Chapter Thirteen

Inside was a dark, dirt-lined tunnel. Claire ducked her head, but still brushed the ceiling. Dirt fell in a gentle shower. The maximum height was four feet, so after the first twenty minutes of travel, her lower back started to hurt. Then the tunnel got smaller. She dropped her hands and knees, crawling forward. "You know . . . maybe this isn't the bolt hole."

"I'm getting that impression too," Leon said. "But at least I'm enjoying . . ."

Claire stopped crawling. "Enjoying what?" She was sweaty and dirty and her back hurt and her knees hurt and her hands were starting to feel bruised from the rocks in the dirt. What was there to enjoy?

"Nothing," Leon said, far too quickly. "You have a nice . . ."

Claire's sweaty face turned bright pink. He was admiring her derriere. She picked up her pace, suddenly anxious to be standing again. At least then she'd be less self-conscious about her looks.

Fifteen minutes later, the hole encountered a stone hallway. Claire peeked both ways and then dropped down. She dusted as much of the dirt off as she could. Inside the stone hallway it was cool, almost cold in comparison with the sweaty darkness of the rabbit hole.

Leon dropped down beside her and proceeded to dust himself off. "Ada would have never went through there," he commented.

"Oh?"

He brushed his fingers across her face. "You're a tough girl."

"Thanks." She bit her bottom lip. His eyes were so blue. And even covered in dirt and sweat, he had a good-guy bad-guy look to him. She moved toward him, contemplating kissing him. At the same time he moved toward her, lips parting ever so slightly.

Her heartbeat quickened. She dreamed of this for a long time. Just before their lips touched, an image of Vincent flashed through her mind. He loves someone else, she thought, trying to force the image to go. Take what you have in front of you. What you've always wanted. She closed her eyes and pushed her mouth the last few centimeters only to discover that Leon was no longer there.

She opened her eyes, looking around. No one. Damn. "Leon?"

Something whacked at her foot. She looked down and saw three frogs.

And as she watched a cloud of fire formed around one, and it fell over. Dead. "That better not have been frog-Leon," she said.

Both of the remaining frogs turned toward her, shaking their heads jointly.

Claire placed her hands on her hips. "Which one of you is Leon?"

Both frogs, again at the same time, pointed at themselves. "Ahh . . ." Claire said. "That doesn't really help." She knelt down. "Although I suppose it doesn't matter since I can't turn you back."

The one frog nodded, as if it understood. The other rolled its eyes and made a puckering motion. "You want me to kiss you?"

The frog nodded, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "And you think that will turn you back into a . . . prince?"

The frog gave her and "of course" look.

"Well, then you're not Leon," she said. "But you're probably another human who ran into one of those damn frogs." She bit her lip, suddenly thinking about the Frog Princess movie she'd watched with Sherry Birkin just a few months ago. If she kissed the frog and turned into a frog, she would . . . well, she didn't know what she would do. So she took a chance. She picked up Leon, and finally after a good three years, kissed him for the first time.

It was a dry, almost slimy kiss. But sure enough, there was a sizzling cloud of white smoke and then Leon saw standing over her. And she wasn't a frog either.

She let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding and placed a kiss on the other frog as well. Another cloud of sizzling white smoke, and she had a second man standing over her. She stood up, dusting her knees.

"I'm Claire," she said, extending one hand toward the former frog. He was a tall, slender blonde man with cool blue eyes. He was wearing a white trench coat and white pants and had a long silver pistol fitted with several materia – including a fire materia.

"Rufus Shinra," he said, nodding slightly and shaking her hand. Then he froze, as if regretting the introduction.

"Don't worry," Leon said. "We don't know who you are." He gave Claire a wry smile. "Although, it's clear that if we asked around we'd fine out some less than flattering things about you."

"To which we say, who cares," Claire added. "We'll reserve judgment for ourselves."

He gave a tight smile. "Yes, well, I suppose that will have to do." He shook Leon's hand, then raised his gun and shot an approaching frog. Claire and Leon both turned and fired on the wee beasty. The three combined shots put the frog down.

"Is that Vincent Valentine's gun?" Rufus asked.

"Maybe . . ."

"How did you . . ."

"You have your secrets, and I have mine," Claire said quickly. "Now, why don't you tell us about this place?"

Rufus frowned. Clearly he was used to having his questions fully answered. And maybe he was used to not having people ask him questions either. Whatever he was thinking, he dropped it and answered the question. "I was taken against my will –"

"Kidnapped?" Leon suggested.

"I dislike the helplessness that term imputes, but yes, that's one way of putting it."

"And you escaped?"

He nodded. "Barley."

"Was it Dr. Hojo who captured you?" Leon asked. "He's a sleazy looking man with a pony-tail –"

"I know what Hojo looks like," Rufus said. "He used to work for me."

Claire and Leon exchanged a quick glance.

"Sad to say I used to fund his research. But he's consistently taken things too far. Currently he plans on reviving Sephiroth, and turning the Planet into a zombie."

"You hopefully mean turning everyone on the Planet into zombies."

