Chapter 3. Developments

Present time.

Tseng's POV

"What is it?"

"He's losing it, Sir." A worried voice on the other side of the phone warned me something was not right. "The General is behaving oddly."

I sighed, wondering what on the Planet could that man be talking about. Right, so the General was odd. Was that news or was the man just kidding me?

Of course the General was odd - the man was beyond odd every day of the year.

"What do you mean?" I asked, hoping I wouldn't have to go to that place again. It had been two days since we captured Sephiroth and his captive and the company seemed to be on fire. Everybody wanted to see him, see the woman he had been with… Geez. The place looked like a Zoo. I had to restrain the access to the facility or things would go out of hand.

The President was worried, Hojo was delighted with the prospect of having his guinea pig back and a plus - the woman, and Security was constantly scared shit of the former General.

I had to handle with this whole mess alone.

Well, not alone. Me and my team.

Patiently, I heard the man describing what he had seen. Right, so… more of the usual. Sephiroth threatening, Sephiroth communicating with the woman through the wall.

Good heavens. Now what would happen next, a magic disappearing trick?

"I'll take care of that right away."

I exited my office in that precise moment. As I walked towards the high-security facility where Sephiroth was imprisoned, I contacted the elements of my team.

Reno, Rude, Elena and Cissnei needed to know what was going on in case things got out of hand.

It seemed this whole Sephiroth-coming-back had twisted our daily life in a way I would never imagine.

Once I reached the surveillance room, my eyes met the frightened eyes of the security guards. "For the Planet's sake, at least pretend you're not scared as children afraid of the boogey man." I snarled, angered. "The man is human, I assure you. More human than you might think."

The pair in front of me lowered their gaze to the floor, ashamed.

Well, they should be.

"You're easily impressed with his tricks." I added, as I reached the several LED screens on the wall, clicking the rewind button. I reached easily to the part where the General seemed to be communicating with Sora Sukiru, who cried silently on the contiguous room. I had to admit, it was impressive - and incredibly tender for a man like Sephiroth. Not in a thousand years I would imagine him doing such thing.

Sephiroth was a very mental being. Only that could explain the bond he felt with the woman. In a way, it was like he could feel her grief, her sadness… and that explained the heated threats towards the hidden cameras.

Right. That was so like Sephiroth.

"Is this the reason of such commotion?" I asked, my hand pointing towards the screen, the image of Sephiroth freezed.

The men only had the decency to nod. I sighed and tried to think of an alternative, but my thinking was interrupted with a presence making an entrance in the surveillance room.

Hojo.

Our stares locked and Hojo blinked a couple of times, as if guessing why I was here at this time of the day.

"Tseng. What a coincidence."

"I could say the same thing." I admitted, with my arms crossed.

"I needed to ask you something." Hojo declared, and my eyebrows rose at his words. Hojo, asking me permission to do something? Unreal.

"Which is?"

My tone was neutral and firm. Who knew what that crazy scientist had in mind?

"I need to speak with the woman. Since you're the responsible of her imprison I would like to know if I have permission to do so."

Silence bathed the room for some consistent moments. Hojo had been doing homework, that was for sure. He knew I had been in charge of the mission and therefore, I was the one responsible for Sephiroth and Sora Sukiru.

"So, you want to start with her?"

The man looked at me through his glasses with a wicked smile on his face. Geez. Such a perverted mind.

"I'd like to…"

I took a deep breath and went straight to business.

"She'll remain in the facility. In the level below us there is an infirmary, with my staff, you can use it to ask your questions. I assume your interest in Sora Sukiru is mainly circumstantial, am I right?"

Hojo made a face. He was not expecting my demands. Well, too bad, mister.

"Indeed. I have the results of her testing though." Hojo declared, waving a file at me. "And let me tell you the results are very interesting."

"You don't say."

Hojo nodded, with a smug face all over.

"Keep me informed." I demanded. "And know this: if you lay a finger on her… you'll pay the price, Mr. Scientist."

Hojo narrowed his stare at me.

"That's not you talking, Tseng." He concluded, still smiling at me. Damn, how I hated the brains of that man. "It's Sephiroth's will, isn't it?"

My silence answered him and I didn't like that one bit.

"I knew it."

With a gesture, I saw Hojo leaving. The last thing I saw was his white coat. The men on the surveillance room remained there, immobile like statues.

"You can leave. Permanently."

I sensed how those men left the room, and before I knew it, my team was exactly behind me. Finally, they were here.

"We're moving Miss Sukiru from this level. I need your assistance."

Sora's POV.

I remained sat on the gurney as I have been told to.

I felt very anxious, because I didn't know what on Earth was going on. I had woken up in a sterile room, totally dream-like and white as chalk. Now that I recalled those moments, it was hard to think of those as real. All of it looked - and felt like a dream. Or maybe a nightmare.

