There was a knock at the door and Sephiroth stood up, answering it he was surprised to see a woman he knew he had seen down in Hojo's lab a few times. She was carrying a large brown bag and looked up at him, "Hello General, First Class Rhapsodos said this is where I could find subject four-three-five, the Turk...uh-I'm Kai, I don't know if he mentioned me..."

"He did, what is it that you want?" he rumbled, admittedly he had found himself interested in her when he saw her around the lab, but he wasn't going to let his guard down.

"I just came to see how she was healing, to see if there was anything I could do for her."

Sephiroth's eyes narrowed on her for a moment, as if trying to figure out whether she was lying to him. "Come in."

"Thank you," she gave him a small smile before following him to the bedroom where Ashra slept.

Sephiroth watched as Kai carefully checked over Ashra, he was still trying to figure out what Ash meant to him and know all of a sudden he was feeling some sort of a pull towards this woman, a woman that he had never spoken to before today. "Why did you help Genesis?" he asked causing her to jump at the suddenness of his voice.

"I don't believe in the Professor's work, I never have, he likes to take people with particularly strong DNA and mess with its molecular structure, he thinks he's a god and I couldn't stand to watch it anymore. Especially not to her..."

"...to her?"

Kai smiled up at him before turning back to her work, "She saved me you know?" gently she applied some sort of salve to the area around Ash's eyes and bandaged it up. "I was walking home with my groceries and was pulled into an alleyway. I'm not so good with the whole defending myself thing, I mean I can put up a good fight and everything, throw a decent punch but in the dark and taken by surprise I'm kinda clueless, so I was pretty sure I was gonna die when this guy held a knife to my throat. And then, well I don't know, I guess she was in the area and saw what was happening and saved me. I usually take care of her when she comes down for her 'treatments' but this time was different, usually it's just a couple of hours and then she's done. But he kept her there over night, I'm still trying to figure out what it was Hojo gave her this time, I mean with her reaction to it I'd think that-you know I don't want to say until I'm sure, but her reaction was unexpected. Hojo thought she would survive two doses of the serum but she died four times last night, I gave her something to counteract the serum just before First Class Rhapsodos came into the lab. I don't know how I'm ever going to repay her for saving my life." She met Sephiroth's green eyes with her own brown ones.

"I'm sure she would say you already have."


Four Days Later

Ashra sighed and stretched in bed, four days, she'd been bedridden and blind and fucking bored for four fucking days straight. At least if she were at her place then she could listen to music, or annoy Reno on her PHS, but no she had to be in the great General Sephiroth's apartment. 'Great General my ass more like great git,' she thought sourly. For some reason she'd never really seen the appeal Sephiroth held for the fairer sex, maybe she thought his hair made him look just a little too girly than a man of his stature...maybe she shouldn't say that part out loud, Kai would have her hide if she heard that. Or maybe it was the fact that his hair was prettier than hers, Ash knew from experience that she couldn't date a man with prettier hair than her, it just wasn't on, they'd spend their mornings fighting in front of the mirror in the bathroom so they could look perfect. Ash was never one for sharing the spotlight...or her bathroom mirror... Anyway he was rapidly becoming her least favourite person in the world after Hojo and the President of course. Because of him she was bored, it was his fault she couldn't go home, it was his fault she didn't have any entertainment because he refused to let anyone into his place when he wasn't there, and he wasn't there a hell of a lot. So all she could do was sleep, and desperately try to move her sore body from its position under the covers. But stubbornly it refused to move. Sighing again she banged her head against the pillow and let out a frustrated cry.

"You know it's not such a good idea to try and hurt your head after Kai spent such a long time fixing it up." A voice said from the doorway.

"Genesis?" she asked incredulously, "what are you doing here? Is Sephiroth back?"

"No he's not." The red headed SOLDIER strolled into the room holding a very worn copy of his beloved Loveless in his hand.

"Then how-"

"I stole his keys," he jangled them so she could hear.

"What SOLDIER, poet and heartthrob to women everywhere aren't enough? You have to add thief to your list?"

"Well Ash I never knew you considered me a heartthrob...tell me do you find me pretty?" he asked amusedly.

Ash luckily enough managed not to blush when those words came from his mouth, "Hardly, anyone with prettier hair than me just doesn't do it for me. What are you doing here Genesis?"

"You know there's no need to be so rude I have braved Sephiroth's wrath just to keep you company seeing as how Zack may have mentioned to me your short attention span and tendency to get bored very easily." He replied melodramatically. That was Genesis, she had managed to pick up over the last two days, he was the one who tended to be a bit of a drama queen.

"And why would you want to do that?"

"He may have also mentioned to me that you'd never read Loveless, or seen one of the enactments so I thought I'd bring my copy with me and read it to you."

"Ah so you've come to torture me then," she replied playfully. "Very well sir, let the torment begin." She smiled and felt the bed depress next to her and he began to speak.

"Loveless – Prologue:
When the war of the beasts brings about the world's end. The goddess descends from the sky. Wings of light and dark spread afar. She guides us to bliss, her gift everlasting..."

"It's been six fucking days Genesis! I think I know Loveless from cover to cover now, so you can stop reading it!" Ash complained.

Genesis chuckled, "Loveless Act One?" he asked.

"Infinite in mystery is the gift of the goddess, we seek it thus and take to the sky, ripples form on the water's surface, the wandering soul knows no rest. Is that enough proof for you?!"

