Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy.

Warning: Some bad language this time.
Warning 2: Your reviews make me dangerously happy.

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"Can you tell me more about these... beasts?"

Sephiroth observed Paige quietly – how she covered her little sister's eyes with a hand, how the corners of her mouth twitched every time the younger girl laughed or giggled, and how her pale hair and bob-cut forelocks framed her icy eyes.

"It's nothing that I cannot handle," he stated. Paige frowned, for the first time in weeks – or was it months? Whichever was the case, his eyes fixed on her face, scrutinizing her.

"You can handle it, yeah. I don't doubt that. But what about all the others?"

He watched expectantly as her frown deepened.

"Who are you, if... if Shinra wants you so badly?" And just when he thought she was about to narrow her eyes in suspicion, her face evened and settled into her usual mask, as if nothing had happened. She glanced briefly between the television and himself, and he looked away, taking upon his face a similar expression to hers.

"...Do you recall that I called myself a General? That can hardly have changed since then."

Suddenly, Paige jumped to her feet and grabbed the remote control from the dark wooden table, then quickly turned off the TV before Bell could see the creatures on the news. Sephiroth arched a brow at the unexpectedness of her move, and found himself watching her more closely. Now that Bell could see again, the little, pink-clad girl huddled a little closer to Paige, keeping one of her large, brown eyes on Sephiroth. When he looked back – as he might look at any other person, no matter which age – she hid her face completely in Paige's large, light blue shirt.

"So Shinra wants you to show yourself?" she tried.

"... I have something of theirs," he said, a lopsided grin slowly making its way to his face. At that, Paige quickly looked away.

Sephiroth had the Black Materia.

A small, yet very audible grumbling sound interrupted them, and he and Paige turned to Bell, who flushed furiously and clutched her stomach.

"Paige," she said nervously, patting her rumbling stomach.
"... Yes?" ... Somehow, Sephiroth found that Paige's voice was noticeably different compared to when she talked with him.

"Paige, did you hear? I have a frog in my stomach!"

Paige stiffened, and Sephiroth's eyes snapped to see her reaction.

Her entire body was tense, and before long she was trembling violently, her mouth a stiff line on her currently overly strained face. She wasn't breathing. In other words, she was trying not to laugh – a very amusing scene, indeed. Sephiroth smirked expectantly.

After some long seconds, Paige took a deep breath, her face still the same.

Then Bell's stomach rumbled again, and Paige's face grew even more entertaining. She now looked constipated. Bell looked at her with worry and her stomach complained once more – this was more than Paige could handle. She turned around so that she faced away from them. Her shoulders trembled as she let out choked laughter. As much as Sephiroth would like to see the (no doubt constipated-looking) expression on her face, Sephiroth turned his attention to Paige's little sister instead. This small person seemed to be able to break Paige's facade quite easily. Maybe he could pay attention to them for a short while. Some days to-and-fro didn't matter much when it came to Shinra and their literally fiendish activities.

Sephiroth recalled how he had first broken Paige's mask. He'd had a fever, which led to a situation that eventually ended when he and Paige fell into the bed sheets she was trying to organize. Back then, terror was written all over her face. How could he get her to show other things? How could he get her to permanently rid herself of the mask she kept?

"Paige?" Bell asked, her voice small and light.

Sephiroth frowned. Bell's method was different – she broke Paige's facade unknowingly, not on purpose – with small acts, or simply childish innocence. The latter was not something Sephiroth would ever try. If he stuck around, though, he might see some new sides of Paige, whether she wanted to or not.

The next day – Saturday – was spent inside, since Paige feared monsters were hanging around. Although only a few thousand were spotted, spread all over the world, and despite the fact that most of them were already killed or trapped, she didn't take any chances. Nobody had been killed yet, but she definitely didn't want Bell to become the first.

