Chapter 3

There was a tournament of sorts that happened on every Thursday in the main SOLDIER training hall. Every SOLDIER that wasn't out on a mission or on sick leave tended to participate in the event despite the lack of promise of a reward for the winner. No, the main motivator for all of them was the opportunity to showcase their skills in battle and perhaps finally earn a rise in rank. Of course, the bragging rights and sheer pleasure of a good fight played a part in their excitement.

Of the four most influential figures when it came to the whole SOLDIER program – Director Lazard, Genesis Rhapsodos, Angeal Hewley and the General, that is – at least one was always present to evaluate the participants, sometimes even all four of them.

The General rarely could make time in his schedule for the lengthy event, but as he had unexpectedly gained himself an excellent assistant just under a week previously, for the first time in two months he was gracing the Weekly Tournament with his presence.

They were preparing to start the second round of fights when the whole energy of the room shifted and everyone's attention moved to the figure that entered the hall...

O O O

I entered the SOLDIER training hall and predictably had every eye on me in three seconds flat. I doubted the training hall had ever been graced by a female presence, unless you counted the dark hours of the night when a cleaning lady might dare to set foot in its vast depths.

I was mere four feet into the room when I was intercepted.

"This is no place for a lady", a SOLDIER 3rd – judging by the color of his uniform – told me as he stepped in front of me, blocking my way. There was a clear tone of condescension in his voice. It made me want to crush him like a bug.

I smiled at him pleasantly, with a slight tilt of my head and sidled up to him. I laid gentle hand on his heavily muscled chest and leant to speak softly in his ear: "I eat boys like you for breakfast." Judging by the cringing faces – and a myriad of other interesting expressions – this guy was one of the few who hadn't already either met me while helping Hojo keep me summoned or heard of me as the General's 'secretary'. By the time my words registered, I was already slipping past him and continuing my way over to where Sephiroth was standing about halfway across the hall, by the sidewall.

"General", I greeted, and the man nodded his head in response. "The Research Department is requesting your presence at your earliest convenience."

I had to admire his poker face when he didn't so much as twitch a muscle despite the irritation that I could practically feel him radiating. "I am sure Professor Hojo's business can wait until tomorrow." And there really was no chance of the summons being from anyone but the good old Professor. None but he would dare to demand Sephiroth to come to them like this. At least not of the staff of the Research Department.

"Would you like me to pass on the message to expect you then?" I asked.

Sephiroth took a moment to consider his options, and then decided: "No. That is not necessary."

I nodded, "Then I will see you at the office later." I turned to leave but before I had the chance to take even a single step, a large warm hand on my shoulder stopped me. Turning my eyes back to meet the General's, I looked at him in question.

"I would like a chance to see how you handle yourself in a fight, if you would be agreeable", he said. When I didn't hasten to give him a reply one way or the other, he continued: "Perhaps you could duel one of my SOLDIERs now that you are already here..?"

A slow smirk spread to my lips, and I told him: "I would be happy to." I had taken to practicing what I called 'nature conversion' in my spare moments and the practice had been slowly depleting the reserves I had retained from my time as Hojo's lab rat. What better opportunity to stock up than this? "Perhaps one of your 2nds? I'm afraid the 3rds have already proven themselves inadequate while I was still in the Professor's care."

The General nodded, eyes sliding over all the SOLDIERs present, briefly stopping on some of the purple-clad figures, eventually settling on one of them. "Luxiere", he said and the SOLDIER 2nd's head snapped up from where he was putting together charts for the second round of the Weekly Tournament now that half of the SOLDIERs present had been eliminated in the first round. He seemed to be one of the few actually doing anything productive while the rest were merely pretending to be doing something while surreptitiously observing Sephiroth and I. The SOLDIER 2nd wasted no time in walking over and saluting his General.

"Sir?" He asked.

"This is my summon Valkyria", Sephiroth said, gesturing at me. "You are to fight her before we commence to the second round of the tournament."

