Sephiroth stared at the beaten up stuffed moogle on his bed. After the last battle he had been 'upgraded' to the status of First, and knowing the President it wouldn't be long until he took the post of General.

So it was rather unusual that the odd female who had caught his attention was congratulating his promotion...with an old stuffed doll.

He picked it up...and almost immediately was hit with the odd feeling of nostalgia. He knew this doll.

As if that wasn't enough, when Sephiroth went to sleep that night he fell into a memory.

Flashback

Sephiroth felt himself running towards another room after another round of unpleasant injections. Hojo had put the really unpleasant pink stuff in him again, the one that burned and hurt like nothing else. Age and resignation had allowed him to ignore the worst of it, but in the dream it hurt like hell.

He opened up a door and found a girl that was almost four trying to beat some sort of logic puzzle. She stopped what she was doing and turned to look at him, which almost jolted him out of the dream from shock.

"Ruru! He was being mean to me again!" said Sephiroth with a whine.

"Did he use the bad stuff again, Seph?" she asked with sympathy. Sephiroth felt himself nodding.

"Ruru" picked up a stuffed moogle...the same one he had found on his bed...and handed it to him. Sephiroth clutched it like a lifeline as Ruru pulled him into a massive hug. She rocked him back and forth, holding him close as she hummed a lullaby that felt familiar, even if he didn't know the words. Sephiroth felt himself relaxing as the pain drifted away into a comforting warmth that made him feel safe and loved.

Ruru cradled him in her arms until he drifted to sleep, curled up against her while hugging the stuffed moogle close.

Sephiroth only caught a glimpse of a nearby mirror, but it was enough to tell him that the memory was old. Very old. He couldn't have been older than three from the reflection. Even then the picture of himself at that age was very fuzzy, but the size told him that much.

Flashback end

Sephiroth woke up to Genesis shaking him awake. He had a grin on his face as he eyed the stuffed moogle.

"Someone has a secret admirer. Bit tattered though, isn't it?"

Sephiroth looked at the moogle and silently put together the little clues. The moogle was the final straw though.

He had a future Turk to track down and get a damn explanation as to why it took her so long to find him. After the incident with Third Class Barlow, the Turks had definitely taken a notice of her and were already planning to transfer her out of infantry into their department the second she was sent back to Midgard.

Genesis gave him a knowing smirk when he left the tent, though he hid the moogle so no one else found it. Especially one of Hojo's "spies".

The female was about to head to the mess tent for some food after a long patrol when he found her.

Sephiroth steeled up his courage and quietly asked...

"Ruru?"

She froze, and turned to look at him. A broad smile crossed her face as she light up.

"You do remember me! I was hoping the slow approach would drag up a few memories."

Now that she mentioned it, Sephiroth did have a few memories of someone giving him small bits of chocolate after a rough day of 'tests' from Hojo, or a less than pleasant combat practice. A chocolate that had a familiar taste to it.

"What happened to you?"

Ruru grimaced.

"Hojo," she spat the name like a curse, "Thought it was a brilliant idea to leave me with the innkeeper's wife when they were leaving Nibelhiem and the labs inside the ShinRa mansion. He had an assistant pay her to keep an eye on me until the next shipment out, since there was 'no room' inside the trucks for both of us. Except that was the last day of the move and I was left behind in a village that already distrusted outsiders."

Sephiroth raised his eyebrows in shock.

"He left you in a village? What about your parents?"

"Dad was killed in an accident shortly before you were born, and Lucrecia went missing, presumed dead after she gave birth to you. I think she died in childbirth, but Gast wouldn't tell me what happened. All I know was that after you came out, she disappeared entirely and no one would tell me anything. My mother dumped me on my father when I was barely a year and a half old and never showed up again."

"Lucrecia? My mother's name is Jenova," said Sephiroth.

She looked at him incredulously.

"What in the name of Bahamut has Hojo been filling your head with?! Lucrecia was the woman who gave birth to you, not some two-thousand year old fossil!"

"Fossil?" said Sephiroth in disbelief.

She ran her hand through her hair exasperated.

"Let's find someplace quiet. I have a bad feeling Hojo's been misinforming you about a lot of things if he has you openly believing that thing is your mother," she said tiredly.

Sephiroth nodded eagerly. It was nice to get some actual answers.

A few hours later...

Angeal looked at Sephiroth, who appeared as if he had gone through the wringer. However he was physically fine, but he looked exhausted.

"What happened?"

"I really don't want to talk about it just now," said Sephiroth. He eyed the people around him, and the two got the hint. He didn't want it getting back to the higher-ups.

Genesis and Angeal shared a look.

A little while later, they dragged Sephiroth to Genesis' tent.

"Spill. What happened between you and your admirer? The Turk girl?" said Genesis.

"She's not an admirer. She's a childhood friend that was deliberately left behind by Hojo when they moved the labs," said Sephiroth.

Angeal froze at that.

"What?"

"Hojo apparently didn't want her 'corrupting' me or some such nonsense, so he deliberately left her behind in a rather backwater village that has a very small population. She was basically an orphan in a town where the jobs were already scarce and everyone was related to someone else by at least two degrees. It's so isolated that they really distrust outsiders," said Sephiroth sourly.

"Wait... are you telling me she joined the infantry to find you?" said Genesis in shock.

"Actually I joined because it was the quickest way to join the Turks," said an amused voice, causing Genesis and Angeal to jump a little. "Being able to reconnect with my adorable baby brother was just a very nice bonus."

Sephiroth snorted at their reaction.

"Baby brother?" said Genesis.

