Author's Note: Disclaimer found below.

If anyone has a better idea for a summary than what I have, by all means, let me know. I'm not so fond of it, but I'm totally blanking on the subject. oO (PM me from my author profile.)

And, many thanks to all for the reviews!

I love hearing what readers think. (I guess most authors do.) ;-)

(Eight)

It was sunset when they stopped again, driving out of the trees to arrive on a high bluff. The ocean could be seen again to the south, closer, but still at least an hour off.

Loz pulled up next to Kadaj, shutting off the bike as Yazoo stopped the truck behind them.

"We're running late," Kadaj said, his voice neutral. The look he gave Loz was very faintly amused.

"Hn," Loz looked away rather quickly. "Sorry." Somehow, his tone of voice didn't quite carry the sentiment. He sat back, his hands moving to cover Tifa's around his waist.

Tifa straightened, pulling her arms away - but he twisted, swinging one leg over the bike to dismount and turning to face her. He brushed at her wind-dried hair with one hand, tucking it behind her ear with a soft smile.

It was too easy to accept this now - the way he acted, like teenager who couldn't stop touching the object of his affections. It felt like that mightn't be too far from the truth for him, for all that he seemed to be older than she was. The sincerity was troubling.

"We have another hour or so to the coast. There's a cove there with a ship we used before." He stood, stretching his arms over his head; Tifa hopped to the ground, glad of the opportunity to change position. He pulled his canteen from a compartment on the bike, offering it to her first. "Thirsty?"

Kadaj was still on his bike, but he was lying back with his hands behind his head, his legs propped on the handlebars. Behind them, the door of the truck opened as Yazoo came out to stretch as well. The children in the truck remained where they sat with their unnatural stillness; Denzel was still in the cab of the truck, eyes glazed and unseeing.

Loz moved off to help with passing water to the kids. He glanced back at her several times, smiled at her - perhaps still a little concerned that she'd try to run again. But there was no point in running any more, much less in trying to flee here, where there was no cover. She only leaned against the bike, her legs stretched in front of her to counteract the stiffness from riding for so long.

She rubbed her arms, shivering a little, staring south toward the ocean. The wind came from the north, bearing the memory of the snowfields, and the Northern Crater beyond...

She closed her eyes, her hair streaming in the wind and hiding her face. There didn't seem to be anything left for her but frightening, painful memories, with worse to come.

He was suddenly at her side again, trailing an arm low across her as he passed by. He straddled the bike, relaxing and leaning back on his hands, before turning his head to look past her.

She followed his gaze. He was watching the sunset. The sky was mostly overcast, but the sun had found a hole to peer through, making the clouds blaze in shades of pink and orange that were so bright that they seemed unreal. The light that reached them cast everything in a strange golden color.

Tifa jumped - Loz had leaned forward again, running his bare hand over her upper arm, then her cheek. He'd removed his gloves to do so.

"You seem so sad," he murmured when she turned to him.

She couldn't respond. She looked away again.

"You weren't, before..." He brushed her hair away from her shoulder. "I want to see you that way again."

She closed her eyes, steeling herself and reminding herself that she wanted him distracted.

His arms snaked around her and he pulled her closer, moving to graze his lips along her neck. She stiffened, instinctively tilting her head away, but it only encouraged him. He nuzzled her ear, tongue flicking out briefly; she shivered.

Sitting upright on his bike again, Kadaj made a small coughing noise. Loz instantly backed off, releasing her and sliding forward to allow her room to mount behind him as he pulled his gloves back on.

She looked over at the other motorcycle as her arms encircled Loz's waist again. Kadaj was waiting. He made eye contact with her - not quite glaring, but his eyes narrowed when he looked at her. She swallowed nervously, with a nearly inexplicable pang of guilt.

She looked away, growing angry with herself again. She was not the one who should be feeling guilty here.

The truck started up, and she glanced toward it. Yazoo was watching them as well, his face impassive. Denzel's bowed head was visible next to him.

She shuddered, arms tightening. It seemed to her that these three formed a more cohesive family than she, Cloud, and the children ever had.

At least breaking a family was something that she'd done once already.

Loz started the motorcycle, and they were off again.

HR

Tifa pulled herself closer to Loz, peering over his shoulder, eyes stinging from their speed. The dim afterglow from the sun's setting revealed the coast, very close now.

They suddenly swerved, running parallel to the coast, and she saw why - the bluffs were ending in tumbling cliffs. Kadaj led them between two outcrops of rock, and then they were descending those cliffs at an angle, heading for a cove a few miles off.

