She was barely standing and Reno found no other choice but to get her to a hospital. She narrowed her eyes at him and shook her head quickly.
"Take me to Shinra laboratory. There has to be something left from Hojo's last work," she said barely able to walk.
When they got there, Reno called Rufus without thinking too much about the consequences. The president prepared a whole room for his special guest. Eloise was still conscious and seeing Rufus' annoying face wasn't really what she wanted.
"Calm down, Eloise. I'm going to insert healing materia and call a doctor to check up on you,"
"Healing materia-" She had to stop and take a deep breath. It was really hard to talk. "Healing materia is made of Life Stream energy-" She took a small break and closed her eyes. "A surplus of mako energy will make me lose control,"
Rufus' eyes widened and nodded.
"Reno. Call Aya. We don't need a doctor. We need a scientist,"
The redhead nodded and left quickly. Unlike what most Turks expected, Tseng barged into the room and ran to her side, looking extremely worried. He grabbed her arm and checked her temperature.
"Is it Jenova?" Tseng asked but Eloise shook her head. "Is it Sephiroth, then?"
She frowned but still didn't agree with the Turk.
"It's the Life Stream," she repeated trying to stay conscious.
Rufus was watching from the side with mixed feelings. When he heard that, he walked closer.
"The Life Stream can't harm humans. The planet doesn't attack itself," he said with a frown.
"I'm not human, remember?"
"What really happened?"
After she fell asleep, Rufus, Reno, and Tseng went into the president's office for a chat.
"I heard the Life Stream has been acting suspiciously lately but this is something else," Rufus started looking at the head of the Turks.
"There is the theory of her cells reacting to something she has done. Maybe the Life Stream is protecting itself against the cells," Tseng tried to explain but he wasn't sure.
Rufus nodded. That was a plausible theory.
"The only scientist who knew how to act in this situation was Hojo. We need someone with the same knowledge to save her." Rufus said in a bossy tone. Tseng straightened his posture and nodded. "I think it's time. Go find Genesis."
The Turk nodded and left immediately. Rufus sighed and leaned against his desk. If the Life Stream was acting up then something was awakening.
When Eloise woke up, she was connected to an IV and a young lady was hovering over her. She was dressed in a white gown and looked like she wanted to be anywhere but there.
"The sleeping beauty awakens. You must be really important if Reno ran to my house to get me," Eloise rubbed her eyes and sat up which alarmed the scientist. "What are you doing? You're not able to walk!"
Indeed, Eloise almost fell on her butt if the lady didn't catch her. She ended up back on the bed.
"You're a Shinra scientist. Do you still trust the conpany after everything that happened?" Eloise asked.
The scientist seemed surprised by her question.
"Because my cousin was a Shinra scientist too. He used to work in the Shinra Manor, in Nibelheim."
Nibelheim. Eloise looked down at her hands as she remembered what happabed the last time she was there.
"What did you find wrong with me?" Eloise changed the subject.
"Everything!" The scientist exclaimed and started to look through her notes. "Your heart beat is sonetimes super fast whike other times is incredibly low. Besides, your body has a defensive system that electrocutes whoever touches you while you're asleep. You have mako energy running through uou as if you were created out of the Life Stream. Your senses are higher than any human's and your DNA is a mess."
Eloise furrowed her eyebrows and pondered on the last statement.
"How can you find that out? You don't know how my DNA looked before,"
The scientist nodded and walked closer to her patient.
"According to your DNA, your hair should be light coloured and your eyes should be grey, or a very light green colour. You should be even taller and have a longer face shape. However, your hair is black and your eyes are pale blue. That little piece of your original DNA was powerful enough to keep your original traits. However, you do act according to the new DNA,"
Eloise blinked and felt a sudden wave of anxiety rush through her body.
"I'm two people in one, right?"
The scientist stared blankly at her.
"More or less, yes. You shouldn't even be alive. Nothing in your body works well. The only thing that keeps you alive is-"
"Sephiroth."
The scientist looked warily at Eloise. What was that supposed to mean? When she realized what she said, Eloise shook her head.
"No. It's not important."
The scientist nodded and walked towards the table where she had all her papers.
"I'm aware that you are one of Hojo's enhanced soldiers but you should thank the DNA you got. You're what, 33? 34? You don't look older than 25, though. That must be nice,"
"No, it's not. Every time I look in the mirror I grow further away from the times and people that made me happy," Eloise replied caressing her face softly.
The scientist sighed and looked pitifully at her.
"Well, you should eat and stay here for a few days,"
She left Eloise wandering in her thoughts.
It was a few hours later when Rufus entered Eloise's room. It seemed she was having a nightmare because the closer he got to her, he realized she had sparkles coming from her body. His eyes widened when he saw what was actually happening to her.
