Sephiroth had lived with Tifa a month and to say it was a period of adjustment for both, had been an understatement at first. He had had to not only get used to living with someone else, but having to interact with that much more social person, who seemed not to listen when he said he could take care of himself. He tried to keep to his own routines, but had her constantly there with him. She would join him every morning, looking bright eyed and bushy tailed and would prattle cheerfully on about her day ahead, while he attempted to read the paper and silently eat his breakfast. He would go to the office for peace and quiet, only to have his time interrupted by phone calls regarding what he would like to eat for dinner, his requests that he would manage that for himself falling on deaf ears. When he requested no more calls, he got texts instead.

When he went into the dojo for his nightly workout, she would be right in there with him doing low impact aerobics or yoga and distracting him by wearing very brief workout clothes and sometimes he would find himself frozen in place while holding his Masamune while he stared at her.

She was a distraction in every way and the worst part was: he liked it. He came to enjoy being with her, she was a tiny powerhouse that kept on going and going. Always busy, always kind and took care of him, not as if he were feeble minded or infirmed, but as a person she just liked and respected. It was like she was forcing the role of husband on him.

Then there was the part about how she seemed to be able to read his emotions like he was an open book and that unnerved him. She had explained how she did it; it was subtle ways his features shifted. How his shoulders would go ridged in anger; little signs like that. Okay he now accepted she couldn't read his mind but it was still irritating how he would come home with his face perfectly neutral, only to receive a hug for having a 'bad day'.

Then there were her friends, some were not huge fans of his and probably never would be but they accepted him when he was in their presence, they had to, it was his house after all and their friend was his wife. Girl's nights happened once in a while and he actually had started accepting invitation from the males of the group, who offered him something to do out of sympathy.

The worst part of the situation was that he had developed actual feelings for her and fought them, reminding himself that their marriage was an illusion and nothing more. Yet couldn't bring himself to even consider sleeping with Scarlet anymore and happily came home every night to be with Tifa, her smile of greeting and a kiss on his cheek from her making him feel...

Tifa laughed out loud and was glad the Zach had opted to come early to their pool party, where Sephiroth had intended to wear his full leather uniform with sunglasses being his only concession to the occasion. He had taken one look at him and dragged him into his bedroom and had somehow convinced him to change into dark blue swim trunks and a white t-shirt. She knew that her husband did have other clothes but preferred wearing his armor and didn't comment on this, figuring it just made him feel more secure. Besides, he looked good in them.

Zach, himself wore a pair of grey swim trunks and a Hawaiian shirt that he kept unbuttoned and he was helping Sephiroth with the grill as they prepared food for their guests. Zach the one person in the world who could get the straitlaced Sephiroth to smile and laugh. She studied them, they were bipolar opposites when it came to male beauty, her husband being so pale, leaner and fair whereas, Zach was broader, shorter and darker. Personality wise, they were like day and night.

Zach was witty, friendly and outgoing and Sephiroth was...

Sephiroth was intelligent, polite and ...dull.

Sephiroth thought that Vincent looked just an uncomfortable as himself in a pair of tan swim trunks with white cotton t-shirt and knew the feeling, like himself, he felt more comfortable wearing his leathers. He nodded politely at him when Tifa approached Zach and himself.

"Would you like another beer?" she asked, them holding them out.

"You read my mind" Zach said, taking a pull long pull off his beer.

Whereas Sephiroth took his and put it down. "Tifa if you are not going to heed my warnings about the proper application of sunscreen, at least put on your beach cover up when not in the pool or you will get a nasty sunburn" he said, looking at the black bikini she wore.

"Listen to you being a husband" Zach said, clapping him on the back and then draping an arm around him. "I must say Tifa, pregnancy agrees with you. But you always did look good in a bikini. Remember that blue one you used to have?" he asked her.

"The one my father forbade me to wear?" she asked him.

"But you did anyway and you would do this special dance for me?" Zach teased her.

"Oh stop it" she said striking his arm.

"What's this?" Sephiroth asked them.

"Tifa and I used to date as teenagers" Zach explained.