The truck was already stopped at the base of the cliffs by the time they pulled up on the motorcycle. A little ways off shore was a large, aging ferry, half-rusted but evidently still seaworthy. She didn't want to imagine how they'd gotten a hold of it.

The children were climbing off of the truck, even helping each other down. Kadaj, his motorcycle stopped a little ways away, motioned them toward him. As one, they approached him, then bent and dug into the sand - and lifted a thick chain.

Loz and Yazoo made their way over as well, helping the children lift and pull the chain. Slowly, they began to draw the ship closer to shore.

Tifa realized that she was alone now, standing next to the still-warm motorcycle. It crossed her mind that she could take it and flee...

A small hand took hers. She jumped, looking down, and her blood ran cold. Denzel held her hand. He looked up at her with eyes that had never been his, Mako-green and slit-pupiled. The sea wind whipped his short hair about his face, and he didn't blink.

Tifa looked away, but tightened her hand around his. There were plenty of adults in Midgar who suffered from Geostigma. Why had Kadaj wanted these children, instead of stronger bodies? Perhaps it was only for the sake using them as shields, keeping any opposition away for fear of hurting them...

The back of the ferry dropped open, splashing down into the shallow water and forming a ramp for entry. Yazoo backed the truck in as the children brought in the motorcycles. Denzel silently pulled Tifa inside with him, and the ramp was pulled shut again.

For a moment it was cold and black inside the hold, but then a few dull electric lights flickered to life. From somewhere within, there came the hum of a generator.

Tifa glanced about. The ship seemed to have been stripped down for the most part, as though everything of value had been traded off as necessary; even interior panels of metal were missing. Besides the vehicles, the only other things in the hold were a tarp-covered stack of what looked like fuel containers, and several old-looking crates of Shinra military rations.

She caught a movement from the corner of her eye, and focused on it. There was a hallway leading further into the ship, full of shadows - there was one light far down toward its other end, but it didn't help much. What caught her eye was two of the shadows...

It was Loz and Yazoo, standing very close together. Loz had one hand braced against the opposite wall, as though he'd blocked Yazoo from proceeding down the corridor. He was saying something; their faces were too shadowed for her to see their expressions from her position. Perhaps Yazoo had complained about her...

Or not. Yazoo moved closer still, tilting his head back, and...

Oh. No wonder Yazoo hated her.

"Once we're out to sea, eat, refuel the vehicles, and rest," Kadaj was instructing the empty-eyed children as he made his way toward a stairwell. He seemed... a little tired, strained somehow. "Keep watch in shifts."

Denzel released her hand, moving off toward the rations with the other kids. She shivered as he pulled away from her, watching him go.

"He's fine," Loz said, appearing next to her and noting her gaze. "It's easier this way. They don't have anything to worry about." He put an arm around her waist, pulling her toward the stairs with him. "Come on, Yazoo's going to cast off."

She went with him, her feet moving almost of their own accord. It was only a small part of her, now, that wished that he'd stop touching her. For the most part, it seemed to be too much effort to care. It wasn't as though her body was worth anything anymore - it was just a tainted vessel that she might still be able to use to help the planet. It was only a matter of time before she met her death, be it at the hands of one of the Clones, or by the Geostigma that they'd cursed her with - and there was no sense fighting what didn't matter.

Loz took her up onto the deck, around to the bow, where Kadaj and Yazoo seemed to be waiting, looking back to them. The sky was clearing; moonlight had taken up where sunlight had left off.

As soon as they were within sight, Kadaj turned away, looking out over the water expectantly. Yazoo tilted his head, smiling at Loz as he raised his hand, eyes barely passing over Tifa, ignoring her.

A pinprick glow pulsed in his forearm, then grew, flaring into green light that sent tendrils of flame coursing over his hand. And then he looked away, out to sea, and thrust out his hand.

Pale fire arced out, striking the water, which swelled in response as though being pulled. The sea surged into the cove as though in a sudden tide, violently rocking the ship. Tifa staggered, trying to keep her footing, forced to cling to Loz for support; Loz merely reached out to steady himself on the deck railing, pulling her closer. Kadaj had gone so far as to sit on the railing, unperturbed. Yazoo alone stood free, closing his fist around the light as if reigning in a chocobo.

There was a scraping sound, then a loud metallic clang - the ship had lifted free of the sandy bottom, and been pushed back to bump the cliff face.