I gave the SOLDIER a measuring once over – he looked like every other SOLDIER in full uniform, how dull - and then slyly asked my summoner: "Are you sure his ego can handle losing to me?"

The SOLDIER – Luxiere – practically recoiled in affront, but said nothing.

"He is one of my best 2nds", the General said. "I'm sure his confidence in his abilities will not be too adversely affected should you trounce him."

"Perfect", I purred.

The General waved his hand and everyone took the hint and cleared up the space in the middle of the training hall. When I took a step forward to enter the 'ring', so to speak, he said: "No permanently damaging my SOLDIER, Valkyria."

"So noted", I replied sweetly, and then turned my eyes to the SOLDIER 2nd watching me cautiously, and told him: "You will want to come at me with the intent to kill, unless, of course, you don't mind being completely humiliated."

The man glanced at his General, and when the silver-haired man didn't contradict me, Luxiere nodded in acknowledgement. He held out his arm, asking me to go first, like a true gentleman, and I walked past him with my head held high. There was a tense silence in the hall as we took our positions in the middle, Luxiere with his standard SOLDIER sword at ready, and when the General called "Begin", he darted forward.

He was faster than any of the 3rds Professor Hojo had had attack me in the name of gathering data, but not fast enough. His sword hit the plate shaped and sized translucent shield that I had easily put up with a resound clang, almost like metal hitting metal, and I was flooded with energy as the shield absorbed the energy of the attack and transferred it into me.

Even though my so effortlessly blocking his attack had clearly come as a surprise for him, Luxiere didn't hesitate in fluidly moving from the first strike into a second and a third and a fourth before finally recognizing the need to pull back and reconsider his plan of action.

I felt almost filled to my full capacity as he jumped back, putting a good dozen feet of distance between the two of us. If there had been one good thing to having to go through with the tiresome repetitions of Professor Hojo having SOLDIER 3rds attack me over and over again, it had been the way my ability to store energy had slowly grown. In the beginning, I had been forced to release the energy absorbed almost immediately, but the time and amount of energy storage had grown the more I had tried stretching it.

Luxiere shifted his stance and I tilted my head curiously. The shift was explained quickly when one of the three materia on the hilt of his sword began glowing as magic was channeled into it. I couldn't exactly recognize the materia by look alone, beyond that it was a magic materia since it was green, but the moment the air began feeling electric, I knew what was coming. That was warning enough for me to conjure a bubble shaped shield around me so that when the attack finally came, it hit the enveloping shield harmlessly.

And then I was overflowing. My eyes fluttered closed for a moment - it felt that good – but it wasn't a state I could hold for long, and so I opened my eyes slowly, raised my hands and let my fingers dance in the air for a moment as I molded the energy running hot in my veins, converting the electric natured energy into something even more hot. Into fire. And then I snapped my hands forward, sending a rather massive ball of fire at my opponent, using not all the energy I was now charged with but merely the amount that was too much for me to retain for long.

It was a rather impressive attack, if I may say so myself, and the fact that Luxiere came out of it merely slightly singed was impressive as well.

"Damn", I heard Luxiere mutter as he patted at his clothes, making sure he wasn't on fire. He wasn't, the material of the SOLDIER uniform was hard to set aflame. He was cautious now, it was written all over his stance as he prepared for another attack.

He came at me in a flurry of motion, clearly set on not giving me the chance to prepare another devastating attack. Every strike I blocked with small shields that came up with less than a thought, and with every attack I became more and more charged, overflowing, high on the feel of it. I lured him into a sense of control, surety of his chosen tactic, and then when the energy became too much again, with a twitch of my finger I shot a small condensed bullet of pure energy at him. It struck his shoulder, going clean through, the force of the attack sending the SOLDIER back and into a roll several feet away from me.

