Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Reunion ❯ Reunion ( Chapter 1 )

Title: Reunion
Author: GuiltyRed
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Word count: 995
Summary: After Advent Children, the Reunion still took place… (The fic didn't turn sexy, but there's always room for a sequel.)
Prompt: Sephiroth/Kadaj/Loz/Yazoo: foursome - “They completed him, they completed each other.”
A/N: Okay, confession time: I hatehatehate the “double-O” spelling of a certain name. It makes it look silly, a common enough problem with Westernized villain types but damn, what a waste. Do forgive me for inflicting my preferred spelling on everyone, but “Yazuu” just seems…right.



Though they were the last to arrive, they were the first to regain awareness, just as they had been the first to emerge from the Lifestream two short years ago. Loz and Yazuu blinked slowly, the events that had brought them here foggy in their memories. All they knew with any certainty was that they seemed to be somewhere unexpected, and they were together.

Together, but without Kadaj.

Yazuu reached for his gun before realizing it wasn't there - it had been destroyed in a tunnel, by a gleaming, sharp sword. His spare, too, was lost - dropped, after firing one last true shot.

In the silence of this place, he surmised he probably didn't need a weapon anyway. Besides, he had Loz.

The more they studied the blankness around them, the more details came into being, as though called by their need. First, ground: solid yet soft with the springiness of healthy grass. Then, shadow: terrain defined by varied light.

And finally sound: the low, desperate sound of a man weeping.

Yazuu looked at Loz as though verifying the sound did not come from him. Loz, in turn, frowned: he'd thought he was the only one who knew how to cry. He clasped Yazuu's hand in his and nodded, indicating they should follow it.

They found Kadaj before they found the weeping man. Their younger brother stood atop a low rise, looking down, his expression mild and perplexed. He turned at their approach.

For one moment, he did not seem to know them.

Then he smiled, brilliant and hopeful. “Loz! Yazuu! Come here, tell me what I've found? I know it's important, but I just can't remember why…”

The Lifestream flickered around them, tiny whirligigs of energy dancing through the grass. Above the whisper of wind that followed, the weeping sounded ever louder.

The three brothers stood on that small hill and looked down. A man sat on a bare patch of dirt, the grass and flowers torn loose and thrown as if they were poison. Long silver hair hid his downturned face. From his right shoulder, a single black wing drooped dejectedly; the flight feathers were gone.

“I know this man,” Kadaj whispered, “but I don't know why. I don't even know his name.”

Yazuu cocked his head, thinking. His own silver hair fell across his face, and he frowned. “He's our brother.”

“The one Mother wanted us to find,” Loz murmured, an uneasy feeling coiling in his stomach. “The one…” He looked sharply at Kadaj, remembering.

“We shouldn't be here,” Yazuu stated, taking a step back.

Kadaj looked from Loz to Yazuu, then back at the man in the dirt. His boyish face a determined mask, he set off down the hill.

His brothers locked eyes and then followed him.

Kadaj crouched in front of the man - angel? - and regarded him with what might have been the beginnings of compassion. “Don't cry. We're here now.”

The man - Sephiroth, his name was Sephiroth - looked up, his expression bleak. “It's all gone,” he whispered. “She took everything, but she won't let me die. I'm so tired…”

Kadaj leaned in and put his arms around the broad shoulders, as he used to do when Loz was crying. “But we're here.”

A flash of insight brought Yazuu up short, and he gasped. “But, we're him, aren't we? How can we be together here?”

Loz thought about this, then smiled and squeezed Yazuu's hand. “How can we not?” He led Yazuu closer to Kadaj and Sephiroth, driven by a sudden need for contact. Loz knelt, pulling Yazuu gently with him, then joined the embrace.

As the four touched, the Lifestream pulsed around them. Gentle shockwaves bent the grass and lifted the black feathers; silver hair blew back from green eyes.

Unnoticed, a gray-green shadow separated from them and spun away, shredding into barest memory as it went.

“I know you,” Sephiroth whispered, gazing at Kadaj. “You kept my dreams alive.”

Kadaj smiled and nodded. “They were good dreams, except when they hurt me.”

Sephiroth smiled sadly and caressed the youth's cheek. “I didn't know.”

Yazuu put his hand on Sephiroth's arm and squeezed. “It's over now. I don't think we can hurt here.”

“Mother's different here,” Kadaj stated firmly. “I… I think we have a new Mother now.”

As though in a dream, Sephiroth turned to look at Loz. “And you, you're my strength, my SOLDIER-ness, as it were. You're me, when I still believed in honor.”

Loz ducked his head, awkward at the center of attention. “I protected my brothers,” he murmured. “I'll protect you too, now, if you need me.”

Voice thick with emotion, Sephiroth shook his head. “You've always been with me. I just cast honor aside for madness, and forgot why I should care.”

Yazuu edged away slightly, not certain he wanted to hear what might be said about him. But Sephiroth gripped his wrist and met his gaze, and smiled. “And you. Everything I once loved about myself. Everything that refused to live in chains.”

Yazuu gaped, then looked away. “I lived for Mother as much as the rest of us,” he whispered, mildly ashamed and not knowing why.

Strong, gentle fingers touched his chin and brought him back around to face the appraising stare. “But you died for your brother.”

Memory flooded the three: those last, desperate moments as Kadaj fell, and what came after.

“But,” Yazuu whispered, “how do you know that?”

Sephiroth scowled. “I'm not sure. I just…know.”

Kadaj hugged Sephiroth more tightly than before. “Then it's all right now. We're here, together.”

“Yeah, that's right,” Loz added, grinning. “Together.”

Yazuu smiled softly and allowed himself to be drawn into the group embrace without reservation. He could feel the essence of each of them pooling together and yet remaining distinct, too strong and too stubborn to be diluted by the Lifestream. If they were destined to remain this way, so be it.

Together felt even better than he had dreamed.