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Reborn: Memory I

Incident 01: Jenova Bloom

Rufus didn't know who sent him the flower, but to say the least it was odd. "It looks like natural materia inside a flower," Tseng commented about the anonymous gift that had been investigated, cleared of suspicion and set upon Rufus' desk. But as it would be soon discovered, the investigation was not good enough.

"Strange..." What surprised Rufus the most was not the odd plant, but the fact that anyone would send him flowers. Though Shinra had reformed, he wasn't exactly the most well liked man around.

"We were not able to trace who gave you this unusual present, but it doesn't contain any explosives or toxic chemicals," Tseng reported.

One thing was for sure, Rufus needed to learn not to stick his nose where it doesn't belong, quite literally... Curiously, the young president lifted the small vase containing the strange flower with the unusual center, which did in fact resembled natural materia. He brought it to his face, taking a deep breath without perceiving any scent. He tried again, putting his nose into the bizarre flower, then he felt a bite and screamed in a very nasal tone, "it bit me!"

Tseng sprung into action trying to pull the flower off Rufus's face. But pulling it resulted painful for the young president, so the Turk's hand was slapped away.

"Get it off! Get it off!" Rufus ran around in circles, jumped and flailed in an all out panic.

"That's what I'm trying to do, stay still!" Once again Tseng tried to pull the odd flower off Rufus' nose but his hands were slapped away once more.

"Don't pull it, get it off!" Rufus yelled in anger and agony.

Then, unexpectedly, the flower released Rufus, who was left with a very red nose. "It's not moving..." Tseng grabbed a pen from Rufus' desk and cautiously poked the flower on the floor, but there was no reaction.

"My nose!" Rufus, who was known to be a vain pretty boy, held his abused nose and continued freaking out. "Is it even still there?!"

Taken aback by the sheer insanity of the situation, Tseng could do nothing more than nod and reply, "of course your nose is still there." Observing Rufus' nose the Turk leader realized that there were in fact, tiny bite marks visible. Once again Tseng poked the flower with the pen, this time poking the materia-like part on the center of the flower. Being poked with the pen, the seemingly crystallized part, revealed that it was actually quite flexible, changing into a ball of spikes to protect itself. "It was a self defense reaction because you brought your nose too close to the center of the flower."

"I don't care what it was; I want you to find whoever sent that thing and send them to the life stream!" Rufus yelled. Thus the investigation began.

xoxox xox xoxox

Meanwhile, far up north in the Forgotten City, three children sat at the edge of a pond in front of a large sea shell shaped structure. "Brother, do you think mother was able to find a husband?" Little Loz asked.

"Of course she did!" Kadaj assured him.

"How do you know?" Yazoo inquired.

"I just know! Besides, we did everything mother asked so it must have worked. She said to send the flower to a man with authority and Rufus is the president of Shinra so that should be enough." Little Kadaj nodded to himself, now it was a matter of time before their mother returned to them, and they would have a new father too.

Incident 02: Pillow Fight

"He has a band-aid on his nose," Loz pointed at their new father. If the little remnants were good at something, other than being adorable and annoying at the same time, it was sneaking around. They had quickly left their distant home and by various unknown and mysterious methods of transportation, which possibly involved taking over a ship near the archeologist village, the three silver haired siblings had made it all the way to their new father's home at Healin Lodge.

Rufus was sleeping in his room, unsuspecting of the danger lurking around him, while little Yazoo wondered, "do you think he has a zit?"

The three boys looked at each other, amused by the simplest things, such as the silly band-aid on their father's nose. "Only one way to find out," Kadaj climbed on to the bed and ripped the band-aid off.

"Ah!" Rufus woke up instantly and held his poor nose. He had thought Reno was the one who usually suffered the nose abuse, but he had become the victim lately. Fortunately the swell had gone down and the little red marks had faded, but until his nose was absolutely perfect, Rufus would hide it from the world.

