Okay, you would not believe the year that I've had!

First with the drama, then with the family issues.

I've just recently read ALL of the Harry Potter books, which I must admit that it is one of the most best written series I have ever read!

XD

I just can't believe it! Over 6,000 hits!

But on towards the story!

The One They Call Beautiful

Chapter 16

"Ohhh, my head." Feeling like a thousand pound truck ran over me is not something I ever wanted to experience again, ever. I clutched my head and rolled into a ball and noticed that my legs were a bit longer than before, as was the rest of my body. I slowly stood up and saw the room spinning. I began to fall but able to catch myself on the bed post. I looked to my right and noticed red eyes staring back at me. I was a bit startled, thinking that there was another person with red eyes like me. Until I noticed that it was my reflection in the mirror.

I felt my body go on auto pilot as I made my way to the mirror and noticed that my muscle had grown just a bit more, and begun to stare at the ground. "Huh…I don't remember being this far from the floor." I looked up back into the mirror and touched my face-taking my time as my features were a lot more mature than before- and noticed the baby fat that my cheeks once held were gone. "I feel like I'm in the Twilight zone." My mumbling was so soft, I doubt I even heard myself. My voice sounded more mature and smooth, very weird.

"At least my sword will be easier to use in combat." I said to myself and unconsciously touched my collar as I heard a beeping and static from it. A voice came from the damn thing.

"Dawn, we need you to come down. You've been in your room for three days. Hojo needs to see if any kind of damage has been done to you."

I was startled and dropped my had from the collar and sighed as I eyed a new set of uniform for SOLDIER. I was to be second class. I did not want to go anywhere near them, but it was necessary in order to keep Sephiroth in check.

"Right…how the hell did they know that I was awake?" I finished putting on the attire and began to walk to the lab and noticed that it was just about empty.

"Everyone has already left." I turned and saw Veld at the door I had just walked through, "Hojo will go over your body chemistry and see if what he gave you will cause problems in the future."

"I see. I want to get this over with and leave to get the mission done."

"This mission is going to be part of your life now Dawn. As long as Sephiroth lives, you will keep him under control. Any suspicious behavior must be reported. As for your role, first you will be instructing cadets as a 2nd soldier and keep a low profile. No one is allowed to know that you have a close relationship with Sephiroth as his mentor." Veld revealed books concerning science, English and math under a black clothed sheet on a large table. "I do hope that you can relearn all of these materials within the week that you have before you are properly introduced as a teacher…or you could just abandon this and go into Dr. Hojo's field and work beside him." He smirked at me before I gave him a half-lidded expression.

"Really? You do this to me now? Such a hard decision, either work with my arch nemesis or work with the bastard that took away my life." I shrugged and went to pick up a book. "I haven't used this stuff in ages…I take that back. I use math and science on a daily bases but I am horrible at teaching English. Much less grammar."

"Enough with the complaining Dawn." Dr. Hojo interrupted me as he took out a large looking syringe with three long empty vials in his grasp. "I need to draw blood in order to see what is going on within your body to make sure that nothing goes wrong. Sephiroth needs to be kept on a leash and you're the only one he listens to. So suck it up." He had a small gleam in his eye and before I could tell him off I felt a prick in my arm as he began to take a lot of blood from me. Three vials worth of blood.

"Ow."

"Stop being such a melodramatic child."

"I'll have you know that—Ow!"

"Stupid soldiers," I heard him mumble under his breathe, "Don't even appreciate how I can bend the laws of science to my will in order for them to survive in the field of combat and live." He took the necessary blood and inserted a whole vial into a machine that had a green laser beam and began to scan the blood. "It seems," he stared at the computers and began typing into the system, "that you will have slight twitching, and spasms since your body grew at an abnormal rate. You will also be experiencing random black outs. My suggestion is to not take any kind of alcohol, as it will only double the chances of these symptoms occurring." He took down notes on his clipboard as he gave me syringes in a small bag. "Only use them if you are absolutely in dire need of them, if you take too many you die."

"…thanks, I think."

"As you should be, if it were any other scientist you would be dead and your body would have to be burned in order to destroy the evidence." He said in a calm voice as I shivered and walked away and put the bag of shots in my pocket.

"All I can do is thank Gaia he hasn't put me back in that tank." I shuddered and remembered how the Mako began to change my body and messed with my mind.

"They are waiting, Dawn." I looked back at Veld and could clearly see the bags under his eyes, he kept getting older and I was the same as ever. We began making our way to the garage under the mansion.

