"Don't lie to me, Mr. Shinra. I don't want to have to shoot you."
"Kemuri... you won't shoot me."
"What?" I slid my finger onto the trigger, narrowing my eyes at him.
"Without your mako, you lack the will to kill me. And you're much too lucid to be on a high right now."
Shit.
I backed up a few steps and pulled out one of the injections, lifting up my shirt, Shinra in my sights the whole time. I held the injection between my teeth while I moved the layers of bandage aside to reveal the scarred spot that marked the injection site. The drug burned through my veins like fire at first, a small moan escaping me as the curious pain turned to almost ecstasy when the drug took effect. I was calm and steadier now than ever, the only thing on my mind the task ahead.
"How did you know about the mako?"
"I always research my employees before I hire them, Kemuri."
"Then tell me what I want to know and I'll let you live." He chuckled harshly, a sound I'd never heard from him.
"Do you really think I'm foolish enough to believe that?"
"My purpose here is not to kill you, Mr. Shinra, I'm here for someone else. If you tell me the truth now, I'll have no reason to harm you." He sighed and relaxed back into the wheelchair.
"My father and his subordinates ran a lot of less than admirable experiments before the meteor. Many of which lead to the destruction of Midgar. Red tide was one of those projects." He paused long enough to turn and watch me pull my bandage and shirt back into place, still a man despite how indifferent he usually acted. I was surprised though that he had no reaction to what he saw, only asking calmly,
"You hide the stigma well, Kemuri. I suppose the mako has something to do with dulling the pain?" I stepped back to him, pulling the blanket off of him and this time pressing my gun to his bandaged forehead.
"This isn't about me, Mr. Shinra. Tell me about the project."
"Orphaned children were taken to a safehouse in Midgar, where they were trained in martial arts and weapons fighting while in a constant state of mako high, then deprived of it an put through the same regimen. The cycle was continued endlessly until a child was thoroughly addicted, and deemed fit to become one of the 'red tide'."
"Why? What was the red tide?"
"The youngest recruits that would one day become part of SOLDIER. When the traveler landed on the planet-"
"The traveler? You mean Jenova?"
"I see you've been doing some research of your own. No, not Jenova, but very much like her. This traveler was never named, but the remains of it were used similarly to the experiments that created the enhanced SOLDIER members like Sephiroth."
"... Only on children..."
"Yes. You were one of the few that were enhanced with the cells. After a few of you were, you began showing traits that were only listed as 'unfavorable' in the files. I assume it was something along the lines of mental instability and strength unfit for a child to posses, like Sephiroth exhibited after being enhanced with Jenova's cells. So project red tide was abandoned and destroyed by its only fully successful prototype. The first mako child that had avoided the traveler's cells by chance."
"The boy. The red head."
"Yes, Reno. That's all that is in the files, I've got nothing left to tell you."
"I believe you." I didn't lower my aim, knowing the chances of him have a violent outburst of strength even in his condition. But this precaution was my almost fatal mistake. Because in the next second he, my target, burst through the door, out of breath and obviously freaking out. His partner, the bald man was behind him, a worried look also on his face.
"Rufus!" he shouted, surprising me with his disregard of manner toward Mr. Shinra. "Elena and Tseng, they-" The pair of them froze when they saw the scene before them, and both Shinra and I stared back in shock.
"Who's this?" the bald one asked, hurting my feelings a little at not remembering me. Reno only brandished a long nightstick that had a strange look about it, obviously not meant for just beating. His eyebrows came together in confusion, having mistaken me for a normal person the previous day.
"The secretary? What the hell are you doing here like this?!" A smile creeping slowly to my lips, I murmured my response to him.
"I'm keeping my oath. Death has come for you, boy." He lifted the nightstick toward me and I saw that some unseen source had sent electricity pulsing through it, sparking occasionally from the tip.
"My name is RENO," he said. "You could've at least remembered it, I asked you on a date!"
"Do you remember my name?" I spat.
"Um... uhh..." I smirked, having won our brief battle of wits. But suddenly a blur of white caught the corner of my eye as Mr. Shinra lunged from his wheelchair at me. I kicked him back into his seat easily, but the distraction he'd caused was enough for Reno to get close enough to hit me. I dropped to one knee as the intense electrical charge cut through even the potent shield of nerve dulling power the mako had given me.
"Bastard!" I gasped, getting my knife with my free hand and slashing it through the air, making him jump back. No one moved for a moment this time, but when the bald man took a step toward me, Reno held a hand out to stop him.
"She's mine." The same devilish light played in his eye, and I forced myself to my feet. We faced each other, waiting for who would make the first move. Without warning, I heaved the knife at him.
"Shit." My aim was off. When I'd meant to end it all then by hitting him in the neck, or at least hit his partner in the arm if he dodged, I'd embedded the blade in his shoulder. A painful but nonfatal wound.
"You bitch! You fucking stabbed me, yo!" He cried in disbelief, staring at me wide eyed. He took a step toward me and I met him, grasping the handle of the knife just as he prepared to give me another shock. We both froze and stared into each others eyes.
