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Legacy of the Lifestream	By : butabara Category: Final Fantasy VII > General Views: 2387 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not Own FFVII or its affiliates. I make no money from this execise in literary creativity.

Chapter List
- 4
- 5
- 6
A.N. Okay. I was going to wait until I had a few chapters written before posting one... but I just can't wait! Even though its only been a month and a day since I finished Harmony's Melody... I missed these guys so much! (Stupid author, falling in love with fictional characters. *sigh* haven't we all?) *Ahem* Anyway... please enjoy. I promise to try to wait til tomorrow to post another chapter... hahaha. R&R!
Chapter 4: A Remnant's Devastation
Kadaj,
By the time you read this, you'll know that I'm staying in my world. I am so sorry to have to tell you this way. I wanted to leave with you. I wanted to spend as much of my life as possible with you. The Coven needs me. Without a High Priest or Priestess, our Coven would fall apart. With our Coven being the First Coven, if we fall, they all do, and I cannot bear the thought of holding that responsibility on my shoulders. I would never forgive myself. Sassi wanted to stay, but I'm not going to let her. I agreed that we would play a game of rock, paper, scissors to decide who stayed... but if she wins I'm going to push her through the portal anyway. She's having your brother's child, and she would never be safe here. Who knows how long it will be before the United States government finds out that I have been in Ireland all along? No, she would never be safe here, and the power inside of me will not allow me to leave her here. I'm staying, and she's going to go where she'll be safe.
I want you to take care of her, Kadaj. Keep her safe until I can get there. And please, don't be angry with her. It will take me five years to train someone to take my place. So in five years, Sassi and Aerith will open the portal from your side, and I will see you again. Please don't forget about me, Kadaj. I won't ever forget you.
I love you Kadaj. I do. More than you could ever imagine. You opened me up to love and forced me to accept you. You were so patient and gentle... even though you didn't have to be. The fact that you treated me so gently when you could have so easily broken me means more than you could ever know.
I love you. Is breá liom tú, Kadaj.
Níos mó ná mo shaol féin, mo ghrá,
~ Harmony "
Kadaj held the letter in his hands, reading it over and over again, eyeing the faded ink and the dark, dried spots where Harmony's tears had damaged the page. He clearly remembered that day. Before he even read the letter, he felt the dread and the knowledge fill him. He knew the moment she shoved Sassi backwards into the swirling vortex, that she was staying.
{Flashback}
"No!" He cried when the swirling winds began to weaken, the large tear in space seeming to sew itself back together. "Harmony! Harmony!"
His chest felt tight, his eyes stung, he couldn't seem to catch his breath as he fell to his knees, the overwhelming power seeming to disappear all at once.
"No." He whispered over and over. "No. No."
Behind him, Sassi stirred and let out a heart-wrenching sob. "She... she stayed!" The Cetra cried. Every face in the forest echoed the anguish painting her features, but none were as desperate as Kadaj.
"Why?" He screamed at Sassi. "Why did she stay?"
Sassi only sobbed harder, uneffected by his outburst. "She stayed so I didn't have to." She whimpered, falling into Loz's arms when the big man embraced her. Sassi struggled free and reached into her bag, pulling out a yellow envelope. "This should explain everything." She looked at Loz. "Harmony had one to give to you, too... in case I ended up staying."
The soft cries of Sassi and the other women in the clearing faded to the back of Kadaj's mind as he read the letter in front of him. When he reached the end of the letter, he also reached the end of his control. Balling his hand into a fist and wrinkling the precious parchment, he let his anguish out.
"You!" Kadaj zeroed in on Aerith, "You get over here and the two of you open this Godsbedamned portal! I'm going back for her!"
Aerith stuttered, on the verge of tears herself. "We can't! It wouldn't work, and if it did, it wouldn't be stable. Both of you would be trapped there with no way of ever returning!" She tried to reason.
Kadaj took a threatening step toward her, growling and backing off when Sephiroth placed himself between the Remnant and the flower girl.
He then turned his rage to Sassi. "Open it, right now! I'm not leaving this place without her!" He rushed Sassi, grabbing her clothed arms and shaking her, the woman letting out a small cry of pain as her shoulders were nearly dislocated. There were suddenly arms around his waist and shoulders, dragging him away from the redhead and pinning him to a tree near by. He snarled and bucked in his brothers' grasp, his raw voice screaming at them to let him go, screaming at Sassi and Aerith to open the portal, screaming at the Gods themselves for letting this happen.
