Another day had passed in the world where the soldiers of Chaos and Cosmos fought against each other. Caius was returning to the Chaos territory after his clash with Noel, someone who had been a close friend to him in his world. His head hurt from the memories of her flooding back after their battle. One of them stood out in particular.

He was with her in a garden of flowers. He was protecting her as he always did with her and her previous incarnations. She didn't let on but he knew she had seen that today would be the day she would die and he would have to go on and find her successor. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been smiling so much and gone to all the effort to pick so many flowers.

"Caius," she said in her final moments when she approached him with a small bunch of flowers "Keep love in your heart. For a life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead."

And then she had her final vision, the vision that would whittle her life away completely. She collapsed into his arms, the flowers scattering across the meadow when her limp hands loss their grip on them. Caius was used to it but he still grieved at the sight of a young teenage girl, especially the girl to whom he adored, wither and expire before his very eyes. He picked her up and couldn't help but cradle her to his chest. It was in those moments that the clouds fittingly covered the sun above them.

Caius was drawn out of his thoughts by an angry hammer slamming itself on an anvil. He hadn't realised he had walked over to Anne's armoury.

"Stupid, stupid Sephiroth!" she was muttering between her swings "Getting angry like that! As if I'm some delicate doll who isn't capable of ha-OW!"

It was a very high-pitched whine which made the purple-haired swordsman cringe. Caius slowly turned the corner to watch Anne jump up and down while holding her hand, hammer abandoned on the anvil with whatever she had been forging.

"Damn, the nail's cracked!" she whimpered "So much blood, ow, ow, ow…"

Caius walked over and she didn't notice him, even when he crossed her line of vision to pick up her first aid kit. He took out the bandage roll and watch her pace up and down irritably, glaring at her hand as if it had been its fault that it got caught in between the hammer and anvil. He took her hand and she screamed in surprise, slapping him around the face. She gasped as he winced at the sting.

"I'm so sorry but you should really warn me if you're going to sneak up on me!" Anne apologized and scolded in the same sentence.

"I've been here for five minutes, you didn't notice me?"

Anne blushed in embarrassment and Caius came to the quick conclusion that she had been too caught up in her damaged hand. She let him bandage her poor finger and he sat her down as she went back to her workstation.

"You should take it easy," he said.

"But I want to get the actual shape done before the end of the day," Anne whined.

"You can take a break," Caius argued "And you should calm down, another finger may get broken if you forge in your current mood."

Anne pouted and hung her head. Caius sat down beside her, watching as she stroked the bandaged tip of her finger.

"What are you making?" he asked.

"A belt," Anne replied "I thought Sephiroth would appreciate it."

"Did something happen?"

"Yeah, my general bad mood and temper chased him away and I hope he didn't get concussion from when I threw my tongs at him and hit his head."

"Is there a reason to why you threw your tongs at him?"

Anne sighed and rubbed her bandaged fingertip again. Caius slapped her hand away, telling her that it would make it worse if she continued fiddling with it. Anne stuck her tongue out at him and hunched her shoulders.

"You both think I'm like a daisy, don't you?" she sneered "I'm a little delicate daisy that can't look after itself."

"That's not true, you weren't a little delicate daisy yesterday," Caius consoled her "You were more like a troublesome kitten."

"Nyeh, that isn't going to cheer me up, Caius," Anne scowled.

"Kittens have claws, daisies don't, does that make you feel better?"

Anne's lips twitched and she smiled softly. Caius then noticed the bandages on her arms and calves.

"Did you have more accidents today?" he asked.

"Hm?" Anne looked up at him then glanced down at her bandaged limbs "Oh no, these are battle wounds."

"You went battling today?" Caius frowned.

"I wanted to test out these new swords and Weiss wields swords so I asked him to spar with me," Anne shrugged "I wanted more memories too so two birds in one stone."

"Did you get the memories you wanted?"

"No," Anne frowned and shook her head "Not really. I think one of them was the time I first met Sephiroth. The other one was about that blonde swordsman."

She burst out laughing suddenly which startled Caius. He edged away from her discretely as she stopped to breathe in deeply.

"I was in this pretty dress but waiting in the lobby of some grand house," she explained "I don't know what I was waiting for but two people came in. I recognized my friend, Aerith and the other was that swordsman. They were both dressed in beautiful dresses and the swordsman looked so feminine and so embarrassed!"

