Welcome to Gaia! ::

At first Don just thought that Genesis was trying to get things off of his mind by showing some concern for her by distracting himself. But when he kissed her hand and mentioned the kids it all changed. Maybe he thought...she was...his wife? Creepy! She was clearly dead and it was rather obvious that she wasn't her! But how should she point it out? If she made it a bit too obvious she was afraid of crushing his feelings and perhaps sending him into a worse depression than he was already in. Yet, if she let him continue this way he would clearly become dillusional...or maybe angry at her for playing along? Was this a test?

"Um...G-Genesis...are you feeling okay?" She asked slowly. "Did you get enough sleep?" Maybe he was too tired to think straight?


Darkness stared up at his mother wondering why she wanted alone time. He felt perfectly fine spending time with all of his siblings around, it wasn't too bad. Why was she deciding to do this now? "Um...well okay." Darkness wondered where he even wanted to go with just his mother. "How's about...just taking a walk around town?" He found physical activity to be very relaxing.


Adonia's eyes turned to Lina slowly before returning to face forward, watching as Evante was still curled up in his blanket snoozing the day away.

Lumaria then re-entered the living room and smiled at the girls that were awake. "Come into the kitchen, breakfast is ready."

Adonia went over and got into a seat, staring at the plate of food that was set in front of her. She poked at it slowly before taking a bite and decided that it wasn't what she really wanted. "I don't like this..."

"Eat some of it, you need the food to keep some energy about you."

Her eyes turned back to it and she started to poke at it again, trying to eat it without thinking of the poor taste it had.

By this time Saix had awoken and entered into the kitchen looking rather disgruntled. Evante had followed him in, and he soon helped him up in a chair. "How's everyone's morning going?"

Evante sat there for a bit before figuring out that he was at the table. He picked up his fork and poked at his food, munching on it, and found that it was pretty good. He continued to eat and stared between Lumaria and Saix. It still felt weird having so many dads... he was starting to get confused. "Good. What are we doing today?"

Adonia set her fork down, "I want to go home now."

"I talked to your father and he said you can go home in a little while, all right? You have to eat your breakfast first."

Saix didn't think that'd really persuade her to finish it off anytime soon. He sat down beside her and faced the grumpy child. "Did you get enough sleep last night?" He watched her shake her head. "I see. How's about you eat..." he cut up her food into some portions, "This much of it...and then you can be done...and get some more sleep before you go? That way you'll be wide awake to see your dad."

Adonia then BURST into tears and starting crying loudly, "I just wanna see my daddy! I don't WANT to eat!" She pushed her food away and continued to pout and cry.

At first Lumaria wasn't sure how to react to her tantrum. Death's kids had never done that before, at least not in that affect. He looked at Saix in hopes that the man would take care of the situation. Afterall, he was only entitled to Death's kids, not Don's.

Saix picked her up and took her out of the kitchen, trying to calm her down. "There's no sense in crying, he'll be here...just give it some time." He noticed she wanted to resist being picked up by him. To him he just thought that it was because she just wanted her father, but in all effect she was starting to become scared of adult men because of the man that had not only shot her mom, but through her into the discount bin. She had never been that roughly thrown about before and it had terrified her. "Calm down...here..." he set her in a chair, watching her retract away from him.

Of course, being upstairs didn't make things instantly sound proof. Darkness could hear Adonia's wailing cries from the baby's room. "She sounds pretty upset."

Don was petrified at his actions. She couldn't move from her spot as he had screamed at her like she had tempted to swoon him over or something. Hell, that was far from her intentions. She tried to dress differently than her older self...

She could only assume that it failed miserably. Don waited until the car could be heard moving out of the driveway before she started to pick up the broken plate on the ground and throw away the food that fell all over. She set the utensils in the sink, not realizing that her older self would have done the dishes instead of letting it sit in there, and resettled the table back into its spot. At first she began to set it back into a perfect position when she realized how terrible that would be to remind him of her older self's cleaning habits. She jammed her hip into the table and watched it bump off center before she sloppily pushed her chair in. Dejectedly she walked outside to the backyard hoping he wouldn't want to come find her when he came back. Maybe it would be better if she did leave? He was obviously upset by her very presence...

