Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy or any other game, reference, etc. I shove in here. I only own the characters and other stuff I make up!

Warning: This Chapter may contain content that some may find offensive or just hard to read due to the nature of it. So far only one person has condemned it, but that is why I put this warning up in the first place.

Ch. 9 Party

It has been over a year and now that Sephiroth is sixteen they want him to officially start the process of becoming a soldier. He will be leaving Midgar and they did not say how long he would be gone. It made me sad knowing that I would be alone. He did not seem entirely happy with the news but said nothing as he stood in the middle of the room being stared at by everyone.

We were currently in the president's office and they were going over the details as Hojo and I stood in the back against the wall waiting. There was a lot of security there. It looked like a lot of important people were there. I had to wonder why I was there. Whatever the reason, it sounded like everything would be about him.

The president gave a small little speech first. "Now we all know why we're here. Most of you have already seen the boy before and know what he can do. It's time we put that talent to use." The president said. "Tomorrow is a long awaited induction ceremony we're holding and there are a few things that need to be discussed. This will be his first public debut so we must all do our best to make things go smoothly." He said in a serious tone. Everyone seemed to agree with him.

"Everyone at the party tomorrow will get to see him for the first time. We have seen his potential, but many of them have their own concerns. All of us are concerned with how the public will view him." One of the generals said. "Most of them won't understand everything, but we should be careful how we handle them."

"You are right and that is why I wanted him here. There are a few things that you also need to make sure you do tomorrow." He said looking at Sephiroth. "Tomorrow you need to be as personable as possible. A lot of them will want to talk to you. You'll be the new face of the company soon and you have a lot to prove." The president told him. Sephiroth did not move or speak, but he did give a rather forced "yes sir". The president seemed satisfied that he understood.

"Tomorrow will be an utter annoyance." Hojo commented. "I suppose I should use it to my advantage though."

The meeting went on for a while as they all talked about different things they wanted to discuss. I was a small topic of discussion. After that everyone was dismissed, but most of them stayed talking to each other and a few of them had short talks with Sephiroth. Scarlet was making her way around the room talking to the generals. She ignored Sephiroth interrupting a few conversations he was having with the generals. She was very flirtatious, but it all seemed to have a purpose. The way she talked to them and the way she held herself told me she wanted something from them. After a while Sephiroth was able to join us and anyone leaving made their way to us first. They congratulated Hojo on his accomplishment with Sephiroth and asked various questions. Some of them asked about me and if I would even be at the party. At first, he said no, but after a few of them he said that he was considering it.

"You should bring her to the party as well, Hojo. I am sure the others would be interested in meeting her as well as the boy. Though many at the party will be donors some have expressed the need for a demonstration. I would suggest this happen soon, though I doubt many of them will be able to stomach such a thing. Whenever you can arrange it is fine." The last general said. He shook hands with Hojo and then walked away smiling at me. I spent the whole time silent even when they asked me direct questions. Hojo was quick to answer them every time. It was the only thing he did that I was ever thankful for.

Sheila arrived late with our food. "When you're finished just come with me. I have something else for you two. It's for the party tomorrow." She said as she sat down the trays. She looked excited about it and could not seem to wait for us to finish. We finished our food and went to her office. She had a suit and a dress hanging on the back of her door. "These are for you. It's a formal party so you'll have to have something nice to wear." She smiled and handed them over to us. We both frowned as we looked at them. I was not particularly excited about this, but a small part of me was. "Why don't you try them on?" We glanced at each other not moving. "I need to make sure they fit you."

We reluctantly did as asked. She helped each of us and she had a mirror we could look in. She pulled on the clothes here and there to see if they were too tight or loose, but she seemed satisfied with them. They fit, but from the look Sephiroth had he would be happier without them. He actually looked good. After seeing myself in the mirror I was not sure I was happy with how it looked. It was a strapless red dress with flowers at the top that went down one side to the split.

"Here these go with it." She hands me a pair of white gloves that go to my elbows. I put them on and look in the mirror again. I guess it is not so bad other than the fact that I have no underwear on.

"You look so pretty. Well...that is it so take those off." She handed us our lab clothes and pushed us out towards the door. She escorted us to the chamber informing us that tomorrow no tests would be done because of the party. Apparently Hojo had a lot to do before it started.

"You looked good in that." He whispered. I was almost sure that I had imagined him saying it.

