Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII, Advent Children, or any of their characters.
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
It was late in the evening and somehow Cloud and Tifa had managed to find a place for Barrett, Nanaki, Cid, Vincent, Yuffie, and Yazoo to sleep in their small orphanage. Most of them shared rooms with each other and the children were crammed into one. As much as the little ones protested, even Marlene: Barrett's little girl whom he had brought with him, Tifa made sure to explain to them it was only for a short while.
Yazoo was having a tough time coping with the presence of so many new faces and decided to disappear for a little while into the small wooded area outside of the place.
"What the hell is his problem?" Barrett asked, interrupting the current conversation. Quite frankly, like Cid, they were all interested in knowing why they had been brought here, but this new face had bothered Barrett since he had laid eyes on him.
"He's not very talkative, don't mind him." Tifa explained cheerfully to her old friend.
"Not talkative? You two sure seemed to be chatting up a fucking storm on my ship earlier!" Cid cracked at her, grinning at how she blushed.
"I was only asking him what was wrong..." She said, red in the face.
" That's not what matters right now! Let Cloud get on with the point!" Yuffie halted the talk about Yazoo and switched it back to the previous subject.
"Yes. The reason we're all here... A problem has arisen..." Cloud began. He felt the presence in his mind take over, and saw the shocked faces of everyone but Tifa as Sephiroth's voice emerged from him. Over the next three or so hours, both Cloud and Sephiroth took intervals at explaining the situation. Eventually, everyone thoroughly understood, even after several outburst and arguments.
"I suppose if we are supposed to get anything accomplished with these silver haired people, we might as well get to bed." Nanaki suggested, after yawning rather loudly.
Everyone suddenly realised how late it had gotten, and how tired he or she was. So, taking the advice of the wise animal, they all headed off to their rooms. Cid, Nanaki, and Barrett shared a room, as well as Yuffie, Vincent and Cloud. Tifa suggested she would stay up a little longer to think.
"Don't be stayin' up to late. We gotta get on with this pretty damn soon before those psychos get their hands on their precious JENOVA. G'night." Barrett walked into his room with Nanaki and Cid, and he shut the door.
Tifa walked into the orphan's room, and checked on the sleeping children. She smiled as they slept peacefully in their makeshift beds, unaware of the trauma befalling the Planet once more. She gazed around, and her smile faded as she noted one particular child's absence.
" Marlene!" Tifa gasped worriedly. ' I'll just go out and get her... I don't want to wake anyone up... She can't have gone too far, right?' She asked herself mentally, before heading out the front door of the house quietly.
Looking around, and straining her eyes to see the dirt ground, she managed to make out the shape of small footprints. Following them eagerly she found she had lead herself into the woods outside. It was a bit chilly outside, and she wrapped her arms around herself, rubbing her hands up and down every now and then to keep warm. After about fifteen minutes of walking, and losing the trail of footprints she managed to make out two humanoid forms in the distance. One looked relatively tall, and the other relatively tiny- like a little girl. Relief filled her as she broke into a dash towards the two.
Her instinct was right, for both Yazoo and Marlene looked up at her in unison.
" Tifa!" The little girl hopped up and ran to the woman, hugging her tightly. Tifa hugged her back.
" Marlene! You had me so worried! What are you doing out here?!" Tifa asked gently, yet sternly.
"I saw the nice man walk off into the forest earlier, so I put on my jacket and followed him cause I thought he'd be lonely..." Marlene hung her head slightly, and looked back over at Yazoo, who seemed to be staring off into space yet in their relative direction.
"It's ok Marlene, but next time you should tell someone before you wander off like that. Besides, I'm sure he doesn't appreciate you following him like that." Tifa looked up at the silver haired man while she said the last sentence with a look of question.
"But... But we talked about lots! We have a lot in common. Both of us don't know who our real mommy and daddy are... An-and we both don't like lots of people: we're kinda shy in that case I guess... He says he has two brothers... I wish I had a brother or sister! That would be cool!" Marlene seemed excited to have chatted with him.
"I see..." Tifa nodded. "Is she... bothering you?" She gestured towards Yazoo, who looked straight at her.
"Not at all." His eyes seemed different now; they were a deep blue, and the pupils were round and quite large. A ghost of a smile passed over his pale face. He seemed almost... happy?
" That's good... Marlene, we should get you back to the orphanage with your father. It's past your bedtime..." She told the girl, who groaned childishly in protest.
"But Tifa... I wanna talk to the nice man some more!" Marlene pouted at her.
"Tifa is right, Marlene." Yazoo stood up and joined the two of them. The sound of his voice saying her name sent chills up Tifa's spine. " Do not worry. We will talk tomorrow."
Marlene looked up at him. "Promise?" She held up her little finger to him.
"I promise." He leaned over slightly taking off his glove, and shook her small finger with one of his long pale one.
Most of the walk back to the orphanage consisted of either the sound of footsteps, or the occasional exchange if words between the two females. Yazoo kept quiet the entire time, seeming to be more interested in watching their surroundings.
When they finally reached the small house and bid goodnight to the little girl, Tifa was exhausted.