Caius blinked as she began laughing again.

"So this swordsman…" he said as she wiped the tears "You must know him well enough to laugh at his situation."

"Please, I laugh at any guy who wears a dress and pulls an embarrassed face like he did, as if he'd been caught peeping on someone," Anne breathed "But he has appeared in two of my memories so far. Maybe I did know him closely."

They froze when Gabranth stepped around the corner and Anne stood.

"May I help you?" she asked.

"I'm here to pick up my blades."

"Oh yes!"

Anne turned to pick up the dual blades that lay on the counter. She scurried up to him, handing them to him.

"I tested them earlier, they should be fine against fire and ice magic," she said as he admired them briefly before turning away "You're welcome!"

She huffed as he marched off and folded her arms.

"Seriously," she muttered.

"Sephiroth is making his way here," he announced before he disappeared around the corner.

Caius sighed as he felt as if that had been directed to him. Anne seethed and marched back to the counter. Caius raised an eyebrow at the katana she picked up, nearly matching Masamune's length and adopted a 'ready to kill the stupid one winged angel' pose.

"Are you considering to battle with him?" Caius asked.

"He is hiding something from me, that's one of the reasons he probably doesn't want me to battle," Anne growled.

Her eyes narrowed determinedly as Caius opted not to attempt to change her mind whilst she had a dangerous weapon. As soon as black boots came into view…

"Charge!" Anne yelled as she went hurtling down, her katana glinting with the promise that blood would be shed.

Noctis jumped back in alarm and she gasped, tripping over a random rock. Caius barely managed to conceal a smirk as he dropped his forehead to his hand.

"Oh, sorry, I thought you were Sephiroth," Anne said meekly as Noctis bent down and picked up the fallen katana.

"Why are you trying to kill Sephiroth?" he asked slowly whilst examining the katana curiously.

"Not trying to kill, probably give him a couple of scratches but I want to fight him," Anne pouted as she got up and dusted herself down.

"You sure you want to do that?" Noctis raised an eyebrow "He is pretty powerful."

"He wouldn't hurt me," Anne shrugged.

"How can you be so confident?"

"Because I'm a girl?"

Noctis raised his other eyebrow sceptically. Anne frowned.

"What?" she asked.

"I've heard that he has killed a girl before," Noctis replied "He killed her in cold blood in order to get what he wished."

"And just pray tell, Caelum," a dark voice purred "Where did you happen to come upon this information?"

Anne jumped when Sephiroth's face appeared at Noctis's shoulder. Noctis stared ahead unflinchingly, however Anne saw he swallowed harshly.

"Rumours," he said and handed Anne her katana back "I guess my sword can wait until tomorrow. Please, excuse me."

He turned and walked away. Sephiroth smirked sadistically and looked down at Anne. His sadistic smirk turned into a soft smile as he took in her youthful features, marred with burns and bandages.

"Have you calmed down now?" he asked.

The swift movement of the katana coming up to his chin was his answer. He stepped back as Anne narrowed her eyes.

"You're hiding something from me," she said determinedly "What is it? Spit it out! I have to know!"

"Anne, I have no idea what you're talking about," Sephiroth said as he snatched the katana and guided the blade away from him.

"There's a reason why you don't want me to get my memories back and I want to know now!"

Sephiroth paused and suddenly swept Masamune between them. The katana Anne was holding went flying until it buried itself into the ground. Caius stood from his place, hand on the handle of Chaos's Revenge as Anne fell down, eyes watering in disbelief. Sephiroth stepped back warily, narrowing his eyes.

"What do you remember, Anne?" he asked "What do you remember after coming into conflict with me?"

"My father…" Anne whispered and Caius saw Sephiroth tense uneasily "He's dead…someone killed him."

She shook her head and stared at the ground.

"I don't remember…I don't remember who killed him."

Caius narrowed his eyes as relief washed over Sephiroth's face. The ex-general knelt down and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Not all of your memories are going to be pleasant," he said "That's why it's best to remember as little as possible."

"But!"

"Now please, drop the subject," Sephiroth pleaded softly "So many horrible things have happened in our world before and I don't want you to get upset over them."

Anne gritted her teeth and nodded. Caius withdrew his hand from Chaos's Revenge and strode past them, giving Sephiroth a pointed look as he passed. Anne was right. Sephiroth was definitely hiding something.