-1Chapter Eleven: Prodigal Sons

"Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two."

-St. Augustine

Tifa was still glaring at him as if her will alone could drone holes through his chest.

The conversation hadn't been a long one but it had lead to much more interesting times very quickly after it was had…

"Sephiroth." Cloud's voice had dropped to a hateful warning from it's initial tone. "Where is Tifa? Why hasn't she been answering her phone?"

He glanced at the passed out lush and considered before replying. "Tifa is indisposed to come to the phone at the time being. She'll be fine however. May I take a message?"

Goading the blonde that had been one of the only men capable of defeating him probably wasn't wise as he wasn't certain when his unstable health would give out again. But, he couldn't help it, a slow smirk crept across his lips as Cloud growled back, teasing the ex-SOLDIER was a pastime difficult to let go of.

"She'd better god damn be fine." It was easy to tell Cloud was having a issue keeping a grip on his anger. "If you did anything to her…"

"Did you have something you wanted to report?" He asked, stressing the bored part of his voice as he smirked more at the almost palpable anger on the other side of the line.

"We'll be there in an hour…she better be perfect or…"

Sephiroth slid the phone closed and slipped it back into the pocket on Tifa's jacket…

They'd arrived an hour later as promised and Sephiroth had blocked a few strikes from Cloud before others had interfered, to include Tifa before she'd lost what little was left in her stomach and everyone was staring between her hung-over state and the pair of ex-SOLDIER's that were still considering each other. Cloud was glaring and Sephiroth was standing slightly away looking smug in general, more amused by the dirty stare Tifa had leveled on him.

"So, there was a reason you came other than to posture?" Sephiroth asked, smirking when Cloud's eye twitched a little and his fingers curled just a fraction around the hilt of his blade. Until Barret put a hand on him and shook his head, the larger black man frowning at the silver haired one.

"Look. I agree with Tifa now that you seem to be on our side what with you lettin us destroy pieces of Jenova and all…but ya keep up this shit with pissing around and I'll not keep interjectin' to help ya out when Cloud wants to cut ya to bits." He sighed at the idea of needing to be the peacekeeper.

"Don't presume I'm the one of the pair that needs protecting." Sephiroth returned smoothly, grinning when Tifa stood in front of him after Cloud started to push past Barret.

"Stop it!" Tifa frowned at them all, she didn't need this, it was bad enough they'd picked that time to come and Sephiroth hadn't stopped them. "Just tell us what you came to tell us and stop infighting."

"We finished with some of the pieces." Red Thirteen spoke up to try to help keep things peaceful. "Everything but one of the hands have been destroyed. Only one remained at the facility where you thought they once were, the only lead we acquired was that the other was relocated shortly after the events at the northern crater years ago. At that time it was moved to a facility beneath Junon that was still under construction at that time."

"Most of those caves were buried during the earthquake that happened last year." Cait Sith spoke up for the first time. "I was looking at some of the information with the Turks and things are still being dug back out. They only began to get to the normal caves and someone vanished that was working on the excavation yesterday. We'll need to send someone down to see if they can't find it but you'll need to be stealthy cause I think Reno and Rude are on guard duty and bored. They'll be looking for any excuse to get into trouble just to get interested in something."

"Great." Cid deadpanned. "I got a kiddo to take care of back home…I'll drop you off but if I don't get back for a while the wife is gonna kill me."

"I'm sure Sheena would understand." Tifa commented, eyeing the older man skeptically at the excuse. "But, I'll go, I'm not bad at blending in."

"I as well." Sephiroth commented immediately. "I wish to see the final pieces of her destroyed."

"I'll go just to keep an eye on that guy." Yuffie eyed Sephiroth still without bothering to hide her extreme displeasure at his being alive.

"We can't trust him." Cloud commented immediately, narrowing his gaze on the older ex-shinra SOLDIER. "Why don't you three break into the headquarters still at Midgar so you can leave Sephiroth nearby and the rest of us will deal with Junon. "

Tifa frowned at them. "Why would he tell you where to find the rest and how to destroy it just to turn on you now?"

