2. Sweet child of mine...

Sephiroth spun around as the door opened, and Aeris blinked surprised to find the small group staring at her. Rufus and Sephiroth had joined Tifa, only to hear that the flower girl had ventured out on her own. The silver haired man had been in a state of frantic distress ever since. "Aeris!"

Slowly closing the door behind her, Aeris eyed Sephiroth puzzled as he stalked over to her. "Yes...?"

"Where have you been? Don't just disappear like that!" Sephiroth took a gentle hold of her face, almost as if to see if she was truly unharmed and there.

Aeris placed a light hand on top of one of his, smiling faintly. "I went to the church."

Frowning, Rufus saw the traces of tears on the brunette's face and her pale complexion. "And what happened there?"

A brief pause, then Aeris closed her eyes. "I met one of them."

Tifa gasped horrified, while Sephiroth started violently. Rufus merely gave a little shake of his head, realising that the situation was possibly even worse than he thought.

"You met one in the church?" Sephiroth asked sharply, torn between anger and fear. "What did he want? What did he say?"

Aeris wrapped her arms around herself and bit her lower lip for a moment. "I don't know what he wanted. Talk, I guess. He said Zefiris was safe, but that they wouldn't return her until you agreed to work with them..." She glanced over at the man she loved so dearly. "I asked him to trade me for our baby."

Sephiroth took a step towards her, his hands clutching into tight fists. "You did what?" His voice was strained with barely withheld fury, as the thought of losing Aeris too terrified him beyond anything.

"He refused, don't worry," Aeris stated in a flat voice, unable to feel any guilt at all for her carelessness. "All he did was to give me a kidnappers word that my child would be safe."

For a moment, there was a heavy silence in the air, before the silver haired man traded his anger for worry again. "Aeris... He could have just kidnapped you too. Without returning Zefiris. Did you think of that?"

Aeris glanced over at him. "Then at least I would be with my daughter. I could make sure she would be safe until you freed us."

Sephiroth struggled to find an answer to that, but failed. He merely felt another wave of guilt crash upon him again, and the need to severely hurt the ones responsible. He'd failed them, hadn't he? He was supposed to protect his family, and he'd failed. Miserably. Two years of peace had left him careless and Zefiris had paid the price. "I will get her back."

"Of course you will," Rufus interrupted, feeling the guilt and grief absorbing all the air in the room. "But we need to focus on what do right now. Finding these wannabes is our first priority, and the world is not a small place."

Tifa shifted uneasily. "If one of them showed up here in Midgar, the other one is probably not too far away."

"Three," Sephiroth mumbled, then forced himself to focus as everyone gazed at him. "There are three. Two stalled me, while the third went after Zefiris."

Nodding, Rufus waved away the detail. "Two... Three... We still need to find the buggers. They have to be keeping Zefiris some place. I don't see anyone traipsing around with a two year old with them on a bike." He walked over to a table where he'd spread a world map, gazing thoughtfully down at it as the others joined. "I will contact the ShinRa facilities and hear if anyone has seen a Sephiroth lookalike. I'll have Reeve check his underground contacts too."

"I'll talk to Cid, Seto and Yuffie," Tifa offered silently, feeling like she should be doing something too.

Giving another absent nod without taking his eyes off the map, Rufus tapped a finger on Midgar. "Don't forget trying to reach Valentine on the PHS. The guy travels a lot. And Barret's shop gives him a lot of strangers visiting."

Aeris gathered herself after the horrible meeting in the church, knowing Rufus was right. It was time to focus now. "I'll talk to Vincent and Barret."

"I'll search Midgar for the one Aeris met," Sephiroth added wearily. "Someone must have seen him enter or leave the city. Might give us some clues."

A small hesitation, then Rufus straightened. "Right... Let's get to work then."

No one mentioned Cloud Strife, but every person in the room was thinking the name, then they slowly went in different directions to deal with their own tasks.

Something like this needed a hero, and none of them fit in that category, did they?

