Been a while for this one, sorry! But I've been struggling with the upcoming direction and re-writing it a lot u__u gya! And a reveiw that could be classed as nasty was left on my Inuyasha fic which dented my confidence somewhat T__T; But i'm over that now (hopefully!) plus I've churned out a few paintings in the past week, which are both up on my DA page. Link can be found in my profile (shameless self promotion fail)

So hopefully i'm back on track now.

Also want to say thank you to the people who watch, read, reveiw and follow this story. And to Gismo, who has left me a few reveiws :)

I do not own Sephiroth or any original canon content. They are property of Square Enix! lucky devils....

Chapter 17

Target practice

Meia's personal lessons continued over the next few months uninterrupted. Apparently Shinra was in the process of negotiating a truce of sorts. Officially anyway. Unofficially, small rebel Wutai groups continued to cause problems for the company. Reports even show several gangs running loose in Midgar itself, much to the annoyance of Heidegger, who was meant to be ensuring the city's safety long with the Turks. But the latter was stretched thin, they had suffered several losses and casualties in previous months, meaning the security department had to pick up the slack. And they weren't doing very well.

Meia had just finished group combat studies in the VR room of the training barracks. It was evening now and she was done for the day. She headed for the showers to wash the sweat and, worryingly, blood from her skin and hair.

As she stood under the warm stream of water she recalled why she was bloodied in the first place. Firstly, she reminded herself the blood wasn't hers. It was Tristan's. Meia's combat abilities were getting to the point that none of her fellow Thirds could spar with her. They simply couldn't keep up. For some reason she was getting faster and stronger almost by the day. And this worried her. What was causing such a surge in her abilities? Then there was the incident earlier in her materia lesson…

49th floor VR room, earlier that same day

"Are you sure this is safe? Giving me this?" Meia asked her instructor nervously. Sephiroth gave her a gentle laugh,

"You have been making very good progress Meia. What have I told you about having confidence?" He enjoyed scolding her it seemed and she frowned at him. She watched him sink a large dark green orb into her arm. It was his fire materia. She gasped as its power rippled through her arm, spreading throughout her entire body. She bent her empowered limb towards her and flexed her fingers. It was so much she felt as if they would ignite any second,

"Powerful…isn't it?" Sephiroth said quietly as he moved behind her and placed his gloved hands about her waist, "Don't worry too much for now. I'll keep us safe with a magic barrier. Play with it. Feel it. Do what you wish to get used to it"

Meia nodded and after a moment hesitation, tapped into the materia's power. Instantly a white hot ball manifested in the palm of her outstretched hand, the brightness was hard to look at even through her tinted glasses. She felt Sephiroth's fingers twitch on her waist slightly. She began to play with it, cooling it down to relatively normal looking fire. She sent flames dancing around her forearm. She sent them forth to dance in the air before them, ever encouraged by Sephiroth behind her. She felt her nerves disappear gradually as he coached and guided her movements.

Then he gave her a thunder materia to play with, again holding her in case anything went wrong. Unfortunately things had a tendency to do just that in the VR room…

She was in the process of getting used to the new materia when something odd happened. Her senses seemed to tune out, as if they were being shut off with a dimmer switch. The sound of Sephiroth's voice got fainter and fainter. Her eyesight got cloudy and dim. And worryingly, she lost control of the materia…

…….sephiroth…….SEPHIROTH..!!!

Sephiroth placed a hand on her shoulder and shook her, but it was no use. She was blacking out. And what was worse was she was blacking out still tapping into the materia she was using. Most people lost the connection when they started to lose consciousness, but for some reason Meia hadn't. And the floodgates were jammed on open. He looked up as a sheet of white began to manifest above them. Dozens of tiny lightning bolts began to hit the ground like arrows and the air became charged. He could feel his lips tingling. He tried to extract the orb from her arm, but extracting materia that was being used was difficult. And given the power surging through Meia now, it was no wonder it wasn't budging.

She began to sway ever so slightly. So she wasn't out yet, but she was zoned so far out she was nearly sleeping awake. Sephiroth had never seen anything like it. Quickly he yanked her close as a bolt of lightning formed and struck the ground in front of her. He looked into her eyes while she was pressed to his chest; they were blank and dilated. He muttered a quick apology to her before swiftly knocking her out cold himself. Luckily, this worked and the connection to the materia was severed. He pulled it out of her arm and set it aside, then laid her on the ground.

As he crouched, he came to the conclusion she had a bout of 'mako fatigue'. Not a very common condition amongst SOLDIER's. In fact, only two people he knew of ever suffered from it. Genesis…and himself. He re-called the voice of that loathsome man….

"Now then. You may feel tired after using materia too much. Combat too. Until we get the dose of your mako right"

"What do you mean…?"

"Why do you insist on asking questions, child. If you must know, augmenting your body with mako injections is all well and good. But if we don't give you enough, your body will run out of…fuel…shall we say. Logically if you run out, you need to be injected with more the next time. Obviously as you get older and stronger, the dose will be adjusted…."

Sephiroth opened his eyes. He didn't want to think what mako fatigue meant for Meia. If her body had used all its reserves…why was she tapping into them so much? She was using way more than a regular SOLDIER should be. He knew everything was connected somehow. He sighed and brushed the hair from her eyes. She would be given a higher dose next time. His heart ached for her. It was hard to see someone he cared for going through this, going through everything he had too.

Eventually Meia's eyes began to open. Sephiroth quickly ceased his actions with her hair. She was out for longer than he felt comfortable with and his eyebrows were furrowed with concern. The first thing Meia noticed was some of Sephiroth's stray hairs standing out from his head and she smiled before she could stop herself. She soon sobered up though as she read his face. Apparently, there was nothing amusing about what had just happened,

"Are you ok sir?" It was so like her to ask if he was alright, rather than herself. He nodded and helped her sit up. She felt drained and tired and her arm…it ached like it was pulled and sore. Sephiroth propped her up against his knee and removed his gloves, before feeling her forehead,

"What happened to me?"

Sephiroth sighed through his nose, "…Mako fatigue I believe" He said soberly and explained it to her. She looked stunned…and scared. Quickly she swallowed down her fears,

"I lost control…? I…didn't know that could happen" She said quietly. Sephiroth looked into her eyes; they were somewhat dimmer than usual,

"Usually it can't. Materia requires the user to mentally call forth its power; usually the connection gets severed as the person loses concentration. But you…for some reason the gate of energy remained open. The power of it was…formidable"

Meia noticed, rather than looking pleased she had shown so much power, he looked concerned. This worried her further. There was something else too…

"Sephiroth…" She began quietly, "I also heard…something. Someone…was calling your name. It was terrifying"

She had his full attention, "My name…?"

"Do you…hear voices at night? Calling to you?" She asked him quietly. He nodded slowly. "I do too, since becoming a SOLDIER. Feint, whispering voices that are never quite there. And if I try to hear them, they go away" Meia looked up at him, "But I've never heard them call any other name than my own before…"

Sephiroth swallowed, "What does the voice sound like?"

"I think it's female, though very distorted…and not quite…human"

Sephiroth licked his lips. Finally, he placed a hand on her head and stroked her hair with his thumb, "Try not to worry about it. I'm sure it's nothing" Meia looked at him, felt his comforting gesture but something was wrong,

"Don't hide from me Sephiroth. I can tell" His cat like eyes flicked down to meet her hard gaze, "I can tell when you do it. I'll wait; I'll wait for as long as you need. But know that you can't hide anything from me. Not anymore"

Sephiroth's expression softened. Finally he lent right in close to her, his lips brushing across her cheek so very faintly, like a feather's kiss, as he came to rest by her ear,

"Not yet…" He whispered "…forgive me Meia" His breath tickled her ear and sent shivers down her body. Then he pulled away and helped her to her feet. She was dazed and confused as she watched him clear away. But she respected him,

"I understand Sephiroth" She said quietly, heading for the exit, "I'll always be here for you…"

He watched her leave and smiled. He wanted to tell her everything, but he was afraid. Afraid of driving her away from him, as he had so many others. There would be a right time, and it certainly wouldn't be on the floor of the VR room.

Meia realised she'd been washing her left arm now for far too long. She shook her head and sighed sharply. As she rinsed her hair for the last time, the memory of what she did to Tristan surfaced. She hadn't wanted to injure him, but the dull witted boy had a habit of getting in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was probably in the hospital now getting stitches for the nasty gash on his back. Her instructor said it wasn't her fault. But she felt like it was. No one would ever spar with her again. Even Zack, who was usually game for anything, was wary of her now.

Meia turned the shower off and went to dry and change. She wanted to practice more with her materia that Sephiroth had given her. A fresh set, un-used by anyone. And she certainly wanted to be able to control it. Her friend wouldn't always be there protecting her. She felt frustrated. There was nothing worse to her than not being able to do something. Even worse if she needed someone to hold her hand constantly.

So now she headed out of the training barracks and to the main building. To the only VR room she was allowed in without permission. Shinra decided that breaking the barracks training room was less desirable than the one on the 49th floor. Probably just lazy engineers, she thought to herself. The lift pinged and the doors opened, permitting her onto the floor. It was pretty quiet. Usually there was SOLDIER's flitting about or talking but not tonight. Maybe there was something on television worth watching. She hefted her slipping bag back on her shoulder and wandered to the VR room. The light above the door was amber however; Caution to all. Better than red, she concluded. Which meant locked. Or 'warning – highly dangerous'. Meia swiped her key card over the reader and it blipped, allowing her inside.

