The sun was setting over the wreckage. The last of the light hovered eerily through the old church’s stained-glass windows, when he found her. Sleeping soundly, but none the worse for wear, she was huddled between the old pews. It eased his fears a bit – had she been injured, his materia would have been useless. If she had been dead... Barret would have torn off his testicles, merely for his having been the one to bear the news. Reeve was lucky that he had distance and a clockwork cat between himself and the girl’s angry father when he was forced to admit that Marlene had gone missing from the crowds of ShinRa’s refugees in Kalm.

Had the circumstances been less grim, and he, himself, been more personably inclined, Cloud might have laughed. Here she’d been held as a bargaining chip against AVALANCHE for all the years they’d spent on the run, and at the worst possible moment, she managed a daring escape of her own accord.

There weren’t any enemies around... none that he could see, anyway, and malignant ghosts had been absent ever since Holy appeared. Marlene wasn’t going anywhere, even if she woke up. It seemed safe to relax, if only for the time being.

Settling into the pew behind her niche, Cloud clipped the PHS from his belt and, glaring skyward, swore out loud. The damnable thing had gone dead, much like his magic. There was something about Midgar... dark and foreboding, when it came to materia-powered anything.

"Cloud?"

He looked down, and found Marlene had awoken, and was staring at him over the scarred backing of the bench between them. Her eyes were wide – surprised, maybe – and he distantly remembered his mother scolding him for his language. Long, long ago in another life. Shaking his head clear, he smiled apologetically, and shrugged.

"Sorry."

"That’s okay."

They stared at one another, until Cloud fidgeted and saw fit to recheck his signal. Still dead, although he expected nothing different – it merely proved a distraction, so he could think of a fitting way out.

"Where’s Papa?"

"Good question." He looked up to find that she was still staring. Unfortunately, Marlene was her father’s daughter, and had somewhere along the line picked up skills in perception. Cloud shrugged, and gestured in the direction he thought was the center of the city. "Out there, somewhere. Looking for... How did you ever get this far, anyway?"

"There was a chocobo cart," she replied factually, "I borrowed the chocobo."

"That so?"

"Yeah."

That... made a lot of sense. And it would have been very convenient. Which meant only one thing. "... He isn’t anywhere around, is he?"

Marlene shook her head, and he sighed. It wasn’t like they couldn’t leave, after all, but a bird would have made things much easier. "Well, we need to get back, you know."

"We can walk."

"The truck is a ways outside the city."

"So?" The girl beamed at his reluctance. "How do you think I got this far?"

"You walked?" he ventured, earning an exuberant nod. She bounced up, rocking on her heels while she waited for him to stand up beside her. Once he’d done that, she bounded to the doors ahead of him and slipped between to the darkened outside.

"You hungry or thirsty or anything?" earned him a shake of her head.

"Uh, uh."

Well, that’s a relief. "Good."

"‘Cause you didn’t bring anything anyway?"

"... Something like that."

Wistful, he took a moment to stare up at the church. She found his hand, and slipped her fingers around his, waiting for him to lead the way. "What took you so long?"

"It’s a long story."

"We’re walking, ‘member?"

"Oh. Yeah."

"So?" She pulled at his arm, and he remembered they were supposed to be moving. And apparently he was supposed to be making excuses.

"So, uh... Where do you want me to start?"

"Anywhere," Marlene told him, "Start at the beginning."

"The beginning, huh?" It was hard to think of those days; he’d been so muddled, anyone with half an intention could have convinced him that the sky was green. All they’d have to do was tell him, and he’d have believed it without a second thought. "Well, uh... You remember when Tifa hired me to help AVALANCHE, right?"

"Yep."

You remember, don’t you? he asked himself, and hurried on, "Yeah, anyway, you remember the plate falling and all of that?"

"Yeah. Then you broke into ShinRa and murdered the president."

"Er, no. Not quite. Sephiroth did that, we kinda happened to be in the way was all."

"Oh."

Cloud frowned. She’d taken that well enough. "Everyone else thought we had, though, so we had to get out of the city."

"And you were on the news."

"And- yeah, we probably were." He considered this, "Anyway, we were on our way to stop ShinRa, but Sephiroth was... he was far more dangerous. The more we found out, the more questions we had."

"Like how many stars are there in the sky?"

"Like-" Cloud glanced down. Marlene was staring up, and in following her gaze, he found a window of clear night sky through the wreckage above them. The moon was shining; he found the view hauntingly beautiful. "Sure."

But they had to keep moving.

"What did you find out?"

"A lot of things."

"Like what?"

"Like how Sephiroth was planning to end the world." Like how everything was a lie. In a fit of righteousness, he considered telling the kid about Corel... and Dyne. For a brief moment, it seemed like the proper thing to do.

But it wasn’t, and he knew that.

"Why’d he try to end the world?"

"I guess..." He guessed; he didn’t know. Somehow, He was Evil, didn’t fit as well as he would have liked. He remembered Sephiroth, and he remembered the rage and hate. But there was more he remembered. It was a comforting presence, deep within. "He was hurting, and he wanted to share the pain. He wanted... someone to know how he felt.