Sephiroth could feel himself getting angry, but was trying not to show it. His friend had dated his wife? And had the nerve to bring up past memories of their past relationship right in front of him, this was intolerable! He suddenly couldn't help noticing that Zach was good looking. To make it worse, he was personable, knew how to talk to people and had a great sense of humor; everything that Sephiroth didn't.

"Are you okay, Sephiroth? You look like you want to beat someone" Tifa observed.

"Wow how did you do that?" Zach asked her.

Sephiroth however, just put his arm around Tifa in a possessive way. "I'm fine, I'm just admiring how beautiful you look" he said, glaring at Zach who just smiled back, not knowing how close he had come to death. Tifa however, certainly enjoyed the attention she was receiving from her husband whenever Zach and herself found themselves alone together...and he was suddenly right there showering her with compliments and acting possessive of her.

Tifa giggled when everyone had left. "Jealous much?" she asked him.

He froze at this. "I have nothing to be jealous about. I could care less if Zach and yourself dated" he coldly said.

"He was a great kisser as I recall" she wistfully said.

Sephiroth's eyes narrowed to slits at this, "oh really? How wonderful for you."

"Perhaps one of the best kissers I've ever met" she mused.

"I have some work to do in my office, I shall go get changed" he said seething while walking away.

"I guess I'll go take a swim" she said.

Sephiroth actually did have some work to do after he had slipped into his normal clothes, but sat there reading the same line over and over again as he pictured his friend kissing his wife. How good could a kiss be? He had given them to lots of women himself and had never had a single complaint in that department. Of course he had never kissed Tifa, even though her full lips practically demanded kisses. He had been tempted to do so many times. The more he thought about Tifa kissing Zach, the more irritated he became.

Finally, he went to find her still floating in the pool and swam to him.

"Still brooding?" she asked him with a smirk.

"Why didn't you tell me you dated Zachary?" he demanded.

"Now it's "Zachary"? Does it matter? It was so long ago" she said.

"He's a friend of mine. What other secrets have you been keeping from me? Would you get the hell out of the pool so we have can a proper discussion?" he demanded.

"Help me out" she said, giving him her hands while bracing her legs against the pool. Sephiroth grabbed her arms to pull her out, but with a quick tug from her, he fell into the water: boots, pants, harness, leather coat with silver pauldrons and all. Tifa stood still as he surfaced and spat out water, his glowing eyes pinned her and she expect retribution for being so cheeky, instead she stared back as Sephiroth let out a laugh.

"I'm going to get you for that" he said in a voice full of good humor, sounding quite unlike himself that the small woman had bested him and took off his jacket and set it on the pool edge. They were both soon laughing as he swam after her, even at seven months' pregnancy she swam like a fish. He finally managed to grab the back of her bikini top, when with a tearing sound and he was holding it in his hand and she turned around in shock and her now even larger breasts were revealed to him in all their naked glory and they certainly were glorious. They stared at each other, he in hunger because he had been sexually deprived and her in a mixture of hunger and slight fear of the unknown. It was him that closed that gap as his mouth ravished hers and his bare torso met her own. She returned his heated kisses with her own, leaning back she said. "Please make love to me."

"Tifa...I... I could hurt you" he said, his voice thick with desire and so wanting to.

"I trust you. I know you could be gentle if you wanted to be" she said.

"I don't know how" he said, struggling against what she was offering him.

"Please" she said and before he knew it, she was laying on his bed and both were naked.

"I...can't" he almost begged her, his resistance at an end when she reached for him.

She shivered as his wet hair brushed her thighs as he knelt between her splayed legs. It felt so good as he went up and down and round and round with his tongue, swirling on her clit in a way that intoxicated her. He plunged his tongue into her now drenched core, tasting the essence that belonged only to her and it madden him. She seemed trying to wiggle away from his probing tongue but he pinned her down, refusing to let her. Her pleas and cries that it was too much fell on deaf ears as wanting, no demanding her climax. This was his. This was for him and belonged to him alone and he was taking what he wanted from her. With a sharp cry, she gave it to him.

He leaned back, shaking inside at what she wanted him to do. He wanted to run away. Fly away, do anything but hurt his petite and thoroughly human wife. His eyes fell on her belly and that only amplified his fears. She leaned up and cupped his cheek.

