Disclaimer: Kit Thespian does not own Final Fantasy VII nor the characters therein, and she is not making any money off of this.

Chapter 10- Women Always Win...

Shera Highwind had told her husband and his friends that she wanted to have a look around the stores first, and that they should head home without her. Cid at first had been reluctant, because they had heard rumors (however unlikely) that Sephiroth was alive and wreaking havoc in this area. But so far, the people they talked to in Kalm had no notion of any disturbance.

In the long run, you could say that it was probably a good thing that no one in the AVALANCHE group visited Mr. Border in the candy store, or Dr. Kerring, or they may have gotten clues enough to cause them to panic.

When Tifa was walking out of the grocery store and saw Shera walking towards her, she gasped and dropped her bags. There was nothing breakable; or if there were, nothing broke, fortunately. Shera went to her friend, greeting her.

"Tifa!" Shera took Tifa's hands and kissed on the cheek, "I'm so glad to see you! Cloud and Barret told us all about the baby. Here, let me help you with that..." She bent down to pick up the fallen groceries.

"Cloud...Barret...Are they here?" Tifa was trembling.

"Of course! They're probably at the house by now. Of course, Cid is here too, and Reeve, and Vincent..."

"Reeve and Vincent too?"

"Why, yes."

"Oh, dear...Oh, dear..." Tifa started to shake.

"What's wrong, sweetie?" Shera asked, concerned.

"I'll explain on the way!" Tifa grabbed Shera's arm and pulled her along. Shera, being the extremely patient person that she is, only objected to save the groceries, and listened readily to what Tifa had to say.

She almost couldn't believe her ears as Tifa tried to explain that Sephiroth, the man who was supposed to be the "bad guy" was now a "good guy" and that he had been living in Cloud Strife's house for ten days now ever since he rescued Yuffie Kisaragi from four men who attacked her; one of them had been from SOLDIER.

"Wait a minute!" Shera interrupted at this point.

"What?"

"You said four men, and one of them was from SOLDIER? Were they seem injured in any way or at all disposed to drinking?"

"Yes! Did you see them?"

"Why, the dirty..."

"What did they say?"

"Cid and I were in Costa Del Sol and we saw these men and they were staggering drunk. We thought they were babbling nonsense. They said that they were attacked by Sephiroth, and two of them had huge gashes on their bodies, like Sephiroth would make with his sword. We called Cloud and picked them up in Nibelheim and came here. But the way things were when we got here, we thought they were just a bunch of drunks who got themselves hurt. Oh, did they hurt Yuffie very badly?"

"Badly?" Tifa huffed as she and Shera had almost reached the house, "Poor Yuffie! They gave her a concussion, bruises, a black eye, a busted lip, and four bruised ribs!"

"Oh, my goodness!"

"She can't even walk without someone carrying her. She's in pain constantly, and can barely move or laugh."

"Oh!"

"If Sephiroth hadn't have rescued her, then those men would have raped her andbeat her until she was nothing but a bleeding corpse!"

"Tifa, we can't let them hurt Sephiroth! We just can't!"

"Thank you!"

This is why, about a moment after Yuffie called Cloud and his buddies a bunch of loonies, Tifa and Shera burst into the house, shouting,

"Don't kill him!"

All the men looked at her with a trace of disgust on their faces. Cid, sitting on a chair and rubbing his pained foot, said,

"I think we've already established that we're not supposed to do that..."

"Tifa, thank goodness, you're here!" Lucrecia said. She was standing protectively in front of Sephiroth, holding up the broomstick. Marlene was now standing by Yuffie's side. When Tifa and Shera caught sight of this, and the other five men holding onto their heads, groaning, they had a vague impression of what had occurred here.

"Am I to understand..." Tifa said, "that Lucrecia managed to fight all of you off with a broomstick?"

"Tifa! You don't know!" Cid exclaimed, whimpering strangely, "She's a maniac, comin' after us like a -bleep, I mean, danged psycho!" Cid had quickly corrected his language use after receiving a look from both Shera and Lucrecia.

"Tifa," Cloud staggered (as one recalls, he had been hit the most) towards his wife, "are you all right? How's the baby?"

"I'm perfectly fine, Cloud," Tifa said, with her hands on her hips, "that is, I was until I find out that you and the others were planning to murder our houseguest."

"Houseguest!" Barret whined. He pointed (his good arm, mind you) at Sephiroth, "you call that a houseguest?"

"He's a guest, and in our house. That constitutes houseguest!" Tifa answered.

"Tifa," Cloud probably would've fallen to the floor in a faint if he hadn't thought it would be an unmanly thing to do at that moment, "what possessed you to take in Sephiroth, Sephiroth, as a houseguest?"

