AUTHORS FREAKING NOTES: Sorry it took so long for me to finish this! I had real problem with it and took my sweet time and all and STILL it didn't end up the way I wanted it to. But hopefully you will bare with me and consider reading the next chapter.

SO MANY special thanks to Sheridan; Taro, who left such a heart-warming comment on a entirely different story, but it's due to that comment that I ever finished this chapter (danke!)! As always; cherryblossometc. and vampiretoy left really uplifting comments as well! (ps. No Marlene in this chapter, but she'll show, and so will Cloud!)

Okay, let's get ON WITH IT!

Tifa checked on "Snow" on a regular basis. If nothing else, the man took her mind of Sarah. The funeral was soon to be held, the children were heartbroken but they handled it well. Sadly enough, they were used to death and met it with astonishing courage. Somehow, it made the whole thing worse. An old lady and friend of Tifa, Jessy, had come to stay with them during this difficult time. Tifa was happy to have her around. It gave her time to think. About Snow. She always entered the pink-painted room with the intention of killing the man. Then she ended up standing by the bed, watching the sleeping face, thinking "They are alive because of him. They would all have died. I owe him more then anyone on this planet!" but that face! Those eyes! She couldn't let it go. She had seen blood-lust and insanity in those eyes. And she had feared them so much. She sat down on the bed, facing the window, looking out into the pale evening light, thinking, trying to decide right from wrong. Sephiroth wasn't always evil… he'd been like any other person until Nibelheim. Cloud had told her a few stories of his time with the general. Insight drove him insane. What if this man was not like Sephiroth? What if it was all a coincidence? No, no… too unlikely, with that face.

Perhaps he was a clone? Tifa had seen a few in Nibelheim, but none of those half-humans had been nearly as refined as this … creature. And even if he was, could she kill someone just for looking like someone else? What about moral standards? Oh, fuck them, what would she tell Marlene?

Snow moved. Tifa – startled – jumped off the bed and watched as the man slowly turned his head … and open his radiant eyes. He looked straight at her. Tifa froze on the spot. A thousand thoughts went through her head at one – the most clear one being where the hell Cloud was and why he still wasn't answering his cell-phone. They stared at each other in silence, while Tifa tried to decide whether to kill him or thank him. Snow made the decision for her by rubbing his eyes and whispering;

"Are they alright?"

Tifa was caught of guard and didn't comprehend.

"What?"

"The children" Snow clarified "Are they alright?"

"Uh… yes. They are" was Tifas tame answer.

"I'm sorry" the man continued, his hand tracing the side of his face.

"What?"

"I'm sorry… about the girl"

"Sarah"

"Yes. I apologize and I wish to tell you my condolences"

"Yeah. Thank you" Tifa responded, confused "Not much you could have done to help her though"

The man gave a faint nod and then, while brushing a long strain of silver hair out of his face, he looked at Tifa again.

"I … might I perhaps have some water?" he asked, his voice still low.

"Yes, of cause! I'm sorry!" Tifa exclaimed and quickly moved to the small desk where Marlene had placed a water-glass. It was a little warm, but it would have to do. Tifa didn't like the thought of leaving the man unguarded. She handed the man the glass. He took it without touching her fingers. He heaved himself up a little and then carefully sipped the water. Tifa watched him slowly drink half of it. Then he coughed and put it away on the bedside-table.

"Thank you" he said.

"You're welcome" Tifa answered.

Sitting up a little more, his back against the wall, he seemed to notice that his jacked had been removed. He pulled the blankets up to cover is shoulders in a series of movements that to Tifa seemed very feminine. Like a woman concealing her breasts. The man scanned the room with his green eyes, probably looking for his clothes.

"If you don't mind me asking" Tifa started and he turned her attention back to her, covers and legs pulled up "But what is your name?"

He looked at her for a moment like if he considered not telling her.

"Yasu" he finally said "But everyone miss-pronounces it Yazoo. So I guess… Yazoo"

"Just… Yazoo?" Tifa had expected something more along the line of… well, Sephrahim or Seth.

"Yes."

"I'm Tifa. Tifa Lockheart. I ran the orphanage" She said, smiling weakly "Thank you for… everything you did"

Yazoo just nodded. Silence fell between them again. He didn't seem… hostile or violent. Quite the opposite really. But he might just be acting so that he… so that he … what? Yazoo looked out the window behind her and slightly turned his head to one side.

"Where… are we, exactly?" he asked with his soft voice. At first Tifa had thought that his throat was just sore, but now she realized he spoke in that soft, hazy way.

"Midgar… Sector five. By the flower-gardens, if you know about them?"

"I thought the smell was different" he mumbled to himself.

"So… are you… feeling any better?" Tifa asked while staring some pointless rearrangement of some small glass animals on a shelf to avoid those eyes.

"Yes" Yazoos gaze did not stir from the window "A little tired but I'm… alright."

"I think the smoke really got to you" Tifa continued while aimlessly moving the glass-animals around "You had a couple of serious coughing-fits. I almost thought you wouldn't pull trough"

Which would have made everything oh so much easier.

"It wasn't the smoke" he said quietly, the pale light from the window reflecting in his feline eyes "I'm constantly dying"

Tifa could barley make out the words, which he probably spoke more to himself then to her. She watched him in the corner of her eye as he shifted his position, placing one long-fingered and on his draped chest and lowering his head so that a curtain of silver covered his face. His body shivered. No, no, it he wasn't shivering, Tifa realized. He was laughing.

"He will be so angry with me" Yazoo spoke silently, still laughing in the same low volume.

"Who?" Tifa turned to him, curious, scared.

"Kadaj" Yazoo raised his head just enough to look at her from underneath all that hair "My brother"

"Your… brother?" Tifas heart stopped. There's more of them!

"Yes, my younger brother" Yazoo continued "He is somewhat our… I don't know"

"Our!" Tifa repeated, sounding a lot more startled then she had intended.

"Yes" Yazoo turned his full attention to her "Me and my older brother"

"You… you have two brothers?" Tifa was staring at him, eyes wide with fear. He didn't seem to notice.

"Three" Yazoo corrected "But one is missing. Probably dead by now"

Tifa couldn't breath. Her mouth went dry. Her head buzzed. Three or four of these, these creatures! What would she do? What could she do? She had to kill him! Kill all of them! Before… before what?

"Do you know where they are?" Tifa asked, her voice shaking "I'm … I'm sure they're worried about you, and would like to know where you are, so if you told me I could… contact them … or something"

Yazoo looked up on her, his eyes locking with hers from underneath his bangs. He smiled.

"Don't worry. They'll find me"

AUTHOR AGAIN (Does she ever shut up?); Okay, lot of dialouge. As always, tell me your thoughts! (Preview for the next chapter; Could returns only to find his home burnt to the ground! And what is his opinion of the silver-haired visitor? And Marlene makes cookies! Can it get any more exiting? ) Thanks for reading!