A/N: ... Time to make my yearly post, I believe. This isn't a new story. This was written just less than two years ago, and I only found it again on my computer recently. I want to clear out space on my drive, so I'm dumping it here because I was actually quite fond of this premise and I'm not keen on deleting it forever (I'm a bit of a hoarder, I admit).

I can't remember if I had more chapters written (planned, definitely, but not sure if they were actually written up), but I'll probably judge by the reception (or lack thereof) whether to continue this or not - it has been a while after all.

On the bright side... no gratuitous Latin this time around!

R E D

© All rights belong to Mr Gosho Aoyama, the creator of Meitantei Konan/Detective Conan/Case Closed.
kashirsky does not own anything.

CHAPTER ONE: RED

THE first thing he saw was red.

The red stood out from the gloomy darkness surrounding him, the red and then the white of a lab coat. His vision cleared, and he realised that the strange red colour was hair, belonging to a girl around the same age as he was, sitting by his bedside, with icy blue eyes which contrasted with the dim environment around them. Aloof and almost disinterested, the girl observed his coming to, smirked, and leant forward.

"Hey…" the unfamiliar girl said softly, as if she was approaching a scared, injured animal. "Hey."

He couldn't understand, he was so confused – what happened?– his head was dizzy, where was he… what happened to him? With a jolt, he remembered Tropical Park. 'Oh,' he thought, dismally, feeling fear starting to build up inside his stomach. He remembered Ran, and long blond hair, black clothes, a sharp pain, something impacting upon the back of his head.

Horrified, his eyes shot open, and frantically, he looked around, trying to decide on his best move. It looked like he was lying in a dark office… no, a laboratory of some sort? His eyes fell upon test tubes, bottled powders, pills placed haphazardly in an otherwise empty beaker. A large, dark case stood in a corner… a musical instrument of some sort? – Ridiculous, that couldn't be it. There were no weapons he could somehow grab and defend himself with. He tried to move, and found himself strapped securely to a stretcher. Defeated, his eyes travelled unwillingly up to the girl. Her hair was cut short, a striking shade of red. Her bangs hung above her turquoise eyes, and in different circumstances, he would have thought her pretty, if her face wasn't so emotionless and blank.

"How was your date, meitantei-san?" she asked lightly.

"… What?" he croaked out, voice hoarse. Promptly, the girl stood up, poured a glass of water, returned, and placed the glass against his lips. Noticing his inner struggle between accepting water from an obviously dangerous stranger or staying thirsty, she laughed humourlessly.

"Relax. I'm not going to poison you. Yet," she said, mouth twitching into a smirk at her own joke. She smiled, satisfied, when he chose to take a chance and gulped the water down. She placed the glass delicately on a nearby desk piled high with papers, and returned to her vigil of him. This continued for a few moments before he could bear it no longer.

Now gripped with fear for Ran, he whispered, "How… what… how did you know I was out on a date?"

The girl smiled coolly. "We know a lot of things, Kudo Shinichi-kun," she said, taking extra care to slide the honorific in, subtly mocking him, and choosing not to take notice of his evident shock at his name being known. "Gin was most particular about knowing the identity of the civilian foolish enough to follow him. He thought that it was the Silver Bullet," spotting his look of confusion, she clarified. "Ah, a secret agent… he didn't dream that it was just a high-schooler. A child, practically." As she said this, she threw him a look of disdain, as if his age had personally offended her. Then she smirked, mockingly. "Out on a date, already… young love… don't worry, your little angel wasn't hurt."

"Don't patronise me," Shinichi hissed, inwardly relaxing and feeling relieved to hear that Ran was okay. The girl could have been lying, of course, but really, what reason was there for her to? Shinichi was trapped here, yes, butRan's okay, and that's the main thing. Those emotionless, icy blue eyes seemed to take note of his relief, and his stomach turned over. What is this girl going to do with him? Was she going to kill him? Was this the end?

He decided he was going to go with a bang. He'd rather be foolishly brave, than cowardly. "You're not even that much older than me, are you? I take it you know my age, as well?" He wanted her to keep talking, wanted to hit a nerve. Maybe he can distract her whilst he thought about what to do…

"Yes, I do" she replied, still in that nonchalant tone which suggested she was only vaguely interested in the conversation. She casually changed the topic. "I'm sorry that your date tonight had to end in such a way. Despite this, did it live up to tantei-san's imagination?"

"I think you can imagine yourself," he said sarcastically, feeling his anger and fear growing simultaneously. Keep talking, keep talking… "Let's see, I get knocked out by two creeps and strapped down next to a mad scientist. I hope you'll understand if I say that it wasn't my dream date."

To his surprise, the girl laughed. It wasn't a warm laugh, though. "Nicely summed up, Kudo-kun. That's what you get for sticking your nose into other people's business. Look at you. This is what happens to nosy children."

Shinichi stiffened at the repeated jibe about his age. "Why are you doing this?" He asked, as he desperately looked for something viable to talk about, anything, anything…

"Why am I doing what?" she asked dispassionately, even though she knew what he was talking about.

"You… why…" Finally he decided on: "What is this place?"

"Well – it's a laboratory," the girl remarked, smirking as Shinichi scowled. Her eyes trained on him, she continued. "It's my laboratory. This whole building belongs to me, and this room is soundproof, so don't even think about screaming for help, that'll just annoy me," she mockingly admonished him. "I'm a biochemist. My specialty is apoptosis. Programmed cell death," she clarified, studying his confused expression. "APTX 4869. That's the name of the drug I developed. It's a play on words – apoptosis and toxin. In simple terms, it brings apoptosis upon the cells in your body, and shortly after ingestion, you die."

