Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII, Advent Children, or any of their characters.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

It was only late evening, and the death count had rose to five. Five of the younger children succumbed to the illness and fell into the darkness of death's eternal sleep. The loss of the three little boys and two girls had greatly upset Cloud, as well as anyone who happened to be awake.

The four remaining healthy adults and children were in a panic. Nanaki stuck to keeping the children who weren't affected as of then away from anyone who was. Cloud and Vincent cared for anyone who was living, and Yazoo stayed by Tifa's side.

Seeing them in this situation greatly amused Kadaj, and he grinned wickedly while surveying his prey from outside the High Wind. Loz was right there with him; both of them watching the death unfold from a window near the cockpit room that the sick were being held in.

Loz wasn't at all happy about the chaos, and even seemed sad when the small humans had lost their life. Kadaj glared at him for his weakness in emotion, but he boldly ignored it.

"How much longer are we going to stand here? This airship isn't exactly a soft surface for me to stand on for hours..." The older man whined, daring to actually sit on the surface they were situated on.

His possessed 'leader' glared down at him, but spared him for now. He spoke in a low voice. "We will watch them suffer a while longer, retrieve the traitor, and finish off Strife and his little fools for what they have done soon enough." He gave a wicked grin, revealing his teeth were all fang-like from JENOVA's influence, and reared his head back to let out a menacing but low laugh.

" Aren't there other people suffering from this virus? Like the citizens in the small villages around Midgar's ruins?" Loz asked anxiously.

"Of course. And our precious GeoStigma will continue to spread and claim more lives..." The younger of the two said almost gleefully.

"I see..." Hanging his head, Loz watched with remorse as Cloud and Vincent were digging five small holes outside of the ship, the bodies of the dead children lying on the ground close by. He was broken from his observation from the snarl he heard Kadaj release.

" Traitor..." He hissed, staring at Yazoo through the window. " I'll make sure to claim the life of that girl he has become so protective over."

The elder of the two spying men stood to once again join in staring through the window. Loz remembered his fight with the girl, and how he had broken her leg on the church altar.

Both watched as a small girl approached Yazoo and Tifa. She shook the silver haired man bit, and he stirred, turning to face her.

Marlene stared at the man sadly. "Five of the people have been killed by the GeoStigma, Yazoo. I'm worried about Papa, and Tifa as well as everyone else... Will they be... ok?" The little girl started to cry, and caused him to snap out of his groggy state. His yellow eyes widened with concern, as he made sure not to disturb Tifa while he rose to a sitting position yet again.

He looked around the room a bit and noticed the absence of a few children, before he returned his gaze to her. "You should not be in here Marlene, the virus could get to you."

"You didn't answer... They... aren't gonna be ok are they?" She hugged the older man tightly, burying her face into his chest. She looked up at him with her teary eyes and spoke again. "Papa... Tifa... Cid... Yuffie... My friends... They're gonna die, aren't they?" Marlene's soft voice cracked, and she started to sob some more.

"I..." Yazoo started but stopped. He placed his arms around the little girl, and picked her up to take her out of the room. "I do not know... You should not remain here, your friends... Your father... They would not want you to suffer GeoStigma."

The girl cried still, but slightly calmed from the rhythm and movement from his footsteps. "You... You want me to suffer from it?"

"Of course not. I am concerned for your well being just as much as anyone else here. If I did not care I would not be removing you from danger, right?" Yazoo even managed to surprise himself with his choice of words.

Marlene nodded, and continued to whimper on him as he moved her with the other children whom hadn't been affected.

.........................

Cloud and Vincent had just finished digging the fifth and last hole. Both men picked up the children and lay them in their respective graves. A small prayer to the planet for the safe guidance of these souls to the Life Stream from each man, including the man inside of the blonde's mind, before they got to work covering each body up.

"Hmmm... What about markers?" Vincent pondered aloud, looking over at his black-clad companion.

"We'll place different coloured stones by them for now. It's the best we can do; we must tend to the others now." Cloud gestured to the ground, signalling that they would now search for the multi-coloured stones.

Vincent nodded and began searching the dirt below him, unaware what was going to go on in the ship above.

..........................

By this time, Kadaj was beginning to agree with Loz that some form of attack should be made. His face suddenly lit up from its hollow, bored look, to a look of malice.

