Hello readers!

Welcome to my first fanfiction. It is slightly AU (for the characters' pasts) and will explore the history behind APTX 4869. It will also focus on ReiXShiho and other BO characters. It's sad that there are not many stories about ReiXShiho, although these two share so much in common (intelligence and past experience). Also, don't forget the past with Rei and Shiho's mother.

Since this is my first story, I would love some feedback.

Thank you and hope you enjoy!

P.S. Spoiler alert. I am watching the anime, so the storyline may be slightly different than that of the manga.

Genres: romance (pairings: ReiXShiho and possibly other pairings (I'm open to suggestions!)), science-fiction, and action (potentially)

WARNING: ALL CHARACTERS BELONG TO THEIR RIGHTFUL AUTHOR. THIS WORK IS NOT FOR COMMERCIAL PURPOSE.

Chapter 1 - Birth of the Phoenix

A conference hall, New York, USA, 1980s

" 'Death, the ultimate darkness, the end. Death, the untamable monster that deem the power of modern science useless.' What if I tell you that in ten years, these statements will only be history, because, in ten years, ladies and gentlemen, you will be able to cheat death," Atsushi Miyano announced boldly and waited for the ensuing uproar to calm down.

Head held high and eyes gleaming with confidence, Dr. Atsushi Miyano stood on the podium in his black tuxedo. He was young. Twenty-six years old, Shari remembered the ID documents she was provided with that morning. Finished undergrad in two years, master's in two, and PhD in four. Valedictorian. The list of academic awards and research papers was long enough to fill a whole page. A true genius, just like his wife.

Shari shifted her gaze to the British woman in a black formal dress, standing next to Dr. Atsushi Miyano. Elena Miyano, former classmate, research partner, and wife of Dr. Miyano. Same age. At the look of Elena Miyano, Shari could hardly believe that this young woman was in the category of 'mad scientists'. Unlike her husband, whose confident appearance seems to hide a more sinister nature, Elena Miyano beamed brightly with her rare smile whose warmth seemed to permeate through the skin and embrace the heart. Although Shari could hardly distinguish the woman's gaze because of the reflected light in her glasses, she could imagine the sweet, almost innocent gaze.

Another woman standing next to Elena Miyano caught Shari's eyes. The woman - or rather, girl - had auburn hair that draped around her shoulder and reached her chest, contrasting with the forest green dress she worn. Most striking of all was her grey blue eyes that reflected her Irish heritage and inspired the purity of newly formed ice. Shari faintly remembered that the Miyanos had a lab assistant, a remarkably intelligent intern who had graduated early from high school and was attending an Ivy League. Eighteen-years-old... if I remember correctly. Another young and pure soul to fall into the darkness of insanity... Shari mentally observed with regret.

Dr. Atsushi Miyano explained in arcane scientific lexicon the results in preliminary research and experiments, and then his plans for his dream project, Project Phoenix, while advocating his cause by highlighting the benefits and the efficacy of the procedure. He then concluded, "... and we need your support to achieve this feat that will lead humanity to the future, to immortality. Project Phoenix currently requires..."

The amount of budget required was so tremendous that it was a challenge for the Miyanos collect enough funds. The project was the first of its kind, touching theories that still remain foreign to the scientific community. In other words, the probability of success was slim enough to discourage all the wealthy businessmen and aristocrats in the hall to invest.

Well, not all. One man with a growing dark and even repulsive obsession was insane enough to cover all funds. And here is his secretary, Shari thought as she made her way to the Miyanos, who had left the podium. An amicable smile on her face, Shari presented herself as she shook their hands, "Hi. Nice to meet you. I am Shari Vidal from Blake Pharmaceutics, a multinational corporation that..." She offered a brief overview of the company's structure and most recent products, before remarking, "It's quite a project you've got..."

After some more compliments about the project, Shari explained her boss Arthur Blake's proposal, "We will cover all funds during the whole project period. In return, we would like you to work under the name of our company."