His head shot up and toward me the moment he came to a halt, instincts forcing him to keep the threat that I presented in his field of vision at all times. He was struggling for breath as he struggled up to his feet, clearly in quite a lot of pain. He was barely on his feet when I lifted a hand, two fingers pointed at him and prepared to shoot another energy bullet at him when a hand – one that was quickly becoming familiar – dropped on my outstretched forearm.

My eyes slid to meet the General's, and he said: "That is enough." I inclined my head in acknowledgement and he turned his eyes towards Luxiere. "Well fought, SOLDIER Luxiere. You are exempt from the rest of today's tournament. You may return to observe after you have had the infirmary clear you, if you wish."

Luxiere nodded, "Yes, sir." And then with a last lingering look toward me, he strode out of the training hall, trying to mask the pain everyone knew he had to be in.

The General's attention returned to me. His hand retreated and I pulled my hand back. I was still too full, the need to release some pressure getting more pressing by the minute, so I almost absently molded the excess energy into a small ball of fire that I held in my palm until it had eaten enough energy so that I didn't feel like I was about to burst anymore. Sephiroth looked at the fire curiously, but didn't ask, and I offered no explanation.

He walked back to the sidewall and I followed him. As we came to a stop and turned to face the room, the SOLDIERs snapped into action and hurriedly continued preparing for their round two of duels.

"Was that satisfactory?" I asked after a while.

He took his time to form a reply, but I was in no hurry. "It was certainly impressive", he eventually said, tone perfectly unreadable. "It was good to finally see you in action." His eyes moved to meet mine. "You looked like you enjoyed yourself."

"I did", I admitted, smirking. "I may have little lust for violence but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate the occasional opportunity to prove to these arrogant little boys my superiority. Keeps them from becoming too uppity." These SOLDIERs tended to think themselves better than the average joe just because they had been enhanced with Mako, and while I had nothing against pride in oneself, I could not stand arrogant little nitwits.

"Arrogance does seem to be a common issue in the ranks", Sephiroth admitted. "Perhaps it would not be remiss to teach them some humility occasionally lest they bite more than they can chew and get themselves needlessly killed out there."

"No matter how powerful you are, there's always going to come a time when someone surpasses you", I told him.

"Even I?" The General asked, almost wistfully.

I leveled him with a look of 100% certainty. "There is someone out there who at the very least has the potential to grow into a person who can defeat you, Sephiroth, even if they couldn't dream of accomplishing such a feat in this moment in time. Not even you should ever consider yourself undefeatable. There is no such thing."

He regarded me in silence for a moment. His shoulders relaxed just slightly, like a heavy weight had been lifted, and he spoke: "Thank you."

I smiled, and nothing more needed to be said.

O O O

There was a marked difference in the way all the SOLDIERs had started to treat me since they had witnessed me battle one of their best. Of course, all the 3rds that had had the pleasure of 'working with me' on Professor Hojo's orders had already been treating me with wary respect, but they had also been forbidden from sharing any information about their experiences at the labs. Now that my skills in battle and the fact that I was in fact a summon were public knowledge, the SOLDIERs weren't just treating me like the General's secretary, but as a person deserving of respect just by herself.

When I ordered them to do something, I didn't need to imply the order was coming indirectly from the General, the order coming from me was enough to get them moving. Naturally, there were a few mutinous looks from the men that found it hard to take direction from a woman, to admit that a woman could be above them in the chain of command, but none of them were stupid enough to truly test me, not when I had shown them that I could hand their asses to them and that I happily would.

Genesis Rhapsodos was an exception to the rule, of course. He didn't see fit to mask the disdain he held for me. Oh, he made sure his dislike was both seen and heard whenever we were in the same airspace...

O O O

It was one of the tiresome duties that Sephiroth rather loathed, but couldn't quite bring himself to neglect just for the simple reason that he could see the reason why it was asked of him. Eating his lunch at the SOLDIER mesh hall, whenever he could.

