Chapter 27:

And Lilie never did look back at Midgar once she left the place. She just travelled on her own, saying goodbye only to Reeve and made him promise that he would give Avalanche her goodbyes for her. He was sad to see her go. He had tried to talk her into going with him to meet with Cloud and his friends but she shook her head.
"My place is not with them anymore, Reeve. I have to go. But tell them I love them all and I will miss them." She told him. "And tell them that someday we will see each other again. I promise. But right now, I have to live my new life, setting myself up." And then she left Reeve to take care of the people in Midgar.

Lilie had gone to Kalm, to spend a few months before she set off to go to Junon to buy a passage to her old hometown, Costa Del Sol where she planned to return to her home. However, during the first two months of staying in Kalm she made a wild discovery. She had been so ill over the past weeks that it made her incapable of travelling until she visited a doctor.
It was then she discovered that she was pregnant.
Lilie lived in Kalm for the rest of the year, just until her baby would be born. She made a living working with the innkeeper of Kalm. He was very kind to her, no matter how slow she was getting because of her pregnancy. He didn't seem to care at all. All he did was ask her if she was comfortable enough. With a smile, she said yes and went back to work.
She was also finding that carrying a baby in her womb was a little difficult. Especially when she was constantly eating. It scared her to think that she would never get her figure back. It definitely ruined her plan to keep training with her Psis. She couldn't train at all while having such a big belly. It made her slower and inflexible. So she spent her time either working on her feet or reading. She had heard of the new happenings in Midgar. Travellers brought news of Avalanche rebuilding a new city within the city. They were going to call it Edge Town, since it was on the edge of Midgar. She had seen the flyers of Cloud's new business. Strife's Delivery Service. It made her smile to think that he just couldn't stop helping the people. She hoped that his business flourished greatly while doing that.

She hadn't heard any news about her old friends, The Turks. The only thing she did hear was that they were taking up their own business in bodyguard work. Though, really no one needed such protection anymore. There was peace through out the land. Not even monsters were a problem.

Finally after nine months, Lilie gave birth to her baby. The night had been quite a stormy one. The rain was coming down hard and the wind was shaking the walls of the house. Everyone had been afraid that the storm would blow everything up. But it was lucky enough that the houses were still strong and standing. Lilie was in great pain during the delivery. A pain she had never felt before. She was crying out in pain as the doctor and the nurse she remembered from Mideel tried to help her.
Lilie remembered how it had been that night. She remembered how her strength was giving out quickly and she couldn't stand it any longer. She felt like she was going to black out from all the pain she was going through. Eventually she had but it wasn't like it would have been. She remembered she had seen someone else in the room with her and the doctors. She had seen Aeris smiling at her from a corner.
"It's going to be all right, Lilie. He'll be okay."
She heard Aeris's voice.
And that was when she heard the loud cries of a baby. Lilie opened her eyes to see the doctor holding a bloodied form of a baby. She smiled weakly as she watched the new lifeform she had just gave. And she soon was holding the new life in her arms, looking down into the most beautiful blue eyes looking into hers. The baby just stared in wonder at the matching blue eyes gazing back him. It was a boy, Lilie's boy.

"What are you going to name him, Mom?" The nurse asked in a soft voice.

Lilie smiled gently at her newborn son. She gently touched his fat red cheeks, caressing his skin. "Reid Moy Shinra." She whispered. She gently kissed her baby's forehead and looked out the window. "Rufus...I hope you're enjoying this. Because I am." She whispered as she stared up at a new star in the sky.

After two weeks of recovering from the delivery, Lilie decided to leave Kalm and head for Costa Del Sol. She carried her son in her arms the entire way, riding in a carriage full of loud people, yet it didn't seem to bother the sleeping baby boy. And then when in Junon, she took a ship across the ocean to her old hometown. When she arrived, she went home with Reid and got a job as a lifeguard. She took care of her baby very well, even when she was doing it herself. Eventually, she bought a mini piano and she played for him all the time, promising the baby that when he was older she would teach him how to play.

The years slowly went by, two to be precise. Lilie and Reid were living happily together and she was finding that her son was quite the fast learner. It surprised her greatly to see that Reid was taking up his father's looks. She could have sworn that it really was Rufus when his strawberry blonde hair grew. His eyes, however belonged to her. They were blue as crystals, just like her's. She would have though that they would have taken up an icy blue color like his father's too but they hadn't. He had learned how to walk exactly at one years old, on his birthday. Lilie had never been more proud of him.

She told him many stories about her past and about her friends, though he never seemed to listen. It made her laugh to see that Reid definitely had her spunk yet his father's snobby attitude. She never loved him less though. She just loved him more and more every day he breathed.

And when he was two years old, something horrible had happened and it scared her almost to death. Reid had caught the virus that had been going around. The one called Geostigma.

