And here is chapter 2, I hope you like it. I didn't think it was right to leave you guys hanging just because i'm suffering a huge case of writers block, I powered through it for you. So my aplogies if it sucks.
Ash's hand came down on Zack's shoulder as she grabbed his apple with the other and sat down. "So tell me young Zachery, what was so important that you had to drag me all the way down here?" ignoring the 1st classes sitting around them and Zack's glare, she took a bite out of the apple.
"Don't forget me!" Jess piped up, appearing from seemingly nowhere. The other Turk reached across the table and grabbed Zack's yoghurt.
"Would you two stop eating my food!" Zack whined. The three 1st classes
"Oh now hush Zack, you know very well that if you aren't SOLDIER then you have to pay for food in here, and I'm certainly not about to do that." Ash rolled her eyes. "So are you going to answer my question?"
"I don't think I want to tell you my news now," he pouted.
Ash shrugged, "Fine, c'mon Jess I'm sure we can get Tseung to let us out early if we work through lunch.
"No, no wait! You're not even a little curious about what I have to say?"
The girls shook looked at each other and shook their heads, "Nope!"
"You guys suck, I don't even know why I'm friends with you."
"Because you're mum would kick your ass if you weren't looking after us...face it Zachy, Momma Fair lurves us!" Jess grinned at him and moved to get up.
"Wait! I wanna tell you my news!" he whined.
The girls sat back down and stared at him, "So spill," Ash said, taking another bite out of her apple.
"I made 2nd class!" he gave the two Turks an almost childlike grin which was returned.
"That's great Zack, you'll make 1st in no time," Ash said, and elbowed Genesis in his side when he heard him snort in disbelief.
"Thanks Ash!" he was practically beaming today, Zack always wanted to be a hero and he was one step closer to becoming one.
The six of them continued to eat, Zack being the centre of the little group, he managed to take the focus off of the two Turks. Ash's PHS rang and she frowned; there was only one person who would call her on her work PHS, everyone else used her personal one. "Professor Hojo, what can I do for you?" Zack and Jess shot her a look, while Sephiroth watched her from the corner of his eye and listened in on her conversation.
"I need you to come down to the lab now, it's time for your treatment."
"Yes professor, I'm on my way." She shut her PHS and stood up, "I gotta go Zack, I'll see you later."
Ash grimaced as she walked away, she hated going to see Hojo for her 'treatment' it was more like torture.
Lying on a patient bed in the lab, in a paper thin gown, Ash watched with trepidation as the scientists strapped her down tightly; making sure that she couldn't move at all. Once done, one of them injected her with a clear solution, it was used to mess with her head, make her drowsy, so she didn't know what the full extent of her 'treatments' were. It would be thirty minutes before Hojo would appear, so until then she was left with her thoughts. Her vision was beginning to fade in and out of black and her mind was letting everything it thought and saw flow into each other. Everything was spinning so fast that she had to close her eyes to stop herself from being violently sick. Opening them wearily at the sound of footsteps she managed to make out long silver hair and a flash of green eyes that could only be characterised as one person. "Sephiroth?" she asked, with no saliva to speak of her mouth felt cottony and his name had probably come out as a garbled mess sounding somewhat similar to the original. But in a flash the silver and green were gone, replaced by grey hair and glasses. Hojo.
"Now it's time for your treatment," the scientist cackled. He injected her with a dark red serum and her whole body tensed.
"No," she moaned, her fists clenched and her body shook with effort, as the serum flowed through her veins it left a trail of white hot fire in its wake. And she screamed, long, hard and loud, she screamed until her voice was raw. Every part of her was burning up; her heart was on fire, she could see nothing but white, she felt as though she was being ripped apart from the inside. And then there it was, sweet relief, darkness.
It was lunch time the next day and Jess once again found herself in the SOLDIER mess, and without Ash there, it appeared that all the attention was on her. She had promised Zack that she would come and join him again, because he wanted her to get to know his mentor and friend Angeal. Truth be told she was a little nervous, she would be having lunch without the outgoing Ash by her side, and she would be having lunch with all three 1st classes. One of which she found quite attractive, Ash wouldn't be there to distract them, how was she going to do this?
"Hey Jess, come take a seat!" Zack called pointing to the empty seat next to Angeal.
Jess gave him a small smile and made her way to their table, "Zack have you spoken to Ash yet?" she asked.
Zack's smile disappeared and he shook his head, "I tried calling her this morning but her PHS is set to voicemail. Hopefully she's just asleep, you know how much those..." he paused and looked around the table, all eyes were on him, "...sessions...take out of her. She usually gets the rest of the week off after her... sessions."
"Yes but- no matter how tired she is, she always takes Kaname with her, the only reason the swords not with her in the lab is because Hojo banned her from taking it in. It's still with her coat upstairs. Do you think that means she's still here?"
Zack shook his head again, "You've told me before, Tseung doesn't let Hojo keep her overnight, and he's only allowed to take her when he's gotten permission from Rufus. She's probably at home sleeping it off, and she will have just turned off her PHS. I'm sure we have nothing to worry about." This he said rather unconvincingly. The only time Ash was without her sword was when she was in Hojo's lab, no matter what she would take it before she went home. But Hojo couldn't still have her, right?