"You're tired, aren't you Veld?" I began whispering to him as we walked side by side along the corridor. "It's been almost twenty years that we've known each other…or was it more than twenty? I get confused sometimes."

"…" He said nothing and kept walking to the desired destination.

We entered inside a large vehicle as I rode in the front with him and turned my head to face him. "It's sad isn't it? Life…it's so tiring, when people die the world just keeps on going. Never stopping." His eyes were maintained on the road. Silence was throughout the entire trip until I broke it again. "It must be hard for you…For your wife and daughter to die within a blink of an eye." My voice was solemn and noticed Veld look at me through the corner of his eye. "Parents…should never outlive their children." The jeep like car kept going on through night until we arrived at our last stop in the next few days. Shinra.

Six Months Later

"All right! Let's see if you understand the importance of History, shall we?" I turned away from the board and faced the young cadets. All were in their seats as the lecture hall was as big as a stadium. The young boys were nervous as they still were still not yet comfortable with a female superior. "Can anybody tell me why Napoleon Bonaparte lost in the Invasion of Russia, in 1812?"

Only one was brave enough to answer as his hand shot up.

"Yes Larry?"

"It's Harry—Bonaparte lost because he led his army during the summer and when he arrived at Russia's doorstep his entire army was almost starved to death or frozen."

"Correct, Barry." I discreetly heard him say Harry again, "Does anybody know the importance of why we need to learn about history?" I said as I began to go through the computer and bring up a screening on the board and turned off the lights. "No? It's simple really. We study past actions and use them as a sort of blue-print for the future. I mean we already gave the base for it from our ancestors. All we need to do is to not repeat any past mistakes and fix them. Still don't understand? Take a look at the Romans. They began to make ideas and created the Republican system during 500 B.C. That is what some countries use for the system of government and sometimes even Democracy."

That's about all I did for the entire month with different subjects. Lecture, test, and repeat. I honestly just wanted to work with soldier now. I didn't know teaching was this frustrating …hell I didn't care if I had to work with the President. I just needed to get out of here before I commit suicide—which isn't even possible for me, I've tried. Trust me, not going to happen.

16161616

"When you are in a life and death situation, the only piece of advice I can tell you, is basically what everyone else is going to tell you out on the field. 'Don't die.' Any other questions regarding Soldier?" All of the men were in a line, catching their breath and standing at attention after their long run consisting of ten miles outside in the training grounds.

One raised their hand hesitantly. I gave him the go ahead to ask his question. "Ma'am, is it true that with the Mako injections, the side effects of becoming a SOLDIER is glowing blue eyes?"

"Yes."

"And you're a 2nd class SOLDIER?" The other men in the line were getting fidgety.

"…Yes." I hesitated in answering, already knowing where this was going.

"Why do you have red eyes?"

"…That I cannot answer without exposing you and your teammates to classified information. All I can say is, I am a different type of SOLDIER." They all looked at one another in confusion. "You are all dismissed." Many picked up their gear and left in a hurry, probably from the awkward vibe. No sooner had they left, I saw a certain Turk that was all too familiar with my routine of life.

"Dawn, you are needed by Shinra." Veld came up to me and handed me a file containing information about the terrorists—the people that tried to kill Sephiroth in order to take down Shinra. I would gladly take down Shinra, if the stupid company would let me sneak out and get this collar off of me!

"You do realize that I already working for them for these past months." I rolled my eyes at him, but his response was a placid look. "Come on, no snide comebacks? There's no 'You should be careful what you're saying, these walls have ears'?"

"Code Red," was the only phrase that left his lips.

"Fuck my life." I closed my eyes and exhaled while running my hand through my hair.

"Come on, we only have so little time before the President give you orders. He is a very impatient man."

"Why can't Sephiroth do it? Isn't it his job to follow the President's orders? What about my class? I have to teach the 3rd class SOLDIERS about—"

"We're here." That was fast, we were in front of the President's office. "Sephiroth is the General and in Wutai for the ongoing war, it's under close surveillance at the moment, it was the President's orders, and someone else will be substituting for your class today."

"You sure do have everything figured out old man."

"Don't get yourself killed." Good Luck.

"Like I would ever let that happen." Thanks old man.

I walked into the office and noticed that an unknown scientist and the fat President of Shinra were arguing about something. To the right, we have the President's son, otherwise known as the dick—Rufus Shinra. He was the only one who noticed I was in the room. "What is it that you need that could not be postponed until this weekend? Not to mentioned that you called me out of my job in order to tend to your needs. This had better be important."

