A/N: There's nothing better than having a new chapter of story right before NaNoWriMo :) Yes, that's right. I'm a horrible, evil person who hardly ever updates, and now I'm going to be writing an original story for a month and not even THINKING about ABD. Oh dear. Do you hate me? I don't hate you. I love you guys.

Anyway. I do hope you enjoy this chapter. Please review :) And check out my twitter because it's awesome. twitter dot com slash OhSlytherinEyes

The door to the room swung open with a bang and Jinx stood there, his eyes wide in excitement and a piece of paper held tightly in his hand. Alec and Dios looked up from where they had been moving their things out of the way in preparation for the party taking place in only an hour, curious as to why their room-mate looked so much happier than normal.

"If I'm dreaming, don't tell me and don't wake me up," Jinx said firmly, striding into the room and shoving the paper in their faces.

Alec took a hold of it and looked down, his eyes skimming over the words there before his eyebrows raised in surprise. Dios gasped in shock and blinked rapidly, not believing his eyes were telling him the truth.

"Jinx..." Alec looked up at his friend and trailed off.

"That's right! I'm a Turk!" Jinx exclaimed with a grin.

Looking back down at the paper, Alec stared at the approval signature which was at the bottom. So Reno had finally given in and allowed Jinx to become what he'd always dreamed of being? Somehow, it didn't seem so likely.

"That's great," Dios said to Jinx, patting his shoulder encouragingly. "Now Alec and I can finally get rid of you! You are going to be moving to the Turk floor, aren't you?" There was a teasing smile on his face and Jinx rolled his eyes at his room-mate.

"Of course I will, but that won't be for a few days until everything's sorted out. Now, what do you need help with for this party tonight?"

The three of them then continued to clear away their mess, making the room acceptable for holding a party in. Once almost the full hour had passed, Rex showed up.

"Is everything ready?" he asked, his arms hanging by his sides.

"Just about," Alec said as he kicked a sock under his bed.

"You used to the new arm, yet?" Jinx asked, moving over to Rex and looking down at his prosthetic. Rex moved it around a bit as he too looked down, and shrugged.

"It's weird," he admitted. "But I'll get it."

"Of course you will," Jinx grinned. "If you can get used to not having an arm at all, it'll probably be a piece of cake getting used to this!"

Rex looked up and frowned.

"Are you okay?"

"What do you mean?" Jinx asked, the grin still on his face. Rex raised his eyebrows and gestured at Jinx silently as if to say, 'that'. Shaking his head, Jinx said, "You'll find out, don't worry."

"Trust me," Alec laughed. "You'll find out."

Dios chuckled as well and the three room-mates all shared in the amusement for a moment as Rex continued to stare at Jinx with a slightly concerned expression on his face. He wasn't used to seeing Jinx so happy. It was making him feel nostalgic, remembering when they were all just grunts trying to get through the first gruelling year of being part of ShinRa.

Hopefully this party would bring back even more memories. Rex smiled to himself.

"Alright, where's the food?" Dios spoke up.

"Here. I had to make sure it wouldn't get lost amongst our stuff." Alec reached up to the top compartment of their closet and pulled down the bags of chips and other junk food. There were some bottles of drink as well and Dios came forward to pull them down.

Jinx grabbed a small table that had been leaning against one of the walls, placing it in the centre of the room so that Dios could then put the drinks on it. Alec dropped the bags of food around the table and then straightened.

"So everything's ready, then?" Rex asked, his eyes sweeping the room.

"Yeah, now we just need-"

"Hey, so where's the food?"

Rex turned around and grinned as he saw Jensen, who was leaning around him to look at the table before making a beeline for it.

"-people," Jinx finished what he had been saying before, shrugging.

"Is no one else here yet?" Jensen asked as he shoved some chips into his mouth.

"It won't be long," Dios said. "We've just seen what effect the promise of food can have on someone."

Jensen rolled his eyes in amusement at Dios, continuing to munch as he moved over to sit on one of the beds. Then, as predicted, the door opened again to let some more people in.

"Hey," Nareau greeted Rex. "Uh, Kayli said you didn't mind if I brought along a few extras?"

"Yeah, it's fine," Rex confirmed. "Who'd you bring?"