"Nothing personal." Cid shrugged. "But seems to me this thing took him over once and near destroyed the world and fucked up a lot of lives…probably best to not expose him in case there is a repeat of the previous thing that set him off the first time."

"It's an acceptable compromise…the fact that she's being destroyed is all that I need." Sephiroth replied before Tifa could speak up again. He thought it amusing the way Cloud glanced between her defending him but he had no need to hide behind anyone.

"Sephiroth…" Tifa frowned a bit but let it go as he seemed okay with it.

"It's settled then." Red Thirteen was quick to keep the small semblance of peace. "We'll attend to matters in Junon and you will research anything else that could come up in Midgar."

"Fine with me." Yuffie stated bluntly, she'd never stopped being openly hateful of Sephiroth sense they'd walked into the penthouse. "He'll need the extra set of eyes as he's okay with people drugging Tifa."

"Tread carefully." Sephiroth glanced back at her, offering her the first notice he had at all. It was all he said but he met her gaze and made her fidget after a moment, her bravado fizzling at the intimidating mako fused glare.

"Fine fine." Tifa sighed. "We'll leave soon. Just get out for a while so I can get dressed!"

The brawler pushed the rest of her party from the room and they were left to glare between themselves as they stood outside.

"Don't know why she would want to help you anyway." Yuffie snorted and half muttered toward Sephiroth. "Lucky she couldn't just kill you where she found you."

"Would you rather she have left me and the enemy put me against you? Or start the cataclysm all over again?" Sephiroth asked, eyeing the much smaller ninja now that she'd managed to annoy him.

"It wouldn't matter." Cloud put in. "We'd just stop you again and make sure you were dead that time. The only reason we're putting up with you is because of Tifa. She should have more reason than any of us to want you dead."

"She wouldn't want us arguing like this." Red Thirteen put in as his job as peacekeeper demanded. "As it is, he is not our enemy at the moment. We need to be more concerned with those that would turn him against us."

"Not that I care." Yuffie grumbled. "He deserves to die after the people he killed in Wutai. He helped commit genocide on entire cities."

"It would do you well to learn your history better." Sephiroth commented with a shrug. "It was a war, I killed no one that didn't raise a weapon to me. If you plan to repeat that mistake I'll send you to join your ancestors."

"Why you…" Tifa started toward him but Cid set a hand on her shoulder and shook his head.

"Don't Yuffie. He's goading you. Just leave it be for now." Cid commented. "If he's as evil as we all expect he'll give us a chance to kill him without it being in cold blood."

"Fine." She let her hand go of the pointed star like weapon she used and headed away. "I'm heading back to the ship to look over things before he gets on board."

"I don't like this either." Barret commented directly. "This guy pisses me off. All high and mighty and shit…after all the sufferin' he's caused."

He followed Yuffie off with Cid and Cait Sith, leaving Sephiroth with Red Thirteen in a vaguely strange but not wholly uncomfortable silence.

Eventually Tifa exited, looking much better despite her experiences, she walked with them and felt much more tense than either of they did. The ship ride was equally awkward.

She felt more like the very thin string keeping everything from falling apart than a part of the group, they seemed unhappy (to say the least) about her decision to work with Sephiroth as opposed to jail him in some way. Meanwhile he didn't seem at all remorseful toward them and barely managed civility when no one was talking, often otherwise mocking people if they said anything to him. So silence was a good relief about ten minutes after they lifted off.

The rest of the trip was tense but doable and she was dreading having Yuffie along with them, she'd end up killing one and/or both of them by the time they finished at the rate things were progressing.

Cloud was hesitant to leave them but with Cid cursing that he needed to be home the rest of the party didn't linger long before they were off for Junon.

They were heading through the old train graveyard after passing quickly through the outer city when Yuffie tripped and fell. It was a crash they all hadn't expected but it'd been years sense they first went through and it was dangerous even then, only a matter of time until one of the roofs fell in.

