Astrid's eyes squinted open in the glare of the overly bright lights reflecting off the whitewashed walls of wherever she was sitting. Her head swam. Through the narrow slits of vision that she had, she could see someone standing in front of her. They seemed to be checking whether she was awake or not.

"Ah. You've come to, finally," the figure said. Their voice was muffled, but it was becoming a little clearer, and now she could see that whoever it was looked important. Just like the other two men she had seen earlier today, they were wearing some kind of suit. Hum. Astrid closed her eyes again. If she could just pretend to be asleep...

Whoever the figure was, they pulled her upright. Sharply.

"Owwww! What was that for?" yelled Astrid, her eyes finally behaving themselves and opening up properly. Her head throbbed, but it didn't feel quite so murky as it had before. Her eyes sharpened, and it was now clear that the figure from before was a tall man with dark hair. He had a sharp, pointy face and a stern expression. She glared at him, and he stared back at her with a blank, stony face.

"We have some questions we need you to answer," Sharp-face said flatly. Astrid glared at him and folded her arms across her chest.

"Who's askin' 'em?" She didn't feel like answering questions for someone who had dragged her to a bare, empty, bright building she had never seen before and had then made her head feel as though someone was hitting it with a sledgehammer.

"Investigation Division of the General Affairs Department." Astrid felt her stomach drop. ShinRa members. She thought quickly, trying to figure out when she had done anything that could be bad for the company. An image of the man she had tailed earlier popped into her head. Had he been a ShinRa member?

The man held up a folded piece of paper. Astrid vaguely recognized it as something she had stolen out of somebody's pocket earlier that day. It had meant nothing to her, but she'd kept it anyway. You never knew what you might be able to sell.

"These sketches..." Sharp-face started. "Did you draw these?"

"No," Astrid said, her nervousness subsiding. If that was what he was planning to ask her about, he was out of luck.

"Who did?"

Astrid shrugged. The man's frown deepened. He tried a different question. "What were these given to you for?"

Astrid laughed roughly."Given to me?" she said unpleasantly. "I can't 'member th' last time somebody gave me somthin'." The man didn't look surprised.

"You stole them?" It wasn't really a question. Again, Astrid shrugged.

"I'm a thief. I steal. Gotta eat somehow," she said. The man studied her face for a moment or two, clearly trying to gauge whether she had been told to say this or whether she was telling the truth. Finally he said, "Do you remember who you stole these from?" Astrid thought for a moment.

"It was a man. He was...tough lookin'. I dunno much else, I only saw the back of 'im." She was tugging on her left ear again, a nervous habit. The man was looking at her skeptically.

"Are you saying someone left something this important in his back pocket, waiting to be stolen?" he asked. Astrid rolled her eyes.

"Wasn' in his back pocket. An' he kept pullin' it out and puttin' it back again, like he was checkin' it was still there. I just figured it was somethin' worth more an' stole it in between his fidgetin'," she replied.

"Would you recognize him if you saw him again?" the man asked. Astrid paused, then nodded. Silence filled the room. Astrid shifted uncomfortably. Eventually, Sharp-face spoke.

"Wait here, I'll be back in a moment." He walked to the door, opened it, and left.

A young looking SOLDIER slipped into the room in his place. He looked timid, almost as though he was interrupting something by being there. He stood by the door, clearly posted there to make sure she didn't try to do anything...unconventional. Or steal anything.

Astrid crossed her legs. She folded her arms. She unfolded them and tugged on her ear. Just sitting here, waiting, was making her anxious and restless. After years of being free to do anything she wanted, go anywhere she wanted, and being left completely alone by most adults, those who had caught her stealing from them aside, just sitting here being guarded was torture.

She looked around the room, trying to focus her attention on something other than getting out. There wasn't much to look at. The room was bare, bright, too white, and smelled of cleaning products and medicine. It seemed to be some kind of clinic room. From where she was propped up, on one of three simple white beds against the back wall, she could see a sink and a medicine cabinet. A fake, plastic plant was sitting next to the bed on the far right. Other than that, the room was empty.

The door clicked open again, and Sharp-face stood in the room again. Astrid noticed that the SOLDIER remained in the room, staring stiffly ahead.

"I've talked to...a superior," Sharp-face began, "You may not know as much as we would have liked, but it's a start. We need you to find this man you stole the paper from. If you can, find out who he is."

"An' why'm I gonna do this for ya?" Astrid asked. There was nothing to make her want to do this. She crossed her arms, trying to look tough, secretly hoping she wasn't about to get killed by the SOLDIER still standing by the door. Sharp-face's features hardened, but he didn't look surprised.

"You'll be paid," he said flatly but surely. "Oh...you can have these back now." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cellphone...and her keychain of tools. He handed both to her.

"There's a number programmed into the phone. Call it when you find something out. You can leave now. You'll be escorted out, of course. Call me on the number in that phone if you find out who that man is." Without waiting for a response from Astrid, he turned and left the room once again. Astrid remained sitting on the bed, feeling a mixture of outrage at having her "keys" taken and excitement at the prospect of earning money. Earning it by doing something she knew about, no less.

The SOLDIER by the door came over to the bed. He gave her an apologetic look.

"I'll escort you out. Sorry, but I'll have to blindfold you. You're not allowed to see where we're going." Astrid rolled her eyes and gave him a distasteful look, but she was ready to go. She let him tie something over her eyes and lead her away through the building, finally getting away from the suffocating scent of cleaners and rubber gloves.