"Calm down and I'll let you go." Yazoo said, trying to force Kadaj to look at him. He really wished he hadn't, though, when the youngest Remnant gave in and stopped fighting them. His bright eyes, glazed over with panic and denial, stared into Yazoo, the pain and betrayal evident in his gaze.
"She's still over there!" Kadaj whimpered, slumping down in their grasp. "We have to go back! Its not safe! I... I need her here! I l-love her..." Silvery tears escaped from blazing eyes, leaving clear tracks down the Remnant's dirty face.
Loz and Yazoo released Kadaj at the sound of that pitiful statement, watching with sad eyes when the youngest fell back against the tree once more, his legs giving out and forcing him to his knees on the hard forest floor.
Kadaj hadn't really and truly cried since the day that his sister died. Not like this. He was a Remnant, he was stronger than that.
None of that seemed to matter in the face of what he had just lost. Collapsing over his bend knees, he welcomed the sob that tore from his throat, his forehead resting in the dirt of the forest floor. His body shook, his hands pounding at the ground, near hysterical, incoherent cries being pulled from the depths of his soul. His head rolled to the side when he felt a hand rest on his back, and through his tears he could see the form of Sassi kneeling next to him, Loz at her side. Yazoo joined them on Kadaj's other side, and the three wrapped their arms around his weakened body, Sassi and Loz allowing their tears to join with the youngest Remnant's, and Yazoo fighting harder than he'd ever fought in his life, so that he wouldn't break down with his friends.
Swallowing thickly, his mouth dry and throat tight, Yazoo's soft voice barely carried over the sounds of emotional torment from beside him.
"Why didn't she say something?"
{End Flashback}
Kadaj sniffed and blinked when he realized that he'd zoned out, and his eyes were so dry they stung.
"Are you okay?" Came the quiet voice from the doorway. He looked up to find Hana standing there, empty suitcase in her hand. "I've been saying your name for five minutes." She explained.
"Sorry... I was just thinking about something."
Hana nodded. Although she was afraid of Kadaj's power, and the legacy inside of him, she had hoped that one day that would pass. That one day, when he spoke of her, his eyes would glaze over like they did when he spoke of the alien woman they'd seen today.
"I won't say that I never meant to hurt you." Kadaj stated. "I didn't want to, but I knew that this wouldn't work out. I wasn't over her then, and I'm not now. But I am sorry that this hurts you."
Hana nodded, blinking back her tears. "I know. You warned me, remember? 'If she ever comes back, I'm hers.' I had just hoped that... I could be enough."
Kadaj snorted. "You're terrified of me."
Hana nodded again. "Yeah. I am. Your power scares me. What you're capable of, and what you tried to do all those years ago scares me. But I hoped that someday, it wouldn't anymore. I guess I'll never have the chance to find out." She gave in and let a few small tears fall.
Kadaj stood and walked to her, and even after seven years he was surprised at the guilt and warmth in his voice. "Hana, you deserve better. I'm not right. I'll never be right. Not without Harmony. I was wrong to use you the way I did. You deserve someone who will look at you and see you. Not someone who will look at you and try and wish with everything that you were someone else."
Hana sobbed and laid her head on his shoulder. "I won't stay 'til tomorrow. I'm leaving tonight. I... I just can't sleep in the same bed as you, knowing that its the last time."
Kadaj nodded. "Do you need money for transportation?"
Hana sniffled. "No. A friend is picking me up. Don't worry." She said when she saw the guilt covering his face. "I'll be fine. It'll hurt for a while, but I'll be okay."
Kadaj nodded and watched as she turned away from him and packed her lacking wardrobe into her bag. Without another word or even a glance, she was gone.
Kadaj felt horrible as he sighed, because it was a sigh of complete and utter relief.
!#$%^&*()
Tseng stared at the text message displayed on his phone. He was shaking so hard he almost dropped it.
"What's wrong?" Elena asked as she and Reno leaned over his shoulder to read the text.
Tseng snapped out of his stupor and flipped his phone closed. "Lets go. We have to get to Sassi's. Right now."
"Boss, what's going on?" Reno asked, confused. Tseng was not a man to give in to panic, or impulse. Whatever that text was about, it was huge.
