I know, I slack. I've been trying so hard, between Christmas, assignments, and fanfics, to keep everything in order, but I fail X.X

Anwhoo, new chapter... not much here, just all the stuff I must get through in order to make the story work. Fun fun fun!

I'm so sorry, guys, I promise things will pick up soon, now that the Christmas rush is over. I also promise to reply to every review this time around, I missed a lot of people last time. But you guys know that I love you all, and I appreciate every reader and reviewer.

Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue

I sank back into the mattress with a sigh and forced myself to open my eyes. The dull roar of the airship floated about the room, and the darkness around me was only disturbed by light leaking through the slits of the blinds over the window. I stared at the dark tiled ceiling for a long time, listening to the voices just outside the door.

"Fuck no!" an angry, somewhat gruff voice boomed. "I ain't having no Turk on my ship!"

"Cid, please." A feminine voice begged softly in response. From her desperate tone, I could also tell she was trying to shush him to save my ears. Yeah, like I didn't already guess he would say that. "He's not with ShinRa anymore, and he's got nowhere to go. We think he might have an infection from a wound, he could barely stand after Vincent and I healed him."

"You think I give a damn?" the man I assumed was named Cid hissed. "If one of us dragged our sorry ass into ShinRa HQ, you think we wouldn't get a bullet between the eyes? Shit, Aeris… think!"

I winced a little, both from his harsh words and the pain in my lower chest. Everything he had said was true, and I could never deny that. I glanced at the window and contemplated just jumping out. A little fun fall for about ten seconds, then it'd all be over. And that's all I wanted.

I wanted it all to end.

"You think…" Aeris' words, lined with frustration, derailed my train of thought. "Just for once, think about someone other than yourself." She growled before walking into the room and closing the door before Cid could reply. We heard a long string of curses before the heavy footsteps of the man storming donw the hallway. The Ancient smiled lightly at me and walked over to my bedside. I looked up at her, eyes filled with a million apologies, but she simply removed my goggles from my forehead and lay a gentle hand on the newly exposed skin.

"Don't worry, Reno." her voice was nurturing, caring, something I had never heard from my own mother. "We wont let Cid, Cloud, or anyone tell us that you're not welcome here."

When she said 'We', I knew it was her and Vincent. They were the only ones that gave a damn, from what I could see. I didn't know why Aeris would care, or even Vincent. I was their enemy.

"You don't have to help me." I said, turning my head away in an almost shameful manner. Of course I was ashamed, having to be saved by the people I used to fight against wasn't a very proud moment. "You should just throw me off the ship."

Aeris sighed lightly and sat on the bed, looking at me. "We're not like that, Reno. Can't you see that we're good people?"

I was silent for a moment, beginning to stare at the ceiling again. "In the past few weeks, I guess I learned that you guys weren't horrible terrorists like the company told everyone…" I sighed again, but it hurt my chest. Despite the fact that Vincent had cast Cure on the wounds, I supposed that I indeed did have an infection. "But I also learned the truth about evil, and who the bad guys really are. Call it cliché, but I've been so blind."

The flower girl smiled at me, and much to my surprise, put her hand on my forehead again. Her fingers went through my hair gently. "You're not a bad person, Reno." she told me in a soft, reassuring tone.

"But there's blood on my hands, nonetheless." I said in monotone. "They may have forced me to drop the plate, but that's no excuse for me to make."

"But you didn't want to, did you?"

"No, not one bit."

She smiled again, hand still stroking through my hair. "There there you go. You may have done wrong, but if you realise it and are sorry for it, then your soul will feel lighter. Whatever you did for a living, and whatever Hojo did to you doesn't make you any less human."

I was already drifting off to sleep, feeling something like a cat from her gentle hand stroking my head. If I could have, I would have purred. "Vincent told you, eh?" I mumbled lazily, somewhat surprised she knew of my incidents in the lab.

"Yes, and I can promise that you will be safe here, if you can promise us something."

"Anything."