"You won't hurt me; you won't hurt them. I need you to love me" she softly said.

His face was neutral as ever, but she could read the fear in his eyes. His eyes were different than other men but could be just as expressive as human eyes. Soundless, he leaned forward so that his arms supported his weight and placed his tool at her entrance. He looks at her for signs of wanting him to stop when he felt the resistance of her hymen but saw only acceptance and something else, with the slightest of surges forwards, he was buried in her and stood stock still at her small cry of pain.

He bit his lip as the urge to slam into her nearly overcame him, he was now physically shaking with desire, need and emotions he didn't want to look too closely at.

He started to move inside her at a gentle pace and hoped she thought his trembling was from their intercourse. The way she started to move her hips in time with him, let him know that her pain had dissipated to be replaced by pleasure and she leaned up for a kiss and he stole her breath with it.

It was too much for him, he had to stop.

He felt overwhelmed at the raw emotion of their first coupling as the foreign feelings intensified. It was like all of his defenses had been stripped away and he had nowhere to hide. Now that he had held Tifa, tasted her and was inside her, all control shattered. It was like he had been stripped bare emotionally as well as physically, it was shocking, but he couldn't stop at the glorious sensation as she clenched onto him and she arched into her first bodily orgasm.

Sex had never felt this way before, gentle yet passionate at the same time, she whimpered his name like a prayer and this caused him to join her flow with his own.

He carefully pulled out of her and padded to the washroom to retrieve a warm washcloth to bathe the semen and virgin blood from her and sat down and pulled her into his lap, basking in the moment. Feeling calmer.

"Your hair is going to turn into a tangle if you don't brush it" she chided him.

"I suppose I should" he replied and went to get it and was surprised when she took it away and began to brush it for him. "You have a hair fetish now?" he asked her.

"As long as it's soft and silver in color" she said with amusement in her voice.

"Did I hurt you?" he asked her, his emotions back under control.

"No, I told you wouldn't" she said, hugging his from behind.

"How can you trust me when I..." he began and gently touched her scar.

"That wasn't you" she said. "This is you" she said tracing a finger alongside his face.

"Do you-like me?" he asked her as she continued to brush his hair, enjoying the feeling of it.

A kiss was pressed to one of his bare shoulder and she rested her cheek against the warm flesh of his back "I know that you're careful with your emotions, but don't be scare Sephiroth, you have every right to fall in love" she whispered to him.

He leapt to his feet at this and stood trembling before her. "Fall in love. With you? You have to be joking. All you are to me is a nuisance, interfering in my life. Driving my lover away. Taking away my freedom and now you're demanding my heart too. What gall!' he all but sneered at her.

"But..." she protested, pulling a pillow over her nudity.

"You think I'm going to fall for you after one fuck? What the hell is wrong with you?" he demanded.

"Sephiroth, I know you love me. I can see it. You can't hide from me as you do other people. You shouldn't have to. It's normal to fall in love, it's healthy. You're not alone anymore. You have me, you will have your sons and you won't believe how much you're going to love them from the second you see them. You're not a monster. You're not someone's pawn. You're not even the damaged child you were who probably hungered for love. You're a man in love who has a woman who loves you back. It's real, it's here and it's now. Didn't you feel it just now when we made love? You can't make love unless you are in love. Face your fears and tell me you love me" she all but challenged him.

"I don't love you. I don't feel a thing for you. In fact, although your fuck whetted my appetite. I think I shall go see Scarlet" he said in chilly voice to cover his confusion.

"Scarlet? Your lover is Scarlet? How could you even touch that thing? She was after you when you had your mental breakdown and your insane self wouldn't touch her. Now that you're rational, you chose her as a lover?!" Tifa demanded.

"I'm sorry you disapprove. She's twice the woman you are" he taunted her.

"Get out" she said with her voice shaking with repressed sobs.

"Tifa, I..." he said suddenly concerned.

"Go fuck your whore because I don't care what the hell you do" she screamed at him and ran to her room.

"Thank you, I will" he said wrenching on his clothes and flying to Scarlet's place, trembling with rage.

He stopped in front of Scarlet's place and didn't even bother knocking and just opened the door and walked in.

