'mon Sephiroth," she said exasperated, "You're going to have a hard enough time convincing everyone you came back to help me save the planet. If you keep wearing your uniform, it will look like you're coming to fight. Please change clothes."

"I don't care what anyone thinks," he said to Aeris in a cold voice. "I'm not going to change clothes."

Aeris wanted to reason with him, but his gaze was enough to stop her. "Very well," she said softly. "I'll be right back."

She hurried up the stairs. Sephiroth watched her until she turned out of sight. He heard her move to a far corner of the upper room to change. He sat down to wait.

When Aeris returned, she was wearing black leggings and a long pullover sweater top with long sleeves and a turtleneck that was basically dark blue but had flecks of rust, and different shades lighter blues in it. Her hair was tied back in a blue ribbon. She wore simple black shoes instead of the heavy boots she always wore. Her outfit showed off her figure. She looked very attractive.

"Is something wrong?" Aeris looked down at herself.

Sephiroth hadn't realized he was staring.

"No." He picked up his sleeping bag and stood. "It's just that every time I've ever seen you, you were wearing that pink and red outfit."

"I know this is a little too fancy for travel," said Aeris, "These were provided by the Cetra. They used their powers to reach back into this world to help me. We-I can buy new clothes somewhere as soon as we find a way to earn some money."

Sephiroth nodded. He turned his attention to preparing the chocobo for travel. Aeris took the clothes for Sephiroth and hid them in the rolls of her sleeping bag while he wasn't watching.

When the Chocobo was properly harnessed, Sephiroth arranged their sleeping bags on its back leaving room for both of them to sit. Aeris lead the way up the stairs. Sephiroth came behind her leading the chocobo. When they reached the upper room and entered a dusty kitchen, Sephiroth was the first to see the pile old coins on the kitchen table.

Chapter 6