"You think so?" He nodded. "I don't really like dresses, never have." We both sat down in our usual spots and went to sleep. Tomorrow we would have to deal with the party and all that that entails.

Sheila came in around the same time giving us breakfast and an early dinner, bringing our clothes with her. We got dressed after eating and Hojo arrived with a small escort to take us to the party. It appeared that we arrived late and there were even more people than I had expected. Hojo lead the way as if he knew where he wanted to go. We followed along behind looking around the room. It was huge and looked like hundreds of people could be in there at once. There was a stage where a band was set up and playing while they waited for the main event to start.

On the left and right of the stage, there were two rooms. The rooms on the right were closed and the left ones were open with people going in and out as they attended to different things for the party. We were heading towards the stage and from there we could see the entire room. There was a balcony to the left of the stage and large windows that looked out over the city, although the view is probably not the best.

The president and all of the people from the day before were standing by the balcony entrance and Hojo was making his way over to them dragging us along. Once we get there we found Scarlet flirting away with a beer in her hand. It looks like she may have had one too many. She seemed to be struggling to maintain a certain composure. "I guarantee that you'll be quite satisfied with the results." She was saying to one of them. You could tell that she was having a hard time talking the way she wanted to. Almost all of them had a beer in their hands all talking at once. The man talking to Scarlet had a strange smile on his face.

Hojo talks to the group while Sephiroth and I inch our way to the balcony. Our escorts are already out there and I look back to see if they have even noticed we are not there. I caught Hojo watching us, but none of them came out to get us. Sephiroth was carefully watching a group of men near us. They were glancing at us, but stayed away. We stood there for a while looking at the city. It was not much of a view.

After about ten minutes Hojo came out and dragged Sephiroth away telling me to stay close to the escorts. I just stayed where I was and watched as he took Sephiroth to talk to the group inside. When I turned back I noticed that the group of men had come over to me. All of them looked like soldiers. Their eyes had a glow telling me they were probably firsts. A tall, green-eyed brunette was staring down at me. Behind him stood a blue-eyed blonde, and a brown-eyed red head. They were all about the same height towering over me by about a foot. "Hello there. What brings you to the party?" I heard one of them say.

They were the ones Sephiroth was glaring down and I had a feeling that they were not the type of men I would associate with. The brunette smiled and offered his hand. "I'm David." It was a polite gesture, but I did not like the look in his eye so I did not accept it. I am not touching you! "What's the matter? Are you shy?" He turns around and looks at his friends, who laugh.

"Well...I'm sure we can fix that." He said as he turned around. He was grinning and his friends were giggling. Before I could do anything, he grabbed my arm. I pulled back, but he was strong and I could not free myself.

"Leave me alone!" I shouted at them. I kept fighting, but it was no use. I heard the escorts warning them to let go as they came over to help me, but his friends got in the way.

"You're a feisty one aren't you?" He laughed, but it was short lived. Sephiroth came out of nowhere and grabbed his arm. "You were with her before." He did not look happy that he was here. "What are you going to do?" Without any hesitation wrenched his arm away and I heard a loud snap. "Ah! You little brat! You broke my arm!" He said looking angry. He was definitely surprised. Hojo arrived with an annoyed look on his face.

"I'd be careful what you do. Next time you'll get more than just a broken arm." Hojo told them. It was meant as a threat and they all stood there gaping at us. "Come, boy!" He commanded and Sephiroth reluctantly obeyed. He came over to me and took my arm gently guiding me to the door. He looked pissed. Out on the balcony the blonde and red head were helping their friend who glared angrily. It made me think that he was used to getting his way.

"Are you hurt?" I shook my head. The way he held onto me and kept me close kind of surprised me. He's being awfully protective of me for some reason. I thought as we followed after Hojo, who was cursing under his breath. We were making our way towards the stage with our escorts close behind. The band played and for an hour we stayed there surrounded by people. Hojo kept us close leaning against the stage so he could watch the crowd. Sephiroth and I did the same.

The president came on stage demanding silence. It took a minute, but soon the roar of a few hundred people dwindled down to a few coughs. He waited a few seconds before speaking. "You all know why we are here. Mostly it is an excuse not to work, but it is also to meet some of the promising new recruits. Of course, there is a certain someone I know you are all dying to see." He makes a hand motion towards Hojo and as told, he grabs Sephiroth and pushes him towards the stage. Sephiroth refuses to let go of me, but he is finally coaxed into doing so and he walks rather slowly on stage. Once he is standing beside the president everyone claps. "We are hoping to see extraordinary things from this young man!" He puts his hand over the microphone and says something to Sephiroth. He frowns slightly, but not enough for everyone else to notice.