"Paige," said Bell, her like voice ringing softly. Paige turned to her, almost smiling, although her mouth was full of the cereals she had for breakfast. "Mum says you mustn't eat milk, or drink milk."
She was right, of course. Paige kept herself from frowning mildly. "I may have anemia, Bell, but I'm a milk-aholic. There's no helping it. Don't worry, though. As long as I eat iron supplement medicine I'll be all right."

Bell looked at her with big, chocolate eyes, framed by long eyelashes. Her brown hair was a little wavy, but not as messy as the day before.

"But milk is baby food," she claimed, holding her pink-clad baby doll tight. "Babies drink milk."

"Heh, I see," said Paige, smiling. But she really should cut down on her milk drinking, or the iron supplement medicine would stop working right.

After breakfast Bell took her doll with her to the two-seat sofa and started playing by herself, muttering words in different voices, her expression changing often. She didn't seem to mind Sephiroth anymore, although he was watching the news. Paige sat on one of the stools by the small kitchen isle, a glass of milk in her hand. She had, of course, found it after Bell left the table. Trying hard not to smile when Bell said, "Hold my purse," and John Smoth copied her, Paige turned away. Keeping her mask up was impossible with Bell around.

"...Paige?" asked Bell, dragging out the word a little. Paige turned to look at her, hiding the glass of milk behind her arm.

Bell turned slowly to Sephiroth, then back to Paige. Then she glanced quickly at Sephiroth again and turned to Paige once more, smiling curiously, her eyes big and warm. This time, though, Paige didn't feel like smiling.

"What?" she asked carefully, slowly sobering up.

"Um, at home, I asked mommy how people get babies."
"... Oh." And why did Bell say that after looking between Paige and Sephiroth?

Uh-oh...

Impending heart attack.

Must find escape route.

"Uh, really? Well, I suppose you learned a lot, then. Maybe you'll learn more once you start going to school," Paige tried, adding half a smile.
"Mhm. Mommy said people marry first. But sometimes people get babies even if they aren't married."

"... Really?" said Paige again, stiff from head to toe. This honestly wasn't a conversation she wanted with Bell, even if Sephiroth hadn't been there.

"Will you and Sephiroth have babies?"

What?

Say what?!

Babies with Se-

Shock.

Terror.

No.

Heart attack.

Must remember to breathe.

...She must be displaying a very interesting expression on her face right now. By sheer luck, though, she could see that Sephiroth wasn't looking at her. He, like her, was staring at Bell. Almost murderously. She had to do something.

"No. Never. Ever." Her voice was a whisper, yet the words were so strong she felt a little proud they could have so much power when they came from her own mouth.

"Why?"

With an effort she didn't think was possible she could make, Paige straightened her face before Sephiroth turned to look at her.
"... Uhh... Because it... hurts." She was nodding at her own words. Her brain had gone haywire.

"Why?" Bell asked, innocent curiosity beaming mercilessly from her face. She wouldn't take "just because" for an answer.

"See..." started Paige, taking a deep breath and calming herself by looking at the floor for a moment. "That doesn't really matter. See, we're never going to have babies, because we don't like each other that way," she explained, dangerously close to blush. Before Bell could ask 'why' again, Paige added, "Because he's my teacher, and I'm a student." Good enough excuse.

Bell didn't look like she understood it all. For a moment she seemed unable to decide what to ask. That aside, why couldn't this embarrassing conversation end? She had already answered embarrassing questions that included Bell's speculations about Paige, Sephiroth and impossible things (babies) that would definitely not happen in their future. She would be unable to look him in the eyes for days on end after this.

"Why don't you like each other that way?" Bell asked, and Paige mentally shuddered with a deep, seemingly innate fear when Sephiroth looked at her.

Then, her savior made an appearance:

"I've a rude thought every three seconds," interrupted John Smoth, letting out a squawky laugh at his words as he nodded up and down on his T-stand. Paige turned to him, mentally showering him with a hundred hip-hop-like quotes of eternal thankfulness.

"Ah, is that so, John Smoth," she said, throwing herself at the glimpse of an escape from the earlier debate. Her face was finally completely back under control, thanks to the bird.

