((A/N: Just correcting a timeline error in chapters. Nothing new.))

~14~

Once back at the compound, Reno settled his baby back on its landing pad then went over the post flight check. Even though it wasn't necessary but he still did it. Satisfied he passed the helicopter over to the hands of the maintenance crew for full servicing. "Come on, let's get you down to Claudia before she comes looking for you," Reno said tucking his hands into his pockets.

"Yes sir," Titus replied quietly as he summoned Silly to his side then commanded him to heel.

"Lighten up, yo. I'm not taking ya to Ru's place until Claudia says you're good to go."

The blond nodded his head, acknowledging that Reno had spoken to him but otherwise kept quiet on the trip down to the medical area. "May I see Uncle Trenton after Claudia is finished?" Titus asked, glancing to the side at the red-head walking next to him before looking down again at where his feet were going.

Reno tilted his head to the side in thought. "Sure kid. It'll give me a chance to talk to a few people as well." Besides he was already missing his aibou and it wasn't even a full 24 hours! "Tell ya what, why don't I call Ru and see if he'll let you stay over at my place for the night? You still owe me a rematch on Ehrgeiz, yo!"

Titus looked up again then let out a soft laugh. "It's not my fault you can be distracted that easily."

Reno huffed, crossing his arms over his chest as they continued to walk. "Sickin' Silly on me was still cheating and you know it, yo!"

"I could have asked Rude to distract you instead," Titus said back, still grinning.

The red-head shook his head and huffed again, though there was an answering grin on his lips. At times, it was hard to believe that the teen walking next to him was a clone of his half-brother. There was so many little things that was identical yet so many more that made them all together different people. The rest of the way down was spent talking about what the blond was currently up to, both educational and otherwise. Upon arriving at Medical, Titus and Reno was greeted by Claudia.

"Good evening Titus, Reno," Claudia said nodding to both. "This way gentlemen." She then led the two towards her office.

Reno never had, nor will he ever, liked being in the medical area. Too many memories attached and hardly any of them good. "Do ya really need me?" he asked, eying the doors that vanished around a corner.

The buxom blond rolled her eyes before shaking her head. "No Reno, I don't need you right at the moment, but I would appreciate you staying around since I want to ask you about both the primary and the secondary incidents. Right now, all I need is Titus, so that I can run a few scans to be sure there is nothing lingering." She made a shooing motion in Reno's general direction. Once in her office she settled Titus in a comfortable chair then took the one next to it instead of the one behind her desk, though she did grab a pen and legal pad. "I'd like to start off with a few simple questions and go from there if that's OK with you Titus?"

The youngest ShinRa nodded in both understanding and permission. He liked Claudia because she explained everything she did to him before she started and anytime he came to visit her she gladly answered his questions. "Yes ma'am," he said.

"Thank you Titus. Now, let's start off at the beginning since I came in at the end. What happened first?" she asked, paying attention to his expressions and the tone of his voice as well as his words.

Titus's expression was identical to the one Rufus would wear when he was thinking about a question before answering it. "I had been given permission to visit you. When I entered the medical tent I paused to let my eyes adjust to the change. Once they had I nodded politely to the TURK on duty. Then I went to the receptionist and asked if you were available to see me." He paused once again going over his memories, giving his head the barest of nods before continuing. "I... I admit that my attention had wondered somewhat so that I missed Silly's initial reaction to...Jamie?"

"That is correct. The little boy's name is Jamie."

He smiled, happy that he remembered the child's name. "Jamie thought that Silly was someone to play with thus didn't seem to realize that Silly would do him harm, unintentional or not. I grabbed at his collar at the same time he lunged at Jamie." He frowned as he lifted his hand, running the fingers of his other hand over the two that had been injured. "I felt a.." he searched for the right words in which to convey his meaning. "..a painful twist?" he shook his head, those were not the right words.

Claudia watched and listened intently to the young man. "A painful snap? Sickening twist?" she offered.

