Hello everybody, right before the weekend here comes a new chapter^^ We hope you'll like it!

Chapter 20

About half an hour later, Tseng entered said infirmary. He stopped in the door, scanning the empty room before his heavy gaze finally came to rest on Genesis. Then he slowly walked over with precise movements. "Mister Rhapsodos," he said calmly, hands behind his back.

The other looked up at the address, blinking slowly as he took in the other's appearance. Judging from his uniform and his stance, Genesis assumed he was a Turk and because he had never seen him before – other than for example Reno or the bald one – he supposed he was higher ranked than those. Not that he thought that Reno was particularly high-ranked.

"And who – if I may ask, Sir – are you?" Genesis replied as politely as possible. But he just was grumpy and itchy and still slightly in pain from the injection.

"You may," Tseng replied, his expression remaining absolutely neutral. "My name is Tseng, I am with the Turks. I have been asked to look into the succession of..." He paused, "incidents that happened to you recently. Tell me what happened." It wasn't a question.

Tseng, that name rang a bell somewhere, but Genesis couldn't decide where he'd heard that name and in what context. "You mean today, or the others, too?"

"Today. I have all information on the other incidents already." Tseng flicked open a notebook and clicked his pen, then looked expectantly at Genesis with just the slightest hint of impatience.

And suddenly the red-head felt like he was being put back into his childhood, having done something awfully wrong. His dad would stand in front of him like this – when he was home on rare occassions – and he would rage and shout. And Tseng was evoking the same emotions in Genesis now, he felt so small and misunderstood.

He shoved the feelings aside and set his face straight, as he began re-telling what had happened today. Even though he hadn't paid the lab assistant any mind, he remembered some characteristics about his looks. When he finally finished, he watched Tseng taking his notes with precise and graceful movements. He wondered idly what rank the Turk was, if Turks had something like ranks.

"That settles it then. Thank you for your cooperation," Tseng said distantly, putting away his note book. Genesis seemed awfully nervous in his presence, glancing towards him every so often. Tseng mistook the looks. "There is no need to be anxious. I am sure Sephiroth will be fine."

"It's not…" Genesis started before stopping himself. "Thank you," he offered instead, smiling a wary smile. It was better to let Tseng think he was caring for a friend than comparing him to his dick of a father. No need to present uninteresting family stories. He rubbed his hands over his face in a tired manner before leaning back. "Could you… perhaps tell Reno that I'm here? He told me to stay in the labs, but I couldn't… I don't want him to be in trouble or anything…" Actually he wanted just that, but Reno had rescued Sephiroth, no matter how Genesis liked that.

"I will let him know," Tseng replied. 'Maybe', he added morosely in thought. Would serve the brat right to get scared, he should take his duties more seriously. "I suggest you go back to your post now. We will let you know once we find out something."

Genesis nodded. Besides the mako ibjection he had no other duties today, so could as well wait here for any new information on Sephiroth's condition. After the mako injections they had gotten a day off before they would train under these new conditions for the rest of the week. The red-head knew that more injections were to come for the Soldiers to become more and more enhanced, but he loathed them already. Plus, he didn't notice any changes whatsoever.

Tseng raised a brow when Genesis made no move to leave. He sat down beside the boy, since he was supposed to wait until Sephiroth woke up to question him. He was also here for his protection. "Tough weeks," he finally said non-committally.

"I should probably get used to it…" Genesis answered reluctantly. Now that Tseng was sitting, he was perhaps less intimidating, but only a little less. "It's part of the job." He glanced to his right, where the other man sat, but turned his head to watch the nurses and doctors, who were running from door to door.

"You will never get used to it," Tseng replied, his eyes hooded in a seemingly lazy manner, though he was on alert. "It shouldn't be this way either."

"I could easily live without that fear and adrenaline…" The other sighed heavily, but shrugged then. "But then I would have chosen another kind of job, so I'm not complaining."

"You would have." For the first time Tseng's lips twitch upwards into something of a smile. "It will be over soon though. We have a good idea what is going on now."

Genesis found himself easing up a little at the barely there kind of smile Tseng offered him. "But let me guess, you're not going to tell us until it's all clarified, right? You Turks truly are something." His tone held no heat at all.

"Correct." Tseng blinked slowly, when the doctor who was attending to Sephiroth entered and wiped his brow with a cloth before he adjusted his glasses. "You can come see him now."

At first, Genesis thought about letting Tseng enter first because he surely had official stuff to set straight here, but when the other moved deliberately slow, it was obvious that he wanted to talk to the doctor first. And the redhead couldn't care less about the doctor now.

Upon entering the rather spacious single-room that Sephiroth was assigned to now, Genesis thought about turning and leaving again. The usually proud and strong silver-haired soldier was still white as the sheets around him, several IVs providing him with medicine. And even though his eyes shone brightly from the mako overdose, they were clear and – what counted for Genesis right now – open. He smiled slowly as he walked in.

"How do you feel?"

Sephiroth gulped dryly, because his throat was raw. The mako had caused an alarming dehydration that was still being treated. Speaking hurt, so he kept it to a minimum. "Peachy." He managed to pull up one corner of his lip. He was glad to see that Genesis was all right; the redhead had looked pretty sick too and he wouldn't have survived a mako poisoning. "You?"

"I think you sound as sarcastic as ever." Genesis answered and rolled his eyes as he seated himself next to Sephiroth's bed. "So your mako poisoning can't be that bad." He didn't mean it of course, the other looked horrible and far from fine, but as long as they could joke about it, the near death experience seemed so far away. "I'm fine, a little weak and sleepy, but the lab assistant told me I was going to be okay."

"Great." Sephiroth sighed but had to cough the next moment. When it subsided he leaned back against the cushion, eying Genesis strangely before he spoke up again. "Do me a favor?"

In return the redhead tilted his head slightly before he agreed. "What is it?"

"Don't tell my brothers." He had to pause and sip frpm the glass of water that stood by his bed, before he could continue. Though it was already better, he just had to get used to it... "They'll only worry. I'm fine now."

Even though he did not really agree to it, Genesis thought Sephiroth did have a point here. Those boys would be going mad with worry if they told them about every incident that happened at ShinRa.

"I won't tell them, if you don't want me to." He promised honestly, a small smile gracing his features. Just now did the information reach his brain that Sephiroth was official not going to die and his heart made a strange flip at that.

"Good." Sephiroth relaxed a bit, falling back into the cushion. His head still hurt, but he couldn't stop thinking about the incident."It's official now," he muttered, reaching for a glass of water as he kept watching Genesis and his adorably relieved expression from the corner of his eye.

The other turned his head slightly. "It was pretty obvious what this someone was after." He answered quietly and brushed through his disheveled hair. Normally he would fuss over a mirror by now to get it straight and beautiful again, but he was tired.

"I wish I had seen the guy's nameplate or remember something striking about him. But…" He worried his bottom lip between his teeth, desperately seeking the outlying places of his brain for something, anything about today that had been odd.

"Wouldn't have changed anything. He's just a puppet and he is gone by now," Sephiroth snorted, pressing his lips together. "Whoever wants to kill me has access to seemingly inexhaustible resources and power. That narrows the list of the suspects down considerably." That also made it way more difficult to catch them and make them stop. They had tried to be subtle so far and let it seem like an accident, but once they became impatient...

"Even if he's a puppet I would have made him spill…" Genesis hissed moodily and crossed his arms in front of his chest. How could Sephiroth stay so cool and level-headed when he had only – once again – escaped death … scarcely. "Sounds like Shinra himself, but I doubt he would do that to his priced posterboy…"

"There's more than one Shinra," Sephiroth retorted with a lifted brow. He had his money on Rufus, the bratty vice-president. The man was desperate to end his father's reign and he didn't seem to care what means he had to use to get him there. Sephiroth had no intention of dying, but before he could fight back they needed to be sure who was targeting him. He let out a frustrated sigh and shook his head.

Genesis stared at him in utter disbelief. "You can't be serious… Rufus? Why would he do that?" The red-head suspected a few people himself but he had never counted any of the Shinras among them.