"He doesn't have a zit after all!" Kadaj announced the findings of his investigation. Loz and Yazoo climbed on to the bed as well, while Rufus panicked and pressed the emergency button he kept on the night stand.

Reno entered the room and shook his head, his expression much calmer than the situation demanded. "I told you three not to wake him up."

"We didn't wake him up, uncle Reno!" Yazoo was the first to claim their innocence, while Loz nodded in agreement.

Then Kadaj explained, "daddy had a band-aid on his nose and we wanted to see why, so we took it off because we thought he had a zit, but he didn't!"

Without warning, Kadaj returned the band-aid to Rufus, squeezing his nose with tiny fingers. "Stop that!" Rufus moved the little hand away. "Reno, what is the meaning of this? You don't even sound surprised to see them!" Leave it to Reno to take things too lightly.

"They showed up a little while ago saying that their mother told them to stay with daddy," Reno grinned in amusement, "why didn't you tell me you were dating Jenova?"

Rufus' eyes went wide, he didn't like where this was going, "what do you mean by that?"

Reno shrugged, "I'm not exactly sure, ask them."

"Mother's last cell, we had one left and we planted it so she could feed off the planet. Big brother Sephiroth took care of her from the life stream so her flower grew," Kadaj explained.

Rufus' hand unconsciously moved to his nose again, "the flower..."

"It was for mother's new husband, our new father," Loz added.

Rufus felt his eye twitch, the mere thought of Jenova choosing him as a husband was extremely frightening. That would, in a way, make him Sephiroth's step father also, since the silver haired soldier was convinced that Jenova was his mother. "No..." Rufus muttered. "No," it came a little louder until he finally yelled "no!"

The little silver haired trio let out a collective "eep!" and flocked to their uncle Reno. "Uncle Reno!" Kadaj flailed, "daddy yelled at us, why?"

"Doesn't he love us?" Yazoo sniffled and Loz started to full out wail, soon to be joined by his brothers.

Both Reno and Rufus covered their ears. "You have to do something!" Reno complained.

"No, you're the Turk, I'm the president; you have to do something!" Rufus yelled back.

"But you're their father!" Reno argued with an amused grin.

Rufus saw red, he grabbed his pillow at threw it at Reno, "don't even joke about that!"

"Hee, hee, hee..." little boyish giggles were heard as the crying came to a sudden stop, as did the sudden rain that had randomly began to fall outside.

Kadaj picked up the pillow that had hit Reno and led the attack. "Pillow fight!" According to the trio, a pillow fight was just what their father needed to cheer up.

Incident 03: Breakfast

While Rufus tried to calm down and drown his worries in a warm morning shower, the three little silver haired boys were reluctantly left in the care of their uncle Reno. Knowing that Reno's idea of taking care of children was joining their mischief, Rufus made sure to haste, but the pretty boy still needed plenty of time to bathe even if he was trying to hurry.

"Uncle Reno, is daddy mad at us because of the pillow fight? I thought he would cheer up!" Kadaj looked up at Reno with teary eyes. If one of the three boys started crying, the others would soon follow.

"He's not mad, he's just a grumpy old man," Reno tried to make things better, but it didn't always work out.

The three remnants continued looking at the redhead with sad eyes and puckered lips, waiting for him to come up with a solution for their father's grumpiness.

"It's okay, Rufus is always grumpy in the morning. He'll feel better after eating breakfast," and that was those were the words that doomed them all.

"We'll make breakfast for daddy!" Kadaj announced, his determined little voice, followed by the cheers of Loz and Yazoo. The trio ran off towards the kitchen with Reno following them, fearing a calamity.

The red haired Turk stopped at the doorway to the Healin Lodge kitchen, remembering that he was forbidden from entering that space. He was so bad at cooking that it could only end in disaster, thus Rufus declared the kitchen a no Reno zone. "I'm not supposed to go in there..." Reno's mischievous side kicked in and he figure he could use that as an excuse to let the little boys do as they pleased and be amused by their antics, claiming that he was only trying to follow the rules that Rufus himself had set.

