I do NOT own Shinra, Ifalna, or Lord Jyscal. Square Enix owns all that. Sadly enough. . .T.T And yes, the father of Maester Seymour (Final Fantasy X) makes an appearance.

This is a turning point in Astasia's life. You see, this is what makes it an alternate universe in my world. In the Original 'Verse, Sylene, Astasia and Dellusion's mother, had never received that letter from Ifalna. And she was killed, leaving the two children on their own with the Shinra company. . .and Hojo.

Summary: Sylene knew this day would come. She just didn't think it would have come this quickly. Her decision: to stay on her own world because of her past, or to go to a new world, to save her children. In the end, only fate will determine the lives of this family of three.

"It used to be so nice. I was an assistant to your father. I would help him with everything that he did. And then, when I became pregnant with you, Astasia, he disappeared. All of his experiments, all of his research just up and disappeared with him.

"I miss him terribly, I will admit. The only reason why I do, I think, is because I somewhat still love your father. I hate him, though. I hate him because he left me, to fend for myself, all alone. I hate him because he chose to not raise the beautiful Angel that you are," Sylene explained to her daughter as she lifted the barely three year old up onto her lap. "But do you know what my little Angel?"

"What, Momma?" Astasia obediently asked her obsidian-eyed and coal-haired mother.

"He's missing out, I think," Sylene giggled sweetly. She then started to tickle her daughter mercilessly. Astasia shrieked with laughter as she tried to get away from her mother and her fingers. Sylene's other pride and joy then came streaming through the door, an excited expression on his face. He was eight, his birthday within the next week. Sylene sighed to herself as her fingers stopped their onslaught on her daughter, letting the tiny girl rest and try to catch her breath. Her children were growing up so fast! The three year old rolled off of her mother's lap onto the bedspread of the small bed that was her mother's to get her second wind. Sylene picked Astasia up and then let her son lead her by the hand out to the living room, his excited chatter making her smile. She set her daughter on the couch just as Dellusion told her the reason as to why he was so hyper.

"Mama! Mama!" he exclaimed as he jumped around on the dull wooded floor. "Mama! Look! Lord Jyscal is here!" the eighter year old exclaimed with happiness shining in his eyes. Sylene looked up expectantly and her smile grew as a large man stepped through the front door left wide open by Dellusion in his haste to relay his news. Jyscal let his eyes take a sweeping glance throughout the small house the family of three called a home and frowned, like he always did. Sylene ignored this, as she always did, and stood up to embrace the man named Jyscal. The one whom she had known her entire life. Jyscal returned the embrace the same way he usually did, which was by doing nothing at all. However, a soft smile was on his face when she withdrew from the hug. She smiled in return.

"Lord Jyscal! Lord Jyscal!" Dellusion piped up excitedly. The tall Guado looked down to give the child his full attention.

"Yes, Dellusion?" he asked patiently.

"Lord Jyscal, look what I can do!" he exclaimed happily and he put his hand in the air, his hand in a loose fist with his index finger pointed up. He smile in anticipation and then pointed his hand at the fireplace. "FIRE!" A fireball flew from Dellusion's fingertips and landed safely in the fireplace. There was a genuine look of surprise on the Maester's face when he saw what the boy could do. He looked towards Sylene and she had a proud smile on.

"That's my boy," she congratulated. Dellusion smiled perkily, showing a gaping hole in between two teeth.

"And that's not all! Look at what me and 'Stasia can do!" he boasted. He then looked over to his sister, who was watching him with patient eyes. "Ready 'Stasia?" he asked as he pointed his finger in the air once more. The little girl nodded. "Right!" Dellusion looked forward again and screwed his face up in concentration. Then, he pointed out in front of him, at the window, and withdrew his finger into a fist, then made his fingers burst outward. "FIRE!" The two adults watched as the fireball was launched at the window and then they heard the twinkling of Astasia's voice shouting out her contribution to the little show.

"FREEZE!" Ice shards appeared out of nowhere and froze the fireball in its path to the window. The fireball dropped inches from the wall, loudly thudding dully onto the bare wooden floor, the flame frozen inside of the block of ice that now covered it. Both kids gave excited smiles as they waited, expecting the praise that normally follows. Sylene started clapping while Jyscal stood, contemplating. Then he nodded his head as he came to a conclusion.