"Sephiroth?" Scarlet questioned. "Are you okay?" she asked him at his odd behavior, she gasped as he tore her dress off.

"I'm not in the mood to discuss my feeling with anyone. Is that clear?" he said and she nodded in fear and excitement. "Better brace yourself, it's going to be a long night."

Zach had offered Vincent a lift and they were half way into the one-hour commute to his place when he realized he had left his PHS behind and the kind hearted Zach had turned around. "It's okay, I don't have plans for later and I can't live without my own" he said over the polite Vincent's protests. He pulled up to the now silent Crescent mansion and both people knocked on the door.

"Hello Tifa, I'm sorry to disturb you... what's wrong?" Vincent said to see her crying.

Zach quickly came as well to her defense.

"Come Vincent, let's go put on the kettle for tea while Tifa explains what Prince Charming has done to upset her" he said stepping into his friend's place and placing an arm around her.

Sephiroth didn't even bother saying goodbye to Scarlet and was too preoccupied catch the camera flash as he did up his trench as he left in a fuming rage.

He let himself into his office, deciding to stay there for the night and stretched out as best he could on the cramped couch there with the realization that Tifa may have been right, he hadn't even been able get it up for Scarlet. All he could do was think about Tifa and that prevented him. He now no longer would be able to take lovers. Tifa had ruined him and made him a honest married man by simply loving him.

Sephiroth turned pale when his secretary showed him his picture in paper the next morning with the headline that read. "Married General Caught with Scarlet Woman."

The phone was ringing off its hook it was all the poor receptionist could do to keep up with answering them.

Rufus Shinra was livid, Reeve Tuesti was too, just on the merit that Tifa was his old comrade and best friend.

Sephiroth knew he was well and truly screwed for his unbelievably selfish actions. He sat at his desk with the scandal glaring up at him from the desk and covered his face with both hands. Even though the night had been completely fruitless in his attempt, the fact that he had attempted to continue to cheat on his wife had ruined his wife's good name.

Tifa's PHS was ringing off the hook across town in their home. She didn't even have the strength to look to see who it was. She figured it had something to do with Sephiroth. Maybe he had decided, after he'd bewitched her out of her one and only last gift she had left of her body, to do away with her? She would have almost welcomed another ride on his Masamune if the twins weren't in existence at how depressed she felt. How could she have been so stupid? She had been so sure; she had just needed to hear it after they had been so intimate.

She couldn't have been more wrong.

In a general store off of the edge of Bone Village, a young man and young woman picked up foodstuffs and general housing needs, when the male of the two past the tabloids. Normally not one to be swayed by anything going on in the general populace, especially in the last couple of months since he'd had his ward to look after however, this one struck a negative cord.

There, one the headlines spoke of the General Sephiroth's Infidelities with Scarlet.

He hadn't even been aware that the good General was alive and kicking enough to be married. What shocked him the most was his alleged spouse: one Tifa Lockhart.

He'd known he'd been absent and distant, but he wasn't aware that it had come to this. After paying for the foodstuffs and gathering the young woman on his bike, Cloud Strife was coming back to Edge to get to the bottom of the situation, Fusion Sword in hand.

When Vincent saw the news speaking about the incident, he was filled with such anger and disappointment in Sephiroth. Did the boy have no honor left in him to see that Tifa would have been an excellent balm for his internal wounds? She was naturally motherly, had a friendly and easygoing smile and any idiot could see she was starting to truly care for him. Why this now? He would end up with his own Lucrecia complex from this? But not without Vincent beating some sense into him first. With a flourish of red material, Vincent swept out of the room and into the streets on his hunt.

Zach tore the paper in half.

He could not believe that his friend, mentor, and superior had done this shit again! Didn't he learn anything from Meteorfall? Here he was again, in the public eye for negative reasons. What really bothered Zach at the heart of this all, was Tifa. Tifa was a total innocent to Sephiroth's devil-may-care personality, but not Zach and not Vincent, who was now ringing his PHS. Sephiroth would see them both really soon.

Cloud sped through the badlands on Fenrir at top speed. Yes, he had his precious cargo on his back and she clung to him just so as they moved to and fro getting to and reaching the outskirts of Edge, curiously passing a larger mansion right on the cusp of the city that hadn't been there before and seemed to be a new fairly new establishment, but Cloud dismissed it, figuring it a Rufus conquest.

