Revelations

By LastCetra

For Daenis Tooshy. Thanks for being there, and being you.

"The Great Sephiroth," that's what he was called. The hero of the Midgar - Wutai war, the man who had killed thousands for his city, whose sword tore down countless enemies with one fell swoop.

He didn't feel so great now, lying fully dressed on a bed in a small one-roomed apartment situated on the outskirts of Kalm town, hands clasped behind his head as he stared up at the plain ceiling, decorated only by a bare light bulb. He knew he should be getting up now, his mission was in the morning and trip from Kalm was not a comfortable short one. It would probably help if there were roads to drive on.

He turned on his side to face the other person that was occupying the bed. Unlike Sephiroth, he was asleep, curled into a ball with his body hugging the wall next to him. He wore a loose black shirt and trousers and his silver, shoulder length hair was splayed across his face. Sephiroth pushed one of the more troublesome strands from where it was tickling his nose.

"Kadaj," he whispered. "How can you sleep so peacefully in a world like this?"

He rolled off the bed, landing neatly on his feet. This place was his home away from home, where he'd let Kadaj live for the past year since he'd found him helpless against a wolf outside Junon. What struck him about Kadaj was not the scarily similar silver hair, but his jade-green eyes, exactly like his own…

Sephiroth pulled out a rucksack from the wardrobe opposite the bed along with some clothes and proceeded to stuff them in the bag in as organised a way as he possibly could. He didn't consider himself a tidy person, quite the opposite. Sure, his materia collection was meticulously organised, but that's where it stopped. Sephiroth even got a cleaner to secretly stop by his place everyday and clean it. Secret because his reputation demanded it. If people ever found out that "The Great Sephiroth" was a slob, it would make him be taken far less seriously. He put more things into his bag; tins of food, spare materia, and even though it sounded cliché, his trusty penknife. It had saved his life twice before, so he never went on a mission without it now.

Finally finished, Sephiroth looked over at Kadaj once more. Still asleep. Not wanting to disturb the boy's slumber, he sat down on at a small wooden table with a pen and paper and wrote him a note.

Dear Kadaj,

I'm going away for a while. Sorry, I know you'll be mad. Shinra says it's very important though. Monsters have been going completely berserk and they want me to fight-

"Sephiroth?"

The silver haired warrior jumped slightly at the mention of his name. He pen, still pointed to the paper, jumped with him, sending a trail of ink across the page. Sephiroth looked behind him. Kadaj was awake and lying on his side, head supported by his hand.

"Oh, Kadaj," Sephiroth said, standing up from the table in a hurry, knocking the chair in his haste. Laughing at his clumsiness he quickly put it back. "I didn't think you were awake."

"I just woke up," he replied with a yawn, eyeing the rucksack that was lying next to the table.

"You off again?" he asked. Sephiroth scratched his head awkwardly.

"Yeah."

"But you just got here!" he exclaimed, pretty annoyed. "You were away on that mission to Corel for ages, and they're asking you to go away again?"

"The monsters are strong. They need me on this one."

"You need a break," Kadaj pointed out.

"I know, I know, I'm really sorry Kadaj," he said, sitting down on the bed cross-legged to face him. "This might take about a month or so but then I swear, I'm taking SOLDIER's leave and I'll come back and we can train or something."

"But Sephiroth," he said in a low voice, as if he was trying to keep what he was saying a secret from anyone else that could be listening, which was silly as it was only the two of them in the room. "You're all that I have."

Sephiroth looked uncomfortable. He had always been trained to keep his emotions in check but that all crumbled when Kadaj was around. It was like he brought out the human in him.

"What is it?" Kadaj asked, noting the carnival of expression playing on the warrior's face. Sephiroth didn't know how he was going to tell him, afraid of his reaction. What if he went insane, or had a mental breakdown?

"There's, something I need to tell you Kadaj," he said, dismissing his earlier thoughts as paranoia. "It's about you."

"You know something about who I am?" he exclaimed, bolting into a sitting position and entrusting his complete attention to the man less than a foot away from him.

"A little bit," he replied. When he'd rescued Kadaj from almost certain death he found the boy had been wandering aimlessly for days around the Junon area. He had no memory of himself or events that had happened except that he knew his name was Kadaj and had a brief image in his memory of something white. Sephiroth had hoped that Kadaj would be the answer to his unknown past; they looked so alike, anybody could have put them together as brothers, but nothing. No relation whatsoever. He scoured files, called in favours, even threatened and blackmailed companies and persons, all for nothing. But even though he'd been given conclusive evidence to believe otherwise, Sephiroth couldn't help believing that Kadaj was the key to finding out who he really was. The fact that they almost looked exactly alike, and both knew nothing of their pasts was too much of a coincidence to ignore. His soldier's instinct had never failed him to this date, so he wasn't going to dismiss it now.

"Come on, tell me!" Kadaj whined, punching Sephiroth's shoulder and snapping him from his thoughtful stupor.

"To be honest, I didn't find out about your past, more to do with family," he started, picking his words carefully. "Kadaj, you have two brothers."

There was stunned silence. Sephiroth looked at Kadaj closely, gauging his reaction. He had to choke back a laugh. His mouth was partially open, and he had the most comical expression on his face. It reminded him of those cartoon reactions you'd see on television. At least he wasn't going to go insane.

"I'm, I'm-" Kadaj stuttered, unable to form a sentence. "I'm, I mean, I have brothers? Plural?"

"Yeah," Sephiroth replied with a smile. "Their names are Loz and Yazoo. They live in Midgar."