"It's okay," Yazoo smiled, happy with their new plan.

"We'll make daddy's breakfast by ourselves," Loz cheered.

Kajad opened the refrigerator and looked inside, "Eggs and bacon."

But Yazoo shook his head, "toast with butter."

Then Loz added, "let's make pancakes!"

The three little remnants then engaged in a comical battle of rock, paper, scissors, but alas they kept on having a tie over and over, until they finally resolved to use a different method to decide what they would prepare. "Uncle Reno!" All three of them called at once. "What should we make for breakfast?"

"You want me to decide?" The three little remnants nodded and Reno gave his answer some thought. No matter what he picked, he would have two angry and disappointed pieces of Sephiroth against him. So Reno did the only thing he could think of to please all three, "make all of it!"

The boys' faces brightened, happy with the solution their uncle Reno proposed, and they cheerfully went to fetch the ingredients, ignoring the fact that none of them actually knew how to cook.

As a result, the toast ended up burnt black and covered with more butter than was healthy. The two pancakes were very much out of balance, with one of them being hard and black, and the other pale and gooey. But the eggs and bacon were probably the worse, as the bacon was completely raw and covered in ketchup, giving it a gory look, while the eggs had been, for some unknown reason, mixed in a glass with orange juice, shells included.

Just as the three boys finished their experiments and set them on the table, Rufus had finished his shower and entered the kitchen, intending to figure out what to do about the remnants after he had a full stomach. The president noticed the Turk standing at the door looking amused and immediately had a bad feeling. Then he saw the three little chaos bringers waiting for him, and some very strange things set atop the table, and Rufus paled.

Incident 04: Earthquake

Rufus glared at Reno, silently blaming the Turk who was supposed to protect him. Being Rufus' bodyguard, as the name suggests, means guarding his body and that includes his stomach, which was about to be brutally attacked. Of course the president was going to refuse the odd breakfast, but the three little boys were already pulling him towards the table and pushing him into a chair. "Eat, daddy, eat!" The three little terrors cheered and Rufus could see the evil reflected in the loving look of their mako glowing eyes.

"I'm not hungry," Rufus made the mistake to reply with a negative answer and the three little faces of the silver haired boys went from happy to sad, smiles turning to frowns and cheerful eyes invaded by tears.

Kadaj sniffled and the other three followed their leader, as usual Loz was the first to start crying, but soon Yazoo and Kadaj joined in. Being apparently unloved and abandoned by their father, the little remnants tried to find consolation with their uncle Reno. "Daddy doesn't love us!" Kadaj wailed in the most heart breaking voice.

Reno had absolutely no idea what to do, and outside, it mysteriously started raining again. With Rufus refusing their efforts, surely nothing Reno said or did would end the remnants' sadness unless... "maybe you could eat a little of each dish and-"

"No!" Rufus put his foot down, literally, stomping on the tiled kitchen floor. "This has gone too far, I'm not going to poison myself for these children." At the sound of Rufus' harsh voice, the remnants cried louder, the rain suddenly stopped and the planet shook.

The quake was unusually strong and made Rufus run out of the building for safety, followed by Reno who was moving a little slow because he had three little silver haired boys clinging to him. "Why is there such a big earthquake?!" The redhead asked.

"How should I know?" Rufus yelled back, they were outside and away from the building, but even if it took a few seconds, or a few minutes in Reno's case, to get out, the earthquake had not yet ceased and cracks were starting to crawl up the supposedly seismic proof walls of Healin Lodge. To top it all up, the remnants were still screaming full force, and Rufus's head hurt. "Stop crying!"

The silver hair trio hiccupped in unison and halted their crying, expectantly waiting for Rufus' words of comfort that never came. Instead Reno asked, "do you think that was them?"

