Bloodwitch Raven - Kyrie's supposed to be an innocent I thin. I didn't make the character, and the writer who did make this character is not a good writer, so I'm not sure. That, or I might not be doing a good job portraying Kyrie... I have to admit, she's not exactly the type I have any empathy with.

We're about halfway with Turks: The Kids Are Alright. So that leaves another half, an AC before this is done.

Chapter 24: Female Misunderstandings

Arien closed the manual with a thump. The manual was big and rather unwieldy and definitely not something she'd read for eisure, but she had nothing else to read and she was bored. The volume was a psychological interrogation manual, which was not remarkable in itself, something that a first year intelligence trainee might read but definitely not something she'd need to read through. It detailed, in minutiae, the techniques as soft as Pride-and-Ego-Down to food deprivation to waterboarding. She wasn't particularly proud to say that she'd used quite a few of them in the past.

What was remarkable was that it was written by her father, apparently while she was away at the Academy. The man was good at reading people's minds and prying information, if he didn't make the best father she could wish for. It was undeniable that the man was complicated, and in comparison most people paled with their levels of various inexplicable actions. Reno was about as simple as one could get in comparison to Myers DeVir.

The phone rang, and she reached for it, checking the name. Reno. Probably just updates, but she hit the button anyway. "Hi," she said, rather uncharacteristically. She usually started with things like 'what?' and 'hm?' prompting Reno to talk and get over with the conversation quickly. She was, as Siva had pointed out once, awful at phone conversations, and couldn't be much more brusque even if she tried.

And Reno seemed to notice. "You okay?" he asked.

"Um, a little tired." Lies; she had a lot more on her mind, but she wasn't about to blurt it out. "You?"

"Well, remember the girl who was screaming when Evan Townsend was brought in?"

She thought about it for a moment. "Kyrie? I think her name was? Not the brightest bulb in the box? Kind of looks like a startled duck sometimes?"

"How the fuck do you know that?" he demanded, then remembered. "You saw her through the scope."

"Useful thing, my vision. Even if it gives me killer headaches."

"Yeah, well, she's sitting in the car we took right now, threatening to crash the goddamn thing into the tin can we've been building if Evan doesn't come back. Today's one shit day."

"I'm sorry." She re-crossed her legs. "She's probably scared, Reno. Cut her some slack."

"Scared? Scared of what?"

She sighed. Reno would not really understand the fear he - well, the Turks - inspired in others, partly because he had never feared the squad. And why should he? He had spent his teenage years as a gang member, and that was already scary enough for most; compared to some things he had done prior to joining the Investigation Sector, half the horror stories pertaining to the stuff the Turks did were nothing, because a lot of things they did overlapped. But she had been one of the 'civilians' once, and knew - instinctively - what others felt about the blackjackets. And it wasn't anything good.

"Reno," she said, "to quite a few people, we're nothing less than bogeymen who appear in the night and take their loved ones away. She's probably scared out of her mind."

"Huh." She could hear Reno's soft breaths. "Were you scared?"

"No, but I was trained at the Academy, remember? I was handling guns before Reniel was kissing boys."

"Alright. Were the spy boys and girls scared?"

"A bit, I suppose. But the boys know you. The girls, I think, just sort of thought of you as a womaniser. Ivy knew me, so there was less of mystery, I guess. But for those outside the headquarters, you were this redheaded monster."

"Great."

"I'd also maintain that you're still a monster in bed, but I don't think anyone else needs to know that."

Reno laughed at that, a hiccoughy laugh like a cat's purr that was almost like a caress to her. It was odd, how people defined others by the scant information they had and framed them into some cookie-cutter characters that they knew: hero, villain, bogeyman, damsel. People were much more complicated than that, showing one face at one time and something else entirely at another, making it quite easy for one person to be a hero and a villain and a victim and a rescuer all at once. But the farther they were from the person, more one-dimensional the person became to them, until they were written off with just a line. Most would never know Reno as a friend, and if she had her way no one else would know him as a lover. She'd never know him as a subordinate, and Tseng would never know him as a boss. But he was all, and more: he saved people's lives and killed people without remorse, he hated Wednesdays and liked his shower scalding hot, he got headaches from smells and didn't like rare steaks.

"She's a bit like Aeris Gainsborough, isn't she?" Arien said.

"Oh?" Reno remembered the last Cetra; innocent, simple, and pure, she had never really piqued his interest. Sure, he found her inviolate, and to be protected and all that shebang, but she wasn't interesting. Once you got to know that type, they were fairly predictable in certain aspects, and that put them in the 'not very interesting' category for Reno. Amusing to watch, sure, but that was it. "In what way?" he asked. Arien wasn't Myers' daughter for nothing, and she at times observed details that proved to be extremely useful later, things that he didn't notice. It didn't hurt to ask.