"Oh Odin! I have brothers!" he shrieked, lunging at Sephiroth, knocking them both on the floor as he tried to hug him. "Thank you Sephiroth, thank you so much!" Sephiroth grunted, speech unable to return yet as Kadaj had completely winded him. Instead he awkwardly patted him on the back. Tears on joy flew down Kadaj's face as he gripped Sephiroth's shirt and cried into it.

"I was always afraid," he sobbed, "that I had no one in the world. Then you came and took me in, and now…"

"There there," Sephiroth comforted, rubbing his back soothingly.

"I HAVE BROTHERS!" he wailed, his tears flowing harder.

"Is that a bad thing?" asked a very confused Sephiroth.

"It's wonderful!" he cried, his body shaking with sobs.

"There's no need to cry about it."

"I know, I know," Kadaj replied, his body heaving with each word. "I- just- can't-…STOP! He buried his face in Sephiroth's hair.

Sephiroth couldn't help it. He threw his head back and laughed. Kadaj joined in, laughing and crying in their shared delight. Both the laughs and the tears eventually subsided, leaving Kadaj feeling a euphoric type of peace.

"I'm gonna know now Seph," he said quietly. "About who I am. I have a family."

"Yeah," he replied in Kadaj's same tone. He looked up at the silver haired boy on top of him. His face was beaming, even though his eyes were red and puffy from fresh tears. Sephiroth had never seen him so happy. Kadaj met his gaze and they smiled at each other.

Suddenly realising the position he'd brought them into, Kadaj let out a short laugh and lifted himself up off the warrior before extending his hand to help him up. Sephiroth accepted gratefully and pulled himself to his feet.

"I gotta go to Midgar!" Kadaj yelled, hopping around the room. Sephiroth laughed at the look of him bouncing around the small apartment.

"Wait a minute," he said mid-hop as something occurred to him. "Where did you find this out?"

Sephiroth couldn't tell him the truth. He had been rooting through Hojo's files as a favour for a reconnaissance mission for the Turks when he spotted Kadaj's name on one of the files. "Specimen F-16." His two brothers, "F-14" and "F-15" had also been in the lab. Sephiroth had found it strange; he'd spent years in that lab and he'd never gotten any trace of them being there. He knew he was an observant person, in fact he prided himself on it and he should have caught wind that they were there. How come he'd never seen or heard of them?

These were questions for another day. Instead, he said to Kadaj simply, "Contacts."

Kadaj nodded. He knew better than to ask who his contacts were. He also knew he wasn't going to get any hints on what his mission was about, though he was bursting to know. He did have one question he could ask however, about the topic they'd just been discussing.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" he asked. "These people, my, brothers, Loz and Yazoo, wasn't it? They can give me all the answers to who I am. Why did you wait to tell me?"

Because I just know, you're the key to my past, and I didn't want to let you go before I found out.

"I don't know what your brothers are like Kadaj. I know they exist, but that's it. I didn't get photographs, descriptions or personality traits about them. I couldn't possibly let you meet them unprepared. You'd have to know how to take care of yourself in case they, weren't what you expected."

"Oh," Kadaj replied. "I see what you mean." He didn't say anymore, sitting back down on the bed quietly to think. Sephiroth watched him for several moments, the way his eyebrows knitted together in concentration as he thought. He wondered what he was thinking about, but how could he possibly know?

"Look," he said, walking over to one of the dressers. He pulled out the bottom drawer, before removing a secret panel at the base. In it lay a sword. He removed it and walked back to Kadaj, holding it out to him. The boy's green eyes widened, and slowly he raised his right hand and reached out to it.

"For, me?" he asked, daring it to be true. Sephiroth nodded.

Kadaj hesitated as his hand was about to touch the sheath.

"Go on," Sephiroth encouraged. Kadaj tentatively took the sword from his hands, his own shaking with excitement as he wrapped them around the brown cylindrical holder, engraved with, was that actual gold? He gripped amazingly decorated hilt and pulled the sheath away, leaving the blade, a beautiful, sleek, steel twin blade, curved at the end like a cutlass. Tightening his grip and holding it with both hands, he swung the sword around. Speed, balance and weight were perfect. Shaking his head, he put it back in it's sheath and handed it back to Sephiroth.

"I can't take something like that," he said.

"Why not?"

"I just can't. It's too beautiful, it's too rare, I couldn't possibly-"

"Shut up and take the sword Kadaj," Sephiroth interrupted. "You'll come across monsters when you're going finding your brothers, so you'll need it to protect yourself. Give me some sort of peace of mind at least."

"But-"

"I'm not even using it. The only thing I've only ever used since the Midgar-Wutai war was the masamune, so it's just gathering dust here. It could do with a battle."

"Alright," he conceded, taking the sword back. "I'll put it to good use, I promise."

"Thanks."

"No," he replied. "Thank you, for everything."

Sephiroth looked at the clock on the wall and cringed.

"I really have to go," he said, putting his hand on Kadaj's shoulder. "Will you be okay for a while?"

Kadaj nodded, forcing a smile.

"I'll be back as soon as I can," he continued, moving his hand from the boy's shoulder and ruffling his silver hair. His hand slipped gently across his cheek before he headed for the door.

"Sephiroth?" Kadaj called. "Just out of curiosity, where's your mission?"

"Oh," he replied, waving his hand at the comment as he walked out the door. "Someplace called Nibelhiem."

The End.

Author's note: Well, I know I haven't updated my fic, which I promised to do today, but I just haven't had the energy to type it! So, I decided to put this on as a sorry, and also afic for my friend Daenis Tooshy. I wrote this in the space of two days, which is an extremely short time for me. I'd like to know if you thought it a bit rushed, or some of the plot convienient at times, cause that's the main thing I'm worried about!Thanks for reading, please drop a review!

LastCetra