Runner shrugged helplessly. "Who knows? Anything from a few months to two years. I couldn't really say for sure. The Lifestream is what's maintaining it and there's no way of telling how strong the Lifestream is."

"Well, it's strong enough to create WEAPONs, so it should be able to keep up that barrier for long enough," Erratic said dryly.

Everyone looked at him in amazement.

"Good theory, elder brother," Politesse murmured.

"Okay, and how long do you think it'll stay up?" Storm asked Erratic.

"I haven't the faintest idea. But I suppose for a long time. Remember the stories our parents told us about those huge WEAPONs?"

"He has a point," Sephiroth put in. "The Lifestream cannot make WEAPONs to protect itself because they can't go out into space to neutralize the threat, therefore it is possible that it will continue to put up the barrier for as long as it can. Should they come down here, then only will it start making WEAPONs."

"Then why don't they just let the enemy come down here and make WEAPONs to destroy them? Why allow itself to be laid seige on?" Blazer argued.

"Why do something when you have other people to do that for you?" Lucrecia countered.

Blazer blinked. "I'm sorry, Lu, honey, but I got lost there," Magdalena added.

Storm winced. Simon noticed.

"Are you hiding something from us, Storm?" Simon asked.

Seeing her lover looking so reluctant, she gently laid a hand on his arm. "Tell them now," she urged. "They won't judge."

"Okay." Storm somehow managed to make himself look at everyone in the eye. "When Sephiroth was being resurrected, Aeris contacted me." He looked around at everyone else except Lucrecia who had various reactions. Simon and Magdalena gave him some weird kind of look, while Blazer and Erratic had their jaws hanging. Runner looked very surprised, while Politesse had brought down her sunglasses, her brown eyes very wide. Sephiroth had not other expression except for the raising of a silvery eyebrow.

"Contacted you?" Simon finally asked.

"Yes. She told me about a threat to the Planet, but she didn't specify what it was exactly. But she did hint that it was going to be very strong, powerful enough that we'd need Sephiroth's help. We now know what that threat is. How we're going to get rid of it... is going to be the problem of the Cetra in the Lifestream."

"Why the Cetra in the Lifestream?" Sephiroth asked curiously. "Besides their success in entombing Jenova once, what can they do? Most of them, no, make that ALL of them are dead. Exactly what are we going to do to aid them, or vice versa?"

"Okay, here's the weird part, then. We just help them send a signal up into space."

The silver eyebrow went up again. "Yes, you're right. That is weird. Pray tell, what exactly is our role in this?"

"What Storm means is," Lucrecia replied calmly, "that they have been contacting other Cetra in space. The signal they sending unclear. What we're supposed to do is get right out there and make some sort of beacon signal so the Cetra that are arriving know exactly which planet to aid."

Storm was so relieved he bent and kissed his girlfriend on the cheek.

"Yo, Storm? If them scientists are gonna do all the research and bullshit, what're we gonna do?" Blazer pointed out.

Storm smiled grimly. "We look for Hojo and flush him out. Then we get back here and start becoming engineers."

Suddenly, her sister's friend, Blazer, burst upstairs and strode to his room, which was on the same floor as her room. Is it just me, or is something wrong? she wondered. Ablaze with curiousity, she crept up to his door and heard what sounded like sobbing.

Her amber eyes went very wide. Blazer? Crying? Amazing! That man was so full of cockiness, arrogance... it was hard to imagine him crying. It must have been something very bad, she mused. Did he have someone he cared for that was injured? She decided to ask. If anything, she'd be able to do something to help comfort him.

Shyly, she knocked on his door.

"Who is it?" she could hear him, though the question came out kind of choked.

"It's me, Kira," she answered. "Blazer, are you okay?"

"No," he croaked. "Go away."

"Blazer, c'mon, lemme in," she coaxed. "What happened?"

Several tense minutes passed, feeling like hours. Finally, the door opened. Blazer's handsome face was tear-stained, his usually piercing eyes red. Akiranni widened her eyes. This was a very different man that who she usually saw horsing around at the cafeteria. "Blazer?" she asked in a gentle, inquiring tone. She reached up to wipe his tears away with a handkerchief she took out from her pocket.

"She's gone," came the inaudible reply. Blazer hung his head. "The whole house crashed on her." He turned to go back into his apartment.

Akiranni followed. "Who, Blazer?" she made sure her voice was soft.

"Candi!" Blazer cried, throwing a chair to the other side of the room. He fell to his knees, sobbing uncontrollably. "She was all I had... the only good thing in my life... and now she's gone..... dammit, I knew I should've taken her away from that hellhole!!"

"Candi?" Akiranni echoed, running to his side. She wanted to know more, but she knew it wasn't the time. He needed comfort, not someone grilling him for answers. She didn't know much about consoling other people, but all the same, she tried, putting her arms about him.

"My.... sister...." He pulled her close, crying into her shoulder.

Gods.... Blazer's sister died in the meteorite fall? Akiranni realized what a blow it must have been for him to find out. She could only imagine how he felt....