Stepping aside, Nareau revealed the four younger boys who stood eagerly outside the room, their faces lit up in excitement. Before he could help himself, Rex burst out laughing.

"Davis is going to hate you!" he exclaimed, vividly remembering when three of these boys had made a fool of his best friend. "I don't mind at all, though, come on in."

Nareau smiled slightly as well and gestured for the boys to go in, hanging back so he could speak to Rex again briefly.

"I thought I might just explain to you exactly why I brought them along," he said softly. "See, Grain over there-" He gestured to one of the red-heads. "-is Camon's brother. So he's a bit like a brother to me as well. And when I asked him to come along he said he wouldn't come unless his friends could as well."

"Really? Camon's brother?" Rex asked, now watching Grain closely. The boy was laughing around a mouthful of food. "I can see the resemblance, actually."

"Anyway, the other three are Meeth, Owen and Charlie."

Rex nodded, trying to remember which name belonged to which face. Then he turned back to Nareau and said, "Kayli's not here yet, by the way. But she should be soon. She's coming with Edvard, Davis and Cloud. They got held up."

"She's with Davis?" Nareau frowned thoughtfully. The last time he'd spoken to Davis, the other had been searching for Kayli to tell her something. To be honest, he was really curious as to what that was.

"They were in the infirmary," Rex explained. "I don't know everything but it had something to do with Cloud."

At the table in the middle of the room, Charlie and Grain were laughing really hard at something one of them had said while Meeth and Owen tried to ignore them and have their own conversation. The red-heads were getting a bit much for them and Meeth was really glad to finally have someone else he could talk to when his other friends got too rowdy.

While the younger boys had their own conversations, Alec, Jinx and Dios were also having their own. They were discussing the possibilities of a new room-mate being moved into the room once Jinx left and whether or not that would be better or worse than sharing with the 'former ill-tempered Sergeant'. Jinx couldn't hide his excitement no matter what Alec and Dios said to try and wind him up.

A few minutes later, after Gemma had shown up and attached herself to Rex's side, the last few guests arrived.

Davis walked through the door first, smiling at Rex before moving further into the room so that the others could enter comfortably as well. Kayli had her eyes down when she entered, but she did glance up at Rex briefly to give him a small smile as well, and then Edvard walked in with Cloud behind him.

Rex blinked and did a double take as he noticed the blond. There was something different about him... but what?

Cloud stood in the doorway uncertainly for a moment, his eyes flickering over everyone in the room critically. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other and then slowly walked in, avoiding looking at anyone directly. He felt different now that he was recovered and Edvard had said he still wanted to keep a close eye on him in case Davis' DNA had any adverse effects. He had no objections to that – he felt as though all senses had been numbed.

Rex watched as Cloud trailed after Edvard silently, suddenly realising what he had noticed as being different. Cloud's face had changed. It looked older, somehow, as if he had lived through years more experience. It made him look much more mature than the boy Rex remembered.

"Sorry we're a bit late," Davis called back to Rex as he reached the middle table and bent down to grab himself some food.

"Don't worry about it," Rex shrugged, glancing to where Gemma still stood beside him. She had nudged his side gently and now leaned in close to his ear so she could whisper something.

"I'm going to check on Kayli," she told him, and he found himself looking over to where Kayli stood by herself. She definitely looked unsettled and was ignoring Nareau, so Rex nodded and let Gemma go to her friend. When there was a girl in the room looking like that, it was best to let another girl handle it.

Kayli looked up as her best friend sidled up beside her with a worried smile on her face. Gemma wasn't trying to hide how she felt at all, contrary to how Kayli had instantly tried to bring a normal smile to her face to disguise her pain.

"What's up?" Gemma asked quietly, taking Kayli's hand and squeezing encouragingly. The smile slipped off Kayli's face and she looked down at the floor again, taking a deep breath.

Frowning slightly, Gemma suddenly wondered if Kayli had finally found out about-

"Roy," Kayli said softly. "He's alive."

Gemma didn't say anything at first, but just stared at her best friend silently. Why was Kayli sad about this? Why wasn't she leaving the party to go track him down and see him again? Shaking her head slightly to push her questions aside, Gemma tightened her grip on Kayli's hand slightly.