"Because he saved Yuffie's life! Haven't any of you noticed how badly she's beaten up?"

"She has a concussion," Shera said, after placing the groceries down on the couch, "bruises, a black eye, a busted lip, and four bruised ribs!" She turned to Cid, "It was those men in Costa Del Sol, the ones who claimed that Sephiroth attacked them. Well, that's why! They were molesting Yuffie, and he saved her! He's a hero!"

"How did they know it was me?" Sephiroth spoke for the first time in quite a few minutes.

Cloud said, "You be quiet."

The man with the most brains in that room (though maybe not the most sense), which was Reeve, spoke up,

"Wait a minute...Of course! Sephiroth, you remember the SOLDIER training facility, right?"

Sephiroth raised an eyebrow, "Do I know you?"

"I had just gotten promoted when you left on that mission. But we've met! I was an assistant to Carstlon, the head of Building and Architecture."

Sephiroth thought for a moment, "I do remember you...I know your name. Uh, Reeve? Something like that?"

"Yeah, you got it! Anyway, what I was saying was that that guy was in SOLDIER, according to Cid and Shera, and in the SOLDIER training facility, they had that huge painting of you, with your sword and armor. Remember?"

Sephiroth's eyes widened with irritation, "You mean to tell me that they didn't take down that picture? I hated that picture! That picture was hanging there for six years? Argh! Did anybody in that stupid building listen to me? Did they disregard my orders that much?"

"Gee, I thought it was a good picture," Reeve said, "they probably decided to leave it up there in honor of your memory, since everyone thought you died and all."

"That's how they honor your memory? Putting up the most confounded picture ever painted of you?"

"Anyway," Reeve moved to get back on the subject, "that SOLDIER would have seen the picture everyday when training..."

"Everyday..." Sephiroth groaned, "they saw the picture everyday..."

"Sephiroth," Yuffie said, sounding not a little frustrated, "put aside your macho, male ego for a couple of seconds and let Reeve talk!"

When Sephiroth said nothing, Reeve continued, "So obviously, he would be able to recognize you, no matter how improbable the thought might be. Let's face it. There aren't that many tall guys with silver hair and green Mako eyes and Masamunes walking around here. Am I right, or am I right? Right? Guys?"

What Reeve had not noticed since he was in the throes of an analytical explanation (one of the things he loved best) was that everyone was now staring at Yuffie and Sephiroth with very strange looks on their faces. At first, Reeve didn't know what was the matter.

What everyone thought to be so odd was the fact that Yuffie had chastised Sephiroth, to his face, and he had not said a word in response. Cloud remembered a time when if someone had spoken that way to General Sephiroth, he would be doing fifty pushups and twenty squat-thrusts, in succession. Yet this frail young woman had talked him down, while lying on a couch injured.

"Well," Cloud broke the silence, "there's still a question of what is to be done with him."

"What do you mean by that?" Tifa asked.

"Tifa, you know exactly what I mean by that! Having the murderer of our families in our house?"

"He was insane and you know it! You know it better than anyone!"

"He could go insane again; hasn't that occurred to you?"

Tifa decided right then and there to use her one and only trump card. Lucrecia had mentioned it a few days earlier, that not even the cool Hojo had ever been able to resist the tears of a fragile, pregnant woman. Tifa was well nigh to working up a few tears at this moment, so she decided to take the opportunity.

"How could you be so unfeeling?" Tifa sobbed, tears welling up and nose sniffling, "All he wants is forgiveness, and you're being terrible and cruel!"

"Now, Tifa," Cloud softened a bit, "I'm only thinking of your safety..."

"Jenova's been destroyed, and she's the one that drove him crazy in the first place. He's been nothing but a gentleman since he's come here." She shook with a couple of sobs, and now all the men (even Sephiroth) were starting to look extremely pathetic. She continued, "He's been so nice and helpful and he even had the guts to ask me for forgiveness. Me! I have as much reason to hate him as you, and he knows it, and yet he asked me to forgive him. Now, any man who can do that sincerely (which I know he was) deserves a chance!" And she broke out into another series of sobs.

"Tifa, Tifa, don't cry. Please don't cry. I can't stand it when you cry..."

That only caused Tifa to sob louder.

"Okay, okay! If it means that much to you, then...I guess...we could...try..."

"Thank you!" Tifa hugged Cloud's neck, "Yes, it means so much to me. And it means a lot to Lucrecia too! Thank you!"

It would also mean a lot to Yuffie, but Tifa didn't mention that. She didn't really have to.

The other men grudgingly agreed.