She very much didn't like the idea of Sephiroth carrying her but she'd broken her ankle so walking wasn't exactly a option, complaining though she was doing well at.

"Just use a couple cures and I'll be fine." Yuffie insisted with a pleading gaze at Tifa in step next to the silver haired warrior carrying her. "I can walk on my own."

"That's not how they work and you know it." Tifa answered with a shake of her head. "It'll help the pain but it can't fix broken bones instantly, you'll need to sit out for a few days and keep using magic on it yourself. You've broken your ankle before."

"Don't tell him that!" She hissed, doing her best to ignore the fact that he was carrying her. "And I'm the ninja…I'm suppose to help you sneak in while he lays low."

"I'm capable of going with Tifa." Sephiroth stated, otherwise mostly ignoring the whiny woman in his arms. "I wish to see much of the research anyway."

"So you can go all crazy again sure, I'll allow that one." Yuffie huffed. "Reading all that other crap is what made you turn into super nut in the first place."

"That was only a part of it." Sephiroth replied, starting to get annoyed again and holding her tightly enough in a jump that it had to have been painful. He was tempted to drop her on 'accident' but he knew Tifa was watching closely enough that he'd just earn two women bitching at him instead of one.

"I think he'll be okay." Tifa spoke up with a sigh at the betrayed gaze Yuffie offered. "We need to get this done as soon as we can Yuffie, waiting two days could be dangerous when we don't know what they want from him."

"Or it could be a trap." Yuffie pointed out. "That's another reason we wanted him to wait. Besides, I don't trust him with you after you were all drugged, how do you know he didn't take advantage of you?"

"Yuffie!" Tifa blinked at the open insinuation, blushing as she remembered him pressing her down on the bed with just the towel between them.

Sephiroth dropped her during the next 'leap' down from the final train. It was worth it.

Though they did both start complaining at him he continued to swear it was simply an accident the rest of the way to the apartment they were going to use as a temporary hideout. Apparently one of the few places Yuffie actually paid a low rent for. And by low rent, she thought it was exceptionally expensive and had no issue with the fact that hot water was a rarity.

After some more arguments eventually Sephiroth left and Tifa was forced to catch up while Yuffie could have only crawled after, it was better than them bitching at him incessantly.

"You could have been a little nicer." Tifa commented as they walked through the slums toward the one entrance that still lead up to the remains of the old Shinra headquarters. She hadn't been speaking at all for a while but finally seemed ready to discuss it.

"There was no need." Sephiroth replied cooly, he already didn't want to discuss it at all. "She has already decided her views as to myself, and made them perfectly clear. Hers is the least justified reason amongst any of you to hate me. I never killed people without direct orders, and still would not kill those that did not draw a weapon against me. I almost was never involved outside of battles and she may as well hate Cloud as he joined the same army and if the war hadn't finally ended he would have been against them as well. Her views are based from hearsay instead of truth."

"Most of her family died in the war and you were considered a turning factor for the Shinra troops…its only logical she wouldn't have happy warm feelings for you. You don't have to goad her so much, it's the same with Cloud, you are much too aggressive." Tifa ranted a little. She was still angry he'd called them there while she was still recovering and told them she'd been so drunk and drugged. At least he'd left out the near rape experience.

"I am aggressive, you knew that when you picked me up." Sephiroth replied with a lazy shrug. "I owe the world much, but I will not lay my head down like some beaten dog. If I am to repay my sins there is no repentance in offering myself for slaughter."

"Large change from asking me to kill you." Tifa commented, glancing back as they reached the wall where they needed to climb up. "You better not betray my trust…Cloud won't need to get involved. I'll throttle you with my bare hands."

"All threats today." Sephiroth observed, starting to sweep past and pausing with she put a hand in front of him, grabbing his jacket and spinning him into the wall to half pin him there. He smiled at her darkly, amused at the show of force, catlike eyes sparkling at her and his tone didn't manage to match his words. "I haven't changed my purpose Lockheart, after Jenova is destroyed I would rather help than harm what remains of this scarred world."