While I watch them on stage I hear someone talking to Hojo. I turn around and the two men from before are there. They apologize profusely for what happened and explained that their friend was sorry for what happened. "He did not mean to scare her. We were just being friendly." They said. Hojo did not really looked convinced.

"Fools." He said as they left. It seemed to annoy him that he had to even look at them again. He faced the stage to see how things were going. Some people were going on stage and greeting Sephiroth and the president was still talking. I felt someone grab my arm and pull hard. It was so fast I had no time to react. A hand went over my mouth and I was being lead somewhere. To everyone else it probably looked like we were walking together if they even noticed us.

We reached an empty room and the red head from before opened the door telling us to be quick. I am thrown in and the door slams shut. I land on my side and one of them kicks me. It is pitch black in the room with only small bits of light coming in from the door. "This would have never happened if that boy had not done that!" I heard him saying in between kicks.

"So you're going to beat me up?" I said when he stopped.

He grabbed me by the hair lifting my head up slightly. "We would have had a few laughs and that would have been it. We were just messing around and then he had to go and break my arm! Now I'll make sure you both regret it." He told me.

"A few laughs?" I said thinking that it probably would not have been funny to me.

"I'm a little rough, but sometimes it's hard to hold back. Don't know my own strength I guess." He said letting go. "That boy thinks he can do that to me?"

"That boy could have killed you. You were lucky." I told him.

"Lucky? Me?" He said picking me up. "Hold her." He ordered his friend. "I was surprised, but that won't happen again." He told me.

"Yeah. We had no idea he was a new recruit and apparently the favorite this year." The one holding me said. "But, David, finished as the strongest in our group! No way could a kid like him beat you." They both laughed and I did my best to wiggle out of his grasp, but he had a strong grip even holding my legs so I could not kick them.

"Well, I promise to be quick since they've probably noticed you're gone by now." He stated grabbing my dress and ripping it. I screamed and got hit hard in the face. It took me a second to realize that he had hit me with his cast. It seemed to hurt him too, but he still did it again. I coughed a few times and tried to recover, but I felt dizzy and disoriented. The next second I felt him let go and I fell to the floor.

He turned me over and jumped on top of me and I felt him touching me which made me cringe. His friend had grabbed my arms and was sitting on them. I was trying to stop him, but I could barely move at all. "Struggling will only make it worse." He told me sitting up. I heard a zipper and started doing everything I could. I kicked and screamed until I felt metal touch my neck. "Stop that, or you'll get hurt!" His friend said pressing it into my skin. His other hand was over my mouth to keep me from making too much noise.

I could see enough to know what was about to happen. His pants were undone and he was ripping the dress more to tear it off. Once the dress was gone I felt him shifting himself into a different position. The knife was still there so it was hard for me to do anything. If he decided to he could kill me. He had pulled his pants down some and he grabbed my legs lifting me up slightly. I looked at his friend and though it was too dark to really tell he looked like he was enjoying this. I could hear him laughing a little.

I was still screaming, but it was muffled and tears streamed down my face. They're too strong! I can't fight back at all! He was holding my legs and I felt him trying to put it in. All I could do was cry and struggle as much as I could until suddenly I felt them let go and the knife was gone. Light was flooding into the room and for a moment I could not see. I felt someone grab me and I fought momentarily until I realized it was a Turk trying to put a jacket on me.

For a second it was hard to tell what was going on. I was bleeding and for a few seconds I heard screaming. Everyone was shouting, and I could not see much until my eyes adjusted. I was relieved when Sephiroth put his hand on my shoulder until I looked at his hands. There was blood all over them and after looking at him more closely, I realized that there was blood all over him.

"What happened?" I stared at him gaping. He removed his hands and looked himself over as if he did not know exactly where all of the blood had come from. We both looked back towards the back of the room and there was the brunette. He had quite literally ripped him to shreds. The blonde was lying on the ground not moving. After someone looked at him they mentioned that his neck was broken. The red head was by the door lying on the ground dead. Sephiroth had gotten to him first and then come in. "You killed them." I whispered. He did not seem to care. In fact, he looked proud of that. He nodded answering me. He looked angry and when Hojo came over to us and touched my shoulder I jumped and he had growled at him.

