Author note: Well, well, well, looks as if I managed to update again. Phew. Just a short little note this time, nothing major to comment on or complain about. Though I'd like to give a special thanks to those of you who are new reviewers among the others, it's nice to see that you've taken some interest in this story! And as for you casual reviewers, my biggest thanks to you for sticking along and not losing interest!

Abstract Silver

Trouble in heaven

It felt as if a whole new blanket of worry had settled upon her shoulders.

With Cloud now gone, leaving not only her, but the children as well, alone with a complete stranger who was considered a maniac. She felt uneasy about the situation, trying hard not to get angry at the way Cloud was handling things. Everything could have been done differently, their lives would have been less harsh to stand than before. But it was as if luck was not on their side. Not at all.

Her eyes finally coming back into focus as she stared blankly at the closed door, Tifa forced her mind off of the "what ifs" and "what will happen nows" that constantly circulated inside of her head. The loud voices of the children rang in her ears as they played a card game on the floor, keeping an amazingly happy attitude.

Tifa folded her arms against her chest, turning to face the children, and couldn't help herself but smile at the look on Marlene's face. The small girl held four cards in front of her face. Her eyebrows were furrowed and the look of concentration etched into her features was more than fit for a picture perfect moment. When Denzel asked her for a queen, giving Tifa the hint that they were playing 'Go Fish', Marlene let out a frustrated growl and handed her friend the card he had asked for.

The children were going to miss Cloud without a doubt. Tifa was against the idea of him traveling after the injuries he had sustained, but going to Northern Crater was completely absurd. It was dangerous there and so isolated that she wouldn't know what was happening to him.

"Do you have a nine?" Denzel asked, glancing down at his cards then back up to Marlene.

Tifa made for the marble counter top, intent on cooking the children something for dinner. They hadn't eaten much at all lately, especially since the return of Cloud and his new discovery. She chuckled to herself, brushing dark strands of hair away from her face.

"Go fish."

Denzel groaned and reached for the messy deck of cards that stood between Marlene and himself. When he flipped the laminated cardboard over, eyes scanning over the number, he was quite pleased to find that he had one to pair it with. Now it was Marlene's turn to go.

"Do you have a seven?"

"Aw." Denzel grabbed the top of a card that had the number seven on it and tossed it over to Marlene, but despite the fact that the young girl had more pairs than him, he was losing quite a large amount of cards.

It was going to be a close call on who would win.

"Denzel, do you have a five?" Marlene asked, taking another turn.

"Nope. Go fi-"

There was a loud SLAM as the door burst open. The children, wide eyed in surprise, screamed aloud and immediately looked frantically around for Tifa. The fist fighter came rushing over, shielding the children as a scratchy, cruel laugh rang out loudly.

Marlene, recognizing the tall man immediately, clutched onto Tifa like a life line, burying her face away from the sight of his cold mako eyes. Denzel held a tight grasp on Marlene, afraid to let go, terrified that Cloud wasn't there to protect them all.

Tifa stood tall, refusing to give in to whatever it was that he wanted. As he slowly advanced, leather boots making loud noises as they treaded over the floor, Tifa reached behind her, temporarily moving Marlene's hand away, and pulled at her fighting gloves.

She could tell from the look on his face that he had been through some rather large fights. On the right side of his face several burn marks snaked across the skin and ended just before his cheekbone. His hair was frazzled, untidied and dirty looking. There were multiple rips in his leather outfit, many showing charred or blood caked skin. He wouldn't be much of a challenge to fight this time. Plus, he was also suffering from a lack of a decent weapon.

"Where's Kadaj?" A gruff voice spoke outwards.

"Who is Kadaj?" Tifa lied. She had to. The children needed to be safe and she couldn't let anything happen to the person Cloud was trying to save.

Loz snickered, raising his arms in a battle stance. His mako eyes glowed with cruelty as he ran towards Tifa, forgetting the pain that threatened to cripple him.

"Denzel, Marlene, go upstairs. Quickly!"

Tifa moved to the side, bringing up her arm and blocking an attack made by Loz. She used perfected speed and lashed out, striking him in the stomach, sending the intruder flying across the bar area. There was a loud crack as Loz landed on a wooden table, breaking it in two.

Looking around and making sure that the children were nowhere near the danger, Tifa hoped that something came up and Cloud would return, if only for a few seconds. Her desperate wishing was smashed into pieces when she heard Loz stand back up, brushing himself off as an irritated look passed over his features.

"What are you trying to defend?" The intruding man bit out, rushing towards Tifa with surprising speed.

The children, Tifa thought to herself, dodging and retaliating the attack Loz had intended. I have to protect the children.

It was silent and boring laying down in a room by himself, incapable of moving and sick of it. He hated being bored, it had to be one of the most irritating things in the world. There was nothing to comment on, nothing to do, nothing to read, and nobody to talk to or control.

Horrible.

He had tried to stare out the window, but it was a rather hard task to accomplish when the Geostigma was eating away at his skin. Next, he had tried counting the patterns that were throughout the room, but that had been turned down after a whole ten minutes.

Then, just as Kadaj thought that he was about to die of boredom, loud crashing noises came from downstairs, followed by the screaming of those annoying children. It had caught his attention, mostly because it was something different, so it was only in his best interest to go see what was happening. Even if it did hurt.

Sliding the layers of blankets off his body, Kadaj placed himself in a comfortable position. Using his arms, the silver haired rebel pushed himself upwards and desperately grabbed for something to support his shaking body, discovering that the Geostigma didn't like him using his arms very much.

The nightstand was right beside him, so, forcing his arms to move, Kadaj grasped tightly onto the polished wooden surface. It would have been a simple task to keep himself upright, had the tray of empty soup bowls and a glass of water not been there.

