Author's Note: Yay new chapter! Going forward, there will be no beta work, so any mistakes are mine! Hopefully it's not a lot! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: FFVII and it characters are still not mine and suing me is pointless as I am now a student once more! ;) All OC's belong to me. When any borrowed OC's pop up, they will be noted! :)

Chapter 3: Efren

Cissnei watched the young boy. He seemed harmless, but she'd seen enough of ShinRa's shit during her day to know that things weren't always what they seemed. This boy was no exception. She didn't really know Cloud Strife. She'd heard of him, but she didn't really know him. She'd been in hiding during Meteor – not by her choice, but due to orders. She'd have rather been in the thick of things, but orders were orders. Even after Sephiroth's return, Tseng had ordered her to stay away from Midgar. The idea had been if Sephiroth had found AVALANCHE's hideout in Deepground, then she and the other Turks in hiding around the world could form another branch of AVALANCHE and continued the fight against Sephiroth's regime. Thankfully, they'd all survived and Sephiroth was gone.

Well…except the boy beside her was Sephiroth's door back to Gaia, if he chose to walk through it.

"Cissnei, who is Sephiroth?"

Damn. She had to remember the kid had Sephiroth's powers. "He was a SOLDIER. Actually, he was the greatest SOLDIER on Gaia."

The boy turned and looked her in the eye. "But he was bad, right?"

"What makes you say that, Efren?"

He arched a brow. "I may be ten, but I not dumb. Besides, I can hear everyone's thoughts about me. Everyone wants to know if this Sephiroth can use me to come back. If he's such a great guy, people wouldn't be worried."

He was smart, she'd give him that! "He wasn't a good man. He used to be, but then he changed."

Efren nodded. "I think I remember him."

That surprised Cissnei. As far as she knew, Efren had been in a kind of cryogenic sleep. "What do you remember?"

"I remember that creepy man, Hojo talking to a man with long, silver hair. Sometimes, when Hojo wasn't around, that man would come and look at me or talk to me. He seemed…sad."

"Sad?" Cissnei was somewhat shocked by the kid's revelation, but on the other hand…it was no secret what Sephiroth was put through as a child. Seeing a younger version of himself going through the same thing had to be rough. Still…he was a monster. Monsters couldn't feel compassion.

"He wasn't a monster."

Shit. She really had to get a grip on her damn thoughts. "He did some monstrous things."

Efren nodded. "He did…but he wasn't always lost. Not after the nice lady with the dark hair came home."

"How do you know about her?" Cissnei wanted to keep him talking.

"Sephiroth talked about her a lot." Efren smiled slightly. "Loz really like her. He thought she was awesome."

"Efren, how do you know all this? You were in a mako tube your whole life."

"Maybe." He pointed to his head. "But I was never really alone."

Reno took a long drag on his cigarette and shook his head. "Well, fuck me."

"You took the words right out of my mouth." Genesis tilted his head and watched the young boy closely. "I think we may have a problem."

Tifa turned to Reeve. "Has he mentioned hearing Sephiroth lately?"

"No. Actually, this is the most he's talked since we found him." Reeve shook his head. "Something about Cissnei makes him talk. Around men, he's quiet. He mostly only answers with yes or no."

"He knows of me. Maybe he'll talk to me, too?" Tifa looked at the boy again. "He seems harmless so far."

"Tifa, my darling, what if your presence pokes at Sephiroth?" Genesis gently caressed her back. "Despite Jenova being removed so he could be accepted into the Lifestream, his obsession may still live."

Tifa smiled softly. "Gen, if it's his heart's desire to return, I don't think there's much we can do to stop him. We just have to hope that Aerith and your friends can show him the Lifestream is where he belongs."

Genesis chuckled. "Well, as stubborn as Sephiroth has always been, Angeal is even more stubborn. He had to be that way to be my friend for so long."

Tifa smiled before looking at Reeve. "I want to talk with him. I have to speak with him before we get Cloud involved. He's still raw from what he was subjected to by Hojo and Sephiroth for those ten years. If we just drop the fact that he has a child with Sephiroth's DNA coursing through him, I don't know what he'll do. But if we can somehow assure him that this child doesn't automatically mean Sephiroth will come back, maybe he won't freak out."

"Tifa, there's no way we can guarantee Sephiroth won't return."

In her heart, she knew that. But her dream…it seemed so real, as if Sephiroth had been sitting across from her, a changed man. He was almost the man who had arrived in Nibelheim all those years ago, just a little more…broken. He wasn't the Sephiroth who had destroyed her home and killed her father. He wasn't the Sephiroth she and the others had fought before Meteor fell. He wasn't the Sephiroth she had killed. He was just Sephiroth. When she looked at him in her dream, she knew he was where he belonged and that he knew it, too.