The unknown scientist finally turned around to see who was talking and his eyes widened when he saw my eyes and uniform. He looked at me with disgust but quickly retained a neutral face. "My name is Dr. Hollander and I hold a share in the science department with Dr. Hojo. I heard that your skills surpass even that of Sephiroth."

"In the past six months I haven't had time to train as much due to some," I glared at Rufus, "unsatisfactory performances done by the new cadets. I unfortunately had to undo the damage. No, I feel that Sephiroth would beat me by now unless I get my usual routine back, which I highly doubt. He was my protégée, and I would have no doubt that even I would have difficulties trying to get a good hit on him." It's true, the only reason I was better than Sephiroth before was because of the fact that I would train him personally. Now he goes on missions just about every single day and I would stay cooped up in Shinra teaching the younger ones. "Why did you call me here?"

The President stood up and came around the desk to waddle towards me slowly. "Dr. Hollander is in need of escorting two new recruits here, from Banora. They are project G, a different branch of the Jenova Project. They are as capable as Sephiroth, but Dr. Hollander would rather have them be escorted and be safer than sorry."

I inhaled loudly, and I exhaled loudly, trying to calm myself down. "This, is your code red?"

This time Rufus Shinra spoke up. "No, what Veld gave you, is the code red. The terrorists—so called AVALANCHE—have been trying to hack into our data base. We're hoping that by the time you come back, AVALANCHE only just gains information about today. We are hoping that with Project G, we can improve it to Sephiroth's level, if at all possible."

I still don't know why to this day, why they would rather make me do all the dirty work when the Turks can do it just as well as I do. I don't know what to say to any of the information that is given to me. I only look at my feet and hear shuffling sounds and hear the door close. I look back up and realize that it's only me and Rufus in the room. He casually takes out the remote to my collar from his suit's pocket and holds it in front of me by the antenna. That bastard. "We're going to need all the help we can get to ensure that we get Wutai. Sephiroth is already on his way to become a general. Why not give him a little push by giving him more friends that are like him? Project G." He put the remote back into his pocket and began to approach me. His eyes were almost predator like as he circled me slowly. "The last time I saw you, you had the body of a teenager. Now you have filled out nicely in just over six months." He was now standing behind me as he put his face into my hair and began to inhale my scent.

Oh HELL no!

I quickly turned around and grabbed him by the neck with my left arm and pushed him up against the wall with his feet dangling off the ground. I squeezed his throat and able to have my right hand go into his coat pocket and pull out the control to my shock collar. I brought my hand up eye level to him and crushed the evil contraption, knowing that he could make another one and have me punished for choking him. I dropped the scrap metal to the ground as he continued to struggle.

"Humans are so fragile." I said in a calm and low voice. "I can snap your neck and out deal is off. I wouldn't care if I died, as long as this company dies, I will be satisfied in taking you down with me." I let go of Rufus, causing him to bend over gasping for air. "I will still help you in taking down your father, but don't ever touch me. It will be your last if you do so again Rufus." I began walking away from him and opened the door but stopped at his laughing.

He started to laugh as he used the walls of the office as support. "Do you really think that I am going to let this slide? There will be a consequence for this."

"And I really don't care." I said with a sassy tone without looking back and exited the office. I saw two Turks that I have never seen and were talking while drinking coffee. They were the only ones on the floor as the small office cubicles were empty.

"Hey Turks!"

Both stopped talking and turned to look at me.

"You might want to check on the President's kid." My head motioned to the door behind me, "he looked like he was having a hard time breathing. Better go check on him."

The next thing I know, the two Turks sped past me and into the office.

"What I could do if I had the Turks wrapped around my finger?" I began to stroke my imaginary beard and thought of them grading my papers from the cadets.

1616161616

Not getting much sleep is always bad…not getting any sleep is much worse. I kept nodding off in the back of the aircraft in my solitary corner with others that were soldiers. I had my sword in my hand and my knee up with my head on it, trying not to nod off on our way to pick up project G from Banora. The flight in itself was silent, I could feel the new third soldiers that this was their first mission from how they fidgeted every few minutes. I sighed as I sat up and crossed my leg over the other, still holding my Nodachi in my right hand. Their posture was a dead giveaway to how they felt, some were slouching, and others were looking around the inside of the carrier while shifting in their seats.

"We are arriving in Banora, mind the landing."

Once we hit the ground, all of us-including me-fell off the seats. "Shinra should really invest in seatbelts." I rubbed my bottom and stood up. "Alright Soldiers. We are here to protect a cargo that is to be sent to Shinra, you are to not question what they are. We will go back by land. A Shinra cargo truck will pick us up." I already knew what the real plan was, but the newbies didn't.

