Disclaimer: I do not own anything relating to Final Fantasy. Cannon Characters and place names are all properties of Square Enix. Anything Original is my own.

A/N: This chapter is revolved once more around Marlene and Kadaj. Cloud and Tifa do appear in it too, to throw in some spanners in the works.

Reviewers: Thankyou for taking the time to read these chapters, getting reviews of you guys actually helps me write even more! Im hoping to make this one of my best ever written stories, so keep reading and reviewing and let me know what you think!

Chapter Five: Away from my daughter

The sun was high in the sky, already threatening to blind the young silver haired male as he lay in the church, the rays shining through the glass windows, illuminating his eyes and the sweat drops from the dream he had just had. Kadaj knew what he had just seen was not a dream, but he didn't want to believe it. He didn't want to believe he could be as cruel as he seemed in those dreams. Was that what Marlene was talking about? Was he really this cruel person? And who the hell was Mother? Why had he been so bent on finding her? No matter what it had cost other people? Kadaj had a lot of questions, but nobody to answer them. He felt alone. Really alone.

The door to the church flew open and Kadaj spun around to see who it was. Thankfully for him it was only Marlene. It would seem as though she had come to pay him another visit. He sat back down on the one of the unbroken church benches. His head fell into his hands. He couldn't be sure of who he was right now, and if he couldn't, did that make him dangerous? Was he too dangerous for Marlene to be around? Would he snap and become the nightmare he saw in his dream?

He looked up when he felt a hand on his shoulder. His green eyes came to lock with Marlene's brown ones. Her touch was surprisingly comforting. Though he didn't understand why she was being so nice to him, not after what he had done, not only to her, but to her family. He had almost ripped it apart. Could he have coped right now? If he had have done? So many questions. Not enough answers. He knew, one day, he may find the answers he is looking for, but right now, he didn't even know where to start.

"Are you alright, Kadaj?" came the young girls soothing voice. He gave a weak sort of smile and an even weaker nod. "You don't look like it"

"Bad dream" he told her, it was the truth so he didn't have to worry about lying to her. He didn't want to tell her what was involved in that dream, and he guessed that she figured that out as she didn't press the matter further.

"I brought you something to eat, its not much but its better than nothing" she said, handing him the basket he had seen her carrying previously.

He took the basket and looked in it, a few chocolate muffins, some soup and bread rolls laid in the bottom. "Thank you" A few minutes silence waged on between the two youths, when Kadaj finally looked at her, he said, though strained, "It was true, wasn't it?"

"What was?" She asked, looking at him. He shook his head, unsure of how to put this. Looking down back into the basket, his silver hair falling over his head, "How can I tell you if its true or not, if you don't tell me what you want to know?"

"I was… Nasty, no that's not the right word" Kadaj looked back down again, "I was downright evil. I… I nearly took away everything… Didn't I?"

"Yeah you were" Marlene said with a sad nod of her head, "You did nearly take everything everyone loved away. You even did take some people others loved, but not everyone gets a second chance like you did Kadaj. Not many people get another chance to make things right, make it better. But you have, don't waste it"

"I don't plan on doing" He said, his shoulders relaxing a bit now, "Though how can I make it right if people don't let me? Ive seen the way they look at me, heard the whispers when they speak of me. If they don't let me, I cant can I?"

"You have to give them time." Marlene jumped off the bench and landing on her knees infront of him, taking the boys hands in her own, "You did some horrible things Kadaj that people aren't likely to forget, not after two years not after ten. Though keep going about in a way that will prove to people you have changed and eventually they will give you that chance to make things alright"

"You think so?" he asked. Looking at Marlene, he smiled at her. She was becoming more and more like his rock. "Well… I guess I can start now"

The two stood there, smiling at each other, completely unaware of whatever else was going on around them. Not that much was, after all, what else would be going on with just two people in a church?

Meanwhile…

In the bar of Seventh Heaven, a meeting was called. Cloud, Tifa, Barrett, Cid, Yuffie, Vincent, Nanaki even Reno and Rude were all sat hunched around the bar. Each and every one of them had a troubled look on their faces. "So what are we to do then?" Came Tifa's voice, "Are you sure you saw what you saw Nanaki?"

"Yes" He told her, "My clans eyes are sharp as anything, Tifa. I saw Marlene going into that church and I saw her with Kadaj"

"That cant be! Remnant boy is dead! Remmy died! Cloud killed Remmy!!" Reno's voice came ringing out of the air, "We all saw it! He disappeared right in Clouds arms into the speckles of light!" He was waving his baton around frantically, "Remmy is not alive, it must have been someone else… Sorry dude" He turned around as his baton collided with Rude's head.

"S'alright." Rude said, shrugging off his partners incoherent babbling. "So, if Kadaj is truly alive, and Marlene is paying him visits. One can only question why"

"I don' care why!" Came Barrett's voice. "My little Marlene is not playin' house guest to an ex murderer!"

"Calm down Barrett" Came Vincent's low voice

"Calm down! Calm down! Don't you be tellin' me to calm down!" Barrett stood up and rounded on him, "This aint your little girl we talkin' about!"

"No, Barrett, Vincent's right" Tifa said calmly, "If we go in there, all guns blazing, we're just going to get Kadaj all wound up and that could put Marlene in danger"

"One could say she likes the dangerous blokes" Reno's sarcastic voice rung out.

"Wha' you say punk?!" Barrett turned on Reno this time, "What the ruddy hell is tha' supposed to mean?"

"I just meant…" Started Reno, "That she seems to like the dangerous guys because, she's the one giving him visits. Don't you think if he was going to do something he would have done it by now?"

"Well maybe he's just biding his time" Cloud finally piped up, and when every head turned in his direction he continued, "Well he might still be angry at the fact we stopped his little ploy. We stopped Sephiroth coming to be again and in turn destroyed his plans didn't we? Maybe he is trying to gain Marlene's trust in hope that either when the time comes, she will protect him or he can use her to get to us"

"He's a kid Cloud" Cid spoke, "Do you really think he's capable of coming up with something like that?"

"You saw how dangerous he was ten years ago Cid" Cloud said, "Kids are the most dangerous"

"Not to mention the most frightening" Came Cait Sith's voice.

"You're scared of kids?" Tifa drawled

"No, well it depends on who that kid is I suppose" He said back to her, "So what are we going to do?"

"Well we can either wait until Marlene gets back and question her, or go there now and find out what's going –"

"Where's Barrett?"

Back in the Church.

Kadaj and Marlene were busy talking about ways he could make up his misdeeds to the people he once hurt. Eating muffins and drinking orange juice, occasionally having the odd laugh about things. Marlene looked into the boys green eyes as he laughed, they looked full of life now, and not somebody elses life like they were once full of. Marlene remembered the way his eyes used to look, afterall, they had haunted her for near of ten years. His eyes, though quite beautiful, were always full of hate and malice. Though at the same time, it was like they didn't belong to him. Now, they were scared, timid and unsure of everything around him. Marlene had learned you could tell a lot about somebody just by looking at their eyes.

"Marlene I want – "

CRASH

The churches doors blew inwards as Kadaj jumped up and Marlene gave a little yelp. She clung onto Kadaj as though frightened of whatever was going to come through those doors. Kadaj narrowed his eyes while keeping an arm around Marlene. He wasn't going to let her get hurt, not after everything she had done for him.

It seemed like an age passed before the person walked through those doors. As soon as Marlene clapped eyes on who it was, she seemed to both relax, but tense up at the same time. She knew this wasn't going to end well and she knew her father would not let her explain. Now she found herself wondering if she had gone to them earlier, would they have understood.

"Get away from my daughter"