She spent hours on end trying to help keep the fever down and to keep him from being in so much pain. She had used up her magic power trying to cure him but it never seemed to work. He just grew sicker and sicker. Black and blue bruises were forming on his skin, just like how it was doing with some of the other children. Even a few adults were catching the virus but not many. Eventually a few of the children died and it scared her even more to think that she was going to lose Reid.

Then she heard rumors about three strange men that knew how to cure the illness. She didn't know what to think of it but she didn't think she had any other choice. If they knew how to get rid of the illness, maybe they could help Reid. So she packed up a few things, Reid's cloths and even some of his toys and they took a ship back across the ocean. Lilie was going to take him to Kalm, where she heard the men were.
When she arrived several days later, they were there all right. But the moment she saw them, she didn't trust them. She recognized their features almost too well. They looked just like Sephiroth. And she wasn't going to put her son's life into the hands of men who reminded her of him. She rented a room in the old inn she worked in and tried her best to help her son get over the illness.

She was also keeping her eyes on the news of the three men that were travelling from one place to the next. She decided to ask them herself of how they would cure her son. And she knew that she wasn't going to like what they said.

Lilie approached the men while they were town, seeming to be looking for something. They were quite young, one of them a few years younger than she was. One was about her age and another was a few years older. They all had silver hair just like Sephiroth had. They even had strange colored eyes. Lilie wasn't liking this one bit. But she knew that she had to find out how to help her son.

"Excuse me." She said to the one near her age. The long, silver haired man turned his strange cat like eyes onto her when she walked up to him. The dark look in his eyes made her step back in surprise but she stood her ground anyway. "I was told that you know how to cure the children from the Geostigma. Is that true?"

The man studied her before turning fully towards her. A cold smirk came to his lips and Lilie immediately saw Sephiroth before her. She grabbed the handles of her Psis on her belt, waiting for something to happen. "Yes." He said quietly. "We know how cure the children. Where is the child you wish to cure?"

Lilie frowned at him. "I just want to know how to do it myself. How do I get rid of the Geostigma?"

The man shook his head as he turned away, impatiently waving his hand at her. "You can not do it yourself. You have to let Kadaj do it."

"Kadaj?"

The man just lazily motioned to the youngest of the three, who seemed to be arguing on his mobile phone with someone. Lilie pulled a face at how young the man was and about the choice words he was using against the person he was talking about. She then shook her head as she looked back at the silver haired man, eyeing him suspiciously.
He wasn't looking at her anymore but she was sure that he knew she was still there. His head was tilted a little as if he was looking at her over his shoulder. Lilie turned away, a deep sigh on her breath. "I just can't lose my son." She said softly as she walked towards the inn. She felt eyes staring after her as she walked away and it did make her turn back and look towards the men. The long silver haired man was watching her now, a deep frown on his face. There was something strange about that look. He looked almost surprised by her words, yet somewhat touched. He looked as if he had never, ever heard someone say something like that before. He looked...touched by her words.

"Mama, mama!"

Lilie turned back towards the door to see that Reid was wobbling out the door. "Reid! What are you doing out here? You're sick and you should be in bed." She said as she scooped him up and held him closer to her. The little boy's tiny hands clutched at her blouse as he looked over to the men. She glanced over to see what he was looking at and she noticed that all three silver haired men were now looking towards her.

All three were just staring at her, almost in surprise yet confusion. But then the oldest of the three smirked as he looked at Reid in Lilie's arms and started towards her, as if he was going to start something.
Lilie tensed, her arms wrapping tighter around Reid. She wasn't sure what the large man was going to do but she didn't like the look on his eyes.
But then the long haired brother suddenly snatched his older brother's shoulder, holding him back. He never even looked away from Lilie's eyes at all. The large brother looked at the younger with confusion, and almost glaringly at him. He didn't seem to like the fact that his younger brother was holding him back. But with a very silent word that even Lilie couldn't hear, the long haired man shook his head before turning away. The large brother glared after his younger brother before looking at the youngest, Kadaj as if looking for permission.

Kadaj was still staring at Lilie in wonder, as if he was trying to figure something out about her. But after a long moment, he shook his head and Lilie heard him say, "No, Loz. Not that boy. Leave them be. We'll worry about the others." And he went back to arguing with someone on his mobile.

Lilie frowned as she glared after the large lug who had whined as he turned away but then she looked at the long haired fellow, almost feeling grateful that he had actually held his large brother back. His eyes were on her again, but just barely. With a low sigh, she mouthed, Thank you, to him as she held her son closer. She still didn't trust the look of all three though. Not even the long haired one, even if he just held the one called Loz back.
"Mama? Who they?" She heard her son ask. Lilie slowly shook her head as she just met the youngest silver haired man's eyes. "No one in importance, Reid. Come on, you. You're too ill to be outside. Let's go get you back into bed." She said before she went inside with her son.