With a flick of his wrist, Yazoo sent the ferry out, the wave quickly carrying it beyond the confines of the cove and out into the sea. The light faded, flames wisping away into nothing. He lowered his arm, smiling in satisfaction, his long hair flying in the wind.

"You'd better not have done more damage to this thing," Kadaj laughed to Yazoo. "After that dent Loz left in the ramp last time -"

"You said to push it out into the water," Loz grumbled. "Not my fault if the metal can't take it."

Kadaj led the way into the boat house, which seemed to already be set up as their den, much as the room in the seashell-house in the Forgotten Capital had been - sleeping pallet, a few crates, and not much else. Kadaj checked the wheel at the end of the room - it seemed to have already been locked in its course, from what Tifa could tell - as Yazoo opened one of the crates and dug through its contents. Loz sat cross-legged on the floor, pulling her down with him; she sat on her knees, keeping as close to him as she could.

She jumped when something landed next to her leg - Yazoo had thrown her a Shinra ration pack. She glanced at him as he sat at an angle opposite Loz, folding his legs in exactly the same manner, passing a similar food pack to his brother, and another to Kadaj as he joined them as well, completing the circle. He didn't meet her eyes - as though he didn't want to let Loz see the way he looked at her. Kadaj seemed to be ignoring her, too.

The rations were old, but packaged well enough that they were still quite edible. She merely ate, trying to ignore them as they talked to each other and laughed with each other and traded food, painfully aware that she was here as an accessory and little else.

She remembered sitting around the campfire with the others, eating whatever they'd hunted or brought with them from the last town, discussing what they'd learned that day. Or what they hoped to do the next day. Or telling each other stories. Or just... being together. She remembered Cait Sith insisting that he read Yuffie's palm and coming up with such an outrageous fortune that she yanked him off his moogle by the scruff of his neck and threw him as far as she could into the tall grass. She remembered Cid trying to drag more of Vincent's past out of him; it was like pulling teeth, but Cid seemed to regard it as a hobby after a while, and Vincent never denied him - just gave the most vague and evasive answers he possibly could. She remembered Red XIII telling them old stories of his people, wanting them - his friends - to know the tales because, being the last of his kind, he'd never have cubs to tell them to. She remembered sitting close to Cloud, Aeris at his other side, watching him blush when they both slipped their arms around him, laughing like kids, with Barret telling them to give the poor guy a break.

She remembered lying on the hillside with Cloud, still hand in hand, staring up at the red sky with Meteor slowly bearing down on the planet. Wondering if this was all there'd ever be even as he moved closer and brought their bodies together again, his mind far away even then.

Back when she'd still been worth something. Back when she could've still been redeemed, if she hadn't been so self-centered.

"Why the monument, though?" Loz broke in on her thoughts. "He wouldn't have just left her there -"

"It doesn't matter where she really is," Yazoo explained, shrugging. "The monument's in the middle of things. People everywhere. With enough casualties, he's bound to give her back."

Kadaj nodded. "He can't lie this time, not and expect to have a city left. Can't wait to try some of those Summons..." He grinned, the light in his eyes from more than just residual Mako. Tifa averted her eyes and shrank away, but listened as closely as she could. They didn't seem to care what she heard.

Loz sounded unconvinced. "I still think we should just beat him up. He lied to get us to go after Older Brother. We should pay him back for that."

"It would be nice to hear him beg," Yazoo murmured. "He doesn't even beg for his Turks' lives..." He tilted his head back, shaking his hair away from his face. "You're sure that he really has her? I know that he just set us onto Older Brother to try to get himself a better bodyguard, but... Is he that unwise, to hold out for so long? He has to know that we're going to attack. He knows we took the children."

There was silence for a moment. When Kadaj spoke, his voice was soft and faraway, like he was listening to something else and speaking was a distraction. "He has Mother," he said. "She's closer when we're near him. It isn't just his Geostigma. He's too afraid of us to not have her." And then he was suddenly back, his voice strong and close again. "He'll give her to us. We're going to end this tomorrow, one way or another."

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII, its story, and characters are the property, copyright and trademark of Square Electronic Arts L.L.C., and no ownership or claim on said property, copyright or trademark is made or implied by their use in the work(s) of fan fiction presented here. This fan fiction constitutes a personal comment on the aforesaid properties pursuant to doctrines of fair use and fair comment. This fan fiction is non-commercial, not for sale or profit, and may not be sold or reproduced for commercial purposes.