Ningit moved slowly inside Sephiroth's apartment; he was certainly very heavy, but, none the less, he was finally home. He opened one eye and silently directed her towards the couch, where she placed him neatly. She turned to look at the room itself: a few furnishings and white walls covering most of the place; there wasn't much that perked her curiosity. Turning her head to her pained companion she tried to see if he was in fact still alive.

"Is there anything I can do for you…?" Ningit asked, just to be polite. Sephiroth didn't answer right away; instead, he mumbled something about water, which she brought him without complaints. She had to somehow redeem her actions. The kitchen was small and sort of creepy to be in. The closets were almost empty except for a few plates or cups here and there. Grabbing one of the cups that looked less dirty than the rest; she started filling it with water from the tap. The noise from the TV being turned on brought her attention to the living room once more. She frowned as she thought of Sephiroth being through those experiences all his life. She sighed shortly and walked calmly into the friendlier room with the water.

"Here…" she said and handed him the small cup. He grabbed it without a single "thank you" or sign of gratitude. In annoyance, she crossed her arms and sat down on the coffee table to watch the news with him. "Do you mind removing you butt from my table; I would like to place things there sometimes." 'At least his brain is still working, sort of,' she thought mockingly. "Oh? So I should come and sit with YOU?"

"No, more like walk out of my apartment and leave me alone…" he said coldly and not caring. He would sip the water once in a while. She flipped her hair over her back and just turned to stare at the television. They sat like that for what seemed like an eternity, and the tension grew for ever moment that passed, when she finally had had enough she twisted her head towards him. "Sephiroth, how are y—" But, to her surprise, the general was sound asleep. She sighed and stood up. Taking the glass with her, Ningit walked into the kitchen and placed it on the desk.

The sound of the television running was a supporting background noise to release all the tension. She decided that while she was here she could do the last of her work and leave it in the lab later that evening, and then she would be able to sleep a little longer the next morning. As she duck through the many files in her bag she did a remarkably discovery…Sephiroth talked in sleep. Not wild and uncontrolled, but more like calm and a small mumbling with unconnected sentences that didn't make sense. Ningit sighed and took the bag with her to the couch where she placed herself beside him, he was sound asleep.

She looked at him briefly and decided that it might be a better idea to sit at the kitchen table rather than beside him; she wouldn't want to be the one waking him up. So she stood up and once more moved into the cold kitchen where she took out all her papers up from her bag. It was a complete mess and couldn't even be compared to her usual cleanness when it involved work.

The paper stack seemed larger today than it usually did, and the contents of it didn't sound right either. Had she taken the wrong files? Frowning she began to search through it and words like mako, clones and JENOVA. 'What in the planet is this!' she thought angrily within her head as she began to read the files carefully.

Her eyes widened remarkably.

Sephiroth opened his eyes to find his body covered with a sheet and sprawled over his couch. Flinching, he noticed a huge headache. Probably caused by the mako injection he received yesterday. The TV was turned off. The smell of tea awoke him slightly which made him wonder where it came from.

"I guess you must be starving… You slept all through the night …" a female voice said from behind him. He groaned as he realised whom it belonged to and said annoyed, "you're still here? Didn't I ask you to LEAVE?" He snorted before standing up fully, so he was taller than she and he had to bend his neck slightly to get a good look at her. Frowning, she waved her hand. "Fine. I'll go then, but I think you will miss an important discovery…"

"What could that be!" he hissed in a low tone. He noticed the smirk on her face. "But, Dear General, I won't give such valuable information without a little gift from you, right?" Sephiroth closed his eyes and begged that this to be a dream. Yes, she acted like she had done the day before, but something still wasn't right. Was she deaf, since she hadn't left his apartment yesterday? He groaned and took a sip from his water. He considered, for the first time in his life, to take painkillers.

"I want you to take me with you…" she muttered silently. Sephiroth choked on the water he held within his mouth, gaping at her. "I am not going anywhere!" he practically screamed at her. She smiled at bit, "Oh…you are now..." he glared at her and waited impatiently for her to tell him. "But first you must promise to take me with you…" He went silent… And she just waited for his answer. "I promise then…" His curiosity getting the better of him, and he didn't want Hojo lecturing him because he 'accidentally' killed one of his favourites. But hell it was one tempting thought at least.

Snatching a piece of paper from inside her bag, she shoved everything off the coffee table and placed the scrap in the cleared spot. What seemed like a small piece had grown into an even bigger map-like thing with calculations all over. She frowned a bit and spoke hastily "This…is a clone…" Sephiroth raised an eyebrow. "Clone?" "Yes, a clone of you to be precise, and if the development continues as it's supposed to, according to this…" She was silent, staring at the numb Sephiroth who still was processing all this information.