"It’s not easy to know your life is a lie." Rationalizing evil deeds for a man he despised; he was thinking out loud. Almost stumbling, he paused in step, even as Marlene led him forward.

"Was it?"

"He was very sick," Cloud finished. "But we caught up to him, finally. We saved the world."

They trudged along in silence, and he couldn’t think beyond that – they had finally done it, and he wasn’t quite past the reality of it all. Sure, when Tifa approached him in Midgar, it was all about saving the world. But really, it was all hyperbole – take down ShinRa, do your park; how many people ever saved the world, first hand?

"You took a long time coming back for me," Marlene said softly. Cloud grimaced, thrown forward from his musing, into the past week.

"We got delayed, when we finally ended up in Kalm." He glanced down, realizing their timing. "Actually, we must have gotten there right when you were running off; yeah, that’d explain a lot."

"When everybody was happy and stuff because of Holy?"

Trust her to know exactly when he was talking about. But it made sense – people coming in from all around, people going about their business – Cait Sith was with them the whole time, and he couldn’t have been completely autonomous. Because Reeve had to tell them that Marlene had gone missing, and admit he was a bit caught up in it, too.

"Yeah... we, uh... kinda got smashed." Marlene went quiet again, and he started to worry. "I mean, it’s not like we forgot about you or anything, we just... kinda got caught in the moment." You moron, he berated himself. "Besides, it was late and we were sure you’d be in bed, you know? Growing girl; need sleep?"

The silence returned and dragged on, catching on the occasional creak of metal and every footstep as they moved amidst the twisted metal and concrete.

"So what happened?" she finally asked. Lost in his presumed wrongdone, Cloud didn’t have an immediate answer for her; by now, he swore she was timing this.

Caught aware, he realized he didn’t know what she was asking. "When?"

"I don’t know," Marlene chirped, "When you got to Kalm, what happened?"

"We got smashed."

"You said that already."

"Okay, uh..." She wanted details. Itty, bitty, gritty, annoyingly soul-crushing to recount little details.

Barret was going to kill him. Even if he could hold out as long as possible, his memory was fuzzy. He didn’t remember details, and what he did remember... he couldn’t possibly tell her what Yuffie and Cid had gotten up to, could he? Or... No. And most certainly not about Red XIII... well, maybe later – he had to make sure she wouldn’t up and hug him or something stupid. Wait, that might’ve worked... No, Barret! Something about Barret would surely get her attention.

Under the moonlight, Marlene was staring up at him with a hopeful expression. He thought fast, but the only thing speeding through his mind was Barret, drunk off his ass, talking about pixies. And then... well, he decided he’d rather not think about that bit, so he zipped back to Barret, drunk off his ass, talking about... pixies.

"Uh, okay. Did you know that when he’s drunk, your dad likes to talk about elves and faeries and sh... stuff, and how mystical, magical squirrels will get into your head and store nuts there?"

... alright, not the best start, but he had to admit he was curious.

"That’s Papa," Marlene confirmed happily. Success! If he kept on that track, maybe he’d get out of this alive. Cloud grinned. Either Barret knew she knew, or she could keep secrets.

"And then what happened?"

"Well, then he started rambling about chocobo feathers and faulty sewing patterns."

"That’s not Papa."

"I dunno, Tifa said he likes to..." Cloud then realized exactly what he was saying, as well as exactly who he was saying it to. Stammering for an excuse, and to cover up what Tifa had blearily informed him, over Barret’s inebriated, snoring unconsciousness. He felt the blood drain from his face. "Uh, how he liked to sleep in them. Suits, made of chocobo feathers, I mean."

"You mean like ‘jammies?" the girl asked.

"I guess," he managed to squeak.

"I didn’t know that." Marlene giggled. "Tell me more!"

"Uh... sure." Suddenly, he imagined Barret appearing out of the dark. Being caught telling Marlene every dirty little secret seemed like a bad idea, and now he couldn’t think of anything else to say. "What do you want to know?"

"Cloud!" Barret was on him the night they returned, after Marlene was upstairs and sound asleep. Cloud flinched, but waited. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good. "I got words for you."

"That so?"

"About Marlene."

"What?" He wasn’t about to panic, this was probably harmless. She was safe and sound and he should know, damnit, he only traipsed around the ruins to find her. "I brought her back. She’s okay right; isn’t that the important thing?"

"Yeah, and I ain’t saying I’m in no way grateful." And he was – Cloud could tell. It even made him happy, except for the lingering but.... "But she’s picked up some damn strange ideas from someplace-"

"She was with ShinRa for a long time," he tried to shrug it off.

"She says she got’em from you," Barret snapped.

"Ah." Next time, Silence her, Cloud thought in a panic, although the advice was wholly unhelpful. For something of that caliber, the girl’s father was likely to kill him.

"Ah?" the larger, more intimidating man thundered, "Ah, what, Strife?"

He could have lied, but, frankly, Barret was already inclined to believe his kid anyway. Cornered, Cloud grasped for the only possible defense. "It was all true, wasn’t it?"

What he needed was a miracle. What he got, was Marlene bounding downstairs and happily exclaiming, "Look, Papa; I found your ‘jammies!"