He disliked the mesh hall. It was loud with chatter, packed full of his SOLDIERs every day, and while nutritious, the taste of the food left much to be desired. But it was important for his SOLDIERs to see him eating there, because after all, if the food was good enough for the General, then how could any of them possibly complain? Of course, there was also the added benefit of his presence making them feel closer to their idol, which served as motivation for all of them.

It was for these same reasons that Genesis and Angeal were ordered to eat most of their lunches at the mess hall as well. It was Friday, the day after the Weekly Tournament that had included Valkyria's show of power, and all three of the SOLDIER 1sts were seated at their corner table in the mess hall. They were talking of the topic of the day, Valkyria.

"It's a shame I missed it", Angeal said in between bites. "I hear it was a sight worth seeing."

Genesis huffed, "That thing is one of the least impressive summons I have ever seen. Why you would like to see it in battle, I can't fathom."

"She wiped the floor with Luxiere, one of the top 2nds we have", Angeal pointed out. "He couldn't land so much as a hit on her, from what I heard."

Sephiroth nodded in confirmation, "In fact, he failed to make her move even a step during the entire fight."

"And she's obviously intelligent", Angeal added. "How else could she excel in assisting Sephiroth in his duties as she has."

"That doesn't change the fact that it is nothing more than a summon", Genesis argued. "No matter how you sing its praise, it is nothing without someone to summon it."

"Feeling the love, Rhapsodos", a velvety voice said from behind the red-clad SOLDIER, and all three of them turned to look at the her as she walked over. How she had succeeded in coming that close without them noticing her, especially in high-heels, was a mystery.

Genesis sneered at her as she rounded the table and settled at Sephiroth's right shoulder, "What are you even doing here? Can you even eat?"

Her face was void of expression as she reached over Sephiroth's shoulder, picked up a fry and popped it in her mouth while both Angeal and Genesis watched her in surprise. Sephiroth didn't bother turning around, coolly continuing on with his meal like his plate hadn't just been raided by his secretary. She chewed, swallowed, and finally neatly licked her fingers of the salt and grease residue before both Genesis and Angeal realized they were staring.

Valkyria, on her part, was actually fascinated to find that while she clearly didn't require food as sustenance, she could still taste and enjoy food like she used to, and it didn't seem like her body rebelled against eating either.

Sephiroth lifted his plate and wordlessly gave her permission to share his food, which she was only happy to do. The second fry tasted just as good as the first, even though she knew she had tasted better cooked fries before. Then again, after having been without food for so long, anything would taste like heaven. She grabbed a couple of more fries and Sephiroth lowered the plate back on the table. "I suppose you have a message for me?" He asked. He had noticed that even though Valkyria could sent a message to his PHS from the computer at her desk, she, for some reason, preferred to deliver urgent messages herself. It wasn't exactly difficult for her to, since she had admitted that she could feel where her materia was, and so it wasn't like she had to guess where he might be located at any given time, just follow the pull.

"The Research Department called", she said. "The Professor is getting antsy."

He breathed out slowly, in resignation. "I suppose there's no point in keeping him waiting. If you could clear my schedule for the rest of the day..?"

She nodded, "Of course." And then asked: "Will you be keeping me summoned for the rest of the day?"

"If I am able", he answered. "It will depend on what exactly the Professor has planned for me."

Valkyria nodded again, "I will be prepared for sudden dismissal then. Will you be returning to the office afterwards?"

"It is unlikely", Sephiroth replied.

"Then I will see you tomorrow, General", she said reaching over his shoulder to filch one last fry and then strode off. There was a drastic change in noise level in the wake of her departure, making the three 1sts realize just how quiet it had been until then. Honestly, SOLDIERs sucked at being covert about their observation.

"Didn't you have your Mako boosters just a couple of weeks ago?" Angeal asked, frowning. Monthly Mako boosters were pretty much the only thing that required them to go to the labs, with the exception of their yearly checkups, something he knew Sephiroth had had not three months ago.

Sephiroth shook his head in irritation, "You know how Professor Hojo is. This is hardly the first time he decides he has need to perform additional unscheduled test on me. You two are lucky that Professor Hollander isn't like him."

