Hello everyone! Chapter two of Grandfather Paradox is out! :D So what do you guys think of the story so far?
Well, I hope you like it to say the least! Anywhoo, enjoy chapter two!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~X[Chapter 2: Learning the Basics]X~

Waiting for Angeal to get here was pure torture! Sephiroth, the mighty General and SOLDIER first class, was shaken up for once. Yet he kept his composure cool in front of these strange children that were apparently his. He was leaning against the kitchen wall that connected the room to the rest of the house. His arms were folded across his chest as he watched the four children in the living room. The eldest had the other two silverettes sitting around a small glass coffee table in the middle of the room, they had a deck of cards and by how it sounded, the kids were playing Go-fish.

The toddler Cloud was lingering about at a safe distance, more than likely debating with himself if he should go over and join them or not. He still had that blanket tucked safely to his chest, secured in place by his small hands. He toddled up next to the youngest of the three silver haired children, looking at the fun animal printed cards on the table. The youngest looked at him with a harsh glare, then used both of his hands and pushed the blonde away. The small child fell onto his rear with a soft thump as he dropped his precious blanket. A tiny little grunt made his way to his mouth, but hardly escaped passed closed lips.

"You can't play with us, Cloud!" He said, turning back to the game with his brothers. Sephiroth's silver eyebrows furrowed deeply. Confused and shaken up as he was, he was still the same old him. Behaviour like that would not be tolerated. It was not tolerated in the military, nor would it be in his home.

The little blonde haired boy began to whimper softly, azure blue eyes swelling with tears that were yet uncried.

"Get lost." The middle silverette said, his tone telling to all that he was bored and nearly annoyed. Yet he easily masked the annoyance with that bored look and tone of his.

At that comment, the young child's whines grew a little louder, his little pink lips beginning to jut out in his distress.

"Go cry somewhere else, you're interrupting our game." The eldest spoke up, putting a pair of sharks on the pile of cards as the middle one took them into his hand.

At that, the blonde child burst into tears, immediately pulling his hands to cover his mouth as he cried. Little tears dripped out of his eyes and his face flushed into a bright red color. After a few cries were had on the floor, he shakily wobbled to his feet and looked towards the kitchen, where he saw Sephiroth standing there, with firm eyes and a serious expression. Cloud instantly rushed towards him, throwing himself at the man's legs, wrapping his small arms around him as he used the dark grey fabric of the silverette's pyjamas to cry into.

Unsure of how to quiet the blonde down, he allowed him to cry against him. The man cleared his throat loudly, making the smaller children turn in a hurry to look in his direction.

"Explain yourselves." Sephiroth demanded, gesturing to Cloud crying away against him.

The blonde looked over at his siblings for just a moment, before hiding his face in the pants fabric again. His little hands were tightly gripping at said material and his small body was pressed against the man's legs, trying to seek comfort from him. The eldest was just about to open his mouth, until there was firm knocking at the door. Angeal was here!

Upon hearing the knocking, Cloud detached himself from Sephiroth and toddled to the side, out of his way. The General hurried over to the wooden door, and eagerly opened it. He was about to speak until he saw something by Angeal's legs. His milky ice blue eyes widened once again when he saw what appeared to be a child version of none other than Zack Fair! He looked to be about eight years old. Come on, a hyperactive teenager was enough, but a Child? Talk about a handful and Then some.

"Sephiroth? Are you alright?" Angeal asked, his voice was half amused, and half concerned.

The silverette was brought out of his surprised daze when he heard his friend's voice. He looked up to see that the man looked the same, and hadn't appeared to have changed. Thank goodness! Something that was the same!

"My emotions of being 'alright' all depend on how you answer my questions. Come inside." Sephiroth directed, opening up the door a little wider for his friend and the child Zack.

The little ravenette bounded inside, looking around the room with a big smile on his face. The three silverette children looked to nearly cringe, and they continued their game of Go-fish, altogether ignoring his arrival. Cloud had run up to the older looking boy, dropping all evidence of his tears and replaced it all with a big and bright smile.

"Cuzin!" He happily cried, his blue eyes twinkling in delight.

