The Cell

Zack's eyes grew wide as he and Cloud sat on their cots. They were in their cell awaiting the next time they would have to be forced back into Hojo's underground lab. But with a strange power outage, the camera's red light was shut off. Their curious cellmate had begun telling them this tale about what caused the downfall of Shinra before either he or Cloud had ever entered the building.

"Wait, wait," Zack said. "You mean to tell me that you were both a Turk and a Soldier?"

"Yes, but I didn't realize the real reason I had two different personalities until much later."

Zack was going to ask something else when Cloud elbowed him. "Please continue with the story."

"Very well, I might as well use this time before the power comes back on." She paused and the said, "Too awake to sleep? Hojo is going to be busy with us tomorrow. Though I wished neither of you became mixed up in this situation." She murmured the last sentence to herself.

"Maybe he'll forget about us. But I don't care about sleeping right now. How about you, Spikey?"

"Please?" Cloud gave his best pouty face he could muster.

"Fine, fine. But it will be on hold when the camera is turned back on. I had to keep things from that man just to survive. You'll see why soon enough." The boys nodded their heads and Marionette began recounting her story to them.

Marionette burst through the staircase almost running into Rude. That didn't stop Reno from colliding with her as he was trying to catch up with his friend. They were sprawled on the floor in an entanglement of limbs. A groan floated up to Reno's ear and he opened his eyes. His nose was mere inches from being crushed on the tile.

"Do you mind getting off of me? I didn't appreciate being tackled to the ground in a weird man-hug, Reno."

"I didn't see you there, Net. But I was looking for Rude." Reno glanced around to notice that Rude had stopped walking, and was a couple of feet behind Reno's current position.

"Spacing out isn't making the ground any softer. Off, now."

"Yes, right." Standing up quickly, Reno put out his hand to help Marionette up on her feet. He noticed that paper was scattered around them as if he had created a bomb. "Those yours?" He asked Marionette.

"That was my assignment for today."

"What assignment? I thought you weren't suppose to get one until you past the final test." Reno started freaking out.

"The one in our class that is due in two days, not an actual mission." Marionette just rolled her eyes at him.

"Oh, right. Is it that late already? Guess time really does fly by when you're having fun."

Marionette pointed an accusing finger at Reno. "And let me remind you that this isn't something you can just copy off of."

"Rude doesn't mind, do you buddy?" Rude just shook his head in annoyance from Reno. "See? He agrees."

"Oh I give up. I don't know how you make it through without you even trying to understand."

Reno laughed, "That's why I have you, to help my blank paper have all the proper answers."

"Copying the answers of the test isn't learning. Look Reno, I'll help you as long as you use the intelligence in that head of yours. I've seen it, but you're just so stubbornly lazy that it drives me crazy."

"I know. I have that affect on all the women." And to prove his point, some secretary waved at him. But when he looked back Marionette had already disappeared along with her paperwork.

"You should just give up already. She finds you annoying and a permanent thorn in her side, and I don't mean the good kind either."

"Yo Rude, I've got this under control. She'll be singing my song soon enough."

"Only when you dig your own grave." Rude said to himself.

"I think he's doing a good job of that already, don't you think?" Marionette whispered in Rude's ear.

Rude's extraordinary composure was demolished and he nearly lept out of his skin. "Yes, um, didn't you leave for your class?"

"I would have, but one of my pages has turned a bit clingy." Marionette pointing out that there was indeed a page attached to the lower portion of Reno's shirt. "On second thought, I think he needs it more than I do. Maybe it'll help him with his project. Watch out for him Rude. He doesn't want people to know how smart he really is." With that Marionette finally did leave them there.

"Somehow I wonder how long it will take until she comes around." Reno thought aloud.

"Don't you mean how long you have to live?" Rude piped up again.

"Under all her prickly demeanor, she's as squishy as the next woman. No one is immune to the charm of Reno Sinclair, catcher of the maidens' hearts. They all melt at the sight of me."

