Not too long a wait this time =). Enjoy chapter ten!

Chapter Ten- Familiar Aura

The week following Alex and Josh's fight passed extremely quickly, and they seemed to discuss nothing else. It was one thing in Alex's opinion that he got lucky in a rehearsed drama fight, but to be so impressive in his first competitive fight was just unnatural. There was no rational explanation for it, if she didn't know better she would have thought he had been training for the same period of time that she had.

Today however this was all irrelevant, today was Career day at college, so for the first time in the last seven days, the two of them were forced to draw their discussions away from swords and techniques, and focus on their future job prospects.

"I still think these things are pointless…" Josh began, "…I mean, what are the odds of us actually going into any of the job paths that we see in there?"

They were walking up towards the main hall of the college. Most of the students were filing in and out of the double doors as they approached them, all holding different coloured leaflets, no doubt full of information regarding a certain career.

"We need some kind of guidance, we can't just finish college and go out into the world with no idea… Unless you are planning on going to University?"

"Maybe I am…" Josh replied to Alex. This made her laugh, he was hardly the academic. "Oh shut up, are you planning on going then?"

"Maybe I am." She replied, mimicking his answer. "I've got more of a chance than you at any rate." She thought for a moment. "I would have thought you would want to go on to be a professional fencer anyways?"

Josh couldn't help but grin at this, he could tell that she was still being a little bit sour about nearly being beaten by him.

"Maybe I will." He replied. Alex grinned back at him.

They had reached the entrance into the hall. Upon entering they noticed that it was decked out with many stands, each with one to three people behind them. Several of them looked vacant and did not appear to be drawing much interest at all, Alex soon saw that these were mainly catering companies. The usual knuckle-heads could be found queuing up at the Army stand, one that both of them took a mental note to avoid.

"Well, better start looking around then I guess." Josh said, and together they started walking round the stands.

It was mostly dull work. What scared them both was how much these people seemed to admire their jobs, even those who were working for catering companies. Indeed, it seemed that no matter what career they looked at, it always had to be, in the employees opinion, the best thing that had ever happened to them in their lives.

"Do you think any of these people have families?" Alex joked, looking at Josh.

"They probably did, but they must have killed them when they commented on their 'workaholicness'."

Alex laughed. "Is that even a word."

"No, but it sounded good in my head." Josh laughed along with her.

All of a sudden Tifa decided to start talking to Alex. "Can't you sense it too?"

Alex was starting to get sick of having to have two conversations all the time. "Sense what? All I can sense is you being a right pain in the…"

"There has got to be another parasite here besides Red…" Tifa seemed to go oddly silent after she said this, and Alex was in no doubt why.

She started to reply to her. "What do you mean besides Red? Since when was there anyone called Red?" Tifa was still being deadly silent.

The truth of the matter was that Tifa had modified Alex's memory, which was a little perk to being a Parasite. This was what Red had taught her right after the Tower of London robbery which they had carried out. Unfortunately, this was not what you would call an exact science, and instead of wiping Alex's memory of the robbery which was what she had intended, she had wiped her memory back to before she had even met Red XIII.

"Well? Who is this Red?" Tifa really did not know how she was going to get out of this one without wiping her memory again, and doing that in such a public location could result in quite dire consequences.

"Forget I said anything like that for now, I'm sure you will find out soon enough anyway. But no, the one that I am referring to is in this room with us right now, I just can't tell who it is…" This seemed to stop Alex from questioning the matter any further.

Josh seemed to notice that Alex had gone unusually vacant. "Did you listen to anything that he just told us?"

"No…" Alex replied in a somewhat dreamy state, "…was it very interesting?"

"Well…no. But that's not the point." Josh seemed greatly annoyed that Alex had somehow managed to switch off and avoid being bored to death.

"Meh…" Alex seemed completely fine with this, "…can we take a break from this anyway? I am getting kind of hungry?"

Grateful for any excuse to get away from the so far boring careers stands, the two of them made their way to the café, neither of them discussing much about what had just went on. They grabbed the table at their normal place by the window to ensure nobody else took it, then went up separately to get their food.

"The only one that looks like it is going to be any good is that telecommunications company, but that is always so busy!" Josh exclaimed.

"Oh well, with any luck it won't be so bad after lunch, will just have to see." Alex was finding it difficult to string a sentence together at the moment, Tifa was still talking to her.

"Well I can't sense them anymore, they must still be inside the hall." Tifa seemed to be deep in thought. Though Alex was interested in the possibility of another host being nearby, she was finding it incredibly difficult to concentrate on both her and Josh.

"Are you actually going to start eating of just sit there daydreaming?" Josh laughed.

"What? Oh yeah…" Alex picked up her burger and began to eat.