The Miyanos seemed surprised that they would receive enough funds so fast. Noticing their hesitation, Shari, always with the friendly smile she learned to wear so well, took out two business cards - one from Shari and the other from Arthur - for each of the Miyanos while she explained that the boss was on a business trip overseas and asked the Miyanos to contact the company if they make up their minds.

In her cab, Shari tried to make up for her previous sleepless night by dozing off, but could not. Project Phoenix kept coming back to her mind, like an ominous presence. She must admit it. As a child, she had once desired to live forever, but, now, the thought of eternal life was frightening. At that time, she could not pinpoint the exact reason, but she knew that there was an extent to which humans should interfere with nature. She gazed outside the window and saw the limpid sky with pure white clouds drifting like sails in a calm sea. Would she still be able to contemplate such a peaceful scenery once the project was completed? For some reason, she felt stupid, just as much as when she accepted to become part of Arthur's life. If there was a devil hiding from the light, she had just given it the darkness in which to emerge.

A restaurant in Tokyo, Japan, 2017 (present)

The waitress pushed open the door to one of the private rooms of the restaurant. Eyes on his smartphone, a man in a business attire was sitting at one end of the ebony table. He seemed to be in his thirties and was adorned with elegant facial features. Vermouth - or any other girls - would have fallen in love at first sight had she not known the identity of the man. Who is incredibly less attractive... Vermouth thought with disdain.

"My, my, Honey, you look handsome today," Vermouth managed to compliment in a casual tone, despite her increasing heartbeats. With each new step she took inside the room, she felt heavier, as if she was driving into fog on a small, rocky mountain road. Perhaps, driving to my own doom...

Without lifting his eyes from the phone, the man greeted her in his familiar austere tone, "Good evening, Chris. Take a sit. There's something we need to discuss about."

Discuss... Vermouth prevented herself from sneering. When had they ever 'discussed' about a subject? For all these decades, she had only listened and obeyed.

The waitress came in to serve the dinner and the man waited after she left to begin his 'discussion'. As expected, the man asked Vermouth to complete a new mission. At least, this one was particularly interesting.

However, she had something more important to accomplish before. At this thought, she could hear her heart beating, threatening to burst out of her chest.

"How was your trip? You must be tired," she began after they had finished talking about the 'important matter'. The room seemed hot. Was the air conditioning on? She glanced at the control on the wall. Yes, it is... Why does it feel so hot?

"Here, let me pour you a drink," she announced, maintaining the innocent facade that her actress alter ego had practiced enough to deserve international recognition.

At the lack of response from the man whose eyes were glued again on his cellphone, Vermouth reached for the bottle and poured the liquor in a glass, barely noticing of the type of liquor. She took a deep inaudible breath, before reaching for the sachet in her jacket pocket. She discreetly tore apart the paper and let the white powder fall into the drink, while she kept an eye on the man who didn't seem to pay any attention to her.

"Here you go," she announced as she brought the drink to the man. She had to put in a tremendous effort to not let her hand tremble. She could not let him feel anything abnormal. She was performing perhaps the 'most' crucial task of her entire existence. The last act to freedom, she noted mentally. No, Vermouth, the cold-blooded 'henchwoman' of Ano Kata and the alter ego of an Oscar winner, a simple singer in an infamous bar who rose to fame thanks to her versatile acting talent, would not blow her cover in this simple final act.

However, as much as she wanted to deny it, she would have completed this task in utter confidence if her target was anyone else. The man's appearance was as innocent as her own facade, but she knew that under this pristine skin hid a sinister viper that would strike at any mistake... or act of betrayal.

"Oh, that wasn't necessary, Chris," the man replied in his intimidatingly calm tone as she held him the glass. Suddenly, he lifted his eyes. Vermouth felt as if she was dragged into the two black holes of his dark irises. There was no escape to this darkness that could seep through the skin and into the soul, this darkness that could read the most hidden thoughts in any human mind.