Her voice was barely more than a whisper now, but Shinichi heard every word. His blood grew cold, and he could tell that she – what was her name, anyway? – could tell that he'd worked it out. Worked out why he was there, what was going to happen…

"Do you do this every time?" he whispered, and for the first time, the girl looked confused. "Do you always… play with your food before you eat it?" He remembered seeing a cat long ago, who caught a half-dead mouse, let it attempt to get away, and then caught it again, repeating his several times before it got bored and killed it. He had been disturbed at the time, and he felt like the mouse now – completely out of his depth.

The girl raised her eyebrows at his strange choice of words. "You're my first human test subject," she said calmly, "but I can assure you, you won't be the last." She leant back in her chair, clasping her clipboard with two hands.

'SHERRY, HEAD OF RESEARCH' were the words printed at the top of the page on her clipboard which caught Shinichi's eye.

"Sherry, huh…" he muttered to himself, and she raised her eyebrows. "That's you, I'm guessing?" She dipped her head. (Why hasn't she killed him already?) "… what's your real name?"

Sherry blinked, and then smiled lazily. "Wouldn't you like to know," she drawled.

"Well," Shinichi reasoned, "I'm going to die, anyway, right? So either way, it wouldn't hurt."

"True," Sherry acquiesced. This detective kid was alright to talk to… he was a better converser than Gin, anyway. Oh hell, she can already hear Akemi telling her off for not having friends… "Miyano. Miyano Shiho. Any other things you want to know, tantei-san?"

"How old are you?"

"Oh, Kudo-kun," she sighed. "I'm seventeen, like you."

Seventeen? Wait… "Y-you're the same age as me? And… you've already developed a drug? Don't you have school?"

Sherry smiled mirthlessly. "I've already graduated – " he opened his mouth to protest but she cut him off, "fromuniversity, years ago. Now I head my own department. What do you say, tantei-san? Pretty impressive, no?" Coming from someone else, that statement would have seemed arrogant and self-assured, but coming from Sherry, it sounded mild, matter-of-fact.

"Where's your family?" Shinichi blurted out. He couldn't imagine his mother allowing him to trot off and produce toxic drugs… but then again, she was never really around, anyway, so if he really wanted to… but why was he thinking of this, anyway? Oh, god, he was going to diesoon, he doesn't want to be thinking nonsense, he should think of his parents, think of Ran…

"Dead," Sherry's sharp voice cut through his thoughts. "My parents are dead."

Seizing this seemingly golden opportunity, he asked, "And how would they feel, if they knew their daughter's a murderer?"

Sherry smiled knowingly, having anticipated the question already. "It's to be expected. They started this little project, you know."

Thrown, Shinichi blinked, thinking desperately. "Ah, what about…"

"My sister?" Sherry supplied. She wouldfeel sorry for him, but…

"Can you… tell me about her?" he asks suddenly, curious about how Sherry's voice took on a slightly gentler, lighter tone when she mentioned her.

"She's seven years older than I am," Sherry said carelessly, her voice resuming its blankness. "Her name's Akemi – bright and beautiful, you know, it suits her. We're not alike." She paused, as if about to say something else, then abruptly decides not to. Her tone turns darkly mirthful. "And before you ask – no, she's not going to be disappointed in me. She's going to be sad, yes – but it's to be expected anyway. I just didn't expect to get someone so…" she trailed off, looking for a suitable adjective. She decided on "young," even though she knew it was the wrong word. Sighing, she stood up.

"Well, Kudo Shinichi… it's been nice knowing you," she murmured. She took a pill from a handful strewn in a nearby beaker, and poured another glass of water. "I hope you'll forgive me, tantei-san. It wasn't like… it wasn't like it was my intention to create poison, you know." The sorrow that tinged her last sentence was so translucent; Shinichi decided that he had imagined it.

"If it wasn't your intention, why are you doing this?" he whispered, and Sherry turned around. She smiled grimly.

"It's not my choice, tantei-san," her voice was cold. "You… you've been brought up in such a rose-coloured environment. You're just a normal, foolish high school boy," he flinched at the glacial glare he was suddenly subjected to, "you have your friends, Mouri Ran, a grand house, and the respect of your peers, and also, I daresay, the respect of police force. Your parents, while absent, dote upon you. You call yourself a detective, looking for the one truth." Sherry stopped abruptly. She strode to his bedside, leant down.

"There is no 'one'truth, tantei-san," and she made 'tantei-san' sound like an insult. "There isno black and white. There are only greys, and that is what makes you so foolish. If you had time, you'd learn that one day, but I'm afraid you don't have that luxury." She turned around, retrieved the glass of water and the pill. The sound of a sharp intake of breath made her turn around once again. Oh dear, it looked like tantei-san was trying not to cry. Sherry was never good with emotions.

"I just wish there was more time, you know?" Shinichi forced out, not knowing why he was confiding in the person who was going to kill him, but knowing it was something he wanted said. Taking a shaky breath, he continued. "There were so many things I wanted to do. Watch the sunrise one morning, tell Mum and Dad I love them… play soccer one more time… kiss Ran…"

"My, my… such a pretty girl, and you haven't kissed her yet?" Sherry enquired breezily. "Well, we all have our regrets, don't we…"

And with that, she attached him to a heart monitor. She leant forwards, placed the pill in the quiet tantei's mouth, poured in what she imagined to be a sip of water, and made sure the APTX 4869 pill had been swallowed.

T.B.C.

WORD COUNT: 2,031

Post-A/N: So, let me clarify the premise. This is a canon divergence fic, where instead of Gin leaving Shinichi supposedly-dead at Tropical Island after forcing him to ingest a drug which MIGHT kill him but might not because it's never been tested in humans (because really, what intelligent self-respecting criminal would do that...?) he brings him to Sherry as the first human test subject for APTX 4869, to be observed and documented. Because I like to think that Gin has some brains in that pretty blonde head of his.