Sephiroth's eyes narrowed at the subject of their conversation, he had seen Ash yesterday in the lab, he had a bad feeling, and if Zack truly didn't believe that she was well, she probably wasn't. His concern wasn't because he felt anything towards the girl, how could he? They had just met yesterday. But he knew the type of horrors Hojo would put people through and he disliked the thought of anyone having to go through that. Perhaps he should fake an injury and go to the lab to check on the girl, he knew it would appease the Pup. Just as he was about to voice this thought the doors to the Mess slid open and Tseung walked in. The Wutaian Turk zeroed in on their position and directed his questions to Jess. "Where is Ashra? She has yet to clock in and it is her turn to watch the Vice President."
Jess and Zack looked at Tseung in shock, "She has the week off doesn't she? Hojo called her in to the lab yesterday."
"What? He never confirmed any of this with me."
"You didn't know? Hojo's not allowed any sessions with any of the Turks without your say so!" Zack exclaimed.
"I'm going to the lab," Tseung muttered, "I'll find out what's going on here."
"That would not be the best idea." Sephiroth said, stopping the dark haired Turk from taking another step.
"Oh and what would be the best idea General?" Tseung asked, "She is a Turk, one of my people, you do not need to concern yourself with this."
"If Hojo believes that you are going against his will then you will only end up hurting your Turk, you should send someone in there to first confirm that she is still there, without arousing the Professor's suspicion."
"And how am I going to do that?"
Sephiroth turned to look at his fellow Firsts, his friends and raised an eyebrow. "Of course," Genesis muttered, drawing the Turks attention away from the General and on to him. "If one of us," he motioned to himself, Angeal and Sephiroth "is injured during training, even if it is the slightest graze, we must report to Hojo. He likes to know what goes on with our bodies. Is that what you're planning Seph? To get hurt? You know the Professor will find it suspicious if you turn up injured badly and you can't go in with a small cut on your shoulder. Not only would you heal too fast but Hojo knows you despise him, you'd never go there unless it was a necessity."
"So why don't one of you get injured?" Zack interjected. "It wouldn't look suspicious if you were training with Sephiroth."
"You expect one of us, to get hurt just see if your friend's still in there? You expect one of us to willingly walk into Hojo's clutches for someone we barely know?" Genesis snorted.
"Gen if it bothers you so much then I'll go," Angeal said.
"Are you serious? Do you honestly believe that you'll be able to fool Hojo into thinking that you got injured while fighting Seph? That hasn't happened since you became a 2nd." He wasn't about to let Hojo get his hands on Angeal, "I'll do it," he sighed, "I'm the only one Hojo is going to remotely believe."
"Then it's settled" Sephiroth muttered, "Genesis will find out if your Turk is still here before dinner."
"Why are you so keen on helping us?" Jess asked, "after all it's not exactly a secret that SOLDIER and the Turks are as big as enemies as one can get while working for the same company."
"You're friends with Zack," Angeal said.
"That's different, we've known each other since we were little, we grew up together."
"Ashra is Zack's friend and Zack is ours, so we will help, besides what Hojo is allowed to get away with is wrong. I've always wanted to take that scientist down a peg or two." Genesis replied.
A few hours later Genesis was sat in the lab on one of the beds clutching his right arm, stemming the blood flow. He knew they were supposed to make this look real but damn! Sephiroth really got him good. Hojo pottered around him checking his vitals and the red headed SOLDIER rolled his eyes, "Professor if you're quite done I would like to get back to my active duties." Hojo glared at the younger man and called over one of the scientist to fix the SOLDIER up. When Hojo walked off Genesis looked up at the young scientist, the young woman, "You can go, I'll be fine."
"The Professor told me to heal you, I can't go against his orders." She said.
Genesis raised an eyebrow at the woman, "I can heal myself, now go, I gave you a direct order."
"Yes sir," the woman nodded and headed into another part of the lab.
After a few minutes of searching, Genesis found the room for Hojo's test subjects, he and Angeal had to come here many times before, when they were younger and Sephiroth still received treatments from Hojo. They would come and sneak him out of the lab at night, Hojo was cruel and had repeatedly informed Sephiroth that if he wanted to leave all he had to do was get up and walk out of the door, on his own. Of course, the medication he was given left even the great Sephiroth to weak to move, so his only two friends would come in and risk their careers to save the General. Walking in Genesis found exactly who he was looking for, the Turk was strapped to the bed and looked practically dead. Sephiroth had never looked like this when they had come to get him... she was so pale and covered in a thin sheen of sweat. Blue veins lined her skin, they were so visible it looked as though they had been drawn on, and the skin around her eyes was incredibly swollen. 'She won't be able to see for days,' he thought.
"I knew you were up to something," a voice said from the doorway.
Turning Genesis saw the same scientist who had tried to heal him, pulling Rapier from its place on his back he held it to the girls throat, "If you've told anyone-"
"I haven't, if you've come to take her do it quickly," her voice only quivered a little, "Hojo will be back soon and I doubt she will survive another dose of serum."
"What did he do to her?"
"There's no time, you have to get her out of here now!"
"If Hojo didn't give her permission to leave then he'll know something is wrong."
"But he did, he said if she could get up and walk out on her own then she could."
Genesis looked back at her, "Why are you helping me?"
"Because what he's doing is wrong."
"What's your name?"
"You can call my Kai," she replied, "now go."
Genesis unstrapped Ash from the bed and literally fled the lab with her in his arms, he needed to get her to Sephiroth...
So there it is, please review.