"I know," she admitted gently. "Davis and I have been trying to tell you for a while now but you kept coming up with something else you had to do before we could say it."

"He's in Wutai," Kayli said, not reacting to Gemma's words at all. She looked like she was going over everything she knew in her mind, not listening to what anyone said properly. "He was adopted by Owen's parents. They're- they're brothers."

"Wait, he's in Wutai?" Gemma asked. That was news to her. "I didn't know that first-year Infantrymen were allowed to go! That's so dangerous!"

"Thanks for the reminder," Kayli muttered.

"No, sorry, I just meant-"

"It's okay. I know what you meant."

Gemma was silent as she watched Kayli closely, trying to figure out exactly what her friend was feeling. Knowing that Roy was in Wutai explained why Kayli hadn't gone running to look for him and it also explained why she looked sad. But there was something else in Kayli's eyes she couldn't quite put her finger on or explain.

"Kayli, you'll be able to see him when he gets back," Gemma said reassuringly. "Then the two of you can talk about what's happened since..."

"I don't know if I want to talk to him."

Gemma froze and stared in shock at her best friend. Kayli wasn't sure she wanted to talk to Roy? Why? What had happened to make her look so hopeless and sad?

"Aren't you... aren't you glad he's alive?" Gemma asked, disbelief in her tone of voice. "You've just found out that your twin brother, who you thought was killed by your older brother, is alive! Why aren't you happy? Why don't you want to talk to him?"

Kayli didn't say in response at first. She was thinking over everything she had found out in the last few hours and trying to organise it enough so that she could explain how she felt. It was so difficult.

"You know how I was seeing a counsellor occasionally ever since Sephiroth told Lazard about Roy?" When Gemma nodded, Kayli continued. "Roy's been seeing the same counsellor. But Justin never told me! Davis, Owen and I went to see him once we'd figured it out, and he said it was because he wasn't sure what effect it would have on Roy to know that I was in the same building."

"What do you mean? Surely it would be good for both of you to know that you're so close to each other?" Gemma asked, shocked. Clearly Kayli had found out a lot more than she and Davis had known beforehand and Gemma was very interested to learn of it all.

Kayli shook her head, a frown creasing her forehead as she tried to figure out what she should say next. After a significant pause where neither said anything, she spoke up, "He's just like Liam."

Stopping herself before she could burst out a million questions of what on earth Kayli meant by that, Gemma took a few deep breaths. "You're going to have to start from the beginning, you've lost me."

Looking up at Gemma and still ignoring the party that was going on around them, Kayli nodded in agreement.

"Cloud's ready to become a SOLDIER. Hojo's testing has enabled his body to become strong enough to resist the mako, but he kept it a secret from Cloud. Edvard forced Hojo to give him more mako, though, to prove to Cloud he didn't have to stay with Hojo."

Gemma wasn't quite sure how this was the beginning of everything with Roy, but she nodded anyway and let Kayli keep going. Hopefully it would soon become clear how this tied in.

"Hojo put a poison with the mako he gave Cloud because he wanted it to appear that Cloud wasn't ready. He wants to be able to keep Cloud for testing purposes."

"That's sick!" Gemma exclaimed.

Kayli nodded again. "So Cloud collapsed from the poison, and then when Hojo wasn't looking Edvard got him out of there. That's when I ran into them and I took Cloud to the infirmary. This next bit is going to sound crazy, but Edvard told me that Davis' DNA is like... super or something. I can't explain it the way Edvard did, but basically he said Davis' DNA was the only thing that could save Cloud."

"And that's why you had Davis with you?" Gemma asked, eyes wide as she tried to take in what she was being told.

"Exactly," Kayli agreed, then gestured to where Cloud was standing in the room. "As you can see, it worked."

"Then what?" Gemma asked.

"Owen was in the infirmary at the time," Kayli said. Understanding dawned in Gemma's eyes. "We got talking and when I introduced myself he said it was so weird because he had an adopted brother searching for a twin with the same name."

"And? Did you say you have-?"

"I didn't say anything. I thought it was a coincidence," Kayli snapped. "But then Davis got in my face about it because he knew, and he finally told me straight out because I was being stupid and ignoring the obvious."