As she suspected, the room was occupied. Though who by she didn't know. The windows were blacked out. She dropped her bag with a sigh and leant on the consol. Luckily she had some lecture notes to read while she waited, so she pulled her own personal pad and began looking over them.

Twenty minutes had passed and still there was no sign of anyone planning to leave. She contemplated giving up for today and going back to her room. She wondered who was in there though so she tried looking at the monitors. They weren't providing a feed though, they were locked out too. Then she had an idea. She glanced at the opening to the room itself before calling up the room's control panel. Everything was locked out from the terminal, all control was routed to 'remote only' whoever was in there didn't want to be disturbed. Meia hesitated; if she hacked her way around the program and was caught…she'd be in trouble. But it looked like she could access the monitors without disturbing the program itself so she got to work. Her fingers worked furiously to override the lockout before anyone could enter. She only wanted a peek…

Finally she got through and a feed was displayed. She snorted loudly and clapped a hand to her mouth in shock that she'd made such a noise. The sight was amusing though…

Inside the room…

"Hop higher Genesis" Angeal demanded. The man clad in red growled, but complied. Sephiroth shook his head as a standard small SOLDIER sword was thrown, by Angeal, at the dumbapple in Genesis's upstretched hand. It struck, though was somewhat off.

"Excuse me a moment, I need the bathroom" He stated. Leaving the others to argue over whom the most accurate in that round was, Sephiroth headed for the door. He rubbed his face with his hand as he stepped through, but out the corner of his eye he saw the control room wasn't empty…

Meia was panicking. No audio meant she only had a moment to realise Sephiroth was heading out and sadly…she didn't have enough time to shut the monitor off. So now, she was doing a bad job of trying to act innocent whilst shielding her transgression. She saw him looking at her and she chewed her bottom lip. Friend or no, she knew she was in for a rough time. He smiled and stepped towards her and Meia's heart sank. Here it came…

"Hello Meia. What are you doing here?" He stopped a few paces away from her. Maybe he wouldn't be able to see what she was hiding…

"I was planning on practicing with my new materia…so…yea…" She gave him a horribly goofy smile. He shot her a look that reeked of suspicion.

"Even after earlier? Do you think that's wise?" He said slowly. Clearly he had cottoned on to the fact she was hiding something. His eyes kept flicking behind her. He raised his chin and looked down his nose,

"What are you up to Meia…?" He said slowly. She looked away from him, her face turning deep red. Sephiroth stepped closer to her and, due to his height, looked right over her shoulder at the screen showing the inner workings of the VR room.

Sephiroth knew he should have been enraged. He knew he should stand her to attention and give her a stern talking too. Instead, all he could think about was how she'd done it. The program wasn't written by them. One of the technicians who actually designed the VR room had written it for them, and others like it, so they could train in peace. Everything was controlled from inside via their handsets.

"I'm…incredibly sorry Sir" Meia offered her apologies to him. Sephiroth sighed. They should have locked the door as well. But the fact remains she had bypassed programming that she wasn't meant too. It was just merciful she'd done it with them in the room, and not someone else.

"Shut them off again please Miss LeSait" He asked her firmly. She nodded and spun round to get to work. Sephiroth stepped back slightly and crossed his arms,

"You know, had anyone else been in there, you would be in serious trouble now, don't you Meia?" He carried on, only more gentle this time. He could tell when she'd learnt her lesson.

"I know. It was stupid of me…"

"Yes it was. You're doing so well, plus you're receiving private lessons. If someone else would have caught you, you could have lost all that" She'd finished shutting off the screens and turned to face him again, guilt painted on her face.

"You must be very careful with that talent of yours Meia" He spoke to her softly, his reprimand over. For the most part, "It could land you in trouble"

Meia knew what he meant. When she joined the Turks she had a choice; admit she had a talent for breaking down programming, or keep it quiet. If she had admitted it, she would have been heavily monitored and restricted in what she could do. However keeping quiet meant if she was caught, the consequences would be dire. She now realised just how stupid something small like what she had just done was.

"I'm so sorry Sephiroth" She whispered.

"Just don't do it again. I'd hate to lose our time together" He said gently, and smiled when she looked at him sheepishly. "Now if you don't mind, I need the bathroom" And he left her counting her blessings in the control room.

Sephiroth stared at his hands while he washed them. He had no idea Meia could do anything like that. Try as he might, his mind couldn't stop thinking about certain restricted files held in certain protected databases. He wondered if she was talented enough to get through them. He pursed his lips in annoyance; how hypocritical of him. He couldn't ask her to help. Not after the earful he'd just given her. He dried his hands with paper towels and headed back out to the VR room.

As he entered, he saw Meia was still waiting patiently for her turn looking through notes.