"That you are in no way still affiliated with ShinRa, and that you will not cause any trouble for us. We want to help you, but we need to trust you first." she said, although sounding like she already knew that she could have faith in me. I opened my eyes again and looked at her.

"Done and done." I managed to smile, and she stood up.

"I'm glad." she gave a light bow of the head and started walking to the door. "We'll be by to check on you soon, so get some sleep."

I watched her leave and rolled onto my side, burying the side of my face into the pillow. For the first time in months, perhaps even years, I felt like I could sleep peacefully, and I knew it was going to be alright. An endless amount of nights spent laying awake, either afraid of the company I worked for, or my own sins, had weighed down on me. Perhaps Aeris was right, because my soul felt a little lighter now.

Drifting off into sleep again, I couldn't help but smile.

"Reno..."

"Yo."

"Do you think we'll ever make it to the Turks?"

I put my arm around my friend and laughed lightly, shaking his shoulder. "I know it. If we don't get in because of our skills, it'll be my good looks."

Rude rolled his eyes and laughed as well.Both with applications and portfolios in hand, my best friend and I walked down the cold streets of Midgar towards the ShinRa HQ."Seriously... I hear the Turks have to go through a lot of dirty work. Like hits and kidnapping." the bald man said, actually sounding a little unsure of our idea to apply. We both worked so hard to get this far, but Rude always had a habit of having second thoughts at the last minute. That was the trait that almost killed him allthrough university.

"C'mon, we wouldn't be killing anyone who didn't deserve it. Turks only take out the bad guys, you know that."

"I don't wanna make a living killing people." Rude told me, voice suddenly going quiet. I looked over to him and gave him a reassuring smile.

"It won't be all murder and lies and stuff, man. We'll be doing the right thing." I pushed him along the street. "C'mon, ya big sap, if you can help me pass University chemistry, you can pull this off."

Rude laughed and put sunglasses on, something he always did to hide the nervousness in his eyes. "True... alright, let's go." he smiled at me. "I'll race ya."

I dismissed that with a wave of the hand. "C'mon, we're twenty... way too mature for th-" I cut myself off as I started running down the street.

"Do you think he will be alright, Nanaki?"

"I assume so, the infection should clear up over the next few days. However, the results of the experimentation will be permanent."

I stirred lightly as these voices gently brought me back into consciousness. I opened my eyes slowly, and the world melted into place around me. I instinctively sat up upon seeing two figures at my bedside. I winced, and a hand carefully guided me to lay down again. I blinked the blurriness out of my eyes and saw Vincent and the lion-beast, RedXIII standing there. Vincent leaned over and checked my forehead for any sort of fever, and I made a mental note to fry him from the inside out of he dare to give me the same treatment the flower girl did.

"How are you feeling?" he asked before retracting his hand.

"Alright, I guess." I said quietly, although I felt like I was going to be ill any second. The beast put his front paws on the bed and looked at me closely, which made me feel a little uncomfortable. His long, flame-tipped tail swished about behind him.

"The madness of Hojo's mind never ceases to amaze me." he said, mostly to himself. I noticed that his voice seemed a lot lighter than I guessed it would be. Perhaps I wasn't expecting something so human and sounded so young. "Your eyes used to be stained with Mako, now they are flooded with it. The materia in your blood must be what saved you from Mako poisoning." he gave a sigh, showing how human-like he really was. "It's not hard to see how upset you are, because your eyes glow with your emotion."

I stared at the beast for a long time before he got down on all four paws again. The creature on his own amazed me, but it's intelligence totally blew me away.

"You're not mad about me being here?" I asked quietly, having expected the beast to simply growl at me. RedXIII shook his head, that mane-like hair of his swaying with his movements. "No, and the others will come around, too, just give them time."

I gave a small sigh of relief, grateful that I had been this lucky. My former enemies became my heroes in my time of need. Ironic much?

"Now…" Vincent pulled a wooden chair to the bedside and sat in it, looking at me with those intense red eyes. "Tell us exactly what happened."