Nibelheim Inn

[Amnesty Lazuli]

Fruxas sighed. He could tell Nikky really wasn't lying... that she was telling all she knew.

"Our world, where our kind began, died too many years ago to remember. My mother and a few of her sisters were the only ones who survived. My mother told me... our kind became too strong. We asked our world for too much... and finally, it just weakened and gave out. She says... said... this world and its people, the human people, are re-enacting the story. That she didn't think our kind could begin again here... or that any kind could survive here for long. So she wanted to make a new one. But... she said the humans had to die first. She told me they... you... wouldn't want to die, and that was why Amnesty betrayed us. But she told me you'd be happy later, because you were free." He curled up into a ball. "I don't know if she was lying. I used to think she would never lie to me... now I know she did. But I believed her. About this... I still don't know what I believe. All I know is... I miss her. And... I wish... I wish I'd never existed at all, because every way I can think of, that I might not be hurting so bad now... I'd still hurt later." He burrowed down into Nikky's lap, trying to make himself understand what he was saying. "I want her back... but what for? She'd only die again."

[*~Nikkole~*]

nikky nodded, trying to make it look like she knew and understood it all... but she didn't. she understood his emotions and confusion, that was understandable.... but about his kind... it didn't make much sense. she let him curl and burrow as she tried to comfort him. ''fruxas.... you can't beat yourself up over this...'' she said softly, stroking his hair. ''its okay to want her back... but you need to keep moving on. you need to be strong for her.... for yourself.'' she spoke softly and quietly. she knew nothing really she could say without hurting him or making her seem like the bad guy....

[Amnesty Lazuli]

Be strong... now, those were words he knew. He used to hear them every day. "My mother used to tell me I had so much strength inside... that I would find it there when I needed it. I need it NOW, and I still can't find it." How can I live for both of us?

****

Eleven years later...

Jared had just gotten out of his last concert. They'd been playing the Dome... their biggest gig yet, 2,500 sold out seats. For some reason, their offbeat little band was starting to get a LOT of attention. Four kids, two of them only nine at the time... and after a year of mucking around with two bit gigs and record companies out to cheat a quartet of rookies, the Remnants were right on the edge of celebrity status. In fact, he'd given Joey and Annie two copies of their first record, Miracle Worker, for their tenth birthday.

They had made something of a gag out of always taking taxis away from their gigs instead of cars or limos. Nobody was sure why... it just seemed like a good idea at the time.

Somebody was already in Jared's cab, and it had already pulled away from the curb before he realized it. "Hey--!" He reached reflexively for the Angel Cry, his strange energy sword...

He relaxed when he recognized the cab's other occupant. He broke into a manic grin, one which had rubbed off on him from hanging around with Joey for too long. "Uncle Kad? Are you nuts? Where'd you come from?" He hugged him, oblivious to his uncle's somber mood. "I thought you were out in Junon with Aunt A! Some kinda--"

He interrupted quietly. "I was. She's gone."

Jared's verbosity screeched to a halt. "What?"

He nodded severely. "She's disappeared. And I fear your sister may have a hand in it."

Jared turned away and stared out the window. "No way. My sister is dead. She's been dead for over a decade."

"So has Fruxas Shinra. But Jared Tseng took his place. Now I'm afraid someone has taken Jenova's. Someone we should have, but didn't, detect long ago."

"Are you sure Aunt A isn't just on one of her crusades? You know how she..."

"No. I've already spoken to Reno... she seems to have faded from the face of the planet entirely."

Jared's jaw dropped. "Not possible."

"You should know better than to apply that kind of generalization to our family."

Jared's tone dropped. "What about... Squall?"

"He left to look for her three weeks ago. I haven't gotten a word from him since."

[*~Nikkole~*]

she laughed softly and nodded. ''yes... i know how that feels. but strength comes within in you... you have to look for the answers within yourself, not just wait around for them....'' she sighed. ''sadly... that strength... that will to live.... its hard to come by these days....''

[Amnesty Lazuli]

Twelve years later...

Jared had to chance it. He peered out into the dark.

It looked clear. He motioned back to Joey. "Come on!"

He grabbed her hand and dragged her through the dark halls of the abandoned mako reactor. He could hear tramping feet in the distance... all they had left were minutes...

They burst into the last room, the door at the end of the hall, and barred it shut. "Blue! Tell me that d**n thing is ready!"

A boy of eighteen, his hair a neon shade of blue with some orange at the roots, stood at a roughly constructed control panel. "All set. But I'm not sure it can take all three of you!"

Annie already stood at readiness on the displacement platform, wide-eyed and terrified. Joey went up to join her, panting from the long run.