Rufus looked positively horrified, "no, it was just a coincidence." The thought of the three little boys possessing such power accompanied by such a lack of control, terrified the young president, as it would terrify anyone, except for maybe Reno who was too easily amused for his own good. In fact, Rufus would rather have an adult Sephiroth along with a fully grown Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz terrorizing the planet, than having to bend to the children's will for the sake of saving said planet, and most importantly saving himself. But just in case, Rufus couldn't help it but to foolishly test the circumstances. "I am very angry at the three of you," with his nearly fully healed nose up in the air, Rufus indignantly pointed his finger at the three boys.

The little boys let out a chorus of gasps and resumed their loud crying, while the planet shook again and Reno actually stopped being amused and pleaded, "make them stop!" because not even he was foolish enough to provoke death more than once or twice a day.

Horrified beyond belief and scared of the grim future that awaited him, Rufus tried to undo the effects of his harsh words, "don't cry, I didn't mean it, I'm not angry!" but it was too late, as the remnants were too hurt to react to anything other than their father's unconditional love. Twitching slightly, Rufus then told them what they wanted to hear, "Kadaj, Yazoo, Loz, don't cry anymore, daddy loves you," and he kneeled outstretching his arms to which the three little boys ran.

Reno covered his mouth to prevent himself from laughing out loud while Rufus was forced to hug the children he did not wish to father.

The blond gave the redhead a threatening look that seemed to communicate that if he spoke a single word, any comment what so ever, he would no only be jobless, but also be declared the new target to be eliminated by the remaining Turks, who were certainly taking their sweet time to get there.

Incident 05: Sharing

Not too far from Healin Lodge... "There had to be in earthquake at the same time as an emergency," Elena frowned at the land slide blocking the road. "Rufus could be dead by now!"

Tseng placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, "don't worry, he mentioned that the remnants that appeared were still children and besides, Reno is with him."

There was a pause during which Rude seemed to communicate a silent message, "..." his expression said it all.

Tseng nodded, sharing a worried look with Elena, "we better hurry," and the three Turks began to climb over the land slide.

xoxox xox xoxox

Rufus stared at the horrible food on the table for several minutes, then looked at the happy children excited about making breakfast for their new father. "Aren't the three of you hungry? I'll share this with you." Rufus tried to slip out of the torture, or at least share the pain with his torturers.

But the three silver haired heads were shook, "you should eat this daddy. It's special just for you!" Kadaj's explanation was followed by the agreement of his brothers and a chuckle from Reno.

Rufus looked at the redhead with murderous intent. "Then I'll share with uncle Reno."

Reno frantically shook his head. "That's very generous of you," that was sarcasm, "but don't worry about me, I'm not hungry," and that was an attempt to survive.

But Reno's attempt would be in vain, for the three little remnants couldn't let their dear uncle Reno go without eating anything for breakfast. "Even if you're not too hungry you should eat at least a little, uncle Reno," Loz smiled sweetly.

"I know, we could give uncle Reno some of the food mother gave us, you don't need to be hungry to eat candy." Yazoo looked proud to have come up with a solution.

Kadaj pouted and muttered, "that was going to be my idea," just loud enough for his brothers to hear.

Not wanting to be left out, Loz agreed, "mine too!"

But neither Kadaj nor Yazoo believed him, which led Yazoo to defend his idea by pointing out "I said it first!"

Kadaj countered with, "I thought it first!"

Then a chorus of "nuh-uh" and "uh-huh" soon followed between Yazoo and Kadaj, while Loz once again began to feel left out.

Rufus was about to take the opportunity to throw out the food while the remnants were distracted, but Loz's sudden cries stopped him, making the young president rush towards the little boy on pure survival instinct. But of course, Reno would forever claim that it was paternal instinct no matter how much Rufus denied it. "Loz, don't cry," Rufus nearly begged, his head pounding and his nerves on edge from the chaotic morning he was having.

The chorus of "nuh-uh" and "uh-huh" came to an abrupt stop along with Loz's cries. Kadaj and Yazoo noticed that Loz getting extra attention, and they didn't like it.