"We know what we should do..." He whispered menacingly, a smirk growing on his face. "We will go in there right now, take the woman and the girl that our little traitorous whelp has become attached to, and demand he come with us if he wants them to live. That way, we can force him to slaughter those he cares for! Ha! Think of the torture it will put on his mind!"

" Alright. So what do we do, just smash on in through this window?" Loz gave him a false grin.

"Yes... That is what we will do." Kadaj laughed as both men smashed through the window before them, startling Yazoo, whom was watching the sick people amongst him.

Nanaki, whom was in the other room hadn't heard the crash, since they had been sure not to make it too tremendous. Not to mention he was preoccupied having his ears focused on the whining and noisy children, so a crash to him was nothing more than Cloud or Vincent dropping their shovel outside.

Marlene had heard it and wandered into the room to see if Yazoo was alright. Making her way quietly, while tiptoeing, she peaked around the corner of the wall and gasped.

Yazoo had his gun blade drawn and pointed, and was snarling in the direction of two more silver-haired men. She was startled by the resemblance the three of them had to one-another, and figured these must be the ones whom he had once thought of as brothers.

" Yazoo... What's happening?" She managed to ask.

He turned his head slightly and looked at her through green eyes. "Get back!" The man snapped at her, and she was once again startled. Like most children, she was upset at being yelled at like that.

"Well, well. So our little traitor made some friends... Looks like you've weakened and found your self getting attached to these pathetic creatures. How pitiful... Pitiful indeed, Yazoo..." Kadaj laughed at him, causing the small girl behind him to shrink back.

"What do you want?!" The second oldest of the three growled furiously at them.

"We want you, the little girl, and your whore over there." The possessed man gestured to both Marlene and Tifa.

" Never! Do what you want with me, kill me if you have to, but leave these people alone!"

"Don't worry, killing you will be a pleasure later. But unless you abide by our terms now, we'll kill them both." Souba was now drawn, and in it's masters grip.

Yazoo didn't hesitate to charge Kadaj with his gun blade, sparks flying as the two metallic objects collided. The younger man simply gestured to the eldest, and in a flash, Yazoo was being held off the ground by his throat by Loz.

"Now, now... Which one to kill first... She looks young enough to have her blood stain the floor, come here!" The JENOVA controlled maniac grasped Marlene by the wrist and held his double bladed sword to her throat. "Now Yazoo, will you abide by our terms..." He applied more pressure to the Marlene's throat. "Or... Will you watch her die?"

Now beginning to lose consciousness from lack of air, Yazoo choked out the words to the best of his ability. "Fine... I accept..." Instantly, Loz's iron-like grip on his neck released, allowing the man to drop to the floor with a thud. He panted on the floor and glared up at Kadaj, the long silver hair almost completely covering his now red eyes.

Regaining his breath quickly, he stood. "Bring them along if you must... As long as no harm comes to them..."

"Now that's the big 'brother' we used to like..." Laughing psychotically, Kadaj sheathed his sword and tossed Marlene to Loz. He then gathered Tifa up in his arms, just in time for Cloud, Vincent, and Nanaki to burst into the room.

"What the hell is going on?!" Cloud cried, grabbing his Buster Blade from its spot where it had leaned on the wall. He pointed it at the three men angrily, ready to put up a fight.

"Why, you didn't know? Yazoo here is rejoining us, and he decided to bring along Marlene and Tifa for some fun times." The shorter haired enemy sniggered at the blonde.

" Yazoo, is this true?" Nanaki growled, his claws ready to rip flesh.

Yazoo nodded, and put on a false smirk. "I have lied to you all along. Now we have what we need. Farewell fools!" The three dashed towards the entrance and exit that Kadaj and Loz had created earlier. Cloud dashed after them, only to watch in horror as they all dared to leap from that height.

The three intruders managed to land gracefully on the ground below, Kadaj spitting on one of the children's graves and laughing as they took off into the forest nearby.

"TIFA! MARLENE!" Cloud screamed.

"He was lying Cloud. Yazoo isn't joining them, I saw through that lie. They've e forced him somehow." Vincent muttered. "I can guarantee you both of them will not be harmed."

"Let's hope so..." Nanaki stared at the disappearing figures on the horizon.