Carefully she pulled up her hood on her sweatshirt to conceal herself, walking over to the swings. Down she plopped onto one, the crappy feeling of the seat mashing her hips as she gently pushed herself with her feet, though not going into a full swing. "What am I doing here?" She asked allowed. "I feel like...I'm just a giant obstacle in everyone's happy lives here..."


Adonia started to calm down from crying once Death approached her. She kept wiping at her tears on her face and continued to mumble how she wanted her father.

Saix was surprised at her quick transition from throwing a tantrum to just crying. It was odd, because he had noticed she had pulled away from him yet not from Death. Perhaps she just dispised him?

No...that didn't make sense, she never hated him before.

Her red eyes glared over at him, "Go away!"

Maybe he just hurt her when he picked her up? Could have been possible... He shifted the baby and moved to head back into the kitchen but heard her shriek some more. He glanced back and noticed she was yelling at Darkness and Veziell as well.

"Go away!! Just go away!! I hate you! I don't want you near me!!" She grabbed up the toy she was near and threw it at them, a pitiful toss since it landed at their feet.

Darkness wasn't sure what made her dislike him either, but he turned to look at Lina and Veziell, "We should go to the kitchen...let her cool off..." He went in after Saix and took a seat.

"She sounds rather distraught."

"She's just upset, she'll be fine when Genesis gets here..." Saix took a seat and rubbed Siot's back gently, listening to the baby garble and giggle.

Adonia wiped at her tears once more before stopping, eyes landing upward at Death. She shook her head slightly, as if she didn't want to explain. But as she was being comforted she finally spoke up, "They're...just too scary...I don't like them..." she grabbed onto Death's shirt front and buried her face within the confines of it.

Saix looked over at Veziell as he begged to stay there. It was true that Ixas lived here while the rest of them had left...it couldn't be that hard. Besides, there were now three capable adults around to help out, so it'd still be a breeze to take care of them all at once.

"I don't see why not..."

"We should probably discuss this a little further, Saix." Lumaria didn't want to say 'yes' and then have Genesis really want to help Veziell. Although, he had a feeling that Genesis wouldn't care to even look at the boy. "Then again....what's there to think about? If it makes you happy to stay here then that's all should matter."

Saix was glad that Lumaria decided to accept it as it was. They didn't want to say no in front of Veziell...and besides, to him if Lumaria really didn't want to take care of Veziell then he would. He didn't mind the kid so much.


Sephiroth looked up at his beautiful wife and he rose to his full length. He eased a shirt on to be somewhat more presentable and brought his eyes toward the small child, "Be good, hmm?" He moved over to his wife and gave her a passionate kiss, "He's learning quickly...our boy will be a wonderful fighter in no time." He then ascended the stairs, not even noticing the fact that Rathe was sitting in the same room.

Rathe watched this happen and felt sullen. He was pretending to ignore them the entire time as he did his studies. He was trying to be smarter for when he started kindergarten, but learning how to do the alphabet all by himself made him feel miserable. He didn't understand any of it. He didn't bother for asking for help. His 'parents' said he'd learn along with everyone else.

He repositioned the crayon in his hand again and tried again, scribbling out a terrible looking 'A'. What made things worse was he kept getting this inkling feeling...a terrible feeling that his 'parents' didn't love him as much as they loved their real child. He was the ******** up creation of Xehanort and Thetic, neither parent of which dared to visit him. Maybe he was just a sore spot in their memory? Or...maybe they just forgot him altogether? Typical. No one had ever liked him before.

He continued to glare at his paper and tried another sloppy A, holding back tears as he tried to forget all about it. He was good at acting like he was perfectly fine...but he wished that he could make others suffer like him. That would make him feel much better...

His eyes went over to his 'brother' and he continued to stare. He wished he had a friend.

Sephiroth noticed Genesis's stricken look. The funeral was obviously still bearing heavily on him. "Genesis, can I help you?" He asked softly, wondering what could make him this upset.

Adonia clung to her as they were on the bed. She thought about what was so scary about them, who was terrorizing her mind at the moment. "Saix...and Lumaria...they're...they're just scary..." She clung to her. "They're all scary. They're...big...and...and they're going to hurt me. I know they will...they look mean....they...they..." she started to tear up again, "They might kill someone....like they did to momma.." Her voice was hardly above a whisper as she spoke, the memory of being torn away from her dying mother resurfacing once again.