She had lost... since the beginning, since the moment she entered this room. The man had known her intentions and had let her pour the drink, perhaps to confirm his last doubts. She was tricked.

"There is a far more intoxicating wine, here," the man remarked in a sinister tone as he stood up, reaching Chris' height. She knew well that he was referring to her and could feel herself shudder faintly. Slowly, with the pace of a beast surrounding its helpless prey, the man circled his long fingers around the glass, brushing Vermouth's hand. He was so close that she could feel her breath, as cold as his touch, so cold that it reminded her of a corpse. A fitting metaphor... She would have sneered had she not felt so intimidated. Her body was so tense that she was unable to move and could hardly breath evenly. She released the glass without much resistance, then the man rested it on the table.

"It had this unrivaled sweetness and purity when I first tasted it..." the man continued unhurriedly as his cold finger slowly traced Vermouth's cheekbone, like a viper slithering on her skin."... but, as I took more sips, it became lethal."

The viper had stricken, his metaphoric fangs sinking deep into her flesh. The man took a step back, always in his frightfully slow pace, and dangled in front of Vermouth's eyes the sachet that was tore open.

Her hand automatically reached for her pocket. It was empty. She couldn't believe that she was so distracted by the man's dark presence that she had not noticed him pickpocketing her.

Nevertheless, she was the cold-blooded Vermouth and took only a short while to recover from the shock. Now that she was at distance with dark aura of that man, a mischievous smile appeared on her face.

"Looks like you caught me."

The man threw her a deadly glare.

"Don't do this again. You won't like what I will do to you, next time." Vermouth shuddered at the last sentence. The man couldn't kill her, but there was far worse than death.

"I will be expecting good news." The man took out a yellow folder from his dark brown leather suitcase and left it on the table, before leaving the room.

Vermouth felt like screaming and throwing all the glasses against the wall. He tricked me. The thought came back to haunt her. He had let her hope up just to shatter it with one fatal bite. As the cruel man that he was, he must have enjoyed watching her desperate, ridiculous struggle, before revealing to her defeated self the painful truth: there was no escape.

Café Poirot

Rei finished cleaning the counter and yawned while stretching his arms. His shift was over. He glanced at the clock. 9 pm. He mentally visualized his plan as soon as he would get home: taking a shower, then going straight to bed.

The last nights were sleepless with all his work for the National Police. He also encountered a murder case when he met Conan-kun and his friends in a mall. He had suppressed a chuckle when Haibara-san called him a "corpse magnet". The girl had this entertainingly sardonic sense of humor.

Talking about the girl, he felt that she was... special. She acted more like an adult than a child of her age. There was also her striking resemblance with Sherry. When Rei first met Haibara-san, he thought she was a lost distant relative of Shiho Miyano, who supposedly died in various rumored ways, the most believed one being in the Mystery Train. Rei knew well that Shiho had survived, somehow. His belief was more from a feeling than from the pure certainty of evidence... until he learned that APTX 4869 could cause de-aging. Everything suddenly made sense to him. The morning after Shiho Miyano's escape, a year ago, the BO had discovered that a pill of APTX 4869 was missing. Sherry had perhaps ingested it, turned into a child and easily escaped. She had then perhaps met Conan-kun by chance and been taken under Agasa-hakase's wing.

Since this realization, about two weeks ago, Rei had attempted various methods to approach the miniature version of Sherry. In other words, his meeting with the children in the mall was not exactly a coincidence.

His decision to uncover Haibara-san's identity was not caused by simple curiosity or pure commitment toward the BO or the Police, but, rather, by a silent promise. Elena Miyano. He remembered with nostalgia the reassuring smile, the sweet, soothing voice, and the warm touch of her hands as she bandaged him. He was still a child when he first met this woman. He got into fights often and others, the children as much as the adults, even his own uncle, just assumed that he enjoyed fighting and categorized him as a hopeless delinquent, gradually isolating him. The truth was, at that time, he had decided to ruin himself the most possible to, at first, get back at the parents who abandoned him, then at the others who alienated him. Elena Miyano had been the first to understand him and let him realize that all he did was part of a shameful act of self-pity. Since that moment, ashamed at his previously immature behaviour, he had began catching up in his studies and improving his personality to become a fresh person. Gradually, noticing his change, others had begun to include him in their circles. Had he never met Elena Miyano, he would have become the worst type of human being, hated by others, without knowing why.

