Claire Crescent knew she never would forget it, wouldn't even if she wanted. That precious moment when her husband's eyelids fluttered open and revealed his pretty mako eyes.

Confused mako eyes they were, as they looked around desorientatedly, but Claire Crescent didn't care. Letting her body fall forwards she tackled the man lying in front of her in a tight embrace, the tightest probably in all the history of mankind.

'Oh thanks Etro, I thought I'd lost you.' was all she'd managed to get out as she burried her face into his blood stained silver hair.

'You managed to heal me...' Sephiroth said somewhat surprisedly as his hand went to his abdomen.

Lightning could only laugh. It was a laugh of relief.

She'd done it. Somehow she'd really done it.

She'd healed him.

She almost could not believe it herself.

'Let's get out of here.' she whispered helping her husband back up to his feet.

They were weak, both of them. Had to use the support of the metal railing to get up, were supporting each other as they made back the control room.

And Lightning wouldn't forget any of the the things that followed either.

How they had gotten their kids and made out of there.

How they had sealed the doors of the reactor shut and let the whole thing go up in flames.

Their journey back through the forest, convoyed by a pack of peaceable dogsters.

How they had met Maqui and Gadhot halfway, who were combing the forrest with the nieghbourood watch's pickup truck and had been attracted by the flames.

How finally after days of torture and strain they all made back to he village.

From then on her memories became hazy, blurs.

Blurs of relieved familiar faces followed by curiousity about the kids and lots of congratulations.

Blurs of nice helping hands and hearty warm meals, refreshing showers and cozy smooth blankets. Lots of rest.

It had taken Sephiroth and Lightning a few days to recover from their ordeals, recover from all the shocks, those traumas, recover from the stresses put on their bodies and from all the strains put on their minds.

But in the end they both recovered, woke up one day feeling fresh and energized. Healthy and happy and free.

They were free. For real.

The reactor was destroyed. And so where Jenova and professor Hojo.

Their world domination plans had been twarted for good. There was no evil lurking the forests any more, no voices, no visions, no threat.

The remaining dogsters and other creatures that had originated from the reactor had become peaceful and friendly, well-disposed, were sticking to the forests mostly and learned to live with the rest of the wildlands in peace and in harmony.

And all the restraints of their past where gone, where lifted.

They were free to live. To live at their own terms. Were free to create the future that they wanted.

There was lots of stuff to do for the Crescents in the following days and weeks too. Caring for three newborn babies was not exactly childsplay, it turned out, and a rearrangement of the nursery was due too. One more bed had to be added to the room, as well as another closet for the unexpected addition to their family.

Luckily Snow and Serah had agreed to help.

Yazoo, Loz and Kadaj... They were all their children, all needed a lot of care.

The Crescents had spread the story that Lightning had unexpectedly gotten triplets instead of twins and to both their great relief everybody picked up on it instantly.

And they treated them as such too. Treated them all the same. The fact that Loz had never come from Lightning's belly, it didn't diminish the love any of them felt for him, didn't change a tiny little thing.

He was their son. And he would always be. Nothing would ever change that.

It was a few months later that they all went down to the city center, Lightning, Sephiroth, Serah and Snow, all of them packed with occupied baby carriers and diapers, bottles and lots of other stuff. Was with both anticipation and with wonder that they took down one of the cobbled streets that led from there and down to one of the pretty sandy beaches.

Little shops and ice creams stores seaming the tiny cozy street, they finally stopped infront of a freshly painted building, the last building in the row, lying directly at the beach.

The walls were painted a shrill attention catching red and a big neon green sign announced that they were about to enter 'Pumper's Hall, Bodhum's first class fitness gym.'

'Something's telling me Yuj, didn't get a lot to say after all in the color and name choice department.' Lightning muttered somewhat aghast, making the silver haired general beside her laugh.

'Come on, let's check it out.' Snow suggested excitedly as he stepped forward and opened up the doors.

It was busy inside. A little too busy for Claire Crescent's taste.

Zack, Cloud and Yuj where inside, dressed in matching red training suits, busy greeting all their guests and handing out coupons for membership discounts and flyers listing upcoming events. And so where a hundred other people who'd come from all over Bodhum to witness the 'Pumper's Hall' great opening.

'Hey, Lightning! Sephiroth!' Zack Fair's voice called out to them as he jogged over, showering them in merchandise and trying to convince them to get themselves Pumper's Hall member training suits.

Claire Crescent couldn't help but cringe.

'We could get some for the babies too!' Cloud Strife piped up from somewhere behind, earning himself increduled glances from his partner Yuj.

'Oh come on, if you two wear them everyone will think they're cool!' Zack explained quite reasonably.

'Cool! Can I get one too?!' Snow Villiers began eagerly.

It made the two of them turn away and steer over to where they had spotted Genesis, Angeal, Fang and Crystal, who were lounging near a giant opening party cake in the form of a colossal dumbell.

'You'll get a free membership too!' Cloud's voice rang out after them.

Sephiroth only rolled his eyes.

'You could definitely need one Light!' Zack yelled at an afterthought.

It made Claire Crescent shake her head.

It was true of course.

She hadn't gotten back in shape yet. Still... She was in no hurry. And definitely not desperate enough to don one of those ridiculous training suits.

'Hi guys...'

The two of them reaching Genesis, Angeal and their appendage, Lightning let her eyes take in the room.

It was a big room and it was full of useful things, Lightning had to give Cloud, Zack and Yuj credit for that.

They had created an almost perfect copy of the Shin-Ra soldier gym and had added bits and pieces of Men's Hall and Club Duel, as well as some inventions of their own.

There were training benches and dumbell sets, a barbell set, pull up frames and bars, treadmills, stationary bicicles and more. There was a designated area to practice squats and a big ring too, where they were planning to host competitions.

There was a check in counter of course, a juice and healthy snack bar, and gender split locker rooms and showers as well as a generous outdoor training area even, which at the very moment was repurposed to host an ample BBQ for the festivities as well as cozy looking seating arrangements for the guets to chill.

'Let's go outside.' Lightning suggested. 'It's a lot more quiet and it'll be easier with the kids.'

'Yes, let's go.' Angeal agreed eagerly as his eyes took in the skewers Lebreau had prepared outside.

And so they went.

It was a beautiful evening. The Crescent's first one out with all their kids. It was an evening full of friendly faces, of laughter, of joking, of cheerful happy smiles.

There was hearty grilled meat and delicious freshly squeezed fruit juice. And a few rounds of shots even, provided of course by Genesis Rhapsodos.

They were lounging in their beach chairs, all of them together, watching the other guests and commenting on Cloud and Zack's abysmal business skills.

The guys from the neighbourhood watch had started a spontaneous squat contest and while Zack and Cloud had been busy getting themselves drunk, with the latter throwing up all over the check in counter, Yuj had actually managed to score some membership contracts.

Lightning was sitting in her cozy chair next to Serah feeding one of her baby boys, Loz, who lay nestled in her arms, face pressed against her breast.

She felt happy then, so infinitely happy, felt complete. And so did Sephiroth, she was aware, as she looked over at his cheerful features, engaged in a conversation with Snow and Angeal and juggling Yazoo and Kadaj in both his arms.

He had changed so much those past few days, those weeks.

The haunted shadows underneath his eyes had vanished, and so had the tortured resignation in his beautiful green eyes. His horrible mako cravings had left him completely and so had the voices, the nightmares, the self loathing, the regrets.

The past few weeks of peace of harmony had healed him. Had helped him recover from the nightmares of his past, his present, the ptsd, the fears, all of his doubts.

He was free now. Was free to live. The shackels of his past were gone for real and so were the last few remains of Shin-Ra, of Jenova, of doom.

For once in their entire lifetime, everything was fine.

For once in their lifetime everything revolved around love and friends and family.

It was a beautiful feeling. Made them feel so good, so blessed, so light, as thought their hearts may take flight any second to sore up into the air and all across the universe.

It was a few hours later and the festivities had begun to fizzle out. The guests were getting tired and were starting to go home.