"I think I'm gonna get some sleep... You should too..." She trailed off as she watched him look out the window.
" Them..." He snarled. "I have to go. My brothers are here."
The woman's heart sped up. "Why are they here?"
"Most likely to attack. I'll go with them, and pretend to rejoin them. That way they'll hold off attacking a little longer, and I could gather information on their current plans..."
"But what if they..."
"They will not kill me. I suggest you stay out of view. Go into those rooms and wake your friends. Lead them off into the woods we were in earlier, and I suggest you all evacuate to a different place. Whatever you do, do NOT let them know that I am still on your side." He warned her.
"Cloud and the others? Why not?" She seemed slightly puzzled at his odd choice.
" Because. If they know I am still with them, they will hint that they still know I am, and thus Kadaj is likely to pick up on that. If he does, then not only will I be killed, but so will you AND your friends. So just keep quiet."
" Alright. So this is good bye?" Tifa looked up at him.
"For now." He nodded. "I will return soon enough. Just give me a few days."
"Good bye."
He simply waved slightly and quietly slipped out the door. He dashed towards what sounded like two motorcycle engines. Tifa realised by how quickly he disappeared onto the horizon, that he was incredibly fast. She shook the thought, sighing, and with a look of worry stared off in his general direction.
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"Well, well, well. If it isn't our little traitor, come crying back to us." Kadaj looked at his second oldest sibling with a look of utter disgust, as he screeched the brakes of his vehicle, bringing it to an unsteady halt. He climbed off and walked towards the longer haired man.
"What do you want?" Loz's motions were the same, and he stopped beside Kadaj, glaring at Yazoo. Deep down he felt relief that his brother was safe, but if he were to express this infront of Kadaj, he couldn't imagine what he would do.
"I've come to rejoin you. I found out some valuable information about those fools that may interest you... If you let me live, we may just be able to complete our goal." Yazoo smirked at them.
Kadaj's pupils became slits, and in a flash he unsheathed Souba. Before Yazoo could contemplate the motion, it had slashed across his chest, leaving a river of red to rust over his trench coat. "We no longer need you assistance..." He laughed, and his face twisted into a hideous smirk. He slowly raked his sword back up his older siblings fresh wound, "However... I'm not the type to slay my own brother in such a way... I'll let you live, and come with us again..." His smirk became a hideous, menacing grin as he noticed the pained expression on Yazoo's face."
"I thank you, brother. You will not regret this. First of all, I know the location of Sephiroth's body. Our brother is very much alive, and he is situated on the upper floor of the old church in what used to be the slums of Midgar. It may be of some use for you to go and visit him, Kadaj." Yazoo spoke informingly.
" Alright. I will do so tomorrow. As for both of you, while I am gone, you will attack the small town on the edge of the ruins. Loz and I were there earlier, but our attack failed thanks to some of Strife's comrades. This time though, there will be no failure. I am most certain Cloud and his little fools won't be there to defend the fools there. And then, you will retrieve what we didn't manage to." The youngest of the three said calmly.
"What could we have failed to retrieve? Why didn't we get it?" Loz seemed clearly confused.
"We didn't get it, because I didn't feel like it." Kadaj held up his hand and allowed a blue glow to consume it. His eyes became hollow, and he shot a few laser like beams at nothing in particular. A large explosion rocked the ground beneath the three, and Kadaj smiled in satisfaction. ' My link with mother is growing stronger, as are my powers... Soon my dear mother... The planet will be all yours, and nothing will stand in your path..." He reared back his head and laughed wickedly, receiving strange looks from both of his brothers.
That didn't bother their younger sibling, as he hopped back onto his motorcycle completely ignoring them. Yazoo simply hopped onto the back of Loz's bike, after being gestured to do so, and the three sped off into the night.
Tifa heard the roar of the engines, and couldn't help but feel worried for him as the group hustled as fast as possible through the woods, making a shield around the children.
Marlene grasped onto Tifa's hand and forced her to look down. "Where is the nice man?" She looked slightly saddened at the absence of the silver haired individual.
"Yeah, where did he make off to? Did he return to them?" Vincent spoke up for the first time in a while.
"Yes... He stormed out saying he was going back to his brothers..." Tifa stated. Marlene looked up happily, as she was of course unaware of whom his brothers were.
"Will he bring them back to visit?" She asked cheerfully, but her face fell at the sight of the older people's expressions.
"Soon enough they'll pay us a visit... Don't you worry..." Cloud grumbled coldly. After his moment of speech, everyone grew silent, and the rest of their walk seemed to ache on for hours.
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A/N: Yeah, yeah I know. Bad place to end it. Oh well, at least I wrote! And before you go on will all the "WHAT ABOUT CAIT SITH?!" bull shit, he's not in it because I haven't seen any screens of him OR Reeve on any Advent Children site. I DO however plan on making the next couple of chapters a little more calm, with less fighting, for my own reasons (A- I suck at fighting scenes. B- I need to explain other stuff).
Another thing: Thank you for the reviews! I appreciate the support! :D I just wanted to add to LilFlyerGirl- Will Aeris be in it? Maybe. ;) You'll just have to wait and see.