"Don't be too hard on yourself," Gemma urged. "You thought he was dead!"

"Anyway," Kayli sighed, ignoring what Gemma had said and plunging forward with the story. "When we all figured out the Roy we were talking about was the same person, Owen took us to Justin. Then Justin told us Roy had been sent to Wutai, as well as what I already said before. I got a bit... angry."

"Understandably," Gemma nodded her sympathy.

"So then I wanted to know why Justin thought that there might be a bad effect on Roy's health if he knew I was here."

Gemma nodded to show she was eagerly listening.

"Justin told me that Roy had been diagnosed with a very- a rare disease called PSD."

Kayli's eyes were shining with unshed tears and Gemma's mouth was open in horror at what she was hearing – although she had no idea what PSD was but judging from Kayli's reaction, it was really bad.

Trembling, Kayli went on, "PSD stands for Paroxysmal Sadist Disorder. It means... it means Roy is the same as Liam, because Liam had it as well. And that means if Roy finds out I'm here, he might try and kill me."

Gemma choked on a response, finding that she couldn't think of anything to say just yet. Roy – like Liam? All these years of thinking he was dead, and suddenly when they find out he's alive again he's got a disease that makes him violent so Kayli might not ever get to talk to him again anyway?

"But surely," Gemma grappled for the right words to express what she was thinking. "Surely there could be a mistake. How does Dr Auld know he might try and kill you? How does he know you're not like... a cure in Roy's case? I mean, Roy might see you and overcome it, don't you think?"

"Remember how I said Roy was adopted into Owen's family?" Kayli asked.

"Yes."

"That's why Owen was in the infirmary. Roy hurt him."

Gemma opened her mouth and found she had nothing more to say. Roy had looked sullen and determined when she had seen him first joining up with Owen, but never had she imagined that he could hurt anyone he loved. And it had been clear that he and Owen had formed a close bond with the way that they behaved. True, Roy had looked more tense, but Owen definitely hadn't been watching Roy warily the whole time as if afraid of getting hurt any minute.

"Anyway." Kayli breathed out shakily and blinked her eyes rapidly, smiling again. "Today isn't about me or Roy, it's about Rex. He doesn't need someone crying during his party."

"Kayli-" Gemma began, about to explain that she was sure Rex wouldn't mind when he found out what was going on, but Kayli held up a hand and shook her head.

"No," she said firmly. "Today is about Rex."

Before Gemma could argue further, Jinx was shouting for everyone to shut up as he cleared food off the table in the centre of the room and then jumped up on top of it. Gemma and Kayli looked up at him as he grinned, hands on his hips.

"I have something to tell you all!" he said happily. "Now, this may come as a shock-"

"Hurry up!" Alec said teasingly, making Jinx turn and poke his tongue out at him.

"I think I deserve to take as long as I want to tell this incredible information," Jinx said pompously, puffing his chest out. "After all, it's my news and if I want to keep you in suspense then I can!"

"If you don't say it soon then I will!" Alec laughed.

"What? What's your news?" Rex asked, frowning as he stared up at Jinx.

"Well, I was called to the Turk floor this morning," Jinx began slowly, an evil glint in his eyes. "And I was given-"

"Jinx is a Turk," Alec announced to the room before jumping behind Dios for protection as Jinx leaped off the table and ran towards him angrily.

"Wow, a Turk! Finally!" Davis laughed and Rex nodded in agreement. The four grunts in the room all whispered together how great it was that they wouldn't have to endure any more classes with the ill-tempered Sergeant and nobody paid any attention to Alec and Jinx as they wrestled in the corner.

A genuine smile crossed Kayli's face as she pushed all thoughts of Roy from her mind and just enjoyed watching all her friends enjoy themselves in the room. It was great to finally be catching up with everyone at the same time since so long, and Kayli wasn't even bothered by Davis being there.

Grabbing a handful of chips from the bag Gemma offered her moments later, Kayli told herself she'd worry about everything else tomorrow. For now, she wanted to enjoy herself and help Rex to feel happy about having his new arm.

Rex, who at this very moment was arm wrestling with Davis and winning.

Kayli laughed.