We walked out of the lift and looked around the area for the meeting point. I saw two cadets wearing their uniform along with their helmet, both pulling two carts with a tall wooden boxes with them. Both of the boxes read the word fragile on them.

I smirked and told them to follow me. They did and entered the empty area that housed a large black truck. Everything was loaded into the truck and safely secured so the boxes would not fall over. What kept me on edge was that throughout the whole trip, nothing went wrong. It all went too easy. At least it was, until it began to rain bullets on us.

"Drive!" I shouted and closed the back door of the truck. The driver didn't have to be told twice and took off. The two cadets were still here, good. "You two, come with me. I ran towards a vehicle that wasn't shot at yet and saw many of the third Soldiers actually kicking some ass. Huh, may have judged them too harshly. I jumped inside the jeep and had the two cadets in the back. Let me say this, never let me drive, because I drive like a maniac. "You two, I know you guys are expert sword wielders, but any good with guns?"

Both of them looked at each other and nodded. "Good, you just made my life easier." I opened the compartment on the right passenger side and tossed them two Improved Twin Magnums. "I'll get closer to the truck, if you see anyone suspicious attacking the load, shoot to kill!" I pressed on the gas pedal and went well over the speed limit. Sure enough, we saw people in different versions of jeeps with a person managing the machine gun at the top of their vehicle. "Shit!"

I drove next to one and was able to ram into them with my own jeep. They crashed into a tree, more began to appear in pairs this time. "I would appreciate the help guys!" Both of the cadets turned around in their seats and began to shoot behind us, making them all go up in flames as they shot at the engine. It took about three hours until they stopped coming. "Wish I could do that," I grumbled and blew a raspberry. Thanks to my smartass, I wasn't paying attention to the road.

I crashed into one of AVALANCHE's jeeps as it was pulling out of the trees and made us flip through the air. It was all in slow motion as I saw glass breaking from the windshield and pieces cutting my arm. We landed upside down, but obviously I was pissed off. I turned around and asked if they were alright. They nodded and got out of the now useless piece of transportation. I looked around as I crawled out and onto the dirt road. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the truck was still intact and stopped for us. I stood up and turned to face the cadets. "I don't think you need the helmets anymore…Mr. Hewley, Mr. Rhapsodos."

Both took off their helmets to reveal black long hair, as the other revealed short red hair who spoke first, "I can't believe that we had to dress up like this, do you have any idea how tight these uniforms are?" Genesis started to rant as Angeal tried not to smile at his friends' antics.

"Not my fault, blame the President and Dr. Hollander. They wanted to make sure you guys wouldn't get hurt…just don't mention the part where we flipped over and crashed upside down. They would go nuts." I exaggerated using my hands in an animated way.

Angeal began to walk around and observe our surroundings and opened the truck that we were protecting. "Our weapons haven't suffered any damage." Angeals' voice echoed as he had a Rapier in one hand, and…an extremely large sword in the other. The craft was similar to another Mr. Hewley I once knew. What a small world. "I'll ask how much longer until we hit Shinra." Angeal went to the front, but tossed the Rapier to Genesis first.

He caught it in one hand and made his way over to me. "I don't suppose Shinra is now allowing females to become part of SOLDIER now? What rank are you?" He asked casually as he pulled out a book. LOVELESS.

"No, but I'm the exception to that rule. I am currently a 2nd class SOLDIER." There was an awkward pause until I commented on the book. "LOVELESS, I remember reading it when I was younger. It saved my life." I had a small flashback of how the bullet could have killed me if I didn't have the book with me that day.

"When the war of the beasts bring the world's end
The goddess descends from the sky
Wings of light and dark spread afar
She guides us to bliss, her gift everlasting"

I finished reciting the prologue and Genesis just gave me a look with big eyes. He shook his head and draped his arm holding the book over my shoulder. "I think we'll get along just fine." We started to make our way to the black truck. All I could think about was that Sephiroth had better not get hissy over me making new friends…screw it, he is so going to get jealous.

Life has been hectic…I still haven't gotten out of school because our district is …weird. BUT I HAVE AWESOME NEWS! I got a scholarship to Japan! I am going for ten days for free! I obviously stay with a host family for a few days, then I go to Tokyo and enjoy the rest of the time with a few of my new friends!

Ahem, anyways, I apologize for not updating since…a long time. I have taken an oath to try and update as much as possible for this story.

Thank you to those who have stuck by me and waiting for a new chapter to be posted.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter!