A/N: There's more fanart of this fic! The artist, Jeemh, has a collection for them over at AO3 now, and is also on Tumblr as jeemh-files. Don't forget to say something nice while you're there! You can also go to my tumblr (themossstomper on Tumblr) for a link to the fanart tag under "My FF7 stories".

Thanks to the readers who have commented, but who I can't respond to directly. I see you and appreciate it! :D

14. In the Doghouse

The street outside the warehouse remained still and quiet. The black Turk car lurked in the shadow of another building farther down the street; Nanaki had seen Dr. Uzuki enter it, but its darkened windows hid her from view. The two Turks had stopped just outside the warehouse door, some twenty paces from him, and were speaking in hushed voices.

"Bodies chopped up and fried, then just left there? Along with this?" Reno held up the bracelet, wrapped tightly around his fingers. "I'm thinking they weren't trying to hide a goddamn thing."

Tseng frowned. "A warning?"

"Yeah. 'Back off or get fried'. A warning for us, just as much as for the people we work with." Reno ran his thumb over the engraved bar. "Wasn't exactly a secret that Isa was talking to a Turk. No need to hide it, back in the old days."

Nanaki wondered if they knew it would take more than that to keep their conversation private while he was around. He wasn't going to point it out to them, though. He was working on this, too; he deserved know what his fellow investigators were planning. But it was not resentment alone that kept his ears pricked. He sensed a change in the red-maned one, like one could taste a storm in the air right before the clouds rolled in. Unlike a storm, though, he didn't know how to heed this warning.

"Everyone knows there's just four of us left," Reno was saying. "I'm having one helluva time finding people who'll talk to me, 'cause they don't think we can protect 'em anymore. And I ain't so sure they're wrong. Just look at Isa. Fucking Isa, Tseng!"

Reno's voice climbed higher with every word, until it almost broke on her name. He squeezed his eyes shut and drew a long, slow breath.

"Edge is growing fast, too fast for the four of us," he continued, his voice trembling with barely contained emotion. "We need numbers, okay? We gotta start recruiting again."

Tseng had listened silently, his expression unreadable, but at that he sighed.

"The situation is untenable, I agree. But we have other priorities right now."

"Course we do," Reno muttered and turned his head toward in the warehouse door. "We always fucking do."

The line of Tseng's mouth tightened.

"I'll have someone drop a hint about this," he inclined his head toward the warehouse, "to the CID. You dig deeper." He took a moment to study his fellow Turk. "I trust this won't cloud your professional judgement?"

Reno's lip curled in a bitter smile.

"Let's hope it don't. Ain't like you got someone else to put on this." The smile vanished as soon as he took a step toward Nanaki.

"One more thing," Tseng added. "I had a reason to come looking for you. Kilmister gave me a call."

Reno stopped and turned back; Nanaki couldn't see his face, but he saw his shoulders slump.

"Look, Tseng, just–" He exhaled sharply and rubbed his eyes. "Later, all right? Later."

After an appraising look, Tseng nodded once.

"And stop ignoring my calls."

"Yeah, gotcha."

Reno did not look up as he stalked over to Nanaki.

"C'mon," he said flatly. "We got work to do."

They walked until the warehouses gave way to high-rises and the streets grew thick with people, at which point Reno hailed a cab. Both the walk and the ride were spent in a simmering silence – broken only by the crinkling of the battered pack of cigarettes that had reappeared in the Turk's hand – so Nanaki knew not where they were going. He certainly didn't expect their first stop to be at the hospital.

They followed a receptionist whom Reno had talked into escorting them to… well, wherever they were going. The Turk had barely said a word. He trudged down the hall with stooped shoulders and his hands in his pockets, barely glancing at the doors and signs they passed. Nanaki trailed after them at a prowl, his muscles bunched tight beneath his skin. He may have been in this building before, but never in the research wing. The smells were different from the wards and the basement, the sounds were different – but different in a far too familiar way.