When he began working for the Police and heard that, to his regret, the Miyanos died and left their children to the BO, he had decided to return Elena Miyano's kindness by protecting and, perhaps, 'saving' these girls. He had accepted the mission to infiltrate into the BO, which only a few agents wanted to take on due to the low survival rate. Since then, he had been observing the girls in the shadow - not in a dubious fashion. When Akemi Miyano died, he blamed himself as much as her irresponsible boyfriend, Shuichi Akai. He had also sworn that he would provide his utmost effort to prevent Sherry from experiencing a similar fate.

Rei changed his clothes and was about to push open the door when he saw Haibara-san in a fashionable red dress walking on the opposite sidewalk, with one filled plastic bag in each hand.

Grocery? She didn't seem to have noticed him, since her eyes were locked on the road in front of her. Rei decided to greet her, but froze when he saw a black van sliding silently behind the girl, at a distance safe from her attention. Who are they?

The car suddenly accelerated and parked next to road, in front of Haibara. Rei's heart skipped a beat when two men dressed in black from head to toes emerged from the vehicle and grabbed the struggling Haibara, one of them putting a wet handkerchief over her nose. Chloroform...

Rei dropped his belongings, his backpack, and rushed out of the café, but was too late. The men had already entered the car that was accelerating away. Without hesitation, Rei started his own car and chased after the van.

A thousand thoughts and possible scenarios crossed Rei's mind as he attempted to deduce the men's identities and their intentions. Could they be...? Dread invaded him at the possibility of the BO's involvement. Nevertheless, these men felt different. Although they emitted sinister auras, they felt different than the BO members. Another crime organization?

The van turned at a corner. Rei kept himself at a safe enough distance to remain unnoticed. They entered a highway and drove toward the outskirts of the city. He followed the car around a couple of other streets small enough to be unidirectional and finally arrived at an abandoned warehouse.

One hour and twelve minutes, his mind recorded with as much accuracy the travel time as the itinerary. His photographic memory and deductive skills had always been the main reasons he survived so long.

Rei parked his car in a concealed spot, then felt for the gun in his jacket. He had charged it this morning. Noticing that he had all he needed, he left the car and prudently entered the warehouse, in which the sleeping girl was brought inside. He hid behind a stack of plastic barrels as his eyes scrutinized the concrete room. Apart from the few barrels and boxes that lay all over the place, the single light bulb hanging from the ceiling, covered with wire, pipes, and non functional fans, and the four adults under the light, the warehouse was deserted. He had heard that several warehouses around this area were being sold. Perhaps, this was one of them.

The four people were back to him, but he could make out from the voices, the hairstyles and the clothes that three of them were the men in the van and one of them, a woman. While the three men seemed to be at most in their thirties, the woman was middle-aged, with hints of white on her auburn haircut. Rei could deduce from her authoritative tone that she was the leader. Haibara was lying in front of them, still asleep from the anesthetic.

"A child? What do you plan to do with a child?" One of the men seemed particularly nervous. Rei noted from his silhouette that he was the driver. The man had been fidgeting since a while ago. Judging from his meager and weak physical constitution, Rei deduced that the man was an office worker, who despised physical exercises, but rarely ate much. He was probably a honest citizen until now, when he had committed his first crime.

The two other men had stronger builds and were calm enough to appear comfortable with their crimes. Experienced criminals... The nervous man was probably the woman's secretary and the two other men were hired henchmen. Rei remembered the bumps in the men's jackets when they caught Haibara. They have guns and seem experienced in hand-to-hand combat.