Jared had to think fast. "We don't have time to rework anything. We have to risk it. They're right on top of us, Blue!"

Blue nodded. "Guess we'll have to give it a bench test later." He set the controls. "Get on board, Richie Rich."

Jared shook his head. "If I wasn't so sure you were about to die... I'd kill you for calling me that." He met his friend's eyes... his friend had the look of an innocent condemned. Proud, but frightened. He suspected he had the same look.

"Hey, somebody had to watch your back, J," he said flippantly. "Now move your a**."

Jared got onto the platform as he heard the outer entrance groan and give away. A shrill, feminine voice rose above the following cacaphony. "If they activate the machine, destroy it! TAKE NO PRISONERS!"

Jared swallowed a lump in his throat. "See you on the other side, Blue."

Blue nodded grimly. "You better do good work back there, kid."

Annie was crying. Joey looked like she wanted to, but she was too busy comforting Annie.

Jared looked to a white sheet in the corner. A still form lay under it. She'll pay for this most of all.

As the door splintered, Blue hit the final control command.

A rainbow of lights flashed by...

****

Kadaj still sat in the lobby. Realizing how much this was getting accomplished, he stood up to--

Suddenly he found himself in the middle of three blood-covered bodies, all of which collapsed to the floor, bringing him with them.

One of them seemed to be hugging him.

He blinked. "What in the blue h**l..."

The hugging form pulled back and looked at him, with what looked almost like tears in his eyes...

Cat slit green eyes.

A voice in his mind... I know you don't recognize me... but we HAVE already met... Flashes of a little boy crying over his mother... a man carrying him away...

Kadaj blinked. "Fruxas?"

"I go by Jared now... well, maybe not NOW now, but..."

Kadaj sat there for a moment, stunned. "Nikky? Nikky, get out here..."

((Never mind.))

[*~Nikkole~*]

(O.o never mind what??)

nikky looked over at the door and blinked. she slowly pulled herself away from the boy to poke her head out through the doorway. ''kadaj...??'' she sighed. ''his better be good...'' she walked out and down the stairs, pushing her hair out of her face...

[Amnesty Lazuli]

((Don't ask. Long, painful story.))

The boy followed her curiously to see three bloody teenagers and one very confused uncle, staring at the blonde in the group... the other two were girls, each about eleven years old...

Both looked at Nikky and said in unison, "Oh, my G**."

They looked at her, then at each other, and back at her. "Mom?"

Annie scrambled to her feet and was hugging her before Joey could stop her. "Uh, Ann..."

Kadaj had the sensation of the room spinning slowly around his head. "Wait. Hold on just a moment. Am I to understand that you... are... from the future?"

Jared nodded. "And, let me tell you... it s**ks."

He felt a familiar presense... he looked up the stairs...

A boy, five years old, staring silently, not understanding a word of what he was hearing.

Jared stood and waved. "Hi."

The boy waved in reply. "Hi."

Joey was gently trying to pry Annie away from Nikky. "Annie, I thought we talked about this..."

"I don't care, d**n it!"

[*~Nikkole~*]

nikky blinked but before she could say anything she was being hugging. ''....'' she looked shocked but eventually pieced things together and started cracking up, hugging the gril. she silenced herself for a few moments before laughing again. ''oh this is just a hectic day... oi.'' she thumped this annie lightly. ''watch your mouth...'' she said with only a slightly stern look before making a face. ''and could you please....'' she pushed her away lightly, it was getting hard to breath. ''i need air....'' she was stunned by the whole thing but found it highly funny....

((lol okay...))

[Amnesty Lazuli]

Joey gave Annie a stern look. "Annie, are you out of your gourd, yo?! No answers, no questions, remember?"

"S***w it," Annie said bitterly. "S***w the future! We're here now, and now is all I happen to care about, thank you very much."

Joey's jaw dropped. "Ann!"

"I'm serious! Ever since the raid--"

Joey clapped a hand over her mouth. "Shut up!"

Annie couldn't handle any more. She smacked Joey away, knocking her down. Joey stared up in shock. "Ann..."

Kadaj was getting more and more suspicious every minute. "What raid? What is she talking about?"

Jared facepalmed himself and sighed. It was a long, deep sigh.

When he took his hand away from his face... Kadaj could see some of the blood smearing him was green. "One of Jenova's infamous raids. Anybody who could challenge her got swept out by them. One by one, all the old heroes and legends fell. Aunt Amnesty was first. Squall went out to look for her and was never heard from again. Cloud Strife and Vincent Valentine weren't long after that." He chuckly dryly. "Predictably, you and the other two stooges lasted longest. You made sure us kids stayed out of the crossfire... until I suddenly looked around and realized we were all that was left. We fought Jenova's regime as long as we could, but I knew we were licked the second we started... which meant we had to go back to the seconds BEFORE we started. Meaning, right about now."