"Um... pres..." Reno warned Rufus of the danger.

The president motioned for Yazoo and Kadaj to come over as well, "I don't want any of you to cry, okay?" Rufus' teeth were clenched and his eyes held hidden fury to accompany his forced smile.

The three little boys nodded, happy to get some attention from daddy in what they interpreted as loving concern. The atmosphere at Healin Lodge calmed down slightly, but only until little Kadaj asked "are you going to eat now?"

Rufus feared for his life, if the remnants were upset, surely the earthquakes, and whatever else they were capable of causing, would escalate to such level that he, and everyone else on the planet, would die. But maybe, just maybe, if he went to the hospital right after eating he would have a chance to survive. "Alright, I'll eat now..." Rufus bravely declared, trying to hide the fact that he was trembling in fear. "But don't forget to give that food you promised to uncle Reno too," his voice was filled with venom.

"If I'm dead, who will protect you?" Reno whispered, and the irony of his question only made Rufus' already deadly glare more piercing.

Incident 06: Dangerous and Inedible

It was the strangest shade of green Reno ever saw. It was something that he would expect to see dripping off some radioactive failed mutant experiment, but he never expected to see it on Rufus' face. Yet there it was; the strangest shade of green the world would ever know.

"I'm going to die!" Rufus screamed at the top of his lugs. "I should have taken the world with me!" He shouldn't have sacrificed himself. What good was the world without the great Rufus Shinra?

The three little remnants, gasped in worry and asked, "is daddy really dying?"

"No, of course not, that's just a figure of speech," Reno hoped it was only that.

"What's a figure of speech?" Yazoo threw out the question before Kadaj could, which left the latter pouting and the former smiling proudly.

"When you say something but mean something else. Like dying of happiness, it doesn't mean you're dying, it just means you're really happy," Reno tried to explain.

The three silver haired boys were visibly relieved, "daddy's happy, I knew that." Kadaj assured them.

"You didn't know!" Loz triggered another little argument; this time with a chorus of "did too!" and "did not!"

"The candy!" Yazoo reminded his siblings, while Rufus was left to agonize in the background.

"Here uncle Reno, eat this candy!" Kadaj handed Reno a round red candy. The candy looked normal enough, save for the fact that it was shinier than you'd expect any candy to be.

"Eat it! Eat it!" Yazoo and Loz chanted.

Reno looked at the candy, "are you sure this isn't a marble?" It was a bit hard and though it had no wrapping, it didn't feel sticky at all.

Kadaj shook his head, "it's candy, my brothers and I eat the black ones all the time. That one was different so we saved it."

Even if the remnants ate it, that didn't guarantee that it was normal candy, but at least it wasn't as bad as Rufus' breakfast. Reno put the strange candy in his mouth. It didn't have any taste at all, but the three little boys kept looking at their uncle as if waiting for him to comment on the taste. "Mmm, it's really yummy!"

Though it was a lie that only a child could believe, it was enough for the three little boys to smile. They were proud of themselves having made breakfast for their daddy and given their uncle some candy. When Rufus insisted on sharing his breakfast, though it wasn't with the best intentions, he had unknowingly set the example that food should be shared. As for Rufus, he had lost consciousness, his head falling into the leftover food which was now sticking to his hair.

Reno couldn't chew the candy and silently concluded that maybe it was a marble after all, but he couldn't spit it out in front of the boys. While he tried to think of a way to get rid of the marble with the excuse that he already ate the candy, Reno glanced at Rufus who had become strangely quiet and noticed his perilous state. "Rufu-agh!" Reno felt the marble falling down his throat and disabling his ability to breathe when he lowered his guard for a split second. This didn't look good.

Incident 07: Turks to the Rescue

"President, we're here!" Tseng called as he, Elena and Rude arrived at Healin Lodge, but there was no reply. "President?"

"Someone is here!" A child's voice was heard.