Kadaj felt his hand move off the nightstand due to the slippery surface of the tray. His entire body seemed to go with it, causing him to fall forwards and meet the ground with a large thud. If he thought he was in pain before, then he had been sadly mistaken.

"This is just wonderful," Kadaj breathed out heavily, feeling bruises forming on his stomach already. At least he hadn't landed on his ribs again. Who knew how many of those would be missing by now.

Luckily, the soup bowls or the glass cup hadn't fallen on him. Kadaj doubted that he really needed any more pain. But before he could do anything, the sound of hurried footsteps could be felt through his face, which was plastered to the floor.

The door burst open as the two children entered the room, breathing heavily. They failed to notice the silver haired rebel sprawled across the floor, but that was only because they were too scared to realize anything else. That was, until Kadaj spoke up.

"Hey."

Denzel and Marlene immediately set their wide eyes on Kadaj. It didn't help that they were stuck in the same room as the person who had kidnapped them. Neither of the children possessed the knowledge that Kadaj was staying at the bar, causing them to jump to conclusions and panic.

They had been caught!

Kadaj stared at them blankly, unimpressed by their overall reaction. He tried to lift himself up, only managing to turn his body a different way, giving him a new view instead of the floor.

"Well don't just stand there, help me up."

The children refused to move, keeping their backs flat against the door, eyes continuing to remain wide with shock and terror. This, however, only angered the silver haired rebel. He had enough of them and their petty emotions.

"Help me up!" He yelled as loud as he could, startling the children but forcing them into action nonetheless.

Loz aimed another attack towards Tifa, failing once again to cause any damage. Several chairs had been broken, three tables in total, and there were now many dents and holes in the wall to give the bar a whole new look. And it looked pretty bad.

Suddenly, the intruding man stopped his attacks, listening hard as the voice of Kadaj carried downwards. He looked at Tifa shortly after, smirking coldly again, and rushed for the stairs, only to be blocked by the fist fighter.

"So, you do have him here, don't you?"

Tifa narrowed her eyes slightly, mentally cursing herself for allowing the intruding man so close to the children. She held her fists out in front of her face, concentrating on the battle at hand. She recalled all her training and calmed herself down.

He wasn't going anywhere.

Loz took the first move, darting to the side in hopes of distracting Tifa, but the fist fighter was so concentrated that she was having no problems at all predicting his moves. Loz lashed outwards with his fists, then quickly pulled them back and replaced their position with his leg, intent on landing a powerful attack on Tifa's head.

The training had been worth it. Using her eyes to depict everything, Tifa watched as Loz aimed a kick towards her and merely moved her head to the side, causing Loz to get his boot stuck in the wall. Though he had managed to pull it out quickly, he wasn't quick enough to dodge a pointblank attack from Tifa.

The pain grew incredibly fast, but Loz ignored it, knowing that he would pay for doing that in the end, but he had to get Kadaj. So, as Tifa's fist came flying towards his face, Loz opened his hand and grabbed her clenched fist, smirking at the small amount of shock that shimmered through her eyes.

Using all the strength he thought he had left, Loz applied a great amount of pressure onto Tifa's fist, then swung his arm out to the left, letting go of the fist as Tifa went flying. He heard her land violently against the wall and chuckled in a cruel manner, strolling casually towards the set of stairs before him.

Kadaj was standing heavily against the far wall of the children's bedroom, surprised and quite pleased with himself that he was able to stand once again. It hurt like hell, but it was a million times better than laying in bed all day without a thing to do.

The children refused to say anything and had settled down on the bed beside the one Kadaj had been resting in before. Denzel tried to silently calm Marlene down several times until they both had just went completely still, looking towards the door with fright at the sounds coming from downstairs. They hoped that Tifa was winning, trying hard to make the bad man go away, but when his evil laugh echoed up the stairwell, they feared for the worst.

And the only one 'able' to protect them in the room was Kadaj.

Before the silver haired rebel knew what was going on, the children threw themselves behind the bed he had claimed and tried hiding themselves. Kadaj only rolled his eyes at their childish ways, then froze when the door opened, revealing someone very, very unexpected.

"Brother," Kadaj said in a bored tone, watching him through half lidded eyes.

"Come now Kadaj, we have to meet Yazoo."

"I don't think that I want to at this moment."

"But-"

"No."

Kadaj crossed his arms and sighed heavily, pressing his back against the wall and praying to whatever God there was that he wouldn't slip and fall again. He really didn't want to go through with everything again, he couldn't anymore.

Totally useless.

"I just," Kadaj thought things through, carefully calculating what he was going to say next. There were other things that needed to be done first and with the nightmares he had been having about mother and Sephiroth, Kadaj wasn't too sure he wanted to meet either of them. "I don't want the reunion."

Loz seemed to go pale. More pale than he had already been.

"That's not-"

Before the intruding man could speak anymore, something collided with the back of his head from behind. The children screamed, so confused at what was happening that they couldn't tell if they were being attacked or not. Kadaj uncrossed his arms and looked in the doorway, spotting Loz collapsed in a heap on the floor.

Standing in the doorway, breathing heavily, Tifa stood with a cast iron frying pan clutched in her right hand. Her shoulders shook with each breath she took, then she dropped the heavy cooking utensil, creating a loud bang when it made a large indent in the floor, as the children came rushing towards her.

Having gotten up from being thrown into the wall, Tifa knew she wouldn't have the proper space to use her fists. Improvising had come into mind. In a hurry, Tifa had rummaged through the kitchen, trying to look for something strong enough to knock a man out, but not to make him bleed in front of small human beings. The heavy weighted frying pan had been her first choice.

As Marlene clutched onto her arm, Tifa spared a glance towards Kadaj, who looked away and out the window.

Cloud had to return soon, or else he didn't think he was going to make it.