A clone? Of him? What would happen if it proved that it was stronger! More perfect than him. What if it was trying to kill him? However, one question was stronger than the rest of them, 'why?'

"It seems… they made a boy in this project 'Kadaj,' which is Ancient and means 'third'—" "—which must mean that there is more than one…" he said, finishing her sentence by looking into her eyes. She nodded fiercely and pointed at a special area.

"What worries me the most is what they are trying to use him to…" Sephiroth stared at the spot, but didn't understand what it was she meant. "The dangerous thing here is that a boy with enough of Jenova's cells would be able to…" His arms tensed by the next words she said, "…to transform into a body similar to you.."

-transform-

Me? Me? Me?

- Kadaj will transform into-

Me?

-me…-

I'm not unique…!

-KADAJ-

I…

-ARRRGHHH!-

The coffee table flew across the room and smashed into a nearby wall. A panting Sephiroth stood up with a furious look on his face. His veins pumping with anger and fury, his eyes becoming cat-like-slits that shone with a mako glow. He was mad: he was mad at Hojo; mad at the girl; he was mad at the world. "RAAAAAAARGH!" he roared as he took his sword and destroyed half the room.

Smash!

Smash!

Smash!

Someone laughed, he could hear it. He could feel the fire within himself, the roaring insane laughter from his throat. Sephiroth realised that wasn't him, but it felt good. So he snickered and then laughed with his hearts content as he smashed more of his room.

SMASH! SMASH! CRASH!

Oh the feeling, the causing of other people's suffering. "YES!" he screamed as the door was kicked open by him, sliced and cut.

SMASH! SMASH!

BANG!

It went silent when Sephiroth felt a biting pain in his left arm, his fighting arm. He was mortal, but didn't want to be when the blood flowed from a wound. The disgustingly mortal sensation, when his immune system screamed for help rushing to close the wound. He turned around, death in his eyes. He didn't care if she was Hojo's pet or not; he would kill her. It didn't surprise him to find her staring at him with fear in her eyes and struggling to not release her tears. She was a girl after all, and girls are weak, they can't take the smell of death or the wrath of a soldier.

In her hands, she held an unusual weapon that may have been a gun, with illustrations easily taken out from a nightmare. Her hair covering half of her face and the front bangs hanging lazily down her chest. Sephiroth only saw death as he neared the girl in a deadly slow pace; he might not have a weapon, but he wasn't unable to crack her neck with the most painful sound.

"STOP IT!"

He couldn't hear her; the rushing sensation of wanting to kill her made him blind and deaf to his surroundings. The dim light from the outside marking daybreak was going on enlightened his face and made him seem like a god. She gasped slightly. Her eyes widened as she realised that he had such beautiful features that it almost hurt.

"DAMNIT! STOP IT!"

Ningit raised the gun and shook from fright; the sweat making her finger continuously slip from the handle, and she cursed that she was unable to pull the trigger. This was so painful. It felt like reliving her past, yet more frightening and more dangerous, because she was hunted again.

"STOP—" but she didn't manage to say anything else when she felt herself being pushed to the ground, her back being cut by the broken glass from the coffee table, blood soaking through her dress. Trying her best to get lose, she could feel his teasing hold as he stroked her throat carefully. The lustful urge to kill was in his eyes, shimmering with the sensation of breaking her.

"LISTEN—" Finally, he tightened his hold on her neck, and she felt her air being caught off. 'Damnit! Not now!' "I…c-can get….rid of him…" she tried speaking, black spots swirled past her eyes. It seemed like he hadn't even registered that she tried to speak.

Suddenly, his eyes rolled upwards and he collapsed beside her, a gaping wound in his head. She tried to regain her breath as she sat up, looking for whatever mysterious attacker that had rescued her from death. Her eyes widened as she saw a man she hadn't laid her eyes on for years, a man she could almost call a father. "REEVE!"

His serious face became visible. It bothered her that he almost never smiled; always had this grim look. Taking his PHS in his hand he dialled a number, "She has been found, Mr. Hojo… Yes… Yes, he might have had a bad reaction to the mako… I see… Yes, Sir…" The phone call was cut short and he glared at her. "What are you doing with him in HERE?"

She shook her head; her body was clearly numb from being so close to death. The tears she had spilt streamed down her cheeks like waterfalls, but she was silent. "Ningit?" he spoke in the most concerned way Reeve could do, bending down on his knees so he could see her face clear. "DAMNIT!" she screamed and hit the floor with her fist. "God damnit, Reeve! "

He went silent as the crying girl hugged him as the fear finally broke her, "I …I just tried to help him…I really did…I just wanted to get away…a…a" He gently stroked her back. "What are you trying to say?" "… I wanted him to take me away….that is why I told him…of…Kadaj…"

"Kadaj…?"

