Life went on. Even after what had happened in that dim lit alley.

Times were busy for the members of the guardian corps. With more and more beasts finding their way into the streets of Bodhum, the once peaceful roads had turned into fighting pits, hostile, dangerous even.

Days had melted into a neverending sequence of monster slaying and street patrolling and Lightning didn't know what was worse, the misery of seeing her hometown being overrun by monsters, or the fact that she actually enjoyed slaying things again.

It was true. She did enjoy it. Killing monsters was something familiar, something she was good at, something she knew exactly how to do. It was her purpose really.

It was good to feel needed again, to be of use. And it also was a most welcome distraction from her non existent love life.

Sephiroth and her had gone back to ignoring each other as best as they could. And they had turned out really good at it. Experts, really. Well... They had had plenty of practise already, hadn't they? They did...

They had somehow managed not to talk in weeks, not even over anyting work related, had managed to not even stay in the same room at the same time at least not for a prolonged time. Had managed to not even look at each other. At least not when the other noticed.

Claire Farron had accepted it all without batting an eyelid.

Maybe it really was for the best.

Whatever there had been going on between the two of them it hadn't been good for any of them. Had never been to begin with.

The truth was their relationship could never have been considered healthy, not at any point in time and it definitely hadn't been those past few weeks, wasn't now.

Well there had been a time... a voice at the back of her head was eager to remind her whenever those thoughts would come up. A voice Lightning always made to silence as fast as she could.

Yes. It was true. There had been a time. Those first few days at the beach, those first few weeks they'd spent together at Bodhum...

But that had been different, hadn't been the norm, had been the one exception really, had been before he'd started being pushy, before he'd made all the others join the guardian corps because of her, before he'd started talking about beach houses and family.

Before everything between them had been turned upside down.

No, things were better as they were now. For the both of them.

Trying her best to erase the silver haired first class from her mind entirely, Lightning focused on her work instead. And more than ever so.

Well, there was a lot to do anyway.

With all the beasts roaming the streets her job had become more demanding than ever.

More and more of the doglike creatures had come, were appearing out of nowhere really, more and more with every day.

And it wasn't one of those problems that was going to set itself right all by itself either.

No. Drastic action was required. And Claire Farron was only too happy to provide.

It was a Wednesday afternoon when finally it happened.

The first incident one of them got injured by one of those mysterious beast.

And unfortunately, it had to be her.

Claire Farron was out with Cloud Stirfe, ridding the streets of monsters as had become their usual afternoon activity.

It had already become some kind of routine, something like morning patrols or burshing your teeth.

They had made to clear one of the cobbled winding roads, that led away from town and down to one of Bodhum's more frequented beaches and it was in only one second of inattention that they´d gotten themselves attacked.

Four of those mysterious dog like beasts jumping at them simultaneously from behind some bushes, with Cloud taking care of one on his own and Lightning herself managing to get rid of two with that one first instinctive blow she'd sent their way, somehow the last one managed to jump on top of her, it´s long sharp teeth sinking deep into the flesh of her forearm before she'd managed to throw it off, chasing a bullet straight to the vile thing´s skull.

The thing was dead in an instant, but the deed was already done.

Lightning had successfully gotten herself bitten.

Great...

'Are you alright?!' her worried comrade approached her almost instantly.

'Yes... Nothing more than a scrape.' she uttered and just pulled the gloves of her guardian corps uniform higher up her arm to obscure the slightly bleeding wound.

There was just no need for him to see this, lest he was going to try and heal her with Cure.

As she had already had to find out the hard way, she knew, of course it wouldn´t work on her.

No...

Last thing she needed now was for the others to find out about her alien cell treatment secret.

It wasn´t a deep wound anyway.

She would just rely on her modified body cells to deal with it.

No big deal really.

Or so she thought.

For it was only two days later that she started to feel weird.

Sick even.

The bite wound healing good, great actually, busy with all the work they had these days, Lightning hadn´t given the incident with the beast another thought, not until suddenly the third day after it had happened, she woke up with a pounding headache and a crazy queasy feeling in her stomach.

It was a Saturday and Serah was home, already up and busy cooking breakfast downstairs in the kitchen.

The smell of freshly made pancakes wafting up the stairs meeting her nose on her way over to the bathroom, it instantly turned the pink haired female´s stomach.

Claire Farron barely made it to the toilet in time before she threw up big style.

Shit what had she been eating last night?!