After all, I haven't seen my General since that moment in our house… where I had fallen asleep in his arms.

I sighed, despaired and missing him terribly.

Where are you, Sephiroth?

My eyes scanned the surroundings and it didn't take me much to conclude I was in some kind of infirmary. Maybe this was a hospital. Maybe this was some sort of clinic… who knew?

Everything was possible.

"Sora."

A strange voice woke me up from my reverie. A man with dark, long hair wearing a ponytail and geek glasses stood exactly in front of me. With a metallic file on his hands. He was all dressed in white. Just like the fabric of that padded room I had been at. Okay, so much for the dream theory. I hadn't dreamed a thing. It was all too damn real.

Good God.

"I'm Hojo, the doctor that will be supervising you."

I gulped dry, not liking that tone at all. Supervising, ha? My eyes were on his and I dared to speak for the first time.

"Where is Sephiroth?"

My tone came out like a subtle whisper. It was like I didn't use my vocal chords for years. The man scanned me with a disturbing silence and didn't answer my question - he posed one instead.

"Did you know you were with child?"

My eyes widened with shock. What the hell was he talking about!?

"That's impossible." I said, reflexively. I blinked, scanning the walls, nervous with such assumption. "The General… he told me he couldn't-"

"Indeed." The man interrupted me, as he wrote avidly in that chart of his. "So how could something like that happen?"

"I…"

Words failed me. I didn't know what to think, what to deduce of this man's conversation.

"You mean I was-"

"You were."

The confirmation hit me like a rock. It couldn't be true. I couldn't be with child considering what The General had told me. He was not fertile. So… how could that be possible?

"I couldn't be pregnant." I declared, despaired.

The man smiled widely, his eyes honest on mine.

"I assure you, you were very much pregnant." The man declared, as his gaze suddenly changed. It felt accusing, and I answered him right away.

"Don't give me that look. He was the only one having me."

Admitting I had been having sex with the General was terrible. It was like I was showing off my intimacy to strangers, and I so didn't like that.

"So I suppose it was consensual." The man concluded and I made a face at him. How could he even consider such barbarities? This man's theories shocked me. But, then again, I didn't know what the General had been doing before I met him. He had told me once he had had women… and now I could only conclude his ways must have been very different... considering the way he was when we were together.

The man kept studying me, in silence, until the moment he decided to talk again.

"Those bloody cloths retrieved from your love nest at the mountains revealed a former pregnancy. You were with a boy."

I felt a pang on my chest as I processed his words.

WHAT?

"Oh, my… God."

I had nothing to offer but the shock I felt. But the man proceeded, as if nothing serious had been said.

"So what happened for you to abort… spontaneously?"

My eyes met his and all became so logic, in that moment. The physiology changes, the dream of Jenova squeezing my insides… it was all because I was actually… pregnant. With a child. Sephiroth's child. Who was supposed to be infertile but apparently he wasn't.

I couldn't conceive this reality. This was too much for me.

"I…"

Words escaped me again and all I remembered was Jenova's words in that dream. 'I am sorry but I cannot allow it.' And all I could think was why, why couldn't she allow it?

"Was it?" The man insisted, searching for my stare. "Spontaneous?"

In that moment I realized I had to make a choice. Disclose the whole truth or stay with my mouth shut about the whole dream thing. It was pretty clear to me now that Jenova had purposely killed the baby - thing was, I didn't know her reasons.

And that consumed me terribly.

"I guess." I said, my voice failing.

The man narrowed his eyes at me and made a face. Oh-uh.

"What are you not telling me?" The man insisted, but I didn't utter a word. I couldn't. I had to see my General and tell him about this. "You can trust me. I am most familiar with the General's mental malfunction."

Now it was my turn to stare at the man with a look of disgust on my face. How dare he, saying such things of Sephiroth? Who was he to guess things up like that? Really, these stuck-up doctors thought they knew everything.

Fucking idiots.

"In time, perhaps." The man declared, calm all over his face. "Which is why I have to inform you of something."

I looked expectantly at him, prepared to tell him to fuck of-

"You are pregnant again."

As I heard the words, I felt the word fall apart around me.

Again.

Tseng's POV

I had witnessed the questioning with eagle eyes. Hojo had been very direct and Sora Sukiru couldn't disguise her shock.

Hell, I couldn't disguise mine neither.

"That woman's pregnant?" I asked, now that Hojo was sitting on a table right next to the infirmary. "That was all we needed..."

It was terrible, horrible and a complete revelation. And it was going to complicate things, that was for sure.

"Yes, well… it is an unfortunate event considering the father most likely will not live to see his child birth."

Hojo words were honest and real. The man knew the General faced a tough sentence ahead. Probably, the worst sentence of all.