"More friends for us to play with?" Another little boy spoke.

"Let's go say hi!" There was a third similar voice.

The three little remnants ran towards the Healin Lodge's main entrance, where the Turks had recently arrived. Looking completely adorable they said "hi!" in unison.

Elena smiled, "hello," she looked at her fellow Turks, her expression unchanged. "They're adorable; there was no danger after all." She didn't know how wrong she was about that last one.

Tseng and Rude did not look convinced. "Where is Rufus?" The leader asked.

"Daddy's in the kitchen, he ate breakfast and is taking a nap!" Kadaj informed them.

Tseng had a bad feeling about this; he rushed to the kitchen to find Rufus unconscious, with his head in some weird goop on the table, and a very purple Reno doing a strange dance. "Reno what happened to the president and what are you doing?"

Reno attempted to say he was choking, but his voice wasn't working at the moment so he just flailed around. Finally Rude gave him a rather hard pat on the back which, instead of causing Reno to spit out the marble, caused him to swallow it; but at least his color starting returning to normal as he regained the ability to breathe.

Tseng checked Rufus' vital signs and announced, "he's alive! Let's get him out of here." The leader began to carry the president away with Rude's help, but the remnants didn't like that.

"Where are they taking daddy?" Loz was about to cry.

"I don't know..." Yazoo started to get teary as well.

Then Kadaj frowned, "don't steal daddy while's he's napping!" A swift kick to the knee caused Tseng to let go of Rufus' arms, sending the president's head to collide with the floor.

Elena gasped; those three little boys were not as harmless as they looked. "Don't kick Tseng! He's only trying to help!" She immediately defended him.

"Be he tried to steal daddy!" Kadaj pointed his accusing little index finger at Tseng.

Tseng gave the child a stern look, "Rufus is uncon-" he didn't even get to the part about Rufus not having any children before Reno interrupted.

"Unconditionally thankful for the wonderful breakfast you made for him," Reno finally found his voice when it came to stopping Tseng from upsetting the little boys, thus putting all their lives in danger.

Elena looked surprised as she repeated "unconditionally... I didn't even know you knew such a long word. But just what do they mean by 'daddy'?"

"I only use hard words if I need to, and I'll explain later." The full meaning of Reno's words didn't quite reach the other Turks; they didn't know how close Tseng had been to accidentally dooming the entire planet.

Before Tseng could protest, Reno shook his head in warning so the leader only settled for saying "we'll talk later."

Rude just stood there holding Rufus' feet, he didn't expect Tseng to let go. The Turk leader checked for blood on Rufus' head, but fortunately the goop that was stuck on his hair served as a cushion. Unfortunately, when Rufus saw his hair, he would probably have a fit.

Finally Reno spoke, "we're taking your dad outside because he really needs some fresh air. The three of you can come with us."

The little remnants cheered oblivious to Rufus' predicament. There was no choice but to take them along, since they didn't want to be away from their new father. Once again, Tseng and Rude carried Rufus out, while Reno started to feel a stomachache.

Incident 08: Emergency Trip

The helicopter parked near Healin Lodge had fortunately escaped the natural disasters unharmed; save for sinking a little into the ground even though that quicksand was not there before, thus it could be concluded it was a side effect of the remnants' cries. But it was the fact that it had sunk a little that prevented it from tipping over and becoming ruined, plus the quicksand, which once again became normal earth after the remnants calmed down, acted as a cushion, protecting the helicopter from being shaken too much by the earthquake.

Of course, that meant that the Turks had to dig the chopper out, though only the base had gone under. "Try to take off again!" Tseng called out, he and Rude were in the digging team, while Reno was in charge of piloting and Elena kept the remnants entertained with random nursery rhymes.

Reno started up the chopper, blowing all the loose dirt around it, which left Tseng and Rude covered in dust. "It works!" Reno had the chopper hover in place until the very dirty Tseng and Rude climbed aboard.

"I want to play in the mud too!" Loz squealed with joy.

