A/N: Hallooo again, shortish chapter here huns!

Christi sniffed as she wiped away another tear with the sleeve of her hoody; things actually made sense. For once things weren't missing or confusing. Odd, of course, but she knew it was real, that it wasn't about to be taken away again. She knew he hadn't gone away on purpose now, she knew she hadn't been merely kicked to the side. A small smile crossed her face as he handed her back the two chains. Stupid Zell…she'd thank him for being childish later though. She glanced sideways as a random thought crossed her mind.

"How come Mom's tags only have her maiden name on them?"

Genesis blinked as he looked to the dog tags; good question. That hadn't even crossed his mind. But now that she had pointed it out it seemed pretty obvious. He honestly didn't know why; probably the President trying to get his own little victory up on him. To say he and the man had not seen eye to eye would be a complete and utter understatement. They'd hated each other; despised each other to their very cores. What exactly he had ever done to deserve the man's unlimited distaste was beyond him; he had never openly admitted his hatred to the man, nor had he ever done anything to instigate mistrust or hate.

The old fart had seen him as a part of his property; his and his alone. Why though - because of money. Genesis had never been one to have much good luck, but finding out his own DNA had been degrading had taken the cake. Okay, first of all finding out you were merely an experiment was bad enough, but then realizing the person who had spear headed the experiment had been your best friend's father had taken the matter to a whole new level, but even that hadn't been the end of it. No, the worst had been the aftermath of the degradation.

How the President had considered him simply another one of his possessions had been the worst of it. It wasn't his fault Hollander's supposedly concrete theories hadn't been correct. It hadn't been his fault the degradation had happened, but seems it had happened to him and it had cost the company so much Gil to correct their scientist's failure; the President had seen that as reason enough to assume ownership.

He guessed going off and getting another employee – one who hadn't been on his favourites list either – pregnant hadn't really helped matters. Nor had marrying her. But they had been entitled to do what they had felt right, not what some morbidly obese jackass with a cigar had deemed as suitable. Mind you, Alex had never liked the man either. The only difference being at least he hadn't openly shown that. She had disregarded direct orders from him on several occasions; Turks remained loyal to their head Turk and him alone, regardless of whether they transferred or not.

Genesis shrugged, randomly reaching out and taking back the locket he had just returned, somewhat curious as to why she hadn't looked at the picture inside; he assumed she hadn't anyhow. She certainly hadn't recognised him in the assembly hall, he knew the picture had been taken when she was very little, but he hadn't changed all that much since it had been taken, not in his appearance at least. A dent, that's why. There was a small dent on one of the sides near where the clasp held the two sides together, stopping it from opening. He could fix that, as small as it seemed but he could fix something for her; he could make something right again.

"Can I take a look?"

Christi nodded as she let him take the locket from her hand, watching quietly as he turned it over in his hand, paying particular attention to the damaged side. She had already tried to open it, as had Seifer, Squall, Irvine, even Raijin. She had pretty much given up hope on seeing the picture inside when even Raijin couldn't open the small locket. She watched with interest as her father took off one of his gloves, closing his unsheathed hand around the locket, a small smile on his face as he looked back to her.

"Do you remember what the picture inside is?"

She shook her head, nope. She really didn't have clue what picture was inside, all she knew was the locket had belonged to her Mom. It had been stubborn curiosity which had led to her trying to open the damaged piece of jewellery in the first place as well as leading her to ask literally everyone else to try and open it too.

He hoped this worked, if not then he'd find some other way to fix it. It should work though, in theory at least; metal expanded when heated, like most things, summoning a small firaga blast should heat it enough; so if it expanded, then that should cause the dent to be reduced a small bit when it cooled again, if the dent was reduced in size then it should allow the locket to open – in theory at least.

Genesis suppressed a yawn as he opened his hand again, only then noticing how tired he was. He hadn't slept since the night before he'd gone to Alex's grave; it had been impossible to sleep on the airship to Balamb, between an inquisitive child, people staring and another kid going around with an ipod up to its' volume's limit; sleep had somewhat evaded him. The SOLDIER frowned for a moment as the locket refused to open, but thankfully with another tug the two halves pulled apart; revealing the picture inside which had stayed hidden for fifteen years.

Christi looked up with an inquisitive look, wiping some sleep from her eyes as she yawned; wanting an explanation as to what he was doing, but he only handed her back the locket; nodding his head towards it. She took the hint, switching her gaze back down to where the locket lay in her hand. Christi blinked dumbly as suddenly realised it was open; she had already give up hope on ever opening it; the dent had probably been caused during the crash. But it was open now; she could see the picture.

It was small, but that was to be expected when you considered the size of the locket itself, that didn't matter though. All that mattered were the people staring back at her from behind the small glass of the locket's interior; a tall young man, hazel hair, bright blue eyes, pale complexion; the same person as who was sitting next to her on the floor of her bedroom. In his arms was a little girl with mid-length hair of the same colour, grey eyes with the same shimmer that lit the man's. But what interested Christi the most was the woman standing next to her Dad, the one he had his arm around; she was shorter than him, her skin was darker too, her angled slate-grey eyes and petite features framed by long and loose ebony locks.

"Mom…"

"What are you two doing?"

Selphie jumped as she turned to a SOLDIER staring down at her. He was the same man she had talked to before; telling him where Christi's dorm was. He seemed to be okay, she'd seen him speaking to Aki before coming into the assembly hall and he had been the one to ask her if Christi was okay after things had calmed down a little. She smiled sheepishly as she shrugged, rolling her eyes up towards the ceiling with feigned interest.

"Um, we, uh – we got lost."

Angeal laughed lightly as he shook his head; lost, yeah right. She was a See D cadet and only now she got lost in her own Garden? It wasn't particularly her he had meant to startle, but more so the woman who was still spying around the frame of the open dormitory door. One would think becoming a mother would knock some sense into a person; but not Yuffie. She would always be her hyperactive and kleptomaniac self.

How Yuffie and someone like Vincent had ever ended up together was utterly beyond him. A hyperactive young woman with an affinity for stealing Materia and a silent, brooding ex-Turk that greatly surpassed her in age; an unlikely pair no doubt. But who was he to point that out? If they were happy, then that was all that mattered really. They reminded him a little of Alex and Genesis in that sense; when they had been kids in Banora, Alex had delighted in annoying Genesis to no ends; leaving him to play referee between the two. She had been a rebellious tomboy; hell-bent on keeping up with her two male friends despite being younger and smaller.

But none of that really mattered – why were they spying on Christi and Genesis? The girl could be excused, she was evidently a close friend of Christi, and Yuffie on the other hand had barely only met Genesis and was no way a friend of his goddaughter. A fleeting smile crossed his lips as he thought over it again; goddaughter, that little imp he had been led to believe had died; she was alive and she was making her own way in this mess of a world.

"Yuffie…"

"Shushh! C'mere Angeal, look!"

He didn't exactly have a choice in the matter as the woman grabbed his arm and yanked him down to her level, pointing in through the open door and towards another open door further within the dorm. Okay, maybe spying was wrong, maybe it was an invasion of privacy – maybe. But it did give another point of view on a situation. Like the one before them now; with Christi asleep leaning against his friend's chest, Genesis with his arm around her shoulders, his head atop hers, sleeping having taken hold of him too.

Angeal nodded as he straightened back up, they'd gotten their look, now it was time to go and leave them alone. The SOLDIER put a hand on the back of Yuffie's shoulder, putting his other on the girl's shoulder and pushing both of them a head of him back down the corridor, ignoring their protests as he glanced back over his shoulder; making sure no one else had decided to take a peek through the open dorm door.

A/N: Thanks for reading!