"Have you thought of what they are going to do when they grow up?" he quietly asked the woman standing next to him as she stopped her clapping to look at him. Dellusion and Astasia raced up to the frozen fireball to poke it, inspecting their work with critical eyes.

"Even though they are young still, I feel that they have a good aptitude with magic. The stones they have are only small shards of Materia, and they have such good control over it right now. I really wonder sometimes what they would do if they experienced raw magic when drawing upon it from their surroundings. The effects would be phenomenal, wouldn't it?" she asked him with an unrestrained curiosity. He could only hum in agreement. Jyscal then looked back at the children still examining the frozen fireball.

"Why don't you two go outside and try your trick with a larger fireball? Then come back and show it to us," he suggested, the kids' faces lighting up at the prospect of a new challenge. Both scrambled to their feet and were ready to shoot out the door. They only needed one thing.

"Make sure you aim away from the house," Sylene commanded and both kids nodded.

"Hai, Mama!" Dellusion agreed easily, accidentally slipping into the Wutaiian tongue as he tried to contain his excitement. With their mother's approval, Dellusion and Astasia shot out the door, one right after the other. Sylene couldn't help it. A giggle came from her throat. She quickly tried to stifle it as she stole a glance at the man standing next to her. He was staring intently at her, waiting for her to calm herself. She smiled softly as her eyes softened.

"They're wonderful kids, aren't they?" she asked gently as she turned around. She walked into her bedroom, guessing correctly that he needed to talk about something serious. Something that the children shouldn't hear. It happens every time he's visited and she knows what signs to look for when he decides it's time. Jyscal followed her into the bedroom and shut the door. Both kids have learned that when Mama's door is closed, they were not to disturb her. Unless of course, the house was burning down or someone was dying.

Jyscal motioned for Sylene to sit down. It was redundant. The matriarch of the Nojima line had already taken a seat upon the bed, as she usually did. She nodded for him to start and he did, frowning at the size of the room and at the bed that was a few inches shorted than its inhabitant. The room was bare, only a bed and dresser in it. Not that anything else would fit in it. Jyscal then turned his attention to the now serious Sylene.

"Sylene, I will continue to offer this, no matter how many times you say no. But Sylene, think of the children! I can only visit so many times before the council of Yevon finds out how to get here. And when they find new land to conquer, don't you think that they'll start another war, a holy war, to claim this land as theirs?" Jyscal argued firmly, remembering to keep his voice down for fear of the kids hearing him. He was standing at the side of the bed, talking to Sylene as she sat on it, cross-legged. Her head was in her hands, and she seemed to be thinking deeply upon this manner.

"Shinra would have a hissy fit if someone else were to try a war. We have something brewing with Wutai right now, and no doubt a war with an outsider will prove beneficial to uniting the Planet," Sylene tried to rationalize. Jyscal shook his head and knelt down next to the bed, grabbing her by her arms to make her look at him.

"Sylene, what do you think that will do? Yevon will invade the Planet, and your home will be one of many destroyed before this war is over with." Still not seeing her comply, he tried another tactic. "What if this war lasts for ten years or more? That would make Dellusion old enough to fight, and if there is a need, he will be sent out, most likely to his death," the Guado whispered, wanting desperately to ignore the tears and hot fury that sprang up in Sylene's eyes.

"He will not fight in a useless war," she whispered angrily. She launched herself into Jyscal's arms and tried to stem the tide of tears that where trying to take over. "I will not lose him in a useless war all because of some idiotic religion tries to take over!" she cried, despair rolling off of her in waves. She started to shake in his arms, and after a few minutes hadn't stopped yet. Jyscal stood, raising Sylene up to her knees as she clung to him. "He won't, he won't, he won't," she kept chanting to herself. He made soothing noises as he rubbed her back. Her sobs subsided a few minutes after that and Sylene took her head up off of his chest. Her eyes were red with crying and as she sniffed, she wiped any remaining tears away with the back of her hand.