"You're the General", Genesis pointed out with a look of disgust. "It's not like he can do anything even if you refuse to bend to his whims!"

"And spend the following months looking over my shoulder wondering how he is going to make me pay for daring to deny him what he feels is his right? I think not", Sephiroth argued. "I have long found that it is always better to let him have his way and not fight against the inevitable."

Genesis shook his head, "Pathetic..."

Perhaps he was, Sephiroth thought, but it didn't change the fact that he was tired of trying to shake the hold Hojo had on him. Besides, the man was the closest thing to a parent he had and everyone had a weakness in the form of their parents, didn't they?

O O O

"I heard she takes direction from you well", Professor Hojo said the moment Sephiroth entered his private lab. The man never had been one for pleasantries. He handed Sephiroth an A4-sized photograph, one obviously taken from the security feed of the SOLDIER training hall. It was grainy, but there was still no denying the truth it showed. It was of Sephiroth ending the match between Valkyria and Luxiere. "She even allows you to touch her." Sephiroth's hand on her arm was irrefutable proof of that.

Sephiroth's eyes rose from the photograph to meet the Professor's keen ones, but he said nothing. He was sure the Professor would be getting to the point soon even without him urging the man.

"Since she doesn't seem to have her guard up around you, you should be able to use this – ", the Professor showed him a small device with a rather sharp-looking thick steel needle, " – to finally get me a tissue sample."

Sephiroth stared at the device mutely for a moment, before saying: "And betray the trust she has so readily shown me? I think not. She is by far the best assistant I have ever had. I am not willing to risk losing that to pander to your whims."

It was only seeing the mix of outrage and surprise on the Professor's face that made Sephiroth realize what he had just done. He had refused the Professor. Perhaps for the first time in his life, he had outright refused what the Professor had asked of him. He had protested, he had negotiated, but he had never refused. Until now. Not like this.

"I created her!" The Professor screeched. "I made her! Neither you nor she has the right to deny me access to her! She is my specimen!"

"She is a being capable of independent thought", Sephiroth calmly argued. "You lack the ability to force her to submit to your tests. And I refuse to even attempt to make her."

The Professor sneered, "I will find a way around those pesky barriers of hers."

"Perhaps that is your problem", Sephiroth pointed out. "Instead of trying to negotiate with her, you insist on trying to bend her to your will. If there is one thing that has become clear to me, it is that she does not bend. She is like the unyielding surface of a mirror. She responds with whatever is thrown at her. Violence is met with violence. Aggression with aggression. Civility with civility." He could see that the Professor wasn't really ready to concede to the point he was making. But perhaps he was listening. "Negotiate with her and perhaps you will find her more agreeable."

The Professor scoffed, "Negotiate… with an experimental creation… Ridiculous." He then waved his hand impatiently, dismissing the matter, "Since you have decided to be of no use to me regarding her, that still leaves the matter of this enhancer I have prepared for you." He turned to fill a syringe from a clear vial of mako-green liquid. "Roll up your sleeve."

O O O

It was late afternoon. The General hadn't returned to the office, and though I had felt the magic fed into keeping me summoned waver several times as the hours passed, I hadn't yet been dismissed. The instability of the General's magic was worrying, though. The 3rds summoning me had had the tendency to push erratic amounts of magic into my materia, but the General's magic flowing into the red orb had always been perfectly smooth, and not a smidge going to waste as he exerted just the right amount of magic into keeping me present. For his control to be shot like this, and for such an extended amount of time…

It was my worry – an emotion I wasn't all that used to feeling – that had me following the pull towards where the apartments for the Shinra staff lay. I found myself at a door that I could feel him – feel my materia – being behind and knocked. It took a long while for him to answer the door, but I could feel him moving inside, and so didn't hurry to knock again.

