(Author's Note: Well…this chapter is longer than I thought it would be…umm…not much to say…here's the next chapter…)

Disclaimer: I don't own FF7 or Squaresoft! Cassandra and Navarro yes.

Chapter 12

2 years later…

"And what exactly do you want with me?" Cassandra said impatiently.

"Oh I'm just trying something new," Hojo said.

"Like what?"

"Well…it's a new experiment really," he said.

"So who's your guinea pig this time?" she asked.

"…you."

"What?"

"You. I'm going to be testing some things on you."

"Two words…fat…chance."

"You don't have a choice."

"Whatever!" she said backing towards the door to leave the lab. She turned around when she bumped into someone. Navarro stood behind her.

"As I said you don't have a choice," Hojo said with a wave of his hand.

She had glanced at him over her shoulder but returned her attention to Navarro when he grabbed her by her shoulders. "I don't like you and you know it," she snarled.

"Oh I know it all right. And the feelings mutual. But I have my orders," Navarro said a little too calm for her.

"THAT'S IT!" Cassandra tackled Navarro and pinned him to the floor.

"Oh look…she pinned me down," he smirked. She was about to punch him in the face when he tightened his grip on her shoulders and used his feet to launch her over his head. She landed on her back.  He flipped over so now he was on top of her. "Not so tough now are ya?" he asked.

"Get off of me and I'll show you!" she snapped.

"You're all bark but no bite, aren't you?"

"…WHAT?!"

Hojo watched them wrestling on the floor with some interest. He stood well out of the way. The fight continued for several minutes. Navarro finally had her pinned underneath him on her stomach with one arm twisted behind her back.

"Let me go!" she snapped still struggling.

"Better hurry up Hojo. I can't hold her like this forever," Navarro said ignoring her. Hojo walked over with a syringe filled with a clear liquid.

Cassandra caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of her eye. "Don't you dare stick me with that!"

"Shut up," Hojo said and the needle pierced the skin of her arm. A haze seemed to cover her vision for a few seconds. "Done," she heard Hojo say. Then everything came back into focus. She snapped. Navarro was thrown off of her as she tackled Hojo and began to beat him. "Get her off!" he yelled at Navarro.

He got to his feet and grabbed her. He managed to pull her off only to have her turn on him. For a minute he frantically dodged her blows but then she stopped and swayed. Hojo was sitting up glaring at her.

"What did…you do…to…me……" she slowly began to collapse. Navarro caught her.

"It's about time that drug took affect. Put her on the table," Hojo said standing. Navarro lifted her up and did as told.

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"Oh…my…gosh…" Sephiroth stared at the papers in front of him.

"What's wrong?" Zack asked.

"Strife…he failed again," Sephiroth said.

"You're kidding right?"

"Hardly. I'm surprised that Cassandra didn't throw him out," Sephiroth said.

"Let me see those papers," Zack said. Sephiroth handed them to him and started to look at the next set. After a few minutes Zack looked up at him. "Maybe I should give him a few more pointers," he said.

"Be my guest," Sephiroth said.

"Yeah…I think I will," Zack said with a strange look on his face as he left the room. Sephiroth just shook his head.

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Cassandra groaned softly as she open her eyes. Everything was spinning and she felt like being sick. She also felt tired. She slowly sat up and looked around. She was in her room. She moved her feet to the floor and looked around not really seeing anything. What had Hojo done to her this time?

…had he done something to her because she had been talking to Sephiroth a little more this past week than normally? She started to stand but fell back down on her bed. She decided to rest a few more minutes but that 'few more minutes' turned into hours.

                                    ****

'Soon…'

"What?" Sephiroth stopped walking and looked around. No one else was in the hall except for him. He frowned and kept going towards his destination.

'Soon my son…' He stopped again and looked around. Nothing. He continued.

'Soon my son this planet…' Sephiroth stopped and spun around. No one was there again. He shook his head trying to clear it of thoughts that he didn't know he had.

"Sephiroth! I've been looking all over for you!"

He turned to see Zack coming towards him down the hall. "Yes Zack?" he asked.

"I just saw that Navarro dude with Cassandra," Zack said.

"Oh?"

"Yeah…he was carrying her. Looked like he was headed for the SOLDIER's quarters," Zack said.

"Do you know what happened?" Sephiroth asked. The voice he had been hearing seemed to fall silent.

Zack shook his head. "No. That's all I saw," he said.

"Hmm…I'm just going to see if she's all right," Sephiroth said starting down the hall again.

"Hojo might have done something…that's the direction Navarro was headed away from," Zack said. Sephiroth only nodded in response and his pace quickened. He found himself at the door to her room in almost no time at all. He listened for any noises from inside but heard nothing.

"Cassandra?" he called and knocked on the door. He didn't get an answer. He looked around then opened the door and went in. The first room he came to was half a living area and half a kitchen. There was a short hall that went left at the kitchen.  He followed it and passed a bathroom. At the end of the hall was the closed door that led to her bedroom. He knocked on it.

He heard a sound like someone moving. "Cassandra?"

"…yeah?"

He opened the door. She was sitting up in the bed with her head in her hands.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"I think so," she said.

"What happened? Zack saw Navarro carrying you here," he said.

"Hojo wanted to see me about something so I went. I had a fight with Navarro and got a few punches in on Hojo. They drugged me I guess…I don't know what happened after that," she said.

"How do you feel?" he asked. She slowly lowered her hands and looked at him with a dull look. "Okay. That was a stupid question. But you don't know what he did to you?" he said.

"No clue," she said.

"I guess I'll have to ask him then won't I?" he said.

"Don't…I think he did whatever he did because I was around you a lot the past week…he'll know you were with me again if you confront him about it," she said.

"…you're right. Tell me if he does anything else, k?" Sephiroth asked.

"Yeah. But…maybe we could talk through Zack? It might not be for awhile before you find out if he does this again so we can have Zack keep an eye out for trouble too," Cassandra said.

"I'll talk to him. You look tired. Why don't you just rest?" he said.

"I'm going to whether you let me or not," she said rubbing her forehead.

"Are you sure you're all right?"

"I'm fine for now," she said standing.

He stood up too and caught as she swayed close to falling over. "Easy," he said as she leaned against him.

"Yeah sure," she said.

For a moment he did nothing then slowly he wrapped his arms around her holding her against him. For a few moments they stood like that. "Cassandra?" he asked.

"Hmmm?" she raised her head from where it had been resting against his chest to see his face.

"…are you all right?" he asked changing what he was going to say.

She simply nodded. He frowned. Her face was a little pale and her eyes had a glaze to them. He put his hand on the side of her face then on her forehead.

"Fever…you need to lie down," he said and helped her. He looked at her and went to the bathroom. He came back with a cool damp cloth. Her eyes were already closed as he placed it on her forehead. He sat down on the edge of the bed. "I think you're pushing you're luck Hojo…luck you don't even have," he said to himself.

                                    ****

(A/N: Now…let's see a raise of hands in who thinks I should have Sephy carry out his earlier threat at Hojo or…let Cassandra kill him?)