A/N: Sorry for no update until now. I've been unbelievably busy and such, yadda yadda. Okay, on with the fic!

Thirteen: A Confirmation Of Nightmares

Marlene's eyes flashed open around six o' clock the next morning. She lay still in her bed and her mind raced back to remember all that had happened only three hours ago.

Had it all happened only three hours ago? True it was pretty hazy, wasn't it? What if that Red Night . . . it had all been a dream?

She glanced down at her bed where she was her sweatshirt and pants folded neatly at the edge of her bed. Daddy hadn't folded them. She hadn't folded them. Her sweatshirt was dark with cold water.

A spasm of nausea coursed through her, but faded just as quickly. She shut her eyes, swallowed again. Opened her eyes. She didn't move. She was so tired, but had too many questions to go back to sleep. Her door creaked open and Marlene squinted across the room—scared of who was at her door. When she saw her father, she let her eyes drift shut, feeling consciousness ebb away quickly.

"Marlene? Time to wake up . . ." Came Daddy's soft voice.

"Daddy . . . I don't feel well," she whispered from under the covers, knowing fully well she would not be able to function if she went anywhere.

Barret frowned as he stepped over to his daughter's bed where she huddled under the covers. He gently pulled back the thick white cover to see Marlene's face white with dark rings under her eyes. Obviously she hadn't had the ideal night's slumber.

"Should I call a doctor?" Barret asked concerned. He chewed his lip nervously. Marlene had never been sick before and he intended to leave that record standing as it was.

"No," came Marlene's hasty reply, "I just need . . ." she didn't know how to finish her sentence. What did she need? Her eyes drifted shut again. Barret looked at her, worried. What was going on?

"Let's get you to Cloud's and Tifa's."

XxXxXx

Six hours later the warm golden mid-day sun had risen over Midgar and prompted Marlene's eyes open again, finding herself in her familiar Seventh Heaven bedroom.

She instantly threw off her covers, and changed out of her nightgown. She froze, catching her small bare frame in the mirror. A crescent shaped scar ran down from her pale ribcage to her stomach that hadn't been there before. She touched it, and her head spasmed, remembering the pain the night before. The night before . . . She threw on a pair of clothes she found in her closet, and ran down the stairs, three at a time. She was met by the noisy but friendly banter of lunchtime customers and so she slipped under the counter where Tifa was taking and filling orders.

"Hi, sweet are you feeling better?" Tifa greeted with a smile. Marlene nodded; although unsure she did feel better. "You're so pale—you look like you've seen a ghost!"

"Ha ha! A—a ghost!" Marlene laughed aloud, backing up against the counter, her head pounding, a cold sweat clamming up on the back of her neck. And Marlene's head swarmed at the irony. A ghost. Yep. She looked like she'd seen a ghost. If only Tifa had any idea in the world . . . The situation was stayed: last night she had seen three evil men who were supposed to be dead, after she had apparently tried and failed to raise someone back from Lifestream and nearly died herself. What's more, is these three bad men claimed to have been sent by the person she'd been trying to resurrect and then saved her own life. What in the world did it mean?

"Are you sure you're okay?" Tifa asked suspiciously. She wasn't stupid. But she'd noticed the key to the drawer with the Materia in it inside her purse; tucked neatly in the same place she had put it. Besides. Surely Marlene wouldn't have tried anything like that again. She was young and naïve, but not disobedient.

"Yes. I'm fine." Was the only thing Marlene could find in herself to say.

"Well why don't you find something to do? I don't think you should be here at rush hour while you're sick. Are you hungry? You haven't eaten all day!" Tifa said. Marlene's stomach churned at the thought of food.

"No," she shuddered, "I think I'll just go outside and get some fresh air."

"Alright, but only if you wear a coat and are sure you're feeling better," she conditioned. "Oh, and Marlene, no Materia. Clear?" Because then again, you never did know.

Marlene shuddered and turned her head away at the mention of magick. Last night had been a hard-learned lesson, but learned it was. Tifa was right. She'd had no idea. No idea at all . . .

"I won't Tifa. I promise." And she wasn't lying. Tifa smoothed Marlene's soft, dark hair.

"I know you won't. But I've got customers to feed so be good, okay?"

"Okay," Marlene whispered, backing up, feeling her heart pounding. Knowing, that at any second, sanity would kick in and she'd tell Tifa all about the three men she had seen last night.

But sanity failed.

Escaping prominent notice of Tifa, Marlene backed out of Seventh Heaven, wild eyed, reached the door, and fled for the forest.

XxXxXx

Kadaj peered through silvery hair at the map in front of him. He sat cross-legged on the hard and chilled forest ground with Yazoo beside him and Loz standing tentatively nearby. They had moved their rather primitive campsite to the open clearing that morning. They didn't have much—a campfire in the center, three bedrolls, several gray blankets, each of them their large military-style pack, and their weapons, but little more. It was a week of survival they'd been through, and what they had was adequate.