Darkness poked at his food as the decision was agreed upon that Veziell would be staying. He felt glad that Veziell got his wish, but he also felt slightly bitter. He wished that Ixas was here instead.

Evante poked at the remains of his food before looking at Saix, "Will...she be okay?"

"Of course, don't worry about it. You can say goodbye to her whenever Genesis gets here, all right? She'll be perfectly fine. She just wants her father is all."

Evante continued to stare at him, "I thought you couldn't always get what you wanted." He sounded almost salty about the situation, relating to his own problem that he had to separate from his father and could only see him whenever Marluxia dared to come over.

Lumaria decided to speak up on the subject for Saix. "You can't...but in her type of situation it's important that she's around her father. It's important that kids who are hurting get the care and things that they need and want to help balance their emotions."

Evante looked back at his plate. No one ever thought that way for him.


Sephiroth listened to his complaints about the girl haunting him in a way. He thought it over, wondering what the options really were for Genesis. "Well...if it's causing you that much grief...perhaps you should make her stay at someone else's house. But...if you don't want to part with her, then you'll have to explain to her what's going on. The best way to solve the problem is to confront it directly. If you tell her what you're telling me...she will probably think of a solution."

He sat down at his own spot in the living room and started to toss the thoughts about. "Your decision is weighed on whether you want to get rid of all the reminders of Don...or whether you want to cling to them and make something new of what's there. She's not the same person and you know you can't pick up where you left off....but I suppose that doesn't mean you can't create something of it."

Rathe had given up on the alphabet once he reached 'G' and had surfaced to look at the two having the serious conversation. He wished he could be over at Genesis's...to be friends with Adonia and Veziell. He remembered how misfitted he was against all the other children. He was a secret for so long, and then an abomination. He remembered being hurt and hated from everyone. Now he was shielded from all of that...except subtle hints that his 'parents' often showed toward their little baby.

He went over to Sephiroth in a shy manner, eyes still set on Genesis. Gently he held out his hands to be pulled into Sephiroth's arms and felt himself be picked up and held.

"That's another thing that should concern you, Genesis....the kids. Are they upset that she's around as well? Or...is it just you?" He patted Rathe's back as the child sat with him. Normally he wouldn't do that, cautioning that holding a child too much would spoil them, but he had noticed Rathe had recently been keeping to himself more than usual. He thought it best to get him on a closer level to find out what the kid was thinking.

Adonia laid there thinking about the incident, the terrible nightmare of remembering her mother dying happening over and over...and each time she kept seeing that man...

But he'd change every time she thought about him, as if different people were killing her mother. She could see Saix there, even Lumaria. There was Zexion and Marluxia, and even--dare she think it--her own father. She started to cry again and curled up in a tight ball. "I'm scared...that someone's going to hurt her...." She turned to face Death now, face strewn into confusion and worry. "The lady back home. Is she going to get hurt...too? I don't want to lose momma again..." She sounded possessed, like she couldn't recognize the difference at times between the younger Don and her real mother.


Saix was surprised at her outburst and he rose, giving Siot to Lumaria. "I'll go make sure she's all right." He went off toward her room in hopes that she wouldn't mind talking to him. In a way, they hadn't really had much time alone. Would she still care for him the way she used to so long ago? He knocked on her door and opened it up slowly, hesitating toward the door. "Lina?"

Evante, of course, was expecting her to blow a fit. It always seemed whenever he wanted something she'd get antsy over it. She got her wishes...he never did. In fact, he had stopped wishing two years ago.

"Why does Lina hate me?" Evante asked Lumaria. "I can understand her being upset that I want to be with my dad...I do sound selfish. But...my dad's alive. Adonia and Veziell can't see their mom anymore...they can't do anything about that. But I can at least see my dad, but none of you want me to. We want the same thing...yet I get yelled at for it.."

"It's just your timing, Evante."

Evante glared, "No, it's always been this way! I don't want to be in this family anymore!"

"Evante, you're being irrational. Your mother should mean a lot to you--"

"She doesn't! She ruined everything for me! She never cared! It was always nice things about Lina's dad... but no one ever liked mine. I never got to hear about him. Ever. She made me feel like being his son was a terrible thing...like I should be...be fatherless instead." Evante got out of his chair, "She made me scared of him...like he was going to hurt me. He never wanted to hurt me. She made it all up. She just didn't want my daddy around me because she's the selfish one. And she's got Lina thinking it, too. And you as well!" His eyes went to Darkness, "And you, too. All of you think he's a bad man. And...she made him say sorry for no reason! Like he actually did bad things. I know he didn't, you all are...are mean for thinking he hurt me!"