"He's late!" Yazoo snapped, pacing the room restlessly. "This is the second time he's late! Who does he think he is? Why is he the one who gives out orders, but doesn't have to follow any rules himself?" A low giggle caused him to toss an annoyed glance over at where Loz was still sitting on the floor and playing with the little girl Kadaj said was their niece. As usual, Loz spent all his time on his new pet, lifting the girl up in the air, causing her to squeal happily, and finally Yazoo snapped. "For Pete's sake, will you put that damn thing down!"

Loz slowly lowered the girl and allowed her to cling nervously to his arm, absently petting her head. "She's not a thing, Yazoo. She's our little niece!"

Gritting his teeth in annoyance at his brother's innocent tone, trying to enlighten him and not being sarcastic at all, Yazoo sneered over at the short haired man. "Yes, thank you! I know very well what she is! Just stop that!"

The little girl was all eyes as she eyed Yazoo, clearly understanding that this was not someone she should anger. "Meanie!" Or not...

Yazoo blinked in disbelief, then stalked over to stand in front of Loz and hover above Zefiris. "What did you say...?"

"You're scaring her," Loz muttered, getting up and holding the silver haired girl on his arm. "We were just playing, Yazoo. No harm there."

Tilting his head with a slight smirk, Yazoo held Zefiris' gaze. "I just talked to your momma. She said she misses you very much." His annoyance was a little avenged as he saw the tears forming in her eyes. " Then it returned twofold as he noticed Loz lowering his head with a trembling lower lip. "Oh, now what!"

Loz sniffled silently. "I wanna see Mother too..."

"Not our Mother," Yazoo growled, seeing how the girl was petting Loz's should in an effort to comfort him. "The kid's mother! You know we can't meet Mother until big brother agrees to help us out!"

"Meanie," Zefiris piped up as she gazed over at Yazoo.

His patience had been worn dangerously thin, and Yazoo raised an eyebrow. "Girl, don't make me pull a gun on you."

Loz hugged his niece protectively and stared misty-eyed at his brother. "Don't say things like that, Yazoo! That's not very nice!"

The smaller man wondered for a moment if he'd done something unforgivably cruel in his previous life to be punished like this, then his reptilian eyes narrowed slightly. "Shut up, Loz! She's not yours to keep, remember? That kid is our brother's, not yours!"

A small hesitation. "She's family," Loz insisted, backing away a step as if he was afraid Yazoo would take her from him. "I'm sure big brother wont mind if I borrow her once in a while..."

Yazoo snorted with contempt. "Yeah, right! Remember the last time you had a pet?" He ignored his brother's flinch. "And the time before, and the time before that? Face it, Loz! You SUCK at keeping pets! You shouldn't be allowed to take care of a bug!"

A sniffle. A trembling breath of air. A second sniffle.

Rolling his eyes, Yazoo counted to ten before plastering on a fake smile. "Hey... Don't worry about it, ok? It's not like we have time for any pets so what's the big deal?"

Zefiris glared at him again.

Yazoo glared back.

Loz cleared his throat to regain his voice. "I just... Why can't our family just be together like other families?"

Anger left him and sympathy seeped into Yazoo, making him a little milder. "I don't know, brother." He managed a faint but real smile this time. "Don't cry, Loz. At least you got me and Kadaj, right?"

"And Junior here!" Loz declared happily, his tears already forgotten, and he hoisted the little girl high up in the air to make her squeal and giggle again. "Hey, Yazoo, who is Pete? And why do I have to do anything for his sake?"

Sighing, Yazoo walked over to the window and was about to shove his hands as tightly over his ears as hard as possible, when suddenly the door slammed open.

All three turned to stare, and found a silver haired figure standing in the doorway and grinning widely.

"I found him," Kadaj stated with a chuckle. "I found our little brother!"

Cid blinked surprised at the identity of the caller on his PHS. He hadn't heard from Tifa in weeks. Pressing the reply button, the pilot leaned against the wall of his airship hangar. "Highwind here."

"Hi, Cid," Tifa's voice sounded strange. Like something was wrong. Seriously wrong.

Frowning, the pilot straightened. "Something wrong, Tifa?"