The woman opened one of the doors and waved them in with a smile that moved only her lips. The room was furnished entirely with white countertops across cupboards with white doors; these lined each white wall and formed a small island in the middle of the floor. Nanaki surveyed the laboratory equipment piled high upon them as he followed Reno around the island. He had his feral side leashed tight, but the "XIII" burned into his shoulder itched.

The number was right above the mark of his tribe. One was a brand, the other a traditional modification of the skin that produced black fur; yet humans assumed the two were connected. Some days he found it a relief, not to be instantly labeled a specimen. Other days, their ignorance felt like an insult to his people, to his very being. Here, in this place of science, this day was one of those.

His tension eased a little when he picked up on a familiar scent, along with a voice he knew well. Tess FitzEvan stood on the other side of the island, deep in discussion with Lin Uzuki. The women were roughly equal in size and both wore white lab coats, but that was where their similarity ended. Everything about Dr. Uzuki, from her hair to her nose to her limbs, seemed drawn with sharp straight lines. Tess, with her heart-shaped face and loose curls, was a human made of softer curves – but there was nothing soft about the glare she leveled at Reno.

"Oh, for crying out– I can't get rid of you, can I?"

"Hey, Fitz! How come you're here?"

Nanaki blinked and looked up at the Turk beside him. Gone was the silence and the gloom, as if his mood had magically changed the moment he had crossed the threshold.

"You know damn well why I'm here, Turk," Tess spat.

Nanaki's confusion only grew as he watched a grin spread across Reno's face.

"Oh, yeah," the Turk said. "Oops."

"'Oops'? That's all you have to say for yourself?"

"What else do you want me to say, babe?"

She turned pointedly away to address Dr. Uzuki instead.

"I'll need another incubator. Who should I ask about it?"

The doctor glanced at Reno, then at Nanaki, her eyebrow cocked. Reno smiled innocently. Nanaki could only offer her a puzzled tilt of his head.

"I'll get you the lab technician's number," she told Tess.

"Great, thank you."

Nanaki eyed Tess as she scribbled something in the papers in her clipboard. He knew she was a scientist and had learned not to hold it against her, but the sight of her in a white coat made his tail twitch nonetheless. So did the anger that radiated from her taut jaw and the harsh scratching of her pen.

He glanced at Reno, who was sidling up to his chosen one. The man's slouch spoke of nonchalance, but his movements did not; he approached her like an unseasoned hunter facing unpredictable prey.

"Fitz, baby… Any chance you've taken a look at that stuff I gave ya yesterday?"

"I would have, if I still had my bloody lab!"

He raised his hands, showing her his palms.

"All right, all right. Me and Furball will get outta your hair, then." He had taken a step back, but there he lingered, and the grin crept back onto his face. "How about a kiss for the road, babe?"

"Sure," she said without looking up from the clipboard. "How about you kiss my ass?"

"Aw, don't be like that. I said it was an accident, yo."

"You are nothing but one big walking accident waiting to happen." She scowled at him over the top of her clipboard. "Now get out before you set this lab on fire, too!"

Nanaki blinked, then looked from her to Reno. The Turk was already sauntering to the door, chuckling. He winked at Dr. Uzuki on his way out.

"She loves me, really."

"The hell I do," said Tess, still scribbling furiously on her clipboard.

After one more impish grin in her direction, the Turk was out the door. Nanaki glanced at Tess, but she didn't look up. With a flick of his tail, he headed after Reno.

In the corridor, he was once again startled by the abrupt change in the man's demeanor. His head now hung from his sagging shoulders, as if he had used up the last of his strength to put on that act of his in the lab.

"What was the meaning of all this?" Nanaki demanded once he had caught up with Reno – which wasn't hard, the way he was dragging his feet.

"Dunno. Nothing much." Reno shrugged. "Just checking that she's all set here, that sorta thing."

Nanaki glanced back at the door. It had closed behind them and he could no longer hear the women's voices.

"You did not tell her," he said, keeping his voice low.

"Tell her what?"

"The fate of your informant."

Reno turned away as the tension seeped back into him.