And so, after a short while of awkward and practically mindless chat with the colorful macaw, Paige more or less escaped even more embarrassing and disturbing questions. Bell continued playing as if nothing had happened, smiling innocently. To Paige's extreme horror, though, she heard Bell speak her own and Sephiroth's names a few times in her game with her doll, using light and dark voices to differentiate between them. In spite of that, Paige hoped Bell's innocence would prevail, and casually interrupted every time she heard Sephiroth's name. Just in case.

Sephiroth vanished somewhere the same evening, and the next morning, Paige's mum came to pick up Bell. Paige watched (and listened) as the old family van struggled down the old road from the small house.

For the rest of the weekend she was alone, with the exception of John Smoth, who had learned a new word: Shinra. Apart from that word being repeated over and over again, only the news kept her company. The lack of Bell quickly manifested itself in her face, which was soon a replica of Mona Lisa, only without the smile.

A small week later she was at the school grounds with the other students in her grade, blinking against the bright light that reflected off the deep snow. All the 3rd year students were gathered, which was unusual. There was probably about a hundred students in total.

Sephiroth's plan was to make the students have Phys. Ed. outside, and everyone had better give it their best shot. Paige felt rather clumsy. She was dressed in thick, black pants to keep out the snow, an equally thick black jacket, a white woolen hat on top and white mittens. The others were dressed similarly, only with more colors. It was so cold outside that white plumes of breath escaped every one of them. It was still snowing very heavily and it was eerily quiet until Sephiroth spoke. He was dressed in his usual black workout pants and jacket, with only a black scarf and gloves to ward off the cold. What was with all the black clothes? Perhaps he had consciously done it to stand out from the others (and the snow, for that matter), so that everyone would be able to see him...?

"Today, we will do something out of the ordinary," Sephiroth announced. His voice made shivers go down her spine – he sounded like the one he claimed to be – a general.

An elfish general, she mentally added. Why did he have to be so elfish, anyway? mentally frowning in annoyance, she looked at the man.

"We will split into two groups. Each group will find a place fit for a base. Make solid snow walls around the area you choose."

Without questioning him (they had learned not to), they did as he said quickly. One of the bases was made by the parking lots, closest to the 'mainland'. It was forbidden to go away from the isle that was the property of the school, though. The other base was finished in the same way: As a thigh-high wall made of large snow balls. It was positioned in front of a row of old trees. The trees were willows, by the look of the snow that weighed them down – the branches and the snow on them were so heavy they touched the ground, forming several enormous, white and hut-like structures.

"Now, the girls go to the parking lot, and the boys go to the trees," ordered Sephiroth.

This time, there was a rush of hushed voices.
"There are more girls than boys, and so it is fair this way," continued Sephiroth. The others turned quiet. He was right. The girls were many, but the boys were strong. It was a fair thing.

"I will only say this once: Nobody will throw snowballs." The others turned even more quiet. The disappointment was so obvious Paige felt she could physically touch it.
"Doing so will result in my reprimanding any such action in front of all the others." The others turned even more quiet, if that was even possible.

Then he got to the point.

"The objective of this activity is to catch all the members of the other team, and to pull them inside your base. Once there, the captives will join the team that caught them. Also, your own bases are safe zones. You may rest there, but only if you need it. The boy team will wear yellow vests. The same goes for everyone who gets caught by the boy team."

He caught the student's eyes, and Paige deliberately looked away. The baby questioning episode with Bell was still fresh in her mind.

There were more than sixty girls, and about forty boys. The girls looked extremely unwilling to do anything of what Sephiroth had just told them to do. It wouldn't even surprise Paige if they wanted to get caught by the boys.

"For you to take this seriously, I will join one of the teams once it has few enough members."

Eyes widened all around, and mouths opened in surprise at Sephiroth's calmly spoken words. Apart from the dancing lesson once before, he had never participated actively in the Physical Education lessons until now.