"The clone of Sephiroth, who is able to switch into a similar form of Sephiroth with enough Jenova cells within him…" After that she fell silent, her eyes watching the bat in Reeve's hand. "You didn't kill him did you? Did you?" She would never forgive him if he did; her only chance of solving this mystery was Sephiroth.

He chuckled. "It takes more to kill that man, I tell ya…He is a though one…" He noticed a groan from Sephiroth and took his phone again, pressing a few buttons. "Is this the infirmary? General Sephiroth has accidentally become wounded and needs medical help right away; he is in apartment 134." He closed the phone again and stared at the girl in his arms.

He had rarely experienced her terrified and weak like she was now. Sephiroth had somehow broken her in choosing to attack her. "Get up. Let's clean that nasty wound of yours…" Lifting her to her feet, he dragged her out the apartment. He understood her emotional barrier perfectly; he had after all spent hours and days with her before. Her feelings were indeed very complicated; she had all these emotions and it came mostly when she was in close contact with mako.

She had said that it felt like she experienced lots of mixed memories, but shortly afterwards she wouldn't be able to remember them. It always left an emotion behind: anger, despair, love, fear…. She was always extremely emotional afterwards. When those episodes happened, she would cling to him, but she was smaller back then; only fourteen and scared of the world around her. It had scared him because she had made her way through him; she knew him better than the most.

He could have made it into more; they could have been closer than they were. However, he was afraid. She was fragile in many ways, and he couldn't dare to make her a part of the world he was in. A Shinra Corporation trusted employee. All the things he knew, the terrible things that had been done… He had no intention of sharing it with her and her already unstable emotions.

Now, she had grown, learning to deal with all this. She was mature for 21, more mature than he would like her to be. The innocent girl he had known had disappeared into the deep abyss of adulthood, which meant that she had suffered from the same mixed emotions. However, he felt happy right now knowing that she was in there somehow. But, he had to admit that inside he felt jealous, not knowing why she had been in the apartment of Sephiroth.

"Ningit, straighten up. I can't drag you the whole way you know…" He muttered as the elevator door became visible. To his surprise, she just pushed him away and stood up straight as he told her to. "I don't need you to steady me. I'm fine to walk on my own now…" She hid the gun within her bloody cloak, and sighed before holding her head slightly. "This is so bad… But, it is my only chance…"

"It isn't so bad you know…"

"Reeve, listen, I want to go out there… I want to know if there is something better than this…" He fought the urge to somehow scream at her that she shouldn't care about those things. The world was just as corrupted here as wherever she would go. When thinking that he would break the innocent part of her; the part that believed in something better, so he would just keep himself quiet.

Suddenly, she turned and walked the opposite way, "Where are you going?" he asked. She didn't turn to look at him; instead, she just yelled back, "I am going to make sure I experience the world…"

Reeve frowned.

"Mr Sephiroth! Mr Sephiroth, how are you feeling?" the doctor asked the awaking man that groaned as an answer. "You really managed to get a nasty wound; luckily, you heal fast, so you will be out here in no time."

Mako eyes bore through the man, and he vaguely tried to remember what it was that he had done during his 'black out'. All he remembered was something about a Kadaj, and the young girl underneath him, his hand on her throat.

"Oh, piece of shit!" He muttered as he realised what he had done' he must really have had a fit. Kadaj, the name that seemed familiar to him, something about it didn't really make him feel good. Sephiroth sighed and groaned once more. It just came to him, the fact that the boy had to be his biggest threat, and the girl's offer to help him. Help him…

Just as he thought it couldn't get any worse, he saw her beside him, staring at him so strangely. Her eyes filled with sadness, pity maybe. "I don't want your pity girl…" "So you don't want me to help you?" he glared at her. Didn't she get a hint? "Listen girl I…" "You made a promise to me…Take me with you…I can eliminate the boy!"

Sephiroth went silent and began considering his options. He had calmed down by now and was seriously confused by the fact that she didn't act scared around him after his attack. His green azure eyes looked into her emerald, "Aren't you scared of me…?" she raised her eyebrows in surprise, and seemed to be slightly hurt by his actions.

"Yes… I am afraid of you…-"

He sighed, this wasn't helping at all.

"—But, I need to find something…and I can help you…Two birds with one stone…"

He snorted and looked the other way. "I don't need someone like you to help me. You would only trouble me during my search." She tilted her head and frowned, "You don't? I doubt it. Where would you look, and what would you be looking for?"

