Chapter 10

Tifa had lain awake all night, mulling over what Cid had told her that evening. After Reno and Rude had left, Reeve had explained the situation in more detail. They had held off on discussing it properly until much later in the evening, when the Clones had retired to Clouds office to sleep. Cloud and Vincent would go and 'lend a hand' to the Turks, and lead them away from Seventh Heaven as much as possible. Reeve would try and hurry up some alternative accommodation that would be safe.

Cloud had suggested the Ancients City. Yuffie had suggested the old ShinRa building. Cid had pulled her aside while they were arguing over logistics, and simple common sense, and told her what he had learned from Loz about the youngest of the clones.

The following morning she had watched Kadaj covertly. Loz had again dived straight in to helping out, and was working alongside Cid and Barret at the broken wall, widening the gap for the extension she was going to have put in. Reeve had promised he would send some supplies for the building over within the week. Yazoo had allowed Marlene to drag him behind the bar to help her and Denzel sort out the glasses that had survived the fight yesterday.

Kadaj had taken up the role of sentry, taking a seat that allowed him to see both his brothers, his eyes flicking between them constantly. They lingered most often on Yazoo she noticed, and wondered why. But the way he drummed his fingers constantly on either his arm or his knee bespoke of his restlessness. He needed to be doing something. It was almost exactly the way a child with ADHD sat, if they sat at all.

Before the bar had become the bar, Tifa had set it up as a home for children, only for a few months, while families reunited, or new families were found, and she had come across a wide range of children, each with their own problems. She'd had a little girl stay who simply could not stop moving, she needed to be up and doing everything, exploring, cooking, playing, just constantly on the go. Kadaj had that same restless energy, but the only recognition of it was the drumming. It was like someone had tried to force that energy out of him, or driven it inwards, forcing him to direct it in another way, a potentially more dangerous way.

The fits, as she understood them from what she had been told, were a result of all that physical energy being repressed. Her martial arts master had once told her that body and mind needed to be in sync, there needed to be balance. She was well aware that the drugs Kadaj had been subjected to in his youth coupled with the strict training he had probably had to endure in these labs, had resulted in this imbalance, but she might be able to help.

It was clear his mind was in overload, it was moving too quickly, searching for problems that weren't there, fuelling his paranoia; which was the very last thing they needed. She would be able to help him, but she would need to gain his trust first.

Her mind made up she straightened up from her tidying and made her way to the stairs. His eyes flicked to her and she felt them lingering the whole way. She quickly reached hers and Clouds room and knelt beside her bed, reaching beneath it to find the small box of knickknacks she had collected. Inside was a book on Wutanise. She wasn't sure if Kadaj had learned the language or not, but maybe it would be a start to gaining his trust. And if he hadn't learnt it before, then maybe it would keep him occupied for a while.

"Here you go." She said when she returned, holding the book out to him. His eyes flicked to the book and then up to her, suspicion clear in his eyes. He went completely still and said nothing. Whether he was trying to reign in some sort of reaction, or getting ready to attack she wasn't quite sure, but she held her ground and continued. "I thought you might like to give it a go, if you haven't already learnt it that is."

His eyes flicked away from her to catch sight of his brothers, almost as if he expected them to have vanished in the time his attention had been focused on her. But she was patient, and at last his eyes flicked back to the book.

She smiled slightly, gently. "I'll leave it here for you." She sat it down on the table and went back to what she had been doing before. It was a trick she'd learnt with some of the picky eaters, leave them alone and they'd end up eating anyway. So she watched him out of the corner of her eye, and grinned to herself when he finally reached for the book.

xxx

Something was pressing in on him, making him uneasy. He couldn't tell what it was, it was pulsing out from the part of him that shouldn't exist, wave upon wave of unease. Something was coming. Something that could not be prevented. It felt like Jenova, consuming and frightening and impossible to fight against.

It was not her though, of that he was certain. 'Mother' was gone now, faded entirely to nothing; not even a wisp of her left to torment Kadaj and Loz. Yazoo was glad of that, he had hated watching his brothers become something they were not, despite their training, what their fathers had wanted them to become, they were not killers, but Jenova had tried to change them, to twist them into what their fathers had wanted them to be.