Paige had never been so serious about any P.E. lesson in her entire life. Not even once.

This was the first time she would be engaging in combat (or opponent-kidnapping) against Sephiroth – her first chance to witness some of his strength in this kind of situation. And it was time to extract revenge for the dance thing.

For this reason, it frustrated her to no end when the girls simply screamed with laughter when they were caught. They didn't even put up a fight when they were pulled to the Boy Team's base. Personally, Paige had "caught back", or recaptured three of the girls already. Once they caught a whiff of her mood, though, they put in a tiny bit more effort. By now the boys' team had started eyeing her as the most dangerous enemy. They still looked at Sierra "Nevada" as the girls' leader, though. She was, after all, the lovely school princess. People struggled all over the place – they shuffled through deep snow, threw themselves after one another, pulled each other to their own bases and saw nothing except the snow and the students closest to them while doing so. But they weren't serious. Sephiroth seemed to think the same, judging from the way he stood still and observed them with an unamused expression. He looked bored, or perhaps, maybe, thoroughly annoyed that they didn't work harder.

Then, just as Paige was on her way over the wall of the Girl Team's base to catch her breath (and, she admitted, to get rid of the dizziness caused by her horribly irritating anemia), somebody grabbed her foot and pulled her leg. She gave a small cry as she fell over. The one holding her foot was a black-haired boy. With surprise she recognized him as one of the more fit guys in her grade. She couldn't take him on alone – not right now, at least.

"I got her! Help me out!" he shouted, his voice coarse and strong. Through the falling snow Paige saw others approaching.

She turned around to her stomach, holding onto the snow wall of her base.

"Hey! Over here!" she demanded through clenched teeth. Inside the Girl Team's base, a couple of willing team members hurriedly took hold of her arms and started pulling her over the snow wall, but by then another person had caught hold of her other ankle.

The girls on her team were losing the battle of strength. They were about to give up – to them, it wasn't that serious.

"Don't let go! Please!" Paige pleaded, to their great surprise.

... If she got caught and was pulled back to the Boys' Base, Solomon would be waiting for her. And Sephiroth would be disappointed that she let herself be caught. Or perhaps he would look down at her. She would lose before she had a chance to extract her revenge for the dance lesson.

"Please!" she repeated to the girls that held her arms, and since they were the only ones who could see her face, she showed them the most pleading expression she could muster. In her mind (to guide her expression the right way) was the image of Bell asking for something – those eyes went beyond puppy eyes. She didn't know how well her expression worked, though.

"Oh-Okay!" said one of the girls, and with a sudden rush of determination, the two girls stood their ground and pulled Paige's arms until a few others arrived to help. Before long, after losing both her mittens, Paige was pulled into safety. The Boy Team (which by now had a few girls in it) growled.

A new freshness surged through Paige. She quickly recognized it as a mix of satisfaction and adrenaline.

And then:

"Charge!" she shouted, pointing at them cruelly, grinning without constraint. She ran first, the others following – she was sure they were gradually growing more excited and serious about this.

And so, after recapturing all the girls and quite a few of the boys, victory was almost theirs. Among the ones who still stood strong on the opposing team was Solomon. Paige admitted she had deliberately avoided him.

Soon Sephiroth would have to join as well.

"Gah!" she exclaimed as somebody crashed into her and knocked the air out of her lungs. Before long, she lay face-down in the snow and was pulled by her feet. When she struggled to get a glimpse of them, she spotted Solomon's red scarf (among the other yellow-vest-clad members of the Boy Team). Angry, she pulled and shoved and moved her legs, kicking and wrestling as much as she could. She reached forward and grabbed the closest leg she could find, and one of them plunged down into the snow when she pulled it. Paige got up, standing on one foot (as the other was still held fast by Solomon), and paused. Solomon turned and met her eyes.

Just as she wondered what to do next, and whether or not she should try to catch Solomon as well, a girl screamed loudly:

"He's coming! The teacher's coming!"