He and his partner soon rolled into the familiar town and went straight for Seventh Heaven. Once the bike was secured in the back shack that had always been there, he made his way into the building only to be facing two familiar faces, one he hadn't seen since his teens.

"It's good to see you Spikey. Somehow I just knew you were out there and that if Tifa was ever in trouble, you'd come around." Zach said taking in the shocked face on the smaller blond.

"How, how long have you been back?" Cloud asked so heartbreakingly. He had missed so much all because of his self-imposed hermit behavior.

"As long as knucklehead has been back. I was sent back to be his conscious and a friend. A lot of help I did in the first regard" Zach laughed, self depreciatingly.

"That's not your fault. I take it that Sephiroth is then cured of…"

Cloud just couldn't say the creatures name and just moved forward.

"This is just his arrogance then that has caused this. How did he force her to marry him in the first place? I know Tifa and what…Tifa had wanted and it wasn't tall, pale, and asinine" Cloud played off that everyone knew that Cloud had been Tifa's first choice, he had just run and refused the responsibility of her feelings.

Before anyone else could speak, the young woman that had been his partner walked in.

"I am sorry I got distracted with the flower shop and…" she froze upon looking at Zachary, and he her.

"Aerith? But how and when, how long?" Zach's heart hurt at a memory that had been suppressed.

"Zach-as in Zachary Fair? Oh…Oh it has been too long! The Planet blessed you and returned you as well I see!" she said running to hug him.

Cloud and Vincent took in the scene. While it was intimate, it was not the same intimacy that the two had shared. Cloud knew that Aerith would always speak of Zach since her revival as a "best friend", not as a lover that she had a shared past with and secretly wondered if she hadn't done something to both of their memories before their return.

"I have been back about seven months. Cloud found me in the Ancient City praying on the alter. I can remember some of my friends and my past life, but some parts are…vague and the Planet will not repair or reveal those thoughts to me" she admitted sadly.

Cloud and Vincent thought that best in the respects of Sephiroth and his brutal death dealing with her, but though Cloud did love Aerith more than life itself, it seemed wrong for her not to know him and properly have chosen him by choice, not amnesia. It seemed a cop out.

Cloud instead, focused on the issue at hand and threw the scandalous tabloid upon one of the wooden tables in the Seventh Heaven and pointed at it as he spoke.

"Where is he? I will end him again. If it's not bad enough that she is married to him, he's cheating on her too? How did this happen? "Cloud asked, serious faced.

Both Zach and Vincent dreaded the question but it needed to be answered. Vincent, surprisingly, took the floor and explained exactly what had happened over the last 7 months.

Cloud blinked.

He blinked again, corner of his eye twitching.

"She what? Why would she…this is my fault for not giving a proper answer to her feelings" Cloud began to pace at speed that would quickly wear a hole in the floor, all the while brooding. "So you mean to tell me that this is a marriage of convenience that Tifa is stuck in because of mistaken…father material. Honestly? Why would he shackle her to him like that, there are shared custody options!" Cloud said irritably.

"That is despite what we see and what has happened, Sephiroth does care for Tifa, but is fighting it. We all know he did not have the best example of emotions or family love so this blatant act out is just that, him acting out, only now it's hurting himself and Tifa" Vincent stated calmly and coolly.

"We'll go to the office and confront him. He has to answer for this point blank, period" Zach said seriously.

All three men agreed and they were out the door on the way to the WRO Headquarters.

Sephiroth had already been well and thoroughly chewed out now in person by an irritated Rufus Shinra while Tseng, who always shadowed the President, looked on somehow with a look of disappointment on his face as well.

Reeve came down as well and told him that "he better fix this and fix this now or he'd be out on his ass, he didn't care who he was and if he was rich from past lives or not, he'd find a way to dry that money up".

To be fair, he had NEVER seen Reeve Tuesti that fired up, so he allowed the man to continue his tirade, if nothing more for the shock value and the emotion behind it. Tifa was loved by many and he had screwed her over literally and now figuratively.