Rei considered the possible actions he could take against them and considered his chance of winning against both of them in different scenarios. Fifty-fifty. He must admit, he was more experienced in reconnaissance than in fighting.

"She's the key to our trump card," the woman simply explained. She glanced at her golden watch - an expensive foreign one -, before commenting, "She should be awake by now."

As if her words were part of a magic spell, Haibara languidly opened her eyes. She seemed dazed for moment, before shock and fear darkened her expression.

"Don't worry. We mean no harm." The woman would have been more convincing had she not drugged the girl, tied her up, and forcibly brought her to a desolate warehouse.

"What do you want from me?" Haibara snapped, her eyes throwing daggers at the woman.

"As I said, we won't hurt you if you cooperate..." the woman reassured again, but the name she then pronounced made Rei skip a heartbeat. "... Shiho Miyano-san."

Haibara seemed more horrified than him, as if she had met the incarnation of Death. Hopefully, she didn't. Although the timing was not right, Rei felt proud that his guess was accurate.

At Haibara's silence, the woman continued in a patronizing tone, "I would like to tell you my name, but I would have to kill you. You just need to know that I am a friend of your parents. We have been working together for years. They are quite wonderful people and true geniuses. It's a shame that they died so young."

The shock on Haibara's face seemed to grow as the woman unveiled information about her parents that only a few share knowledge of.

"The thing is, your parents had something that also belonged to me, and they had left this thing in their younger daughter's hands, in other words, as an inheritance to Shiho Miyano."

"Hold on a second," Haibara, having regained her cool, cut the woman off. "There's a misunderstanding. I am Ai Haibara and I do not have any siblings. And this Shiho Miyano... How old is she?"

"Nineteen."

"Do I look nineteen to you?"

"Not now," the woman began. "I must congratulate you, Miyano-san. Thanks to your hard work, APTX 4869 has finally embarked on the right path, that is, as a fountain of youth."

As the words came out of the woman's mouth, Haibara seemed to have realized that there was no use acting anymore. Rei, who had decided to interfere as soon as possible, suddenly wanted to listen more about this conversation, to discover as much about this mysterious woman's intentions and origins as about Haibara/Shiho's own family history.

"Fine, what do you want?" Haibara asked in resignation.

"Half of your inheritance."

"Sure. I don't have much, just some recordings. You can take them all if you want," Haibara replied nonchalantly.

"I'm not talking about these. I'm talking about your true inheritance." At the sight of Haibara's confusion, the woman hinted, "The Phoenix."

At Haibara's silence, the woman realized, "You don't know anything, do you?"

The woman let out a derisive laugh that sent a chill through Rei's backbone, before talking to herself, "To think that I have wasted all this time..."

As an anticipation of her future actions, Rei mentally visualized the movements he had to perform to get Haibara and himself out. He then pulled out his gun.

"You two," the woman designated the two henchmen. "Finish her off."

"What do you mean by "finish her off"? She is a child! You can't kill a child!" The secretary protested fervently. Had he not participated in the kidnapping, Rei would perhaps become his friend.

"She has seen our faces," the woman stated as if her reasoning should have been obvious.

"It's not only about this," the secretary remarked. He seemed to have know the woman for a long time. Suddenly, an idea seemed to cross his mind. "It's about revenge."

The woman turned to her secretary as if he had pushed on one of her buttons. For the first time, Rei observed the cold, furious gaze in the grey blue of a stormy sea.

"You have been a great company, but you have grown quite annoying now. If you keep on this attitude, I will make sure you join this girl."

The secretary swallowed and became unnaturally quiet.

"Good, let's go." The woman motioned for the secretary to follow her.

Shortly after the two left, one of the remaining men pulled out his gun at aimed it at the forehead of the girl on the floor. For a brief second, Haibara showed fear, but, then, stared straight into the man's eyes without blinking. There was little time left. Rei made a last quick mental review of his plan, aimed his gun, then shot the man's hand that was holding the weapon. A husky cry echoed through the warehouse. Rei made a second shot at the light bulb.