Not much longer to live, the doctor said of Rude. That was what had Elena crying. She only wished Rude would just wake up.... tell her he would be okay..... she didn't think she could bear it, losing this man whom she so dearly loved. It would be like having Tseng die all over again.

"Le...Na...." came the softest whisper.

"Rude?" Elena sat up, hoping that he would be okay.

"Re....no...."

"Right here, dude."

Rude opened his eyes turning his head to Erratic's direction. The young man nodded, tears in his eyes. Rude had been a good father to him, and Erratic found himself proud to have had two wonderful fathers taking care of him. While Reno had been irascible in parenthood, Rude was the stability in his life.

"Lita....?"

"Dad," Politesse's voice sounded calm, though it trembled a bit.

"Reno...."

"Yes, man?"

"Take care..... of Elena..... For me....."

"No, dude, you're supposed to do that."

Rude was shaking his head. His eyes were blinking rapidly; they all knew at one point, they'd close and never open again.

"Elena....."

"Rude!" Elena wailed, putting her arms about her husband of twenty-five years.

"I.... love.... you...."

"Yes... I know..." Elena sobbed. "Just live longer to tell me that some other time, okay? Rude... Rude? Answer me!!"

But Rude's body had gone very still.

"No," Elena whispered. "NO!" And she began keening, beating at her chest in sadness. Erratic and Reno ran to her side, putting their arms about her, trying their best with their useless male platitudes that everything would be okay. Runner took a deep breath and looked at Politesse, standing stiffly at her father's bedside. Tears flowed freely down from beneath her sunglasses. She turned to see the sight of her mother screaming in grief, her brother and his father consoling the woman they all loved.

She fled the room, walking out quickly. Runner followed. The hospital was filled with grieving people and the feel of death hung in the air. Politesse found a closet room, opened it and went inside. Runner also did that. Inside the small closet, the crack of the door let in enough light for him to see Politesse taking off her glasses and wiping her face. He handed her a tissue.

"I had to get away from there," she whispered.

He nodded in understanding.

"I didn't want to hear all that," she gestured, indicating the wailing they could still hear from that ward where her father just died.

She suddenly fell onto him, crying into his chest. "Oh, Runner," she choked. "Runner, I didn't get to tell him so many things...."

"Like...?" Runner asked as quietly as he could, not really wanting to make her more upset.

"Like you." She pulled away, looking up at him. "I... I lied...." she admitted. "About that other night...."

"I figured out as much."

She shooked her head. "Runner, I didn't get to tell him that I love you." She swallowed down a sob. "I... We...."

"Lita..." he began hesitantly. "If it makes you feel any better.... I love you too."

It must have been a bad thing to say, because she started wailing again. Runner helplessly held her close, unused to dealing with this more emotional side of her. When the round of crying stopped, he thought he heard her say something.

"Lita?"

He could barely hear her voice when she repeated her words. "I'm pregnant."

He stared at her. "You're pregnant? Are you sure?" A dozen possiblities ran through his head... many of them involving Erratic or Reno coming after his head.

She nodded, saying miserably, "I could have an abortion, if you prefer...."

"No!" he told her sharply. "No," he said more calmly, soothingly. "This is our child, Lita. I wouldn't want to make you do such a thing to it. Gods... A baby...."

"Yeah," she gulped a little on it. Then she smiled a little. "Erratic'll wanna kill you."

"And you had to remind me."

"I won't let him."

Runner smiled softly, embracing her. "That's very sweet of you, sweetheart. But I like to think I can hold my own against him." He kissed her cheek. "Now cry your heart out. Everything's going to be all right."

"Please, Vincent, my love," she whispered. "Please live." She held his good hand, kissing it. There was so much she wanted to do, so much to tell him. Things were still murky between them. There were still complications. Yuffie vowed that once Vincent was well, they were going to have a very long talk.

"Things are going to be a little different if he wakes up," Lucrecia told her mother wryly, coming in silently. Yuffie jumped at the sound of her daughter's voice. In so many ways, Lucrecia was like her father.

"Oh? Like what?"

"The infusion of human blood into Father is going to do something to him." Lucrecia's amber eyes twinkled. "It's going to... normalize him."

Yuffie stared at her daughter.

"He's going to start aging, Mother. Don't be shocked if suddenly he gets age lines while recovering. I say it'll take a few days. The Chaos genome has been neutralized by the blood donations. But he can still transform if he wants to.... he'll just be able to control it better."

Yuffie smiled gratefully. "Then I suppose the entire incident wasn't a total disaster."

"Don't think so, either," Lucrecia agreed.

"Now, how has Storm been?"

"Fine."

"You're hiding details," Yuffie chided her daughter, who smiled back. "Never mind. I don't really want to hear everything, anyway. Run along now, dear. I'm sure you'll want him all to yourself now."

"I wouldn't want to leave you alone, Mother."

Yuffie smiled. "I'm never alone... not as long as I'm close to your father."

Lucrecia stepped forward. "Then.... will you tell him? That you love him? And.... clear things up between you?"

The mother did not reply, so the daughter gave up, turning away.