Hours had past and finally things had started to somewhat be calmed as PR went to work to try to repair this fiasco. Scarlet, he'd found, had been placed on leave for indefinite, in other words, banned from the WRO, though she was still on the books. What was being fed to the masses, was that he had been over there talking of less violent weapons and had taken ill at their dinner and had to stay for hours and like any other human and did not sleep in his armor or clothing. It was all such garbage and it ate at his soul. He had no honor and he knew it.

A buzz from his secretary shook him from his musings and she announced that he had guests. He figured them benign since she didn't give specific names, but what he got was a whole full of fury pro-Tifa, well ENHANCED men looking at him like the bug he was, killing intent on high.

If Sephiroth had any sense, he would have just apologized and went home to his wife and tried to make things right.

No, this was not his way and he chose the hard way, as always. What started as a Q&A to figure what the fuck the man was thinking, if he was thinking from camp Zach and Vincent, quickly turned to planning for war from unified camp with Cloud in lead. Sephiroth was as smug as he was with everything, still unwilling to admit he was just wrong.

"Why should I be sorry for her disrupting my way of life when she stole government property and decided to go ahead and become an unwed mother, based on the foolish notion it would have made you come back if they were your bastards she carried? That is apparently not true, as I know Aerith lives and had been with you. You were such a coward you could not even come to her with that knowledge?" Sephiroth did his best deflecting in sharing Tifa's heartfelt confession, which totally had the opposite effect on them.

"It's true I was a coward and I didn't handle my affairs, something that I will have to talk with her and her alone with, even now. But how dare you use her feelings and the situation as a well to deflect a wrong you committed?" Cloud all but spat back at Sephiroth.

Vincent's claw twitched as he wanted to throttle the boy. Did he not know shame?

Zach was trying, really trying to not beat his friend to death. Him making that smug face all the while talking, like they were all talking about the weather and not the woman carrying his children's feelings. It was too much!

Sephiroth put the final nail in his coffin so to speak on this conversation.

"I owe nothing to the likes of any of you. Besides, before I allegedly slept with Scarlet that day, who I make no secret is my lover, Tifa gave herself to me for her first time. I did no coercion. She came…double meaning implied, as a good wife should have" Sephiroth said crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back in his chair, glaring at all the men in the room.

This man…was still a monster! Not only had Cloud's denial or lack thereof, left her emotionally crippled that she had sought to impregnate herself with the hope he'd just come back and do something. Mixed sample later, Sephiroth is in the picture, forcing her to marry him and still living the bachelor life like it's no big deal. On top of that, she'd been…whole. He had taken that and then within 24 hours, had committed this atrocity with Scarlet.

"I'll kill you!" Cloud suddenly lunged for Sephiroth, who had Masamune in hand.

Vincent and Zach were already armed as well and ready to go.

"Fine, peasants, I will oblige you in your failed attempts at saving honor where there is none" Sephiroth deadpanned. Even to him, he sounded just cruel and in heart his hearts, he knew it but he ignored it and lead the fools to a secret alcove that lead to the mountainside along the back of the WRO where he would train.

"Gentleman, we can begin whenever you are ready to be beaten. Three against one, hmm you might have a chance in hell against me. I recall two other upstarts trying this and failing miserably" Sephiroth stated holding Masamune in his left hand at attention.

"You talk too much! "Cloud said bounding right at him, Vincent flanking the left, Zach at Sephiroth's right.

It was like the summons themselves were fighting it was so high powered and high impacted.

Sephiroth, forever smug, parried in the grace and elegance that was all deadly him with his 7ft katana, Masamune. Pressing back Cloud with one armed hand, shooting a Fira from the other hand at Zach, Zack having just enough time to barrier all and blocked Sephiroth's downward swing, but not his punch to the face. Oh so it was going to be like that. Vincent was using materia rounds and using frightening accuracy: A Thundara here, a Fira there, and Watera spell was let go from Vincent's three-barrel gun as well, putting out a well-planned Fira for Cloud's face, while Sephiroth held the extreme broadswords at bay.

Cloud and Zach was not having it. They worked Sephiroth overtime, with Cloud going into limit break doing Blade Beam and shortly afterwards, Zach finishing with Chain Slash.