"She had a fucking name, y'know."

Nanaki snapped his tail. Why did this human have to make every conversation a chore? How could he help Reno, when he didn't understand half the things the man chose to do?

The double doors at the end of the corridor swung open. A whole mob of people spilled through the doors in a swell of chatter and flashing cameras, headed up by two men with graying manes. Nanaki recognized the one in the dark blue suit: Mayor Hart.

Reno swore under his breath and veered left at the nearest junction.

"This fucking guy is everywhere," he mumbled, redoubling his pace as he strode away from the ruckus.

He kept it up until they reached an exit that brought them onto a side street outside the hospital. There, Reno stopped and let his head fall back and stared at the sky. The sun was hiding behind a wispy gray shroud, which thinned the light to a pale haze and seemed to drain the color from the city around them. Dozens of people flowed around them on the sidewalk, going about their daily business. Smiling or lost in their thoughts, chatting or talking into their phones. Sipping drinks from cardboard mugs.

"How strange it is to realize," Nanaki mumbled, "that none of these humans have seen what we have seen today."

His words met with silence. Reno squeezed his eyes shut.

"Y'know what?" he muttered, rubbing his eyelids with his thumb and forefinger. "I really need a goddamn smoke."

A few steps down the street he leaned back against the wall. He had already brought out his weathered pack and wedged a cigarette between his lips, then produced a lighter and lit up. After his first deep breath, Reno made a face and cast a sour look at his cigarette, but raised it back to his lips as soon as he had exhaled the smoke.

Nanaki went over their meeting – confrontation, really – with Tess in his mind, trying to piece it all together. He recalled the lingering smell he had picked up from Reno that morning, acrid like chemicals – or smoke. He mulled over the conflicted messages the man had presented the night before, just before he had left, but their connection to this fire Tess had mentioned eluded him. The closer Nanaki examined it all, the less sense it made.

"Did you really set her lab on fire?" he finally asked, breaking the silence.

"Maybe?" Reno eyed the cigarette in his fingers. "Might've dropped a smoke in the wrong place. It's happened before, yo."

Nanaki noted the shadow of a grin.

"This pleases you?"

"C'mon, who doesn't like a good fire, eh? Ain't quite the same as a kick-ass explosion, but–"

"She does not. You should know that!"

Over a slow drag, Reno met Nanaki's glare with a searching look of his own. Then he turned away.

"'Course I do."

His smile remained, but the longer Nanaki watched it, the less it fit the rest of his expression. A suspicion formed in his mind.

"You knew she was elsewhere."

"Well, duh. I got eyeballs in my head, don't I?"

"That morning, you asked me to keep her at the house. You made sure she was elsewhere."

The Turk filled his lungs with more smoke.

"It was no accident, was it?" Nanaki pressed.

"You're smarter than you look, Furball. Keep it to yourself though, all right? Gotta have her fume at me for a while or the Prez might think she was in on it."

Why did he even try? Every answer he teased out of the man only served to confuse him more.

"Your games confound me," he growled in frustration. "Why would you do this?"

Reno shrugged.

"Getting away from Healen and Shinra for a bit, seeing people who ain't Turks... It'll do her good."

"And your solution is to set things on fire?" Nanaki huffed. "Do you ever tell her anything?"

Reno's face went dark.

"My solution," he drawled, locking eyes with Nanaki as he pushed himself off the wall, "is to fight fire with fucking fire. I'll burn shit down, if that's what it takes. Hell, I'll blow shit up. I ain't taking any more of the Prez's bullshit lying down, and I ain't gonna let her do it either!"

His gaze was still firm and unblinking. His whole being seemed to seethe with some challenge Nanaki didn't fully understand. Nanaki's feral side prickled, raised its hackles – but it was rash and foolish to rise to a challenge on instinct alone. Nanaki carefully lowered his tail and inclined his head in a human nod.

"Very well," he said, for the lack of anything wiser.

Reno took a deep breath, but right as he seemed on the verge of saying something, the hospital door swung open.