Once she had put Reid back into bed she looked out the window to see if the three men were still there in town. They were. And they seemed to be talking to one another about something. Eventually, the oldest of the three glanced up at the window as if he could sense her eyes. Lilie pulled back a little but noticed that he wasn't looking towards the window anymore. She cracked the window open and listened as hard as she could to the conversation the three were having. It made her teeth clench tightly at what she heard.

"...is in a few days. We have to find brother and find out where he's hiding Mother." The young man, Kadaj said.

"Kadaj, why not take that one boy with us? We're gathering the kids in Midgar. Why not here?" The oldest one.

Lilie had to step back again when she saw Kadaj's eyes turn up towards her window. "We can't touch that one. Didn't you see the spell around those two? I have a feeling that woman is something else or she has met Sephiroth."

"Do you really think so, Kadaj? I sense something about her too but she doesn't seem that special." The long haired one said awfully quiet.

"Yeah. We can't touch that boy. For some reason, I'm feeling a push against that one. I think Mother might not want us to take him. Let's go. We still have to catch up to big brother." Kadaj then gave a low dark chuckle. "As for those meddling fools that took Mother from us, we'll find out where they are. And when we do, we will make them pay." He said. The other two nodded and they soon left on their bikes.

Lilie just stood there in the dark in silence. Who were those three? Were they just like Sephiroth? Why did they say that they were going to take a boy? They couldn't have meant Reid. That made Lilie ball up her fist to think of them trying to take her son from her. She would kill them before they could.


Fortunately they never returned to Kalm. But that didn't mean she didn't hear anything about them. Not long after their visit, she found someone from Midgar and found out who they were and what they were doing. From what she learned, it angered her.

"They're something called Sephiroth clones, ma-am. Apparently they're the ones who are responcible for the virus, or so that's what we all think. They were gathering kids, saying that they were going to fix the children. But they wouldn't return the children after that. You're lucky that they didn't take your son. You would have never seen him again." The woman she talked to said. Lilie lowered her head before going back to her room.

That night, she looked at her son's sleeping form, watching him breath. To see him so sick, made tears flood her eyes and she cried softly to herself. She was never so scared for him. She was so afraid that she would lose him. He was going to die and she couldn't do anything about it.

The very next day, something had brought her out of the inn with Reid. She had heard some kind of commotion outside and it made her go outside to see what was going on. The entire town was gathered outside Kalm, looking towards Midgar. When Lilie looked, she was in for a shock.
There was some kind of monster attacking the city. Dark clouds were high above the city while the monster was fighting with something or quite a few people. There was explosions going off everywhere every time it tried to attack something.
Lilie held Reid closer. She wanted so much to go to Midgar and find out what was going on but it was her worry for Reid that was keeping her by her son. She saw how weak he was getting now and it scared her even more. He could barely keep his eyes open now or lift a hand. Lilie cradled Reid as she watched the monster suddenly explode into bright blue light and was gone.

Something had destroyed the monster but what had it been?

Not long after that, the clouds high in the air grew darker and black rain drops began fall. Lilie gasped as they fell onto her and Reid and it made her worry even more. The rain drops felt like poison against her skin. She could feel the acid like burn in them and smell the scent of death in the water. She could already hear some of the children crying in pain and Reid was whimpering. The only thing she could do was rush over to the side of the house, under shelter and watch the city of Midgar.

Something was definitely happening, something terrible and she couldn't help it stop. She had to take care of Reid.

All of a sudden, after moments of the dark rain, the black clouds slowly rolled away and the sun was shining again. The clouds turned into golden color and crystal clear rain was now falling. Lilie felt some kind of feeling from the rain. She slowly walked out into the rain, looking up at the beautiful sky. The raindrops falling onto her and Reid.

And then to her surprise, she watched some kind of strange light form through the bruising areas of her son's skin and vanish. Lilie gasped softly as she watched Reid heal right before her eyes. She looked up at the sky towards the golden clouds.
For some reason she could almost see a form standing on the clouds. It didn't surprise her at all to see that it was Aeris's spirit. Lilie smiled as she looked up at the clouds, before she let Reid stand on his own and join the other children in stomping in puddles.

"Thank you, Aeris. You've done it again." Lilie whispered as she looked at the sky.

Then she looked over at her son, smiling. He was going to be all right. Just like Aeris had said before. Lilie then turned and looked towards the city. For some reason, she was feeling a pull towards the city. She looked down at the necklace around her neck. For some reason the orb was glowing brightly. Something was happening and she knew that it must have been good. Lilie knew she had to return to the city.
Just one more time, and this time, she would take her son with her. She just had a feeling that things really were going to be all right.