The young ravenette made a happy little giggle, then hugged the smaller child. Sephiroth blinked at Cloud's choice of words. So, if the puppy and the blonde were cousins then...Himself and Angeal were related? He quickly looked back towards his friend, eyes briefly flashing a hint of shock before he masked it over again.

Upon seeing the silverette's reaction to Cloud's words, he released a heavy sigh and carelessly raked one hand through his off black hair. "You're right...We Do need to talk." He said, also shaking his head slightly in the process.

He walked past Sephiroth and sat down on the unoccupied couch, the other following with and joining him on the cool leathered couch. The three silver haired children continued to play Go-fish, until Zack ran up, grabbed all the cards in the discard pile, and threw them up into the air, laughing as he did so. The eldest gave the younger boy a death glare, but it was counteracted when a pink tounge jutted out behind peachy lips, and a lower eyelid was pulled down, obviously making a funny face at him. Cloud copied Zack with loud laughter, ignoring his older brothers glares at him as well.

"So, what do you want to ask first?" Angeal spoke up, breaking through the childish teasing and laughter from only a few feet from them.

"Firstly, who are they?" Sephiroth said, getting right down to business as he pointed at the children about ready to gang up on Zack for interrupting their intense game of Go-fish, all the while the young ravenette was still making jabs at the older boys, with Cloud just staring up at him in adoration. Clearly the blonde was learning from a bad example.

"Okay, you must have suffered from some sort of sleep concussion, but whatever. They are your children. Kadaj is the oldest one at age eleven, Yazoo is the middle one at age ten, and Loz is the youngest of the three at age eight. Finally, Cloud is the youngest at age two." Angeal began.

"How Old am I?" Sephiroth quickly retorted, trying his best to hide his surprise.

"You're thirty-one..." The older ravenette said slowly, his eyebrows beginning to scrunch ever-so-slightly.

The mighty General was barely able to hold back a gasp. How had he aged six years in one day? But most importantly, out of all of his questions-

"Who is their mother?" He nearly cried. His voice barely cracked, but he was someone able to keep most of his cool.

Angeal let out another heavy sigh, as if he was trying to find the right words to say to Sephiroth. His eyes rolled around a little bit in thought, as he pieced together the phrases he had to make as much sense as possible for his older brother that was clearly suffering from some sudden onset of amnesia.

"Well, Jeanine Rivers is the mother of the three silverettes. She was your high school crush. You guys hooked up and had some kids, but she died about two years ago." The ravenette explained, comfortably crossing his arms over his chest as he sunk his back against the couch cushions behind him.

Jeanine, that name was familiar. Ah, that's right. She had come to Shinra to apply for the Turks. A vibrant and headstrong woman with white-blonde hair and piercing milky green eyes. She was a bold woman and didn't let other people's opinions persuade her own. But when she was denied, she stepped down a notch and ended up becoming Genesis' secretary. She didn't last long before she couldn't handle the redhead's temper, and ended up becoming his secretary. Sephiroth was pulled out of his thoughts When he thought over what Angeal said to him first.

"What do you mean by 'mother of the three silverettes'? What about Cloud?" The General asked, using his hand to gesture towards the blonde boy, in which was now roughhousing and wrestling around with Zack, laughing all the while. The silverette children were still gathered around the coffee table, only talking to each other now.

"Ah, him..." The younger man said, a heavy sigh following his words.

The silverette slowly blinked, now that his questions were being answered, he was able to fall back into his usual persona. He started to piece together that this might be an entirely different place. Kind of like a child wondering if their reflection in the mirror was another them or not. But, parallel worlds didn't exsist...Right? When Angeal took a long breath, about to speak, the silverette pulled himself out of his thoughts and listened.

"Well, about three years ago, you went to a bar with me and some of our friends. You met this girl there. You guys started talking for a few hours, had some drinks together. Apparently from what you told me the next morning after that night is you had pulled a one-night stand. You never saw the girl again, until a few months later when she found your number and called you, stating she was pregnant..." Angeal began, pausing to take a quick breath and check over his brother's reaction to see how well he'd take the information that he should have already known. He seemed to be fairing just fine so far. Upon seeing this, he continued.

