Author's Note: Disclaimer found below.

(Five)

Tifa barely moved for hours, trying to come to grips with the situation. Every time she moved and caught a glimpse of the lake, it was like being stabbed again. Aeris had believed. She'd died believing that her friends would succeed. Take care of everything. Save the world.

She wondered if Cloud knew just how bad a job they'd done. Meteor had been repelled, and they'd destroyed Sephiroth's body... but all they'd done was stalled him. It should've been obvious to them; even Hojo had said that Sephiroth's will would not dissipate in the Lifestream. All the information had been right there, and they'd still done the wrong thing.

Cloud quite possibly knew better than any of them, and he'd walked away in silence. Maybe he'd thought that he was protecting them...

She hid her face in her hands again. He wouldn't still be so dense as to try to hide something like this, would he? If he knew what Geostigma really was...

He didn't know. That was the only explanation. If Cloud knew that the plague was from Sephiroth, not the planet, he would've told them, right?

Unless he just didn't care anymore. That didn't seem so unlikely, now. She wondered that it had taken her so long to realize it.

Loz came back eventually, stained and bleeding, leaves in his hair, with a distinct air of satisfaction about him. He stroked her hair, whispered kind things, kissed her with an obvious - though not entirely successful - attempt at gentleness, but finally left her alone again.

She had no response to give. She felt numb. There was nothing left inside, no more tears to cry; she wasn't worth crying over anyway. It all felt unreal - not so much her current surroundings, but the rest of her life. The 7th Heaven, Marlene and Denzel, Cloud's courier business... Any happiness she'd had the past several years was unwarranted. Not for her. Let someone more deserving have a family and a business and friends and the accomplishment of helping to put the world back together. No matter how hard she tried, she could only help to take it apart.

Better to stop trying.

Loz came back, this time healed and cleaned and dressed, and carrying the rest of her clothes. "Almost time to go," he informed her.

Tifa moved as he directed, pulling on her shoes and apron, finally zipping her top up completely. Left lying on the window seat next to her was a scrap of pink ribbon. She'd worn it tied around her arm for the past two years as a remembrance for Aeris.

It was broken and fraying.

She picked it up, stared at the torn edges in her hand for a moment, then tucked it away in a pocket of her apron. She couldn't bear to look at it, even if she couldn't cry any longer.

He took her by the hand and led her outside. She tried hard not to look at Aeris' lake any more than could be helped.

In the clearing, there were two motorcycles, and a truck. The bed of the truck was full of...

Children. Children from Midgar whom she knew to have had Geostigma, though there were no signs of it now, no black-stained bandages, no darkened skin. She stopped in shock, but there was no flicker of recognition on any of their faces; they sat still, eyes downcast, as though mannequins.

"What have you done to them?" She whispered, eyes wide.

"Cured them," Kadaj answered, coming from somewhere behind her to stand next to her. "Not one of them will die of Geostigma, now." He smiled at her, the cold fire in his eyes frighteningly manic.

She tried not to cringe away. There was no point.

"Come on," Loz said, pulling her by her hand toward the cab of the truck. "You're driving." He released her and opened the drivers' side door, motioning her inside.

Again, she stopped. Yazoo was sitting on the passenger side, head propped on his hand; he looked tired. In the middle of the seat sat one of the children - Denzel, with those same dead eyes.

Tifa felt her insides knot up again. "Denzel?" She pulled herself into the truck, taking hold of his arms. "Denzel, what's wrong! Denzel!"

"He won't answer, Little Sister," Yazoo told her. He seemed completely unperturbed at her outburst - hadn't moved at all. "He doesn't care."

Tifa went still, staring into Yazoo's mocking, snake-like eyes. Then she slowly let go of Denzel and sat back, adjusting her position in the drivers' seat. She was bound, tighter than as with ropes. Of course, they'd known from Marlene that she was connected to Denzel; having him here was purely to remind her not to do anything foolish.

She jumped as Loz slammed the truck door beside her. She looked at him, her face grim with the horror of the situation, eyes pleading uselessly. He offered her a smile, reaching through the open window to pat her arm before moving off to one of the motorcycles. Kadaj had already mounted the other, and it started up with a throaty roar.

"Good girl," she heard Yazoo murmur as she reached for the truck's key, which had been left in the ignition. She hesitated; part of her still wanted to snap back, to offer resistance.

Instead, she started up the truck, placing her feet on the pedals, keeping her eyes forward. At a signal from Kadaj, she followed.

There was no point in fighting them. Not now.

It was hours before there was any sound other than the thrum of engines in her ears. She didn't care to watch the truck's speed, instead allowing the pace to be determined by Kadaj on his motorcycle up ahead. There was nothing she could do: no way to escape with the children with Yazoo in the truck, even if he did seem to be asleep - she had no way to incapacitate him; no way to bring a simple end to this without sacrificing Denzel if not all of the children, and none of them deserved to die for her sin. The most that she could do was try to shut down her mind, allowing herself to be mesmerized by the trees flashing by.

"Mind your speed."

Her eyes went wide - she'd been lulled so that she hadn't been paying attention to anything other than Kadaj's taillights gleaming ahead of her in the shadowed valley. She hadn't even realized that she'd been speeding up, and let off the accelerator.

"That's better."

She glanced over at Yazoo, then back to the road. He'd spoken, but his eyes were still closed, his head still propped on his hand just as it had been for the entire ride, completely still but for his hair whipping about his head. She glanced again, and he'd opened his eyes, staring ahead. "The road curves at the end of the valley," he said by way of explanation. "You don't want to try to keep up with Kadaj for that. He likes to take it fast."

Yazoo finally sat up straighter, stretching his arms in front of him, fingers laced together. "We'll stop to rest once we're out of the valley. I'll drive then." He paused, then sighed. "Loz will want you to ride with him."

Tifa stiffened, her gaze drawn to the rear view mirror. Between the strangely still bodies of the kids in the truck bed, she could see Loz on his motorcycle, bringing up the rear.

Yazoo snorted at her. "Oh, like that's so terrible. He's not about to let you get hurt." He said it as though it wouldn't bother him at all if she got hurt.

There it was - the chink in their armor. It occurred to her again that she might be able to divide them, play them off of each other. If she could pit them against each other, she'd have a much better chance of surviving.

It'd be easier if she could just fight them, one at a time, but that wasn't going to happen. Yet. But forming a plan, suddenly finding something to control - that was good. It was a spark in the snow. With luck, it could become a fire...

She ignored the implication that what Loz had already done to her hadn't hurt her. "So I'm his pet, then?" She muttered, finding it easy to fill the comment with bitterness. "And you'd rather have me put down, even with all this 'Little Sister' business."

"Of course I want rid of you, Little Sister," he chuckled, completely unphased. The term didn't seem to hold the meaning for him that it did for Loz or Kadaj. "You're going to try to kill him, or get him killed, if he keeps you long enough. I'm hoping that you'll try to escape before then." He grinned at her, making sure that she saw his hand on his gunblade. "Or the Reunion will take place. Either way, you will not take him from us." His expression was still smug, but his words were cold.

She shivered in spite of herself. "Why let him have me at all, then?" She prodded. It seemed like he wasn't going to move against her unless she tried to escape, because of his brother's wishes. If she could incite him enough, he might try to talk to Loz about it when they stopped. Maybe she could get them to fight...

"To deny him his physicality would be to deny his existence."

She blinked. She'd thought that she might make him angry, but that answer, delivered so calmly... made no sense to her at all. She considered asking him to explain, but Yazoo had folded his arms and leaned his head back, closing his eyes. Evidently, he considered the conversation to be over.

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