Sephiroth was now struggling to keep the men back, actually was now irritated that with their combined forces, he may not win! They all moved like spirits on the wind, so fast the average human eyes would have a hard time catching them.

Sephiroth moved to make his final attack to try to end this and that's when things became interesting for him. Vincent, always the Red Wraith, tackled him, all the while delivering blows while in his incorporeal form, and rendering Sephiroth enraged that there was nothing to strike at. While he was fighting off an all-encompassing Demon, as he could feel Chaos fighting to free himself, his signature very unique and stifling. While Sephiroth struggled with the possessed man literally clawing and punching new holes in his clothing and almost through him, Zachary and Cloud took advantage of the situation. With two well placed, high powered slaps with the broad flat of the Buster Sword and the Fusion Sword and small notice to withdraw, Vincent removed himself and Sephiroth found himself slapped flying backwards about five inches deep into the side of the nearest mountain.

All three men maneuvered over to the fallen General when he didn't immediately just get back up and charge them, angrier than before. Half the mountain face had collapsed on Sephiroth as he seemed to sit in the man shaped hole his large frame had made and he was conscious, which made no sense as to why he didn't advance on them.

Then the weirdest thing happened.

After the three men took in the crumpled, profusely bleeding General and they noticed that he'd covered his eyes and seemed to be…shaking?

What surprised them the most was the sound that came with the shaking, from that 300 lb. frame of pure lean muscle and bone and 6'5 frame: sounds of soft crying.

It was faint, but it was there and it was then that the men realized something was terribly wrong with this situation. Sephiroth was borderline indestructible, flame proof and well, an ingenious asshole. Why the fuck was he crying? Had any of them ever seen him cry before? A quick perusal had them landing their eyes on his head, which was all but set open.

Oh.

"It hurts, please make it stop hurting, I swear I will be a good boy" came a watery sounding voice from Sephiroth's direction.

That had all eyes back on the now crying in earnest Sephiroth, who had set his legs spread open and his hands rubbing his streaming tears from his eyes.

"Please! Where is the professor? I…I am scared and I don't know who you all are or where I am or why I am in rocks, is this a learning simulation? Why are you so big?" Sephiroth was looking at the men now and trying to draw in on himself, inside the cave-like hole he'd made.

Zach was really worried now as the wound on Sephiroth's head was closing, but it was painfully slow it seemed, though it took mere minutes and all that silvery hair was dyed a macabre red with Sephiroth's own blood. Even Cloud stayed his hand because he was thoroughly confused.

Zach went to move towards Sephiroth and this only caused him to flinch away more, looking at his eyes, even his pupils were irregular in shape, one larger than the other, indicating that there was some serious brain damage that had occurred but Sephiroth was healing quickly. Vincent lifted his regular hand and for some reason, when Sephiroth looked over to Vincent, he didn't recoil away from him and Vincent had a good guess why now.

"Boy, do you know who you are? Do you know who I am?" Vincent slowly moved towards Sephiroth, removing debris when he bent down.

"My name is Seph… Sephitoh. No that is not right. The professor will get mad if I don't know my own name. My name is Seph-i-roth. Yes, Sephiroth. I don't know your name, but I have saw you many times and you have been nice to me, you bring me candies…when the professor doesn't make you scream or lock you away too. He calls you 'bastard', but that can't be a name, as that's a title, and a swear word" Sephiroth said sadly.

Vincent looked surprised and also saddened that that memory had stuck as well with Sephiroth, while the men behind him gasped at the absurdity of conversation.

Vincent pressed on after the 'man' had been cleared of the debris and just sat there huddled with his arms around his legs, looking warily at the other two men, but had trust in those unevenly dilated slit pupils.

"Sephiroth, how old are you?" Vincent chanced having a good guess if those memories were fresh on his mind.

"I just turned 4 years old, I'm a big boy!" Sephiroth said with an enthusiasm none of them had ever seen the man wear ever in his lives, not even when he was on his holy crusade. It had all been dark smirks and wicked smiles. Not…not this heartwarming smile that was truly real and in front of them.

"You have no idea" Zach whistled and said, to which Sephiroth covered his sensitive ears. He wondered exactly how sensitive Sephiroth's senses were and how much he'd had to block out, and with him being 'a child' again, that filter probably wasn't there.