A brief pause. "We need your help. Zefiris has been kidnapped."

Cid started violently and a jolt of fear ran through him. "What? How did that happen? Who the hell would wanna pull such an insane stunt? And how did they escape Sephy?" The blonde felt an uncanny need for a cigarette, but choose to ignore it. "How's Aeris...?"

"We don't know who they are," Tifa's voice continued meekly and she tried to answer all his questions at once. "They claim to be related to Sephiroth, and look awfully a lot like him, but they're not clones. I think they want to resurrect Jenova... As for Aeris, you can imagine..."

"Yeah..." And Cid realised he could. To have your child at the mercy of some crazed stranger must be more horrible than words could describe! A parent always puts it's child before itself, right? Memories tapped on his shoulder, but Cid forced them away. He couldn't think about this now. He couldn't think about Shera and... "So, what do you guys need me to do?"

"We were wondering if you'd seen or heard anything about these guys. Three silver haired men would draw a bit of attention, wouldn't they?"

Cid frowned slightly, thinking back and going over reports he'd received from his shops around the world. "You'd think so, but I ain't heard anything. Aside from a few boats from Costa Del Sol and Barret's gold chocobos, my planes are the only way to cross the ocean. If they were up north and have crossed over here, I'll find out!"

The relieved smile on Tifa's face could almost be felt through the PHS. "Thank you."

Cid grinned weakly. "No worries, babe. Ya know I'll help out if I can. You should check over at Barret's place too though."

"Aeris said she was going to talk to Barret and Vincent," Tifa replied silently.

"Just so happens that old Valentine is at my place right now, so I'll give'im a holler and call up if he knows something, ok?" Cid glanced over at his house, seeing the faint light through the curtains. It was late, but the former Turk always sat up reading books until dawn.

"Thanks, Cid," Tifa said gratefully. "I'm going to try reaching Yuffie and Seto as well."

Snorting, Cid poked his boot at the ground. "Yeah, good luck on gittin'any sense outta that ninja girl, but old Fluffer should be able to help out. That cat got a good nose for tracking down people."

Tifa gave a silent laugh. "Ninja's aren't completely useless either, Cid. And you gotta start considering forgiving Yuffie for throwing up in your new airship."

"Ain't gonna happen anytime soon, lady," Cid replied with a grin, as they both knew he was too lazy to bear grudges anyway. "Ya'll be careful, ok?"

"You too, Cid. These people mean business. Don't confront them on your own, as they've most likely got Jenova cells in them like Sephiroth."

Cid nodded and drew a hand through his hair, feeling the unease radiating from Tifa's words. "Yeah, don't worry. Soon as I hear something, I'm gonna give ya a holler. Ain't no hero, girl. We all know who that is."

Another pause, this one a heartbeat longer than what was comfortable, then Tifa's voice came in a weak whisper. "Yeah, but no one knows where he is either, so it looks like we're on our on this time... Be careful, Cid. Say hi to Shera from me."

"Will do," Cid grumbled and pressed the button to disconnect him. Tifa had a point. Where was Cloud Strife? If these guys were as bad news as Tifa made them sound like, the planet should've called on her number one hero, right? Spike had just vanished after the fight against Jinrei, and been MIA ever since. It didn't feel right. Spike was a doofus alright, but... Cid could ask him things, and the guy wouldn't judge him for doubting or being weak.

Forcing himself to walk over to the house, Cid paused in the doorway to gaze at the lone figure by the window. Vincent Valentine really didn't change, did he? Like Cid, he was set in his ways, and the only difference was that the former Turk's body remained frozen in time as well. "Got a call from Tifa. Trouble's brewing again, friend."

Crimson eyes slowly moved up from focusing on a book to the pilot. His expression a mask of indifference as usual. "Indeed?"

"Someone stole Zefiris," Cid was slightly satisfied to see a flicker of worry in Vincent's eyes. "They need our help."

Sephiroth walked into the ShinRa tower with a stronger sense of defeat than he'd ever felt before. No one had seen anything at all. Just like back at Icicle Inn. The silver haired men seemed to appear out of nowhere and return there when their mission was completed. This was worse than trying to locate Jinrei. At least that crazed man had to hide an army. Where did you find three people hiding somewhere in the world?