"Reeve, I know I'm asking a lot of all of you, but please just trust me." Tifa turned and looked at the boy through the window again. "No one was there for Sephiroth when he was a kid. This boy deserves better than what Sephiroth endured as a child. He needs compassion and love. If we can give this boy what Sephiroth never had, maybe Sephiroth will finally be at peace."

Reno broke the silence when Tifa closed the door behind her. "That girl is fuckin' stubborn. No wonder you love her, Genny!"

Genesis would normally firespell Reno for calling him Genny, but in this case, he was right. "Indeed, Sinclair. She faced Sephiroth many times, experienced his manipulations in some of the worst ways, but she still just wants him to find peace. She truly is a gift from the Goddess."

Cissnei looked up when the door opened. So, this must be the General's Girl. Yep. If she had to guess a type for Sephiroth, the girl in front of her would be it. She was beautiful and even though she was short, Cissnei could tell the girl was a fighter.

"Hello. My name is Tifa Lockhart."

Cissnei got to her feet and offered her hand to Tifa. "Cissnei. It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

Before either of them could say anything else, Efren turned and got to his feet.

"You're home again."

Cissnei watched Tifa's reaction carefully. She was the one who had spent the most time with Efren since he'd been found and she found she was protective of him. She watched Tifa's shock melt into a kind smile.

"You must be Efren." Tifa moved closer to him and gave him a hug. "I think you already know me, huh?"

Efren nodded. "He talked about you a lot when he came to see me."

"Him? You mean Sephiroth?"

"Yeah. He talked about what you were doing, what he remembered most about you, and he talked about you coming home."

"Really? He talked to you often?"

"I didn't know his name until just now." Efren sat down in his chair again. "He usually came around when Hojo was compiling data in the mainframe, well, before he got a body again. After that, he came around less often."

Tifa sat in the chair beside him. "You must have missed him when he went away."

"You mean after you killed him?" He looked at her face and shook his head. "It's okay. He knew he'd die eventually and he actually preferred if his death wasn't natural that it was by your hand."

"He said that?"

Cissnei moved further away from Tifa and Efren. She wanted a little space between them so she could really observe the boy. Maybe Sephiroth had only been waiting for Tifa to return before making an appearance. If that was the case, she wanted to be far enough away so she could make any attack a decent one.

Efren nodded and began coloring. "He liked you. Loz knew you were good and Sephiroth thought it would be a fitting way to go: to be taken out by the closet thing to an equal in a world of nothings was his desire."

"So…you understand why I did what I did?"

"Like Cissnei said, he wasn't a good man, but he used to be." Efren shrugged and turned to a new picture to color.

"That's true. Sephiroth was a powerful SOLDIER, unlike all the others. But horrible things were done to him and when he found out, it broke him." Tifa watched Efren for a few moments. "Does he still talk to you?"

"From the Lifestream?" Efren shook his head. "I haven't heard his thoughts or voice since he left."

Genesis tapped on the window and when Cissnei looked at him, he gestured for her to join them on the other side of the glass. When she appeared and closed the door behind her, he knew she has some sass to deal out. It was the sparkle in her eyes and the soft smirk tilting her lips up at the corners.

"Well, Rhapsodos, you finally dragged your ass out of hiding!"

He grinned and bowed at the waist. "I do enjoy making an entrance, Cissnei. You should know that by now!"

She arched a brow and shook her head. "After all these years, you're still dramatic as ever!"

"I am nothing, if not predictable." His smile faded slightly. "I'm glad you survived everything, Cissnei."

Her smirk was replaced by a small smile. "I'm glad you finally returned with your SOLDIER honor intact."

"Indeed. It was lost…but not forgotten." He turned his gaze to the boy coloring. "Tell me, what do you make of Sephiroth's son?"

Cissnei followed his gaze. "He's your typical ten year old…with the powers of Jenova and Chocobo spikes."

Genesis looked at Cissnei's profile. "How do those powers manifest themselves?"

"He clearly hears thoughts. On rare occasions, I've seen him use telekinesis to retrieve items out of reach. But other than that, he doesn't seem to use the other powers Sephiroth has used in the past."

Genesis had a vivid memory flash in his mind. It was the night Sephiroth, Loz, and Yazoo had tortured him. Sephiroth had reached into his mind and pulled memories to use against him, drew feelings long suppressed to the forefront of his mind.

He shook his head. "And entering the minds of others?"

"He hasn't done that yet." Cissnei frowned. "You okay, Rhapsodos? You look a little pale."

"Bad memories, Petite One."

He was grateful when she didn't press him further. They'd known each other for a long time, so she knew when to push and when to leave things alone.

"So far, he's just a kid. Sephiroth isn't talking to him."

"Yet." Genesis didn't want to be a messenger of doom, but someone had to say it. "Sephiroth isn't talking to him yet."