Josh continued to eat his food too, then noticed something extremely odd. Sephiroth had not spoken to him for the past twenty four hours, something which he did not think was possible. Perhaps after Josh attempted to read his mind he was trying as hard as possible to keep his thoughts separate. Whatever it was he was attempting however was working, or perhaps, if Josh was extremely lucky, he had gone.

At this precise moment Josh heard his phone ringing. "Do you mind if I go somewhere else to answer this, it's kind of loud in here…"

"What?" Alex said, looking up at him with a mouthful of burger.

"My phone, I won't be long." He got up and walked outside, Alex still looking at him with an expression of puzzlement written on her face.

Josh looked at his phone and saw unknown number, he answered it. "Hello?"

"I haven't." A voice said to him on the other end of the phone.

Josh paused for a moment, wondering what this meant. "Excuse me? Who is this?"

"I haven't gone." The voice said again. Things then seemed to click into place in Josh's head. "Took you long enough to work that out…"

"How the hell are you ringing my phone!" Josh almost shouted at him, earning him several odd looks from passers-by.

"I'm not." Sephiroth replied to him. "I just wanted to get you away from everybody else so I could talk to you a bit more privately."

Josh looked at his phone and sure enough, all he could see was his contacts list where he had pressed the button to pick up. He put the phone back to his ear, then realised this was purely so other people didn't suspect anything.

"What do you want to say anyway? I haven't heard a word from you for ages." Josh could not say that he was particularly bothered by this, it had made a nice change.

"Last week you asked me if I could sense other hosts, I told you I couldn't…" Sephiroth began, "…well now I can, and there is one in that hall right now."

Josh's eyes widened at this news. "Who is it?" He asked, "Who is the host?"

"I don't know, all I can do is tell when one is nearby, I can't tell who it actually is…yet…" Sephiroth seemed to be getting irritated with his lack of abilities.

"So even if I go back there right now you won't have any idea who it is?" Josh asked him.

"Well…" Sephiroth began, "…I'm sure they will be doing something that makes them stand out from the crowd."

With that the dial tone sounded on Josh's phone, or at least Sephiroth was making this tone play inside his head. Josh was not certain why Sephiroth was using this type of communication, but it was certainly more familiar than just talking to a voice in his head.

He walked back into the café where he saw that Alex had now finished her burger and was halfway through her drink. She looked up at him with a curious expression on her face as he approached her.

"What was all that about? I didn't even hear your phone going off!" She looked suspicious now.

"It was on vibrate." Josh replied, he had thought up this excuse the second that he found out the phone call was not genuine. "Was nothing overly important."

Alex decided not to press the issue any further. "I'll be back in a second."

"Where you going?"

"Nature calls." She got up and walked off towards the toilets, only to find that the ones in the café were locked for cleaning.

Alex had no choice but to walk to the ones in the corresponding building, which were almost always very badly kept and therefore deserted. She was almost there when she heard the unmistakeable sound of somebody sobbing.

Deciding to investigate, she followed the sound. Slouched against a wall in a dark corner of the corridor was none other than Shaun. Alex was taken aback, she had not expected to ever see Shaun break down like this.

"My god what's up mate?" She walked over to him and put a comforting arm over his shoulders.

He seemed to be so delirious it was difficult for him to speak. "Well…" He managed to choke out in between sobs. "Alex…I think I'm going mad…"

"How do you mean?" She said, squeezing his shoulder slightly reassuringly. Whatever it was to make him act like this it must have been bad.

He looked at her. Obviously he was unsure about whether or not he could tell Alex. She did not know why, but Alex felt that she knew what was wrong, it was an odd feeling. It must have been the same thing she was going through, it wasn't even a guess, somehow she just knew.

"A voice…" Shaun began, "…in my head, keeps talking to me, I must be going skits…"

They looked at each other, and then something very strange happened. Shaun's eyes flashed a deep red colour for what must have been five long seconds. There was no doubt in Alex's mind, and almost automatically she said to him.

"You are a host…" It was a statement she was expecting to shock Tifa with, on the contrary however, she was completely unsurprised.

"This is the one that I already knew about…I'm going to have a lot of explaining to do, I can I say in advance that I am deeply sorry…" She sounded almost afraid, like a child with their hand caught in the cookie jar.

"So it would seem…" Shaun replied. Alex had a strong suspicion that the voice in his head, whoever it was, had just confirmed this, "…what is a host?"

"I don't really know, it's all so confusing…" Alex replied, "…what does your voice call itself?"

"Nanaki? Or something along those lines…" He had just about managed to stop crying, "…yours?"