"It's not mud," Kadaj pointed out, "it's too dry to be mud, it's just dirt."

"Well I want to play in it," Loz pouted.

"Me too!" Yazoo agreed.

Tseng and Rude were not sure what to say, they were not exactly the best example of being clean at the moment. But it's not like they wanted to be dirty, it couldn't be helped given the situation.

"Don't you want to ride the helicopter instead?" Elena came to the rescue. "That's a lot more fun than playing on the ground."

A triple, "yay!" was heard, expressing the boys' unanimous votes for riding the helicopter. Thus the helicopter was off, leaving a cloud of dust behind, on an emergency trip to the nearest hospital.

That brings us to our current situation with Rufus in a hospital bed, agonizing. Tseng wasn't sure if the president's morbid complaints were a good or bad sign. It meant that he had regained consciousness, but it also meant that he was in pain, and that pain would eventually be taken out on someone, possibly the Turks, who would have to listen to his whining and tend to his every need.

While the doctors ran around Rufus giving him everything from pain killers to tranquilizers, to strange bitter medicines that were supposed to negate the effects of his food poisoning, Elena scolded Reno. "This is no time for jokes, and you still haven't fully explained why you let Rufus end up in such a state!"

"I haven't done anything!" This time, Reno honestly didn't know why Elena was scolding him, other than nearly letting Rufus die. It wasn't fair, while the spoiled president got all the attention, Reno had not even been given a common pain killer for his stomachache.

Tseng sighed and shook his head, "just ignore that," he advised Elena, and Reno still didn't know what 'that' was. "Reno, explain what happened to Rufus."

"The little remnants," Reno looked at the three silver haired boys from the corner of his eyes. They were giggling because their daddy made funny snoring noises when he slept, which was actually Rufus agonizing with his eyes tightly closed in pain. The boys quickly turned their attention to their uncle Reno when they heard what could be the start of a story, because kids love stories. Reno fortunately noticed, and chose his words carefully, "Rufus' wonderful sons made him a delicious breakfast..."

Tseng and Elena looked at Reno as if he was insane, while Rude remained expressionless as always.

Incident 09: What is that?

Fortunately, the Turk leader caught on to the situation of Reno's explanation. Reno couldn't say too much in front of the children and he would soon reveal why.

"Rufus ate his breakfast and then he took a nap, you know to um... digest the delicious food," Reno nodded to himself, satisfied with his safe choice of words. The remnants where smiling proudly so everything was alright so far. "Anyway, you can be their uncles and aunt too, because they're such good kids and we don't want them to cry. Seeing them cry is like... watching a storm and earthquake destroy the entire planet, because it's so sad."

Tseng's eyes went wide as he stared at the three remnants. Then he silently looked at Reno as if asking if they were responsible for the recent earthquake and random rain; Reno nodded.

Elena and Rude also caught on like Turks should. Rude remained expressionless, which did not come as a surprise, and also not surprisingly, Elena looked very worried. But she soon frowned in annoyance when her attention was inevitably drawn towards Reno's 'joke'. "Reno, turn that light off!"

"What light?" Reno asked. Tseng was ignoring it and Rude was used to Reno's random antics, but Elena was becoming irritated.

Reno never took anything seriously, and Elena just couldn't let him get this far. Their situation was grave after all; this was not a time for silly pranks. "That red light you have in your shirt, it's weird."

Reno looked down at himself. There was indeed a red light, visible through his shirt in the stomach area. He lifted the shirt revealing that there was no flashlight or anything similar, but the light was still there, inside. "Oh, oh..."

Elena blinked, "how did you do that?"

"I ate a..." Reno didn't even want to think about it. That marble wasn't a marble after all, it was materia and it was red. Red materia was used to summon creatures and it was glowing inside his stomach.