She was trembling and squirming in her sleep. He didn't even know if she was asleep or in some kind of trance because she did open her eyes. He touched her hand and he got electrocuted. Rufus grabbed his phone and called the person who could enlighten them.
"Tseng. Did you find him?"
The Turk sighed. He had gone through a lot of trouble to get that information but-
"He's not here. It seems he changed places,"
Rufus narrowed his eyes at Eloise. Why did she have to enter SOLDIER and become like this?
"Where is Eloise?"
Reno and Rude were staring boringly at the blonde. He had one hand on his sword and the other around some unfortunate officer's neck.
"Do I have to ask again?" The former soldier asked.
Reno rolled his eyes and placed his hands in his pockets.
"She's a big girl. I'm sure she can take care of herself,"
Cloud stared rudely at him.
"She's not in a state to be hidden,"
Reno nodded and glanced at Rude.
"She's not. And that's because you didn't realize just how much she controlled herself all this time," Reno said and sighed, grabbing the officer from Cloud. He told him to move along and keep quiet. "You see, Cloud. I know Eloise and I know when she's had enough."
"She's trying to have a normal life. You and Shinra can't help her. You can only remind her of the past."
Reno scrunched his nose and walked closer to the blond.
"That's because the past never stopped following her. Don't you recognize her behavior?" Cloud seemed calm but Reno could see his pupils dilating in anger. "It's Sephiroth. He will never stop following her, be it dead or alive."
"That doesn't have anything to do with her recent state. Sephiroth is dead and can't harm her."
Reno leaned back and glanced at Rude. The bald man nodded, a silent agreement happening betwrrn the two turks. Cloud didn't know what was happening yet
"Come with us,"
Reno didn't take Cloud to Eloise. Instead, he took him to a closed laboratory. One scientist was there, working intensely on something.
"This is Aya. She consulted Eloise about her problem," Reno introduced her
Cloud's eyes moved on the young woman. She actually looked to be around Eloise's age, more or less. Reno walked towards her and wrapped an arm around her waist with a sheepish smile but Aya slapped him off instantly.
"Are you here to annoy me or do you want to know what I found?" Reno took a step back. She smiled to herself and continued, "Good. Well, I took a sample of her blood and analysed it. It does look like electricity. However-" She walked deeper into the lab and pointed at a microscope. Reno encouraged Cloud to look at it first. "What do you see?" she asked the blond.
"I see blood cells. They're red and move around chaotically,"
Aya nodded before she rolled a small laver and told him to watch again. His eyes widened.
"The cells are still multiplying. And they have this jelly substance running through them. It's different than electricity,"
Cloud mived aside and let Reno see the cells too.
"What you see is called regeneration," Reno's head quirked up and stared at the scientist surprised. "Even though she was stabilized before, Hojo did it only for a short amount of time. Theoretically, her body can fight against any poison and wound. It can help her in so many ways that she might as well be compared to a deadly weapon. But, her body is functioning for two, which takes a toll on her organs,"
Cloud frowned, his mind instantly goibg to the worst scenario.
"Is that why she's been having illusion wounds?"
"Those aren't illusions for her. The pain is real and the wound is real too but granted to her fast healing abilities and surplus of mako energy, she heals before you can see it. I think that is a way for her body to get the surplus of cells out."
Reno glanced at the microscope. Those were really bad news but he had a feeling that it wasn't even half of what was going on in her body.
"Is there a way to stop it?" Cloud asked with worry. He made a promise to Zack and he wasn't going to let the Fair siblings down.
"No. Unfortunately, what is happening is a protective reaction. If you dare touch her at that moment, she will emit electricity that she won't be able to control. She gets into this sleeping state and she is not conscious of the outside world. You can't control these reactions. I'm afraid it will get worse." Aya explained with a poker face
"Is there a way to kill the surplus of cells in her body?" Cloud asked.
"No. I don't understand why it's happening now. There must have been a trigger,"
Reno's eyes widened and he glanced at his partner. Rude nodded, knowing what the red head was thinking about.
"The Life Stream," Rude mumbled.
Cloud turned to Reno with wary eyes. He wanted answers.
"The Life Stream has been out of control lately. It provokes earthquakes and floods and the whole place seems guarded. The Life Stream is protecting itself from something and we can't seem to know what from or why." That was classified information but then again, Eloise's state was at stake so Reno had to tell Cloud everything. Of course, being a Turk, he left out a tiny and maybe unimportant detail.
Once Cloud left, Aya turned to Reno.
"Did they find him?"
He shook his head disappointingly. She sighed and leaned against the table.
"He's her only chance. He knows everything about her. You said they were very close."
Reno chuckled at the memory. He could still see Eloise's bright eyes following the former SOLDIER.
"They were. But I'm still not sure if he's alive,"
Rude punched his friend's arm. The big bald guy liked Eloise and her interesting ways to avoid Reno. He wanted to see her breath not pale in a coffin.