"He wants his old man's position and he has to weaken him. SOLDIER is their image shaping, high prized and promoted program. If it fails, Rufus can start his coup d'etat without much resistance from anyone." Sephiroth could have cared less - hadn't he been convinced that with Rufus at the top lives of the people (and especially his brothers) would be even more miserable than they were now.

The other arched an eyebrow at that, but didn't answer directly. "Don't you think it would be a bit… obvious if he started reaching for power right after someone… got rid of you?" What Sephiroth said seemed plausible though. Perhaps he should snoop around a little and perhaps he got tiny bits of information from Reno.

"No, it would be the perfect excuse. What better opportunity to show people how incompetent the current head of ShinRa is. A lot of the higher ranked staff is waiting for him to make a mistake or die already. Under Rufus they hope to climb ranks faster. Vultures."

"Yeah… makes sense." Genesis answered slowly and sighed. No matter how much he turned the whole story around and no matter how long they waited to see what was happening it always got worse. He doubted that whoever was after Sephiroth wouldn't let another opportunity pass to get rid of him.

Sephiroth nodded tiredly. The short talk had exhausted him already and he felt his eyelids close, his mind drifting, and before he knew it he was dozing off.

Genesis smiled softly at the sleeping form in front of him and left the room quietly. The door clicked softly when he closed it. Once outside he contemplated his chance for sneaking around alone. Zero, actually. If he was being optimistic then he had a tiny chance to not get killed by Turks or executed or something.

He needed back-up and Reno suddenly seemed as if he was made for this job. Genesis wasn't too sure if the Turk would come along, but it was definitely worth a try.

He stalked off, heading for the labs were he hoped Reno would still be running around.

And indeed, Reno was still trying to find the lab geek that had poisoned the new future star of ShinRa. Reno knew that they had invested ridiculous amounts of money into Sephiroth, that the expectations on his career were sheer overwhelming and that mostly one person would gain from a failure.

Of course he didn't find that ominous lab assistant who had almost killed Sephiroth. Still he had to stay down here a bit longer to make it seem as if he was trying. Reno went into an abandoned room that was more of a closet, lightened a cigarette and inhaled deeply.

The other red-head simply followed the light smell of cigarettes in the air. He assumed that no one would be bold enough to smoke down here, no one but Reno. Genesis was quite surprised of his new sense of smelling, it was sharper now. At least one advantage. He hadn't suffered for nothing down here.

"Reno?" He called out. It was deadly silent and obviously safe to have their talk down here.

Reno tensed as he heard his name being called, but Tseng's sharp edge was missing from the tone, thus he just poked out his head into the corridor, grabbed Genesis and pulled him inside before pushing the door closed again. " Stop screaming. What's up?"

"Stop wetting yourself, there isn't even anybody out there." Genesis shrugged the other's hand off as he spoke, wrinkling his nose at the too strong smell in the small room, but left it at that. "I need you to help me with something."

"Do you?" Reno arched a brow, taking another drag, coughing and waving the smoke away from his face. "I'm kinda busy here, you know."

"Yeah, I totally see that." Genesis wasn't really listening to him anyways. "I want you to help me find the one who is responsible for all this", he waved around with his left hand a little, "and Seph voiced his thoughts about who it might be."

"He did?" Reno stubbed out his cigarette and threw it on the floor where he stomped on it again, just for good measure. He wasn't getting anywhere here and he was sick of being at the bottom of the food chain. That Sephiroth guy seemed smart (when he wasn't letting himself being mako poisoned, that was), so maybe this could be helpful. "Who is it?" he asked curiously, pushing a hand into the pocket of his pants, his open suit jacket rustling.

The other looked around, scanning the room briefly for devices of supervision before he leaned forward. "He thinks it's Rufus, and I need to find out if it's true." He said lowly, barely audible. "I cannot wait any longer, he almost got Sephiroth last time."

Reno barked out a laugh, his finger sliding under his nose as he shook his head, amused. When he noted Genesis' dead serious expression his face went blank and then he stared in disbelief. "You for real?" His eyes darted around, alarmed, then he grabbed Genesis by the arm and pulled him closer, hissing "Do you know what you're saying?!"

"Yes, I do know." Genesis retorted icily. He'd rather believe it was some punk from the 'rescue Gaia' fraction that wanted Sephiroth dead just because he was part of Shinra, but the silver-haired man had been so sure about Rufus and Genesis just had to find out. Especially with Sephiroth ill there was a high risk that something else was happening if he waited too long.

Reno looked at him for a few long, tense seconds, then he relaxed. "Okay. So what's the plan?" He knew about the power struggles too, hell, everyone did. He could see what Rufus would gain from a dead SOLDIER First Class. And he also saw what he himself could gain from preventing that. This could propel him to the top, if he was to bust this conspiracy. Tseng'd be so proud!

Genesis eyed him closely for another moment before sighing. "I haven't really thought it through, I just talked to Sephiroth. But I guess the place where Rufus would keep any stuff on this is his office. I know, it's highly guarded with all sorts of CCTV and the like, but that's your job, so you can get around it."

"I'm flattered, but sadly no, they wouldn't entrust someone like me with the security of someone like Rufus." 'Yet', he added in thought. "You're right though, if you want to stop him you need proof and that is most likely to be found in his office. The guy practically lives there..." Reno looked thoughtful for a minute. "I know a guy who owes me a favor and who is part of Rufus' security. There might be a way to get in. But do you really wanna do this? If you're caught they will have your balls for , chances that Rufus is stupid enough to leave any records of this are pretty slim." Then again, Rufus was an arrogant prick and they tended to overestimate their superiority and get lazy...

The other merely shrugged it off. "I'm doing it for a friend and I'm not planning on getting caught. Are you sure there are no cameras or anything in his office? I wouldn't want to sneak in just to get caught because of tiny pieces of metal…" Genesis grinned, this really seemed to work out. Granted, he did most of the work and the risk was high, but Sephiroth's life was at stake here and even if he imagined how Sephiroth's brothers would be crushed at the loss of their big brother… If he could prevent it, he would.

"Nah, Rufus is a control freak but he values his own privacy more than anything. No wonder really, I don't wanna know what scheming's going on there. Okay, let me get in touch with that guy." He snapped open his phone, dialed a number and waited only a few seconds before he had a short conversation with the mailbox, demanding to be called back. He shut the phone and turned back to Genesis, rubbing his forehead. "All right, let's make a plan. I think we have half an hour max, that is the time when Rufus has dinner with his father every night. They hate each other, so they keep it short. I've been in that office only once, it's huge. Maybe you should keep to the desk area, most likely to find something there."

Genesis nodded. "I go in, find what we are looking for, and be out of there before anybody notices anything. You make sure Rufus doesn't burst in when I'm all over his desk and we are fine."

"I'll have your back. Gotta get one of those ear knobs, to stay in touch and all." Reno was excited like a little boy with a new toy. This was why he had joined the Turks: action, adventure and danger. Not babysitting.

A long suffering sigh left Genesis' lips but he couldn't contain the smile that slowly spread over his face. "You are only excited because I'm the one they will hang if we're getting caught… But well, who would condemn you?" He stretched. The strange, sick feeling was finally gone, leaving behind the numb memory of pain and burning acid. He felt better now, way better than before, as if he had been cleansed from within. At least something.

"Yeah, like they won't find out who let you in and who called the favor in. My ass is on the line just as much."

Reno's 'friend' – Genesis was fine without asking who it was, even though he was curious – called back about half an hour later, sounding a little cranky about the red-head's call. Not that Reno seemed bothered about it, he obviously had a hell of a time annoying people.

Eventually Reno snapped his phone shut, rolled his eyes and lit a new cigarette. He would have to stay down here for another half an hour at least, pretending he was doing his job. "Let's meet at floor 58 at 5 pm. Gives us an hour to prepare and then it's showtime." He grinned as he said that.

Genesis grinned back. "I'll be there." He said before coughing and waving the smoke away. "You really got to do something about that habit."

Reno just shrugged and took another drag.

tbc?

Dun DUUUUN! Hope you liked, criticism is always welcome ^^