"I'm almost a year and a half older than Sephiroth is, and we were raised together in the labs as siblings until they decided to change labs. Hojo didn't like the fact Seph had actual support that didn't follow his 'grand plan', so he turned me into the village orphan. If one of the women hadn't taken pity on me once she moved in from outside the area, I would likely have ended up married to some jerk from that town already," said the girl dryly. "Call me Prue."

"Prue?" said Angeal.

She smirked.

"My full name is Zophiel Prudence Valentine. However everyone calls me Prue," she explained. "Apparently my father wanted to raise me as an older sister to Sephiroth, so he gave me a name based off an angel."

"Which one?" asked Genesis smirking. It was a bit amusing her name followed the same 'theme' as theirs.

"Zophiel can mean 'Beauty of God', though it can also mean God's Spy...which amused my dad a lot because he was a Turk," she replied.

Genesis snorted at that.

"But Lucrecia thought 'Zophiel' was too much of an adult name for a little girl, never mind the fact it would be misspelled constantly because it sounds so close to 'Sophie', so she started calling me Prue instead and the name stuck."

Genesis suddenly snorted in amusement.

"So that's why you look like you want to laugh when those SOLDIERs and the older infantry keep calling you a prude!" said Genesis, pointing at her with glee. "They's just been using another shorted version of your name!"

Prue snickered with him.

"Believe me, it's been hard not to mock them about using my name. Besides, do you really think it's the first time I've been called a prude before?" she snorted.

"Why approach Sephiroth now?" asked Angeal. "You could have delivered the final trigger months ago."

"Because I'm being transferred directly into the Turks in two weeks. I wanted to be sure my little brother remembers me properly before he makes General since I heard they were going to send you back in a month. I still can't believe the little toddler that used to call me 'Ruru' shot up to the point he now towers over me," said Prue with glee.

"I bet you have all sorts of amusing stories to share," said Genesis with glee.

Sephiroth would have felt mortified, but he was curious to hear them as well.

"Oh I have a few," grinned Prue. "However I think they would be best shared once we're all back in Midgard when I can use them for maximum blackmail material. I can share a few about some of the 'mishaps' Hojo kept experiencing in his early years. He kept claiming a poltergiest was to fault," smirked Prue.

Sephiroth's eyes gleamed at that.

Prue looked at the odd cat in the Slums. It had a cape and a crown and was riding a moogle.

"Would ye like a fortune lassie?" it asked with a bright smile.

She twitched.

The cat kept smiling.

"TOO CUTE! Do you mind if I hug you?" she asked.

She liked cats, and this one was adorable.

She had the sense the creature was beaming at her.

"Not at all lassie!" he said cheerfully.

Prue had the weirdest feeling someone was watching the entire thing and beaming at her. Once she got the urge to hug the odd cat out of the way, she took her fortune.

"So what's your name anyway?"

"My name is Cait Sith," he said.

"So is the fortune telling thing a hobby or...?"

That feeling that someone was watching from a distance solidified, but she had the distinct feeling it was harmless so she ignored it. Odds are Cait Sith was acting as the eyes and ears for someone else.

A suspicion that was only confirmed when a month after she was enlisted as a full Turk, she found a smaller Cait Sith waiting near her apartment. If you took off the cape, it could fold into the shape of a normal cat.

She happily cuddled with it, since she couldn't have an actual pet in her home anyway.

Third POV

It was so nice to see his creations treated well. Reeve smiled when he realized Cait Sith had found a new friend and ally. The Turk known as Seraph treated Cait Sith like another human being and went out of her way to talk to him without a second thought towards the fact he was a robot.

Seeing her treat the mini-Cait as a beloved pet didn't hurt either.

It was through the mini-Cait that Reeve became witness to the most unusual reunion. One that gave him hope to turn the Slums into something far less depressing.

With Prue and Cait

Prue had been given a relatively low-key job of 'watching' a girl who made a living selling actual flowers of all things in the Slums. She was very popular because of it, and to be honest Prue couldn't understand why the Turks were watching her at all.

That is, until she saw the girl in question close up. She knew that face!

"Professor Elmyra?" she asked carefully.

The girl froze and turned to look at her in absolute shock.

"What did you call me?" she asked slowly.

"Sorry, it's just you bear a really uncanny resemblance to Professor Elmyra... well her and Professor Gast," she admitted. "It just slipped out."

"Elmyra was my mother's name."

Prue stared in shock, as recognition fully hit her.

"Aerith? Little Riri?" she said in disbelief. "I didn't even recognize you!"

Aerith looked at her oddly, once the nickname hit.

"Who told you about that nickname? I've never mentioned it to anyone!" she demanded.

"It's me, Ruru. I had no idea you were living in Midgard too, or I would have come to say hi sooner!" said Prue happily. "Sephiroth was really shocked when I tracked him down in Wutai while applying for the Turks."

Aerith looked at her for a moment, before recognition hit...that and her eyes became glazed slightly as her mother's spirit spoke to her from the Lifestream. Prue knew this because she heard it too.

"Ruru?"

"I missed you, little sister. Why are you living in the Slums anyway?"

Aerith winced.

"We have a lot to catch up on."

Prue nodded. On the plus side she got to watch her little sister... she had always been closer to Sephiroth because he needed her more, but she still adored Aerith... while doing her job.

She went from happy and amused to outright pissed.

"HOJO DID WHAT?!"

As if she needed more reason to kill that obnoxious troll! On the plus side, she was given the semi-permanent job of bodyguarding Aerith in between assignments given to her by Veld. She was the first person to successfully convince the "flower girl" to allow her close and actually follow her without argument or trying to slip off.

Besides, Aerith found Cait Sith just as adorable as Prue did and it wasn't long before another one made itself at home in her little church where she grew flowers.