Lumaria handed Siot over to Darkness quickly and got up, scooping up Evante before he could struggle to get away. "Evante, that's not our intention at all, and whatever has been said or hasn't been said about your father shouldn't matter. I think you're upset because Adonia's upset. Am I right?"

Evante struggled to get away, "Let me go! It has nothing to do with her." He found his struggle to be useless as it was tiring him out.

"I think it is. You're getting hyped up because she's not feeling well. You two mirror each other a lot. I'll bring you up to her, how's that?" He moved before Evante could even say anything, the toddler struggling to get away from Lumaria's grasp.

Darkness held Siot as it was left down to him and Veziell. So much for hanging out with his mom today, right? It seemed everyone was throwing tantrums right and left.


Sephiroth didn't take her words for granted, only snapped his fingers at the child and watched him instantly sit down like a dog. He had them well trained. "Is it just her physical attributes that cause your memories to keep coming up? If it is you can ask her to cover up more. If it's just her presence in general...there isn't much you can do but to cope with what you're feeling and know that it'll pass." Sephiroth watched the younger child soon get up from the spot that he had been sitting and dangerously came at him with the sharp object. He neatly plucked it from his hands and soon picked up the boy as well, cradling him into his arms. Of course, as soon as the younger child caught sight of Rathe he started to push him out of Sephiroth's lap, not wanting to share the fatherly figure.

Rathe moved more to the side, now out of the boy's grasp, but also no longer touching his father as well. It hadn't stopped the younger kid to continuously try and hit him though.

Sephiroth grabbed onto the fists that the child was trying to bash Rathe with and held onto them gently, whispering a 'stop' to the boy to cease his actions. "It's only been a few days, Genesis, you're not going to know what to do right off the bat. Give yourself some time to recover...and maybe give yourself some time to actually think things through. They're two completely different people...maybe you'll realize that and find it easier to say goodbye?"

Adonia stared at her and nodded, "Daddy always knew how to make things better." She pushed her head further into the pillow. "I wish he'd get here faster..." She wanted him to read to her as he usually did when she was feeling upset. It was always the same thing, but she loved listening to him anyway. His voice comforted her.

Saix came in closer and took a seat on her bed, giving her a comforting pat, "I can understand your frustration toward his actions, especially since it hurts your mother a lot...but I think there's more to it than Evante purposefully acting out this way. You know that he was brainwashed...I'm not sure that the affects ever wore off. Marluxia was the stimulus for him to speak, so when we left Evante stopped talking because Marluxia wasn't around. He's been severely influenced by his father... I think he still might be brainwashed, that's why he defends Marluxia so much. It might seem odd since he should have recuperated during Marluxia's absence, but he can't recover properly without the correct treatment." Saix glanced over the room trying to think of how else to describe the issue. "At his age...it's hard to tell if he'll recover. Brainwashing is treatable...but he's young. His minds impressionable. It'll take...many years for him to understand. So...try to give him some more leeway. At least don't yell at him too much."

Lumaria entered into the room containing Death and Adonia. He gave a faint smile as he held the extremely displeased Evante. "Evante's very upset because he's concerned about you, Adonia. So...I hope you don't mind spending some time with him." He noticed she looked somewhat terrified of his appearance, but didn't take any precaution on it. He set Evante down beside her before moving toward the door, "Death, darling...whenever you're available I'd like to speak with you." He hinted that it was about Evante without directly saying or pointing it out. He then left.

Of course, once Lumaria was gone Adonia threw her arms around poor little Evante and started to cry.

Evante's sullen attitude started to turn more toward pity as she kept crying. "Why are you crying?"

"B-Because!" She squeaked, "Because I thought he hurt you!" She sniffled a bit, "He...he looked...like he was going to hurt you..."

Evante didn't think that Lumaria would ever hurt him, and his grasp was far from painful. But he let her continue to cry on him anyway knowing that she would have found SOME opportune moment to attach to him. "He can't hurt me..." he hesitated to think of the right words, "I'm too...too tough for him." He noticed her smile soon reappear on her tear-stained face. He hardly thought that way though. The only time he ever played himself up was to get Adonia to feel better, and she always did when he made such comments. His eyes finally went over to his mother but soon diverted away, almost falling back into his sullen attitude he had when he first arrived.