"She's not very worldly, is she?" the woman said. "Her head's up in the clouds. I suppose pure? Or innocent. She doesn't really understand what's going on."

What she meant was, that type didn't know that certain things couldn't be helped and no matter how hard you tried, shit happened anyway. That sort of thing gave one a very jaded outlook on life, and jaded was the one term that didn't apply to Aeris or Kyrie. It also applied to Reno and Arien in abundance; if they were any more jaded they'd be bright green. It was a loss of innocence that didn't necessarily happen with time but rather with experience. Kyrie was the type to truly believe that good things happened as long as you hoped for it. But they knew better.

He had never 'grown up'. Kyrie was yet an innocent. Who was grown up, then?

"Just… go easy on her," Arien was saying. "We… didn't exactly do people a whole lot of favours. Maybe helping people like that-"

"Like what?"

"Like Aeris or Kyrie. Maybe helping them would be.. A sort of reparation for what we did. At least it won't hurt."

"Arien," Reno said, seriously, "that type is going to get Evan's type killed."

Another sigh, this time resolute. A moment of thought. "I know," she finally replied. "Evan's the type to put up fronts, try to look bigger than he actually is. I guess he's young. And Kyrie'd believe that facade and push him. Which is why you need to watch over the two."

"Why me?" Reno griped.

"We've all been there. And we've all had people look over us and tell us not to be idiots. It's your turn."

Reno hang up after that. He remembered the person who had told him not to be an idiot; he was dead now, but he still remembered the man. His first mentor. The first one to die because of him. It had left a scar, physically and perhaps emotionally, an echoing reminder of the guilt that he carried, the first but certainly not the last. He absently rubbed his shoulder, where there was a small whorl of tissue, still discoloured even after the years. That scar was part of the reason why Reno favoured his feet over his hands. He had a gut feeling Darren Blake, Arien's former partner, superior, and boyfriend, had been the mentor for her; his death had shaped her into the woman he had met on that fateful day on Floor 66, that woman with no expression and a demonic concentration that refused to be distracted. They all had people like that - Elena's was one of the ex-Turks, Tseng's was Veld, and Rude was someone from SOLDIER - that had calmed them down, made them face reality, and admit that they weren't Sephiroth. It hurt to admit, but it was the truth.

Reno was smoking a cigarette when Kyrie opened the car door and stepped out. Slammed the door open was more like it. She was a chirpy girl, full of energy, not the pent-up, wound-up-tight energy that Arien had, nor the hyper-active tenseness that Elena had, but just the happy energy that people who didn't have daytime nightmares often had in abundance. He spun to see the girl stretch, throwing her arms in the air, then wondered why she could be so carefree in the age which had more tragedies than happiness. Was it her youth? She seemed curiously impervious to all the misery around her.

"Hey Reno!" she called out. "I'm getting hungry."

He narrowed his eyes ever so slightly. Kyrie did not notice. "What?" he asked.

"I'm hungry, so I need to get something to eat." She yawned. "Can you watch over the car while I'm gone? And tell Evan I'm waiting for him?"

He shrugged. "Sure."

"Thanks." She closed the car door with some bounce in her movements.

"Ya know, if you want you can go home. I'll tell Evan to go to your place when he gets back."

"No. Evan won't come."

He found the situation oddly comical. Why was he getting involved in what appeared to be two young 'uns fighting? As he watched Kyrie walk away - those bouncy steps really spoke of all the energy eighteen-year-olds had that suddenly disappeared by the age twenty - he snorted then began to chuckle. The entire situation struck him as a little ridiculous. Rude noticed, and asked what was going on. Reno found the fact that Rude, despite his 'I don't give a damn' air, evidently cared about the situation adding to the ridiculousness. He began to laugh in earnest.

"She went to grab a bite. Told me she's hungry."

"I find it poignant that she thinks we're that easy."

"Yeah, well, 'Lovable Shinra', right Rude?" Reno laughed again, but remembered Kyrie's arms and what Arien had said, thought that her claims might be true. Her arms had been covered in goosebumps; despite all the face the girl maintained, she was terrified of the Turks, more so than Evan. She probably was smarter than the kid in that sense. She was testing waters, throwing words stronger than what she could back up with at them, watching their reactions. Well, she hadn't grown up in the slums for nothing. The place taught you survival skills like nowhere else.

"Hey partner," Rude said gruffly, "she reminds me of Aeris."

Well, she did the same to Arien. Why do these things fly over my head until someone points it out?

"That's what I've been thinkin'," Reno said.

If cooperating with them'd at least be some kind of… what was it she said? Oh, 'atonement'.

But for some reason he doubted such atonements could be completed. All he could do was hope that everything he did would be even remotely close to being enough.

Tseng came back, Elena in tow, about an hour after Reno got off the phone. He had walked in the front door, nodded to Arien who was keeping a silent vigil, then asked how Rufus was doing.