...........................

After having left Tifa in the abandoned church with a man in a wheel chair whom Kadaj him was Sephiroth, Yazoo was forced to go with the other two men to the small village. Kadaj had decided it was the most populated area that would be affected by GeoStigma, and wanted to cause a raucous there.

The three men had brought the girl through the two-year old ruins, after a day's travel of just getting there. It was about three hours before they actually reached the civilized area, and the sight of people gave Marlene a spark of hope. However the hope ran dry as people scattered every which way from her and the men she was with.

" People, calm down! We are here, simply to inform you... To bless you with what we know..." Kadaj said, JENOVA's voice disappearing, and his eye turning to their green colour. Although he looked normal, it was easy to tell he was still under her parasitic influence.

Marlene had decided that under the darkness of the semi-night sky, the young man looked especially creepy. She let out a slight cry as Loz grabbed her shoulder roughly and would not let her go, despite her useless struggle.

One person stopped, and paid attention to him. Then another, and another few. Very shortly, a decent sized crowd had wearily gathered to hear what this man had to say.

"My people... I apologize for our attacks much earlier. GeoStigma is spreading amongst you, a deadly virus to cope with..." The little girl noticed he was talking in first person again. She then quickly looked over to Yazoo.

His eyes were still green and he was glaring off at no one in particular. He suddenly darted his eyes in her direction, taking notice of her distressed look. Yazoo could only give her a look of sympathy, knowing there was nothing he could do that wouldn't guarantee her demise or his own. To avoid feeling any worse for his actions, he simply looked away from everyone and stared to the side.

" As you may know, my companions, Yazoo..." He gestured to his right. " And Loz..." He gestured to the left. "retrieved JENOVA's head from an old Shin-Ra lab a while ago. Our intentions were good, contrary to what you might think, but a man by the name of Cloud Strife ripped the head from our possession, and used it to unleash the virus that plagues you all now! He is the real enemy! Former citizens of Midgar, you've seen it happen before! The great General, Sephiroth was once your 'hero'; look at what he became! Strife is no different- he must be stopped before all life is lost!"

Marlene noticed the commotion amongst the crowd and it seemed as though some of them were buying it. She felt a need to defend Cloud, and she tore out of Loz's grip. Stepping in front of Kadaj, she yelled to the people. "CLOUD ISN'T THE ENEMY! DON'T LISTEN TO HIM; HE'S A BAD MAN! HE..." The child was cut off as an infuriated Kadaj grasped her and drilled her into the ground with a hard throw.

The pain from the landing caused her to cry, and Yazoo instantly scooped her up to comfort her.

"What are you? Some kind of child abuser? 'The hell is wrong with you?!" A man roared from the mass of people. Marlene's statement and Kadaj's actions had caused an uproar from the people, and many of them made a foolish move to try and attack him.

" Useless plan I see this was..." His eyes returned to their black state, and his voice became double again, as blue beams erupted from his hand and took the lives of about twenty innocent people. " Yazoo... Loz... If you will?" Both of his companions nodded grimly.

Drawing their gun blades, both began firing at people. Loz had taken out about five people in a matter of seconds. Kadaj noticed out of the corner of his eye, something that infuriated him once more. The older experiment had something wet leaking from his eyes; tears. Was he truly feeling remorseful for taking the lives of these pathetic humans? Was he truly becoming just as weak as his other companion?

Yazoo held onto Marlene with one arm and fired off-aim on purpose. He hadn't hit a single civilian, and the girl noticed he seemed to be aiming most of his shots at street signs or lights.

The three men turned and headed out of the town, none of the people bothering to stop them as they made their way back to the old church.

...........................

Cloud attached the Buster Blade to its magnetic sheath on his back. Doing up the armour on his shoulder he got ready to head out on his own. He made his way over to the airships real exit, but not before bidding his conscious and unconscious friends farewell. It might've been, after all, the last time he would get to see them before he made his move.

But he had made up his mind. These men wanted his life. JENOVA wanted his life. And if it meant the fate of the world, he was ready to give it all up for just that.

...........................

A/N: Meh, crappy chapter I know... Cut me some slack, at least I'm updating and actually plan to finish a story! That's rare, believe me... --; Hope you all enjoyed this one, like I usually hope. Review please!