"If you and he are in Spira with me, he won't have to fight. At all. He'll be able to live a life where his mother and sister won't have to worry for his safety because he'll be at home," Jyscal persuaded. Sylene found herself nodding as she slowly withdrew from his arms. She wiped at her face again and then moved to get off of the bed. She softly padded to her dresser and plucked a piece of paper off of the top of a thick stack. She walked back to the bed, and Jyscal, and handed the piece of paper to him. It was a letter.

Dear Ms. Nojima,

It has, unfortunately come to my attention that you and your children are in great danger. ShinRa has decided upon a set date and time in which to retrieve one of their esteemed professor's children from you, upon which your termination is imminent. My advice to you is to leave where you are currently situated at the time and move to a more secure location. My first priority is the children, so do not think that you are getting special treatment. If the children are given to ShinRa, only horror and pain will be in their futures. It is not in my intentions to let any child be subjected to that. Hence, this warning letter. This is your first and only notice: leave and never come back. For your children's sake.

Hoping that you will keep the children's safety in mind,

Ifalna Gainsborough

Jyscal gave the letter back to Sylene and looked at her with searching eyes as she replaced the letter upon the stack on her dresser. It was then that he fully realized why her room seemed to be so bare. She had already started packing. The dark haired woman looked back at the Maester and sadly smiled.

"Once I had received that letter, my mind had been changed. Nothing is more important to me than my children, and if anyone threatens them, I remedy the situation. Except this time, I'll have to remove us before the threat can loom over our heads," she responded to his unasked question.

"Have you told them yet?" he asked easily, watching her like a hawk as she moved around the bed and him to get to her door.

"Not yet," she breezily replied, her eyes still red as she left her room.

"Mama, why are we leaving?" Dellusion asked the dark haired woman who held his hand tightly in her own grasp. Sylene was staring somberly out at the house she had meticulously created and hidden with her own strength. The home she had made out of her hiding place. The cottage where her children had grown up, where memories were made. She looked at the burning mass before her and she only had to remember that it was for her children that she chose this path. A slight tugging on her other hand brought the crying woman back to reality. She looked down at her daughter, who merely stared up at her mother. Sylene smiled softly at Astasia and then turned her attention to her son.

"Bad men are coming soon to try to take you away from me, and-" she started out. She was quickly interrupted.

"No! I won't go! I wanna stay with Momma!" Astasia threw a mini-tantrum as she clenched onto her mother's hand even tighter. Dellusion reach around Sylene to give his sister a firm pat on the head.

"That's why we're going, isn't it Mama?" he asked with a sad smile as he looked up at his mother. "So the bad men won't come and take us. Where will we be going, Mama?" he asked. This time Lord Jyscal spoke up, reminding the family of the Guado Maester's presence.

"We will be going to my home," he calmly stated to the family. Sylene looked at Jyscal with a startled look upon her face. She hadn't been told about where they would be housed, but she had assumed that he would find her a nice house or apartment in one of the smaller communities. "There is another world named Spira which is my home, remember?" Ah, so that's what he was talking about. Not his actual house but his homeworld. "There is a small community, which I think you will like a lot, Dellusion," he continued. "There is a temple nearby, where a spirit of the flame is held and worshipped. You might be able to become a warrior monk and be able to control the fire even more, if you practice hard enough." He smiled as he held out his hand to the small boy. Dellusion turned away from his burning home, the one that he had been ordered to send a fireball at, and raised his hand to take Lord Jyscal's. The Guado's long fingers didn't weird out the boy like he knew they did other people. These were the fingers that had changed his diapers, that had wiped away tears, and that had disciplined him when his mother couldn't. He trusted those fingers. Jyscal firmly grasped the small fingers that slipped into his and started to lead the boy away from his home. A slight tugging on Sylene's hand reminded her that she was still holding Dellusion's other hand, and so let herself be dragged along with her son. Astasia skipped to keep up with the sudden turning of them all and as soon as she and her mother had gotten onto the same pace as her brother and Lord Jyscal, she let go of her mother's hand and skipped ahead, marveling at what she believed would be the last time she saw the meadow she had grown up in.

She was right.