When the door opened, and I laid eyes on the feverishly flushed cheeks, the slumped shoulders and the tired eyes on the usually so invincible looking man, for a moment, I couldn't but stare. And then I sighed sadly, "Oh Sephiroth, what did you let that man do to you?"

He didn't answer, just stared at me with the kind of exhaustion that had me wondering whether he had even registered my words.

I lay my hand on his chest and began gently pushing him backwards. He swayed unsteadily for a moment and then took a step back, and another, allowing me to move him deeper into the apartment, step past the doorway and close the door behind me. "Let's get you to bed, hmm?" I softly said.

Again, I wondered whether he had heard me, but then he nodded, turned and led the way to his bedroom. He didn't so much as glance at me as he dropped himself on the bed and curled on his side with his back toward me.

From what little I had seen, the apartment – including the bedroom – was all white walls and minimalistic utilitarian furniture in black and white. Even the sheets – a wrinkled mess, he must have been rolling in bed for the past few hours – were a dull gray. I idly wondered whether he had chosen the color scheme himself, or if everything here had been provided for him by the company and he simply hadn't felt the need to replace them with stuff of his own.

I walked over to the bed and sat on the edge of it. I leant over his wide shoulders and gingerly pushed a few strands of long silvery hair out of his face and behind his ear. His eyes were closed, his breathing shallow. With the palm of my hand I felt his forehead, he felt warm. Warmer than normal, I thought, though I was hardly well equipped to say one way or the other. While seeming otherwise perfectly dead to the world, his head turned slightly to press his forehead more fully against my hand leading me to believe he rather liked the contact. My hand must have felt pleasantly cool against his feverish skin.

I pulled my hand back slowly, stopping to stroke his head a couple of times, like the fur of a beloved pet, and then straightened myself.

Deciding I couldn't exactly leave him alone when he was like this – at least not until I had no choice – I fetched him a tall glass of water from the kitchen and with some effort succeeded in making him drink it, figuring he needed the hydration if he was indeed feverish.

I found towels in a cupboard in his bathroom and wet a small hand-towel with cold water before returning to the bedroom and setting it on his brow.

Occasionally, as I made him drink some more or switched the towel he would blink his eyes open drowsily and look at me with a look I couldn't even begin to interpret. The moments were brief, though, before the heaviness of his eyelids had his eyes falling closed again.

I started to get bored by the unstimulating company and the silence and soon began to fill it with soft singing. When he didn't seem too bothered by it – no, on the contrary, the singing seemed to actually help him drift into a more restful sleep – I decided that perhaps this wasn't so bad.

The thing was, I had never had to take care of a sick person before. My mother had been my only family, and even she had passed away some years before I found myself dead. Ironically, it seemed I had followed my mother's footsteps in death, because she too had died in a car accident, though in her case, she had been inside a crashing car instead of getting smeared all over the windshield. My mother… She had never been sick from what I could remember. Hell, I couldn't really remember getting sick myself. Watching other people cough and sneeze I had always felt grateful I had inherited my mother's superb immune system.

But here and now, I found myself hesitating over whether there might be something else I should be doing for my ailing General. With the lack of experience on being sick myself or taking care of someone feeling unwell, I was really quite out of my depth.

I was in the kitchen refilling the glass with water from the tap when I felt the magic being fed into my materia starting to rapidly decline. Knowing I would be dismissed any second now as the hold Sephiroth had on me lessened, I quickly set the empty glass on the edge of the sink. I turned to look towards where my summoner lay, just to check that he was still there and not visibly distressed – he was deep asleep still, I noted – and then I faded back into the nothingness that had become my home.

AN: I've been incredibly happy to see that there have already been people showing interest in this story. I hope I won't disappoint :)

For those wondering about my other stories:

Dead Helpful is complete. There is no sequel in the works.

The Contract and the Guide is complete. There is no sequel in the works.

She Who Knows is in progress and will not be abandoned. Please have some patience, I will be updating it eventually.

There will be notifications on my profile page from now on if any of this changes.

Posted on December 17th, 2016.