"A sickening twist. Yes, that's it. That's what I'm looking for. Thank you."

"Glad to help."

He nodded then continued on. "I felt a sickening twist happen just after I grabbed Silly's collar. The next instant it felt as if everything had slowed down to the point of almost stopping. I thought I heard the person who grabbed Jamie away from Silly even say the word stop. The person.. I think he was called Fox but I don't believe that is or was his True name...had, has long fingers.." Trailing off Titus's eyes unfocused for several moments before he stood up and started to pace around the office before coming to a stop behind Claudia's desk. His hands rested on the back of the chair. "Am I making any sense?"

The older woman nodded. "Yes you are Titus. Don't worry about it for the moment, we'll go over a few things afterwards alright?" she asked quickly jotting down a few notes on the paper.

Titus nodded once more before moving on and started pacing once again. "Fox wrapped his fingers around my hand. There was a flair of pain followed by cooling yet soothing warmth which rolled up my fingers and hand, through my arm." He moved his hand up his arm, indicating the direction it traveled. "I must have blinked because the next thing I realized was that my hand, the one that had been injured, was not anymore and that it was curled in Silly's collar. Fox was standing several feet away as well. When I looked up to his face, he.. smiled at me. One of those tiny curl of the lips type smiles. Like what Rude does behind Reno's back when he's done something silly, or like the ones that pass between him and Tseng when Reno and Rufus is doing something together. What I would call a secretive smile. Like only you or maybe someone you smile that way at, knows or shares a secret." He came around the desk once more and sat down, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees looking intently at Claudia. "Just after that he started coughing but I saw something."

"Ah," Claudia nodded at the description of the smile. She had caught Rude smiling that way towards Reno a few times herself so she knew what he was talking about. "What did you see?" she asked, hearing the underlying request to ask about what he saw.

"A glimmering green and yellow. It was a strange glimmer, like it was lit from within." His blue eyes bore into Claudia's.

"Materia," she said.

"Yes," he replied back standing up again, this time to lean against the desk with his arms crossed over his chest, one ankle casually crossed over the other. "When I was forced to return to the main tent, I found out that the order was given to hunt Fox down because of it. Why?" he asked before dropping his arms, palms slapping against the desktop. "Why?" he demanded to know.

Claudia closed her eyes, reaching up to pinch the bridge of her nose before letting out a sigh. "That's a fairly loaded question Titus. Why was the order given for him to be apprehended? Why did he use it to heal your hand? Why was he in possession of illegal materia in the first place?" She leaned back in the chair, crossing her legs as she studied the young man before her. "I cannot say honestly Titus. Yes I can guess, I can theorize and I can speculate, but none of those would be the real answer. Or even an answer you are looking for. But let me ask a why of my own. Why do you care? Why do you care if this person you only meet for a few moments today was being hunted down by Shin-Ra? And yes before you say anything I do realize that I used the words 'Hunted down' like he was some type of dangerous animal or wanted criminal."

Titus opened his mouth several times to speak just to close it again as he thought about it. Staring at the floor he wondered indeed why did he care?

Neither spoke, the silence of the room only disturbed by the muffled voices of passing Med-techs. The ticking of the old fashioned clock creating a harmonious counterpoint to the silence.

Titus finally looked up. "Why do I care?" he repeated her question to him. "I care because in that moment, in that very instant I looked up, I felt as if he was looking at me. Looking through me even, and had seen me for who I am. Not Titus, the clone of Rufus. Not Titus ShinRa, the younger brother of Rufus ShinRa, Director of Shin-Ra. Not Titus ShinRa, the possible hostage and instrument of revenge against all the wrongs that Shin-Ra did in its past. And not The One, Property of Malcolm." His mouth twisted in a bitter sneer at his own words before he replaced it with an open, honest one while placing his hand over his heart. "I felt as if he was looking at Me. Titus the 17 year old who has no clue as to who or what he is, the teen who has experienced too much of the bad the world has to offer and too little of the good. It was like he was seeing me for the person I am whereas everyone else, either purposely or unintentionally, only sees me as a reflection of someone or something else. You asked why and that is my reason why I care." He reached up and rubbed the heels of his hands against his eyes. "Fuck, I'm crying," he muttered softly to himself.