"This will never happen again." He whispered to me. He sounded sure of himself, but he was also furious. "I won't let it." He added that as if I did not believe him. He stayed close to me and the party had ended very abruptly. Most of the people had left, but the Generals and other recruits had stayed. We approached them and they talked to Hojo for a moment before letting us leave.

"Well...it seems that we have our demonstration. They were all first class soldiers." He leaned forward looking at me. "I do hope that you're alright." I did not answer. Sephiroth tightened his grip on me and we were escorted back to the lab. We were cleaned up when we reached the lab and after some tests I was forced into a mako bath. I knew it would help, but I did not want to be in there.

When I was back in the chamber, I was glad. I lie down and cover up completely so no one could see me. While it was happening, I had been scared, angry, worried, anxious, and though I wanted to stop them I could not handle both of them at all. A lot of thoughts went through my mind. What if no one had come to help me? What would have happened after he was finished raping me? Is that how I would have died?

There were so many questions going through my head all at once and all I could do was cry. I could faintly hear Sephiroth beside me trying to comfort me, but it was not helping. Sheila came in and saw what was going on. She told Sephiroth to leave me alone for a little while and let me gather myself.

"Here I left your food by the bed, honey. When you want it...it'll be there." She said and then left. She did not wait outside as she usually did. She did come back a few hours later to check on us. I had not moved from the bed and the food sat on the floor untouched. She left hesitantly, but also took our trays. Sephiroth had not eaten his either.

"I don't really know how you feel right now. I do know that I don't want you to cry." Sephiroth said this after a long silence. I did not move, but I knew he was sitting beside my bed. He carefully put his hand on my shoulder. "I promise that won't happen again. I'll protect you." He was trying hard to comfort me, but at the moment I just wanted to be left alone. I just wanted to forget about it and maybe even pretend it did not happen. They were dead, so it was over, but not for me. "Lilia…."

"Please, just leave me alone." I sniffed and tried to cover up more while pushing his hand away. He eventually went over to his bed and sat down. I sat there thinking about things. It took hours to stop crying. I thought about them and why they had done that. I came to the conclusion that it might not have been the first time they had done that. It happened pretty fast and it seemed like they had planned it out. After a while I drifted off to sleep hoping not to dream.

I woke up first the next day. I got up wrapping the cover around me. It made me feel better and I noticed that Sephiroth was sitting on his bed sleeping and woke up a few minutes later. He stared at me for a while, but did not say anything. He had given me his cover too. It made me feel a little bad for pushing him away like that. "I'm sorry." He did not react when I said it. He did asked why. "I just needed to be alone for a little bit...well as alone as I could get in here..." We sat there in silence waiting for Sheila to arrive.

Hojo was a bit gentler with me for the next week. Sephiroth rather forced him to do that. He made things very difficult for Hojo and especially for his aids. They were not allowed to touch me at all. In a way, it was annoying, but in another way, it was nice. Hojo just thought that it was annoying. Sephiroth was suddenly standing up to Hojo and he hated it. Things took twice as long because he had to deal with Sephiroth.

"Boy!" Sephiroth stood in front of me and he would not let Hojo by. Hojo wanted to do a physical exam, but Sephiroth did not want to let him. I did not say a word. I did not want him to touch me at all at the moment. "Move aside!" Sephiroth growled and held his ground. Hojo eventually gave up and sent us back downstairs. "What a nuisance." He said before leaving us.

"Sephiroth, is that how it's going to be until you leave?" I asked him. He looked at me and nodded. "Thanks, but you might not want make things too difficult." He looked confused. "Hojo will start sedating you."

"I know, but I want you to feel safe." The way he said it made it sound like he needed to know I was safe. It may have affected him more than he is letting on. He killed three people and I think it was the first time he had done that. I doubt that he even feels bad for killing them. "I'll lay off a little if it's too much." He looked at me waiting for an answer.

"For now I don't mind. It would be better if it never happened." I told him.

"I should have been watching you. I looked away…." He said looking ashamed. "The Turks were already moving by the time we all noticed, but they would have taken too long."

"I don't even know how long it was before you came in."

"Too long!" He said angry. "But that won't happen again. As long as I am here it won't happen."

"Why do you care so much?" He looked at me and he started to say something, but it looked like he could not find the words. "Never mind." I said laying down. He did the same and I could feel him watching me.


Author: This chapter has been edited.