"What about Parlhun?" Yazoo asked, gesturing to another city East of Midgar. Kadaj wrinkled his nose.

"But it's so . . . dirty there."

"But there are plenty of—"

Kadaj whipped his head up as he noticed the presence of:

The breathless, tiny girl he'd rescued the night before.

In front of them.

Cheeks flushed, eyes wide.

Yazoo stiffened while Loz let out a breath. Kadaj kept it cool. He lay the map down and smiled at her.

"You're back."

Gasping for breath, she closed her eyes, cocked a thin eyebrow and reopened her eyes. "Back. It wasn't a dream," she stated softly, "I had thought not . . ." A strange look came over her. "Just like Seph . . . you came back . . . no . . ." The girl's legs buckled under her. Loz's reflexes kicked in before she hit the ground.

"Where should I place her?" Loz asked, shifting the child's weight in her arms.

"On a blanket I suppose. Wrap her in one so she doesn't catch cold," Yazoo suggested.

But no sooner had Loz put her down than her eyes fluttered open and she sat up. About a minute of silence ensued. Finally, Marlene broke it.

"Who are you?" She asked incredulously. Kadaj gestured to himself with both hands.

"I am Kadaj and these are my two older brothers, Yazoo and Loz."

"Last night you mentioned Aeris. What does she have to do with you?"

"It's a long story," Kadaj admitted.

The girl stared at him coldly. "I have the time."

Kadaj glanced at each of his brothers who, in turn, both hesitantly nodded. "We . . . we did many bad things before. We lied. Killed. Stole. All for an evil soldier to come back. Jenova . . . was supposed to redeem us all for it though. Our forgiving mother."

"It wasn't entirely our fault though," Loz interjected. "That's what they told us. We didn't know any better."

"Who told you this?" Marlene asked blandly.

"Jenova herself. Sephiroth. Soldier. They all had a part. We were taught to obey. Not to question. No one told us any differently anyway. Lot's of people tried to stop us. Little did they know they probably could've convinced us otherwise. We didn't want anything bad to happen—we just wanted Mother's love."

"Tseng . . . Elena . . . You tried to kill them . . ." Marlene remembered.

"We didn't see the physical life with much value. It was a useful tool that could help Mother's cause, but that was all. In that final battle—when I died—I died of Sephiroth's wounds."

"And Loz and I couldn't fathom life alone. We went together."

"Together we played."

"We stayed in Lifestream for two and a half months. We realized the wrong we'd done. We learned the story. We found out we were just as brainwashed as the children we . . . we kidnapped. But Aeris . . . Aeris was the only person to ever say that there was good in us. She told us our lives weren't fair. That every child should choose what they will be in life. So last week, we were sent back—with the one condition that we are to redeem our past life. So here we are," Kadaj finished. When he looked back at the girl he was utterly horrified to see that during the course of his speech, the child had begun to cry!

"Please don't cry! Oh—why are you crying?" He asked sadly, trying to catch her eyes. Marlene's voice was shaky and unstable.

"A-after all that Cloud went through, and all that Vincent did to stop you—and all I did last night to save Cloud and Aeris, she makes you alive again. I just-I don't—why?" The girl shrieked, her shoulders wracking with nightmares of the past.

Sensing her distress, Kadaj sighed and closed his eyes.

"Very well. I suppose you're right." His double-bladed, curved sword was sheathed at his waist. He drew it calmly. Marlene gasped in fear that she'd angered him. He surprised her however, when the boy held the sword to his own ivory-white neck.

"Kadaj!" Loz yelled. Yazoo studied Kadaj's face gravely intent, looking for a joke in his younger brother's eyes. There was none.

"Perhaps she is right brothers. Perhaps the best thing would be for us to just go back to the Lifestream." He paused and looked at Marlene with big sad turquoise eyes.

Marlene, now extremely frightened, shook her head with big wide eyes. Don't do it. Don't kill yourself. I don't know you . . . forgotten voices rang in her head. Her real father's. Daddy's. Hers. She shook her head fervently, nearly wrenching her head from her neck. Kadaj stared into her.

"Certain?"

She nodded twice. Without a word Kadaj re-sheathed his sword.

"I-I'm going to go now," she said, scared, "I have more questions . . . I'll be back, I think. I think . . ." the girl backed up and out of the forest clearing just as fast as she had come.

"Brother," Yazoo said to Kadaj.

"Yes Yazoo?"

"Don't ever do that again. We go together, and I like life."

XxXxXx

So, here we all go. Please read and review! Especially since I'm gonna be loading on the SHM from now on. Peace out everyone!