"You know if you do that, you'll get yourself too," I muttered to him. That was when I felt a tap on my shoulder, and looked behind me to find the bald one waiting, eyebrows raised expectantly. He threw a punch that would've floored me, but I twisted and ducked, freeing my blade at the same time.
"Sonofabitch!" Reno hissed, grabbing his shoulder and letting the stick dangle uselessly from its strap. Dodging the bald guy's attacks as Reno cursed over his wound, I realized that I was outmatched against the pair of them. I might've been able to take one on their own, but together they had me beat. I backed up to the window, holding the two of them off with the threat of my gun. Still holding his shoulder with one hand but now keeping his weapon in the other, he stepped in front of his partner and smirked.
"You can't get out of here, you know that, right? You'll have to jump out the window." I pointed the barrel at him, since the bald one had stopped advancing on me.
"Don't come any closer."
"Or what, sweetheart? You already told me you're here to kill me."
"If you stop, I'll shoot you in the head and make it quick for you." He laughed at me, and my eyes narrowed in anger.
"Even if you did kill me, you'd never be able to escape. Rude would run you down before you could find a place to hide." My bottom lip stuck out a little in a pout, and I complained,
"Well, I'll just have to fix that, won't I?" In an instant I'd turned the gun on the larger man and fired, taking him down with a hit to the knee.
"Rude!" Reno shouted, then turned to me, throwing his nightstick at me. I dodged it at the last second and it hit the window, shattering it and assuring my escape route. I glanced out, relieved that we were only on the third floor and as my luck would have it, a patch of scrubby bushes were just outside. I fired as I leapt backward out the window, rolling as I landed then looking back up. I'd missed again.
"Hey!" Reno shouted down at me, "You're not getting away with this, yo!" I emptied my clip up at him, and he ducked back inside, giving me enough time to make a break around the side of the building toward the parking area. Striking it lucky again, a man was just climbing onto his motorcycle and starting it up.
"Oi! Oi, you!" I yelled to him. "Are you going back to Edge?" He eyed me.
"As a matter of fact I am. Do you need a ride?" I leaned forward so a bit of cleavage peeked out over the bandages and he could see down my shirt.
"I would love a ride."
"Well hop on." I did as he said, holding onto his belt as he shot out onto the road. I relaxed a bit as Healin faded behind us, but once we made it to the abandoned highway, I heard a faint but forbiddingly familiar sound. We came up over the crest of a hill, and hovering just above the road was the Shinra helicopter, Mr. Shinra himself behind the 'wheel' and Reno leaning out the other side with a high powered rifle, his eye to the scope and no doubt a cocky grin gracing his lips.
"What in the hell is-" was all my ride got out before his skull disintegrated all over me and the cycle spun out of control. After a few impacts with the road, everything went black.
"Oi. You dead?" his voice called faintly. I opened my eyes and found him standing over me, shielding his eyes from the sun. His stick was balanced on his shoulder. All I could manage was a small groan, and he grinned wickedly in response.
"Good. Can't have that yet." I heard the sound of straining metal, and realized that the motorcycle had at least partly come down on top of me when the fall had finally stopped. I thanked Mr. Shinra silently for reminding me to use some mako before this had all happened, as the pain remained rather dull, for now at least. He bent down and started checking me over, and I closed my eyes again, repulsed at the thought of his touch but unable to move away from him. After a few minutes he was satisfied that I could be moved, and strained to pick me up.
"Damn it," he cursed under his breath at the new pressure on his shoulder. When I was off of the ground and thrown over his good shoulder, I could feel him start to walk me back toward the idling helicopter. My face was against his back, and with every shallow, vaguely painful breath I got a whiff of his cologne, which in my state made the back of my throat tickle with the threat of vomiting. I gripped his jacket with one hand, saying in a raspy whisper,
"Why don't you just kill me?"
"It's not that easy, honey. We're not done with you yet."
"Wha- what are you going to do?"
"I'm going to make you talk. The president wants to know everything about your associates in this little ambush." He climbed up and into the vehicle, dropping me unceremoniously into an empty seat next to the bald man. I looked at him for a few seconds, then closed my eyes to rest.
Half an hour later we were still headed south, but it seemed that everyone except for Reno, who'd taken over piloting, had fallen asleep. I looked down to see that my hands were bound, but there was a short length of chain between the two cuffs. As quietly as I could manage, I stood and crept up behind him, throwing my arms over the back of the seat and starting to strangle him with my chains.
"For the love of God!" he choked out, trying to keep control over the flight. "How can you even still move?" Before I had a chance to answer, I felt the same shock go through me as before, sapping my last bit of strength.
"Keep flying Reno, we're almost there," Mr. Shinra's voice said from next no me. He freed the red head from my grasp and let me fall to the floor, completely immobilized now. The mako was beginning to wear off, and now I prayed for the darkness to come and take me until I was dead or healed. Thankfully, my prayer was answered, and the last thing I saw before my vision faded to black was Reno glancing sideways down at me, a surprising look of worry behind his bright green eyes.
A/N: chapter 4! a little explanation of the background here.... review?