"Why her though? She would be happier without you flaunting your presence every chance you run into her."

Reno laughed, "It's the thrill of the chase. A challenge was issued the first moment she subconsciously spurned me away. I intent to win her over. Though there must be a key somewhere into cracking her case wide open." He shifted his gaze to his attire, finally noticing the stray paper. "It seems Net was kind enough to leave the first clue." Taking a quick glance at the page, "Maybe not the right clue, but one that will help on this assignment I have been meaning to eventually get to."

Rude shook his head and turned down another corridor with Reno running to catch up. A pair of eyes watched them leave. Snickering quietly at their banter, Marionette began her trek back to her quarters to deposit her papers and gather her weapons. She may have been done with her classes, but in her free time she used to train and better understand the tactics in familiarizing herself with a diverse range of weapons. One could never have enough free time when throwing objects around the room to bring a certain type of glee. Marionette loved coming down here alone. It gave her time to think and be weirdly creative with her throws. Though she doubted any of the dummies appreciated it, if they were ever really alive.

Snatching a pair of elongated daggers from her weapon trove, she casually walked about fifty paces from a target and threw both daggers simultaneously. They arched perfectly in sync, embedding into the head of the dummy two inches apart. Pulling some darts from her belt, she aimed them down in a line from between the daggers.

Lastly, Marionette went back and picked up her last artillery against the defenseless dummy. Launching her hatchet, it landed two inches below the dart line. A smile broke out on her face and she rushed back to her secret pocket in her weapon pouch.

Pulling out a pad of paper, she sat on the ground and began to create a scenery for the crookedly smiling dummy looking back at her. Losing herself in her fantasy world, she sketched her heart out. Lines flowed seamlessly together, flushing out a hidden story of her imagination of her dummy pincushion. Her imagination began to seep onto the paper; a world she wished she could melt away to. An escape from the madness consuming her.

A strange sound came from over her shoulder and if she had been anyone else, she would have leaped out of her skin. Someone was staring at her art, so consumed in her world that she didn't hear him approach her at all. Trying to appear nonchalantly about the whole situation, Marionette slowly glanced behind her shoulder. A cascade of hair blocked her view from his face, but that didn't stop her from identifying the would be stalker. But this wasn't any stalker on the lower portions of the food chain. This was none other than Sephiroth.

"Interesting depiction of your model." Sephiroth gesturing to the dummy in plain view.

"Yes I actually haven't gotten around to asking anyone else to be the model of my picture."

"I can see why. Though I am curious as to why a Turk recruit is in the Soldier training room."

"Under the circumstances this room is hardly used by any Soldier or infantry recruit either. But I can see I was wrong. I'll just take my things and head back." Marionette stood up and approached the dummy and pulled out her belongings.

Sephiroth opened her sketchbook and took a critical observation on her recent sketch. "May I keep this?"

"Sure, I was going to scrap it anyway. Not exactly what I was looking for, and something is missing."

"Why so involved with artistic crafts when you're time can be better spent on perfecting your own trade craft as a Turk?"

"The mystery, is it? It's not that difficult to figure out. Someone once told me..." But new voices were drawing closer to the training room. Leaning in close she whispered what needed to be said and pushed open the doors. Vanishing down the hall, before the other infantry could even wonder what had happened in that training room.

"What was it that you told Sephy?" Zack inquired so deeply.

This made Marionette laugh. "All in good time, Zack. If I told you now it would ruin the next portion of my story. But now it's time to actually sleep. The story is far from over and it's still in its rough stages. We are creating the story too." Dropping her voice very low she added, "And we will have to do something about getting out of Hojo's grasp before the nasty work begins."

"Why is that?" Cloud spoke up.

"I'm not sure yet, but with him, there's always some sort of evil in his mind with his victims. As of right now, we are his play things. So we are going to have to plan for an escape. Now are you with me?" The boys nodded and smiled. "Sleep is the first stage."