"Tifa." It felt odd saying her name aloud. The two of them stood up straight and Shaun composed himself. The feeling of complete trust between them was something that could not be explained, perhaps that feeling, like the parasites themselves, was just unnatural.

"We had better get back to the hall otherwise we will be missed…" Shaun explained.

Together they walked back to the café to collect Josh, only to find that when they got back he had already left. Deciding that he had probably headed back to the hall as well, they continued. Fortunately it was much quieter now that lunch was over, most of the stands had few or no students at them, yet still the one that was most popular was the telecommunications company.

They spotted Josh over at that very stand and went over to join him.

"Nice of you to wait for me." Alex said when they reached him, giving him a very sour look.

"You took like…ten minutes, I thought I would just meet you back here." He then spotted Shaun, but said nothing. "Anyway, have you listened to this guy?"

Shaun and Alex looked at the man standing behind the stand. He was a tall man, with startling green eyes and smart black hair. He had a thick American accent, and a badge pinned to his blazer informed them that his name was 'Charles Matthew-Daniels'.

Alex did not really take in much of what he was saying, but for some reason found herself very interested in listening to him. Whatever it was he was talking about, be it company turnovers, buying out smaller rivals or how many people he had employed, she found that he could make it sound meaningful.

"Wow, I never knew telecoms could be so fascinating…" Tifa said inside her head. Alex had been expecting something sarcastic, however she sounded genuine. "No wonder this guy draws a crowd."

"And that…" Charles stated, "…is why a career in my company would be a successful future for all."

Everybody gave him a light round of applause, collected a few of the leaflets that were at the stand and walked off. Josh went up to him and started talking, something which Alex did not want to witness, so busied herself with the leaflet.

She began to read it, and something in her mind seemed to click into place, though she could not quite pet her finger on what it was, and neither apparently, could Tifa, who was babbling some sort of nonsense at her. She was talking to fast inside her head it was making her incomprehensible.

Josh came over to Alex. "Wow, I am actually considering a career in telecoms now." He really did seem interested.

Alex looked over at Charles and caught his eye for a second, and could have sworn that they had changed from a deep green to a dark black. This made her think.

"Tifa, it has to be him!" She exclaimed. Tifa said nothing in response, but she was sure that she agreed with her.

Career day however had just come to an end. Teachers were now signalling for students to move out of the hall so that people could pack up. Alex, Josh and Shaun all left. All of a sudden however, Alex felt extremely sick.

"Guys I've got to go quick…" Without waiting for an answer she ran as fast as she could towards the nearest set of toilets, went in a cubical and locked it.

Instead of being sick, it was a transformation. A painful minute later Tifa was standing in the cubical of the girls toilets, something which had only happened once before to Alex.

"What did you go and do that for!" She shouted at Tifa, who got out of the cubical and checked to see if there was anyone else in the toilets. They were deserted however.

"Sorry…" She said outloud, "…couldn't control it."

The phone in Alex's jeans then started to ring. "Don't even think about answering that…"

Tifa took the phone out of her pocket and looked at it. The number was denied. Not wanting to annoy Alex any further she decided to just let it ring through to answer phone. Almost immediately after it stopped ringing however, it started again. She answered it.

"Hello?"

"Tifa?" This was unnerving. How could someone calling Alex's phone know this.

"Who is this?" Tifa replied, curiously.

"It's Reeve." She could not think of any news that would be more welcoming.

"Reeve!" Tifa almost shouted back at him. "How did you get this number? How did you know it was me?"

"All in good time." Reeve replied. "As for how I got the number, I own the company who contracts her phone."

"You were the man in the hall?" She asked.

"Yes, I will explain everything later. We need to meet. Do you know where any of the others are?" He asked.

"Just Red and Yuffie, but Yuffie is in London." Tifa began, "Where are we going to meet, when? We need to discuss this situation."

"Agreed, I have information that you should find very interesting. Bring Red with you, I will contact Yuffie later, all I need is her hosts name."

Later on that evening, Tifa and the all too familiar ginger dog were walking down the street towards the town's main park. Getting hold of Red was not as difficult a task as Tifa had expected, especially now their hosts both knew each other for what they were.

"This should clear up a few questions." The dog said to her.

"Yes, the more of us we find the easier things will be…I think."

It was not long before they were in the park. In the distance they could see a tall man with black hair dressed in a smart blue suit. They quickened their pace and within a few short seconds, they were reunited with none other than…

"Reeve!" Tifa said, giving him a playful punch on the shoulder.

"Tifa." He replied with a smile, "Red." He then looked down at the dog, who swiftly transformed into the red furred Nanaki. "Let's walk and talk, we have much to discuss…"

Authors Notes: Let us know what you think! Feedback is always appreciated. Chapters should be a bit more frequent from now on!

R&A