Darkness listened to Veziell, wishing he could give him some confidence or at least tell him that there was someone out there that loved him still. "I...think it's just an age thing. I used to want my father all the time even though I had my mom and Saix. I guess it's hard to break away from something like that. I'm...not sure how I stopped pursuing him. I guess it's because I knew he didn't want to communicate at all, so...I gave up. Maybe...maybe Evante might see that as well."

He rubbed Siot's back gently, "If you stay here I know my mom and dad will care for you just like they do for the rest of us. That's how it was for Ixas. And..." Darkness shrugged, "Maybe your dad will come back?"


Sephiroth nodded a few times, "Oh, definitely. Adonia might become extremely attached to her and you don't even know if she's going to stick around for that long. Wouldn't want her to think she's losing her mother all over again..." He watched the youngest soon snatch onto his hair and tug on it, then he found the button on Sephiroth's shirt front. Without much hesitation he began to chew it off. Sephiroth's eyes went down to him and he frowned, "Don't--" but the child pulled back and Sephiroth noticed the button was gone from his shirt. He tapped the boy on the chin and he opened up for Sephiroth to glance inside his mouth before he sighed, giving his boy another tap on the chin to close his mouth. "Swan! He swallowed another button!" His attention went back to Genesis, "Anyway...who do you think would take her in? Everyone seems too content with their families to want to disrupt their lives with her presence. And...though it might seem an exaggeration, but I'm not sure a person in the group might care enough to help you out. People can be selfish." He placed a hand over another button as the child was about to go in for another one. "If you're hungry go ask your mother for food." At first the child stared at him with big eyes before making a small gesture for food. Sephiroth gave a nod, "Yes, go tell your mother." Instantly the boy slid off of Sephiroth and started to run to the kitchen, but turned back and gave a powerful punch to Rathe's leg before bolting off.

Sephiroth gave a small sigh and put his arm around Rathe, "You'll be fine."

He didn't even have time to reply with 'ow' when Sephiroth said that. He looked up at him and felt assured that he would be fine so he sat there silently instead. No sense in complaining...

Yet still...he really wanted to wallop that kid back one of these days. Sometimes he wondered how dumb he really was and why the kid was still around. He would have dropped him in a garbage can by now if he were the parent of the kid.


Don had gotten up from her position on the swing and started to go for a small walk on the grassy area behind the house. It was pretty expansive and pretty, but beauty was far from her mind at the moment. She wasn't sure if she could ever help Genesis. She wished Zexion was around, but he had to go get..man-raped by some hoochie scary guy. And from all she knew everyone didn't care about her or her friend Death...

Talk about living in a shitty world. Such was life, right?

Life didn't go through time vortexes though. This was just stupid. "******** you, world! ******** you HARD!" She screamed, her voice causing a few birds to flutter away. "You might as well do something more than just THIS, right? Make it more difficult, I dare ya!" She stood then in the silence, the last little echoes of 'I dare ya!' going throughout the place. "God this sucks balls," she muttered and went back to walking, watching the crows float back into their positions finding her disruption to be rather unimportant.

Lumaria nodded at her as he followed her. "He was throwing a fit...saying he wanted to be around his father. He...mentioned that all of us were lying about Marluxia's previous behaviors toward him. Evante said that Marluxia was nice to him and we're putting him out to be a bad person so he'll forget his father." He hesitated and grasped onto her arm, "Death, I'm afraid his problem is finally surfacing. Two years he's been silent...he's finally vocalizing his problems and issues with all of us now. I think...it would be best if we found a way to get him into some type of therapy. In a way I feel like he's starting to get worse as the days go on when he doesn't see his father. When Adonia leaves I know he'll relapse back into the tantrum he was having earlier...."

Saix shook his head at her thoughts. He...had wondered whether it was a good thing to think that Marluxia could handle the child better. "Your mother loves your brother a lot, and she loves all of you equally. I think now that she has support from Lumaria and myself she can spend time with all of you individually..." He looked over at her. "It's complicated to explain the issue with Evante. You see...I fought very hard to keep the three of you together so that your mother and I could be together and raise a family. I knew their fathers weren't...loyal...or stable enough to keep a child by themselves. Marluxia has changed though. He is capable...but you see, your mother wouldn't want to give him up. He means too much. She would feel the same way with you as well, or Darkness, or Siot. She's attached to all of you..."