Numbness was slowly taking over him as the elevator brought him towards the top floor, where he knew Rufus was waiting for his report. Waiting to hear that the once so glorious general had failed to locate his own child. A head ache was starting to hum at the back of his head, and he leaned wearily against the wall. When was the last time he'd eaten or slept? Before Zefiris got torn away from him by creatures claiming to be his kin.

He wanted to be angry. He wanted to be angry so bad, but he knew the only person he could blame was himself. He'd failed his family, and that was that.

The elevator doors slid open, and Sephiroth froze. He blinked surprised.

"I'm telling you, I can track down a boar on a frozen lake with a bag over my head!" Yuffie yelled, stomping her feet where she was standing in the middle of the people gathered there.

Cid crossed his arms and tilted his head with a smirk. "Dunnow'bout yer tracking skills, brat, but a bag over yer head would be definite improvement!"

Barret's guffawing blocked out whatever obscene remarks Yuffie did about Cid's ancestry, while Tifa was trying to calm the ruckus in vain.

"Sephiroth," Vincent Valentine greeted silently from where he was standing beside the elevator doors, and everyone turned to gaze at the silver haired man who gave a somewhat confused nod in return.

"Thank the Planet," Rufus muttered in relief, knowing he'd go insane if he had to listen to AVALANCHE's bickering for five minutes longer. "You're late, Sephiroth!"

Sephiroth was still gazing surprised at each person in turn. Cid Highwind, giving a tiny nod. Barret puffing up his chest with a grunt. Yuffie clinging to Hawk's arm and grinning from ear to ear. Vincent a little distance from the others, as usual. Tifa sending him a slightly sheepish smile, Seto gazing calmly at him, and Aeris with a gentle look on her face. The former SOLDIER general frowned confused. "What... What are you all doing here?"

"What do ya think, ya buffoon?" Barret snapped with a gesture to question Sephiroth's intelligence.

Chewing merrily on his chewing gum, Cid placed a calming hand on Barret's shoulder. "We're here to help out, Seph. Figured you could need the extra hands." He glanced down at Seto. "Or paws..."

"Your sense of accuracy never ceases to bring out the chuckles in me," Seto deadpanned, then stepped forward. "There has been no sign of these strangers near Cosmo Canyon, and three men with silver hair on motorcycles isn't something my people would forget seeing."

Yuffie placed her hands on her hips with a serious expression for once. "Yeah, they haven't been in Wutai either."

"But if they managed to cross the ocean from the north continent to reach Midgar, they gotta have some kind of transportation," Cid mumbled, and absently fidgeted with his pack of cigarettes. "No plane of mine carried no silver haired men."

Sephiroth closed his eyes briefly to try and catch up when he felt a light hand on his arm. Gazing over, he found Aeris smiling carefully to him. Returning the smile, he allowed himself to feel a little hope.

"It appears that they hitched a ride with a cargo ship from Bone Village," Reeve's voice suddenly piped up from behind everyone. "I just got the report on three stowaways with motorcycles with them. Unfortunately, they also killed most of the crew."

Rufus glanced back at the dark haired man. "So we know how they got to Midgar, but the question is where they are now..."

"How about Jinrei's old tunnels?" Yuffie asked curiously, aching to remind everyone that she was the one who found them and solved the mystery that nearly cost them their victory two years ago.

Rufus shook his head. "We got them supervised. Cameras. Heat sensors. Pressure sensors."

"I think we need to consider a few questions besides their location, " Vincent said neutrally. "Like what will their next move be? Sephiroth has made it clear that he has no intention of obeying their demand. They will have to counter this somehow. And perhaps a question that will solve most our problems if answered; Who, or what, are they?"

When it was time for the twins' nap, the flower girl had offered to tend to the little children, and Tifa was far from objecting. It seemed like the children gave some ease to Aeris' tormented state of mind. Rufus, Barret and Seto had left shortly afterwards, going to Rufus' office to discuss strategy, and left a small group behind in the living room.