"Although I think she is not being entirely truthful."

"What do you mean?"

"There is a conflict of interests here." Hojo explained, as I sat facing him. "The General acquired fertility somehow. And that, I assure you, is not humanly possible."

"Fertility? You mean…"

"Yes. A gift from Jenova, perhaps..."

The mention of that name wouldn't bring good fortune for sure. If Jenova was actually behind all this… then things were far more serious than we'd previously thought. Jenova gave a total new dimension to this case. And if She had been responsible for such 'miracle', then Sephiroth's survival didn't pose much surprise to me at this point.

"Jenova… is a serious nuisance." I admitted, my gaze somber on Hojo's.

"Indeed." "But I have a feeling she will end up confessing what actually happened. Her feelings for Sephiroth are strong… and hence, his absence weakens her."

For the Planet's sake. This whole relation-ship thing was giving me a headache. And now, with a child in the middle… it complicated things to a rather severe point.

"The Military court won't be merciful." I declared, guessing up the dilemma we will be having ahead. "The General will be condemned with death penalty."

"He will." Hojo stated, neutral as always. "What a shame to give away such potential."

His tone was revealing, and I easily grasped his intentions.

"Are you implying assessing him mentally? I doubt that insanity would pass in court, considering what he did."

Hojo snorted, arranging his glasses and staring at me with a 'duh' look on his face.

"You Turks are short of sight." Hojo laughed, before continuing. "Something has happened in that reactor after Strife killed him."

And Jenova was involved in that, that's what he meant.

"And you think the woman knows." I added. It was only logic to make such assumption.

"She bears his child, after all. I am most certain she knows of it all."

I rose from the chair, taking a deep breath. I needed fresh air, really. Hojo made the environment unbreathable.

"The court will gather in a couple of weeks. Know your limits, Hojo."

The man in front of me smiled widely.

"Very well."

And with a frown of melancholy I exited that place. I grabbed the phone and made a necessary phone call.

I needed to solve this issue and fast.

Sora's POV

I sat in that gurney for what it seemed like hours. I could not believe the situation I was in.

Pregnant.

For the second time.

I didn't know what to think. Now, what would I do? How could I deal with my life from now on? Would I be alone? And The General? Would I see him again? When?

When, when would I tell him I was bearing his child?

Would he believe me?

I missed him so much it hurt. My heart ached with his absence, my body resented the lack of his touch. He wasn't a romantic man - but his strange way of showing affection was all I needed to feel complete. Happy.

Now, I felt empty without him - well, not exactly empty.

I felt… incomplete.

Will I see you again, my love?

My throat constricted at the depressing thought. The perspectives weren't bright and I knew it. Felt it.

"So I've heard."

A voice surprised me. It was that man, dressed in black, the one that had invaded my - our house. His tone was sincere, albeit he seemed to be giving me condolences. I gulped dry and let tears fall down my face, silently. The man - whose name I recalled to be 'Tseng' - remained by the infirmary door, stern and firm like a police man.

"What will happen… to me, to him?"

I had to ask him that. I needed to know. Like, right now.

"You, are free to leave. As to Sephiroth, he will remain under custody for now."

That sure didn't sound so good.

"For now?"

"There will be a Court."

The weight of inevitability was too much to ignore.

"He won't make it, will he?" I risked, hoping to see some vestige of hope on Tseng's face. But there, I found nothing. Just neutrality.

I spoke my heart once again.

"Can I see him?"

The answer was immediate.

"No, you cannot."

The firmness in Tseng's tone made me feel miserable - and hence, willing to do and say no matter what to get what I wanted so bad.

Please, please, let me see my love.

"Please." I whispered, tears falling.

My eyes seemed like a spring, pouring salty water as emotions invaded me. At least, I felt some of the oppression inside me withering.

"I am really sorry."

Tseng's words meant nothing to me. They were just that - empty words that didn't do any justice to what that man was actually feeling.

"I want you to meet someone."

My watery eyes met his. I didn't care, I didn't want to meet anyone right now. I needed a freaking break from all this.

But before I could say a word, someone entered the premises.

A man, blue eyes with blond, spiky hair, dressed in a funny way. I had no idea who he was.

"Hi." He said, waving softly at me. I didn't move. Didn't react. " I'm Strife, Cloud. I'm here to take you."

Well that made me react at once.

"Where?"

"Home."

I don't think so.

"I don't have a home."

"Well you do now."

A/N - Hope you liked it, people :) Your reviews are MOST welcome! :) And welcome back to Dreamcatcher's realm!

*Check some of my original fiction on the web: fictionpress dot com. I write under my official penname Rita Dinis. There's short-stories, novel chapters, and much more. I would like to have your feedback! The genres is mainly supernatural Romance/Horror. Enjoy!*