"Of course you denied it, and told the girl she was crazy. But after a few more months she found you out, then Jeanine ended up finding out about it. But instead of getting mad, she was very understanding, even if her parents hated you for 'betraying her', as they said. The girl had said that she was going to kill the baby before it was born so she wouldn't have to take care of it, but Jeanine talked some sense into her and even offered to take the baby herself.

So after he was born, you two took him back. At first you didn't even like to look at him, because he was the living proof of your horrible mistake. But Jeanine ended up persuading you otherwise. Then you took to the baby instantly. Anyways, that's basically the jist." Angeal finished up.

Sephiroth nodded slowly. So that must be why the other children don't like Cloud, because he's not really their full blooded brother. Or perhaps they blamed him for their mother's death? Who knows. Cloud and Zack had stopped roughhousing, and now the blonde playfully pushed Kadaj, wanting to play with him a little bit too.

"Back off, Blacksheep." He warned.

"Hey Kadaj! Don't be a meanie to Cloud!" Zack cried, pointing his finger at the older silverette, his eyes firm in anger.

"Don't tell me what to do, Puppy!" He snapped back, feline eyes narrowing into large blue ones.

The other two silver haired brothers looked at each other with widened eyes, knowing something was about to go down and that they should probably stay out of it. The little blonde boy looked back and forth between his eldest brother and his older cousin, his big blue eyes displaying worry and fright. He stepped back from them a little bit, falling onto his rear with a soft thump as the silent tensions grew higher between the two.

"If you don't want me tellin' you what to do, then don't be a stupidhead!" Zack countered, growling softly in anger.

"I'm not a stupidhead!" Kadaj shouted, balling his hands into fists.

"Stupidhead! Stupidhead!" The ravenette shot back, just as loud as the silverette's shouting.

Without warning, Kadaj lunged at Zack, tackling him to the ground. The younger boy fought back but thrusting his feet up into the older boy's stomach, and using his fingernails to try and slice at his face. The silverette was able to reach down and bite Zack on the arm, while the ravenette was able to scratch Kadaj's left cheek. Cloud burst out into tears at the fighting, obviously frightened and worried.

"Hey!" The stern voice of Angeal cut through the air.

The two boys kept fighting, biting, and scratching one another, ignoring the man's interjection. Sephiroth stood up from the couch, took a deep breath, and in his best military commander voice, shouted:

"Stop this insolent behaviour immediately or strict punishment will fall on your behalf!" The two boys immediately stopped fighting and looked up at the older man, Zack was pinned under Kadaj, but had a leg wrapped around him, and had pulled one of his arms down and pinned it to the ground with one of his own. Cloud continued to cry from his spot on the tan carpeted floor, even though the room was dead silent otherwise.

Kadaj scampered off of the younger boy, while Zack sat up and shot the older boy a glare, gently rubbing the arm that had been bitten. Sephiroth scoffed in an annoyed manner as he picked up the wailing toddler, pulling him away from the battlefield that had once preciously been a living room. The blonde babe stopped crying, but instead snuggled up closer towards his father.

"Kadaj, for starting this fight, you shall be punished accordingly to how I see fit." He sternly said, he then looked over towards Zack, whom looked angry at Kadaj, yet ashamed at the older man in front of him. "As for you, I shall let your father handle you." He simply stated.

The other two silverette children were staring at each other, their eyes still wide. Good thing they decided to stay out of it! Unlike their eldest brother, they were not brash and always thought before they acted, unlike Kadaj, or Zack for that matter. Angeal chuckled from his spot on the couch. Even if his older brother seemed to have amnesia of some sorts, he was still the same old Sephiroth: Strict, yet caring, in his own little way. The older man turned to face him, Cloud still in his arms.

"So...Does this happen a lot?" He asked. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: Whoo! Chapter two is DONE! Hope you guys liked it! :) This chappie was basically written to introduce Sephy's Parallel Life! That's right! He's in a parallel world! OOOhhh! Poor Cloudy though, his brother's don't like him! It will be explained exactly why they don't like him in future chapters X3 Anyways, I hope you guys liked it! Stay tuned for more!

~Zimithrus1