Claudia stood up, putting the legal pad down on the desk along with the pen then pulled Titus into a hug. "Nothing to be ashamed of sweetheart," she said softly, brushing his hair to the side from where it had fallen into his face. "It means you are as human as the rest of us." She pressed a soft kiss to his forehead in a motherly fashion then pulled him gently along to the small sofa that was tucked neatly out of the way in the back of the office.

Once she had the two of them settled she started speaking. "Now it's my turn to answer your question of why. It may take me a little bit to answer it, but I will do so. Now, first off do you know that possession of Materia is illegal now?" She waited till he answered, either verbally or non-verbally . "Do you know why it is now illegal?" This time he shook his head. "Way back, before Rufus took over as Director of Shin-Ra, his (and yours) farther was director. Now he didn't have the well being of the planet in mind. All he wanted was money and power. Well under his employment were several individuals who were of like mind. Between all of them they did great harm to the planet. So much so that in the end it took special people to help get everything back on track once more. Several years later a terrible disease started to appear. It affected everyone in some way. It was then that a trio of individuals tried to cause even more harm to the people as well as to the planet again. Once more that group of special people helped put a stop to the trio. In fact, you may have met one or two of them." She knew she was glossing over a lot of history and facts, but at the moment just the concepts were important. She knew that he was inquisitive enough to either ask or go looking in the right direction to find the truth. That is if he was allowed to do so by Rufus. "Anyways, after that possession of Materia was banned. The first year after the law was enacted was a grace period. Anyone who had it was and was willing to give it up, was given something in exchange for it. Sometimes money, sometimes items in return and even in a few cases, full pardons for any crimes that had been committed against Shin-Ra in the years before Rufus took over." Once again she waited for Titus to digest all that she had said before she continued her explanation.

"Ok," Titus nodded his head in understanding.

"So now here is this person, Fox, who shows up out of the blue after almost a decade with Materia in his possession. He then uses it on several people, all of whom are employed by or a part of Shin-Ra. We, rather I should say Shin-Ra, is concerned in what that could mean. We want to know why he has it, how he got it and what he plans on doing with it. You see, to get Materia, one has to have access to Mako since in essence Materia is extremely condensed Mako. To get Mako means someone has harmed or is harming the Planet again and your brother is trying to prevent that from ever happening again."

He slowly nodded his head as the pieces of information was coming together, giving him a better understanding of the overall picture. "So..we have to find Fox in order to find out if he is planning something bad."

"Right you are. But we also want to find out if maybe he was a victim of something bad himself. That way we can see if we can, if not correct it, then perhaps make it easier to deal with. But I'm afraid that with the way he reacted to me as a doctor that he has been badly hurt by someone in a position of power or trust and that he's afraid of being hurt again." She pulled Titus close once more, giving him a one-armed hug before letting him go again. "So, do you understand better why we want to apprehend him?"

Once again Titus studied the information he now had before speaking. Once he had a better understanding he wasn't quite as upset about it as he had been earlier. Though he didn't like it he had a better understanding of his brother's orders. "I don't like it anymore then I did earlier, but I think I understand it better. If Fox is planning on doing something bad, we can stop him before he does too much. And if he is the victim we can try and help him, but either way he has to be caught first." His expression changed slightly as another thought made itself known. "That's why you want to check me over as well. You knew something had happened and you want to be sure nothing bad or harmful has been done to me in turn."

"Right you are. So now that we have everything sorted out for the time being, let's go get those scans done. I'd also like to do some blood work to compare before and after also. Just to be on the safe side."

Titus nodded as he got up from the couch. "After that's done can I see Uncle Trenton?"

Claudia laughed softly. "I don't see why not. So let's get things started." She let the youth out of the office and towards the area where the testing would be done.