"So Aeris told me to make sure you actually sit down before you fall down, and eat this!" Tifa gave a friendly smile as she firmly shoved Sephiroth down on a chair and placed a plate of food in front of him. "And she also added that she 'will' be back to check that you did what you're told!"

Sephiroth glanced up at the brunette and managed a faint grin. "Women... Always bossing me around..."

"That's because you can't take care of yourself, obviously," Tifa poked her tongue at him then pointed at the food. "Eat." She nodded with satisfaction as Sephiroth started examining it, before turning to almost walk directly into Cid.

Chuckling, the pilot raised his hands defensively. "Hey now, girl. Calm down. We're both married remember?"

Tifa laughed softly and pretended to be hurt at his refusal of her 'offer', "You speak grandly of this wife of yours, but I don't see her here?"

"Why is that?" Vincent asked, passing by the pilot on his way to leave the room. "Why don't you tell her, Cid?" The former Turk didn't back down due to the nervous look Cid sent him. "Tell her why you left Shera behind this time."

Cid remained frozen until the crimson cloaked man had left, and only then did he dare to meet Tifa's quizzical gaze. "It's... complicated."

In the background, Sephiroth leaned an elbow on the table and absently slurped up a noodle while deciding to enjoy the show of watching Cid Highwind squirm.

"Complicated?" Tifa frowned confused, then her eyes got a shine of worry. "Is something wrong? Did something happen to Shera?"

The blonde man cleared his throat and shifted uneasily. "Nah, ain't nothing... wrong. It's just..." He rubbed his neck awkwardly, before jumping into it. "Shera's pregnant."

Tifa automatically clapped her hands together and gasped delighted. "Cid! That's wonderful!"

Cid managed to force a smile that almost seemed painful. "Yeah... Isn't it?"

Happiness slowly fading, Tifa tilted her head and frowned slightly. "It's not? Cid, what's wrong?"

"Nothing wrong," Cid muttered, turning away and giving the amused Sephiroth a brief glare. "Everything is just hunky-dory, Tifa."

Yuffie suddenly landed on the table after a very impressive leap, and she pointed towards the pilot while staring flustered at Hawk. "Did you hear that?" She pointed some more for good measure. "Did you?" The young ninja barely waited for the affable nod from her partner. "And do you know what this means?" The insecure look on Hawk's face told her he didn't, but feared she was about to inform him. "Hawk! This means I'm the only one in this crew who hasn't spawned a kid!"

Hawk flushed deep red and cleared his throat awkwardly under everyone's amused stares. "Yuffie, I don't think..."

The Lady of Wutai jumped down from the table and marched over to the other ninja. "Hawk! You know I can't stand to lose!" She tapped a finger to her chin thoughtfully before using it to poke him. "We're having eight!"

Starting violently, and turning an even deeper impossible red, Hawk merely gawped for a few seconds, then jumped up to follow Yuffie as she was leaving the room. "Y-Yuffie, I don't think you've really thought this over. I mean, there's really no need to rush into anything, right?" The memory of Yuffie's turtle having a near-death experience made him somewhat uneasy at the thought of her acting on a whim considering how serious the outcome could be. "A-and this would mean we have to postpone, if not cancel, those materia scouting trips, you know!"

Sephiroth chuckled silently as the door closed behind them. "Poor Hawk..."

Cid was about to agree when he noticed Tifa was still staring at him. "What?"

"You tell me," Tifa stated and crossed her arms. "What did Vincent mean? You didn't leave Shera behind because you were worried about her health. Why, Cid?"

The pilot cut a face. "I just... Ain't nothing wrong, Tifa. She was tired, and there was really no reason for her to come along, was there?"

His words sounded so false, Tifa doubted he believed them himself for a moment. She could easily read from his tense muscles that something was wrong. Very wrong.

"Coward," Sephiroth 'coughed' and blinked innocently as the both glared at him.

Tifa took a step towards the blonde man. "Cid... " Then his cell phone rang.