"Just get in the car. I'll get the President and we'll meet you outside. Go!" Tseng said as he stepped onto the elevator.
Five minutes later he was holding the door for Rufus, ShinRa's president just as confused as the rest of them, though infinitely more irritated at being kept in the dark.
"Please just trust me, Sir. You'll want to see this."
!#$%^&*()
"I don't fuckin' believe it!" Reno said, his voice hoarse. "We thought you'd never make it!"
Harmony smirked into Elena's shoulder and released her from the hug. "No one expects you to be clever, Reno. You do just fine as the muscle."
"Still a bitch, I see." He snarked.
"And you're still an idiot, so its all good." She fired back.
"How are you here?" Rufus asked, interested to hear how she'd crossed over.
"The same way that I'd thought to in the first place. I waited seven years. Sassi and I had made a deal that if I stayed, she'd open the portal after five years and let me cross over, but we're thinking that because she didn't have a full coven at her side, she didn't have the power to do it. After that day, when the portal didn't open, I went into a deep depression. I was sure that if the portal was ever going to open again, Sassi would be the one to do it. So I thought that maybe, because the Cetra had returned to her home world, all of the portals from our world to yours were sealed off, permanently." Harmony explained.
"But what made you go to Drombeg, if you had given up?" Tseng asked.
Harmony smiled and hugged her daughter closer. "It was Kiku. When I became depressed, she did everything she could to try to make me happy. Then, when the time came, she convinced me to take her to Drombeg. I never hid anything from her, I told her everything that I knew about you guys, and this world, and Sassi. I didn't want to go. I was afraid that I was setting myself up for more heartache, but Kiku wouldn't let up. She pulled a very Kadaj-like guilt trip, telling me that she deserved to know her father, and that if I didn't take the chance, she would never get to do that. So we went. And the portal opened. And I woke up in the Forgotten City."
"I get the feeling that you just called me manipulative." Kadaj's voice sounded from behind her.
Harmony whirled around. "Kadaj! Damnit don't sneak up on me!"
Kiku gasped. "Mommy said a bad word!"
Harmony winced. "Yes I did. I'm sorry."
Kiku resolutely shook her head. "Nope. You said it. I get to do it."
"What does she get to do?" Kadaj asked, walking further into the room and sitting across the table from Harmony.
"If I say a 'bad word', she gets to karate chop me." Harmony sighed. "Alright, get it over with."
Kiku grinned madly and raised her hand, delivering a solid blow to her mother's shoulder.
"Ouch!" Harmony said dramatically. "You sure taught me!"
The others laughed, Yazoo standing and making his way to stand beside the little girl. Taking her hand, he flattened her palm with his and rolled her wrist a bit. "That was very good, but if you did it like this, it would be much more effective."
"Don't teach her that!" Harmony squealed. "I'll spend the rest of my life one giant walking bruise!"
Yazoo ignored her. "You know," He told Kiku, "Your father and I teach karate. I own a dojo here in Edge. I would be happy to teach you."
Kiku's face brightened and she looked at Kadaj. "Really?"
Kadaj smiled, nervous. He wanted to get to know his daughter (even though he was still in shock at the fact that she even existed) but he was unsure how to go about it. He never really spent time with children in a positive way.
"How about it?" Yazoo interrupted his thoughts. "Want to be my student?"
"Yes! Yay! I'm gonna learn karate!" Kiku cheered.
"Your mother knows karate." Kadaj said quietly.
Kiku's eyes widened. "You do?" She asked her mother.
Harmony sighed and nodded. "Yes. But I'm really rusty. I haven't used it in a lot of years."
Yazoo shot her a disapproving look. "All that effort and time teaching you and you let yourself fall out of practice? Un. Acceptable." He shot a look at Kadaj, and then to the others in the room before settling his gaze back to Harmony. With what they faced from time to time, it wouldn't do to have her out of shape. "Dojo. Now." He said, leaving no room for argument.
"But... Hey! Let go! What about Kiku?" Harmony said as Yazoo pulled her to her feet and started pushing her for the door.
"She's coming too. We'll all go."
Harmony sighed and thought back to her first training session with Yazoo.
"I'm not going to be able to move at all tomorrow, am I?" She said, resigned. Yazoo smirked.
"Well, at least your memory seems to be intact."
- 4
- 5
- 6
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Legacy of the Lifestream