Realizing that albeit feeling sick she was craving food like mad, she went down to get herself some breakfast with Serah and Snow, where she stuffed her face with pancakes just to throw them up the second she managed to make it back to the bathroom.

Weird.

Her eyes travelling down to her arm, carefully removing the sleeve of the shirt she had put on to cover up the wound, there it sat, that bite mark staring her in the face like a startled deer.

It didn´t look conspicuous whatsoever.

Neither red, nor swollen.

It wasn´t even itching.

Still...

Was there poison in that monster´s fangs?! Lightning wasn't sure.

Those beasts, they weren't anything anybody ever had encountered before. Not a lot was known about them.

There were no records no teachings and definitely no hazard signs.

Who knew what a bite from them could do...

'Hey, are you okay in there?' she suddenly heard Serah on the other side of the bathroom door.

'Yes... No... I... I don´t know... Might have eaten something wrong yesterday evening. That damn restaurant... Cid's... I´ll never go and order seafood again anytime soon.' she called from her position on the floor.

'Should I call in at work and tell them that you are sick?' Serah asked through the still closed door.

'No, I´m going anyway. Just gimme a sec.' her big sis replied, carefully making to get up from the cool tiled floor, just to grab the toilet for support as she almost fainted from the ensuing dizziness.

Fuck.. What was wrong with her today?!

The pink haired warrior, she couldn't remember feeling this sick, this weak like ever.. Not even before her very first mako shot.

Well.. Maybe that one time she'd eaten that stale behemoth steak. But she had been about six years then. And her mother had still been there to nurse her back to health.

Never had she felt like any of this in her entire adult life.

Was something seriously wrong with her?!

Lightning didn't know.

'Oh... Okay.' Serah gave in.

It was with difficulty that the older of the Farron sisters managed to get back on her feet, feeling crazily dizzy and a little bit faint as she quickly rinsed her mouth with water and splashed her face.

Come on Claire...

She had to get herself together. She really did.

And that was exactly what she did.

She somehow managed to push through the next few days, managed to put up a straight face at work and even at home in front of Serah and Snow. She had been in soldier after all, she definitely had endured much worse. She had stomached a mako shot for god's sake, she had come back from the dead.

Surely she would survive a little food poisoning. At least that was what she was telling herself.

And it wasn´t until the end of the next week that she started to get seriously concerned.

The nausea didn´t vanish and with the newspaper full of cases of other people form the city bitten by those strange beasts having to get treated at the hospital, an elderly man even dying from the infection that had ensued, she was starting to get more and more worried that this strange sickness she had contracted wasn´t coming from the food she had had at that restaurant at all.

The wound of the bite on her forearm was gone by then. Thanks to her Jenova cells´ fast healing abilities there was only a scar left by the end of the week.

But still her condition was getting worse and worse.

Could it be she was infected too?

Well... It definitely seemed plausible.

She was barely able to keep any food in anymore and she was growing weaker and weaker, barely able to focus on her job anymore, falling into her bed first thing in the evening, tired as if she had been fighting in a war, something she hadn´t experienced ever since she had recovered from her Jenova treatment.

She knew something was seriously wrong with her. There was no denying that anymore.

But she didn´t want to see a doctor. Couldn't see a doctor in fact.

She just couldn´t risk anybody finding out about the Jenova cells and with her degenerated body not responding to any form of conservative treatment, she guessed there was nothing they could do for her anyway.

There was only one place she could go. She was aware. Had known all along.

And by the beginning of the next week she seriously considered asking Sephiroth for help.

Talking or not.

She knew he had amazing abilities when it came to healing her genetically modified body after all and also he knew much more about that stuff than she did, obviously.

But well...

They weren´t exactly getting along well these days.

Weren´t even on speaking terms.

Again...

The thing was they hadn´t talked at all ever since their last make out session in the alley after they had left the pub and yeah... He wasn´t exactly eager to be in her presence these days it seemed. He had developed that new habit of leaving a room whenever he sensed her enter, ignoring her existence alltogether.

It was something Lightning couldn't blame him for. Not really. After everything she'd thrown at him.

But yeah..

Well... Let´s say she wasn´t eager to approach him with this new problem either... Not if it wasn´t absolutely necessary. And it definitely wasn´t absolutely necessary yet.

Maybe this strange sickness whatever it was would go away on its own after all.

Maybe she just needed to hang in there a little longer...

Yes.

Surely it would all be over soon.

Or so she thought.