"Great, we broke him" Cloud deadpanned and turned to walk away.

Zach looked at Cloud's retreating back and spoke.

"We can't just leave him like this. Yeah, I wanted to beat some sense into him; it looks like we beat him back to preschool. I know he will heal but even amidst this mess, Tifa will be upset and you know it" Zach said to Cloud.

"Not my problem, he shouldn't have been an over-cocky asshole, then he wouldn't be the equivalent of a fetus right now" Cloud said and kept walking on back to Sephiroth's office.

"I…I will take care of him" Vincent blurted reminding Zach he was there.

"Will you allow me to pick you up Sephiroth? You have a nasty contusion on your healing brain from a laceration from your…fall into these rocks" Vincent said matter of fact to the 'four-year-old' Sephiroth.

Zach looked at Vincent like he'd grown two heads, expecting the 'child' to not understand. He forgot who served as Sephiroth's guardian and how Sephiroth had to be intelligent by 'design' so he didn't mince his words for a child, otherwise Sephiroth would have been destroyed like so much refuse.

"I hate when that happens. I hate not knowing my own strength. My…my caretaker snuck in a puppy in for me and I…I was playing with it and I played too hard or moved too fast and... .and it died" Sephiroth said in between his knees, crying anew.

Vincent was awkward but he was trying. He patted the not blood mottled hair on Sephiroth's head and with a promise of possibly getting him another puppy, Sephiroth allowed him to carry him to the WRO in house hospital. As were getting closer, Vincent with an arms full of Sephiroth and Zach as support for his wayward friend, Sephiroth started to struggle after not so silently sniffing at the air, picking up all the subtle nuances of hospital smells and thinking of another place from his hidden childhood come to life.

"Please don't take me to the labs! I said I'd be a good boy! No more hurting, you promised!" Sephiroth all but wailed, struggling in his very adult, very heavy body, but Vincent subtly shifted him in his arms so he could see him.

"Sephiroth, remember I said that you were hurt earlier? I am taking you to the hospital, not the labs, so that they may look into your wounds, son. I will not let harm come to you further, this I do promise" Vincent said to Sephiroth and the title of 'son' not lost on either Sephiroth or Zach though neither commented because in Sephiroth's little heart, he'd wished this Vincent Valentine to be his father anyway. He was calming.

Vincent let him get down, but Sephiroth no longer struggled and held either hand that was close to him with his own gloved hand and clung to Vincent's side.

After they made their way to the Emergency room receptionist and explained slowly what had happened as a sparring accident, the good General was rushed back and checked thoroughly. Surprisingly enough, in the waiting room sat an indifferent Cloud. Zach knew that he'd cared about Sephiroth in his own way, he'd always had and he chose to wait with Cloud, one hair ruffle happening as he sat down to wait as well.

Sephiroth had to have a MRI to see the extent of the damage. He was also extremely claustrophobic.

Vincent removed his cowl and his claw and all other metal just so he could keep him calm. The staff realized that the General was very hurt and definitely not on his developmental level and were thankful for the man because he calmed Sephiroth. When Sephiroth struggled in the MRI, Vincent sighed softly and began to sing a Wutaian lullaby and this actually had Sephiroth nodding off to sleep.

He had gone to sleep and they left him there with his now bare thumb in his mouth as Vincent allowed the doctor to talk to him.

"He's healing quite fast but as you can see, yes he will experience some age confusion and memory loss as apparently, he is four at this time. With his physiology, it can be hours or days to heal a terrible concussion caused by swelling contusions. We can keep him or" and the doctor was cut off.

"No I will see to him. Due to his history, he has a…aversion to hospitals, clinics, and labs" Vincent finished the sentence on a low, uneasy tone, making the poor doctor jump.

"Very well, please let us know if he has any further strange behavior" the doctor stated.

With that, Sephiroth was redressed but still sleepy and therefore carried out like small child he was by Vincent.

Vincent said his goodbyes to Zach and Cloud, stating that he would keep them appraised.

Now the question now was being Sephiroth going to stay with him or would he tell Tifa hot on the heels of this scandal?