The two men were far too skilled if he had to fight them face to face. The best way to escape was through darkness. Rei had already memorized the position of every object and person in the room and calculated the number of steps and time he needed to reach his target.

Two minutes starting now. He swiftly dashed toward Haibara, avoiding the two men. Perhaps he was lacking in brute force, but his past training had provided him great agility. He heard a soft, shocked gasp as he untied and picked Haibara - who was surprisingly light for a child of her age - up in bridal style. Perhaps Rei was lucky that night, his escape out of the warehouse was swift and without much fight.

As Rei was running toward the car with Haibara, he heard her call his name, "Armuro-san." Her voice was a whisper. It was the first time he had heard this sweet tone from Haibara and it sounded absolutely adorable. He didn't have time to glance at her, but guessed that she was probably surprised and touched by his rescue and was going to thank him.

"Don't worry. You'll be safe soon," Rei reassured in his most soothing tone. If he was going to play the hero, he might as well continue until the end.

"You can put me down. I know how to walk," Haibara continued in a monotonous tone.

He felt as if Haibara had just punched him hard into the chest. He realized that the sweetness in her tone actually came from her sleepiness. The drug's effect had not completely worn off.

"Are you going to put me down?" Haibara asked in a more impatient tone.

Rei detected a hint of anger in her tone. Somehow, he had offended Haibara. He remembered from his observations of the children that the girl hated it when others underestimated her abilities. Perhaps, he had insulted her by picking her up.

A quick glance at the girl let him realize that she was blushing. She's embarrassed? Rei suddenly remembered the girl's true identity. Considering she was actually nineteen-years-old, he realized that they were in a rather awkward position. One of his hand was covering the girl's shoulder, the other, supporting the back of her knees. He could feel Haibara's skin on her exposed shoulder, as smooth as a petal of blooming rose in the middle of summer. A faint vanilla perfume emanating from her strawberry blonde hair, perhaps that of shampoo, stimulated his nose. Had the girl remained still, anyone would have believed that she was one of those expensive, delicately confectioned human-sized dolls who never failed to attract customers through sheer cuteness. And the faint pink on her cheeks... She was definitely the incarnation of innocent beauty. Rei couldn't prevent himself from blushing.

"Oh, sure... sorry," he stuttered as he gently let the girl down. The girl was now avoiding his gaze. She's even cuter this way... Oh dear, what am I thinking? Focus.

"There they are!" A husky shout snapped the two back to reality. The henchmen had caught up, one of them ready to fire his gun.

"Quick. Hop in." Rei opened the car's door for Haibara - or rather Shiho - and took the driver's seat. Their car had not travelled for five minutes in the deserted nocturnal streets, when the black van was dangerously catching up. A shot resounded through the silence of the night. Almost instantaneously, Rei and Shiho heard a metallic sound on the metallic back of their car.

They are catching up and aiming at us. Rei tossed his gun to Shiho and ordered, "Haibara-san, shoot the tires." Although Rei knew Shiho was not one to receive orders from anyone, Haibara obeyed in their critical situation as she let down the window and pointed her barrel outside. They were already on the highway and Rei was glad that only a few car passed by. He would hate that innocent citizens got caught up in their fight.

Rei changed the lane to facilitate Haibara's aim. As his eyes focused on the road in front of him, he heard a shot in his neighboring seat. A few seconds later, Haibara took another shot. This time, Rei heard the car behind them screech, then halt. He was rather surprised that Haibara aimed so well even in a different body. He let out a sight of relief.

We made it. However, his joy was short-lived when he felt the cold metal of a barrel pressed against his head.

"As to what you have heard today..." Rei could hear the cold-blooded Sherry in the child's voice. Of course, Shiho wouldn't let him off easily for uncovering her identity, especially if she thinks his loyalty lies with the BO.

TBC