"He's sleeping," Arien reported. "Ate about three-quarters of a meal. I think he's still a bit tired."

Tseng nodded. Rufus Shinra's Geostigma was neither in recovery nor in progression. It was causing him some trouble at times, but it wasn't getting worse or better. Elena had disappeared down the corridor; Arien didn't know what Tseng and Elena were up to, but habit kept her from asking. He'd let her know if he thought she needed to know. And if she didn't need to know, it was better off for her not knowing. Life was just easier that way.

"I'll hold down the fort for today," Tseng said. "You're relieved of duty until the next shift."

That was Tseng's way of saying 'get out, I need some privacy'. With whom she didn't know, but she obeyed. Not exactly because she was obedient, but rather because she was dying to leave and get back to her own place. And get out of the uniform.

Of course, that was a no-go. About midway back to the Edge she got a call from Siva. She fumbled for her phone from her pocket while turning the wheel, fishing it out as she avoided crashing into a jutting rock. She put Siva on speaker so she could talk hands-free. "Siva?" she asked.

"Hi. Can you come around today? I need to talk to you."

A monster howled some distance away, a little too close to where she was for her comfort. She turned left, and apparently Siva had heard the howl. "Where are you?" she asked.

"Badlands. Driving."

"Oh. Well, can you come around?"

"Um." She righted her course again. "All-right. I'll drop the car off then go straight to your place. I'm going to be in uniform."

"That's fine."

"Is it just going to be us or are there going to be others?"

"Just us." She heard a door slam from the phone. "This is important, Arien. For me. Please be there."

"I will."

The rest of the drive was peaceful. She parked the car near her place, then didn't even bother going into her own home; rather, she just got out of the vehicle, then began walking to Siva's. She was too tired to care when people looked at her with fear, aware of it but paying it no attention. She was used to it now, and knew she couldn't do anything about it.

Siva answered the door as soon as Arien knocked. She told her friend to come in, then offered her a beverage, then urged her to sit down. She gave no moment for Arien to compose herself before she started.

"So…" she elongated the o. "I need to ask you a favour."

Arien arched an eyebrow, cupping the mug with her hands.

"Do you know the company FertiGen?" Siva asked. "It used to be a Shinra subsidiary. It's a company dealing with fertility and that sort of stuff."

What Arien also knew - and Siva didn't, since the information was so classified even the name wasn't its proper name - was that FertiGen, or BioGenTech as listed in the classified files, was not only a subsidiary of the Shinra, but also a company that was directly linked to Professor Hojo's scientific research department. Not only did BioGenTech deal with fertility, but it also worked with gene manipulation of illegal varieties, illicit biological research, and the development of biological warfare that made the mutant strain of enterobacterium that had nearly wiped out half the population some century ago look like the common cold. Reno and she had gone out to take care of its mess once and had found that the entire village had been turned into a highly virulent kind of zombies that was also extremely violent and aggressive.

"Um," Arien said. "Yes?"

"Anyway, I've been thinking about this for some time, but…" Siva sipped her drink. "You see, I kind of have been wanting to start a family with Axil for some time now, but now there's a possibility of that maybe not happening with, you know, my condition, so I decided to do something."

Arien waited.

"I've decided to freeze my eggs."

Arien's first thought was that Siva was talking about chicken eggs, but she quickly dismissed the notion. "Okay?" She asked. "And?"

"If I recover, that's wonderful, no need for the frozen eggs. But if I don't" - she held her hands up when Arien tried to interrupt - "let me continue. If I don't, I want Axil to have the option to, you know…"

"I know."

"Okay. And well, I can't tell him I froze my eggs, but I need someone to tell him if something bad happens. So!" She pulled out an envelope. "I need you to give this to Reno."

"What is this?"

"It's the papers regarding my ova. You know, to decide what to do with them. I need Reno to give it to Axil when it's the right time."

"Why Reno?" Arien asked curiously.

"Because I'm not sure when the right time is for Axil. Reno and Shivvalan know him best, and I can't give this to Shiv, because he's not like Axil at all. Reno'd have the best guess when Axil would want to see these."

"You do realise that if I give these papers to Reno, then he'd end up knowing that you have Geostigma, right?"

"Oh." Siva stopped. "I hadn't thought of that." She looked at her friend. "Well, you have my permission to tell Reno, but I'm not sure if you'd want to. Are you okay with telling him?"

And what was she supposed to say to that? 'No, I'm not okay, give this to Felicita instead'? Arien knew Siva had thought about this before summoning her, and so all she could do was nod. Just because she told Reno about Siva didn't mean she'd have to tell him about herself, right?

So she did end up telling Reno about Siva's condition - which Reno wasn't happy about at all - and giving him the envelope. But she didn't mention about herself, nor the reason why Siva was confiding in her when the ginger was closer to Felicita.

In hindsight, this proved to be a very stupid decision.