"No. He's going to release his T-virus into the Lifestream."

"That doesn't sound good," Claire said.

"It isn't." Rufus fanned himself down, frowning. "But I can't do anything about it myself. I need to go back and get help."

"If you want to get help," Leon said, "That's fine. But let us pick your brain first."

"I'm not sure I can get help," Rufus said. "This place is a freaking maze."

"Claire pointed at the tunnel they had just come through. "That leads outside and Leon's got a chocobo at the lip of the hole where the Temple of the Ancients used to be."

Rufus blinked. "Oh." He paused. "What are you doing here?"

"We're here to stop Hojo," Leon said. "We need to find his lab. But if it's a maze, it looks like it might be more difficult than just getting directions from you."

"Decidedly so," Rufus said. "This appears to be an extension of the Temple of the Ancients, which is attached to Hojo's new labs."

Claire shot another approaching frog. "And it's populated with frogs."

"Touch Me's," Rufus said. "Who are you working for? The WRO?"

"Does it matter?" Leon asked.

"Yes. It matters. I need to know who is coming after you so I can decide whether to accompany you or go for help." He eyed the Griffin. "Are you with Cloud Strife?"

"Hell no," Claire said. "That guy gets on my nerves. I mean, he's a good enough guy. Strong and tough and manly and all that, but I gotta tell you that if it weren't for him I'd have . . ." Her voice trailed off. She'd have Vincent with her instead of Leon. And suddenly she didn't know if that was a good thing or not.

"Have what?" Rufus asked.

Leon gave her a similarly puzzled look.

Claire forced a half-smile. "I guess that's just Reno's influence shining through. He has a – "

"Who's Reno?" Leon interjected.

"Uhmm . . ." Claire winched. "I guess he's just a guy I know."

Rufus had pulled back and was eyeing her suspiciously. "How do you know Reno and Rude?"

Claire squirmed a bit more. "Well . . ."

Leon stepped back from her, crossing his arms and eyeing her with suspicion to equal Rufus's.

"It gets complicated."

"Does he know that you're here?" Rufus asked. "Are you dating him?" His face had a look of horror. "Because you seemed like a decent girl – not that there's anything wrong with Reno, but seriously . . ."

"You're dating him?" Leon said, eyes widening.

"No, not really."

"Not really?" both men repeated.

"No." She opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, and then mentally gave up. "I'm working with him. With the Turks. Unofficially."

"U-u-unofficially?" Rufus stuttered. "And how many other 'unofficial' Turks are there?"

"Just me," Claire said. She gave a sheepish smile. "It's a long story, but I kinda conned them into letting me into their group. They set me up to spy on some people in Kalm, including Cloud and his cronies."

Leon was nodding, the story falling into place for him. Rufus still look flogged.

"Conned?" he repeated.

"I needed the money; they needed a spy. It seemed perfect."

Rufus brushed a hand through his hair. "Well, then if you're a member of the Turks, I suppose you know who I am."

"Rufus Shinra," Claire said. "But . . . they never mentioned you, so I don't really know how you might know them, you know?"

"They never mentioned me?" Rufus repeated. "Did they happen to mention who they were working for?"

Claire was starting to have a sinking suspicion that Reno and Rude worked for the blonde hottie standing in front of her. "No . . . they kind of alluded to –"

"To being in charge themselves?" Rufus inquired.

That was what they had alluded to, but Claire hadn't believed them, and she wasn't going to get them into worse trouble than she might have already gotten them into. "No. Just that I wasn't important enough to know all of the ins-and-outs of the organization."

"I see," Rufus said. He pursed his lips. "Well, I suppose you may have realized by now that I am in charge of the Turks."

"I got that," Claire said. Considering that she had the Turks pegged as the mafia of the Planet, that meant Rufus Shinra was very, very important.

He shook his head. "Well, welcome to the Turks, Claire Redfield." He extended his hand again, shaking it firmly this time. "It's been a while since we had fresh blood."

"Thanks," Claire said, suddenly awkward. What the hell was she supposed to call him now?

Leon seemed to sense her confusion, so he took over. "So what's your call, Rufus? Are you staying, going, or coming with us?"

He glanced at the hole and then at the disheveled appearance of Claire and Leon. Claire had the feeling a desire not to get terribly dirty played into his plans. "We'll shut down Umbrella," he said. "But first, we need to call for backup."

"How?"

"We go outside and I make a phone call," Rufus said.

"Claire should go," Leon said. "It'll be quicker with just one person and the hole is pretty small."

"Agreed," Rufus said. He handed her the phone. "Call Tseng. He's number 3 on speed-dial."

Claire gave the hole a dirty look, which she shared with Leon. Then she accepted the phone. "Anything else?"

Rufus detailed the message he wanted delivered. Claire nodded, and started into the sweaty, dirty hole. She could hear Leon and Rufus talking as she left. It sounded like a typical law-enforcement interrogation coupled with mafia-evasive answers. Mutely she wondered how Leon would feel about her joining the Turks once he realized exactly what they were.