But... "I think once things start to settle down, though...Evante will be allowed to be with his father more often. We're just readjusting to the death and bringing in Veziell, plus situating ourselves from our return. It's hard to have patience with these things...but soon enough I think you'll see that what we're working toward will make sense."

Darkness thought it over and gave a small nod, "Yeah, I don't see the point in getting upset over anything. I guess it's because...it might help you feel better, but it doesn't solve anything. It's nice to be optimistic." He watched as Siot started to snooze on him. "I like helping my mom out, especially when it comes to Evante and Siot. I guess I feel like I owe her...for when I was a total brat. And...this is just one way to show that I care. My family means a lot to me. I've always noticed that Evante felt outcasted, so I became the usual 'big brother' to him. I don't want him to resent me when he gets older. Yeah he can be a pain...but in my mind, if anything happened to the adults in my family I would want him to be able to find support from me instead of feel torn about having no one to go to."


"Genesis, she has thousands of kids running amuck in her household, plus plenty of men to make her lifestyle questionable. If you're going to ask her I think you should direct it towards if she knows anyone more than if she could stay with her. And perhaps you should confront Don about it as well. She might feel uncomfortable if you plan this behind her back." He heard smashing noises going on in the kitchen until it abruptly stopped. "Unless you're afraid to bring it up to her..."

Rathe wondered what this 'younger Don' person was like. "Why doesn't she stay here?"

There were a few more crashing noises when Sephiroth looked over at Rathe, "You know how your brother is around strangers. I'm not sure if he can handle it."

Rathe wanted to comment 'lock him in a closet, then' but decided not to press Sephiroth's buttons. "But she's a lady...he always likes it when it's a girl." He was trying to find some type of solution to get her there. Maybe she'd be friends with him? He wouldn't mind having a friend...

Sephiroth tried to remember what happened last time there was a girl in their house. He distinctly remembered the boy being a flirt and clinging to the poor thing the entire time she was there. Of course, by this time the boy was already back out there with one hand stuck in the jar of jelly. He dashed right up to Genesis and gave his knee a smack with the jar before running off down the hallway, a trail of jelly starting to follow him.

Sephiroth knew that somehow...someway...Swan was going to link the boy's irrational behavior to him and that HE would have to clean up the mess and punish the boy.

Such was his luck.


Marluxia was sitting there with Asi already. He was flipping through a few of the magazines containing Asi's picture, noticing how nice he always looked. It was like he didn't even need to be digitally enhanced anywhere. "Good morning," he commented to the younger Death.

Asi looked up at her and smiled, "Did you sleep well?" He had earlier gone and personally went to Marluxia's room to see how he was doing and the two of them had a nice morning chat. It had been a long time since he had anyone over, so the feeling of being able to talk to him was refreshing...attracting, almost. He wondered if he was just that desperate for a good conversation or if it was about Marluxia. He hadn't thought it was Marluxia...but it was hard to tell. His sweet scent had always made him more alluring, but perhaps everyone felt that way around the pink-haired man?

Lumaria continued to hold onto her as she had brought him down to the floor. He listened to her crying and rubbed her back gently, "It's okay, Death, things will work out. Evante will get better and you won't have to feel so stressed."

Saix went over and grabbed onto Lina's shoulder calmly, looking out to see the problem. "It's okay, Lina, I'll see what the problem is. You know..." He turned and faced her, bending down to be at her height. "Why don't the two of us spend some time together? I've missed out on a lot and I want to hear all about it. I'll make sure your mother is fine and that Lumaria can take care of the other kids. How's about it?"

Adonia jumped as she heard the screaming and grasped onto Evante, her eyes began to water again. All she could think about was her mother in pain. "H-H-He's...he's hurting her!! Evante, he's hurting her!" She started to shake him, "H-He's gonna make her silent...and go away forever..."

Evante grabbed onto her hands and pulled them away, "No, she's fine. She's just crying because she's upset. Women do it all the time, that's what they're made to do. At least...I remember being told that by someone..."

"Oh...why is she upset? Did...did we do something? Or is she scared of Lumaria, too?"

"I don't know. I don't care." He pointed at her, "Shouldn't you be worried more about yourself? You keep crying."

