Author's Note: Disclaimer found below.

(Three)

"Loz."

Tifa startled awake at the voice. Loz released her, rolling on to his back, and she was shocked at how cold she felt without him.

"There's food ready," the voice spoke again. "Come on. We've got to get to the coast by nightfall."

Loz grunted his assent and reached up. Tifa looked over her shoulder at the bearer of this new voice - it was daylight now - and was surprised at how young he appeared to be. Another... clone, with silver hair and slitted eyes, but still just a kid - noticeably younger than Loz or Yazoo. She would've been surprised if he'd been eighteen.

The boy caught the offered hand and leaned back, helping Loz to his feet. He turned his cat-like eyes on Tifa; she flinched, looking away.

Loz moved away, gathering his clothing; the boy sank into a crouch, eyeing Tifa as though she were a strange and possibly dangerous creature. "What about her?"

She curled tighter and closed her eyes, wishing that this was a dream from which she could wake. Something stung low on her stomach, like a particularly bad cramp; she tried to ignore it. But it occurred to her that it wasn't the right time of her cycle for cramps...

Loz dropped his jacket on the nearby crate and sank to his knees on the pallet, pulling at her arm. "Get up."

She was pulled onto her back, her eyes snapping open. The change in position seemed to set her abdomen on fire; something was definitely wrong. With her free arm she instinctively punched, but Loz caught it easily - without looking, as though he barely noticed. He smiled at her. "Good morning."

The boy's hand suddenly shot out, sliding the hem of her undershirt upward. She gasped and kicked at the apparent attack, but he brought his knees and other hand down on her legs to hold them still. He sounded surprised when he spoke. "Brother, you did it!"

Loz followed the boy's gaze, and his smile widened. Tifa raised her head, glimpsed oozing veins of black scrawled across her stomach - Geostigma.

She dropped back, going limp again, stunned. She'd had no warning, no hint of the disease yesterday, before -

Before -

But that wasn't possible, was it? How could this plague be at these clones' beck and call?

It didn't matter. It hurt. She turned her head aside, biting her lip. It looked so much worse than Denzel's case, and he was just barely hanging on at this point. She didn't know how it could've struck so quickly, but the fatigue and fever would undoubtedly catch her soon.

"It's fast," the boy commented, running his gloved hand over the lesions. She winced, instinctively trying to curl up again, but unable to move. "She should drink -"

"No." At the sharp note in his voice, Tifa looked at Loz again; he was frowning at his younger brother now. "Not yet, Kadaj. I want... I want her to stay herself."

Kadaj raised an eyebrow, smiling faintly. "Possessive, now?" But then his expression hardened. "You know it won't last. She'll die before the Reunion at this rate."

"Leave her for as long as possible." It was phrased as a command, but the older man sounded... subservient, almost pleading.

Kadaj regarded him with cold eyes for a moment - then his lips twitched up at the corners again. "As you wish," he murmured.

He laid his hand flat over the Geostigma; pain flared as though he'd stabbed her. Tifa gave a strangled cry and tried to kick, twist away, anything to make it stop - but between the two of them, she was immobilized.

And then the pain... receded, like a wave. She stopped struggling, breathing hard, trying to figure out what had happened.

Kadaj lifted his hand away; the glove dripped with the dark liquid that flowed from the Geostigma. He smiled, gently caressed his brother's face, leaving a trail of black along his cheek. "Don't forget about us," he said softly.

Loz smiled back, shaking his head. He let go of Tifa's fist, wiping the black away with the back of his bare hand. She shuddered, but realized that the plague seemed to pose no threat to them.

The boy stood, releasing her legs. "Pleased to meet you, Little Sister," he said, still smiling, before turning and leaving the room.

Tifa swallowed, allowing Loz to sit her upright. It didn't hurt - at least, not nearly as much as it should. She looked down, tugging aside her now black-stained undershirt... but there was nothing there. Mouth opened in shock, she searched further, but found only one tiny black scratch. Nothing to indicate the extent of the disease she'd seen just a moment ago.

"You'll be all right," Loz told her, his voice warm. He slipped his arms around her, pulling her to her feet and taking her hand in his. "Kadaj asked it to sleep. This way, you'll be able to join us in the Reunion."

She was shivering uncontrollably, her voice weak. "What have you done to me?"

"I told you before," he said patiently, letting go of her long enough to pick up her clothing, which was heaped against the wall near the door. "You've become our sister. Mother has accepted you." He seemed proud, as though he'd accomplished something wonderful. "I knew she would. You've been so close to Older Brother for so long, I knew that she wouldn't turn you away." He handed her vest and shorts to her, leaving her shoes and apron where they lay. "Get dressed."

She obediently stooped to put on her shorts, then slipped into the vest. Her hands were shaking so badly that she could barely fasten the zipper in the front; it caught halfway and she left it there.

What was he talking about? He had - he had given her Geostigma, and his brother had caused it to go latent? And this made her their sister? How could they have this apparent control over something that had seemed to come as a vengeance from the planet itself? And the way that they spoke of the Reunion and their Mother, the same way that Sephiroth had...

Oh... Oh, god. It wasn't from the planet at all, was it? This plague that had started the night they'd killed Sephiroth, sent him into the Lifestream...

It was all their fault. She'd felt bad enough about her own callousness - when the Lifestream had repelled Meteor, she'd looked down at Midgar and thought that all the sins were being swept away, that everything would be all right. But then the plague had appeared, that very night, and they'd known that the planet had still wanted to punish humanity, and she'd felt so awful for having assumed that all would be well... But this... this was so much worse... All the people who'd died from Geostigma... All that blood on their hands. On her hands.

She fell to her knees, hands rising to her face as though covering her eyes could hide her from the horror in her mind. "Oh, god, what have I done..."

Loz took her arms again and pulled her roughly to her feet. "Come," he said, a little more forcefully - she was wearing at his patience.

She didn't care. She shook her head, unable to articulate what she felt, even though she doubted that he'd care.

"Come," Loz repeated, pulling at her - but she stayed rooted to the spot.

He sighed, then moved quickly, scooping her up in his arms. She fell still against his bare chest - he seemed to have entirely forgotten his jacket - and hid her face in her hands. He proceeded to carry her out into the hallway without another word.

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