"Meia, why don't you come in with us. I'm ashamed to say we aren't actually doing anything serious now. We blew off all our steam earlier…we're just…relaxing at the moment"

She looked up at him, "Are you sure I'll be able to concentrate?"

Sephiroth shrugged his shoulder armour, "Depends if you still have your blindfold or not"

Meia nodded and got up. It couldn't hurt.

"Just be wary of flying weapons…"

Floor 66…

"What do you mean breached?!"

"I-I'm sorry sir, but there was nothing we could do. I barely escaped here to report the situation to you"

"You should have stopped them or died trying. Get out of my sight, and don't tell anyone where you came from!"

"Yes General Heidegger"

The large bearded man slammed his fist into the desk he was sitting at and he glared at the back of the injured infantry captain. He loathed that he would have to use SOLDIER to contain this situation now. His security department was failing miserably to contain the rebel Wutai troops that were swarming all over the area. And too make matters worse, a group was currently laying siege to Kalm. And his troops had made it worse. He felt a giant headache manifesting as he reached for his phone.

Meia struggled to keep hold of the icy ball in her hands as yet more dumbapple remains collided with the side of her head. She closed her eyes and sighed. Even minding her own business as far away from her three peers as she could get, she was still being showered with sticky apple flesh. Again, she focused on the icy ball in her palm, and in a moment it hissed out of existence, replaced by a fireball of the same size. She carried on cycling through the elements as she had been doing for the past half an hour or so. She could make the transitions effortlessly now. She dismissed the materia and yawned. The watch on her wrist told her it was 20:42. She'd been practicing a while, but she was happy with her progress. Thinking back to when she'd first tried to use materia, she was practically in another league now from what she used to be in.

She sat leaning against a wall and took a break. The three men in the room with her were still playing about it would seem and she watched a perfect dumbapple half spin to a halt not too far away from where she sat. She smiled to herself; only Sephiroth could split the apple perfectly. The other two were the ones responsible for most of the chunks in her hair. She watched him retrieve his sword. It was terrifying watching it fly through the air, like a giant demented javelin. Even more astonishing was the fact that Genesis and Angeal were willing to stand and have it thrown at them. Still, she surmised, this was Sephiroth. She shouldn't really be surprised.

"I think you should be blindfolded from now on. This just isn't fair" Angeal grumbled over crossed arms. Sephiroth tossed his hair in a nonchalant fashion,

"You'd be willing to let me throw this at you completely blind?" He taunted. Genesis tried to backhand him around the head, but Sephiroth deftly stepped forward and avoided it. He stood and watched Genesis and Angeal now. Well, he tried too. Truth be told he was distracted. He kept observing Meia's progress when he could, noting her now sitting on the floor picking the apple from her glossy black hair. His mind drifted to her lesson earlier. Specifically when he'd whispered in her ear. He simply didn't want what he said to be heard by anyone else who may have been in the control room. He certainly didn't mean to touch her cheek with his lips. But when he did…His body stirred at the memory and a shiver made its way up his spine. He was astonished such a tiny gesture could invoke such a reaction from him. And what was more, he liked what he felt.

At that moment a simultaneous ringing filled the training room. Meia looked up and felt her phone ringing in her pocket too. Astonished she fished it out as she stood up from the wall and flipped the top open. It was a message from Lazard ordering her to report to the briefing room immediately. She marched toward the exit,

"You get the message too LeSait?" Genesis asked. She nodded in acknowledgment, "Hmmm…something bad must be up for Lazard to issue a group summons"

The three SOLDIER's made their way to the briefing room, not surprised to find they were the first to arrive, followed closely by Lazard. They all took seats and waited patiently for more members to show up. Lazard seemed satisfied that everyone he wanted was present. Meia noticed only four First classes were there, a few seconds and most of her training group. Including Zack who had sat on the table next to her.

"Good evening Gentlemen. I apologize for the late hour but this really can't be helped" Lazard folded his hands and leant forwards on the table, "A situation has developed in Kalm that SOLDIER needs to intervene with. In the last hour, a decently large group of rebel Wutai troops has taken hostages and laid siege to the entire town" Lazard called up the information on the large screen, as well as the individual screens around the table.

"This is an organised group; they call themselves the Imperial Swords…"

Meia gasped and looked at the screen in shock…

"Sadly we've ran into them before. Terrorism seems to be their goal, indeed this isn't the first time they have attacked Kalm…"

The rest of the words that came out of Lazard's mouth may as well have been silent for Meia. The Imperial Swords. Yes…she remembered all too well. Her eyebrows drew together fiercely as she watched the information on screen.

She swore that at the end of this, they would never forget her…

Erk, psycho mode: on. Please reveiw if you have the time, I appreciate all feedback regarding this fic :)