Panic and total chaos ensued, and Paige hurriedly glanced over her shoulder. Only snow and retreating shadows were visible. Then Solomon pulled her leg and she fell into the snow again, and soon she was twice as angry as before.

"Gah!" she muttered, struggling even more furiously than before. She rolled and turned and kicked and punched and fought against Solomon, until his grip momentarily weakened. Then she kicked again, this time freeing her foot.

"Whoa!" Solomon exclaimed as he fell backwards.

As Paige climbed to her feet again, all she could think about was to get the heck out of there and rest for a minute in the Girl Team's base before Sephi-

...Oh. Oops.

Bad.

Too late.

Paige stood still, staring ahead. In front of her, not ten paces away, stood the tall, broad-shouldered, black-clothed, elf-like, silver-haired man that was Sephiroth. He was, needless to say, standing between Paige and her base. Behind her she could hear Solomon getting up. Paige's face had momentarily frozen. Not even one of her teammates was nearby. To add to it all, Sephiroth looked like he was ready to lunge forward.

"Run!" yelled a girl from far away, and Paige woke up from her stupor.

Paige obeyed. She jerked around and dashed forward, straight past Solomon. Taking chances, she ran straight into the group that formed the Boy Team. It caused confusion – obviously they didn't think one of their opponents would run towards them. Maybe they even thought for a minute that she was on their team as well. Only she wasn't wearing the yellow vests that the members of the Boy Team had to wear. She ran like a cat being chased by a dog, even though Sephiroth could probably run like a cheetah on crack on a good day.

Partially obscured by the falling snow, Paige hid in the first place she found. She stood behind one of the great willow trees. It looked more like an upside-down white bowl because of all the snow. Glancing around, Paige breathed heavily, happy with her efforts so far. Perhaps she could sneak around the other trees and get back to the Girl Team's base by the parking lots unseen. Nobody was within her line of sight.

Until a spot appeared far ahead, a spot that closed in on her much faster than it should-

Before she could even move out of the way, Sephiroth crashed into her and they plunged through the snow wall of the tree she had hidden behind. As they landed under the snow-covered branches that formed a roof above and around them, dark blue shadows enveloped them. Cold snow was everywhere, and Paige wrestled, nearly paralyzed by her own beating heart.

"No," she muttered breathlessly as she felt a hand touch her arm briefly, and hoisted herself up so that she was sitting. Her back touched the trunk of the willow tree. On his knees before her, Sephiroth sat, his jade eyes burning hers with such intensity she looked away. She remembered all the things Bell had asked in his presence, and her own replies to said questions:

"That doesn't really matter. See, we're never going to have babies, because we don't like each other that way," she explained, dangerously close to blush. Before Bell could ask 'why' again, Paige added, "Because he's my teacher, and I'm a student." Good enough excuse.

Paige swallowed quietly, steeling herself and looking back at him with an even expression.

He gave half a laugh and rose his hand. Paige held her breath, not knowing what to expect, then he grabbed the hem of her jacket and hauled her to her feet. Like she was some naughty kid caught doing something wrong. Then he started pulling her along, and they left the confines of the heavy, snow-covered willow branches. Before long, they were close to the walls of the Boy Team. By then, Sephiroth had taken hold of her jacket at the back of her neck. She probably looked ridiculous.

Enraged, Paige grabbed the zipper of her warm, thick jacket and pulled it down.

Then, after quickly moving her arms out of the jacket, she ran for her life towards the Girl Team's base. Her white cotton shirt didn't shield her from the cold, but at least she was less visible in the snow. Her pants were still black and very much visible, though. And difficult to run with. In front of her, she could see and hear her own team cheering her on, their voices getting more panicky by the second. That could only mean she was being followed. Paige found that her face was very stiff, either with cold or fear, most likely both.

And then people from her own team left their base (the Girl Team's base), and ran to meet her. Paige almost slowed down, but they ran straight past her, to meet whoever had been chasing her. It caught her completely off guard. Her team did that for her? For a second she felt ridiculously touched, but then she realized a lot of the team members were still within the walls of the Girls' base. Besides, the ones who "ran to meet her" probably just wanted to get a shot at Sephiroth and whoever else were following her. Still, once she stumbled over the walls of her team, she allowed herself to relish in the deep satisfaction she had so longed to feel. Even if Sephiroth could have caught her (she was sure h could have), he hadn't. For a while, she would just delude herself into thinking he hadn't managed to catch her. That made her feel real good.

Meanwhile, a certain Cid Highwind was smoking, cussing and searching for something at the same time.

"Where the heck did she put that ass-load of crap," he muttered, shuffling through the drawers in his office. How Shera had even convinced him to become a doctor in the first place was beyond his imagining. She must have said it had something to do with science, and to Cid, science was a good thing. Science had led to aircrafts, planes and airships. But how the heck had Shera made him choose to work as a doctor as a side job? That wasn't even directly tied to science, was it? Perhaps Shera'd mentioned something about smoking breaks. Wait – it probably had to do with the money. Had becoming a doctor been his idea after all, then? To pay for parts for his airship?

"There," he said, fishing up a bunch of loose papers from beneath cigars, an old glove and a screwdriver he thought he'd lost when he needed it for his airship some weeks ago.

The papers were tests. It was a terrible mess, and different files about different people were mixed. He was searching for the test results for some girl named Paige. She'd had an accident and fallen into a river a while back, and had been brought in for some tests. Among them were some blood tests. Cid hadn't looked at them properly yet.

"This crap's impossible," he mumbled after a while, then silently thanked Shera for sometimes cleaning things up for him.

Impatiently he checked the page numbers and hoped the papers were in the right order. The topmost paper was about Paige, luckily. In one of the corners he read Page 1. There was a loose paper beneath it. It said Page 2, so they most likely belonged together. Cid, calm for the moment, inhaled the smoke of his cigar and leaned against the messy counter while skimming through the two papers.

"...Shit," he muttered as he finished reading the blood tests and the scribbly notes below the results.

If Cid had double-checked the files properly, he might have noticed that the blood test results did not belong to Paige.
But he didn't double-check – he was too busy swearing.

Later, after Paige found her missing mittens, hat and jacket, she went home. Her rusty bike was no good – she had left it at home since the first day it started snowing. It was in the crumbling outhouse. Paige hoped it would survive another winter. Thus, after a long walk home, her cheeks and her nose were scarlet when she finally got into the warm living room of her little house. Sephiroth was already there. Speaking of travelling, though, she couldn't understand how the other students managed to stuff themselves into that old, yellow school bus. Even with fifty seats and room for another fifty people who were standing, that only left room for one hundred people. Their school had more than three hundred students. Although it wasn't that many compared to other schools, how did they manage to stuff that many people into one bus? Why didn't they get an extra bus? Paige, lost in thought, visualized people sitting on each others' laps with their cheeks stuck to the windows, and a few other students in the luggage compartments. Like a stuffed Tokyo train, she mused, with people with sweaty armpits and others with claustrophobia. In the middle of it all, one sick person would occasionally contaminate half the bus with influenza. Paige was glad she walked to school every day, even though it took quite a while. She wasn't the only one who walked, though. A few were even driven there.

Her train of thought was disturbed as the phone started ringing.

"... Hello?"

Sephiroth watched Paige as she answered the phone.

"Huh? Why? Can't you just tell me over the phone?" she said dismissively.

"What- Hey. Don't curse at me, doctor, please." Sephiroth arched an eyebrow. Doctor?

"...Okay, I get it. I'll be there soon. Bye," she said and hung up, then looked out through the window. The only thing visible to her was falling snow and blinding whiteness, no doubt. She couldn't hold back an unwilling shiver when looked for too long.

R.R.

I won't say anything, except that I haven't forgotten that the fiends are still around...