"I suppose, but if I'm not reading this to you then how shall I keep you entertained?"

"I don't know, have you ever tried holding a conversation with someone as opposed to reciting poetry to them?" she rubbed her forehead just above her bandages, her eyes were starting to feel itchy, but Kai had told her not to irritate them anymore.

"You know most girls would kill to have me recite poetry to them..."

"Yeah well I think you'll find I'm not a part of the Red Leather fan club, oh for piss sakes!" she moaned and ripped off the bandages around her eyes.

"Ash you're not supposed to take those o-" he stopped mid sentence when he saw her eyes, he was fairly certain that they were brown before she went in to see Hojo.

"What? Genesis what is it?!" her eyesight was still a little fuzzy, almost as if the lines that usually clearly defined one another were blended into one another. Right now Genesis was melting into the wall in her vision.

"I think I need to get Sephiroth," he whispered.

"Damn it Genesis what the fuck is wrong?!" but it was too late, he had already rushed out of the room to go and find his General.

Sephiroth sat in his office lips pursed, staring at the young scientist who had been helping them thus far, he enjoyed watching her when she talked about her work. Kai's eyes lit up and she had an air of confidence about her when she knew that she was the only one who truly knew what she was talking about. "Ok so I think I may have just about figured out what Hojo did to Ash, at least in theory..."

He shook himself from his thoughts just in time to make it look like he was giving her words his full attention "And that would be?"

"Well, a while ago Hojo did some experimentation on a Turk, much like the ones he has been doing on Ash but this isn't as advanced as what he did previously. Hojo based whatever it is he did to Ash on research done by a scientist almost thirty years ago involving the lifestream. Now about twenty years ago he managed to expose a Turk to a chemically altered form of the lifestream, mutating him and giving the Turk the ability to change his form when enraged into some sort of monsters. I don't know what happened to the Turk, but Ash, I think, has been injected with a similar form of this 'new lifestream' and I think it's been happening systematically just so Hojo can see how far he can push her. The serum I gave her was the one Hojo had been using on her every time she left the lab, it appears to have helped but I don't know the extent of the damage Hojo has caused her yet."

"You're saying that this is a more primitive version of treatment than what Hojo has used in the past."

"Yep."

"That makes no sense, surely in order to improve his previous experiment he would need to use better equipment and better drugs, his experiments would become more advanced over time."

"Well like I said, the research isn't Hojo's, I don't think he knows how to improve the experiment so he just went back to basics. I can't find any mention of the research anywhere else in the lab, so maybe it's gone."

"Maybe, but I can't feasibly see Hojo letting any sort of vital research disappear, what was the Turks name?" Sephiroth asked thoughtfully.

"Vincent Valentine, he disappeared twenty years ago and there's been no mention of him ever since, according to the database in the lab he's not dead, no one knows where he is and he's not classed as MIA."

"I'll have to talk to Tseng, he should have information on every Turk that has ever walked these halls-"

He was cut off by Genesis who burst through the doors, "Seph, you really need to see this."

Sephiroth stared at Ash's eyes in contemplation before turning to look at Genesis, "How did you get into my room?"

Genesis raised an eyebrow looking at him in almost disbelief, "Her eyes have turned from their natural brown to red and black and all you can ask me is how I got into your room?!" Sephiroth stared at him and Genesis waved a hand in the air dismissively, "How I got in here doesn't matter, what does matter is what happened to her eyes! Any ideas?!"

Ash and Kai sat on the bed watching the SOLDIERS exchange in silence before Ash turned to the brunette next to her, "I'm starting to believe Genesis is just a little bit crazy... you?"

Kai nodded not taking her eyes of the silver haired General before her, "Oh yeah, he's definitely crazy but," shaking herself out of her Sephiroth induced trance (he was after all just a little mezmerising) she turned to look at Ash, "maybe I should take a look at your eyes." Without another word she whipped out a small penlight and shined it into the girls eyes, "You're pupil reaction is better than normal, faster than a Turk's, it's faster than a SOLDIER's actually, how do things look on your end?"

"Well after the initial blurriness it looks like everything has been brought into focus, everything has clean cut lines, colours are brighter, the light's a little painful now- it almost feels as though I'm squinting into the sun if I look directly into one. And when the lights are off...well..."

"Well what?"

"Okay I know this is going to sound a little crazy, but I turned the lights off, I mean I made it pitch black in here and I could everything, granted it ranged from pink to red but I could see it all. Like I was looking through some sort of light filter..."

"Night vision, I guess it's possible, you'd need to look into a mirror in the dark and tell me what your pupil reaction's like, I mean the fact that your eyes are now this colour may be why, I've seen...monsters with eyes like this, they're very apt at handling the dark, also your eyes are kind creepy now, I mean they would be to the average person. So you may want to invest in a pair of sunglasses from now on." Her eyes were red a black, both the whites of her eyes and the pupils were deep red, almost crimson while the irises were black.

"Great now Rude is gonna accuse me of jacking his style." Rolling her eyes she looked up at the two members of SOLDIER who didn't seem like they were going to stop arguing, "Boys!" both of them looked at Ash, "Can we bring the attention back to the Turk and away from Genesis's breaking and entering skills?"

Sephiroth's eyes snapped back to Genesis, "You broke in!"

Ash sighed and turned to the scientist, "You wanna give me a lift back to my place? I've been cooped up here way to long." Kai nodded and both girls headed out of the room, "Come to think of it, where's my sword?"

Ok here's the latest chapter so please review!