"Oh, for fuck's sake," he muttered and slumped back against the wall.

Two men came out of the building. One of them was a hulking brute of a man, the other the gray-maned one in the blue suit they had seen just before. Nanaki expected to see the gaggle of reporters hot on their heels, but no one else emerged before the door swung shut. As soon as the mayor spotted Reno, his face lit up with recognition and he headed their way. Unsure of what it might mean, Nanaki backed up until he was side by side with the Turk.

The mayor slowed to a halt as he looked Nanaki over, pausing at each mark on his flank.

"Oh, my. That's a very impressive…" He squinted at Nanaki's mane. "Dog?"

Reno snorted. "Not exactly."

Nanaki lowered his head and stared at the man, but kept his teeth hidden. Around unfamiliar humans, it was wiser to be circumspect.

The mayor's tongue darted across his lips.

"He's, uh… friendly, I hope?"

A crooked smile spread across the Turk's face.

"Why don't you ask him?"

The mayor barked out a laugh and shuffled closer, with a cautious glance at Nanaki. He pointed at Reno, giving him a smile that was mostly teeth.

"Reno, isn't it?"

"Remember me, huh?"

"Turks did tend to stick out at the old office. Especially one as…" The mayor chuckled and gestured at Reno from top to toe. "...remarkable as yourself."

Reno coughed out a tired laugh amid puffs of smoke.

"Flattery, huh? Guess that can only mean one thing. So, let's get to it. What do you want?"

"Straight to the point, I like that! It's the sign of a man who can get things done."

Reno took another slow drag of his cigarette. The mayor's smile wavered, then returned at full strength.

"Well, Reno," he said, lowering his voice, "I understand you're having a look into this Glimmer business."

"Now where might you have heard a thing like that?" Reno asked, arching an eyebrow.

The mayor chuckled. "Oh, I may have a few connections with the CID."

"Figures," Reno muttered, and sucked in more smoke.

The mayor glanced around and took a step closer.

"My contact tells me they have a new lead," he said in a conspiratorial hush. "The safe house of this, mm… this gang that's involved."

"What's that got to do with me?"

Reno kept a casual tone, but Nanaki noticed the lingering look he gave the other man. The mayor must have noticed it too, for he broadened his smile and took another step closer.

"Well, you know how it is with the CID. They have to follow protocol, do things by the book." He rolled his eyes; purely for the sake of showmanship, as far as Nanaki could tell. "Meanwhile, these hoodlums are poisoning the streets of Edge! I can't have that, not when I'm trying to put this city on the world map where it belongs. This is a critical time, Reno. We can't risk damning our city's reputation with rumors like this, before we get a chance to show what we can do!"

A cold smile crept onto Reno's face as he listened to the mayor's impassioned speech.

"Bad PR's a bitch, huh?"

"Now, now, no need for that kind of tone." Hart placed his hand over his heart. "I'm only acting in the best interests of Edge."

"Uh huh. So what kind of 'best interests' got you talking to a Shinra Turk?"

"Well…" The mayor leaned in and lowered his voice again. "Like I said, you're a man who gets things done. If you were to… acquire the address to that safe house, you wouldn't waste time wallowing in bureaucracy, now would you? You would go there, and you would deal with it. Am I right, Reno?"

"You might be."

The mayor flashed another one of his toothy smiles.

"Good, good! I'm glad we had this talk." He held out his hand. "Best of luck with your case, Reno."

Reno glanced at the mayor's outstretched palm. He said nothing, but he grasped the hand and shook it.

The other two men left the way they came, back into the hospital. Once the door had swung shut, Reno planted his cigarette between his lips and opened his fist. In his palm sat a tiny folded piece of paper, which he unfurled and read, before slipped it into his pocket.

"Well, kitty cat. Looks like we've got ourselves a lead."

"You trust this man?"

"Trust him?" Reno snorted. "Hell no, but ain't like we've got anything else to go on right now." He dropped the stub of his cigarette and ground it out with his boot. "So, c'mon. Let's go find out just how bad an idea this is, yo."