She watched him for a short while but her aggressive stance weakened, she was still holding him there but was watching him hesitantly. The intensity in that glowing teal gaze was entrapping, it was extremely difficult to back away, to stop staring. Perhaps the eyes made the mako infused warriors all that more dangerous, how easy it was to get lost in that unnatural predatory gaze.

"Are we going?" He finally asked, though his voice was a measure off the normal baritone, deeper somehow. He seemed about to say something else but she nodded suddenly and backed away, pink flushing instantly over her cheeks.

"Yes, lets go." She gestured at the wires. "Go ahead. I'll be right behind you. We should hurry in case people wander this way to get home."

"Right…" He stared a moment longer and swept himself up the wire quickly, he was exceptionally quick and as good a shape as Tifa was in she was finding it a small challenge to keep up. It was obvious that he was healing at a rate far beyond the norm even with his strange lapses of consciousness. "You seem to be feeling better."

It was only a few minutes before they'd reached a ledge at which they could pause somewhat safely and rest before the second half of the climb up. From their vantage they could see the remains of the slums in the sector well. They were cleaner than during the days before he'd gone mad, but still not the best place to live, she was glad she'd moved on to being on the surface but couldn't help but feel sorry for the people forced to remain there. Eventually the other plates could fall, it was dangerous, but some people had no where else to go. All the more reason to stop whatever other trouble Shinra was up to now, stop anymore disasters from occurring to the poor people of Midgar and the rest of the world that got drawn in.

"Do you think something will really be there?" She asked, starting the climb herself this time to slow the pace a little.

"I imagine Hojo is quite good at leaving at least some form of unintelligible drivel someone might be able to make sense of." Sephiroth stated blandly, not liking to think of Hojo. "I doubt he's been able to access sense he left the company. The presidents son would have made certain to deny him at least that much, logical if nothing else."

"Rufus…" Tifa shook her head a little. "I dunno, I'd trust you more than him anytime anymore. I don't like that guy at all."

"His father wasn't any better." Sephiroth stated directly, glancing over the skeleton of the building that held so much of his past. There was a feeling of nostalgia he hadn't expected but he pushed it away, there was little from those times that were good memories.

"I didn't know them well before they died but I know all the ex-executive heads were all pretty awful, how could you stand working for them back when you were sane?" She asked, crawling up and walking toward the building slowly, it seemed abandoned but being careful was the wisest course.

"I'm not sure I ever was completely sane." He answered with a shrug. "I hated working for them, but it was all I knew…I suppose I always wanted to know more about my life. Growing up around them I guess eventually it was inevitable I would lose my mind."

She chuckled at him and made him blink, it hadn't been a joke, but it was more positive than most people would take the news. "Well, at least you want to fix things now, and that's the important part of everything."

"I suppose." He couldn't really argue but it was easier said than done. He had much yet he would need to accomplish.

"The prodigal son returns." The voice drew both their eyes as the moved for the main doors. A broken looking form of a man in a lab coat they recognized right away. It was deformed and not likely the original.

"Hojo." Tifa breathed in surprise, she knew he could have possible been behind it but still remembered them defeating him during the final battle. She didn't think she'd mentioned that Hojo was Sephiroth's real father…if he brought it up would the ex-SOLDIER go mad again?

End Chapter

Whew, insert Hojo, some fun group/Sephiroth interaction. A couple of tense moments with Tifa, moving the plot along. Damn Hojo, he's so evil!

-Nera

To my reviewers:

Spiritslayer - Yes I wasn't sure who to use. I want to write a Aeris/Seph one sometime as well but I like Tifa/Seph better.

Toya Kei - Yay. Yeah, sometimes it's difficult. And I'm my own worst critic some say. I like this chapter better than the last.

broken maelstrom - Yeah I keep trying to get to the kiss but they are both arguing with me! Those bastards!

hype machine - Yeah, I try not to do too much of that. I want to get to a first kiss soonish but I gotta have it make sense or I can't do it. The pair is fighting me!