"I'm telling ya, Rufus is gonna kill me for this!" Cid muttered grumpily, adjusting his plane's altitude slightly.

Tifa still clutched nervously at the edge of her seat. "Just keep flying the plane, Cid. Let me worry about Rufus."

It had all happened so fast. Within twenty seconds, Cid had received a call from one of the men working at one of his air fields outside of Midgar, received a message that two silver haired men had stolen a plane, and Sephiroth had demanded they'd go after them. The only thing was, Cid had used a small plane from Rocket Town to Midgar. It had room for one passenger, two at the most, beside the pilot. And it would take hours to get the Highwind airship that could actually carry everyone.

Cid had merely followed orders when Tifa told him to get his crew to fly the Highwind to Midgar, and bring her and Sephiroth along to follow the stolen plane. He'd been stupid to tell them he'd installed tracking devices on all his aircrafts, as the silver haired swordsman had threatened to kill Cid himself if he didn't take him to the culprits. Tifa had just, well, she'd decided to come along as well. The pilot had started to question the wisdom of bringing a woman, but the look he'd received from said woman had silenced him faster than anything had ever done throughout his life. Cid knew Tifa was very capable of defending herself, but the thought of what would happen if something went wrong and the twins losing their mother weighed heavily on him.

"Looks like they're heading towards the Mideel islands," Sephiroth mumbled thoughtfully. "There's nothing there except beaches and palm trees..."

Cid cast a quick glance at his radar, seeing that the stolen plane was actually steering towards a small island west of main Mideel island. "Gotta be something there worth their time and effort to steal one of my babies..."

Sephiroth tensed slightly as his keen sight discovered something. "They're landing..."

"I know," Cid mumbled, turning his plane to turn left. "Gonna see if we can sneak up on'em. Think I should be able to land on the other side of those trees..."

"You think?" Tifa squeaked nervously. She closed her eyes at the rotten grin the pilot sent her, and forced herself calm. She was used to flying, but this had to be one of the smallest and shakiest planes she'd ever been on. (And she had a vague notion that it had once been a lawn mower until Cid got his hands on it...)

The landing was surprisingly smooth and really proved that Cid was the excellent pilot he was always claiming to be, but Sephiroth didn't even wait for it to come to a complete halt before jumping out and started running towards the tiny village the silver haired men had clearly pointed out as their target.

"Sephiroth, wait!" Tifa exclaimed, before she too jumped out and followed him. She barely heard Cid yelling something, but was too focused on keeping up with Sephiroth to interpret the pilot's anger. So focused that she nearly ran into him when he'd halted by the edge of the town. Firm hands supported her from falling flat on her behind, but Tifa saw how he didn't take his eyes of the drowsy town for one second. Opening her mouth to ask him if he'd seen them, Tifa never got the chance as he abruptly released her and stalked into the small village.

It was quiet. Almost too quiet.

Tifa nervously exited the safety of the forrest and entered the town as well. She saw the people sending them curious looks, but everyone seemed too shy to want to actually talk to them.

Suddenly there was a scream. Tifa gazed hastily over at the small house it had come from, and the door slammed open. A woman fell to her knees and placed a small child in front of her.

"Run, Raito!" The woman was dark haired with blue eyes, and her face were filled with raw fear. "Run!"

For a moment, time seemed to stand still. Tifa could only stare. She saw the sun caress the child's golden hair. Saw the little boy's radiant blue eyes. Mako eyes. Saw the painful clear similarity to someone she'd lost. Then the moment passed, and the sun bounced of blood as a sword tore through the woman and silenced her voice.

Tifa ran. She didn't think. Merely ran. And all she could see was the little boy, all she could hear was his crying, and all she wanted to do was to rescue him. Her heart was thundering so hard in her chest when her arms locked around the child and she hugged him close in a protective motion as she saw the silver haired man pull his sword out of the fallen woman. Aeris had been right when she said the stranger looked like Sephiroth, and Tifa felt the old fear she'd felt three years ago return as she stared into the reptilian eyes. Her grip tightened unknowingly around the boy as she saw him grin and the sword was lifted again.