"Why are you still here!" His raised voice made her flinch. Her eyes shimmered with fear as she relived the situation once more. Her heartbeat quickened, and she closed her eyes as she felt herself become nauseous. Sephiroth frowned at her reaction, but somehow felt slightly proud of still being able to intimidate her.

"Sephiroth, I would be sorry if I had to knock you out again…" Reeve said from the doorway and made him receive a glare from the general. "… But, I would advise you to treat her nicer than you do…" Walking around his bed, the general could feel her gaze on his neck. The intensifying gaze he hated so much because it made him feel abused and weak.

"Reeve…" She muttered. She was cut short when Sephiroth spoke, "I partly don't care. I could defeat the whole Shinra army without receiving a single wound." His ego didn't have any errors she could see she groaned. Turning around, she pointed her finger at him. "Listen, Sephiroth, before I came over here to check on you, I checked my papers one more time…" The general went silent and stared at her; she narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "Here it is…There are three clones: Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz. Each of them having one of your special abilities like: speed, intelligence, and so on…"

Sephiroth rolled his eyes and sat up, "So?" She smirked a bit, "Well… You have to take me with you…"

"No."

"Oh yes, because I would most likely be the one who would be able to track down any possible solution to eliminate them…" He snorted as she spoke and received a glare from Reeve and a hiss from the girl. She really had a confusing temper; yet, she seemed cool and collected at most times.

"How would you do that, Super Girl…?" he asked in a mocking tone as his mako eyes flashed dangerously.

She flinched slightly at the returning memory, but shook it off. "I will make them become a part of you… I will make them become you…"

The room became silent, and the general's mouth widened a bit in disbelief. Was something like that even possible? He hadn't heard of it before, so why should it be a possibility now? Groaning, he buried his head in his hands and wondered what to believe. It just sounded too good to be true.

She took out a notebook from her bloody bag and began to read out loud:

"… It seems that Chaos has gladly informed me of a so-called fusion materia that will make me fuse him with him and save him from death. It would be great, but Chaos hasn't given me any specific location except that I would have to search for a man named Goodbay…"

Reeve nodded and continued speaking even though he didn't like the fact that he supported her in her decision. "So, you see, with her knowing all this information she might be a good partner in crime…?"

Sephiroth was still silent. The fact that what she had read out seemed true, and not something she just had made him believe, it was a strange sensation that came to him. Was it fear of knowing that she might foul him or the fact that it might not all of it be true? However, Sephiroth had been disappointed before in his life, so why shouldn't he be that now?

Reeve narrowed his eyes as he felt himself become sickened with the knowledge that this really meant that her company for the next many months would be Sephiroth? The man that had almost killed her that night; he knew that she might act foolish at times when her curiosity got the best of her, but this was suicide. "Ningit can I talk to you?" he said shortly before dragging her out the nursing room.

She turned her head around and met the brown eyes of Reeve. "Let's take a walk," he offered, and she hesitantly followed him down the hallway. It was a weird combination that she was almost as tall as he was, and Reeve wasn't a small man. She smiled briefly and stared out the windows to the city of Midgar that raised itself over the landscape. In Ningit's mind, Midgar wasn't a beautiful city and would never be, unless destroyed.

"Ningit, what you are doing is really foolish. Do you know the danger this man posses?" Reeve said as he leaned himself up against the wall and rubbed his temples. He hadn't had any sleep for twenty hours, and he was getting really tired now.

"Reeve, I am an adult and I know that this can be dangerous…" She turned around and looked into his eyes with determination, "but I have to do this. I know it is hard for you to understand; you have almost a whole company you can drag with you as protection, and you are pretty good with weapons too. I'm not. I want to rediscover the past of the planet. I want to see it all; I want to see the whole world!"

Reeve looked the other way sadly and knew that she had settled her mind and if he didn't want her to become mad at him he had to agree with her.

Sighing, he said slowly, "Fine, but I still don't like this… Call me if there is anything you need… Promise me that!"

Smiling faintly, she promised him and returned down the hallway to the nursing room. She found Sephiroth standing on his feet readjusting his cloak. She smiled a bit uneasy earning a glare from the general. "What do you want?" he asked annoyed.

"Do we have an agreement?"

He nodded, "Yes… I have to go pack some stuff. I will meet you in the reception and we will go pick up your stuff… You better be there!" with those words he walked out of the room, leaving a smiling girl behind. "Thank you…" she muttered and did as she was told.

A thousand thank you's to my beloved beta-reader Midoritsuki! Thank you!

Finally I will be able to post the second chapter. I really hope that it would turn out to be a great story! Reviews are always welcome, (they do sorta encourage me to quicken the speed of my writing.) All rights to square ect.

I thank all the reviewers for being a kind support so far and pointing out errors and such.