Kadaj shook his head. "Jenova was destroyed at the mines..."

"Not that one. The other one." Jared gazed levelly at him.

"Your sister."

He nodded. "We had a machine rigged up in our base... the old mako reactor. She almost found it too soon, but Joey tried running a decoy. Jenova found out and would have killed her if you hadn't done something... Joey got away with her life. But you didn't." Jared's voice was starting to shake. "I thought I'd finally got my losses beat. I never knew they were only beginning... because I was afraid to give up one more family member."

Annie turned away from her sister and resumed hugging her mother. "I thought I'd never see you or Dad again."

Joey shook her head. "Neither did I. But Ann... don't forget, we don't exist yet."

[*~Nikkole~*]

nikky listened to them and slowly pieced things together. she frowned slightly and hugged ann back tight. she huggled her close and watched and waited for kadaj to say something.... since what she said didn't matter either way...

(srry. got busy. ><)

[Amnesty Lazuli]

Jared shook his head. "I was such a stupid, self-contained little brat... and the whole world is gonna pay the price if I can't set it right now. I didn't want to tell where Jenova and Sigma were going... and what they planned to do there."

Kadaj felt his blood running cold. "What? What are they doing?"

"They are going to the mines... to put the elder Jenova's soul into the baby... and also create for her the ultimate guardian. There are two souls trapped in that monument, don't forget."

"Sephiroth."

Jared nodded. "And it only gets better. So she could beat me to taking over what was left of Shinra, Jenova genetically reverse-engineered herself... to create clones of Xima and Rufus. When she had ready an entire dynasty set to rule the world by death and fear... she used it to its fullest potential. And it's all coming to a head in my time... we were all that stood between her and ending the planet."

"So you built a time machine to stop Sigma?"

"Sort of. Joey and Annie actually came up with the idea... they were born with the ability to manipulate space and time. We just figured out a machine to amplify their talents."

Joey stood around awkwardly. She was never good at the emotional stuff... she always took after her dad that way. It was almsot as hard to believe they were alive and young here as it had been to find they were dead in the future.

Annie was finally beginning to calm down. "Mom... you won't understand this yet... but I want to tell you, I'm sorry for the black hole in the living room."

Joey suppressed a giggle.

[*~Nikkole~*]

nikky pulled her attention away from jared and kadaj to stare at annie. she made a face and spoke slowly, repeating what she had been told. ''you made a black hole.... in the living room?!?'' she sighed before laughing. ''oh well... its not like it matters right now, eh?'' she ruffled annie's hair lightly and grinned before looking around.

[Amnesty Lazuli]

Annie smiled... she knew too well she had found herself caught in a miracle of space and time. "I hope not. Because this was a one-shot hop, as Joey would put it. If we do this right, it's like it never happened... our presence here is nullified because there'll be no need for it in the future. If not... we're stuck here until the future catches up with us. The machine was destroyed as we left... and there wouldn't have been a reliable way to bring us back no matter what happened."

Joey looked into middle space. "Everybody got that? Good!"

Annie scoffed. "Stop acting like such a tuffnut, jo'ude."

Joey rallied. "Knock the tiptap, brainball!"

Jared waved at them. "Girls! What'd I tell you about the slang?"

They fell silent and began giggling.

He rolled his eyes. "Women."

Kadaj gave Jared a hard look. "So you plan to stop Sigma. How?"

"Good question. Still working on that part."

[*~Nikkole~*]

nikky laughed and hugged annie. it felt so strange, hugging a daughter from the future... she let her go and thought of somethings, she wondered if she could help in any way.

[Amnesty Lazuli]

Joey sighed. "Aw, knock it... OK, OK, my turn!" She came in to get her share of the hug. Jared watched the little reunion... it was so weird, just watching them. Joey, looking so much like her dad, down to the red ponytail... Annie, a dead ringer for her mother... and Nikky, caught in the middle.

Wonder what they'll say when they find out Joey's had a crush on me since she was in third grade.

He turned back to Kadaj. "First of all... we'll need someone who can sense over long distances. Which means we got to find Reno. Where is he?"

"Back at the Mansion... he had a problem with the sorceror..."

Jared looked back at the younger version of himself, who looked absolutely blown away by all this. "Then we better wait for him to get back..." He lowered his voice. "I don't want to see my father die, too."