Sparks flew as the sword collided with another, and the deadly attack was prevented by the mighty Masamune in Sephiroth's hand.

Sephiroth glared angrily at the young man looking so much like himself. This had to be the third one. He truly had the face of Sephiroth. An eight year old Sephiroth. "Killing women and children? Admirable, I must say..."

The young man gave a slow grin, clearly filled with confidence. "Big brother... Finally we meet..." He yanked his sword free and cut the air with it, ignoring Tifa flinching at the movement. "And you should know that the end remedies the means, right? After all, you are a war hero, are you not?"

Sneering furiously, Sephiroth stepped forward to place himself between the haughty stranger and Tifa. "Give me back Zefiris."

"My name is Kadaj," Kadaj declared, giving a slight nod in greeting. "Mother said we'd have a lot in common."

Sephiroth kept his eyes on the young man as Tifa carefully got up and backed away with the child in her arms. "Jenova is dead. Now give me back my daughter before I kill you."

Kadaj clicked his tongue and tilted his head. "You mean, give back your daughter, or else you'll kill me?"

"No," Sephiroth deadpanned. "You're dead already. You just decide how much pain you're gonna suffer." He saw the sulky look on Kadaj's face and barely had time to raise the Masamune to fend off the attack that the young man launched out of nowhere. The two swords collided once more and Sephiroth was almost a little relieved to solve things by force rather than talking. He'd been aching to hurt the one responsible for taking Zefiris, and here he was!

Tifa was slowly backing away, holding the sobbing child tightly against her, as she stared at the violent fight that broke out. As much as she wanted to help Sephiroth, there was little she could do now. It would only make things worse if she got involved, not considering that she had a helpless child in her arms, and Sephiroth probably didn't need her help anyway.

"Leaving already?" A drawl behind her.

Spinning around, Tifa stared nervously at the silver haired man grinning at her. This one had short hair and was almost as broad as Barret over his shoulders. She couldn't see any weapons on him, except some contraption on one of his hands. He was a martial artist? Still, Tifa knew she didn't have a chance as long as she had to protect the boy in her arms. The one who was clinging helplessly to her and sobbing terrified. She was not going to let anything happen to him! She would die before letting this creep harm a blonde hair on the child's head! Fear and stubbornness shone in the wine coloured eyes.

Loz chuckled amused, cracking his knuckles. "Just hand the boy over." He didn't seem worried about the sounds coming from the sword fight raging a small distance from them. "I'm his uncle, you see."

"Forget it," Tifa growled, taking another step backwards but only brought herself closer to Sephiroth and Kadaj. She knew she was trapped, but tried to buy herself time to find some way out of it!

Shaking his head, Loz grinned wider. "You really shouldn't interfere in family matters."

"And you really should consider having yer head examined," Cid interrupted, standing behind Loz and raised the Venus Gospel slightly. "And stop picking on kids, you bully!"

The tall man turned to face the new threat and frowned. "You..."

A crash was heard, as the force of the Masamune colliding with Kadaj's sword sent the young man flying into a building. Sephiroth didn't hesitate, but stalked over to continue his rampage. He was a little impressed when the young man struggled to his feet again, but was about to make sure he wouldn't get up the next time when Kadaj suddenly reached out his hand towards Sephiroth and called out; "Mother!"

Instantly, both Sephiroth and Cid tensed with a gasp of pain.

Tifa gazed confused from one to the other, seeing them both stagger unsteadily and pressing a hand to their chest. What was going on? What was happening? A shadow fell over her, and she glanced over to see Loz towering over her.

"Give me the boy," Loz insisted smugly, electricity crackling around his hand as he punched it against the palm of his other.

Tifa's eyes narrowed stubbornly. "Never."

AN; Yeah, late update, yet I blame the real world that just wont leave me alone! Huge thanks to the ones who took their time to read and comment! A few things about this story, I will try but cannot promise it will be a weekly update like WTLOG, and as we will see more of the Turks I should mention that in my storyline, Tseng died and remains dead, despite AC. Ok... that covers it all, me thinks? Be sure to let me know what you think ofthe story so far!