"I must ask you to leave!" A rookie doctor , still young, but just old enough to had finished his studies at medical school, pouted and placed his arms on his hips as he addressed Tseng and Rude. He was passing by and noticed that the best doctors were gathered in that room, the door left open for medicines to be brought in as needed. "This is a highly sanitary facility and you two are very dirty!"

A slightly more experienced and far more perceptive nurse stepped on the young doctor's foot with her white heel, causing the doctor to let out an unmanly squeal. "Shut up, they're Turks," the nurse practically growled into his ear as she pushed the young doctor out of the room. "Sorry about that," she smiled brightly, then curiously looked at the glowing red light in Reno's stomach, before shrugging it off and continuing doing her job of patting Rufus' head in a motherly fashion, even if she really hated the feel of the goop on his hair. When Rufus Shinra got sick, every tiny detail had to be taken care of for his sake, even that.

Incident 10: Needle

Elena twitched a little as she saw the huge needle the doctors had to give Rufus. Around that time there was a sound as if something or someone fell on the floor, but no one paid any attention to it. It turned out to be a good thing that Rufus was unconscious and didn't need to see the needle, but as soon as the three little terrors saw that someone was about to 'stab' their daddy, they went on the attack.

"Don't hurt daddy!" Kadaj led his miniature battalion against the unfortunate doctor who was trying to heal Rufus. His brothers followed along, tackling the doctor, causing the needle in his hand to go flying and land stabbed into his college's throat.

The injured doctor pulled the needle out with trembling hands, as blood dripped from the wound caused by the violet way the needle was stabbed in his neck. He gasped unable to speak, as two nurses dragged him out of the room so that he would not trouble the rest of the medical crew while they tended to Rufus.

Tseng shook his head. "Elena, why don't you take the children somewhere else?"

"Okay!" Elena nodded, happy to be trusted with the task. She was always eager to work, especially if it meant the possibility of impressing Tseng. She didn't know what she was getting into. Elena saw the three silver haired terrors as innocent children, different from the three men she had met before. "C'mon children, let's go take a walk!"

"What about daddy?" Yazoo asked.

"They might try to hurt him again!" Kadaj complained.

"We have to protect him," Loz added.

"We'll protect your father," Tseng assured. "Don't worry; we always protected him before you arrived."

"I'll give you candy!" Elena made an offer no child could refuse. All places, hospitals included, had to have vending machines in the lobby, Shinra vending machines.

"Yay, candy!" The three children cheered in a chorus before hushing each other with a "shh!" and looking relieved to see that their father was still asleep.

After Elena and the little remnants left, the doctors and nurses were finally able to continue with the procedures to heal Rufus. He was unconscious again so he couldn't drink an antidote, thus the necessity for a needle.

"Reno, you should do something about that... light?" Tseng looked around but Reno was nowhere to be found, and he was kind of hard to miss with that flaming red hair, plus now he had a red light in his stomach. "Reno?"

"Down," Rude nonchalantly indicated. Tseng looked down where Reno was laying on the floor. Rude had just noticed Reno as well, and was attempting to wake him up. Though Tseng didn't think shaking Reno like that would be very helpful, if anything it might hurt him, but the Turk leader decided that when it came to Reno, Rude knew what was best.

"Ow..." Reno woke up and stood with Rude's help.

"It seems that light in your stomach is having serious consequences," Tseng assumed.

"It's not so bad," Reno tried to continue being his carefree self. However, Reno was still afraid that a summon creature, most likely bigger than him, would pop out inside him and tare him apart trying to get out. Then he would surely die a very painful death.

Another needle was brought for Rufus and this time it was used without interruptions. But as soon as Reno saw it, he fainted again and Rude revealed that Reno, "doesn't like needles."

End of Memory I

Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. The magnitude of the natural disasters caused by the remnants is proportional to their emotions. If they're crying about something small, because we all know how easily they can cry sometimes, then not much will happen. But if they're really upset, things can get dangerous. The idea of the remnants' crying controlling natural disasters came from Mellow from Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars who has the ability to control the weather and accidentally causes it to rain when he cries.