"Because they're scary...they're going to hurt everyone like they hurt me before."

Evante listened to her and wondered what she meant. He didn't understand the connection about her mother's death, so he literally thought that Lumaria had hurt her. "Do they want to hurt you for a reason?"

Adonia thought it over before she shook her head, "I don't know. They....they just didn't like momma...so they hurt her, too....and then they weren't happy...so they want to hurt me to make themselves happy."

It sounded really twisted and sick in his mind. "I promise they won't hurt you...because if I they do then...then I'll show them!" He grabbed onto her hand, "And...and they'll pay for hating your momma. They'll pay for hating my dad, too. We can get back at them."

Adonia shyly hid her face, "But I'm scared...what if we can't?"

"Oh we will...I'll..I'll make sure of it."


Rathe continued to sit there as Sephiroth rose from his spot and had found the riling child easily enough. He gently pulled his hand out of the jar, and Rathe noticed how eased and completely calm Sephiroth was during the whole thing. It was as if Swan's yelling made no impact on him, though he did as he was told.

He noticed how Sephiroth continued to hold onto him while he cleaned up the rest of the mess quickly and efficiently, soon rising to his full length again as the place was back to its orderly fashion. And then Rathe noticed the look on Sephiroth's face, as if he hadn't cared that the boy was being reckless. He...didn't understand. He would have never gotten away with making such messes. He knew for every bad action he made there was always a reaction...

"You need to be a good boy, do you understand me? You can't play with knives all the time. Don't give me that look, you know you're not supposed to act that way. You're going to get cleaned up and then you're going you know where until you can behave."

Rathe watched as the joyful face soon contorted into tears. Rathe knew exactly what would happen. Sephiroth would wash him up, dress him in clean clothes, and then set him in his crib. He obviously outgrew cribs awhile ago, but this one was...different. Rathe would describe it as a prison cell with a top on it...mostly because they found out that the brat could climb like there was no tomorrow. But still, all the while that devil sat in there it was utterly silent. It was the only thing that Rathe enjoyed about his 'little brother'. He didn't utter a single noise. He couldn't. The kid was broken or something. And during his time out it meant more freedom for Rathe. No annoying child running around trying to hit him, no screams to shatter his ears. It was silent and enjoyable.

Not that his punishments ever exceeded ten minutes. That also irked Rathe. HE always had extensive punishments that would last for weeks if he were to pull anything like that. But no, ten minutes max for the blubbering baby.

Just thinking about it started to fuel his hatred for the kid. He was jealous that he got so much attention, so much pity! He was just a stupid kid and got away with being stupid! He hated how ten minutes would pass of silence, and then he could always hear the creak of the prisonous crib opening, and then having to see Sephiroth carry the boy around as the child would act as if he was punished for years. It did make him calm down, but it made him clingy to the point that Rathe never got time around either parent. He felt as if the child was eating away the time he used to have with them...

Silently Rathe moved from the room up to his own, sitting down near his window to stare out at the city before him. The beautiful expanse of the dreamy world that he thought would bring him happiness was now just a rotting hell he despised.

He wanted other people to suffer the way he did....he wanted to make everyone suffer.


Asi gave a few nods, "Well what can I say, when you're rich like me you can afford the best stuff. Glad you're enjoying it." He took a sip of his drink and then smiled, "I don't think having kids around would be that bad. I mean...not that I've ever experienced them about that much..." Or really ever.

Marluxia realized the tenderness of the subject and gave him a reassuring smile, "Well, maybe when Death and the kids are situated we can have...Evante over a few times? He's a very good boy, he does what he's told."

"Yeah, yeah that'd be great!" Asi remarked quickly and then thought it over, "I mean. I don't mind at all. He needs some time with you...and I know you were concerned about him. Even if it's just brief visits he can do what he wants...or have something if he likes it."

Marluxia was surprised at his words but knew that Asi was coming from a perspective that materialistic objects were never-ending. "Well, I think he enjoys people's presence more than toys."

Asi heard it the wrong way, though. "Uh...but aren't presents toys as well?"

Marluxia cracked a smile at that, "No no...not presents as in gifts."

It took awhile to register before Asi nodded, "Ooooh...riiiiight." His eyes then went to Death, "So...aside from escaping hell, how else has your stay been here in fantasy land?"