Reno walked into the lab, looking for Hojo to get the latest status reports from him. Wandering around, he noticed a brown-haired girl in one of the containment cages.
"Well, hello there." he said, walking over to her cage.
She was startled by his sudden appearance, and when she opened her mouth to say something, he realized the cage was soundproof when he didn't hear her response.
"What do you think you're doing?" Hojo said, coming up behind Reno.
"There you are. Boss wanted the latest status updates." Reno explained, trying to conceal his distaste for Hojo.
"Here, now leave!" Hojo handed him a disc.
"Who's the girl?" Reno asked before he headed towards the door.
"Something beyond your understanding." Hojo sneered at him.
The next time Reno was in the lab, he found himself wandering over to the girl's cage again. Since it was soundproof, he put his hand against the outside wall of the cage, and she responded by putting her hand on the inside wall and smiling at him. That became a routine for him whenever he was in the lab, except when Hojo was present. One day, he noticed the cage was empty, then he saw her being wheeled back to her cage. She sat in the wheelchair, listing to one side, and Reno guessed she was heavily medicated or seriously ill.
"What's wrong with her?" he asked the lab assistant who was lifting the girl out of the wheelchair and putting her back in the cage.
"Nothing's wrong with her, it was just time to terminate her pregnancy so we could study the fetus." the assistant replied.
"Study the fetus?" Reno repeated.
"Yeah, this little lady keeps giving us research gold." the assistant explained before sealing her back in the cage.
Reno left the lab then, looking back at the girl once before walking out the door.
That night, Reno snuck back into the lab and checked on the girl. She had recovered from the sedatives and smiled when she saw him, putting her hand on the cage wall. He put his hand up too, looking her over to try and figure out her age. She looked like little more than a child.
In the morning, he did some discreet investigating but he couldn't access any information about her without a higher clearance. Well, he could, but it would be too easy to trace him if he continued searching.
A few nights later, he visited the girl again. After their usual greeting, he wrote on the small chalkboard he had brought with him and showed it to her.
Can you read?
The girl nodded her head enthusiastically, and he erased it and wrote something else.
How old are you?
She concentrated a moment then flashed one hand three times.
Fifteen?
She nodded again.
How long have you been here?
She flashed her hand three times again.
Do you have a name?
She nodded and traced letters on the wall.
Aerith?
She smiled in agreement. Reno wanted to ask her more, but he heard someone coming and quickly hid.
"Well, my pretty, third time's a charm." Hojo said as he approached her cage. "We finally figured out our mistakes with your first two pregnancies. Your fourth one might just be the breakthrough we've been looking for, as soon as your body is ready."
Hojo left then, and Reno waited a few minutes before writing Goodbye to Aerith and leaving.
Reno didn't understand why he was drawn to Aerith, or why he got uncomfortable as he learned more about the experiments being performed on her. After all, a main focus of his job was to find successful candidates for military experiments. But Aerith…he shook his head, trying to forget about her and focus on the beer in his hand and the blonde in his lap.
Two months later, he was having another nightly visit with Aerith when he had to hide from Hojo again.
"That damned Tseng!" Hojo exclaimed as he glared at Aerith. "I know he's been visiting you on my nights off. He doesn't have the wit to know what he's doing, but he's Shinra's pet and they gave him clearance to interfere with my work. Little does he know that I'd kill you before I let him ruin everything."
Reno couldn't take it anymore. He couldn't believe what he had decided to do, but he felt he had to. Once he had everything planned out, he visited Aerith at night again. Disabling the security lock, he opened her cage.
"Come on Aerith, we're getting you out of here." Reno told her.