Yazoo had been incorruptible, in a sense at least. She had taken him, but she had not been able to make him into something he wasn't. She didn't know what he was supposed to be, she had been limited by what he was, failed.

He shifted, feeling a weight come to rest on his shoulders, uncomfortable and too heavy. He needed to move. He stood, casting his eyes about for Loz and Kadaj. Loz was with Cid, and Yazoo was pleased that someone had taken Loz under their wing, Loz was far more intelligent and companionable than others would believe; he needed someone to nurture that. Kadaj was reading, completely consumed in the book in his hands. Yazoo's eyes flicked for an instant to Tifa, and nodded to himself; she would be able to help him, for the moment at least.

Assured that his brothers were safe and looked after, Yazoo began to move, unnoticed by everyone in the room, driven to move by that weight on his shoulders and the unease that crawled up his spine. He needed to leave. It was important that he leave, that he get as far from here as he could.

It was important that his brothers did not see.

He left by the side door, waiting as Cloud, who had been coming in gave him an assessing look, and kindly told him he should go upstairs and rest if he was feeling unwell. Yazoo had nodded, and waited until he had passed him and the door to the bar swung closed behind him and then he had slipped free.

He was aware, on some level, that he had picked up some followers. He could feel the crackle of lightening, picking it up the same way he had last night, and he remembered the feel of the red haired one –Reno, his mind supplied him easily- and the crackle of energy between them. The way it had lit up that part of himself that had been nothing but dark for so many years.

But he ignored them, he could evade any capture they had planned, and besides, they were curious, he could tell.

He stuck to the least used parts of town, the alley's and the backstreets, as much because he was aware the sight of him may cause a stir unneeded in the community as much as because it was an ingrained habit his brothers had drilled into him since they had escaped the labs. His thoughts drifted, thinking back over those years as his feet steered him onwards to a confrontation he didn't want to face, but had to if he was to keep his brothers safe.

He lost them. His followers and he could hear the one made of lightening cursing him, and the other trying to reason it out, discuss their options. He listened until they were gone, turned back towards the bar, and he knew he had to hurry, before his brothers, each content right now and where they needed to be, realised he was missing. Before he could no longer keep them safe.

He continued, following a path he knew on some level he shouldn't know to a place he recognised though he had never been here before. And then he stopped, and waited.
There was a clarity within him at the moment, one of those rare bursts where the rest of the world around him faded away, but it felt like he could see and feel everything that was going on.

He touched their minds, ever so softly and briefly as they arrived at the bar. The one made of lightening crackled as he kicked in the front door and stormed into the room, and Yazoo narrowed in on him, and his energy and watched.

He felt a pang as he saw Kadaj realise that he was not there and he wished he had a way to apologise for leaving them. It was important that he do this alone. He was broken anyway, and by the time this ended he would either be fixed or dead, but either way it was better his brothers not see it.

"Hello father." He said voice soft and a monotone, leaving his brothers images and the welcome crackle of energy behind to return to the place was standing, waiting.

Before him was a man ravaged by fire and time, he had not escaped the explosion of the labs without injury, he was scarred and twisted, his patched hair greyed with the time between. He looked frail and weak, and easily crushed. But Yazoo made no move to touch him, this man, however twisted and cruel, knew how to fix him, or kill him, either would be welcome.

"92966." Came the rasp of a voice that had once frightened him. "You've come to me." The old man sounded so pleased.

Yazoo nodded. "Yes."

"I see you've learned much in your time away from me." Father continued, thoughtful, a gleam in his eyes that Yazoo recognised and felt a dull horror at, dulled by time and by frequency.

Yazoo said nothing, and waited.

Father watched him, walked around him, touched his back, his arms and his face, inspecting him. He allowed it, could seem to help but allow it. He had always been so obedient, following where father lead, doing as he was told, that to do otherwise, right now, without his brothers beside him to bolster his up, felt impossible.

So when father said. "Come with me." He did, matching his pace to the old man's shuffle, and together they disappeared. He felt a pang that he was most likely going to die, and that he would not see his brothers again. But they were safe, and they would be looked after now, which was all that mattered.