Cloud had somehow managed to sober up and had begun cleaning up the mess he and the other party guests had made with Yuj, who had menaged to sell a fair amount of membership cards and training suits in the course of the evening.

Maqui and Gadhot were the last participants in the never ending sqaut competition and Zack and Lebreau had gone off to do Etro knew what.

Snow's sister Crystal was sitting in Angeal's lap, the latter feeding her leftover BBQ scrapes, and Fang and Genesis were deep in private conversation none of them could overhear.

Snow had fallen asleep again and Lightning and Sephiroth were busy watching Yazoo, Loz and Kadaj, who too had fallen alseep in their brand new baby carriers.

'I gotta tell you something guys.' Serah Villiers suddenly piped up, making everyone look up and raise their eyebrows curiously.

She had been quiet the entire evening, unusually quiet in fact.

Even Lightning had noticed, still she hadn't wanted to bring it up.

Now that she looked at Serah more closely though, she could see something was different for real.

Something about her sister had changed.

Her cheeks were somewhat fuller, her skin more radiant, her eyes sparkling with the knowledge of a secret she had probably been dying to lift for all evening.

'I am pregnant!' she finally blew up into their faces, pulling out a positive pregnancy test and holding it under all their noses.

It made Snow Villiers bolt up with a start and all the other's cheer.

Claire Crescent threw her sister a genuine loving smile.

'I'll lend you my maternity dresses.'

It made her sister grimace.

The latter busy with everyone congratulating, Lightning realized her husband was gone, had stepped away from them and over to the shore, was looking up into the sky, his pretty mako eyes following a gleaming shooting star.

Leaving her still peacefully slumbering kids safely with the others, the pink haired mother got up from her seat to go after him.

Stepping up to her husband she joined his looking at the stars.

'I can't believe he's gone for good.' Sephiroth said somewhat pensively, arms coming up to hug his wife to him.

Lightning hugged him back.

'He was never you father, Sephiroth.' she told him as she nestled into his chest. It made the silver haired first class go rigid, made him look down at his wife surprisedly.

'He told me back in the reactor...' Lightning explained.

'Your father was a man named Vincent Valentine. He was a turk.'

The unexpected news, it took General Sephiroth Crescent a few moments to take them him.

'Jenova was not my real mother either.' he said once he had brought his thoughts in order. 'I mean she was in way. But I also had a human mother. Lucrecia Crescent...'

It made Claire Farron smile up at him.

'Do you think they're still alive?' the silver haired first class asked somewhat carefully.

It made his wife's smile turn meditative.

'Hojo said he'd killed him. Vincent...' she admitted somewhat hesitantly. 'But I don't know... Maybe they're still out there somewhere.'

It was enough to make her husband smile.

'Maybe one day we will meet them.' he whispered as he looked back at the stars.

They were interrupted by the sound of shattering glass and several shouts coming from the crowd behind them.

'What is going on?' Claire Crescent began apprehensively, suddenly alert.

And it was in only a few quick strides that they had reached the beach chairs and the carriers that contained their kids, was in almost no time at all that they had gathered them up in their arms, holding them protectively.

There was nothing there to protect them from really, it turned out, but still, the two of them had missed quite the scene.

The table they had sat at had been turned over and Genesis and Fang were standing on opposite sides, hurling drinks and ugly words at each other like grenades.

They had arrived just in time to hear the climax.

'And I can't take anymore of your stupid peotry!' the brunette woman yelled at the sparkling whine soaked redhead, who was trying to protect his face with a full soaked paper napkin and looking rather devastated.

'Fang, please... You cannot really mean this!' their fellow first class tried to calm his lover from behind his paper shield.

'But I do! This fucked up poem is the worst crap of shit I've ever heard!' their guardian corps colleague cried in indignation before throwing the remains of her drink at him, she stormed away from them and vanished into the already twindling crowd.

First Class Genesis Rhapsodos only stood there, big blue eyes staring at her back in disbelieve, red clad shoulders sagging, mouth gaping stupidly.

'Well... Somebody had to tell him someday.' Angeal Hewley commented somewhat nonchalantly, shrugging his broad shoulders and sending bits of remaining lamb chop flying after her.